Notes - Second part finally up. In which Sesshoumaru meets Souta nad the Higurashi family. Thanks for the review Vulcana, I wasn't expecting it :) Any and all mistakes in this story are mine. And if you are wondering, yes I have a first name for Mama Higurashi and for the nice detective all planned out, but you won't know them until next chapter. It took me ages to come up with the names too...and I am still unsure, but they are what they are. The next two chapters are planned, and a few little scenes after that. This story will be updated.
As for those reading Unbreakable Bonds, don't worry, next chapter will be out sometime in the near future, it is longer than my other chapters, being over 3000 words with still quite a bit to be typed up.
Strength to Continue – Chapter Two
A week had passed by in a blur of streets and sleepless nights. During the days, he stalked about the police station he had been taken to, trying to gain any information he could, but nothing. Either they were keeping quiet about the case, they were too busy working on another, or they just didn't care.
Sesshoumaru shook his head. He knew that wasn't true. There was one detective who had taken an interest, the nice one. He was heard muttering about it sometime earlier that day, something about finding the child killer and giving him what he deserved. Sesshoumaru was hoping that meant handing the bastard over to him. He would know just how to deal with murdering mongrels like that…
Yet he couldn't seem to wrangle up the energy to care about anything other than figuring out a way to get Rin back. The first one had come back twice from death, once by Tenseiga (it was too late for the sword, her soul would have already been ushered on to the next world) and the other by his mother. Perhaps if he could find her again….
Sighing, Sesshoumaru shook his head and put his hands together in front of his chest. He was at an old Shinto shrine and had decided that the best thing to do would be to pray, even if he wasn't the most religious person in the world.
He prayed for Rin to find her way back to him, he prayed that she was well, but he never once prayed for her soul as if she had passed on from this world forever. To do that would be like admitting defeat, accepting that she wasn't coming back, and right now, he just couldn't do that.
He missed the sound of someone walking up to him, until a hand was felt on his shoulder. Forgetting himself, he let out a low growl of warning, and the hand disappeared. The woman sat beside him. Somehow there seemed to be something…oddly familiar about her though he had never seen her before in his life.
"I'm sorry, I mistook you for my daughter's friend," the woman stated, smiling up at him in a disarmingly gentle way. He stopped his growling in order to let out a huff of disbelief.
"No one looks like me," he stated, turning his bright gold eyes towards her plain brown ones. It didn't seem to shock her like it would most other people, instead she seemed to frown.
"You have Inuyasha's eyes…"
A small intake of breath was all the answer he gave. How could this woman possibly know his brother? Inuyasha was dead and gone for centuries now!
The woman shook her head and looked him over carefully, raising an eyebrow when she latched her eyes onto his own again. He got the rather odd notion that she could see something he didn't want her to see.
"You have such sadness in you. Is that why you are here? Praying for a lost loved one?"
He froze. Honestly, he couldn't answer. He was afraid that if he did it would be the end of him. Everything would come crashing down more than it already had. That was not something he was ready for. A whine escaped him in his confusion.
The woman smiled at him in a way that he suspected was supposed to be comforting, before she spoke words he never thought he would hear. "It isn't very often we get youkai at the shrine."
He sighed. "There are not many of us left. Only the powerful survive"
"Well, then it is an honour to meet you. Why don't you come to the house and I can get you something to eat. We have meat."
The offer was a good one, and while he would really like to turn it down, his old fashioned sense of honour made him accept. He couldn't turn down the gracious offer of food as a visitor to someone else's home. He was just not hungry. At all. He hadn't eaten anything in a week. And he had just about as much sleep, if not less.
He was in bad shape. Perhaps a little food would help him feel better…
Standing up and giving a slight bow, he followed the woman around the shrine to the house that also sat on the property. It was a two storied building, and it had a very comforting presence around it. He summed that up to it being part of the shrine, not so much the people who lived there.
Ushered into the house, he looked about. It was a normal building really. Not new exactly, but definitely not as old as the shrine itself. It was filled with the smell of cooking meat. His sense of smell was still not any good, but the scent was everywhere and so strong even a human upstairs could pick it up. He sniffed the air slightly, hoping to smell something under the meat.
He couldn't. Sighing, he kneeled at a place at the table that was pointed out to him. A steak, barely cooked and still a bit bloody was put in front of him. Nothing else was with it, not even a little bit of rice. He nodded. This woman knew a bit about youkai then.
His mother had been able to digest almost anything, his father only certain things. Sesshoumaru had gotten the taste for meat early in life, and had never been able to digest anything else properly. He could eat other things, but it usually left him wishing he hadn't.
He ate what was in front of him, not noticing it was gone until there was none left, and then something odd happened. He noticed that he actually was a little hungry. Another steak was put in front of him, this one cooked.
He ate it, while the rest of the family gathered around and ate their helping. An old man, the woman and a young boy around Rin's age were watching him eat. It was rather unnerving. In the space of a few seconds he had given into temptation and had been chewing on the piece of meat using his bare hands.
Finished with the steak, he lowered his hands to his sides, careful not to touch anything before lowering his head. "I am sorry. It has been a week since I have eaten. My hunger has caught up with me."
The old man just kept on staring, but the woman smiled at him and looked to the young boy. "Yes, well, I made steak tonight trying to get Souta to eat something. He hasn't been hungry for that long either."
Sesshoumaru looked closely at the boy and raised an eyebrow, dark circles were under the child's eyes, and he hadn't eaten a bite yet, just played with the food in front of him. What did that matter to him? The only child he wanted to see was….
Giving his head a shake, trying to forget what he had begun thinking, he was about to get up, wash his hands and thank them for the meal when he yawned. He didn't want to go to sleep. He was terrified of what he would see if he did, but now that he had food in his stomach he didn't seem to be able to stop himself from thoughts of the warmth and comfort a bed could bring.
He had never been this tired in his life. Like his hunger, he hadn't really felt it until just now. His body had been too stressed to even think of sleep. But now, now his body was calmer, and the food had helped in that, filling him up (though usually he could eat a lot more than that) and making him sleepy.
He caught himself before he could rub his eyes with his hands, and stood up instead, going over to the sink and washing himself of the steaks juices that were clinging to him. He yawned again, before bowing low to the family still at the table. "I am sorry to intrude on you like this. I shall take my leave and…"
"We have a spare bed if you would like to get some sleep. You look even more tired than my boy here," the woman stated, ruffling her son's hair and making the boy turn red in embarrassment.
About to turn down their offer, Sesshoumaru thought about it. He couldn't go home. It would be too quiet and empty and he wouldn't truly get any rest at all, but here…here there were other people, here there was food, here there was a bed that was willingly given to him to use even though the owner knew he was youkai.
This was not only the strangest family he had met, especially given they lived on a Shinto shrine, but the nicest he had been welcomed into for a long time. Not since technology turned into something so high tech.
"Are you sure?" he asked, worried suddenly that this was all some giant hoax being played on him
"Of course. You look like you are about to collapse. It may be a good idea to get some rest, before that happens."
Nodding, he agreed, and let himself be led up the stairs and to a doorway that housed a bedroom. Something in it was very familiar but he couldn't place what. The bed was only a single, but it was long enough to fit him on it, and was gloriously soft and warm.
He didn't even manage to get under the covers or dressed into a pair of pyjamas which were put on the edge of the bed for him to use, before he was asleep.
IYIYIYIYIYIYIY
When he had gone to sleep, the sun was then setting, being late in the afternoon, so when he lazily opened his eyes the next morning, a continuous and odd buzzing sound coming to his ears, he wondered why it was suddenly dawn.
Yawning again, this time stretching out and letting himself lay in bed, he wondered what there was to do today. The ringing noise stopped for a minute before starting up again, and to his odd realisation, he noted that it was his phone. Someone must have taken it out of his pocket during the night and charged it. He must have been really tired if he hadn't been woken up through even the slightest touch. He had always been a very light sleeper.
Rubbing at his eyes with his hands, he sat up in the bed, glad to see that he was still clothed in what he had been wearing for the last week, yet knowing something in that thought was just plain…wrong.
The ringing stopped again before he got to his phone. He waited a few minutes before shrugging and pocketing it again. He had more important things to think upon just then anyway…like where this shrines bathroom was, he needed to go.
His mind was groggy from waking up after sleeping so soundly for probably the first time in his life, and he was in a strange house. Thankfully the boy was up and about and pointed him in the right direction.
After he was done, he headed downstairs, rubbing tiredly at his face and slumping onto a couch in front of the television. He just hoped that the family he was staying with didn't think him overly rude for invading their house like this.
The boy, looking just as tired as he still felt came and sat down next to him. "I'm sorry. I was told to make you more comfortable last night when you went to sleep, and your phone was in your pocket and your wallet..."
"Unless you stole something, don't apologise."
"No, I didn't. It just brought up..." Souta shook his head. "Seiryoku, as in...Rin?"
Sesshoumaru let out an involuntary gasp and turned to truly look at the boy for the first time since last night. He closed his mouth tight and just let himself nod once, slowly, to know that it was the right Seiryoku.
Souta's expression fell. "Oh, I was hoping you were someone else. I never met her dad, but she was always telling everyone that there was a reason for it. She didn't tell us why..."
Sesshoumaru found that he couldn't speak. It was like his throat was closed off from all sound. It wasn't painful, and it wasn't the same as on the verge of crying (oddly enough he wasn't) it was just...he couldn't think of words to say.
This child, this boy, knew his Rin. Had talked to her. "You knew her well?" he asked when he found his voice again.
Souta nodded. "She was on my mixed soccer team. I still have her ball from when she left it at the park last time we practiced together. She was a friend too. Rin's the first person I know who has..."
Infinitely glad that the boy stopped his rambling there, lest he did find himself crying, Sesshoumaru got up and walked over to the window, looking out at the shrine. Already the first early morning visitors were paying a visit. He spotted the old man from the night before out there, pottering about the shrine grounds.
Early risers. This was good. He too rose early in the mornings. It meant one had more time in the day to complete things that needed doing. Right now though, all he wanted was to crawl right back into the bed he had slept the night in and cover his head with the sheets, pretending that what he had just heard wasn't true.
He buried his head in his hands and took some steadying deep breaths, trying for calm. He was pulled back into the real world by a motherly voice calling out that breakfast was ready.
Blinking, he slowly followed Souta into the kitchen, was placed at the same spot he had shared dinner with them last night and a few rashers of cooked bacon were put in front of him.
He ate one strip of the meat, but unlike last night found once again that he had no appetite. He left the others, knowing it was impolite and rude, but sure if he tried to eat them that they wouldn't stay down for very long. The last thing he needed right now was to get physically ill.
Watching him like a hawk, Souta slowly reached out not for some of the meat in front of him but some rice. The boy ate it slowly, and soon had eaten everything but the egg. The woman beamed at him, giving him a hug as if it was the proudest Souta had ever made her.
The boy blushed like he had last night. If he was in a good mood, Sesshoumaru might have called it rather funny and imagined what Rin's face would look like. He closed his eyes quickly, trying to shut out any memory of his daughter.
He was saved any more embarrassing scenes in the wrong way. His phone rang again, and he got up, excused himself and went out to the lounge room to answer it. It was the police.
"Have you found anything out? Has someone been caught?" were the first things out of his mouth when he answered the phone and found out who it was.
Disappointment slammed him hard, and he sat down on the couch before he fell to the ground. There was still nothing, no news whatsoever. The bastard was going to...
"What do you mean I shouldn't worry about it? Of course I worry about it! How long does it take to catch a killer?"
The answer to that was also one he didn't like, and he closed his eyes and took deep breaths as to not completely lose control over himself. And then he found out the reason for the call and anger disappeared to be replaced by blind panic mixed with an overwhelming sadness.
"Oh...I'm sorry for yelling. Yes, I am sure I can find someone to go with me...thank you. Good bye."
He hung up and found that his legs didn't want to support him right that moment and so he stayed sitting on the couch, staring at the blank television screen. Movement at the corner of his eye made him turn his head, to find that the woman and the boy were both looking at him.
"Who was that?" Souta asked, coming back over to sit next to him. His mother stayed standing but walked fully into the room.
"The police...They have released Rin's body..."