They were outside for art class, and it was unseasonably hot. They were well into autumn now, they shouldn't be sweating this much. The whole of the year group was together though, so Kagome and Shizuka were sitting together as they worked on their drawings – the assignment of the day being simply to draw something that they could see around the school, be it a tree, a flower, or some structure.

Watanuki and Himawari weren't that far away from them, and another group of girls weren't far beyond them. Still, they were far enough away that each little group considered themselves 'alone' with their company.

"It's hot!" came the loud complaint from one of those girls, attracting attention with her two words.

"You're right," agreed one of her friends.

"I liked this in spring or fall, but at the beginning of summer? I wish the teacher would think of us," the other of her friends added.

Then the girl ripped up her paper, getting shocked stares from those who had been watching, and stood.

"Wh-what's wrong?" asked one of her friends.

"I'm fed up with this," she answered.

Kagome stared at the girl's back. Two little wings were sticking out, looking innocent and beautiful, but... Oh the feel of them, even from so far away, made her shiver. Those wings gave her the same feeling as Kikyo's soul collecting insects had. That, Kagome knew, was never a good feeling to get.

"Wait a moment!" Kagome called to the girl, and set her drawing board aside. "Don't move. There's a large insect on your back," Kagome said as she hurried up, pulling out from her pocket the handkerchief she had so far been using to blot her sweat. "I wouldn't want it to sting you, let me just..."

"Eh?!" the girl nearly demanded. "Just brush it away!"

"But then it might sting me," Kagome pointed out as she brought the cloth up around the wings, her hands charged with her power as she closed the cloth around them and pulled. "Got it!" she said happily as she quickly tied a knot, trapping the thing inside.

"Ah, thank you," the girl said, smiling gently, and bowed slightly before she bent to pick up her drawing board and sighed. "I'm going to get some new paper, and find somewhere not so hot to draw. Again, thank you," she said, and bowed again – Kagome returned the gesture – and the girl and her friends left together to find somewhere else to draw.

"Ne, Kagome-chan, what were you doing? I didn't see any insect on her back," Himawari said as she hurried up to her. "But there's definitely something wrapped up in your handkerchief," she noted with wide eyes.

"Shizuka-kun, did you see what I caught?" Kagome asked.

He frowned. "Not clearly," he answered. "I thought it was just a print on her shirt... which would be against school regulations..."

"It was wings," Watanuki said. "You remember, in the library yesterday, when I found that feather?" he asked the other boy. "When Yuko-san noticed it, she told me: 'be very careful, being game is dangerous'."

"'Game'?" Doumeki repeated.

"What sort of game could she be talking about?" Himawari asked, equally confused.

Watanuki shrugged helplessly. "I have no idea," he admitted. "Am I game to do something, but should be careful of it? Am I supposed to play a game?"

"No, Watanuki-san," Kagome said solemnly. "Perhaps if Yuko-san had used the word 'prey' instead of 'game', you would have understood better? It is a creature that steals souls."

Watanuki blanched, Himawari gasped, and Shizuka's eyes fixed and narrowed on the bundle that Kagome still held.

"Kagome-chan, how is it that you are familiar with such a thing?" Shizuka asked, concern clear in his eyes.

"I'm not," Kagome answered. "Not exactly. In the past, I've encountered soul collecting insects that took away the souls of the dead, preventing them from passing on to the next life, but this is the first time I've seen one latched onto a person who was living. It looks different, but the aura is very much the same."

"I hope you will tell me the story some day," Shizuka said softly.

Kagome nodded in acquiescence. "I think I want to take this thing to Yuko-san," she said. "I know that Sesshoumaru would destroy it, rather than track down the owner. He has little care for such matters. I'm pretty good at following these things, but I'd be physically chasing it around, and in the middle of Tokyo, that's not exactly the best idea."

"You think Yuko-san would be able to do something?" Watanuki asked. "She wouldn't without you paying a price for it."

"I am prepared to accept that," Kagome answered with resolve, and just a hint of a smirk. "We may have to offer a bribe to be permitted to watch though," she added thoughtfully. "Watanuki-san, what things does Yuko-san like?"

"Sweets and alcohol," Watanuki answered at once, voice flat.

Kagome nodded. "Then we'll stop by the shops to buy some for her on our way there," she decided, and for the rest of the day kept a close eye on the bundle that was wrapped up in her handkerchief and kept there by her aura.

"Yuko-san!" Kagome called as she unerringly followed Watanuki onto the witch's property after they'd stopped by the supermarket, with Shizuka and Himawari at her sides even, looking around in wonder. "We come bearing chocolates and calvados!"

"Really?" Yuko-san asked, a happy grin on her face as she slammed her own front door open.

"As well as a little something extra that I thought you might be interested in," Kagome added, and held up the bundle she'd caught the wings in, a grim expression on her face that was soon matched by the older woman. "We all came today with the hope to watch what you might do with it."

"Hai," Yuko-san agreed solemnly. "Though normally I would say that at least Doumeki-kun has no need of my shop... Please go around the side of the house to the garden," she instructed. "But give Watanuki the chocolates and calvados to put away in the kitchen," she added with a smile.

Only a few minutes later, the collected group of four high school students, two soulless girls, and Mokona, watched silently as Yuko-san wove her magic around the set of wings, transforming them into a construct of her own.

"Oh man-made heteromorph... become my creation... and morph to take on this new shape!" Yuko-san commaned, and her scarf wrapped around the angel-like wings until a large butterfly appeared in their place. "Now race! To the location where schemes brew!" Yuko-san ordered – and the giant butterfly was off, the scarf trailing long behind, stretching and growing longer when it should not have.

The butterfly flew up, up, away... but then the scarf came falling back down.

"It was cut," Mokona noted.

"Its creator noticed and hit it with power," Yuko-san answered. "But," she added with a dangerous smile. "Now I've found him!" she added, just a little ferociously.

"Ano," Himawari said softly, and stepped up to Yuko-san. "While we're here... You grant wishes, ne, Yuko-san? Can you help me?"

"It would be a steep price, Himawari-chan," Yuko-san answered the girl. "But yes, what you ask can be done."

And so Yuko-san suddenly had two part-timer's working for her.

~oOo~

It was late in the evening, the weather was still warm, and Kagome was sweeping the shrine courtyard when two figures appeared beneath the torii gate at the top of the shrine steps. One of them, she recognised.

"Good evening," Kagome greeted.

"Miko," Sesshoumaru returned. "This Neko is called Akari. She delivers the houzuki. The hyakki-yakou will be taking place a little earlier than usual this year. Will you attend it?"

"I would be honoured," Kagome answered, bowing slightly to the two figures before her, and accepted the houzuki from Akari with gracious solemnity. "I thank you for this," she said.

"For the one who guards the Shikon no Tama, it is I who am honoured to gift this to you," Akari answered solemnly as she bowed slightly, then conjured a new houzuki. "Perhaps, next year as well?" she suggested.

Kagome nodded, a smile on her face. "I think that I would like that," she answered.

Akari nodded once, and took a few steps back before she vanished in a plume of smoke, off to deliver the houzuki in her paw to another who would walk the hyakki-yakou.

The next day at lunch, Kagome got to hear that Yuko-san had also received Akari as a guest, and that she'd asked the neko to give Watanuki the houzuki, rather than accepting it for herself.

"According to Yuko-san, if I hold it, I can take part," Watanuki explained.

"In what?" Shizuka asked bluntly.

Watanuki shrugged helplessly. "Apparently, I'll only know if I take part," he answered.

"She's winding you up," Kagome said with a smile. "It's to attend the hyakki-yakou."

"Eh? Like the paintings?" Himawari asked, blinking her big eyes in surprise and wonder. She hadn't been as late at Yuko-san's as Watanuki, and was also hearing about this meeting for the first time.

Kagome nodded. "The procession of spirits, that if a human should come across, they will be devoured," she explained with a wickedly amused grin.

"I don't want to be eaten!" Watanuki shrieked. "No! No! Not going!" he insisted, and made an X in front of his chest with his arms.

"I am," Kagome stated with a serene smile. "The nectar that will be given to those who walk in the hyakk-yakou is better than the best sake, and only available once a year."

"That would be what Yuko-san is after," Watanuki grumbled. "But if you're just going to be eaten...?"

Kagome shook her head. "Sesshoumaru has said he will vouch for me. Ne, if you're not going Watanuki... Could Shizuka-kun have your houzuki?" she asked sweetly.

"You want me to go?" Shizuka asked, surprised.

Kagome nodded. "I'm sure Sesshoumaru would vouch for you as well, and it will be good for you to experience. They spirits attending will only really pay you notice if you drop your houzuki," she answered.

Shizuka shrugged and nodded in acceptance, and looked over at Watanuki.

"You can have it," the other boy said fervently in answer to the unasked question. "But you know, Yuko-san will want the booze."

All the same, he handed over the wrapped houzuki after classes had ended for the day, and with a wave, left them to archery club while he walked Himawari home.

In the park after archery club, Shizuka unwrapped the houzuki that Watanuki had passed on to him, while Kagome unwrapped her own. Sesshoumaru, disguised as Takahashi Ichimaru, also unwrapped his houzuki. As they took hold of the stems and the human world faded away from around them, so did Sesshoumaru's disguise.

"Wow," Shizuka said softly, and his eyes widened a little to take in the full sight before him.

Thousands of spirits carrying glowing houzuki, all walking along together peacefully, towards a great tree with glowing blossoms.

"Come on Shizuka-kun," Kagome urged with a smile as she looped an arm through his – not the ones holding their houzuki. "We don't want to be left behind!"

"What is this tree?" he asked when they finally reached it.

"It's a Tree of Ages," Kagome answered softly and lifted her houzuki to accept nectar from the flowers. "Magical, precious, and aware of all that passes it by in a way that other, normal trees are not."

"Like the tree at your shrine?" he asked as he mimicked her actions.

Kagome shook her head. "The gods tree at my family shrine precious, and aware, and magical, but in a different way to this tree," she explained.

Beside them, Sesshoumaru also raised his houzuki to be filled, and when the three of them turned from the tree, their houzuki filled with the nectar of the hyakki-yakou tree, the rest of the world appeared before them again.

"I'm disappointed," Yuko-san announced as she stepped up to them, a slight pout on her face. "That Watanuki decided not to go."

"He found out there was a possibility of being eaten," Shizuka answered with a smirk, and held out the houzuki that he had been given by the loud boy. "I have this thanks to you, in a way. The nectar is yours. The experience was... incredible."

"Oh, share it with me Doumeki-kun!" Yuko-san insisted with a smile. "After all, you are the one who fetched it for me, and it really is excellent moon-viewing sake!"

"Don't stay out too late," Kagome cautioned, and gave Shizuka a quick kiss on the cheek before letting Sesshoumaru wrap an arm around her waist.

He proceeded to lift her from the ground as he ascended into the sky.

"See you tomorrow!" she called down with a wave.

~oOo~

Slowly the days passed. The leaves finished their turning and got on with the business of falling from their homes on the branches to make new places for themselves on the ground. Another archery competition was won. Sesshoumaru was quietly smug as he collected the large trophy on behalf of the school, again, and handed out the smaller, personal trophies to Kagome and Shizuka, but then, he was almost always quietly smug about something. The school marathon came and went – and Watanuki was unable to participate.

He claimed it was a cold, which was not unreasonable even so early in winter, but that wasn't the reason for his falling over in a dead faint on the grounds. Watanuki had actually gotten caught up with a spirit – that was very kind but slowly killing him by association – to which Shizuka took offence. He was somewhat selective about who was allowed to pick on his friend, and those who would make Watanuki 'disappear forever' (Yuko-san's words) were not allowed.

It wasn't that Shizuka didn't like the spirit or anything. Apart from the moment he exorcised it, he had never even met it. Kagome explained the whole matter of such spirits to him though, filling in a gap in his knowledge that his grandfather hadn't provided.

Lonely, wandering spirits were just that: lonely. They wanted company. They weren't malicious, just... lonely. The only things that would make such a spirit happy were to have company, or to be sent on from what was left of their previous life into the next. The trouble was that keeping company with the dead slowly killed those who were living.

An important detail which Watanuki didn't know, and when he was told... didn't care about.

Watanuki wasn't happy about what Shizuka had done, but after getting a stern talking-to from Himawari about how important he was, and that he shouldn't value himself so little, he accepted it with somewhat better grace and less grumbling. After a carefully calm lecture from Kagome about the nature of the spirit, he made a bento for Shizuka in apology, since he couldn't seem to force the words "I'm sorry" past his lips when he needed to say them to Shizuka.

~oOo~

Shizuka was rubbing at his right eye every ten minutes or so throughout morning class, and Kagome – being both an attentive miko and an attentive girlfriend who had managed to get herself transferred out of Watanuki's class and into his – was concerned. When lunch time came, she didn't let him go find Himawari and Watanuki, but rather dragged him to the nurse's office.

"What can I do for you two?"

"Sensei, do you have any saline for cleaning dirt out of eyes?" Kagome asked politely, but with an edge of concern in her voice and all over her face. "Something has been bothering Shizuka-kun all morning."

As if to prove her words true, Shizuka winced and rubbed at his eye again.

The nurse chuckled, but stood from her seat and fetched a slim plastic bottle with an eye-shaped cap from the cabinet. "Do you want me to administer it here, or will you be alright to do it on your own?" she asked.

"I can do it," Kagome promised, accepted the disposable item of medical aid, clutched it to her chest with one hand, and dragged Shizuka outside again. "Now," she said firmly as she pushed him to sit down so that she could bend over him and use the salt-water and eye-shaped cup to wash his eye of any grit that was bothering him. "There's more to this than a bit of dirt. Did anything happen before you came to school this morning?" she asked.

"Watanuki came by the shrine. Apparently he'd stayed over at Yuko-san's, and my shrine is on the way from there to school. He got caught in a spider's nest while he was helping me do some cleaning, and I got him free. That's it," Shizuka answered.

"How did you get him free?" Kagome asked.

"I used my broom handle to collect up the web," he said.

"Hm," Kagome mused, and lay a hand over his eye. "You didn't kill the spider, did you?" she asked, and her tone was a little bit disappointed.

"No."

"I am probably prejudiced, but I believe that no spider should be left un-squished, unless it's actually being useful or is nowhere near people. They're nasty, vindictive little creatures," Kagome said firmly, then sighed. "But, I suppose, I'd be a bit vindictive too, if some giant came along and destroyed the home that I had built myself and was very proud of," she conceded.

Shizuka blinked. "You're saying... the spider is the reason my eye hurts?" he asked.

Kagome nodded and sat back on her heels. "Yup," she answered, popping the P.

"So... what are my options?"

"You could wait this out for however long it takes for the spider to feel appeased, but that could be a long time. You could apologise to the spider, which only might work. You could take more pro-active counter-measures to get your eye back," Kagome counted off on her fingers. "Or, you could kill the spider," she added.

Shizuka chuckled. "You clearly have a preference," he noted with amusement.

Kagome nodded. "Finding the right spider though, if it's already moved on from where its destroyed web was, could be hard," Kagome pointed out, a mildly peeved look on her face as she made the admission.

"Then I guess I only have two options, rather than four," Shizuka said. "And since the first option... isn't really an option, I suppose I have some research to do. Would you like to help me?"

Kagome smiled. "We raid your family's store house today, and mine tomorrow?" she suggested.

Shizuka nodded and kissed her cheek.

"And don't tell Watanuki," Kagome said firmly. "Goodness knows what he'd do, but he'd probably only make it worse."

Shizuka nodded in agreement.

An extremely thorough raid produced exactly what they needed in the form of a book that was actually written by Shizuka's grandfather. Actually, Kagome was almost a little jealous of the collection Shizuka had access to. The store house at her family's shrine was full more of relics than of books. And though they found the solution to the problem, unfortunately, it would have to wait until the new moon, when they would draw water from a well for the ritual. All told, it was fairly simple, but Shizuka had to wear a patch over the afflicted eye so that nobody asked why he had let a spider build its home on his face.

~oOo~

The first snowfall came in the night and was six inches deep on every horizontal surface by morning. Watanuki and Himawari presented an invitation from Yuko-san for all of them to play in the snow together after school, though Himawari also apologised that she would be late to the fun, owing to a piano lesson.

Watanuki objected to playing in the snow at all, since they weren't little kids any more, only to be hushed by both Yuko-san and Kagome at the same time. And the snow-sculpting competition began.

Watanuki made a very simple snow bunny, and Himawari (when she eventually reached them) built a winged... thing. Shizuka simply piled up the snow as high as he could, and gave it eyes and arms using stones and sticks he'd uncovered as he collected up the snow. Kagome carefully sculpted a fox... in a kimono.

"And the winner is -!" Yuko declared happily, her eyes searching the sky for something, following it hither and thither as it wove through the snow sculptures until it came to stop on... "-Doumeki!"

"What?!" Watanuki objected. "How does that... lump win?!"

"Calm down Watanuki," Yuko-san scolded. "I didn't pick the winner."

"I think yours is nicer," Shizuka confided softly to Kagome as he wrapped his arms around her waist until he could tuck his cold hands between her body and his to get warm again.

Kagome chuckled. "Ah, but anything supernatural and not malicious is going to find anything touched by your hand to be particularly wonderful. You're just special that way, my exorcist," she cooed back, and kissed his cheek fondly.

~oOo~

Kagome blinked when she woke. It was the first day of the new year, and she'd had strange dreams that mixed her past – and her past future – with her present. She hadn't dreamt of the past for some time, and to dream of the past on the night when dreams were supposed to be foreshadowing of a person's future, of what they could expect from the year to come... It didn't make much sense.

Then again, dreams often didn't make sense.

Visions, on the other hand, at least made sense at approximately the time that having been able to interpret them beforehand would have been useful.

All she got from her first dream of the new year was that there was going to be change. Dramatic and unavoidable change. Whether that change would bring good things or bad, Kagome wasn't sure. But change would come all the same...

Then again, life was very much about the changes that a person endured, and little by little, themselves changed as well.

~The End~