Sesshomaru could feel himself slowly losing his senses. He could feel his mentality fading away with each second that passed. He watched as Rin blurred away with a horrified look in her eyes, like he was being swallowed by a giant animal. He was the giant animal swallowing himself. Like watching a starving snake eat it's own body.
Rin knew what was happening. She remembered what Kohaku told her, but she had no idea what kind of man he would become. She approached him in slow, gentle, easy tip toe steps. "Se...sho...maru?" she called out in a shaky voice, as she extended her hand.
He let out a loud growl and smacked her hand away with his claws, breaking her skin.
She hissed as the blood dripped onto the hardwood. Her eyes stayed fixated on him in fear and sorrow as he became a monster, lost in his own mind.
He stood there snarling, head cocked in confusion, like a lost dog, mulling over whether or not she was an enemy.
Rin avoided his eyes and stood still. She glared at that brown radio, wishing the song would stop. She was beginning to feel entranced herself. She could tell the twins didn't like it because they were knotting up so tightly , her knees buckled. She placed a loving, bloody hand on her stomach, and the other on her chest, right where the brooch was, and their knotting loosened slightly. 'Could this help?' She wondered as she unpinned the brooch and placed it against her stomach. The twins loosened up and Rin was able to shift her focus back to Sesshomaru, who was staring at the radio, like he could hear something she did not. Rin wondered if he was going to attempt to kill her. She wondered if anything Kohaku told her could help.
Then, she wondered why the song stopped playing.
Rin froze amidst the silence. She dreaded the thought of even causing the floor to creak. He turned to her sharply and slowly approached her...
"Ms. Inumira? I found Rin's location through her iCloud." Shippo said with a smirk on his face.
"Well, where is she?"
He showed her a map and she sighed. "What the hell would they be doing there, of all places?"
Inumira assumed if Rin was there, she was safe, so she decided to give her a call.
Rin jumped up in surprise as her phone began to vibrate in her hand. She glanced at it swiftly, noticing Inumira's name on the screen.
She looked at Sesshomaru's confused face, wondering what he was thinking. "Sesshomaru?"
"Yes, did something happen just now?"
"The radio began playing Moonlight Sonata and you..."
He looked down at her bleeding hand. "I see. Allow me to search the house for a first aid kit."
Sesshomaru rushed out the door and Rin's phone kept vibrating.
She decided to text Inumira instead.
I can't talk. Sesshomaru's memory is wiped. He does not completely trust me.
You need to get out of that house. Every government agency is looking for you two. Going there was a stupid decision.
He said he was given an order to apprehend me and bring me to a "safehouse" which was this location. He's supposed to "wait here for orders."
My sister has a secret room in the house. Find it. You should be safe there.
"Rin."
Rin gasped as she looked up from her phone.
"Is something troubling you?"
"Yes. Your aunt contacted me."
"I asked you not to speak to anyone."
"I know, but she is trying to help us. She said everyone is searching for us and there is a secret room in this house that we can hide in.
"Where is this room?"
"I was going to ask her, when you walked in."
He extended his hand for hers. "Let me clean your wound."
Rin placed her shaky fingers in his palm and grimaced as the antiseptic stung her. She tried to take her mind off the pain by responding to Inumira's text.
How do we find the room?
It's in Sesshomaru's room, only he can open it, which may be difficult since he does not remember anything.
Rin sighed disappointedly as Sesshomaru wrapped the gauze around her hand.
Sesshomaru painfully stared at Rin's hand before slowly bringing it to his lips and placing a gentle kiss.
Rin's face flushed furiously as she looked up at him. She noticed sympathy in his eyes, but not love.
"Y-you still don't remember anything, do you?"
He continued to hold her hand as he slowly shook his head. "I'm afraid not."
"B-but you kissed my hand."
"Yes, I can tell there was a connection between us."
Rin nodded. "It seems there still is." She paused, as her eyes met the floor. "We need you to remember now, more than ever. The secret room is hidden in your bedroom, and only you know how to open it."
"Let us return to that room and see if we can find any clues of some sort." He suggested as he slowly walked over to the brown radio. "But first..."
He lifted the radio and broke it in half, only to learn it was hollow inside, and another device fell out.
Sesshomaru lifted it off the floor and handed it to Rin. "What is this?"
"I-it looks like a...a...baby monitor."
Rin held it to her face as her brows furrowed. "Hello? Who's there? Is someone listening?"
Loud static played over the monitor before it went silent.
Rin stared at the monitor in shock and confusion before handing it back to Sesshomaru. "Please...please break it. I don't want to hear that song play again. "
Sesshomaru snapped it in half and tossed the pieces on the desk, then smashed them as well.
"This entire place could be bugged."
She nodded in agreement. "That might be why they told you to bring me here."
Sesshomaru held her finger to his lips. "Shh."
Rin nodded and held his hand.
Sesshomaru could tell she was scared, and he knew he was obligated to protect the woman who carried his children.
He grabbed an empty notebook off the table and a pen. He scribbled something down and handed it to Rin.
Follow my lead.
Rin followed Sesshomaru to his childhood bedroom and she sat down on the bed.
He studied the room carefully before turning to Rin. "There is no secret room here. The woman you spoke to was wrong."
"Are you sure?"
"I am positive. This is not the place."
Rin sighed as she laid down. "I'm sorry. I'm exhausted, and it's getting so late."
Sesshomaru turned to the window and noticed the complete darkness. A lot of time had passed, and some of that time he was not himself. Even at that moment, he was not himself. Everything was frustrating.
He turned back to Rin, only to notice she was fast asleep. He walked over to her and gently placed a hand on her stomach, a tinge of relief flowing through him as his twins responded to his touch.
If there was anything he knew for certain, it was that if he got that woman pregnant deliberately, she must have been the one.
Sesshomaru was adamant to find the secret room and keep her safe. He rummaged around his old bedroom, looking on his desk at drawings, comic books and even a freshman's high school program.
He pulled out his first drawer, and noticed a few articles of clothing and underwear folded neatly. The second drawer was full of jeans. The third drawer had action figures and other random collectibles. The fourth drawer...well, it wouldn't open. It didn't even have a handle, just a hole shaped like a number 8. What could fit there? Was there a key nearby?
He decided to backtrack. He checked the desk again, looked underneath the bed to no avail, then on the window sill and...
There was that stupid green army man again. He lifted it up in annoyance, until he noticed the bottom was similar to the number 8 shape on the bottom drawer.
'It's worth a try.' He thought to himself as he brought the army man over to the drawer. It fit inside the hole perfectly and he heard the drawer unlock. It opened like a door, and he peeked his head inside.
Complete darkness.
He needed a flashlight of some sort.
He went back to the desk and found a small keychain flashlight.
Sesshomaru turned on the flashlight and wriggled his way inside the small opening. He realized he had to crouch down when he bumped his head on what appeared to be the hardwood floor above. He knelt down and slid across the creaky floor. It looked like a bunker, with a shelf full of journals, expired granola bars scattered about, and a broken lantern on the floor.
He didn't see any indication that he actually played in this area when he was young. Perhaps this was where his mother hid her most important items. It was all so fuzzy, he couldn't remember. He stood slowly, uncomfortably hunched over as he took down the journals and placed them in an old basket he found in a corner. It didn't make any sense to stay in that stuffy hole and skim through them, so he intended to take them upstairs.
'This is not a suitable place for a pregnant woman to hide.' He thought to himself in disappointment.
As Sesshomaru took down the last book, he noticed something strange about it. It sounded like something was inside. He opened the book and the pages had been cut in the center. Inside, there was a small tape recorder and a tape with a label.
"Listen to this if you ever feel lost...hmm. I suppose now would be an appropriate time to listen to it."
He placed the tape inside the player and listened intently.
"Sesshomaru, you were always so strong, so precocious, and most of all, you always had a sense of direction. I know, at any other time, you would have been too prideful to listen to this tape. If you are listening to this now, that means something has gone terribly wrong and I am not around to tell you this face to face. Firstly, let me apologize for everything has happened to you. I feel solely responsible for the things you have endured, especially the things you do not remember. I have done a lot of things I should not have done, and gotten the both of us involved in things we had no business in. Perhaps it was greed, perhaps it was my own perverse need to outshine your father after he abandoned us. Either way, I know how to completely undo everything. I finally figured it out. You've told me constantly, 'I feel fine, I feel fine.' But here you are now, you are certainly not fine. You stupid child. If only you had let me...-sigh- I'm sorry. I just wanted to help you. I let things go too far. Anyway, if things are just as I assume, please turn this tape over and listen carefully to the song. It is the only song that can reverse the programming and make you completely immune to it. I've already said more than I should, and I may be killed for the things I know, but before that happens, I promise, I will leave the truth for you to find. I love you, my dear son."
Sesshomaru stared at the tape recorder. That was the sound of his mother's voice. Rin was right after all. He did not want to waste any more time pondering over it all. He was hoping the song did exactly what his mother claimed it could. He quickly turned the tape over and listened to it.
'What kind of song is this?' He wondered, paying attention, note by note. There was a silent intro, followed by dripping water fading in, then an unfamiliar and obnoxious percussion-like instrument, playing a slow 1, 2, 3, 4 pattern. 1, drop, 2, drip, 3, drop, 4, drip. It was terrible quality, annoying, and started giving him a headache. Then, the headache worsened as a humming sound was introduced, playing along with the drip-drop/percussion pattern. What the hell was this? Was this even music? Eventually, he stopped thinking about it, and for the next five minutes of the song, his mind was entirely blank. Sesshomaru was spaced out, and then he blacked out.
He awoke to the sound of Rin's voice shouting for him, worriedly. He quickly came to, and every thought and every moment from his childhood to that very second, hit him like an oncoming train. Sesshomaru finally remembered everything. He was relieved, and angry. He knew there was more for him to find down there. He moved the basket, along with the tape recorder closer to the entrance and he began tearing apart the shelf and table down there, looking for this "truth" his mother promised him.
Was it a letter, another tape? Well, yes, of course. After destroying the small table, he found it taped to the bottom. He ripped it off and glared at it.
"Listen to this if you want to know the truth."
"Sesshomaru, is that you down there? What are you doing?" Rin questioned.
He placed the tape in the basket and slid it out the entrance. "Take that." He told her.
"Uh...okay." She obliged as she placed it on the bed and began looking inside. "What is all this?"
"Those...are things" He grunted as he wriggled his way out of the false drawer and shut it behind him. "my mother left behind."
"I see...so you must-" Rin was interrupted when Sesshomaru grabbed her by her waist, pulled her close to him and kissed her deeply, passionately, ravenously. He needed to kiss her like that, feel her this way again. They both needed this."
Rin's eyes were wide, like two full moons as she stared at him, bewildered, face blood red.
"I remember everything. I've missed you."
"How? What...when?"
Sesshomaru explained everything as he continued to hold her, kiss her, rub her stomach, stroke her hair.
Rin enjoyed every second of the bittersweet moment they were finally reunited-for real, this time.
"So, now what?"
"We listen to the other tape, but first, there is something I must tell you."
"What is it?"
"The woman that gave me those orders...it was Sango."
Rin gasped and shook her head in disbelief. "Sango?! Why?"
"That, I don't know. Perhaps, when father promised her a safe place to go incognito, that was what he meant. This way, she could keep a close eye on Kohaku."
"So why did she tell you to kill him?"
"Actually, it was that suspicious warden. Originally, I was supposed to apprehend the both of you together, then bring you to a different location, but he changed the orders."
"But...why? Kohaku was finally free from the demonic energy that was implanted in his body!" Rin said angrily.
"Is it me, that you're angry at?" He wondered. "Because I promised you I would not kill him?"
"What?! N-no! Of course not! I'm sorry I seem so angry but...it isn't you. I know you've been a victim of this as well." She said as she held him tightly.
"Why don't we listen to the other tape?"
Rin nodded in agreement as he placed the tape into the recorder and pressed play.
She anxiously grabbed Sesshomaru's hand and he kissed her forehead as the tape started with a heavy sigh.