InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tale of the Twins ❯ Chapter Three: Shocked Silence ( Chapter 3 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

I do not own Inuyasha—Rumiko Takahashi does.I do, however, own Shuarra Meitsuki and Kuraimaru, and the plotline of this tale.

Chapter Three

Shocked Silence

Because Rin and Naraku were occupying themselves with things Sesshomaru wanted nothing to do with, that left him to watch the children. After their scare in the forest, they were being fairly mellow—even Shuarra Meitsuki. Once she returned to her usual self, Sesshomaru might call Jaken in to watch her. Naraku had put up a more or less reverse barrier within the other one (which he had been rather proud of) that kept the children inside the palace.

For the time being, though, Shuarra Meitsuki was curled up beside Sesshomaru. She hadn't left him since the forest. “Are we going to leave Japan?” she wondered, looking up at him.

Kuraimaru glanced at them, then went back to looking at the scroll, going over his lessons, like Shuarra Meitsuki should be doing right now. “It would be safer.”

“But you don't want to go, do you?” she asked him. She sat up and crawled onto his lap, looking up at him intently. “Shuarra is afraid of going across the sea.”

“You're afraid of everything,” Kuraimaru couldn't resist saying.

She shot to her feet. “Am not!”

He smirked. “You're afraid of rats.”

“Rats are creepy!”

“And insects,” he continued.
“So are they!”

He glanced over at her, having a smug expression on his face—so identical to Sesshomaru's. “And you're afraid of snakes.”

“Also creepy!”

It was really no surprise about the last one. The first two were stereotypical fears prone primarily to women and young children. The last was similar, but she had a better reason for being afraid of snakes. When she was the human equivalent of two years old, she had been outside in the garden with Rin. They had been picking flowers, and Rin was making circlets out of them. Shuarra Meitsuki had wandered off a little ways in her hunt for the perfect flower to be the centerpiece of her circlet. As she waded through the flowers, she stepped on a poisonous snake, who, in turn, bit her ankle. She had been ill the rest of the day, but her body quickly flushed out the poison. However, since then, she had carried a terrible fear of snakes.

“You're a baby,” he said, matter-of-factly.

Here it goes…

“Am not! Take that back now!” she yelled, preparing to lunge at her twin.

He glanced at her, then looked back at the scroll. “No,” he said flatly.

Sesshomaru decided that now was the time to intervene. He grabbed Meitsuki before she launched the attack. “Kuraimaru, stop instigating your sister.”

Shuarra looked at Sesshomaru curiously. “What's `instigating'?”

Kuraimaru had heard the word enough times to discover its meaning. Apparently, he did it often, too, considering that the word was always directed at him. “It means that I'm making you angry on purpose,” he answered.

Sesshomaru resisted the urge to roll his eyes. How typical of Kuraimaru. He supposed he deserved this, though. It wasn't like he had been any better at his age—back when he was female, anyway. “Kuraimaru, stop. At least while I am watching you.”

Kuraimaru laughed. “So, I can when Jaken is watching us?”

“Of course.”

Shuarra looked from Sesshomaru to her twin quizzically. “Huh?” She decided suddenly that she no longer cared. She pounced on her brother, giggling and tickling him. He tried to get her away, but she kept coming back. He transformed and she backed off, jumping back to Sesshomaru for protection. “Kurai-kun is scary!”

“Sesshomaru-sama!” he heard Rin call. “I want your opinion on something!”

He sighed. It was probably about this move of theirs. He wanted nothing to do with it, damn it! Nevertheless, he rose and followed her voice, leaving the children. Shuarra went to follow him, but he shut the door on her. She pouted.

Jaken was sent in to make sure they didn't hurt each other. Not that it ever did much. Kuraimaru was fairly easy to watch, when he wasn't in one of his “moods.” Usually, anyway.

There had been one time, when the twins were the equivalent of three, that Kuraimaru had decided to tempt fate. Jaken had been the unlucky one to be watching him. Kuraimaru had eluded him throughout the palace for some time. When Jaken finally found him, he was pulling off his shoes. He couldn't understand why, but when it became clear what he was doing, Jaken began to panic.

“No! Prince Kuraimaru, you mustn't—“
“Be quiet.” The boy pulled himself onto the first shelf of the bookcase. The chest at the top of the bookcase was his destination. He struggled up another shelf. Jaken was dancing from one foot to the other nervously, babbling on about how Sesshoumaru was going to skin him alive.

Kuraimaru took care in scaling the last few shelves, then disappeared over the top. He had seen the chest before, and often wondered what was inside of it. It was covered in a thin layer of gray dust. Kuraimaru tested the lock on it curiously. It was so old that it could easily be broken. Even a toddler could break it, and he did. He opened it, coughing as the dust was disturbed. He peered inside. The box was lined in ancient silk and padded. The single item inside was wrapped in a layer of silk so old it was beginning to rot. The boy carefully lifted the item out and then leaped down to the floor, landing with grace in a bent position. He straightened and gingerly unwrapped the item. He let the silk fall to the floor. It was a portrait. He turned it to see what was inside. He giggled.

He could tell it was Sesshoumaru quite plainly. Except that… In the background, there was a brilliant sunset out the window. Sesshoumaru was kneeling in front of it the window, head turned to look at the painter. In her lap was a small bouquet of flowers. Her hair was pulled up in ribbons, and she was wearing a distinctly feminine kimono, at about the human age of 13.

“Aw, Sesshy-kun looks so cute,” Kuraimaru laughed. Jaken peered around him. His jaw dropped and he fell over from the shock of seeing his lord in such feminine garb.

Kuraimaru left his shoes and took the portrait with him. The twins always instinctively knew where the other was, if it was only a general direction. Thus, he found her relatively easily. Rin was sitting down with Shuarra Meitsuki in front of her, braiding her curly black hair.

“Look at this!” He held the portrait towards them. Rin's eyes widened. She covered her mouth with a hand. “I found it hidden on a bookcase.”

“Oh, Sesshoumaru-sama looks so cute! `She' looked so adorable when she was little!”

Shuarra Meitsuki could only stare at the picture for a moment. “That's… Oh.”

“I'm gonna give it to Father!”

Rin's eyes somehow managed to widen further. “You're not… But Naraku… You shouldn't do that. Sesshoumaru-sama probably had it hidden on purpose.”

Kuraimaru frowned. “But Father would like it.”

“That doesn't mean that you should—“

The boy was already out the door, before Rin could take it from him. He raced down the hallway, following Naraku's distinct scent. He skidded to a halt in front of him. “Take this!”

Rin had ran after him, trying to stop him from reaching Naraku. She groaned upon seeing that it was too late. He had the painting in his hands. Slowly, a smile broke out over his face. “Where did you find this?” he asked his son.

Kuraimaru smiled. “It was in an old chest on top of a bookcase.”
Sesshoumaru had tried to take it away and hide it since then. He still didn't want to destroy it, even if it was a past he didn't care to remember. However, Naraku had managed to convince him to leave it out somehow. He revised the fading spell on it that kept the paining from fading or decaying and wanted to hang it up somewhere. There was only one room, and one wall that Sesshoumaru agreed to. It happened to be their bedroom, and the painting was somewhat hidden to most who entered, because of the way the room was shaped, but it was still hanging there, and Naraku cherished it quite a bit.

Hopefully, nothing like that would happen today. Better Shuarra Meitsuki running around like a wild dog that Kuraimaru.

Sesshoumaru came in to the room Rin had spread out the maps and information on.

“Okay, I've decided `no' on Germany.” She looked at her lord. “But would you just give us your input?” She didn't wait for an answer, as she knew she wouldn't get one. “They're all very beautiful countries. England and France have colder climates, though.” Rin considered. “So what do you think of Italy?” She handed him a scroll containing various facts about the country. How had they managed to get a hold of all this?

Sesshoumaru scanned over it, then handed it back to her. “I care not.”

Rin sighed deeply. “It'll be fun to leave! I wanna go see Europe!”

“I told you to decide this on your own.”

“But Naraku-san and I can't come to a conclusion. We want your help.”

Naraku nodded. “Indeed. Sesshoumaru, what if we base this on climate—“
“I don't care. Just pick one.”

Rin realized something. “Naraku-san, Sesshoumaru-sama. We do not age. Humans will notice.” It was so interesting how Rin rarely considered herself human. She was different from other humans though—very different. “We will have to move continuously or else they will catch on.” She grinned. “So why don't we just choose a country to live in first?”

Naraku blinked. “Of course. Italy, then?”

Rin nodded. “Yeah. And then we can learn French and English, German, Spanish…”

“Are you sure you can remember all of those, Rin?”

Since Rin had become immortal, she had remembered a lot of things that most humans would forget over such a long period of time. All of her skills seemed sharpened, and she learned things almost too quickly sometimes, and too slowly at others. It had created a bit of an imbalance within her, though it never bothered her in any way. “Of course. Can the rest of you?”

“Naturally.”

They looked at Sesshoumaru for confirmation. Fine, it was time to confess… “I speak eight languages fluently, and three badly.”

There was a stunned silence. “What?”

Sesshoumaru sighed. “I do a lot of traveling. My travels took me many places.” He offered no more explanation to the answer.

Naraku, however, was a bit annoyed, then an idea occurred to him. “So you could tutor us.”

“I never said that.”
“But you could,” Rin pressed.

“What languages do you speak?” Naraku wondered.

“Japanese, Chinese, Latin, Arabic, French, English, German, and Russian. The three I speak badly are Spanish, Greek, and Italian.”

Another stunned silence.

“This surprises you?”

The silence conveyed their surprise for them. In a moment, they recovered from this shock. Well, no wonder if made no difference to Sesshoumaru.

“Oh, but you don't speak Italian very well!” Rin realized.

“No. I must study it a bit.”

She smiled. “Then we can study it together.”

Naraku frowned. “Sesshoumaru, when did you ever find the time to learn all of these languages?” Then his frown deepened. “How old are you—right now?”

Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow. “When I met you, I was roughly 700 years old.”

“Oh…” Well, that would explain where all this time to wander about the world and such came from. He had known that Sesshoumaru was old, but not that old. Sesshoumaru also looked so young. It was hard to think of him as being so much older than he was. “Well, why don't you start teaching us now?”

And so the reluctant tutor had unwittingly recruited himself to play teacher.