Chapter 2

Rin was not sure how long she stayed there, in that place somewhere between conscious thought and unfeeling oblivion. She had spent a good deal of time in this suspended state reliving those moments before she found herself hurtled into here. Rin was certain that her Lord was probably chalking her current state up to some sort of human condition; she remembered so clearly those lovely days in Edo when Kagome had spent many hours in Kaede's hut explaining to the elder some health concerns she had for Kikyo's aging sister. Rin, of course, had overheard and remembered those strange words like heart attack and stroke, and had watched with hidden entertainment as her Sesshomaru had slowly repeated the phrases the next time she had seen him. She was sure, if she was being taken back to the shiro of the West, that he was suspecting one of those illnesses now.

But despite her surface thoughts, something deeper inside her - instinct, perhaps - warned her that what happened had not been natural. She had felt an almost inconceivably hot bolt of electricity snag through her center, right over her heart, before she had cried out. It had felt so powerful, in a different way that Sesshomaru was. It had felt ancient, commanding all the attention of the sun, lancing itself under her skin in a way that no mere youki or reiki could. It wasn't completely demonic, but at the same time, it didn't feel like a normal human's doing either.

Just who had she angered?

Rin didn't understand. She knew Kimi-sama would never dare provoke her beloved son in such a bold way, and despite the Lady's declarations, Rin suspected that the great inu perhaps enjoyed her company.

Some time had passed before another sensation grew strong enough for her to latch onto it before it drifted away, but this one wasn't the same as the initial heat she had felt before. She felt those tendrils of heat, not weaving through her heart this time but over her forehead. For those few moments that they explored the expanse of skin above her brows Rin was content to simply observe the sensation, but soon she noticed that the visage of another woman was slowly forming in the darkness of her abnormal prison.

The woman, Rin instantly knew, was dangerous. Perhaps even as dangerous as her Lord; they certainly both shared that look of cruelty and superiority. If Rin had been in control of her body, she might have shuddered.

"Good, good," the woman chuckled, sensing Rin's less-than-concealed fear. "You are wise to fear the presence of the one who has cursed you so."

"Cursed?" Rin gasped, eyes widening. She was not sure how she spoke - she knew, inherently, that her worldly mouth had not moved. How did this woman get inside her head then?

The figure in question soon pranced forward, her pace deliberate and unhurried as each soundless tap of her zori seemed to build as an anticipatory pressure in Rin's ears. Rin soon noticed that she could not move; yes, she apparently could talk, but that seemed to be the only grain of control she possessed in this plane. Rin watched with visible apprehension as the woman's blood-colored lips parted in a satisfied grin. She was pleased with something, Rin knew.
"Yes, pet," she murmured, now so close that Rin could feel the gentle puff of her breath exhaling on her skin. "It was not my original intention, but let's make the best of my little mistake, ne? I assure you I bear no ill will towards you, but I'm afraid I cannot release you from my control until you help me a little. Nothing too taxing, I promise, and then I'll set you free." The woman let her voice fade away as the fabric of her furisode shifted against itself, as she brought her hand up to stroke the back of her fingers along Rin's cheek.

The movement and contact sent warning bells ringing round in Rin's head, and her breath hitched in her throat. "Your name," she choked out, before she found she was unable to breathe again. Her outburst had somewhat achieved her goal; the offending limb was removed from Rin's face, and those soundless zori moved again to give Rin space enough to breathe. With the withdrawal of such a forceful presence, Rin found strength enough to hurriedly finish her inquiry. "You name," she repeated, "what is it?"

"Katsumi."

Rin was surprised that this person - Katsumi - had been so willing to answer her question; she had not expected anyone to be so willing to reveal information about themselves. Rin reasoned that it could be equally as fake as it was real, though.

"Why are you doing this, Katsumi?"

Katsumi tilted her head to the side, letting her head of brown waves sway to the side as well. Something danced in those ruby eyes of hers, but Rin was not as adept as her Lord in detecting emotion, and it was gone before Rin could even make a guess. "You are only human, and have only known this world for a pitifully small time. You have only known your heart for little more than a decade. You have only known that which you treasure most, your Lord of the Western Lands, for a mere one hundredth of his life thus far."

That same thing danced in her eyes again, this time with more light and heat. Rin wondered briefly if it was bitterness.

"That, child, is why you would not understand my reasons for doing this." Katsumi closed her eyes briefly as a small, thin lipped smile settled over her skin. "I've taken pity on you, you see, and so I will allow you to return to your body." Rin could feel the tingling on her forehead surging again, with a more urgent frequency. "I'll be leaving my mark on you for the time being though, doll."

The figure began to fade, at the same time the burning on her forehead did.

And as Rin thought of what Katsumi had imprinted in her, less than said, just before she vanished, Rin couldn't stop the trembling that started in her mind and continued through to her unconscious body.

We'll be seeing each other soon, Rin.

You'll keep quiet until then.


He felt the trembling of her body, held in both of his arms as he soared over the trees. But when he looked down, to see what had changed since she had grown unconscious, he felt his blood run cold with icy fury.

Because he knew the mark that had been imprinted on her forehead. He had noticed strange lines of maroon stirring over her brows, but it had yet to take a decisive form. Until now. He had never paid it any heed before - only a truly, utterly foolish creature would dare to challenge Sesshomaru and entertain the idea of defeating the invincible Lord of the Western Lands. So superior was he, that he had never before considered there would be someone to so directly call his honor to question. He wouldn't put it past Inuyasha, what with the whelp's remarkably thick skull and bothersome personality, but in the years since Naraku's defeat the half-brothers had settled into some sort of tolerable neutrality. Besides, he thought with a mental roll of his eyes, Inuyasha was too thick-headed to even be capable of this sort of eloquence in his confrontations; he knew the brutish inu would rather storm his way right into Sesshomaru's face, spew several insults, and leap back to swing that fang of his.

As far as power was concerned, there was his mother, but she had no taste for these sorts of battles. She preferred to get a rise out of him diplomatically, and a display such as this one simply wouldn't do in her eyes.

But as he glanced once more to see the mark, Sesshomaru wondered if a combative challenge was what the culprit wanted. A rise out of him, sure. But the mark could mean several things besides a duel; things like a declaration of sworn vengeance and the right to avenge one fallen were other possible meanings behind the dark curls of maroon that now painted his ward's brow.

Regardless of the reason, Sesshomaru thought as her trembling finally started to subside enough for him to relax, he would ensure retribution was swiftly dealt to the bastard that thought to use Rin as little more than stationary.

"Jaken," he called, his sudden commanding tone startling the little servant clinging to the tail end of his master's pelt.

"Yes, Sesshomaru-sama?"

Distantly, Sesshomaru approved of Jaken's apparent ability to recognize that any unnecessary groveling would result in his swift removal from the flying demon's person. "We will be stopping here briefly," Sesshomaru declared, once he found the structure he was looking for.

He could feel his retainer's curiosity rise as they promptly descended, landing at the gaping maw of a well-lived in cavern. He ignored the scent markings thick over the place, and the startled sounds of the wolf demons that saw him arrive. Using his highly trained nose, he walked further into the cave past the males and females that stayed tense against the walls, aggravated that someone would so audaciously invite themselves in, yet repressing their instincts in order to spare themselves from the wrath of the most powerful daiyoukai in the four lands.

Certainly, it didn't help that he was allowing a minuscule portion of his massive youki to slip out to further his command against interference.

It took only a moment after he let out his youki for the subject of his search to appear: the leader of the Northern Wolf Demon Tribe, and mate of Ayame, granddaughter of the previous leader. Koga stood before him, not defensive but expectant, as he bowed his head in acknowledgement of the superior youkai standing before him.

"Lord Sesshomaru," Koga greeted, but all other intentions of speaking died before leaving his lips as he took notice of the passenger in the great Lord's arms. Sesshomaru assumed, knowing well enough that Koga remembered what he had once done to Rin, that the wolf understood the gravity of the situation - Rin would never be brought to face the man who played a hand in her death, unless it was absolutely necessary.

"This one will have Rin's condition stabilized by your healers to safely make the rest of the journey."

It was then that Koga took notice of the curious mark emblazoned on the young woman's skin; it was then when he could feel that it held more power than it seemed.

Without another word, the Wolf Leader nodded respectfully to show his compliance with the greater daiyoukai, before summoning his greatest healers and motioning Sesshomaru's party further into the network of caves.


Jasmine.

The crackle of smoldering logs; the warm huskiness of smoke in the air.

The gentle clinking of cups against each other; the faint whisper of a breeze diluted by something sheltering her from it.

A laugh - rough, throaty, full of mirth and perhaps a little sake, as the words following the outburst were slightly blended together.

She was not alone.

Centuries of instinct guided her in coming to; her complete control over her aura first ensuring she remained to sight and sense the same as she did when she was asleep. She studied first what assaulted her senses directly, before considering her next move.

She could feel from rough fabric over her face and the peculiar tightening around her throat that there was a sort of bag over her head; ironic as it was, whoever had found her had taken measures to ensure she did not know where she was taken to. Perhaps she had been kidnapped, she thought bluntly, before resuming her investigation. The bag was soon found to be only one of the many precautions taken to prevent her from maintaining control over her situation. She had been bound by coarse ropes around her ankles, knees, and arms. Her arms had been drawn at an almost uncomfortable angle behind her, and tied so that her right wrist was secured to her left elbow, and vice versa. She had a vague feeling that she would grow to be rather sore if her treatment was prolonged.

She considered the conversation that reached her ears from where she lay, undoubtedly on the flatter ground of some clearing outdoors, and debated how far from the cliff's secret pool she had likely been taken. She didn't feel sore yet, so it certainly hadn't been long, and she could barely feel the moon's presence anymore.

So, she had only slept for a few hours; that was good, certainly, but it wasn't enough to fully recover her powers. She would have to buy herself more time, but to do that, she first had to figure out who had taken her. If there was one thing she was good at, it was reading people and controlling just what they could read from her. In order to do that, she would have to alert them to the fact that she was awake, but just before she did, one of the male voices rose and caused her to pause.

"Anyways, about the girl . . . "

"Don't know who she pissed off to be left in the ground like that," another started, his voice reedy and emphatic. She could almost picture him motioning with his hands as he talked.

"I'll say," a third man interjected, the last syllable blending into a chuckle. She recognized this voice as the one who had laughed earlier. "Banko nearly broke his back trying to break enough of the earth loose to pull her out."

"Did not!" The one who must be Banko protested, and she noted this voice as the one who had brought the subject of their prisoner up in the first place. "You're full of shit, Kyo."

"I don't suppose it matters," the one with the reedy voice spoke up again. "We can just get her to pay for her rescue when we get to town with the rest of the supplies."

"And if she has no coin, Goro? Do you suppose we just sell her, too?" This time, it was Kyo speaking, and his voice was soon cut off by the sound of a cup being slammed against the ground. "We'll need more soon, anyways, if we expect to buy another meal."

"But she seemed rather pretty," the other one - Banko - tried to counter. "Perhaps we could make her stay around. Pretty women attract more customers," he managed to get out, before the voices of his other two companions rose to meet his own. They clearly had known each other for awhile, from the way they were able to pierce each other with jokes that held no venom, and even the way they now argued over what to do with the woman they had dragged out of the earth held a note of familiarity to it that people joined merely for a job could never possess.

They didn't get far in their arguing, however, when the rumbling in a fourth person's chest drew their attention. She noticed that the sound came from her back. Unlike the others, who she had lain facing on her side, this one was positioned curiously far from the fire and close to her. She resisted the urge to let out a sigh. Did they think she would freak out, thrash, and try to flee upon awakening? Certainly they didn't mean to insult her intelligence.

"I would advise you to lower your voices, gentlemen," the fourth voice purred, and she immediately detected an intriguing difference between him and the others. "I don't believe our guest would appreciate such jarring noise upon awakening."

"You noticed?" she said then, wishing only slightly that she could have seen the stunned expressions on the three males' faces by the fire as she did. She didn't really need to confirm what the other man said, but then again, she felt the need to praise his observation by acknowledging his skill. It was what she had noticed when he had first spoken - this man, though undoubtedly as human as his companions, was uniquely perceptive. Although he seemed to be exceptionally observant, it wasn't this development that threatened to furrow her brows. Her voice was one of her favorite tools; it had been trained carefully over the centuries, to a level of mastery wherein she only required a minute level of power in order to control completely all aspects of her speech patterns. And yet, as she had just spoken those two words, she had noticed that it carried with it the conveyance of how she had been impressed with the man's skill.

It was then, finally, when she started to properly worry about the seal placed upon her. If her levels of power were as they were now - not dangerously low, but several days still from returning completely - under normal circumstances - and she couldn't even control her voice with absoluteness, then she was perhaps in a more complicated situation than she had originally surmised. Many of her powers required direct sight to focus them, but if she couldn't even handle the ones that didn't, then how was she to disband the seal?

She turned inward for a brief moment to gauge how much of her strength she had recovered in the few hours that she had sleep, only to find her powers levels had not changed at all. "How long have I slept?" she asked suddenly, voice again betraying more than she wished it would.

The man that had noticed her awakening spoke first. "We found you last night; assuming you had fallen asleep sometime then, I imagine you've only been out for just under twenty hours."

Twenty hours.

Twenty hours, she had slept, and she had regained nothing of her spent energy.

"I wish to be untied," she stated then, but after a moment of silence wherein no one moved to help her, she added, "I will not run."

The fourth man, the one nearest and seemingly most keen, actually reached over to untie her arms and lift the bag over her head. He waited for her to rub feeling into her wrists and arms again, before he moved back to where he had been seated before. There was a gentle thump as he did; she gathered he must have been leaning against a tree.

If any of the group were curious as to why their guest had yet to open her eyes, they did not say so.

She let them simmer in their thoughts as she reached down to undo the restraints on her legs; but before her fingers even touched the rope there was that fourth man's hand gripping her wrist. "Those'll stay on for a bit longer, miss, if you don't mind." Before the sounds of protest from the other three could get far, he added, "I'll take answers to our questions as a sign of goodwill and then let you remove them."

She let his trade sit in the air, considering it. Freedom to walk as she pleased among them, in exchange for knowledge.

Turning her head towards where she knew he was, she let her wrist go limp in his hand. "What do you wish to know?" she murmured, and as she did, he let go.

"Your name?"

"Megumi Madarame. Yours?"

If he was surprised by how willingly she gave her whole name, he did not show it as he told her his in turn; Daisuke. Megumi was not bothered by the reveal of her name - she had given it to many over the centuries, and in almost equal numbers she had removed it from people's memories. It was the only viable option for someone like her; if too many people remembered her and passed her name through the decades, she would no longer pass as wholly human, and would be unable to give those mortal villagers the guidance they needed.

As she thought of her ability to erase her presence from someone's memories, she found herself thinking about the image of the other woman she had seen in her head when the assassins came. Internally, she frowned slightly; she had the oddest feeling that it was not the first time she had seen that woman.

"Well, Madarame," Daisuke picked up when she made no effort to respond, "it looks like you'll be travelling with us for a little. We're merchants who visit each of the four lands, selling medicinal herbs and the like to places where those plants are rare."

She inclined her head slightly to show she had heard him, but she had already figured as much; the distinct and subtle notes of many of the plants which she was familiar with had mingled with the smoke and scents of her current company upon her wakening.

"I believe you expressed a desire earlier to attract more customers, Banko?" Megumi said, but it wasn't really a question. She could feel the surprise that radiated off of him upon hearing that she had identified him by name. "I have many years behind me as a healer. Though Daisuke has likely noticed already, I am much weaker than normal, and cannot perform to my fullest ability."

Banko was busy fumbling through some sort of response when Goro blurted his way through his friend's reply, asking if her condition had something to do with why she had been buried when they found her.

The faintest hint of a wry smile danced briefly on Megumi's face, but was gone just as quickly. "Yes, I suppose it does. It appears my skill has personally grieved someone, and she sought to remove it."

After a moment, she could hear Daisuke moving again, but this time it was to remove the ropes around her legs. "We were in the middle of settling down for the night, Madarame, so you can claim a spot by the fire if you'd like. Our group moves out at first light." She could practically see his amusement as he paused to select his next words. "I look forward to seeing what sort of havoc you'll wreak for us humble merchants."

By havoc, of course, she knew he was thinking of the profit to be gained from her addition - temporary as it was - to the group, but she had a feeling that the future held more than just financial upheaval in store for her.

Above her, the moon began to rise, crescent shaped and beaming at its daughter down below.


She slept peacefully, surrounded by both the furs the wolves slept on and Sesshomaru's own pelt. From where he had taken to watching her, the Western Lord listened attentively for any changes in Rin's heartbeat or her breathing. When nothing had yet to change, he allowed his eyes to slide towards the archway that Koga leaned against, his eyes still focused on the slumbering girl from his place in the room's entryway.

"Guess the healers worked it all out, then," he remarked, and Sesshomaru sensed it wasn't just to end the silence that had fallen in the space. "My pack can take care of guarding this place, so you can rest if you need to."

Sesshomaru considered Koga's offer; true, he had been travelling at a rather grueling pace for several days now. A great thunderstorm the day Rin fell unconscious forced him out of the skies, and then he had been required to shelter her until it subsided. She had grown feverish that second day, and he again could not take to the skies for fear that the wind would not allow her to remain as warm as he would like. But the previous day's torrential rain had left the ground sodden and damp, and again he was aggravated because he could not run at his desired speed. Finally, her fever broke the following night, and the subsequent day - today - they were in the air once more.

But now night was falling again, and Sesshomaru was keenly aware that his irregular pace and lack of sufficient food were slowly taking a toll on his stamina. Perhaps Koga had grown more perceptive in these last years, if he was able to sense this also.

"This one will remain with Rin here for the night," Sesshomaru finally decided. "But at first light, Rin will be taken back to my healers to take care of the rest of her curing."

Koga nodded, but said nothing for a while. His ears finally twitched, and his face twisted in a curious expression. "And if they're unable to figure out what's come over her?"

Sesshomaru refrained from turning sharply on the Wolf Leader that he had formed a rather stable political relationship with, but he could feel his acid swell beneath his fingertips at the mere insinuation that the Lord of the Western Lands, the most powerful daiyoukai, did not have the means necessary to combat the opponent that had set its sights on Rin to get to him.

"They will not fail," he declared, but his natural curiosity - damn those inu tendencies - made him wonder why Koga would have dared to say something.

Almost as if he had expressed that last thought aloud, Koga soon moved to elaborate. "There's a sort of rumor, about this woman who can see the nature of any illness or malice that could possibly fall upon someone. I've heard she can see souls too," he trailed off, but then stopped to grin. "That's probably just another crazy human superstition. But, anyways, she's supposed to be hard to track down and no one really knows her name, but I was thinking - "

"You believe she might prove to be of some use to this one, should my own subjects fail," Sesshomaru interjected, as his eyebrows rose fractionally, almost daring the younger demon to deny his claim.

"I just want to make sure you've got as many options as possible," Koga defended, crossing his arms over his chest and shrugging. His assumed posture portrayed indifference, but when he spoke again, Sesshomaru could smell the faint note of guilt in the youkai's scent. "I suppose I owe it to her."

The daiyoukai let his eyes follow where Koga's were directed, back to the mound of furs and pelts. He heard her breath hitch once, then even back out as she drifted further into sleep. Silently, Sesshomaru conceded that if his healers proved to be useless then perhaps looking into this woman's capabilities would be worth a moment of his time.

Above him, the moon in the form identical to the one above the daiyoukai's brows finally rose, bearing its luminescence for all to see, and grinned.


Author's Note:

So it's going to be an extra chapter or two (I think) until Megumi and Sesshomaru actually meet, so bear with me. I hope you're liking the story so far? I'm fairly certain I know where I want it to go, but it's going to be as much of a journey for me as it might be for you. Anyways, thanks for reading! 3