The Softest Touch

Chapter 1: Of Confusion

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. Rumiko Takahasi does. I don't earn money with this.

It was dark. Around her, there was nothing. Her body wasn't there; she was floating somewhere, only her soul that she was sure of. There could only be one place where the soul was that free—heaven. Or hell. But why would she land in hell? But it wasn't hot; fire wasn't eating at her body or burning her slowly away like wood in a campfire.

There wasn't any shivering from coldness, any sweating from warmness, any moaning from pain inside her. There was nothing that could have told her, she was alive. And there were no voices or sounds, either. Everything was so quiet. So numb.

Perhaps all the hunting, all the blood, all the fighting had driven her to madness? Or she was only dreaming and in reality, Inuyasha was standing next to her impatiently, tapping angrily with his foot on the tatami of Kaede-sensei's hut and thinking to himself that her resting time had been already way too long. Shippo-chan would run around him, shouting that he was being too rough or unkind with her and Miroku would try to spy under her clothing or blanket and Sango-chan would hit him with whatever thing was next to her.

Nervously, Kagome wanted to roll on the side, so that the rough tatami would scratch over her cheek. But then she remembered that there was no body which she could control. So this wasn't a dream, was it? Was she trapped in an illusion? And how did she leave that clearing and.. Oh God! Rin! What happened to the girl? What happened with her wounds?

Faintly, her soul remembered the fall to the floor from the oni's hand and Rin, shouting that she couldn't die right now. But had she died? Was she a bodyless soul now, wandering around? Was she a ghost? Or maybe, one of Kikyo's soul thieves had gotten her soul and was flying with it to the dead Miko so that her whole soul could be reunited in the dead clay body of Inuyasha's old love?

Questions over questions… And no answers! How could this happen? The memory of the fight was fuzzy but had all of this been her mistake? Her, Kagome's, fault? If she would give up the will to live right now, then maybe this would lead…

"Miko." Would lead to… "Miko." Maybe then she could understand how… "Kagome-nee-chan! Please! Can you hear us? Kagome-nee-chan…!" Rin!

With every bit of her weakened willpower, Kagome made her eyes burst open and her blue orbs were staring in bright light without seeing something except black shadows. A buzzing flooded her ears and all she could do was lay and stare. But the more she stared, the clearer the shadow became. The largest shadows sat to her right and hung the half way over her torso, peering down and crying frantically as if the Miko laid on her deathbed. (Well, maybe that was how Rin had saw her until she had opened her eyes, seconds ago…)

"R-Rin," Kagome croaked but wasn't sure if her voice had been loud enough for the girl to hear. "Rin, can you hear me? I… I'm okay… Okay, you see? I live." But Rin was crying more and more with every word that sprung from the Miko's lips. Not understanding what was wrong with being okay, Kagome moved her gaze to the side and managed to avoid gasping. Sesshomaru sat to her left and peered straight into her face. His long, white hair shimmered in the broad daylight and the markings on his face were outstanding. She was amazed.

"Kagome! Kagome!" Rin's panicked shoutings were slowly irking her. What was wrong? The black haired girl frowned but panicked herself when she saw how her view moved to a higher angle. Someone moved her body; she didn't even have the intention to change her position at all! What in Kami's name was happening?

Sesshomaru had slung an arm around the Miko's shoulders and observed her face closely. "Quiet, Rin," he instructed and his deep voice rumbled. He could understand Rin's sorrow over the girl (though he had never thought their relationship would be thisdeep) but his earlier made assumption was proving itself to be right now. "Miko. Can you hear me? Look in my eyes for "Yes" and to Rin for "No". Can you hear me?"

Irritated, the girl looked into the golden youkai eyes. "Do you feel pain?" She switched her stare to Rin for a second. "Do you feel my arm around your shoulders? My hand behind your head? Rin holding your hand?" The azure blue eyes were rushing from side to side in a speed that Sesshomaru couldn't understand how she expected to see something with every look. "Miko!" The blue eyes locked again onto Rin's face and the little girl sniffled and pulled the lifeless hand of the Miko to her face, pressing her small cheek against the motionless palm.

"Listen, Miko." Maybe he should have found another way to get answers out of her—her attention was easily moved away from him. The Miko stared once more into his eyes and he found himself feeling quit uncomfortable. Sesshomaru had never been a friend of the humans and even if this was the "legendary" Miko who brought back the jewel or who was tolerating the existence of the half-breed… She was still a human female and in general too close to his liking.

But when he had found Rin after that oni tribe had dared to drive his pack into different directions, he just couldn't rip the girl from the Miko and leave. He remembered the jolt that went through his body when he had seen the Miko on the floor, lifeless, and Rin clinging to her and crying as loud as she could with a puddle of blood between them. He couldn't have had possibly let the Miko there—Rin's crying alone would have attracted youkais from over ten miles away. So he had the (luckily only lightly hurt) Rin riding to their camp on Aa-Un and had personally swept the Miku up on his arms.

And then he had looked over her the whole night until now. Rin had joined him after she had slept a restless sleep for about four hours. "Miko. The youkai you fought were actually zombies with the appearance of simple oni. Their claws bear a poison which they inject through cutting their victims." He saw her eyes widen slightly. "You were cut on your back, over your chest, on your stomach and over your legs." The confusion in her eyes was practically physical. "The first time the poison enters your body; your nerves are only numbed slightly. You feel pain only for seconds and after more than one stroke, every feeling vanishes and after a few minutes, your ability to move muscles disappears."

If the poison hadn't hindered her, the Miko would have started to cry in his arms. He could see it; feel the emotion wavering from her aura, resembling a helpless cry.

After seeing the expression of suffering along the Miko on Rin's face, the daiyoukai continued. He had no intention of making them cry any more than they already had. (And those sniffling sounds were starting to get annoying, too.) "But the poison will be cured by your body in some time. Most likely in about two weeks, you will be able to move like you were before this incident." As it seemed, those two human girls were two to surprise (and irritate) him more then he liked because they were staring at him with a sorrowful face (Rin) and sorrowful eyes (the Miko).

Unfortunately, the question of whythe Miko was worried could not be solved with "Yes" or "No". And this Sesshomaru was not one for guessing games. In his confusion, he turned to the second girl. "Do you know why the Miko is sorrowed, Rin?" The small girl wiped over her cheeks with the sleeve of her orange and white checkered kimono, before she managed to answer her beloved master. "Rin doesn't know. But maybe it's because Kagome-nee-chan is sad for not being able to move for two weeks?" The white haired youkai knew that the black haired girl was practically letting her eyeballs spring out of her head by staring as hard at his face as she did for confirming Rin's words.

How annoying… He was sure to regret the decision of rescuing the Miko instead of leaving her to rot in the dirt. "Since you seem so extremely unhappy with that amount of time, I think I could talk to an old friend of mine. He is a poison master and surely could help with your situation." Her blue eyes continued to linger on his face, eventually dropping to his markings, the moon on his forehead or his fangs as he spoke. For a reason he really couldn't name, Sesshomaru felt the same strangeness from before; a strange sensation in his chest that made him want to release the Miko.

"Would this be in your interest?" the daiyoukai inquired—ignoring the strange feeling momentarily—and found the girl still staring into his eyes with a consequence that he slowly thought she was starting to enjoy this. So, yes, she wanted him to take her to his "friend". "But this friend may want paying because you are a human, a Miko on top of that. Do you still wish to take that risk upon you?"

The answer was, yes, she wanted, as much as she wanted to continue studying him with a good excuse at her hands. He had made the offer and his youkai pride surely forbid him to take it back without a verygood reason. Normally, Kagome wasn't a girl to use other's weaknesses but if this one and only Sesshomaru made an offer like this without being able to turn his back on her; how could she not take this opportunity?

So she just stared at him and wanted nothing more than to lift a hand and touch his moonlight colored hair. Of course she knew that even if she could move, there was no way she had such a strong death wish that she would stroke through his precious hair. She was a time-travelling Miko from Tokyo, not mad.

Rin looked happy and nuzzled her cheek again against her palm. Kagome watched, strangely bewildered with the displayed scene because it was just so strange to saw your own hand touch something but feel no touch (anything at all, really) at the same time. She wanted to speak, tell Sesshomaru a bit of the gratefulness she felt but… Her babbling would surely upset him. (The daiyoukai wasn't called the silent, strong and merciless Lord of the West for no reason, right?)

"Rin, you are going to stay here with Aa-Un and Jaken. I will put barriers around this clearing and Jaken… If you dare to leave the child alone, you will not see the sun rise for another time when I am finished with you." Sesshomaru's cold voice dripped of authority as he told the three staying parts of his group more instructions. Somehow, he must have noticed her questioning staring because he gave her a short, emotionless look and finished explaining how to behave while his absence and then turned to look at her again.

It must have been obvious to him that she was feeling uncertain, nervous and irritated because a mere glint of amusement sparked through his eyes for a second as he swept her up in his arms and gave her a crooked smirk with the right corner of his mouth. "This Sesshomaru will carry you and you won't complain. The journey will not take long; the next evening, we will already have returned to this clearing." With those words—and this time not waiting for her staring-response—he jumped into the air and into the woods.

Kagome couldn't feel the up and down of his running or the branches stroking over her skin when Sesshomaru thought it wouldn't hurt her. What she felt was the excitement of being carried in the youkai's arms for over two hours. And the worst part was, the Miko knew that she should have been excited for the antidote of the poison instead of lying in the arms of an enemy.
Did you found the mistake in her feelings? Kagome did and she certainly tried her best to forget about it until they arrived at their goal—thoughts like that would make things complicated. (But of course, things would turn complicated, anyway. As always.)

To be continued…

(Thank you for the reviews, favorites and alerts! :) I hope I can update soon but we will see how it goes. Thank you again and see you soon!

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