InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ One Less Star, Book 1 ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

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

One Less Star, Part 1

Chapter 2

By CinnamonGrrl

The memories of all the other Kagomes blurred together in her head. Sesshoumaru, too, looked slightly different in each of them-amazingly, Beautiful Kagome's Sesshoumaru was startlingly homely, and Plain Kagome's Sesshoumaru was even more handsome than the one Kagome was familiar with. Elderly Kagome's husband preferred to shave his head completely bald, and Scarred Kagome's version of him preferred to wear his in a long plait down his back.

In all of their realities, his sibling rivalry with Inuyasha had ended with his half-brother's death. There was no competition for Tetsusaiga, no creation of Toujikin, no loss of his left arm. Instead, there was remorse that he had not done well by his brother, that he had failed his father and himself by not protecting Inuyasha, leaving him instead to his death rather than trying to help him fight Naraku's machinations.

As the others had indicated, in each dimension, Sesshoumaru was intensely curious about the new miko who seemingly just appeared one day, and who was declared to be the reincarnation of the same priestess who'd loved and then killed his brother. In each reality, no matter what befell the Kagomes after coming through their respective wells, he'd sought her out, his first desire only to use her power to his benefit.

It would seem, however, that it didn't take long for attraction to flare between them, attraction that couldn't be resisted no matter how many defense mechanisms they both employed. Denial, rationalization, displacement... all were useless in the face of a love that seemed able to transcend race, hatred, alienation... even time and physics.

A lot of what Kagome saw confused her, but one thing was startlingly clear: all the hims loved all the hers. He was no more expressive in those realities than in hers, but he was the very embodiment of the sentiment 'action speaks louder than words'. Time and again, he risked his own life to save hers, time and again he endangered himself for even the smallest chance of preventing harm to her.

And as vicious as he could be to his enemies, he was invariably gentle with her. Visions of his hands on her body as he made love to her, of his deft touch in tending their children, swamped Kagome. He was a careful man, every word and action exactly and only what he meant to say and do-nothing more, nothing less. Even when angry, his temper never spurred him to say things he would later regret.

Not like Inuyasha, Kagome thought, then felt shame, as if she'd betrayed Inuyasha somehow. But still the thought that Sesshoumaru wouldn't hurt her like his half-brother had for so long would not leave her...

Neither would those lovemaking memories. He was a shockingly sensual creature in any dimension, eager to the point of greed for touching, petting, stroking... it was something Kagome would never have suspected in his icy mien, but she had irrefutable proof in the form of mental images from thousands of lives.

Sesshoumaru licking raindrops from his lips, tasting its freshness. Sesshoumaru reclining in the boughs of a tree with her in his arms, throat arched as she trailed a leaf down its pale length. Sesshoumaru burying his face against the round belly of their daughter, inhaling her milky, powdery smell. Sesshoumaru rubbing his nude body against Kagome, relishing the feel of skin against skin.

And his eyes... how had she ever thought him stoic? Every expression left undisplayed on his face was shown to perfection in his exquisite golden eyes, there for all to see if only you knew how to recognize it.

Lifetime after lifetime ricocheted through Kagome's head, keeping her enthralled. Eagerly, she sifted through them, exploring and experiencing Sesshoumaru and their children and grandchildren until her starved heart was full to overflowing.

Nothing would wake her, not her grandfather's discovery of her on the floor of the well shed, not his panicked cries to her mother and Souta to help him get her in the house, not the visit of the doctor who declared her healthy and himself baffled as to why she was so stubbornly unconscious.

It was only days later, when Inuyasha burst from the well and stomped into the house ready to scream at her for being away from Sengoku Jidai so long, that she surfaced from her stupour.

"Where is she?" he demanded, at first not seeing her family's weariness and fright. "We need to get moving on finding Kohaku-what's wrong?" He looked around at them, wondering what could have them so upset. "Did something happen to Kagome? Tell me!"

Without waiting for their reply, however, he bounded up the stairs to her room, lurching to a halt in the doorway at the sight of her laying on her bed, waxen and so very still. "Kagome?" he whispered, feeling something very close to panic flare within him.

"Kagome?" he repeated louder. When there was no response, he went to her bedside and put his hand on her arm, jostling her gently. "Kagome!" He grasped her upper arms, hauling her up and shaking her. "Dammit, wake up!"

Kagome dragged herself up from the depths of all those memories at the sound of his voice. It was slow going, but the growing sense of horror that she was fated to be with Sesshoumaru-the part of her that couldn't accept it even in the face all those other realities-was eager to be awake and herself again.

"Inuyasha?" she murmured, forcing her heavy eyelids open, relieved to see the familiar, anxious face in front of her. "Oh, good," she said, sagging against him.

He cradled her to his chest, looking over her head to her family in the doorway. Mrs. Higurashi had her hand over her mouth, trying desperately not to cry, and Kagome's grandfather was blinking rapidly. Souta dashed to them, his hand smoothing her hair as he bit his lip.

"We were so worried," was all he would say.

"I'm so sorry," she mumbled, head lolling back on her neck. Inuyasha cupped her head in his hand, steadied it so she could look at her family. "I'm so sorry," she repeated. "I couldn't help it. But I'm glad to be back."

"Where did you go?" Souta asked.

"Time between time," Kagome replied dreamily, her eyes losing focus. "World between worlds... where all exists, and nothing. "All of me was there, yet I was nothing. I learned my destiny..." She strained to meet Inuyasha's eyes. "I learned your destiny, too." She closed her own, feeling very tired. "Stupid destinies."

With that pronouncement, she fell asleep. Mrs. Higurashi started forward, alarmed, but Inuyasha carefully laid her back against the pillows. "I think it's just regular sleep," he said. "What happened to her? What's she talking about?"

"We don't know," she replied shakily. "Grandfather found her in the well house. We haven't been able to wake her for days. I'm so glad you came!" she exclaimed suddenly, throwing her arms around Inuyasha.

He stood frozen, very uncomfortable with this display of affection and relief but bearing it impassively and even patting her shoulder awkwardly. "Er, right," he said after a while. "I'll just... go back and let everyone know she's alright."

Extricating himself from Mrs. Higurashi's embrace, he returned to the well and leapt down with one last glance toward the house. Kagome was always in some sort of weird trouble... he wondered, not for the first time, how she had managed not to inherit any of her predecessor's cool competence.

"She's not Kikyo," he reminded himself. "Kagome's not Kikyo."

* * *

"Who am I?" Kagome pondered yet again. Back in feudal Japan, back with her friends, back with Inuyasha yelling at her, she found it increasingly difficult to know the answer to that question. She hadn't said anything to Miroku or Sango, just that the Shikon was causing her to see and know things, but confided the entirety of her bizarre experience to Kaede. That miko had been amazed to hear Kagome's tale, and sadly unable to offer any counsel.

"I am just as confused as ye are," she had said in her gravelly voice, sole eye solemn as it stared across the small fire to her pupil. "Ye are to be with Sesshoumaru-and a strange fate that is-but I cannot think of a way to make this happen." She observed Kagome's delicate shudder at his name. "Nor do ye want it to happen."

"No, I don't," Kagome agreed. No matter how wonderful he'd been in those other dimensions, in her reality, he was still someone who'd sooner gut her like a fish than look at her. No matter how the knowledge of all those other Kagomes had snuck into her heart, had softened it toward him...

Weeks passed, and she learned to push the memories back and concentrate on her life in that dimension. She became consumed, as they travelled looking for Kohaku, by thinking of ways to save him when they removed the life-giving shard from his back. Unfortunately, she returned again and again to the conclusion that only using the Shikon's wish would be able to restore him to the boy he'd been before Naraku had destroyed him.

"It has a certain symmetry, don't you think?" Kagome asked them all one night as they sat round the camp fire after dinner. Shippo was already asleep by her side with his head in her lap, fluffy tail curled warmly around his body and tickling his nose.

"What does?" Miroku asked, his intelligent gaze lighting up at the prospect of a philosophical discussion.

"Inuyasha fighting Naraku," Kagome replied, staring into the flames. Ever since her experience with Midoriko, she found herself thinking from a larger perspective, like she was watching everything happen from far above.

"Yes!" Sango exclaimed, understanding her friend's train of thought. "They're both hanyous."

"And they both seek to become more than they currently are," Miroku added. "It speaks of a dissatisfaction with the self, a belief that perfection is to be obtained externally... certainly a deviation from the Dharmic path..."

"Enough, bouzo," Inuyasha himself growled from his crouch across the fire, and buried his hands more deeply up his sleeves. "The only thing I'm dissatisfied with is the company I'm keeping."

"I cannot fault you for that," said a smooth, cold voice from the trees surrounding them, "but there is far more dissatisfactory about you than merely your companions."

They all leapt to their feet as Sesshoumaru stepped into the farthest reaches of the circle of firelight, Shippo jolting awake as Kagome wrapped her arms around him and staggered away from the new arrival until her back was against a tree.

"Oh, god," she moaned, clasping Shippo tighter as the memories she'd striven so hard to contain burst free once more. "No."

He was just as wildly beautiful as she remembered, his hair streaming to his knees and eyes gleaming gold in the light from the fire. Memories of those eyes burning down at her as his body pressed hers into their futon, moving deeply, claiming her, scalded through her until her breath came more quickly.

"Gah," she said weakly, forcing herself to be in the moment instead of losing herself in another memory. His gaze flicked across the clearing to her and she felt paralyzed, skewered like a bug on a pin.

"Whaddya want, Sesshoumaru?" Inuyasha demanded sourly. "How many times do I have to tell you? You're not getting Tetsusaiga. You might as well give up."

"Give up?" His porcelain brow creased in genuine perplexment as he turned back to his half-brother. Clearly, the idea had never occurred to him before. Kagome couldn't prevent a smile at the idea... no, Sesshoumaru had no concept of giving up, in this world or any other.

Her smile faded quickly, however, when he looked her way again, and seeing that smile, frowned more deeply. "You have strayed onto my lands," he said. "You will explain why."

"We're not explaining anything," Inuyasha blustered, but Kagome gathered her courage, disentangled herself from Shippo, and approached. Shippo became increasingly agitated with her every step closer to the taiyoukai, until he was dancing back and forth on his fox feet.

"We didn't mean to trespass," she said as calmly as she could even as her stomach jumped within her, "but we're looking for a boy. He's got a shard."

"The last shard," he replied. At her nod, that cool golden gaze stared at her a long moment before shifting to each of their group in turn, settling on Sango. "Your brother."

"Yes," she whispered, her face pale and sallow in the firelight.

His face, implacable and expressionless, drew Kagome's gaze against her will and she blushed furiously when he looked at her again, catching her staring. Something flickered in his eyes at that, but he said only, "He is not in this Sesshoumaru's realm."

"How can you know that?" Inuyasha griped. "Even you-"

"Shut up, Inuyasha," Kagome said quietly, recalling from the other Kagomes' memories how completely aware of his lands Sesshoumaru was. If he said Kohaku wasn't there, he wasn't there. "If he says Kohaku isn't here, he's not here."

Inuyasha fell into a silence borne more from outrage than agreement, sputtering as his hands clenched spastically. "Stupid girl," he managed at last. "You-"

"You will leave immediately," Sesshoumaru interrupted. "You will not wait for the morning." He was still looking at Kagome, studying her, and she was reminded of how the other hers had said he was curious about her.

"We didn't mean to trespass," she repeated softly. He stared a moment longer, knowing it for the apology it was, then nodded once and turned to go.

It all happened so quickly, Kagome thought with dismay. One moment Sesshoumaru was leaving their meagre encampment, and the next Inuyasha had drawn Tetsusaiga, transformed it, and rushed at his brother's unsuspecting back.

Was it her indrawn breath that alerted Sesshoumaru, she wondered, or some primordial ability to sense wind currents or even mere intentions? In any case, one gasp, and Toujikin was out, swept around to block Inuyasha's strike with a clash that rang off the trees and made the wildlife in the area scurry to safer ground.

Sesshoumaru said not a word as they fought, but there was something about his eyes that put Kagome in mind of disappointment, and she knew that he had intended to let them leave his lands unharmed. He had not provoked Inuyasha, and even now his technique was more defense than offense.

He's just holding Inuyasha off, Kagome thought, aware that her perception was now laced with the experience of a thousand other Kagomes and their knowledge of how Sesshoumaru fought. There was no true heat to his actions, just an almost-weary matching of his brother's blows.

And Inuyasha knew it, too. Infuriated, he leapt up and launched himself at Sesshoumaru, moving more quickly than anyone had ever seen him. Utterly heedless of his own safety, he allowed his half-brother to get within his guard so he could plant Tetsusaiga in the dead centre of Sesshoumaru's chest. A split second later, Toujikin found a home between Inuyasha's own ribs.

Once more, time seemed to still for Kagome. It slowed and thickened, and panic threatened to choke her, panic and horror and terrible, terrible loss... Arms dropping from around Shippo, flinging herself forward, she screamed.

"No, let me go," she moaned when Miroku dashed forward to subdue her. Slowly, painfully, the two brothers withdrew their swords from each other's chests and fought to stand without listing to the side. "Let me go to him."

Miroku's dark blue eyes were intent and very serious as he stared at her, struggling to hold her back. "Kagome," he said, "no. You can't get in their way."

"I have to go to him," she panted, fighting him. He appealed mutely to Sango for assistance.

"There's... there's something wrong with you," Sango said, wrapping her arms around her friend's waist and hauling her back. Together, she and Miroku managed to drag Kagome away from the demons as they resumed their battle.

"There's something wrong with you," Kagome shot back, slumping against them when it became clear they would not let her go. "I can't believe you won't let me go help Inuyasha."

Sango and Miroku exchanged a glance over her head. "Kagome," Sango said, "it wasn't Inuyasha's name you called, just now."

Eyes wide, Kagome shook her head stubbornly. "Of course it was," she said. "Inuyasha's my friend and I love him and..." She burst into tears. "Oh, no, no..." The truth crashed over her like a tsunami. She couldn't separate the other Kagomes from herself, couldn't stuff their memories and their love for Sesshoumaru into a dusty corner of her mind.

What they knew, she knew. What they felt, she felt. Their fate was hers. She curled up against Sango and wept at the knowledge that she loved him, loved a demon that likely wanted her dead.

When a lull came in their fight, when their swords fell silent for a moment, the sound of her crying filled the clearing.

"What's wrong with her?" Inuyasha demanded, one hand clutching his bloodied side as he parried a thrust.

"I don't know!" Shippo wailed, dancing in agitation once more at Kagome's side. "She's acting all weird."

"Inuyasha," Sesshoumaru said, even as he aimed Toujikin at his brother's head, "your miko is in distress."

"Since when do you care what happens to her?" Inuyasha snarled, dodging and slashing. "And why's she yelling your name and apologizing and-what's going on between you?"

"You should tend to her," was all Sesshoumaru would say in reply, and though Inuyasha leapt forward with desperate speed, Sesshoumaru flew skyward with alarming velocity, disappearing into the velvet night.

And below, on the ground, Kagome sobbed.

* * *

Winter slid into spring, and in contrast to the rising temperature, things between Kagome and the rest of their little group cooled. Kagome became more quiet, almost withdrawn, either oblivious or apathetic to the concerned glances of Miroku, Sango, Kaede and Shippo. Any inquiry as to her condition was answered with a cheerful but unconvincing avowal of being "just fine!"

As for Inuyasha, he seemed almost relieved, as if he'd never been able to truly believe she'd be loyal to him, had always expected her to betray him, glad to be proven right even if being right meant he lost something precious.

"Inuyasha," Miroku said one day, "you are the very definition of the phrase 'cutting off your nose to spite your face'."

"Feh," replied Inuyasha.

They stayed assiduously away from the Western Lands, and if Kagome were found staring in that direction more often than not, no one ever remarked upon it. Kohaku's movements were erratic, illogical, and Sango commented that Naraku was purposefully sending his servant all over to keep them busy.

"It makes no sense, otherwise," she said softly, but secretly was pleased it was taking longer than it should. Every day spent chasing him without success was another day she didn't have to watch him die.

They were glad, one week, when word reached them of Kohaku being seen in the South; this was not a mild spring, and they were eager to escape the worst of its severity by traveling to warmer climes. Still, it was chilly, and Kagome gratefully accepted Sango's offer of a spare kimono to wear over her jeans and sweater, rubbing her arms through it to warm them up.

Shippo spent much of his time wrapped up in his tail, and Kagome was strongly reminded of that fluffy thing on Sesshoumaru's shoulder. Over the years, she and Miroku and Sango had discussed their suspicions of what it was. She knew now, of course, that it was an heirloom pelt, the tail of an ancient inu-youkai passed down from one Western Lord to the next and magically enchanted to obey the will of its owner, but did not share her newfound knowledge with the others.

She rather liked knowing something about Sesshoumaru that they didn't, as if she were keeping a secret of his, though he had not entrusted it to her in this reality. There were so many things she knew about him now, small things and large, and she hugged them to her like gems, trotting them out to admire every once in a while.

Kagome thought of him often, of course, and wondered how he fared, what he was doing. His lands were extensive and required a lot of attention. In the other realities, she'd traveled far and wide with him as he supervised his realm. Many a child had been conceived during those wanderings, she recalled: in a meadow thick with flowers, their heady scent swirling round as they made love, or a hot spring whose waters caressed them like a thousand fingers, washing away their sweat as they strove against each other.

Did she miss him? Impossible to say, as she'd never really spent any length of time with him in this dimension. Would he be able to get past the antagonism between him and her group of friends, she wondered? It was not a missing per se, she decided, as much as a longing to know him in the first place. No matter how vivid those memories of the other Kagomes might be, still they were no substitute to actual experience in this reality. Their Sesshoumarus were not this Sesshoumaru, for all the similarities between them.

She was therefore rather pleased, though she took care to hide it, when he appeared to them one day as they traveled through the South. This time Ah-Un was with him, and there was a dark bundle draped across the dragon-youkai's back...

"Your brother," he said briefly to Sango. With a glad cry, she ran to Ah-Un and pulled Kohaku to the ground, hugging him and weeping even as he lay there without moving, arms and legs bound tightly. "He is still under Naraku's control, and not to be trusted," he told Kagome, since Sango was past hearing or caring.

Miroku, meanwhile, was having trouble restraining Inuyasha. "Why?" raged the hanyou. "Why did you bring him to us? And why are you staring at Kagome, dammit?"

A tiny, catlike smirk curled the edge of Sesshoumaru's lips, so faint one might think they'd imagined it. He flicked a negligent glance at Inuyasha and said, "This Sesshoumaru need not explain himself to the likes of you."

Laughter bubbled from Kagome for some reason, though she choked it back when his gaze returned to her. "Um, sorry," she said. "It was just... funny."

"Funny," he repeated, as if he'd never heard the word before. "Clarify."

"You're just so... calm," she said, feeling very nervous and yet exhilarated at the same time. She was actually talking to him! Having a conversation! "And Inuyasha's… not. It's just a funny contrast."

"Mhm," Sesshoumaru said noncommittally. "Indeed." Kagome beamed at him. Miroku frowned, worried. Inuyasha just foamed at the mouth a bit more.

"Why did you bring Kohaku to us?" she ventured after a few more moments of beaming. "I mean," she babbled, "I'm sure you have far more important things to do, and-"

"I, Sesshoumaru, found the boy on my lands," he interrupted. "It is unacceptable for Naraku or any of his puppets or minions to foul my realm; therefore, I sought to remove his blight."

"Why didn't you just kill him?" Miroku asked, but received no reply.

"Yeah," Inuyasha snarled, straining to get at Sesshoumaru. "Since when are you so reluctant to spill blood?" This, too, was ignored.

"We have to take the shard out," Kagome said. Sesshoumaru nodded. "It will kill him." Another nod, and inspiration struck her. "Would you-if it's not too much trouble-if you don't mind, that is-"

Sesshoumaru frowned. "You will cease blathering," he declared. "Speak."

She spoke. "Can you use Tenseiga on him? To bring him back after we take out the shard?" She knew she looked pathetically hopeful, eyes huge and hands clasped against her chest, but couldn't help herself.

Another long, hard stare on his part, and then he nodded. "If the sword wishes to revive him, I will wield it."

Happiness flooded Kagome as it hadn't done in a long time. She bounced a little, barely restraining herself from throwing her arms around him in gratitude and delight. It didn't help any that she could remember quite well how good it felt to be in his arms, either. Well, arm-in this dimension, he only had the one.

"I've been wondering," she blurted unthinkingly. "How long before your arm regenerates completely?" She eyed the left side of his body. "It should be halfway back by now, right?" She paused. "It doesn't hurt, does it?"

A tiny widening of his eyes was the only indication of his surprise. "No," he replied, "it does not hurt."

"Oh, good," she replied, and smiled sunnily at him.

Inuyasha was positively frothing at this point. "Perhaps we should get on with it," Miroku suggested smoothly.

Sesshoumaru cut his gaze toward Kohaku. "He will have to be restrained," he said, "for he will not be pleased to lose the shard." He fixed Inuyasha with a cold look. "Can you be trusted to control yourself for a short while?"

A faint blush tinged Inuyasha's cheeks; he was being scolded for childishness, and he knew it. "Yeah," he grumbled, adjusting his haori when Miroku released him.

"This is it," Kagome said to Sango, joining her friend. "Sesshoumaru says he'll use Tenseiga on Kohaku… and if that doesn't work, I'll just put the Shikon together and use the wish to bring him back." She closed her eyes against the scream of outrage that rent the air when Inuyasha heard her. "One way or another, Kokahu's going to live."

Sango's face was luminous as she gazed up at her friend. "Thank you," she whispered to Kagome, then repeated it to Sesshoumaru, standing behind her. Carefully, she rolled Kohaku to his front and placed her hands firmly on shoulder and hip to hold him down. Miroku knelt at his other side, and Kagome crouched at his head just in case. She glared at Inuyasha until he came forward, but he was plainly still furious at Kagome's little announcement.

Reaching down, Inuyasha used a razor-sharp claw to slit open Kohaku's clothing and the faintly glowing skin of his back. Parting the flesh with two careful fingers, he used the tips of his claws to pincer the shard from its resting place.

At the first touch of his claws on the shard, Kohaku began to buck and writhe like the possessed thing that he was. Everyone grabbed what they could of him, and Inuyasha plucked the shard out entirely. Kohaku went berserk, flailing and spasming, and then quite suddenly he went completely limp.

"He's dead," Inuyasha said quietly, his fist clenched around the bloody shard.

Sango swallowed hard, then looked to Sesshoumaru, watching impassively beside them. He stepped forward, unsheathing Tenseiga, and waited. The sword did not move, did not transform or glow or anything. "The sword does not wish to revive him," he said at last, and made to replace it in its scabbard.

"Wait," Kagome said, leaping to her feet. "Let me try." She reached for the sword, but quailed back at the look of frozen hostility on his face. "I just thought," she faltered, "since I was able to pull the Tetsusaiga from the stone…"

No response. "C'mon," she entreated, "let me give it a shot." She reached for it again, trusting blindly in the memories of the other Kagomes that he would not hurt her even as he became, somehow, even more blank and cold.

The moment she touched Tenseiga's hilt, it pulsed to life, glowing with an intensity that was nearly blinding. Sesshoumaru lowered his head, staring up at Kagome with such an expression of consternation that she felt the disastrous reaction of giggling bubble up in her, and bit her lip viciously to keep it from escaping.

"Wow," Shippo said. "Kagome made Sesshoumaru's sword come alive."

Inexplicably, Kagome's face decided to blush furiously at that. Miroku choked back a laugh, Sango was hard-pressed to hide her smile, and even Sesshoumaru himself allowed his scowl to lessen several degrees, going so far as to quirk one silvery brow a millimeter or so.

Inuyasha just glowered at them and shouted, "Move it! I've got a wish to make!"

Sesshoumaru shot his brother a look of pure dislike and stepped closer to Kohaku's inert form and made to slash at the soul-stealers crouching around him. But the moment Kagome's hand fell from the sword's hilt, its glow faded. He shot a disgruntled look over his shoulder at her, and she came forward.

"Guess we have to do it together, huh?" Darn, she thought. Blushing again. "Um."

He made a noise in his throat that spoke of great impatience, and she forced herself to forget her embarrassment. "Stand before me," he directed, and she did, placing her hand not on the hilt but, feeling bold, directly over his own hand. A tiny tremor ran through him at the contact, of surprise, or something more? she wondered.

The sword pulsed once more, and he swung at the creatures already devouring Kohaku's soul. One sweep, two, and they were gone. Kohaku stirred and mumbled something intelligible, and Sango lunged for him.

"It is done," Sesshoumaru said, quietly, as Kagome watched the reunion between sister and brother. "It is done," he repeated testily, his voice close enough to her ear that she shivered, remembering all those other times in all those other realities... "You will cease touching me now," he commanded at last, and Kagome blinked to realize her hand was still over his on the sword.

"Sorry!" she squeaked, snatching her hand away as if burnt, eyeing him cautiously. "I have another favour to ask you," she ventured when he turned and would have walked away.

The faint motion of his chest suggested a sigh. He said nothing, did not even look at her, but waited. She took that as a grudging willingness to at least hear her out. "I was hoping-I thought maybe you could-if it wouldn't be too much of a bother-"

Sesshoumaru spun back to glare at her. "Right," she said, interrupting herself. "Blathering. I'll start over." Deep breath. "Could you please take half of the Shikon?" she blurted out. "Until Naraku is defeated?"

He narrowed those magnificent eyes at her. "Why?"

"Yeah, why?" demanded Inuyasha, who'd been shamelessly eavesdropping. He stomped over to them, face like a thundercloud. "I don't believe you! What the hell are you thinking? Have you somehow forgotten that the Shikon is mine, stupid? After all-"

His words were abruptly cut off when Sesshoumaru's fist slammed right into his mouth, causing him to sail backwards about thirty feet. "Do not interrupt," the taiyoukai said calmly before returning his attention to Kagome. "Continue."

She stared up at him with something akin to wonder. Not once in all these years had anyone ever taken Inuyasha to task for his rudeness to her. It felt glorious, and Kagome found herself stammering a little as she tried to reply. "All... all I know is that the time's not right for anyone to make a wish with the Shikon, not yet. We have to wait," she said at last. "And I'm worried about Naraku. If he somehow gets his hands on the jewel, there's no telling what he'll do."

She ignored Inuyasha's distant grumbling about the jewel being gone soon if only she'd let him make his wish. From what Midoriko had said, it was clear to Kagome that Inuyasha was never meant to become fully youkai. She had to keep the jewel safe from everyone, from Inuyasha as well as Naraku, until she knew better what to do with it.

It made her a little sad, this need to wait, because she knew the longer it was in fragments, the longer Midoriko had to wait until her soul was her own once more and she could be with her beloved Inutaisho again.

She sighed. "If it's in two halves, and he can't get to at least one of them, then we know he's not up to something… bad."

"Why me?"

"Well, duh," she said, frowning at him, recalling Midoriko's words: Like my Inutaisho, he cannot be defeated unless he allows the defeat. "Because he can't beat you. If you have half the Shikon, he'll never get it."

"You are so sure of me, then?" he asked, sounding… amused?

"Shouldn't I be?" Kagome countered. "Who better?" If she hadn't been aware of his skill and strength before her little incident in the well, she now had thousands of memories to back up her assertion.

"Who, indeed?" Sesshoumaru murmured. "I will do this," he said at last, and held out his hand.

"The hell you will!" declared Inuyasha, bounding forward, hands outstretched. "Not after all these years." He shoved Kagome back, going nose to nose with Sesshoumaru. "If you think I'm gonna let you hand half the Shikon over to him, you're crazy."

"You don't let me do anything, Inuyasha," Kagome snapped. "I don't answer to you. I'm doing what Midoriko tells me to do, and she said that Sesshoumaru is going to help me protect the jewel until we can defeat Naraku."

Sesshoumaru's golden gaze flickered. "Midoriko?" he asked. "You… speak to her?"

Kagome flushed. "Just the once," she said demurely, not wanting to seem like she was bragging.

Sesshoumaru turned to Inuyasha. "You are an idiot," he told him calmly, "and clearly unable to handle being a full youkai. For this reason, and to keep Naraku at bay, I will take half of the jewel until such time as your miko declares it safe to reunite them. No," he continued when Inuyasha tensed to spring at him, "do not bother to fight me. I weary of you, and it would not trouble me overmuch to kill you."

"So you say every time," Inuyasha sneered. "And you never can."

"It's not that he can't, Inuyasha, just that he won't," Kagome interjected, wondering even as she spoke where the words were coming from. She suspected she was channeling one of the Kagomes… Scarred Kagome, perhaps? "He's always been able to take you down. He just didn't want to."

Sesshoumaru stared at her while Inuyasha just sputtered impotently, reaching again for the jewel.

"Osuwari," Kagome sighed, and Inuyasha's face was firmly planted into the ground at their feet. Before he could recover, she slapped half the jewel into Sesshoumaru's hand. "You should go now," she said, "or he'll just start whining again."

He tucked it into the breast of his haori. "You are a strange girl," he commented.

She laughed weakly. "You have no idea."