A Distant Promise – Drabble #16

Where is she?!

Even today, he could recall the angry hiss, and the feeling of impending doom that had shot down his spine when he heard the taiyoukai speak in that eerily calm yet deranged tone. After hiding in the forest for days, Shippo had begun to wonder where Sesshoumaru was and what was taking him so long. Had someone managed the unthinkable and actually defeated the Lord of the West in battle?

When he had awoken out of a light doze to the fierce gaze of a furious demon-lord, Shippo could no longer remember why he had been so impatient to greet death. Sesshoumaru was about a thousand times stronger than the underage kitsune. His only chance had been to explain the circumstances immediately.

"Who was the woman?" Kagome inquired curiously, when Shippo trailed off into silence, after the first stage of his story.

Her question brought him out of his memories with a start. "Rin," he elaborated sadly, "But I didn't know that at the time."

"Rin?!" Kagome gasped. Obviously she remembered the bright little girl in an orange and white checkered kimono, and she felt sorry to hear of the girl's sad ending. "Oh, so Satoshi wasn't her son…"

"Of course not," Shippo rolled his eyes, "He's a full-demon." But then, the miko came closer to the truth than she might have thought. Again though, he hadn't known that at the time. "Do you want me to tell this tale or not?" asked the kitsune peevishly.

"Sorry," muttered Kagome, looking slightly sheepish but not ashamed of her interruption. "What happened?"

"I have never seen Sesshoumaru so livid," the fox-demon sighed, "Sometimes when a youkai gets into that state, all it can do is kill something. Or in his case, a lot of things. He was nice enough not to make me one of them, probably because I was holding Satoshi…"

The anguish that had poured off of Sesshoumaru that night had been palpable – a twisting, snarling beast of rage that seemed like it might never be satisfied. And yet throughout, his expression had been so utterly calm, devoid of all passion or sensation, that Shippo had wondered if the taiyoukai was actually dead. Eventually, the dog-demon had passed out, his spiritual energy completely depleted and his physical strength gone. It looked as though he had been through a severe fight, even before finding his son with the kitsune.

When he finally rejoined the land of the living, he had sat motionless for hours. Then, without warning, he had gotten up and walked away, and Shippo had followed. The kitsune knew he could never return to his village. People would think he betrayed them for a youkai child, showing his true roots at last. And Sesshoumaru was oddly unfit to care for a child. No female youkai ever stepped forward to care for Satoshi, so somehow, the duty had fallen to Shippo by default.

There was more to the story, of course, much more. But he didn't think Kagome needed to know it all. Suffice it to say that he had been there with Sesshoumaru when the sun rose again the next day, and the next, and the next… He had imitated the taiyoukai's moves often enough that the dog-demon reluctantly began to teach a fox some of the dog-demon clan's proud techniques. He had trusted Sesshoumaru enough to tell him the truth about Kagome and Inuyasha – but until recently, the disdainful dog had not believed him, fancying it a story, a fond hope cherished by a childlike fox who was unwilling to let go of his past.

Over the years, the humans had waxed stronger, while youkai waned. The few demons that remained gradually drew together, and Shippo could not count how many disguises or transformation spells he had cast, helping his fellows blend in to human society. He had been there when Sesshoumaru lost his first holding to a human damiyo, and then another, and another…

And he had been there the day Sesshoumaru, Lord of the Western Lands, and Leader of the Dogs, surrendered his goals and began to fight for humans instead.