Chapter Two: Visitor
"Sesshoumaru-sama?" Jaken asked timidly.
"Didn't I tell you to watch over Rin until I came to get you?" Sesshoumaru demanded.
"O-of course, Sesshoumaru-sama, but...she's stronger than I am!" Jaken wailed.
Rin skipped out from behind the trees. She was ten and a half now, having met Sesshoumaru shortly before her ninth birthday. She would be eleven in a few months, and she refused to be babysat by a toad. "Hi, Sesshoumaru-sama!"
"Didn't I tell you to stay with Jaken?" he asked with exasperation.
"Yeah...but I wanted to see Kagome-sama," she explained. "Why is she with Inuyasha?"
"It looks like they're awfully cozy, Sesshoumaru-sama," Jaken pointed out.
"I wanna go say hello!" Rin announced, heading for the moonless patch of field where Inuyasha and Kagome sat.
However, Sesshoumaru caught her by the back of her kimono. "No, leave them alone. Kagome will come to us if we wait." He spared a glance to the sky. "We must leave by sunrise, regardless."
Briefly, Rin considered shedding the kimono and running to Kagome, but she decided against it, instead snuggling up next to Sesshoumaru and falling asleep. Sesshoumaru had learned shortly after her tenth birthday not to fight her on these matters. As much as he hated to admit it, Sesshoumaru had developed into somewhat of a father figure for the little human girl. They settled at the base of a tree with a good view of Inuyasha and Kagome while Jaken meandered with Aun. The little ten-year-old nearly disappeared in Sesshoumaru's clothes, which Sesshoumaru found amusing.
Before Kagome could get away for a few moments, the sky had turned gray with pre-dawn. When she finally approached them, Rin greeted her first.
"Kagome-sama! Kagome-sama!" she cried.
"Rin-chan!" Kagome greeted her. Then she nodded to Jaken somberly. "Hello, Jaken-san."
"Hello, Kagome-sama," the toad answered stiffly.
"I just wanted to say goodbye before the sun rises and Inuyasha smells you three on me," the miko sighed.
"Kagome-sama..." Rin whined, clinging to her legs.
"Oh!" the miko cried, digging in her pockets. "Here you go, Rin-chan."
"Kyah!" the little girl exclaimed, beaming. She clutched a drawing pad and package of crayons to her chest then promptly put them away in a bag Kagome had brought for her last month. Sesshoumaru cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow at Rin. Cluelessly, she stared at him for a few moments before realizing what he wanted her to do. She turned to Kagome and bowed. "Thank you, Kagome-sama!"
"You're welcome, Rin-chan," she smiled. "May I speak with Sesshoumaru-kun for a moment in private, you two?"
Rin nodded, grabbed Jaken (who still held Aun's reins), and dashed off.
"What do you want to talk about?" the youkai questioned.
"How much longer do you need me to go this, Sesshoumaru-kun?" Kagome wanted to know. "I...I'm losing Inuyasha, and it's only been a year. If you need me until she's seventeen or eighteen...I'll be in my twenties." She looked down. "By then, I'll have truly lost Inuyasha."
"That's another matter I wanted to discuss," Sesshoumaru said, not answering Kagome's original question. As he spoke, he spared a glance at the sky. It began to color with navy blue and pink. "Inuyasha and...well, I found a letter our father wrote to us. He wanted us to reconcile and work together--that's the reason he made Tetsusaiga and Tenseiga."
"That's not new," Kagome commented.
"He wanted Inuyasha to defeat and I to heal the innocents harmed."
"Yeah..."
"I never wanted to do that until I met you, Kagome. I see how much Inuyasha means to you...to all of you. He may be half-human, but he is still my brother. The least I could do is be on speaking terms with him."
"You could also come around more often," Kagome realized thoughtfully. She had forgotten her original question. "I'll talk to him about it, Sesshoumaru-kun."
The sky overhead had turned orange.
"Goodbye, you three. See you in a week!" she bade them. "Bye bye, Rin-chan!"
"Bye bye, Kagome-mama!"
"Mama?" she repeated faintly.
"C'mon, Sesshoumaru-papa!" Rin cried.
Sighing, Kagome headed back to camp. When she got there, Inuyasha appeared back in his hanyou form. Please don't smell Sesshoumaru-kun on me... she pleaded silently.
Inuyasha sniffed. "Keh! My nose is doing weird things. I smell," he stopped to growl, "Sesshoumaru on you, Kagome. Maybe I smell like him in my human form?"
"Maybe," Kagome agreed. Please believe that...
"You don't..." Shippou trailed off.
Inuyasha blinked, startled. "That would mean that Kagome was with Sesshoumaru..."
In shock, both the hanyou and the kitsune looked up at Kagome. Shippou kept his mouth shut, not volunteering the information that he could smell Sesshoumaru all night. Miroku and Sango backed away, each for different reasons--Miroku because he had felt the youkai's prescence all night; Sango because Kagome had informed her of the promise the miko had made to Sesshoumaru. Amber eyes clouded with confusion, Inuyasha stared at Kagome. "Why were you with Sesshoumaru? Why didn't you tell me he was here?"
"You wouldn't understand, Inuyasha," she told him quietly, evasively. "It doesn't matter, anyway. He won't hurt me. He won't hurt any of us."
She betrayed me, Inuyasha thought bitterly. "Keh. Do what you want. I don't care."
I should have told him, Kagome realized.
"Come on," the hanyou grunted. "Let's go. We still only have," he paused to snatch the shikon shards from Kagome's neck, "this much of the Shikon no Tama gathered."
The others, minus Kagome, nodded. "I'm not hungry," volunteered Sango.
"Me either," Miroku and Shippou chorused.
Roughly, Inuyasha thrust the shikon shards back into Kagome's hands.
The rift Inuyasha noticed between them earlier ripped wider.
"Let me get my things," Kagome muttered.
Sesshoumaru, meanwhile, had gone back to his camp, staring in the direction he came from. It was lunchtime already. I wish I could have talked with her a little longer, he thought wistfully. In fact, he came so absorbed in that thought that he didn't hear when Rin came up behind him, thus he nearly jumped out of his skin when she spoke.
"Sesshoumaru-papa," the little girl said. Startled, the surrogate father youkai turned to face her. "Are you thinking about Kagome-mama?"
"N-no," he denied, his face coloring red.
"Oh...well, I am. I miss Kagome-mama...it's boring playing with Jaken-sama," she complained.
"We'll see Kagome next week, Rin," he answered, placing a hand on her head. "Didn't she give you those color sticks and some paper?"
"Oh! That's right! ...I still want to play with Kagome-mama..."
"Wait until next week," he said firmly.
"Okay, Sesshoumaru-papa," Rin agreed. She settled down with crayons and the paper. Identifying Jaken's colors, she decided to draw Jaken in a rather unflattering position: him eating a fly. "Look, Sesshoumaru-papa!" she cried, thrusting her drawing at him.
Sesshoumaru gave it barely a glance. "That's nice, Rin."
Beaming, the girl ran to Jaken. "Jaken-sama, look! Look!"
Jaken looked up from his mid-morning snack, saw the drawing, and cried out. "What the hell!" the toad yelled. He snatched his staff up and raised it over his head. "Why did you do that!" Without a second thought, he began to bring the staff down on Rin.
However, he stopped mid-swing when he heard a low, rumbling growl from behind him. Slowly, he lowered his staff and went back to his snack, grumbling about bratty little human girls. Not noticing his grumbling, Rin went back to drawing pictures of Jaken. She continued to show them to Sesshoumaru, who gave slight variations of "that's nice" every time.
Becoming bored after the first ten or so pictures, Rin decided to "play" with Jaken. "Come on, Jaken-sama! Let's play!"
"Sesshoumaru-sama! HELP!" the toad cried.
"With what?" Sesshoumaru asked, sitting on a rock.
"Rin...!" Jaken yelled.
"Rin," Sesshoumaru called. "Play nice."
"Okay, Sesshoumaru-papa! I will!" Rin promised, turning to the toad youkai with mischief in her eyes. "We'll have fun, Jaken-sama."
Jaken just let loose a wail of despair.
After a few hours of "playing" with Jaken, Rin realized she was hungry and looked to Sesshoumaru. To her surprise, the youkai had prepared dinner for her and sat calmly, facing the direction which he had gone to see Kagome the night before. With a squeal--it was a treat when Sesshoumaru made dinner for her, as he always told her to go find food herself--Rin rushed back to camp, petting Aun as she did. "Thank you, Sesshoumaru-papa!"
Jaken limped back to camp and sat against Aun dejectedly.
While Rin ate, an idea hatched in her head. She desperately wanted to see Kagome, and Kagome and her friends probably hadn't gone far from where they were the night before. Most likely, she could make it to Kagome, Inuyasha, Shippou, Sango, and Miroku's camp before nightfall or shortly thereafter. The only thing she had to do was get away from Sesshoumaru without him noticing.
He's dazed. He probably won't notice if I leave, Rin decided. When she finished, she rose and walked over to Jaken, who flinched. "Jaken-sama," Rin said sweetly. "Don't tell Sesshoumaru-papa that I'm gone. In fact, distract him. Or else."
Frightened, Jaken nodded. "Yes, Rin-sama. Whatever you say!"
"Good," smiled she. "Get to it."
Hurriedly, Jaken jumped up and ran to Sesshoumaru, lugging Rin's drawings. "Sesshoumaru-sama, have you seen Rin-sama's pictures?"
"..." answered Sesshoumaru.
Rin took this opportunity to run like the bats of hell were behind her.