Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters mentioned within who are of any worth. Apart from incidentals, they are all property of Rumiko Takahashi. The chapter titles are the names of songs from the Inuyasha OSTs. 'Youen', meaning 'Fascination', is from the first.

Kaze no Rei – The Wind's Soul.

Chapter I: Youen.

There is a girl in a room. The room is large, about twenty feet across, and plain. The walls are oak-panelled, and the floor covered in Tatami mats. The sliding doors at one end are made from paper, framed and crosshatched with balsa strips. They are closed.

The girl is of average height, pitch-black hair held up in a high ponytail, and decorated with feathers. Her ears are pointed, framed by the hair, and bearing earrings crafted each from three glass beads, blade-like obsidian carvings hanging from the third bead. Her irises are crimson, and her pupils nonexistent. There is fierceness in her eyes, but it is subdued and tinged with sadness now.

Her hands are clasped beneath her chin, a folded fan held there, the wide top of the wooden slats that make up the ends concealing her rouged lips. She extends her left hand with the fan held within it, and turns her wrist, allowing the fan to fall open. She moves her hand out to the side, turning her wrist again as she does so to hold the fan open horizontally. She pushes her right hand forward now, extending out in front. She remains there for a moment, arms at right angles, before bringing the fan around to flutter in front of her face and bending her knees slightly to dip her body down. From there, she begins to turn, moving her arms around her in windmill patterns, a slow, whirling dance of spinning motions and perfect balance. It is beautiful to watch, this Art of the dance, and as the Watcher finally pushes open the door, alerting the dancer to his presence, even he manages to feel a pang of regret at the abrupt cessation of motion and stiff, resentful bow. Still, that regret vanishes under the weight of the mirth that the Dancer's resentment offered him – especially considering her origins. Smirking slightly, the watcher steps into the room.
"Kagura. I have another task for you." And the crimson eyes rise again, meeting cruel teal, and burning with secret hatred. My crimson eyes.

Nazuna grunted with effort as she put the final basket down, and wiped her brow of sweat. The village had been good to her, but still, it was hard work. Not that she'd ever think of complaining – she knew what it was truly like to be used, and this felt like vindication rather than a chore. She was earning her keep, and no one would suffer for it. Smiling to herself, she headed over to the small hut her guardians lived in, and lifted the flap. The couple were elderly, but still hard working, orchard keepers for the local lord. Their pears and cherries were certainly the pride of the prefecture, and Nazuna was happy to be their legacy. They had no children of their own, but had treated her as though she was blood kin.
"I'm done!" she smiled at the old woman, who smiled back in thanks.
"Thank you, Nazuna. You're too good to my poor husband… you must be tired, though. Please, have some tea and rest a while." The old woman gave her no chance to reply, simply filling a rough earthenware cup with tea from the pot over the fire. Nazuna looked like she wanted to object, but shrugged to herself and accepted the tea, sitting across the fire from her guardian. "When my husband returns, we would like to speak to you about something."
"Oh... have I done something wrong?" Nazuna worried. She was constantly second-guessing herself, ever since the priest had… no, she decided she would never dwell in the past again.
"No, it is not that… we will explain when my husband returns." After that, there was no persuading the old woman. Nazuna couldn't help but smile to herself as she realised that, in her own way, this orchard-keeper's wife was as stubborn as the Hanyou who had saved her life.

In time, the husband returned, looking tired and weather-beaten as always. He smiled at his wife and adoptive daughter, and stepped out of his sandals, sinking stiffly to kneel before the fire. Gratefully, he accepted a cup of tea from his wife, who then set to serving rice into bowls. Nazuna fidgeted as they ate, impatient to know what the couple wished to talk to her about. Despite the old lady's assurances, she couldn't help but worry that it had been some failing on her part. She went over the past few weeks in her mind, trying to find faults.
"Nazuna." The old man's voice broke into her thoughts, and she started from her reverie as though woken from a light sleep. "I can see that my wife has told you that I wish to speak to you… do not look so nervous! I am far too old to take your mistakes out of your hide." A glint in the old man's eye showed that he was joking, and Nazuna couldn't help but smile at the image. "No, though it is, perhaps, a sad subject, you have nothing to worry about. It is simply that soon, it will be time for us to pass on. We are old, Nazuna. I have seen almost fifty harvests…" his face crinkled in a smile, age-pale eyes showing fondness. "And it is time that I made my formal will… this land belongs to Lord Shira, and he has granted me rights of tenancy. Now… I am passing those rights on to you, Nazuna." He lapsed into silence, mulling over something and staring into his tea. For her part, Nazuna was speechless. She had grown to love the old couple over the months she had lived with them, but she did not feel that she had earned this, even with all her hard work collecting the early-falling pears. Moreover, she did not feel that she had the skills such a position would require.
"We are not gone yet, Nazuna. We still have some breath in us to finish teaching what you will need to know…" The old woman's voice interrupted her panicked mind, calming her as seemingly only the old woman could.
"This is just a provision for the future… in the morning, we will go to visit Lord Shira to make it official. Unless… you do not want this, Nazuna?" The old man's voice turned slightly querulous at the end, wavering with uncertainty as he realised they had not thought of her desires in this plan.
"I… No, I do... It's just so sudden. I've only been here with you a few months, and…"
"And you have become more than a daughter to us, Nazuna. You are my apprentice as well, that was the agreement when you came here… we would care for you, and you would train in this art of mine…"
"Yes… It was. I'll accept this, if it is your wish for it to happen now." Nazuna steeled herself, as though she already felt the weight of responsibility settling on her shoulders. She had found this destiny on her own, and she would face it with open arms. After all… it was what she wanted. A stable, secure, normal life without Youkai and chaos.

I humphed to myself, leaning on the doorframe, concealed by the hanging mat that formed the hut's door.
'What's so special about her?' I thought. 'This nothing of a human girl, why should Naraku be bothered with her?' Lately, the bastard had been more and more obsessed with destroying Inuyasha and his Ikkou. Maybe this girl knew their weaknesses or something… well, what Naraku wanted, Naraku got, whatever the collateral damage. Privately, I hated that, but I'd never dare admit anything of the sort. 'The oldsters will have to die, of course. No getting around that…' I hoped the girl wouldn't fight. I like a good scrap as much as the next Youkai, but this was business, and I refused to let myself enjoy doing his work. Silently, I came to a decision, and ducked around the side of the house as the flap opens.
"Hmm..? No-one's here…" Nazuna frowned to herself, looking around. "I could have sworn I heard something…" she turned around to head back inside, and was about to lift the flap when someone grabbed her from behind, clamping a hand over her mouth and pinning her arms behind her. A female voice hissed in her ear, sultry and condescending.
"Don't make a sound, girl. If you bring them out here, I'll kill them both." Nazuna froze, instantly. She wouldn't be the cause of more deaths. "That's good… I'm afraid you'll have to come with me now. Who knows, maybe if you're lucky you'll come back to take over this pathetic plot of land." Nazuna's eyes widened slightly as she realised that the woman – whoever she was – must have been near the house for over two hours. Why hadn't she done anything before now?
I relaxed my hand from the girl's mouth, and was rewarded by the girl's promised silence. I wouldn't kill the oldsters unless I had to, I realised. Naraku hated loose ends, and, in a way it'd be one in his eye. I turned my eyes back to my hostage. She was slightly taller than me, her black hair gathered at the nape of her neck by a cloth tied in a bow. She wore a tunic, belted at the waist, so that the bottom half fell down to mid thigh as a kind of skirt. When I saw her earlier she wore cloth bracers about her legs below the knee that stopped just above her ankles. Sandals protected her feet, though they lacked the thick wooden blocks that characterised most farmers' shoes. Blinking away my thoughts, I briefly wondered why I was paying so much attention to her appearance. Mentally shrugging, I reached back into my hair and pulled out a feather. Casting it into the air, I felt the familiar rush of power as it transformed, and hoisted the girl onto it in front of me, willing it to rise up and take us away from that place. I decided that I wouldn't tell the girl that a Saimyoushou cleanup squad would probably kill her grandparents, or whoever they were. I could have made a cleaner job of it, but the opportunity to wreak havoc may counter weigh Naraku's anger at my tardiness. Even I couldn't resist watching their happy family, like some jealous mortal. Even though He would be angry… I found, to my surprise, that I felt something for this girl… perhaps pity? I couldn't tell, it was alien to me. I shook off the feeling as useless – why pity her, when I would suffer for my lateness?
End C1