Tsukiyo had only come into the past to get some advice from G and Asari on how to deal with the bickering between Hayato and Takeshi. Well, mostly one-sided bickering but it still worried her.
She was not expecting to be waylaid by Sesshomaru of all people concerning his adopted pup Rin.
"Wait, so Rin's been feeling stomach aches with regularity once a month and you keep smelling blood but have no idea why?" said Tsukiyo.
"If she were a youkai I would suspect she is going into heat, but it's been happening far too regularly."
"How old is she again?"
"Almost twelve."
"Poor girl. Sounds like she's an early bloomer then," said Tsukiyo with sympathy. "If you don't mind, I'll bring Kagome and Sango into this. We'll explain what's going on for her and give you an idea of what to expect."
Sesshomaru made a face. He had hoped to avoid his little brother if possible.
"I'll make it clear that this is a 'girl only thing', so the most they might do is bring Shippo with them."
She was in luck... Kagome was in the present for her high school exams and was able to answer the phone.
"So Rin's having her period? Why did he come to you?"
"Do you really see someone like Sesshomaru admitting he needs help easily? Besides, I think he mostly avoids you because it'll get back to his brother."
"Yeah, that makes sense. So what do you want to do?"
"When do your exams end? I'm thinking we bring Sango into this so she can show Rin what sort of herbs to use to help cramps and how they dealt with it in that time, and make it a girl's day. The poor girl doesn't really have any big sister types to talk to, being with Sesshomaru all the time and we're the only ones that won't try to remove her because she's with a demon. Or worse, hurt her to get to him."
Kagome had to admit, Tsukiyo had a surprising depth of understanding when it came to people and society. She would never have put nearly as much thought in how to bridge the gap between others, let alone find ways for them to bond and have a semi-friendly relationship.
She would have likely just let the situation between their grandfather and the locals stand as it was and let him figure it out.
"So girl's day. Anything specific I should bring?"
"Nothing too modern. Maybe some ribbons or something we could do with Rin's hair, and chocolate. A lot of chocolate and other goodies. I'll be bringing flowers to explain to her what puberty is and I'll let Sesshomaru know what to look for in regards to herbal remedies," said Tsukiyo promptly.
"Gotcha. Wait, how are you going to use flowers to explain..."
"It's easier if you hear it, rather than explain over the phone. Good luck with your exams."
"I'm going to need it," said Kagome.
A few days later they were in the past again, and Sesshomaru gladly dumped Rin on Tsukiyo for the day. It didn't help that it was one of the times Rin was having stomach aches and was generally a bit crabby.
Tsukiyo bent down to look Rin in the eye.
"So I bet you're wondering why you have stomach cramps, among other things, once a month."
Rin nodded.
"It's because your body is preparing you for becoming an adult. In other words you're starting to blossom into a big girl who can have kids."
Rin's eyes were wide.
Tsukiyo sat down and Rin did so eagerly, paying close attention. Kagome and Sango were there as well, and Rin was very relieved at the herbs Sango had brought with her... she didn't like the cramping very much.
"Okay, imagine a girl's body is like a flower," said Tsukiyo, holding out a flower that hadn't yet bloomed. "This is what your body was like before the cramping started. As girls get older this flower slowly starts to blossom out into something really pretty."
She brought out a second flower, starting to bloom outwards with multiple petals.
"Right now you're at this stage, when your body is just beginning to move from childhood into a proper adult. Following me so far?"
Rin nodded.
Tsukiyo pulled out a third flower.
"Kagome, Sango and I are at this stage, where we're mature enough that the bloom has properly blossomed out. Now as girls get older, this bloom starts to loose petals...which is what the bleeding is about. Every time you bleed the flower loses another petal, until they're all gone."
"What happens when the petals are all gone?" asked Rin.
"It means you're not able to have children anymore. The petals inside you are really, really small. So small you can't properly see them and there's a lot of them. However they can't make more of them, so there's a limited number of them inside you," said Tsukiyo.
"...This explanation is making far more sense than the one I got," said Kagome.
Sango nodded in agreement.
"Now when you meet a boy you properly like... and manages to survive your adopted father Sesshomaru... there will come a time when his pollen may fertilize the flower into a new one. When that happens, it means one of the petals will turn into a baby growing inside you. Understand?"
Rin was a little confused on that, but nodded. It made a lot of sense.
"Do I have to bleed every month though?" she asked.
"Price of being a girl," said Sango with sympathy.
"Now that the awkward and surprisingly informative talk is out of the way, who wants chocolate?" asked Kagome, pulling out her bag.
"What's chocolate?" asked Rin, tilting her head.
"A girl's greatest weapon against the idiocy of men and our favorite way in forgetting the fact that we bleed once a month," said Tsukiyo dryly. One bite and Rin was hooked.
Sesshomaru was relieved to have the bleeding explained, even if he crinkled his nose when he found out what was going on. He was just glad he didn't have to be the one to give the talk to his adopted daughter.
And that Sango gave him examples of what herbs to look for to make it a bit easier on Rin.
In the present...
"Where were you all day yesterday?" asked Reborn suspiciously.
"Giving a twelve-year-old the talk about what puberty was and how it worked. Then spent the rest of it having a girl's day with my cousin and her friend," said Tsukiyo with a groan. "At least my explanation didn't leave everyone mortified beyond belief. Or sounds even remotely clinical."
Reborn raised his eyebrows.
"Why would you need to give that talk to twelve-year-old? Couldn't her parents handle it?"
"Her adopted father has no idea how to handle girls, and her parents were killed. He only came to me because my cousin is with his younger brother, and he didn't want him to know he was having trouble with something so minor. Fortunately he's friends with Ieyasu-nii and knew I could at least give her a general idea about what's going on."
Reborn was still confused as to why Tsukiyo was asked something like that from an almost complete stranger, but dropped it.
"So how did you explain puberty to her then?"
"Told her to think of her body like a flower that's just starting to blossom into a fully blooming one. And that the 'eggs' in her body were the petals on the flower. The bleeding is mostly just her body getting rid of a petal that's starting to drop," said Tsukiyo.
Reborn hummed. It was a pretty good analogy, actually.
"How did you explain it to her father then?"
"Told him she was a pup starting to go into first heat, and that it was going to be a monthly thing. He's super protective of her and he got the gist when I mentioned that."
Which was an understatement.
Sesshomaru only had to hear that the 'bleeding' was basically like a dog's heat, except it was a monthly thing and that human females were less likely to get pregnant during bleeding times than they were off it.
She merely confirmed Sesshomaru's overprotective nature when it came to Rin when she commented about how now that Rin was starting to transition into a proper woman, that she would be able to bear children.
And if there is a glint in his eyes when she suggests leaving Rin with Knuckle whenever he's in the area to learn how to fight, in order to deal with perverts and idiots trying to make her bear children before she's ready, they both say nothing.
(Though that plan quickly changed the second they learn Rin is a budding sharpshooter. G has never had such an enthusiastic student. Sesshomaru is just darkly pleased when Rin picks up the habit of aiming rather...low...in regards to men, even as he winces in male sympathy for anyone stupid enough to get hit.)
Hearing Hayato whine in the back of his throat at the mere thought of displeasing Tsukiyo, she doesn't really think about her method of calming him down and cheering him up.
Carding her hand through his hair, Hayato blinks for a few moments, before he practically melts under the attention. He really reminded her of a puppy that had been kicked far too often and was slow to trust because of it.
Then he whines when Takeshi gets into it, grinning wickedly.
He tries to fight it off, but Tsukiyo is quick to hug him.
"I swear I've seen this shade of silver before. You said your mom was Japanese, right?"
"At least half, from what I was told," said Hayato, leaning into her side without thinking.
He really was like a puppy seeking affection and she knew just how to stroke his head just right to make him melt.
Actually now that she thought about it, Hayato reminded her a lot of Inuyasha. He even had the same... oh. That's where she saw this particular shade of silver before.
Come to think of it, didn't Inuyasha once make a complaint about certain herbs making him sneeze when they were crushed?
Deciding to test her suspicions, she waited until they were doing homework to discreetly take out a few springs of lavender and crushing the petals between her fingers.
The reaction was almost instantaneous. Hayato started sneezing like crazy.
She quickly hid the lavender and washed her hands.
"You alright Hayato?"
"I hate lavender," he said with a grimace. "Just being near that stuff makes me sneeze and I can't stand perfumes at all."
It had taken Bianchi far too long to realize Hayato had an extra sensitive nose when it came to perfume, and that was long before he started foaming at the mouth around her.
"...If you have a sensitive nose then why do you smoke?" asked Tsukiyo baffled.
"It's not actually tobacco, but a combination of herbs that Shamal found helped to clear my sinuses. It's a total pain in the ass to find some of the better ones though," said Hayato. "And before you ask, none of it is pot. That stuff makes me loopy."
"And the explosives?" asked Tsukiyo.
"I hand make all of mine. Mostly so the smoke doesn't gag me."
Tsukiyo promptly looked up Hayato's mother online...and the second she saw the pianist and the secretary of one of the biggest firms in western Japan, she knew.
Talk about irony.
Now Tsukiyo wasn't a hacker. At all. However she did know someone who claimed to be 'decent' at hacking, mostly because they occasionally shared the same hiding spots from bullies.
Which was why she cheerfully paid ShÅichi Irie to hack into the personal server for the CEO of a company with the rather suspicious name of the Daitaisho Corporation, to send a few pictures along with certain codewords.
She felt rather vindicated when Sesshomaru (much older, mind you but still recognizable) showed up on her doorstep.
"To be honest I'm more surprised my idiot brother's girlfriend wasn't the one to find me," he commented.
"Kagome doesn't like to think things through to their logical conclusion. How did you like the photos of Rin I sent you?" asked Tsukiyo, cheerfully welcoming the older youkai into her home.
Sesshomaru almost smiled. It was clear he still missed Rin.
"I can take more photos next time I'm in that era when you visit," promised Tsukiyo.
"Why did you contact me now?"
"Does the name Lavina Gokudera mean anything to you?"
"She's my youngest daughter. Why?"
"Could you tell her that her son is currently in Namimori and would probably be very happy to see her again?"
"Hayato is here?" said Sesshomaru sharply.
"He's my Storm Guardian," said Tsukiyo. "We're trying to break him of the belief that it's acceptable for him to be a suicidal idiot and he's far too submissive. Almost like a kicked puppy desperate for affection. Now Inuyasha's behavior was pretty leery of others, but even he wasn't this bad."
"Dame-Tsuki, what is the head of a multinational company doing in the living room?" asked Reborn dangerously.
"He's a friend of Ieyasu-nii's. Anyway I'm fairly certain Hayato has some of the same abilities you do, because he was sneezing like crazy when I brought out the lavender and he has the same shade of hair you did when you were younger."
"Not surprising. Most males in our family inherit the silver hair."
Reborn gave Tsukiyo a look.
"I think our best bet would be to prove it with a blood test, in all honesty. Or just bring your daughter here to meet him."
"No need. She's waiting at the hotel as we speak."
"I'll go get Hayato then," said Tsukiyo cheerfully.
Reborn was positively confused beyond belief and he didn't like it.
Fon, on the other hand? The second she told him what was going on he eagerly brought a video camera and prepared to enjoy the chaos of the girl one-upping Reborn when it came to harmless chaos.
Hayato damn near blew his mother up the second he saw her, mostly because he thought it was a trick.
Lavina, or rather Mikoto, smiled at Hayato.
"...Dame-Tsuki, what the hell is going on?"
"I accidentally figured out who Hayato's grandfather was and that his mother had faked her death on his orders?" said Tsukiyo cheekily. "Good thing Sesshomaru actually likes me, or this might never have worked out."
"And how exactly did you convince him to meet his grandson?" asked Reborn. "CEO's of companies as big as his don't just go anywhere on the drop of a hat."
"They do when you bribe them with pictures they would never be able to get otherwise. Once I confirmed it was him, I sent him a few pictures of Rin back when she was still little, and used a few key words that only someone who is friends with Ieyasu-nii would know. He used to visit Namimori a lot to talk to Ieyasu-nii," said Tsukiyo. "If it wasn't him then the pictures and code words would have meant nothing outside of a very strange prank."
To the side Hayato had been firmly convinced his mother was in fact alive and had only stayed away partly because it would have been awkward as hell to explain why she had to fake her death in the first place.
Apparently there had been complications after his birth that lead to her becoming very ill and the only way to fix it was to go home. But it would have been difficult to explain her family, so her father had ordered her to fake her death when it got too serious. She would have brought Hayato, except the accident had been a spur of the moment thing that was too perfect not to use...especially since she already had a body double waiting.
If Hayato hadn't already sworn to follow Tsukiyo for life, this would have cemented his loyalty to her.
Even if his grandfather was apparently a grumpy bastard on par with that jerk Hibari.