As My Daughter Wishes by CatsEyes

Prologue

PROLOGUE

The chamber was dimly lit, the firelight casting heavy shadows upon the paneled walls. Many toys lay discarded on the floor. They looked lost and quite out of place, as if used to a more lively air than the grave one that now permeated the large room. Even more out of place were the numerous youkai that cluttered the doorway, looking in anxiously at the three other demons that were presently crowded around the large bed situated at the far side of the room.

A small girl lay in its covers, looking even smaller with all the cushions and furs piled around her. Her breathing was labored; her delicate face flushed with fever. Every so often the girl would utter a small whimper, her usually cheerful face contorted with pain as savage coughs rocked her small body. It was a miserable condition to be in, and almost as miserable to watch. Sesshoumaru growled softly, tearing his eyes away from his sick charge to glare at the cat demon seated on the other side of the futon, currently checking the human's pulse.

"Well?" he asked, his emotionless voice belying his concern. When Rin had first contracted her sickness, he had attempted to cure her with the Tenseiga. To his infinite rage and despair, the sword had defied him once again. So he had been forced to call on one of his allies, hoping the woman before him could succeed where he could not.

The neko-youkai sighed and removed her clawed hand from the girl's wrist, tucking it back under the folds of the blankets before turning her mysterial gaze on the Lord of the Western Lands.

"Her unconscious state is very deep," she said, her tone equally apathetic. "I detect no hints of demonic powers, nor any signs of poisoning. Her lungs appear to be clogged up, and her fever is dangerously high."

"Kurea... can you or can you not relieve her of this condition?"

She sighed again, looking back at the girl. "This is beyond my skill to heal. I do not know much about human illnesses, but I suspect – if not cured – this might prove to be fatal."

"No." The demon lord's eyes were glazed with red. He was frustrated, worried, and at a loss at what to do. He was angry with Kurea for failing him, with Tenseiga for refusing to heal the girl, and with himself for allowing this to happen in the first place. "I will not permit this. Is there nothing else that can be done?"

The cat youkai shook her head, then paused, tilting her head to the side in consideration. "Perhaps..."

"Perhaps what?"

Kurea eyed the inu-youkai warily. "If you were to obtain someone with a greater knowledge of human medicine... A miko, perhaps..."

"A miko?" Sesshoumaru repeated listlessly, the very idea of bringing another human into his domain distasteful. "And where, do you suppose, would I find a miko willing enough to –" His voice trailed off as a sudden thought entered his mind.

That girl that traveled with his accursed half brother... she was rumored to be a priestess, and one of great power. The demon lord knew from past encounters that – despite being his brother's companion, indecently garbed, and human – she was a force to be reckoned with. He had experienced firsthand what her purification powers could do. Perhaps she could use those powers to heal Rin. And there was the fact that the little girl liked the strange woman...

He reached his decision. "Kurea, continue to watch Rin and do whatever you can in your power to delay the course of this sickness. Jaken." The little toad youkai at his side looked up at him.

"Yes, milord Sesshoumaru?"

"Bring Kurea whatever she needs, and look after the estates until I return." He leaned down and touched the girl's face in a rare sign of affection. Straightening, he then left without another word; exiting from the room and vanishing down the dark hallways and into the night.