A/N : Last chapter summary: Sesshomaru and Rin meet Hato and Bani, two bat demons, and learn about the Rainbow Phoenix.
to 677: You are so sweet. Thank you so much for supporting me with your reviews and supporting all SessRin authors with your reviews.
to sorrellKaren: thank you so much for your reviews.
Chapter 15: Uekya's Roses
On the eastern shore, the ocean drained into an estuary, flowing into a large river that cut westward through a large forest.
Along one of the riverbanks, Sesshomaru stood, studying a large garden of unnaturally large red roses in a round clearing amid the forest.
There might have been thousands of them.
Two tall semicircle tombstones stood side by side in the center, draped by crawling vines full of red miniature roses.
At the foot of the roses were piles after piles of skeletal remains.
Two days ago, after coming home with Rin from her children's place, Rin started on her evening chores.
Watching Rin do her chores had recently become Sesshomaru's favorite pastime. So while Sesshomaru stood idly watching her cook, he glanced over the map on Kaede's desk again.
It was a curious piece of parchment.
He figured as much that it was a map of places hidden inside barriers of various means. He had come across one of them with the three headed serpent whose symbol had faded on the map.
Three of the seven phoenix symbols had also faded which was not a surprise since Hato and Bani had said that someone had been attacking them for those statues.
Sesshomaru wasn't interested in the Phoenix. It was to protect the humans, not something he would go fight to obtain. He was more than capable of protecting Rin.
The symbol of the rose, however, stood out. It was faded at one point, but when he looked again, the symbol had refreshed to its previous colorful state.
Someone must have access to it and was accessing it.
But for what.
What power lay behind that barrier.
A day ago, he visited the location. Nothing was there, just a stretch of forestland.
He had revisited the location a few times for two days.
Finally, at the moment, there stood the rose garden. Judging by the skeletal remains, something monstrous must lay hidden, waiting for preys.
Roses. What power could the roses have?
Perhaps the secret lay in the two tombstones. Perhaps some monsters laying in those tombstones were trying to revive themselves by absorbing live beings.
Stepping leisurely toward the garden, he focused on his senses to detect anything of suspicious nature. At least, someone was there to dissolve that barrier, but the scent of thousands of roses had masked him or her from Sesshomaru's detection.
Unfazed by the possible danger, Sesshomaru continued.
A gentle breeze swept his hair forward. Glancing back, he raised his hand, hurling his whip at the origin of the breeze.
A white shadow flipped into the air above, landing in a form of lady with a visible shimmering aura.
She crouched down in front of him with her head facing the ground, one hand clasping her chest. "Lord Sesshomaru, it's my honor."
Narrowing his eyes, Sesshomaru stood emotionless, silent.
The lady stood up. Approaching him, her eyes gleamed, a sparkle of light appearing behind her lenses, gazing into his eyes.
A bolt of blinding light exploded in Sesshomaru's brain, but vanished almost instantly.
'Hmph.'
Unaffected, Sesshomaru smiled subtly. "Perhaps, you should try that trick on someone else," said Sesshomaru.
She chuckled. "Of course. You're too powerful for a girl like me."
Turning around, Sesshomaru started to walk away when her hand touched his shoulder, holding him back.
"Do you not wonder what power is hidden in this garden?"
"I care not."
Coldly removing her hand from his shoulder, Sesshomaru continued to walk away.
"Perhaps it's the treasure you have been looking for. Hm. You should pick a rose from this garden as a gift for your human lover."
Sesshomaru halted.
Many demons knew of him, but none knew he had unique feelings for a human, except his mother. The one other demon who suspected it had been destroyed 8 years ago. Perhaps, the lady was somehow related to either Naraku or his mother.
Both possibilities were ridiculous.
"The reason?" asked Sesshomaru.
"Oh, girls naturally love roses," answered the lady after a short girlish chuckle. "And these roses may give her a long life, possibly even longer than yours."
Sesshomaru immediately lifted his brows. Turning around to face her, he narrowed his eyes, partly veiling the curious gleam behind his golden irish. "What manner of roses are these?"
"Hmh?" The lady was looking into the distance. "Oh, these roses grew from the heart of my ancestor, the great tree demon, Uekya-sama."
'Tree demon, Uekya-sama?'
"So those tombstones."
"They are the tombstones of Uekya-sama and his human lover, princess Aikabara."
'Human lover?'
Sesshomaru lifted his brows and shot a curious glance at the lady speaking to him.
She was pensive, looking at a murmuration of starlings whirling above the water over the horizon. "Hmm. Those starlings, they will never be lonely."
Sesshomaru turned his eyes on the gray curtain of starlings.
There was a long moment of silence between the two. They both stood still, watching the starlings' elegant dance like a ribbon twisting and rolling fluidly against the colorful backdrop by the landscape. The flock of starlings, soaring side by side, formed and transformed into shapes to be discerned only by the beholders.
Loneliness was not something Sesshomaru had thought about. He used to tread the terrain by himself and didn't really see any problems with it.
When Jaken tagged along, the imp disturbed Sesshomaru's peace somewhat, but somewhat Sesshomaru treasured it. Despite the fact that Jaken, most of the time, was a disruptive companion, Sesshomaru had gladly saved and protected Jaken many times over.
And then, Rin came along.
She brought her smile.
Her scent.
Her question.
"Say, Sesshomaru-sama, I was just wondering, if I died one day, would you… would you always remember me?"
Rin's question stabbed his heart, when it was spoken and, at the moment, from the memory of it.
Sesshomaru had not spent time contemplating on whether he would remember Rin forever or not.
What would be the point of that.
How would it benefit Rin?
The contemplation, since the realization that the Tenseiga could no longer resurrect Rin, was how to prevent her death. Protecting her from dangers was not enough. At some point, she would fade by the ruthlessly persistent hand of time.
The feel of Rin's lifeless body in his arms had invoked an emotion or two that he didn't want to experience a second time. He would give up everything to avoid holding Rin in that state again.
Suppose there was a fountain of youth on Houraijima Island where the four War Gods resided, but ever since Inuyasha defeated the four War Gods, the island had never appeared again.
Having a horde of lowly demons residing in Rin's body to make her a hanyou like Naraku, at the moment, would be the last resort. However, Sesshomaru would consider it if need be.
As the starlings flew farther away, Sesshomaru broke the silence, "How did your ancestors pass away?"
The lady beside him wiped her hand across her eyes momentarily. "As a human, the princess passed away from old age. Uekya-sama —"
Her words trailed off. She fell on her knees with hands covering her face, sobbing softly.
After gazing at the lady crouching in silent tears, Sesshomaru raised his sword, ejecting a slow moving stream of energy slithering across the ground."Perhaps, it's not a subject of which you should be reminded."
The heat from Baksaiga's energy incinerated the skeletal remains at the feet of the roses into ashes which got swept away by the vanishing tail of the energy stream.
The lady stood up.
After retreating to a short distance from Sesshomaru, she raised her head slowly, revealing a face darkened by a vengeful shadow in her eyes.
"You shall respect the resting place of my ancestor."
Stretching her arms forward with fingertips pointing at Sesshomaru, she sent a shower of small lotus petals which coalesced into fibrous tendrils whipping wildly across the air towards him.
Sesshomaru stood still, directly taking several hits before he withdrew to a safe distance.
Glancing at the gashes on his body and feeling the slightly burning sensation from them, he sheathed his sword and ascended into the air.
"Perhaps, you should respect the resting place of your ancestors by keeping it clean," said Sesshomaru as he glided away from the garden.
The sound of her voice reverberated after him. "I leave the bones of those greedy souls paving his grave, so he can witness that there's no true love existing in this pathetic world."
As if gone mad after the completion of her sentence, the lady produced numerous lotus tendrils, whizzing through the air, lashing out in chaotic directions, like the arms of an injured octopus waving wildly around itself. Petals, being ripped away by the force of her turmoil, churned frenziedly like dandelion seeds blowing in a wind blast.
...