A/N: Soooo…yeah…college is crap. This semester promises to be very taxing on the limits of my patience and sanity. We'll see if I survive. Anyway, here's chapter four, a little later than I would have liked, but here all the same. Enjoy.


Disclaimer: I wish….
Words To Know:

shoiko: a square or rectangular wooden frame for carrying things on one's back; once it's been introduced, I'll be calling it "a pack," just in the interests of making my life easier

sando-gasa: a hat made of sedge, which is a family of plants found especially in marshy areas and usually having solid stems (basically, anyway)

kappa: a kind of cape

tabi: split-toe socks

zori: straw sandals; think feudal era flip-flops

Dokkasou: Toxic Flower Claw; Fluffy-sama's poison attack of choice

hai: yes

arigatou: thanks; the casual/informal form of "doumo arigatou gozaimasu," meaning thank you very much


Chapter Four: Unholy Alliance

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I catch a brief reflection,

Of what you could and might have been:

It's your right and your ability,

To become…my perfect enemy…

"Passive"/ A Perfect Circle

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Fate had a demented sense of humor.

It was the only explanation Kagome had for the most recent turn of events—namely, her unasked for journey with her equally unasked for companion.

She supposed it was her own fault; she had been so shocked by his answer to her question that she had neglected to ask any more. She sat in front of him stupidly, and watched him as he sat there in the semi-darkness of the corner, eyes shut and head back, against the wall. She'd been too stunned to react when Mine had come into the hut and fussed over her, concerned by the strangeness of her posture and her seeming inability to communicate. It was a first, and what was more, it was also intensely ironic: a man—demon—who hardly ever said more than ten words had rendered her, a chatterer by nature, completely and utterly speechless.

The older woman had fed her and insisted that she go to sleep. She had been more timid in regards to Sesshoumaru; Kagome had watched the woman place a bowl of rice and another of noodles, vegetables and meat, along with a pair of chopsticks, four feet away from the demon lord, the closest she dared venture near him. Kagome never saw him move toward the food, but when she awakened the next morning, the bowls were empty, the chopsticks laying next to them neatly. As for the demon, he was no longer in the corner.

Kagome sat up, still in a fog. She was almost glad that Sesshoumaru had told her of his reason for coming to Edo—it prevented her from thinking any more on the subject of Inuyasha, had helped that numb feeling seep back into her body, and she clung to that feeling desperately, wrapping it around her like a tattered cloak.

Mine had then come in, looking harried. She'd hastily dished up Kagome's breakfast, then disappeared into a small back room that Kagome hadn't noticed before. She ate slowly, feeling detached from this world she was in. It wasn't the same feeling she'd had the first day, that feeling of being outside of her body, watching herself. This was more akin to being insulated, as if she were sitting in her own private bubble, separated from what was going on around her.

Mine had come back out, holding a bow and a quiver stocked with arrows. She also held a shoiko already stocked with a rolled up blanket and a bamboo box, and there was a bamboo pipe hanging from it as well, the feudal era's equivalent of a water bottle. She set the shoiko down and went back into the back room, to return a few moments later with a sando-gasa and kappa in hand and, Kagome noticed absently, a white haori and pair of red hakama folded over her left arm. The older woman stopped before her and knelt, setting the items down. Kagome, unconcerned, continued eating.

"Kagome-sama?" Mine asked hesitantly.

She looked up, chewing. The older woman gnawed on her bottom lip, then sighed in frustration, wringing her hands.

"These are for you," she said finally. A pause. "The youkai says you are to change into these robes here after you eat."

Kagome swallowed and sent her a vacant smile. "Uh-huh," she replied hollowly.

Mine sighed, but settled down next to Kagome and waited for her to finish eating, watching the young woman sadly. Kagome had wondered—somewhere in the back of her mind—why Mine looked so unhappy. But she was too comfortably numb to inquire as to the cause of the woman's distress.

She finished, and Mine set the bowl aside and picked up the white haori and red hakama, along with a pair of white tabi Kagome hadn't noticed before. She set them before Kagome, smoothing out the wrinkles, then glanced up the young woman.

"Kagome-sama, these are yours, to keep," she said slowly. "The youkai wishes for you to change into them." She watched the vacant eyes. "Do you understand?"

Kagome didn't answer, didn't want to shatter her little bubble. Mine sighed, then rose slowly, as if feeling far older than she looked.

Fifteen minutes later, Mine led Kagome, now in the traditional miko's garb and borrowed zori, out of her hut. She held the bow; the quiver had been slung over Kagome's shoulder. The shoiko had been strapped to her back, after having been packed with some foodstuffs, the pajamas she'd arrived in, and the old dark blue haori and hakama that Mine had dressed her in after she'd come back from Inuyasha's grave. The kappa and sendo-gasa had also been strapped onto the shoiko, as Kagome hadn't seemed to want to wear either of them, and Mine was too anxious about keeping Sesshoumaru waiting to argue. They walked through Edo, which was curiously deserted. If Kagome had bothered to take note of this unusual occurrence and question Mine about it, she would have learned that Sesshoumaru's presence had scared everyone into hiding. But she didn't notice, so she didn't ask.

They walked to the edge of Edo, toward Goshinboku. Sesshoumaru stood under the great old tree's reaching branches, hands in his voluminous kimono sleeves, face raised to the sky, eyes closed. Mine's stride shortened considerably the closer they got to the demon lord. Mine stopped four feet away from him. There was a moment of lengthy silence. Kagome was staring at Goshinboku as if she'd never seen it before; Mine was staring at the demon.

Sesshoumaru's eyes opened and he lowered his face, looked down at the elder miko from his superior height, then looked at Kagome. She felt someone looking at her, and her eyes sought out the source. Her empty gaze met his.

"She is dressed as you requested, youkai-sama," Mine murmured, swallowing audibly.

Sesshoumaru's eyes flickered to her. Mine took a step back.

"You…will take care of her, youkai-sama? She has been dealt a difficult blow," Mine inquired softly, squeezing Kagome's hand.

Sesshoumaru's eyes once again went to Kagome, who had never looked away from him.

"She is now my concern," he said, voice cold.

Mine's grip on Kagome's hand tightened, then relaxed. She turned to the young woman, brought up the hand she held and transferred the bow into it before letting it go. Kagome stared into the miko's sad, kind face. The older woman placed her hands on Kagome's cheeks and searched her face for anything, then sighed.

"Gods protect you, Kagome-sama," she murmured, then hugged Kagome tightly before letting go and stepping back.

Kagome stared at her, then heard a sound behind her and turned to find Sesshoumaru disappearing into Inuyasha Forest. She looked back to Mine, who nodded. So Kagome had turned and followed in Sesshoumaru's wake, never looking around to see Goshinboku or the miko who had tended her so gently. Now she wished she had.

The bubble hadn't lasted long. Slowly, as the morning had progressed, Kagome found that travel had the disadvantage of forcing her into acknowledging her surroundings; it was that, or fall flat on her face, and her first contact with the ground had very nearly shattered her kneecaps in addition to her illusions.

She had tripped over something and fallen forward. For several seconds, she lay there, a little startled to find herself outside. She had a vague memory of Mine standing by Goshinboku. She rolled onto her side and looked at the forest around her, forehead wrinkling into a frown of confusion.

Where am I? she wondered. She felt the cold pull of youki close by and shuddered. Do I really want to know?

Slowly, Kagome sat up and rubbed her knees; she'd landed on them quite hard when she'd fallen. She also automatically checked her bow, made sure it was still in one piece. She did a double take, though, when she realized she had a bow—she didn't remember having one with her when she'd arrived in Sengoku Jidai. She looked it over curiously. It looked very much like her old one, except that this one had been polished to a high shine by years of use. The wood was black and the string was strong and tight. It was a good bow, a well-built one…and Kagome had no memory of how she had acquired it.

She looked around and couldn't, for the life of her, figure out where in the hell she was. All she knew was that she had, for some reason, entered a forest…somewhere. She let out a huff and struggled to her feet, rubbing her knees again as she rose, and looked around. She didn't hear anything, but the pull of youki was closer, more insistent than it had been. Ten years of absence hadn't dulled two years of training: she automatically reached over her shoulder, into the quiver, and brought forth an arrow, which she smoothly nocked. Then, she focused on the youki and tried to pinpoint it. In this, she was less successful, never having the skill, or the time necessary to train herself to acquire it.

She managed to locate the youki a second before its owner appeared: Sesshoumaru materialized from the shadowy depths of the forest, looking very displeased. Kagome replaced her arrow in the quiver, morosely wondering why he was here and why she had a feeling that her being in the forest was directly tied to his being in the forest.

"Miko," he said, voice sounding calm if more than a little irritated, "I do not intend to come back for you every time you fall behind."

"All right," she agreed, hoping he'd give her some sense of where they were heading—because it seemed she was traveling with him. For some reason.

Instead, he turned around and went back the way he'd come, and Kagome, after staring at his retreating figure, sighed and thought to herself,

Right. Because I expected normal conversation with an up-tight youkai lord. I must be on drugs.

Sesshoumaru listened to the miko struggle along behind him, noisily following as best she could. And thought for the thousandth time that Fate's sense of humor was wretched.

Not only had he been reduced to seeking the help of a human—a miko, no less!—the human had to be his half-brother's annoying bitch. The gods, he decided, would pay for this indignity. Never mind that they were supernatural beings—not even a deity could force Sesshoumaru to forsake his pride with impunity.

For some time now—the last eight years, really—Sesshoumaru had been locked in battle with a foe almost as elusive as Naraku had been. He still had no idea what the hell he was up against, in fact; he'd never even seen it, had only felt its youki, and that demonic energy had dripped of power.

Its damn minions, however, were a different story. These, he had seen and dealt with many times; they were actually leading armies of enslaved youkai against him, and he had lowered himself two years ago and gone to the other three lords to ask for their collaboration when it had dawned on him that no matter how much power he had, the minions were too many and always coming.

The lords had flatly refused him, an act of betrayal that had stunned and infuriated him, and merely proved what he'd always thought of them: they were worthless, lazy bastards. He told them so. Then, he slaughtered the Lord of the Northern Lands, whom he'd always found particularly offensive. He'd left, dark blood dripping from his claws and hate alive in every fiber of his body. The last he'd heard of the lords, the entity Sesshoumaru was fighting had absorbed the two left living. At the time, he'd been almost jovial upon receiving the news. That murderous glee had quickly sobered when further intelligence revealed that the entity hadn't just absorbed the lords but their powers as well. And while they had nothing on him, they had been the lords of their respective lands for a reason.

Those youkai who had refused to join the whatever it was had either been killed or fled to parts unknown. The entire youkai world had been thrown into chaos—and he was the lone hold-out. It was an impossible situation, even for him. It didn't help that Sesshoumaru had never been shy about expressing his general disdain for everyone. He was furious that these unworthy scum he so despised should be joining ranks against him—and winning.

He had succeeded in keeping the House of the Moon from falling into the hands of his unknown enemy, but the triumph had been narrow. For the first time in his life, he was learning what desperation was, and he had not taken kindly to the feeling; half of his forest land was gone, cleared by the lord of the realm personally, after an especially difficult win. The miko was his last and only chance at defeating…whatever the hell it was—the grieving, untrained miko who was tripping her way through the forest behind him.

Yes, he thought, seething, the gods will pay for this.

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"I'm stopping!" Kagome yelled.

There was no response.

Kagome scowled at the rapidly disappearing demon's back, then plopped down in the middle of the road, landing hard on her backside. She was too exhausted to care.

She had never been so tired, had never been so miserable, had never entertained so many different ways of torturing anyone, in her entire life. And yet, he…kept…walking. As if he never meant to stop. As if he meant to walk on forever and ever, and expected her to follow along as best she could—now who was on drugs?

Kagome sighed, removed her right zori and tabi and rubbed her foot. It was sore and several blisters had begun to bloom.

Great, she thought sourly, now I'll never catch up to him. She snorted. As if I wanted to.

Irritation was good. It kept her going and it kept her occupied with other things. She was hiding from her misery again. It wasn't completely forgotten; her heart felt like a lead weight in her chest, and she doubted it would ever feel whole again. But she was spared from dwelling on it by having a distraction: feeling coerced by Sesshoumaru.

She still didn't know why she was following him, except that she knew she'd never be able to make it back to Edo by herself or else she'd have left hours ago. She was really starting to wish she hadn't been so submissive, too. Sesshoumaru had never sought her out for anything, unless it had something to do with killing her or Inuyasha or both. Other than that, the demon lord had seen fit not to waste his time with the likes of their little rag-tag group. She wished he'd seen fit to leave her in Edo, wished he'd deemed her useless for whatever he had cooking. It was the one time in her life when she wouldn't have minded being thought of as lacking. My, how times had changed.

She sighed. She should have begged Mine to purify Sesshoumaru for her. That way, she could have stayed by Goshinboku and Inuyasha. She wouldn't have objected to dismal sorrow for the rest of her life, mourning over Inuyasha's grave until she withered away into a shell of her former self. Like Kikyou. The idea of being at all like the ill-fated priestess was uncomfortable, though. They already shared a remarkably similar countenance—did she really want to share an eerily similar fate? Did she really want to have to share Inuyasha with her predecessor…again?

She felt Sesshoumaru's youki approaching and ignored it, rubbing her foot and moodily contemplating the ground before her. That was why she failed to note the speed with which the demon was approaching. The next thing she knew, Sesshoumaru landed next to her, having clearly come from above, and grabbed her by the hair. He jerked her to her feet and began walking, and Kagome, startled and outraged, fell to her knees. Sesshoumaru didn't halt. And being dragged by the hair by a demon spun her into a totally new dimension of pissed that she'd never known existed.

So she whacked his armor at precisely the exact moment that her holy ki burst to life. Which she hadn't planned. But, as far as coincidences went, it was fine by her.

Sesshoumaru was felled by the ki. Actually, he was sent flying into the forest and since he hadn't let go of the miko's hair, she flew with him. He slammed into a particularly stout tree, preventing him from traveling any farther off course than he already had, despite the fact that he broke the tree with his impact and sent it crashing down on the forest floor. It might have been a rather fortunate occurrence...if his half-brother's bitch hadn't just smashed through his armor and scorched his skin. And as soon as he regained the ability to breathe and the pain that had ripped through his chest receded, he was going to make sure the miko appreciated just how unpleasant the experience had been for him.

Kagome landed more or less near Sesshoumaru—he did have her by the hair, after all—her temple making direct contact with his armor. Her head exploded in blinding pain, and she clutched her skull with both hands, whimpering. The pain was beginning to ease when Sesshoumaru yanked her head back using her hair. Kagome let out a cry and looked up at the demon. His eyes were narrowed, the pupils reduced in size. He brought his other hand up—that was when she realized that his left arm had regenerated—and Kagome saw that it was glowing green. She felt the blood drain from her face even as her holy ki began to gather itself up to protect her.

"If you try to purify me again, I will use my Dokkasou on you, Miko," Sesshoumaru said, yanking sharply on her hair and granting him better access to her neck.

She stared up at him in fright for several seconds, then glared, suddenly fed up with being dragged all over Creation by the cantankerous dog demon. By the gods, she hadn't asked to come back to this kind of abuse. All she'd ever wanted was to see Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango, and Shippou again.

"So what?" she threw back. "Go ahead, use it on me! See if I give a damn about your Dokkasou!"

It probably wasn't the right reply, but she had never been very good with the finer points involved in the proper mode of response to a threat on her life.

He watched her, his expression icy. He touched his claws to the delicate flesh on her neck and dug into the skin just enough to be painful without actually breaking through, and despite her bravado, Kagome began to feel sick. The look in his eyes did not bode well for her current status as a living being. She was sure, in fact, that the slightest miscalculation on her part would set him off and prematurely end her life. She swallowed audibly, hating that she was letting him know how scared she really was of him. Which was not to say that she had suddenly found a reason to live—she hadn't. She just wanted a little more control over the hour and manner of her demise than she currently had.

His claws dug deeper, and Kagome grimaced. This was really it. She was going to be poisoned by Inuyasha's elder half-brother, in a forest, for accidentally sort of purifying him. Funny how she'd never imagined going out in quite this manner. Or maybe, she thought, it wasn't quite so funny. In fact, she was, at the moment, finding the situation decidedly unfunny. She felt a claw break through the skin and managed to keep from screaming in agony. The son of a bitch was going to murder her here, in a place she had no business being in, in an era she had no business being in—wait a minute. Why would the well have let her through if she was no longer needed here?

She forced herself to meet his glare, forced herself not to faint; if she was going out, she'd meet him dirty look for dirty look. And she'd damn well get some answers first.

"Why am I here?" she asked, voice coming out weakly, despite her resolve to die with some dignity.

"Because I wish it," Sesshoumaru bit off succinctly, and abruptly threw her into the nearest tree. She turned just in time to keep from cracking her head open, and smashed her shoulder instead. She lay at the foot of the tree for a moment, wanting to die. On thinking of Sesshoumaru's glowing hand, she decided that there were better ways of going out, and she sat up painfully, cradling her sore shoulder. Nothing was broken, but by damn, she was going to feel it for a long while.

She leaned back against the tree and looked at the demon. He hadn't moved. He was watching her, looking as if he were waiting for the slightest excuse to decapitate her. It wasn't the most appealing death, but it was better than the poison in his claws.

They sat under their respective trees in a long tense silence. Kagome timidly prodded her shoulder and carefully felt her temple, searching for lumps. She also held a hand to the wound on her neck, which was trickling blood onto the once immaculate haori. She was shaking slightly, though whether from fear or relief or shock, she was unable to tell. It was enough at the moment that she knew she was still alive. Sesshoumaru sat as if frozen, his face the picture of loathing. Tired of it at long last, Kagome snapped,

"What is your problem? Why the hell am I here if you hate me so much?"

She didn't think he was going to answer. That was when she thought about saying "Screw it," and reaching for an arrow. He'd kill her, but not before she purified him straight to hell, and wasn't that a cheering thought?

"You are here because I require a miko of formidable power," he said finally.

"Why?" she immediately asked, surprised she'd gotten a response and even more surprised that he had need of a miko, of all things.

His face seemed to tighten in displeasure but he said,

"I cannot purify youkai."

The bizarre response caught her off guard and she stared at him, eyes wide, as if he'd announced he had a particular fondness for humans that he'd only just now discovered.

"What the hell kind of reason is that?" she asked finally, sounding mystified.

"My reason," Sesshoumaru returned, voice dangerous in its tranquility. "Now get up, Miko. And remember what I said."

"Oh I didn't do it on purpose," Kagome replied irritably as she struggled to her feet. She rubbed her shoulder again, wincing when the nerves there screamed. "Shit," she muttered. She glared at him. "Did you absolutely have to throw me at a tree? Wouldn't rubbing my face in the dirt have been satisfying enough?"

"No," he returned, rising gracefully to his feet.

"Jerk," she murmured under her breath. She wasn't sure how to approach the subject of the puncture wound in her neck without perhaps winding up in the same position, so she decided that ignoring the incident altogether was best.

He didn't bother replying—not that she'd expected him to.

"If I promise not to zap you again, will you promise not to throw me at any more trees? I'm not into the whole flying through the air thing." she said.

But you do it so well, he thought nastily. He knew better than to say so:

"If you do not annoy me again, I will not throw you into any more trees."

"I annoyed you…so you threw me at a tree?" she asked in disbelief.

He just barely stopped his hands from going around her neck. His fingers twitched though.

I cannot kill her. Not yet.

That thought calmed him slightly. There was always later. If she proved especially infuriating. And maybe even if she didn't.

"We have some distance to cross yet," he said, completely ignoring her query. He then turned and began walking back toward the path they had so abruptly veered off. Behind him, he heard the miko scramble after him, cursing under her breath about her shoulder. Inwardly, he smiled in satisfaction. It wasn't quite an eye for an eye, but it was enough for now.

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"So…." Kagome began. She waited for the demon lord to acknowledge that she was alive. When he didn't answer, she cleared her throat.

"So…." she prompted again. And got a similar response. She sighed; of all the people to be traveling anywhere with, she'd been stuck with Chuckles here. Someone was taking this dark cosmic joke way too far.

They'd been traveling all day in mostly silence since Sesshoumaru had agreed to stop throwing her into trees. When the silence between them was broken, Kagome was the offender. Her words fell on deaf ears; the demon didn't pay her any mind at all. And after several failed attempts at even basic conversation, Kagome gave up and resigned herself to the fact that all she had to work with was uncomfortable quiet. Because not even the birds in the woods were making a sound. She figured they had caught on to the dark undertone of Sesshoumaru's youki. At least she finally knew what was different about him.

It hadn't been until he'd sunk that claw into her neck that she'd realized why he seemed so strange. There was a tenseness to him that was out of character, an almost unsettled aura radiating from him. He didn't feel calm and cold, even though, for all intents and purposes, that was the façade he wore. It would have worked too…except for the uncharacteristic tone of his youki. She'd always been a little scared of him. But after being attacked, she was scared for her life, and wary of irritating him overly. Yes, he had come all this way for her—but there was no guaranteeing that he needed her badly enough not to kill her if she proved a trial to his patience.

"Um…so," she began slowly, shortening her step so that she fell a little behind him. It wouldn't keep him from ripping her head off, he was too fast for her to dodge, but the precaution made her feel slightly safer.

There was no inquiry or reply, and Kagome made an effort to tamp down her rising temper.

I suppose I'll have to zap him again to get his attention, and then he'll brain me into another tree, and then I'll never know when we're going to stop, she reflected gloomily.

"Sesshoumaru," she said wearily after a moment's hesitation, "when are we going to stop?"

"We are not stopping."

She was so surprised that he'd answered her that she didn't hear what he'd said at first. Once his words were processed, however, she frowned.

"But, we have to stop."

No answer.

"I mean, we really have to stop."

No answer.

"My shoulder is killing me and so are my feet. I'm exhausted and starving."

No answer.

"I'd even be happy with a three hour stop. I'd take a nap, you know, and eat—"

"We are not stopping."

Kagome stopped walking and stamped her foot.

"Well damn it, why not?" she wailed.

There was no answer. And Kagome suddenly reached the absolute limit of her own will power, where not even her own fragile mortality mattered to her anymore. She was sure that traveling with Sesshoumaru was going to kill her anyway, one way or another, and there was little point in shying away from the inevitable. So she stopped. And screamed:

"I'm not moving another foot!"

Sesshoumaru stopped walking and didn't move for a moment, then slowly turned on his heel to face her. She wished he'd kept walking: his face was completely blank…but he had a killing look in his eye. Kagome drew in a nervous breath.

"I want to stop," she said, forcing her voice to come out normally. "I need to stop. I'm not youkai, I can't keep going at this pace without resting."

"We are not stopping," he repeated, voice hard and sharp.

"Maybe you aren't, but I am." Kagome returned. "I'm stopping and you can't make me keep going."

"Then I'll kill you." he said calmly, and her blood froze in her veins at his blasé tone.

"I thought you needed a miko," she said.

"You are not the only miko in all of Japan, woman," he returned, low and furious. "I could just as easily kill you and find another." He glowered at her. "In fact, it would be far easier than dealing with your idiocy."

She didn't like the way his pupils had diminished in size, or the way his eyes were bleeding red, or the way the magenta stripes on his cheeks were thickening and growing ragged. She'd seen him transform only once, but it had been enough.

"All I'm asking for is three hours, Sesshoumaru," she said quietly. "Just three hours to sit and eat and rest."

"We have wasted too much time already," he returned.

"It's just three hours," Kagome said, a note of desperation creeping into her voice. She immediately regretted saying the words: a shadow passed over his features, making him even more terrifying than he already was. She knew then that whatever had brought him to this point was deathly serious.

"Will it make you cease your chatter?" he asked tightly.

"Hai," she blurted, half-lying. Stopping for three hours would keep her quiet…once she fell asleep. There were no promises about what came after that. But she knew better than to let him know that.

"Then you may have two hours."

Kagome bristled at the way he said it and the way he'd shaved off time from her rest without consulting her, but it was actually more than she'd been expecting.

"Arigatou," she returned with the least amount of graciousness she could get away with and not be rude. Er.

Sesshoumaru didn't acknowledge her faintly unpleasant pleasantry; he merely turned and kept walking. Kagome followed him, knowing she would soon be able to rest. Slightly, anyway—there was no way she was going to be getting very comfortable with a totally unbalanced dog demon near by.

For his part, once his immense self-satisfaction had faded, Sesshoumaru began cursing himself in earnest for having let his youkai blood overcome his common sense, even for a second. After all, it had only taken a second to push his claw through the delicate skin of the miko's neck. He hadn't been thinking, and what a lucky thing it had been for him that he hadn't sliced through her jugular. At least he'd had the presence of mind to wait until his poison had receded. The area around the wound was an angry, inflamed red, though, and now he had given himself a new worry: there was a very real possibility that the wound could kill the miko.

Throwing her at a tree, while relieving some of his frustration, had been another bad idea. She might have been seriously injured or killed, and he would have ruined his own plans. He'd have to remember to attack the tree next time and not the miko. But by the gods, it was so tempting to murder the wench. Everything about her annoyed him beyond all reason. His tolerance level was irrationally low, and it worried him that she seemed to have the power to make him lose his mind and just react without thinking. It worried him considerably. And made him question the prudence of his strategy. This couldn't work if they were at odds…and since he'd first heard her screech (it hadn't been overly taxing to figure out who the offender had been), the woman had rubbed him wrong in the worst way; if it had been physically possible, he'd have probably had a rash by now.

He glanced over his shoulder at her. She looked pale and unwell, and her shoulder was still giving her trouble, judging by the way her hand kept returning to it. His eyes were drawn to the rather prominent spot of dried blood on the collar of her haori. His chest contracted painfully again, as it had several times a day for the past two years, but one would never have known of his discomfort by looking at him. Yes, he would have to work especially hard at not attacking the miko again—too much of his pride and worth, too much of his life, depended on her and her power. He faced forward again, viciously fighting back the worry and doubt that threatened to overwhelm his mind. Perhaps resting for a spell was a good idea after all.

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They reached a compromise that night: if Sesshoumaru would give Kagome two hours to rest every night, she would refrain from speaking to him. It was an easy arrangement for each, as neither wanted to have any interaction with the other, but it didn't necessarily lead to any sort of level of comfort between them. Kagome did notice that once she stopped talking, Sesshoumaru seemed less intense, which was quite fine with her—anything that was going to keep his claws away from her neck.

The only drawback was that Kagome still had no idea why Sesshoumaru needed her. Well, that wasn't quite true. Apparently, he needed her to purify demons, which she thought was incredibly odd, and wondered why in the world he would want to purify one of his own kind. She decided, at long last, that he'd moved on to feuding with other demons once Inuyasha had died. And then an appalling thought struck her: what if Sesshoumaru had managed to somehow kill Inuyasha? She wouldn't have put it past the demon lord, and the idea horrified her and made her even more uneasy with his presence.

Oh gods…what had she been thinking when she'd allowed herself to follow him?