Tenseiga's Keeper

She wouldn't let go.

Even though the weight and length of the sword made it hard for her to move, and the tip of it was dragging along the ground now, she wouldn't let go. The demon Toutousai had given it to her to keep safe until Sesshoumaru was ready to carry it on his own again.

Looking towards Sesshoumaru, she grimaced and looked back to the ground again. He had been very mad. Not at her specifically, but at the world and everything in it in a general sense. Mad at Tenseiga, mad at his father, mad at Naraku, mad at Inuyasha for taking something that he had worked so hard and had lost nearly everything to receive.

Most of all though, Rin thought that he was mad at himself.

Two days after Tenseiga was given to her to protect, she had tried to give it back, and it was the first time she had ever truly ended up being scared of Sesshoumaru. He had not tried to hurt her physically, but he made up for that by throwing hurtful words in her direction, and by making his eyes bleed red and his teeth lengthen into fangs.

After that she decided it would definitely be best in her interest in staying alive if she waited until Sesshoumaru asked for his sword back. If he ever asked for it back.

Kohaku followed along with them, sometimes staying near her when she lagged too far behind, sometimes beside Jaken right behind Sesshoumaru, sometimes riding on Ah-Un when he got too tired. She was glad that the boy was there to keep her company. Since Sesshoumaru had learned the truth of his sword, there had been no time for anything but the Inu youkai's almost obsessive search for more information on the making of Tenseiga.

Nothing Sesshoumaru had heard so far had made him any happier. If anything, he got angrier.

Now this. Tenseiga had gone back to only being able to heal, the Meidou going to Inuyasha. Sesshoumaru had discarded the sword like as if it was a useless piece of scrap metal.

It was Tenseiga that had made her stay with Sesshoumaru, to finally feel happiness in her life again after her family's death at the hands of bandits. It had given her life after she was cut down by wolves. Tenseiga had given her a new family.

Sighing, she looked back up again, in time to see Sesshoumaru look away from her and face the road ahead of them again. Rin entertained the thought that perhaps he wasn't looking at her, but the sword she was carrying. Maybe now he would take it back?

She began walking just a bit faster, but slowed back down again when Sesshoumaru had just fastened his own pace. This upset Rin greatly. While keeping the sword safe, Sesshoumaru wouldn't approach any closer to her than this.

Did he hate it that much?

A week had now passed since Tenseiga had fallen fully formed and in its original state from the Meidou, a week since she had been carrying it instead of her lord. At first over her shoulders, but now along the ground as it was getting heavier.

Each night, she slept curled around the sword, her hands clutching at the hilt, her knees and ankles gripping the blade itself, knowing it wouldn't cut her. So, as they stopped for nightly rest, she curled herself around the sword once again and closed her eyes, shifting slightly on the hard ground.

It was a surprise this night to be woken up by a hand on her cheek, claws gently shifting through her hair in a way that she had felt only once before. That time she had been brought back from Hell itself. Sesshoumaru had done everything to save her, including willingly going in to Hell to retrieve her body and bring it back to the mortal plane.

"Sesshoumaru-sama?" she asked, as she sleepily blinked open her eyes, only to see that he was kneeling beside her on the ground.

"Rin," was all he said to her in reply, before he began to gently run his fingers through her hair like her mother used to do.

They stayed in silence for quite a while, before Rin found herself once again falling into sleep. It was when she was in that place between wakefulness and dreaming that she heard him speak again, and she immediately woke up again.

"I didn't mean what I said."

The words had been whispered but the night around them was so quiet that they seemed to have magically floated to her ears. She turned her head to him, and smiled widely. "I know. Sometimes people say mean things when they are angry."

Shifting slightly again, she let go of the hilt of the sword and begun to untangle her legs from around it, but a hand on her legs stopped her. "No."

"You don't want Tenseiga back?"

"No."

She blinked, before wrapping her arms around it again, just in case he tried to take it from her and discard of it sometime after she fell asleep again. "Do…do you hate it that much?"

"…no, I do not hate Tenseiga."

The entirety of the past few weeks had been one confused thing happening after another, and this conversation was soon becoming another of those things to put onto that list. "Then why don't you want it back?"

Sesshoumaru was quiet for a long time, and she almost thought he wasn't going to answer and keep his silence when he spoke. "I do want it back. I don't want what it represents for me now."

Rin nodded and smiled. She didn't really understand what he meant. All she knew is that since finding out about Tenseiga, his mood had been dark. Maybe it wasn't the sword itself, but how it had ended up in his possession, and why it had become his.

"Rin will keep Tenseiga safe for Sesshoumaru-sama until he wants it back," she said, giving in to her sudden need to comfort, by touching his hand lightly with her own.

Golden eyes closed for a second, before opening again to look down at her. "Do as you will, Rin."

Nodding brightly, she lowered herself fully back to the ground and closed her eyes. She felt as her Lord got up and walked back to the place he had been keeping watch over them for the night.

Before slipping off to sleep for the remainder of the night, she tightened her grip on the sword.

Yes, no matter what, she would keep it safe until Sesshoumaru was willing to take it back again.

She wouldn't let go.