InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ What Are You? ❯ Chapter Three: True Form ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter Three

True Form

 

As I sat and pondered this decision, the Weaver came out with my clothing. I transformed again, taking the garments from her. I paid her, dressed, and took my leave. I would have to replace my armor, though. It did a good job of hiding my breasts. I went back to my palace before returning to Rin and Jaken. I spent only the time necessary there before I left again.

Rin had, as usual, picked me flowers. I really needed her bright, cheerfulness after all this. Jaken welcomed me with questions about my outing—things I was not going to answer, needless to say. But Rin just greeted me, genuinely happy to see me. I liked that.

Rin lifted her hand up to me, offering me the single white lily. “It was the only one Rin could find,” she explained. I took it with a nod of my head. Rin was so sweet. Jaken's voice was droning obnoxiously in the background. I put a stop to it with a swift kick to his stomach, which sent him flying head over heels.

“I take it something went wrong,” Jaken muttered. For that one comment, I wanted to beat him senseless, but Rin shouldn't see such violence, so I contented myself to kick him again, this time ascertaining that he went flying down the hill, screaming. That brightened my day a bit. Now, once he had climbed back up here, I should send him on some useless, almost impossible errand.

I glanced down at Rin, expecting a full report. For a while, she babbled about how she had found the lily, then about a brief encounter with a demon that Aun had protected her from. She walked beside me, and crawled on my lap when I sat down, leaning against a tree. It was the bit towards the end that was the most annoying. “Sesshomaru-sama, Master Jaken said that you were a dog. Are you really a dog?”

How could this have been brought up in conversation? Just… how? She was peering up at me with her pretty brown eyes—so innocent. I wanted to hit Jaken. He was just now crawling back up the hill. My hand curled around a convenient stone. I waited until his head poked over the edge, then hurled it at him. Rin tried to stifle a giggle as it hit the toad dead-on and sent him tumbling back down the hill. “Yes, Rin.”

She frowned. “But…”

I really didn't want to explain this to her. I decided to have Jaken do it once he got back up. “Did Jaken explain this to you?”

Her frown deepened. “He said that `Sesshomaru-sama is a powerful dog demon.' But, er… You don't seem very much like a dog.”

Little does she know… Jaken was making his way back up the hill again. I remained silent, watching his progress. Rin turned and looked. Both Rin and Jaken were fully expecting me to do something to send him back down the hill, but I made no move to do so. Jaken sighed in relief and stood up, turning away. “Jaken,” I said. He spun back around.

“Yes, my lord?” I hated the sound of his voice. It was scratchy, whiny, and, all in all, hard on the ears. Why had I not killed him yet? Ah, yes, because I needed someone to carry around the Staff of Two Heads. Jaken also served as a way to remove stress, in times such as these.

“Explain to Rin that I am a dog demon,” I said. Rin immediately ran over to Jaken to listen in rapt attention as he talked about me. It was an elongated speech, and Rin got bored halfway through it and wandered back to me.

“Jaken is boring. Can't you explain it?”

“Hey!” Jaken whined.

“Jaken,” I said. He straightened, and almost answered me, but I cut him off before I had to hear his voice again. “Go catch some fish for Rin.” Rin giggled, and Jaken bowed with a quick, `yes, my lord' and ran off to do my bidding.

“Sesshomaru-sama, how are you a dog?”

Why was this child so persistent? And why didn't I just put a stop to these annoyances and eat her? She yawned and snuggled up closer to me. Oh, that's why. Demons, like most creatures, have mothering instincts. Because I had no children of my own (by choice), instincts often screamed at me to get some. Rin sufficed, and those instincts stilled. Besides, I liked Rin. I decided to go with the obvious answer. “I was born that way, similar as to how you were born a ningen.”

She accepted this answer. “But, you don't look like a dog.”

“Hm.” If I showed her my true form, would she become afraid? No, Rin wasn't afraid of anything—least of all me. How that works out, I have no idea. But for some reason, I was here hero. I liked that too. I pushed her off of me and stood up, walking away from the tree into an open area. “Don't be afraid, Rin.”

“S-Sesshomaru-sama…?” But I had already lost myself in the whirlwind of my power, my decision made. She would see it one day—eventually. Wasn't it better that she saw it on good terms? When I was finished, I looked back at her. She was staring at me, mouth agape. She blinked and suddenly grinned, laughing. “You are a dog!” I laid down. I didn't really like standing on three legs. She ran over to me, burying her face in my fur. I glanced at her. She ran back toward my face, putting her small hands on top of my nose. Quite a dangerous position—if she had been any other living creature. With me, she was perfectly safe, and always would be. She started laughing again. “Is that really you, Sesshomaru-sama?”

“Yes,” I answered. She smiled again. I was glad she was so accepting. She would accept me even if she knew that I was female, after so long of insisting I was male. She would forgive and accept me, and I was content.

Jaken found us in this strange embrace.

 

Rin seemed to like my true form, so I stayed in it for a while longer. She curled up near me, burying her face in my fur, and fell asleep after she had eaten. She looked so content that I didn't want to wake her. Besides, what would it hurt if I stayed like this for a bit longer? Jaken didn't like it; he felt tiny and insignificant as it was. I knew he had trouble with his height, and seeing me in my true form again probably did nothing to ease his problems.

I stayed away for most of the night, before slowly drifting off to sleep, successfully avoiding coming to any real decision about what to do about Inuyasha and Naraku—because, quite frankly, I just didn't want to think about it right now, or ever.

 

*****

 

Author continues to need help deciding which group Sesshomaru should join up with, and which to kill. Sesshomaru will betray whoever is not killed first, by the way, and kill them too.