A/N: I filled out this freelance writer application thing for this website and they took me! I get paid something like a bit over 3 dollars for every 1,000 pageviews. Sounds icky but hey, it's publishing credit...maybe? And I get to write about crap like Indricothere, the Jacobson's organ, the 1 of us that are immune to AIDS and I don't know, the four C's (or was it six?) or technical writing. Anyway...ten articles every three months or something. I have a fear of contracts so I haven't signed it just yet. Whenever I see one I always wonder if I'm selling my soul. Wish me luck!
Disclaimer: I do not own them.
Last Chapter: Rin wandered through the mist shrouded realm of the dead. She met Kokoro. Saya endured a whole lot. She escaped Yamaiko and ran away to the forest. Yamaiko encountered a trader from inland named Miyazi who promised for a fee to get some slayers to come in and deal with the beast named Saya. Saya began to work out how to survive by stealing from the humans, but she isn't very good at it. A boy named Odaku caught her and tried to rape her. Saya killed him but lost her white stone.
A Gift From the Dead
"What am I doing here?" Rin asked, staring blankly at the gray ghost of the monk before her.
"You are seeking answers, of course. I am here to give them to you. I am an emissary between this world and the next. When the time comes it will be me that sends you back to the land of the living." Kokoro stepped back from the door and gestured forRin to come inside. His feet made no sound as they moved over the floorboards.
As Rin stepped into the room she felt her body growing heavier. Fatigue weighed her down and she began to feel hunger stir in her gut. She walked into the middle of the room, following Kokoro, rubbing her palms over her belly, feeling the bulge there. Was it growing?
Kokoro sat down. The motion startled Rin, making her look up and take stock of the room more thoroughly. The light came from several lamps scattered about the corners of the room. Some were covered by yellow paper, others by orange, giving the room a brightly colored, warm texture. The room was infused with color, as if the lamps had burned away the endless grayness of the mists. The floorboards were burgundy in color; the screens were rich, lavish gold with brown and blue ink paintings covering them.
"Come, Lady Rin. Sit."
When Rin looked to Kokoro she opened her mouth in shock. The spirit of the monk was colored as well. His face was pale but his hands were darkened, tanned by sun exposure. His head was shaven, but his eyebrows revealed black hair. "What is this place?" Rin demanded, ignoring his order for her to sit. "What's happening here?"
"This room is a portal between the worlds, Lady Rin. You have noticed the bright colors. Color is a trait of reality. The dead have no use for it—well, human spirits have no use for it. The realm that you just arrived from was a place where the souls of dead humans wander before reincarnation or when they have not yet accepted their death and fight the natural order." He chuckled, actually smiling. "Of course it occasionally ensnares the living such as yourself as well."
"You said you would send me back," Rin breathed, as if speaking louder would change Kokoro's mind.
"Yes, I will," Kokoro replied. "When the time is right."
"Why not now?" Rin demanded, quietly.
"Because you must be educated first, my lady, and because we have not reached an agreement yet." Kokoro patted the floor at his side. "Come, sit at my side. I must speak with you before they arrive. Inuyoukai are impatient creatures."
"Inuyoukai?" Rin repeated, frowning with confusion.
Kokoro didn't answer her. Instead the monk tapped the floor at his side once more. "Come Lady Rin, sit down at my side and I will tell you the goddess's plan. There is no one living currently that understands it as I do."
Cautiously, Rin settled next to the monk, knee to knee with him, listening.
"Much of this you may have known, but you did not know of how they were interconnected. I will start at the beginning of course. Koeru and Jishin are the same goddess, but the two names reveal her different powers. Koeru creates life, Jishin takes it away. She told you that she is worshipped in the north. That was the truth. Koeru is worshipped there by humans and demons alike. Some years ago Lady Rin, you left Lord Sesshomaru and your mate naturally searched for you in the Middle Lands because he suspected that young Shimofuri was responsible for your departure. In his grief, Sesshomaru killed a young lord named Arasoizuki who represented the northern clan in the Middle Lands. Arasoizuki's wife Lady Yamome and their son Boroya survived Sesshomaru's attack and returned to the north. After your daughter was born an arranged marriage was proposed between Shimofuri and the widow Yamome."
Rin interrupted him saying, "But Shimofuri isn't married to her…"
Kokoro nodded at her, agreeing. "Lady Yamome had no desire to marry Shimofuri. She wanted her son to hold his father's land, but she wanted to see your mate punished and an alliance with Shimofuri would only allow Lord Sesshomaru to escape unscathed. Lady Yamome prayed to Koeru, the goddess of the north, the female's universal patron goddess. Koeru interceded for Yamome and designed a plot to punish Sesshomaru. She approached Shimofuri and asked him to join her first," Kokoro stopped and smiled, almost grinning with pride. "But Lord Shimofuri dismissed her without hearing her out. Koeru became angry then and crossed the line. She sought out a prominent lord of the northern clan and tempted him with power. When he agreed she went back to the Middle Lands and convinced Lord Sasugainu to work with her instead of Shimofuri. Her plans had changed into a wider net of hatred—Jishin no longer wishes to punish Sesshomaru, she wishes to strike back at all of the Middle and Western Lands."
Rin shook her head. "Why?"
"She is angry that Lord Shimofuri turned her away, but mostly it is because she serves only herself in the end. And in her case serving the north is serving herself. Jishin's entire plan ends by benefitting the north."
"How does lying to me and trapping me here benefit the northern clan?" Rin asked, baffled.
"Jishin has deluded Sasugainu into slowly killing off all of his family," Kokoro explained, leaning closer and lowering his voice. "He was angry with his wife and Jishin convinced him that if he allowed her to kill his wife she would provide him with another and make certain that he was blessed with a son. To further entice him, she promised that she would deliver not just any inuyoukai woman, but Sesshomaru's wife."
Rin was silent, her lips and her jaw pinched tightly.
"Jishin also convinced Sasugainu into believing that Shimofuri was unworthy of rule and would not be strong enough to trust with his secret alliance with her. To keep Shimofuri distracted and to write him out of inheriting the Middle Lands, Jishin suggested a marriage between Sasugainu's daughter Amagumori and Shimofuri. In the marriage negotiations she had Sasugainu put in a stipulation that, should Amagumori die suspiciously, Shimofuri would have his birthright taken from him and it would be passed onto Sasugainu and his heirs. She has taken hold of his daughters' souls—something that Sasugainu allowed her to do when he buried their mother's ashes after adding locks of their hair. It was a sacrifice to Jishin that allowed her complete control over his children, daughters that Sasugainu views as useless. When she feels the time is right, Jishin will kill Amagumori to condemn Shimofuri…"
On the other side of reality, in the Nanka palace where Tsukiyume and Amagumori were sleeping in the same bed chambers within a few feet of one another, Jishin appeared. She materialized from the darkness, like water droplets coalescing into a small stream. She was transparent, intangible. A cruel smile warped her lips as she leaned forward over Amagumori's sleeping form. Her fingertips touched the inuyoukai woman's eyelids, hovering over them for a moment before she pressed inward. Her incorporeal fingers passed into Amagumori's head.
Amagumori shivered in her bed, despite the fact that she was snug and warm beneath her covers.
"Sleep well, Amagumori," Jishin whispered softly. "Sleep forever."
Kokoro continued without stopping. "At about that same time Jishin approached you and promised to give you a pureblooded son. She delivered on her promise, but by accepting her offer Lady Rin, you allowed her complete control over you, body and soul. She has taken your body into the Northern Lands to claim the child that you will birth."
"Why does she want it so badly? Will she use the child to harm Sesshomaru?" Rin asked.
Kokoro shook his head slowly. "Jishin is only keeping the child, and she only created it, because she was forced to by Fate. Lord Sesshomaru was destined to have a pureblooded child who is destined to rule the Western Lands, but Jishin believes that she may destroy Sesshomaru prematurely and scatter the rulers of the Middle Lands to advance the northern clan. She plans to marry Lady Ginrei to Lord Kanseninu of the north, the inuyoukai that she truly serves. She will also use Hanone in a marriage between Arasoizuki and Yamome's son Boroya. Jishin and Kanseninu will march an army over the Middle Lands and kill Shimofuri and Tsukiyume—as well as Sesshomaru."
"And Sasugainu would allow that to happen?" Rin asked, disbelieving.
"Of course not," Kokoro replied. "Sasugainu would never allow that, but by the time it happens Sasugainu will be dead. Jishin plans to destroy all of the rulers and their families in the Middle and Western Lands. She will use Ginrei and Hanone, and she has used you to placate Fate. The northern clan would hold Sesshomaru's pureblooded heir and give him a small territory in the Western Lands when he was old enough, but Inutaisho's line would effectively have vanished. The northern clan might even claim your son and tell him that he was their own. He would grow to hate his own father and his ancestors, never knowing that he was hating himself."
"How could she kill Sesshomaru?" Rin asked, her voice was barely a whisper.
"She has given him a poison that is remaking him from the inside out as we speak. It is transforming him into a human being. While he is weak, Jishin will have him killed."
"Why are you telling me all this?" Rin asked, shaking her head.
Kokoro smiled at her. His brown eyes twinkled with amusement. "Because as soon as we have reached an agreement I will send you out of this realm and into reality. It will become your task to put a stop to Jishin's plot. I will try to help you of course, but my powers in reality are often limited…"
"How will I see you in reality?" Rin asked.
Now Kokoro's expression changed, becoming the traditional spirit melancholy. "You will find me in my daughter, Lady Tsukiyume."
Rin stared at him, taken aback. "You are Tsukiyume's father?"
"Yes, and so you see Lady Rin, I have every reason to help you succeed. If Jishin wins she will kill my daughter and she will kill young Shimofuri, who was once my former student many years ago." He looked away from her, laughing slightly. "I would hate to see either of them perish, and so I have used what little power I have to orchestrate this intervention. Jishin has defied the natural laws and we will stop her."
"But how do I fight a goddess?" Rin lifted her hands upward in a helpless gesture. "I can't lay a hand on her; I could never kill her…"
"You do not kill a goddess; you kill her believers, for they are the true source of her power. If you can kill Lord Kanseninu and Lady Yamome, Jishin's plot will fall apart. Without someone to serve, Jishin will lose her power." Kokoro shifted slightly, moving to sit directly at her side so that he was no longer facing her. "Now the time has come, Lady Rin. The agreement must be made…"
"What agreement?" Rin looked around the room and realized that the lamps were flickering. A wind moved across her cheeks, riffling her messy hair. At her side Kokoro closed his eyes and began to hum without answering her. Panic started its familiar flutter inside Rin's chest. "Kokoro? What's happening?"
The ground trembled slightly, vibrating. Rin's ears tingled and she put her hands over them. The air was vibrating, not the ground…
Directly ahead of Rin the light changed, twisting. A tall, lanky shape appeared, shining brilliantly and colored a rich honeyed-gold. Before Rin had finished gawking at the first glowing shape, another appeared to her right. This one was a startling pink like cherry blossoms. It glowed, pulsing with energy and light.
"What is happening?" Rin shouted again, her eyes wide with terror. Other lights appeared, each pulsing a different color.
"It is a meeting of minds and of souls, Lady Rin," Kokoro told her. He didn't appear surprised in the least as more of the long, glowing orbs appeared in a close circle around them.
"What are they?" Rin yelled. "Why are they here?" Her eyes widened another fraction when a new thought reached her. "Are you sending me back? Is that what this is?"
"That time draws near, yes," Kokoro said, nodding. "But these are the souls of inuyoukai. Rulers of the Middle and Western Lands that have passed on, each representing a clan or living relative. Four of them, and all must be appeased."
Kokoro lifted one hand and pointed around the circle. Directly in front of Rin was the sphere of golden light. Kokoro named it: "Inutaisho."
To Rin's right was the pink shape, Kokoro's voice was choked as he named it: "Taikokajin."
Kokoro twisted around to look behind them and Rin followed his movement. Behind them was an elongated, shimmering sphere of green light. "Arasoizuk," Kokoro said.
At last to their left the fourth light hovered and glowed a light gray-blue. Kokoro pointed his finger at it and said, "Nishiyori."
"What agreement must be reached?" Rin asked, looking around her at the lights. She ducked her head low, intimidated by the tall, proud souls of the creatures that once could've crushed her under their paws. Her eyes fell on the golden sphere and she felt certain that it had not placed itself there, directly in front of her by chance. It was Inutaisho, watching over her protectively with Sesshomaru's same golden eyes.
The thought of golden eyes propelled Rin's mind into an entirely different direction. She reached for Kokoro, calling to him. "Where is Saya? You can't send me back without telling me about her. What did Jishin do with my daughter?"
Her hands passed through Kokoro's body. With a start Rin realized that Kokoro's spirit had lost its color. The clarity of his form had diminished as well. "Kokoro—what—"
"I am sending you back to reality now. Seek out my daughter and I will tell you of the agreement that we will make here." Kokoro's melancholy smile traced its way over his lips and Rin felt her body grow impossibly heavy. Her shoulders sagged and she started to fall backward.
"No," she fought the heaviness, reaching out for Kokoro and then, in a last ditch effort, toward Inutaisho's golden light. Her hands passed through both, feeling nothing but a cold chill. "Please—where is Saya?"
A deep voice boomed through the room, rich and powerful. It had no distinguishable origin, but Rin knew like a dreamer that the speaker was Inutaisho. "You're child will be protected by Inuyasha."
Rin's body relaxed. She drew in a deep breath to try and answer the golden light but her head spun, the colors of the spheres danced and swirled. Rin fell backward. The back of her head stung with the impact, a surprisingly real sensation. The lights swarmed above her, flowing in, drawing closer until Rin felt their cold radiating on her face. It took all of her energy to open her lips and speak one word, "What…?"
Kokoro's voice answered her, fading and growing quieter. "This is our last gift to you Lady Rin. It is your destiny, your rebirth. When you wake Jishin's abomination will be flushed out of you and your new life will begin. Good luck Lady Rin…"
The lights above her head suddenly glowed hot. Their color swirled into one, becoming a bright, powerful white. They fell on her as one and darkness closed over her, deep as an ocean.
After two days of slow, agonizing travel, the illness at last reached Sesshomaru's gastro-intestinal tract, stopping his journey in its entirety. His gut convulsed with pain while his stomach called for food continuously. As a grown youkai eating had been something he did by choice, not out of need. Now he suffered weakness in his limbs, a shaking in his hands and legs as his blood sugar plummeted. Along with that weakness and the pain of his illness, his mind grew slow and cloudy.
(A/N: my dad is a diabetic and some of his pills stimulate overproduction of insulin and that sucks the sugar out of his bloodstream fast meaning that sometimes he gets shaky and "stupid." My dad is usually clear-spoken and quick-thinking, but once when his sugar was low I watched him slur and shake and lose his sentences, it was actually pretty dramatic. After he'd eaten a little bit of salad he started to get better and smacked himself in the head saying that he'd been so impaired mentally that he hadn't thought to open the packs of sugar they had at the restaurant right there on the table. Just a little on his tongue and wham! He would've been better. So the power of blood sugar on the brain…wow…sorry for my longish note.)
At the first waves of the startling, limb-weakening hunger, Sesshomaru ordered Jaken to stop. On foolish pretense, for the sake of his pride, Sesshomaru said that he was having a look around. Of course, if that had been the truth, Jaken knew that his lord would never make a point of explaining it to him. In the woods Sesshomaru at first searched for an animal that he could catch, kill, and eat, but when nausea bloomed inside his stomach and he dry-heaved, spitting onto the leaf-litter at his feet, Sesshomaru realized that he couldn't wait.
He would have to eat plants.
He knelt and picked through leaves. Although he brought the leaves to his nose and sniffed at them, trying to discern whether they were good to eat or poisonous, it did little good. Sesshomaru's nose was useless, dulled to the point that he could no longer smell water on the breeze, the scent of an enemy or of an animal. Even the scent of the forest had dimmed. If he wished to scent it at all he had to bring his nose close to the plants and inhale deeply.
A few berries eased his weakness and shaking, but increased the cramping in his intestines. That discomfort made Sesshomaru abandon his quest for food. He rejoined Jaken, planning to continue his journey, but his innards rebelled before he could issue the order. He sat with his back to Jaken and hacked, spitting on the ground as he fought to keep the little that he'd eaten inside him rather than tossed over the grass and dirt.
Jaken, to his credit, stayed silent, whimpering and mumbling to himself while he shivered with a sort of sympathy nausea. By scent Jaken knew that his lord was famished, starving. He could smell Sesshomaru's changing scent. It was no longer that of an inuyoukai, it was tarnished with the stink of human. It was not the scent of a hanyou, which was a natural odor because the creature was a result of breeding, a hybrid of two species. Instead the scent that had risen to cover Sesshomaru was one of an unnatural change, like a dark magic.
At last Jaken's anxiety grew strong enough that he was forced to give voice to his concerns. "My lord?"
Sesshomaru had grown silent between bouts of cramping pain and pangs of unnatural hunger. He sat with his eyes closed against the sunlight that flowed in from above. His thoughts were focused on ignoring his embarrassing illness and pain. At least the pain in his bones had diminished…
Jaken's voice came to him high and tinny, an irritant. He started to growl but the vibrations from his chest and throat ignited the wrath of his intestines and stomach again. He doubled over, gritting his teeth, forcing himself to stay silent.
"Please my lord," Jaken went on when Sesshomaru failed to acknowledge him. "Perhaps we should turn back to Shimofuri and his lady. You are ill! You mustn't risk yourself—"
"No," Sesshomaru grunted. He picked fastidiously at his lips, reaching one clawed finger into his mouth to try and wipe away the foul taste of his stomach acids. As his claw moved over his canine teeth, Sesshomaru felt a short, sharp burst of pain. Blood spurted into his mouth.
One of his fangs had broken.
Sesshomaru's hands shook, his breathing jerked with shock. A thought skittered through his mind before he could stop it: I am dying. The hanyou girl lied.
"Please Lord Sesshomaru," Jaken whimpered, starting to cry in snorted, whining sobs. He grabbed the back of Sesshomaru's haori and tugged like a needy child. His little grubby hands pulled just slightly on Sesshomaru's brilliant white hair and the strands fell free, falling like leaves from the trees in the fall.
Jaken jumped back, gasping and crying out with fresh alarm and terror. He stared down at his three-clawed hands, gaping. "Oh no! No! How can this be happening?"
Sesshomaru did not have the energy to turn and see what the toad was sobbing about now. He poked at his broken fang and then moved his tongue about the rest of his mouth, pushing on each sharp molar and every tooth in between. His carnassials were weak and wiggled in his jaw, ready to fail. (A/N: Carnassials in case you didn't know are the shearing molars in dogs and cats.) Pressing his claws against his thigh revealed that they too were weakening. How could he survive without his powers, his teeth, and his claws?
"Oh, Lord Sesshomaru," Jaken was weeping, his voice trembling. "I will search for something for you to eat. Just wait here…I will find something…" he turned and rushed off, waving his staff.
Sesshomaru did not have the presence of mind or the strength to demand that the toad stop. He sat still, testing his claws and teeth one by one, obsessively.
(A/N: to break some of the tension perhaps…)
Today Inuyasha was hunter and his children were the prey. The goal in their game of cat and mouse was simple: don't let the hunter win. It wasn't a game that they played with shrieks of laughter and giggling. It was a serious game, performed in silence, a competition of wits—a rehearsal for potential disaster.
Koinu understood this implicitly. He was nine, nearly ten years old, still short and caught very literally in his father's shadow, but he had already ventured out into the world with Sango and Miroku and their children, training alongside them under Inuyasha's tutelage. He had seen slobbering youkai, mindless with a primeval hunger and rage. He had heard the ones that could speak taunt his father and the humans, calling the slayers weak because they were mortal and ridiculing Inuyasha because he was hanyou.
Koinu understood that he needed to be prepared for trouble if it came his way—but his younger sister Akisame did not.
"It's been half an hour," Akisame whined. "Dad's at home laughing at us."
"No." Koinu shook his head. He peered out of their little burrow, a tree whose withered roots covered a hollow that fit the siblings snugly inside amongst the spiders and earthworms and mosquitoes. "Dad never loses this game. He's still out there."
"So what if he finds us? He'll whine and bitch at us for a while and then we'll all go hunt something together and he'll get over it." Akisame picked at the dirt beside her bare feet where a spider the size of a peanut was squirming, frantically trying to get away.
"Bitch at us?" Koinu repeated, confused. "Where did you hear that?" He caught sight of the spider and made a face. "Don't eat that, Aki."
"Why not?" she grumbled. "I'm bored enough to do it—besides, they crunch nice."
"Mom says you shouldn't eat things outside in the dirt. It will give you worms."
"When was the last time a worm hurt you, Koinu?" Akisame asked, unimpressed. "Mom says a lot of stupid stuff like that. Worms eat dirt, not people and not youkai. What's to be scared of?"
Koinu elbowed her, growing irritable. "Not earthworms. She means a parasite, like a tick but inside you."
"Ticks crunch nice too," Akisame sniggered, grinning. Her fangs were bright in the dimness of their hollow. "And I'm fucking bored."
"Don't talk like that—don't talk at all. Father will hear and we'll lose the game…"
"We always lose," Akisame said, pouting. "What's the point of—"
Koinu elbowed her again, making a short hissing sound to silence her. "Did you hear that?" he whispered.
Akisame cocked her head, listening. Her golden eyes, the same shade as Inuyasha's, opened wide. She mouthed a single word at him, "Dad."
Her brother nodded at her and huddled closer to her, wrapping one arm over her. Akisame pushed at it, frowning at his overprotective gesture. The sound and slight vibrations in the ground carried on above them, through the slope of the hillside. A small sniffing sound reached them, echoing through the trees. The wind rustled through the leaves and branches, making a sound that mimicked the noise of a rushing river. The breeze angled into Koinu and Akisame's hollow, allowing them to take in the scents borne on it—but their pursuer had chosen to approach them from behind, moving into the wind, like a predator.
The sniffing sound came again, closer. The vibrations grew stronger, coming right over Koinu's head. As his ears moved they brushed the top of their hollow, disturbing old cobwebs and hairy plant roots.
The rules of the game went that the hunter had several hours to find them. If an entire afternoon passed and the hunter was unsuccessful, then the prey won and the hunter lost. But, if the prey were found before the afternoon had passed they had one last chance to win by escaping, though with Inuyasha the chance of eluding him was unlikely. There were strategies that Koinu had picked out when he'd played the game alone with his father or Shippo. He had to move between hiding spots and travel between the ground and the trees to spread out his scent to make it harder to track. The combination of lost or meandering scents, as well as the changing of hiding spaces often assured Koinu of a win. While playing with Akisame, however, Koinu refused to leave her to find her own hiding spot and he didn't like to change spots because their combined scent moving together was too easy to follow. The only way to beat Inuyasha in the game when Akisame was with him was to roll in dung to hide their scents—a tactic that neither sibling liked.
Now Inuyasha was closing in. They would have to make a break for it. Escape with Akisame was a bit better than hiding with her. Koinu had worked out an elaborate running and leaping pattern for them both to follow, splitting up and then rejoining on the road. Splitting up while Inuyasha—or a real enemy—pursued them increased the chance of escape for it frustrated the attacker. As for their father—Inuyasha would get upset the moment he saw his children parted and yell for the game to end. Koinu considered that ending an annoying draw. But it was more satisfying than a loss.
"Go," Koinu whispered. He prodded Akisame with one hand, shoving her toward the tree roots and the light of the day beyond. "Run like we planned. Meet on the road."
Akisame collided with the tree roots and tumbled clumsily, her foot caught on one of them. She cried out in alarm. Her black hair flew out around her wildly as she fell.
Koinu leapt after her, reaching with his clawed hands for her caught ankle. He saw Akisame's struggling, the increasing desperation in her face. Koinu slashed the roots holding his sister down and she jumped away, rushing into the forest and then disappearing into the trees.
Curiosity slowed Koinu, forcing him to turn and gage the distance between himself and his pursuer—it was a mistake. Inuyasha was on him with the flash of red and the billowing sound of his Fire Rat haori. He effortlessly pinned Koinu's hands to his sides and then leaned forward, pushing his son to the dirt. Koinu frowned and sighed, defeated.
"You lose today, Pup," Inuyasha said. His tone told Koinu that there was a but in the upcoming sentence, a bit of good news. "You helped Aki. That was the right thing to do." Inuyasha rose to his feet and pulled Koinu up with him. He dusted his stunned son off, brushing down his white hair and ears, patting his green haori and hakama. "Let's go get Aki back."
As it turned out, Aki had already reached the road, spilling onto it uncontrollably, like ice cubes sliding over a smooth floor. She landed on all fours, her hair flying wild and messy around her. Her first few breaths told her that the movement further down the road was not her older brother, but rather it was a stranger. Immediately Akisame raced to the opposite side of the road and crouched amongst the weeds, waiting for the stranger to come into sight. She knew by scent that it was a man, one of the villagers.
A grasshopper jumped beneath her, smacking into Akisame's bare knee. Frowning, she looked down at it and laid both hands over the pesky insect. Grinning, she brought the little beast up to her face and popped it into her mouth.
The man appeared, rounding the corner and gradually ascending the hill. He wore a sunhat and peasant pants. Akisame could hear him puffing on the air from a hundred feet away. She grinned and leapt up and forward, sprinting toward him and growling.
The man lifted his head and his mouth fell open, startled. A little girl had raced toward him growling like a guard dog. Her black hair flew up and around her face; her legs were smeared by dirt and browned by dust. Her face was young and tender, her features even and dainty, one day she would be beautiful. Her legs were long for her age, gangly and clumsy. She was barefoot and wearing a short, boyish kimono with dirty and torn leggings. And her teeth were sharp.
"Get away from me!" Miyazi shouted, stumbling backwards.
"Who are you?" Akisame demanded, growling in her high voice. "What do you want here?"
"I'm walking on this road!" Miyazi recognized her golden eyes and the features of her face. The golden eyes were Inuyasha's, and her facial features were Kagome's. Miyazi had dealt with both of her parents. Inuyasha had always rubbed him the wrong way, but Kagome had been a pleasant girl that he respected and liked. Their daughter he'd only seen from time to time but her features made her unmistakable. "You're Inuyasha's girl?" he grunted the question at her.
"Yeah, I am." Akisame stopped growling and stood up straight. She beamed, grinning with pride. "Who are you?"
"I've come to talk to the slayers that are staying with you," Miyazi said. "I have a job for them."
Akisame frowned. "They're having babies."
Miyazi stopped, confused. "What?"
"Go away," Akisame told him. She turned her back to him and started to leap away. She didn't get far before Koinu and Inuyasha barreled out of the trees on the side of the road and tackled her. Inuyasha ran at her, stooped and bent over. He scooped her up onto his shoulder while letting out a mock roaring. Koinu followed behind, catching her flailing arms and tickling her sides.
Miyazi watched the three of them in their screaming, shrieking, and giggling. He slowly shook his head and grunted. "I'm glad I never had any kids."
Inuyasha turned and saw the trader while he still held his struggling daughter on his shoulder. His ears laid flat over his head in caution. "Yo! Miyazi," he called, recognizing the trader by scent. "What are you doing here?"
"I have come with a job for the demon slayers that are staying with you. There's a demon terrorizing a village by the coast."
Inuyasha lowered Akisame to the ground with a grunt and grinned, showing every one of his teeth at the trader. "It's about damn time something happened!" He gestured ahead, encouraging Miyazi. "Come on, hurry up. Let's hear about this demon terrorizing the coast."
Miyazi met with a weary, tense Miroku about twenty minutes later after Kagome had welcomed him inside and served tea and Inuyasha had scattered the multitude of children and teens, banishing them outside. Miyazi only recognized two of the brood as being Inuyasha's children, though there was another he recognized, a tawny-haired and fluffy-tailed fox child as belonging to the couple. The others were all strapping young men and boys. The oldest of them resisted Inuyasha when the hanyou tried to banish him to "go and play outside." That boy—Kohimu—eyed Miyazi and Miroku curiously, with a sort of longing. He was a teenager, almost by rights a man but he obeyed Inuyasha and followed the wild brood outside.
Miroku caught his attention quickly. "Mr. Miyazi, my wife is near her time. I cannot afford to be gone on a long and dangerous mission."
The trader nodded. He had lost his wife to childbirth two decades ago and although he had not been in the same room with her while she labored, he had heard her screams ring throughout his home and even outside in the village streets. He understood Miroku's position quickly. "The journey is less than a day from here if you hurry. The village is called Kagainsen and from the sounds of it they have a little kitsune infestation. The local Shinto priest, a Mr. Yamaiko, sent me to ask for your help."
"A kitsune?" Miroku asked.
"Mr. Yamaiko called the creature a shape-shifter. He tried to kill the demon but it changed its form and became identical to a child. That sounded like a fox to me. One little fox by the sound of it. A white fox. Mean anything to you?" Miyazi touched his fingers lightly to the cup that Kagome had served him, aware that she was somewhere behind him, listening. There was no sign of the monk's heavily pregnant wife or of Inuyasha.
Miroku reclined slightly in his seat, as if losing interest in Miyazi's story. He bit his lip and thought for a moment before speaking. "It does indeed sound like something a kitsune would try to do. They often live off human settlements like vermin if they aren't completely wild or friendly like our own Shippo. A white fox." He stroked his chin though there was no beard and his violet-blue eyes flicked to Kagome standing behind Miyazi. "A lack of pigmentation in a wild kitsune is not unheard of and it would make the creature easy prey for other youkai. It would make sense for this one to latch onto humans. Tell me, Mr. Miyazi, has the kitsune killed anyone? Did it appear as a child, or did it possess one of the children?"
Miyazi knew by the tightness around Miroku's lips and eyes that his response was very important. Whatever Miyazi said next would determine whether the monk took the assignment or not. He knew little of demons and the like, but he could guess that Miroku was searching for a quick-fix assignment. He had to guess—because what he'd heard from Yamaiko was rather vague—which was easier for the monk: a youkai that possessed a child or a youkai that disguised itself as a child.
"It has not killed anyone. The last I heard of it the demon was raiding food supplies. As far as I know it cannot possess the village children. It masquerades as a child but as an unfamiliar one." Miyazi settled on telling the truth. He kept his face open and honest, trying to appear as though the plight of the villagers in Kagainsen really mattered to him.
Miroku sighed and closed his eyes. "It is very close by. My wife will likely wait several more days before the child comes." He laughed lightly, "She is sick of me hovering over her anyway I suppose. I know Inuyasha wants me to go."
"Miroku!" Kagome chastised the monk from behind Miyazi. "Inuyasha doesn't want to see you go…"
Miroku laughed, smiling widely now. "Oh yes he does, Kagome. I'm sure you've noticed, Inuyasha is very claustrophobic and I have five children—nearly six." He turned back to Miyazi with a look that signaled a return to business. "I will make the journey to Kagainsen tomorrow morning, Mr. Miyazi. I suspect that for your services as a messenger you will require some portion of our pay…"
Miyazi grinned, but tried to keep the fullness of his satisfaction out of the expression to appear humble. "Oh good monk, you are too kind…"
"She left with my daughter—and you allowed it?" Sasugainu raged, growling at the shadows.
Jishin was seated in the corner of his bedchamber, brooding and silent while Sasugainu threw his quiet, bitter temper tantrum.
"Didn't you tell me that burying Hokinsha's ashes with their hair inside would give you control over them?"
"I did," Jishin responded in a smooth, purring voice.
"Then you could've stopped her! Why did you let Soeki and Ginrei leave? They are vital to our plan or have you forgotten?"
"I haven't forgotten." Jishin twirled a lock of her fiery red hair between her middle and index fingers, admiring the glowand shine in the strand, like coals in the fire pit. "I allowed Soeki to escape because I sensed Lady Ginrei's distrust. She must come to you now on her own, Sasugainu. And she will because your daughter will kill Sesshomaru in front of her."
The inuyoukai lord stopped, staring through the wall as his mind whirled and accelerated out of rage and wrath into admiration for the brilliant goddess. "Yes, I see. She will at last see that her only choice is to accept my offer now. She will come back and give herself and Sesshomaru's daughter to me…"
"Yes," Jishin purred. "And you will have finally won your wife and I will give you a son as soon as possible." She curtailed her smile, hiding its sinister nature behind her closed lips. What she told Sasugainu was the truth, but there was yet another reason why she'd allowed Soeki to lead Ginrei and Hanone out of the castle.
She knew that Soeki was heading toward the Nanka province where Shimofuri resided. She would have Soeki slaughter the unsuspecting Shimofuri in his sleep and then the hanyou girl Tsukiyume as well. Then, at long last, she would have Soeki move to Sesshomaru wherever he was, fighting his illness and transforming slowly in the wilderness. Although Sasugainu wanted Sesshomaru dead, he wasn't keen on seeing his nephew and niece die. He cared less for his own daughters as a matter of fact because he viewed them as Hokinsha's spawn. Shimofuri and Tsukiyume were his precious older sister's children though, closer to him in his mind than his own daughters.
With all of them dead the path for an invasion from the north was set and—she stared at Sasugainu's profile for a moment and allowed her hatred to spill over her face—she could finally kill Sasugainu as well, again using his own daughter. Victory was a sweet taste in her mouth, anticipation…