A/N: Hello everyone!
To all those paitiently waiting for my updates, thank you so much for your love of "UV". It wamrs this author's heart to see her work so loved.
Now on with the show!
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/
45.
He marched till he was towering over her, his eyes now trained on his pup. She gave him a smile at that and gently held him out to the yokai.
Somewhat startled by how willingly she gave him, he gingerly took his pup back in his arms and lifted him up till his nose graced the top of his head. Taking deep breaths, Inutaisho took in his pup's scent, noting that like before there was no sign of anything affecting the pup. Said pup wrinkled his nose as the familiar scent of his shire stirred him, squirming deeper into his arms.
The beast within him settled and calmed, its pup now in the safety of his arms and the sense of danger to him nonexistent.
For the first time in days, the Inu no Taisho felt peace.
46.
Inside her office Kagome sipped her tea as her guest cuddled Inuyasha in his lap. Placing her cup down on the desk she gave her full attention to the Lord before her. "You wish to know about the situation that led to this?"
He inclined his head. "Two nights ago I sensed a disturbance within my forest and investigated. There I came across three yokai, though because of their aura repelling cloth I did not know this immediately. When I overheard them I realized they had kidnapped Inu-chan and shot the one holding him with one of my arrows. I soon disposed of the other two. Once sure of no others I brought Inu-chan to my manor and took care of him until now."
He frowned, slowly smoothing his pup's silver hair. "There were no identifications?" she shook her head.
"No Inutaisho-sama, the cloth they wore both shielded them from detection and from identification. By the time I had thought to concern myself with such they were already gone and dust."
The stern and cold gleam in his eyes, one her memories placed on a more aristocratic, but just as dangerously alluring, face, made her sip her tea slowly. If either of his sons had inherited pieces of the Inutaisho's personality, then by her calculations the lord's mind was contemplating and planning furiously over every single thread of knowledge he had of the situation.
It was a look Kagome knew well. She had seen it in Sesshōmaru's eyes enough to deduce that in the future, someone was going to die.
Painfully.
47.
Later that night, Kagome sat on the roka(1) outside her sleeping room; her ever-present tessen resting in her lap. Watching the moon overhead, Kagome sighed.
'I'm happy for Inuyasha, he has a father that obviously adores him and would go to great lengths to protect him. But still, the presence of his father changes everything. It was because of his death that Izayoi-san had to find homage with her human relatives; it was because of his death that Inuyasha would have learned and experienced everything that made him the Inuyasha I knew. And if just this one thing was changed, how much more?' she thought, memories of her fights against the panther clan, Naraku, and many others fleeting through her mind.
Kagome sighed again, mentally slapping the memories to the back of her mind. Now was not the time to think of events that would not happen for decades if not centuries. Instead she returned her mind to the present.
'I have no knowledge of what sort of rivalries or grudges held against Inu no Taisho besides those I experienced; but that is not going to help all that much. Enemies can become allies over time and vice versa, and considering the situation with different timelines there is no telling what or who could be daring enough to kidnap Inuyasha from the Western Pagoda. At this point pre-guessing on my part will only drive me crazy.'
Rising from the roka Kagome returned to her simple but cozy futon, with a real pillow and not those confounded wooden perches Koyuki had tried to make her use!
Sighing this time with content she slipped into her futon and closed her eyes.
48.
"He is not so frightening."
The Inutaisho quirked an amused eyebrow at that declaration.
Mei quirked her own eyebrow back before going back to her calligraphy, Inuyasha sleeping in her lap.
From her place next to Hinoko, Kagome suppressed her desire to giggle at the sight of the greatest and most powerful yokai in history dismissed by a human child no older than ten.
The Western Lord had decided to stay until early evening, desiring that his pup would be ready for the trip and curious about the Lady who had taken such good care of his pup for no reason than the goodness of her own heart.
He had not been surprised she knew how to write, as a noble and Lady of her yokai shōen(2) she needed to be able to, but he had been interested in her school. He had never heard of anyone willing to teach for free, let alone the amount and content of subjects she gave out.
Some were familiar, such as the usage of numbers, calligraphy, and reading; but others, such as what she called 'elementary science' had him baffled. Some of the things taught in this subject alone went against much of the standard and accepted beliefs he knew of humans, of that he understood. Though to a yokai, a creature that was not above barrowing knowledge, some of the lessons were interesting; such as the one she called 'Laws of the physical world' (3).
The reaction of the children was also an interesting experience. The child Mei had obviously dismissed him but kept a constant vigilance of his pup by keeping him in her lap at all times. The young male child Keichiro had stared at him with a dash of fear but was quickly replaced with awe at the sight of his high-ranking regalia. The twin hanyous and kitsune kit who called the Lady mother had told him that if he hurt their mother or made Inuyasha cry they would beat him up, to their mother's mortification and own private humor.
The Lord of the West glanced at the Lady of the land and watched as her smile light up the room when her child presented her with a sheet of calligraphy.
And just like that, a devious plot was born.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
(1): there those outside hallways seen in traditional japanese houses, you can often find them in samurai movies (like the Last Samurai).
(2): there basically either a field or manor. As my Samurai history teacher and wikipedia describes them, they are: any of the private, tax-free, often autonomous estates or manors whose rise undermined the political and economic power of the emperor and contributed to the growth of powerful local clans (many samurai clans originate from these shoen).
(3): to those of the Kamakura, Kagome teaching about science would be utterly foreign, simply because even in the West science was still in its infancy stages, let alone the complexity we understand science today; it will make many of those around her (baring the cranes and her kids) wonder where she hailed from (hint hint).
next chapter: Fluffy-kun enters the scene!