Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. This is a not for profit fan work.

Chapter 3

Kagome stared at what she was now sure was a flea standing on the head of a chipmunk at the door of her hut. A talking flea. She had been attacked by a centipede and was now being talked to by a flea. Were all demons actually some weird kind of bug? Was this some kind of joke?

"My lady?" it asked as she found herself sliding down to her knees. Maybe she just needed to sit down. Maybe she just needed to get a bit more sleep. Maybe she had eaten some kind of weird herb. She had been looking through the book quiet thoroughly, but a mistake could be made.

She felt a slight sting on her cheek and slapped at it automatically, watching the flea drop from her cheek unharmed and murmuring "My apologies."

She screamed then. She screamed, brushed the flea and the chipmunk out of the hut and closed the door. The demon had attacked her! It wanted her for her blood! She could already envision its lord, a massive flea that was going to suck her dry. She would be just dust and bones by the time he was done with her.

There was a moment of silence, and then the scratching at the door again. "My lady, please, allow me to explain!"

"No!" she shot back, "No way am I letting you in or going to see any lord of yours!"

"B-but…" There was a beat of silence. "M-my lord!"

She froze. Oh no. The giant flea was here! She looked around the hut, desperate for something to defend herself with. She had the knife, yes, but it wasn't as if she knew how to fight with a knife. It would be something. Maybe she could get her powers working again?

"What the heck did you do to scare her, Myouga?" That voice sounded vaguely familiar. "Stupid flea, you bit her didn't you?"

"She just smelt so delicious!" She blanched at the words of the flea. Gross!

"Idiot. Hey, girl, come out here. No one's going to try biting you again."

"No way!" she shouted, grabbing a stick from the pile of firewood. She hoped it was thick enough to use as a proper club. "Now, you better get out of here of I'll, I'll purify the both of you!" An empty threat, but they couldn't know that.

The lord laughed. "Like you did that centipede? Yeah, right."

Kagome felt her eyes go wide. This was him. This was the demon that had saved her. A giant flea, and now he was here to demand payment for his services. Her life? Maybe, to be his wife? That was something a fair number of legends told about demons, they would take human wives, and then eat them up when they got tired of them. Still, if this demon could destroy the centipede with such ease, the door and walls of the hut were clearly not enough to stop him.

"Look," he said, "We don't mean you any harm. Just get out here, we'll talk, and then we'll go our merry way."

She kept frowning. He was being reasonable, she supposed. He wasn't breaking down the door, and the bite hadn't been that bad, really. If it had been meant to kill her, well, it would have been much more painful or something. After all, weren't fleas basically parasites?

"Ok, but if you try anything, I'm going to purify you!"

The lord scoffed as she made her way to the door. She pulled it open, holding the stick like a baseball bat. If either of them got close to her, she was going to smack them upside the head and then run. She saw the chipmunk with the flea, Myouga, on its head first, hanging back further from the hut, and then, a man?

She blinked, the stick lowering as she looked at the man in red. He didn't look like a giant flea. In fact, he didn't look like a demon at all. He looked human. She looked a little more closely, noticing the oddities now. He had long white hair, and his eyes were the colour of amber. He had claws, and, on the top of his head he had two triangular ears that turned and flicked independently. She wondered what they could be hearing. Still he looked mostly human, and a young human at that. Maybe a few years older than her. He was scowling, but he didn't look scary.

"You can put that stick down," he said, not moving from his position a few feet from the hut. He was giving her space, at least.

She lowered it, though she didn't let go of her grip. "You were the one that save me from the centipede, weren't you?" He was wearing a red outfit that hadn't been in fashion for centuries. It was same red she had seen in flashes around the hut all week. He had been watching her. If he had meant her harm, there were definite ways he could have done it without asking her to come out of the hut. "Thank you for that."

He looked at her for a moment. "Keh."

The flea came forward. "My lady, may I present Lord InuYasha, son of Inu no Taisho and heir to the Western Lands."

It was an impressive sounding title. Inu No Taisho had been one of the demons who had participated in the signing of the treaty 500 years ago. And this was his son? She looked at him again, re-evaluating his age. He looked only a few years older than her, but that was likely not the case.

"How do you do?" She said politely, bowing. "My name is Kagome Higurashi. Of Tokyo." She added the last part to sound a little less unimportant.

He and the flea looked at her appraisingly. "Well," said the flea at last. "We are here on business, so, if I may?" He looked to Lord InuYasha. The demon nodded and the flea took out a tiny scroll. "As per the treaty signed between our peoples in the year 1556, we are here to confirm your reason for being in demon territory. Now than, Lady Higurashi, a few questions." She nodded, the whole thing feeling somewhat surreal. "Your age?"

"I'm 18."

Myouga made a note with a tiny brush on the tiny scroll. "Are you with child?"

She flushed at the question. "What sort of question is that?"

"It's forbidden for women to be sent here if they are. The question is simply to confirm."

"I am not," she replied. That did make sense.

"Very well," another tiny mark. "Are you the leader of a rebellion or rival political faction, or otherwise an enemy of the current government?"

She shook her head. Political rivals were not supposed to be sent over either. Everyone knew that much. "I'm not."

Another mark. "Wonderful, my lady, just another few questions. How many have you slain?"

She blinked. "Slain?"

The flea looked up from his scroll and the demon looked at her with a spark of interest. "You know," he said, "murdered."

She glared at him. "I haven't killed anyone," she shot back, annoyed that they dared ask her something like that as if it were a foregone conclusion.

"Anyone?" asked the flea.

"Well, that rabbit the other day," she said pensively. "And some bugs here and there."

The flea looked to the lord, then back to her. "So, you maintain your innocence?"

"I wasn't sent here for killing someone." She frowned, feeling a bit shy suddenly. "I was sent here for harbouring a demon."

"What?" asked the lord at the same moment the flea said "I beg your pardon?"

She nodded."I found this demon in the well house," she said slowly, uncomfortable with the weight of their gazes on her, "I thought it was just a cat, and it was hurt, so I brought it some food and water and helped it get better for a couple of weeks, and then the police came and arrested me and they sentenced me to two years in exile for sheltering a demon."

The flea rolled up the scroll, frowning. She watched as he crossed his arms and closed his eyes in a distinctly pensive pose. "Well, that's very interesting."

"Told you something was fishy," said Lord InuYasha to his vassal. "It's not normal to cry over killing a stupid rabbit."

She looked at him in shock. He had seen that?

"Well, well, this is a conundrum," said the flea. "A blatant disregard for the terms of the treaty. Harbouring a demon, a crime? The treaty is clear, any demons found on the human side of the Wall are to be returned unharmed. To send a human here for showing compassion to a creature in need, it's barbaric!"

She blinked, looking at them with surprise. What were they talking about? They had been taught in school as children what was in the treaty, and nothing in it said anything about returning demons unharmed. She remembered the time the prosecution had spent quoting the treaty in her trial. She had read the excerpt along with the rest. It was clear that she had violated the terms. Her defense had been that she had done it unknowingly, not that it wasn't a crime.

"It's in the treaty," she said, drawing their eyes to her. "It has to be. There must be a mistake somewhere."

"My lady," said the flea, looking at her with an oddly understanding look. "I was there when the original treaty was signed. There is nothing in the treaty that says that anyone sheltering a demon should be exiled. That is reserved solely for murderers."

She looked at the flea, and then demon lord. They were serious. They meant it. She should not have been sent here. She shouldn't be here. She took a step back into the hut. She should, at the worst, be in a cell in some prison. Some prison where she could have a warm bed, and eat regular meals, and get visitors. If these demons were right, and she was tempted to believe them, she should be worrying about what she was going to borrow from the prison library next, not wondering what her next meal would be.

"But, it has to be on the treaty! Every copy I've ever seen has it on it! They brought a copy of the original to my trial!"

"A copy," said Myouga, "could easily be manipulated. It could have been done hundreds of years ago, and no one would ever know. Humans don't live nearly long enough to be sure they have the original document."

She stared at him. She felt her knees give way and she found herself kneeling in the doorway of the hut. The stick lay forgotten beside her.

"So, I shouldn't be here."

"I'm afraid not," replied the flea before turning back to the demon. "My lord, with your permission, I will bring this to the attention of Lord Sesshoumaru. Treaty violations such as these should be brought to his attention."

InuYasha nodded. "And what do you suggest I do until we get a reply from Mr. Ice King?"

The flea looked mildly uncomfortable. "Well, my lord, as she is our key evidence to the treaty violation, I'm afraid we are going to need to ensure her safety until she can be returned to her people."

He frowned, his arms crossed. "That's what I thought you'd say."

"What does that mean?" she asked, her mind still reeling with the revelation that she had been dumped out here for no good reason.

"It means," said the demon, his gold eyes on her with a look of superiority, "Until this is all sorted out, you belong to me."

Dun dun dun! Aha, and this is where the fun stuff begins.

Thanks for your support 3 I'm glad you are enjoying this as much as I am.