Chapter 2

Author Note:

Okay, so once again, this is kind of just setting up the whole plot of the story so, don't give up on it just because there isn't a lot of action in the first 2 chapters. This is going to probably be an epically long fic, like well over 100,000 words (which is a lot, in case you didn't know), and things need to be established before it can really start. But just to let you know the next chapter is full of action, you just have to read this part first lol.

"Master Jaken?" Rin said hesitantly. She had been trying to decide how to word her question ever since they left the youkai village. Now that they were all settled around a fire for the night, she knew Jaken would not be able to ignore her, like he so often did whenever she asked him a question requiring a lengthy explanation.

"Yes, Rin?" he said in exasperation.

"I have a question."

Jaken grumbled. When you do not have a question, let me know so that I might be impressed, he thought dryly to himself. He dare not mention such a statement out loud while Lord Sesshoumaru was around unless he wanted a well aimed rock to the head, which he most definitely didn't. For some reason, the taiyoukai was particularly touchy when it came to the belittling of the girl, though the toad could not imagine why. She did not seem affected by it.

"Master Jaken?" She intoned again.

"Well, spit it out," he said disapprovingly, as though she had interrupted him from some great task.

"Rin was wondering... She was wondering, um..." the girl stammered, biting her lip. She needed to approach this carefully if she had any hopes of receiving an answer - and she really, REALLY wanted an answer.

Ever since she had seen the pregnant demoness in the village, Rin had suddenly realized the fact that she had no idea how someone came to be in such a state. She had looked down at her own belly and hoped with all her might that it would not spontaneously begin to grow. The young girl was fairly sure it wouldn't, but she only wanted to make sure.

"Out with it, girl!"

"How are children made?" she said, looking up at him with the round, pleading eyes that she knew he could not turn away from. Rin thought she saw her lord turn his head in her direction, but for once, she had more important things to concentrate on.

Like how Jaken was almost spitting out his tongue.

Lord Sesshoumaru watched the scene unfolding before him with mild interest as he casually leaned against the base of a tree bordering their small camp. His retainer's eyes looked just about on the verge of jumping out of his head, sputtering nonsense and flailing like a drowning man. It was quite amusing, Sesshoumaru decided, though he showed no indication of that opinion. Meanwhile, his ward was looking slightly taken aback, but by no means any less interested in the answer to her question.

No, she is much too young, he concluded. She was much too young to learn of such things and he did not want her innocence destroyed so early. Sesshoumaru was not an expert on the stages of ningen child rearing, but he was positive she had to be a little more... tall-ish, or something, before this particular life lesson was learned.

"Children are creations of the gods, as are all things," Sesshoumaru spoke, interrupting Jaken's fit and Rin's silent pleading.

The young girl turned her head towards him, confusion still evident on her face. "But if the gods created all things, Sesshoumaru-sama, who created the gods?"

Sesshoumaru shifted his gaze to Jaken, indicating that he should take over from there. The taiyoukai was not much of a talker, to put it simply, which left story telling out of the question.

"W-well, Rin, listen up, and I will tell you," Jaken stammered. He was extremely grateful that his great lord had decided to spare him from the horrifying task of explaining procreation to the girl. He would gladly tell her anything but that.

Rin nodded and sat at attention, her previous question completely forgotten as Jaken began his tale.

"At the beginning of time, there existed nothing but chaos. It was an ocean of substance without form or order, and from this ocean sprang the original deities of the heavens. These celestial gods and goddesses came in pairs, one a man and one a woman. Both were intended as both siblings and mates. The eighth primordial couple were named Izanagi and Izanami, and the other heavenly gods presented them with a jewelled spear, telling their brother and sister to go forth and create.

"The two deities stood upon the floating bridge of heaven and plunged the spear into the sea of chaos, and when they lifted it, the drops that fell from the end formed the first solid land. Izanagi and Izanami then descended to the earth and became husband and wife. They birthed many children, who became the islands of Japan, and created many gods and goddesses to represent mountains and valleys and all other things.

"And thus the world, and everything in it was born!" Jaken said with satisfaction, crossing his arms imperiously as though his great storytelling skills could bring the very world to its knees.

Rin was less than impressed.

"But what happened after that? What happened to Izanagi and Izanami? Are they still alive? How old are they? Are they older than Lord Sesshoumaru?" she asked in rapid succession. She wanted to know the end of the tale; it seemed unfinished to her.

"I... I am not sure I should tell you the rest," Jaken said uncertainly and looked to his Lord.

Sesshoumaru merely inclined his head, his posture laced with boredom and indifference. He knew the girl would not be able to close her mouth until she learned the rest of the tale, and he was not prepared to listen to Jaken bicker with her for the next few days.

"Y-yes, Lord Sesshoumaru!" Jaken said hastily and then turned back to the girl who was now even more interested in the end of the story. "It is not a happy ending, Rin. It is not meant for children," he warned.

"That is okay, Master Jaken. I am not like other children," she smiled. She had seen death and abuse far too often to be troubled by a simple story like most children her age would be. She learned long ago to be unafraid of the monsters in one's dreams, for there were just as many to be afraid of while awake.

"Very well," Jaken sighed. "Now, Izanagi and Izanami had another child, but things did not go as they had planned. This infant was to become the god of fire. However, Izanami was badly burned as she birthed this young god, resulting in the first true death of this world.

"Izanagi was consumed with grief, and traveled to the underworld to bring his beloved wife back with him. He searched the land he had created until he discovered the entrance to the realm of the dead, but when he finally found Izanami, she told him with a heavy heart that she was fated to remain there and could not go back with him. He begged for her to return with him and so, she told him to wait for her while she went to plead with the gods of death to let her go.

"But after many hours, Izanagi grew impatient in the vacant lands of the dead and followed after his wife. But when he found her, she was not the beautiful woman she once was, but a rotting corpse in the house of the death deities. Not realizing she had merely fallen asleep, he fled from her, and when she awoke she was furious that he had disregarded her orders to wait. She sent hideous female spirits, eight thunder gods, and an army of fierce, undead warriors after him.

"The chasers pursued Izanagi to the edge of the two worlds, but he blocked the path between earth and the underworld with a huge boulder. Izanami met him there and asked why he had ignored her orders, but he was much too angry to answer her. It was then that they broke their marriage ties and parted ways.

"It is said that Izanagi created humans and youkai to fill the emptiness he felt without his mate and that Izanami made it so one thousand of his creations would die each day to join her in the underworld, for she felt empty as well. But Izanagi would not be outdone by his wife, and he made it so fifteen-hundred ningen and youkai were born each day, to replace the ones Izanami would take from him."

Jaken finished his tale with an exhausted sigh and looked to the girl who had been the source of all of this trouble.

She was fast asleep.

He wanted to be angry with her for forcing him to recite the story only to drift off while he told it, but he was much too tired to care.

Sesshoumaru watched as Jaken's bulbous eyes drifted closed and his consciousness slipped away. He had not heard that tale in a very long time, not since his youth when his mother had recited it to him as they walked in her gardens.

He remembered her telling him she thought it was terribly romantic that Izanagi would travel all the way to the underworld to retrieve his wife. Sesshoumaru only thought it ridiculous that a deity would be so weak as to let a female have such power over him. When he told her this, she laughed in her harsh, mocking way, saying that one day he would find a female he would gladly die for if only she asked. She said that it was not wise to call others weak when you were capable of the same weakness yourself.

Sesshoumaru had scowled at her and walked away.

He never much liked talking to his mother; she always gave off an air of one who thought themselves much more knowledgeable than everyone around them, yet had no desire to share their wisdom.

But no matter, she was not right about this. He was not weak, he would never be weak; even for Rin he would not sacrifice his life. Admittedly he would - and had - sustained injuries to protect her, but injuries would heal. Injuries made one stronger. They were not a weakness, simply an inconvenience. The girl might inconvenience him, but she did not make him weak.

Speaking of which, that reminded Sesshoumaru of his most recent train of thought: inconveniences. There had been reports of a rogue youkai bordering his lands to the South. A "maiden snatcher", it had been referred to by a few of his scouts.

Apparently, this youkai sought out the most desirable females in any given area and took her. Whether it intended to devour her or keep her for other purposes was unknown.

Sesshoumaru did not particularly care, but seeing as Rin was a female, he felt an obligation to look into it, though he wasn't entirely sure if she fell under the category of 'desirable' for a human (she was quite young, but that did not seem to be a problem for some disgusting creatures).

Her death, after all, would be a particularly unfortunate inconvenience.

And so, tomorrow he would depart and head for the Southern border leaving his ward and his retainer to do... well, whatever it was that a toad and a human girl do, in his absence. The border was not far, maybe a two days' travel if he flew, and as soon as he found this "maiden snatcher" he would melt it into oblivion and return.

Sesshoumaru almost smirked; the prospect of melting things always put him in a good mood.

***

Something feels weird, Kagome thought, shifting uncomfortably from her perch on Inuyasha's back. They were close to the well now and she just couldn't shake the feeling that something was not quite normal about the situation.

Not that riding on a half-demon's back as he jumped through the treetops should feel normal by any accounts, but this was different. Something was just... off. Even Inuyasha - who was normally oblivious to such things - noticed her tense state and immediately checked for danger. Kagome was a tough girl, Inuyasha knew, if something was making her nervous it shouldn't be taken lightly.

"What's eatin' you?" he questioned, trying to sound disinterested, but not quite managing to hide the concern in his eyes.

"What? Oh, it's nothing. I just worry about you guys when I go home, I guess," she shrugged. How was she supposed to explain that she suddenly felt like she would rather run back to the others and agree to bare Miroku's children than get any closer to the well? Inuyasha would undoubtedly think she was crazy... and then probably castrate Miroku.

Silly Inuyasha, she thought. He was always overprotective like that.

"Keh, that's stupid. We can take care of ourselves better than you can," he said gruffly. He really hated it when she got all deep and caring on him. He was a man, god dammit! He didn't need her coddling...even if he couldn't deny that some small part of him secretly reveled in it.

Kagome smiled. She knew that in his own brash way, he was only trying to comfort her. He really does care about me, she thought absentmindedly.

"I know - I just can't help it," she said softly. "I don't know what I would do if something happened to you guys; I love all of you like family."

And some a little more than family, she added with a blush as Inuyasha dropped her gently to the ground and walked her to the old well.

"Yeah, well, like I said: You don't need to worry," he mumbled, scratching behind his ear awkwardly and refusing to look her in the eyes. "And don't talk about all that mushy crap; it makes me sick."

"Sure Inuyasha," she smirked and quickly leaned in to give him a brief peck on the cheek. "I'll be back in a few days. Don't follow me, or I'll S-I-T you good!"

The last sight Kagome saw before jumping into the old well was that of her stunned hanyou friend, his hand on the place her lips had just been.

Chapter Notes:

Okay, the Izanagi/Izanami tale is a real Japanese legend, the only thing that I added was the part at the end about Izanagi creating humans and youkai. The legend did say that Izanami took 1000 lives everyday, but it didn't say why. It also didn't specify that Izanagi created humans and youkai, but I just added that part because it seemed plausible.

So, yeah, if you have any problems with that, whatever, this is a story.

Anyway, next chapter is much more exciting so, keep reading and review!