The Tale of Rin and Sesshomaru
Sesshomaru's Choice
As you can imagine, Sesshomaru didn't have anyone he might call a friend (aside from Rin, who adored him, and Jaken, who worshipped him). Current or former slaves, casual acquaintances, or allies of convenience who had survived their mutual adventures: he treated everyone with equal disdain. Those few who had crossed swords with him and lived to tell about it loathed him beyond measure. One day, there came a gathering of Sesshomaru's old enemies: panther demons who still held a grudge against the Inu no Taisho, Sesshomaru's father, and hated Sesshomaru doubly for having crushed their hopes of resurrecting their own leader; ogres whom Sesshomaru had first enslaved, then tossed aside when he tired of them; and many other vile creatures who had run afoul of Sesshomaru and wanted revenge.
Their gathering began with much boasting and many glasses raised to a glorious victory over their hated enemy, but soon they were forced to admit that against Sesshomaru's power, they stood very little chance. Those who had escaped his wrath with their lives had only barely done so, and were loath to face him head-to-head again. One of the uglier multi-tentacled demons had been grumbling about "that little human he keeps as a pet," and suddenly, an idea was born: while Sesshomaru himself was all but invincible, a little human girl was another matter. A swarthy, battle-scarred panther demoness pounded the table. "Sesshomaru took from us that which we valued most," she growled, "and we shall do the same to him. He will feel her life draining through his fingers, and he will know that we did it. As long as he lives, our revenge cannot be complete; but with her death, at least it can be sweet." And thus they were resolved, and they began to lay their plans.
It was a warm summer's evening. Aun had been left to wander and graze; Sesshomaru was away, doing—well, whatever it was he that he did on such journeys (Rin didn't inquire, and Sesshomaru didn't talk about it). Rin and Jaken were catching fish for their evening meal, with Rin splashing and laughing happily upstream, while Jaken (occasionally) caught the fish that she herded in his direction, or (usually) landed empty-handed and face-first in the river, spitting water and gasping for breath. Rin felt it first—an odd rumbling in the ground, which she first thought was a distant earthquake, but which grew louder and closer with each passing moment. Suddenly, coming at them at a terrifying speed, they saw the source of the sound: a great legion of demons led by a monstrous ogre, who was pushing a huge boulder down the river directly at them. The boulder scooped up the water in its path, and created a huge torrent of water and river rock that shot upwards and forwards. Rin and Jaken both screamed, sure that they would be swept away by the torrent created by the onrushing demons, or crushed beneath the weight of the water or the huge stone.
Diving like a great bird of prey, Sesshomaru flashed down from on high. He swept up Rin under his arm, and in a flash bounded away from the demon hoard. Jaken, however, was washed away by the wall of water being forced aloft by the ogre's boulder. "Sesshomaru-sama! Save me! Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken's plaintive scream rose above the roar of the water and the pounding of demon feet. Sesshomaru appeared to pay no attention, bounding instead towards a small hill that was well clear of the demon charge, with Rin tucked firmly under his arm. Upon reaching high ground, he gently set Rin down, and with a single motion drew Toukijin and fired a tremendous blast at the retreating demons.
"Sesshomaru-sama! Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken had managed to scramble his way up the ogre's stone to look over the heads of the demon mob—and he saw not the arrival of his master that he had hoped for, but Toukijin's blast, rapidly overtaking the demons. "No, master! Kill THEM—not ME!" Jaken screamed, then scrambled for cover just in time; Sesshomaru's blast struck, with enough force to blow the entire hoard high into the air. Jaken soon found himself at the bottom of a very large pile of very dead demons, struggling vainly to free himself from the immense pile of rubble and bodies.
(And although Jaken didn't realize it at the time, Sesshomaru had indeed saved him, both from his current predicament and from the battle that was to follow; his blow was so skillful that he dealt death to the attacking demons without touching Jaken, and had safely buried him somewhere that the enemy wouldn't think to look for him.)
Sesshomaru didn't have much time to admire his handiwork; only moments after he had saved Jaken, he was busy defending himself and Rin. He was beset by demons beyond number, attacking in wave after wave from all sides, with every sort of weapon imaginable. Sesshomaru responded in a beautiful but deadly ballet, parrying, attacking, counter-attacking: each stroke flowing seamlessly into the next. Rin had never seen anything so powerful, so terrifying, or so beautiful, but she had little opportunity to admire her guardian. She could only cower on the ground, covering her head and wincing as debris, weapons, and energy bolts whizzed about her.
Sesshomaru's sensitive hearing began to make sense of the incoherent hisses of the attacking demons. They seemed to be saying the same thing, over and over again, and suddenly, he understood them: "Get the girl. Get the girl. Get the girl." When he realized who was the real target of the demon's attack, his eyes glowed red with rage, and he threw back his head and gave a terrible roar. Something changed in the way he was beating back the demon attacks; his cadence of counterstrokes did not vary, but now, instead of simply disappearing in Sesshomaru's energy blasts, the attacking demons were set ablaze with cold green fire, and they burned to death very slowly—and, if their cries were any indication—very painfully. The sheer cruelty of Sesshomaru's new counterattack took the demons aback, and they pulled back to regroup.
After the attackers withdrew, Sesshomaru sunk to his knees, panting with exertion. Rin had never seen Sesshomaru wearied by a battle before. She knelt before him, and for the first time in her life, she reached out to him, taking him gently by the shoulders, and looked him squarely in the eyes. She had never touched him like this before; his eyes widened, his normally unreadable expression revealing his puzzlement.
"I heard them too," she said gravely. "They're only after me…they don't want you. You stay here…I will go to them." Sesshomaru gasped audibly—he was completely taken aback. In his tremendously long life, he had been threatened, cajoled, bargained with, pleaded with; but never had anyone offered themselves to save him. He started to speak, but Rin silenced him by throwing her arms around his neck and pressing her cheek to his. "I know that Tenseiga can't save me again. I know that if I die, I die. I don't care," she whispered, her voice brave but shaking. "You have saved my life more times than I can count. This time…let me save you." A single tear gently slid down her cheek, and the drop touched his skin, and ran down the crease where her cheek touched his.
Suddenly Tenseiga startled them both, shaking more violently than it ever had before. Sesshomaru pulled away from Rin to look at the sword, and Tenseiga throbbed with energy, vibrating so hard that it beat its sheath against the ground where Sesshomaru knelt. He grasped the hilt; and immediately, silence roared in his ears, and he couldn't feel his own pulse: time itself seemed to have come to a stop. A mist arose before his eyes, and from the mist came a deep and melodious voice: "Sesshomaru: would you know the secret of ultimate power?"
Sesshomaru nearly gasped with shock. He only managed to get out one word: "Father...?"
The mist slowly coalesced into the face of the Inu no Taisho, Sesshomaru's father, whom he had not seen since the evening that his father was killed saving the newborn Inuyasha. His father's golden eyes peered deeply into Sesshomaru's. "Humans are frail, weak things," his father continued, "but they are born with a power that we youkai can only dream of having. To protect their loved ones, humans will give everything they have, even their own lives—and in giving everything they have, they find strength beyond imagination."
His father paused a moment, then spoke intensely. "You have always been angry that I gave Tessaiga to Inuyasha, a hanyou. You have never forgiven him for my death, because I gave my life to save him and his mother. You have always hated him for his human side, and you have never felt that he was worthy of the power that I granted him. But had I given Tessaiga to you, you would have eventually grown tired of even its great power, and you never would have found your own true strength. Instead, I gave Tessaiga to Inuyasha…and it has helped him find the full power of his human heart, a force so strong that even you cannot prevail against it. In the protection of the one he loves, he may be beaten back, but he can never be defeated."
Sesshomaru's spirit sank; he could not look at his father. So, he thought, you have raised my hanyou brother above me; how little you must regard me.
But Sesshomaru's father continued: "I gave you Tenseiga for the same reason: so that you could find your true self, that you might reach beyond the power that comes so easily to you and grasp the true strength that lies hidden within you. Destruction comes from your hand easily—but Tenseiga is the sword of life, not death."
The mist and the voice both began to fade; time began flowing forward again. Sesshomaru's father's final words rang in the silence: "Ultimate power: the goal that you have sought all your life. The path lies before you, but the way cannot be opened by force, even by all the power that is within you. When the moment comes, and the choice must be made... remember: you cannot grasp your prize with clenched fists."
Sesshomaru shook his head to clear his vision; he was back in the present, still on his knees in front of Rin, who had neither seen nor heard his father's apparition. He shook his head again, then rose to his feet. Rin did so as well, her expression clearly showing both her resolve and her confusion. Something significant had just happened, she knew, but did not know what it was.
Sesshomaru looked unto the sky thoughtfully for a few moments, then he unclasped the white stole from his shoulder and wrapped it around Rin. "Quickly—cover yourself with this," he said briskly. "Stay there until I tell you to get up." She obeyed, crouching low on the ground and covering herself with the stole as best she could.
Sesshomaru drew Toukijin, and looked at it long and hard—then he tossed it casually onto the ground, turned without a second thought, and walked briskly away from it. Standing between Rin and the demon sword, he drew Tenseiga. The great sword pulsed joyfully, sending a thrill of power through Sesshomaru. Even though the sword never spoke using words, Sesshomaru had come to understand its messages, and with ever-increasing pulses, it said to him: This is why I exist—this is the moment for which I was made.
Sesshomaru held the sword out before him, and a blue vortex began forming along its blade. An inner light glowed from deep within its substance, lighting Sesshomaru's face, and its fire flashed within his eyes. As the whirlpool of energy formed around the sword, Sesshomaru summoned his own power, which likewise swirled in a radiant storm about him. Tenseiga's power and his own flowed seamlessly together, and as he held the sword aloft, strength and light surged through him. In a great voice, he cried to the heavens, "Father! Today I am truly your son!" And as if in response, a bolt of lightning cleaved the skies, flashing to the sword and kindling an even greater fire within it. And the light from Tenseiga was brighter than the sun, and at the sight of it the great demon host paused in its deliberations, and held its breath in terror.
Sesshomaru lifted the sword over his head; power rushed through him like a song, a wind rushed through his long white hair, and a violet-white nimbus formed around him. He cried out with a great voice that shook the very roots of the world: "You shall NOT harm her!" He swung Tenseiga down, and released both the sword's power and his own in one single, beautiful, terrible stroke.
A wave of searing blue-white energy flew forward at the leading edge of the blast. It struck the great sword Toukijin, and snapped it cleanly in two. The unimaginable evil that was held within the sword was in a flash utterly annihilated, and the force of that terror's destruction was caught up in Tenseiga's blast and its power added even more energy to the wave. The souls of the innocents who had been slaughtered for the blood in which the evil sword had been quenched were likewise freed by Tenseiga's heavenly force; they rushed out of the sword with a terrible shriek, and sped outward behind the power wave, flames in their hands, voices raised in cries of vengeance. And behind all this, in the wake of the supernal might that Sesshomaru had unleashed, came a boiling maelstrom of raw, inchoate power, through which there flew a hail of debris of boulders and trees: a whirlpool of sheer destruction, rushing at blinding speed towards the demon host.
Nothing could withstand the forces that Sesshomaru had loosed. Many of the demons simply died of fear at the sight of their onrushing destruction; many more were vaporized in the blink of an eye; those who survived the initial blast were shredded by the raging storm that followed the energy wave. Any who had the speed or fortune to avoid the initial blast and the storm were overtaken by the avenging souls that had been freed from Toukijin; and thus, not a single attacker escaped.
For a brief moment, Sesshomaru reveled in his handiwork; he had never imagined the magnitude of the power that lay within Tenseiga, or the forces that he himself was able to command with it. But his joy was short lived; he had spent his entire strength on that single stroke, and the power of the storm he had unleashed was now too great for him to control. He struggled to find footing against the wind, and dodged several boulders that blew his way. As he slid backwards, losing ground against the gale, his foot was stopped by something soft and warm: Rin, still protected by his great white stole, still holding onto the stole and the ground for dear life. The touch of her body brought him a horrible realization: although his youkai body and his remaining strength would probably ensure his own survival, no matter how roughly the storm tossed him about or battered him, Rin's frail human frame could not last much longer, even with the protection of his stole. He was too weak to summon enough power against the storm to save anyone but himself, his sword of destruction lay in pieces, and Tenseiga was cool and silent in his hand, its power spent; and with a shock, he realized that for the first time in his life, he had absolutely no idea what to do.
His bleak thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Tenseiga pulsing; it shook not violently as before, but gently, quietly. In his thoughts, he again heard his father's voice: "You cannot grasp your prize with clenched fists."
Sesshomaru looked at his hand, holding Tenseiga's hilt…and he slowly opened it, allowing the sword to fall softly on the ground at Rin's side. He clenched his fist, hard, with enough force to make his knuckles crack loudly enough to be heard over the raging storm…and then he slowly opened his hand again, and stared at his empty palm.
He felt Tenseiga pulsing again as it lay at his feet: pulsing gently, quietly, almost encouragingly, as he stared at his empty hand. And suddenly, he understood what his father had been trying to tell him, and he saw the choice that lay before him.
He could fight against the storm with what power remained within him … but he barely had enough strength to save himself; Rin would never survive. Or he could yield to the storm: not strive against it, but join with it; and once he had become one with the storm, he could change its course and save Rin from it. He looked down again at Rin, still obedient to his last command, still hiding herself under his stole; and at her side, Tenseiga pulsed one last time, approvingly: Yes, it said wordlessly, at last you understand.
Yes, Father, he thought, at last, I understand.
Sesshomaru knelt down next to Rin, where she lay on the ground still hiding under his stole. He could see her flinch whenever a bit of flying debris struck the parts of her body not protected by his stole, but just as he had taught her as a young child, she bore the pain of battle in silence, never making the slightest sound to betray any weakness to an enemy. When he realized that it was his teaching that she was following, and that she was following it well, he thought he felt something quite odd, something he had never felt before: was he…proud of Rin? He spent not a second's more thought on it, but rested his hand gently on her shoulder, and shouted to be heard over the storm: "Rin! Quickly—there's not much time."
She lifted her head, and when she saw him, she smiled. "Sesshomaru-sama!" she said, struggling to raise her voice above the storm. "You're OK! Thank goodness! I was afraid you had…" Her voice trailed off when she looked into his face. Sesshomaru's expression was unreadable as always, but eyes were boring intensely into hers—so intensely that for a horrible moment, Rin thought he was about to kill her himself. Instead, he reached out and touched her gently in the center of her forehead. She felt a strange, warm tingling, and her head swam for a moment. He started to withdraw his hand, but hesitated; and then, efficiently but gently, he wiped the last remaining tear from her cheek.
Suddenly businesslike, he said, "Keep your head down." He adjusted the stole to better cover her body and her head. "Don't get up until it's safe—until it's over."
Rin blinked, confused. "Over...?" she asked.
Sesshomaru growled, "NOW, Rin."
Instantly she obeyed him, crouching as low as she could, covering her head with her arms, and allowing Sesshomaru to bundle the stole around her.
Sesshomaru looked down at Rin one last time… Then without another word, he lifted his head proudly, stretched out his arm, and spread himself upon the wind; and gently, gracefully, he floated upwards into the storm.
As he rose into the air, Sesshomaru's body glowed with a pure and beautiful light; and as he felt his body slipping away, merging with the maelstrom, he was filled with a strength that was unlike anything he had ever felt before. This was what he had been searching for all his life: power—his own ultimate power. He had always wielded the power of conquest, the power of death. But this was even greater: the power of peace, of release—of life. He was at last satisfied; and, for the first time in his life, truly happy. Sesshomaru calmly watched his body gently melting away in a swirl of light, and into the light he spoke gently, almost to himself: "Father. You were right." And with the last breath of his body, he spoke the words that he had never once spoken before: "Thank you."
Sesshomaru's light spread like a wildfire through the raging storm. Struggling against him, the storm howled and beat against the ground with renewed ferocity; but the light prevailed, and the bonds that held the storm together were broken. The great whirlwind suddenly shattered, its substance transforming into glittering lights that gently fluttered like snowflakes onto the ground below. And then, all was silent.
After several long minutes, Rin struggled to her feet and looked around her. Obeying Sesshomaru's last command, she had hid herself beneath his stole until she was sure that the battle was over, and never once had even lifted her head to look around. She knew that the fighting was fierce from the deafening roar of the winds and the shaking of the earth at Sesshomaru's voice, and the unearthly tingling that she felt as Tenseiga's blast wave shot over her, but she was totally unprepared for what she saw. Total destruction lay in every direction, as far as her eye could see. Huge boulders had been torn out of the earth and hurled in every direction; massive trees had been uprooted; the path of the river in which she and Jaken had been fishing (was it only an hour ago?) had been completely changed. The grass still waved gently on the hillock on which she stood, but the ground for yards around it had been fused solid, the earth itself transformed into glass by the heat of the power Sesshomaru had summoned. And beyond that lay an even more grisly sight: the remains of the demon army, some with the flesh burned off their bones from the blast itself, some flensed by the whirling debris of the tempest that had followed the blast; the lucky ones who had been killed instantly were still-smoking piles of ash. Rin had grown steeled to Sesshomaru's brutality, but this was destruction on a scale that she had never even imagined. Her head swam, and she sank to her knees, clutching her mouth, her forehead covered in a cold sweat.
Her hand fell upon the hilt of Tenseiga; she felt the pulse of the sword in her grip, and the unearthly energy of the living sword startled her out of her shock. The sword pulsed again; although she heard no words, she felt as though Tenseiga was calling to her.
Then, she saw him.
In the coming years, she would learn to recognize what Tenseiga showed her for what it was: emissaries of the next world attempting to capture and devour a soul. But at this moment, she did not understand the true meaning of the vision Tenseiga was granting her. All she knew was that before her was Sesshomaru in what was clearly a fierce battle for his life, furiously struggling with evil, winged figures—and she could see that he was losing. She had only held Tenseiga once or twice before, and then always in its sheath; she had never wielded it, or any sword for that matter, in her life. And yet, without a second's thought, with an angry shout she hurled herself at the demons attacking Sesshomaru, viciously slashing at them with Tenseiga. The demons recoiled from the fire in her dark eyes, and tried vainly to shield themselves from her sword, but to no avail. With the fury of a mother protecting her children, Rin tore into the demons, slicing them into oblivion. Her breath came heavy with the exertion, and sweat ran down her forehead into her eyes until she was nearly blind, but she stood her ground with the blade facing her opponents until the last demon had dissolved into nothingness.
It was only then that Rin saw that Sesshomaru's body was shining, translucent: a living spirit, but without flesh. Tenseiga had saved Sesshomaru's spirit from the emissaries of the next world, and normally such a rescued spirit would return to its body and re-enter this world. But Sesshomaru's body was gone, given to the storm in order to save Rin from its fury. The only things of substance left were his kimono, his breastplate, and the spiked demon-bone ring that he wore at his left shoulder. Sesshomaru seemed briefly at a loss; then, he saw the shards of Toukijin, lying not far away on the grass. He dissolved into mist, which settled on the sword-shards, and then sunk into the metal; and Rin heard his deep voice inside her mind. "Rin. Take the swords to Totosai."
Rin had seen too much that day, and she was unable to grasp what he had asked of her. "Totosai? Who? I'm sorry, Sesshomaru-sama, I don't know the way. I don't know what to do."
She heard his voice again: "Aun knows the way. Quickly, Rin. There's not much time."
Sesshomaru's command immediately restored Rin's composure. All her life, she had obeyed his every command without question, and having an order to follow immediately quenched her fears and put her mind at rest. She gathered the sword shards, the sheaths, and Tenseiga, and wrapped them in Sesshomaru's kimono; then she tied the whole bundle up with the stole. She looked about for Aun, but in the vast devastation, she could not see a single living thing beyond the hill on which she stood. In desperation, she cried out as loud as she could, "Aun! Aun! Sesshomaru-sama needs us!" Then, more urgently, "Aun! I need you! Help me!"
She heard the great beast's roar, and he burst forth from underneath one of the many piles of demon corpses that littered the battlefield. He shook off the grisly remains, then flew quickly to her side. Seeing her distress, he kindly nuzzled her face, and she returned his greeting warmly, happy to see anything alive in the midst of this devastation. But then she hurriedly jumped on his back, tying the sword-bundle across her own shoulders as she spoke. "Aun—quickly, take me to Totosai. As fast as you can fly, Aun! We have to save Sesshomaru-sama!" Aun gave a mighty roar, then leapt into the air and flew as he had never flown before—so fast that the wind in Rin's eyes nearly blinded her, and she feared that she might be blown off the great beast's back. As she clung to Aun with all her strength, she prayed silently, over and over: Sesshomaru-sama, please be all right.