Chapter 3: Reunion

With bleary eyes and a pounding headache, Rin couldn't help but feel the room spin around her. Shutting her eyes did nothing to stop this sensation, so she blinked a few times, only to notice that it was not the room that was spinning, but herself.

The ground was also overhead.

A quick glance towards her feet revealed what she was already beginning to suspect: she was strung upside down in a cave that was littered with bones. A pile of human skeletons in a corner made a quiver of fear run up her spine, but there was a skittering noise that drew her attention into the back of the cave, where a figure was scrabbling around in the shadows.

As if alerted by her gaze, the wretched youkai looked towards her. Rin could now see that the white mess of hair on its head lacked all of the brilliance of Sesshoumaru's. She quickly shut her eyes, hoping that pretending to be asleep would buy her a little more time. Luckily, the ruse seemed to work and the demon returned to its rummaging.

The stench of the hovel filled her nose and it took every ounce of her will power to avoid gagging and retching. Breathing softly through her mouth, she turned to brainstorming of a way out of the situation. It was that or become food.

Thankfully, her hands were free – apparently the demon either forgot to bind them or had decided that it was not necessary to do so. Either way, an opportunity did not go unnoticed by Rin as she reached for her pocket knife, tucked away in her belt.

Unfortunately, as she moved to pull it from its sheath, the blade slipped through her fingers and clanged onto the floor.

The demon reacted to the sound instantly, stalking towards her, claws extended. Heart pounding, Rin waited until it was within a few steps. Then she whipped out her second knife, this time from a leg sheath, and slashed at the closest eye.

Her aim was clumsy, and a bloody welt appeared on the brow over the eye that she had intended to maim. But the demon screamed in agony, clutching at its forehead.

That was all the time that she needed to swing up towards her feet and cut herself loose. She collapsed onto the floor and tried to stand, but the blood flow to her feet had been cut off for too long. Quickly rubbing her legs, she focused on trying to regain feeling in her limbs.

It was a race against time: the demon was already showing signs of recovery and was now charging, fully enraged. She frantically scrabbled around, willing her feet to move, but the demon lunged.

Kohaku tracked Rin's abductor back to a cave and hurriedly landed Kirara. He rushed in, scythe out and at the ready. Concern dominated his actions and he carelessly ran towards the entrance, forgetting all of his usual stealth and tactic.

"Rin!"

To his surprise, she was standing, unharmed, over a decrepit body that was oozing black blood out onto the floor. Her knife dripped with the same dark liquid as she turned to face him, smiling confidently.

"See? I told you that I could defend myself from monsters." She glanced around for something to wipe her little blade on.

Regaining some of his senses, the next step was to identify the species of demon. His eyes widened in alarm. Here was one demon, yes, but this breed always worked in pairs.

He whirled around. Where was the other one?

Then the shadow in the corner leapt, fangs out. "Rin!"

She turned to engage the threat, but lost her balance in the process, landing on the ground unsteadily and unable to move out of the way.

Even as he launched himself towards her, he knew his hope to at least cover her would not be realized.

But the attack stopped.

The demon struggled into the tight and clawed grip of Sesshoumaru, who stood as a barrier between Rin and the creature. With a brief glare at the pitiful beast and a snap of the neck, the demon lord tossed its corpse to the side.

Kohaku rushed over to Rin, who was clearly in a state of shock – whether from the demon attack or from the sudden appearance of her white knife, it was impossible to tell. He helped her sit up, leaning her against his chest. "Are you okay?"

Sesshoumaru stood a few paces away, watching carefully.

"Sesshoumaru-sama," was the soft murmur that came from within the young demon slayers' grasp. Rin started to pull away, but Kohaku held her fast.

She struggled. "What are you doing? Let me go!" She turned to plead, "Sesshoumaru-sama, tell him to let me go!"

"Escort her home. She does not belong here."

Kohaku could feel her freeze. Clearly, the possibility of outright rejection had not been one of the outcomes for this scenario. Her head and shoulders drooped as Sesshoumaru walked away. He body started to quake.

"Rin? Are you okay?" he asked, peering closer.

He nearly missed having his nose smashed as her head whipped up, her eyes flaring with anger and her face set with determination. "Oh no, you're not getting rid of me that easily."

Jumping up, she ran out of the cave, looking to spot Sesshoumaru's white form drifting amongst the clouds. "Come on, we can still catch up to him!"

In no hurry, Kohaku joined her, hand on Kirara's fur. The air was thick with her sense of urgency and impatience.

"What are you doing? Hurry up! We will lose him if we don't leave now!"

"I won't help you get involved with him."

Shoulders squared, she stomped away. "If you're not going to help, that's fine. I'll do it on my own."

With a faint pang of guilt, he called out to her uselessly: "You're not going to catch up with him that way!"

Damn that Kohaku.

Rin furiously cursed her best friend. There would be a reckoning once she got back, but now wasn't the time.

She cupped her hands around her ears, listening for a far-off sound. Lifting two fingers to her lips, she executed a sharp pitch that whistled through the air. Now all she had to do was wait.

Her intuition was right: wherever Sesshoumaru went, his entourage was sure to follow. The great two-headed dragon, Ah-Un descended from the sky with a whining rider.

"You stupid dragon, what do you think you are doing?" Jaken tugged at the reins and beat his short legs against the dragon hide, but with no result.

She smiled as she walked up to Ah-Un, extending her arms. The two heads sniffed her hands and started to butt her gently. She couldn't resist the urge to giggle. "I missed you guys too."

Jaken sputtered, "What are you doing here? I thought you were back in that village!"

"Of course you would think that – since it was you that told Kohaku and the others that nonsense." She reached up and plucked the small kappa from his seat. "Thanks for bringing Ah-Un over."

She tossed him on the ground before hopping into the saddle. "Kohaku is just on the other side of that thicket. You can catch a ride with him."

A quick flick of the reins and a rush of wind later, the ground was falling away. "Sesshoumaru-sama, you're not leaving me behind – not now." They sped after his already distant figure. Wind blew past her ears as they started to gain ground.

There was no doubt in her mind that he had already detected their presence, but judging from the lack of reaction, he did not care one jot that they were following.

"Sesshoumaru-sama!" Even from the extended range, he would be able to pick up her voice.

He ignored her.

Furious, Rin urged Ah-Un to fly faster, but they could only match Sesshoumaru's pace at best. Rin could see that they would not be able to make up the distance, especially now that he was going full speed. It was a good thing she had prepared, although not for this exact scenario.

Quickly, she pulled a length of rope from the remains of her shredded pack and tied one end around her waist. Then, she looped the other end around Ah-Un's reins. She took the opportunity to glance over the side of the dragon and gulped at the distance. The rope wouldn't provide much protection, if worst came to worst.

"Please let me be right about this." With a giant breath, she swung herself out of the saddle.

A scream had barely passed her lips when she stopped falling. Still reeling from the heady rush of having just jumped into midair, it took her a minute for her vision to clear. Once it did, she latched onto folds of white and red fabric. "I caught you!"

Irritated, Sesshoumaru glared. "Let go of my robe. I am putting you back on the creature and he will take you back to the little demon slayer."

"No you won't." She held on tighter. "I'm not going anywhere until we talk."

The deadpan expression contained hints of a scowl. "We have nothing to discuss."

She frowned, refusing to relinquish her grip on the kimono. "Really? Because I've heard rumors that you've been trying to leave me in Inuyasha-sama's village." She tilted her head slightly. "If you expect me to accept your decision, I would at least like to know why."

Before he had a chance to respond, she released one hand and pointed an accusing finger at him. "And don't tell me that it's for my protection because demons are dangerous. In case you hadn't noticed, humans aren't much safer!"

She suddenly felt her anger rising as she continued to rant. "I can take care of myself. Didn't I show you that when I was a child? I'm an adult now - I can defend myself even better now and I don't need you to make decisions for me.

"If your concern is that I'll get hurt, then let me tell you something. Leaving me with Inuyasha-sama isn't going to help. I solemnly promise that I will get up to no good, every day for the rest of my life. I will make you see that it's safer to let me stay with you."

With a quick breather, she saw his eyes widen in shock. That's right, I am a monster. No perfect little girl anymore.

Then she put on her sweetest smile, to dial down her tone. "If you really want to leave me behind, I want to hear it from your personally - not from Jaken, or Inuyasha-sama, or Kohaku."

Though a second later, another thought came to mind and she was back to admonishing him. "But if that's the case, you shouldn't have made a promise to a little girl who would wait six years to go back with you on traveling adventures. If you are going to abandon me, I want a very good reason."

"You are human. You belong with other humans." His face was blank.

Rin huffed. "You said that I could choose whether I wanted to stay with Kagome and the others after I spent some time with them. You're making the decision for me." She furrowed her brow. "I choose to travel with you."

"Or at the very least, if you're going to make some argument that the demon world is dangerous and that I don't know how dangerous it is, then you have to let me travel for you."

She held up her index finger. "One year. Let me travel with you for one year. That will give me enough time to see the demon side of the world for myself. After that, I'll make my decision." She hid a grin; she had no intention of going back to the humans permanently, but at least she could give Sesshoumaru-sama the impression that she was considering it.

Sesshoumaru sighed, defeated. "Do as you wish."

"Really? I'm glad that's settled!" Then she noticed that she was being dumped back onto Ah-Un. Her smile disappeared. "What are you doing? I thought we had agreed that I was stay with you."

"You will ride on the dragon."

"Oh." She blushed with embarrassment from having behaved like a child who was afraid of being abandoned by its mother.

Once she was securely back in the saddle, Rin started to remove the rope, but she was stopped by Sesshoumaru's hand. "You might need that." Then he brushed by her, leaving Ah-Un in his wake.

Quick to catch up, she tried to fathom what happened. What did he mean by that? Then it clicked. "I purposely jumped off the dragon, you know - I didn't just fall off!"