Chapter 19

Rin knocks on Setsuna's slightly open door.

"What is it, mother?" Setsuna said in a sad tone. Rin sighs as she opens the door a bit more to come into her daughter's bedroom. She sees the violin on the bed while Setsuna is sitting on the bay window's seat, jus staring outside of the backyard.

"I just want to check on you." Rin said as she comes to the girl. "Don't let your father's word get to you." She adds to that.

Setsuna looks down. "But what he said was true, mother. Or at least he could have said it more nicely so he wouldn't have to be disappointed." Rin sits across from the girl on the window. "Listen, Setsuna. Your father is a complicated man. True he has that façade to make people not just fear him but respect him due to his status. But he knows deep down that he loves you and Towa more than anything else."

"Then why would he say that to me? Am I worthy to be praised?" Setsuna sniffs to hold back her sobs. Rin embraces her. "You are incredible in your own way. Don't let any of those who said anything negative about you get to you."

Rin pulls back. "You leave me to handle the problem with your father. Tell me, Sestuna. Does the violin calm you down?" Setsuna blinks a few times. "I think so. Why'd you ask?"

Rin smiles. "You see, people have different things to keep them at ease, even for a while. For you, you play the violin. Me, I love tending to my garden. Towa with her running."

"And father?"

"Even though I've been with him since the day I met him, I never once seen him doing anything to calm him down. I would think he might be stressed about something. But I never did. In the meantime, play that violin and let it calm you down." Rin takes hold of her shoulder in encouragement. She leaves the room with a smile. Once Rin closes the door, Setsuna smiles with gratitude and begins playing the violin.

Towa knocks on the office door. "Father, do you have a moment." She asks from outside. "You can enter, Towa." Sesshomaru's voice permits her entry. Towa enters the office to find Sesshomaru being occupied with anything that has to do with his work on the computer.

"Can you help me out with something?" Towa comes to him at the front of the desk that is in the center of the room. "It depends." Sesshomaru said without losing his concentration from the computer. Towa and pulls out the device she used in the gym's locker room.

"I know that we're not allowed to resume the mission, but something happened at the school." She hands it to him. Sesshomaru pauses before turning his sight to the item Towa gave him. He plugs the device to the computer. A folder that the device connects to shows up on the screen. He plays the audio from the device with the conversation in the locker room.

"What exactly did you record at the school?" He asks her in a hush tone. Towa takes a seat at the leather couch. "The girl in the recording could be related to the boy who was killed. Her name is Mai Fugimoto." Towa answers him in a serious voice.

Sesshomaru types the name down on the computer on the school's website. "So far, the school has her as well as the boy's name, Gin on the list. But it doesn't say anything about them being related."

"Maybe Gin has the answer. I'll go asks him." Towa is about to leave.

"Towa." Sesshomaru stops her in her tracks.

Towa turns around to face him. "Like I said earlier, you, Setsuna and Moroha are not to engage with anyone who might be a suspect in the case." He said to her.

"It wasn't my idea to schedule our classes to interact with them. It was a coincidence that it happened." She explained to him.

"Regardless, you indirectly did so. As such, I'll hold onto this until further notice." Sesshomaru said to him in his stoic look. "Yes, father. There's another thing I want to show you." Towa hands over her smartphone with the message on the screen.

Sesshomaru plugs in the smartphone and trace the message's sender to see where it came from. "Did Setsuna or Moroha get one?" He asks her.

"No, just me. Do you think this is a scam of some sort?" Towa said to him in concern. It doesn't take Sesshomaru that long to pinpoint where the message came from. "It's a remote location that can't be reached. What you received from this was someone who's trying to get your information. So it's basically a hacker. I can see that it has a link of some sort. You didn't press it."

Towa shakes her head. "No. I'm very wary about these things. I just wanted to know rather or not you'd be able to track it down."

Sesshomaru can feel the sense of pride from his daughter that needs his help. "I'll go into it when I'm done with work.

Towa nods." Ok I'll be going." Towa leaves the office.

Once the door is closed, Sesshomaru listens to the audio recording a few more times, hearing any other people in the piece. After hearing it a bit more thorough, Sesshomaru laces his fingers. 'I have a feeling that the girl is jealous of the boy.' He thinks to himself.

Soon enough, Setsuna begins to play the violin again from the bedroom which happens to be right above the office. Just hearing it, it somehow is giving a soothing feeling. Not just that, he happens to enjoy it. He smiles in content.

A knock gets him out of his mind of ease. "Come in." He said to the person. "Sesshomaru, can I talk with you?" Rin asks as she enters the room.

Sesshomaru nods. "What is it that you want to talk about?"

"It's about Setsuna. She seemed pretty upset about your criticism." Rin gets to the point. Sesshomaru keeps his stoic look up. "I'm just being honest with her. I was able to tell a few errors in her performance." Rin groans, "Honestly, Sesshomaru. The least you could do is be a bit nicer, give her a compliment and not take it as a challenge. She just started and she's great at her first time."

Sesshomaru doesn't faze from Rin's advice. "I said the truth to her. She should know that it's important to learn for their mistakes than their success."

Rin rubs her eyes in frustration. "For what she said to me, she feels like a disappointment to you. All she wanted from you was your approval."

Sesshomaru narrows his cold eyes. "She hasn't disappointed me. I'm just not that kind of person who would just get their hopes up that easily. I've been raised like that since I was her age. My father would do that from time to time, but it took me a bit longer to realize what his words meant."

Rin knows for sure that Sesshomaru doesn't like to talk about his father. It'd be a sensitive topic for him to bring up. Not just the father but also his mother.

"I would bet that your mother is shaking her head right now to hear this from us." Rin teases him with a smirk. Knowing fully well, bringing up his mother would be her last time breathing. But not with Rin. It turns out that his mother and Rin got along quite well. And whenever she says the 'M', it'd be bad news for him to be scolded by his mother alone.