A/N: Although many of us "Yu-Gi-Oh!" fans may make other connotations, this chapter's title means seahorse, a species in which the males carry the young.

Kaiba

Sesshomaru never paid much heed to the calendar of human ceremonies. Such things were beneath his consideration and cluttered his focus. Mortals, short-lives, were called such because their existence was temporary. Their seasonal revelries were of no consequence because the only ones who remembered them were the humans of the last generation. There was about as much meaning in the construction of an anthill.

Or at least that had been his reasoning some ten years ago.

Now he could tell exactly what event was less than a week away: the Obon Festival.

The festival itself wasn't Sesshomaru's concern. He didn't care for the fanfare that assaulted his senses – blaring, pounding music, gaudy costumes, loud gossip, and foods spiced, sweetened, and pickled into an incomprehensible medley. He cared for none of it. It's what happened a near decade ago that he recalled. They never called it Rin's birthday, but the three days before the holiday started to serve as a marker for her age.

Seven going on eight back then… Amber eyes widened as the daiyokai made the next calculation. Nearly seventeen summers old now, eh? Such rapid growth for such a short amount of time. And the clarity with which Sesshomaru recalled it never changed.

oOo

The little child was an odd lot. Tenseiga was supposed to heal all wounds, but for whatever reason the girl-whelp remained mute. She gestured occasionally: tugging on the reins of Sesshomaru's steed when she needed rest, touching her mouth for thirst or hunger. Rarely, these gestures were accompanied by a slight vocalization, a hum or something like it.

On this particular day, the third since she'd joined them, the girl-child hadn't made any Sesshomaru gave her a sidelong glance – he wasn't sure why exactly, his ears and nose told him she was there. Inventory, he decided. The girl was strange with her slight lapse into regression. Yesterday, she came very close to speaking for the first time since he'd known her; but, whether it was mettle or mechanics that failed her, the girl's mouth worked up and down without a peep. She just ended up bowing with a shy smile and Sesshomaru accepted that as thanks enough. She smells the better since. A site to bathe and a set of new clothes – if he was obliged to keep the human he would do it. The Western Lord would not stand for anyone remarking that he didn't mind what was his.

And she kept up. When her feet tired she had the gumption to clamber up on to the dragon-steed and, with some prompting on his part, she had enough wits to go in search of food. All in all, he tolerated the extra tail, the girl-whelp made little trouble for Sesshomaru so long as he didn't have to go out of his way for her.

Until that third night when they neared a human settlement. She dawdled a moment to stare in its direction, seemingly mesmerized by the glowing torch lights and music that drifted on the muggy summer air. Although she didn't look away, she didn't smile either. Sesshomaru was unsure if the girl wanted to make sure they avoided it or if it was a wordless desire to enter it. Either way it wasn't on the dog-demon's route and he continued their trek…Then a sudden tug stayed him.

"What is it?"

"Unn…" the girl mumbled, with the hand that wasn't clutching the flowered sleeve she pointed toward the village.

"Say what you want, brat. And unhand Lord Sesshomaru!"

"Jaken." The daiyokai's tone was clipped.

"M'lord?"

"That's a human festival out there, isn't it?"

"Yes…" Jaken's claws curled around the Staff of Skulls. "They call it Obon. Candles are lit in memory of the dead and set upon small boats in a river. Presumably for safe passage to the afterlife." He stared at his feet, rather ashamed to volunteer the breadth of his knowledge on such a lowly subject. It wasn't his fault his clan had once lived near a human establishment.

But if Sesshomaru found that this information lowered his opinion of Jaken, the daiyokai gave no inclination. He looked at the girl. "Return here afterward."

She didn't budge. She simply stared at him with that uncomprehending expression as if to ask aren't you going to come, too?

"No." She could go or stay. It didn't matter to him. He'd already presented the choice.

But maybe it wasn't too clear because she found a large rock and settled upon it to stare in the direction of the town. She wasn't demanding that they go to it.

But she's not moving either.

Sesshomaru frowned in annoyance. Did this qualify as obedience or defiance?

With no small amount of disgust, he stalked in the direction of the town. "Jaken, stay. You" – he looked at the girl – "let's go."

Upon entrance to merely the fringe of the town, the demon was only dimly aware of the small child that trailed after him, preoccupied by the loud throbbing of drums, high twangs of biwa and waterfall notes from flutes – if Sesshomaru hated the cacophony the girl didn't seem to notice. Rather, if her glittering eyes were anything to go by, she relished the whole sight…from the security of standing behind Sesshomaru's hakama.

Suppressing a growl, he strode closer. The sooner the urchin saw whatever it was she expected, the sooner they could go. Wherever that may be in this chaos. People crawled everywhere. Sesshomaru debated flaring his aura just to clear a path, but unleashing pandemonium where there was already near imitation of it seemed to defeat the purpose of making this a brief and untroubled visit. Some people held their breath when he entered, others were so caught up in the festivities they hardly noticed. None of them looked particularly threatening. From the corner of his vision, Sesshomaru eyed the girl. It would have been such a simple thing to leave her here: she would stay and he would no longer have to worry about some human waif.

But she held fast to him. He couldn't just shake her off.

Then something caught the girl's eye. A fan – simple, folded scrap of paper on a twiggy frame – accomplished what Sesshomaru had been trying to do since he set foot near the town: it got the girl to let go of him.

Stooping, she picked the grimy thing up, examining it with the rapt fascination so common to children. Twirling it by the stem, she fluttered the fan this way and that. Where one side was plain white the other had painted upon it the kanji for hope. The little girl probably couldn't read, but she seemed enthralled by the strokes composing the character all the same.

Sesshomaru quickly pinpointed the stand from which the fan must have been bought. Or cast off. It was a shoddy wooden structure, obviously only set up on money-making occasions such as these, and the owner dozed behind the makeshift counter. He snapped to attention at the sight of a demon approaching his stand.

"I will take a fresh one such as that," Sesshomaru ordered, nodding in the direction of the girl with her fan.

Either the man was drinking or very stupid – perhaps both – because he hooted, "It's good enough for a brat, then it's certainly good enough for a demon." The man guffawed…until he found himself yanked halfway over his stand.

"A clean one, if you please," Sesshomaru said gently, his most dangerous tone. "With the same inscription," he added, loosening his hold somewhat. "I would not care to write it myself in your sullied blood."

The human hopped to, babbling apologies and pleaded for his life between telling snippets of his family at home. Sesshomaru set three copper coins on the counter – more than enough. At this point he was paying the man to shut up.

Whirling around to collect his tagalong, Sesshomaru nodded to her find. "Get rid of that. We're leaving."

With one last doleful gaze to her fan, she dropped it back on the ground where she found it.

There was a soft patter of bare feet as the girl trotted after him, apparently content enough to leave after the small amount of the festival she had witnessed. It wasn't until they had put some distance between them and the town that Sesshomaru handed her the little fan. She stared at it then back at him with the same plain-faced awe, had the dog-demon dropped gold into her palms she couldn't have been more astounded.

Accepting the gift with both hands, she offered a 'thank you' in the sincerest way she knew how; the girl grinned up at him, wide and open – there was a glaring gap where her tooth had been knocked out.

From the last time she was among humans, Sesshomaru remembered. But all the way back to where he'd left the other two, she skipped happily after the daiyokai, her souvenir waving as if they'd just made some spectacular conquest.

"Lord Sesshomaru!" Jaken hopped to his feet and started running at the mouth. "I'm so glad you've returned! I hope you weren't met with any trouble from those foul humans and…what on earth is she doing?"

The little girl chased after fireflies, then halted her pursuit to dance among them, fan waving in the air. She didn't talk, but her smile was bright and her mouth open for any opportunity of a sound.

And one came out. First by itself, then a series.

Sesshomaru looked up. She laughed? Looking down, he noticed the baffled expression on his retainer's face. Hopefully, no mirror of my own.

"Progress," Sesshomaru said by way of explanation.

And in more dimensions than the daiyokai could fathom at the time, he was right.

oOo

A year later, when the festival came again, Sesshomaru did come to let Rin stay in the village where it was held with the peace of mind that she was among friends and an old maid she was beginning to consider family. But the three days before that – which would have made it a year since she was first revived – Sesshomaru presented her with a small paper fan. Serenity that one had read.

Jaken watched his lord turn over the little fan in his hand, trying to see what character was painted on this one; it had taken the imp two years to figure out that the daiyokai had started writing the calligraphy himself.

This was the one time a year Sesshomaru allowed them to venture so close to the human village. Considering what happened last week with Rin's ankle. Jaken recalled how deeply his master had frowned. Rin didn't look any more pleased either. There was a brief lecture about personal care, but came down to all of them being relieved that the injury was much less serve than anyone had guessed. Rin would be ambulatory again in time for her "birthday."

Sesshomaru always made a point of clearing out the entire day. This year he postponed a long-awaited meeting with another yokai lord in the North. Since he hadn't provided an explanation, they would have to leave as soon as Rin was returned the following morning.

"Guests should never be rushed," the dog-demon said with a careless shrug.

In private, Jaken rolled his eyes at the light tone his master affected. Heaven help anyone – human or yokai – who got in Sesshomaru's way. And once Rin was with them, they went wherever she designated – even if it was just to roam aimlessly through the woods and wind up camping out just a few miles short of home.

Just the three of us, like the old days, Jaken reminisced. He appreciated that Sesshomaru kept him around for the day. The little imp, after all, had been there, too, when they acquired Rin.

"Good morning, Lord Sesshomaru, Master Jaken," Rin greeted, her mood as sunny as the day. She never carried more than the bare essentials with her; Sesshomaru was pleased to see that not only was the blade among them but that the young woman no longer walked lopsidedly to compensate for its weight.

"Are we going?" Rin asked.

"Yes." The dog-demon minded his pace. Next to her voice, the patter of Rin's feet trailing after him was a sound Sesshomaru cherished, it was the first he had heard from her when he learned she would follow him wherever he wandered. And one he knew would someday sorely miss.

As twilight was overtaken by nightfall, Rin knew what was coming next. After more than a few hints and outright pleas on her part, Sesshomaru finally relented and withdrew a small, wooden-framed fan.

Rin smiled, eager to see what this one read. Well before Kagome had returned from her world after a three-year absence, Rin's education had been taken into account. Although Kaede knew of the script for charms, seals, and mantra, it was with Sango that she learned the practical writing systems for native and foreign words. When Rin had asked Sesshomaru about the keen interest Kohaku's sister had taken in her literacy, the daiyokai explained it no further than a debt owed from the final stand against Naraku. It would be a few more years until Rin was given the full explanation.

Nonetheless, although Miroku knew quite a few himself, she always came to Sesshomaru for kanji. He only taught each character once, leaving Rin the responsibility of practicing on her own – and being prepared to read a set of instructions whenever they unexpectedly appeared in her home or in a new gift. Unorthodox as it was, under the dog-demon's tutelage, she mastered well over a thousand, besting most people and certainly many women for the time. The little fans had become something of quizzes.

Now she studied the character for a moment – it always took a good minute to make heads or tails of Sesshomaru's hand. "'Courage,'" she read, triumphantly smiling up at the daiyokai. Then Rin giggled to herself and silver brows quirked to be cued in. "Is this courage for you or for me when I go off on my own?" she asked.

Turning to study the starry skies, Sesshomaru made no further comment. Rin and Jaken exchanged a look before settling comfortably against Ah-Un's scaly bulk. It was a familiar and somewhat familial pattern for them.

But when Rin fell asleep under his watch that night, amber eyes returned again to the blade at her side. He had provided her the strength and she had worked to develop it. Progress. She could stay or go. And somehow it matters. With this newly realized power, Sesshomaru wondered if Rin would remember to share her day with him wherever her travels would lead.

.

A/N: I rather like Sesshomaru's idea of birthday cards. This chapter was partly inspired by the link found here:

anhso. net/data/9/Dung0502/518550/sess,rin97759. jpg (please remove spaces)

On a cultural note, the Obon is a Japanese holiday, usually held in midsummer or at the end of it, that commemorates the dead; you might say the Western counterparts are Halloween and el Día de los Muertos (personally, I find the latter a better description since Obon is also predominantly about giving reverence to dead ancestors, minus the sugar skulls). Offerings are made and floating candle vigils are set adrift to guide the lost souls of the departed back to the other side. Obon pops up in anime rather frequently, such as (here's my second cross-anime reference for the day) in that one Pokémon episode Season 1: The Ghost of Maiden's Peak – back when the show had quality. Depending on region, Obon rituals vary, some more festive than the others; admittedly, Obon has gone the way of many holidays and lost much of its spiritual value. My interpretation will be featured in the upcoming chapter.

August 15th, or Hachigatsu Bon (Obon Festival of the Eighth Month; note: "O" is an honorific) is this Sunday. Check Google for local festivities.