Chapter 16 – Boar's Ear Wax

His gaze slid towards the sleeping miko. She was still plagued with bad dreams. But his mokomoko-sama seemed to be taking care of those. She did not need to bear the guilt of Rin's death to the point of having nightmares. She did not need to apologize because the fault did not lay with her.

Sesshoumaru turned his gaze back the skies. "There is nothing to forgive. Naraku will be the one to pay," he murmured to the stars.

Kagome woke up bright and early the next morning. She didn't know how to face Sesshoumaru after last night. She knew that he didn't blame her but still..

"I just feel so responsible," she mumbled to herself as she washed her face. "Rin was with me at that time and I couldn't protect her. What kind of a miko am I? I couldn't even purify the poison in time.."

Kagome quickly changed to her uniform as she washed her kimono carefully. She groomed herself as best as she could from the water's reflection. Satisfied, she wound mokomoko-sama around her and gathered her kimono.

"Sesshoumaru-sama's mokomoko-sama sure is fluffy," she whispered to herself as she stroked the soft fur. "It's seems enough to cover a large-dog twice over!" She was quite engrossed by softness of the fur that she didn't see the owner ahead of her.

The Taiyoukai stopped her in time before she impaled herself into his armor. "If you are quite finished stroking my fur, miko?" Sesshoumaru asked as he held out his hand for his mokomoko-sama.

"Oh, ohayou Sesshoumaru-sama," Kagome greeted as she blushed. "Arigato for lending me your mokomoko-sama. It was very comfortable sleeping with it," she said as she unwound it from her. She gave it a last squeeze and a stroke before handing it back to the discomfited Taiyoukai.

"Are you alright, Sesshoumaru-sama?" asked Kagome. "You looked quite flushed."

The Taiyoukai turned his back to her while he attached his fur back to his shoulder. "We are going," he said as he stiffly walked away leaving a puzzled miko in his wake.

Seeing the miko hug and stroke his mokomoko-sama in an intimate way unsettled him. But it seemed that his mokomoko-sama didn't seem to mind it. If he read the way his youki wound around hers, he would say that it was more than happy and this made the Taiyoukai.. uncomfortable.

"Thanks Ah-Uhn for letting me use dry my kimono off you," Kagome cheerily chirped to the dragon. She spread her still damp kimono over the dragon's broad back. She was happily skipping beside the dragon while Sesshoumaru walked on sedately ahead.

"Do you think it will rain today, Ah?" she inanely asked the dragon. "What about—" All of a sudden, all she could see was white.

"Silence miko," Sesshoumaru commanded.

Her face was pressed against Sesshoumaru's long silky locks. She could feel the youki seeping from him. "Sesshoumaru-sama? I don't feel.." she started to say as her eyes grew wider and she gripped his kimono. "Four shards coming from the east! Oh my, four shards at once in one youkai, Sesshoumaru-sama!"

A boar youkai came crashing towards them. It was at least 4 times as tall as Sesshoumaru and had massive girth. Acidic drool was dripping from its jaws. Its tusks were jagged and looked wickedly sharp. The most prominent part of it was the eyes. It had a wild, crazy look in it and it was constantly rolling around.

"I feel the shards!" the boar youkai screamed as it wildly looked around, its spittle flying around and melted the surrounding foliage. It zoomed its crazily rolling eyes on the petrified miko. "There you are, Shikon miko!" The youkai pulled out his jagged tusks and hurled it in Kagome's direction.

"Uhm.. Ses-" Kagome stuttered. She reached for the Taiyoukai but her hand met air. Sesshoumaru was already in the air. His poison whip met the tusk, melting it into nothing.

The Taiyoukai glanced back to the miko who looked panicked. It was understandable. She didn't have any weapons to defend herself with. He gave a sub-sonic order to the dragon beside her.

"Wait, my kimono!" Kagome exclaimed as her kimono fluttered to the ground when Ah-Uhn hoisted her onto its back.

"You will not get away, Shikon miko!" the youkai screamed as it started to go after the dragon.

Drawing Toukijin, Sesshoumaru charged towards the boar youkai's soft underbelly. However, as soon as his sword came into contact with the flesh, it turned hard as steel. Sesshoumaru jumped back as the boar lashed with one of its newly formed tusks.

"I have four shards, inu! It will take more than that to take me down," the boar boasted to Sesshoumaru. "That delectable onna has over a dozen shards. I will take her and the shards!"

"Impudent, low-life!" growled Sesshoumaru.

"Sesshoumaru-sama, the shards are embedded in its left ear!" Kagome shouted to the Taiyoukai.

"Aaah! You are truly the Shikon miko, you can see the shards. I will take you and make you my woman! You will search out the rest of the shards for me," proclaimed the boar youkai as he got ready to throw another tusk at Kagome.

"You will die today by this Sesshoumaru's hand," the Taiyoukai coldly said as he streaked towards the youkai's head. Sesshoumaru not only sliced the ear but the whole head from the youkai's body.

"Hahahaha! I told you that I have four—?!" The boar youkai never had the chance to finish its sentence as its head rolled off its shoulders.

"Quick Ah-Uhn, get me down to the head so that I can purify the shards," Kagome asked the dragon.

The shards were purified as soon as Kagome touched them. But the problem was that they were still imbedded in the boar's ear. Normally, Inuyasha blew up the youkai so she had no trouble picking the shards. Though the underside is that she also normally got ichor and brain matter all over her.

But with Sesshoumaru-sama, no blowing up of youkai and no ichor. You have clean and neat cuts. But it'll be inconvenient to lug around whole body parts all over Japan as you hunt for shards. Then there's the problem of explaining to villagers why you are carrying youkai-parts around. Though she's sure that Miroku would be able to get them around that. But what do to about the smell when it started to rot? Kagome sighed and shook her heard. She must be really out of it if she was weighing the pros and cons of hunting shards with Sesshoumaru.

Kagome decided against asking his help to pick out the shards from the boar's ear as she took in the Taiyoukai's pristine appearance. 'Wouldn't want to get boar's ear wax in his nails,' Kagome thought to herself.

"Ano, Sesshoumaru-sama?" Kagome approached the Taiyoukai who was cleaning his sword. "Do you by chance have a small knife I could borrow?"

The Taiyoukai paused in his cleaning and looked the miko over. He found it ironic that the warrior-priestess does not have any sort of weapon on her. Deciding not to comment, he gracefully reached for the hidden knife in his boot.

"Keep this," Sesshoumaru said.

Kagome looked up in surprise at her unexpected gift. The knife looked simple but she could tell that it was worth a hefty amount. The craftsmanship in its hilt and scabbard spoke of muted elegance that could only be of Sesshoumaru. She thought of refusing but decided against it. The Taiyoukai might think that she thought little of him that he could not afford to give away something simple as a boot knife. "Arigato , Sesshoumaru-sama. I will take good care of the knife and also.."

The Taiyoukai waited with a raised brow.

"And for protecting me from the boar youkai," said Kagome said with a smile and a blush.

Eyeing the miko's blush and shy smile, he flicked his sword a final time before sheathing it in its scabbard. "This Sesshoumaru was only protecting that which belongs to this Sesshoumaru," he said as he abruptly turned away. "Come Ah-Uhn."

For a moment, Kagome thought the Taiyoukai proclaimed her as his. But then again, of course it was Ah-Uhn who was standing right beside her in the line of fire of the boar's tusk. Her heart almost skipped a beat. She shook her head. She must really be losing it.

"Either way, thanks Sesshoumaru-sama," Kagome bowed to the Taiyoukai's back.

A small "hn" was all Kagome got.

A/N: Give me love, love, love!