A/N 1: Omg you guys I am so, so terribly sorry about my long absence. First my mother needed her laptop, then my sleep schedule was so royally screwed that I was unable to function at all, and then she needed her laptop again just as I got some medicine in that helped level things out so I could do stuff again. I got it back yesterday but I am fairly sick, so I decided I would rest a day and keep to my schedule. Thank you for your patience. On with the show!

A/N 2: Honestly I totally agree with Kagome's reaction here, I think it's overkill – you will know when you read it – but they insisted and I tried rewriting it five times before giving up. Toga is just an overprotective inu. Sesshōmaru is too but Toga is worse. XD

Higurashi Kagome was fourteen when she got the four best gifts in her life. (Well – up until that point, anyway.)

Well, more, really. But one of them was kind-of-three at the same time, and one of them was two at the same time.

The first one – the one that was kind-of-three – was yōkai weapons. All of them—even the ones that weren't made to have attacks—could channel her miko-ki, even her bows – yes, bows, plural. Kagome saw the lot of weapons, threw her hands up in the air, and told the two yōkai in her pack that this was overkill, and they'd lost their minds. Her pack-mates had both smirked at her and Toga told her that she needed to be able to protect herself as best as she could, and besides, wrapping a cloth around the weapon would negate protections to keep them from being stolen from her – backups were necessary. She gave up for then, but she would remember this insanity. And get them back for it, somehow. Maybe she could, like, purify their hair off? No – she liked it too much. Damn.

The longbow was really super crazy special – Sesshōmaru-kun had it made for her with one of his fangs, and it was the first ever yōkai weapon he had made for someone else, and it was poisonous. Its name was Kodokuso, which meant anti-venom, which was kind of ironic, but considering it was a toxic protection for her, it surprisingly fit. Kagome didn't know exactly how that whole "poisonous" attribute actually worked, especially because she usually just used her miko-ki to form arrows for her longbow usage because arrows were both expensive and annoying to carve, unless they were arrows for her hunting bow. But she believed him, so that would be really convenient – as evidenced by Sesshōmaru-kun and Toga, not all yōkai could be purified, and ningen couldn't be purified ever at all. Sesshōmaru-kun could poison anything though. He was, after all, the daiyōkai of the acid claws. Kagome adored Sesshōmaru-kun.

About arrows, Toga had been very kind to her and let her copy the hunting arrows from some time period – she wasn't sure which – that were by far less painful for the animal getting hit than the traditional arrowhead was. It was basically a straight, sharpened staff, with no arrowhead at all. The arrow went all the way in to the fletching, killed faster, pulled out easy and smooth, and if she was trying to do something like injure or dissuade an animal or yōkai without killing it, there was far less blood loss and internal injury that she – or the yōkai, if it could without her help – had to heal afterwards. Nobody knew why Kagome had fewer theoretical problems with injuring or killing ningen, oni, and humanoid yōkai than she did non-humanoid yōkai and animals, but she did – even though she still really had no qualms with hunting. She just didn't like injuring animals. Swift, painless killing was what she enjoyed.

It was a skill she took pride in; just like any yōkai would.

When Sesshōmaru-kun had given his-her longbow to her, he had said that it wasn't his only gift, but the other ones would come later and one was attached to one of his father's gifts. Oh; and Kodokuso granted her immunity to even the strongest and most foreign poisons – Sesshōmaru regularly ingested new and upcoming poisons, acids, venoms, and various things to give himself consistent and continual immunity, and to add them to his own abilities. More could be added to Kodokuso as he came across them, in either universe. Kagome had been overwhelmed nearly to tears at the care and thought put into this gift of his.

Then Toga had given her five freaking weapons. Granted – not all of them were yōkai weapons. Well, okay they kind of were but they weren't simultaneously. The daggers were made from yōkai bone like all of her practise blades were, only these were crazy sharp and had regenerating yōki infused into them – but they weren't like what you could get from Tōtōsai, and didn't have "attacks" you could unlock. Although, her alpha and Sesshōmaru had told her, Tōtōsai had passed on, but one of his apprentices had surpassed him, and made her weapons for her in exchange for being included as one of the people that would be shifted over to the new universe because they had had significant contact with Toga's influence or her influence.

That explained why he had actually been gone for the entire two weeks it took to get all the weapons made – Kagome had had the most difficult time sleeping being alone in her bed, to the point she ended up asking her mama if she could sleep with her halfway through the first week. She hadn't slept alone since she moved to the shrine!

Anyhow – those daggers actually had been made by the same person who made her other weapons, just not using the process that made them "alive", with a will – and a voice – of their own. Toga told her that her weapons would "speak" to her sometimes, once they were active – right now they were inert, because she didn't need them in this era; once they went through the well they would activate, which meant she had to take them in one at a time to adjust. Apparently the yōkai who made her weapons for her was a bloody genius.

Kagome, again, voiced that she thought this was honestly a bit much, but Toga had let her know that she was, eventually, going to be spending two or three months a year in a court, surrounded by possibly (Kagome thought probably, Toga was gorgeous and powerful) hostile yōkai, and the rest of the time patrolling lands and getting attacked by definitely hostile yōkai. She needed all the advantages she could get, despite being as talented as she was, and in case they were wrong about her being able to be killed and that her immortality was only with regards to death by natural causes.

The compliment had made her blush, but she still thought this was overkill.

Anyhow – her second bow, a hunting bow that was named Rakurai (lightning strike – her bows had such cool names!), had been made from the same fang as the katana and wakizashi he'd had made for her, and when Kagome frowned, stared at them, and asked how the hell that was possible, her betrothed had fallen onto the floor laughing.

She kicked him in the side, just because she could. Ass. Hmph.

Sesshōmaru-kun had then kindly explained to her that he was able to find the way to Toga's skeleton (which was both cool and disturbing), which was of his natural form.

It made a lot of sense, then – those fangs would be enormous.

It was also why this present had, technically, only been three weapons – two Fangs and one bone (the daggers had been made from the same bone).

Kagome thought that was stupid, her pack had gone into insanity mode, and given her six special weapons when in all reality all she needed was a yōkai bow (she was too strong for normal bows at full strength, after all) and a Fang katana, considering that Toga could make his weapons have different forms, and so could Sesshōmaru-kun. If even that – it wasn't as if she was helpless without them, after all, and regular metal or yōkai bone could channel her miko-ki since it wasn't reiryoku and didn't react badly with yōki when she wasn't intending on harm towards the yōki or what contained it in question. Actually because Intent Mattered, even if it had been reiryoku she could have used them.

Toga had picked her up then and cuddled her, realising that part of her problem was the implied helplessness going on with the "special" weapons, and he and Sesshōmaru-kun explained that in yōkai culture, being given weapons was a rite of passage, of a sort – Sesshōmaru-kun didn't get Tenseiga until he was the equivalent of nineteen, after all – and that giving her yōkai weapons was a sign that they respected her skill and knew she could handle having, essentially, living weapons – and handle a multitude of them, each with their own will and their own personality and their own voice.

Then Sesshōmaru-kun rounded on Toga and scolded his father for forgetting to teach Kagome about that, which was hilarious to see her betrothed getting chastised by his son.

Once Kagome was feeling better, she had been presented with the katana and wakizashi, which were named Raimei (thunder) and Jinrai (thunderclap) – which was entirely fitting: three weapons made from he same fang, all having names relating to the same natural phenomenon; and having the longer sword called "thunder" and the smaller one a more diminutive "thunderclap" (a loud bang that lasted a short time, as opposed to a long rolling noise with more depth and duration) was perfect.

Even though she still felt that it was too much, Kagome had to admit to loving her new weapons – they were so versatile and powerful. Kagome might not actively seek out power, but she definitely respected it, and even inactive, her weapons had it in spades.

Kagome had a nagging suspicion that both her fiancée and her eventual stepson would rather she be overpowered and get rid of her enemy sooner than she did in the original timeline. She also decided that she probably would, although she wasn't sure how that would affect the people she was supposed to meet and the friends she was supposed to make. She did, however, know that her beloved was intending on keeping things as close to what happened originally as he could with the two obvious changes of having her ally with Sesshōmaru-kun in the beginning (Kagome was not about to let his stupid half-brother cut off her Sesshōmaru-kun's arm, if she could avoid it) and having his presence with her (although he would absolutely not be interfering with her duty).

Although, honestly, Kagome would much rather forego the "quest" nature of this mess and just prevent the jewel from ever shattering. Apparently though, for some reason, it was necessary that it shatter. Oh, right – when she had asked Hachiman-sama about that, He had told her that unless it left her body she could not control it and that eventually Susanoo-no-Mikoto-sama would tell her more. Right. Duh.

When the weapons had been given out, she had been gifted with a gorgeous set of yōkai soap and shampoo – the bottles were much larger than what she was used to seeing, though, so when she asked why, Sesshōmaru-kun told her that there were two reasons for it: reason number one, they were to last until she ceased coming through the well.

That made sense, actually. (Of course it did, Toga might be ridiculous sometimes, but Sesshōmaru-kun always made sense. Full stop. Kagome adored that, but was not entirely sure how Rin-chan dealt with it constantly; Kagome wouldn't be able to handle that on a daily basis!)

The second reason was that mates bathed together, and actually, all pack bathed together, but due to the nature of society in this place, they had foregone that – at which point Kagome had looked at the enormous amount of hair that Toga had, and nodded sagely. It might take a huge amount less to wash yourself with yōkai soap and shampoo than it did the ningen versions, but Toga and Sesshōmaru had absurdly long hair.

Gorgeous, but still absurdly long. It was a good thing that yōki and reiki could dispel liquids very easily so they wouldn't be forced to sit with dripping wet hair for hours.

The third presents had been unexpected as hell, but utterly sweet and wonderful. Toga had suddenly, with no warning, leaned over and bit her ear where some people had piercings in the cartilage at the top—not that his fangs could actually make her bleed or anything, but Kagome knew what he was doing, and her eyes had widened as she felt her ear – and felt her reiki.

Sure enough, there was a trace of yōki threaded throughout her reiki and miko-ki, and a stronger concentration focused in her ear where he had bitten her.

Toga had marked her as his intended. And even though the physical manifestation of a replication of his fang piercing her ear hadn't appeared, it had still worked.

Kagome had been positive that he wouldn't be able to do that, but when, almost crying with happiness, she asked how, he just shrugged and said he'd refused to give up until he found a way to make it happen. Then he told Sesshōmaru-kun to add his gift so that he could give Kagome her her last gift of the day (Toga and Sesshōmaru-kun usually celebrated her birthday a day early, but this year it had been late, and Kagome could figure out why as she saw the enormity of the gifts given to her). Sesshōmaru-kun had laid a hand on her head and welcomed her to the family.

She had no idea how Toga was going to surpass this, but she was looking forward to it – Kagome was realising how utterly spoiled she was right about now, but since she wasn't a brat, it didn't really matter much. Being spoiled was wholly fine if one didn't use that as a reason to act badly, after all.

It turned out that his response to her unspoken thought was to grab Raimei and Rakurai, one of her yōkai-made travel bags, and her, picking her up with one arm and dashing out the door and into the forest. Kagome knew where he was headed almost immediately when he veered off to the right – the mountain that their shrine was at the base of, which held her favourite cave, one with an onsen it.

It was the weekend, which explained Rakurai; she'd be hunting for her dinner for the weekend. Raimei's presence was confusing and anomalous, however – it wasn't as if the blade would be anywhere near useful like the daggers she had immediately slid into her obi once she had received them would be. Her daggers could bleed, gut, and skin her kill, as well as cut it up for cooking if it wasn't just cooked directly over the fire, and butcher it to cook more evenly if it was cooked directly over the fire. Not to mention, the yōki imbued in them naturally reached out and divested whatever they landed in of any illness, rot, or poison the item they were being used on carried; that wasn't something all yōki did, but since her daggers were essentially meant for hunting with being a backup defence as a second use, Toga had insisted. It was very common for animals to get ill and for food to go bad and whilst she and he had enhanced immune systems, her ningen allies for this quest had far weaker immune systems than even normal ningen born in this era/world.

Just because they'd gotten very lucky the first time around, did not mean they would this time around. Preventative measures were far smarter and safer than depending on luck, which was fickle, or Fate, which was every last bit as fickle too, considering that her fate had ended up being completely horrible because she got rid of that Shikon; it had punished her severely for wishing its existence away. Thankfully for her, the Kami were aiming to thwart the vile Shikon that resided inside of her; in a way that it was likely not expecting, because the Shikon did not realise that it could be taken care of without being wished out of being. Kagome was still technically unaware of her previous fate, but she was very intelligent and could guess what it had ended up being, considering her beloved's enmity towards his youngest son. If he was anything like Toga… Well, yeah.

Being reminded of her fate made Kagome send a silent thanks up to Amaterasu-Ō-Mi-Kami-sama and Omoikane-sama, who had been the ones to bring attention of the rest of the Kami to this affront to Their sensibilities and demand that They all work together to find a way to fix it. Hachiman-sama had been particularly incensed about her fate because her actions had helped end the needless slaughter of the people of Nihon, of whom He was protector over. Most people falsely just took His aspect of being the Kami of war to mean He supported war in general; it absolutely did not. He supported Nihon in war – and protected Her people from war. Anything that brought about the slaughter of His people was something that needed to be ended, from His perspective.

Kagome only knew this because a few moons ago He had come to her in one of her dreams, bowed to her and Toga, explained who He was, why He was thanking her, and wished her luck – as well as giving her a blessing – on her quest that would be beginning next year. Kagome now was receiving additional lessons from Grandpa on the Shinto folklore he had raised his children on, but that since she had so much on her plate already, he had refrained from adding to her lessons.

The only reason that Kagome had been able to keep her composure and not completely freak out at being addressed by one of the Kami during this experience was because when she was eight she had gotten purposely lost in her forest for a lesson on navigation, in a part of the forest where Hachi-kun couldn't help her get lost like normal, found a lost kitsune kit (lesser, not greater), used her empathy to find its den, led it back home, and that night received a thanks and a blessing (although this one was on her, not her quest) for her help with the kit – as well as a strong insinuation that she would have more direct experience with kitsune in the future – from Inari Ōkami-sama Herself.

Somehow she didn't think that direct experience had anything to do with the fact that she had befriended the kitsune family when they tried to pay her back. Not when Toga had gotten incredibly thoughtful and immediately began teaching her how kitsune gestures differed from inu gestures, and making her learn them well enough to reach for them instinctively whenever she was around kitsune.

She looked forward to meeting this kitsune on her quest; kitsune were her favourite yōkai. She didn't even try to hide this fact—her two favourite humanoid yōkai personally might both be inu, but her favourite breed of yōkai in general was kitsune, full stop. Even Hana-sensei, the orphaned (and then adopted by Rin-chan) neko yōkai who taught her in the use of her daggers was well aware of her preferences. Hana-sensei laughingly supported them though, telling Kagome that kitsune were the best of both worlds – every bit as feline as they were canine, and only their best traits.

She rather agreed with that.

Toga told Kagome that the reason she liked kitsune so much was probably that she was naturally cat-like in many ways, but had grown up being trained inu, and therefore could be considered to be a kitsune in mind, albeit one with a heavy inu lean. Kagome thought he was probably hiding something from her but...

It explained as well as the next thing, so she just accepted it for now.

They were at the cave now, and it was outfitted as it always was. Two futons; one for her grandpa and one for her and Toga. An enormous pile of firewood taking up a quarter of the surface of each of the walls closest to the entrance. A firepit created by Sesshōmaru-kun. A reasonably flat stone for food prep. Uh... Hmm. Wait a second. Why was her futon larger? Not just larger than Grandpa's—it had always been larger than Grandpa's—but now it was big enough to fit both her and Toga with plenty of extra room, which made no sense – they didn't need extra room when he was only a ghost.

It struck her, as it had before, that it was beyond unfair that she couldn't kiss her betrothed.

A laugh echoed into her mind, and a voice that her mind instinctively recognised as Amaterasu-Ō-Mi-Kami-sama spoke to her, "Oh, beloved little Kagome; some unfairness is inevitable, of course, especially because Divine interference has allowed your life to be more blessed than most, seeing as We have allowed you to be thoroughly prepared for your destiny. This is not the first unfair thing, and will be far from the last, as you are about to find out – but do not lose hope, because your soul-mate is clever, intelligent, and determined beyond belief, those same traits you adore in Inari Ōkami's precious, tricky kitsune. This is not the first time he has thwarted a Shikon-influenced Fate's attempt to punish you, nor will it be the last time."

"Um… I… What?"

"You are confusing your beloved, little Kagome. Perhaps you should turn your attention to him now, This One will leave you be; keep what I said in mind!"

"Kagome?"

She blinked and inhaled deeply, speaking in a rush once she had the words to do so. "Oh Kami Amaterasu-Ō-Mi-Kami-sama just spoke to me, holy shit. What did I do to merit Her attention beyond what She has already given to me?"

Toga chuckled softly and laid her on the futon, sitting next to her with Raimei in his lap; her bag and Rakurai off to the side at the head of the bed. "I strongly suspect she was reassuring you that you are not about to be punished for me fixing an unfairness that should not exist; and warning you that the reason is because you were already punished for it before you were born, and are just now going to become aware of this punishment."

The way he said the last immediately made her wary, and she said, "Okay; what am I going to have to bear up under before we can mate?"

He raised an eyebrow at her and gave her a wry little grin that had a very strong hint of sadness to it. "Firstly, the delay of our mating until after you have finished off Naraku – at the earliest. Possibly later than that, depending on how soon he is ended and whether the Shikon is complete at the time he has been ended."

Kagome sat up and promptly whined; not in the way you would say a ningen was whining, but the inu noise, one of many hundreds of noises that she had learned how to do before she could even speak. Toga pressed his forehead against hers and growled comfortingly, stroking a clawed hand through her wavy black locks.

She knew he had more to explain, but right now she just needed to be comforted before she could handle this.