Edited 6/4/2020

Beautiful Moon

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Mizuki, worried that she would end up testing Sesshomaru's patience by indulging herself any longer, was briskly heading back the way she remembered Inuyasha taking her, determined that she had at least some sense of direction. She would have left earlier, but she couldn't bring herself to turn down a cup of instant ramen and all that it meant to her right now.

They didn't get far in their conversation about the artifact beyond what Mizuki had jotted down, because Kagome didn't have anything to contribute off the top of her head. She had been too busy at the time trying to drag Inuyasha back through the well and get ready for a test that was coming up to have the time to dig into their records on the object herself, and she had relied on her grandfather's insistence that everything about it was safe. She decided fairly quickly that she would return home to gather whatever information they had on it and the family it was supposed to have come from. When Mizuki requested that she check to see if her disappearance was a public issue as well, she only told the girl that she was worried about how her classmates might be affected.

Her friends hadn't heard of the Yanagawa clan nor any rumor of a piece of turquoise that could grant power, so they contributed speculations about its abilities in the absence of any concrete information. There were several comparisons of the stone to her eyes and the thought that the piece of jewelry seemed to be alive, and Miroku wondered if it shared any similarities with the jewel they were in search of when she had shared her limited experiences with the stone.

The Shikon Jewel, she learned, was an artifact that was the result of the merging of the souls of a powerful priestess and a powerful demon, and could thus do either great good or great evil, depending on who wielded it. Kagome had the power to purify the jewel, and Inuyasha himself coveted it for reasons he wouldn't elaborate on. The girl felt responsible for having broken it and allowing it to fall into the hands of others who would use it for evil purposes, and so they were all in search of the pieces of it. When she asked just how bad it could get, the conversation turned to the atrocities committed by one man who had amassed most of them: a demon by the name of Naraku.

She learned Sesshomaru was after this guy as well, though no one could say exactly why. Inuyasha figured the demon had insulted him at some point or that he just wanted to take the prey Inuyasha had dibs on since he couldn't take his sword. Sango instead suggested that their conflict could be linked to the time that Naraku had kidnapped Rin, but Inuyasha took issue with the idea that it was simply revenge for a human, apparently still hung up on the idea that his brother could be nice to one.

The demon had also been brought up several other times beyond that due to her comparatively positive experience with him. Inuyasha ended up recounting detailed instances when Sesshomaru had tried to kill him or had wounded him greatly in what might have been some attempt to warn her of his nature, but was quick to note that he returned the favor more times than not when Shippo pointed out that he was making him out to be quite strong. When Mizuki asked if one of those favors had anything to do with him being short an arm, she wasn't expecting to be correct, or for the half-demon to fall oddly silent for a moment before confessing his responsibility, though he didn't elaborate on why the fight had escalated to that point beyond the conflict being over his sword. He didn't quite sound as proud of that accomplishment as he had when he talked about surviving a poison-drenched hand through his gut.

Otherwise, they were simply curious about his behavior when Inuyasha wasn't involved. Apparently his penchant for acting superior applied to everyone, but his patience with Rin was somewhat surprising to them, and his introduction of Jaken's face to the dirt to defend her modesty was amusing. She figured she would leave out the fact that he had turned around himself after that, though she had at least been covered up by that point.

Spotting the tree where she had met with Inuyasha, Mizuki smiled and quickened her pace.

Kagome had insisted on someone escorting her back, and Inuyasha had even offered given the possibility of demons in the vicinity, but Mizuki's reminder that Sesshomaru wouldn't let anything stick around if it posed a danger to Rin had convinced them that she would be fine on her own. Before she had left, Kagome had handed her a familiar-looking flashlight, figuring she might want it back if she was going to walk around in the dark again. Apparently she had found it on her trip back after her test and Inuyasha had recognized the scent on it as hers, so they had had some forewarning of her potential appearance.

Mizuki's insistence on going on her own was almost entirely because she needed some time in her own head to organize her thoughts and hopefully fight back the growing panic she was feeling about everything again. Having company, especially theirs, wasn't going to allow for that. Kagome was simply more talkative than Sesshomaru, and though Inuyasha was less so, she figured it was probably best that the two brothers stay away from each other. Miroku was still giving her a wider breadth since his proposal, so sparing him the space to make that mistake again was probably wise, and Sango, while kind and comforting, would probably be talking with her just the same as Kagome. Shippo hadn't exactly stopped asking questions himself, a trait he shared with Rin, and she didn't think having a child escort her reflected any better on her than having Lady Kaede make the trek on knees that probably ached.

She also felt guilty, both about asking for any more favors from them, and about how she felt in their company.

It irked her, in a way, that despite their generosity and the easy way they spoke with her, her preference for company seemed to tilt in the direction of the demon who was much less hospitable, and all because she just couldn't relax or let go of her anxiety about having stolen from Kagome's family or Inuyasha's tendency to act on impulse. The girl had insisted several times that it really wasn't a problem, citing that they all thought the stone belonged with her in some way and that her family didn't technically own it in the first place, but that didn't silence the disembodied voices of her parents expressing their great disappointment with her conduct. She had even realized that Inuyasha himself was less violent and more reflexively protective of the people and ideas he held dear to him, even going so far as to pour the hot water for the ramen himself because he was worried Kagome could get burned (though the gesture seemed unusual, given the open stares he earned and the sputtering embarrassment the girl expressed in return), but that didn't stop her from reliving the thought of him wanting to draw a sword on her or the result of him not paying attention to where he was grabbing.

Sesshomaru was different for her, and that made him appealing in ways that managed to outweigh the warnings about him that his brother seemed insistent on giving. She was less nervous and more flustered by the way he spoke to her, and while he angered her at times, she didn't feel like she had to keep herself from expressing that. He was intimidating, surely, but in a way that kept her on her toes more than it frightened her. He rubbed her the wrong way, but she found his attitude comparable to the way Kimura handled himself when they had first met, and though that was a strange and uncomfortable comparison given that one was a friend and the other was a demon she had no intention of becoming friends with, it was familiar. Hell, he even reminded her of Riho a little, asking questions the way he did.

She didn't know what to attribute that preference to other than the fact that she didn't have any reason to feel guilty around him. Part of her was aware that being trapped in the past was likely skewing her opinion as well, but even trying to factor that in didn't stop her from considering this path more favorably than the others available to her as she took stock of her options and weighed them in terms of her chances of getting home. Sesshomaru had a lot more going for him than she might have recognized before. His strength meant he had the ability to protect, and while the fact that he could melt flesh and punch holes through people with the same hand he had used to haul her out of the well was a revolting thought, she kept coming back to the kind gesture. That he had Rin with him supported the thought that he could be nicer than he appeared. He always seemed calm and steady, sharp despite his generalization tendencies when it came to humanity, and not dishonest with her, so far as she could tell. A man of his word.

Until now.

Finally reaching the clearing where they had parted ways and finding only the lonely well in the middle of it made Mizuki freeze, the panic within her rising up to a renewed height. He couldn't have. There was no way he simply left her here...

…Right?

Her cynical thought that he had ulterior motives for not joining her in meeting with Inuyasha now returned, armed to defend itself. She couldn't believe he was just…getting rid of her.

"No," she told herself quietly when the worry began to take over her thoughts at an alarming rate. "I'm overreacting. If he wanted me gone, he would have simply left. He wouldn't have agreed to meet again."

The resolve that should have accompanied those words was sputtering at best, and she couldn't entirely tamp down the worry that she felt, so she found herself looking for other reasons for him not to be here. It was later than she had intended; maybe he was looking for whatever he considered food, or had decided to set up camp elsewhere to avoid Inuyasha. She hadn't really specified meeting at the well, so maybe he was nearby.

As she sorted through reasons, she scanned the area, though it wasn't until she looked up that anything of significance stood out to her. The goshinboku was a massive tree even in the past, because it towered over the others around it and cast shadows on the stars themselves. She remembered that Sesshomaru had looked at it, though briefly, and figured that was as good a place as any to start. If nothing else, the tree was interesting. Perhaps he had thought so, too.

Whether she had been correct or not, by the time she could clearly see the tree's trunk, she could also see the white of the demon's attire, and was relieved that the bit of trust she had placed in him hadn't been misguided. She observed him for a moment and the strangely complicated air about him as she approached. He appeared to be so deeply in thought that he either didn't realize she was there or hadn't cared enough to turn around, and the ethereal combination of elements before her left her wondering if anything like what she saw now still existed in the future.

She was apparently too preoccupied herself, because the next thing she knew, a root interrupted the path her foot was intending to go, and Mizuki pitched forward with a startled yelp. Trying to catch herself resulted in a tear in her jeans along with a scratch below it, another stick jamming into her shoulder with a vengeance, and overall embarrassment when the show ended with her flat on her back. She groaned in exasperation, slapping a hand over her face in a lame attempt to hide.

Hearing leaf litter rustle next to her alerted her that Sesshomaru had approached, and she peeked through her hand to look up at him. His expression made her pause; she was expecting a derisive comment or even that lethal excuse for a smirk. Instead, his face was a flat neutral, and she found it entirely unsettling.

"That was graceful," she muttered, laying the sarcasm on thickly in an attempt to put some kind of expression on his face. When that didn't work, she frowned and added, "I'm not normally a klutz. I just got…distracted."

"By what?" was his eventual reply, but his disinterested tone gave the question a lack of substance, and it was strange to her that he would ask if he didn't care.

"Relief, I guess," she answered, uncertain how he might interpret her words if she told him the distraction had been his appearance more than anything. "Couldn't find you for a minute."

"Hn," he hummed in reply. His eyebrow raised slightly, as though he had finally found something interesting in the situation, though his next words hardly sounded concerned. "Do you intend to stay on the ground like that?"

She didn't know what to make of his tone. Part of her had expected something more, whether that was some form of kindness or just his typical mocking responses, and finding him so distant instead worried her. Maybe he wasn't as interested in this whole thing as she had thought he was, and was only here to confirm that she was getting help before taking off for good.

Which, when she thought about it, didn't make any sense either, so it had to be something else entirely. Maybe he was simply distracted by whatever he was thinking about while looking at the tree. Maybe he had some kind of connection to…

"I'm an idiot," she thought, remembering the tale her friends had shared with her. She was probably getting the wrong idea about it, but it didn't stop her from contemplating how much the brothers actually hated each other.

"Just recovering from the loss of my dignity," she explained, and asked nothing about what he was distracted by himself, figuring he could use a few minutes to clear his head and hoping that the Sesshomaru she knew was resurfacing in the meantime. His last comment might have lacked the tone, but the words were at least more like what she expected if she thought about it.

Cataloguing her injuries didn't take much time. The wound on her arm was quite clear about how it felt about being jarred, but the pain medicine was still dulling the edge, and it didn't seem like anything had torn. The paste below the bandage still felt stiff and dry on her skin, so she took that as a good sign. As for her knee, her jeans were worn as it was, so it wasn't any wonder that a sharp branch had finally torn the threads, though she was less happy about the sting of the cut below it. It wasn't anything like her arm, though, and she suspected it would clot quickly. Standing afforded her an annoying wince that told her the joint had likely landed wrong, and she found herself frowning.

All of this for tripping. She felt pathetic.

"I must look weak, fumbling over a stupid thing like this," she grumbled, embarrassed with herself.

Sesshomaru said nothing for several moments, but eventually replied, "Humans are more fragile."

That response made her look up at him. It sounded like he had taken the time to think of something less insulting than simply agreeing with her, and she wasn't sure if that was in character for him or not. Perhaps it was his way of making up for what he had said before she'd met with Inuyasha. The thought made her smile a little.

"Yeah, that's for sure," she responded, and then shook her head as if the movement could clear her thoughts. Reminded of the reason she was here in the first place, she offered him an apologetic look before moving on. "So, as far as information, I don't have much to share, but do you want to hear what we talked about, anyway?"

He gave her a slight nod, and then beckoned her over to join him at the base of the large tree.

Of the observations he had made since Mizuki's return to the forest, Sesshomaru considered the most important of them to be the confirmation that something about her or the stone she wore around her neck had the ability to artificially inflate his curiosity. He lacked enough information to say whether the woman was making any conscious effort to that end, but he was inclined to think that she was not, given that she knew little of the artifact and that the push to learn increased at a steady pace despite her unceremonious entrance and the way she seemed taken aback by his response to it.

To a lesser degree of importance was how quickly his curiosity increased and the variety of questions he found himself seeking answers to, such as why she seemed concerned by his efforts to maintain a detached appearance, what medicines had been applied to her more expertly bandaged wound, or why the information she obtained seemed to be insubstantial. Despite the strangeness of the intensity of the emotion, he was fully aware of the influence and felt capable of walking away from the whole situation should he choose to in the end. For now, indulging himself was more desirable.

Mizuki sat gingerly near where he chose to lean against the massive trunk. Her glance down to the torn fabric over her knee told him she was likely favoring the new injury, though her attention suddenly shifted to the tree, her body jolting abruptly as if surprised. She gave the massive timber a careful consideration before shaking her head as if to dismiss her thoughts.

"Kagome doesn't know anything off the top of her head," she started shortly, her tone conveying some disappointment. "She plans on going back home in the morning to gather what information they have from their records. None of them had heard of a clan by the name of Yanagawa, or of a pendant that can grant powers aside from the jewel they're looking for, of course. I'm assuming you haven't heard any rumors yourself?"

"Correct," he informed her. Humans and their stories held little interest to him, and he never found much benefit in collecting such knowledge. Jaken had a better ear for things of that nature, but his retainer offered him no more than his concerns about associating with the woman given her tendency to challenge him, and would likely have offered it without prompting had he anything to contribute.

"I figured as much," she replied with a shrug. "Anyway, it isn't concrete, but Kagome and her friends seem to think I'm connected to the stone. It was apparently passed down through the Yanagawa family to members with blue eyes, which was why her grandfather thought that I could have been an inheritor. As far as I know, I don't have any European ancestors to have any natural explanation for the color of my eyes, so it's probably a safe assumption that I'm somehow related to the clan, since this thing reacts to me. I can hear it, too. Kagome thinks it's similar to how she senses shards of the jewel, though I sometimes interpret emotions from this, and it got the others speculating how it was created.

"I'm sorry for taking so long and having so little to show for it," she apologized suddenly, rubbing the back of her neck in a timid gesture he found unusual for her character. "She offered me dinner, and it was food from home, so…hard to refuse."

She fell into silence after that, and her refusal to meet his gaze spoke of troubled thoughts that he felt were wise to ward off. Her timorousness was a likely indication that the fear she had succumbed to upon finding herself unable to go home was still strongly rooted within her, and avoiding a return to that state was in his best interest if he wanted to continue any form of conversation, so he offered up an observation of his own, leaving the apology unacknowledged.

"Many objects of power possess a will, often from the material used for it or its creator." She looked up at him with surprised interest, so he continued, "Both when you offered it to me and when you attempted to throw it away, I was able to sense a will within the stone. At the time, it seemed agitated to be separated from you."

She looked down at the blue-green stone, gently handling it between her fingers.

"Have you experienced something like it before?" she asked.

"Tenseiga makes an effort to assert its will on me at times," he explained after a thought, hand coming to rest on the sword his father left to him. "It was similar to its voice."

"Tenseiga?"

He raised the hilt enough to indicate that he was speaking of his blade, and she appeared to understand, though her expression remained awed.

"Huh," she finally mumbled. "Before I first jumped into the well in the future, it had been pulling toward it, and it stopped when I asked it to. I figured between that and the emotions, it was probably sentient to some degree. Until now, I didn't really think about why that was or how this was made."

He had several thoughts of his own but refrained from sharing them with her, and she likewise did not reveal what was discussed about its creation while she was in the village. Eventually, her gaze turned to the fang on his hip before shifting to him.

"Can you understand your sword well?" she inquired, curiosity evident by the slight tilt of her head. "When it comes to the stone, I can only really figure out emotions, and that's when it's not just giving off the equivalent of radio static. Oh, uh…a faint buzzing at the edge of your hearing, basically," she elaborated when she observed his reaction to the foreign colloquialism.

He raised his head thoughtfully, though not because he had to think about his response. A biproduct of his curiosity left him more prone to conversation when he found himself interested in the subject, though he himself listened far more than he contributed, and discussions of any meaning were few and far between, given his preference for traveling on his own. Until now, he had never held any lengthy discussion with a human, and he found himself wondering how appropriate the indulgence of her own curiosity was. After weighing the pros and cons of answering her question, he decided it may remain in his interest to entertain her while he still knew so little of the stone's abilities. Human or not, the woman remained interesting, manipulated curiosity notwithstanding.

"It is likely similar to what you experience with the stone," he conceded. "Not so much words as emotions. Intent is more appropriate a term, I believe."

"Intent, huh?" she parroted, and then, curiously, addressed the sword directly. "What kind of intent does a sword like you have, Tenseiga?"

Unexpectedly, Tenseiga pulsed in reply, and then settled into a quiet hum as if to convey some kind of answer. Mizuki, surprised, looked up at him.

"Does it normally do that, or…?"

Tenseiga acted of its own accord when it felt it necessary. It wasn't entirely out of the ordinary for it to suddenly insert itself into a situation, but Sesshomaru was certain that this response had nothing to do with him.

She had awoken it, and it did not escape his attention that the pendant she bore was currently quiet.

"…It acts on its own," he replied simply, setting aside the questions that raised, knowing that she had no answers to give to them for now.

"It has a deeper tone than the well, or this tree," she observed thoughtfully, and Sesshomaru was suddenly reminded of the way the tree had given her pause and now wondered about it himself. "It sounds more…alive isn't the right term, but it's more like the stone. Speaking of which, last time I heard something like this, the stone had been what called out first. This time, though, it's not doing anything."

As if sensing the end of its role in the conversation, his sword returned to its dormant state, and Sesshomaru made a note of the experience the woman described, wondering just what that meant as far as where the power that affected him originated from.

Beside him, Mizuki sighed, letting the pendant drop to rest on her chest while she leaned back against the tree with a weary look. "Everything about this is so inconsistent," she complained quietly, explaining the emotional shift. "I can't figure it out. It pulled to the well, but nowhere else since. It lets me through, but not back. It blatantly calls to the well, but didn't do anything to call the tree or your sword, and yet both had reactions to it. I don't know; maybe I'm looking at this all wrong."

"Perhaps you are missing variables," he noted, wondering how much of a factor the woman herself was.

"Yeah, probably," she acknowledged. "At this point, all I know is that its intent involves me not going home, and I somehow doubt that's going to change without me finding out why, regardless of what Kagome is able to bring back tomorrow."

"It is likely that your best option is to seek out this clan directly."

"I know."

His words were a reminder of why she had been weighing her options in the first place, and the concern that plagued her about whether they were options at all.

Naraku, the demon Kagome and her friends were fighting against, was a big scary problem she wanted nothing to do with. The thought that she would have to seek out the clan was one of the reasons their conflict with him had been brought up, and there was open concern for her wellbeing should she join them. It was bad enough that Inuyasha was against her even traveling with them, especially since she had no means of defending herself, and though Kagome was more optimistic about their ability to protect her, she hadn't made any effort to ease the bluntness with which the others spoke of the danger she could be walking into. From what she had gathered, Naraku liked to use dirty tactics, and she had no misconceptions about how easily she could end up being used against them. The last thing she wanted to do was cause more trouble.

They were still willing to help her find the Yanagawa one way or another, so it wasn't as though she couldn't rely on them when it came down to it, but she did have two more options. The first of those was the least desirable, but the safest. Lady Kaede offered her a place to stay while the others gathered information, and while she appreciated the gesture, being stagnant wasn't something she would be able to do. She needed to have some kind of hand in the effort, and she couldn't imagine playing the role of damsel in distress while others put themselves at risk to help her.

The other was convincing Sesshomaru to accompany her instead.

She desperately wanted that option to work out for personal reasons, which were meaningless in the grand scheme of things but were stupidly important to her now, and only because she couldn't get herself to stop worrying about things she didn't need to be worried about. Despite how strongly she felt about it, she knew there was no guarantee the choice even existed, and she wasn't sure that she wanted to ask him before she had figured out whether or not she truly didn't have any cards to play. She needed to bring something to the table, but she hadn't been able to come up with anything at this point, and it was leaving her anxious.

There wasn't anything especially more beneficial about going with him over Kagome and her friends if she set aside her personal feelings. Sesshomaru was after Naraku as well, which still made her a liability if they crossed paths. She wasn't keen on causing problems for him, either, and she didn't want to pull him away from his own goals and aspirations, whatever they might be. He also needed something to get out of the partnership, whereas Kagome was simply going to help her out of kindness, and she wasn't fool enough to believe that his current interest was enough to persuade him.

As it was, though, her personal anxieties held a lot more weight than they should. Between how she felt about the people around her and how she felt about the pile of mistakes she was building, Mizuki was finding herself feeling like she was back at the bottom of the well that wouldn't open to her.

With a groan she couldn't quite contain, she leaned forward to rest her head in her hands. There was no easy solution to this, no way around her feelings, and no option that wouldn't be inconveniencing someone that also had an acceptable chance of survival. She knew well enough that she had no chance of doing this on her own, but she wished that were the case anyway, because then she could avoid all of this. The whole situation had started between her and a stone she felt too strongly about, after all, and the resulting train wreck was her own fault. She hated dragging anyone else into it, and she despised the lack of control she had over fixing her own mistakes.

"This troubles you," Sesshomaru observed. She gave him a long look, wondering why he would state something so obvious, but after a moment, she realized there was an unspoken why within his tone.

"…It's mostly because this whole thing isn't just about me anymore," she explained, leaning back against the tree again. "What started with me just wanting to get the annoying noise out of my head has turned into a mess that I'm completely incapable of sorting out on my own if I want to live, and it's causing trouble for others. I'm frustrated by that."

"Should you not be more concerned for yourself?" he asked, a mild amusement in his words.

"Does this have anything to do with what you think about humans?" she asked instead, and couldn't prevent the accusatory smirk that accompanied the question. Sesshomaru's mouth quirked slightly, marking a return of his former attitude that she found both comforting and mildly annoying. Their conversation had been going along too casually for a while now; she supposed it was bound to dip back into the pattern of their previous ones at some point, though she wished it could wait for a time when she felt comfortable debating him.

"I merely find it to be unexpected that your largest concern lies in asking others for help, given your situation."

She didn't inform him that the reason she was thinking about others had entirely to do with getting home, but he did have a point. "I suppose I was brought up that way," she told him instead with a shrug. After a thought, she chose to elaborate. "Inconveniencing others is bad for business, and my dad's whole life is business and our family's image."

"He is a tradesman?" he asked with interest rather than disdain, so she figured demons had different associations with the merchant class than humans.

"He partners with other businesses to ship their products around the world, so how we present ourselves is pretty important. Bad PR means we lose contracts."

Sesshomaru found that enlightening. Being the daughter of a tradesmen explained her ability to manipulate conversation more favorably for herself, as well as why she appeared versed in negotiating debts both real and implied. Her upbringing likely made her well-versed in the understanding of the value of objects and actions. Her attempt to pay him with the stone made more sense now as well; it wasn't simply the guidance and protection she was negotiating for. It was her continued ability to live.

"My disappearance is going to cause trouble for the company, since he'll probably take time off and use some of his resources trying to find me," she sighed. "And my parents are probably worried sick. I've got to get this whole thing figured out as soon as possible, for their sake and my own."

She fell back into silence, her displacement apparently heavy on her mind.

"You will seek out the clan, then?" he asked, curious about how she intended to proceed given her qualms with inconveniencing others.

"If I want to get home, I'm going to have to find them one way or another, regardless about how I feel about asking for help."

Her heart rate had intensified to a point where he could hear it, the rushed beat an echo of the fear he still sensed within her, and it occurred to him suddenly that she might be considering whether or not she could ask him. He found the thought absurd given the many advantages Inuyasha's collection of humans offered for her, and he found himself wondering what reasoning she could have.

"Have you not convinced Inuyasha to take you to them?"

She shook her head slowly. He found that strange; Inuyasha seemed all too eager to assist humans with their troubles when he had the chance to observe such instances. For him to turn down a human, especially one with similar origins to the one he appeared to have strong feelings for, was unexpected.

"It's not that he doesn't want to help," she added, as though following his thoughts. "He's worried they might not be able to protect me because they're a target of Naraku. He's concerned that I'll get hurt, since I'm pretty useless as far as a fight goes."

Of course. Naraku consistently targeting them would be a cause for concern. Unusual that the hanyou would think himself incapable of something – he had a penchant for believing in his own power regardless of what he was capable of – but a valid point if ever his brother could make one.

"They've also got the responsibility of gathering the Shikon shards, and I don't necessarily want to interfere with that," she continued. "Kagome didn't say it, but I could tell when Inuyasha brought it up that that duty is important to her."

"That usually does not stop them from aiding in the plights of others," he noted.

"…They're still willing to help me," she revealed, though her voice had dropped, that uncharacteristic quiet encroaching further on her tone. "I'm just…considering alternatives."

He did not have to ask her what those alternatives were for her to understand that the question hung in the air, but she did not immediately answer it. When she chanced a glance at him, he could only tell that she was nervous and either reluctant to give a response or unsure of what words to use.

"I was angry that you thought it was funny that I was scared of him, but I think I understand now why you did," she eventually explained, and he noted the stiffness of her posture as she spoke and the way the words seemed to flow unwillingly. Something about the confession made her uneasy, though he could not tell if it was because she was embarrassed by her reaction or simply because she was nervous about where the conversation was leading. "He's protective. It was a lot easier to see while I was with them, and really, I like all of them. Kagome and her friends are really kind, and they all made an effort to help me feel comfortable and make sure that I was aware of the kind of situation I could find myself in here.

"It's just…" she continued, absently touching the bandage of her wound as she worked up to her counterpoint. "There are things I can't let go of, no matter how much I'm told I should, and I know it's stupid. I know I shouldn't be afraid of Inuyasha, but his tendency to be impulsive makes me nervous. As for Kagome, I stole from her family. She might not see any issue with it, and maybe her family won't, either, but that's a big deal for me. If there's one thing my family shouldn't get caught up in, it's theft. I can't just drop that right now, so…"

She trailed off, unsure how to finish, and though she hadn't met his gaze at all during her explanation, she turned her head further away.

"You're easier to be around," she quietly admitted, her pounding heart filling the silence that followed.

It made sense that Inuyasha's unpredictability left her concerned. Trapped centuries before her time, she was likely craving stability to help her remain calm, and Inuyasha had a strong tendency toward impulse. Hardly a fit for her needs.

Her family's apparent concern for public image even made her regard the girl from her own time with nervousness due to a petty theft, when the priestess should be the most familiar and therefore the most comforting to be around.

That she found that stability in him took him aback, though. She had demonstrated an odd ease around him several times, from her responses and mannerisms to the way she addressed him, though she also retained a respectable awareness of his station. To actually prefer his presence to theirs, however, was as strange a thought to him as the idea that she trusted him, and he found himself perplexed.

"Why?" he found himself asking.

It took time before she gathered her voice, though he knew it was not because she had suddenly found her propensity for thoughtful word choice again. If anything, her unease was more apparent, and he came to the conclusion that her comfort around him perplexed her as much as it did him, and he wondered if this was why she was having such difficulty coming right out and asking him if he would provide protection for her once more.

"When we met, the first thing you did after saving us was nothing," she finally said. He didn't question why she felt that was notable, instead waiting for the explanation. "It annoyed me a little at the time, but you gave me space to just…exist, and I didn't really appreciate that until I didn't have that space anymore. Sure, the questioning later wasn't comfortable, and I was definitely rude, but you never made me feel like I crossed a line for long. In a weird way, you remind me of one of my friends back at home."

She didn't give him time to turn that thought over for long, because she suddenly stood up and began to pace as she continued, "I know it doesn't make sense. Kagome comes from the same time period; she knows how to navigate this. She understands, even if she isn't stuck here. I shouldn't be so hung up over something she says isn't important, but I am, and it sucks. I'm nervous around her, and I can't relax around Inuyasha all because he accidentally grabbed my arm, but you I can trust. You, and whether that's because you're calm, or because I can argue with you like I can with Kimura, or just because while I was with you I felt like I could relax, I don't know. All I know is that of the limited options I have right now, this is the one I want."

She turned to him then, her startled, blue-green gaze blazing under the moonlight in the same way the stone around her neck now glowed. Desperation and determination flashed across her features before her face was obscured by the bow she suddenly dropped into. The gesture was deeper than the one she had offered him before her attempt to use the well, formal and stiff, and it made Sesshomaru realize that the origin of her current anxiety was not her situation, nor the stone she knew so little about.

She lacked confidence in her bargaining power.

"Please," she beseeched him. "Please come with me to find the Yanagawa clan!"

The changes to this chapter were mostly pacing-related, though towards the end here, I tried to clean up the build-up of Mizuki's worries. I think I have it laid out a bit more smoothly now, but as always, I welcome feedback on how it can improve.

Mizuki's character has been in development for years, and there are times when I look at that word and cannot fathom how so much of my life has involved thinking about how she's going to approach something or what kind of reaction she's going to have to things. It's incredibly weird, but I'm also grateful that I have the freedom of time when it comes to her development. I took one creative writing class in college, and the biggest takeaway was that not having a deadline was an advantage in a lot of ways (and a disadvantage as far as work ethic – you all only have my roommate working from home to thank as far as my being able to revise all of this within a month's time). I do still aspire to publish a book one day, but that can wait until I'm old and gray if it wants.

In the meantime, I'll just keep working on this.

…I promise it won't take me until I'm old and gray to complete Beautiful Moon.