Crimson
Ahknee/Kitteen
A/N: Anyway. VOTE IN THE POLL IN MY PROFILE. I dunno where I'll head after I manage to finish this story, which should be relatively quickly once I'm done with the revision. I mean, look at how fast it's moved already compared to the old versions xD So I'd love to know the fan opinions on who I should focus a story on next.
.:Chapter 3: Analyze This:.
Somehow, Rei had been invited by Rin to join her group for lunch. She was not about to complain, although the trek back to camp was relatively awkward, due to Jaken leading the front, nursing an injured back and a bruised head as he grumbled audibly to himself. Rin was merely ignoring him, chattering away like nothing was wrong.
Rei was not ashamed to admit that she'd promptly punched and then kicked Jaken right into a tree after he'd called her a wench. In fact, Rin found it hilarious, and had doubled over laughing at the imp's injury.
As they walked, Rei half listened to Rin, who babbled on about random things and jumped from topic to topic as if flow had never occurred to her. Rei was more concerned about this lord she was about to meet; he must be kind if he had taken Rin under his wing, but one could never tell. And was he a demon? Jaken didn't seem the type to serve under a human ... A part of her was hoping he'd be somewhat handsome. As childish as it was, that part of her had never really gone away.
Minutes later, they cleared the trees, stepping into a small clearing, just big enough to set up camp. Rei's eyes immediately did an eager scan of the area, only to find no other soul occupying the empty space. It was almost disappointing. Well, she could wait.
--
When Rei had said she could wait, it didn't mean she had expected to be left sitting around waiting until nightfall.
The fire to cook the evening meal was ablaze already, and Rei was occupying herself by playing some games with Rin, easily ignoring the scathing looks Jaken was sending her way. He was probably still sore about that whole 'you-just-got-owned-by-a-chick' tree thing earlier, which she was making a note to repeat at a later date, especially if he dared to call her anymore names.
"Lady Rei, teach me a new game!" Rin bounced in her spot.
"Just call me Rei," she replied. "I don't like being called Lady Rei."
She'd never admit it, but she really did – it just sounded slightly odd, once she really thought about it.
"Fine, fine! Just teach me a new game, pleaseee?" Cue puppy dog eyes.
"Okay Rin," Rei said, holding out her hands, palms facing Rin. "Put your hands like mine."
Teaching her some hand games would give the girl some coordination, which Rei figured wouldn't be at all a bad thing, especially when it came to a world filled with demons.
"What now?" Rin asked.
"Keep your hands like that, and I'll show you what you need to do with mine, alright?"
"'Kay!" she beamed up at Rei, who proceeded to go through the motions with her hands. By the time she was done, Rin looked slightly dizzy.
"... are you all right?" Rei asked.
"Um ..." Rin seemed to snap back to earth, suddenly regaining that grin of hers. "I got lost."
Rei's head fell and she sighed, unable to reprimand the kid because ... well, quite frankly, she knew that would happen.
"Maybe we should try something else," she sighed again, shaking her head.
"Okay!" Rin cheered. "... after dinner, right? I'm really hungry, and we can eat now."
"Huh?" Rei turned to face the campfire, and almost had a heart attack at the new presence that was standing idly at the clearing's edge. 'W-what?!'
"Lord Sesshoumaru!" Rin had gotten to her feet sometime during Rei's shock and bounded over the the figure, suddenly latching onto him in her own mini-glomp. "Welcome back!"
Rei couldn't help but stare. That was a male? He looked ... girly (not that this wasn't something she'd gotten used to by now – gender confusion was more than common in her life). And what's more, he was really, really pretty.
... and he was a demon. A powerful one, at that. How Rei hadn't detected him entering the area was far beyond her knowledge; she should've picked up on his aura way before he even got within a few yards of the clearing.
She knew he was silently evaluating her, and his topaz eyes seemed to harden at the sight of her. If she didn't know any better, she'd say his nose scrunched up a little in disdain.
'What a snot,' she mentally snarled, quickly breaking the moment and turning away from him so she could stand up and dust her outfit off.
"Lord Sesshoumaru, I found a friend," Rin grinned up at the intimidating figure, completely unphased. Rei wondered how she did it. "Isn't Rei pretty?"
Rei's face flushed. She was thankful she had turned away from the group again. It was her sincere hope that he wouldn't acknowledge that question.
Turning around, she faced Sesshoumaru.
"Um ..." Under that piercing gaze, how was she supposed to properly introduce herself? She gathered her wits together.
"My name is Rei," she bowed deeply at the waist, pausing for a brief second before standing back up straight. "It's a ... pleasure to meet you, Lord Sesshoumaru."
Even if her grandpa was a pervert, he was good for one thing, and that was teaching her the old customs of formalities among the Japanese. She was happy he's engraved them into her head over the years.
Instead of replying, Sesshoumaru merely walked off to the other side of the clearing, elegantly taking a seat against a tree.
'... manwhore,' Rei hid a frown. His gaze turned to her, as if knowing what she was thinking. She quickly hid her discomfort, instead opting to take a seat next to Rin, by the fire.
"Here Rei!" Rin thrust a stick at her with a fish stuck on it. She stared at it dumbly for a moment before grabbing it from Rin's hand gently.
Great. Fish on a stick. Could this get any more primitive?
--
Everyone looked asleep as far as Rei could tell. In fact, she knew that almost the whole group was down and out for the count – Jaken was practically snoring (a terrible sound, she would admit, that could rival Usagi's in volume), and Rin was curled up on her side, her breathing slow, soft, and even.
The only one Rei couldn't be certain of would be Sesshoumaru, but she wasn't about to walk up to the guy and start prodding him to see if he was. She did not have a death wish at the moment, and much preferred to have all of her limbs in tact.
She shuddered at the thought. His very being just radiated cold-blooded killer. She had already made a note to stay on his good side – or whatever side it was that prevented one from getting diced to pieces by him. As hard-headed and stubborn as she could be, Rei knew when to back down and let the dominance go to someone else, even if it was to some pig-headed ignoramus man. She would forgive herself a bit easier if she knew it would save her neck.
Sesshoumaru, Rei admitted, was an interesting character. He seemed to absolutely despise her, so she figured that, him being a demon, he hated humans, but when Rin would run up to him and latch onto him like a human leech, he didn't seem to care in the least – in fact, it seemed to make him a bit (dare she say it?) happier. He was a walking hypocrisy, and she was curious as to why he allowed Rin to tag along with him like she did. Was there something Rei was missing? Was there a blatant link between the two that she was ignorant of? She didn't know what could possibly be going through that man's head to allow something like this.
Her eyes floated back over to Jaken. Oh, Sesshoumaru had to hate humans, if Jaken was any indication – servants often took up the ideas of their masters, and with the way Jaken acted over Rin and herself, she was very certain of this conclusion.
So what made this all happen?
Rei could feel a headache coming on. She needed to stop over-thinking this whole matter. It wasn't like it was much of her business, anyway; whatever happened was probably far in the past, and she probably wouldn't be able to worm it out of any of the group even if she really wanted to.
Puffing out a slight sigh, she stood up from her spot near Rin. Stretching, she took the opportunity to stare up at the sky. Rei admitted it: the view was gorgeous – she'd never seen more stars in the night sky at once. Everything was bathed in the natural light of the stars and moon, an almost ethereal glow, like nothing she'd seen before.
Rei took her seat back on the ground, falling onto her back once she did, to continue admiring the sky. She was sure that if she stared at it long enough, she'd fall asleep quickly.
Her eyes tried to pick out the constellations she used to know by heart. The best she could do was pick out the North Star and one of the dippers – whether it was the big or little one was a different story entirely. She figured even if she could remember where each constellation was supposed to be, she's probably have some minor issues picking them out anyway, what with the masses of other stars cluttering the sky.
Sighing softly, she closed her eyes, attempting to get as comfortable as she could, considering it was some relatively solid ground she was stuck on.
It was now that Rei decided she would willingly kill for a bed.
--
Morning rolled around, and Rei found herself sleep deprived and easily pulled into the realm of the awake due to the light state of slumber she'd drifted into.
"Rei!" Rin seemed to pop out of absolutely nowhere; Rei didn't really react, since she was still mildly out of it.
"What?" she yawned.
"Let's go go go! We're eating then leaving!"
And it was in this unofficial way that Rei officially became part of Sesshoumaru's posse and thereby semi-official playmate slash sisterly guardian figure of Rin.
Rei dragged Rin to the nearby river to wash up a little, allowing the older woman to straighten out her appearance as best as she could using her watery reflection. She also took this opportunity to teach Rin the basics of proper hygiene.
Once they returned to camp, they ate and left. Sesshoumaru took the lead, Rei and Rin occupied the middle, and Jaken grumbled at the back of the formation to himself about how there was yet another human female in his personal space that was leaving an absolutely filthy stench everywhere.
Rei was very tempted to kick him into another tree again, but this time with the intent of leaving him unable to function for a few days. She figured this wouldn't be very appreciated by the rest of the group and refrained from turning around to give into her anger-fueled urges. After all, she was an adult now, and since there was a child around, she had to at least attempt to act the part.
"Rei, where did you live before?" Rin had been explaining the majority of her life to Rei over the past hour or so, and now the questions had turned to the older of the two.
"Me? Oh, well ..." Technically she still lived at her shrine, but seeing as she had no way of getting there, she'd stick to the past tense. "I lived in a Shinto shrine."
"Really?" Rin's eyes widened. "What'd you do?"
"I was the priestess there," Rei grinned. "But most of the time I just did all the caretaking."
"Oh." Rin almost seemed a little disappointed in this. "Did you do anything else?"
"Occasionally, I would pray before the sacred fire of the temple."
"Why?"
"To find the answers to important questions."
"Like what?"
"Things." Rei wasn't exactly comfortable diverging any information that may lead to her identity being revealed. She'd only let that happen if it were a life or death situation.
"Can you do anything since you're a priestess?"
"A few things."
"Like what?"
"Sometimes, I see what's going to happen in the future. Otherwise, my abilities go toward helping others. I guess you could say I've almost devoted my life to helping people, actually." That was pretty true, considering she spent a good chunk of her teenage years fighting off the evils of the universe and thusly saving all mankind (and alien kind, she had to recall) from being overtaken.
"Can you tell me how to do all that?"
"I don't think I can ..."
"Why not?" A pout had formed on Rin's face.
"I was born like this."
"... oh." Again, Rin looked disappointed. Rei patted her head slightly, causing her to pout and glare up at Rei. "Hey!"
"Well, then stop looking like the world just ended," Rei scolded. "You'll be able to do amazing things someday, as long as you work for it."
If that had sounded any cheesier, Rei probably would've gagged, but she didn't want Rin to get all pessimistic about her own abilities. She was a smart kid; she'd find something to do with herself one day.
--
Kagome huffed as she pulled herself out of the well, looking utterly exhausted. She shoved her backpack over the side, letting it fall onto the ground with a heavy thud, before easily swinging herself up and over.
She dragged her backpack up and onto her shoulders, heading out of the shack and towards her home. As she stepped out of the shadowy shack, a loud flapping hit her ears. She glanced up, only to be met by the site of two crows madly swooping about the structure. Her brows knotted in confusion.
'What the ...' That was odd behavior for crows. Moreover, they didn't usually come over into this area.
Too tired to really contemplate the situation, she headed for her house. Once she had stepped into the kitchen, she collapsed onto a chair.
"I'm home," she managed to call out. After a brief pause, her mother scuffled into the kitchen.
"Kagome!"
"What's wrong?" she perked up at her mother's slightly hassled appearance.
"For one, you're late! Your cousin came by already!"
"Really?" She knew she'd forgotten about something important ...
"And now she's missing!"
"Wait. What?!"
"She was here just two days ago. When I went into her room in the afternoon, she wasn't there! We've searched all over for her!"
"How could you guys lose her?" Kagome wailed, head falling onto the table with a light thunk.
"I don't know!" Her mother had already surpassed the stage known as 'panic' and moved onto the next phase, which Kagome didn't even know existed. "What are we supposed to tell her father and grandfather?!"
"Calm down mom!" Kagome stood up. "You're the adult!"
"You're right!" This seemed to calm her down considerably, and she forced herself to breathe slowly.
"Okay, so what do you think happened to her?"
"I have no idea! That's why we've all been running about like headless chickens," her mom replied. "She just vanished sometime before the morning of her third day here."
"So it was during the night, when everyone was asleep?"
"Yes."
Kagome bit down on her bottom lip, trying to come up with some logical explanation.
"Maybe she decided to go back home?"
"And leave all of her things here?"
"... good point."
And so the mother and daughter were back at square one.
--
"I can't feel Rei anymore."
Usagi's news was a terrible thing for the group of guardians to hear.
"It's like she just disappeared," the young woman with twin buns for hair remarked. "I can't pick up anything of hers."
Luna nuzzled her cheek against the back of Usagi's palm in her form of comfort. The group knew that when Usagi could no longer sense one of them, something bad had happened. They were linked in their minds, hearts, and souls, and although the rest of the group did have a certain bond amongst each other, Usagi's link to everyone was the strongest of all.
And when her link was completely severed ... it usually meant someone was dead.
"Are you sure it's not because she's just out of the city?" Ami asked, her brows knotting together.
"Really sure!" the blonde insisted.
"Well, what can we do?" Makoto asked.
"How about a search party?" Minako suggested. "It doesn't have to be all of us. Like, one or two people. Or just one because we don't wanna leave Usagi here all defenseless and stuff."
"Hey! I'm not defenseless!" Usagi butted in.
"But who should go?" Makoto asked, ignoring Usagi's pouting.
"More like, who has the time to go," Makoto grumbled. "We're all busy ..."
"I can go," Minako grinned. "I mean, c'mon, I am the leader and all, so it's only natural to send me out ..."
"Are you sure?"
"Completely! I'll even drag Art here with me!" To emphasize her point, Minako held up the white furball, who practically bit her fingers off.
"Mina! Stop handling me like I'm a toy!" he snapped. Luna snickered at him, and he shot his partner a glare.
Minako obliged to his wishes after he had squirmed enough and let him fall onto the carpet ... on his face.
"Ouch!" he wailed. "You abusive woman!"
"You wanted me to stop holding you," she remarked, her expression blank.
"Not like that!"
"This really isn't the time to be arguing," Ami muttered, frowning as she watched the feline and blonde argue.
"Ami's right, so quiet you!" Makoto snatched Artemis out of Minako's range, effectively cutting the argument short.
"Usagi, what do you say we do?" Ami looked at the frowning blonde.
"I'm not sure," Usagi bit her lip. The serious mood of the normally bubbly girl was heavily weighing on the group. "Give me a day, okay?"
The other girls echoed their consent. Whatever Usagi's final decision was, they would follow it.
--
Rei sighed to herself, once more unable to sleep. Tonight, Rin had somehow managed to nod off while sitting next to Rei and her head had dropped into Rei's lap at some point. She wasn't about to get up and disturb the girl's sleep since she looked so content.
Idly, Rei ran a hand through Rin's hair, mildly surprised at the few amounts of tangles she encountered. Shifting around just enough to get better support on her back from the tree she was leaning against, she spared a glance up through the canopy of leaves that sheltered her.
Her gaze fell back on Rin. The girl was a puzzle to her, somehow. She seemed so simple and carefree (it almost reminded her of Usagi, come to think of it), yet she somehow seemed to have some odd weight on her. Rei could only figure it was something from her past, but she wouldn't be able to make any assumptions without a good hint or two to guide her along.
'Her parents are probably dead.' It was the only thing she could be remotely certain about. Why else would she be wandering around with a gang like Sesshoumaru and Jaken?
Of course, that led her straight back to the main question that plagued her mind. Why was she traveling with them? It made no sense at all.
She broke her thoughts away from the matter when Rin stirred lightly in her sleep. She paused in running her hands through her hair, waiting for the kid to settle down again before she resumed her actions.
Rei didn't know where the motherly side had come from. She didn't like kids. She was terrible with a majority of them. She didn't think a maternal side even existed in her. And yet here she was, letting Rin use her lap for a pillow while petting her hair.
... she could almost picture the other girls laughing themselves spitless over the scene. The great Rei Hino, reduced to ... babysitting.
'Oh, what's life come to?'
The matter was the least of her now numerous worries. First she needed a way to get out and back home before getting too attached here (which would prove problematic – her sense of direction out here was nonexistent). Then there was the question of how to get home. Did she just jump back into that well? Common sense told her that was the most likely solution; if something goes one way, it's bound to go the other way, too.
She sighed again, softly, letting her eyes roam the small camp grounds they'd ended up at. Jaken was, as per usual, snoring (she'd need to find a way to stop him from doing that – she was certain it was one of the things preventing her from falling asleep), while Sesshoumaru was ... well, leaning against a tree, much like she was, resting on that odd bit of fluff he dragged around.
What was with that fluff, anyway? If he wasn't so intimidating it would make him look positively silly. Maybe it was his form of a safety blanket – a really soft, fuzzy, pettable-looking safety blanket.
... she cut off any more thoughts over that before she could start laughing. It amused her too much.
As for Sesshoumaru himself – the demon was the biggest issue for Rei. She couldn't read him to save her life, and that was one of the things about him that annoyed her the most. His face was always pulled into that unconcerned, calm look – cold, calculating, and unresponsive; in other words, a block of ice. The most emotion she'd seen him show over the past couple of days was a mere flicker in his eyes, and that was usually just a sort of disdainful, 'holier-than-thou' look or glare.
She knew there had to be some emotional side under that. There was no way he didn't have some sort of feelings besides complete indifference or (seeing as she could picture it) rage. The fact that he'd taken in Rin and was practically her guardian was proof of that – there was some softer side beneath all that armor and arrogance.
Rei made up her mind. It was a stupid decision, an utterly doomed choice for her to make, but she set her mind to it. She was determined to peel away those layers of his to see just what was at the core of this demon.
She knew it was pointless. She wasn't supposed to interfere in a time that wasn't her own. But she'd already broken that rule, so the only way to go was forwards with it. If Sailor Pluto was going to jump on her case, so be it. And oh, how she couldn't tolerate men – she didn't know why she had the urge to do this at all, but her gut was screaming at her to, and who was she to deny her instinct? This would be worth it, no matter how trying it was on her already thin shred of patience.
Besides, what better way to melt a block of ice than with a brilliant fire?
Well, this made two nights in a row of her doing a detailed analysis of someone she barely knew. She needed to find better ways to fill her schedule or she'd end up slapping herself for redundancy.
Rei puffed out a gentle sigh, settling herself against the tree more comfortably, shutting her eyes. She needed to get a decent night's rest or she'd be running on sheer will alone, and she wasn't the most tolerable or reasonable sort of girl when that occurred.
--
It was odd. Rei was up at the crack of dawn and couldn't fall back asleep. So what did the brilliant warrior of the flames do?
She sat around and watched the sunrise like a good girl. It wasn't like she had ample opportunities to do so; she was usually still asleep, and if she wasn't then the times when she did witness them involved saving the known world/universe from destruction after some grueling battle in which she didn't really appreciate the sunrise due to her tired self.
And so she sat and enjoyed the sunrise, deciding that it looked absolutely gorgeous when there was no pollution or city lights to get in the way of the beauty.
.:Fin:.
During the beginning of my summer vacation, I'd taken the time to catch up on the Inuyasha manga - and, frankly, without all the filler chapters, it wouldn't have taken me a week to finish the series off from where the anime ended. It would've taken about four days, really. But, it did rekindle my love, and there were some amazing moments in there ... despite the ending being anticlimatic and predictable.
... guys, be appreciative of having a light schedule and workload this school year. Really. I got everything I need out of the way at my old school. I have more free time these days than I can shake a stick at, hence faster work on here. Or not, since I apparently have ADD. Bah ...