I Do Not Own InuYasha


Aienkien

合縁奇縁

A couple strangely but happily united;

Uncanny relationship formed by a quirk of Fate;

The mysteries of attraction and relationships or bonds between people


II: 31


Year 1581...

Somewhere Near Edo, Japan...

Raijū Ichizuko no Sōten had taken Kōryū with her to hunt down her lady, Rin, to return a forgotten text to Rin, under Jaken-dono's orders. It wasn't a long flight between Shikuko and Edo with a dragon, A-Un and Kōryū both made it a few hours flight, so she didn't mind the trip. Besides that it would give her an excuse to see her friend and mistress, she was fond of Rin and life at the shiro was dull without Rin up and about. Sōten wanted to laugh at Rin's ploy though, no doubt this was a ploy in Sōten's mind, to get Sesshōmaru-sama to come to her.

Though Sōten sincerely doubted that Rin would ever truly need to use such a cheap ploy to get their lord's attention. Anyone with half a brain knew that Sesshōmaru-sama would never need an excuse to go visit Rin-sama, he adored her.

Still, Sōten thought it was sweet, and if anyone knew where their lord was, they would inform him that Rin had forgotten this.

About six years ago Sōten had met Rin when Sōten was being attacked by a human taijiya, Rin had interceded and Sesshōmaru-sama and Jaken-dono had investigated her heritage and background and before she knew it she found herself second to only Shiori in Rin's ladies in waiting ranks. Sōten was a bit surprised that the mighty Inu no Tashio had mated with a tiny, fragile, weak human, and more surprised when she found herself liking said human. Rin was a fair, and lively onna, and Sōten was relatively certain Rin was possibly a kitsune in disguise that they hadn't noticed yet. If there was trouble to be had Rin always seemed to find it.

Sōten also liked her fellow ladies in waiting, Shiori, Jiu, and Ai were all good friends of hers now and after only have Kōryū for a friend, having this group handed to her was a kami sent gift. Rin was unlike anyone Sōten had ever encountered, including InuYasha's pack, and Sōten found the human refreshing. The human was a quick study of combat which made their sparring matches pleasurable for Sōten, and Rin seemed to have enough basic grasp on yōkai energy to use simple spells and yōkai tricks. Sōten had found it fun to teach Rin the different ki, the different uses. Rin was interesting for a human.

Riding north for Edo Sōten was startled when there was a pulse of black into the skies.

"WHAT IS THAT!?" Kōryū shouted as they jolted, she caught Kōryū's clas so she didn't fall, her brother's Raigekijin in hand and wheels on her feet as she looked at the darkness.

"I don't like this Kōryū!" she warned.

"It smells gross!" Kōryū sputtered as he twisted to fly low, she released the dragon as she darted over the tops of the trees, Kōryū flying low. Her toes brushed the tops of trees when she skidded to a stop at the top of a ridge where she saw a bunch of humans, and scented InuYasha's pack there.

"What happened?" she asked, landing with a few light leaps to slow. InuYasha's head whipped around to her and she identified his pack, surprised to see so many pups here.

"Who the hell are you!?" InuYasha snapped.

"Raijū Ichizuko no Sōten, of the Shikuko InuYōkai Pack, Female Palace Attendant to Rin-sama," she said with a bow. "I have come for Rin-sama, under orders of Jaken-dono to return a forgotten script. What is going on? Where is Rin-sama?" she demanded.

"Rin when down Honekui no Ido four days ago! And we don't know what is going on with that!" InuYasha informed her.

"Sesshōmaru-sama said we should go to Shikuko!" a voice said and she turned to stare at a red fox who's green eyes were brilliantly searing to her.

"Where's Sesshōmaru-sama?" she demanded.

"He went towards that!" the fox informed her.

"Very well, Kōryū will take you to Shikuko," she said. "Take this back to Jaken-dono, I will go after Sesshōmaru-sama," Sōten said handing back the package before hitting her friend three times over the head, which had him turning into a giant, semi-solid cloud for the people to ride.

"You're going after Sesshōmaru-sama!?" the fox said.

"Hai," she nodded. "I am under obligation to protect and serve him," she said as she started for the blackness that was inking the skies.

"I'm coming with!" the fox declared.

"That's…"

"My littermate went down that well, I'm going!" the fox snapped.

"You're… you're Shippō," she sputtered.

"Hai, come on," he said, they both ran into the forest again.

"What can you tell me about this?" she demanded as she saw the other, weaker, lesser yōkai strengthening and coming at them.

"I can't tell you much, I landed this morning," he said as his kitsunebi flew from his fingers, the green flames tore through all the oncoming yōkai. Sōten felt the power surge from this darkness, as the hate and malice filled the air.

"Where were you then?" she demanded.

"On a hunt, my friend Kohaku brought us here after it he was informed Rin fell down the well!" he said as he caught her arm and spun her out of the strike of a hebi, which had her kicking her heel into the hebi's head and knocking him back.

"What's this well!?" she demanded slashing through a different yōkai.

"Time travelling well," he said as his claws tore through the armored hide of another.

Sōten was not expecting to day to go as it had. Twisting around she slashed through another enemy, and hit a tree, which knocked the wind out of her lungs. There was a blast of green light and she saw the fox there and he grabbed her hand to pull her up to her feet.

She kicked up to the air, as she carried him, taking to the treetops.

"Where is the well?" she demanded.

"That way," the fox said, and she ran after him, keep to the air, he nimbly moved over the tree tops.


Sesshōmaru entered the clearing of Honekui no Ido and wasn't surprised to see the darkness pulsing from the well. He gripped the tsuka as he stared at the well. The curse mark on his chest felt like it was burning and tearing which had him frowning and fighting the pain and blood of that.

He saw a boy rising from the well, steeped in evil yōkai and immense power. Sesshōmaru's eyes narrowed as he recognized the boy, it was that taijiya pup who had followed him and Rin when they were hunting Naraku. The boy was a bit older than Rin, in human years Sesshōmaru thought the pup was considered an adult, and his wiry frame was now steeped in power. Rather like when the boy had been tied to that shard of the Shikon no Tama.

"Sesshōmaru-sama," the boy greeted him as he landed on the lip of the well. He frowned. The boy's eyes were wrong, they were red and his pale blue lips with light violet yōkai markings on his face.

"What have you done?" Sesshōmaru asked levelly. He could scent Magatsuhi all over the boy, it was worse than the stench of his own curse mark.

"You possess something I want, but you would never think me strong enough to be entrusted with," Kohaku stated, his voice was steeped with Magatsuhi's own.

Sesshōmaru tilted his head slightly. "And what do I possess?" he asked levelly. Sesshōmaru knew he possessed lands, titles, armies, daimyō at his disposal, there was nothing in the yōkai world that he did not have a claim to, but there was nothing in his life that a human could possibly desire or hope to obtain. Sesshōmaru wasn't something humans wanted to be like.

"I want to ask your permission for Rin's hand," Kohaku chuckled.

"Oh?" he raised a brow.

"Hai, I'm now strong enough to have her, and protect her."

"No, you're not, boy," Sesshōmaru stated icily as he let his disdain drip in his voice. "You are no more capable of protecting her than you are to survive a tsunami crashing down on you," Sesshōmaru stated.

"Then I envoke yōkai challenge," Kohaku declared.

Sesshōmaru was fast to evade Kohaku's attack, rolling through the air as he pulled a fang to deflect. With Magatsuhi's power seeping into the boy, the boy was akin to a daiyōkai which made Sesshōmaru smile as he caught the boy's blade.

"I accept that challenge Magatsuhi," he purred. With a pulse of his own power he threw the pup off him. "Choosing the pup for your host will not have my mercy," he warned once and went at the boy, watching the human grow and bulk up as Magatsuhi's curse started consuming the boy's soul.

"I have come for what's mine, Sesshōmaru!" Magatsuhi shouted. "And I will have your power!"

Sesshōmaru's slash was intercepted by a blade composed of energy which made him smile as his own power pulsed.

"I welcome you to try," he snarled.


There was hits that sounded like thunder striking as they rode the dragon, Kōryū away from Edo which unsettled InuYasha as Tetsesiega was pulsing at his hip and his pup was unhappy in his arms.

"That's a lot of power," Miroku said, and suddenly there was streaks of light, blue and red racing through the air, hitting each other and reverberating from each other, the hits were pure power. Power that InuYasha had never felt before, it was so pure and raw, as a typhoon or a volcano, it was power at it's purest.

"Sesshōmaru," Kagome said.

"Hey, you should rest," he said going to kneel beside his mate.

"No, you should go," Kagome insisted.

"He should not," a voice beneath his face said.

"Nani?" Sango asked looking around.

"My mistress will be enough back up for his lordship should he require it, she is after all Raijū Ichizuko no Sōten and it would be her responsibility to protect our lord," the cloud explained.

"Your lord?" he asked.

"Hai, the Inu no Taishō, Sesshōmaru-sama," the cloud explained.

"Whatever he's fighting, that's a lot of power, I can feel it as strongly here as when we were there," Miroku said, holding his pups closed. Kirara was curled around Sango and Miroku's pups and watching the skies, her tails twitching. InuYasha was also uneasy.

"You are also the heir if Sesshōmaru-sama perishes, you will not be going into battle with his lordship until we know what is going on," the cloud said.

"Oi! You bossy piece of shit! I'm not the heir and he doesn't control what I do!" InuYasha shouted at the floor. He could see Kaede comforting the villagers they had saved.

"Kōryū is right, InuYasha!" Myōga said.

"Where the hell were you!?" InuYasha sputtered.

"I was following Kimi-sama and Shikoku-sama of course!" Myōga defended. "They revealed nothing, naturally before they both disappeared, then the dark energy hit and I followed you!"

"Obviously whatever that is is dangerous," Miroku deduced.

"I don't like it, Shippō is there, we should go back for him," InuYasha said firmly. He had raised that troublesome kitsune, if anything happened to the kit he'd never live with himself!

"We shouldn't!" Myōga squawked.

"Does this have something to do with Rin?" Miroku asked the flea.

"Yeah, does it? The well was inactive until four days ago when Rin fell down it!" InuYasha demanded. That well had been inactive, even the bones offered to it wouldn't disappear. Rin though, Rin shouldn't have been able to use it and yet she had! Now he wondered if she had awaken some nasty beast.

"I have no idea!" Myōga squeaked.

"You do, don't you!?" InuYasha sneered.

"No, but I have a theory, one that isn't going to be liked until it's tested!" Myōga said.

"And how will it be tested?"

"When Sesshōmaru-sama returns to his mother's shiro."

InuYasha saw the lights streaking over the skies hitting each other with so much power they were starting their own storm. Whatever this was, it wasn't going to be good.

Especially with Sesshōmaru's weakened state.


Year 1308...

Setsuna Castle...

Rin couldn't believe that autumn was coming, she also couldn't believe that she was here in Setsuna again. It was evening now, and she had managed to evade Takemaru and Muhai today, tomorrow she would have to deal with them for she would be Izayoi's attendant in the morning now that she was back. Which was fine, Rin didn't mind having the work, but she needed to plan, she would be leaving here sooner rather than later, and she would need to be a bit more prepared than when she had initially come.

Rin was startled as she prepared for bed when the fusuma slip open without announcement and she saw a man's wiry fram standing in the door way.

"I was informed you had returned," the man's voice was similar to Kohaku's which had her frowning as she walked forward to stand in the entry. Muhai smiled at her and reached to touch her cheek which had her slapping his hand away.

"Leave, now," she ordered.

"Is that anyway to act…?" he started.

"Hai it is, you are not welcomed," she said grabbing her fusuma to shut it.

"Rin," he started. "I would like to request your hand," he said.

"I cannot offer it to you or anyone else, my lord doesn't share," she stated.

"You want to degrade yourself in such an unsavory manner? To be a yōkai slut?" he demanded.

"Better a yōkai mate than a human consort, leave," she ordered.

"Rin, I will win you over," he smiled as he loomed over her and started coming down to kiss her, which had her pushing him away.

"No you won't, and Muhai, realize I am not Takemaru's to marry off, I belong solely to my lord, no one else, and he has never given me permission to marry," Rin stated and shut her fusuma before securing it for the night. She groaned when the other door to the room slid open and she found herself looking at Tōga who was sitting at the room's desk now.

"What could you possibly want at this hour?" she asked pulling down her hair, slipping the hairpin up her sleeve and dragging her fingers through her hair to massage her scalp.

"He is a rather forward human, does Sesshōmaru know about him?"

"Do you think he'd be breathing if Sesshōmaru-sama knew about him?" Rin asked.

"Fair," Tōga nodded as Rin went to sit down on her futon.

"What brings you here, Tōga?" she yawned as she studied him.

"When are you from?"

"I think two hundred and seventy years from now," she admitted.

"That's very specific, any reason you think…?"

"Hai, I have it on good authority it's about two hundred and seventy years," she promised. That was about how old InuYasha was.

"What can you tell me of that time?" he asked her.

Rin's eyes narrowed at the question. "Nothing," she admitted.

"Rin…"

"I can tell you nothing because you will fight fate and whatever is to come and I can't have that, because if you change anything here and now then it will ruin what I have to return to and it will ruin a few other things, and if Naraku rises to power then we are all fucked," she explained.

"Rin, you have my word, on pain of death, I will not fight the fates," he said.

"No," she started again.

"I'm dying, Rin!" he snapped. "I need… I need to know what to do for my son."

Rin bit her lip as she looked at her lap. "I can't tell you," she said softly.

"Can't or won't?" he asked.

"Both," she admitted. "You've already admitted to fighting fate, and it lead you here, if things change then we will be screwed in my time."

"Who exactly is Setsuna no Izayoi?" he asked tiredly.

"Why?"

"Because I haven't received a decent night's sleep in twenty years dreaming about her," he admitted.

Rin nodded slowly. "I used to dream of my lord before we met," she admitted softly. "Kimi-sama said the dreams were a sign of your True Mate, already forging a bond between souls by permitting you to glimpse them through the window of dreams."

"Humans and yōkai can't be True Mates," he started.

"You should know she dreams of you too, and it scares her," Rin admitted.

"The dreams?"

"Hai," she nodded.

"Why?" he asked, and now he seemed uncertain about everything.

"Simple," she replied. "You have done everything to make her fear you, and she was already terrified of yōkai. Her family was slaughtered by them, it's why she's here. Why she married Setsuna no Takemaru," she explained.

"I thought…" he started. "True Mates is a myth," he explained. "Or at least I thought it was, the idea one sole person is it for you is preposterous," he admitted.

"Mmm, well, it's true, and you having your beliefs doesn't change that," she admitted.

"Rin, I can't fight fate," he admitted tiredly. "I'm not long for this world. Only Kimi is aware but I am dying, Sō'unga has sapped me of most of my yōkai, and life energy," he admitted.

"How long do you think you have left?" she asked, she was stunned to hear this. Never in all her years had she ever heard anyone say that Tōga was dying before his death. She knew from her lord that Tōga had been mortally wounded in a battle against Ryūkotsuse, and that was why Takemaru was able to kill him.

"A decade, maybe two," he sighed. "The price of foolhardy decisions. It'll be shorter with the coming war no doubt, I cannot heal as I used to."

"Why?"

"I stole my father's fang, from the West, it was forged using a vanquished dragon," he explained. "Consequently it is too much power for even I. I had stolen it from my father to forge my own path and destiny, and the price came at my life," he smiled humorlessly. "I don't have much power left, Rin," he admitted. "If Sesshōmaru were to challenge me today he would win, I think the only reason he has not challenged me for the rank of alpha is because of you."

"Me?"

"Hai, he won't challenge until he's certain he can take anyone who could oppose him, you are why he does anything he does," Tōga admitted.

Rin bit her lip as she looked down at her lap. "I'm not ready for you to die."

Tōga smiled with wide humor. "I need to know what's to come, I need to prepare, I've spent too long fighting you and not enough time working with you. Let me make this right for Sesshōmaru," he murmured. "Let me help you save my son."

"Your sons," she whispered.

"Sons?"

"Hai. Sons."