Whew, finally! I thought I was never going to get over that writer's block…This was really hard to write because Rin is just so cute; she should be able to live forever. It took me the longest time to figure out how it was going to end but as I was stuck in traffic on the way home listening to "Every Heart" on my iPod, this ending popped into my mind. I wanted to bring it back full circle.
There is truth and beauty in death; that's something I learned back in college in my Japanese Literature class. Think outside the box . . .
--Kero.

Encore: Eien Ni…

(Forever)

Yama no naka,
Mori no naka,
Kaze no naka,
Yume no naka
Sesshomaru-sama, doko ni iru?
Jaken-sama o shita naiete?
Watashi wa hitori de matchimashou!
Sesshomaru-sama, omodoriou!

Her little child-like voice sang through his mind as he drifted off. It wasn't until he heard the sound of a fish, leaping out of the water and splashing down on the surface in the nearby stream that he opened his eyes again. His golden gaze looked up at the bright face of the moon, gently folded amid a blanket of deep purple clouds. The wind pushed through the branches overhead, making the leaves chatter and flap in unison. He wondered why he had thought of that silly tune so spontaneously. When he first heard it, she was just a little girl. He and Jaken had left her with Ah-Un to finish some of the Inu Clan's unfinished business. Thinking back on that time, he realized that he left her behind to keep her safe from harm. Even back then, his initial instinct was to protect her from harm. And now….

He leaned back against the trunk of the tree. Jaken, fast asleep on a large log by the fire, continued to snore with a vengeance. There was a cluster of stones in the grass by Sesshomaru's hand, resting at his side. He resisted the urge to throw one. Then he looked at the sleeping face of the form curled up beside him. She was wrapped in the warm blankets she had brought along for the journey. With his hand he reached to brush a lock of her hair from her face. The girl can sleep through anything, mused Sesshomaru. Then he caught himself as he was about to touch her face, and rested his hand in his lap.

Was it a weakness? He wasn't certain. But in the months of her absence there was something blatantly missing from his life. The warmth that she had in abundance, like the strength of brilliant star, was suddenly gone. Without it, he felt his lonely existence, expanding and unfolding around him exponentially. He was never a stranger to solitude. In fact, there was a point in his life when he welcomed it. But that was long ago, when he still traveled alone. Sesshomaru wondered how it came to be that his solitary shadow became two, and then three, when the imp and the girl started following along. Wherever he went, so did they. When she was gone, he realized just how accustomed to her presence he had become.

His father's words came to mind. "Sesshomaru, isn't there something that you want to protect?" When it was asked, on the last night he saw his father alive, Sesshomaru did not have an answer. At the time, his only passion had been conquest and the pursuit of power. But now….

He looked down at her sleeping face again. Rin stirred and opened her eyes. She blinked a few times as she was trying to remember where she was. But then a smile spread across her lips as her eyes met his gentle gaze. The tiniest of smiles curled up at one corner of his mouth. She grinned. It was a start. Finally, she had made him smile. Rin sat up and moved closer to him, leaning in and resting a head on his arm, content to fall asleep there. As if instinctively, he lifted his arm to make way for her to rest her head against his chest, and his arm cradled her protectively.

So be it, thought Sesshomaru, closing his eyes again and breathing the night air in deeply. The sudden violent snoring from Jaken's end of the camp forced their eyes open again. Both he and Rin reached for something to throw at him.

000

"And to your left is the Inu shrine, which has been kept by the locals for generations. Some say it goes back even to feudal times," said the tour guide with her megaphone. The band of elementary school students followed behind her. Some of them were whispering to one another, completely uninterested in what she had to say. Others were already looking around for the gift shop or the restrooms.

The guide, as if wrapped up in her own one-woman presentation, put the megaphone to her hip and posed as she pointed to the rooftop of the large shrine. She almost looked like a game show hostess.

"You see there at the top of the roof are the carved patterns of a crescent moon and a strange and mysterious emblem that archaeologists have been unable to make out. They think it is an older pictograph for the word, inu. But if you look around the shrine, that emblem is everywhere. They say that this shrine was built by the Yamazaki Clan, a wealthy family that had the protection of a great inu spirit."

"Neh, Reiko-chan, Kagome-chan! Isn't this interesting?" said their classmate Chiaki, completely mesmerized by the pamphlet in her hand describing the history of the shrine. Kagome gazed up at the tall spirals on the roof, and took another "Pocky" from the box in her hand, contentedly chewing on the chocolate covered pretzel stick. Reiko just smiled as she put the yellow daisy she had secretly plucked when no one was looking into her notebook.

"Chiaki-chan, you look like such a tourist," sighed Kagome.

"It says here that there is a legend in this area about an inu god who fell in love with a human girl. The human girl was a warrior princess who impressed him, and because he loved her, her people thrived and prospered with the protection of the inu god. Isn't that romantic?" asked Chiaki gleefully.

"Ugh," said Kagome, rolling her eyes. "Don't look at me like that. My family owns a shrine! This stuff is SO boring…I'm heading over to the gift shop." Their friend headed off without another word.

"And when the princess died," said the tour guide into her blaring megaphone and leading the group through the gates and to the little forest glen behind the shrine, "the immortal inu god used his magical sword to slice open the earth; the pressure brought the water underground to the surface, creating the lake behind the shrine. They say that her tomb is actually in the small island in the center of the lake." Several tourists stepped up to the water's edge to snap pictures of the peaceful scene. The grassy ground beneath their feet and the island in the center of the lake was covered in little yellow and white daisies. A thin veil of mist hovered just over the water's surface, giving the scene a mystical essence. The entire surface looked like a giant mirror reflecting the forest glen in reverse. Reiko thought she could see a golden butterfly hovering over the island.

"In honor of her," continued the tour guide, "he left his sword on that little island as well. His magical sword was said to bring people back from the dead, but sadly, he could not revive people whose lives were already spent. Locals say that the sword has healing properties, and anyone who washes themselves in the lake will have their illnesses healed. Isn't that a nice story? Well, everyone, that's the end of the tour. Please step to your left where you will find a path that leads you to the restrooms and to the gift shop. Remember, you have twenty minutes to look around, but then we need to return to the bus." Conversations started up again and the tour group started to break off and head in different directions.

"I'm going to find Kagome-chan," said Chiaki to Reiko. "I'll meet you there okay?" Reiko nodded and her friend hurried away.

"Gods and princesses," smirked a classmate. "What a joke. I hate these educational field trips."

Reiko only smiled and peered out through the afternoon mist to the small patch of land, sticking out of the water's surface. Was there really a princess down there, sleeping eternally with the inu god's sword protecting her forever beneath the calm water's surface? Reiko wasn't sure, but she wanted to believe it. A sudden gust of wind blew past her, sending a sprinkle of daisy petals into the air and out onto the lake. Reiko pulled a petal out from her scruffy hair.

Since she was very small, her mother told her this story before bedtime. It had been told for generations in her family. Out of habit, Reiko wound her finger through the chain around her neck. Her shiny blue stone pendant, an heirloom handed down from mother to daughter for as long as anyone in her family could remember, glittered in the sunlight.

"Oi! Yamazaki!" called Kagome waving at her from further up the path.

"What?" said Reiko, blinking back to reality.

"Stop daydreaming. Let's go!"

Reiko gave a smile as brilliant as the sun, and skipped back to where her friends were.

"OK!"