A/N The last few chapters were rather short and this chapter is as well, so I decided not to make you wait.
Beta; Cstorm86

The Kami's Punishment

No sound came from the other side of the gift shop. It was as if the world stopped whatever was happening and held its breath. All Kagome could hear was the rushing of blood in her ear. And all her mind did was to swirl in panic. And yet, the thought she sent to Inuyasha, who was standing up, was sharply clear.

'He's the kami.' It wasn't really a question.

'Yes,' the hanyou confirmed plainly.

'He's the kami,' she repeated. 'He is the kami and he is standing in front of us. The mountain kami. The one who dwells in our shrine.'

'Yes,' Inuyasha's voice held a bit of concern at her mind's voice's tone.

'He is the kami and I yelled at him,' she informed him faintly.

Now, finally, for a brief second, their minds both matched in trepidation. Then they parted, Kagome's swallowed by guilt and Inuyasha's set in determination. They bowed as one.

"I'm so sorry!"

"Don't punish her, punish me!"

Their voices sounded at the same second.

"What? No, you didn't do anything wrong, Inuyasha," Kagome glanced to the side where the shrine guardian was bowing. "It's all me, so I should be punished, not you!"

She dreaded what the kami would do to her, after all she'd just yelled at him, but she was sure that Inuyasha was innocent in all this. He didn't deserve to suffer for her actions.

A light chuckle stopped her mind from venturing too far into wondering what a deity could see fit as a punishment to his miko. She dared to glance up to the kami, who still stood there, his hands resting on his obi. She gaped when he caught her eye and... winked.

"Stand up. A punishment," the kami said, sounding amused and thoughtful. "Well, that can be arranged. You shall dance the kagura for us."

"But... I was already going to do that!" Kagome gasped and saw him lift his hand to point a finger at Inuyasha, who blinked. "Oh."

"You have spilled blood under the Sacred Tree and albeit the ground has been cleansed, we are still... somewhat cross. So, you shall perform a kagura to appease us," the kami told the hanyou, who stared at the tip of his finger. Which just switched to point at Kagome. The miko tensed and gulped when she saw a spark in these dark brown eyes. "You will..." Kagome held her breath. "... bring us books. Lots and lots of books. We wish to acquire ourselves with more of your works and other things of a similar genre. We wish to broaden our knowledge of what humans envision when they think of spiritual worlds and entities."

Kagome stared, helplessly, at the figure radiating warmth and mirth.

She'd just yelled at a man, who turned out to be the kami of the mountain. Who turned out to be a geek.

"But... I can't dance, it's a priest thing!" Inuyasha finally spoke, totally missing what the weirder request had been. "And I don't have the coat and the bells!"

"That shall not be a hindrance for long," the man waved his hand elegantly and when Kagome blinked, Inuyasha's shoulders were covered in a mantle similar to her own. Golden bells tinkled on the staff designed to look like a branch, ribbons trailing to the ground. "You are not the keeper, but the guardian. And you will do well not to question our decisions. Now, go, both of you," he waved his hands as if to shoo wayward birds from a porch. "We stayed between seconds for long enough, the sun is going to set soon."

Kagome and Inuyasha, confused and stunned, looked at each other and then ran off - Kagome towards the stage, Inuyasha to where the Sacred Tree stood tall over the forest.

"Yama-sama," the kami didn't flinch or turn to look at the ghost of an aged miko that appeared a respectful distance away. "This old lady has a feeling you did that all on purpose."

"It is the day of the festival to honor us," the man who had introduced himself as Yama smiled. "We can treat ourselves once in a while."

.

After what had happened during the last few minutes, Kagome didn't really notice that people were watching her approach the stage. Her grandpa handed her bells - the same that Inuyasha had gotten - and patted her on her shoulder. The crowd was silent when she stood in the center of the stage, a man behind her kneeling with a small drum.

In her head she knew that Inuyasha was at the foot of the Sacred Tree, where no one was going to see him - all patrons and visitors were gathered around the stage.

'Do you remember the steps?' Inuyasha asked. The tone of his voice was almost as it had been during their training.

'Achingly so. What about you?' she lifted her hand, making sure not to make the bells sound just yet. She dared a glance towards the gathered people and saw Miroku, Sango and Kohaku next to Souta and her mom right near the steps to the stage. She also caught a glimpse of the girl who always tried to hit on her hanyou. She looked pretty in her yukata and hair in a bun. A not nice part of Kagome was pleased that the girl wasn't aware that not too far away Inuyasha was going to perform the same dance and only she, Kagome, would be a somewhat witness to that.

And then the drummer started to play and Kagome focused on the kagura and Inuyasha. It was better than focusing on the crowd watching her.

They lifted their bells and twisted their wrists to produce a soft chime. A step, a slow turn, a sweeping motion of the hand... Clapping. Bells chiming. The heavy mantle trailing behind her as they moved. With grace she'd worked so hard on and he was born to, they bowed and rose, turned and swayed, following the pattern so many times performed at the shrine. Her, seen by a gathering of mostly humans, him unseen by any eyes other that the kami himself. In harmony brought from their mind bond, touching each other's thoughts to act in the same way, they danced, reiki and youki slowly, steadily rising to the darkening sky where the sun set and the stars twinkled. It drifted and twirled together, unseen by most humans and making those who could see it gasp in awe at the sight akin to aurora across the sky.

When at the last step they clapped their hands and bowed their heads, their motion ceased, the kami smiled and spread his hands, blessing those that witnessed the dance.

As the crowd clapped and voiced their approval, then dispersed for some more fun activities before the festival was going to end and joy, the man who had called himself Yama patted the two stone komainu and walked towards the shrine, vanishing a few steps before he reached it.

A small girl holding a stuffed two-headed dragon toy watched the aurora dissipating into the evening night. She tilted her head, wondering why the youki felt so... familiar. The investigation of that had to wait though, she was following a faint trail that had a tendency to disappear and reappear as it led her across a big part of the human world.

She almost squealed when after walking some more among the people that luckily were too busy enjoying themselves to pay attention to her, she saw a young woman. She looked like a shadow of herself, her energy impossible to sense. But the girl recognized her face and the way she waved a hand at a group of other young women around her.

The little girl walked slowly towards the woman, making sure that she could see her. Her heart tightened when the young woman's rusty brown eyes lingered on her only for a moment before looking away.

"Hey, are you looking for your mom?" asked a friendly voice beside her. The girl turned her head calmly and saw a teenage boy with a badger stuck to the front of his kimono. It said that his name was Souta. He had a concerned look on his face.

"Oh, no," she smiled. "Rin already found her mother," she added politely, waving a hand towards no one in particular. Then she ran off waving at the boy. But she didn't run to join her mother.

She ran to go fetch her father.

.