Chapter One: -Chan
It has been six years since the destruction of Naraku, but the stench of him remains in the lands. For more than fifty years, his power kept the heads of humans and weaker youkai alike bowing, fear hanging thick in the air. It was the hanyou's wench that struck the final blow- her miko powers erupting in a vaulted climax, purifying everything within a mile radius. Luckily for her, the hanyou escaped unscathed- weak and dragging- but fascinatingly protected by an underlying spell cast by the skill-less girl.
He should consider himself in somewhat of a debt to them. Even though the Shikon shard he possessed was devoured by the larger part of the jewel, the eliminated threat allowed him to sleep a little easier knowing that Naraku would be unable to return to collect what was loaned to him.
Now, the days pass by almost uneventfully. Minor youkais tend to show up to cause a small tussle, but in the end, he destroys the opponent and leaves the battle unharmed. The weekly inspection of his realms follows through without problems, the Taiyoukai returning to his home bored and agitated from the lack of exercise. He returns now from the latest of his inspections, and tensed in preparation for the thin arms wrapping around his waist in a tight embrace.
"Rin…" the Taiyoukai of the West lazily acknowledged his ward. The girl's round brown eyes lifted to inspect the stoic face of her benefactor.
She had grown into a beautiful young girl. At the young age of sixteen, the child remained small for her age in both height and size. It served perfectly for her defense training. Her hair was currently pulled back into a ponytail high on her head, her hair cascading down and slung over one shoulder. He involuntarily sniffed, smelling the sweat from her early training session with his personal guard, Hiraku.
"Sesshoumaru-sama has returned! Have you come to train with Rin-chan?" she asked. Despite the hours of weekly training she endured since the age of eleven, Rin never grew out of speaking of herself in third-person.
"You should bathe" was his only reply. The younger girl scowled.
"Sesshoumaru-sama shouldn't be so mean" she stuck out her tongue playfully. Sesshoumaru never did understand the human gesture.
"Milord…" Sesshoumaru turned to a familiar voice. With jade green hair and curly brown hair, the dog-demon Hiraku stood before him, nunchakus in hand. The Taiyoukai turned his eyes on the demon.
"There is a woman making her way to the gates."
"Human or youkai?" the demon lord demanded.
"We believe she is human, milord."
"So you are uncertain." He noted, walking off towards the gates. On the outside, the Taiyoukai looked to be slightly annoyed, but underneath it all, he accepted the change in routine openly. He would have the female state her business and then turn her away.
"Can Rin-chan come?" The Lord stopped, but did not turn around. The girl, from years of the cold Taiyoukai's company, took that to be a 'yes'. She jogged to catch him up and smiled, humming to herself as she twittered about him every now and then.
They stepped out of the plain golden-boarded halls and into a grander enclosure. The room was done on a large scale, decorated with deep cherry wood trimmings and golden family crests illuminated by the torches lining the walls. The room seemed almost sinister and foreboding from the dark shadows that escaped the arms of the tongues of flame, the doorways on opposite ends only discernable by the lighter darkness in the adjacent enclosures.
"Who does Sesshoumaru-sama think the intruder is?" she asked, breaking the heavy silence.
"If I knew, we would not be investigating." He said flatly, taking long strides across the room, leading her into the great Hall. The simple corridor reached from end to end of the main palace building, the ceiling rising as high as the third floor of the compound. It was a major architectural feat of his grandfather's time, and continues to render people immobile when they first set eyes upon it. The space lacked décor, as it would take away from its overall girth.
They stepped through the great cherry wood doors decorated with relief of ancient Youkai lore. A chilly breeze swept up into his uniform garb, knocked his silken white hair about his face. He welcomed the comfortable darkness of the evening, casting his eyes about the more shadow-infested parts around his compound. His ears pricked up at the sound of heavy breathing not too far off from where they stood.
"What is it Sesshoumaru-sama?" Rin grasped his arm in alarm at his tenseness. Sesshoumaru was never tense. He did not answer, but continued to walk in mild annoyance at the fact that her hands still clutched him tightly.
They headed toward the inner walls of the compound, passing the swaying sakura trees in their wake, the sweet aroma filling their nostrils with each intake of air. The rich green grass cushioned Rin's bare feet, the residue of the early rain of the day lingering on her toes when she took another step. The closer the two moved to the gates looming ahead, the angrier Sesshoumaru seemed to become.
"Sesshoumaru?" she shivered from the chill.
"Quiet." He commanded. For the first time, the Rin could hear the troubled breathing, and dragging. Obviously the intruder was weary, perhaps wounded. Rin, in fear for the safety of the youkai, ran towards the sound, but with youkai speed, Sesshoumaru stopped her and ordered that she stay behind. When the Taiyoukai finally saw what caused such frenzy in his castle, he nearly froze. It was a girl.
From his senses, the demon lord was unable to discern whether she was human or youkai. There was blood oozing out of her baggy, sheer pants from a wound in her leg and her arm was punctured with numerous spearhead shaped holes. When she looked up, Rin gasped in surprise, for she had never seen a creature like her- demon or human.
Her dark brown hair, long and weaved into thin braids, reached her shoulder from a ponytail high on her head. Her eyes were decorated with long lines running parallel from her eyes and eyebrows. The only thing that struck her as ultimately odd was the bronze complexion she possessed, gleaming like gold from the sweat of days' travel.
The girl stumbled and fell onto the ground, black dirt staining her strangely beautiful face and crusted blood clinging to her mouth. If the youkai lord ever showed emotion, he would have clearly displayed his fatigue by sighing. Scooping the girl up into his arms, he ordered Rin to run ahead and order a bath and room.
"Is she going to be okay, Sesshoumaru-sama?" Rin looked up from her sitting position on the tatami mat. The room was plain, with very little decoration besides the watermark murals on the shoji doors. There were very few vases with simple flower arrangement set on plain cherry wood tables that filled in the niches separating the ten beds.
"You worry?" he arched an eyebrow. Rin looked down uncertainly. She knew that Sesshoumaru would not approve of her sudden attachment, but as soon as she saw this strange creature, she immediately wanted to know more.
"The doctors finished washing Stranger?" she asked.
"Yes, and clothed." He paused for a moment, "You must stay away from her."
"Why?" her eyes grew wide in surprise, but she knew very well his reasoning, therefore he refused to answer. Instead, he turned back to the shoji door and watched as the silhouettes of figures scurried back and forth across the room, his youkai senses allowing him to monitor the slow heartbeat and shallow breathing of the creature. She was in bad shape, and it would take a while before she would be healed enough to wake.
Pain.
Immense, blinding, heart-stopping pain.
Her mind was a cloudy fog, unable to relinquish any data of previous happenings but she was damned certain there was a fight. There was always a fight.
Clearing the mist in her mind, she recalled dragging herself through the foreign countryside after the random attack on her caravan. Blinking against the bright light of the room, she remembered the first day she awoke after the battle and squinted in the sun to take in the bloody scene of the aftermath.
"It's hot today, pull your hair out of your face, Kyky-ta-sherit." Ordered an old woman. Her raspy voice was barely discernable because of the racket of the hooves of the camels pulling the caravan deafened all. Clothed in dark blue baggy sheer white pants cuffed at the bottom and a sheer tunic, she ignored her sandals that lay on the floor forgotten, as she reclined into the pillow of the carriage.
"Would you stop calling me 'little monkey'? I am no longer a child, Serakhet." The woman opposite was one of a rich bronze complexion and her eyes were painted traditionally with kohl. Surprisingly, she was allowed to keep her natural hair and shun the wig despite her royal bloodline. Donning a sheer white dress with baggy bottom-cuffed pants, she crossed her legs and politely asked a naked attendant to fan her.
"Ho!" came the loud call of the driver ahead. The carriage came an abrupt stop as the sound of the releasing of curved blades from their sheaths. The younger woman sat up sharply at the sound and ordered quiet. A fainter pounding of hooves assaulted her ears.
"My god, Sitaten, what is it?" the women's senses were very limited, as they were not trained by war generals, as the young girl had been.
"Remember those creatures we witnessed in Italy? The pattern of their falls is reminiscent of the creatures' hooves." The girl arose and drew back the crimson red curtain blocking the sun from the interior to have a look around. An earth-bound rolling wave of brown and black quickly closed the distance to the caravan.
"Serakhet, cover, NOW!" she pulled a silver scabbard from under her pillow and leapt from the carriage.
She should have heard it sooner. If only Serakhet's annoying badgering did not drone on and on throughout the journey, she would have sensed the death cloud from more than four miles. Now, she was almost certain that the bodies of Serakhet and her favorite handmaidens now lie in a ditch somewhere, brutally violated and dismembered. The mere thought brought tears to her eyes. She would cry for them, but now was not the time. She was in a foreign land, in an unfamiliar room, and she felt a presence near her.
She opened her eyes and shyly allowed them to roam the room once they adjusted. The plain décor and simplicity of design informed her that she was probably in a lowly peasants' home. She nearly sat up when a hand pushed her back down.
"That is not wise," she looked down at the beautifully pale, frail…claws. She looked up at the owner to find an equally beautiful youkai staring down at her, face and golden eyes devoid of all emotion. The marks on his face, long white tail, silver hair, and crescent moon crest was all characteristic of the fabled Inutaisho of the Western Lands. Her heart quickened at the realization; he must have received the messenger announcing the arrival of the Egyptian emissaries.
"W…" she started, but her mouth felt as dry as Arabian sands. A previously invisible servant handed her a tiny cup of a white liquid that oddly smelled like liquor. She, out of politeness, downed the proffered drink without further thought. It burned on its way down, leaving an odd, but faintly pleasing taste in her mouth. The woman received it and refilled it, but held it in her hands.
"Where is the ambassador of Kemet?"
"I am Sitaten, Kemetian Ambassador." She winced at a sharp spike of pain in her chest.
"Where is your accompanying party?" he asked, putting aside the formality of giving her the use of his name.
"We were attacked just inside the borders of your lands." Slightly affronted by his rudeness, Sitaten replied.
"How did you separate?"
"My company was completely wiped out. I fought beside my companions for a while, but it became an issue of protecting me," her voice turned bitter, "Ten of my men dragged me away from the battle, and when I refused to leave them, they must have knocked me out." Her dark amber eyes rested on him lightly. Not once during his story did he display emotion, only listened attentively.
"You have had a trying journey, and you receive sympathies from this state. Please rest until you have fully recovered."
"So who is she, Sesshoumaru-sama?" Rin greeted him outside the door. It would seem that she had not moved an inch since he walked into the room.
"That is the Kemetian Ambassador, Sitaten."
"So she is a cat-youkai?"
Yes, and thankfully, with her youki goes her horrid smell, the Inutaisho thought to himself.
"Why was she so badly hurt Sesshoumaru-sama?" Rin asked, looking innocent. Sesshoumaru did not believe that she needed to know, so he remained silent. He knew that the girl would continue to badger him with questions unless he gave her something to do.
"Watch this door. Do not allow anyone other than the caretakers to move in and out." He commanded, and then began to walk off.
"Where are you going Sesshoumaru-sama?" Rin asked, surprised at his disposition. Nothing troubled Sesshoumaru-sama. So why did he seem so angry?
Normally, youkais and humans alike were unable to pick up on the emotions of her glacial father-like figure, always bowing and mumbling in fear regardless of whether e was in a good mood. Rin, who exploited every chance to be around the Taiyoukai, could barely grasp the gist of his emotions because of their familiarity. Right now, however, she was worried about what might happen next. Did the cat-youkai not just say that she was attacked within his lands?
Yes. That must have been it.
With the Inutaisho came the undeniable fact that any who would dare attack within his borders would suffer major consequences. And the reason he must have been particularly upset is the knowledge that it was done to a guest of his house. This was an insult to the Inutaisho, and it was bold. He would eliminate the threat immediately. The thought made Rin smile. Her Sesshoumaru-sama was the greatest that ever lived. Whoever did this to such a beautiful creature would surely pay.