Chapter 5

Always a Child

Shinokiri watched her hakama rustle in the breeze by the window. They were a reminder of her stasis…an uncommon predicament to her will, but a common one to her the course her life had seemed to be taking in the past century.

"You awake yet?"

Inuyasha. Shinokiri propped herself up as a peace come over her, this particular warmth was the symptom of his company, as she had remembered it. She had no idea if he was the same. He was grown now…all of his tribulations, mummers she had heard from inside the serpent Kogane. Her twitching sensitive ears had allowed her some medium to the outside in her drudging and barely justifiable ordeal. What had the world made of him? Was he ruined to her now?

She remembered his brown eyes, his human form looking up at her, gripping her heart to tell her not to leave in the morning. Each time she did, though, painfully she did. This vulnerability, she searched for it in the effervescent amber of his eyes now. Peering at her through the furrowed curtain of thick dark brows. Perpetually on the edge of a temper.

"Are you here to keep me company Inuyasha?"

"Heh," he plopped down beside her with great drama.

Inuyasha clung to the furred seem of Shinokiri's shoulders. A red and silver ball swaying by the strength of the silken fabric, barely of any notice to his host as she glided through the forest.

"Kiri-chan! Was dad as tall as you?"

"Much taller"

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Woooooooooooooooow," the little hanyou made an 'O' with his mouth as he let go of her sleeve and made a gentle thud in the grass.

"One day I'll be giant just like him."

"Highly unlikely little one."

Inuyasha made up his face into as much of a scowl as he could muster and puffed up his chest.

"Why not? Why can't I be big and strong like him?!"

"You will be big and strong…enough…just not like him"

"Why not?!"

Shinokiri looked down at the pup. Cold and blunt she made a point not to give the boy fairy tales.

"You are a half-breed and he was the greatest demon to ever live."

Inuyasha rolled into a wobbly stand, kicking up grass in a huff of frustration. He straightened his kimono and hakama, leaving the mass of tumbled silver hair unkempt. His puppy ears trembled on top of his head as he brushed away the tears forming in his eyes. The dirt from his forearm mingled with tears, stinging him, obscuring his vision. He could feel more tears forming and so he pushed his soled into the dirt to propel himself forward into a run.

"If he was so great, then why is he dead?!"

His painful call rung out and bounced from tree to tree. Shinokiri would let him run. Perhaps, she should have been softer with him.

She heard a snap and a cascade of dirt and stones follow…her acute ears picked up his muffled groans. Clattering and clanging as he rolled down, stopping with a crisp crumbling of leaves.

"Kiri-chan" he coughed. "Ughhhhhh"

The sun was going down. There was no time for this. She would have to get food for him soon. Walking over to the ditch he had fallen in, like a hawk she narrowed in on his eyes through the detritus he had managed to bury himself in.

"Clumsy. If you're going to be as great as your father, you can't be so clumsy"

She crouched down and pinched the collar of his kimono, craning him out from the ditch. As if he were a dirty rag. He spun by the fabric to face her. Pitiful. . She surrendered her reason, under the spell of his scratched tear-streaked face. Tenderly she drew him to her, letting him sniffle into her hair.

"I'm going to do it Kiri-chan! I'll prove it to you!"

He had proven his greatness. A hanyou, as great and as powerful as any demon around currently. His name being mentioned in awe and wonder. From the dark and the damp the news had reached even her. Her pride had lent warmth to the cold.

"Your legs work yet?"

Shinokiri let herself fall back onto the bed, not even looking at him.

"It's dumb….seeing you so weak. I don't like it. I know you only were around me for my old man, you know. I know you didn't really care. It was just your duty or whatever, but I appreciate it."

"Don't be silly, Inuyasha"

With that, Shinokiri dismissed any negative thought he may have had and his stiff shoulders loosened. He glance at her, then back to the wall, slowly, turning his chin up in thought. Shinokir's eyes fell on tessaiga.

"You have earned your birthright."

Inuyasha turned his head towards her and let out a cough like chuckle. Regurgitating it like it was never supposed to be uttered.

"You're goddamn right I did."

They were interrupted by a soft knocking in the doorway. It was neither Kaede, nor Rin…they were off…no, the smell. It was the younger priestess. Inuyasha's chosen mate. Behind her was the monk's woman and her brood hibbledy hobbledy at her feet. They were carrying ablutions and ointments of all sorts.

"Sorry to interrupt. Sango and I thought you could use a bath. There is a hot spring near here…I know you must be sore."

Her voice was so unsure, so hesitant.

"Yeah, Kagome, go ahead, she's kind of gross right now."

"Inuyasha"

Kagome's voice was filled with threatening quiet menace. Sango pushed in between the two lovers.

"Grow up you too. It's unbecoming of children to be married"

Sango rolled her eyes after speaking. She crouched down by the demoness making a motion for her to get on her back. Shinokiri held on as Sango took a deep breath and burst with energy to get off the ground with a small grunt.

What a strong human this woman is.

"Alright, let's go. Kagome"

Kagome marched up to Inuyasha and ruffled his hair. "Bye now! See you later!" She gave a taunting sickeningly sweet sort of exaggerated smile.

"Stop treating me like your pet dog, KAGOME!"

Shinokiri gave a sort of sympathetic motion of her lips into a soft line as she blinked her lids in goodbye to Inuyasha. Kagome caught up to Sango who efficiently made her way toward the forest, carrying the large youkai on her back with seeming ease. Her three small children bussed about her feet, threatening to trip her t every step.

The monk called out to them, "Going to the hot spring I see." His grin was suspect and unnatural.

"Miroku, you pervert, don't even think about following us"

Sango huffed as she motioned her head to her husband as a signal for her children to follow him instead. Miroku chuckled gaily.

"You should give me more credit, my love. I'm a reformed man!" Kagome and Sango rolled their eyes and continued down the path, the group of women branching off into a differing direction than the monk.

The demoness rued the useless dragging weight of her legs. The tips of her toes made lines in the dirt trailing behind the three women.

Once they had reached their destination, Sango gently lowered herself as Kagome guided Shinokiri's body the ground. The youkai's thoughts clouded over everything. Sara…Kagura.

"Oh, how'd you hear about them?"

Shinokiri didn't realize she had said the names out loud. She turned to the voice. Sango looked at her with concern.

Kagome brushed off the heaviness of the moment. "Eh. Don't worry about all that. Sesshomaru-sama barely paid any attention to them. Not important. The most I can say is that he felt sorry for them."

Kagome gave what was supposed to be a reassuring smile.

"I'm not worried. Who Sesshomaru-sama spends his time with is not my concern. It is out of my purview."

Sango shifted a bit as she took a damp rag from the spring onto the back of Shinokiri's neck. They meant to clean her before entering into the refreshing heat of the healing spring. Sango worked up to her question.

"Would it not though? I guess…well, it wasn't a love match, I suppose."

"Love?"

Kagome rubbed a rag into Shinokiri's calves, massaging them as she cleaned.

"Eh. You demons always lose your sensibility when it comes to that part. It's to be expected I guess, but are you and Sesshomaru fond of each other at least?"

Shinokiri let Kagome's word bounce around her brain for a bit, but nothing came up.

"I don't know"

"Really?" Sango and Kagome both zoomed into focus inched from the youkai's face.

"All this time, and you don't even know if you like him?"

Sango was filled with incredulity. "How weird."

"He was my reward, for my loyal service to Inu no Taisho. The chance for my progeny to rule the west. As far as Sesshomaru was concerned, I was a means to sewing his son's oats. That is all. A vessel for the continuation of his noble line"

"Hmmmm"

The two women absorbed her words and mused together. They leaned back in shock at how matter-of-fact and open she was about it all. It was unusual for anyone, much less a demon. They both eased Shinokiri into the spring before following her.

"Ahhhhh. This never gets old."

Kagome luxuriated in the steam of the spring and was backed by a smile from Sango.

"So…"

Kagome started again.

"You're not jealous of Sesshomaru being with other women?"

"Kago—"

Sango began to warn her off of the subject but was interrupted by Shinokiri.

"I don't even know their connection with him or how many there are"

"WELL…"

Kagome perked up ready to spill as much information as she could.

"I, personally, only know of those two and there was not much going on there. Kagura was this wind sorceress—an incarnation of the half-demon Naraku." Kagome paused to search for understanding in the face of the taiyoukai who nodded.

"Right, so she probably had a bit of a thing Sesshomaru, but mainly she just asked him to kill Naraku for her. That's the bulk of it. She ended up dying. Sesshomaru looked bothered by it, but it's not like you can really tell what he's thinking"

"Ah"

Shinokiri soaked it in. It wasn't much, but it was something. She readjusted herself on the rock she was perched on, straining a bit on her own weight.

"And Sara?"

Sango came forward.

"That one's even more of a nonentity. We only encountered her on one occasion. Apparently she was a princess who fell in love with Sesshomaru and on her deathbed she gave her body to a horde of demons in order to find a way to please Sesshomaru. He barely seemed to even recognize her as someone he might know, but he did seem to feel bad when she died though."

Silence fell as Shinokiri turned her attention to raking soap through her hair. She had let it loose and relaxed into the feeling of hot water running through her scalp.

"He does not care to be distracted by the attentions of women. He sees it as a weakness. The downfall of his father," the demoness looked up at the speckled light through the trees.

Kagome and Sango nodded as they took in the information.

"Never? So you and he…never?"

Sango's head tilted almost unnaturally to her shoulder. Kagome's nose crinkled in fascination.

"That was the exception. A necessary evil. It was our duty."

The two listening women nodded slowly, not quite sure if they understood what she was saying, but they were willing to accept it for what it is. The two women hadn't noticed, as his yoki was always about, that the lord of the western lands was in their midst.

"Sesshomaru-sama"

Shinokiri turned her head achingly to look in his direction. The two women reached for rocks to hide behind. The demon, a glory in white and red, with his sweeping silver hair; stepped out from the shadows. He had not been there for long, but it was surprising to him that his mate was so weak as to only just notice him. He looked towards the two human women.

"Leave."