Author's Note: I'm just going to try powering through these. It would be weird to have the first few chapters revised, and the rest unedited.

Remember, please read and review. Any flaming, including 50K˚C flames from the surface of the Sun (okay, maybe that's a little too much) are welcome!


Chapter 2. Mysterious Discovery

The infant saw the red sphere within the girl, and like her, it burned but it was an oh-so-different burning. Just touching the girl's flesh was scorching him fiercely, as though being purified in a holy inferno.

Meanwhile, Rin was screaming from the emotions that the mist pushed through her body, more terrified than she had ever been before even when dying.

"What do you mean, 'to distract me'? Why?" asked Sesshomaru who was still face-to-face with Hakudoshi.

"Why? It's a little too late to be asking considering you are probably already too late to stop him," said the demon child smugly. Sesshomaru would have loved to kill him then, but he needed those answers.

"Stop him? Are you talking about Naraku?"

Hakudoshi did not answer, preferring to smile contently at the older demon. A scream resonated through the forest, causing his smile to grow further and his eyes crinkled in amusement. The situation clicked for Sesshomaru and he ran off to his ward, Jaken barely managing to grab onto his furry tail.

Back in the clearing, Rin sat on her knees with the baby on her lap after having let go of her shoulders. Its cheeks were burned as evidence of its failed attempt to take control of her. Out of shock and aware of what was happening in the real world again, Rin threw the baby off where another of Naraku's incarnations, Kanna, picked him up wordlessly. She was soon accompanied by Hakudoshi who put up a barrier and flew away smiling.

xXx

A few miles away from where Sesshomaru and the others were, Inuyasha at last caught whiff of Naraku. "I smell Naraku!" he announced to Kagome, squatting down to give a piggyback to the human girl. They were off once she was situated.

"How far away, Inuyasha?" Kagome asked, clutching his shoulders tightly.

"Few miles. It'll take about five minutes to get there."

True to his word, Inuyasha arrived at the scene where Sesshomaru watched as Hakudoshi came to shield Kanna and the infant. The three incarnations did not wait any longer to fly off.

"Just my luck!" came a yell from a familiar voice in the forest. "Running into a bunch of mutts and no Naraku!"

Kouga came dashing out from the tree line, pissed off and glaring at the dog demon and half-demon.

"Join the club, ya mangy wolf!" Inuyasha barked back. Their argument was quickly cut-off by Rin's sobbing.

"Now, see here, Rin! Stop bawling like a baby!" Jaken yelled agitatedly at her. The little toad demon was about to get closer to her, maybe knock her on the head with the Staff of Two Heads to snap her out of it, only to completely stop in his tracks as if paralyzed. He was a foot away from her when he glowed the same red that Rin had seen around that misty globe inside of her. There was a pause while he stood there until Jaken was lifted and thrown violently back.

The feeling from before hit her all over again, encouraging even more crying. Several feet away, Jaken lay sizzling on the ground, eyes bulging.

"OW! That hurt so much, Rin! What did you just do!?" Jaken said in his usual irritated, overly excited screech.

Again, Rin did not answer because she was too preoccupied. Ah-Un tried to comfort the girl when he, too, was burnt.

"What's going on?" Kagome asked bewildered.

"Hey, it's alright—" Shippou said, cautiously inching toward Rin. "YOWCH!" he said, flying backward with a zap. Eventually, Inuyasha paced around Rin about the radius where the others stopped. His nose twitched and his ears wiggled, trying to find something off about the human girl. One of his clawed hands slowly testing the waters. Red encompassed it, slightly singing his skin as he kept it there for ten seconds, yet it did not push him back like the others.

However, that was enough to make the feeling worse again. So much so, Rin stood up and threw herself onto Sesshomaru's legs. For a moment, the thought occurred to Sesshomaru that whatever was surrounding Rin would burn him as well yet nothing happened. His and Inuyasha's ears were beginning to ache from the squalling.

"Sesshomaru, I know she listens to you. Why don't you tell her to shut up!?" said an impatient Inuyasha, covering his ears. Sesshomaru cast an evil look at his younger half-demon brother, though he did need Rin to stop crying.

"Rin…stop crying," he ordered softly.

Her sobbing went on as she buried her face into his robes.

"Rin, stop crying," Sesshomaru repeated more firmly. His order went unheeded.

"Idiots!" Kagome yelled at the brothers. "You two can't expect her to stop crying because you tell her to! Can't you see she's terrified!? You have to comfort her, you insensitive creeps!"

Sesshomaru did not really favor having to comply to the human woman's demands, but she did have a point. And if it was for Rin, he could be willing to comfort her. He leaned over and put his single arm on Rin's back in his best attempt at calming her. She was trembling and her heart beat was fast, he noticed. Thankfully, Rin calmed down only enough to cease her crying. Tears still streamed from her eyes, she still sniffled a bit, and her body shook as she tried to hold back her shaking voice.

"Rin, what is wrong?" he asked.

She placed her head on his breastplate, seeking the steadiness of his breathing. "I was trying to find food when I saw the baby on the ground. I went to see if it was still alive and it grabbed me! All of a sudden, it was—was—as if it was creeping inside. But then, I was inside the baby and everyone there was dead and Naraku was there with a purpley-pink round stone. Then I was inside myself, and it was looking for something. It just came across something else—"

Rin's grip tightened, her shaking became worse, and her breathing was shallow.

"Came across what, Rin?" Sesshomaru asked.

"It—it—" she took a deep breath. "I don't know, Lord Sesshomaru. It was red stone, and it looked like it was bleeding this mist. It got into my body and it was just a whole bunch of bad stuff and it hurt. The feeling just comes back each time…" she buried her head into Sesshomaru's fur and pleaded, "Please get it out somehow, Lord Sesshomaru! Please get it out!"

At this point, Sesshomaru stood back up leaving Rin on the ground quietly sobbing. Kirara trotted steadily over to her in her smaller form.

"No, Kirara," Rin said quietly. "Keep away. I might hurt you, too."

The two-tailed kitten ignored her warning and continued even when the red glow appeared. It swirled over her beige fur, then fell off. Kirara bounced easily into Rin's lap.


Author's After-note: I feel like I've made Rin a bit more like a child as she should be, rather than talking real big like in the first version.