Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. Inuyasha belongs to the wonderful Rumiko-sama. I am only writing fanfic about them because I love them so much. Thank you.
Chapter 1: Watching Over Rin
It was the night of new moon.
Little brother would turn human, turning worthless.
The gang had no shortage of enemies, some, perhaps, deadly. One seeking revenge was a matter of time, the time of the new moon if the ones seeking revenge were of any intelligence.
At the stroke of midnight, on Inuyasha's roof, Sesshomaru landed.
There he stood; his arms folded on his chest, long sleeves forming a white curtain draping downwards, an unwavering cascade as expressionless as the cold veneer on his face, a still mask crafted by hundreds of years of internal solitude.
His golden eyes darkened into a deep amber, moving from left to right, then right to left, unrest.
Nearby, a bush rustled. Sesshomaru's eyes flickered as his gaze shot to its direction - just a small animal scurrying in the dark, restless under the moonless sky.
The gang had their houses built next to each other's in a line, sharing one big front and backyard. Inuyasha's and Miroku's were at the the two ends, placing Kaede's in the middle where Rin lived.
From where Sesshomaru stood, anything lurking nearby Rin's window was in his direct line of sight, within the scope of his instant attack.
Some time past midnight, Rin leaned her head out the window. Her elbows rested on the window sill. Fiddling with a necklace in her hand, she looked up, her gaze wandering across the dark sky, a distant gaze.
That girl, the cheerful chirping of her voice, the way she spoke his name "Sesshomaru-sama", was a sword being forged, a warm blade still red in the welder's hand, edging against his icy wall which, at the touch, sizzled into steam, vanishing gradually - defenseless by him.
All those nights during their travel, the cheerful sparkles in her eyes, freely quivering by the reflection of starlight, shined into his gaze as she lay curling in his lap. She had reached up, her playful fingers peeling at his frigid mask, layer by layer - unstoppable by him.
At her innocent smiles, he had stared, dumbfounded, all his war strategies slipped, running away from a battle he had lost. The cold exterior perfected by him had slowly crumbled by an irreversible process, right before his heart.
He had stopped trying to find an answer for her. He left her with Kaede to hide himself away, to put Rin into oblivion. But the more he hid, the more often he came back.
Sesshomaru took a step forward.
Being by Rin's side, at midnight, away from the nosy eyes of the gang, would make the boring watch desirable, in reminiscence of his time, alone, with her.
He crouched down, preparing to jump to Rin's window when suddenly a deer from nowhere ran into Rin's hand, beating Sesshomaru to it.
The animal, carrying Rin's necklace on its antlers, kept on running.
Rin clambered out the window. She fell down, her legs flailing, her hands fighting the ground to get up. When she had finally got on her feet and reached the end of Inuyasha's, the animal had disappeared into the woods nearby.
Rin stopped, grimacing. With her hands making two not so resolute fists, she whispered to herself while shaking her head.
Immediately, Sesshomaru transformed into a white ball, chasing after the animal. Targeting its antler, he swooshed down, reclaimed the necklace and returned to his human form as he landed on the forest floor.
It was just a small trinket, an blue onyx pendant resembling the crescent moon. He stared at it momentarily before he closed his hand and headed back.
When he reached the edge of the woods, he halted. Inuyasha, Rin and Kohaku were standing in front of Kaede's place.
"Keh! Let's get inside," Inuyasha chastised Rin with a grumpy voice.
"I'm sorry, Inuyasha-sama." Rin turned toward the woods and lingered in that direction.
Kohaku walked over, took Rin's hands and led her inside.
Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes. His grip on the necklace tightened. There should be no reason for Kohaku to hold anything on Rin's body. Just speaking to Rin would suffice; even Sesshomaru himself had not held Rin's hands since Naraku disappeared.
After the three went inside, the night sank back into tranquility.
A sharp demonic scent sparked into Sesshomaru's nose. He stood back. It could be a scheme to avert his attention. There was only one demonic scent in the area. After a brief moment, he leapt toward its origin.
Sesshomaru landed on a boulder protruding from a high slope. A short distance from him, a young man stood on the top crossbar of the village gate, his back towards Sesshomaru.
With the man's face hidden from view, the man's scent was the only thing to go by. Though it was vaguely familiar, it did not reveal much.
Sesshomaru's gaze moved to the staff in the man's hand. Studying it for a brief moment, His eyes widened.
'Shishinki's Meido Staff?'
Despite the recognition, Sesshomaru stood motionless.
A brief moment of silence passed when the man finally leapt away, disappearing from Sesshomaru's senses.
He did not pursue further. Instead, he returned to the village and continued his watch.
...
In the eastern region of the land, the man landed on a rocky pillar of a mountain overlooking a pristine lake.
Shortly after, a few lotus petals blew by.
"So, Takashi, your trip was unfruitful," said a silky female voice addressing the man as Takashi.
"Sesshomaru was there."
"Sesshomaru, ha?" the lady chuckled cynically, "Is he anything like his father?"
"I don't know his father."
The lady was a withered lotus stem, with dried petals as her face. On a lotus platform afloat in mid air, she stood at a short distance behind Takashi. Large petals started to appear before her feet to welcome her forward steps, and they disappeared behind her when her feet left them.
She halted when she reached beside Takashi. "Hmm! So, you didn't go through with your plan because of this Sesshomaru?"
"I don't think I can defeat him."
Holding a fresh lotus, she pinched its stem. The flower dissolved into several tendrils of glistening white light entering her chest.
Her withered form started to change into a young woman with a fair complexion. Long flocks of shimmering silver hair drooped down her back, decorated by a lotus hairpiece on the left side with two long strands of small green beads drooping down along her hair.
"Besides my father, I have never sensed such powerful demonic aura," said Takashi.
A breeze brushed by.
She smiled as an thin silver kimono formed around her body, draped over by a flowy outer robe of the same color. Her transformation completed with a small symbol of a pink lotus appearing on her forehead below the right corner of her hairline.
"The Inu brothers came from a powerful bloodline, Takashi. Just the Tetsaiga and Inuyasha would be enough trouble for you.".
"Hmmm."
"I'm familiar with the power of the Tetsaiga and Inuyasha's transformation on the night of the new moon." Her eyes narrowed. "I'm familiar with the Tenseiga, but I'm not familiar with Sesshomaru or his power."
"It would have been easy if he wasn't there tonight."
"Do not dread, Takashi. All creatures, no matter how strong they are, shall have a weakness."
"What shall we do then, Hasu-sama?" asked Takashi, addressing the lady as Hasu.
"You will have to find the Meido Stone to raise your father's army."
"Where could it be? My father didn't leave it to me."
"Because he had lost it."
Hasu stared pensively into the night air. 'Toga, where could you have possibly hidden the relic?'
After a short silence, she smirked and stepped on the appearing lotus petals forming a staircase downward to the lake. "I will personally meet this Sesshomaru to witness for myself just what kind of power he has."
When she reached the water, her attire dissolved, revealing her voluptuous body in crystal shine skin as she stepped into the water for her nightly bath.
In the air, Takashi leapt away.
Hasu chuckled girlishly, looking at the image of Takashi leaving reflecting upon the lake.
...