Jaken stared at her dumbfounded, for he truly could not comprehend if the girl was missing a screw or simply determined to damn them both to a death so painful even the kami would shudder.
Sesshomaru looked at her in his usual detached manner attempting to understand the woman before him, her sword drawn and eyes fixed.
"Well," she goaded him, "Come on. Unless, unless you fear me."
Jaken set down his staff and marched firmly behind the fireproof scales of A-Un where he would certainly be safe from the coming onslaught.
He would mourn her, miss her smile teasing ways.
Sesshomaru cocked his side to the side, both intrigued and contemplative.
"You want me to attack you?" he clarified.
"Yes." Rin answered.
"For what purpose?" he asked, his digits twitching to grab the hilt of his sword. Unlike Rin, battle was part of his nature and something he did not need to be provoked to enter.
"I'd imagine anyone who can stand their ground against you, can fair well against an army." She explained.
It was a simple and yet mislead rationale, one that should have ultimately led to her death but as he grabbed his sword, Tensegia and not Bakusaiga, he was aware that he was consciously choosing to spare the girl. Instead of allowing the decision to vex him, he simply admitted to himself that killing her would not bring him the joy he so usually gained in ending the lives of those who spoke against him and in this respect, she was different.
Indeed this new Rin, which is what he referred to her as, was different and yet not so different. However, if it was a battle she sought, he would not go easy on her. He would bring her within an inch of her life and that would be more than enough mercy.
Rin smirked as he withdrew his blade.
"Understand it is not your goading that has led me to draw my sword." He told her frankly.
"Of course My Lord, you simply hope to humble me in this exercise." She replied. Secretly she was beyond pleased that he hadn't just told her to stop wasting his time, she would be training with Lord Sesshomaru. This would be like nothing she had ever experienced, she was sure, it wouldn't be like training with Inuyasha or Kohaku, where they would dote on her fragility or womanhood. Sesshomaru would not hold back, well not as much as they did she hoped.
"Hope?" he asked, testing the word. "Do you truly believe you can best me?"
Rin narrowed her eyes and unsheathed her second blade, "I suppose we will find out."
For the first time in a long time Sesshomaru smirked, this Rin was interesting. The Rin he knew before had been unafraid and it was something he had learned to accept and cherish in her. This Rin was daring.
"I expect you to be able to travel without complaint after your loss; I won't be slowed down by your injuries." He warned her.
Rin didn't reply, her face a mask of calm and subtle interest, in response however she smirked.
Sesshomaru rushed at her and was not shocked as even with her slow speed in comparison to his own she was able to again block his sword. This time he observed her, she moved always in response to him almost like a dance she allowed him to lead. He came at her from the front and both side and finally for her back, the only time where she reacted defensively without having waited for his previous action and he realized she was studying and training herself on the pacing she would need to keep up with him.
She was truly brilliant.
She could never hope to match his speed, this was known, but by remaining n the defensive in the first half of the fight and allowing him to attack her repeatedly, she was mentally training her muscles to react to him at a particular speed. This meant she didn't have to necessarily be faster, she just had to know when he was coming for her. He had only noticed this when she dodged his attack from behind her, a blind spot.
He had barely begun his movement when her muscles coiled in preparation and pushed her off the ground to flank to her right.
She wielded both swords like a true master, practiced in her craft and ever unintentional in her strike. Nonetheless she was still centuries out of her league. As her sword finally met his, he easily overpowered her, angling her swords toward her weaker grip with ease before she eventually dropped the sword in her weaker hand and used her more dominant grip to wield her sword up suddenly and spin out from his grasp, pacing way from him with her back turned.
This would be her fatal mistake, he noted, turning her back to the enemy. He lunged after her and in what he could only deem as an electrifying moment, with an accuracy like no other she flung her sword back at him without a second glance.
She had mimicked his exact attack on Jakotsu and Suikotsu from the band of seven all those years ago. Her sword was aimed to pierce right above his armor and into his chest, and had she been fighting anyone else perhaps it would have. It took little effort for him to adjust his movement just slightly in order to dodge the attack. Just as he had, he heard a sudden crack, the release of a bow.
Between her digits where nearly invisible senbon needles that reeked of poison, and as she lined them up within the bow and released them, he found himself undisputedly impressed. His poison whip knocked them all to the ground and just as he began to walk towards her, he took in a smell of sudden heat.
He looked down and noticed that beneath his feet where the poisonous needles had landed, a black soil had been laced. The senbon needles began to burn up and as they did he heard the familiar sound of a chain.
He looked up and admitted that this Rin, was truly a sight to behold. Her demon slayers attire was similar to that of Inuyasha's back. Black, form fitting, and covered pads and sashes that protected them and sheathed their house of weapons. Her face resembled nothing of the old Rin, there was no smile on her full lips or the gleam of joy in her brown eyes. Her face was drawn in seriousness, her eyes glinted of a collected and cool determination. Though the exercise had began to take its toll on her, her heaving chest slowed with every passing breath as she examined and prepared for her current and next attack.
She spun the ball and the end of her chain before letting it hit the ground, while gripping on to the sickle and chain, in preparation.
Amused as he was, Sesshomaru decided it was time to end this. He sent out the force of his youkai, extinguishing the flames and just barely affecting their surrounding landscape, forcing her to throw her sickle into the ground to keep from being pushed back.
In that same moment he stood before her grabbing her by her neck and to his surprise instead of panicking, she grabbed his arm in both of her hands and pulled her body up, using a foot to kick off his chest and bring his neck between her now crossed legs in a headlock. She used all the force in her lower body to yank him down, causing them both to the ground.
He released her throat and locked his jaw as he received a kick to the jaw as she tried to scramble away and back towards her weapon.
"Enough!" He growled as he grabbed her by the ankle and pulled her against the gravel away from her weapon. He'd initially wanted to toss her across the open area but he knew her body could only take so much.
Rin however was not done, in a final effort, she picked up a rock beneath her and slammed it onto the hand that dragged her across the ground.
Then, minding his strength, he tossed her against the tree.
Her body landed against it with a thud and an eerie feeling of relief washed over him as his ears awaited a sickening snap of bones that never came. He warred with his subconscious as he took into account the ways he could actually cripple or kill the girl, but acted against it.
He needed to end this now before he forgot to mind her physique.
Before she could get up she found a glowing set of claws aimed directly at her heart and the tip of a sword, she knew could not cut, at her jugular.
She looked into the gold eyes before her, that suddenly did not seem so emotionless and certainly not angry as she would have expected him to be, but speculating. She hadn't even finished catching her breath when he walked away once more uninterested.
She let go of a breath, she hadn't realized she had been holding.
"Well." She called out breathlessly, waiting for him to say something.
"We're going." He replied.
"That's it?" she huffed. "I'm not done yet."
"Jaken, A-Un." He summoned.
The two headed dragon and little imp got up to follow behind him and as Rin stood there catching her breath, Jaken, whose head was cradled between his arms during the entire exercise shook his head in the greatest confusion he'd ever known.
"You were going easy on me." Rin said bitterly a few hours later as thy continued to forge through the forest.
Sesshomaru just barely glanced in her direction.
"Yes." He said simply.
Her porcelain face when from a light shade of pink to a hot undertone of rouge.
"Why?" she asked sharply. "If you won't train seriously with me-"
Sesshomaru stopped to face her suddenly and her words halted. "Your physique lacks strength, your weaker grip will cost you your life against a trained swordsman, and your strategy though commanding needs refinement." He told her frankly.
Rin flushed, "I disagree." She said boldly. "You have centuries on my 2 decades of life and I think-"
Sesshomaru coked a brow at her in amusement, "I thought you had asked for my opinion not an echo of your own." He reminded her.
"Yes," she flushed. "But-"
"Let me remind you where you stand and what your purpose is here. I did not seek you out to train you nor do I have any intention to wait until you are ready to claim what is mine. Your opponents will not take into consideration your decades to their centuries in battle, battle is battle." He told her. "We will arrive in 4 days' time. I suggest you do what you must to prepare yourself for then."
Rin's lips pressed into a hard line, her brown eyes sparkling with what he knew was concealed rage. A new look that must have belonged solely to this new Rin, as the old Rin knew nothing but happiness.
"We're going." He said as he continued walking pass where she grounded her feet and balled her fists in frustration, her ebony locks curtaining her flushed face.
