Killing Your Memories

normal disclaimers apply





Chapter 2-



Never will flesh and blood

Be intentionally spilt in love

Yet naivety serves as no excuse

…

Betrayal of trust is no excuse





Later that night, we set up camp. Jaken had fetched fish from a nearby river and cooked it for Rin to eat. Now he sat at the furthest edge of the clearing in which we settled. Rin had already fallen into the realm of sleep, probably exhausted from her constant bantering and curious questioning of Kodora, whom had politely answered all inquiries that she could, in effect, informing me of what had transpired in her life in recent years, though I knew she was not telling everything, sparing the human child the cruel realities of a youkai’s life, or hanyou, in her case.



Kodora and I found ourselves the only ones remaining awake. Looking over at her I noticed that she had not changed as much as I would have thought, still the young, innocent women of my memory, only now her full, curvaceous frame and refined elegance gave visual testimony of her maturity. She sat near the fire, gazing into it. The fire amplified her bright, shimmering orange hair.



Ever since I‘ve known her, she has always insisted on keeping it at an ungodly short length. She claimed that it was merely a hindrance during battle, having long hair, but I suspected that it was more than that. Her skin is the flawless, pale color that was common among powerful demons. Like myself, she had crimson red markings that fallowed the top of her eyes. Also, she had one stripe leading from her ears to her cheeks‘ center, they were a deep, rich green that matched the marking on her forehead of an ivy leaf. Her eyes…, they were some of the most exotic that I have ever had the pleasure of coming across. They were a light, crystal glass blue that seems to convey an airy, carefree spirit, yet I knew that to be a lie.



She came from dark and troubled part of my territory where demons and humans alike have an evil demeanor and resentful, even destructive, tendencies. She had sharp but average human like ears. Her amazing resemblance to a full-blooded youkai, allowed her to conceal herself and keep other, lesser demons, away, before some humans discovered her in a cave and ran her out of the area. This is when I found her and took her in, she being only a bit younger than myself, but I being full youkai and having more experience in survival in the world, and having a large, heavily guarded territory already, I had the opportunity to care for her. She wore an interesting outfit, the top resembled that of a miko’s garb, but instead of white, it was dark brown with white ribbon accents. Her belt was forest long green cloth that connected small wooden boxes painted the same color about her waist that held her sharpened fighting stars. The pants suspiciously resembled my own and were white with the same flower and pentagon design that adorned my haroi except instead of red in color, it was a rich brown to match her top floating near the bottom hem, and she wore no shoes but her feet were wrapped in white bandages to protect them a bit.



I was brought out of my revere when her tail, which closely resembled that of a fox, having the same orange colored fur as her hair and with its tip seemingly dipped in a white cream, started nervously twitching in the dirt. It began to move so quickly that a small dust cloud roes up around her. “What is it?” I questioned sounding uninterested, not moving from my place beneath a near by tree. She blinked a few times, pulling herself from the arms of thought and sighed before replaying, “Nothing...” she stated with a small smile on her face. I knew she was lying.



I picked up the bucket of water next to me and walked over to the fire, dumping the whole thing onto it, putting the flames out for the night. “So, what is it that you have done to make the Southern Lord so angered with you?” I inquired as she took the empty bucket from me and stood up, “Master, why do you always assume it is everything my fault?” she jokingly pouted.

“Because it usually is,” I was merely stating the obvious but she sighed and turned away, releasing the bucket and letting it fall to the ground. “Actually, this time it isn’t. He has somehow found out about our ‘connection’ and has been chasing me relentlessly for days now. I’ve heard rumors that he wanted a way to blackmail you, and capturing me seemed the easiest way, I suppose.”



“What does he want?” I placed no emotion in my voice yet while questioning her; a worry began to grow inside me. “That’s just it, I don’t know, but I do think it has something to do with my mother.”



I growled deep in my throat, returned to my place under the tree, and began to contemplate this thought. Her mother, however,… was not one of the subjects I liked to dwell on. Unknown to Kodora, I know more to her life’s story than she believes, and, in my opinion, far too much. Unlike what she believes, her mother did not die of natural causes, in fact, it was quite the opposite.



The woman was attacked and violently killed by a demon… a dog demon,… me.



Of course, at the time, I had no knowledge that the women had mothered a child other than the one that I sought revenge upon. Once I discovered the troubled child, it took a while to get past all of her psychic defenses but once I did, I erased most of her memory of the incident and replaced it with other, less traumatizing images. I know not what provoked me into taking her in and going through such an effort to make her happy. I simply felt a great need to help the pup, and this Sesshoumaru will not be denied anything he wishes, so I took her under my wing, and I have no regrets.



However, if things were as they appeared, the peace treaty between the Western Lands and Southern tribe of the ookami would become void immediately. Shaekaku knew I am was not one to be tampered with, and neither were any of my associates, yet he had managed to do both, or perhaps I give his mind to much credit. Somehow, he has gotten the intelligence on where her origins start, and where her genealogy leads. This would normally be of no concern of mine, but taking in all of the considerations, this has become personal. No matter what, harm cannot come to her, especially in the form of knowledge that your own father figure murdered your birth mother.



The Winter Solstice… the words echo in my head. Unlike Inuyasha, Kodora’s transformation did not occur on a monthly basis, but on a solstice basis. Every Summer and Winter Solstice was the same, beginning at sunrise a whole mutation occurs, leaving her as an ordinary, mortal human and completely defenseless for five whole days in a row. I gazed out towards the Eastern horizon, dreading the moment that a ray of light would emerge from the edge of the Earth to put Kodora through another test of her valor.



“Master?” I turned my head in her direction to acknowledge that I had heard her. “Can I…” she hesitated and blushed, “well, ya know, sleep with you the way we used to.” I slightly nodded the affirmative and she got up on all fours and crawled towards me. Time seemed to slow for a moment as I watched her flow closer to me, tail hanging down, hips swaying sharply, the front of her haroi slightly open to my eyes, her cheeks rosy making her embarrassment clearly apparent.



We were a mere eight years apart when we met and, although I was a father figure to her then, now that she was grown we seemed more like a pair of demons wandering together for the betterment of each other. Moreover, with neither of us having mates… who knows what others would think, not that I cared or anything. But, strangely, that thought created an unbidden feeling inside me, one that confounded and fully disturbed me.



None the less I sat up a little straighter as she neared. She always seemed to think herself safe under my veil; when she was younger, it was a necessity but now it is merely a comfort for her. She got in front and sat down, facing away from me. She turned and glanced over her shoulder at me as I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close. She nestled into me, my tail encircling her, she used it as a blanket and pillow. Her tail on my leg. She sighed and I tightened my grip around her slightly.



So long… I thought to myself, no matter how odd our relationship was or how hard I tried to deny it, there was a relationship, and at that moment I had absolutely no desire what-so-ever to be separated from her again.



The heat from her blush intensified as one of my hands found purchase on her left hip; to my surprise her sent suddenly spiked and her heart started to thud in her chest. ‘She is becoming… aroused? But I am merely holding her.’ I swallowed hard despite myself, she squirmed a bit, provoking instinctual bodily reactions that I could not fully control. My eyes began to cloud over with red and my fangs elongated. I struggled with myself, knowing that even thinking such things should be wrong, but the youkai inside me fought hard to be released to claim what it considered rightfully belonged to it. Suddenly however an evil pulsating at my side broke the partial trance, and I immediately recognized the threat for what it was, Tokijin.



Quickly I untied the sash that held it to my armor and flung it away, but I could not cease from staring at it. Such hatred, I had felt the great hate Tokijin harbored for all humans and hanyou alike, and its want to spill Kodora’s blood. In my peripheral vision, I could see that she was also drawn to look at the sword that possessed a mind of its own. It was then I also saw something far more vital as I turned to face her, she held her right arm in her left and was caressing the skin there, breathing hard. Damn, I had not gotten the sword away from her fast enough and, as Tetsaiga burns all demons who come into contact with it, so did Tokijin burn the inside lower arm of Kodora, for her partial humanity. I pushed her left arm out of the way and she willingly let me inspect the fresh wound. She was not too badly injured yet I was still worried though I showed nothing my eyes still glowing red. Memories of the time Tetsaiga burnt me surfaced and I remembered the way that burn had lingered on and continued to hurt for many days afterwards. I sighed relaxing, knowing that she must be in great pain though she said nothing. What was now a mere discomfort, would be a sever wound by morning, since after her transformation at dawn she would not heal as quickly as when in her hanyou form.



I pulled up my sleeve and used my fangs to tear the fabric off of the edge of my clothing and used the strips as a crude bandage for the time being. She watched my hands as I bound the wound with a thankful gaze, but I knew she also had questions. She had never before seen the wrath of Tokijin, going off on her own long before I had acquired it. Well, those would have to wait until the morning, for now we needed to rest and I did not wish answer them now. We settled in, molding with each other and the surroundings, with the tree supporting us and the night surrounding us, we fell asleep.



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