Disclaimer: Thank you Rumiko Takahashi for your genius and I have not gotten any renumeration for making this story.
Author's Note: I also would like to update my other stories [Reason for War, Inu no Wakusei, Youkai Senso] but I can't make any promises. I go where my muse drag me around.
CHAPTER 36
THE FOUR SOULS
Part 2
The Soul of the Guardian
Shippo groaned as he sat up grasping his throbbing head, but the kitsune was also hit with a wave of dizziness. "Ow! My head! Ah...!" It's weird, why do I feel as if my body is aching like I was having a bad case of the 'flu'. But fox youkai don't get the flu...! Never ever!
The kitsune forced himself to stay still, laying his head on his bent knees, eyes closed as he had often seen Kagome do when she forgets to take her blood medicine. He was able to breathe a sigh of relief when the sickening movement in his head lessened. He didn't know how long he stayed that way.
What's this? was his question when he lifted his bent head. Where he found himself in made him gape in shock at the change of the vista as he unsteadily rose to his feet. Where did the forest go? Where are the people?
"What was the last thing that happened?" Shippo shook his head at the fuzzy things that remain floating in his head making it hard to focus on his thoughts. Actually he found, the thinking is helping him forget his malady, whatever this is. "I remember that Sesshoumaru was going to talk to that old headman and the people were so afraid of Rylanion. The hell! That fucking guy hit me! Ow!" he hissed as something painful responded at his scowl. A tentative search around his forehead revealed dried blood and a gash that opened up at his careless examination. Shippo frowned at the fresh blood. "That's strange,' Shippo wondered as he rubbed the blood between his fingers until it became sticky, "the wound, it should have closed by now."
He gasped in shock when he felt warm blood slowly flowing down the side of his face, hastily wiping it off with his fingers and making an even bigger mess. He holds his hands away from his clothes before he stains it while he thinks of how to staunch the bleeding. He mentally searched in his brain if he had tucked a handkerchief or two in his sleeve pocket. Sigh, nope. Grimacing at the mess on his hand he bent down and wiped it clean on the 'floor' of the void. He got wide-eyed when the blood he smeared on it seemed to be absorbed like a sponge. And, keeping his hand on it for a few more seconds cleaned his hands really well. Awesome.
But he still needs to do something about his dripping temple, he thought, observing the floor as it absorbs the drops when he bent down. Looking down on his person he fingered the hadajuban or his third inner undershirt; it's made of cotton and he could spare the garment's damage. After tugging the garment out of his hakama with some difficulty the bottom part was rent quite easily by his sharp nail. The lenght of the rent cotton was long enough to wrap around his head and the strip of cloth would stop the flow and keep the wound closed for now.
"Mom?" Shippo groaned as he began walking, "Rin!" he yelled out. "Lord Sesshoumaru!"
Only echoes of his own voice return to him and it began to worry the fox lordling for this is the first time in a long time that he was on his own.
Loneliness is a kind of feeling that he didn't want to experience anymore but this place is forcing him to remember that bitter feeling.
As an orphan he was lucky enough to be adopted by Kagome but it would seem that fate...no, the malicious will of the jewel wanted him to stay an orphan forever by cruely snatching away Kagome from him. The funny thing was, the Kami seemed to enjoy foiling the jewel's plans again and again because in the void left by Kagome the Western lord stepped in as his father figure.
He should count himself lucky for the second time around to be taken under the protection of the powerful inuyoukai lord who used his resources and influence to help him get his own life back.
"I'm not complaining, " Shippo mused aloud as he continued to walk, thanking the Kami that his head is clearing up and his steps are getting steadier. "Sesshoumaru might be the opposite of mom's warm and vibrant personality but he is honorable, a badass fighter and a thorough mentor." Shippo nodded in satisfaction at the number of adjectives he used to describe the Lord of the West.
He snorted. He never told this to Inuyasha because the hanyou would beat him to hell and back, but Shippo had a secret hero worship for the aristocratic Western lord and if not for his charity and rigorous training his friends would be at a loss to help him. Shippo wanted to grow up emulating the regal taiyoukai. It was surprising to learn that the Western lord has a soft side that perhaps only he and Rin had the good fortune of discovering.
Shippo was busy thinking of his plan of talking to the tall youkai lord and how he wanted to thank him earnestly when they get back, if ever he gets back, to the Western lands when his lagging attention was diverted by a gleaming portal that suddenly opened before him and swallowed him whole.
*{O}*
The Soul of the Western Lord
"Hey!" Rin yelled, stomping her foot, 'where did that silly dragon go? Urrrgh! They've gone off and left me all alone here! Unbelievable!" she threw up her hands, then looking down she huffed louder this time. "And they didn't leave me any berries!" the girl glared at the berry-less pristine snow. I thought Ah-Un and I already had an understanding that I pick my own berries and he picks his own. Ah-Un has two heads and two mouths to do that for him so that alone is an unfair advantage!
"I said no cheating! But noooo!" the girl continued her tirade to the absent dragon. "No sooner had my attention wandered for juuust a fraction of a second and he'd gobbled everything in sight!"
"Why I oughta..." she clenched her hands. If she were a dragon she would be bellowing smoke. "Hm, Ah-Un would be scared of me then," she giggled at the thought. "Hm, okay then, let's practice. Aherm!" she coughed in her fist. " Awrgh...eh?" the girl blinked, her practice fogotten. Over there at the right the bushes were shivering and shaking...
Is Ah-Un trying to hide from me? Hah! Silly dragon! With an evil smile on her face she slowly bent down and grabbed some rocks, hefted the weight and threw it at the shaking bushes. "Got ya, Ah-Un!" she yelled triumphantly, but no dragon came stomping out of the bushes to indignantly snort at her.
"Waaah?!" Rin had to take an unstable step back as the snow-covered grove began sloughing off like seafoam displaying what seems to be a sea of whiteness. "What happened?" the girl crouched in battle pose warily.
"Where the hell am I? Ooops!" hand on her mouth, the girl hastily looked around more afraid at her father's censure and piercing glare at her use of bad language than her frightful surroundings. "Whew! Thank goodness father's not here,' she sighed with relief, placing a hand on her chest, "so I won't be...hm?' But something caught her wrist on her clothes. Confused, Rin stretched out her arms and wondered at her gauntlet covered hands...
No.
In a span of a second reality and her memory came back to the girl-warrior. Her heart began thudding in her chest.
No, she is not eight anymore...the teen swept a hand over her outfit seeing her boot encased feet. She slapped a hand on her forehead as if to open her mind and in that act retrieving whatever memory got pushed back in its depths as she walk around.
"What was I here for? Uh...we're here to get Kagome back..." she concentrated, "and...Shippo! No no no! I... I wanted to put a gag over Shippo's mouth because he was annoying the hell out of me with his whining about the cold and the food. Right!" Her fingers smoothed the silky fur of the new bear coat that her father gave her..."Ummm...berries with Ah-Un... right! I was picking berries and then there were the villagers that were angry at father for taking their hunt away from them and ...' Rin grimaced, scratching her head in the effort to remember something else that her memory cannot seem to let go.
And then there's Rylanion...of course! Rylanion!" the girl's snarl would've impressed Sesshoumaru. That asshole! I'm gonna carve him a new mouth and then fillet him from head to foot!
"Father...!" Rin straightened her back, hands balled tightly for the moment forgetting the many ways her father taught her how to kill a man slowly and painfully. "How can I forget!" Where is he and Kagome and Shippo? "What has that freak done to them? I knew it!I knew that guy was up to no good. There's something fake in him; always polite and smiling."
Rin took a deep breath to control herself and slowly she became pensive until she was calm enough to think the best way to get out of this predicament.
Her father taught her that each problem is like a battle and each battle has to be applied a different strategy for each opponent is unique. She wished that she could apply the majority of his fighting style and strategy to her arsenal but due the difference in their race it would be next to impossible. What she gleaned from the taiyoukai is how to expertly strategize her way out of a fight. No one is strong enough in a battle; not even her father. Brute force does not always guarantee a victory because diving headlong into a fray without carefull analysis and plotting of attacks and counter attacks could mean defeat.
Her father would always grumble about uncle Inuyasha's barbaric and uncouth use of their father's fang. Swinging the sword this way and that but it lacks the form and discipline of swordsmanship when the occasion is needed. Rin is forced to agree with her father after observing the two. Whenever her father would confront Inuyasha in crossing blades with him her father's superb swordplay would the throw the hanyou off balance. She's not saying this because she is biased because it would seem that Inuyasha was using an inordinate amount of energy and not using his youki to control the power of Tetsaiga as well as not thinking three or four steps ahead of the fight. Her uncle was the stubborn sort and would not accept any guidance from the one who could help him maximize his potential; Sesshoumaru.
As Rin stood there she looked seemingly relaxed, hands on hips as she observed the eternity of white that surrounds her. It is obvious that it is not fog because as white as it looked she could see a horizon. But the horizon has no boundary nor an end.
How infuriating.
"Fine! I want to get out of here so where do I start?" The captain of the West was suddenly unsure as she looked around the infinite whiteness. No floor, no doors, no roads, no horizon...
"Hm? What's that?" The girl cocked her head to the side, the one that the taiyoukai had found endearing. Is it me or is that area glowing? She squinted as her hands reach to her left hip for her...
"What! Where are my weapons?! WHERE?!" her katana, her chain, and her battleaxe...all her things...all gone! Gone! "Grrrr! Who took it!?" the girl snarled, hands clenched murderously. "They better not tarnish or knick up my battleaxe or I'm gonna lop their heads off!" fuming, she yelled at the unresponsive gulf.
Gingerly and looking from left and right cautiously, the warrior crouched as she slowly approach the glowing circle. "It is glowing!" she frowned at the suspicious object that's hovering a few feet off the 'floor.' Still vexed at the loss of her battleaxe, the girl circled around the glowing ovoid which is two dimensional. "What is this?" Rin warily extended a forefinger at the object.
All the girl could manage was a terrified shriek as she was pulled in the middle of the glow.
*{O}*