This will be my last chapter for a while, finals are coming up soon, and between that and sports I barely have time to piss, pardon my French. Sorry, I will be writing, just not at the same pace.
"What do you mean, the Rin? I'm just an ordinary girl."
"What are you talking about, 'ordinary'? From what I've heard, you're anything but."
Rin is unsure what to say. Obviously she is held in awe by this woman, but Rin has no idea how to handle her.
"What exactly have you heard about me?"
"Only that you travel with three demons, one of which is the son of the great Dog General. Supposedly he hates humans, but somehow you are his companion."
Rin is amazed that this woman, in this far-flung village, has heard about her or Sesshomaru-sama. Or that she knows who Sesshomaru-sama's father was. "I don't know what to say…" She feels dizzy, as though she has stood up too quickly.
*********Sesshomaru***********
Sesshomaru, the Aristocratic Assassin, the Killing Perfection, makes his way back to camp, only half paying attention to his surroundings. He is still distracted by memories of the young child he saved on that forest path.
He had only saved her because he wanted to test Tenseiga.
No, that wasn't right, not entirely. He had felt he had a small debt to her for staying by him as he healed from the loss of his arm. By all rights, she should have run away when she had seen him the first time, he had snarled at her after all. But she had stayed, and tried to help him 'get better', as she put it.
So he had saved her.
But afterward, instead of flying away, he had walked, allowing her to follow him.
He still isn't sure, all these days and years later, if he had felt pity because her village had been destroyed, or because he had been simply feeling a curious indulgence toward the girl.
He hears the imp, Jaken, squealing for him back at the clearing. He smells Rin's blood.
*****************************
Minora is still looking at her in absolute awe, and it's starting to make Rin uncomfortable. "Stop looking at me like that, I'm just like you. For Kami-sama's sake, you just explained to me what a period is!"
The miko still stares, though she seems a little less stunned than before.
Rin is getting desperate. "If you don't stop staring at me like I just fell out of the sky, I'm going to throw my tea at you."
That works.
Rin feels a little guilty about her threat, but it is nowhere near strong enough to wash away the relief she feels when Minora looks away.
Of course, the other woman's gaze immediately returns to Rin, but thankfully, there is no longer the worship that had been there before. Now Minora's expression seems more shrewd than anything.
Then it just gets awkward. They sit in absolute silence for a few minutes, until Minora finally says, "What's it like, traveling with three demons?"
Rin sat back on her heels, not expecting a question that is so thoughtful. Or rather, a question whose answer would make the other woman think. She expected a question more along the lines of, "So, how many people has he killed?" Rin is grateful that there are some people that are open to the idea that not all youkai are vicious killers.
"Would you like me to tell you my opinion or my experiences?"
"One moment." Minora fills the teakettle and puts it over the fire to steep. "Start at the beginning."
***********Minora************
She has only heard a few whispers of rumor about this girl, but already it feels as though they have been friends for years. It was probably the sex talk they had.
She is dying to know more about this woman's life. She has heard less pleasant things about Rin, but had dismissed most of them as gossip-inflated tales, but there are some that she is dying to know the truth about. The most polite way to get her questions answered seems to be to listen to Rin tell about her life and Minora could decide the truth about her without asking embarrassing questions.
Like if she and Sesshomaru were lovers.
*****************************
Rin starts at the beginning.
"I was young when I was orphaned, I wasn't older than six. I don't remember exactly. Bandits came to our house and burned it to the ground. They killed anyone who tried to escape. The only reason I survived was I was in the barn, getting some flour for our soup. By the time I heard the screams, it was too late, so I ran into the woods and hid for two days.
"I went back to find that they had not killed everyone who tried to escape. My mother and older sister had tried to run, but were caught before they could reach the trees. They had been beaten and raped, brutally." Rin closes her eyes; she has to stop, the memories are coming back too vividly for her to continue. She feels a hand on her back.
"You don't have to tell me if it's too painful for you."
Rin shakes her head. "I will answer your question, but you need to know this to understand."
Minora can see how much it is hurting Rin to tell her this, but the girl forges on, willing to bear the pain if only someone will understand.
"My older sister was still alive. Barely. I went to her, I tried to feed her some of the cheese that I had found hidden under the hay in our barn, but she refused it, saying, 'You keep it, you need it more than I.' She looked so relieved when she saw me, she was so happy that someone had survived. She even smiled, after everything she had gone through, she still smiled when she saw me. She died a few hours later, from a fever that I couldn't stop."
"I buried them as best I could, and I salvaged as much as I could from the ashes of our house and from the destroyed barn, and I walked to the village, half a day away. When I got to the village and told people what had happened, everyone started out immediately.
"But not to help."
"The villagers, people who had known my family for years, who had brought things to help when someone in my family was sick, those, people, looted what was left of the ruins, taking whatever they wanted; they didn't even light incense at the graves, or leave an offering of flowers for the spirits. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. When I tried to stop them, a man hit me with my father's hoe, saying, 'This belongs to us now.' He did not say it cruelly; he said it like a statement of fact, and that hurt more than the welt from the hoe. After they were gone there was nothing left and when I tried to follow, they chased me off."
Rin's expression hardens, "Since I was a girl," her voice drips venom, "no one wanted me. I lived by stealing and snatching from middens; if I was lucky someone would take pity on me and perhaps give me some rice or a vegetable that wasn't half rotten, but for the most part, the next years passed as a seemingly endless cycle of beatings, cold nights and hunger."
Her expression softens again. "I went into the woods by our village often to look for food, and one day, I ventured farther than I ever had before. The sun was going down, and I took a wrong turn. I was trying to find my way back when I came to a pocket in the woods that was too quiet. You couldn't even hear the leaves rustling. If I had known the woods better, I would have known to be scared, but I was curious. I searched. It was getting dark by the time I found him. He looked like a god, sleeping at the bottom of the tree. I could see he was seriously injured, his arm was missing, and I could see other spots of blood on his clothes. When I broke a twig, the noise woke him. His eyes were red, and he snarled at me, and it scared me, but I didn't want to run. He tried to stand, but he was in too much pain to get up, and had to stay where he was. I was scared out of my mind, but I wanted to help him too. When I walked up next to him, he looked at me as though expecting me to slay him on the spot. He couldn't have done much to stop me. He was too badly injured.
"He kept looking into my eyes, but the intensity was too much, and I ran home to the little abandoned shack that I had made my own. I didn't stay long though, just long enough to get some food for my 'god in the woods'. I made my way back to the clearing where he was, but when I offered him the fish, he said, 'I don't eat human food.' I left the food anyway, in case it was just his pride that said that.
"I came back the next day. I brought grain; in my logic, if he didn't eat human food, maybe he would eat that. He refused again, saying that he didn't eat human food. I decided that if he didn't eat, that was fine. He was the first person who didn't yell or throw things at me, and if he did not want to eat, maybe he could use some company. We didn't talk at all, but it was very nice to just sit with another person. As the day wore on, he got used to me sitting there, though he never seemed to relax. I only left twice, once to find lunch, and then to go home to sleep."
Rin stops when Minora gets up and pours them both some tea. When Minora sits down, Rin continues.
"That night, I tried to steal some fish from the netted area that the villagers had set up as a kind of fish preserve. That time I wasn't lucky and they saw me before I could hide. They beat me as they always did when they caught me stealing. It was over soon, I had had worse. As I walked back to my hut, I heard one of the men say, 'That girl's a strange one, she never cries.' One of the others replied, 'She's a mute, hasn't said a word since her parents died.'"
Minora is startled by the news. "You were mute?"
Rin nods. "I hadn't spoken since I told the villagers that my home had been attacked. There was no reason for me to talk; my family was dead, and everyone in the village had betrayed me."
"I went back into the forest, of course, there was nothing else for me to do. When he saw me, his face didn't change, but he seemed concerned, and asked me where I got the bruises. It was the first time someone had cared about me, it made me feel so happy, I smiled for the first time since the bandits. When he asked me why I was smiling it only made me happier, and I laughed. I could have danced on the clouds, I was so happy. A few hours later I went and picked him a flower. He looked at it, confused, but he took it anyway. I promised myself that I would bring him a flower every day, to show him how happy I was." Rin pauses, once again lost in memory.
"The next day, I got up early so I would have time to get something to eat before I went back. When I got back to my hut, though, I found someone already there. There was an ugly old youkai drinking out of my water jar, and he gave me a bad feeling. I heard a commotion in the village, like all the dogs had been let loose. The youkai cursed and ran out of my hut and tried to swim across the river, but he didn't get far; some large wolves dragged him back to shore. A scary, younger demon with a wolf tail grabbed him by the hair and said something. The other youkai handed over something purple and shiny, then asked for his freedom; he was slaughtered on the spot. I heard him say to let 'them' eat their fill, and screams started to rise from the village. Wolf youkai were attacking the only home I knew. I tried to run to the one in the woods, but I didn't make it. The wolves caught me before I got there, and I died on the path, not fifty yards from the clearing where he was."
Minora couldn't hold her tongue anymore, "You died?!"
"Wait, I'm not finished, obviously." She looked at herself with a wryly.
"The next thing I remember, I opened my eyes to see his face."
