HELLO AGAIN EVERYONE!

So I got super excited about this new idea and decided to write it out! I got the idea from Memoirs of a Geisha but it is NOT Memoirs of a Geisha!

Let me know what you think. I'm excited for where this might go.

Chapter 1: Just Another Evening

The young, energetic apprentice rushed down the hallways of Kodachi, the most well-established Geisha house in the Red Light District. Bare feet tapping on the boards with haste, the girl rounded the corner with a tray of steaming hot-buns in hand to the public entertainment* sect of the erotic ryokan.

Suddenly she stopped; catching her breath before she reached her destination. Geisha and stewardesses passed her in silence. All very used to, and unperturbed by, her hurriedness. With a reputation such as Kodachi's, service must be rushed, but that rush must not be shown. Every little detail of their clients' experience mattered. And should one take notice and jest even lightly on the topic of her sloppiness, she would surely be punished. Taking the last deep breath before standing poised once more, the becoming young maiden stepped with care up to the tatami-papered walls of 五部屋, the fifth room. With stunning perfection and grace she lowered herself to her knees, bowing before the closed doors before she spoke.

"Shitsureishimasu. Kakaku-tachi-sama.(Please excuse the interruption, honorable guests.)," her voice adjusted to fit the high-pitched nuance, a preferred trait by their clients, that was required of her to employ by the godmothers of the house.

"Oh? Rin-chan is that you?" The familiar, though seductively adjusted, voice of Cesaria, the Geisha in charge of this particular lot of guests, managed to reach her ears despite the noisy drawl of drunken males. Because Cesaria was the performer, her speech formality greatly depended on that of those she was entertaining. However, being nothing more than a hired hand to the house, and nothing more than a bitterly plain servant to guests, Rin had to be on her toes at all times.

"Yes, Cesaria-sama, I come bearing the pork buns that you had requested," the 15-year old adolescent replied, well-versed.

"Ah! Very good! Come in darling!"

Rin lifted her bow to her fingertips, raising first her right hand to part the sliding door halfway, before using her left hand to open the remainder. Skillfully refusing to raise her eyes to the guests, though noting their quieting rouses to inspect her, Rin sunk back to the floor in a bow before picking up the tray of steamed buns and rising to elegantly cross the tatami-mats to Lady Cesaria.

Raising both hands in offering, the pretty-faced Rin looked up through violet-black tresses of silky hair as she kneeled to the floor in her faded burgundy service yukata, awaiting the geisha's acceptance of the food.

Taking the beautifully carved, glossy black tray, Cesaria, under layers of face paint and silk, smiled and turned to speak towards her guests, "Inu-Taishou-sama, your pork buns have arrived. Still piping hot, too, might I add!"

Rin failed to hold in a flinch at the mention of the Reigning Dog Lord's name.

Demons.

It was only recently that the Western Council took interest in Kodachi's skilled human entertainment. Gaining the reputation that they had, Kodachi not only began attracting attention across country borders, but across racial borders as well…

No Geisha was prepared the day that run-of-the-mill Western dog demons entered the respectable ryokan. And though preparation for such a day was never considered by Kodachi, the strict training and prestige of every servant and Geisha within the house led to a standard perfect evening amongst the terrifying demons.

Rin remembered the day all too well. The dog demons had arrived for the first time, bent on testing the human playground of Kodachi. And once all of the house's performers had been warned, all suspected certain death. Even the reigning godmothers of Kodachi had anticipated such, though their experience led them to treat every guest equally. They ordered the house to care for the demons. And despite the fear that swept through all of the women, they managed to bravely serve with nary a shudder. This had apparently impressed the few dog demons that had wandered in that night, and after about a week or two of normalcy, Dog Demon Royalty paid their visit. And since that time three years ago, visits by demons of all realms had started to become normal.

At that time so long ago, Rin and the other new and unskilled servants had been thrown into a closet until the house was cleared of the difficult guests, but even now she could distinctly recall the gut-wrenching pain of knowledge.

The knowledge that she could have very well been devoured should the dog demons have so desired.

That nauseating feeling was very nostalgic… The last three years, their presence in the house had haunted her in her dreams….

For it was a demon that had slaughtered the man she was arranged to marry not even two months prior to her first day at Kodachi.

Suddenly, a sharp and ice-cold voice snapped her out of her menacing thoughts.

"Oh? Does our presence displease you, girl?"

Rin's eyes widened with utter horror as she realized her fatal mistake. Demons, dog demons especially, required a whole new level of detail in Geisha entertainment.

They could smell fear.

They could sense distaste.

They picked up everything.

"No, no of course not, your greats!" Rin, trying to recover shifted to bow low towards the sound of the voice that had addressed her underlying flinch and scent. Though her mind was now scattered, she played her part well; still refusing the urge to look upon their forms.

Whether they were angry or not, she would not be able to tell. Death would come upon her without her knowledge. And perhaps that was best. Rin, silently cursing herself, began to perspire as Cesaria raised her happy and charming voice to the attacker,

"Oh Sesshoumaru-sama! I'm sure our young Rin meant no harm! Please, rest assured that our godmothers we will take care of the offensive matter personally. I beg you to not let our servant ruin your experience here."

Sesshoumaru, the eldest heir to the Western throne eyed the timid Rin with bitter suspicion before replying to their hostess, "I would hope that such disgrace is not so easily overlooked."

Rin now visibly shook on the floor in her bow. She was done. Perhaps they wouldn't kill her… But the godmothers surely would.

A chill ran down the backs of Cesaria, her assistant maiko* Kagome, (who had been across the floor entertaining the younger son of the Lord, Inuyasha), and Rin.

Inu Taishou eyed his eldest son with annoyance before speaking with open casualty to the tense human women,

"Extended punishment will be unnecessary. Perhaps just a slight instruction on self-control is all that is required," the lord turned his gaze to the bowing Rin, "And perhaps her fears might calm a bit if she were permitted to look at us, eh, Cesaria-san? As of now, we might as well be ghosts. I would be afraid too!" He bellowed in drunken laughter at his own half-assed joke as his council members and youngest son shortly followed suit.

Though Sesshoumaru, reputably, remained unfazed.

Rin licked her lips with nervousness as she realized that all of her training as a servant was about to be stripped. They were going to ask her to look upon them. How was she supposed to do that? What would she say once she did? Her heart pounded at the thought.

And surely the demons sensed that too.

"Ah… Um… If that is what you so desire, Inu Taishou-sama. But only upon your request," Lady Cesaria bowed, lightly laughing to follow the atmosphere of the room. This was obviously a first time occurrence for her as well.

"Yes, yes! That would be good! Human girl, er… Rin, yes? Go on take a look. We may bark, but we don't bite!" Inu Taishou took another swig of sake' before bellowing again with his comrades. This time, Sesshoumaru let out a smirk.

"Speak for yourself, father," he muttered so low that only keen ears could hear.

Rin knew that the client's request was final. And that no matter what she was taught by the Kodachi house, if instructed otherwise by a client, she was to obey.

"Yes, my lords," Rin feebly complied.

Heart-throbbing with knuckles growing white under shaken tension, the young woman raised her head up slowly, still concentrating on grace and poise as much as she could allow.

And when her eyes fell on the one she had been facing… the one who had called her out… her breath hitched and her heart skipped a beat.

Where she had expected to see a fearsome and atrocious demon, she saw utter beauty and perfection.

The words that her Geisha family had used to express the sight of the young dog lords in the past must have been construed with her own doubt and fear; creating a filthy image in her mind.

But now that she looked upon them, upon him, it was clear that her own rendition had been completely, and totally, false.

His hair glistened like the reflection of clear, star-studded moonlight upon the fluid tresses of a coursing river. His eyes shone bright like the promise of sunrise after the harshest and darkest of nights. His contoured face, with his paled complexion, left promises of luxury and nobility, while his jagged scarlet features and elongated talons proved that he was anything but a safe investment to someone as humanly fragile as herself… And that was intriguingly attractive.

She gulped down her sudden arousal; a tingling sensation that she felt from her toes to her fingertips. A feeling she had never encountered before in her life. Well... not counting her occasional trips over to private entertainment sect of Kodachi, where raised voices of pleasure were encouraged…

Though, unfortunately for Rin, who was among some of the most sensitive of demons… she was spared no ounce of privacy.

The stoic dog lord's eyes widened with shock as he, and every other demon in the room, caught Rin's suddenly ripe aroma.

"Oh, ho, ho!" Inu Taishou shouted, red in the face, "Look at you, my son, causing this soured girl to quiver just by the sight of you! Well done! If only you took to human women!"

Rin bled red up to the top of her forehead as her and Sesshoumaru's eyes remained locked. His, out of curiosity for the vile creature before him. And hers, out of a complete loss of "what to do now."

In this moment, Rin wished to die from sheer embarrassment.

And with this new and enraged passion to die springing forth from her gut, she threw all of her past training to the side to leap up and flee the confines of this disgusting room.

Crying bitter tears into her palm, Rin bounded for the housing sect for the Geisha and servants.

It was over.

It was all over.

The godmothers most definitely wouldn't have this.

How could she have lowered herself to such an obvious screw-up?! She had dealt with demons before. She had even gotten away with twinges of fear and flinches in the past, but perhaps these demons were far more powerful than the amount she had allotted them. She thought of Sesshoumaru. The cold look in his eyes.

Now that she wasn't entranced by his heavy allure, Rin could properly decipher the utter ruthlessness that his golden orbs had displayed.

She ached to forget him; to forget the pain of shame and embarrassment that this night had so kindly bestowed upon her. There were more pressing matters at hand that required her attention, anyway.

Dauntingly she wobbled to her small, yet modest bed mat that lay amongst the others in the servant quarters.

Come tomorrow, she would be homeless once more.

She pressed her face into the thin mat, silently praying for salvation from what that inevitably meant.

I hope to attract all my old reviewers and fans from my last story!
As you can see, this time I'm not so true to the main story line.

I guess I've managed to leave my comfort zone with sticking to Rumiko's plot.
Let me know what you think so far. :)

*Public Entertainment in reference to the non-sexual aspect of Geisha in the red-light district/ Private is the prostitution sect

*Maiko is a Geisha in Training