I Do Not Own InuYasha


Ichariba Chode

行逢りば兄弟

"Though we meet but once, even by chance, we are friends for life"


IV: 2


Year 839...

Somewhere in the Nara Empire...

He walked through the portal; his tails lashed around him as he toyed with his mate's fan. He could feel his mate behind him as they both looked around and he sighed. His palm itched, just like he knew it would as he looked over at his mate to smile.

"We made it," she smiled as she tossed her braid over her shoulder and looked around at the world around them.

"Remember the plan, we cannot fail Mikadzuki-sama," he said as he touched his mate's cheek.

"Just remember to keep up with her!" his mate chuckled.

"I can always keep up with her!" he protested.

"Love, none of us could keep up her but her lord," she chuckled.

"I could!" he said.

"Do not lie to your mate, Fǔ Yáng, it's not favorable," she said.

"Be careful," he pleaded as he watched her leave.

"You stay safe," she ordered softly and disappeared in a pulse of lightning leaving him alone. He pulled the gift he had for Mikadzuki-sama when the time came, he would need to stash it until she was ready. He smiled as a plan formed in his mind, he knew where he could hide these safely. There was a temple, which would be safe, he could retrieve these before it was reconstructed, and just in time for when she would go through the well again to need them. He would hide these in Hōryū-ji, it would be the safest place for them, which made him smile as he headed for the ancient temple.

Once that task was done, he would have to find Min, though he knew that he could not keep Rin and Sesshōmaru out of China; they had to go there whether they wanted to or not. Knowing Rin as he did, Rin was not inclined to do what anyone enforced upon her, which was why he could at least ensure she went to where she needed to be when she needed to be there. But when the time came, and he didn't know how or when, just that it would, he could at the very least get the people needed to aid them getting out. Granted, the details of their escape were hazy, but he could at the very least figure out what pieces needed to be where. When he saw Mikadzuki-sama again he would have to inform her to never be sparse on details again.

Shifting forms, he raced through the forestry, his nine tails were helping steer him at these speeds.

The things you did for your skulk, he thought dryly. But failure now was not an option, he couldn't fail, not when the stakes were so painfully high. He wondered if Rin had known how high the stakes truly were when she had been thrown down Honekui no Ido. No one had expected the stakes, no one had known how high the stakes could truly be.

Moving swiftly, he smiled at the freedom in a that was so new and still figuring itself out, though he supposed the world was always young, it was society working to figure things out.


It was when they were brought to a cave and left alone that Rin finally shifted a bit to start her escape. Before her lord had taken her in, she had been a thief, and she had never let those skills fade or disappear, she had honed them with her lord's aid. Though Sesshōmaru hadn't been thrilled about it.

The pup groaned as she finally slipped the ropes and pulled her gag out which had her rolling her jaw as she looked at the cage holding them. Rin pulled apart Sesshōmaru's restraints swiftly and removed the gag just as the pup was rousing.

The pup's eyes narrowed on her as he opened his eyes, and she smiled at him.

"Hello Sesshōmaru-sama," she greeted habitually as she brushed his hair out of his way and looked at wound, it was gone, though the blood remained. "How's the head?" she asked softly.

"Who are you?" he demanded swatting away her hand as he sat up examining his wrists.

"I'm called Rin," she said as she stood and started examining the bars.

"Why are you helping me?"

"Why would I not help you?" she countered.

"I'm inu daiyōkai and you're human," he said this blandly in a cold clipped tone that he used as an adult. She smiled at his seriousness; he was just too adorable! And way too well articulated for a pup who looked about six!

"Is that all?" she asked wryly as she tested the bars, she could feel her palm pulsing with power, heat, which confused her. Lifting her hand away from the bars she looked at the cut Shippō and she had made when they were children. The mark was brilliant green.

"Are you a kitsune?" Sesshōmaru asked. She looked down at the pup who was eyeing her palm warily.

"I was adopted by one," she said.

"Can you use kitsunebi?"

"Fox fire?" she asked.

"Hai," he answered.

"I've never tried," she admitted. Sesshōmaru reached up and yanked her hand down to his level, which had his small claws tracing the mark before he traced her veins, there was a focused look on his face as he examined her arm seriously turning it over curiously. Suddenly he tilted his head.

"Do you have other marks?" he asked touching one of the old ookami scars she had.

"What sort?"

"Yōkai claims?"

"Hai," she answered and crouched to his level as she pulled the collar of her clothes aside so he could see the nape of her neck. The pup reached for it curiously as he touched the skin around her neck and shoulder, she giggled a little at the sensation, it was ticklish, the faint touch.

"This is mine," the pup said with wonder and confusion.

"Hai," she agreed.

"How?" he said.

"That's a story for another day, when we're not locked in a cage," she chuckled. "So what have you learned?"

"You're strong," he said.

"Mmm, and what do you know that I don't?" she asked lifting her hand where Shippō's mark was pulsing painfully now, and bright green.

"A great many things no doubt," he informed her. Rin's jaw dropped at the declaration.

"Cheeky brat! You know what I meant baka!"

"I think you might be able to use some yōkai abilities," he said honestly.

"And how do I do that?" she asked looking at her palm, she had known that she was an 'odd' human by the standards of everyone she knew. Monks had called her hanyō, and Kagome said she didn't seem to have a normal soul.

"I don't know," he admitted.

"Alright, so plan A!" she smiled as she pulled her hair pin and slipped her arms between the bars as she started to try to pick the lock, this was easier with two pieces, but with one she could do it, carefully. There was a satisfying click before she grabbed Sesshōmaru and ran, she snatched Bakusaiga and her kaiken on the way out.

"And where do you think you're going?" a voice purred, which had Rin turning to look at the feline, Karan asked her.

"Well, we have a meeting elsewhere, and look at the time, we must be off, pleasant meeting you!" she replied cheekily, feeling like she was thwarting Jaken. The cat looked confused as she and Sesshōmaru walked calmly, she heard the firs behind her which had her sighing. "Please don't," she said.

"You know, we were hired to take the pup, they didn't say the onna had to go with him!" the cat snarled.

"Fuck it," Rin grumbled and moved fast as the pup pulled her kaiken from its sheath and she slashed with Bakusaiga, the resounding ripple of power from the fang had the cat stumbling back. Sesshōmaru used her as a springboard, surprisingly agile for a pup as she ran, slashing at the cat who struggled to block her attacks before Sesshōmaru land on her, snarling, the kaiken hitting the feline in the gut.

"Come on!" Rin grabbed the pup as they ran. Sesshōmaru kept pace with her, even as she leapt over obstacles, there was a pulse of icy, which Rin spun in time to slash through as she growled.

"I'm not letting you take my lord!" she snapped at Tōran, Sesshōmaru was against her leg.

"You think you have a choice in the matter, human?" Tōran sneered.

"Hai, I do," she nodded, she moved quickly taking up to the trees with practiced ease as she sliced through the branch and slashed where the cat should have been. She snarled as she beared her teeth when the cat landed on an opposing branch.

"I must admit you're fast for a human, but you're nothing," Tōran said.

"You won't say that when Bakusaiga draws your blood," she smiled menacingly and moved. Rin had spent a predominate part of her childhood in trees, whether for games or for pranks, or sparing with inuyōkai, she had learned to be nimble, to be acrobatic when needed, though she wasn't a master at it. However, the threat to her lord infuriated her and fueled her as she moved. There was a slash of light as the pup released a whip, Rin caught Tōran's waist just as the trees collapsed.


Sesshōmaru didn't know what to make of the onna, she was wild though, he watched her spar with Tōran, the fang she wielded was powerful, and her moves were like an inuyōkai's, but there was a feral wildness in her fighting style. She moved like she was used to being overpowered, or out matched, she fought dirty too, he had seen her fist her hand in the cat's hair and yank the cat's face to her knee before stabbing the cat in the shoulder with her hair pin.

There were two others coming for the onna, he wanted to run, but he couldn't leave the human which had him spinning quickly when they lumber closer, his poison dripping from his claws as he growled, his fur standing on end and the onna's kaiken in his hand.

"You're going back in your cage puppy!" the younger female informed him as the large one reached for him. Sesshōmaru bared his fangs as he snarled and snapped at the hand coming for him, which had the cats growling. Suddenly the onna's fang hit the big one in the shoulder as he launched himself at the big one slashing his dagger through the big one's shoulder with all his strength as he felt his poison dripping into the exposed wounds, before he twisted out of reach, mokomoko wrapping around his throat.

Rin had the other female down as the big one fell to his knees gasping for air and then collapsed as Rin withdrew her fang from his shoulder.

"Let's go," Rin said as she offered her hand. He handed her the kaiken back as they ran into the woods. Rin moved nimbly, he kept pace with her though he was sorely tempted to ditch the onna, he couldn't. there was something unusual about this onna, and it wasn't just because she was in his dreams or marked by him. All her marks had made her more yōkai, than human and she fought like him! It was strange. Also, he felt he could trust her, he had never felt that for anyone before, trust, it was unusual.

"Can you swim?" she demanded.

"Nani!?" he sputtered.

"Swimming, can you do it?"

"If I have to," he answered blandly, he hadn't been taught swimming yet, that was something he would be learning over the coming summers now that he was over a century old.

"We have to," she said. "You can hold onto me," she said grabbing him into her arms. Sesshōmaru squirmed as he pulled himself onto her back, wrapping his arms around her shoulders, and his mokomoko around her chest to keep secure. Rin leapt before he could question where they were going and hit the water of a river. He held onto her as tightly as he could.


Tsuzuki Castle, Shikoku InuYōkai Pack Territory, Japan...

"Sesshōmaru did not need to go," Kimi said looking at her father. "Tōga didn't need to take him."

"He's over a century old, Kimi, he will have to learn!" her father stated firmly as he continued filling in for the Inu no Tashio.

"He's just a pup!"

"And the only heir," Shikoku snapped. "Do not coddle the boy daughter, you are not the mothering type."

"He's my son," she huffed. Kimi would admit she didn't have the most maternal of instincts, she didn't feel them, but that didn't mean she was heartless in regard to her son! She cared deeply for Sesshōmaru, just as Tōga did, and Shikoku did as well, she cared deeply for her pup. Though she didn't know how to be a mother.

And it wasn't like she had been able to feed her pup after birthing him, so she wasn't even able to bond properly with the pup. Kimi felt she had missed something, some crucial aspect between pregnancy to now, to make her a proper mother. She didn't know what she had missed, but it was something she had missed and something that made her so lacking. She lacked as a mate, and she lacked as an heir and she lacked as a mother, there was something lacking within her, and she knew it.

"And he's my grandson, when you were his age you attended executions of traitors!"

"That was war, this is peace," she countered sharply.

"War, peace, it's all the same," Shikoku stated icily. "When you are in peace you play the war of shadows, and when you are at war you find the peace of shadows, it never ends. There will be uprisings and wars and famine which will wrack the earth, it will never change for that's the cycle of life. Sesshōmaru is more than old enough to know that, the pup accidentally killed a maid last week and a tutor before that. The pup will learn, Kimi. Whether you want him to or not, and he is no stranger to death."

"Why do you say that?" she asked.

"That pup's soul is a marked soul, he will never be a stranger of death, and with his name he will greet death like an old lover when he grows," Shikoku said.

"You looked," she whispered. "How could you?"

"Because I know that soul," Shikoku said firmly. "And I could not stand, not seeing it," he murmured.

"You know that soul?" she whispered.

"Hai," he stood. "You could not mother that soul even if you wanted. You are not lacking, that is a soul bound to only one and it will not be any of us."

"I still do not like sending him out to see that," she said.

"Tōga will protect the pup," Shikoku said. Kimi frowned at her father, Tōga was a great many things, but a protective father was not one of them. He would probably, rather unwittingly too, walk Sesshōmaru off a cliff if Sesshōmaru wasn't careful.


They both made it to shore, she was gasping for air when Sesshōmaru shook himself off.

"That'll through them off the trail for a little bit," she coughed as she stood upright and felt her breaths evening out. The autumn was obvious here, she could feel the chill in her wet robes right this minute, which had her shivering a bit. They would need shelter, with the cats after them she didn't know if they could have a fire, she doubted it.

Sesshōmaru looked up at her and seemed to be assessing her. Rin pulled Bakusaiga, checking the fang and then her kaiken. The hair pin was a surprise to find in her hair again, taking advantage of it she twisted the mass up into a knot and stabbed the pin into it to keep it in place. Looking at him she smiled.

"You're weird," he stated.

"Naturally, come on, we need shelter!" she said as they walked into the forest. Sesshōmaru shook out again and like an inu trotted a head to lead the way through the dark.

"Why do you have yōkai marks?" Sesshōmaru asked after a while.

"Well, I have a lot of yōkai friends," she answered honestly.

"Like who?" he asked skeptically.

"Like you," she answered.

"I've never met you," he snapped.

"And yet I know you so well," she teased walking by to ruffle his hair. The pup grumbled as he stalked after her. They found a den in the roots of an old tree, which was safe enough; according to Sesshōmaru it was empty. Now they were curled up, huddled together. She slowly peeled off her wet kimono, her under garments were much drier but they weren't as heavy when wet. Sesshōmaru copied her and soon she found herself with an armful of pup.

"Humans are weak and die of the cold," he stated matter-of-factly as she settled against the wall of the den.

"Hai, they can die of the cold," she agreed. "But I'm not going to," she said. "We're lucky, it's not too terribly cold yet," she yawned.

"I'll keep watch," the pup decided tucking himself under her chin.

"Just rest," she said softly. "We'll make more distance tomorrow then figure out where we are and where we need to go," she said softly as she slowly carded her fingers through his hair. Sesshōmaru's claws caught her clothes as they fisted tightly.

"Why do you have my mark?" the pup whispered into the darkness.

"Because," she sighed tiredly. "I'm yours, I'll always be yours."

"Father had me kill an onna that looked like you," Sesshōmaru whispered.

"It's alright," she promised him softly as she moved his hair behind an elven ear. "It's alright," she repeated softly.

"I did not want to hurt her," he said looking up a bit so his nose brushed her chin, seeking comfort.

"It's alright Sesshōmaru," she promised him again. "Everything will be alright," she said softly.

"I dreamt of you," he murmured tiredly.

"I've dreamt of you too," she smiled as she felt sleep lull them into serenity.