Chapter seven.
Well, thank you for continuing to read despite the fact that this is probably the darkest romance you've ever read. And thank you all, for the reviews, I really appreciate them. You will be greatly rewarded when I rule the universe.

Sesshoumaru woke up to incredible pain. Over the course of three seconds, he remembered the events that had given him such pain, and he started.
Rin!
He was somewhere very dark. It had the cool atmosphere of a cave, but it smelled of death. Rubbing his head, he sat up, looking around. Dead youkai were everywhere. This must be where the taijiya left the bodies of those they killed.
Quickly, Sesshoumaru examined the damage. Though the arrows themselves were gone, the marks remained, and there were wounds covering his back, sides, and the outside of his arms, which he had wrapped around Rin to try to protect her.
He hadn't succeeded. His sleeves, which had fallen down Rin's back, were peppered with holes, and dyed a dark brown, almost black, with a blood that was not his.
He was tired, his body was working overtime trying to seal up the holes, but he knew he had to find Rin.
She wasn't here, and by the smell, she never had been.
There was the smell of human, though. He was able to follow it upwards, to the outside of the cave. There was a village, no doubt populated by the same taijiya who had tried to kill him. If she was there, there was nothing he could do.
From the entrance to the cave, he was able to follow, with some difficulty, his own scent back to the place where they had been attacked. He found Rin's scent, grossly distorted by the amount of blood on the ground. They had taken her in a completely different direction.
Why?
Could she still be alive? They had said she was as bad as he, but humans could not turn their backs on their own kind, could they?
He followed the mix of scents off the stone cliff. It descended, going into the valleys, over many of the same paths that the two of them had walked up just the day before.
As he walked he found the blood on the ground decreasing. Her scent was changing as well. It was becoming more human, losing the exotic tinge that had drawn him to her in the first place.
He knew what that meant.
Rin was dead, had been dead even as the taijiya had carried her into the valley.
But he followed her anyway, because there was just the slightest chance that he was wrong, and he had to know.
The scent ended at a grave. There were several graves around her, older. Why they had chosen to put her here, Sesshoumaru didn't know. He noticed a splash of color on one of the graves. He looked closer.
It was the flowers Rin herself had placed there, only the day before.
Sesshoumaru almost smiled. She would have appreciated the irony.
The words she had said as she put the flowers there came back to him.
"Someday, when I die, will you promise not to forget about me?"
"I promise, Rin. I promise."

Epilogue
Over three hundred years had passed since Rin's death, and Sesshoumaru hardly ever thought of it. Every once in a while he would see a flower with an extra set of leaves, or something of the sort, and he would think of her, but hose moments came less and less frequently as he gave up looking at the ground for favor of the sky.
His father had been killed protecting a human woman, and the half-breed baby she carried. Sesshoumaru hated him for such a sacrifice, and hated the woman and the baby, his half-brother, for causing him to make it. It did occur to him, vaguely, that he had attempted to do the same, but he shook it off.
His brother grew older, and they had their fights, almost, but not quite, to the death.
This one had been the closest yet, leaving Sesshoumaru badly injured. If not for the tenseiga's protective abilities, he would have been killed.
Now, badly hurt and transported by the tenseiga to a very unfamiliar place, he felt he had no choice but to lie low, at least until his injuries repair themselves enough to allow him to fight.
A rustling in the bushes brought him out of his thoughts. Instinct took over, and he sat up quickly, growling at whatever was making the sound. His eyes turned red, signifying that he was, in face, a youkai.
To his surprise it was not a youkai he saw there, nor a hunter, but a lone human girl, no older than seven. She gasped, hiding behind a tree.
'Solves that problem,' he thought. 'She'll run off and I'll never see her again.'
But she didn't. She actually moved forward, toward the youkai.
He didn't move, but his eyes did regain their normal golden color.
She moved almost close enough for him to reach out and touch her, but he didn't move. The smell of human blood would bring bigger enemies, and those he didn't want to mess with.
She took in his shattered armor, the rips in his clothes, and the blood surrounding those rips.
Sesshoumaru watched her. She had the appearance of someone who was used to getting the thin end of the stick. Her clothes were old and worn, and there was dirt smudged on her face and arms. She was probably an orphan.
Even as he thought this, she turned back to the woods, running off, leaving nothing but a faint reminder of her scent.
Sesshoumaru stiffened. He'd smelled that before... a long time ago...
A new wave of pain came from the wound on his shoulder, inflicted when his half brother had wielded the windscar against him. The youkai grimaced, and lay back against the fluffy. His eyes felt heavy, and before he even realized he was tired, he was asleep.

She came again, first with water, then with food. She placed it, hesitantly, just within reach, and ran off. She remained at the edge of the clearing watching to see what the youkai would do.
"Your kindness is wasted," he told her one of these times. "I don't eat human food."
He was hit with a vague sense of deja vous, but shook it off.
He could leave soon anyway.
The girl continued to bring food to him. Then she started to show up with bruises on her face and arms. Once he asked her about them, but she only smiled at him. And then it hit him. Where he had smelled her scent before. A rush of memories came back to him in an instant. He kept his face impassive.
:What are you smiling about? I simply asked a question. I don't care, I'm just curious."
She continued to smile. When she returned to her village, he was almost sad that he would never see her again.
Almost.
He checked his shoulder again, and, finding the cuts gone, he stood up, walking away from her village. Jaken ought to be around here, somewhere...

Sesshoumaru threw a second rock at Jaken, knocking him off Aun's head. Like he, the great lord Sesshoumaru could be killed by a half-breed like Inuyasha. He was disgusted to be thought of so lowly.
The wind blew, replacing the calm scent of the field with the wicked smell of blood. The blood was familiar, and he glanced at his kimono, half expecting to see it covered, once again, with the blood of another. But it was the same pristine white as always.
The wind brought a new scent, the scent of wolves.
"I know this blood," he murmured.
Jaken jumped up, rubbing his head.
"Did you say something, lord Sesshoumaru?"
But the youkai was already gone, into the forest.
AS he approached the town, the smell of wolves became stronger. He passed the place where he had lain, which was heavy with the smell of his own blood.
Jaken ran up behind him, trying to keep up with the taller youkai's steps, like a small child trying to keep pace with their father. There were questions in his eyes, but Sesshoumaru ignored them. he had no time for questions.
Up ahead, something lay on the path. Sesshoumaru stopped. The blood's smell was too strong, he'd smelled it before, so long ago...
Jaken went ahead.
"She's a goner for sure. she must have been attacked by wolves. See the teeth markings?"
Then, seeing the look on Sesshoumaru's face. "Do you know this pathetic human?
Sesshoumaru was still lost in his memories. Unbidden, his right hand went to the tenseiga. It was already drawn before Sesshoumaru even realized he had moved. Jaken's look had gone to one of pure horror, and he backed out of the way as Sesshoumaru advanced.
The daiyoukai watched as imps materialized out of the air, climbing on the young girl's body.
'I can see them... they are from the underworld.'
"I'll do another test."
He swung the sword, taking out all of the imps in one shot.
He took the child into his arms.
'I couldn't save her then... maybe I can, now.'
He watched for any sign of life, but the girl remained still. Then she moaned, and opened her eyes, looking up at him.

Rin watched the tall youkai walk away. Beside he, Jaken was crying about something or another, but she ignored him. Now her mind was back in a memory that was not hers, of Sesshoumaru in the red light of a sunset on a mountain she had never been to.
But it felt like the best memory she had ever had.
Leaving Jaken behind, she ran after Sesshoumaru, not knowing what would happen next, and not really caring.
It would all work out okay.

Okay, I managed to preserve some kind of bittersweet happy ending thing, but you all still probably hate me for killing her, don't you?
I knew it. Anyway, I hope I at least managed to avoid making her into a Mary-sue. (For those of you who don't know what a Mary sue is, it's a stereotypical fan character who's perfect for the romance, and you just KNOW it's the authoress. For Inuyasha it would be another half-breed, etc.)
Gotta go, please review.