Chapter 4: Parting Ways
Tsunami bolted upright, fear marring her features. She grimaced lowering herself into her lap gasping in pain. Pulling off her now repaired yellow top, and repaired body suit courtesy of Jenova, revealing her scar. Her hand reached almost hesitantly to her chest stroking her scar.
Then she felt it. The other thing keeping her from resting, trying its best to leave her body.
"Are you alright Nami-san?" Rin asked concern in her voice.
Tsunami gulped down breaths, trying to keep what she had recently eaten down and gave Rin a shaky if what fake smile.
"Rin," she gulped down more air, "Stay her and don't watch what I'm about to do alright?" emphasising the 'alright'.
Rin nodded against Sesshomaru her eyes following Tsunamis' every move.
That was it she couldn't keep it down any more. She scrambled on her knees trying to get to the other edge of the clearing, but only managed a few meters. She threw up. Blue slime streamed out of her mouth. A few retches brought up some solid matter, splattering on the floor in front of her.
Jenova started in her direction, only to be waved to a stop.
Tsunami stood watching as blue lumpy puddle bubbled, slowly forming into the creature she had just recently devoured. A short, blue pop bellied goblin.
Inuyasha whistled taking in this sight with new interest as he inspected the goblin. He was short only reaching up to Tsunamis' stomach; his build was stocky most of it fat and from what he could see no hair grew on his body. 'Not even worth me killing to vent my frustration.' He thought displeasure darkening his face.
"Hey baby" she almost heaved again at the sound of his putrid voice.
"Why aren't you dead?" Tsunami questioned out loud.
"Aw, c'mon now, you didn't expect a little belly acid to kill the Great Mondo?"
"No actually, I was hoping that ripping you to shreds and then eating you would have killed you." She drawled.
Mondo snorted. "I didn't die because you broke the rules.
"Rules?"
"Yeah, the spell stats "As one mind and one body" "
"I thought I covered that by eating you, that's why I was able to jump several hundred worlds, because I had your powers"
Mondo laughed his fat belly shaking. "Hey baby, I lent you my powers because I was impressed by your way of thinking."
"What really? That was kind of you." She toned sarcastically.
Her breath caught as pain lanced across her chest. Her hand reached for her scar, when she brought it to her face it was bloodied. Her hand dropped to her side as she retreated into herself to repair the damage, allowing her other self to come to the surface.
Mondo was still laughing from her last comment. "C'mon baby lets get this over with. I've been told that I'm quite good." He boasted grabbing her wrist to pull her along.
She didn't move. He paused looking at her as looked into the sky, avoiding eye contact. "Ohhh, I see, you like the kinky stuff. Having people watch us gets you off." He paused in thought digesting whether or not to go along. "Alright then, I'll try anything once."
His free podgy hand grabbed her bloodied one, trying to pull her to the floor. 'Damn it, it's bad enough I have to perform in front of people, would it kill her to go along.' Wheezing; in his efforts to drag her to the ground.
'Fine I'll just take the long way, then, maybe I'll get somewhere.' He though as his tongue snaked out of his mouth, licking at her bloodied hand. 'Still no reaction, bloody hell what is she? Stone? Ha! I'd get more of reaction out of a stone.'
He caught sight of blood trailing its way from her chest to her stomach. His tongue slithered from her hand to the fresh flowing blood.
Her hair began to rise and her body tense.
'At last something'
"Ahhhh," he breathed in ecstasy, "If your blood tastes this good then your other juices must taste great." Lust shining in his black beady eyes. At this she relaxed, the tension leaving her body.
'Fuck! That line must have turned her off.' Re-administering his tongue to her gut.
"What are you doing?" Tsunami asked her voice void of emotion. Red eyes looking down on the disgusting creature before her, her markings appearing on her forehead.
"Bloody hell woman! This is meant to be pleasurable for the both of us! And if not you then I should at least enjoy it!" Mondo screamed applying more pressure to her wrists. "And I don't like dipping my bucket into a dry well." He growled under his breath.
Her eyes narrowed. That last comment made everything click. She'd been ignoring the fat perspiring lump of a goblin, wondering how her other self was doing handling the internal damage until he'd licked her stomach. The worthless pile of excrement wanted to bed her in this clearing with all eyes watching them, even Rin.
A grin stretched her face, seems like she was going to enjoy herself yet.
"So you want to give me pleasure?" her voice tinged with excitement, loud enough for everyone in the clearing to hear. She was giving him her full attention now.
"For mine yeah." He replied surprised by her sudden change.
"Then... SCREAM FOR ME!" She bellowed breaking his hold on her hands causing him to topple back off balance. In the same motion as breaking his hold she brought her lag back and kicked him in the groin tearing through flesh as she went, completing her arc, eliciting a high pitched squeal from his lung.
"YES! That's what I want to hear!" Tsunami roared. Chaos dancing in her eyes.
"What, Who the hell are you?!" He screamed back trying to scramble away from his torturer, holding his wound close as best he could, whilst attempting to stand.
"I'm hurt Mondo. You don't even know my name, and we're sharing something so precious."
"Tsunami! That's enough! Finish him quickly! Or do you wish to warp the child's mind?!" Jenova bellowed.
"She's seen worse." Tsunami replied in a terse voice. "Now Mondo-kun, where were we?" she said approaching the trembling goblin.
"Tsu, TSUNAMI?!" Mondo exclaimed eyes growing to the size of coins. "The Devourer of Souls, The Killer of a Hell World?!" Tears forming in his eyes as the fear prevented him from running.
"I'm so pleased you've heard of me lover." Her eyes narrowing, her grin stretching from ear to ear. "It's been a while since I've eaten a soul as black as yours, and the fear... how you spoil me." She breathed advancing on him, purposefully making her steps small.
"You should have taken the easy way out Mondo, you could have waited and I wouldn't have known you were there. But you twisted that rule to serve your own desires, and now you're going to die for your insolence!" she hissed.
"PLEASE! I didn't know!" Mondo cried, his breath catching when he saw the finality in her eyes. "HELP ME!! ANYBODY! HELP~"
His pleas' cut short as a scream tore from his lungs as she ripped off his arm. He was desperately scrambling for the forest now, tumbling from the loss of a balancer, turning his back on his predator. She increased the distance between her steps to strides, taking hold of the back of his neck and pulled.
"What is that?" Kagome whispered, standing as she took in the vision before.
"You can see it?" Tsunami asked.
"Yes." Kagome replied without thinking.
"We all see it." Sesshomaru stated. Tsunami turned following each persons line of vision to find it directed at her fist.
"His soul." Was her reply. In her fist she held a wispy apparition of the goblin, white mist dissipated from his outline. From what they could see his form now was somewhat deformed. At his neck, left thigh and below his left breast his outline bulged. Tsunami forced her nail into a claw positioning it over the bulge at his neck and slicing. A small blue light shot out zipping left and right as if confused. Everyone looked up watching its flight. Tsunami closed her eyes pushing air through her teeth.
"The soul of a lost child..." Rin whispered, earning her a look from both Sesshomaru and Jenova.
"Hai." Tsunami whispered, opening her eyes and freeing the other two that were still trapped, watching them join the other. "Houshi, pray for them."
"Of course." Miroku began his chant steadily letting his voice rise. The souls circled glowing brighter and then blinked out of existence.
"What are you going to do with him?" Kagome asked.
"What I was going to do in the first place." Tsunamis' pupils turned to slits, her canines in both her upper and lower jaws grew as her now forked tongue protruding out of her mouth. She moved Mondos' soul closer to her, breathing in his essence, devouring him in one breath. Holding her breath she shook once taking on her previous form.
"Kaa-san, can you smell a river?" Tsunami queried uncertain of her nose, "I feel the need to bathe strongly."
Jenova indicated west. "Do you wish company?"
"No. Thank you." She said looking west.
She felt a tug at her hand. Looking down she found Rin smiling up at her.
"Rin will go with you."
The empress blinked, and then smiled gently. "Thank you," she whispered smoothing down the wild child's raven hair with her clean hand, "but I'd like to be alone..." she finished moving off in the direction of the river.
"When you come back, Rin will play with you!" Rin yelled to her back. She waved in response, causing the long dead goblin corpse to explode in a shower of blue.
***************************************
"Jenova-sama," Rin began, running towards her when Tsunami was gone from sight, "Rin thinks Tsu-san shouldn't be alone."
"And why does Rin think this?" she asked absently tending to the fire.
"Because Tsu-san and Nami-san had a bad dream, and when Rin has a bad dream."
"Why did you split her name?" Jenova interrupted turning to the child.
"Because when her eyes are red Tsu-san likes to be called Tsu-san and when her eyes are," she paused in thought, "blue-green Nami-san likes to be called Nami-san." She stated as though it was common knowledge.
Jenova walked closer to the forest child and knelt in front of her. "You seem to know a lot about Tsunami, why is this?"
Rin felt uneasy, the tone of voice that Jenova used with her made her feel like she'd done something bad. Rin turned and looked towards Sesshomaru. He blinked slowly signalling that he wanted to know also. Rin nodded and turned back to the guardian her eyes cast to the forest floor.
"Because... Rin has been sharing dreams with her." She said in a small voice, fidgeting with the sleeve of her yukata.
"For how long?" Jenova asked just after Rin finished answering her first question.
"From the last full moon."
Jenova looked towards Sesshomaru. "It will be a full moon tonight." He said answering her silent question.
"Tell me of your first meeting with the Empress." Jenova asked gently trying to relax the child before her.
"Rin found her in one of Rins nice dreams"
"What was this dream like and what did she do?"
Rins' fidgeting increase under the bombardment of questions, she began to back off edging towards Sesshomaru.
"Rin..." Jenova looked puzzled at the girls' response. "Rin please answer my questions."
Rin was still backing off; as though putting distance between her and Jenova meant that she didn't have to answer the questions. She tripped and landed in white. Rin, looking up to find Sesshomaru looking down at her.
"Rin answer the questions, this Sesshomaru would like to know also."
Rin opened her mouth in protest, but quickly snapped it shut. It would not please her lord if she were to voice her protests, at least not in front of people.
"Hai, Sesshomaru-sama." She said quietly. She repositioned herself so she was sitting in the gap between Sesshomarus' crossed legs, grabbing his hand and pulling it into her lap where she played over the lines in on his palm, facing Jenova.
Sesshomaru tensed, forcing his normal reaction, to the break the hold, to stop so he didn't harm Rin.
Rin took a deep breath, puffing out her cheeks, letting it out slowly as she began her tale.
~** Flashback **~
She was running through a field of tall grasses reaching up to her shoulders. The wind at her back boosting her speed. She was running from something, but she wasn't afraid, in fact she was excited. She took a glance behind her to see a small boy, not much taller than her, running after her.
Her level of excitement increase as the boy waved his arms at her pulling faces. She ran faster. Then careered to the ground.
~****~
Jaken scoffed, "Even in your dreams you're a klutz."
The hand that Rin held deftly found a stone and launched it, striking Jaken in the head. "Interrupt again and it will be my blade." The taiyokai droned in his usual monotone, but with a hint of warning.
"H, H, Hai Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken grovelled.
The hand found its way back to Rins' lap a slight twitch indicating her to resume her story.
~****~
She'd tripped the world disappeared from view as the grasses engulfed her. Thinking it was log, she'd vented her frustration by giving it a hefty kick. 'Stupid thing was going to get her caught'. The log grunted, 'Logs don't grunt.' Rin was scared now. She tripped over a monster and Sesshomaru- sama was no where to be found.
"Are you alright?" a female voice asked.
Rin didn't answer; instead she cautiously took a look behind her. She flipped over onto her bottom gapping at the woman before her.
"I'm sorry if I scared you." The female voice carried on.
Rin still didn't answer she was entranced by the fact this woman had really strange eyes one was red the other a blue-green.
"My name is Tsunami, what is yours?"
Rin snapped out of her daze, she was no longer afraid. "Rins' name is Rin." She smiled weakly at Tsunami.
"Rin..." she whispered her name quietly as though it sounded familiar, but Rin had never met her before. "That's a very pretty name" Tsunami smiled at her. "Rin, can I ask of you a favour?"
Rin perked up. What could such a pretty lady need from her?
"Rin, can I share your dreams with you?"
"Rins' dreams?"
"Yes"
Rin didn't see any problem with this, a dream is a dream and if she didn't like it hear she could leave if she wished. Rin nodded her head.
"Thank you," Tsunami bowed to Rin, "For this favour I will do anything you wish that is within my power."
"A wish?"
"Yes"
Rin sat and thought really hard, she didn't really need anything. She was happy with Sesshomaru-sama, Jaken-sama and Ah-Un being with her. They protected her, they looked after her. A smile broke out on her face.
"Rin wishes for a new arm!"
Tsunami blinked. "In the real world you only have one arm?" asked slightly shocked.
"No, Rin has both arms, but Rins' Sesshomaru-sama only has one, so Rin would like you to give him one, that is Rins' wish."
Tsunamis' head cocked to the side in thought. "Alright." Nodding her head in finality. "But I can only do this in reality she thought out loud." Rin was watching her fascinated by the way the light seemed to emanate from her blue-green eye, whilst the red one just looked sucked in light. Tsunami sniffed the air, and then pulled a face. "Stupid, scents don't carry in the dream world in the dream world." She voiced out loud. Tsunami closed her eyes the opened them a moment later. "Your human." She said somewhat surprised. "So it's the Human World then, but I'm so far away..." she continued to voice her thoughts.
"Rin-chan," she said gently smiling that pretty smile that made Rins' insides feel warm, "I'll be able to grant your wish but not right now. Can you wait?"
Rin nodded "Sesshomaru-sama has had his arm missing for a while, before he met Rin, Sesshomaru-sama will not mind waiting a bit longer." Rin beamed.
The world around her began to fade, Tsunami shimmering in front of her.
"What's happening?!" Rin cried.
"You're waking up." Tsunami stated
"But what about Tsunami-sama?!" Rin cried at the fact she was unable to do the favour for her. If she didn't do the favour then her wish wouldn't come true.
"I'll be fine. When you return here I'll be waiting." Tsunami smiled and waved.
~** End Flashback **~
"That was when Rin first met Tsunami-sama... Did Rin do bad? Letting Tsunami- sama share her dreams?" she asked looking up at Sesshomaru.
"No." he replied, pushing her head down and stroking her hair, eliciting a giggle from her. "Thank you" he whispered. Rin beamed at him.
The smile didn't last long as Rin stood biting her lip looking in the direction Tsunami had taken. She faced Sesshomaru and climbed onto his thighs putting her small hands over his ears and scrunching her eyes closed.
Sesshomaru watched her do this, perplexed as to why she was acting so strangely. He soon found out as a high pitched scream tore through battered his ears. As he cringed, watching Inuyasha, the fox cub, Jaken and Jenova put their hands over their ears, the cat demon burying its head into the exterminators' body as the scream reached its apex and then die abruptly. Soon to be followed by the moans of all the forest animals.
As he relaxed Rin removed her hands from his ears. She hopped down from his thighs, dusted them off and sat down as if nothing had happened, taking up his hand again.
"What the hell was that?!" Inuyasha growled, recovering from the verbal bar- ration.
"Tsunami-sama" Rin answered. Sesshomaru could smell the sadness in her normal forest scent, soon to be followed by fear and worry. He moved his tail to wrap around her body instantly causing the fear in her scent to disappear leaving only the sadness and worry.
"Rin has seen her dreams..." her voice small, "Tsunami-sama is floating in nothing, only the dark. With little windows, images floating around her." Rin took a deep breath and shivered. "In one Rin saw Tsu-san killing monsters, lots of them, and liking it. Breathing in the white mist like Tsu- san did with that." Pointing to the blue puddle of Mondo. "In another Rin saw Tsunami-sama holding a head made of smoke to her chest, crying." Rin smiled suddenly, "In one Rin saw Tsunami-sama holding a really small person, smiling."
"Her daughter." Jenova interjected.
Rin nodded at this new information and carried on. "Then those two images mixed, Tsunami-samas' face went from sad to happy all the time. Tsunami- samas' daughter turning to smoke and back again." Rin squeezed Sesshomarus' tail "Rin understood why Tsunami-sama wanted to leave those dreams behind."
"How many times did you visit this place?" Jenova asked quietly.
"The few times Tsunami-sama didn't show in my dreams."
"Do you know what she dreamt just a while ago?" Jenova was barely audible.
"The one Tsunami-sama has been running from since Rin met her, the one where Tsunami-sama kills the smoke monster."
"Arigato" whispered Jenova.
***************************************
Tsunami decided to return to the clearing, a few minutes after her scream, her skin still damp from her bath. Nami had repaired the internal damage but hadn't resurfaced leaving Tsu to deal with all the questions that she knew everyone there wanted to ask. She was not going to answer them, not unless she had too.
She arrived back at the group ignoring the concerned looks she was getting from the humans and stonily walked over to her discarded top putting it back on, pushing her damp hair back with a gust of wind drying it instantly.
"Where's Tou-san?" she asked stretching and cracking a few bones.
"Why?" Jenova growled.
"Why?" Tsu repeated, obviously puzzled.
"Why didn't you tell me you were still having that nightmare?"
Tsu shot Rin a glare, earning a growl from Sesshomaru.
"Rin is sorry but Jenova-sama is scarier than you"
Tsu sighed, 'Only that child would think my mother is scarier than me.' returning her gaze to her mother. "Because there was nothing you could do to help me, and I didn't want to worry you."
"You could have talked to me. I know what it's like to lose a child. I almost took my own life when you were born dead because your soul had been split in half and each side was fighting of dominance of your body, and I was overjoyed when you started to breathe..." she pause remembering the pain, "I've been through the same pain you're going through now."
During the talk Tsunami's eyes had begun to change, turquoise outlined red, as her face drained of emotion. "It's not the same. Because you didn't have to kill me." Her voice mimicking that of Sesshomarus', as the red of her eyes over took the area the turquoise possessed.
Jenovas' face closed off mirroring the same expressionless mask Tsunami wore. They started at each other for a time, Tsunami breaking eye contact first as she sat back down next to Sesshomaru and his charge, drawing her legs close to her chest resting her jaw on her knees.
"For a while now I've noticed that I haven't been able to keep track of you as easily as I should. Why is this? Have you cut me off?" Jenova asked her voice just on the edge of breaking.
"No I haven't cut you off, it's just a break down in communications, Tou- san suffers from the same problem." She stated looking at the ground.
"I see. Then you won't mind tell me why we're in the Human World."
"To protect Rin."
"Why?"
"She's a potential Coin."
"What type?"
"A Zen."
"Why do we need to protect her?"
"I've been hopping to a few worlds with the small amount of power I could spear, and I'm hearing things I don't like."
"Such as?"
"Raven has been trapping goblin and em-pathic souls using their abilities to find Coined beings. He has already found three and taken their souls and added them to his own. Much to my annoyance he's hunting more Zen's than he is Thor's, because of the flaw."
"A flaw?" Kagome asked out of the blue.
Tsu had forgotten that there were people in the clearing with her, she only noticed her mother. She crossed her legs, looking at Kagome directly. "You may as well know I guess. Coined Children are coined at birth. Their soul is split one side receiving more energy than the other. The one with the more energy stays dormant until the Child needs it, usually a matter of life and death do their powers manifest.
"Everyone once in a while the side with the more energy becomes the dominant. When this happens one of two things can happen. If it's a Zen they are aloud to grow up. If it's a Thor they kill it.
"There are two types of Coined Children. Zen: they use the energies around them manipulating the air, ground, and plants, anything to do with nature and that are basically alive. Thor: this is mainly power based; they control the energies within the body giving more to certain parts and can expel the energy to the outside of the body.
"The flaw with the Thor is that they tend to lose themselves in the power and instead of killing their attacker they kill everything around them, until the ability 'flips' off."
"And you're a Coined Child?" Tsunami nods, "What type are you then?" Kagome asked.
Tsunami smiled, "I'm a Zen and a Thor. Right now I'm in my Thor power. My personality is somewhat altered by the power, such as I enjoy torturing my prey rather than killing them straight off and I have no concept of mercy. But I retain all my other emotions I just don't use them often. When I'm in my Zen power I'm more merciful and I pay more attention to my other emotions."
Kagome gulped, "How come you weren't killed if you're both?"
"Because when I was born I was born dead, as you heard my mother say. Eventually my Zen power won over, and I was able to lead a normal life, I only found out about my Thor ability when tore through a Hell World, hell bent on killing one person." Her eyes flickered with chaos, as her energies started to play around her. She pulled her legs up to her chest again turning her head away.
"One more question, please?" Kagome asked, "Why do you need to eat souls?"
Tsunami breathed deeply, not turning to answer. "Because I need them to increase my power, if I don't eat them I won't be able to kill him, and my status as an Empress will be void."
"When you say 'him' you mean Raven don't you..." Kagome whispered.
"Yes, my husband." Tsunami finished looking into the sky, pushing her legs away from her. "Man I'm hungry," she exasperated.
***************************************
Shin smashed through under bush stopping at the edge of the clearing where they'd made camp. He had his sword drawn, one wing occupied with two large wild boars and a demonic bear to accompany the dark look on his face.
"What's happened to her?" he demanded. Taking in the scene before him; everything was normal except for the blue puddle of muck off to the side.
Tsunami pocked her head out of the side of Sesshomaru, his form hiding hers. "What?"
Shin breathed easy at seeing her unharmed, the tension leaving his body. He sheathed his sword and released his game and walked up to Tsunami. He knelt in front of her holding her head in his hands "What?" she asked again. He planted his lips over hers and blew into her mouth hard, stopping her from breathing in or out. Her arms and legs flailed. He released her mouth scowling at her.
"Don't scream like that again! You almost killed me!"
"What are you complaining for!? You're already dead! And I can look after myself!" Tsunami screamed after sucking in air desperately.
"Whether I'm dead or not is not the matter we're discussing."
"We weren't discussing anything." She interjected.
"The fact of the matter is you scared the crap out of me... Don't do it again." His features softening.
"...Gomen."
"Alright! Lets eat!" Shin exclaimed grabbing his game with his wing and pulling it near Jenova. "You clean. I cook." He grinned. He dropped the bear demon at Tsunamis' feet. "It's only unconscious; I know how you don't like it when I kill them." Tsunami beamed at him, showing him all her teeth and he gave her the smile back.
His daughters eyes glowed indicating she was finished. "You'll eat some of this won't you Sesshomaru?" Shin said pointing at the demon bear giving him a levelled look.
"Do I have a choice?" Sesshomaru asked returning the look.
"No," Shin stated, "You want it raw or cooked?" Shin question in a lighter tone.
"Any will be fine." Sesshomaru growled breaking eye contact.
"Cooked it is then." Shin went about removing its skin and then breathed blue fire, over the meat until it was cooked, and handed Sesshomaru a hind leg with the thigh still attached, whilst Tsunami attacked the other.
They wild boars were shared out between Inuyasha's group. Everyone began eating.
"Sesshomaru"
"What Inuyasha?"
"Why do you keep a human child with you? I thought you hated all humans."
Sesshomaru had been expecting this and give his half brother the answer he'd fed himself on many a dark night. "I am returning a favour."
"A favour?"
"She attempted to help me heal when you tried to kill me but failed. I am simply returning the favour until she can look after herself."
"Lair," Tsunami snorted.
"What?" Sesshomaru barked. Turning his attention to Tsunami, who was still eating the demon bear.
"I said," swallowing the chewed mass in her mouth, "You're a liar, you've practically adopted Rin, I don't see why you're ashamed of this it's only natural to want a family."
With this comment out, she resumed eating paying little attention to the death glares Sesshomaru was directing towards her. Rin only smiled.
***************************************
With everyone full they decided to part ways.
"Tou-san, Kaa-san. Can you two go with Inuyasha and his group please."
"Why? We're meant to protect you." Jenova started.
"You want us to keep an eye on him, and see if we hear any information about Raven." Shin said with his eyes closed.
"Yes, even though I don't really know him, I can tell trouble follows him around." Tsunami smiled.
"And you'll be following Sesshomaru." Shin said with a knowing smile.
"Your mind is like a gutter, you do know that don't you?" Tsunami scowled at him, walking backwards towards Sesshomaru's group. "We'll meet up at a later date, Ja Ne!"
"And so we part ways." Shin said wistfully.
***************************************
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! Finished this chapter at long bloody last! Thing kept on running away with itself. Hopefully I've given you enough information to keep you happy, whilst leaving enough, making you want me to write more. The next 2 chapters I think will be about Tsunami's past. So it will all be original story and so will take TIME! . Brain hurts from this chapter abusing me, trying to keep everyone in character whilst opening others up. Oh and Rin is still 7or 8 years old, and may she never grow ^^ cute little mite. Kay signing off.
Tsunami bolted upright, fear marring her features. She grimaced lowering herself into her lap gasping in pain. Pulling off her now repaired yellow top, and repaired body suit courtesy of Jenova, revealing her scar. Her hand reached almost hesitantly to her chest stroking her scar.
Then she felt it. The other thing keeping her from resting, trying its best to leave her body.
"Are you alright Nami-san?" Rin asked concern in her voice.
Tsunami gulped down breaths, trying to keep what she had recently eaten down and gave Rin a shaky if what fake smile.
"Rin," she gulped down more air, "Stay her and don't watch what I'm about to do alright?" emphasising the 'alright'.
Rin nodded against Sesshomaru her eyes following Tsunamis' every move.
That was it she couldn't keep it down any more. She scrambled on her knees trying to get to the other edge of the clearing, but only managed a few meters. She threw up. Blue slime streamed out of her mouth. A few retches brought up some solid matter, splattering on the floor in front of her.
Jenova started in her direction, only to be waved to a stop.
Tsunami stood watching as blue lumpy puddle bubbled, slowly forming into the creature she had just recently devoured. A short, blue pop bellied goblin.
Inuyasha whistled taking in this sight with new interest as he inspected the goblin. He was short only reaching up to Tsunamis' stomach; his build was stocky most of it fat and from what he could see no hair grew on his body. 'Not even worth me killing to vent my frustration.' He thought displeasure darkening his face.
"Hey baby" she almost heaved again at the sound of his putrid voice.
"Why aren't you dead?" Tsunami questioned out loud.
"Aw, c'mon now, you didn't expect a little belly acid to kill the Great Mondo?"
"No actually, I was hoping that ripping you to shreds and then eating you would have killed you." She drawled.
Mondo snorted. "I didn't die because you broke the rules.
"Rules?"
"Yeah, the spell stats "As one mind and one body" "
"I thought I covered that by eating you, that's why I was able to jump several hundred worlds, because I had your powers"
Mondo laughed his fat belly shaking. "Hey baby, I lent you my powers because I was impressed by your way of thinking."
"What really? That was kind of you." She toned sarcastically.
Her breath caught as pain lanced across her chest. Her hand reached for her scar, when she brought it to her face it was bloodied. Her hand dropped to her side as she retreated into herself to repair the damage, allowing her other self to come to the surface.
Mondo was still laughing from her last comment. "C'mon baby lets get this over with. I've been told that I'm quite good." He boasted grabbing her wrist to pull her along.
She didn't move. He paused looking at her as looked into the sky, avoiding eye contact. "Ohhh, I see, you like the kinky stuff. Having people watch us gets you off." He paused in thought digesting whether or not to go along. "Alright then, I'll try anything once."
His free podgy hand grabbed her bloodied one, trying to pull her to the floor. 'Damn it, it's bad enough I have to perform in front of people, would it kill her to go along.' Wheezing; in his efforts to drag her to the ground.
'Fine I'll just take the long way, then, maybe I'll get somewhere.' He though as his tongue snaked out of his mouth, licking at her bloodied hand. 'Still no reaction, bloody hell what is she? Stone? Ha! I'd get more of reaction out of a stone.'
He caught sight of blood trailing its way from her chest to her stomach. His tongue slithered from her hand to the fresh flowing blood.
Her hair began to rise and her body tense.
'At last something'
"Ahhhh," he breathed in ecstasy, "If your blood tastes this good then your other juices must taste great." Lust shining in his black beady eyes. At this she relaxed, the tension leaving her body.
'Fuck! That line must have turned her off.' Re-administering his tongue to her gut.
"What are you doing?" Tsunami asked her voice void of emotion. Red eyes looking down on the disgusting creature before her, her markings appearing on her forehead.
"Bloody hell woman! This is meant to be pleasurable for the both of us! And if not you then I should at least enjoy it!" Mondo screamed applying more pressure to her wrists. "And I don't like dipping my bucket into a dry well." He growled under his breath.
Her eyes narrowed. That last comment made everything click. She'd been ignoring the fat perspiring lump of a goblin, wondering how her other self was doing handling the internal damage until he'd licked her stomach. The worthless pile of excrement wanted to bed her in this clearing with all eyes watching them, even Rin.
A grin stretched her face, seems like she was going to enjoy herself yet.
"So you want to give me pleasure?" her voice tinged with excitement, loud enough for everyone in the clearing to hear. She was giving him her full attention now.
"For mine yeah." He replied surprised by her sudden change.
"Then... SCREAM FOR ME!" She bellowed breaking his hold on her hands causing him to topple back off balance. In the same motion as breaking his hold she brought her lag back and kicked him in the groin tearing through flesh as she went, completing her arc, eliciting a high pitched squeal from his lung.
"YES! That's what I want to hear!" Tsunami roared. Chaos dancing in her eyes.
"What, Who the hell are you?!" He screamed back trying to scramble away from his torturer, holding his wound close as best he could, whilst attempting to stand.
"I'm hurt Mondo. You don't even know my name, and we're sharing something so precious."
"Tsunami! That's enough! Finish him quickly! Or do you wish to warp the child's mind?!" Jenova bellowed.
"She's seen worse." Tsunami replied in a terse voice. "Now Mondo-kun, where were we?" she said approaching the trembling goblin.
"Tsu, TSUNAMI?!" Mondo exclaimed eyes growing to the size of coins. "The Devourer of Souls, The Killer of a Hell World?!" Tears forming in his eyes as the fear prevented him from running.
"I'm so pleased you've heard of me lover." Her eyes narrowing, her grin stretching from ear to ear. "It's been a while since I've eaten a soul as black as yours, and the fear... how you spoil me." She breathed advancing on him, purposefully making her steps small.
"You should have taken the easy way out Mondo, you could have waited and I wouldn't have known you were there. But you twisted that rule to serve your own desires, and now you're going to die for your insolence!" she hissed.
"PLEASE! I didn't know!" Mondo cried, his breath catching when he saw the finality in her eyes. "HELP ME!! ANYBODY! HELP~"
His pleas' cut short as a scream tore from his lungs as she ripped off his arm. He was desperately scrambling for the forest now, tumbling from the loss of a balancer, turning his back on his predator. She increased the distance between her steps to strides, taking hold of the back of his neck and pulled.
"What is that?" Kagome whispered, standing as she took in the vision before.
"You can see it?" Tsunami asked.
"Yes." Kagome replied without thinking.
"We all see it." Sesshomaru stated. Tsunami turned following each persons line of vision to find it directed at her fist.
"His soul." Was her reply. In her fist she held a wispy apparition of the goblin, white mist dissipated from his outline. From what they could see his form now was somewhat deformed. At his neck, left thigh and below his left breast his outline bulged. Tsunami forced her nail into a claw positioning it over the bulge at his neck and slicing. A small blue light shot out zipping left and right as if confused. Everyone looked up watching its flight. Tsunami closed her eyes pushing air through her teeth.
"The soul of a lost child..." Rin whispered, earning her a look from both Sesshomaru and Jenova.
"Hai." Tsunami whispered, opening her eyes and freeing the other two that were still trapped, watching them join the other. "Houshi, pray for them."
"Of course." Miroku began his chant steadily letting his voice rise. The souls circled glowing brighter and then blinked out of existence.
"What are you going to do with him?" Kagome asked.
"What I was going to do in the first place." Tsunamis' pupils turned to slits, her canines in both her upper and lower jaws grew as her now forked tongue protruding out of her mouth. She moved Mondos' soul closer to her, breathing in his essence, devouring him in one breath. Holding her breath she shook once taking on her previous form.
"Kaa-san, can you smell a river?" Tsunami queried uncertain of her nose, "I feel the need to bathe strongly."
Jenova indicated west. "Do you wish company?"
"No. Thank you." She said looking west.
She felt a tug at her hand. Looking down she found Rin smiling up at her.
"Rin will go with you."
The empress blinked, and then smiled gently. "Thank you," she whispered smoothing down the wild child's raven hair with her clean hand, "but I'd like to be alone..." she finished moving off in the direction of the river.
"When you come back, Rin will play with you!" Rin yelled to her back. She waved in response, causing the long dead goblin corpse to explode in a shower of blue.
***************************************
"Jenova-sama," Rin began, running towards her when Tsunami was gone from sight, "Rin thinks Tsu-san shouldn't be alone."
"And why does Rin think this?" she asked absently tending to the fire.
"Because Tsu-san and Nami-san had a bad dream, and when Rin has a bad dream."
"Why did you split her name?" Jenova interrupted turning to the child.
"Because when her eyes are red Tsu-san likes to be called Tsu-san and when her eyes are," she paused in thought, "blue-green Nami-san likes to be called Nami-san." She stated as though it was common knowledge.
Jenova walked closer to the forest child and knelt in front of her. "You seem to know a lot about Tsunami, why is this?"
Rin felt uneasy, the tone of voice that Jenova used with her made her feel like she'd done something bad. Rin turned and looked towards Sesshomaru. He blinked slowly signalling that he wanted to know also. Rin nodded and turned back to the guardian her eyes cast to the forest floor.
"Because... Rin has been sharing dreams with her." She said in a small voice, fidgeting with the sleeve of her yukata.
"For how long?" Jenova asked just after Rin finished answering her first question.
"From the last full moon."
Jenova looked towards Sesshomaru. "It will be a full moon tonight." He said answering her silent question.
"Tell me of your first meeting with the Empress." Jenova asked gently trying to relax the child before her.
"Rin found her in one of Rins nice dreams"
"What was this dream like and what did she do?"
Rins' fidgeting increase under the bombardment of questions, she began to back off edging towards Sesshomaru.
"Rin..." Jenova looked puzzled at the girls' response. "Rin please answer my questions."
Rin was still backing off; as though putting distance between her and Jenova meant that she didn't have to answer the questions. She tripped and landed in white. Rin, looking up to find Sesshomaru looking down at her.
"Rin answer the questions, this Sesshomaru would like to know also."
Rin opened her mouth in protest, but quickly snapped it shut. It would not please her lord if she were to voice her protests, at least not in front of people.
"Hai, Sesshomaru-sama." She said quietly. She repositioned herself so she was sitting in the gap between Sesshomarus' crossed legs, grabbing his hand and pulling it into her lap where she played over the lines in on his palm, facing Jenova.
Sesshomaru tensed, forcing his normal reaction, to the break the hold, to stop so he didn't harm Rin.
Rin took a deep breath, puffing out her cheeks, letting it out slowly as she began her tale.
~** Flashback **~
She was running through a field of tall grasses reaching up to her shoulders. The wind at her back boosting her speed. She was running from something, but she wasn't afraid, in fact she was excited. She took a glance behind her to see a small boy, not much taller than her, running after her.
Her level of excitement increase as the boy waved his arms at her pulling faces. She ran faster. Then careered to the ground.
~****~
Jaken scoffed, "Even in your dreams you're a klutz."
The hand that Rin held deftly found a stone and launched it, striking Jaken in the head. "Interrupt again and it will be my blade." The taiyokai droned in his usual monotone, but with a hint of warning.
"H, H, Hai Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken grovelled.
The hand found its way back to Rins' lap a slight twitch indicating her to resume her story.
~****~
She'd tripped the world disappeared from view as the grasses engulfed her. Thinking it was log, she'd vented her frustration by giving it a hefty kick. 'Stupid thing was going to get her caught'. The log grunted, 'Logs don't grunt.' Rin was scared now. She tripped over a monster and Sesshomaru- sama was no where to be found.
"Are you alright?" a female voice asked.
Rin didn't answer; instead she cautiously took a look behind her. She flipped over onto her bottom gapping at the woman before her.
"I'm sorry if I scared you." The female voice carried on.
Rin still didn't answer she was entranced by the fact this woman had really strange eyes one was red the other a blue-green.
"My name is Tsunami, what is yours?"
Rin snapped out of her daze, she was no longer afraid. "Rins' name is Rin." She smiled weakly at Tsunami.
"Rin..." she whispered her name quietly as though it sounded familiar, but Rin had never met her before. "That's a very pretty name" Tsunami smiled at her. "Rin, can I ask of you a favour?"
Rin perked up. What could such a pretty lady need from her?
"Rin, can I share your dreams with you?"
"Rins' dreams?"
"Yes"
Rin didn't see any problem with this, a dream is a dream and if she didn't like it hear she could leave if she wished. Rin nodded her head.
"Thank you," Tsunami bowed to Rin, "For this favour I will do anything you wish that is within my power."
"A wish?"
"Yes"
Rin sat and thought really hard, she didn't really need anything. She was happy with Sesshomaru-sama, Jaken-sama and Ah-Un being with her. They protected her, they looked after her. A smile broke out on her face.
"Rin wishes for a new arm!"
Tsunami blinked. "In the real world you only have one arm?" asked slightly shocked.
"No, Rin has both arms, but Rins' Sesshomaru-sama only has one, so Rin would like you to give him one, that is Rins' wish."
Tsunamis' head cocked to the side in thought. "Alright." Nodding her head in finality. "But I can only do this in reality she thought out loud." Rin was watching her fascinated by the way the light seemed to emanate from her blue-green eye, whilst the red one just looked sucked in light. Tsunami sniffed the air, and then pulled a face. "Stupid, scents don't carry in the dream world in the dream world." She voiced out loud. Tsunami closed her eyes the opened them a moment later. "Your human." She said somewhat surprised. "So it's the Human World then, but I'm so far away..." she continued to voice her thoughts.
"Rin-chan," she said gently smiling that pretty smile that made Rins' insides feel warm, "I'll be able to grant your wish but not right now. Can you wait?"
Rin nodded "Sesshomaru-sama has had his arm missing for a while, before he met Rin, Sesshomaru-sama will not mind waiting a bit longer." Rin beamed.
The world around her began to fade, Tsunami shimmering in front of her.
"What's happening?!" Rin cried.
"You're waking up." Tsunami stated
"But what about Tsunami-sama?!" Rin cried at the fact she was unable to do the favour for her. If she didn't do the favour then her wish wouldn't come true.
"I'll be fine. When you return here I'll be waiting." Tsunami smiled and waved.
~** End Flashback **~
"That was when Rin first met Tsunami-sama... Did Rin do bad? Letting Tsunami- sama share her dreams?" she asked looking up at Sesshomaru.
"No." he replied, pushing her head down and stroking her hair, eliciting a giggle from her. "Thank you" he whispered. Rin beamed at him.
The smile didn't last long as Rin stood biting her lip looking in the direction Tsunami had taken. She faced Sesshomaru and climbed onto his thighs putting her small hands over his ears and scrunching her eyes closed.
Sesshomaru watched her do this, perplexed as to why she was acting so strangely. He soon found out as a high pitched scream tore through battered his ears. As he cringed, watching Inuyasha, the fox cub, Jaken and Jenova put their hands over their ears, the cat demon burying its head into the exterminators' body as the scream reached its apex and then die abruptly. Soon to be followed by the moans of all the forest animals.
As he relaxed Rin removed her hands from his ears. She hopped down from his thighs, dusted them off and sat down as if nothing had happened, taking up his hand again.
"What the hell was that?!" Inuyasha growled, recovering from the verbal bar- ration.
"Tsunami-sama" Rin answered. Sesshomaru could smell the sadness in her normal forest scent, soon to be followed by fear and worry. He moved his tail to wrap around her body instantly causing the fear in her scent to disappear leaving only the sadness and worry.
"Rin has seen her dreams..." her voice small, "Tsunami-sama is floating in nothing, only the dark. With little windows, images floating around her." Rin took a deep breath and shivered. "In one Rin saw Tsu-san killing monsters, lots of them, and liking it. Breathing in the white mist like Tsu- san did with that." Pointing to the blue puddle of Mondo. "In another Rin saw Tsunami-sama holding a head made of smoke to her chest, crying." Rin smiled suddenly, "In one Rin saw Tsunami-sama holding a really small person, smiling."
"Her daughter." Jenova interjected.
Rin nodded at this new information and carried on. "Then those two images mixed, Tsunami-samas' face went from sad to happy all the time. Tsunami- samas' daughter turning to smoke and back again." Rin squeezed Sesshomarus' tail "Rin understood why Tsunami-sama wanted to leave those dreams behind."
"How many times did you visit this place?" Jenova asked quietly.
"The few times Tsunami-sama didn't show in my dreams."
"Do you know what she dreamt just a while ago?" Jenova was barely audible.
"The one Tsunami-sama has been running from since Rin met her, the one where Tsunami-sama kills the smoke monster."
"Arigato" whispered Jenova.
***************************************
Tsunami decided to return to the clearing, a few minutes after her scream, her skin still damp from her bath. Nami had repaired the internal damage but hadn't resurfaced leaving Tsu to deal with all the questions that she knew everyone there wanted to ask. She was not going to answer them, not unless she had too.
She arrived back at the group ignoring the concerned looks she was getting from the humans and stonily walked over to her discarded top putting it back on, pushing her damp hair back with a gust of wind drying it instantly.
"Where's Tou-san?" she asked stretching and cracking a few bones.
"Why?" Jenova growled.
"Why?" Tsu repeated, obviously puzzled.
"Why didn't you tell me you were still having that nightmare?"
Tsu shot Rin a glare, earning a growl from Sesshomaru.
"Rin is sorry but Jenova-sama is scarier than you"
Tsu sighed, 'Only that child would think my mother is scarier than me.' returning her gaze to her mother. "Because there was nothing you could do to help me, and I didn't want to worry you."
"You could have talked to me. I know what it's like to lose a child. I almost took my own life when you were born dead because your soul had been split in half and each side was fighting of dominance of your body, and I was overjoyed when you started to breathe..." she pause remembering the pain, "I've been through the same pain you're going through now."
During the talk Tsunami's eyes had begun to change, turquoise outlined red, as her face drained of emotion. "It's not the same. Because you didn't have to kill me." Her voice mimicking that of Sesshomarus', as the red of her eyes over took the area the turquoise possessed.
Jenovas' face closed off mirroring the same expressionless mask Tsunami wore. They started at each other for a time, Tsunami breaking eye contact first as she sat back down next to Sesshomaru and his charge, drawing her legs close to her chest resting her jaw on her knees.
"For a while now I've noticed that I haven't been able to keep track of you as easily as I should. Why is this? Have you cut me off?" Jenova asked her voice just on the edge of breaking.
"No I haven't cut you off, it's just a break down in communications, Tou- san suffers from the same problem." She stated looking at the ground.
"I see. Then you won't mind tell me why we're in the Human World."
"To protect Rin."
"Why?"
"She's a potential Coin."
"What type?"
"A Zen."
"Why do we need to protect her?"
"I've been hopping to a few worlds with the small amount of power I could spear, and I'm hearing things I don't like."
"Such as?"
"Raven has been trapping goblin and em-pathic souls using their abilities to find Coined beings. He has already found three and taken their souls and added them to his own. Much to my annoyance he's hunting more Zen's than he is Thor's, because of the flaw."
"A flaw?" Kagome asked out of the blue.
Tsu had forgotten that there were people in the clearing with her, she only noticed her mother. She crossed her legs, looking at Kagome directly. "You may as well know I guess. Coined Children are coined at birth. Their soul is split one side receiving more energy than the other. The one with the more energy stays dormant until the Child needs it, usually a matter of life and death do their powers manifest.
"Everyone once in a while the side with the more energy becomes the dominant. When this happens one of two things can happen. If it's a Zen they are aloud to grow up. If it's a Thor they kill it.
"There are two types of Coined Children. Zen: they use the energies around them manipulating the air, ground, and plants, anything to do with nature and that are basically alive. Thor: this is mainly power based; they control the energies within the body giving more to certain parts and can expel the energy to the outside of the body.
"The flaw with the Thor is that they tend to lose themselves in the power and instead of killing their attacker they kill everything around them, until the ability 'flips' off."
"And you're a Coined Child?" Tsunami nods, "What type are you then?" Kagome asked.
Tsunami smiled, "I'm a Zen and a Thor. Right now I'm in my Thor power. My personality is somewhat altered by the power, such as I enjoy torturing my prey rather than killing them straight off and I have no concept of mercy. But I retain all my other emotions I just don't use them often. When I'm in my Zen power I'm more merciful and I pay more attention to my other emotions."
Kagome gulped, "How come you weren't killed if you're both?"
"Because when I was born I was born dead, as you heard my mother say. Eventually my Zen power won over, and I was able to lead a normal life, I only found out about my Thor ability when tore through a Hell World, hell bent on killing one person." Her eyes flickered with chaos, as her energies started to play around her. She pulled her legs up to her chest again turning her head away.
"One more question, please?" Kagome asked, "Why do you need to eat souls?"
Tsunami breathed deeply, not turning to answer. "Because I need them to increase my power, if I don't eat them I won't be able to kill him, and my status as an Empress will be void."
"When you say 'him' you mean Raven don't you..." Kagome whispered.
"Yes, my husband." Tsunami finished looking into the sky, pushing her legs away from her. "Man I'm hungry," she exasperated.
***************************************
Shin smashed through under bush stopping at the edge of the clearing where they'd made camp. He had his sword drawn, one wing occupied with two large wild boars and a demonic bear to accompany the dark look on his face.
"What's happened to her?" he demanded. Taking in the scene before him; everything was normal except for the blue puddle of muck off to the side.
Tsunami pocked her head out of the side of Sesshomaru, his form hiding hers. "What?"
Shin breathed easy at seeing her unharmed, the tension leaving his body. He sheathed his sword and released his game and walked up to Tsunami. He knelt in front of her holding her head in his hands "What?" she asked again. He planted his lips over hers and blew into her mouth hard, stopping her from breathing in or out. Her arms and legs flailed. He released her mouth scowling at her.
"Don't scream like that again! You almost killed me!"
"What are you complaining for!? You're already dead! And I can look after myself!" Tsunami screamed after sucking in air desperately.
"Whether I'm dead or not is not the matter we're discussing."
"We weren't discussing anything." She interjected.
"The fact of the matter is you scared the crap out of me... Don't do it again." His features softening.
"...Gomen."
"Alright! Lets eat!" Shin exclaimed grabbing his game with his wing and pulling it near Jenova. "You clean. I cook." He grinned. He dropped the bear demon at Tsunamis' feet. "It's only unconscious; I know how you don't like it when I kill them." Tsunami beamed at him, showing him all her teeth and he gave her the smile back.
His daughters eyes glowed indicating she was finished. "You'll eat some of this won't you Sesshomaru?" Shin said pointing at the demon bear giving him a levelled look.
"Do I have a choice?" Sesshomaru asked returning the look.
"No," Shin stated, "You want it raw or cooked?" Shin question in a lighter tone.
"Any will be fine." Sesshomaru growled breaking eye contact.
"Cooked it is then." Shin went about removing its skin and then breathed blue fire, over the meat until it was cooked, and handed Sesshomaru a hind leg with the thigh still attached, whilst Tsunami attacked the other.
They wild boars were shared out between Inuyasha's group. Everyone began eating.
"Sesshomaru"
"What Inuyasha?"
"Why do you keep a human child with you? I thought you hated all humans."
Sesshomaru had been expecting this and give his half brother the answer he'd fed himself on many a dark night. "I am returning a favour."
"A favour?"
"She attempted to help me heal when you tried to kill me but failed. I am simply returning the favour until she can look after herself."
"Lair," Tsunami snorted.
"What?" Sesshomaru barked. Turning his attention to Tsunami, who was still eating the demon bear.
"I said," swallowing the chewed mass in her mouth, "You're a liar, you've practically adopted Rin, I don't see why you're ashamed of this it's only natural to want a family."
With this comment out, she resumed eating paying little attention to the death glares Sesshomaru was directing towards her. Rin only smiled.
***************************************
With everyone full they decided to part ways.
"Tou-san, Kaa-san. Can you two go with Inuyasha and his group please."
"Why? We're meant to protect you." Jenova started.
"You want us to keep an eye on him, and see if we hear any information about Raven." Shin said with his eyes closed.
"Yes, even though I don't really know him, I can tell trouble follows him around." Tsunami smiled.
"And you'll be following Sesshomaru." Shin said with a knowing smile.
"Your mind is like a gutter, you do know that don't you?" Tsunami scowled at him, walking backwards towards Sesshomaru's group. "We'll meet up at a later date, Ja Ne!"
"And so we part ways." Shin said wistfully.
***************************************
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! Finished this chapter at long bloody last! Thing kept on running away with itself. Hopefully I've given you enough information to keep you happy, whilst leaving enough, making you want me to write more. The next 2 chapters I think will be about Tsunami's past. So it will all be original story and so will take TIME! . Brain hurts from this chapter abusing me, trying to keep everyone in character whilst opening others up. Oh and Rin is still 7or 8 years old, and may she never grow ^^ cute little mite. Kay signing off.
