I Do Not Own InuYasha


Unmei no Akai Ito

運命の赤い糸

The red string or red string of fate.

...

An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet regardless of time, place or circumstance


I: 10


Year 1573...

Somewhere outside of Edo, Japan...

Was this it? Was this his death? Was this the end of his life? Sesshōmaru stood there in nothingness feeling nothing except that burning pain from the stab wound in his chest, in his heart.

"Give it up, you are weak," he heard a sick voice whisper in his ear. He snarled; he was not weak! "You'll always be weak, and you can never best me. Didn't you know you're a part of me, you'll be in the Shikon no Tama before you know it and you'll never see her again. Give it up, you are weak!"

"My lord?" her voice was gentle, and it dragged his attention away from the despair he was feeling about his fate. His end. "Sesshōmaru?"

There sat the woman, she was beneath old beech tree she had come to favor. He felt this tug, a tight tie of a knotted thread on his thumb, and saw the red thread tangled and wound to Rin's own little finger. The red thread was bold, illuminating his way in the darkness of where he was as he moved to be with his mate.

"Rin?" he breathed as he took a step towards her.

She was still small, slight of frame, her hair was the same, long, endless black that it always had been, and persistently wild, he could see that. Her eyes were bright with life and laughter, her kimonos were a little muddied on the hem, and her bare feet were crossed at the ankles.

He could feel his father's challenging rumbles about him being weak and inferior and giving up in the distant darkness with the other voices of his doubts and pains as he walked for his mate.

The woman tilted her head back and smiled as her fingers running lovingly over what was resting against her chest. He had not noticed the bundle on her lap when he had been so focused on her, it was odd, they had never talked of having pups, and he was relatively certain they hadn't conceived; Takemaru had stolen her from him before he could contemplate a true future with her. Still, there was a pup nestled against Rin's chest, and it looked a lot like him, but he could see a lot of her in the pup too.

"Are you ready to go back?" she asked.

"To what? I am dead," he pointed out.

"Oh please, Sesshōmaru, if anyone could rebuff death it'd be my lord," she rolled her eyes and smiled.

"Will you leave me?" he asked.

"Never," she murmured as he crouched beside her. He looked at what was in her lap now, a small pup. The pup was nestled against her, she smiled at the pup and he watched her card her fingers through the silver hair of the pup. The pup grumbled and nestled more securely against Rin, his tiny, clawed fist curling in the silks she wore, the white fang she had always worn on her hip lay between them now, and it gently pulsed.

"Beautiful, isn't he?" she asked.

"Stunning," Sesshōmaru replied softly. The pup's mokomoko twitched as he nestled into Rin, his marking and ears labeled him a daiyōkai, his crescent moon, and the jagged magenta marks.

"I still cannot believe we made something so perfect, so stunning!" she smiled as she traced the pup's cheek, a sleepy gold eye cracked open to glare at them. The fang that lay at his feet, between himself and his mate, was now pulsing rather rapidly, his left arm was throbbing.

"Would you like to hold him?" Rin asked.

"I…"

"Sesshōmaru, I am going nowhere, I am yours, I have been since the start of time, and I will be until the very end of time, and you are mine, I would advise you to go now," she murmured as she put the pup in his arms. He tensed when the pup glowed green and vanished; that green energy leapt into his heart and life seemed to speed up. This world was fading around him rapidly, he stared at the ghost of his mate in horror at the mere idea of leaving or losing her.

"You are the Inu no Taishō of the Shikoku InuYōkai Pack, there are others who need you more than death does at this moment, and I am still with you, give our people their strength again, we will see each other soon my lord," she murmured, the woman's mouth a whisper from his before she disappeared into the darkness.

"RIN!" he shouted in the darkness as she disappeared.

"SOMEBODY HELP HIM!" a child's voice screamed in the void.

"Oh No! He's Dead!" the pup sobbed elsewhere in the darkness.

"My Lord Would Never Die To Someone So Inferior! Especially To Someone Like You!" the woman snarled. There was this rapid building energy, he had to get to her, he had to… his left arm throbbed at this and ached in a way he had never felt; even after losing it!

"He will always come for me," the woman stated coldly.

"Now Help Him!" the girl ordered.

"Go Sesshōmaru," the woman whispered in his ear. "I'm still waiting for you."

Sesshōmaru paused when a set of golden eyes opened before him in the darkness, slowly he found himself staring at his father as Tōga materialized to stand toe to toe with him. The war torn, tattered, tired Inu no Taishō that Tōga had been showed to him now. He saw where the human arrows had torn through his father's armor and flesh, he saw the ragged wound on his father's arm and ribs from battling Ryūkotsuse. For the first time in his life, his larger than life father looked truly as weak and pitiful as he had been at the end.

"Sesshōmaru," his father's voice was the same deep, terse, clipped tone that he had used their last night on the beach. When his father had prevented him from killing Ryūkotsuse, and just after his father had stopped him from killing Setsuna no Takemaru.

"Are you truly so weak as to need my aid to defend your mate?" his father demanded.

"No," he replied just as icily. The throbbing in his left stump started to grow exponentially, as did the pain in his chest, he felt like he was being stabbed by energy, but the energy was impure, weak, poisonous, unwelcome invader really.

"Do you need the Tetsusaiga? Are you truly so weak as to need a material object to defend her?" Tōga asked him.

"I need nothing from you to defend what's mine!" He roared, and it was like all the power, all the energy, all the life he had lost when he had dropped her in Honekui no Ido came rushing through him, the energy was so pure, so wild, so uncontrolled and so focused he used it to tear through his attacker. The resounding blast of power tore him through the veil of death as his own daiyōkai sprung to life.

Rin was in danger, the powers that kept him at bay held no true power if she was in danger.


Year 1573...

Edo, Japan...

Sesshōmaru was reluctantly sitting with he old miko, his brother's pack was consoling them, Rin had joined them, they were missing a member of their pack after the battle with Naraku. It was his understanding that InuYasha's strange miko had returned to her 'time'. Which had confused him, and the old miko chuckled at him.

"Honekui no Ido is a connection of 'space and time' Kagome comes from a different era about five hundred years in the future, she has called this the Edo period," Kaede explained. "The well appears to be bound to time. But… that does not surprise ye, does it?" she asked when he didn't react.

Sesshōmaru had suspected, for a long time that Rin's bizarre appearances in his life were tied to timing, she always appeared from that well, and she always dove back into it whenever someone tried to keep her in one place, she always vanished in it, so perhaps… he dreaded the thought, but perhaps she would come back, as the woman, and he would have the Tenseiga to heal her. Oh Kami how he dreaded that idea, remembering the attack she had barely survived from Takemaru…

"Yer companion, she is human, she should be here," Kaede said.

Sesshōmaru did not respond.

"Ye know this, so why…"

"Rin does not belong solely with humans," he replied tersely.

"Ye plan to claim the girl?" Kaede asked. "I refuse! Ye're a daiyōkai renown for killing and slaughtering humans! I'll not let ye have a virgin sacrifice."

"Rin will remain here for the spring and summer, but in autumn and winter she will return with me," he stated.

"I will not let ye take the girl against her will!" Kaede spat out. "Ye might have helped with InuYasha, but I have not forgotten all the wrongs ye have committed on humans and InuYasha's group alike!" Kaede hissed. "The girl will remain here! Where she is safe from the likes of ye!"

"Rin is free to do as she pleases, but this will be the arrangement miko," he warned quietly. "And if you should think to take and hide what is mine from me, I think you will find she has as much choice in the matter as I do."

"No wise child would follow ye!" Kaede spat.

Sesshōmaru said nothing to that as he watched his mate consoling the sobbing kitsune. She was not wise, but she was free.

"Rin is free to do as she pleases, I will speak to her before I go," he stated.

He had several meetings to attend to as the Inu no Taishō. He would be worthy of her, he would do whatever was needed to be worthy of her and the future she offered again. His left claws twitched as the fang Bakusaiga pulsed on his hip when Rin neared.


She had walked quite a bit with her lord before he finally settled beneath a tree near the river. She smiled as she moved her kimono so she could leap into the shallows. Soon they would leave, no doubt it would be soon.

"Rin," he called her name coldly when her toes were starting to go numb in the water, which had her trotting over to him.

"Yes my lord!?" she smiled as she caught his new arm, which was resting on his drawn up knee, his new fang propped against his shoulder with Tenseiga. She had not had a chance to examine the new fang, merely admiring it's splendor and power from afar.

"Does it hurt, my lord?" she asked, she felt pain from him, but from what she didn't know.

"No," he answered. Satisfied with her examination of his new arm and hand she walked between his legs and stared at the fang.

"It is very beautiful," she smiled. It felt alive near her, like it was reaching for her.

"It is," he agreed. "It is Bakusaiga."

She reached out and held it, being flooded with a warmth and power in her hand, which had her gasping, before he removed her hand gently.

"What hurts, Sesshōmaru-sama?" she asked when she saw him grimace.

"It will heal," he promised.

She nodded, of course it would. Nothing could fell her lord!

"Rin, you are to remain here, in the village with InuYasha's pack," he said softly.

"What!? No! I want to remain with you!" she shrieked, stepping back, his hand caught hers' though before she could run.

"You are human," he stated.

"You hate me!" she gasped, her breath hitching in her chest.

"No, Rin, but you must live amongst your kind, you should learn their customs, their manners, their ways, and I will return to take you to the shiro at the turning of the leaves, you will remain there until the first bloom when I return you here," he explained.

"Sesshōmaru-sama does not want Rin?" she mumbled.

"Rin, you must do this," he said firmly. Her lip quivered. "You must learn so when the time comes you can decide."

"Decide what? Rin does not want to go to humans," she mumbled childishly, not looking her lord in the eye now. Suddenly a claw caught her chin and tilted her head up so she stared at him again.

"You will make an informed decision to continue to follow me or to remain here in the village and live a human life," he explained.

"Oh! I must learn!" she smiled.

"I will visit," he promised.

"Good, I get lonely without you," she said softly. Before he could rebuff her she threw herself against his chest; he wasn't wearing his armor for a change. Her lord tensed and slowly his arm slid around her. "I already know I will always follow you, my lord, forever and ever! I love you Sesshōmaru-sama!"


Her words provoked a violent reaction from where Magatsuhi had stabbed him, it seared through his body and seemed to swirl, he hissed a little in pain as he moved her away from him. Rin was wiping her eyes of her tears.

"I will do this for you, my lord."

He said nothing as he gave into a moment of weakness and let his brow rest against the girl's. there was a future coming, but he wanted her to have all her information before she bounded after him. They had survived this year by luck, and he would admit that. It terrified him how he had lost her twice in the same year, and he avowed that he would not allow her to suffer though that again, not without knowing all her choices.

"Go, back to the village, Rin," he said softly. She nodded as she slipped away, he heard her sobbing as she ran for the village. And he again he cursed the fates. The searing pain wouldn't relent in his chest which was why he moved the silks aside to see the wound. It should be healed, but instead he was startled to see the black marks of Magatsuhi forming, small, tight and hot on pectoral muscle he was greeted by three tomoe spun together.

FUCK!

The accursed seal of evil to be merged with the Shikon no Tama, even if the Shikon no Tama was supposedly destroyed by the miko, Higurashi Kagome it still held very real power when he had been marked. Bakusaiga reacted almost violently to the mark, he could feel the fang's power wrapping around the mark and almost sealing it. Sesshōmaru closed his eyes as he sighed.

He would have to figure out how to break this curse before it consumed him into the nothingness void of wherever that doomed jewel had disappeared to. He was not dying, not yet, he had seen a future, and for the first time ever, he hoped to get it, he hoped to have his mate, and his pack, he had hopes that he could have that. After so long of despairing about not being able to this was a hope.


23, March, 2000...

Higurashi Shrine, Tokyo, Japan...

It was hard for her to believe that it had been three years since the defeat of Naraku and Magatsuhi. She was two weeks from graduating, she had universities lined up for both her interests; medicine and history, and she was currently the only one in charge of the shrine today. Which was fine, Sōta was with friends today, her mom and grandfather were at the doctors, and she was just doing the usual chores that needed to be done around the shrine.

Walking around the quiet, and almost private parts of the shrine, she was startled to see a tall stranger standing by the Goshinboku. There was something eerily familiar about him, his short black hair ruffled in the light breeze, and his hands were in his suit pockets.

"Can I help you with something?" she asked as she set down the rags she had just used for polishing the shrine with.

The stranger turned, and there was something vaguely familiar about his features. He didn't answer her, instead looking back to the Goshinboku as if she had not spoken.

"That tree has a very interesting history," she said as she walked over to stand beside him.

"I'm aware," his tone was cold and clipped but soft.

"It spans across time, helping lovers find each other again, reuniting families and souls, it's very touching. That scar, that is because a miko bound a yōkai to this tree after their love broke." She started.

"The first love could never survive," he dismissed. "The second though prospered, I am aware of the tales, miko," he stated icily.

"I… Oh, I'm sorry, I did not realize," she decided. The urge to correct him on what she was had disappeared with how he said it. Kagome couldn't figure out why, but there was something familiar about this man.

"Nishikawa-sama!" there was a shout behind them, which had her jolting as a small toad like man appeared. "We must go!"

The tall man said nothing as he turned and walked, Kagome was startled with how he carried himself. She had not seen anyone aside from the warriors of the Edo Period carry themselves with such confidence and certainty and with the lethal edge of being able to fight.

The man and the small man servant fussing about him left her before the Goshinboku feeling very out of place, reminiscent and confused. Oh how she longed to go home, she longed for her friends, and…

She longed for InuYasha.

She had not found him in this era, she had searched but to no avail, she had studied her history so thoroughly that she could not find any trace of any of them in the history books. Not even the great Inu no Taishō, Sesshōmaru-sama existed. It was as if the yōkai had never happened, or existed, and it saddened her. A year of living in the Edo Period, with her life on the line every day, it still felt more like home than the modern era, the modern era felt like a strange dream and her soul didn't belong here.

She was a Miko of Edo, she was a warrior, she was in love with the hanyō InuYasha.

Kagome yearned for home.