April 11

We've been away from home for a week so I haven't been able to do any writing. But we had a very interesting time while we were gone and I want to write about what happened.

Inuyasha and I went out for a walk the day after Sesshomaru came to our house. Just as we were coming back into the village we noticed Sesshomaru flying above us.

"Sesshomaru, did you find Rin?" Inuyasha called to him.

Sesshomaru landed on the ground in front of us with Jaken. He looked even more distressed than he did the day before. "No, I haven't. And she doesn't seem to have returned here."

"Do you still think she's been kidnapped?" I asked.

"I think that's a very high possibility."

"Are you sure you don't want help finding her?" Inuyasha said.

"Yeah, we care about Rin too. We'd be happy to help in any way we can," I added.

Sesshomaru glared at us but Jaken spoke first. "As if the great Lord Sesshomaru needs help from the likes of you! What could you do that he couldn't do on his own?"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Geez, we were just offering."

Sesshomaru's glare hardened but he finally said, "Fine, you can come."

Jaken looked incredulous. "Lord Sesshomaru…!"

"Let's go, Jaken."

And so we set off on our rescue mission. Sesshomaru flew through the air with Jaken holding onto his fluff and Inuyasha ran alongside him with me on his back.

"So have you found any leads yet?" Inuyasha asked him.

"I've checked a few suspects within the last 24 hours," Sesshomaru replied. "They didn't have anything to do with it. I'm starting to think she's been taken by Lord Hiroyuki."

"Why would they take her?" I asked.

"I've had several land disputes with him recently," Sesshomaru went on. "He's a suspect but I'm still not completely sure he would be the type to stoop that low."

"Well we can't leave any suspect uncovered," Inuyasha said. We noticed some travelers up ahead. They had the appearance of demons and had a large covered cart with them. To me, they looked completely innocent but Inuyasha said, "Let's go see what they know."

"Wait, don't be so hasty, Yasha," I said as he parted from Sesshomaru and ran over to them.

He put me down and went over to the three demons while I followed after him. "Hey, you!" Inuyasha said. He pulled out his sword. "What do you know about a missing girl around here?"

The demons looked confused. "What missing girl?" one of them said.

"Don't act like you don't know! A girl has gone missing from the village near here. What do you have in this cart?" He pulled back the cover but all that was in it was food and supplies.

"We're traders," one of the demons said. "We're just transporting goods."

"I'm sorry about that," I said, trying to take a gentler approach. "The girl that has gone missing is our friend so as you'd imagine we're very concerned about her."

"Sorry to hear that. It's very distressing when someone you care about disappears."

"Yes, it is. Have you happened to see her around? She's 12 years old, about this tall, and she has long black hair that she usually wears in a side ponytail."

"Oh, we saw a girl like that yesterday! She was near that village picking flowers."

"What happened to her?" Inuyasha asked.

"We're not sure. She was there one moment and then when we turned around again she was gone. She was most likely taken but we can't say by who."

"I see," I said. "Well thank you for the information."

I got on Inuyasha's back again and we went back over to Sesshomaru and Jaken. "So much for that," Inuyasha said.

"At least this confirms that she really had been kidnapped," I replied.

"You're ridiculous, Inuyasha," Sesshomaru said as we took off again. "You're too impulsive."

"When you're trying to find something, you can't pass up a single chance," Inuyasha replied. "It's just like when we were hunting down Naraku, we took what we could get."

"Unlike you, I don't believe in using force unless absolutely necessary."

"Keh! You've got a very loose definition of force."

The two of them went on like that for a while until they picked up on something.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Rin's scent," Sesshomaru said.

"Come on!" Inuyasha exclaimed.

They followed her scent for a few miles until it stopped abruptly.

"What does this mean?" Jaken said. "Did she just disappear? Was she eaten?"

"Don't be stupid," Inuyasha said. "Whoever took her started flying right here."

"Oh no, now what?"

"Have you considered the panther demons?" I asked. "They had a problem with you in the past. Maybe they could have taken Rin."

Sesshomaru seemed to consider that.

"It's worth a shot," Inuyasha said.

"Alright, we'll go there," Sesshomaru said.

It was quite a long journey to the panther demons. We traveled throughout the day and well into the night. I tried to stay awake but eventually, I was starting to fall asleep on Inuyasha's back.

"Are you getting tired, Kagome?" he asked when he heard me yawn.

"No, I'm fine," I lied. In truth, I was exhausted but I knew he and Sesshomaru didn't need to sleep as much as I do and I didn't want to slow down the search for Rin. Unfortunately, my body betrayed me and I started yawning again.

"Liar," Inuyasha said. He looked at Sesshomaru who was flying above us. "Sesshomaru, let's stop for the night."

"Absolutely not!" Sesshomaru exclaimed.

"Why not?!"

"What do you think this is, some kind of camping trip? We can't waste any time looking for Rin."

"Kagome is tired and needs to sleep. We'll start looking again first thing in the morning."

Sesshomaru gave an exasperated sigh and landed on the ground next to us. "I should never have let you two come with me. You're just slowing me down."

"You wouldn't even have thought of going to the panther demons if Kagome hadn't brought it up! You need us here."

"I'm sorry, Sesshomaru," I said tiredly.

"You don't need to apologize for anything, baby," Inuyasha said. "Sesshomaru is just being an asshole."

Sesshomaru looked like he wanted to punch Inuyasha.

We found a safe place to camp out and sat on the ground. Inuyasha took off his fire rate robe and wrapped it around me, then leaned back against a tree and I lay in his arms. He kissed me and then hugged me close to him. "Sleep well. I'll wake you up in the morning."

"Okay. I love you."

"I love you too."

"Stupid lovers," Jaken said in a disgusted tone.

The last thing I saw was Inuyasha giving Jaken the finger before I closed my eyes. However, as I drifted off to sleep I caught a bit of Inuyasha and Sesshomaru's conversation.

They were silent for a few minutes. Inuyasha hugged me and kissed the top of my head, then Sesshomaru finally spoke.

"You really love that woman, don't you?"

"Of course," Inuyasha replied as he ran his fingers through my hair. "She's everything to me. She's the light of my life. I don't know where I'd be without her."

Sesshomaru scoffed. "You definitely take after father, being so in love with a human."

"Well, what about Rin? You obviously love her in a different way. What does that say about you?"

Sesshomaru hesitated for a moment. "Rin is…is special. She's so fun-loving and innocent. She makes the world seem a little bit brighter, reminds me that it's not all darkness and evil."

"That's what Kagome does for me," Inuyasha said. He kissed the top of my head again.

"I don't know why I saved Rin back then with the tensaiga, or why I let her stay with me. But after a while, I realized that I couldn't let her go. I've never had such a compulsion to protect someone as fiercely as I need to protect her." He snorted. "It's disgusting really."

"No, it's not. It just means you have emotions. I don't get what it is with you that you're so opposed to having feelings."

"You wouldn't understand."

"Then help me to."

"I've never had to depend on anyone before or have anyone depend on me. I was always about advancing and making myself as powerful as I could. For a long time, I saw our father as weak. I wanted to be the exact opposite or a better version of him. When I found Rin, I started questioning everything I believed in. It's hard to put aside the way I lived for so long and rely on someone."

"Yeah, it is. I spent most of my life never able to trust anyone. But I realized that there's nothing wrong with relying on people. And having someone to take care of is kind of what makes life worthwhile."

"You're right. It is."

I finally fell asleep at that point. I was still in Inuyasha's arms when he woke me up in the morning. I was tired but we had to get going to find Rin so we continued our journey to the panther demons.

When we got to the land of the panther demons, Inuyasha and I followed Sesshomaru to the palace in the center of their territory. All the while, panther demons who passed by stared at us wondering what we were doing there. Once inside we found the leader of the Panther Devas. She was tall with long blue hair and was kind of intimidating. I vaguely remembered her and the other Panther Devas who were also in the room from our run in with them a few years ago.

"Lord Sesshomaru, long time no see. And you've also brought your brother and his mate. That's new for you. You used to travel alone," the blue-haired demon said.

"That's none of your concern, Toran," Sesshomaru said. "They're merely accompanying me on my search."

Inuyasha snickered at Sesshomaru's arrogance. Jaken took offense to that.

"You insolent…!" But he was cut off when Inuyasha stepped on his face.

"What could you be searching for that you've come all this way?"

"We're looking for a human child. Her name is Rin, she's 12 years old, about this big. Do you happen to know where she is?"

"Why would we know? And since when do you care about the whereabouts of a human anyway?"

Sesshomaru didn't answer that and kept a stoic expression on his face. He wasn't going to admit how much he cared about Rin. "I'm merely keeping my options open. You Panther Devas always want something from me. Kidnapping the girl would be a strategy for getting the power you always seek."

The panther demons growled. "You really think so low of us, Lord Sesshomaru?" Toran said.

"Look, either you have the girl or not! Quit playing games!" Inuyasha said impatiently.

"Kidnapping someone important to you would be a good strategy to get what we want from you," Toran said thoughtfully. "Unfortunately we don't have her. We didn't think the great lord Sesshomaru was capable of caring for a human on that level."

Sesshomaru looked angry like he didn't want to believe it.

Then another one of the Panther Devas spoke up. She was a red-haired girl who I also recognized from years ago. "I have some information you might find useful, Lord Sesshomaru."

He looked at her expectantly.

"You know of the demon Hideyoshi, do you not?"

"I do."

"Some of us ran into him not long ago. As you know, he wants to usurp your power. He mentioned taking something valuable from you to get it. You should go find him."

"Who is Hideyoshi?" I asked Sesshomaru to which he ignored me. Instead, he looked absolutely furious.

"That's low even for him," he said.

"You should go then. Although knowing Hideyoshi, that girl is probably long dead," Toran commented.

It didn't help Sesshomaru's anger. "You'll regret that, Toran."

"I'll be waiting," the panther demon said with a smirk.

I had a feeling Sesshomaru would have fought her if Rin hadn't been in such a dire situation. He swiftly turned to leave and we followed him.

"So do you want to tell us who this Hideyoshi guy is now?" Inuyasha asked.

"Hideyoshi is an old enemy of father's," Sesshomaru replied. "He tried on countless occasions to seize the power of the western lands and was defeated by father multiple times."

"And so now he still wants power and is trying to take it from you? That's why he took Rin?" I asked.

"Exactly."