Beneath the Sacred Tree, Sesshomaru coldly regarded the half-demon pinned to its trunk-his younger brother.
"How laughable." Sesshomaru lowered his eyes. Inuyasha had followed the same path as their father, falling in love with a human woman, then dying for one. "Fate?"
A cold sneer tugged at Sesshomaru's lips. Love, the thing both his father and Inuyasha had pursued, had proved its worthlessness time and again. It was a useless thing that only made demons weak.
"Sesshomaru." The girl in a white kimono patterned with red cherry blossoms slowly approached him, a bow and arrows on her back. In the wake of her grief, she had found acceptance.
"Let's go," Sesshomaru said, as coldly as ever. Perhaps only the girl beside him could faintly sense the tangled feelings in his heart.
"Yes." Han stood quietly beside him.
Aside from Kaede's Village, the other place that held beautiful memories for Han was the little Kiyomori Temple. Her days there were the ones she treasured most. The tall persimmon tree, the rows of archery targets, the soaring Many Treasures Pagoda, and the elegant courtyard were reminders of her most carefree days.
Sometimes she wondered why she had left that peaceful little courtyard so easily, following Sesshomaru into his world without hesitation. Later, she thought it might have been a sense of belonging. No matter how much the gentle, beautiful or sweet, lively mikos cared for her, no matter how sincerely they looked after her, a faint sense of distance had always remained. Yet when she was with the dog demon, though he spoke little and always wore a cold expression, he led her in search of her true self. Along the way, they slew many demons and met many others, and the two of them gradually carried on together.
For some