InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Mating Season ❯ Going out with a "Bang" ( Chapter 99 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Blanket Disclaimer:

Inuyasha, and the characters therein, are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am in no way affiliated with Takahashi, or VIZ Productions.


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A/N:

I promised there would be another lemon before the story ended, and here it is! While there is some actual ‘story’ in this chapter… okay, a lot of ‘story’…there’s also a large assortment of citrus fruits sure to tantalize the palette. You know what they say, when life gives you lemons…what more could you want?! LOL




Chapter 99 - Going out with a “Bang” (pun intended)







It was a crisp winter morning, even in the Nevada desert. The distinctive crackle of a wood-burning fireplace could be heard as the homeowners attempted to heat the living area of their small mid-century bungalow. Not everyone had youkai resistance to extreme temperatures, after all. David may be a coyote-youkai, but his mate Sara was very human.

Chris and Liz smiled at the scene before them, as the two kitsune-hanyou shared in their neighbor’s celebration of Christmas. The scent of pine filled the room as their six-year-old daughter gleefully tore into yet another brightly wrapped package.

Sometimes Chris missed living in New York, but those moments were fleeting when he thought of the city he now chose to call home. There was just something about Las Vegas that called out to his inner kitsune. The lights, the sounds, the action, the entertainment and performers…yes…he had finally found his calling. Er, for the human world, that is. His destiny among the youkai community had been settled upon long ago, and he would never abandon those in need, no matter what he chose to do with his spare time.

When he and his mate had first received the call from Nevada regarding the newly whelped coyote-hanyou, they had promptly made the journey to see the infant, and create a concealment charm for her, just as they had continued to do throughout their stay in America. Although Chris still lacked the ability to charge the magatama beads on his own, when he and his mate had temporarily returned to Japan, to visit their family after the war, he had made sure to pick up a ridiculously large supply of the holy beads, charged and ready, courtesy of his grandmother Kagome. The miko had also vowed to ship him more beads whenever he eventually ran out, and since Kagome had since learned how to actually make the holy charms from scratch, he needn’t ever worry about her running out of the all too necessary supply.

And go through them he did. Even though it was love at first sight for the male kitsune-hanyou with regard to the city of sin, causing them to make the permanent switch in time zones, he and his mate still continued to venture outward on a countrywide level whenever they received a call from a youkai in need of his magic.

Having decided to change their permanent place of residence to Las Vegas, however, they were quick to become friends with the small family that functioned as the direct catalyst for their decision to make the move in the first place. Both Chris and Liz absolutely adored little Amber, and although they knew that they didn’t want to have any more children of their own, at least not at that point in time, that didn’t stop them from spoiling the young coyote-hanyou something fierce. They both smiled at the way her golden eyes lit up upon opening the Francie doll they had gotten for her from Japan. Although you could easily purchase Barbie’s cousin in America, the Japanese version used a different face-mold, which was weird when you considered that the dolls marketed in the United States were also made in Japan. But the kitsune never hid their Japanese origins from members of the “Demonic Allegiance”, the recently established alliance for American-youkai, and so they’d wanted to get something extra special for the precious little coyote-hanyou that had become so near and dear to their hearts. They were just grateful that Chris’s mother could purchase the doll and ship it to America on such short notice, but Rin would always be there for her baby whenever he needed a favor, no matter how big or small.

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(Two weeks earlier, in Osaka)



“What is it with you girls and Barbie dolls, anyway?” asked a male voice, as the owner of said voice leaned casually against the doorframe.

Sighing, Rin ignored her mate’s comment, instead remaining focused on the collection on her vanity. While the Taisho clan did not currently indulge in celebrating the Western holiday known as Christmas, officially, that didn’t mean that she couldn’t give out presents if she wanted to, and she fully intended upon spoiling all the various young children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren (and so on), of their entire family. There were quite a few of them those days. She wasn’t just thinking of her own descendants, either, as she smiled at the reminder of her third, and youngest granddaughter, Noboru and Akiaka’s first-born, who was currently only one year old. But she also planned on spoiling her mate’s nieces and nephews, as well, as she added Inuyasha and Kagome’s descendants to her Christmas list. The boys would all get toy cars or the like, but the girls…ah to be a young girl again. Where were these dolls when she was a child? But then, plastic hadn’t been invented yet.

Rin had ended up purchasing much more than one single Francie doll when Hikaru had called her with his request earlier that morning, picking up several Francies, Barbies and Kens, as well as plenty of clothing and accessories to go with them. The swimsuits most of them came dressed in were cute, but she much preferred the hip, ‘MODern’ clothing styles that were available separately. She was currently in the process of dressing the dolls in presentable attire when her kitsune husband so rudely interrupted her handiwork with his unsolicited opinions.

“Those are the stupidest looking dolls I’ve ever seen.” he announced. “They’re not properly proportioned, you know. Their legs are too long and their waists are too skinny. Girls are going to grow up with beauty complexes.”

Rin turned to glare at her smirking mate, topless Barbie in hand, and Shippo’s expression only grew more comical.

“Oh I get it.” he snickered, gesturing to the ‘Live Action Ken’ on the vanity desk that currently appeared to have a front row seat to her little strip tease. “Gives ‘playing with Barbie’ a whole new meaning, doesn’t it?” he purred, while winking suggestively.

“Oh please.” Rin waved off dismissively, but her mate was just getting started.

Fully entering their bedchamber, Shippo walked over to where Rin had the dolls, and proceeded to pick up the Ken doll to examine it. The eleven and a half inch ‘fashion dolls’ actually fascinated him. For starters, they weren’t Asian, and Shippo found it amazing how quickly the Japanese public was coming to adore American fads, when just two and a half decades ago, their countries had been at war with one another.

“Oh Barbie, you make me so hot…I want to bend you over and-”

“Cut that out!” Rin laughed, snatching the Ken from her mate’s hand while being careful not to tear its clothing on his claws.

Shippo only laughed as well, and while waggling his eyebrows playfully, he reached into his kataginu and plucked out one of his many transformation leaves. “Is this what turns you on?” he joked, suddenly appearing before her as a life-size version of the Ken doll she still held in her hand, right down to an identical technicolor shirt and brown fringe vest.

“Cute.” she smirked in turn, giving him credit where credit was due. “But I bet he’s a better dancer.” she challenged, before placing the Ken doll back on his stand so that the swivel hips could do their thing.

Shippo responded to her challenge by coming up right behind her and wrapping his arms securely around her waist, slowly swaying back and forth to the music in his heart as he buried his nose in the junction between her shoulder and neck, nuzzling her mark. It didn’t take long for the sensation to ignite a spark within the woman he held so tenderly, and suddenly, Rin didn’t care so much about the Barbies anymore. She could feel through their bond that her mate was picking up on her feelings, as well, as her desire quickly started fueling his own, and she responded by snuggling even deeper into his embrace. It was a little disconcerting that he still appeared as a human version of a Ken doll, but Rin had had roughly five centuries to get used to the fact that her husband and mate was a shape-shifter.

“I do hope you did not adopt his form in one-hundred percent accuracy.” she purred after a moment, earning herself a raised eyebrow, which she caught in the mirror before her, followed by a rather playful “Oh?”

Nodding against him, she plucked the Ken doll from its stand and swiftly undid its slacks. “I much prefer my men anatomically correct.” she explained.

“Ouch.” Shippo smirked, feeling sudden sympathy for Barbie dolls everywhere. “No problem there.” he murmured against his mate’s ear.

“None whatsoever.” she agreed, before deftly reaching behind herself to feel the evidence of her mate’s rapidly growing arousal, earning herself a low hiss of pleasure in return.

Turning in his arms, Rin smirked crookedly as she playfully folded her knuckles and gently rapped upon the hard shell that had temporarily become her husband’s head of hair. She then glanced downward to see the very prominent bulge in the front of his pants and shook her head. “Now that’s just wrong.”

Shrugging, the Shippo-turned-Ken replied comically “What can I say? There are half-naked Barbies everywhere.” As an ironic afterthought on Ken’s behalf, he added “I’m only human.”

“Hardly.” Rin snorted, before reaching for the leaf she knew was there and removing it without protest, quickly undoing her mate’s transformation spell.

An adult kitsune instantly stood before her, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. She had always accepted Shippo for exactly who, and what, he was. Of course, being a kitsune, that obviously included the fact that he could (and did) transform into other people or things on a fairly regular basis. But although his ability to change shape didn’t bother her, and had sometimes actually proven to be rather entertaining - being mated for five centuries had allowed for plenty of time to get ‘creative’ with his transformations - she was grateful for the fact that he always seemed to know when she wanted him to just drop the routine, and simply be himself.

Shippo had gotten over his insecurities regarding his natural appearance their first night together. Rin had accepted him, and had agreed to become his mate. He knew she loved him, and she only continued to prove just how deeply her love for him truly ran with each passing day. With each passing year. Over the centuries, she had bore him five healthy children. All of whom, being hanyou, possessed even more animal-like characteristics than himself. He knew how rare such unconditional love truly was among mortals, and every youkai or hanyou with a human mate needed to realize just how blessed they truly were to have found such compassion among such a selfish and easily corruptible race.

Shippo’s musings came to a screeching halt when his train of thought was suddenly derailed by the human girl standing before him. Rin had backed away a few paces, and had proceeded to start a strip tease of her own. His inner youkai began to rumble approvingly as Rin slowly removed her various layers of clothing.

Although Western style clothing was becoming more and more common in the cities, and granted, the doll-sized outfits for Barbie were cute, Rin felt as though she would always prefer the classic, traditional garb of a Lady of the Western Lands. Her yukata was new, but styled in old-world elegance. Although, as was revealed to Shippo’s hungry eyes as her kosode was slowly untied and slipped from her shoulders, her current undergarments were quite modern indeed. Bras had always seemed foreign and strange to him when he’d been a child, but then of course, his future-born mother had been wearing the contraptions long before they were supposed to exist. Rin was most certainly not his mother, and his reaction to seeing her fleshy mounds clad in the pale cotton binding was anything but childish. A groan of anticipation escaped his dry throat as he suddenly found it very difficult to speak. She was going to be the death of him one of these days, he just knew it.

Standing before her mate in bra and panties, Rin smirked at the hungry look in his emerald eyes. No matter how much time ever elapsed, their passion for each other would never fade away. Slowly, sensuously, Rin reached up and pulled loose the sticks from her hair, allowing her raven locks to cascade freely down her shoulders. Her own arousal was increased by the burning look of passion she received for her efforts. Expertly reaching behind herself with a single hand, Rin quickly popped loose the closure on her bra, and she watched with bated breath as her mate’s eyes briefly flashed to crimson, as she slipped its straps down her arms, and dropped the garment to the floor.

Everything in him wanted to pounce. Wanted to rush to her, throw her on the bed and have his way with her. Somehow, though, Shippo managed to remain still, as his wife and mate, still clad in cotton panties, suddenly took it upon herself to slowly relieve him of his own clothing, as well. It was a game of wills…a game he had lost on several past occasions. How long before his mate made him lose control this time? Being mated to Lord Sesshoumaru’s adopted daughter may have curbed his immature prankster attitude, but Shippo was by no means as disciplined as the Taiyoukai himself. Especially when it came to the woman currently standing before him.

I will not lose control…I will not lose control… he chanted to himself as Rin’s delicate fingers slowly untied the leather thong holding his high ponytail in place. He had grown his hair much longer over the centuries, in honor of the inu clan he was a member of. As his chestnut locks spilled down his back in waves of molten silk, he closed his eyes to relish in the feeling of his mate’s fingers as she brushed them through his thick head of hair, before taking a moment to playfully tweak his pointed ears. He chuckled. Next, Rin steadily slid his kataginu from his shoulders and down his arms, before swiftly tugging both his yukata and kosode loose from his hakama. He too preferred dressing in traditional clothing, especially since his mate preferred undressing him when wearing such things. Untying and tossing both robes free at the same time, leaving him topless, Rin worked next on the ties to his hakama. As her arms wrapped around his waist to unwrap the hakama straps from around the toggles in back, she permitted her own youkai blood to stir at his proximity, as she quite suddenly gripped two of the four tails that emerged from his backside, using them as handles to hold him firmly in place. Shippo hissed in pleasure as she ground herself against his stiffness, his pants now unfastened, but held in place by her body pressing firmly against his own.

With eyes flashing to crimson once more, Shippo growled a low warning in the back of his throat. A warning Rin promptly ignored, as she squeezed hard on the bases of the tails she still held firmly in her hands. No longer were Shippo’s tails short puffs of fur that stuck out from his backside like pompoms, but rather, they too had grown in length over the centuries, and were long, traditional foxtails by that point, complete with stripes.

Smiling, Rin still remembered the day his first two tails had suddenly split into four.

It was long ago, during the early Edo period; long before the current treaty between the Youkai Alliance and the Spiritual Sect. A rouge group of priests not in league with the Sect had taken it upon themselves to rid the world of youkai once and for all, and had somehow gotten word that the heart of the Alliance resided in Osaka. It was a battle easily won with Kagome and her barriers offering protection for the West’s entire fortress against their purifying attacks. As a show of good faith for the organization of spiritual humans that the Alliance knew were peaceful, and not behind the current attacks, most of the priests were left alive, either beaten only to the point of unconsciousness, or permitted to flee in terror if they escaped.

Shippo had resorted to using many of his traditional kitsune attacks to confuse and discourage their attackers, rather than go after them with his father’s fang, but when one of the men had suddenly overpowered Rin, holding a blade to her throat, everyone present bore witness to Shippo’s truest form, released for the first time ever. He’d growled, demanding that the man release his mate, even as his face shifted to possess a canine mussel, eyes burning a terrifying scarlet. Unlike an illusionary transformation that happened with a *pop*, and required the use of one of his magical leaves, Shippo had morphed into the form of a large fox, just as Sesshoumaru could transform into a giant white dog. While Shippo’s size was nowhere near as impressive as the Taiyoukai’s true form, he was easily double the size of a timber wolf, as he snarled and charged at the man who promptly released Rin to run for his life. It had taken Shippo a moment to come to his senses and realize just what had happened, a sobbing Rin wrapping her arms securely around his neck and muttering her relief and gratitude quickly assuring him that his mate did not fear him even in that form. During the transformation, when he had first become the giant fox, his two tails had each split in twain, marking a milestone in his new show of power as a centuries old kitsune. When he finally cooled his blood and reverted himself back into his humanoid form, Rin still clinging to him dearly, it took them both a moment to realize that he still had all four tails. Inuyasha had offered his two cents then, stating how one’s true strength would always come through from the need to protect one’s mate.

Gazing up into her mate’s blood-red orbs at that moment, Rin was pulled from her musings by the hungry look she found there, as he stared down at her, demanding her submission with his eyes. Her own enhanced sense of smell was more than enough to know that by that point, her arousal was a thick perfume that hung heavily in the air like a dense fog, and it was clear from the look in Shippo’s eyes that that fog was quickly clouding his mind.

Releasing her grip on his tails then, Rin slowly stepped backward a few paces, a smile gracing her lips as her mate’s hakama fell to the floor, freeing his throbbing erection. Shippo liked to go commando. He growled, but Rin understood the sound as a command, rather than a threat. Slowly, he moved forward, stalking her, as he stepped free from his discarded hakama, his eyes blazing with all the passion of his heated youkai blood.

Rin’s smile only widened; his control was nearing its end. She knew he would never hurt her. She knew he knew it was only a game. Most of the time, being the human woman that she was, she was content to make love to her husband more gently, thinking of him in those terms, as they had performed the human ceremony long ago. But there were other times, like now, when she thought of him as her mate, when she permitted her own youkai blood to boil within her veins. Sometimes, she just liked it rough.

Keeping her eyes trained on the youkai before her, Rin obeyed the command he had given her, slowly slipping her panties down her hips and thighs, stepping away from the damp piece of cloth once it fell to her feet.

He lunged.

The next thing Rin knew, she was on her hands and knees, on their bed; a modern-day mattress having long ago replaced the rather unforgiving futons of ages past. Shippo was instantly on his knees behind her, and he wasted no time in thrusting himself fully within her sheath, knowing from her scent that she was literally dripping with anticipation to receive him. Rin cried out at the sudden intrusion, but her cry was one of ecstasy, as her mate gripped her hips so tightly that it bordered on pain, as he pulled himself out of her only to slam back in with as much strength as he dared. Over and over again he pounded himself within her tight walls, slamming himself against her backside so forcefully that the stinging sound of flesh slapping flesh echoed loudly throughout their bedchamber.

Rin could do nothing but hold on for the ride, as broken versions of her mate’s name escaped her lips through breathy pants. She felt his claws slowly puncture the soft flesh of her hips, but she paid it no attention, knowing from experience that the marks would heal cleanly within a day. Feeling an unmistakable pressure swiftly building itself up within her belly, Rin bit her lip to the point of drawing blood to keep from disturbing the entire castle with her cry of completion. All too soon, it happened, as blinding light erupted behind her eyelids. Her arms were suddenly too shaky to support her weight as she collapsed to her elbows, her new position changing the angle at which her mate slammed into her from behind. Shippo was quick to follow his mate with his own completion, then, as he howled her name at the top of his lungs, simply not caring who heard him.

Collapsing against her back, Shippo remained motionless for a moment, attempting to catch his breath. His slowly softening member slipped from his mate’s core with a wet plop, and they both shuddered at the sensation. Wordlessly, Shippo backed away enough to flop himself down beside her on the bed, as Rin permitted her own body to crash down upon the soft mattress with a small bounce. It took Shippo a few minutes to realize that his mate was lazily petting one of his tails in the same manner that one might pet a cat, and he couldn’t stop the amused chuckle that came to his lips at the scene.

“Mmmm…” came her only reply, as Rin still found herself lost in the afterglow of sheer bliss.

“That was wonderful.” he uttered after a moment. “Unexpected, but wonderful.”

“You started it.” she teased, and he only chuckled once more, before leaning in, and sensually whispering “Merry Christmas”.

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Although Sesshoumaru had no intention of honoring the human holiday himself, he did permit his adopted daughter to bequeath the household children with the various presents she had purchased for them at the human toy store.

Humans…

Yes, Rin was human, but she was different. She was mated to a youkai; she aged like a youkai. But, he admitted reluctantly, she still loved like a human, and with an odd sense of fatherly pride, he secretly knew he would want her no other way. She was his Rin. Perhaps the days of her following in his wake, picking flowers and singing songs of his travels had passed, but she still held a devotion for him in her eyes that had never faded, even after all this time.

So much time.

So much time had gone by since the days he had insisted he needed no one but himself. It had all started with a young human girl, but soon escalated with the wind-witch who would become his mate, not to mention the alliance with his half-human brother. Sesshoumaru’s world as he knew it had virtually exploded, then; his life forever filled with family and friends that, at one point, he would have slain without a moment’s thought. If he traced the life-altering events of his past back far enough, he realized with finality that it was all his brother’s doing. Had Inuyasha not nearly done him in with the Wind Scar, he never would have been lying temporarily helpless in the woods for the young mute Rin had once been to stumble upon in her explorations.

He hoped that, over the centuries, he had managed to sufficiently express his appreciation to the hanyou.

Words of gratitude were not his forte, however, the Inu Lord was quite certain that his Otoutou understood the unspoken sentiment. Simply referring to the hanyou as his “Otoutou” was testament enough to how dramatically the Taiyoukai had changed over the years. He had also honored his brother with their latest selection of aliases for dealings in the human world. After all, when one was virtually immortal, one needed to change names from time to time. Given names only, though, as they forever remained “sons” of the Taisho family, regardless of whether or not the world at large realized that they were merely reinventing themselves over and over again. This time around, they were Ichiro and Jiro. He still remembered the look in his brother’s eyes when he’d handed him his new set of IDs. He was, essentially, calling him “brother” publicly.

Sesshoumaru’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted when a giddy squeal sounded the only warning he received, before a pair of six year olds came rushing toward him from somewhere down the garden path. The quarter-inu he recognized as his brother’s latest grand-pup, Kenta’s youngest of three and first son, Takashi.

The pup instantly recognized him as well, as an exaggerated cry of feigned panic escaped his lips, as he called out “Uncle Sess! Uncle Sess!”

Grumbling under his breath, he supposed that it was better than “Uncle Fluffy”, as the boy’s eldest sister Misaki had insisted upon calling him in her youth. He reluctantly admitted that it was his own doing, for assuming that the child would appreciate the ancient wonder that was his mokomoko-sama. He very rarely removed it from storage these days.

Humoring the child, he bent his knees ever so slightly in preparation to receive him, as the silver and black haired boy leapt into his great-uncle’s arms, safely away from his “pursuer”.

The three-quarter kitsune in question was either from one of Natsuki’s or Natsuko’s litters, but both vixens had so many kits by that point, that the Taiyoukai would be honest and admit, at least to himself, that it was too much for even him to keep track of. It seemed the twin sisters were making up for their American acclimated parents who showed no interest in giving them siblings any time in the near future.

Now Kenta and Aki’s rush into parenthood, on the other hand, he understood…at least from their point of view. Aki’s mother was still mortal, after all, and the couple had wished for the aging woman to be able to enjoy her grandchildren’s lives as much as possible before she passed. Their first born, Misaki, arrived after the couple had been mated only a little over a year. She was a grown woman of twenty-four summers by that point, but her younger sister Mizuki was still in her teens, and giving her parents a run for their money. After remembering the ‘joy’ that was his own inu daughter during those years, why they had gambled with repeating the scenario a third time had seemed a mystery, until the fates had decided to bless their decision with a boy. Sesshoumaru still remembered the tearful joy that the human mother of the boy he currently held in his arms had expressed upon realizing her third child was male. Not that she didn’t love her daughters, but he had learned that her father had apparently left their world prematurely, and she had wanted to honor his memory by bearing a son.

He wasn’t sure if Takashi would make his namesake proud, however, the way he was currently cowering in the safety of his great-uncle’s arms. The kitsune child stood by almost patiently, as if his pursuit of the inu boy had merely been put on time-out.

“This Sesshoumaru is no longer ‘safe’.” he stated finally, in his understanding of his employment in the children’s game of tag. His grandnephew may be three-quarters human, but he could never hope to improve upon his demonic strengths by indulging in his mortal weaknesses. He did not need to rest quite so often as he pretended.

Without protest, the child leapt from Sesshoumaru’s arms at his words, giggling fiercely all the while. The kitsune grinned and gave his prey only a moment’s advancement, before he too took off like a bat out of hell.

Sesshoumaru merely shook his head.


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(Nine years later, in Tohaku)



“You’ve got a demented sense of humor.”

“What?” Kouga asked, blinking innocently.

“A ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ doll?” Ayame questioned, exasperated. “What’s wrong with a nice new Go board or something?”

Chuckling, Kouga held up the porcelain doll for his mate’s inspection. It was made in Europe, and was very well constructed. “My first granddaughter deserves the very best for her birthday.” was his answer.

“She’s my first granddaughter too, you know, and I don’t think that a doll from a folklore where a wolf is the bad guy is the best present to give to a ten year old demi-wolf.”

“Okay then, name me a folklore in which a wolf is the good guy.”

“…”

“Uh-huh, thought so.” he snickered, before once again examining the fourteen-inch doll in his hands. Like Kenta, Kouga was also a fan of American music, and Ayame rolled her eyes as she heard him start singing “Hey there Little Red Riding Hood…”

“I’ll leave you two along.” she mumbled sarcastically, before turning to head back out of the room.

“Hey, wait!” Kouga spoke up instantly, and stopping in the doorway, Ayame turned around to offer him her full attention. “Do you really think it’s a bad idea?” he asked, and she couldn’t help but to snicker. No matter how domineering he attempted to act, he always ended up making sure he had her approval.

“Nah…” the she-wolf conceded, stepping back inside their room. “It’s a pretty doll, and I’m sure Akiaka won’t mind.”

Seeming genuinely relieved, Kouga gently placed the doll on their chest of drawers before suddenly sniffing the air. Approaching his mate slowly, he had difficulty fighting the sudden haze that was threatening to cloud his mind. Something about her scent was beginning to drive him mad, and it only took him a moment to realize that she was coming into heat. Again.

Damn mating season… he grumbled internally, not looking forward to once again having to avoid his mate for three full months.

“Hey, what’s gotten into you?” she asked, blinking in confusion over the way her mate’s eyes seemed to glaze over for a moment just then.

Of course, it only took Ayame a minute to realize just what the problem was, and she instantly regretted neglecting to put on her special masking perfume that morning. She knew she would be coming into season soon, and she also knew how her fertile scent drove his inner beast utterly wild. Fortunately, there was a wide variety of perfumes available in the youkai community that day and age to help mask female heat scents for couples not currently looking to produce offspring. Unfortunately, there wasn’t really any form of birth control that they could use, besides abstinence, which guaranteed one hundred percent accuracy among youkai. Condoms wouldn’t hold up to their stamina, and the pill, which wouldn’t be legal in Japan for two more decades, anyway, didn’t work in youkai metabolisms. Maybe, someday, a youkai scientist might make a breakthrough in that regard, but not today.

Kouga wanted to growl at his mate. He wanted to smirk at her question, and reply that it wasn’t what’d gotten into him, but what was about to get into her that she should be worrying about. But he somehow managed to shake the hentai thoughts free from his mind at the last moment, and instead, resting a hand on the wall to support his suddenly rather shaky legs, he answered her aloud with “Damn, what you to do me, woman.”

Ayame couldn’t help but to giggle at that, and even knowing that she probably shouldn’t, she approached her mate where he stood stock still against the wall.

“That’s nothing compared to what you do to me.” she cooed, suddenly reaching a decision.

“Let go.” she whispered to her mate, causing Kouga’s eyes to widen, unsure he had heard her correctly, despite his youkai hearing.

“Ayame?” he whispered in turn, and she understood the meaning behind the question in his eyes.

Nodding, she assured him “I am ready. I will bear you another.”

Without need for further encouragement, Kouga launched himself at his grinning mate, holding her to him in a tight embrace as he swiftly crashed his mouth down upon her own. The kiss was so fierce that, were she human, the force behind it would have been painful. A few strategically placed slashes of his claws, and they were both relieved of their clothing, as the ruined garments of mortal cotton piled upon the floor at their feet. Those had been her favorite pair of jeans, too, but at the moment, she just couldn’t bring herself to care.

Growling low in his throat, Kouga relished in his moment of power over his mate. While wolf packs were female dominated when it came to decisions that pertained to the pack as a whole, when the act of mating was taking place, the females always submitted to however roughly their males wished to take them, and right now, Kouga was feeling like the animal that he was.

Making their way over to the bed, Kouga showed no mercy as he picked his naked mate up by the waist, piercing her sides with his claws, as he flung her forcefully onto the mattress behind her. Ayame paid no attention to the tiny pinpricks that had already stopped bleeding by the time he finished slowly stalking her position, grinning…well, wolfishly…she supposed would be the right word. Laying exposed on her back, her wild mate gazing down upon her, as his ice blue eyes briefly flashed to crimson and back again, Ayame couldn’t help but to giggle to herself as she saw his eager grin, his fangs poking out from behind his lips, glistening with saliva.

“My…” she breathed quietly, “…what big teeth you have.”

His grin only widened, as his eyes darkened once more, scanning her naked body up and down. Settling his gaze on a small triangle of titian curls, he answered huskily “All the better to eat you with.”

Then he dove, devouring her; consuming her as though she were his last meal. Condemned he was, sentenced to love this woman for all eternity. He only prayed that forever truly knew no bounds.

Ayame bucked uncontrollably beneath him, the sensations shooting through her body threatening to rob her of her sanity. Before she knew what was happening, she reached her peak with incredible force, her own eyes briefly flashing to red. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she made note of the ticking clock on the far wall, and thought lazily That’s gotta be a new record, right before she found her face buried into the bedding. Kouga had flipped her over onto her belly, and was proceeding to drag her backward towards the foot of the bed, once again piercing her flesh as his claws dug deeply into her thighs and hips. Once again, she didn’t care, as her own inner beast surfaced in preparation for what was yet to come.

Standing at the foot of the bed behind her, Kouga wasted no time with hoisting her legs up and out of the way. Without warning, he impaled her, and the twin howls that echoed throughout that wing of the castle assured all its residents that their leaders were not to be disturbed. Growling and snarling, Ayame desperately tried to anchor herself in place by deeply imbedding her claws into the mattress below her. She could feel blood slowly dripping from her thighs where her mate maintained his ironclad grip, but the only sensation the she-wolf cared about at the moment was the deliriously blissful feeling of being repeatedly filled to the brim. Behind her, Kouga thrashed his hips forward at a rate impossible for human males to accomplish, as he desperately sought the explosion he could feel lingering just beyond the horizon. In what was probably a new record for him as well, Kouga suddenly snapped his hips tight against his mate’s backside, her plump rear flushed from the heated blood flowing through her veins. Ayame could feel her inner chamber filling with her mate’s seed as a howl from the likes of human nightmares tore from his throat.

Coming down from his high, Kouga finally pried his claws from his mate’s flesh, allowing her to crawl forward on the bed until her legs no longer draped over the edge. Standing on shaky legs himself, it was all Kouga could do to climb up onto the mattress beside her, as a tiny part of his subconscious reminisced over the time long ago when his jewel shards would have ensured a second round. Inhaling deeply, Kouga’s wide smile assured his mate of the exact moment he detected the scent of her fertilization.

Seeing his smile, Ayame grinned in turn, and snuggling into her mate’s strong chest, she murmured “I wonder if it will be a girl or a boy.”

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(Back in Osaka)


“Congratulations, Mrs. Kumauta. It’s a boy.”

“Thank you so much, Taisho-sama” Mr. Kumauta humbly murmured to the midwife, as she handed his mate their child.

“Please, call me Hinata.” she insisted with a friendly smile.

The Taisho clan had never experienced financial hardship, even during the feudal era, because of Sesshoumaru’s standing as a youkai Lord. That being said, it didn’t mean that most members of the family didn’t pick up the occasional job or two, for something to occupy themselves with in their daily lives. Hinata had learned some time ago that watching over pregnant women was like tending to her favorite flower garden, only much more satisfying, and far more important. After all, a human woman could not go to a normal hospital, if the baby she was carrying was hanyou, and being hanyou herself, her patients always felt secure in her care.

Though interracial breeding was ever increasing in popularity as the youkai community as a whole lost their seeded hatred toward humans, there were still, and probably always would be, a few purists among them. Fortunately, for the most part, they were a relatively peaceful bunch. They protested vigorously in the youkai community, but knew enough to not do something drastic that would alert the human society at large to their existence. They knew they also couldn’t risk a human woman giving birth to a hanyou in the eyes of the public, and for that reason, Hinata’s clinic was left alone. Whenever a rouge youkai rebel took things too far, the Alliance always quickly stepped in to rectify the situation. If the case also involved humans, then it was a sure bet that the Spiritual Sect would also be involved, but the leaders of the Sect had kept their treaty with the Alliance intact, and knew that as a whole, most youkai only wanted to live in peace.

Hinata was not afraid of rebels, and she relished in her work. She didn’t do it for the money, although nearly all of her patients insisted upon paying her. She only outright refused to accept payment when she knew that the couple couldn’t afford it. After all, not everyone of youkai blood was automatically born rich like the Taishos.

Theirs was a double-edged sword of secret lives. Not only did everyone have to hide their demonic nature from the eyes of unsuspecting mortals, but those “in the know” forever had to hide the fact that Kagome Taisho had traveled through time. On a positive note, thanks to Kagome’s knowledge of the future, as their family was forced to adapt in the ever changing world of human currency, they had only continued to grow more prosperous. Although the miko was adamant that they could not alter history, that wasn’t to say that they couldn’t become a part of it, themselves. A small, relatively insignificant part, that is. Most details of the financial future yet to come, Kagome continued to keep to herself, otherwise she wouldn’t put it passed Sesshoumaru to manipulate knowledge of the advancing stock market to become the world’s richest man. That simply wouldn’t do. But there was obviously no way that Kagome could know every single nuance of every single incident within every single company, so…so long as all the important stuff happened the way she remembered it, it was generally accepted that fate ensured the proper flow of everything else.

After all, after the incident with Hinata and Shippo’s painting, Kagome had reconsidered her position as a possible necessity to the course of history. If everything that happened really did happen for a reason, and there were no accidents, then Kagome really was meant to go back in time. So back in the day, before modern banks, before check books and credit cards, when a few up and coming companies here and there had asked them for financial assistance to secure their growing industries, who were they to turn them down? If it meant that nearly a century later, their family was still considered a diminutive partner in the company, what was the harm in that, right? Kagome’s challenge was to make sure that everyone would want for nothing, without becoming the CEOs of everything. While it might seem surprising, and in all reality downright unlikely, that somebody with Kagome’s knowledge of the future wouldn’t take full advantage of the situation to become as rich and powerful as humanly possible, the simple fact that Kagome did no such thing only continued to prove just how pure hearted the miko truly was.

Hinata was pulled from her thoughts when her patient’s little brother entered the room. Although Yori was human, and only fourteen years of age, he knew exactly who and what his older sister had married. After their parents’ deaths, she had raised him on her own. The two kept no secrets from one another, and the boy held no prejudice toward the existence of youkai. If his sister was happy, then that was all that really mattered. Hinata offered the boy a brief smile when he shyly glanced her way, taking in her unconcealed appearance, before going over to his sister’s bedside to greet his new nephew.

She would need to contact one of her niece’s mates, she noted, as she wasn’t strong enough to make a concealment charm for the baby herself, and the cub’s ears and claws revealed that he was certainly in need of one. Another service that was provided for everyone, whether or not they could afford to pay anything in return.

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(A few years later, Tokyo)

***

A/N: I’m deliberately failing to mention a time frame for this segment, so that no specific date can be calculated for this, or any other segment here on out. It’s just easier that way, so that “past Kagome” can remain fifteen when she needs to be fifteen, regardless of what year it supposedly was in the canon vs. the years that continue to pass us by in “real” life as we write our stories. Let’s not forget that the manga had been going strong for over a decade, yet not quite one full year had passed for the characters until the final chapter jumped ahead by three. They aged almost as slowly as the Simpsons. So for the sake of simplicity, I’m simply not giving Kagome a concrete birth date.

***

The hospital was a bustling hive of activity as doctors and nurses scurried about their daily tasks. One wing in particular, the labor and delivery wing, was the pride and joy of the staff that worked day in and day out to bring new life into our world.

It was a day unlike any other, or so everyone thought, as the orderlies paid no attention to the two doctors who suddenly appeared in one of the back corridors from the nearest emergency exit. Surely they had just returned from a cigarette break, as was not uncommon.

“You are certain it is today, Chiyo-sama?”

“Yes, quite certain, Hideaki-sama.” she replied.

The middle-aged woman offered her elderly companion a warm smile. He was a good friend for assisting her with this matter. Hideaki had been a fairly young member of the Spiritual Sect back when she had first approached them about her “visions” on the war. Although they continued to address each other with the honorific suffixes their positions entitled them to, they were otherwise on a first name basis by that point.

Well, sort of.

She sighed. What could she do? When you lived for several centuries, you simply had to change your name from time to time. Even Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha were now known in the public eye as Ichiro and Jiro. She was certain that Hideaki was aware that “Chiyo” was not her given name, but it was not his place to say anything on the matter. Such aliases were necessary for dealing with the human population, as a whole, and there was an unspoken rule that those ‘in the know’ were always to go along with it, as well. Hideaki was well aware that his miko companion was roughly five hundred years old, so an alias like “thousand generations” was quite fitting, indeed.

“We will wait until they take the infant to run the standard blood work.” Chiyo explained, as they made their way down the delivery ward. This was already going to be weird enough for her; the last thing she wanted was to run into the baby’s parents.

``````

“Congratulations Mrs. Higurashi, it’s a girl.”

Nodoka smiled tiredly, cradling her baby in her arms. She was still in awe over the fact that new life had been brought into this world by way of her doing. Her and her husband. Together, through their love, they had created this new little life, who was fully dependent on them to take care of her. They would not let her down.

She smiled as her baby cried. “It’s okay, good girl…” she cooed, smiling despite her new daughter’s vocal protests. “Oh, we’re going to call you Kagome, Ka-go-me.”

She could hear her father-in-law bellowing happily about his first granddaughter out in the hallway, and smiled all the more. Her husband Daiki was currently filling out the necessary paperwork, but he had taken a moment to comment on being pleased to finally see the little one who had recently been causing him all sorts of trouble in the way of late night ice cream runs. Nodoka had thankfully chuckled at the light jab.

“It’s so nice to finally see you, Kagome.” she spoke softly, agreeing with her husband’s underlying sentiment.

``````

Chiyo sighed, but it was a pleasant sigh of contentment. Everything was coming full-circle. As she gazed through the large glass window into a sea of babies, all tagged and cataloged in their little clear beds, she couldn’t help but to marvel at all she had seen change throughout her unnaturally long life. Unnatural for a human, at least, but she was not truly a human any longer, was she? Smiling, she knew she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Punching in the code that had been given to her, she opened the door, and quickly ushered herself and her partner inside. Some of the babies were sleeping, and some of them were crying, but there was only one baby in particular that she had any interest in at all.

Hideaki hadn’t questioned her, much, when she had asked for his assistance with this mystery mission of hers. All she had told the Sect was that she was in need of a monk of his talents, and all she had told Hideaki himself after that had been on a need to know basis. Nobody needed to know, really, but this definitely needed to be done. Fortunately, the Sect accepted that Chiyo officially worked for the Alliance, and that their treaty amounted to little more than a cease-fire, and not a partnership that would entitle them to any sort of vital insider information. One thing they didn’t know, of course, was that the Alliance had not sanctioned her actions on this day, either. Nobody had. Nobody needed to. It was her destiny, and her duty, alone.

Well, almost alone.

Hideaki was assisting her for two reasons. One, the Sect Elder had several friends in the hospital. Although underground youkai clinics like Hinata’s existed all over Japan, accidents happened, and in the event of a demonic patient being brought to a human hospital, precautions had to be taken immediately to ensure that the public remained unaware. It was through his connections at the hospital that they were able to acquire the necessary clothing and security codes. Two, Hideaki was a very powerful monk, and possessed the ability to perform what Chiyo liked to playfully refer to as “Jedi mind tricks”. A quick wave of his hand and a quietly muttered “These aren’t the doctors you’re looking for.” and they were safely on their way. Okay, not literally, but Chiyo still found the idea amusing. But Hideaki was projecting a calming aura around them that assured others that they were meant to be there, and that everything was perfectly all right.

After all, it was exceedingly important that Chiyo be able to accomplish what she had sought out to do on this day.

Finding the correct bed was nowhere near as difficult as it probably should have been. She hadn’t needed to check any of the names on any of the medical charts, before she walked right up to the correct infant. The sound of Hideaki’s unsuppressed gasp brought a small, prideful smile to her lips.

“That…that baby.” he started, clearly in awe. “Her aura is so strong. She is so powerful.”

“Yes, indeed.” Chiyo answered, knowing what her companion was truly sensing. This had to be done quickly.

The instant she touched the baby, an odd sensation went through her. The infant also stopped her newborn whimpering to gaze into Chiyo’s eyes with something akin to wonder. Picking the child up and holding her to her chest, she closed her eyes. The baby closed her eyes, as well, feeling secure in this woman’s embrace. Slowly, Chiyo started to see a small glowing light in her mind’s eye, until it grew brighter and brighter, like a beacon guiding her way. She glanced sideways to see if Hideaki felt it too, but apparently he did not, or chose not to say anything further if he did, as he watched her fall into a deep meditation while tenderly holding the infant in her arms.

She could see it, the sacred jewel. Good, they were still connected, even after all this time. She was mildly surprised that Hideaki failed to recognize how familiar the child’s aura actually was, but then again, she supposed that her aura was different now, having been mated to Inuyasha for so long. Concentrating, Kagome worked on creating a binding spell to place the jewel, and her own powers, into a state of dormancy. She had used nothing of her miko powers in quite some time, deliberately saving her energy for this very moment. While her presence there was not ordered by the Alliance leaders, that was only because there were some secrets that they had kept even from them. Inuyasha knew where she was and what she was doing, and Sesshoumaru had been made aware of it as well, but both the Taiyoukai and his brother agreed wholeheartedly with her decision. The jewel could not be discovered before its time, or everything would fall into a paradox from the likes of which science fiction writers would flee in terror.

Concentrating, Kagome - or “Chiyo”, as she was now called - created a seal for her younger self that would remain in effect for exactly fifteen years. If the call of the jewel was strong enough to revive the skeletal remains of Mistress Centipede, then she didn’t even want to fathom what could happen if one of the purist rebels became aware of its existence. Fortunately, she knew that would never happen.

She had told Hideaki nothing of the jewel, knowing that according to legend, it had disappeared long ago, but what she had said was that a “vision” of the child’s birth had informed her that she must seal the infant’s powers. Hideaki had questioned why the child was not simply to be trained, instead, but she had merely answered cryptically that the girl would indeed come into her powers, when her karma declared it was the right time. The houshi had raised an eyebrow at that, but accepted that Chiyo was a seer, and hadn’t question her further.

Now, as he observed the ancient miko in some sort of powerful soul-binding trance, his mind couldn’t help but to wander to the days when the woman standing before him had first approached his shrine. While they had only been mildly aware of her existence, as she had been living among youkai for all of her long life, they had still been aware of her existence nonetheless. A miko from the feudal era, mated into one of the most, if not the most powerful youkai families in all of Japan? It would be impossible for them to have not heard of her, although they had never actually her met until the day she sought them out, pleading for their assistance for the good of all life; mankind and youkai alike.

The Sect had done a fair deal of research after that day, discovering just how many legends that “miko of legend” was apparently a part of. Hideaki wasn’t sure what was truth and what was exaggeration, but one thing was certain, Chiyo was the most powerful miko to have ever lived. Even the legendary Midoriko was not immortal, and while she may have created the shikon jewel, he knew that the miko currently standing before him was the one ultimately responsible for keeping it from the hands of evil until its mysterious disappearance all those centuries ago. What he wouldn’t give to have her tell him the stories from her own perspective; to hear what really happened versus what had been warped into fable, but he knew it was not his place. Still…one thing was definitely nagging at him in the back of his mind, as he felt the powerful aura of the infant she held slowly starting to fade, as her seal took effect. His eyes had caught the name for the child, that was printed on the medical chart, and as he saw Chiyo place the sleeping infant safely back into her bed, he summoned the courage to face her wrath for his question.

“Chiyo-sama…” he started hesitantly. “Do the legends of old not say, that the powerful miko, protector of the sacred jewel, who would become the mate of the hanyou son of one the most powerful Taiyoukai to have ever lived, arrived suddenly from an unknown land at the age of fifteen summers, possessing the name Kagome?”

She merely raised an eyebrow at him, containing her smirk as she saw him visibly gulp. Although Hideaki was an elderly man, she remembered him quite well from when he was young. The fact that she now appeared younger in age than himself in no way hindered his respect for her as his elder.

“So it is written.” she conceded finally, and at his mixed look of curiosity and astonishment, she shot him a mild glare to ensure that he asked no more questions.

Nodding his understanding, it was clear that he didn’t really understand, but that he also knew it was not his place to question her further. In all reality, he never should have questioned her in the first place, but a part of him felt an immeasurable swelling of pride over the realization that the miko trusted him with such a powerful secret. He would never betray her confidence for as long as he lived.

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(Back in Osaka)


Kagura smiled wistfully as she went about her daily routine, handling her husband’s phone calls.

Well, Ichiro Taisho was her “husband” in the public eye, anyway. Since neither she nor her mate possessed any human blood, neither of them had ever felt the desire to fool around with such nonsense as a human wedding. They did have a legally documented marriage certificate, however. Nothing a quick trip to the youkai run “Human Documents Bureau” hadn’t taken care of. There had to be some place for all the immortals to get their real ‘fake IDs’, after all. It was a gift from the Government issued back when human paper trails had first started to become mandatory, a gift that was thankfully not revoked after their refusal to assist in the war.

Even though aiding the Japanese Government in the war was out of the question, Kagome didn’t much like the idea of the youkai world acquiring everything they needed from the Government through fear tactics, as many higher ups still saw the existence of youkai as a threat, so when it came to assistance in the form of charities, the Taisho family - among others - donated on several occasions. Kami knew they could afford it. Though it was a kind-hearted gesture, on the miko’s part, it was something that even Sesshoumaru could agree upon, as well. Logically, at least. Even though he didn’t truly care about the charities he was donating money to, he certainly agreed that it was far better to keep the humans pacified, for everyone’s sake. So in the long run, it was definitely worth it.

Kagura was pulled from her thoughts when the phone ran yet again, and schooling her voice to sound more like a personal assistant than a wife, she answered “Moshi-moshi, Mr. Taisho’s office.”

Honestly, why her mate refused to hire a secretary was beyond her, but then again, it did give her something to do with herself. It wasn’t exactly like she could go for a ride on her giant white feather those days if she ever got bored. Though she wasn’t likely to get bored in the first place, with the number of phone calls her mate received on a daily basis. Maybe that was why he had left her in charge of such a mundane activity, because he knew that nobody could know him better than herself, and know which phone calls were truly important enough to be patched through, and which ones…weren’t. Everyone in the Alliance knew it was his mate who handled his phone calls, so she was able to weed through the really important messages easily enough, when the first words out of the caller’s mouths were “I’m with the Y.A.”. Other than that, they got hounded by everybody from their local and foreign investment brokers making suggestions or asking for orders, to human reporters for the local magazines looking for an interview.

While Sesshoumaru wasn’t the richest man in Japan, he was certainly among them, though Kagome slept with a clear conscious at night, not having had that much to do with it. After all, she remembered hearing of the Taisho family of Osaka castle herself, in her childhood, and that had been Sesshoumaru’s home, and the family name he’d selected for them all, without any interference from her. He hadn’t been the successful Lord of the Western Lands for so many centuries without possessing some natural sense of acquiring power, after all, so he honestly hadn’t needed (or wanted) her guidance all that much throughout the years, as he steadily increased his fortune all by himself. A few dropped hints here and there never hurt anybody, including his almighty Taiyoukai pride, although Kagome did muse from time to time that what she did could be considered a form of “insider trading”.

Well, she didn’t work for those companies, so they would have no way to prove how she knew what she knew, even if they ever found out she knew it. But she was smarter than that. Besides, a quick thumbs up or thumbs down when it came to investing in a new company was all the help he ever needed, anyway. She was not learned on that whole daily “buy and sell” routine that would frankly give her a headache if she ever tried it, and it’s not like she had all the dates memorized for when any of those companies took a dive, anyway. All she knew was who would be successful, generally speaking, versus who she had never heard of, or who she remembered went out of business.

Speaking of Kagome, Kagura - or Kazeko, as she was currently calling herself - rejoiced when she heard the voice of said sister-in-law on the phone.

“Hello Kazeko.” she answered with a smile in her voice.

“Ah, Chiyo…” Kagura replied. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

If phones could shrug, she would have sworn she’d heard her phone do just that, before finally hearing the miko’s reply of “It’s done.”

Kagura, too, knew what Kagome’s business at the Hospital had been.

“Ah, that is good news, then.”

“Yes, quite.”

Changing the subject then, Kagome asked “Have you heard from the Ookamis lately?” As anti-creative as it was, the remaining wolf youkai had all chosen “Ookami” as their family name back in the day.

“Not recently.” she replied. “Why, did I miss something?”

Kagura could hear the amusement in her sister-in-law’s voice. Amusement which soon matured into a down right chuckle when she told her “They’ve got a knew little one, Kenji, who’s been giving his parents a run for their money.”

“Oh dear.” Kagura laughed as well, “That is something I would like to see.” She could hear Kagome sigh on the other end of the line, and asked her “You miss having little ones around, don’t you?”

“Sometimes…” the miko replied honestly. “How about you?”

The wind-youkai actually snorted. “With as many kitsune as we’ve got running around this place? Please. Besides, I’m hoping it won’t be too much longer before we’ll get a quarter-wind, three-quarters inu grandchild…or two.”

“They’re both still taking it slow, huh?”

“Well, you can’t really blame them for not wanting to rush things, I suppose. Their father was over four hundred before he mated me, and he was still considered ‘young’ by his enemies.”

“I suppose true love knows no passage of time.”

“Especially when you live for several millennia.”

Kagura thought about what she said for a moment, and then attempted to apologize with a flustered “Ah, I didn’t mean, that is…” but Kagome merely cut her off with another chuckle. After all, the miko and her hanyou mate would be lucky if they got to see a full one thousand before old age finally claimed them.

“We are more than content with what life has blessed us with, Kazeko, do not fret.”

It was sometimes unsettling, Kagome knew, for those of pure demonic blood to witness she and Inuyasha aging before them, even with as slowly as their aging took place. But she knew…personally…what it was like to watch those around her leave their world, so she could do more than imagine how they must be feeling. She was not looking forward to events yet to come.

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(Seven years later, Tokyo)


The day was deceptively peaceful for mid-autumn. The sky was blue, and many songbirds littered the treetops with their happy, mindless chirping. The day didn’t fit her mood at all. No, what would be much more fitting would be a gray sky full of rain clouds. A bitter, cold wind that nipped at your skin, causing your nose and eyes to water. Maybe then…maybe if she could blame the wind for her tears, Kagome wouldn’t feel quite so foolish.

It had been years.

It had been centuries.

Yet…when she observed from the safety of her hiding place, secure behind a barrier of invisibility, the sad faces of her remaining family - her younger self included - she couldn’t help but to remember every ounce of pain; couldn’t help but to feel the wounds as though they were fresh. As if she were witnessing her father’s funeral for the first time.

She knew she was being foolish. It wasn’t as though his death had come as a surprise, after all. Still, she couldn’t help feeling remorseful, as though she had somehow let him die, even though she knew that his death was predestined. If she had somehow managed to save her father, prevented him from leaving for work on time that morning, made him avoid that accident…it would have altered everything. She still couldn’t help feeling shitty about the whole thing, though. Inuyasha, bless his heart, had confessed that were he somehow able to bear witness to his mother’s death a second time, even after all those centuries, it would have affected him just as deeply, as well. She was not a fool in his eyes.

“Have I ever told you how much I love you?” she murmured to the hanyou standing behind her, who currently had his arms wrapped securely around her waist.

“You can tell me again, if you like.” was his soft, mildly playful reply.

Kagome did manage a slight chuckle, then, as she wrapped her own arms around the stronger ones still holding her to him.

“At least you got to see him one last time.” he reminded her quietly, and she sighed tiredly, knowing he was right.

It wasn’t very long ago, in fact. Only about six months ago, last spring. She knew his time was running out, and damn it, she was still human, even underneath all the youkai enhancements. She had wanted…needed…to see her father one last time. Of course, when she and Inuyasha had occupied the seats next to him on the bullet train, Daiki had had no way of knowing that he was actually speaking with his own daughter. After all, as far as he had been concerned, Kagome was only seven years old.

Gazing across the shrine grounds to the crying seven-year-old girl in question, Kagome knew she could take it no longer.

“Thank you for bringing me.” she whispered sincerely, adding after a moment “But I’m ready to go home, now.”

Silently, Inuyasha nodded his understanding, taking a moment to glance at the childhood version of his mate, himself. His ears would have lowered upon his head had he currently been sporting his hanyou appearance. For the most part, they avoided the shrine like the plague, lest they risk contaminating the timeline, but he knew Kagome needed to be there for her father, and for herself. It was weird for him in a way, seeing his mate as a small child, but just like Kagome, he had come to accept “weird” a long time ago.

``````

The next few years seemed to go by so slowly for Kagome and Inuyasha, as they attempted to occupy themselves with their modern lives in modern society. Although they were recognized as members of the Taisho family by anyone in the know, they did not boast their financial and political status too often. That wasn’t to say they didn’t allow themselves the creature comforts they had earned over the years, of course. They had eventually given up residence in Osaka Castle, moving into a high-end high rise not too far away. It was just time to be on their own once again. Most of their children also felt the same way, as they too branched out into the world around them, except of course for Katsuo and Tarou, whose places were at the castle as members of the guard. Michiko also stayed put, as her mate Nekorou was devoted to his duty, as well. But most of the others cleared out all in a matter of decades. Poor Sesshoumaru needed his house back, after all. It had been the family’s desire that everyone come home during the Pacific War, but truth be told, things had gotten a little crowded over the years.

Shippo and Rin still remained at the castle, of course. A decision that had stemmed from Rin’s desire to remain by Sesshoumaru’s side. Shippo didn’t mind, however, as his place was with his mate, no matter where she chose to call home. Their two youngest had decided to stay in the castle with them, for the time being, but Hinata had moved out once again, living on her own as she ran her youkai birthing clinic out of her home in Osaka. Noboru also decided to leave the castle, mostly for his mate’s comfort, as Akiaka could never quite feel at home in a castle full of inu, no matter how deeply she loved the kitsune hanyou. They remained close by, of course, in the suburb of Kishiwada, so that their daughter could visit her nieces and nephews whenever she liked.

Hikaru and Hoshi’s daughters, Natsuko and Natsuki, remained on the castle grounds with their mates, but in two of the newly reconstructed outbuildings that were then converted into houses, sitting separately from the castle’s main structure.

Sesshoumaru was just glad to get all the little kits out from underfoot.

He and Kagura’s own children, Suishoukaze and Daichi, also remained in the castle. That made sense, since that was where their future mates both lived, as well. Though each demi-inu was now openly courting their intended, they were continuing to take things slowly, but that was understandable too since nobody had ‘human aging’ as a deciding factor to worry about.

And speaking of human aging, Kenta and Aki also acquired a home for themselves and their children in Osaka, after Kiku unexpectedly passed on in her sleep. Aki was saddened the day her mother left their world, but she had had a long, healthy life, and for that Aki would forever be grateful.

After her three children all relocated, Miyako finally moved out of the castle, as well; she and Hotaka getting a small place of their own by the bay. The two widowed hanyou were not yet ready to take the final step of becoming each other’s mate, but they had developed a kinship of sorts, and had discussed the possibility of eventually taking their relationship further. They both admitted that they cared for one another, and living together was not a decision that had truly required much thought, each of them easily knowing that it was what they wanted.

Minako was back to traveling the countryside, but had vowed to stay in touch with her family far more often than she had in the past. It was an easy promise to keep when everyone she loved was finally a simple phone call away.

Manami and Haru had been among the first ones to move out of the castle, returning to their home in Osaka with Junrou after the war was finally over.

Kazuki still lived with Emi in Tokyo, and kept an eye on the Higurashi shrine for his parents, since they didn’t venture out that way all too often. Their children had also scattered, but had only fled North due to the war. They were quick to return to the greater Tokyo area, and came by for family dinners quite often.

Unlike his father, Kazuki did not find it “weird” in the slightest, to observe his mother throughout her childhood years. He grasped the concept of time travel well enough. After all, several movies had been made on the subject by that point. While he seriously doubted that the fabric of time could be breached with an American car and a little plutonium, the underlying message of what could go wrong if you interfered with your own parents’ past was loud and clear.

Kazuki occupied most of his time by assisting his mate with her own little side-project. Emi had realized long ago that the standard practice of her time, of parents teaching their own children at home, simply wouldn’t work as well in their modern-day world. While she still felt deep in her heart that a child’s education was the responsibility of its parents, she understood and accepted that today’s world simply worked differently. In many ways, that was actually a good thing. Reading and writing, for example - a skill once possessed only by the most privileged of nobles and holy persons - was now taught freely to everyone, regardless of status. But it was dangerous to have youkai children attend public schools with human kids, especially when the mortal children had no idea that some of their classmates were demonic. Such a mixed environment was trouble waiting to happen. The danger wasn’t as high with children who were only remotely part youkai, as their physical strengths were less dramatic, and their weakened senses enabled them to more easily put up with being around so many scents and noises for hours on end, but hanyou and pure youkai children should be kept separated, for safety’s sake.

They had learned that lesson the hard way a few years back, when a human boy’s arm was accidentally broken during a scuffle at recess. Fortunately, the youkai child had only been expelled. It was quite fortunate indeed, when you considered what could have happened, had his true nature been discovered. Instead, the school merely thought him to be a violent bully, when in all reality it had been an honest mistake. He hadn’t meant to hurt the kid at all. But he was still to blame, regardless of his intentions, as being a youkai, he had to take responsibility for his superior strength, and understand the risks involved when sparing with mortals.

It was because of incidents like that one that prompted Emi to start a private school for youkai and part youkai children. It wasn’t hard for her to find people of demonic blood willing to take on jobs as teachers in her school, as youkai parents far and wide offered their assistance to aid her school in any way possible. In the eyes of the human world, it was a hoidy toidy school for the rich, though in reality, it was relatively free of charge, just like any other public school. There were a few expenses here and there, but Emi made sure to keep the costs low, so that everyone could afford it. It wasn’t hard to get funding to start the school, either, as the Japanese Government - who was still very well aware of the existence of youkai - also agreed with her idea that separate schools were best. While the human community vastly outnumbered the amount of surviving youkai, their superior strengths and powers meant that the youkai could easily rise up against the humans, and essentially take over the world, if they really wanted to. The Government would oblige any request that prevented such an occurrence from happening.

Kagome applauded Emi’s decision to get out there and make their world a better place. She had not influenced her daughter-in-law’s decision in any way, meaning the idea was Emi’s and Emi’s alone. It was only after the fact, after creation of the school was already underway, that Kagome realized she remembered that private school’s existence from her own childhood memories. She too had thought it was merely a school for snobbish rich kids, and most of the students at the school she had attended made fun of it - out of jealousy, she was sure.

Man, how time really did fly. Another year, and her past-self would be signing up for junior high. Although these last few years seemed to be crawling by at a snail-youkai’s pace, Kagome sometimes couldn’t help but wonder, where did all the centuries go? It seemed like only yesterday that they installed electric lamps in Osaka Castle, and now here she was, living with her mate in an artsy-fartsy apartment complex. They each had their own luxury car…which was something else she still had trouble wrapping her mind around. Inuyasha driving? But not only did he know how to drive, he knew how to use his cell phone, and their computer. Typing proved a little difficult at times, thanks to his claws, so he usually reverted himself into his human form when he needed to compose an e-mail. It wasn’t so bad, considering he could create his human appearance, without the need to deaden his youkai senses, but he knew his mate preferred his demonic visage, and to be perfectly honest, so did he.

Oh, there was a time in his life, a very long time, in fact, that he outright loathed his hanyou ears, but those days were dead and buried, along with anyone who had ever attempted to do him in simply for possessing mixed blood. That day and age, he needn’t worry about being hanyou in the youkai community. Everyone knew who he was, and had no qualms with showing him the respect a Taisho deserved, human blood or no human blood. Besides, he had earned himself a special acceptance, even among those who generally detested the idea of mixing the races, in that he was a hanyou of Taiyoukai proportions. No hanyou should have been able to achieve what he had, and the fact that he had done so so effortlessly, gave testament to the true greatness that was his father. It didn’t matter that he’d actually acquired his control early, thanks to Midoriko and the sacred jewel. Nobody but a very select few were privy to that particular detail, and the fact of the matter was that he would have eventually developed the skill all on his own, just as she had claimed he would.

``````

Coming out of the shower, Inuyasha resisted his natural urge to shake himself dry. He knew Kagome hated it when he got water spots all over the mirror, so reluctantly, he used the towel to dry himself off, before wrapping it around his waist and leaving the bathroom. Spotting his mate staring out the window into the city below, still wearing her spaghetti-strap nightgown and appearing somewhat melancholy, he stealthfully approached her from behind.

Well, tried to.

He was just about to pounce when her gentle voice startled him out of his trance.

“When will you realize that you cannot sneak up on me?” she asked, without bothering to turn around.

Somewhat deflated, he still wrapped his arms around her waist, as he too gazed out the window into the nothingness that had captured her attention.

“A watched pot never boils.” he informed her quietly, meaning that the remaining years would not go by any faster if she insisted upon counting the seconds.

“Now, we both know that is not true.” she chuckled, “How many times did you stare transfixed while I prepared your ramen?”

He chuckled in turn.

“Hey, it was a wonder-food for me back then.” he answered honestly.

“Mmmm…still is.” was his mate’s response, as she leaned back into his embrace, cherishing the feel of his bare, muscular chest.

Wait, was he naked?

“Well, can you blame me?” he asked, pulling her from her thoughts. “I had to wait nearly four hundred years to taste ramen again, and even then, it wasn’t as good as the stuff you always brought back with you.”

“Actually,” Kagome attempted to correct. “Home-made ramen is far more nutritious than the instant stuff that now comes prepackaged in Styrofoam.”

“Feh.”

She only laughed. Leave it to her hanyou to have a predilection for junk food. Fortunately, thanks to his demonic metabolism, that wasn’t really a problem. Speaking of, the musky scent of his freshly showered self was slowly infiltrating her senses. She was fully convinced it was a youkai thing; a natural cologne used to entice one’s mate.

“I almost forgot.” he purred in her ear, the sudden drop in octave assuring her that he was well aware of the effect he had on her.

“Hmmm?” She tried to lean back into him even further, but his presence was suddenly gone from behind her, causing her to stumble momentarily.

Turning around, she saw her towel-clad hanyou for the first time, and realized that she hadn’t been far off with her earlier assumption. Heading over to the drawer where they kept important papers, he ruffled through it for a moment, before pulling out an A4 document bearing a seal and several signatures.

“What’s that?” she asked with honest curiosity as she approached him, his lack of dress momentarily forgotten.

“I got you a present.” was his simple reply, as he handed her the deed to an old, boarded up hotel in Tokyo.

He knew his mate had been feeling sad these last few years, and he knew that in part, it was due to witnessing her father’s death for the second time. He wished he could make the pain go away, but knew that that particular wound was one her youkai blood wouldn’t help to heal. If anything, it made it worse. Although she had witnessed countless humans experience the temporarily life of a mortal over the centuries, he knew it had to hit more at home when it was a member of your own immediate family. She was probably fast-forwarding her mind to the day she would be forced to witness her grandfather pass on, and then her mother, and then Souta…

Shaking his own head free from such negative thoughts, Inuyasha concentrated on the here and now. She needed him to, so that she could think of the present, as well.

And speaking of presents…

“You bought me a building?” she asked, confused, as she read over the piece of paper she held in her hands for the third time.

“Not just any building.” he insisted, instructing her to read the address more carefully.

He knew another thing that had been nagging at her lately was wondering when that old, closed down hotel was going to get back on its feet. The building held such fond memories for them both, after all. But he had looked into it, and discovered that no prospective buyers were showing any interest in the run down place, at all. Time was of the essence, so he’d made a snap decision. He may not be able to do anything about her youkai aging, but he could at least help where he could in other areas. Sometimes, you had to create your own destiny.

“You bought the Densetsu Hotel??!!!” she shrieked, when it dawned on her exactly which building she now held the deed to. Except, it wasn’t known as the Densetsu, yet…

“Well, I figured-” he started, but was immediately cut off with “How could you do such a thing?”

Her voice became quieter then, having lost much of its flare. “We’re not supposed to interfere with history. That building needed to be available for the original owners to buy it.”

He only snorted. “Feh, you didn’t see its track record; nobody wanted the damn thing. Besides, with everything else that’s happened over the years, how do you know that we aren’t the ‘original’ owners?”

She opened her mouth to protest further, but then promptly shut her jaw. “Oh, good point.”

``````

Opening night went off without a hitch, and Kagome had to agree with her husband that buying the hotel was one of the best decisions he’d ever made. It had taken nearly two years to fully revamp the place, which successfully took her mind off all her other worries in the mean time. Her memory of The Densetsu Hotel was still just as fresh as the night they’d visited the esteemed establishment all those centuries ago, so Kagome had no trouble with making the hotel she now owned an exact duplicate of itself. She found the whole situation exceedingly amusing. Who would have ever guessed, as she and Inuyasha were shipped off via limousine to one of the swankiest hotels in all of Japan, that said business was in fact owned and operated by their very own future-selves? She wondered if her mother had somehow been aware of that fact. Had they contacted her in advance, before their past-selves left for the final time? No, she was fairly certain her mother would have said something to her, if that was the case. Especially if they would have informed her of anything important that in fact altered a decision of hers in any way. No, she would not be contacting her family until after their past selves left for the final time.

In the mean time, however, she had something to keep herself occupied with in her daily life. Running a hotel was certainly more entertaining than keeping tabs on their profit from Suzuki and Toyota, after all. She often went over to the hotel herself, just to admire her handiwork, and to make sure that everything was running smoothly. While she would never, ever, think to gain a profit from the exploitation of others, and made sure that standard-issue concealment charms were provided for everyone for free, and that youkai clinics and private schools remained low-cost, owning a snazzy hotel was different. You didn’t have to stay there, after all. If somebody was in town, and desperately needed a place to stay overnight, there were plenty of less expensive hotels and motels to choose from. The Densetsu Hotel was a five-star, five-diamond establishment on purpose. After all, it didn’t hurt to pamper yourself every once in a while.

The place had a full-service business center, as a large amount of their cliental were businessmen who were willing to pay to avoid having to stay at hotels with screaming children. It also had a free (for hotel guests) 24hour gym, so that those with rigorous workout schedules wouldn’t have to worry about interrupting their routines. There was a large convention hall that could be rented for weddings, or just about anything else, and they also had their own professional photographer with on-site dark room, who charged his clients per role of film, not per hour. Take your time; get it done right, was his motto.

There were four restaurants, and even the “buffet” was the talk of the town, with steak and crab legs on the nightly menu. It was more or less the “American” themed dining experience, as the other three restaurants were traditional Japanese, French, and Italian. The Olympic sized saltwater swimming pool was heated, and there were several cabanas set up for rent by the hour all around the pool and two Jacuzzis. There were a total of four full-service bars, one in each of the three main restaurants, and one outside by the pool.

Of course, one couldn’t forget the spa and beauty center. In the front you had a traditional, high-end salon for hair, nails, and makeup. In the back, a full on, skin to the wind spa with separate sections for men and women, as well as a third department for married couples who wanted to get massages side by side. Kagome mused that she would have to talk her hanyou into personally trying out that facility with her one of these days.

It was an “all suite” hotel, meaning that even the “tower suite” (hotel code for “normal room”) was seven hundred fifty square feet of luxury. While most hotels in Tokyo were ultra modern, Kagome’d always had a passion for old world elegance, and furnished her establishment accordingly. After all, that was why her mother had selected that particular hotel for she and Inuyasha to stay at during their honeymoon in the first place. Thinking back on it, she supposed it stood to reason that she would know her own tastes so well. But…was she designing the hotel that way now because it had already been that way before, or was she designing the hotel that way so that it would be that way when she saw it again, for the first time?

Ugh…

Now she had a headache.

Where were those masseuses she’d just hired?

“Gotcha!”

“Ah!”

I nuyasha only laughed as his mate gave him an evil glare, swearing with her eyes that she would have sat him were they not currently in public.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized halfheartedly, “But like you said yourself, I can’t ever really sneak up on you any more. So when I see you so thoroughly distracted, do you honestly expect me to let such an opportunity pass me by?”

What flawlessly pigheaded logic.

“And just why do you insist upon scaring me half to death in the first place?”

He only smirked at her, and the glare she sent him that time assured him that he’d better keep his hearing turned up to full-youkai status for a while, lest he receive eminent retribution.

“Was there something you wanted?” she asked him after a moment, deciding to just let the incident go as nobody else seemed to have noticed.

How embarrassing! Having your husband simply poke you in the arm, only to jump ten feet in the air as though you were under a youkai attack. Like that would really happen. A youkai attack in the lobby of her own hotel?

“Actually, yes…” he replied, pulling out a small envelope from his jacket’s inside pocket.

They had permanently hung up their traditional garb for the last time quite some time ago. The garments now hung in shadow boxes on their apartment wall.

“I got you a present.” he said, mirroring his own words of two years prior.

Kagome paled slightly…this could either be really good, or really bad. Please not another building… Please not another building… While she loved her hotel, she did have her hands quite full. Her trepidation made way for curiosity, however, when she noted that the envelope Inuyasha’d just handed her was in fact one of the envelopes they used at registration. Opening it, she discovered one of their own digital room keys.

It didn’t take her very long to put two and two together, even before she saw the paper that stated which suite the key had been programmed to open.

“The penthouse?” she asked him, amusement lining her voice now.

Shrugging, he answered with “Figured we should christen the place before those stupid kids show up.”

“‘Those stupid kids’, huh?”

Blushing, he mumbled “Keh, we were both still pretty wet behind the ears back then.”

Smiling a soft, warm smile, Chiyo Taisho linked arms with her husband, the two receiving frantic bows from every employee who recognized them as they passed, making their way toward the room elevators. Kagome was actually grateful for the fact that they had aged somewhat over the years, because that, along with Jiro’s human form, ensured that when their younger selves did visit this place four years from now, they would not be recognized. She also supposed, in regard to their lives in the business world, that it would have been quite hard for her and Inuyasha to get the respect their positions deserved, if they both still looked to be green peas fresh out of high school.

The elevator pinged, and the pair stepped out into the hauntingly familiar hallway. Inuyasha smirked as he caught sight of the oil painting of nude women frolicking that hung on the opposite wall, which prompted Kagome’s chuckled explanation of “I remembered how much you liked that painting.”

This time, it was Inuyasha who opened the door with the electronic key, holding it open with his arm stretched out, hand planted firmly against the door to allow his wife entry first.

“After you, Mademoiselle.” he said in English, waggling his eyebrows at her as she passed, trying hard not to giggle.

“Changing languages are we?” she responded in English as well, as she slipped off her shoes and nostalgically took in the scenery around her. Pressing the buttons to close the automatic drapes gave her a pleasant sense of déjà vu.

Being multi-lingual had only continued to become more and more of an essential asset as their roles in the modern day business world continued to expand, but they each still felt most comfortable speaking their native tongue, so it was once again in Japanese that Inuyasha asked her “Would you like to order something from the kitchen?”

Slipping off his own shoes, feeling grateful that it was currently considered fashionable to go without socks, he missed it when his mate shook her head in the negative to his question. What he couldn’t miss, however, was when Kagome approached him seductively, wrapping her arms around his neck as she replied “I have everything I need, right here.”

They embraced, each unabashedly inhaling the scent of the other. Divorce was a concept completely alien to them. How could two people who loved each other ever suddenly stop being each other’s world? Were they truly not so deeply in love when they got married in the first place? Were the feelings one-sided, with one person’s heart in the right place, but the other person being dishonest or disloyal? Why did so many humans not honor the same level of commitment comprehended in youkai society? Such was not the case for Inuyasha and his wife, regardless of the fact that she was human, and he half. With their physical blood-bond in place, divorce was literally impossible, not that either of them were complaining. Even if they could separate, they would still have no desire to do so. Nearly five hundred years, and their love for each other had only continued to grow and mature, as they themselves had.

Lowering her arms to wrap them snugly around his waist, Kagome paused when she suddenly noticed something hard in his front pants pocket. She was tempted to make an ‘are you just happy to see me’ joke, but instead just tapped his pocket while asking “What’s this?”

“Oh, I nearly forgot.” he exclaimed in his usual fashion, knowing that she knew by that point that he was full of it. His hanyou mind was as sharp as Tetsusaiga (which also hung on display in their apartment). She was still a little iffy about whether or not Totosai was truly faking it, but she knew there was nothing wrong with her husband’s memory.

Before Kagome could comment on such opinions, however, he proceeded to reach into his pocket, swiftly pulling out a rectangular, black velvet box.

Her heart melted.

“Happy Valentine’s Day.” he told her with a bright, toothy smile.

She actually had to think about that for a minute, before suddenly realizing that he was right. She had been so caught up with trying to make sure that their hotel was ready to open on time, that little things like the upcoming holiday had completely skipped her mind.

Her expression clearly giving away her thoughts on the subject, he only chuckled, as he opened the small box in his hand, presenting its contents for her inspection.

She gasped in delight, clapping her hands with excitement, and his smile broadened to see that his guess had been right.

While Kagome hadn’t known what to expect, specifically, her thoughts had automatically gone the way of gold and/or diamonds. Not that she didn’t already have a ton of jewelry she never wore, and she was ecstatic to see what he’d actually gotten for her, instead of the randomly generated necklace she had been expecting the box to contain. Honestly, the last thing she needed would be another useless necklace; she much preferred the antique jade pendant he had gotten for her long ago. Unconsciously, she fingered the pendant that she still wore around her neck even in that moment.

He saw her fingering the necklace he’d gotten her for her birthday over three centuries ago, and an odd sense of warmth spread through his heart at the reminder that she rarely took it off. It’d had to be restrung a few times over the years, but she nearly always wore it, unless she was attending a public function that was more properly suited for one of her diamond necklaces, instead.

He knew she would much prefer the gift he had gotten for her, instead of yet another piece of modern jewelry she would almost never wear, but as she gazed smilingly at what the velvet box contained, he still jokingly explained “I would have gotten you one of those diamond ‘journey’ pendants,” He paused, chuckling when her nose scrunched up at the mention of such things. “But they don’t make them long enough.” he finished.

She chuckled as well, slapping his chest playfully.

“This is way better than any silly ol’ necklace, anyway.” she exclaimed happily, as she picked up her present, holding two tickets to Disneyland Tokyo.

They had built the place over a decade ago, but with everything else going on in their lives, they hadn’t as of yet had an opportunity to go explore the “magic” kingdom. While Kagome remembered the place from her youth, it was an experience that would be completely knew for her husband, and she wanted so badly to share it with him.

But she hadn’t said anything on the subject in years.

She was so touched. He’d remembered. He’d remembered and he’d planned it accordingly. Now that she was done fussing over the hotel, it was the perfect opportunity to give herself a day off, before jumping feet first into whatever life threw at her next.

“Thank you so much.” she said with a warm smile, wrapping her arms around him once more. His playful snickering pulled her from her thoughts.

“What’s so funny?” she asked with a laugh in her own voice.

“Nothing…” he assured her, shaking his head. “It’s just…all those years ago you had me wear a hat to cover my ears, while this place makes hats that have the ears built right in.”

She tried to envision her loving hanyou wearing a hat with Mickey Mouse ears, and promptly lost it, breaking down into a playful fit of laughter.

“Oi” he scolded jokingly, “It’s not that funny.”

Sobering, Kagome gazed up at the seemingly human man before her, and uttered low “Speaking of ears…”

They were, after all, alone now.

“You’re wish is my command.” he purred, as he closed his eyes and concentrated, relishing in the feel of his youkai blood rushing through his veins, as he woke it from its gentle slumber.

Instantly, his ‘toothy’ grin acquired fangs, as razor sharp talons sprouted from his fingertips, and his thick head of raven hair faded to white as his ears morphed and shifted, becoming fuzzy and triangular. Opening his eyes once more, it was a piercing gaze of golden amber that greeted her, with a look she knew all too well.

“So…” he hinted huskily.

“So…” she repeated in a teasingly questioning tone of voice, as if she couldn’t virtually read her husbands thoughts after so many years of marriage.

“Jacuzzi?” he asked her simply, and she smiled, answering with an affirmative “Jacuzzi.”

It didn’t take long to fill the tub, as their hotel had an excellent hot water system, with a separate boiler for each of the penthouse suites to ensure that they never ran out. Kagome didn’t have any scented candles with her that time, but that was all right with him, as he much preferred to take in her natural scent. A scent that’d steadily become increasingly spicy and tangy as the day had progressed, he noted. She really had become distracted with her hotel, he decided then, to not have noticed it herself. That thought only caused a slow smile to form on his lips, as he began stripping himself out of his business suit, loving the strong scent of arousal that quickly added to the mix. She’d done so many strip teases for him over the years that it was now undeniably her turn to watch as Inuyasha slowly pealed away layer after layer of clothing. His flawlessly sculpted chest, showing no signs of the many years of battle wounds he’d once received on a near daily basis, flexed and glistened as the gathering steam in the closed bathroom gave his body a faux sheen of perspiration. Sliding down his boxers, an article of clothing he would have laughed at the prospect of wearing at one point in time, he quickly stood before her in all his naked glory.

Dramatically fanning herself with her hand, Kagome was going to make an ‘is it hot in here’ joke, but never got the chance as her words were suddenly ceased by the passionate pressure of hungry lips devouring her own.

By the gods, but he would never grow tired of her. He was as attracted to her now as he had been even back before they were mates; when he would relieve himself with his own hand, her image engraved on the inside of his eyelids, as he feared his fantasy would always remain just that. Then, by some miracle he still wasn’t sure he deserved, his fantasy came true. Kagome was his. His mate. His wife. The mother of his pups. He held her to him, firmly in place, and even through her dress skirt, Kagome could feel his eager stiffness pressing snugly against her pelvis.

“Down boy.” she teased breathlessly, when he finally permitted her to come up for air. “I can’t get undressed with you wrapped around me like this.”

“I can fix that.” he hinted, flexing his claws.

She slapped his chest playfully, yet seriously.

“You are not shredding another one of my suits!” she laugh/scolded, as she swiftly removed her blazer, blouse and skirt, suddenly standing before him in bra and panties. “These, on the other hand…“ she replied with a wink, “…you can shred.”

Growling hungrily, he was all too eager to comply, as with a swift turn of his wrist, the remains of her tattered undergarments fell uselessly to the floor. Picking her up as though she weighed nothing at all, he settled both she and himself into the hot water, placing her in a straddling position over his lap, with his arousal pressed firmly between their bodies.

Kagome wasted no time as she immediately started to grind herself against him, and he groaned in pleasure as his hips rose unconsciously to meet her thrusts. Reaching for the control panel that rested near his left shoulder, Kagome quickly turned the dial, starting the jets. Inuyasha didn’t even flick an ear as the mirrored room suddenly echoed loudly with the sounds of roaring water, as multiple streams of bubbles partially obstructed his view of her lower half that rested underneath the churning water. Her breasts remained in plain view above the surface, however, and he quickly took advantage of their proximity, as he drew first one, and then the other, into his eager mouth. He was in sensory overload heaven, with the rather pleasant feel of the massage jets hitting his lower back, while her pelvis continued to grind against his arousal, as he suckled her breasts like a newborn. Her nipples were quick to respond to his ministrations, puckering under his light teasing as he first laved his tongue across the delicate surface, before gently blowing a stream of cool air across the hardening flesh.

Two could play at that game, however. Despite how tough his hanyou hide may be when it came to withstanding injury, she had discovered long ago that his nipples were nearly as sensitive as her own. Or at least they were when it came to being bathed by a warm tongue.

With a hand on each cheek, she slowly raised his face, meeting him eye to eye before suddenly rising to her knees and lowering her mouth to his own. She kissed him passionately, distracting him from his previous attention to her own chest, as she lightly nipped his jaw and chin. Arching forward ever so slightly, she lowered her mouth to his throat, as she nipped, licked, and sucked on his heated flesh. He growled approvingly when she bit down, hard, her human teeth unable to break his youkai skin. Gripping her waist with his large hands, he made no move to push her away, or pull her closer, as he merely relished in the feel of her slick, nude body underneath his fingertips. Shifting herself backward along his legs, Kagome relieved some of the pressure he had been feeling from his stiffness being pressed firmly between their bodies, while at the same time, the move granted her access to his own chest, and rapidly hardening nipples. Taking one of the fleshy pebbles between her teeth, she couldn’t help the grin that formed on her lips at the sound of his startled gasp.

Inuyasha remained passive, allowing his bitch to dominate him in their coupling. Five centuries of marriage had taught him when to curb his domineering personality, and submit willingly to the desires of the woman he loved. He groaned in sweet torture as she pleasured his nipples, the sensation sending shots of electricity through his body, which all headed straight for his groin. Kagome felt his stiffness tap against her belly, as if in friendly reminder of things yet to come, and she couldn’t help the playful chuckle that escaped her lips at the feeling.

“What’s…so funny…wench?” he managed to ask through his heavy panting.

“Nothing at all.” she replied seductively, as she simultaneously gripped his erection while once again reclaiming his mouth in a heated kiss.

Swallowing his moans of pleasure, she continued to work him with her hand as she dominated his mouth, propping herself up slightly on her knees to have a better angle at which to tower over where he sat in the water below her. His legs were sprawled forward, his feet nearly touching the far end of the tub as he sat with his back against the other end. Kagome was more out of the water than in it, as she rested on her knees, her right hand working steadily below the water’s surface while her left wrapped itself firmly behind his neck, holding him in place as she tasted every inch of him. Rolling her tongue along his fangs, she did not fear their sharpness, but rather, took unfair advantage, as she deliberately nicked the tip of her tongue, giving her demonic lover a small taste of blood.

He growled forcefully below her, but otherwise made no move to switch their roles in her little game. Because he had full control of his youkai blood, he would not transform against his wishes. She had nothing to worry about in regard to pushing him too far, as though among her teasing there was a point of no return.

The sensations pouring over him were too much, however, for him to remain completely still any longer. How desperately he wanted to touch her in return, so it wasn’t long before his hands, which up to that point had remained idle at her waist, began running up and down along the length of her sides and back, cherishing the feel of her delicate, naked flesh.

Shifting her lower half forward, Kagome began teasing them both by running the blunt tip of his erection against her jewel, causing it to harden as well, as she brought both of them closer to that blissful precipice. Not that she had any intention of letting either one of them topple over the edge any time soon. Shifting the angle at which she held him, she swiftly lowered herself down over his shaft, willingly impaling herself, as she fully engulfed him within her searing heat.

He gasped at the sensation, despite the fact that he had been anticipating her next move. There was just no way that he would ever become accustomed to the feeling of being so close to her, so one with her, as though the two of them were the only beings alive in the universe. There was no way he could ever not marvel at the miracle that their joining truly was.

Kagome moaned in pleasure as she slowly rose and lowered herself over him, careful to avoid sloshing water out of the tub, as she massaged them both with her sensual movements. For Inuyasha, the added feel of the water jets against his back quickly became background noise, perhaps enhancing the experience, though they remained the farthest thing from his mind. The water washed away most of her natural moisture, which meant there was much more friction than usual, but the sensation was not unpleasant for either of them. Leaning backward, Kagome took advantage of the simple physics of weighing less in water, as she shifted her position, propping herself up on her hands and feet. With knees bent, she planted her feet on the bottom of the tub at the far end, on either side of Inuyasha’s buttock. Her hands were pressed against the bottom of the tub behind her, beside his feet, as she shifted most of her weight back against her outstretched arms. Slowly rocking herself forward and back, suspending herself in the water over Inuyasha’s legs, she smirked at the hungry look in his eyes as he swiftly turned off the jets, relishing in the unobstructed view of his stiffness repeatedly disappearing within her warm cavern. Gods, how hot she must be, when even in the heat of the Jacuzzi water he could still feel how much warmer she was.

Although going that slowly was torturous even for Kagome, it was much more so for her inu-hanyou mate. She wanted to tease him for a time, to bring him to the brink of insanity, without pushing him completely over the edge.

“Damn it, Kagome.” he growled out after a few agonizingly long minutes had passed. “You know I’m not into this Tantric shit…” he trailed off, pleading with his eyes. Kagome only smiled.

Damn her…A few more minutes of that hell, and he would literally be begging her to let him cum. It was there, he could feel it, just out of reach, but at her current pace, he knew he could never get there. It was like walking on the ground when what he wanted to be doing was leaping through the trees.

But Kagome didn’t appear to be listening to his silent pleas, and he’d be damned if she drove him to the point of verbally begging for completion. Again.

Then suddenly, he had the most wonderful idea.

Reaching forward, he swiftly found where Kagome’s jewel lay hidden within her nest of raven curls. She gasped as his fingertip brushed against her, but otherwise did not stop in her steady movements over his shaft. He grinned, flashing a fang when she shot him a glare that could only be described as a combination between disgruntlement and anxiety.

Haha…gotcha… he thought with a smug look of satisfaction. After a brief moment, Kagome’s attempt at silent disapproval melted away, as she threw her head back in sheer bliss. His ministrations to her delicate collection of nerves were anything but slow and torturous, and after being mated to her for so long, he knew exactly how she worked down there.

He could tell she was already close when she suddenly had difficulty keeping up her steady rhythm of rocking back and forth.

“Inu…oh gods…Inuya…”

“Yeah…that’s it. Come on baby.”

“InuyashaaaaAAaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!” Crying out at the top of her lungs, Kagome’s inner walls clamped down tightly over his shaft as her climax rushed through her, made all the more intense by her own previous teasing. Throwing her head back, her eyes closed in bliss, her only remotely coherent thought was to hope that Inuyasha had ensured that the rooms in and around their vicinity were currently unoccupied, even as her body continued to convulse in pleasure.

Taking that as his cue, Inuyasha quickly gripped both of her hips firmly, yet gently, in part to hold her up as her arms were suddenly rather shaky, as he demonstrated just what it meant to be youkai. Even if you would think that someone would have limited mobility in such a position, he had no trouble at all with somehow thrashing his hips up and into her, moving at a speed that should not be possible while submerged in water, as he showed reckless abandon for how much of said water vacated the tub as a result.

It was only a matter of seconds before his own climax took him, as he roared like the demon he was, holding her body as firmly against his own as was physically possible, as he spilled his seed deeply within her ready, waiting womb.

Kagome was surprised when she opened her eyes in lazy afterglow to be met with the fierce, piercing gaze of her mate’s full-youkai form. While she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he possessed full control over his youkai blood, and was incapable of transforming against his will, she quickly realized that that meant his current transformation was done deliberately. But that didn’t really make sense, because the only times he ever transformed himself into his full youkai form just prior to climaxing was because…

“Inuyasha?”

Recognizing the question in her tone, he knew she’d figured it out, or at least suspected.

“We better go to Disneyland soon.” he replied, confirming her suspicions when he said “Even full blooded youkai women probably shouldn’t go on some of those rides, once they’re further along.”

It only took her a moment to realize what he’d said, as she raised a shaky hand to her belly in awe. It’d been so long, but…as she thought about it, she was only around the human equivalent of being in her early forties. She was still within her childbearing years.

Seeing her surprised expression, though, his ears drooped somewhat, as he asked hesitantly “You’re not mad, are you?”

Her eyes immediately snapped up to meet his own, and then a huge smile formed on her lips. “Mad?” she asked behind a chuckle. “How could I be mad over you and I creating yet another little miracle?”

Leaning forward, she captured his lips in one last, loving kiss. “Now Mama will have a grandchild that’s actually still a child… Thank you, I think it’s a wonderful idea.” she assured.

Getting up and out of the tub, she scowled at the amount of water that had been splashed onto the floor. “You’re cleaning this up.” she said with feigned annoyance, as her giant smile remained firmly in place.

He only chuckled, muttering a semi-sarcastic “Yes ma’am.” as she grabbed her robe and vacated the steamy room.

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(Two weeks later, Osaka)

Hinata smiled as she hung up the phone. So, her Kagome-obaasama was going to have another baby. This was cause for celebration indeed, and she considered it a tremendous honor that Inuyasha trusted her skills enough to allow her to be the one to tend to Kagome during her pregnancy this time around.

It had been so long since she’d had their youngest, Manami; over three centuries in fact. During that time, it had been the birthing staff at the castle who had tended to Kagome, although before she and Rin came along, said birthing staff had been unfamiliar with the ways of human women, and had originally had to be taught quite a few things by the miko in preparation. But Kagome was tough, and Rin just as tough, as it turned out, as neither woman ever had any complications during their pregnancies, or giving birth. Then Kagome and Inuyasha had decided, for a time, that they were through with having their own children, as they’d had so many grandchildren to take care of and spoil, their hands hand been quite full.

Over the years, it had seemed that their desire for babies in their lives was more than fulfilled, so to learn now that Kagome was pregnant again was quite a surprise, albeit a pleasant one. But Hinata could understand their desire for extra precautions, as Kagome was older now, and even though she was still just as tough, still possessing youkai blood, there was a greater possibility that complications could arise. She should be tended to by somebody with a higher level of experience in hanyou births by human mothers. Not that Kagome was actually worried one bit, as she’d squealed happily to her kitsune-hanyou granddaughter about how she couldn’t wait to be a new mother again.

Hinata was lost in thoughts of happy mikos with puppy-eared babies when a light knock on the door drew her attention to the front office. AKA her living room. Her home was fairly modest, but large for a single woman living alone. Her living room had been transformed into a front office, while the master bedroom was converted into the birthing chamber. More room for her equipment, that way. The house was a three bedroom, two bath, so while she slept in one of the guest rooms, the only bedroom of the three that actually functioned as such, she used the second guest room for storage and filing.

“Come in.” she said with a smile in her voice, as she caught the scent of the man waiting outside. “Yori-kun, so nice to see you again. How’s your sister doing these days?”

Yori blushed faintly at the endearment, though it was understandable as the vixen-hanyou had known him ever since he was thirteen years old. Still, it always caught him off guard whenever she uttered it these days. After all, he wasn’t a teenager any longer.

No, the middle-aged man standing before her was hardly the child Hinata remembered; he’d grown much more handsome. She tried not to blush herself at the random thought as Yori answered her question with “Nee-chan is doing just fine. Although I fail to see why she’d want a sixth child after enduring the first five.” he finished with a chuckle.

Hinata knew he loved all his nieces and nephews to death, but she had to admit he did have a point. Bear-hanyou were quite the handful when they were cubs, and because they fell victim to short spans of hibernation during the winter, their schooling schedules were hectic to juggle. Fortunately, Emi’s school had a “Spring Catch-Up” course for students unable to attend during the winter.

“Does she need to reschedule her next appointment?” Hinata asked, wondering at the cause for the house call. She did have a telephone now, after all.

“No, no, nothing like that.” Yori began nervously, and suddenly, Hinata’s nose was twitching a mile a minute, although she tried to hide it.

Why does he suddenly smell…afraid? No…nervous? About what?

“I was wondering…” he cleared his throat, “…that is…”

Come on, get a grip! he scholded himself. You’re acting like you’re back in high school or something.

Hinata couldn’t help it, his nervousness was making her nervous, so unconsciously, she licked her lips. Yori’s eyes caught her tongue’s movement, and he couldn’t stop the spike in his scent, even if he had been aware of it.

Hinata picked up on his scent spike, and her eyes widened in realization, just as he managed to ask her “Would you like to have dinner sometime?”

In total and utter shock, she replied stupidly “You’re…asking me out…?”

His eyes lowered to the floor as he felt his heart drop, and he quietly muttered “Never mind.” as he turned to leave.

Her cry of “Wait!” instantly stilled his hand as he reached for her doorknob.

“I’m sorry…” she murmured as she placed a gentle hand upon his shoulder, “I was just…surprised…but I’m not outright rejecting your desire to court me.” she assured him.

He smiled.

Yori had learned a lot about youkai customs and behaviors over the years. After all, his sister had been mated to a bear-youkai ever since he was twelve years old, and growing up, he’d taken it upon himself to learn all there was to know about the supposedly mythical creatures. He knew Hinata was half human, but still incredibly powerful, as her youkai half was kitsune, enabling her to appear as the human woman currently standing before him, even though he’d seen her hanyou form plenty of times in the past. He’d developed a silly crush on her during his teenage years, but believing that nothing could ever come from his feelings for her, he’d eventually courted, and married, a human woman he’d met during college.

His now ex-wife currently lived in Kyoto.

Looking back on it, he realized his marriage had been doomed from the start. While he had loved her dearly, she could just never wrap her mind around the fact that she had bear-youkai for in-laws. When he’d first told her who all was in his family, as she would have to accept that part of his life in order to marry him, she’d flat out accused him of being deranged, and had demanded to know what kind of fool he took her for. When she was eventually shown proof, his sister’s mate without his concealment charm, she’d shrieked and ran to her mother’s house for two days. He’d begged her to give their relationship another chance, and eventually, she’d agreed to marry him, considering that he was human, and only related to the “monsters” through marriage. He could feel the hostility there, but knew deep in his heart that it was hostility born from fear, which was why he’d stayed with her regardless.

He loved her.

The killing blow to the short-lived marriage was when his sister had asked if they could baby-sit for their tenth anniversary, and while he was happy to oblige, to grant his sister and her mate a night to themselves, his wife had downright refused to allow those “freaks” to stay the night in her house. “Those freaks are my sister’s children!” he’d practically shouted in her face. She had filed for divorce not long after, and he’d complied every step of the way.

Yori had realized long ago that they were simply never meant to be together, but he was afraid that the fact that he had been married in the past would now ruin his chances of being with Hinata. After all, he knew that most youkai mated for life, and kitsune were no exception. Would the fact that he was no longer a virgin make him an unsuitable choice? He hadn’t pursued her in the long years after his divorce for just that reason, but finally, his brother-in-law had talked some sense into him. “You aren’t getting any hunger, human.” he’d said teasingly, with a light jab of a clawed hand to the ribs. Eventually, Yori conceded that he was right. The worst thing that could happen was she would say no. He needed to find out if anything between them was possible, while he was still young enough to be considered a healthy specimen.

Turning to face her, he finally asked “Do you mean that?” in regard to her statement that she was not rejecting his desire to court her. “I know how youkai customs work.” he stated. “I…I understand about ma-mating for life. I’m…quite serious.”

Well, nothing like getting it all out there in the open. He may as well have told her he loved her. But, when he thought about it, there was truly no point in beating around the bush. With youkai it was all or nothing, and he wanted to make sure that Hinata knew he understood that.

“I appreciate your honesty.” she replied, setting his mind at ease in that regard. “Divorce is not an option among my people.” she stated next, hinting at his preexisting ex-wife.

Though Hinata was fully aware of the details regarding his divorce, and knew that it was the woman who’d insisted upon the separation. She could tell that he’d truly loved her, and had agreed to set her free for that reason, and well…despite what youkai customs may dictate regarding mates and loyalty, Hinata could fully appreciate the concept of letting somebody go because you loved them.

“I am aware of this fact.” Yori stated in response to her comment. Then, deciding to bite the bullet, he asked her bluntly “If my previous relationship is of issue, please let me know now. I have no desire to pursue you as my courted, if ultimately I am to be rejected for my impurity. I would like to know now if there is a genuine possibility of a future between us.”

Hinata was somewhat taken aback by the straightforwardness of his question, but on the other hand, she could comprehend where he was coming from. It was within her rights to reject him because he had previously bedded another, but was she truly that shallow? Those days, youkai often bent the rules of mating when it came to their human partners, as she knew of many human/youkai couples in which the human had previously been with another. It was simply the way of humans to be more promiscuous, especially during their adolescence, and most youkai had simply come to accept that fact, depending on how badly they desired a certain human for their mate. While humans were prone to promiscuous activity while “single”, they were also fully capable of maintaining monogamous relationships, and to date there had never been a problem with a human/youkai mating, in which the human had later desired to leave the partnership. Another reason why interracial couples were still so rare…because it was a serious commitment that the human was required to fully comprehend. When faced with such finality, some humans simply chickened out.

But she could already tell that Yori would not be one of them. It seemed to her that he had already made up his mind, and was ready and willing to mate with her right then and there, should she comply. While Hinata was by no means ready to blindly enter into a mating so quickly, especially after her past experiences in love, she would admit that she was no longer as wounded as she had been in the past, and was able to accept Yori’s desire to court her. She would take the time to get to know him, and see if she could bring herself to the level of commitment that he obviously already possessed on her behalf.

“Your past relationship shall not hinder my decision.” she answered him finally, deciding to show him her honesty by also admitting “While my body remains pure, my heart has also experienced a past love. We too were not meant to be, and I mourned the loss for over two centuries.” She could smell his surprise, but that was understandable as she never spoke of her past to her clients. Smiling, she assured him “So unlike most youkai, I can indeed understand how the heart can call out to more than one person throughout a lifetime, and accept your feelings for me as genuine.” Finishing her mini-speech, she concluded with “Please understand that I will need to allow my heart the time it needs to decide if it can return your feelings…but you are a good friend, and at this moment in time, I do not dismiss the notion of you becoming more.”

He was shocked to learn that she too possessed a past love, but the realization only brought them closer together in his eyes. He quickly realized what she was saying, that she didn’t love him yet, but was willing to see if she could grow to love him, and he responded to her honesty by pulling her into a tender embrace. It only took a moment before Hinata’s arms lifted to wrap around Yori’s back in return.

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(Approximately one year later, Tokyo)



They say it’s always darkest before the dawn, but it’s always coldest before the dawn, too… Kazuki grumbled to himself, as he rubbed his hands together for warmth. Where’s all this youkai resilience to extreme temperatures I keep hearing about?

Of course, it might have had something to do with the fact that he’d given his jacket to Emi, who was currently using it as a blanket as she rested, snuggled up into a little ball, in the passenger’s seat of their car.

Trying to make the best of it, Kazuki thought to pretend he was a cop on a stakeout. Though law enforcement he was not, a stakeout was exactly what he was doing. A noise to his right caught his attention, and he smirked as he saw Buyo run away from the fallen trashcan.

Don’t worry kitty, your destiny will befall you soon enough.

Then suddenly, dawn’s first light breached the eastern sky, and with it came the strongest pull on his youki that Kazuki had ever experienced. His heart was pounding in his chest. His blood was rushing through his ears. His claws and fangs throbbed, begging to lengthen, begging to be released along with the rest of his dormant beast. Gasping in horrified surprise, he desperately gripped the hilt of the sword that he’d thankfully thought to bring with him.

“Wake up!” he barked harsher than intended, but he needed a miko’s powers, and he needed them now!

Emi bolted awake on instant alert, her reflexes still just as sharp as they had been back in the feudal era.

“Oh my gods!” she shrieked, feeling the same thing that Kazuki felt, although the sensation did not affect her negatively as it did her mate.

“Barrier. Now.” he managed to grind out, his heated blood back under control, for the time being.

Quickly closing her eyes, Emi put her hands together in prayer, and before too long, a large, invisible dome barrier was placed over the shrine grounds, thankfully leaving them and their car outside of its edge where they were parked on the street, thus blocking the effect of the jewel to them, along with the rest of Japan.

Panting from the exertion it took to maintain such a field, she still managed to rasp out “I had no idea the Shikon’s pull would be so powerful.”

“I don’t think Okaasan realized it either, but if you ask me, the jewel’s got fifteen years of dormancy to make up for. Perhaps Midoriko simply isn’t a morning person?”

Emi smiled at her mate’s light attempt at humor, but quickly resumed her meditative concentration on the barrier. Fortunately, they knew from Kagome’s tale that nobody would be leaving the shrine grounds that morning until after her mishap in the well house, so as soon as the fateful incident took place, they could safely lower the barrier and head out, not having to worry about anyone encountering the barrier before then.

Also, the type of barrier that Emi created was one that only masked spiritual magicks, and did not hinder Kazuki’s ability to hear what was being said within the living quarters of the shrine, so it was easy for him to track the progress of the morning for its occupants over the next couple of hours. It also did not block his ability to hear Mistress Centipede demand the jewel, or a terrified Souta run screaming that a well monster had captured his sister.

Sighing in relieved exhaustion as she lowered the barrier, Emi smiled at her mate when he stated simply “So it begins.”

“So…” she started hesitantly, nodding her head in sage-like understanding, “…what do we do now?” she asked.

“Breakfast WacMuffins?” he suggested, and she laughed at the sound of his stomach growling.

(A/N: Hey, if the place is called “Wacdonald’s” then what would their breakfast sandwiches be called, hmmm?)

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Fortunately, while the initial reawakening of the complete and intact jewel was very strong, the occasional presence of a few shards here and there went easily ignored. Not unnoticed, but honestly, ignored was good enough. While lowly beast youkai may indeed have been drawn to their power, those guys were long extinct, and the higher ‘people’ type youkai that still existed - as well as their intelligent animal-youkai ‘pets’, like Kirara - wanted only to live in peace, having no desire to investigate what they felt. The presence of the jewel shards that Kagome’s past-self possessed was strong enough to alert the youkai community to something of power in the neighborhood, but everyone just shrugged it off as a member of the Spiritual Sect doing something with an antique holy artifact of some kind or another. After all, the feel of the purified jewel shards against their auras was one of extreme spiritual purity, and for such a sensation to come from a shrine hardly seemed out of the ordinary. As far as anyone who was even old enough to remember was concerned, the Shikon jewel had disappeared centuries ago, so there was no reason for the thought of this incident even possibly having something to do with the jewel to enter anyone’s mind. Yes, somebody definitely had an item (or items) of spiritual power, but so what? If somebody of spiritual powers was doing something with objects of spiritual powers, then the last thing most youkai wanted to do was snoop around. Curiosity purified the neko-youkai, as the saying goes, so everyone thankfully knew to leave well enough alone.

Still, that wasn’t to say that fifteen-year-old-Kagome didn’t have a horde of undercover body guards…just in case, but “Chiyo” recalled that chapter of her life quite effortlessly, and had stated that she never felt anything out of the ordinary as far as youki or jyaki in her time. Well, except for the noh mask, and that time at the school cultural festival, but past-Inuyasha was there to save the day during those incidents. Other than that, just because she didn’t know about it, didn’t mean it wasn’t there, so with her permission, “Jiro” had set up a security detail, under direct orders to never contact past-Kagome, no matter what. Their job was to take care of any rouge youkai that may sniff her out and be interested in her shards, eliminating the problem before it started, without Kagome’s awareness. It was a top secret mission, as the Youkai Alliance as a collective entity remained unaware of the Shikon’s reappearance, so only those already ‘in the know’ - in this case, Kazuki’s children and grandchildren - were in charge of the duty of guarding their future grandmother. Fortunately, the auras of quarter-youkai and eighth-youkai individuals were weak enough that past-Kagome (being as she was untrained) was unable to sense their presence.

The guards were a precaution that was thankfully proven unnecessary as the weeks blended into months, however. Everyone kept an eye on the shrine, but was happy to see that the world at large was leaving them alone to live their daily lives. Everyone was also relieved to see the timeline that they knew of taking care of itself so effortlessly. A couple of people were worried that there would turn out to be some sort of necessary paradox involved with maintaining Kagome’s destiny, like if Kazuki had actually been required to chase Buyo into the well house that morning - which he had not. Had that been the case, it would have been cause for greater concern. What did they need to do? And would they be aware of it in time, in order to do it again, to ensure that everything happened as it had happened before? Fortunately, for everyone’s sanity, it truly looked as though their future-selves had had nothing to do with the details regarding the lives their past-selves had experienced. Well, aside from silly little things, like their ownership of the Densetsu Hotel.

Kagome could live with that.

She still avoided the shrine grounds like the plague, though, terrified of somehow inadvertently damaging the timeline, despite countless instances that seemingly proved that the fates knew what they were doing, even when she didn’t. Still, it was better to be safe than sorry, was her reasoning, and Inuyasha respected her decision, despite the fact that he himself had started taking to the shrine grounds in recent weeks. He just couldn’t help it, he had to go there, but he did take the necessary precautions. Transformed 100% into his human form, with a healthy dab of cologne - which he could thankfully tolerate due to his weakened human senses - “Jiro” mingled himself amongst those there to pray to the shrine gods. His younger-self would never be able to distinguish his scent among the crowd. He knew that, because he recalled quite clearly that he had never done so, when he was his younger-self, and so if he now, as his older-self, was visiting the shrine as he was, then he was fully convinced that when he was younger, an older version of himself had been visiting the shrine then, too. Timeline mumbo-jumbo didn’t confuse Inuyasha quite as easily as it used to.

Unfortunately, he didn’t recall the exact dates when Kagome was home vs. when she was in the past, so there were a lot of times that he had gone to the shrine, only to find no hide nor hair of his beloved. Damn, he really had kept her away from her world a lot, hadn’t he? He would have to find out her school’s testing schedule, because he knew that she would be back if she had to take one of her tests. He wanted to see her again, her and his younger-self. After all, it wasn’t like they had any photographs of themselves from when they were younger, or at least they wouldn’t until reacquainting themselves with her mother. But who could pass up an opportunity to reminisce over the good ol’ days by witnessing their very own flesh and blood past-selves? Well, aside from his mate, at least. Inuyasha understood her concerns, he truly did, and he knew that he had to be careful, but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. One he wasn’t about to pass up, even if it meant being human. While he would admit that seeing Kagome as a child had been weird, seeing her, and himself, from their own past, wasn’t weird at all, just…awesome. Seeing it in real life couldn’t hold a candle to “home movies” from those video recorder things, that was for sure. He had sat through plenty of those over the years, too. Videos of Christmases and Birthdays that he hadn’t been able to attend in person, and he never complained for a single minute of it. What were jii-chans for?

Smiling stupidly for a moment, the elder hanyou-turned-human quickly snapped back into focus on the here and now, when a noise coming from the well house drew his attention. His heart plummeted at the sight of a tearful Kagome running through the courtyard, not caring who may see her or think it weird that she’d just emerged from a small shack, as she ran into her family’s main home.

What happened? he wondered with a worried pang in his heart.

Walking off as nonchalantly as he could, he swiftly made his way back around to the backside of the house, until he stood directly underneath Kagome’s window. Damn it, he hoped nobody saw him, because the last thing he needed was for somebody to think him some crazy stalker, but he was still as affected by her tears as he had always been, and he simply had to know what’d hurt her. Or more importantly…who. Triggering a small amount of his youkai blood, he increased his senses back to their normal level, without losing his human appearance. Immediately, his nose was assaulted by the stench of his own cologne, but while he instantly realized from smelling it with his inu nose that he did indeed recall catching the same scent when he was a pup (what he considered his past-self those days), he still knew that he’d never been able to make any final determinations regarding the scent, and had let the incidents go. Breathing through his mouth, he ignored the stench, and concentrated on his hearing instead.

“Why…why?!” Kagome cried, punching her pillow. “Stupid…I’m so stupid. I thought he…I…I thought he cared...” Wiping her eyes, she gazed helplessly out the window, unaware of the saddened eavesdropper standing just below her line of vision. “Why did Kikyou have to come back?” she asked no one.

He stepped away then, not needing to hear any more. Talk about careful what you wish for. Here he was, wanting to see Kagome’s past-self, and he had to go and see her during one of the times he’d been a bastard and broken her heart. Based on how long it’d been since her fifteenth birthday, and what he remembered of their time together in the past, he quickly realized which incident he had just inadvertently stumbled upon. This was when he had decided that he’d needed to protect Kikyou, and had thought that as a result, he and Kagome couldn’t see each other any more. She must have just run home after catching his past-self hugging Kikyou in the woods.

Indeed his assumption was correct, as he hung around in the shadows for the next few days, hearing Kagome tell her school friends how he’d “dumped her like a rock”, and the pep-talk Mrs. Higurashi gave her later regarding the significance of the sacred tree, and how she trusted her daughter to make the right decisions. While he knew that their tale had a happy ending, it killed him to see Kagome so sad, and he had to fight his desire to swoop her up in his arms and assure her that everything would work out all right. Finally, when Kagome’s past-self leapt back into the well, he released a shaky breath, as though he had honestly been uncertain over whether or not she would ever return. Silly, really, but as he saw her return to the past, he felt as if now everything would be okay again…at least until the next time he broke her heart. How many times had she run home crying because of him before he’d made her his mate? Hell, maybe she’d run home crying even after he’d made her his mate and he just never knew about it. It wouldn’t surprise him. Especially since he knew she knew that he couldn’t stand seeing her cry, so she would have made sure to keep it a secret as best she could. How much had she been keeping from him over the years?

Wait, what was he saying?

She never even went into the future without him after they performed the blood-bond, because it hurt their souls to be separated through time like that. Okay, he felt a little bit better now, that Kagome as his mate had never kept any secret pain hidden from him. But still, the sight of her younger self so upset had really gotten to him. He quickly decided that he couldn’t take seeing what an ass his past-self had been any more, and as he unlocked the door to their apartment in Osaka, he vowed to avoid the shrine grounds from then on, until it was time to go back, as his wife had attempted to insist upon in the first place.

Kagome was home when he returned, put-putting around the living room dusting and whatnot, as she insisted upon taking care of their home herself, even though all of their neighbors had maids. She had not been overly concerned regarding his recent absence, as she knew where he was and what he was doing, her only concern stemming from the hope that he was careful enough to avoid detection. She wasn’t about to get jealous over her own younger-self, believing he would rather live in the past than here with her. She understood his desire, and truthfully shared it, but feared screwing things up more, and had pretty much chickened out. After all, in an emergency, he could leap away faster than the human eye could see. She lacked that ability. Looking up briefly when she heard the front door unlock, Kagome greeted her husband with a casual “Welcome back…” before turning around to continue wiping off the coffee table. Her first clue that something was wrong was when he failed to acknowledge her in return. Glancing back in his direction once more, her second clue that something was wrong was when she caught sight of how slowly he was slipping off his shoes, and closing and locking the door behind him, as though he were in some sort of a trance. Her third and most terrifying clue was when he finally raised his eyes to meet her own, and she saw the moist shimmering of unshed tears pooling in his chocolate brown orbs.

“Inuyasha…?” she whispered quietly. “What’s wrong?”

Putting down her dusting rag, Kagome moved to approach him where he still stood in the entryway. As soon as she was two feet in front of him, he suddenly lunged forward, without warning, enveloping her in a bone-crushing embrace.

“I’m so sorry…I’m sorry for everything…” he mumbled between silent tears.

“What happened?”

With one word, she understood everything. “Kikyou.”

Smiling a tender, loving smile, she hugged him back, while whispering words of love and devotion. She had forgiven him for all of that stuff a long time ago…

“How many times did you run home crying because of something I did?” he asked her quietly, and her response of “It doesn’t matter, that’s all in the past.” told him it was likely more than he’d care to know.

“It’s not really in the past.” he told her in a mild attempt at a timeline joke, “It’s all happening right now.”

“Well it will be in the past, so just don’t worry about it.” she smiled, while running her fingers through his raven locks. “Kagome may be crying her eyes out right now, but I can guarantee you that in the long run, she’ll have a very happy life with the man she loves.”

“I love you.” was his response.

Changing back into his hanyou form, he embraced her again, rumbling a content growl deep in his chest at the feel of her fingers delicately rubbing the base of his ears. They were just about to wash away all this ugly business with a kiss when a whimpering cry pierced through the silence of their apartment, pulling them both from their thoughts of the past.

“Looks like Susumu doesn’t like it when Oyaji is upset.” she chuckled, before heading into their room, her mate following closely behind.

Picking up the whimpering hanyou pup, Kagome barked a low, soothing bark of security, her knowledge of the Inu tongue still just as sharp in her mind as all the various human languages she knew. She may have been worried that she would be out of practice when it came to caring for a baby, but she’d quickly discovered that much like riding a bicycle, it was something that your body just never forgot.

Inuyasha gazed lovingly at the scene of his mate cradling their latest child, another son, and all the trepidation that had been tormenting him easily fled from his soul. Yes, in the end, everything had worked out just fine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Author’s Note and Translations….



Now, before I get into all my various translations and whatnot, I must say that I cannot take credit for naming Kagome’s parents. The names used in this chapter for her mother and father, Nodoka and Daiki, were originally selected by the author Bastion. These are the names he used for her parents in his one-shot entitled “I’ve Seen It All”, which takes place in the Mating Season universe. I vowed that when I reached the point in Mating Season that incorporated the time period of I’ve Seen It All, that I would use the names he selected for her parents, as well as their own aliases, in order to ensure that the two stories continued to remain in sync with one another. For those of you who are not familiar with Bastion’s one-shot, I highly recommend taking a moment to read it. As stated, the events of his story take place within the timeline covered in this chapter. You can find it easily by doing a search for author’s name under “Bastion”.

Nodoka is a very appropriate name for Kagome’s mother. Used by Rumiko Takahashi for Ranma’s mother in her other series Ranma ½, that character is very similar in personality to Kagome’s mother, who is forever nameless in the canon. The name Nodoka means “calm” or “peaceful”.

The name Daiki can be found on behindthename.com, and is broken up into its various components, with dai meaning “large, great” and ki meaning either “radiance”, “tree”, or “valuable, noble”. Obviously, it was the later Bastion had in mind when selecting the name. “Great Noble” is an appropriate name indeed for a son of the Higurashi household.

The alias Kagome refers to herself as, Chiyo, was also selected by Bastion. It is the most appropriate name for Kagome to call herself in the future, considering that, as stated in the chapter itself, the name literally means “Thousand Generations”.

Inuyasha’s alias - which was actually my suggestion at the time - is less poetic, but accurate nonetheless, as Jiro literally means “Second Son”. I’m sure I didn’t have to tell you that, nor do I have to tell you that Sesshoumaru’s alias Ichiro means “First Son”. Considering that Inuyasha and his brother now treat one another like the family they are, selecting these names for their aliases was simply one more gesture to assure the world at large that the two of them are brothers. Nothing can damage the loyalty that has been forged between them.

Now on to the latest grandpups…

As stated, Kenta and Aki have three children. Two girls, and one boy. All three names can be found at behindthename.com, and the girls’ names are broken up as meaning the following…

Misaki: From mi meaning “beautiful” and saki meaning “blossom”.

Mizuki: From mi meaning “beautiful” and zuki meaning “moon”.
This name can also come from mizu meaning “congratulations” and ki meaning “hope”, but that is not the meaning I was going for.

Takashi is not broken up into smaller components, and the name as a whole - depending on the kanji used - means either “Filial Piety”, “Noble, Prosperous” or “Reverence”.

Also, in case you missed it, it was hinted that Takashi was also the name of Aki’s late father.

Now, while I mentioned in passing that both Natsuko and Natsuki have several children, I’m deliberately not bothering to catalog their names or genders. Suffice it to say that “Chris” and “Liz” don’t need to have any more children, because they certainly don’t need to have any more grandchildren. *wink*

Also no, you didn’t miss it, but rather, I deliberately failed to name Akiaka and Noboru’s daughter, Kouga and Ayame’s “first granddaughter”, who is mentioned briefly in passing. As for the girl’s younger uncle, though, Kouga and Ayame’s second son Kenji, who was mentioned even more briefly when Kagome and Kagura were speaking on the phone…Remember what I said about how Kenichi loosely translated as “strong first son”? Well, the same goes for Kenji, with ji meaning “two”, or more accurately, “second”. Thus, under the same principle, Kenji means “strong second son”. Why did I fail to name Kouga’s granddaughter? Honestly…I don’t know…

Also, for those of you who didn’t figure it out for yourselves, Kagura’s alias, “Kazeko” is something I threw together which - according to the rule of ko at the end of a woman’s name meaning child - literally translates as “Wind Child” or “Child of Wind”.

As for the priest Kagome needed to help her with her little mission at Tokyo General (sounds like a Hospital Soap Opera), I just snatched a name from behindthename.com that I thought was fitting. Hideaki comes from hide meaning “excellent” and aki meaning “bright”. Not to be confused with “Hideki” who was/is Etsuko’s (the butterfly-youkai) human husband. And yes…yes…although I didn’t make the connection at first, considering Bastion chose the name Chiyo for Kagome nearly a year ago, and I’d just picked a name at random for the priest that had a fitting definition, the coincidence of “Chiyo and Hideaki” (versus Chi and Hideki) did strike my brain as I was writing it. Who knows, maybe I subconsciously picked the name Hideaki on purpose, but after I realized what’d done, I didn’t want to change it because I still think that it’s a good name for the man. So let them keep their resemblance to Chobits, I don’t care! Besides…that show was kinda funny.

Anyway, Hinata’s new love interest, Yori, has another fitting name. It’s a single word that literally means trust, and considering poor Hinata’s had her heart broken in the past, she needs a mate she can trust not to hurt her. We know it’ll work out between these two, as Yori’s known Hinata ever since he was a boy, and he knows what she is. He’s had plenty of time to decide how he feels about her, now it’s only a matter of Hinata trusting in trust. (*groan*, bad pun)

As for the family name I threw together for Yori’s unnamed sister and mate, that’s exactly it, I threw it together. As stated, her mate is a bear youkai, and the Japanese word for bear is kuma. Uta means “song”, so the fake last name “Kumauta” translates as “Bear Song”.

Of course, we mustn’t forget about the latest little one. Saving the best for last here. Inuyasha and Kagome’s latest son, Susumu, bears the honor of his name meaning “advance, proceed”. Seemed appropriate enough, as they are just at the precipice of a whole new chapter to their lives, preparing to leap into whatever fate throws at them feet first.