Fourth chapter. Wow, you guys are really hanging in here! This is, I think, one of the longer stories ever written by me. I think they should put up a record book at like, who has the most stories written, or who has the longest story, or what section has the most stories, or whatever. (The ones I have found: Some name I can't remember with 49 stories written, but I've got about 45 myself, so that can't be right)

Chapter warning: Uh... nothing. Minimal physical contact. But if you're bothered by it, man, you've got problems. Also, a long period of time passing in two paragraphs, which is taboo, but I have done it anyway.

"Are you going to stay awake again?"

"Obviously."

Sesshoumaru leaned back against the trunk of a tree. The fire in front of him popped, sending out sparks of a golden color. His silver hair gleamed in the light, reflecting the light. Rin poked at the fire, putting more wood on where it was needed.

"Is this what you do, when you're alone?"

"If I were alone I would still be walking. It would also, I think, be a good deal quieter."

"Isn't it hard, though, being alone all the time?"

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed.

"Sometimes."

"Is that why you are always moving? Going somewhere?"

"I suppose."

"Where do you go?"

"Wherever I want to."

"That there..." Rin paused, thinking of the right words. "That's true freedom."

She was met with silence.

"But I suppose that means nothing to you, does it? You've always had that."

"And you haven't?"

"What do you know about people, Sesshoumaru?"

There was a pause. Rin thought for sure he wouldn't say anything, but he did.

"Very little. I dislike your species a good deal, but you do have a sense of honor, that I do not often see in youkai. Youkai do not have wars, because we do not see the value of the common good. Humans fight for land, for their rulers, their emperor. Youkai fight for themselves."

"That makes sense, I suppose."

The fire popped again, sending out more sparks. Satisfied, Rin sat back against the tree, her shoulder pressing against the fluffy thing.

"We're completely different," Sesshoumaru said, not looking at her.

"Yup," she said, sounding unconvinced. "Don't let the bedbugs bite."

"I guarantee that there will be no bedbugs."

"I'm glad."

It was almost three in the morning when the last flame of the fire died, leaving only orange coals glowing in the night. Rin had long since fallen asleep, leaning against his shoulder. Sesshoumaru found he didn't really mind. But he did wonder how long he could keep this up. For all of Rin's scoffing, they really were different. Humans and youkai live in different worlds.

But for now, they were here, together, and that wasn't so bad.

In the days following, some of Rin's talkativeness started to rub off on Sesshoumaru. His responses lengthened a bit, and every once in a while it was he who would point out a cloud or a waterfall, instead of her.

Almost a week had passed when they came to another town, which was not destroyed. Sesshoumaru was all for going around, he wasn't in the mood for another bunch of misguided humans trying to kill him, but Rin wouldn't hear it.

"It'll be fine. Don't worry about a thing."

"What makes you so sure? In my lifetime every village I have entered has tried to kill me. And then I have to kill them, and I really don't want to kill anyone today."

"Is that what you do? Just kill people?"

"Yes."

"Well that could be the reason they try to kill you back."

Silence.

"Look, give this a try, all right? Promise me, when we go down here, that you won't kill anyone. And if this doesn't work, next town, we'll go around. Deal?"

"This is stupid, and it will only get you killed."

"What about you?"

"I cannot be killed by humans, but that does not mean that they will not try, and I assure you that they will."

"They will not if you don't strike first! Just promise me, one village, okay?"

"You're not going to give in, and I don't want to stand on this hilltop all day, so fine."

"Say I promise."

"You do this just to piss me off, don't you?"

"Say I promise."

Sesshoumaru muttered some choice words under his breath.

"I promise not to kill any humans."

"See, was that so hard?"

"Yes."

Rin started to make her way down the hill toward the town. Assured that nothing but trouble would come from this, Sesshoumaru followed. When whatever disaster was coming eventually occurred, he would have to leave the town by a different direction, there's no way he could carry Rin up this hill and dodge arrows at the same time.

Stupid humans...

Rin checked her sleeve, making sure the coins she had taken from the saddlebags were still there. It wasn't much, but it should at least get somewhere for them to sleep.

She had no idea why Sesshoumaru was so scared of going down into the village, people weren't bad enough to just attack him on sight, were they? She tried to think of what would happen if Sesshoumaru had come walking through her village someday.

'Well, every girl of marrying age would get themselves onto the street,' she thought with a smile. Even if he was an evil youkai, he still looked like a man. She looked over her shoulder. Better than a man actually. He saw her looking at him and glared.

"What? I'm coming. Watch where you're walking."

Well, she'd just have to wait and see what happened.

Sesshoumaru stayed close behind Rin as they entered the village. There was smoke rising from cooking fires within the homes, but no one was outside.

"This is giving me the creeps," Rin murmured.

"Any minute now, people are going to appear on rooftops, with bows and arrows, and then once we're trapped the guys with swords are going to come out and try to cut us down. When that happens, we are very very screwed, because you can't dodge arrows and I can't kill swordsmen, thanks to you."

"Stop being pessimistic. We'll just explain to them that we want a room for the night-"

"Wait a second. You plan on staying here? No way."

"You can sleep in the woods, then. I will be sleeping in a bed tonight."

"Great. You're staying in an unfamiliar town AND you're going to sleep? Why don't you just kill yourself and save them the trouble?"

"Be quiet. I think I hear something."

A child's head poked out of the doorway to their left. With some obvious prompting, she stepped out of her home, approaching the two newcomers.

"Oh look, they've sent a child to kill us," Rin said dryly.

"She's not a priestess or a youkai. So why on Earth would they send her?"

"I dunno. Hey, kid, you come to kill us?"

The girl stared at Rin for a second, then dropped to the ground.

"No! I would not dream of crossing such powerful mononoke as yourselves!"

"She thinks we're mononoke," Rin said.

A man appeared from behind a different house, calling out to them.

"We are but a poor village! Take the girl, but please, do not destroy us!"

"I see now. When a village does not possess even an illusion about being able to destroy a youkai that is plaguing them, they offer up somebody like this kid, and hope their problem goes away."

Sesshoumaru looked down at the child, who was still pressing her forehead to the ground.

"They're normally older than this. They must have run out of attractive young women."

"Stop being perverted," Rin said, annoyed. "You can get up, kid, we're not going to eat you. Go tell that guy that we just need a place to stay the night."

She pointed to the man who had shouted to them, He ducked, as if he expected her fingers to explode. The girl nodded, then followed the finger's path. She relayed the message, and the man looked warily at Rin, then Sesshoumaru, then back. He ventured closer, within easy speaking distance, but kept an eye on Rin's sword.

"Let me get this straight. According to that child there, you are youkai, and don't want her because she's not old enough."

"Leave it to the minds of children," Rin laughed. "No, we don't want her but age has nothing to do with it. We just need a place to spend the night, and we'll be on our way in the morning. I can pay you."

"What about him? I don't want to wake up in the morning to find our livestock slaughtered."

"If I wanted your livestock it would be long gone by now, human."

"He'll behave, I promise."

"You what? You will promise no such thing, you have absolutely no power over me or my actions."

"Well you're being a jerk."

The man was staring at the two as if they had sprouted horns.

"You... You're but a human woman!"

"Yeah? Really?"

"But you carry a sword, and have power over a youkai!"

"She does not!"

"Are you a priestess? "

"No."

"Then what-"

"Mind your own business, human."

"Excuse us a second, all right?" To Sesshoumaru she whispered, "What is wrong with you all of a sudden?"

"I don't like being here, I hate the smell of this place, and I want us to leave. Right now."

"You're free to go."

"I hate you for this."

"I didn't ask you to follow me."

"I should just kill you and forget any of this even happened. I could, you know."

"If you were going to, you would have already."

Sesshoumaru gave her a glare that would have wilted plants. She grinned at him. Growling, he turned back to the villager, whose amusement was written all over his face.

"If any harm comes to her," he said levelly, "I swear every living creature who's ever even been to this village will be killed."

"Yes, sir."

The amusement was gone.

"Bye Sesshy! See you in the morning!"

With an audible growl the youkai disappeared back up the hill, leaving the villagers to emerge from their homes.

Stupid humans. Stupid stupid humans. Stupid stupid stupid...

The youkai sat a little distance upwind of the village, watching it in the dark. Every once in a while someone would scurry from one house to another, but otherwise the night was quiet. Sesshoumaru lay back, his silver hair fanning out over the grass. Stars twinkled down at him, millions more then he could ever count. The moon was gone, making them all the brighter.

What was wrong with sleeping outside, anyway? Much better than in some building, no air, all the sounds muted, three other people within a yard of you... Uck.

Maybe that was why Rin liked it. Humans were social creatures, much more so than youkai. She said she was not with her own kind... She as wrong. All humans were the same.

No matter how they smelled.

Weren't they? Maybe not all bad, but still the same. And nothing for a youkai to be dealing with.

She didn't belong with him. He didn't belong with her.

It wouldn't end well.

Assured, the daiyoukai stood, turned from the village, and disappeared into the starry night.

Rim had been taken in by the village headman, mostly out of admiration. No sooner had Sesshoumaru left then the village returned to normal, with the exception of the disappearance of some of the young women. They were seeking out the brave woman who dressed like a man and held youkai at her whims.

"I've only known him for a week-"

"It only takes that long to cast a spell?"

"Teach us!"

"Yes!"

"Where'd you find him, anyway?"

"I want one."

Giggles followed last comment.

"Yumi, you're such a perv."

"Look at his face and tell me you're not!"

"The spell!"

"There's no spell," Rin assured them.

"But he hasn't eaten you?"

"I don't think so." She patted her torso. "Nope, still here!"

"He must love you then!"

"Does he?"

"That's so romantic!"

"... I don't think he loves me."

"What other explanation is there?"

"Maybe he just doesn't want to eat you YET."

"I don't think that's it either."

"Well, you wouldn't, would you?"

"That's right!"

"No, I don't think he would go out of his way to follow me if he was just going to eat me."

"But that's what youkai do, isn't it?"

"I dunno. I've only met one."

"I used to live in a village that was plagued with all sorts of demons." One girl in the back piped up. "They used to come all the time and eat people. Only the huge, horrible youkai, though."

The focus of the girls' attention had shifted.

"What about the others?"

"Aren't they all horrible?"

"Oh, no, some of them looked like people. But much, much better."

"Like the one that came with Rin!" Someone cooed.

"And what did they do?" Rin asked.

"Most of them were women, They would find men from the field, who would take one look at their faces and wander off, never to be heard from again."

"How awful!"

"Dreadful!"

"The only male I ever saw..."

"What?"

"Tell us?"

"According to her father, a girl from the village fell in love with the youkai."

"Did he love her back?"

"Mm-hmm. They even..."

She dropped her voice to a whisper, and the others didn't have to hear to know what was said. Guilty giggles bounced around the room.

"What happened to them?"

"Did it have a romantic ending?"

"Don't stop there!"

The girl didn't look so happy anymore.

"Her father said she got sick. She had to stay inside all the time, she never came out. After a while, they found out she was going to have a baby."

"No!"

"A hanyou?"

"Well duh."

"The father came for her, but her father got all the village men together. They were going to kill all three of them, when the baby was born."

"Why then?"

"They wanted to make sure the child was hanyou."

"They all got killed?"

"What an awful story!"

"The father escaped with his son, but the mother got killed."

"That's what comes from dealing with youkai."

All heads turned to see the speaker. An old priest stood in the door, giving disapproving looks to the girls gathered around Rin.

"Mark my words, girl, no good shall ever come from dealing with youkai. I have lived to hear, and see for myself, many of such stories unfold, and they shall always end in death."

He glared at the other young women, who bowed and scurried out of the room like field mice. Then, sighing, he sat in front of Rin.

"Child, the direction you come from has been ravaged by bandits, and many survivors have found our village. I don't know your business, or your past. But your dress and company would suggest that you were on your own. I beg of you. Stay here. You can find yourself a good husband. You can lead a good, normal life, befitting of a young woman."

"This is what I want."

"Indeed it is. But think of your future. Do you think you can live this way forever? What shall you do when you are approaching the end of your life, as I am? Will you still carry your sword?"

"I... I'll..."

"Think long and hard. The being you travel with is powerful, anyone could tell to look at him. But another thing, known only to those who have known them all their lives: The word of a youkai is as worthless as dust, and nothing is sacred to them. When you can no longer walk beside him, he shall leave you behind, and think nothing of it, for that is the way of his kind."

The priest stood, leaving Rin on the ground, with significantly lower spirits.

"Make sure you make the right choice."

The wind from the door swinging shut blew out the single candle, leaving Rin in the dark, and for the first time, alone.

Well, damn. Why is it that I set out to write a happy bouncy story and end up with something like this? This is PIR, all over again. (For those of you who haven't read that, PIR was the cousin of GIR, a happy bouncy robot from the TV show Invader Zim. It was supposed to be a light, funny story that my little sister asked me to write. In the end she and Gir end up orbiting over the destroyed Earth. She had locked herself inside her mind with the spirit of the boy she killed because he didn't love her back.)

Anyway, yeah, review and tell me if you even want any more.