Author's Note: Chapter dedicated to Alyson Metallium for being my 100th reviewer!!! Also, for complimenting my icon... Because of this, I finally put a slightly larger version of the art online, after creating a DeviantArt page. No, my art is not very good. Yes, it has a watermark over it, because I'm paranoid. I drew the picture for a scene in "The Challenge Posed." So, anyway...
I hope this chapter is not too bizarre. It drifted pretty far astream. Please review and let me know, if it went too far.
Shadowlands
Chapter 12: Perfect Healing
Oh Sesshoumaru! I hope we can undo the soul-bond, right away! Kagome's words echoed through his mind, once more. Each time the words circled through his thoughts, she sounded more insincere. It was easy to imagine stormy blue eyes, simpering at him, in a parody of comfort and encouragement. Before long, her original words began to vanish, and his mind rehearsed comments that she never made. Don't worry! Your half-brother will protect me instead of you. Isn't it wonderful? He is so much more powerful than you now...
All right. All right. This was not precisely what she said. Yet this was what she implied. Sesshoumaru was extremely frustrated, both with the priestess and himself. He felt more than justified for stalking off after their conversation. First she had been eager to break their bond. Then, she had tried to reassure him by stating that Inuyasha would protect her. In what way was that suggestion reassuring? It was insulting.
Worst of all, he had been able to tell that she did not mean any harm. Thus, he had been completely unable to be angry with her. Kagome had honestly been trying to comfort him, by stating he should not worry about her safety, because his half-brother, the mongrel, the reckless idiot, would take such good care of her without anyone else's assistance. It was enough to make his blood boil.
If they were bonded, then he was the one who should...
Damn it. His father had warned him once that he needed something to 'protect' before he could become a truly superb warrior. Sesshoumaru had been unable to understand his father's demand, for the longest time. After Rin and Kagura and Kagome, he started to comprehend it. But at the moment, he felt jealous, not protective. Was this what his father had been trying to convey as an important lesson? Surely not.
Disgusted by his own feelings, the taiyoukai tried to focus on the countryside around him instead. Fortunately, the Western Lands had not undergone significant changes in the past three years. Like before, not much maintenance was necessary. Patrolling the borders, he kept any violent, rogue youkai from encroaching. Unfortunately, the human population had skyrocketed in the last few years. Well, perhaps it had taken more than a few years. He had noticed their numbers increasing for a while now. The last three years seemed especially influential, though. A powerful warlord had taken control of the area, and ironically, the number of battles and skirmishes had dropped, because this man was interested in ruthlessly consolidating power, not allowing possible enemies to survive. Also, this leader in Kyoto had decided to destroy several local Buddhist sects. These militant Buddhist priests had been annoying Sesshoumaru for quite some time, so he was glad to know a human leader was willing to extinguish their influence on the political sector. Next time he killed an aggravating, youkai-hating priest, perhaps it would make him look more reasonable in the eyes of others. And there would be fewer priests and monks to incite fear in the commoners, against youkai.
Still, the last few days had been utterly boring. All he had to do was... exactly what he had always done. Wander around, annihilating unwanted demons that caused too much trouble in the area. Everything else ran itself. It was almost sad, the way the Western Lands had survived without him. Yet a house that was well-built did not fall apart due to the passage of time. His mother took care of the financial side of things. As well as almost everything else. Maybe he should not have spent so much of his youth aimlessly wandering the countryside, training and trying to improve his strength. What was the point in being strong, if there was no one to fight, because the political rulers never fought an outright war? Not that he wanted a war to break out...
Naturally, the more he searched for something to distract himself from Kagome, the less he could drag his mind away from the topic. For instance, that morning as he walked by a chain of rice-paddies, he overheard laughter in the fields. There had been a small dispute between two farmers, but a woman had settled the issue with a merry, ringing laugh, and he had frozen, immobile on the outskirts of the woods, listening to the sound. The woman did not look or smell much like Kagome, but their voices sounded similar, and it was enough to make him stop and notice her. In the same way, he sometimes noticed young girls around Rin's age - although they were unimportant in the grand scheme of things, his attention span had broadened. He could not go back to being the person that he had been before.
Once there were no more demons to fight, he circled the area again, slowly making his way back toward his half-brother's village. This did not mean that he was returning to the village, no. Simply that he could tell if he was heading in her direction or not. Another bad sign.
Kagome belonged to his half-brother. The only reason he had rescued her was to defy Naraku's will. But along the way he had become tied to her, in more ways than one, and now it upset him when he thought of the priestess with Inuyasha. People who endured a blood-bond or a soul-bond, they were deeply connected, right? But it seemed the hanyou could still come between them. After all, the only reason the priestess had agreed to his suggestion in the underworld, it was to save her life. Because she thought a blood-bond was temporary. She did not want to be tied to him forever. She had said as much.
Of course, there was nothing he could do about it at this point. All he could do was to barricade his heart and try very hard not to pay attention to any emotions he felt drifting through the bond, coming from Kagome. There was no need to know how pleased she felt about staying with Inuyasha. Apparently, the priestess had gained a bit of control, as well. After he told her about the possibility of shared emotions, she had studiously walled off access to her emotional state too. It was not too bad. At the moment, he felt almost like himself again, except for the piece of him that was... missing, somehow. But anger felt better than emptiness, so he clung to it, letting it curl comfortably around his heart.
"Sesshoumaru-sama!" From behind came the pitter patter of tiny webbed feet. Jaken was breathlessly panting as he covered the ground between them. He must have returned the papers and scrolls he had borrowed from the Western palace. "Sesshoumaru-sama! You were not in the village, so I asked the others where you had gone, and it has taken many days to catch up to you. I am sorry for not traveling more quickly, my lord!"
With a slight grimace, the taiyoukai chose not to reply. He had not missed having a sycophant companion for a few days. Worse, it made him think of Kagome (again), when the kappa mentioned returning to the village where Inuyasha lived.
He stared at the tiny green demon, unappreciatively. Finally, Jaken reached his spot on the road, and then slumped over, leaning on the staff he carried while breathing heavily. "It was a close thing, too - the hanyou and the priestess were leaving on a journey, right when I approached. If I had not, then I would be even farther behind... not that the half-demon's nose is as keen as your own, m'lord, of course... simply that..."
"Journey?" Sesshoumaru asked blandly, as if he was not interested at all.
"Yes, the demon-slayer, the monk, and the half-demon are often asked to perform exorcisms," agreed Jaken brightly. "It seems the priestess has recovered enough to join the team. She seemed ill after traveling so long in another world, you remember. But you were not afflicted by the journey, were you, Sesshoumaru-sama? Not that I think..."
Tuning out the endless stream of babble, the dog-demon turned away from Jaken. The kappa would simply speak for a while, and he would fall silent, when he eventually realized that his master did not reply. The little green demon needed to verbally express his relief upon finding Sesshoumaru, because he had believed the taiyoukai was dead for three years. Excessive, flowery speeches were a result of being away from him for so long, Sesshoumaru thought.
Meanwhile, he would have plenty of time to consider his newest dilemma. Inuyasha and Kagome. According to Kagome, the hanyou would guard her. But it still seemed unreasonable to place her in perilous situations. From what he could remember of his stupid brother's swordsmanship, this news made him very uneasy. Purposefully forcing the priestess into danger, facing demons, when he might not be the best defender... what was Inuyasha thinking? Obviously, he was not.
He was not concerned. Kagome had skill. She was not the sort of person to lay down and die in front of an enemy, without a struggle. Even if Inuyasha was incompetent. Which he was. Not that it mattered to him in the slightest. For one dizzying moment, he almost believed the lie, but soon he could not help noticing the direction in which he was traveling. Despite the fact that he had crossed the border of the Western territory, he was still heading toward the village that housed his half-brother's companions. And he was checking for traces of her scent on the breeze.
He would merely ensure her safety, Sesshoumaru thought. It was his responsibility; their lives were bonded. He could not leave the outcome completely up to fate, or in the hands of his half-brother.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"We'd get there faster," grumbled Inuyasha from ahead of her. He was acting surly. Arms crossed, the hanyou refused to look at her. "Don't see why it is a big deal, it was fine..."
"Before. I know." Never honestly explaining it, she tried to clarify her response. "But I feel like walking today."
The road stretched out before them, and she knew that he did not believe it. As the half-demon pointed out, riding piggy-back did not usually bother her. But in her opinion, it only occurred when the group was hurrying to arrive somewhere. Like when they were chasing Naraku. The current mission involved an infestation of low-level demons in a nearby town. There was no need to hurry, because the message had taken a long time to reach them. The youkai would not wreak more harm in the next few days, than they did in the past few months.
The real reason she did not accept the piggy-back ride, however, was that she did not want to snuggle with Inuyasha. He was being annoying. And as if he detected the change in her emotional state, he kept pressing the issue, staying close by her side. It was driving her nuts. She might blame her newly anti-social tendencies on the taiyoukai, but it did not change the way she felt. So, she wanted to walk. She was quite capable of walking!
After speaking with Sesshoumaru, she had returned to the village and informed the others of Sesshoumaru's departure. Rin had been extremely disappointed. Jaken was gone, while Rin had been forsaken in a human village, yet again, by her precious father-figure. True, she spent years under Kaede's tutelage. But she absolutely hated the fact that Sesshoumaru had returned to the world of the living, then departed without a word of goodbye.
Although Kagome was not as distressed as Rin, she felt terrible for chasing away the white-haired youkai. Even if they only spent three days together in the underworld, it seemed like more. Almost like her soul could remember aging for three years, while her mind did not. And once the dog-demon had vanished, the color had washed out of her world. It felt empty, dull, and gray. Was this the result of a soul-bond being stretched too thin? Maybe it was simply that she felt guilty about saying something to upset him? She wanted to understand what she had done wrong.
Furthermore, she had the same problem as earlier. Kagome wanted to act positive toward her friends. Especially Rin, since the young girl idolized Sesshoumaru. So, the priestess wore her calmest, happiest expression, while comforting Rin. And she purposefully downplayed the significance of the dialogue with Sesshoumaru. But her subterfuge did not fix anything. The Bone Eater's Well was still closed. She still felt slightly like an outsider, in a group of friends once tightly knit, because of the passage of years. She still hated the fact that Sesshoumaru left without fully explaining their bond, that she had made him angry somehow...
Gradually, her temper had frayed underneath the pressure. Escaping the confines of Miroku and Sango's hut one evening, she had rested on the slopes angling away from the village into Inuyasha's forest. There, crossing her legs, she had meditated. Carefully using her powers to build a barrier between herself and Sesshoumaru, she had regained an inner calm. No matter how far away the taiyoukai traveled, she could feel him like an itch at the back of her mind. But since he seemed to be able to suppress his feelings, she would do the same. It would be less annoying for both of them. The tranquility she rediscovered that evening was laced with apathy - a feeling of emptiness that she stubbornly ignored. She did not miss him. He had refused to listen to her and walked away. For heaven's sake, if they had an emotional 'bond' of sorts, then why couldn't he pick up on her situation too?
Inuyasha and Miroku were not blind. They both had picked up on her subtle signs of distress. But the one she usually conversed with was Sango, and her best friend was focused on a newborn baby. This was part of why Kagome tried so hard to remain happy around the others. The boy was only a few days old and required lots of attention.
In the end, when a visitor requested the services of demon-slayers, she had jumped at the chance to join the trip. She took Miroku's place on this journey, allowing him to stay home with his newest family member.
Then, the pair had encountered Jaken. At first, Kagome had been ridiculously pleased to see him scurrying back to the village. She thought it meant Sesshoumaru was not angry anymore, and he was returning to discuss the situation rationally. But no. Unfortunately, the kappa had no idea where his lord and master might be. Jaken only sought directions from a half-demon's sensitive nose.
Afterward, Kagome was practically beside herself with frustration. Not that she had any good reason for feeling so distressed. It was Sesshoumaru's business where he went, and when. Still, it was aggravating how much she wanted to see him again, considering how abruptly he had left.
Only one more day of travel, and they would be at their destination. As she prepared a fire, Inuyasha helpfully hunted down a rabbit to eat. He cleaned it, she set it over the flames, and they both relaxed, content to watch supper cooking. It felt a little bit like their very earliest days of traveling together, before Shippo had joined the group. Hah! That was a long time ago, Kagome thought. We've all changed so much since then.
After watching the rabbit for a minute or two, Inuyasha sighed. "I miss ramen," the hanyou noted sadly.
Kagome wrapped her arms around her legs. "Me too."
The half-demon began to fidget. It would not take much longer for the meat to cook, but she could almost sense anticipation pouring off of her companion in waves. Then, Inuyasha slowly moved around the fire to sit beside her. Kagome stared at him in puzzlement.
As it turned out, his impatience had nothing to do with the food. Strangely enough, she seemed to be the source of his trouble. One ear trained upon her form, Inuyasha plucked at the hem of his sleeves.
"Is everything...okay?" she asked at last, unable to stand the suspense.
Turning his head, white hair slid forward over his shoulders, as Inuyasha leaned forward to rest on his hands. He peered at her intently, and Kagome blinked. Then, the half-demon leaned even farther into her personal space, and she scooted to the side, trying to give him more room.
"What are you doing?" It seemed like a reasonable question. It had been a while since she traveled with only one other person in the party. But there was plenty of space around the campfire, so why would he need to sit right next to her, and lean toward... her... Oh. Oh, right. Wow. Hmm.
"... kiss you." It sounded like there was a frog in his throat, when Inuyasha finally managed to reply. She didn't hear most of the words either. It didn't matter though. Kagome had already figured out the answer by then.
Both of them blushed. Flustered and self-conscious, she glanced at their dinner, at tree branches, anywhere but at her friend. "I see."
This was not supposed to be so embarrassing, was it? She had waited forever to hear something like this, from Inuyasha. All the years he had spent chasing after Kikyou, she would have been more than happy to receive a kiss from her hanyou guardian. At the moment, however, it was the last thing on her mind.
"Just hold still, okay?" he instructed her.
She sputtered incoherently, desperately trying to protest this behavior without protesting too strongly, which would hurt his feelings. And hurting his feelings would be bad, because she still liked Inuyasha, didn't she? But she didn't want to... Oh. This was so embarrassing.
Holding very still, like a deer that had just realized it was being hunted, she froze up. When he took her face in his hands, though, she shifted uncomfortably. "Not right now."
Inuyasha's face fell, and he sat down again. His ears told a crystal-clear story, laid flat against his skull.
"Sorry," she soothed gently. "I can't bring myself to... Now's not a good time." Honestly, part of her wanted to kiss Inuyasha, just for the novelty of it, while the other half of her was totally unnerved by the idea, recoiling from it like a blow. She wondered what this said about her mental state, and whether she could blame this on Sesshoumaru too.
"Keh," scoffed Inuyasha halfheartedly. "Just testing something."
Naturally, this mystified her even more. "Testing what?"
"I hope," he continued forlornly, "We can still be friends." Once again, her companion was picking at his sleeves.
"Of course, we are friends!" Kagome protested immediately. Wide-eyed, she shook her head. If this was how he responded to rejection, then perhaps she should allow him to kiss her. She was not trying to make anyone miserable. "Inuyasha! Don't say weird things like that. Of course, we'll always be friends!"
He didn't answer. But it looked like he understood what she meant, even better than she did. A tiny smile flickered over his mouth, as he huffed and stared at the fire.
"You always have a way of finding trouble," he mused. Then, the smile grew. "Remember Shishinki? The first thing he did, upon seeing you, it was to attack you. Demon doesn't know who you were, and he doesn't care about the rest of us, but he stops in the middle of a battle with Sesshoumaru just to antagonize you." The careful emphasis her friend placed on his brother's name amused her.
Nodding to show she remembered that fight, she returned to her earlier position. It did seem odd that Sesshoumaru met up with Shishinki again, in another world. They all thought he had been defeated the first time, yet to hear the inu-youkai explain it, Shishinki had evidently outsmarted his enemies, one last time. Perhaps that was why Inuyasha chose this particular demon for an example of her talent at trouble-finding.
"What else did you two talk about?" the hanyou said bluntly, removing their food from the fire and dividing it into pieces.
Suddenly lost, she accepted a chunk of meat from the half-demon, as she contemplated what he might be asking. "You mean, what else did Sesshoumaru say?"
"Yea," Inuyasha interrupted gruffly. "You only explained that he's leavin' to buy a kimono and 'attend' to the Western Lands, whatever that means. What else happened?"
The blush that had gracefully receded from her cheeks started to return now. "What makes you think that..."
He did not allow her to attempt to deflect the question. Persistently, Inuyasha nudged her in the right direction. "Because you've been upset for days, and you keep looking over your shoulder like you can feel him or something."
Clearly, the hanyou had become more adept at reading other people's expressions over the years. Perhaps Miroku had influenced him, teaching Inuyasha how to ask pointed questions. When Miroku's tendency to ask intelligent questions combined with Inuyasha's tendency to never accept 'no' for an answer, she knew she could not avoid the issue. Really though, she had wanted to avoid this discussion for as long as possible.
With a sigh, she relented and began to explain about the soul-bond.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Stop!" shrieked Kagome. "Inuyasha! You're going to destroy the house."
The instant they had arrived in the village, her companion had become far too excited about battling youkai. It was supposed to be a simple job. Low-level demons, a type of insect, had crowded into the largest family home in town. Youkai regularly crawled from beneath the floorboards, mangled the woodwork, and generally made a mess of the place. But it was not until the family's youngest child disappeared that anyone called for demon-slayers.
Naturally, this was the first time Inuyasha had fought using the Tessaiga, since his elder brother had returned from the underworld. His glee was understandable, but it was causing more problems than it solved. Inuyasha had used the Kaze no Kizu three times already. Not much of the outer yard was in one piece. Giant trenches in the earth made it seem like the ground had been plowed in three different directions.
Moreover, it seemed that Inuyasha was delaying the completion of their errand. He could have killed all the demonic ants, right from the start. Yet strutting from one edge of the house to the other, he annihilated the bugs, one at a time. It baffled Kagome.
"Inuyasha!" she called out again, sensing another burst of youki from the blade he carried. "If you don't finish them off quickly, then I'll say the word."
Amber colored eyes swiveled nervously toward her. "Aww, Kagome," whined the hanyou. "I'm almost done. Why don't you finish the ones outside? They'll flee into other people's homes."
Rubbing the bridge of her nose and calling on the gods for patience, she heard the frightened villagers speaking behind their backs. They were happy to know someone could handle this demon infestation. On the other hand, they were distressed that it took so long. And that the young man's sword was so destructive...
It was almost funny, she thought. How many times had Miroku invented imaginary demons to attack, in order to acquire a nice room to sleep in overnight? Nowadays, they did not need a place to stay the night, and the demons they had been asked to fight were real. Still, the ant-like youkai were so weak that it was difficult to take this assignment seriously.
"All right." As she agreed, the hairs on the back of her neck rose. Without even looking, she could sense his grin. Giving into Inuyasha's demands was probably a bad idea. "Five more minutes. Don't destroy the house. Eh... More than you already did."
Next, throwing her hands up in the air, she strolled outside and fired at the youkai fleeing from the area. Purified arrows easily destroyed them. However, it took a while to completely end the infestation, since they were not intelligent demons, and the ants fled in absolutely every direction.
Screams of terror drew her attention to one side. A group of young girls were hustling down the street, wailing about the demons that were chasing them. Kagome rolled her eyes. The youkai were not chasing anyone. Seriously, they had the intelligence-level of an insect... Demon-ants did not seem any brighter than their normal cousins.
Adjusting the strap to the quiver over her shoulder, Kagome marched toward the newest bunch of upset villagers. As a huge crunching noise met her ears, however, she broke into a run. Whipping around the corner of the storehouse, where the frightened girls were gathered, she followed their gaze to see a giant youkai, splintering the wood beneath its feet and chewing on it with its mandibles. Sucking a sharp breath through her teeth, Kagome drew another arrow.
Evidently, the youkai-ants had a 'queen' that they had not encountered until now. As she took aim through the smoky haze this giant insect caused by breaking the side of a storehouse, she instructed the people behind her to hide. A hum of activity was her only sign that they had complied. She did not dare to look away from the demon until she knew she would hit the target.
Finally, the dust settled, and the massive ant-demon showed clearly. It appeared to be watching her, as closely as she was watching it. Frowning, Kagome released her arrow, and it whistled through the air... only to smash into a piece of lumber with a subdued thunk. The demon chewing on the storehouse, it stood unharmed. It had rotated its head in a perfect half-circle, positioning a wooden fragment directly above to block the arrow.
She gaped. It continued to chew. But when Kagome grabbed another arrow out of the quiver, the queen of the demonic ants pulled back, hissing angrily.
All the wood, which it had been mashing into bits, served a purpose now. The youkai started spitting out slivers of wood at high speed, aiming for Kagome. And because ant-demons, like regular ants, did not have lungs, the creature did not even need to exhale. The attack simply began without a moment's notice.
With a gasp, she tried to aim at the threat. But there was no time. Pinpricks of pain stabbed into her arms, legs, her torso, causing her to cry out as she fired the arrow. It missed widely.
Her scream quickly called to Inuyasha. Luckily, he had listened, when she warned him not to postpone the job any longer, simply because he enjoyed using the Tessaiga for the first time in years. After terminating the rest of the small-fry demonic-ants inside, he had followed her. And just in the nick of time, she heard him shout at the largest demon, the queen of the ants. A blast of wind ended the fight, once and for all.
Never even glancing up, Kagome whimpered pitifully. She could not look away from her body. Hundreds of splinters had punctured her skin, and it seemed like blood was oozing from every pore. She looked like a life-sized pincushion. She felt like one too.
"Kagome!" came a familiar voice, drenched with concern. "Kagome! No! You can't be..." Dazed, the hanyou could not seem to finish a sentence. He fluttered back and forth, sheathing his sword, then holding out his hands and withdrawing them before touching her.
The very act of breathing hurt, because it shifted her skin. Shaking her head, the priestess tried to focus. Obviously, she would need assistance to remove all the splinters. At the moment, she could barely move her hands, because her arms had been impaled with fragments of wood. It was hard to clench her fingers.
"Inuyasha," she wheezed, slightly amazed by the level of agony she felt. Serious injuries usually wiped out all the pain receptors in her nervous system, so in a way, it was good she could feel so much pain. But that did not make her happy about it. "Need to pull... the wood out of my hands."
"Kagome," the white-haired boy moaned, moving forward to complete her instructions. "I'm sorry. Should have gotten out sooner... I... "
"It's fine." Her reassurance was sincere, spoken through tightly clenched teeth. "The wounds are shallow."
The first few slivers of wood emerged, and Inuyasha dropped them on the ground, moving up to her forearm. But it was not until Kagome flexed her hand that she noticed the difference. The skin was completely healed. Soon, Inuyasha realized it too. As he removed sharp splinters and fragments of wood from her flesh, he sniffed gently, running one hand over the smooth skin that remained.
Simultaneously, their eyes met in wonder. Kagome quickly joined her friend in his quest to remove all foreign objects from her flesh. It hurt when they pulled out the wood, but the moment tiny splinters left her skin, she healed, as if she had never been harmed.
"I don't understand," Inuyasha said, gently working on the splinters in her legs, now.
"Neither do I," murmured Kagome reverently. "Neither do I."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
One more pass around the campsite, and once more Sesshoumaru failed to reveal himself to the other two. He could faintly hear Kagome and Inuyasha speaking in the distance. However, since there was no breeze, his kin had not sensed him yet. It was just as well, because he felt distinctly nervous.
In her excitement, the priestess had forgotten to maintain the barrier around her emotions. Restlessness and confusion struggled for supremacy inside of her, pouring through their bond into Sesshoumaru. He did not mind. It was a welcome change from what he had been feeling all day without her input.
Perhaps his nervousness and her own were feeding off each other, though. He could hear Kagome telling his half-brother all about their soul-bond. She did not know much about it, because no one really did. But she had shared every pertinent fact, and now they were discussing theories about how to use it in battle. Well, to be honest, only Inuyasha was offering such ridiculous remarks.
"I don't know," continued the priestess adamantly, "He didn't say much more. Just that the bond is unbreakable, and we share our lifetimes, and we can sense each other's emotions and health. That sort of thing. He said it was a lasting effect of my soul inhabiting the Tenseiga, for a little while."
"So, the bastard's sword heals you automatically, from far away?"
"No, the closest approximation that I can imagine is..." the girl pondered, one finger on her chin. "It's like I am a living embodiment of Tenseiga. Totosai told you both that it is stuck outside of time. So, maybe I am too?"
"Gah!" Inuyasha cried out, "That makes no sense. Don't jump into fights just to test whether you're immortal or not."
A giggle was her only reply. In the background, far through the trees, Sesshoumaru clenched a fist. Evidently, she had been injured in a fight earlier. It was exactly as he had feared; Inuyasha was not a sufficient guardian for the miko. But rather than criticizing the hanyou for failing to protect her, she was laughing with him. They were happy, unreasonably happy, because she had been magically healed at the end of the battle.
As if paltry insect-youkai should be able to hurt either one of them. Even when he condemned Inuyasha's sword skills, he had always believed the mutt had adequate strength to defeat minor, low-level youkai. If it was not so, then he should have returned faster.
"I'm not saying I'm immortal." The protest nearly died on the priestess's lips. She lifted one hand and pressed it against her chest. "It just feels sort of like... a crystal."
"What?"
"Er... my spiritual powers," she quickly explained, although the words did not shed any light on the conversation. "My spirit. It feels like the Shikon no Tama is back inside of me, now. Even though I know it is gone, I can remember what it felt like. And when I used my powers in the fight, it felt like drawing on the Shikon's power, like my soul had solidified into something more powerful than before... Does that make any sense?"
Inuyasha merely gave her a befuddled look. He was clearly unconvinced of her sanity. And from a distance, the elder brother was startled, when she mentioned the Shikon no Tama. Holding his breath, he thought of how unfortunate it would be if they had worked so hard to destroy the Jewel, only for it to return at the last instant.
Luckily, Kagome quickly clarified this was not what she had meant. But his surprise broke through the calm surface waters of his emotions, and the blue-eyed priestess immediately lifted her gaze, peering through the trees, trying to see him through the darkness. Smothering a sigh, Sesshoumaru realized he could not hide in the background any longer. He had to come forward to the campfire.
The moment that he entered the fringe of Inuyasha's senses, however, the hanyou leapt to his feet, one hand on his sword. "Oi!" called the half-demon, displeased to see him. "What are you doin' here?"
Calmly, the inu-youkai stepped into the light surrounding their campsite. A burst of happiness emerged from the priestess, and Sesshoumaru's train of thought immediately derailed to follow along after it. She was happy to see him? Why was that?
The miko stubbornly refused to show any trace of the emotion that she felt. Crossing her arms, she petulantly faced the fire again. "Did you come back to speak with me?" she inquired tartly. "About time. You missed out on all the fun we had earlier."
Not dissuaded by her tone, Sesshoumaru quietly moved around the fire, until he was across from both his half-sibling and the priestess. Then, he peacefully took a seat, and Inuyasha lowered his guard as well. Ultimately, Sesshoumaru did not rush for anyone. So, he refused to be hurried by the miko's current childish behavior.
"Incorrect. I was immediately aware of it, when you were injured," he explained slowly, watching as she frowned, while at the same time she appeared a bit hopeful. It seemed that Kagome could not make up her mind, whether to be angry with him or not. "I felt the wounds, also."
She pouted slightly. "And the moment you felt that I had been injured, you returned?"
The words implied he was concerned with the miko's well-being and health. And he was. But not for the reasons she seemed to suspect. In truth, he had already started walking in her direction, even before he felt faint traces of a distant battle touch her skin.
He said nothing, merely examined her legs, bare beneath the outlandish green and white outfit that she always wore. Miniscule tears dotted the fabric, and blood had soaked into the fabric around each of the puncture wounds. Yet she looked completely healthy, right now. He could detect no injuries.
As if she could sense his thoughts, Kagome slid onto her knees and began to dig through the quiver of arrows she had packed, next to her bag. "Look!" she instructed him suddenly, holding up an arrow. "Watch this."
Gritting her teeth, the priestess inhaled deeply. It looked like she was fortifying herself for a difficult task. Then, without another word, she stabbed the back of her hand with the tip of the arrow.
Inuyasha roared, leaping onto his feet. "Kagome! What are you doing?!" Apparently, the hanyou had been as ignorant of her intentions as Sesshoumaru had been. Good.
A whimper slipped past her lips. Meanwhile, a blossom of pain spiked through the back of Sesshoumaru's palm, as well. He growled, threateningly.
But directly afterward, before anyone else could move, Kagome pulled the arrow tip away from her hand. The pain vanished, and a tiny flicker of purplish-pink light sparkled across her skin. As the wound instantly closed, the taiyoukai's eyes widened in momentary surprise.
Somehow, seeing it in action was much more impressive than overhearing Inuyasha and Kagome speak of it. She had acquired an amazing new power and ability. And it had to be related to their soul-bond, because nothing else had changed, nothing of significance, since the battle with Naraku.
The best explanation that Sesshoumaru could come up with mirrored one that Kagome had already invented. Perhaps having the Tenseiga as a center-pin for the bond between them, it did more than create a bond between two spirits. Somehow, it also allowed them both to share certain characteristics with the sword? As she had said, a 'living embodiment of Tenseiga' might be one way to describe it. It was as though the healing sword had mended her injury, while it happened.
This was astonishing news. But testing the boundaries of the ability might be difficult. Obviously, the Tenseiga could not defend against curses. And it could be broken. Perhaps Kagome would not be able to heal from wounds that he delivered, since he was the sword's original owner? All of these ideas seemed to require an unsavory amount of wounding and injuring, however. He did not really like the idea of testing this capability to its fullest extent.
"There, you see?" she chirped happily. "Isn't that cool?"
Blinking slowly, he declined to answer. Instead, he tested his own skin to see if it was as resilient as Kagome's. As he slid one claw into the underside of his arm, she gasped and gripped her own arm with the other hand.
Sadly, the wound did not heal any more quickly than usual. It seemed the ability that Kagome had developed, it was unique. Probably, it was because she was the only one whose soul had been contained inside of the Tenseiga, for any amount of time, thereby acquiring some of the Tenseiga's abilities.
To one side, his half-brother flopped onto the dirt with a groan. "You've gotta be kidding me," he growled darkly. "Watching other people mutilate themselves does not appeal to me. Please stop. Both of you."
