Monster
Chapter 2
You scared him away.
Original Publish Date: 3/30/2018
Minor Edits/Fixes: 4/16/2018
"You're already healed. Impressive…" The suspicious tone his father used betrayed his concerned expression. The older daiyoukai sighed, "But I wish you hadn't gotten hurt at all. Sesshomaru, why do you provoke your brother?"
"Half-brother."
Touga narrowed his eyes, "Watch your tone."
"Honey, where - oh my goodness!" Izayoi had rounded the corner into his father's study, exclaiming when her eyes landed on his tattered clothing and missing limb. "Sesshomaru, dear -" He barely could contain his sneer. "- what in the world happened to you?" Your son. Was what he wished to say, but his father...
"I will take care of it." Touga replied instead, placing a quick kiss on the top of the woman's head, "Is everything almost ready?"
"Yes! All that's left is for all of us to change." She replied, giving the older daiyoukai what Sesshomaru considered a sickeningly sweet smile. If you gave the woman a quick glance, you'd think she was simply human... but they were home in the dark realm, somewhere between the border of life and death, a place where humans could not live. The former human had sold her soul to her father, making her a manufactured hanyou, unable to see the light of day in her native world again. According to Touga, the change hadn't brought on any negative side-effects yet in the past decade, but he was blinded by whatever infatuation he had with her.
His father never noticed when the woman was curled up in a bleak corner of the castle, muttering under her breath about things incomprehensible to anyone other than herself. Or when she ate and ate and ate, but couldn't find relief of her hunger with food while not having the power to feed off others emotion like full-blooded youkai. To her credit, she kept her raising problems with the change hidden well from Touga, but he couldn't help but wonder how long she could last until she snaps - and what would happen then?
His father's voice brought him out of his thoughts, "Lucky for you, I will excuse you from this ball tonight due to your condition." He blinked in shock, his father never, in all the centuries that spanned his lifetime, allowed him to miss any social function. It appears that losing a limb was the secret. The couple left him then, no doubt to finish dressing up for the occasion. He decided to head up to his suite, a bath and a change of clothing was in order.
Once in his room, he unclasped the broken armor, letting it clatter loudly on the stone floor. His torn kimono soon joined it. He walked up to the large windows that spanned a wall in his room, giving him a view of the mountainous terrain not far below as the sunlight filtered through the glass. The sun in this world was a poor imitation. A mildly bright spot in the sky that gave a warm hue to everything as if they were in an old western. It didn't provide warmth, and it certainly didn't illuminate as much as the real sun did. He despised the fake light. He shut all the curtains and with a flick of his wrist, all the candles turned aflame. He would bathe and as he soaked - his thoughts should have been on how to extract revenge on his brother and prove to his father that Inuyasha wasn't worthy of Tessaiga, but instead, they strayed to the safety of a dirty human girl with a crooked smile.
Time flows differently for them compared to the humans. Being nearly immortal, it was easy to pay no mind to how many days or months passed. It certainly didn't help that seasons were nonexistent in their realm and someone of his caliber did not need to leave for feeding too often, every couple of weeks was sufficient to sustain his current power. When he noticed that fall seemed to be approaching again in the human world, he assumed it had been a year since he last saw the girl. Would he frighten her now? Or would she welcome him on sight?
There was only one way to find out.
His hand reached out as his youki searched for the light of her familiar soul. Once found, he stepped into the portal that opened and into an unfamiliar closet. A different home... He had essentially no time to react as the closet door swung open to reveal Rin smiling up at him, "You're back!" How did she already...? She then quickly covered her mouth, as if she hadn't meant to be so loud.
"RIN!" Another male, that was not the same voice from the year before.
"Stay here, then he won't hurt you." She shut the door on him before he heard her small feet hurry back to bed just as the bedroom door opened. Hurt me? Ridiculous. The notion was nearly enough to roll his eyes if he were a lesser youkai. No one in this realm could hurt him no matter how hard they tried as true Mikos have been extinct for centuries. The bedroom door opened and slammed shut, the force quaked the walls enough to drop a few items on the floor.
"What are you doing still awake?" His eyes narrowed at the threatening tone of the male's voice. "Who were you talking to?"
"A monster." Her reply was the innocent truth but the man took it as a personal insult.
"The fuck did you say?" He could see through the tiny slits in the wooden closet door - a man about mid 40's in moderate shape, approaching the girl in the single-sized bed. "What did you call me!?" His eyes widened when the sound of the backhand connecting against her cheek echoed off the walls. Rage began to heat his blood as red flooded his vision, No. The youkai closed his eyes. He had to calm down. If he - The metal sound of a belt buckle being undone and the man's next words - "Looks like you need another lesson."
The fear in his scream when he burst through the closet door in the smaller version of his true form had to have been one of the most satisfying he had ever caused. The grown man fell and tried to crawl away as he snapped and snarled, acid dripping from his canine mouth. His youki flared and surrounded the foul man's aura. It hooked deep into his soul, absorbing the fear into him as power. He was pushing too hard, too fast. The man couldn't move and his eyes began to roll back. If he kept going, the man would go insane. They were not to drive others mad on purpose. It would bring too much attention to them both.
With the last inkling of his rational mind still strong, he let go of the human's soul. Sesshomaru had enough for the week. The man scrambled backward into the door and ran out… If his hearing was correct, he ran out of the entire house.
"Lord Sesshomaru?" His red eyes shifted to her wide brown ones. Again, she wasn't afraid. Her eyes shone with wonder and awe instead. "You can turn into a dog!?" Rin rolled off the bed and slid onto her knees in front of him with that large smile, completely oblivious to the dangers of his acidic saliva or the rows of spiked teeth. Neither of those could harm her here, but she wasn't aware of that yet. "That's amazing! Can I…?" Her hand phased through his head. "Huh?" She looked at her hand, then him. She tried one more time, still unable to touch him. "Are you a ghost?"
He transformed back into his humanoid form, "No."
She got back on her feet, "Then why can I touch you?"
"I am not whole in this realm."
"Oh." Rin blinked. She tapped her index finger against her lips with a concentrated look on her face as she made her way back into her bed. "Then… Are you trying to make yourself whole?"
Sesshomaru tensed, "Why?"
She climbed into her bed in a sitting position, her pillow at her back as she leaned against the headboard, "If I wasn't whole, then I would try to be."
The girl accomplished something no other being was ever capable of - making him uncomfortable enough to change the subject. "This is not the same house."
Rin patted the empty half of the bed much like she did last time and he took her offer to sit once more. "It's a different foster home." Is she an orphan? Rin pulled her knees up and hugged them against her chest. "I was a little afraid that you wouldn't be able to find me again..."
"Most children don't want monsters to find them."
Rin giggled softly, smiling at him, "Most monsters try to scare kids, don't they?" She had him there. "Can you find me anywhere I go?"
"Yes."
Her eyes widened, "Wow…" Her gaze flickered behind him, "Do you always have to come out a closet?"
"Monsters live under the bed as well." Sesshomaru replied, watching her carefully. The redness on her cheek from where her guardian struck her was an angry red and no doubt painful for her, but she didn't cry, only kept on with what seemed to be an endless flow of questions.
"...Are there any pony monsters?"
He exhaled through his nose, "Yes."
Aren't children supposed to cry, especially human ones? Even he had shed some tears whenever his father struck him… but never in front of anyone. No, he waited until his family left or slept deeply and would wander into an empty, unused part of the castle to release his pain in peace and, most importantly, alone. He could never cry in front of his father, he refused to show his sire such weakness. Is that what she is waiting for? To be alone? Would she cry after he left?
"And kitties? Bunnies? Are there monsters like all the animals in the world?"
"Some…" To sate his curiosity, Sesshomaru decided to test her mental fortitude. As he absently answered more of her random questions, he let a few tendrils of youki free to painlessly poke and prod her head. He soon hit the barrier of her mind that subconsciously protected her soul from youkai like him, and it was stronger than most humans he had come across previously. He shrank back his energy, left with more questions than before. An average child's mind should be easy to pass, an abused child's mind should be a crumbling wall with too many cracks to be functional, but hers was an endless meadow, too bright for a soulless being like him to enter without major difficulty.
"Some stories say monsters eat people… do you?"
His sharp eyes narrowed at the question. Was it simply just a coincidence she asked right after he examined her defenses? "Not in the way you think." The vague answer should have left her unsettled, but it seemed nothing he said could shake her.
Rin started fidgeting when he rose from the bed, "You have to go already?"
Sunrise was still a couple of hours away. He did not need to leave yet but - his nose twitched when her scent spiked with fear. Her eyes were impossibly wide, peering up at him as if begging for him to stay a bit longer. He had finally frightened her, but with a threat of leaving, not harm. Her attachment to him was far too strong for it only being the second time they met. That was exactly why he needed to depart. Whatever the girl was looking for - a father, a brother or a friend - she won't find it in him. He was a youkai, she was human prey. She would get older, her belief in 'monsters' would wane until it was no more than random spasms of instinctual fear in the dark. It would never be anything more.
When the black portal ripped open, she asked as before, "Will I see you again?"
No. Was what he wanted to say, a clear answer to shatter any childish hopes she may hold on to. Instead, "Do not wait for me." He walked through without so much as a glance back. He landed in the courtyard of his father's castle, feeling a bit… uneasy.
"Then… Are you trying to make yourself whole?"
Sesshomaru's jaw clenched. The girl knew nothing about the inner workings of his kind and his own ambitions, but off-handingly guessed part of them within minutes. His gaze swept across the bland garden with disdain, its dry, crumbling flowers and bushes another pale imitation to the colorful palette of the mortal world. He had grown tired of this place long ago. Despite teetering on the edge of non-existence, the majority of youkai were content to stay here in their own private realm and sustain their fading life force by being monsters in the night. He was not.
His hand clenched at his side, uncaring of the claws that dug into his palm. He could not lose focus. He would continue to feed, far surpass his father, and finally have the strength to live in the real world.
End of Chapter 2
Author's Note: Omg, I'm so glad you all like this one. It's another one of those 'this-has-been-in-my-head-for-like-a-5-years' fics.
So let's answer a few questions ya'll had. IF I don't answer it, then its cause I can't! ;P
First, to clear any confusion, this story is being complete here, 100%. You don't have to go anywhere else to read it. IF I make a darker version, it probably wouldn't be on here is because it would be also very explicit after a certain point.
There will be 8 or 9 chapters depending on how the ending plays out. I got two things in mind sooo. And yes, there will time skips like in this chapter, and more time skips!
Sessh isn't a vampire but I can see the similarities. This chapter cleared up some of the differences and future ones will further explain how this world handles youkai.
I go by the same pen name on AO3 and AFF. I guess I might get a tumblr too since that's another popular place for fanfiction but I kind of (totally) hate navigating that site.
I hope everyone liked this chapter too. Thank you so much for all the reviews, favs, and follows! :D