(A/N: Merf. Edited this chapter slightly.)
The Light In The Darkness
Left
They were moving towards a door, but Rin hardly acknowledged it. She was too busy staring at the Light – or, Sesshomaru. Was he . . . not the Light? He wasn't hurting her . . . he was . . . he was confusing her, that's what he was doing. Maybe . . . maybe she was wrong about the Light? Maybe the Light was trying to stop them from entering and it was friends with the Darkness! Yes, that must be it, or else the hurt would have come again.
She was pulled from her musings when Sesshomaru opened the door. She gasped, simply astonished at what she saw. There were these green, stringy–like objects on the ground; all over it! But not only that, there were rough, brown cylindrical walls shooting up from the ground and they had a different sort of green on top! And the ceiling; it was blue! And it seemed to reach up forever, and what were those up there? Did the ceiling capture bits of the Light? What were those little specks around the bigger ball of the Light? They seemed so close, yet so far away. She suddenly had a strange urge to go and jump around; she wanted to feel the green strings between her toes, to lean against the rough walls with the oddly shaped green on top. Even the air out here was different; it was cool and had a strange freshness to it. Then – the air moved! It blew at her and Sesshomaru, making her shiver in her small tunic, but she hardly noticed she was cold. She just couldn't stop staring in awe at all the new things around her.
As Sesshomaru kept walking, she noticed that her surroundings never stopped changing. The green string on the ground changed to a hard gray, and right next to them was a long, wide strip of a darker gray, with yet another strip of lighter gray on the other side. He seemed to stay on the lighter gray, so what was the darker gray for? She didn't have to wait long, because she saw this huge, monstrous metal thing coming down it, and fast. She gasped again, sure that the thing was going to hit them. She squeezed her eyes shut and gripped the fabric on her savior's upper body, waiting for the hurt. The whoosh of air went by, and an angry roar filled her ears, but other than that, nothing happened. She opened an eye cautiously, but the metal monster was already gone. Curious, she surveyed the area more carefully. Apparently, the metal monsters stay on the darker gray, and everyone else stays on the lighter gray. With that figured out, instead of being scared, she was amused by them. What were they? And how did they move so fast?
"They are called cars."
Sesshomaru – he spoke again! And he called those 'cars.' What an interesting name! She wondered if he would tell her what other things were. She nodded to him, showing that she understood. She was a fast learner, and she was determined to know everything about this world in the Light.
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Sesshomaru mentally sighed. What had he gotten himself into? Kidnapping a girl – well, maybe not quite kidnapping – from a decrepit old house and the humans who tortured her. What was he going to do now? Take her to the hospital for one thing, but after that? Where will she go? The orphanage, of course. Why am I worrying about a human, anyway? She is beneath me. Still, he just couldn't quite kill the feeling of needing to protect her. And what about the wind that blew and she shivered? He nearly sat her down, took off his own shirt and wrapped it around her. What was becoming of him?! It's his stupid step-mother, he reckoned. It's all her fault he's gone soft! Stupid woman . . . if only his own mother had not died . . . but that's a different story. Rather not go into those unwelcome memories.
He had walked quite a ways; the hospital was almost in sight. He noticed that he had quite a few strange stares directed his way, but he didn't care. What, wasn't it normal to see an eleven-year-old dog-demon carrying a bloody, beat up eight year old human girl? Pft, what should he care? Then again, why should he care about this girl at all? Stupid instincts . . . it was their fault he was in this mess. That, and his step-mother's. Stupid woman. Stupid humans for having these soft emotions.
And yet . . .
He couldn't help the swell of pride in his chest every time he took a downward glance at the girl. He was the reason that she was alive. He was the reason that she'd now be taken care of. He was her hero. And that made him the most proud. He wasn't supposed to feel like this, but he did anyway. Curious things these humans managed to do. They lived only for about a century if they were lucky, yet they do everything they could possibly do in that short of life. Why should this girl be any different? She'd eventually go to school, go to college, and get a job, only to die a short while later. He'd do everything the same until the last part; he'd die a long while later. These pathetic mortals . . .
He looked up and they were finally at the hospital. With a look of indifference plastered firmly on his face, he made his way inside with Rin held tight, yet not tight enough to hurt, in his grasp. He went up to the main secretary, who took one look at the girl in his arms and called the emergency care doctors. She was carefully taken from his arms, or well, tried to, because she didn't want to leave him. Fortunately for them, she didn't have much strength length to put up much of a fight. She consequently fainted, though that just made it easier to move her. He was planning to leave right then, but thought better of it when he saw all the blood that had gotten on his clothes. Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, he made his way over to the secretary again to use the phone. Avoiding any questions she asked him with an "I don't need to explain anything to you," he called his parents.
This was not going to be fun . . .
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It was so . . . so . . . wonderful!
Everything she and the Light passed . . . it was just fantastic! Who knew that there could be houses that could reach the sky? Or that there could be so many different people? Or those cars, who knew that they could move so fast? And even though the ceiling was now black, everywhere they went people had captured the Light so they could now have it in the Darkness. She knew now that even though they were complete opposites, the Darkness and the Light were actually quite happy with each other. They passed more and more of these sky-bound houses, each one a lot different than the last. She also discovered that what she was wearing was a lot different than those worn around her. That was probably the reason why they gave her such strange looks . . . but she didn't care. If the Light didn't care, then why should she?
Time seemed to fly by and it felt like it took nothing at all before they were standing in front of a large, white building. It wasn't as tall as some of the others she had seen, but it was by far the widest. There were many, many cars in a huge area of the same dark gray, and the windows were by the hundreds, stretching the whole height and length of the building. Through some of them, the Light shined through, although in most, there was Darkness. Sesshomaru led her through one of the doors, where the room was brightly lit. There were many chairs on top of tile flooring, some of which were occupied. Over on the far wall, there was a circular desk with which what seemed like hundreds of papers sorted neatly behind it. The woman behind the desk was filing through some of those said papers when Sesshomaru walked up to her.
She did a double take when she saw Rin, and gave a gasp. She quickly picked up a black piece of plastic and said some things into it. It seems that only a moment before Rin was swarmed with more people, dressed in different colored baggy clothes. Each had a mask, gloves, and another piece of cloth covering their head. With them, they carried a sort of bed on wheels. Two of the people tried to take Rin from her beloved Sesshomaru. She clung to his shirt, not wanting to leave, but her strength was leaving her, and fast. She realized that he was not resisting them taking her, so that must mean that he trusted them. Satisfied that wherever they were going to take her was relatively safe, she let her body go limp and let them put her on the wheeling bed.
They worked quickly, talking to each other in short sentences, ripping her tunic open and caring to her wounds, all the while walking quickly through the hallways. One of the women lifted a clear mask and held it over her mouth and nose. It tasted cold, and weirdly wet, and she began to feel a tingly sensation in her fingers and toes. The feeling quickly traveled up her arms and legs until her whole body was engulfed in it, and it quickly turned into numbness. Blackness crept from the outside in of her vision, and soon her brain shut down with the rest of her body.
Thank-you . . . Sesshomaru . . .
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"Look at my boy, he's a hero!"
"Yes, yes he is! But do you know how much danger you were in?! You could've been killed!"
"Nah, he's a Takahashi! Those foolish humans wouldn't have stood a chance!"
"Don't you dare promote such violence into your son!"
"Calm down, he wasn't injured, and he saved someone's life today!"
The afore mentioned boy was sitting in one of the waiting room chairs while listening to his parents, InuTaisho and Izayoi, praising him and scolding him. He had already changed his clothes, and he sat quite bored with his head on his chin, only half listening to his parents. They had called his half-brother's friend's parents, and asked if he could stay there an extra night. He was dreading the torture he would have to go through when InuYasha found out that he had saved a human life today. He was never going to live this one down.
". . . maru?"
". . . shomaru?"
"Sesshomaru!"
He finally figured out that someone was calling his name, and was snapped out of his daydreaming. "Yes?"
His father sighed. "There's a detective here to talk to you."
Sesshomaru was prepared for this. He knew that he was going to have to explain exactly what happened when he found Rin. His parents made way for a woman, appearing to be in her late twenties, dressed in a brown tweed business suit. Her bright blue-green hair was pulled back in a bun and her pale blue complexion told him even without his nose that she was a demon. She stopped in front of him and kneeled.
"Hey, Sesshomaru, I'm Sudahara Rokazi. Now, I want you to tell me exactly what you told your mother and father, okay?" she said as she smiled, showing off her gleaming fangs.
Ignoring the fact that she was treating him like a little kid, – not that he is one, or anything – Sesshomaru answered as politely as he could. "As expected, Sudahara-san."
"Great. Now, how about you begin with what you doing before you rescued Rin?"
As Sesshomaru proceeded to tell her the whole story, Rokazi nodded and asked a question every once in a while, and took notes in a little pocket-sized notebook. Once he was done, the detective nodded once more and flipped her notebook closed. Then she looked him straight in the eye.
"Sesshomaru, I want you to understand something," she started, her voice calm and direct. "Those people who hurt Rin, I know that you know that they are bad, bad, people. They will also, because they will get caught and convicted, especially if Rin is there, are going to try to kill her. I want you to understand that just because she is out of that house that does not mean that she is completely safe. They are still out there, although we will do our best to track them down."
With that said, she nodded one last time to confirm her words, then got up and walked away, leaving his parents to question him even more. He wasn't really listening, the Ms. Sudahara's words replaying themselves again and again in his mind.
Is Rin in more danger than Sudahara-san is letting on?
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Sounds slowly filled in her mind, leaving Rin very confused. Why was there noise? There was only supposed to be silence in her home. Something was wrong . . . very, very wrong. She forced her eyelids open, and saw a white tiled ceiling. She grew frantic, where was she?! Did the Pain move me?! Why didn't I wake up?! Oh no, this is not good! She tried to move, and get a better look around, but her whole body was strangely numb, and she found that she was wrapped from head to toe in white cloth. She started to shake, absolutely terrified. She couldn't even think, and now she couldn't tell whether it was something they gave her or her fear that made her numb. Only now did she realize that there was a strange beeping to the left of her, which seemed to be speeding up with her own heart beat. She looked down at her hands, finding that strange tubes connected to them. She looked around frantically, finding all sorts of weird machines and instruments of who-si-me-what-sies and thing-a-ma-jigs of what she couldn't even imagine what they were for.
Torture, maybe.
It didn't take long before people came in. She nearly jumped out of her skin, and despite her numbness, she was able to move back away a little from them. She discovered that not only was she numb, she couldn't move her limbs very much, if at all. Only noticing now that she was practically covered in . . . Well, really thick and rock-hard cloths, hot tears flowed down her cheeks as she scrunched herself as small as the hardened white cloth would allow her against the wall. Wait, she realized something. Was it just her, or did these weird–clothed people seem . . . oddly familiar? Then – it hit her.
Sesshomaru!
She stopped instantly, leaving her mouth open slightly in gape. She blinked a couple of times, letting all of this fully slink in. So – everything that happened – that wasn't a dream! She – she was really out of there! She was finally, after all that time, away from the Pain! She didn't have to through that again . . . She didn't have to get hurt anymore . . . She didn't have to do anything . . .
She looked down at the tears that had fallen onto her hand. They were no longer for fear . . . No, they were for something completely different . . . A bubbly, just plain . . . oh, she didn't know how to describe it! She realized now that it was the same feeling she had when she learned that Sesshomaru had helped her. At first it was just a small, tiny curve of her lips as she gazed over her bruised body. I wonder what it's like to not have a single hurt? Her smile suddenly grew wide as she looked back up at her confused Helpers. She fully relaxed her body, but when she did that, the control she had over her body disappeared and she fell to the side. Her Helpers swarmed her again, and she realized that the white clothe on her body was stopping the blood and helping it heal. They re-clothed her wounds, – some of them were bleeding again – and set her back up so that she was lying on her back. She was panting heavily, but was smiling nonetheless, barely noticing the hurt she was experiencing. She knew now, that even though she was still connected to the Pain, there was now hope, and all because of Sesshomaru.
"Hey, Rin-chan? Honey?"
She realized that one of her Helpers was talking to her. She looked at the woman, showing that she was listening.
"You have some visitors, dear," she said as she smiled, though it didn't reach her eyes. Rin could hear her mumbled under her breath, "Although, while they're letting visitors see her like this is beyond me . . ."
Rin, not clearly understanding her, just took a better look at herself. On a lot of her body, the bandages were harder, and she couldn't move whatever part of her that was in there. I wonder why they did that?
She looked up again when she heard new footsteps stopping at her door. There were three people that weren't Helpers, one of which she already knew. There was a man and a woman, the man having long, silver hair that was tied up in a high pony-tail. He had two, midnight-blue lines on both his cheeks, and a half moon on his forehead. His eyes were sunny amber, old and wise. He had an arm around the woman next to him, a real beauty indeed. She had a simple burgundy; short-sleeved dress that flowed down a little passed her knees. Rin could see that her inky black hair went down to her ankles. Her hands were gripping the handle of her black purse that was held out in front of her. Her eyes were kind, a beautiful violet color. But what most caught Rin's eye, was the child standing in front of them. The Light – better known as Sesshomaru.
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Ugh. Could this hospital be any more boring?! All he, the great Sesshomaru, wanted to do was to put this whole thing behind him. But no! His parents insisted– more like threatened – that he come to the depressing hospital again. Apparently the girl that he saved – who he had named Rin – had woken up. Perfect. Well . . . then again, he couldn't say that he was completely against the idea . . .
It seemed that he had been waiting for a couple of hours – though had probably only been about ten minutes – before a doctor came in and talked to his parents. Because of his acute hearing, he was able to pick up that Rin had indeed woken up. Getting up sort of awkwardly because his butt was half asleep, he followed the doctor a step behind his parents. They were lead through many corridors with innumerous doors until they finally stopped in front of one no different than the rest. The doctor opened it and stepped aside, sweeping his arm signaling that they could go in. Somehow Sesshomaru ended up in front of his parents as they looked into the room. He felt himself pale when he looked at her.
Funny how that seeing Rin in all that blood didn't affect him nearly as much as it did now. Maybe it was because he didn't consider how badly hurt she was, or that he was too busy focusing on getting her to the hospital that he didn't really think about it. Either way, he was taking it in now. The bandages on her head were wrapped around her skull and down across her left eye. Her other eye was black, blue, and puffy. She had bandages on the rest of her face as well, and she had a badly swollen lip. He could see the stitches the doctors had placed under her eye were it was wounded badly. There were dark bruises in lines on her neck, and Sesshomaru couldn't keep out the spine-chilling image of a hand, strangling the life out of her. Her left arm was in a sling, and each finger was in its own cast. Her right arm was in another cast that went all the way up to her shoulder, and he could see the outline of a chest splint underneath her thin hospital gown. Her left leg, from what he could clearly see even though it was under a blanket, had yet another cast that went up to her mid-thigh. Her right leg had a cast that only went up just below her knee. He could only imagine what other bruises and gashes she had where he couldn't see.
Sesshomaru was shaken from his thoughts when he suddenly felt a strong hand push him forward into the room. Surprised by this, he stumbled a little, but quickly regained his composure. He turned around to glare at his parents, only to be met with the oddly sad gaze of his father. He could see that his step-mother was desperately trying not to cry.
"We'll leave you two a moment alone." That was all the father said as he nodded once and left with his step-mother.
The young dog-demon stood there awkwardly for a moment as Rin just stared at him with those huge dark-chocolate eyes – er, eye of hers. She was bug-eyed because she wasn't used to the light, he presumed, as he remembered that closet she was in when he found her. All of a sudden, she broke into the biggest smile he didn't believe that is was possible for her to make. Taken a little aback, he widened his eyes as he noticed that she missing some of her teeth. His feet seemed to be on their own accord as he walked around to her right side. Up close, he was able to examine the wounds on her face more clearly. They were even worse than he imagined. Apart from the bandages around the top of her head, the stitches under her right eye and her swollen lip, there were innumerable cuts and bruises on top cuts and bruises. He could also see just how frail the poor girl actually was. He remembered how easy it had been to carry her, even with his strength. Her bones jutted out of her skin a lot farther than he knew they should've been.
Yet, even with all over this, she still managed to smile at him.
This confused him, all she should be doing is crying; that's what all the other girls his age seemed to do. This girl was different, that's for sure. She stopped smiling at him for a moment and held up her right arm a few inches off her stomach and looked quizzically between it and Sesshomaru.
"It's called a cast. It helps a broken bone heal."
She looked even more confused than ever. Sesshomaru decided to elaborate.
"A bone is what allows you to move. You have two-hundred and six bones inside your body, each a different size and shape. When one breaks or cracks, one needs to get a cast on it so it can heal properly and that bone will be able to move again."
Rin nodded and smiled again, examining her cast more. The young dog-demon was more surprised that she was able to understand all that. How was he to know how much knowledge she had?
After about a moment they heard a knock and his father reentered. His solemn looked, if anything, only worsened when he laid his eyes on the poor girl again. Then she did the same thing she did to Sesshomaru – she smiled. The young dog demon couldn't help but feel, what was that, jealously towards his father because her smile was a big as the one she gave him?! No, that can't be right! He decided to put that away. What he doesn't figure out won't come back and haunt him, right?
Right?
"Come on Sesshomaru, it's time to go."
It was his father speaking to him. That's right, no need to stay in this dreary place longer than necessary, right?
Right?
What was with this girl?! All of a sudden, he's second-guessing himself, and it's all because of her! Stupid humans. They always seem to screw around with what he knows, making him second-guess himself and all.
He realized that after his inner-rant was done that his father had already left the room. Deciding that it was best that he follow, Sesshomaru turned towards the door. Just before he was able to take his first step, he felt someone pull at his sleeve. He looked backwards to see that Rin had managed to grab him, even with the cast making her arm go at an awkward angle. He could tell that she knew that he was leaving, and that it was going to be forever. The look in her eyes was pleading him to stay, but he couldn't.
"Goodbye, Rin," he stated firmly. She hesitated, but let go of his sleeve. He turned away and started to walk towards the door, not once looked back to the girl he saved.
That was the hardest thing he had ever done, just walking away from those pleading eyes.