"Look at what we have here."

Rin gripped her swords as her eyes met with those of three demons, who stood proudly at twice her size.

She was never one to judge but she truly could not understand how some creatures were simply grotesque to envision let alone come face to face with.

"Look brother; we've stumbled upon a small feast." the one to the left bellowed. "And they have livestock."

Rin could feel her nails digging into the cloth that wrapped the hilt of her swords. Livestock, the great beat that donned two heads, feared by many, and gentle to all would be considered livestock for these gargantuan parasites. The comment alone was enough to ground her, there would be no fight here. Certainly not. She was not daft or bold enough to think that she would stand a fighting chance against these brutes. Outsmarting one opponent was easy, a set of eyes could be distracted, a nose could be fooled, a pair of hands easily dodged but 3 behemoth sets of each?

Her hand twitched towards her thigh which should have held another smoke bomb before that state of her person rushed back into her recollection.

Life had always been cruel, Rin thought, but never without humor. In a point in life where she felt defenseless against the tides of humanity; pulling her towards an existence without meaning of fulfillment, drowned by its inferiorities and yet liberated by her spirit; she couldn't help but note the irony of such a moment.

She was as naked as a new born babe, without armor, without real clothes even before her greatest challenge.

She felt her full lips turn up into a smirk.

This was a battle that could not be won, she concluded, but it would sure as hell be the stuff of legends. The kami would applaud her audacity and she would be damned sure that she didn't meet them alone.

The ogre that stood at the forefront smiled down at her as he took in her expression. "She intends to fight." he sneered. "That will make this all the more interesting. Grab the cattle and the man." He ordered as he began to lunge towards her.

Rin jumped back and her two-headed companion did the same.

"Ah-Un, fly!" She ordered.

The two headed beast whined in protest.

"Run you foolish girl!" Yun yelled at her.

"Now!"

The beast took off into the sky but not without shooting off a few shots towards where the ogres stood and staying within surveilling distance.


Blood. The smell that made the silver hairs on his body stand up was blood. His youkai roared as the scent became watered down and started covering the area like a blanket. This was no ordinary blood of course, it was Rin's. He pushed himself faster and further feeling the wind bite at his features .

Damn her.


The ogre roared as Rin attempted to push herself off the boulder she had landed on as a result of his back blow. Her vision blurred and pain rang from the left side of her body. She could see the river run red and she wondered whose blood was seeping out so densely.

The ogre fell to his knees as he lamented his grave wound, a blade was embedded in his eye socket, a miscalculation on her part. She has been aiming for the center of his skull as she landed the blow but he had been faster than she had imagined.

As he lunged at her, she had used his momentum against him, running towards an boulders that sat at an upward and slanted position in the water to jump off and land the blow. She had miscalculated two things though, the weight of her soaked yukata and its effect on her ability to jump and his speed. As her landed her blow, he landed his and the minute they made contact Rin swore to every kami she knew, cursing his demon strength. He sent her soaring back towards the same boulder and she had heard a chorus of crunches upon impact before succumbing to a brief moment of darkness.

She could hear Ah-Un's distress and Yun's melody of curses. Then she heard Ah-Un's cry of pain as his foes took advantage of his distraction.

One of his comrades lay unconscious but alive after sparring at a distance with Ah-Un, but if the dragon took one more hit from them, he too was going to see the kami.

The other comrade was rushing towards their leader now and Rin cursed herself for having underestimated their capacity.

"Rin!" she could hear Yun shouting as she got to her feet unsteadily. With one sword in hand, the only working hand she had at the moment, she was going to give them enough time to escape.

She spat out the mouthful of blood that threatened to gag her and growled.

"You!" the ogre seethed. He began charging towards her and Rin stood her ground determined to make her sensei proud. She would not cower before death at the hands of an opponent she would not do Sango, Inuyasha, or Kohaku the dishonor. She would not humiliate her Lord or herself in these last moments, she would be as lethal and determined as they had raised her to be.

And with that thought she forced her broken body into a sprint and narrowly dodged the blow coming her, to no avail as she took a small portion of the blow by her hip and continued towards the ogre that had stayed kneeling in the water.

By the time the giant looked up at the shocked cry of his partner, Rin, using her small frame and speed as her last living advantage, forced her blade into his throat and watched as the life left his eyes before being pulled back and thrown to the ground like a child's doll. She could feel her body bounce of the ground with a sickening snap before pain like nothing she had ever felt before exploded throughout her body.

"Jiro!" she heard the ogre call, but there was no response. She knew that time she had not missed. As if being called from her body by something outside of her, Rin gagged before vomiting and small ravine of blood and mucus. Her vision became spotted as she felt the tremors of the earth as the last remaining ogre walked over to her. She rolled one bleary eye over to the fiend before smiling what she knew was probably a bloodied and broken smile.

He held a boulder atop his shoulder and she knew then this boulder would serve as her sepulcher.

"DAMN! YOU!" He shouted

"Rin!" Yun shouted.

"Ah-Un." Rin whispered knowing the beast would hear her from their distance. "Fly."

Her vision went dark but not before hearing a roar of rage.


Kohaku and Seirin watched as Yuichi brought the blade in full swing across the jugular of the beast and then ran across the riverside to gently pick up the battered woman and bring her under the coverage of the trees.

"There's another one in water," Yuichi looked over the scene in the water and shook his head.

The deceased body of one ogre had begun to decay in a demonic manner as it released poinous gas into the air and he quickly made haste to regroup with the small team of slayers under the brush of the trees. He removed his mask and looked down at the woman Seirin crouched over now; he flinched away in horror. She looked nearly deformed, her face swollen, painted in the colors of her bruises and terribly bloodied.

"She must have been bathing when they attacked her." Seirin explained as she adjusted the torn and bloodied yukata in an attempt to cover her more, though not much showed due to the way the cloth stuck to the blood seeping out of her.

Kohaku ground his teeth. "Three of them, she had to fight off three of those beasts alone."

"She never stood a chance." Yuichi spat. "She must've fought like hell though. There's a body in that river too, a dead one."

"Let the last one live." Kohaku ordered. "He'll lead us to their camp after sundown. Come, let's get her to camp and see what can be done for her."

Kohaku picked her up gently and felt a chill run up his spine.

"Hurry." He urged them.

"Something is coming this way. Something…" He paused to shake off another chill and began walked quickly. "Something evil."


Sesshomaru burst through the trees, startling the wounded Ah-Un, who immediately recovered from the shock and went to greet his master. His scales showing tears and wounds the least of his concern as he nudged Sesshomaru's chest almost pleadingly.

Sesshomaru walked to the waterfront and cursed as he saw two dead ogres by the water and no sight of Rin, though the place reeked of her blood. Instead a glimmer in the water caught his attention and he found himself picking up a broken blade a second later.

Rin. He thought uneasily.


"Please." a masculine voice called to him. He looked over and saw the broken man, naked, sitting behind a tree. "We must save her."

Sesshomaru turned to leave.

"Please!" He cried out desperately. "She must mean something to you! She saved my life, the fiends must have made off with her body, she's not here. They ambushed her and she saved me and the dragon before trying to face them herself, I will tell you all I know but please - save her!"

Sesshomaru said nothing as he took this in.

Yun watched as the daiyoukai made no move and simply stood there as if hell had not just broken lose and taken the woman he had so freely used.

Where had he been? Where had Rin's master been when she had so desperately needed him? When her body had hit the ground and made those heart wrenching sounds of defeat. Where had he been when she chose to give her life up for his and for the sake of this man's dragon? Just where had her most precious Lord been?

Why did he not come to lend them his power? Yun ground his teeth and swallowed his pride.

"I beg of you, My Lord." He pleaded through clenched teeth, bowing his head.


"Ah-Un." Sesshomaru said in his quiet but deadly tone. The broken man's head snapping up in surprise at the sound of his voice.

The dragon came before him, but he did not turn to acknowledge him. "Bring Jaken here, to this broken slayer. " He ordered.

Jaken had already gone to get human supplies as it was, supplies this man would need.

Ah-Un brought his head to the small of Sesshomaru's back, one head whined pleadingly while the other one seemed distracted.

"Yes, I'll bring her back." He replied before disappearing.

Leaving Yun and the two headed dragon; alone.