Dying to Live
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
In "modern medical science", as people in our time know it, they say that hearing may be the last of the senses to operate in unconsciousness. Still it could be hard for the passed-out person to react to or associate clear, meaningful understanding or memory of sounds - or especially - other stimuli. Some experts speculate this may be that the deeper the loss of consciousness, the greater the disruption to brain activity. A kind of mental unraveling of the weave-work that creates the sensory experience results, jeopardizing the definition of what it means to experience "life".
You will remember that Sesshomaru himself had experienced this disjointed sense of "unravelling" earlier in that same year, as a thin strip of light appearing in the inky blackness... That very same strip of light taunted Rin now - the borderline of waking and eternal sleeping glistened orange, as she fought her heavy eyelids.
"RIN!"
The familiar young, male voice that rang through her mind grew more distant.
That voice. The voice was not like the voices of her memories. Jaken? No, Lord Ses-
It was pointless: thoughts evaded Rin's mind, and otherworldly heat engulfed her. A blaring elemental roar deafened her hearing, and the thin strip of light narrowed in her mind's view. It would be over soon.
Suddenly the melting heat abated, stirring Rin's senses. The waning strip of orange light danced tantalizingly again in the thick, velvet darkness.
"Tsk, this won't do at all," the calm masculine voice, a different one this time, echoed across Rin's thoughts. Its timber was like that of someone she loved but deeper.
The flicker of a memory. Her heavy, smoke-stung lids barely cracked open.
"Lord Sesshomaru?" she heard her own voice rasp. Hot tears leaked from her hooded eyes, and the vision before her cleared just enough. Long white hair drawn back in a tie glistened like snow, as it fell over her visitor's shoulder in the raging firelight. Despite the unbearable heat, the man's pale skin and wide dark-golden eyes glowed with infectious calm. Startling shocks of dark blue graced the noble cut of high, sharp cheek bones.
"No, little one," the warm, deep voice rumbled his reply. Rin couldn't move, so she only gazed half-awake at the kind face that loomed above her. "But I am someone it seems Fate allowed to come in his stead. Perhaps it's the nature of your predicament that opened the way to me to come for this brief moment."
"Rin!" the other more distant male voice called again. The handsome white-haired man craned his head to listen in a way Rin was sure she had seen hundreds of times before.
"Sesshomaru cannot be allowed to lose you too to fire. He needs you also far too much. I cannot help him myself, but I can make sure you are saved."
Rin laid motionless. The improbably familiar being in front of her slowly rose. Incredibly, the blinding flames parted like curtains behind him when he stood. He glanced over his shoulder as his body began to fade, but his voice lingered a moment longer: "A slayer, hm? What interesting company – little one, tell him to use the flames. The flames will slay them, like the highway trader's daughter said. "
Rin's eyes fell closed, unable to last any longer. A moment later, she felt her body moving.
"Rin! By the kami – the fire parted!" The other youthful male voice was beside her and soon exclaimed, "You're breathing!"
Her dry lips worked, and Rin choked briefly. The white-haired man she'd promised, was it Sesshomaru? Wait no, it wasn't – but he'd said, or was it the highway trader's daughter-
"B-burn t-them, burn them," she breathed as her limp, carried body rocked side-to-side.
"What?" Kohaku's voice replied, confused.
Rin forced her lips to work once more: "T-the wolf demons, 'haveta b-burn'em...all, b-burn..."
With that, the splash of cold air hit Rin's face. Doused in darkness, the thin strip of light on the horizon vanished. Fully exhausted, Rin's subconscious at last welcomed the silence as well.