"Kirin, stop!" Sango yelled out to her fleeing friend.
"I won't let him leave me beat again!" Kirin yelled back coldly, stopping to face her friends.
"Again?" Kagome asked her. "I don't understand. What's going on?" Kirin grinned sadly.
"Neither do I." With that she ran off into the woods after Sesshomaru.
Miroku grabbed his head in disbelief. "This is insane." He mumbled.
"What's going to happen to her," Shippo asked, getting teary eyed. Inuyasha shook his head angrily. "Crap!" Then he too ran off after Kirin, who was already lost in the denseness of the forest. The others watched as he also disappeared into the cold, grey rain.
Kirin was running blindly through the woods. He face was thrashed with oncoming branches. Her vision was obscured by the blood and muck that washed down her face thanks to the rain falling from the green rooftops above. She was weak from the beaten she had just received, but something inside her urged her to go on.
"Why didn't he just kill me?" She thought bitterly. But yet, something deep within felt almost glad that he left her every time. "No!" she yelled aloud to no one, "He's not pitying you, he's making fun of your weakness." Kirin wiped the blood and rain from her eyes with her kimono sleeve, and then she saw him. Sesshomaru stood just ahead of he. Kirin skid to a stop on the slick ground. Sesshomaru was gazing up a the sky. His eyes looked almost…..sad. Then he must have heard or smelt Kirin approaching, because he turned to face her.
"Arrrggghhhh!!!" Kirin screamed, hurling herself at him. Sesshomaru just stood as she grabbed him by the neck and pinned him to a nearby tree. "Why?" She spat, "Why won't you kill me?" Sesshomaru silently looked Kirin in the eye. His stare made her step back with pain.
"Why do you wish for death," he asked quietly and coldly. Kirin froze in her spot.
"I…I don't….I mean you……I….don't….know." Sesshomaru gazed at her. She looked sad and lonely with her hair hanging drenched, plastered to her face like that. Sesshomaru sighed heavily, and Kirin bit her lip uneasily.
Inuyasha stepped up behind a tree not far from where Kirin and his brother stood.
"What are they doing?" he wondered. They were standing towards each other. Just standing. Not speaking, not moving, just standing. "They must not smell me," he thought. "That's weird, Sesshomaru would normally be on me right now." His ears twitched as he picked up the words carried on the breeze over from where the two were standing. If was difficult to make out because of the pouring rain, but he thought that he could hear if he listened really hard….
Kirin opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. Sesshomaru spoke first. "Why do you keep coming to me?" He asked. "I thought that you would stay with that disgusting little human forever."
Kirin's eyes flashed with fury. "Saji," she said, emphasizing her friends name, "is not nearly as disgusting as you are." Sesshomaru mentally winced at this remark. "Now enough talk. If you want to kill me hurry up and fight me now. I told you, one of us must die." Sesshomaru tilted his head back and closed his eyes. He sighed again, and Kirin tapped her foot impatiently, her hand twitching by her whip holster. Then Sesshomaru spoke.
"Kirin. Why would you want me to kill you?" Kirin was furious.
"Stop toying with me!" She cried. "I would rather die then be left with the humiliation you leave me with every time I get beat!" Sesshomaru opened his eyes and look at Kirin. He stepped up to her and grabbed her shoulder so quickly that Kirin could not react in time. She struggled, glaring up into his eyes. But then she realize that his eyes were not angry. They were something else, but still cold and unreadable. "To think that when I first saw those eyes…."Kirin thought. Then Kirin stopped and looked past all her hatred for Sesshomaru and she saw that she never really hated him.
"Kirin," Sesshomaru said, breaking the silence. She looked up at him again. And with that he kissed her. Kirin's heart exploded as she fell into the kiss. The rain melted away all her hatred for him just as the kiss melted her heart. From his hiding place, Inuyasha fell back aghast. After a moment of flooded horror he found himself yelling out to Kirin. "Traitor!" He bellowed, then ran off back to where he had left Kagome and the others. Sesshomaru pulled back from the kiss sharply and glared off in Inuyasha's fleeing direction. Kirin stood frozen, he mouth shut tight and her cheeks flushing. Sesshomaru turned his attention back to Kirin. He lifted her chin so that she looked him in the eye. "How can you ask me to kill the one I love?" he whispered, and then ran away. All Kirin could hear was the puddles that splashed as his feet disturbed their rest. Kirin fell to her knees, clutching her chest where her heart beat wildly.
"What just happened," one part of her mind asked, but the other half knew. "Sesshomaru said that he loved me," She whispered aloud to herself. Tears formed in her eyes. They ran down her cheeks and were shrouded by the rain that also ran like tears. Kirin sat alone and cried along with the sky.
Inuyasha raced back to the others. He ran practically into Kagome when he reached the place where he had left them.
"Where's Kirin?" Kagome predictably asked. Inuyasha grabbed her hand and began leading her away from the edge of the woods.
"We're leaving," he replied sharply.
"But why….?" Kagome asked.
"NOW!!!" Inuyasha barked, coming to a dead stop and startling Kagome. She looked hurt, and Inuyasha lowered his ears. Kagome touched his shoulder.
"Inuyasha, what happened? Why are we leaving without Kirin?"
"Because," he answered solemnly, "She has betrayed us all." Then he led her away into the rain.