InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Healing Hands ❯ Healing Hands Part 6 ( Chapter 6 )

Healing Hands Part 6

Inu-Yasha Fanfiction

By Kittyonnails

Kagome shuffled down the covered walkway that surrounded the garden in the center of the estate. Rin was sitting on the large rock in the middle of the garden. It had to be difficult for her, Kagome acknowledged. Rin had been a nun and a healer. She must have been a very spiritual person. Now, Rin had lost her soul, and for what? So that she could be with Sesshomaru, who had never returned. The whole thing was so tragic. Kagome tried to be sweet to her, but it was not easy.

Rin had been back at the mansion for more than a month now, and she was nothing like the child that Kagome remembered. She was quiet and composed. Except for the first day, when she had cried over waking alone, Rin had shown no emotion. The girl had withdrawn. It was February, and Rin had been back among the living for two months. She didn't seem to like it.

Rin sat on the large rock with her legs crossed. Her hair blew about her closed eyes and pale face wildly. She wore only a threadbare pink cotton kimono. The wind was sharp enough to chill Kagome through her yukata and kimono, so Rin must have been freezing. Kagome could only guess what inspired her to sit like that for hours at a time in the dead of winter.

Not wanting to disturb her, Kagome slipped into the warmth of the kitchen. She poured water from the barrel into a kettle and set it over the fire. It was time to make tea. She reached into a cupboard and pulled out a few jars. Kagome frowned, they were all out of bean paste. She would have to get into the cellar and get cucumbers to make today's snacks.

As Kagome slid out onto the walkway again, she was Rin sitting like a statue on the rock. It made Inu-Yasha so angry when she sat on the rock, and Rin did it most every day. That meant her husband had been in a bad mood for almost two months straight. The situation was wearing thin on everyone. Inu-Yasha wanted to send Rin away, but even he did not know where she would go. So Rin stayed, waiting and perhaps praying to the gods she had forsaken. Kagome understood that Rin's return unaccompanied was probably a sign that Sesshomaru was not coming back. If he had forsaken the girl, he would have been home long ago to reclaim his territory. If he had rescued her, as Rin claimed, he would have returned. Unless he was unable. Perhaps Rin's vigils on top of the rock were some kind of mourning. Inu-Yasha's anger was his way of mourning his brother. Kagome understood it well enough, but that didn't make it easy.

Kagome held her belly with one hand, and heaved open the door to the cellar with the other. It swung open with an eerie creek. The cellar was just a hut made of thick beams suspended over a deep room dug into the earth. It was pitch black down there. Only a few rays of sunlight reached through the open doorway, not nearly enough to light her way. Kagome lit a small lamp that was kept on a ledge just inside the door. She descended into the frozen blackness. Her wooden shoes clopped loudly as she moved herself down the rough wooden steps. It was difficult to manage, her weight was unbalanced due to her pregnancy.

The cucumbers were kept in several baskets shelved along the southern wall. Kagome lifted a basket onto the bulge of her stomach and held it there with one hand, she carried the lamp in her other hand and clopped her way up the stairs. At the top, she set the lamp on it's ledge, but missed. As she dove to catch the lamp, she lost her balance and fell backwards.

It was twelve steps from the top of the cellar to the earthen floor. Kagome fell from the top in a shower of frozen cucumbers and screamed. When she hit the floor she was relieved that the fall was finally over. It had happened so fast, the pain hadn't reached her yet when she tried to sit up. In the blackness, a pain shot through her. One pain she knew immediately, her baby!

A figure appeared at the top of the stairs.

"Lady Kagome!" Rin shouted, then leapt down the stairs. She knelt on the dirt floor where Kagome lay sobbing.

"My baby, Oh, Rin! Get Inu-Yasha!"

Rin could feel the injuries Kagome and her child had sustained. She ignored what Kagome had asked and pulled open her kimono, exposing Kagome's bulging stomach. Rin placed her hand on the belly and inhaled sharply in surprise. Her senses seemed to have sharpened. When she focused, she could feel every cell in the infant's body. She saw right away that the child wanted to be born, but also that it was injured from it's mother's fall. Rin placed her other hand on Kagome's belly for a better view.

"Something's wrong." She told Kagome, who had quieted.

"What is it?" Kagome looked up into Rin's face, but the girl's eyes were closed. Just then, Inu-Yasha thundered down the stairs calling Kagome's name.

"The baby," Rin told them both, "Is injured from Kagome's fall."

A small groan-like howl escaped Inu-Yasha. He fell into a sitting position beside Kagome.

"Can you help them?" He asked feebly, afraid to request a favor from someone he had threatened harm to on more than one occasion.

"Yes, I think so." Rin leaned into Kagome's stomach. She felt her flinch as the pain of labor began to shake her. Rin could tell clearly which tissues needed repair. She had never done this kind of healing, she feared that if she waited for the child to be born it would die.

Rin felt her healing energies form into thin strings that wove between the obstacles of the mother's body, focusing on the life inside her. The threads seemed to reach, and Rin used the materials inside Kagome's womb to repair the bruises and fractures. It all went amazingly well. The child healed much quicker than Rin had expected. She opened her eyes and withdrew her energies from the baby.

As Kagome's pain struck her, Rin screamed. She leapt up and stood several feet away from the pair on the floor, wondering why she had felt it so sharply.

"What's wrong? Is the baby alright?" Inu-Yasha asked nervously. He squeezed Kagome's hand and turned again to Rin, his eyes seemed to be begging her to say that everything was fine.

"Y-yes. The child will live." Rin managed to pull herself back to Kagome's side. The mother was still injured and about to give birth. For reasons unknown, Rin felt her energies steady. It was as if she had a much larger reserve to draw from. She approached Kagome again. Even a few feet away, Rin could tell where each bruise was located. The mother to be had twisted her ankle and slipped a disk in her spine. She could also tell that Inu-Yasha had almost bitten completely through his lip in nervousness.

Rin stroked her hand over the bruises on Kagome's hip. She pushed the blood back into it's veins and sealed the breakages. She sat Kagome at an incline and ran her forefinger up her spine, sliding the disk back into place and aligning the nerves.

"Your ankle will have to wait Lady Kagome, we must birth your child." Rin lay Kagome down on the earthen floor. The child was very near birth. Inu-Yasha seemed to sense it too, he moved to kneel between Kagome's knees.

"How are you doing, love?" He rubbed Kagome's exposed stomach tenderly. She managed a smile that looked amazingly happy for all the pain Rin knew she was experiencing.

"We're finally going to have a baby." She said breathlessly.

* * * *



The snow woman was talking to him again. Sesshomaru didn't listen to her anymore, it only infuriated him to hear how the stupid creature mocked him constantly. She had no respect for a demon of his caliber and it would cost her. It was the end of February, and the snows had stopped a week ago. Things were getting to the point where he could have mad it off of the mountain, if he weren't so starved. Sesshomaru was not one for regular meals, but two months without food was a bit much for a demon who was recovering from injuries like his. Yuki-Onna knew this, and that is why she regarded him so flippantly. What she did not realize was that he was a carnivorous demon, and she was just the sustenance Sesshomaru needed to survive the trek off of the mountain.

Sesshomaru rose from the bedding where he had lain most of the winter season. He walked to the mouth of the cave and stared out at the frozen wasteland that stretched as far as even his demon eyes could see. He was far from Rin. He could smell that much. How far exactly was difficult to say, but he was definitely north and east of her. That probably meant she was at the estate.

"Thinking about her again?" Yuki-Onna crept up beside him and hugged his left arm to her. She was constantly draping herself about Sesshomaru. He despised her for it, but not wanting to kill his departing meal prematurely he tolerated it. Knowing that he would soon leave with her in his belly soothed his irritated nerves. He said nothing, knowing that the spell upon him would not permit him to say anything less damaging than yes. She followed his gaze.

"Southwest? Is that where you're from? Do you think she's waiting for you?" Again he didn't answer. She was used to it by now, and he thought she understood that the curse kept his mouth silent. Not that it mattered. A snow woman was a telepathic kind of creature. That is how they learned a victim's name and lured them into their lair. Sesshomaru smiled. Even as a telepath, there was no way for Yuki-Onna to know his intentions. The only things these pathetic creatures could clearly discern with their abilities were names and genders. That is what had saved him. Without the snow woman, Sesshomaru would have frozen to death on the mountain long ago. She only called to him because her abilities were so pathetic. If her telepathy had told her more than his name and gender, she would have left him to die. She had brought him into her lair before realizing that he was a demon. Now she kept him around in the hope that she would provide her a child.

As soon as he had recovered from the worst of his wounds, she had begun propositioning him. He had made it clear that there would be no such actions on his part. The snow woman was determined, and kept up these little annoyances. Now it was the end of February, and the time for his departure drew near. He smiled, and turned to her.

"Yuki-Onna, I want to thank you for your hospitality. It is almost time for my departure. You must accept a gift of gratitude. Name it and anything in my power is yours." Sesshomaru knew what she wanted, and he knew that if she thought she was about to get it she would be less likely to pick up on his intentions with her telepathy.

"I want your child, for companionship and protection. A child born of our union will be a fearsome creature. Give me a child." He nodded silently and led her into the main chamber, where his bedding and hers lay near the fire. Yuki-Onna smiled seductively and slipped her snowy kimono off of her shoulders, revealing skin almost as pale.

"I'll try to make this a pleasurable encounter for you. If you like, you may return again." She smiled seductively and untied her obi, letting the pale purple band fall to the icy stone floor. Sesshomaru stretched his neck from one side and then the other as her kimono fell open, revealing her cottony pubic hair. He smiled and shifted into his true form. Yuki-Onna was snapped in half with the first bite. He didn't even chew her, just swallowed her whole. The second bite was easier to enjoy, since her legs weren't going to fight back. He lingered in the snow woman's cave for a few moments longer, lapping up the spilt blood.

Traveling in his true form was swiftest, so Sesshomaru continued in that guise until he reached the human city of Kamegaoka. From there he continued in human form, leaping swiftly across the treetops. It was only a weeks travel from Kamegaoka to his estate, and he could smell that Rin was alive and well, working her healing magic there.

* * * *

Kagome smiled a truly happy smile. Seeing Inu-Yasha holding their tiny daughter was surely the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. He looked so gentle and peaceful cradling the infant in his powerful arms, she wondered how anyone would ever fear him again. The child in his arms began to stir and he handed his daughter to her mother.

"Ah, Mari-chan, hungry again?" Kagome cooed. The door to their chamber slid open and Rin bowed. She slid a tray laden with food and tea into the room.

"Time for lunch. How is everyone?" She smiled and shuffled over to Kagome's side.

"We're doing fine. Thanks to you Rin." Inu-Yasha smiled and picked up a pickle off of the tray. Rin smiled at him and then turned back to little Mariko, making faces at the newborn's big brown eyes while she nursed.

The peaceful scene was shattered when Inu-Yasha leapt to his feet, spilling the teacup at his feet. He sniffed the air and turned his ears to the north. Rin gasped and tried to clean up the spilt tea.

"What is it?" Kagome held her baby close anxiously.

"It smells like…" Inu-Yasha's voice trailed off as if he were unsure of his own senses.

"Sesshomaru." Rin whispered, staring in the same direction as Inu-Yasha. "It is Sesshomaru. He is finally coming home." Tears of joy crept slowly down Rin's face. Kagome looked down at her newborn daughter.

"Sesshomaru?" She asked, "This is his home. Where are we going to go now?" Inu-Yasha turned to face his wife and daughter, but he did not yet have an answer to Kagome's question. Sesshomaru was coming fast, and it would only be about an hour before he reached them.

------------------------------------------End Part Six-------------------------------------------------