Chapter Twenty-One

At the sharp rap on the closed door, Sesshoumaru turned from rearranging the thin blanket protecting Kagome from the chill of the hospital room. "Enter," he called out. He'd informed the hospital staff that no one was to be allowed entrance without his express permission.

Doctor Takagawa strode purposefully through the doorway. A raw-boned, human nurse dourly followed him into the room. him. "Sesshoumaru-san," the doctor greeted amiably with a respectful nod. The catastrophe of the previous day fresh on his mind, Takagawa was determined to improve the Daiyoukai's impression of the hospital.

"You are here to remove the IV?" Sesshoumaru asked from her bedside. Kagome had been asleep for almost a full day now. Once the doctor had finished sewing the gash in her shoulder closed, he'd reiterated the need for her to sleep. Sesshoumaru had then convinced Kagome to accept a sedative.

Takagawa nodded in the affirmative. "The nurse will take care of that after I've given Higurashi a clean bill of health." Under the eagle eye of the protective male, the doctor proceeded to pull down the blanket to access her wound. Laying on her stomach, her gown was pushed aside to reveal the taped gauze.

"Here now," the doctor whispered reassuringly when she stirred uneasily in her sleep as the tape was pulled off. "Relax. I'll be done soon." She stilled under his expert touch, and he refrained from glancing at the other male. After only a day of the inuyoukai, the hospital staff would be glad to see him gone. Exacting, picky, and entirely too easily roused to anger when he felt the woman was being mistreated or not receiving the best care, the male would not be missed.

Already, Takagawa had been forced, under threat of lawsuit, to fire Nurse Mia. She'd been livid and had vowed to sue Higurashi and the intern Kira for assault. After a few minutes alone with the Daiyoukai, however, she had left without another word. The intern had been elevated to an administrative position within the financial department. A nice raise came with the position, and that was that.

At least the doctor hoped so. Even disinherited, the Daiyoukai could rain ruin upon the hospital administrative heads, if he so chose.

Satisfied that the wound was healing nicely and looked to be clear of infection, Dr. Takagawa relaxed. He straightened and met the inquisitive gaze of the other male. "She will be released as planned, Sesshoumaru-san." He took the chart from the nurse and began to sign off on the appropriate documentation. "The wound will need to stay dry for at least a week, so no showers. I have prescribed an antibiotic cream to help the healing process. I'll also prescribe an oral antibiotic, just to be on the safe side." He handed the sheath of papers back to the nurse before asking, "Do you have any questions?"

"When will the stitches need to come out?"

Takagawa did a swift mental calculation. "Around two weeks. The nurse will take care of the appointment. If there is any sign of infection, or if she experiences any dizziness or other odd symptoms, return immediately to the hospital to get it looked at."

Nodding to show he understood, Sesshoumaru turned back to Kagome. Accepting the curt dismissal with an objective shrug, Takagawa added, "And, as a warning, the paparazzi have gotten wind of your stay here. They have swarmed the lobby and have also staked out the back entrance. Security have been called in to deal with the situation, but there is only so much that they can do."

An irritated growl passed Sesshoumaru's clenched jaw. "I will deal with reporters."

Shivering slightly in the sudden chill of the room, Takagawa smiled apologetically. "Vultures, all of them. But, there is little I, or anyone else for that matter, can do about them."

"I said that I will take care of it," Sesshoumaru reiterated. The doctor's obvious fawning was grating on his last nerve.

Detecting the male's short temper, Takagawa bowed and left the room. He had no qualms about leaving the nurse to deal with the discharge.

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Thirty minutes later, Sesshoumaru carried Kagome toward the hospital lobby. The anxious nurse hovered behind him uselessly. At her insistence that all patients exiting the hospital must be pushed there in a wheelchair, he had merely scoffed. His strength was more than capable of handling the slight weight that rested so trustingly in his arms.

As soon as the elevator doors opened into the spacious entryway, a stream of flashes flared across his retinas. Composing his features into a façade of boredom, he proceeded to push his way through the crowd of humans. Youkai were conspicuously absent from the throng.

When one particularity daring human shoved a camera in Kagome's face, Sesshoumaru snarled in outrage. His mask of indifference gone, the red-eyed Daiyoukai hissed warningly, "Step away, human, or suffer the consequence of your folly."

His youki flared dangerously. On the scent of a big story, however, the intrepid reporters paid it no mind. They had been following the story of the inuyoukai since they were weaned on sensationalistic journalism in their cribs by parents who had spoken of his curse in excited whispers. Given the chance to add their own words to the legend surrounding him, they wouldn't back down.

Smelling blood, the sharks moved in for the kill. They circled the Daiyoukai and his precious cargo. Pressing in on all sides, cameras and microphones manifested as if by magic. Questions issued in loud, ringing tones filled the lobby with a cacophony of voices.

Presented with the wall of humans blocking his way out, Sesshoumaru felt his control begin to slip. To the Daiyoukai, it felt as if his mate was being threatened. He snarled and snapped his fangs at the assailants as they continued to film, heedless of the danger he represented. They jostled closer; filthy bodies that stank of greed and dishonor defiled his superior sense of smell.

The reporter that had been threatened previously decided to up the ante. The woman was still asleep in Sesshoumaru's arms. His sources had told him that she'd been sedated. How much better of a story would it be if he could get a shot of her first waking moments?

To that end, he slipped under the Daiyoukai's attention while the inuyoukai continued to push forcefully through the crowd. After ensuring that he was undetected in the mob, he took careful aim and threw his spare camera.

Kagome shot upright in Sesshoumaru's arms with a startled shriek when the small digital camera connected with her cheek. The camera dropped to the ground. The enraged roar of a feral Daiyoukai traveled over the assembled paparazzi.

In a moment that would be forever etched on the inner eyes of those watching, Sesshoumaru turned on the crowd with all the ferocious force of a crazed bull elephant. Electronic devices went flying along with those holding them. With no care for the frailty of the human bodies he mowed down, Sesshoumaru gave no mercy.

Finally detecting that he was unstoppable, the paparazzi scrambled for safety with the unerring instinct of rats on a sinking ship. Mere moments later, Sesshoumaru and Kagome were alone in the deserted lobby. Even the useless guards had run.

Giving a satisfied grunt, Sesshoumaru flicked his claws clean of vulture blood.

Wrapped safely in his arms, Kagome sniffed against his chest. "Can we go home now?" she asked softly.

"We will be there soon, Kagome," he murmured gently in reply as he walked them out of the lobby and into the parking lot. The stray camera snaps he heard were ignored. He cared not about the pictures taken as long as he didn't have to see the scum taking them.

Jaken met them at his car. He'd called the toad demon and ordered his Porshe brought around. Taking in the dark look his assistant slanted on the woman in his arms, Sesshoumaru scowled. "Is there something you want to say, Jaken?" he asked forbiddingly.

Shuddering, the toad swallowed thickly. "No, no, Sesshoumaru-sama. I was just, uh, bemoaning the chilly winds," he lied. If his Lord wanted to mate a human, then he would simply have to accept it. After all, his Lord could do no wrong. If he wanted the woman, then there must be some good reason for it. Perhaps she came with a large enough dowry to wash away the stain of her humanity?

Carefully arranged on the passenger seat, Kagome smiled at Sesshoumaru before he walked around the car to slide behind the wheel. "Get back to work," the Daiyoukai ordered the toad before closing the door.

While Kagome had been sleeping, he'd looked over Jaken's report. His prospects were almost set up. As a consultant, the requirements of his business wouldn't necessitate the manpower of a larger corporation but promised to be just as lucrative.

One hand on the wheel, Sesshoumaru started the engine. The car roared to life and was soon flying down the road to the shrine. The monk, Miroku, had claimed Kagome's satchel and had delivered it to Mrs. Higurashi for safekeeping. Perhaps now some answers could be had.

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"What have you done, Kagome?" Taking a sip of her tea, Mrs. Higurashi stared across her cup at her daughter.

Startled, Kagome's head cocked to the side. "What do you mean, Mama?"

Her mother picked up the magazine that laid innocently on the kitchen table beside her elbow. Opening it to the marked page, she slid it across the scarred, wooden surface.

Eyes widening, Kagome's attention was immediately snared by the headline and the pictures that accompanied it.

Renegade miko Vow: When good miko go bad.

Yesterday, a large crowd gathered at the Tokyo railway station. According to eye witnesses, Higurashi Kagome of the Sunset Shrine, a miko of an unknown power level, was attacked. During the ensuing fracas, she created a barrier to protect herself.

As her power flared, Higurashi was unable to prevent the barrier's growth. Soon, the entire station had to be evacuated. The crowds waiting to board the bullet train were literally pushed out into the open.

Arriving on the scene, Takaneda Miroku, a police investigator under the direction of the Sheriff Naraku, soon overpowered the barrier with the help of the Western Heir, Inuyasha.

Immediately sending for an ambulance, Takaneda escorted emergency personnel to the downed miko. It was then discovered that Sesshoumaru, the denounced heir of the Western Province, had been injured most grievously in the power surge. Both Higurashi and Sesshoumaru were dispatched to the hospital.

Only drained from the power usage, Higurashi recovered within hours. The Daiyoukai that some have cited as being a possible contender for the title of Grand General-a title that has been held by his father for more than seven centuries-laid in a complete coma for more than eight hours.

After a brief power struggle with the head nurse, in which the nurse was cruelly attacked, Higurashi disobeyed proper medical procedure and broke quarantine to enter Sesshoumaru's room.

The events which followed are not fully known, but a few pictures were snapped by a dedicated correspondent just outside the windows. Our experts in miko culture have confirmed the fact that Higurashi performed the ancient Vow on the helpless Daiyoukai.

Pitifully ill, he was unable to do anything but attempt to unseat the miko who so scandalously clung to his naked body.

It had been assumed during these past few weeks that the Daiyoukai had been considering the miko as a mate. One can only wonder if he would have reconsidered the alliance given her blatant disrespect of his person and her complete disregard for his right to refuse her claim.

It is a moot point, as the choice has been made for him. Those of us at 'The Daily Intrepid' can only render our condolences for the ensnared Daiyoukai. We can only hope that other miko do not take advantage of this newfound power and attempt to enslave yet another youkai of Sesshoumaru's former stature.

Kagome sucked in a shocked breath. There, alongside the slanderous article, were pictures of Sesshoumaru and her. She hadn't even taken notice of the fact that he had been naked! She'd been more worried about keeping him alive than to note something so unimportant at the time!

Tears sprang to her eyes as she reread the article. How could they assume something like that? That she had 'ensnared' him? He was going to die! If she'd waited to ask him, she would have been waiting forever!

Sesshoumaru chose that moment to walk into the kitchen. He'd been speaking with Hiten and Manten about the security measures around the shrine. They had been oddly quiet around him but had also been significantly more respectful. It was something to mull over later.

Once the scent of Kagome's tears came to him, all thoughts of the Thunder Brothers and their odd behavior fled his mind. "What is wrong? What happened?" he demanded to know. "Did you pull your stitches?"

Unable to reply, Kagome silently handed him the magazine.

After reading the damning words, Sesshoumaru ripped the magazine in half. "Fools," he hissed in outrage. It was bad enough that he was depicted as being weak-willed enough to be trapped unwillingly. For the insinuations slanted against Kagome they would pay, and pay dearly. He would see to it personally.

"Kagome," Mrs. Higurashi interrupted the vicious thoughts of the Daiyoukai, "why did you do something like that?"

"Mama, it wasn't anything like what they're saying! Sesshoumaru, he-" Kagome's whispered explanation was cut off by the Daiyoukai laying a restraining hand on her uninjured shoulder.

"I asked her to be my mate. As such, it was within her rights to protect and defend me by any means necessary. That is all the explanation anyone else deserves. Even you, if you insist on treating Kagome as if she was guilty of some crime," he stated authoritatively. Though the reminder that he had been weak chafed his ego, a surge of pride enveloped him at the reminder of Kagome's strength in his time of need.

Taking offense to the hard line he had drawn, Mrs. Higurashi frowned. "Her rights? What rights do you speak of? My daughter is human and is not yet your mate. She is still bound by the laws of humans. Those laws were created for a purpose. Especially," she added with a sorrowful look for her daughter, "those that pertain to priestesses. Kagome, I accepted it when you decided to forgo your heritage. I embraced your decision to be courted by this Daiyoukai. How could you take something so sacred to our kind and pervert it into something so wrong?"

"Wrong? Perverted?" Sesshoumaru growled over Kagome's shoulder. His normally extensive vocabulary failed him in that moment. "What idiocy do you speak of, old woman!"

The tea cup rattled as Mrs. Higurashi set it down on the saucer. She ignored the Taiyoukai, turning beseeching eyes on her daughter in the hopes of salvaging the situation. "Kagome, how do you think the people who depend upon this shrine for their spiritual needs will feel once they learn of your actions? You turned your back on their need, but gave the Vow to Sesshoumaru? A single entity means more to you than the entirety of the village this shrine serves?"

Sighing, Kagome refused to look away from her mother's faintly condemning gaze. "I wasn't thinking about anything but keeping Sesshoumaru alive, Mama. It was the only way I could do so. I thought you, of all people, would understand. I thought you said love was worth sacrificing everything for!"

Mrs. Higurashi shook her head. "No, Kagome. I only spoke of children and love. There are some things that must always take precedence. Even over love. Maintaining the sanctity of miko traditions is one of them. We are already under attack by naysayers, and now you have handed them yet another reason to abolish the Vow completely!"

"If the system is so flawed that her actions to save a life can topple it completely, then perhaps it is for the best," Sesshoumaru snarled.

"Youkai know nothing of the value of what a miko can offer!" Mrs. Higurashi shouted in a rare show of temper. "You, with your powers and strengths, cannot comprehend what it means to us humans! You sleep soundlessly at night, assured of your superiority. We must go through each day knowing that there are those of your kind who would dispose of us as if we were refuse!"

"Mama!" Kagome admonished, shocked.

Sesshoumaru silenced her with a gentle shake. "No, Kagome. Let her speak. I would hear what she would say."

"Do you see? Even in my own home, I am subjected to your will! For myself, I feel no animosity towards youkai. I will turn none away who seek my counsel or aid. But it is for the humans, our kind," Mrs. Higurashi added in a pointed aside to Kagome, "that I strive to create equality. To do so, the power balance between the two races must be maintained! You have tipped the scale in youkai favor with your actions, and it is this that I do condemn, Kagome!"

Speechless, Kagome stared at her mother dumbly. Where had her mother hid this virulence all these years? If she felt such things, why had she been so supportive of their mating? she wondered.

Asking himself the same thing, Sesshoumaru glared at the older woman. "So your words of acceptance in regards to this Sesshoumaru mating your daughter were lies."

Kagome's mother gasped. She held a trembling hand to her chest. "I would never lie to my daughter! Had you accepted her as a human instead of trying to turn her into a youkai, this never would have happened!"

Prodded by the injustice of her mother's accusation, Kagome was moved to defend Sesshoumaru. "He never once asked me to change, Mama. Not once! Compromise between two people is natural, not something to be looked down upon! If anything, he is the one who has forsaken his own beliefs on my behalf!"

Sensing Kagome's upset escalating, Sesshoumaru began massaging her neck soothingly.

Kagome wearily closed her eyes before relaxing against his welcome presence. "I won't have you disrespect him, Mama. He's nothing like what you describe youkai to be. How could you be so like those that would condemn us for our feelings?" After everything her mother had revealed about her own past, how could she still be so blind?

Mrs. Higurashi took a deep, calming breath. "I will not apologize for my feelings. I do not hate youkai, and I never will. I hope for the day when humans and youkai will live in true equality. What I regret is the stain you have placed upon my vocation. For what you have done… Do you not realize that some would see it as an act of a dark miko?"

Shooting to sit upright, Kagome was saved from having to reply by Sesshoumaru's fierce snarl.

"You speak blasphemy! She is no more a dark miko than I am! Any who would say otherwise will retract their words at the point of my sword!"

"Oh?" Mrs. Higurashi uttered coldly. "Do you speak your own mind, or has the power of my daughter's Vow seduced you into protecting that which you have no right to hold?"

His hackles rose at the older woman's brittle tone and hateful insinuation. "Kagome is my mate. Her life now lies within my care, not yours. Any doubts you may now harbor will serve no purpose but to estrange your daughter," he finally said when he felt he was capable of speaking. His fingers tightened on Kagome's shoulder.

For her part, Kagome's eyes burned with unshed tears. She stared at her mother as if she were a stranger. And, indeed, in this moment, she felt as if the older woman seated across from her was no more than that.

"Mama," Kagome finally whispered, "Why are you saying these things? I don't understand. I'm still me. I'm still Kagome, your daughter. Nothing has changed about that. Sesshoumaru," she said, a hand slipping up to cover the one that rested on her shoulder, "accepted my Vow. I didn't force it on him. He won't abuse it, I know that with absolute certainty. Souta has already said that he plans on following grandpa and studies to develop his budding spiritual powers. Surely the people will accept his protection in place of mine and be happy for it."

Shaking her head sadly, Mrs. Higurashi's shoulders slumped. "You are too headstrong to listen to what I am trying to tell you. You were always so stubborn! I allowed it because I love you, and because I saw so much of your father in you. Now, I can see that I should have stopped letting you go your own way, provided you with a more restrained upbringing. What you have done, I do not know if it can be rescinded. It is unprecedented, a Vow being wasted upon one person, be they youkai or human."

"She will not take it back," Sesshoumaru declared venomously. "What has been given was accepted. I will cherish your daughter. I will protect and care for her. Her soul and her power resides safely within my own soul. You will not condemn her for following her heart in this! You will accept her and her actions!"

The older woman stood on resolute legs. She looked down upon her daughter sadly. "I'm afraid that is something that I won't do. If you cannot at least apologize for what you have done, Kagome, then I must ask you to leave and not come back until you see the error of your ways."

At Kagome's shocked inhalation, Mrs. Higurashi continued with false bravado, "I will always take you back, Kagome. But I cannot, in good conscience, give countenance to your actions. We can weather this storm together, my daughter. Please trust me that it would be best if you worked with me to end this travesty of what the Vow stands for," she pleaded soulfully. "I know others, older miko who have knowledge of ancient texts. Perhaps, within them, we may find a solution. If it is only love for your youkai that you would hesitate, think on this: he was willing to take you without the Vow. Why won't he support you sundering it when it would mean the difference between losing your own family or having your family and your love?"

Lowering her head, Kagome felt Sesshoumaru's helpless rage beat against her aura in agitation. She knew he wanted to strike out physically, but he held back for her sake. Her honorable Daiyoukai.

"Sesshoumaru," Kagome murmured softly. "Take me home, please."