Secrets

Secrets
By: Inukee




This fanfiction story is of Rin as she continues to live in the village. The story takes place a year after Kagome has returned to live in the Feudal Era permanently with InuYasha and her friends.

- Sadly, Kaede has passed away so Kagome and InuYasha become Rin’s new guardians.

* Also in my storyline Rin is 11 so with this being a year after Kagome returns that would mean that Rin was 7 years old when she started traveling with Sesshomaru. On a personal note, Rumiko Takahashi never mentioned how old Rin was in the manga, anime or in her profile book either so as far as we know Rin might not have been 8 when she first met Sesshomaru as many claim her to be. *


* This is just a small glossary of Japanese words and their meanings that you might come across while reading the story so that it doesn’t add confusion *


Kon'nichiwa: Means “Good Afternoon.”

Baka: Means “Idiot”

Demo: Means “But”

Gomensai: Means “I’m sorry.”

Daijobu: Means “Are you alright?”

Osuwari: Means “Sit”

Onii-san: Means “Big brother or brother-in-law”

Gifu: Means “Father-in-law”

Temee: Means an offensive form of “you”


{These are for thoughts}


Enjoy and please review!


* A few miles from the village lies a wide open meadow full of different colorful wild flowers *

“Gotcha!” Rin yells, pouncing at a butterfly yokai as it jumps out of the way, and she lands face first into a bed of flowers. She lifts her head up with some petals stuck in her hair. The butterfly yokai looks at her for a moment before flying off.

“Hey, Happi-chan come back.” She giggles, shaking the petals out and running after it as it heads toward a very tall, beautiful pink Japanese weeping willow tree.

As she chases it a boy and a girl around Rin’s age come running up on each side of her as if they appeared out of nowhere. The girl has a slightly darker complexion, her hair was in the style of a short wavy bob with her bangs parted in the middle and she wears a common kosode that slightly extends at her thighs. The boy has black hair tied back in a small bun and wears a worn-out juban top with a pair of gray hakamas with a few patches in some places; the only other difference between him and the girls was his very snow-like colored skin and elfin-like ears.  

“Kon'nichiwa, Rin-chan.” Said the girl as they continue on with the chase.

“Kon'nichiwa, Emiko-chan, Daichi-kun.” Rin replies with a smile.

“So, what do you want to do today Rin-chan?” Daichi asks her with a slight blush tinting his face.

Rin smiles at him first while Emiko wears a slightly disgruntled expression.

“Well let’s finish playing “tag” with Happi-chan and see where our imaginations take us from there.” She replies as she outruns them to catch up with the butterfly yokai but the other two aren’t far behind either.

It doesn’t take long for Rin to be the victor of the game; she is able to catch Happi-chan by luring it in with nectar from an iris flower.

Later all three friends continue to play underneath the tree; swinging on the leafy veins that were surprisingly strong enough to support them. They even climb all the way to the top to get a fantastic view of the countryside.  

The day draws on and the sky takes on red and orange hues indicating it to be close to sunset, they all return to the hill side and look out at the colorful display.

Rin sits with her knees to her chest as Happi-chan flies back and lands on her head peacefully raising its wings straight up to rest.

“Will you be back again tomorrow Rin-chan?” Daichi asks optimistically.

“I’ll try to be,” Rin replies as she reaches up to pet Happi-chan. “But of course if he comes to visit me then…” She is unable to finish the sentence as a huge blush streaks her cheeks and she lets out a dreamy sigh.

Emiko looks at her with delight on her face while Daichi’s expression was neutral.

“Man, I don’t get it. Don’t you ever get tired of seeing him?” Daichi asks outright with a slight hint of jealousy and annoyance in his voice.

Rin lets out a surprise gasp and looks up in utter shock to his question but before she can answer back ---*POW*.

Daichi’s head lands in a small crater in the ground with a big lump in the back and Emiko stands over him with a balled fist in irritation and extreme annoyance.

“Baka!” He yells, pulling himself up and rubbing the back of his head. “Why did you do that?”

“You’re the baka, Daichi!” She retorts. “How could you ask a question like that to Rin-chan? You should be ashamed of yourself.” She turns back to look at Rin who, in shock at her reaction remains silent.

Daichi comes to realize from her expression that he did indeed go too far.

“Now apologize to Rin-chan.” Emiko orders with her hands on her hips.  

Even Happi-chan who perched on Rin’s shoulder passes him an angry look.

A deafening silence later, Daichi gather the courage to finally to stand up and speak.

“Um, Rin-chan,” He begins, rubbing his head nervously, “Gomensai. It was wrong of me to say something like that to you and--”

Rin raises a hand to prevent him from speaking any further.

“It’s okay Daichi; just don’t ever ask that type of question ever again because the answer is ‘No’. I will never get tired of seeing him.” She closes her eyes and with a happy grin, rests her face onto her knees. “Never”.

Before Daichi can continue, a very soft and soothing melody fills the air, it continues on before growing louder and the winds in the meadow begin to stir some more.  

Happi-chan moves off of Rin’s shoulder, as she stands up to stare at amazement at a giant floating object in the horizon. With the shape of a yellow ball and a feather-like tail in the back and its’ eyes are nearly squinted shut.

Without making any acknowledgment of its existence to them it just went about playing its’ flute, which was the source of the soft tune they heard. Even so, it didn’t take them long to realize who it was.

“It’s the soul piper.” Emiko said quietly, clenching the sides of her kosode making Rin face her and Daichi with concern.

They continue to watch as he peacefully went about his business and a few apparitions of what seem to be children began to appear, floating and dancing around the soul piper before turning into balls of light and ascending higher into the sky along with the giant demon.

Watching them as they went; an image suddenly flashes in front of Rin, a shadowy tall figure with a very bright white light behind them. But it quickly vanishes leaving her gasping and shaking her head at what she saw.

“Rin-chan, daijobu?” Emiko asked, running to her side.

“Yeah,” Rin states and flashes one of her traditional cute smiles. “Don’t worry about me, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” Daichi asks, even he was doubtful of her statement. “Because-”

“Don’t worry you guys. I’m fine, really.” Rin said a bit more firmly, trying to sound more convincing.

“Rin, you know you don’t have to hide things from us, we won’t judge you.” Emiko reassures placing a hand on her shoulder. “Is it that vision again?”

Rin’s eyes widen for a moment before she lets out a sigh and nods abruptly.

“Have you told anyone about it yet?” Daichi asks and Rin shakes her head.

“And what about your other ‘ability’?” Emiko asks, sounding a bit wary.

However, this time Rin remains still.

There was a momentary silence before Daichi decides to speak up.

“Do you hate the ability you have?” He asks with a hint of sadness in his voice.

“No!” Rin nearly shouts, nearly whipping her head around to look at them before realizing the error in her raised voice.

“I’m sorry I mean, no.  Not in the least; but I- I still haven’t told anyone yet.” Rin admits while hugging herself. “They just won’t understand my situation and I know that most of them don’t find me anymore normal then they already do.” She turns away.

“You can tell Kagome-sama. She may be able to-.”

“No Emiko-chan. I-I just can’t.”

“Demo--.”

“Rin-chan!” A familiar woman’s voice calls out.

Rin turns around and looks up the hill to see her new mentors and guardians Kagome and InuYasha standing there with the little fox demon, Shippo perched on her shoulder waving to her.

“Kagome-sama! InuYasha-sama!” She responds.

Shippo takes a giant leap off Kagome’s shoulder down the hill where he lands into Rin’s arms.

“Hello Shippo.”  She greets him with a gentle hug. “How did your exam go today?”

“Great!” Shippo exclaims, holding up a piece of paper. “I have advanced to 6th senior rank in the fox demon exam.”

“That’s wonderful; you must be so proud.” Rin declares as she gave him another hug in congratulations.

“Aside from that Rin, what are you doing out here?” Kagome inquires. “You know you shouldn’t be playing so far from the village without any company.” A shot from over Kagome’s shoulder shows that there is no one else but Rin standing alone in the field as she holds Shippo.

“Oh, uh, sorry about that Kagome-sama; I just wanted to get away from the village for a bit and enjoy this beautiful spring day by playing in the meadow.”

“Well I don’t blame you there.” Kagome says with a smile.  “But-“

“You little brat!” InuYasha scolds playfully making Rin look at him curiously.

“InuYasha!”  Kagome barks at him.

“Keh, she should know by now to let either you or I know where she’s going before she takes off like that,” He declares looking to the young preteen. “You know how a certain idiot brother of mine might react if something happen to you.”  

Rin opens her mouth to riposte but Kagome reaches out, grabs him by one of his ears and pulls him in close.

“Inuyasha.” She whispers to him.

He flinches while his other ear twitches, recognizing that tone very well.

“OSUWARI!!!!” She shouts out.

“GYAHH!” He shrieks out as the beads of subjugation glow and forcibly send him crash landing face first (hard) into the dirt.  

Even now Rin remains surprised at Kagome’s disciplinary action towards Inuyasha.

“Then maybe I should tell onii-san next time he comes to the village how a certain brother of his thought he could order Rin-chan around and scold her as well as call her a ‘brat’. Don’t think that just because we are her new guardians now that you can start acting this way towards her, I won’t allow it InuYasha!” She threatened, towering over him as a scary aura emanated from her.

Rin is quite taken aback some as Shippo clutches onto her more tightly.

“Also, it’s not nice to call Lord Sesshomaru an idiot either.”  Rin spoke up making both Kagome and Shippo look at her.  “I mean, he was the one that helped you defeat Naraku after all even if Kagome-sama did wish for the shikon jewel to disappear.” She concluded with a smile.

{Rin-chan} Kagome thought.

“Besides as Lord Sesshomaru usually puts it, InuYasha is nothing but an immature pup.” She merely states which causes both Kagome and Shippo to start giggling.

“Temee--.” He growls lifting his head up to look at her but it lands back down into the dirt after Kagome commands him to ‘sit’ again.

“Unbelievable baka.” Shippo mumbles as he shakes his head.

She reaches down to grab InuYasha by one of his ears again and forces him up to be at eye level with her.  

“Now apologize to Rin-chan.”  She tells him, turning him towards her while Shippo looks at him slightly upset.

“Sorry.” He says quietly but she was still able to hear it and gives a smile and nod.

“Rin-chan, even though he’s got no right to talk to you like that,” Kagome shifts her eyes angrily making him cower a bit. “He is right. From now on you have to let either me or InuYasha know where you are heading off to. You know he will do anything to insure your safety even it if means to kill.”

Rin turns her face away for a moment to conceal the huge blush that was once again donning her face. Even when told a dark truth like that she just couldn’t keep her heart from beating so fast whenever his name came up or knowing what he would do to keep her safe.

Kagome watches her reaction, it seems that ever since that day at the grave of InuYasha and Sesshomaru’s father whenever his name or just a hint of him was mentioned Rin would shy away to not let anyone see her face.

{I wonder if at Gifu’s gravesite, if she...} Kagome thought once again but decided that now wasn’t the time to press the subject.

“Besides, we wouldn’t want anything to happen to you either.”

Rin turns her face back around to look at her.

“You’re not the only one important to Onii-san.” Kagome told her.

She looks at her and Shippo who both have caring sincere expressions on their faces.

“Okay, I promise.” She declares making the miko smile.

“Anyway Rin, it’s getting late and we should be heading back now to get dinner ready.”

“Hai!” Rin said.

With that being said, Shippo jumps out of her arms and makes his way back up the hill with Rin following close behind.

She looks to her friends and Happi-chan who all have sad expressions but she gives them a quick wink and their faces light up while the butterfly twirls around in the air cheerfully and releases glitter from its wings which causes her to giggle softly before she scurries up to the others.

As they make their way back to the village Rin glances over her shoulder once more to see Daichi and Emiko standing in the middle of the road with Happi-chan only this time they had a couple of ghost lights surrounding them as they wave good-bye. She gives a small hidden wave back; unaware that Kagome is watching and squints thoughtfully at her behavior.  

Fin

Well there you have it; Rin has the ability to see spirits. It’s most likely due to her second death that gave her this talent and of course instead of being freaked out by it she embraces it fully as it would be something that Rin would indeed do. Also, the reason behind having a Japanese weeping willow tree in the story was that in Japanese tradition, the willow is associated with ghosts. It is popularly supposed that a ghost will appear where a willow grows. Willow trees are also quite prevalent in folklore and myths.


I hope you all enjoyed the story and hopefully more will be on the way soon.

^^