Chapter Three - To Choose

''My Lord! Sakura-sama requests your presence in Rin's room!" Jaken's squeaky and annoying voice interrupted his train of thought. If you paid enough attention, you would be able to see Sesshoumaru's left eye twitch in annoyance as he gripped the letter he was currently reading just a little bit tighter.

''She says it's urgent, my Lord!" Jaken squeaked again and Sesshoumaru gave up on trying to ignore him. Letting the letter fall from his hand, the daiyoukai got up and glared at the imp who dared to interrupt his peace.

He calmly walked through the halls of his shiro and slid the door of Rin's room open. The first thing he noticed was that the human was finally awake and if you ignored her sudden burst of power, she had been sleeping for two weeks, not once waking to eat or drink anything. That made Sesshoumaru wonder how she was still alive considering that she was human and they needed nourishment more often than youkai, Rin was a clear proof of this. Though the girl never complained she was hungry or tired while traveling with him, he noticed that she would walk slower than usual and be less cheerful if she spent too much time without eating and resting.

The second thing Sesshoumaru noticed was that the human didn't look worse than when he found her, in fact, she looked way too healthy for someone that had been in a small coma and didn't eat a single thing during the whole time. He remembered the feel of her bones when he held her, she was on the brink of death and yet, just sleeping made it look as if that memory of her was nothing but an illusion.

''My Lord, she is finally awake.'' Sakura said as she got up and bowed, while Rin ran to quickly hug his leg before going back to sit next to the girl.

''Hn, any information worth mentioning?'' He inquired, watching the girl watch him with her bright blue eyes.

''I-I don't know how it happened my Lord, but all her injuries are gone as if they never existed,'' Sakura said, brown hair falling on her face and almost covering her confused expression ''Her ribs were broken but now they're not, she had scars and bruises all over her body but they are gone too, not to mention that she gained back enough weight to be considered healthy again.''

Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow at the healer, she looked completely lost and any thoughts about one of her herbs or spells doing this were thrown away. He turned back to face the girl and found that she was still looking at him, though she seemed worried and was biting her lip while she fidgeted in place.

''Leave us.'' He said, making Rin groan as she stared at him. He knew that his ward wanted to protest, but one look at him was enough to make her give up.

''Don't worry nice Lady, Sesshoumaru-sama will probably just ask how you saved me and other unimportant things,'' Rin said, though the way she spoke about being saved seemed somehow forceful to the Lord of the West.

''I'll be back soon!'' With that, the girl left the room as she skipped and dragged a certain brown haired youkai along with her.

''Miko,'' Sesshoumaru spoke after a while, breaking the silence that had taken over the room. He wanted to sigh once he realized that she would not talk if he didn't ask, the thought of entering a staring contest with the girl was not appealing at all.

''My Lord.'' She answered, getting up and bowing deeply as she stood in front of him.

''Explain.'' Sesshoumaru simply said as the woman kept bowing to him.

''Yes, my Lord.'' She quietly muttered. ''My name's Kagome, and I've been a slave though I cannot remember for how long. Onigumo's men found me while I was traveling from a village to another and since they were human, there was only so much I could do to stop them.''

''Shippo, the kit, was brought to the same cell I was after his parents were killed and he was forced into slavery too. I took care of him, I couldn't bear to see someone so young being forced to go through such a rough treatment, my Lord. I went as far as taking the punishments for him, it seemed that Onigumo gained some sort of pleasure in torturing me.'' She was grimacing by now, but he couldn't see it because even though she straightened her posture, she kept her head down.

''You're untouched.'' Sesshoumaru said after a while.

It didn't make sense, if the woman was a slave, they would've probably tried to use her by now. She also took in the kitsune, saying that she took the torture sessions for him but she was a miko, they were supposed to hate youkai and their purpose in life was to exterminate them, so why?

''Ah, yes.'' The miko answered, this time raising her head so he could see the grim expression she had. ''They tried, believe me, right after they brought me to Onigumo. They thought I was only a human woman though, so when my former master tried to force himself on me, I panicked and let out all of my reiki at once.''

Her expression seemed strangely satisfied as she spoke the following events, making Sesshoumaru raise an eyebrow at her. ''I didn't know that there were youkai working for him too, but there were, and a lot of them. They all turned to ashes, there wasn't a single one standing after my reiki faded away, that was enough to make Onigumo and everyone else too scared to ever touch me again.''

''Hn, where is your master now?'' Sesshoumaru asked, carefully eyeing the woman in front of him.

''Hopefully burning in hell,'' She muttered, making the daiyoukai raise an eyebrow at her yet again. ''I was pretty much okay with being tortured you know? If Shippo was fine and no one was trying to rape me, everything was nice.'' She shrugged, looking slightly bored. ''I didn't even mind the torture that much after a while, I got to the point where I learned how to shrink back into my own mind by using a meditation technique I've learned in the past, which meant I didn't see or feel anything until I deemed it was safe enough for me again.''

If Sesshoumaru had a little less control over his feelings, his eyes would have widened in surprise. The way the human spoke about being tortured and forced into slavery as if it was nothing was enough to unsettle him, but the fact that she forced her mind to erase the events was simply shocking, she had been driven to her breaking point and just didn't seem to care.

''But you see, Onigumo was a greedy bastard, he wasn't happy with just torturing his slaves after driving them to work until they passed out. He wanted more, so when Shippo got sick, he decided that it was time to replace him with someone more useful.'' She spoke, her eyes narrowing slightly and somehow Sesshoumaru knew exactly what she was about to say.

''I didn't think. When I saw his blade inching closer to my son's neck, I simply snapped. The next thing I knew was that Onigumo was lying on the floor, his head bleeding, I had a torch on my hand and there were people running to my cell.'' She said, looking lost as she tried to remember exactly what happened that day. ''I had about five seconds to act so I picked Shippo from the ground, held him close to my body and put my former master's clothes on fire, as well as the whole cell. After that, I ran while knocking out everyone I saw on my way with the torch I still held.''

Sesshoumaru knew he shouldn't be amused, but the way the woman spoke about her escape was almost comic, she talked so casually about it that he wondered if she found it funny in some twisted way.

''I don't know for how long I ran, honestly. I could hear the soldiers behind me and I just wanted to give up, there was no way I would be able to escape them all and the only thing that kept me going was my son.'' She said as she stared at the daiyoukai's eyes. ''I don't really know what Rin-sama told you my Lord, but I have an idea. Please don't blame her for lying on my behalf, she just wanted to help.''

''Speak the truth,'' Sesshoumaru said, he knew his ward had been hiding something from him but she didn't exactly give him the time to think about it when there were a dozen soldiers trying to kill her.

''I was running and didn't really pay attention to my surrounding so I, uh, tripped over her.'' The miko said, looking slightly embarrassed. ''I think she was kneeling down and looking at the flowers, it was hard to see because it was getting dark so…''

Raising an eyebrow at her expression, Sesshoumaru waited for her to speak again.

''Anyway, I fell and thought I would die, then I saw a human girl shouting and realized that now I not only had a kit to hide from the warriors but a girl too.'' She said, sighing. ''I tried to make her run but she refused, Onigumo's men were getting closer and I gave Shippo to her, then tried to force her to run. I obviously failed and was on the brink of having a panic attack when she calmly took my hand and shouted your name, my Lord.''

That was something Rin would do, Sesshoumaru realized. His ward had absolutely no sense when it came to her safety, her blind faith that he would always be there to save her was both touching and stupidly dangerous at the same time.

Sesshoumaru welcomed the silence that took over the room while he pondered what he should do with the girl. Rin's irrational attachment to her was an obstacle that would keep him from simply throwing the human away, the fact that she was a miko would be tricky if he decided to keep her and she would most likely suffer assassination attempts from some people in his court.

For the second time in his life, Sesshoumaru didn't know what to do. He decided that he disliked this feeling as much as he disliked Jaken's screeching voice.

''Sesshoumaru-sama! Nice Lady!" The door of the room was suddenly slammed open and a giddy Rin attached herself to her Lord's leg.

A few seconds later, an orange ball of fluff jumped right past him and clung to the miko, who squealed happily and hugged it tightly to her chest.

''Shippo -chan!"

''Mama! I missed you so much and I was so worried when you didn't wake up and-'' The tiny kitsune suddenly started crying, making the woman hug him even more tightly to her body.

''I'm so sorry honey, mama was just resting okay? It had been a while since I could sleep and I needed to recover my energy.'' Kagome soothed him, patting his back softly.

''Please don't leave me too.'' Shippo pleaded weakly, making the girl's heart clench in pain.

''I won't, I promise that wherever I go, you go with me.'' She said as Sakura and Jaken suddenly ran into the room, looking around until they both spotted the little girl attached to their Lord's leg.

''Rin-sama tricked us again!" The imp said as he gasped for air and fell on the floor.

''Please forgive us, Sesshoumaru-sama! We tried to keep her from coming here but she's way too clever for a little human child." Sakura said as she fanned herself and Rin giggled, smiling shamelessly at Sesshoumaru when he raised an eyebrow at her.

''Sorry my Lord,'' The little girl spoke, her eyes shining with mirth. ''I really wanted to see Kagome-sama again and Shippo-chan was worried too.''

''I hope you're behaving, Shippo.'' Kagome said, narrowing her eyes at her son.

''Eh, well, you see mama-'' Said kit started to laugh nervously, looking at Rin and silently asking for help.

''He behaves, though there have been a few minor damages to the shiro whenever he attempts to show Rin-sama a new trick,'' Sakura said, making the miko groan. ''He's a kitsune and a pup though, no one really minds it.''

''What did I say to you about using youki in closed up spaces? The last time you attempted to do it in the cell we almost died!" The miko said, pinching the bridge of her nose.

''Cell?'' Rin asked, frowning. ''Shippo-chan said a bad man had locked you two away from everyone else and you were running from him when we found you, is that true?''

Smiling softly at the girl, Kagome kneeled in front of her and tried to ignore the demon who insisted on watching every single move she made. ''Yes Rin-sama, but he's gone now and we survived thanks to you and your Lord helping us.'' She said, patting the girl's head until she stopped frowning and smiled at her, suddenly tackling Kagome on a hug.

''Will you stay with us, Kagome-chan?'' She suddenly asked, making the woman flinch for a second.

She had no use to the Western Lord, she might not have recognized him before because of her mental state but now she knew exactly who had saved her. The son of Inu no Taisho and Lord of the West had no reason to keep a mortal on his shiro, much less a miko.

The fact that he hadn't killed her yet was surprising, she had heard stories of the merciless Lord and they surely didn't involve saving priestesses and being nice. She could faintly hear her mentor's words in the back of her mind scolding her for believing in every rumor she heard, after all the demon did keep a human girl as his ward, which meant he wasn't that bad, right?

''Are you educated, Kagome-sama?'' Sakura suddenly asked, her eyes shining with hope when she saw Kagome nod. ''You said you don't have anywhere else to go… We need someone to take care of Rin, I'm sure my Lord would gladly let you stay with us if you could teach her about the human ways, right Sesshoumaru-sama?''

''That's indeed a good idea!" Jaken squeaked, greatly pleased with the idea of not having to babysit Rin anymore. ''Sakura-sama isn't always available to look after the girl and I'm sometimes busy too, Sesshoumaru-sama.''

''It would be a wise decision!" Sakura said, sounding way too eager to be free from the girl. It wasn't that she didn't like Rin, in fact, she loved the little human and the new light she brought to the shiro, but her pranks were hard to deal with and she wasn't always free when Rin wanted to play. ''I do not know much about the human body, I've heard that the females behave in a different way once they reach a certain age, unlike youkai.''

''Please Sesshoumaru-sama! I promise I will behave with Kagome-chan, I won't even prank her like I did with my last teacher!" Rin squealed happily, attaching herself to said daiyoukai's leg again.

Finding himself strangely cornered between his human ward, his healer, and his supposedly loyal servant, Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow at them. He could almost taste their excitement in the air and started to consider their suggestion.

Rin did need someone to take care of her. Jaken was usually busy when they were in the shiro and though his men rarely got badly injured, when they got, they kept Sakura busy for weeks and that left Rin to wander alone, something he didn't approve.

Rin also seemed strangely attached to the miko, which would be useful if she started to teach her the general story of Japan and everything else she needed to know. The last time Sesshoumaru tried to find a teacher for the girl, the poor youkai left the room with her once blonde hair dyed green and half of her clothes torn, then she resigned from her position and left the shiro.

Taking one more look at his ward's hopeful expression, Sesshoumaru sighed mentally and nodded his head. ''The miko may stay if she wants.''

Three pairs of eyes suddenly moved to stare at Kagome, who in turn was facing the daiyoukai with wide eyes. Looking back at Rin's hopeful expression and Sakura's almost pleading one, Kagome smiled softly at them.

''If my Lord allows, I will gladly stay.''