Standard disclaimers apply.
Thank you everyone for reviewing my story, they were my first reviews so I was hopping up and down with joy.
Shadow Angel: I'm glad you liked my fic, you were the first review I received. You have no idea how excited I was to get a review the first day my fic was posted.
Sakurako: Shocked were you? Good. I would hate for my fic to be predictable. That would have been a pretty depressing one shot. The story is about her and Sesshoumaru, I wouldn't kill her off in the first chappy.
ShadowSpinner: Poor Rin. You bet, just wait until you see what I have in store for her. Am I sadistic? Maybe. But there is a reason for all this.
Well let's continue and toy with Rin's destiny, shall we?
"Rin" Sesshoumaru growled, his eyes turning red as he tried with all his might to pierce the barrier. He fell through, the barrier had disappeared. But so had Rin. All he had left of her was the shinning black orb that she had given him. She had left him forever.
Growth In-Between TimesChapter 2: Endurance
It was dark, blackness was all around her. Were her eyes shut? She tried to open them. Nope, she couldn't. Maybe the room was dark? Wait, a bright white light appeared in the center of her vision, it was growing larger, turning the darkness into light.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" It was the Miko talking. She was watching as Rin slowly regained consciousness. Rin looked at her with hazy eyes. Then the memory of what had happened before returned to her. She sat up abruptly, sending her head spinning. "Where am I?" she asked, massaging her temples. Then she looked at the Miko closely " Why haven't you eaten up my soul yet?"
"Oh I tried, my little pretty, indeed I tried. Your soul resisted. I am quite upset with you. I'm famished, my powers are waning, soon I'm going to have to go out and look for some more dead souls. I was especially looking forward to eat your live one."
"Oh I'm sorry" said Rin " I didn't mean to resist" The Miko stared at her. " Well I know you didn't mean to, or else you wouldn't have been able to cross the barrier. But it is quite funny to hear you say that. You are quite an interesting little thing. Now tell me, has anyone cast spells over you? Have you touched any objects of power? Or…" a new thought seemed to cross the Miko's mind. She looked at Rin slyly. "Have you ever been dead before?"
"Yes" Rin said slowly. " I was killed by wolves when they attacked my village. Sesshoumaru-sama saved me. He brought me back to life."
"Oh did he, how did he do that?"
" I'm not sure. I think it was his sword. Tenseiga, he came for the orb because he wanted to empower Tensaiga. That's what he used to save me. And now he has the orb and his Tenseiga is strong now, all because of me." Rin hugged her knees happily.
"Well" the Miko said sourly " He has the orb, but I am left without my soul. There are rules, and I cannot eat what has already been dead. That and there is still some remnants of the Tensaiga's power protecting you. Your soul is unfit for my consumption. I have no use for you."
"Then you'll let me go?" Rin said hopefully.
" I cannot. Once you enter the barrier you cannot escape. Only I have the power to enter and leave the barrier at will. No, you are stuck here."
Rin's heart fell, she stared at her feet. " What are you going to do with me?" She lifted her head and stared at the Miko with tears in her eyes. " If I'm alive I will miss Sesshoumaru-sama."
"Stop crying" the Miko barked. " Never again will you shed tears in my presence. I have decided to train you. You will become the next Miko of Kcronos temple. You have many qualities that suit you for the task. You have special safeguards against death. You are self-less, pure hearted, and courageous. I was not planning to take on an apprentice for a while. But that is also part of the rules, otherwise I would not have an apprentice at all. I will not waste what is set before me."
Rin looked at the aged and bent over Miko "You are going to make me like you? I don't think I wanna learn."
"It is not up to you. Your soul is my property, I will do with it as I will. You are right though," she said after a pause, "about not wanting to learn. There will be many times when you will wish death to release you from the torments you will have to endure. But death will not come. You would have been happier if I had been able to devour your soul."
With that the Miko tapped Rin on the forehead. Rin tried to move. She could not. The Miko grinned evilly at her. Rin tried to scream, tried to fight. She could not resist. Desperation welled up within Rin. 'Wish she would die? What on earth would the Miko do to her that would make her want to die? Sesshoumaru-sama' Rin called out in her mind. 'Please save me, Sesshoumaru-sama.' Even the tears Rin wished to shed would not come out.
The Miko placed her hand on Rin's shoulder and she materialized to another room. Then she dematerialized and left Rin there all alone.
Rin looked about her and saw that she was in a white room. It was empty. There were no doors, no windows, no tables, no chairs; only endless white from the floor to the ceiling. Rin looked around anxiously. No scary monsters were lurking in the corners. Nothing looked like it was going to tear her apart. 'Maybe that mean old lady just wants to scare me. There is nothing in here that wants to hurt me. I will just wait for her to come back and show her that I am not afraid. Maybe I will figure a way to get back to Sesshoumaru-sama.
Rin sat down and waited. She waited and waited. Then she waited some more.
She was getting hungry. She stared down at her rumbling tummy. 'Did the Miko forget about her? She was so hungry. When was she going to eat? And when was she getting out of here?'
Rin was getting a headache from staring at the white walls. She was terribly hungry. She was also infernally bored. She waited and waited, but the Miko did not come. 'What was going on here?' Rin felt something cold knot up in her stomach. Exactly how long was she going to stay here? Rin started to scream. "Let me out of here. Please, please, I am so hungry. She was screaming and crying, beating against the walls. Still no one came. She pounded against the walls with her fists. Kicking and screaming, the knot in her stomach exploded and she collapsed crying hysterically, "Let me out, please, please, I'll do anything. What do you want me to do?" In hiccupping sobs she cried out "Sesshoumaru-sama". Rin slowly fell asleep.
White, the world was white. Time had no meaning. She had no meaning. There was nothing but white. She had memories. She used to pore over them to pass the time, but she had stopped when time had ceased to exist. She was only consciousness, she was no longer aware of her body. She wondered why she did not go insane. Something kept her from going crazy, something kept her from dying. She did not know what, she did not even have to eat. Hunger had left her like everything else had. The constant gnawing ache had disappeared. Maybe she was crazy. Maybe she was dead.
There was a sound. Strange, it had been there for a while and she had not noticed. It was calling her. Telling her to come out from wherever she had hidden herself. Slowly she emerged from her hidden self. Slowly she began to see.
There was an old woman before her. She was vaguely familiar. She meant something bad. She better hide again, but it was to late. The old woman was calling her name. "Rin, Rin, Rin." On and on she went. Rin slowly raised herself with effort; her body was unused to motion. She fell back on the ground. The old lady grabbed Rin and slapped her. Rin was shocked. It had been so long since she had felt anything; it brought her to her senses. She looked at the old woman with eyes like those of a hunted animal. She tried to speak, but she could only mouth one word "Sesshoumaru-sama" The Miko bent down to hear her "Bah, still calling out his name, it is a wonder you can talk at all. You probably don't even know what that word means anymore."
Rin stared at her in fear. The Miko dragged Rin up from the floor, " We are not through with your training yet. That was only the initiation stage."
'Training'? Rin stared at her blankly. The Miko placed her hand on Rin's shoulder and dematerialized to another room.
Rin blinked rapidly, trying to see. It was dark, not like the room she had come from. The room that she was used to. She felt around her, there was nothing there. She groped around trying to find the Miko. The Miko had left her alone again. Rin stood in the middle of the floor, trying to adjust to the light. She was slowly starting to see. It was exactly like her other room, only the walls were black. She did not know how she could see, only that seeing made her despair even more. She was trapped again.
She felt herself begin to despair. Why had she been waken up only to be left alone again? Where was that person whom she called out to help her? Why was she alone? She sat down in a corner. She should retreat again. Go to the place where time had no meaning. Where she was conscious of nothing beyond the fact that she existed. But as soon as she tried a burning pain racked her body. She felt as if thousands of flaming needles were piercing her body. Rin finally found her voice and started to scream, her cries echoed about the closed room. Her lungs felt like exploding from disuse, but it was nothing compared to the fire that was flaming her body. "Sesshoumaru-sama, save me, save me, Sesshoumaru-sama."
Time went by. She could count the hours now. She felt as if days went by in this searing pain. She was growing used to it. Soon she would be able to retreat again, retreat to her safe haven. But as soon as she tried, a new pain racked her body. This time it was ice. It completely doused the flames she felt in her body and sent her into shivers instead. She felt piercing icicles now. And the pain was no less than before, only different. Rin was screaming again, kicking her legs, her body writhing. "No, no," she cried in anguish. Now she couldn't retreat. She would have to get used to the new pain before she could try again. She could not lose consciousness and had to endure every minute of her agony. Days past, and she grew used to this pain as well.
She had been thinking. She would not try to retreat within herself again. That only seemed to trigger new pain. During her days of agony she had come to life again. She had withdrawn from her lethargy and had become conscious of the world again. She had been aware of every stab of pain. But now she had grown used to it, she had learned to endure. Her memories had not come back yet. Only his image flitted across her mind. He was tall and beautiful. Silver hair waved in the breeze, and his golden eyes stared at her distantly. He had a crescent shape on his forehead that was the color of the blue of the night sky. Sesshoumaru-sama. Where was he? She longed for him to take her in his arms, comfort her, and tell her everything would be all right. But he never came.
Slowly time passed by. She endured intermittent flashes of fire and ice. Soon she no longer felt the pain and could stand up and walk about her room. Time passed and yet still she would not go insane.
Rin was instantly aware this time when the Miko materialized into her room. Somehow the Miko seemed a lot shorter than she had remembered. Rin ran up to her and grabbed her wizened arm " Don't go and leave me again, I will never let go of your arm." The Miko dematerialized with Rin and materialized in an other area. Rin gasped and dropped the Miko's arm. It was so beautiful. They were in a little glen. The grass and the trees were a vibrant shade of green, with wildflowers littering the ground, adding specks of color. The sun was high and the sky was so blue, Rin could hear the birds chirping in the trees. Rin felt that her cheeks were wet, she realized that she was crying. The Miko snapped at her. "Did I not command you never to cry in my presence?" Rin stopped abruptly. "I'm sorry" she whispered. " It's just has been so long."
"Well enough goggling, we have work to do. The second part of your training will begin. Though of a different nature, it will be as difficult as your previous training.
"Training?"
"Yes, fool. You are training to be a Miko."
"Did I want to be a Miko?" Rin asked. "It does not matter what you wanted, you are mine. But your memories will slowly return to you."
"Oh" Rin said. She did not mind. She was just glad to be out of those rooms and in this beautiful glen.
So the second part of her training commenced. It was hard, the Miko was right, but Rin rather enjoyed it. It gave her something to do after all that time by herself. And the Miko was better company than no one.
She spent the first part of her time learning rules. What the Miko called their code. It addressed how a Miko should behave, and how she would gain her power. To break these rules meant a lessening of their power, and ultimately led to the Miko's destruction.
Afterwards Rin trained in her powers as a Miko. She learned how to materialize and dematerialize. How to freeze people and bend them to her will. She only practiced this on animals, and hated doing it. But she never made them do anything that would hurt them, and released them immediately. She dared not disobey the Miko, she was too afraid of being sent back to the rooms.
She had much time to rest as well. She would eat, drink and sleep. She once asked the Miko why she did not have to do this when she was in the rooms. The Miko explained that it was the magic of the rooms never to let anyone die or become insane, just to test the limits of human endurance.
Rin found out that it was the experiences she went through in these rooms that enabled her to have the power of the Miko. To practice her powers she would have to retreat within herself, as she had within the white room. And she had learned to manipulate her feelings when she was in the black. Her powers lay mainly in the manipulation of time, space, and will.
Rin spent much of her time in quite reflection. It was during these times when she got her memory back. It happened slowly at first. Sesshoumaru, who had never fully left her mind came back the easiest. The memories of finding him injured in the woods and trying to feed him. Then being saved by him and being allowed to follow him. These memories were very precious to her.
One day the Miko came up to Rin and handed her a looking glass. " Look" she commanded. Rin looked at gasped. No longer was she that little girl with wide eyes and the top part of her haired pulled up to a side ponytail. The memories of herself crumbled before this image. It was a young woman who stared back at her now. She had the same large brown eyes and little nose, but she was all grown up! Her hair was much longer and was loose, cascading down to her feet in ripples. She had noticed her hair before, but had not even bothered to think about other changes.
"Oh. How long as it been?" She asked the Miko. " You have been with me eleven years." The Miko replied.
Wow, that was long. I had not intended to make it so long. I actually wanted a lot more to happen in the second chapter, but it wrote itself.
I did not end it in as much as a cliffhanger this time. Don't worry, more will happen in the next chapter. I will have guest appearances from the rest of the Inu-gang. But not too much, this story is not about them. I will also write about Sesshoumaru, and maybe their reunion? Don't worry, I wont keep them apart too long. I have a lot more surprises in store for you, I definitely do not want to make this a predictable fic.
Please review, they make me happy and excited. Criticism is appreciated as well as long as it is done in a respectful manner and with the intention of helping me write better. I have a stiff spine, I can take it.