Hello! This is my take on “SessKag week 2017”. I am a little behind, I apologize! I had my last exam yesterday so was busy. The exam date was moved due to some circumstances so...
Seven days, seven themes, so this will have seven chapters.
Please enjoy and tell me what you think, I always work to improve.
Day 1
Prompt: Tanabata
Canon AU, different end of manga.
Rating T
Spiritus Perpetuum mobile -
The soul that is continuously moving.
I studied Latin a few years, but am nowhere near perfect, this is from what I remember.
Spirit - Soul,
Perpetuum mobile - continuously moving, a steady rhythm that never ends. For this fic I Imagine the wheel of reincarnation of the soul that always moves in Buddhism. (Kyokai Rinne by Takahashi sensei uses the symbolism, in the anime.)
p.s. everything is my own interpretation and understanding, no offense meant to any religion or individuals, so excuse me if something isn’t correct and let me know!
The first time he saw them, he thought that he was hallucinating. Something made him get out of his house and go to the Tanabata festival this year, even though he hated crowds. He abhorred the smells and noise, but a feeling made him go. That’s when he saw a vision of two females, that shouldn’t be alive.
The second time, in the same day, he believed them to be ghosts, figments of his imagination. Even if his heart was stirring inside his chest, his eyes swiped longingly on her smiling face.
Suddenly he felt even more alone and cold.
Feeling melancholic, he gazed at the sky remembering old times. Times when he felt content, and dare he say, happy? Having Rin in his life was a joy. Her smile and positive energy brought peace and light to his life.
He didn’t have a close relationship with his family, his mother being cold and detached, his brother... his half-brother... they had too much bad blood between them. They only learned to get along at the end of the hanyou’s life. But it wasn’t enough. So Rin took the place of his pup and even now, years after her pacing, she had a large place in his heart.
Sometimes he chuckled at the resemblance between his brother and himself. They were both lonely. He, when Rin died and Jaken followed suit, being heart-broken. Inuyasha... Inuyasha wasn’t the same after his second miko disappeared after the battle with Naraku. He spent his life alone and never took a mate, only married. He was a valiant protector of the weak, saying she would want him to be one. He scoffed at the idea. Why cater to the whims of someone who wasn’t even there? Inuyasha usually brash and rude-spoken, didn’t curse that time, but calmly said he hoped he would one day understand. When he will meet her again.
He didn’t realize why, at that time, but now looking at the smiling miko with a little girl attached to her hip, he finally understood. A little girl that looked too much like Rin.
He inhaled deeply, taking in their natural smells and felt his heart skip a beat and vision cloud. It was Rin! The same aura, almost identically the same smell, the same timbre of her voice. Was she a reincarnation? After all this shouldn’t be so unusual. His family had an intimate connection with that. So it wasn’t that strange that Rin was reincarnated as the miko’s daughter.
Kagome though was the same. The same miko that defeated the evil hanyou. But how did she survive? Was she immortal? No, he saw the delicate age lines appearing on her beautiful smile. She seemed in her early thirties. Her figure was more mature, hips wider. She had given birth.
Rin was her natural born daughter. He felt the connection and the slightly similar aroma. If he would be one prone to historical laugh, now would be the time to do so, but as he was a stoic youkai lord even after all this time, he remained quiet. But how to explain her presence? Was it perhaps, time travel? He met a few individuals that could defeat the laws of time, could she be one of them? Now that he remembered her clothes from back there, the idea wasn’t so ludicrous. She dressed as a modern-day high school student. He can admit now that he enjoyed her clothes. She was an attractive, intelligent and caring female. At that time he would’ve scoffed at his admittance, but now he easily acknowledged that he had a sort of crush on her. Her protective, maternal side, hell, her everything called to him. He derailed from his train of thoughts. He shook his head, he was thinking of the possibility of time traveling.
Yes, that must be the answer, but he couldn’t just go and ask. He will have to find out in a different way. He left the idea for later, instead, he followed them from the shadows, longingly looking at them. They both laughed, ate festival food and had fun. It was easy to hide among the crowd, but once Kagome almost caught him. Her eyes narrowed and she looked around herself in wonder. Only the child’s insistence distracted her from her search, so he escaped her miko radar.
He continued to watch them silently from a distance, how they met friends and family, joked with other children and had fun. He wondered where the husband was, seeing as Kagome sometimes hid a sad smile behind her bangs. He shook his head, it wasn’t his business, he only wanted to make sure the male was a good father for his Rin. Could he still call her his? Yes, it was her soul reincarnated, but she was a different person.
Katarin, her name was Katarin! He heard Kagome calling her and wondered if the miko knew on a deep level or just went on a whim.
“Katarin, sweetheart, let’s tie the wishes,” Kagome nudged her daughter and the child bobbed her head in delight, her bangs shaking in sync with her head.
“Do I look like Orihime mama?” she asked her mother touching the hem of her pink yukata and turning around to make a twirling motion. The red and yellow flowers on the material were matching the one Kagome wore, and Sesshoumaru felt something stir in his chest. They were dressed to match, something that mothers did. The gesture felt very deep for him, and he felt a lump in his throat. The miko had her hair in a simple up-do pinned with a hairpin that had a dragonfly at the end, with wings dangling in the wind. She wore no make-up, only her lips had a little pink shine on them. She looked breathtaking.
“You will always be my hime dear,” indulged her mother, looking at the seven years old daughter and patting her hair that was tied in twin ponytails behind her ears with red ribbons.
Suddenly the girl took a pensive face and asked in a trembling voice, so low that Sesshoumaru almost didn’t hear.
“Can I ask for anything I want mama?”
Sesshoumaru saw the sad look in Kagome’s blue eyes, but she took a deep breath and plastered a fake smile on her lips.
“Of course darling, anything you want!”
The child nodded but took her mother’s hand in her small one and raised shining eyes at her.
“Mama its ok, you don’t have to smile if you are sad,” she assured her mother squeezing her hand again.
“Rin honey...” the miko started but then smiled, this time genuinely and said:
“As long as I have you I can smile any day.”
Rin nodded sagely, it seems his little hime was wise beyond her years in this life as well.
“It's ok to be sad sometimes, don’t hide for my sake, I love you either way,” she assured her and Kagome not caring about the beautiful yukata, kneeled in front of her daughter and swiped her in a thigh hug.
The scene tugged at Sesshoumaru’s heart and he averted his head, the pain in his chest too deep. When he came to his senses, the duo was gone.
He found them after a few minutes, tying their wishes to the bamboo. He waited until they were gone and silently followed them to the Higurashi shrine, that housed the Goshinboku. He should've known it was her house, he visited a few times. The shrine felt peaceful and out of this time. Also, he felt a weird connection to his deceased brother. That it housed the miko... she must’ve married and moved out, that’s why he didn’t see her. But now she and her daughter were counting the stairs. He waited until they both went inside, then stood and looked at their window. Soon she tucked Rin in and approached the window and opened it ajar, eyeing the courtyard. He couldn't believe himself! He almost got caught a second time. He left the shrine, promising himself to find out more about the miko and their daughter. Their? Now, where did that came from? He shook his head and instead went to the wishes tied to the bamboo.
The place was deserted. He felt like a thief, but he blamed his curiosity on his canine essence, and his suddenly re-awakened paternal and pack instinct that tugged at his heart. Smelling their distinctive smells, he looked around and seeing no one was there, took both their wishes and disappeared in a hurry.
In the silence and security of his home, he finally took the wishes out and sat down on his favourite couch. He fought with himself for a long while, but in the end, he took the one smelling like Kagome and opened.
I want to meet a friend from the old times that can help make my daughter happy.
He crushed the note in his fist. Her wish was so pure yet so difficult at the same time. She thought of her daughter’s happiness with a hint of herself, a friend of old huh? He will think of this later, he decided, putting the paper aside. The intricacies were too difficult for the moment.
Taking a deep breath of air that felt stale and cold he opened Katarin’s wish, only to feel like a knife twisting in his heart at the innocent words written inside.
Can I please have a daddy that will love me and momma, so that she can smile again?
P.s. the chapters are from Sesshoumaru’s pov, so we know only what he knows, sees and guesses!