A.N:

This story is the prequel to my Yashahime rewrite. Yashahime Bloodlines where all of the characters grew up with their parents around. This story can be read with or with out reading Bloodlines but there are a few minor mentions of things and characters that I introduced within the first few paragraphs of Yashahime Bloodlines chapter 1. The biggest difference for those who did not read Yashahime Bloodlines will be Towa's personality change. I did not like Towa's character that much in the original series so I changed her to be a little more head strong in my stories. Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoy this story.

Chapter 1: The Way I Love You

Hisui met Princess Aiya for the first time over a year ago. Hisui had been enjoying last year's Summer festival with Towa and Setsuna, when he had briefly seen Princess Aiya along with what he had assumed to be some of her maids walking the opposite direction of them.

It was only a brief encounter, neither of them sparing the other a glance as Towa called Hisui out for being bad at most of the festival games, bringing up how many times she had beaten him that night. When in reality Hisui hadn't been bad at the games Towa had just been better than him at the games that she had purposefully picked for exactly that reason. The three of them had been playing games and eating food for most of the night and with the games came both Hisui's and Towa's competitive spirit. Hisui knew the truth about how Towa had picked what games to play but was still successfully goaded into bickering with Towa while Setsuna only let out a small laugh in response to the two of them and simply just allowed them to be themselves rather than intervene and stop them.

Hisui hadn't even noticed Princess Aiya as she walked past them ordering each of her maids to go and get her various different items from the festival until she was finally alone and was able to sneak off by herself. Aiya had barely seen Hisui out of the corner of her eye and she wasn't interested at the time neither of them had known each other yet but this had been the first time that their paths had crossed.

After almost 10 minutes of back and forth Setsuna intervened in the dispute between her sister and Hisui effectively ending the argument by calling both of them out on what was warranted. Towa for purposefully only picking games that she knew she was good at and Hisui for letting her trap him into this argument that Setsuna had seen coming all night long. It was only the three of them today as Moroha was with her mother doing the priestess rituals for the festival.

Moroha never liked staying at festivals after performing rituals or ceremonies with her mom. She said that it was almost impossible to enjoy everything when so many people would start to watch you after so she preferred to go home once the rituals were finished. Moroha rarely did any kind of priestess duties anymore once she decided that she didn't want to follow in her mothers footsteps and become the next head of the village temple but this was one of her mothers favorite festivals so she agreed to the night's proceedings.

Towa, Setsuna and Hisui then spent a lot of time tasting sake once Setsuna had settled their argument. Setsuna only drank one glass while Hisui and Towa, still as competitive as ever with one another, drank while others cheered them on as they watched Towa and Hisui compete once again. The atmosphere was lively and the two of them were determined as the cheers kept coming and others joined in the drinking and celebration until Towa had no doubtably lost this time and now Setsuna and Hisui were trying their best to convince Towa not to drink more.

Towa had a high tolerance so she wasn't too good at recognizing her limits once she started to feel something after drinking excessively. Towa just hadn't expected Hisui's tolerance to be even higher.

Setsuna went to her sister's side and stopped her from taking another cup of sake.

"Hey what are you doing?" Towa slurred.

"You've had enough. You're done here." Setsuna told her sister.

"Who do you think you are, telling me what to do?" Towa said with red cheeks which made Hisui smile he had obviously won this time.

"There's always next year." Hisui smiled.

"Like hell am I losing." Towa said reaching for another cup and Setsuna stopped her yet again.

"I said that you're done. If you keep this up we're going home." She said seriously and her sister finally complied. Towa could barely walk without Setsuna supporting her and she was way more happy go lucky than she usually was thanks to the sake. Hisui on the other hand was in a much better state than Towa and he had drunk just as much.

Setsuna now looked at him with a disapproving look in her eyes.

"What?" He asked.

"Did you practice for this?" Setsuna asked him.

Towa was obviously drunk while Hisui seemed almost perfectly fine save for his slightly pink cheeks, it was suspicious.

He laughed lightly at her seriousness. "Not at all high tolerance just runs in the family. My dad drinks one cup of sake every night at dinner so I'm just used to it." He smiled while Setsuna's shock only set in more.

"So drinking this much is normal for you? Are you sure that you're completely human?"

"I'm sure." He smiled. "If Towa drank more she'd probably be able to drink more than me if she did it more often."

"Don't encourage bad behavior. I'm going to be the one dealing with this all night while you get to go home to peace and quiet." Setsuna said as her sister looked like she was going to pass out any minute now and she was not even paying attention to what Hisui or Setsuna was saying.

"I can help you carry her home if you want." Hisui offered.

"No, she did this to herself. I'm making her walk." Setsuna said.

"Have you seen the Princess?!" A woman that both Hisui and Setsuna both recognized to be one of Aiya's maids asked frantically.

"The Princess has gone missing and no one can find her. We think that it might be the work of a demon." The woman cried frantically now and people all over began to search for the Princess.

Hisui had only seen Princess Aiya briefly the night of the summer festival and he probably never would have met her the way that he did had she not have gone missing that same night.

Hisui along with his fellow demon slayers that were present at the festival besides Towa and Setsuna assisted with the investigation since the village lords soldiers claimed that they had seen a demon in the woods.

Setsuna stayed close to Towa who was clearly drunk but was insisting that she could help find the Princess. None of them had even brought their weapons with them to the festival so Hisui went along with the other slayers to find Princess Aiya. While Setsuna stayed close to her sister to keep her out of trouble.

Hisui was the one to find Princess Aiya that night, in the deep of the woods with a demon that was no trouble for Hisui to slay on his own and Aiya had watched him starry eyed and awe struck but Hisui was oblivious to how he looked to her. He was only worried about getting her back to safety but from that day on things changed.

This was only the first of what would become Hisui's many encounters with Princess Aiya. Until one day almost a year later when a letter arrived at Hisui's house from Princess Aiya's father asking to have an audience with his parents.

Hisui wasn't even aware that such a letter had come to his home in the first place. He went about his day as usual. There were no demon slaying jobs that day so he and Setsuna went and picked up supplies for the slayers guild. But when he came home that night his father was in higher spirits than usual while his mother looked concerned.

"Hisui! I'm so glad that you're home son." Miroku exclaimed as soon as his son walked through the door. He only looked at his dad quizzically in response.

His father was never that happy unless he received an unusually high amount of money or some really good sake. Hisui thought so he just shook it off.

"You have no shame." His mother sighed.

"Not when our son could potentially become a lord." Miroku exclaimed excitedly.

Now Hisui was confused. How on earth would he be becoming a lord?

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

"You're father and I met with Princess Aiya's father today. He asked us if you would be interested in a marriage to his daughter." His mother stated dryly.

Now all time had stopped for just those brief moments as his mind caught up to what his mother had just said.

"A Marriage to his daughter the Princess!?"

"See Sango, he's overjoyed. I knew he'd want to marry the Princess. Our son is going to be a lord." Miroku smiled proudly.

"You confuse shock with joy. Can't you see our son isn't sure about this. You can say no Hisui. We told him that we'd consider his request thoroughly you don't have to say yes."

"I... I don't know. I didn't even know that she was interested in me. I can't be a lord who's going to head the slayers guild after Uncle if I become a lord?"

"You wouldn't have to give that up. We've already discussed that with Aiya's father. You can remain a demon slayer while also becoming a lord if you become princess Aiya's husband and Aiya's father will give us a generous dowry on her behalf if you agree to this marriage." Miroku said confidently to reassure his son that he'd still be able to do what he loves.

"This isn't a business deal, this is our son's future. Hisui you don't have to say yes. I always imagined that you'd marry Moroha one day anyway." Sango said.

"You what!? Mom, she's like my little sister. There's no way that would ever happen." Hisui rolled his eyes.

His mother sighed. "That figures. Kagome and I did raise the two of you to be pretty close. You better make sure that your kids marry Moroha's children in the future then. So that Kagome and I can be in-laws one day." Sango said.

"I don't want to talk about this any farther. I'll think about Aiya's request." Hisui told his parents.

Aiya's request had come out of nowhere and it wasn't a bad deal. The dowry would support his family for more years than they needed and even though Hisui didn't know her too well Princess Aiya didn't seem like a bad person and she was very beautiful on top of that but Hisui couldn't say yes, not when he was already in love with someone else.

XXXX

Setsuna had just returned from a demon slaying mission with Hisui, Towa, and Moroha that had taken most of the day. The four of them didn't return until later on in the evening and once they had arrived home her sister and Moroha had taken off immediately, both eager to relax now that they could while Setsuna and Hisui went back to the slayers guild to report to Kohaku that the job was done.

Everything had gone perfectly fine during their demon slaying mission so why was Hisui looking so troubled?

She couldn't pinpoint exactly what was bothering Hisui. But she could tell that something was wrong from the way he spoke to how he was acting and the last thing that she wanted to do was leave him alone, so she accompanied him to the slayers guild that night.

The slayers guild was quiet that night as most of the slayers that did not live at the guild had already gone home. Hisui was still unusually quiet too even as they walked through the familiar halls of the slayers guild where they used to play hide and seek when they were younger until her sister and cousin would make too much noise and they'd all get in trouble.

Usually Hisui would have spoken at ease and would be eager to discuss what the two of them would be doing for the guild together during their down time after coming home from a mission but he was not himself tonight and it was driving Setsuna crazy not knowing what was troubling him so much.

"You're back!" Kohaku exclaimed once the two entered his office. "I knew that you'd be back before morning.

"That beast demon was nothing special. It was finding him once he hid after realizing that we were too much for him to handle that took us a lot of time." Hisui said.

"The demon was good at masking its scent." Setsuna added.

"I knew with the two of you there everything would be fine. Anything of note happen while you were on your mission?"

"No." Hisui said. "Just reporting back that the job has been completed."

"Thank you. You and the girls take the next few days off. I'll have another job for you soon." Kohaku smiled before Hisui and Setsuna left his office.

The two of them walked through the halls again before going through the training yard. Which was a shortcut that they typically used to get back to the village faster.

"We're not leaving just yet." Setsuna said abruptly, breaking the silence between them and stepping in front of Hisui once they were alone in the training yard.

He looked at her concerned as her expression turned serious.

"You aren't yourself. What's wrong?" She asked outright.

"Nothing is wrong." Hisui looked down avoiding eye contact with her and her brows drew down in annoyance.

"Is that so?" She asked annoyed at him for dodging her question.

"Yes." He lied he didn't need her to tell him what he already knew.

"I don't believe you. Tell me the truth right now or I'm going to tell Towa and Moroha that the new slayer initiate that cried during his first mission beat you up during a sparring session."

"Setsunaaa." He groaned but she didn't let up.

"I can tell that something's bothering you. It's not good for our group leader to have his head somewhere else when we need you to be present. So just let me know what's on your mind and I'll help you."

"What if I need your help committing a crime?" Hisui asked.

"I said I would help you, didn't I." She said seriously and he smiled. That's what she had been missing all day. He hadn't smiled even once all day not really and she was the only one who could tell.

"I'm sorry if I didn't seem like myself today. I just had a lot on my mind, that's all but it makes me happy that you care about me." Hisui said somberly.

"Of course I care about you. You're my best friend." She said matter of factly.

"Setsuna." He said. Pausing briefly as his dark eyes met her violet ones. Contemplating rather or not he should say anything at all when he was sure that he already knew.

"Yes? Is this about what's been on your mind all day?" She asked with kind eyes as she gave him her full attention.

"How do you see me Setsuna, What am I to you?" He asked and she blinked.

Why was he asking her that? She knew how she saw him. She smiled and a light blush covered Hisui's cheeks as she started to speak.

"Hisui, you are my best friend. I care about you just as much as I do my own family. I've known you for as long as I can remember. So if you're feeling down I'm always going to want to make it better." She said honestly and the light blush that had started to cover his cheeks at first had long since vanished as he now controlled his expression to not betray him.

He already knew this, he told himself over again. There was no need to feel upset over things that you already knew.

"Thank you Setsuna. I will always love you in that way as well. Thank you for caring about me atleast in that since." He said with a sad smile and now she was confused.

"I do love you, Hisui." She said without hesitation and his heart was breaking more at the sound of those words being repeated to him by her but with different meaning. "So I hope that whatever has been weighing you down passes quickly so that you can be yourself again. I'm always here anytime that you need me." She said and Hisui nodded before doing his best to act as though she hadn't just shattered his heart.

Hisui had always known that his feelings for Setsuna had a slim chance of being returned. That's why it had always been enough for him to love her in his own way without ever telling her. That still would have been enough for him even now but his family was expecting him to go through with an engagement to someone else. If he were to really agree to such an arrangement he had to be sure that it wouldn't hurt Setsuna. He needed to be sure that what he felt was only felt by him alone. Unfortunately he turned out to be right just like he had always thought but he at least got to tell her that he loved her even if she didn't understand how deep his feelings for her ran. He spoke those words to her face and now it was time that he did what his family wanted with this engagement and learned to love Setsuna the way that she loved him.

They talked for a while longer after that until Hisui was able to convince Setsuna that he was fine and then they went their separate ways.

Setsuna returned to her home later than her sister and her mother smiled at her as she walked through the door. Her mother would oftentimes, wait up for her daughters to come home when they were out late.

"You're home earlier than I expected. Your sister said that you went back to the guild with Hisui. You two didn't have any extra training that you wanted to do together?" Her mother asked with a smile.

"We just reported back to Kohaku before going our separate ways." Setsuna said as her mother smiled.

Her girl was definitely her father's daughter. She probably just didn't know what to call how she felt yet. That is if she'd even noticed herself. Rin thought.

She had watched her daughters and their cousins grow up along with Hisui. The day that Rin noticed that Hisui didn't look at everyone else the way that he looked at Setsuna, she knew what it was. Setsuna and Towa were 17 now so Rin was sure that one day her daughter would realize that she loved Hisui because Setsuna also looked at him the same way that he looked at her even if she didn't realize.

"I'm glad that the two of you got to spend a little more time together." Rin told her daughter with a smile.

How was she ever going to tell their father Rin thought as she contemplated his reaction if things ever got serious.

"Mom, don't say it like that. Hisui and I are like family." Setsuna said as she walked to the room that she shared with Towa.

Her sister was already out cold after that long job that they had done and Setsuna was more than ready to sleep too now that she had made everything right with Hisui.

XXXX

Setsuna didn't see Hisui for three days after they returned home that night. Usually the two of them would make supply runs for Kohaku or train new slayers together but he told her the night that they returned to the village that he was going to be busy for a few days so he wouldn't be able to do their usual routine.

Setsuna hadn't thought anything of it when he told her that night but when he came walking through the slayers guild days later with Princess Aiya next to him something seemed different.

Setsuna was training new demon slayer recruits just like she normally would when she saw Hisui and Princess Aiya walking together across the outside halls of the building.

Setsuna recalled the Princess from a rescue mission that they had completed months ago. The Princess was a high strung and hard headed girl but she seemed more level whenever she was speaking to Hisui so Setsuna and Towa had let him mostly deal with her on their way to take her home after they had rescued her from a demon.

What was this girl doing here now?

More demon troubles most likely. Setsuna had thought as her lessons for the afternoon soon came to an end. After the lesson was over Setsuna found herself following Hisui's scent to the weapons room.

"Wow so this is what it's like being the heir to the slayers guild? You get to be around all of these cool weapons all day? I'm jealous." Aiya said. "My days are more monotonous in comparison."

"Well I rarely spend my free time here. When I'm home Setsuna and I mostly just run errands and give lessons. It can be very routine as well. " Hisui smiled.

"You mention this Setsuna girl a lot. Who is she to you? Is she perhaps a family member?" Aiya asked curiously.

"No. She's my best friend." He smiled sadly but before Aiya could say anything else Setsuna opened the door to the weapon's room.

"Did you finish what you were busy with over the last two days?" Setsuna asked as she walked into the room. It wasn't like Hisui to blow off slayers guild work to go hang around civilians.

"Yes. I wasn't expecting you to be here. Uncle said that you'd be with Inuyasha and Moroha visiting Shippo." Hisui said,

"No one would be here to train our new slayers if I did that."

Was he trying to avoid her? The thought crossed her mind but she quickly stood it off. Why would he do that?

"Hisui, who is this girl?" Aiya asked.

"Hisui, why are you walking around the slayers guild with civilians? You know Kohaku's rules. He's going to make you clean this whole place for a month. If he catches you." Setsuna told him.

"Oh that." Aiya smiled. "I'm sure he won't mind since we're practically family now. Hisui why don't you introduce us properly." Aiya said and Setsuna still didn't get it. Not until Hisui said it out loud.

"Setsuna, Princess Aiya and I are engaged." Those 6 words were all that it took to turn her world upside down.

Setsuna looked at him with visible shock on her face. "When did this happen?"

"He came over and accepted my fathers proposal two days ago." Aiya said.

"Well then I'm happy for you." Setsuna said nonchalantly before quickly leaving the two of them to their tour.

What was this feeling? Why wasn't she happy for Hisui? He was her best friend so why did she feel so strange knowing that he was engaged?

Setsuna immediately went to start her second round of training for the day with the new slayer recruits and was doing her best not to think about Hisui and Princess Aiya but she just couldn't get rid of the pain that she felt in her chest.

Setsuna doubled down on the training that day making all of the new recruits work a little harder than usual as she tried to not think much about Hisui's engagement but it wasn't working. Nothing was.

Maybe she was coming down with some kind of illness. She thought as she dismissed the new recruits early and made herself busy with more work at the slayers guild.

Usually doing work here always calmed her mind. Ever since she was a kid people in the village would sometimes look at her and her sister differently. Other's close mindedness never much affected her as she didn't pay them any mind but at the slayers guild she never had to worry about that.

Here she could completely be at ease with her sister and her cousin and Hisui…

Whom she was trying not to think about right now but here at the guild she would always belong and the things that she did here mattered so she liked to help Kohaku take care of the slayers guild anyway that she could.

After she dismissed the new recruits she went to take inventory on all the supplies that they typically went through in a week. Someone would need to go shopping for those soon. They were doing good on the essentials but they would need to buy grain before the end of the week. They were also running low on poison mask as well so Gyokuto or Sango would need to make some more for them soon.

Setsuna sighed. She was taking inventory alone so Hisui wouldn't be able to just tell his mom or sister what they needed so things wouldn't get replaced as fast as usual.

Setsuna simply just took note of everything that would need to be replaced soon and brought her list to Kohaku who was appreciative as always.

"I don't know what I'd do without you and Hisui helping me to keep tabs on everything. Can you believe that the kid's getting married." He laughed lightly with a smile. "I sure am proud of him." Kohaku said and there it was that weird pang again.

"Yeah, he deserves to be happy." Setsuna said.

"Will you be here tomorrow morning to help train recruits again for me?" Kohaku asked. "Hisui has to take classes for a while so that he'll know how to be a lord once he's married to Princess Aiya so he won't be around much until after the wedding."

"Right at 6 am." Setsuna forced a small smile as she left Kohaku's office.

Maybe she needed to lay down or eat more. She didn't know what was wrong with her but then she bumped into Hisui in the hallway in front of the weapons room and her heart just stopped.

"Looks like it was right here." Hisui smiled. "Princess Aiya dropped her fan earlier today."

"She must have been too excited." Setsuna said.

"She was. Way more than I had anticipated. How were the new recruits?"

"They'll be up to our standards soon. We've got a good bunch who's good at taking direction this time around."

"I wish I could've helped out. I've been stuck doing all this engagement stuff over the last few days." He sighed. "It hasn't been the most fun but I suppose once I get married things will calm down."

"The time will come and go. I'm sure that you'll be happy." Was all that Setsuna said.

"You're right, I at least talked my way into getting to go on our annual trip to see the fireflies next week." Hisui smiled.

"They're going to let you take a break from training to be a lord?" Setsuna asked.

"Yeah as long as I can memorize most of what I would have been learning during that week beforehand. It works just in time for when Towa and Moroha will be back and we can all go there together one last time before my wedding." He smiled.

"How lucky." Setsuna said as that annoying pang found it's way back to her chest once more.

A.N:

Thank you for reading. I've wanted to write a side story for Setsuna and Hisui ever since I wrote the first few chapters of Yashahime Bloodlines. I've had this idea in my head for a long time so I'm glad that I finally got around to writing it. The next chapter is titled Fireflies and will be up on Monday.

Next Chapter:

The day had come when Setsuna, Towa, Moroha and Hisui would take their annual trip to the beach. It started about 4 years ago when the teens had gone camping on the beach that was near the legendary Horai ghost island.

Horai island supposedly used to be not too far from the coast but after Moroha's dad and Hisui's parents killed the four war gods the island disappeared forever.

Now that the teens were much older than when they had originally heard the tales of the four war gods from their parents. None of them really believed that Horai island actually existed. Demons can make things like buildings and caves seem like they don't exist but causing a whole island to disappear for years at a time seemed a little unbelievable to the teens now that they were all experienced demon slayers. But one thing for certain is that every year during the last week of spring more fire flies than anywhere else would always appear in the woods and on the beach close to where the legendary Horai island used to be.