Thanks to Guest for leaving a good number of reviews – trust me, I really appreciate it! And I'm sorry for the late update; I'm entering my final semester for college, and it's keeping me hella busy.

There will be more SessRin next chapter, I promise!

Terminology:

Shinboku – There are a few definitions, but for the purpose of this story, I will use this one (albeit a poorly generalized one): it is basically a tree which is considered holy in the Shinto religion. They are said to serve as 'power spots' – meaning that people can walk up to them, hoping that they'd be able to regain strength and vitality.

Shimenawa – According to my research, they are pieces of rope or rice straw, which have paper streamers attached to them; they're tied around shinboku trees, and they are said to ward off evil spirits, so they have a spiritual importance.

The Bride of Sesshomaru

Chapter 4: On the Road Again

Kagome Higurashi liked to believe (really, she did) that she was good with directions. And she was, for the most part. Whenever she hit the city in Tokyo, she knew where she was going; she didn't have to rely on her iPhone to tell her where the nearest WacDonald's was. She didn't need to ask someone on the street where the nearest salon was. Kagome liked to think that she was good at figuring out where she was. Her pride didn't have anything to do with it. Really. Ok, so maybe she was stubborn, but there was nothing more satisfying than being able to do things on her own – which included exploring the city.

But this was different – she wasn't in the city, she was in Taisho Sanctuary. Which was a wilderness in comparison.

I thought the river was around here somewhere, Kagome thought, with a hint of frustration. She was getting pretty close to taking her temper out on something, and Kagome didn't care what it was. As long as she didn't hurt herself in the process. She already had to focus on getting help for her friend, who was probably wondering what the hell was taking her so long.

But was it really Kagome's fault that she may have gotten lost? As far as she could tell, there were nothing but trees in her vicinity, and they all looked exactly the same.

She was beginning to think that the river she thought she saw earlier was a mirage.

Kagome released a sharp exhale, running her hands through her hair. She couldn't kid herself any longer: she was lost and she was probably gonna die before she could get help.

Pulling out her cell phone, she tried texting Rin but lo and behold – her cell phone was out of service. That was convenient.

So now she would have to spend the next few hours trying to get back to Rin; it was either that or sit on the forest floor, rocking backwards and forwards. The second option implied giving up. And if anyone knew Kagome, they knew that she was never the type of person to just give up.

Kagome was tenacious enough to spend 13 hours working on papers for her classes, which included all the editing and proofreading that they needed. It was a pain in the ass (actually, doing all that work was the biggest pain in her ass) but she did it.

Kagome was tenacious enough to go to any pharmacy to pick up her grandpa's medication, even if it meant she had to travel across Tokyo. That was also difficult, but in the end, Kagome accomplished that task. And it was all worth it.

And just like that, she felt more motivated. She wished that Rin was here to see it. Grinning to herself, Kagome started walking again, careful to not trip over any hidden rocks.

Kagome sighed, brushing away locks of her wavy raven hair from her face. This, in all honesty, was not how she thought her day would go. She didn't think she'd be trudging along the forest floor desperately searching for a river that might not even exist.

But there was no use in complaining about it now.

Kagome's thoughts were halted, however, when she heard a rustling in the bushes. That had to be nothing. Right?

Shrugging her shoulders, Kagome released another breath, and continued moving forward. She wasn't going to let her curiosity get the best of her this time; she thought she heard something before when she was with Rin and look how that turned out.

Kagome watched horror movies and liked them as much as the next person. But she wasn't the type of person to be spooked out so easily, in spite of the fact that hearing that rustling in the bushes almost made her jump-scared. But being spooked out in comparison to being jump-scared were two different things. The point was, if Kagome was in a horror movie right now, she'd know that she was screwed. But what were the odds of a serial killer lurking in Taisho Sanctuary? It wasn't like just anyone could enter it without going past the main entrance.

Kagome was then reminded that she had a map of the sanctuary, but once she started scrambling around in her pockets, she came up empty. She frowned. She should have asked Rin if she could borrow it, but apparently that didn't even spring to mind. Well, she could always count on herself to do something questionably stupid – and not taking that map was undoubtedly a dumb move.

Rin was going to laugh at her for sure.

If that ever happened though, Kagome could conjure up a way to get back at her.

Kagome's thoughts were put to an abrupt hold when she entered a clearing; and from what she could tell, there was no river, much to her disappointment. But Kagome was quickly placated by the singular tree in the centre. From the looks of it, it was one of those shinboku trees – not unlike one that resided in her family's shrine. It wasn't an uncommon sight to see, especially in forests; if Kagome could recall correctly from the pamphlet, there should be a shrine building around here somewhere. There couldn't be just a random shinboku in the middle of a forest, right?

With that rhetorical question in the back of her mind, Kagome shifted her focus elsewhere. She knew how about how they acted as power spots for people; her grandpa explained to her that the reason people came to their shrine was for purification and healing. It was one thing for her grandpa to tell her crazy stories, but for some reason she didn't think he was lying when he told her about power spots. Maybe it was because she never really had a connection to the shrine.

But this time, Kagome felt differently.

She felt a spiritual presence engulf her in a welcoming embrace; it was almost as if this tree was calling out to her. Kagome never felt that kind of pull before – even at her family's Shinto shrine.

She walked up to it, noting that there was a shimenawa tied around the tree, and by the looks of it, it had been there for a long time. Kagome recalled her grandpa saying that another reason why shimenawa was tied around a shinboku was that the tree could have spirits residing within it.

Kagome noticed that parts of the tree bark were ripped off, much to her curiosity. She laid her one of her hands on the tree, by pure impulse. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to know what happened here. After all, it wasn't like she was going to get any answers just by looking at the tree.

She was jolted out of her thoughts when she felt something prick her finger. Fuck.

Kagome withdrew her hand, studying her pointer finger, and sure enough she could see some blood – not a lot though – gush out. She certainly didn't expect that to happen.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" A gruff voice called out, causing Kagome to nearly trip backwards on her own two feet.

Kagome stepped down onto the forest floor, steadying herself. She placed a hand over her beating heart, hoping that she would be able to calm down. How many times had she been jump-scared today? Six? Well it sure felt like it. And honest to god Kagome was tired of it.

After taking some time to relax, Kagome figured she should find the person who scared the crap out of her – and she was prepared to give them a piece of her mind.

Turning around, Kagome was about to start a whole spiel on how it wasn't polite to scare people like that, but she couldn't. Because right before her eyes, she saw a man (yes, a man; Kagome didn't know other guys who looked as mature) a few feet away from her. And boy, was he handsome; the first thing Kagome noticed was his eyes – they looked grey-ish/brown (she couldn't really tell), but they were beautiful. Then she noticed his raven coloured hair, which went past his shoulders. Kagome hated to admit it, but it looked like he took better care of his hair than Kagome did. She had to envy this guy a little bit for that. But then Kagome's eyes raked down his figure, which was clad in a dark pair of jeans and a red t-shirt – which showed off his biceps. It was good to know (somehow) that he wasn't bulky; Kagome wasn't a fan of the Chris Hemsworth look (though no offense to him – he's basically a god). And so was this guy, in his own way.

Wait a sec. Holy crap, she was just checking him out. Ok, so there was a part of her that liked what she saw, but that appreciation soon turned to dust when she saw the smirk on his face.

"Did you hear me, or were you too busy checking me out?" Kagome could feel steam pouring out from her ears; so what if this guy was good-looking? His personality was atrocious.

"Yes, I heard you," Kagome snapped back, crossing her arms underneath her breasts. "And for your information, I was not checking you out."

"Really? Cuz I could have sworn I saw you drooling just now."

Kagome wasn't a violent person, but she suddenly had the urge to throw something at him. Anything. A stick would do. "You're the last person I would drool over." It was true: she didn't find men with attitude problems attractive. Not in the slightest. Still, she unconsciously touched her lips to make sure that she was telling the truth.

"It's kinda fitting, considering that we're the only two people here." What a smartass. "Don't worry; I wouldn't want to drool over you either. Not my type."

"Whatever. You don't have to be a dick about it."

"Be a dick about what, exactly?" Kagome was not a fan of his condescending tone; she had never met anyone with a pretentious attitude in the entirety of her life.

Still, Kagome didn't think she'd have to dignify that question with a response. It was hard enough trying to reign in her temper, but this guy was testing her patience. He kind of reminded her of one of those jerks in her women's studies class where they had to question everything that the professor was saying. It was infuriating.

"Keh. Care to tell me why you're here?" Whoever this guy was clearly had no patience, judging by the annoyance laced in his voice.

"I would have thought you'd ask for my name first."

"Do you really care for pleasantries?" He snorted, as he crossed his arms underneath his chest.

"Well, normal people usually introduce themselves. So, my name is Kagome." She didn't care if she sounded like a dork. She could at least try to take the moral high ground.

"Well, I'm not normal people," he replied. "So, how'd you find this place?"

Yeah, this guy definitely wasn't part of the normal crowd. You know, the kind who had manners?

"I got lost," Kagome said simply.

"No shit."

"Well, my friend and I got lost. I was trying to find water for her. We ran out of ours." There was no way in hell that Kagome was going to explain how they got lost in the first place. Nor would she think that he'd believe her story about hearing something call out to her – he would probably think she was crazy for being able to understand trees.

"So you're tellin' me you just happened to come across this place?" Great – now he was waltzing on over to her.

"Yes."

He didn't look like he believed her, so for the next thirty seconds or so, he was staring directly into her eyes. Now that he was almost crossing her personal boundaries, Kagome could indeed confirm that he did have beautiful eyes. And she also noticed that he smelt…really nice; like a campfire in its final stages of burning…

Nope, nope, nope – Kagome did not just take a whiff of this guy.

This had to be one of the most embarrassing days of her entire life. Still, Kagome was grateful that it seemed like he was not going to call her out on it.

"I don't know whether to call you stupid or lucky."

Ignore him. Ignore him. Ignore him.

"I know, I shouldn't have run off, I learned my lesson. So if you could help me get back to the trail, I'll gladly be on my way."

"Now why would I wanna do that?"

"Don't you work here?" There was no way that this guy was a tourist. But then again, he didn't seem to be the type to be working here either.

"I do, but I'm not a fucking tour guide." Yeah, Kagome figured out that much.

"You know what, never mind. I'll find it myself," Kagome snapped, unable to hide her frustration any longer. She didn't have time to argue with him; Rin was probably wondering where she was. "Fucking asshole," she muttered.

She didn't get very far before she heard him sigh.

"It's not often that someone just stumbles here. So, you know…you kinda caught me off guard." If that was supposed to be some kind of apology, Kagome definitely heard better.

Kagome turned around, with a look of suspicion written on her face. But then she saw the look of discomfort written on his face: he was acting as though he rarely talked to anyone. For some reason that did make her feel a little sorry for him.

"So this place isn't even on the map then?"

"Upper management doesn't exactly want people comin' around here. There's only so much nature they'll let people see," he explained, crossing his shoulders, as he leaned back against the bark of the shinboku.

Kagome had a feeling that there was more to it than that. "I'm assuming that there's something special about this place, huh?"

"What's with the twenty questions?" He looked to be genuinely amused this time.

"Never mind, I was just curious. So can you please help me?" Considering that he was behaving somewhat amicably, Kagome figured she should act the same.

It looked like he was going to make a snarky comment, but he merely shook his head and snorted at the same time. He then proceeded to bend down and grab something from his bookbag. "Whatever. Just take this." He then chucked a water bottle in Kagome's direction and with a surprising amount of dexterity, she managed to catch it.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Was it just Kagome or was he blushing? Not that she had the time to dwell on that thought for very long. "Now, which way is your friend? Do you remember?"

"All I remember is walking for half an hour. I thought I saw a river, so I was heading towards that, but…" If Kagome took the time to study the person in front of her, she would have noticed his posture stiffen. But she was looking down at the ground, as if she found the dirt and bits of grass more interesting.

"Follow me. I have a feelin' I know where your friend is," he grunted, starting to walk off towards the area where Kagome walked in from.

"Thank you. I really appreciate it," Kagome said, unable to stop a small smile from spreading on her lips.

"Whatever. Just don't get lost next time."

"Trust me – I don't plan on making this a habit."