& We're back! I can't put into words, how excited I am to be posting this. Believe me when I say, I've never left, life has truly just been so hectic and with that exhaustion comes and exhausted and burnt out muse. I want the writing to stay consistent in regards to how good it is in portraying the characters accurately and continuing the story. I don't want to post for the sake of posting, I want it to be worthy of me and of you all.

The updates might be slow but know I have every intention to finish. In the meantime I encourage all of you to continue to interact, tell me how you really feel about. Your comments are what remind me that I still have work to do.

I appreciate every single one of them.

Lastly, I've started a podcast called "Body of an Extravert", I love what writing fanfiction has been able to do in my life. I've met so many new friends, supporters and inspirations up here that I am truly rendered speechless at how diverse this platform really is. Podcasting is much the same and so I ask you all to support me there too, it's free on all major platforms which include spotify, apple podcasts (free app for apple users), google play, and so much more. Please subscribe, comment, and support in the same way you would here. It would mean the world.

"Body of an Extravert" - Esther Alexis.

Enjoy!


The aura pulsating around the Lord of the West was viscous and nauseating all at once; dampening the air within the cave where the slayers scrambled to defend themselves. The human slayers ran about grabbing swords, stones, and bows but the Lord of the West, saw none of this. He could only see red, could only smell blood, could only taste the undiluted fear coursing through the blood of his would-be victims and worse in his own veins as he sought out what was rightfully his; Rin.

She was here, near enough that his nose could tell him everything his eyes had not yet seen and what his ears hadn't truly heard among the sea of sound that surrounded her. She wasn't long for this world, she was leaving him; again.

The realization had long since been made, it simply went unacknowledged; for it would not come to pass. He would not allow it, kami and fate be damned, he had stolen her from death twice and he would do it a third time.

Why?

Part of him, a small part of him that had been siphoned away when he caught the smell of her blood, the part of him he was sure many would call reason; dared him to inquire after his motives. If she died, it would only be the quickening of what was to come in one way or another. If it were not by his claws, it would be by some human fragility, ailment, or time.

What purpose had he now, to steal her from death? She no longer lived to serve him, she was by her own decree purposeless. Why then did he race against time to save her? Why then did his heart beat at a quickened pace? Why then did the smell of her blood, the thought of her pale, lifeless corpse, and dull eyes drive him into a state of desperation?

What did he have to gain in her?

She accompanied him now to face a battle where she was most destined to perish. Her death was inevitable.

He knew this and yet his feet moved of their own accord, his arms moved to deflect whatever it was the feeble humans sent flying toward him. Men flanked his sides but he hardly noticed, before they could nock their arrows, he'd sent them flying towards either cave side; initiating a symphony of sickening snaps and loud curses.

Yet none of it was as deafening as the faint, smothered and whistle like sound he knew would be Rin's breath.

Time seemed to move slowly for him as he stalked further into the cave.

Perhaps this was the out of body experience he had heard of. When one's body was present, but the mind, the soul, the being were simply spectators.

He walked towards the makeshift hut where he could make out three different scents and figures. All the while his aura pulsated around him, thick, venomous, and lethal; disintegrating the arrows launched at his back and choking his enemies under a thick coat of youkai that would leave even his hanyou brother gasping for air.

He pushed back the makeshift door and the world slowed; a woman, slight and pale, held two knives in her hand, one in her mouth, and nothing in her hard brown eyes. Her grip tightened painfully over the hilts as she prepared to launch herself at him. All of this his eyes could see and yet could not bother to notice.

No, in that moment he saw only one; Rin, in the arms of a man he once called a boy.

There in Kohaku's arms, lay the most pitiful and broken sack of flesh and bones he had ever laid eyes on.

She was just barely alive, clinging to life almost teasingly and yet the most powerless person there, seemed to be him.

He had no recollection of kneeling but there he was, knelt almost reverently before her ghastly form, just behind the slayer that held her. He could feel his digits twitch towards Tensegia, which sat still on his hip, along with the rest of the world. Even his breathing had been stilled he realized suddenly letting go of a ragged breath.

The slight young woman rushed towards him now.

"Stop!" Kohaku ordered shakily, he lifted his trembling head slowly, his tear stained faced glowing with effort. "He will save her." He told the woman through clenched teeth before slowly turning to face the kneeling daiyoukai.

He laid Rin on the ground between them in the most obeisant manner before bringing his forehead to the ground in the ultimate display of servitude.

"Lord Sesshomaru, please." Kohaku choked. "Save her. Save Rin."

He brought his waterlogged brown eyes to the golden ones that sat transfixed on Rin's body.

The Lord of the West looked taller and yet small at the same time Kohaku noticed. The power and authority that radiated off of him made him grand in the small room and perhaps even in the world but now as he knelt before the woman who had given him the purest form of love, he seemed small; weakened.

Any other day, Kohaku would have rejoiced, but today as the woman he loved laid before them he could only balk.

"Ca-can you? S-save her?" he stuttered in question.

It seemed the question went unheard or completely ignored. The daiyoukai was transfixed on the woman before them, his eyes growing more and more hollow. As if he were seeing her in a whole new light, as if that light were diminishing right before him.

He moved suddenly bringing his clawed hand to her temple and moving her blood-soaked hair from her face.

Rin's body slumped into a state of rest, one that had not befallen her since her arrival and the slayer wondered not for the first time in his many years, how it seemed that her soul, her being, could recognize him even in unconsciousness.


The last time Sesshomaru had come to the village to see Rin, they had still been children, he was coming on his 13th summer and Rin was still in her 10th. In the short time that they had spent together, Rin had become the apex of his world. She had become his confidant, his partner, his truest friend.

He had been saved, his sister's wish granted, and now shared a hut with Sango and Miroku trying to piece together a life that he had long since given up on. He loved his sister dearly and he had warmed up to Miroku and the rest as well. They had truly supported him and loved him like their own, but it didn't stop his heart from breaking each and every day.

He would forever live with the memories of a killer, with the hardened body of a slayer, of a harbinger of death.

It mattered not that it was never his intention or that he too had died that day and every day after that in the possession of Naraku. It was still his burden to bear and that was something he would do alone until the sweet relief of death.

That had been until the Lord of the West had dropped off his ward to reside permanently with the Lady Kaede. The girl, now woman, could see him.

Not the smiling, soft spoken younger brother of the beautiful slayer Sango; but the enraged, trapped, and saddened shell of a person named Kohaku.

And she loved him.

She loved him fiercely, not the idea of him or the notion of who he could have been or would be, she loved him in the present. She loved his past and she would love him every day for who he was on those days, well into the future.

On days where his past would age him, she would remind him in action and laughter that they were but children. On days where he could not find it in his to refuse a request, trapped in his guilt and his subsequent need to please, she would refute for him. On days where the smile he wore weighed more than him, she would carry it for him while she held him in her small arms; wiping away the tears and telling him it would be alright, that he would be safe there, in her arms.

He had known when he was but a boy that he was in love with her and if he had ever forgotten, then during his 13th summer he was sure of it.

Sango, Kagome, Inuyasha and Miroku had been preparing a surprise party for him; another wayward and futuristic idea of Kagome's no doubt.

One where they would celebrate his life with vigor and treats, specifically for him. In spite of himself he had been excited, he could see them preparing, hear the whispers and could feel the charge of elation in the air. It would fall on the night of the full moon, on the same day Lord Sesshomaru had promised Rin he would return.

He knew this because Rin and Lady Kaede had argued about it loudly. She refused to go, not when her Lord could return at any minute.

"Won't ye reconsider?" the elderly woman beseeched her.

Rin sighed, her face flushed and lips pouty, "Please Lady Kaede, don't make me go. I have to keep watch."

"He would find you anywhere your feet would take you." Lady Kaede reminded her. "He could join the festivities."

"He wouldn't be happy there." Rin replied softly.

Lady Kaede scoffed and laughed now, "Does he know of such an emotion?"

Rin opened her mouth to defend her Lord when Kaede raised her hands in surrender. She knew better than to go down this road with Rin and unlike her counterpart, she has not the youth to waste on it.

"Tis no business of mine what that demon feels or does not feel." She conceded, "But what ye will feel because of him, is my business. The hours ye spend at the window waiting for him are but seconds to him. Remember time does not move for them in the same manner, ye'd be wise to live life on your time and not his."

Rin turned silently towards the window while Kaede left.

As their makeshift family celebrated his 13th summer, Rin slept by the window in Lady Kaede's hut for a demon she would not see; but would swear had not forsaken her.

"Kohaku, please!" A ten-year-old Rin shouted after him.

"No, Rin! You're supposed to be my best friend! You didn't even show up, you were sleeping at the window and he never even came!" Kohaku seethed.

"Stop it Kohaku, he did too come!" Rin shouted planting her small feet on the ground and crossing her arms.

Kohaku whirled on her, "Did you see him?" he asked.

"No but- "

"Then he didn't come Rin-chan, you are so naïve!" Kohaku sneered.

"No I'm not baka! Do you see air?" She asked. "No! But you know its there. Do you see spirits? No! But you still have to vanquish them sometimes! He was here, I know he was, I felt it."

"No, you didn't." Kohaku argued. "Inuysha would have smelled him."

"Smelled who?" Kagome-chan asked.

"Rin says that Sesshomaru was here last night, during my surprise party." Kohaku explained.

"He was," Kagome-chan confirmed. "Isn't that why Rin-chan couldn't come? Inuyasha told me arrived just a little after we got started. Though he wasn't here for long. I hope you still enjoyed your time with him, Rin-chan." She said before continuing down the road towards the village.

"Do you believe me now?" Rin asked exasperated.


It were as if her body sighed in relief, as if the other half of her had finally caught up to her and now she were able to rest.

He watched as the daiyoukai revered her as if it were the first time, he could really see her for what she was really worth; a deity and goddess in her own right.

"C-can you?" Kohaku asked again.

The daiyoukai's head snapped up as he realized they weren't alone for a second time.

"This Sesshomaru does not….know." he said almost mutely. "She is part dead already."

He'd been certain he could save her but a moment ago but looking at the woman before him, she would need to be a daiyoukai to survive these injuries.

"Where were you?" Kohaku asked in a hard voice. The daiyoukai finally turned to look at him again, only to be met with a furrowed and flushed face.

"Where were you?" He asked again. "She was with you, wasn't she? Why couldn't you protect her? How could you let this happen?" he growled.

"She's strong." Sesshomaru breathed.

"Not strong enough!" Kohaku barked. "She shouldn't have had to have been this strong, where were you?"

His sensitive hearing seemed amplified now, his head ached at the bellowing beside him and wails behind him.

"You should have never sought her out, you should have left her alone. If you weren't able to protect her then-"

The boy started to cough violently before gasping suddenly. His bleary eyes roamed the cave, Seirin had long since passed out.

"S-save her, R-Rin." Kohaku demanded before collapsing to the ground.

The daiyoukai brought his attention back to his ward. His blood was boiling just beneath the surface, his youkai out of his control.

"Will you always remember me, Lord Sesshomaru?"

The innocent question that had haunted him for years, that he had tried in vain to forget, was at the forefront of his mind now; on the tip of his tongue.

No.

Her soul cried to the beast that was tethered within him so profoundly that he moved almost unconsciously through the haze of emotions he could only barely place. A small insignificant part of him wondered how and when he had become so attached to her. How had one such as he become so beholden to her?

He gave himself over to the emotions entirely and felt his teeth lengthen before finally an eerie ringing pierced his ear drums.

Tensegia.

The sword beckoned him now and the world around him took on a spectral glow. He could see the essence of her being seeping out of her slowly now and before it could leave this plane, he could feel his own essence reaching towards what he knew his hands could not touch.

Her soul was unreasonably warm, almost dangerously torrid and yet it drew him in like a moth to a flame. It was so vibrant, so lively, so unlike him and so like his Rin, so like…he could almost hear her laughter now, see her movement.

His body felt weakened, as if it were pushing past a wall he could not see but he continued to push anyway. He could see it now, his youkai, his spirit, his soul straining to reach hers. A throbbing in his mind and sudden dizziness came upon him, but he persisted, he was so close now. He could almost feel her feverish aura, truly unlike nothing he had ever felt.

He gripped onto his sword and pushed further, finally reaching her. A force like nothing he had ever felt ripped the youkai out of him and wrapped him in her and she in him before ascending with them far past the skies he spent his life soaring through and into the stars; reaching the highest form of bodily and ethereal pleasure before finally yanking him back into his own physical form with what felt like a crash and an audible gasp.

The sword at his hip gave a shrill singing sound before igniting an all-consuming light that engulfed and warmed the cave but especially the space between.

He heard it then, the only sound that could lull him out of the daze that seemed to entrap him.

Thump Bump. Thump Bump.

A strong heartbeat.

Her heartbeat.

Rin.