The moon was already starting its descent from the sky when Shiori finally fell asleep. Koga let out a sigh as he looked down at her. He had her curled up against him and tried talking about anything that he could think of to get her mind off crying. But nothing at all seemed to work for her.

But finally she was sleeping and he felt himself starting to tug off to sleep. As his blue eyes started to drift shut he let out a sigh. There was something different about this sleep. For the first time since Kagome turned away from him he felt at peace with the way his life was right now.

*IN DREAM*

Koga opened his eyes to find himself standing on a cliff that over looked the village where he first met Shiori. Looking down he saw the opening to the bat demon cave. "What the hell? How did I get here?"

"You are merely in a suspended state right now Koga."

Turning with a start his eyes went wide. There standing behind him was a bat demon. Whose scent clearly told him that he was Shiori's father. "Wait you are….."

Walking up to stand next to him as his eyes quickly found the home that Sahiko and Shiori lived in when she was born. And up until her mother's death. "Yes I am Shiori's father. I have come to you in your dreams to inform you of something that even Shiori doesn't know herself."

"What is that?"

His eyes closing as the wind blew his and Koga's hair nearly straight back. "Do you know of the powers that the bat demons of this region had?"

"Barriers."

"Shiori may be half demon, but just like it typically is, each new generation is stronger and has stronger powers than the one before them. It was the same with my family. I was able to make a stronger barrier than my father. Shiori a stronger one than myself."

"What is the point?"

"She still has the power to make the kind of barriers that she had when she thrust her grandfather out of the barrier they were in the day that Inuyasha killed my father. And she has the power to do much more than that with them."

His eyes narrowing Koga turned and faced him fully as he crossed his arms. "What is? You testing me to see if I will use her powers for my own personal gain or something? Sorry if I can't hack it on my own so be it. I don't need to use someone elses powers to do it."

With a smile Tsukuyomaru turned to Koga and shook his head no. "I am not worried about that with you Koga. But, I do know that you are training her. You have to train her how to use her barriers as well as to fight. Especially with Ichiro."

His eyes narrowing even more Koga growled. "What do you know about him?

His eyes now just as stern Tsukuyomaru starred at Koga for a moment as the sea wind whipped their hair around. "I know that he is going to find out what sort of ability that Shiori has. He is the kind that will do to her what the village did to her and use them against his enemies. And you. Tell me Koga, if he was to get ahold of her because you wouldn't be there one day, would you really be able to strike her down if he was using her as a shield?"

With a sigh Koga relaxed his eyes and closed them. He had a point. He wouldn't be able to hurt her no matter who she was being forced or tricked into protecting. "Good point. But I don't know anything about barriers?"

Looking down at the ground Tsukuyomaru smiled. "In the cave bellow us are scrolls that the bat demon tribe has kept for thousands of years. In them are ways to train to use not only her barrier powers but other powers that she inherited from me as her father."

"You don't really expect me to bring her back this close to the village that treated her like crap do you?"

"Not to stay and train. But to get the scrolls. Deep in the back of the cave is a hidden room. There is a rock that trips a door to open along the right wall about shoulder height for you. Once tripped it will trigger oil lamps to come on and reveal them all. Gather them and take them wherever you want to go to train her."

Koga nodded then looked back out over the sea. "So I guess you know what all has happened with Kagome and what not?"

"I have."

"She is the only reason why I have taken Shiori in to teach her how to live. It is what Kagome would have wanted to do. I will do the same."

With a knowing smile Tsukuyomaru smiled as he closed his pink eyes. He knew better. He knew that it wouldn't be long now before Koga started to get what was going on. His want to teach her to survive, to protect her from Ichiro and anything else. The want to see her eyes dry and a smile on her face is so much more than because it is what Kagome would have wanted. "And for that I am greatful."

*END DREAM*

His eyes flying open Koga was sweating and breathing heavy. It was just a dream. Or was it really? He rolled his head and his eyes went wide and blinked a few times. Sometime while he was sleeping Shiori had rolled and was now molded up against his body with her head on his shoulder. Their black hair swirled together above her head. 'Was it really just a dream or should I take it as something more?'

But something told him that it was so much more than a dream. Carefully he moved her head off his shoulder and sat up next to her with a sigh. 'But how is she going to take to the fact that we have to go back close to the village that obviously treated her like trash?'

X

Tsukuyomaru stood at the door of Koga's personal den. Now that she was with someone to protect her he couldn't stay there with her constantly. He saw the confusion on the wolf's face. But if he didn't train her then he wouldn't get close to her as fast as he needed. He had to make sure he knew that it wasn't just a dream that he had. For his daughter's sake.

With a sigh he charged Koga and his daughter. Letting his full energy run through Koga as one last time he laid his hand on Shiori's head. "Shiori." Then he was just gone.

X

Koga tensed as his eyes show wide open. It felt like someone ran straight through him but no one was there. Then he heard Tsukuyomaru's voice say Shiori's name. He turned and looked down at her as a single tear fell from a smiling face. 'I guess it wasn't just any dream. Soon as she is hanyoukai again we leave.'

His eyes never moving from her he sighed. He knew he was starting to care about her too much. But it could never be anything like Kagome. No one could ever replace her for anything. 'But this is what Kagome would have wanted me to do if she was still alive. So this is what I am going to do for you Shiori, for Kagome.'