InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Truth About Cats and Dogs ❯ Rin's Request ( Chapter 8 )

Recap: After being fooled into thinking Ayame had defeated Kirara in battle, Koga allowed Ayame to join him, Ginta, Hakkaku and the wolves in their search for Naraku. Kirara returned to Kaede's village alone to collect some poison antidote for Kagome's first-aid box, but on her return journey, she stumbled into Rin and the injured Ah-Un.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Chapter 8 - Rin's Request

 

“My men and I ate cat demons just like her all the time,” Jaken said, his eyes glistening greedily. “Thread their innards on a stick, and roast them on a fire!”

 

“No!” Rin wailed, tears forming in her eyes as she gripped her hands into Kirara's kimono. “She's my friend, you can't eat her, Master Jaken!”

 

“She probably wouldn't taste too good,” Jaken said casually, jabbing the end of his staff at Kirara's bare arm. “Too old. It's best to eat them when they're still children, and the meat is still juicy and tender.”

 

“You eat children, Master Jaken?” Rin asked, her eyes wide with horror. “Would you eat me?”

 

Jaken grumbled something indecipherable, but Rin did distinctly hear the words “can't any more”, which was enough to send her into a fit of tears.

 

“Rin, stop that,” Sesshomaru said, the piercing sound at last bringing him to his senses. “Jaken, get some water.”

 

“Milord?” Jaken asked. “Should I start a fire instead? Cats taste much better roasted than boiled-”

 

“Get some water Jaken, that is an order,” Sesshomaru warned him.

 

Jaken sighed, trundling off to fulfil his master's orders. Meanwhile Rin wiped her tears from her eyes, snivelling as she stared up at Sesshomaru with wide, pleading eyes.

 

“Are you going to eat Kirara?” she asked.

 

“Kirara,” he said, turning his eyes to the unconscious cat demon.

 

Sesshomaru studied her for a moment, deep in thought, before turning back to Rin.

 

“Rin, take Ah-Un and collect some firewood,” he told her.

 

“Firewood?” Rin echoed, her already impossibly large eyes growing even larger still. “Are you going eat Kirara, Lord Sesshomaru?”

 

“No,” Sesshomaru simply replied. “Go now.”

 

“Yes My Lord,” Rin agreed, standing up.

 

Sesshomaru waited until Rin had mounted Ah-Un and flown into the forest before reaching his hand out towards Kirara. Roughly grabbing the chunk of black hair at the left side of her head, he pulled her up into a sitting position, curling his lip in disgust as she slouched against his grip. He considered leaving her as she was, as the sound of her voice did little more than irritate him; but since Rin had apparently formed some sort of instantaneous bond with the cat, Sesshomaru decided he should at least wake the creature up.

 

Opening his fingers and allowing her to fall roughly back to the ground, Sesshomaru leaned over her fallen form, moving his hand towards her face. However, the force of her fall appeared to have been enough to wake her, as she groaned, her nose twitching.

 

“Inu-Inuyasha?” she whispered, her eyes slowly fluttering open. “Ugh, it's you!” she groaned, closing her eyes again.

 

Sesshomaru remained still and silent, watching impassively as Kirara's eyes suddenly snapped open again, staring at him as she inhaled deeply. She made a small hissing sound in the back of her throat before shuffling out from under him and stumbling awkwardly to her feet, her face turning red as he watched her.

 

“What were you doing?” she asked, trying to look dignified by straightening her back and standing to her fullest height.

 

Sesshomaru slowly rose to his feet, running his eyes over her before answering her.

 

“I could ask the same of you, cat,” he smoothly replied.

 

“Not really,” Kirara snapped. “I was lying on the ground unconscious, and you were… You were…”

 

Kirara's face turned redder still, and she hissed again, turning her back on Sesshomaru and folding her arms indignantly.

 

“The little girl, Rin,” she said, after a short pause. “She appears to know you. How can that be?”

 

When Sesshomaru did not answer her, Kirara turned around, yelping in anger when she saw that Sesshomaru was walking away from her.

 

“Hey!” she yelled after him. “Where do you think you're going, dog? I was asking you a question! It's very rude not to answer someone when they are asking you a question! Especially when the person asking the question happens to be a lady!”

 

Sesshomaru stopped walking, bringing a smug smile to Kirara's face.

 

“Yes, that's right, Lord Sesshomaru,” she continued. “I'm calling you rude!”

 

Sesshomaru turned slightly, looking over his shoulder at her.

 

“And you also call yourself a lady,” he said calmly. “How easy it is for you lie.”

 

Kirara yelped in offence, yelping again as Sesshomaru turned his back on her and walked on, leaving her alone.

 

“Jackass…” she grumbled, crouching down to retrieve the medical supplies Ah-Un had not destroyed in its rampage.

 

Kirara stuffed the salvageable items back into her belt standing up and sighing at the sight of the shattered bottles of antidote.

 

`Inuyasha and Kagome are going to kill me,' she thought to herself.

 

But before Kirara could dwell on that sentiment, she was rudely awoken from her thoughts by a wall of cold water hitting her back.

 

“Hey!” she yelled, spinning around to find Jaken with an empty bucket in his hands. “What did you do that for?”

 

“You're too filthy to be near my Lord Sesshomaru!” Jaken ranted, grabbing up a second bucket and throwing it at her.

 

Kirara hissed, screwing her eyes shut tight as the icy cold water slapped against her face. As Kirara was wiping the water from her face she suddenly felt something that instantly brought an image of Miroku to her mind: someone was grabbing at her outer left thigh. Looking down at the hand, Kirara was horrified to find the little toad demon Jaken squeezing and prodding at her leg.

 

“Get off of me, you slimy little toad!” she yelled, kicking out her leg and sending him flying away from her. “Such a rude, ignorant little man!” she grumbled.

 

She groaned in despair as she saw Jaken scramble to his feet and start running towards her again, waving a fist above his head and cursing her creed. However Kirara was distracted from his advance as she heard a piercing scream from above her head. Looking up, she saw Ah-Un floundering in the air and Rin sliding from its back.

 

“Rin!” she cried, leaping up into the air.

 

Kirara caught Rin in her arms, dodging out of the way as Ah-Un fell to the ground. Holding Rin tightly to her chest, Kirara dropped gracefully to the ground, finding herself suddenly face-to-face with Sesshomaru. Kirara gasped, instinctively clutching Rin closer to her body.

 

“What happened?” he asked her.

 

“Your dragon is badly hurt,” Kirara replied, regaining her composure at last. “Your failure your treat its wounds properly has led to the creature suffering greatly. Your negligence just put this little girl's life at risk. You are a selfish, insufferable, intolerable, rude and arrogant creature, who fails to remember that he is, in fact, nothing more than a dog!”

 

Kirara growled, lowering Rin gently to her feet.

 

“Are you alright, Rin?” she asked her.

 

Rin waited until Kirara had released her fully before turning and running to Sesshomaru. Kirara watched in a state of bewilderment as Rin grabbed handfuls of Sesshomaru's hair, burying her face into his thigh.

 

“What have you done to her?” she hissed at Sesshomaru. “What sort of sick experiment is this? Why have you put a charm on this girl to make her love you so?”

 

When Sesshomaru remained silent, Kirara began to back away from him, stopping as her heel kicked against something. Looking down at her foot, Kirara saw the can of antiseptic spray. Looking slightly beyond it, Kirara saw the weakened form of Ah-Un.

 

“Please do not misunderstand me, Lord Sesshomaru,” she said as she gathered up the can of spray. “For what I am about to do is not as a service for you, but merely to aid this poor, suffering creature.”

 

Without waiting to hear Sesshomaru's opinion upon the matter, Kirara knelt down by Ah-Un's side, spraying the anti-septic over the wound. Due to its weakened state, Ah-Un did little more than wince at the sound and sensation of the spray, letting out a small moan from one of its throats. Kirara retrieved the bandages from her belt and set about wrapping them around Ah-Un's leg. Once she was satisfied that she had done all she could for the dragon demon, Kirara stood up again, turning in preparation to leave, only to almost walk right into Jaken, who was holding something up towards her.

 

“My Lord wishes you to join him for tea,” Jaken said bitterly.

 

Kirara looked down at the bowl of tea in Jaken's hands, her mind racing. She turned her head to one side, finding Sesshomaru sat by a small fire, with Rin cuddled up in the folds of his fur boa by his side.

 

“No thank you,” Kirara said politely to Jaken.

 

“How dare you refuse my Lord's offer?” Jaken snapped.

 

“I am merely refusing to join him for tea, I am sure he will not mind,” Kirara spat back. “Why don't you join him instead, you seem to be overly fond of him yourself!”

 

Jaken growled indignantly at Kirara, spinning on one heel and waddling back over to his master. Kirara sighed softly in relief, taking one last look at Ah-Un. Once she had ascertained that the dragon was comfortable, Kirara again turned to leave, this time finding herself confronted by Sesshomaru himself.

 

“You will join us for tea,” he said gruffly, pushing the bowl of tea towards her.

 

“No, I will not,” Kirara stubbornly replied, pushing the bowl back from herself.

 

“I am not asking you to join us,” Sesshomaru growled, his face darkening. “It is an order.”

 

“An order?” Kirara echoed. “Who are you to be giving me orders?”

 

“Is it not true that you devote your life to helping humans?”

 

Kirara faltered, part of her concerned that Sesshomaru perceived this as a weakness, and the other part of her apprehensive about the direction he appeared to be steering their conversation.

 

“Yes, it is true,” she eventually admitted.

 

Sesshomaru slowly and purposefully lowered his eyes to Kirara's left hand. Gulping, she slowly looked down herself, inwardly kicking herself as her eyes landed on the withered chain of wild flowers Rin had tied to her wrist. She slowly lifted her eyes back to Sesshomaru's, fully aware that the look on her face told him of his victory.

 

“Now you will join us for tea,” Sesshomaru said, pushing the bowl towards her.

 

“Yes,” she replied in defeat, accepting the bowl.

 

Sesshomaru walked slowly back to the fire, leaving Kirara biting back her own anger and swallowing her pride. She turned towards the fire, smirking briefly as she saw Rin celebrate at the prospect of her company and Jaken cower by the base of a tree, nursing a series of newly-inflicted injuries about his head: obviously the result of his failure to force her to join them.

 

Kirara slowly made her way over to the fire, deliberately sitting down at the other side of the fire from Sesshomaru, feeling somewhat more comfortable having the fire between them. As she sipped at her tea, the combined warmth of the fire and tea suddenly made Kirara shiver. She looked up sharply as she lowered her bowl of tea, finding Sesshomaru staring at her.

 

“Your servant threw two buckets of cold water at me,” she explained, wiping a bedraggled strand of blonde hair from her eyes.

 

“She was dirty!” Jaken argued back.

 

But Sesshomaru did not so much as look in Jaken's direction.

 

“Are you cold, Kirara?” Rin asked, gathering up Sesshomaru's boa around herself.

 

“No,” Kirara hurriedly replied, holding up a hand to halt Rin's progress. “I'm fine thank you.”

 

“But this would help you keep warm!” Rin offered, holding up the fur.

 

“No thank you, I will be alright,” Kirara insisted, before sipping at her tea again.

 

Kirara's lips curled involuntarily; there was something distinctly sour about the taste of her tea.

 

“Did you make this?” she asked, turning to Jaken.

 

“I always make tea for my master,” Jaken cryptically replied.

 

“Did you put a pungent herb in my bowl?” she asked, narrowing her eyes threateningly in a way that suggested he should not dare try to lie to her.

 

“No, that is how it always tastes,” Sesshomaru said.

 

Kirara turned to him, waiting for him to follow up his remark with a cutting comment about her tastes being different on account of her being a lowly cat demon; but he remained silent and expressionless. After a few moments of silence had passed, Kirara began to wonder if Sesshomaru had just made an attempt at humour rather than taken yet another stab at her heritage; but the very idea seemed so ridiculous, and nothing in his expression or tone suggested that he wished to amuse her with his remark, and so she quickly dismissed the idea.

 

“Look, Lord Sesshomaru, I made this for you,” Rin said, tying a chain of flowers around his wrist.

 

Sesshomaru watched her for a moment before his eyes darted to Kirara, who quickly concealed her smile; but not so quickly that Sesshomaru failed to notice it.

 

“Now we can all be friends,” Rin announced. “And we can stay together forever and ever.”

 

Under different circumstances, Kirara might have laughed as she saw Sesshomaru's mask of flawless non-emotion crack to momentarily reveal his shock at Rin's words; but Kirara was unable to laugh when she saw how serious Rin was, and how happy she was at the very idea she had just proposed.

 

“Rin, I can't stay with you forever,” Kirara gently explained, deciding that she should be the first to talk, since Sesshomaru - despite having rebuilt his blank, heartless expression to perfection - was obviously still reeling from Rin's declaration. “I have to return to Inuyasha, we have a very important mission.”

 

“You're going to leave us?” Rin asked, looking shocked by this piece of information. “But you said you would be my friend, Kirara!”

 

“And I am your friend, Rin!” Kirara hurriedly replied. “And I always will be! But for now, I really must go there are others who need me right now. But don't worry I am sure we will meet again. And in the mean time, I am certain Lord Sesshomaru will take very good care of you.”

 

Kirara cast a glance at Sesshomaru, who was staring silently at her, his expression as unreadable as ever. She smiled at Rin, reaching a hand over to ruffle her hair affectionately. As she sat back, Kirara idly reached her left hand towards the plate in front of Jaken, which he had decorated lovingly with cubes of fresh fish, starting in alarm as her fingers collided with something.

 

Kirara looked first at her hand, her eyes widening as she saw her own fingers entangled through a set of clawed fingers on a hand with two purple stripes near the wrist. Kirara slowly moved her eyes to Sesshomaru, finding that he was already staring right at her; and much to Kirara's alarm, she found herself suddenly trapped again.

 

`This is just like what happened to me when he transformed and confronted me in the air,' she thought to herself. `I can't move! Is this some sort of sorcery?'

 

Kirara wanted desperately to pull her hand back, but she found she could not move her hand. To her frustration, nor could she move her eyes from his, and she was certain her face was starting to turn red. Sesshomaru remained as expressionless as ever, but he made no effort to move his hand from hers.

 

“Look!” Rin cried, skipping around Sesshomaru's back and stopping by the plate their hands were joined over.

 

Rin pointed at their hands, at which Sesshomaru finally moved his eyes from Kirara, the small respite giving her the strength to move her own eyes to their hands, cringing inwardly at what she saw: Rin was cheerfully pointing out the fact that their wrists both bore a flower-chain. Kirara began to wish that she had let Sango come with her, as she felt certain only a smack in the head from a Hiraikotsu could bring her back to the real world right then.

 

“Get your filthy cat claws off my master!” Jaken screamed, whacking Kirara's forearm with his staff.

 

`Not quite a Hiraikotsu, but at least it worked,' Kirara thought to herself as her hand was knocked from Sesshomaru's.

 

“Filthy toad!” she quickly recovered, kicking Jaken in the side of the head, causing him to tumble into Rin's ankles.

 

“Jaken, stop trying to eat Kirara!” Rin yelled at him.

 

Kirara whimpered, standing abruptly. Sesshomaru immediately copied her action, his bowl of tea toppling off his knee and into the fire, where it hissed and crackled. Kirara found herself once more looking into his eyes and doing little more than breathing. She quickly closed her eyes, shaking her head.

 

“I have to leave now, you will excuse me, please,” she said firmly, marching off.

 

“Kirara, please don't go!” Rin begged.

 

Kirara stumbled to a halt, biting her lip as her conscious fought against itself.

 

“I'm sorry Rin, I really must go now,” she said, clenching her fists at her sides in determination. “Goodbye Rin. Goodbye Jaken.”

 

Kirara gritted her teeth, her eyes twitching before she added her final remark.

 

“Lord Sesshomaru,” she said hurriedly.

 

She began to run off, jumping up to transform and fly back; but before she could transform or become fully airborne she saw Sesshomaru appear from nowhere, standing suddenly directly in her path. Kirara tried to stop herself, but as her feet had already left the ground, she had nowhere to go but forwards. She groaned as she collided with Sesshomaru's sharp and unforgiving armour, silently glad that she was wearing the new, reinforced armour Totosai had given her. Her body literally bounced off of Sesshomaru, who did not so much as flinch, his eyes watching blankly as she fell in a crumpled heap at his feet.

 

“You will stay with us tonight,” he said as she started to stand. “And that is not a request. That is an order.”

 

“No, I will not stay with you!” Kirara said defiantly, standing up before him. “I think it very cruel of you to lead that poor mortal girl around, she obviously has no conception of what you really are. And your mistreatment of your trusted dragon demon disgusts me. And your sexually repressed toad servant will not survive the night if I am forced to spend any more time with him.”

 

“You will stay, and that is an order.”

 

“Did you not hear anything that I just said? I said no! I will not stay!”

 

“You will.”

 

“I will not.”

 

“You will.”

 

“I will not.”

 

Kirara raised her chin in the air in an attempt to look down her nose at Sesshomaru, despite the fact that the top of her head barely came to his shoulder. When Sesshomaru remained silent, Kirara assumed that he had finally understood her, and she lifted one foot to walk away, but before she could take her first step, Sesshomaru spoke again.

 

“You will,” he said.

 

“No I will not!” Kirara yelled at her, her temper flaring. “I refuse to stay here another minute and watch you play “family”!”

 

When a hint of a frown came over Sesshomaru's face, Kirara continued.

 

“You make me sick, dog!” she growled, lowering her voice to ensure the others would not hear her. “I am trying to rid this world of Naraku and complete the Shikon Jewel once more, I don't have time to waste watching you have tea parties with your toad mate, your mortal child and your pet dragon!”

 

A grin broke out over Kirara's face as she saw Sesshomaru's eyes widen slightly in an expression of just how taken aback he was by her words.

 

“I don't let anyone talk to me that way,” he said, his words sounding more like a statement than a threat, which only served to confuse Kirara.

 

“Inuyasha says far worse things to you!” Kirara retorted, trying to ignore his tone. “Although, he does know you a lot better than I do. I suppose it is easier for him to speak the truth.”

 

“Kirara!”

 

Kirara and Sesshomaru both turned their heads as Rin called out, watching as she ran over to join them.

 

“Can I tell you a secret?” she whispered to Kirara.

 

“Of course,” Kirara replied, trying her best to smile naturally, in spite of the sickening swirl of emotions that were coursing through her at that moment.

 

Rin beckoned for Kirara to come closer to her, and so Kirara politely lowered herself down onto one knee at Rin's side. Rin cupped a hand over her mouth and whispered her words into Kirara's ear, an action which seemed so redundant to Kirara, since Sesshomaru's keen sense of hearing would doubtlessly pick up every word regardless of whether she put her hand over her mouth or not.

 

“Maybe if you marry Lord Sesshomaru, we could all stay together forever,” Rin whispered.

 

Kirara's mewed pitifully, standing abruptly, her eyes locking onto Sesshomaru. She was certain he must have heard Rin's request, but, as usual, his expression remained unchanged, and he said nothing. Rin began tugging at Kirara's hand, but Kirara ignored her, her mind screaming at her to find a way out of the situation she was now in.

 

`Slaying demons with Priestess Midoriko was never this hard!' she thought to herself.

 

Kirara mewed again involuntarily as Sesshomaru took a step towards her, standing uncomfortably close to her.

 

“You will,” he simply said.

 

Kirara hung her head in defeat.

 

`What am I going to do now?' she thought.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Next Chapter: Trapped between Rin's pleading and her own sense of duty, Kirara is left warring with herself about what to do next. Chapter 9 - Kirara's Escape.