Disclaimer: Again, this author, theworldsgreatest01, does not own Inuyasha.

Chapter Three: Artificer

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I can say with an almost positive manner that our journey is taking its toll on us a great deal, but it lessens the fatigue when, in-between the tumult of our daily lives, I am still able to behave my age instead of that of an adult, and this is accomplished only in the company of Imoutou-chan, and while she gives the pretense of being agitated by my 'neediness' as she calls it, I am fully aware of her slowly yet surely growing an extensive love for our budding sibling relationship. This includes long, drawn out conversations about the last demon we killed as our parents look on, commenting on how bizarrely absorbed we appear to be in slaying demons, or discussing complications we run into while attempting to deal with the matters of maturing, questions needing to be answered, so on and so forth.

A full three months have passed that we have been searching for Maburoshi and the days have been following a routine that I can manage. Being ambushed in our sleep has made us grow accustomed to being light sleepers, paying more attention to our surroundings and seeking our destinations extensively have made us disciplined and intuitive, one battle after another has honed our combative skills.

But enough of that, the fact that Imoutou-chan fully trusts me with her thoughts allows a sense of security to envelop me. She frequently leads me to separate places where we have our privacy and she can ask me numerous questions, seek my advice or show me a new technique that needs critiquing. Our bond as comrades and siblings has grown much stronger, without any doubts as to what might be in the future, yet for now I know that we are getting to be used to this lifestyle, contrary to our parents, who feel right at home sleeping under the stars.

At first, I was a little unsettled by it. I'll admit that being on the road, traveling all the time and putting my life on the line has scared me. All I needed was to know that I had our companionship though. And Imoutou-chan and I have been able to knead our adolescent affairs around this situation with ease now. We can still be a normal pubescent young man and woman now that we have learned the qualities of our journey.

So we both find our spare time filled with being light-hearted and whimsical, forgetting the point of it all for a while, then when the time comes to pick up another lead on Maburoshi, we put away our personal lives and put on our courage.

For now, it was the time of our lives to be stalled with simplicity. Youkai had come from the forefront of a range of mountains we had happened to pass by, evidently spurning to injure at least one of us for a meager taste of the power that Maburoshi promised them. The overall bout was quite easy to say the least. I reopened a cut in my abdomen, but it was nothing that a nice therapeutic plant could not mend, and continuous remarks on how weak I am from my Imoutou-chan.

We excused ourselves from the group to wander into the auburn woods that housed bronze colored leaves signaling the approach of fall. Curiosity fueled our exploration as well as a minute away from our parents, whose wing we were feeling a bit suffocated underneath. Well, I am just fine in the company of Chichi-ue and Haha-ue. Maybe…I might get a little uncomfortable in their presence all the time-as I have told Imoutou-chan. She likes to meander the forest alone, I have noticed, with her own thoughts, but most of the time she enjoys my company.

The dead leaves crackled underneath our fluid strides and coated the ground in varying shades of gold. I looked down at my feet to see them almost swallowing my toes from their places on my straw sandals, it appeared as though I walked through an amber sea. The scenery was worth an artists' brush it was so captivating, and I am sure Imoutou-chan felt that way as well, for ahead of me I watched her twirl around childishly, her hair lifting with the breeze.

I was never really the type to observe women too extensively, unlike my father. Oh, how many rumors there are-and his reputation! They truly are extensive to say the least…and then once the stories are told, Haha-ue is furious, Chichi-ue is somber, and the girl telling the tales turns to me and exclaims, "Oh you're the monk's son then? You must be just as good, if not better at his practices!"

Oh, the embarrassment and how disappointed they are when they find that I am not in the least similar to Chichi-ue. Yes, I have been told that I am the mirroring visage of my mother as far as relations with the opposite sex. It's not that I am afraid of their advances, although it is quite rattling to be pummeled by females, the touching and hugging…it makes me uneasy.

I know men at my age, a prime of eighteen years old, are expected to have already lost their virginity and seek after brides and other women to simply bed them. But certainly it is sensible that I have not thought much about this considering my circumstances. Yes, I am aware that when we stop at villages they practically submit themselves underneath me; Inuyasha has commented on whether or not I would 'just sleep with the wench already and get on with it.' Hah. Has anyone ever paid attention to how tasteless their actions are?

Okay. Not all of them are promiscuous. There were a few who were radiant past all expectations, with hearts brimming with beauty and small significant qualities that set each apart from the rest. I remember one girl clearly, her name was Nozomi. Oh, her smile was enough to make me fall to pieces! My face was forever heated in her presence. This was when I was fourteen. It is a distant memory.

So I am not completely unaware of the women around me-there's a feeling inside the pit of my stomach that wants, no-needs-to recognize the power point of love reflected from me into another. I do agree that it proves the fact I have taken up my father's hopeless romantic derision, to focus rather on what might be, rather than what is. There is only this special something that I have to notice in that someone…I don't know what it is, but it is of paramount that I see it.

I don't know how to deal with the things I feel when it comes to expressing myself, being with a woman or touching her…I am virtually clueless! Chichi-ue has been trying to teach me and inform me of the trivialities of loving another and engaging in sexual activities. It makes me extremely uncomfortable. People expect me to be intimate, perverted, irresistibly charming and devilishly suave because I am Miroku's son. Even he sets those standards for me! But somehow all the women that come across my path have not interested me.

And here I lead myself to my parents' suspicions of Imoutou-chan and I. I am sure their ideas of what we are doing now, away from the rest of them are severely distorted. I'm not fully sure I can say that I have any attraction toward her as a woman…she is very beautiful to enunciate the least. Brave, strong, haughty, aggressive, stubborn, impulsive, funny, intelligent…these are all the different and interesting qualities I associate with her. My eyes can frequently be found staring at her and memorizing every detail of her appearance, each word she says I cling onto and dissect to further understand whatever story she weaves, each outrageous or obscene one as well. I follow every gesture in earnest and she has never failed to make me smile or make me laugh. There is no one person who I know better than I do her.

Now, as for an infatuation with my Imoutou-chan…well, I do not think of it often. I admire her. Her eyes are like the sun, brilliant beyond all measure, her tresses are like raven's water and her smile is warming to the depths of my chest. She is similar to the light of day and I feel alive around her, when she is depressed or troubled the world seems off-balanced and I too am hit with a wave of sadness. It is as if she can control my emotions with little effort-come to think of it, I don't believe that she realizes this.

For the moment I bask in her light-hearted nature. She is my Imoutou-chan to me after all. How would it look, for a boy to yearn for his sibling, his younger sister at that? I couldn't see myself with her, but yet I do. Not as a lover of course, but as a guardian, or rather- an equal. It is natural for me to not see myself right without her when we have shared our lives from the very beginning. It is! It truly is completely natural!

She spun around on her heel to look at me and smile. A funny one, appealing. It caught me by surprise so the only reaction I could conjure was to attempt a crooked grin in return. That simple action had disturbed my thoughts to say the least, and called me back to the realm of the living. I delve into the trivialities of my mind quite too often.

Blowing her bangs from her eyes, she pouted and crossed her arms. "You've been quiet. What kind of bullshit monk crap could you be thinking about this time?"

"Oh, it isn't important." I closed my eyes and waved a careless hand. "Just mindless thoughts."

Imoutou-chan scoffed in irritation, but before I had the chance to take a fleeting glance at her expression, she had turned from me and taken a few steps away. "You always think. Is there ever a moment when you just go with your gut? Wondering about the world won't get you any farther in life than you are now. Can't get anywhere by dreaming all the time."

I started to feel as if she hated the fact that I spent more time with my own manifestations than with her. Was she jealous of the interpersonal relationship I had? "But dreams are the embodiments of the future. All that is around us began with a single fantasy, that turned into a dream, that turned into a plan that molded itself into being." I felt like a fool sounding off the teachings of Chichi-ue and my religion in a slow, monotonous voice.

Imoutou-chan must have noticed it as well, for she snapped her head to me with a suspicious, albeit worried, stare. "And if they don't be?" she said, her eyebrows closely knit.

I chuckled. For what, I have no idea. It was a stupid reflex. Silence followed, with her attempting to read my downcast eyes and me searching for something, just a single relevant answer to such a simple question. Blank. I had no clue what to say. We stood there listening to the songs of the bird and the screeching of the hawks and the soundless moving of the trees as the wind blew through them. The whole feel of it was relaxing, yet we were hard-pressed to release the knots of tension in our muscles. I inhaled the scents of woodland and birch when she shifted her position.

The dead leaves crunched underneath her feet. "Then I guess they…float on the line between that which is fake and that which is real." I answered.

"As I said, bullshit!" she called, and her voice seemed far away. I looked up and realized that she was almost ten feet down the road and still walking. Hah, I had forgotten that those meaningful, thought-provoking words would mean just that in Imoutou-chan's ears. She was not one easily swayed by sugar-coated phrases or wooed by the most romantic occasion a man could bring to life. The yearnings of a small village girl of a home on a hilltop overlooking a waterfall, a handsome fiancé who brought her a horse-drawn carriage and a rose every morning-Imoutou-chan would laugh at, considering the notions incredibly sappy.

Which is what set her apart from the rest in a special way. I know that the man who falls in love with her will have a pretty hard time getting her to reciprocate. And, oh of course he would never win her over. No, she definitely would murder the man who thought of her as a prize to be won. Ah, how emphatic I feel for the poor soul that does become infatuated with her!

I caught up to her, but she didn't stall her pace. "You're going to leave me here on such a note?" I asked, my eyes wide. Truly, I was sincere.

Clearly, I was barely lucid. She snorted with a sarcastic grin and continued to keep her eyes ahead. That question was so idiotic that I figure she thought it did not even require an answer. I wouldn't blame her if she misconstrued it to be a rhetorical one. Slightly injured, I fell into step behind her like a dog with its tail between its legs. I felt just as much, because Imoutou-chan could at least be a bit sympathetic with me. I suppose she was frustrated, so I didn't want to set off an alarm by attempting to say anything else. So I remained silent.

After a while I saw her roll her amber eyes. "Do you put up that poor helpless act with all those little fillies at the villages? That might explain why they fawn after you so eagerly." She stopped and raised an eyebrow at me with her arms still crossed one over the other.

"An act?" I parroted stupidly. I didn't know what she meant by that, but now I realized that in every single conversation we had, it does not slip her mind to mention the "little fillies from the village."

A finger was pressed against the middle of my forehead and I stared, afraid, at the sneering face in front of mine as she drilled harder into my skull. Imoutou-chan is a force to be reckoned with. She leaned closer with every word while I leaned back, the finger at my head guiding me backward. "You think you're so smart don't you? Trying to pull that shit off on me. Well, I can tell you that unlike all those air headed twits I won't fall at your feet sooner than you fall at mine." By this time my spine was bending to its full extent.

She concluded the reply with a sharp jab from her finger that nearly made me topple over. "I don't know what act you're talking about. But I wouldn't try to pull anything off on you, Imoutou-chan." I rubbed gingerly at the tender spot. "That much is true."

"Why not?"

I was shocked at the nature of those two words put together regarding pulling something off on her. My face heated and most likely turned bright red. I tried my best to conceal it with my bangs but the force of her exclamation startled me into fright.

"There! Why do you do that?!" she shouted, pointing at me.

Bewildered, I looked around. "What?"

She walked up to where I stood and gripped my chin in her palm, forcing my blush to grow more fervent, and touched my burning cheek. The contact sent a strange and pleasant fluttering inside my abdomen. Ignore it, ignore it. Even if she was so close, it doesn't matter…she is my younger sibling. That is all she will ever be. I swallowed to replenish my dry throat.

"Blush. Sango does it when Miroku speaks to her in whispers, you do it when those women embrace you, yet you do it if I just look at you a certain way. Why?" she mumbled, her iris concentrating on the red of my face. "Why do people do that?"

Suddenly, there was a part of me that wondered if she sought out the knowledge of this to learn, or to know what my motive was for allowing it to appear. Can I hold it back and chase it away? I've never tried it, although there have been many opportunities that I could have…Explaining it might be a knotty topic to broach. To say the bodily function is attributed to affection and deep rooted endearment like my father elaborated unto me would be quite disturbing. And what she had asked was correct. I did it in her company as well. Why? I don't know. My manners are to be aloof and distant. Much like my parents. I think closeness disrupts me, which is the reason for that. Of course it is! It would never be the latter! To even suggest that is-just absurd!

And my answer was just that. Absurd. "Men do it in the presence…of-of a b-beautiful wom-m-man…and you-well, being you…"

Her eyes widened at my words like a flower blooming to the spring. They were pretty in fact. A strong, regal gold in battle; a soft and sincere amber in calm. I never did once tell Imoutou-chan she was beautiful and I do not think that any other man has taken the chance to tell her so. Which can take its toll on a girl. She must know the degree of her own beauty, and someone must let her in on this secret. Yes, I believe her mother has cooed to her countless times on how radiant her features are, but hearing it from a member of the opposite sex is quite different. Mothers say things just to make their children happy. It is only in the perception of others that one can truly know something about themselves. I wanted to give her that. So I continued.

"For one, um, your-your eyes are b-b-beautiful…and, uh-" Sweat coated my forehead at this point under the stunned watch of Imoutou-chan. The blush had spread to my neck and ears. "You are, um, beautiful. Th-that's w-why I may…blush with you."

Her body language spoke volumes of how flattered she was as a lady, yet she refused to look me in the face and instead took shuffled steps ahead of me, her hands straying to low branches as she went and caressing the leaves. Did she want me to follow, or what? I stood there speculating my next move and fretting. Had I said the wrong thing? I told her what she was…she was pretty. Or perhaps she had no desire to broach the subject?

A shifting passed through the tress as she lie her back against a wizened sapling. After a second spell of quiet, she lifted her head. Her gaze was steadfast to the grove beyond us.

"No one ever told me that." she said, softly.

I flashed a lop-sided grin. "Well, it is true. You are, Imoutou-chan. That's why I blush around you the most." Where had that come from? "I-I mean-" It was gone before I could take it back.

She shot her eyes into mine and stared intently, and I might add, sorrowfully. And with an innocence that was not faked. I tried my best to hold it, but it seemed impossible for me to do so. Her sight was forcing her to find some type of lie in mine, a fraction of false pretense to prove me to be a liar. But I held common ground because I know her, her ways and how she tries to find the worst in people before she finds the best. Not that Imoutou-chan is pessimistic, although she can be at times-she is realistic. When she searched for naught, her eyes turned damp.

I was instantly seized with the powerful urge to hug her and hold her form within my embrace and protect her. Just to feel the trembles of her heart against my chest. I hadn't held my younger sibling, and I pleaded to make up for lost time. The thoughts inside my mind swirled like torrents with ideas, questions and possibilities-maybe I was not understanding this feeling or concept. Things were setting off balance with this new, unexpected yearning. There were standards and principles, millions of reasons why not to do that, yet I shut myself to them. If only for a moment, I wanted to.

At my first motion toward her, she was the one who bolted forward and threw herself against me, her hands searching my back with angry strokes and her chest heaving as she drew breath after breath as furiously as she meshed my body into hers. My arms were held away from her while she buried her face in my neck and ran her fingers through my hair, I was unsure of how to respond. The manner in which she chose to embrace me was more than suggestive, and made my senses heighten in a way unbecoming of me. But then I felt the trembling and shuddering her frame took over. The soft sobs elicited in my ear where her head was resting at my shoulder, and the dampness running there. That is when my arms enfolded her. She hadn't wanted this, yet it was not something to want but rather to need. I knew after this small interval, we would return to the realm of reality and face it all again as if it had never happened. And it won't be mentioned in public during any circumstance. But if only for this time, I touched her hair and closed my eyes before I went back to the stage and hid behind the mask.

A/N: This chapter was designed to explore Kohaku's ambiguity toward Kikyou and the sexual frustration these two teenagers have to endure traveling with their parents and friends and going without contact with people they haven't known their entire life for months at a time. For example, if you, the reader, were stuck in a closed-in apartment with several people and not allowed contact with the outside world, anyone would start to attract you, even if one of the people happened to be Clay Aiken. No matter what gender you are. So, off from the horrible joke, this chapter begins to explore the growing tension between the two and how so much time spent together has led them both to develop stronger emotions toward each other, which Kohaku addresses in telling Kikyou that she is beautiful, and her reaction to this fortells the events to come. Thank you for reading.