Two: Truth Hurts

Even though the Spiritual Combat Association's lodge was way out in the middle of nowhere, they got back to the shrine quickly. It was almost worth the stinging wind in her eyes and Inuyasha's hair in her mouth.

The moment the half demon's feet touched the ground on shrine property, Kagome shoved away from him.

"I do have a car, y'know!"

"You said you didn't mind comin' back this way and I didn't wanna sit in fuckin' traffic!"

"The least you could have done was be gentle! Every time we landed it was a damned jolting collision. I thought I was going to get a concussion from knocking against that hard head of yours."

Inuyasha turned his back and started walking up the remaining stairs to the house. Maybe, just maybe, he had been a little rough on purpose. She was just so prissy and annoying and she gasped a little with every step he took in such a way that chills ran up and down his spine. It had been a long time since he had traveled that way, and never with a girl like her.

"Hey, I'm talking to you, you jerk!"

Inuyasha walked faster.

Kagome scrambled behind him, knees weak from the stress of the journey. She could still feel where her new bodyguard's fingers had clutched her thighs. Gross. She better not bruise just because some himbo didn't know his own strength.

"What the fuck is this? I was expecting a penthouse," Inuyasha said as soon as she caught up with him.

"I don't have the money for that!" she snapped. "We can't all be Beyoncé. Everything I made while I was with The Four Souls was split between us and launching my solo career has me spending more money than I'm earning."

Inuyasha had already stopped listening. Leaning far too close to her for her comfort, he took a long sniff.

"Ew! What are you doing!?"

"Checkin' to see if you have a drug habit."

"Nee-san!"

The boy who came running out of the house was in a middle school uniform even though he looked tiny enough to still be in elementary school. Inuyasha studied the pale kid and the breeze brought him the scent of his sickness. Oh. Her living situation suddenly made a whole lot more sense. And great, he felt like an asshole now. He was kind of grateful that overwhelmed all the other feelings of being back in this place.

"You're back early!" An older woman came out of the house, drying her hands on her apron before bringing Kagome in for a hug. "Oh, and who's this?" Her eyes lit up with mischief and he saw the resemblance to her daughter. "Does Hojo know? I hope he does. I hope you rubbed your new boyfriend in his face and—"

"Mama!" Kagome hissed. "This is Inuyasha. My bodyguard."

"Woah!" The boy came up to him with an eager speed that belied his small stature and frail frame. "Are these real?" He tugged on his ears and Inuyasha growled at him.

"Sōta!" their mother admonished, coming over with a smile. "Sorry about my son. But are they real, though?" Before he knew it, his other ear was being felt up, too.

"Mama! Sōta! Leave him alone." Kagome stomped over, giving him an apologetic look as she herded her family into the house.

It was unavoidable that, while left to his own devices as he had been, he would start to remember everything from fifty years ago. The Goshinboku was right there. Its purifying powers thrummed dully, not so extreme as to make him become human, but enough that he felt a little uneasy. He couldn't remember if it had always been that way, so it might just be him. If he squinted a little, he could see the scar of her arrow still. Drawn to it, he reached out, needing to feel that one piece of her, that evidence she had been with him…

"You can come in. I sent Sōta upstairs to do his homework and Mama's making dinner."

He stuffed his hand in his pocket, feeling stupid. Too many years had passed for him to still feel like this.

"We'll make this quick. Can't stand this fuckin' place much longer."

"Would it kill you to be normal for like five consecutive seconds? 'Thank you for inviting me, Kagome. You have a lovely home and your family is delightful'. Huh? Is that so hard?"

Inuyasha followed her in, rolling his eyes at her back. It was like she could sense it, because she turned to glare at him before sitting down on the sofa with a huff. It was a loveseat. Too close. He would have to just stand.

"So. All the money you make goes towards this dump and your brother?"

"School fees, medical fees, shrine upkeep because yes, it's always falling apart. Also I'm still paying the hospital fees for jii-chan and baa-chan."

His gaze moved without his permission to the picture of the elderly couple on the mantle, happily embracing. There were no shadows on her face, no haunted look in her eyes. Content. She had been content. He was glad. Mostly.

"Yeah, that was them." Her voice was soft and she came to stand next to him, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. "Baa-chan went first. I was fifteen. Jii-chan stuck around a few more years to see me graduate, but then he was gone. I should have been sad, but I was happy that they were going to be together again. The part that was most himself died with baa-chan and he was alone even when we were all together."

"Is Kaede still alive?"

She gave him a look. "How do you know my aunt?"

Inuyasha snorted. "I guess Kikyo never talked about me much."

Kagome shook her head.

Oh shit. "Like at all?"

She shook her head.

"Not even a fucking name drop!?"

She shook her head.

Inuyasha crossed his arms to stop himself from punching something. "Well, I guess you must not have been very close."

"My grandma trained me!" she said, more than a little upset. "She said I was her only true successor. We spent every free moment of my time together until The Four Souls. She even named the group! We were incredibly close. How the hell did you know her?"

"Kikyo brought me to the SCA. We were partners."

Kagome was stunned. "She never talked about that."

Inuyasha leaned closer and for a second she thought he was going to sniff her again, but the look on his face was different this time.

"You look like her, you know."

Their eyes clashed and something fluttered in her stomach. His expression was intense and filled with something she couldn't yet understand. It was all so uncomfortable but she couldn't look away for the life of her, not even when he got closer and closer.

"You must stay for dinner, Inuyasha!"

The both of them jumped at her mother's entrance. Kagome took a few steps back from her bodyguard, feeling mysteriously embarrassed.

"Only 'cause we got more to talk about," he said, giving Kagome a grumpy look completely different from the one he'd just been piercing her soul with.

"Let me help you, Mama."

Her heart rate didn't calm back down again until she was busily chopping carrots in the kitchen.

Inuyasha had been about to kiss her, hadn't he?

It had happened a few times before. Some guy got this stupid look on his face and she had to push him away and say something about having a boyfriend. But Hojo wasn't her boyfriend. Not anymore. She was beginning to doubt he ever really was.

Inuyasha had also been really fixated on her grandma.

The knife came down harder and Kagome missed the side eye her mother gave her and the extra few inches of distance she put between them.

"…Everything okay, sweetheart?"

A splinter of wood came flying off the cutting board. "Yeah. Um, did baa-chan ever talk to you about her time in the SCA? Like, specifically about her partner or any hanyō she may have encountered."

"No, she never really liked to talk about those days much, not even to your father. They were hard on her, you know. And jii-chan, because they were separated while she fought in the war."

She stopped slicing when she nearly took her thumb off. "So, no stories? Nothing? She was a field agent during active warfare for nearly a year and she didn't have anything to say about it?"

"By the time I met her, she was already the baa-chan you knew. Warm and loving. A little quiet. Very generous."

When Kagome resumed prepping the veggies, this time in a much more reasonable fashion, Mrs. Higurashi figured it was safe to continue.

"She used to tell you this story when you were still in a crib. I doubt you even remember. Most of the time, you were knocked out already at the sound of her voice. It was about a hanyō with long silver hair and eyes of gold who tried to steal the most precious treasure of the shrine, promising to grant her every wish in return. It was difficult, but she managed to banish him and retain the treasure. The spirits of the shrine were so grateful that she had her every wish granted anyway."

Dim memories of her grandmother stroking her hair and giving her a warm bottle while telling her a fairy story no one else knew came to her mind. Kagome hadn't even known she'd known the story until her mother reminded her and didn't think she would have ever connected it with Inuyasha if he hadn't been so obvious about his obsession with her grandmother. Her mother poked her between the eyes when she began to furrow her brow.

"No wrinkles," Mrs. Higurashi reminded her. "The longer we can put off the botox, the better. You don't want to end up like Ayumi, do you?"

She frowned, remembering her once fresh-faced friend. "Absolutely not. Did Papa ever tell you anything about the war or even baa-chan and jii-chan before they got married?"

"I know about as much as you, my dear. Baa-chan and Aunt Kaede were orphaned and came here to the shrine when they were young. Baa-chan became the shrine protector and married jii-chan as soon as the war was over."

Inuyasha listened to their hushed chatter from the living room, heart sinking into an old, dark pit with every word until he forced himself to tune them out. Kikyo had never mentioned him. Not to her husband, not to her son, not to her grandchildren. Had she really been so ashamed of being stupid enough to love him for a season of her life? How had she rationalized it to herself, he wondered, staring at the picture of her as he had never seen her. Happy. And old. With the man she had chosen over him. Also happy and old. Two things he would never be.

It was good she had left him. Now that he was older and no longer quite so achingly lonely and purposeless, he could see that he never could have given her the life she wanted. Something quiet. Something peaceful.

When they had met, he had been running for a long time, not even stopping long enough to realize he was no longer being chased. Back then, the woods surrounding the shrine had been so vast that he hadn't even known the place of purity existed. Naively, he had thought himself safe. When he got his first glimpse of the woman in ghostly white and demonic red, he hadn't the slightest clue that she was the most dangerous thing to him in the world.

"Halt, demon," he heard her say in that silky soft voice just as he felt the arrow pierce him clean through the shoulder, pinning him to the trunk of the great tree. "I would never let one such as you close enough to even sniff the Shikon."

"Fucking crazy bitch!" he cursed. How long had she been there? No one had ever snuck up on him before, especially some dumb human wench. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

Her smug look of triumph morphed into something else. Regret was too much, maybe embarrassment? Probably. Slight, though. On the same level as pulling a door that was clearly marked "Push" in front of witnesses.

"…You did not intend to steal the jewel?"

"I don't give a fuck about your cheap, shitty jewelry." He attempted to pull the arrow out but her holy powers still enveloped it, burning his palm. "I was hunting down a boar for dinner."

She lowered her bow. "Oh. Oh. So you're the one who's been thinning out all the deer and boar and rabbits?"

He wondered if she was going to shoot him again for massacring her woodland friends. Ah, hell. He wouldn't be much worse off.

"Yeah?"

"Good. They were eating the flowers my sister planted."

In a few quick steps, she was standing in front of him. Her large gray eyes distracted him a little from the blinding pain of having the arrow pulled out. Immediately, he leapt up into the branches of the tree, glaring down at her warily.

"You're welcome," she called up at him.

What kind of twisted freak expected a thank you for pulling out a wrongfully fired projectile?

When a few days had gone by and he still had not been able to get that striking face out of his mind, he made some inquiries. A particularly chatty kodama told him everything he needed to know about the Shikon. A jewel spawned by a murderous miko during a bloody war centuries ago. It could grant any wish, anything he wanted, but there was a cost…

He stopped paying attention after that.

This was his chance. Inuyasha could finally become a full demon and he would never have to run again. He would have a place, carve one out for himself. And it would be so easy.

Or it would have been, if Kikyo wasn't a fucking beast of a savant when it came to protecting the jewel from thieving hands.

Dozens of times he tried to steal that annoying fucking bauble from her. Even if she wasn't such a nauseatingly powerful priestess, there was just something about her that made him weak and hesitate to strike a killing blow. So instead, Inuyasha watched her. The reasoning behind it was that instead of ambushing her and using violence to get what he wanted, he could take Kikyo by surprise with stealth.

He learned a lot during that time.

Kikyo lived at the shrine with her younger sister Kaede. They cohabitated with the family there but were not a part of it. Poor relations of these distant relatives, fourth cousins or some shit. The family's only son followed Kikyo around like she was some kinda celebrity, mooning over her like he had the slightest chance with a woman like that. Ginzo was his name, and he was a few years younger than the pretty priestess, but they were important years.

And then one day, his claws were stretched out to her throat and her arrow was aimed at his eye. It was a dangerous situation, especially since she had already shot him three separate times in quick succession and he was pinned to that damned tree again. Why did they always seem to end up this way?

"Why don't you just fucking kill me already?" he spat at her.

It shocked her enough that she lowered her arrow, relaxing her stance just the slightest bit.

"Because you're like me. In the world but not a part of it. And I'd like to believe that someone like me could survive in a world like this and make a place for themselves." She put away her arrows and gave him a grin. "And it's not like you'll ever beat me, anyway. You like me too much. It makes you stupid."

She sashayed away and his eyes tracked every movement until the foliage swallowed her up and he was left to pull himself out of the tree trunk yet again.

Even now, he could hardly believe that the war broke out a mere few days later.

Things had been heating up for a while, but isolated as he was in the woods, the first he caught wind of it was when he stumbled upon a group of lower demons attacking his priestess mere steps away from their spot. They weren't much trouble, and wouldn't have been worth the time of day for Kikyo under normal circumstances, but they weren't normal.

They were organized.

"Blades of blood!" Inuyasha growled, leaping down from the branches. He didn't even need his sword for these small fry.

Kikyo used the opportunity to shoot off a few arrows while he took care of the rest. After a brief struggle, their enemies were vanquished.

"What the fuck was that about?" Inuyasha commented more than asked.

The priestess gave a weak laugh and clutched her forearm. The scent of her blood made his nostrils flare and he brought her close to him in a panic, examining her wound. One of the bastards had cut her, but not too deeply. She was bleeding sluggishly and he dabbed at the marks with his sleeve.

"I'm fine," she said, taking back her arm as she shoved him away. "You don't need to tend to me as though I'm dying."

It was the first time he had seen her like this. Something was bothering her and had cracked her calm and cool exterior.

"You were bleeding," he said as though she hadn't noticed, feeling embarrassed. "I don't know how humans work and you're just a woman, so—"

"Just a woman who can kick your ass from here to eternity."

Kikyo reached up and took the ribbon from her hair, wrapping it around where she was hurt. The breeze ruffled her silky strands and blew her scent to him, making him sway towards her just the slightest bit. Her eyes caught his and he froze. What had he been about to do? Something in her face shifted and it was lovely, even more appealing than before. Soft and tender. Reflecting him.

"The SCA asked me to join up."

Inuyasha was more than a little pissed that their impossible-to-accurate-describe once in a lifetime intimate moment had been broken by such stupid words.

"Uh, okay?"

She looked away from him and started to ramble. It wasn't until years later that he realized she had been just as nervous as him, maybe even more.

"I mean, I never thought about it before. The option was always there, I knew that, my entire family always made me aware of that, but I didn't like their methods and I just thought they had become sort of unnecessary due to the rate of demonic attacks having been in a steady decline for literal centuries, but things are different now with the war and everything and there's something new in the air, don't you feel it? You've got to feel it. It isn't good. And so I decided to sign on and I'd prefer it if I had someone I knew who I could rely on and maybe even trust, especially when it comes to—"

"Okay, and?"

It felt like forever, but she met his gaze again, and this time there was nothing but determination in eyes that were now the color of steel and just as unyielding.

"I'm asking you to enlist with me, Inuyasha."

He didn't even think about it.

"We can head over now, Kikyo."

First, they were enemies. Then they were partners. While still in training, they became lovers. The day she asked him to marry her was the day before they were deployed, and he promised that he'd do anything, follow her anywhere. She was his purpose. His place in the world, as he was hers. They were supposed to be together forever as soon as the war came to an end. But then the war was over and so were they.

Fifty years.

Inuyasha felt something bitter in him rise up and choke him, even worse than he could remember it being when the loss was fresh. Standing here in what had been her happy home, surrounded by the things and people she had chosen over him, was the one form of torture he wasn't sure he could withstand.

"Here's some tea. I didn't know what you liked so I just brought out my favorite."

His ears perked up at the voice that was so like and unlike hers. Lighter. Louder. He grabbed the tiny cup and chipped saucer from her and sniffed it. Wild cherry, hibiscus, lemon. Fuck, it was his favorite too. A secret indulgence he considered too feminine to admit to.

"Checking for poison?" she asked, voice full of sarcasm as she sat back down in the loveseat and crossed her legs at a degree that showed him too much of what he was discovering he really, really wanted to see.

"Yes. And from now on, I'll be doing the same for you."

Kagome snorted. "You're ridiculous. What kind of enemy would send a hundred demons after me and also poison my tea? The approaches differ hugely."

"The kind of enemy that wants to kill you, idiot. Now would be a great time to give me that list of enemies, by the way."

She was silent, staring down into her tea.

Inuyasha sighed in exasperation. He had been expecting something like this. "No enemies that you can think of, right? No one with a grudge. Everyone just loves you."

She winced a little. "Uh, not exactly. I was actually just trying to count…"

"What the fuck?"

He was so incredulous that he sat down next to her, looking her over to see if there was something he had missed. Big guileless eyes, a small frame that didn't exactly lack for curves, harmlessly pastel wardrobe. Like a porcelain doll brought to life. Who would ever hold anything against a creature like her?

Throwing a little pout his way that only further solidified his opinion of her as something that belonged in a Sanrio world of pink puffy nonsense, she put her tea down on the table.

"Okay, so, while I'm not a full-time SCA agent, I am still the highest-ranking priestess. That means that, on occasion, they've called me in for…interrogation."

"You mean torture?"

"I guess, if you want to completely take nuance out of the equation. There's also been the occasional necessary execution. I try to avoid it, but some of these guys are just so bad and there's no other—"

"Stop trying to minimize your role in things and justify the things you've done. You're a spiritual combat agent. You kill people who kill people. You're one of the good guys, but not one of the good guys who can afford to keep their hands clean."

He wasn't expecting her to smile at him, especially not so tremulously. Had this really been weighing on her so heavily?

"I guess. But I'm not like you, though. I don't enjoy it."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "I haven't enjoyed shit in decades. Don't act like you know me."

The sound of the front door slamming open interrupted their next fight before it could even happen.

"Sango!" Kagome said, looking surprised. "Where have you been?"

"What the hell took ya so long?"

Her manager took a few extra seconds just to glare at the both of them until they were so uncomfortable they were squirming.

"You. Left. Me."

The twp of them looked at each other guiltily and Kagome irrationally felt like bursting into a fit of giggles. Why did it feel like they were a couple of kids who had just gotten busted by the teacher?

"I was your guardian before I was your manager, Kagome. Anywhere you go, I know. I've had a tracking device on you for years."

"…Where is it?"

Sango smiled. "Classified."

"She might even be worse than Kōga," Inuyasha muttered under his breath.

Kagome had to cover her mouth after that.

"What'd I miss?"

"Inuyasha and I were just going through a list of possible enemies."

"I'm gonna look through the Association's files and check out every demon she's ever purified."

"Why didn't you start at the obvious? The other three souls."

Kagome gasped. "Sango, how could you? They're my best friends!"

"Really?" The tall, sharp woman arched a brow. "Then why are they suing you, Kagome?"

And with that, she tossed a stapled pack of papers on the coffee table, rattling their teacups.

Inuyasha snatched it up while Kagome was still blinking at it, uncomprehending. Flipping through it, he gave the document a quick read. Once he was done, he whistled low and smacked the stack on his knee.

"Yep, gotta agree. You're not BFFs. Not even fuckin' close."

Kagome grabbed the papers from him and read, tears in her wide eyes. By the time she was done, her hands were shaking.

Fuck, she was gonna lose it and cry. Fuck, he didn't want to see that.

"D-don't worry, Kagome," he said. "I'll take care of everything. Just don't cry. Okay? Let me—"

"Those fucking cunts!" Kagome threw the papers she had been served across the room and shot to her feet. "After I carried them for years. Years! Our entire damn career!"

Inuyasha sat on the loveseat with his jaw dropped in shock, not even listening as Kagome continued to rant and rave, stomping around the living room. Just watching. He could only watch her, her cheeks pink and her eyes bright. Kikyo had been the type to hold things in, then implode, then take it out on whoever was close to her. But this was something else.

Sango bent at the waist in front of him, getting in his face. The look she was giving him let him know that she knew what was happening to him and she was just making sure that he knew she was watching. With a cough, he averted his eyes from the scene that had captivated him too briefly. Satisfied, the manager straightened and crossed her arms, smiling now that she knew a secret.

"There's also the anti-fans to remember," Sango said, cutting her client off. "Now that you've gone solo, they've almost doubled in number. I don't even remember how many times they've tried to hack your personal email and social media."

Inuyasha made a noise of exasperation. "So we've basically got every demon in the world hating your guts, your 'friends' hate your guts, and you've got stalkers who hate your guts."

Kagome glared at him. "You make it sound like everyone hates me! Most people like me, you know. I was the lead voice for The Four Souls and did most of the backup vocals while also being the visual. I have more fans than the rest of the girls combined. That's why I'm the only one of them who even got a decent offer to go solo."

"With an attitude like that, no wonder they're tryin' to fuckin' kill you."

"You just focus on the demon attacks," Sango broke in. "I'll take care of everything else. Our biggest issue right now, career-wise, anyway, is the drama with the other souls. I'll minimize all the negative attention this will bring, but some of this will go public, Kagome. It's unavoidable. And hey, a little scandal is good for us at this point, anyway."

"Isn't your song scandalous enough? Any more and your reputation will be lower than your neckline."

Kagome gasped in girlish offense, holding a hand to the slight bit of cleavage her dress showed.

"Gods, just get out already!"

"I'm supposed to guard you, idiot," he scowled.

Her only response was the blinding pain that filled his body. It was over in a flash and then he was left very human and very, very pissed. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at her, ready to pounce. How the fuck had she done that? She hadn't even laid a hand on him this time.

"Sorry, Inuyasha," Sango said, casually patting him on the shoulder like they were friends. "The shrine is warded against all demonic beings who don't have Kagome's permission to be here. And it looks like your invitation has been rescinded."

"That's all you had to say, bitch! Fine, I'm fuckin' leaving. Send me your schedule. Or don't and get attacked, see if I care."

Inuyasha took his leave, making sure to slam the door behind him. That fucking bitch. He hadn't even wanted to help her in the first place! How dare she just throw him out like that, like some kind of stray.

"Inuyasha, wait!"

He guessed he hated himself, because he stopped right in his tracks.

"You forgot your shoes."

Inuyasha looked down. He was still wearing the house slippers. Ah fuck, now this whole thing was even worse. Without looking at her, he snatched his shoes, trying to retain some kind of dignity even though he knew he would think about this moment in those still, silent times right before he went to sleep for the rest of his cursed fucking life.

"See ya."

"Wait." She grabbed his sleeve. "Um, did you know my grandmother well?"

This was the last thing he wanted to talk about and he made sure his expression showed it.

"Thought I did."

She let go of him and looked off into the distance. He followed her gaze and his heart jolted in his chest when he realized where she was staring. The Goshinboku.

"She died there, you know. I found her. Right at the foot of the god tree."

"I… I didn't know."

"I have no idea what she was doing out there. Baa-chan had been confined to her bed for months. But somehow, she walked all the way out there, barefoot, kinda like you, in the snow. She wanted to die there." Kagome turned to him. "You don't have to leave if you don't want to. I didn't mean to purify you. Ever since baa-chan passed, my powers just get unpredictable whenever I lose control of my emotions. Sorry, Inuyasha."

"It's okay," he mumbled. "I gotta go anyway."

Every step he took was a monumental effort. Gods, but he hadn't known. Sure, he knew Kikyo had died, but he didn't know how or exactly when. She had died in their spot. She had dragged her failing, frail body to their spot and she had died there. Had she been thinking of him? Had she regretted leaving him behind? Inuyasha would give anything to have been there in that moment. Anything to turn back time and stop it, right when she had asked him to join the SCA. Fuck his pride, fuck his lack of confidence. He would have kissed her. He should have kissed her.

Inuyasha left the shrine in a fog of misery, completely unaware of the man with the camera who followed his every move.

O\o/O

It was around noon before he woke up with a start, knocking down the bottles of sake that surrounded him on his desk. What the fuck happened last night? Inuyasha creased his brow, trying to remember over the pounding headache that resounded against the walls of his cranium. Purification. That bitch… Then he walked home. No, he stopped at the liquor store before going back to his apartment. Then he sat down in front of his laptop and drank and drank and drank while googling Kagome Higurashi.

So why the fuck was he staring at his own face if he had entered her name in the search bar?

A loud buzzing made him jump again and he looked at the cracked screen of his phone. Why the fuck was headquarters calling him?

"Yeah?" he barked, already annoyed and ready to fight.

"Inuyasha." Something had taken the teacher's pet quality out of Hojo's voice. "I need to see you in my office immediately."

"What—"

"Immediately."

And he hung up.

What the fuck had crawled up his ass? Inuyasha grumbled curses to himself and vowed for the thousandth time to go into private practice. He had better things to do than get chewed out by some pretty golden boy who was closer to high school than he was to real adulthood over some fucking technicality. Out of spite, he took his time getting to the office, stopping at a convenience store and getting a hangover cure and breakfast sandwich.

When he walked through the door, there was no flurry of activity like he had come to expect over the years. People were at their desks, not socializing and not really working either. Was he imagining it, or was everyone staring at him? Wait, had they been talking about him before he walked in? What the fuck was up with everyone today?

He shrugged and took another bite of his sandwich.

"Make it fast, Hojo, I got shit to do so just write me up and save the lecture for an email." One he definitely wouldn't read. Maybe he'd even print it out and tear it up just to feel better.

The half-demon stopped in his tracks. Kagome was in the office and she looked stressed. Her manager was there too and she looked absolutely fucking pissed.

"Sit down, please, Inuyasha."

Hojo's vacantly pleasant expression was more a mask than it usually was. Things were so weird that Inuyasha actually did what he said.

"…What's wrong, Kagome? Was there another demon attack?"

She laughed joylessly. "Oh, there was an attack, alright. But not by demons. By the press."

"And that has to do with me how?"

"It has to do with you because it's about you." Sango slid a sleazy gossip rag on Hojo's desk and Inuyasha leaned over to look at it.

His face was on the cover.

The photograph was blurry and his features were somewhat indistinct, but he immediately recognized his human self and his surroundings. This must have been taken as he had been leaving the Higurashi shrine. It took him a few seconds to put everything together, but then he read the headline.

THE FIRST SOUL'S SECRET SOULMATE: WHO IS KAGOME'S SQUEEZE?

Inuyasha's stomach heaved and he almost blew chunks all over Hojo's pristine office.

"How could you jeopardize Kagome's career like this?" his boss asked, looking physically pained. "Inuyasha, I chose you to be her guard because I thought you'd been around long enough not to make mistakes like this. Why couldn't you go out the back way? What were you thinking?"

"I wasn't."

Sango's phone went off. "Hello, Mr. Mushin! So good to hear from you. Yes, yes, it's everywhere, I know. No, not a word. Trust me, Kagome is focused on her album and tour and, as always, her fans. She would never sneak around with some idiot. That was just one of her brother's visiting nurses. Yes, a misunderstanding…"

From the sound of it, she had already done this quite a few times already.

"Your lack of professionalism may have permanently stained Kagome's reputation," Hojo continued. "Do you have anything to say for yourself? Anything in your defense?"

He continued to stare at his picture. It was the face of a man who had only just realized he'd lost everything he'd never even had. And here he was being attacked by a kid over a moment of weakness?

Fuck that.

"You ever fuckin' think that this shit is more inconvenient for me than it is for her?"

Hojo and Kagome both stared at him, confused.

"You can explain me away. You can go on one date with a boy band member and everyone will forget all about this. But I've lived a long time, Kagome, and I've got more enemies than even you. That's my face everywhere, and I'm fucking human. Worse, they know I'm linked to you. They know they can come after me if they come after you. Now everyone who hates us hates both of us. And who's gonna have to sleep with one eye open to make sure we both stay alive? Me."

"Fuck," Kagome said in a hushed breath.

Hojo looked at her askance and for a second the half-demon thought he'd correct her on her unladylike use of language.

"Be that as it may, Inuyasha, all of it could have been avoided if you had remembered basic training and left in an inconspicuous manner."

Inuyasha grinned, baring his fangs at the boy. "Know what? Fuck it. You go ahead and protect her since you obviously wanna be the one caught up in her scandals. I'm out."

Kagome stared at Inuyasha's retreating back, the image burned into her retinas even after he had gone.

"He has a point," she said, voice low so as to not interrupt Sango's increasingly argumentative phone call. "Wouldn't it be better if it were you and I together, Hojo? We work well together. We're in sync. And I trust you."

He sighed, exasperated, and ran his fingers through his hair. "Kagome, you know I can't. They need me here."

"You do paperwork, Hojo. Hell, you can even create an app that assigns cases and sends them to you for review and then just delegate that."

"We aren't going to talk about this."

"Okay. Then let's talk about us."

His expression immediately shuttered. There had been a slight glimpse of the old him, of the boy she had loved so much, in that second of his frustration with Inuyasha. But now there was nothing. Only the hereditary figurehead of the Spiritual Combat Association.

"There is no us. Not anymore. I made that clear to you a year ago."

"You didn't make anything clear!" she said, voice rising and breaking. "Gods, Hojo, you tell me one thing and then do another. You can't tell me you never want to see me again outside of work and then send me flowers and chocolates on Valentine's Day and a diamond necklace on my birthday and tell me you lo—"

An alarm blared and the room flashed with red and white light.

"We'll finish this later, Mushin," Sango said, voice already reverting to slayer mode. Ending the call, she asked, "What's going on?"

Hojo was already looking at the alert on his computer.

"A disturbance on SCA property. There are a…" Hojo squinted at the screen, not believing his eyes. "Thousand. A thousand low-level demons. And it's looking like this is just the first wave." He looked up at Kagome, all business. "We're going to need all hands on deck on this one. You're going to have to go to the site, Kagome."

"Fine," she bit out. "I'll go. And I'll take them all down. Myself."

"That's ridiculous!" Sango said. "You can't—"

"I will." Kagome crossed the room, hands shaking with anger and adrenaline. "I don't need a guard. And I don't need you, Hojo. I'm more powerful than I know, just like baa-chan always said. I'll show you all I can protect myself."

She sounded so confident that she almost believed herself.