A/N: Another week, another chapter…though this chapter is slightly late. (laughs nervously) Sorry about that, life is getting hectic over here. I'm thinking that I may have to revise my posting schedule to every other Sunday, especially since the next chapter is going to be even longer than this one, and I have a feeling this is a trend that will continue; I have a lot of ground to cover. So yeah, probably next Sunday instead of this one coming up. Sorry. Anyway, I'm probably boring you (that's assuming you read this, of course, which could be a little presumptuous of me, but I'll risk it), so I'll shut up now. Enjoy chapter seven.
Disclaimer: I wish….
Words To Know:
taiyoukai: taken literally, "great demon"; basically, Fluffy-sama is one BAD mofo
neko: cat
kenjutsu: art of Japanese swordsmanship
shinai: bamboo practice sword
obaa-san: grandmother
ojisan: uncle
shakujou: Miroku's staff
okaa-san: mother
otou-san: father
Chapter Seven: It's A Small World After All
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I'm looking for a place,
I'm searching for a face,
Is anybody here, I know?
"I'm With You"/ Avril Lavigne
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She retreated into silence again.
Toutousai sighed wearily as he handed Kagome a bowl of rice and meat. She had stumbled back into the cave, shaking violently, tears still falling. The violence of her emotions had alarmed him. And when he caught Sesshoumaru's scent on her, he put two and two together and came up with a likely answer: the bastard had been the cause of her distress, had probably said something about Inuyasha that had upset her.
In a fit of pique, Toutousai had smashed Sesshoumaru's armor with his hammer, ruining his hard work and what had been salvaged from Kagome's attack—the asshole could damn well wait an extra day for his breastplate to be repaired. Hell, he might even make the spoiled mutt wait two.
In time, the tears stopped, and eventually the shaking did too. She was still pale and off-balance, though, and the wild mass of emotions swirling around her was making him dizzy. He tried talking her into a more stable frame of mind, but she wasn't having any of that, and he finally gave up and went to work on some other piece, hoping Sesshoumaru wouldn't come in and catch him; he was mad at the younger demon, true, but Sesshoumaru was hell on wheels when he was moody, and the man practically had a storm cloud brewing over his head, complete with thunder and lightning.
Kagome ate her meal silently, occasionally sending him strange looks he couldn't decipher.
"Something wrong?" he asked finally.
"Later," she said, shaking her head.
"Huh!" Toutousai grunted. "That sounds ominous."
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Toutousai found himself walking out of his forge in the dead of night, looking around nervously. The demon lord had returned just after Kagome had finished her meal, and hadn't spared her so much as a glance. She, on the other hand, seemed extremely interested in him, and watched him thoughtfully.
An hour after the taiyoukai had returned, Kagome stood up and murmured something to Toutousai about taking a walk for a bit. He had protested until she'd shot him a warning look. Ah. So she wanted him to contrive a way to get out of the forge without drawing Sesshoumaru's suspicion so that she could discuss something. And since she didn't appear to want to include Sesshoumaru in the discussion, he could only conclude that it concerned said demon.
Toutousai waited an hour, pretending to work on Kagome's sword. He had figured out earlier how he was going to go about crafting the weapon, but it was going to take considerable concentration on the girl's part. And considerable care on his. It was going to be tricky and rather painstaking, but Toutousai smelled another legendary piece of craftsmanship, so he didn't mind. Much.
"That girl's been gone too long," he said at long last, setting aside his tools and picking up his hammer. "I'm going to see what's become of her."
Sesshoumaru didn't reply. He was sitting against the far wall, one arm draped over his knee, head back and eyes closed. Toutousai knew the other demon wasn't sleeping or even remotely unconscious. He had just drawn into himself again.
The old swordsmith stood, swung the hammer up over his shoulder and casually walked out of the forge, checking once to make sure Sesshoumaru wasn't watching him.
He followed his nose upon leaving the cave, and found Kagome on the same ledge she'd been on earlier with Sesshoumaru; Toutousai smelled lingering traces of the both of them. She was sitting on a rock, waiting for him, watching the night sky. Or, more specifically, the moon.
He cleared his throat, and Kagome looked over at him, then waved for him to join her. Toutousai did just that, seating himself on another rock not too far from hers.
"Well?" he asked. "Why the cloak and dagger?"
"What happened to Rin-chan, Ojii-san," Kagome quietly said, not looking at him.
There was a long, startled pause, and then Toutousai coughed softly.
"I certainly wasn't expecting that, though it explains the secrecy." he said slowly. He paused again. "She died, around when Inuyasha did. I'd guess…their deaths were about a week apart. First her, then him, that was it." he said with an authoritative jerk of his head.
"How did she die?"
"That I never heard. He never spoke of it. He only mentioned that the little one had died."
There was no need to clarify who "he" was.
"Where was he?"
"Who knows but him and the gods? Her husband was gone too, at the time."
"Husband?"
Toutousai nodded. "Five years before she died, she was married. Actually, that was when the brothers began speaking again—Inuyasha knew the groom, I believe, and he attended the ceremony with the man's family."
"Who was the man?"
Toutousai shrugged. "A human man of little consequence. They lived not too far from here, close to his relatives. He was called to defend his daimyo, and she and her two young children died while he was away. It might have been illness—there was something going around, killing off the humans in every village in Japan."
"Two children?" Kagome asked, throat dry.
"Hai, two little boys." Toutousai paused. "He wasn't particularly impressed by them, but he indulged her and let her think he was."
They were quiet again for a long time. Kagome bowed her head, as if in deep thought or prayer; Toutousai remembered the day Sesshoumaru had come to see him, his youki strangely perturbed.
Toutousai looked up when a shadow fell over him, and saw Sesshoumaru standing at the mouth of the cave. He rose and gave a curt bow, wondering what the spoiled mutt wanted now. It took him a second to realize that something was wrong with the other demon's youki.
"Sesshoumaru?" he queried.
Sesshoumaru flinched, blinked, looking at Toutousai as if seeing him for the first time. His eyes were strange: hollow, empty. Not the usual bland expression. The face was still expressionless, but the eyes told a story all their own.
Wordlessly, Sesshoumaru stepped forward and dropped a bundle at Toutousai's feet, then turned and began walking away. Toutousai watched him, then leaned over and lifted some of the material back. It was the armor he had crafted for Rin, at Sesshoumaru's request, as the girl's wedding present. It smelled like smoke and was dirty with soot.
"Sesshoumaru," he called, and Sesshoumaru stopped but didn't turn around. "What is the meaning of this? Has the little one become displeased with her yoroi after all this time?"
"The little one will not be needing her yoroi anymore." Sesshoumaru replied, voice still as dispassionate as ever.
He stood still for a moment longer, and as the meaning of the statement sunk in, he began walking again, leaving Toutousai standing in his forge, stunned, holding the armor.
"Kagome?" Toutousai asked quietly. "What prompted these questions?"
"Nothing," she lied. "I was just wondering, and since Sesshoumaru's been acting so weird, I thought asking you would be better than asking him, and possibly being disemboweled."
Toutousai didn't comment, and they lapsed into silence again. Finally, the old swordsmith straightened.
"You should come in, get some sleep," he said, resting his hammer against his shoulder again.
"In a bit. Arigatou, Ojii-san."
"You're welcome, child."
Toutousai went back up to the forge, walked past Sesshoumaru—who didn't seem to have moved—and retired to his bed for the evening.
Sesshoumaru opened one amber eye, and watched Toutousai's progress. When he was sure the old man was safely closeted, he rose to his feet and walked to the mouth of the cave.
He knew they had left the forge to talk about him. The miko hadn't been quite as obvious as the old bastard, but it hadn't taken a genius to figure out what was going on—shit, a hanyou could have figured it out.
He folded his arms and waited for the miko's return. He could smell her more clearly now that he wasn't so close to the disgusting smells of the forge. She didn't seem to be crying, but there was a sort of depression settling over her aura, bringing down her normally bright, cheerful scent. Well, bringing it farther down than it already was.
She smells like sunlight, he thought idly, then froze. That had been a disturbing and completely arbitrary thought. But it was the disquieting quality of the thought and not its randomness that threw him. He knew of another human who had smelled of sunlight….
Fuck. That was hitting just a little too close to his banished memories for his comfort. So he ignored that train of thought and began a new one: the telling off he was going to give the miko when she finally got the hell back up there.
She appeared when he was mid-way through what he thought was a very respectable harangue—these things, after all, required considerable thought if one's message was going to get across as succinctly as possible. Coherence was another factor. The wrong word would ensure that he would have to repeat himself sometime in the near future, and she had already made him break one of his personal rules: Sesshoumaru never repeated himself. Ever. Period. The baka wench didn't seem to understand the concept behind a negative answer, however, which complicated his life and made repetition necessary. What a waste.
She saw him and paused, then slowed her gait considerably. She stopped several feet off from the entrance, watching him warily. That cheered him considerably—the stupid bitch had finally figured out just who she was dealing with.
"I don't suppose you're waiting up for me?" she asked.
"Hardly," he sneered, offended at the idea.
"Yeah, I thought that was a little far-fetched."
"This Sesshoumaru dislikes being whispered about behind his back, Miko," he said, and had the pleasure of seeing her stiffen. "Especially when you decide to consult that stupid old bastard. See that it doesn't happen again. Or I will not hesitate to find another miko."
There. To the point and brief. There was no way she was dumb enough not to understand him—
"You're such a fucking jerk!" she exploded, stamping her foot.
He stared at her. This was not the reaction he had been aiming for. No, he had been expecting meek acceptance, at the very least.
"All you ever do is insult poor Ojii-san, and he fixes your yoroi anyway!"
Toutousai? She was upset over his treatment of Toutousai? He rolled his eyes in disgust.
"And he is a bigger fool for fixing the yoroi after I insult him." he replied.
"I should purify you!" she yelled back.
Sesshoumaru sent her a cynical smile and cracked his knuckles ominously.
"I should delight in watching you try, Miko: remember, I only promised not to throw you into any more trees—there was nothing said about pitching you off mountainsides."
She glared at him. "I hate you," she said lowly.
His smile widened. "No more than I despise you," he returned. "Don't think that I won't kill you just because I have need of your power. Even that won't save you, Miko. You would be wise not to forget that."
"Heartless bastard!"
"Worthless bitch!"
She flinched as if slapped, and he turned and went back into the cave, satisfied that she had been soundly, if childishly, put in her place. His only warning was the sound of her footsteps.
Kagome hurled herself at Sesshoumaru, latched onto his back, grabbed him by the hair and tried to rip it out. She was so furious with him that she didn't care anymore about the very real possibility that he could, and probably would, kill her.
He reached around and grabbed her arm and threw her against the wall. Or tried to. But Kagome was clutching to him tightly, one arm wrapped around his neck while attempting to punch him in the head with the other hand. He only succeeded in almost dislocating her shoulder. So he hurled himself into the wall, back first, in an attempt to get her off of him.
He knocked the wind out of her, and maybe cracked a few of her ribs, but that wasn't nearly enough to get her to let go. She dug her nails into the side of his face and ripped down, mimicking what she'd seen Inuyasha do thousands of times. That just pissed Sesshoumaru off worse: he grabbed hold of her hair and yanked hard enough to rip her head off. She retaliated with another furious cuff to the head.
"Bitch, if you don't let go I'll make you sorry you were ever reincarnated!" he bellowed, reaching around and grabbing her thigh to try and yank her off that way.
"Fuck…you!" she bellowed back in reply, kicking him in the hip with enough force to hurt her foot.
That was how Toutousai found them when he ran out of his room. Only now, Sesshoumaru was ramming himself into the walls almost continuously, getting closer and closer to Toutousai's tools and display weapons. Kagome hadn't noticed where the taiyoukai was heading: she was completely concentrated on trying to rip his eyes out of their sockets.
"Gods above I must have been truly wretched in another life!" Toutousai moaned. Then he did the only thing he could think of to stop them from killing each other and destroying his forge in the process: he belched flames at Sesshoumaru and Kagome.
Sesshoumaru saw the flames coming at him at the last second, and was nearly burned to a crisp. Instead, he forgot about defending his eyes and dove onto the floor, out of harm's way. The miko yelped in his ear and held onto his shoulders, pressing against his back to keep from being burned. He thought about lifting himself up just enough so that she did get burned, but the flames were gone by the time the idea hit him. So he settled for glaring at Toutousai instead.
"You baka!" he said. "What were you thinking?"
"That you two were about to ruin me!" Toutousai roared. "Hells below you were heading right for my very livelihood! What did you expect me to do—let you destroy my forge!"
Kagome took the opportunity to whack Sesshoumaru upside the head, and he growled, reached over his shoulder and grabbed her by the neck.
"Sesshoumaru!" Toutousai said, tone holding warning. "I'll do it again if you hurt her, and you're in no position to flee."
"Then I could use her as a shield, couldn't I?" Sesshoumaru shot back, voice hard.
Kagome glared at him and took in a deep breath to spit on him, but Toutousai stomped forward and jerked her up to her feet and away from Sesshoumaru.
"That's enough of that!" he scolded. "Worse than children, both of you—especially you, for fighting with a woman!"
Sesshoumaru rose to his feet, glaring at Kagome with livid hate.
"She shouldn't have started something she couldn't possibly hope to win," he snarled.
"Go to hell! I could've purified your ass so quick you wouldn't have known what hit you!"
"I said ENOUGH!" Toutousai bellowed, silencing them both; in fact, they both stared at him, vaguely surprised, before exchanging glares full of murderous intent. He moaned, rubbing his forehead with his free hand—what had he done to deserve these two!
"Kagome, you'll sleep in my chamber tonight," Toutousai said wearily.
She turned back to him, forgetting Sesshoumaru for the time being.
"Oh but Ojii-san, I couldn't kick you out of your own room," she protested.
Toutousai sent her a fond smile despite his irritation, but before he could say anything, Sesshoumaru snorted. Kagome's attention instantly returned to the demon lord, and Toutousai indulged in the unlikely-to-come-true daydream of murdering Inu no Taisho's eldest son with his bare hands.
"What?" she snapped, eyes narrowed.
"You—you're little more than a parasite," was the cold response.
Kagome stiffened, but her expression didn't change.
"And being a mangy dog is a better position?" she asked coolly.
The demon lord's glare deepened, making him look far more sinister than he usually did. Especially since Kagome's nails, well-kept and on the longish side, had cut his cheek deeply, and the gashes were bleeding profusely.
"I find, Miko, that the more contact I endure with you, the more I dislike you. If I wasn't so sure you were nothing but a worthless human, I'd swear you were neko youkai," he said, voice icy, as he touched a finger to the gashes on his face and drew it away, wet with blood.
"It'd certainly make sense, anyway," Toutousai muttered under his breath, tugging Kagome along in his wake. "Here, child, this way."
As she passed Sesshoumaru, Kagome sent him a frigid look and hissed at him, sounding decidedly cat-like. Sesshoumaru, in turn, returned her look and gave a low, feral growl that sounded decidedly dog-like. He didn't turn around to watch as Toutousai upped his pace and scrambled into the labyrinth of rooms in the back of the cave, he could hear the hasty retreat just fine. He cocked his head, and when he was sure the old man and the girl were gone, he reached up again and gently touched the miko's handiwork on his face. His cheek was beginning to heal, but his fingertips still came away bloody. He sniffed the blood, then rubbed his thumb against the wet pads of his fingers. And despite his anger and the bloodlust singing through his veins, he smiled just a little.
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The sound of metal ricocheting off metal shattered the peace of early morning.
Kagome jumped up off of Toutousai's futon with a yell of surprise, then hit the hard stone floor with an entirely different yell—sounding remarkably like "Son of a bitch!"—coming from her mouth. She managed to stumble into the forge, bleary-eyed but mad as hell over being so rudely awakened.
Toutousai was hammering away at Sesshoumaru's armor.
"What in the seven hells are you doing!" Kagome roared.
Toutousai jumped and looked at the very angry young woman glaring at him. She might have been a little more intimidating if her hair hadn't been sticking up. He smiled.
"Ah, you're awake!" he said cheerfully.
"Of course I'm awake! You're loud enough to wake the dead!" she bellowed.
"You're louder than he is," came an annoyed voice, and Kagome's eyes found Sesshoumaru standing in the mouth of the cave, the light from the dawning sun coming in behind him—wait a minute…dawning sun?
She looked back to Toutousai, her eyebrow twitching. She cracked her knuckles and took a threatening step toward the old swordsmith.
"It isn't even dawn yet?" she asked through gritted teeth.
Toutousai cleared his throat nervously, eyes flickering towards Sesshoumaru in an obvious plea for help.
"He's not going to help you," Kagome snapped, voice hard. Her hands started glowing. "And I'm going to kill you…."
Sesshoumaru was amused by the miko's reaction to Toutousai's hammering, though he wondered why she was so upset—this wasn't the first time she'd been awakened before dawn, after all, he had done it several times during the course of their traveling. Still, it wouldn't do to let her purify the swordsmith before the worthless old shit was done with his yoroi.
"Miko—" he began, sounding bored.
"Oh shut up—you're next!" Kagome yelled.
He frowned. "I doubt it," he returned. Just to piss her off.
It worked: she forgot all about Toutousai and focused all of her fury on him. He noticed, with some dread, that the glow emanating from her hands had intensified. Perhaps letting her take out her frustration on Toutousai had been a good idea…but there was little chance he was going to convince her to do it now. He sighed and walked into the cave, toward the miko.
"Not another step," Toutousai said, scrambling to stand in front of Kagome, blocking Sesshoumaru's way. "You two are dangerous when you get physically violent, and I'm not in the mood to clean up after you."
Kagome poked Toutousai in the back and the old demon howled and jumped three feet into the air. Sesshoumaru's mouth quirked, barely keeping a thoroughly malicious smile from appearing. The miko had no such reservations: she was smirking, obviously gloating.
Toutousai moaned, gingerly touching a hand to his singed back, and sent Kagome a mournful glare. She glared right back at him, hands on her hips.
"You're lucky I just zapped you," she said haughtily, then flounced past him and lowered herself to the floor, near the makeshift table Toutousai usually ate at. He had set out a pot of tea and cups, and Kagome poured one for both herself and Sesshoumaru out of habit. She found herself handing his up to him before she remembered that she was pissed off at him for last night. He took it and sat down on the other side of the table, not looking at her.
Toutousai went to the cook fire, muttering under his breath.
Sesshoumaru caught a whiff of the miko and frowned. She smelled like Toutousai. His nostrils flared in distaste, and then he felt a sliver of surprise creep through him at his reaction to her change of scent; why should he care how she smelled anyway? Because she traveled with him, he decided after a moment, and there was no way in hell he was going to subject himself to the smell of Toutousai every day.
"You smell like the worthless old shit," Sesshoumaru told her, sipping his tea. He didn't look at her. He probably should have: a hunk of scorched wood from Toutousai's fire came flying at his head. He turned his head slowly, eyes wide in angry disbelief, and found her glaring at him.
"And now, you smell like his forge," she returned, eyes daring him to come over the table after her.
He growled low in his throat and was about to toss his tea aside and do just that when Toutousai appeared and slammed a bowl down in front of the miko.
"Stop that!" he ordered. "Eat first. If you want to kill each other, do it after asagohan, and preferably outside!"
"Shut up!" they both snapped, and he meekly backed away from the table and slinked back to his fire; he'd eat later, when they were done.
They spent the meal glaring daggers at each other. Toutousai refrained from using his hammer. Instead, he went hunting through his storage rooms for the materials he'd need for Kagome's sword.
When he emerged with a dusty bundle, both of his cranky houseguests suddenly stiffened and turned their heads to watch him. He grinned. So they felt the ki, did they?
Kagome rose and walked over to him as he sat before his work table and laid the bundle on it. Sesshoumaru followed, more wary than Kagome.
Toutousai leaned down and blew the dust off the bundle with a mighty breath, and Kagome and Sesshoumaru's arms flew up to cover their noses. Sesshoumaru made it; Kagome was less successful, and she sneezed several times before finally sniffling and wiping her eyes…and glaring at him. The old demon smiled sheepishly.
"What's that?" Kagome asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
Toutousai grinned. "Your katana," he announced.
She looked surprised. "My katana? You've finished it already?" she asked, leaning forward.
"I wouldn't," Sesshoumaru said quietly from behind her.
She looked over her shoulder at him, more curious by the warning than annoyed. Toutousai used his teeth to cut the string that bound the bundle closed, then lifted the fabric back and revealed…a cracked, raggedy handle with two inches of jagged blade sticking out of it. Kagome stared at it for several seconds in silence, than said,
"It's a handle."
"The handle of your katana," Toutousai corrected.
"Where's the rest of it?" she asked, finally looking at the swordsmith.
"The rest of what?" he asked puzzled.
"The katana, Ojii-san," Kagome said, obviously exasperated, "where's the rest of the katana."
"That's it."
She looked at it again, then looked around at Sesshoumaru, eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"I thought you trusted him to make fine weaponry," she said.
"I do," Sesshoumaru replied, "but I never made any guarantees that his methods made any sense."
"Touché," she muttered, turning back to Toutousai, who was grinning as if he'd just discovered the meaning of life.
"Ojii-san, doesn't a katana require a blade longer than, oh, I don't know, a finger?" Kagome asked.
"Well of course!" Toutousai returned in exasperation. "It wouldn't be a katana otherwise."
"Oh, just checking," Kagome replied.
"I'll have to repair the thing, obviously," Toutousai said. He eyed Kagome, who, upon seeing his speculative gaze, took a step back and bumped into Sesshoumaru.
"Why're you staring at me like that?" she asked, edging around the demon lord's side so that she could place him between her and the swordsmith.
"Well, I'll need you when I finally forge the blade," Toutousai said.
"Why?" she demanded, now fully hiding behind Sesshoumaru, who was staring over his shoulder at her with the most bizarre look on his face.
"Well, this being your katana, it will require something of yours to bind you to it—"
"You can't have my teeth," Kagome said from behind Sesshoumaru, who had decided that he wanted no part in the conversation and had folded his arms into his kimono sleeves. At the young woman's announcement, however, he frowned and looked over his shoulder at her.
"What?" he asked.
She looked up at him as if it was perfectly normal to carry on a conversation with someone while hiding behind someone else.
"When Goshinki broke the Tessaiga, Ojii-san yanked out one of Inuyasha's fangs to fix the blade," she told him, one little hand hanging onto his obi.
Sesshoumaru smirked, pleased with the idea that Inuyasha had been in pain at some point. Kagome, knowing what the smirk meant, glared at him and reached out and gave his hair a sharp yank. He growled; she hissed. Toutousai sighed.
Great, he thought, rubbing his temple, just great. How is it possible to be that ill-tempered this early in the day?
"You needn't worry about your teeth, child, I don't have any use for them. I'll need your blood."
"My WHAT!" Kagome asked, forgetting her plan to use Sesshoumaru as a shield. She stuck her head out from behind the demon lord and stared at the swordsmith in something like shocked horror.
"Why would you need the miko's blood?" Sesshoumaru asked, one eyebrow raised.
"Yeah, what he said," Kagome said with a jerk of her head.
"Oh, I won't need much! Just enough," Toutousai said with a flick of his wrist.
"Define 'enough'," Kagome shot back.
"Don't worry, I'm a professional." Toutousai assured her.
"A professional nut-job," Kagome muttered under her breath.
Sesshoumaru frowned; what was a nut-job? The girl had a penchant for saying the oddest things.
"So, where'd you get the katana from?" she asked, taking a tentative step out from behind Sesshoumaru; she was still hanging onto him, Toutousai observed with some amusement. Sesshoumaru didn't seem to notice. Toutousai wondered what would happen when he did, and the better part of his amusement dissapated.
"Er, I acquired it a few hundred years back," he said.
"'A few hundred years back'?" Kagome asked, watching the sword. "It's still awfully powerful."
"Oh, so you felt the ki?" Toutousai asked with a grin.
"It would have been difficult to miss," Sesshoumaru commented, and Kagome nodded absently.
"Ojii-san? How did it break?"
"Oh, let me see if I remember the story," Toutousai said, scratching his head. "If I recall, it belonged to a miko. She forged it herself, or so the story goes, and used it to battle youkai of a most fearsome sort. Anyway, she was battling a thunder youkai and the katana shattered into thousands of pieces and she was slaughtered quite brutally."
There was a long pause, and then Kagome sighed and closed her eyes.
"I'm so screwed," she said to no one in particular.
"Here now," Toutousai said, responding more to the look on her face than her strange, nonsensical statement—after all, what was this "screwed" she spoke of and what did it mean?—"I'm a professional! The woman obviously had no concept of what she was doing when she forged the blade, or it wouldn't have failed her so miserably!"
"And you want to use the shitty original as the basis for a katana I'm supposed to protect myself with?" Kagome asked.
"It's a perfectly good handle," Toutousai argued, "the fault was in the blade itself, and with my skill and your blood, you should be able to protect yourself quite effectively with it."
"Once she learns proper kenjutsu," Sesshoumaru qualified.
Kagome looked up at him. He looked down at her. They stared at each other in silence for a moment, and then she said,
"You aren't going to teach me…are you?"
He raised an eyebrow and Kagome sighed and seemed to go limp. "I'd rather have a tooth pulled."
"That can be arranged," Sesshoumaru dryly informed her, and she resisted the urge to kick him, knowing that she'd probably just hurt herself and start another fist fight.
"I haven't got any shinai," Toutousai said, suddenly pouncing on an idea. He silently patted himself on the back for his genius, then wondered why he hadn't thought of this before. Oh right: he'd been trying to keep his forge from being demolished. "However, there is a taijiya village not too far from here. They might have a few you could borrow."
Sesshoumaru sent him a killing look, and Toutousai remembered too late about—
"Taijiya?" Kagome asked. "I can't believe you live so close to them."
"Well, they're…er…friendly." Toutousai said, watching Sesshoumaru's glare drop a few more degrees. He was now berating himself for his stupidity.
"Oh yeah?" Kagome returned, surprised. "The only taijiya I ever knew who was friendly to youkai was San—" Kagome went white, then latched wide, desperate eyes on Toutousai. "Sango-chan," she whispered. "Sango. It has to be her. Is it, Toutousai-ojii-san? Is it Sango?"
"Well, er, that is—"
"And Miroku-sama!" Kagome shouted, slapping her forehead. "I'm such a frickin' moron! How could I have forgotten—and even after you mentioned them! Damn it!"
She let go of Sesshoumaru and strode toward the entrance of the cave.
"Stop," Sesshoumaru said. Miraculously, she listened, though she was scowling when she turned to face him, hands on her hips.
"What?" she asked, obviously irritated.
"Where do you think you're going?" the demon asked.
She gaped at him. "Were you listening to the conversation at all?" she asked.
He raised an eyebrow. "That was a conversation?" he threw back. She glared.
"I'm going to find Sango-chan and Miroku-sama, Sesshoumaru. You can come along if you like," she added as she turned and walked out of the cave.
Sesshoumaru snorted, then turned back to Toutousai and pinned the old man with a glare that foretold of immense pain.
"You," Sesshoumaru said, "are going to regret that you were ever brought forth into this world, Toutousai."
"Eh, Sesshoumaru? You might want to go after the miko," Toutousai said, sweating. "She didn't take her bow and quiver with her, and while the taijiya are very good at what they do, they miss a youkai or two every now and again."
Sesshoumaru glared at him, then turned and walked to where his pelt lay. He grabbed it, threw it over his shoulder just so, then sent Toutousai one last deadly look.
"I will finish this when I return," he promised, then turned and walked out of the cave after the miko.
Toutousai haphazardly covered the miko's broken blade and shoved it aside, grabbing his hammer and Sesshoumaru's armor; perhaps Sesshoumaru wouldn't kill him if he finished the demon lord's armor with exceptional quickness….
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
Sometimes, her own stupidity surprised even her.
Kagome looked around the village again miserably. Nothing. She'd not only wasted her time believing Toutousai—and wouldn't a certain demon lord be particularly insufferable when she came back empty-handed?—she had wasted Sesshoumaru's time as well. She was not looking forward to the demon's ire once he got over his smug, "I-am-always-right-you-stupid-woman" gloat of superiority.
"Damn you to hell, Toutousai," she muttered, turning and leaving the village.
Not one person she'd talked to had been able to tell her a blasted thing about Miroku and Sango. Several people had stared at her blankly upon hearing the names. That had worried her. Especially when it occurred to her that, while she was thinking of them as a couple, they might not have actually married once she was hurled back into her own time. Toutousai had never said that they had married—he'd only said that they had left Inuyasha. It would be safe to assume that they left together, but still….
Kagome grumbled to herself under her breath as she made her way back to the spot at the base of the mountain where Sesshoumaru had told her he was staying.
"Pompous ass, making me drag my happy ass through the forest on my own," she muttered, switching her annoyance from Toutousai to Sesshoumaru. He was a far worthier target: Toutousai was several thousands of years old. He was entitled to be annoying by virtue of his advanced age. The Immovable Object, on the other hand, had no such excuse. Kagome wondered why the demon's mother hadn't drowned him at birth, since she was convinced that he'd been born aggravating.
"Because he's got the type of personality only a mother could love," she growled, answering her own question. "The jerk," she couldn't resist adding.
She eventually emerged from the forest and found him seated at the base of the mountain. Right where she'd left him.
"Did we have a productive sit?" she snarled.
He sent her a cool look.
"And was the old bastard right?" he inquired.
There was a hint of smugness in his tone that made her want to gouge his eyes out; how was it possible that a speck of ego was infinitely more offensive than the whole, self-proclaiming monster?
"I asked first," she said through gritted teeth.
He sent her an "I-told-you-so" look and rose in one graceful movement that made her loathe him even more. He politely refrained, however, from verbally expressing his obvious supremacy in judgment.
"Have I told you lately that I hate you?" she asked, hands on her hips.
"Several times this morning, as I recall," he replied, hands in his sleeves.
That was true; she'd told him she hated him once before they ascended the mountain, after he told her she was stupid to go looking for her friends using Toutousai as reference; again when they reached the bottom—because he had grabbed her and leapt down without warning and scared the living shit out of her—and once again when he had refused to go to the village with her to look for her friends. It was quite a way to start the day, all in all.
"Just checking."
"I'm sure."
Kagome managed to keep from screaming like a head case. Barely.
His eyes suddenly narrowed and darted around. Her resentment evaporated, to be replaced by a very unpleasant feeling of foreboding.
She moved closer to him, her hands clenching nervously.
"What's…h'm…what is it?" she asked.
"Taijiya."
She flinched, then walked around to gape at him.
"Taijiya?" she asked, looking pleasantly surprised; one of the friends she was searching for, after all, had been a taijiya. Then she frowned. "Wait a minute, how the hell do you know?"
"I smell the stench of humanity and old blood. Youkai blood." he added.
She glared at him but didn't go for the bait; it would have been a dumb argument, anyway.
"How do you know some youkai didn't duke it out a while back, huh?"
He sent her an odd look.
"'Duke it out'?" he repeated.
Kagome groaned. "We're going to have to have a talk," she muttered. "Fight. Fought—whatever!" she said in exasperation, throwing her hands up in the air. He dodged a certain blow to the nose. "Just answer the question!"
"It is a stupid question," he coolly returned, "and answering it would be beneath this Sesshoumaru. Now shut up." And so saying, he shoved her aside.
He was only mildly annoyed with himself for allowing Toutousai to talk him into letting the swordsmith attend to Toukijin and Tenseiga this morning rather than later. Both swords were in need of some minor work; Toukijin needed to be sharpened and Tenseiga's grip had been cracked during his last battle. It wasn't a serious crack yet, but it had made sense this morning to let the old man attend to it and Toukijin.
Still, they were only humans. Granted, they exterminated youkai for a living, but they were still humans.
Two figures appeared, a man and a woman, dressed in black suits similar to the one Kagome remembered Sango wearing, one with silver accents and the other with gold. And the female was holding a HUGE boomerang. Could it be…?
"Oh holiest shit of shits," Kagome said, eyes wide.
Sesshoumaru shot her an irritated glare.
"I told you to shut up," he said, sounding downright murderous.
She glared back at him. "When have I ever listened to anything you told me to do?" she demanded. "Who do you think you are, anyway, ordering me around like a slave? You're not the boss of me, pal—"
"HIRAIKOTSU!"
Kagome looked up and saw the boomerang hurtling straight for her, coming too fast to move out of the way. She threw up her hands, shut her eyes and braced for an impact that never came.
Sesshoumaru was mildly impressed with the barrier the miko had erected around both herself and him. And judging from the looks of the taijiya on the other side, so were they.
Kagome opened an eye when she didn't feel the Hiraikotsu slam into her. She saw purple light in front of her and opened both eyes. She stared ahead, at her hands, stunned.
"Oh wow," she said in wonder, "I didn't know I could do that."
She heard a sigh from somewhere behind her and looked around to find Sesshoumaru watching her. He appeared to be caught between resignation and horror.
"Why am I not surprised?" he muttered, settling on resignation. It was the least demeaning of the two.
"Oh shut up," she crankily threw back. "Why didn't you do anything?"
"I prefer not to come into contact with your ki if I can absolutely help it," he replied, bored. "You had already thrown up the barrier."
"So I saved your ass, basically."
Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow. "Hardly," he sneered.
"I'll take down this barrier," she warned.
"I wish you would—standing here is wasteful and pointless."
Pause. Then:
"Oh shut up."
Kagome turned her attention back to the taijiya staring at them on the other side of her barrier. That was a surprise. She still had no idea how she'd managed to put one up, but she realized very quickly that it was highly unstable, and would remain up only as long as she held out her hands. This was raw power, and it was a little scary.
"Sesshoumaru?" she asked.
"What?" He did not sound thrilled.
"I don't think I can do what you want me to."
He didn't respond for a long time.
"Miko, I did not bring you with me to think. I brought you with me to purify, and you can do that well enough."
She screwed her eyes shut and abruptly let her hands fall to her sides, feeling her annoyance build to heights hitherto unknown. She turned and faced him and fixed him with a look that was eerily similar to his. He raised an eyebrow.
"You," she said slowly, enunciating carefully, "are the most narcissistic son of a bitch I have ever met and I hope you die. TODAY."
It was a rather impressive death wish, as far as mikos were concerned. Fate, however, seemed determined not to deliver:
"HIRAIKOTSU!"
"Not again!" Kagome yelled, turning and once again putting up a barrier. "I'm trying to win an argument over here! Stop interfering, damn it!"
"Stop putting up a barrier!" Sesshoumaru snapped. "It merely invites them to try and break through."
"Oh and I suppose you have a better idea?"
"Of course."
She stared at him, then looked horrified. She would have looked comical if she wasn't so infuriating.
"You are NOT killing those people!" she yelled at him.
"And your way is conducive to results?" he said, staring pointedly at her hands.
"I won't let you!"
That brought him up short, and he stared at her in disbelief.
"Are you truly so stupid, woman?" he asked at long last. "Do you honestly believe every foolish word that flies out of your mouth?"
"That's it!" Kagome pulled her hands away from the barrier and it died. She cracked her knuckles, then allowed her anger to tap into her ki and her hands began glowing. "I'm going to purify you, you arrogant bastard, and then I'm going to do a happy dance all over your ashes and then I'm going home!"
Sesshoumaru forgot about the taijiya and focused his attention on the miko. He was going to have to kill her, and then find a new miko. It made him furious, after all the trouble he'd gone through. Hell, he'd kept her alive long enough to kill her, that was all. He should have allowed her to die by the river instead of helping her. Desperation drove a youkai to do strange and unnatural things, but accepting disrespect from a human was NOT one of them.
She leapt at him and Sesshoumaru ducked out of the way and she slammed into the ground. She lifted herself up onto her knees and shook her head, then stumbled to her feet. As she was going to turn around, though, she saw something move in the trees and stopped. She watched as the male taijiya appeared and suddenly let a strange, mace-like object loose. At the same moment, the female hurled the boomerang, yelling,
"HIRAIKOTSU!"
"Shit," Kagome growled, leaping down onto the ground again. The mace-thing sailed over her head, just barely missing her. She felt the Hiraikotsu whistle through the air behind her, and she peeked around and saw that Sesshoumaru had disappeared. She scrambled to her feet and saw him floating up in the air on a cloud of youki, his face the picture of bored distain.
"I'll make you sorry if you kill them!" she yelled up at him. "They might know where Sango-chan and Miroku-sama are, and if you kill them before I can ask—"
"Who are you, Miko?" the male taijiya bellowed, and Kagome yelped and turned around.
He had stepped out of the woods and was frowning at her. He was closer now, and she could see him more clearly. There was something familiar there, in the shape of his face and the twist of his mouth. He sort of reminded her of….
"Do you know where I can find Sango, the taijiya?" she asked. "She traveled with a fire neko, Kirara?"
The young man looked startled. "How can you know of Obaa-san?" he asked.
Kagome felt her jaw go slack.
"'Obaa-san'?" she parroted.
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
An hour later, Kagome and Sesshoumaru had followed the two taijiya to a rather large village several miles outside of the other village closer to Toutousai's mountain.
"This way, the youkai we fight around here won't harm the villagers," the girl, Gin, told them.
Kagome nodded dumbly; Sesshoumaru didn't respond at all.
Her brother, Kin, glanced at the silent demon. It had taken some serious convincing on Kagome's part to prevent the siblings from meeting a painful end courtesy of the pissy Lord of the Western Lands. Obviously, there were still some doubts.
Their appearance caused something of a sensation to go through the taijiya village. People took one look at Sesshoumaru and did one of two things: they either ran screaming for their weapons…or they ran screaming for the head man. Kagome sighed.
"Someone hates me," she muttered.
"I'll give you one guess who," Sesshoumaru said dryly.
She scowled at him. "I wasn't talking about you, your highness," she snapped.
"How perceptive of you, Miko. Perhaps you aren't as dim-witted as I previously thought."
"Go to hell."
"Make me."
"Gladly," she said, her ki beginning to glow.
A voice stopped her from attempting to purify the demon at her side:
"What have you got there, Kin-kun?" came an authoritative voice, and Kagome looked around and saw a tall man in dark blue monk's robes blocking the way. He held a very familiar shakujou in one hand, its brass rings chiming softly in the breeze, just as they always had. He was eyeing them with suspicion, and Kagome almost wept with joy: it was Miroku, right down to the expression.
"Miroku?" she asked, voice shy and tentative.
The man looked startled—he actually dropped his staff—and he stared at her, dumbstruck.
"Who?" the man asked.
"Miroku-sama," Kagome said, less sure now; she was getting weird looks from the people gathered around them.
"Ojisan, the miko asked for Obaa-san," Kin said, bowing before his uncle.
Kin's uncle looked from his nephew to Kagome.
"Miko-sama, step forward."
Kagome sent Sesshoumaru a worried look. He merely returned her gaze, expression telling her nothing. She sighed, hoping he wouldn't be petty enough to let her get killed over a little purification threat, and walked toward the man.
The closer she got him, the clearer it became that this man was NOT Miroku; there were streaks of gray at his temples that she hadn't seen in her excitement, wrinkles where there had never been wrinkles before. Her eyes clouded with tears, and by the time she was standing in front of him, the world was nothing more than blurred shapes and colors that bled into each other.
The man tilted his head. Kagome sniffed.
"Miko-sama, why do you weep?" he asked, voice kind, if a little bemused.
"You're not Miroku-sama…are you?" she asked, voice cracking.
He watched her silently, then shook his head.
"No. I am Mamoru. Miroku was my father's name."
"And Sango…?"
"My mother's name."
Kagome smiled through her tears.
"Where…are they?" she managed to choke out. She was wringing her hands before her.
Mamoru reached out and gently took her hands in his. They were warm and rough with calluses, and Kagome looked down at them. The tears in her eyes finally spilled out and ran down her cheeks.
"Okaa-san died twenty-two years ago," he said softly, and Kagome's back stiffened as pain ripped through her. "Otou-san followed her ten years later." He squeezed gently. "I'm sorry, Miko-sama."
She was really dumb sometimes—how could she have forgotten that time hadn't stood still on the other side of the well? That more than half a century had passed since she'd last been there, with her friends, battling Naraku and saving the world?
She felt cold and small and isolated, as if the world around her had faded into nothingness and left her behind. It wasn't quite the numbing nothingness that had assailed her upon learning of Inuyasha's death because she could still feel the wretched ache in her chest, where her heart used to be, before everyone she'd loved and cared about in this era had died….
She reached out blindly, not sure exactly what she was looking for, and warm hands pulled her into a comforting embrace and held her there while the tears rolled silently down her cheeks. It was too much. Too much death, too much grief…too much, too close together.
"Were they happy?" she managed to say, voice shaking.
She heard the grin in his voice when he replied,
"Buddha smiled down on them, Miko-sama."
