WARNING: Again, this chapter has a queasy scene, so anyone with a weak constitution might want to refrain from reading that particular scene, which I have made a note of.


Disclaimer: see Chapters One through Nine
Words to Know:

senshi: warrior

fusuma: sliding doors, usually extensively decorated

tansu: chest of drawers

shoji: sliding screen doors, usually found separating rooms, as opposed to fusuma, which are generally used as hall doors

andon: lampstand

shika: deer

tatami: Japanese straw floor coverings; also used to measure the size of a room

-san: the standard, all-purpose honorific; roughly equivalent to the English "Mr/Mrs"

kayu: a watery, rice gruel, soft cooked rice that resembles oatmeal. It's easy on the digestion and as such is often given to the sick

seiza: formal way of sitting, wherein one kneels and sits on one's heels, more or less, and the elbows are drawn close to the body giving the person seated a stiff appearance

tekko: wrist and arm guards/covers

doumo: thanks, casual version of "Thank you very much"

domburi: a dish of cooked rice with some other food on top of it, usually some kind of meat, seafood and vegetables


Chapter Thirteen: Building A Mystery

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'Cause now I see,

You are not what you seem to be,

You are a mystery to me—

Sometimes I just want to scream

"Ragdoll"/ Maroon 5

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They continued westward, and continued coming upon villages that had been attacked and annihilated. Kagome continued burying the dead. Sesshoumaru continued not helping. It became their new routine, their new rhythm.

Kagome had never despised order so passionately in her life.

She stopped suddenly, and threw her bow onto the ground. Luckily, it merely bounced before toppling over onto the dirt. Ahead of her, Sesshoumaru stopped and looked over his shoulder, mildly irritated and wondering what was wrong now; they were officially in his domain, and they would be reaching his shiro within the next two or three days. He despised walking, anxious as he was to get back to his ancestral home and make sure it was still standing, but to move any faster, he'd have to carry the miko, either physically or on his cloud of youki. It wouldn't do to be attacked while he was "holding" the woman, since he would have to care what happened to her, and he knew that his enemy's minions were lurking in the forests of his realm, waiting for an opportune moment to attack him. He knew he wouldn't be killed; that would have ruined the twisted delight his enemy took in their grim conflict. But he would certainly be badly wounded, and that wasn't a possibility at this point, not when he was so close.

"What now?" he asked, voice tinged with annoyance.

"I'm tired of death!" she yelled back, stamping her foot.

He stared at her, then slowly blinked. She had her fists balled at her sides like a child having a tantrum. She was glaring at him as if he was the cause of her present distress, and all in all looked like a mutinous little girl who had been denied a bedtime story. It was an image that disturbed his peace and stirred remembrances. So he did what seemed like the most logical course of action:

"Shut up and keep walking you insufferable chit."

Her glare deepened. "Go fuck yourself."

"Fortunately for me that is physically impossible," he replied, eyes narrowing, "and unfortunately for you, I do not take kindly to disrespect."

"You can't know how little I care what you do or do not take kindly to, Asshole," Kagome shot back.

"As a matter of fact, I do know—about as little as I care what you care about," Sesshoumaru returned. "You've wasted enough of my time. Now walk, bitch, or gods help me, I'll make you."

Kagome stalked up to him, stuck her face in his and glared at him in challenge.

"Go ahead, make me," she taunted.

Sesshoumaru grabbed her, but immediately let go when he ki flared to life, illuminating her hands in a manner most threatening.

"Oh, so you wish to make this more difficult for yourself?" he asked.

"Nope—I'm in the mood to blow off some steam, and you're the handiest target," Kagome said, abruptly drawing her sword and swinging.

Sesshoumaru dodged and drew Toukijin. They had never used live swords before, less for her own protection than his. The demon lord, for all that his pupil had learned, didn't believe for a moment that she was ready to use a sword that wasn't fake. But it seemed that decision was out of his hands now—it was draw or get the hell carved out of his hide, and he wasn't keen on the latter option in the least.

The swords clashed, the steel crashing loudly, and the two opposite energies met violently, Toukijin's blue light colliding against the miko sword's white light. The violent force of the clash pushed them back, away from each other, the opposite energies repelling each other. Sesshoumaru felt as surprised as Kagome looked; she was holding her sword out in front of her, in the exact same position she'd been in when the weapons had met, staring at her blade in astonishment. Both weapons, still glowing threateningly, were smoking.

"That can't be good," he murmured, eyeing Toukijin's shining edge. He abruptly sheathed his sword, then looked at the miko, who appeared to have gotten over her surprise and was now glaring at him in vivid hate. "Play-time is over, Miko."

"I'm not finished, Dickhead!" she roared rather Inuyasha-like, and somewhere not too far away, her belligerent reply caused a flock of birds to scatter from their tree-top perch.

His eyes narrowed and he leapt at her, moving too fast for her to make him out. He grabbed her wrist and twisted, forcing her to let go of her sword, which was beginning to shake violently.

"Control it or I snap your hand off," he said darkly, his gaze pinning hers.

"I don't feel like it," she returned, voice dangerously low.

"Too bad," he replied, twisting a little bit more, just enough to convince her that he had every intention of making good on his threat. And he did: his beast still hungered for the miko's life blood, still wanted to hear her scream. And even though he was able to fight the beast back, it was becoming harder and harder to ignore and deny his instincts as a youkai. It really would be so much easier to grab her by the neck and slit her throat….

The more she watched him, the more Kagome became convinced that something was terribly wrong inside the demon before her. His youki was gathering around him, but not to protect him, the way it usually did when their tempers got the better of them (which was happening increasingly as the days went by). No, this wasn't defensive, for lack of a better term—it was offensive.

"Fine," she snapped, willing the sword to fall silent even as her ki hummed around her, gathering, waiting for a battle.

The demon lord let go of her wrist—he seemed almost reluctant—turned and walked away from her. Kagome leaned down and picked up her sword, then straightened and shut her eyes, her hand tightening on the sword hilt spastically.

"Miko," Sesshoumaru's voice lashed out, impatient and pissed.

So Kagome did what seemed like the most logical course of action: she screamed, a loud, wordless yell into which she poured all her frustration and anger and hate and despair and grief and guilt, and she screamed until she ran out of breath.

She stood there for a second, shaking and panting, then sheathed her sword and walked forward, stooping down briefly to pick up her bow. It had not been quite the release she had been hoping for, but it was going to have to do for now.

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(SKIP THIS IF YOU'RE SQUEAMISH)

Of course, it got worse before it got better, but Kagome hadn't thought it could get much worse than the slaughtering of villages.

So much for a miko's intuition.

Her first clue that something foul was afoot was Sesshoumaru. He had been walking along quite fluidly, managing to walk fast without looking as if he was, when he'd started to slow down and sniff the air every now and again. Kagome had learned to dread his catching a scent—it invariably led to lifeless, butchered bodies. But he kept walking, and didn't say anything. That was new; he usually said something appropriately macabre, like, "Death," or "Blood." She began to think that perhaps they were past the death and gore.

Not quite, Fate said, and once more forcibly reminded Kagome exactly where she was.

Sesshoumaru stopped all of a sudden, and Kagome stopped just behind him, wondering what was wrong. And that was when she caught the metallic scent of blood hanging thick in the air. But there was something different about the smell this time, a stifling, sickening heaviness to it…like something rotting in the sun. Her stomach knotting, Kagome edged around Sesshoumaru slowly and peeked out from behind him, dread choking her. The forest floor ahead of her was saturated with black blood. It had obviously been sitting there for quite some time…as had the dismembered bodies.

Kagome gagged, pressed the back of her hand to her mouth, eyes wide with horror and face white. It was impossible to tell how many people had been killed here; their bodies had been ripped apart and scattered about, and the carrion beasts had been picking at what was left. The longer she stared, the more she took in: blood spatter on the tree trunks; bits of bone peeking out of the congealed gore on the forest floor; bits of brain sticking to bloody leaves and bark—it had taken her a while to identify it, but she had dissected a sheep's brain in college and it was an experience one tended not to forget, particularly if one was nauseous throughout the entire procedure.

"Oh gods," she whimpered, gagging again.

"Not here they aren't," Sesshoumaru said darkly. He walked farther, stopping just short of the gore, the tips of his immaculate boots just shy of being soiled. "One of my patrols," he said after a moment, voice emotionless.

"Oh gods, I'm sorry," Kagome whispered, pressing her hand tighter against her mouth in a desperate bid not to throw up.

He didn't seem to hear her. He stood there for a moment, as if observing something as mundane as grass growing, then turned and walked back to her. He grabbed her about the waist and leapt up into the air without warning, and Kagome held onto him for dear life and shut her eyes tightly, her stomach still threatening to rebel.

Oh gods, please don't let me throw up on him, she prayed desperately.

(SQUEAMISHNESS DANGER PAST)

It took her several minutes to settle herself, but she refused to loosen her grip on him or open her eyes; if she was going to fall out of the sky to her death, she'd prefer not to see it, thank you very much.

"You just left them there," she said finally.

"It was where I found them," he returned, voice still emotionless.

His callousness appalled her.

"Sesshoumaru!" She finally opened her eyes and looked over at him. "They were murdered like animals—no, worse! How can you just leave them behind like that, no prayers for their souls or anything? They died for you!"

He finally met her gaze, and if he hadn't had her tucked under his arm, she would have shrunken back, away from him. His eyes were so detached, so empty, so dead, that she felt cold inside. This was different from the way he used to look. When she'd been younger, he'd been frightening because he was so emotionless, as if he lacked a conscience. Now, he was frightening because she looked into his eyes, and saw nothing reflected back at her—still no emotion, but now no soul, either.

"And that's exactly what they were supposed to do," he said, voice so impassive that it raised goose bumps on her body.

And that's exactly what she was supposed to do too.

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The man—demon—might have been a cold, ruthless bastard, but Kagome had to admit: he had some swanky digs.

The House of the Moon was a shiro rising defiantly from the side of a mountain. In fact, the five story pagoda, the tallest structure in the compound, rose up into the sky like a very elegant finger that plainly said, "Fuck you."

It appeared that either Sesshoumaru or his father had opted against tradition and had chosen not to have more than two white plaster walls surrounding the House of the Moon. The smaller of the two surrounded the palace proper, five low buildings and the pagoda—all of which stood slightly off center—while the larger one encircled various other buildings of various shapes, designs and sizes dotting the expansive grounds. There were three small towers of more or less equal distances from each other interrupting the continuity of the wall, which also held the main gate.

Kagome spied a huge garden complex just behind the palace proper. The palace itself was an impressive structure of three stories with many roof layers and combinations of shapes, as was the pagoda and the towers. Together, the five structures created an awe-inspiring effect as one approached, and the white plaster and gray roof tiles added to the shiro's overall beauty.

Sesshoumaru landed before the massive stone wall protecting the approach. The doors were enormous, and crafted of some kind of metal; Kagome saw the reflection of the sun off them. He set her down before the doors, then lifted a hand and brought it down sharply. Kagome winced: it was a lucky thing he wasn't human, or the force of that blow would have broken his hand. She noticed, now that she was standing before it, that the gate had been abused, as had the wall it was embedded in—there were deep gouges in the plaster, and the metal was dented in several places.

"Your wall's looking a little worse for wear," she commented, looking back at him.

"It's to be expected," was the reply as the doors slowly opened.

Gaunt, nervous faces—youkai faces—greeted them. Kagome was stunned; these people looked half dead from exhaustion. And they looked so happy to see Sesshoumaru …until they saw her, that is.

Kagome knew that hatred of humans among youkai wasn't at all uncommon; Sesshoumaru was a paradigm of that hatred, not an anomaly. She had encountered that reaction among youkai often during the two years she'd spent with Inuyasha. But it had been a long time since she'd come face to face with that hostility, and Kagome's memory of wrongs done her had never been very good—she had always preferred to remember pleasant things.

The expressions on the youkai faces upon seeing her froze for a second, shock etched onto haunted features, and then already stiff muscles stiffened further, and cold hatred, an old animosity, rose up into their eyes when they looked at her. She tried not to be offended. Youkai and humans had been at odds for centuries—it had been idiocy for her think for even a second that she would be accepted among them without issue or complaint.

"Hi," she said weakly.

Sesshoumaru glanced over his shoulder at her, then at his senshi, and seemed to realize what she already had.

"Follow me, Miko—we have much to discuss," he said, stepping through the gate.

Kagome stared after him, stunned that he hadn't acknowledged his senshi at all; they stared after him as well, also stunned, though their surprise had more to do with their lord and master inviting—more or less—a human who was also a miko into the House of the Moon.

"My life just gets progressively weirder," Kagome murmured, rubbing her forehead, as she walked after him.

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"Sesshoumaru-sama! You've returned!" Jaken gushed, bowing lowly as his lord passed through the doors to his study. The retainer's euphoria died, however, when he saw the human woman in miko garb three steps behind his master.

Jaken and the rest of his advisors were the only people Sesshoumaru had informed of his plan to use Inuyasha's miko to defeat their mysterious enemy. So he wasn't really surprised that the woman was there. That she was still so young, yes, but not that she was there. He just wasn't pleased with the idea of another human in the shiro. It felt blasphemous, as if the woman were trying to usurp Rin's place, and Jaken had grown fond of his young charge; he had been just as devastated by her abrupt demise as his lord, though looking at Sesshoumaru, one would never have guessed that he'd been at all affected.

Jaken eyed the woman balefully. She was very thin and pale and her clothing was dirty. All in all, she didn't look as though the trip had been at all easy for her. She looked down and saw him before he could turn away, and Jaken was struck by the pathos in her eyes. It startled him, quite frankly, and he held her gaze for several beats longer than he would have had he not made eye contact.

Sesshoumaru stopped short upon stepping into his study. There was someone waiting for him. The unknown visitor glanced over his shoulder, then turned fully and faced the taiyoukai. Sesshoumaru was immediately wary; he didn't recognize this person or his scent…in fact, the youkai didn't seem to have one, as far as Sesshoumaru could tell. He only knew the man was youkai because of his youki, and pointed ears and crimson eyes.

And fangs, Sesshoumaru added, his eyes narrowed, as the youkai smiled.

"Ah, Sesshoumaru-sama," the youkai said, bowing lowly.

Kagome tore her gaze from Jaken's at the sound of the youkai's voice, her pale face blanching further as a familiar wave of youki suddenly hit her. Oh gods…. She looked for the source of the voice and youki, and her blue-gray gaze clashed with a crimson one she'd never seen before. The owner of the eyes smiled wider.

"Kagome," he said, bowing again, his gaze never leaving her.

Kagome's breath hitched audibly in her chest.

Sesshoumaru's eyes whipped to the woman standing just behind him, to his right. She looked as though she'd seen a ghost. His eyes returned to the youkai before him. He should have fucking guessed:

"You loathsome son of a bitch," Sesshoumaru snarled quietly, barely able to keep from baring his fangs.

The youkai's smile widened, but his eyes remained fixed on Kagome, who had begun to gather her ki.

"Little miko," the youkai murmured, and Kagome flinched violently at the endearment. "It's been far too long, hasn't it?"

"Shut up," Kagome said, voice shaking. She was so wrought up, Sesshoumaru couldn't tell if her voice was shaking because she was frightened or because she was angry.

The youkai tutted, and began walking toward her. Kagome stiffened and began to edge closer to Sesshoumaru, who had his hand on Toukijin and was just waiting for the right moment to draw his weapon.

"Ah ah ah," the youkai said, shaking a finger in mocking reproach. "You stay right where you are, little miko. Sesshoumaru-sama isn't going to be helping little useless you."

Sesshoumaru felt something change in the miko's aura. It took him a second to figure out what he was picking up on: she was angry. Pissed, even.

"I'm not useless, asshole," Kagome said through gritted teeth.

The youkai chuckled, still drawing ever closer.

"Ooo, this little miko has claws. How amusing. But tell me, little miko: what can a copy do that the original couldn't do hundreds of times better?"

"You shut the fuck up!" Kagome bellowed, her entire body exploding into blinding white light.

The youkai threw back his head and began laughing again. And Sesshoumaru decided it was now or never. Because if he didn't do something fast, the miko might just purify everyone. She had gotten better at controlling her ki—she could pretty much use it at will nowadays—but she wasn't anywhere near containing it. In a blur too quick to follow, he drew Toukijin and sliced through the youkai. The youkai melted into smoke and dissipated into the air before their eyes. His laughter, however, echoed through the room all around them, maliciously mocking.

Sesshoumaru sheathed his sword and looked around at Kagome. Her ki had receded and she was slumped on the floor, shaking. He felt his annoyance grow: the stupid bitch had used too much energy.

"Jaken," Sesshoumaru snapped, though his voice was quiet.

The toad started out of his stupor and tore his gaze from the miko to his lord as he scrambled to stand by him.

"Sesshoumaru-sama?"

"Escort the miko to a chamber. Make sure she eats something and rests. Then, bring her here."

"Immediately Sesshoumaru-sama," the toad said, bowing lowly. Jaken ventured hesitantly to the miko's side. "Human, on your feet."

She stayed where she was as if she hadn't heard him.

"Get up Miko," Sesshoumaru said, his voice dark with menace. Jaken shivered at the tone, more afraid of his lord at that particular moment than he'd been for several decades…but it got the woman moving. She got to her feet unsteadily and followed Jaken meekly out of the study, the fusuma sliding shut quietly behind them.

Sesshoumaru stood there for a moment, then slowly walked to his desk, circled around behind it and wearily dropped down onto the pillow with a sigh. He leaned his elbows on the gleaming wood, interlaced his fingers before his mouth. He stared ahead at nothing in silence for a long while.

"And so it begins," he murmured.

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The miko threw up when she got to the chamber. Lucky for her—and Jaken—there was a pot in the adjoining room for nocturnal calls of nature.

Jaken listened to her retch, at a loss as to what he should do. It had been over fifty years since he'd dealt with the delicate human constitution, and he hadn't really been much help way back then either, unless being helpful included fetching human healers, in which case he'd been a godsend.

She stumbled out of the adjoining room and collapsed onto the bed, a futon on a raised platform. Jaken watched her, then cleared his throat.

"Er…are you hungry?" he asked politely.

"No," the woman weakly returned. "Just…no."

The little retainer scratched his head, then shrugged. True, Sesshoumaru-sama had said she was to eat first and rest later, but there was nothing that said that particular order of operation was written in stone. Let the woman do what she pleased…especially after the frightening display of power he'd witnessed.

"Very well then. I shall return in two hours with food." he announced importantly, then slid the door shut before she could protest. He waddled down the hallway frowning. It was not often that he doubted his lord, but Jaken had an uneasy feeling about the miko.

"Nothing good can come of this," the toad glumly predicted.

Kagome, meanwhile, pushed herself onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. Her stomach was still twisting and roiling like a fish in her body, and she was sweating and shaking. Well that had been a GROSS miscalculation on her part.

She couldn't remember the last time her ki had made her sick—in fact, she couldn't remember a time when her ki had made her sick, period. She wasn't sure if her being so physically exhausted, or if the evil rolling off the youkai apparition, had caused such an adverse reaction, but she was hoping it was her current state of health (or more accurately, unhealth). If it wasn't, she was going to be in big trouble when it came time for her to face Sesshoumaru's enemy. Just an apparition had made her violently ill—the real thing would undoubtedly be far more potent.

Despite her worries and her shaking and general unwellness, Kagome drifted off into dreamless sleep, her exhaustion finally overcoming her. It seemed as though she'd only just closed her eyes when she felt someone gently shaking her and quietly saying,

"Miko-sama? Miko-sama, you must wake up now."

She opened bleary eyes. The world was a blur of darkness and light. Kagome rubbed her eyes and her vision cleared: the light was coming in from the hallway. She sat up groggily, rubbing her head; a headache, mild but irritating, had set in while she slept.

"Where the hell am I?" Kagome asked, disoriented. She looked around and saw a demoness in a pale kimono, with caramel-colored hair and luminous green eyes, kneeling at the bed's edge, watching her.

"You are in the Lord of the Western Lands' shiro," the demoness answered, voice still quiet.

Kagome stared at her blankly, then looked around the room. It was quite spacious, actually, with a kimono tansu on the far side of the room next to the shoji that led to the adjoining room. There was a vanity with beveled mirror against the wall directly opposite the now open fusuma, and there was a low table on one side of the raised platform that held the futon she was sitting on, an andon on the other side of the platform. Against the same wall as the futon and end table and andon sat a large metal brazier for cool nights. Kagome's eyes returned to the demoness, still kneeling placidly by the bed, still watching her.

"I forgot where I was," she said, voice rusty. She smiled absently. "For a split second, I thought I was home again, with Mama and Jii-chan and Souta…." Kagome shook herself, realizing what she was saying and to whom. She smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry—you can't possible care about any of that."

The demoness looked faintly surprised, but only for a moment; then her face settled back into smooth lines.

"Sesshoumaru-sama has ordered that you be fed, Miko-sama—" the demoness began.

"Uh, actually, you can call me Kagome," the miko interrupted.

The demoness was once again staring at her in surprise. "I'm sorry?" she said finally.

"Uh…well, I just said," Kagome began, plucking at her haori sleeve, "that, you know, you could call me…by my…name…Kagome. My name's Kagome." She smiled nervously at the other woman, who continued to stare at her. After several seconds, Kagome began to squirm—gods above, what the hell was wrong? Was there drool on her chin or something?

"So," Kagome said, the word coming out louder than she'd meant for it to. The demoness flinched at the higher volume, which caused Kagome to flinch. "Sorry," she apologized, "I was just going to ask what your name was."

Now the demoness was staring at her in open-mouthed astonishment. And Kagome was beginning to feel like a bug under a microscope.

Oh man, why is she staring at me like that? Did I do something dumb? Did I say something dumb? It was probably that one. Crap. What did I say? 'Call me Kagome'—that's not really dumb…unless it's against the rules. Is it against the rules? That might explain why she's staring at me like I grew another head…unless I actually did grow another head….

Kagome discreetly felt her neck for any abnormal growths. Ordinarily, she wouldn't have bothered checking, secure as she was in the normalcy of her life. Then again, nothing about the past several weeks could be, in any form or fashion, described as remotely ordinary or normal.

The demoness' voice jerked Kagome out of her worried thoughts:

"Yuki," she said, voice ringing with absolute wonder.

"Oh, that's a pretty name," Kagome said, immediately forgetting that she might have possibly grown a second head. "Are you an elemental youkai?"

Yuki's lips quirked, but she shook her head. "No, Miko-sama. I am a shika youkai. I was named for the snow that fell at my birth."

"Oh," Kagome returned. "That's nice. I don't remember what the weather was like when I was born. I think I was born around sunset, so maybe it doesn't really matter, since, you know, technically, weather isn't really important at night…unless you're outside at night, then you really want to know, you know?"

The two women stared at each other in silence after Kagome's rambling ended. Then Yuki seemed to shake herself. She turned to the tray sitting on the tatami mat beside her that Kagome hadn't noticed until just now.

"I've brought you something to eat, Miko—"

"Kagome," Kagome said softly. "I'd appreciate it if you called me by my name, Yuki-san."

Yuki looked over her shoulder at Kagome and met her pleading gaze. After a second, the demoness nodded.

"If you wish it…Kagome-sama."

Kagome smiled gratefully at her, and something compelled the demoness to smile back.

The miko joined the demoness on the floor, and Yuki handed Kagome a hot cup of tea, which the latter accepted gratefully. She sipped the tea, eyeing the tray of food curiously all the while.

"I thought youkai didn't eat human food," she remarked, glancing up at the other woman.

Yuki smiled and uncovered a bowl of kayu soup.

"Some human food," Yuki corrected. "Naturally, we have our own tastes, but in recent centuries, human food has become quite palatable, and many youkai are no longer so adverse to serving and consuming it."

Kagome grinned to herself. "Wait about five centuries more," she murmured; Yuki didn't hear her, intent as she was on setting the food out properly.

Kagome ate slowly. Her stomach still clenched viciously every now and again, but it was no longer tossing and turning the way it had earlier, so she wasn't particularly concerned about throwing up anymore.

"Just out of curiosity, Yuki-san," Kagome said as she handed the demoness her empty bowl, "did Sesshoumaru assign you as my personal…er…I guess…maid?"

Yuki looked at Kagome in surprise.

"What?" Kagome brilliantly returned upon noticing the look.

"I have never heard anyone refer to my lord with such familiarity," Yuki said, giving Kagome a look of mild reproach.

"I've never called him anything but Sesshoumaru," Kagome replied. She shrugged. "It's the same way Inuyasha referred to him, so I didn't see the harm in it. Besides, he was really quite rude the first time I met him—he tried to kill me." Kagome frowned. "Not that that's changed much," she added after a second.

"You knew…the hanyou?" Yuki asked, stunned.

Now it was Kagome's turn to send Yuki a look of reproach:

"His name was, is, and always will be, Inuyasha—NOT 'the hanyou'." the miko said firmly, quietly, the light in her eyes fierce.

Yuki watched her in wonder.

"You aren't like any human I've ever seen…you aren't like any miko I've ever heard of," she said, voice a whisper.

Kagome couldn't tell if that was a good thing or not.

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Kagome went stiff with shock:

"What?" she asked, voice taut with disbelief.

Yuki paused in her ministrations and glanced down at the miko's face.

"I said, the only other human I've ever met is Sesshoumaru-sama's groundskeeper."

Kagome sat motionless, brain processing this information.

Yuki had agreed with her when Kagome had suggested that she should bathe before going back to Sesshoumaru, and the demoness had insisted on helping the young miko, saying that Kagome looked very frail. At that pronouncement, Kagome had gotten worried. She had never been especially hardy, not like Sango, but she had never been called frail in her life, not even by her worst critic, Inuyasha. Then again, she'd never been thrown so much all at once either. The deaths of her friends had been more than enough separately; together…well, she'd already gotten through the worst of it. She hoped.

Despite the way Kagome had hit it off with the demoness, she was still a little hesitant about letting the woman assist her with her bath. Really, the last time she'd been assisted in a bath, she had been ten and very ill with a virus that had been going around her school. And her mother had been the one helping her. For all her surprising kindness and thoughtfulness, Yuki was NOT Kagome's mother by any stretch of the imagination.

So, to make the arrangement less embarrassing, Kagome had asked Yuki more about herself, where her family was, did she have any brothers or sisters, where had she been born, how much contact had she had with humans…the last one leading to the very surprising information that Sesshoumaru, apparently, had a human man in his employ. Wonder of wonders.

"How long has he been here? The human?" Kagome asked as Yuki washed her hair.

"Oh…quite some time. I've only been here thirty years. He was working here at least ten years before that…probably more. He's a strange one. No one really pays him any mind, least of all Sesshoumaru-sama."

"Gods, if he's been here that long, he must be an old man by now…or close to it," Kagome murmured thoughtfully.

"He looks like he'd keel over and die at any moment," Yuki affirmed. "Close your eyes."

Kagome obediently shut her eyes and the demoness poured water over her head and rinsed the soap out of her hair, then reached out and lifted wet chunks of hair out of her charge's face, adding,

"You may open your eyes now."

Kagome did, blinking.

"Sesshoumaru hiring a human groundskeeper," she said as the conversation hadn't been interrupted, shaking her head as Yuki began soaping up a swatch of cloth. "I never thought I'd see the day…."

"Sesshoumaru-sama," Yuki automatically corrected, even though, by now, she was beginning to realize that the miko wasn't going to be reverting to such reverent language when referring to her lord any time soon. "And my lord never hired the human."

"What?" Kagome asked again, turning around to stare at the demoness, obviously flabbergasted by that news.

"The human was never hired," Yuki repeated.

"I don't understand," Kagome returned, frowning.

Yuki shrugged, then took hold of the miko's shoulder and made her face forward. She began scrubbing the young woman's neck, shoulders and back as she said,

"To be honest, no one does. The human and Sesshoumaru-sama seem to have some sort of agreement, but no one has the faintest idea as to what it could be, especially since my lord so obviously despises the human. It's very strange. Sesshoumaru-sama could have killed the human at any time over the years, but he hasn't. It's as if he refuses to."

"Maybe he's a really great groundskeeper?" Kagome volunteered. "It looked like he was doing a pretty good job, what little I was able to catch."

Yuki paused and cocked her head, thoughtful. "Perhaps. Good help is hard to find, and the grounds, so I've been told, have never been lovelier. But I doubt that, somehow."

Kagome finished her bath and dried off, with Yuki's interference, then got into the dark blue haori and hakama she'd gotten from Mine-sama in Edo all those weeks ago. The miko and the demoness were quiet, each lost in their own thoughts, as Yuki combed Kagome's hair, meticulously unsnarling the knotted tresses.

"I'll make sure your clothing is washed immediately, Kagome-sama," Yuki said as she gathered the soiled white haori and red hakama…and tabi; Kagome was going to have to wear her zori barefoot, a new experience after the cushioning of the tabi.

"Arigatou," Kagome said with a bow.

Yuki inclined her head and turned to leave the bath house when Kagome stopped her:

"Er…you wouldn't happen to know where Sesshoumaru's study is, would you Yuki-san?"

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes as he listened to the miko fidget outside his study for the thousandth time in the ten minutes she'd been standing out in the hallway. Really, what was so difficult about asking for permission to enter a room? It wasn't especially taxing on one's mental faculties, which meant the baka wench ought to have had very little trouble with it.

"Miko," he said, and heard her wordless exclamation of surprise and the jump that accompanied it; he smiled sardonically for a moment, enjoying her surprise, "stop wasting my time and get in here."

The fusuma slid open and she appeared, looking nervous. She smelled a great deal better, and mentally, Sesshoumaru frowned. He'd been forced to postpone his own bath until every problem that had cropped up during his long absence had been attended to, or at least listened to. He expected he'd be clean again sometime tonight, if he was lucky.

He sighed at the thought of luck: he'd be foul-smelling and filthy for the rest of his life.

Kagome stepped into the room and slid the fusuma shut, then stood by it, her hands clasped demurely before her to hide her nervousness. She had no idea why she was so anxious, but she suspected that it was a feeling that she was going to become very familiar with for however long she'd be staying at Sesshoumaru's shiro.

Sesshoumaru was seated behind his desk, which seemed to have exploded: there were papers and scrolls littering the top of the once immaculate table. It had been the epitome of order and neatness when Kagome had briefly seen it hours earlier, and the chaos it was now in was so shocking she stared at it.

"Sit down," Sesshoumaru ordered, jerking her out of her stupor.

She walked to the desk and lowered herself to one of the two pillows sitting before the elegant table, for once too tired to sit seiza style, opting instead to fold into the more comfortable lotus position.

"Lots of work, huh?" she said, gesturing with her nose to the paper disorder.

"So it would seem," Sesshoumaru evenly returned. "We need to discuss how this is going to work, Miko."

Kagome sent him a blank look; Sesshoumaru sighed silently.

"Your role in this," he qualified.

The blank look left her face, to be replaced by one of practiced calm. It would have looked legitimate…if her eyes hadn't been shadowed by dread.

"You knew that youkai in here earlier was my enemy—how?"

Kagome lowered her eyes to the desktop.

"He has a particular…feel," she said quietly.

"Feel? His youki, you mean?"

"No…him. His presence. The air around him…bends…a sort of way."

Sesshoumaru eyed her. Outwardly, he looked as composed as ever. But inside, he was completely confused. What in the seven hells was this lunatic talking about?

As if she sensed his confusion, Kagome sighed wearily.

"Look, I don't know how to explain this," she told him, finally meeting his gaze. "I just…knew. I don't know why or how, but I did." She tilted her head to one side, suddenly thoughtful. "His youki's strange, different."

"How?" Sesshoumaru asked. He, too, had noticed a difference in the youkai's youki. There was something off about it, something not quite right.

"It's…evil," Kagome said, eyes on his.

"Evil." Sesshoumaru repeated, voice emotionless.

Kagome nodded. They stared at each other in silence.

"Explain," Sesshoumaru said finally.

"Youki has a certain feel," Kagome said slowly. "It's a chill that runs down my spine. It's creepy, but not necessarily threatening. Sort of like a warning. But his was a threat. It was still cold, but it was…so evil. He…I don't usually feel sick when I sense youki, but when I felt his I got so nauseous I thought I was going to pass out or throw up or both. I'd been feeling bad before, but when I sensed his youki I got sick." Her eyes flickered to the swords still at his hip. "Like Toukijin."

His eyebrow rose; so, her overuse of her ki hadn't been what had made her ill… interesting. Worrisome, but interesting…as was the news about her reaction to Toukijin, something he hadn't ever picked up on.

"Toukijin makes you feel ill?"

"Sometimes," Kagome admitted. "Only when it starts to glow. Then I feel the evil in it."

Sesshoumaru seemed to process this, narrowed eyes setting on something past her head as he thought.

"I sensed something was amiss," he murmured, more to himself than to her. "There was something wrong, something not right…this is an entirely new sort of youkai I'm dealing with." His eyes refocused and returned to her. "Could you get a feel for what sort of youkai he was?"

Kagome shook her head, and Sesshoumaru frowned…until she timidly offered,

"But I could probably locate his youki."

His eyes widened a fraction as he watched the young woman seated before him, her expression solemn.

"Are you sure?"

"It's pretty unique," Kagome said. "I've never felt anything like it, and you said he was a new kind of youkai, so I'm assuming he's one of a kind, so to speak. I don't think it would be that hard."

"Can you pick it up now?"

Kagome shook her head. "No. But I think that with a little more practice, I could find it easy."

They sat in quiet for a long while, each lost in his or her own thoughts. Then, Sesshoumaru let out a long breath.

"So be it, then."

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

Kagome found herself in the garden several hours later, her head pounding and her vision blurry.

She had met with Sesshoumaru's commander, a half elemental, half wolf demon named Rai. He was a serious fellow, tall and lean, like Kouga had been (and speaking of Kouga, where had that wolf gotten to, anyway?), with gray hair that lay in a long braid down his back and silver eyes. He didn't say much, and when he did, his voice was quiet and rough, as if his throat was lined with sandpaper. He had sent her one inscrutable look upon entering, and then he'd devoted all of his attention to his lord, standing tall, relaxed but at the same time alert, with his hands clasped behind his back.

He wore the standard apparel of a professional youkai senshi, armor of leather and bone and tough, three-quarter high boots into which he tucked his gray hakama. He tucked his dark blue haori sleeves into leather-covered tekko, and his sword was tucked safely into a black obi. All in all, he looked like a dependable senshi, a formidable commander.

Kagome had sat pretty much silent as Rai-sama and Sesshoumaru went over every skirmish that had occurred during the demon lord's absence. Then, it had been Rai-sama's turn to listen quietly as Sesshoumaru had explained her abilities to his commander, and the situation.

At long last, she'd been able to get out of the study, away from the business of business, for which she was much relieved. She even felt a little sorry for Sesshoumaru, stuck as he was with all the problems on his desk, waiting for his attention. He'd had a rough few weeks too, even though it had been his own fault, really.

The young miko wandered around the garden complex, glad to be outside. It was sundown, and the sky looked as though it were on fire. She took a moment to appreciate the view. She had forgotten how pure the sky was in this era, free of the pollution from decades of factory debris and motor exhaust. And here in the wilds of the Western Lands? It was even purer than the skies above Edo, if that was possible.

Once the sun had sunk down below the horizon, Kagome sighed and continued on through the garden. The light was rapidly disappearing, but luckily someone had lit the various stone lanterns scattered throughout the garden, close enough together to light the way but far enough apart so that they didn't look grouped. Kagome paused, realizing that someone had lit the lanterns…someone like a gardener…who was human. She immediately began looking around for a gardener-like person, but unfortunately, with the drawing night and her lack of a description, she didn't exactly know what she was looking for. The man was going to be old, that much she knew, and decidedly undemon-like, but that wasn't really much to go on. There were a lot of demons on Sesshoumaru's property who didn't look like demons until you stopped for a second glance.

Kagome soon found herself hopelessly lost.

"Damn garden with its damn path," she muttered, more nervous than angry. "Oh gods, my sense of direction sucks like hell! Why am I looking for this guy anyway?"

It was one of the stupider questions she'd asked in recent years. Pure curiosity had driven her to seek out this mysterious human man that Sesshoumaru kept around for no apparent reason. The only time she'd seen Sesshoumaru willingly consort with a human had been sixty years ago, and the human had been a cheery little girl. Kagome's steps slowed as she thought about Rin, her other incarnate.

After that one flash of memory at Toutousai's mountain forge, the girl had been curiously absent from Sesshoumaru's recollections, at least the few she'd seen before that frightening confrontation in the forest. Kagome thought it was curious because the girl had obviously been a huge part of Sesshoumaru's world. The emotion he'd showed in the memory of him standing over Inuyasha's body had been half because of the hanyou's death and half because of Rin's. Clearly, the girl had managed to carve out a warm little spot in the icy demon's heart.

Kagome smiled absently as she remembered Rin as she'd last seen her: a child of ten in a checkered kimono with a lopsided ponytail and a bright grin, a sad clutch of flowers in one small hand. The same flowers she'd given to the newly resurrected Kohaku. It was a heartbreaking memory.

She wandered around the garden for a while longer, Rin still on her mind, and then she caught light out of the corner of her eye and looked. This light was too high up to be one of the garden lanterns, she realized, and she began walking toward it, relieved to have found her way back to the palace. But when she finally got out of the gardens and found the light's source, she realized that she'd made a mistake: this was a modest, out-of-the-way hut, not Sesshoumaru's grand mansion.

"Oh this is fucking unbelievable," Kagome muttered with a weary sigh. She closed her eyes and shook her head, then sighed again and opened her eyes. "I hope somebody's home, because I need a guide," she said under her breath as she walked toward the hut with a purposeful stride.

She reached the hut and knocked on the doorjamb, unable to simply walk in unannounced.

"Hello? Is there anyone in here?" she called.

"Who's there?" a man's voice called, raspy with age.

"Please excuse me for disturbing you, but I've lost my way back to the palace," Kagome said, "and I haven't got the faintest idea how to get back. I was walking through the gardens, and I guess I took a bad turn or something and—"

The reed curtain was jerked back and Kagome jumped back out of the light, startled; she hadn't even heard the hut's inhabitant moving around.

A man stood in the doorway, the light at his back throwing his front into shadow. He was dressed in the standard peasant garb, and his white hair was tied back with a length of leather; beyond that, Kagome couldn't tell who or what he was. He seemed to watch her for a moment, then moved away from the doorway, allowing the curtain to fall back into place.

"Come inside," the man said. "I was just eating bangohan. You'll join me, and then I'll take you back to Sesshoumaru-sama."

"Doumo," Kagome returned, shouldering timidly past the bamboo curtain and entering the hut.

It too was a rather ordinary hut, like any number of the peasant homes dotting Japan during this era. It was clean and neat, and it was obvious that the man both lived alone and spent very little time here. Kagome stepped out of her zori and joined the old man at the fire pit.

Now that he was in the light, she could see him more clearly. His face was lined and care-worn—this man's life had not been easy. He sat with drooping shoulders, as if he were carrying the weight of the world on his thin shoulders. Kagome sat seiza style, watching him with concern and empathy. He was a very old gentleman…. Her eyes narrowed on his very human-like ears, and after a moment, she smiled to herself: damned if she hadn't found the human gardener after all!

She was still grinning when the man looked up to hand her a bowl of domburi. Upon seeing her smile, his expression froze and he watched her with wide eyes. She saw his face blanch and her smile left her immediately:

"Ojii-san?" she asked, alarmed, "are you all right?"

But the old man didn't seem to hear her. He just stared at her with those wide, haunted eyes. The hand that held her bowl was shaking visibly, and Kagome was starting to get nervous. Dear gods, what was wrong with him?

"R…Rin?" he asked finally, his voice thin, as if he were short of breath.

Kagome felt the air whoosh out of her lungs and she sat and stared at him in dumb astonishment. It was while she was trying to figure out why this man would think that she was Rin that she noticed something she'd overlooked: the old man had a certain look about his face…features that she'd recently seen at the taijiya village…on Sango and Miroku's children.

Her hands flew up to her mouth as she gasped in horror:

"Kohaku?"