"Look a village!"
Pointing at a small gathering of houses, Rin turned to peer at Nazoki. The woman stared at the village, and nodded. Their fun of teasing Jaken had long passed, and now the girls were looking for something more entertaining. Over an hour ago, Nazoki had felt something strange. To the best of her knowledge, it felt as though something had drained her, hence the end of Jaken's teasing. Of course, the toad still thought he was a hero, but that was another story. Nazoki asked Rin if she wanted to spend time in the village and interact with other humans, to which the girl asked if she could.
Jaken started to nag the two, asking how Nazoki expected to watch Rin if the child went into the village.
"Easy!" The vixen grinned. She peered around the grassy plain, and picked up a green leaf. Frowning, and sticking her tongue out, tucked the leaf under her hair, and in a matter of seconds she looked like an older Rin. The woman wore a long orange yukata, and her fiery hair turned black.
"Come on, daughter." Nazoki chuckled, and soon the two were walking away from a very stunned Jaken. He and A-Un moved to the edge of the trees to wait for the two.
Gazing up at Nazoki, Rin allowed amazement to take her.
"Wow! You look just like a human!"
"That's the plan." Nazoki smiled. Taking the girl's hand, Nazoki led her into the small village. Most of the people they passed only glanced at the two new comers out of curiosity. Other than that, they didn't so much as suspect Nazoki was Youkai. A small shopping district caught their eyes, and Rin pulled Nazoki towards the few wooden carts. The girl seemed ecstatic to see regular human things, such as clothes, candy, and various other food items.
"Nazoki... Look." Rin pointed at another child who appeared to be eating some form of sweet roll. After a second of studying the girl's expression, Nazoki realized that Rin wanted one. She moved to the cart, which was selling them; knowing full well that she had no money.
"Which one would you like sweetie?" The humanized vixen asked.
Rin's face perked up and she pointed to one of the four rolls of bread. Noding Nazoki glanced at another cart, studying the coins that a man had pulled from his pocket. Reaching into her own, Nazoki formed an image. The illusion of coins.
Dropping the coins, Nazoki chuckled at her clumsiness. The man behind the stall waved it off, wondering if the elegant brunette was still with the father of her child. He also wondered what she was doing in a small town such as his; the woman looked like an imperial. Everybody was so distracted that they did not realize Nazoki picking up small pebbles.
In order to make her illusions solid, she needed a real item. She would hold the facade until night fall, then allow the "coins" to revert back to stone. Brilliant. Rin was happy, and so was she. The two wandered from stall to stall, pulling the same trick, except Nazoki no longer dropped her "coins", she had grabbed enough stones the first time. The vixen also got Rin a new Yukata. It was not until she found a man selling her favorite item of all that she bought something for herself.
Over an hour passed before the pair returned to Jaken. Rin was munching on sweets, and Nazoki still looked like an older version of the child. It took Jaken a moment to recognize her, as he had almost completely forgotten she had concealed herself. The girls had two small bags attached to their backs and the group started to walk away again.
"And for you two to wander off into some unknown village! What if you would have shifted in front of them! Do you know how much trouble you could have caused?! To think that Lord Sesshomaru trusted you enough to-" Jaken yelped in surprise when a fireball shot past him.
"Stop nagging us. Nothing happened, we were fine." Nazoki sighed reaching into the cloth bag on her back. The vixen pulled out a sealed vase of milk.
"This was worth it!" She cheered, and immediately started to drink the liquid at a frightening speed. Rin peered up at her and pulled her own smaller vase of milk out. The girl mimicked Nazoki's drinking motion, only in a less desperate manner.
Shaking his head, Jaken sighed.
Reaching a stream, Nazoki started to wash Sesshomaru's yukata, and her own clothes. Jaken gave the women privacy, and Nazoki shifted back to her original form. With her belt wrapped around her torso, she avoided drawing Rin's attention to her wound. As Rin stepped into a nearby hot spring, Nazoki started to clean the girl's clothes.
"Hey, you want to see something funny?" Turning to peer at Rin, Nazoki grinned.
"Yes!"
Nodding, Nazoki hung their clothes to dry, thankful that she had managed to wash the stain out of Sesshomaru's shirt. The vixen took a leaf, and tucked it under hair. With a small poof of smoke, Nazoki was Jaken.
"Rin! Didn't I tell you that Lord Sesshomaru doesn't care about you or that indecent Kitsune!?" Nazoki yelled, sounding exactly like Jaken. Rin burst into a fit of giggles, and Nazoki continued.
"I'm a HERO! Don't laugh at me! And make sure you tell Lord Sesshomaru of how well I killed that illusion! But don't tell him I screamed, and cried... The lord doesn't want to hear about that..." The moment she finished the sentence, Nazoki started to snicker as well.
"I HEAR YOU!" Jaken shouted from some unknown corner of the forest.
Gazing at one another, Nazoki and Rin grinned. The vixen took on her original form, and joined Rin in the hot spring.
"Are you going to keep your belt on?" Rin asked, and Nazoki nodded.
"Yes... I cut my stomach, when I slipped. I don't want it to get hurt from the hot water..." Nazoki lied. Rin nodded, and soon the two were joking with each other once again.
A small moment of silence fell over the two, and Nazoki mused that she was thankful to have somebody like Rin around. Soon the girl caught her attention.
"Rin wants to hear more of your story."
Gazing at Rin, Nazoki nodded.
"Where did we leave off?"
Rin placed a finger to her lips, and stared up at the bit of sky overhead.
"The mom arranged a marriage for the girl."
Nazoki sighed, and nodded once more.
"Lets start a bit before that... After the father died, the mother was very lonely. She turned to a man of whom she had known for years; a human, to be exact. After many weeks of consoling the woman, he found that he had fallen in love with her. She, of course, had done the same. Their relationship was kept a secret, even I, I mean, the daughter did not know. Over a year passed, and the mother started to act peculiar. In the end, she had his child. A boy, to be exact. This made life harder for her, and the family. The man was forced from his human village, and lived with the Youkai. Both humans and demons shunned the entire family. Ridiculed everything they did, cursed the very air they breathed. And in the midst of everything was the daughter; isolated from even her family. They loved the son more... Both of them..."
Once again sighing, Nazoki lowered her gaze.
"In an attempt to earn respect, and be accepted, the mother met with another family. Her daughter was promised to an evil man, of whom loved not a single soul. A very selfish, childish person. But if the marriage succeeded, the family would be forgiven. It seemed to be the only way, and was kept from the daughter. On the wedding day, she realized that everybody was congratulating her, and gifting her with things that were reserved for such an occasion. When she found out who the family was she refused..."
Stopping Nazoki gazed at Rin. The girl knew that she would hear no more, and nodded.
"But you didn't want to help your family? Rin knows it wasn't nice of the mom to do that, but she only did it to protect the brother, right?"
Eyes widening, Nazoki stared at the child. After a short moment of silence she shifted her gaze.
"I- I suppose she did..."
"Rin thinks the daughter was just scared. But the mom would never let her marry somebody who would be mean to her, right?"
Nazoki peered down at the belt around her, and slowly willed herself to nod. The child was too young to hear everything. But her words still hung in Nazoki's mind. Particularly about not wanting to help her family. Minutes passed, and each felt like a year. Soon, the two were redressing themselves and meeting back up with Jaken.