Disclaimer: I do not hold any rights to Inuyasha in any form or way, nor do I make any profit out of writing this fic.
Note: The beginning is intentionally vague, since I don't know yet how the manga will end. Inuyasha, Kagome and others will reappear at some point, but it won't be soon. First, Sesshoumaru has to solve some issues. ;) Oh, and since by now the anime ended and the manga reached chapter 385 or so, I take all the events shown in both as applicable, and thus the fic might contain spoilers.
Since I watch only the Japanese version and prefer to use the Japanese terminology, there are language notes at the end of the chapter.
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Chapter 1
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"So... what are we going to do about the Shikon no Tama?" asked Kagome, fingering the at long last complete jewel pensively.
The others sat around the fire in silence, watching her hold the shining pinkish ball. Earlier that day, after months of chase, after never-ending anguish and worry, they had finally managed to put a stop to Naraku's evil ways. The wicked hanyou was dead now, his soul destroyed by Kikyou's purifying arrow. But the Jewel remained, completed at the price of countless lives, and yet now looking so pure and benign that they could swear it had never been seen blood.
"Isn't it so that if a good wish is made, Shikon no Tama will disappear after granting it?" asked Miroku thoughtfully.
Kagome glanced at him briefly before turning her eyes back to the jewel again. A good wish, huh? Could the Shikon no Tama actually do a good deed? She thought back to all she had seen happen because of it. Not one thing could be described as even remotely good, not one involved something other than death and misery. Anger filled her as she was recalling all the lives extinguished because of one small pinkish ball.
"Then I wish it would finally do something good!" She said spitefully.
As if prompted by her words, the Jewel began glowing brightly, bathing them in light and plunging them into a bizarre, unreal void of shadows and pink lights. But before any had a chance to say even a word, the light stopped and they were gone form the clearing, leaving just one small kitsune and one even smaller flea behind.
"Guys...?" Shippou called out tentatively, looking around in confusion.
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"Sesshoumaru-sama, look!" He glanced down at the small child and at the bunch of dandelions she was holding up to him. He could never understand why she insisted on showing him every little thing. But at least she never really bothered him about an answer.
"They're so pretty! And smell so nice!" Rin buried her face happily in the yellow petals, inhaling their fresh scent deeply and running off to show her find to Jakken who was trotting on behind them.
Yes, he supposed that as far as sights and smells went, dandelions weren't that bad, but why squeal in delight just because they were there? Why pick them and weave them into wreaths? Sesshoumaru frowned inwardly as he walked on, reminding himself yet again not to waste his time thinking about it. If he hadn't understood it by now, after over a year of having Rin around, there was little chance he ever would. He had more important matters to attend to, although at the current moment it was nothing more than wandering around the country, following various rumors of ways to gain more power.
Sesshoumaru's frown deepened. There it was again, that feeling of... restlessness that had been permeating his thoughts so often during the last few months, ever since Naraku had been done away with. For the first time in his life he had no specified goal, nothing to guide him through the days that were all so unremarkably alike. Before, there was always some superior imperative, like finding his father's tomb and obtaining the Tetsusaiga, a task which kept him occupied for over 150 years. But now the fang was in the hands of his hanyou half-brother, and as much as Sesshoumaru loathed admitting it, the bastard had put it to a good use. Besides, without the Tetsusaiga to contain his youkai blood, Inuyasha would soon become a mindless, murderous beast, and although he was already a worthless hanyou, an utter imbecile and a pathetic swordsman, it was still better than being related to an animal.
"I'm hungry, I'll go find some food, kay?" Rin announced from behind him and run off into the forest to forage for any edible articles. As always, be it yesterday or a month ago, Jakken begun spluttering out his outrage at her lack of respect towards Sesshoumaru-sama, but the taiyoukai wasn't in the mood to listen to the nonsensical babble, not that he ever was.
"Jakken, knock it off."
You'd think the toad would've gotten used to it by now. After all, that was what Rin always did, unless she was told to stay put or they were in a hurry, either of which hardly ever happened nowadays. Sesshoumaru didn't mind, she did what she was supposed to in finding her own food, and he was well aware that forcing her to go hungry would only lead to greater inconvenience. Finding a suitable tree nearby, he sat down underneath it and allowed his thoughts to return to their previous course.
Perhaps he should finally kill Inuyasha? Since the hanyou's abilities seemed to have improved somewhat the last time Sesshoumaru had seen him, when Naraku had been finally taken appropriate care of, it could prove to be a task interesting enough to busy his mind and disperse that annoying feeling of misplacement. He scoffed at himself. As if he needed Inuyasha for anything. No, he should rather focus on the objective that guided him throughout his entire life, the objective of gaining enough power to surpass his father and establish himself as the strongest youkai.
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Shippou trudged on through the forest, looking around carefully in case there was something yummy to be found nearby. The area smelled of nuts and he was sure he could find some if he looked around carefully enough. He sighed to himself. Yummy or not, nuts could not compare to the delicious food Kagome used to have with her all the time. The lollipops, the chocolate, the ramen... His mouth watered at the memory of the strange yet tasty food. He hadn't eaten anything that good in quite a while. Actually he hadn't been eating that well at all since the others had disappeared.
When they disappeared, just like that one less, he at first thought it was some trick, that they were still nearby. He kept running around the clearing for hours but they were nowhere to be found and neither he nor Myouga-jiji had any ideas about what happened to them, although Myouga-jiji suggested that maybe since Shikon no Tama was what allowed Kagome to travel through time, it had taken them there to "do something good". At first he felt cheated. How could they go on an adventure without him?! Why was he left out?!
It wasn't until a few days later that he had fully realized his position. He was all alone, a small kitsune who lost all his friends and had nowhere to go, nobody to protect him – not that he needed to be protected, he huffed to himself. But... he missed them so much... He swallowed, struggling not to get all emotional, weepy and unmanly, and pushed his thoughts back to the past. When it became clear that the others were not coming back anytime soon, he and Myouga returned to Kaede-bachan's village, deciding to wait there and having nowhere else to go anyway, but... a few months later Kaede-bachan died. She was fine one day and then just got a small cold and plain died. And the next village miko was no too happy about having youkai running around the place. It's not fair, he decided angrily, why do people he cared for kept dying and disappearing? First his Tousan, then Kagome and the others and then even Kaede-bachan. He wiped off the tears that crept into his eyes, glancing down inconspicuously to see if Myouga saw his embarrassing moment. But the flea was still snoring contently, snuggled into the warmth of the kitsune's clothes.
Seeing it was safe, Shippou sniffed loudly, prepared to blame it on food searching, should Myouga wake up. But the pretense turned out truer than the actual cause since as soon as the air entered his nose, his senses informed him that he was much closer to the nuts now. Shippou frowned in concentration. There was something else there too, or rather somebody. A human... a human whose scent he had smelled before.
Advancing as stealthily between the trees as he could, he followed the scent and soon found its source. It was a small girl, crouched down and busy collecting nuts, a pile of which was already stocked nearby. Shippou looked her over carefully, his mind busy sorting through all the humans his memory held. It was – he sniffed again, this time to get more of her scent – the girl that used to hang around Sesshoumaru all the time, Rin!
Deciding it was safe, Shippou abandoned the tree he was hiding behind and walked towards the girl.
"Hey, Rin!" The girl looked startled at first, but a hint of recognition soon lit her face.
"It's Shippou, remember?" Shippou provided casually, noticing she had a hard time remembering his name.
"That's right! Shippou-chan! You were with Kagome-sama when Sesshoumaru-sama fought with that evil sword!"
The girl, Shippou decided, was clearly delusional. Sure, Sesshoumaru was there, but it was Inuyasha – and Shippou himself – who fought Sou'unga, not the 'pompous ass', as Inuyasha often referred to his older sibling.
"Hmmm? Is that Rin-chan that I see?" Myouga spoke up from Shippou shoulder, choosing the moment to wake up.
"Un," she confirmed and quickly recognized the small youkai. After all, it's not everyday one gets to see a tiny talking flea. "Myouga-sama!"
Myouga puffed his chest proudly. Finally somebody titled him properly! Sesshoumaru always struck him as a rather inattentive caretaker, but the child was evidently well educated on the respect due to her elders.
"Am I correct to assume that Sesshoumaru-sama is nearby?" he inquired.
"Un," Rin confirmed again, "right... there!" she added, pointing a finger to their left, clearly proud that she wasn't lost.
"Hmmm... Perhaps," said Myouga turning to Shippou, "we should pay him a visit."
"Feh! Why would I want to do that?" replied the kitsune arrogantly, and Myouga was once again reminded that Shippou had spent a lot of time with Inuyasha.
"Perhaps he would allow us to remain in his company," Myouga answered tentatively and continued before Shippou could object, "As... conversationally challenging as he might be, I'm quite sure you wouldn't have to worry about being eaten in your sleep anymore."
Shippou cringed. As much as he hated to admit it, he was still just a small, powerless kitsune, and although so far he managed to fend off all the youkai – and humans – that tried to either eat him or purify him, he knew well enough that all he had was his tricks and that sooner or later, his luck was bound to run out. Sesshoumaru was the last person he'd want to depend on, but... he was also the only one left.
He heaved a mighty sigh and shook his head. "Alright, let's give it a try, though I still don't think it's a good idea or that he'll agree. And you better pray he won't try to kill us!"
"I don't think he would," replied Myouga pensively," Sesshoumaru-sama is indeed quick to make his decisions regarding life and death, but," he glanced at Rin, "he too has changed greatly."
With that, Shippou helped Rin gather more nuts, hoping she would share some with him later, and they headed in the direction Rin had pointed to before.
For her part, Rin didn't mind the company nor the earlier than intended return. She was planning to go back as soon as she gathered the nuts anyway. It was much nicer to eat with her companions around and she was also hoping that maybe Sesshoumaru-sama would be in the mood to help her crack the nuts. He did it once before, when she couldn't find any good rocks to crack the resistant seeds. He just scooped them in his large hand, squeezed, and they were all cracked, with the insides still intact no less. She had been delighted, as always when he so effortlessly did something that she couldn't. Yes, she knew he was a youkai and could do all sorts of things that she couldn't, but it was still amazing.
She glanced to Shippou and Myouga. They too were youkai and probably also could do a lot of amazing things. Though probably not as amazing as the things Sesshoumaru-sama could do, she appended thoughtfully. From their conversation she understood that they might be staying around, at least for a while, and was looking forward to having more company. Sesshoumaru-sama, Jakken-sama and Aun were very good companions, and she felt very happy just traveling around with them, but... It would be nice to have somebody to talk to, like she talked to Kohaku-kun, although the memory seemed so far away now.
Glancing at the two again, she decided that it might be – what was the word Sesshoumaru-sama used to describe something practical...? – exe... expe... expedient, that's right, it might be expedient to start talking now, since they might not be staying around at all.
"So...," she started vaguely, "what are you doing here without the others?"
Shippou looked at her, surprised to realize that probably neither she nor Sesshoumaru knew about the Inu-tachi's disappearance, or about the full story behind the Shikon no Tama.
"Well... you remember Shikon no Tama, right?" he replied, and when she seemed to have no idea what it meant, he promptly launched into a story that was full of heroic deeds of a valiant kitsune and his friends.
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Sesshoumaru was still in the process of deciding whether the idea of pursuing Inuyasha to death only to fill up his days was too undignified to ever be endeavored – it was a very tempting concept after all – when the air brought to his nostrils a few familiar scents. He recognized Rin's scent of course, by now he knew it well enough to be able to sniff it out from miles away, but the other two scents, although familiar, were less easy to identify. He frowned, digging into the various recesses of his memory only to resurface with an image of a tiny flea youkai. Sesshoumaru remembered the flea well, he used to be a faithful follower of Chichi-ue's who after his Oyakata-sama's death so blatantly and disrespectfully decided to follow the blasted hanyou instead of himself, his father's only full blooded son. Not that he wanted to have the cowardly flea around to begin with, but it was still quite a misdemeanor.
The other scent was also loosely familiar, but since his mind was telling him its owner was somehow related to Inuyasha, he decided not to trail the thought any further, lest he stumbled across something that was better left forgotten, and waited to see the person with his eyes rather than nose.
And soon enough the bushes to his right rustled gently and released one little girl, one tiny flea and one small kitsune, all of whom were engrossed in animated conversation. Sesshoumaru remembered the kitsune, albeit vaguely. The fox child was one of Inuyasha's odd group of humans and youkai, and perhaps due to his earlier visions of killing his 'dear' brother, Sesshoumaru found he was actually looking forward to hearing why they were here. Surely they realized that if they followed Rin long enough, they were bound to come across him...?
"Ah! Sesshoumaru-sama!" Myouga noticed his former master's son and hopped onto a rock near the still sitting youkai.
Splat! The tiny flea floated to the ground in his flattened form.
"Myouga," said Sesshoumaru coldly, "have you decided to abandon the hanyou?"
Myouga quickly snapped back to his normal form and returned to the top of the rock, sensing where this was going.
"Ahh, well," he stammered, fidgeting, "Sesshoumaru-sama, I never followed Inuyasha-sama because I wanted to, it was your father's wish that should anything happen to him, I was to aid Inuyasha-sama with my knowledge and experience. Since," he added hastily, "he has neither and you have no need for my services."
A smart flea, decided Sesshoumaru, a coward of incomparable magnitude, but a smart one nevertheless.
"Then what brings you here?" Being done with the niceties, Sesshoumaru felt ready to indulge his curiosity.
Myouga then proceeded to explain the Inu-tachi's disappearance, and the predicament he – a servant without a master, and Shippou – a child without anyone to care for him, were currently in.
"And we were hoping you would honor us by allowing us to enter your service. " he finished, waving frantically behind his back for Shippou to stay quiet and not ruin everything, a hint that seemed to have gotten through as Shippou kept to himself his comments about the kind of service he would like to provide Sesshoumaru with.
Sesshoumaru took in the news in silence, relief that his decision regarding Inuyasha had been made for him briefly flashing through his thoughts. At least this way there was no chance he could disgrace himself by depending on Inuyasha for entertainment. Still, he had half a mind to squash Myouga again and then send them both to meet their maker, or at least over the top of the trees, but his eyes fell on Rin and his mind recalled the image of the three talking just a moment ago.
Overall, the child seemed happy enough to his eyes and she never expressed any unfulfilled desires, other than that he was more familiar with her, something he never knew what to do with. Yes, when he first chanced upon the girl, she reeked horribly of some of the foulest odors he associated with humans and the idea of touching such a creature had been revolting to him. He had allowed her to follow him mostly out of mild curiosity as to why would a human want to do such a thing, never expecting it to become a permanent arrangement. But now... she smelled more like a youkai than a human, he had gotten used to having her around and the time when she was abducted by Ongokuki only to be nearly taken away by those monks clearly proved that neither of them wanted her to leave his side. Nevertheless, he had no idea what was the proper way of taking care of a child. In his over three and half centuries of life he never had any experiences with children, human or otherwise, and the memories of his own childhood were too remote and too... inappropriate to be applied to a child as cheerful and open as Rin.
He looked back to the flea and the fox. Rin needed somebody to talk to, somebody other than Jakken that is, and somebody to teach her about the ways of humans. He had a distant feeling that when females of any species reached particular age, they needed to be properly educated on various issues related to their bodily processes and he was more than certain that neither he nor Jakken were up to the task. And there they were, a child companion to play with her and a knowledgeable elder to educate her in any way she required. He nodded to himself, satisfied with the prospect.
"You may stay for today," he said finally, getting up and ignoring another of Jakken's splutter fits. "I will make a more lasting decision tomorrow."
"Thank you, Sesshoumaru-sama!" Myouga released the breath he didn't know he was holding. He had been confident that Sesshoumaru would let them stay, or at least that he wouldn't hurt them in any way, but there was too much cowardice in his small body, and he knew too much about Sesshoumaru, to be completely void of fear.
But now, he reckoned, hopping back to Shippou's shoulder, their life style was certain to improve. No more running away from bloodthirsty youkai, no more cowering in trees in the cold of the night. Yep, he too was satisfied with the prospect of the future.
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Language notes (for those who watch the English version mostly)
Shikon no Tama – The Jewel of Four Souls
youkai – It's translated as 'demon' in the English version, though it's a much more vague term in Japanese
taiyoukai – "great youkai", it's how Inuyasha's father is often referred to, and by extension also Sesshoumaru
hanyou – half-demon
kitsune – fox, Shippou is a fox youkai
Tousan – father; I couldn't remember how Shippou refers to his father so I used this.
Chichi-ue – also 'father'; it's how Sesshoumaru refers to his father, it's actually quite polite even if familiar.
Ongokuki – the youkai who kidnapped Rin in episode 162;
Sou'unga – the evil sword 'starring' in Movie 3;
Oyakata-sama – master, chief; it's how Myouga – and many others – referred to Inuyasha's father
General notes:
I made Sesshoumaru to be around 350 because of Movie 3, where it is shown that when Inuyasha was born Sesshoumaru was already grown up, but not fully. He appeared to be around the age Inuyasha is in the anime, and since Inuyasha is effectively 150 (plus 50 spent sealed away), then Sesshoumaru might've quite likely been around 150 when Inuyasha was born. And since that was 200 before the anime, then it adds up to 350.
-sama,-jiji, -kun, -chan, -bachan – these are Japanese suffixes added to names, and they indicate various things, such as politeness or familiarity. '-sama' is a very respectful ending, '-chan' is very familiar, '-kun' is semi-familiar, '-jiji' means just 'old man' - that's how Myouga is addressed usually and '-bachan' (actually, it's "baachan", but it's too long to be practical, so I left the often used 'bachan') is "grandma" and that's how Kaede is most often referred to by Inuyasha's group.
