It was around midnight, Sesshomaru was cuddling with his mate and daughter, when he heard from one of the front entrance guards that Zokushi, among with two others, had arrived. He told the guard to let them in and escort them to the study. At first, He didn't want Kagome to come because of the sleeping pup. However, the said pup said something like she felt the need to be there. Kagome was curious as to why her daughter felt the need to go. Sesshomaru protested against it saying that she needed to go to bed, but Natsume's big baby golden eyes had gotten to the Mighty Sesshomaru. He begrudgingly gave into his daughter's whims. Kagome was inwardly giggling at the interaction. Natsume was now a toddler in human terms. She could talk clearly for a child of her age. She was a quick learner as well. Kagome thanked Kami for that every day.

Meanwhile in the study, Zokushi, who had Yamiko securely wrapped in her mokomoko, and Ichiko were awaiting for Sesshomaru and his mate to arrive at the study. Ichiko was a nervous wreck. Who could blame her really? She was about to meet the most fearsome inuyoukai known to man. She was also annoyed because she had to wear anti-miko cuffs. She was pacing up and down, where Zokushi was sitting. The pacing was getting on Zokushi's nerves.

"Will you please stop?!"

"No! I am so nervous."

"Yeah, I know. I feel it. Please, sit and calm down. Sesshomaru should be here any minute now. If you keep on doing that, he will exploit your nerves."

"But... Your right." Ichiko sighed and sat down. She looked at the sick pup. "Poor thing." Zokushi nodded. Then they heard a door slid open. They thought that it was Sesshomaru, but it was his twin. They both have nearly identical auras. "Sesshomaru?"

"No, it's Inuki."

Zokushi jumped and quickly hugged her sister-like friend. "Good. I don't have to hunt you down. There's something I need to show you." She got interrupted by another door sliding open and close.

This time, it was Sesshomaru with his mate, Kagome. Natsume was hanging on her father's mokomoko, which made all three mikos said in unison, "Aww." That made Sesshomaru gave them a death glare, which made Ichiko gulped and looked away quickly. Kagome was the first to speak, "So Zoku, did you find anything out? About Akira? Or anything?"

"Yes, Akira is definitely planning a war against us, but not only us, though. The other three Cardinal Lords, as well. There's also a new development." All, except for Inuhime, was looking at Ichiko with suspicion. Zokushi noticed. "Oh, how rude of me. Sesshomaru... Kagome, this is Ichiko. Ichiko, this is Sesshomaru and Kagome, the Lord and Lady of the West."

Ichiko's eyes widened and quickly bowed, "Its an honor to meet you both."

"Hn."

"Uh... it's nice to meet you, too." Kagome saw that she was a dark miko. "You're a dark miko." Sesshomaru gave Ichiko a nasty death glare.

"Yea-Yeah, I mean, no... No, I meant, I was one." Sesshomaru looked at his twin for any confirmation on what Ichiko said was true or not. Inuhime nodded, which meant she was being truthful. Ichiko continued, "There's another person, who you should be worried about."

"Oh dear, who's this other person," Kagome asked.

Ichiko gulped. "My brother. You see, my brother and I are/were naturally born with reiki. Our parents were powerful, however, not too much. They couldn't defeat a youkai named, Ryūkotsusei. He was too strong for them. He defeated them. He killed them. They even begged for mercy, but..." she started to sob. "...He was about to kill us. I thought, when I saw that he was preparing to strike we were going to die . We closed our eyes to wait for the inevitable, but it never came. When I opened my eyes, I saw your father, the Great and Terrible InuTaisho. He saved us. He took us in for awhile, until he saw that we have holy power. He told me that it wasn't personal, but we had to go somewhere to train and control our powers better. My brother and I went our separate ways. I trained with Zokushi and Inuhime. My brother went to train to be a monk. I admit that I did some terrible things, but he's so much worst than me."

"Ryūkotsusei?! That's impossible," yelled Kagome.

"Milady, I was born with reiki. With reiki, anything's possible. There are some forbidden spells, one mustn't use unless they were prepared to loose their souls whenever the time came. I regretted it using those spells, but... it was necessary. I know my brother. His heart was set in revenge. He blames all youkai for our parents demise."

"I am so sorry about your parents, Ichiko."

Ichiko gave the Lady of the West a sad smile. "That's alright, milady. They went out like they wanted, I suppose."

"You must be tired," Inuhime commented. "You both should go and get some rest. We'll continue this later. Right, Sesshou."

"Hn," Sesshomaru grunted in displeasure. He had always hated it when his twin calls him that.

"But, but, but..."

"No buts, Ichiko. We could continue this later around dinner. How does that sound, brother?"

"Hn."

"That's okay to me, I guess."

"Good. Jaken, please take Ichiko and Zoku to their rooms. They will living here from now on," Inuhime ordered.

Sesshomaru was aggravated. He said, "Sister, why did you say that? This is my palace; not yours! I am the lord here; not you!"

Inuhime looked at Sesshomaru with a poker face. "I know who's palace this is and who's lord here, Sesshomaru. I knew that you didn't mind."

In truth, Sesshomaru doesn't care whether Zokushi and/or that dark miko stayed; just as long as they know who's lord and lady of that palace. However, he wanted to be asked before it happened. However, he also knew that he couldn't deny his twin anything. The same goes to his mate and daughter. His mother was a different story, though. He sighed, tiredly.

"Mate, lets go back to our chambers."

Kagome was about to agree but she noticed that someone was missing. "Sesshomaru, where's Natsume?"

Inuyasha (c) Rumiko Takahashi

Fanfiction & OCs (c) ladytari