Title: Snowfall
Genre: Action/Romance
Pairing: Sesshomaru/Original
Others included: Jaken, Rin, nameless demons, more to come
Disclaimer: InuYasha characters are property of their original creators. I make no money from this and greatly thank those creators for making characters wonderful enough that our imaginations have gone wild with them! Akatake Nyoko is my original character creation. Please don't steal her.
Warning: PG-13 for a bit of blood, belly flutters, and implications of more (Rating may change at a later date when I add more to the story)
Notes: These chapters aren't meant to be read independently. Please make sure you read all the ones before this so you know what's going on. That being said, enjoy the rest of the story!


She gave an honest smile to Kano's words before looking back to the gate before them as it swung open towards them. "Welcome home!" the elderly man in white priest-robes said as he leaned on his walking staff for support. "I see your hunt was successful. Excellent!" he proclaimed as he turned to head toward the courtyard not far from the village's main gate. He wasn't so much turning his back on the trio as they stepped through the gate, but he walked a great deal more slowly than the much younger folks. He barely managed to reach the cherry tree in the center of the courtyard before the returning hunters, each of whom dropped to one knee before the ancient but modestly sized tree. Laying their blood-covered weapons on the ground before them, including Nyoko's bag of shuriken stars, each of the three hunters untied their scarves that covered their heads and faces. Taro set the demon's severed head in front of them, as he was kneeling in the center of the three hunters, and ran a hand over his shaved head to ease the sudden chill after having removed his scarf. Kano took a deep breath as he looked up to the priest, his ear-length hair the color of near-black smoke framing his face. Nyoko was the last to get her scarf completely off, as she had to first untie her belt and set her bag of shuriken before her and then untangle her scarf from her mid-back length hair. As she did, midnight-black strands fell lightly around her face and shoulders, the few moonlight-silver streaks that accented it mingling in as she swept some of it behind her right ear.

By the time all three of them had laid out their weapons and removed their scarves, nearly the entire village had been awoken and was out in the courtyard forming a large circle. The priest glanced around to all present before looking back to the trio who bowed their heads before him in humble respect. "The bear demon who destroyed the two villages is slain!" the priest decreed, bringing a quick rousing of cheers from the village before they went silent again, waiting for him to continue, the returned hunters still with their heads bowed. "Though this hunt offered no bounty of monetary value, the lessons of friendship, loyalty, and dedication to an art have been opened once again. It is in these lessons that we become closer to one another, learn to fight alongside one another, and love each other as a single family. Though our blood may not come from the same ancestors..." At that point, Nyoko's focus on the priest's words drifted off, her thoughts wandering to the day she was found by a returning band of hunters of this village...

She was four years old and was sitting amongst a thatch of bamboo reeds as she sobbed over the body of her dead mother. A lynx demon had come and slain her village before the band of hunters had found the beast and destroyed it. On their way back home, they had decided to return to the last village the demon destroyed, as it had only been a few hours since then and there were possibly survivors. They found Nyoko because the blood-covered reeds, movement, and sound of sobbing had caught their attention. They had asked her what her name was, but she did not know her family's name, only her own. One of the men carried her into what remained of her family's home, grateful that there were no bodies inside. Upon seeing that no one else in the village had survived, they decided it was best to being her back to their village and started gathering up a few of her and her family's belongings. After they bundled up some of her clothes and some rations from the storage, they started to leave. However, Nyoko nearly jumped out of the arms of the man carrying her. "The sword!" she cried. "No leave grandfather's sword! Mama said I have it when bigger! So no forget grandfather!"

The man carrying her turned to look at the far wall across from the door of the home. On a simple shelf and stand, both made of bamboo, was Nyoko's grandfather's katana. He nodded a warm smile to Nyoko, stepped over to the shelf, and placed his hand on top of it. "Spirit of Nyoko's grandfather, please follow your sword as it follows her. I pray that you will help comfort her in this time of need and always," the man said before bowing his head for a moment and then removing the sword from its stand. Carrying Nyoko in one arm, he held the sword in the hand of the opposite arm, but did so in a manner that Nyoko could clutch the sword's sheathe with her tiny hand as she wished to. The man who carried her, the other three hunters, and Nyoko then left the village and returned to the one that Nyoko would then call home, where the priest gave her the family name Akatake, thus naming her Gem of the Red Bamboo...

"So rise up, our brothers and sisters!" the priest continued, snapping Nyoko back to reality as she continued to look at the ground in front of her, slowly starting to get to her feet. "Stand and..." the priest started to say as he raised his hands and gaze to the starlit sky. His speech was cut short however, as his eyes found the slithering creatures that floated through the air, their hungry eyes looking down upon the village. "Demons!" he cried out as his eyes widened to the size of riceballs, nearly everyone's attention following his. "They are upon us! To arms!" he yelled before staggering with his walking stick to the room they used as a temple, knowing he must get his sacred sutras. Immediately the village was alert and bustling as every able-bodied resident ran back into their homes to get their weapons and tools for battling demons.

"Here they come!" Taro yelled as the first wave of demons suddenly plummeted from the sky, hurdling toward the ground in a giant mass, eyes hungry and mouths gaping for the human flesh below. Just as Nyoko grabbed for her sword in front of her and turned to face the onslaught approaching from the rear of where the trio was kneeling, the collection of demons swooped past, ravenous maws catching Taro and Kano but only knocking Nyoko aside. Her katana flew from her grasp, landing with the tip piercing the base of the trunk of the cherry tree in the courtyard. Nyoko landed some meters away, her vision hazy from the blow. As she looked up, she saw what appeared to be a man floating among the demons, his solid black hair long and wavy, with eyes that revealed his sinister nature as he sneered and chuckled. The world then went black for Nyoko, but as she lay with a slow trickle of blood seeping from the wound on her head, the battle raged. Demons flew through the air, feeding ravenously on any human they found, erupting through doors, windows, and walls of every home in the village. The cries of the children were drowned out only by the dull roar of the beasts as they ate half the villagers, simply killing the rest for the sheer thrill of it. Somewhere amid the attack, the torches that had lit the way home for the hunters became overturned and the village became ablaze. After having their fill and seeing the fire growing too large for their tastes, the one Nyoko had seen and the demons with him disappeared into the night. All around her, Nyoko's home continued to burn with only the courtyard left intact, as there were no structures there to catch fire. The cherry tree wilted from the heat of the burning buildings on all sides, but managed to keep its limbs from the flames. Below the tree, Nyoko's unconscious mind drifted to a dream she'd had many times before...

Nyoko stood in the middle of a forest of snow-covered cherry trees in her solid white garbs, the wind absolutely still and the snow not falling at that moment. She stared straight in front of her with earthen-brown eyes, directly at the silver wolf several meters before her. The wolf stared back at her, his piercing eyes of faded blue unblinking. "Why have you called me!?" she demanded to the wolf as her body remained perfectly still.

"I loved her. I will always love her," the wolf, apparently a demon, replied in a calm voice...

Nyoko then suddenly awoke to the feeling of suddenly being very cold. "Why!?" she called out upon waking, immediately sitting up to face what was in her dream. When she did however, the rush of pain from her wounds and blood suddenly leaving her head caused her to groan and lay back down, curling up on her side as she hugged her head. "Oh..." she groaned again as she held her eyes shut from the pain. "Taro, what happened?" she asked while slowly opening her eyes. She blinked several times to regain her focus as she looked around, the breath in her lungs stilled as she looked upon the village. "T-Taro? Kano?" she stuttered as she quickly began looking around. "Priest Akemi..." she gasped when her eyes found the scorched remains of the priest that laid in the doorway of the temple, the man having never gotten a chance to get to his sutras. Her gaze drifted all around her, turning her body as she needed to while still staying in the same spot where she had been lying. "Hoshi?" she called out as she continued to survey the utter destruction, hoping someone would answer her. "Kita? Taree?!" she kept calling as her breathing became rapid in her lungs, the weight of what had happened slowly sinking into her mind. "Jomei?! Shika?!" Her eyes began to fill with tears as she spun faster and faster, searching for any sign of life. As she stayed kneeling in the newly fallen snow and raised her fists to the near-dawn sky, she screamed out, "ANYONE?!?!"