(Inuyasha and Co do not belong to me. I just like to write about them. This is mainly going to be a K/Sess ficcie, no rating as of yet.)

Kanashimi no Hate ni - End To Sorrow - Two

The Shard

..at the Castle of Lord Sesshoumaru...

Rin took a deep breath of air and then ran out into the flower laden field beyond at a breakneck pace. She loved being outdoors - something that she had learned to love in traveling with Sesshoumaru-sama and Jaken. Lately, however they had stayed within Sesshoumaru's castle and she had been forbidden to go outside. It was as if Sesshoumaru-sama was actually worried about Rin, although in his usual fashion he never said so.
Today, however, she had been bid to go outside and play in the field just beyond the castle, for Sesshoumaru-sama was busy with some sort of boring stuff. Rin had kept running around him until he at last sighed and ordered Jaken to take her outside. Rin had clapped her hands in happiness and Jaken had been hard pressed to keep up with her. Rin knew that the toad-youkai did not like her, but that was okay because she didn't like him very much either. He was always acting one way when Sesshoumaru-sama was around and another when he was 'watching' her. He wasn't very nice, calling her a dirty human and all sorts of things like that. It didn't bother Rin much though since Jaken usually got his when her Sess-chan appeared unexpectedly. Half the time Jaken was thrown somewhere and Rin thought that was very funny - the face that he made - but the toad youkai always got up.

"Don't go far, human!" Jaken called out. "Master Sesshoumaru-sama warned you!"

~Stupid little human..~ Jaken thought with resentment. He could not understand why his lord and master doted on this insignifigant child. At first Jaken thought that it was just so Sesshoumaru-sama could have a little sport. But despite the fact that the chit irritated them with her non-stop chatter and ran about like a little idiot, his lord did not slay her. Sometimes he would give her a look or simply say, "Rin, be quiet' and the girl would obey.

And yet poor Jaken - poor faithful Jaken! Pushed back into insignifigance!

"Yes, yes.." Jaken sighed. "Poor Jaken, nursemaid to a prattling human! Oh how low I have fallen!" He watched as the child roamed about the flowers, collecting them. The frog youkai glared at the child, almost willing her to drop dead, but of course the chit did not.

It was then that his eyes saw a glitter of something on the ground, just beyond his feet.

"Hm, what is this?" Jaken muttered to himself as he stooped down to examine the glittery object.

"Awk - awk.." Jaken gasped aloud as he picked up the small object. It was a shard!

"Shikon no Tama.." Jaken whispered as his buggy eyes stared at the thing. His head whipped around as if he expected Sesshoumaru to be right behind him - a not uncommon occurance. Thankfully he was not there this time. Jaken stared at the small shard and then he stared beyond the field at Rin and then again at the sliver that he held.

This sliver could give a youkai a hundred times his power! Jaken had heard what had happened to it - and also to the bastard hanyou half-brother of the great Sesshoumaru-sama. He had not been concerned at that time, simply because it didn't matter much to him. But now...

Jaken's eyes narrowed as he looked at Rin running towards him, her hair flying behind her. He closed his hand over the shard and slipped into one of his many pockets.

"Look, Jaken! I picked these for Sesshoumaru-sama!" Rin proudly displayed her flowers. She didn't like Jaken, but he was the only one around for her to talk to when Sesshoumaru-sama was busy.

"Bah.." Jaken spat. "As if the great Sesshoumaru-sama wants those weeds!"

"Hah! Lot you know!" Rin stuck her tongue out at Jaken and ran back towards the castle, eager to show her gift.

"Impudent human!" Jaken sputtered as he whipped around, shaking his staff. He was tempted to aim his staff at her but decided not to. No, his revenge would come later - with the help of the Shikon shard. Since his master had not noticed it so far, surely he could hide it for a time. Then he could rid Sesshoumaru-sama of the human pestilence that had invaded their home. Sesshoumaru-sama would then be most grateful to his servant Jaken and all would be as before.

****

Sesshoumaru walked through his castle deep in thought, his face as usual, expressionless. It had not been long since his hanyou half-brother had disappeared with that miko but still Tetsusaiga had not been found - the true Tetsusaiga, not the one that that hanyou brother of his had made for him.

The youkai's eyes narrowed in momentary anger as he thought again of the fact that his father had given the impulsive fool the Tetsusaiga. Inuyasha had not deserved it. In his care, the Tetsusaiga had been abused and even when he had discovered it's full power, the fool eventually broke it in two in a battle by turning into a full-blooded youkai.

No, it didn't matter that he, Sesshoumaru, had a sword - Tokajiin - nearly equal to that from Gojinki's tusks or that Inuyasha had had the Tetsusaiga remade from his own tusk. The broken Tetsusaiga - the one that he, Sesshoumaru, had thought now worthless and had left, was gone. The demon lord growled in his throat at his own folly. But how had he known that the two swords - Tensaiga and Tetsusaiga were meant to be used together?

Damn him - but he SHOULD have known! He was no stupid hanyou, but Sesshoumaru - lord of the Western Lands!

He unsheathed his own sword - not the one had had been recently made but the older one given to him by his father, the Tenseiga.

~Why would you give me, father, a healing sword? I, who hate humans..~ The dog-demon thought as he held up the sword to the light. It was a question he had asked himself so many times. And yet, he had saved two lives with it - Jaken's and Rin's. Jaken's life he had had no problem with, for after all, it was hard to find a loyal (although stupid) servant like him. But Rin? Rin was human. Why had he not left her as she had been? Dead, eaten by the wolves, a stinking human carcass.

But no, fool he was, he had remember how she was not afraid of him, how she had tried to get food for him, even though he didn't eat that sort of thing. He remembered her gap toothed smile and he had wondered just why she had. Curiousity, he supposed, fascination perhaps. The child always seemed to surprise him with her devotion and her affection for him.

No, he would tire of her eventually. One day she would irriatate him and he would not hesitate to kill her. After all, what was a human's life compared to the span of a demons?

He placed the healing sword back in it's sheath, and he felt it vibrate. He knew that it was calling for Tetsusaiga - sword that was no more, and yet..

The dog-demon prince scowled.

The youkai had been too bold here lately. He had had to stay here to protect his territory and he was sure that the splitting of the Shikon no Tama that his brother's miko bitch had something do with it.

Absently he wondered what ever happened to the human girl who had travelled with him?

"Sesshoumaru-sama! Look what I brought you!" Rin had run into Sesshoumaru, who merely stopped and looked down at his charge.

Sesshoumaru only raised a brow and walked away from the child. Rin frowned and Jaken, who had caught up with her, did not miss it.

"See?" He hissed at Rin. "He has no time for your weeds - or for you!"

"Come, Rin." Sesshoumaru looked back at Rin. The child's face lit up with adoration as she ran to her Sesshoumaru-sama. She turned her head slightly and stuck her tongue out again at Jaken, who seethed inside. Nevertheless he followed his master and the human girl just as he always did.

The shard of the Shikon no Tama was not noticed at all..