The Other Side

Chapter 23

Background Insight

Two days later, found InuKimi and Inuyasha together; gossiping. "What can you report back to me, Inuyasha?" asked InuKimi, sipping on her tea as she sat in the gardens. Inuyasha was across from her with a pout.

"Sesshomaru seems angry when there are other males around Kagome; there's that," he said, leaning into his chair. "He followed her the other day when, uh, Kagome caught something that neither he nor I could sense. He said they had a lot to discuss when they got back."

InuKimi's eyes twinkled. "That's excellent news, Inuyasha. You are doing wonderfully," she said as Inuyasha flushed. She chuckled. "Have you seen Sesshomaru or Kagome lately? I don't feel them around the manor."

Inuyasha sighed. "Yeah, neither do I. Last I saw them was two days ago. Have you seen Kenichi anywhere?"

"That's concerning." Then added, "Kenichi isn't around either for that matter. Hm, all three of them are simply gone. Odd. Kenichi hasn't reported back to me either. One of the reason I have you as back up."

"Gee, don't I feel special." She giggled at him. "I've been meaning to ask something." She raised an eyebrow at him in question. "Sango has been feeling rejected, I guess, for the treatment that everyone around here seems to be giving the humans. Is there any way to lighten that?"

She watched and noticed that Inuyasha was affected by this as well. "Humans have stolen a lot from the West, to which I am unhappy about. The demons around the manor feel the same way and any human that comes into the manor—guest or not—feels that they too will be stealing something from us once again."

"Not all humans are the same though," he defended, "Sango and Miroku would never do that for that matter."

"They have to prove themselves to every demon of the West to gain anyone's trust. We do not trust humans; we trust our own kind."

Inuyasha's gaze fell. "Kagome was human."

"Was being the keyword; she was human but she is not now. The demons around here see and notice this thus treating her differently."

"Yeah I know; I've seen it. It's just... I don't know. Don't you welcome change?"

"Change?" she asked as he nodded. "Centuries back, the demons of the West and the humans of the West were the same and treated everyone as they were their own. No one is like that anymore. We hardened our emotions and sealed away from the humans."

"Why?"

"The humans felt that we were too powerful and threatened to harm us. We fought back, proving that yes, we are stronger. The humans moved as far away from the West after that."

"You don't know any demons that sees a human as their own? Honestly?"

"Yes, well, Sesshomaru has proven me wrong in that aspect. I am not pleased by that part."

"Kagome's the same way you know. She took in Shippo when she was human and always saw him as her own child."

"Is that so?"

They were quiet for several minutes after that; both in their own thoughts as Kenichi came into sight. He simply walked over to the two and sat down, taking pleasure in startling them. "Hey."

"Kenichi, finally. Where have you been?" InuKimi commanded as he smiled.

"I've been relaxing in the hot springs. Got to say, I have missed those things." He stretched in his chair before serving himself a cup of tea.

"The hot springs? You clearly aren't taking your job seriously if that's the case." InuKimi frowned.

"Well yeah, you and I both know that I hate me being a lord..."

"Indeed. If you're here, where is Sesshomaru?"

"Probably relaxing in the springs with Kagome."

Inuyasha's and InuKimi's eyes widened. "What?!" they both said, shocked.

"I have a lot of things to say but I have sworn myself to Kagome as she is the one that will finally be the one to say what everyone has been questioning. Granted the look on Lord Kouga's face was one to remember when I told him that I'd start a war with him if he didn't back down."

"You went to see Kouga?" Inuyasha asked as Kenichi nodded.

"Not just Kouga though. I don't want to be the one to receive your anger when it gets around to who we went to see. I want to see what Sesshomaru and Kagome do though; I'm probably not gonna be there doing that as Kagome only needs to talk to you and Sesshomaru." He had pointed to InuKimi after that.

Inuyasha groaned. Kagome found trouble is what that sounds like. "Can we get back to the line about Sesshomaru bathing with Kagome? How did that happen?"

"Um, we could." He chuckled at Inuyasha's face. "Kagome brought up the fact that she wanted some time to herself and asked if she could go to a hot spring. Since neither of us wanted her out of sight, for reasons you'll find out later, we went with her.

"Fate has a sense of humor. The one we found; nice, big, open. No barrier for either gender. I opted to join her for some sort of protection while she bathed while Sesshomaru watched—which sounded as bad then as it does now. In the end, we all got in."

"No way, seriously? How'd Kagome take that?" Inuyasha asked, making a face that those males had seen Kagome. He didn't honestly like that...

"Well, it was really awkward at first, ha. Then I broke the ice."

"What did you say?" InuKimi was smirking by this point.

"I said, 'I have no problem if the two of you decided to jump each other. Just know that I'll be traumatized if you do.'" Kenichi grinned at that as Inuyasha's jaw drop. He went into a fit of snickers after that, clearly imagining that happening. "After that, I got hurt. Sesshomaru sure can throw a punch when he wants and Kagome sure can throw a kick. My ribs still hurt."

"Does it get better than that?"

"Yeah, I left them alone." He laughed out loud as Inuyasha's eyes widened. InuKimi hummed with satisfaction. "What they do now is up to them."

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