Sorry for the long wait my dears. All I can say is my family is going through some stuff right now and I apologize for not getting this out faster.

Nekomata – cat youkai of legend who had two tails, this is what Kirara is.

youkai taijiya – youkai exterminator; what Sango is.

Note: Rin does not have Multiple Personality Disorder; she just has a very vivid imagination. Also, Rin has her own share of problems (you know I just can't leave her alone) and remember that even if she seems happy most of the time, she's still human and still young enough that even she doesn't fully understand herself. Also, she is a sweet person, so even though she generally knows what she wants and is a pretty strong young lady, she isn't particularly violent. I am not being inconsistent with her personality, I'm just showing her facets because, let's face it, Rin-chan is a gem. ; )

My question to you as my readers is this: If you accidentally hurt or killed someone, how would you feel? Also, what happens when a girl who doesn't know much about her powers receives a rude awakening as to what they can really do?

This story is going to start getting even more complicated by the end of this chapter which is why it's a bit shorter. Also, Hiten makes an appearance and it might seem like I've cast him in a bully role like I did in "Thread Bound" but he won't stay that way forever. What can I say; he's one of my favorite, non-main characters in the anime/manga.

Anyways on to the thanks. Thanks to:

Hakudoshi and Kanna Forever, Racora Lurith Swan, New Fan, FoxyFire45, whitehitsugaya, vanilfrappe, AnimeFreak-TrunksPan-Lover4evr, Jayde Raine, Krazi3-AnimeLover, Hoshina Myi., keleos, fluffycrush, HawkAngel XD, anhimals

Ties of Blood

Chapter 11

Curiosity

Rin paused in the middle of yet another corridor that split in two and wondered if it might be prudent to rethink her destination. Should she continue to look for the stables, if this castle - which she was honestly starting to think of a massive monument to Sesshoumaru and his power - even had any? Or, should she go for broke and try to find the actual exit?

'Decisions, decisions,' she thought, nibbling lightly on her lip. She swung her head from side to side, trying to figure out which way would be better and ignoring the few servants who walked past her and either shook their heads or muttered under their breaths about humans who thought they could just walk in and own the place. Had she been a mean person, she would have been sorely tempted to stomp on someone's toes just so that they could direct their insults towards her instead of whining about her presence like she wasn't standing right there smack dab in the middle of the hall. However, neither her real nor her adopted parents had raised her like that, so she smiled graciously at everyone she saw and stood up straight like the well-mannered, young lady she was.

'Though, somehow, I doubt Sesshoumaru thinks that I even qualify as a woman, let alone a lady. I'm probably more like the insect he's squashed under his boot which refuses to come off.' She had a most un-ladylike vision then of herself as a cockroach hitching a ride on the bottom of the cold taiyoukai's footwear and clinging on for dear life every time he tried to shake her off. She actually snorted in amusement, turning the image over in her head before chortling out loud and garnering even more dirty looks.

However, her amusement died away as an unexpected and unwanted vision of him staring at her in the courtyard like he wanted to eat her alive rose up. If she wasn't careful, who knew what would happen. It had already been scary enough when he took her to his room – whether it was by accident or design she wasn't sure – and she would do well not to forget that she was currently ensconced in a room that was only a few doors down from his.

If she were honest, her driving need to explore Sesshoumaru's castle was the result of her equally driving desire get away from Sesshoumaru himself and his distracting animosity towards her. Since he wasn't direct in his thoughts or feelings, she would have to take the indirect route to learn more about him, his people, and the events that occurred over a century ago with his family. Whatever had happened between Sesshoumaru's father and his human woman apparently had a great deal to do with why the taiyoukai acted the way he did and she intended to get to bottom of it. She didn't think she could tolerate him for very long if she didn't find some means to explain away his infuriating personality.

So, she stood there in the middle of the hall, bit her lip lightly, and contemplated where to go. Of course, it was entirely possible for her to ask one of the servants about the layout of the castle but she had begun to run out of quite a bit of her patience some time ago. Rin didn't feel like speaking to anyone who tolerated her only because Sesshoumaru-Stick-Up-His-Narrow-Behind-Sama had gotten it into his head to bring her home. Keroko was nice but the rest of the youkai had yet to demonstrate their willingness to at least get to know her.

'Well, I guess one direction is as good as any other,' she thought with a sigh before turning right.

She wandered like this for about ten minutes, trying to map her way through the castle and failing miserably because of the ridiculous number of twists and turns. Her patience had long since hit rock-bottom and she was sorely tempted to grab one of the obviously expensive urns decorating the sides of the corridor and heave it through one of the openings that served as a window. The resolution she had made to act like a lady had long since shriveled up and died because no matter where she went, the servants were eyeballing her and muttering behind her back.

For all her bravery and courteousness out in the courtyard earlier, she was still a temperamental sort of person and her frustration with her situation kept mounting higher and higher. She didn't know if Souta-Nii was alright. She didn't know what had become of her adopted family. The youkai around her treated her like trash and it reminded her, uncomfortably, of her life as a poor orphan who was mercilessly teased and beaten just for existing. Just because she didn't have what every other child had – a mother and father – the men in the village would chase her away or beat her when she tried to fish for food.

It was almost enough to make her cry but she stubbornly refused to even entertain the thought of breaking down. 'Control yourself, Rin,' she told herself sternly, balling up her fists and holding them to her sides while she got herself together.

She had just gotten her breathing under control when a voice broke into her thoughts, "My, my, my, what have we here? A tasty little human girl and no taiyoukai in sight to save her?"

Rin froze then forced herself to relax as she turned to look at the speaker. She had expected him to be one of the ugly, weaker youkai – like Jaken – who seemed to thrive on bullying but what met her eyes was something else entirely.

The creature standing before her was nothing short of gorgeous. His hair was so black that even light didn't reflect off of it and it curled over his shoulder in a long braid that she guessed would reach down to his waist normally. He was dressed in armor with a light blue sash that crisscrossed his breast and wrapped around his hips, emphasizing how lean he was. There was an odd spear strapped to his back with a long blade that reminded her of a lightning bolt and she had to blink because hovering next to his feet where wheels. Despite his…interesting appearance, though, what really caught her was his eyes, which where the color of rubies.

'Or blood,' she thought to her self, 'Why do all of the good-looking youkai have to have such strange eye colors?' She briefly thought back to Sesshoumaru's golden eyes. They were beautiful, there was no denying it, but disconcerting nonetheless to stare into for long periods of time. It was the same with this youkai standing in front of her and she didn't much care for the decidedly mean slant to his eyes.

However, despite his unsettling remarks of a few moments ago, she mustered up as courteous a smile as she could manage and said as kindly as she could, "Have we met before?"

He smirked and said in that infuriatingly superior tone that all youkai got when speaking to her, "Only from afar but there's no need for you to know who I am because you won't be alive for much longer. But don't worry, I have every intention of savoring your flesh so at least you know you won't go to waste."

Now, in general Rin tried to be as good a girl as possible and it wasn't very hard because she truly was a very good person with a kind heart. But, she sometimes swore to herself that there were two sides to her personality with distinct traits. She had done her very best to keep Patient Rin in the forefront. Patient Rin was the side of her that put up with most anything - bending where need be but never breaking and easily forgiving and forgetting. Rin pictured her self-control as a demure version of herself who did nothing but sit quietly in her mental tatami room, sipping tea like the lady she was and letting the warmth of the brew soothe her temper. Patient Rin had been in control for the past six years and had endured the strict training of the head of the Higurashi household. Unfortunately, from the moment she got involved with Sesshoumaru, it seemed as if Patient Rin had been tied down and whipped mercilessly until she could barely stand let alone indulge her fetish for tea.

Unfortunately for the youkai in front of her, she could just picture Patient Rin sitting pretty and sipping the very last bit of her tea before pausing to turn the cup over and tap the bottom to see if she had missed any drops. Realizing that the fix for her addiction had run out, she clearly saw her patient self stand and go frantically through her pots to see if she had any tea left because she knew quite well that in a matter of moments she would undergo a transformation. Patient Rin was all fine and good as long as she got her fix, but without her tea, she went into withdrawal the way an opium addict did when his drug ran out. Withdrawal meant that Patient Rin's personality was subsumed by Angry Rin and the appearance of Angry Rin meant that someone was going to get his or her head bitten off.

Now she had been fighting ever so hard to keep Angry Rin suppressed but Patient Rin had been going through her stash of tea like water lately because a certain taiyoukai was stressing her out. Still, Rin kept her cool because her brother's life was in the palm of Sesshoumaru's clawed hand. That simply wasn't the case with any of the other youkai who looked down on her and treated her like dirt. Hence, the more she thought about it, the more Angry Rin realized in her devious little mind that she wasn't obligated to maintain good manners as far as the rest of Sesshoumaru's people were concerned. They certainly weren't the ones holding her brother over her head and they would definitely jump at any opportunity to take her life. Oh, Keroko was nice enough and so she treated the tiny youkai accordingly but the constant put downs from the others made her feel like an idiot for even trying to get along.

As she stared into the red eyes of the creature threatening her it occurred to her that she had been treating the youkai around her as she would her fellow humans. Among humans, you were expected to be polite no matter how much you might itch to scratch out Lord or Lady So-And-So's eyes. However, so far, the only people who seemed to garner respect among the youkai were strong ones, like Sesshoumaru or that Kuroko woman, who refused to suffer foolishness from anyone. In fact, her sharp mind recalled very clearly that only after she had put her foot down did Sesshoumaru actually agree to use her given name instead of "human". The only problem with her theory was that she would need to figure out just how far she could go before her boldness got her killed. But, since she could technically die at any time between Sesshoumaru's threats and the sheer amount of hatred so many of his subjects held for her kind, she figured she would just have to take a few chances.

So, the question was: Should she just stand here and take the nonsense this arrogant youkai was spouting or should she do something about it and take things from there?

Rin chose to do something about it and handed over the reins to Angry Rin.

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Sango had never been a particularly patient person. It had been that way from the moment she was born - a full two months early - to her first steps at ten months when most of the other children in the village could barely crawl. She had even progressed far beyond anyone else her age, achieving the title of Full-Fledged Exterminator at the tender age of twelve which was unheard of – the previous record for youngest had been set by her great-grandfather at the age of fourteen.

Hence, when word reached her village that Hanazawa – the Daimyo's town - had been destroyed, all youkai taijiya – the only independent group of youkai exterminators that were neither priests nor miko – had been gearing up. She herself had been ready and rearing to go for the past five hours ever since Shinji had come back from the neighboring village with the fateful news. From what she understood, the youkai who was responsible was a taiyoukai - the kind that were so powerful and so rare that their existence would have been dismissed as mere legend if her country hadn't been fighting one in particular for years now. The word was that the infamous Sesshoumaru was the creature who had singlehandedly slaughtered the inhabitants of Hanazawa and left the Daimyo alive as a warning.

The village elders were in the process of discussing amongst themselves whether or not to mobilize and attempt to bring the monster to justice once and for all. Every man, woman, and child had lost someone they loved in this ongoing war and she, along with everyone else, was sick and tired of it. No one seemed to know the full details about how and why the strife between humans and youkai had begun but the general consensus was that Sesshoumaru – who made no secret of his hatred for any and everything human – had started it.

'Well,' she thought grimly, 'I intend to end it.' A plan had been forming in her mind ever since she'd realized that this war wasn't going to end any time soon. It was risky, but she never had been and never would be afraid to take chances, especially when it meant that she could put an end to the endless fighting between humans and youkai. Though, honestly, if she had her way, all of the destructive beasts would be gone and dead with the exception of Kirara.

Speaking of the nekomata, she looked around her room to see where her closest companion was and espied her napping in the late afternoon sun on the ledge of her window. Her eyes lovingly slid over the tiny youkai and she gave a low whistle to wake her up. The little cat took her time climbing to her feet before sinking her razor sharp hind-claws into the wood and stretching her front paws out so that she could arch her back. Her pale, gold fur flickered with barely discernable orange highlights when the light from the sun hit her just right – belying her affiliation with the fire element - and the contrast between her gold fur and the black stripes adorning her body was striking to say the least. The tiny nekomata leaned forward and shook out the thick fluff around her neck before looking at her mistress with orange eyes and tilting her head to the side as if to say, "Oh, you wanted me for something?"

Of course, Sango knew that nothing could get past her little friend and she smiled slightly as she walked over and gently stroked her hair. Kirara was very loyal to her but the young taijiya knew quite well that the youkai had a mind of her own and generally didn't allow herself to be rushed unless it was something important.

The nekomata slid her eyes half-closed and rubbed her head against Sango's palm before maneuvering her body under her hand and making her stroke her entire back until her two tails flicked lightly over her mistress's wrist. A low purr sounded from the neko's chest and the young woman decided to breach the subject of a foray into Hanazawa while her friend was in such an obviously good mood.

"So, Kirara," she began and two eyes peered lazily up at her, "what would you say to us taking a trip to Hanazawa?"

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Sesshoumaru had been tailing her silently, using his sensitive nose to track her scent as she wandered the labyrinthine halls of his castle and ignoring the servants who scattered before him like so many leaves in the wind. He had to admit that he was more than a little curious about how she would interact with his subjects without him around. She was such an uncouth little thing and he was certain that she was liable to get herself in trouble for not controlling her tongue.

He let out an imperceptible sigh and wondered what she thought of his home, not that it was important. His castle was opulent to say the least and he highly doubted that she had ever been in a building that was half as magnificent as his. The grandeur of his castle was not something he normally thought about because he'd grown up around it but as he trudged along after the girl, he found himself actually wanting her to admire his home. He wanted her to look around and be awed by the evidence of his family's power since she apparently wasn't too impressed by him.

'Let her see and understand her position here,' he thought to himself.

'And maybe she'll want to stay forever,' his youki murmured softly, but he ignored it. He had no intention of keeping her alive forever – even if it were possible - no matter how fascinated he was with her. He'd only known her for a night and a day and, yet, he was already fixated on her and wondering what she would do or say next. His curiosity was roused whenever he was in her presence and he had no rest from the incessant questions his mind came up with about her.

For one of the few times in his life, the stern and controlling taiyoukai of the West felt a headache coming to rest behind his perfect brow. He resisted the urge to rub his temples and focused instead on following Rin, whose footsteps had ceased to sound in the increasingly empty halls. He paused as well and took the opportunity to breathe more deeply of her unique scent, which perfumed the air wherever she roamed.

Her earthy scent was still just as intoxicating as ever but there was a spicy taste to it when he opened his mouth to let it slide over his tongue that hadn't been present a few minutes before. He could tell from the flavor that she was annoyed and well on her way to angry, and he began to walk again, albeit more quickly this time. Good things never happened when Rin was upset, he was starting to realize. The girl had a temper and was bold to the point of foolishness, so much so that he was starting to wonder if the sweet, playful child that Souta had insisted on telling him about was only a figment of the human male's imagination.

Whatever was upsetting the girl, he immediately decided that he would need to put a stop to it because, though he hated to admit it, the scent of her anger laced with her natural perfume was going straight to his head. He wasn't sure if he wanted to run her out of his castle to keep it from affecting him so much or run to her and rub himself against her, immersing himself in her scent like a mindless dog. Naturally, the latter desire was the sole creation of his youki and, therefore, automatically relegated in his mind to an idiotic and completely impossible solution. The former idea conflicted with the plans he already had in place for her and so it too was discarded.

When he was perhaps two corners away from her current position, another scent joined hers and it originated from a side corridor. His sensitive nose tingled at the strong scent of a youkai on the hunt, mixed with the smell of ozone. He knew immediately that it was one of the two Lightening Brothers and he walked just a bit faster. The taiyoukai knew that, while she could handle most of his subjects in theory due to her powers, she was untrained and therefore defenseless until he could kidnap a tutor for her from one of the nearby villages. A weak youkai like Jaken wouldn't be too much trouble for her but a powerful one like Hiten – the older of the two brothers – was far beyond her current abilities. And he strongly suspected that it was indeed the elder brother who had cornered the girl because the scent invading his nostrils carried none of the impatience that Manten – the younger brother – always displayed.

Of course, he wasn't rushing towards her because he actually cared about her and certainly not because his youki was murmuring in his ear about the audacity of someone else touching his human. No, he merely disliked the fact that someone had actually dared to defy him, and in his own home no less, when he had made it abundantly clear earlier that she was to be killed by no one else but himself. No one else had that right and even the human girl, as ignorant as she was of their ways, had acknowledged his ownership of her life.

The more he thought about her facing off against one of his disobedient subjects the more his affront grew and he was ready to draw blood as he rounded the corner in just enough time to hear Hiten say, "…I have every intention of savoring your flesh so at least you know you won't go to waste."

For reasons he didn't dare examine, a tiny shiver when down his spine and he found himself gathering poison to the tips of his claws without thinking, his steps brisk as his mind took in the scene in front of him and attempted to process it. He was still a ways up the corridor from the two but he saw Hiten first – who had his back to him - and he took a whiff of the air, noting the self-satisfied air the other youkai had. The eldest Lightening Brother was obviously savoring what would, no doubt, be an easy kill which was why he hadn't lashed out just yet and acted on his spoken threat.

Though he wasn't particularly emotional, Sesshoumaru found his anger rising at the sheer audacity of the youkai and he was just a few feet away from reaching out and teaching the arrogant beast exactly what it meant to disregard his orders when Rin's scent spiked. The smell emanating from her was quite unlike anything else he'd ever encountered and it stopped him dead in his tracks. She had been angry before but what she was giving off now went beyond anger and straight to rage. It was so sharp that he actually felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and his sensitive nose twitched. The residual youki in the stones of the castle began gathering in response to the incredible vibe she was giving off and he felt it creeping around his body, sliding beneath his clothes and sinking down into his pores, automatically bolstering his defenses as it too waited for whatever was about to happen.

He watched, fascinated, as her face transformed. It wasn't physically, but it was there nonetheless in her soulful eyes, a change in her thinking. The taiyoukai could clearly see the intelligence at work in those brown orbs and they fairly sparkled, as if a new person was emerging from the depths of her very soul. The young lord wondered how in the world Hiten didn't feel or see her transformation and somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that the other youkai was going to regret his lack of awareness and very soon at that.

For one second, just one, her eyes trailed away from Hiten to look over his shoulder at Sesshoumaru and the moment their eyes collided, he felt as if the air had been sucked out of his lungs. There, naked and out in the open was pain, and it was a type of pain that he understood very well. He had thought it odd that her mood had turned so intense all of a sudden but, looking into her eyes directly, he actually understood where all the raw emotion was coming from. It wasn't just simple anger at being threatened, nor was it something that had merely been building over the course of a few hours, or a day, or even months. No, this was years of pent up frustration coming to the fore and he knew it well because he had been carrying on a war against humans for years as a result of that exact same anger. He was also aware of the fact that, sometimes, that particular form of anger could be set off by the smallest of things.

'Hurting,' his youki murmured to him, 'hurting like me.' He couldn't even bring himself to deny it.

It was strange really, how quickly things could change. A moment ago he would have sworn that he cared nothing for her thoughts or feelings but for one second he had actually identified with Rin, and he felt confused. His heart was doing that odd flip-flop that only she had ever evoked in him and he felt a strong sense of profoundness – the same one he had felt when he first met Souta. It murmured softly in his pointed ear that Rin would lead him to his future. He had a feeling that he was seeing a side of Rin right now that even her own family didn't know about, for a certainty what he was seeing and feeling from her didn't match Souta's description of a carefree little girl with no worries or anger in her heart.

It was…intimate, disturbingly so for his peace of mind and gratifyingly so for his disobedient youki.

However, he didn't have much more time to dwell on this new mystery surrounding Rin because he felt a huge surge of holy energy the moment her eyes focused on Hiten once more. The youki that had attached itself to him expanded and formed a shield around his body to protect him from the threat of purification but it didn't prevent him from discerning that her intense power was sizzling across his aura and attempting to squeeze itself through the tightly knit shield. If he had been a kind person he might have actually felt sorry for Hiten. Instead, Sesshoumaru opted to observe as she moved forward, with a bluish-white glow forming around her tiny hands, and grabbed onto Hiten - who had immediately tried to move away the moment her latent powers made themselves manifest.

A terrifying howl tore itself from Hiten's mouth the moment she made contact with him and the taiyoukai watched, mesmerized as the entire corridor took on a blue glow from Rin's power. He couldn't take his eyes off of her face as a myriad of emotions paraded across it.

Confusion as she tried to figure out what was happening to her.

Realization as it dawned on her exactly what she was doing.

Panic when the scent of burning flesh filled the air and Hiten's howls of pain began to weaken.

And, finally, guilt as she yanked her hands away from the youkai's arm and saw how clearly her power had burned through his sleeve and nearly melted the flesh from around his bones in the exact shape of her hands. The blue light dissipated, her power retreating once more to lie dormant and Hiten slumped against the wall, his breaths coming out in pained gasps.

Rin stared at him and then looked at her hands - which were pristine since any traces of the youkai's skin would have been burned away by her outburst of energy. Slowly, so very slowly she stretched her hands out towards Hiten in an obvious gesture of help but he jerked away from her and bared his fangs.

Even though Sesshoumaru had told himself on numerous occasions that he kept Rin around to learn more about humans and miko alike he could not help but wish that he didn't witness what happened next.

One moment Rin was staring at Hiten with a stricken look, the next she was on her knees and doing her best to put the contents of her stomach on display for the world to see. It was apparent that she hadn't had anything to eat in while since all she did was dry heave, but he could hear her whispering something between each heave and it gradually grew louder until he could make out two words that she said over and over again like some sort of pray.

"I'm sorry," she whispered softly as she lifted her head.

"I'm sorry," she said again but this time it was slightly muffled because she swiped the back of her hand over her mouth to clean it, even though she hadn't really thrown anything up.

"I'm sorry," she repeated with more volume and the taiyoukai saw her eyes glistening with moisture.

"I'm s…sorry, so very sorry," and this time her voice broke and she looked at Sesshoumaru as if he could actually turn back time and make it so that she hadn't nearly maimed Hiten. He felt no pity whatsoever toward the Lightening Brother - who had brought his injuries upon himself - but his youki grew restless as the acrid smell of her sorrow and fear invaded his nostrils. He wanted, no, needed to stop her pain for both of their sakes because the longer he stared at her, the more he felt as if just the tiniest shred of caring for her well being had taken root in his cold heart and it was threatening to grow if he was unwary.

There was a major problem, however, in that he hadn't the slightest idea how to comfort someone or to, at least, get a woman to stop crying. Most youkai women never cried and he realized just how inadequately equipped he was to do anything to hold Rin's tears at bay. His mind was grasping at straws when he realized that the only time she had ever seemed to relax was when he agreed to use her name. Deliberately keeping any and all desperation from his voice he said the only thing he could think of.

"Rin," he called her name in hopes it would snap her out of her funk and mentally winced at how cold he sounded, even to himself. The young woman took one look at him, scrunched her face up, and burst into tears, sobbing as if the world was coming to an end.

Golden eyes darted about in a panic and he felt his youki laughing at him since it always enjoyed making him squirm. He knew that the spectacle they made in the middle of the hall was unlikely to go unnoticed by the servants for much long so he did the only thing he could think of. Gathering his power, he scooped the weeping girl up into his arms, forcing his body not to freeze up when she curled her arms around his shoulders and buried her wet face in the crook of his neck.

She sniffled deeply and he did his best to ignore to tears running down the side of his throat as he searched the hall for the nearest window. Spying one, he levitated himself off of the ground and zoomed out of the opening, deciding that it was the best way to avoid prying eyes. He immediately headed for the safety of his room where he would have the privacy he needed to do something about Rin. As for Hiten, he could care less if the entire castle knew of the humiliation he had suffered, it served the youkai right as far as he was concerned and so he decided to leave him where he was.

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Thanks for putting up with my outrageous updates. I really appreciated the reviews I got because thing just haven't been going right for me since the start of this year. More Sess/Rin goodness ahead and there just might be some Miroku thrown in the mix. As always please read and review, it's fuel for us authors.