A/N: Guys, check out the cover art commission for Transcendency by Naz. It's so beautiful I cried! (T_T) Thank you sooo much! *sobbing as I melt to the ground* I never expected it to turn out so perfect! Take note of the amber-colored ribbon on Kagome's hand. *uhuhuuuu*

Onna- woman

Steppe- a large area of unforested grassland

Seppuku – the act of committing suicide to preserve one's honor

Nagajuban - Kimono-shaped inner robe underneath a kimono

To See the Hidden

"What do you see?"

Sesshomaru's voice, although cold and without emotion, sounded laced with a certain degree of concern. Kagome had been standing before the large steppe rooted in place for a considerable amount of time. They had been walking for two days now, and the sudden stop in momentum irked the warlord. It was about time that they moved.

"Onna."

Kagome's eyes darted from Sesshomaru, then to Miroku, then to Ayame.

She steadied herself. "What do you see?" she asked, in a tone trying hard not to offend. She earned a sigh of frustration from Miroku, and Ayame muttering "why so cryptic," but Sesshomaru scanned the overview quietly, carefully deciding what to say next.

"Before us is a large steppe, it is empty and the grass growing only seems to be ankle-deep. I can see the other end." Sesshomaru tilted his head towards Kagome. Miroku stepped forward.

"This is the same steppe that seemed to swallow the first half of our cavalry whole. Same one that possibly triggered that Akuma ambush. Seeing the edge, it's a thirty-minute trek. Ojou-chan?"

Kagome stepped back, apprehension in her vermilion eyes. "Is there any way we could... fly over it?" she hesitated.

"Fly?" The corner of Ayame's mouth twitched up in humor. "Kagome-chan, why would you want to fly?"Ayame cast her glance again on the peaceful, empty valley before them, then back to their strange companion. She noticed the tight clutch she had against her yukata.

"It doesn't matter," The bandaged girl muttered, stepping back.

Electric blue eyes scanned the are before her in disbelief. So they were seeing a valley. Before her was a great depression carved on the earth, heavily carpeted with those endless violet flowers. Inside that hole was an Akuma nest. Integrated in an Akuma Colony.

Kagome thought hard on her next words. "There is danger." she winced at how dramatic it came out.

"Kagome-chan, you sound like that crazy old 'prophet' at the side of the mar-" Ayame felt a painful stab on the ribs- it was Kagome's elbow. She was glaring at her, Ayame glared back.

"There was a way," Miroku cast a worried glance at Sesshomaru.

"Was?" Kagome countered.

Miroku nodded. "There was a way... we could fly, I mean. But we wont risk it." He stood back and supported his chin on his hand, in deep thought.

"I still can leap." Sesshomaru suddenly said. Without turning to them, "I can see the edge of the clearing. I still can leap to the edge."

"Sesshomaru, are you sure-" Miroku was cut short when he noticed amber eyes narrowed on him.

"We are wasting time standing here idly." Sesshomaru dismissed. "I shall transform."

Kagome watched stunned as the beautiful warlord undid his high ponytail, platinum white hair spilling like a cascade of snow in the sun, blinding her eyes temporarily. When her vision came to, her eyes flew wide and she was left slack jawed.

He was undoing his kimono. The armor and haori were the first items to go.

Kagome couldn't find the restraint to tear her eyes off the scene before her. His back muscles rippled beautifully as he slid his nagajuban off, baring a well-structured, muscularly lean vision that left her throat dry.

She stared mesmerized when he started undoing the ties of his hakama. The garment slid down, hanging dangerously on the rise of his hips, threatening to fall off if he suddenly let go.

Kagome gulped at the sight of white curls staring to flourish as her eyes wandered lower.

Sesshomaru suddenly paused.

Amber eyes met blazing vermilion.

"I see you are enjoying the free show." his bored voice suddenly droned, snapping Kagome back to reality.

"Huh?" she answered dumbly, before she realized her state of blankness.

Turning to her other companions, she realized Miroku and Ayame had been standing with their backs turned away from the stripping male, they had been respectful and gave him due privacy he so very well deserved.

And she, on the other hand...

Kagome was thankful she was covered up in bandage or else everyone had seen she was as red as a fire tree. She didn't even bother to look back at the warlord and she melted to the grass in shame.

"Hn." She heard him chuckle as he let go of his last items of clothing and set it carefully aside.

As the girl sulked and wallowed in embarrassment, a weird sound distracted her, like a pop, and a snapping, such as one breaks twigs for a fire. Kagome paused, her ears straining to decipher that unfamiliar sound.

It echoed again, and Kagome tilted her head towards the source. It seemed to be coming from Sesshomaru's direction. Her curiosity got the best of her and she turned around.

It really was him, much to her horror, and that popping and grinding was the sound of his bones breaking and stretching. His face contorted into a fanged grimace as his body was reconstructing itself.

He was morphing into the colossal white inu that saved her from the lake three years ago.

They stared at the towering inu before them, his snow-white fur bright under the day, great amber eyes peering down at them majestically. Kagome marveled at the beautiful creature before her. She was only as big as his paw. Eyes filled with child-like wonder she reached out to test the feel of the fur of his muzzle in her hands. The white inu pulled back haughtily.

"Oh," Kagome faltered, "sorry." Then, she inspected with concern. "Will you be alright, Sesshomaru-sama?" She recalled the grimace on his face and the sound of bones twisting and snapping. The prideful inu ignored the girl, his floppy ears twitching in reflex.

"He will be," Miroku answered on his behalf. "It is when he morphs back into human that he will need time to recover from the broken bones and abnormal stretch. But he heals faster than youkai."

With that the great inu bent his front legs down and tilted sideways, allowing them access to his back. Miroku assisted Ayame, holding his armor and clothes, climbed up, holding on to the white fur himself and with great ease heaved his person up. Miroku offered an assisting hand down to Kagome.

She took his hand. "We all ready?" Ayame inquired, and Kagome, steadying herself at the back of the inu, spoke.

"Wait," the bandage-covered girl closed her eyes, the group patiently waiting for her signal. She breathed out heavily, brows meeting in intense concentration. "I will be cloaking. I need all of you to come in contact with me."

Kagome felt Ayame's hand on her waist, and Miroku's bracing her arm.

"Sesshomaru-sama, forgive my intrusion of privacy," Kagome's vermilion eyes opened in apology, a hand hovering over his silky fur. Sesshomaru nodded as a signal to ahead, and the girl gently placed her hands on his fur, and pressed her body against him.

The moment Kagome came in contact with Sesshomaru, a curious warmth spread over her.

She was hearing the rhythm of his heart, loud and thunderous, beating against hers.

It took all her willpower not to fall into the lull of his life energy. "Alright," she finally said. "We are hidden." Kagome felt a gentle wind run against them, followed by a sudden burst. The great inu broke into a run, and she felt his muscles tense beneath her and he sprung into a great leap.

The white scarf concealing her hair came out flying away, unbound ebony strands exploding in a magnificent contrast against the inu's snow white hair.

The firmness of his muscles, the silken strands of his hair,

and the gentle, familiar stirring to her soul wrapped the girl in an overwhelming warmth as they leaped that great distance.

Kagome pressed closer to the white inu, not even bothering to open her eyes.

"Wow."

Ayame marveled at the landscape before them, at the vast stretch of barren land and sand dunes. "Just... wow."

"Asphodel never ceases to amaze me." Miroku commented as he held his wife's hand. "Sesshomaru, who would have thought there would be a desert in the middle of-" Miroku stilled as his eyes fell upon the amber-eyed warlord.

He was standing beside Kagome, watching her quietly with such intensity as she was obliviously studying the landscape before them.

"We are alright to proceed," Kagome ran her fingers through her now unbound ebony hair. "I don't sense anything anomalous," she scanned the terrain before her. It was nice to know that they were seeing a desert landscape. Kagome almost felt cheated as she only saw another vast field of violet flowers.

Sesshomaru's eyes followed her fingers as they sifted through her waist-length strands. Miroku's mouth threatened to curve upwards.

"Then what are we waiting for?" he tugged Ayame with him, Kagome and Sesshomaru following at a distance. Miroku thought the girl wanted to stay beside the warlord as he walked slower than usual, because of the broken bones.

"Why are you smiling?" Ayame whispered to the Faery warlord. Her husband only shook his head in negation, but he could never deny his wife. Using their bond, he spoke mentally to her.

'I think your strange little onna has captured our inu's attention.'

"So," Ayame fiddled with her fingers as they were walking through the dry sand. "Tell us more about yourself." She gave Kagome a sidelong glance, the girl's unnatural poly chromatic eyes meeting hers.

"Eh, about me? Uhm..." Ayame saw the internal struggle she put the girl in. Ever since Miroku mentioned to her about Sesshomaru's curiosity she couldn't help but steal glances at her warlord, trying to catch little nuances to his usual reactions. And indeed, such was there.

His eyes flickered sideways to the petite girl, so subtly it would have gone unnoticed.

But not to Ayame. She had been his lieutenant for fifty years, and reading his slightest reactions were an essential to her job.

Plus she was his friend. But Ayame also considered herself Kagome's friend. And there arose her conflicting emotions. She knew Sesshomaru. The loyal, protective, perfect Sesshomaru.

She also knew the lust-driven, vindictive, selfish Sesshomaru. At least the only thing not worrying her was the un-heated secret gazes he was throwing at the girl. He was curious, which was something new.

"I... my brother owns an inn?" Kagome then smiled fondly at the thought of a fuming, flustered Fumiko if he heard her words. "I mean, we own an inn. The name's The Apple Tree." she said with certainty.

"Oh, so you know how to cook?" Miroku perked up. "You should have said so! We've been striving on Ayame's drivel for days on e-" the fairy warlord dodged a sucker punch from his wife.

"I don't see any problem with Ayame's cooking," Kagome laughed. "But yes, I can cook."

Miroku grimaced. "No problem?! Maybe no problem for you-" he stopped further as Ayame gave him a glare that could command any soldier to commit seppuku. "I am just amazed at your tolerance, Ojou-chan. It's as if you can stomach anything. Even Sesshomaru wouldn't dare to eat those black wood-shavings Ayame calls rice."

"Anyway," Ayame rolled her eyes, steering the topic away from her cooking skills. "You own an inn. But the innkeeper is a fox youkai, as far as I recall. Does that make you a fox too?"

Kagome's glance then fell on the ground as they were walking. "I don' t know what I am." she said it so quietly that only the stoic warlord beside her had heard.

"Ah.," Ayame continued, unfazed by her lack of answer. Kagome turned to Ayame, smiling brightly as if the question did not even happen. "You grew up owning an inn? What else?"

What else, Kagome pondered. They knew her but did not. She had an obsessive, overprotective fake brother that treated her as if she was a walking glass figurine? That his fox fiancee had the same obsessive tendencies towards her?

That what Miroku said was right, she had a stomach of steel: she can tolerate anything, edible or non-edible? (as evidenced by her eating that poisonous dish Fumiko had experimented on when he was creating the inn's menu, it put five of the servants into a season-long coma)

That she had a compellingly strong, unexplained aversion to rain?

That right now her mind interpreted the environment around her differently?

Kagome hesitated. Aside from her life after she fell into the lake, she had nothing she could talk about.

Someone suddenly grabbed her by the wrist. Surprised, Kagome looked up, only to be met by Sesshomaru's scrutinizing amber eyes.

"Where are your shoes?" he asked, his grip like an iron vice.

The group halted as their focus zeroed in towards the girl's feet. They realized it was bare and dirty.

"Ah," Kagome squirmed, uncomfortable at all eyes on her. "I lost it since the Akuma attack back at camp. We started with our trek immediately I didn't even realize I had nothing on my feet."

Ayame gaped. "You've been walking barefoot the whole time?"

"It's alright, the flowers are soft-" Kagome slapped a hand over her mouth, catching herself barely. Ayame's brow shot up in confusion.

"The what is what?"

The wind suddenly shifted direction, and the familiar whispering suddenly filled Kagome's senses. The flowers, this time, seemed to move. Her eyes darted overhead. Something big jutted from the hill before them, and Kagome realized it was not stationary.

It was burrowing towards them.

Instinctively Kagome stepped back, alarming the rest of the group. The tunneling protrusion suddenly multiplied and became two, and as it neared, it started circling around them, breaking the earth with a spiny prominence that jutted out of the carpet of flowers.

"Uh, I guess I'm not the only one seeing this?" Kagome squeaked, leaning closer and closer to her companions as the circle wound tighter. They were against each other's backs now as the ground shook violently. She watched as they drew their swords in a protective stance.

"No," Ayame confirmed, but she pointed to the sky. "You're seeing it right, Kagome-chan. Harpies."

"Harpies?" Kagome quavered, and much to her dismay, aside from what was going on underneath them which seemed to go unnoticed , was a flock of half-woman, half-avian monsters swooping down towards them.

A/N:

Summary: They are able to pass safely across the mysterious steppe. She finally sees Sesshomaru in his Inu form: his transformation is with painful consequences. She is also reacquainted with the warmth of his soul. Kagome's quirks: she has a stomach that can tolerate anything, she has an unexplained hatred towards rain, she gravitates towards Sesshomaru's warm soul, and she hates to be the center of attention. Sessh is starting to warm up towards her. They are attacked by Harpies.