If You Need Her
By Scribe of Figaro
SECOND INTERLUDE
"Sonny came home with a list of names.
She didn't believe in transcendence.
'It's time for a few small repairs,' she said.
Sonny came home with a vengeance."
- Shawn Colvin, "Sonny Came Home"
The young girl waited until the inu-youkai and toad-youkai were asleep. She was afraid that the very powerful inu-youkai would stop her, but this was not the case.
She traveled far that night, keeping to the woods and hiding from the few travelers she came across. She believed the hanyou was very far from her, but a creature such as he would be well-remembered by those he came across, and as a young girl she could be quite persuasive in gaining information.
She slept the next day, and it was well into the next evening when she allowed herself to be caught.
He was a ronin, dressed in a simple dirty grey kimono and light armor. His eyes were red-rimmed, partly due, no doubt, to the jug of sake he was sipping as she came across him.
"Ah, Missy. Seems a bit late for one such as you, don't you think?"
"My parents were killed," the girl said. "I'm alone, and I'm very hungry."
The ronin smiled. "Ah, a pretty such as you shouldn't need to work hard for a meal. Come with me and I'll give you a mouthful."
She allowed him to take her hand and lead her far from the road, all the while grinning and blushing as she should.
Once deep enough in the woods he kneeled before her and asked her name.
"Rin," she said.
His fingers found her obi, and she laid gentle hands on his cheeks.
Grinning, she drove her thumbs into his eyes, piercing the orbs with her fingernails.
He screamed, holding his hands to his face, trying desperately to keep his eyes in their orbits with the heels of his palms. Blood and ichor dripped to his chin.
As he leaned away from her she took the wooden hilt of a tanto sticking from his obi, drew it with an underhand grip, and thrust it at the triangle of flesh bordered by the top of the man's chest armor and the upside-down v of the man's forearms. Half of the twelve-inch steel blade went into his larynx before she withdrew.
Rin leapt backward as the gurgling ronin pitched forward and died.
He was heavy, but she could still roll him over with some effort. She took his tanto sheath and put away the weapon after wiping it clean on his kimono. She then took the bundle he had tied around his waist, finding some cooked rice and fish which she ate greedily.
Once finished, she took the remainder of his food, bundled it up, and tied it around her waist. She wore the tanto on her back, held with her obi, hidden from view by her pack but easily accessible, as a kunoichi might carry her kaiken.
Kunoichi were very useful these days, and have served Asesu well on numerous occasions. The girl Rin was too young, of course, but she had enough strength and speed to draw a blade into a killing stroke against someone unsuspecting, and that was enough.
Most useful was the fact that this girl Rin knew Kagome, and held a trust in her that was perhaps mutual. With Miroku gone – Asesu cared not where – only Kagome held the power to purify him. Rin could find her, cut her throat, and be killed by Inuyasha all in an instant, and at that time Asesu would be free to continue his plan to take Inuyasha.
It would have made sense to take Sesshoumaru first, of course. He had sensed how powerful the demon was when he took Rin, and had recognized the tai-youkai's name when he gleaned from Rin's mind. But there was something about Inuyasha that intrigued him, something he had learned from Sango's unguarded thoughts. Something about a well, and another world that only Inuyasha and Kagome could travel to.
Asesu would have to see this place.