Whew, so now Akemi's free to wander back to the safe environs of Sesshoumaru's "den". heheh, not exactly.

Nothing is ever that easy in any fanfic I write because it was never that easy in the original Rumiko Takahashi Inuyasha Universe. Something always has to go wrong, make things complicated and difficult. But then I wouldn't be half so fun to read otherwise. Heh.

"Lost One"

One day, far into the future, the world will have learned enough of all its peoples to fully appreciate and admire each for the many unique traits, customs and rites for the sake of all the differences, instead of only admiring where personal gain can possibly result from these peculiarities.

For currently, the whole of society was unable to admire without referencing what the admired could do for themselves. We admire selflessness for the benefit it gives unto others – indirectly, ourselves. We befriend and cater to wealth for the money that inevitably spills onto the people surrounding it. And if we do not admire something, then there is nothing to be gained from admiring it.

Akemi had been widely admired and liked before her torment drove her to seek refuge in the wilds years ago. Word of her reappearance in the known world spread quickly like wild fire, spreading its influence outward from her actual presence in rapid ripples of unimaginable effect. And all the things she had been admired for were suddenly expected to be re instituted as though she had never dropped such behavior, been driven out of her mind and from society by them.

The problem with Akemi, Sesshoumaru decided, was the number of names attributed to her because of that moment in which she broke. As Akemi, simple female of the Taishou pack, betrothed female of the Western Heir, the expectation was that she would fill the roll of primary female of the pack and partner him in the cardinal seat upon the current Inu no Taishou's imminent retirement. In such a roll, she was important to the other cardinal lords and all of the lesser lords in the council that had decided her pardon today. They would begin to look at her and maneuver around her to learn how best to negotiate with or around her to get to him.

For even if Sesshoumaru disclaimed the position and title, no one else had yet to be declared heir so the old claim still stood. He was still the official heir and he looked, in the public sight, to be soon father to his own heirs by the same female as had always been planned.

The lesser lords at council were more worrisome than the cardinals. The lesser lords were always jockeying for more power, more influence. They could not aspire to the cardinal seats which were appointed positions, typically influenced by blood-lines. But the Cardinal lords did not decide everything. And even if they did, the best way to influence beyond your sphere, was to cozy up to one in power. Sesshoumaru had always disdained the sycophants. But they might think that "crazy" Akemi would be susceptible to a great deal. Worse, they could presume to threaten her to get their way, and being Feral she wouldn't know the official and correct ways to deal with it.

He had no doubt that Akemi would see strait through the liars and flatterers. She lived a simpler way and had so far proven better able to pick up the nuances in the behavior of others than he'd ever thought possible. But the threats, verbal or otherwise, were a real threat to be considered and worried over.

But that was a problem for another day.

Currently, his worry was reserved for the more prevalent issue of one of his alpha's other names.

The ones that dubbed Akemi their "Lost One".

He hadn't realized how big a problem they might present until he and the rest of Akemi's escort attempted to take her back to what she termed his "den".

Akemi had been through a rather trying day and there were documented cases where excessive emotional trauma had prompted miscarriage during early pregnancy. This was especially true in multiples as the stress of carrying so many at once was a great deal higher. Sesshoumaru couldn't imagine that it would be particularly good for her health to suffer anymore incidences so soon after having been put through the council situation.

Sesshoumaru may not have a perfect understanding of what exactly made a Feral tick, even where just his alpha was concerned, but it had to have been stressful for her. Hell even a non-feral would have found being handcuffed and dragged before such powerful figures would have found it terribly difficult to deal with while successfully refraining from going on the offensive. It was a natural impulse when threatened, to attack that which threatened you.

That Akemi hadn't pursued this natural response, despite how the appalling treatment had actually managed to draw blood, as he discovered upon closer inspection once freed of the Council's presence, only spoke to him of how great a strain she had put herself to in order to refrain. For his limited experience with his alpha since rediscovering her lead him to believe that Ferals lived their lives more in tune with their instincts than non-ferals generally seemed to. She couldn't have liked that situation and restraint of that nature could be taxing.

But, the council situation had followed on the heels of several other events fraught with similar nuances of stress and emotional difficulty. None of which could have been foreseen or prevented.

So all Sesshoumaru desired was to bring his alpha to the insured quiet and safety of the house he built for her. Far away from further vexation and prejudices.

What he saw upon their return to the Taishou private grounds, made his desires all but impossible to achieve.

There, stationed outside the wide edge of Kagome's powerful, protective barrier, lay in wait massive numbers of the Broken Pack. Like the obsessive fans or religious zealots, they milled about outside the place their idol, their alpha would be taking up residence with absolutely no signs of ever departing. They even had tents and campfires littering the grounds mere feet from galvanic spark of the miko powered shield that kept all strangers outside the house and immediate grounds itself.

There was no way to get Akemi through to the peace inside without making it through the crowd and Sesshoumaru greatly doubted she could handle the crush of so many strange youkai attempting to touch her.

Hell, he didn't think he could handle that many people trying to lay hands on the female baring his young. No way.

"Perhaps we had better head to the main house and see if a solution presents itself after we have a chance to observe unseen for a time," Kikyou suggested upon perceiving this latest problem herself. It was fairly clear she didn't think it wise to take what had to be a high strung feral into a throng of youkai liable to semi-worship her on-sight. "I had not expected so great a crowd to arrive this quickly."

Morenda snorted, "The Broken Pack spreads news like a telephone-wire. Or perhaps a better analogy would be broadcasting it on the radio." She commented as she gently steared the convertible towards the big house of the Inu no Taishou. "She is the only one lost from our pack suddenly returned to us. It is hardly surprising we would come to be close to her." The kuroneko shrugged idly. "There has been a decidedly lacking sense of security which Kagome can only slightly sooth. Kagome wasn't the one who protected them during the worst of the hell we all lived through. Akemi was."

The car was parked discreetly around the side of the massive structure that had sheltered Sesshoumaru as a pup. Huge, nay gargantuan, he'd always felt slightly lost inside it. A feeling that had only left him when Akemi was there to fill up the space, bringing the size down to a comfortable level. Otherwise the place had always felt cavernous in its emptiness.

"We're just lucky Kagome taught her that trick of hiding her scent," Morenda continued, "otherwise they'd be over here already."

Quickly they smuggled Akemi into the Taishou mansion before the alarm could be raised that the awaited idol had switched lodgings on the masses. Sesshoumaru lead the way to the other side of the building and into his father's building, a room that offered a sufficient view of their latest challenge in getting his alpha safely through her first day outside the wilds.

"Do you think we should call for backup?" Morenda asked after concluding there was no chance of out waiting the crowd. "Kagome and her colleagues might be able to open a path in."

"I think the Taishou would be against inviting miko not of his clan onto his home grounds," Miroku called from the open doorway behind them.

"Miroku," Morenda called to the unorthodox monk she'd come to trust over the years in Kagome's care. He wasn't a bad sort, if a bit randy in his sense of humor. She'd come to understand that he'd even been something of a lech before Sango had finally taken him on as her own. Nowadays he wasn't a threat to the female back side. And he never meant any harm in his flirtatious teasing. "What are you doing here? Sango can't possibly be home yet."
On days that Sango was required in council, Miroku's job was to watch their three kids, a job he generally partnered with Inuyasha's watch of his own pups. He wasn't released from this responsibility until the senior Taijiya returned home. "The kids disappeared on us," he sighed. "Inuyasha went to check out there and I picked the house." the monk glanced out the window at the uninvited guests camped out on what had been well manicured grounds. "They started showing up shortly after you left this morning and the numbers increase with every passing hour. The kids have been a bit excited about the hubbub and unmanageable all day."

"Then why did you even bother to check up here?" Sesshoumaru asked.

"Because it was possible all the strange youkai would scare them into coming here to hide where no one was at home," the monk answered. "Each of the kids has a different personality and all have the ability to sense youki."

"Being as young as they are it could scare them as easily as draw them closer," Kikyou nodded. It all depended on how deeply they understood their abilities and how timid each was by nature. "So you took the house because Inuyasha would be better equipped to find them out there."

"Something like that," Miroku nodded. "We've been searching for about an hour but have yet to find a one of them."

"Beside the baby?" Morenda asked. Surely Kagome's infant son hadn't managed to lose them too.

Miroku shook his head. "Takara made sure not to leave her brother behind. She'd been doing that a lot lately."

"Great," Morenda grumbled. "So we not only have to find some way to get Akemi past the Broken Pack but some how manage to find five small children and hanyou and monk managed to lose."

"Speaking of Akemi," Miroku looked around. "Where is she?"

Sesshoumaru whipped around to look at the monk in surprise at the question before quickly inspecting the room for his alpha. With a sigh he noted that she was, indeed, once again missing from their company. "Damnit!"

Akemi had once again found something else to hold her attention. The problem the others were discussing had no real importance to her as she couldn't quite see what it was. There were strange youkai gathered outside the den her male intended to shelter her in but her escort had indicated these youkai were also considered part of her pack and therefore not a threat. She could deal with peripheral touching as she'd been forced to endure all day. So long as no one tried to hold her down or trap her in place, she would be fine.

And as she had successfully dismissed the problem absorbing the others, she was perfectly capable of taking note of a different scent in currently infiltrating the house than those of her entourage. One that wasn't in the direction the rest were headed. An aroma that snuck in on the mild breeze blowing through a door that lead into a small barren wilderness that was far too regular to fully remind her of the wilds she normally called home.

There were clearly defined paths staked out between overgrown patches of dormant branches and weeds, all leading towards a circular pond. The dark, murky water reflected the upside down image of the gray sculpture that protruded from the center of it, jutting up to about even with her middle another pool of still water reflecting nothing more than the sky above it. Something about the pond struck her as wrong. It should not be so still. Somehow she knew the upper pool should be dripping over the sides of its basin and brightly colored bodies darting under the fall of it.

She focused so hard on the water she almost forgot she was following a scent until movement reflected from the other side of the pond caught her attention.

There was a girl standing there carefully cradling a baby against her front and watching her. "You're that youkai mommy helped last night," the child identified her. "Are you supposed to be wandering around now? There was a lot of blood. I helped clean it up."

"I am sorry," Akemi apologized a bit confused as to how to deal with this situation. The children in the hospital place had not been quite so pointed in telling her about herself. They'd asked questions, true, but they had not dismissed the answers before she managed to speak.

"It's all right. Nothing to be sorry for," the amber eyed pup scoffed. "You came to mommy for help and survived because of it. That's a good thing. It couldn't be a bad thing if uncle Sesshoumaru. brought you."

"Uncle?" Akemi was unfamiliar with the various terms for family as yet, though she was slowly gaining an understanding for names. There were so many non-ferals, names identified the individuals.

"My papa's brother," the girl nodded. "that's uncle Sesshoumaru." Ah, so it was a term identifying a specific relation. Akemi didn't understand the need for such words within pack, but non-ferals were always strange and had strange ways.

"The male is inside," Akemi nodded her understanding to the pup.

"Probably trying to figure out a way past the crowd," the child nodded in response. "You can't just walk into that type of situation. They're liable to do crazy things. Papa and Uncle Miroku warned us not to go there."

Akemi glanced to the babe in her arms and wondered how the child could think a pup so young could go out there alone. Before the child continued. "But you know Hiro couldn't be bothered to listen and wherever he goes, Mari and Kaoru must follow. He's the oldest after all. Idiots."

"So you came here instead?" Akemi inquired. It seemed strange of a child to come out here where no one could watch her.

"I always come here after I get mad," the girl answered. "Nobody else does 'cause it used to be Uncle Sesshoumaru's garden and he wouldn't let anybody else in it. I like it here, though I wish it wasn't so ugly. Nobody takes care of it anymore."

Akemi glanced around absently. "There used to be flowers," she observed before realizing the flowers she remembered were nothing like the ones found in the wild. The flowers in the wild were hardy, small things that served a purpose. "Brightly colored and waving under the sun."

"Were there?" the pup sounded delighted at the mere idea. "Sometimes in the summer there are dandelions and what my mom called lilies. Were there pink flowers?"

Akemi hadn't realized she knew what pink was until she was called upon to recall the color of flowers in this small place and nodded without thinking about it. "And red ones. There were orange ones with yellow stripes and little bright sky colored ones." It was strange how some of the colors remained while others didn't.

"I wish I could see it," the pup sighed wistfully. "But grandpa won't hear of anyone working in this garden. Mommy says it reminds him of his failures to his son and – and," the girl glanced sharply up at her "-and another youkai that was precious to them all."

"You disappeared again," Sesshoumaru arrived on the scene once more.

Akemi glanced up at him before returning her gaze to the pup still wishing to see a garden of color were only grays no lived. "There used to be fish here," she told the child quietly, failing to note how her male's eyes widened at the disclosure. "Bright, fat ones." the child giggled at the idea.

"Takara," Sesshoumaru identified his niece sternly. "Inuyasha and Miroku have been looking for you for."

Takara ducked at the information, careful not to jostle her brother over much. "I know," she sighed. "I was just mad and wanted to get away from that idiot Hiro."

"Then why did you take your brother?" Sesshoumaru demanded gently. Well acquainted with the desire to be alone in this particular garden with his anger. It looked as though the place had not been kept up in his absence.

"Because he's pack," Takara answered like it was obvious. "He shouldn't be left out just because he can't walk and talk yet."

"You are right," Akemi answered gently. "Pack should not be abandoned or left behind. Any of it," she added pointedly in Sesshoumaru's direction. "You should return to where you belong, little one, as I should go meet some more of my pack as well."

"You're going out there?" Takara asked in amazement. "They -"

"They are my pack, or so I have been told," Akemi answered. "Just because a situation offers difficulty does not mean it should be avoided and I am hungry."

Sesshoumaru started, "We should have gotten you something while we were out."

"Uncle Sesshoumaru," Takara called to her uncle. "We can bring her something if you want. I mean she's probably really hungry. Mommy always was with Shin. And you can trust us to bring her good things. I know how to tell. Mommy taught me. Papa and I could bring it over right after you get through. Or, or um, the Broken Pack will probably be willing to supply food. We can weed out what's safe before you even get to the house."

Akemi considered the child thoughtfully. Anything that Takara could miss wouldn't get by Akemi's own ability to sense out spoiled food unsafe for her fetal pups, "It will be nice not to have to wait for a successful hunt before I eat." She was really quite hungry and could certainly live without the flavor a hunt put into the meat this once.

Sesshoumaru blinked at her and realized she hadn't eaten since before the disastrous hunting lesson the day before. How could he have missed that?