Sure enough, Sesshomaru reappeared in the village a fortnight later.

He seemed no different than the last time she'd seen him, yet Kagome couldn't help but feel that there was something off about him.

It took her a moment to realize she was picking up on his yoki. The twinge of awareness of his power was tinged with a minor feeling of agitation, ruffling her own reiki into a mild desire to do something about it.

She approached him cautiously as he loomed outside the village. He didn't come inside the village, nor did she expect him to. Even when he'd visited Rin in the past, he had never stepped foot within the human village. Instead, Rin had gone to him, usually after Jaken had arrived to fetch her.

Since Rin was currently off with Kaede, Jaken, and Ah-Un, the two headed dragon who often accompanied Jaken and the inuyokai, she doubted he'd arrived for them. Sesshomaru wasn't the type of yokai to wait and she knew he could sense that Rin wasn't there.

Unfortunately, InuYasha blew her idea of a soft approach out of the water.

He reached his half-brother before she did and arrogantly demanded, "Keh. What are you doing here, yah bastard? You're stinking up my village."

Sesshomaru deliberately and visibility scented the air before retorting, "This one does indeed notice a stench, but it seems to be emanating from your direction, InuYasha. Perhaps this one should dump you into the nearest river to lessen the offense to his nose."

InuYasha cursed his brother as he leapt at him, blade unsheathed, just as Kagome knew he would. InuYasha would not take an insult like that lying down, especially when it came from his own half-brother.

Kagome readied her bow and shot in between the two, stopping the fight mid-step.

"What did you do that for, K'gome?" InuYasha demanded, reluctantly sheathing his blade at the look she gave him.

"Because you're on the outskirts of the village and we're still repairing it from your last fight, idiot," she hissed, waving a hand to several of the damaged huts.

InuYasha actually flushed as they both recalled the destruction that had followed his battle with a giant snake yokai. He shoved his hands in his sleeves and made a dismissive sound as he refused to meet Kagome's eyes.

"Rin isn't here," Kagome said as she turned to Sesshomaru. She knew it wasn't why he'd come, but she couldn't think of anything else to say.

"This one is aware," he answered her, though he didn't elaborate further on why he'd suddenly appeared by their village.

Kagome stayed silent for a moment, hoping he'd explain, but when he didn't, she sighed. "Then why are you here?"

She looked over at InuYasha, who was busy pretending he wasn't listening to the conversation. She'd effectively stopped the fight almost as soon as it had begun and Sesshomaru hadn't protested but... what if he'd been looking for a fight to start with?

He certainly had a way of starting one whenever he crossed paths with his half-brother. Did Sesshomaru miss those battles?

The idea was so ludicrous that she dismissed it almost as soon as she thought of it.

Finally, when he didn't answer, she repeated her question. "Why are you here, Sesshomaru?"

Instead of answering her, he asked, "What are you?"

She blinked, taken aback by the odd question. "Uh... What are you asking, Sesshomaru? I think it's pretty obvious I'm a human priestess." She didn't really like the sound of being relegated to a what, but she didn't think she would convince Sesshomaru not to ask the question that way to anyone else. He was pretty much a law onto himself.

Kagome ignored InuYasha's dismissive snort.

Sesshomaru stared at her, unblinking, which unnerved her further. "The Shikon jewel was within you."

It wasn't a question but she nodded anyway. "I was born with it inside me." She gave InuYasha a sidelong glance, assuming that was where the inuyokai had learned about the jewel she'd once carried within her. The hanyo had once been extremely vocal about his displeasure of her breaking the jewel after it had been torn from her side.

"Yet you were unaware of its presence," he mused as she nodded again, "until it was removed."

InuYasha snorted again. "Why does that matter? The jewel is gone."

"Are you not curious, InuYasha, as to why the priestess succeeded when all others failed?" Sesshomaru's words taunted his brother, but this time InuYasha disregarded them.

"'Course she succeeded." InuYasha rolled his eyes. "She's Kikyo's reincarnation."

"Yet this one recalls that your first priestess had not been able to banish it." Sesshomaru challenged InuYasha's words with an easy, laidback air.

In fact, he said it so matter of factly, like it was the only possible answer, that even Kagome began to doubt. Not for the first time, Kagome wondered at the response. Even Kaede had assumed that was why she'd succeeded, but Kagome had thought it had to do with making the right wish. After all, that's what Grandfather had said caused the jewel to disappear from the world.

What if both answers were wrong?

"Are..." Kagome hesitated before continuing, "Are you saying that I had the power to banish the jewel?"

Sesshomaru met her gaze, his own golden eyes not so much as flickering as he studied her. "Do you?" he asked levelly, returning her question with another.

"Well how should I know?" Kagome threw her hands up in the air. "It's not like there's a way to test it." She stopped, not entirely certain that there wasn't. "Is there?"

"Perhaps." His voice was calm and his expression didn't shift as she stared at him. "Perhaps not."

Well, if he's going to be cryptic, he can go be cryptic by himself, Kagome thought to herself childishly, and then realized that she didn't have much else to do to have an appropriate excuse to leave. Winter would soon be on the village by the well that would one day become a part of the metropolis of Edo but for now, it managed to eek out a quiet existence some distance away from Japan's capital city.

Preparations had therefore already been made for the long, cold season. Herbs had already been collected and stored for Kaede's feudal pharmacy, the rice and other crops had already been harvested, and what meat had been obtained by InuYasha's brash hunting had already been dried and stored. Some huts were damaged, as she'd reminded InuYasha, but she wasn't the one repairing them, nor would they allow their priestesses to help. It left her with little to do. The first snow was only a few weeks away, if that, though it never snowed here as deeply or as intently as it did in Hokkaido.

If they were lucky, they might get a few more house kills for yokai slaying, which would help increase their winter provisions, but there was no guarantee they'd get the additional work or that InuYasha would allow her to keep attending. He allowed her along dependent on his mood and Kagome was far too exhausted with bickering to press the issue whenever he seemed adamantly against it.

She sighed, stymied. "What do you want, Sesshomaru?"

He raised a brow in that infuriatingly mocking manner of his. "This one has already stated his intent, priestess. He wants to know what you are."

"Keh." InuYasha looked bored. "Find some other mystery, bastard. K'gome is human; even my nose can tell that much."

"This one is impressed that you are able to scent anything past your own stench, InuYasha."

InuYasha flushed but Kagome's warning look kept him from unleashing his sword again. "Keh," he repeated, huffing as he tucked his hands into his sleeves. "Ungrateful wench. Let the bastard harass you then. See if I care."

InuYasha looked away before he leapt into the trees above them, jumping from branch to branch until he disappeared into the forest he'd once been sealed within.

Kagome could only sigh again, more resigned than frustrated by the hanyo's stunted emotional growth. Though she'd hoped he'd one day learn to mature and grow past such antics, it seemed his growth only came in small bursts and set-backs and step-backs were common.

Will InuYasha ever really grow up?

"This one is aware of your origins," Sesshomaru spoke up, reminds her that he was still there with her.

Kagome paled for a moment, wondering how he'd found out—probably InuYasha and his big mouth again, she groused to herself—but then realized Sesshomaru wasn't referring to where she'd come from, but rather what she was. He was referring to her human origin, not her actual home.

"However," he continued breezily, "this one is also aware that it does not adequately explain why you were able to do what you were able to do. No human has ever been feared by the jewel before, nor has had the power to purify a large mass before it spoiled its surroundings."

Kagome opened her mouth and then closed it. Now that Sesshomaru had put the question to words, she found herself wondering, too. Try as she might, she failed to come up with any other explanation than what she'd already had and eventually she shrugged, helplessly.

"Is this why you sought me out the other day?" she finally asked, relieved to resolve that particular mystery. She still wasn't quire sure how it related to her yokai friends, but she was sure, whatever it was, that it made sense to Sesshomaru.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have wasted the effort.

To her surprise, she saw a faint blush on his cheeks and she gaped. She hadn't even been aware that he could blush. Fascinated, she stared, unable to help herself.

"That was a different matter," he said in that dismissive tone of his that told her he was done discussing that particular topic.

The blush, combined with his hedging, sent her mind down a different path. She pictured him meeting both Ayame and Shiori and trying to eviscerate them for some perceived slight at first, but then the blush had her mind changing gears again. Why would he blush?

Awkwardly, the only thing her brain could come up with was he was acting oddly like a man around a woman he liked. Not that she was foolish enough to believe that Sesshomaru liked anyone, nor did she believe the rules of conventional attraction and dating would apply to a being like Sesshomaru, who likely would be far more content hacking a woman to pieces than kissing and loving her.

But the moment her brain went down the road, she found it wasn't easily distracted. She tried to picture him kissing or loving anyone, but no matter who she tried to place him with, the image just seemed...wrong. She couldn't even begin to imagine who he'd find worthy enough to stay by his side, let alone who would be able to actually take it a step further and capture his heart.

Who would be worthy enough to be loved by a man like Sesshomaru? Could he even love a woman?

She coughed as she realized he'd been staring at her the entire time. "Don't worry," she said, feeling a need to reassure him. "I won't tell anyone. It's not like you're in love with them or anything, anyway."

To her surprise, his usual calm facade faltered for a moment. He looked stunned at her words and Kagome began to wonder if there was a kernel of truth to her words.

"Unless... You are?" she hazarded the guess, feeling more than a little foolish.

His eyes blazed, a faint crimson heating his golden gaze. "No," he said shortly.

"Right," Kagome said, more because she felt she had to say something and less because she felt she agreed. Or disagreed, for that matter. "Well, I really should get going, Sesshomaru. Winter's coming and I, ah, need to gather more herbs."

He raised a brow and glance at the dying vegetation around them with a pointed look as she flushed, realizing how flimsy her excuse was.

"Ah..." She trailed off, not quite brave enough to try again and offer such a blatant lie. "Right."

"This one will come speak to you again, priestess." He raised a brow, as if daring her to argue. "Be prepared. You will know when it is time."

With those ominous words, he left, leaving Kagome to wonder what on earth Sesshomaru wanted from her now.