Sessho-maru smelled a sweet scent in the air. "This smell is very familiar," he said to himself. Then he realized it was Rin, carrying flowers. "Here Lord Sessho-maru," she and held out the flowers to him. He picked up the colorful bouquet of flowers and studied them for a few moments and sniffed them. "I remember these," he said, still talking quietly to himself. "Inu-Yasha's mother used to give these to my father." What Sessho-maru considered as disgusting thoughts, memories of his father being together with the human mother, suddenly filled his head. He then came out of his trance remembering Rin was still standing in front of him as if awaiting praise.
Sessho-maru simply patted her lightly on the head and walked past her to find Jaken sitting on a stump. "Jaken," he said in a commanding voice. "Take these flowers to my bedroom quaters." Jaken nodded and took the flowers and started into the Western Lands castle. Sessho-maru watched Jaken enter into the castle and then turned his head down towards a smiling Rin at his side.
"What do you wish to do today, Rin?" he asked her. Rin's grin lesssened and her face made her look as if she was trying to figure out a hard problem. He waited patiently until she made a devilish smile at him. He knew what was coming. "Can we play hide and seek?" Rin asked with excitment in her voice. Sessho-maru let out a small sigh and nodded his head. This is Rin's favourite game.
"I'll hide and you can count!" she said. "Alright." He sat down on the stump and face his castle. Then he closed his eyes. Rin ran and hid behind the nearest tree at the edge of the clearing. Sessho-maru started counting slowly to twenty-five. He was at number nine when his eyes flew open. He sensed a demon near by.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Rin screamed. Rin had turned around to find a huge, red-eyed, purple skinned, and sharp needle-toothed demon looking down upon her. The deomn snatched her from where she stood and carried her off into the forest.
Sessho-maru, not long after hearing Rin's scream, ran quickly to her hiding spot behind the tree to finding nothing there. He sniffed the air and knew the demon must have taken her into the forest.
"Dammit!" he cursed. He sniffed the air again and turned his head to the left. He ran into the forest following his nose until he came to a stop about half a mile into the dark forest. 'Why does the demon's scent stop her?' he thought. He looked around in the area where he had stopped. He didn't sense Rin either. Sessho-maru looked straight up to the forsest's canopy and saw what looked like a huge spider web. He jumped to the closest branch nearest to the "spider web". He realized something. "A very pathetic trap," he said aloud. A sweat drop fell from the "spider web". Sessho-maru knew it was a type of sorcery the demon had placed upon itself.
A poof of smoke filled the air. Sessho-maru's facial expression, of course, didn't not change from is calm state. Seconds later Sessho-maru could see the demon on the run with Rin hung over its shoulder.
"Help me! Help me please!" Rin screamed with tears in her eyes as she tried her best to focus on Sessho-maru (the demon wasn't really a graceful runner). Sessho-maru jumped high over the forest canopy and landed lightly in front of the demon. The demon, very shocked and afraid, made a desperate attempted to flee to the opposite direction. Sessho-maru just landed in front of the demon again. This repeated several times until Sessho-maru thought enough was enough.
"Hand the girl over or your head will be mounted on my wall."
The demon, willing to do anything to survive, dropped the kicking and screaming girl to the ground. Rin, a little surprised by the drop, got up and rean to Sessho-maru and hid behind his left leg and gripped tightly to his pant leg. He touched her hand lightly signally her to let go and step back. She got the hint and did so. Sessho-maru watched her back away slowly and then turned to the demon with his own devilsh smile.
"I lied maybe your head will go along with my collection." And in the blink of an eye, Sessho-maru sliced the demon's head off it's shoulders and the head tumbled to the ground. Rin had her eyes closed during the whole ordeal but opened eye to make sure it was all over.
Sessho-maru, glad that he got his excitement for today, turned back to look at the shaking and very scared child. He walked up to her and bent down on one knee. He gently brushed the damp hair of sweat and tears out of her face and behind her ears. He looked deep into her eyes and sensed her fear. "It's okay," he said, trying to comfort her. Tears stilled streamed down her face and Sessho-maru tried his best to wipe them away from her eyes. "You don't need to worry, Rin. You know I'll always be there," he said. He stood up, turned to face the way leading to his domain, and then turned to look down at Rin. "Let's head back and..." before he could finished his sentence, she hugged him around his waist. He never received a hug like this, a hug that told him that this little girl was happy that he was alive.
A little shocked, he just pushed away gently. Rin could somehow sense what he was feeling. She just smiled and started walking down the way Sessho-maru looked a few minutes ago.