She watched Oyakata-sama sigh wearily as he looked at a vague spot at the back of the tent, looking much older than he actually appeared... although she had no idea how long a youkai lived. His shoulders slumped slightly, he lowered his head as if he had a great weight on his back. Rin watched him still astonished, her mind trying to understand how so much tragedy had happened in a matter of seconds. She had even forgotten her good manners, the sight of that gentle and unique Hime-sama still fresh in her memory.
"There is something I want to talk with you about," Touga-sama began with his somewhat hoarse, defeated voice caught in his throat. She heard him let out a huff from his throat, clearing it, turning his attention back to the bloody, mud-smeared girl sitting on the small meeting table. Her hazel-colored eyes rose to the Shogun's face, still processing everything that had happened in the last few hours, from Inari-sama to the deaths of Izayoi-sama and Okama-san. "Do not leave this tent until I order you to. A doctor will come here, tend to your injuries and help you feed yourself. A bath will be prepared and the herbs that will be given to you must be used every day on your skin. We will have to take care of your comfort woman smell, forgive me if I am not very polite. Then we will return to the castle. The journey will be long, Rin-chan, and when we get there I am afraid to say that your life will not be easy, though infinitely better than the one you are leading."
Listening quietly, as if her tongue were hiding in the depths of her throat, Rin just nodded obediently. Until a few hours ago she had found herself completely lost and naked in a lake, chased by a Yakitori. Soon after, she had met the most beautiful woman in the whole world, the kindest, the only person who had ever reached out to her. Her head was dizzy after so many events, lost about what Oyakata-sama expected her to do now that Izayoi-sama had passed away. How could she help them since one of them was in another world?!
Seeming to know what was going through the girl's mind, Touga-sama stared steadily at her. His eyes displayed a firm, determined gleam, difficult to maintain contact for any length of time without Rin feeling that she was challenging the Shogun's authority. She lowered her gaze to her fingers, soiled with mud and blood, covered in soot. Part of her fingernails had broken off, accumulating dirt on the ones that remained.
"Izayoi made me promise on her deathbed that I would not leave her alone in this world," he revealed quietly, his voice unsteady as he uttered the late Hime-sama's name, something she had yet to fully digest. Touga-sama knelt before Rin, still seated on the small meeting table in the tent, now staring at her at the same height as her hazel-colored eyes met. "When we were at the teahouse, Izayoi remarked to me that she felt something very good coming from you, that she had a rather happy intuition about your presence."
The girl felt her throat dry up, becoming a barren wasteland from one minute to the next. "How could a woman like Hime-sama see anything in me?" she wondered internally, biting her bloody lip as she plunged into the confusion of her feelings.
"Hime-sama might be...," she began slowly, her voice choked. "...mistaken. I am not a good person, Oyakata-sama. I steal food, I cheat people. Hime-sama must have been confused in her last moments. I am not worthy."
But Touga-sama shook his head firmly, propping his own elbow on his knee while still staring at the young woman sitting in front of him. His equally dirty and bloody haori stained the tatami inside the tent by having its filth turned to liquid because of the blood, although he had paid zero attention to that detail.
"Izayoi was never wrong in her intuitions," he stated gently, even though his eyes were swollen and his embittered voice sank into his throat. "If there is one thing I trust fully, with my eyes closed, it is in the purity of the heart of the love of my life. Don't worry about the future, I'll take care of it. I will arrange the best conditions I can for you to have a peaceful life, away from despair, from hunger, from violence."
Her almond eyes filled with tears, blurring her vision entirely, turning Oyakata-sama into a large blob of tanned skin and silver hair tied up in a high ponytail covered in soot from the teahouse fire. Hot tears overflowed, sliding down her bony cheeks until they wet her already ruined kimono.
"Oyakata-sama is kind and good," she murmured softly, her voice coming out anasaly from the crying that was announcing itself in her throat, squeezing it as if someone had strangled her. "I promise I will be useful to Oyakata-sama. Useful and loyal, like a dog."
Touga-sama nodded, with the shadow of a faint smile on his lips.
"I hope so, Rin-chan," he spoke at last, rising from the tatami and straightening his haori and hakama around his body, completely miserable in his appearance. The shadow of a smile quickly disappeared, and once again the young woman saw him staring at the back of the tent with a lost look.
Intrigued, and dangerously curious about what he was so focused on with his sad amber gaze, the young woman decided to look behind her shoulder to understand that youkai who offered her the unique opportunity of a decent life for herself, away from there and all the people who put her life at risk. Initially she had seen nothing much, just a hollow wooden screen with geometric patterns separating the tent into two spaces, one for meals and meetings and the other with a desk on a tatami with a pillow resting in front of it. The almond eyes, after understanding that it was a place for study, personal, for reading documents or whatever important youkais like the Shogun did, noticed a silvery glow amidst the darkness of the early morning.
The tent was lit by an internal fire, probably to keep the space warm during colder nights. The glow of the flames made Touga-sama's shadow on the tent walls much larger than his body, creating an illusion of power quite appropriate for his position. However, when Rin directed her hazel-colored eyes at that particular corner of the desk, a shadow moved behind the geometrically patterned screen. A silvery glow resembling Touga-sama's hair flickered in the orange glow of the flames, moving in accordance with the rising shadow. The sound of something being placed in a drawer reached her ears, and then the shadow rose, revealing itself to be even taller than the stature of the Shogun, who was still watching it.
Rin blinked her almond eyes, wiping the tears on her cheeks, enveloped in that mesmerizing play of shadows and light. As the figure stepped out from behind the screen, it revealed a white haori and hakama ensemble with reddish geometric patterns at the ends, coming in complete contrast to the long silver hair braided over his left shoulder. The soft fabric of his robes fell across his shoulders loosely, draping as he moved, showing off part of his defined chest on his fair skin. Rin watched him with admiring eyes, raising her gaze to his serious and composed countenance. As the man's figure approached the light, coming out from behind the screen, she realized that they were probably related. The same amber eyes as the Shogun's, but harder, more resistant, more serious and, above all, impenetrable. As much as they had similar characteristics, the way each one's personality carried them made for a complete dissociation of their appearances. The youkai markings on his jaw and chest were of different purple hues, thin and sharp on his pale skin, contrasting with a waning moon of a lighter shade on his forehead.
Just like the Taisho emblem and the white dogs printed on the large carpet hanging inside the tent. A not-so-lucid idea flashed through her mind, and she understood that those two youkais were, in fact, the big beasts on that carpet.
Something shone before the flames at the end of the youkai's long fingers, capturing Rin's attention immediately, landing her curious and impressed eyes on the long, sharp claws of his large hands. And just like everyone else there, his hakama was joined by two katanas in different hand grip.
However, there was a difference. No one seemed as dangerous and threatening as that youkai who silently stomped his bare feet on the tatami, walking toward Touga-sama with his eyes fixed steadily on him.
She swallowed hard. He was ignoring her, although this was not a new feeling in her life. Perhaps it was even the norm in her limited experience.
"Father and son," she thought in awe, turning her attention back to Touga-sama, staring at the other youkai seriously.
He looked very different from the Shogun she had encountered earlier today. He seemed to have aged years and years in just a few hours, his wrinkles around his mouth and in the corners of his eyes sinking in with the help of the play of light and shadow from the flames inside the place.
The energy of the tent transformed around her, causing her to look down at her own bloodstained hands and a mud now drying around the skin of her fingers, irritating it slightly. If that imposing and serious youkai is really related to Touga-sama, maybe he wasn't so worried about Hime-sama. "She said no one would accept their relationship, right?" the girl recalled, wary of the tension that had settled in that place.
"Aren't you going to take revenge?", the cold, reserved voice of the long silver-haired youkai, whom she didn't even know the name of, echoed through the silent tent. He frowned, crossing his arms, making the fabric of his summer haori slide down his defined chest, discreetly displaying it as the material draped around him. "Fushizu killed her right under her nose."
A vein in Oyakata-sama's forehead stood out from the rest, enraged.
"And when I kill him, how will I justify my actions?" asked Touga-sama with a tone of voice so far unknown to the girl, filled with sorrow and, surprisingly, helplessness. That's why it sounded so heavy, full of unresolved emotions.
"The Shogun doesn't have to explain himself," stated the mysterious, menacing youkai, firmly.
"The Shogun doesn't have to explain himself, but he would attract enemies right after an important alliance to unify Japan," Oyakata-sama corrected, taking a deep breath afterwards as if he was fighting a battle in his emotions. "Is that what you want, Sesshoumaru? Another war? More destruction and death? I need time to work out a trap without having to destroy these lands or kill innocent people.
"Sesshoumaru... That's his name," thought Rin spying the youkai's figure for milliseconds before bowing her head once more in a deep sign of respect. If they talked with such intimacy, besides having similar characteristics, it only indicated that besides being his son, Sesshoumaru was part of the Shogun's highest hierarchy.
And she was listening to everything, lost in the midst of chaos. All she wanted at the beginning of that night was to fill her stomach with hot food and find a safe place to sleep. She found herself caught up in a plot so complicated that she suspected she wouldn't even understand it if they sat down with her to explain it... which she doubted.
"If the love of my life, as the Shogun said earlier, had been murdered before my eyes...," Sesshoumaru-sama began seriously, with a grave tone of voice that could easily be mistaken as if he were questioning the authority he was speaking to. "...there wouldn't be a tree left standing on this land."
Touga-sama sighed wearily, running a dirty hand through his hair, which was tied up in a messy ponytail.
"For this reason I appreciate your absence of feelings of the sort," the Shogun commented, shaking his head in clear disapproval. "It won't be today, and it won't be tomorrow, but I will have my revenge. When I have him in my hands, he will wish for death... which will not come. Do not doubt the intensity of my feelings, it is not because I rationalize them that they do not exist. Fushizu will have to face the inevitability of my fury."
Rin swallowed hard, surprised at the intensity of the words that came out of the mouth of the youkai who was so friendly and kind to her. A shiver ran up her back, making her squirm slightly, but enough for both youkais to set their intense amber eyes on her small, bony figure sitting at the conference table. She lowered her eyes so quickly that she didn't even see how they reacted to remembering her presence inside the tent.
But she felt the weight of the amber orbs on herself without peeking at them, shrinking unconsciously afterwards.
"Don't be afraid of me, Rin-chan," Touga-sama asked kindly and friendly, his voice already sounding quite different than it had a few seconds ago. Slowly raising her gaze to him, she noticed that the Shogun had leaned his body on his knee again, looking at her with a peaceful but tired countenance.
Slowly nodding, still looking suspicious at this completely unexpected situation, she noticed that the shadow of a smile was again appearing on the Shogun's lips. Touga-sama had startled her a bit while talking to the mysterious Sesshoumaru-sama, and not even her own body could disguise it.
"Youkais have keen senses," she recalled a conversation she once overheard on one of her nights in the city. "They sniff the air, listen to heartbeats, and even possess unexpected intuitions that make them make the best decisions," according to what she had heard from the mouth of one of the prostitutes in an official brothel. She walked by, displaying her contempt for a comfort woman, along with other companions from the same place she worked.
"This is my heir and only son, Taishou Sesshoumaru," Touga-sama continued amiably, giving the impression that she was one of the suspicious foxes that she used to encounter around the forest when she went to the hot spring lake. "Sesshoumaru is guarding the forests around the castle of Fushizu-san, the Daimyo of these lands, while I am in his castle. This is your first lesson here, don't disobey him. He will know how and when to act while I am away."
"What did Inari-sama want me to do?" she thought in distress. Was she supposed to save Izayoi-sama? There was no sense in sending her to the teahouse just to watch her die, right?!
Rin blinked her eyes still absorbing Touga-sama's words, turning her attention instinctively to the Shogun's heir in front of her, who was staring at her with a raised eyebrow. Still with his arms crossed, Sesshoumaru rested his gaze on the small, bony figure sitting at the conference table, quickly analyzing him from head to toe. He, in fact, did not look as friendly and kind as his father, ignoring her presence soon after as he directed his golden eyes to the Shogun once more.
"What about this human?" he asked Shogun, who stood up once more on the tatami, turning his body towards his heir.
"Her name is Rin, but that you can be a good host yourself and ask," Touga-sama complained, sighing then running his long claws through his messy ponytail, soiling it with blood and dirt, the already dry mud falling like dust on the tatami. "I need to get back to the castle. In two days we'll be heading back to Edo."
Sesshoumaru-sama frowned once more, looking at his father as if he were completely out of his normal state of sanity. Rin noticed how that movement accentuated the youkai's outlined jaw, and as she watched him intrigued, the amber-colored orbs stared at her unexpectedly as if they were reproaching her. Not knowing what to do, she lowered her gaze once more.
"A human in the castle in Edo?" asked Sesshoumaru-sama, incredulous at what he had heard, his eyes now resting on the Shogun, who nodded firmly immediately afterwards. "Besides, a woman of consolation."
"Don't judge her for a choice that never depended on her," Touga-sama scolded, which made Rin look at him with eyes twinkling in admiration. Never in her entire life had anyone protected her from others' judgment like that, so obviously her eyes filled with tears, attracting the Shogun's attention. "There's no need to cry, Rin-chan. Sesshoumaru will not harm you."
"I'm not judging you, it's not my place to pass judgment on the living conditions of humans," Sesshoumaru-sama defended himself, shaking his head slightly, still with a serene and serious tone of voice, completely steady. "I am puzzled as to how you want to keep a human with this background in Edo, in the castle, safe and sound."
The Shogun looked at his own heir for a few seconds.
"There is a way to make that happen," Touga-sama began thoughtfully, taking a deep breath. "Rin-chan will bathe with herbs at least five times a day until we get there, so the smell of so many men will go away."
Five times a day.
She grimaced unconsciously, wondering if the smell of a comfort woman was that easy to tell apart like that. "Do I stink so much?" she wondered, shocked, and now embarrassed, feeling her cheeks heat up.
"Workaroundable, but as far as I know, she will remain human," countered Sesshoumaru-sama, who paused for a few moments and clenched his gaze toward his father, "Unless you're thinking of making her a blood bag."
"Blood bag?" she repeated internally, confused by the term. It was completely unfamiliar.
"It's temporary," Touga-sama warned quickly, noticing the puzzled look the girl had cast him. "Blood bag is an informal term for humans who provide services to the castle, Rin-chan. Many of the youkais use human blood as an appetizer, like sake, and the humans who are chosen are given youkai protection."
Before Rin could formulate any thoughts, Sesshoumaru-sama's sharp tongue snapped like a whip in the air. His tensed jaw stood out on his countenance, drawing the girl's gaze over his outline.
"Will the Shogun then surrender to the pleasures of the youkai court?" asked Touga-sama's heir, clearly in a defiant, teasing tone of voice. Rin was beginning to understand that the dynamic of the two was not exactly what could be called smooth. "I thought you made a vow against this kind of pleasure, Chichiue."
"I did, Sesshoumaru," he replied, unmoved by the teasing, raising his jaw slightly as he faced his only son. "But you didn't."
It was as if the Shogun's heir had been punched in the face, as she watched the youkai's countenance close as Oyakata-sama finished speaking, his gaze as sharp as the katanas at his belt. Realizing that nothing more would be said, Rin noticed that Touga-sama turned to her with a sideways smile, his gentle eyes peering down at her.
"No one will hurt you, you have my word as Shogun," he promised quickly, causing the girl to crack a grateful smile, not knowing how to express herself in words, feeling difficulty speaking in front of two highly intimidating figures. She was afraid that after any comment she made, they would simply realize how stupid they were taking her in and thus send her away. The fear of having nowhere else to go became much greater than everything else, and only she herself could understand this. "I will clean myself up and change my robes to return to Fushizu Castle. Stay close to Sesshoumaru and nothing bad will happen, Rin-chan. I'll be back in two days so we can head to Edo."
Rin nodded, watching the Shogun cast a long warning glance at his son before turning, turning his back on the two of them, and exiting the luxurious tent quickly. She analyzed the Shogun's figure on her back for a few seconds before it disappeared completely, feeling a sort of dread grow within her as she became aware that only she and Sesshoumaru-sama had remained inside the tent.
Perhaps this is why she avoided looking at him, fixing all her attention on the tatami, ducking her head so that the youkai would not find any reason to tease or belittle her, just as people used to do when they discovered she was a comfort woman. The bare feet of Touga-sama's heir were still in the same place, motionless, and finally she heard him breathing deeply quietly.
Rin swallowed hard.
"Human," he called unexpectedly, which made her raise her gaze to that mysterious and dangerous youkai with long silver hair in a long baggy braid falling down his left shoulder. His serious and closed countenance reflected a completely different personality from Touga-sama, which intimidated her. "You saw my father's human die?"
Rin blinked, surprised by the question, then shook her head. Sesshoumaru-sama was thoughtful, closing his eyes as if he was thinking something over.
"Give me details," he ordered, arching his eyebrows. Her heart began to beat fast at the prospect of having to use her voice with him. Her throat seemed to tighten into a knot that was complicated to undo, a cake that left her mute. "Don't tell me that in addition to being stupid enough to agree to live in Edo, you're also a mute."
She bit her lower lip, feeling tears welling up quickly in her eyes, causing the image of Sesshoumaru-sama to blur before her. She shook her head once more, watched by the youkai.
"Hime-sama...," she began slowly, her voice choked with a cry that came unanticipated, simply the tears sliding down her cheeks freely. She wiped them away with the back of her hands, trying to concentrate on building up the muscles in her throat in an attempt at coherent speech. "...was attacked by some Kunai, as was I, while we were talking on the teahouse veranda. I would have died had Oyakata-sama not appeared in the forest. I owe my life to Oyakata-sama."
The penetrating amber eyes made his legs tremble.
"But you didn't see her body?" insisted Sesshoumaru-sama, apparently interested. Rin shook her head immediately, not wanting to hear another scolding coming from the youkai's son who saved, and promised, her life. "Don't mourn her death yet. My father would never let that human die without going all the way to hell to get her soul."
Her eyes widened in amazement.
"Sesshoumaru-sama thinks Hime-sama is alive?" asked Rin at once, not caring so much about the intimidating energy the Shogun's heir emitted at the thought of the possibility that Izayoi-sama, the gentle soul who reached out to her, might be alive.
He shrugged almost imperceptibly, his golden eyes fixed on where his father had been a few minutes before.
"Perhaps," he replied monosyllabically, turning his back to the young woman still sitting on the meeting table, walking quietly over to the geometric patterned screen and lighting a candle on his desk, remaining silent from this.
She still analyzed the figure of the long silver-haired youkai returning to examine some loose papers freshly removed from a drawer of the study desk, concentrating. "He ignores me now," she thought. Better to be ignored than mistreated, as she always thought as she left her cabin each morning. She set her attention on the tent entrance, remembering that Oyakata-sama had mentioned that a doctor would show up in a few minutes to treat her injury.
Said and done.
A few minutes after her short conversation with Sesshoumaru-sama, a short man appeared in the tent accompanied by two youkai soldiers dressed in samurai armor with the Shogun's emblem, the waning moon. Rin noticed that the doctor, as he opened his instrument case before her, was not so unfamiliar to her. Her fingers trembled as she pulled out her working instruments, placing the wound-cleaning gauzes on the small table she sat at, having sweat on her forehead dripping freely down her tanned skin.
Then, realizing that the man, a human, had not introduced himself, much less made a polite courtesy to Rin, she remembered why his figure was so familiar to her. The beetle eyes, black and tight, sunk into a round face as if he had been punched as a child.
She arched her eyebrows, amazed.
"Ide-san, the doctor who visits the villages around the city," she remembered in a snap of her fingers. He had been to her village many times, refusing to attend to her every time Rin sought help. Once every moon cycle he could be seen with Ikejiri-san in front of the only temple in the place, talking about the latest news coming from the city and its surroundings. Every time he had tried to approach, he had been slapped in the face. She still remembered the beetle eyes staring at her with the tip of her nose rising up in a clear display of superiority.
Her heart raced in a beat, watching as the man worked in silence kneeling on the tatami in front of her. Silk gauze was being used over her injury, now exposed after the fabric of Oyakata-sama's robes had been removed by the doctor with his uncertain and trembling fingers. His beetle eyes rose slightly to spy on her, yet when he noticed her doing the same, he immediately turned them away.
"Ide-san is afraid," she concluded internally. The two youkais in samurai armor remained silent, analyzing the human doctor's work as he removed mud and dried blood with the help of tissues and medicinal solutions from the wound made by the Kunai on his thigh. The doctor's narrow shoulders bowed even more, materializing the pressure he felt.
If Ide-san was afraid of them, that was exactly where Rin should be, no matter how stupid Sesshoumaru-sama thought the decision of a human joining them in Edo was. She still didn't know what this blood bag situation was all about, but at the end of it all, after going through all kinds of humiliation and violence, did it really matter?
She'd have protection and help. Someone cared about her, regardless of her motivation.
It was much more than she ever asked Inari-sama in her nights of despair.
When Ide-san left the tent, the first rays of sunlight brightened the horizon in various shades of blue, until they reached a faint shade of orange, streaming through the treetops of the forest and reflecting off the surface of the lake. The mornings became cooler as each day passed, indicating that the end of summer was imminent in the coming days. The nights became slightly longer, and the days shorter, until they reached their peak in the middle of winter. It would be the first time in her life that Rin would not worry and tear her hair out in despair wondering how she would survive the freezing temperatures and the lack of food, shelter and help.
A shy smile broke out on her lips, analyzing the work done by the doctor on the wound opened by the Kunai. It was good work, even if he feigned ignorance amidst the terror he felt at finding himself surrounded by youkais. She touched the seam on her skin, still feeling a certain burning sensation from the herbal medicine placed there, and prescribed by the man on a sheet of paper deposited beside her. There was no point in giving it to her, since she didn't even possess the ability to read well enough.
The first rays of sunlight reached the tent timidly, shedding light on parts of the interior of the place she had not yet had a chance to notice. A few spears were resting against a wooden stand, as was some extremely well cared-for armor, full of details on shiny metal. The sun was illuminating it directly, echoing the rest of the brightness throughout the room. It was a beautiful scene, when the influence of the metal reflected the light, creating a lost rainbow, without rain.
Before she knew it, Sesshoumaru-sama was already standing beside her, holding the yellowish piece of paper the doctor had left with the instructions and prescriptions for the medicines she would have to make and use. He looked at it quickly, reading everything, then arched his eyebrows and threw the paper into the crackling flames in the center of the tent.
"Sesshoumaru-sama...," she began, feeling the color leave her cheeks quickly, watching the flames reduce the thin yellowish paper to ashes in a matter of seconds. "...But...the doctor..."
With his back to her and still staring into the flames, the sun's rays reached the long silver strands of the Shogun's son, glistening as well as the material of the armor on display. The sound of the wood burning and crackling strengthened mysteriously for milliseconds, returning to normal soon after.
"The Shogun applied his own blood to your wound," he explained calmly, finally turning his back to the girl, but this time instead of retiring to the desk behind the geometric patterned screen, Sesshoumaru-sama positioned himself in front of the armor glistening in the sunrise. "It will heal later today."
Sesshoumaru-sama undid the long loose braid made of his long silver strands, leaving them free, making all the young woman's attention focus on his mesmerizing silver glow dancing in the morning breeze. He removed parts of the armor, quickly dressing himself, his long fingers deftly at each loop, his golden eyes focused. Finally, all that was left was the top of the armor that protected his head, with the black lacquered mask underneath to protect his face, especially his nose, mouth, and jaw. He tied his long silver timbers with a bow, leaving it as a ponytail similar to his father's, and fitted the rest of the armor and the lacquered mask, leaving her alone inside the tent in a matter of seconds.
She had blinked and he was gone, unlike a soldier who appeared in the tent shortly afterwards carrying several buckets of boiling water probably from the hot springs at the lake in front of the camp. A smile played on Rin's lips as he bowed briefly to see her awake, and she nodded to let the youkai soldier get on with what he was planning. She watched him pour water into a decorated metal basin not too big or too deep, but deep enough for a girl like her to wash herself.
As she soon realized, the cleansing herbs that Oyakata-sama had mentioned had already been prepared along with the water. It had been a long time since she had bathed in a protected environment, and even longer since she had last felt that warmth in her heart. The warmth of having someone watching over her, caring for her. In fact it was what had provoked that simple movement on her contented lips the most.
Someone cares for her well-being.