Chapter Text
“Are you sure about this?” Rin asked Towa, her hands folded on her lap.
Towa sat across from her parents, her father cradling Asahi in his left arm and Tadaaki leaning back against the right and curled up to nap on their father’s lap. Towa was happy to see her father at peace, to see him so relaxed and willing to be affectionate. She was surprised after the reunion with her parents that there was another side to her father. He was warm, loving, and caring.
She learned that everything he did was for their mother and her and Setsuna. His family was everything. His world.
She understood to the very core of her being. Family was everything to her. Totousai was correct when he said that she was his daughter, their ideals of family, the family they chose, were the same.
She was also his heir. Requesting her absence from the family estate was time lost on learning from her father about the patrols of the land that was theirs. Jaken had told her that her father once abandoned the land for the sake of love, but took up the mantle of Lord of the West once more for his family.
It seemed the opposite for Kirinmaru. He had kept his mantle despite his daughter’s, Rion’s, wish for him to live in peace. Now, Rion was gone, no longer just in body, but in spirit and it seemed to have been too much for Kirinmaru and he sunk his ship in the cold sea, forsaking his own title.
“Towa, you may do as you wish for one year,” her father’s rumbling baritone spoke as Towa tried to find the words to answer her mother.
Of course, she wasn’t sure. But there was a calling outside of the estate. She was restless despite all the freedoms she was granted. Amber eyes looked at her knowingly and understanding.
Her father had experienced that same restlessness, but it seemed he had found what he was looking for in her mother.
“Thank you,” Towa said with a soft sigh.
Her mother looked from her to Sesshomaru, brown eyes filled with surprise. “Darling?” Rin queried quietly.
Sesshomaru closed her eyes and Towa thought she saw a small flush to the tips of his ears at being called ‘darling’ in front of someone, even his own daughter and sleeping sons. Towa was amused and thought the interaction between her parents was cute.
He reopened his eyes and looked at Rin. “Towa is sometimes more like me than you, Rin. She needs to wander with little purpose for a time. She will come home when it is time,” he glanced down at Asahi and Tadaaki sleeping on his lap, his arms keeping them safe. The answer was plain, Towa would feel the call of home. Her twin and brothers would miss her.
Rin nodded and glanced at Towa with a smile. “I sometimes forget that you and Sesshomaru-sama are similar in ways. You and Setsuna are truly the embodiments of us. If you have to leave, if you feel that calling, I cannot deny you nor would I ever deny your father. But I will be here waiting for you, my Towa, my daughter,” her mother spoke softly and gently. Brown eyes were warm and reminded Towa of the colour hers would take on the new moon.
Asahi made a small noise and shifted in his swaddling. Towa watched as her mother leaned over and picked him up from her father’s arm. Rin gently cooed as Sesshomaru moved his free arm to rest over Tadaaki’s side, his hand gently stroking Tadaaki’s dark ears. The ears flicked in annoyance when her father gently tweaked them. Her mother sighed as she stood up and walked to the adjacent chamber where they kept changing materials.
“Come here,” Sesshomaru told Towa and looked at her mother’s vacant pillow on the floor. Towa twisted and shifted to sit beside her father and facing his side. Sesshomaru stared at her and then raised his hand from Tadaaki’s head to her cheek, thumb brushing at the corner of her eye. “No matter how old you get, you will always be our daughter. There is no distance that can part our family,” her father said firmly, but gently.
Towa nodded in understanding. She only had to call for him or whistle, he would come to her aid. She pressed his hand to her cheek. She was never jealous of her brothers for getting to have their father while growing up, but she was slightly envious. She still wonders what their life would have been if Zero never wanted their deaths, never deceiving Kirinmaru about the prophecy of the Shikon Jewel.
The last treasure of Rion’s mother. Kirinmaru’s long dead love, Midoriko.
She can imagine, sometimes she does, but she would never have met the Higurashi family, to be a part of their family. Nor would she have Tadaaki and Asahi, maybe she would, but they wouldn’t be the same.
Jaken had once said the same while she had a calligraphy lesson with him and Setsuna. She sat with Setsuna as Jaken sipped his jasmine tea and mused about how things could have been before sighing softly, a smile on his strange beaked lips.
“But if they had been perfect from the beginning, we would not be here. Little masters Tadaaki and Asahi would not be with us as they are. Perhaps, every struggle you two and your parents overcame was to give you all and your brothers the life they have,” Jaken hummed. “To give Rin all the time she wanted with Sesshomaru-sama.”
Towa enjoyed the moment she had with her father now. She heard a yawn and opened her magenta eyes to see curious amber eyes staring up at her, dark bangs needing a trim. Tadaaki clambered into Towa’s lap and wrapped his arms around her neck.
“Towa-nee, why are you crying?” Tadaaki asked quietly.
Towa didn’t realise she was crying. Probably why her father was trying to comfort her the only way he knew how, gently brushing her tears away and keeping her close to his side. Tadaaki held onto her, gently patting her back and resting his chin on her shoulder. He yawned by her ear. He was still tired and wanted to nap more, but his sister’s tears and his worry was his priority.
She held him tightly. She was so lucky to have Tadaaki in her life. She truly loved her brothers just the way they were.
“Towa-nee...too tight,” Tadaaki complained softly.
She apologized and eased her hold, kissing his dark head of hair, his ear flicking against her cheek.
“Tadaaki, your sister will be going on patrol for one year,” her father lied and Tadaaki stiffened against Towa before shifting to sit on Towa’s lap and face their father.
“I don’t allow it,” Tadaaki said coolly. So cool that her father’s lips quirked up in the corner in his amusement. “Towa stays with family.”
“You may one day wish to wander the land, and your mother and I will not stop you. We will be here waiting for you as we will wait for Towa. She will come home,” Sesshomaru assured Tadaaki.
“But Mama says it’s dangerous in the woods!” Tadaaki complained.
“Towa and Setsuna are strong, grown women, they are more capable than you ever give them credit for. Trust in Towa’s strength now, Tadaaki,” Sesshomaru responded calmly.
Tadaaki’s ears flattened and he nodded. He turned and glanced up at Towa. “Promise you’ll come home,” he ordered, yet his tone was uncertain. Towa curled around him as she held him to her.
“I promise Tadaaki,” she breathed out and then held out her pinkie before Tadaaki’s face. Tadaaki hooked his small pinkie around hers. “Pinkie promise,” she said with a smile.
“Okay then!” Tadaaki conceded. “Bring me and Asahi presents!”
He got up quickly and stood before her and their father. Sesshomaru adjusted his son’s pelt as Tadaaki stood there and listed several demands.
“Such a demanding brother,” Towa laughed and saw Tadaaki’s cheeks turn pink. He stomped his foot once.
“Not demanding! I want little gifts of all the places you’ve visited! I want to see these places through the items! I’m not demanding!” Tadaaki argued. “Mama will agree with me!” He said and turned to run into the adjacent room where Towa knew that her mother was still with Asahi, probably nursing him after changing him. “Mama! Tell Towa-nee to bring me gifts from her travels so that I can see the places she’s been!” He spoke loudly.
“Tadaaki, not so loud, Towa will bring you something, don’t worry,” Rin assured Tadaaki.
“But Mama,” Tadaaki whined, not getting the result he wanted.
“Come here and hold your brother,” Rin said behind the partially closed door.
“I can hold Asahi?” Tadaaki asked in wonderment.
“Of course, you are a big boy now and with Towa leaving soon, I will need your help. That includes holding your baby brother. Can you do that for me?” Rin asked gently.
“Mhmm! I am a big boy now! I’m five!” Tadaaki laughed.
Towa smiled at how easily her mother soothed her wilful brother. She felt a hand on her head and looked to see her father staring at her, his eyes looking about her face as if etching her and this moment into his long memory.
Now she would have to inform her Aunty Aiya and her twin sister, Setsuna.
Kirinmaru walked through the field of tall grass. He looked at the sun setting and wondered why Towa. He had once lost someone he truly loved and now that child of that union was gone forever, both body and spirit. He was unlucky, he decided. An unlucky monster.
Towa was as unyielding as Touga, he saw so much of his friend’s spirit in her. Her beauty came from her mother, a soft, gentle kind of beauty that reminded Kirinmaru of a peony. Peonies were one of his favourite flowers, the soft pink petals, its many layers of petals, and its vibrancy. To think that it could represent meanings of romance, compassion, and prosperity, it suited the woman that Towa now was at twenty-one summers.
Yet, he told himself, it could never be. An unlucky Beast King that he was, he would not taint her. He has lost countless lovers, the mother of his child, the unlucky miko that she was. He’s lost his daughter. He lost Riku, a puppet made by him to be the child he lost.
Zero.
He closed his emerald coloured eyes and listened to the wind stir the grass and a few birds tweeting and chirping to one another before silence met the field. Too quiet he decided.
Opening his eyes slowly, he looked up to see several mediocre youkai before him. Youkai too weak to ever become a Beast King or even a daiyoukai. He could see their hunger for power. He wondered if Touga and Sesshomaru ever had to deal with such nuisances. Pesky lowly creatures vying for power.
He imagined Touga joking with the youkai that he could kill them with his claws alone, providing them a fair fight without using any of his killing blades, Sounga or Tessaiga. Clearly, the youkai thought if they took his life and possessed his blades, they would be strong daiyoukai.
No, it was only by chance and fate that they were daiyoukai.
Kirinmaru imagined that Sesshomaru, a wilful young daiyoukai, proud and primarily silent, would have cut them down with that poisonous whip as they vied for his blades, his father’s Tenseiga and his own Bakusaiga, the blade that his mother placed within him.
Kirinmaru wondered if Sesshomaru knew about Bakusaiga’s origins. He likely did by now since he had placed a blade in each of his own daughters.
“Downtrodden Kirinmaru, give us your blade!” One of the horned youkai approached. A kijo, Kirinmaru thought as he assessed the long claws and dark hair. Its jaws are large and wide.
Magenta eyes flashed in his mind. He resolved to try Towa’s way.
“I will not give you my blade, but I will allow you safety and peace if you leave now,” he offered them. “I have no desire to fight you.”
The kijo laughed and took a few steps closer. Kirinmaru was over six feet tall, tall for a man, but the kijo was taller than him. He lifted his chin and placed a hand on the hilt of his blade, a warning.
“Then it’ll be all the easier to take your blade and become the next Beast King of the East,” the kijo snarled out.
“I’m afraid that won’t happen either,” Kirinmaru said as he unsheathed his blade and drove the blade through the kijo’s chest as it lunged at him.
He tossed aside the kijo and disposed of the other two youkai, side stepping and dodging their flailing arms, listening to their screeches as his sword pierced their flesh, tearing through sinew and organs.
It was over before it really even had a chance to begin as a real spar. Only Touga, Sesshomaru, and Towa could ever make him sweat in a battle.
He flicked off the blood and sheathed the blade. Grass was bent and crumpled under the bodies of the dead youkai.
“You called me Downtrodden Kirinmar,” he hummed and glanced at the pinks and shades of blue in the sky as it darkened and the sun retreated. “I am Unlucky Kirinmaru, there is a difference.”
He walked off thinking that the title of Unlucky suited him well. He was truly unlucky and would never curse Towa. A significant portion of his heart hoped she would forget him, hope that she saw him as the monster he saw himself as.
Yet, a very small fragment in his heart hoped that he would see her again and that he could open his heart to her.