InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Pearl ❯ For Your Viewing Pleasure ( Chapter 12 )

The Pearl

 

Disclaimer: I threw this away, making it even less of totally not mine to begin with.

 

 

For Your Viewing Pleasure: Mistakes and Other Oddities

 

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. ~Anonymous

 

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A/N: Yes, you read it right. Over the course of writing this fic, I had brainstormed many different outcomes for the chapters as they came. Around about my chapter 6 (your chapter 8, which should give you a clue as to how much my vision deviated) I started going back and saving the stuff that was scrapped. So, here is what you missed out on: the proverbial crap on the cutting room floor. Try not to make too much sense of it.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

 

-------Chapter 2: Original details of how Rin was desperate to keep the pearl; edited for grossness.

 

The demon seemed to consider the human girl's words, and the underlying threat beneath them. The threat was that if he didn't do something to fix this problem, she would, and the results would probably be disastrous at best. All too well, he remembered the time she tried to carve it into her chest. It was a relentless struggle, ending when the knife was wrestled from her hands by Rin's weapons' instructor. She still had scars from her efforts. She had tried swallowing it twice. The first time was a misguided stroke of genius, and the second was a desperate attempt to recover her genius gone awry. It did not end well. Rin had never been that sick in her entire life, and was not able to ride Kado for two months after her body's volatile rejection of being a vessel for the pearl. And of course there had been the time she tried to burn her arm enough so that the flesh would heal around the stone. Jaken had nearly fainted at the sight. The smell had everyone around her tasting bile all day. The most recent had been trying to sew it into her belly button. Sesshomaru learned that the human body had the ability to gush copious amounts of blood without posing any threat to the mortality of that body. It was amazing to him the pains she would go through to keep that pearl on her person.

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

(-------Chapter 8: Okay, let me just preface this by saying chapter 8 was physically painful to write. The whole plot was too slippery in my mind; I nearly went crazy trying to get it into order. Here are two ways that it could have gone. Unfortunately, I was in a silly mood at the time I was writing, and the chapter content was not suited for any sort of humor. I don't know why exactly I felt it necessary to be so cruel to Housenki.)

 

-----Chapter 8, Intro #1

 

He was running at a break-neck speed. Sesshomaru was strangely proud of himself for his high endurance performance. Every muscle fiber of his body was being stretched to the absolute limit, before it retracted that brief second and snapped taut again.

 

Her taste was beginning to sour on his tongue. His jaws ached from holding her so precariously, but if he carried her in any other way the poison in his saliva would disintegrate her flesh. Carrying the broken (She can't be dead! I won't allow it!) body of his beloved (Yes, and my soul aches all the more for it.) Rin, running across the wilderness in giant bounds, Sesshomaru was surprisingly calm. In his true form, his mind became clear of all distractions and remained focused on the task at hand. What had been a crisis was now a mere miscalculation. He would take her to Housenki. She would be placed on the ground, and the situation would be explained. Then the jeweler would fix her, and Sesshomaru could resume his place as guardian and protector. Rin would forgive him, and they could continue living on as they had before.

 

Except he didn't want things to be as they once were. Now he flooded his heart with every moment of longing he had felt in her absences, no matter how brief. He tattooed the outline of her body to his chest from the night he had held her in the garden. He broke his digits, tiny bone by tiny bone, for every sad look from her that he neglected to comfort.

 

He had failed her, in every way possible.

 

The pink clam had already come to the surface of the lake by the time Sesshomaru could see beyond the horizon. Apparently, Housenki was well aware of the Western lord's approach. Good, the thought, less time wasted.

 

Gigantic paws dug trenches through the dirt as the dog demon skidded to a stop. Trying not to gag, he rolled Rin from off of his tongue to the ground and pulled his aura back into his common form. The clam was creaking open; quickly Sesshomaru scanned Rin for any damages she may have sustained in the journey. She actually looked better now than when she had died; rosy cheeks and pink skin replaced the smoky veil she once wore. This gave Sesshomaru great hope. She can be fixed, she can be fixed, he chanted in his head.

 

Housenki peered over the edge of his house and waited for a sign from his guest. A large, malicious demonic aura had jarred the jeweler away from his current project and into a frenzy. Sesshomaru was in some strange get-up that reminded Housenki of the Inu no Taisho of his own father's day. Obviously from looking at the armor and the bloodstain on his shoulder, some fighting had been going on. Looking further down and seeing a motionless Rin, Housenki's blood nearly froze.

 

This is somehow going to be my fault, the jeweler lamented. He's going to kill me in the slowest, messiest way possible. Why couldn't I have listened to my father about avoiding those temperamental dog demons?!

 

Sesshomaru shot upright and glared into the dark recesses of the clam. “Come out!” he barked. To his credit, he was repressing all homicidal urges as they arose. But then he had only been there for two minutes.

 

“Ah, Sesshomaru-sama! Aha-ha,” Housenki tittered nervously. “My goodness, with your hair like that you look an awful lot like your father. What brings you---”

 

“Fix her,” Sesshomaru cut off.

 

Housenki coughed and looked down at Rin, hoping the problem would be obvious. It was, thankfully.

 

“She's dead,” he gasped solemnly.

 

“Fix. Her.”

 

The jeweler gulped. “Eh-heh, ah, where is the, uh, pearl?”

 

“It broke,” the dog demon replied ominously. Your design was flawed, and I am holding you in partial responsibility for this.

 

I knew I should have made a diamond instead, Housenki wailed to himself.

 

“Well, then, if it's broken I'm afraid---” that you're going to kill me for saying this “—there is really nothing that I can do. I'm just a jeweler, you see.” Scratching the back of his bald head, Housenki allowed himself to better study the girl at his feet. “The poor thing,” he murmured. “She worked so hard to live.”

 

Sesshomaru's heart had in the course of his journey broken into splinters and stuck itself rather painfully on the inside of his chest. However at this moment a few of the more needle-like pieces decided to fire themselves at his brain and become lodged in the soft tissues therein. He knew this plan would never work, but he had foolishly hoped he was wrong. He'd gotten good at being wrong; why did he have to be right now?

 

But why did she still look so alive? Anyone could fool themselves into thinking she was merely sleeping. If he called to her, she might wake. It was a terrible tease, and Sesshomaru suspected Rin bore him more ill will than she let on, to be stringing him along in these false hopes.

 

“Why does she look like this?” he snarled, grabbing Housenki by the collar. His temper was getting the best of him; quickly he amended his action by tossing the jeweler aside.

 

Housenki sat up and tried to make himself look as small as possible. “Technically, she's not dead,” he began, but was once again cut off in an enraged outburst.

 

“Don't lie to me!” Sesshomaru snapped, fangs bared. As a further warning he began cracking his knuckles and flexing his claws.

 

“She's not dead, I swear!” the jeweler cried in terror. “Her body is still alive! It's her soul that is dead!” He covered his head with his large hands and trembled. “She's dead, but she's not dead; not totally at least,” he echoed between his legs.

 

Sesshomaru paused in his wrathful musings to consider this. By all accounts, it made good sense; it was only her soul in the pearl after all. Perhaps it was in the separation of the two that had made her appear as if she had died. Her body then remained behind intact, while her soul went…

 

Bending down to scoop Rin into the cradle of his arm, Sesshomaru turned and nodded to Housenki. The jeweler watched the dog demon surround himself in a ball of white light, then vanish in a blur.

 

Housenki allowed himself to heave a sigh of relief. “Glad to be of help,” he moaned pitifully.

 

------Chapter 8, Intro #2

 

“Where is she?” Sesshomaru gritted through his teeth. Flecks of spittle landed on Housenki's face, burning his skin with their poison.

 

“I don't know what you mean!” the jeweler protested. “She's dead, I don't know---”

 

“Where did she go?” the dog demon rumbled scornfully. “Where did you send her?”

 

Housenki was desperate. Sesshomaru was on the verge of a homicidal outburst, and there was no one else there to get caught in the back draft. He just couldn't think clearly under all this pressure. The question was in regards to Rin's present location. As Rin was laying dead at their feet, Housenki assumed that the answer had to be metaphysical in nature. Sesshomaru had come here to ask about Rin; this probably meant he was also here to ask about the pearl.

 

“Where is her soul? Is that what you mean?” the jeweler tried uneasily.

 

Sesshomaru's grip on the demon's collar slackened. Though Housenki was much taller than he was, immense power and unquenchable bloodlust overshadowed any demon, regardless. Housenki took the decreased threat to his life as a signal to continue in his line of reasoning.

 

“She's not in Hell, if that's what you're wondering,” he gulped. “I couldn't make it so she went there. And she's not in Heaven either, not by a long-shot.”

 

Inferring that his Rin was anything less than an angel was not the wisest of things to say to Sesshomaru in this particular state of mind. His grip tightened once more.

 

Housenki gagged a little, and started waving his hands in a silent plea for mercy. Enough slack was given so he would be able to speak. “She can't go to either,” he wheezed. “She's neither demon nor human, not with her soul the way it was. I put a gateway in the pearl, just in case she died mind you, to the border between the living and the dead worlds. That was the only place I could think to send her.”

 

Sesshomaru slowly released Housenki from his claws and stepped back to think. There had been several occasions he had visited the border of the two worlds. The first was through the means of the black pearl in Inuyasha's eye. But after that one time, the pearl had been rendered useless. The second time had been when Naraku came by way of a giant river of blood to the shadowed realm in search of the final jewel shard. Sesshomaru had managed to strut inside through the front door, quite literally. He merely displayed the Tenseiga to the guards at the gate opening to the middle land, and they humbly let him pass. If history had taught him anything, it was that it has the capacity to repeat itself.

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

(Here is the original version of the epilogue's fable, which I had written before I had even finished chapter 3. As you can see my initial vision for how the story should go deteriorated with each continual posting. I'll always like this one for sentimental reasons, but mainly for the birthday card joke.)

 

The Demon's Assassin

 

In the time of wars and chaos, demons thrived off of the dead bodies left behind in the battlefields. But there were some among them who were above mere carrion feeders—noble demons who possessed great power. They ruled over the four lands in their respective clans: the wolves to the North, the moths to the East, the snakes to the South, and the dogs to the West.

 

It so happened that the demon prince of the West had in his care a human girl-child, whom he had taken into his protection when she was very small. The girl was raised as a demon, and walked among them with no fear.

 

“I wouldn't say I was treated as a demon. More like, not treated like a human.”

 

“You were spoiled.”

 

“Shh! Don't interrupt, I'm reading.”

 

The great dog prince was known far and wide for his cruelty and unending thirst for power. Yet as strong as he was, he had two weaknesses that could not be overcome. The first weakness was that the prince possessed only one arm, having lost the other in a battle with a demon from the underworld.

 

“Either they made it up or else they just got the details confused. That's the problem with these things. What are you making that face for?”

 

“It wasn't a `battle.' It was a fluke. Beginners luck. And it wasn't a weakness. It was a handicap. I overcame it.”

 

“You've never been handicapped a day in your life, stubborn ass.”

 

“Shh! I want to hear the story.”

 

The second and most powerful weakness was the demon's fondness for the human girl he kept in his palace. There was nothing he would deny her, and she grew into a beautiful woman. The lord was without a wife, and many feared that he would one day claim his ward as his lady, thus weakening the lineage of the Western House. Yet very few saw her, as she was kept under heavy guard. Had they seen her, they would have not questioned her lord's affections, for she was indeed very beautiful.

 

“Wow, I'm like Helen of Troy.”

 

So much did the demon prince care for his ward, that he endowed her with a magical spell that protected her from ever becoming old or dying. By this enchantment would the mortal woman be able to live with her immortal lord for all time.

 

“Housenki's gonna be mad that he didn't get any credit in this.”

 

“I'm not `magical' by any stretch of the imagination. Who wrote this again?”

 

“Dunno. Some random minstrel.”

 

It was during that time that the demon rulers of the East and South were being hunted and killed by an invisible assassin. Desperate for help, they sought the aid of the Western lord, who offered his protection in exchange for land. After a time, the Western Lands encompassed a great deal of the world, yet there was still the threat of the murderer in their midst. The neighboring lords had their suspicions against the West, but no evidence. So a trap was planned to catch the assassin, and overthrow the Lord of the West into exile.

 

A young, brave general in the East was commissioned to carry out this plot. Knowing the assassin would be next in coming to his house, he laid in wait, keeping vigil over his land. The night came when the assassin slipped through the shadows and into the bedroom of the young demon, intending to murder him as he slept. But the general had been ready, and in the bed a servant took his place. It was by this trick that he was able to capture the assassin. However, he was shocked to find that, upon revealing the murderer's identity, it was in fact the human ward of the Western prince.

 

“There was no shock; that rat Katsuro told him everything.”

 

“Are you certain you want to continue with this?”

 

“I'm fine, don't worry.”

 

The general tried to execute the secret criminal, but the enchantment over the girl's life protected her from harm. Undeterred, the general then captured the girl's soul and held it for ransom, sending the girl back to the West to steal the two demon swords the lord was known to carry: a sword of unending torture and death, and a sword of healing and life. The girl set about her mission, but upon her return, fell to her knees in shame. Unable to betray her beloved guardian, she begged to her lord for rescue. The dog prince was infuriated at his secret plot being revealed, and cast out the girl in the interest of his kingdom. Betrayed and alone, the girl returned in the stealth of night and managed to steal her master's healing sword, in hopes that she could still save herself. However, the general rejected the incomplete ransom, and seduced the broken girl, taking her as his concubine to humiliate the Western lord. She was thus imprisoned, and unable to die, yet unwilling to live.

 

“I will beg your forgiveness for this as long as we live.”

 

“And I will always forgive you in turn, my husband.”

 

The Western Lands fell under the attack of the East, and the palace was destroyed. But the dog demon army was strong, and managed to penetrate the borders of the Eastern Lands and storm the house of the general who held the human ward captive. Knowing his life was in danger, the young general bargained for his freedom in exchange for the girl. The Western lord refused, determined that the moth demon would pay for the grievances he had inflicted. The general was defeated, but at the cost of the girl's life; she died in the arms of her beloved lord, cursing her very existence until the end.

 

Such grief and anguish plagued the dog prince for his actions that he swore the only way his honor could be restored was to travel to hell and beg forgiveness of the human he had so wronged.

 

Journeying to the Fire Mountains, where the only gate to hell in the mortal realm existed, the demon lord battled the sentinels of the underworld in order to gain passage. Their defeat came swiftly, and the gate opened. The Western lord then entered, knowing full well that he may never return, but unable to rest until he had been forgiven for his betrayal.

 

“That reminds me, we need to pay them a visit before summer is over. The card they sent for my birthday was really sweet.”

 

“I didn't see it.”

 

“It was great; it had a bulldog on the front looking all frowny, and on the inside it said, `Happy Birthday, you old dog,' except they had penciled over it so it said, `Happy Birthday, and say hi to your old dog'.”

 

“Is nothing sacred?”

 

For five years, the Lord of the Western Lands did search the very depths of hell, and every crevice, until he found the woman he had lost. In earnest, he begged her to forgive him, and promised to make amends to her however he could.

 

The girl, who had been overcome with the love she felt for her lord upon seeing him again, decided to test his word. So she asked, “Wouldst thou remain for all eternity in hell by me, even if I should fail to forgive thee?” And her lord replied, “Without question.” So the girl then asked, “Wouldst thou remain for all eternity on earth without me, even if I should freely forgive thee?” And her lord replied, “That would nigh be impossible.”

 

Having approved of his answers, the girl warmly embraced her lord and swore her forgiveness, promising to return to earth with him, though it might mean her mortal body would one day die.

 

“I didn't know I talked so purdy.”

 

“And you did much more than `warmly embrace' your lord.”

 

“Watch where you're putting that hand, or I swear to god I'll cut it off again.”

 

“Thou likest it too fondly, my lady, and scarce would not take such an action.”

 

“You're so full of it.”

 

It was soon after that the young woman became fat with child, and gave birth to a half-demon son, destined to be the heir to the Western Lands. Afraid his weaknesses would again put his growing family in danger, the Lord of the West replaced his missing arm so that he would better be able to protect the lives he so valued. After the child had been safely delivered, the demon lord did then bestow the same magical spell over his wife to ensure her immortality once more. And so they lived on, reigning quietly over the land, for the lord had discovered peace in his heart and no longer desired power as a means for happiness.

 

The End.

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

-----Here is the lovely Botan, guiding me with her beta-goodness. When she read my first fanfiction (“His”), she had not seen a single episode of the series, and she still liked it. When I did get her watching, she had no idea why I was so fascinated with Sesshomaru. Now she has come to terms with the fact that I have a Rin-complex, and has agreed to indulge me by beta-ing my work. Though she has been forgiving due to the fact I do most of my writing at 1am, I'm just glad she wasn't my ENG111 professor because she would have tattooed punctuation rules on my arm. This is some of the stuff she put me through (and why I love her all the more—you know I had to do it). Just watch for the bold print.

 

--Chapter 8, outline excerpts

 

Transformed Sesshomaru arrives at Housenki's shell with Rin in his mouth to see if he can be of any help. Nope. So he goes to the fire mountain and visits the guards at the gates to the other world (look fine details up). They let him in, and he searches for Rin, finds her angry in color changing clothing, three Rins in Hell, brings other two to adult Rin to put her together, take her back, battle b/w South and East, Rin gets lost, Rin hates him when she wakes up. ---Why does she hate him? Because she got lost? Because she can't remember what happened in the underworld? Or will it be more of a “waking up from a nightmare” moment that gives the reader a heart attack but is smoothed over in about three sentences? After all we see in hell, I really don't think you need to layer on the angst again. ---

……….

Rin shivered, then cocked her head to the side with alertness. Turning very slowly, she met eyes with the man who she loved and hated,X with all of her being. ---WHY?!? Why do you do such cruel things to commas? Your punctuation weeps to be in your servitude.---

 

 

--Chapter 10, rough draft excerpts

 

He felt like she had caught him picking his teeth, or making rude faces, or adjusting himself. ---Adjusting himself? Was that really necessary? Are you picking on me from the first sentence?---

……….

She did not have to be any part of Sesshomaru's empire,X or Sesshomaru's life if she didn't want to. But therein---you do realize “there” works just as well? Are you nursing some sort of Thomas Hardy complex?--- was her problem.

……….

True, it wasn't the same kind of love that she had felt before; this wasn't some girlish crush, or blind admiration---adoration, more accurately. That's the Rin complex for you---.

……….

Every morning,X Rin woke up and asked herself, “Is staying really worth it?” During the day,X she searched for her reason. Every night,X she went to sleep satisfied; but there was never enough to keep her from waking up the next morning and starting the process over again.---I think commas sprout from your head like some unholy kind of bunshin---

……….

It was a difficult task, but he had to make her understand. Sesshomaru had to find a way to tell Rin that he was only as strong as her love for him. ---Wait a minute...is this...is it...SQUISHINESS?!?! Why do I have this uneasy feeling that you getting sentimental is kind of like Sesshoumaru smiling?---

……….

She was laughing and he was smiling. And it had only taken them a journey to Hell and back to be able to do this with little reservation. ---Don't forget torture! And magic swords! And a nutty moth man!---

……….

Immediately Sesshomaru skidded into a sharp turn just in time to look back and see Rin's body pitch sideways from her horse. She landed on her front, rolled twice, and then stopped still---stopped still? What kind of a phrase is that?---.

……….

“Sesshomaru!” Rin screamed, clenching her fists at her side. However she had lost enough breath in the fall that not all of it had returned---this sentence is correct, it's just weird. I had to read it a few times to figure out what you meant---. A coughing fit shook her chest. From her bleary eyes she could see that the demon had stopped still ---stopped still again? Really, I have my doubts about this phrase--- and was turning around.

……….

The girl sighed and looked down into her tea. After nearly a month of plain green tea, Rin was quite tired of the drink. Today, she had infused the tea with cherry blossoms, giving it a sweet aroma and delicate flavor. ---green tea with cherry, huh? Is she drinking it while wearing her favorite Hello Kitty slippers?---

……….

It looked as though he was watching someone get butchered, if he was---if he were—surely anyone who studied Latin can't be intimidated by the proper use of the Subjunctive Mood, hmmm?---

……….

There, she thought, that wasn't a lie. He can smell lies, so maybe he'll believe me. He doesn't need to know that every time I'm in the garden I'll be afraid to turn my back on that tree. I can't imagine Jaken being too comfortable around it either.---this is so funny...I am never going to get tired of the bird eating tree---

 

Really, this whole process of establishing a relationship was new territory to him, and he required feedback from Rin almost entirely in order to measure his success---and feedback from Rin was his only way of gauging his success--- . It was all so nerve-wracking, mainly because he had no idea what direction all of this was leading him into---no idea where all this was leading him. What did I tell you about ending with prepositions?---.

 

But---don't need the “But” and it's not stellar grammar anyway--- in the back of his mind, a part of him knew where they could end up ---Botan is banging her head against the keyboard---.

.……….

“Sesshomaru,” Rin hoarsely groaned, pulling her body open to him. The dog demon growled softly before giving in. He had no right to deny her what was,-- and always would be--,---if you keep the dashes, lose the commas. I think it is easier to read this way--- hers any longer. They cried out together as he took her, and moaned together as their bodies eagerly pressed into each other. Sweat glazed their skin as they tangled limbs tighter and tighter---well here's another sentence where I have no idea what you meant---. There was no room for air between them; still they held on harder. There was no room for anything but time. ---hey, you stopped time five paragraphs ago---

……….

---Thank you for giving me credit for the bird eating tree! You didn't have to do that, but it certainly does make me feel loved.

 

I also wanted to you know that I worked on this chapter for almost four hours. I take my beta work quite seriously. And I am going to find a copy of Bend Sinister and start mailing you one shredded page at a time if you don't do something about your punctuation.--- (note: Bend Sinister is a novel by Vladamir Nabokov, a Russian author I am nuts for, but consequently I am without this particular book in my collection. Botan eats books, but her palate is more suited towards British flavors. Needless to say this is a very real threat.)

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

----Goodbye! A Requiem for Shouji----

(I love Shouji very much, and I was very sad to kill him. There was no legitimate reason for him to stick around though. I also seemed to have a problem spelling his name with any consistency—one `i' or two? Botan and I often reminisced about our beloved moth-man; during one of our 1am conversations she casually joked about writing a requiem for him in the spirit of the Inuyasha episode, “Goodbye! A Requiem for Jakotsu.” Naturally I took the idea and ran. So here is my homage to Shouji: moth demon, sadist, and absolute nut-job. I miss you.)

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

He's absolutely mad.

 

Rin dropped her jaw in disbelief at the scene laid out before her. Shouji was contentedly sitting by a low table, which was furnished with the accoutrements needed for a proper tea ceremony. He really wasn't joking about the tea, she realized in bewilderment.

 

“Come,” the demon beckoned, gesturing to a cushion just opposite of his seat. “Sit.”

 

They had released her bonds once she had been let into the room. Rin realized very quickly though that she posed little threat despite the fact she was free. The walls were lined with heavily armored guards, and with no weapon of her own, and the pearl away from her body, she stood absolutely no chance of escape without being captured again.

 

“I thought we might go about this civilly,” Shouji explained. “I'm told you're quite the little noblewoman when you want to be.” Gracefully, the demon poured the tea into two cups and then pushed one towards Rin before he took his own between his palms.

 

Just as gracefully, Rin schooled her posture and glided over to her seat. Despite not wearing a flowing robe, the air around her seemed to flutter as she sank to the floor. Shouji nodded in approval.

 

“Help yourself,” he murmured, reaching for his cup and blowing on the steam. Rin followed suit.

 

They sat quietly for a moment; she tried to keep her eyes trained on the table, and he tried to keep his eyes on her as much as possible. It was a game of who could get to whom, and Shouji was the one who surrendered first. He put down his cup, placed his palms on the table, and leaned towards Rin.

 

“It's not your birthday, is it?” he asked excitedly.

 

Rin choked, and had to forcefully swallow the liquid in her mouth. “What?” she wheezed.

 

“Now that was a silly question. I should have known better. Of course it's not.” The demon grinned smugly.

 

“Why am I sitting here, having a damn tea ceremony with you?” Rin growled. Her hands fidgeted nervously in her lap.

 

The young general picked up his cup and straightened his spine. “My dear lady,” he soothed, “I am intrigued as to how one such as yourself has caused as much trouble as you have. You really are a tart. Besides, no one else around here will sit with me for more than a few minutes.”

 

At this, Rin lifted her head. Shouji was staring at her over the rim of his cup with hooded eyes, one eyebrow raised, and a sly smirk. The girl visibly blanched. The demon softened his features and finished off his tea, then held the cup in his fist as he addressed his guest once more.

 

“Clean cup, move down!” he barked. Without warning he grabbed both teacups and hurled them against the wall. Little pieces of shattered porcelain glittered in the air before settling onto the floor. Shouji reached underneath the table and pulled out two brand new cups, which he placed on the table and promptly filled with tea.

 

The demon grinned and shrugged when he caught Rin's look of shock. “I'm a fickle man,” was all he had to say.

 

They stared at one another in shared silence for what seemed like an hour. Rage was steadily boiling inside of Rin until her face began turning purple. She could not stand the situation any longer.

 

“What do you want with me?!” she screamed. “Why don't you come out and fight me like a man?!”

 

Shouji scratched his chin and pondered his response. “I don't think I want to fight you like a man,” he said, shaking his head. “I would rather fight you as a moth.”

 

“You're insane!” Rin yelled. Her chest was heaving from her state of duress. “You're absolutely mad!”

 

“We're all a little mad around here,” Shouji answered. “If you think I'm bad, you should have met my father. Wonderful man, though he had some rather dramatic quirks. He liked to hang from the ceiling.”

 

Rin stood up and snapped her body into a fighting pose. “Shut up and fight!”

 

“No,” the demon replied, “not until we're done with our tea.”

 

The girl gritted her teeth as her hands swept across the table, scattering everything onto the floor. Shouji watched but did not intercede. He had a very large, very disturbing grin on his face; Rin couldn't take this behavior any longer. Darting out her hand, she caught Shouji's teacup and smashed it against the floor.

 

The moth demon looked as though he had been slapped across the face. His lower lip began quivering and his eyes became glassy with tears. Shouji took a dramatic sniff before bursting into wracking sobs.

 

“That was my favorite teacup!” he wailed.

 

Rin fell backwards onto the floor and stared at the creature before her. She was positively dumbfounded. Shouji seemed to pay his companion no notice as he continued to carry on.

 

“You're so mean!” he cried, pounding his fists on the table. “I didn't do anything to you!”

 

“You tried to kill me!” Rin shouted back.

 

“That's not true!” the demon retorted. “There's no such thing as trying to kill someone—you either do or you don't!”

 

Rin's jaw dropped. For the first time that evening, Shouji had made sense.

 

Meanwhile, Shouji continued to dramatically mourn his beloved cup. Desperately Rin turned to the guards in the room for answers as to what she should do. Several of them shrugged and shook their heads at her. Apparently they were used to ignoring behaviors such as this.

 

“Um, there there?” Rin weakly reassured. “It looks like it can be fixed.”

 

Shouji wiped his nose on his sleeve. “Do you think so?” he whimpered.

 

The girl nodded dumbly. What else was she supposed to do?

 

“Okay,” the demon finally nodded. He began composing his demeanor back into his original state of maddening calm before speaking once again.

 

“Say, you don't know any games do you?” he asked excitedly. “I know one: it's called `Weird S & M Basement', and it's really easy to play!”

 

Rin shivered. “I'd rather not,” she muttered.

 

“Oh come on!” the demon goaded. “All you have to do is surrender your will completely to me, and in return I'll break you in every way possible! See how easy that is?” He jumped up and eagerly grabbed Rin by the elbow, then proceeded to drag her along behind him.

 

“Let go!” Rin cried, twisting her arm and kicking her feet. “Sesshomaru-sama! Please save me!”

 

With a blast of timber and dust, the doors to the room burst open and revealed Sesshomaru on the other side. “Shouji, you bastard!” the dog demon roared. “Your opponent is me!” He drew his sword and glared menacingly.

 

Shouji cracked another grin riddled with madness. “Well, I suppose there was no delaying the inevitable,” he sighed. “I've had a grand life. I have no regrets. Except maybe for that one time when I was promoted to captain and everyone dared me to dress in drag to the ranking ceremony. It wouldn't have been so bad if my father hadn't hit on me. And maybe that time I ate a whole bowl of wasabi and hallucinated that I was an oak tree. The squirrels wouldn't leave me alone because they thought I was nuts!”

 

The moth demon laughed giddily and then turned his attention to Rin. Grabbing her by both arms he dragged her to her feet and gave her a hug. “Farewell, gentle Rin!” he sang. “You played so well into my master scheme. I knew that kidnapping you would lure your sexy Sesshomaru-sama to my home.”

 

Sesshomaru could only stand with his mouth wide open and blink.

 

Pushing Rin away so she stumbled and fell back to the floor, Shouji once again turned towards Sesshomaru and smiled. “Out of all the men who could have killed me,” he sighed dreamily, “I'm glad it was you.”

 

And with that, the two warriors lunged at one another knowing full well which one of them was going to walk away. A clang of metal sounded as the two swords met. A gurgling noise and the sound of liquid splattering against the floor followed. Each of the demons stopped when they had reached the other sides of the room. Sesshomaru flicked the blood off his blade and listened while Shouji coughed and then slumped onto the floor. The dog demon then turned and silently escorted Rin over to where her captor lay dead.

 

“Well,” Rin sighed as she stood over Shouji's grinning corpse, “he was a fucking lunatic, but he knew how to make a wicked cup of tea.”

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

---I mentioned in the last chapter that Rin had the baby before the pearl was remade. Well, you didn't expect Sesshomaru to take such an event lightly, now did you? Here in ficlet form is my take on what those nine months had to be like.

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

Damn my irrepressible masculine urges.

 

“I'm sorry,” Housenki informed them, “I can't forge another pearl if Rin is pregnant.”

 

Rin had greeted Sesshomaru with the “good news” only the day before. Immediately Sesshomaru's instincts told him Rin's life might be in peril from this. Any number of disasters could result from complications during her pregnancy.

 

She smelled of blood, and to make make matters worse it always seemed she was vomiting. Sesshomaru didn't know what was normal and what was dangerous.

 

His impatience in landing some long overdue tail had turned around to bite him.

 

I'm going to go insane.

 

~*~

 

I wonder if it's a boy or a girl.

 

“It doesn't matter,” Sesshomaru told her with a huff, “just as long as you're both safe.”

 

Rin knew he was overly concerned with her well-being. He had flown into a rage at the cook only the day before when Rin had lightly commented her soup was too hot. He followed her everywhere. If she had to walk for more than ten feet, he carried her.

 

Sesshomaru looked ragged and worn, and to make matters worse he would not let Rin be alone. He was obsessed.

 

He's going to drive me insane.