InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ This Mess We're In ❯ I Just Want to Say ( Chapter 9 )

This Mess We're In

Chapter 8: I Just Want to Say

Disclaimers: I don't own the series.

Rating: Because of adult themes and violence, the FF.net version of is rated R. The MM.org rating has been preemptively upped to NC17, but is still R for the purposes of this chapter.

Summary: Kagome's back in the present, but so is someone else. She and Sesshou are about to meet, and the past and present are set to collide. What exactly happened in Sengoku Jidai? They don't know yet either. 2 stories in 1. Kag/Sess.

Chapter Summary: Jaken is scarred, Kagome is training, and Sesshoumaru is hunting. The Hayashis are strange. Inuyasha and company are very, very confused. Kikyou appears. Sesshoumaru and Kagome discuss bunny slippers. We're laying some groundwork and having some fun before the heavy stuff.

Soundtrack: www33. brinkster. Com/ volpa/ tmwi

1st half: Swing Kids Soundtrack - "Sing, Sing, Sing"

2nd half: Tommy James and the Shondells - "I Think We're Alone Now"

*****

---Sengoku Jidai---

In the concealing darkness, Jaken cowered. He prayed that he wouldn't be seen.

Since the three members of the household had returned from their trip to the south, Rin had formulated a fresh way to torment him.

The small green creature shuddered with horror, ready to jump out of his wrinkly skin. He blamed the human woman. Somehow, he knew that the little girl could not have arrived at such sadistic method of torture without assistance. He had seen the two of them, smiling and conspiring as they said goodbye. He was sure the miko wench was somehow responsible for his suffering.

Shivering in his hiding spot, Jaken shook his tiny fist and sent a silent curse towards the sky. He could not believe he had been driven to such lengths. His days were now spent concealing himself in the nooks and crannies of the fortress, trying to avoid a human child.

His master could be very cruel, but even he had never terrorized Jaken so.

Jaken's brow furrowed with concern as he thought of Sesshoumaru-sama's demeanor lately. There was something strange about him. Instead of his usual immovable calm, the inuyoukai seemed to radiate an unfamiliar and dangerous energy. Lately, more than usual, Sesshoumaru-sama had been leaving the fortress to prowl his lands, the desire to hunt written in every line of his body.

The loyal retainer was disturbed. He had rarely seen his master like this, except for when he had resolved to take back his father's territory from those who had deposed him, and then later, when he had first decided that he would acquire the Tetsusaiga at any cost.

Those decisions had led to much grief and peril for Jaken, so he was somewhat anxious about this recent development.

Jaken's worrying intensified into utter horror at the sound of Rin's giggle. His eyes bugged out more than usual as his blood froze in his aged veins.

"Jaken! You are being so fun. Rin loves playing hide and seek with you. Kagome was right!"

He pursed his beak sourly as he turned to face her, feeling vindicated. He'd known it! It was all that abominable wench's doing.

Then, Rin started to approach. He closed his eyes in fear. Brandishing the staff of heads before him, he cringed backward, but was halted by the wall's firm surface. Unleashing the staff's power on Rin would lead to his immediate death at Sesshoumaru-sama's hands, but for a moment, he was tempted.

He hoped that she would give up and leave before actually trying to. . . to. . . oh, gods, it was just unspeakable. It was too appalling to verbalize.

Then, the source of all his fears descended upon him, chortling with glee.

Rin drew near, grinning in a particularly horrific way. Then, she leaned down, wrapped her little arms around him, and squeezed warmly.

Jaken convulsed, valiantly fighting the urge to scream. He had found in the past week that it only prolonged and intensified the agony.

Rin smiled, giving him one last press before releasing him. He fell to the ground, a quaking wreck of the youkai he had once been.

Of all the indignities he had been subjected to in his long life, this was the worst. When he had told Sesshoumaru-sama of it, hoping that he would intervene, the taiyoukai had simply raised an aristocratic brow in a way that suggested that he was vaguely amused.

Jaken dropped the staff of heads and wrung his hands, still sprawled on the floor. He was getting too old for this. Oh, gods, the absolute heartlessness of it all. . .

"Kagome told me if I was nicer to Jaken, Jaken would be more fun. And you are! Kagome is very clever," Rin stated with authority. Jaken just lay there, mouth opening and closing, too incensed to speak.

Rin frowned slightly as Jaken clambered to his feet and made a hasty escape.

Then, her face brightened. "Oh, Jaken is going to hide again! This is lots and lots of fun."

Smiling, she sat in the hallway patiently. It was only sporting to give him a head start. He was so very easy to find, after all.

She usually just followed the sound of the staff knocking nervously against the floor.

Rin shook her head compassionately. Jaken really was getting old, if he was trembling all the time. She frowned. Perhaps she should try to hug him more often. Her small brow wrinkled.

He smelled kind of funny, but the hugs did seem to stop him from yelling. He probably found her affection comforting, and he had been going out of his way to entertain her lately.

Sometimes he started running, just so she could chase him. Other times, he hid, so that she could make a game of finding him. The best part was that he never told her when they were going to play. Sometimes, he would hide for hours before she realized what he was doing.

The unpredictability only made it twice as amusing.

Rin got up with renewed resolve. She'd have to be even nicer to him from now on, since he was being so nice to her. "Jaken?" she called. "I'm coming to find you!"

Outside, hidden behind an ornamental shrub, he shivered.

**********

"Where are you? Sesshoumaru! Get out here!" Inuyasha barked, peeved.

In a forest not far from Sesshoumaru's home, Miroku, Sango, Kirara, and Shippou watched bemusedly as an irate Inuyasha stalked ahead of them, making as much noise as he possibly could. This was a nice change from the terse silence that had persisted before, but still.

Shippou shook his little head in a way that conjured images of a long-suffering parent. "Quiet down, Inuyasha," he chided reasonably. "Maybe Kaede was right and Kagome is okay. If you act like that, you'll just piss Sesshoumaru off, and we might not be able to find out where she is."

Inuyasha's rampage continued unabated. "Feh! I know he's somewhere nearby!" he grunted. The kit had gotten back to his irritating self immediately after Kaede had told them that Kagome was alive and well. Now, the little fox youkai's prime objective was to find out where Kagome was, go to her, and never let her out of his sight again.

Miroku interceded. "Shippou's right, Inuyasha. There's no reason to force a confrontation." Then, he and Sango simultaneously winced as Inuyasha swiped at a tree with his claws, felling it with an ear-splitting crack.

They were on their way to see Sesshoumaru to inquire about their dear friend's safety and whereabouts. Kaede's message, while somewhat reassuring, had also been remarkable in its vagueness. They planned to ask the youkai lord, civilly, to disclose where he had brought Kagome. Hopefully, by avoiding a fight, they could better gauge whether or not Kagome was actually safe. After all, their previous experiences with Sesshoumaru had generally been less than friendly.

Well, at least Miroku, Sango, and Shippou intended to ask him.

Inuyasha seemed determined to tear a strip off Sesshoumaru with the Tetsusaiga, and then stomp the information out of him, possibly after he was dead. His half-brother was obviously up to no good, Inuyasha thought darkly. Kagome and Kaede were out of their minds to believe him.

Shippou started to talk again, much to Inuyasha's irritation. "Don't you think it's possible that Kagome's actually training? I think it makes sense. After all, she is really strong when she wants to be, and Kaede wasn't worried."

It was true. With a mysterious look on her face, the aged miko had said that Kagome would be all right.

"I doubt that," Inuyasha scoffed. "How many times has that bastard tried to kill us? Why the hell would he help her? Something is going on that we don't know about. She doesn't need to train, anyway. I can protect her."

The others looked meaningfully at Inuyasha.

Oh.

Right.

"Feh!"

If Sesshoumaru had helped Kagome after he himself had unthinkingly left her on her own, he'd eat his own sword. Couldn't she just have stayed where she was for a while? He would have gone back to get her. He'd just needed some time to recover and cool down. After all, it wasn't every day that your best friend proved she didn't think you could get the job done.

Inuyasha twitched restlessly.

It would be just like his snooty half-brother to swoop in, save the day, and make him look bad in comparison, just out of spite.

"I bet she went to train," Shippou went on. "Ow! That hurts!"

A bump slowly materialized on his head as Inuyasha drew his hand back. "Just shut up for a second, will you?" Inuyasha groused, a little subdued.

It didn't last long.

"Sesshoumaru! Get out here so I can kick your ass!" he hollered.

Miroku, ignoring the racket, spoke optimistically to the little fox who was now rubbing his sore head with a petulant expression. "Kagome is very resourceful. I'm sure that she is all right." Sango turned a smile on him, and he felt his heart rate speed up.

"Yes, Shippou," she agreed. "Kagome is probably all right. I doubt that Sesshoumaru would bother to bring her to the village if he intended to harm her."

The taijiya shot Miroku another smile. She'd been doing that more often since he'd stopped the groping.

Of course, it just made her round bottom seem even more appealing. His hand twitched slightly as he walked next to her.

"Don't. Don't do it," Miroku repeated to himself mentally. "She just lost her brother. Don't do it." His hand twitched again.

Shippou, unnoticed by Sango, met Miroku's eye and shook his head slightly with a warning look.

"Even the kid knows you shouldn't do it. Don't. Don't even think about it," Miroku went on. It had become a litany of sorts.

Sango raised an eyebrow as, beside her, the monk muttered under his breath with a strained expression.

He'd been doing that a lot lately.

The four of them walked quietly as, in front of them, Inuyasha caused yet another incident of senseless deforestation.

"I wonder what Kagome's doing right now," Shippou mused brightly. "I bet it's something really important."

**********

Far away, in the cool of the early evening, the young woman in question wiped sweat from her brow. Kagome flexed her aching muscles. Gods, she thought to herself. This was truly grueling.

Though her strength had greatly improved, she wasn't sure she would come out on top this time. Her endurance wasn't all it could be, and her foe was massive.

She readied herself to deal another blow to her opponent. She heard a sickening thud as the impact shot through her numbed arm. One of its limbs fell heavily to the ground.

"Good! Now go higher!" Aya shouted from her relaxed seat on the grass some distance away. The woman was currently munching on a piece of fruit, sharpening a pile of weaponry that glinted brightly at her side. "You'll never finish it off at this rate. Gods! By the time you make your next swing, it will have grown back already!"

Kagome scowled. "Why am I the one who has to do this, anyway? I thought you were the big gun around here!" she hollered in response, giving her axe a mighty swing. "Could you please throw me one of the sharpened things? This is completely pathetic."

She glared at the rusty blade of the axe, sure that it had been forged in man's first fire, before turning her attention back where it belonged.

Aya looked surprised. "Why on earth would I do that? These are good weapons!" She picked up a cloth, cleaning the blade she'd been working on, and then nodded in satisfaction when it shone.

Kagome swung again, her eyes closed against the stuff that flew towards her face.

She grimaced. Eww. It was sticky!

Aya snickered at Kagome's look of disgust. "The reason you're the one doing this is because you're the one who requires strength training. I'm here if you need help, but I don't see why I should have to do everything."

Kagome scowled, but continued with her task. "Yaaaaagh!" she cried. Her foe groaned beneath her.

"My dear husband said that overgrown thing has been blocking sun from his vegetable patch, and you know how Kazuo gets when his garden is involved." Aya grinned, picking up one of her kodachi and bending it to the whetstone. "We're feeding you, and if it's not done by tonight, he might refuse to cook. Believe me," Aya called out as Kagome began hacking anew, "you don't want to eat my cooking. The last time Kazuo was that angry with me, I made a stew that almost killed Seiji."

Kagome had frozen, wide-eyed.

"Of course," Aya continued, tilting her head thoughtfully, "my boy was only ten at the time. I'm sure he has toughened up since then. He might survive."

Kagome stared down at Aya from her perch in the tree and grumbled. Then, she resumed hacking at a particularly heavy branch, her hands stained with sap.

For Seiji, she thought, gritting her teeth. She was doing this for poor, unfortunate Seiji, who had already suffered enough in his lifetime.

Aya was oblivious to Kagome's deep compassion for her son. "Finish that up quickly. Then we can get back to business. I hope you have been meditating like I showed you."

"Yes, mom." Kagome rolled her eyes at Aya, who was now industriously polishing her kodachi.

Some time later, Kagome dropped to the ground and looked at the tree critically. It was a lot smaller than it had been before. She frowned. It was also more lopsided, but she was a miko, not a gardener.

"Good job," Aya said. She stretched lazily where she sat, having completed weapons duty for the day. She looked for all the world like a teenager who'd skipped school and gotten away with something. Kagome sent her a bemused look. When Aya wasn't ordering her around like a drill sergeant, she acted like a bratty younger sister.

Kagome looked at the tank top and pajama bottoms with little blue stars that Aya wore and smirked. She was even borrowing her modern clothes, not that Kagome really minded. Aya was, after all, doing her an immense favour.

The older miko got to her feet. "Let's give the energy control another try now. I know it was very difficult for you yesterday, but it takes some time to get the hang of it."

After some preliminary deep breathing, Kagome nodded decisively. Aya handed Kagome a staff, and assumed a relaxed, defensive stance. "Now, relax. Try to feel the way the strength cycles through you. Find the current."

Kagome concentrated, drawing on the meditative techniques she had been practicing under Aya's tutelage. Ah, she thought. There it was. Slowly, she grasped at her dormant inner power, trying to guide it outward.

Aya looked on in approval as she felt energy begin to roll off Kagome. The young woman's body began to glow. The purplish light flickered and waned, but it was a huge leap in progress from only being able to access the power unconsciously.

"Not bad at all," Aya encouraged. "You're getting a lot better at this. Now that it's coming out, try to shape it."

Kagome nodded and inhaled deeply, holding the staff before her and staring at it. She willed the energy to surround it. Slowly, the weapon began to glow.

Aya grinned. "Good. Now that staff should be strong enough to withstand almost anything. Can you sustain that while we try some of the things you learned in sparring?" she asked curiously.

Her protégé was picking up on this a lot faster than she had dared hope. When Kagome had initially started to work with her miko power, Aya had been surprised at the magnitude of it. It had almost been too much to expect that Kagome could achieve control over it without years of work.

However, Aya had found that Kagome was tougher than she seemed. The young woman had held up well under the physical training, though she was extremely whiny about it, Aya thought dryly.

If she never heard another pained `Ow! That hurts!' again, it would be too soon.

For all her complaints, Kagome got the job done. After two weeks of exercises and basic combat training, she seemed to be starting to grasp the fundamentals of using her power.

Kagome swung one end of her staff towards Aya, who blocked it easily.

"There was no force behind that blow, Kagome," the miko stated. The glow around the weapon had started to flicker and diminish, but it was still there. "You're doing well with the energy control, though."

"Hold onto it," Aya coaxed as Kagome's brow furrowed in concentration. "Can you feel that your body is sort of humming? Take that sensation and hold onto it. Your power knows where it wants to go, but you have to guide it a bit. Now, try to tap me hard enough that I can feel it. "

The glow around the staff intensified again, and Kagome's mouth quirked up in satisfaction. She pivoted and turned the staff once more in the blink of an eye, using one end to hit high, and immediately swinging the other end towards Aya's legs. Aya crouched and blocked the staff with her forearm, shining with a faint green light.

"Very good!" she applauded. "I had to push back with my energy to stop the force of that one. Your speed is improving as well."

"Oh. Oh, wow," Kagome said, eyes widened. She hadn't moved that fast before in practice, and this time, her body had seemed to know exactly what to do. It seemed that her energy, when used properly, could quicken her movements as well as increase her strength. Then, she noticed with a frown that she was getting tired. "I think it's stopping," she said hesitantly. Though she tried to sustain the flow of power, it waned quickly.

She gave a frustrated sigh when the light guttered out.

Aya noticed her pupil's disheartened expression. "Do not be discouraged," she said reassuringly. "You are advancing far faster than I'd hoped." Aya looked towards the hut. "Later, we can get back to plain sparring. Kazuo will have made dinner by now. Let's go in and eat."

For once, Kagome thought mischievously, someone else was going to have to haul the weapons back inside.

She grinned, and sprinted towards the hut as Aya shouted in protest behind her.

**********

Sesshoumaru paced his fortress chamber, but stopped at the sound of Jaken's harried footsteps as he sprinted past in the hallway.

Rin, no doubt, would soon be on his retainer's heels.

He smirked. It seemed that Kagome's enlivening influence persisted even in her absence. He derived endless amusement from watching Jaken's feeble attempts to evade Rin's clutches. Invariably, she found him. Then, she inflicted her affections on him, unaware that the tiny servant's stillness was born of shock and outrage rather than acquiescence.

If this kept up, Sesshoumaru noted, Rin's hunting skills would improve very rapidly.

Just the other day, he had seen her in the hallway with her ear to the ground. When asked what she was doing, she had replied that she was listening for the sound of the staff of heads thumping against the floor. She had been very pleased when he had voiced his approval.

Sesshoumaru made a mental note to chastise Jaken. He was making it much too easy for Rin to track him. It seemed that he was no longer much of a challenge for the little girl.

At that very moment, Sesshoumaru could hear the shrub beneath his window rustling suspiciously.

The youkai seated himself at the window once more, cursing his current state of distraction, and trying not to think about the cause of it.

These past nights, he had been overcome with restlessness. He was glad of the disturbances in his territory. Leaving the fortress on his own to take care of such matters had become a way for him to redirect his energies. Though the maddened youkai encroaching on his lands weren't much of a challenge to destroy, they still served to turn his thoughts away from a certain dark-eyed miko. Night after night, he went out hunting, and ended any trouble he found with brutal efficiency.

It seemed that, this time around, the shards of the Shikon no Tama had been widely scattered. Rather than some youkai collecting a few shards each, it seemed that many low-level youkai had acquired one shard apiece. They did not have the self-control to master the shards, so the shards had mastered them.

Such creatures had turned their attentions to the wholesale razing and destroying that they enjoyed so much. On the whole, they lacked the intelligence to seek more shards. This lack of vision was truly disappointing, but he supposed that it could lead to troublesome uprisings.

While it would be child's play to put such insurrections down, Sesshoumaru preferred to deal with the idiots one at a time, though the fights were not very satisfying. He had even picked up a few shards from the remains of youkai he had killed.

He supposed that he would give them to Kagome when he next saw her.

At the thought of her, he got up and started to stalk the length of the room once more, leashed aggression coloring his steps.

It was meaningless, he told himself. Kagome was human, and infuriating beyond belief. She drove him insane with the ridiculous way she spoke, her constant arguing, and her utter refusal to give him the deference that was his due.

The crux of his discontent was that, for some reason, her refusal to defer to him only increased his interest. He did not understand why he put up with her eccentricities, and he could not deny that he perceived a kind of strength in her that he admired.

He had come to the disgusted realization that, against all reason, he actually liked the girl.

Though many could no doubt crush her without a thought, she showed a surprising resilience. She feared for her life, but somehow always managed to bear up beneath it. Her stubbornness only seemed to increase when she faced odds that would break others of her breed.

Feeling his claws prick against his palms, he noticed with mild surprise that he had unconsciously formed his hands into fists. He examined the small puncture marks absently, and was reminded of the heated sensation of soft lips against his skin.

His palms felt marked with the memory of her waist beneath his hands. He wondered if she was as soft and warm everywhere else.

Perhaps he was in breeding rut. That might explain this sudden and persistent interest in her, though it hadn't ever caused him such difficulty in the past.

Since he had left her with the other miko, he had found himself waking from dreams of her. Her scent filled his head, and the imagined taste and feel of her body caused his to seize with frustrated lust.

Even worse than this hunger for her was the voice in his head that dogged him at every opportunity, always with the same question.

Why not?

Sesshoumaru was used to getting what he wanted. Was this any different?

He paused, entertaining the idea for a moment. It wasn't unheard of for youkai to indulge themselves with humans every now and then. Though he had never had the urge to do so, there was no real stigma attached to it.

Taking one as a mate, or designating a hanyou as one's heir was a completely different story. That, he thought bitterly, led to nothing but disgrace.

He, however, was in no danger of doing such a thing. Sesshoumaru walked back to the window and looked outside, though the view was lost on him.

She would be receptive. Kagome was in no way immune to him. He had no doubt that she felt the same hunger.

He could smell it when he was near.

A flood of heat filled him as he imagined just how good it would be. Would she tremble under his mouth, or move demandingly against him?

He shuddered, almost seeing her flushed face, almost feeling the slick slide of her flesh on his, almost tasting her sweat on his tongue as he drove into her. He could almost hear her, almost . . .

Sesshoumaru's awareness of his surroundings returned. Sounds from beneath the window penetrated the mental fog, as an anguished yelp caught his attention.

Evidently, Jaken had been found. Rin squealed with delight at having won her game. Sesshoumaru heard the aged youkai mutter, "Leave me in peace, diabolical child!"

The crotchety complaint was cut off abruptly, and a muffled croak made its way to Sesshoumaru's ears.

He smirked, briefly awash in schadenfreude.

The more Jaken ran, the greater Rin's determination to find him, it seemed.

Night would soon fall in his lands. Sesshoumaru pulled on his armor and picked up his swords.

A look of anticipation flickered across his features.

His blood was up. It was time to hunt.

**********

When there was no problem in the area for Aya to hunt down, she seemed at a loss as to what to do.

Ever since Kagome's arrival, Aya had amply demonstrated that, though she might be a formidable fighter, she was positively clueless in almost all domestic respects. She always wanted to be where the action was. Meanwhile, Kazuo took care of everyday matters, all while preserving an almost unearthly calm.

"How did you and Kazuo get together, anyway?" Kagome asked curiously. They had finished dinner. Aya had a firm belief in lounging around until the meal had settled. Later, they would likely train.

For now, however, Aya seemed to be bursting with restlessness. Kazuo had gone outside to check on his vegetable patch. As was his habit, Seiji had gone into the woods to do some trap maintenance. The trip-cords leading to the noisemakers by the hut often became tangled or broken.

Aya laughed. "We are quite a strange pair, are we not?" The woman leaned back on her hands with a sigh, having satisfactorily completed her weapons maintenance for the day.

Kagome smiled and took another sip of tea. Aya was settling in for a long girl-talk, making up for years of being surrounded by men. Kagome suspected that the miko's willingness to train her had been motivated less by altruism, and more by the promise of a captive audience.

The young woman sighed happily. Kazuo always seemed to make the most marvelous tea.

Aya tilted her head as she began to tell her story. "When I first met Kazuo, he was a little younger than Seiji is now. I guess I was in my mid-forties."

"Cradle robber!" Kagome heckled cheerfully with a sidelong look.

Aya was unperturbed. "That was what I thought as well. Anyway, I had wandered for many years. I didn't like to stay too long in one place."

Kagome nodded. She'd noticed that Aya was a restless individual. She always seemed to have something else to do. However, Kagome thought ruefully as she recalled her earlier pruning duty, the woman's need to be elsewhere seemed to become twice as pressing when there were unpleasant chores to be done.

"One day," Aya continued, "I came upon a village in trouble. Gods, it always seemed like there was a village in trouble. Then, they always did something completely silly, like sacrifice someone, or form angry mobs. . . " The miko trailed off, evidently piqued.

Kagome nodded vigorously. "Don't I know it!" she stated in agreement.

Aya took a fortifying draught of her tea. "Anyway, the dumb villagers had formed a mob to go after the youkai that had been threatening the town," she continued. "The problem was that the youkai were the sort that ate children. All the able-bodied farmers had gone off with torches and weapons. The place was left completely undefended."

Kagome rolled her shoulders gingerly and winced at the ache before turning her attention back to the story. "Let me guess," she said dryly. "Kazuo is not the type to join a reckless mob, is he?"

Aya grinned. "Of course not. He was the only man who stayed in the village." The woman leaned back against the wall. "The problem was that he never has been much of a fighter. Even back then, he was a man of peace." She smiled affectionately.

"Anyway, when I arrived at the village, the most gorgeous man I had ever seen was dangling out of a youkai's mouth in the middle of the town. He seemed completely unperturbed at his precarious position, and kept whacking it across the nose with a large scroll to distract it from the children nearby."

Kagome, who had been reaching for a piece of fruit, was overcome with a fit of giggles. "Oh, gods," she gasped. "I can just picture it. He was probably making tea, and then the youkai grabbed him. . . " The young woman collapsed breathlessly onto the mat she sat on, convulsing in mirth.

"Isn't it so like Kazuo?" Aya asked wryly, watching Kagome with amusement. "After I got to know him, I was surprised he did not give the youkai a stern talking-to before resuming his reading."

"So what happened?" Kagome asked curiously.

Aya shrugged, turning her teacup in her hands. "Well, I killed the youkai and saved him, of course. He was injured. I left him with the village healer and was on my way. Then, two weeks later, I realized that I was being followed."

Kagome smiled. "It must have been Kazuo."

Aya let out a long-suffering sigh. "Of course it was Kazuo, complete with tea-kettle and numerous scrolls, I might add. He really is the most impractical man when it comes to packing. He had gotten some strange idea in his head that, since I'd saved him, he would travel with me and help me." The miko's cocked eyebrow showed just what she had thought of that situation.

Kagome laughed. "Oh gods, what did you do?"

"What would you do if someone, who to all appearances couldn't defend himself, started to follow you around while you were doing extremely dangerous things?" Aya asked with a smirk.

"I don't know," Kagome shrugged. "Did you tell him to go away?"

Aya chuckled. "Telling him to go home had no effect whatsoever. He's very stubborn. My solution was to tie him up while he slept, carry him to the nearest village, and then leave him there while I escaped under cover of night. Repeatedly."

Kagome had sat up, and was making strange choking sounds around her mouthful of fruit. Aya thumped her on the back helpfully.

"You know," she continued, deep in thought, "for such a hopeless fighter, Kazuo demonstrated some very impressive tracking skills. I still cannot understand how he managed to remain on my trail for those two years."

Two years? Kagome, who had finally recovered, started to cough anew.

Aya smacked her back hard enough to make Kagome wince. "I swear, I must have abandoned him in at least fifty different villages before I gave up."

Kagome gave up on breathing and turned purple, as Aya watched with concern. "Go on," Kagome requested when she was capable of speech once again. She took a restorative gulp of tea.

Aya nodded. "He really is the sweetest man. I couldn't help but miss him when I left him behind. " Aya said quietly. "After years of traveling alone, I had lost my taste for life's comforts. I did mention that my cooking is terrible, right? Aside from the fact that my standard of living skyrocketed when Kazuo was around, we talked about things he'd done and read. I relaxed enough around him to tell him about my life. Eventually, I was only half-heartedly covering my trail, so that he could find me easily. I continued to tell myself that leaving him behind was for his own good."

Aya looked down for a moment, and then refilled both their teacups. "Then, one day, more than a week passed with no sign of him. It had never taken him that long to find me before."

"What did you do?" Kagome asked, leaning forward.

"Well, I could not function for too long without him, you see." Aya leaned back again, a faraway look in her eyes. "I searched for him. I thought something had happened, and agonized over the possibility that he had been injured or killed. I could not sleep at night, worrying."

The older miko's eyes darkened with remembered anxiety, and she didn't say anything for a moment.

"Eventually, I went back to the last village I left him in. He was still there, safe and sound, while I had been a complete wreck. I lost my temper. I think I screamed and cried for about ten minutes before I noticed that he was livid. In all that time, I'd never once seen him lose his composure or raise his voice."

Kagome tried, but couldn't imagine Kazuo angry.

"He started to shout at me!" Aya exclaimed, her voice incredulous.

Shocked, Kagome's eyes rounded.

"He said that if, after two years, I was too stupid to figure out that he followed me because he was in love with me, he was going to give up for good. He would stay in that village, and never bother me again. Apparently, he was tired of waiting around for me to come to my senses."

Kagome attempted to picture Kazuo making any such scene, and utterly failed. Once, she thought she'd seen him look mildly annoyed. Then, she'd realized that the lighting in the room was merely casting a strange shadow across his usual genial expression.

"He also added that I'd save money on rope, once I stopped having to tie him up and leave him places." She looked at the floor and shook her head. "Kazuo was always such a thrifty fellow," Aya commented with a sigh.

"I was speechless. He stormed out of the hut and left me there to think about it after stating, and I quote, that I should sit there until what he had said penetrated my thick skull."

"That's so romantic," Kagome sighed.

Aya looked at the girl askance. She obviously had a strange idea of romance.

"What did you do?" Kagome asked.

Aya shrugged. "Well, what could I do? He was right, as usual. I was stupid. After wandering for so long, it hadn't occurred to me that I had been feeling settled since we'd met. I still traveled, but Kazuo had become my home. I couldn't imagine being happy without him. Plus, did I mention that he was the handsomest thing I had ever seen?" She sighed melodramatically, provoking a chuckle from Kagome.

"He knew everything about me, and didn't seem to mind that I was something of a freak. I did not know if we could ever have a family, but it didn't seem to bother him too much." Aya smiled. "After a couple of hours sitting in that hut, I came to a decision. I packed up his kettle and his scrolls, and waited for him to come back. However, when he showed up, Kazuo had other ideas."

Kagome leaned forward in suspense. She should have known that Aya would have had a weird courtship, but this was just too much.

"He dragged the village chief along with him when he walked in the door. I think Kazuo went into his house and hauled the man away from his dinner. The poor fellow looked terrified. Kazuo was ranting that I could either marry him then and there, or leave him in the village. Then he yelled at the top of his lungs that I would never find another man who would put up with being tied hand and foot on a regular basis just to be near me."

Aya grinned and shook her head. "Needless to say, the chief practically begged me to marry poor Kazuo, thinking that they didn't need another madman to settle there. There was already one character in the village who ran around mooing like a cow."

"Seriously?" Kagome's eyes had gone wide once more. She wasn't sure what was weirder; the mental image of cow-man, or the thought of Kazuo getting fired up enough to yell at somebody. "Interesting."

"Yes, very." Aya agreed. "I am told that he was driven out when he started asking the village girls to milk him."

The miko snickered before continuing. "Anyway, Kazuo and I were married that day, and continued to travel. He was tiring of our lifestyle, though he did not complain of it. Then, I became pregnant with Seiji, which was a nice surprise. We had thought I would not be able to bear children. When we came back here, we settled in for a while, since we had a fondness for the village we were married in. We did not want to risk anything with the pregnancy, and I became accustomed to having roots. We have not moved since."

Aya smiled. "Some of the older villagers still remember finding Kazuo asleep, bound hand and foot, in the middle of town. I was told later that the children were poking him with sticks, but he didn't even notice. He is truly impossible to wake up." She shook her head fondly. "Sometimes I carried him over my shoulder for hours over rough terrain, and he'd still be sleeping like a baby when I dumped him in whatever village was closest."

Kagome laughed, before commenting, "That's a really sweet story."

Aya laughed in the firelight. "Perhaps it is. He is my rock." Her piquant features drew into a frown. "Since I achieved control over my powers, I have not aged a day. I am sure to outlive both my husband and my son. I don't know if I can stand it. Be aware, Kagome, that should you acquire the same ability, you may suffer the same anxieties." She seemed to forcibly shake off the shadow that had passed over her face, and then got to her feet with a sigh.

Kagome frowned slightly. Being able to live that long didn't seem like a good thing at all. Watching one's loved ones pass on would be torturous.

It seemed like her choices were to either perish immediately, or to live an unnaturally long life that would be filled with loss. Neither option was all that appealing.

"How will I know if that happens?" she asked tentatively. "What did it feel like?"

"Well," Aya began, scrunching her nose in thought, "it is sort of hard to explain. I just knew. After my father died at the hands of a youkai, I found that I became much stronger. The pain of his death and the feeling that I failed to defend him unleashed my strength in some way, but I still had to consciously control it. Some time later, a feeling of unity and balance washed over me. My energy obeyed my will without any effort. I could feel its current at all times, and knew that my body was constantly renewing itself."

Aya shrugged. "I wish I could tell you more. If it happens to you, you will know."

"So how long will you live?" Kagome asked.

"That, I do not know," Aya replied. "I have no one to ask."

Then, she huffed with frustration. "Seiji does not seem in any rush to marry and give me grandchildren. I do not know what to do with that boy!" Aya's arms crossed over her chest, foot tapping impatiently on the mat-covered floor. "The village girls like him well enough. He does take after his father, after all," she confided with a wink.

"Unfortunately, he does not notice any of it. Perhaps I shall have to take matters into my own hands," Aya stated with terrifying resolve.

"I have a friend who has the opposite problem," Kagome said with a grin. "He has far too much interest in women. Actually, he asks all the girls he meets to have his child. Just be glad Seiji isn't like that."

Aya sighed. "Yes, it might be difficult if Seiji were like that, but. . . grandchildren." The older woman paused thoughtfully. Kagome watched nervously as the older miko cast a speculative look towards her.

"Hey! You're scaring me!" Kagome exclaimed. "Not that Seiji isn't a nice guy, but -I'm very young. And you. . . as a mother-in law? I mean, you're not scary in a bad way or anything. . . " Kagome gave up on talking, choosing instead to hide her face in her hands.

Stupid mouth, she thought to herself.

Aya grinned fiendishly. "Do not worry. His liking for you gives me hope that he will take a more active interest in the village girls soon," she replied. "I would like Seiji to settle down with a pleasant woman who won't endanger his life on a regular basis like I have. Then," she added with a nod and an unholy gleam in her eye, "my grandchildren can keep me company in my old age."

Kagome sighed, feeling a twinge of pity for Aya's future relations. Especially, she thought wryly, if Aya chose to train any of them to fight.

She stretched her back and whimpered.

Yep, Kagome thought to herself. She was still sore. It tended to be her general condition these days.

"All right!" Aya exclaimed to Kagome's dismay, dusting her hands off decisively and making a beeline for the weapons storage. Obviously, the time for talking was over. "Are you ready to learn how to kill things?"

**********

"I'm going to fucking kill you!" Inuyasha raged, flinging himself towards his bored-looking half-brother as he drew his sword.

Sesshoumaru blurred past Inuyasha, dodging his attack.

The rest of Inuyasha's company looked on in dismay, braced for battle. Sesshoumaru had appeared only moments earlier, having no doubt heard Inuyasha's yelling and crashing around from miles away. To make things worse, Inuyasha's anger was putting him at a disadvantage.

Sango swung Hiraikotsu into position on her shoulder, and Miroku grasped the prayer beads that bound his air void. Shippou had hidden himself behind Kirara.

It seemed that the plan to ask politely after Kagome would have to be scrapped.

Annoyed, Sesshoumaru knocked Inuyasha onto his back with a vicious punch. A spray of rubble flew into the air as Inuyasha hit the forest floor with tremendous force.

Sesshoumaru stayed where he was, and wiped his hand on his sash with an expression of vague distaste.

Great. Now his hand smelled like hanyou.

The cloud of dust emitted an angry cry.

"KAZE NO KIZU!"

Miroku, Sango and Shippou winced simultaneously as trees and rocks were gouged from the earth in the path of Inuyasha's sword. The ground shook. Tetsusaiga's attack left nothing but smoking trenches in what had, just moments before, been a lovely grove of trees.

Sesshoumaru, high above them, was starting to feel a bit piqued. He could see this forest area from his window, and had no doubt from this vantage point that it would be a good deal less aesthetically pleasing from now on.

When he'd initially encountered the group, he had not intended to hurt Inuyasha.

Well, not too much, anyway.

After all, his bastard half-brother was one of the strongest on Kagome's list of allies. She would likely need them soon. Not that he really cared what she needed, of course; he simply harbored ill will towards Naraku, and would be pleased to see him destroyed. Thus, Sesshoumaru had found himself coming to the unpleasant conclusion that he should avoid killing the dumb hanyou. Allowing Inuyasha to live would further his own objectives.

However, enough was enough.

Sesshoumaru alighted. "If your tiny brain is capable of thought, you will stop this foolishness before I kill you," he stated in chilled syllables.

Inuyasha's hackles rose as he turned to face his opponent. Sesshoumaru always managed to find a way to treat him like a bit of dirt besmirching his immaculate shoe. "What did you do to Kagome, you bastard? She's dead, isn't she!"

Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow and remained infuriatingly silent, flicking an imaginary bit of dust from his sleeve. He knew that his relaxed, unconcerned posture would infuriate his brother and cause him to-

"KAZE NO KIZU!" Inuyasha roared, utterly enraged.

The Lord of the Western Lands, high in the air once more, looked upon another unsightly hole in his previously beautiful morning view and scowled.

"Stop it, Inuyasha!" Shippou yelled from his seat on Kirara.

Sango's grip on Hiraikotsu shifted as she crouched into an attack position.

Then, Sesshoumaru attacked. He sped forward, seizing Inuyasha's sword arm in a vise-like grip and searing him with poison. Inuyasha swiped at him with his other hand, claws extended, until Sesshoumaru immobilized it as well, digging his own claws into Inuyasha's flesh. The hanyou's face froze into a gratifying mask of pain as Tetsusaiga was thrown to the ground some distance away.

"I thought that Father's sword was supposed to prevent you from fighting like an idiot until you died," Sesshoumaru snarled derisively, finally releasing his grip to deal another hard punch to Inuyasha's midsection. The rest of the group looked on in horror as the force of the blow sent Inuyasha plowing through the wreckage of the grove towards them.

Sesshoumaru followed.

"What did you do to her? You're gonna pay!" Inuyasha continued to shout as he slowly regained his feet.

Miroku's hold on his beads tightened behind Inuyasha. There was no time to get around him; Sesshoumaru was closing in fast. If he unleashed the air void now, from this position, he would likely get Inuyasha as well, but he could not allow Inuyasha to die if he could do anything about it. Perhaps if he timed it just right, he could manage it.

Kirara tensed, ready to spring, at Sango's side.

Then, Sesshoumaru stopped, picked Inuyasha up by the scruff of his neck, and slammed him face-first into the ground next to where Tetsusaiga lay.

Inuyasha remained inert as Sesshoumaru kicked him experimentally. The youkai smirked faintly, shrugged, and kicked him again for purely recreational reasons. Then, he stepped onto the hanyou's back and turned to face Inuyasha's rather stunned companions.

Miroku was the first to collect his wits after the rather uncharacteristic display. Sango had lowered her weapon in shock, and Shippou was peeking hesitantly at the scene through Kirara's fur.

Sesshoumaru had been their adversary in their past encounters, but something different was going on this time. He had not seriously retaliated, though in all honesty, he would have been perfectly justified in doing so. Miroku thought that, after being attacked by Inuyasha with so little provocation, the youkai would have done something a good deal more lethal than knocking Inuyasha out. And kicking him. And then kicking him again.

Suddenly, the idea that Kagome was all right didn't seem so farfetched after all.

A slight smile broke across the monk's face. Miroku decided to cut to the chase. "We were told by Kaede that you accompanied Kagome to the village. Where is she now?" he inquired cautiously.

Shippou hopped off Kirara's back and hurried over to Miroku's side at the mention of Kagome's name. Sango lifted Hiraikotsu back into ready position, just in case.

Beneath Sesshoumaru's feet, Inuyasha made a muffled groaning sound. Sesshoumaru casually booted him in the head once more. The noise abruptly ceased.

"Stubborn fool," Sesshoumaru grunted. He looked back up at his half-brother's compatriots, as collected as ever. "Kagome is in the South. She has elected to train with a miko there," he stated succinctly.

"Is she hurt?" Shippou piped anxiously, wringing his tiny hands. "Is she all right?"

"She is in good health," Sesshoumaru replied shortly. "When I found her, she was wounded, but she healed before we visited the miko hag."

"Don't call Kaede a hag!" a muffled voice protested from under Sesshoumaru.

For a split second, Inuyasha's companions - the monk, especially - looked amused.

"Why should we believe you anyway?" Inuyasha asked through a faceful of moss and rubble. "Damn it, Sesshoumaru, get off me. You're heavy," he continued. Sesshoumaru's foot met the back of Inuyasha's head again with a satisfying thud. The youkai smirked when the hanyou fell blessedly silent once more.

Shippou rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. It often seemed to him as though he was the most mature person around for miles.

The taijiya stepped forward, with a hard glint in her eye. "Why should we believe you?" she asked bluntly. "Do you have any proof that Kagome is in good health? She has, after all, caused trouble for you in the past. How do we know you didn't kill her?"

Sesshoumaru sent her a dark look. These pathetic creatures doubted his word? He noticed that the young fox's face had fallen at the taijiya's words. He'd seen this kit before, he remembered. The pup clung to Kagome as a pup would to its mother.

Gods, he thought to himself. He couldn't believe he had been reduced to proving himself to these misfits. After a moment's thought, he slipped his hand into his clothing and withdrew a small item from its folds.

"She went through the well to her own time. After she returned, the girl gave me this," he replied coolly, extending his hand to reveal what he held.

As one, Miroku, Sango and Shippou stared in shock at something they had never thought they would see: the Lord of the Western Lands, clutching a rainbow swirl lollipop.

Shippou let out a squeal of happiness. He was overcome with the sudden certainty that Kagome was alive, as well as the promise of sugar that hovered only slightly out of his reach.

Noticing the beady look of anticipation in the little kit's eye, Sesshoumaru tucked the lollipop back into its hiding-place.

"It is. . . Rin's," he said evenly.

Shippou's expression fell, until he remembered that they could now find out where Kagome was. "Can we go and get Kagome now?" he asked Sango and Miroku.

"Where exactly is she?" Sango asked, ruffling Shippou's hair as she moved to stand next to him and Miroku. It would be wonderful to see her friend again.

"The fighting miko who is teaching her lives in a hut on the outskirts of a forest and marsh. It lies just beyond the southern border," Sesshoumaru replied. "I suppose that you may go to see her, though it would serve little purpose. She knows what must be done."

Sango and Miroku shared a look, doubt clouding their eyes once more. Was Sesshoumaru trying to keep them from Kagome for some reason?

Sesshoumaru continued dispassionately. "Kagome will be unable to collect shards as she trains, and is aware that Naraku is likely trying to find them now, while they are still in the possession of weak youkai. If you value your lives and the girl's, collect as many shards as possible as soon as possible. Naraku is likely weakened and unable to create the detachments that have plagued you in the past."

The monk's brow furrowed. It was true, he realized. It hadn't been until Kikyou had given Naraku the shards they had collected that the detachments had started to attack them.

Sesshoumaru stepped off Inuyasha's back. The hanyou groaned, slowly returning to lucidity.

"Whatever you do, it is none of my concern," the youkai lord finished coldly. "Die if you wish."

He gave Inuyasha one last sadistic prod with his foot, and then wisps of cloud seemed to gather around him, bearing him into the air with great speed as the others watched in bewilderment.

"Well," Sango exhaled. "That was. . . interesting."

Shippou leapt into Sango's arms and looked quizzically up at her and Miroku. "So we can't visit Kagome? We have to help her. If we get to the shards before Naraku does, all of us will be better off, right?"

Miroku nodded as he helped their rather dazed friend back to his feet. "What happened?" Inuyasha asked, blinking in confusion.

"Uh. . . Inuyasha?" Shippou asked as the hanyou turned to look around him for his fallen sword.

"Huh?" he asked, rubbing his face gingerly. Gods, but his head really hurt, particularly the back of it, for reasons unknown to him. Inuyasha reached back and felt several bumps rising beneath his hair.

What the hell had happened to him?

"You have footprints all over your back," the kit informed him helpfully.

Inuyasha's expression soured as images started to resurface in his muddy brain. Oh, right. Sesshoumaru had knocked him out and then stomped all over him while he wove in and out of consciousness, that dirty little. . .

"Damn it! You're going to regret that next time I see you, Sesshoumaru!" Inuyasha yelled into the sky.

High above them, some distance away, Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes at his half-brother's cry of bravado.

**********

A faraway noise interrupted Kagome's rest.

As time went on at the Hayashi residence, Kagome started to feel very much like part of the family.

Especially if `feeling like part of the family' meant endless, inescapable persecution, she thought darkly as she snuggled further under her sleeping bag. It was probably dawn, and that meant. . .

Right on cue, a horrible racket began, and came to a halt at her screen door. The woefully thin barrier slid open with a crash.

"Get up, get up!" Aya cried, gleefully banging on a pot with the ladle that she had snatched from a disapproving Kazuo.

Kagome moaned, pulling her sleeping bag over her head. Who needed an alarm clock when one had Aya around?

"Kagome! Rise and shine!" Clang! Clang!

Unfortunately, Aya did not have any of the advanced features that Kagome had come to appreciate. For instance, the woman glaringly lacked a snooze button.

Suddenly, Kagome missed the modern era very much.

"Go away," the lump beneath the covers pleaded in a sleepy voice. "This is inhumane. I'm going to report you. I demand my human rights."

"You will miss breakfast," Aya said, completely undeterred by Kagome's call for amnesty. "I have a long day planned for you."

"No." Kagome's muffled voice resounded with alarm. "I am still sore from yesterday. And the day before, and. . . and I am now officially on strike!"

Aya shook her head at the nonsense that Kagome seemed to spout each and every morning. `On strike'? `Inhumane'? `Human rights'? Ridiculous!

"Get up, or I will make you do fifty lunges," Aya countered with abrasive cheer, giving the pot another thwack for good measure.

Kagome's eyes snapped open at that tidbit. She threw the covers off, and bolted past Aya into the eating area.

By the time Aya replaced Kazuo's prized kitchen tools and took a seat in the eating area, the others were digging in.

"If you rub a bit of garlic around the inside of the pot first, it adds that extra bit of flavour," Kazuo advised Kagome with the air of a master educating a young apprentice.

"Mmm," Kagome nodded, taking another spoonful of soup. "Mine is always a little bland. I will try that. Yours turns out perfectly every time."

Kazuo smiled beatifically.

Aya sighed. "I find that if you just throw everything into a pot and leave it for a while, it generally comes out edible." Seiji looked at her with remembered fear. "Well, most of the time," she quickly qualified.

She cringed beneath Kazuo's slightly scandalized gaze as Seiji grinned.

"No offense, Aya," Kagome interjected, "but I'm going to follow Kazuo's advice in anything food-related. Your tips work best when applied to killing things."

Seiji started to choke on a mouthful of rice. Once he recovered, he looked surreptitiously at Kagome, whose attention had returned to her food.

"Seiji," Aya drawled. "What exactly are you staring at, young man?"

He turned red and started to cough again. Aya thumped her son's back as Kagome looked up, wondering what had inspired that mischievous grin on the miko's face. Kazuo just shook his head slightly, and continued with his breakfast, inured to such chaos.

Not having sufficiently embarrassed her son, Aya ruffled his dark hair affectionately.

"Mother," he groaned, looking down at his food.

"Kagome," Aya began. "Is it all right if I send some of your clothes to the village seamstress today? I would like to ask if she can make similar things for me."

Kagome nodded and set her empty bowl aside. "Of course," she replied. "Just go through my pack and take whatever you like." Aya finished her food and repaired to Kagome's room to do just that.

When she returned with a bundle of clothing, breakfast had been cleaned up. Kagome was outside, patching her bicycle tire as Seiji asked questions about the contents of her maintenance kit.

Truly, Kagome had the most interesting things, he thought. She was using some strange apparatus to pump air into the rubber rings.

Aya stood in the doorway with Kazuo, and kissed him on the cheek. "I will send Seiji to speak with the seamstress," Aya informed him with a sly smile.

Kazuo wrapped a loving arm around her waist and shook his head. "You are incorrigible," he remarked.

She grinned in response. "It is purely coincidental that both the seamstress and her assistant are beautiful and unmarried, husband."

"Yes, dear," Kazuo agreed wryly. "I am sure that you are in no way motivated by your all-consuming obsession with grandchildren."

"Of course not," she returned impishly. "I would never be so crass."

Kazuo sighed. "He is smitten with Kagome," he remarked under his breath. "Hopefully, it will soon pass. When will the youkai lord arrive?"

Aya shrugged. "She said a month from his departure, so in a week or so."

Kazuo tilted his head slightly. "Perhaps Seiji should be sent to the weaver's stall as well," he remarked. "To see about fabric for your new garments, of course."

Aya paused, before exclaiming, "Why, you cunning man!" The weaver had three daughters that should have reached marriageable age by now. "I am lucky to have such a brilliant husband."

Kazuo laughed and headed towards his garden. "I will be making preserves today," he told her. "Do not work Kagome too hard."

Aya smiled. "She will survive," she called after him.

"Barely," Kazuo appended in a tone so dry that, if properly harnessed, it would be capable of dehydrating an entire season's harvest in seconds.

Aya laughed, sent Seiji into the village with a bundle of clothing, and retrieved her unfortunate pupil.

**********

Later that afternoon, Kagome was going through some forms under the miko's watchful eye. "You have made much progress," Aya commented in an objective tone.

Kagome swung her staff in wide arcs, pivoting quickly to follow her sweep with a strong kick.

The purple glow that surrounded both the girl and her weapon was relatively steady in strength, wavering only slightly when Aya stepped forward, drew her kodachi, and sent one flying towards the younger woman's midsection.

Kagome's staff quickly flew upward, knocking Aya's weapon aside. Then, the staff changed course towards the older miko's neck until she blocked it with her forearm and leapt out of range. Kagome pulled her energy back inside herself, rested the end of her staff on the ground and leaned on it slightly. Her brow was sheened with sweat from both physical and mental exertion.

"Not bad!" Aya exclaimed. "I was almost working at half speed there."

Almost half speed? Kagome groaned and sagged towards the ground as Aya continued perkily.

"I think it is time we discussed some tactics. Your combat skills are coming along, but you have to know where to hit. If you were to be on the ground with a youkai on top of you, what would you do?"

Kagome flushed slightly. That, she thought to herself, was a really excellent question, considering recent events and a certain visitor who would be appearing rather soon.

"Not like THAT," Aya said disgustedly. Kagome had been becoming more distracted as the time of the little girl's visit drew nearer. However, the older woman was quite sure that it wasn't the thought of Rin that was causing Kagome's preoccupation.

The young woman's resemblance to a tomato only grew as the silence lengthened.

Aya sighed before asking, "All right. Shall we move on?"

Kagome nodded vigorously. "Please," she replied in a meek tone. Satisfied, Aya resumed her lecture.

"Your energy is purifying energy. That means that it should be able to burn through almost any part of a youkai, even if you are fighting with a staff and not a blade. If you cannot identify what areas are vulnerable, try to immobilize the creature. Chop off its legs, or cut off its arms. No matter how strong something is, it should not be able to attack you very well while dragging itself along, even if it can regenerate."

"Gross!" Kagome exclaimed, wrinkling her nose.

"I know," Aya replied. "It is messy to hack something to pieces that way, but if you are too cocky against a strong opponent, you will probably lose. If you want to fight fair to begin with, that is your decision. Just be aware that if it proves to be a hard kill, it is expedient to fight as dirty as you can. Aim to disable."

Kagome gave up on standing and slid to a seat on the grass. Using her energy was still so draining, she thought in disgruntlement.

Aya marched back and forth in front of her as she imparted yet more of her really disgusting knowledge.

"Go for the eyes, neck, and the main body area, if you have a choice. Decapitation is a good bet, if you can get that close. Believe me, it's extremely frightening when something continues to charge you without a head though; be prepared."

"Just when I thought this conversation couldn't get any more repulsive," Kagome piped weakly. Her face had taken on a slightly greenish cast. "Aya, you never cease to amaze me."

The older woman smiled. "Why thank you, Kagome. I am glad to be of service," she joked. Then, her tone turned businesslike once more.

"Another advantage that you have is that you can use your energy as a weapon if you are ever disarmed. When you become more adept, you will be able to use blasts of your power to purify your enemies. In fact, if you are wrapping your energy around yourself, your entire body should be capable of burning your opponent through bodily contact, and will act a little like a shield as well."

Kagome sighed. "The problem is that I can feel a lot of power just waiting to be used, but I can't get at it." She looked towards her feet. "It takes so much out of me to control it."

"Do not worry," Aya said, sitting down next to Kagome. "For now, it most likely comes and goes. There is a hump that you must get over," Aya said with authority. "It took me some time as well, but eventually, the use of your power will become natural to you. It will get easier. Remember, you also use arrows, which is a stroke of luck. If you want to practice, just set a target up wherever you like. I, however, will not be able to help in that regard."

"Really? Why not?" Kagome asked curiously.

"Do not tell anyone," Aya warned her as she looked suspiciously from side to side, "but I am truly horrible. Kazuo made me stop practicing after my arrow burned a large hole in the wall of the hut. He was worried for Seiji." The miko looked abashed. "I have not used a bow since."

"You hit the hut?" Kagome's question was greeted with a blush from Aya.

"Yes," the woman replied miserably, staring at the ground. "I don't like to talk about it. Shall we move on?"

"What exactly were you aiming for?"

"Uh. . . the weather is very nice today, is it not?" Aya looked up at the sky, trying her hardest to change the subject. Her fingers clenched in the grass on either side of her.

"Aya," Kagome persisted. "What were you trying to hit?"

The woman beside Kagome sighed and turned a deeper shade of red. "I stood where we are sitting now, and was aiming for the tree that you cut down earlier," she mumbled.

Kagome blinked, turned her head to look at the tree in question, and then looked back at Aya in shock. "But. . . that tree is in the opposite direction from the hut! How on earth did that happen?"

Aya plucked nervously at a blade of grass. "I, unaccustomed to using a bow, was very nervous. Seiji started to cry, and the sudden noise. . ." she muttered, her words becoming inaudible.

She noticed that Kagome was watching her in stunned silence.

"All right!" Aya exclaimed as she leapt to her feet, her voice aggressively cheerful. "Back to work!"

Kagome made a mental note never to let Aya use her bow. Then, she got up and dusted herself off for another sparring session. This time, when she called her power outward, it seemed to obey her with less protest. Kagome felt energized and ready for anything. When she looked down at her body, she stilled in surprise.

Aya watched in amazement as a flood of violet light radiated strongly outward from its stunned epicenter.

"I told you, it comes and goes. However, I've never seen anything like this!" Aya exclaimed in a hushed voice. This was a lot of power, and if Kagome could learn to control it. . .

"Now that," Aya said in awe, "is what I would call `greatness of soul.'"

**********

Pausing in her walk, Kikyou looked up at the moon as the sinuous bodies of her soul-stealers undulated lazily at her side, casting ghostly light over her path.

She was wandering again.

Once, she would have found the fall of moonlight through the trees beautiful. When she had been capable of such a feeling, she had loved watching the seasons paint the world in ever-changing colours. Now, the blaze of autumn and the bloom of spring seemed to be beyond her notice. Everything seemed leached of all life.

Just, she thought hollowly, as she was.

She had no purpose. She was a shrine-keeper without a shrine, and a woman with no home.

A cold smile fleetingly touched her lips. Perhaps, she thought, she was not even a woman anymore. Instead, she was something inert and empty, waiting for its own destruction.

She would never give life, for she had no life of her own to give.

She was a creature in stasis.

In her restless travels, she stopped in villages that had been brought low by war. Her acts of healing the afflicted were motivated by a less than humanitarian desire.

She remembered the glow of satisfaction she had once felt, knowing that she had assuaged someone's pain.

Since she had returned to this plane, that warm sensation seemed perpetually out of her reach. However, the promise of feeling it again never faded. Instead, it hovered, impossible to grasp no matter how hard she tried.

Now, all was cold. Everything remained the same: cold, like the limbs that carried her through this world that did not want her anymore. She could not bear to leave it, however. She feared that she would be cast into a void even darker than the one she now inhabited.

Lately, though, there were moments when this plane did not seem so stark. Lately, she felt flashes of something at the edges of her consciousness. Something full of colour and life bloomed where, before, there had been a terrible abyss.

Her steps fell softly on the forest floor.

They seemed to know their way, though she did not.

Around her, the soul-stealers' white bodies writhed. They prepared themselves for the inevitable collection of the souls that sustained her.

Kikyou looked up at the moon and suddenly stilled.

Tonight, it was silver. The trees that stretched their branches above her seemed to gleam faintly in gradations of blue and gilt, like gleaming arms reaching to embrace the sky.

She held out her hand, and the snakelike bodies calmed once more, waiting for her to command them.

"No," she said softly, with an air of surprise that slowly changed to certainty.

"No, not tonight."

**********

"Why tonight?" Sango asked no one in particular through gritted teeth. With a powerful swing, she sent Hiraikotsu flying towards the towering youkai the group was currently fighting.

It had seemed like they would be able to have a relaxing evening. Then, the scorpion youkai they had been following had doubled back to take them on.

According to rumors, it had a Shikon shard.

For the past while, the group had been following many such rumors of the shards, and collecting what they could. It was slow work.

Without Kagome, it was hard to track the youkai that possessed pieces of the Shikon. Also, the fights were longer and more grueling. Their opponents used the jewel shards to regenerate. Since none of the gang could spot where the shards were secreted, they had found that collecting them was a good deal more hazardous than it had been before.

It hadn't been a piece of cake back then, either.

Hiraikotsu spun through the air on its way back to Sango, who caught the huge weapon in her grip. She had chopped the scorpion's poisonous tail off at the base. It was already regenerating, but she had bought them some time. The taijiya winced at the strain as her weapon's momentum pulled hard at the muscles in her shoulder.

She, Inuyasha, and Miroku had been getting quite the workout lately.

Miroku rushed in, landing a hard blow to the creature's head. It let out a loud, screeching cry, and then all hell broke loose.

"Why did this one have to be a mother?" the monk yelped. He ran back towards the others, trying to distance himself from the many small scorpions that scuttled off their parent's back in a gleaming black stream.

He had not been using his kazaana as much lately, since they had no way of knowing where the shards were. In a way, it was a relief; repeated use of the air-void meant more risk for him. All the same, he wasn't too fond of being pushed aside by Inuyasha, or even worse, the lovely taijiya, because he couldn't use his secret weapon.

Miroku eyed their opponents analytically. It would not do for him to suck a shard into his air void. However, the baby scorpions were probably safe, and due to mass alone, they would be the first to reach him. "Kazaana!" he cried, unbinding his hand. The overwhelming force of the air-void engulfed the youkai's offspring, before Miroku quickly wrapped the beads around his palm.

The monk smiled faintly. He'd always had perfect timing, he thought to himself. Of course, he was conveniently forgetting all those tender moments with Sango that had come to a premature and violent end due to certain timing-related issues.

"Oh no!" Shippou exclaimed from Kirara's back. The big cat snarled. "Now she's mad that Miroku sucked up her babies!"

The scorpion youkai was rearing up onto its hind legs, letting out an ear-splitting scream of rage as it set off after the one who had destroyed its offspring.

Inuyasha raised Tetsusaiga. "Miroku! Get out of the way!"

Ah, a mother's love, Miroku thought absently as he ran for cover.

Sango shook her head at the monk's nonchalant expression before she sent Hiraikotsu spinning towards the monster once more. Her massive weapon only glanced off its tough shell.

"Where the hell is that shard?" Inuyasha wondered aloud as he prepared to unleash the power of Tetsusaiga.

Shippou, who had been staring at the youkai, replied. "I see something on her head! Something shiny, right in the middle!"

"Shippou, that's its third eye!" Inuyasha exclaimed, peeved.

Then, a calm voice interrupted him.

"The shard is in that eye."

Shippou, Kirara, Sango, Miroku and Inuyasha turned as one to see who the speaker was.

Kikyou stood at the edge of the woods, her frame illuminated in the pale glow of her soul-stealing youkai. Swiftly, she raised her bow.

Another screech of fury resounded in the clearing as the scorpion once again demanded their attention. "I told you, Inuyasha! The shard is on her head!" Shippou squealed as the scorpion charged toward them and Kirara leapt into the air.

Inuyasha rushed the monster, slashed it across the face with his claws, and wrenched the contested eye free of its oozing socket with a squelching sound. Then, he pulled the shard free.

"Now die already," he barked. "I'm sick and tired of fighting you!"

The youkai's regenerated tail swung frenziedly toward him, but Inuyasha dodged the jets of poison that left steaming craters in the ground. Retreating rapidly, he raised his sword.

Before he could attack, a glowing arrow pierced the youkai's tough exoskeleton, burning it into dust before the group's stunned eyes.

Once they were satisfied that the danger had passed, they turned to Kikyou again. She had lowered her bow to her side.

"Kikyou," Inuyasha said quietly, as the rest of the group looked on in silence. "What are you doing here?"

She looked slightly uncertain for a moment before her cool mask returned. "I believe I helped you," she answered calmly.

Inuyasha watched her carefully, asking the question on all their minds. "Why?"

Kikyou did not answer, turning instead to look into the distance. "There is another shard just north of here. It is moving quickly towards the east," she said tonelessly, after a long pause.

Then, she and her soul-stealers disappeared back into the grove of trees from which she had emerged so suddenly, leaving Inuyasha and his friends to puzzle over what had just happened.

**********

To Kagome, the days that followed seemed to pass in a confusion of activity. She spent most of her waking hours either training with Aya, or recovering from her training with Aya. The woman took her promise to teach Kagome seriously, and devoted much of her energy to preparing her charge for the trials ahead, to Kagome's frequent chagrin.

"Oof!" Kagome said as Aya landed a hard blow to her stomach that left her breathless. "Can't we let up a bit? We've been at this all day. I don't think there is a square inch of me that isn't bruised."

In response, Aya merely picked up her kodachi, turning into a fast, strong spin-kick. Kagome leapt nimbly out of the way. Her movement had really improved, Aya observed. Kagome grasped her staff firmly, planted it in the earth, and heaved herself upwards to aim a kick towards Aya's head. She didn't connect, but Aya felt Kagome's foot whistle past, millimeters away from her face.

"No, Kagome, we must not be lax," Aya replied, swiping her blade towards Kagome, who took her staff in both hands. The edge of Aya's short sword bit into the wood, despite the energy that Kagome had fed into her weapon. "I have become quite attached to you, and have no wish to see you killed."

Kagome kept a sharp eye trained on Aya, who whirled and sent an elbow flashing towards her face, followed by one of her blades. Kagome dropped into a crouch, and swept her staff towards Aya's legs, rolling to the side before Aya blocked her and sent a foot flying towards her in another kick.

It was true that Kagome's energy was now accessible to her. However, it was still difficult to control it, though her mental discipline had advanced by leaps and bounds.

Suddenly, Kagome froze. If her senses were correct, some shards of Shikon were suddenly very close by. Aya quickly took advantage of her distraction. She lowered herself to the ground as well, quickly sweeping a leg towards Kagome's feet.

That was why Sesshoumaru's and Rin's first glimpse of Kagome was of her with her face firmly planted in the dirt.

Kagome hit the ground with a thud as the blow connected and knocked her legs out from under her. "Ouch!" she cried from her prone position. Aya sighed and shook her head at the familiar exclamation.

In their absorption, neither of the women had seen the strange cloud that sped through the sky towards them.

Kagome rolled to her back, unaware of Sesshoumaru's intent stare as he and Rin alighted. Then, she heard footsteps running towards her, and a small, familiar face blocked her view of the sky.

"Kagome!" Rin cried, flinging herself onto Kagome while Aya watched in amusement. The older woman had not lent much credibility to the idea that the Western Lord had taken in a human child, but there was no doubt now that he had. The little girl was practically strangling Kagome, who was emitting breathless choking noises. Sesshoumaru watched expressionlessly from several feet away, seemingly unable to tear his gaze from her rather dusty protégé.

"I will inform Kazuo that we have guests this evening," Aya stated. Having made her excuses, she repaired to the hut.

"Hi Rin!" Kagome greeted in a muffled voice. "Did you just get here? It's good to see you!"

Kagome winced and slowly disengaged from Rin's viselike embrace, pulling herself up to her feet with a pained grimace. She looked around her furtively, and smiled hesitantly when she saw Sesshoumaru.

"Hello," she greeted, slowly flushing and wishing fervently that she didn't have to greet him with such a tomato-like reaction. Damn it, she thought. He looked perfect as usual, and she was bruised, sweaty, and. . . oh, gods, no!

Kagome slowly reached up and brushed a clomp of soil from her cheek in mounting horror.

Sesshoumaru did not respond to her greeting, but slowly approached the two girls.

Embarrassed and a little irked, Kagome turned back to Rin. "How are you?" she asked the little girl.

"There is so much to tell you," the child effused, wrapping her arms around Kagome's leg in her excitement. "Since you went away, I have been nice to Jaken. And now, Jaken has become so much fun! He's not boring like he used to be. But he did not come with us," Rin replied, sounding a little disappointed at that last bit of information.

"Really? Jaken is fun?" Kagome asked, perplexed. "What do you mean?"

"Well, he hides all the time. Then Rin finds him, and hugs him to say thank you. Sometimes he runs, and Rin chases him. It is important to hug Jaken," Rin stated with a nod of conviction. "He is old. Also," she added gravely, "he doesn't smell very good."

Kagome's brow furrowed as she struggled to decrypt Rin's intensely non-linear brand of communication. Jaken was playing with Rin? Somehow, Kagome couldn't imagine the sour youkai doing anything of the sort. Then, her eyes widened.

Oh, gods, she realized. She covered her mouth, trying to suppress her laughter. Rin had started to hug Jaken, and when he tried to flee, she thought he was trying to play.

Kagome looked up towards Sesshoumaru, who met her eyes for one blistering moment, and then raised one brow slightly before looking up at nothing in particular.

"I see," she replied, trying to hide her smile. "Uh, Rin. . ."

Kagome meant to tell the little girl that Jaken might not be as happy to be hugged as Rin evidently thought he was. However, faced with Rin's happy expression, Kagome found that she couldn't break the news to her.

"I'm sure that Jaken is, uh, very pleased," Kagome continued lamely.

Sesshoumaru's eyebrow rose by a couple of degrees.

Kagome made an attempt to calm her nerves. Now that she saw him again, she wasn't sure why she'd thought of him so much in the past month. Sure, he was attractive, but that wasn't everything. Even if the word `attractive' seemed woefully inadequate to describe him, that alone was no big deal, right? He hadn't said two words to her since he'd gotten here. How incredibly rude.

When they had said goodbye, he had seemed less like his cold, arrogant self. Since then, he had reverted to being completely unreadable. Was he trying to confuse her? Her anxiety over seeing him again was fading in the face of her growing irritation.

Well, she thought to herself huffily. If he wasn't going to waste any time with pleasantries, then she wasn't going to either.

Kagome berated herself for making out with someone so utterly lacking in sensitivity, as well as basic social skills.

Kagome crossed her arms. "Is there any news?" she asked him calmly, trying to ignore the pull he seemed to exert on her. Maybe he wasn't a dog youkai after all, she mused grumpily. Was there such a thing as an electro-magnet youkai? That was the only logical explanation for her reaction to him.

The gods only knew it wasn't his stellar personality.

"Have you heard anything about Naraku, Sesshoumaru-sama?" Kagome asked in saccharine tones.

Narrowing his eyes, Sesshoumaru lowered his gaze back to her. She had given the honorific a rather pointed weight, making it sound decidedly less than respectful.

This girl could ruin positively anything, he thought, disconcerted. He could not believe that he had been up nights thinking about this insolent human. What on earth was wrong with him? He couldn't seem keep himself from imprinting her image on his memory. Even covered in dirt, she somehow managed to look edible.

"I have heard nothing about his activities," Sesshoumaru replied coldly. "I believe that he is most likely in hiding, or secretly trying to hunt the shards."

Kagome nodded, deep in thought. "Hmmm," she murmured under her breath. "He will want to have more shards before he starts making a serious offense, I think."

One of Sesshoumaru's eyebrows arched skyward. "It is also possible that he will act soon, if he knows you have been separated. You have no way of knowing how many shards he has collected. Perhaps, instead of hiding, he is preparing for an attack."

The young woman before him shrugged as she absently threaded her fingers through Rin's hair. "Possibly." She looked down at Rin and smiled, before turning back to Sesshoumaru. "What about the others? Do you have any idea how they are doing?"

As she spoke, she noticed that he had come a lot closer. She took an instinctive step back, but was brought up short by the weight of the child who was still firmly attached to her leg. Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed slightly as he followed. Rin just looked up at the two of them in confusion. He noticed with satisfaction that Kagome's cheeks pinkened slightly as his proximity grew. Now that he was nearer, he could smell her nervousness, mixed with the scent that was uniquely her own. However, the anxiety was fading. She was annoyed with him, he realized to his surprise.

"They are hunting the shards while you cannot," he replied.

Her mouth fell open. "You didn't attack Inuyasha when you saw them, did you? Was anyone hurt?"

"No," Sesshoumaru replied curtly.

He was actually quite disgusted with himself now for not doing so. Why on earth hadn't he? It had been a perfect opportunity to be rid of his irksome half-brother, but he hadn't taken advantage of it.

Kagome nodded and turned her smile on him, making him blink. "Thanks," she said quietly. "I appreciate that." She paused. "Oh, did you see Shippou? He's the little fox."

Sesshoumaru nodded, remembering the defenseless young youkai who had sucked up the courage to ask him about Kagome.

"Did he seem. . . all right?" Kagome asked hesitantly. "And Sango? The taijiya?" She hadn't seen her friend since Kohaku's death.

"They seemed well," Sesshoumaru answered, "though I hardly asked after their health. The fox was very talkative. The taijiya was prepared to fight when she thought I lied about your safety. Of all of them, the monk seemed the most reasonable."

Kagome sighed in relief. It sounded like they weren't too badly off without her. "Inuyasha tried to kill you, didn't he?" she asked dryly. Then, she looked at him in concern. "You weren't injured, were you?" Her words were anxious.

Sesshoumaru found himself both irked that she thought the idiot could hurt him, and unsure of how to respond to this unprecedented concern for his well being, He wasn't sure what to say. "He did not even mark me," was the short response.

"And you still didn't hurt anyone?" Kagome inquired incredulously.

Sesshoumaru scowled. Did she have to keep going back to that? "The hanyou was stubborn, but he was not hurt." Kagome looked at him askance. "Much," he added.

Kagome smiled and shook her head ruefully. "Not that I think you'd ask or anything, but how did he seem?"

"Stupid," he replied curtly. "He rushed into a fight without thought, wielded Tetsusaiga as if he was chopping wood, and attacked with too much rage and no focus." Sesshoumaru continued in a dry tone, shrugging. "He is the same."

Kagome smiled. "He is often like that, isn't he?" she mused.

Oblivious to Sesshoumaru's sudden dark look, Kagome picked up the weapons scattered on the ground and looked to Rin. "Are you hungry?" she asked. The little girl nodded. Kagome straightened and glanced at Sesshoumaru. "Let's go join the others for dinner, then."

**********

The companionable atmosphere that characterized meals with the Hayashis was strained that evening.

Though Rin was lively and talkative as always, her guardian seemed bent on intimidating everyone.

The situation was only worsened by the fact that Sesshoumaru had declined to join in the meal. Instead, he preferred either watch everyone eat, or ignore them completely, all while maintaining a stony silence.

Table manners improved by nearly 300%, Kagome noted.

Only Rin and Kagome didn't seem bothered by Sesshoumaru's silent presence. Kagome asked Rin about her recent activities, and the little girl was only too happy to fill her in. Her constant stream of chatter was only interrupted when her mouth was too full to speak.

Of course, Rin still tried.

"Then, Jaken hid on the roof. He is awfully active for his age." Rin paused to awkwardly maneuver a clump of rice into her mouth, and immediately resumed her story. "Not `at I noh ho owd `e is or anyfig, but e's so wrinkly."

Kagome looked at the young girl in concern. If she went on like this, she'd probably end up inhaling her food.

"Rin."

Every head in the room shot up as Sesshoumaru deigned to speak. "Do not talk with food in your mouth. You will choke."

Kagome looked down at her own bowl and scowled. Ever since he'd arrived, she had been so painfully aware of him that she thought she'd burst out of her skin. She couldn't even glance in his direction without firmly suppressing the desire to stare at his mouth.

It just wasn't fair that his presence seemed to demand her attention, when he couldn't even give her a simple greeting.

Sesshoumaru looked at her narrowly.

"Yes, Sesshoumaru-sama," Rin replied after she had carefully chewed her food and swallowed. She immediately continued to recount her hide and seek adventures to her rather befuddled audience, barely missing a beat. "Once, I found him under Ah-Un. He dug a hole in the ground and made Ah-Un sit on of it! He really knows how to make the game more challenging," Rin continued, her young voice filled with admiration. "That time, he was a lot harder to find."

Gods, Kagome thought to herself with a smile. Jaken must really be desperate to avoid Rin, if he was willing to bury himself alive to do it.

"I hugged him extra hard that time," Rin said with a satisfied nod, "but I think he is too old to hide in little holes. Afterwards, he just stood there with his mouth open for a long time."

Kagome started to laugh, and looked towards Sesshoumaru, noticing that though he looked like his attention was elsewhere, he was smirking faintly.

"He turned a bit greener, too," Rin added as an afterthought before digging back into her supper.

Aya smiled to herself. The little girl the youkai had brought with him was utterly charming, and more verbose than she'd expected. The miko sent her husband a beaming look that he interpreted, correctly, as a comment on what fun a grandchild could be.

All three Hayashis had been rather perplexed by their two visitors. Sesshoumaru's presence alone was disconcerting, but the fact that his ward was a small, very human chatterbox made the evening even more peculiar. However, they were all quite relieved that Rin was capable of carrying the burden of dinner conversation, all on her own.

Aya sighed to herself, twirling her chopsticks absently. At least Seiji seemed very interested in paying another call to the weaver's stall, she thought with satisfaction. Then, she noticed with alarm that her son was looking at Kagome in a way that bordered upon puppy eyes. Even worse, his attention was not lost on Sesshoumaru, who did not look pleased at all. Not that he ever looked pleased, Aya corrected herself. He looked even less pleased than he usually did, meaning he was definitely negative on the pleasantness scale.

She'd never have grandchildren if Seiji got himself killed. Aya wracked her brain.

Truly, a mother's duty never ended.

"Rin, your game reminds me of an episode from Seiji's childhood, when he tried to hide by the river," Aya interrupted with an evil gleam in her eye.

Sesshoumaru looked at the miko woman, having noticed Seiji's reaction. Any story that could inspire that look of horror on the boy's face was one Sesshoumaru would not mind hearing. Even now, Seiji was searching wildly for an escape route.

Kazuo sent a look heavenward and helped himself to seconds.

Aya continued. "I can't remember exactly why he ran off like that-"

"I can," Seiji supplied in an overly cheerful tone of voice. "You were cooking. I was smoked out of the hut." The young man turned wide gray eyes on their small guest in entreaty. "So, Rin, tell us more about this Jaken-"

His hope of reprieve was snatched away as Aya's expression told him exactly what she thought of his comment. "Yes," she interrupted pointedly. "You were a sensitive boy." She shifted on the mat to better address her audience.

Seiji buried his face in his hands and prayed for death. Maybe, he thought desperately, he could run away in the dead of night, and start a new life somewhere where his mother would never find him.

"My innocent son had no way of knowing this, but at that time of day, the women of the village went to the river as a group to bathe and do their laundry. He was only ten, but was tall for his age. When they spotted him in the bushes, they assumed the worst, and started to scream very loudly."

Seiji's colour had returned with a vengeance. Kagome looked at him with concern.

"Thinking that a youkai was attacking, I went to the river as quickly as I could," Aya went on. "When I got there, I was stunned to see Seiji stripped to the skin, being held down by eight of the village grandmothers as they mocked various aspects of his anatomy," Aya finished delicately.

Kagome sent Seiji a pitying look and patted his arm as she frowned at Aya. Really, that was just. . . completely insensitive. Then, she glared at Sesshoumaru, who appeared to be in serious danger of cracking a smile.

Rin merely blinked in confusion. What were they mocking? And why did Sesshoumaru-sama appear to be so amused? She looked towards Kagome, lips parted to ask what Aya meant by "anatomy," when the older girl's eyes widened and she shook her head. Rin shrugged and shoveled some more rice into her mouth. She would just have to ask Sesshoumaru-sama about it later.

Aya cast a measuring glance at the youkai, feeling a pang for embarrassing Seiji. However, after this story, she hoped their visitor would not see Seiji as any threat to whatever claim he thought he had.

Satisfied that she had put her son out of harm's way for the duration of Sesshoumaru's stay, Aya smiled and handed the young man a cup of tea. "After giving those women a tongue-lashing, and helping Seiji fish his clothing out of the river, we came home and had a nice dinner."

Kazuo stopped chewing.

After a shocked silence, Seiji exploded. "A nice dinner?!?" he exclaimed incredulously. "You almost killed me! I vomited for hours, and I didn't even eat most of it! I threw most of my bowl out the window while you weren't looking!"

Aya offered him a cup of tea. "Well, well, young man," she said with a disgruntled look. "After a long day of killing, I came home and slaved over the cook-fire to make you dinner, and you wasted it? You should be ashamed!"

"But. . . I almost. . . the healer said. . ." Seiji sputtered, finally lapsing into speechlessness. He took a deep breath. "Oh, forget it," he sighed, slowly draining his tea in an unconscious reflection of his father's zen-like calm.

Aya merely smiled serenely - an expression that looked distinctly odd on her face - and refilled Seiji's teacup.

Kagome was trying to come up with a way to change the subject, when a bell rang in the next room. She quickly got to her feet and left the room. Aya followed suit, gathering her weapons as well as Kagome's staff before following her.

"It's one of the noise traps in the northeastern section of the woods," Kagome informed Aya when she joined her.

Aya sighed. "Why do they always have to come right after dinner?" she grumbled. "My meal never has a chance to settle."

Kagome smiled. "I can go alone," she offered. "It's probably something I can handle by myself."

Aya shook her head. "It may not be. Just in case, I should accompany you."

"I will go." The two women turned to see that Sesshoumaru had followed, obviously having heard their discussion. Aya sent Kagome an inquiring look.

The young woman shrugged. "Fine," she replied. Kagome imagined leaving Sesshoumaru alone with Seiji and Kazuo, and shuddered. She picked up her staff. "Let's go," she called over her shoulder as she left the hut.

Aya watched the departing pair for a moment. Kagome was charging forward with determination as the youkai walked calmly after her.

He'd only just arrived, and Kagome was already angry with him?

Shaking her head slightly, Aya turned to rejoin the others.

She would never understand this younger generation.

**********

They walked through the woods in silence, Kagome's training becoming evident to Sesshoumaru's watchful eye.

The last time they had covered this ground, she had been slow. She had also been so loud that he thought she had broken every twig in the vicinity. Now, she moved as swiftly and quietly as a shadow. The lines of her body were braced and alert.

And annoyed, he noted with amused curiosity. Her irritation was obvious. She avoided looking at him, opting instead to ignore him completely.

Kagome was, at that moment, fully occupied with an ongoing internal debate.

Rational Kagome was telling her to get over her snit, complete her patrol, and stop fixating on emotionally unavailable, socially inept men who had tried to kill her in the past. Though Irrational Kagome had to concede that these were all valid points, she was still affronted that he hadn't bothered to say hello to her. She was also trying to sneak peeks at him out of the corner of her eye.

Rational Kagome's position was greatly undermined by the fact that some kind of weird radar had kicked in, broadcasting where Sesshoumaru was at all times, along with detailed information regarding the logistics of jumping on him at any given moment.

Scowling, she walked faster, scanning the area. She was in dire need of an ass to kick.

Sesshoumaru watched with interest as Kagome's eyes gleamed, her pace quickening with new purpose. She appeared to be on the hunt, he realized, as his blood quickened in response. It seemed that this girl always managed to surprise him.

"Why on earth did you want to come along?" she asked, obviously piqued. "Isn't this patrolling business a little beneath you?"

Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow. "You would prefer to be alone and risk meeting an enemy stronger than you? How childish," he commented in a cool voice.

Kagome halted and turned to him with her hands on her hips. Then, she noticed the smug light in his eyes, remembered that he seemed to take a perverse pleasure in arguing with her, and started walking again.

"That's right," she muttered. "I'm not talking to you. I almost forgot."

Behind her back, Sesshoumaru smirked.

"You missed me," he prodded in a low voice.

Kagome stiffened slightly, but continued walking.

"I told you," she said evenly in the iciest tone she could manage. "I'm not speaking to you."

"You are quite talkative for one who is not talking," Sesshoumaru countered.

The girl next to him twitched and then gave up, rounding on him with a glare.

"And you're awfully talkative for someone who can't even say hello like a civilized person!" she retorted angrily. "You just live to annoy me, don't you?!"

Sesshoumaru folded his arms regally. "No," he replied, "though it is quite rewarding on occasion."

Before Kagome had a chance to process that comment, he pointed over her shoulder. "I believe we have found the intruder," he remarked casually.

She whirled to see a small but vicious-looking youkai approaching them through the trees. Its sickly yellow eyes above grotesquely protruding jaws.

The half-eaten human leg it carried in its spindly hands didn't make it any more attractive, Kagome observed with a squirm.

Slime dripped to the ground from its gleaming, needle-like teeth. Transfixed by the utter repulsiveness of her opponent, Kagome was rather taken aback when it spoke.

"Are you the miko I have heard of?" it asked sibilantly.

"No," Kagome replied in a revolted tone. "She's actually just finished dinner."

Sesshoumaru's brows lifted slightly in disbelief.

Evidently, the gnarled creature was similarly unimpressed. Instead of pursuing the topic of Aya's dining habits, it clambered towards Kagome with assessing eyes. Discomfited, she raised her staff into a defensive position.

"Your flesh looks tasty, skinny human," it hissed, pointing the chewed-up leg towards her. She recoiled. "I thought to find food in the village, but you will do nicely for now."

She stared at the hunched figure in horror. "But. . ." she sputtered, "but you just ate!" She gestured towards its gruesome leftovers incredulously.

Sesshoumaru looked heavenward. He found Inuyasha's penchant for yelling and posturing unbearable, but Kagome's pre-battle pleasantries almost made him miss it.

The slouched monster seemed insulted at her intimation regarding its gustatory habits. He snarled and charged at her, ending the exchange, much to Sesshoumaru's relief.

Then, the taiyoukai stepped back and watched with interest as Kagome suddenly glowed with bright violet light and attacked.

The slime-monster emitted a shriek of rage, and flung its leftovers at her, scuttling aside to narrowly avoid the blow that Kagome aimed at its neck.

Sesshoumaru tensed slightly. The creature was faster than it looked, and appeared to be preparing to launch itself at Kagome.

Wrinkling her nose, Kagome knocked the gory projectile aside. Then, she paused, glowed brighter for a moment, and then threw her staff towards the creature like a javelin. It cried out shrilly as her weapon speared through its torso, staking it to the ground. Its many legs spasmed uselessly around it, and then slowed to stillness.

Kagome dusted her hands off with an air of satisfaction. "Pig," she announced indignantly. Gods, she wondered, looking at its shriveling body. Where did that thing put it all?

As though in response to her thoughts, a final jet of slime chose that moment to spew from the dying youkai. Kagome ducked nimbly, but was not able to avoid all of it. She made a face as she felt some of the slime hit her pant-leg, seeping through the material.

She quickly recovered into a ready stance, eyeing the mess on the ground with a grimace. The nasty little beast's corpse was rapidly degenerating into a pile of slime, as it's spindly legs gave a last futile twitch.

She was much faster and stronger than Sesshoumaru had thought. Of course, he thought, there was that one problem. . .

"Yuck. So where were we?" Kagome asked as she straightened.

Sesshoumaru merely looked at her askance. "That was not as terrible as I had anticipated," he observed dispassionately from his vantage point.

"What?" Kagome whirled to glare at him. "What did I do wrong? I got him, didn't I?"

Sesshoumaru merely looked at her with an air of disbelief before gesturing towards her calf. "You should clean that off," he commented in an offhand manner. "And never cast your weapon away. If your aim had been off, you would have been disarmed and in need of assistance, which is best avoided if you have any alternative."

Kagome scowled, pausing as she mopped the slime from her pants with a handful of leaves. "You know, just because you're a big loner doesn't mean everyone else should be," she grumbled in reply. "Gods. You and Inuyasha. You both think you can take care of everything on your own. I don't think there's anything wrong with asking for help," she continued, dropping the slime-saturated leaves to the forest floor.

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed slightly at the insulting comparison, and Kagome could have sworn that she'd seen an angry look pass over his face. "When you require the help of others, you also must suffer for their weaknesses," he said tonelessly. "At best, they are unreliable. At worst, you pay for their incompetence. It is better to become strong, and fight alone with what strength you have."

Kagome looked at her companion with shrewd eyes.

That was the way he lived, after all, she realized. Jaken and Rin just seemed to follow him around. Though she supposed he had some connection to them, neither of them were what she would call a friend to him. Jaken seemed eager to help, but in light of Sesshoumaru's strength, any assistance the retainer offered would not be of much use if Sesshoumaru was truly in trouble.

"I see," she murmured thoughtfully.

Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow. "What?" he asked flatly. He wasn't sure he liked the sympathetic look in her brown eyes.

Kagome scrambled mentally under his stare. "Uh. . . I'll be more careful in future?" she replied hopefully.

He looked unconvinced, but didn't probe any further. "Your speed and strength are much improved," he commented. "You also seemed able to read your opponent's movements."

She couldn't prevent a pleased smile from crossing her face. "Thanks," she replied happily.

It was strange, she thought to herself, but his approval, no matter how grudging, made her feel a little giddy.

Kagome's eyes rounded as the lightheaded feeling was immediately followed by tingling. A strange numb sensation overtook her, and she realized with alarm that her legs had ceased to obey her.

Sesshoumaru watched calmly as Kagome collapsed face-first to the ground at his feet.

"Hmmm," he remarked as he crouched at her side. "I suppose you should have removed the creature's saliva with more haste." He rolled Kagome to her back, revealing her rather angry expression.

She blew leaves out of her mouth, and scowled. "You knew that this would happen?" she asked slowly as her eyes narrowed. "You are such a jerk! Why didn't you say anything?"

He blithely ignored the aspersions she cast on his character.

"The saliva of that creature is meant to paralyze its prey for ease of consumption," he informed her with a shrug. "The effects are temporary, and negligible for most youkai. How was I to know you would be so susceptible to it?" he asked calmly. "Or," he added, "that it would be so amusing?"

Sesshoumaru paused as Kagome let loose with a string of invective, most of which he did not understand. It really was too bad, he reflected, that the paralysis did not extend to her speech organs.

He winced as her voice hit a particularly high note. He had to acknowledge that the girl was extraordinary. Even in such a helpless state, her temper was unmitigated by any sense of self-preservation.

And, he wondered absently, what on earth was a "dickwad?"

Judging by what he could understand of her string of epithets, he was sure it was most likely unflattering.

Kagome's tirade trailed off as she watched the most annoying youkai she'd ever met get to his feet, find a shady tree, and seat himself beneath it with stately grace, giving her a bored look that was belied by the sly light in his eyes.

Ooooh, she seethed.

He was laughing on the inside. She could just tell.

To make matters worse, he looked like he'd be perfectly happy to sit there all night.

Kagome gritted her teeth. Wasn't he going to help her? She watched with equal parts fascination and incredulity as Sesshoumaru positively reclined under the leafy boughs. He looked up at the emerging stars as the evening breeze lifted wisps of his silver hair, creating a tableau that was striking and, from Kagome's perspective, completely infuriating.

Her jaw clenched painfully. Belatedly, she recalled that she wasn't talking to him. She most definitely was not going to ask Mr. Deep-Conditioning Treatment for help.

Even though, she noted with mounting dread, the entire left side of her body had lost sensation.

Sesshoumaru smiled inwardly. Kagome seemed bent on waiting him out, even though he could hear her huffing in outrage every few seconds. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the small heap on the ground alternately glaring at him and peering at him in consternation.

From her very limited vantage point, Kagome fumed. This had to be the dumbest standoff she'd ever been a part of. That said a lot, after hanging out with Inuyasha for so long. As much as she wanted to be the bigger person here, she didn't want to be the one to give in. It seemed that she was always at a disadvantage where Sesshoumaru was concerned.

However, something that had been bothering her since his appearance was now getting the better of her. She just had to know.

"I've been meaning to ask you. Were you planning to keep those shards you're carrying?"

Sesshoumaru blinked. "No," he replied simply.

Kagome tried to move into a better position for conversation. She succeeded only in flopping awkwardly onto her side.

"I will leave them with you," he elaborated, still looking up at the night sky.

"Fanks," Kagome mumbled into the dirt. She grimaced. In this position, the slime-covered leaves she had discarded earlier were only inches from her face. Enough was enough. "Um, do you think you could give me a hand here?"

Sesshoumaru turned to her with a mirthful light in his eyes. "I thought you were not speaking to me," he commented dryly.

Damn him and his enhanced youkai memory! Kagome twitched uncomfortably under his amused stare.

"You may not have noticed, but I'm not very good at giving the silent treatment," she said grudgingly. She looked away. "So I think I'll just abandon that plan."

Still seated, Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow. "Indeed, I have noticed that you have difficulty remaining silent."

Kagome scowled. "Argh!" she exclaimed, in pure frustration. "Please, please help me, Sesshoumaru-SAMA," she said in the least sincere voice she was capable of producing. "I'll be your best friend."

Sesshoumaru looked vaguely alarmed at what he perceived as a threat, but rose to his feet and approached her.

"Fine," he murmured as he hoisted her to her feet. "I have no desire to remain here any longer." Kagome grabbed his shoulder with her one functioning hand, trying to balance herself on her feet. It wasn't working very well, she noted with a frown.

"Can you stand?" he asked, his warm breath ruffling her hair.

"Kagome marveled at the fact that, even when her body was almost completely numb, the knowledge that his hands gripped her waist made her feel all weird inside. Finally registering that he'd asked a question, she blinked and nodded slightly without thinking.

Sesshoumaru released her. She yelped as she became suddenly and violently reacquainted with the ground at his feet.

"I'm really glad I couldn't feel that," Kagome exclaimed whilst staring at his shoe. Sesshoumaru released a beleaguered sigh as he picked her back up, slinging her over his shoulder like a sack of grain. Kagome sneezed as she was greeted with a faceful of fur.

Sesshoumaru shook his head slightly as he bent to retrieve her staff. Then, he adjusted his hold on her so that his arms supported her thighs and back, and her head was pillowed on the fur at his shoulder.

"You are indeed troublesome," he observed. "I do not know how you will defeat Naraku when you seem to experience such difficulty remaining upright."

Kagome grunted indelicately. "Just shut up and fly, mister," she mumbled. She snuggled into the soft pelt and yawned, oblivious to Sesshoumaru's frown.

The girl couldn't even fight without needing a nap afterwards. Sesshoumaru looked down at her sleepy face in exasperation as they rose into the air. He exhaled, trying to ignore her scent, and the warm weight of her body in his arms. For the umpteenth time, he wondered what the hell was wrong with him.

Seemingly aware of his perusal, Kagome opened her eyes a crack and smiled. "I did kinda miss you, you know," she offered.

Sesshoumaru did not reply. The girl was completely incomprehensible. Her dismal failure at remaining silent was equaled only by her inability to hold a grudge, he observed.

"Only a little, mind you," she added when he did not respond to her olive branch.

Kagome scowled as the silence lengthened. "Maybe I didn't miss you at all, actually," she went on with a sniff. "I forgot how annoying you were."

Sesshoumaru looked down, obviously skeptical.

"Because you're really, really annoying. You could win awards," Kagome went on, peering intently at where his hand rested on her arm. She noted with surprise that he had those intriguing stripes on his wrist, as well. She wondered absently if he had them anywhere else, but was able to debark that train of thought before she could embarrass herself by turning red again.

The youkai sighed inwardly. She was, in actual fact, completely incapable of keeping her mouth shut. The young woman in his arms parted her lips to speak again, no doubt to babble further in her unbearable fashion, Sesshoumaru thought wryly.

Really, there was no alternative.

Kagome was about to expound further on all the ways in which she had not, in any way, shape or form, missed him, when the arms supporting her raised her face to his eye level. She felt a puff of breath against her cheek before his warm mouth descended on hers firmly, teasingly lifting before she had a chance to register what was happening. She blinked in confusion, gaping like a fish.

"Hello, Kagome," Sesshoumaru drawled in a particularly obnoxious manner. Keeping her off-balance was extremely enjoyable, he thought, savoring her look of stunned amazement.

Kagome's eyes narrowed as he touched the tip of his tongue to his lower lip. That look on his face was almost. . . why, it was most definitely a smirk. She sniffed.

The arrogant bastard was laughing on the inside again.

He really could ruin almost anything, she thought, aghast.

If she could have moved, she would have hit him, she thought to herself. But, since she couldn't, she had to settle for smiling irrepressibly instead.

Rational Kagome groaned, threw her hands up in disgust, and packed her bags for a brief sabbatical.

***********

"Kagome."

The young miko buried her face more deeply in her furry pillow, and would have tried to hide her head beneath it if her arm weren't so strangely heavy.

"Go `way," she mumbled.

"Kagome." The low, quiet voice intruded once more, and was accompanied by a slight shift of her pillow. Her fingers weakly gripped the fuzzy cushion beneath her cheek.

Her brows drew together slightly. A low voice? Wasn't someone supposed to be shrieking and beating a pot with a spoon right about now?

"Mmmmrph." She was not going to move. She was warm, comfortable, and very pleased that the loud clanging noise was blissfully, if inexplicably, absent. "Seiji?" she inquired fuzzily.

"Wake up, wench." The voice grew louder, and sounded remarkably displeased. Kagome pressed her cheek more firmly into her strangely furry pillow, and sniffed. It smelled kind of different, she noted with a small frown. Not a bad smell, but like green things, trees and sun. Her fingers curled more firmly into the deep nap beneath her head.

Maybe if she ignored the voice, angry Seiji would go away. She frowned again. Seiji, the embodiment of the term `mild-mannered,' was angry?

And he was calling her a wench? She muttered his name again, with a perplexed frown.

Little puzzle pieces slowly slotted themselves together in Kagome's sleep-fogged mind. Just as the mental picture of a really aggravating inuyoukai was about to form, she was forcefully removed from her pillow. She barely had time to make her displeasure known, when a pair of warm hands grasped her left knee, and then plunged her foot cruelly into ice-cold water.

"GYAAAAAAH!"

Sensation appeared to have returned to Kagome's leg, Sesshoumaru observed. He winced at the sheer volume of her enraged bellow. She still wasn't able to move properly, but that didn't seem to prevent her from flopping about as wildly as a landed fish, he noted sourly as he locked his arm more firmly around her waist.

Brown eyes, now wide and alert, glared up at him in reproach.

Golden ones glared right back, unmoved.

She'd been murmuring that human boy's name while half-asleep. He knew he shouldn't have left her with that lecherous whelp, Sesshoumaru thought suspiciously.

"Damn it, Sesshoumaru," Kagome gasped through her chattering teeth. She looked down to see that her leg, pants and all, was immersed calf-deep in a wooden bucket of water. "What did you do that for?!"

She was in his lap, she realized. Kagome tried to move, but found that her limbs still felt extremely heavy.

Also, the band of warm steel that was apparently wrapped around her midsection was hardly helping.

Sesshoumaru coolly watched her abortive attempts to extricate herself. "You refused to wake, and your leg must be washed," he informed her flatly. His arm tightened its hold.

Kagome blinked in confusion. Why was Sesshoumaru being so pissy? Who was he glaring at over her head?

She turned to find that the object of his wrath was a very flustered Seiji, who appeared to be retreating sideways from the room. She sighed, rolled her eyes, and turned back to Sesshoumaru.

"Stop it," she ordered. "I don't know what's bothering you, but I have one foot in a bucket of cold water, and I can't move. I am really not in the mood for this," she mumbled grumpily. "Leave him alone."

Sesshoumaru ignored her completely, continuing to vivisect Seiji with his eyes alone. The constriction on Kagome's waist intensified to corset-like levels. Kagome, turning slightly purple, succeeded in smacking him weakly on the shoulder in a demand for oxygen.

Much to the Seiji's relief, Rin soon joined them with Aya and Kazuo in tow. Apparently, they had all heard the dulcet sounds of Kagome's awakening, and returned, bearing a pan of heated water. Rin, seeing that her friend had revived, ran towards her with a washcloth in hand, and sat down next to Sesshoumaru and Kagome.

"Are you okay?" she asked Kagome anxiously, with eyes as wide as saucers. "Of course you must be all right, because you were with Sesshoumaru-sama and he is very strong," she continued matter-of-factly. "Still, your leg was very slimy." Rin's small nose wrinkled at the thought. "You were mumbling, so I was worried. But then I remembered that you used to mumble in your sleep before, so you are probably fine. Right?"

Aya shook her head slightly at Rin's monologue as she knelt next to the little girl, tipping the warm water into the bucket.

Kagome sighed in gratitude and relief as the frigid temperature slowly became lukewarm.

"I'm fine, Rin," Kagome said, once her teeth had ceased their chattering. "After the slime wears off, I'll be as good as new. Right?" The young woman looked up at Sesshoumaru for confirmation, and found that he was still staring at Seiji, who did not look at all happy at the attention and seemed to be trying to slouch out of the taiyoukai's line of sight. "Right?" Kagome repeated pointedly. Sesshoumaru merely nodded.

Much to the young man's dismay, Kazuo got up, ostensibly to brew some tea, once more leaving Sesshoumaru's predatory glowering unobstructed.

Meanwhile, Aya looked at Kagome. "Have I taught you nothing?" the older miko asked, capturing Sesshoumaru's attention.

Kagome's head shot up. "What?" she asked.

Aya sighed gustily. "What have I told you about poisons?"

Oh, damn it, Kagome grumbled inwardly. She knew she'd forgotten something. Slowly, she felt a blush creep over her cheeks and down her neck. Being around Sesshoumaru obviously made her stupid. . .

"Right." Aya confirmed. "What should you do if, for instance, you are hit by a gob of mysterious slime?"

Kagome stared into the steaming depths of her teacup, abashed. "I should create a purifying barrier over my skin," she replied in a small voice. Her face burned impossibly hotter. When she looked up, she saw that Sesshoumaru was watching her. She quickly looked back at her cup, feeling strangely miserable at the thought that he probably found her incompetent.

"I forgot?" she grumbled to no one in particular. Rin patted Kagome's arm reassuringly.

Kazuo had been about to offer his son a cup of tea, but suddenly realized that Seiji was nowhere to be seen. The older man almost jumped when an arm extended from behind him, taking the cup from his hand. For some unfathomable reason, Seiji was hiding behind him. Kazuo merely shrugged.

"Well, I doubt you'll forget again." Aya grinned.

Kagome nodded sheepishly, subdued.

"Oh, cheer up," Aya continued good-naturedly. "At least you weren't alone. It would have been so much more embarrassing if I had to go and find you, and" the woman said cheekily, "you would have had weapons-duty for a month at least."

Kagome laughed. "I probably would have. You'd use any excuse to get out of work," she replied, still flustered.

Aya yawned. "Well," she concluded. "It's late." She turned to look at Sesshoumaru, who had been silent since his and Kagome's return. "Will you and Rin be staying for the night?"

Sesshoumaru looked towards Rin, whose eyes had gone round and pleading, and nodded to Aya. "We will leave in the morning."

Kagome laughed, finding herself the recipient of yet another one of Rin's crushing hugs.

"All right, then," Aya replied, her forehead wrinkling in thought as she pondered the accommodations. "We do not have much here, but-"

"I do not need anything," Sesshoumaru interrupted.

"Rin can share with me," Kagome added. She looked down at the little girl affectionately. The day's travels had obviously made her sleepy.

Aya smiled, hiding her relief. If Rin stayed with Kagome, there was little chance of anything untoward happening. "Well then, that is taken care of." She and Kazuo got to their feet and bid everyone goodnight.

Seiji did the same. He had come to the conclusion that, though the weaver's daughter was not quite as fascinating as Kagome was, courting her would probably be healthier in the long run.

**********

A light snore roused Kagome from her sleep. When her eyes adjusted to the dark, she turned to see Rin's sleeping face turned towards her on the futon. The young girl shifted slightly and emitted another faint snuffling sound, her small hands clutching the top of Kagome's sleeping bag to her tiny chin.

Kagome smiled touched the child's forehead lightly. After they had retired to her room, Rin seemed to gain a second wind. She had attempted to give Kagome a thorough update on everything that had gone on at the fortress in her absence. It was obvious that the child's world revolved around Sesshoumaru, with Jaken coming in at a distant second. Rin adored the inuyoukai so much that it was weird, considering how cold he seemed most of the time. However, it could not be denied that he felt some measure of affection for Rin. Kagome bit back a chuckle as she remembered how the little girl had mopped her runny nose on Sesshoumaru's pelt.

Kagome turned to her side in the darkness. Because she'd had a catnap earlier, she found it difficult to go back to sleep. She watched Rin intently, hoping that she would wake up so there could be someone to talk to for a while, but the child was dead to the world. Even when Kagome nudged her with her knee - unintentionally, of course - Rin merely snuffled again before resuming her deep, even breaths.

Kagome coughed loudly - again, unintentionally - and looked towards the little girl again, only to be greeted by a similar lack of response. The young woman turned onto her back, blinking at the ceiling. Maybe Seiji would still be up, she thought to herself. He did keep rather strange hours sometimes, and was always fun to have late-night chats with.

However, she was quite sure that he would be hiding in his room after Sesshoumaru's earlier display, even if he was still awake.

Kagome shifted uncomfortably, kicking the covers off her pajama-clad legs. Now that she'd regained full control of her muscles again, she felt kind of antsy.

With a grumble of frustration, she gave up and rose from the futon, careful not to disturb Rin, who continued to snore obliviously.

**********

Kagome peered nervously around the front room before noting that it was empty and relaxing with relief. She hadn't really given it much thought, but it was possible that Sesshoumaru was sleeping in the common area. She was a little disappointed that he wasn't in there, but it was best for all involved if she didn't see him before morning, she told herself sternly. It never seemed to end well. Though, Kagome reflected almost wistfully, talking to him did tend to keep her on her toes.

He had probably gone out. After all, Inuyasha had never really seemed to sleep much, and Sesshoumaru was a full-blooded youkai.

With a shrug, she padded across the mats that covered the floor of the darkened room, slipping out the door as quietly as possible. Rubbing her arms against the cool night air, and looked up at the sky as she walked out onto the grassy area in front of the hut. The moon was a bright crescent, shining through the trees. Crouching, Kagome patted the grass to make sure it was dry, and then lay down on it to watch the stars.

"What happened to your feet?"

Kagome yelped at the sudden voice from behind her, and sat up so quickly that her vision swam. She looked behind her to see that Sesshoumaru had been sitting against the outer wall of the hut, the pelt and armor in a neat pile beside him.

"Sorry for disturbing you," Kagome apologized shakily, a hand pressed to her chest. "I was trying to be quiet. You almost scared me to death!" Once her pulse showed signs of returning to normal, she flopped back onto the grass, determined to leave him alone.

"What are those things on your feet?" Sesshoumaru repeated, unperturbed.

Kagome stuck one foot in the air and wiggled it around, causing pink bunny-ears to flop crazily about. "This is a slipper," she explained. She felt rather than heard him approach and sit down next to her.

"Those are the most ridiculous things I have ever seen," Sesshoumaru remarked dryly, after a moment's inspection.

"Hey," Kagome countered. "I'm not the one who wears a big fuzzy thing around all the time."

Sesshoumaru glared. "It is an heirloom pelt," he replied, "and its colour is not nearly as objectionable."

Kagome smiled. "These are the family bunny slippers, passed through the ages to the eldest child," she intoned importantly. "Only the strongest of the Higurashis may wear them." She peeked up at him out of the corner of her eye. Sesshoumaru was looking at her as though she were a lunatic. She shrugged.

"They're comfy. My little brother gave them to me for my last birthday." Kagome paused in thought. "This year, I didn't get to go back," she said quietly. "I wonder if they got a cake. Souta is a total pig for cake."

Sesshoumaru looked inquiringly at the girl who was sprawled comfortably on the ground beside him. She seemed to spend much of her time on the ground, he thought sardonically.

Kagome blinked up at him. "Never mind," she said quickly. "Where's Jaken?"

Sesshoumaru leaned back slightly on his hands. "I left him behind. Someone had to remain in case a message arrived regarding a border dispute."

To her surprise, though nothing in his expression changed, Kagome could somehow tell that he was amused. She sat up again, turning to her companion with a measuring look. "Was it important that he stay, or did he just really need a break from Rin?" she asked shrewdly.

He was definitely amused, she confirmed. Even though his face seemed as stony as ever, his amber eyes had gone all twinkly. She was learning how to read him, Kagome thought in shock. Well, if one considered the fact that he was almost constantly laughing at her, it seemed logical that she would learn to detect amusement, Kagome thought ruefully.

"It was not an important matter," Sesshoumaru replied. "He looked tired, and greener than usual. It seemed best that he remain behind."

Kagome grinned at him. "I see," she said cryptically. "You know, for someone who's threatened Jaken with death on numerous occasions, you're being awfully considerate of his mental health."

Sesshoumaru blinked slowly. "You, too, have experienced Rin's viselike embrace," he observed, "and Jaken is rather advanced in age." He flicked a dried blade of grass from his sleeve as Kagome bit back a laugh. "Besides, loyal servants are rare."

Kagome looked thoughtful, and neither said anything for a while. Sesshoumaru was almost impressed at her unprecedented silence, when she broke it.

"Don't you ever get tired of doing everything alone?" she blurted out, seemingly unable to prevent herself.

Sesshoumaru remained silent for a moment. "It is important to be self-contained," he replied evenly.

Kagome's forehead creased in thought, as her curiosity rapidly outstripped her tact. "I don't know about that," she began cautiously. "Why do you think Inuyasha can beat you? I think you're probably stronger, but when you fight, he always wins. It's kind of weird, don't you think?"

When Sesshoumaru replied, his voice was cold. "I would hardly say that he always wins."

"Fine," Kagome said to humor him. Damned youkai egos. "He sometimes wins. But, for example, that time you flew off minus an arm. Didn't you find it kind of strange that he beat you?"

Sesshoumaru glared at her. "Perhaps," he stated noncommittally. "Though," he added with a faint smile in his voice, "the last time we fought, he did not do very well."

"I know why he beat you," Kagome commented.

Sesshoumaru started emitting almost palpable waves of irritation. "Why is that?" he asked curtly.

Kagome continued, her voice calm. "Inuyasha always protects people and, in case you haven't noticed, is emotionally invested in every fight he has." She shrugged. "That's why he always does it when it counts." Kagome looked up at Sesshoumaru. He'd become inscrutable again, but at least he wasn't mad, she thought with relief. "What do you fight for?" she asked, overcome with curiosity. "I mean, besides that sword, which you can't use anyway." Kagome balked at the look he sent her. "Not that I'm judging!" she added.

After a brief silence, Sesshoumaru replied, "The lands that my father left to me. The dignity of our line, that I alone raised from disgrace."

Kagome twirled a blade of grass thoughtfully in her fingers. "Well, what do you get out of it?"

Sesshoumaru paused to look at her as though she were being deliberately obtuse. "Is it not obvious?"

"Uh, never mind," Kagome backpedaled, deciding to leave the topic alone. "Dignity. Family pride. Gotcha."

Sesshoumaru's looked at her, exasperated. "And you are fighting to reassemble a mystical jewel," he commented, his skepticism evident in every syllable.

Kagome smiled weakly. "That's not just for some personal satisfaction, or power." she briefly lapsed into silence.

"I know," Sesshoumaru replied.

Kagome nodded. "Because of that stupid jewel, Naraku could be even worse than he is now, and he wants to kill us all. Plus, it's my fault that it returned to this era. And I broke it." Kagome paused, embarrassed. "Twice."

Sesshoumaru watched her intently as she sat up, clasped her hands in her lap, and stared at them, unseeing. "So, I guess it's like cleaning up my mess, with the side benefit of staying alive. When I'm done, I'll either take that damned thing back to my time, or see it destroyed and go home."

"Your honor demands it," Sesshoumaru stated simply.

Kagome blinked. "Yeah, I guess. Dignity and pride," she announced firmly. "I can't let the monster destroy Tokyo."

Sesshoumaru blinked.

"Sorry, pop-culture reference," Kagome sighed, waving her hand airily.

Suddenly, Kagome stilled. Sesshoumaru's warm fingers had taken hold of her wrist, gently turning her hand palm up as he shifted to sit closer to her. She looked up at him breathlessly. Then, she felt him place something in her palm.

When she looked down, she saw three shards of Shikon, glowing in their inimitable way.

"These are yours," he said, releasing her. "Hang on to them."

Kagome carefully tucked them into the pocket of her pajamas. "Thanks," she murmured. Once the precious shards were safely stowed, Sesshoumaru watched as Kagome turned her face back up to look at the stars. They were now sitting shoulder to shoulder, not close enough to touch, but close enough that the warmth of their bodies mingled in the night air.

There were so many stars. Kagome's eyes closed for a moment. She wondered how many shards there were, and how long it would take to find them all.

Finding that she was lapsing into self pity, she shook her head, trying to perk up.

"What?" Sesshoumaru asked.

"You're not so bad," Kagome remarked. "I mean, you're hardly a nice person, but that's fine. I can understand why you can't stand Inuyasha. You're not really the most compatible people." She paused for a second. "But why do you hate Seiji? I mean, he's completely harmless. He's rather sweet, actually. I can't see him doing anything to piss you off."

Sesshoumaru frowned slightly, and started emitting those waves of irritation again.

Kagome sighed when no answer was forthcoming. "Never mind," she muttered with a yawn. Being out in the fresh air had done her good. She was getting a little sleepy. "Good night."

"Are you going to mate with him?"

Suddenly, Kagome didn't feel sleepy anymore.

"What?!" she whispered, scandalized. Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she could think of anything to say. "What?!" she repeated.

Obviously, the thinking thing wasn't working so well.

"WHAT?!" she sputtered. She pinched her leg viciously. This had to be a nightmare.

Sesshoumaru looked completely unfazed. What on earth was the matter with her? It was a simple question.

Kagome buried her burning face in her hands, leapt to her feet, and then turned to beat a hasty retreat to her room. There, she would hear only Rin's comforting snoring, and be undisturbed by strange and off-putting questions like the one she had just imagined she had heard but couldn't possibly have.

Suddenly, Kagome found herself yanked into Sesshoumaru's lap.

"Lemme go," Kagome demanded from behind one of the hands that Sesshoumaru was currently prying loose. "I'm sleepy now."

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed. Kagome was being awfully evasive, and she looked almost apoplectic.

"Do you intend to mate with the boy?" Sesshoumaru repeated slowly, seeing nothing wrong with the question. When Kagome realized that she was not, in fact, hallucinating, her eyes snapped open.

"I can't believe you!" she said accusingly. "It's none of your business. And NO! Oh, gods," Kagome fumed, struggling to free her hands from his and get the hell out of the suddenly surreal situation.

"Good," Sesshoumaru said quietly, in a tone that made Kagome freeze for a moment. Then, her wrists were free. She said a silent prayer of thanks.

Kagome's thanks to the powers that be abruptly changed to bitter recriminations when Sesshoumaru settled his hands on her waist.

She closed her eyes, flushing again as she registered that she was in his lap for the second time that day. Even worse, she was practically straddling him. Also, his warm hands were slowly stroking up and down her sides. "Forget what I said about you not being that awful," she said in a panicked, shaky voice. "You're the most horrible person ever to walk the earth. You're-"

Sesshoumaru elected to shut her up in the most effective way he had found to date.

Her lips tasted sweet and incredibly warm under his, in contrast to the chill air. He pulled back slightly, offering her a chance to escape, but she remained utterly still, eyes closed. Sesshoumaru shrugged slightly, and leaned in for another taste. A thrill ran through him, spreading heat through his veins as he breathed in deeply.

He'd forgotten how good she smelled.

Slowly, her lips parted, returning the soft pressure, nipping lightly at his lower lip.

This was a really bad idea, Kagome thought shakily. Sesshoumaru's remarkably talented tongue stroked into her mouth like rough, liquid heat, rubbing against hers in a way that made her feel light-headed.

In fact, it was quite possibly the worst idea ever conceived since the beginning of recorded time.

Kagome was about to lodge a formal protest when his mouth moved warmly to the curve of her jaw and then to her neck, licking slow, curling patterns over it before lightly scraping his fangs against her sensitized skin. Kagome shivered slightly, her fingers stroking his scalp, seemingly under their own aegis.

Sesshoumaru smiled faintly against her throat. Her hands slid down, nails digging slightly into his shoulders. She felt as wonderful as he had recalled, all soft curves and sleek muscle under his hands. The smell of her pleasure, rising between their bodies, seemed to fill his head, making his breathing rough and his heartbeat quicken. Slowly, his hands moved lower, sliding over her flannel-clad hips, cupping her bottom to press her flush against his body.

Kagome's eyes opened wide as his warm, broad chest rubbed teasingly against her breasts. Well, she thought hazily, that was definitely new.

Her eyes opened even wider when she registered the hard, pulsing pressure against the juncture of her thighs.

She shifted slightly away, but succeeded only in rubbing herself firmly against him, sending a warm, melting ache through her all the way to her extremities.

Kagome leaned forward again, and noted that her unintentional rocking motion produced some very interesting sensations - sensations that she really wouldn't mind replicating, though they were probably far too good to be healthy.

From the pressure of Sesshoumaru's hands on her hips, he wouldn't mind replicating them either.

"Gah," she gasped into Sesshoumaru's hair as he rubbed himself insistently against her. Seemingly from a distance, she registered that the white strands in front of her face were less like human hair than very long, fine fur.

Sesshoumaru didn't reply, as his lips were fastened over Kagome's earlobe, tongue tracing teasingly. He quickly tipped Kagome back onto the grass, pulling her knees up at his sides before slowly moving up over her body. She shivered at the cold prickle of the ground at her back, and the heat that seemed to radiate from Sesshoumaru, burning her through their clothing.

The way he was staring at her with those dark amber eyes was enough to burn her on its own. He looked down at her, eyes sweeping slowly over her body before he ducked his head.

Kagome's mouth went dry as he bent to nuzzle her breasts through the flannel of her green froggie pajamas. "Um. . ." she said uncertainly, voice uneven, "what. . . what exactly-"

Sesshoumaru bit gently at one hardened nipple and was rewarded with a rather charming whimper of need as Kagome's hands clenched in his clothing, pulling him closer to her. Then, he rasped his tongue over it, through damp fabric, before taking the firm peak into his mouth, rubbing the wet flannel against the sensitive flesh beneath. Kagome hooked one leg around his, arching up against his stomach, as the soft skin of her waist warmed beneath his hands.

"Whuh. . ." Kagome murmured, desperately trying to find her brain. It was really hard, especially now that his hand was sneaking up further under her top, the tips of his claws lightly moving over her skin like pinpoints of fire. . .

"Mm?" Sesshoumaru asked, trying not to talk with his mouth full. He almost groaned as she rubbed rhythmically against him, simultaneously easing his ache and intensifying it.

Kagome dragged him up for a deep, thrusting kiss, and marveled at the taste of him. Then, she couldn't seem to stop herself from squirming her hands into the folds of fabric that covered his chest. He growled into her mouth as her hands met his bare flesh, stroking downwards into his clothing, her fingernails scraping over his heated skin.

Impatiently, Sesshoumaru pulled away briefly, keeping her gaze pinned to his as he dragged the material off his shoulders. He shrugged his arms out of the sleeves so that the garment hung messily from his waist, before lightly grasping Kagome's wrists, pressing her hands to his bare stomach.

Kagome blinked up at him wonderingly, running her hands up slowly over the sleek musculature of his chest , shoulders, and back. He panted against her cheek, leaning into her hands as she stroked him, running his teeth over the line of her jaw.

Sesshoumaru was perfect, she thought foggily. All graceful and strong, like . . . some kind of really graceful and strong thing.

Giving up on similes, she nudged Sesshoumaru onto his back so she could explore at more leisure. Not the type to be pushed around, he caught her around the waist so that she landed astride him, and then slowly rocked up against her, staring hungrily at the place their bodies touched. Kagome looked down as well, too far gone for embarrassment, and made a low, choked sound, as she felt his flesh jump, hardening further against her. Hesitantly, Kagome reached between them to touch. A deep rumbly noise erupted from Sesshoumaru's chest at the fleeting caress.

"Sesshoumaru," she gasped weakly. "Whuh. . ." she blinked as the sight of his chest once again robbed her of speech. Kagome leaned down, the dark length of her hair falling over that broad expanse of skin. At the cool, silky weight, Sesshoumaru was unable to prevent himself from seizing her hips and bucking up against her with another growl.

At what she gauged to be his favorable response, Kagome leaned down again, pressing scalding kisses over his skin before flicking her tongue over one of his nipples.

What happened next was a bit of a blur. When her breath returned, she found that she staring up at the stars as grass prickled against her bare back. Her shirt lay a small distance away, completely button-less. Meanwhile, a violently aroused youkai was doing his best to suck her breast into his mouth, whole.

The young woman made a muffled moaning noise that turned into a yelp as Sesshoumaru's palm pressed warmly at the juncture of her thighs. He gave the silken globe he'd been inhaling a parting lick, and turned to its mate, in the spirit of fairness.

Gods, he thought muddily, lost in the taste of her skin. He could feel her through the soft fabric, wet and ready, and the scent of her was going to drive him insane. In the back of his mind, a quiet voice reminded him that a human female really shouldn't smell this good, and that he should be disgusted. However, the thought was swiftly drowned out by a louder one. This voice asked some very insistent questions about her delicious scent's obvious corollary.

He wanted a taste.

As Kagome arched up against him, feeling her heart beating in places it hadn't before, she acknowledged that she may have lost control of the situation a few exits back.

However, somewhere between the time when Sesshoumaru's tongue swirled into her navel, and the point when he started pulling insistently at the waistband of her pajama bottoms, Kagome recovered enough presence of mind to ask the question that had been flitting in and out of her head like a butterfly on speed.

Sesshoumaru distantly praised the wonderful textiles of Kagome's time. The waistband of her strange hakama seemed remarkably willing to slip down over her rounded hips. He licked his lips in anticipation, rubbing his cheek over her inner thigh.

"Sesshoumaru?" she asked hoarsely, as a rush of embarrassment kicked her brain into gear. She tried to ease his hands away from her waistband and tug his head back up to her eye-level, but was spectacularly unsuccessful. Giving up on gentle persuasion, she grabbed a handful of his hair, and hauled him up that way. Sesshoumaru made a less pleased growling sound, but complied, though he was apparently still intent on his goal.

Kagome inhaled sharply as she felt the whisper of claws low on her stomach, and grabbed his wrist before he could insinuate his hand any further into her pants.

Scooting backwards with all the speed at her disposal, she sat up, and then retrieved her shirt. "What are we doing?" she asked, trying to keep her voice even, as she pulled the edges of the garment around her unsteadily. She looked into Sesshoumaru's eyes as he sat up as well, but the hunger in them really wasn't helping her. She lowered her gaze, suddenly shy, and hastily redirected her wide eyes upwards before she ended up staring at another very non-helpful area.

Sesshoumaru blinked his golden eyes at her lazily. "What?" he asked. Her voice had acquired a sudden resemblance to Jaken's. The thought cooled his ardor somewhat.

Though, he thought a moment later as he took in her flushed face, trembling hands, and swollen mouth, he was rapidly recovering.

Kagome swallowed past the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat at that look in his eyes, and scooted further away. "I'm not. . . we can't do this," she said firmly. "It's just bad."

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed at the perceived insult. In a flash, he reached for her as if to prove her wrong, causing her to retreat even further.

"A bad idea, I mean!" Kagome qualified in a nervous squeak. She shut her eyes and pressed her shaking hand to her temple.

They sat silently for a few minutes. Kagome watched warily when Sesshoumaru moved again, but relaxed as he slowly shrugged back into his sleeves. He noted with some amusement that Kagome's face fell slightly as he covered up.

Sesshoumaru exhaled shakily. She wanted him, badly. He could practically taste it.

He could definitely smell it.

And, now that he had a moment, he had to admit to himself that he wanted her more than any other female he had encountered. Stranger still was the fact that his desire for her only intensified as time went on.

"All right," Sesshoumaru said, looking directly into her eyes. He needed some time to think, preferably while she was some distance away, wearing something that actually fastened down the front. For a second, he felt a little bad for destroying her strange garment, but after he got a better look at it, he decided that it really couldn't have looked much worse anyway and that he had probably done her a favour.

Kagome stared forward at the bunny slippers she was still wearing, to her surprise. She would never look at them the same way again.

"Go to sleep," Sesshoumaru said quietly.

The girl, despite her protestations, seemed reluctant to leave him, even though her eyes were starting to drift shut. They sat under the stars for a little while longer, until Sesshoumaru heard a familiar sound from within the hut.

He paused, tilting his head slightly, as Kagome looked at him curiously. "Go inside, and wake Rin. She dreams of wolves."

Kagome's chin lifted, and she stared up at him for a moment, as though she were seeing something unexpected.

"Goodnight," she said decisively. Surprising him, Kagome leaned forward on her knees, threaded her fingers through his hair, and kissed Sesshoumaru hard on the mouth.

Then, she clumsily lurched to her feet and ran back to the hut, clutching her shirt closed, as pink bunny ears wildly flopped around before her.

Sesshoumaru exhaled and lay back on the grass for a while before he walked back to the hut. Tugging the folds of his clothing back into place, he sat back down against the wall, closed his eyes, and the remains of the night crawled by.

**********

When Kagome awoke the next morning, it was full light outside. For a moment, she was disoriented. She had become accustomed to being driven from her futon when the sky was still cool with the blue of departing darkness. Blinking in confusion, she came to the slow conclusion that Aya had skipped the dawn ritual that the younger woman had mentally dubbed "The Hayashi Gong Overture: With Yelling," out of consideration for Rin.

Kagome stretched, feeling positively hedonistic. She'd forgotten what it was like not to be violently yanked into the breaking day.

She turned to her side to see her young guest. Rin was lying on her stomach, fingers loosely curled next to her plump cheek. She looked utterly peaceful.

However, the look of peace was a jarring contrast to what Kagome had seen the previous night. Then, Rin had been convulsed in silent terror, gasping for breath as tears streamed down her sleeping face.

After being shaken awake, Rin had quickly calmed, though she had latched onto Kagome's arm with near inhuman strength.

Kagome had contented herself with stroking Rin's hair, unsure of what to do.

Rin, on the other hand, had behaved as though nothing extraordinary had happened. The two girls had lain in silence, waiting for Rin's breathing to slow, as Kagome had puzzled over Sesshoumaru's words. Dreaming of wolves? The older girl's mouth set into a worried line.

"Kagome?" Rin had murmured sleepily.

"Hm?"

"Dying hurts." The little girl's tone was almost conversational. At Kagome's look of confusion, Rin had merely inched closer and tightened her grip on Kagome's arm, turning her cheek into the pillow. "Seeing people die is worse, though. Bandits are like wolves. Sometimes I think I am running again," Rin had continued sleepily. "I forget about Sesshoumaru-sama, and Jaken with his staff of heads. Sometimes, I forget that Sesshoumaru-sama is faster than wolves. . ."

With that, Rin had yawned, and quickly returned to sleep, leaving Kagome to go over the girl's words long after. And, though Kagome tried to sneak her arm out of Rin's grip, the child had responded by making a sound of displeasure and administering a mighty squeeze.

Absently, the young woman massaged her arm. At some point in the night, Rin had released it, but it looked like she might be developing a few small bruises where Rin's hand had been.

Kagome wondered to herself who Rin turned to at home. Sesshoumaru had definitely seemed acquainted with Rin's nightmares, but Kagome couldn't imagine him allowing the girl to abuse his arm in such a manner. It just seemed uncharacteristic, but then again, his gestures of concern towards Kagome did as well.

If Kagome were to be honest, she had to admit to herself that she had no idea what was or was not characteristic of the youkai anymore.

Before Kagome had been separated from the group, she had formed an opinion of Sesshoumaru that was by no means flattering. She had found him arrogant, ruthless, and uncaring about anything outside of his own agenda. Rin had confused her a bit, but Kagome had just chalked the girl's presence up to whim or boredom.

Now, she brooded, everything was so much more complicated. Kagome pulled the sleeping bag up to her chin, as though to shield herself from thoughts of what had occurred the night before, but found that it was no longer possible. Sesshoumaru had awakened an appetite in Kagome that she had never even known she had. She couldn't seem to control herself around him.

What the hell was she doing? It seemed that, when she interacted with Sesshoumaru, she was in constant danger of losing either her temper, or her clothes.

He drove her insane.

Kagome bit her lip. When had everything gotten out of control? She had been dangerously close to abandoning all common sense. It had been so difficult to stop.

Nothing was supposed to feel that good, ever. Kagome emitted a helpless wheeze as she recalled certain details about a partially naked Sesshoumaru.

The temptation was just too great, she thought miserably. She was only human. How could she be blamed? The abs alone should have at least required him to wear a warning label.

But really, her apparent hormonal affinity for Sesshoumaru was the least of her worries. She'd known that she was venturing into dangerous territory before, but with her considerable powers of self-deception, she had managed to convince herself that those previous episodes were a temporary aberration for both parties involved - that it was merely a physical attraction that would quickly exhaust itself.

However, Kagome was now having great difficulty keeping Sesshoumaru in the mental box she'd labeled "Inuyasha's cold and dangerous older brother - stay away." There was a lot more to him than she had thought.

Kagome was convinced that, underneath the stony exterior, he was someone she could count on - maybe even someone she liked.

A lot.

Kagome wriggled further into the covers and snorted in frustration.

Why did he have to start confusing her like this? Why did he have to start being all complex and layery?

Why, gods, why did he have to become someone she had scary, new feelings for?

Now that she thought about it, she would have paid good money for the return of Sesshoumaru: Tetsusaiga-chaser.

He was definitely easier to deal with than Sesshoumaru: somewhat naked, now with intriguing personality and action-grip. . .

Kagome wheezed once more, this time in horror at how warped her mind had become.

Kagome couldn't afford to be confused now. She had too much to do. Kagome was a woman with a mission, and she was absolutely not going to be distracted. The fight of her life was coming, and the stress of becoming involved with anyone - much less a certain youkai who possessed the uncanny ability to push all her buttons simultaneously without the slightest alteration in facial expression -would be dangerous.

She shut her eyes. Since it had become evident that keeping her pants on around Sesshoumaru might be a bit of an issue, the solution was simple.

Kagome's lips formed a firm line of resolve.

She was going to stay away from Sesshoumaru.

With that thought in mind, Kagome carefully got out of bed to avoid waking Rin, and quietly started to dress herself.

**********

Sesshoumaru remained seated against the outside of the house. One by one, he heard the Hayashis rouse themselves and eat their morning meal, before leaving to begin their day's tasks.

Unbeknownst to Kagome, Sesshoumaru had likewise come to a decision that morning, as he watched the new light creeping slowly over the land.

It was clear to him that Kagome was even more dangerous to him than he had originally supposed.

Before, he had thought he would be able to avoid her entirely, and thus lose interest in her. Now, it was obvious that his fascination with her was not going to be quashed so easily. Distance did not help, nor did exposure her consistently annoying presence. In fact, he had begun to find her more amusing than he did irritating.

This mess was destroying his peace of mind, and he would not tolerate it. The day he'd first touched Kagome, he should have known; he should have ended it there, once and for all. Sending her to the miko had been a miscalculation on his part. He now found it difficult to understand why he had thought helping her to develop her strength would do anything to reduce the strange power she seemed to exert over him.

Sesshoumaru's head tilted slightly. He heard the unmistakable sound of movement through the wall at his back. It was Kagome. He could still hear Rin's deep, even breathing, signifying that she was remained fast asleep.

Rising to his feet, Sesshoumaru re-entered the hut and silently waited for Kagome to emerge.

**********

Kagome felt strong and ready for anything. Even the motions of dressing seemed imbued with new purpose.

No longer would she, Higurashi Kagome, be tossed by the winds of fate. No longer would she allow bothersome youkai to get under her skin and throw her off her game.

Kagome donned her vest with a decisive tug.

No longer would she be thrown by ill-advised attraction to high-handed males of any species.

With her inspirational monologue echoing through her mind, Kagome strode determinedly from the room, only to run smack into the last person she wanted to see.

It took a moment for Kagome to recover from her surprise. It took a little longer for her to uncurl her fingers and remove her hands from the warm fabric covering Sesshoumaru's chest, and to free herself from the hands that had risen to hold her in place.

It really took far too long for her to tear her wide eyes from his unreadable ones, and take a step back.

It was okay, Kagome thought, shaken. When one had an objective, there were bound to be obstacles one just had to overcome.

Her heart was only beating erratically from surprise, she told herself sternly. Now was the perfect time to implement her plan of 100% Sesshoumaru avoidance. Even though her sudden leap backwards seemed kind of nervous and awkward, all she really had to do was go around the, youkai who stared at her, advancing.

Right?

Kagome stepped aside, and calmly walked out of the door of the hut, heaving a sigh of relief.

Her relief was short-lived, when she heard a quiet footstep behind her.

Damn it, Kagome thought to herself. Her plan contained one small but crucial flaw.

What was she supposed to do if he wasn't willing to be avoided?

She furtively looked from side to side, and had the ridiculous urge to hide.

Sesshoumaru stood next to Kagome on the grass where they had lain the night before, watching her out of the corner of his eye. She looked extremely ill at ease, he noted predatorily. He waited silently for her to acknowledge his presence, but she seemed completely occupied with her own thoughts.

"Kagome."

She blinked twice, rapidly, and actually wrung her hands before she caught herself. She looked down, trying to collect herself.

It didn't help. Between her feet, she spotted a very familiar button with a frog on it. It winked slyly at her from the grass, as if to say that it knew what she had done, and had no qualms about blackmailing her about it.

Well, Kagome thought guiltily, maybe if she just stood here and didn't say much, Sesshoumaru would go away.

"Kagome," he repeated slowly.

"Mm hmm?" she choked, still refusing to meet his eyes. Now that he was right next to her, she couldn't help but feel increasingly mortified at the previous night's events. She'd practically. . . argh, Kagome groaned inwardly.

Plus, her plan to avoid him entirely this morning was falling apart around her. Kagome mused, briefly, on her failure as a strategist, before Sesshoumaru interrupted her thoughts yet again.

"Rin and I will leave very soon."

Sesshoumaru was infuriated at the look of elation that crossed Kagome's face. How dare she be so obviously happy at his departure, he fumed. The disgruntled youkai took hold of her arm, causing the bizarre female to emit a strange yelping sound.

"Oh, w-well then," she stammered, finally turning to look at Sesshoumaru and forcibly steadying her voice. This avoidance stuff was hard. "I guess this is goodbye. It was nice seeing both of you. I'll just go and wake Rin up, and then. . . " she trailed off.

Sesshoumaru had moved closer and leaned down, much to Kagome's dismay. She stared intently at the ground, legs stiff so as to prevent her knees from wobbling. That just settled it, she thought bitterly. She couldn't even stand properly with him around. Keeping a very comfortable distance from here on out wasn't just an option; it was a necessity.

Lost in her thoughts, Kagome looked up in confusion when Sesshoumaru took her shoulders in his firm grip. Kagome noted, with mounting alarm, that the look in his eyes she'd been trying to identify was awfully similar to the stare Buyo leveled on Grandpa's broom before pouncing on it.

Kagome froze with both fear and anticipation, thinking that he was about to kiss her.

He didn't.

The taiyoukai was mesmerized by the play of emotions on Kagome's face. First, she'd seemed determined to ignore him. A second ago, she'd almost been afraid of him. Now, she was unconsciously leaning into his touch.

His hand seemed to move of its own volition, slipping slowly over her collarbone, to the hollow in her neck where her pulse pounded beneath his fingertips. He inhaled sharply, his breath brushing her skin like a caress when he murmured into her ear.

"You will stay away from the Seiji boy."

Kagome, thrown by something indefinable in Sesshoumaru's touch, was slightly delayed in her reaction. However, when she finally registered his words, her paralysis was washed away in a towering red wave of indignation.

"Wait just one minute!" she bristled, taking a step back. "You have no right to tell me what to do. And why are you so obsessed with Sei- "

Sesshoumaru continued to speak as though she hadn't said a word. "Soon, you will be ready to take a male to your bed. When you are ready, you will choose me."

Kagome's mouth fell open. How was it that he could just say these things to her and not even blink an eye? He sounded like he was informing her about the soup of the day or something.

It's almost lunch-time! Choose fiesta vegetable!

Kagome would have laughed, if the parts of her brain responsible for laughter were functioning.

She shook her head, mind completely overloaded, before turning to walk away. When she felt his hand on her arm again, she suddenly regained her powers of speech.

"What makes you think that, you arrogant asshole?" she hissed under her breath, almost shaking with rage. "Of all the presumptuous things to say. Just because we've . . . made out a few times. . ." Kagome sputtered, trying to shake herself free.

Of course, she had to admit to herself that `making out' seemed woefully inadequate to describe what had been going on. `Making out' seemed to imply that some kissing, maybe a little groping had taken place while watching tv on one's parents' couch.

Getting so carried away that one almost had sex with a dog-demon, who tried to kill one in the past, outdoors, scattering one's buttons with wild abandon while one wore bunny slippers - well. . . that seemed to fall somewhat outside the `making out' umbrella.

Sesshoumaru looked incredulous. Damn it. Obviously, he wasn't buying it either, Kagome thought glumly.

"You truly want to know what makes me certain you will choose me?" he drawled, sounding dangerous.

Kagome shook her head energetically, but he stepped closer nonetheless, pulling her immobile form gently against his. Slowly, almost lazily, he ran his fingertips lightly up the inside of her arm, all the while looking directly into her wide eyes. Kagome shivered, feeling a familiar warmth spread through her.

Then, without warning, Sesshoumaru stepped back, and made a big show of inhaling deeply as one of his eyebrows slowly arched.

Kagome started sputtering. Either a vat of lava had been poured over her face, or she was blushing harder than she'd ever blushed in her life, she thought weakly. She'd forgotten about his sense of smell. The idea that he could smell when she was like that was utterly horrifying.

The fact that he barely had to touch her to get a reaction was even more horrifying. And, to top it all off, he looked incredibly pleased with himself.

"Damn. . . you. . . arrrrrrrgh!" Kagome fumed.

Sesshoumaru watched her with concern. He hadn't known that humans could turn that strange purplish color, he mused.

Luckily for him, Kagome was still so mad that she was incapable of speech. She was also incapable of anything besides clenching and unclenching her fists, which was why, when Sesshoumaru's golden stare wandered slowly over her body and he pulled her close again, his arms weren't purified right off.

"It will be me," he repeated, tightening his arms around her. Kagome's eyes widened as she felt him, hard, against her stomach. Then, his breath brushed her ear, causing another wave of shivering to overtake her. "And you will like it."

"Ac-t-tually. . . b-but. . ." she stammered weakly. There were too many mental signals. Part of her was so angry that she kind of wanted to kill him. Another part of her couldn't help but remember how nice the previous night's activities had been. Kagome was also forcefully reminded that she had had a plan of some sort, and that it hadn't involved turning into a blibbering idiot. Another voice in her head kept repeating, in agonized tones, `he can actually smell that?' and whimpering in mortification.

Kagome's knees gave out.

Sesshoumaru lowered Kagome slowly until she was sitting on the grass, as silent and motionless as an obelisk. It was quite obvious to him that the poor girl had been completely overwhelmed by his charms. He patiently waited for a response, almost looking forward to her inevitable reaction - truly, the girl was too temperamental for her own good. However, after some time with no change in her demeanor, Sesshoumaru went back to the door of the hut, donned his armor and pelt, and went inside to retrieve a sleeping Rin.

When he re-emerged, Kagome was still gaping vacantly at nothing in particular.

Sesshoumaru sighed in exasperation, gently taking Kagome's shoulder and shaking her. When she blinked and seemed to emerge a little from her trance, the corners of his mouth quirked slightly upward. "I am giving you time to accustom yourself to the idea," he said quietly. With that, he bent down and pressed a warm kiss to Kagome's lips, before he woke the slumbering Rin.

"We are leaving now," he said firmly to the little girl as she rubbed her eyes. "Say goodbye to Kagome."

Barely even disoriented by her sudden awakening, Rin grinned and flung her arms around the older girl. "Bye Kagome!" she exclaimed, before noticing that her friend was doing a remarkable driftwood impression. "Kagome? Are you all right?"

The miko nodded numbly. Rin, accepting her reassurance at face value, merely shrugged and smiled. "Okay, then. I have to go now, but maybe Sesshoumaru-sama will bring me back soon!"

Kagome peered up in disgruntlement at the maddening youkai in question. Yup, she thought hazily. He was definitely laughing on the inside again.

"Yes, Rin," he said, barely able to keep the amusement out of his voice, "I think that perhaps I will."

The little girl clapped her hands, looking ecstatic. Kagome, on the other hand, pinned Sesshoumaru with a fulminating glare.

In the minutes that followed, Kagome somehow managed to say goodbye to Rin and give her a farewell hug before the little girl flew away with that. . . that. . . argh!

Oh, crap. Crap, crap, crap. Kagome groaned, before lapsing back into a shell-shocked state.

Sesshoumaru was not going to let her avoid him at all.

**********

Later in the afternoon, Aya made her way back to the hut from the village with a sigh of relief. She was not very fond of being in the village. Places that were heavily settled made her feel stifled, so she'd left Seiji and Kazuo to run the errands. She ran a hand through her short black hair as she made her way to the door, and then halted abruptly.

Her pupil was sitting on the grass in front of the hut with a strange, dazed expression. Aya's face settled into a frown, as she worried that the slime last night had had a lingering effect.

The older woman crouched next to Kagome, waving her hand in front of her face. Kagome blinked, and then shook her head as though to clear it as Aya peered at her curiously. "What the hell happened to you?"

Kagome blinked again, before flopping back onto the grass by Aya's feet with a groan. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you," the young woman said wearily. "I don't even believe it, and I was there."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Aya inquired magnanimously, though a little reluctantly. This, she concluded, could only have been caused by that stone-faced inuyoukai.

Kagome was silent for a little while. "For now?" she paused. "Not really."

Aya sighed and then grinned. "Well, do you want to spar then? I've found that hitting things helps in many situations," she added helpfully.

Kagome smiled slowly in a way that almost made Aya regret her offer, before leaping to her feet. "Yeah! That sounds like just what I need." The young woman sprinted into the house for weapons, ranting continuously under her breath.

"Ooooh. I can't believe the gall of that tactless, overbearing, snobby, plan-ruining, striped Neanderthal. . ."

Aya's green eyes followed Kagome in trepidation. She didn't know whether to laugh, or run back to the village for more scintillating conversation with the rice-dealer. The woman winced as she heard repeated clanging and thudding noises from inside her home. What on earth was Kagome doing in there?

The young woman emerged from the hut, carrying what looked like Aya's entire arsenal and wearing a thunderous expression. "Let's kick some ass!" she exclaimed as she placed the weapons on the ground and chose a very unholy-looking axe.

Aya sighed. Unfortunately, in sparring, hers was the only ass Kagome was going to run into. The older miko grabbed her customary kodachi, sending her pupil a look of barely concealed alarm.

She was definitely going to regret her offer.

**********

For a while after Sesshoumaru's visit, Kagome woke up each morning wondering if he would show up again that day. After all, he hadn't specified when he would appear again. Perhaps he was, as usual, trying to keep her off-balance. It was yet another point against him.

Kagome was, of course, only wondering because she had been preparing a long rant. It covered many valid and incontrovertible points, including how presumptuous and high-handed he was. There was also a trenchant, though related, subsection outlining all the reasons why Kagome was not, under any circumstances, going to sleep with him.

Kagome liked to go over these points each night, right before she fell asleep in exhaustion. Unfortunately, when she dropped into the world of dreams, her subconscious seemed to ignore them completely. He didn't have to know about that, though. However, she had to give thanks for small favors; Kagome had grown to welcome the clamor of Aya's early morning pot-whacking routine.

Aside from that, the young woman busily continued to train. While her ability to control her power was becoming reliable, Aya kept pushing her, citing the fact that Kagome still wasn't able to access all of it. Frequently, the young woman wished that her teacher had never seen the extent of her spiritual strength. It would have at least gotten the older woman to ease up on her a little.

It was as though Kagome were butting up against a brick wall. Something seemed to be holding her back. Occasionally, Kagome caught Aya watching her with a dark frown on her face. When asked, the older miko would merely grin and shake her head, but it was obvious to the younger woman that there was something Aya wasn't telling her.

Kagome rapidly went through her forms in the afternoon sun, as Aya watched critically. The older miko sighed. Kagome had so much potential, but if this Naraku was as dangerous as she'd heard, this wouldn't be enough.

Aya was worried.

Many years ago, when Aya had begun to train herself, she had come up against a similar barrier. She had eventually concluded that there was a reserve built in, automatically limiting the use of this kind of spiritual strength. She supposed that, theoretically, training hard in meditation would help break that barrier. The problem was that she wasn't sure how long that would take. For Kagome, time was of the essence.

Lately, Aya's pupil had seemed more on edge. She had asked how much longer she would need to stay here. Obviously, the girl felt badly; her friends were hunting the shards, while she hid in relative safety.

Soon, Aya knew, Kagome would want to leave. Aya resolved that the young miko would not leave here before she was satisfied that Kagome could survive her battle.

"Kagome!" she called. The younger woman looked up and smiled in acknowledgement.

"Time for more meditation exercises," Aya commanded.

The older woman's head lowered in grief as she remembered how she had surpassed her own limitations, so long ago. With all her heart, she prayed that Kagome would never have to experience such a thing.

Some things were not worth the price one paid in suffering.

**********

Jaken sighed, fighting the urge to hide that had sprung into his heart at the first sign of his master's and Rin's return.

Oh, it had been a blessed two days, he thought wistfully. Two days of quiet.

Two days of peace, he thought, that were about to come to an end.

"Jaken? Jaken?" the child sang, as she ran through the halls of the great house. Where, oh where could he be, she wondered. Had he missed her?

She came to a sudden halt when she spotted the toad-like retainer. "Jaken!" she exclaimed happily as she approached. "Have you been lonely? Was it boring here without us?"

Jaken scowled. Lonely? Bored? Hardly, he scoffed to himself.

Though, he thought, it was quite upsetting at times, knowing that the master might have use for his services while he was away. And he did have to admit that sitting alone in the scroll room, waiting for a message, had been a rather jarring change from his usual activities.

After all, running from Rin was a challenge, requiring strategy and cunning.

"Of course not, child," he croaked sullenly. "This Jaken had very important things to do. I am very useful to Sesshoumaru-sama, you know," he chided. "I cannot spend all of my time running from a human child."

Rin smiled and approached Jaken, who quickly scurried backwards. For a moment, he noticed, the girl looked hurt.

Jaken was sure that the pang he felt was indigestion.

"Jaken?" Rin asked, coming to a stop.

"What?" he asked grumpily, bringing the staff of heads protectively before him.

Rin frowned, and hesitated.

"What!" Jaken grumbled, feeling somewhat panicked, for reasons he could not name.

"You run away from me?" Rin asked quietly. "You're not. . . playing?" Rin's voice wavered pathetically. Jaken froze in horror at the strange feeling in his chest at the girl's heartbroken tone. When he looked up into her face, it was all he could do not to croak in dismay.

The child was obviously broken. She was leaking! Water was coming out of her eyes!

Sesshoumaru-sama would never believe that it was not his faithful Jaken's fault for breaking her. Frantically, Jaken moved towards her, trying to figure out a way to stop the watering. If only he knew more about humans, he might be able to fix this, he thought, wracking his brain.

"Rin! Stop that!" he ordered, shaking the staff at her warningly.

Rin's lip wobbled, giving him hope that she would obey. That hope was quickly dashed when she started leaking even more.

"Of course I'm playing!" Jaken babbled desperately. "It is, er, fun for this Jaken to play with the human child, no matter how painfully hard she squeezes me!"

Rin merely blinked at him in confusion, sniffling.

Jaken watched in horror as water also started to come out of the child's nose.

He was done for, he thought in terror. Surely, with so much water loss, Rin was going to shrivel into a husk!

"R-really?" Rin asked hopefully. Then, she sniffled again. "I did not know I was hurting you."

"Yes!" Jaken exclaimed, inching towards her cautiously. "But it is all right. This Jaken is strong!" he intoned, puffing his chest out with pride.

Rin merely looked at him with suspicion. She was still emitting water from her eyes, Jaken noticed, but seemed to be stopping. Relieved that she was no longer in danger of drying up, Jaken quickly dropped the staff of heads and did the only thing he could think to do.

He hugged her.

Rin sniffled slightly, but tentatively squeezed him back. "I am sorry for hugging you too hard," she sniffled. "I won't anymore."

"Er, good!" Jaken said as haughtily as he could manage. This wasn't nearly as bad as it had been before, he thought. In fact, it almost made him warm inside, to know that Rin had thought about him while she and Sesshoumaru-sama had been away. She had actually worried that he might be lonely.

Suddenly, Jaken remembered something. Yesterday evening, as he had been performing a patrol of the house grounds, it had occurred to him that the bucket in the well would be a rather ingenious hiding spot. Surely, Rin would never think to look for him there.

Rin blinked in confusion as Jaken suddenly released her and scampered away to pick up his staff of heads. Then, he turned. "Rin," he crowed excitedly, "you will never find me this time!" With that, he sprinted away, stopping only to give Sesshoumaru-sama an obsequious bow when he saw him by the scroll room.

Rin quickly wiped her eyes on her sleeve, grinned, and sat down to begin counting.

**********

For the umpteenth time, Miroku, Sango, Shippou, Kirara and Inuyasha graciously accepted a village's thanks for ridding them of a horrible youkai.

"You would think," Miroku mused in a low voice, "that after they noticed that offering virgins to a mysterious reptilian lord didn't prevent him from raining poisonous jaki onto their farms, the villagers would come to the conclusion that they were enormous suckers."

Sango merely grinned in amusement, accepting a sack of rice for their troubles. "Many thanks," she said to the village women, who were weeping with relief at the safe return of their daughters.

Inuyasha merely smirked. "Right, Miroku. And you would think that, after seeing a mysterious perverted monk show up at his door with warnings of dark omens and letting him eat all the food in the house, a village chief would notice that he's an enormous sucker."

Miroku merely raised a rakish eyebrow, and then winked at one of the rescued virgins. Sango, a small distance away, twitched slightly when the girl blushed and giggled. "It's hardly a lie," Miroku rationalized smoothly. "With all the youkai coming out of the woodwork lately, it's probably true that this countryside is dwelling under some sort of dark omen. At least we got a shard out of it, and a night's rest. We can continue south tomorrow."

Shippou snickered before rummaging in a basket of fruit and choosing a juicy-looking persimmon. "Inuyasha, considering all the good we do, I don't think it's a big deal. We have to eat, after all."

"You mean you have to eat," Inuyasha said sourly, bopping Shippou on the head and then stealing his persimmon. "This, coming from the member of the group who basically only eats and sleeps!"

"Hey!" Shippou cried, trying futilely to reclaim the fruit Inuyasha had taken from him. "I can fight! Plus, I'm good for morale."

Sango sat down on the hillside with the others. "Speaking of the group," she began hesitantly, "was that Kikyou I saw lurking in the bushes as we fought?"

Inuyasha nodded shortly. Lately, it had seemed like she was showing up very frequently, though her motives for doing so were a complete mystery, as usual. Inuyasha would have liked to think it was out of some lingering affection for him, but chances were that there was something else going on, entirely.

Shippou, oblivious, added his two cents. "Why is she following us around and telling us where the shards are? Do you think she's going to tell Naraku all about where we are and what we're doing?"

Inuyasha merely frowned and remained silent, making Miroku's and Sango's eyes widen. If he wasn't clobbering Shippou for asking such a thing, he was probably harboring similar suspicions.

Miroku spoke up, after a brief silence. "I don't know. She seems different," he said slowly. "Lately, when she is around. . . her aura isn't the same as it was."

Inuyasha looked up sharply. "What do you mean, Miroku?" he demanded.

The monk merely shrugged, shifting closer to Sango. "I'm merely saying, she seems different," he said. "But I also must say, the way she's been following us, and lurking out of sight. . ."

"It's creepy," Sango said matter-of-factly, casually brushing the houshi's hand away from her behind. Finally, she thought with a sigh, he was getting back to normal. She'd been starting to worry.

Sango looked around at her companions, who had all suddenly leapt to their feet, staring up into the distant sky.

"Shit!" Inuyasha exclaimed. The sky was darkening.

"Youki," Miroku explained to Sango. "A lot of it, and it's coming fast."

Shippou's tail was shaking furiously, and Kirara's fur stood on end as she snarled.

"A damned swarm of youkai," Inuyasha snarled. "They know where they're going, too. The last time I saw a swarm like this. . ." he trailed off, and then looked at Sango.

Her village, she registered weakly. And the person - no, the monster - who had orchestrated that episode. . .

Sango picked Hiraikotsu up, the village's gifts of food lying forgotten, as the sky darkened to black. The villagers screamed, running back into their homes, though the structures would not be able to protect them if they were attacked with this much force.

Shippou leapt onto Inuyasha's shoulder. Miroku quickly seized his staff, and ran towards Kirara, mounting behind Sango. As one, their faces turned up to the heavens, which had become obscured by a mass of flashing eyes and roiling, malevolent flesh.

The bodies of hundreds of youkai, radiating bloodlust, passed overhead at blinding speed.

"Well?" Inuyasha barked, turning to the others. Sango had paled, though her face was set into determined lines. Shippou merely shivered and clung even more tightly to Inuyasha's shoulder.

Miroku looked overwhelmed. "Such enraged youki," he breathed. "Oh, this cannot be good."

"Well?" Inuyasha repeated impatiently. "Let's go!" He quickly sprung into motion.

Shaken out of their paralysis, the others followed Inuyasha, and the swarm, southward.

**********

Author's Note:

This chapter has been hell to write, and I just want to do a dance now. There are parts that will be altered, but just posting this thing is a huge load off my mind, so here it is.

I know most people aren't into non-canon characters, but hopefully you can endure them.

Just to inform you, bunch of the soundtrack will be coming down in the next while, since I have to free up some space.

First of all, I just want to say thanks to the people who have reviewed or sent me supportive email. It really helps (though you'd hardly know it, with how long this chapter took. . .).

Secondly, I'd like to thank the people who have helped me by answering questions: Ookami-chan, CX-chan, Maxine, Kii, Chibi Tenshi, Phoenix, and anyone who I've inadvertently omitted. Your input has been immensely helpful.