A black sword was protruding from Rin's chest, Akumu's grasp lifting the young girl from the ground and to eye level with the demon lord. Small droplets of blood delicately fell into the snow covered ground beneath Rin's feet. "Lord Sesshomaru?" Rin's voice was faint and laced with sadness. Akumu, staring past the girl and into Sesshomaru's eyes, gave the stunned lord a few final words.
"Sesshomaru, my precious girl wanted so dearly to be with you forever." Akumu's smile gone, her other hand slowly and painfully stretching to caress Rin's cheek. "However, as we both know, mortals are not meant for this world long. But there was one way for her to stay, to never feel the pains of age or death…"
Sesshomaru still standing, released his grasp on his sword; Rin would die for the third time, there was no coming back. But why could he still hear her heart? Why did he not see the demons of the underworld? "You wretched creature will explain yourself, NOW!" Sesshomaru's voice held an anger that was vicious and inhuman.
Akumu began to smile once more, the face splitting grin that continually crept and etched its way among her true disfigured form, was emerging yet again. "If one does not have a soul, then one cannot lose it in death." Akumu was gently stroking Rin's hair as the small girl gasped for breath while suspended from the black sword. A royal blue light was silently and steadily oozing out of the wound that was now in place of Rin's heart. "She always had the most delectable nightmares a child could ever live with. I wanted them, I reveled in experiencing her pain and terror, over, and over, and over again." Akumu glanced at Rin one last time, an almost saddened expression emerging from her eyes in losing such a child; her child, her nightmares. The thought of devouring her pain soon brought Akumu's thought and amusement back to Sesshomaru. "I shall take her soul and her most enjoyable horrors, as my own. You may have what is left; and she will of course, be with you forever. No soul, no age, no death." With that Akumu ripped the sinister blade from out of Rin. Rin did not fall to the ground.
Sesshomaru watched as the ever more brilliant blue light, seeped from Rin's wound, and began to engulf her body. The great demon lord strained to see through such a light, yet through the light, he saw the body of Rin change. Legs and arms began to grow longer; the short messy dark hair that Rin constantly kept tied off to the side was now tumbling down a back and to a waist that would grace the figure of a grown demoness. Rin's body was now that of an elegant and grown woman. As the light began to fade and draw into Akumu's sword, the matured body that had taken place of Rin's, lightly drifted to the ground and in steps in front of a stunned Sesshomaru.
The snow and ice, along with Akumu, had vanished as abruptly as it had appeared. The grass was once again green, the small stream quietly flowing to its destination, the rays of the sun gently cascading down the arms of the trees. Jaken no longer stone, however apparently unconscious, was laying off in the distance; and the grown body of a woman, was resting beneath the gaze of Sesshomaru. As the puzzled Sesshomaru watched, the young woman began to stir and ever so slowly, raise herself up to meet the great dog demon's astounded stare.
"Lord Sesshomaru?"
*****Thank you to all who have enjoyed and reviewed! I greatly appreciate your feedback and hope you're continuing to like this story, I will be adding another chapter soon. Please continue with those reviews ;-) *****