Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.

How does a cookie crumble?

Piece by piece.

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Rotting, Rotten

It was terribly easy to be bitter, until he convinced himself that no, bitterness was for helpless fools who felt wronged in life, and that he was just a strong individual who refused to stay where he wasn't appreciated.

Except he wasn't appreciated anywhere.

The humans started first. With their roars of killing the beast and presumptuously shielding their women, who were, for the most part, ugly anyway, Sesshomaru realized that their brains were just too simple to take in his greatness or see superiority for what it was.

It was puzzling. It was saddening. Lastly it was annoying, so he killed them, damn sure that in a sick and twisted way, he had done them a great favor.

Then lo and behold, as he stalked on – not quite indifferently, almost angrily; the homes he passed mocked him – he came across demons, many of them. Some lower level, grotesque, and operating as if they had no thought process, others faintly powerful, a small few taiyoukai and leaders of vast tribes like himself.

And one by one, Sesshomaru had to cut them all down.

He moved on.

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One day, he came across a village that was already laid waste.

There he found Rin.

He really didn't mean to care enough to look at the faces of the dead, but when that child's wide, still eyes gazed without sight, from her place, at his boots, he saw brown and red and the paleness of her skin and saved her without a thought.

She followed him, shaking and shivering and afraid to look back. He determined right then and there, nodding slightly to himself, that he would teach her to move forward, like him.

Rin learned – but no child should have to learn the lesson of leaving everything behind, the taiyoukai knew that well - so Sesshomaru supposed that if they were going to be ignored and left alone, they might as well be alone together.

And together, they did not look back.

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AN: Another short chapter down! Don't worry, Kagome will be coming in this soon. Feedback is appreciated!