Chapter 9
So she followed him. For three days she followed him. Mostly she kept silent, but occasionally she would have a one sided conversation with the waddling figure. She was careful not to talk about her time or refer to Inuyasha in another way than a player in a story she was telling. She didn't want to give away any weakness or betray her friend's confidence. They were able to walk all day because the pace he was able to keep was slow, even for a human, but he did not seem to tire so they walked from sun up to when the sunlight faded so Kagome could not see to walk. Since Sesshomaru claimed not to need sleep ("currently", whatever that meant) he kept watch at night. Kagome insisted that he stay near her so that she could be woken and defend against any intruder with her bow and arrow. In this way, and a dozen similar instances, they learned to compromise and negotiate their peaceful coexistence.
Only once did a lesser youkai show up to attack them. Kagome shot it without any fuss. However, she did notice that the demon lord became very stiff and cold after the incident. Kagome figured his pride was eating dirt as it was so she didn't mention the attack or his mood change. She tried to think of something she could do to improve his mood, make him feel better, anything to help. Then she remembered her mother's advice and left him to his bad mood. Eventually she began rambling about something completely random, retelling a story she had had to read for her Japanese literature class, so that she would let it go, too. Her mother was right – men were brooders and women were fixers. It lead to many conflicts in a variety of relationships. Sometimes there was nothing a woman could do for a man and she should just let him brood. This was one of those times. Let's here it for peaceful coexistence!
She spent the days observing him as much as he observed her. She watched him try to secretively watch her. It might have worked better in his original body, with those small, almond shaped eyes, as it was those huge, bulbous eyes, that sat atop his head gave every glance away. That was what she had giggled at as she was falling asleep the first night with him. He had tried to look at her out of the corner of his eye, but with those eyes there were no corners. He just looked strange with his head turned away but his eyes obviously on her.
For her part she watched the body language and listened to the tones of his infrequent utterances and more frequent grunts. She assumed this use grunts was a basic inu trait since Inuyasha used a variety of non-words to communicate so frequently. She used her knowledge of Inuyasha as a starting point and went from there. She would never say it to either brother but they were shockingly similar. The borrowed body made observing the body language easier. He did things out of habit, without even thinking about it, but in the diminutive form the movements didn't come out right, little things became big movements, lack of proper part (like eyebrows and forehead) distorted and exaggerated once subtle expressions. She had formed a good basis for his communication system with the help of his unfortunate condition and she assumed they would follow him back to his larger body, just regaining their almost hidden nature.
It was on their fifth day together, around midday when she decided it was time to get some more information from him. She had let it go because she had figured it would be a decent length trip and she could get details as she traveled but so far he had shared very little. She knew the circumstances around the incident that left him this way but that was it – and it was not enough.
"Lord Sesshomaru, what more could you tell me about your situation?" She asked offhandedly as they crested a hill and paused to look down the path that led down into a wide-open meadow.
He was standing next to her and looked up at her. She was looking at the flowers as if her question was unimportant but she had been exuding tension all morning and he, and every creature for the past several kilometers, knew that she was building up her courage to ask him her question.
She couldn't keep her poker face on, she looked down at the little creature beside her to with pleading in her eyes. She was surprised when she saw his mouth open to reply to her. She hadn't thought it would be that easy. Then her surprised doubles as his mouth hung open and he tottered back and forth. He started turning his head back and forth but that only seemed to disorientate him more and he fell to his knees.
"Lord Sesshomaru, what's wrong? What's happening?" She knelt beside him but did not dare to touch him. "What's –"
He croaked out, "Same. Dizzy." He fell completely to the ground unconscious.
She was confused. As with many a case of panic she began searching fervently around for the answer she was looking for to magically appear in front of her.
For once it did. And it even greeted her. "Kagome. I should have known he would have recruited you into this little odyssey of his."
