InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Empty Smile ❯ Chapter 2

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

The first thing Minako noticed was the tight bonds on her chest. They made it difficult for her to breathe. Other bonds were wrapped around her upper right thigh, both forearms, and the back of her neck.
A sweet scent drifted down to Minako’s sensitive nose and she looked up at a small sprig of some plant hanging above her stomach. Minako breathed in as deeply as her bonds would allow, feeling her head clear. She slowly looked around. Brown walls, dirt floor, a fire pit in one wall, and plants everywhere she looked. She closed her eyes and sighed, trying to remember what had just happened.

“Lord Sesshoumaru, might I voice my confusion?” The old woman flashed one brown eye at the hut behind her, where the strange girl lay.
“Quiet, woman. There is no reason for you to know my cause.” He stared ahead expressionlessly.
The woman frowned, her one eye contemplating. ‘He gave her his blood. She was dying of blood loss and he saved her. Why?’ She looked up as the girl in question emerged from the hut, limping and wincing, squinting from the sunlight, but nonetheless better than she’d been twelve days ago, when the lord had brought her up to the village. The old woman naturally fell into her healer mode, jolting to her feet to help Minako walk and pressing a water skin to her lips. The girl drank desperately as the old woman spoke.
“I am Kaede, priestess of this village. Tell me child; How do you feel?”
Minako finished the water and stared down at the elderly woman -Kaede- with the eye patch.
“Dizzy. How long have I been asleep, Kaede-san?” ‘And why am I still alive?’
“It’s been nearing a fortnight since the lord brought you to me. Sit. You need to eat.” Pressing a bowl into her hands, Kaede began to unwrap the bandages on her arms, checking that the wounds heal to her satisfaction. When she mentioned ‘The Lord’ Minako stiffened. Searching the shadows she saw Sesshoumaru standing silently, watching her watching him watching her.
‘This doesn’t make sense…’ She was confused. The demon lord was notorious for his merciless killings. He was feared by all and no one who crossed his path dared to survive. Except for, according to the anime, his brother. “I should be dead right now.”
She realized she’d spoken aloud when Kaede stopped wrapping her arms in fresh bandages. Her one good eye was staring at her intently, and Minako squirmed.
“Girl, is it my imaginings, or have you truly sought death?”
Minako looked away. For some reason this old lady seemed to care whether she lived or died. It was a new and unsettling knowledge.
Setting her bowl on the ground, Minako silently rose and returned to the hut.
Meanwhile Kaede was deep in thought. ‘That girl- her eyes… her eyes were deadened. She has no reason for life. What could have happened to this child?’

When Minako left the hut again that night, she avoided everyone. Kaede was nowhere to be seen. ‘Probably tending to some villager,’ she thought and headed toward the woods. Sopping for a quick break -she was still weak from her injuries- Minako realized she wasn’t alone. Turning her head slightly the girl noticed a tall shadow looming just beyond her line of sight. Turning away she called out to the stranger, hoping it was someone who would bring her a mercy killing, or maybe eat her. It didn’t matter as long as she died. A part of her marveled at what she had become- at what her father had created of her. Just some mindless little girl ready to beg for death…
Sesshoumaru stood in the shadows, watching the strange human. He’d never met anyone intent on death. Everyone he’d slain had begged for life, if anything, so he didn’t really know what to do. When he heard her call out to him, the demon’s interest grew, aware of her strange knowledge of the creatures that dwelled in the forest. Without stirring a blade of grass he emerged from the shadows, intent on reading her expression. He was sorely disappointed.
Minako watched the demon step forward, as if to scare her into a reaction. There was none. She had lost the ability to smile and the ability to cry. All she knew was running from pain, and accepting it. So when she saw Sesshoumaru’s cold, beautiful face, she was surprised, but uncaring.
“Why did you take me to a healer? Why didn’t you just kill me where I stood?” her voice was soft and empty. She didn’t expect an answer so she wasn’t disappointed when he gave none.
Staring down at the broken teen, Sesshoumaru didn’t let it show that he’d been asking himself the same thing. His answer, when he found it, was too simple to believe: curiosity. The strange little human was small and bruised but, unlike the women he had seen, she took her pain in stride, treating cracked ribs and dislocated joints as if they were a part of her daily life. The fact that she faced death with a welcoming attitude and lectured him- by that time the girl was an alien creature to him, and he decided to at least examine her. She could even be of service to him if he so desired. Once he understood her nature, he would kill her and move on without another thought.
“Rise.” he commanded. The girl just stared at him, testing his patience. “You are to accompany me to my lands and fall into my servitude.” When she didn’t react he switched tactics. As the female watched, the fluffy white mass slid from its place on his shoulder and wrapped around her slim waist, cautiously avoiding her healing wounds. Absently stroking the tail- or what she thought was a tail- Minako wondered what this silent man had in mind for her. Within the half-hour, she was asleep.
At some point in the night they reached a castle. A short toad like creature stared at Sesshoumaru past great buggy eyes. Or rather, at the human sleeping so soundly in his grasp. Gliding past the indignant frog-boy, Sesshoumaru called over his shoulder, “I am taking her to the left wing guest chambers. She is to be dressed suitably and her wounds tended. Nothing more.” A hint of a threat slid into his voice. “If anyone disturbs her in any way, I shall deal with him or her personally.” He strode forward once more, leaving the terrified toad demon to bow and cower in his wake.

In his personal chambers the next night, Sesshoumaru sat staring at the pages of a book, his mind elsewhere. The girl had not woken since her arrival, and he had not seen to her since then. The demon had decided that she would be caretaker to his young charge, a child he had saved in his earlier travels, who had followed him loyally since. Rin needed a playmate, since he himself was too proud to submit to the mindless antics of a child. The female would entertain Rin and stay out of his way, unless the lord wished it.
A scream tore through his castle, cutting short his thoughts and startling him to his feet. Moving swiftly, he made his way to the guest chambers.