Rin, the ward of the demon Lord Sesshomaru was picking flowers with Ah-Uhn near the old well where she and her companions were camped.  She had no idea why they were here, but Lord Sesshomaru had said that Lady Kagome and her companions were in the nearby village, and Rin was delighted at the prospect of seeing her again.  Even though the child did not see her very often, and generally when she did, it was in the midst of a battle between Lord Sesshomaru, and his half-brother, Lady Kagome’s companion InuYasha, Rin adored Lady Kagome.  She was like her mother.  Sometimes, she liked to daydream that Lady Kagome really was her mother, and that she traveled with Rin, Jaken, Ah-Uhn, and Lord Sesshomaru, but she knew that would never happen.  It did not take a grown-up to see that Lady Kagome loved InuYasha, and she would not leave him for anything.  So, Rin just had to be content with small visits here and there, and talking to Lady Kagome during skirmishes between Rin’s father and Lady Kagome’s love.  Rin sighed.  Things were so complicated in her family.  All the same, she figured that Lord Sesshomaru would give her permission to go to the village to visit Lady Kagome that night, and she wanted to take her some flowers, which explained why she was in the woods with Ah-Uhn, under Master Jaken’s watchful eyes.  Rin smiled, and started dancing around the glade.  Tonight, her entire family was going to be together, from her mother, Lady Kagome, to her father, Lord Sesshomaru, to her brothers, Shippo and Master Jaken, to her aunt, the demon-slayer Sango.  This was a rare treat, and Rin intended to make the most of it.

Kouga had taken Hojo outside the village to get to the somewhat messy business of killing him.  Hojo was wild eyed, and getting more panicked by the second.  Fortunately for him, his panic was inhibiting his speech capacity, so he was not babbling at Kouga, which certainly would have sped up his impending doom.  However, that would not last long.  A little after they started, InuYasha joined them.  Kouga glared at him.

“Get out of here, mutt-face.  I don’t need your help!”  InuYasha rolled his eyes.

“Keh.  Relax, stupid wolf.  I’m just here to make sure Kagome doesn’t find out.”  Kouga blinked.

“Okaaaay... whatever, just stay away from him, he’s MY kill.”  Hojo gulped visibly.  InuYasha’s smile turned absolutely evil as he looked at Hojo’s obvious discomfort.

Even if I’m not the one killing him, this will be entertaining.  Then Hojo started babbling.

“Why do you guys hate me so much?  I mean, sure Kagome’s my girlfriend, but that doesn’t mean you have to kill me or anything.  I mean, people are civilized human beings now, right?”  His voice cracked slightly on the last bit.  Kouga and InuYasha glanced at each other for a moment, both thinking that this was a pathetic waste of life, even for a human.  Kouga grinned in a way that did not comfort Hojo in the slightest.

“Does it help any that I’m not a human?”  He asked with a grin, flexing his fingers.  Hojo went white.

“Yo-you’re not?”  He stammered.  Kouga and InuYasha grinned.  This was certainly amusing.

“No, I’m not.  And neither is mutt-face over there.”  Hojo’s eyes flashed to InuYasha, who was now sitting on a rock, hands tucked into his sleeves, with a grin that hinted at his demonic heritage.  “I’m a demon.”  Kouga continued. “A wolf demon, to be precise.  And dog turd over there is half dog demon.  So, you should just accept defeat now, and make your death a lot easier on me, because I’d rather not have to chase you down.  I could, of course, but it would be a waste of my time.”  InuYasha resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

More like your shikon shards could chase him down.  Damn, he thinks a lot of himself...

Of course he does.  He’s the alpha male of a demon wolf tribe.  The voice reminded him wryly. I thought you might like to know, Kagome woke up, and she’s feeling fine.  She asked about you, and, well.... let’s just say she put the pieces together and is on her way here with Kirara and Shippo.  InuYasha started cursing mentally.  That was the one thing he did not want to happen.  Exactly.  The voice agreed. On the bright side, she is annoyed with Hojo.  Sango told her about how he was staring at her earlier.  Now, if we could just get him to say something negative about Shippo in her presence... or Rin, maybe...

Rin?  The little kid that runs around with Sesshomaru?  InuYasha asked, startled.  The voice sighed, and did its equivalent of rolling its eyes.

Yes, Rin.  The little girl Kagome is extremely fond of.  The voice said in exasperated tones.  Then its tone changed. Oh, no...  It did not take any time for InuYasha to realize what the voice was referring to.  Kouga had let go of Hojo, preparing to punch him in the face, and Hojo had used his last remaining intelligence to do the only sensible thing to do: He ran.  He was surprisingly fast for a human; InuYasha figured that it had something to do with the fact that he knew death would be on his heels.  With a sigh, he and Kouga started chasing after him.

Hojo might not have been the sharpest tack in the box, but he was intelligent enough to figure out that running for his life at the first opportunity was good idea.  So he did.  He ran blindly through the woods, barely noticing that he was relatively close to the well he had followed Kagome through.  Then, suddenly, he ran into something.  He pushed it over without stopping, desperate to get away.  He heard someone scream, and then froze.

Rin had been picking flowers by the path, still making a pretty bouquet for Lady Kagome.  Then someone ran into her, which certainly hurt, but not nearly as much as when the person practically threw her out of the way, and sent her crashing into a tree.  Rin screamed in pain as she felt something in her arm snap, and began to cry.  The boy- she could see the person who ran into her was a boy- kept running.  He looked vaguely panicky, like he was running away from something.  Then he stopped suddenly. Rin looked up and saw Lord Sesshomaru standing in front of him, his eyes dispassionate, although Rin thought she saw flickers of red around them, a sure sign that he was angry.  Rin tried unsteadily to get to her feet, but jostled her arm, sending a burst of pain through her, making her yelp.  Lord Sesshomaru looked over at her.

“Did this human hurt you, Rin?”  The boy’s face paled as Rin nodded.  Lord Sesshomaru turned to him, the red flicker in his eyes a tad bit more pronounced.  He drew his sword, and the boy’s eyes went wide, and he (wisely in Rin’s opinion) took a step back.  Lord Sesshomaru glanced at the trees just behind the boy, and Rin followed his gaze.  Two people ran out from the trees, their eyes fixed on Hojo.  Rin recognized both of them.  One was Lord Sesshomaru’s half-brother, InuYasha, and the other was the wolf-demon Kouga.  She was still a little scared of him; after all, he had killed her, but much less so than she had been before Lady Kagome explained to her that Kouga was not killing humans anymore.  They were a bit startled to see Sesshomaru with his sword drawn.  Kouga just stared at Sesshomaru, his jaw slack, but InuYasha’s eyes traveled around the clearing, searching for something.  His eyes met hers, and he smiled.  Rin realized that InuYasha had assumed that the only reason Lord Sesshomaru would draw a sword on the boy was because of Rin.  Rin was not certain if that was true, but in this case, he was right, and she hoped he did not try to stop Lord Sesshomaru.  She had a feeling that he would not make it out alive if he tried.

“Sesshomaru!”  InuYasha yelled.  Lord Sesshomaru glanced at him.

“Little brother.  He harmed Rin.  He is mine.”  Lord Sesshomaru said flatly.  Hojo gulped.

“HEY!!”  Kouga yelled.  Then InuYasha leaned forward to whisper something in his ear.  Kouga clenched his fists, then relaxed.  Then he smiled in a rather malicious way.

Once InuYasha had seen Sesshomaru with his sword drawn on Hojo, he had realized that Hojo must have been an idiot and hurt Rin.  He looked around for the kid, and saw her huddled under a tree, cradling her left arm, which he was pretty sure was broken.

“Sesshomaru!”  He yelled, figuring he at least needed to keep up appearances.  He did not care if Sesshomaru killed Hojo, but then again, he had been looking for a way to get rid of Kouga....

“Little brother.  He harmed Rin.  He is mine.”  Sesshomaru informed InuYasha in his flat emotionless tone.

“HEY!!!!”

Don’t be choosy.  Kagome won’t blame you at all if Sesshomaru kills him for hurting Rin.  If Hojo doesn’t watch it, she’ll come after him herself.   You should be a good person, and inform Kouga that Kagome can’t blame either of you if Sesshomaru kills him.  If you stop Kouga from killing Hojo, you could get some points with Kagome.  InuYasha leaned over to Kouga and muttered

“Shut it.  If he kills Hojo, Kagome can’t blame either of us for it!”  Kouga did not seem to happy about this, but then relaxed, even smiling maliciously at Hojo.  InuYasha caught a very familiar scent coming from the trees behind him.

Ohhhhh shit.....

Kagome had gone about five feet from Kaede’s house when she was joined by Kirara.  The cat-demon blinked, transformed, and nuzzled Kagome’s side.

“Are you telling me to ride?”  Kagome asked dryly.  The cat demon meowed, and Kagome got on, with Shippo still clinging to her neck.  “Try to find them in a hurry?”  Kagome asked Kirara tentatively, and Kirara nodded, and took off.  It took her a while, but Kirara eventually got to the point where Shippo started to be able to scent them.  Suddenly, he frowned and sniffed again.  Then he turned to Kagome.

“Mommy, Rin’s there!  Rin’s near Kouga, Hojo, and InuYasha, and so’s Sesshomaru.  She smells funny, like there’s something wrong!”  Kagome’s eyes widened.

“Kirara, can you go any faster?”  Kagome asked worriedly.  Kirara shook her head, and Kagome bit her lip.

“Mommy, what’re we gonna do?”  Shippo asked her with wide eyes.

“We’re going to help your sister.”  Shippo nodded, immediately understanding that she meant Rin.  After all, to him, Rin was as much Kagome’s child as he was.

Kirara leaped through a grove of trees, landing neatly behind the half demon who was turned to look at her, looking extremely nervous.  Idly, she noticed that they were very close to the well.  She glanced around, and saw Rin, huddled under a tree, holding her left arm, with tears streaking down her face.  Her eyes narrowed slits.

“What.  Happened.  To Rin.”  Kouga, Sesshomaru, and Hojo jumped.  Hojo shifted uneasily, and Sesshomaru refocused on Hojo.

Hojo was running from Kouga, and he ran into Rin.  He wanted her out of the way, so he shoved her out of the way, and into the tree.  The voice supplied angelically.  Kagome’s eyes promised murder as they slid onto Hojo.

“Did YOU hurt her?”  She hissed at him.  Kouga and InuYasha slowly backed away from her.  Even Sesshomaru felt a bit unease at the look on her face.  What little color Hojo had retained from being threatened by Sesshomaru drained away.  He nodded very slowly, sensing that it would be a very bad idea to lie.  Kagome took a step forward, eyes flashing.  Hojo took a step backwards, and Sesshomaru carefully moved out of her line of fire.  Kouga and InuYasha were looking extremely uneasy.  Likewise, Kirara was a bit nervous, maintaining her larger form.  In fact, the only two people who were completely at ease were Shippo and Rin, who actually felt a bit safer around their mother’s fury.  They understood that their mother was reacting to a threat to them, and would not harm them.  Hesitantly, Hojo began to talk.

“It was an accident?”  Kagome’s hands moved like lightening.  One flicked to her quiver, and the other brought up her bow.  Within a moment, her arrow was knocked, and aimed straight at Hojo’s heart.

“It is generally considered a VERY bad idea to hurt your girlfriend’s daughter, just like it’s considered a bad idea to stare at her best friend while she’s lying unconscious.  Apparently, you never learned that lesson.  So, let me help you.  We’re through.  I can’t believe I was ever stupid enough to date an idiot like you!  If you EVER come anywhere near me, OR my children, again, I WILL inflict pain.  Got it?”  Kagome snarled.  At her words, something that never happened occurred.

Sesshomaru smiled.  It was a very disturbing smile, one that was not at all pleasant.  InuYasha noticed, and it made his blood run cold.  Sesshomaru’s smile was directed at him.

Why the Hell is he smiling?  InuYasha thought, vaguely panicked, and seriously disturbed.  The voice snickered.

Because Sesshomaru realized something.  If Rin is his daughter, and Kagome is Rin’s mother, what does that make Kagome?  InuYasha choked.  He did not want to have to think about competing with his older brother for Kagome. Don’t worry.  He’s not interested, other than as a way to mock you.  Be prepared for a lot of that.  InuYasha felt like banging his head repeatedly against a tree.  He was doomed.

Hojo looked a bit stunned at Kagome’s announcement, then he tried to approach her, a quiet plea in his eyes.

“Come on, Kagome!  You’ve been acting weird ever since we both got here!  Let me take you home and we can talk about this.”  It was then that Hojo made his mistake.  He took a step towards Kagome and Shippo.

“What did I say about coming near me and my children?”  She hissed, and pulled back on the string of her bow.  Sesshomaru darted forward, scooped up Rin, and took her to safety- behind Kagome.  Hojo realized just how very toast he was, remembering Kagome’s perfect aim from gym class.  Kagome pulled her arrow back. Hojo laughed nervously, backing away from Kagome, hands raised.

“You wouldn’t actually shoot me, would you Kagome?  I mean... come on!”  Kagome turned to InuYasha with a frightening smile on her face.

“InuYasha, how much do you know about sealing spells?”

Ooooo, that’s a nice idea, Kagome.  Too bad it wouldn’t work.  Still.... it would have been amusing to see Hojo bound to the God tree.  The voice said with appreciation and real regret.

“Keh.  Enough to know that they only work if the person being sealed has demon blood.”  InuYasha answered.  He was in complete agreement with the voice.  It would have been extremely amusing to see Hojo bound to the tree where he had been sealed for fifty years.  Kagome shrugged.

“Well... dang.  There goes the only solution that was pain-free, Hojo.”  She took aim again, and Hojo gulped.  He started backing away from her slowly.

“Kagome, I think you need to calm down... just relax....”  Kagome smiled sweetly.  InuYasha recognized the smile as the one she wore occasionally when she was angriest with him.  At first he had thought it meant she was not angry with him after all, and that he was perfectly safe.  It had not taken him long to figure out that he was dead wrong.  That sweet smile generally proceeded the hardest sits Kagome could give him.  InuYasha grinned.

Hojo was doomed.