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: 16
Year 1581...
Somewhere in Izumo Province, Japan...
"Our father… killed?... Rin?"
"Our father is the reason my mate is likely dead in Honekui no Ido. I will not, be as brash and reckless as our father, we go to the West and you will do exactly as you are told when you are told or Chang'e will never let you leave," Sesshōmaru stated icily. "You desire to survive you will do exactly what I tell you, when I tell you and how I tell you," he stated. "You will not do whatever impulsive, instinct that strikes your whim because if you do that, and she will win the game."
"This isn't a game Sesshōmaru," the monk said.
"You poor, simpleton," he chuckled humorlessly. "This is all but a game to the kami."
"So what's your plan?" Miroku asked.
"InuYasha will come with I, while you will be brought to the spirit world you will wait with A-Un and the neko," he stated.
"Why?"
"When the time is right you will bring A-Un to our aid," Sesshōmaru stated.
"How will I know when that is!?" the monk sputtered.
"A-Un will know," he stated as A's head watched him and Un's found interest in the ocean suddenly. The beast would remember what was needed to be done, he knew that, after all, it was how they escaped the first time. A mortal who could manipulate yōkai ki and a monk had out foxed a kami, something he was certain his grandmother was still furious about. He wondered if she ever did manage to repair the docks and her pearl harbor correctly.
Year 1308...
Somewhere in Japan...
Tōga looked at the fang in his hand. The Tenseiga, it wasn't what he expected. The fang was sleek, elegant, but it was quiet. The Tetsuseiga was lively, pulsing for life, seeing power, looking for something to fight, to conquer, but the Tenseiga was quiet. It was strange, stranger yet to think of a weapon as being gentle, but that was the energy of the Tenseiga, it was gentle. Which was surprising to him.
The Tenseiga did not thirst for battle or to spill blood, it did not radiate life, it was calm and gentle.
Tōga could admit he saw why Sesshōmaru would hate such a gift, but he saw the beauty with this fang. This was a fang for those who valued life, and looking back on it, he was certain Sesshōmaru did on some level. His pup had always tended to the gardens and kept care of his dragon, when Sesshōmaru wasn't being an utterly ruthless warrior. And if Sesshōmaru needed this fang to bring his mate to life again then it would be a gift of use, something to be cherished, but Tōga wondered if his son was aware of the price to be had for defying nature's way.
No matter, it would be of the most power for him, he could cheat death, start again with his second son…
Tōga sighed and stared at the stars.
"WHY DID YOU DO THIS!?" he roared at the fates. "Why must we be punished for my mother's transgression!?" he demanded. There was no answer, but he expected no such reply from them. The fates were arrogant enough to think their paradoxes and ironies in the lives of those living were amusing. He despised them for such a fate. His death would not change what he desired. He would not have time repair his damaged relationship with Sesshōmaru, nor would he get to know his other son, InuYasha.
Sighing he slumped against a tree, he did wonder if this was a punishment for his grandmother or him. He was not born a kami, he could not be once, born of immortal spirits Tiāngǒu and Chang'e he would never be anyone special in the West. Pelt spirits such as he were never revered or desired to evolve to godhood.
Sighing he closed his eyes and wondered about the price of the Tenseiga. Should he tell Sesshōmaru what the cost would be? The ability to bring life back would be compassion, for life, but also the cost it would have to take a soul from the reincarnation cycle. Once she was summoned, once her connection to life and death was fully severed, she'd forever be gone when she died a third time if she wasn't properly marked.
Though he knew this fang would only bring life back once, he also felt that he could defy that on power alone, but he knew that the laws of nature wouldn't permit such a thing. Still, he wondered if he could use this to defy his own impending fate.
Setsuna Castle...
Izayoi groaned as another cramp when racing through her back and stormache tore through her.
"It will not be long now, you are almost done," her attendant, Aine, promised her as she felt a hand rubbing over her belly.
"No!" she sobbed as she lay there. She didn't want this to happen! She didn't want this to happen!
"Easy, girl, easy," Aine whispered.
"But I don't want this to happen!" she sobbed as she felt another cramp tear through her body. She sobbed for the loss, and felt her own body rejecting her baby. She wanted a baby! She wanted love! She wanted a family! She didn't want this loss.
"It's alright, child, it's alright, just breath," Aine coxed. Finally she felt the relief, which had her sobbing as another attendant left with her baby, she sobbed at the loss. She could feel the loss as she lay there and she wept, wept at the loss of her family, her future, and she cursed the fates for that theft.
Why could she not have something simple or wonderous like a family of her own? She did not desire to be a princess, or a noblewoman or a samurai's wife, she just wanted a baby she could hold in her arms, a child she could love and raise? Was it really too much to desire what was her purpose in life, to crave a family?
Year 839...
Zhēnzhū Gǎng Palace, Spirit World, China...
Rin groaned as she was woken up by a maid who gently shook her shoulder how only one could, which had her awoken to see a familiar face of Jiu. The fox looked at her nervously and Rin growned as she pulled her covers over her head as she rolled over on the bed.
"That's never a good face," she muttered.
"Excuse me!?" Jiu sputtered.
"That's your I'm in trouble face," Rin muttered beneath the covers.
"Well, the lady has requested you accompany her today," Jiu stated.
"I don't want to," Rin muttered.
"You must, which means you must get up, my lady," Jiu ordered.
Rin moaned as she was foisted from her bed and the warmth of her covers.
"Where's Sesshōmaru?"
"The Young Imperial Prince was sent to his lessons," Jiu stated softly as she helped Rin wake up and start preparing for the day. When Rin was sat down for her hair to be detangled, combed and pulled up she vehnemently fought to keep most the mass loose and free, she didn't want the hair to be pulled into a wild, elaborate style that the people here seemed to prefer. Finally though she was awake and sent on her merry way to go meet up with Chang'e.
"So what made you decide to be a maid here?" Rin asked tiredly as they navigated the palace.
"Tiāngǒu saved my pelt," Jiu whispered softly.
"That's a good thing," Rin agreed as they walked.
"Pelted spirits, like us, need to keep ourselves with pack to stay safe," Jiu said.
"Pelts?"
"Shì, like the Young Imperial Prince's tail," she explained. Rin nodded now, a few things made more sense about the yōkai now back home. Rin had noted that most the humanoid appearing yōkai always seemed to have a pelt or something on their body which revealed their yōkai status. It didn't help when people wore pelts as apart of their standard clothing, but when one found themselves in metropolises that had more humans than not, there was always an obvious yōkai there with their pelt on display.
For Jiu her pelt was an obvious red wrap around her shoulders, it was amazing Rin had never thought of them as pelted spirits.
"I see, I never thought of it that way," Rin admitted as they walked.
"A pelted spirit's pelt is life," Jiu said. "It is the most precious part of us, our distinguishing mark for us to display."
"This clarifies a few things," Rin chuckled. She had always envied her lord's pelt, and her lord's mother pelt, they always looked so beautiful and soft, and she had learnt they were a physical part of the yōkai, while also being a separate part they could remove to hide their yōkai self. Rin had learnt that the most powerful yōkai were fully capable of hiding their yōkai selves, Sesshōmaru-sama could do it, though he didn't, sticking closer to his adopted humanoid appearance with white hair, amber eyes and yōkai markings.
"So, what is my lady not desiring to do after the talk with her Imperial Highness?"
"Well, Fǔ Yáng believes to teach me how to use yōkai ki beyond what I already know," Rin explained.
"You intend to learn qi?" Jiu chuckled.
"Hai, I was informed I have enough yōkai claims to learn," Rin explained. Her hand was throbbing at the admittance, which also had her uneasy as the mark on the nape of her neck pulsed. She could feel the power of the claims on her when she focused. Though to her it was never something she focused on, it was a normal sensation she had grown up with.
"I could… I could teach you," Jiu whispered with hesitation.
"I would like that, having a friend here would be nice," Rin admitted. She and Jiu had been friends back in Tsuzuki Castle, Jiu had doted on her when she had been a child.
"Friends?"
"Hai, friends, I'm in dire need of a female friend," Rin chuckled.
"I… but my lady, we… I'm a maid!" Jiu protested.
"Hai, and I'm a farmer's daughter," Rin whispered with a conspiratorial wink before she was shown Chang'e. The Empress looked over at Rin, regal and indifferent before motioning for Rin to come to her.
"Your Highness," Rin greeted as she left Jiu behind and walked towards the Empress. In the past few days Rin had bribed A-Un enough to get the dragon coaxd into a warm bath and cleaned up enough for her to assess the damage the dragon had suffered. She would have to go about collecting the needed herbs, but she could get him fixed up before winter was too harsh for them to do anything.
"Mortal," the woman greeted with disdain and Rin pursed her lips so she didn't lash out about the derogatory statement about her race.
"What do you want?"
"I was informed you bathed the beast," Chang'e sniffed.
"I bathed the dragon," Rin retorted. "You should be ashamed of how you treated him."
"He's a mindless beast."
"And what defines a beast or sentient being? Does it matter or do you just find pleasure in torturing those you think are beneath you?" Rin demanded. "How you treated that 'beast' speaks more to you than I, and if I were you, kami or not, I'd be ashamed of myself."
"You have no right to speak, mortal!"
"I have every right to speak, and it appears I am the only one willing to do so," she spat out.
"I summoned you because you need to cease interfering with Young Imperial Prince Jūn Ān's education, I was informed he was leaving lessons unattended to be around you," Chang'e started.
"My lord is free to do as he pleases, or doesn't please, it depends upon what he decides to do," Rin stated looking the kami in the eye.
"You should not interfere," she started.
"I don't, and if you are here to threaten me into complying with what you desire I must warn you, my lady, it will not work. I may be mortal but I am my lord's Rin, do not expect me to come to heel for your desires just because I am mortal, if this is all you desired to speak if then I will be on my way, I have much to do, and very little time to do," Rin said as she turned and walked off.
Rin had learned not to bow, or bend or yield to others from the time of her childhood. When she was first brought to Tsuzuki Castle her lord's mother had felt it vital, she learn her place, and she had first learnt that she belonged as her lord's equal and she would act it. She could not afford to submit, she was her lord's, and she would act it, to submit would be a sign of weakness.
Walking to the courtyard Rin took a steadying breath and looked around for Fǔ Yáng to start her lesson in using ki. She knew very little of utilizing ki, Jaken had taught her much of the bases for water magic or some form of it, and healing, which was different from the ki she knew Shippō would teach her. She saw him talking to Wu Min and she sighed as she walked.
"So what have you two figured out?" Rin asked as she stopped before the pair.
"Rin!" the monk smiled.
"Nothing much," Shippō started.
"No true!" Wu Min sprotested.
"Oh?" Rin tilted her head as she arched her brow in curiosity.
"We have found references to a great Evil," Wu Min said.
"Nothing definitive," Shippō protested.
"What did it show you?" Rin asked.
"It did not show anything really," Shippō started.
"I think it did, it said that one claimed of wicked heart could only be saved when they surrendered to the flow of the universe," Wu Min started.
"For kami," he started.
"Why wouldn't it work for a yōkai? I've seen yōkai do amazing things, so why can they not be applied with similar thoughts as a kami?"
"Yōkai aren't kami!" Shippō retorted. "We are nothing like kami!"
"Not from what I've seen, you're all immensely powerful with untapped potential for that power, and the aggression of your kind is properly harnessed it creates a lot focus and drive!"
"Our lord is a daiyōkai," Rin stated.
"Is that different from a yōkai?" Wu Mn demanded.
"Very!" Shippō seethed. "Unlike a kitsune where we take centuries to cultivate our powers, similar to how the kami here do, a daiyōkai is born with that power and it doesn't just cultivate over time."
"What do you mean?"
"Cultivation of power is through trials, life, it's drawn into our bodies and our kind keep it flowing within and through us," he said. "A Daiyōkai's power comes from within, and is not flowing through the universe, though it can, the ability for them to have such amassing and growing power is through mediation and focus, they don't need to cultivate it or care for it, it is a natural source to them."
"So we teach him to let his power flow," Wu Min started.
"That would be like releasing a tsunami into the powers and flow of the universe, even with our lord's current youth we cannot risk him unleashing that power carelessly, it would kill him, and likely everyone around him!" Shippō snapped.
"So we find a different way," Rin started.
"We don't do it, Rin," Shippō stated. "Unleashing a daiyōkai's power, that way, I've seen the end results, and it's not something you want to have happen, it's worse than the mortal's Nuclear Winter fear."
"Nuclear?" she tested out.
"Different time," he dismissed. "Releasing our lord's power that way, to have him surrender to the universe and the will of the universe, it will not end well, it is too much power to just unleash," he said softly.
"Can we teach him to release it gradually, let him learn to let it flow naturally instead of having him release all that power at once?" Wu Min asked.
"It's worth a shot," Rin agreed softly.
"Rin…" Shippō started.
"If we do nothing then he's dead," Rin stated.
"He doesn't die, he ceases to be!"
"That is the same thing as dead!"
"No Rin, it's like what happens to you, you will both be removed from reincarnating, no one knows what will happen to either of your souls," Shippō stated.
"Then we have no reason not to try," she stated.
Sesshōmaru slipped out of his lesson, back to his and Rin's room and clambered up on the bed. He blinked seeing she wasn't here, but wasn't surprised, he knew she wouldn't be here, and he curled up in a tight little ball, hugging his tail to himself he tried not to feel the desire to go home. He didn't belong here.
There was a pulse of light again, which had him looking up as a scroll materialized. Sitting up he reached for it, curious, and opened it again. There was a long slide before it unfurled and he found himself looking at the mystery inuyōkai.
Sesshōmaru looked at the story that seemed to be unfolding as three figures appeared, there was also a pair he saw. Sesshōmaru paused at the sight of the onna, she looked like Rin, he saw her smiling, her face was blushing, and she looked happy. He wondered what this was, and then he looked at the male she was with, he was to see a male looking like him, those were his marks.
Then the entire scroll shifted forms to his grandfather standing over Rin and then there was a flash of power before the images were gone and the scroll vanished. He looked up when Rin appeared.
"Oh, you're here, I was just about to go learn ki, would you like to join us?" Rin asked as she moved to change.
"Hai," he chirped.
"Get changed, you can't train in that," she chuckled as she reappeared in simpler cloths braiding her hair. He hopped off the bed to change now.
