Kagome froze. She didn't dare glance back at Inuyasha. She was on her own. The moment that damn dog submitted to Sesshomaru, she knew she'd have to tell him. She just didn't think it would be a mere twenty minutes after being reunited.
But, just because he had grasped the edge of her current nightmare, didn't mean Sesshomaru needed to know all the details. Like he said, she didn't trust him. But she still needed to tell him something.
"Not a what," Kagome slowly said, "but a who."
Sesshomaru faced forward and began walking again. "I find it difficult to believe Inuyasha or you would have a problem with a singular person or demon. The both of you have grown respectively strong. You especially."
Kagome's face heated at the compliment. She shouldn't have been pleased, but getting praise of any kind from Sesshomaru? Even if he were her enemy and she hated him from the very depths of her soul, she still would have been proud of the acknowledgement he gave of her accomplishment.
"Like I said, the jewel tossed us to the other side of the world," Kagome said, following him. "We met demons. A lot of strange and powerful demons."
So many demons…
"There are parts of this great big world where humans have never stepped a foot on."—not in this time— "No mikos to keep the balance. Sometimes, no Daiyokai to enforce law," Kagome said. "Naraku… Naraku, as evil and as tricky as he was, he played by a set of rules—his rules, but rules nonetheless. He was nothing compared to the evil we encountered."
Inuyasha and she barely had time to get their bearings when they 'landed', before they'd been attacked by strange demons—foreign demons with foreign powers.
They had nearly died that first day.
"Inuyasha didn't have his sword. He had it in his hand when we wished the jewel away, but he didn't have it when we 'reappeared'."
"I have it," Sesshomaru said. "It's safe."
"Is it—"
Kagome snapped her mouth shut at Sesshomaru's soft growl. It was low, unthreatening, but still a warning. He was making it clear that a change of topic was not an option.
She sighed but obeyed his unspoken order.
"Without his sword, Inuyasha's demonic blood overwhelmed him almost instantly. He saved us by going 'wild'."
"'Going wild' would not have altered his appearance or scent," Sesshomaru said.
"What if not a second went by that he wasn't being attacked? What if it wasn't days or months, but years before we were left alone long enough for his demonic blood to calm?"
Kagome's heart began to race as she relived those early days.
"What if every time you've proven you're the top predator in one territory, you have to start from the bottom all over again when you enter a new one?"
She'd been painfully useless in those horrific, nightmarish days. Less than useless. Her power, strong, yes, but out of sync with the demons they had encountered. Her reiki as harmful as a bee sting. She'd been a mountain-sized weight hanging around Inuyasha's neck.
Inuyasha protected her weepy, pathetic ass when her psyche finally broke, and killed for her until her fragile human mind could accept her new reality. When that acceptance came… When the light finally clicked on and she'd been strong enough to face the world through sane eyes, she'd been standing on a hill of demon bodies, surrounded by a lake of blood.
Where she'd only gotten glimpses of the lives she'd taken, she now had the full picture. Complete control. And when she became mentally strong, she'd been unwilling to change back into the weak, frightened girl she had been.
Inuyasha and she had dominated—were unstoppable until…he appeared.
"That may explain his appearance, but not yours."
Kagome fell deeper into her shattered memories, watched as they flashed before her eyes. Memories of Inuyasha dragging a claw across his wrist, blood gushing down her throat, his flesh grinding between her teeth and her swallowing it. A decade or two he'd fed her that way—not every day, she had memories of eating other things. Plants. Animals. Youkai…
"Miko."
However, Kagome was saved from having to answer when she heard Inuyasha chirp a bird-like whistle in warning. Kagome reacted without thought. Leaping into the air, she hid behind thick branches and leaves high up in the trees. Silently, she unsheathed her blades and watched as the threat drew closer.