"Daddy..." Anomie wrung her hands together in nervous anticipation. "Could we-"

"No," he cut her off as he looked down at her from the branch he was sitting on. One of his legs dangled off lazily as his hands met within each other's sleeves. He hadn't seen Kikyo for a while now and was wondering where she was.

"You didn't even know what I was going to-"

"Yes, I did."

"Could you let me spea-"

"No, no I can't. It saves time if I don't let you speak because I already know what your gonna say."

"What then?" Anomie asked a bit angrily. She placed her hands in her lap impatiently and scowled up at him.

"You were going to ask me if you could jump off a cliff." He replied as he closed his eyes.

"Daddy!" Anomie yelled in frustration.

Inuyasha smirked. He really did like being called that, even if he was driving her crazy at the moment.

"Daddy, I wanna go visit Miss Sango again!" she whined as she sat at the base of his tree, kicking her feet up and making a fuss.

"Liar."

"No, I'm-"

"Liar."

"But I-"

"Anomie Higurashi," he said warningly. It made his ears twitch to say her last name, but he used it because she had been raised being called by it. She knew that, when called by first and last names, it meant to shut her trap or face the consequences. Of course, he had another more crucial reason for saying that last name. It was actually better than any excuse he could make up.

He used Kagome's last name simply because he couldn't remember his own.

But that was okay. Anomie stopped fussing and folded her arms as she rested against the bark.

"Mommy would've let me..."

"Anomie Ame Higurashi," Inuyasha spat out her full name. THAT alone made her know she was going to be in big trouble if she uttered another word.

A long moment of uncomfortable tension passed between them before slowly fading.

"You do know that when you lie, your scent is coated with fear?" Inuyasha asked. "Even if your scared or not."

Anomie gave a half pout and half scowl. "I only wanted to see grandma again," she muttered her confession. She didn't know which way the well was and the only visible and worn down path was by Sango's house as it worked its way up a little hill. If scents from the future generated more then two feet into the feudal era, then Anomie would have easily sniffed her way there.

"You still didn't tell me what mommy did to you," she began complaining again. "Probably ate all the Ramen. That would piss me off to the fullest..." she trailed off.

Inuyasha ignored her as the topic slowly changed from Ramen to dead pet bunnies that had went to "bunny heaven" as Kagome had called it. He closed his eyes and half listened to his daughter's silly chatter.

For some reason, the next thought Inuyasha had been that if Kagome was still alive. Probably not. Knowing his brother, he probably ripped her tongue out just to silence the loud mouthed girl.

'Woman,' Inuyasha corrected himself. 'Kagome is a woman now.'

He imagined the possible outcome of her murder. Pieces. A finger there, a toe here, and perhaps a piece of intestines hanging off a branch of a nearby shrub as the dirt beneath it made puddles out of her blood. The whole thing was hazy in his minds eye but one thing stuck out with amazing clarity.

The clean cut of her detached head lying on the forest floor.

He imagined that with such clarity that it felt real to him even though he knew it wasn't. Her eyes were half closed and blank as blood slowly dried on her face. The corner of her mouth slowly dripped out the crimson substance as the wind still ruffled her hair. Her blank and lifeless eyes, it seemed, were looking at him, as if he were the last thing her gentle eyes had rested upon before slipping into death. For a moment, he wondered if she had voiced his name before she died, like so many times when she had been near the brink of death.

When she used to depend on him...

With a start, Inuyasha jumped up and grabbed his sword. A natural reaction he always had when it came to Kagome being in danger. It threw him off a great deal to be sitting in a tree instead of facing his brother in a death match to gain revenge. The sun had long set and Anomie was gone. Her young scent still lingered in the air, but it was hour's old. A cold wind passed by, bringing new smells to his nose. With a concerned expression, he suddenly darted off in the direction the wind was coming from. As he ran, another gust of wind hit him at full force.

With it, it brought the smell of fear, blood, and death.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sesshomaru was terribly tense as he walked pass the forest scenery with haste. Since the girl was refusing to come willingly, he had taken her by the wrist and simply dragged her along.

"What are you doing?" Kagome asked as his grip tightened when he stepped over a fallen tree. She stepped over it as he gave her a hard tug forward. "Will you leave me alone already?" Kagome asked, her voice holding no real tone. "This is the wrong way! Hey? Listen to me a minute! I have to go tha- "

"Hold your tongue," he simply cut her off. "I am already on the verge of abandoning you here, do not make it worse by continuing your senseless talk," he said threateningly. She opened her mouth to reply, but when she felt his grip grow even tighter on her wrist, his claws almost sinking in, she withdrew her comment and momentarily settled down.

Something, she mentally decided, was extremely bothering him...

Why had he decided to help her? Kagome wondered as he tried speeding up. She laggard behind him until he tugged at her again, making her knock into him and fall. "Keep up," he commanded as he pulled her to his feet. Kagome stared him in the eyes, looking for any type of emotion that would reveal anything about him. He too stared back until the tension grew uncomfortable and he started off again.

He was strange, Kagome mused. On one side he was withdrawn, doing things irrationally and deftly. He was always quick to decide a course of action, if the situation didn't catch his immediate interest. He seemed to think that everyone around him had three options. Live by his law, die by his hand, or avoid him altogether. The third choice seemed to be the safest to everyone, including himself, as he seemed to have wanted nothing from the people around him just like they wanted nothing to do with him. She herself was an example.

Yet avoiding him clearly wasn't an option for her as he had seemed to take her as an informal prisoner. This brought her to think of his other side, the side that lay beyond his cold and distant mask. Through the little time they had known each other, he seemed to be intrigued with something about her. 'I will find out what draws you to me in such a horrid way...' he had said to her the night they had met. So he was drawn to her? Kagome thought, clearly puzzled about what he meant by that.

She suddenly hissed in pain as he clutched her wrist so hard that his nails dug into the skin. Immediately he loosened up and looked back at her hand to see if she bled. Her wrist was red and sore from being gripped so tightly, but other than that, it looked fine. Despite this, he quickly switched to her other wrist and began pulling her by that one so the other could rest.

Kagome watched in amazement as he switched and slowed down a bit so that she could slightly relax while keeping up. Her body was exhausted after all. How many days had she gone without proper food and rest? Her appearance was also dastardly and her feet were aching from the amount of walking she had been doing lately.

She was thrown back into her thoughts when she observed his change in behavior. Just in a matter of seconds he had transformed from a hard and cold Lord to a kind of...slightly compassionate being. Taking a slight interest in her best interests when it was obvious she had been in pain. Just like the time he had awkwardly tried to comfort her when she was too stressed to deal with anything. And now she was in need of help with rescuing her daughter and here he was, gruffly volunteering. Drawn to her, she thought, seemed the best term to call their current situation. Being drawn to her had kept her alive for the past few days and, for a fleeting moment, she was glad that he was around.

They suddenly walked onto the brim of the forest that abruptly led off to a deep ravine, which sharply tumbled twenty or more feet below them. It was so unexpected that Sesshomaru could have easily walked right off the edge if he had taken another step. However the clumsy girl, who was still lost deeply in her thoughts about him, was oblivious to the fact that he had came to a stop and slammed into his back, slightly unbalancing him.

Yet that's all it really took as he rocked forward and fell over, dizzily falling for a few seconds before stopping suddenly. Kagome would have fallen with him if she had not thrown herself to the ground in attempt to stop herself from tumbling over the edge. Though she screamed, as he hadn't let go of her hand and his weight, magnified by the gravity, had pulled her wrist to hard that the bone shattered leaving her wrist, and most likely her forearm, broken.

She held in another scream as she peered over the edge to see him still holding on. Though he was only making her pain worse, she involuntarily began to cry. She opened her mouth to tell him to hold on, but, instead, she voiced an agonized scream as the pain steadily increased. She looked down at him, hoping he'd see in her eyes that she wanted to help and ignore her tears and moans of pain as she desperately tried to think of a way to rescue him.

One of her tears fell on Sesshomaru's face, and he was suddenly filled with a pang of self loathing, when it was evident that it was he who was causing her the real pain. Without thinking, he whispered something before closing his eyes and letting go of her hand, hurtling down the rocky canyon towards the thin stream of rushing water below, probably falling to his doom.