XL

The Stolen and The Lost

Sesshomaru was eager to get out of the village, and succeeded in pulling Kagome out of Edo and into the forest before she was able to extricate herself and get his attention, though she berated him all the way. She did not want to leave Sango – the woman is fine. Miroku and Kaede still have so many patients – they can manage for a single day; you need to rest. Jaken was returning in less than twelve hours with medicines – Kaede can take them from him; I instructed her to do so.

"But Sesshomaru – Sesshomaru, stop! We can't just go like this! We can't carry the sickness, but our clothes, my bag – anything and everything we brought with us -"

That got through. Sesshomaru stopped dead, froze in place, and then turned to stare at her.

"What must we do?"

"We'll have to wash. Twice. At least. The clothes will have to be burned; everything we've got on, and nothing we brought with us should go back with us. I'll leave my bag in the village – it'll have to wait until...until...well, until we can be sure any germs have died. "

He stared at her blankly; Kagome shook her head.

"Of course...you have no idea what I'm talking about. Well, com on – we have to go back. We can't do anything here – what are we going to do, boil water in thin air and run back stark naked?"

He actually paused for a moment, considering that. There were many benefits he could think of to that situation...

Her finger poked his shoulder.

"Your thoughts are showing, Sesshomaru. Be good. We go back. And then you will have to wait while I go get clothes from home. Because I can boil and borrow something of Sango's, but none of the villagers have anything that would fit you, even if you would consent to wear it."

Sesshomaru looked mildly horrified at the prospects of many more hours in that village, especially if several of them would be without Kagome – and it occurred to him that there was no guarantee that anything in Edo was safe from contamination.

"This is unnecessary, Kagome, and does not eliminate all risk. Instead, we will go home; servants will bring out curtains and garments. We will bathe and change, and these things can be burned there. I will not go back to the village."

She stared, silent for a moment, and then nodded. She had known that he would rather scour himself with boiling water than risk that sickness touching Rin. If this extra vulnerability had occurred to him he would never have allowed Kagome to go – would never have gone himself. She contented herself with the knowledge that he had – that he had helped her more than she ever would have dared hope for.

But Sesshomaru was soon to regret leaving even more than he already did.

He ran with Kagome at his side now, moving quickly but not pressing her to any great speed. There was a tingle in the earth, a pressure of power at loose ends that disturbed him slightly, but it was not the ambush of sleeping death that threatened danger to those under his protection, and he was not worried.

They reached the halfway point in only a few hours, and Sesshomaru considered pausing for a moment and bringing Kagome aside to hunt; the forest was suddenly rich around them with prey scents, the smells of rich blood stampeding through the undergrowth -

And then he did pause, for among those many frightened, fleeing odors was a single scent that was familiar; beside him, Kagome had stopped in the same moment, sensing the same thing.

This scent, she was as sensitive to as he was.

"Shippou – he's...coming toward us. But -"

She left the why unspoken, and instead turned and darted towards the kit's oncoming presence. In a moment, he was audible – his voice was ragged in its loudness, as if he had been shouting for some time.

"Sesshomaru-sama...'kaa-san! Sesshomaru...sama..."

For a moment, the cries went quiet – and then Shippou came into view, a white seagull easily identified by the youki emanating from him in exhausted waves.

"Shippou! Shippou, what are you doing out here all by yourself!"

Kagome's voice was stern as she reached him, and lifted up her hands for him to drop into; Shippou fell at once, relief on his face, and transformed into his usual humanoid shape on the way down.

"'Kaa-san, Sesshomaru-sama – they took her! They took Rin!"

In a single, blistered moment, Sesshomaru's eyes grew wide and feral. His voice was a thunder of growls and fury.

"Who? Who took her..."

And Shippou panted out his tale through heaving breaths and sobs. Told of a sudden flux of youki that had woken him; of Rin's screams, that had shattered his grogginess; of the girl, fighting against her captors –

The kit lifted one hand to Sesshomaru, and Kagome blanched at the sight of bloody flesh and a glimmer of gold.

"The one who was took her was wearing these, Sesshomaru-sama. She took them from him – and he left 'em behind."

Shippou's smile was sharp and precious; Sesshomaru snagged the scent from the air, and then lifted the kit and pressed him into Kagome's hands.

"Take him back to the village -"

"I will leave him with Sango!"

And she was gone before he could protest at her not to return – to leave this vengeance to him – to flee this danger -

But he shut the thoughts away and turned his attention to the scent Shippou had brought him – a Dragon scent, a scent of blood and death.

Kagome returned to the village in a rush – so much so that neither Miroku nor Kaede had had a chance to react to the approaching demon presence. In a babble of words she spilled out the story that Shippou had told, all her instincts pushing her in another direction. She stared into the distance when she had done speaking, her eyes searching after

"You have youkai senses now. What do they tell you?"

Kagome closed her eyes, seeking. The scents of earth came to her, green growing things and the exhalations of flower perfumes, scent of friend, scent of child, scent of friend – scent of mate? Beneath Sesshomaru's scent was a throat-strangling smell of rot, light as ashes.

"I smell death…and Sesshomaru is following it, so I will follow him. Shippou, you stay with Sango and Miroku, do you hear? You have had enough adventure for a while."

She turned and darted out across the village path and up into the edge of the trees; then she was gone, reduced to a whisper of presence. Sango looked down at Shippou, and saw his eyes straining after his mother, muscles trembling with the urge to follow her.

"Miroku…she may need help."

"Help? You suggest that we help Sesshomaru? He came here for Kagome's sake, Sango. He does not love us."

"He loves that girl…and sometimes I would swear he loves Kagome. But I did not say we were going to help him, now did I?"

"Sango – are you sure you feel up to -"

"I feel better than I ever have!"

Her eyes were glinting as she smiled, and her fingers reached out and stroked the smooth surface of Hiraikotsu, then swept it up onto her back. She was running after Kagome, calling for Kirara, before Miroku could utter another word, and she called back to him over her shoulder.

"Are you coming, Miroku?"

Grumbling, he gripped his new staff tightly and chased after her. Shippou watched them go, wishing he could follow, that he was automatically included as he had been in the past -

Kagome's words repeated themselves in his head.

Swiftly he was running too, a wide grin spreading across his face, and he caught up to Miroku and began to pass him by, leaping gleefully on every fifth step.

"Shippou! Kagome said no more adventure!"

"She said I had to stay with you and Sango! Are you going back?"

Miroku rolled his eyes, but Shippou was content with his loophole and did not give it a second thought. The grain-heavy heads of grass waved around them, tilting gently in the breeze. Shippou caught up to Kirara, transformed and took flight; in a few moments, Miroku was alone on the ground, running behind them, following the tug of newly familiar youki.

Be careful, Kagome...we're coming!

In the extra darkness of the wood, beneath a canopy of falling leaves, Sesshomaru exerted all his skills so that he would not be noticed by those who had taken Rin captive. The scent trail had led him in a glistening wound around a grove of white pine; he could smell Rin's fear and the salt of her tears riding on the sharp odor of the trees, and the scents fanned the bright flame of his anger.

He saw his enemy, and anger turned to rage. Should he have suspected, been more wary, after so much time? These Dragons had grown bold indeed, to take Rin from him. He watched them build a fire, laughing amongst themselves, many returned to a more human shape now that they thought they had escaped conflict.

Sesshomaru circled them silently, looking for weapons and cautiousness. Thirty Dragons wandered around the fire, dark skinned and light, green, black, and golden haired, but all with the same shimmering, dusky-scaled wings, luminous in the firelight when they opened.

Above, he saw several pass by in great Dragon shape; a dozen, and one – larger, stronger, a flickering presence of youki that beat at Sesshomaru with a presence he could almost...

His fist clenched tight around the token Shippou had given him.

That one. That one is the one who dared to take Rin.

Sesshomaru's senses tingled just as he tensed – and then he slid away from the grove, and met Kagome as she approached, silencing her with a hand across her mouth before she could say a word that might betray them.

He spoke a breath above silence, just by her ear.

"Quietly, Kagome. We are not so far from our enemy as I would like. Rin is not harmed – they have bound her and left her alone. They build fires, and prepare to take down trees for more wood – can you smell their meat?"

A smile he had never seen on her face before distracted him with untimely thoughts – by the gods, he wanted her! – and she lifted her face to the wind, catching the afternoon rays of sunlight on her face.

"Do you think they are overconfident, mate, or merely fools?"

His eyebrows jumped in surprise.

"These words, from you?"

Her laughter was lower than usual, tingling in his ears.

"I am not always so much the miko as you might think, Sesshomaru. You never witnessed the days when I wanted blood and vengeance; don't forget, I wasn't born to this time – I wasn't born to purity. I won't forgive anyone who hurts our children."

He growled for her, a low rumbling of approving sound that drew her into his arms. He nuzzled at his mark on her, watching around them with red eyes, drawing power to himself. Her scent tugged at him, encouraging his earlier desire, and he turned his glance down at her, the panting gaze she searched the woodlands with, the parting of her lips, the depth of her breaths.

He recognized the rising of the Inu inside her, and despite his desire he made a decision based on her inexperience, with the full pressure of their opponent's youki layered down over him. In that moment, all the years of her travels and battles at his brother's side fled his memory; all he could see in his mind's eye was the travesty of a fight she had put up against his mother.

"I will go now, and kill them. Wait for me here - I will not be long."

"Wait for you? I did not come here to wait, I came to fight!"

Her eyes were glaring, bright and full of darkness.

"You did not bring your bow, mate, and I have no sword for you here."

"I have claws now, claws that have a miko death in them. You know that – don't try to stop me!"

She was snarling, her expression bestial, true youkai; in that moment he could not deny her.

I thought she was human; I thought she would not survive. Is there anything about her that will ever fulfill my assumptions?

"Follow me, then - but you must be more silent than the wind."

The dragons were still at their various works, paying no attention to their boundaries – they had not even posted sentries, other than their sky-bound companions, but there were still many of them, and Sesshomaru had noted the glint of steel at more than one waist.

Suddenly, calmly, with Kagome at his side, Sesshomaru strode into their midst and looked for the House mark of a lord. Failing, as he knew he would fail – only the greater power that flew above them could belong to a lord - he spoke to the group at large, who stood staring in surprise, struck dumb by his audacity.

"Where is your lord? Who has taken what is mine?"

His eyes silenced Rin as she strained against her bindings, eyes bright with happiness.

Sesshomaru was met by silence and staring, and a great splash of air washed around the grove, shaking the trees. It was powerful wing beats, as behind him, a great Dragon shadow resolved into a winged human shape.

"So, you are lord of this rabble?"

The words slipped from Sesshomaru's tongue easily, sheathed in disgust.

"I am Tatsuya; I am a lord of the Silent House, in service to the Dragonlord, and I do not answer to you, Inu."

The Dragon's eyes flickered around the grove, counting, testing; he saw only his own support, and Sesshomaru standing alone with a single female beside him.

His eyes paused on Kagome for only a moment, considering; tales of her power had spread far and wide, but he had not yet seen violence from her and decided that there was nothing to fear. Sesshomaru spoke then, drawing the Dragon's eyes back to himself.

"These are my lands, and you do not belong here. Give me my daughter, and I will make your death easy."

A smile parted his opponents lips, and with shuddering swiftness he drove towards Sesshomaru, reaching with the keen edge of a swift-drawn sword. Sesshomaru dodged to one side; sheer momentum sent his foe's sword screaming through the heart of another Dragon.

Abruptly, the grove became a whirlwind of spinning blades and rushing steel, all seeking Sesshomaru's life. The clatter and whine rose in pitch and tension until the air whistled in pain. Kagome dove in amidst the wounded and the dead, following Sesshomaru's path of anger with sparkling violet energy as he forced open a path to Rin through Dragon flesh.

The throb of bloodlust ran like an old song in her veins, but brighter; aftershocks from the lives she stole rippled over her skin like water. Blood splashed the trees, shone redder than its true color in the light of the sinking sun, and here and there the pink flashes of her power burned themselves out through opened veins, leaving shimmering dust behind, or nothing.

She could see the numbers dwindling around them, what had been a group of thirty or forty cut down to barely a dozen, and perhaps another dozen screeching violence from the sky. She saw the last few clustered in a tight-backed circle at the edge of the grove, preparing to charge, and ran forward towards the girl still bound by the central campfire.

At that moment Sesshomaru caught her eye.

"Kagome! Take Rin and go."

"I won't leave you here!"

She was almost ready to laugh, seeing him prepared to cast himself against a dozen of the enemy, alone, and only a slender fillet of steel standing between himself and death. He was strength and power and she knew it – but against foes like these her own power was more deadly still.

Sesshomaru saw her indecision, her denial, her thoughts plain on her face. He did not give her a chance to speak against him.

"I will be safe - Rin is not! You will take her, and go."

Youki flared impressively around his skin, moving toward her. It was easier for her to obey this time, feeling his power awaken an echo in her blood, the bond that bound them driving her, the taste of enemy blood in the air lighter on her tongue with this reinforcement of who she was.

I am the mate of Sesshomaru, I am the Lady of the West – I am...I am...Higurashi Kagome, and I am -

Inu.

Her senses opened wide to the evening's frolic. Everywhere was blood; the frothy mud, the splash of green leaves half-reddened, the taste of the air, the licking tongue of fire in its circle of rocks made dumb by splashes of crimson and soil, entrails scattered from corpses, and dull, dead eyes.

Alone, untouched, sitting in silence beside the fire, Rin crouched wide-eyed but unafraid now, watching Sesshomaru with fierce pride.

A single flickering of claws cut the rope holding her like thread, and Kagome caught the girl up in both arms, running for the open forest and the freedom of trees, obeying Sesshomaru's command.

Even as she ran, the ripeness of Sesshomaru's blood joined the rich symphony of enemy scents, and Rin cried out loud, watching the battle from over Kagome's shoulder. With barely a second thought, Kagome dropped the girl, tucked her into a wavering growth of downy brush.

"Wait here, Rin. I can't just – I can't just leave him!"

Her eyes were wrenched back over her shoulder against her will; she saw a gold shimmer growing in the air around Sesshomaru, a dangerous pressure getting larger by the moment.

"If – if something happens – if there is – trouble – run for the village, Rin. Run for Edo!"

Kagome sprang back to Sesshomaru's side.

"I told you to go, to protect the girl! Why are you still here, mate?"

Sesshomaru's words came out twisted, modulated by the effort of speaking between sword thrusts and dodging claws.

"Mate, you say? Mate? Why, if you will always be yours and never mine?"

He grinned at her, a stretching Inu smile. From his throat ripped a terrible howl; Sesshomaru felt submission coming, the blaze in his blood awakened beyond the bounds of his skin to control it. One moment he was fighting, and the next he was swept up in the extraordinary change, the pulse of fire and blood, sea and sky, the gold and the red ruptured in his blood.

Not so mighty as his father-that-had-been, Sesshomaru still was worthy of awe and fear, half the size again of his Changed dragon foes, and he bloodied giant silver paws and gleaming white fangs with dark, steaming blood as they began to land around him.

To Kagome, the wind she felt was beyond all intimacy, closeness without definition or limitation, and his eyes were aureate and amber, pressing on her to know.

Knowing, her entire world was changed. Her memories of him came into clearer focus, temptations resolving themselves into gifts.

Beyond him, even as she moved, she saw a foe wielding a black blade. In slow motion she saw it plunging, heard the Dragon cry and watched the whirl of death that was Sesshomaru. He was too large in this shape to avoid the blade completely, but it scored only a shallow wound against his flank. His teeth clamped tight in rubber-taut veins and shook, and shook, and shook.

A plume of death sprayed outward, taunting, as though the carnage could be added to.

Further danger was a feeling before it was a scent, and Kagome turned too slowly to aid him, could only watch parallel wounds open across Sesshomaru's great furred back, darkening the silver shine to a deadly crimson. Poisonous dokkasou dripped from his jaws as he snarled in pain; his eyes grew a moon-shadowed glow as he turned to face his enemy; Tatsuya, a lord of the Silent House. Tatsuya, a Dragon of the ancient blood; Tatsuya, whom he recognized now, even in the rush of the Inu.

Tatsuya, a son of Ryuukotsusei.

So, that feud, too, is lit anew...

"Sesshomaru!"

Kagome paid for her warning when a flailing set of claws thrashed into her flesh, startling the breath from her body and drawing blood. Without thinking, she turned to face slate-colored eyes and flung the power of her blood into them, blinding before the burning settled and brought death.

To her left was a flash of steel; suddenly, silencing that foe, there was a whoosh as a heavy bbone oomerang spun past Kagome's shoulder, followed by laughter and a familiar scent.

"Sango!"

The taijiya grinned at her from her place on Kirara's back, and held out a hand to catch Hiraikotsu as it returned to her. Neither female noticed Shippou drop lightly down from Kirara to the ground and go scurrying into the brush.

"I didn't have to wait too long to repay you after all, Kagome! Who are these; why are we fighting them?"

"Dragons! They stole Rin -"

But she fell silent almost at once, listening.

They could hear Sesshomaru cutting a swathe of death through the forest, following after his Dragon foe. The others, confronted by a demon slayer and a once-Dragon miko of their own blood, fled. Momentarily, there were none left to retreat, and silence fell. From out of the thick brush where the forest began, Shippou crept, holding Rin's hand.

Kagome stood at the very edge of the grove, listening, and Sango's hands and the tenseness of her body held the two children back when they made to run towards her.

"Shippou, is Sesshomaru-sama coming back soon?"

Rin's whisper prompted Shippou to motion for silence; he had seen the leaning, listening, hungry look Kagome bore on youkai faces before - but only in times of danger.

"Shhh…"

In the silence, the crack of twigs and the slush of motion through the underbrush was louder than thunder. Human in his shape now, Sesshomaru stepped forward, black with blood. A venomous smell rose from his wounds, thick...sharp...pungent.

Kagome couldn't believe she was seeing him this way; the wounds that had been inflicted on him were horrific, scaled down to this smaller shape – but they were already closing. That was not the worst of it.

A darker smell than poison clung to him; she knew it for what it was and terror grasped at the roots of her hair. He came close to her, and sank down onto his knees, and she had to move very quickly so that when he fell, he fell into her lap and not onto the broken ground.

Her hands moved to cut open her veins, seeking the healing power that had saved Shippou - but he caught them and shook his head.

"Not enough...time. It seems even I...cannot fight shadows. I ...failed, mate. Take Rin – go. Go."

His eyes blinked slowly and she felt his pulse go dim and thready beneath her fingers.

"No! No, no, no!"

You do love him, but you don't even know it, do you?

Inexplicably, she heard Kouga's words in her thoughts, sharp, edged, dangerous, riding over the hoarse tones of Sesshomaru's voice. They had meant nothing to her before, but now – now -

No oh no oh nonononononono -

She could have cried, realizing now, too late, the terror that was her own love.

But she was Inu now, youkai, and the severing of the bond with her mate was a torment all its own. The beast inside her was not about to let him die unavenged.

Laughter preceded the reappearance of Tatsuya, a vicious and victorious sound. He bore a stone knife with a black-smeared blade; it smoked in his hand, the stone turning brittle and sloughing away, so intense was the venom.

Claws outstretched, she turned to face the one who had struck down her mate.

"You – you are a daughter of Dragons, too good for this mutt. Return with me to your family, Hime-sama."

She stared at him in silence with haunted eyes; she looked like a vengeful ghost, like the demon-spirits that haunt the unburied hundreds of the great battlefields.

Red stained her pale kimono, streaked it from shoulders to sleeves, sleeves to hem. Her hair hung in long, clotted strands that swung back and forth in front of her bloody gaze, twitching as she turned her head, snarling in every direction, at anything that moved, and then turning back to fixate on Tatsuya.

Suddenly, he was uneasy. This Inu – this miko – she was kin to the one who had sent him here, kin to Eldest herself. He had made his move thinking that she would not care, that she would not strike against her kin -

Had made his move thinking that she was a stolen hime, and not a willing bride.

He had been wrong.

Her voice struck out at him, an edge as brittle and sharp as his knife in it, a more potent venom still.

He heard heard her speak, and knew he was about to die.

"You..."

Threads of power erupted from her flesh in waves of fury. Kagome lifted a single, shaking hand to point at her foe.

Moments too late to be of help to anyone, Miroku crashed through the brush – and stopped at the edge of words with his mouth open, watching Kagome as her power burst free. He had never seen such a display before, had not expected this potential in her, though he should have – for it was not the glowing, lavender power of of her purity, but a silvergold flux of youki that shot from her hands and settled on her foe.

A scream in six blistered octaves broke out of his throat; Kagome howled loud enough to match him. Blood lifted from his skin as flesh shredded and burned under the pressure of raw, unfocused rage. Waves of anger, of pain, beat at Miroku's finer senses; wind whipped up the grass, screamed through the trees. With a gurgling cry, Tatsuya gave up his life, and in the next moment all was quiet, a stillness as total as the violence that had been.

Miroku stared, brought to his knees by what he had witnessed and still unaware of that fact. His eyes scanned the chaos that was smeared across the world in front of him; the battlefield was a bloodbath. Crimson mud had been gouged up in great rivets from the blistered earth, and wherever youkai blood had been spilled and Kagome's had power touched it, the grass, the trees, and the ground itself had been purified into smoking ruins. He recognized the signs – he had seen them often enough before.

The rest, though...

Some few bodies of the dead lay scattered like broken dolls on a madman's playground, Tatsuya's prominent among them. Over everything was a glittering wash of dust that blew about lightly in the wind, and the static embrace of Kagome's lingering youki

It was behind Kagome's stalking, suddenly protective stance that the greatest horror lay, and Miroku stared, utterly confused, unblinking – this was just not possible.

Sesshomaru was...dead.

He saw Sango slumped in defeat, her shoulders shaking with sobs; beside her, Rin was straining at Shippou's hold, and Miroku saw the moment the kit could no longer restrain her; she let out a cry, a scream more terrible even than the one that had come from Kagome.

None of them could restrain her, despite the potential of danger from Kagome in a mindless rage. With a flailing of limbs, Rin broke free and rushed to Sesshomaru's side, pressed her hands against his body, against the bloody wounds that had been opened across his chest – deep, not that horrible, but stained with the black and viscous venom Tatsuya's blade had borne.

Miroku glared at it in disgust; it went against everything in him that was a warrior, to see such a powerful man – being – laid low by such treachery.

Treachery.

The black poison had overpowered even the immunity wrought by dokkasou. It would have to be Dragon poison, the specialty of the Silent House.

"Sesshomaru-sama! Sesshomaru-sama! Do not leave Rin alone – Sesshomaru-sama!"

Seeing that the moment of terror had passed, that only agony was left, Miroku stepped forward. He spoke Kagome's name, hollow and concerned.

"Kagome?"

She turned quickly and crouched over Sesshomaru's body, baring her fangs under demon-red eyes. Miroku knelt in front of her cautiously. For the first time since he had made the decision to accept Kagome as the demon she was now, he looked the fire and fury of her youkai nature in the face – and saw his friend, newly broken, and after so much recent pain.

Kagome...Kagome, why is it you who always seems to suffer the most?

Hope left him as he took in the blank gaze of the Daiyoukai on the ground.

"Oh Kagome…"

For a moment, a single, splendid moment, Miroku's eyes focused on the shikon no tama as it swung loose around Kagome's throat. The pink surface, shining serenely even now – it taunted him with its promise. A wish formed in his heart and in his mind; it was there, right there...he could see it all happening in his thoughts – there would be a wave of light and power, and then Sesshomaru would breathe again, sit up and be again -

Kagome moved, and the shikon no tama twisted against her chest. It displayed its other half to Miroku – and it was red, streaked with blood that was drying to brown on the shimmering pink surface. He swallowed convulsively.

It would be a selfish wish. It would overturn the will of the gods and the fate to which the Buddha said all men must succumb. It would cause bloodshed and violence and a tainted power would be set free upon the land.

He spoke quietly, tempted for the first time by the thrum of that enormous power.

"Kagome, you would never forgive me. You."

It was enough.

He sat back, and crossed his legs, and lay his staff to rest at his side.

Beneath Miroku's calm scrutiny, with no threat around her to sustain it, the angry energy Kagome had been depending on to control her grief faded away, and she crumpled to the ground, sobbing brokenly. Her breath rushed from her in a pained exhalation, and Miroku pulled her gently into his arms, stroking her hair as she would have a child's.

"It will...it will be all right, Kagome. Somehow – we'll make it all right."

Kagome's eyes searched among the corpses, and lit on Shippou and Rin; half of cry pulled itself out of her throat, and she turned and reached out across Sesshomaru's body, drawing the kit and the girl to herself. Shippou came quickly into her arms, snuggled close to her body.

Rin stood quietly, tears streaming down her face, her eyes unfocused with guilt and memory.

Rin was remembering the dim and quiet and days of her furthest youth – and the days that had come after them; the days of pain. Then – then had come the day that would forever stand out to her – the day she would always remember as The Day Of The Wolves.

If not for the fact that she had spent nearly every day in his presence, it would have been the Day of Sesshomaru-sama.

Sesshomaru-sama saved me.

Instead, she had been granted the gift of giving him the meager service of her life – oh, how terrible, if he should leave her now and leave her alone – so soon after – so soon after -

Sesshomaru-sama saved me and made me his daughter.

It was all so clear in her mind, so clear and so horrible now that it was over -

Sesshomaru-sama saved me.

She remembered dying, remembered that sharp pain, not sudden at all because she had gone into the woods where good little girls didn't go and she wasn't a good little girl anyway – and oh, oh if only the beautiful white man would find her, wouldn't everything be all right then?

It would be so nice to look at something beautiful when she died. For in truth Sesshomaru was the most beautiful person she had ever seen, with the most beautiful things – his pelt, so soft-looking, so white and clean...and all his clothes, so brilliant and white – and his hair, so long, so silver-shining.

She had known that she should be afraid, for nothing so beautiful could possibly want anything to do with her, not her, not little-filthy-orphan-thief-girl-get-away-get-get-.

No, not her.

And she had been right just like she had known, and it hadn't hurt her at all – or not much, not really – when he had rejected her offer of fish and mushrooms; had rejected her. She wouldn't even have offered, because the fish was a day or two past its best and the mushrooms were, frankly, questionable...She had just been so hungry, and they had the shape of something she knew was edible. It was just that by then, peering from the bushes, she had seen the blood and known that he was injured.

It had fascinated her for the longest time – the dark crimson edges of the flowing, growing stain. It was pretty, precise, somehow right against the pristine flowing white.

As if it was, not a stain, but a perfect accent to a perfect being.

Later – much later, two or three days later, when The Day Of The Wolves was upon her, and had run over her with its panic and its horrors – later, when he sheathed his sword, and leaned down to pick her up, she had been so mortified that her dirtiness would touch that white, white, silk, that white, white skin...

When he sheathed his sword, and leaned down to pick me up.

When he sheathed his sword.

As if she had been jolted with an electric shock, two thoughts collided in her brain with the merest wisp of memory; the first moment in which she had opened her eyes to her restored life. There had been...a blue glow. A steel gleam.

And then a breath – painful, knives in her lungs that had let her know she was really alive again.

The thoughts wandered for a moment with that memory before she knew.

Sesshomaru saved me – with his sword!

She raced forward then, her arm outstretched, and met Kagome's reaching hand accidentally; still, it didn't matter. Entangled, their fingers fell down and touched the hilt of Sesshomaru's sword. She waited for light, magic, power, booming voices – anything.

But there was nothing. Disappointed, her fingers relaxed.

Just barely, her thumb brushed against the hilt of his other sword.

The right sword.

Tenseiga lit brilliant and blue in response.

Her eyes went wide.

"Okaa-sama!"

A/N: Well then! I hope no one hates me...but the presence of Tenseiga means it really HAS to be used...which means people need to die. Because otherwise future threat of death has no real...hm...no KICK to it, you know? Because you and I would both know that Sesshomaru's not going to beg a meidou off his...but oh wait, Kagome has that amulet now, doesn't she? ::evil laughter:: Things are going to kick up a notch, folks. Here's a hint: it starts with W and ends with R, and isn't made by Oscar Meyer.

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