InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Sedition of Will ❯ Recollection ( Prologue )

Sedition of Will

Chapter One

 

Lord Sesshoumaru, Prince of Dogs and Lord of the Western Lands rested his back against a moss covered statue in one of the gardens of his expansive castle. He often came here as the day was waning to be among stillness of its surroundings. The sounds of the water bubbling from the artificial pond, the occasional splash of a koi skipping from the water's surface, the calm rustle of the leaves as the wind touched them; they served to quiet his own set of “demons”. He would have preferred the wild of the forests over his gardens but his obligations often kept him at the castle for extended periods. The gardens were a valued respite from the cramped sensation he felt when he lingered indoors for too long. Now he was watching his young ward move about the greenery with a small pair of gardening clippers. She seemed to stop at each plant to pat every leaf with a gentle attention as if she were handling a small creature. Just now she was snipping a few stray bits of maiden's hair moss hanging from an ancient cherry tree. The tree she tended was probably older than the lord himself. This castle was primeval and had seen the rule of many of his ancestors. It was nearly spring and tiny buds were forming on the grayish brown branches of the elderly sentinels. Sesshoumaru followed her with his eyes as she moved about, as he had countless times before.

 

Rin.

 

What an unlikely string of events that had brought her into his domain. Sesshoumaru supposed if she hadn't come to him in the form of a frail female child he would have killed her outright for encroaching on his misery. That was nearly twelve years ago. So much had changed since then.

 

Sesshoumaru couldn't recall in recent times being so despondent. He, the eldest son of the noble Inutaisho, did not take his humiliating defeat against his younger bastard of a brother flippantly. This was a great degradation and he imagined father frowning at him in disappointment. Now he was hidden in the forest like a thief, allowing his deceitful body time to heal. He was propped against a tree and barely able to move. His body was broken. His left arm had been severed above the elbow by the sword his father had left specifically to his hanyou brother. Tessaiga. The very sword he had sought out to claim. It had been a mistake to leave such a powerful weapon in the hands of Inuyasha and he had intended to rectify that error. He had failed miserable defeat. Sesshoumaru was covered in deep seething wounds that continued to ooze crimson. He was closer to death than he had been in centuries. And all because of that half breed abomination.

 

This is my fault he growled. I was careless in underestimating Inuyasha. Why did father leave Tessaiga to such an undeserving recipient? Did he not love his father most? Had he not proven it? And why in name of the gods had father left him the useless Tensaiga? A life giving sword. He had never heard of something so absurd. Second only to the absurdity of a great Inu Youkai mating a human. Third to the absurdity of breeding a hanyou bastard whelp from that atrocity of a union. How he hated his brother. With a pang of guilt tried to push away the resentment he felt for his father's irrational decisions. Sesshoumaru cursed and clenched his eyes shut. His right hand balled into a fist at his side and fresh blood pulsed from his wounds. Sesshoumaru had never felt so pathetic. His burning sense of shame followed him into his dreams as he finally succumbed to sleep.

 

He was still unconscious when Rin found him. She couldn't have been more than six or seven years of age. Rin had been carrying a bucket of water from the stream to the village teahouse when she came across the wounded Lord. She nearly dropped the pail of water when she wandered into his clearing. He was nothing like she had ever seen before. His clothing was exotic, but not nearly as striking as the Lord himself. The strange man had long snow white hair that fell around his slumped form. He was leaning against a tree and looked to be sleeping. Between cropped banged she could see his beautiful face. From just above two curiously arched ears, twin magenta stripes curved across his high cheekbones tapering to knife-like points above his splendid jawline. Between the part of his snowy silvered bangs there was a symbol that looked like a fingernail moon. He seemed like a real life fairytale to the wide eyed girl. And he looked very hurt.

 

She approached him and placed a small hand on his chest. She felt the faint rising and falling of his powerful torso against her splayed palm. He was still alive. She glanced at him, then the bucket in her hand and proceeded to do the unthinkable. She dumped contents over his head. There was a blur of motion and the crack of a feral snarl. Rin had only time to blink once before she found herself staring into the face of the now wide awake demon in front of her. He had one hand wrapped in a fistful of her tattered kimono and yanked her forward. His eyes were now fully open and deep crimson, full of hatred and malice. His lips were curled in a brutal snarl revealing the daggers of his curving white fangs as he released an ear shattering roar. He was about to tear her to shreds before something behind his furious red eyes awoke, finally focusing on her fully. Sesshoumaru half gasped-half snarled in surprised and he thrust her back. His haggard breathing steadied and Sesshoumaru glared at his “attacker”. It was nothing more than a human child. He was so weakened that even this dismal whelp had snuck up on him. Even more astonishing she didn't seem to be afraid. Instead she just peered back at him in what looked like a cross between interest and puzzlement. He exhaled and felt the red wrath recede from his eyes leaving two impassive circlets of gold. She seemed to light up as his expression returned it its usual stoic bearing. Snorting in disgust, Sesshoumaru released his grip on the front of her robe and she fell backwards landing on her rump.

 

“Leave.” He said gruffly.

 

He turned his gaze straight ahead and refused to acknowledge the human further. The forest grew quiet except for the occasional plinking of water dripping from his hair to the forest floor. The strange girl stood up and he could feel her looking at him. What was she waiting for? And why didn't she seem to fear him? He must look exceptionally brusque in his current condition. Finally after a few irritating moments of hesitation, the girl made a small bow and walked out of his field of vision. When Sesshoumaru could no longer hear her small footsteps he lowered his chin and looked around skeptically. His injuries were finally mending themselves and he suspected in a day or two he would be entirely healed. Except for his arm he sighed. It would take years to grow that back. His damnable bastard brother would pay with much more than his life for this indignity. Sesshoumaru caught sight of the dented bucket the girl had left behind. He raised his good hand to his damp kimono. She had actually poured water on him. That's what had roused him from his sleep so abruptly. He had panicked. Had he assessed his attacker an instant later her blood would be coating his robes now. Though he had stayed his claws, surely she knew she was about to die. Didn't she? He could smell no lingering traces of fear from where she had stood. Her lack of fright aggravated him. Humans were always troublesome. Nearly every painful memory he could recall stemmed somehow from that loathsome race. He snorted and tilted his head back against the tree. Sesshoumaru closed his eyes and willed himself to rest.

 

There it was again. Sesshoumaru opened his eyes and turned his gaze to the treeline. His keen sense of smell told him he was not alone. The same scent of that human girl was fresh and getting closer. He turned his gaze straight ahead, his face a mask of indifference as she entered his clearing. He listened as her footsteps neared. The girl stopped a few paces away from his outstretched legs and knelt. This human was either very brave or very stupid.

 

“I told you to leave.” He quietly addressed the open space. When he heard no reply he afforded her an angry glance. She knelt near him with her head bowed. In front of her on a cracked plate was a line of meager sardines. Sesshoumaru scoffed and looked away. Patiently the human seemed to be waiting for him.

 

“I do not eat human food.” He stated coolly. “Leave me be.” Slowly the girl stood and bowed low, then walked unhurriedly out of his clearing, leaving him with her offering. Sesshoumaru did not touch the offending plate. Strangely he had not sensed dejection in her departure. He vaguely wondered where she went. From her scent he had gathered various hints. The odor of smoke, tea leaves, and perhaps blood clung to her clothing. With the overwhelming stench of his own blood in the air he couldn't be sure. Not that it mattered. If she was going fetch other humans to come at him with pitiable farming tools and torches she'd have done so already. In a few days his wounds will be closed and he would forget the abnormal human child. He looked again at the offering of fish at his side and closed his eyes.

 

It no longer surprised him when he felt her approach through the woods. For the past three days the human girl had come to his hidden resting place bringing him small bits of her rations. A half withered leek. A bread crust. A scanty pile of chicken legs. He had never touched any of her “gifts” and each time he turned her away with cold words, but the girl kept returning. She seemed ordinary enough. She wore a dirty peasant robe and had a mane of uncombed raven hair. Her eyes were just like any other humans. Perhaps it they just seemed unusual because of her demeanor towards him. In Sesshoumaru's life, when human eyes fell on him it was always with fear. And contempt. Disgust even. He afforded them no less courtesy in return. This human girl was singular. She never uttered a word. Instead, without a scrap of fright, she just looked at him and waited.

 

Waited for what? For him to grant her a wish? He couldn't be sure what misconceptions humans had come to about demons these days. They had too little time on their hands and seemed to make up for it in ignorance. His long life had taught him the consequences of investing empathy in mortals.

 

Sesshoumaru's thoughts were cut off abruptly as the child limped into his grove. Something was different. He looked at her appraisingly. Her face and arms were covered in cuts and angry bruises and she wobbled unsteadily. She looked as though the faintest breeze would topple her over. His golden eyes rose from her battered body and met her weaker one. She looked sad and depleted, but she did not cry, as he knew humans were prone to doing. Gloom clung to her like a bad odor. She hobbled wordlessly to him and just stood nearby as if warming herself by a fire. Her despair was so vast for a creature so young. She reeked of other less pleasant smelling humans and he could guess what occurred. The girl had been foolishly caught stealing food on his behalf.

 

“You're wounded.” He heard himself say. He thought she might burst into tears. But she did something wholly unexpected. Instead of lowering her head in further defeat, a wide grin blossomed on her face as though those were the most thoughtful words she'd ever heard. Sesshoumaru didn't know what to make of this odd reaction.

 

“What happened?” he asked slowly. The girl child did not answer but straightened her arms at her sides and her eyes instantly brightened. She looked so pleased. The girl made a quick bow and skipped merrily from the clearing, leaving Sesshoumaru with a baffled expression.

 

Sesshoumaru's wounds were all but healed now. The ragged stump of his left arm had smoothed over and his lesser lacerations were closed with no scarring. Demons rarely scarred. The only evidence of Sesshoumaru's disgraceful failure to defeat his brother was his absent arm and a dull ache in his muscles. He pushed himself off the tree he had rested against for nearly half a week and brushed a few clinging leaves from his robes. He ran his hand thoughtfully through the long hanging fur of the pelt at his shoulder. Sesshoumaru hadn't seen any sign of the girl that day. He squelched that transitory thought and turned his attention to more pressing matters. He supposed he should return to his castle and see that everything was in order. Sesshoumaru would slaughter anyone who dared make the mishap of inquiring why he did not return with Tessaiga.

 

As he strode through the forest something fixed his attention. Sesshoumaru's sensitive nose twitched and he turned towards the source of an unexpected odor. Blood. Human blood. He turned from his path and followed the scent. Around him the grass was trampled and he didn't need to speculate about what had transgressed. The predatory musk of passing wolves still hung in the air. It was the girl who had been visiting him. He spotted her lifeless body crumpled on the forest floor. Dried blood and dirt clung to her form and her eyes had already clouded over in death shrouds.

 

Sesshoumaru did not feel sorrow for the girl. Humans were so frail. They all wasted to dust sooner or later. But Sesshoumaru did feel slightly disappointed. If more humans were as intriguing as her, they might not be as intolerable. After brief contemplation he drew Tenseiga from its scabbard at his side and held it in his grip. The sword father had left to him. He had deeply resented his father's gift and had never deigned to use it before. Perhaps this was the right time. He looked down at the corpse and swung. A breeze from his clean stroke ruffled the girl's hair and the enchanted blade seemed to pass through her. He resheathed the sword and knelt, propping the small body against his knee and waited. Gradually the blank stare of the girl began to change. As though a veil were lifted she was present within herself again and the deep brown irises of her eyes regained their bright reflective quality. She took a slow breath and looked about in her daze. Sesshoumaru studied her face. The clay mask of a cadaver only moments before flushed with life. Her tired gaze slowly moved upward and focused on him. The child instantly brightened with that juvenile grin she had given him previously, when he inquired about her injuries. She looked genuinely happy to see him. Father's sword worked after all.

 

His task done, Sesshoumaru sat the girl upright and rose to his feet. He turned to leave heading in the direction of the Western Lands. Behind him he heard the girl shuffle to her clumsy feet and patter after him. Her footsteps sounded like the clatter of a spindly legged fawn stumbling after its mother. And that's how it started. He neither forced her to leave nor openly permitted her to stay. For whatever reason she preferred his company to the life she had led before. Sesshoumaru expected he would command the girl to leave him sooner or later. Or she would come to her senses and realize vicious demons were not meant to be followed. When neither occurred, the Lord just didn't feel the need to immediately act otherwise. He could not say exactly why it was he allowed her to remain at his side. It just hadn't suited him to send a child he'd just condescended to revive away to perish. Or perhaps it had just been boredom. Jakken had been horrified when Sesshoumaru had returned to the castle with a human girl in tow. Perhaps she may serve some purpose after all.

 

“My Lord?” Rin inquired. Sesshoumaru blinked. It was not often he daydreamed so deeply. He raised an eyebrow to the young woman who now stood before him. She grinned with the same misguided adoration she had as a child and held out her hand. He looked down. In her extended palm was what looked like a seed pod. He lifted both his brows at her. Rin's grin widened.

 

“It's a butterfly cocoon! The first one of the season!” She declared delightfully.

 

“Ah.” He replied, though without her enthusiasm.

 

“I wonder what it will look like.” She continued, eyeing the insect chrysalis with reverent wonder. Sesshoumaru looked at her. Sometimes it was hard to believe the quiet girl had become this very different, yet very the same young woman who stood before him. When he did not reply she raised her eyes to him. He was observing intently, not at the sleeping butterfly, but at her. A self conscious blush crept into her cheeks and she laughed at herself.

 

He must be amazed how childish I still am, Rin thought. Sesshoumaru watched as Rin returned the delicate pupa to its hiding place in a nook of the cherry tree. She let out a satisfied sigh and stretched her arms. Rin had always liked spending afternoons tending his castle's gardens since she first followed her lord here as a girl. Looking after it had become her unofficial role in the castle's order. The servants and vassals had not taken compassionately to Lord Sesshoumaru bringing the girl back so many years ago, but he had swiftly quieted any disapproval. Eventually Rin's charismatic nature won over nearly all the inhabitants of his home, both servants and visitors alike. Even Jakken, senile as he could be, came to care very deeply for the girl. And Au-Un, Sesshoumaru's wise dragon steed regarded her with the quiet respect he would of any royal demon. Rin loved the outdoors as much as Sesshoumaru did and he brought her along with him on his many trips into his lands. He had grown so accustomed to her presence in his halls and at his side.

 

But it was harder and harder for him to ignore that she was no longer a child. It had been many years since he first gave her place here as a child. Sesshoumaru could not even ignore it now in the timeless setting of his gardens. When he first met her in the woods she barely came up to his knees. Now when Rin stood next to him the top of her head reached his chest. Her scrawny girlish body had developed into the willowy form of a young lady. Though by human standards she was still under average height she looked her age of eighteen years. Her face had slimmed, refining to gentle angles and framed by long silky black hair that fell to her slender waist. Rin's body showed other significant signs of her coming age that he didn't allow himself to dwell on.

 

Even Rin's behavior had matured. Her endless games and make believe play became less and less until she seemed to stop them all together. The world had not lost its amazement in her eyes; she just seemed to grow self conscious of her nonsensical behavior. Rin had learned to blush. Sesshoumaru ought to have been glad that she no longer ran circles around him while he walked impassively on their travels but somehow it left him with only more unease. The old question of what to do with Rin was rising to the surface again and Sesshoumaru was having more difficulty suppressing it. Or finding an amenable solution. Since the day she had met him Rin adored him and as she had changed over the years he suspected her view of him might have as well, but that was none of his concern. Rin was subject to foolishness sometimes, and subject to being human at all times. Sesshoumaru had never taken a mate nor had he seriously considered the concept. He was still youthful in demons terms and did not require immediate heirs. And he certainly wasn't going to be considering humans as possible matches. There was no reason to brood over impractical human emotions. The very notion made him snort resentfully. For his great father's power, Sesshoumaru did not inherit his sire's merciful heart for humankind. At least that's what he insisted to himself time and time again. It still left him wondering what place Rin really had in his life. In his firm disdain of humans, Rin stuck out like a sore thumb. She was not an unattractive for a human. In fact quite the opposite. But for all her good qualities she was still of mortal flesh. Sesshoumaru did not indulge in questions of what if. He furrowed his brow and decided once again to set this impasse aside for now. He stood up and signaled to Rin with a slight nod.

 

“It is time to return, Rin. It's getting dark.”

 

“Coming my lord!” She called back. She caught the skirts of her kimono in her hand and trotted over the bridge of the small stream, her wooden zori making `clack clack' noises as she crossed the hollow surface. Rin slowed to a walk as she reached his side and brushed a brave tendril of hair that had escaped her ponytail out of her face. Though Sesshoumaru's face was its usual stoic slate, she welcomed him with a warm smile and let out a deep, satisfied heave, having quite exhausted herself. Sesshoumaru inwardly appreciated her cheery presence she brought to his household. He could enjoy Rin's bizarre yet endearing nature for as long as she was with him, however close to conclusion may be approaching. Sesshoumaru and his youthful ward strolled back to the castle in no particular hurry, enjoying the simple act of walking together immensely.