Inuyasha: College Days - Three

Inuyasha: College Days

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Piece Three: Sesshomaru's Secret - Found Out On The First Day

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Sesshomaru sat back in his chair, reading The Odyssey for like, the eight time. He wasn't really sure what it was about Homer's works, but he enjoyed the depth to them. Even though this particular one had a mushy ending he found quite vile, he enjoyed the levels of bloodshed in it.

As he was just getting to the part where Odysseus looses all his men to a sea monster, his cell phone buzzed. The contraption was actually his fourth, because they annoyed him so much he often purposely broke them, but Kagome insisted he had to have one. He pulled it out and saw Rin's name written across the tiny screen. After a quick glance over at the librarian, who was re-shelving books, and not looking over at him in the least, he answered the phone.

"Rin?" he answered, slightly worried. Today had been her first day as a freshman at her new High School, what could have gone wrong already?

"Sesshomaru," it sounded like she was sighing with relief, "Sesshomaru, I don't know what to do-"

Sesshomaru closed his book and turned his head away from the oblivious human librarian. "Rin, what's wrong?" he asked apprehensively, "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she reassured him, "I just... well..."

Sesshomaru was both patient and eager at the same time, "What is it Rin?"

"Today was only a half day of school," she began to explain, "For Freshmen, I mean, so Kohaku is still in classes. Anyway, I- I couldn't remember the way Inuyasha and Kagome's house, but I didn't want to disturb you or Kohaku, so I kind of left on my own. I thought I could find it on my own, you know?"

"You're lost?" Sesshomaru clarified, lifting an eyebrow at the cell press against his ear.

"... yes ..." Rin murmured, completely embarrassed with herself.

Sesshomaru grinned. He was happy she was okay, and thought it was sort of amusing that she had tried to take care of herself, and ended up getting lost. "All right," he told her, "Stay where you are. Don't move an inch. I'll be there as soon as I can."

Rin's tone was one of complete relief now, "Okay. Thank you, Sesshomaru."

The two hung up their phones.

Sesshomaru stood and, sweeping up The Odyssey with a bunch of other college books he had with him, headed for the exit of the library. No one would notice if he skipped out of his study period, and he'd be back before it was over. Swiftly, and without attracting much attention, Sesshomaru went and dumped his books in his locker, then headed for the front entrance of the school. When he was outside, he looked around a few times to be extra sure no one saw him, and then jumped up into the air, landing on a roof, two buildings away.

His travel was quick. No one noticed the college guy jumping from roof to roof, and he eventually ended up at Rin's High School. Once there, all he had to do was follow her scent down some crossroads and deeper into the city. The whole journey took him about 20 minutes, but when he finally found her, he wasn't happy with what he saw.

Rin was on the sidewalk right below the building, on the edge of which he was perched, on each side of her were two boys who were just talking and flirting with her. It quickly became obvious to Sesshomaru that Rin wasn't liking the attention the two boys were giving her, even though neither one had made any moves to touch or harm her in any way.

Still, Sesshomaru frowned and jumped off the building. One more step from either of the boys and Sesshomaru would have landed on one of them. He hit the ground crouched down on his feet, but stood up so fast, he startled the boys and the two of them fell backwards. He glared over both of them with a fierce and piercing look which made them cringe where they sat on the sidewalk.

"Sesshomaru!" Rin was happy as always to see him, "I knew you'd come!"

Sesshomaru took his eyes off the boys from two seconds to look back at her. "Don't I always?" he asked rhetorically, and then returned to looking at the boys, "Are these two bothering you?"

"Huh? Oh, no," Rin answered, "They were just asking me if I needed some help or anything."

Raising an eyebrow, Sesshomaru took a step forward, causing the spooked boys to shuffle backwards. "Is that so?" he thought aloud, "And can you two swear on your very pathetic lives that your intentions were strictly honorable when you were addressing my daughter?"

"O-Oh," one of the boys scooted back a little more, "Your daughter? Of course, s-sir. Nothing but honorable and pure."

Rin glanced around Sesshomaru at the boys and sighed. "Sesshomaru," she chastised, "Stop scaring them. They were only trying to help."

"Tch," Sesshomaru scoffed, "Very well. Shall we go?"

"Yes," Rin answered, grabbing his hand and tugging him away from the two boys still on the sidewalk. Sesshomaru gave no complaint, and walked with Rin to the end of the block and around the corner.

Though it had only taken Sesshomaru 20 minutes to find Rin, it took them about 40 to get back to the University, which was fine, considering that the classes were each and hour and a half, and Sesshomaru still had ten minutes to get to class when they arrived at the school's library, where Sesshomaru had started off.

"But, Sesshomaru-" Rin protested, "Why can't I just go back to Inuyasha and Kagome's townhouse? I'm 14, almost 15. I can handle being there alone..."

"You couldn't even handle getting there alone," he pointed out, as the two of them walked towards the librarian's desk.

Rin rolled her eyes, "We just moved here! How am I supposed to remember stuff like that?" She was completely irritated with the thought of sitting in a stuffy old college library for the rest of the school day while Sesshomaru went to classes. "It took me weeks just to figure out Kagome's neighborhood around the Shrine," she continued, "You'll just have to give me credit for not wondering off into the subway system or something, and take me back."

"No," Sesshomaru said with that final tone he used so often, "You're going to stay in here until I come back to get you. It's three hours, you can handle it."

Rin stuck her bottom lip out and frowned, "There's no way they're going to let me stay here."

Sesshomaru grinned, but said nothing.

At the front desk, Mrs. Ikeda, the librarian, was typing some stuff on the computer in a trance. She finally snapped out of it when she noticed Sesshomaru sexily leaning on the desk, with Rin standing off to the side, flipping through big, and her opinion, boring books. Mrs. Ikeda seemed to be a little flustered at Sesshomaru's presence, but quickly regained her composure and, brushing some blonde wisps behind one ear, smiled at him.

"Sesshomaru," she greeted, "Can I help you with something?"

"Yes, actually," Sesshomaru spoke slowly and deep, relishing in the effect he had on mortal women of the era, "And it's something only you can help me with."

The deep golden eyes bearing down on Mrs. Ikeda made it difficult for her to concentrate. "W-Well," she stuttered nervously, "I-If you're looking f-for a book of some kind..."

"Rin," Sesshomaru acknowledged the girl standing off to the side of him.

She responded immediately by setting a book down where she had found it, and joining him, "Yes, Sesshomaru?"

"Mrs. Ikeda," Sesshomaru turned back on the golden eyes, "This is my daughter, Rin.
Today, her school had a half day for all freshmen in High School, and since I'd rather she did not stay home alone, I was wondering..."

"Your daughter?" this surprised the woman a little, but not enough to pull her out of those eyes. Still she couldn't help but be curious, "Sesshomaru, how old are you?"

"22," Sesshomaru lied flawlessly, "And please don't get the wrong idea. She's adopted." Another lie Kagome had made him repeat over and over until his vocal cords felt like they were bleeding.

Mrs. Ikeda seemed completely okay now. "Very well, say no more," she smiled at Rin, "Feel free to hang out here in the library until your father is done with classes."

Rin bowed in thanks and ran off to go look at some more books.

"Polite girl," Mrs. Ikeda commented, watching Rin begin reading titles of books on the shelves. "Don't worry, Sesshomaru, I'll keep an eye on her," she winked at him. She thought the gesture was appropriate enough since he was only 5 years younger than her.

"Much appreciated," Sesshomaru thanked, giving his own little bow as he backed away from the counter. As he turned to go, he called Rin's name once more, and she looked up at him, "Behave," he told her, and then left the library.

Rin watched him go with curious eyes.

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An hour later, Sesshomaru was taking notes down in his Government Notebook, when he thought he heard a scuffle at the bottom of the classroom, right outside the door. It was nothing big, so he just kind of shrugged it off and tried to pay attention to his Professor.

Unfortunately, with his obnoxiously perceptive senses, he could easily hear the breathing at the door, the familiar heartbeat, and it really didn't take much imagination to see the curious eyes that he knew were on the other side of the door.

She was making it impossible to concentrate. Finally, after 5 minutes of listening to the sounds of her presence that no one else in his class could hear, he sighed and stood up from his chair.

The Professor heard his chair scoot back, and turned around to see Sesshomaru walking down the steps to the bottom of the classroom. He frowned. He had hoped that this student wouldn't be a problem, with his phenomenal test score to get in the University, and his quiet, cold demeanor, but from his actions - disrupting Professor Nakano's class - it was clear Sesshomaru was going to be a problem student.

The rest of the class's eyes followed Sesshomaru as he swiftly moved down the steps. He had never been one for creating a scene, but come on. He ignored the whispers the students emitted around him, even though he could hear every word as if they were shouting, and just kept moving down the steps.

"Sess-" Professor Nakano began, but, Sesshomaru put a hand to interrupt him before he could finish saying his name, and in his own way, warn her.

Sesshomaru walked over to the door soundlessly, and since he heard no change in the rate of her heartbeat – to signify apprehension of her hearing him coming towards her - he wasn’t surprised when he slid open the door and she came falling into his classroom. There were the normal gasps and whispers as Rin picked herself up off the floor. The students in the room were completely lost as to who this girl was and why she was here.

Sesshomaru ignored them, and his eyes stayed fastened onto Rin’s guilty expression. “Rin,” he was obviously not pleased to see her, “I thought I told you to wait for me in the library.”

This caught the student’s attention. Two brunettes in the back row theorized that the girl ‘Rin’ was the new guy’s sister. A boy off to the left spoke to a group of others about Sesshomaru watching the girl for a friend. Because Sesshomaru could hear every conversation clear as ever, he came to the conclusion that none of them knew she was his daughter.

“I got bored,” Rin recaptured Sesshomaru’s attention, “I’m sorry. I hate to disobey you, I just… I was lonely.”

Three people guessed that she was his girlfriend. Only the black haired girl, whispering under her breath in the front row, caught on to the right answer.

“Rin,” Sesshomaru knelt down on one knee, so she was a bit taller than him, but they were still closer in levels, “Go back to the library. I’ll be along soon.”

“But, Sesshomaru-” though her tone gave nothing of how she really felt, Rin’s rosy nose and sad eyes betrayed her, “Please…”

Sesshomaru sighed. He knew she couldn’t stay here, but man did he ever have trouble saying ‘no’ to that face. Damn him. Years ago he was heartless enough to say no, and now he couldn’t? What was wrong with him?

“Professor!” the black haired girl from the front, who Sesshomaru had never actually been introduced to before, but knew as Inuyasha’s ex-girlfriend Kikyo, stood from her seat, “Professor Nakano, would it really be that big of a deal if the girl stayed for just today?”

A few of the female students, no doubt to their maternal natures, mumbled in agreement as Nakano took a moment to think it over. After having done so, he nodded and returned to writing things on the chalkboard. Much to Sesshomaru’s surprise, most of the class cheered, causing Rin to blush and hide behind him.

“Hey!” Professor Nakano whirled on them, “If she becomes a distraction, she’s leaving, so take out your laptops and get to tonight’s assignment!”

The entire class shuffled quickly to grab their ‘tops out of their book-bags and assorted purses. This surprised Sesshomaru a little more. Still, he grabbed Rin’s hand and pulled her along behind him as he made his way up to his seat in the row third from the top. The students watched them go with curious eyes as Sesshomaru pulled out the chair next to him for Rin to sit down in, and then took his own chair and pulled out his laptop.

Rin was excited, to say the least. She was really interested in what Sesshomaru would be doing at school from now on. Already it seemed to be way different then what she did. For one, the rooms were a hell of a lot bigger. For another, she really couldn’t understand much of what the Professor was talking about, except that it was about Law & Order.

What a boring subject… she thought lazily, then her eyes gazed hungrily at Sesshomaru’s laptop.

Though she was unaware, Sesshomaru could see the way she was eyeing his laptop out of his peripheral vision. Having had enough of her beady little eyes after 6 or 7 minutes, he slid the computer over to her, somehow knowing he would regret doing so in the near future.

Maybe Government was boring to Rin, but computers weren’t. She didn’t know what it was, but she was really good with electronics, which was ironic if you thought about how she had only been introduced to the modern era only six years ago. There was always just something that clicked for her when it came to electronics, and she became somewhat of a prodigy for it.

She was banned from the computers at school for hacking into the mainframe and stripping away some of the Administrator’s blocks on certain websites. She would’ve gotten away with it too if that little bastard Jiro in her class hadn’t told the teacher. It really sucked to be him though, because now every student in school hated the kid for his snitching. She was also currently on probation for taking apart Kohaku’s iPod to increase the memory space on it, and reduce amount of energy it needed to use everyday. Granted, it had worked, but Kohaku had been mad that his iPod had been out of commission for a week, and Sesshomaru threatened to send her back to live with Mrs. Higurashi if she dissembled and reassembled anymore technology.

Rin fingered Sesshomaru’s laptop nervously. It wasn’t exactly new, but it was still in pristine condition. Sesshomaru would have her on the next bus to Tokyo if she tried anything, but it was so annoying to just sit there with a boring old laptop.

She glanced over at him, diligently taking notes in his perfect script. He seemed to be preoccupied, so she really shouldn’t bother him with a silly little question like, “Can I rearrange the way your laptop works so that it and all other laptops in the immediate area become web-linked?”

Instead, she pushed the pencil next to her on the ground, then dove under the desk, pulling the wireless internet plug-in out of the USB outlet on the laptop, and taking it down with her.

Underneath the desk, she worked quickly and effectively. She pulled a bobby pin out of her hair and used her nails to pull open the wireless internet plug-in apart. Then it was just a matter of disconnecting, reconnecting and inserting the bobby pin into the device so that it had a large hook up.

Sesshomaru got suspicious soon enough. When he ducked his head underneath the desk to find out what she was up to, she quickly slammed the plug0in cover back on and turned to meet his skeptical eyes.

“What are you doing?” he asked, though he knew very well she wasn’t going to tell him.

“Nothing,” she replied nervously. She knew Sesshomaru could see right through her anyway, so why even bother putting any effort into her lie. “Just, uh…” she picked up the pencil next to her ankle and started to come out from under the desk, “Your pencil. I dropped it. Sorry.”

Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes at her, “Not my pencil - must have been left over from another class.”

Rin’s fake smile dropped, “Oh. Oh well, then.”

Sesshomaru shook his head and returned to his notes. When Rin was positive he was zoned back into the class discussion, she whipped the internet plug-in back into the laptop and messed with the properties until she got what she wanted.

Using some newly downloaded software that hadn’t been available before, Rin created a ChatRoom and sent invites to every laptop, (and only laptops, for fear of bumping into a staff member’s computer), within a half mile radius. Almost instantly, 15 people from Sesshomaru’s class alone joined.

For the rest of the class, Rin chatted with the class around her under the alias of “-Reck-Less-Rin-”. A few times a student or two would laugh in class and Sesshomaru would become suspicious once again with what Rin was actually doing, but she always covered her tracks before he saw anything. It was just lucky for her that her dad was technologically impaired.

At the end of class, as Sesshomaru and Rin were heading out, Professor Nakano stopped them. “Rin,” he called, “It was a pleasure having you today. I may not exactly understand yours and Sesshomaru’s relationship, but you are a polite girl, and I hope to have you in my class one day.”

“Well…” Rin looked up at Sesshomaru, then back to the Professor, “I’m not really one for Government, but you never know, right? Thank you for having me, it was very… educational.”

Sesshomaru smirked and turned to leave. Rin gave a slight bow to the Professor and followed after him. As Sesshomaru disappeared out of the door, Rin paused and looked back to the Professor, who happened to be watching her go.

“Professor Nakano…” Rin was neither embarrassed nor hesitant, “If you want to know, Sesshomaru and mine’s relationship is this: He’s my adopted father.”

With that said, Rin disappeared to catch up with Sesshomaru.

Not only did the papers the Professor was holding drop, but so did his jaw. After a stunned moment, he closed his mouth and grinned. Man, did he ever have some gossip for the teacher’s lounge, now.