To Find You Again

•means thought
/ means memory

Chapter 1

Sesshoumaru Takahashi sat back comfortably in his first class plane flight back to Japan. His dark blue Armani suit fit him snugly and in all the right places and gave him a look of amassed intelligence. His long silver hair hung down and pooled around his body, locks of it falling in his piercing golden eyes which were transfixed on the clear blue skies and fluffy white clouds.

*It’s been so long, so long since I’ve been back here.*

His mind raced as he though of memories of his childhood and growing up in Japan. He thought about friends he had left behind and contacts that had been lost over the years. Some of them mattered, some of them didn’t. Only the loss of her, had he really regretted.

He could picture her in his head, the two of them holding hands as children playing. The feel of her in his arms as she cried when he told her he was leaving. His heart ached in remembrance. He had promised her he would keep in touch. He would call and write letters. As weeks turned into months, and months turned into years, the letters came fewer and farther in between. The calls stopped completely and he eventually didn’t get any replies no matter how much he wrote.

After couple years, he stopped trying, and became more and more frustrated. After a while, he just stopped caring. It was easier to not care about her anymore than it was to live missing her everyday.

His hands clenched against the armrests of his seat, his claws biting into the soft fabric.Despite his attempts, he couldn’t forget about her completely. Small things reminded him of her and things they did together as children. He couldn’t quell the ache in his heart that never completely ceased to exist.

However he moved on with his life, throwing himself into his work and keeping to busy to be reminded of her. It had worked for a while. It wasn’t until his father, knowing his plight had suggested that he go back. Go back to Japan and search for her.

Sesshoumaru himself had been completely against it at first. She had abandoned him. She stopped answering his calls and stopped writing back despite his attempts to contact her. His pride wouldn’t allow him to go on some wild goose chase for some long lost childhood friend, despite the ache in his heart every time he thought of her. In the end, his father’s persistence won out against his pride, and he left. Back to Japan, back in search of her.

In reality, he couldn’t imagine why his father had insisted so much that he return. What had changed now that made it so different from back then?

He remembered it like it was yesterday, his fathers and step-mothers decision to leave Japan.

/Seven year old Sesshoumaru had returned early from playing outside with his friend, and as he entered the ancient mansion that his family resided he faintly heard the voices of people engaged in a heated argument. He squeezed his feet out of his now brown tennis shoes, carefully so as not to get mud everywhere.

As quietly as he could he wandered over to his fathers study as the voices became louder and louder. His face scrunched up in concentration in his effort to make out exactly what was being said.

He recognized his step mother, Izayoi’s voice instantly.

“You can’t do this to him InuTaisho! You know how much that little girl means to him. We can’t just get up and leave!”

“I don’t want to do this any more than you do, but what has to be done is being done! Onigumo is making his move and I need to be there!” InuTaisho shouted angrily.

Izayoi’s bottom lip trembled with rage as she glared back at her husband, hands firmly set on her hips in a determined stance. She wasn’t about to let this happen so easily.

“You need to be there. We don’t.”

InuTaisho’s eyes flashed dangerously. If there was ever a time that he had wanted to injure his mate, it would have been now.

“We are all going, you, Sesshoumaru, and myself. That is the end of this discussion, and don’t you ever again suggest leaving and taking my pups with you.”

Izayoi sighed and rubbed her swollen belly as her unborn son kicked restlessly. He always became overly active when things got heated. She looked up at her mate with anger and disappointment glistening in her violet colored eyes.

“You know that little girl is destined to be his mate. How dare you try and take that away from him! He found her early in life, and your going to take something so precious away. He may never find her again.”

InuTaisho’s eyes softened as he looked at his pregnant mate, but the decision had been made, and it was to prevent something bigger than the both of them. Couldn’t she understand he was doing this for their own well being?

His eyes hardened and became determined once again, he held her gaze with a look that held no room for argument.

“If she is his destined one, they will find each other again.”

Izayoi’s eyes glistened with unshed tears, this was going to break Sesshoumaru in half, and while he may not be her son by birth, she still loved him just as fiercely as his own mother had.

“This is wrong, and you know it.”

The sound of the door flying open caught the attention of both parents. Sesshoumaru stood there, his little hands clenched into fists with the scent of blood fresh in the air as his claws cut deeply into his hands. His eyes were red tinted in anger as he growled at his father with tears streaming down his pale cheeks. His body shook with undisguised rage and his heart felt like it was going to bust out of his chest.

“You can’t! I won’t go!”/

Sesshoumaru was jolted from his thoughts as the plane shuddered and slowly came to a halt at the Japanese International Airport. He raked his hands through his hair and shook his head, clearing his mind of his sad memories. There was only one thing to do now, and that was to find her, and he was determined to do so. The only problem was a nagging thought in the back of his mind that he couldn’t seem to quell. What if she didn’t want to see him?

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His gaze wondered around the old mansion, the one his father had abandoned long ago, dragging him kicking and screaming. A thick layer of dust had gathered over time and the entire place was musty and in desperate need of being aired out.

Dropping his bags just inside the door he wandered around the desolate halls of his old home, memories bombarding him. It was a place he never imagined that he would return to. He was here now, and he was looking for her. It had been such a long time, he couldn’t even remember her scent. Sure, he remembered that it comforted him and always soothed the demon in him, but her scent was now out of reach. He couldn’t remember, and the pain that caused almost killed him, that sweet smell that he had so long ago forgotten.

He shook the thoughts from his head and made quick rounds of the old mansion, opening many of the windows to get the stale air and the thick scent of dust out. He would have to call some cleaners in to get this place fixed up tomorrow.

Walking slowly, leisurely down the marble halls he could see it, he could hear it. The two of them playing as pups, chasing one another down the halls, she used to run as fast as she could, and would always flash him a brilliant smile, knowing he would always catch her. She always had faith in him, even as children that he would be there to catch her if she fell, be able to kiss her scrapes and make them all better. She always had such blind faith in him, more than she should have he supposed. But perhaps that was one of the reasons why he loved her so much, even then. Most of the other children would cower in fear of him. It was true that he was a powerful youkai, even as a pup. The point was though, that he was just a pup, and he was like any other kid, he wanted friends to. It was her, the little slip of a human girl that was the only one brave enough to talk to him, to want to be his friend. She was the only one who trusted him not to hurt her, even if he was a youkai.

He stopped just outside his old bedroom and lightly touched dark maple wood door. His claws scrapped the wood lightly, he wanted to go in, to see if he could catch any lingering scent of her, something that he could remember, but he hesitated. Going in there, so many memories, did he really want to go in there? Holding his breath he lightly pushed open the door and stepped inside. There was nothing but a strong feeling of emptiness. She isn’t going to be in there, he mentally berated himself.

Slowly, he made his way over to the old child’s bed that had once been his and ran his claws ever so lightly against the wooden headboard. Taking a firm grip on the headboard, he pushed the old bed aside, nearly tossing it half way across the room. Even in the dark, he could still make it out. Kneeling down, he ran his fingers over the scratches etched into the wall, studying them with his fingers before finally looking at it. There, carved very carefully into the wall the letters remained. Time had not damaged it, had not eroded it, because it was meant to be there for all eternity, he knew that when they had done it together. “Sesshoumaru and Rin, best friends forever.”

That was it-that was what he needed. He would find her once again, a look of sheer determination shown on his handsome face. He would find her, and when he did, he would never again let her go.

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Rin Minamoto raked her hand through her hair for the hundredth time that day, roughly scratching her nails over her scalp a little too hard, making her wince. She glared at the open files before her. She had searched over them again and again, nothing ever changed. No new information, no new kidnappings and no new mutilated and raped children’s bodies. While this should have been a good thing, it also ultimately hindered her search for the attacker. It had been over six months since the children’s kidnappings had stopped, and she wasn’t any closer to finding her murder.

“God damn it!” She screamed, standing up and slamming the file shut.

She had dedicated her life to finding these bastards. To hunting them down and giving them a good dose of justice. She had been doing it for the past six years and she was damn good at it.

At the age of twenty two she had been lucky enough to be chosen right out of the police academy and placed into the field she had worked desperately for. At the time she was the youngest member in the Sex Crimes unit and had done her best. In a few short years she was promoted to detective and she was damn proud of it.

She had been working on the Arachnid Case for the past year and a half. Throughout that year and a half there had been a new victim every two months. Children’s bodies haunted her in her sleep, begging for justice. Their mutilated bodies and tear streaked faces were all she saw. Every Vic had the same distinct marks, their k-9 teeth ripped out and a spider burn on their right breast, directly on the nipple. The same killer had gotten all nine children- all little girls between the ages of eight and twelve, all with light brown hair and chocolate colored eyes.

The Arachnid Child Molester had gotten every one of the little girls, and each time he had been consistent and precise with when the bodies were found. Then suddenly, six months ago it stopped. There were no bodies and no clues. They had no leads and it was as if the murderer had just disappeared. But murderer’s, especially one’s with this consistent of a pattern didn’t just disappear. This murderer got his kicks two ways, one was molesting and torturing children, the second was leading the police on, dangling the bodies of the dead little girls over their heads. A guy like this didn’t just stop. There had to be a reason, there had to be something that they were missing!

Looking over at the clock hanging on the wall, she ignored the late hour and her eyes scanned the awards hanging all over the walls in her office. Her graduation plaque from the police academy, her promotion plaque into the detectives position, her degree in criminology and criminal psychology; they meant nothing now. They meant she was good, she was educated and worked hard, but none of that brought any of the little girls back and it wasn’t bringing their killer to justice.

Rin blinked back tears of frustration and sadness and let the rage in her heart build. She would catch him if it was the last thing she did. She owed it to the little girls whose faces haunted her in her sleep, and she owed it to herself.

Grabbing her briefcase she flipped the light switch and walked out of her office, shutting the door silently behind her.

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I hope it’s being enjoyed. I realize the first chapter isn’t much and doesn’t give to much away. I am going to continue posting, things will come together in the next two chapters. I hope you all are patient and stick with me! Opinions and suggestions are welcome. No flaming please unless it is constructive criticism. Thanks!