The sound of the device was worse than anything he'd ever heard before. He felt as if something had crawled inside his punctured ears and rested there, ringing. The smell of it hit him soon after: it was abrasive and suffocating. Inuyasha had stopped moving and was staring at the female. She was sweaty and shivering, eyes wide in shock. Inuyasha's gaze fell on the item in her hand, then shifted to a tree not a foot to Sesshomaru's right. There was a hole, about the width of his finger, straight through its sturdy trunk.

Sesshomaru followed Inuyasha's eyes to the tree, then back to the girl. He picked out her different clothing, her odd scent, and her strangely coloured hair. He noted the weapon in her white-knuckled grip, still leaking gray puffs of smoke. In the blink of an eye he dropped Tensaiga, snatched Tetsusaiga from Inuyasha's slack hand, bounded towards Kagome, grabbed her roughly by an arm, and flew away in a streak of smooth hair and flowing fabric. Inuyasha cried out and chased them, but his ankle soon gave out and he was left a bloody heap on the meadow's floor. Miroku and Sango ran to his aid. Kagome held tight to the gun in her hand as Sesshomaru maneuvered her to his front and crushed her against his chest. He allowed a small smile to tug at his lips. He had won.

Kagome was more frightened than she'd ever been in her life. Attempting to shoot Sesshomaru wasn't the smartest thing she'd ever done. A month before she'd managed to attain a handgun--'just in case'. Years of sleeping in the Feudal Era had instilled in her anxieties that nothing could alleviate. She'd started waking up in damp, tangled sheets with screams dying in her throat. She'd taken to storing the gun in her backpack--more for emotional security than practical use. After using up all of her arrows missing their blurred forms she ran a kilometer to their abandoned campsite to fetch the firearm. Determined to do something she'd taken one of the biggest risks of her life. Too bad she missed.

Sesshomaru betrayed none of his thoughts. His grip was impersonal. The moon's streaky shadows flowed across his still features. His narrowed eyes were following on the route before them. Below them sat a straight nose and a tightly clenched jaw. His hair rippled in the wind like a white river, trailing a silvery stream behind their path.

Kagome shivered. The wind hitting them was cold, crisp autumn air, on its way to winter. All traces of the sun had disappeared. It seemed that the stars were the only steady things in her view; fields dotted with strips of forests rolled under their feet.

"Where are we going?" She ventured to ask.

He didn't answer; instead he landed abruptly. He still held her tightly to his amour. Kagome stiffened—the top of her head was touching his chin. He was going to kill her. He stood still for a moment, perhaps to intimidate her, and then removed his arm from across her body. He held her by the shoulder and stepped back a pace.

Cold eyes surveyed her form before settling on the gun still in her grip. Before she could cock the trigger it was ripped out her hands.

"Do not move." He ordered. Kagome nodded jerkily.

Sesshomaru imitated Kagome's earlier stance with the gun, aiming it straight at the girl. The crickets sang in between her crooked breaths.

'I don't want to die.' She'd faced death countless times before, yet every time the same feelings washed over her. A hot swell of longing rose in her chest. She wanted to hear birds singing, sadly and sweetly. She wanted to feel a sunrise warm her naked body. She wanted to hold a grandchild. She wanted all of life, and now it was too late. Perhaps she was just selfish.

Sesshomaru awkwardly pulled the trigger. Nothing happened; he hadn't cocked the pistol.

Kagome started crying. Ugly, raspy sobs leaked from her little body as she broke down before her executioner. 'Inuyasha, I'm sorry.' Without her he'd have to appeal to Kikyo to find the shards. And momma, maybe she'd never get the news and would spend eternity waiting for her daughter to come back home. Kagome's mind filtered through all the consequences of her impending death, and she grew even more upset. Her eyes darted around the little clearing for an escape route. Black fuzz started creeping around the borders of her vision; she felt would faint soon. In a moment of desperation she concentrated on her miko powers, picturing a pile of white chalk dust where Sesshomaru stood, staring. Her energy didn't bound to her rescue this time. For a second she wished that she'd spent a few years training with Kaede instead of being the impulsive girl that she was.

Sesshomaru calmly tucked the weapon into one of the folds of his clothing. His robes billowed around him in the breeze like haunting, white silk arms reaching for her frightened form. Once again, he looked at her. His eyes trailed from her red-streaked hair, to her puffy eyes, to her small frame clad in a sweater and jeans. Kagome braced for death.

"Name." His tone dripped authority.

Kagome blinked and struggled to compose herself. "Higurashi, Kagome."

"Race?"

Kagome tucked her hair behind an ear, a nervous habit. She sniffled loudly. "Um…"

Sesshomaru impatiently shifted his feet. It was a small movement, but seemed powerful in comparison to his usual frozen demeanor. "Human?" He asked.

She bit her lip, and was just about to answer, "Or course" when he flashed in and out of space and she felt a sting on her check. A drop of blood rolled lazily down her tanned skin. Sesshomaru set his eyes on the shallow wound for a few seconds as he made a show of wiping the minute amount of blood off of his claws.

"Human, then. Origin?"

Her mind was drawing blanks. She clenched her hands into fists, angry at feeling incompetent in front of the Youkai. "I don't come from around here."

He stepped heavily towards her, reached out a long arm, and elegantly grasped a handful of her hair. "Your hair is odd. Why?"

Kagome swallowed awkwardly and mustered up her courage. "Why do you want to know?"

"I am curious." Sesshomaru stated without pause.

"Oh." She hadn't been expecting that. "I… um… dyed it."

He withdrew his hand abruptly. "You killed it?"

Kagome would have giggled had she not been terrified of the creature before her. "Where I come from, people mix chemicals together. We put the chemicals on our hair for a while, and then take them off. The chemicals—while they're on the hairs—they change the colour."

"Where do you come from?"

He is curious, Kagome thought. "Far."

Sesshomaru shifted again. "I didn't ask how far, human. I asked where. Or are you too stupid to understand my question?"

"I am NOT stupid! I'm from Tokyo."

Sesshomaru withdrew the gun, and then roughly seized her upper arm. "You will take me to Tokyo," He whispered. "You will explain this-" he waved the gun in front of her, "And I may not kill you. North or South?"

Kagome shrunk back from him, quite ineffectively. She turned her face towards the stars and judged the necessary direction. "North."

He leapt away, dragging her in his wake.


The well sat there arrogantly.

'Stupid well.'

It lay still. 'Probably playing innocent, the jerk.'

Sesshomaru tugged her arm roughly. She was going to develop bruises, yet a large part of her was aware that he was being gentle. His claws weren't puncturing her skin, and all of her bones were still intact. He'd deliberately kept her alive.

A bird chirped in a nearby tree, joined soon by others to form a pre-dawn chorus. She had tried every delay tactic in the book to keep him occupied while she attempted to form a coherent escape plan. Nothing yet. And now, after pretending to be lost numerous times, she'd run out of ideas. Maybe the threat of death gripping her numb appendage had something to do with it.

"It's… um… down the well."

She feel see him calculating how honest she was being. The rickety, vine-coated structure didn't seem like a realistic place to hide a city.

"If it is not, you will die." He stated matter-of-factly. That was what unnerved her about him: he was so calculated. He was farther from human that she'd thought possible. She knew that he'd have no guilt about killing her. He'd probably sigh in boredom, and then gracefully wipe her unworthy blood off of his porcelain claws.

"You just go down and you end up in Tokyo."

He marched—glided, more like---towards the well. He seemed to move slowly; perhaps in order to allow her time to change her mind. As her feet stomped overtop compact dirt she was struck with inspiration. 'The well will not let him through. Only I will go…' She could escape this alive, if only she jumped down first. She waited until they arrived at the rim. Then, as he stared critically into the abyss, she glanced over his shoulder, widened her eyes, and belted out convincingly: "Inuyasha!"

Sesshomaru twirled around and, just for a moment, relinquished his grip. Kagome had barely enough time to throw herself headfirst down the black hole's throat. By the time Sesshomaru realized her trick the well had swallowed her whole.

Without hesitation he perched like a bird on the lip and hopped into the darkness.


Kagome opened her eyes and saw an aged wooden ladder. It had never looked so beautiful. She applauded her cleverness and let out the breath she'd been holding for the past few hours. She craved a shower and a good cry on her mother's shoulder, but above all she wanted to crawl in between bedcovers and sleep off her emotions. Her whole ordeal hardly seemed real. She hastily yanked off her sweater to reveal bruises spanning the entire length of her arm. She lightly touched a half-formed hand mark, pale purple in the dim light. She shivered, suddenly cold.

YOUKAI

The aura of a strong demon barreled into her without warning. She stiffened against a warm body behind her. A large, white hand rose in front of her vision before delicately tracing spider-webbed veins on a particularly nasty mark.

"Hello, Higurashi."

His tone of voice was no longer measured. He let down his guard, and he was mad.

His claw pierced her skin. She bit down on her tongue, forcing herself not to cry out at the shallow gash. He suddenly withdrew his hand and stepped back.

"I smell…" He trailed off, perplexed. It was an odd expression on such a confident creature. "I smell smoke. Sick smoke… like a tainted fire." He was talking more to himself than to her. "Humans. Hundreds…" He fixed his intense stare onto Kagome's quivering body. She smiled weakly.

"Welcome to Tokyo."

Sesshomaru's robes brushed against her in the darkness. "Show me this land."

Kagome's breath hitched. "Um…" God, what now? Sesshomaru. In Tokyo.

Some things just didn't mix well together.

"Show me, Higurashi."

"Do you think I could sleep, Sesshomaru? Sir? Mr—"

"—Sesshomaru."

"Okay. Sesshomaru, I have a lot to explain. But…" She was so weary of humoring the Youkai. She just wanted a clear head to evaluate the situation. She wondered if she should continue to appease him. She'd tried to physically run away a few hours before. That didn't work. She'd even attacked him with her bare fists in a moment of desperation. That really hadn't worked. What could she do? Her powers had such a long way to go…

"But?" He clipped.

For a being that was borderline immortal he was very impatient with certain things. Kagome felt around blindly for her sweater. "But can I sleep first? Humans are frail, you know." Her sweater was shoved into her arms. A pair of yellow eyes glowed in the darkness.

"Your functioning is impaired?"

She straightened out her shirt and grasped a wooden rung. "Yes."

Now that she was home she felt some of her confidence filled her. "I'm sore, and really tired. If I don't sleep I'll get sick and you won't have anyone to explain this world to you." Her stomach rolled over as Sesshomaru lifted her to his chest. He bolted out of the well and through the shrine door, and then set her down gently on the grass.

"World?"

"There's a lot to tell…" Kagome started the hike to her house. She felt slightly secure with the knowledge that he needed her to fulfill his curiosity. All the panic, tears, and anger had taken their toll on her. She was bordering on 'so-tired-I-don't-care' mode.

Sesshomaru trailed after her shadow like a ghost, breathing hot air down her neck. It was nearly sunrise: she could see a thin strip red light painted onto the bottom of clouds suspended near the horizon. Souta would wake up for school in a few hours. 'What is Inuyasha doing?'

"You will explain this world to me."

Kagome opened the front door. Familiar smells greeted her, and she nearly laughed in relief. She was home. She was safe. Sesshomaru lingered on the doorstep, waiting. "You will sleep." He commanded. "Then you will show me this place. You will explain the well and the weapon, and answer any other questions I have."

Kagome briefly wondered if he would kill her tomorrow. It seemed too far away to worry about; too surreal to contemplate. Sesshomaru was staring into the dwelling.

Politeness triumphed over common-sense. Kagome motioned to her home. "You can come in, if you'd like."

Sesshomaru blandly announced, "I will stay here for you."

Kagome bit her lip, unsure of how to breach the subject. "This place is very different from where you come from. Can you wait until I talk to you before you explore?"

"Do you think me impatient?"

Kagome forced herself not to reply to his rhetorical question. "I will be out before noon."

Sesshomaru's eyes never left her until she shut the door. Even long after she departed he stared at house; either deep in thought, or not thinking at all. By the time golden beams leveled off and illuminated his form, he was seated calmly beneath a tree, waiting.