The first time that Higurashi Kagome saw her absolute bestest, most wonderful, huge, and really cool-looking (he had lightning bolts on his cheeks! How neat was that, seriously?!) friend, she was about to be three years old, and was visiting her grandpa's shrine for the first time ever. He had always visited them before then, for some reason, telling them that it wasn't the right time to visit his home yet.

Well, okay, that first part wasn't exactly true, because she already knew Toga-san (which was why she had known he was her bestest friend ever). She had dreams of him every single night, without fail, and had for her whole life, even from before she could remember! But those were dreams, and even though he taught her lots and lots of Important and Necessary things in her dreams, it wasn't the same as actually seeing him in person. Her daddy had been super worried when she ran towards him and called his name out, but Mama had just been surprised and a little shocked (Kagome could feel other people's emotions, but that was a Big Secret between her and Toga-san for right now until she could control it better – though Toga-san said her grandpa would help her with that). However, it was very quickly that her grandpa – he was very old, very smart, and very silly – let them know that the see-through man was, indeed, real, and that "Toga-sama" was a respected guest who lived at his shrine, and had for a decade already. He had just kept himself hidden from everyone else until now.

Mama had surprisingly not been very surprised at that; Kagome got the feeling that Mama had accidentally (or maybe purposely, Toga-san was the type to make sure that people worried less, and Mama seeing him before would make her worry less about him being with Kagome) seen Toga-san a couple times before Grandpa banned everyone in his family from the shrine.

He also let them know that Kagome was the only reason that Toga-san was there, and led them into the house to have a Talk with them, promising them that Toga-san wouldn't hurt her and telling them that she should spend some time with him now that she had the chance for the first time.

When they were gone into the house, Toga-san sat down on the ground, with his legs crossed, and opened his arms. Kagome immediately knew what to do, running to him, climbing into his lap, and pressing her head under his chin, tears of happiness leaking down her cheeks as he growled softly to her, a sound she felt more than heard, but still heard, a little. That was what inu yōkai puppies did to adults in their pack that they liked, and what adults in a pack did for the puppies they liked. And Kagome didn't just like Toga-san, she adored him. He was her absolute bestest friend and would be forever. The tears were because Kagome hadn't known that she would ever get to see Toga-san while she was still little, and she was just so happy that she was with him in person!

One of the reasons why Toga-san would be her bestest friend forever was that Toga-san didn't treat her like a baby or like she could get hurt doing normal things. He had already told her that once she got older he would have friends of his teach her how to fight so she could protect herself and the friends she would make when she was bigger. And that he would take her camping in the woods behind the shrine and teach her how to live in the wild. And that she was a very powerful miko-sama who would change the world (although Kagome really could care less about that), and he would show her how to use her powers – both the yōkai way and the ningen way (her grandpa would teach her that). She had pouted at the last – Kagome might have been born ningen, but she didn't feel ningen, or like being ningen, either… but then Toga-san told her that people might try to hurt her (which she didn't care much about) or her friends (which she absolutely did care about, more than anything) if she could only use her power like yōkai used their powers.

The idea of anyone trying to hurt her Toga-san had had her agreeing to that immediately.

And the best part? He had promised to do all those things with and for her – Kagome knew in her deepest heart that Toga-san never, ever, ever broke a promise unless there was absolutely no choice whatsoever, which meant that even if her mama and daddy didn't like it, those things would still happen. Especially because Grandpa was on Toga-san's side.

Not until she was grown up more though – Toga-san said that Kagome had other things to learn first, most importantly how to be inu like he was. Kagome didn't know or care why it was important because it felt right to be inu, to be like a yōkai.

All she had to do was compare the beautiful woods behind the shrine and the city where she lived, to make her absolutely hate ningen. Not all of them, because even though she was still little, Kagome knew better than to think that just because someone or a bunch of someones did something bad, that they were all bad in all ways; but as a whole, ningen were horrible, destroying all the pretty nature like they were. Kagome had a front seat to that destruction – there had been a wonderful little park not very far from her house, and just a month ago people had started cutting down all the trees, so they could put a stupid parking lot there, for a new store.

Kagome hoped that whatever way she would "change the world" meant people stopped doing things like that.

Toga-san, who had previously been licking her tears away basically since they started, pulled away now that her eyes were dry, took one look at her face, and asked her, "Little bird, what is on your mind that makes you frown so fiercely?"

Toga-san's voice washed over her, immediately making her relaxed, comfortable, and a lot more content than she had been before – that didn't scare her though; Toga-san's voice always did that to her, because he was her alpha and she could trust him. She relaxed into his half-solid form, playing with the wisps of silver hair that had fallen over his shoulders despite the ponytail holding his hair back. "This Kagome was thinking about her favourite park being ruined. I hate living there now. I want to live here, and I'm so glad that you didn't let Grandpa have us visit before now, 'cause then I would have hated living where I do even more."

Her best friend and protector hummed softly at that, before picking her up – somehow she didn't go through him, which was nice, but still distinctly weird, if only because she could see through him – and placing her on his left shoulder. He stood up then, and walked towards a tree he called "Goshinboku, the God Tree."

He told her stories then, and she listened avidly, paying close attention to every single word he said and committing every last one to memory, as he looked back towards the shrine house – with a nod from the Divine face within, he took his beloved pack member into the forest, showing her the animals, birds, insects, reptiles. He named them all, told her how to identify them, and told stories about them when he could, the first of many similar lessons, doing his best to distract the child he loved so much from the pain in her heart.

Especially when he knew that in less than four short years, his precious little bird's pain would grow exponentially. Luckily, though, his friend Daisuke, who lived up to his name of "great helper", was aware of the coming trauma, and already preparing for the inevitable – slowly enough that it wouldn't be noticed, but expediently enough that when the time came, he would be truly ready, and in such a way that nobody would question it.

Daisuke was a wonderful friend, and had been ever since he sensed Toga wandering around the shrine and, shockingly enough, saw him – apparently Kagome's power was not inherited only from having been born with the Shikon inside of her. He was actually the reason that Toga even had a semi-solid form this early on – the Kami were intending to grant him the ability to be seen once Kagome turned ten, but not to be touched until he fully came back to life in the Sengoku Jidai. Daisuke, however, had been completely incensed at this, and had insisted that his granddaughter should be able to touch her betrothed before she got thrust into a completely different era, especially if she was being raised as an inu yōkai would be raised. Inu yōkai relied on touch, dammit! The Kami had been impressed with the fact that he was willing to tell Them off and asked him what he was willing to give Them in order to make this happen.

His answer?

All of his spiritual powers, excepting what he needed to keep the shrine protected and cleansed.

Toga had protested wildly at that – but the Kami, in Their wisdom, said that his willingness to give up that which he was most proud of, and that which kept him safe, meant the price would be lowered. He still had a significant amount of spiritual ability – They had hinted that he would need some of it relatively soon, so it was more than simple generosity – but certainly not so much that he would have been able to see or sense Toga without the daiyōkai now being semi-solid and half-visible.

Needless to say, Toga had been beyond grateful, and performed a yōkai blessing on the shrine – no yōkai with ill intent of any kind would be able to enter this place for centuries now, even if the Higurashi descendants had absolutely no spiritual power whatsoever to keep the shrine barriers up. Ah, so that would be why no yōkai who would wish to harm his Kagome would be able to harm her in this era once she lived at the shrine.

Just because this world was flawed and would become an "alternate" didn't mean that his friend's family on this side needed to go unprotected when the worlds parted.

He had also warned the old man about the fact that he had a very dangerous, truly evil artefact laying about in his storage shed – Sō'unga had been sealed enough that he could only feel a vague sense of distaste before then, but once he performed that blessing, the blade had projected all the hate it could muster towards him. Fortunately, it was still sealed – and very well – so Toga had instructed Daisuke on writing a very special kind of seal-wrapping, that used both reiryoku (which, being a Shinto priest, Daisuke had – unlike his miko granddaughter, and unlike those touched by Buddhism or Taoism whose holy energy developed into hōriki) and yōki combined to power it. It didn't take a genius to realise that this had been what the Kami had been hinting at as to why they wouldn't take all of his powers barring what was necessary for the upkeep of the shrine away – and it also, since Toga had not been in the modern era when Inuyasha came through the well with the body-snatching blade, explained how the whelp had gotten taken over by the thing. Someone must have disturbed the original seal.

Sō'unga had been screaming hatefully the entire time they added the second seal, loud enough that even Daisuke could hear it, but by the time they finished with the evil sword, it was silenced once more. Then Toga instructed Daisuke on how to form another protection that used reiryoku and yōki – blandly informing the fairly surprised man that originally, back when he was a young yōkai, there had been no such enmity between ningen and yōkai, and they had worked together frequently and happily. He had protections memorised that used hōriki, reiryoku, and reiki, which was far more powerful when trained than it was amongst most people who never even knew they had it. Even yōkai had reiki, after all. Every living being did.

This second protection was a sealed cedar (cedar channelled energy extremely well) chest, in which they placed the sword, with an extravagant and potent seal burned into every surface of the chest. Then it was locked, the key and keyhole both melted (thanks to Sesshōmaru, with whom he had a great relationship due to his presenting himself to the other daiyōkai after Kagome's death and expressing his pride in his growth), and an ofuda slapped atop it – the strongest one that Daisuke was capable of making. One that, he informed Toga, every single person in his family – even the extended parts – knew better than to even attempt to remove or touch.

Most of them didn't really believe in supernatural powers, but he used that ofuda on naturally dangerous items as much as supernaturally dangerous ones, so they simply played it safe and didn't touch anything with one of them on it.

Toga had to admit, that was a very clever way of getting around the fact that modern-day ningen didn't believe in things like possession or supernatural corruption, yōkai, or genuinely powerful miko, monks, priests, and priestesses.

When Daisuke asked Toga how he had known about the sword, Toga told him about the history behind it, how he had used to own it, and how, in another time, it had possessed his youngest son. He also let it slip that his sons had banished it to hell together, and Daisuke had asked if maybe that was meant to happen – at which point Toga told the old ningen that the biggest reason, fate-wise, for that incident to happen, was that it meant his two sons had to work together. With a different Kagome in the picture, something else would inevitably happen; and besides – being in hell meant little to a being such as Sō'unga. After all, all it took was a summoning ritual gone wrong – or right – to bring the spirit of the blade back onto this plane.

No, it was much safer sealed and locked away in this dimension, hidden from any who might recognise what it was. Yes, because of exposure to Toga it would get brought with them to the other dimension – still locked in the chest. Not outside of it; the seals and protections were that powerful.

Toga pulled himself out of his thoughts with a smile as his little bird gasped in delight – right there, in front of them, was a stunning crow, staring at them with the intelligence often found in animals that had been born and raised exposed to spiritual energy or yōki. Crows and their brethren were some of the most intelligent birds in existence already – Toga wouldn't be surprised if it was capable of telepathic speech like many lesser and greater beast yōkai without humanoid forms were capable of.

Sure enough, a voice – intelligent, filled with a sardonic and snarky sense of humour, and cautious – entered his mind then, and stated, "The girl doesn't live here yet but she will soon. I'll be back when she visits, and I'll stay once she's living here. For a while at least – that girl doesn't belong here, and I can't go where she belongs. Goodbye, Inu no Taishō."

He was greatly amused at the straightforward, blunt, and frank speech that the bird gave him, and was completely unsurprised that the crow stayed around for another minute – once it left, his own little bird exclaimed in awe, "His name is Kei, and he says he will visit me whenever I come here! Toga-san, this Kagome has another friend!"

The daiyōkai couldn't help but be amused with and pleased for her; the crow had known she was capable of communicating with animals, somehow. After training she would be capable of speaking with any beast yōkai in any form, no matter if it was greater yōkai or lesser yōkai. She really was too adorable, and he was looking forward to watching her grow into the wonderful young woman that he just knew she would become. Especially with her being so damn intelligent already – Kagome acted more like a five or six year old than a nearly-three year old. She really was well-suited to being raised yōkai.