UnSpoken Love By: OtakuSailorV
Chapter 17:: What Seeks To DestroyThe girl was still trembling in his arms; her teeth grit against the pain as a cold sweat rolled over her small body.
He was unsure about what to do. The girl appeared in so much pain, yet there appeared to be nothing to do for her. Her mouth opened; a tiny gasp for air filled his ears. His ears rang with the sharp, pained sound.
Reaching out with his youkai senses, he tried to grasp on to the origin of the invading threat. Sniffing the air lightly, he tested her breaths for signs of disease. There was nothing on her that reeked of a virus though. Perplexed as to how to help, her continued to hold onto her as he looked up tot he human-city. 'They will be able to help her.' He told himself and stood again.
Rin protested to the sudden change, giving a little groan of displeasure as her muscles tightened in pain. He looked down at her with soft golden eyes. Sesshoumaru was unsure if she could hear him or not with all the pain she was in, but he spoke to comfort her anyway. "I am taking you to the Human Healers." He told her with a soft tone, devoid of his usual coldness.
Without another word he was in the air and heading at a fast pace toward the Hospital that he was sure could help the young girl.
Inside of herself, Rin was huddled into a tight ball of pain, trying to keep her sanity as she fought off the being that was taking so much pleasure in her pain. His dark, silky chuckles filled her mind, making her soul shiver and her mind scream in rage and fright.
Why was he doing this to her, this invader in her mind and body? Would he revel in her suffering before finally killing her? Rin shivered throughout her whole body, giving a scream of pain as another squeeze on her heart came from the hand around it. "Stop!" She cried, not sure if it was in her mind that she was screaming, or it had been heard audibly by someone.
She caught onto that thought briefly as someone's words reached through the darkness to her. "I am taking you to the Human Healers." Yes! There was someone with her wasn't there? Someone was holding onto her, sharing their warmth with her, trying to help her. She smiled a little as a face came floating back.
'Oh! He's beautiful!' She gasped inwardly at the returning, warm memory. A smile crossed her features despite the intense pain that still plagued her. She nurtured the happiness that had started to grow inside of her at the memory of the nameless man. The happiness was important to her, for it made her blissfully oblivious to the pain that wracked her body on the outside.
From the darkness came a hissing noise, similar to that of a snake when it has been struck while attempting to finish it's prey. It receded in a twisting motion that symbolized pain and wary anger. It continued to hiss as darkness and light met, and at one point, the hisses had sounded very human-like to Rin's ears. Still preoccupied with the happiness that she was clutching onto, she watched in astonishment as a ray of light burst sharply out from her and shot through the darkness like an arrow.
Sesshoumaru looked down at the girl who was radiating happiness despite the pained look on her face and the overwhelming pain he could sense rolling off of her in giant waves. Confused slightly by this sudden change, he only barely started to feel his heart speed up and his youkai senses heighten without his knowledge as he looked down on the trembling human.
By the time he had caught onto what was happening and had pulled himself from his musings, he was astounded to find that the ningen girl he was holding was now shining brightly. His eyes widened slightly at the fact that he had been caught so off guard by the sudden change in even his own bodily functions. Why had he not noticed this all?
He shoved the questions and anger at his stupidity aside, as he became fascinated with the closeness of what he had been seeking for so long. The light. . .the strange object – no, person – he had been searching for, for so long lay in his arms, finally showing what he had demanded of her before. What was this strange thing that he found himself so attracted to? And what was this silly human girl doing with it? Something in the far reaches of his mind contradicted the 'silly human girl' part and reminded him that she had a name, but buried the thought under a score of others.
Sesshoumaru picked up his speed again seeing as he had slowed to study the growing light and happiness that was coming off the girl.
Suddenly, as if trying to draw his attention back to itself, a burst of light shot forth from the girl in a wide arc that enveloped first her, and then him as well. Startled, all he had time to do was pull his head back from the light, his teeth grit as his golden eyes widened and danced with confusion and surprise.
He briefly lost his sight as the light grew to such a high level that his pupils could widen no farther to gather it all without rising straight out of the eyeballs they were enclosed in. Biting back a growl as colored dots flashed before his eyes, he closed them sharply, more of a reflex than his own personal doing.
The rush of the wind suddenly was gone, leaving a ringing noise in them that echoed back into his mind. It was replaced almost instantly by the rushing, strangely enveloping sound of a large amount of energy being released. The sound reverberated around him, flowing through his entire form and reaching out behind him into the world beyond. He could not feel, but rather sensed the air ripple out behind him from the shock wave that had blown forth from the girl in his arms.
The strange warp that the power had created hummed around him as the blast of light held steady for one single moment – which to him seemed like a life time – before it finally dimmed.
Rin was aware of outside noises, but nothing was loudly than the hiss of pain that came from – what she supposed was – the one who was causing her pain. She knew she had struck a powerful blow to him, but was unsure how and what affect it would have. Her questions were answered when the tight grip on her heart had suddenly been relinquished and she let out a gasp for air, the feeling of immense pain ebbing away.
When she took her first gasp for air, she was aware that it was a double-breath, but wasn't embarrassed at the gulping noise she had created. It was highly necessary to her, and she wasn't about to just stop trying to gather more air because she was embarrassed of onlookers' reactions.
She did try to calm her erratic breaths however, but to no avail, her lungs were demanding more and more air until she was sure that her throat would be burned with the rushing winds going in and out.
Slowly, her eyes fluttered open, and at first all she saw was a black, bleary world. Her head throbbed and her heartbeat was as rapid and erratic as her breaths. She could feel the cold sweat running down her body, and the warm embrace that held her comfortingly as the sound of the wind started to sound in her ears. Confused briefly about her whereabouts, she gasped and tried to sit up, only to receive a dull, aching pain in her chest that signified that her body wouldn't allow her to do anything rash while it recovered.
Her breaths starting to shorten, her found that one hand was still painfully clutching a place on her shirt where she supposed her heart was. The skin underneath throbbed in several places, indicating fingernail marks that were her own doing, probably from when she had grabbed too hard onto her skin in her pain.
Desperately trying to calm and take in her surroundings, the blackness started to fade away, revealing vast light-blue skies that were starting to darken and mix with the colors of a sunset. The smell of damp was on the wind, something she had come to recognize as either the passing or the coming of a storm, or at least some heavy, humid weather. Her hair was thrust back from her head as she flew through the air in the arms of some unknown individual; it was wet from her sweat, but was quickly drying out in the rushing airs.
Suddenly taking in that she was up high in the air, supported by someone she had yet to recall the face of, she turned sharply, her eyes wide with confusion, mouth slightly agape, ready to scream. As soon as his golden eyes met hers, she was reminded of whom she was with, and why it had taken her so long to finally feel threatened. This man – no, this youkai – meant her no harm, or at least had not shown that he meant her harm, and she was trusting of that.
Rin's family had always told her she became naïve once she gave her trust to someone, yet she could see nothing wrong with this. He had shown protectiveness – in a way- toward her, and she was willing to accept that he would let none of those that followed them touch her or hurt her. Plus, she reminded herself, he appeared quite strong, despite his cold demeanor.
Sighing, she gave him a trusting smile, eyes shining with the emotion as the softened from their wide-eyed gaze on him.
Sesshoumaru's eyes searched hers briefly, for a moment; she thought she saw a flash of relief in the golden eyes, but it was gone before she could be sure.
The soft smile turned into a toothy grin before she could stop herself. A laugh bubbled up inside of her and before she could check her –for this certainly was not the time to be laughing – she exploded with it as well.
Sesshoumaru watched this all with slight interest mixed with confusion. He had never really understood humans, and hadn't ever planned on trying to understand them, but he found a strange kind of annoyance in not understanding what the girl found so funny. Not only had she given him such a trusting, confident smile, but then she had to burst out giggling on top of it. Was she mocking him in some way?
Scoffing inwardly, he fixed on a glare on her at the idea. Even if he would not harm her, he would not allow her to make a joke of his personage. Raising one eyebrow, he diminished the glare before she saw it and tersely thinned out his lips in brief anger.
"What is so funny, human? I do not see this as a time to be laughing about anything." He said sharply and with a cold kind of anger to the words.
Rin's eyes were squeezed shut as she pressed her hands on her stomach, trying to quell the muscle knot that had appeared with her laughter. Though she was still aching and hurt from the strange dark power from before, she could not bring herself to think seriously at the moment.
Calming herself enough to speak, she looked up to him with pleased, happy eyes, small tears of joy forming at the corners of her eyes. "I-I'm sorry. . .I know it's n-not. . .I'm. . .I'm just. . .so h-happy." She said through giggles.
Taking a deep breath, she banished the laughing fit completely and gave him a genuine smile again. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to confuse you."
Her apology seemed to be without lie or second thought, yet he still could not place why she seemed so content now, not to mention that he was still confused about her reaction to seeing him right after that immense amount of pain on her poor body.
He was drawn from his thoughts when he fragile body grew taut and trembled as she yawned widely. Covering her mouth, her eyes blinked slightly in need of sleep. Sesshoumaru had anticipated this. A body could never exert so much energy and take so much pain for so long without becoming exhausted. Obviously the laughing fit had taken what little energy she had left, leaving her drained and vulnerable.
Sighing inwardly at her lack of strength, he slowed his rapid pace to the Hospital. In an effort to get some final questions answered before she nodded off, he gave one of her arms a little squeeze. Her reaction was to be expected. He had seen humans give this signal to each other when they wished to speak, but were afraid of startling the other who might be busy with some other thing at the time. She jumped only slightly, and her exhausted eyes turned up to him in question, asking a question without actually speaking.
"Do you think you are in need of Human Healers?"
She seemed confused by the terminology for a moment, as she paused slightly, turning her head away to stare at the approaching city. "'Human Healers'. . .? Oh, oh no." She shook her head, causing her to stop and wince at the pain that brought her. "I'm fine, youkai-san." She assured him.
Sesshoumaru's lips turned downward in a frown. "You are injured by your encounter. . ." He dropped off, not sure what to call it.
Rin caught the slight edge in his voice and cast her eyes away from his, a tinge of fright growing in them. "Something. . .someone was grabbing my heart. . .they wanted to kill me. . ." She was confused by this, and her voice held the confusion and not the fright or quavering that he was sure would ring clear in her tone.
He was silent for a moment, letting her think everything over before he spoke again. Still, despite all this, his tone remained free of emotion, chilled and as authoritative as ever. "You were injured by your encounter, young human," He began, catching her eyes again, though he tried to keep his straight forward. For some reason, he could not keep himself from having at least a moment of eye-contact with her when he bespoke her. It made very little sense to him why his body should move of it's own accord like this, but no matter his efforts, it kept on without a care for his wishes. "I believe you at least must see someone who can affirm that you need no special treatment."
Rin remained silent again. She had never liked doctors, simply for the fact that with doctors came needles. And whenever she was around doctors, they always seemed to have a reason to whip out a needle and press it into her skin and veins to inject some strange fluid into her that supposedly 'helped' her. But normally only made the muscles around the injection point ache for the rest of the day. Narrowing her eyes and making a face at the idea of more needles, Rin turned her eyes back up to him. "Y-you don't have to. . .I mean, those youkai guys might show up again and. . ." Rin dropped off.
Sesshoumaru smirked slightly at her concern, but there was also two different fears laced into her voice. Fear for the following youkai, and fear for the doctors he had offered to take her to.
Again there was silence, and he found that she had not much time left to choose, for the city loomed ahead of them, dark and serious. Not glorious as humans proclaimed they're stone and steel to be, but hard and withdrawn, foreboding and uninviting.
The girl suddenly jumped in his arms, excitement flooding through her body. Her grip on his arm tightened greatly and she turned a smile on him that was bright against the stony dark towers of the human city. "Keade-Obaa-chan!!" She exclaimed with a child-like excitement.
He raised his eyebrows at her sudden outburst. "'Keade-Obaa-chan?'" Sesshoumaru asked in a slightly interested tone. "How do you know of her?"
Inuyasha caught the scent of pain on the wind and immediately his youkai instincts kicked in, tensing his body at the smell of a female in utter and desperate pain.
Kagome, being so close to both Rin and Inuyasha seemed to sense the unease in him and the pain her cousin was going through. "Inuyasha. . ." She breathed quietly, her eyes wide in slight fear. "Inuyasha, what's the matter?"
Inuyasha's growl was audible and Kirara echoed it, for she too had sensed what the half breed and miko were sensing.
Kirara was extremely protective of Rin, a trait she had picked up from her mistress, Sango, and Kagome. Though she had also always been protective of Kagome, Rin appeared like a kit to her. Kirara had come into Sango's possession before Rin had been born, and had stayed by her side as her 'pet cat' ever since she was a child. And in return, Rin was very loving to her, and from this Rin had learned to trust youkai and not to fear them, no matter their shape. Despite this, Kirara was admittedly jealous of the youkai male that dared take her precious kit from her, and to allow her to come to harm was even worse in her reddened gaze.
Roaring anger at the hanyou, Kirara sped forward, Inuyasha matching her speed length for length. His ears perked toward her, his golden eyes whirling with sympathy and understanding for a brief moment.
"What's the matter with Rin-chan?" Sango demanded her own anger at the youkai rising to the surface. She hated being the only one among them that could not sense such things, and Kirara's agitation only made it worse.
"Rin's hurt." Inuyasha said shortly. "And it wasn't Sesshoumaru's doing." He said when Sango grit her teeth in annoyed defiance; the glint in her eyes betrayed her thoughts.
Inuyasha had not had the intention of defending his brother, but he would not have Sango going to fight him on unnecessary reasoning.
Sango's brilliant eyes turned back on him for a brief moment before she spurred Kirara on. "I don't care if his doing or not! He had better be protecting Rin-chan!!" She yelled back, her voice carrying on the wind to his ears.
Kagome sighed at her sister's rashness. "We had better catch up with her before she attacks your brother." She said into Inuyasha's ear to be sure that he heard her.
He half-smiled at the two sisters again. They really hadn't change in his absence, something he found very pleasing. He would not have liked to come back to an alienated version of the two.
Inuyasha's youkai senses took back over as he sensed something powerful coming, splitting the balance of time, and making it seem – if only briefly – that time had stopped. A distant flash of flight caught his eye and he keenly sped toward Kirara and Sango with inhuman speed and agility.
Both taijiya and youkai had stopped as they sensed in unison the oncoming power surge. Inuyasha reached them in time to yell a quick order to fall back to the ground before something seemed to give a tiny explosion inside of the light, making the air actually ripple away from the blast.
They fell back, just barely about to touch the ground when the blast hit them, sending a strange sensation through their entire beings before they were tossed from the air and landed heavily on the ground in heaps.
Inuyasha gave a growl of anger, matched by Kirara as she pulled herself from the ground soon after the force had died away. Checking to make sure their human companions were secure, Inuyasha and Kirara both let out resigned sighs of relief.
In the distance, a dull shining caught Inuyasha's eye as he brought Kagome up from the grass with ease. His golden eyes narrowed, focusing on the source that seemed so far away from him and his companions as it slowly faded away into the sky. Sniffing the winds, he found that Rin's pain was no longer lingering in the air, and seemed to have dulled beyond his half-youkai senses to reach, which meant she was comfortable and secure again.
Comforted by this thought only slightly, he watched as Kagome's gaze also lingered on the fading light in the distance. "Rin. . ." She said in a hushed tone. Turning his head, he realized that Sango and Kirara were also gazing at it with some intensity.
Making a face, he realized that they knew something that he did not. Looking from one to the other, he continued to give them a hard look before finally giving an angered sigh that drew their attention. "We should get going, you two." He grumbled. "Unless your hurt?"
His voice contained its old air now. The haughty, slightly pompous, I'm-stronger-than-you tone that had always infuriated the pair, Kagome more than Sango though. Forgetting the seriousness of the moment, Kagome played along, if only for old-times sake and batted him in the back of the head with her hand. "We're not that fragile, thank you."
Inuyasha rubbed the back of his head and gave her a toothy grin as she resumed her seat on his back. "Yeah, yeah." He grunted at her, though his amusement at the situation was obvious.
Kagome leaned down next to his ear and threatened him with a 'sit' if he didn't stop. Gulping back non-existent fear, he grinned again – this time to himself – and took to the air, Sango and Kirara behind them as they ascended and continued on their chase.
Yo, V-chan here. Hope you haven't missed me too much? sweatdrop
For a special birthday present from me to you this week (yeah, had my B-day this week) I made the chapter longer, and with more Sessh/Rin than I originally intended to be in this chapter. Hope that you guys like. grin
More about the 'light' thing will be explained in future chapters, but not in this next one. Sorry guys, but if you must know, the explanation will actually come from our own Lady Tsumi! sweatdrop
As for my reviewers, thank you as always! flourishing bow I'm grateful for your support and adoration, though I do not deserve it. grin Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
See ya! Ja'ne!
Review please!!