InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Oops ❯ Rini ( Chapter 21 )

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.

Chapter 21: Rini

(Day 55)

"Could someone move the tree, I can't breathe," Miroku's voice drifted up from the foliage under them.

Sango walked up, pocketing the shard, she was more worried about Kagome then Miroku, they needed to get her to… someone, and InuYasha didn't look like he had any idea what he should do, "InuYasha, get Kagome off the tree, gently. Kirara, move the tree off of Miroku."

As this was being done, Sango joined InuYasha by Kagome's side, "Try to take deep breaths Kagome." She suggested while she rubbed her back.

"InuYasha, help me." Kagome leaned her forehead against his chest, she hadn't really managed to straighten up, "Please, do something…"

InuYasha looked around franticly as Kagome continued to whimper into his chest, what could he do? What should he do? He looked to Miroku, who was no longer under the tree.

"We need to get her to a village with a healer." Miroku said solemnly.

"Lord InuYasha." Myouga's voice came from his shoulder, "I think I may know someone who can help." InuYasha snapped his head around, trying to see his retainer, "Follow me quickly!" Myouga jumped to Kirara, "we must hurry."

InuYasha picked Kagome up carefully and joined Moyga on Kirara.

"What about us?" Sango frowned.

"Head east." Myouga yelled, both to Kirara and Sango, "I will meet you at Rini's village."

*

Kirara flew quickly over the trees following Myoga's directions, and it wasn't long before he directed her down into a particularly dense patch of forest.

The fading light was almost completely blocked out by the unusually full canopy, but instead of feeling creepy, the woods actually managed to feel warm and secure. A strange excitement electritified the atmosphere slightly. Youki.

InuYasha bristled, the youki that he sensed wasn't powerful, but it reacted with the woods strangely, "Hey, Myouga, where are you taking us?"

"To Rini." Myouga answered him shortly, "Straight on now Kirara. It isn't far now."

Soon the entrance of a house was seen protruding from green vines and closely growing trees and bushes, so that you could not get an idea of the size of the building. A monk, not quite old but having left young long ago, with strong features and weathered face sat near the entrance and eyed them wearily.

"Hail good monk!" Myouga called to him, so that he knew who was addressing him, "It is myoga, I've returned…"

"You've returned early." The monk stood and approached them, "Rini's not here right now."

Myouga hopped over to the monk, "Where is lady Rini? Lady Kagome is in need of her."

The monk's eyes didn't leave the couple, who had gotten off of Kirara, when Myoga moved, but answered, "She should return soon."

InuYasha kneeled on the ground, still holding Kagome who was whimpering with the movement, "Hey, Myoga, what the hells going on!" he shouted over Kagome's head.

"InuYasha-sama," a small feminine voice call from behind him, "You're early."

InuYasha turned around swiftly, still holding Kagome. A woman stood a few feet behind him on the path, she was as tall as he was but somehow gave the impression of being small and vulnerable. She wore a nice silk Kimono of dark blue, embroidered with light blue leaves around the hem that seemed to have been caught in a wind and be dancing up from the ground. Her obi was light blue with dark blue triangles and her sleeves hid her hands down to her knuckles. She had a pleasing round face with large round eyes that were black and brown and only showed a bit of white at the edges, and her prominent buck teeth, which reached below her bottom lip, did nothing to take away from her pleasing look. Her hair was put up in two tight buns placed approximately where InuYasha's ears would have been, had she had them. But her ears were on the side of her head, and pointed sharply.

*

Miroku and Sango headed east, like Myouga told them to. Eventually they reached a rich, well armed-village, almost a town, just as the sun set. The streets were well lit with torches placed in front of restaurants, shops and inns with real signs hanging in front of them. Several mikos and priests were wandering among the people, heavily armed.

"Excuse me," Miroku asked a passing villager, "is this Rini's village?"

The older man paused to look from Miroku to Sango in a studying manner, "You're not youkai…. What's wrong?" he suddenly grinned wickedly, "Can't do it yourself?"

Miroku blinked in confusion, "What?"

"Plant the seed." The man folded his arms and leaned back, smirking, "She's obviously not carrying now."

Understanding dawned on Miroku and he rushed to correct the misunderstanding, "There is nothing wrong with my "seed", Miss Sango has been unwilling-"

"MIROKU!" Sango joined the men, blushing furiously, "I'm not carrying- I mean, we're not having…" she stopped and took a deep breath, "Our friend was… taken ill, we were to meet at Rini's village."

"So," the priest looked thoughtfully to the south, "these `friends' of yours are the one's looking for Lady Rini."

"Yes." Sango sighed gratefully.

"What is it that this Lady Rini does?" Miroku asked, still on edge, "I have never even heard of her."

"Lady Rini is a Midwife." The man explained, wearing a knowing smirk, "A youkai midwife mainly, though she has dealings with humans that are rich enough or present an interesting enough problem."

Miroku was about to speak again, but Sango beat him to it.

"She's a youkai?" She asked, back to her business persona.

"Of course," the man smiled warmly at her, "A rabbit youkai. And the benefactor of this village. Her dealings among youkai grant us protection from all but the basest of youkai and she gives generously of her earnings. Not to mention the business we get when her clients come to visit her. I'm not sure she's made it back from her travels, but you are welcome to stay at our inn, for a price."

"Just take us to Lady Rini's." Sango shook her head, "It's an emergency."

"Of course." The man nodded and the knowing grin returned.

"There is nothing wrong with my seed!" Miroku nearly shouted as he followed them through the village.

*

Sango scowled at Miroku every now and then while they walked down a thin but well-worn trail through the dense forest south of the village. They had been put on this path by the man that had explained Rini's profession, but not before Miroku had offered loudly to prove to the whole village that there was nothing wrong with him in that regard.

However Sango was highly upset at him, and not just because he had called upon her to testify to his honesty. How would she know about that? All she knew for certain was that his hands had a tendency to "malfunction".

Miroku had not appreciated that comment.

So now they walked in silence through the darkness of a dense forest at night. Despite the lack of light, the closeness of the forest and the presence of a strange youki, they didn't feel threatened at all.

Finally they reached the partial view of the front of the house where the path ended. Light was coming from cracks around the wooden door.

Sango stepped forward quickly and knocked on the door.

"Come in, the door is unbarred." A masculine voice called from inside.

Inside was a long narrow room with a bench along the right side. InuYasha was sitting on it, scowling darkly at a monk that was sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall, his arms folded and head bowed. A door stood just past the monk, an ofuda decorated its surface.

"InuYasha," Sango forgot her anger with Miroku and rushed to her friend's side, "How is Kagome?"

"I don't know." InuYasha growled, "they won't tell me."

"Rini has found that she can not work well with the mates hanging over her shoulder." The monk said gruffly.

InuYasha continued to growl lowly and he appeared to be vibrating in the effort to stay still.

"How long has she been in there?" Sango sat a few feet away from InuYasha, uncertain if it was safe to stay near him.

InuYasha's growl intensified but he didn't answer.

"The lady Rini must concentrate on the needs of the young mother." The monk spoke again without raising his head, "Take comfort in the fact that she didn't call you in quickly."

"Pardon me, good monk," Miroku walked to stand next to Sango, "but, I did not expect to see a fellow in a youkai's home, why are you here?"

The monk looked up and smiled ruefully at Miroku, "You keep strange company yourself. Lady Rini is a powerful youkai in her own way, but she's no warrior. She needs help with keeping some varieties of youkai under control. I help her out from time to time."

A quiet knocking came from the other side of the sealed door and the monk rose quickly to remove the ofuda, casting InuYasha a measuring glance before he did so.

When the ofuda was removed and the door opened Rini walked delicately into the room. On her toes. The heels of her feet were hidden under the plain kimono that was similar to what Sango wore. Where her hair had been in tight buns it now fell in long glossy pig tails. She put her hands on her hips and gave InuYasha a crooked grin.

"A Miko, InuYasha?" she shook her head, "You never did do anything the easy way, did you?"

"How's Kagome?" InuYasha looked around her at the door, but the monk had returned the ofuda to its place.

"She's fine." Rini waved off the subject easily, "I have no reason to believe that either she or your child was really wounded."

"I want to see her." InuYasha demanded, crossing his arms and drawing himself up to his full height.

"In a moment." Rini walked over to the bench and sat down, "first, we have to talk." Rini indicated the place next to her on the bench. If InuYasha sat there she would have a clear view of all the visitors, "I assume that you are Sango and Miroku? Kagome told me about you."

InuYasha stood his ground for a few moments before grudgingly moving to the place Rini indicated.

"Now, there are a few things that we must talk about." Rini began in a very business like manner, "I think we should begin with what just happened. Kagome, as you know, is a miko. The child, you may or may not know, has youki. When Kagome tries to use her powers she is instinctively diverting the flow of energy away from her womb to protect the child. If she hadn't the pregnancy would have been terminated long ago. But that is an important center for her energy to flow through, as a miko, so it causes her pain to deviate and push her energy elsewhere."

"She's hurting herself to save the baby?" Sango asked tentatively.

Rini nodded and looked back to InuYasha, who looked pensive, "I do not believe that she has done any permanent harm, but she has shaken the physical connection between herself and the baby. She will need to stay in bed for the next few days."

"Feh, now you can tell her to leave the hunt to us." InuYasha said proudly, his victory was near.

"No, I can't recommend that." Rini frowned slightly, "That's something else I wanted to talk to you about…. This enemy of yours would likely use Kagome's absence against you, but more importantly, Kagome and the child must remain close to you."

"What?" InuYasha frowned at Rini; she was supposed to agree with him! Kagome shouldn't be putting herself in danger.

"Normally I would agree with you InuYasha." Rini amended, "A woman in her condition shouldn't be wondering around and fighting battles, but unfortunately there isn't any safe alternative. For one thing the baby can't maintain its own supply of youki yet, and faking it is hard on Kagome's emotional state."

"Is that why she's so nuts?" InuYasha grumbled.

"Yes and no." Rini looked toward the door then back at them, "It is quite natural for a woman in her condition to be a bit… nuts, but due to… various circumstances she is more vulnerable to outrageous mood swings. They are her substitution for youki."

"Kagome gets upset to supplement her baby's youki?" Sango asked incredulously.

Rini nodded, "Specifically she gets scared. Intense emotion can attract certain youkai and youki is often described as "that a creepy feeling" to humans. I believe that she is manipulating her energy, when scared, into something akin to youki and that of course only makes the emotion stronger. You may have noticed that Kagome tends to panic when you aren't around, and calms when you are near?" she asked of InuYasha.

InuYasha scoffed, "What does this have to do with Kagome staying in the hunt?"

"The baby would prefer to be fed by your youki, InuYasha." Rini explained patiently, "And it would be healthier for Kagome too. Any stress you can remove from her life would be beneficial to her. That is why you must let her travel with you. So that you can supply her with your energy."

InuYasha scowled as he thought back over the past few weeks, "Kagome has been traveling with us and she still gets weird."

Miroku nodded, "The longer we are on the road the more intense her behavior."

Rini closed her eyes and nodded sagely, "You are distancing yourself from her physically, yes?"

"…We all walk together." InuYasha answered evasively.

"No." Rini shook her head, "Physical proximity allows a certain amount of energy mixing, if you were close to each other, but we're talking about feeding a developing life here. This requires a more direct approach." Rini paused to give InuYasha a chance to figure out what she was saying; InuYasha only gave her a blank look. She sighed, `Inu's.' she thought tiredly. "The most direct way of mixing energy… the exchange of bodily fluids."

"Wait…" Miroku leaned forward in his interest, "are you ordering him to have sex?"

"Well… I would suggest strongly that you refer to it as mating where InuYasha and Kagome are concerned," Rini clarified, "but yes. That is the best way two beings can mix their energies and the method that will give Kagome the longest benefits. Also I would suggest that you sleep with her."

"How the hell am I supposed to do that with these two right there?" InuYasha yelled indignantly.

"It's not like you haven't done that before." Shippo muttered.

InuYasha gave him a deadly glare accompanied by a low growl.

Sango put her hand over Shippo's mouth and blushed, "We didn't see anything," she told InuYasha, "Shippo woke up before you, that's all."

Rini waved off the subject, "You can take her in the trees if you like. Make a nest or something. I'll discuss this farther with Kagome. For now I need to know that you'll all be helpful and understanding of Kagome and InuYasha's needs."

The three friends nodded in agreement, "We want to help Kagome." Sango added emphatically.

"Good. Now, do you have any questions?" Rini smiled at them brightly.

"Can I go to Kagome?' InuYasha said flatly.

"Not yet." Rini returned shortly.

"How do you know InuYasha?" Shippo piped up before Miroku could finish forming his question.

Rini smiled, "I thrive on challenges, and the mysteries and difficulties of mix breeds have fascinated me since I first started on my path as a midwife. I have gotten very good over my life and very well known among the wise of the world. Those that fear for the health of their wives or their young learn to seek me out. InuYasha's father was one of those men; we had already met concerning the birth of his first son… I was surprised he returned to me."

"You birthed Sesshoumaru!" Shippo exclaimed.

"Yes," Rini chuckled sadly, "there is always a risk with poison youkai. His mother's poison type was rare, so the risk that her and her sons would not match was great. They didn't, and it proved beyond even my abilities to save them."

"Will InuYasha's baby be a hanyou, human or something else?" Shippo asked.

"… I'm not sure." Rini answered slowly, "Actually I'm very excited to see a hanyou that has not only survived long enough to get a mate but also managed to find one. He was lucky with his parentage though."

"What do you mean?" Miroku finally managed to get in a word.

"Well, this will take some explanation." Rini stood and walked to a cupboard on the other end of the room, "You see, youkai aren't really all here, exactly. Have you ever noticed how a youkai has 2 forms, and the more powerful ones look more human then the less powerful ones?"

"Yes, we have." Sango answered, holding Shippo still. He wanted to see what Rini was doing.

"Right." Rini returned with several pieces of stiff paper and a lamp, "Youkai have 2 forms because we exist in two places at once, but don't worry about that, truth is we don't really understand that either. It's enough to say that older and wiser minds have discovered this, … humans do this too, in a way. The difference is that we can shift between our two forms at will.

"However, this does not mean that our two forms are completely whole." Rini knelt on the floor in front of the group, she lit the lamp and put the papers on the floor in front of it, "in fact there is only enough matter for less than half of each form." she held one of the papers up before the lamp, the light behind it made it look like it was glowing, and showed brightly through thousands of tiny holes like stars, "This is the youkai body, Okay?" Shippo, to whom the question was mostly asked, nodded vigorously, "Okay, the paper is the solid body of the youkai, the holes, or rather the light coming through them, represents youki, the sustaining energy of the youkai. If this were really a youkai's body it would have more light areas as solid areas but then I would have difficulty holding it. The problem now becomes that of everyday survival, the more power the youkai has to use in order to maintain its form the less it has in order live its life.

"Therefore, youkai with less power, or the young, bring more of their other form here to lessen the strain on their youki, resulting in tails, paws, claws and the like. And a youkai with more power can use his energy to fill in the gapes." Rini put down the "youkai" paper and picked up another one.

"But what about that other place?" Shippo asked curious, he had never heard of it before, "don't they… we, need our forms there too?"

"Physical forms aren't as necessary there, but power is. Humans hardly have any physical presence there, but seem to keep most of their power over there." Rini looked thoughtfully at the ceiling, "It makes sense though, most humans have enough power to burn up their fragile bodies, but they don't know how to use it safely so they keep it there. The youkai that take more matter from that place leave more youki, and they don't need as much youki to keep themselves together here.

Rini held the paper in front of the lamp. This one was solid, though you could see the glow from the lamp through it, "This is the human body, almost completely solid. You can see their power shinning through at times, but the solid nature of their bodies make them rigid and fragile, that is why they must be careful with their energy. A hanyou… well, any child, takes half his blood from his father and half from his mother. But the youkai parent doesn't have a complete set of human characteristics to pass on, so characteristics from the animal, or whatever, is mixed in as well to provide support for the weaker human parts. But the hanyou body doesn't really contain as much matter as the human body either, and therefore must rely on its' youki to hold it together."

"But what about his human nights?" Sango shook her head in an attempt to process all the information, "Why would losing ones youki make him turn into a human."

InuYasha gave Sango a disgruntled look.

Rini put down the papers and smiled up at Sango, "I know of this phenomenon, and she didn't tell me when it was, InuYasha. A hanyou doesn't loose his youki; it just wanes to such a point that it can no longer sustain the youkai matter in the body on a physical level." Rini motioned to InuYasha in a vague way, "his blood holds traits from his mother, her eyes and hair and form and such, and when his youki wanes it can only just manage to hold what is left, his human body, together. It cannot work to manifest the rest of his physical form."

"So…" Shippo looked up in thought, "it's like when you wear through your clothes and can see bare thread, barely holding them together?"

"Sort of, yes." Rini's smile grew. She loved children.

"So…what will InuYasha's and Kagome's kid be like?" Shippo asked again.

"Well, half of its' characteristics will be from InuYasha and half will be from Kagome," Rini said thoughtfully, "theoretically, it could be a hanyou itself, if it received only InuYasha's youkai parts. Or it could even be a human. That's doubtful because it has youki… but I guess even that is not impossible…. However it will likely fall somewhere between the two."

InuYasha had begun growling in a low, rumbling way and suddenly lunged forward in his seat and yell, "Enough of this shit, take me to Kagome!"

A/N: Ok, here's the thing, a couple of months ago (by which I mean somewhere around Chapter 3) I had all the questions known and answered. Now I can't remember them… so here's your chance to ask Rini! Anything you want, I can't guaranty that it will be answered in the story, as she is a being in my story and not in any way all knowing, But I will try to answer them.