A Detour

They had been travelling for just two days and she was already prepared to kill Inuyasha. They had one more day of travel before they would reach Sango and Miroku's village, and already Kagome was having serious doubts about whether he would make it. She had probably 'sat' him more times in these short days than she had the entire time they were pursing the shikon jewel shards. He was verbally abusive, callous, and dense as they came.

"I'm just saying it's kind of weird that you won't even talk about our future."

Kagome felt her eye twitch in irritation. She was not sure if he was selectively deaf to every phrasing of 'I am not sure'. Whenever he brought up the subject of them being mated, Kagome would remind him that there was a more pressing issue at hand, he would go off to sulk, and then come back and act as though he did not understand the concept of her uncertainty. In his mind, once he had chosen Kagome they would magically get married. Her opinion in the matter never crossed his mind.

"You've always wanted this. Now that Kikyo is gone and we can be together."

"Sit!" Inuyasha hit the ground so hard the trees shook.

" 'Now that Kikyo is gone'? Really?" She was livid. Inuyasha stood up and flattened his ears against his head; even with his thick skull, he knew that this time he made a terrible mistake.

"I didn't mean it like that."

"Oh really?" Kagome crossed her arms, "So what did you mean? Because it sounded a lot like you want me to be your mate because your first choice is gone." She was surprised to find that she was more insulted than hurt. A few years ago his words might have driven her to tears, but now she could not even find a trace of sadness. All she had was her wounded pride.

"I just mean that…" His voice was faltering and Kagome was no in mood to wait for some half-hearted excuse as to why he had said those words.

"It doesn't matter Inuyasha. You are right, three years ago I might have wanted this, but I don't anymore."

Inuyasha took her hand, his eyes wide with fear and concern, "What do you mean?"

She knew her words were going to hurt him, so as much as she wanted to pull her hand out of his, she choose to squeeze if softly and reassuringly instead. "I care about you a lot, and I always will; you are my best friend. But I do not want to be your mate. Not now, not ever."

He could feel his strength faltering, but he would die before he shed a tear in front of her. If he stayed around her, she would see him weak.

"You are just saying that because you are angry." He made one last bid, hoping that her words stemmed solely from anger. Kagome shook her head slowly, her eyes pleading with him to forgive her. He knew she did not want to hurt him but that did not change the fact that he felt as though his heart was about to give out. Lost for words, Inuyasha dropped her hand and disappeared into the forest.

Kagome stared at the space between the trees through which her best friend had disappeared. 'It was the right thing to do' she told herself, as she tried to stop blaming herself for the forlorn look in his eyes, 'If anything, it was my fault for not doing that sooner' . She turned to look at Shippo who had distanced himself from the pair in order to give them some semblance of privacy.

"He'll come back." Shippo said.

"Of course he will. Till then, we can set up camp." Kagome dropped her backpack. She felt beyond awful, but there was nothing she could do; she had tried and tried to make herself feel what she had felt for him three years ago, but something were just meant to fade.

Kagome was having the most wonderful dream in which she was back at home with her family. In this dream her job was not as a P.E. teacher, but as full-time miko. She was giving advice to a young couple that looked suspiciously like Sango and Mirkou, when she felt a sharp pain in her arm. Her eyes flew open and she sat up with a start. She found herself surrounded by a thick, gray fog and could barely see two feet ahead. "I am sorry I bit you, but you were not waking up."

The fog was drawing her back to sleep, but the sound of Shippo's worried voice forced her to concentrate. She reached for her bow and arrows only to find that they were gone. Now she truly began to panic. Grabbing the kitsune, she started running in a direction. Praying that it was the right one. A large grey tendril shot towards her. She dodged it and ran in another direction. Shippo sent a blast of fox-fire towards the tendril but it simply pushed through the fire.

Kagome could feel herself shaking. Where was Inuyasha? 'This was the absolute perfect time for him to disappear. Good job Kagome.' She thought bitterly as she tried to outrun the tendril. She was running as fast as she could when she tripped over something. Her bow. Whatever was chasing her must have flung it away from the camp. She stopped and picked them up, and with speed and accuracy she did not know she possessed, she shot the arrow at the tendril. Upon contact the tendril withered in a flash of pink light the cleared a small section of the fog.

Just as one tendril withered another shot towards her. She nocked her arrow and let it fly. Soon she was doing this in continuous fashion, her mind constantly on her rapidly dwindling supply of arrows. Shippo was doing his best to help, but there was no way they could defeat the demon on their own. From the sheer force of its Youkai, she knew she had not chance to stop it on her own. She could not even see her main target!

She nocked her last arrow and let it fly towards a tendril, but slightly above, hoping it would collide with whatever was hiding in the fog. The tendril flew forwards and impaled her right in the middle of the chest. There was no blood, just the same calming aura lulling her to sleep.

"Kagome!" Shippo's cry helped her closing eyes snap open. She gathered all her strength and purified the tendril with all the power she could. Her reiki, bright and pink, burst forward and just like that the fog began to fade. She fell forward and had to support herself on her palms. She was breathing heavily, tired and drained from a battle she should never have had to fight with so little support.

She heard the shuffling of feet and looked up slowly. A tall, blue haired man was stumbling towards her. His skin was burning right off. Bright grey eyes stared at her with more hate that she ever thought a person capable. "You will not be the one to defeat me." He hissed, his voice weak from pain. He reached down towards her, with every intention of ending her life. Shippo leapt at the hand and bit as hard as he cold, the demon flung him off and he careened through the air and hit a tree trunk. In the moment the demon was distracted, Kagome's hand shot up, grabbed its wrist and, scraping the bottom of her spirit for reiki, purified the demon till he was nothing but ashes floating away in the wind.

She felt something hard in the palm of the hand with which she had purified the demon. She had barely opened her hand to look at the bright red stone when everything went dark.

Sesshomaru was painfully bored. He enjoyed having time to himself to think, but over a year of nothing but trees and absolute solitude was more than even he could handle. He read over what had to be the eightieth poem he had, for lack of writing materials, etched into a tree. The last line did not fit and it bothered him deeply; he could not start a new one unless this one was absolutely perfect. He was about to alter a word when he felt a pulse of reiki. It was as though this place was taunting him; ever few days he would feel a pulse of reiki, followed by a flash of youkai which meant there was another demon present. But he had never encountered a single soul.

He was about to change the word when he felt a second pulse of reiki. But not of the same one that pulsed every time, the one he had been engulfed by right before he was dragged into this endless, empty forest. This new reiki was all too familiar and it was grasping for him. Desperate for company, he sent out his youkai, hoping that this would guide the reiki towards him. It was probably a bad idea, but being alone was even worse. If he had something to kill or hunt it would have been fine, but as there was not so much as an insect in this world, he would have to settle for the company of Inuyasha's miko. He really had hit rock-bottom.

The moment she felt solid ground beneath her, Kagome scrambled to her feet. She had felt Sesshomaru. She was absolutely certain of it. Somehow she had gone from being in a forest with Shippo, to falling through nothingness. She could feel the reiki that was transporting her, but she could also feel different youkai passing by her. At one point, she had felt Sesshomaru. She had instinctively reached for him, and held on to his youkai until she felt the ground beneath her.

"Sesshomaru?" She called out. The forest was conspicuously silent. Although the sun was high in the sky and there was not a single cloud, the uncomfortable lack of sound made the forest feel dead.

Sesshomaru emerged from between the trees, his face cold and hard as ever. "What are you doing here, miko? And you will address me Lord Sesshomaru."

She ran towards him, stopping barely a foot away from him. "I don't know how I got here and I can't find anyone. I was with Shippo, and then it went black and I woke up here. Have you see Shippo, the little kitsune I travel with?" her panicked words ran together and for a brief moment Sesshomaru actually felt something like pity for her.

"There is no one here; until you arrived I was the only person here."

Kagome buried her face in her hands and took deep, calming breaths. She had to maintain her composure; there was in use in falling apart. It was not fair. She had waited three years to come back, only for her to break her best friend's hurt, lose Shippo, and get trapped in some strange forest even before she could see Sango and Miroku again. But, she had to find a way out and breaking down would only waste time.

"Are you alright?" His icy tone and the concerned question did not go well together, and the contrast almost amused Kagome.

Squaring her shoulders, she lifted her face from her hands, "I am fine. I just needed to gather myself."

He could sense her fear and frustration, but she was doing her best to hide it and were it not for her scent and tense reiki, he might have not been able to tell. Not many humans had that much self-control.

"Where are we?" She asked, she was staring at him with hope in her eyes and it made him deeply uncomfortable not only because he did not know the answer to her question, but also because she was looking him straight in the eyes so she seemed to be challenging him, but her body language and features spoke nothing of defiance or aggression.

His silence was enough of a response for her. "And I take it there is no way out." She added.

"No matter which direction you walk in, you end up where you began. If you fly up high enough, you begin to approach the ground again. So no, miko, there appears to be no means of escape."

"If there is a way in, there is a way out. Perhaps you overlooked something." Her words were innocent enough, but they struck a nerve.

"I have been here for a year. Do you suppose I sat around twiddling my thumbs?" There was a harshness creeping into his voice that Kagome did not like at all. If they were going to survive and not drive each other to murder, they needed to remain on as good terms as possible.

"No, I'm sorry it's just-" She began to speak, but suddenly caught on one of his words, "Wait, you have not been here a year. Inuyasha told me you had not seen Rin in six weeks."

Sesshomaru searched her features for any tell-tales signs of lying, knowing full well she had absolutely no reason to lie about what she had just said. There was only one explanation and it made his blood boil. Someone was toying with him by altering his perception of time and making his imprisonment seem longer. He resolved to find whoever was responsible for his entrapment, and demonstrate why it was unwise to anger the lord of the west. "It appears time moves faster here." His words were cool and even; they did not betray even a hint of his anger.

"Well that gives us more time to find our way out of here. I need to get back; I have things to do."

Sesshomaru looked her up and down, his lips curled in irritation, "And I have no duties of my own." He turned his back towards her and began to walk away. Kagome glared at his retreating figure, the insult of his dismissal burned.

"Well sorry my trying to save your kind from extinction does not measure against running the Western Lands." The words flew out before she could process what she had said.

At her words, Sesshomaru stopped. He turned around slowly, "Save my kind from extinction?" He asked as he stalked towards her. Kagome cursed her big mouth. Why did she always have to rise to bait? What was it that made her so stubborn and impulsive? "Miko, explain your words."

She was torn. On one hand he might be know something about the jewels used against demons, but on the other hand he would most certainly demand to know the source of her information and she could not simply tell him she was from the future. She did not trust him enough to tell him that much about herself. Kagome took a leap of faith. "I was told of these jewels used by mikos and priests to trap demons. Apparently it was used to destroy every demon."

"Like this one?" Sesshomaru could not believe her stupidity. How had she gotten her if not by that cursed jewel? All he did was touch it and it brought him to this miserably empty place.

Kagome did remember the red jewel in her hand, but it still seemed unlikely that it was what had wiped out the demons "But I am not a demon, why would it trap me here?"

"Perhaps," Sesshomaru rubbed the bridge of his nose, wondering just how far one person could get under his skin, "It traps any being with any power at all, be it reiki or youkai."

"No, Miko's and priests used them. If it trapped people with reiki it would have affected them as well. Morever, I got it after purifying a demon; were it the right one, it would have trapped him and not me."

She felt tiny under his scrutinizing gaze, and she prayed he would accept her words and leave it at that. But Sesshomaru was the last person on earth who would accept a half-answer. "And what is this jewel supposed to look like?"

"I don't know." Kagome mentally cursed Hiromasa for giving her next to no information about the jewel. In all fairness, he had never seen it himself and had told her all he knew about it, but that was not enough. She was a miko not a magician.

"And where did you heard about such a thing? I have never heard anyone speak about danger to all the demons." Sesshomaru kept prying. He was curious by nature and did not like that Kagome was purposely hiding information from him.

"A priest told me." Kagome knew he could see that she was lying, but she continued anyway, "He had a dream of a future in which there were no more demons, because of these jewels. I promised I would destroy them."

He did not believe a word she aside. Aside being able to read the deceit on her face, she had spoken in past tense about an event she claimed was yet to happen. "It is not wise to lie to me." It was more likely that a priest who had a dream about a demon-less world would do all in his power to ensure such a world, instead of enlisting help to prevent it.

"It's not a lie." She said firmly, still knowing very well that he could see right through her. He just kept staring at here with those unflinching amber eyes. She managed to hold his gaze for a while, but eventually the guilt of holding up such an obvious lie got to her and she looked away. She adjusted her bow and quiver nervously, "I can't tell you how I know. You just have to believe that I am telling the truth."

"Hn." That was all she got for her confession. Kagome lifted her eyes from the ground sharply, but Sesshomaru was already walking away.

"Are you kidding me?" She said as she grabbed his sleeve, stopping him in his tracks. "We have to keep trying to find a way out."

When he turned, the ice in his gaze was enough to make her uncurl her fingers and release him. "I am not stopping you from trying to find a way out. I do suggest you refrain from touching my person." He said in a tone that made it clear that the latter part of his sentence was more of a warning than suggestion.