Though the stubborn wench still persists in giving me inspiration nonlinearly, the muse has stuck around, and for that I am massively appreciative to y'all, my fearless readers (*groan* did I really just make that bad pun? oh yes, I did.). Your support is amazing, and as Harry Dresden would say, my gast is pretty well flabbered.

Additional appreciation and thank-yous to those I can't reply to—catlyn, Alice, and guests—as well as all who've favorited and followed.
Also, kudos to Insan3AnimeBurrito for correctly guessing who the mysterious yokai is :-)

Quotes:

"Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth
Unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep."
–John Milton, Paradise Lost

"'It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,' he used to say. 'You step into the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.'"
–J.R.R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings

Sunday morning dawned gray and overcast, and despite Kagome's hope that it would clear off, the clouds lingered throughout the day. However, no rain had actually fallen by early evening, which made Kagome happy as she planned to walk home from Ukiyoe Town after visiting 9th Street Park.

She'd spent the day helping Sōta and her grandfather out with chores around the shrine, the other shrine volunteers they normally had off for the day. Though Sōta had not fully committed to taking over for her grandfather when he retired, jii-chan persisted in training him. Kagome personally believed eventually Sōta would do it, but for now it seemed he enjoyed tormenting their grandfather with his indecision. Both Kagome and her mom did their best to stay out of it.

A little before sunset—not that the sun had come out for any length of time that day—Kagome prepared for her excursion on her way home.

"Mama? Where's my overnight bag and my clothes from yesterday?"

Her mom called back from downstairs, "I washed your clothes, but they're not dry yet." Before Kagome could say anything about having to make an extra trip back to the shrine, her mother added, "I'll send them over with Sōta, so you don't have to make a special trip."

Sōta grumbled something about not being the family errand boy, but quieted down when his mother gave him a sharp look.

Kagome checked the paranormal investigation site one last time for any updates on the mysterious thieving yokai. None of the comments on the posts she'd read that morning added anything vital, though a few new posts about vampires caught her eye. She made a mental note to check them later; perhaps there would be something she could use in her "Folklore and Mythology in Popular Culture" class.

She glanced around her bedroom. I guess all I need is my purse then.

Slinging it over her shoulder, she headed downstairs to tell her family good-bye. Her mother met her at the bottom of the steps.

"Oh, Kagome, it looks like it might rain tonight. Make sure you take an umbrella."

"I don't have one with me, Mama—I didn't expect it to rain today, not this time of year."

Her mother clucked her tongue, likely at Kagome's failure to check the daily forecast, something her mother did each time she had an excursion. "Just a second." Her mom disappeared into her bedroom and came back with something in her hand. An umbrella.

"I'll let you borrow this, sweetheart, but make sure you don't lose it. This was a gift from your father, and not only that, it's a very nice umbrella!" Her mother gave her a luminescent smile, eyes crinkling.

"Thank you, Mama! Don't worry, I'll be careful. Hopefully I won't even need it!" She smiled at her mom and tucked the umbrella under her arm. "Oh, and if I find a cat for you, I could pick up my clothes when I bring the cat—then Sōta wouldn't have to fool with it."

Sōta was engrossed in something on T.V., but hearing that, he turned and gave her a thumbs-up and a quick wave good-bye before returning to whatever it was he was watching.

Her grandfather hugged her and said, "Come back to see us more often… You're my favorite granddaughter, you know."

Kagome groaned. "Jii-chan…I'm your only granddaughter."

He only shrugged in response, and she gave one last wave to her mom and grandfather as she made her way out of the shrine.

She'd just disappeared down the steps when Shigeru said "Oh, drat!" and smacked his hand on his forehead.

Mitsu looked questioningly at her father-in-law. "Everything all right?"

His bushy eyebrows drew into a deep gray V as he frowned slightly. "Mmm…I forgot to tell Kagome that some friends of hers from college stopped by the other day."

Mitsu smiled. "I'm sure they'll get in touch with her. Who was it?"

Shigeru spread his hands wide in front of him. "Not a clue. A lovely young girl with some young man accompanying her. She was quite interested in my stories about the shrine's history."

Shaking her head, Mitsu gave a soft giggle. Of course that would be the part he remembered.

As Kagome exited the metro station and headed toward her destination, she noticed a shift in the air from when she'd left the shrine. The clouds had grown thicker, and the air was damp and heavy. The wind had picked up and brought with it that distinctive scent that heralded rain.

Good thing Mama lent me her umbrella…

She checked a street sign to confirm that she was indeed in Ukiyoe Town and on 9th Street, and then, for the first time in quite a while, she extended her senses.

It was like getting hit by a freight train, and her mind screamed at her to stop. She ignored it and pressed forward despite the accompanying wave of nausea and throbbing pain in her temple.

Kagome waded through the cacophony of energies—many, many of which she was shocked to discover were indeed youki.

Looks like Ryūji was right. Damnit.

With rusty skills desperately needing refinement, she finally found a thread of one close by. Narrowing in on it and shielding as best she could to the rest, she attempted to trace the youki, only to lose her psychic grasp on it after a few minutes.

Guess I could use a little practice…though it's not exactly like tracking youki signatures was in the miko curriculum.

Figuring 9th Street couldn't be that long, Kagome wandered along the road until she came upon a little public garden with a small pond, which presumably was the park the people on the yokai forum had mentioned.

Still trying to sense the youki tendril she'd lost, she finally realized there was similar youki, if not the same, emanating from within the pond itself. She was confused—perhaps it wasn't a kitsune or tanuki?

Maybe you let wishful thinking cloud your judgment, her inner critic added snidely.

She shoved the thought away, annoyed because that probably was exactly what had happened.

Kagome approached the pond slowly, glancing around furtively, but there were no other people, or yokai, visible.

She had gotten just close enough to see her reflection when something rose up out of the water, the splash audible and spraying her with droplets of pond water.

Ew.

Wiping her face, she eyed the apparition before her. Had she not encountered more terrifying things in the Sengoku era, she would have found it quite frightening. As it was, it startled her enough for her reiki to spike instinctually before she tamped it down a split second later.

The specter's emaciated body resembled a desiccated corpse and was draped in a tattered white kimono. Limp black hair framed a gaunt pallid face, and its eyes, though open, had threads over them as though they'd been stitched closed at some point. Bony clawlike fingers reached for her, grasping, while it moaned, "Leave it and gooooo… Leave it and go!"

A-ha. How that moron online got "get out of here" from that, I have no idea.

Squaring her shoulders, Kagome started to address the yokai when its skeletal fingers closed over her umbrella.

Its mouth stretched in a grotesque parody of a smile. "This looks precious to you, yesssss. Leave it and go!"

Oh shit. It's one of those kinds of yokai. Its territory, its rules. I guess with this one, you'll lose an object of value or importance to you…

Her mind replayed the conversation she'd had with her mother before she'd left the shrine.

"Hey, give that back, damnit! It's not even mine—don't you want something of mine?" she said, panic beginning to rise within her. Her mother was going to kill her.

The yokai shook its head, unnerving grin still in place, and started to disappear back into the pond.

Kagome cursed and stamped her foot in frustration. "Wait! Get back here!" Clearly ignoring her, it had all but the tip of its head submerged beneath the pond's surface. "Shit… At least give me something in return, you thieving bastard!" she snapped, picking up a rock and lobbing it into the now empty pond.

Unexpectedly, an object came flying at her out of the water, and she scrambled to catch it. Succeeding, albeit barely, she looked down at what she'd gotten in exchange for her mother's irreplaceable umbrella.

It did nothing to quell her anger.

"A pipe?" What the fuck good does this do me?

Kagome kicked at rocks along the edge of the pond, feeling both annoyed at being tricked by the yokai and guilty for losing the umbrella her father had given her mother.

Oh well, nothing I can do about it now.

Shoving the pipe into her purse, she heaved a sigh and slowly trudged in the direction of her apartment, less thrilled by her first yokai experience since the Sengoku era than she'd hoped.

No sooner had she reached the street corner near the park than she felt something hit her head. And then her arm.

She tilted her face upward, and another drop struck her cheek.

The rain that had been so elusive all day long had finally showed up. Just in time for her to have her umbrella stolen.

Great. Exactly what I needed…a long walk home in the rain.

Rikuo was returning home from Tōnō, having managed to convince Itaku to let him leave before Sunday night by saying he'd train via maintaining his yokai form on the way.

He'd been somewhat surprised when Zen had said he was staying a bit longer in Tōnō, that he wanted to spend some time with Itaku and then had business to attend to at Yakuzen Hall before returning to the Nuragumi Main House.

I can't say I ever imagined Zen would want to befriend Itaku, but whatever. Rikuo shrugged. He'd long since stopped trying to predict his sworn brother's behavior.

He was back in Ukiyoe Town, though still several blocks from the house, when he felt a short burst of familiar reiki nearby.

Kagome?

Suppressing his Fear and keeping to the shadows so as not to be seen, he tracked the energy source to 9th Street Park, just in time to see Oitekebori snatch her umbrella.

Rikuo heard her say something angrily to Oitekebori and chuck a rock at the pond. He choked back a laugh—she certainly was feisty. And he was intrigued by the fact that although she definitely was capable of hurting the yokai before her, she made no moves to do so at all.

Interesting… A miko who doesn't seal or purify all yokai?

He watched Oitekebori toss something at her, what he couldn't tell, and then she left the park, shoulders slumped in defeat. Seeing her like that bothered him, though Rikuo couldn't have explained why.

And when the fat raindrops started to fall, his mind was made up.

"Hey, Oitekebori, get your ass up here," he said, poking the toe of his sandal at the surface of the water.

The spectral yokai popped up with a splash, her head lolling to the side as she peered at him curiously. "Sandaime?"

"Hand over the umbrella."

Oitekebori's bony jaw clenched, and she averted her gaze. "What umbrella?"

Rikuo raised an eyebrow. "Tch. Don't pull that crap with me. You know damn well what umbrella I'm talking about."

Her expression grew sly. "Do you have something more interesting for me?"

"If you try to take Nenekirimaru again, I won't hesitate to kill you."

If possible, she paled slightly but persisted. "No…something else."

He sighed. He'd learned a few years ago that besides loving to steal away whatever looked valuable to someone, Oitekebori had a penchant for sweets. Somehow the twerpy little ghost knew he had sweets from Tōnō with him, which he'd intended to give to his grandfather.

"Like this?" He held out the parcel he'd had stashed in his kimono sleeve.

Oitekebori's eyes brightened. "Oooo, yessss, Rikuo-sama. Leave it and go!" Her bony fingers groped at the package, but he yanked it out of reach.

"Nope. Give me the umbrella first."

Kagome's umbrella flew at his face so fast he almost didn't see it in time. As his free hand closed around the projectile, Oitekebori snatched the sweets from his other hand and vanished into the pond with a wet plop.

This time he didn't resist and laughed out loud. "Greedy, aren't you?" Guess I'll see if Zen can bring some more for jiji when he comes back. Wouldn't want to disappoint the old man.

Using his Fear to once more disappear into the shadows, he followed after Kagome. Now he just had to figure out how to return her umbrella without her seeing him.

Kagome's luck had held out for almost two blocks, the rain merely light so far, and she was mercifully not soaked to the skin.

However, as the wind blew a little more fiercely, the drops that descended were larger and faster. She ducked under a storefront awning, watching the sudden downpour pelt the sidewalk.

I'll just wait here till it lets up—surely it won't last that long.

As fate would have it, she was half right. The torrential rain did let up, but unfortunately it only lessened to a steady shower.

To top it off, for the last minute or so, she'd had the uneasy feeling that someone was watching her.

Or something.

Kagome tried to sense whether there was a yokai close by, but with so much youki around and her training at locating a single energy signature sorely lacking, not to mention her growing fatigue, she couldn't tell for sure.

Suddenly, a shiver ran down her spine and her flesh prickled with goose bumps. The energy in the air shifted, and Kagome felt a presence behind her.

She whirled around to nothing but an empty sidewalk, the aura she'd sensed gone.

Thwump!

She jumped and swallowed a screech as her mother's umbrella dropped at her feet.

What the hell?

Grabbing it and holding it to her chest, Kagome glanced around the vacant street. Then, out of nowhere, the youki returned and a whisper tickled her ear.

"Stay safe—and dry—miko-chan."

The presence vanished as instantly as it had appeared, and Kagome was left truly alone on the sidewalk, her heart thundering against her chest.

Nerves frayed and anxious reiki skittering across her skin, Kagome took a deep breath to slow her heart rate and forced her powers back under control. Then, she popped the umbrella open and hurried home.

There, she changed out of her slightly damp clothes, mentally thanking whatever that was for returning her mother's umbrella.

I don't know what the hell happened back there, or who or what that was, but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Not to mention there was the matter of identifying the yokai in the park. Grabbing several of the books she'd either bought or checked out from the library, Kagome flipped through them until she spotted it.

Oitekebori.

She had to wonder what had prompted the yokai to shift from its traditional pattern of haunting fishermen or canals, but with the safe return of her mother's umbrella, she was finding the encounter less dissatisfying than she had earlier.

After all, she'd done what she'd set out to do—find a yokai in modern times. And though it hadn't been a friend or particularly friendly, it also hadn't attacked her maliciously.

There are still yokai. And I found one! Well, if you count the one who returned the umbrella, technically I found two. And nothing bad happened.

Giddiness mingled with relief washed over her. Nothing bad happened. Success, finally.

Then, a sudden thought occurred to her. The pipe!

Pulling the object out of her purse, Kagome examined it. It was pretty, for a pipe, and appeared old, as well as definitely used. She didn't sense any kind of supernatural presence or power from it, and she shrugged, placing it on a bookshelf.

Thinking about the yokai encounter had her recalling her upcoming meeting with Ryūji, and as she fixed herself dinner to placate her growling stomach, she mulled over just what she was going to tell him tomorrow.

Neither cooking nor eating offered any answers, and she ultimately decided that the irritating onmyoji wasn't worth the mental fatigue he was causing.

I'll figure it out. Tomorrow.

Rikuo ensured Kagome made it safely out of Ukiyoe Town, resisting the urge—barely—to see that she made it safely home as well.

Don't be a stalker, idiot.

Something niggled at the back of his mind about their encounter. Something about her aura had been…off. But he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

Who knows, maybe it was my imagination. The puzzle that was Higurashi Kagome kept getting more and more complex.

He was a little over a block from the clan main house when the rustle of feathers announced Sasami's arrival before she landed on the pavement next to him.

"Welcome home, Rikuo-sama."

"Yo, Sasami. Everything all right?"

She nodded. Then, "So, was that your miko?" she asked innocently.

"Oi, oi…she's not my miko. I don't even know her." He paused and then frowned. "Damnit, Karasu Tengu. I told him I would handle it."

Sasami shrugged. "You know how my father is. Did you really think he wouldn't investigate something he perceived as a threat to you or the clan?"

Rikuo sighed. The little crow yokai was protective of the clan and loyal to a fault. "Good point. So how'd you know she was here?"

She arched an eyebrow at him. "Seriously? It might have been brief, but that reiki flare was noticeable by any yokai in a ten-block radius. If not further."

Which made sense. After all, it was how he'd known she was there.

"Kurōmaru wanted to give her a ticket, but I convinced him to let it go."

"A ticket? You've got to be kidding…what would he cite her for?"

Sasami's violet eyes twinkled behind her glasses, and the corners of her lips curved up slightly. "Unauthorized use of reiki within city limits."

Rikuo snorted. "Are you serious?"

"Sandaime, this is my brother we're talking about. He's ticketed yokai for 'nighttime loitering.'" (1)

A valid argument. Kurōmaru occasionally took after his father a little too much.

They were inches from the main house gate when Kubinashi popped out of the shadows.

"So, Rikuo-sama… That wouldn't happen to have been the girl from the library you mentioned the other day, would it?" An impish grin spread across Kubinashi's floating face.

"Wait, how did you… When did you start following me?" Rikuo asked, surprised and faintly chagrined that he hadn't noticed. Damn but she has a way of ruining my focus…

"I've told you—you've got nothing on your father," Kubinashi said, still grinning. "Sooo…that her?"

Before Rikuo could reply, Sasami answered helpfully, "Yes, that was Rikuo-sama's miko, the one he met at the library."

"Oi! Damnit, I said she's not my miko!"

Kejōrō poked her head out the clan gates. "Rikuo-sama has a miko?"

Rikuo groaned and dragged a hand down his face. It was going to be a long night…

Footnote:
1. Alludes to a scene in chapter 58 of the manga (also where Oitekebori first appears).

Author's Note: Well, there you have it, folks! The long-awaited Rikuo/Kagome interaction. Wait, what are you doing? No throwing rotten produce! Jeeze. No sense of humor.
If all things go according to plan (oh good, I've jinxed myself), you should see them finally meet in the next chapter. Maybe.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter! :-)