Author's Note – This chapter has been about 90 percent finished for months and months—I'm terribly sorry to have kept you waiting so long. Again, I promise not to leave this story unfinished. Thanks to everyone who left reviews! Lots of big developments have happened in the manga since I began this story (the perils of writing fanfiction for an ongoing series). Eventually I'll go back and revise both "Leaving the Past" and this story, but in the meantime, let's everybody just pretend Toukijin is still with us. A lot of time spent with my original characters in this chapter, but fear not, you'll be seeing familiar faces sooner than you think. Thank you all for sticking with me…
Chapter Three
"Mother?"
Kichiro's voice.
"Rin-sama?"
He couldn't be dead. If he were dead, why take his body? Why not attack the house? Besides… he couldn't be dead.
"Mother?"
"You there!" Jaken speaking now. "Scour the countryside and find out if anyone has seen Lord Sesshoumaru!"
"NO!" she finally said out loud.
Everyone turned around to look at Rin.
"No," Rin repeated, "No one leaves. Jaken, no one must tell anyone—not even their families. See to that—keep everyone here, and keep them quiet."
Somehow she knew she had to keep this strange disappearance concealed. A thousand anxieties were crowding into her head, each murmuring and crying to be heard like a throng of terrified voices. Sesshoumaru didn't always tell her what enemies he had fought, what threats to her and their family he had adverted. But she didn't doubt that there was more than one youkai lord that might wish to take his revenge against her and the children if word got out that they were suddenly vulnerable—and unprotected.
Unprotected. The implications of the word began to reverberate.
"Mother, what should we do?"
Rin looked at her daughter. I can't be thinking of myself she realized with small shock of reality and admonishment. I have my own children to protect. She tried not to think of him injured… dead.
"We're going to wait," she said firmly, trying to inject her voice with some confidence. "Let's wait a few hours—your Father may return at any moment."
The words sounded hollow and fruitless as soon as she spoke them, but she took Kichiro's hand firmly in hers, taking strength in it, and turned to the house. She met Emi's doubtful and defiant gaze with her own.
"We'll wait," she repeated.
Sunset passed, with no word or sign. Rin and Jaken sat across from one another within the main room of the building, cold and untouched bowls of tea sitting before them. Emi was standing quietly at the doorway, her lips pursed and her young face clouded by worry and disapproval. Rin didn't meet her eyes, but held Kichiro tightly in her lap and hugged him closer against her body. His eyes were wide and anxious, but he didn't speak.
Rin looked down at her son, and wondered anew at her child—half-human, half-youkai, his white tail brushing against her sleeve.
There might be more than one demon that would hunt them out for revenge, she thought, but there were hundreds, youkai and human alike, that would kill them for what they were. Hanyou, half-demons, despised. Emi was right—doing nothing only delayed the inevitable. She would have to act.
"Jaken," she finally spoke.
The little imp looked up with surprise.
"Jaken, take Ah-Un. I want you to fly east and –" she paused. If all was well and Sesshoumaru returned home safely the next day he would HATE what she was about to put in motion.
But there was nothing else to be done.
She sighed.
"Fly east, and find Lord Sesshoumaru's brother Inuyasha."
Jaken's jaw dropped, along with his staff.
"Rin! Do you think that Sesshoumaru-sama would want us to –"
"Jaken!" She cried out in frustration, her dark eyes flashing with unaccustomed anger.
"As you command, Rin-sama."
The little demon hadn't seen her brow creased with this much stubbornness since she was a child.
"There was a demon lord—a confrontation that he mentioned. Some moth youkai…"
"Moth youkai?" spat Jaken disdainfully. "Moth youkai defeat our Lord Sesshoumaru?" he asked incredulously.
"It would be a starting point," she answered, doubtfully. Jaken was right—the possibility wasn't likely.
"Mother," Emi interrupted, "we don't need—"
"Inuyasha will know what to do," Rin said firmly.
Jaken bowed a final time, then scuttled out of the room. Emi paused a moment, looking as if she were going to say more, then silently disappeared behind him. Kichiro stood up and looked at questioningly at his mother. Rin nodded to him dumbly, and he hurried after his sister.
Rin found herself alone. She slumped from her kneeling position, half-lying on the ground, staring at the reed matting, one arm supporting her weight.
She hadn't seen Inuyasha or Kagome for several years now, not since Kichiro was still a baby. But she felt certain that he would come to help them. He and Sesshoumaru had never had a warm relationship, but he wouldn't leave his brother's family helpless.
Either that, or Kagome would make him come, she fairly considered.
There was a small commotion and sound of movement and discussion from outside in corridor. Rin looked up as Jaken reentered the room, followed by three of the servants. He bowed nervously.
"There's someone here you should see, Rin-sama."
The visitor was a teenage boy, no more than a year or two older than Emi. He was carrying a funny green pack like Kagome used to strap on her back when she visited her era, and the equally odd cap was firmly pulled down on his head. A fringe of dark uneven bangs poked out beneath. Rin recognized Kagome's features and the red fire-rat jacket that he wore before she recognized him.
"Aunt Rin?" he said hesitantly. "My Mom made me come to you. I have to see Sesshoumaru."
"Sesshoumaru-SAMA to you," corrected Jaken.
The boy bristled and shot Jaken a dirty look that implied he recognized him from someone else's description, and not a positive one. He was clearly unhappy being here.
"Akio—" the boy looked up, surprised Rin had known his name so easily, though of course he had been expecting it.
"Akio, what has happened?" She did not want to know the answer.
"My Dad's disappeared," he finally said reluctantly.
Rin felt her last remaining hope alight and flutter away from her. Her stomach began to roll and beneath her silk sleeves she pressed her fingertips deep into the flesh of her arms.
There was very little to tell. At some point Rin was dimly aware of Emi entering the room, staring at her cousin curiously, and Jaken ordering the servants away.
"That's impossible," Rin and Jaken said together as Akio finished. Jaken looked at her, and bowed reluctantly, allowing Rin to continue.
"It's impossible," she repeated. "Naraku was completely destroyed. Jaken was there, he saw it."
"My mom just said it FELT like Naraku," he said uncertainly, "and something else, something very powerful, very holy – but maybe not evil. It could have been what knocked us out when we ran outside. My father's sword is gone, too. Anyway, my mother and Miroku are already searching and we've had help from Shippou the fox demon and Kouga's wolf tribe, but we haven't found any trace of my Dad OR Naraku."
Rin thought about Kagome. It would have to be something very strong that could overcome her miko powers.
"We'll send Jaken first thing tomorrow," she said slowly. "He can take Ah-Un and let Kagome know what has happened here, and she can decide what we should do." No doubt Kagome would set out to find Inuyasha, and probably Miroku, too. But Sango still had young children… and the village to protect. With Inuyasha gone, their village was suddenly vulnerable as her own home. Still, perhaps the children would be safer with Sango, and she could leave Jaken with them, and then she could join Kagome and Miroku to search for Sesshoumaru. The coincidence was too great—the disappearances had to be connected.
"You do what you like," Akio answered, "I'm leaving tonight."
"What?" Rin looked up, startled.
"How dare you question Rin-sama!"
"Jaken!" Rin exclaimed impatiently.
"I promised my Mom that I'd go to Sesshoumaru, and since he's not here there's no reason for me to stay. It doesn't make sense for us all to look together—we'll cover more territory separately. I'm going to find my father, and I won't waste anymore time."
Rin was struck by how suddenly like Inuyasha he seemed. She noticed Emi listening to him intently as he spoke, and even Kichiro seemed fascinated by the sudden arrival of his previously-unknown relative.
"Please, Akio, wait until Jaken has brought back the others. Think of how worried your mother would be! It's better for us to work together."
Akio didn't answer her, but finally he seemed to nod and Rin took it for an assent.
"It's settled then."
No one answered her, but both Emi and Akio had similar, guarded expressions as they cast their eyes on the ground, carefully and independently forming their own plans.
It was close to dawn the next morning when Akio carefully crept across the courtyard. Kirara—in her full-demon form—padded silently behind him. He shivered in the darkness, raising an arm to rub his nose when suddenly his foot hit something and he stumbled forward a pace.
He cursed, and turned around to come face to face with the girl who was his cousin. He had noticed her earlier in the room, and recalled a vague and unpleasant childhood memory of a tiny dark-haired girl knocking a much younger version of himself down in a fight over a toy boat. She was a brat, Akio thought, and that was about all he could remember. The other kid—the strange hanyou—he had never seen. He saw Kichiro standing behind her, peering at him and then nervously at Kirara.
"We're coming with you," she said, her voice a low whisper.
Emi was wearing white trousers and a clean smock with full white sleeves that peeked from beneath another top—it was still too dark to determine its exact color, but Akio caught the glimmer of embroidered katanas and golden fans, their outlines just visible in the pale darkness. Around her waist she'd cinched a long dark sash with clusters of more golden flowers on each end. She was wearing sturdier boots instead of slippers, and combed her long black hair away from her face. She carried her naginata in one hand, its blade covered with a silk wrap. Kichiro was dressed in the same neat and costly fabrics—a jacket and short pants that stopped above his knees, his small but agile canine legs tapering into delicate white paws that were bright in the darkness. His tail and hair were carefully washed and groomed and glimmered white.
"Dressed like that?" Akio said, his eyes wide. "Where do you think I'm going? To a palace?" He actually grinned at them.
"We're going to find our father," Emi snapped back. She felt her cheeks growing hot. "And WE won't look like common peasants when we do," she added, and looked pointedly at the strange, blue canvas pants her cousin was wearing under the fire-rat robe.
"No way," he answered decisively, ignoring her comments. "It's probably dangerous, and I can't be bothered with looking after kids. How old are you anyway?"
"I'm almost thirteen," Emi answered, carefully holding back her temper. She regretted her momentary childishness a moment ago—it was far wiser to keep her emotions to herself until she knew better who she was dealing with. But having anyone other than her father question her actions was not something she was accustomed to enduring. And the idea of having to stoop to placate anyone—especially a weird and scruffy cousin who had just appeared from nowhere—grated against her very being.
"It's my right to go," she continued quietly and resolutely. "I'm the oldest in my family. I am going out to find my father and his brother, and we can either do it separately or we can do it together."
For a few tense moments, the two older children stared one another down. Kichiro watched them intently.
"Okay," said Akio, relenting. "But this isn't for little kids. YOU can come, but he has to stay here."
For a moment, Emi seemed to waver.
"No!" objected Kichiro angrily.
"He's right," she said, looking at Akio. She hesitated. "I have a very good sense of smell, but his is better. He can follow the scent of our father's blood."
"It's been a full day, is there still any trail to smell?"
Kichiro nodded fervently.
"The wind isn't strong, and it's coming in the right direction. It hasn't carried the scent away," he explained. "That way," he pointed into the West, opposite the direction of the gathering and still covered by thick blue dusk. His sleeve fluttered in the wind.
"Okay," said the older boy, after a moment. "But I'M IN CHARGE," he finished, before Emi could object.
He slung his backpack of supplies over Kirara's back and with a quick jerk readjusted his cap, pulling it resolutely down on his forehead.
"Let's go," he ordered, his arm resting on the demon cat's shoulder and setting forth without a backward glance at either of them.
Kichiro looked up at Emi, waiting to take her lead.
She looked down at him and he saw her swallow—as if she were about to say something to him, and then thought better of it. She nodded almost imperceptibly in the direction of the distant West and, for a fleeting moment, she looked frightened and unsure. Kichiro looked past her toward their house one final time, the line of the sloping roof just beginning to take shape in the grey, pre-dawn light. Mother would be waking up soon. Mother, Jaken, the poor sentry Emi had just knocked out…
"Let's go," he heard her say softly. Kichiro turned around and saw her waiting for him, her hand outstretched. He took it, and hand in hand they picked their way across the stony path, moving as quietly and quickly as they could after Akio and Kirara.
To be continued.
