Chapter Three
A Desired Death
So Inayu traveled with her father and met his companions. Though the fact that he traveled with a human girl puzzled her, she had no place to question her fathers behaviour. She chose not to tell Rin and Jaken why she was there or that Sesshomaru was her father.
"Come on Master Jaken let's play a game." The young girl pestered the short demon.
"I'll play a game with you Rin." Inayu told her. "What game do you want to play?"
"Hmm. How about rhyme words?" Rin asked.
"I've played that before, I'll start. Um, mind." Inayu told her.
"Kind. Where did you learn it?"
"My mother taught it to me and my older sister." Inayu told her. "Grind."
All through this Sesshomaru was silent. At the mention of Inayu's mother he glanced back. But went on walking without stopping, no one noticed this sudden change.
* * *
"Inayu?" Rin called as they set up a camp for Rin to sleep
"What is it Rin?" Inayu answered.
"What happened to your mother?"
"She died a long time ago." Inayu answered after a moment. "Though we are stronger than humans and live a long time, we do die, my mother passed through the gates of the underworld nearly seventy years ago."
"Oh. That's kinda sad." Rin told Inayu after a moment.
"Not really, I understand why it happened. So it's not as sad for me." Inayu said. "Now get some sleep, or you'll be tired tomorrow."
Rin nodded slowly as she fell asleep.
When Inayu stood up Sesshomaru was standing in front of her.
"Is there something you want Sesshomaru?" Inayu asked, using her fathers name.
"Why do you lie like that? Telling Rin that you aren't sad over the death of your mother is deceiving." Sesshomaru told her.
Inayu eyed him coolly. "Because it isn't a lie." She replied. "I'm not sad over her death because I understand better than some that life is fleeting. I've seen suffering in my own right to understand that for some, death is more peaceful and desirable."
Sesshomaru did not understand what she meant. "I don't understand what you mean."
"After my brother and sister destroyed each other, my mother suffered from the grief their deaths brought to her. For those following years she only responded to seeing me smile, but other than that, it was like she wasn't there at all." Inayu explained. "When my uncle came, it wasn't exactly his fault he killed her. She didn't defend herself, and she put herself where his strike would hurt her the most. She wanted to die, Sesshomaru. She had had enough of suffering to where she saw death as more desirable, despite what she herself had always believed in life."
What happened to make her mother abandon her last living child? Sesshomaru thought.
Inayu looked as though she had come to a great decision. "I'm going to leave Sesshomaru, my search is over. I met you, and that was enough."
Sesshomaru suddenly looked at her, but did a double take. Inayu had such a look on her face that he was slightly worried at it's meaning. Almost as if she had given up on the thing she wanted most, as if she were about to cry.
Sesshomaru moved to touch her shoulder, but she vanished beneath his fingers, leaving a slight smell of tears behind.
Inayu has left the man she had searched for for so long without looking back. But, where she has gone, Sesshomaru does not know, as he himself ponders at why she was crying, battling for the first time his own feelings.