A/N: chapter bomb part 3 of ?
Warning: implied shenanigans and a bit of darkness here
The kind man put Rin's arm in a sling, then got back to his feet. "you're soaking wet, and injured. Why don't you come stay at my house? I have a fire and spare kimono you can borrow until your clothing dries. And you need time to let that arm of yours heal."
Rin turned pink at the stranger's generosity. She didn't want to trust him, but she was in a pretty bad state. "is your house far?"
"just a few minutes' walk from here. Not far at all." He offered a hand to help her to her feet and after a second or two she took it, careful of her claws. "this way."
"oh, my name is Rin," she told him, realizing she hadn't said before, and that was rather rude. He nodded politely, offering the small, kind smile again.
"what a lovely name."
They walked for just short of half an hour to reach a very large, nice house with its own plot of land. It was by no means a manor like Sesshomaru's, but it was nicer than any village headman's house. There were a few different fruit trees, a small separate bath house, and a magnificent herb garden full of every herb Rin knew from the village and a few she had never seen before. "you have a lovely place," she complimented, looking around at everything.
"why, thank you, my dear. It's a bit of a chore to take care of all this land myself, but I manage." He stepped onto the porch after taking off his sandals and leaving them on a mat. "come on, I'll put some more wood on the fire for you and get you some dry clothes- although those are drying out rather nicely in this sun, aren't they?" Rin nodded and walked toward the porch, then paused. She hadn't worn shoes that day, and the dirt and mud had stuck to the bottoms of her feet rather well after getting soaked in the river. Her feet were almost black on the bottoms with grime. It would be terribly rude of her to walk in his house with such dirty feet. She looked up sharply as a wet wash cloth was suddenly thrust in her face. His friendly smile was even wider, and she turned pink once more. She sat down on the porch and quickly wiped off her feet, letting them dry for a moment in the april sunshine before stepping up onto the porch and moving to follow him. She was embarrassed that he'd noticed how filthy she was.
Rin stepped into the cool and relative darkness of the house, settling herself near the fire pit, which was casting most of the light, as the windows were covered for some reason. The heat felt good as it washed against the pain coming from her broken arm. She looked down at it mournfully. Didn't it normally take 2 moons, and sometimes more, to heal a broken bone? She'd never broken one herself, but she'd seen old kaede and kagome-sama caring for a few different people who had, and it seemed to take a very long time to heal properly. Her nose twitched and she looked up to see Hideoko putting a pot of water on the fire to boil some herbs.
"are you hungry? I have some stew I prepared this morning." He lifted the lid on a pot of lukewarm stew, letting the scent waft over to Rin, and her stomach growled before she could politely decline. He took her stomach as an answer and dished up a bowl of the stew, giving her a spoon so she could eat more easily with only one hand. She downed the bowl in under 3 minutes, and looked sadly at the bottom. "more?" she looked up and supposed this was not a man who stood on ceremony, so she handed the bowl over with a nod and he refilled it. Once it was empty again, she set it aside and looked down at her arm once more, giving a mournful sigh.
He settled on her right, on another side of the square fire pit, and gave her another kind smile. "I can tell by your appearance that you are a hanyou," he stated, making Rin look up at him once more in surprise. Was it that obvious? She'd spent years with InuYasha and never once realized he wasn't a youkai. The kind man nodded at her broken left arm. "for that bone to heal should take a week, at most. Don't feel too down about it." He paused and added, "I was actually hoping that a pretty young lady like you would stay until fully healed."
Rin blushed a little more at his 'pretty' comment. Sesshomaru-sama once said I was beautiful…but I don't think he'd say that now… "a week, you said? Is that really all?"
Hideoko nodded smartly. "of course it's a bit slower than a full-blooded youkai, but quite a bit faster than a human could manage."
"how do you know so much?" Rin was curious how this obviously human man seemed to know more about things she was constantly exposed to than she did. He simply shrugged and pulled the boiled herbs off the fire, making a tea out of them and setting it aside to cool.
"I get around and observe what I can. In my slightly younger days I travelled the land as much as I could, learning the healer's art." Rin nodded politely and he continued, "what is your story, Rin? You must lead an interesting life, from the way I met you."
She blushed scarlet and looked away. "hardly. My life was very uneventful until recently, I would say. You see, I am a hanyou- but I wasn't born one. Something made me like this, and I don't know how or why." He nodded for her to continue. "I was just staying with a youkai lord, and I was quite happy. Then I suddenly got sick while we were out shopping at a market, and when I woke again, I was like this. Milord doesn't like hanyou, so I left, but I came back when I turned human for a night, and he welcomed me. I thought my curse was over, but with the dawn I was like this again." She looked down at the delicate claws on her right hand where it sat on her crossed legs. "then…and I suppose you won't believe me…there was a whispering voice, telling me what to do, and I couldn't stop myself…he was going to hurt me far worse than this because of things I couldn't control, so I ran away again. When I jumped in the river, I broke my arm, and you found me just after that." She looked up again to see him frowning thoughtfully.
"how troubling for you. I'm sorry I can do little for your troubles. But here—" he handed her the cooled herbal tea— "drink this; it will speed the healing even further, and take away your pain." She took the cup and sniffed suspiciously, but it smelled tolerable, so she drank it quickly and set the empty cup aside. After a few minutes, she started to feel sleepy, and yawned. The day was barely half over, if it was that, but she was exhausted from everything that had gone wrong.
"you should rest—I'll show you to my spare bedroom." Hideoko led Rin to a rather small room with a single wide futon already spread out and ready as if waiting for her. "thank you. Truly, you are too kind." Rin settled into the futon and passed out rather quickly as the herbs took full effect.
Once he sensed Rin was asleep, the man who'd cursed her settled in front of his little shrine of sorcery, smirking evilly. The herbal drink she'd had would enable him access to her memories through her dreams, and the ability to alter her memories to make her believe things had happened that had not. He searched until he found her earliest memory of the InuYoukai Sesshomaru, the day he'd saved her from the wolves. "he didn't care about saving you," he whispered to her through the dream as he altered the memory. "he was only testing his sword, and nothing more." Rin shivered as she felt something shift in her memory- the concern and surprise in his face was gone as she looked up at him, cradled in his arm. He just set her on her feet and walked away, almost looking disgusted that she was alive again.
The man moved to another, more recent memory, of him returning to the village to fetch her, a year and a half ago. "he didn't want you again. He was forced to come and get you because you were such a nuisance to everyone." Rin looked up in joy as she heard his voice—but why was she happy to see him? He didn't look happy in the slightest. In fact, he seemed upset at even seeing her again. The words he spoke- "come, Rin"- seemed cold and hollow rather than inviting and warm. He didn't wait for her to follow him outside and didn't shorten his stride to walk beside her like an equal, for she wasn't one. "please wait, Sesshomaru-sama!" she called, hurrying in her fancy kimono to keep up with him, but she couldn't—she'd never been able to keep up with his long strides.
"he didn't care if he left you behind. Alone. Afraid." This time it was another time when she was younger- the first thunderstorm she'd been through while traveling with him. It was a happy memory as he'd wrapped the tail of his moko around her to keep her warm and safe- but the warmth was gone. He sat nowhere near her, just leaving her to shiver in the cold and wind, barely covered from the rain. They couldn't start a fire and she was very lucky she didn't get sick. She sniffled miserably, shivering in fear at the loud thunder and sharp flashes of lightning. "he didn't care to comfort you. He left you cold and alone."
Rin remembered when she'd hurt herself falling off Ah-Un, and he had cared for her…but he hadn't done that after all. He'd made jaken tend to her scraped knees, standing aways off with a wrinkled nose, hating the stench of her human blood. "he was disgusted with you…and he hated your scent. He didn't care about you- you were a burden to him, just an obligation because he saved your life." Every time Sesshomaru had gotten angry with jaken, it was her he'd been glaring at. Every kind word, every caring touch was erased. "he wanted you to leave. He hated you. He still hates you."
There were a set of new memories that didn't need any altering—the look on his face when he discovered she was a hanyou, his tone of voice when he ordered her away…Rin whimpered in her sleep. But wait…whispered a new voice, a kinder voice, what about that night? It was just yesterday- have you forgotten his love already?
The whispers of the man seemed to hear the gentle voice's objections. "it wasn't love," he intoned almost smugly. "it was rape. He forced you, not for any love, but only to satisfy his own needs."
But how could that be? Questioned the gentle voice. It was you who started it, last night, and not him…but, then…there was that time, before…the memories of last night never surfaced, and the man couldn't seem to reach them, as if they were protected somehow. He went to the other memory, one that was frightening. She'd gone shopping alone in the village. She was attacked by the men but Sesshomaru saved her. But this time he was even more savage and wild than he'd really been. She was terrified of his glowing eyes and fought to escape him. He was not gentle and she was left with scratches and bruises all over her. When he'd finished, he'd finally released her, ignoring her sobbing, and carelessly tossed his jacket to cover her, not even looking in her direction. He left her to walk home alone callously. But this is all wrong…something's not right here… the gentle voice objected as Rin gathered her things, using her shredded kimono to clean the blood from her scratches before putting his jacket on, ashamed of how little it covered her. She couldn't even tie it shut since he'd cut her obi in half and not left her one to replace it. She had to hold it on the long walk back to the manor, vision blurred with her tears.
The man allowed her dreams to become more hazy and dreamlike so that he could insert completely false memories in along with the altered ones. He took one of the sparring lessons and changed it, creating another scene like the one just before. He made it seem like it had been going on for months, and that Sesshomaru had decided to make a concubine of her, only allowing her to wear two layers no matter the weather, and tie her sash in the front so it could be easily removed. She was deeply ashamed of her looks, but he would hit her if she ever disobeyed or tried to stop him from having her whenever he felt the need. "you were nothing but a pet to him, something to ease his desires. But he never cared for you. He only kept you once he discovered you could be useful."
Rin squirmed in her bed, and her right hand brushed two tiny scars on the left side of her neck. She was awake in a flash, before the spell to solidify the false memories could be completed. She panted in terror, ears swivelling everywhere as her eyes darted around the dark room- it was nearly the next morning, she'd slept so long. She was finally able to relax after several long moments and was still very tired, so she went back to sleep until dawn.
This time the man left her alone. There wasn't time to finish the spell and the herbs had mostly worn off, leaving him with less control than he liked. He rose from his shrine and went to make breakfast, going back to his mask of innocent cheerfulness in case she woke early and found him up and about. Hideoko sighed. The girl's mind was strong, and turning her against Sesshomaru was going to be a far longer process than he had originally anticipated…