Inuyasha didn't feel like going home. Kaede was never there anyway. So he wandered once more, mind somewhere else, his blood pulsing and heart throbbing painfully in his chest. His eyes started to blur. His throat was dry as parchment.
Minutes, hours, days, years later, he stumbled, half-blind, fell to the ground, and didn't bother to get up. His nose was filled with the scent of incense. It was the only sense he still had mastery over. It was like sandalwood, surrounding his form.
There were voices around him. But he couldn't understand. A hand felt his neck, his wrist, his hair...
"Don't touch him."
The two men froze and then looked up at the voice.
A woman in a red and white gingham kimono walked barefoot towards them. Her dark brown hair was pulled back and tied 'round in a simple ponytail. Two white feathers fluttered in the bind, bright green pearls glinted on her ears. A white fan with red stripes covered the lower half of her face.
But her bright red eyes were unmistakable.
"Lady Kagura," said the man, bowing his head.
"Come here, boy," she beckoned with one manicured hand.
Seeing a familiar face through the haze, even if he had only met her once before, he stood up and went over to her on shaky legs.
She looked at them, narrowing her eyes behind the fan in what could have been assumed to be a smile. "Let it be known now that he belongs to my house. None of you are allowed to touch him."
They bowed their heads but she had already turned to leave. Inuyasha followed her. She said nothing as they went through the maze of beautiful and elaborate buildings. Buildings he hadn't noticed his visit before in his haste to flee that man in the top hat.
They eventually made it to an intricate house reminiscent of the Forbidden City, albeit much smaller, and including all of the drastic colors.
They went up a set of stairs and Inuyasha looking around in curiosity, his eyes clearing just a little bit with the slight adrenaline in his veins, then entered through a set of double doors.
A girl behind the wooden entrance startled him slightly when she bowed.
"Den mother, shall I wash your feet?"
"Thank you, Nazuna."
Kagura sat down on a stool and the girl proceeded to wipe her feet off with a wet towel. Apparently she walked barefoot everywhere, as the girl was used to this ritual of washing feet. Nazuna was somewhat plain but with a quiet kind of beauty to her. Her black hair was pulled back in a ponytail at the nape of her neck and was wearing a solid green yukata.
"So you came back, as I thought you would," Kagura said from behind her fan, which she had not failed to shield her face with since the beginning.
Inuyasha said nothing, scowling. He was sporadically trembling, some soft, others violent. He absently touched the bruise on his face.
"The next dealer was not that little weakling frogman, was it?" she asked. "You couldn't bully that one, could you?"
"No." He clenched his fist.
By then Nazuna had finished washing her mistress' feet. She left with the dirty towel and another woman came into the room.
"I heard there is a boy here?" said the new one, who was cocking her head to one side. When she looked past Kagura and saw Inuyasha, she gasped audibly. Her hands immediately went to his hair. He shrank at her touch, but it didn't discourage her-in fact, she didn't even notice.
Kagura seemed to be smiling behind her fan again. "I figured you would take interest in him right away."
"His hair is gorgeous. Such a pure black," said the girl. She ran her fingers through it and they caught on tangles. "Although not very well taken care of."
"Yura," Kagura said, and the girl let go of him and bowed.
"Welcome home, den mother."
Yura was clad in a solid black yukata. Her dark brown hair was short and straight, cut at an angle so that it was longer in the front than the back. A red ribbon perched above her bangs. Her eyes opened to reveal a bright pink-ish scarlet, like an albino rabbit's eyes. She was pale enough to match.
"Where is Tsubaki?"
Yura bowed her head. "Making up the new girl, mother."
"Ah. I was hoping to introduce you both at the same time. We shall wait for them, then."
Another woman walked in. Her yukata was lavender, and her dark hair hung in waves down her back. Four gold ornaments held back her hair. Bright blue eyes watched the three of them. She had a slight air of curiosity over her look of her indifference.
"Kaguya."
"Den mother."
A small girl appeared from behind Kaguya. Her hair was iron grey and her eyes were purple. Her skin was reverently sun-kissed. Kaguya waved her away without even looking at her. The girl went back into the hallway but peeked her head around the corner to look.
The girl suddenly turned and backed away, bowing slightly, as two more women came into the foyer. One was wearing a grey yukata, another dark blue. They were vastly different from one another.
The one in blue was tall and imposing. Her long hair was a brilliant white and her eyes a brilliant blue. A small golden shell covered her widow's peak. She stood straight and tall and bowed towards Kagura.
The other, the one in grey, looked around shyly before bowing her head. Red auburn locks reached mid-back and eyes a pure seagreen. They had no pupils, just like Kagura's.
"Girls, this is a new addition to our house. Please be kind to him."
"A boy?" asked the white-haired woman.
"Yes, Tsubaki."
"What is your name?" Nazuna asked, standing in the hall behind the little girl.
"Inuyasha," he said, looking around him at them all.
"You will be living with us?" asked Kaguya, skeptical.
Kagura was looking at him, a question in her eyes.
"No," he said, after some thought. There was a tug in his chest. The last remnant of Kaede's love. "I must get home so that..."
"So that you are not missed?" Nazuna asked.
"Yes."
"A secret double life," Yura said, sighing, but not unhappily.
"You want a male dancer, mistress?" Tsubaki asked.
"He is young. He still has that androgynous look."
"You want him to be a female?" Yura questioned, a smile already on her face. Her hands were twitching expectantly.
"It will help to maintain his different identity," Kagura said.
"Wait," Inuyasha said. He was clutching his chest with one hand and panting. "I never said that I'd be a girl. Or that I'd even work here for that matter."
"We do not have male dancers," Kagura said, blinking at him, as if it was an obvious fact of life. "And what are you doing back here, young one, if not to work to pay for the love you so crave?"
The girl with auburn hair and the smaller, golden girl were looking between them all, both with different expressions of not understanding.
His mind was in turmoil. Why had he come here? It was unconscious, his walking back to this place. Perhaps the prospect of working in order to pay for Kikyo had led him here, a niggle in the back of his head. Inuyasha unconsciously balanced himself on the doorframe, his panting clearly audible now as blood roared in his ears.
"He's an addict," Nazuna said, eyes wide. She was looking at his bloodshot orbs, which had clouded over once more.
And suddenly he blacked out.