Full of Moonlight

by tin

A troubled child comes to Kagome and Inuyasha for help; set post-series

Full of Moonlight (Hikari sashisou)
by Tin Mandigma

Inuyasha copyright Rumiko Takahashi.

NOTE: This fanfic takes place post-series and is set in an alternate timeline of mine. Thanks ^_^

Draft: August 4, 2001

The sun was setting.

Kagome looked up from the sheets of koto music spread across her lap. They spilled onto the smooth wood of the veranda with the cautious abandon now displayed by the onslaught of slight dusk-hued shadows. The air had cooled tangibly, and Kagome put a hand up to her neck, suddenly missing the comfortable heat of the sun which had been her steady companion for the entire short-lived autumn afternoon. The twilight breeze held a subdued bitter edge, both reminder and warning of the coming of winter, and Kagome knew she should retreat indoors. Even the scarlet glow of the setting sun, splendidly brilliant still despite the insidious hues of lavender dusk and evening sky smudging its edges into a dull reddish black, held no more warmth for her. It was as colorful and as vivid as the crimson silhouettes of the mulberry leaves in the garden, but what life and allure it held was a brittle sort, like that of the dried poinsetta flowers lying between the pages of her journal. No, Kagome reflected. Autumn didn't really suit her. She preferred summer, with its spellbinding heat, and its lengthy lethargic afternoons, and its gold-flecked butterflies cavorting among her iris and mock orange. Summer evenings were especially lovely, when the cicadas came in the dark and one could watch the fireflies by the riverside. Autumn nights had their own magnificence, particularly during moonrise, but Kagome imagined that the gloriously clear brightness of the harvest moon had the same deceitful tinge of its autumnal sunsets. It cast everything in intense burning light, and yet revealed no inner life, which was probably why it was during autumn that one could really see things in their stark unadorned nature. Even if one did not want to.

It was all very pleasant nonetheless. Kagome swept the papers up in her lap and those in the veranda with a swift if reluctant movement. She did not really want to go back inside, not yet. Her glance strayed to the far side of the veranda where her koto lay basking in the last vestiges of the afternoon. Impulsively, she scrambled towards it, clutching her sheets of paper in one hand. She had been looking at the scores all afternoon in between practicing them on the koto. Now she put her finger picks back on and ran her fingers across the strings, letting them roam where they will in the familiar modality, and in the end found herself playing Harusagi. 'Remembrance of Springs Past,' Kagome thought and smiled. She had always liked this particular piece, and it seemed apt for a setting as spectacular and as remotely chilling as a vermilion sunset. As she lingered on a drawn-out vibrato, she thought she caught a glimpse of something skulking about in a corner of the garden. It was nothing concrete, more like an imagined and amorphous shadow existing only in her periphery, and Kagome looked away. Darkness would come very soon, and she could easily make her preparations in the hours between complete twilight and moonrise. In the meantime, she would play, and ignore everything else. Even the sunset. Especially the sunset.

It was too bad that she didn't have anyone right now with whom she could play a duet, Kagome reflected. She did not have a lot of students because of a busy schedule at the city hospital, and most of her free time was consumed by her own musical studies, but she did enjoy having someone over to discuss and execute her favorite pieces with once in a while. Her husband scoffed at this, wondering aloud what she could find so stimulating in children's company, because all her students were not older than ten years old. Kagome only smiled. He did know why she preferred teaching children. They saw the world in all its evanescent beauty, as much as if it had been painted with autumn's brilliant vibrancy, and yet they never turned away from it, never made excuses to forget and create other illusions. Children knew the world as it was. Perhaps, because of that, their perceptions were even more dangerous than those allowed by the languorous glare of pre-winter sunsets.

Because they could see.

The woman was coming down the garden path, picking her way haltingly through the profusion of wild carnations and blue bellflowers that crowded the wayside. Kagome peered at her from the veranda; the twilight was absolute and she could barely see in the hushed darkness. The koto had been packed and returned to the study along with the music sheets, and she had laid out a couple of rice dishes in the kitchen along with a pot of tea. The rest could wait. Kagome hummed a tune from Harusagi under her breath. She had a fairly good idea why Mrs. Yuki wanted to see her. Rie-chan's absence from their lessons for the past week told her enough. Kagome missed the child. Rie was a talented pupil, with a natural facility for making music and a lovely serenity with which to enjoy it and touch her listeners. And that is why I must do my best to help her now, Kagome thought. She knew Rie would never miss a lesson if she could help it, but her mother was a different matter altogether. Kagome sighed.

Mrs. Yuki finally came up to the veranda, staring at Kagome as if wondering where she had come from. The woman was dressed in a severely-cut pale blue suit, her feet encased in elegant silk pumps. Her thin face was expertly made-up. What did Rie-chan say her mother was? A lawyer?

"Good evening," Kagome said, smiling. She stood up, brushing her dress down with a graceful flutter of slim fingers. She wondered if she should have dressed more formally but she had not anticipated that Rie's mother would come attired as if she were going to sit down at an unpleasant business meeting with all knives drawn. In fact, everything about Mrs. Yuki, from her carefully arranged hair, to the small delicate pearls on her ears, to the tips of her elegantly-painted nails, lashed out at Kagome with all the potency of an offensive spell. Kagome's smile softened subtly, absorbing it. And she waited.

The woman didn't smile, only stared back at her with a sort of ferocious anxiety. Kagome still didn't falter; she sensed the unease, knew it was not induced merely by shyness or diffidence, but that awareness only made her all the more careful. Not wary, because this woman was not so much frightening as afraid, but expectant.

"What can I do for you, Mrs. Yuki?" Kagome asked gently.

Mrs. Yuki's shoulders slumped, as if she had suddenly shriveled into herself, and for a moment she looked ready to collapse. Alarmed, Kagome put a hand on the other woman's arm and guided her inside the house. Their progress was unsteady and halting and Mrs Yuki was breathing heavily. She didn't try to pull away from Kagome though with every step they took, Kagome could sense her unease growing until, by the time they reached the receiving room, even she felt faint with it.

"My shoes," Mrs. Yuki protested weakly as Kagome guided her down on the floor. Tatami mats rustled comfortingly beneath their feet. Mrs. Yuki let go of Kagome's hand and looked around the room. It was sparsely furnished. A scroll containing passages from a Noh drama hung on one wall. A spray of flowers in a chased porcelain vase stood on a lacquer table underneath it. Beside the flowers stood a somnolent gas lamp. Cushions dyed a dark yellow with a pattern of mottled blue spots were scattered around the room discreetly. "My shoes," Mrs. Yuki repeated.

Kagome shook her head. "It's all right." She peered at the other woman in concern. "Would you like some tea? Or anything to eat? I have food prepared in the kitchen."

"No, please," Mrs. Yuki said. "Thank you, but I'm fine." And when Kagome moved to close the screens, "Will you leave them open? Please?" Kagome turned to look at her. "It's just that--the heat... out there..." She tried to laugh but her laughter came out stilted and jarred. It died quickly in the twilit hush.

"I'll light the lamp," said Kagome. She didn't think her visitor could endure the abrupt glare of electricity bulbs.

Mrs. Yuki fiddled with her earrings, pushed back a wayward strand of hair, obviously trying to look composed. Kagome reached for the gas lamp and lit it with a match. The wick caught red fire for a moment, and then subsided into a dim yellow light that spread and enclosed the two women within its flickering limits.

Mrs. Yuki waited until Kagome knelt in front of her before she spoke:

"I--I've come to tell you that Rie would no longer be attending her music lessons."

Kagome had been expecting this though she had also been hoping that things would turn out otherwise. Mild surprise crossed her face, followed immediately by regret and weary sadness that seemed to age her for a moment and discomfit the other woman.

"May I ask why?" Kagome asked softly.

"You know why!" Mrs. Yuki blurted out. "Surely she has told you?!"

Kagome nodded. "About her dreams, yes. But I see nothing particularly disturbing about them."

Mrs. Yuki's hand went up to her throat. When she spoke, it was in a hoarse strangled voice. "Not--not her dreams, no. She hasn't told me about those..." She looked at Kagome reproachfully. "But she is seeing things. Just the other day, she told me she had been talking to a--a spirit of some sort."

"I think it's perfectly natural," Kagome answered, a bit hastily. Mrs Yuki's slightly pleading expression sharpened into an accusatory glare.

"Of course it's not natural, Miss Higurashi!" Mrs. Yuki said heatedly, clasping and unclasping thin nervous hands on her lap, composure forgotten. "You're a doctor, you should know that! Rie is ten years old! No longer a little girl! She shouldn't indulge in such childhood fantasies anymore!"

Kagome sighed. "But what makes you think they are fantasies, Mrs. Yuki?"

Mrs. Yuki jerked spasmodically in her seat, as if she had been stung. "Surely you're not saying they're--they're real, Miss Higurashi!"

She hesitated, wondering how far she could go without upsetting the other woman more than she already had. "I only believe that our fantasies are never any less than our realities."

Mrs. Yuki was shaking her head. "You're wrong. You're wrong, Miss Higurashi. Rie's fantasy is becoming _her_ reality. Don't you understand? I can't allow that to happen!" She suddenly leaned forward, her pupils taking on the feral yellow hue of the lamplight so that she looked for a moment like a wild animal about to lunge at Kagome. "You don't know what it's like to wake up in the middle of the night and find your daughter wandering around in the streets, laughing and talking to--to nothing!" Her voice broke. "Ever since she started coming here, she's been different. No, she's been worse! I knew I shouldn't have listened to my husband! As if music could any be real substitute for a father... Now my daughter is going insane--"

"You know that's not true, Mrs. Yuki," Kagome said. She spoke softly, and yet the words cut straight into the woman's rising hysteria, silencing her. "If there is any danger to Rie's sanity, that would be if you were to force her to forget something she knows and believes is real."

Mrs. Yuki's lipstick-outlined mouth worked. "Miss Higurashi--"

"Rie's strength is her music. Take that away from her and you might risk her complete withdrawal into her 'fantasies.' Either way, she will be destroyed." Something moved in the corner of her eye, or maybe it was just a sensation wanting so much to be felt it insinuated itself into her vision. Kagome glanced in the direction of the garden. It was awash in a stark glow. The moon had risen. The leaves of the mulberry tree were no longer scarlet, but ghostly white. Again, another movement. Kagome flicked her fingers slightly. It subsided in obedience.

"Is there--is there something out there?" Mrs. Yuki's voice was barely a whisper. Kagome looked at her. She knew she should spare her this but she couldn't think of any other way to make _her_ understand.

"You know there is, Mrs. Yuki."

The woman stared at Kagome, who smiled sadly.

"You've seen them too, haven't you?"

She managed to stop thinking about Rie and Mrs. Yuki for a while when her husband came home. Inuyasha had always had that effect on her; it was a quality of their relationship in which she took no small delight--that he could reassure her with his mere presence. It was not that she forgot everything else when he was with her, only that she somehow felt more capable of handling everything else.

It had been ten years, and he had changed since then, of course. His hair was no longer pale silver but a shade of black darker than her own, though it still looked strange. Inuyasha had told her that he would never be completely human; she had realized that herself as time went by. He did age--his features had matured and no one would mistake him for a boy now--but his face retained a curious youthful luminosity that was at once frightening and enchanting.

"Did you have someone over?" Inuyasha asked. He removed his shirt, turning away from her as he did so. Kagome's eyes traced the network of scars that crisscrossed his bare back, a mute testimony to Rie's vision and her mother's fear.

"Mrs. Yuki," Kagome answered. She didn't ask how he knew. Inuyasha's senses became even sharper and more acute as the years passed, to the point of precognition. "She's Rie's mother. She wanted to talk to me about Rie-chan. She's having problems with the child."

"Bah," Inuyasha snorted as he pulled on a yukata. The night promised to be cold and the yukata was more suitable for summer but he had never been one to follow conventions. He could afford to, Kagome mused. He gathered his dark hair at the nape of his neck and tied it with a length of twine. "You like poking your nose into other people's damn business which is why they all come screaming to you when they have the slightest bit of trouble," he said sharply and glowered at her, his amber eyes indignant. "And what happens to _you_ in the end? You--"

"--feel very happy because I have helped other people," Kagome said, smiling. The twine snapped under his twitching fingers and he cursed. She laughed. "Oh, just leave it, darling. You look a lot more handsome with your hair loose. Though I miss the dog ears."

He pretended to huff angrily but he made no move to tie his hair back again. Instead he sauntered towards her, mouth curling lazily, his earlier irritation apparently forgotten. "What dog ears?"

Kagome knew better, of course. "How was your day?" she returned calmly.

As she suspected, the innocent question set him off. The smile left his face abruptly and he halted mid-stride.

"A fucking mess," he snarled. "I went to the goddamn publisher and they told me they have to move the publication date because they were having problems with the proofs. Apparently, they're missing." His frown darkened.

"Oh dear," said Kagome.

"And I found out later that a couple of newspapers were publishing reviews of the bloody book!" Inuyasha shouted. "Reviews, Kagome! And the book hasn't even left the fucking press! I'll fucking kill them!"

Kagome's mouth twitched. "Why didn't you?"

"Because my stupid fucking students--" He stopped shouting and glared at her. "Are you trying to distract me?"

"Why would I want to do that?"

She was smiling but her voice, the lines of her face, must have betrayed her. Inuyasha's eyes narrowed as he studied her for a few moments and then he shook his head. He knew her too well. "Let's have it, Kagome," he finally said. "What did that woman say to you?"

She hesitated, knowing they had been under similar circumstances often enough, but there was no point in hiding anything from him. Besides, she wanted to talk to him. The encounter with Mrs. Yuki had shaken her up more than she thought. "She wants me to stay away from Rie-chan," she said unhappily. "She said I was encouraging the child's fancies." She remembered Mrs. Yuki's face, white and drawn in the gaslight, her shrieked curses tearing into Kagome like rampant demon claws. "But Inuyasha, Rie can really--"

"--see?"

Kagome nodded. "I think it's the music that drew them to her. Or maybe she'd already seen them before, only the music made them stronger in her eyes... We never really talked about it. She asked me a few questions but I think she preferred to remain simply aware."

"You know she'll stop--seeing soon enough. Did you tell her mother that?"

"No," she said. "I think forgetting is a matter of choice and not of age."

He gave her a wry look. "Most of the time, it's a function of both. When people age, they want to forget."

"I know, but Rie isn't ready. It's her mother who's afraid and I might have--"

"Kagome." He reached out a hand and drew her to him. She went unprotesting into his embrace. As always, the feel of him calmed her. She wound her arms around his waist, holding him tightly. "There's nothing you can do about it. Besides, what she sees--they won't always comfort her. Maybe it's better if she forgets now before fear comes first and her illusions are destroyed. Humans are very fragile beings."

"No."

She looked up at him, her hazel eyes disconcertingly somber and remote. Inuyasha sighed despite himself. Sometimes he forgot that his beautiful kind wife could see things even he couldn't. Maybe that was why no matter how many times she confronted this issue, she couldn't seem to take it lightly, or accept it at that.

"Humans only fear what they do not know."

Rie sat up on the bed, her arms clasping her knees, listening to her mother cry in the adjoining room. She desperately wanted to go to her and comfort her--her mother's anguish was painfully palpable--but Mama couldn't even bear to look at her. She had gone straight to her room as soon as she arrived home, had shaken Rie's clinging hands off without even a word. Had Mama talked to Miss Higurashi? Rie wondered anxiously. But it didn't make sense because if Mama had seen Miss Higurashi, then she wouldn't be so upset. Miss Higurashi was the kindest sweetest person in the world and she played the most beautiful music. If Mama only listened to Miss Higurashi play, she would understand why Rie loved the koto so. She wouldn't try to stop Rie from learning the music. Rie had sat in the living room for the entire afternoon, waiting for her mother to come home and tell her she could play the koto with Miss Higurashi again. Instead Mama was in tears, looking so pale and desperate it filled Rie with dread. What had happened?

"Mama," she whispered, nearly in tears herself.

The bedroom curtains rustled and Rie saw a pair of glowing eyes, one green and one blue, peering into the room. She smiled hopefully and beckoned, but the eyes didn't move from their perch. After a moment, they disappeared. Rie sighed. She knew she was alone. She wanted to see them and talk to them but after Mama had caught her doing so one day and had raged and screamed and cried afterwards, Rie had promised, frightened, that she wouldn't seek them out again. As if sensing her decision, they did not seek her out either, appearing only from time to time in her room or in the playground or in her dreams, never talking but always kind and appraising. Miss Higurashi said they wouldn't harm her if she would let them be. Harm them? Rie had asked, surprised. The thought had never even crossed her mind. Miss Higurashi only smiled and said that other people weren't like Rie; they threw stones and spears, they called vengeful exorcists and mediums. They didn't even try to see, or to listen. They only wanted to be left alone in their half-world.

Of course, Miss Higurashi had continued, a pensive note creeping into her light girlish voice, there are spirits that hurt as much as they are hurt, but they are not so very different from wounded human beings who lash out at their pain, whether directly or indirectly. Evil is an expression of grief, a form of mourning. Even bad people and bad demons have their own secret sadness. That is why music is so important--it soothed that sadness and gave it solace.

Rie thought about it now.

Mama's sobs had quietened; maybe she had fallen asleep. The curtains too remained unmoving and silent. After a moment's indecision, Rie slid out of the bed and walked on tiptoe to the corner of her room, where her koto lay waiting on its stand. She put on her finger picks, face set into an earnest expression. She would play her own little song for her mother. She would put her whole heart and soul into it because more than anything, she wanted her mother to be happy. Ever since her father had left them two years ago, Mama had never been the same. She never played with Rie anymore, never even smiled. She cried all the time. She was sad.

Rie knelt in front of the koto, trailing her fingers across the strings. She wondered what song to play and remembered the small piece she had composed in her last lesson with Miss Higurashi. It was nothing very special, just a piece of music she had woken up with that morning on her lips and soul, but Miss Higurashi had liked it. Maybe Mama would like it too, even if she didn't hear it now.

As Rie played the first few bars, she smiled, suddenly lightheaded with a feeling of joyous bouyancy. The darkness inside the room did not weigh on her so heavily anymore. The curtains began to dance again, lifted by the wind and curling clawed hands on the window sill...

BANG!

The door slammed against the wall. Rie started, her fingers arrested on the strings. The last note hung suspended in the air, echoing her shock at the interruption, and then it too melted into the sudden overwhelming silence. Rie turned slowly towards the door.

Mama stood in the doorway. Rie's smile faded at the look on Mama's face.

She only waited to hear the sound of something breaking as wood crashed into wood and then she turned and fled the room, ignoring Mama's strident screams and that awful breaking noise. She pushed open the front door and tore out of the gate and down the quiet moonlit street. There was no one about. She concentrated on the muted painful slap of her bare feet on the ashpalt, her own frantic wheezing. Something bounded along beside her. She didn't look at it, turning her face away blindly, and after a moment, it left her too.

It was not until she reached the playground that she staggered to a stop. She gasped for breath, bending over, one hand on her knee, the other clasping the chain of a nearby swing. The air was cold but sweat and tears streamed down her face, bathing her with a sensation of heat. She squeezed her eyes shut so they wouldn't sting but try as she might she couldn't stop crying.

'Why did Mama do that?'

'I only wanted to help her.'

Rie clutched the chain tighter, chest heaving. She wondered where she would go now. She couldn't go home because Mama hated her, she said so, and Mama said she would kill Rie if she ever played again. Rie cried harder. Why couldn't her music help her mother? Was Mama's sadness so unreachable?

Something heavy grabbed her shoulder then, shook her.

"Hey kid!"

Startled, Rie let loose an involuntary scream and jumped back convulsively.

Two men stood in front of her, glaring at her sullenly. One of them, wearing a black tattered shirt and scruffy jeans, still had his hand outstretched. He was the one who had touched her then. Wanting only to flee from anything that might remotely cause her more pain, Rie turned to run.

The hand closed on her collar and dragged her back. "Where dya think you're going, kid?"

Rie struggled. The black-shirted man pulled her into his embrace as he forcibly sat them down on the swing, pinning Rie to his lap with his arms, laughing hoarsely. He had a monotonous stench of decay about him--drink, cheap cigarettes, drugs and something potent and frightening. Rie screamed again. The hand slapped into her mouth with jarring force.

"Pretty little thing," said the other man, hunkering down in front of Rie. He looked like he hadn't shaved in days and as he leaned closer to Rie, his stubble pricked her skin like tiny vindictive needles. Bloodshot eyes bored into Rie, who stared back, terrified.

"Wonder what she's doing here."

"Maybe one of Tanizaki's runaways. Those fucking kids never stay put."

"Lucky we stopped to take a piss."

"Tanizaki'll pay us big for this girl."

"And if she ain't one of his girls?"

"Then she'll soon be."

The man in front of Rie grinned at her, showing a set of feral-looking yellow teeth. "So you said goodbye to your mommy, kid? Don't know where the fuck you came from but you sure ain't seeing her again."

Rie shrank back, crying. The man holding her grunted suddenly and stood up, dragging her along with him.

"Let's go before somebody sees us."

"Huh? What's the hurry?"

"Don't be a fuckhead."

"Sure, sure."

"You go start the car. I'll carry the brat."

As they left, the swing began to move.

Kagome chewed on the end of her pencil as she studied the case report of a hospital patient. Try as she might--and she had been trying for the good part of the evening--she couldn't make sense of it at all. There was nothing wrong with the charts or the laboratory figures, she thought grimly. When she couldn't devise a conclusion or diagnosis of any sort, she had vengefully set out to correct numbers and graph coordinates instead. Much good that did to her. Now she couldn't even read her own corrections. Kagome chewed on the pencil harder and found herself biting lead. She threw it on the table along with the report and stood up with an abrupt movement.

Inuyasha looked up at her from where he lounged on a nearby chair, a book dangling lazily in one hand. He was wearing his wire-rimmed glasses and beneath them, his amber eyes regarded her with cool laconic amusement. He had started wearing reading glasses a year or so ago but Kagome still found the sight odious. She wondered why he would wear glasses when he could pick his way clean through an unlit metropolis, not to mention the demon-infested forests of the fifteenth century. Inuyasha only shrugged when she asked him about it, telling her it was the price he had to pay for his excellent sense of smell in human form. Kagome believed he only wanted to look cute; it seemed the thrill of having people jump up in terror or fall over in a faint when he glared at them for more than five seconds had palled. He wanted them to swoon over him instead. Kagome's lips twitched ruefully. Well, he _was_ cute.

"What are you thinking?"

The smile left her face as the room, her unfinished work and, she admitted hollowly, Rie-chan and Mrs. Yuki, registered on her mind again. "Pleasant thoughts..."

He smirked. "Yeah. I saw you looking at me very intently."

"...but not anymore," she finished. He pretended to look deflated. She ignored him and walked over to the big dormer window. Their study occupied the entire upper level of the house. She peered out hopefully. From her vantage point, she could see the gate and the front path leading to the house. Both were deserted. It was nearly midnight.

"Is it the child again?"

She fidgeted restlessly. "I just feel like something's happened."

"Kagome, don't do this. You're not responsible."

"I am! I don't think I should have said those things--it wasn't until it was too late that I realized how afraid Mrs. Yuki truly was. We don't know what she might do to herself or to Rie-chan, Inuyasha..." She saw a black car turn into their street. What color was Mrs. Yuki's car again? She hadn't noticed. When she had finally followed the woman out of the house earlier this evening, she had already gone.

She heard him sigh. "Do you want to go to their house? See if they're okay?"

"I called them a while ago but--" The car stopped in front of their gate, under a street lamp. A woman came out, slamming the car door with a quick agitated movement. Kagome drew a deep breath. "It's Mrs. Yuki."

"Kagome--"

She wheeled around abruptly and ran out of the study and then down the stairs. The doorbell was ringing, peal after peal. She exited via the kitchen door, tore down the garden, and nearly crashed into Mrs. Yuki who was standing by the unlocked gate, calling out her name.

Kagome grabbed the other woman to steady both of them. Mrs. Yuki didn't even seem to notice her. Her suit was creased and rumpled, and her eyes were edged with black rings. Mascara, tears, sleeplessness--and what else? Kagome shook Mrs. Yuki's arm worriedly.

"Mrs. Yuki, it's me. Mrs. Yuki!"

The woman's arm trembled under her grasp. "Miss--Miss Higurashi... Oh thank God you're here..."

"Are you hurt? What's wrong?"

"It's Rie..."

Kagome paled. "Did something happen to Rie-chan? Mrs. Yuki!"

But again Mrs. Yuki was not listening to her, seemingly lost in a horrified stupor as she stared fixedly at some point ahead of her. Kagome turned her head, following her gaze, and saw a yukata-clad Inuyasha striding towards them, his eyes glittering a bright threatening gold. He had removed his glasses.

"That's--" Mrs. Yuki began weakly.

"My husband," Kagome snapped. "Now tell me... where is Rie?"

Mrs. Yuki's strange staring eyes swung towards her and Kagome flinched. Rie's mother was finally seeing what she had denied for so long, but at what cost? Kagome felt Inuyasha take her other hand as he stood beside her. She held onto him tightly, trying to find a sense of balance.

"Mrs. Yuki," she repeated. "Where's Rie?"

"She's gone."

Inuyasha carried the deathly pale Mrs. Yuki into the house despite the woman's feeble protests. Kagome preceded him into the spare bedroom. She was tugging a futon out into the floor when Inuyasha entered the room. He deposited his charge on the futon carefully and then straightened, nodding at Kagome before he turned and left.

Kagome put a hand on the woman's forehead. It was very hot, as if Mrs. Yuki's skin was on fire from within. Frowning worriedly, Kagome moved to stand up and get a basin of water but a hand grabbed her arm, staying her. She looked down to find Mrs. Yuki staring at her wide-eyed and trembling.

"I destroyed her koto, Miss Higurashi," she whispered brokenly.

Kagome's lips tightened for a moment. She forced herself to smile down at the woman, sliding her arm from the other's grip to clasp her hand instead. "Everything will be all right, Mrs. Yuki."

"I didn't mean to... She just made me so angry..." Mrs. Yuki closed her eyes. "The music made me remember things I thought I'd forgotten... And when I saw you I just knew... I'm so sorry..."

Kagome squeezed the woman's hand. "Try to rest for a while, Mrs. Yuki."

"Kagome."

Inuyasha was standing in the doorway. He had thrown a black jacket over shirt and jeans--for subterfuge rather than protection against the cold, Kagome knew--but he had left his hair loose. It swung against his waist as he stepped fully into the room and it wasn't until then that Kagome realized he was carrying Tetsusaiga. She started.

Mrs. Yuki made a whimpering sound, her fingers tightening convulsively on Kagome's. Inuyasha studied her expressionlessly for a few moments and then looked at his wife. "I need to know the child's address. She couldn't have gone very far. Kagome?"

Kagome gently pulled her hand away from Mrs. Yuki's grasp. "I'll be just a minute, ma'am," she said, giving her a reassuring smile.

Mrs. Yuki watched as she stood up and walked quietly out of the room. Her husband turned to follow her but then glanced back at Mrs. Yuki. His strange golden eyes were surprisingly level and grave. "Don't worry," he said. "I'll find her."

And then he too left. Through her exhaustion, Mrs. Yuki thought she saw the young man's dark hair turn a lustrous brilliant silver as he walked out. But she was imagining things, she thought fiercely as the hateful memories crowded up again and she heard Rie crying in her mind.

'Mama! Mama! Stop it! Please!'

She choked back a sob.

Just imagining things.

"Is there something you aren't telling me?" Kagome said as she put down the address book.

"No."

"The Tetsusaiga, Inuyasha."

"You know I always bring it with me."

She stared at him and then shook her head. "Oh, you're impossible... Just be careful, okay?"

He brushed a finger down her cheek. "You know I always am," he murmured before he kissed her.

She smiled against his lips.

And then she heard Mrs. Yuki scream.

The room where they left her was overwhelmingly dark and crowded. Tables, chairs, an old dresser and a rundown filing cabinet occupied every inch of surface around the bed. Rie crouched on the latter, her hands and feet bound, her mouth gagged.

She didn't know where she was. The man in the black shirt had knocked her unconscious after she wouldn't stop crying and screaming in the car. When she had woken up, groggy and bruised, her captors were carrying her inside what looked like an abandoned old house. The hallway was unlit and smelled of damp and mold. Flaking paint rained on them as they made their way up a long flight of stairs. Rie tried to move and found to her horror that she was tied up.

"So the little missy is finally awake."

Fetid air settled on her face and she looked up to find the man with the frightening eyes and teeth leering down at her. She swallowed.

"You gave us a bit of trouble there, kid. Tanizaki had better take you or we're all shit, hey?" In the near-darkness, the man's smile looked like a sillhouette cut-out of a monster's maw. "Nah, you're shit. Because I think I'm gonna have a bit of fun with you first..." He tightened his hold on Rie, his fingers squeezing her chest and thighs. The other man had already disappeared into one of the rooms.

"Hurry up, Tsumura!"

The monster teeth snapped together with a vicious hungry movement. Rie stared, terrified.

"And then I'll kill you."

Now Rie struggled against the ropes but they wouldn't budge, and she couldn't work her mouth free of the gag. It tasted of cheap soap and dead skin and her own saliva. She fought the urge to vomit.

The men had left more than an hour ago; they would be back soon. 'And then what?' she thought miserably as she scanned the room for a way out--a small window maybe through which she could crawl--but even the walls were blocked by furniture. Rie squeezed her eyes shut against the claustrophobic darkness, wishing for the first time that she hadn't disobeyed her mother, that she hadn't ran away. Miss Higurashi had never prepared her for this. She knew with an awful sort of certainty that no music could protect her from those frightening men.

'Mama, help me.'

Kagome rushed back into the room.

Mrs. Yuki was pushed up against a wall, pointing frantically at the other side of the room, still screaming. Kagome turned and saw a young girl dressed in a white kimono and holding a colorful paper lamp staring quizzically at the cringing Mrs. Yuki. Or looked to be staring, Kagome thought with an inward sigh. The girl had no face. Beside her, goblins peered in through the half-open screen leading out to the garden, their red bulbous noses sniffing the air inquisitively. Kagome waved them away. They only grinned at her.

Mrs. Yuki moaned.

"They won't hurt you, Mrs. Yuki," Kagome murmured. "Don't be afraid."

"Make them go away," was the hoarse reply. "Please."

Kagome glanced again at the tableu to her right and sighed. "I don't think they want to go yet." She hunkered down beside the sobbing woman and put a hand on her shoulder. "Mrs. Yuki... Mrs. Yuki, it's all right."

Mrs. Yuki jerked away from her grasp violently. "No!"

"Mrs. Yuki..."

Black eyes glared at her, framed by a wild mass of tangled hair. And then their pupils dilated as they looked to a point beyond Kagome for a horrified hysterical instant, and were covered again immediately by thin shaking hands. She looked like a child just woken up to a nightmare beyond belief. No wonder the goblins were so drawn to her, Kagome thought in mingled asperity and concern. "Mrs. Yuki, if you will only--"

"NO!"

One of the goblins had begun to crawl towards them, a clawed hand already outstretched to grab Mrs. Yuki's hair. "Stop it," Kagome hissed. "She's not a little girl."

This time it was the goblin who glared at her, looking profoundly irritated. "I want to look at her," it demanded in a voice that wavered between a monstrous growl and a hoarse screech.

"Can I play?" chimed in the girl as she floated towards Kagome, tilting her faceless head to the side pleadingly. "I promise I'll be good."

Mrs. Yuki screamed again. The goblins tittered.

At that, Kagome's patience snapped. She gestured angrily, and an ofuda flew straight to her hand from where it hung on the ceiling.

The room fell silent. The goblins began to back away.

With a resolute expression on her face, Kagome turned to Mrs. Yuki.

The playground was deserted.

Inuyasha looked around him measuringly. The swings were empty, but they rocked slightly in the autumn wind as if they had only just been vacated. Inuyasha glared at them grimly. Dried leaves and early frost crunched under his booted feet as he walked. He stopped beside the slide--from this vantage point he could survey the entire area unimpeded by a tree or a bush--but nothing unusual yielded to his gaze. Inuyasha's grip on Tetsusaiga tightened. The girl's house had been empty, as he had expected. He had only taken a few seconds to reassure himself of that fact and to get an impression of Rie's scent. He had traced it down a couple of circuitous side-streets before he finally found the playground. He could still smell the girl's presence here but it was very faint and he knew that if he tried to pursue it beyond the playground's gates, it would disappear. Rie must either be hiding somewhere within the vicinity or, he thought wryly, she buried herself underground. Kagome would not like it if he told her that, of course.

Inuyasha's eyes settled on the swings again. A black spider chose that moment to scuttle across the seats, nearly falling over its thin legs as it did so.

Inuyasha's lips twisted into a small sadistic smile. In an instant, he was standing by the swings, holding the spider up between thumb and forefinger. The spider struggled frantically. Inuyasha pinched his fingers closer. The spider froze.

"You don't look very big today, Kumo."

"My--my lord! It's nice to see you too, my lord! I didn't recognize you, my lord! I'm sorry but I'm rather in a hurry--"

"What a coincidence. I'm in a hurry, too. Or do you just want to get away from me, Kumo?"

"My lord! Why would I want to do that?"

"So you can transform at a safe distance and then come back to eat me up, I presume." Inuyasha's smile widened. "But before you do that, tell me, how long have you been hiding here?"

"Hiding? My lord, really--!"

Claws shot out from Inuyasha's fingers, digging into the spider's belly and spine. Kumo screamed.

"I suggest you tell me, Kumo. Immediately."

"O--only since about midnight, my lord."

The claws relaxed fractionally. "And did you see a little girl hereabouts?"

Kumo looked rebellious. "A little girl?"

Inuyasha brought the spider up to dangle in front of his eyes, which were now a rioting shade melting and shading off from rich amber into luminous gold. They glinted dangerously. "Kumo."

"I--I really can't say, my lord."

"Why not?"

"Because the men who took her are--are--"

"What?" Inuyasha snapped.

"--are demons!" Kumo wailed. "And if they find out I told you they'll kill me and won't give me nice warm beggars anymore to--" Inuyasha pinched him harder. He flailed his legs in panic as he nearly suffocated.

"Demons?" Inuyasha swung him about angrily. "Speak clearly, idiot. I'm losing patience."

"Well, sometimes..." The spider wheezed. "I mean demons sometimes. I don't think they really know they're demons but sometimes..."

"Some-times..." Inuyasha snarled.

"They're always at one of those strange dark places in the alleyway down the big street. Oho-Kuninushi said so!"

His tormentor's eyes narrowed even more. "Did they take the girl there?"

"I don't know--No! Wait, my lord! I really don't know! I was hiding because one of them might recognize me and--my lord! Nioo! Nioo knows! He followed them!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Kumo whimpered.

Inuyasha watched him for an unnerving moment longer and then he dropped Kumo on the ground unceremoniously. "All right," he said coldly. He turned away and began striding towards the exit.

Kumo glared at Inuyasha's back furiously, feeling humiliated and vindictive. Who did Inuyasha think he was, after all? It was time Kumo taught _him_ a lesson. He only had to wait until the pompous insolent fool was a few steps away. It would take just one well-timed lunge...

"Don't even try it, Kumo," Inuyasha said in that same cool languid voice. "Do you think that just because I live among humans now, I am automatically easy prey?" He looked back at Kumo, who cringed again at the sight of those predatory golden eyes. "And I'm warning you. If I hear unpleasant things about your 'nice warm beggars,' I'll gut your miserable hide and feed you to Shiaki myself. Do you understand me, Kumo?"

Kumo swallowed. "Ye--yes, my lord."

Inuyasha smiled, baring his fangs. "Good. Oh, and thank you for your help, Kumo." He bowed, the gesture rife with mockery and a remaining hint of threat. Kumo cringed even more. "I appreciate it."

Kagome put a hand on the shogi screens, intending to close them completely against the intensifying evening glare, and stopped at the unexpected rush of sensation on her skin. Moonrise was complete, and clear translucent light streamed into the room. Despite its almost painful brilliance, the light felt very cold, but refreshing in a strange drowsy sort of way. Kagome basked in its glow for a moment, when she heard her name whispered. Kagome looked over her shoulder.

Mrs. Yuki was sitting up in the futon, looking somewhat more composed. She had braided her hair into a long thick plait that hung over one shoulder. She was wearing Kagome's bathrobe and she looked very small and thin and young inside it. She looked like Rie, Kagome realized.

"What did you do to me?" Mrs. Yuki asked. Her voice was very soft and hoarse from crying but she sounded coherent.

Kagome looked uneasy. "Just--calmed you down a bit. You were very overwrought."

A pause and then drily, "Wouldn't you have been? I thought I was going mad."

"Well..."

"No, don't answer that." Mrs. Yuki turned her head away from Kagome. "The answer is obvious. Those--those things knew you."

Kagome only sighed unhappily. "I really didn't mean to upset you like that, Mrs. Yuki. And earlier this evening... I'm sorry. Inuyasha always tells me I keep interfering in things I shouldn't but you must understand--"

"Inuyasha?"

"My husband."

"Ah. The young man looking for Rie."

"Yes."

"I haven't thanked you for that as well."

Kagome smiled, even though the other woman wasn't looking at her. "I'm sure he'll find her."

Mrs. Yuki stirred slightly. "Miss Higurashi..."

"Yes?"

"My husband knew you, didn't he? He was the one who'd insisted Rie learn the koto... Where did you meet him?"

Kagome hesitated. "We were really acquainted with his grandfather. We only met Mr. Yuki much later on, during Hiro-sensei's funeral. A long time ago."

"Grandfather..." Mrs. Yuki's voice trailed off pensively. "I should have been there too, at the funeral, but Kazuma and I had quarrelled and I didn't go out of pique. I was very childish--I should have gone, I know, if only for Grandfather's sake. He was always very kind to me..."

"Yes, he was a wonderful person," Kagome assented softly.

"You knew him well?"

"He taught me how to play the koto."

Mrs. Yuki remained silent for a long time after that. Kagome thought she had fallen asleep but then her breathing altered, as if she had just come to a decision or realization, and she said, "Perhaps Kazuma understood more than I thought... We were always fighting, even before we got married and somehow the situation just worsened when we started living together. We separated two years ago."

Kagome sighed. "I see."

Again that oddly precise and definitive catch of breath. "Rie told you?"

"Yes."

There was another stretch of silence. Kagome waited patiently.

"Last night... Last night you asked me if I could see them. Just a while ago, I did. Not that I wanted to, but something about you... and there's Rie..." Mrs. Yuki's voice softened almost dreamily. "When I was a child, I remember seeing them all the time. Ghosts, demons, everything. They were the only things I ever really saw. My parents were never around much and when they were, they--they fought. It was horrible. My father beat my mother regularly and one day he beat her so much she passed out. I thought she was dead. I saw her lying on the floor, blood on her entire face, and I could have sworn I saw her ghost too, at that instant... It was frightening." The whimsical tone teetered precariously on the edge of Mrs. Yuki's earlier hysteria, undercut as it was by remembered anguish and terror, then deepened into a sad sort of resignation. "So you see why I wanted to forget those things. Every time I saw one of them, I knew I was going to hurt. They were everything I hated in my childhood. Tell me now, Miss Higurashi, will you still condemn me for not wanting to remember?"

"And your husband?" asked Kagome softly.

"Kazuma has always been a happy person. He doesn't recognize evil or sadness in other people. I don't think he wanted to. He never understood my fear or my loathing--of him, of myself, of Rie... He saw them too, I think, but he could persuade himself otherwise because he didn't really have anything to hide. Whereas I needed that lie desperately, so much that I couldn't rest, couldn't live, couldn't feel happy because I didn't know when they'll catch up with me again... Those memories..." She finally turned to look at Kagome. The expression on her face was at once vulnerable and watchful, as if even now she couldn't quite believe what she was saying or that she was saying _this_. "When Rie told me about her--her visions, I was afraid of what they really meant to her. Kazuma and I had never been the best of parents, always angry, always fighting, no time for her at all."

"And you felt that the things Rie saw were only a reflection of your failure as a mother?"

Mrs. Yuki's lips twisted into a lonely bitter smile. "Is it so wrong to protect her from that, Miss Higurashi?"

Squares of pure white moonlight, filtered by the immaculate paper of the shogi screens, cast blinding shadows on the polished wooden floor. Kagome watched them thoughtfully as they coalesced into fluid distorted shapes and then crept towards the still darkened parts of the room with blind purpose.

"I don't think it's wrong," she said. "But Rie doesn't blame you for anything, Mrs. Yuki. She's not afraid of you either. She loves you. She wants you to be happy."

Mrs. Yuki's smile faltered. "I really wish I could believe that..."

"You must," Kagome said earnestly. "Mrs. Yuki, I understand why you feel that way and I'm sorry for not listening before. But the world Rie sees--and the world you saw--are not just painful childhood fantasies. You asked me last night and I'm saying it again: that world is real, just as much as we are real. And it's not a fairytale escapist world, either."

"Please, Miss Higurashi--"

"I'm not saying that Rie should be left alone to do as she wishes. You are her mother and you have the right to protect her from anything you think might hurt her." She saw Mrs. Yuki wince and knew that the woman was remembering Rie's koto. "But our personal demons are ours alone, our responsibility, not to be confused with," she paused, "the other kinds."

Mrs. Yuki stared at her. "Who are you?" she whispered unevenly. The fear was back in her voice.

Kagome touched her neck absently. Mrs. Yuki saw something metallic glint in the moon-illuminated darkness. A necklace?

"Let's just say that I know who my demons are."

Inuyasha flew past the rooftops. His feet barely touched concrete surface before he was in the air again, gathering impressions, creating patterns and reconstructing pathways. He couldn't sense Rie from this distance but he could feel Nioo's presence and he followed its trail.

'Why would Nioo follow the child?' he thought abstractedly as he sped across a tangled stretch of electricity wires. Nioo was a temple spirit and guardian and he wasn't known for haunting playgrounds and houses. Inuyasha had seen him once or twice lurking about the Higurashi shrine and even playing with Buya the cat.

So why Rie now?

'Maybe it's the music, like Kagome said.' It was interesting how spiritual susceptibilities varied from era to era. Or maybe they didn't really vary, only expressed themselves in different ways. He jumped down to a deserted sidestreet, ducking under a wayward clothesline as he did so. A cat meowled at him from the shadows. Garbage cans rattled as the cat jumped from its perch and ran alongside him. He could feel its eyes peering at him inquisitively in the darkness.

"Later," he muttered. He leaped into the air again. The cat howled in protest.

Nioo's scent was more pronounced now. Inuyasha paused on top of a telephone pole to get his bearings and found himself surveying a small rundown district of old abandoned mansions and warehouses lit here and there by barely functioning street lamps. Inuyasha's eyes narrowed grimly, thinking of possible reasons why a couple of inebriated half-demons would take a small girl to this place. The choices were very limited.

He had to hurry.

He found Nioo crouched on the eaves of an old three-story house, his tail, lashing back and forth, peeking out from the voluminous folds of his Shinto priest robes. Inuyasha landed beside him silently. Nioo started and turned to him with a menacing growl on his severely white face, claws ready. His eyes, one green and one blue, were wary and threatening. Inuyasha stared back at the spirit, wondering inwardly what the strange eye coloring of the temple spirits had to do with their abilities. He had never quite figured it out. Nioo subsided with a grunt, recognizing him, and went back to watching the street below. A beat-up blue sedan was parked near the door. Inuyasha sniffed the air and identified Rie's scent immediately.

'So she's here.'

Clouds obscured the moon for a moment, throwing the entire area into complete darkness but Inuyasha didn't mind. His senses functioned best when deprived of illumination, and at that moment he could practically feel every breath and movement of everyone and everything inside the house. There were two others aside from the girl. Demons, definitely. Or at least they had the blood. He snorted. How could he have missed them before? Tetsusaiga stirred against his hand. Inuyasha took it out of its scabbard and tossed the latter at Nioo, who caught it deftly, looking inscrutable. Was he there to just watch after all? Inuyasha stared at Nioo suspiciously for a moment, and then dismissed the thought. He had more important things to worry about.

The girl was in one of the second-floor bedrooms but all the windows were barred and he didn't feel like going through the front door.

Inuyasha smiled narrowly. Not that that's ever stopped him before.

"Damn Tanizaki. All that trouble for nothing."

"Yeah. Bastard. Maybe we should have killed him, huh? With all his fucking bodyguards looking on? That would've been fun."

"You're crazy."

"So what're we gonna do with the girl?"

"Maybe Motoki'll take her."

"Dun think so. She looks like someone'll come lookin' for her sooner or later. He won't want the trouble."

The bedroom door was flung open. They stood in the doorway for a moment, two grotesque shadows that breathed and talked. Rie cowered against the farthest and darkest side of the bed, hoping they wouldn't see her, but they located her without any effort at all. One of them grabbed her roughly. Rie winced.

"Were you hiding, kid?" It was the man with the monster's smile. She couldn't see him at all, but she could feel his hands running down her body. She struggled. He threw her back down on the bed.

"We told you what we'll do to you if Tanizaki doesn't take you, right?" She heard someone laugh--the black-shirted man perhaps. Rie tried to crawl away from them, but they only grabbed her feet, her thighs, pulled her back.

Beneath the gag, she screamed and screamed. The hateful laughter drowned her out.

"We're gonna have fun with you, missy."

"The fuck you are."

All of them froze. At first Rie thought someone else had come to add to her torment, but then the men cursed wildly, and she realized they didn't know who had spoken either. One of them had taken out a knife. Its steel length sliced into the shadows, a thin sliver of refracted light.

"Who the hell--"

There was a moment of absolute stillness, and then it seemed as if the darkness itself moved, with a motion so lithe and quick it disoriented Rie. She heard a clattering sound on the floor--the knife?--when she felt something sharp prick the skin of her cheek, drawing blood. The hulking shapes beside her on the bed seemed to have grown bigger, and they were no longer laughing or shouting. Instead they were shrieking hideously, in voices she could barely recognize as human, slashing at the shadows with frantic movements that threatened to knock Rie off the bed.

This time the light that pierced the darkness and sprang towards the bed was long and curving. Rie didn't really see it, only felt its onslaught as every nerve of her body prickled and tensed. And then she was pushed aside by something firm and heavy and she hit the floor hard, banging her head against the leg of a table. Stunned, she curled up in pain, only dimly hearing the cracking noise of the bed being split apart as if a huge object was being thrown into it repeatedly, followed by and flowing into a ruthless succession of edgy sound, like paper tearing. The strange screams rose in volume. The light swiveled upwards with an elegant controlled flourish, and then it descended with the suddenness of lightning tearing down the sky--it was that bright and electrifying to Rie's dazed mind. She closed her eyes as the light went down, down, down... But this lightning had no accompanying thunder, only a slight barely noticeable whistling through the air, and then complete silence.

Rie kept her face turned away, sure that the light was coming for her next. Instead she heard what sounded like a derisive snort and then a cool modulated voice intoning:

"Idiots."

Idiots? Rie looked up cautiously at the same time that the window and a section of the wall crashed open, and moonlight and cold air swept into the room. Blinking blearily, Rie saw a tall slender shape standing beside the window. At first she couldn't really distinguish it because it seemed to be covered with the same white dazzling sheen of the moonlight, and then it moved to pick something up from the floor, and she saw that it wasn't white after all but an incandescent shade of silver. It seemed to sense that it was being watched and it turned to Rie sharply, who started when she realized that it had a face, pale and finely-wrought, covered with more silver dust, and the most brilliant golden eyes she had ever seen. Gold markings ran down the side of its face, completing the impression of sunlit radiance during moonrise.

She stared in fascination, all fear forgotten momentarily, as it walked towards her, and it was only then that she noticed that it was holding a long gleaming sword--silverlike like the rest of it--which it slid into a dark engraved scabbard even as it approached, and that it was wearing, quite discordantly, a black jacket over a white shirt and blue jeans. And it had a pair of what looked like dog ears protruding out of its silvery head. She stared even more.

"Are you all right?" it said, kneeling in front of her and gently peeling away the gag from her mouth. Rie nodded, at a loss. She felt herself being turned over carefully and something cutting into the ropes on her hand and her feet.

"Those damn bastards--er, those men didn't hurt you did they?" The ropes fell away. Rie glanced towards the bed convulsively and saw only splintered wood, a smattering of black dust on the floor and splashes of something dark and wet covering the wall.

Rie shuddered and turned to face her rescuer, who returned her wide-eyed stare with a deep frown. "You have cuts and bruises on your face," the apparition muttered. "And your hands and feet are bleeding. I'd better get you home."

"Who are you?" she asked timidly. "Are you one of--one of them?"

The golden eyes seemed to twinkle for a moment. "I'm Kagome's husband."

Rie's mouth dropped open. "Really?" she gasped. "You're Mr. Higurashi?"

"I suppose I am," drawled Mr. Higurashi. "You can call me Inuyasha, if you want. That's my name." He helped Rie up and led her towards the window. "Your mother sent me to look for you. She's very worried."

At that, tears sprang to Rie's eyes. She wiped them away, sniffling. "Is she still mad at me, Mr. Inuyasha Higurashi?"

Inuyasha smiled down at her. It was really a small smile, barely perceptible, and it seemed so unnatural with his cold silver hair and golden eyes, but it reminded her of Miss Higurashi's smile, and that reassured her. "I don't think so. But you'd better talk to her yourself."

"What about--" Rie looked over her shoulder fearfully. Somehow, everything that had happened didn't seem to be quite real: Mama's anger, the playground, this house, the horrible men, even Miss Higurashi's husband.

"It's all right." Inuyasha's voice and expression hardened. "They won't hurt you or anyone else anymore. Don't worry about it." He tugged on Rie's hand. "I don't think we can get a ride here. Do you mind if we fly?"

Rie stared. "Fly?"

For an answer, Inuyasha hoisted her onto his back and sprang up to the ledge gracefully. Rie peered over his shoulders and saw a glorious stretch of night sky, starless black shading off into dusty white where the harvest moon reigned with fierce brilliance. She caught a flash of red in her periphery, and Rie turned her head, surprised, and found herself looking at a familiar pair of green-and-blue eyes. Another flash, a whirl of silk and incense, and they were gone.

"That was Nioo," said Inuyasha, a touch of amusement in his voice. "He helped me save you."

"Nioo," Rie whispered. She had never been told their names before.

"Let's go."

Higurashi Kagome's Journal

November 20

I just received a letter from Rie-chan. She seems to be adjusting to her new home and surroundings quite well. Mr. Yuki also wrote, saying that Rie at least is no longer having nightmares about that night and that she's starting to play the koto again. Inuyasha and I might go to Osaka for a short visit this January. Rie is quite taken in with Inuyasha and persists in calling him Mr. Inuyasha Higurashi and asking him to dye his hair back to silver again, which I find charming and I think Inuyasha does too although he of course denies it vehemently. Mr. Yuki also tells me he and Rie visit Mrs. Yuki every weekend, and that is even better news. I must see her too. When I saw her last, she didn't recognize me, but she was smiling and cheerful and even mentioned Hiro-sensei once or twice. I don't know how long her mind could stand such self-imposed torture--she had completely and consciously forgotten the events of the night of Rie's disappearance. I still blame myself partly for what had happened, wondering if I could have done something to help her more, if certain things could have been avoided for her sake. My own self-righteous credulity... Inuyasha insists that it wasn't really my fault, that it was Mrs. Yuki's choice to hide and forget. He knows the entire story but he didn't see her when she asked me to play the koto for her when we were alone that night, the look on her face when she fell asleep, as if surrendering to an enchantment. Maybe I wanted her to forget too. I hope and pray that Rie's music will lead her out of her prison, her spell. In the end it is, as Inuyasha said, her choice once again, but it is easier to choose hope and happiness when one has known what it feels to be loved, and her daughter loves her. Her husband loves her too, but she needs to believe it. She must.

A shadow fell across the page and Kagome stopped writing, knowing who it was. Inuyasha was looking down at her, smiling against a backdrop of indigo-shot dusk. Kagome smiled back, and it was only then that she realized that afternoon had come and gone while she was writing on her journal and waiting for Inuyasha to come home. The veranda was teeming with the familiar hues and shapes of twilight, and the sky was an intoxicating endless rush of deep purple and rippling violet over the stark gold of the setting sun, over the flaming reds of an autumn day fading into winter night.

Inuyasha sat beside her, taking her hand. They didn't speak for a long time, content to watch the lovely afterimages of dusk and in each other's silence. Finally, when twilight and sunset were complete and the moon had begun its inexorable rise, Inuyasha stirred.

"I spoke to the owner of the club where Rie's assailants used to hang out," he said, rubbing his thumb absently across the top of Kagome's hand. "Turns out he's a half-breed too."

Kagome shook her head. "They attract each other."

"I don't think he knows though," Inuyasha continued. "We have to talk to Miroku about this."

Kagome smiled. "You mean Miroku's great-great-great-great-great grandson."

Inuyasha smiled too. "It's still Miroku."

"You don't think it's the jewel, do you?"

"No. It's them," said Inuyasha. "Even demons have to earn a living somehow."

"Hmmm," she murmured.

"You should have sealed them all before. It would have saved us a great deal of trouble."

"And sealed you along with them?"

"Bloody likely."

"Don't be an idiot, love."

"Kagome."

"Yes?"

"How long do you think this will last?"

She looked up at him, startled. "What?"

"Everything. Humans and demons and spirits existing alongside each other." He gazed back at her, still smiling, but his intense eyes were serious and oddly pensive. "How long?" he repeated.

"As long as we're together."

"Kagome..."

She gently eased her hand from his and put it around his neck, drawing his face down to hers. She brushed his lips with a slight kiss and felt him relax in her touch, as she was reassured by his. "Which is to say forever," she whispered. "I've also made my choice."

His smile held more amusement and certainty this time, and not a small amount of love. "You don't say." He brought his hands up to her hair, threading his fingers through the smooth dark strands caressingly. "Are you hungry?"

She laughed. "Where did that come from?"

"I'll tell you all about it in the bedroom, I mean the kitchen, and then you can read Rie's letter to me. You're dying to, aren't you?"

She opened her mouth to protest and he grinned at her wickedly. "Don't deny it. I know you have the damn thing." Kagome only laughed again and put an arm around his waist as they stood up, her journal clasped in her other hand.

Together they went inside the house, the moonlight guiding their path.

NOTES:

WOW. Major suckage for an ending. Can't think of anything else. Will definitely revise.

1. *blinks* I really didn't mean for this story to go on and on and on. Excuse the digressions and execrable adjectives o_O I'll do some massive chop-chops during re-edit, when I can look at this more objectively and not want to dump everything at once. Erm. This fic's storyline was inspired by the basic plot of Charles de Lint's "Ghosts of Wind and Shadow," though all details are my (rather wild) invention.

2. I placed this fanfic ten years after an imaginary ending of Inuyasha which hopefully will have Inuyasha and Kagome being Happy Lovers, and Kagome retaining the Shikon Jewel. As to why Inuyasha can transform into full youkai-form at will, wears glasses, writes books, teaches at uni, and why Kagome plays the koto, acts mysterious and talks about sealing demons as if it were as easy as flushing the toilet, everything will hopefully be explained by Story 1 which is tentatively titled "The Exorcism" (Oni no Kage). I'm thinking of a trilogy of sorts. Figures that I start at the middle. The first story will hopefully not suck as much as this one and is set about nine years earlier in my timeline. Story 3 ("Out of Darkness" / Kuraki Yori) is set in the Sengoku Jidai after the events of "Moonlight" and includes Sesshomaru, world domination and fox clans, along with more obtuse Japanese mythological references.

3. Index of Japanese terms:

yukata - thin cotton robe, usually used for sleeping or lounging around in hot baths or generally looking sexy. /leers/

ofuda -

I admit that I used honorifics rather indiscriminately in this story but I hope I didn't go overboard. Thanks to Gary for calling my attention to the surfeit of Okaasan ^^;; Upon second reading, it did sound discordant.

"Kumo" are actually huge Japanese spider-monsters that prey on unwary travelers under the guise of clothes/blankets x_x Usually, the travelers wake up imprisoned by sticky spider webs. I had a scene wherein the Kumo in this story plastered Inuyasha to the slide in the best Spiderman tradition but that would have been another digression and I've committed enough of the latter already. Maybe in Story 3 _

"Nioo" is a term for a temple guardian or spirit. I invented the green-and-blue eyecolor and the Shinto priest outfit. More of Nioo in Story 1.

I'd have called the 'goblins' going after poor Mrs Yuki's hair "tengu" which is how they would probably be referred to in Japanese. Again, my fear of Japanese-name-oversaturation made me go for the English "goblin" instead but the basic concept is the same. Tengu usually reside in mountains and forests but I see no reason why there shouldn't be slick city-smart tengu proliferating in the Tokyo urban jungle. XD Again, explanations in Story 1.

4. I realize my little thugs sound like stuffy pedants but if I were to try my hand at gangster slang, I'm afraid I'd end up with more butchering-worthy dialogue.

BTW, Inuyasha's ears look more like fox ears to me but I suppose that really depends on what kind of dog he is.

Inuyasha: ...
Tin: I rather see you as a cute cocker spaniel.
Inuyasha: *twitches*
Tin: Spitz?