Heartless

by Van Rae

He now understood why his maker hated the damn thing.

Was it fair?

She thought, reaching into the apexes of her sleeves, the blade digging against her skin, was it fair at all?

The ivory kissed moonlight danced on her pale face, seemingly to twinkle under the commands of the covering trees.

She bent down towards the sleeping boy, smooth lips pursed in a thin line as she pondered the consequences of her actions, allowing the slip of a long forgotten emotion she had kept hidden so long ago.

The child didn't stir under her stare and she thought that the pain must have reduced him to succumb to deep unwanted slumber.

The bandages she had wrapped around his decapitating torso bled each time he exhaled, he needs to be dressed again, she thought idly. The gaping hole on his chest had been stitched neatly, covering the clumped mass of muscles that had to heal over the weak ticker.

A soft light suddenly shimmered under the pads of wraps and the more it crept out of his chest the slower he breathed.

Kikyou hummed, pricking the tips of her artificial fingers.

Seconds later, a thin string of her soul eased out of the opening and she connected it to the escaping light of the boy, and the moment the child's soul curled around her lifeline in a gentle hold of bluish smoke, it immediately seeped back within his body, pulling the thin string with it as the thread snapped and dissipated into to moonlit air.

The boy's breathing started relax, and she took in a long weary breath, her clay form adjusting to the void made yet again inside her being.

This became a new routine for the dead priestess, for every pained gasp he makes as death again entices his soul to depart, she was given the choice to either lose a part of the child, or lose a part of herself.

She didn't think twice.

She hid the blade inside the sleeves of her haori, setting herself on an upturned root just beside the boy, as much as she loathes the hanyou, she could not bring herself to feel the same for the monster's incarnation.

He is just a child, she reminds herself.

A demon child.

The added thought made her lip turn up ironically, of all the reasoning her mind had forced upon her, she should have listened to this one. How could she, a miko, sworn to eliminate all threatening advances made on the human race, pull a demon child under her wing?

But he is still so young… the thought trailed off in a hushed whisper, the rational part of her mind now keeping silent as she mused upon this subject.

Oh how she had loved children when her heart used to beat, and even now as she walked the lands of the earth in a cold body, she still does.

As she goes from village to village extending medical help, mostly accepted by birthing mothers whom she had aided to successful deliveries, she couldn't help but remember the deep void inside her, making itself known as she watched them cradle their newborns.

Oh how I envied them, she thought, her hand unconsciously reaching down to stroke the head of soft purple platinum hair.

She clearly recalled the day so many years ago, when she had implored Inuyasha to transform into human instead so they can live and grow old happily together as a normal man and woman, relieving her from her chained duties as the Shikon jewel would vanish with his wish. But no, fate would hear nothing of it. He would hear nothing of it.

Her eyes had opened to the betrayal as soon as death willed them to close, stealing away her life for fifty years. Yet death didn't plan on keeping her as she woke up again with the living, a mere patch of a soul providing to keep her sanity and mobility, memories crashing down on her as she finds her love thrown back at her, unwanted, as she was replaced by her reincarnation no less.

She wonders sometimes, why Kagome frustrates herself with petty insecurities when the truth is there in plain sight for everyone to see. Who would choose the old broken doll, when the new doll is right there?

The child under her stirs and her hand stilled. Pulling away, she stands up and turns towards the deeper parts of the forest.

The large steed raised its fiery head from its position at the opening of the woods, watching her as she approached, but she merely walked by the beast. Entei grunted with slight rear of its head and priestess stopped.

She turned slightly to look at the horse demon from the corner of her eye and a sort of silent message passes between them before it lowered its large head back to the forest floor to continue its rest.

How the gods love to toy with her, she pushes back distracting branches from her face to meet a bubbling brook, encasing her weakness for children to trap her in a position she cannot fight against, just to amuse them.

She bends down by the stream, her porcelain hands dipping into the chilling water, but her fingers did not numb. She moved the tips to create small ripples, blurring her reflection as she contemplated over all the reasons of her melancholic existence, and the plans to pursue to end it. Life was such an ambiguous word after all, if used on oneself, it's undermine conclusion being the proof that a person has lived at all. But she didn't, she never did.

The midnight breeze slowed to a stop and she paused in her wonderings.

"Coming up to a woman from behind," she started softly, the winds started up again, carrying her voice across the small clearing in a hypnotic melody, "does not seem honorable for a warrior."

There was a clink of metal behind her and she could feel a smirk blooming on the intruder's lips, "sharp," the effeminate voice commented, "for a woman."

Kikyou withdrew her hands from the brook and slightly turned to the trespasser, "may I help you?"

Jakotsu tapped his chin as if in thought, "big brother told me to get some supplies for our journey." His eyes crinkled as his smirk widened, "and lucky me found the miko instead."

Kikyou merely stared at him, his lavender kimono hanging down loosely against his masculine shoulders, but he tossed his head back as he spoke, a feminine gesture.

"Well?"

Kikyou's emotionless gaze didn't falter, "Well, what?"

Jakotsu held the urge to roll his eyes, "where are your supplies, woman?"

The priestess passively turned back to the brook before glancing at him, "It is not enough."

"It will be, if it's just for only one of us, eh?" there was an underlying threat lacing his feminine tone, "the choice is yours, wench. Either you give me what I want by choice, or I take it by force."

"and if I tell you I have no such supplies?"

The mercenary sneered then, "I kill you anyway."

Kikyou turned fully to face him at that, slowly standing to her full height as she tilted her head with a humoring air, "kill me?", the stars were dancing on her skin as if sensing her amusement, the blue of her eyes suddenly gleaming pink for a moment in the shadowed light. You can kill me?

Jakotsu fingered the hilt of his snake blade, he was getting a little wary with the miko's dead stare, questing alone in the middle of the night was not his favorite forte, and he was suddenly agreeing to it as the priestess's chilling blue eyes casted off on him, unmoving, like the eyes he sees every time his blade swings down to steal a final gasp. It was the way her head angled lightly, hair spilling over her shoulder exposing the snowy skin of her neck in invitation, arms laxed at her side as if her profile challenged him to try.

Kikyou watched him, his eyes held hers firmly but she could see a slight crease on his brows, betraying his discomfort on the situation, the location of his hand going by not unnoticed.

She parted her lips to speak but froze.

There was a sudden rustle in the bushes nearby and Jakotsu's finger twitched, as if curious to see what was there without cutting of the woman's gaze, not noticing her stiffen.

But then the rustlings of leaves got louder, nearer, and a distinct snap of a branch accompanying the annoying swish of foliage snapped his head towards the direction of the sound in subtle alarm, but there was nothing in the dark except the breeze sweeping off the plants as everything stilled to silence once again. He turned to look back at the priestess, but she was gone.

"Shit."

Entei's ear twitched and the horse demon raised its head to the sound of soft padded footsteps heading his way, the scent of graveyard soil wafting into his senses and he relaxed a little, only a little.

There was something different with her steps; they were slightly brisk and hurried. Soft glows illuminated the forest surrounding him and he turned back once again to the approaching figure.

Kikyou stepped through the bushes and fixed her eyes on him and then back to where she had come from, her dragons fluttering anxiously behind her, circling around their camp and then heading to the south.

Entei watched her curiously as she quickly picked up her bow and quiver and headed to the direction opposite to where her dragons had flown to. He parted his mouth to neigh in question but Kikyou whipped her head sharply to him and he was suddenly silenced in alarm.

The urgent glaze of her eyes was all it took for the horse demon to understand as it gathered up the child in its mouth and race up to her, having her grab a hold of his fiery mane unstopping to whisk them both off into the starlit sky in silent escape.

-;-

The demon lord basked underneath the moonlit sky as the crackling of fire flickering through his peripherals dimmed to dying embers. The young female child and his vassal were fast asleep in a small camp not too far from him, yet the two headed dragon was wide awake, and watching him curiously as if waiting for something to happen, for his command for something to happen. He didn't bother questioning the odd behavior that has been acting up like that for a few nights already.

He ignored the pair of knowing stares and went on with his ponderings. The splendid view over the cliff before him was not enough to sate him into relaxation and he idly wondered how his lands are doing in his absence.

Long silver strands wafted through the soft breeze as his golden eyes tilted to gaze disinterestedly at the night sky, stars of different size and bright-light colours spilled across the ebony blanket, clusters here and there, but the scene was all the same as every other night. But the human child, Rin, would always take pleasure in gazing up at the sky to merely try to count them. He would join her though, on a few occasions, but for different reasons. He would wait. For some strange reason, he just finds himself...awaiting something. His demon blood would still, cementing his feet on this spot, if he dares leave without searching the sky to make sure. Make sure of what? The night remained unchanged on his silent question and he inwardly growled, I have no time for this.

He tore his gaze away from the crystalline blanket before slowly turning to get back to camp when he felt it.

A pulse.

He stopped and stared down at the hilt of his wretched inheritance, as the sword start to hum lowly, only to his ears, a slight beat pulsing against the fabric of his haori. Interesting… he thought, scanning the cliff clearing for any sign of the source of the Tensaiga's disturbance. It had been so long since he had felt any communication from the blade since he had revived Rin in the woods many months ago. Although there were those rare times he would feel it hum softly, yet he couldn't figure the cause.

From the corner of his eye, the two headed dragon still didn't waver from the stare directed at the Taiyoukai, but the two sets of eyes seem to slightly tilt… upwards.

Sesshoumaru lifted his gaze and golden eyes narrowed slightly as he caught sight of gliding movement amongst the stars.

The Tensaiga's pulse seems to get more erratic as the object flew over them, its beat fluttering in excitement and all he could do is dig his claws into his palms at the heinous feel of the vibrations stirring up his blood to obey, the pull much stronger than that of the time he brought his ward back to life.

I have no time for this!

Yet Ah-Un didn't bat an eye as the dragon found itself alone on the cliff.

-;-

Jakotsu glared down at his face in the waters the priestess had stood not too long ago and groaned, slicing up his frustrated reflection with a flick of his hand, splashing his face in the process and he sputtered.

"I've always known you were an odd one, Jakotsu." A gruff voice commented behind him, "but I never thought you were odd enough to start a fight with water among all things."

Jakotsu looked up and brightened dramatically, "big brother!"

A young man dressed richly in fine robes underneath intricately designed armour stepped out languidly behind the bushes, a heavy pointed blade resting idly on his shoulders. "Where are the supplies I told you to gather?"

This made the other man pout, "well… you see, I was getting on to that, but then there was this priestess…" he started, "She was being a bitch tryna threaten me with her weird eyes so I tried to threaten her back y'know! Put her in her place y'know, and uh..." he tried to explain looking for whatever excuse he can come up with without portraying that he was caught off guard while distracted by the miko. A woman of all beings! Oh no, he would not admit that, but was cut short as the young man held up his hand and grinned boyishly.

"It was actually my fault." He admitted with much amusement. No regrets. No apologies. Nope.

Confusion seem to swim across the other man's face, before Jakotsu gapped unattractively at his friend as realization hit him like a bag of bricks, "the sound… the bushes… that was you?!"

Bankotsu nodded, the grin still evident on his handsome face, "yep."

Seconds flew by and a pregnant silence enveloped the clearing.

Bankotsu looked around unaware of the building tension his companion was emitting, "nice place you found, got a lot of water to go by, not that we can't find more anywhere." He observed, eyeing the spring running next to a still silent Jakotsu. "hey, do you even have a canteen? How are you gonna carry this? Don't fucking tell me you're gonna use your hands."

"Bankotsu…" Jakotsu started too sweetly, seeing as his former leader looked oblivious to his building frustration.

Bankotsu turned to him, "hm?"

"Why didn't you say anything when you saw me cornered by the woman?" he slapped himself mentally at that, cornered? What the fuck. But he continued on, "You didn't even do anything! And to make matters worse, she was able to escape before I rob her of supplies, and instead of backing me up, YOU played with a bunch of fucking plants!"

"With all your talk about how she's just a mere woman, I'm surprised you weren't able to lay a single finger on her." He replied undeterred, grin widening at the other man's dark mood, "not just a mere woman, eh?"

Jakotsu resisted the urge to roll his eyes back far enough to go golfing with his brain; leave it up to Bankotsu to bring up his former declaration of pronouncing the miko was easy target in this situation. He didn't even consider his outburst! He needed a break. Seriously. "yeah, yeah, I get it, big brother."

"She didn't even do anything and already you look like you've seen a ghost." He continued, snickering.

Jakotsu bit out a sour response when he noticed the light hearted air surrounding the other mercenary, "Why are you in such a good mood anyway?"

Bankotsu gave him a knowing grin, the flash of amusement still glittering in his cobalt blue eyes, if he tilts just towards the moonlight it was a hue not far from the eyes of the strangely beautiful miko's…

Jakotsu's eyes widened and he whipped his face away from his friend. What the fu-

Bankotsu eased his hold on his halberd and looked up at the sky as if in thought, "no reason," his eyes shining with unknown mirth, "no reason at all."

Jakotsu studied his brother curiously, his face lightened from the moonlight. It was only when he squinted closer did he see the skin of his face and hands were slightly red as if...

"Where did you get those burns?"

He smiled secretly, "a parting gift." He explained simply, moving him to drop the subject.

Jakotsu looked up and followed his brother's gaze; the stars seem to move towards the south. Bright lights slithering their way through the sky, soul collectors, Bankotsu thought, turning his heel towards the opposite direction, dragons of the dead.

Jakotsu got up and dusted his yukata, "aren't we going this way?" he pointed the sky with his thumb to indicate the moving lights, "I thought we were gonna follow those youkai…"

Bankotsu moved on without stopping, his precious banryuu glinting atop his shoulder, causing Jakotsu to run to catch up with his long strides, "because," he said, the cobalt blue of his eyes sparkling with a dangerous smirk, "that's what the woman wants us to do."

-;-

The night was still young, Kikyou thought, bringing the sleeping child from the steed's mouth to her arms in a secure embrace. The boy hadn't moved even with the turbulence of the wind, she thought silently, as Entei manoeuvred over a cluster of clouds.

Her foot suddenly bumped into their supplies, strapped around the horse demon, a long weapon knocking in slow rhythms on her ankle as the wind thrashed against them.

The steel blade glittered under the subjection of the stars and all the priestess could do was watch as it poked the steed and her foot.

It was actually strange to her that the horse demon would suddenly follow her around as soon as she had saved the life of its former master. Was it the countenance of a debt to be paid? She had heard stories of the great stallion called Entei, rising up on its heels in majestic glory as it was mounted by the strongest demons it could encounter, subjected to call the most powerful its master.

How the young demon child won the loyalty of the beast she was not so sure, but all she knew was, the recent rider, a power hungry ogre, had his head roll together with village he last burnt.

Entei caught the priestess studying him from the corner of his eye and he whipped his head to stare back at her just as intensely.

Kikyou smiled slightly and reached her hand to stroke its fiery mane, the illusions of flames caressed her fingers and the horse turned its head back on its flight.

She had found the boy, wounded in the middle of a battlefield, a gaping hole in the centre of his chest where a heart was slightly exposed, beating weakly, and upon an unknown instinct, she struck down all in her way just to reach the dying child. It did not escape her that his wounds would not heal as fast as it should normally would.

She had not counted how many demons spilled their blood in her hands that day as she blindly made her way to the child, but as her eyes finally caught the fatality of his injury, her eyes gleamed dangerously.

Red. She saw red.

Anger. It burned inside her, deep flaming anger and her eyes had to harden as not to betray a single trace of rage on her icy mask.

Youkai after youkai stampeded towards her when she stood in their midst, weapons raced in blind fury, lips curled with snarling fangs, unaware of the silky aura seeping out from her form, curling itself around their feet like a whisper against the raging storms of their attack. She didn't think. She couldn't think.

The powerful emotion felt close to unbearable as she dropped to her knees beside the child, that feeling she knew all too well, since it was that same emotion that brought her back to life.

She can see a few demons slowing down, looking around themselves in confusion as an unexplainable aura enveloped the air tightly, knuckles suddenly white from an unknown rising feeling of dread and they hesitated, wary eyes suddenly finding her still form in the epicenter of the field. Not the fallen bodies of their comrades. Not the boy.

Her.

Her eyes glowed rose as she smiled.

The hole did not close even as she tried to purify the wound. The body simply is not accustomed to have itself filled with an intruder that had never been there before.

She recalled the other half of the white child, the baby, the one suppose to contain the boy's heart, but guessing since the infant was absorbed by its maker after realizing their intentions of overthrowing his reign, the hanyou simply left the living half to die in the midst of all the his enemies, with its heart lodged carelessly through a hole.

She remembered the hidden fear that clouded the child's eyes as he realized the danger he was in as demon after demon came to strike, his power to regenerate brutally taken away by the man that could very well be his father.

She remembered the prideful snarl that masked over the child's pain stricken face as she slowly approached him, silently screaming at her that he doesn't need any help, from any human, or from anyone else.

"do it!" he hissed, fangs baring as he pushed his small form to sit up, the pain masked poorly on his face. "kill me and be done with it!"

But she merely dropped herself beside him, tearing a strip from the hem of her sleeve, eyes never leaving his disfigured chest.

She remembered the horror that crossed his features as she finished her sweet divine holocaust, her dangerous aura engulfing his senses, making him think he would be next. He had stared at her defiantly, unafraid as she neared his broken form lying in the pool of his own blood.

Realizing her intentions, the white child struggled as she reached for him, and he pushed his bruising feet to pedal back, trying as much as he can to escape her grasp. "No! Stay away! D-Don't! I don't want your help!" he was frantic now, heels slipping on the blood underneath him as he panicked, and by the time her fingers brushed his shoulder, the terror on his face grew wild and hysterical. "STAY AWAY FROM ME!"

Kikyou closed her eyes, her embrace instinctively tightening as she allowed that memory to pass.

The steed had seen everything and abandoned his master to pursue her as its mistress. She had rejected it, ignored it, but it continued to follow her as she left the valley that sang of death.

The child begrudgingly stayed behind, his cold lilac eyes betraying nothing as he left for the opposite direction, alone. It seemed the horse demon had found someone more powerful to replace him with.

But the fates seem to think the bond was humorous, she thought dryly, as she would always find the boy in her path, breathing heavily and struggling to survive, only facing her squarely when he had completely masked the pain, just to sneer and snap at her like a wild animal.

She would look down at him emotionlessly for a moment and trudge on, the large horse faithfully behind.

She remembered that even when she had left him alone to fend for himself, once and many times more at that time, for some reason, she did not really want to leave him at all.

...

"What are you doing here?" the white boy seethed one day, bending over a few rocks down by the river to catch some fish. He had noticed the priestess coming out of the woods across the other side of the water and can't help but panic as he tried to mask a grimace with a sneer.

Kikyou, turned her sky blue eyes on him and watched as he tried to stand slowly only to slip and fall face first on a foot of water. He struggled to sit up and glared at her, "you think that was funny?" he snarled, even when she hasn't said a word.

The wound on his chest started to bleed again and she noticed that he hadn't changed the bandages since their last meeting in the bloody valley days ago.

He has too much pride for a child, she thought walking nearer to the bank, Entei following behind, sparing its former master a short glance.

"Come here."

The young demon started from his stupor of ignoring the priestess, he glared at her, "what?"

Kikyou just kept staring at him, her blue eyes not wavering.

The boy curled his lips to bare his fangs and she watched him in dry amusement, but continued to say nothing.

She sat down on a large boulder by the river directly across him and watched his face as he again hid all the emotions behind a cold mask, a mask she had long ago replicated naturally.

"I do not need your help, human wench." He sneered, flexing his claws, ready to strike her if she continued to annoy him. But she just sat motionlessly.

Trust.

He had either lost it, or he had none to begin with.

The mid day sun that day was pleasantly warm and the breeze blew her raven locks softly, her long sooty lashes half open as she studied him languidly from the other side.

There was a long silence between them, and seeing as the priestess wasn't going to answer him in any way at all, he threw one last glare her way before bending on the bank to catch fish.

Minutes tore by and not a single fish got caught by his sharp claws, he bent again, frustrated, as the searing pain on his chest hammered high enough for him to sweat in silent agony. His creator left him to die; it would be soon enough that he did, walking around with his heart, although he wondered how he had lasted this long. But he did not wish to die here, fishing for food like some helpless starving animal.

"child." Her voice was soft and melodic even against the thrashing of the river waters against the rocks.

He ignored her.

"demon." She called out again, and again he ignored her.

"young one." silence

"little one." More silence

"…pup." Her tone was light as she said this as if caught in her own little humour. He glared down at his claws.

"What do you want!" he demanded, not giving her the satisfaction of looking at her.

A long still silence ensued and he glanced at her suspiciously, but continued to say nothing.

Her blue eyes were cool and subdued, even intimidating, but he held her gaze. When the seconds still passed in thick silence he turned back to the water, annoyed.

A sudden sharp sound whizzed through the air and he's eyes widened sharply, the hairs on his neck rising as he instinctively searched himself for any injuries, finding none, none new anyway, he looked across the bank to find that the priestess had vanished along with the majestic horse. He slowly turned his back only to find two large fishes pinned together by an arrow on the tree trunk just directly behind him.

He cautiously approached it, sniffing the area for some kind of trap. Sensing none, he pulled out the shaft.

From the corner of his eye he spotted the priestess disappearing through the thickets and trees on his side of the bank.

Kikyou readjusted her bow behind her as she pushed a thick branch out of her way, another branch stood out in her vision and before she could raise her arms to push through, said branch was suddenly engulfed in flames, rapidly dissipating to ashes on the forest floor.

She looked behind her and Entei ignored her reprimanding stare innocently. A few second passed and realizing she still had not looked away, he fixed his ruby eyes on her and returned the look.

They stood like that for a couple of minutes before she narrowed her gaze. "no," she said shortly, seeing his lust for setting all the other branches that were in her way into fire.

Entei snorted, and tossed his head to the side, turning away in at her admonishment. Ungrateful human.

Kikyou raised her brow at its sulk and turned back to her path only to see the demon child suddenly stumbling out of a cluster of bushes far from her side in frantic panic.

A second later, a large boar demon stampeded after him screaming "DIE SPAWN OF NARAKU!"

The battle cry fading as they vanished through another thicket of trees.

Entei snorted again and Kikyou sighed inwardly, grabbing her bow from behind and setting out after the endangered young.

She spotted them back at the river, the boy, sprawled on his back, earnestly backing away as the boar demon sneered and charged towards him.

The child curled up his fangs and dove towards it in offence only to be knocked to the side like a rag doll, breaking a few trees in the process, the pain in his chest now unbearable and he heaved. 'I will not die in the hands of a low class demon!' His mind seethed as he steadily pushed himself up only to be pushed back down on his stomach, the large boar's hoof pinning him to the ground from his back.

"let go, scum!" he growled out, stretching his claws to at least swipe at the boar's free foot, but the boar only chuckled and sneered down maliciously, "what are you going to do, brat? I rather like this position your master had put you in. That low life hanyou will pay for what he has done to me and my rising clan, and I will show it to him, through you. Oh how fun it would be to see the greatest spawn of that devil be tortured or even torn in half by my bare hands! If he saw that his spawn had lost its eyes or head or face! Or if his spawn had…" The boar demon continued loudly with his plans on destroying the young demon and the child held back the urge to slap himself in aggravation from the useless babble.

"I'd like to see you try, you low level youkai pig" Hakudoushi jeered, turning his head to look at him from the corner of his eye with a haughty curl of a lip. "you belong to an irrelevant of a clan and if you think you can gain name by slaughtering me then let's see you fail."

"you dare to demean me?!" the boar demon roared, further pressing his boot on the boy's back and the child bit back a gasp "you will die—"

A familiar whizzing sound flew past and the boar abruptly stopped in his declarations to sink down, an arrow sticking out of his throat.

"child,"

The boy didn't have to raise his head to recognize the soft voice; he barred his fangs once again, even though he knew even that couldn't faze the woman.

Kikyou approached him gracefully, tucking her bow back behind her as she knelt down to gently grip his chin in her porcelain hands, lifting it to face her fully as she took in every emotion crossing his young face before he attempts to mask it once again.

Entei stirred himself around them and used his head to push the carcass off his former master. He sniffed the young demon's head and snorted, blowing on the purple platinum locks to indicate that the child was fine, before settling down next to the priestess curiously watching the exchange.

"Child." She repeated, but was met with silence

"Youngling," she tried again, seeing his silence, amusement flickered through her dead blue orbs seeing as they would start this game all over again, "demon—"

"Stop calling me 'child.'" He snarled out finally, glaring at her through his amethyst eyes, "and stop calling me 'demon', or 'youngling' or 'little one' or pup!" he spat the last word out in disgust. "I'm not a dog demon! Even you would know that!"

"Then what do you wish me to call you?" she asked calmly as her fingers left his chin, allowing him to stare at her on his own accord.

"None of your goddamn business, human bitch." He said snarkily, inwardly smirking in anticipation to see her reaction to his ever rude and cocky behaviour. But she was merely quiet and her face gave nothing away. Her eyes were nonchalant, almost staring at him, waiting, at the same time, not staring at him, not waiting, like she didn't expect anything else from him at all. Her long thick lashes were still, she doesn't blink, he thought to himself, she didn't need too. She doesn't need to breathe either. But maybe it was just out of habit. His puzzling over the dead priestess suddenly halted as he noticed a flicker of something in her eyes knowingly to catch that he was daydreaming… of her. He curled his lip in disgust, and he begrudgingly relented to her waiting gaze.

"Hakudoushi."

Kikyou hid her smile, the snarl on his face being an equivalent to a pout in her opinion.

A short silence followed. He was about to open his mouth again to make a snide remark when she stood up and walked away, Entei following behind her as he threw a curious glance his way.

That's it? Hakudoushi gawked, THAT'S IT?! He tells the woman his name and she just walks away as if she doesn't give a damn? His eyes narrowed dangerously as to being treated so unimportantly. Standing up, he stiffly turned to the opposite direction, cursing and seething at the wretched miko. But a thought suddenly occurred to him as he felt her aura and her footsteps fade from the distance.

Where… does he go now?

He turned to look at their retreating backs; he could still see his naginata perched securely around the horse demon's back, his weapon, his steed. Gone.

He still could not believe the betrayal he suffered from his own creator. But then again what could he expect when his creator was like the devil itself. Did he really expect him to care for his spawns, his 'children'?

Though he didn't consider that it was he and his other half who had plotted behind his back in the first place, Oh well.

Hakudoushi looked around warily, now realizing his state of helplessness after being mauled by a low class demon; he was suddenly left vulnerable. He was suddenly lost.

Kikyou stopped in her tracks and looked back.

... And no one wanted him found.

Hakudoushi caught her eyes and watched as she gave him a soft gaze before turning to Entei. She whispered lowly for only the large beast to hear in their distance before Entei suddenly tossed its large head and trotted to where he stood, giving the woman a long knowing glance. Surprised, the boy watched as the priestess turned back to resume her path.

The majestic steed lowered its back, inviting the child to mount.

Hakudoushi hesitated, but soon recovered, raising himself and swinging his small legs around the demon steed's broad shoulder before taking off for the sky, thoughts of the dead priestess still lingering uncomfortably in his mind.

Kikyou watched both rider and beast take flight and again she turned away. The boy was no longer alone, and that in itself made her secure, even for just a while.

She was not surprised that she had taken a liking for the child as they met many a times in a few days. His pride amused her if not hardly intimidating, like a puppy, biting the hand that feeds it.

Many a times she had come across him at night to see him sleeping restless in pain, a little surprised to see his soul try to escape the compounds of his unhealed chest. She had tried gathering her soul skimmers as they dropped the lonely lost souls of dead maidens unto her, to try using a patch of the souls they carry to lure the young demon's life source back into its vault. But the glowing light was as stubborn as its owner for it did not respond to any prod the women's spirits had done upon it.

And that's when she tried to use the small patch of light she had, the little crack of a soul that barely had her living, stringing a long thread from a cut she had bestowed on her body, it made its way to the young demon's escaping light, and instantly, the orb seeped back into his chest. But her life's string evaporated as soon as his light had returned to his body, leaving her more incomplete than she already is.

She knew she would not last long.

As soon as Naraku dies a permanent death, it is for sure death would bring her back to darkness as well, so why waste her soul for hell?

-;-

"You don't know how much this means to us, priestess," an old man said, bowing down, "we are very much in your debt."

Kikyou dismissed him with a wave of her hand, "it is my duty," she insisted, giving him a polite smile, turning to enter the village she occasionally passes through.

The village chief smiled and turned to the officers beside him, "well what are you waiting for, men?" he sniffed jovially, "prepare the lady her rooms!" and with that he shooed them off, him following after them.

Herbs wrapped neatly in a large bundle, she laid them down as she pulled up the sleeves of her haori to wash her hands, setting herself to work.

There were not much sick people in the village, so she did not need to worry about tending to them. But they did lack medicine, which was what she led her to her situation at the moment.

The sun was setting over the horizon, she noticed. Gathering her hakamas which where bellowed all over the place by the playful wind, she made her way out the town towards the outer portion of the woods. The herbs she needed just growing over a small hill.

Her nimble fingers worked automatically as she plucked, strew and weave the plants before laying them by her side to be gathered into a bundle.

The orange horizon pinked and splashed an orange glow over the crown of her head, her hands slowed in its ministrations and she paused.

"Priestess! Priestess Kikyou!"

A bevy of children suddenly grew in her line of vision, excitedly climbing up the hill just to join her.

Kikyou allowed herself a warm smile, even for just the young.

"Hello, little ones." She greeted amiably, sitting up straighter as they bounded towards her, falling in an ungracious heap beside the woman.

A little dark head with big doe eyes looked into her sky blue orbs and sparkled, "tell us a story! Tell us a story!" the others giggled in agreement as they scooted closer to her, some laying flat on their stomachs in anticipation.

"And what kind of story would you like to hear?"

A young boy at the back raised his hand up bashfully and the other children turned to look at him, and he blushed, "…h-how about your adventures?"

She settled her work down with a smile.

-;-

Hakudoushi sauntered down the large valley where he had fallen in the midst of Naraku's enemies, the bloodshed and ashes still prominent on the dead earth, some stains that had not been washed away by the rain. Abandoned weapons scattered and half buried in darkened soil as the wind blew in ashes that had peeled off the metal in its stead.

Entei lifted its majestic head beside him, as if disgusted with the lingering stench of smoke and dried blood staying behind as his young master reminisced on his 'death'.

I almost died here, he thought ruefully, bending down to finger the blackened earth, where he remembered he had lain dying. I should've died here...

And slowly lifted his eyes unconsciously to where he remembered the priestess had appeared.

Why did she come? He wondered, eyes roaming the once carcass filled land, where the priestess dashed towards him, her figure gracefully slaughtering every demon in her path in a twisted dance with the macabre, her hands glowing a sharp shade of purifying pink.

The finale of her symphony rising when she pulled her slender bow from behind her, the wooden arch gleaming as if in an illusion of a long curved blade, and pierced the earth, where the note ends in a deafening pitch, the land rumbled and smoked before her, cracking as the current of purification energy rapidly rolled like a powerful wave over the demons within her radius, burning all in its path from the epicenter of purification energy. Entei had leaped to the sky and him, who was almost this close to submitting to his fate, quickly summoned the remnants of his spiritual energy to build a barrier just enough to cover him in time before the fustian fire reached his skin by a hair.

It almost looked like hell had broken loose, body after body, falling on their knees at her will, the power filling the whole valley like a large ripple. The move had carved their fate in stone as every living thing within the area disintegrated into ashes that filled the sky with black snow.

The move looked like she could have finished her life source, his shaking fingers pressed through the earth in confused frustration as he thought, but she didn't run out of energy. He wondered that, if she had harboured that amount of power in her dead form, how much more would it be amplified if she were alive?

She had spared no one.

From his vantage point he sees her straighten, wisps of ash crowning her head as she surveyed the damage calmly. Then slowly, she turned towards him, a flash of pink fading from her eyes as she held his stare.

No one but him.

He clawed the dirt into his fist, his mind racing through those memories, damn that human!

And she had approached him, hair blowing through the ashes as she settled near his lying form, the emotion in her eyes carved forever in his mind as the whisper in her lips drowned out the loud beating in his chest.

"DAMN YOU MIKO!" he screamed to the sky, pounding the earth in a child like tantrum. "I NEVER WANTED THIS!"

She had torn her haori as he screeched at her, blood seeping down his chest, pain had flooded his senses and he felt her fingers on his shoulder. Wild and ballistic, he had screamed at her only to be silenced when the palm of her hand brushed up softly to his cheek. His mind couldn't make out the hushed whispers through the glaring pain of his body and he allowed her other hand to unwrap the bloody cloth around his chest.

His fists were bloody now as he continued to jab the hard earth in spoiled anger, "damn, you! Damn you! Damn you! Damn you! Damn you! Damn you!" he kept screaming, vice rising higher with every curse and Entei twitched his ears at the shrill.

He choked on a defeated whine when she had finished wrapping over the burning stitches, ashes now over their heads like a snowy veil, "Miko—"

"how do you feel?" she had asked softly, the hand cupping his cheek now brushing over his hair gently, like a mother soothing her child from a nightmare, and he had almost forgotten to breathe. The blue of her eyes holding his amethyst orbs in an strange light, when her hand held the side of his head and a foreign warmth creeped up his skin as the unfamiliar feeling settled on his chest—his eyes glazed as he whispered unknowingly,

"safe."

He stopped, and Entei raised its head curiously at the boy's sudden silence to see him bent over, a claw digging into his chest as he fought for air, the pain almost blinding him as he scraped the bleeding gap on his small torso. The damnable organ started to beat hard and fast, it was so painful he wanted to rip it out of his chest not caring if he'd die, he was heaving now, suffocating on the land he thought he'd be destroyed in.

And the last thing he sees is the same ground leaving his grasp, a steady beat echoing in his ears before it turned black.

-;-

She was sitting inside the hut the village people had kindly lent her, night had settled in and the stars had scattered across the sky. She had sent the children home just a few hours before. Kikyou wiped her hands, smiling as the afterglow of storytelling enveloped her with familiar warmth she had not felt in a long time. 'children', she thought fondly, her mind suddenly trailing to a young demon child. 'I wonder how he is…"

The flame of the small candle near the window flickered for a moment and she looked at it curiously. The curtains had been drawn, she was not breathing, then how—oh! Night chill! How she had forgotten, she could not feel so it would be understandable she could not even feel the slightest icy breeze.

She was about to go back to wiping her hands when she heard her porch creak slightly, the clear sound of weight trudging on hollow wood, and she stilled. The candle's flame suddenly snuffed out from an unknown breeze and she was engulfed in darkness.

Kikyou slowly moved to grab her bow and arrows from the corner when the footsteps stopped, just outside the door flap of her hut. She could make out the faint shadow of the feet underneath highlighted by the moonlight, and she tensed, detecting the slight scrape of metal against metal. It could be anyone from the village she reassured herself, a blacksmith, a hunter, a wood cutter. Then why doesn't the foreboding feeling leave?

Her hands desperately felt for the bow, eyes not leaving the silhouette on her door.

"Hey, kid."

Her eyebrows rose at the familiar gruff voice, but she couldn't really put the name on to where she had heard it before. When she didn't reply, the person outside sighed audibly, his clothes rustling against each other from the nightly wind.

"C'mon Hakudoushi, it's just me. So you could come out now." He took in an irritated breath when something sizzled on the person's skin, walking back and forth, slightly tapping the flap, "your barrier's getting stronger though," he commented, "almost feels stronger than those the dog's woman makes."

The astonished face the dead miko was making might have been amusing if it weren't for the strange information that had suddenly wormed up her mind.

The demon child has spiritual powers?

She pulled back her arm from reaching over her weapons to slowly stand up, uncertainly making her way to the door.

The figure outside paused in his pacing and she could feel the grin on his face as he spoke, sensing her approach, "hey now, you finally remembered me? Heh, not like you could forget, last time I saw you it was just a couple of months—"

The door flap opened and Kikyou stepped out slowly, eyes adjusting to the dim night, gaze falling on the man a few feet from her, his face slightly shadowed, but she couldn't miss the glint of the massive halberd propped easily on his shoulder.

And that's when his presence clicked in her mind.

Bankotsu couldn't help but stare at her as she stood out of her quarters, looking absolutely surreal. The dark of her hair contrasting greatly with the moonlit features of her skin, it seems the stars had chosen that moment to glimmer in her eyes at her recognition of him.

The dead mercenary blanked out and it almost felt like his brain had gone hay wire and shut down.

Kikyou stood waiting, pretending to not to be aware of his obvious staring.

"Mercenary." She spoke decidedly, acknowledging him with a slight nod.

Bankotsu blinked, tossing his thick braid over his shoulder as he smirked in reply, effectively masking his embarrassment.

"Priestess…"

They stayed like that for a few moments, just staring at each other, deciphering the other's next move. Kikyou took a quick glance over his shoulders, noticing he came alone and not with his band of brothers.

They had crossed paths more than a few times, short conversations brought up when they find themselves travelling in the same direction, and merely nodding off a goodbye once their roads were no longer conjoined. She didn't bother assaulting him and his brothers, seeing as they made no move to harm her in her presence. She was never there when they decide to spill blood, so she has no excuse to take their second life even if they were powered by shards of the Shikon jewel. She could not bring herself to forcefully take away the very thing that brought them back, for even if she didn't want to reside in the land of the living, that didn't mean they would feel the same way. And it was not fair for her to drag them down with her to hell in her bitter sense of righteousness, psychotic murderers or not.

"The boy is not here," she said, opening the flap of the door wide enough for him to see that the hut was empty, "I am sorry for wasting your time." If her face hadn't been an emotionless slate, her statement could've sounded mocking. Now why on earth he would think he was with me... or, her eyes narrowed slightly, if I was with him.

The mercenary peered inside for a moment; indeed it was empty, before concentrating his attention back to her, who, until now just remained impassive under his calculating gaze.

"So I guess you haven't met the kid?" he snorted, straightening to his full height, the grip on his large blade slackening in ease at her calm demeanor. "The brat has got it in for him with his spoiled little attitude, feeling all high and mighty. No wonder he hasn't got any friends, with him being all bossy and shit even when he's hardly reached a year old since he mutated out of fucking nowhere."

She nodded at him to show she was listening and he went on, "kinda weird though, coz he doesn't look a shit like Naraku, too white y'know, too pure."

Kikyou allowed him to talk all he wants, seeing as it would do no harm to hear someone pour out their frustration, even if that someone was working for her most hated enemy.

She realized her mind had drifted when she noticed Bankotsu looking at her curiously.

"What is it?"

"What happened to your sleeve?" he asked, motioning his head toward the haggard rip on her haori, "it isn't like you to do makeshift bandages if you work in a village that could provide."

"A branch got caught on it when I collected some herbs in the woods, I could not take any chances delaying when the sun had already set." She lied smoothly, looking as detachable as possible.

"Really, now?"

"Yes."

"As in like, really, really, now?"

"... Bankotsu."

He merely grinned and proceeded to sit on her porch, planting his precious banryuu on the ground before him. Kikyou kept the urge to quirk her brow at his usual carefree attitude and decided to settle on the bamboo rail beside the man, "you aren't here to kidnap me and bring me to your lord, are you?" she asked, remembering what happened to Naraku's other minions who dare force her to his castle. She is running out of arrows as she is running out of patience over the deranged hanyou.

The mercenary snorted at the mention of Naraku being his lord but he didn't comment on it, "not my job, miko" he said, pulling out a cloth, "I'm afraid that's Jakotsu's department. I'm just here to bring the kid home."

She pushed down the rising burn on her throat at his last statement as she managed a calm, "oh?"

"I don't think he'd be here anytime though, since the last time I saw him to hunt supplies, he caught a trail of your dragon pets around west. Which lead me to wonder why you're here, down east." He threw her a sly look for her petty trick on his team mate to which she just gave a quiet hum.

She studied him as he proceeded to wipe his blade, a little disturbed to find out information on her supposed assassination from her supposed enemy. But her mind flashed back to the child and the lump on her throat returned.

"Why are you here, mercenary?"

His hand stilled on the halberd and she asked again, "Why did you come here?"

Her simple question was met with silence. But she knew he knew the implication of what she meant. How did you find me?

"...where is he, priestess?"

"Why would you think I'd know?" she sighed innocently enough as she wound her fingers through her hair. There is no way anyone could've seen her with the boy, she made sure of that when she drew a barrier around them whenever she tends to his wounds.

Slowly, he stood up to face her, his eyes narrowing, "I can smell him on you."

Her fingers paused for a moment before her eyes flew up to meet his gaze, "you are no demon." She said simply, as if that fact could leave no room for argument.

"I do not have to be a demon to smell blood, Kikyou." There was danger in the way his fingers flexed around the handle of his halberd, "I do not have to be a demon to smell blood on you."

"The blood could've been anyone's." She answered curtly, her aura slowly rising under his accusing stare.

The air around them tensed at what used to be a comfortable silence.

"I will ask you one more time, woman." He growled lowly, all trace of easiness gone, "where is the boy?"

"I do not know." She said, nearing aggravation. She spoke the truth did she not? The child could have gone anywhere far from where she had last seen him, so it shouldn't make her feel as if she was defending a lie.

"Yes, you do!"

"Think what you want, mercenary." Her eyes narrowed testily, "I have no other answer to offer you."

"I can kill you right now if I wanted to." He scowled, taking a step towards her, "so I suggest you cooperate."

"You can't kill what's already dead." She snapped heatedly, her fists clenching as she decided to meet his glare on.

The air suddenly became tersely silent and she was surprised to see his eyes were wide in disbelief.

"...what did you just say?"

She remained silent, "Kikyou, what—"

She didn't allow him to finish when she quickly moved to brush by him. But the mercenary wasn't done with her yet, and he jerks her back roughly, "oh no you don't, you're not leaving until you answer me."

When all she did was stiffen, he decided to switch tactics. "hey..." he started a little more gently, now realizing how unnaturally cold her skin felt in his hold. "Are you okay? You're freezing like hell."

It was her turn to look up at him in honest surprise. She looked like she wanted to say something but stopped, her eyes widening imperceptibly.

"no..." she breathed, latching on the arm grabbing her in sudden alarm.

Among all the time in the world...

She saw his brow furrow in confusion before he froze, his face stiffening in awareness, "a dem—"

But was suddenly cut off when he felt a shock of pain on his shoulder before the man found himself being harshly ripped from her grasp.

Kikyou stood there stunned as she watched the mercenary's body strewn out of her porch with a surprised yelp, landing ungraciously on his face some distance away.

She glared up at the culprit who had been standing discreetly behind the man only moments before, its large head thrown back with an arrogant huff, its fiery mane crackling in the dark.

She had felt it a while ago, a strange aura that seems to prod her senses from her shoulders to her neck, burning almost urgently. She thought Bankotsu would feel it too, but from his unchanged expression earlier, it seemed that whatever she was sensing only wanted her to know of its presence until it was too late for him to react.

"I told you no." She sighed, exasperated, to which it bent down and exhaled in her face. You should be thanking me for not burning him alive, ingrate.

They heard a muffled grunt and watched as the fallen man struggle to lift himself up from the ground, traces of dirt coating his face. Entei snorted in amusement, and Bankotsu jerked his head up at the sound, and his jaw dropped in disbelief.

"Is that..?"

Entei huffed at the male's awe stricken face, petty humans, and turned away in disinterest. Its movement, shifting the hidden cargo on its back, and Kikyou blanched at the small arm that decided to expose itself on the demon's back.

Apparently, she wasn't the only one who noticed, feeling Bankotsu's violent glare poking through her skull, "you..." he glowered darkly, "you lying...little shit!"

He pushed off the ground in mid-crouch, the force propelling him to dash faster than they could react. And when his fingers reached the hilt of his abandoned partisan, she drove herself out the rail before his blade splintered the wood in her place. Entei threw its head back in surprise, backpedalling before the tip of his overgrown lance could slice through its skin in the process.

Bankotsu smirked, whirling his banryuu over his head as he leaped after her, the columns of the hut collapsing from his swings.

Kikyou watched the hut collapse in dismay. My bow...but she couldn't give time to maul over her vulnerability when the undead lunatic swooped his blade down in her direction, and she fell in time to dodge, her scrambling backwards on her all fours, she pushed herself to stand before he hooked his foot around her ankle and she dropped back down, a booted foot pressing down on her back to keep her from getting back up.

He watched her squirm under him and he grinned sadistically, "now, now, priestess," he admonished, "if you had just did as you were told and cooperated... we could have avoided this little row of ours." When she remained tight-lipped, he bent down just so she could hear him more clearly, "unless of course, you wanted to raise the stakes higher." pointedly raising his eyes to look at the small sleeping village across the hill, unaware of the danger outside its walls. "So what do you say, babe?" he leered, "would you like to help me paint the town red?"

Her eyes flashed in fury, "You wouldn't."

"Oh, yes I would."

"They are innocent people!" She retorted furiously, "You can't bring them into this when you know they have done nothing wrong!"

The foot on her back pressed down harder and she clenched her teeth, feeling her skin break, "Bankotsu, please..."

Bankotsu looked down on her emotionlessly, "then hand over the boy, Kikyou."

"But he's—"

"—Naraku's." He clipped for her, "that boy—is Naraku's! Get that over your pretty little head, woman! Would you really sacrifice an innocent village over an evil child? They're children for his? Do you think that's fair priestess?"

Before she could reply, he forced his foot below harder as he bent near her ear in a fierce whisper, "wouldn't you think that at least this demon brat would deserve what he's gonna get?"

Kikyou bit her lip til the skin tore, "no."

Bankotsu clicked his tongue, "I never took you for a fool, Kikyou."

"he's not some sacrificial lamb, Bankotsu! He is a child—"

"Naraku's child" he bit out once again, frustration building inside him, "are you daft, woman? He is a spawn of the devil and I among all others am surprised you allowed the kid to live this long! Are you stupid?" when she kept silent he sighed, running a hand over his head, "look, Naraku just wanted to tame the kid, okay? He wants him back now, he just needed to roughen him out in the edges to put him in place."

By using him as demon bait?! Kikyou's eyes closed as her aura simmered in rage, hiding her trickling pink energy with a strained clench of her fist not going by unnoticed by the mercenary above her.

"not everyone deserves a second chance, Kikyou."

Her eyes snapped open at that and she can feel Bankotsu's aura sifting the air mixed with his demonic halberd, the youki flowing as if warning her to stand down. It was the way he had spoken it tho, that made her unclench her fingers, her aura seeping back under ivory skin.

Bankotsu kept her sky colored gaze when she turned her head from the ground to look up to him and she whispered unflinchingly.

"everyone should at least deserve a first."

She pressed her head back to the ground before he could reply and he realized, he couldn't find the right words to. No snarky comment, it was like the solid finality in her eyes had sewn his lips shut and kept him paralyzed with the weight of her words, the meaning floating in his mind like a forgotten term on the tip of his tongue. The priestess had made her choice. For some reason unknown to him, she will never let the child go, a foolish, foolish decision really. Everyone else had the chance to destroy and end the chaos walking around in the form of a defenseless child for an easy kill, and instead of taking the chance, she chooses to end this conversation instead with a towering view of her erratic moral compass. He will never understand the depth of her empathy and understanding and strangely he was afraid to, only because it doesn't make sense.

You can't save everyone, Kikyou.

He looked over at the large steed, which stood a safe distance away, eyeing its mistress cryptically, the fire on its mane blazed dangerously in apprehension. Hmm, warning the woman? He scoffed, turning back to the priestess who stiffened at the sound of metal sliding off leather armour. He hesitated for a moment, and she looks over her shoulder, surprised to see his eyes were closed, his face looking almost apologetic, "this will hurt." He murmured, before plunging the banryuu through her back.

An ugly cracking sound pierced through their ears and Bankotsu widens his eyes in shock, the body underneath him breaking like glass, as Kikyou clenched her jaw to muffle her scream. He jolts away when he felt a sharp burn zap through his hands, leaving an uncomfortable tingle in its wake. But he dismisses it when he chances on her form again, "S-shit! Holy shit!" he screeched, gaping at her broken body, "woman, what the hell is wrong with you!?"

"idiot." She heaved, turning her head to glare at him like he's stupid, "didn't I tell you I am also dead?"

"You don't have that magic bead in you!"

"I don't need it."

"Then how the hell are you even alive!?" the mercenary was hysterical now, "you broke, woman. You literally fucking BROKE!" he could feel prickling, travelling up to his shoulders and neck, and he brought his hand up to scratch away the searing itch.

Entei carefully approached the woman, eyes never leaving the stupefied man as it bent its head to her face, its ears twitching assertively and Kikyou brushed her cold fingers against its nose to ease it. "Shouldn't you have known that?"

"Naraku doesn't tell me shit." He said flatly, recovering from his earlier shock, the tingling in his hands simmering up his face. The itch underneath his skin almost unbearable as it developed into a singing burn and his eyes flashed at her traitorously, "What did you—"

"I apologize." Was all she said, before his vision exploded in pink light.

-;-

She stifled a groan from that memory, recalling the awkward struggle she and the steed had just to pull the halberd off her body, while pointedly ignoring the demon's withering glare.

Was that even necessary? It snorted, by the time the banryuu was settled next to its wielder, the blade being too heavy for her to carry herself so she had dragged the man's body next to it instead; she reached inside her haori to touch the damage on her back.

"Clean cut." She reassured the horse demon, showing her fingers which were slated with dust instead of shards. There was no need for souls to fix something as dismissible as a wound that could stand for a few more days.

When Entei merely huffed at her response, she could hear its retort by its narrowed stare, you could have avoided it. She hobbled on her feet, casually glancing at the unconscious mercenary, fumes leaving his skin as her purification powers had attacked him from within, the burn just hot enough to knock him out from intense pain, "his weapon is stained with demon youki." She said, "And my capabilities used that as a medium to reach him, knowing their bond by blood, it was easy to assume that my assault would transfer to him as his aura too is partly demonic."

She was not surprised when she had heard numerous rumours and tales of the barbaric mercenary and his band of brothers, with his oath to spill a thousand demon and human blood on his blade to gain the power only demons possess, and with it, its dragon-like aura had entwined with his. If she weren't adept to her miko abilities, she would have thought he was a hanyou.

The steed lowered its head to her back, its nose brushing against cracking skin and when she winced, it grunted sardonically. You could have avoided this.

"If I hadn't done this, the villagers would come in contact with my power's area of effect. I cannot risk that." She explained patiently.

Those humans were already destined to die. It is an honour that it would be you who would rid of them before this lunatic does.

"I have avoided it."

A thick silence ensued between them as she used its own words against it, before she turned away for the forest path, hiding her limp with slow strides.

Demons were taught to cast out the weak. And the humans, being born mortal and susceptible to death fell in that category. Petty emotions that would drive them to the brink of their own destruction, but how far can this contrast go? Do they not realize that both species share similar ideals of peace and contentment? That both races share the same desire to protect what belongs to them?

"I am moving east." She said without turning, not stopping to see if it would still choose to follow.

She wondered if both had been taught instead to see what they see, instead of what they know, they would realize that beyond immortality, they are both the same.

She was slightly surprised, when she heard the steed pad behind her, its head bent down to nudge her crown. When she had glanced up at its face, its ruby eyes held her gaze ardently. East it is.

...

Her musings broke when the child in her arms stirred, settling himself deeper in her embrace, his lithe form feeling the chill that whipped through them as Entei soared farther into the sky.

Her fingers pressed on the steed's neck to catch its attention, "there is a small hut at the end of the river," she yelled over the wind, "we can settle down there till morning once the child gets—ah!"

She gasped when the stallion shook suddenly, as if off balanced by the turbulence, the force almost knocking both riders off. Kikyou looked around in bewilderment; when something knocks them off course again, her vision not as perfect from the winds they have to slice through.

Focus! She chides herself, clinging tighter on the flying beast; she closed her eyes tightly to unwind her aura, taking in anything that passes through her diverting senses.

The howling wind, the midnight chill, the warmth in her arms, the scent of lightning—

Her eyes flashed open, "right!" she shouted, the large steed veering to the side immediately before they get propelled, catching a sliver of moon kissed strands had that disappeared as quickly as it came.

And before they could even recognize what they saw, she found herself knocked off the side, the child falling out of her arms.

"NO!"

She quickly twisted her body around during her free fall, her hair whipping harshly on her face as the pull of gravity brought a heavy load upon her back. She can hear Entei yelling from above, and she stretched her hands out to the sleeping boy, the child so unaware of the possibility of his impending doom.

Mauve strands whipping within her reach, wind screaming listlessly in her ears, as the burn filled her throat when a soft glimmer of amethyst orbs fluttered open to meet her sapphire eyes in dazed disorientation, not yet alert enough to sense her panic.

Her eyes hardened with dread when the child leaves her gaze to turn his head around in confusion, before widening in horror as he realizes what's happening. She stretched herself forward, the wind cutting into her face as she bridged herself closer, "Child!" she shouts through the wind.

The boy's chest starts to heave in hysteria, his rapid gasps were loud enough for her to make out and she calls again, "Hakudoushi!" when his wide eyes fleeted passed her in unfocused deliria, she screams, "LOOK AT ME!" her voice holding so much command, that his hazy gaze settled on her determined face, "I need you to focus," she ordered, arms extended almost to their harrowing limit, "when I give you the signal, you teleport away, do you understand me!"

When he didn't reply, she glares at him and barks forcefully, "Hakudoushi!"

He nods at her then, fearfully, but firmly kept his eyes focused on her falling above him instead.

Please, she thought, desperately pushing herself forward, fingers extending painfully to reach his bellowing clothes, not yet.

He was looking at her strangely, a pathetic sort of acceptance spreading in his aura, and he asks her softly enough for only her still hear, "what if it won't work?" there was a child-like fear underlying his tone, and his voice sounded so small, so innocent that it choked her with despair when he slowly leaves her gaze to twist his body away from her. His voice reeked of hopelessness.

"It will." She tells him, but he shakes his head, a crooked smile on his lips as if he doesn't believe her.

"Don't you dare think that way." She strains, when he started to turn midway, the remnants of his aura receding as the sight of land behind him burning her already with panic, her aura spiking to a dangerous degree, "don't you dare!"

"W-why do you worry," His breathing coming out hard and unsteady, "you will not d-die from this."

She choked down the burn in her chest at the insinuation of his words, her hand lunging forward for the last time, the clay on her shoulders cracking from the strain, her aura coating them both in a suffocating embrace.

Then neither will you.

-;-

Sesshoumaru stood above the clouds stoically, watching the priestess fall to her demise.

Collateral damage, he thought indifferently, she was in the way.

The enormous horse demon stared at him incredulously, to which he ignored; the beast would be free now, would it not? Seeing as the demon child wouldn't possibly survive from a fatal fall.

The boy looked angelic, cast out from heaven when everybody damned him to hell.

And the priestess... the Taiyoukai glanced at the steed that was rearing in agitation, strong legs bent and ready to jolt. His brow rose curiously, "you would follow them?"

Entei looked at him as if he was retarded, and leaped downwards rapidly, tufts of clouds swirling on his flaming hooves in descent, leaving the demon lord to bristle inwardly at its audacity. Their figures disappeared beneath him and wondered if he should return to camp.

The Tensaiga appear to be dead silent once again, and it unnerved him slightly. Upon his approach over their speeding figures, its pulse had fluttered erratically, its hum so deafening he could no longer hear the wind against his ears. But it had stopped so suddenly, its pulse freezing, when he reached them. And while his intentions where to knock the white child to its death, his own pulse had halted when the woman slipped with him.

He wondered what Inuyasha's ex-lover was thinking harbouring the devil's spawn.

Foolish woman.

Her innocent face chanced upon him fleetingly before her ice blue eyes locked on the boy below her. It felt strange to see the dead woman show emotions other than contempt, and it oddly irked him to know it was directed at the child, as if the spawn was worthy enough to be privileged with her effort.

The priestess...

When she had fallen, her midnight locks had swirled about her, soft and tangled, like a raven's wings when prepared for flight, her haori hugged her body tightly, the cloth flapping behind her from the pressure, soft hands reaching out, desperate, hopeful...beautiful.

It annoyed him.

Without thinking, he decided to descend as well.

-;-

She was staring up at the sky in shock, body rigid in disbelief. The boy was wheezing above her, still calming down from his trauma, as he painfully clawed her arms, his eyes wide in shaking stupor.

Entei had arrived a few feet before her side could collide with the ground; her hand had been able to grasp his sash before flipping them around so her back would face the earth instead, holding him in her arms as his eyes widened in surprise from her embrace. They were so close. If she had a heart, she would've died from cardiac arrest even if she had survived that fall.

That's what's worrying me...

The grass beneath them had charred and blackened from the instability of her aura, but Hakudoushi seemed unaffected by the defensive out-break of her spiritual energy, merely remaining stiffly in her arms, his weak heart beating so erratically fast she can feel it flutter through her clothes.

She wanted to stand, and waste out all the pent-up adrenaline that stacked up inside her from her fall, a certain demon lord coming into her blazing mind, but she could not bring herself to move with the youngling latching on to her so tightly. Lifting a trembling hand, she wove it through his lavender tufts soothingly, easing him, as she carefully moved to sit up instead.

She looked over at the large horse youkai, its ears twitching from the furtive breathing of its former master, unnerving it to feel for the demon child. Absurd. "Entei." Immediately it stilled, ruby orbs locked on its mistress, and Kikyou raises her free hand, and the steed pressed its nose to her palm as if on reflex, "remember that hut I was talking about? The one near the edge of the river?" the steed looks at her in reply, "I want you to take everything inside it, and we will meet you at another clearing not far from here, do you understand?"

Entei pulls away from her touch as if insulted by her question, but nevertheless, leaping into the air in the direction of her former shelter. And then a sound akin to drowning turned her eyes back to the boy on her lap.

He was hyperventilating, the organ on his chest not accustomed to the stress its new owner unwillingly put it through. The bandages were staining badly and she wondered if it was because of the heart that he wasn't healing properly.

"deep breaths" she coaxed, her other hand winding around to gently rub on his back, "follow the way I breathe." She pushed his tiny form towards her chest in a firm embrace and slowly initiated the mechanics of normal breathing, firmly pressing on his back so his chest could rise alongside hers.

When she looks down on him after he has stopped shaking on her chest, she wasn't surprised to see his all familiar snarl, "I do not need your pity." His small talons pierced her skin, but her fingers continued to stroke his head.

"Good," she told him offhandedly, "because I have none to give."

Baring his fangs, he yanked her down so she was bending to reach his eye-level, but her eyes remained placid under his glare, "if you think that doing all this would mean that I'd be in debt to you, you better think again, human. I do not go by the honours most demons you know do."

"oh?" her fingers gently tugged on a few tangles, "do you happen to know why?"

"Because I find it useless." He answered without skipping a beat.

Kikyou smiles lightly at the way he unconsciously leaned on her caress when her fingers brushed his ear, "do you know why you find it useless?"

Really, the child is acting more aggressive than his usual behaviour, but realizing his past actions were literally heartless, his emotions must have been amplified with its sensitivity to feel.

His inbred curiosity pulls at him "...why?"

"because you haven't earned it yet," She explains smoothly, her fingers petting through his scalp, "you have no use for something you do not have, no use for something you do not value in, all because it wasn't presented to you at all." when the child didn't cut her off, she continued, "Honor, like respect, is earned, little one."

He rose a soft brow in question, inwardly bristling at the endearment, "so are you telling me that if I repaid you, I can gain honor?"

"Honour" she started, straightening in his vice, "is not gained merely from one debt paid off."

His amethyst eyes were sharp on her now, "are you manipulating me to do bidding for the sake of this honor you talk about?"

Kikyou smiled at that and brushed his cheek lightly with her thumb, his talons not easing on the skin on her arms, "Honor is simply the morality of the principles of superior men."

There was a minute of silence, "so you do want me to be in debt to you." He surmised, bitterly.

She smirked, "do not bother, pup, there is nothing you could possibly offer me."

Hakudoushi's eyes flashed at her dismissing statement, "you dare insult me?" he snarled, nails cracking her doll-like skin, "I do not care if Naraku is still disgustingly obsessed with you, once he has learned of your incompetence, he'll..." suddenly he stilled, and Kikyou silently watches the emotions passing through his cherubic face before they settled into a blank mask.

"...he'll..." his anger left him then, and something else wormed up to curl in his gut, something heavier and constricting, ...do nothing.

Lightning cracked suddenly in the distance and they both stiffened in alert, recognizing the steely aura penetrating their senses, "get Entei and let him bring you to the hut." She commanded, moving to stand, but the child reeled, his attitude returning, "What! You can't tell me what to do!"

"Do as I say, pup." She said, pushing him firmly on his back, "I will meet you there."

But he was stubborn, jerking out from her hold, he glares at her, "no! I am not as incapable of defending myself as you think I am!"

A chill blew between them and Hakudoushi's eyes widened at the unmistakable scent of electricity. "You should've listened, boy." A voice roused darkly. Kikyou's expression remains impassive as she searched the source, it was difficult, as her eyes are not accustomed to the bleak darkness as they can as she felt Hakudoushi's discomfort radiating in waves.

"Calm yourself." She says, low enough for only him to hear, "even I can smell your fear."

"I am not afraid." He hissed, his youki spiking, to which she threw a reprimanding look in his direction making him grit his teeth at her chide as he forced his youki back.

"My business is with the boy, miko." A lone figure materializing before them, moonlight brightening his features, but the darkness kept his expression hidden from view. He stood imposingly, his regal attire swaying with the breeze, "your presence is not needed here."

"He is of no concern for you any longer." Kikyou replies coolly, meeting his golden stare, "you need not concern yourself with trivialities, for he is my business now and you will stay out of it." And with that, she turns on her heels and saunters away, "Hakudoushi." At the sound of his name, the child gave the Taiyoukai a narrowed glance before hesitantly following after the woman.

-;-

How dare she.

His blood curdled with anger from the miko's cold indifference, defending the child as if she was ignorant of its identity. Well, no matter, seeing as her atrocious tongue is still in place, he assumes she wasn't damaged by the fall. Best he concerns himself with more important matters at hand. Looking over the boy, he wonders how close the similarities father and son can be.

"Reduced to taking orders from a human," he drawls, eyeing the small faltering steps with a mental smirk, "how hard does she have to pull to have you on her heels, boy?"

He can see the priestess, halt. "Strange," she mused, over her shoulder, "that coming from the dog who keels at every request of a human child."

His claws flexed dangerously, masking his aura as so she wouldn't feel his rising irritation over her disrespect. "Letting someone else fight your own battles? Pathetic how weak you have fallen." His hand lands on the hilt of his Tokijin, static filling the air, "did Naraku spoil you this much? It is a no wonder you have taken shelter in the pitiful arms of a human woman."

"To be spoiled means to be cared for." Hakudoushi stated stiffly, his brilliant amethyst orbs gleaming venomously in his direction, "of course you would know, my lord," he lifts his nose with a smirk, "seeing as you don't look like you've been spoiled since birth."

The child had hardly finished his statement, when his neck was violently yanked above the ground and tossed across the midnight clearing. He wheezed, when his chest grazed harshly on the earth before his back crashed on a jagged rock.

"As expected, your creator didn't fill you in with the basics of respect." The Taiyoukai drawls icily, stalking towards his small form.

Hakudoushi forces an eye open, his side protesting as he struggles to lift himself. He can make out Kikyou's furious face as she paced towards the demon lord, but the man in turn glares at her in warning, "this is not your fight, priestess." He scowls down at her, slightly taken aback when the woman returns his snarl.

"Like hell it is not, demon!" her voice rising as she stops intrepidly close to him, "you come here demanding unnecessary bloodshed by pushing us off the sky when even I know with your ridiculous demon nose could smell his blood miles away." Sesshoumaru bristled contemptuously at her instigation. Though partly right, the Tensaiga had clouded most of his basic of senses that he hadn't noticed particular details until the priestess mentioned them, he was not going to submit to her.

When he didn't deny anything, she frowns, "you would assault an injured, unconscious child from behind his back, miles above the air without anything to defend himself. Tell me, my lord, how low have you fallen?"

Sesshoumaru narrows his eyes and looks over at the child, who until now was still forcing himself to sit up, his small shoulders shaking from the strain before he drops down again with a frustrated groan, he had just taken notice of the thick tape wrapped tightly around his torso, a gleaming patch staining its front.

"The boy doesn't know how to pay his respect." He stated stoically, not excusing his own behaviour.

He hears the boy snort, face still on the dirt, "that's because there's nothing about you that's worth my respect, house dog."

And before the Taiyoukai could draw out his sword and stab him to death, Kikyou clicks her tongue in disappointment at his lack of control, "he is just a child." She reminds him.

"Naraku's child." He reminds back, irritated that he couldn't bring himself to hit the woman.

"It does not change the fact you were willing to take your hate out on the weak."

"Naraku is not weak."

Kikyou glares at this, "are you playing blind, demon?"She demanded "does that boy look like Naraku to you? Or has your senses been thoroughly clouded over your judgement that you lost the capability to discern which isn't the other?"

His hand shot out to her neck, gripping her harshly in warning, "I can kill you." He growled. And in return, her fingers curled on the wrist that held her, eyes taunting as he felt a growing burn of purifying energy blazing at his pulse, her voice low when she replies, "and I, you."

You infuriating woman, he seethed inwardly, holding her glare. He wanted to destroy her un-subservient attitude so she would learn her place when speaking to someone as powerful as him, it made him want to pin her down and forcefully remind her who is the dominant one between the both of them. But the way her aura grappled with his, her fury made her look so dangerously beautiful, it made something within him stir just looking at her. The anger in her eyes distracted him, the icy blue had darkened to molten sapphires that it made him imagine another possible situation where her eyes would heat that way while he would demonstrate his dominance over her until she yields...

Pulse.

He breaks away sharply.

He can feel her staring at him strangely, but he couldn't will himself to face her when he had to keep his blood from rushing everywhere. The priestess was wise enough not to continue arguing, merely looking distant as she fingered her neck, grimacing when her fingers were coated with grains. He glances down at his wrist, it had burned to the point it started to char.

He hears her sigh, and they settled into silence, the only sound being the grunts the white child kept huffing in his multiple failing attempts to sit up.

"May I ask you a question," she inquires after a long moment, and he glances at her from the corner of his eye. He wanted to say 'no.' but her expression looked so detached it seemed that even if she wouldn't get an answer from him, she would care less as if she could always get the answer from anyone else. It irritated him to know how unimportant she had acknowledged him, forcing herself to only regard him simply because he was there. Then as callous as she is, he wouldn't give her the satisfaction of an answer, until she begs as if only his words mattered above all else, until she remembers in whose presence she is graciously honoured with without his blade sticking through her chest.

"You're over thinking this..." she tells him, lips pursed to keep from smiling in amusement from the long blank look he was giving her. "Honestly my lord, it will just be one question."

Seeing him nod stiffly, she allows him a small tilt of her lips, "for a demon, how long does it usually take, for a large wound to close over itself?"

Is she talking about the burn she caused? He sees her looking over at the child.

...tch.

"How severe is this wound?"

She paused, "severe enough."

He dismisses her ambiguity with a half-lidded look at the youngling, "it would take a week at least." He says simply, "for a chest wound as large as his." The priestess hums at his perceptiveness but her brows creased when the boy's shoulders started to drop from exhaustion.

He watches her approach him nonchalantly, "where does it hurt," she asked gently.

The boy didn't bother moving, "everywhere." He deadpanned, voice muffled by the ground.

Sesshoumaru scoffs ungraciously, "You're too soft on him, miko."

"I am injured!" he ground out, twisting his head to snarl at him, although most of his face was obscured by his hair.

An arrogant sniff, "Excuses."

Kikyou brushed away unruly strands, ignoring their banter, "tell me where it pains," her other hand feeling around his back to check his ribs. When she sees him tighten his lip as she pressed on his left, she drew back and sighs lightly, wishing Entei would find them soon with those supplies.

"Go away." He mutters, albeit uselessly, knowing full well she wouldn't move from his side even if he grew roots and turned into a tree. It irked and comforted him at the same time. "I do not need your pity."

Before she could remark, Sesshoumaru's voice cuts in, "leave the child, miko. Let him learn how to stand on his own as any strong youkai would."

"that's smart, old man. Why don't you tell us more about your fossil coated dictions from your era since I needed the help to sleep this off anyway." Hakudoushi jeered scathingly,

"I would, but I'm afraid it would only fry whatever is left in that head of yours," he replies smoothly.

"you—"

"enough!" Kikyou had just about it, eyes jumping to both demons, "it is one thing that I am in the presence of one child, but it is another when I am in the presence of two." Her eyes fell on Sesshoumaru, his eyes oddly darkening at her irritation. "Leave us, my lord. Surely, your ward would be worried for you lest she finds you missing by sunrise."

"Where I go is none of her business." He dictates shortly, before locking eyes with the youngling, "I am not surprised you'd choose the miko to aid you, brat. After all, like father like son, is it not? I expect the woman dead for another fifty years or so if you wanted to follow in his footsteps."

Hakudoushi's eyes flashed with rage, his shoulder shaking violently, "take that back." he hissed venomously, eyes darkening to a stormy sunset. His aura flowed off of him and it clamped on anything it held on to, he brought his limbs under him in a crouch, fangs baring under his curled lip,. Sesshoumaru remained unchanged across him and waited as his hackles rose threateningly, "YOU TAKE THAT BACK!" he screamed, diving towards him with his claws outstretched, his talons swiping up as much as his small arms could reach as the Taiyoukai sidesteps every one of his swings, his amethyst orbs glowing brilliantly pink in his rage, thinning to sharp slits as the white of his eyes blackened in fury. He couldn't feel the pain, he didn't care. The only footsteps he'd follow would be the ones leading to this Taiyoukai's blood.

-;-

Kikyou watched the one sided fight in distress, worrying over the strange bump on the child's already broken chest. She was powerless against the Taiyoukai with all the tenacities of his blade, without a medium, all that she could make was a barrier. But she couldn't bring it up if Hakudoushi stayed too close to the older demon, so blinded by mortal rage, he couldn't see he was being toyed with.

"enough games," Sesshoumaru halted suddenly, his artificial arm catching the feral child by the neck, lifting him up so they could meet eye to eye, "we will finish this now, boy. I will not waste any more of my time chasing after that pathetic hanyou." Pulling the child closer, he breathes, "your father will fall."

Hakudoushi grated on his hands, choking in as much air he could take in, "h-he...is not...my f-father!"

He made to snort but he stiffened, and he sniffed, eyes widening in disbelief. His gaze travelled to boy's heaving chest, blood remaining poignant in the air, but there was something else that stood out above everything else. Naraku's blood, was mixed with the child's. But then how can it be that the hanyou's smell revolved only around the boy's torso.

And then he heard it, faint, but unmistakably there.

A beat.

The sound had been drowned by the pulsing of his own sword that he hadn't really minded it before. But right now, standing close to the young demon, it echoed through him, transparently clear. It drums steadily in his ears, and he just stands there, staring at the child's chest incredulously.

"For a demon, how long does it usually take, for a large wound to close over itself?"

"How severe is this wound?"

She paused, "severe enough."

He jerked his gaze to find Kikyou, surprised to see her with a bow in her hands, the arrow strung and pointed at him. From the corner of his eye, he makes out the giant horse demon, watching the scene carefully, its back strapped with rolls and baskets, a long lancet strapped upon his side. He knew the weapon had been there, but he didn't remember the rest. Recalling that he hasn't seen the steed the whole night he was at the clearing with his master, he guessed the miko must've requested him to gather her supplies. Hn. Smart woman.

The dawn has arrived, bathing the sky in a mix of prominent blues and reds, her silhouette curved like her weapon, poised and sharp against the upcoming sun.

Pulse.

The boy had stopped struggling, managing to only sink his claws into the hand that clenched his throat, his breathing painfully laboured, and he looks down at his chest again.

"Let him go, Sesshoumaru."

He glances back at the woman, studying the valiant look on her face, her soft lips pursed in concentration, and he chuckles darkly.

"you knew." He smirks at her cuttingly, "you knew about his... heart."

She remains tight-lipped, electric blue orbs held his darkening amber steadily.

"You... are so foolish."

With a flick of his wrist, the child was thrown towards her, landing on his back, coughing as he gasped greedily for air, his eyes reverting to their softer haze. "I would never have known the hanyou to be this foolish enough to think this plan to work. But in a way, I believe it has." He flexed his claws once as it gleamed against the light, eyes never leaving her face.

"Killing Naraku is easy," he says, pointedly stepping over the boy as he approached her, "killing you on the other hand..."

She freed the arrow, as it whizzed at him, but he caught it to only to drop it with a hiss when it scorched his skin. Sacred arrow.

"You're being insensible, woman." He growled, undeterred as he continued to make his way to her, swiftly dodging the sharp arrows which were repeatedly strung and aimed at his face, "Was it not Naraku the reason you died and lived again in pain? Were you not betrayed enough? You were first handedly given the chance to kill him, miko, why didn't you take it?"

He was almost near her now, he can feel her aura licking at the air as she held his gaze in trepidation another arrow set and ready. Her eyes dimmed as she regarded him, he stilled,

"because he is not Naraku."

And she released. He made to move, but his feet were planted on the ground, her aura holding on to his youki in a vice-like grip, before he jerked, flying backwards with his shoulder colliding with a tree, the arrow had pierced through, its shaft sizzling with purifying heat.

He raises his free hand to pull it off, when the skin of his palm burned bitingly at the touch, his fingers singed and fuming. The Taiyoukai roars then, shaking wildly out of his confinement, clawing the bark of the tree behind him to free himself, yet he stayed put, a flicker of a barrier forming around him as he struggled.

Seeing her approach made him cease, her sullen blue eyes were firm as she stood before him, "I apologize." She whispers quietly, almost regretfully, her hand reaching out through the barrier to palm the area around the afflicted wound, only an inch above his heart, and something inside him stirs. "But I will not let you kill him."

Pulse.

She lowers her lashes in deep thought, and he lets her, if only allowing him the chance to view her face close enough under the morning light, her features soft and delicate... beautiful. Too beautiful.

"When I escape from this," he started softly, watching her sky blue orbs flutter open to meet his,

Pulse.

"...I will kill you."

-;-