Author's Note: This chapter is a bit shorter than the previous one, but hopefully is still enjoyable. Thank you very much to those of you who favorited this story or added it to their following list; you made me very happy by doing so!
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
Chapter 3: Realization
Okay, so it wasn't a great way to make a first impression. But you have to admit, he did look kind of... er, angelic. All white and shiny, with that unreal silver hair. Plus he had just saved me from certain death, so I think that my automatic assumption that he was some kind of holy avenger can be understood.
At second glance, however, I wasn't so sure. He was glaring at me, for one thing, and I'm pretty sure angels don't glare. He was also wearing... armor? And was that a belt with swords on it? And draped over his right shoulder was a... a giant... fluffy... thing.
I was trying to fight back my embarrassed blush. Okay, maybe not an angel. Some kind of cross-dressing supermodel, perhaps? Seriously, the guy could have been one of those models for hair commercials. You know, the one's that get sprayed with water while their hair is swinging around in slow-motion. Yeah, he would've been perfect for that.
Aaand I was blushing even harder now. I scrambled to my feet, throwing out one hand to steady myself, and stammered, "I-I mean... er, thank you so much. For saving us, I mean. Th-thank you."
The glare was gone, replaced by a look of total indifference. He didn't answer me, and Rin said, "Lord Sesshomaru, this is Evey. She is very brave; she kept Rin safe from the evil witch."
The cross-dresser- Sesshomaru- looked down at her, then slid his gaze back to me. It was kind of unnerving; his eyes, while undeniably beautiful- was he wearing contacts? Had to be, no one's eyes looked like that all on their own- were cold and hard, and I was pretty sure he was trying to bore a hole in me with them.
"Uh... yeah." I shifted uncomfortably. He was still staring. I scratched the back of my head and tried to come up with something to say. "Hey, could I use your cell phone? I left mine in my school locker, and we should really call 911." No answer. "Um... or maybe is there a payphone nearby? Or a police station?" No answer. Just staring. I licked my lips. "We really need to alert the authorities. I mean, that old lady was trying to kill us!"
"She is no longer a threat." Ah, he speaks! It wasn't much of a statement- 'she is no longer a threat?' Who did he think he was, Batman? No one talked like that! He did have a nice voice, though. Quiet and deep. I bet he could sing like nobody's business.
"Well... yeah, you scared her off an all, but she should still be arrested," I explained slowly. "Seriously, that nutjob was trying to fillet me."
He ignored me and looked down at Rin. "Rin. What did this woman want with you?"
The little girl spread her hands out wide, shrugging. "Rin does not know, Lord Sesshomaru. One moment Rin was sleeping with Ah-Un, and then when she woke up she was trapped in this cave." She turned to me, beaming. "And then Evey came to help Rin! She was so brave!"
I flushed again. "Er... don't mention it. You weren't so bad yourself." I smiled at her. "And you totally saved my butt with that rock!" She clapped her hands together and gave a dainty little bow, which made me giggle.
Sesshomaru was still looking at Rin. "She gave no explanation for your capture?"
Rin thought for a moment, and I supplied, "She did mention something about... uh, wanting to destroy her enemy, or something. She was a total wackjob." I snorted. "She was actually try to cast a spell! Can you believe that?"
He turned those unnerving eyes towards me. "What was the nature of this spell?"
What was the... oh no, this guy was crazy, too! "Um... it was a spell," I enunciated each word patiently, as if I was talking to a child. Magic wasn't real, dude.
He regarded me silently for a long minute. Then, slowly, one silver eyebrow arched. "Yes. What was it's purpose?"
It's purpose. The magic spell's purpose. Yeah, sure, because grandma psycho had been an actual witch, casting actual spells. I rolled my eyes and decided that I might as well humor him. "Well, let's see... she said something about killing her mortal enemy. And... tying souls together. And she... decreed... something," I floundered helplessly. He said nothing. "I'm sorry, okay! I wasn't so much paying attention to her as I was trying to get Rin and me out of here." Silence. I rubbed the back of my head and tried to think of anything else important to say. "Um... she didn't touch Rin," I offered.
He inclined his head ever so slightly and, after another long pause, rumbled, "You bear the scent of Inuyasha's miko. In return for your actions toward Rin, I will return you to him."
I blinked. Huh? I smelled like... someone? "Um... what? I don't know what an Inuyasha is... o-or a miko. Uh, I'm an American, in case you couldn't tell- Japanese is my second language, and sometimes I get confused about the words..."
Rin nodded solemnly. "Evey is from United States, Lord Sesshomaru. That is why she looks like a demon and uses strange words."
Again with the demon stuff? Geez, these two were weird. Not in a meat-cleaver-wielding, set-piles-of-blood-on-fire way, but still pretty odd. And exactly what strange words was I using?
"Hn." Sesshomaru regarded me for another moment. "You do not know Inuyasha?" I shook my head. It was a person, judging from how he was using the word, but I'd never heard the name before.
"You could take me towards town," I suggested hopefully. Once I found something familiar- the school, some houses, a street I recognized- I would be able to find my way back home. Although, I thought with a sense of dread, I had been getting a definite 'Alice-in-Wonderland' vibe from this place for a while. Like I was somewhere... else. Not home. I gulped audibly. But that was impossible. I just needed to get someplace familiar.
He seemed to be considering my request. "I got lost earlier," I explained, "And I'm not really sure how to get back home. But I'm sure if you took me back to a place I recognized, I'd be able to find my bearings." He kept looking at me with those cold eyes, and I thought I saw one corner of his mouth turn ever so slightly downwards. "Or... or if there's a police station nearby... or a taxi service, maybe? Even, like, a highway, or something..." He wasn't going to just leave me alone in this cave, was he?
Rin tugged on one leg of his white pants. "Please, Lord Sesshomaru? Lady Evey got hurt trying to protect Rin. We cannot leave her all by herself..."
He gave the child a glance, I and swear his expression softened just a bit. "Very well. Come." And with that, he turned on one heel and headed out of the cave.
"Wait! I cried. He didn't. "Watch out for the..." Huh. No barrier- he just walked right out, and Rin trotted along after him. I guess when the old lady had vanished, her little invisible wall had left, too. "Nevermind," I muttered to myself, then scurried over to collect my backpack from the ground. I hefted it onto my shoulders, stooped to pull my shoe-weapon back on, and then started to run after them. "Hey, slow down!" He didn't. Geez, Mr. Cross-Dresser was kind of rude. And seriously, what was with the clothes and armor? And the long silver hair? And the tattoos on his face? Was he part of a traveling circus, or something? I frowned, trying to come up with a rational explanation for all the weird things that had happened in the past six hours, and hurried after the pair.
By the time I had caught up, Sesshomaru had reached the treeline and Rin was prancing along behind him, all signs of fear and worry erased from her demeanor. She grinned up at me as I fell into step beside her. "Do you live in the human village, Evey? Rin would love to come and visit you sometime..."
The... human village? As opposed to what, the chipmunk village? I had taken an official liking to Rin, don't get me wrong, but some of the things she'd being saying were just so strange.
I chose to ignore the weirdness of her question and answered, "Yeah, but only for the rest of the semester. I have a nice little studio apartment all to myself." She gave me a mystified look, and I elaborated, "I'm an exchange student for the Fall semester. The school pays my rent, so long as I attend all my classes and keep my grades up."
She furrowed her brow, still appearing quite baffled. I glanced towards Sesshomaru, wondering if he could help put my situation into context for her, but he was walking a short ways ahead and seemed to be ignoring us.
Finally Rin said, "Does everyone in United States speak like you, Evey?"
"Er..." I wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. I rubbed the back of my head. "I guess... maybe I'm getting some of my translations wrong. I'm not used to speaking Japanese all the time," I admitted, "So maybe I'm not using all the right words. I'm sorry."
She brightened. "It's okay. Rin," she winced, "I, need to correct my words sometimes, too. Master Jaken always tells Rin to use... tells me to use... um..." she bit down on her bottom lip, forehead and nose scrunched up in thought. "First person!" She announced triumphantly after a moment. "That is what he says is el-o-quent," she enunciated the word carefully, and I couldn't help but smile.
"Aw. He sounds like a good teacher."
She wrinkled her nose. "Master Jaken tries to boss Rin around all the time. And he is never any fun to play with." She thought for a moment. "But Master Jaken does teach Rin some things. And sometimes he is very nice to Rin."
I smiled, and we continued on for a while in silence. The moon had been steadily rising, and I stifled a yawn while wondering what time it was. As I raised my hand to cover my mouth, I caught sight of a thick smear of blood along my forearm.
"Oh," I gasped, peering at it. That was where the old lady had slashed at me with her knife... in all the excitement, I had completely forgotten about my injury. Not that it was too bad- it must have stopped bleeding a while ago, because the blood had all dried. It did sting a bit, though.
Still. All things considered, our little adventure in the cave could have gone much, much worse. A gash on the arm was small potatoes; I was lucky. I shivered and, trying not to think about the event, and called to the silent white figure ahead of me, "Hey, um, Sesshomaru. Do you happen to have a first-aid kit or something?" I tried to sound lighthearted. "Our stab-happy friend back there cut me, and my arm's kind of hurting."
I waited for a minute for him to answer. He didn't. I tried again. "Or... maybe do you have some aspirin?" No response. "Ibuprofen?" No response. "Uh... Tylenol?" No response. Hmm... was he being rude, or could he not hear me? I narrowed my eyes and called out, sure to get a reaction this time,"How about some Viagra?" Nope, still nothing. Maybe he was hard of hearing, or something.
I jogged up beside him. "Hey." I tilted my head up and slightly to the side, offering him a friendly smile. He kept staring straight ahead. "Uh... did you-"
"Your wound is minor."
I blinked, taken aback. So he had heard me! Which meant... well, it actually meant that he had been ignoring me, which was just plain rude. And now he was making light of my very serious battle scar, which made him twice as rude! I scowled and retorted sarcastically, "Gee, thanks for you concern! I got this cut trying to keep your daughter safe, you know- the least you could do is say thank you!"
He spared me a side-long glance, his expression totally unreadable. And then he looked straight ahead again and continued ignoring me. I reddened angrily and sputtered something incoherent, then stomped back to walk beside Rin.
"Lord Sesshomaru is not Rin's father," she said when I reached her.
"Huh?" I blinked down at her. "I assumed... er, sorry." I guess that made sense- they looked and acted absolutely nothing alike. I flushed even more deeply.
"Rin's parents died a long time ago," she continued solemnly, "But now Rin has Lord Sesshomaru."
My angry demeanor wilted- really, how can you stay mad when a little girl starts talking about her parents' death? "I'm really sorry to hear that, Rin. But, um," I shot another glance towards her... her guardian, I guessed was the right name for him, and said, "Lord Sesshomaru seems to take pretty good care of you."
"Oh, yes!" She bobbed her head happily. "Rin has nothing to be afraid of when she is with Lord Sesshomaru!"
I made a 'hm' noise and then leaned down a bit, dropping my voice to a whisper. "Uh, Rin... does he not like me for some reason?"
"Why do you think that, Evey?"
Wasn't it obvious? He was basically ignoring me, and the few things he had said to me had been pretty rude. "Well, he doesn't seem to want to talk to me..."
She smiled again. "Lord Sesshomaru never talks very much." She lowered her voice conspiratorially, "Rin thinks it is because he must be scary sometimes, and if he is ever nice then people will not be so afraid of him. After Lord Sesshomaru was nice to Rin, she was never afraid of him again!"
Well, that was certainly an... interesting... answer. Why on earth did the guy need to be 'scary?' Was he some kind of... law enforcement agent? A mob boss? My eyes widened. Maybe he actually was Batman... I snickered at the thought.
"Well," I whispered back, covering my mouth with one hand, "He is definitely taking the whole 'strong and silent' thing to a whole new level."
Rin smiled, as did I, and- what the... he had just tilted his head to the side and looked at me! And i swear he looked annoyed. He couldn't have possibly heard what I had just said, right?
Rin gave a little giggle. "Sorry, Lord Sesshomaru! Rin will stop talking about you."
I blushed as he turned his head back to face forwards and resumed ignoring us. He couldn't have heard us... it just wasn't possible.
Still, I made sure to watch what I said for the next hour or so. Rin kept chattering happily, talking about flowers and pointing out various plants and naming them for me. I made lame conversation, too hungry and worn out to add much to the conversation, but she seemed happy regardless.
The moon hung high in the sky when we crested a small hill and came to the edge of the treeline. Sesshomaru and Rin kept walking, but the sight that lay before us made me stop cold and suck in a sharp breath. Several hundred yards away, lit up by a few scattered campfire and torches, was a village. But not the town I had been living in for the past few weeks. Not with roads and bustling streets and billboards and honking car horns. Oh no, this was nothing like that.
Small but widespread, lit only by fires, and with no house larger than two stories. No automobiles, no signs, no paved roads... nothing. I gaped openly, baffled by the scene before me. This was not right. This was not possible.
And yet, there it was. Plain as day; two hundred yards away from me was a town that should not have existed. And suddenly, with a rush of both dread and awe, I got it; I understood. The purple light, the eye in the ground. The horrible face with its huge teeth. The strange forest, the barrier, the fire and sparks shooting out after the old woman had cast a spell. The way Rin had looked so confused when I talked about phones and police and taxis. Heck, even the man before me, with his swords and armor, started to make sense.
I stood shaking for a moment, trying to digest the prospect of what had happened to me. Somehow, someway, I was... elsewhere. Another world, or another time. I took a deep breath. "Toto," I whispered, forcing my feet to move again, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."
I know, I know, it's a cheesy last line for this chapter. But it felt right, y'know? I hope anyone reading this has enjoyed themselves so far, and please feel free to click that conspicuous button at the bottom of the page and leave a review!
