UnSpoken Love By: OtakuSailorV

Chapter 25: Cries of a Cursed Soul

She was mad, raving mad. Sesshoumaru parried several of her strikes as she came at him, cackling madly, her eyes wide and filled with a feverish light that would have shaken lesser youkai.

She had already half-transformed, and the whites of her eyes were tinged red as blood ran into them. The coloring of her eyes flickered between gold and an eerie green, and still she laughed. She held no weapon but her own claws, which had grown out to quite a long length. Her fangs glistened as she snapped at him, yelling some insane thing over and over again.

What had caused the old woman to finally snap? He wondered to himself grimly as he forced her back time after time.

She had looked quite angry before, but when he had moved in front of the human girl, there was suddenly this still ness that came over her. She had halted, mouth thin and stretched across her face, eyes wide and outraged. Yuwakusha had stopped in her steps to stare at the elder youkai woman.

The girl's features had soon contorted and he heard her whimper like a pup before backing away, running off and abandoning her Lady. Sesshoumaru had snorted, seeing her leave, the girl had never had much of a backbone when it came to fighting.

Now he was constantly dodging, one eye on the human girl, making sure she was all right.

Annoyed, he slashed out with his sword as Tsumi dashed forward. He caught her arm, a deep gash forming along the forearm where his blade had been. She let out a deep growl before slipping backward and landing in a primitive stance, barring her fangs at him. "Filth, slime, just like your father!" She hissed and then laughed to herself in a mad way.

Sesshoumaru's features remained impassive as he stared at her. He had known that she had gone mad when his father had taken a human mate and she had been left in shame. To have a human chosen over her, a regal youkai, had been like a slap to her face, and Tsumi definitely had an ego on her.

But this, yes, maybe he had known this would happen. Still, how silly of her to think that he had-. . .did he? He wasn't sure of it; it was as if his mind were at war when the question arose.

This was no time to be thinking about such things though, and he pushed it aside, though it continued to nag him as he watched his mother.

She hadn't even stopped to look at her wound she was in such a frenzied state. Her back had started to bend and her claws came closer together as she continued her slow transformation into her dog form. A wild look filled her eyes, only watching her son as she continued to laugh.

The arm with the gouge in it hung limply in front of her, blood slid down and dripped from the tips of her claws into a small pool on the ground that was steadily growing larger. It was starting to heal though; as a full youkai she was able to heal herself faster than humans of hanyou's.

Tenseiga shuddered at his side and Sesshoumaru laid a clawed hand to it as if to try and soothe it. Toukijin answered it's shudder with one of it's own, though it's was more powerful and it seemed as if it were crying for blood.

Sesshoumaru looked at his pulsating blades with narrowed eyes. What were they acting up for?

By now, his mother had fully transformed, though she had not taken the giant dog form he had suspected. Instead she just looked like an oversized dog, standing about six feet at the shoulder. She snarled. Her eyes were still wild and her tail was held erect, head close to the ground as she let out a demented imitation of her earlier laughing. "The light, the light, just like your father." She giggled like a little girl to herself before her eyes flashed and she dashed at her son, fangs and claws at the ready.

Sesshoumaru parried with Toukijin, which sent out little slashes of dark energy that cut her as she descended toward him. She was determined though; mad beyond reasoning with her own safety and she landed on the blunt side of the blade, trying to push it back with her forepaws and snapping at his head with her huge jaws.

Her warm blood splattered across him and matted her silver hair as Toukijin continued to send the little stabs of energy through her.

Tsumi cackled as she snapped at her son, her own blood on her teeth and dripping from her mouth mixed with saliva. "Silly boy, bad boy, the light, just like your father, a human wench, an ugly human wench over me." It was as if she was teasing him, and her voice had grown high-pitched, taking an eerie and disturbing tone to it.

Rin watched with disbelief and something akin to fear. That beast, she could see it's soul as black as night and disturbed by some dark past that had finally driven the old crone mad. To see mother and son fighting like bitter enemies made her heart cry out, and she desperately searched her mind again and again for a way to help, to get them to stop.

A flicker of something was kindled within her heart and soul and she felt it grow, spreading warmth throughout her body and soothing her fears. She marveled at it, for it gave back her capacity to reason without the other frenzied thoughts overlapping.

Taking a deep breath, she inched forward slowly until she was finally walking at full strides toward the jousting pair.

Sesshoumaru turned one golden eye on the girl as he felt her approach and sensed some new power suddenly arise from her. He felt his pulse quicken and sudden energy flood him as he spied what he had been waiting for to appear. The Light.

It shone right from her; illuminating her and making her almost seem unearthly.

Tsumi backed down when she saw her son had suddenly been distracted and looked to the human girl. She saw nothing, just the girl walking toward them purposefully, but she could guess at what her son was beholding. She knew that the 'light' was something she could not see, but that her son could. It flickered in humans but was always keen and bright in a youkai. She could from his reaction that he saw it in this human now and was taken aback at it's sudden appearance. For a brief instant she was herself again, calculating, conniving then, as she looked to her son the mad glow sparked again.

She gagged on blood, her eyes wide as she turned stiffly toward the human girl. Toukijin had done it's work, she must have had internal bleeding for the blood did not stop flowing from her mouth, soaking her silver fur.

It was a family secret that the heirs of Inutaishou's blood saw a 'light' when coming into contact with their true mate. Tsumi had never had a problem with the fact that Inutaishou had never seen the 'light' in her until it became known that he had taken a human mate behind her back. He had never loved her, and she had not had a problem with that, but to have a human wench chosen over her was too much. She had flown into a rage and when she had demanded an answer for this outrage, he had only stated that she did not have the 'light' and thus was not his mate. Ever since she had held a grudge and vowed to kill any human that might become infatuated with her son, or vice versa. She had never informed her son of this fact; it was better if he never found out anyway. Besides, she had never thought the chances of him taking a human mate like his father were very good.

Now she felt her mind snap completely, an animalistic need to kill filled her, and she lost the ability to speak as she howled angrily, charging toward the human girl who did not budge. Her heart pumped threateningly, skipping beats and nearly giving out, but she were intent on her target and would not let that get in her way.

Sesshoumaru reacted immediately, coming up alongside of her and striking out. She watched him out of the corner of her eye and gave him a wicked wolfish grin, something that was hard to accomplish in the dog form, but had the right effect nonetheless. Snarling at him, she bit out, as he dodged her muzzle, she picked up speed, hurling herself faster and faster toward the helpless human that just watched her with empty eyes.

Rin stopped, some part of her cried out at seeing the oncoming hideous red muzzle, but some other part staved off the terror and soothed her, telling her everything would be all right. Before she knew what she had done, her arms had gone up as if in welcome to the snarling beast. Her eyes only half-caught a flash of silver and white as she felt something-sharp dig into her left arm.

Her eyes widened and little tears of pain formed at the corners of her eyes as her pupils dilated. Her mouth opened to cry out, but there was no sound, the pain consumed all, and she thought she heard something snap as she stumbled back from the great weight that pressed against her.

Warm blood soaked her left arm, and when she finally came back to herself, she saw in a dizzy flurry that the hilt of a sword stuck out of the back of the animal that stood on it's back legs. The jaws were clamped around her thin arm as it tried to push her down with its front paws.

Her mind and body screamed as one, singing with the pain that made her want to faint. She wasn't really coherent, nor was she able to understand much, her reasoning mind had been shoved aside to make room for the ever-growing waves of agony that flooded her in such a sudden instant.

Looking into the golden eyes that stared at her triumphantly and angrily, she watched as they slowly faded. Life seeped out of the creature, its blood mingling with Rin's as it loosened its grip and started to sag toward the ground in a puddle of blood.

Dumbly Rin stood there until the creature lay at her feet, and she noticed for the first time the silent monarch that had been vigilant the entire time. Sesshoumaru came to retrieve his sword, before looking into her face and studying her for some time. "Your arm." He said flatly, though she thought she caught some sign of concern in his tone and face. It was brief, almost non-existent, but she thought she saw something.

Rin looked to her broken arm, large razor-like teeth marks around it, a large mass of blood flowed from the open wounds. It felt heavy and sagged at her side, useless. She could feel it, the pain was almost unbearable, and yet it was if she were on another plane. She had heard once that people escape from their pain this way, but she had never taken it seriously.

Drawing a deep breath, she tried to budge her other arm to investigate it, but found that she couldn't get it to move, her fingers twitched but that was all. She felt her knees shaking. What had she done? She looked to the ragged skin that covered her arm and felt her stomach grow queasy. Her eyes caught the glint of silver fur and she looked down to see the dead body of the mad dog that had been Tsumi.

A wave washed over her and the steely resolution that had come out of nowhere before started to ebb away to show her reality again. The sickness that squelched in her stomach started to come up into her throat and Rin hunched down, feeling her shoulders shake a bit. She thought she would puke, she felt as if she couldn't take it. It was too much! All of this so suddenly was just too much!

Sesshoumaru watched, as the human seemed to suddenly notice what was going on. A shudder rippled through her and her pretty little features crumpled as her eyes suddenly widened with fear. He made a face inwardly at her show of weakness; so, the bearer of this 'light' that he had so long been on his mind was really just a frightened little human girl. For a moment he watched her, wondering what had captivated him so the since the first moment he had seen her, why he had so long sought after this 'light' this urge that had grown inside of him. He saw now his error and his own weakness in moving out on such an impulse.

While Sesshoumaru thought to himself, Rin found the will to stand back up. Covering her mouth with one hand, she closed her eyes and swallowed several times before she forced herself to stop quaking. It took a moment and several deep breath before she was calm, her frenzied, sickened thoughts of before were still though, but in the background instead of right up front.

This was no time to be getting all sick and frightened like a little girl. She had come this far, and she still had to keep going. She wasn't sure if she would make it, but she knew she had to keep moving forward no matter what. Kagome and Sango were depending on her and she wasn't about to let them down.

She opened her eyes and let out a bit of a sigh before looking to Sesshoumaru who looked a touch surprised at the look in her eyes. "Where's Naraku?"

So, she wasn't just some weak human after all. The girl was willing to change to help with the fight. He was surprised to say the least, he was sure that she would break down right here. Maybe there was more to her than he had first thought.

Giving her a satisfied smirk before turning his head to catch the scent of their adversary. It took but a moment; it seemed as if Inuyasha and his group were fending him off not too far off in a cloud of miasma.

Sorry I haven't updated again in a while. Geez, I'm such a slack. . .Anyway, this chapter was mainly to get rid of Tsumi and Yuwakusha while also dealing with character development for Rin-chan. From here on we'll hopefully see a stronger more capable Rin than has been present in earlier chapters.

Thanks for your reviews and your patience as always. I truly appreciate it everyone, and it's kept me going. I hope you all had a good Spring break and an equally good Easter.

See you next chapter! Ja'ne!

Review Please.

NOTE: Chapter edited as of 4.25.05