"That's the date I just left behind. You might want to give me... another week or so before I'll be there all the time if you want to drop in for that favour," Kagome said, handing over the piece of paper to the handsome fox demon.

Kurama's golden eyes scanned the paper and he nodded, tucking it away into his clothing. He would burn it later, even if no one else could know the relevance of it.

"I'll check on Shippo sometimes when you are gone," Kurama promised.

Kagome smiled with relief. "Thank you," she said, bowing to him before collecting her fox child and heading towards Kaede's village. He had vanished before she finished straightening from her bow. "Come on Shippo, let's see if Sango and Miroku are back," she suggested.

"They are," Shippo told her. "I can smell them. InuYasha wasn't the only one with a good nose you know," the fox quipped happily.

Kagome laughed. "Well I'm just as glad," she answered, tapping her adopted child on said nose fondly. "Now let's go and say hi."

They were almost at Kaede's hut – which was looking even more run-down than it had when Kagome had first seen it, but where Shippo said Sango and Miroku were – when a strong wind suddenly kicked up. It died just as fast, but Kagome was aware of a demon standing in front of her.

"I guess the incarnations didn't die with the original then," Kagome said, slinging her bag off her shoulders and putting it down.

"Priestess, I ... thank you for killing Naraku and ending my slavery to him, but you have something that belongs to me," Kagura said, drawing her fan up, ready to attack if there was resistance. "And also to my sister Kanna."

"Yeah, I've got them right here. I'm going to ask a favour before I give them back though," Kagome said, pulling the two jars half-way out of her bag so that she could shove them back in quickly if Kagura tried anything tricky.

Kagura scowled deeply. "What favour?"

"Information, that's all. How many of Naraku's incarnations are still hanging around?" Kagome asked. "And where are they?"

Red eyes narrowed above the scowl. "What do you want to know for?"

"So that he can't come back through any of them. He came back from Kohaku once already," Kagome pointed out. "I don't want a repeat performance, and I don't think that you do either."

"There's me and there's Kanna. I killed the others he'd made and left lying around myself," Kagura answered.

"I need to remove Naraku's stain from you both if you want to continue to live without the possibility of his resurrection," Kagome said calmly. "Bring me Kanna and Kohaku, I'll cleanse you of Naraku and give you your hearts back, and we'll never have to see each other again."

Kagura's surprise was obvious. "You would help me?" she asked.

"You didn't like Naraku any more than I did, and I'm one of those weird, really forgiving people," Kagome answered with a smile. "I wouldn't take too long, you never know when the freak is going to make a bid for revival."

Kagura nodded and vanished.

"Kagome? Are you really going to help Kagura?" Shippo asked as they finished walking to Kaede's hut, where Sango and Miroku were standing at the door, their jaws hanging open in shock. Apparently, they'd heard her little conversation with Kagura.

"Yes Shippo, I really am," Kagome answered, then smiled at her friends. "Hey, long time, no see!"

"Kagome!" Sango cried, throwing her arms around her friend and crying. Kohaku was going to be brought to her, after so long... she didn't know what would happen to him, but she hoped that he would be alright.

"It'll be alright Sango, I'll make sure of it," Kagome promised softly, stroking her friend's back soothingly as she returned the hug.

Kagura wasn't long, and returned with Kanna and Kohaku before the sun had begun to set.

Kagome kicked Miroku out of the hut and sent Shippo, Sango and Kohaku into the next room while she explained to Kagura and Kanna what they and she would have do so that they would be freed of Naraku's taint. The first step, and the reason for Miroku being kicked out, was that they would have to show Kagome the mark on their backs that proved that they had come from Naraku.

Hot ashes were brushed over the marks, and Kagome applied her hands to them, sending her energy through Kagura, and then through Kanna. The marks were gone when she removed her hands, but it was a painful process and the hearts still had to be returned. Kagome had already purified the hearts of Naraku's stain in her own time, so there was no taint of Naraku in those either as she handed them to the two demons sitting before her.

Kagura sighed in relief to feel her heart in her chest again, and some life came into Kanna's eyes that Kagome had never seen before.

"I'll remember this Priestess," Kagura said as she pulled her kimono back onto her form.

Kagome just shrugged. "You're welcome."

Kagura nodded, and took Kanna from the hut. Kagome felt a draught, and when she looked out the door, neither of them were anywhere to be seen.

Now she just had to do something about Kohaku, for Sango's sake.

When she got into the room where Shippo and Sango were waiting for her with Kohaku, she could see that Sango was trying to get her little brother to remember her by telling him about their family, their childhood, and by holding him close in a way that she must have done before.

"Sango," Kagome said softly, drawing everybody's attention to her. Kneeling down in front of her friend, practically her sister, Kagome lay a gentle hand on the demon slayer's shoulder. "I need you to know, Kohaku may never completely remember his past, but that doesn't have to stop you from building a future. Alright?"

Sango was crying, but nodded her understanding.

"Okay. Kohaku, I need you to take off your shirt for me, so that I can treat any injuries you might have, alright?" Kagome asked the boy.

Kohaku nodded and slipped his arms from the yukata top, leaving it to fall around his waist at his thin obi.

"Give me your back," Kagome said, after running a critical eye over the boy's font and seeing a few scabs and old scars, but nothing serious. His back when he turned around she knew was going to be a different matter, and it was. The first thing she did was lay one hand over a small lump that had no business being there. It looked like Naraku had intended to bide his time within the boy again. Covering the jewel shard that was lodged in Kohaku's back with her other hand, Kagome sent her purification energy through the boy.

Kohaku screamed in pain, and Sango nearly pushed Kagome off him to stop her, except that a transformed Shippo and large Kirara held her down. They knew that, as much as it hurt him now, when Kagome was done he'd be able to have a normal life again.

The last thing that Kagome did was make sure that everything within Kohaku was functioning, and would stay that way even after she withdrew the jewel shard. He had been weak all that time, and Naraku had kept him weak by not feeding him properly, using only the jewel shard to keep the boy going when he should have been collapsing from hunger and dehydration. He was going to spend the next few days, if not weeks, very sick, but with good food and gentle care, he'd pull through.

Kagome took the fragment from Kohaku's back, and then caught him when his arms convulsed around his stomach and he groaned in pain.

"Kohaku!" Sango cried out.

"He's going to be fine Sango," Kagome assured her friend, cradling the boy in her arms. "He just needs food, water and a lot of time. You'll stay with him?"

"Of course I will. He's my brother," Sango answered, tears brimming in her eyes, but she was smiling, however weakly.

Kagome nodded. "Good. He'll take a while, he's been starved for a long time. I say thin soups, lots of water, keep him warm, and again: don't expect him to ever remember anything. Just love him."

Sango nodded and took her brother into her arms, crying as she cradled his weak, but still living, body.

"Now I've just got to find Koga," Kagome said as Shippo settled into her lap, smiling at the sight of the two siblings reunited and Kirara nuzzling between them both affectionately.

~oOo~

Kirara had very obligingly agreed to give Kagome and Shippo a lift to Koga's territory, and to wait until they got the jewel shards from him – if he was even there. Considering the wolf's attitude, Shippo decided to wait with the two-tailed cat and make guesses at how long it would take.

Lucky for them, the prince of the northern wolf tribe was home.

Kagome was fingering the beads of subjugation in the pocket of the pants that Kurama had given her though, and began to mumble the chant as soon as Koga came into view, sending them around his neck. She'd take them off as soon as she'd gotten the shards from his legs and cleared up that she really wasn't his woman.

"Hey! Kagome! My woman finally came to visit me! I'm touched!" the wolf prince yelled, running up to her, not noticing the glowing beads that were showing up around his neck.

Kagome smirked as the last of the beads took their place around his neck, and said, with great pleasure, the word that had lately been missing from her life.

"Sit," and she said it with no little amount of pleasure, watching Koga kiss the earth rather forcibly at her feet. "Hi Koga."

"Kagome, what -? I don't understand..." the wolf demon sputtered as he spat the dirt from his mouth, fixing his big blue eyes on her.

"It really is very simple Koga: I came to get the jewel shards back from you," Kagome answered, almost pleasantly. "And I'm not your woman," she added with a growl.

Kagome moved towards Koga's legs, muttering another "Sit," so that he stayed down, feeling very satisfied with the crunching of earth under the wolf. It didn't take her long to get the shards out.

"Damn, maybe that mutt wasn't so pathetic after all, if he was able to get up after that sort of treatment so quickly," Koga said, still lying on the ground, but with his face out of the dirt. "Hang on, where is mutt-face?"

"In hell with Kikyo," Kagome answered coldly. "And if you don't want me to purify you, then I suggest you marry that fiancé of yours, Ayame right?" she added.

Koga groaned in resignation, and Kagome smiled sweetly at him before taking back the beads of subjugation and walking away.

"Have a nice life Koga, this is the very last time you're going to see me," she promised. After all, if he had been around in her time, he would have hunted her down by now, unless of course Ayame was keeping him on a very tight leash. Kagome chuckled at the idea as she returned to Kirara and Shippo.

~oOo~

"Shippo, I wish I could take you with me," Kagome told the fox kit fondly as she sat by the well and stroked his hair. "But I can't, and we both know it. I know that some day you'll grow up and be a handsome, powerful demon, maybe you'll come and find me in five hundred years," she suggested.

"Will you still let me call you Okaa-san if I'm older than you when I find you again?" Shippo asked.

Kagome laughed. "I'll always be honoured to be your mother Shippo. Always," she promised, kissing his cheek fondly.

"What day will it be when you get back Kagome-Okaa-san?" Shippo asked.

"Tuesday I think," Kagome answered, then laughed as he pulled a face at her.

"That's not what I meant!" the fox kit yelled, though he was holding back tears as he waved his small fists.

"I know Shippo," Kagome answered, patting his head and giving him the date.

"I'll remember, and I'll come first thing, I promise!"

Kagome smiled, and the two spent time together under the stars for a while. She was going to go back in the morning.

Time to pick up her normal life again.

~oOo~