Collateral damage

Inuyasha felt like he had been kicked in the balls.

No. Worse. Far worse.

A pressing sensation in his stomach warned him he was about to vomit, sweat dripped from his brow, his mouth felt dry, all color had drained from his face, and a rhythmic hammering roared in his temples.

His claws dug in the wood of the beam, holding for dear life, fearing to just fall dead right there and then if he didn't clung to something, anything to make sure he was still on earth.

Kagome's smile vanished from her face in a second and she ran by his side, placing a hand on his shoulder, which was answered with a start from the hanyou, almost making her back away.

"Inuyasha! What's wrong!? You look like you've seen a ghost! Jinenji, go get some water!"

It took a moment for her words to make sense, but he finally managed to pull himself together, and shook his head. "I'm fine, wench. Just got dizzy."

Kagome saw him walk in, following Shippo, who completely ignored his moment of utter devastation in favor of offering a tour to the group. Her eyes remained weary, preoccupied, and her fingers entwined with Sesshomaru's, who was still mute by her side.

"What you think's wrong with him? I was just welcoming them to their new home…"

"Little brother."

"Huh?"

"You called him 'little brother'."

"Inuyasha?"

He couldn't distinguish them anymore. Although Kagome had gotten some of his scent when he marked her years ago, and vice versa, this time it all had changed. Now, his smell was completely gone of her, and Sesshomaru's stench was so perfectly mixed with her own aroma that it was completely impossible to tell one of the other by smell alone.

Every single time Kagome's perfume made it to his nose, he was reminded.

For fucks sakes, she was mated.

He had had years to prepare for it, talked about it with his brother at least a dozen times… But when realization finally struck him, he was still woefully unready.

It had been a week since he and the others had moved in to Bokuseno's forest, and Inuyasha was already sure he'd die any minute now just of having to see Kagome mated or calling him little brother.

When he didn't answer, she spoke again, a little louder this time. "Inuyasha?"

"What is it, wench?"

"Umh, can't sleep?"

"You know I don't sleep tonight."

She looked up at the moonless sky, then back at her friend. "And you know I like to keep you company while you're human."

He bit his tongue, trying to hold back the venomous words he almost spat. How could she care? Shouldn't she be sharing her mate's bed right now? "I'm okay."

"Can I sit with you?"

After a long minute, he shrugged, and scooped aside in the wooden step that divided the main building from one of the gardens. She dropped by him.

Silence settled awkwardly.

"You should go to sleep. My brother's gonna be worried."

She shook her head. "Nah, Sesshomaru knows I came to check on you."

"You're babysitting me?"

She giggled; a sound that sent needles and warmth through him. "Haven't I always?"

He smirked. "Fair enough."

"Why are you so… cranky lately?" The hanyou swallowed, and shrugged again. "C'mon. You know you can tell me."

"S'just… I…" He sighed. "That's it. You're mated. You're spending the next ten thousand years with Sesshomaru… I mean, come on! Sesshomaru?"

Kagome smiled. "He's not so bad. You'd like him if you got to know him."

The hanyou groaned. "I got one hundred and fifty years of getting to know him. I'm ok where I am… Now you gon' have pups, and they're gonna be annoying me all the time. It's kinda clashing."

She smiled. "Since we're gonna spend several millennia together and I'm not interested in being a baby factory, also considering I could have a kid a year, we've decided to have some time for ourselves. There's no hurry, kids will arrive when they arrive. No biological clock is ticking, no mother or in laws demanding grandchildren… We'll be just the two of us for a while, so don't worry about noisy niblings."

Inuyasha snorted and shook his head, but his eyes turned somber again.

The miko let out an exhalation, and scooted closer. "I thought we were over this."

"And I told you I can't get over this," he admitted after a minute.

"You should try."

He looked away from her. "That's beside the point. You're mated now. That's it for you and me. Forever… Now it's over for good, no matter what."

"Inuyasha…"

"I know, I know, but… hell, there's nothing more to do about it. I'm your little brother now. Forever."

She leaned against his shoulder. "You're my best friend."

His head came to rest on hers. "I know, wench. Nothing's gonna change that."

Kagome cleaned her hands in the linen cloth she kept close and looked up "What is it?"

Jinenji's huge blue eyes were fixed on the garden's door, and Kagome suddenly felt several demonic presences.

Jaken scrambled to his feet and quickly stood between his mistress and the entrance, weary of whatever would come.

A large, furry flash tackled the miko, way faster than the kappa's reflexes, and Kagome found herself subdued to a fire cat that licked her face with a raspy warm tongue. "Kirara! What are you doing here?"

Kohaku's chuckle rang across the little plantation, and Kagome sat up to see the taijiya boy, wearing his uniform. Next to him, was Rin. "We've got you a surprise…"

The priestess came to the teens and hugged them. "What is it guys? Everything's ok, right?"

"Yeah, don't worry. We just ran into some people that you might want to meet."

Kohaku took a step aside, revealing over a dozen youkai, who were guided by a very annoyed Sesshomaru. "Oh, dear…"

"Yep, that's right," the boy announced.

"They came to our village, since they knew youkai were well received there. Kohaku was casually visiting, and he offered to join me so we could bring them here safely," Rin explained.

An elder tortoise demon walked little steps towards the miko, and bobbed her head with a curt reverence. "Jewel Priestess, I am Naang Tao. This is my people. We are of the south of the continent and we seek asylum," the youkai declared in broken Japanese.

Kagome used the opportunity to take in the lady. Her skin was green-brownish and so wrinkled it reminded her of Bokuseno's face. Two sparkling black eyes shone like beads. Her nose was, if a nose at all, completely flat, and her upper lip ended in a black tip in the middle. Scales began on her cheeks and covered most of her body. A bright red turban enveloped her bald head, and she was draped in orange and blue, wearing something similar to a sari.

However, what was most notorious about her was not the large shell on her back, or her turtle-like face. The set of bronze rings that circled her neck, showing its inhuman longitude, were her most remarkable trait. Kagome had seen pictures of tribal women that wore those neck-lengtheners back in her era, and she knew immediately that they came from Southern Asia, maybe even Oceania.

"Hello, Lady Naang Tao, I'm Kagome. This will be your home if so you wish. If you want just to make a stop before leaving again, you are also welcomed." The priestess turned to look at her niece. "Rin, were they evicted by Yutaka and his group of mass murderers?"

"Seems like it, although it also looks like Yutaka isn't their leader after all."

Kagome frowned, but her hand rose. "We'll discuss that later. Right now, these people need to rest and eat something… Jinenji, let's make some of that amazing miso soup of yours."

The tea was steaming, and Naang Tao began her story. It had taken them months to make it to the Plains of Mushin, to find the Shikon Miko, and arrive to a sanctuary.

Being a group of lesser demons, they had suffered tremendous blows. Of the original seventy three that departed from Thailand, as far as the miko could deduce, only sixteen had arrived to their destination.

"We met many too many demon killers," murmured with her raspy voice the tortoise matriarch. "The more humans, the more hunters there are. We hurt not one person and yet we are chased. Many too many we lost too."

"And why do you say Yutaka isn't their leader?"

"We saw many leaders. They travel in small groups, but seem organized. The kill us on sight."

"So none of them gave you a name? Asked you at least civilly to vacant the area?"

The demoness shook her head. "Only promise of death."

Once Naang Tao was taken to one of the guests' cabins, Kagome returned to sit by the fire.

Both Inuyasha and Sesshomaru had decided to patrol the forest, in case the traveling party had been followed.

Shippo snuggled by Kirara, and his twitching tail showed everyone's discomfort.

"They don't even hide behind law anymore…" Jinenji's voice was weak, filled with angst.

"There's gotta be some way to stop them."

"I...!" Rin interjected immediately, making faces turn to her. After a moment, she continued. "I think there's a solution…"

Kagome's head cocked. "What are you thinking?"

"Demons can't fight them, right? But when they came the last time, you shoot an arrow at them and it passed through their barrier without any trouble. I think that they can't use their holy powers to fight other humans. Mom and dad think so too."

"Yeah, but that means we'll need an army to fight theirs."

Rin swallowed. "I-I can get us an army."

Jinenji felt the girl's uneasiness and scooted closer, placing an oversized hand on her shoulder.

That gave her strength to go on. "There's a lord… a Daimyo of Satsuma. He requested my hand in marriage. My parents said it was my decision. He's got the biggest samurai army I've ever heard of."

"You never said any of that…!" Kohaku cut her off, almost jumping from his place.

Kagome's hand entwined with her adoptive niece's. "Rin, you don't have to do something like that. We'll figure it out. A loveless marriage isn't the answer."

The girl frowned. "Then what is the answer, Kagome? What else can we do? We've been sitting. Waiting. I can't…!" Tears swelled up in her eyes. "Ah-Un can't have died for nothing… I want to avenge them."

"Rin, we can't let you do this…"

The teenager smiled. "I want to do this. If I can't fight, I'll help in any other way… Besides, it wouldn't be a loveless marriage. Lord Tsuyoshi cares about me, and I respect him. One day, I'll learn to love him back."

Shippo crawled to her and sat on her lap. "But you won't be happy."

"I won't be happy until those bastards pay… None of us can think of another way… I'll do this."

Jaken pouted. "You are brave, for a human."

Kohaku suddenly jerked from his place by the other end of the fire pit and stomped away. And Rin winced when she heard the door to the corridor slid shut with far more force than necessary.

"I should talk to him. Mom and dad had the same reaction…"

Kagome nodded, not at all convinced of the course of action Rin was planning on taking. Kirara purred in her lap, easing her worries away, and she managed to resume the conversation. "We need to get Rin out of this, there's got to be another way…"

"It's been four months, Kagome," Shippo mumbled. "We have thought of everything. Just being close to those assholes could kill a youkai."

"And the stronger a demon is, the more damage they seem to do to them," mused the kappa.

"But we can't force lesser youkai to fight them!"

"We talked about giving stronger demons reinforced human armors. The weight shouldn't be a problem given their enhanced strength. As long as they resist arrows and swords they should be alright," reminded Shippo.

"Yeah, but making customized armor for every youkai takes far more money and resources than any of us have."

"Maybe milord Sesshomaru could persuade the cardinal lords of lending their help?"

"Jaken, you know we are outcasts now. He relinquished the throne to mate a human. A miko. For them, we are as much of an enemy as Yutaka and his club of jerks," the kit chastised.

"Which brings us again to Rin's arranged marriage and the Daimyo's fortune."

Silence settled in heavily, and the whole group desperately tried to find a last minute solution, but nothing came.

"I'll just go talk to Rin," Kagome finally said. "Ask her to not do this. We'll find a way out."

She stood and walked the corridors, soon running into Kohaku and her niece in one of the tea rooms. She almost opened her mouth to announce herself when she realized, in the darkness, that both silhouettes where knotted in a fierce, passionate kiss.

Kagome's face turned a furious shade of red and she fled in complete silence.

"Did you talk to Rin?" Inquired the kitsune when she returned much sooner than anticipated.

"No need! She's definitely not going through with this." Kagome smiled with warm confidence… Which made it all the more unexpected when Rin announced her engagement to the Daimyo the next week.

Author's note: REMEMBER, I CAN'T UPLOAD THE NEXT CHAPTER UNTI THIS ONE GETS AT LEAST 2 REVIEWS.

Daimyo: A Japanese feudal lord