The next morning as she began walking to school, Takara was attacked by twin kitsunes at the same time. They came at her from opposite directions, and when they got close she simply leapt into the air and watched as they collided into each other. She then gave them the same message she had given her first attacker – Let your master fight me, or let me not fight anyone.
She didn't attend school that day, for fear that an attack would while she was around the humans. She didn't fear the attackers; so far they had been very disappointing. But she didn't want any mortals getting in the way.
That night, she got on the roof of her cabin, dressed in her Feudal Era clothes. She sat cross-legged with her arms crossed in her sleeves, and looked up at the moon above her. It was just a sliver, a crescent. Her heart ached at the sight of it, for it reminded her of her father.
What would you do in my situation? She asked him in her mind. But she knew. Sesshoumaru wouldn't bother with weak kitsunes; he would have challenged Michiomaru the moment he saw him. He wouldn't have cared about the humans that had been around; they were only mortals, and the great Sesshoumaru cared nothing for them. Humans were nothing to him.
No, that wasn't true. Rin had been something to him. He had loved her. She had been the only human who was allowed to be with him extended amounts of time. She was the only creature alive who had been allowed to touch him, and when she had grown old enough, he had taken her to be his mate. Takara had never met Rin; by the time she was born, the human had been dead for over a hundred years. But even while Sesshoumaru allowed Takara's mother to live with them, he always found himself thinking about the beautiful human girl who had helped him find his heart.
Looking at the moon, Takara could almost see him in it staring back at her. She was the only one he would look at without the cold, expressionless face. Very few had the pleasure of seeing him smile, and she had been one of them.
~I miss you, otousan. If you were here, this would not have happened. Michiomaru would have died a long time ago. How did he have the strength to kill you?~
But she knew the answer to that too. For reasons unknown to her, Sesshoumaru had left Tenseiga behind when he had left the castle and was challenged by Michiomaru. She had never seen him without it outside of his living quarters, and to that day she didn't understand why he would have left his powerful sword, his healing sword, behind. If he'd had it, Tenseiga could have given him life when he grew weak. But instead, he was killed, and Takara always wondered how it would have played out if he'd had his healing sword with him.
~Tenseiga is mine now. But does it truly recognize me as its master? If my life were endangered, would it come to life, or would it remain dormant?~
She looked down into the forest, the moonlight casting eerie shadows on the ground. She knew one thing – ever since Michiomaru had returned, she had been feeling more and more like her old self, the way she had been when Sesshoumaru had lived. She remembered his training, and when she fought she could feel his coldness come over her. He would be furious if he knew how she associated with humans. But that wasn't her fault, was it? In the day and age she now lived in, humans reigned, and the remaining youkai were forced to conceal themselves. Certainly it wasn't her fault that she associated with humans.
And yet, despite that thought, it was when the cold, ruthless feeling came over her that she felt the most like a youkai. It was when she was fighting, when blood was dripping down her claws, that she truly felt like herself. But she couldn't leave her human companions, could she? Leave Miyo and Makoto, and all the others she had grown to know? For what? For the chance to become her father?
~Help me, otousan. I want to do what you would have done, yet I feel myself turning colder and colder with each day that passes. I have grown soft living with ninjen for so long. You would have never allowed yourself to become what I have become.~
A wave of shame rolled over her. She wanted so hard to do what her father would have wanted, to make him proud, even though she knew he would never know what she was doing. Why then, when the answer was so clean and simple, did she feel so hurt by the idea of leaving her human friends? She knew already that she would have to keep away from them, lest they get mixed up in the battle again. But when all of that was over, what could she do? Return to her life pretending to be human? Or follow the fire that had been lit within her, the fire that was leading her away from the humans?
She looked back up at the moon. So beautiful. So majestic. So… him.
She sighed.
~I have much work to do.~