Warnings: None

Daughters of Destiny

Chapter 10:

"A Moment's Respite"

Kaede—lone eye watchful and shrewd—didn't remove her clothes, even though that's what she'd bidden us to do when we entered the bathhouse. She looked mostly at me, eyes flickering only occasionally toward Kagome as we undressed. But that silence wasn't unusual. She'd said all of eight words to us since we got back to the village and found her waiting.

"Your friend," Kaede had asked halfway through our walk to the bathhouse. "Is she—?"

"Mute," I'd blurted. "And, um. Very shy."

She'd nodded, and said nothing more.

The bathhouse had been built over a natural hot spring, wooden walls and roof protecting natural stone-ringed pools set into the hard earth. We undressed in a sort of locker room, full of benches and baskets of discarded clothing, hiding our nakedness behind roughly woven cloths Kaede handed to us. She led us out of there and through a doorway, to the edge of a huge pool halfway shaded by an overhanging roof. A few bathing girls looked up when we passed through the flaps protecting the door, but they did not speak.

"I thought we could talk someplace privately," Kaede said. To the girls she added, with a flap of her wrinkled hands, "Shoo, ye flighty things. Shoo!"

The girls tittered, gathering themselves and exiting with scornful looks at Kagome and I. Kagome clung to my side, keeping me between herself and Kaede whenever possible, face either downcast or pressed into my shoulder blade. She clutched our discarded kimonos to her chest, and when Kaede reached for them, Kagome shrunk in on herself like a kicked dog.

Not that I blamed her. I knew the fear of being recognized by someone you'd rather avoid—and the fear of introducing modern textiles to an era in which they didn't belong, on top of that.

"Oh, um," I said, gesturing at our clothes. "We'll do the washing ourselves."

Kaede eyed the filthy, muck-stained garments in Kagome's arms. "If that be ye wish. But we will gladly wash them for you. Our village owes ye a debt of gratitude."

My cheeks burned. "I'm sure that's not true."

"Aye, but it is. I know the depth of your bravery. When the lantern paper disappeared, I dispatched scouts to search for it. One of the men came upon a young girl addressing the foul demon who had stolen the loot." She pointed at Kagome, brow and chin lifting. "Your friend there. I know she can speak."

Kagome's eyes bugged; she let out a frightened "Eep!" However, Kaede merely laughed, sound like a rough wind through rougher trees.

"Fear not, child," she said, smile turning kindly as she gazed at what, to her, looked like a frightened child. "We mean ye no harm."

Kagome, of course, just ducked her face again, probably fearing the terrible moment Kaede would recognize her too early in Inuyasha canon—but that moment hadn't come yet, and I was beginning to wonder if it ever would. Kikyo had been older than Kaede, after all. Kaede had never seen her older sister as a child. It was possible she wouldn't recognize Kagome until Kagome hit puberty and reached the age Kikyo had been when she died.

Still, though.

Keep ducking you head, girl, and hide that telltale face whenever you can.

"I apologize," I said, because alienating a kindly canon ally was a Bad Idea. Mind racing, I came up with the best excuse I could on short notice. "She isn't mute. But she is shy. That was no lie." I forced myself to look ashamed. "And I thought it would be easier, would offend you less, if you thought she couldn't speak."

Kaede, bless her, was the practical sort. "It matters not," she said, shaking her graying head. "We owe ye a debt, so all is forgiven."

"Thank you."

Although the hot spring's steam bore the faintest whiff of sulfur, my sore muscles cried out in pleasured agony when I dumped a bucket of water over my head, scouring the dirt and slime from Kurama's plant from my skin so as not to contaminate the spring. After we washed Kaede ushered us into the water. Kagome wasted no time and paddled toward the sunlit half of the pool, far away from Kaede at the pool's edge. She crouched in the water, vapor, distance, and the light glaring off the spring obscuring her features. Her black hair pooled around her like octopus ink spilled in the ocean's shallows. A tall red fence behind her obscured the pool from the village proper; I heard the rattle of carts and the hum of voices beyond the wall, excitement about the upcoming o-bon festival renewed after the return of the village paper.

Looks like we'd done a good deed for the village, after all.

I stayed close to the spring's edge near Kaede, sinking into the water until it rose to my chin. Kaede sat on an overturned bucket, lowering herself to it with a groan and a creak of arthritic muscle. I felt her eyes on me the way one feels a crawling spider, though of course she didn't mean me any ill. I'd never quite gotten over my American shame of nudity, even after growing up in Japan and countless visits to the local bathhouse with my parents.

"What are your names?"

I tried not to flinch, even though the question made me feel more naked than my lack of clothing. "She's Sakura. I'm…Ayame."

Shit. Of all the names to pick, right? Lucky for me Kaede had no reason to connect my name to that dour grim reaper of Yu Yu Hakusho. She merely nodded at us, looking from Kagome to me in turn. "Sakura. Ayame. Welcome to our village." Her stare had a point to it. "Scarcely had you set foot in it did you fight on its behalf."

"Well…it's a nice village."

"Indeed."

We traded a long look, her measured stare carefully expressionless. Too carefully expressionless, actually—the way Kurama looked when he sized me up, before the day I told him the truth about myself. If I had to guess, Kaede was trying to sense why two strange girls, travelling alone, had risked their lives for the paper of a village to which they did not belong. She suspected an ulterior motive, probably. Good thing for me I had none.

Kagome, however?

I couldn't speak for Kagome.

It was another good thing she'd paddled off, lest she give herself away under the weight of Kaede's stare.

"So," I said when the silence stretched too thin. I nodded toward Kagome. "You sent scouts to search for the paper. One of them saw her talking to the fox demon. And then?"

"And then the scout came back to the village and rallied others," Kaede replied. "And when the demon left its cave to give chase to the young girl, they took the paper back in his absence." Her eye narrowed, lips pursing in her withered face. "I have reprimanded them for leaving a young girl to a horrible fate."

I stared, and when her mouth crooked, I realized she was joking. A laugh ripped out of my mouth, born as much from surprise as from humor.

"They told me ye distracted the creature after that," Kaede said when my laughter died—and it died because her eye darkened, staring at me the way a surgeon sizes up the heft and weight of a bone. "They say ye somehow drew another demon into the fox's line of sight, and they did battle."

"That was…sort of an accident." I sank deeper into the water, wrapping my arms around my ribs. My words were true, even if they didn't tell the whole truth. "The fox demon, the one who stole the paper—he had an enemy. It was luck that we drew them together, and that they favored fighting each other over killing us." My mouth quirked. "But I've always had decent luck."

Had Kaede known my real name, perhaps I could've gotten her to laugh at that pun. Instead she appraised me for a moment, but her head dipped and she muttered, "I see." At that her voice took on an air of command, leader of the village instead of the old woman she appeared to be. Shoulders back and spine erect, she told me, "Be it by will of luck or skill, you have honored our village with your bravery."

I couldn't exactly bow while sitting down in a spring, but still I nodded in thanks. She rose from her perch on the bucket with a grunt, hand braced on the wooden wall of the bathhouse for support.

"Wash and dress," she said. "There is a feast waiting, and then the lantern ceremony of the summer's o-bon." Her imperious air lessened when she smiled. "Even if your ancestors do not lie at rest in our village, you must still pay your respects to those who gave you life."

"Of course," I said—and as she left the bath, I had to suppress a wry, anxious laugh.

Keiko's most direct ancestors hadn't even been born yet. I'd be paying fealty to as many unborn as I did the dead.

"Well," I said once Kaede passed through the flap covering the door. I turned and waded through the water to the wavy outline of Kagome's body in the steam, and in low, soft English I said, "We certainly lucked out there, Kagome. But what do you suppose—oh."

Kagome had fallen asleep.

She sat at the far end of the pool in a puddle of sun, leaning back against the spring's stony edge, eyes closed and breathing even. I sank low into the water and lay flat, fingers just brushing the bottom of the shallow pool. Careful not to splash as I glided through the waves, I hand-walked over to her and spun, settling silently against the wall at her side. Black hair clung to her skin in water-matted streaks before spreading atop the surface of the spring in a tangle of black threads. She murmured something, brow knitting more dark lines across her forehead; her head flopped to the side as she dreamed.

She looked completely innocent as she slept—like nothing more threatening than a little kid taking a nap in a warm spot, comforted and serene after a long and tiring day.

I knew better, though.

The bright, searing light that had come from her hands when the demon plants attacked told a different story—as did the deep voice that had not belonged to her, spilling from her mouth the way power spilled so easily from her skin.

What was that?

After we'd escaped the demons, Kagome had looked at me with fear in her eyes. I'd never seen her look so afraid, white ringing her irises completely, setting them adrift in a pale ocean of terror and uncertainty. "It happened before," she'd said when I asked her about the voice. "Back when I left you in the ravine, and—I'm so sorry I left you, Keiko, but I didn't want to. Really, that wasn't me!"

She'd looked too petrified to be lying, and that was sort of nice. If she hadn't been herself when she left me in the ravine, I could let go of the resentment still lingering in my chest. Something told me I needed to be there for her, not resentful, because she'd looked even more scared when I asked if she thought the person possessing her (because all signs pointed to just exactly that) might be the spirit of Kikyo. I mean, that made sense, right? Kikyo had holy magic, and that's what Kurama called Kagome's powers. Kikyo were connected on a fundamental level, so…ipso facto, Kikyo had possessed Kagome.

Yeah. That had to be what happened…didn't it?

Looking at Kagome's sleeping face, I reached out and brushed a lock of sopping hair from her forehead. She frowned and mumbled, head lolling to the side.

The thing was…Kagome wasn't the priestess reincarnated. She couldn't be the priestess reincarnated. She was from another world entirely, where Kikyo was just a character in a storybook.

Could these two characters still be connected, when their souls in this world had not been cut from the same cloth?

Truthfully? Fuck if I knew. This wasn't my canon. I'd only read the first two volumes of the manga and seen a handful of anime episodes. I wasn't qualified to parse this mystery in any meaningful way.

Still, though.

I had to at least try—for Kagome's sake.

I brushed another tangle of hair off her shoulder, fingers absent as I mulled over the day we'd had. Kagome sighed in her sleep and listed toward me, leaning her head on my shoulder. I pillowed my chin on her hair with a sigh of my own, blinking up at the sunlight streaming over the bathhouse's overhanging roof.

We had a lot to deal with, she and I. Best get over my hurt feelings and be there for her, here in the world of Inuyasha.

Stars knew I'd need her to be there for me when we returned to the world of Yu Yu Hakusho, and to the fox demon waiting for me within it.

Kurama.

Oh my dear sweet fucking Jesus, Kurama!

Just what the hell did today's disaster bode for my relationship with Kurama?

"…bot."

"Hmm?"

Kagome stirred, sleepy murmurs wafting warm breath against my dewy skin.

"Bot," she repeated.

Then, more forcefully: "Abbot!"

"Abbot?" I said.

"Abbot," she said—and then she fell quiet, a soft snore echoing off the rocks of the surrounding hot spring. I stared down at her, mouth working, but no sound came out.

Abbot. She'd definitely said "Abbot."

But who the heck was that?

Not that it mattered, probably. She was just sleeping—just dreaming, and dreams rarely made sense to anyone. I settled back against the edge of the spring with a sigh, combing at Kagome's tangled hair.

Best let her sleep a while, I decided.

We'd had a long day, and we both deserved a moment's respite.

NOTES:

The chapter with Youko and Sesshomaru was really long, but we're going to return to shorter bits now—which is a good thing since it's easier to update when the chapters are short, and that means more story for you, and faster.

I updated a month ago today. Will try to update again in a shorter time frame—let's say March 6th? Giving myself a date will hopefully get the ball rolling here.

Thanks so much to all those who reviewed the previous chapter! MyMidnightShadow, Saj te Gyuhyall, Dawn17, MissIdeoPhobia, Laina Inverse, xenocanaan, KaylaMarie517, mikklystar, Viviene001, Counting Sinful Stars, WaYaADisi1, ryafire1, buzzk97, Kaiya Azure, Anime Please Good, ahyeon, SesshomarusLuvr, GuestStarringAs, and a guest!