Reconciliation

by Universally Sound

When Inuyasha is overcome by a new ability he inherited from the Inu no Taishou, Kagome goes on a journey to find and help him only to find that Sesshoumaru has already decided the hanyou's fate and will not be moved. Now, Kagome must reconcile her love, her purpose, and a future she never could have imagined. Post-manga. CU. Slow burn. Gonna be long.

34. Chapter 34 - Separation: Year 1:Autumn 4

Author's Note: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the source material for this story. All are owned by Rumiko Takahashi. This fic is labeled MA per standards for violence, sex, and language so be warned.

...

Reconciliation

Chapter 34 – The Separation: Year 1: Autumn: Part IV

That afternoon, in the Western Fortress…

Cheers and catcalls echoed loudly around the three-tiered stone arena at the pair of daiyoukai locked in combat at the edge of the sand-filled battleground. Golden banners bearing the image of a silver inuyoukai rising into the sky decorated the interior and waved majestically in the chilled mountain breezes. Kikuko and Sesshoumaru sat quietly, perfectly, on a raised platform at the apex of the first row. All around them, the Cardinal Lords and their competing heirs watched, fascinated as the first kitsune ever to enter the tournament held his own against a monstrous crimson mountain Komodo, a champion from one of the invited nomadic clans. Behind the central row of ruling Lords and their hosts, Western soldiers packed the arena from the lower stands all the way to the top and cheered loudly for their favorites as the contests grew fiercer.

"The head! Go for the head!" "Grab his tails!" "Ha! Faster, you scaly bastard!" "I'll bet cleaning duty for a week that kitsune dies with the next blow." "You're on!"

The black kitsune champion paid them no mind and lithely shifted to the left, loosing a jet of deep red foxfire, and barely missing the tail of the great lizard as it whipped its scaly body out of the way. Dust kicked up by the blast filled the space between them and neither moved, waiting for the worst to clear. The lizard's flat tongue lazily whipped out, testing the air, while beady turquoise eyes searched for the glittering crimson eyes of the fox through the settling dust.

The ebony fox's six tails twitched as it growled and plotted. The disguised form of Tsuneyori carefully planned his next move. That last whip of the lizard's tail had been a punishing blow, sending him flying into the wall of the arena and cracking the sandstone wall. The pain, he could handle, but if this form took life-threatening damage, the concealing charm would break and reveal his true identity in front of the entire Western army. Winning swiftly was his only option but his opponent was durable and had incredible stamina, and the young fox was beginning to tire while his opponent seemed even more agile than before.

Lizard daiyoukai were rare and this one, designated the favorite, had chosen true forms as weapons for their fight. Tsuneyori swore when it happened. This kitsune body was still new and unfamiliar to him. He had never fought on four legs in his life. Meanwhile, his opponent had used the dust, Tsuneyori's tails, and even the walls of the arena to his advantage. The whispers of his impending defeat were growing louder.

"Kitsune are too fragile for this." "Why did Sesshoumaru-sama invite them this year?" "I wish he'd just go down and be done with it!" "I wouldn't take on that komodo…"

His opponent was fearsome but Tsuneyori did not fear him. There was only one youkai he feared and this lizard, strong though he might be, was worth less than the sand beneath their feet compared to his father, Daichi.

Borrowed youki swirled menacingly around the false image of the kitsune Hidekatsu, and the lizard daiyoukai raced in a wide circle to gain the upper hand as the attack built. Hissing its approach, the blood-red lizard catapulted itself into the fox, loudly snapping its jaws where Tsuneyori's head should have been. Instead of delivering the final blow, it broke several of its teeth on a grinning stone replica of its opponent. The red komodo staggered back howling in pain and confusion as fresh blood leaked from the corners of its mouth.

The crowd began to murmur, some rising from their seats to look all around the arena for the disappeared kitsune champion. Had he fled? Suddenly, youki stirred from all around the mountain lizard champion, kicking up dust in a small vortex. The komodo's stocky legs strained to leap away but he was stuck fast as shadows crept up along its limbs from the arena floor like inky vines, pinning him in place. Distracted by his frozen limbs and growing panic, the lizard finally registered the razor-sharp pierce of fangs at his neck. The vice-grip of kitsune jaws closed around its throat and turquoise eyes shot down to see the head of a kitsune with glowing ruby eyes rising from within his own shadow.

"Submit!" the fox growled slowly, nearly choking the lizard with a warning snarl.

With a gargling roar, the crimson reptile flung its head backward, trying to shake him loose, but Tsuneyori materialized from within the lizard's own shadow and twisted his borrowed tails all around his opponent's body to hold fast. Writhing in agony as the kitsune's fangs bored deeper and the burn of foxfire intensified through the wounds, the lizard finally stilled and relented. Its massive, flat head drooped.

"I sssssubmit…" it gargled, collapsing to the dirt.

Confused whispers filled the arena as Tsuneyori withdrew his fangs, licking his lips and shaking the dust free of his fur. The lizard fell back to the dust once more before rising and shrinking his form with two clawed hands slowing the blood pouring from his shredded neck. Tsuneyori shivered as the transformation back into the humanoid form of Hidekatsu overtook him. Long, black hair replaced the ebony fur and olive skin overtook his furred paws as his tails shrunk and disappeared. Only the crimson eyes that remained were truly his. The combatants stood tall and walked toward the dais to face the Lord of the West, who rose slowly from his seat with a disinterested frown.

"The champion of the Southern kitsune, Hidekatsu, is the winner." Sesshoumaru announced. "The defeated champion of the Red Dust Komodo leaves with honor."

There were no cheers but a chorus of whispers swept the arena. Tsuneyori grinned. He was not here for their approval. His blood red eyes pinned themselves to Sesshoumaru and remained. A single nod to the champions was the only acknowledgment the Lord of the West gave before both fighters bowed and jogged out of the arena so the next pair could take their place.

"Lieutenant! Ready the champions for the next contest!" Sesshoumaru commanded.

A soldier at the arena gates snapped to attention, nodded, and jogged back into the dark gateway to retrieve the next pair. Sesshoumaru sat back down and his hands gripped the armrests of the modest granite throne.

"Not pleased with the outcome?" Kikuko asked cheerily from his left, noting the tension in his face and hands.

Sesshoumaru hardly bothered to look over at her but lazily blinked his golden eyes.

"Hn."

"I thought you would enjoy seeing the illustrious shadow fox in action." She slowly beat her ebony fan and considered the last combatant. "His small clan's techniques are a closely guarded secret. I must ask him how he accomplishes it."

"I will enjoy the silence of my den when they have all left." came the disinterested reply.

"The tournament does not please you?"

"It would please Ryota to watch this playacting."

"Ah." Kikuko's head tipped back in understanding. "The removal of death from the tournament has soured you to it. You did put on quite the spectacle in your years in the dust." His mother sighed wistfully. "This One always wondered how you managed to coax so much gore from one youkai to the next." A wily grin spread across her delicate features. "You will have an heir to participate soon enough, hm? Then you might be glad death is forbidden."

"Mother…"

"You said so yourself, pup." Kikuko frowned playfully. "I am merely commenting on your rather shocking addition to the meeting. You could have warned your mother, at least."

"Hn." Sesshoumaru grunted, shifting in his seat. "You will get used to being informed rather than consulted. The affairs of my Mate and I will be our own."

"So they will, my son." Kikuko grinned behind her fan.

Several hours and many more battles later, saw the wolf, crane, boar, and bear clans eliminated from the tournament. By late afternoon, only the North, South, and kitsune champions remained. Tsuneyori's stunning defeat of the titanic boar daiyoukai champion had resulted in the remaining few seats in the arena filling to capacity to watch the final matches. From the shadows of the staging area, the next two combatants emerged lightly armored but bearing no weapons.

The pale skin and short, feathered caramel hair of the eagle daiyoukai, Ietsuna, faced the dais with a proud tilt of his chin and his head high. His muscled arms were bare and the sleeveless blue haori was plated to his chest by a simple, leather breastplate set with a single red gem. Hakama that matched his golden-brown eyes were tucked neatly into his dark brown leather boots. The mature eagle's honey gaze glowed in the waning afternoon light and he bowed respectfully to their host as his opponent came to stand beside him.

Kazumitsu, the heir to the North, wore a high ponytail of his wild black hair and only armored his forearms with polished cuffs of youki-infused steel. The black hakama and short boots complimented the violet haori he wore and it matched his penetrating, electric eyes. The sleeves of the garment were bound tightly beneath the diminutive armor. A single fanged earring hung at his right ear and it brushed a tan cheek as he bowed and greeted the Lord of the West.

"The winner of this contest will go on to face the remaining champion, Hidekatsu of the Southern kitsune tribe. My lieutenant informs me you requested this match, Kazumitsu, heir to the North."

Serious violet eyes raised to meet their host's.

"I did, Sesshoumaru-sama."

The eagle to his right relaxed, propping a fist on his hip.

"And I, Ietsuna, Mate of the heir to the South, accept the direct challenge."

"And your weapons?" Sesshoumaru questioned.

"I shall let my opponent decide," Ietsuna smiled glibly, opening his palm to the growling toradaiyoukai next to him. "since he was so adamant to lose to me."

A chorus of shocked gasps and amused chuckles filled the arena and the young tiger growled and pointed a finger at the smirking Southern champion.

"Don't take me lightly, Ietsuna!" Kazumitsu faced his opponent, his violet eyes flashing. "I choose this form! I will end you with my bare hands!"

"Battles to the death are not permitted." the Lord of the West chided. "Submission alone gains you victory. Your word?"

"My word, Lord Sesshoumaru." they agreed in unison. "To the undying West!" The heirs saluted by placing a fist over their hearts then bent into a bow. Sesshoumaru nodded when they rose and resumed his place beside Kikuko. The champions nodded in response before jogging to the center of the arena.

Ietsuna chuckled and rolled his shoulders when they stopped. Kazumitsu growled and stared the washidaiyoukai down.

"You will regret this, hatchling." the elder eagle goaded, beginning to pace in a slow circle.

"I only regret it took you so long to best that wolf in the third round." Kazumitsu jibed, mirroring his path. "We might have made the day shorter for everyone! Tch! I could be drinking already, bird brain."

"Eager to get back to the smiles of those young females, are we? Worry not. I promise not to scar that pretty face, Kazu-chan."

"Don't you call me that, asshole!"

"Why not?" Ietsuna smirked. "You enjoy it so very much when the females do."

"You bastard…" the young tiger growled. "Just because your balls are Bound and your prick is hers doesn't mean we've all lost our lust!"

"Tsk!" Ietsuna scolded. "It is no wonder you are still unattached, little tiger, with a mouth like that."

Kazumitsu spat something colorful and Katsurou was howling in laughter in the seat beside Kikuko.

"Make him sorry with your fists, Kazumitsu!" the Lord of the North yelled through cupped hands. "Focus on victory, cub!"

"Hai, Katsu-jii!" grinned the young tiger, not looking away from his opponent.

Ietsuna nodded to Fushijirou who slowly tipped his head down as he held the golden Eiderclaw propped upright in his free hand. The phoenix's other hand held his Mate's and Samidori waved gently to her daughter's Mate, showing her support. Formalities observed, the opponents faced each other and the arena grew quiet in anticipation.

"Your move." Ietsuna taunted, flexing his claws.

"Never give a predator the first move."

The two stopped sizing each other up and planted their feet. Kazumitsu's aura shifted from the playful aggression of a few minutes ago to a streamlined, tightly coiled armor of youki. The air around him electrified and small bolts of electricity began dancing along the ground around his feet.

"Too slow, little cat."

The eagle daiyoukai opened his arms wide and gathered his strength. When he clapped them loudly together, a flurry of razor-sharp, feathered daggers of golden youki pelted the young tiger, forcing him into the air to avoid the wide and deadly spread.

"Now you are mine!" the eagle grinned, flourishing his arms again.

"Wrong again, bastard!" Kazumitsu grinned wickedly from the air.

From above, thunder rumbled and Ietsuna tipped his head up in time to see the light gathering overhead. Before he could leap away, a single bolt struck the ground and the eagle disappeared into a column of blinding light. The daggers still flying through the air fell lifeless to the dirt and the crowd gasped. Fushijirou closed his obsidian eyes and shook his head while Katsurou cheered and pointed.

"Ha! Kazumitsu might win this in one blow." Katsurou grinned at Kikuko.

"Oh, Ietsuna is not to be taken lightly," Kikuko said breezily. "Fushijirou is far too prideful to allow a weakling to remain at his daughter's side."

"I was overruled in the matter," Fushijirou drawled from their right, "but I have never seen such happiness in my beloved Hin. I regret I delayed their Bonding, and he is indeed a fierce opponent. Your grandcub will have a rough time of it, Katsurou."

A second later, the lightning fizzled out, and Ietsuna rose and dusted himself off, pinching a single smoldering lock of hair atop his head.

"Ow." he said flatly, annoyed.

"Serves you right. Quit wastin' my time and hit me, old man."

"Gladly!" Ietsuna growled, lunging for the young tiger.

The back and forth might have begun with Ietsuna in the dirt but soon enough, they were exchanging massive blows with neither one willing to back down.

Sesshoumaru watched, interested only in learning the strength of the heirs below, but a flare of familiar youki in the shadows of the waiting area drew his attention. The same spy who had slipped him the warning this morning was calling his attention. He and Kikuko locked eyes and his mother nodded, rising to leave. Katsurou looked up at her, confused.

"Bored already, Kikuko?"

"Hardly. Not all of us can simply sit lazily all day." she replied breezily, opening her fan. "I shall return."

Kikuko sauntered past the rows of soldiers, guests, Lords, and heirs to the narrow halls running through the mountain. The scent of the spy was already fading but she knew the young lioness's scent well enough to track her. With a cautious glance back and forward, the inu ducked into the almost invisible entrance to the catacombs surrounding the arena.

Rounding the corner in total darkness, pinned deep in the mountain between the Palace and the Fortress, these dark hallways were perfect for conspiring. Another few hundred feet and the sound of breath in the dark grew louder. Kikuko stopped and waited. Just out of reach, a pair of iridescent eyes flashed and the Lady mother sighed with relief.

"Have you found more evidence then?"

"Yes." the female said with a husky growl. "The scent of the dust Sesshoumaru-sama retrieved last summer matches the scent traces we found in the guest wing."

"Have you narrowed your search?"

"Yes. The scent is unique and fused heavily with kitsune youki. Today, it followed the paths of the champions and heirs through the arena."

"The imposter could be one of the heirs?" she asked, alarmed.

"We are working to confirm but they have access to all events and to the Lord himself."

"Logical but disturbing." Kikuko muttered, grasping her chin and thinking hard.

It was too easy to assume the culprit was the kitsune champion. It was also too coincidental to dismiss. How could she force his hand?

"We harbor soldiers from the South, correct?"

"I will research and confirm. Why, my Lady?"

"Find one who knows Hidekatsu, the kitsune champion, and sit him next to the fox at the closing feast."

"If there is such a one, it will be done, my Lady. Have you other orders?"

"No, and be quick. If it is the fox, he may slip away during the night. That or else, affairs may get messy before the morning."

"Yes, my Lady."

The soft padding of linen-bound feet faded into the darkness as the agent sprinted back through the tunnels. Kikuko turned around to return to the arena, deep in thought. All of a sudden, there were too many factions in motion.

'Katsurou reveals his connection to the kitsune and desire for our miko's aid, the first kitsune champion is brought to the West in two centuries at the request of the clan head, and the same magic that fooled even Sesshoumaru is woven through our halls. The miko said in her first letter that Sesshoumaru's future was bleak because the West was decimated but she does not know how. Fushijirou had the same feeling that history was repeating itself. How are all of these events connected?'

Emerging in the late afternoon sun, Kikuko blinked and focused several rows away on the unamused face of her son as he sat proudly on the dais. The future of the West was there, healthy and unharmed. Though she had no designs to rule ever again now that the position was one of delegation more than action, it was not an option to watch the life's work of the two males in her life that mattered the most crumble into dust.

'I will not allow it. If it means we must be comrades in arms, little human, then we shall. As soon as the weather turns cold, I will find out what else you know and then we will safeguard the West.'

…

In the Palace great hall, the traditional celebratory feast following the tournament was in full swing with no sign of stopping. Iron braziers crafted into coiled inu roared bright heat at the four corners of the massive room and chandeliers hung high above that were lit with ice blue youki crystals. Servants bustled around the cluttered and noisy tables, serving new delicacies and fresh bottles of sake while removing empty ones.

Four long tables were laid out parallel to one another for the champions, the visiting Lords and their extended families, and the honored guests from the West including Ren, Kenshin and his Mate-to-be, along with other officers of the Western army and their own small packs. The great reception hall in the center of the Palace was almost deafeningly loud that evening with the cacophony of clattering dishes, celebratory conversation, and the keening whines of a few fangirls.

"He must have cheated, Kazu!" "Kitsune magic should be banned!" "So devious!"

Three young females from the bear, crane, and panther tribes were sitting on all sides of Kazumitsu at the long, low banquet table reserved for the champions.

"Now, now, he won honorably." the young tiger chuckled. "The shadow fox lives up to his reputation, eh, Hidekatsu?"

"Hm." grinned the imposter over his sake cup, crimson eyes locking onto the heir to the North.

Tsuneyori knew actually winning the tournament was a gamble but the temptation to really test this body, to freely use this power, had overwhelmed him. He would pay for it in utter exhaustion when the charm was deactivated but tonight would be his last night in the comfort of this Palace anyway. After his mission was carried out, after Sesshoumaru lay dead at the end of this night, he would leave this place to crumble in the chaos and rejoin his father for the next phase of their plan.

"If you think so, Kazu-chan," the bear female sighed, "but I think you should have won."

"If he was meant to win," the cloaked-Hidekatsu said over a sip of wine, "he would have."

The females all huffed and opened their mouths to defend him but the young tiger began first.

"They told me you were lazy but that little speech was exceptionally useless, fox." Kazumitsu chuckled.

"Why did you want to sit across from the male who bested you?" the fair-haired crane female asked, leaning heavily on an elbow to eye Tsuneyori with jealous scrutiny.

"Why not? There is no honor in an easy fight." Kazumitsu raised his cup to Tsuneyori. "Even one that lasts only to submission."

"You were difficult to trap, I admit." Tsuneyori responded, meeting his toast. "The longest fight of the day, it was."

"Felt like it, too. My shoulders feel abused in the worst way after all that handfighting. Throwing you off was no simple task." He leaned in and took a more inquisitive tone. "Can shadow manipulation be taught? Seems useful."

"Tsk. A secret of my clan, I am afraid. If only you had been born a noble kitsune…"

"Bah! I am a proud torayoukai, but your skills are commendable. I will return for many years as champion until my grandfather hands the North down to me. Will you be back next year?"

"No. I came at the request of Chinatsu only. These gatherings are so tedious." the fox yawned widely, fangs visible top and bottom. Tsuneyori was committed to fooling them all as thoroughly as possible. Discovery of his identity during this middle phase of the plan was not allowed.

"You are as lazy as they say!" Kazumitsu marveled. "A shame then. I'll have to hunt you down in the South for a rematch."

"If you must, but faces are so easily forgotten. Who knows if I shall remember you at all?" he smirked. "Finding the village is another matter of difficulty. Felines are so easily distracted…"

"I can find it, dammit." Kazumitsu grumbled. "You worry about how it'll feel when I kick your six tails into the dirt in front of that whole village!"

"If you can." Tsuneyori knocked one more drink back and stood to leave. "And now, I shall leave you for the evening. It has been a pleasure, heir to the North. Ladies."

Across the banquet hall, Ren felt the pulse of Sesshoumaru's youki from the head table and their eyes met. He nodded and mentally prepared to make his return journey east. The Captain rose from the table and hugged Kenshin and Tomomi goodbye.

"Tell Kagome-sama we send our greetings." Tomomi said cheerily, tucking her pale blond hair behind one ear. "I will be so glad to see her again in the spring."

"Is that all you look forward to in the spring?" Kenshin teased, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.

"No! I simply-"

"Gah!" Ren scrubbed his face with his hand. "I, for one, look forward to leaving the two of you alone again."

"Oh, Ren, I did not mean to-"

"He is teasing you, Tomomi." Kenshin said smiling. "You will get used to it."

"I still cannot tell! You two are so-"

"Handsome?" "Clever?" "Skilled?" They teased her in unison and the poor shikadaiyoukai found herself slack jawed at their audacity.

"Alluring?" Ren finished with a wink.

"No! You're both impossible!" Tomomi shouted, earning the stares and chuckles of several soldiers nearby.

The brothers laughed aloud and Ren clapped Kenshin on the back. In the split second between happy exchanges, Ren looked over at Rin, who was slipping into sleep against her protector's side. Sesshoumaru welcomed her and wrapped a length of his pelt around her shoulders, holding her in place. Well, there was another new feeling. Ren had never been jealous of fur before. Panic gripped his heart when the inu Lord looked right at him and jerked his head, beckoning the Captain over for the second time.

"Ren?" Kenshin asked.

"Oh? What? Hm?" Ren swallowed. "Sorry, the heat must be getting to me."

"And it is not the fault of the braziers." the chief healer smirked knowingly.

Ren coughed with pink-stained cheeks, and ignored Kenshin to hug Tomomi as well.

"Keep it up," the elder brother grinned over her shoulder, "and I will not go easy on you during the Bonding fights."

"Do your worst!" the younger twin retorted, holding up a fist. "I've been training without you here."

"We shall see, little brother," Ren chuckled, earning a glare from Kenshin and a laugh from Tomomi, "and now I am truly ready to go back. See you in the spring!" he waved.

"Be safe, brother!" "See you soon, Ren!"

Still grinning, Ren wove his way through the throngs of raucous laughter and scowls of boredom or rejection to find Sesshoumaru sitting at the head of the Cardinal table and a sleeping Rin propped against his side.

"Would you like me to take her to her rooms, Sesshoumaru-sama?" he offered. Duty demanded he ask even if he was terrified to hold her for more than one reason. One, because he might out himself to the entire hall, and two, because a daiyoukai he utterly feared, and her champion, would be watching his every move.

"No. She denies she is tired," Sesshoumaru said sarcastically in Rin's direction, raising a pale brow, "despite all evidence to the contrary."

Rin shook her head and sat up without opening her eyes, her small hands mechanically straightening her kimono lapel as her head began to droop once more.

"Mmmm… Rin is awake. Awake, milord, and… I… am…"

"I see." Ren said as respectfully as he could manage. "How may I serve then, Sesshoumaru-sama?"

"Hm." Sesshoumaru rumbled, and produced an intricately folded letter bound in an indigo ribbon from the depths of his sleeve. "The miko's letter as requested. You may now return."

"Thank you," Ren bowed, "and thank you for allowing me to stay to visit my brother, milord. If you relieve me, I will return to Edo at once."

"You are relieved, Ren. Remember Captain: you remain under This Sesshoumaru's command. The miko is allowed to return you to the West sometime in the winter when she visits her mother, but that is the limit to her authority. Respond to any threats as you see fit."

"Yes, Lord Sesshoumaru. Thank you."

Ren turned to leave and pack his few things in the barracks. It would be a cold and quiet journey back to the miko's village but he had some apologizing to do to Kagome, and some advice to gather. Before he left, Ren sprinted up to the family wing to leave his own letter for Rin pinned to the center of her practice target. He couldn't explain everything but she deserved to hear at least his apology before winter was through. Maybe the long, quiet season would provide him with some much-desired clarity where Rin was concerned.

…

Having left Kazumitsu with his chosen females for the evening, Tsuneyori was thanking the kami for his good luck so far as he padded back to his guest room. The disguised black fox stepped out of the great hall and into the hallways to make his way to the guest quarters when an unfamiliar voice from the shadows stopped him in his tracks.

"Ah, Hidekatsu-san!" came a jovial call from across the dark courtyard.

The silver-haired stranger jogged over to him wearing the armor of the Western soldiers and the male stood awkwardly in front of the cloaked kitsune. His short, low ponytail fell behind him and the pale golden eyes that stared comfortably into his own were totally foreign. Tsuneyori wracked his brain to figure out who this male was.

"I am glad to have caught you!" he beamed innocently.

"Excuse me." the cloaked-Hidekatsu said curtly. "I am retiring for the night."

"Not yet, I hope!" the young male chuckled. "I just ran all the way here to catch you after the dinner. Not all of us were invited in to the feast," the soldier lamented, holding out his hand. "but I am glad I did not miss you entirely. May I have your hand please?"

"Why?"

"So that I may greet you properly?" the soldier said seriously as his gold eyes. "I have not forgotten. You are still a professor, correct? A kitsune honored by your leaders?"

"Yes…"

Tsuneyori was confused but held out his left hand for the inu soldier to inspect. The kitsune was shocked when Inaba bent down and brushed his nose against the disguised fox's naked palm. Surprised and embarrassed, the fox jerked his hand away and held it up for inspection.

"What are you doing?" Tsuneyori questioned, confused.

"Do you not remember me, Hidekatsu-san? Inaba from the West?" he tried. "We were holed up together during the last onslaught of the North in the great wars? You saved my life when a band of panthers found us deep in the mountains, cut off from our battalions. I came to the village last year to hunt with you. I am happy to see you well enough to win the tournament! Though I was hardly surprised to witness your victory."

"Forgive me. Perhaps the exhaustion of the day has gotten the better of me, Inaba. I will find you tomorrow in better spirits. Good evening." the kitsune said, walking brusquely away.

"Hm?" Inaba wondered, watching one of the only youkai he had ever called "friend" outside the Fortress walls walk away as if he'd never seen him before in his life. "How odd. Have I changed so much?"

As the soldier contemplated his transformation, another pair of golden eyes watched the entire conversation with captivated focus from the peak of the mountain above.

"Hardly proof but my suspicions are raised, Hidekatsu." she whispered. Without averting her gaze, Kikuko issued new orders to the operative standing just behind. "Stay close enough to scent him and report if there are any changes." Kikuko cast over her shoulder. "If he moves from his room, send your partner to report to me immediately but do not let him escape. Capture is preferable but death is permitted."

"Yes, my Lady."

"Saya, be careful." the inu held up a finger. "Impostor or not, in this form he can manipulate the very shadows of night."

"Thank you, my Lady," the dark figure at her back said respectfully, before speeding away.

Kikuko stood alone on the roof as a cool breeze swept down from the peak and she considered the kitsune's claims of exhaustion. Being tired from the fight was not surprising, but was he merely trying to slip away? From what little Kikuko knew of the shadow fox, today's display of strength and skills were on par with the real thing. If the male wasn't Hidekatsu, and an imposter instead, they were still a clever daiyoukai and capable of delicate, imitative youki manipulation which was equally worrying. Before Kikuko could consider much more about the kitsune, a familiar youki warmed her senses from beyond the next northern peak.

"Ah. Now, it shall be a party." she smiled.

Alighting from the roof to the courtyard, Kikuko straightened her sky-blue kimono and flowing pelt, and called over her right shoulder.

"Katsurou! Someone is here to see you!"

"Hm?" The toradaiyoukai appeared beside her from the banquet room and a smile grew on his tan and impish face. "Haruna! That means the fit has passed then." A friendly black-clawed hand laid atop her bare shoulder as he passed her, headed for the courtyard. "Say nothing of our talk until I explain your knowledge of her affliction."

"As you wish." the inu nodded.

As the fair leopard daiyoukai landed on the ground, Katsurou swept her up in his arms and their foreheads laid against each other for a long moment before he laid a palm against her cheek and kissed her deeply. Even in the dark, Kikuko could see the relief and peace in Haruna's emerald eyes. After another moment of welcome, the couple walked over to Kikuko, arm in arm, and she smiled gently.

"Welcome, Haruna of the North. I am sure that Sesshoumaru knows of your arrival but he is loath to leave that little human of his alone tonight."

"The miko is here?" Haruna scowled.

"No, the other pet human. The smaller one." she flicked her fan dismissively. "Are you hungry?"

"Starving actually. I neglected to eat in my haste to leave the North." she admitted, then looked at Katsurou. "To see you."

"And I am glad you did. I have been lonely without you, Haruna."

Kikuko clicked her tongue.

"Tsk! Am I such bad company?"

"Ha! Hardly, dear Kikuko, but you are no replacement for This Katsurou's Mate."

"An acceptable excuse." Kikuko clapped her hands. "We should all sit down and have tea together tomorrow before you leave."

"I would like that." Haruna said quietly, stepping closer to the elder inu.

For a brief moment, the two females leaned in to press their foreheads together in a respectful and intimate greeting.

"You acknowledged our suffering last year when no other did." Haruna said quietly. "I have not forgotten."

"And you supported my refusal of your Mate's asinine plan," the inu grinned at the dumbstruck male, "for all the good it did. I have not forgotten that."

Sadness tinged with regret lit Haruna's eyes. "He means well, I suppose, even if his methods are unconventional."

Katsurou stepped forward and crossed his tanned arms.

"I stand beside it." he said playfully, then turned to Haruna. "You would be amused to know that, oddly enough, the pup has begun to bond with the human and they have agreed to produce the next heir to the West."

Instantly, Haruna punched Katsurou's arm, sending him tumbling over into the crushed shells that lined the courtyard paths.

"Do you see what your meddling has wrought!" the leopard hissed. "Now the West, our ally, will be weakened with a hanyou heir-"

"Damn it, Haruna! Sesshoumaru came up with the idea on his own!"

"It is done, Haruna, dear." Kikuko interrupted. "I have come to accept it. Sesshoumaru is at peace with the decision and the female is not without a brain or power of her own. Your Mate could certainly have chosen worse."

"See?" Katsurou grunted, standing with a grimace and brushing the dust from his open, black kimono. "Even Kikuko admits it will work out."

"But at what cost, beloved?" the leopard daiyoukai asked regretfully.

"Enough of this." Kikuko admonished, looping her arm through the leopard's. "You said you were famished so please come inside and eat. Regale us of tales from the North!"

"There is little to tell…" Haruna began with a pale smile.

Katsurou followed the females back into the dining hall with a lighter heart than he had had in months. Maybe Kuroikage's plan would work after all…

…

The feast wound down just as the first light of morning was beginning to crest over the mountains. The last stragglers were being led or carried back to their barracks or guest rooms, and Sesshoumaru lifted a sleeping Rin from the floor to carry her upstairs to the family wing. The Council and their packs had all returned to their guest rooms hours ago. Exhaustion from all of the excitement and drinking had worn out even daiyoukai.

While he was surveying the silent courtyard and halls, Rin's arm fell from her lap to dangle in the air, and he lifted her higher to free his arm and gently replace one small hand atop the other. When he looked back up, Sesshoumaru was suddenly surprised to find his mother wandering the hall, distracted, as if she was looking for someone.

"You are not asleep."

"Hm?" His mother's unfocused golden eyes were still scanning the halls before she blinked heavily and faced him. "No. I was just- Finally ended, is it?" she said with a sigh.

"Hm."

They fell in step as Sesshoumaru passed the infirmary doors and continued down the hall.

"I will lay Rin in her rooms and return to see the Council leave."

"No need." She waved a delicate, dismissive hand. "They are all asleep for the time being. You should rest, as well. You look haggard."

With one foot paused on the bottom step, Sesshoumaru considered his mother and her concerned gaze. Admitting the truth might be a relief. She had already informed the Council of his issues.

"That has nothing to do with the tournament or the Council." he said, climbing the first few stairs. "Sleep is rarely rest anymore."

"Hm. I know. Why not bring her here, Sesshoumaru? Ease this burden?"

"Her life will be disrupted enough next year," he said quietly, looking down at Rin's sleeping face, "and it is not yet so distracting that I never rest."

"Meddlesome as the miko is, how would she feel if she knew?" Kikuko questioned from behind him.

"Do not." he warned, frowning back at her.

"Hn." his mother huffed.

Cresting the stairs, Sesshoumaru walked into Rin's room to find Tomomi already there with breakfast and tea. The young deer bowed respectfully as the two inu entered. Sesshoumaru laid Rin carefully down on her bed, removed his black haori from around her shoulders, and removed the jewelry from her hair. After covering her with a quilt, she stirred and sighed contentedly. He rose quietly and turned to the maid.

"Let her sleep as long as she needs. Bring her to me once she has eaten and dressed. Do not leave her alone."

"Yes, milord." Tomomi bowed.

"Lucky little human." Kikuko said quietly, following him from the room. "Youkai serving her day and night. I wonder if she knows the honor you afford her."

"You know better than most why she deserves it." he said without pause, looking back at his young savior's peaceful face.

"True. Though I never expected you to bring her here."

"It was her choice the first time but after Inuyasha-" Sesshoumaru growled at the memories, turning away from his mother.

"-the hanyou went insane, you found it necessary. I know. She is happy here. You do right by her. Your pack will grow again in the coming year. Be at ease."

Sesshoumaru remained silent but absorbed her words. Rin was his only pack, outside of his mother, and keeping her close was more for his benefit than hers, he knew. The pair of inu crossed the threshold into his rooms and Kikuko snapped the door closed, flaring her youki to test the room. Finding nothing out of place, she saturated the room with her aura, creating an impenetrable barrier.

"Why have you-" he started.

Appearing before her son in the blink of an eye, Kikuko stared into the golden eyes that were so much like her own. Her voice was barely a whisper as she explained.

"Listen quickly, Sesshoumaru. You are being hunted. Our spies work to confirm it but I am sure. The same magic that beguiled you in the Southern woods has followed you here. One of the heirs or champions is an impostor and will most likely use the exhaustion from the tournament to their advantage. Do not rest. Do not leave the mountain. Any one of the heirs are powerful but whoever it is, is using borrowed youki to mimic them exactly which is equally as disturbing."

"You are certain?"

"Yes. I would not have looked for such deception except…"

The Lady mother paused, unsure of how much to reveal. The human had not explicitly told her to keep their conspiring a secret, but neither did it serve them to worry Sesshoumaru on nothing more than guesswork for now.

"Hm?" the inu Lord questioned.

"Except," Kikuko sighed, bracing herself for the wrath that followed, "that your miko warned me that you would be targeted."

His eyes blew wide and a hundred questions raced through his mind. Suspicion, doubt, and disappointment flooded his mind where his intended was concerned and he cursed himself for it. His aura swelled with frustration and crimson flooded the corners of his eyes.

"Kagome… warned you? Of an attack? Explain."

His dark command left no room for argument, but the whole truth would have to wait until they were all together. There was much the miko must have left out, Kikuko was sure of it, but she began to explain the strange letters from the miko and her warning that the West was not untouchable.

…

Tsuneyori was exhausted. Hours of fighting, drinking, the warmth of the banquet hall, and the call of a comfortable bed all worked together to tempt him from completing this quest. He stopped lamenting his own tiredness and listened with Hidekatsu's ears. Everyone in the guest quarters was sleeping. All but one. The new female arrival from this evening. A leopard daiyoukai. She was humming to her sleeping Mate and unaware of the rest of the world. She could easily be bypassed.

He gritted his teeth as he plucked the charm from his neck and the power he had borrowed for days melted away. The surface of the clear, crystalline eye began to flake and crumble away and soon a pile of gray dust littered the floor. The young fox's legs gave out and he sunk to the floor as his body reacted to the loss of youki. If he had refrained from winning the tournament, perhaps the charm might have held out for the battle with Sesshoumaru but expending so much energy had drained it entirely. However, it had lasted long enough to fool everyone in the West for two days. His father's magic was truly impressive.

'Your true form is untraceable, nearly mute to the senses of daiyoukai, and using your invisibility is the only way you will accomplish this task, my son.'

Daichi had been clear that this was also the only way he would succeed in killing the Lord of the West. Sneaking, deception, and falsehood. He had battled his opponents today with honor, face to face. True power against true power. But it had not been his own. His own power was locked away to render him the ultimate tool until his father's plan was carried out.

Refreshing his face with cool water, Tsuneyori toweled himself off and changed into the violet kimono and black hakama from home. It smelled like that damp cave behind the waterfall even to his dulled senses and a sneer of disgust came and went.

'No, that place is not my home. My home is with my father and our kind, and the sooner the inu dies,' his fist clenched around the pommel of his sword, 'the sooner I can be free.'

Tsuneyori added a fresh piece of wood to the brazier, laid his bag of Hidekatsu's discarded clothes next to the open flame, and stepped into the hall. Beyond the bag and brazier, the unconscious forms of two black-clad spies lay unmoving in the corner of his rooms.

'They will burn with the rest. Fools. Strangled by the very shadows you sought for safety. Such useful power.'

A deep breath of satisfaction left his lips and he sprinted to the barracks to complete the second step in their plan.

His departure, however, did not go completely unnoticed.

Only Haruna was awake in the guest wing, singing softly in the dark room to a very weary tiger daiyoukai. She listened to the soft footfalls of someone padding away from the hall and was unconcerned with who or what it was until a scent, a whisper of a scent, stole the breath from her lungs. Woven into the silk threads of a garment in the hallway were two faded, haunting scents but the effect nearly stopped her heart. Through the haze of tears instantly clouding her vision, her gentle hands laid Katsurou's head down on the futon and he resumed snoring.

In the dark room, the shadows gathered to stretch and claw at her to remember the charred forms of her Mate and cubs. Everyone she had lost when that bitch killed her family. The faint scent that might have been her imagination reminded her of soft, downy hair and glassy, green eyes staring up at her in wonder. On shaking legs, Haruna stood with a hand outstretched as she crossed the room.

"No… It cannot be." she breathed.

Her feet moved mechanically toward the door, sliding it open to sniff the night air with wide eyes and shaking claws. Her emerald eyes widened and the tears dripped down over the deep violet spots that dusted her cheeks. More memories of smiling silver eyes and a cocky grin filled her mind and Haruna gripped her head, feeling as if she was going mad. Deep in her heart, a forgotten sliver of youki throbbed in recognition and it became nearly impossible to breathe.

"You are dead…" she whispered brokenly. "I know you are all dead."

But a scent alone does not lie… and without another thought, Haruna palmed the wicked scythe laying idly in the corner and slipped silently into the hallway to discover the truth for herself.

…

Minutes later, half of the guest wing was burning as brightly as the morning sun and the Palace was in chaos. The guests were evacuated to the Fortress as the servants and soldiers fought the blaze. Tsuneyori, however, had beat them all to the barracks. Just before dawn broke over the mountain, two Western soldiers met their end at the hands of a silent shadow.

Tsuneyori hefted his load higher and slung them over the peak of the mountain with a grunt. The two dead soldiers landed heavily on the bare, pitted rock at the peak of the mountain. The young assassin crested the edge with a grunt and looked down at the bodies that lay splayed irreverently on the beige stone. Their limbs lay twisted, heads at odd angles, and the fox crouched down to examine them more closely. Both soldiers were young, even by his standards, at less than half of his nearly six centuries.

"Unlucky you to be unbound and asleep."

He had decided on his own not to kill the Mate of another. His father would have been less discriminating, knowing what he did about Daichi's methods, but Tsuneyori would have hated himself even more thoroughly for sentencing another female to the same torture he imagined his mother must have felt. Hearing the tale again before leaving the cave made him realize he pitied her, this female he'd never known. She was here in the Palace somewhere at this very moment but without a memory of her, and without any demonic senses to rely on, the hunt would be fruitless.

'I had almost hoped to meet her… But there is work to do.'

Reaching into his kimono, Tsuneyori withdrew two sutras and placed them on the ground beside the bodies. Withdrawing a hunting knife from his belt, he clicked his tongue and plunged the blade in the chest of the first.

"Be glad you are-" Tsuneyori pressed harder as his knife wedged in bone, "-ah, already dead."

Another minute and the still-warm heart of the first soldier was tossed carelessly over the edge of the mountain to tumble into the forest far below. Tsuneyori used two fingers to press one of the sutras into the new cavity of the soldier's chest and closed his eyes to repeat his father's short chant to activate the reanimation spell. The soldier silently opened his eyes and rose from the dirt, finding Tsuneyori's crimson eyes mirrored across from him by the spell. It didn't bother him anymore. He'd done this three times already. Perhaps this would be the last.

"Stay while I deal with your friend."

The risen soldier merely straightened his gaze back into nothingness. Repeating the gruesome act on the second youkai, now two soldiers stood awaiting command while the young fox cleaned his hands and knife.

"You," he pointed to the first, "locate Sesshoumaru's human ward in the family wing and hold her. Take this." He hefted the soldier's own weapon back to him. The curved blade of the polearm glinted in the morning sunlight. "Call me when Sesshoumaru comes." The first nodded and leapt away. "And you," he jerked his head at the second, "come with me. Your job will be to stay hidden until you are needed."

His father's spells were a wonder. Carving out their hearts meant they were no longer whole, no longer manufactured youki of their own, but yet these animated bodies acted as they had in life: soldiers unable to refuse commands. Human soldiers were even easier to manipulate but less durable. No, these two would prove useful until their flesh began to decompose enough to erode the sutras. That gave him several hours to accomplish this mission. More than enough time.

…

The early morning sun filtered through the branches as Kagome trudged through the ankle-high blanket of fallen leaves. It was a short walk through the woods to return home from washing her few dirty clothes in the frigid river but it was enough time for her mind to wander. With a heavy basket on her hip and a wistful sigh meant for no one in particular, the young miko shook her head and refocused on the tasks for the morning. Washing, breakfast, training, Chisato's lessons for the day, shrine maintenance, dinner with Sango and Miroku… All the while trying not to worry about what was happening in the West and whether or not Ren had accomplished his task.

Had the Captain made it there safely? Had Sesshoumaru caught on? Was Kikuko going to help? Had she already? Would Katsurou give up the story? Did it matter if he did? If she got the truth, did it help her prepare for what was coming? What was coming anyway? A thousand questions cluttered her brain and the only answers were hundreds of miles away, or five hundred years in the future, and all out of her reach.

"Argh!" she growled, dropping the basket beside the clothesline with a frown. "What am I doing just sitting here?"

A few minutes of rough shaking and wringing saw her wet clothes, and her nerves, straightened and neatly arranged. Kagome watched the clothes wave lazily on the line in the sunshine. The breeze was chilly but not yet so cold that everything would need to be hung inside during the daylight hours.

Ducking into the modest house, Kagome gathered ingredients and dishes for breakfast in the central room. It was mechanic but habit now to gather everything needed to cook a meal for one. She looked down at the one small cup, bowl, and pair of chopsticks and sighed.

"No…" she grinned weakly, shaking her head for the third or fourth time this morning. "Don't get sappy now, Kagome. Enjoy it while you can, I guess."

Breakfasts might be more complicated next year. Definitely livelier. Would their meals be just like the few they had shared together so far? Would they spend time with the children while making plans for the day, or did Sesshoumaru prefer to be alone? Morning meals with Rin and Shippou and Sesshoumaru… The chill of the morning suddenly left her face. What would change? What would be the same?

'After you wake up in the same bed with him, idiot! Not the same! Not the same at all!' she thought, girlishly trying to shake the thoughts away.

After breakfast, she dressed in the crimson and white priestess robes that were as comfortable now as a second skin. Kagome adjusted the bow slung across her back and shuttered the house to start down the road when an eruption of familiar youki battered her senses and her head whipped around away from the rising sun.

"Ren!" she smiled at the western sky, but then her joy faltered as she remembered his departure.

He had been acting so strange the entire day and then… he'd kissed her. Or she thought he had? It had only been two days but even now, Kagome was unsure she was right. His boots touched down in the open field between the house and the forest and their eyes met across the space. She watched his armored shoulders slump before he took a deep breath and walked stiffly as he joined her on the road. Stopping too far away, his usually smiling green eyes were regretful and his pinched brow echoed of shame that kept him from meeting her eyes. Ren's hair was bound in a tight knot that oddly mirrored his aura. Usually open and flirtatious, his youki was coiled in tight on itself like he was willfully stifling it to a painful degree.

"Welcome back." she greeted casually, trying to break the awkward silence.

Ren straightened his armor with a tug of his right hand and walked silently towards her. His eyes remained on the ground. When he was less than a body length away, he surprised her by dropping to the ground and prostrating himself.

"What are you doing?!" Kagome asked, looking nervously around for any spectators.

"Please forgive me, Kagome-sama, for my actions before I left," he said to the dirt road. "I was confused and upset and though that is no excuse for accosting you, I wish to apologize and assure you it will never happen again."

"I didn't imagine it then…" the miko sighed thoughtfully.

"No, you did not. I am so sorry for assuming- for losing control of- I know now that it was foolish-" Ren stammered, clenching his hand in the dirt.

"Stand up, Captain." the miko said firmly.

Slowly and fluidly, Ren curled upwards to face her and what were surely her disappointed blue eyes. Waiting for her to let him have it, he was unprepared for the warm arms that closed around his middle and the gentle press of her head against his shoulder. Ren's heart warmed in a way it had not since his mother died. Despite her shorter stature and thin build, he felt truly comforted and safe and enveloped in the way that only pack matriarchs are capable of. He nearly cried in relief. Days of travel, emotional turmoil, fear, and uncertainty began to melt away while Kagome coddled him like a pup in the middle of the road. She wasn't inu but damn, if she didn't know what he needed in that moment.

"I am… truly sorry." he said quietly.

"I don't know what's going on but I will always be your friend. Whenever you're ready, you can tell me what's bothering you." She released him to enjoy the upbraided, glassy-eyed look on his handsome face and continued. "Until then, just don't… do that anymore, okay?" To which, Ren could only mutely shake his head. "Good. For now, I have a full schedule today so your penance is to help me clean the shrine and patiently continue to tutor Chisato in archery."

Ren swallowed thickly and found his voice.

"Anything. Of course. Thank you for… Thank you, Kagome-sama. Oh," he brightened, ripping the letter from his belt satchel, "and here is your letter from Sesshoumaru-sama."

"He actually wrote one? Wow. Oh! What a pretty ribbon…" the miko grinned girlishly, tracing the bow with a delicate finger.

The look on Kagome's face was instantly one of hope and fondness. Ren realized right then that no matter what he had thought might happen, he never would have stood a chance. Without seeing one another for almost a season, the pack Alpha and future matriarch were already bound by more than ribbons and letters. They were caring for everyone in their respective charge while still finding the time to bond with each other. That look on her face now and the relief Sesshoumaru exhibited when asking about the safety of the village were born of the same mutual affection. Surely, the Lord of the West and the Shikon miko deserved happiness and in that moment, Ren resolved to help in any way he could.

"To the shrine then?" he asked, peering into her blushing face.

"Hm? The shrine? Oh, yeah. Let's get going."

Ren gave her privacy by walking ahead just a few steps but he heard the rasp of paper as she opened the letter and the quickening of her heart as she began to read. Another few minutes passed as she read with a shallow gasp and a chuckle but then…

"What?!"

Ren squinted one eye at the shrill tone of her voice and turned around to see her as red as a cherry and eyes wide as saucers. Kagome had stopped walking and stood open-mouthed in the middle of the road, holding out the letter like it was burning her fingers.

"Are you quite well?" he asked, trying desperately not to chuckle.

"What does he think- There is no way that's happening-" Her steely blue eyes fixed on the inu Captain and she pointed animatedly down at the paper. "Did you know he's asking me- Grr! I asked for a letter and some honesty!" she shouted at the paper. "You don't get sex in return, you cocky, fresh, dirty… dog!"

"Pfft!" Ren sputtered, unable to control himself anymore. "Ah, how I have missed you, Kagome-sama! Surely, milord did not mean-"

"He says, I quote, 'I hope the spring finds you well enough to travel to the West for an extended stay and my singular request in return for this letter is to spend the night alone with you before we return'! What else could that possibly mean? Who asks something like that?"

"I would venture to guess a male who has learned something about himself in your absence. Best be prepared then, my Lady." Ren winked, before turning right and heading up the shrine stairs to leave the miko gaping and flushed once again.

Miroku met the Captain at the top of the shrine steps and warmly welcomed him back with a clap on the back and questions about the lovely ladies that graced the Palace for the festivities. Kagome trudged up the stairs with a heavy heart and a suddenly-aching head, wondering for the rest of the day what the hell else Sesshoumaru possibly could have meant. They hadn't kissed, held each other, barely touched at all, but he wanted to sleep with her just like that? Kagome squeaked and clapped a hand over her mouth to prevent a scary, new thought from escaping.

'And why am I considering it?'

Just then, flecks of white dropped onto the grass at her feet. More and more followed until the ground was sparkling with the melted flakes of the first snow.

"So early this year… Well, this moves things up, I suppose." she shrugged, jogging ahead to catch up with Miroku and Ren.

…

In modern Tokyo, an alarm clock blinked brighter and brighter to signal the new workday. The indigo comforter of a king size bed undulated with a guttural growl and flipped back revealing a shirtless inudaiyoukai. Shoulder-length silver hair was splayed out in irregular spirals on the white sheets but was further rumpled as a lean body flexed lengthwise to rid itself of the stiffness of a rare, good sleep.

As he sat upright, Sesshoumaru blinked once, then twice, and reached for the noise cancelling earbuds that allowed him to sleep undisturbed. An apartment in the city was central to his work but unfriendly to the sensitive ears of an inuyoukai. The snoring of the new neighbor two floors higher had kept him from decent rest for two weeks before Shippou had showed up with a box of these foam plugs muttering something once again about "getting with the times." Groggy golden eyes gradually narrowed and cleared, cat-like pupils dilating in the morning light, until he could count the individual threads of the white dress shirt that hung waiting on his closet door.

Dropping the plugs on the bedside table, he turned and laid his feet on the floor. Two clawed hands combed through the silky mass of his hair and when Sesshoumaru rose, his pale golden, silk pajama pants fell in place, sluicing around his feet as he stepped slowly towards the bathroom.

Mechanically starting the shower first, he faced the mirror but stared down into the depths of the black marble sink, preparing. Worse than the unsightly, dark purple gash that awaited his eyes and saddled his entire right side, was the constant and growing pain seated deep within the cursed wound. It drained and frustrated him. No longer being able to call his own youki at will was bad enough but when the pain began to affect his kata and the nerves of his arm, depression had consumed him for months. The first time the sword had fallen from his hand was the last. One more constant in his life had been ripped away.

Had Kagome, the West, and the lives of all the others not been a high enough price for his failures? The hideous injury of his youth and reminder of his weakness was always the first sight that greeted him in the morning and it turned his stomach more often than not.

'Coward. You saved her from the curse only to lose her to his blade. This is your penance for failure. This curse.' he berated himself, raising his eyes to the mirror. 'Day after day-'

Sesshoumaru gasped and his citrine eyes widened like a startled deer. The angry, jagged scar that ran from his neck to his navel… was gone. His hands moved without his permission, touching and searching for the edges of this illusion or gaps in the glamour. He leaned within an inch of the mirror and Ivory claws traced the skin from his neck down to his chest. No, the skin was irregular, he had been injured, but it was real. He was not bewitched. Turning to check the skin of his back, there was still a scar there, too, but it was shallow, long healed over with new, pinkened flesh and the only remnants of the gruesome injury was a misalignment of the magenta markings that trailed his shoulder. The years of pain and exhaustion were gone overnight. Ragged breaths of relief and hope fogged the bathroom mirror as his forehead laid against it and he tried to recall what had happened.

The dark, youki sapping curse was gone but Sesshoumaru was having trouble recalling how any of it had happened. He had been gored, the curse had done its job in weakening him, but then what? The memories were there but muddled and inconsistent. There was a memory of his Mate, staring down at him in concern and warning him not to retaliate as she… What had she done? Healed it? No, the pain was still there long after her death… No, it was long healed. Which was it? What was the truth?

He had definitely gone to sleep last night in pain, shifting from his left side to his back until the throbbing gave in enough for him to fall into fitful sleep. Sesshoumaru had definitely gone to bed diseased and weak, but woken to a healthy body and restored aura.

'How? Restored…'

A heavy word. A word that could spell the end of his worries of assassination and the end of the extremist faction hunting them all. He was doomed… No, she was- Damn. The orchestrator's identity had changed as well.

Setting aside the possibility that a whole new strategy lay ahead… was it truly possible?

With disappointment waiting in the wings of his mind, Sesshoumaru reached for his youki. Instantly, it responded like a cat to an outstretched palm, flaring and rising to his call. A choked chuckle, heavy with emotion, involuntarily welled up at the healthy and ripe feeling of it. It swelled at his command, broke free of his control, and swirled through the large bathroom, ripping towels and other accoutrements from their tidy holes. The space was a mess when he finally released the energy but the boyish grin on his face remained as he straightened the items and snatched his phone from the bedside table to call Shippou.

"Pop? Hold on- Ryou, no more foxfire in the house! Hana, that's your sister's tail! Get it out of your mouth. Sorry, what's up? You never call this early."

"The curse… is gone." Sesshoumaru said as calmly as possible.

"What?! Holy shit! Wait! Ow, don't 'language' me, Akari. Damn! Sesshoumaru just said the curse is gone! How?"

"I cannot say. I woke and it was healed." With one hand holding the phone, the other pinched at his forehead like he might squeeze the memories out if he tried hard enough. "There are memories but they are obscured, clouded… I cannot grasp the truth of what happened."

"Ah! That happened last time, too, remember? When Kikuko showed up? You said you couldn't figure it out but there she was and then the memories filled in over the next few days? Write it all down like last time so you don't forget what's changed. Damn, this means Momma must have changed something else!"

"Perhaps…"

"Hey, Sesshoumaru?"

"Hm?"

"It's working."

The inu could hear the fox's smile over the phone and it mirrored his own growing hope that Kagome was turning the tide in their favor but something was still missing.

"It would appear so," he rumbled, "but not yet enough for her to be here."

"Patience, Pop." Shippou said gently. "Kagome doesn't even know what's going on yet. Whatever she's doing, it's purely instinct which is just as amazing."

"Hm. When she returns, it is time to give her more information since she is clearly already setting new events in motion."

"Right. I'll call Mariko and let her know to keep ready."

"No need. I am overdue for a visit."

"You like going there now, huh?"

"I stayed away until Inuyasha's death to avoid affecting those events. There is no reason to avoid contact anymore and…" he grunted and closed his eyes. It wasn't as if the kit was unaware.

"What?"

"Her scent is comforting when the Bond swells and it has happened more frequently since her return last spring."

"Yeah, I get it." he said sympathetically. "Okay. Well, tell Grandma we said 'Hi' and I'll bring the kits by next weekend."

"Hm. Be on time at work today. The second sessions of the month begin today."

"Yeah, I know. I'll be there. And I'm trying but they're all a handful this morning. Don't suppose you wanna come help wrangle your grandkits? That Alpha energy is so frickin' useful. Shouldn't you test it out?"

Silence.

"It'd help me get to work on time?" Shippou tried.

"Very well." Shippou might not have been able to hear the fragile grin behind the words but it was there.

Twenty minutes later, the ex-Lord of the West was hanging up his gray suit jacket and sitting at a small dining room table in the midst of the chaos of the Mikazuki kitsune's breakfast rush. Eleven kitsune children of varying ages were running from one end of the moderately-sized house to the other calling for this or that, stopping to wave hello to him, or else, in the case of the youngest litter, simply staring at him like a fish in a bowl.

The newest litter was the last to finish their food and, therefore, Sesshoumaru's task for the morning. Akari, their mother and Shippou's chestnut-haired Mate, had marveled over the loss of the curse and hugged him in congratulations before thanking him for helping and dashing into the bedroom to get dressed. Ryou, one of the youngest three, was particularly fascinated with his grandfather and hung on his every word at only thirty-one years old. As the great inu sat down at the table to administer napkins, and ensure they were all three doing more eating than playing, Ryou's bright green eyes stared a hole in his face.

"Finish your rice, Ryousuke."

"Kay!" the small boy answered, breaking the trance and turning his fluffy black head to concentrate on another bite of food. "You're happy today, Sesshoumaru-jii."

"Am I?" Sesshoumaru said curiously, sipping his cup of tea.

The boy was perceptive if he could detect emotions in auras simply by sitting next to him. Shippou and Akari were conscientious in teaching their children to carefully monitor themselves and their environment. There would always be slip ups, like last week when Hana had let her fangs show while chasing pigeons in the park, but they were never in real trouble due to constant training, loads of patience, and an extremely jovial father.

It was soothing to be in a house full of youkai now that he could sense them again. Bright auras zoomed around the house, connected by scent and by filial familiarity. Sesshoumaru resolved in that moment to be more present now that the curse was gone, and his own energy and initiative was returning.

"Yep, you are," Ryou continued. "You never come see us in the morning," the boy said, shoveling another bite into his mouth and squirming in his booster seat. "Papa says you're too busy to see us too often."

"Does he?"

"He's a little sad about it sometimes."

"Your father is an adult, and no longer needs me to parent him. He exaggerates his need for company."

"No, he's not sad for himself. He's sad for you." Innocent Ryou missed the instant clench of a clawed fist over gray dress slacks. "He's been worried you were too sad for too long. Said you were finally disappearing for good. Can you really disappear, jii-chan? Like Papa does?" the child asked hopefully.

The realization finally sunk in. Shippou had been preparing himself for the worst while still barreling forward with their plan to stop it all from happening in the first place. Something thick and real knotted in his throat, stopped the instant retort to save his pride, and forced the ancient inu to reconsider his priorities for the second time this morning.

"I cannot, and I will not, Ryousuke. Finish your breakfast." Sesshoumaru said firmly and began to rise from the table.

"Mm 'kay. Where are you going?" Ryou asked, his black tail and startling green eyes flicking in curiosity.

"To see your father."

Winding through the hallways was direct enough but every step felt lighter than the last. Recognition was long overdue. The one person who had actually held it together for all this time wasn't him at all. It was…

"Shippou."

He caught sight of the mature kitsune yanking navy scrubs over his head in the bedroom at the end of the hallway while yelling to the older two in the next room about what their after-school schedules were. His bright auburn hair was down, damp from the shower, and partially obscuring his face. Flashbacks to their many, many fights over his boyish and unruly appearance came flooding back.

"Shippou." Sesshoumaru tried again, still stalking down the hallway.

"Okay, then Seiichi will be there to get you at seven and don't go home without him!" their father called across the hall, waiting for the inevitable groans about older siblings and uncool transportation. "Well, he might drive the minivan, Chi, but don't give him hell about it." Then Shippou finally caught sight of Sesshoumaru stalking down the hallway with a serious look on his face. Some well-practiced obedience from his boyhood told him to stay still and wait to see what the fall out was. "Hm? Pop? I thought you were feeding the kits! Quit slacking and let me get-"

Shippou stopped talking and blinked rapidly into sudden press of Sesshoumaru's warm shoulder against his cheek. Hugs weren't that uncommon but this one felt different. This was the comfort and acknowledgement of an Alpha and his body tingled with anticipation. The inu's aura was swirling with more emotion than Shippou had felt from him in a long time. More than that, there was a real strength in both of the arms that wrapped around Shippou's back and his emerald eyes began to water before he could stop them.

"I will not disappear," his adoptive father said quietly.

"I never said you would-"

"But you feared it. Your stewardship of this family in my absence was exemplary of a son of the West."

Shippou wrapped his arms around Sesshoumaru and squeezed. They were both silent as stifled emotions sorted themselves out in both of their brains.

"Pop… you lost so much- How could I ask you to- I thought you just needed time but then you sunk deeper and deeper. The only option was to fix this with her help. So that's what I kept doing."

The large hand that came to rest on top of his head wasn't shaking for the first time in nearly two decades. The youki that swam in an endless vortex within Sesshoumaru's body was wild and strong. With one more light squeeze, his father released him and stepped back, stoic and impassive as ever, but his aura swam with a peace and authority he had been missing for well over two centuries.

"I know you were trying." Shippou said quietly.

"I was not." the inu said sternly, his aura flaring. "I was merely surviving. You were trying."

"Kids can't keep their mouths shut, huh?" Shippou grinned, wiping his eyes.

"I apologize for neglecting you and your pack these past several decades. It was selfish and unproductive."

"A curse and the loss of your entire birthright is the only acceptable excuse." the kitsune thickly chuckled. "I'm glad you're back. Don't scare me like that anymore and we'll call it even, okay?" Embarrassment stained Shippou's cheeks and he turned away to snag his ID and wallet from the side table. "Now, let's get back to work. Both of us. She needs us, right?"

"Indeed."

Just as Sesshoumaru turned around with a nod to leave the room and resume his duties, a groan of shock and disgust sounded from the kitchen.

"Who left the babies down here alone?!" Akari shrieked. "Whoever it was has some major cleaning to do! Why is there a chopstick imbedded in the ceiling? Who gave you three strawberry jam? Shippou! I don't have time for this this morning…" she whined.

"Oh shit. I'd better go-" Shippou grunted, heading for the door.

An arm stopped him. Sesshoumaru nodded and slid past him in the doorway, his aura already rising with authority.

"Allow me. It was my responsibility and I neglected it." Golden eyes flashed with mirth and the corner of his mouth twitched as he turned away. "Not for the first time, admittedly, but certainly the last."

Shippou smiled watching Sesshoumaru walk back down the long hall to the dining room to assess the situation. A low rumble of a growl stopped the three offending kits in their tracks and they ducked for cover under the table. Shippou heard the daiyoukai ask his Mate where the rags and bucket were. Akari protested at making him do so much when he was still recovering. He waved her away, gathered the supplies when she pointed them out, then handed one cleaning cloth to each of the small kits in turn. They blinked up at him with a collection of onyx and emerald eyes, and seasoned gold bored into each pair in turn.

"Your lack of discipline only makes more work for you. Choose obedience and thoughtful reflection over chaos in the future. For now, you will correct your mistakes while you consider the merits of self-control."

When the kits immediate began whining, a low growl rattled the dishes in the cabinets and three bushy tails tucked beneath their small owners. Sesshoumaru folded his arms as they grumbled and began wiping food and juice from the table and floor. Akari stood beside him, mouth agape, as her unruly triplets cleaned every scrap of mess they had made. When their grandfather was satisfied, he nodded his approval and reminded them to apologize to their mother before lightly patting their heads, and instructing them to put their used dishes in the sink. Akari stammered something about never allowing him to leave to which he replied that he would return on a more regular basis from this day forward if she would have him. The kits flinched when he raised an admonishing silver eyebrow in their direction.

"Welcome back, Pop." Shippou chuckled from the end of the hall, a nostalgic fanged grin growing on his face.

…

In the Western Palace…

"More water here!" "Stop it from spreading any further!" "Fetch another trough of sand!"

The servants bustled from one end of the hall to the other trying to stop the fire from damaging any more of the Palace. Sesshoumaru's face was plastered with a scowl watching the guest wing burn because of someone's ignorance.

'Drunken fools, the lot of them.'

The fleeing guests had all agreed that the fire was well out of control before most of them woke. Most reported only minor burns and none were obviously maimed. The South and East had counted their own and reported no one missing, but Katsurou and Haruna were curiously absent even though Kazumitsu was accounted for. Rin was asleep in the family wing, far away from the burning guest quarters and still guarded by her agile and trustworthy maid.

"Sesshoumaru-sama!" came a voice from the Fortress archway, taking his attention from counting the daiyoukai still in his house. As the soldier grew closer, Sesshoumaru recognized him as the guard he had once assigned to Kagome during her stay in the infirmary.

"Inaba."

"Hai, Sesshoumaru-sama." The inu bowed. His short, choppy silver hair settled around his curious and distraught golden eyes. "Forgive me, but has Hidekatsu been counted? I cannot find him in the Fortress among the survivors."

"The kitsune?" the inu Lord questioned. "Confirm once more and then gather a search party. Confirm the presence of the other clan champions as well."

"Yes, milord!"

Sesshoumaru watched the soldier speed away to complete his task but curiosity tinged with doubt began to nag at his brain. The Northern Lord and his Mate both missing was odd enough, but a champion who was in no way connected to them? He scented the air for more information out of habit, but nothing but the dark, savory scent of burning wood filled his nose. His eyes slid closed for just a moment as the memory rose.

'And you would invade my thoughts even now.'

He cursed this scent. Charred wood, so reminiscent of Kagome's sadness, was more familiar to him than any other in the growing catalogue of her emotions. The heavy sorrow that accompanied her few days in the West, the scent brought on by Inuyasha's death, was burned into his brain. The first time he'd truly noticed it was during her quiet reflection after the meeting as the typhoon whipped around the mountain. She had been facing the gardens, away from him, but the rain and wind did nothing to dampen the powerful fragrance of anguish that poured from her weakened body. She had not complained as she watched the storm, not cried, not raged… but the scent of loss was so powerful, even he had been affected.

Suddenly, Sesshoumaru had two reasons to be angry with the smoldering guest wing. Their first intimately shared memory was one of despair and failure. Yet, she was now recovered in body and mind… and plotting with his mother over the affairs of the West. The urge to sigh over the absurdity of it almost won out over maintaining his lordly calm in the face of the chaos of the morning. These females in his life…

His moment of quiet reflection was interrupted by a breeze at his back and the flare of an all-too-familiar youki. Speak of the devil… Golden eyes slowly opened but he stiffened as her finery settled and she waited beside him.

"Mother, why-"

"Let me guess," Kikuko lilted mysteriously, "the fox champion is missing." She did not turn her head to look at the deepening scowl on her son's face but his eyes cut in her direction and her knowing grin spread. "You remember that I warned you?"

"How?" he asked simply.

"We have been watching him for two days." Kikuko walked forward to stand beside Sesshoumaru and gaze impassively at the burning halls. Her midnight kimono fluttered in a chilled breeze and she shrugged her pelt higher to cover the back of her neck. "I had hoped my suspicions were incorrect but the information we gathered points to Hidekatsu as the imposter. However, our spies should have reported by now if he made a move. Looks as though he's run away with his tail between his legs. Perhaps the vigilance I suggested effectively thwarted his plans." she said proudly.

"Why was he not arrested and questioned if you were nearly certain?"

"There was no hard evidence and there still is not however," she narrowed her amber eyes at the billowing smoke pouring out into the sky, "the happenings are all too coincidental to ignore. Not that it matters now. I offer this advice, as well: offending high-ranking, powerful kitsune should never be high on One's list. If we had angered him, and he reported back to the clan heads, we might never know peace again out of their spite and boredom."

"Why was I not informed of your plans?" came the growled response.

"Do tell me when This One should have interrupted your evening, Sesshoumaru?" Kikuko said with a withering look. "While you were ignoring or rejecting the numerous advances of the young females from the daiyoukai clans over dinner? Or perhaps while you were interviewing Ietsuna in the infirmary while Kenshin healed him in the hours prior? Or maybe after that, as you hovered over your human pet in the banquet hall with hundreds of other daiyoukai present?" his mother snapped, frustrated. "I suppose, yes, I could have informed you of the sensitive information regarding the covert invasion of the West at any of those times."

"We were alone in the family den." he said sharply, gazing at the stairwell to the family rooms and wondering if Rin was still sleeping.

"Were we?" Kikuko said distractedly. "Must have slipped my mind as I was forced to explain your miko's warning."

"Perhaps if you were both more forthcoming in your well-meaning subvers-"

Silence.

Sesshoumaru stopped speaking and the sound of crackling wood and servants yelling prevailed.

"Hm?" the Lady mother wondered, blinking over at him.

Beside her, Sesshoumaru's face was frozen in disbelief, his eyes wide and dilated. His nostrils flared and a growl built in his throat. Before she could ask, a primal and bloodthirsty youki exploded and Kikuko found herself knocked to the ground by the force of it. Sesshoumaru snarled in fury and raced for the stairwell leading to the family rooms. Beyond the incinerating heat of his aura distorting the air, she just made out a shadowy form jetting up the stairs ahead of Sesshoumaru.

"No…" she breathed. "They were supposed to report if he moved. No!"

Disappearing in a burst of speed, Kikuko followed him up the stairs, expecting to hear the sounds of battle, but instead found Sesshoumaru frozen once more in the third-floor hallway. An icy, detached voice filled the vacuous silence.

"Tell her to leave, Lord of the West." came a calm voice from the young human's room. "Far away."

A strangled cry and a whimper leaked into the hallway and Kikuko recognized the muffled voice of Rin.

"Mother, leave." Sesshoumaru said quickly, his eyes never leaving the room.

"No! I will not-"

Another whimper of pain left the room. Her son's hand clenched at his side but his eyes never left the open door.

"Leave now." he growled lowly.

The cut of his warning glare stopped Kikuko's cautious advance down the hallway and she nodded. Whatever was going on in that room, Sesshoumaru was not prepared to accept the consequences of failure and she selfishly refused to be the cause. Just like the last time and the time before that when that girl's life hung in the balance. The elder inu turned her back on the situation with a clenched jaw, and lamented that these females would forever keep her son separated from his true power and his sense. Without Rin as a hostage, Sesshoumaru would already have ripped the intruder in half.

Whatever he saw inside that room was no daiyoukai, though. In fact, there had been almost no youki present at all in the room other than the unconscious, miniscule aura of Rin's maid and a lingering scent of death. The young deer was not dead, and the human girl was still breathing, so why was there death in that room? At any rate, Sesshoumaru could surely handle whatever insignificant being was threatening his ward this time.

If an upstart clan was holding Rin hostage in return for more power, favor, or land, they would find themselves all dead by nightfall. However, if it was the imposter, their motives were entirely unknown. The miko's letter of warning scrolled over and over in her head. The way the young woman had described her son's future was almost too ridiculous to believe… but if she was right, events like these merited more thought. Kikuko recalled the miko's story of their last meeting from her first letter:

'He was in pain, I could tell, and he seemed drained. To hear him talk, there was nothing left of his current life. I don't know what happened, or even when exactly, but I want to do whatever I can to prevent the West from being destroyed. I need your help, Kikuko-sama. No matter how you feel about me and what happens next year, Sesshoumaru is the only one that survived to live with the pain of losing everything. Please, help me stop his future from being so miserable. I don't know hardly anything about how the West came to be or who its enemies are, but I get the feeling that it happened so slowly that even he didn't notice until it was too late. He said time and discord were our enemies. Be careful and help him, no matter how stubborn he is.'

"No matter how stubborn he is, hm?"

Kikuko stamped her foot firmly down on the top step. Was this moment laying the foundation of the gallows built of his future miscalculations? Was leaving him alone to deal with this new threat the only option?

'No, you need This One's help whether you agree or not, Sesshoumaru. If I am forbidden from helping you, I will find another.'

Kikuko sprinted away to find the one being more cunning than her most accomplished spy. The swiftest assassin she had ever known was here, in the Palace, somewhere. Why had no one been able to find Haruna?

…

Back inside the room, the reanimated Western soldier lifted the blade of the polearm to hover just above Rin's neck.

"Good. Now that the bitch is gone, my master will show himself."

If the bastard said anything else, the Lord of the West didn't hear him. He watched beaded blood trickled down into his ward's hair and a tear leaked from her already-bruising right eye to fall onto the futon. The linen gag in Rin's mouth was too tight and she let out a gagging cough. Her scared mahogany eyes were wide with fear and pleading for help, and Sesshoumaru held them, hoping it would be enough to assure her for now.

The wall to the left of the door was a ruin of paper and wood dangling from the frame. Rin's maid had tried and failed to protect her. In the corner, the shikadaiyoukai handmaid lay unconscious and crumpled against the wall. The arm he could see was cruelly twisted the wrong way and dried blood covered the side of her face. The assassin had been in this room far longer than Sesshoumaru realized, then. A few small knives lay scattered across the floor but none were bloodied. Whoever this assassin was had overcome them both and waited to bait him until the guest wing was an inferno.

Sesshoumaru calculated that no matter how swift he was, the assassin would either behead Rin on purpose if he tried to free her, or drop the axe to fight him off and the blade would sever her neck anyway as it fell. He ran through several possibilities in his mind but as the scentless soldier hovered so closely over Rin, nothing would prevent her death if he attacked at this close range.

"Ignore him. Your fight will be with me, Lord of the West." came a cold voice from behind him.

For a split second, the inudaiyoukai let his eyes leave Rin and glance to the side. A familiar shock of black hair and crimson eyes stared back from the shadows of the pack hall. It had been only a flash, a second, but as the assassin retreated from attacking their camp last summer, it had been those eyes that glowed with such malice in the dark.

"You." Sesshoumaru hissed.

"You remember me then." the scentless male said with a taunting grin. "Good. Follow me to the mountain's peak, meet me in combat, and no matter what the outcome is, my faithful soldier has orders to let the human live."

"Hn." Sesshoumaru sneered. "No need. I will end you here."

"Then she will die with me. I am not so dimwitted as to start a fight in a Palace full of daiyoukai." Tsuneyori spat. "A hundred to one are odds even I cannot overcome. Meet me away from the Palace, alone, and she lives. Continue wasting my time, and she dies now. The choice is yours, Lord of the West, or perhaps your commitment to her was exaggerated…"

The soldier's hand pressed the polearm blade down once more and Rin's eyes widened with a sharp yelp, muffled by the gag in her mouth. The blood welling across her throat began to drip faster and the scent of it was growing stronger.

"Bring her." the inu commanded, refusing to react to the growing fear in his chest.

"I will not be responsible if she becomes collateral damage, but if you insist." Tsuneyori shrugged.

"Your only concern should be the agony I promise you for daring to infiltrate the West."

Tsuneyori jerked his head at the soldier holding Rin. With a quick blow to the back of her head, Rin was unconscious and limp on the futon. The dead soldier slung her over his shoulder and was gone through the window in a flash. The polearm edged with her blood laid forgotten on the tatami mats and Sesshoumaru faced his next victim with a murderous glare.

"Arm yourself and meet me to the north." the assassin ordered from the same window, looking over his shoulder. "Any tricks," he wagged a finger, "and she dies." He lithely hopped from the window to the mountain's face and began to climb.

Visceral, murderous energy flooded the hall as soon as they were gone. Not wasting another second, Sesshoumaru crossed the hall and belted Bakusaiga. He gave a sideways glance to Tenseiga but dismissed the need for it just as quickly. It would not save Rin ever again. Gathering the minimalist bone armor from the stand, Sesshoumaru shrugged it on and was still tying the chest plate as he picked up speed across the hallway. Gathering his energy, the inu shot through the same window where Tsuneyori had escaped. As the inu Lord arced high into the sky, he began planning his attack while stalling in midair to search the sand-colored rock for his prey.

His nose scented the air and found Rin's fear swirling thickly through the air to the north. The inu felt his youki swelling to break free, to fuel his revenge, but he maintained control. This assassin was an unknown. If he was the imposter, his youki control was objectively impressive. If he lived long enough to question, Sesshoumaru planned to use every skill he possessed to wrench information and wails of agony from the vermin's throat for a long as he could withstand it.

'You will beg for This Sesshoumaru's mercy before the end.'

…

"Katsurou! Haruna!" Kikuko called into the throng of bodies.

All of the guests were crowded in and around the training fields within the Fortress. The talking, speculating masses were humming with rumors and craning their necks to see the inferno still blazing on the other side of the mountain. The obsidian hair of Ryouzou parted the crowd directly around her and he tipped his head in curiosity.

"They are missing?" His silver eyes were narrowed but genuinely curious.

"Hm, and I have need of Haruna's unique skills. I need to find them quickly." Kikuko said desperately, taking off once more for the peak of the mountain.

She was surprised when the forest green cheongsam and ebony braid of Ryouzou whipped by her and he looked back with a grin.

"Though you seem reluctant to tell This One why, I will help you search." The suspicious narrowing of her eyes caused the ancient dragon to grin. "In apology for Kouhei's embarrassing display during the meeting, of course."

"Hn. Hurry then, Ryouzou. I will search the valley."

"Then I will search the mountains just around the Fortress from the air." he nodded.

"Meet me back within the Fortress if you find them." she commanded.

"Yes, milady. This lowly servant endeavors to please." the black dragon said languidly.

"You-!" Kikuko huffed, scowling. "One evening of sake, regaling the new days of the West, and you dare- Never mind. Just be quick about it. There is no time to waste."

Ryouzou's rumbling chuckle echoed in her ears as they split paths in the air to fly in opposite directions.

'What has gotten into him?'

The minutes passed frustratingly slowly while Kikuko looked in every probable nook and cranny in the immediate vicinity of the Western stronghold. She searched the forest below, followed the rivers, and finally, when there had been no scent or sound of the pair of daiyoukai, Kikuko was ready to admit defeat. Perhaps they had escaped and made their way North already. Perhaps Haruna was not fully recovered. Then, far above her head, the mountainside exploded, raining dust and debris down on her head, and a desperate but familiar snarl of toradaiyoukai exasperation echoed down into the valley.

'Finally.' she thought, relieved to have found them.

Relief was replaced a second later by the grating sound of claws on metal, the blunt thudding of connecting blows, and Katsurou's gagging cough.

"Haruna, please! Listen to me! Ack!"

The sounds of more claws on the rock echoed from the cave and more debris came pouring down.

"No! You are scared and jealous! You have never sought to understand!"

"We have both have lost kin, Mate! I understand, but you are deluded! It is not real! He is not who you think!"

"No. You have always wished me to forget!" Haruna sobbed angrily. "I have a chance to discover if my cub lives and you think me mad!"

More scuffling above and rocks tumbled down while Katsurou swore. Interfering in the private affairs of Mates wasn't her favorite activity, but by the sound of it, Haruna had no intention of killing the kitsune attacking Sesshoumaru. That was disappointing, and a setback to her plan. However, if the appearance of the leopard daiyoukai distracted the impostor long enough for someone else to kill him, this unproductive search would not be a total loss.

Decision made, Kikuko put on an impassive face and ascended to the cave's entrance. What she found was the pair of Mated daiyoukai locked together against the wall in a very… unintimate way. Katsurou had pinned Haruna's face and shoulders to the stone, holding her arms behind her back and pressing his body against hers so there was no escape. Desperate emerald eyes flashed in the dark, obscured by the tangled, curled masses of her pale blond hair, and locked onto the former Lady of the West.

"Kikuko!" Haruna gasped with tears in her eyes. "Help me! Please! I need to find the kitsune champion!"

"No- argh- don't!" Katsurou grunted, fighting to hold the leopard female still. "She is mistaken! Help me still her! This is madness, Haruna!"

Katsurou's eyes darkened to coal black at the edges as his reason was losing ground to his instincts the longer his Mate fought. At times like these, Kikuko almost regretted being so willing to manipulate others. Almost. In this case, Sesshoumaru's future might be hanging in the balance and that kitsune's death meant nothing to her, but Katsurou would hold a grudge for her interference despite their earlier comradery. Even the chance that Sesshoumaru would be ruined by this battle was enough to harden her resolve. Her citrine eyes glazed over and she squared her shoulders.

"I am sorry for this Katsurou, but I need your Mate." Katsurou's jaw hung slack for a moment before he frowned and turned away from her, still pinning Haruna to the cave wall. Shifting her focus, Kikuko could see the hope welling in the leopard's emerald eyes as her torso remained pressed roughly against the rock. "Haruna, listen to me and I will help you. Sesshoumaru is under attack at this moment from the same rogue kitsune. I know not what he wants except my son's death. I will safeguard you, take you to see him, if you swear to keep him from completing his mission. Swear to rip him away from the West, Haruna. What happens to him after that is between you."

"I swear it! I swear it, Kikuko!" the leopard daiyoukai exclaimed with tear-filled eyes.

"How could you? Dammit!" Katsurou turned back around and swore from the darkness of the cave. "She will never recover if you allow her to chase shadows! This is not the first time this has happened!"

"Come then, Katsurou. Come with us and see for yourself. He has already threatened my son's ward with death but if we can save her, he will be free, and-" the inu paused.

If she said "kill the kitsune," Haruna would disappear and become her enemy, even if the assassin's death was exactly the outcome she hoped for. The safest option was to kill him as swiftly as possible, no matter what pack he belonged to or whose blood he was.

"-and if we can distract the kitsune champion from his goal, they might all be saved," she tried instead.

Katsurou's suspicious and accusatory side glance searched the elder inu for the true motivation of her aid.

"I cannot stop you both but I am coming." Katsurou vowed, sighing and gently releasing his Mate, turning her in his arms before laying a gentle hand on her cheek. "If you are ever in danger, from the assassin or from yourself, I will stop you." He turned to the inudaiyoukai. "If that kitsune attacks her, I will end him. Hear me."

"I expect no less. Now, come!"

Haruna nuzzled her face into his hand with her eyes closed and a pinched brow. Tender as the moment seemed, Kikuko could tell the leopard daiyoukai was trying to understand how her Mate felt all the while her aura was unsettled, coiling to pounce, and desperate to get away. Haruna stopped at the mouth of the cave and sprinted back to gather her scythe but was stopped by Katsurou with his hand out.

"Wait." Katsurou said firmly, turning to his Mate. "Give Noroinotsume to me."

Haruna clutched the weapon tighter and stepped back with a shake of her head.

"But if he is in danger-"

"You intend to use this blade against Sesshoumaru when he is entitled to defend what is his?" Katsurou asked with a furrowed brow and a step forward. "No. I will go with you, help you try to reason with this kitsune so you can learn the truth, but the blade stays with me. This unknown male has relieved you of your sanity and your reason. Until it is done, Mate, I will be both."

"Listen to him, Haruna." Kikuko said harshly. "He is being reasonable. Relinquish your weapon."

With green eyes full of doubt and shame, Haruna held out her weapon for the toradaiyoukai to take and only released it when Katsurou wrapped his fingers around the shaft and tugged it free. Once the scythe was belted snugly across his back, the Lord of the North nodded. Without another word, the three of them rose from the mouth of the cave, followed the slope of the mountain up, and into the sunlight above the Fortress.

…

Tsuneyori scanned the mountains from the peak above the Palace. The sun was rising quickly and the sandy, jagged landscape gave him little hope for a flat battleground. Then, to the north, he spotted a wide, operable, flat ledge on the next mountain and began his leaping trek across the mountainside.

The small, rocky arena would serve well enough to meet Sesshoumaru. There was enough room for the kitsune to gather his attacks but not so much that the great inu would have an easy time plodding around in his true form. Without the charm and borrowed youki to strengthen himself, there was little Tsuneyori would be able to do with a small sword against the massive inu that was the true Lord of the West. Well, for a short while at least, he grinned.

Easily reaching the ledge in several bounding leaps, Tsuneyori then closed his eyes and located the soldier carrying Rin. With a mental command, the undead lackey patiently waiting above the Palace had his orders, nodded to his master, and began to move. The soldier alighted on the peak above with the now unconscious Rin and sat obediently after laying her limp body down on the rock. The young, dead inu held the pommel of a small knife in one hand, flipping it over and over as he waited.

Seconds later, the Lord of the West rocketed over the mountain surrounded in a primal and unhinged wreath of demonic energy. He pinned Tsuneyori with amber eyes glowing with rage as he approached. Even with a clenched jaw, the inu's aura was roaring loudly enough for even Tsuneyori to sense.

Sesshoumaru grew more and more agitated as Rin's scent grew stronger. Her pain and the scent of blood on the wind amplified his anger. He was so frustrated with Tsuneyori and those like him. Angry that the world only looked at Rin and saw weakness. His and hers. His enemies would always threaten the one being in his world that deserved it the least. A lost little girl who had shown him kindness out of empathy and stayed with him out of love. Her reward for this selflessness was to die twice for sins that weren't hers, and be endlessly threatened with death simply to punish him. Perhaps, it was time to reconsider her place at his side…

Rising from his seat on the ledge, Tsuneyori closed his eyes and unsheathed his father's sword as he stepped forward silently to meet his foe. The simple katana began to sing, vibrating against Sesshoumaru's aura, and the black pommel grew warm in the kitsune's hand. The plain steel blade began to glow a dim crimson, reacting to Sesshoumaru's energy and drawing the first few threads of foreign youki into the steel. It continued to thrum louder and louder as the enraged inu approached.

With a low growl and a halo of acrid green youki, Sesshoumaru unsheathed his own sword with his right hand and flexed the claws on his left as he swooped down from the sky. Tsuneyori planted his feet and brandished his sword, ready to block the first attack. Calm crimson eyes met malicious gold in challenge. This fight might be the first true duel of his life and this time, Tsuneyori would prove his worth and regain his true power… by any means necessary.

The kitsune expected a hard fight. What he didn't expect was a flick of the inu's left hand that summoned orbs of raw, chartreuse youki that surrounded him on all sides. Before the young fox could react, the condensed energy began mercilessly pelting him as Sesshoumaru's boots touched the stone and the inudaiyoukai rushed forward with a snarl. The kitsune's blade was dancing through the air, purposefully striking and absorbing the power of the orbs, when Sesshoumaru's blade loudly met his for the first time.

"Learned something from your priestess, did you?" Tsuneyori taunted as their blades remained locked together. "Such a clever dog."

"Your opinion, like your existence, is irrelevant." Sesshoumaru countered calmly, roughly shoving the fox backward to skid on the rock. The dappled blade of Bakusaiga glinted in the morning sun as Sesshoumaru held it calmly between he and his prey. Amber eyes narrowed on Tsuneyori across the battlefield. "Twice you have threatened This Sesshoumaru's pack. Now, you will answer for your insolence!"

"You- ack!"

Tsuneyori had no time to retort as Sesshoumaru cracked his youki whip across the kitsune sword, breaking the assassin's guard, and then rushed him again delivering blow after blow. The furious onslaught left little time for the fox's blade to catch the orbs of youki that continued to materialize and pelt him from all sides. An overwhelmed Tsuneyori hissed as he miscalculated and a claw swipe left his right cheek dripping with blood. He had to side step the next swing of Bakusaiga to avoid being neatly cut in two. Sesshoumaru meant to end this quickly, he realized, and the inu's rage was palpable.

Just then, the plain katana began to vibrate in his hands. Tsuneyori grinned wickedly and thanked the kami. He used a forceful handspring to land on a high, narrow ledge for a moment of respite. Sesshoumaru watched him and raised Bakusaiga to attack but was stilled by the approaching youki of his mother, closely followed by Katsurou and his Mate.

'Why are they here?' he growled internally.

"You called for help?" the assassin chuckled, tipping his head to see the three daiyoukai approaching. "How disappointing! Oh well, the little human will be better off dead anyway." Tsuneyori growled, stunted fangs showing, and he looked upward to signal the solider holding Rin.

'No!' Sesshoumaru eyes grew wide as the undead inu above them flipped his knife and robotically hauled Rin's limp body up from the stone. 'No!'

He wouldn't reach her in time. Couldn't. No one could save her now. Every action he'd taken to prevent this exact nightmare from repeating itself was in vain. Helplessness froze his boots to the rock and bile rose in his throat.

"Fool!" Kikuko yelled, sneering down at the assassin from the sky and startling her son out of his self-pity. "This One acts on her own, now and always!"

Kikuko flourished the intricate, ebony fan in her right hand and with a wide sweep, instantly gathered thick clouds that hid the entire peak of the mountain. The elder inu flew straight into the cover without stopping, disappearing entirely in the thick mist, and seconds later a grunt, a thud, and some tumbling in the scree sounded from within. When she emerged, Sesshoumaru saw his mother flick gore from the fan's blade but he pinned his eyes on the limp bundle she carried under one arm.

"She lives!" his mother called down, heading back to the Fortress. "Now end this, Sesshoumaru!"

Knowing her son would never fight with his full strength while the girl's life hung in the balance meant Kikuko's first task was to remove Rin from the situation. If Sesshoumaru could attack freely and not worry about the child's safety, he would surely kill this imposter. Whether or not this kitsune was involved in the destruction of the West mattered little. If he could infiltrate the Palace, imitate the youki of another, and fool them all for days; it was worth the effort to end his existence out of pure caution.

"You have not won, Lord of the West!" the assassin called from his perch on the ledge.

Tsuneyori took a deep breath before swiping his thumb over the gash on his cheek. He immediately scrubbed the bloodied thumb over a carved sigil on the pommel of his blade. Energy exploded from within the sword and surrounded Tsuneyori in ribbons of youki that struck his body like ravenous snakes burrowing into his flesh.

Sesshoumaru scowled as the kitsune doubled over, yelling in pain. The assassin dropped like a stone from the ledge back onto the battlefield, still screaming. The energy pouring from the blade entirely cocooned the kitsune writhing on the ground, and the male's form bulged and stretched as the cursed aura wove itself throughout his body. Sesshoumaru felt his own youki pouring from the blade but the foreign and cursed crimson energy that mingled with it was vile and oppressive and burned in his nose.

Katsurou stood still as stone on the next peak, watching the fight from afar with trepidation growing in his chest. This was no ordinary assassin. He was sent here with the sole purpose of cornering the Lord of the West into this fight. But why? Haruna's grip on his hand became painfully tight before she tried to tug it free, her emerald eyes wide with fear.

"He could die! Let me go! He will not be able to control so much youki!"

"No." Katsurou said sternly, amber eyes still locked on the fox writhing on the ground. "If you interfere, Sesshoumaru could die. The cub did that to himself and he's been hiding in plain sight for days. His abilities are unknown to all of us. Though… I have lived longer than most and I have no idea what magic this is."

His grip was iron and he clearly refused to let Haruna leave this mountain or to release his hand.

"It is youki transference. I thought the technique was lost when he was." Haruna said quietly, "How could this cub have learned it when…"

"'When' what, Haruna?" Katsurou asked suspiciously, looking curiously over at her.

"He is truly one of mine, Katsurou… He must be. He has become twisted, Mate, but I want to help him. Please." Her green eyes were full of longing, watching the fight below. "He should not have to bear such pain. Such magic was a specialty of Sou-" she paused, unable to say the name aloud. "-of his father's. I have never known another to use this technique this way..."

"Father…?" Katsurou said breathlessly, scanning the landscape for confirmation of a rival. "You said they were purified together when the miko attacked. Youkai do not survive such cruelty, Haruna. He cannot be alive."

"I thought so… It should not be possible. The cubs were too young to learn such skills, and he… is dead."

'Yet here stands a son with his blade.' Haruna wondered. 'Sousashujin, when- how did you teach him?'

Katsurou's shock turned into confusion then anger while Haruna continued to watch the fight with rapt attention. Chasing her past was hurting his Mate once again. The tiger daiyoukai watched her eyes become glassy and unfocused as she tried to force the pieces together in her head. On the other hand, if one of her cubs had survived all this time and never made an attempt to relieve her suffering… If the bastard survived the fight with Sesshoumaru, he would have to answer to the Council first but then to Lord of the North for making Haruna suffer alone for all those years.

The flood of energy that had erupted from the sword began to settle into Tsuneyori's body. His screaming died and crackling arcs of energy jumped around his prone body through the mist of dust and wisps of youki. Watching the kitsune stand on wobbly legs from a short distance away, Sesshoumaru reached out with his senses, finally realized what had happened, and rushed forward with his blade raised and a snarl for his own ignorance. As he approached, the Western Lord readied and swung Bakusaiga cleanly where Tsuneyori's neck should have been but through the lingering haze of swirled crimson and pale green youki, a katana blade solidly met his with a new strength the kitsune should not have had.

"Disappointed?" asked a gravelly voice. "Let's see how well you fare against yourself, Sesshoumaru."

With a growl, shove, and a kick to the gut, the inu Lord was thrown backward but landed on his feet at the edge of the ledge just as the last swirl of mixed energy dissipated around the strengthened fox. Tsuneyori stepped calmly forward, flexed a clawed hand, and purposefully flared the borrowed power now flowing through him. All of the gashes and bruises he had sustained so far during their fight healed and disappeared, leaving no trace of injury.

"How useful." the kitsune marveled glibly, brushing his fingers across his own now-smooth cheek. "I thought my father exaggerated your abilities. It appears I owe him an apology."

From their vantage point higher up, Haruna went rigid as the cub spoke of his father in the present tense. Katsurou growled. His suspicions were growing minute by minute as the assassin revealed Haruna's torture for the past centuries to be in vain. Those she thought dead were alive, plotting against the West, but hiding. This battle was the start of a hunt, maybe even a war, that might last decades. He looked over at his beautiful Haruna. Her golden hair waving gently in the wind, dark purple leopard spots adorning her proud face, and piercing green eyes that were the same as always and yet, as the mother of this kitsune, she was totally unknown to him. Where would her loyalties lie if this conflict continued?

"Hn." Sesshoumaru sneered, digging the heel of one boot into the stone to propel himself forward at breakneck speed. "You might have stolen my youki, fox, but it is still fear that will ultimately kill you. Bakusaiga!"

The beam of acrid green youki shot ahead of Sesshoumaru and he sprinted forward just behind it. If the fox died in the attack, the fight was over. If he did not, the inu could assume the assassin could count on utilizing all the benefits of stealing Sesshoumaru's youki. Tsuneyori countered the blast from Bakusaiga with his sword and a splash of his own borrowed, crimson energy. The resulting explosion left a cloud of dust that covered the entire battlefield.

Sesshoumaru could hear Tsuneyori chuckling within and felt the flare of youki just before the kitsune repeated the blast of vermilion energy with his own sword and cleared a path through the dust to attack the inu once more. Their blades clashed and the kitsune began chuckling lowly as he discovered he could force his body to move at the same speed as the inudaiyoukai. Meeting the sword strikes of the Lord of the West was an intoxicating feeling and a wicked, exhilarated grin spread across the kitsune's face.

It was only then that Sesshoumaru realized the pulsing of Tsuneyori's sword had quieted. The steel of the kitsune's blade was definitely still infused with youki but no longer actively absorbing it.

'Perhaps the sword requires time for the spell to work again.' Sesshoumaru theorized. 'Good.'

If that was true, it was best to end the fight quickly. The depth of the kitsune's borrowed skills were a mystery. He had copied Sesshoumaru's regenerative abilities, and the beam of Bakusaiga, but what else might he be able to replicate? Parrying Tsuneyori's blows was becoming more difficult as they whirled around the small battlefield and the kitsune gained ground while Sesshoumaru planned. With a wild swing to the fox's face, Tsuneyori was forced back to regroup and in the second that passed, the Western Lord summoned a whip of youki and went back on the offensive.

"I am not afraid!" Tsuneyori laughed. "You assume much if you think I fear the last survivor of a failed, flawed line. The West will die with you!"

"Not This Sesshoumaru. You fear yourself." the inu Lord said calmly, rushing his opponent. A heavy slash with Bakusaiga broke Tsuneyori's guard and his katana vibrated with the force of it. The kitsune jumped away and hovered above the battlefield. "You fear failure. You reek of it." Sesshoumaru's youki whip caught the kitsune's ankle and brought him hurtling back to earth, knocking the wind from the fox's lungs as acid began to eat at his foot. "These fears have kept you from seeing the truth."

Sesshoumaru's crunching bootfalls were growing closer. Listening for the hushed whiff of displaced air, Tsuneyori rolled to his back and held the katana across his body to block a powerful downward slice of Bakusaiga. With a grimace, the assassin flared raw, borrowed energy to shove Sesshoumaru away so he could stand again.

"Ha! And what truth is that?" Tsuneyori rasped, wiping blood from his chin, favoring his ankle and rising clumsily from the ground.

The whip dissolved and the Lord of the West brandished his sword, prepared to strike again.

"Your fears surround you. You have already failed." Sesshoumaru said calmly. "You are relieved of your hostage, you are alone deep in my territory, and your stolen power, unlike This Sesshoumaru's, will run out."

The kitsune laughed and stood at ease, propping his sword casually against his right shoulder. The inu Lord narrowed his eyes, listening to the insane assassin's explanation.

"No, Sesshoumaru. No. It is you who will lose," Tsuneyori shook his head with a smirk, "and I am not alone."

Sesshoumaru saw Tsuneyori's eyes shift sideways to look over his left shoulder but it was too late. The pierce of the blade was swift and brutal. Looking down, the bloodied tip of a long, black knife was visible in the center of his chest. The inudaiyoukai inhaled and the youkai-bone armor shattered like glass as the undead soldier at his back thrust the blade deeper and cruelly twisted it.

Tsuneyori grinned victoriously at the daiyoukai's coughing spatter of blood. The knowing smile on the fox's face still confused Sesshoumaru. This small blade? Kill him? Hardly.

Forgetting the blade for the moment, Sesshoumaru reached across his body, over his shoulder and palmed the skull of the undead soldier behind him. With a malicious snarl, he crushed the lifeless flesh and bone in one hand and the inu soldier's body fell limp behind him on the ground. The blade was not the first or last to run him through and he would heal quickly enough once it was removed.

The thought of healing had no sooner finished when pain exploded within his chest. Creeping, swelling, searing pain that bloomed where the black steel pierced his chest and radiated through his entire body. His strength was instantly sapped, youki expelled in bilious clouds from his body, and the bestial, crimson glow of his eyes marked victory for Tsuneyori. Dark, gelatinous blood spilled from the wound down Sesshoumaru's chest, to the ground, and continued to smolder on the rock at his feet. The pain was still spreading when the knife was twisted and dragged upward nearly to his throat. Tsuneyori's voice whispered cruelly into Sesshoumaru's elfin ear.

"For all of your power and strength, you cannot predict the future, dog. You can barely see what's happening around you. Your allies will fall, Sesshoumaru, and the West will crumble." he hissed, still twisting the knife. "My only regret is that you will not live long enough to see it."

Gagging on the gore rising in his throat, Sesshoumaru coughed and began to sink. Suddenly the warmth of the kitsune at his back disappeared and a fierce, angry roar passed by his ear. Prickly static from Katsurou's lightning-speed charge added to the pain still crippling Sesshoumaru's senses. A flash, a swear, and the inu Lord looked over to see the assassin spitting blood against the stone and leveling a murderous glare at the interfering tiger daiyoukai. Haruna joined Katsurou and pinned Tsuneyori to the rock. Katsurou unbelted Noroinotsume and handed the scythe to Haruna with an apologetic smile. She pinned the assassin's throat to the rock and held him there when Katsurou turned around to assess Sesshoumaru's condition.

The dark blade that still pulsed with cursed energy slid back through the gaping hole in Sesshoumaru's chest to clatter to the ground and the inu locked his legs in place to stop from crumpling where he stood.

"Bastard has no honor. Backstabbing. Tch." Katsurou growled, coming over and wrapping an arm around Sesshoumaru's ribcage. "Don't give him the satisfaction, cub. Haruna," he called over his shoulder, "capture the gutless kitsune and bring him to the West! Let Sesshoumaru decide his fate when he is recovered."

"He… not kit…" she said quietly with her back turned to the other two males.

"Hn? What was that?" Katsurou questioned, hefting Sesshoumaru's arm around his shoulders and turning to leave.

"He is not a kitsune, Mate." Haruna said sadly, touching Tsuneyori's cheek. The male recoiled with a sneer but Haruna was unaffected by his glare as she sniffed the traces of his blood on her fingers. "He is mine. Not a kitsune at all but one of a litter of cubs I thought long dead. I know it now." When she turned her head to face them both and her eyes were full of tears and regret. Tsuneyori stood on shaky legs but remained pinned against the mountain wall, wide-eyed, and mutely staring at her in confusion. "Forgive me, Katsurou," Haruna whispered.

"Why, beloved?" he chuckled. "You will have time to question him at the Fortress. You have done nothing to merit-"

Haruna said nothing else before ripping Tsuneyori's sword from his hands and burying it in the stone over their heads. He yelled angrily for her to stop but as soon as the blade left his hands, the youki that infused his body began to escape in skyward streams of bright green and glowing red. The loss of the stolen youki rendered him shaky and weak, and he slumped once more against the mountainside, breathing hard and cursing this female who called him "hers." Without another word, Haruna turned apologetic and watery green eyes on Katsurou, released her true form in a cloud of violet youki, and lifted Tsuneyori into her mouth before leaping away.

"No! NO! Dammit, Haruna!" Katsurou swore, reaching for her across Sesshoumaru's gore-streaked body.

When the tiger yelled, Sesshoumaru grunted, sank heavily against Katsurou, and lethargically vomited a mixture of blackened blood and bile.

"Dammit, pup. You are forcing my hand, Sesshoumaru!" Katsurou growled angrily, looking for Haruna's retreating form. "Do not dare die here. Your mother will skin me alive..."

A low, gravelly growl was all the inu could manage and he coughed halfway through. The toradaiyoukai realized the Western Lord very well might die without a healer. The cursed mixture continued to stream to the ground from the huge gash in Sesshoumaru's chest into a growing pool of noxiously simmering blood. This injury was strange and malicious, and the death of the Lord of the West would be difficult to explain with no other witnesses.

"Fucking bastard!" Katsurou swore at the sky.

Narrowed golden eyes followed the violet streak of his Mate into the far distance. Haruna might be unhinged enough to run away with Sesshoumaru's assassin, but she was more than capable of keeping the cub in check now that that youki-swiping sword was out of his hands. The Bond would help him to find her wherever she went and he was sure the Council would demand a full-scale search for them both sooner rather than later. Gritting his teeth in frustration, Katsurou made a decision and slung Sesshoumaru over his back and took off for the West. No matter how he explained this, they would have to hunt his Mate down and capture the assassin to get any answers about these attacks.

'Now the Council will mark you as a conspirator, Haruna! What in all the hells are you thinking?'

The noon sun was doing little to warm the cold dread in the toradaiyoukai's stomach. Not far past the mountain, Kikuko met them in the air with a gasp and a snarl.

"Sesshoumaru? What happened?!" she demanded. "Where is the kitsune? Where is Haruna?"

Katsurou opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by Sesshoumaru's low growl of warning. The sound of his voice should have been a comfort, signaling he was still alive, but the spread of the glowing patches of vermilion in his eyes signaled grave injury. Claws dug into the meat of Katsurou's arms and he hissed.

"Dammit, Sesshoumaru. Wake up, you stubborn dog!"

"He is losing himself! Quickly!" Kikuko called desperately, leading the way back to the Palace. "Take him straight to his rooms. The fewer in the Palace that see him like this, the better," she said worriedly.

…

The seed of change had taken root long ago and become a blossom of growth. Its stem and roots were thick and strong, nourished by light and strength. A curled, verdant tendril reached skyward and dewy leaves erupted from the stalk. From the shadows, without warning, vein-like crimson threads crushed and violently caged the fragile plant to the ground. Bound by cruelty, the new growth folded and weakened, no longer free to feel the warmth or strength of the light it craved. A single leaf escaped the vermilion net like a white flag, beckoning for mercy.

…

Two days later on the third floor of the Palace, Kenshin was just sitting down for a cup of tea after doing his best to stem the most recent bout of seizures and uncontrollable bleeding from his Lord's serious and unusual wound. Rubbing the back of his stiff neck, he poured another cup and sighed heavily.

Kikuko joined the chief healer at the low table with a backward glance at her sleeping son. Sesshoumaru looked ashen, his breathing was rapid, and the unconscious growls and groans as he resisted the parasitic energy were slowing but not gone entirely. It disturbed her to realize they were all growing used to the fits. As her son fitfully rested, the light snowfall of the last day turned into a blizzard and chilled wind roared through the Palace.

"I have done all I can for now." Kenshin said tiredly. "Keep your youki unshielded or else he may not recognize you in the coming days. In his weakened state, instinct will keep him guarded and defensive until the worst of the damage begins to heal. Keep giving him the tonics I laid out until his color improves. Rin-sama," he yawned widely, "is resting in her rooms as well and the cuts across her neck should heal well enough with little attention. I will pack and leave immediately to fetch Kagome-sama and bring her here."

"And Tomomi?" Kikuko asked tiredly, "She is still sequestered in the infirmary, correct?"

"Yes…" he growled, turning away from Kikuko. "Her injuries were not life-threatening but I… I should have… She has every reason now to refuse-"

"You are not to blame." the matriarch said firmly. "Your pride will assert otherwise, book-learned though you are, but Kenshin?" A cool palm pressed against his cheek and she turned his head so their eyes met. "Hear me, pup: you could not have prevented this even if she had made her way to you first. Her injuries are not the result of your inattention. She will recover and accept you still."

"And yet I am prepared if she does not." Magenta eyes softened up at her. He had resigned himself to her decision. "She is within her rights. Why Bond with a male who allowed her to be injured? Who could not protect her? Who wandered the halls for hours while she bled alone?"

"Tch. Many centuries ago, in a less civilized age, I might have agreed with you but Tomomi is strong enough to fight for the position which she was given. She protected the little human because she felt it her duty. You disrespect her loyalty and bravery by assuming she wished you to save her from the consequences of her actions. The Bonding rites remain tradition, not an absolute."

"But how could I not-"

"Enough now. Sort your thoughts while you take this missive to the North. Ryota must return to help This One while Sesshoumaru heals." Kikuko commanded, nodding. "I will send another messenger South to Kouji. We will need them both to stem the rumors and maintain peace until he is well."

"Of course, my Lady." Kenshin took a last worried glimpse of the unconscious Sesshoumaru. "Milord is stable at least. Should the bleeding begin again, fetch one of the aides. They have been instructed to maintain a presence in the infirmary at all times. I will brief them on my treatments once more before I go." A pink stain erupted on the young inu's face and he looked earnestly over at her. "…And thank you, Kikuko-sama, for your advice."

"Away with you." she said with a sly grin. "Hurry. Return with the miko as quickly as possible. It is my hope she may already know more about this injury than we do."

"Why would Kagome-sama already know-"

"You are wasting time!" the elder inu barked.

"Ah- At once, my Lady."

After gathering some meager supplies, leaving his instructions, and changing into traveling clothes, Kenshin was trudging toward the infirmary to tell his future Mate goodbye. Instead of being peacefully asleep, however, he found her sitting up in her cot and deep in comfortable, overly-familiar conversation with another male.

"…will tell you when he comes down. Be easy." "But Rin is safe? Was she harmed?" "She was but it-"

They both jumped when the usually quiet chief healer loudly cleared his throat and interrupted them. The young maid hissed as her bound arm shifted in the tight wrap.

"Tomomi?" Kenshin questioned sternly, examining her bandages and ignoring the newcomer. "You should be resting! Who are you-"

Familiar, straight, silver hair and impish, green eyes peeked out from behind his future Mate. His brother's iridescent magenta markings flashed as he grinned widely.

"Ah, little brother!" Ren smiled, hefting his traveling pack higher on his right shoulder as he rose from the chair beside her cot. Kenshin sprinted around the bed to shout at his brother with panicked eyes.

"Ren? But why?" the chief healer asked, confused and suddenly wary. "Where is Kagome-sama?"

"Gone home for the winter," the Captain shrugged. Kenshin gasped and swore, but Ren continued. "You remember I told you I would be returning sometime once the snows came? It has been snowing for the past five days in the village, and apparently, she decided it was time to leave while everyone would be inside and well-stocked for the first storm. Sesshoumaru-sama knows I am returning so close your mouth. Where is he? I should give my report before I unpack."

"Kami in heaven!" Kenshin exclaimed desperately, grabbing his brother's shoulders. "Can you retrieve her?"

"What are you- No, I cannot. It is difficult to explain but Sesshoumaru-sama was aware she would be unreachable for some time in the winter. Why? Are you well? Does this have to do with why Tomomi and Rin-sama are injured?"

"Oh no… Why in the seven hells did she leave now?" Kenshin said defeatedly, dropping his pack and scrubbing his face with both hands. "Now how will we heal him?"

"Who?" Ren asked with a confused grin, tipping his head to the side.

"Sesshoumaru-sama, dammit!" Kenshin yelled, scaring them both.

The younger inu grabbed his brother's arm, dragged him from the infirmary down the hall into the Council meeting room, and flooded the space with youki to prevent interference.

"What are you- Tomomi is probably very confused, Ken. Why did-"

"He is dying, Ren." Kenshin said quickly. His glowing magenta eyes were glassy with emotion in the pitch dark of the interior room. "Sesshoumaru-sama is dying and there is nothing I can do. Anyone but Kagome, we think. His stubbornness and strength alone are all that is preventing the curse from eating his body alive. Sesshoumaru's youki was expelled by a curse and what remains is now trapped behind a seal of some kind. He cannot regenerate and he cannot heal. It has been only two- maybe three days, I think," Kenshin scrubbed a hand down his face, "but he is weak, unconscious, and I cannot say how long he can keep up the fight. If this curse affected you or I, we would most likely be dead already. He recognizes no one and it's getting worse by the hour."

"Dead? Wait. Lord Sesshoumaru is the Lord of-" Ren shouted. Kenshin clapped a hand over his mouth and shook his head. Ren looked just as stunned but whispered instead. "Sesshoumaru is dying, Kenshin? Tomomi is injured, Rin is unconscious… What the fuck happened?! I was gone for two days!"

"Go see Kikuko-sama. She needs companionship now and she can explain." his younger brother smiled tiredly. "The short answer is that he was deceived. We all were. The assassin was clever and prepared. Now, I have to leave right this minute to fetch Ryota-taishou from the North."

"Is it really that bad?"

"Hm."

"Kagome-sama has no idea…" Ren sighed and scrubbed his right hand over his face. "She has gone on a short journey to visit her family but promised to return in a few days. If I am there to receive her, I can bring her back the moment she returns."

"Do that." Kenshin said firmly, his eyes hard. "Kikuko-sama also wants to keep milord's condition a secret. Whoever was truly behind this attack may have other allies that would take advantage of Sesshoumaru-sama's weakness and return to finish the job."

The brothers nodded resolutely and left the room to go in different directions, one upstairs to see the former Lady and the other to safeguard the West until Sesshoumaru healed.

…

In modern Tokyo, Kagome wrinkled her nose at the sour and chemical-laden air of the future and her childhood home. Glad as she was to be back, the verdant newness of Edo five hundred years ago was still preferable. Looking around the dark, cold wellhouse, Kagome noticed a few things: the roof, doors and one wall were all new wood and there was a new rope ladder that creaked and stretched as she climbed out of the well. Even the well itself bore a few new planks down the side nearest the door.

'Must have been bad after I left…' she worried. 'I hope they're both okay. I'll call Shippou as soon as I get settled.'

With a final swing of her legs over the edge, the modern miko slid the freshly polished door open and watched the small wisps of snow flutter around the still and quiet yard of the Higurashi shrine. There were only a few inches on the ground but the lanterns and the walkways were covered in an undisturbed blanket of snow except for a single footpath to and from the house. A few more crunching steps in the snow and she was standing in front of her mother's front door.

'I really am more at home in the past. I feel out of place here.' she reflected, palming the door handle.

"Momma?" Kagome called from the foyer, slipping her wet slippers and soaked socks off at the door.

Mariko Higurashi's head poked out from the top of the stairwell. Her grandfather was another beat behind, and then Souta's shaggy head appeared from the other side. Three heads all smiled at her down the stairwell and she giggled and smiled back. Home. It was still home.

"Kagome?" Mariko questioned, smiling with her daughter as they locked eyes. "Oh, Kagome, you're home!"

Her mother padded down the stairs and they shared a warm and genuine hug. Souta and her grandfather joined in and chuckled together before letting go and moving to the kitchen table to catch up.

"We've missed you." her mother said over the boiling kettle. "After last time, I've been so worried about how you were doing."

"Hm," her grandfather started. "I warned you these demons would come for us one day! Get too close and let your guard down and they'll pounce!" He crossed his arms. "They waited until I was gone to attack…"

"Jii-chan," Souta started, rolling his eyes, "they came for Kagome, not because you were gone." When Kagome tipped her head sideways in confusion, he continued. "Shippou told us all about what happened that day and why. It's okay, sis."

"Thanks, Souta. How was your soccer camp? I missed you both last time."

As Souta dove into the upcoming tournaments and his new responsibility as captain, Mariko Higurashi listened to her children catching up and felt peace creep into the house once more. Another minute of prep and steaming mugs of tea were passed out as the family settled in together.

"After my visit in the spring, and the attacks," Kagome said, "I've been just as worried about all of you. The well house must have been hit pretty hard. Were Sesshoumaru and Shippou all right? Has anything else happened since I left?"

"Yes, they were both fine. And no, nothing else has happened. Shippou is around pretty often to keep his wards and alarms up and they both update us on any trails or changes." her mother said with a fond grin. "My grandson has explained some of it to me but I can't pretend to really understand what those two are up to around the whole shrine and out in the woods every week."

"Every week?" the miko asked with surprised blue eyes. "They both come here every week?"

"Yes, Mikazuki insists on checking the grounds every week."

"You mean Sesshoumaru?" Kagome asked curiously.

"Yes," Mariko said with a sigh, "and before you say it, I know that is his real name but for our entire lives, he has been someone else. Eventually, I slipped up enough times that he allows us to use his last name instead."

"Interesting. How accommodating of him." Kagome shook her head with a wry grin.

"Whoa… You sounded like him just then." Souta smirked.

"Take it back!" Kagome gasped, pinching his cheek.

"Ow, ow! Cut it out! I'm too old for this!"

"Oh, that reminds me…" Mariko put her mug down and rose from the table, holding up a finger. "I'll be right back, Kagome."

"Momma?" Kagome called after her but her mother was already around the corner and in the laundry room. "Where is she going?"

Souta and Jii-chan shared a look and both diverted their eyes and became engrossed in their tea. Kagome eyed them suspiciously but ultimately let it go and stared into the wavering surface of her own mug. The sound of a muffled voice and a chuckle from the laundry room made her more curious but also suddenly lonely.

She couldn't pretend to really be a part of the family anymore. Maybe Kagome could stretch this visit out for a few weeks instead of a few days. Ren wouldn't mind too much, right? He'd be back from the West in a few days but he could make himself at home until she returned. Kagome had just opened her mouth to ask if that was alright when her mother came back into the kitchen with a knowing grin.

"Anyway, what were we saying?" Mariko asked brightly.

"These two were avoiding me while you hid in the laundry room. What is going on, you guys?"

"Nothing really…" Mariko sipped her tea and smiled, "but you should go upstairs and shower since you don't have very long to get ready."

"Very long before what? Get ready for what?" Kagome looked at everyone around the table in turn.

"For your date tonight." her mother said matter-of-factly.

"With Sesshoumaru." Souta added with a wily smirk and a wiggle of his eyebrows.

Kagome choked on her own sip of tea with wide eyes and red cheeks while Souta guffawed and Jii-chan hid his laughter beneath the clearing of his throat.

"…My what now? With who?!"

…

"Noroinotsume" roughly translates to "cursed claw." I did my best to get it right, anyway. :P

AN: I'm back! Have a long chapter to tide you over! This one got edited over and over, and I'm still not thrilled with it but if I keep picking, it's gonna turn into its own book. As always, thank you for the reviews and comments and DMs! They keep me going when I feel like nobody cares about this monster anymore. Hope everyone is well and happy!