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: This fic will progress rather slowly, and it's not unintentional. I don't like fanfics in which Sesshoumaru goes from his normal persona to being all romantic and outspoken within one chapter, nor do I think he could ever become like that. Yes, it's clear from the manga/anime that he does care for Rin, but let's face it, Sesshoumaru has some serious issues with admitting – even to himself – that he cares for anyone, or anything for that matter. Moreover, I also wanted to focus some more on the youkai world, and Sesshoumaru's place in it, also in relation to his father, so it will still be a while before Rin grows up.
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 2
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They walked on until evening, crossing forests and fields in the leisurely manner customary for Sesshoumaru. Rin and Shippou continued chatting, or rather Shippou continued telling her about his adventures and she gasped and 'oooooh'ed in all the right places, while they were snacking on the nuts which – to Rin's delight – proved to be very easy for Shippou's sharp teeth to crack.
Myouga, having checked that Sesshoumaru wasn't looking, snuck a quick jab at the little girl's neck and discovered that her blood was indeed as delicious as it promised to be from afar. Shippou's blood wasn't bad either, and he was content to feed on it during the months of their aimless wandering, but nothing could compare with the blood of a female, even if this particular female was still too young to be considered anything more than a child. His appetite satisfied, he returned to the folds of Shippou's clothes and kept napping on and off, often snoring quite loudly.
Behind them, Jakken was trotting on in offended silence, often yanking Aun's reigns with excessive force to relieve some of his stress. Having the girl around was bad enough, but now Sesshoumaru-sama had to take in that annoying pair too! He was sure that they would somehow worm they way in by tomorrow, like the girl had done, and was equally convinced that nothing good could come out of it, nothing! He kept coming up with gloom scenarios in his mind, trying not to admit to himself that the true reason for his anxiousness was his fear of being rendered useless to his master.
As for Sesshoumaru, he was discovering that there were actually more benefits to having the two around than he had initially assumed. Although he looked as disinterested as possible, he kept a close ear on the conversation behind him and it was proving most informative. He had to listen to a number of boring stories about Inuyasha's adventures with his mismatched group to fish out the interesting bits, but even that wasn't too bad. The stories yet again confirmed his assumptions that Inuyasha was a blundering idiot who had problems telling left from right. What else he could be if he had such problems with so many low class youkai as the kitsune described? And he was retelling it as victorious battles, no less! Of course they were victorious, a moron and a hanyou as he was, Inuyasha was still a son of one of the most powerful youkai to ever walk the land, so those should've been minor skirmishes, at most, not bloody battles.
He refocused his attention on the conversation behind him. They were once again talking about that miko from Inuyasha's group and that was when the interesting bits would come up. And again, among the many side stories of various snacks and inventions, the words that captured his attention in the first place were brought up. Those were 'her time', 'well' and, most notably, 'time travel'. Sesshoumaru was no stranger to the concept of time travel, after all, all living creatures, even youkai, were bound by time and most had at least once in their lives wished that time could be turned back, which was more or less equivalent to the idea of time travel.
But being aware of the notion was not the same as hearing that such a feat was indeed possible, and that all it required was jumping into an old well with a piece of the Shikon no Tama. Since the jewel disappeared along with Inuyasha and his group, any thoughts of testing the story were pointless, although he had to admit he was curious. Still, from what the kitsune said, it seemed that only the miko – Kagome, his mind supplied – and Inuyasha could pass through the well while the fox child, despite holding a Shikon shard, could not. So a human and a hanyou could, but a youkai couldn't, he summed up and wondered briefly if any other human ever tried it. Not that it mattered; he was undoubtedly a youkai and had no Shikon shards, so his curiosity could only be satisfied by listening on.
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The evening was beginning to turn to night, and sensing that the others were getting tired, Sesshoumaru found a suitable clearing, and sat under a tree there, which, as Rin quickly informed Shippou, was a clear sign that that's where they were to stay for the night.
Rin and Shippou proved to be a very efficient combination of human-youkai power, as they bustled about setting up a fire, grazing Aun and getting some fish from a nearby stream, achieving all that in much shorter time than Rin and Jakken usually did. Perhaps, thought Sesshoumaru, watching them from a corner of his eye, it was due to a lack of the usual bickering between Rin and Jakken. He glanced at the toad, who was slumping dejectedly against a tree, obviously being the only one of the group who was not enjoying the new arrangement. Sesshoumaru was not interested in his emotional states. Like the others, Jakken followed him out of his free will, and could go wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted. If he chose to stay, he would soon get used to the new situation anyway.
He allowed his mind to go blank as he waited for Rin and the fox child to finally settle down and return to their talking. Soon enough, they did so indeed, and he caught a few more interesting pieces of information, including the news that Kagome was a reincarnation of the miko Inuyasha had once fallen for and who bound him to a tree called Goshinboku, and that it was Kagome who released him, on her very first day in the past.
After a while, they settled down for sleep, although the fox child and Myouga had the audacity to express they wonder at the fact that Rin didn't even have a blanket of any sorts to keep her warm at night. He silenced the comments quickly with a well directed glare. As if she was ever cold. She always had a fire and Aun to keep her warm, and on the nights when even that wasn't sufficient, he would let her sleep next to him and that was more than enough to keep her not only warm, but also very happy.
He could even remember that one night last winter, when the air was particularly cold, he was feeling particularly... amiable, and she kept shivering despite lying right next to him, he had taken off his armor and let the child sleep snuggled into him. He frowned at the memory of her tiny hands grasped onto his clothes and her breath reaching his skin through the folds of his clothes. It hadn't been objectionable per se, but... the proximity made him feel... oddly self-conscious. He was not used to touch, not unless it was in battle when it was simply a necessity, and on the night when the child was so close to him, he had found that he did not enjoy that particular sensation of incongruity, even if there was also something else there, something... engaging?
His frown deepened. He was not used to feeling self-conscious, or being interested in his emotions regarding others for that matter, but... He glanced at the child and the kitsune who were snuggled up together near the fire. To them, touch seemed a natural phenomenon, something one did without thinking about it. He felt strangely inadequate in his aversion to something so simple. And she had seemed aware of it too. He hadn't really given much thought to allowing her to sleep, well, basically on him, it was a simple necessity, a way of avoiding the trouble of having her fall ill. Yet, when she just sat there, looking at him quietly with her large eyes, visibly surprised at his offer before climbing cautiously into his lap, he realized that he had been expecting her to be as delighted as she always was when he did something for her.
But there were no squeals of joy that time, no gasps of delight. She seemed as ill at ease in the situation as he was, trying to make herself comfortable with as little squirming as possible. It didn't last for her, however. When she woke up next morning, she greeted him with her usual toothy grin, and – apparently having decided that it was okay to touch him freely now – hugged him quickly before skipping away to ready herself for the day. Ever since then she would exercise that liberty occasionally, in touching his hand or outright hugging him again when she felt particularly excitable. And every time he would remain motionless, uncertain what to do, uncertain what he felt and uncertain if there was something he was supposed to do and feel.
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When his companions awoke and made themselves ready to depart the next morning, Sesshoumaru informed them that Shippou and Myouga could stay, as long as they kept themselves out of his way, and out of trouble.
"Thank you, Sesshoumaru-sama!" bowed Myouga, "You will hardly even notice we're here!"
Doubtful, thought Sesshoumaru, hearing the cheerful and shrill display of emotions between Rin and the fox child, as they expressed their joy over being able to continue their growing comradeship.
Myouga took a cautious skip closer to his new master. "May I ask where to are we headed?"
But Sesshoumaru turned away and continued on his way.
"Baka!" chided Jakken, "Sesshoumaru-sama goes where he wants, and he doesn't have to say anything about it to the likes of you, useless flea!"
Oh well, decided Myouga, hopping back into Shippou's clothes as they followed Sesshoumaru's white form through the woods, it was just as good. He had nowhere he was supposed to be anyway, and as far as obligations went, serving his former masters' son and brother was the most fitting way of fulfilling his duties.
The day carried on very much like the previous afternoon. Rin and Shippou continued to chat, she wanting to know everything and Shippou obliging her gladly. Myouga went back to his naps and snoring, and even Jakken seemed in a better mood. Having spent a day observing the new additions to the group, he came to the conclusion that Myouga was a worthless old fool, too small and weak to be of any use, and Shippou was a scatter brain, also of no use. They seemed even more useless than the girl, despite her being a human and them being youkai, and his faithful heart of a servant found relief in knowing there was no way they could ever replace him.
But when morning turned to afternoon, and they made a short stop in a clearing, his feelings began to change yet again. Usually, the girl would run off to find some food, sometimes he would be sent after her, they would argue a little, she'd find something interesting and drag him over to see, or run over to show him and then they would eat in relative peace, thus completing the routine that had become so familiar to them over the last year. But now... the girl did it with the kitsune. It wasn't that he missed her attention, no, it was just that... that... The toad frowned. It was just that she should know what was best for her, and it was not gallivanting around with the annoying fox, that's for sure! Shaking his head and mumbling curses, Jakken never suspected that his master was experiencing similar sentiments.
Sesshoumaru sat on a large rock near the edge of the clearing and was keeping a casual, yet watchful eye – and ear – on the newly reacquainted pair of children. They had just returned from a food hunt, with some vegetables they 'swindled', as the fox child put it, from a nearby field. Now they sat in the clearing, eating and yet again chatting and he had an oddest urge to lob the kitsune back to that field. He frowned, thoroughly displeased with himself for feeling an emotion he thought he had gotten rid of long ago. He was being jealous, and not over Chichi-ue's attention this time, but over a small human child. Did her adoration actually mean that much to him? He had been convinced it was more annoying that anything else, but...
His thoughts suddenly snapped back into focus when he caught a particular piece of their conversation.
"And there are really no youkai in Kagome-sama's world?" Rin's voice was filled with astonishment.
"Nope. She said that over there youkai are only mentioned in legends and not many people believe in them anyway. Kagome's grandfather does, but Inuyasha said that her grandfather was a loony even though he's right. She 'sat' him for it." Shippou chuckled at the memory.
They carried on about the whole 'osuwari' issue, but Sesshoumaru's mind was too busy contemplating what he just heard to fully appreciate the vision of his brother being crashed into the ground every time the miko said one simple word. Rin and Shippou were just children, in their minds the place the miko came from was another world, unrelated to their own. But it was not a different world, it was this world, his world and their world, only a few centuries older. And apparently, within those few centuries youkai would in this way or another disappear.
It had never occurred to Sesshoumaru that something like that could happen. Although he could never be bothered to count how old exactly he was every time he thought about it, especially since it wasn't often, he was over 350 years old in any case. His father was almost as old as Bokusenou when he had died, and Sesshoumaru had always subconsciously assumed that he would live at least just as long. Truth be told, there was no known limit to how long he could live, no taiyoukai has ever been known to age, they all died in battle. Not many youkai aged in the first place, and those who did were usually low class mononoke or those who had too much human – or just generally weak – blood in their lineage.
He looked back to the two who were still talking. Even the kitsune, despite not being in any way a powerful youkai, could probably live those few centuries more, without any aging other than growing up, unless he managed to get himself killed by a stronger youkai. So could Myouga. The flea only looked old because that was his natural – or chosen – form, not out of any actual old age. Myouga was only two hundred or so years older than him and had always looked the same, getting neither older nor younger, for as long as Sesshoumaru could remember.
Then what could've happened to cause the youkai to disappear? Was the miko not from their future after all? Sesshoumaru was unsure what to think. The fox child could've made a mistake, but Myouga was no fool. His brow creased again. Perhaps he should talk to the flea about it.
A small hand touched his knee and he was startled, surprising both himself and Rin.
"Sesshoumaru-sama...?" Rin asked hesitantly but got no reply.
"Um, are we going to stay here for much longer? Because there's a flower field over there...." She wanted to go explore the flower field, just like she wanted to explore every flower field, or every stream.
"Iku zo." Sesshoumaru got up and walked away in the direction they were headed before.
He did it more out of surprise at being startled than an actual need to get going. He was in no hurry, nor was the destination that important. They were going to visit Chushihou, an old spider youkai who made the best quality youkai clothes, to get Rin a yukata that would last longer than those pathetic human clothes. When he had first decided to let her follow him, he told Jakken to get her new clothes, since her old yukata was too tattered, too small and too bloody to be ever cleaned. The toad got her a decent human yukata, large enough for her to grow a few inches and still fit into it. Unfortunately, it quickly turned out that humans always were so dirty, ragged and smelly not only due to their lack of personal hygiene, but also because human clothes were simply by far inferior to youkai clothing, just like humans were by far inferior to youkai. Rin's yukata would constantly get dirty or torn and even though he had made Jakken get her another new one during the year, he felt he had enough of watching the child scrub and repair her clothes all the time, as it seemed.
There was no point in getting her proper clothes before, she was not to stay with him. But now that it was obvious she was not going anywhere, as least for a while, and he preferred her clean and orderly, it was only fitting he got her clothing that could withstand their wandering life style. They were still at least a day's journey away from Chushihou's caves and he was set on solving the issue of the disappearing youkai before then.
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Language notes:
Iku zo. – basically just "We're going."; it's what Sesshoumaru often uses.
miko – priestess, at least according to the English dub...
Chushihou – a name I made up for the character, composed out of the characters for 'spider', 'seam' and 'master' if I remember right.
yukata – the long robe like type of clothing Rin wears, to put it simply
General notes:
I have no idea how old Inuyasha's father was, of course, but if I assume Sesshoumaru must be around 350, then the comparison of his and his father's sizes in their true forms indicates that his father must've been indeed rather old, despite looking young. My estimate is around 1500 :P
As for aging youkai, the idea that a spiritual creature would age is ridiculous to the Western mind, since in the Western culture all demons are immortal. I don't think there's any indication in the anime that any youkai or mononoke would age, but still, I felt free to add my own version of the issue.
As for Myouga's age – he does seem older than Sesshoumaru and an old-term retainer of his father's, but I picked 200 years without any specific reasons for it. However, in Movie 3 Myouga is indeed shown to have looked exactly the same throughout the period of 200 years, so no, I don't think he's really 'aged'.
