Chapter Twenty-Five

She caught a glimpse of her husband from behind the cover of Miho's eyes. On the outside, he appeared no worse for wear than he did on the day she had last held him within her own eyes, but this was no cause for joy. In theory, Rin should feel obligated to accept that his outward appearance was exactly as it was on the day of her death, perfect and unscarred. His face had been void of all emotion, but his soul was visible just inside of the gold iris that protected it from all who dared to see his emotions for what they really were, even now. In indescribable pain, no one could have detected the evidence of this unless they had experienced his affections or at the very least, his respect. There wasn't a person on earth who had ever been privy to the expression of this hurt, save his own mother, and perhaps even Jaken. Kohaku had been present when Rin had been stripped of her soul for a second time, but he had not understood Sesshomaru enough to know that he was in fact capable of human suffering. This fact alone weighed so heavy on her now that she sensed the bitter guilt of betrayal despite never having betrayed him…at least, she tried to convince herself that she had not done so.

Strangely enough, Rin had managed to escape her personal purgatory just long enough to view the world behind another's eyes. What she saw was a world that she recognized, but didn't at the same time. The lands had not changed much, aside from the decaying of summer which slowly began to transform into a cooling autumn. Miho had been standing at the edge of a great body of water, but just on the horizon of this water, there was a speck of land, indicating that it was not the ocean she was seeing. Miho had her own eyes trained on a man who was not familiar in Rin's memories, but she knew him for what he was. A water demon who was bare naked from the neck down and it forced her to retreat for a moment from the view until she broke free of embarrassment and dared to look again. This time, she had seen her husband. He was not looking at Miho or the water demon, nor was he looking at anything at all aside from the empty air ahead of him.

Even though she was not among the living, she felt in the absent space where her heart should be a deep ache that would not desist. His eyes may have had a hidden veil across them, but she knew what sadness looked like. He had changed, though not in appearance, but in those honey tinted orbs, he was lost…alone and very distant from the surrounding world as though he were not really there at all. It took Miho's persistent caterwauling to release him from the trance he did not seem to have realized he was under. Rin's soul ached for him, desperate to heal whatever wound that she had created from their past due to her untimely passing, but she held no control over where she was nor did she desire to attempt control. Miho had suffered enough from her presence so she did nothing more than withdraw herself from the equation for the time being until she was called upon by Miho…or the draw of the underworld which was a constant source of worry. For the time being, she willed herself not to exist.

Meanwhile, Miho was doing her best to remain calm. It didn't help the situation knowing that just outside of her vantage point, a naked male demon was double over in laughter, which inflamed her annoyance even further. "Lord Tamotsu, if you do not acquire a suitable set of clothes, I will be forced to knock you the hell out!" It wasn't in her nature to address a demon so formally, but for some unknown reason, if felt wrong not to. It also wasn't in her nature to threaten a stranger so viciously, but his attractiveness added to his nakedness left her strangely uncomfortable…but in a way that left her feeling a little funny on the inside. It was as though she found him attractive, maybe even desirable.

Miho growled in frustration at herself. Unbelievable! You don't even know him, so stop thinking like that! "Sesshomaru!" She looked up and over toward the dog demon in hopes that he might be able to do something about Tamotsu and was taken aback at what she saw.

Sesshomaru was silent and unmoving, but also unseeing as though he were not even there at all. "Sesshomaru?" She asked again, this time with a little more sound. "Lord Sesshomaru, can you hear me? Hello!" She stomped her feet in her approach, hoping it would catch his attention but he was still as a fresh carved stone statue. He did not move until Miho got up in his face. "Rin can see you right now, I hope you know."

Sesshomaru blinked, but his eyes remained the same. "I am aware."

Miho huffed before she turned back around to glare at the still cackling water demon. "We do not have the time to spare to witness your indecent laughter in regard to my shyness due to your nudity! If you are to show us another way to get to the western lands, then the time is now to leave. I cannot waste another minute, for every minute wasted is a minute that could have been used to save Rin's life and my own." She reached behind her and grabbed Sesshomaru by the sleeve and all but dragged him by this makeshift leash over to the water's edge, ignoring Tamotsu's wicked smirk as she looked him square in the eye. "Shall we go?"

"As the lady wishes." Tamotsu bowed at the waist and took Miho by her free hand and led them into the lake.

The water lapped at Miho's already soggy hem as she descended into it with Sesshomaru in tow. He had not even tried to resist her rude actions, but she had other worries to think about and decided to put the thought aside for the moment.

Tamotsu had to almost pull her beneath the surface due to the now common knowledge that Miho couldn't swim. Her nervousness was kept into account, but as she had said to him before, there wasn't a minute left to spare for her life with irrational fears like heights, water, bugs or various other things that people were known to fear. Almost as soon as they were completely submerged, he summoned his powers to manipulate the elements around them and focused his energy on encasing Miho and Sesshomaru in a thick bubble full of clean, breathable air.

They had no time to admire the view but from what Miho could see, everything around them was painted in cool crystal blues and opaque greens around sunken boulders, clay and dirt, and a treasure field that glistened regardless of the thunder clouds building in the world above. The treasures she saw were worth more where they rested than in the hands of the richest aristocrats. Gem stones embedded within black rock shimmered in rainbows while familiar looking human items like jewelry, gold and silver coins, goblets and pottery of the finest quality were scattered about as though they had been abandoned from a sunken ship, but this was too near the coast to be the case. "These were gifts from the human villages." Tamotsu said clearly as though he was speaking to them on land, but his voice was muffled somewhat by the water. "The people, when they learned of my kingdom here, feared my powers and my people as though we were monsters destined to destroy their lives. This was their attempt to keep us from harming them, although I had no intention of it causing them the harm that they feared me possible of inflicting. After a while, they stopped doing so and decided instead to inflict harm on us if any of my people were ever spotted coming out of the water. It didn't take long for me to settle the conflicts, but I did place a shield on my kingdom." Tamotsu smiled toward Miho while he spoke his next words. "My lady, you are the first human to have been accepted by my lake for over a hundred years. That is why I was so fascinated when I first saw you that I could not help but stare. That and well…you are also the most beautiful human I have ever seen." He grinned at the blush that darkly tinted Miho's cheeks, while Sesshomaru glared.

"Well that's just…I…thank you!"Miho squeaked while she buried her dripping wet face into her soaking wet hands. Just because she was in an air bubble didn't mean she was automatically immune to the ability of becoming saturated by lake water. Try as she might, there was no chance of privacy nor a chance to hide her bright red face. "Can we just go now, please?"

Tamotsu grinned and nodded, but said no more as he turned away from them and headed on a course aimed in the direction of darker waters.

Miho ignored her bubble companion, leaving Sesshomaru to stew in his own thoughts while she herself set out to study just what kind of world she had agreed to be dragged through. The waters stayed perfectly distant from her with the protection of the air bubble, but she still harbored anxiety with her irrational fear of drowning. It wasn't that she had been denied the privilege of learning to swim on her own, but she was just terrified of the idea of being so far beneath the surface of water that she might not have the lung capacity to survive the journey back up to it depending on the depth of the water she was swimming in. The very idea of sucking in the liquid and fading into unconsciousness left her struggling to breathe even on dry land. It was a fear that she despised about herself for almost her entire life. She had never experienced an incident that would have killed her…by water, but she still couldn't help but feel distant from it whenever opportunities came her way.

Miho thought a moment. I can't really say I haven't had an incident though. When I saw Jaken at the hot spring before Kagome showed up, I nearly drowned myself with hot water because I was so startled. She shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes at herself before she put a stop to her inner monologues. It wasn't as though Rin were listening to her thoughts, but she was just tired of listening to herself talk in her head that she just decided to shut it off all together. Besides, Rin had sort of 'stepped out' for the moment anyway so there was no one in which to add fuel to the 'conversation'.

Instead of talking to herself, Miho took a tentative step forward, conscious of the fact that she was inside a bubble that might burst at any second if she dared strike it with a rogue toe or finger. With careful maneuvering, she shifted herself to the front of the bubbles interior and stood right up next to Tamotsu, who was too busy navigating to notice her presence. As if driving a carriage, he directed them on a swift course out of shallow waters and into mountainous field of black volcano like mounds that loomed for what appeared to be miles in the distance, illuminated by rays of sunshine but dimmed by the algae that also inhabited the water freely. It didn't take long for those vibrate rays of sun to be diminished by threatening storm clouds that began to burst at the seams with violent lightening volts. Soon, a downpour of rain drummed across the lake surface and created a loud vibration that forced Miho to cover her ears.

"Don't worry, my Lady. The deeper we travel, the less sound from the surface you will hear." Tamotsu's reassurance did little until his promise was carried out. Indeed, he was correct when he angled their journey deeper and farther into the black mountains of underwater life.

Miho removed her hands and looked around some more, interested in the dim surroundings that her driver was leading her through. She began to notice multi colored stones protruding from the bases of those black hills, allowing her to assume that these mountains were in fact here by volcanic activity. It took that kind of power to produce just beautifully perfect and large gems such as these, and upon closer inspection, Miho could even name some of them too. "Tamotsu, where is the volcano that produced these gem deposits? I know there must be one close by."

Tamotsu did not slow down despite having angled so far down that Miho was beginning to think he was leading them straight into the lake floor. "You have well trained eyes, my lady. Yes, there is a volcano a few miles ahead of us. It isn't active though, but it is rich with gem stones and vents which leaks hot water from time to time. My kingdom is located at its base. Perhaps if you survive this journey that you are on, you might like to see it for yourself?"

Without thinking about it, Miho smiled. "Is your home built from the lava that the volcano produced?"

Tamotsu looked over his shoulder at her and gave her a half smile before he turned his attention back on their direction. "Again, very perceptive of you, my lady."

Miho took that as a sign to stop talking. Instead, she focused her attention on their destination, which was coming up to meet them rather quickly. The lake floor, though dark from a lack of illumination from the sun, was visible but there was no indication that there was an opening for them to fall through. Just as she was about to panic, an opening appeared at the last minute and swallowed them whole while Miho screamed and threw herself backward into Sesshomaru's shoulder.

Sesshomaru didn't see her coming, but caught her before she rebounded to collide with the side of the bubble wall.

"Thanks." Was all she let herself say due to an overabundance of embarrassment.

Sesshomaru released and said nothing, but began to stare forward as they were greeted by a shroud of darkness with the exception of Tamotsu, who appeared to be glowing as though he was set ablaze beneath his very skin. He took on the very colors of the sunset, only slightly muted as though not to blind the weak eyed.

Miho gazed so intently at his beauty that she failed to notice that Tamotsu was gazing right back at her with a smirk that told Sesshomaru that he enjoyed every ounce of attention he was receiving from her. Of course, none of this bothered the great demon lord. Miho was a free woman who deserved to admire any man that caught her attention, but he was worried about what might happen if she did not survive this journey that they had set out on to recover Rin's soul. He wouldn't willingly admit this to anyone, even Rin if she was alive and well, but he felt guilt for this woman. She had been right that it wasn't fair what had happened to her. It wasn't her fault, but it wasn't Rin's fault either that they both ended up sharing the same body in this lifetime. The fault was entirely his own because of his ignorance to see that even his allies could become his greatest enemies if provoked with the right encouragement. He was going to save Rin's life even if it killed him to do so, but he was also going to save Miho's as well. Sesshomaru was even beginning to feel bad about pursuing Miho in the first place. If he hadn't of shown up when he did, Miho would be living a full life instead of the life she was now experiencing.

Sesshomaru thought again. That wasn't true. If he had left Miho alone, she would still be living in a geisha house, training to become something that she wasn't. She would have been a slave until she died, so in a way, he saved her. But still…if Rin had not been made aware of herself in Miho's body, then both of them would have lived on in Miho for a much longer period of time, and then Rin could have been reincarnated into a body that only held her own soul.

Tamotsu brought him out of his thoughts when he cleared his throat. This action wasn't to garner his attention, but to bring Miho to the awareness that she had been caught staring without reserve upon Tamotsu's person. It was slightly amusing to see the woman shy away from their stares, but he never let himself show it. It just wasn't in his nature to allow others to see his emotions outside battles.

Miho apologized profusely until she was blue in the face, but the nude water demon insisted on laughing with every attempt until he himself was blue in the face. "Where are we exactly?" This was all she got out before she buried her tomato red face into her hands to get away from the spectacle.

"My Lady, my Lord, we are within one of my underground caverns. Fear not of the jagged rocks because the air pocket that I have sealed you in will not dissipate without my will of it." Tamotsu indicated toward an opening behind him which led into nothing but darkness. "Although there is no light, I am bioluminescent in nature when sunlight is scarce. This tunnel will lead us safely to the western lands. Come." It wasn't as though he meant for them to guide their own bubble since they had no way to steer the thing without bursting it and swimming, but he meant it as a reassurance that they would continue moving.

Miho did not unbury herself from her hands until what she knew to been moonlight peeking through her clenched fingers and told her that their short excursion through the tunnel was complete and they were beginning to resurface on the other side of their long voyage.

Author's Note: There now, that wasn't so bad.

Listen guys, someone has been on my case lately about a few of my stories that are not finished. One person even went so far as to demand that I finish one fanfiction in particular, and then proceeded to argue with me about why I couldn't do so just because they wanted me to. I am not a machine. I am a college student who has other obligations, first and foremost being my school work, and next being this fanfiction that you are reading now. My intention is to complete this story before I do anything else with my others because I started this one first and it deserves my attention first. I care about all of your opinions; I really do, but please don't complain that I am taking too much time in posting new chapters. Like you guys, I have a life outside the internet and I enjoy that life just as much as this one, so be patient. I love this story of mine just as much, maybe more than you guys will ever know, so don't assume I am pushing it to the side whenever I go through a spell where I don't post for a week or two. Odds are, I am working on it, but I'm also doing school work that is more important.

Anyway, sorry for this author's note. Not one of you here are guilty of this, but I felt it necessary for future fans who get a little carried away with impatience. Again, none of you are guilty of this and I adore you all!

OliviaAR