AN: Thank you ALL! This is not the final chapter, there is more to come, just another evil cliffy!
000
"I live only for you"
000
As twilight quickly melted into the darkness, Sesshoumaru opened the screen door to his private garden, the water garden revealing thousands of night blooming water lilies. The perfume of flowers high in the air, the moonlight was falling upon the thin maples, the spring fireflies dancing around him. Seed pods from the tall trees scattering in the air, there by himself he breathed in the air and sat down on the stone bench.
There was the lightest of winds and someone was next to him on the bench, a fan spread out in front of a small red mouth.
"Why have you come?" Sesshoumaru whispered, his golden eyes not seeing the beauty of the landscape in front of him. His mind was lost, lost in a dream…. A dream of a time long passed, of a world that he had slowly witnessed disintegrating over the hundreds of years since his birth.
"I've come to tell you about the contract, how binding it will truly be to the girl." Kagura flapped her fan in a nervous habit, she waited for Sesshoumaru to answer…
"Naraku demands her life whether or not I love her or not correct?"
Kagura nodded "It is his last effort to destroy whatever happiness the sons of your father have. He is now to weak to reach so far as the young priestess's world and now turns to you."
Sesshoumaru smiled "It's not polite to visit the house of an enemy, especially when my mansion is heavily guarded…. I wonder how you got through Kagura?"
She gasped and looked away from him, fanning herself wildly.
"I only came to warn you. I didn't want you to find her body somewhere all bloodied and broken." Her words came out with a hiss, turning to him with angry eyes.
Sesshoumaru threw back his head and laughed "But then that means that you in some strange way care about my plight."
Kagura became still, she hadn't realized that she was so transparent, but seeing the way Sesshoumaru was with that puny little girl had first disgusted and then intensely interested her. Maybe she was a little infatuated with him after all. Though she rationally denied it there was somewhere deep inside that admired him…
"I know what it is like to never be loved…. I don't want to see another life senselessly destroyed by a demented hatred for all living things…"
Sesshoumaru had turned to her for the first time and gazed at her intensely, his cool golden eyes betraying nothing. He seemed icy amid the usually warm spring evening, and then something flashed across his face, lips thinning into a rosy line.
"Do not come back here until the day of the contract, if you do I will destroy you." Sesshoumaru stated and stood.
Kagura felt her face flush with humiliation, she stood wanting to rebuke him. And found that she was foolishly close to tears, removing the feather from her hair there was a whirlwind of air and she floated out of sight. Sesshoumaru watched her only for a moment longer before turning away to his reflection in the clear water.
He knew what had to be done…
0000 16th of June, the day of the contract 0000
Rin felt strangely calm today as she hung out her laundry on the small line in the private rose garden. Roses were not native to Japan, she would have to ask Sesshoumaru where they had come from. One of the older servants had told her about them, how they were worth a small fortune if she were ever to dig them up and sell them. A soft wind blew through the trees carrying the pleasant smell of the roses. Pulling her long unruly hair into a bun, she wiped her brow and paused. The world as the way it was, was perfect. There wasn't anything at this moment that she wanted or lacked. It was a strange feeling, knowing that she might face her own death today.
"Rin-san!" Rin turned pasting a smile on her paling face. It was Kin, who called her into to dress. She had awoke late today, lingering in her bed for sometime trying to remember what everything looked and smelled like before… Her grip tightened on the loose piece of her kimono as she made her way into the spacious wood paneled room, painted with peonies and roses. Today she would wear the most beautiful kimono she possessed the one that was embroidered with gold thread and beautiful wisteria flowers… This kimono was the grandest she owned with 23 layers and the finest slippers she had ever slipped her dirty feet into…
The sound of running water came from somewhere far away as Kin and Kinoko drew her bath. Drifting past the paper screen Rin gazed at her reflection in the water before, gingerly stepping in.
00
One demon, an incarnation and an immortal girl met in a beautiful field of flowers just beginning to bloom with the change of weather. They were the palest blue a color that rivaled that of the sky, Kagura stood in the middle as Sesshoumaru walked up to her.
"I am not letting you take her life." Sesshoumaru began, Kagura snorted
"Then what will you give me, there is nothing else that will remove the jewel from her heart." Petals filled the air, raining down on the trio from the surrounding sakura trees. Rin lingered a distance from her lover, letting the petals brush her face and her hands, tasting the pollen filled air for the last time… She knew from the beginning that this year that she had been given was the only time she had. Rin knew that Naraku would kill her regardless of the rules of the contract…
"I will give you my own" Rin turned to the sound of his voice, the shock coursed through her like lightning through metal.
"Fine then!" in one moment there was a noise, a noise that Rin felt more then heard. There was a spray of blood that flew out into the air, hitting the light and turning the droplets into red rubies before the body of the great demon Sesshoumaru fell gracefully into the flowers.
A terrible inhuman noise was coming from her mouth as Rin ran, ran with her 23 layers of kimono over to his body. Collapsing into flowers beside him, pressing her hand over the mortal wound that wept blood, tears running down her face in a great torrent of salt water. They dripped onto his face making long lashes barely flutter.
"You!" she turned hatred blazing in her chocolate colored eyes, there was a gasp and a little clicking sound. And Kagura Mistress of the Wind dissolved into the very flower petals that floated around them. Rin then felt an explosion over her heart, her own crimson blood spurted into the light, showering Sesshoumaru with sticky droplets. His eyes now opened, lips pressing together, tasting her blood.
"S-she never existed" he whispered reaching up and touching her face, a look of suppressed agony tainting his handsome features. Rin was gasping holding her own chest, as warmth leaked between her fingers, the pale pink of the Shikon jewel shard stabbing her fingers. Now reminding her of what she had lost.
"R-Rin you are the most important person I have ever known." he whispered even as Rin strained to hear his thinning voice.
"No-no" the tears welled up again bathing his face like rain, as his fingers brushed her lips tracing the lines of her face.
"Please Sesshoumaru, d-don't die" another pain wracked her frame, now pale from the loss of blood.
"I'm not going to die" Sesshoumaru replied but Rin heard only a faint sound as she laid her cheek upon his chest and felt the world fading from a blinding white to black…