IV

Nihil Sciunt

What Kouga finds when he arrives among the humans pleases him. The people cower away from him and his presence, and only the old miko whom he has need of stands to confront him, her right hand on a staff of knotted wood.

"Miko – this woman is wounded. You will heal her."

With his stunning request, Kouga holds out the girl in his arms like an offering, so that the bloody bandage that wraps around her midsection is visible. He sees the miko taking in the strangeness of the clothes, the shoes, the hair – and he sees the moment when she recognizes the power that is streaming from him and from the girl both.

He does not know how she recognizes it, but she does – she breathes the words and they flow over the girl to his ears.

"Shikon no tama..."
But then her eyes are drawn back to the blood, the stain still spreading, growing, darkening, and she beckons him forward and turns slowly, leaning on her cane.

"I am Kaede, the miko of this village. Edo is peaceful, and if you mean us no harm, then I see no reason not to help you. The girl – she is human. A miko..."

"Yes."

Kouga does not offer his name in return, nor the name of the woman, which he does not know. He is contemplating what the old woman said; the girl in his arms, a miko...it makes sense. But he speaks nothing further than that single word, only follows Kaede down the dusty path to her own house and then inside.

"Put her down by the fire, and take away that bandage; the wound will need cleaning, and I have questions, if you don't mind -"

"I've got no intention of answering you."

Kouga shuts his eyes and sits on the floor beside the woman, leans back on one hand and flexes the other, feeling the power running through him, sharp, intense, just waiting to be used.

Kaede stands very still for just a moment, watching him, and then turns to her task. What she sees sets her heart pounding, enough so that she must steady herself before she continues. It is not the wound that distresses her, though it is certainly a painful and dangerous injury – no, it is not that. She has seen worse in her time; she has seen death face to face on many occasions, and this is not nearly so bad...

But the features of this girl -

The face of this girl is a face she has seen before.

It is the face of her sister, Kikyou, dead now for fifty years...dead with the jewel whose presence now sparkles across her awareness.

Her eye wanders to the youkai again, for whom she has no name and only his appearance to judge. Wolf, she thinks, Ookami, but other than that she knows nothing.

She knows, though, looking at the girl she is tending, peering at her face while she heats water to wash the wound, that this is not her sister. The facial identity is so exact it is frightening, but the lines of forehead and cheeks are not precisely the same, and the strange glow of her hair stands out distinctly, nothing like Kikyou's smooth black locks. This girl – whoever she is, she has lived a happier life than was Kikyou's lot, but still – relaxed in unconsciousness she is the twin of Kaede's sister as she lay in death.

Should I say something to the Wolf?

But uncertainty stays her voice, and the compelling nature of the truth. Whoever she is, the girl is not Kikyou. Whoever she is, she deserves her own chance at life without the ghosts of the past stalking her every footstep.

A/N: Here we are, today's chapter and all back on schedule! To the reader who worries - fear not! Kagome is Kagome; the fact that she has weird hair will not bestow on her the power of nine gods or the glorious queenship of all youkai or anything. It's just...weird hair. We'll find out why, exactly, it happened later! I thought I should address this because I figured that might be a question of more than one reader - and I'd hate people to be afraid she's going to become a Mary Sue! Kagome treads that boundary close enough as it is...
Now! Today's chapter title, Nihil Sciunt, translates to "they know nothing"; until tomorrow!
Please Review!