Chapter 1: Lost Girl

"She can have a better life in my time. There is medicine, education, a woman can become anything she wants in my time."

As he looked upon the sickly girl, he had to trust that Kagome's words were true. Trust had never been something that came easily to him. He considered the possibilities, the inevitabilities, the outcomes. He weighed them all within the span of a half second. There could be only one choice to make when it came to Rin's safety. Then, Lord Sesshomaru rose from Rin's bedside and nodded in Kagome's direction.

"Who will take care of her?" Sesshomaru asked.

"My mother, my brother, and my grandfather. But Sesshomaru… she won't remember you or this place. She will wake up in Tokyo and she won't remember any of it. She will believe herself to be a normal girl, living out her days in the future."

A girl out of time. His brother's beloved knew all about that and she seemed to have adapted to it fine. If this was the only way Rin could survive the fever that had taken its hold on her, then so be it. There was really no decision to be made.

"Send her then. And be done with it."

Sesshomaru left the small village that night, left Rin in the care of her own kind, and he only looked back miles and days later, when it truly hit him: he would never see Rin again.

"Rin! Wake up! You're going to be late for school!"

The girl's dark brown eyes fluttered open and she arched her back and extended her arms above her head into a deep yawning stretch. She lay in her bed for awhile and stared up at the ceiling. She'd had that dream again. The one with the dog. It stood in a snow storm, that impossibly large red eyed dog with only three legs. Blood dripped from its teeth. It would stare at her until she began to run towards it then it would howl and that's when she woke up. She'd been having the dream more and more these days. Always getting closer to the dog with its every appearance in that blustering storm. But she never reached it. She never understood why she would want to. The beast was massive and vicious. It should have frightened her but all she ever wanted was to reach it. It was a strange sort of dream.

"Rin!" Her aunt's voice cut through the heavy silence of her contemplation and she sat up and moaned.

School. Right.

Rin went about getting ready for her day. She could hear her grandfather downstairs. He was an old man, almost ninety, but he was still sharp as sharp could be. He said it was from all the blessings he performed at the temple and that she too should offer her blessings too. For some reason, her aunt would always glare at him. She hated when he tried to involve her in his temple stuff. Rin wasn't even allowed to go near the shrines. One of them had even been chained shut with a heavy padlock. She had always just assumed it was dangerous. Her aunt's daughter, Rin's cousin, beautiful and preserved only by the pictures of her throughout the house, had disappeared and Rin had always thought it had something to do with the well hidden in one of the shrines. Kagome, had been her name.

There was a firm knock on the door. "Rin. Get your shit together and come on! Mom has breakfast for you." Sota. Her cousin and Kagome's brother. He and Rin did not get on, but Rin could understand why. She now slept in the room that had been his sisters and she didn't think he'd ever truly gotten over her loss. Rin was too much of a private person to ever have asked for details about his feelings or even about what had happened. She just knew that Kagome was gone, he was the only one in the household who hadn't moved passed it, and Sota seemed to look at her now and only see his missing sister.

By the time Rin had made it downstairs, wearing her high school uniform, Sota had gone to work and only her grandfather and her aunt remained at the breakfast table.

"Smells good! Thank you, Auntie H!" She kissed the woman who had raised her on the cheek and sat in at breakfast, laughing as her grandfather snored beside her.

She ate quietly while her aunt leaned against the table and watched her. As she ate, she thought about her dream. Her brow furrowed, but her aunt didn't pry. That's what Rin loved most about her. She was a patient woman, kinder than anyone, and she never intruded on Rin's thoughts unless invited.

"I've been thinking a lot about something," Rin said suddenly.

"Oh? About the university exam results? I'm sure you did fine!" Mrs. Higurashi replied.

There was silence for a time until Rin shook her head. "No. It's not that… well it is that… But…"

"When you were a child, you used to be quite different. You were always so curious, so playful. You had many friends and seemed very popular with the other children. But now, I don't see that child anymore. I see a beautiful young woman, who seems to carry with her a huge burden of troubles and worries. You barely sleep. You're distant…"

Rin looked down at her half eaten plate of breakfast. This was also why she was so fond of her aunt. She could assemble all the difficult pieces of her life and put them into perspective at the right moments.

"That's true… I find myself often seeing people, people my age, and I don't connect with them anymore. I don't even want to go to university. Even though that's what Kaiba and my other friends are excited about." She paused. "I know this doesn't make sense, but I don't feel like anything in this world will ever satisfy me."

Her aunt's expression changed suddenly, becoming a mixture of something Rin didn't truly understand. She brushed a comforting hand through Rin's hair and smiled, tearfully.

"I'm sorry! You must think I'm so ungrateful. After my parents died, you raised me. You are my mother and I love you. You know that right?" Rin hugged her aunt and then glanced up at the wall at the clock and jumped.

"Oh gosh! I'm gonna be late! Um… t-thanks for hearing me out! I'm sure everything will work itself out!" Rin hopped up and kissed her grandfather on the forehead on the way out the door, rousing him from his sleep.

"Have a good day at school, Kagome!" he gargled, falling almost instantly back asleep. It was often that Rin was confused for her cousin. She slept in her room, she wore some of her old clothes, for an old man like her grandfather, who was often confused and sometimes drifted between past and present, there really was very little difference when it came to Rin's appearance.

Rin grinned a little bit awkwardly at the mistake and her aunt laughed gently, though her eyes did seem to be saddened just a bit. Rin grabbed her book bag and lunch and ran out the door, returning a few seconds later to also grab the wooden sword hanging by the door. "I'll be late coming home! Kendo practice! Bye!"

As Rin ran down the path to school, Mrs. Higurashi stood by the window and stared at the girl who was like a second daughter to her. She watched her thick braid bounce behind her and disappear with her around the corner.

"She's going to figure it out soon," Grandfather piped up. "We knew Kagome's priestess powers would only hold if Rin would let them. She's too willful. She will remember her old life soon. And if she doesn't, well... these things have a way of undoing themselves," His eyes, addled with lines and age, were clear as day.

"You don't know that," she replied. But deep down, she knew it was true.