A/N: Sorry it took so long for me to get writing again. Honestly, we should all decree that you should not be given an enormous test on the second day of school, a 45 minute presentation on the third, and an even bigger WWII project in the same week! It is inhumane. Well I suppose none of you want to hear my ramblings so I will start this chapter right around….now. Enjoy!

Previous: Suddenly his strong aroma surrounded the miko again. She could not really say what had taken place, only that her mind seemed to be quite free, away from all common worries, throwing away her common sense. However, this time, Kagome was a bit more prepared. She tried to bring herself out of the dreamy state, and was still only half in control of her actions.

The youkai lord looked at the girl as a strange expression covered her face. Indeed, he too smelled her arousing scent. Meadow grass and wild rice blossoms filled his nose. He ignored it as best he could and kept on his cold mask. He watched as Kagome slowly started to step forward, despite his warning this afternoon. Perhaps, he should have waited longer before seeing the miko again…perhaps.

In and out. In and out. Breathe…breathe! Kagome choked out suddenly at a large intake of breath, seemingly haven forgotten how to take in air. How nervous one could become around the cold youkai lord. It served to take her out of her daze and she realized that she had been staring dreamily at the handsome demon. She paused for a second, collecting her thoughts. "Um, what are you doing in my room?" she asked a bit uncertainly after an uncomfortable silence.

Sesshomaru eyed the miko and slowly began to circle around her. He noticed that the girl tried to turn with him, but soon brought herself to a standstill. He continued circling, as if inspecting her. "Waiting for you," he answered quite simply after another long pause.

"Er, what for," she continued. The circling was making her restless. Almost like a game of cat and mouse. Was it predatory? Circle, and then stare. Circle again.

"For you to come back," he answered again.

The miko opened her mouth to say something back, but the youkai lord cut her off.

"One such as you should not venture out to the springs at night," he paused. "It could be…dangerous." He said the last words with a quick flick of the tongue against the teeth.

"Oh…how so?"

Kagome didn't get an answer.

"Why can't I go to the hot springs?" she asked again.

Sesshomaru did not cease his circling. There was a muffled sigh and he said, "Many things could be outside at the hot springs. For one, it is not in the barrier and-" the youkai was quickly cut off with a miko's outburst.

"Not in the barrier? What do you mean?" she asked quickly.

Sesshomaru smiled a bit peevishly, not at all in his character. "It has been down for some time now, strange you didn't notice," he said slowly.

The barrier…down? Is Sesshomaru lying? No, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't lie. Then, then why couldn't I sense it? "How long has it been down," she asked.

"Two days."

Two days? Wait…wasn't it about two days ago that I turned to a phoenix? That means…did I loose my spiritual powers? "Oh no…what happened?"

The youkai lord eyed the miko carefully. She had looked quite pale already, and now had turned an even more ghastly white.

No, I still have my spiritual powers. I know I do. That time just a bit earlier today when I had given Rin her lesson on archery…I still had my priestess powers.

Flashback…

"Rin-chan, today you will learn a new spell for your arrow of the priestess," said the miko. She spoke the words that Rin needed to recite in her head three times, making sure it stuck. Lifting her own arrow, Kagome closed her eyes, sealing her power in the arrow, and released. It glowed pink again on the target before subsiding. "That was the sealing arrow," she said, "now you try, Rin-chan."

Rin carefully notched her arrow in place and recited the words that Kagome spoke of out loud. She released standing closer to the target, not being able to shoot as far as her teacher.

Kagome watched as the arrow whizzed and found its spot on the target, but something was different; the arrow did not glow. "Rin-chan, are you sure you recited the prayer correctly," she asked.

End Flashback…

Wait…Kagome quickly focused her thoughts right back to where she had shot her arrow. That spell…the sealing arrow. It wasn't supposed to glow! Only the priestess arrows she shot to demolish demons glowed a light pink. The sealing arrow definitely was not supposed to glow. Rin had seemingly lost her powers that day, supposing around the same time Kagome took on the manipulation that Rin had possessed. However, the glow on the target just proved that Kagome's powers had heightened to an unthinkable stage, and yet she couldn't sense even the barrier. That meant that sometime in the transfusion, something had gotten terribly astray. What a mess this has turned into be…and it is all the Sesshomaru's fault! And even more, why would Sesshomaru take down the barrier anyways? It was all so confusing. Kagome's attention jerked back to reality when her leg hit something solid behind her.

All the while the miko had been pondering; Sesshomaru had slowly started backing her up with his circling. The motion was so discrete that she had not noticed, but now she had finally bumped into the bed behind her. The yellow drapes that hung around the posts had inched themselves into the miko's face. He gave the frightened girl a little, tiny smile.

"Hn? Er…Sesshomaru…Sesshomaru, get off!" she yelled the last part as the youkai lord easily pushed her onto her back on the bed. Wha…what in the world is he doing?

He looked down at the miko that had nervous radiations coming off of her on every part of her body. He was not longer smiling, the youkai lord held the same bored, expressionless face as always.

Oh no…oh no! What is he doing? This isn't what Sesshomaru would do! He would never do this to me. What is he doing? The miko slowly started to inch backwards away from the youkai's grasp. However, Sesshomaru followed her with agonizing preciseness.

He was now smiling that devilish grin. That oh so very tiny, but frightening grin. "Afraid...?" he breathed. There was a pause. "No one else is in here…Rin is asleep and Jaken is on an errand. No one would know…" he said with a little smile.

"Wha? Get off, get off, get off!" Kagome gave a startled yell at the fact that Sesshomaru could actually perform such mutiny! Batting her hands at his face with enormous force, she swatted at him as best as she could.

"After all…" he began, but all of a sudden there was a slight strain in his voice, then he abruptly stopped.

The weight of the miko was immediately lifted off. Eh? What…what just happened? She opened her eyes slowly, still lying on the bed. What she saw nearly blew over with surprise. There was a gentle sound coming from the youkai lord. An almost musical sound that wove itself about the room. He was laughing.

He was laughing. Laughing. Sesshomaru never laughed. Hadn't laughed in a long while, ever since he was a tiny pup. And yet, he let a few notes of the whimsical noise escape from his lips.

Too weird…

Of course Sesshomaru would never force something so disgraceful on any living creature, hated or not. And he didn't hate Kagome at all, in fact, like Rin, he tolerated her. He had been wondering how the miko would respond in a precarious situation such as this. It had not exactly been the reaction he was looking for, but it may have been because of the rank that the youkai lord held. He had not meant to laugh either, but it happened. Kagome was still lying on the bed, dumbstruck.

After a few moments of silence, as Sesshomaru's laughter had only lasted two notes, Kagome finally got her whereabouts again. That was when full reality came flooding back to her. He…he…he…why that little! He was messing with me! Orghr!

The miko's face had all of a sudden twisted into a bout of unsuppressed anger. She looked so very cute, sitting there. However, it didn't affect Sesshomaru, as his sudden spell of being enormously out of character was over. He didn't say anything, simply waited.

What is he waiting for…? Neither said anything for another while, and the silence dragged on. There was no happy girl to come bounding in and break the nervous atmosphere that was just about palpable in the room. No remedy, it was obvious that one of them would have to say something. "What…why? What was that, why did you…what in the…" started Kagome all at once.

The youkai lord looked down at the girl with obvious contempt again. He had expected her to be strong, like she always was. Stubborn and non-yielding. She hadn't been. Simple batting her hands would not do. Had she forgotten all that he had taught her already? If he had really been serious, then she would be at his mercy by now. If she had been under any enemy she would be at its mercy by now. The miko was not one to show weakness, but it seemed that when it came to matters such as these, there was a fatal flaw. One that the youkai lord was somewhat happy that he had tested.

Kagome stared in disbelief at the silent figure and quickly restated her question, "What on earth was that for Sesshomaru!"

He looked at her again, but for some reason, did not feel obligated to give her the reason that he had started out with. "I don't know, what was it?" he said in a bored voice as he started for the door.

"What? What!" cried an indignant miko. How could he just leave? After that, just walk out like nothing happened! "Sesshomaru get back here!" she shouted, infuriated.

There was a brief glance that he cast at the miko, but only a very short glance. Then before she could scream at him again, he had opened the door and was out.

"Sesshomaru!" Kagome resounded again.

The youkai lord had indeed heard the angry outburst, but his mind was not on that aspect. In fact, it was not on much of anything that had happened. No, he was thinking of but one thing. Those two tiny seconds, those two tiny syllables that he had uttered in two little counts. Something so small, but of such importance. Kagome had made Sesshomaru laugh.

"Let's go!" A flash of bright red flew past the bright azure eyes of a pretty woman. He seemed in an awful hurry, one could only wonder whatever could be the reason.

"Inuyasha!" the woman called out. Sango was infuriated.

"Sango, let's go!" cried a monk. He too was in an awful hurry on getting out of the place.

The demon slayer did not have time to react as she was nearly jerked off of her feet by the houshi and forced to run with him and the brightly colored hanyou.

Several thoughts and wonders were passing through the demon-slayer's mind at the moment. Such as, What on earth did he do?

There was a quick answer to her question as she realized that there was a loud, terrifyingly shrill noise coming from the direction the hanyou had. What did Kagome say about those things? What you take something…an…an…alarm…yes that is it. A store alarm goes off to warn the clerk…that there is a thief. Oh good lord. "Inuyasha! Why will you not listen when I tell you not to steal!" she cried out.

"I didn't steal. I tried trading but the damn guy wouldn't even hear me out. So what else was I supposed to do?" he asked indignantly.

"Yes but…how did you even find the UV light?" she asked, while still running.

"Actually, I did," said a monk from behind her. Figures.

"Oh you monk…" she said in an exasperated, and slightly out of breath voice.

There really was no one chasing the trio, as a stolen pocket key-chain UV light was not worth all that much. Neither were the lemons that Inuyasha had grabbed off the shelf. However, the three kept up the fast pace.

"Inuyasha," asked the houshi, "Do you know where we are going?"

"Of course not! Do you expect me to memorize every damn road around here. It is a maze and there are too many smells mixing me up. I have no idea where we are."

Sango was tempted to bring the hiraikotsu down on the hanyou, but knew that it would bring more trouble than good to do in a time like this, so instead, she did the sensible thing. The demon-slayer quickly pulled up front of the little group and did her best to lead them through the maze of streets, cars, shops, and another strange assortment of buildings. She, however, failed to notice the "walk" and "do not walk" blinky light at every street corner and nearly got run over. This was going to be a long trek…

"Wait…what happened?" asked the kitsune in disbelief.

"It wasn't there," the young demon-slayer said again.

"What do you mean?" he asked again. "We saw it there. You could see and feel the horses, everything had to be real."

Kohaku shook his head at the young fox demon. He had just run through a brief explanation of the little horse-kingdom that they had gone through, however, Shippo found it hard to believe.

"Look," recounted Kohaku for the second time. "It wasn't really there. It was really just an old room in the back that we had been wandering around for several hours. We wasted a lot of time, if only I had realized sooner."

"But Kohaku, that doesn't make any sense," said Shippo. There was an indignant yowl from the tiny cat demon as the kitsune accidentally stepped on her tail. She quickly retreated to the safety of his sister's little brother.

"Sorry Kirara," apologized Shippo. He paused for a moment in mid-thought. "I don't get it though; there is no way that could have all been an illusion."

"It is," corrected Kohaku. "My sister once told me about it. They used to be put in castles to evade intruders. The person would enter this wonderful blissful land and they would stay there until their real body perished from starvation. Then as this happened, the memories and visions of the area would become less and less clear until all was gone…" he said slowly.

The kitsune gave then young demon-slayer a quizzical look. "So you mean it is kind of like shikigami?" he asked.

"No…not really. With shikigami, a person, priestess, or demon must control the figure. With these illusions, they can live on for years after someone's death."

"So…it really wasn't there now was it?" asked Shippo. That would explain his friend's strange behavior to the horses earlier.

"No…" said Kohaku, "it wasn't, and if we had stayed but one more day we may as well have ended up dead as well," he said.

"What do you mean dead?" shivered Shippo.

"I mean, the longer you stay, the fainter the memories you have. Then you will forget all things outside and there will be no way out…"

"Oh…how scary," said the kitsune with an agreeing meow from Kirara.

"Yea…look back…" said Kohaku quietly.

"Why?" asked the kitsune.

"Just look back," he said again.

The fox demon very slowly turned his head around to the entrance of which they had come from. There was no vine tunnel like before. Just an ordinary, dusty room that had no furnishings. However, Kohaku had evidently seen something, so the kitsune strained his eyes even more so. That was when he saw it. Them. Two deceased bodies lying on the ground, what was left of their bodies were devoid of all emotions. Kohaku had not been kidding when he said that your memories soon disppear. What a horrible way to die...

A/N: I can't believe it took me so long to write this! Please don't shoot me. I have had so much to do and had to get my new story started as well. Well, now I have made this one quite long, and I hope that it satisfied all of you. Added a bit of everyone's story in, but on your request, put more of Kagome and Sesshomaru fluff as Michelle has been hinting. Not really a lemon, I don't do lemons. Just a little fluff to hold you all off. I am glad I finally got this up, now hit the shiny review button because it won't push itself!

Reviewer Responses:

AnimeLover45: Yep, and even though it has been a whole month since I wrote the A/N at the beginning of the chapter, I am still cramming! Go me!

inuyasha1818: Trying my best. Thank you so much again for checking out my new fic as well. Once again, I am honored to be your first writer of a fic besides Inuyasha.

Sayuri-chan 16Thank you so much. I really love writing descriptively and I am glad that you enjoy all of the little things in life that make it so special. You wanted to post a new story, "Prince of Beauty"? I really am not a huge fan of suicide attempts, but I haven't read any, so who am I to talk? Haha. I will check it out in the meantime, I promise. Maybe you will be able to twist it into a very interesting fic that everyone loves. You never know. Also your other story, hehe, I really detest stories having Inuyasha run off to Kikyo. I think it is an over-used cliché, but that is just me. I don't want to bash you at all, really, please don't take this the wrong way. You are obliged to write on whatever you want here, and I am never one to flame. I will also read that fic for you since it is you You shouldn't have a low self-esteem. You really do rate yourself too lowly. I can tell you that you are on your way to becoming a terrific writer. Whenever I write, I like to imagine that that is where I am, that way I can see what I am writing. The tall oaks that reflect in the pond and the dragon-flies that dance on the lilies. It helps a lot and you may find it useful too. I have come to like Kikyo more, but nothing more than a tolerance. I hate slash pairing, totally gross. I am sorry this took so long to put up, but at last it is here. I hope you will leave another reiview, and if you have the time, look at the new story that I have posted. Ja, and best wishes. Kittenbell.

Rae-Anime-NekoYep I sleepwalk. Just because I am special like that. I hope you like this chapter too. Don't kill me because I made Sessy ooc! –hides-

Angie (ano): Read!

emmyjenny (ano): Wow, another long one. Thank you so much for your support, I cannot begin to say how much it all means to me. Your sleepwalking incident seems like quite the adventure there, my parents would have freaked. Haha. Just promise not to do it again. I hope to talk to you again, and thank you once more. Please also look at the new story I am posting and tell me what you think of it! Kittenbell.

points.dont.matter: Well I finally updated the Inu one, happy? Hehe, I will start on Small Thorn of Happiness again before leaving for Canada. And no, I will not worship Whose Line…hehe. The Lord would send a lightning bolt down to me. Well I hope this obsession dies over sooner or later…hopefully. See you later.

Friend's Thoughts:

(During the Kung Fu performance at my Chinese School when some of the student are there getting ready for the show)

Jackie: -holds out baby-powder at Dean-

Dean: Don't you get your white stuff on me!

Jackie: White stuff on me? That's Eric's job.

Eric: Makes face. (her boyfriend)

Deborah: -Cracks up and gets slammed into a table by Dean-