A/N: Saturday teaser chapter! Woo hoo!

Anyone who wants to contribute to the next week's plot (minor points or small scenes) leave a review with your idea! I read them all!


InuYasha was staring distrustfully down at the girl with narrowed eyes and a hand on his hip, resting above the hilt of his sword. "I said, who are you?" he repeated more slowly as the girl stared open-mouthed at him.

"I…I…" she stammered, shocked at what had just happened. She swallowed and blurted, "you're InuYasha!" suddenly as her brain made the connection between her eyes and nose. He scoffed.

"I know who I am, stupid! I asked who you were!"

"you don't recognize me?" she asked worriedly, sitting up better and moving to stand once more. "I'm Rin…"

"Rin?" he relaxed in surprise, sniffing suspiciously and looking her over closer. "Sesshomaru's Rin?" he suddenly looked around, hand back on sword, on guard. "is he here?" he demanded sharply.

Rin put her hands out in a calming gesture, her ears folding down once again. "No! no, he's not. I…I ran away from him, because of this." She flicked an ear for emphasis, gesturing to her face with all its new looks. "he told me to leave, so I did."

"hmph. Figures." InuYasha relaxed a little once again, seeming distracted by something else entirely. He perked up at the sound of footsteps and Rin turned slightly to look behind him, seeing Kagome.

"Kagome-Sama! You're here too!" Rin blurted, hurrying toward the clearly bewildered miko for a hug. She took a quick step back but Rin managed to hug her anyway and Kagome was able to realize who it was.

"Rin? What's happened to you, sweetie?" she asked, returning the hug gently before holding the girl at arms' length and looking her up and down critically. Rin glanced at InuYasha smugly. See, she can recognize me.

"Kagome! Where's-" InuYasha began, looking concerned. She glanced up and shook her head lightly.

"he's with Kaede. She can handle him." She looked back to Rin, who was looking very curious. "now, come on, tell me what happened! You look like a hanyou now."

"it's…a long story…" Rin began reluctantly. "and I don't really know most of it. I was just out with Sesshomaru-sama yesterday, shopping, we stopped for food and I got sick and fell unconscious…then this morning I woke up like this…" she looked up at kagome again, her eyes a little watery.

Kagome nodded as if she understood, though she really didn't. "why aren't you with him still?" she asked gently. Rin's new puppy ears drooped sadly.

"…he told me to leave…so I did." She didn't like having to repeat those words, but they were the bare truth. "I guess he couldn't deal with me being a hanyou, and he doesn't know how it happened either." Kagome nodded once more.

"well, I just came to fetch InuYasha because lunch is ready. Why don't you join us for a meal?" Rin perked up at the Miko's words and nodded eagerly. The Hanyou man sighed slightly grouchily.

"Kagome, you shouldn't even be this far out from the village. You have people to take care of, not to mention your own condition-" he reached to wrap an arm around her as the three of them turned for the village, but she swatted lightly at his arm.

"Inu-Yasha!" she said in her trademark warning tone, making him flinch nervously. She glared at him for a moment. "We've been through this. I'm fine. You know you're being too overprotective. And he's big enough to be fine without me for a little while." He twisted one ear back and looked away with his nose in the air and a "hmmph!"

Rin stared between the two of them in complete confusion, wondering what they were talking about, and who they were talking about. Komori, Miroku and Sango's son, had already been four years old when she'd left the village a year and a half ago, and as far as Rin knew sango hadn't been pregnant again, though she could have had another child since then. And what was this about Kagome's condition? She looked just as healthy as ever, so she definitely wasn't sick at all, that Rin could tell. She knew that sometimes women could become weak at certain times of year as they grew older, but that was usually due to demonic influence and Kagome would never fall prey to such things. She shrugged, putting it out of her mind and following them to the delicious scent of fried fish and well-cooked rice.

When they reached the hut, InuYasha pulled his sword, Tessaiga, from his hakama ties and placed it beside the door, out of his way but within easy reach. Rin beamed as Kagome gave her a dish of rice and a fried fish to eat. It was just like old times, like the last year and a half never existed. Here she was, sitting with her friends, eagerly awaiting her Sesshomaru-sama, just like always…

The fish she'd taken a bite of was suddenly dry and difficult to swallow. She gently set it down on her bowl of rice in her lap. She couldn't pretend nothing had happened. Everything had happened! She'd well and truly fallen in love with the stoic Daiyoukai lord, and he had begun to return her affections over the past few months. No place could be home that her Sesshomaru-sama wasn't in. she couldn't stay upset with him- his reaction to her new looks was only to be expected, really. And perhaps Jaken was right—he had to be!—and Sesshomaru-sama would change his mind for her, like he had done in the past with humans. Either way, she knew she could never be happy without him, and she had to try…

"Rin, is everything all right?" Kagome asked, concerned as she saw the girl not eating. Rin nodded and finished the food quickly.

"Thank you for the meal, but I must be going."

"oh! But you just got here!" Kagome whined softly. "can't you at least stay the night with us, or something?" Rin shook her head and stood, leaving the bowl behind and leaving, intent on going back to the manor- if she could remember where it was, that is…

Night had fallen and Rin was convinced she must be going in the wrong direction, as the stars were blocked by low, woolly clouds that promised rain by morning. Something shifted in the undergrowth of the forest she was passing through and she gasped, swivelling to face the noise sharply. "who's there? I warn you, I'm armed!" she barked into the gloom that wasn't nearly as dark as it would have been to her human eyes. Another bush rustles right in front of her and a lesser demon stepped out, baring monstrous fangs. "what do you want?!" Rin demanded.

"that wakizashi you have. It's powerful. Oh, my, yes. Very powerful." The oni licked its gruesome fangs. "it's wasted on a mix-breed like you. Hand it over."

Rin bristled, growling, and drew the dagger, shocked to see a familiar faint green glow emanating from the small, elegant blade. It reminded her strongly of a sort of mix between tenseiga and Bakusaiga, Sesshomaru-sama's two blades- it had nothing of the awful Tokijin in it, only a calm destructive power and a desire to protect who wielded it. She held it firmly, remembering her lessons. "this was given to me, and it is mine. You can't have it."

Suddenly, the Oni attacked her, and Rin put every ounce of her training into the fight of her life, barely able to land a hit on the extremely fast creature as it tried to make confetti of her. Every time the blade she held so much as touched him, it seemed to burn him like acid or poison might, though somehow it never did the same to Rin, even though it touched her bare skin almost as often. She didn't have time to puzzle over this as she swung and slashed and parried and dodged as fast as she could manage. The Oni's speed gradually slowed and he finally collapsed from exhaustion. Rin almost dealt a killing blow by instinct and dint of her training, but held back at the last second, the blade inches from the creature's heart. "Leave me alone," she ordered before straightening and sheathing the blade again, walking away. Even if she was a hanyou now, she was not going to kill anyone. It wasn't her nature, and she swore to herself it never would be. She started looking for the path back to the manor again, or at least some shelter for the night, as obviously she wasn't near enough to find it. She settled herself in the fork of a large tree, feeling safer off the ground, and sighed, looking up through the leaves at the gradually clearing night sky. One or two stars twinkled weakly back. "Sesshomaru-sama…please come find me…"


It was after lunch time when Sesshomaru finally really registered that Rin was gone. He was furious with Jaken for allowing her to leave and furious with himself for taking so long to notice. He wrote an urgent letter to his mother that he would have to postpone their meeting due to a personal crisis, then wanted to head out after her, but the miles she'd covered had been rained on between the manor and wherever she'd ended up, making it nearly impossible to track her and figure out which way she went. He searched in every direction possible for a lead, and found nothing. He considered perhaps she had gone back to kaede's village, before realizing she probably did not know the way, not to mention it was very distant, and unless she ran flat out in exactly the right direction she'd never make it before nightfall. He didn't account for her newfound speed in his calculations.

Sesshomaru sat on the porch as the sun set, watching the clouds roll in as rain began to fall lightly for the second time that day, washing the traces of her scent from the garden she loved so much. He sighed deeply and looked up, seeing a star or two appear as the twilight darkened. "Rin…I am sorry…" he murmured softly, wishing she could hear him. "please, come back…come home…"