SPOILERS for episodes 44 & 45.
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"Where are we going, Sesshoumaru-sama?" Rin asked. She noticed that they had changed directions.
"To find something."
"What?"
"Something dead."
Rin wondered why he would want to find something dead, but she was silent. Later Sesshoumaru-sama stopped. "It's there," he said.
"Yes, Sesshoumaru-sama!" Jaken-sama said, as he quickly took off in the direction that Sesshoumaru-sama indicated. Rin chased after Jaken-sama as well, and soon passed him, stopping when she saw something ahead of her.
"I won!" she cried.
Jaken-sama said that they weren't racing, but Rin was already looking at what she had found. There was a dead thing, just like Sesshoumaru-sama had said! She wondered how he knew where it was. Then Rin moved a little away from the thing, not especially liking the looks of it.
Then Sesshoumaru-sama came up and took the things's head, slinging it over his shoulder. Which was Rin's limit. She cried out and looked away.
"We're not taking that with us, are we, Sesshoumaru-sama?" Apparently Jaken-sama didn't like the thing, either.
"Quiet, Rin," Sesshoumaru-sama said. He didn't answer Jaken-sama.
"Yes!" Rin said, moving to follow him. She quickly caught up, but walked next to his other side, so she wouldn't have to look at the thing.
They walked for a while more, until Sesshoumaru-sama stopped and turned to face her.
"Rin, you stay here."
Rin panicked for a moment. Surely he wasn't leaving her? "Why?"
"We're going someplace unsuitable for humans."
"Rin will be good if Sesshoumaru-sama lets Rin go," she promised.
"It's better for you here," he said.
"Rin will go with Sesshoumaru-sama."
"Stay here."
"Do as Sesshoumaru-sama says!" Jaken-sama told her.
Rin looked up at Sesshoumaru-sama, who was frowning slightly. "Rin will stay here," she said quietly.
She watched as they walked and started to disappear from view. "Hurry Sesshoumaru-sama! Come back soon?" she called.
Then Rin sat down on the ground, with nothing to do but wait for Sesshoumaru-sama. He had told her to wait here, and she would wait here, not wanting to miss him when he returned. After a while she got bored and lay down on the ground. Rin wished that Sesshoumaru-sama would come back.
Whatever Sesshoumaru-sama did without her, it didn't take him long. Soon she spotted him and Jaken-sama again, slowly making their way toward her. He told her to come along, but they didn't go far. He said that he still had to go back later. Rin didn't want him to go again, but later he did, once again leaving her and telling her to wait. She did, but it seemed to take him a lot longer than last time.
Rin played with some flowers at her feet, and she noticed that she was hungry. She wondered if she should go look for something to eat, but Sesshoumaru-sama had told her to stay there, so she did. Suddenly she heard a howl in the distance, and she sat straight up, looking around. There was nothing that Rin could see, but the wolf's cry had sent a shiver down her spine. She had seen lots of scary things since then, but none scared her as much as the thought of wolves. She hadn't forgotten the time that they chased her...but there was something more, something else that she couldn't quite remember. Whatever it was, she didn't like it, and she didn't want to see any more wolves ever again. It seemed like forever until Sesshoumaru-sama appeared again. When Rin saw him coming, she jumped up.
"Sesshoumaru-sama!"
He suddenly paused and looked past her. "Rin. Don't move."
Rin froze as Sesshoumaru-sama jumped overhead. There was a noise like a tree falling, and then she could hear him talking with someone. Rin looked over her shoulder for an instant. There was a woman talking with Sesshoumaru-sama, but she left quickly, disappearing into the sky. The woman must be a youkai, too, Rin thought, since people couldn't fly. She wondered why the woman wanted to talk to Sesshoumaru-sama, and she wondered if she could move. The youkai lady was gone now, but Sesshoumaru-sama still hadn't spoken to her. But then he told her that she could move again, and she did, twirling around and then running over to his side. Rin didn't care if she heard the wolves again now.
Later, they left that place. Sesshoumaru-sama didn't seem to want to stay at all for some reason. As they walked, she sat on the back of Ah and Un, which Jaken-sama was leading. Sesshoumaru-sama walked ahead and Rin noticed that he had a new sword with him. He must have had it made when he had left.
Rin looked down at Jaken-sama. "Rin wishes that she could go where Sesshoumaru-sama and Jaken-sama do." Jaken-sama told her that she shouldn't be stupid, and that she would have been killed. She asked him if it was really that scary. Waiting by herself and hearing the wolves was bad enough.
"Not for youkai!" Jaken-sama said. "Still, I wouldn't want to hang around there for very long! Lots of weirdos in that swamp. Even I nearly died! I would have, too, if it hadn't been for Sesshoumaru-sama."
"Really?" Rin asked. "What happened, Jaken-sama?"
"Why that treacherous sword maker cut me right through! But then Sesshoumaru-sama used his sword."
"The one Sesshoumaru-sama just got?" she asked.
"No, of course not, girl," Jaken-sama said. "The one that doesn't kill--the one that can bring back the dead. He's used it on you, too."
"Really? When?"
"After the wolves, of course."
Rin was quiet. Jaken-sama said that Sesshoumaru-sama's other sword could bring back the dead. And he had used it on her. She had died? After the wolves? Rin suddenly thought back to how she couldn't remember what had happened after she ran from the wolves. They had been chasing her, but after that there was nothing. The next thing she could remember was Sesshoumaru-sama being there. And there was the blood on her clothes afterwards, and how much the howl in the distance had scared her earlier. It must have happened.
"Sesshoumaru-sama?" she asked. "Rin died?"
He turned to look at her. "Yes, you did."
"The wolves really did kill Rin?"
"Yes."
"And Sesshoumaru-sama did that for Rin? Brought Rin back to life?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Why not?"
Rin looked down, and Sesshoumaru-sama turned back around. It had happened, then. She really had died, and Sesshoumaru-sama had brought her back. She didn't know that anyone could do things like that. Rin remembered when he had said that his sword was broken. The sword "that doesn't kill," Jaken-sama had said. Was that why he had said that it was broken and why he wanted another sword? Rin didn't really understand. But she had never dreamed that anything like that could exist, something that could stop you from dying. And Sesshoumaru-sama had saved her with it. But why? And why wouldn't he say?
She wondered why he had done it. Because she had brought him food? Because she had tried to help him? Because he had just wanted to? She had never figured out why he wanted to be nice to her, either. But if he hadn't been, she would be dead now. Rin was a bit disappointed that Sesshoumaru-sama wouldn't say why he did it, but she decided that it didn't matter.
She jumped off of Ah and Un, and went to catch up with him. He didn't look at her, so she moved in front of him but kept walking, looking up at his face. Finally, he looked down at her. No, she decided, it didn't matter why he did it, only that he had. That was enough for her, and it was so much more than anyone else had done, or ever could do.
"Sesshoumaru-sama doesn't have to say why if he doesn't want to," she said.
He stared at her for a moment, and she smiled, still walking backward to look up at him. Sesshoumaru-sama didn't respond to her statement, as she had known that he wouldn't. But she had still had to say it.
"It's almost dark," he finally said. "You must be hungry."
"Yes, Sesshoumaru-sama!" she said, as she turned and ran ahead through the field.
She twirled around as she ran, and saw Sesshoumaru-sama watching her, as he always seemed to be. He would always be there, just behind her or just ahead of her. It was amazing how fast everything had changed for her since the village. She had never even dreamed that life could be this way. Rin decided that she would stop thinking about the village. It was past, and she was here now. Everything suddenly seemed so perfectly right to her. She hoped that she could stay with Sesshoumaru-sama forever.