DISCLAIMER: I sound like a broken record…Don't own!

Chapter Six

It was official.

She was losing her mind.

Kagome had caught herself staring off into the distance yet again. No matter what task she was currently engaged in—plucking weeds from the graves, assisting Sango in her workshop, cooking breakfast, or even carrying on conversation—her eyes, and her thoughts, kept straying west.

Only two days had elapsed since her last meeting with Sesshoumaru, but it might as well have been two years. To put it simply, she was bored. Bored out of her mind. This boredom was driving her to ridiculous conclusions, making her entertain certain theories which she knew were insane.

Like the possibility that she might actually miss his company.

Kagome snorted to herself. Yeah, crazy.

Her eyes slid past the curtain of matted reeds, through the gap between it and the doorframe, to settle at last on the setting sun.

…But he challenged her. When she was with him—when he was driving her up the wall with confusion and indignation, or fighting her every step of the way to fix the stupid stump he'd sought her out for in the first place—she felt the need to prove herself. When she did, she felt empowered.

And when he caught her afterward under the full force of his dark, unfathomable gaze, she felt as if all the world had suddenly fallen away around her, and only she remained. To be the object of such a strong singularity of focus was gratifying, no matter how ill the source.

He despised her, that she knew. But the particulars eluded her. Or perhaps there were many reasons, apart from the obvious—namely, that she was human and had more or less rendered him an amputee.

Intuitively, she sensed it. Consciously, she rejected it, though it made no difference. The elusive whys consumed her all the same.

She wanted to understand him. Longed to understand him. Just as she felt the removal of the seal to now be an attainable goal, she had begun to feel the same way toward its bearer: that he, too, lay just beyond her reach.

But he's dangerous, a familiar voice of caution whispered in her mind. Do you really want to learn what makes a guy like that tick?

Of course she did. She had always been way too inquisitive for her own good. And the Lord of the Western Lands was one heck of an enigma.

This interest in him wasn't healthy, couldn't lead to anything good. How long it had been growing inside her, she couldn't say. Perhaps since the first time she'd broken through the seal. In front of her, because of her, he'd lost his careful control, and she'd seen it laid bare—the raw, terrible depth of feeling he carried beneath all the cool words and aloof expressions.

After that night, his manner toward her had never quite recovered. Rather, she had felt it slipping only further and further away. Like her, was he now hurtling toward some inevitable conclusion? Reluctant, yet daring to face it?

He had told her he'd be away for 'a few days' time.' Had 'a few' meant two, or three? It couldn't possibly mean four, could it? If she had to keep waiting around in restless anticipation like this—glancing over her shoulder every five minutes—for another two days, they really would have to lock her up and throw away the key.

A sudden paranoid fear had her eyes opening wide.

What if he had already been trying to find her, but couldn't? She, Sango, and Kirara had traveled by air for the most part—had they left enough of a scent trail behind for him to follow? She hadn't had the chance to tell him she was leaving Edo village. Maybe she should have left him a note...

A note! She shook her head in disbelief. Where the heck would I have left him a note? On Baa-chan's refrigerator?!

"…Kagome-chan?"

"AHH!" she exclaimed with a start, turning toward Sango, who was looking at her with both brows raised and soup spoon frozen mid-stir. "Uh, sorry, Sango-chan! Er…what were we talking about?"

"You were telling me something concerning Inuyasha, before you drifted off again."

Kagome blanched. Again? Oh no…she's noticed. Another voice whispered: How could she not?

"You've been daydreaming a lot lately," Sango continued, her thoughtful look turning somewhat sly. "Thinking of Hojo-kun, perhaps?"

Somehow, the young miko managed to glower and redden at the same time, giving her the overall appearance of a disgruntled tomato. Yesterday, over lunch, she had related the experience of her first kiss to her taijiya friend. Clearly, that had been a mistake.

"No," she grumbled, crossing her arms. "I wasn't thinking about him at all…"

Although she kind of wished she had been. At least that would have been a perfectly normal train of thought.

Catching her head turning toward the door, she jerked it back fast enough to give her a brief sensation of whiplash. Sango stared at her in mild concern.

"Anyway," Kagome said, cringing as she rubbed at her neck, "I've been putting off telling you and the others this, but Inuyasha confronted me about two weeks ago, pretty much saying that I'm not needed anymore and to return to my own time for good."

A scowl darkened Sango's pretty features. "He did, did he?"

Seeing her fingers inching toward Hiraikotsu, Kagome grimaced. This was the reason why she hadn't broached the subject sooner. With schoolwork and Sesshoumaru to contend with, the last thing she needed on her plate right now was a battle between Inuyasha and her friends.

"Wait up, Sango-chan!" she said quickly, putting up her hands. "Let's not do anything rash, okay? I just wanted to let you know about this in case I need to lie low around him for a little while. I think once he and Kikyou are hitched, he'll eventually cool off, but right now he's a loose cannon, and I can't stand to be around him." She let out a breath of air. "It might be best if I stick near Edo for a few weeks and catch up with you guys later on. I'll still be around if you need me, of course, and I can work on improving my miko skills in the meantime…"

…And deal with Sesshoumaru, of course.

At this thought, a strange little thrill shot down her spine. Insanity, plain and simple.

"Forgive me," Sango sighed, her left hand retreating from Hiraikotsu, if somewhat reluctantly. "It's only that, since Kikyou-sama joined the group, I've been dreading this might come to pass. It angers me how Inuyasha has treated you—hurt you—and I was afraid…" She met Kagome's eyes, smiling uneasily. "I was afraid you would find it too unbearable to remain here in this time. You're my closest friend, Kagome-chan—the thought of losing your companionship frightens me."

Kagome gaped. Sango, frightened? This was a girl who charged headfirst into hordes of bloodthirsty demons, who bravely faced the monster who had ordered the slaughter of her father and her village—and she was scared at the prospect of losing Kagome as a friend?

If she'd had any doubts before about continuing her stay in Sengoku Jidai, they were gone now. She reached out, clasping the taijiya's hands in her own.

"Don't worry, Sango-chan. I'm not going anywhere," Kagome reassured her with a smile. "I promise."

From under the shadow of the mountain, a pair of slitted eyes appeared, glowing crimson through the darkness. A rumbling voice, like the shifting of stones, reverberated through the surrounding chasms.

"So…you are the one called Sesshoumaru…"

"I am," the inu daiyoukai answered, stepping forth.

"Brave you are, or foolish…to come here, into my domain, reeking of the blood of my kin…"

"Your offspring dared to invade my lands," Sesshoumaru said in a cool, even tone. In one swift movement, he freed Tokijin from its sheath and leveled it before him with a click. "I have come here so that you would know: in the West, such trespassing does not go without punishment."

The red eyes narrowed. Sesshoumaru had an instant to leap back before a massive armored tail tore through the shadows, its scimitar of a sting splitting the rocky earth where he had stood.

"Insolent whelp…you presume to lecture me…"

The sting ripped free in a shower of stone as its owner—a hulking scorpion-like youkai—emerged from the gloom. In the dying light of the sun, the sand-colored plates shielding its body gleamed a burnished orange-red. As it advanced upon the Lord of the Western Lands, the points of its bladed appendages gouged pits into the canyon floor.

"I have dwelt here in this mountain since before your father's time…I shall dwell here still, long after you are dead…"

A dark smile of invitation spread across Sesshoumaru's face. We shall see…

The tail swung for him again, and he neatly dodged, falling once more into the easy rhythm of combat. He had spent the past two days tracking down this creature's interloping spawn, who had taken up residence in the frontier hills of his realm. Ruthlessly, he had slaughtered every one, hoping that the spill of their blood would dampen his ire.

His efforts had proved fruitless, so far.

Baring his fangs, Sesshoumaru brought Tokijin down hard toward the juncture of his enemy's head and back plates, but the scorpion daiyoukai shifted at the last moment, and his blade crashed against armor in an explosion of sparks. Another set of blood-red eyes on the creature's crown rolled toward him mockingly.

"This body of mine was forged in the deep heart of the world…" With alarming quickness the scorpion whirled, catching Sesshoumaru in the crushing grip of its gigantic pincer. "You soft surface-dwellers are no match for me…"

Tokijin fell from the Western Lord's grasp as he braced his hand against one jagged side, forcing the pincer apart. The moment he slipped through, it slammed closed with a crash like thunder, shearing off the last few inches of his hair.

Lightly, he met the ground, the shattered pieces of his armor dropping away as he landed. A few feet to his right, Tokijin stood, its keen point cleaving the earth. Hungry for blood, the sword called to him, and he retrieved it with a smirk as he took to the skies.

Finally…a worthy opponent.

Their fierce battle continued long into the night, yet Sesshoumaru found himself unable to properly enjoy it. Thoughts of that damnable girl kept entering his mind. The memory of her dismissal filled him with unspeakable fury—even more so as it recurred, and he imagined her carrying about her menial human tasks without sparing it, or him, so much as a moment's worth of consideration.

It was inconceivable to the daiyoukai, that she could drive him to such ferocity while she herself remained so unaffected. Were it not for her and the curse she had laid upon him, he would be whole and content in his Western territories, with Tessaiga resting in its rightful place at his side. Instead, he was here, crippled and enraged, breaching another youkai's domain in a futile attempt to purge her from his thoughts.

It detested him, shamed him, how he could not stop recalling the slide of her skin against his fingers, or the curve of her lips even as she casually sent him away. Nothing had ever held such power over him before.

"How like your father you are…" the great scorpion taunted him as blazing red youki welled at the tip of its sting, returning Tokijin's energy blast with a fiery beam that gutted the canyon walls in its pursuit of the inu daiyoukai. Somewhere behind him, Sesshoumaru's retainer gave a frightened squeak, as great chunks of rock barreled toward the ground in the wake of this attack. "You, too, prefer a human form…do you prefer their comforts as well?"

Sesshoumaru snarled as he slammed Tokijin back into its sheath, much to the sword's dismay. In a whirlwind burst of youki, he transformed, the scorpion daiyoukai balking subtly at the sight of him. His steely claws scored the hard earth as he lunged, fangs sinking between the segments of his opponent's deadly tail and severing the sting in one violent wrench of jaw.

The scorpion screeched in agony as it reeled from him, the remainder of its bleeding tail crashing sideways into a wall of sheer stone. Pushing his advantage, Sesshoumaru charged his wounded adversary, snapping a few of its legs as he rammed it just below the side. When the armored creature flipped onto its back, the Western Lord pounced upon its softer underbelly, eviscerating it brutally with claw and fang, as if the beast below him were somehow responsible for her crimes.

Breathing heavily, he returned to his humanlike shape, the black blood of his fallen foe still streaming from his mouth. He swiped a sleeve across his lips, the anger within him burning hot and dark as ever. No battle, he now knew, could quench this rage.

"Truly, milord's greatness knows no bounds!" Jakken cried as he appeared from behind an outcropping of rock. "It is said even your lord father did not dare to challenge Sutinguu-sama's claim of this mountain, yet milord has defeated the Great Scorpion of the North with such ease!"

"Jakken," Sesshoumaru said as he sloshed through the blood and viscera of the defeated daiyoukai, "if you wish to remain alive, do not speak to me of my father ever again."

"A-aye, milord," the imp stuttered, clutching the Nintoujou to his chest. "F-forgive me, milord…"

"Return to Rin and Ah-Un," the daiyoukai commanded, a cloud of youki gathering beneath his feet. "Await me there."

"Yes, Sesshoumaru-sama! A-at once," the little demon chirped, choking on dust as his lord left the ground.

Sesshoumaru sped through the sky toward Edo, a determined scowl twisting his features. He would find the girl and be rid of this curse tonight.

Before he even touched down at the edge of the human village, he could sense that the miko was not there. His first outraged suspicion was that she had traveled through the Bone-Eater's Well, yet neither there nor anywhere else on the outskirts of the village could he detect a fresh trail of her scent. Outrage dulled to irritation as he entered the town.

He appeared to have arrived here on the heels of some great festivity. Though the hour was late, many humans still lingered near the decorated shrine, feasting and chatting. Among the revelers, he spied the elderly miko who was responsible for the girl's training.

Approaching her from behind, he allowed his aura to flare briefly and alert her to his presence. The sake cup rising to her lips paused halfway as the aged priestess turned toward him with ruddy cheeks, squinting through the darkness.

"…Might ye be Sesshoumaru-sama?" she asked, a suppressed hiccup jolting her chest.

He ignored her inane question, saying without preamble, "Old woman, where is your apprentice?"

"Aye"—hic—"I thought ye might be wanting to know." She finished her sip, regarding him steadily with her single visible eye. "Two days past, the child left for the ruined taijiya village to the east. Methinks ye will find her there still."

He knew the village of which she spoke. Without so much as a word, he turned from the sight-impaired priestess and prepared to take flight, catching a few mumbled phrases from her as he rose.

"…a cold fellow, that one…but comelier even than his brother, heh heh…"

Old, Sesshoumaru thought with a smirk, but not so blind.

He arrived at the remains of the demon slayers' village a few hours before dawn. The girl's scent was heavy here, and in one of the huts which had been partially repaired, he sensed her slumbering reiki.

Pushing open the slatted reeds which served as a door, he entered the one-room dwelling, his gaze landing on her at once. Alone, she slept on a small futon in the middle of the floor, her long hair flooding out over the swept planks behind her, her attire even more indecent than usual. Above the edge of a blanket, her lean arms lay fully exposed, her chest nearly so, only two thin straps of white fabric descending from her shoulders to cover the topmost portion of her breasts.

His mutilated arm twinged as he approached, sinking down beside her. He studied her face, her smooth brow half-hidden by unruly bangs, sooty lashes twitching ever so slightly over her cheeks. The bow of her rose-colored lips was parted, her breath leaving her in the occasional sigh. Frowning absently, he trailed his fingertips along the warm edge of her jaw, retracting his hand abruptly when she turned and tucked her chin into his palm.

Sesshoumaru continued to draw back. Why had he come here? For one muddled instant, he had forgotten about the curse and his anger—had forgotten even his own name. Though never one to flee, he found himself considering the idea of leaving this place. He did not feel in control of himself, let alone the girl below him.

Yet as he wavered, she began to stir. Her leaden eyelids cracked open, and worse still, she began to speak.

"…Inuyasha?" she murmured.

The daiyoukai clenched his jaw. Bad enough, to be mistaken for the half-breed on any occasion, but under the current circumstances it was intolerable—not least of all for the dark flare of suspicion that came from envisioning certain scenarios which might have prompted her to think of his half-brother instead.

"No, girl," he nearly growled.

Blinking, she raised herself up on her elbows, her eyes flying open in panic a moment later. She sat up suddenly, grabbing him by the front of his haori.

"Sesshoumaru!" she exclaimed, searching his face. "What happened to you?! You're covered in blood!"

However unnecessary, her concern caught him off-guard. A small measure of his tension ebbed away.

"It isn't mine," he told her simply.

"Kami…" she muttered, her shoulders sagging. "Of course it isn't." Her gleaming eyes scanned him nonetheless. "Did you wipe out an entire army?"

More or less.

"I slew sixteen scorpion youkai, who had dared to nest in my lands without permission," he replied. "And their forebear, the daiyoukai Sutinguu."

"Wow." She stared. "All that in just two days?"

Somehow, her dubious admiration pleased him more than all of Jakken's effusive praise. He smirked slightly.

"Believe me, miko, I have accomplished far greater feats than that."

"Oh?" she said, perking. "Like what?"

As she smiled up at him, he became conscious once again of her closeness. He could feel the warmth of her hands through the silk lining his chest, the air between their lips stirring with every soft puff of her breath. From this angle, the valley between her breasts was on clear display, and it was such a tempting sight that he seized both her slender wrists in his hand and pushed her back, as the tide of his resentment came washing in.

"Miko," he said to her in a low tone, "I did not come to this place to regale you with tales of my victories." Releasing her, he wrenched up his stained and tattered left sleeve. "I am here so that you can remove this curse of yours once and for all."

Holding her left wrist, she looked up at him in bewilderment. "You mean…you want me to get rid of the whole thing right now?"

"Were my orders so unclear?" he said bitingly, narrowing his gaze. "You have told me how simple it should be, if only I were to leave you to your own devices." He took her hand, pressing it to the flesh that ended just below his shoulder. "This Sesshoumaru will leave you to it, only see that it is done."

Her gaze flickered before hardening like flint. "Fine," she snapped, placing her other hand to his arm as well. "I'll do my best."

Her eyes closed as her reiki slid beneath his skin, seeking the seal. He could feel her surrounding it with holy energy as she had done once before, but instead of manipulating the embedded magic, her own just seemed to hold it. Occasionally, he sensed her testing the curse with gentle prods, though they felt rather ineffectual to him.

If not for her expression of intense concentration, he might have reprimanded her for dawdling. As it was, he simply watched her face for any sign of change, all while trying to convince himself that this was what he truly wanted—to be free of her from this day forth, to have no cause to cross paths with her ever again.

A part of him wanted nothing more than to push her back down to the futon and spend every ounce of this manic desire inside of her, yet he told himself that this part of him was the seal lodged in his flesh and therefore not a part of him at all. Her isolated reiki longed to reconnect with the rest of her, and so it pulled him toward her of its own will, obscuring his in the process.

Once the curse was gone, his mind would be clear of this wretched fixation. He was sure.

Her expression changed.

A tiny gasp—a sound of unmistakable recognition—escaped her lips, and Sesshoumaru braced himself for the downfall of the curse. With bated breath, he waited for the end of his torment to come.

And if it doesn't, what will you do then? a dark voice whispered to him from within.

"…I'm sorry."

Her reiki retreated from him along with her touch as she turned away, refusing to meet his gaze. Her head hung in defeat.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, steering her back toward him by the shoulder. "Why did you stop?"

She continued to hide from him beneath her bangs. "I can't do this right now, Sesshoumaru. I-I'm too tired." Ducking out of his grip, she slipped under the thin blanket of her bedding and curled her knees to her chest. "Come back tomorrow night, okay? I promise I'll remove it then."

A long silence stretched between them, tense and forbidding. Only a fool would believe her excuse of exhaustion to be true, but he chose not to belabor the point. If she wanted to wait another day, he supposed he could allow it, especially since it would give him more time to weigh his options—in light of that nagging voice of doubt.

Rising, he headed for the entrance. Hand poised on the slatted reeds, he glanced back at her. Still she lay huddled to one side, her face concealed by blanket and hair.

"Tomorrow, then," he told her, as he pushed back the reeds and left.

Throughout the next day he considered the possible outcomes and how he might address them. By the time the sun set, he had reached a resolution.

If, even after the lifting of the curse, this obsessive want of his persisted…

He would eliminate the source.

In a cave on the outskirts of Sango's village, Kagome held her lantern aloft before the petrified remains of the legendary priestess Midoriko and her youkai opponents. Here, in this very place, the Shikon no Tama had been born.

The Jewel itself was a sealing of souls. She raised her hand to Midoriko's chest, tracing her fingers lightly over the spot where the Jewel had been expelled, some hundreds of years before. It was a deep circular space, much larger than the pendant around her neck would ever grow to be.

Midoriko-sama, Kagome thought, looking up at the frozen features of the one who was, in a way, responsible for all this, I know what this shape means. You made the Jewel in a moment of sheer desperation, right?

She lowered the lantern, touching the smooth, completed side of her chunk of Shards. In the end, she had been partly right: it all was simple, in theory. The form the Shikon no Tama had taken was that of a thought, a hope.

A wish—Midoriko's wish, that the creation of the Jewel had never been necessary in the first place.

Yet centuries later, here they were, still fighting to carry out that simple task. The Jewel existed because of a wish, and the only way to destroy it was to wish for it not to exist. But greed and hatred, lust and human weakness made the fulfillment of that wish a seemingly-complicated matter.

In the same way, the seal she had made was both simple and complex. It was born from a basic feeling, which, when distilled down to its components, was a tangled mess of thought, experience, and instinct.

Last night, she hadn't inferred the seal's shape from the collection of its parts. Maybe that was possible, but it would have taken a lot longer for her to figure out. Instead, as she'd held it within the grasp of her reiki, she'd decided to travel back in thought to the beginning: from the first time she'd laid eyes on Sesshoumaru up until that very moment at his side.

Gradually, under the lens of memory, the form of her enchantment had come into focus. She'd seen it finally for what it was—for what she had been. Over the course of her relationship with Sesshoumaru, she had changed, and last night she had seen it all—what was and, more importantly, what wasn't. The difference had sent her reeling.

For all practical purposes, her end of the bargain was over. Tonight, she would remove the seal, and he would have his arm back and be out of her life. Just like she'd always wanted, right?

Kagome huffed, blinking past the sting in her eyes.

She hadn't slept a wink after he'd left, nor eaten anything at all today. The truth was that she wasn't ready for things to be over between them. Funny she should realize that now, here at the end.

There was still so much about him she didn't understand. She'd thought she'd have more time to figure him out under the pretense of breaking the seal, but that wasn't meant to be. To her, it all felt so sudden and incomplete—like a story ending before it really began.

It was her own fault for being so curious and for forming attachments so easily. But she was, and she had. And now it was over. She would go back to studying and hunting for Jewel Shards (hopefully), and he would go back to…well, whatever it was he did as Lord of the Western Lands.

Preparing herself as best she could, Kagome turned and exited the cave. She wasn't the least bit surprised to see him already standing out there in the darkness, at the edge of the woods.

"Sesshoumaru," she said, trotting up to him with the lantern. "You're still not wearing your armor?"

His patterned white haori and hakama were whole and unblemished once more, his yellow obi now wrapped directly above his clothing with Tokijin and Tenseiga tucked through at the hip. He was still an imposing sight, to be sure, but without the heavy armor, he seemed strangely exposed.

"It was destroyed yesterday in the course of battle," he answered, looking at her narrowly. "Are you attempting to detain me with questions, miko?"

"No," Kagome said, bristling. "It just struck me as weird, that's all."

"Hn."

With that he turned, leading her into the wilderness surrounding the village. A clearing came into view a short distance in. The moment they stopped there, Sesshoumaru began to roll up his sleeve.

"Wait," Kagome told him as she set down her lantern on a flat rock. "That's not really necessary…"

He glanced at her sharply. "What are you saying? Did you not swear you would end the curse tonight?"

"Yes, but…" Wringing her hands nervously, she took a few steps closer. "Listen, Sesshoumaru…last night I realized what had caused the seal to form. Kikyou told me something important a few days ago: she said that the key to placing a seal is also the key to removing it, or—I don't know—something like that. A-anyway," she continued hastily, noting the thinning of his lips, "what I'm trying to say is that none of this poking and prodding really matters one bit. The answer's been inside my brain this whole time, though I don't think I've been capable of using it until now…"

"And why is that?" he asked briskly, arching a dark silver brow. "What has changed?"

Well now, she thought with a crooked grin, that is the question, isn't it?

She began to step forward again.

"When I created the seal all those months ago, it was because you had me cornered and scared to death. My fear of you was what set the seal and kept it in place." She shook her head. "But all that's over now."

She stopped before him, a wistful smile tugging at her lips.

"I'm not afraid of you," she said softly, reaching up and cupping his cheek. "Not anymore."

His golden eyes widened as a subtle tremor of power rippled through the air. The latent reiki in his stump dispersed like mist.

The seal she had placed upon him was broken.

With a short sound of pain, Sesshoumaru fell to his knees, clutching at his left shoulder. Panicked, Kagome crouched down beside him, her hands fluttering over his.

"Sesshoumaru!" she said in distress. "Sesshoumaru, what's wrong? Oh god…"

Youki swirled around the remains of his left arm in an electric storm of black and green. Demonic energy cracking sharply against her skin, Kagome released him and rocked back on her heels. One hand rose to cover her mouth. It was like his whole aura was pouring out!

Before her eyes, the stump started to change. The skin at the base split open in a bright red gash. To her horror, something white began to peek out, and she whimpered low in her throat, thanking every deity she'd ever heard of that her stomach was currently running on empty. Hazarding a look at Sesshoumaru's face, she saw that his jaw was locked tight, his eyes screwed shut in obvious agony.

The white thing, she could tell now, was bone. As it lengthened, new flesh followed in its wake, and Kagome watched as muscle, vein, nerve and skin knit slowly outward from the opened stump. The sight of it all growing back together again was the most gruesome and amazing thing she'd ever seen.

By the time his left hand formed, she was leaning forward again, peering close in fascination. Around the tips of his finger bones, the spreading flesh sealed, pale and smooth. From the tops of his new fingers, claws sprouted, tapering into fine ivory points half an inch or so out from his skin.

Unable to resist, she brushed her own fingertips over his, eliciting a reflexive twitch. His hands were beautiful, really—strong yet slender, delicately yet dangerously clawed. She stroked the back of his hand, feeling the fine bones underneath, knowing that they were stronger than the toughest steel.

Her gaze traveled up his wrist, past his elbow to the place where his arm had been severed by Tessaiga—or at least, where she thought it had been. The muscle below his shoulder was perfectly formed, the skin above it seamless. She could see no outward indication that he had ever been missing a limb.

Now at last, her task was complete. Her friends were safe, and she was free.

Dismally, Kagome sighed.

Her eyes strayed again to his face, her spine going rigid when she saw that he was staring back. For someone who had just regenerated an arm out of the blue, he didn't seem particularly thrilled. In fact, he looked downright murderous.

Realizing she was still touching his hand, Kagome withdrew, scrambling to her feet. Of course he wouldn't want her prodding at his new appendage. Maybe it was sensitive, or maybe he just didn't appreciate being treated like a petting zoo.

"Sorry!" she said, clasping her hands before her as she ducked her head contritely. "I was just, well, amazed. It's not every day I get to see an entire arm grow back."

When she glanced up again, she saw that he had also risen from the ground, a deep frown etched across his stony face. His expression was dark as he contemplated his new set of claws.

"So," he said to her eventually, in a tone that had gooseflesh rising on her skin, "you say that you are not afraid of this Sesshoumaru…"

He glared over at her, eyes coppery with the hue of blood. He flexed his stiff fingers, knuckles cracking as he tested them, his translucent claws long and deadly sharp, poised like talons as he turned and stalked slowly toward her.

"You should be."

Kagome paled, retreating a step, her hands rising before her in what she hoped was a placating gesture. "Sesshoumaru, hold on…let's talk about this for a second—"

"There is nothing to discuss," he cut her off savagely. "I agreed to spare the lives of your companions. I said nothing about your own."

"What…" she breathed in hurt and confusion. Her foot stumbled a little over a jutting rock. "Why…why do you want to kill me? I-I helped you restore your arm…" She looked at him in anguish, her voice breaking as it fell. "What have I done to you, to deserve this?"

Her back hit something hard behind her—a tree, she guessed—and he closed the distance, his clawed hand curving around her neck. She could still breathe normally, but if he applied any more pressure, she'd be in trouble.

"What have you done," he repeated in a low, scathing voice, bringing his red eyes level with hers. "You…have ruined me!"

His grip tightened, and she gasped, "Please! I don't understand…"

But he wasn't about to enlighten her, apparently. The smooth magenta stripes on his cheeks had grown jagged, his pupils shrinking to slits of black. Her hands clutched at his wrist in an attempt to convey her desperation, but it was like trying to reach through stone.

"A quick death…I can give you that at least…" His voice had deepened to a gravelly rumble, his lips peeled back, exposing his elongated fangs. "For your cooperation…"

Her lungs were struggling now to draw breath, but still she wasn't afraid. Only sad. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes as she threaded her fingers through the ones grasping her throat.

"Sesshou…maru…please…"

She wasn't pleading with him so much as for him. Because, deep down, Kagome sensed that this wasn't what he wanted to do.

Sesshoumaru's hold loosened.

His fingers slid down to the base of her neck as she choked, swallowing down entirely too much air. Through her blurred vision, she could see that his markings had returned to their normal shape, but his gaze was still bloody and fierce, shadowed by some sentiment she still didn't comprehend.

"Weak…" Sesshoumaru said in a bitter snarl as his hand moved lower down her front, settling at last on her hip in a firm clasp.

When he pressed the length of his body against hers, realization dawned at last.

"Just like him," he rasped against her neck.

His lips parted again, fangs grazing her skin as his tongue ventured out to taste her. Kagome sucked in a breath of shock. She gripped his shoulders, her heart hammering erratically beneath her ribs.

This…this can't be happening!

But it was. The hand not holding her hip—the hand that she had helped bring back into existence—was now smoothing down and over her long sleeve, slipping between them to grasp at her covered breast. Overwhelmed, she trembled at the contact, pushing futilely against him.

"Sesshoumaru, stop…"

She wasn't prepared for this. She'd only just had her first kiss, for Kami's sake! And this was Sesshoumaru—the same guy who mocked Inuyasha's relationship with Kikyou at every turn and made no secret of his contempt for humankind.

And now his fingers were pushing up the hem of her skirt.

"…Stop!"

He isn't going to.

"Sesshoumaru…!"

He isn't listening.

Something hard was jabbing against her stomach. He buried his face in the juncture of her neck and shoulder, growling her name.

"Kagome…"

No! her mind screamed in denial of her physical response. This isn't right…This isn't how it's supposed to be!

Her thoughts were a whirlwind of confusion and uncertainty. Hooked in the thin band of her underwear, his claws pulled back, the torn elastic snapping against her hip with a whip-crack sound, startling her into action.

As his thumb swept in an arc over her inner thigh, she brought her hands down against his chest, a steely glint in her eyes. Reiki surged within her, more white than pink as she channeled it down her arms with blinding, unthinking speed.

"Sesshoumaru, STOP!"

His head jerked up as her spiritual energy slammed into him unchecked, his eyes clearing from red to gold in the dazzling blast of light. The force of it threw him back across the clearing, where he collapsed to the ground.

Panting, Kagome hunched over, bracing her palms against her knees. As her adrenaline high faded, she noted the depletion of her reiki, the smell of scorched flesh that filled the air. Slowly, she raised her watery eyes to the other side of the clearing.

No…Sesshoumaru...

He wasn't moving.

Straightening, she staggered over to his still form, rolling him onto his back. His eyes were closed, his unarmored chest a mass of smoking black. There had been nothing between them, nothing to absorb her attack but the daiyoukai himself. All of her reiki…all of it had coursed through him.

"No," she whispered brokenly, cradling her face in her hands. "What have I done…?"

AN: So ends Part One of this story! Liking it so far, I hope? What do you guys think is going to happen now? ;)

I so love & appreciate hearing your feedback! Special shout-out to the anonymous reviewers, who I can't message to thank. I sincerely value and appreciate your comments and support. :)

By the way, in case you're interested, I've posted several other fics since the last update, some of which are only on Dokuga (i.e., explicit). Check my profile for more info!