The experience with the Northern Tribe's enclave had been amazing. Kagome had never seen so many yōkai together at once, either still in their animal forms or in humanoid forms – there had been representatives from every tribe under the Wolf Elder's rule there, so it far outnumbered Kōga's initial visible tribe, which was enormous enough as it was. However, there were far, far more four-footed ōkami in his tribe than in any other tribe, and a majority of them were in hiding until they arrived, at which point they all emerged as a group and showed how truly fucking enormous the tribe he ruled over was. It was just, completely incredible. And almost too much to believe, honestly; he was still so young!

One of her tribe-mates had succinctly informed her that this was due to all of the Eastern Tribes being united under Kōga's father – he had inherited the lot, and it spoke of his raw power and charisma that they had stuck with him! Yes, he had daiyōkai potential, but even so, Kagome had learned about ōkami and they usually did not make any more effort to get strong than was necessary for their position in the tribe; however, apparently all of the more formidable four-footed members of his tribe had turned Kōga into a hard-working, determined, and beyond powerful young man. Finding out that one of the ōkami had some small talent of foresight and knowledge explained why they had done this to Kōga, thankfully enough. It reassured her that the Kami probably didn't have a hand in this.

Ayame had been a delight, and immediately pounced on Kōga, who had been rather amused at this sudden attention from a (gorgeous) female. He had, indeed made her a promise, and whilst they weren't going by the exact words of it (there'd been some specific timing or some such thing that Kagome didn't care to remember about when they would mate), a mating-alliance had been formed and the Northern Leader and Wolf Elder had blessed the union and stepped down in favour of Kōga.

That last had not been going to happen until Kōga decided he wanted to prove his worth to be with Ayame, for whom the Wolf Elder, her father Chōrō, had been arranging a mating to another tribe leader's son. Their promise meant that he had the advantage anyhow, but when he came to Kagome (as she had known he would, which she shot to Toga, which then caused Toga to grumble in amusement that she really read people far too well for her own good) asking her if that promise she'd made to cement the alliance could be done now so he could impress Chōrō, she couldn't turn the adorable ōkami down.

So she had sat him down against a tree and led him into his first ever meditation. It was easy since he had a strong communication with his instincts, and soon he was those instincts. Then she led him through changing his chakra channels, shaping his body's reiki, and then shaping his body itself.

The result had certainly been impressive. Despite only being around fifteen, Kōga had been easily twice the size of any of the ōkami present in the area, easily twice the size of any of the ōkami present at all, if not larger than that, barring Chōrō himself. So when she rode on his back to the enclave and he announced himself to Chōrō and Ayame… Well, Chōrō had transformed and padded over, not even a third larger than Kōga was! Then he announced that Kōga was now the Leader of the Northern Tribes, to all present and all the ōkami of those tribes that could hear him, and turned back into his humanoid form. Kōga had transformed back as well…

Only, different.

Suddenly his right hand had a clawed gauntlet on it. And then, even more unexpectedly, a booming voice called out to everyone present that Kōga's actions, which had gone to protect their tribes above and beyond what was expected of him, and for no real greed of power whatsoever, had earned him the Goraishi, the ōkami yōkai's most powerful weapon. It was an ancestral weapon that, the spirits informed them, he would have earned if his tribe had been slain and he had sought out justice – true justice, not petty revenge. Instead, it would be used to protect them from needing such justice. The clawed gauntlet proved to be able to be summoned at will and disappear when not in use, which was convenient since mating would be difficult with large, sharp metal claws on his dominant hand. When Kagome pointed that out, all of the Northern ōkami had just stared at her, although the Eastern ōkami and Kōga, as well as her pack, had all laughed heartily at her comment – and at the stunned nature of the Northern ōkami's shock that a ningen (they weren't spreading it around that Kagome truly was not a ningen, simply because that would set things back) female would make such a joke.

It had definitely been an eventful time, and Kagome was glad of the rest they would be receiving shortly – they were all heading to Sesshōmaru-kun's shiro for a sennight, to rest from the recent events, and because he needed to make sure things were being run well in his absence. He did this once a season, for three sennights, so the timing was convenient for him as he had not gone this season yet – from what Kagome gathered, Sesshōmaru found court life tiring and tended to put things off until the last possible moment when it came to visiting his shiro. She could understand why.

After all, she'd been groomed for that sort of life, just as he had, and even though she enjoyed it abstractly… Well, people made for drama and Kagome hated that kind of drama with a passion.

Even so, it would be a delight to have indoor onsen and proper futon to sleep on, meals made by other people, and to befriend the servants with Rin-chan and Shippō-kun. They planned an invasion, and soon would have it so that the whole of the court would either accept the presence of ningen and hanyō in their home, or lose their servants. Similarly, the guards would be won over, especially as Kagome was teaching Rin-chan and Shippō-kun traditional samurai kata; she was learning kata even younger than their respective ages of eight and seven, and despite that yōkai used bone bokken instead of bamboo like ningen did, pain would help them learn and her powers could heal them up rapidly if they wished.

Shippō would allow her to heal cuts more rapidly than he could on his own, but he tended to refuse to let her help with even his more severe bruises. Rin-chan was wholly ningen, however, and would not gain the abilities she'd had as an adult in Kagome's original world that gave her added strength, immunity, speed, and the like until she mated Sesshōmaru. Mating him would change her body to be – not yōkai, but something similar to Kagome's form, in-between without being hanyō. More resilient, stronger, and having a lifespan to match Sesshōmaru's; exactly. If he died, she died, and vice versa. It was part of the reason why so many yōkai who took ningen lovers never mated them. Yōkai almost always lived violent lives and usually died messily and, even when powerful, very soon after other yōkai found out about their dalliance with a ningen (which was permissible, if looked down upon) and creation of a hanyō (which was anathema).

Especially if that yōkai had the bad luck to live in a pack, enclave, tribe, clan, or court. Groups of yōkai living together, even of different types, considered themselves tainted by such an action and did their damnedest to rid themselves of the taint – ningen, hanyō, and yōkai involved. There was only one exception to this; well aside from those rumours she kept hearing about Hōraijima, which in her world had seemingly been a myth, but which the name of gave Toga dark looks that meant he was plotting something evil for someone(s) and planning to thoroughly change some part of their journey that had ended badly previously.

Anyhow, the only exception was if the ningen involved had spiritual powers because everyone knew that when a yōkai mated or had a dalliance with a miko, monk, priest, or priestess, the child was always exceptionally powerful, oftentimes even surpassing its parents in spite of being a hanyō. It so rarely happened that most yōkai were beginning to shift it into mythical territory, but oh, that would be changing when Toga mated her. And when Sesshōmaru-kun mated Rin-chan, who definitely had latent spiritual abilities; Kaede had obviously not been strong enough to sense them in the girl the first iteration around, and neither had Kagome, but she could feel them simmering beneath the surface. She just needed to bring them forth.

The moment she proposed that to Sesshōmaru-kun his eyes widened, then darkened with delight – it was clear that he had divined his eventual relationship with Rin-chan and had been at least somewhat disappointed that they could never have children due to the imbalance in their power; yes Rin-chan had a lot of fortitude and willpower, but if she'd had no spiritual power—or not been the final descendant of Hachiman-sama—Sesshōmaru-kun would simply be far too powerful for their children not to be like Yasha-kun and need a Fang in order to keep their blood under control.

Sesshōmaru-kun would never put a child of his through that. Which was why Sesshōmaru in her time had no children with Rin-chan, even though they wanted pups. Oh wouldn't they be so pleased when they got to this world and had those memories of raising their pups and these new changes! Kagome just was so utterly pleased with this new outcome. She hadn't sensed the power in Rin-chan over there but that was because if gone unused after so long, reiryoku and hōriki tended to sink down and become inaccessible and undetectable. Spiritual powers, if not used, just faded away after a decade following full maturity.

Rin's powers were not inherent and natural though, which was likely part of why they hadn't been sensed. No, she had not been born with those abilities. Instead, Tenseiga had realised the soul-bond between them, forced Sesshōmaru-kun to act upon its urge to revive Rin, and then during the revival it had given her those spiritual abilities that ran in her blood from her connection to Hachiman-sama so that its owner could have a full life with her. Tenseiga was freaking amazing, seriously.

Yes, Raimei might be amazing herself, but she was only slightly stronger than Tenseiga – if they ever lost track of Raimei and needed Toga to be in his full form, Tenseiga would work exactly as well as Raimei would. The fact that Raimei was more powerful than Tenseiga had to do with two things only: that she had come from a larger fang, and that her craftsman had been superior to Tōtōsai. That was it. Full. Stop. It hadn't been because Kagome had a softer heart, or because she needed a better weapon, or any such stupid thing. In fact, because of Jinrai, Raimei was actually slightly inferior to Tenseiga; Jinrai could heal and because he had the ability to heal, Raimei lacked such an ability, whereas Tenseiga could give life and heal.

Sesshōmaru-kun had been made aware of Raimei's abilities shortly before Kōga kidnapped her, just because things had changed so from how they were previously that Rin-chan's safety was no longer so assured; she'd been brought back by Tenseiga, so Sesshōmaru-kun deserved to know that she could be brought back once more if, horror of horrors, something managed to kill her. Kagome rather doubted anything would, but they had decided to be safe rather than sorry, and Sesshōmaru-kun had not just been pleased with having this information, but with their request to hold it secret – another sign of favour. Kagome rather thought that Sesshōmaru-kun was finally accepting that his father loved him deeply and always had; certainly he was more than aware that Kagome utterly adored him in every way, and it was, as she had hoped, making him more open, emotional, and relaxing him when he was around their pack; which was an awful lot of the time.

Kagome was sliiiightly suspicious that Sesshōmaru-kun was finding reasons to seek them out, especially since he frequently had a shard or two with him when he visited, but it made her oh so happy that he was doing so that she would never voice such a thing except to Toga, who strongly suspected the same thing.

When they arrived at the shiro, Kagome took her eldest son aside, whilst Toga had Rin climb onto his back, following them discreetly so that they would get lost in the bustle of everyone welcoming the new guests. Yasha-kun and Miroku-ni were no weaklings, Sango was a taijiya, and Kirara was a nekomata – not to mention that Shippō was a kitsune and would never be harmed, just because of his breed, so basically the whole group was safe as safe from any attacks; they could protect themselves.

Sesshōmaru-kun looked at her with open curiosity and she began what would be a delicate process, because he did not yet know about the spell that needed to be performed now whilst they were at the shiro and Rin was present. Well; he knew about the spell Toga would be chanting – just not the ritual that would come beforehand. "Sesshōmaru-kun, I want you to trust me, and please do something for me."

He made an acknowledging "Hn," but did not agree to the statement; which was well and good because had Kagome been under some sort of mind control or something else then he would need to be worried. However right now she just allowed him his caution and ploughed on.

"I want you to remove one of your fangs, cut yourself with it, and then cut Rin with it, in the palms of your hands."

Sesshōmaru-kun clearly was beyond appalled at her request but she gave him a knowing, understanding glance, and stroked his hair softly, not saying a thing, asking silently for him to trust in her abilities. It took some time, but eventually he did as she asked, pulling one of his fangs out, taking it and slicing his palm open, and with the bloodied fang, slicing Rin-chan's palm open. Rin-chan was silent throughout this whole thing; she had the ultimate faith and trust in her "Sesshōmaru-sama" and thus trusted in things that he placed his trust in.

Sesshōmaru-kun healed on his own, but Kagome healed Rin-chan's palm for her, then carefully lifted the fang from Sesshōmaru-kun's fingers, allowing her reiki and miko-ki to billow gently around her as she worked her "magic". The blood absorbed into the fang, and Rin-chan gasped as it happened, but the noise was not unpleasant, because Rin-chan was feeling how her body was becoming stronger already, just from this bit of the ritual; she was immune to most poisons now – all that was left was making her immune to anything not stronger than Sesshōmaru's own poisons, acids, and venoms. Silently, she continued her work, manipulating the inherent energy within the fang and reshaping it slightly so that it looked as if it had been cut out instead of pulled, then drilling a hole into the incredibly strong object by using Kodokuso to form an arrow that was similar to her hunting arrows, and having Toga hold the fang so she could pierce it with the glowing green shaft.

The resulting hole was perfect, and she cooled it off with her reiki before stringing it onto a leather thong and enveloping her hands in both reiki and miko-ki, as Toga began chanting in Old Nihongo. When he was finished, the spell was in place, and she tied the leather strip around Rin-chan's neck, close enough that it touched her skin directly, as did the fang, and could not be pulled off over her head, but loose enough that she could grow and it would not choke her. It would never come off of her now, nothing anybody could do would be able to remove this necklace from her person.

Sesshōmaru had told her how to do this, informed her that he had demanded that she do this with him chanting the spell in his time, but would rather that Rin-chan be protected from the first time she ever entered the shiro because there were going to be attempts upon her life, no matter what happened.

She told Sesshōmaru-kun this information, and how her previous existence had done it, and he realised the full extent of what she had done – as he ingested new poisons, venoms, and acids, the blood-connection through the fang would update Rin-chan's biology and make her similarly immune to them. The curt – because he was choked with emotion in such a way that Kagome had never expected to see from him – thanks was more than enough, and she smiled as they were led to the family wing where the rest of the tachi were.

Shockingly enough, the servants were beyond respectful to her and Rin; treating the little girl with open adoration even this early on into knowing her and Kagome realised half their plans would be moot – these people knew about the changes in their Lord, strongly approved, and had deduced the causes of these changes to be herself and Rin-chan. Mostly Rin-chan; which was good, because that meant they would easily accept Rin-chan as their Lady when the time came for it.

And Rin-chan was safe from attempts on her life, because firstly, she slept as pack with her own alpha; nobody would dare enter Sesshōmaru-kun's rooms, no matter how much money they had been offered. Entering uninvited, unless one was a servant, and Sesshōmaru-kun had them and their yōki memorised, was a death sentence. There was simply no getting around it. Secondly, she was under not only the protection of Sesshōmaru-kun, the servants, and Kagome's tachi, but she was under the protection of Toga and Kagome herself.

Oh, thinking about that demonstration had her squirming with glee, and she nudged her mate because she wanted to do it now, now, now. He tolerantly got up and she climbed onto his back, the rest of the group (they had all been sitting in the private family dining area when she got this urge) followed behind, all of them aware of her plans and looking forward to seeing them come to fruition. When they reached the courtyard there was quite the gathering of servants following them – but none of the guards or nobles – good. Grinning, she leapt off of Toga's back, and without a second thought he shifted, unfurling his yōki to its fullest extent and growing to his immense natural size. Within seconds every yōkai in the court was out and staring, as he greeted them all, and Kagome growled furiously, leading him to wince slightly.

Even though it was technically an act, that growl coming from her mouth promised pain to anybody it was directed towards, and whilst Toga had agreed that this was necessary, neither of them were looking forward to what was about to happen next, although they were both looking forward to the results of it.

Kagome rushed forwards and zapped him, strong enough that he instantly lost his physical form, reverting to his ghost state with an incredibly pained whine. "Don't you dare, Toga! I know this used to be your court, but you got brought back to take over a different court, and to be my mate. This court belongs to Sesshōmaru-kun and I will not have you usurping him! You are to obey and if even one of these nobles acts against Sesshōmaru-kun now I will purify you so hard you cannot be corporeal for a sennight; and ban you from my bedroll as well, Shippō-kun doesn't need both of us to sleep well, right Shippō-kun?"

Her kitsune son rushed over to her and clambered up her body until he was standing on her shoulder and nuzzling into her hair, clinging to her head tightly. "Right Mama. This Shippō doesn't need Papa to sleep fine, but please don't make Mama do that, Papa, I'll still miss you."

Toga whined a bit and walked over to them obediently, nuzzling her forehead and Shippō's forehead, despite that he went through them. "This Toga understands. I was not attempting to gain more power, koishi, I just missed this place so much that I had to let them know I was back; I recognise so many of the servants and guards from when I was Lord here…"

Making it very subtly clear that he cared little for the nobility themselves. They were all too gobsmacked to see this, though, because Kagome had just proven to them that messing with her was, similar to entering Sesshōmaru-kun's rooms, a death sentence.

If she could purify the Inu no Taishō to such an extent that he lost his form then anybody else would have been dead; full stop.

Sesshōmaru-kun chose that time to act, and act he did, shifting into his own natural form (which was impressive as all fuck for his age, damn) and commanding everyone present to clear the area before he had the servants feed them all gruel for dinner.

They scrammed, and Kagome barely held in her laughter at the speed with which it happened. Yōkai certainly thought with their stomachs!

This visit was going to be great.