#kikyo

oh i'd say another major sesshomaru ship out there is him and kagome, that with the amount of fanarts and fanfiction you can find in here and they have their own ff site (dokuga).

now sesskik has had its periods of popularity, at least on this site, i remember clearly that when y*shahime was just announced and we saw sesshomaru's "daughters" many people were expecting for kagura or even kikyo to be the mother of those girls (anything but the rin being a child bride).

now why the ship is attractive for the rest, i can only speak for myself and in my case i've always liked them both as characters, the natural step was shipping them.

i've never been one to villainize kikyo's actions too much because i feel that i understand the core of them, but very early in the beginning her and sesshomaru also mirrored each other in how much distress they'd bring to either kagome and inuyasha hahaha.

there was a conceitedness in their early behaviour that starts morphing the more the story advances and their goals change. the truth about naraku's revealed to kikyo and she starts plotting towards his extermination and sesshomaru also deviates from his desire to have tessaiga when naraku kidnaps his recently adopted child (lol), so their brief antagonism ends almost at the same time.

naturally sesshomaru and kikyo have different journeys and ways to see life but they're both marked by strength and solitude, two things that are directly related and give way to their shared stoicism and unflappability and even their perceived arrogance/self-confidence.

the fact that they're both very attractive and sharp are factors, too. i think there are many parallels to them and when not, even their differences could make an interaction between them very interesting.

and then the most tangible evidence that kikyo could draw sesshomaru's interest is the fact that rumiko commented she IS his type of woman, those are the traits to her that match his and define HER in rumiko's eyes (she really liked kikyo so much hahaha).

personally this ↑ comment from her was one of the reasons i ended up considering sesskik seriously years ago and sort of made it impossible for me to imagine sesshomaru with anyone else (other than kagura), bcs rumiko was certain sesshomaru was attracted to WOMEN and not GIRLS like he'd describe rin and kagome to be.

in his speech kagome was a "child" and so obviously was rin. in this same interview rumiko says rin represents "human kindness and innocence" for him, no more beyond that.