A/N: Sorry it took me so long to get this out. I've been distracted with college, boys, life, my new job, you know, all that good stuff. I shan't waste your time here...I do use some harsh language here, so Be Warned. Umm...I feel like treating Kagome like I did in this chapter was a sin, but...well...I dunno, if I really sucked you guys can tell me to do it again.

Disclaimer: Nope, I do not own him.

WOAWO Review: (A new feature I had suggested to me recently, thank you whoever you are, it's a really good idea since I'm not updating weekly like I was in high school.) Shimofuriis running home to stop his mother from hurting Kagome because he is the fastest. Both his sword and his sister, Tsukiyume are with Inuyasha to act as collateral to make sure Shimofuri really goes through with it. Taikokajin has failed to rule her kingdom properly, leading to dissent in the last chapter by Nishiyori Shimofuri's great uncle. Inuyasha was warned by the bad guy, Garou, that he would use Kagome to kill him and still get Koinu, even after he's been killed by Tsukiyume. Kagome has been trying to deal with her captivity and keep Koinu safe while she is also severely weakened. Now Taikokajin is coming to claim Koinu and kill her. Sasugainu (Taikokajin's younger brother, Shimofuri's uncle) is out searching for Shimofuri to make him replace Taikokajin as the ruler or the MiddleLands.

Any Qs contact me. Leave a review. Love ya, gotta go to bed. Worktomorrow.

Taikokajin's Downfall

The snow stung Shimofuri's nose, hard sleety stuff, dribbling out of a halfway sunny sky. Spring was on its way, or so the calendar would say, but Shimofuri's nose told him otherwise. The pellet snow came down in fickle gusts, at one moment whiting out the forest around him and the next minute vanishing almost completely.

In spite of the snow coming down, clumping up in his paws and obscuring his view of the trail ahead, Shimofuri was making excellent time—he'd already crossed into the Middle Lands. Sesshomaru's scent had long since vanished; the mountainous terrain of the Western Lands had also passed away, falling into the gentler, hilly land of his birth.

He was a blue-black streak of movement, rushing through the white wilderness. Old crusted snow and new stuff freshly fallen crunched and were kicked high into the air around him. He stopped along certain points, sniffing for the sentry places and the small spots where humans might rest alongside the road.

He'd entered the Middle Lands in the western province of Isei, which was controlled by his mother's uncle, Nishiyori. Taikokajin had never much liked Nishiyori—probably because he was closely related to her deceased mate Haiseishoku—so she'd generally ordered Shimofuri to remain hidden whenever he passed on missions through the Isei province. Instead she'd told him to take a longer route, circling around from the north usually, where his uncle Sasugainu ruled to Hokubo province.

There was no time now for stealth or for taking the route his mother had always advised. Shimofuri plowed through the Isei province without thought of anything but speed. But early on the morning after he'd set out from Inuyasha and Tsukiyume, a few of Nishiyori's patrols caught wind of him. Shimofuri had heard them howling in their dog forms, summoning him. Shimofuri might've ignored them, might've outrun them, but at the same time not answering them was an insult to Nishiyori. So he returned their summoning song. Their voices sounded like the wolves' baying at the moon, but somehow eerier, higher pitch, more melancholy.

At noon Shimofuri waited for them in a clearing. The sunlight had come out, though pellets of snow still drifted down with the slight wind. He shook them out of his fur irritably and paced impatiently while Nishiyori's sentries caught up to him. He prayed that Nishiyori would not detain him long.

When the sentries came they were already in their humanoid, bipedal forms. Both of them were older, their hair graying and balding. Their eyes, like Nishiyori's, were olive-green. They were lesser inuyoukai who probably were somehow distant kin of Nishiyori's. So, like human samurai soldiers, they served their lord, Lord Nishiyori, like little minions.

They bowed swiftly when they saw him, wetting their knees and their simple servant's robes in the new snow. Shimofuri lowered his head and his tall, pointed ears in a doggish salute. It was rude to greet them in his true form, he knew, but he was in too much of a hurry to bother with the shape shifting.

"You are trespassing on Lord Nishiyori's lands." One of them said, gruffly while still bowing. "We must escort you to Lord Nishiyori so that he may clear you."

Shimofuri cocked his head, confusedly. His great uncle had deemed his young nephew's presence a matter of trespassing? Something dark and sinister rippled through Shimofuri's body. He shifted uncertainly on his paws and then reached within himself, pulling on his humanoid form like casting aside a heavy winter coat with the coming of some warm sunlight. In a moment he faced the two sentries as a humanoid shrouded in his usual rich blue robes.

"Why is my uncle so offended by my presence in his province? I am the heir of the Middle Lands…" he stared at them blandly, though the confusion and anxiety he felt were betrayed by his voice.

"You must come with us, Shimofuri." The second sentry spoke, his voice sounding deeper, smoother, and somehow more powerful. His informal address to the heir of the Middle Lands made Shimofuri's skin prickle ominously.

"I will not. I am in haste. Tell Lord Nishiyori that if he desires it I will make my amends with him at a later date of his choosing." He turned on his heel, facing the forest but still keenly listening to the sentries behind him.

"You must come with us now, Shimofuri. Lord Nishiyori must see you." nothing more was said, but Shimofuri understood their unvoiced meaning. If Shimofuri walked away from them and ignored his uncle's request the Middle Lands would likely become entrapped in civil war because he had insulted his uncle's honor. But at the same time Shimofuri knew that if he went with the sentries not only would Taikokajin likely kill Inuyasha's human mate, but Nishiyori would probably imprison him.

Something about it all felt horribly wrong.

There was a snarl behind him and Shimofuri's heart took off, pounding viciously. The sentries had read him correctly and realized that he wouldn't come with them without a fight. Shimofuri reached within himself again, calling out his true form. In a second he was the great dog again, a blue-black streak rushing through the white snow and the trees. The sentries ran behind him, smaller in size and colored light gray. Shimofuri wasn't by any means afraid of them. They were much smaller than him, less powerful. They were also older and relatively mindless, serving their lord without true passion.

He could outrun them easily and pay the consequences to his insulted uncle's honor later, when his task was at last completed.

Shimofuri ran for the southern province where his mother waited.

"My lady," Nikimi bowed at Taikokajin's doorway, her forehead pressed to the floorboards. "I am at your service."

"Are you, little bitch? Are you really?" came a deep, snarling voice from inside the darkened room. The windows were screened, only a few streaks of gray light managed to slip inside. On the bed the blankets, luxurious silks and animal furs alike, were strewn crazily, as if Taikokajin had been wrestling with herself.

"My lady…" Nikimi didn't lift her face from the floor. Her voice trembled. "What can I do to prove—"

There was a hissing sound and then a harsh clattering sound. A clawed hand snatched angrily at the screened windows, flinging one of them open. Sunlight spilled into the room along with a chilly early spring wind. Nikimi shivered on the floorboards, waiting.

"Get that pup from that miko. Then I want you to kill her. Poison the miko's food. Stab her in her sleep. I don't care how you do it—you stupid, worthless little bitch—but I want it done now. And the pup must be unharmed, do you understand me?"

Nikimi's shaking increased. "But my lady—"

"Silence! That miko has been stinking up that guest room for weeks. I'm sick of her. Do you smell that on the wind, little bitch?"

"What is it, my lady…" Nikimi's voice quavered.

"Spring, you twit! It's spring! The time of new beginnings and clean…cleaning. New beginnings. A clean, new world." Taikokajin's voice died away into a croaking whisper.

The silence dragged out until Nikimi asked, "My lady…?"

"What is it!"

Nikimi cringed; she didn't dare lift her face or her eyes. "What about Lord Inuyasha?"

"He will be dead!" Taikokajin raged, "My brother, yes, my brother, Sasugainu, he told me he would do it for me. He isn't a traitor. He is family. Yes, family…"

Nikimi held her breath. She knew Sasugainu had left the castle to find Shimofuri and return him home, he hadn't said anything about dealing with their cousin Inuyasha. Her fingernails twitched on the floorboards, the only sign aside from her shivering, that she was slowly losing her nerve. The delicate walls holding up her sanity were crumbling; the rigid social code she'd been raised to follow from birth was clashing with her desire to survive.

Taikokajin was crazy. The miko was crazy. The baby was the only innocent being perhaps in the whole of the castle. She felt sickened at her choices. If only Shimofuri were here… she closed her eyes tightly, Shishi-sama was sane. He would know how to control her.

"Why are you still here?" Taikokajin's voice snarled, startling Nikimi into flinching.

"My lady, I—"

"You're going to betray me too!" despite the fury Nikimi could feel in her mistress's voice, it was said in a whisper. Nikimi's heartbeat resounded loudly in her own ears then, feeling like the pounding of a drum before a sacrifice.

"No my lady, I'm not, but this lowly servant of yours wishes to advise you…"

"If you won't do it," Taikokajin barked, "Then I will!" There were more clattering sounds from inside the room, a heavy tread of footsteps. Nikimi looked up just in time to see her mistress's sandaled feet coming at her. A second later the world was spinning, her head throbbing. To her shame tears were leaking out of her eyes. Dimly, she heard Taikokajin's footsteps retreating down the hallway.

Whimpering, Nikimi pulled herself back out of Taikokajin's doorway and peeked around the corner into the hall. The demon woman was wearing a long, flowing dove-gray robe. It trailed behind her like a curtain. Long, flowing white hair, completely uncombed and unrestrained, cascaded like ice down her back.

Taikokajin reached the end of the corridor where a sentry, a human guard in armor, stood his post. His face was expressionless, but his eyes flicked to Taikokajin a few times, warily. He stood stiff and at a attention when Taikokajin came to him and stopped. Taikokajin turned slightly and pointed one clawed finger at Nikimi's pathetic form.

"Do you see that little bitch there?"

The sentry dipped his head once in the affirmative, but didn't look at Nikimi directly.

Helplessly, Nikimi started to shake. Her head ached. She felt something warm trickle out of her nose, when her fingers came back from investigating it they were bright red with her blood. Taikokajin had dealt her a hard blow.

"I want her executed." Taikokajin was saying, "Right now. Right in front of my room. And when I get back the mess had better be cleaned up—or you will be the next to die." she pointed a finger at him almost accusingly. "Do you understand me, human?"

"Yes, Lady Taikokajin." He barked out his answer, stiffly, and bowed from the waist up.

Taikokajin threw Nikimi a last sneer and then vanished around the corner. Nikimi had a moment to wonder why Taikokajin hadn't slaughtered her herself—she was wearing a sword, tied with a silk sash around her narrow hips. But those thoughts were wiped away as the sentry stepped forward hurriedly.

Nikimi tried to crawl away, tried to form words. Her feet stumbled; she choked a little on the blood in her nose and mouth. It seemed impossible to think or move well at all. "Please…"

The sentry stopped several feet away from her and looked up and down the corridor swiftly. He didn't draw the sword at his waist. "I don't know who you are, woman, or what you did…"

Nikimi swallowed hard and fell into a sloppy bow, hoping for mercy but at once accepting her fate.

"…but go, leave now. Don't come back unless…"

She peeked at his feet, at the armor protecting his shins.

"Unless our lady should suddenly lose her…" he cleared his throat cutting himself off, "Just go, go now!"

Biting her lip firmly, Nikimi nodded, though it hurt her head, and pushed herself away from the sentry. She stumbled to her feet, leaning heavily on the wall for support. Her whole life she'd served one demon lord or another, her entire family devoted service. It was a better life than struggling in a village, constantly under attack by samurai lords or by lesser demon minions…

When she passed out of the gates of Taikokajin's castle she was aching and miserable, but she was alive, and for that at least, she was grateful…

Taikokajin waited outside the guest room, her thin, seemingly fragile fingers poised to grab the door and slide it open. It would be quick work, she promised herself. The miko woman was hungry and sickened. The monster that had stolen Tsukiyume was powerful, it had retaken her soul. She could feel its dark magic just beyond the thin screened walls. If she concentrated enough, she could almost smell it.

It was cruel of her to leave the pup in that kind of environment any longer. She could smell the child too, young, healthy, alive. He smelled like a baby, full of milk, sleep, and innocence.

She closed her eyes, letting the baby smell wash over her, giving her courage to face the miko's power. It'd been years since she'd smelled anything so beautiful. She missed it, craved it. To hold a helpless creature in her arms, and see that it worshipped her, it had no secret agenda, no other thoughts than receiving her love and attention.

When Tsukiyume's father, the monk, had died and left her cursed, Taikokajin's body rejected every following pregnancy. Each of her unborn pups—bastard children she'd sired with weaker dog demons and other humans—had died within her. It had become an obsession for so many years once Tsukiyume and Shimofuri had grown too large for her to hold. She bedded any male she could just to gain his seed, to pray and beg the fates for a new pup, a new child. But each one drowned in blood. It was her secret, her desperation, her madness. Every time she tried she hid it from her first two pups, usually sending them away on missions or to visit relatives…

Or as she had just recently sent Shimofuri away with Tsukiyume to allow them to visit Kokoro's gravesite…something she cursed herself for now.

Despite the fact that she knew Shimofuri had been intensely fond of the old monk, and would've visited the gravesite on many other occasions willingly, Taikokajin usually forbade it. Tsukiyume, having never really known her own father, visited him more out of reverence. Taikokajin wouldn't have let either of her children visit his grave under normal circumstances—except that she had her secret to keep. If her children were in the palace when she tried so futilely to have another pup, they'd pick up the scent changes. They would worry. They would ask questions.

So it was that she always found pretense to send them away. That was how the monster Garou had gotten a hold of her daughter, that was what had started all of her problems…

After seeing the miko's abilities, killing her maids and guards left and right when she'd tried to take the pup by force, Taikokajin had briefly entertained the thought of using the miko to destroy the curse on her. For a time, she had hoped. But Nikimi had brought news of the miko's deterioration, her fall back into delirium and sickness. That had convinced her more than anything else that the miko was a lost cause, as was the situation using collateral against her cousin, the famed Inuyasha. He would lose his mate, the human bitch, no matter what. The child could be saved. And if Taikokajin dealt with everything swiftly, and if her brother helped, than maybe she might be able to retrieve Shimofuri from death at the enraged hanyou's claws. She doubted that Tsukiyume, the younger and weaker or her children, would survive her run in with the monster Garou.

She could mourn Tsukiyume's loss later, and seek another spiritually gifted monk or priestess to break the spell keeping her from bearing more pups of her own. In the meantime she could quench her thirst for another pup easily by ridding Koinu of his mother. Soon her hanyou cousin's pup would be an orphan on both sides anyway. He needed her, just as she needed him.

Taikokajin slipped her fingers into the tiny crevice between the sliding door and the wall, poised to open it and finish things for good with the pesky miko mother. As the door clattered open she considered new names for the pup, the things she would teach it. She would never tell it of its father. He would have to never know his odd ancestry—it would be troublesome for her to cover up, but well worth it.

She clasped the hilt of her sword and pushed past the door, knocking it off its track completely, sending the thing askew. "Miko." She muttered, drawing the blade with a hiss, "It's time."

The futon and the bundle of soiled, dirtied furs that the miko had been sleeping on for days was flat, seemingly abandoned. Taikokajin felt a moment of confusion, and then she was blinded by the sight of the pup. He was sitting up, just off the furs, staring at her intently. His ears were lying flat, his tiny, expressive face darkened as if he were about to sob.

Taikokajin began to step forward, the sword in her clawed hands lowering immediately. "Shh…" she started to make a comforting sound, the coo of the female dog demon that she'd made while nursing Shimofuri so many years ago.

And then the pup's face wrinkled unhappily and he lowered his eyes toward the furs, as if hiding it.

The floorboards squeaked once behind Taikokajin. There was a shout, more of a scream actually, and Taikokajin realized she'd been caught in the miko's trap.

She's out there, thinking about how she's going to tell you that Inuyasha has chosen her instead of you now. She's relishing the moment before her victory. She's going to come in here and have you killed, but not before she first tells you the horrible truth. Inuyasha doesn't want you, he won't even say goodbye. He's sent that demon bitch to come after you, little weak human, but only so that he can at last be rid of you and claim his own offspring of course.

No, Kagome thought, dimly hearing her own ragged, raspy breathing, that isn't true at all…

Oh? You think that perhaps that inuyoukai bitch will kill you both, eh? Both you and your little miserable whelp. It's such a shame. So many hanyous in this world, and so many of them die so young—your little bastard pup is probably the only one of his kind. I'm sure you want him to live.

"Of course I do!" she choked, holding herself with her arms and struggling to breathe. The room around her fuzzed in and out of view. Gray walls, the windows were shuttered. When had they been closed? Had she done it? Had they ever been out? Kagome wondered if she'd ever been outside of the room at all, had she ever felt the sunshine on her face? Or Inuyasha's kiss on her lips, on her body? Had it all been a dream?

You're letting yourself slip, bitch! Wake up!

Kagome jolted back into reality, blinking and breathing roughly. She looked around, spotting Koinu sleeping on the covers a short distance away. His little face was unhappy as he slept, probably caught up in some baby nightmare…what did babies have nightmares about? She felt her chest tighten up with grief, her eyes burned. My poor baby…Inuyasha, where are you? She moved shaking hands up to rub her eyes. What's the matter with me?

You're weak, that's what's wrong, bitch. Wake up. Accept me, I will fuel you. I can save your whelp. I can grant him immortality.

There's no such thing…you're a monster…But even as she shivered and shook, Kagome found herself listening with a twinge of curiosity. Darkness closed over her mind, constricted her guts. Her hands quaked when she reached out for Koinu. I'd do anything to save him from her.

Then stop waiting for that fucking hanyou you're mated to. Accept me. I can restore your health, your soul, your thoughts. I can save your whelp. He doesn't have to become hers. I can help you take revenge on all of them. The maid, the inuyoukai bitch too, they've all been poisoning your food. I can purge it from you, I can make it all better for you…Kagome…

She knew, somewhere within her, that this voice within her was lying. It was manipulating her, using her. And yet she didn't doubt its words. It really could save her. It really could help her destroy Taikokajin. It really would restore her strength. But it was a dark force, something that clashed inherently with her purifying soul. Accepting it into her, letting it share her mind rather than mock her on the outside…what would it do to her? Could she really afford to wait any longer?

Koinu jerked in his sleep, ears pricking. Kagome looked to the wall that separated her little prison room from the hallway outside, and felt footsteps thudding through the floorboards. A second later she saw a wispy shadow passing over the wall, heading toward the doorway to her room.

Her heart thundered inside her. She reached for Koinu, but her legs twitched and cramped up painfully. Kagome's hands fell short of her baby; she bit her tongue to stop herself from whimpering or crying out. Koinu watched her with sleepy eyes as he woke up. After a moment he wrinkled up his face and whimpered, sensing her agony.

You will die when she comes in, Kagome. The voice within her spoke from the corner behind Koinu, past the soiled furs they'd been sleeping on for uncountable days and night, all blurred to Kagome by her illness. When Kagome looked up, passed her baby, she saw its shadow now for the first time, a large, powerful creature, gray-black. It was indistinct, like clouds crossing over a night sky, blocking out the stars as it passes. She couldn't tell where its form ended and the natural shadows of the room began.

I can help you, it taunted.

You'll save Koinu? You'll give me strength to fight her?

The shadow moved forward slightly, Kagome thought she saw an animal-like leg extend. Against the floorboards it made no sound, left no mark, but it became very clear to her, and Kagome knew suddenly that it had five digits, five toes…

I will give the whelp immortality. You, I will give invincibility to protect him. I will lend you my power.

She sensed the silent but in his words, a condition that she would have to fulfill later. What will I have to do for…

For me, the voice was quiet but powerful, full of dark triumph, you will kill Inuyasha. And you must do with the whelp what I say—there is a ritual…

I won't do it! I can't! Kagome strained, reaching forward for Koinu again. Her fingers fell short, tears prickled her vision. Koinu, seeing her distress, crawled a few inches closer, pawing at her open palms with his tiny clawed hands. Kagome grabbed hold of him, gasping as she pulled him closer to her.

The shape in the corner moved around the furs, remaining indistinct, like a puff of smoke. You have no choice. Why bother trying to save that filthy hanyou? You're stronger than him, he thinks you're weak. He's left you for Taikokajin. He's power hungry. He wants her land. You were never enough for him. You remember the other priestess, you remember Kikyo.

Kagome whimpered, holding Koinu more desperately. She felt a small tremor pass through her body. In her peripheral vision she saw the shadow circle round the furs she was laying on. On the wall, by the door, she heard Taikokajin's claws tap on something metallic, the hilt of a sword. I remember Kikyo…

He never wanted you. He'll have that pink bitch take your whelp away from you and then run you through with that sword, all because you proved him right. You were too weak to save yourself and that whelp. All because you didn't have the sense to accept my help.

No! I am strong enough! She pulled Koinu up into her arms. He cooed a little, uncertainly. She used one weak arm to pull herself away from the direction of the door, off the furs.

You have no choice, little bitch! The shadow beast leapt at her.

Kagome scrambled, trying to move her useless legs while at once pushing Koinu away from the potential danger. The pup gave a small sound of surprise, and then fell silent, ears flattening over his skull. His tiny body shivered and shook as he watched his mother fall and stumble flat, twitching and choking as the shadow creature closed over her, suffocating.

It took only a second, and then Kagome stilled, the blackness faded away, seemingly disappeared entirely. The Kagome it left behind breathed slowly, deeply, like an assassin. She glanced once at the pup and then, with glowing glittering black eyes, she pushed Koinu further into the corner, gently. She rose onto her feet easily, lithely, and crossed the room.

Her toes hardly touched the floorboards. She appeared almost like a ghost, as if she might weigh no more than a feather. There was no sound to reveal her swift movement, the way she flattened her body on the opposite wall from Koinu, hidden in the shadows where Taikokajin would never see her.

Koinu stared after his mother even as the door slid open and the pink-eyed demon woman stepped into the room with her shiny sword drawn. Senses passed from both his miko mother, and his hanyou father, told his simple baby's mind that there was something horribly wrong with his mother. Her scent had changed, her aura had changed. It troubled him, sent his instinctual crying response into the ready.

As Taikokajin stepped into the room and saw him, she lowered her sword, overcome with the child's traumatized expression. Even in her own insanity she could recognize the pup's distress, and it made her drop her guard. But as she made a move toward the child, Kagome sprang her trap from where she'd been hiding in the corner by the door. Pouncing more like a beast than a human, she leapt onto Taikokajin's back, screaming in a guttural language that was not her own. Her hands glowed a sickening black-purple color, and when they clamped around Taikokajin's neck, the demon woman screeched with agony.

Koinu cringed, crying immediately at the harsh sound.

Taikokajin whirled, half falling; half eluding the sudden attack, and Kagome went flying. Her body crashed against the door frame, cracking and splintering the thin wooden walls. Kagome's breathing returned almost immediately to normal, her hands continued to glow. When she used them to push herself up from the ground the floorboards underneath her palms turned black, as if withering and rotting.

Taikokajin stumbled away, her body quivering. Around her neck were two rings of black pock marks, burned deeply into her skin. She gasped and choked, as if Kagome's stranglehold had never been removed at all. Her face, already so white from simply being an albino, now looked completely bleached. Her pink eyes were wide, wild, and bloodshot.

"What have—" she choked, still stumbling drunkenly. She clawed at her neck, and in her fingers black flakes of what might have once been skin came back at her touch. She gaped at it, her mouth pulling at the air like a dying fish's.

Kagome stayed in a crouching position, close to the ground. She advanced on the demon woman slowly, her hands were held, palms out, like weapons.

Weakly, Taikokajin tried to steady her sword; she tried to steady her stance for a fight. Her sword, long and narrow, had the ability to absorb spiritual, purifying energy—but somehow, what the miko was throwing her now; it didn't quite meet that definition. To a demon the spiritual energy was toxic, yes, but this…

Horror awoke within Taikokajin. The miko's aura, it was no longer completely human.

"Abomination!" Taikokajin gasped, sneering. She lunged, slashing at the miko, but with speed that a mortal shouldn't have possessed, Kagome avoided the slash, ducking beneath it and grabbing Taikokajin's ankles.

Taikokajin screeched with pain and started to fall as her muscles burned away at Kagome's touch. She swiped with her sword as she fell once, catching Kagome in the shoulder.

Kagome rolled away, but left streaks of blood in her wake.

"You cannot win," Taikokajin snarled, "The beast you asked to help you, miko, it will consume you and the child—you are a fool…"

"You're the fool, Pinky." The voice issuing from Kagome's lips was not quite her own, it had a deeper, more masculine edge to it, but Kagome's own voice could still be heard and recognized within it. "I'll see that you lose everything you have. I won't take your life fast, the way you think you deserve. No, you're going to die slowly."

Taikokajin lifted her sword. "You are the only one that will die in here. I've had that planned all along."

She grinned, revealing elongated canine teeth; the edges seemed to fuzz in and out of existence. Her eyes glittered blackly. "What are you waiting for?"

Taikokajin stiffened, preparing to lunge forward, but Kagome clapped her hands together, closed her eyes. The purple-black energy burst forward in a spray of dark color, splattering Taikokajin.

The demon woman cried out, screaming and stumbling backward. The droplets that landed on her kimono burned through the fabric, smoking. Her cries grew more pained, higher, frantic. She patted desperately at the drops, only to come away with her hands smoking as the stuff burned into her flesh there too.

She dropped her sword. It clattered on the floorboards and rolled toward Kagome's feet. Kagome watched the demon woman writhe, dispassionately. She appeared also not to notice or hear Koinu's screaming.

At long last, when Taikokajin slumped to the ground, passing out as pain overwhelmed her, Kagome turned back toward Koinu. Her body loosened slightly, becoming heavier, more human. The ugly black glint in her eyes dissipated, fading away until it was nearly gone.

She crossed the room and scooped Koinu up into her arms carefully, shushing him. When his whimpering had quieted, Kagome got up again and turned to face the doorway. Guards and maids and others who served Taikokajin and her son, Shimofuri, were waiting there, stunned into utter silence. When Kagome took a step toward the doorway they backed hurriedly away, giving her as much room as they could.

Stone-faced, and holding Koinu tightly against her, Kagome walked through the castle hallways, out into the courtyard, and finally out the castle gates.