16
The stairs seemed to stretch up forever. Robin began to regret never having used a Stairmaster. Her legs were aching by the time she, Amon, and Karasuma reached the hilltop shrine. They were all panting a little bit as they passed under the wooden gateway. It was certainly a nice looking shrine, with the big tree on one side and the old fashioned architecture all around. The salmon pink house on the far end seemed to be the only modern thing in the whole place.
"That must be where the old man lives," Karasuma pointed out.
17
Kagome gasped and jumped away from her bedroom window.
"What's the matter?" Inuyasha asked, losing interest in Buyo. He was sitting on the bed clasping the cat's paws firmly in his hands.
"It's the people from last night. They found us."
"What? That's impossible."
Inuyasha dropped Buyo and got up from the bed to look out the window. The three visitors were just passing under the wooden gateway at the entrance of the shrine.
"How'd they track us down so fast?" he demanded.
"I don't know but we'd better think of something fast."
"We can just outrun 'em again. We can be down the well before they can blink."
"They'll see us if we run there now and we can't afford to expose the well to strangers."
"You got a better idea?"
"We have to talk to them."
"What!? Weren't you just talking about exposing secrets?"
"I know. But let's think about this. If there's one shard here then there might be others. They might know something useful. And there are things they need to know if they're chasing shards too."
"Kagome, this is reckless and stupid. Those people tried to kill us last night."
"Only because we took the shard."
"So you're going to give it back to them as a peace offering?"
"Of course not. We won it fair and square and we're keeping it."
The knock on the door made them both jump. They slunk from the bedroom to the top of the stairs and looked down at the front door.
"So we'll only tell them what they need to know," Inuyasha said.
"That's the plan," Kagome agreed. "Stay here for now. I'll call you when it's safe."
On the way down the stairs, Kagome debated how she should play this. This was one of the most awkward situations she'd ever been in. Could it be resolved by playing it cool? Her hand shook as she reached for the door handle. This is ridiculous, she thought, I'm a shrine priestess and I can handle anything. She pulled the door open.
The three people on the doorstep caught their breath and two of them reached for their guns.
"Wait," Kagome yelped, holding up one hand. "We're not running this time."
The hunters paused, utterly confused. Kagome gripped the open door harder with her other hand and went on.
"It's just that you're… early, that's all. We didn't expect you to track us down so fast."
The three pairs of eyes outside widened.
"Who are you?" the leader asked, narrowing his eyes again.
Kagome stepped back a little shyly under his cool gaze.
"I'm Kagome Higurashi."
"And the caretaker of this shrine is your…"
"Grandfather."
"And your… partner?"
"You mean the one who was with me last night? That's Inuyasha."
"Is he a demon?" the fire-starter asked.
"Half-demon actually. You came here for answers, right? Come in and I'll explain everything."
Kagome let the three hunters pass by her as they entered the house. While their backs were turned, she put her hand to her heart to make sure it was still beating. That was too close. It was time to call for backup.
"Inuyasha, come down and be sociable," she called up the stairs.
18
It didn't take long for the half-demon to make his appearance. He came down the stairs slowly, warily, as if expecting an attack. Robin couldn't blame him after the night before. As he got closer, the shadows of the stairwell left his face and she noticed his ears again. They stood like white, furry pyramids on the top of his head. He had hardly reached the bottom of the staircase when her hands began to creep up and by the time he was standing in front of her, they were in perfect position. The moment she touched his ears, Inuyasha seemed to freeze. He made no move to stop her but his eyes narrowed.
"Robin!" Karasuma snapped. "Stop that."
Robin let go of the ears and took half a step back.
"I'm sorry about that," Karasuma tried to apologize, turning to Inuyasha. "She's just very curious."
"Dead cat curious," he returned as he smoothed his ruffled ears.
"That's a good term for her," Amon said, letting his eyes wander.
It took all of thirty seconds for Kagome to stop laughing and invite them all into the living room to talk. Robin couldn't wait to ask about the shard, but Karasuma got there first.
"Do you still have the shard?" she asked rather bluntly as soon as she, Robin, and Amon were seated on the couch.
"Of course we do," Kagome began, dropping herself in her grandfather's chair.
"But you're not getting it back," Inuyasha finished for her as he took up his position behind the chair.
"Why not?" Robin asked in her most gentle tone.
"Because something as powerful as a jewel shard has to be well protected," Kagome said.
"And if you guys were strong enough to protect it, you would have gotten it back from us last night," Inuyasha pointed out.
Amon looked from one to the other. "Do you always finish each other's sentences?"
Inuyasha and Kagome looked at each other, blushing slightly.
"No way," Inuyasha protested.
"Hardly ever," Kagome agreed.
Amon's face didn't change at all. He gazed unwaveringly at the two people across from him. They eyed him nervously in return.
"I keep trying to think who you remind me of," Kagome said after a moment.
"You said that the jewel shard was powerful," Karasuma cut in, getting back on the subject. "What exactly did you mean?"
"You know what we mean. You saw it the other night." Inuyasha leaned forward over the easy chair.
"You were watching our hunt?" Robin asked.
"Yeah, we were," Kagome said. "And we were very impressed. Weren't we, Inuyasha?"
"Keh," he sniffed and stood up straight again.
"And that's how you found our office. You followed us back there," Karasuma reasoned.
"We weren't following you," Inuyasha said. "We were following the jewel shard."
"How many shards are there?" Robin asked.
"Dozens," Kagome answered. "But there were only a few missing."
"Like the one you got from us," Amon reminded her, not taking his eyes off Inuyasha.
"Exactly," Kagome said. "Have you come across any others?"
Robin leaned forward, about to tell them about their mission. But Amon held up his hand to stop her.
"Maybe," he said. "What else can you tell us about the shards?"
Inuyasha and Kagome looked at each other and then back at Amon. They hadn't expected a negotiation like this.
"We're as close as you're going to get to experts on the Shikon Jewel," Kagome said.
"The Shikon Jewel," Karasuma thought out loud. "I'll bet that was the magic jewel in the chief's story. And Dojima thought it was an alien."
"Your friend isn't wrong," Kagome said. "The jewel is made of souls, so it's sort of alive. You could call it an alien if you wanted."
Robin had long since stopped questioning magical ideas. It just wasn't worth it. So it didn't seem strange that Karasuma was doing the same for now.
"This'll go straight to her head," Karasuma complained.
"Who says you have to tell her?" Inuyasha snickered.
"We can handle our own," Amon said smoothly.
Inuyasha scowled slightly and leaned forward again, sniffing.
"Ya'know, you smell really familiar," he said.
Amon sat back a little, enough for Kagome to notice. She reached up and pulled Inuyasha backwards, forcing him to give up sniffing.
"Do you have some disorder that keeps you from being polite to people?" she asked, glaring up at her partner.
"He must have it too," Karasuma said calmly, glancing at Amon.
Amon turned and fixed his eyes on her. Robin leaned out from his other side to give her a worried look. Karasuma looked from one to the other and then turned away from them.
"Well, it's true," she said simply, crossing her arms.
Inuyasha began to scent the air again, his nose twitching wildly.
"You do smell like demons," he said. "I smelled it last night and the night before."
"But you can see they're human," Kagome said.
"My nose says different," Inuyasha growled.
Robin hated to interrupt, but replaying her memories of the night before suggested a compelling question.
"You're a half demon," she said, looking up at Inuyasha. "Is that why my craft didn't affect you?"
"That ain't it," he replied with a side-long look.
"It's his coat," Kagome continued for him. "It's made of Fire-Rat hair, so it's magically fire-proof."
"But there's no such thing as fire-rats. They're a myth," Karasuma said, confused.
"Maybe now they're a myth, but in the Feudal Era there were fire-rats and all kinds of…" Kagome stopped suddenly and shut her mouth. She hadn't meant to mention the Feudal Era at all.
"All kinds of what?" Amon prompted her, suddenly more interested.
"Demons," she finished.
"And apparently we all smell like them," Karasuma said half joking.
"Not you so much, but them definitely," Inuyasha said, tossing his head towards Amon and Robin.
"But I'm not a demon," Robin protested, knowing it was only a half truth.
"And what about you?" Inuyasha asked Amon directly.
Amon looked away and said nothing.
"Didn't we figure out the other night that they were part demon?" Kagome thought out loud.
Robin's mood darkened as she remembered her father's theory on witch evolution. "Demons could have been the 'gods' that became witches…" she said, gazing down at the carpet.
"By crossbreeding with humans," Kagome finished, looking up at Inuyasha. He looked back at her for a second and then turned away, frowning.
"That would explain a lot," Karasuma said.
"It doesn't matter what they are," Amon said coldly.
Everyone else stared at him for a moment. He made no excuse, only stared off into space.