REFLECTIONS: SNOITCELFER
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha in any way shape or form. Enjoy.
"In the end, only great men? make rash decisions. I started out as not so great of a man. But a wretched beast. I know that I am not going where the holy men go."
Inukimi sat among her throne, the wet silk of her hair spilled over her shoulders and her face in her hand. The corner of her eyes lay wet, softened by tears. "Great lady mother?"
"Yes, small yokai?"
"Jaken my lady."
"Nevermind it. What do you have to tell me?"
"Lord Sesshomaru sama has left the castle."
"So he went."
There was a silence. Her painted claws dug into the handles seated at her throne, she seemed at war with her thoughts, but held an obligation to her late and honorable husband. Very well. "Little yokai, await my return." The bands of hair combs and trinkets snapped apart and the wildness of her white hair sprawled along the darkness of night, a blanket of silver silk and the roaring of a great dog descended down from the great castle in the clouds.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Blood fell freely now. It no longer clotted from the open arm wound. Holding up the offended limb, it took every ounce of his youki to ensure it would seal. Once again. He could no longer replenish his reserves of ki to stave off another dire infliction. Sesshomaru reflected in silence that this was the best he could do for now. His castle of flame and simple servants strewn everywhere in blood. Moments ago he had made it to the steps of his o-shiro to find that the castle guards simply were not where they should be. The familiar and safe feeling of his precious ones left to the protection of strong halberds and mighty spears. No, what he had returned to were their strewn dead bodies and those clashing, human and demon pitted to one another. And the scent of rejection and sorrow. The great dog lord had bolted the steps of his castle, only to find the interiors aflame. Rice paneled walls caked in blood and screams and the assaulted smell of gun flecks of flame scaled the shorn half of the demon lord's arm. Wind from a torn shoji screen howled, wildly snapping at the folded cuffs of sashinuki hakama, legs bent under the heavy Do and Kusazuri armors at the daiyokai's hips. The long white speel of mokomoko whipped from the flares of hot embers roiling in the breeze. Blood left an acidic taste in the back of his mouth.
"Lord Sesshomaru sama." A man's deep baritone groaned its frustration, soon to ascend the steps before them.
He was coming. Centuries of old wood creaked beneath the weight of the one soon come to greet them. Sesshomaru could bare the loss of castle and home; servants were a minor concern, they could fend themselves or the guards to do it.
But.
He could not. No, would not afford to lose her.
"Rin," Bakusaiga held at the defense, a reposed stance kept his footing spared evenly. The solidness of his back showed he did not bow to pressure through battle. The silver of his hair glowed to the reddened-gold tinge of the firelight thrown in chaos. "Yes, Lord Sesshomaru sama?" Even in the fiery din of the birthing chambers, swathed head to foot, her small dainty hands clinging…no, held the long soft mokomoko over her brow. Soft silky strands of black hair clung to her back and shoulders. In the stuffy, smokey room spewed more poison gases. "He plans to suffocates us in this chamber. Take the pups and head for the stairwells, this Sesshomaru shall stall them." Rin tightened the swathed bundle of clothe wrapped around her hips and her front. "But my dearest," she bounced the newly birthed children; twins to lessen their co-mingled tears. But their crying had yet to cease, raising both the unease of both parents. Thump. Thump. Thump. "What of you? The palace guards will be here soon, there is no need to separate myself from you-"
"Sesshomaru sama." Wild his hair was, whippets of brown flew angrily amid the release of a tied ponytail. Deep jade green was soaked to the frays with caked blood. An audible clink of chain fell and coiled at the very last boot that ascended the final step. Dressed in dark black Taijiya fuku, Kohaku stood amidst the flames like a tortured demon to do his dirty work. "It's not fair. Everything isn't fair. I deserved her more than you. I suffered, more than you. I longed more than you." tracing sparks of the dragged armored sickle cut along the fine wood paneled walls.
"Kohaku. Ka?"
Smoke casted an eerily glow along the painted paneled walls depicting lion ogres and wild beasts frolicking aside a ghost parade.
Lord Sesshomaru narrowed the tightness of his golden eyes. The gaul the boy had, this upstart pup dare to impued on his graciousness. His kindness? After all that he, lord Sesshomaru had given the boy, how dare he.
"Rin. Go. Get away as far and as fast as you can carry."
"But-"
"GO."
"Y-yes."
Even in those spare moments she would have to flee, there would be no way for her to make it out fast enough. Not in these itsutsu-ginu ko-uchiki, the long divided naga bakama skirt would not allow her to make haste. She knew this, but did not argue. "Yes my lord husband." Rin turned one last look to the demon slayer. Or was once the boy-the man she had known. Her legs turned to flee her when the sharp sickle blade whisked by her. The sound of metal clashing on metal, where she staggered aside and tossed the back of unkempt black hair, Sesshomaru's tensed expression was bent with sword bowed underhand. The chains of the sickle wrapped around Bakusaiga's hilt. "Lord Sesshomaru sama, you dare protect?" Kohaku stepped over and kicked the body of a dead demon, his booted toe rooted into the now-dead guard's dislocated jaw.
"Kuromaru and Kagura."
"What?"
"The infants' names. That will be their names, for I lord Sesshomaru have decreed it so. They are the offspring of my great daiyokai blood, the great lord Sesshomaru sama."
His brows bunched up at first, and his heart grew blacker still. Even with the late lady Kikyo's purification of the jewel shard he once relied on with his life, it did nothing to dispel the unnatural calm blackness of his soul. "May the kami forgive you Rin dono, for bringing into the world bastard children fathered by a great and terrible demon." In that instance the two men rushed each other, a clash of their blades in moments only shown as seconds of hot white. Rin turned quickly, kneeling to unfasten the length of fabric and cradling the handsome newly born babes to her breasts. One last look as the two men she had known and grown to care for both deeply and with deep sentiments, traded blows in their own equal fierceness.
Rin hurried down the steps, shushing her children. "My lady! this ways!" a tall guardsman motioned his arm, though bleeding and he too, wounded; managed. They both descended the steps and rounded the corners. Feet pitter pattering wildly in escape.
"She was the only chance I had had at happiness, Sesshomaru sama! And you so selfishly took her innocent trust and corrupted her heart, I should have never followed you! I should have never trusted you!"
"You are a weak man to suggest as such. I do not need to explain the irrelevance of your accusations, Kohaku."
"Devil beast!"
"This Sesshomaru owes you nothing," a blast of green flare snaked up and arched along the walls, only to be deflected by the hooked scythe. Sesshomaru took a defensive stance, his footing added space between them. "I see. Toutousai forged you a demon's blade? How unfortunate it is to be wielded by someone as weak willed as you." Kohaku extracted the chain from the door and rushed the demon, their blades locked once more, and their tension grew.
"You do not deserve her?
"I protect what is mine."
"Ah, you came. Are you disappointed that I was not Naraku?"
"I knew it was you."
"Are you going now?"
"Yes, this is enough."
"I, Sesshomaru will decide if she had died in vain."
"Sesshomaru. Do you have someone, to protect?"
"Why, Tenseiga?"
"I should have left her in a human village."
"Do you have something to protect?"
"Protect?"
"Rin, I will not allow you to go there."
"She cannot be saved?"
"Rin."
"Rin!"
"I can't save her?"
"I let you die for this thing."
"Human hearts are weak. The fear, hatred and despair can easily be seen in their heart. They are the ones who defiled their heart. They are unpure and that is the truth."
"There was no place for me, so I had to make one for myself, and then I realized, I had a place, but I was the only one in it. I didn't know any other way to live."
"I'm a half-demon, more egotistical and greedy than any other living creature - that's what human beings are, right?...But with human blood flowing through my veins, I never give up! Don't you understand? When you have someone to protect, your power increases multifold!"
"Life is finite. It is not something that you can save as many times as you like at your convenience. Sesshomaru, it's something you have to learn, that when your heart wishes to save someone dear to you, it must at the same time feel sadness and fear of losing him or her. Tenseiga is a healing sword; even when used as a weapon, you must understand the weight of lives and carry a compassionate heart when dispatching your enemy..."
"Nothing could ever be worth, the cost of Rin's life."
"Tenseiga can only save a person, once."
you must understand the weight of lives and carry a compassionate heart when dispatching your enemy...
Kohaku. I shall show you mercy.
"HN!"
The sword swing was slow, almost like the faint falling of leaves in the wind. Or the silent fall of winter snow. Rin came to a stop, her feet crushing under the winter snow. A soft peek of budding violet, a purple flower pressing through the snow, it's purple-sigh petals fluttered gently and finally departed on the winds. "Kohaku dono?
"Kohaku."
"Kch-eh? AGH! Sesshomaru,,,sama!" his mouth lay open to bare the white teeth stained by blood. His nostrils expelling blood flow unstaunched.
"Learn to fear me. Learn to prostrate yourself before your great and terrible lord. Know...your place."
"Sesshomaru sama…bastard. Kah!" A swift blow cut the man down. Spewing up the heavy tumult of blood, his legs sagged weighted beneath him, his back gave; he fell. Sesshomaru tucked away Bakusaiga and gripped Tenseiga.
Sesshomaru. Did you think you to be a god?
"Ridiculious. I, Sesshomaru, do not allow others to die for futile reasons." Tenseiga pulsed. Lips firmed into a thin, concentrated line. Those molten gold eyes reflected by fire. "Tenseiga, carry out my will. I have no need for meaningless death." The white iron the fang gleamed, and blue light both heavenly and soft flooded at the demon lord's fingertips. Ah, this felt...nice.
Tenseiga pulsed. Once. Twice. Three times.
"Hoooo? Sesshomaru, you purified and resurrected one hundred souls in one swing, ka? I suppose I shall investigate." Toutousai mounted Mo-mo and urged the bull into the night's sky. A groan issued from the three eyed bull as they traveled over misty clouds.
"Rin dono."
"Yes?" the girl turned and stared. There in the dark forest stood a figure, painted lips and fine sheen of moonlit hair. "I remember doing this once before. Exactly two hundred and fifty years before for the lady Izayoi. Ah, she was such a well mannered girl, come." Inukimi slowly stepped out into the light, her splendid robes glowed purple and blue amidst the foggy night. She was ever expanding, her yoke limitless, and she forever flowing glided into the full moon's night with Rin settled on her ever flowing robes.
"Great and honorable mother?"
"Yes child?"
"Will lord Sesshomaru sama return to us?"
"...we should hope so, child. We should hope so."