Well... Um... Hi guys! It's been a long time and for that I am sorry... again. So, I had contemplated updating Memoirs with an announcement (despite the rules that say it isn't allowed) to let you guys in on everything, BUT! That's a huge let down. I know that when my favorite stories get updated after a long time, I get really excited, only to find out it was just an announcement... IT SUCKS.
Well, I decided that I would write a new chapter combined with an announcement. :)
So here it is:
Announcement!
I wanted to let you all know that I am not giving up on this story, just that sometimes I lose motivation or that things don't go quite my way IRL and so I have to put certain things on hold for awhile. I know it sucks and that it has been a long time since I updated, but rest assured, I needed the break. How my writing goes, is that I have all these creative ways of wording things naturally! But on a bad writing day, or unmotivated day, it takes 8 times the amount of effort and 3 times as long to write a decent chapter (and don't even get me started on the proof-reading phase!). But on a good day it's so much fun and there are so many commendable things in my writing! Anything less than that and I'm not happy with it... which then makes me unmotivated for the next chapter. And well, the last three chapters were hard to write already just because I was having a couple of bad days. So I decided on an extended break. Which I apparently needed, because just before Thanksgiving I got in a wreck and became a wreck for awhile. :( But anyway! I hope I didn't disappoint you guys too much! Here is the next chapter. I can't promise the next one soon, but I will get to work on it right away. :)
Chapter 19: After All These Years
The bright dash of elegant silver and white majesty propelled itself stealthily across the outskirts of the Western border. For the past two months this beast had only been growing more and more wary of the situation that was undoubtedly unfolding. The longer that such didn't occur, the more suspicious he grew.
In his true form, the respectable dog demon heir patrolled the borders for the evening while his father was lost in political affairs as usual. And although Sesshoumaru normally detested such unnecessary responsibilities, lately he would find himself quite restless unless he was attempting to find his ex-comrade, Naraku.
A small growl escaped at the bitter reminiscence of their bloody fight moons before. The one that not only led to the complete absence from his volatile friend and battle partner, but also one that led to a very peculiar event.
A demon slayer had broken into Kodachi. One that had harbored and readily used Naraku's poison to steal something unseemly.
The great demon scowled as he could only imagine what that foul low-life was up to. The severity of the issue had grown when Sesshoumaru discovered that it was indeed a demon slayer who had played into Naraku's hands.
This information was troubling for Sesshoumaru had been present the night that his comrade slaughtered the entirety of the slayer village.
Suddenly and unwillingly, his thoughts shot to the frailty, and subtle allure, of Rin. Ever since the incident at Kodachi, witnessed by no one other than that foolish human girl, a strange feeling had started festering within the pureblooded demon. He had considered the mask that she wore upon her face that moonlit night, claiming it had belonged to a forsaken loved one of hers. He bared his fangs as he once again acknowledged the obvious connection between incidents, along with the annoying shift in his mindset.
Protectiveness.
That was the only word he could attribute to this strange new feeling he had for Rin. And since coming to this conclusion he had begun to purposefully avoid her.
However, this avoidance was only true by the deception of daylight. For he would often find himself skirting her company under the blind refuge of the forest shadows. He justified his actions with her peculiar entanglement with Naraku; keeping up with her to ensure that his counterpart wasn't somewhere nearby, using her to plot against him. Sesshoumaru's real reasons, however, were lost to his smothering pride.
"So unsightly," he muttered in distaste… referencing his spying upon a detestable human woman with nary an excuse but simple territorial instincts.
Though he had thought her to be a lowly mortal to begin with, he did find her simplistic routines to be particularly...
Ignorant.
The way she would stop to pick at flowers, the way she would converse idly with strangers on her way to school, the way she would use her lunch breaks to sleep on the hills of the rice fields. Despite the tragedies that had accompanied her pathetic life to this point, she was still somehow unbelievably naive and vulnerable.
And yet, in lieu of this evaluation, Sesshoumaru still managed to find her fascinating enough to warrant his attention, his protection. Especially since Naraku had known that Rin was assigned to him. She was the pawn that could succeed him to the kingdom, making her a potential target for whatever that evil breed was planning.
No matter the reason for his deplorable stalking, Sesshoumaru had long since buried the shame that the concept brought upon his proud nature; comforted only by the assurance that it was carried out in secrecy. No one knew of his decision to watch over her from time to time. Not even Rin herself.
In a downward spiral flash of brilliant translucent light, Sesshoumaru, with utter ease, landed atop a bowing branch. Now in his human form, his gold-dusted eyes gazed out toward the familiar two-tier pagoda in the distance. He had followed Rin's scent to her school.
Though he had caught the uneasy bitterness of tears in her scent, he truly began to grow restless as his keen nose picked up on an even stranger odor.
The scent of decaying bones and rotting flesh.
He placed one readied hand upon the hilt of capable Bakusaiga as both Rin and the offender began to enter his line of sight.
Rin pushed Kikyou's hand away from its attempt to comfort her. Though a bit taken aback at the uncanny brashness, Kikyou rested her features as she recalled her own feelings during her mizuage period.
"Go home and rest your mind," the instructor ordered, "Tomorrow you will need to be able to acknowledge and appreciate the life-long blessings that this simple sacrifice will eventually bring to you." Kikyou had offered the only sound response that she could, but nothing could be enough. Even she knew that.
Standing, and with a sullen face pointed downward, Rin hurried silently past her mentor to take leave of the suffocating atmosphere.
Betrayal and pain flooded the young Maiko's mind, thought by depressing thought.
How could she have been so fooled by the deceitful beauty of the Geisha world?
How could she have possibly thought herself, thought of Geisha, to be immune to the power of flesh-seeking men?
How could she have been so stupid?
In this moment, she hated herself for being born a woman.
She hated herself for being weak.
With tears falling like raindrops upon the beautiful whipping satin of her thin yukata, Rin sprinted down and around the corners of the outdoor hallways; dusk evident even as the diligent staff began lighting the modestly crafted lanterns. Finally finding the entrance area, Rin came to a comically dramatic and uncollected halt. Quickly, yet clumsily, she threw on her sandals and grabbed her knapsack from her assigned cubby before bolting once more past the entrance gates and to the outside world. She tried her best to squander the emotional pain of her heart with the compounding pain of her lungs. All she wanted to do was run. To leave. To leave this world of humans. A world so full of biased bigotry, of shameful selfishness, of ravenous lions and helpless lambs. It was not only unfair, it was unjust. Unwarranted. All of it was...
...simply disheartening.
The silvery teal moon began to rise from the East, alongside whooshes of terribly chilled air. Winter had come full force over the past couple of months. And despite the numbing of her un-socked toes that were too carelessly forgotten in her emotional dash, they continued to support her endeavor to take her far away from anything reminding her of her impending sacrifices. She made them promise to not stop until her heart had stopped. And strangely enough, her heart did stop. For a brief, yet excruciatingly painful moment.
Dead in her tracks she stopped. Rin's face grew white with shock as her eyes dilated to that of black obsidian pearls once they had acknowledged their point of focus. The figure in the distance sent chills up and down her spine as her brain processed that which could not be possible. Considering the probability of her overwhelmed psyche throwing forth bizarre hallucinations, Rin tried to solidify reality by pronouncing the name that she had long wished would reward her with a response.
"K-Kohaku...?" the heated moisture of her breath reluctantly met the cold with reprieve.
Near one of the many houses and inns surrounding the school yard stood a young adolescent male. About her age, if not a little older, the boy wore his full head of black hair in an unfinished top-knot. Seemingly poor, a pale green haori cloaked the broad shoulders of his layered white yukatas that were tucked into his poorly black dyed hakama. What Rin had recalled as a scrawny pre-teen was now a clean-cut and full-grown man. The only indication of familiarity was found in his face. Widened, large brown eyes that nearly mirrored her own, as well as the light freckles that traced the cheekbones responsible for the gape between his lips, were both given in reaction to seeing her.
"...Rin?"
She barely heard the whisper of a voice that she never thought she would hear again.
Her lips quivered as she struggled to comprehend her surroundings.
It couldn't be.
It just couldn't be.
"How?" She nearly screamed as she took to a run towards him, towards Kohaku, willing to throw herself upon him in an unsightly fashion just to confirm that her eyes and ears did not deceive her.
What was going on? How could he be here? How could-
the impact of his body against hers came more suddenly and strongly than what she had originally calculated. It would seem that he also had lunged forth to take her into his own arms. Warmth and strength met her with a force that she uncharacteristically welcomed. Suddenly, for a fraction of a second, everything felt okay.
"Kohaku... It can't be... I thought you were dead...," Rin hiccuped, trying hard not to cry, yet ultimately failing.
Sounding as if he was about to start shedding tears himself, the boy meekly replied into her shoulder, "I was certain you had died too..."
Rin looked up into his eyes for a long moment, studying him for a final confirmation as her hands remained latched to his haori. She finally spoke, betrayal now lacing her voice as her hand reached up to caress his face.
"Where have you been, Kohaku? Why did you have to leave me for so long by the sea?" Her eyebrows twitched, willing to drop down in anger, but refraining, "I had found your blood-stained armor ripped to shreds when I went out looking for you and I-"
"I'm so sorry...," he replied softly, lightly grabbing the hand that traced over his face, "...I was being hunted by a demon that I could not take down. My only choice was to fake my own death and to hide... I didn't want to risk it following me back to you. So, I waited..."
He sighed before finishing with saturated eyes, "But when I finally did return, you had disappeared."
Tears overflowed as Rin took in this miraculous information.
The gods had truly watched over them for all these years... She just hadn't realized it until now.
"Oh, Kohaku!" She embraced him once more, crying, before begging, "Please... Take me away from this place! Far away! After I had found your armor, I was captured and trafficked to a Geisha house in this godforsaken town and now-!"
"What?!" Kohaku exclaimed as Rin continued.
"-Within the week they want me to sell my body so that I can pay off my debt! I can't do it, Kohaku! I just can't! Please!"
Kohaku's grip tightened and now he held her with a force she had yet to experience.
"I won't let that happen! I promise you...," he trailed as his body began to shake with anger.
"Please...," Rin buried her face into his shoulder, muffling her voice, "Let's go... Right now..."
His body tensed for a moment before he forced a reply.
"Forgive me... I can't just yet... I have to make preparations...," Rin's heart froze as he continued his explanation, "I have to talk to the merchants and solidify my business in the area before I can make a clean break with the supplies that we will need. Can you wait three days?"
Though sickened by the thought of three more days of hell after witnessing such a blissful heaven, Rin concluded that it was the fourth day excluding this day, the day of the audition, that she would most likely be bid upon. And then that night, taken to satiate someone else's lust.
Reluctantly, she replied, "Yes, I can wait that long... But no longer..."
Kohaku pulled away to meet her eyes once more, "Meet me here at dusk on the third day... We will leave for the Northern territories.
Wiping away tears, Rin nodded, still slightly in disbelief and mildly torn apart.
"I have to go now. I work for an old villager on the outskirts of town, loading cargo during the night so...," Kohaku slowly confessed until he saw the sadness wash over her face, "Rin..."
She looked up at him numbly.
He whispered, "...I'll be back, I promise."
Tears welled up once more before she half-heartedly smiled, "Okay... I trust you."
And with that, he reluctantly rushed off, slowing to look back at her every now and then. And Rin, too, walked off in the direction of Kodachi, still unsure of the events that had just transpired. They seemed almost unreal.
Almost too good to be true.
Unbeknownst to either of them during the entire spectacle, high above in the looming tree tops, stood a tall and red-eyed Sesshoumaru who still waited patiently with one hand over Bakusaiga. His eyes were filled with nothing but pure anger.
"So...," he quietly seethed, "...This is the game he chose to play, is it?"
He watched with annoyance as Rin stumbled off towards her house. In a way, this human had put a dent in his pride, though he would never admit it. She had not only suggested running away from her responsibilities as a Geisha, but she had also dared to suggest running away from her responsibility to him and to his cause. She intended to betray their agreement.
"What a foolish woman," he thought as she continued onward away from him, "Even if she were to run away, does she truly think that I would let her live for such trespasses? Does she truly think she could ever escape me?"
For a moment he recalled the putrid words and embraces exchanged between the two mortals just prior. And in that moment of recollection his eyes reignited. Though he refused the gods the pleasure of speaking it, truly, something in Rin's regard toward that human male put him on the brink of rampage.
He didn't like it.
God, he didn't like it.
Sesshoumaru couldn't even fathom the reasoning behind such anger, but there it was.
He growled as he peered in Rin's direction once more. She was almost out of sight when he finally softened his features.
Despite the blow to his pride, he knew too well that she would learn her lesson soon enough. For that boy, Kohaku, was nothing but a mirage of past attachment meant lead her away from her duty to the Heir of the West.
It was Naraku's childish way of halting his eventual succession to the throne.
Still gazing in her direction, condescendingly, yet somewhat sincere he muttered, "Such a pity," before taking to the night sky.
Once he was far out of sight, Kohaku began to oddly slow his steps, while his head dipped almost shamefully. A wash of tainted brown flooded his eyes as his skin began to turn fish-belly white.
Good job Kohaku.
A hollow, demonic voice resounded throughout his mind and body.
You will kill her, understood?
"Yes, master," Kohaku's shallow voice responded instantly.
Good. See to it that there are no interruptions.
"Yes, master," he replied again.
Suddenly, Kohaku regained consciousness and stood straight up, looking all around himself, disoriented.
"Where am I? How did-? Oh well, I better get home soon or sister will be worried!"
Leaves rustling beneath his feet, Kohaku ran off, strangely chipper. Any indication that he recalled running into Rin could not be found.
So there you have it! Chapter 19! Things will be getting real exciting here pretty quick.
Can't you taste it? :P I can't wait to see what happens...
Please Review! Love you all and thanks for being patient!
