This chappie is dedicated to one of my best (and most wonderfully ruthless) reviewer; here you are, Pooh! Here's where the character you asked for comes in! Enjoy!

P.S. I'm sooooo happy FF.net put a Quickedit function on! YAAAYYY!!!!!

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Chapter 8: Shainingu Kyohaku Zenki Touhou (Shining Star Above Me)

Kagome felt her throat tighten to an immeasurable diameter when she stood before two great doors carved from cherry wood. She could feel eyes on her and turned to look at whoever it was who was staring so intently. Her relief was apparent as calmness rush over her when she recognized the placid, pale face three feet to her left.

"Sister!" she cried, and against her propriety, launched herself into her siblings soothingly cool embrace!

Kikyo remained her usual self, save a small tug on the corners of her mouth that was the closest thing most could get to a smile on her. "Well, you seem overly excited, Kagome-chan. Are you all right?"

Kagome gave a gentle nod into her sister's kimono and sighed. "Where have you been, Kikyo-chan? I've not seen you since we first came here."

Kikyo suppressed her amusement and the naivety her younger counterpart displayed. "We were close at the mealtimes."

"They don't count!" Kagome countered fiercely, like an upset child playing tag. She never was one for debate anyway. It was best to stay clear of Kagome when a passionate dispute erupted, and she wasn't going to back down. "I wasn't allowed to say anything to you from across the table!"

Kikyo nodded understanding, the flickering fire she'd seen in Kagome's eyes just then soothed her, made her feel comfortable. It was as thought nothing had changed, and Kikyo liked that feeling. Then, softly, she urged Kagome to let go of her robes. Kagome grudgingly obliged and the two himes stood before the doors, hearing many voices from within chatting and roaring lowly with excitement.

Kikyo looked sideways at her sister. "Are you ready, Kagome-hime?" Kagome returned the look with a puzzled expression. Kagome-HIME?

'Of course,' Kagome berated herself, 'Hime, as in "It is time to be formal".'

"As ready as I'll ever be, Kikyo-hime."

The deep breath that followed was so loud, Kagome thought, that it would ring down the halls, so she pushed the air out of her nose again. As soon as the doors swung open, she wished she hadn't exhaled.

Masses of people turned to look at the doorway, where the princesses stood motionless. It was a sea of variety – with anything from worm demons to cat demons! What remained of Kagome's breath caught in her throat, and she found herself silently choking! After a moment of mental panic, Kagome pulled in new air to nourish her starving lungs.

While Kagome looked, to the guests, like a drowning caterpillar: soft and squirmy and nervous, Kikyo looked sensual. Kikyo, caught up in the private drama of being a focal point again, waded fearlessly into the sea of bodies. It was a challenge to conquer all these people and make them adore her, but she would do her best to smitten them with herself!

Kagome, on the other hand, kept to the fringes of the swarm. While not a wall-flower, she was not as brave as her sister when it came to crowds; they made her uneasy. She swerved and bobbed this way and that, trying to avoid the demons with the more intimidating appearances, which turned out to make her bored with the demons she did talk to.

'Hell and damnation! The better-looking ones are stupid!' she thought, cursing.

Suddenly, Kagome remembered Sango's words from earlier, and now cursed herself for being so cowardly:

"Have you really given it a chance?"

And here she was, dodging the fierce-looking demons because she was afraid! That was so unlike her! Usually she was the one who would face a fear, not Kikyo. Besides, Kagome never broke her promises, or ever caught herself being intolerant before; what was happening to her? It was like something was softening her, turning her into what her father called a "gentle lady." Why?

She shook her head and steeled herself, pushing forward to the core of the crowd. She swept vehemently passed a group of yashas and was about to incorporate herself into a conversation with a snake youkai when she heard a familiar voice call to her.

She looked about and spotted Sesshoumaru-osama motioning with a hand for her to join him. She obeyed immediately, and pushed her way through till she stood near him at a meter's length.

"Kagome-hime," Sesshoumaru stated, "where is Inuyasha?"

Kagome stared at him. "I-I'm afraid I do not know, Lord Sesshoumaru."

Sesshoumaru's eyebrows furrowed slightly. "I see. It seems you are having a little trouble socializing. Allow me to introduce a colleague of mine, the lord of my northern-most sector. He is new, but very well equipped for the task. Enjoy your talk." With that, the osama moved away and disappeared into the crowd. Kagome's attention turned back to her companion when she heard a soft voice.

"Pleased to meet you, Kagome-hime."

She turned and saw nothing before her but air. She blinked, confusion setting in full force.

"Down here," came the agitated reply.

Her eyes moved downward; she gasped at what she saw. A little boy stood there, a foot and a half off the floor. His turquoise eyes, framed delicately by his orange-red locks, showed his disapproval. The fiery mane was pulled back into a topknot. He was a child!

"What's the matter? Never seen a kitsune demon before?" he asked, tapping his paw on the ground.

"Well, um, no but... I-I've never known a child to be a... lord."

"Yeah, well, it's a bit of a shock to the natives here, too! But, I'm the only one to carry on the bloodline, so I have to be a lord."

"I see," Kagome replied, forcing herself to overcome her shock and focus on how cute this little lord looked. "I am afraid I'm at a disadvantage. You know me, but I don't know your name."

The young boy flashed her a mischievous grin, his small white fangs gleaming in the light.

'They're so small they look like diamonds,' Kagome thought before listening to him speak again.

"Shippou. I'm Shippou."

Kagome nodded as elegantly as she could without making herself into an even larger novice than she had already portrayed. She kneeled down before him, sitting on her shins and holding out her hand timidly. "I assure you, the pleasure is all mine, Shippou-sama!"

The kitsune's brows furrowed more furiously, and Kagome was about to recoil her hand respectfully when he snatched her index finger and kissed the flat of her hand with soft, pale lips. When he released her digit and looked up at her, his eyes had withdrawn much of their disapproval. "Just Shippou-SAN, if you please. I'm not used to my new role yet, and would prefer to ease into formality at my own pace."

Again, the young hime nodded. "As you wish, Shippou-san. I apologize for my error."

The boy just snorted softly, which came out sounding rather adorable for one reason or the other. "Time enough for 'sama' later."

Against all propriety, the kitsune lord leapt into the air and lodged himself firmly on Kagome's right shoulder. She gasped in surprise, but held in the cry of alarm that wanted so badly to rip from her throat! She had promised to try tolerance, and frightened or no, she would keep that vow!

"I... beg you pardon, Shippou-san, but..."

She stiffened when she felt his nose invade the side of her head, moving along through her hair and sniffing continually at the tresses. She went pale and watched him from the corner of her eye as he moved away from her locks.

"You smell nice," he commented, clutching at the silk of her kimono. "Kinda like my mother..."

"May I ask who she was?" Kagome replied, smoothing out her hair absently.

Shippou looked around, his eyes showing some close kindred of paranoia! Then he turned and whispered in her ear. "Only if we speak alone." He pointed to the far right of the room, where another set of cherry doors hung, looming in the huge room.

"Very well," she acknowledged, moving swiftly through the crowd to the indicated set of doors. Gently and quietly, so as not to attract any unwanted attention, she swung one door open just enough for her to squeeze through with the boy still perched faithfully on her shoulder. Once through, she pulled the heavy door shut again.

She turned around and examined the new, unexplored space she had entered; it was a balcony. Long and narrow, it stretched along the entire South wall of the palace. She looked down both ways and saw other doors from different rooms that also lead onto the balcony.

"Someone may come out from another room," she warned.

"No," Shippou replied, bouncing off her shoulder and sitting in one of two woven chairs near the railing. "No one ever comes out here. Well, not often."

"Why not?" Kagome asked, sitting in the second chair and looking out over the landscape before her eyes wandered to the shining stars overhead. Their lights danced about, spattering rays of reflective aura over trees and water, making the land seem to glow with unearthly beauty and tranquility. "It's so lovely...!"

There was silence between them for a time, when the only sound heard was that of the lulling crickets in the grass below, and sometimes the hauntingly beautiful howl of a wolf in the distance, befriending the moon just like every other night. Kagome's eyes watered from the peacefulness.

'Is this the real West?' Kagome thought. Perhaps... Sango had been right. The earth, the moon, the stars... everything seemed to convince her more that the land she now saw was not the vicious home of death she had been told. She turned to look at her quiet companion. "Is it like this every night?"

"Yes. I haven't been on this particular balcony often; most people ignore it, or forget it's here. But I like to sit on the roof of my home each night and watch the lights. I never did find sleeping very easy. 'Night's in your blood, my boy!' as my father used to say."

Kagome felt her usual tinge of curiosity strike, which relieved her. She wasn't as far-gone from herself as she had originally thought! "What were they like? You're parent's, I mean..."

Shippou's small hand ran through his fiery locks slowly and he breathed in deeply before answering. "My father was my predecessor in the role of North Lord Noble; born into a powerful aristocratic family and raised to be a regent for Sesshoumaru-osama on his Northern border. My mother..." his hesitation was evident, and Kagome felt an urge to protest.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," she soothed. 'What am I DOING?! I've never been nurturing like this before! Never been pushed into undoing my questions by the will of my own heart!'

"... No, it's better that I speak it. It has been long enough locked inside me." Shippou sighed. "My mother was a kitsune peasant. Cast out by her mate when he found another, more pretty yasha. She met my father by accident, and he pitied her for her misfortune.

"My father grew to love her deeply, and took her as his mate. She loved him as a dear friend, accepting his offer of comfort and content, but didn't return his passion; she was still devoted to her first mate.

"After she birthed me, she left without word. No doubt she went back to the demon that pushed her away! My father looked... For years he patrolled the region looking for her, though he couldn't venture further for fear of leaving his entrusted post in the North and revoking Sesshoumaru-osama's faith in him.

"My father died last moon on way to look for her like he had done each night since she left. He was a faithful man, Kagome-hime, believing all things in their due time would come; I fear I disagree with him now... I saw the servants of my house drag his corpse into my courtyard, but couldn't believe it for a long time. But, now I do."

Kagome's eyes shimmered with tears, and let one escape the corner of her eye. It wasn't so much for the loss of the father as for the fact that the young kitsune gave his sire the name of 'man': a creature capable of both love and hate, and not desecrated by the raging heart of a mere animal – a single-minded youkai. The child had bestowed upon his father the name of complex emotion and sanity. "But, surely she did love your father! Maybe... maybe she was kidnaped and no one could find her and—!"

Shippou smiled softly and looked to the wooden planks of the balcony to hide the sorrow pooling in his irises. "I told myself that countless times each night. It never stuck true to me, and I can't cling to that falsehood my whole life. To her, I was a gift to a friend – not her kit. The motherless son, born of a maiden demon, who belonged only to a father. She and I will always be strangers, Kagome-hime, and as a man I must accept that."

Kagome couldn't contain her tears any longer! She let them fall and stared at him in disbelief and utter horror! "As a man?! Perhaps, as a man, you should! But, as a young child...!"

"I still should," Shippou interjected. "Perhaps the East pampers their young children, but the West does not. Children should – and do – grieve for loss, but we cannot, for our survival, dwell on what can't be changed. Here, it's the strong who survive, and our instincts tell us when to cry and when to push on. It's just our way of life, and you, too, must come to terms with that."

In the matter of a minute, Kagome's altered view of the West changed once again! Now, in her mind, was pictured a cruel, ruthless realm where children were taught to be without emotion or granted the right of moral indulgences! Of this land, she wanted to be no part!

She took in a sharp breath and hissed. It wasn't directed at Shippou: she wasn't angry at him. She was FURIOUS at the land and its laws; she was furious with Sesshoumaru-osama! "I will 'come to terms' with NOTHING!!" she replied, standing and storming down the balcony and in through a random set of doors where she thought no one would occupy the other side. She wanted a place to be alone: a place to seethe with her rage in peace.

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Hi, guys, I'm sorry about not updating for a bit, but I like to stay a chapter ahead of the readers. So, I don't post a chapter until I've got the next done as reserve (in case I can't write for a little while). It's my protection against angry readers who want an update quickly. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and don't forget to leave a review on your way out. Firefrost LOVES reviews!

Your humble authoress,
Firefrost