Beta: Cstorm86

The Miko Negotiates

Mr Hashira was staring with his mouth slightly opened. Kagome glanced awkwardly downwards, not sure what to say to the old man, who just a minute ago had left his ancient car in front of his house to find the young miko sitting on the grass near the gate to his yard.

She knew what he was thinking - he was wondering how she managed to be here before him when she had still been at the shrine when he had left a half of an hour ago.

The simple answer to this was Inuyasha. The more elaborate one included her not wanting to suffer the ride in the old man's car and Inuyasha simply and silently offering her his back instead. It also included a dash through the mountain forest, with leaps over ditches and zigzagging between trees. The time between arriving and seeing Mr Hashira's car she had spent pulling twigs and leaves out of her hair and trying to smooth it.

And, of course, trying to figure out how to explain her appearance here.

'Easy,' Inuyasha said from his spot somewhere up a tree branch or on a rooftop. 'Don't let him ask about it.' It sounded like a good advice, so as soon as Kagome saw the man's mouth open she offered him a wide smile.

"So, Mr Hashira, where is the pond? For how long have you had the problem with it?" she asked. The old man glared at her and opened the gate, letting her in.

"Follow me, let's get this over with," he grumbled. "It crawled in a few days ago and since then my fish rarely dare to leave the shelter of the decorative reeds."

Kagome nodded, walking with the man around the house towards a lovely and well-kept little traditional garden with cherry trees and bonsai plants. It seemed that the unpleasant man really liked his garden.

"I think it's a kappa," the man continued, leading her to a pond..

This is when it finally hit her. She was supposed to... do something... to make the creature in the pond... disappear from it.

And she had no clue what it'd be and how she should handle it.

Her step faltered and a shiver ran down her spine when this realization came to her mind. She could do normal things, but would they work on a real youkai? She had no weapon and no sacred items to aid her in her work on top of not having any idea what that should be. Should she just pray and hope the youkai would go away? Or try and purify the pond? Use an exorcism? She had some sacred talismans, but would they work? Something told her that asking the old man would only make him laugh at her and say something like 'I knew you couldn't handle this'.

'Um... Inuyasha...?' she started tentatively when the old man stopped walking, pointing at the part of the pond where the reeds grew and where the fishes were probably hidden. The whole body of water was round and not more than six meters in diameter. It didn't look too deep.

'Yeah, wench?' came Inuyasha's reply, the hanyou nowhere in sight. Something in his tone suggested he had been waiting for her call, amused and enjoying the uncertainty in her mind voice.

'Can you... Uh... What am I supposed to do?'

Her answer was a wicked snicker. Anger boiled in her when she realized that he was actually enjoying the situation she was in and that it was probably going to be tricky to enlist his help. 'Idiot.;

'Takes one to insult someone who could actually help you right now,' came his mildly annoyed, but still mostly amused, reply.

'Uh...' Kagome bit her bottom lip, knowing that he was right, it was stupid to insult him right now. 'Well... How to make him...'

'I know what you should do,' he spoke in her mind again. 'But it will be pretty fun to just let you figure it out while the old fart glares.'

One glance in the direction of the said man told Kagome that he was really glaring at her, his expression showing his impatience and annoyance with the young girl just staring at his pond instead of doing something. In panic she clasped her hands as if in a prayer.

"Um, could I get some space?" she asked, hoping the man would go away and quit staring, so she could figure out what to do. She swallowed, praying he wouldn't throw a rude comment at her and decide to stay to make sure she wouldn't do anything to his fish. "I need to focus my reiki."

'If he goes away maybe Inuyasha would come out of his hiding,' she hoped. The old man looked her up and down before he gave a short nod.

"Higurashi prefers to have no witnesses to his work as well. Call me if you need me," he grumbled and walked towards his house, oblivious to the relieved and surprised expression on Kagome's face.

'Keh, so you managed to bite off your tail, wench. Not bad,' Inuyasha commented. Kagome looked around, but she couldn't see him.

'Come out?' she suggested with a hint of hope. Standing alone in a stranger's garden, next to a haunted pond, felt weird.

'No way, he can see you through a window,' the hanyou crushed her hope of having him at her side.

'Oh,' she frowned and swallowed again. 'So... What am I supposed to do? I can't throw salt in the water, right?'

'Better not. It could get ill from it.'

'You know, you could just tell me what to do and we could be done and back home,' she grumbled, clenching her fists. She didn't even know in which direction to glare, so she glared at the pond. He was acting just like Souta, holding the last few cookies just beyond her reach. She thought about her options. She could yell at the shrine guardian, which wouldn't help her any, or she should use the route she always used when she wanted her brother to do something for her and she couldn't blackmail him.

'Say, Inuyasha...' she started in a smooth, serene voice. 'I'd make you ramen...'

'Feh!' the hanyou scoffed.

'Playing hard to sway, huh?' she thought to herself and continued. 'With beef and chicken, and with all the ingredients you might want...'

There was no scoffing this time. Inuyasha liked his ramen, but he seemed to love his meat. She tried to hide her victorious smile when a moment later she heard his voice in her head again. It didn't sound amused this time, it was the voice of a starving man ordering his first meal in days.

'Three bowls? And with extra boiled egg...?'

'Of course,' she gave a small nod. Inside she was dancing a happy dance. Some instant ramen didn't sound like a big price to pay for his assistance. She made a mental note to herself to ask her grandfather about performing the 'extra duties' she was supposed to. She didn't want to go through this again.

'Feh, I'll tell you, but you better make the ramen today, wench,' when she nodded again, the boy's voice whispered in her mind. 'Kneel by the pond and touch the water. Act calm and don't move more. You can try and let your reiki gather in your hand. It's skittish, so don't overdo it.'

Kagome blinked in surprise, but followed his words, dipping her fingertips in the cool water, causing little ripples to form and spread across the surface. 'A skittish kappa...?' she wondered, focusing on her spiritual energy and telling it to move down her arm. The tips of her fingers glowed a little. She wasn't very good with using reiki, since she had never had much reason to train and meditate, but she had this suspicion she had to get strong and proficient with using it soon.

'It's not a kappa.' Inuyasha grumbled. 'The old fart knows shit. A kappa would never settle here. Actually I'm shocked this one is here, but I guess it got unlucky.'

Kagome didn't listen to him insulting the man again, she was more focused on staring at the creature that swam from the bottom of the pond towards her fingers, moving cautiously, but curiously forward.

It was a sea horse... Or something very similar to one. It was no bigger than her hand, looked fragile and had pearly scales. In the sunlit water it seemed to shimmer. Its fins looked as delicate as butterfly wings. When it was mere centimeters away from her fingers it stopped moving, Kagome felt as if its sapphire eyes were sizing her up.

"What is this?" she whispered, not wanting to scare the animal that looked more like a piece of jewelry than a living being.

"A baby dragon." Kagome turned her head to see Inuyasha standing behind her, a plastic bucket in his hand. He smirked at her, one ear cocked towards the house. She turned her wide eyes towards the little creature in the pond to find it gone. "I spooked it. Here, lure it to this bucket and we can go home. And don't tell the human what it is. Tell him you exorcised the kappa or whatever."

"Why not?" she cocked her head at him.

"He might want to eat the little guy. Humans think they can become immortal or get magic powers by eating dragon meat," Inuyasha shrugged. "Figured out you wouldn't like that."

"Yeah, I wouldn't want that," Kagome nodded and grabbed the bucked from his hand. As soon as she held onto it, Inuyasha leaped off of the ground and swiftly returned to the roof of the house, from where he was observing her. She guessed he came down only because he was sure the old man wasn't spying on her from behind a curtain at this moment. It was better to get the baby dragon out of the pond quickly.

Kagome turned towards the water and put the bucket in it, holding it with both hands and trying to put some of her reiki in it. Judging by Inuyasha's words, the tiny creature was drawn to spiritual energy and calmness, so if she just managed to stay still and...

She opened her eyes she didn't know she had closed when she felt something rub against her skin. The pearly nuzzle touched her knuckle and the sapphire eyes glanced up at her as it to gauge her reaction. She smiled at the cute thing.

"It's okay. I know Inuyasha can look scary, but he's harmless," she promised, ignoring the disgruntled grunt in her mind. "We're here to help. Get in the bucket and I'll bring you to my shrine, okay?"

The baby dragon tilted its head as if unsure of her words or not understanding her. But after a moment of her not moving a muscle, the little creature got braver and swam inside the bucket where the water was a bit warmer and purer. Kagome waited a few moments before carefully lifting the vessel out of the pond, keeping it almost full of water. The baby dragon swam in a circle before it looked at her, as if alarmed.

"I know, it's tiny," she cooed, moving the bucket closer to her face. "But it won't take long and you'll be safe."

'Move, before the old fart leaves the bathroom,' Inuyasha warned. 'Put the bucket behind that tree over there before he sees you.'

The miko nodded and hurried to the nearest cherry tree to hide the container. She smiled at the baby dragon before she returned to the pond and assumed a praying position. When the shrine guardian gave her a hint that she was being watched again, she pulled out of her sleeve a paper talisman, charged it with her reiki and threw it in the water. It glowed faintly for a moment before the paper got wet.

After this little performance she turned towards the house and managed to make a handful of steps before Mr. Hashira approached her.

"I'm done," she said. The old man eyed her and then looked at the pond where the wet slip of paper was being nibbled at by curious fish.

"So it looks like. I must confess, I didn't believe a mere girl could perform such a task," he muttered. Kagome shrugged and accepted an envelope he produced out of his pocket.

"If you need any spiritual assistance in the future, come to the shrine," she said and bowed her head before putting the envelope away and turning to leave.

As soon as she was out of sight from the house, and in the shelter of the forest surrounding the village where it stood, Inuyasha in his mortal dog form and size joined her, the bucket hanging from his mouth.

"You got the dragon," she smiled and peered into the water to see the little creature eyeing the canine spirit. "Don't worry, little one, you're safe"

'Better take the bucket before it gets upset enough to cause rain,' Inuyasha turned his head towards her. 'I can't carry you back, the water will spill if I run.'

"Uh," Kagome took the bucket handle from between the dog's fangs with no thought about how sharp and deadly they were. "I guess we will have a long walk ahead of us then. It's fine."

The dog nodded and walked beside her like an obedient pet that didn't need a leash or a command to stay by her side, ignoring all the interesting sounds and scents of the forest. His pointed ears were perked and swiveling on top of his head like radars. Kagome smiled at him and then at the little dragon, that was now calmer, glancing up at her with innocent curiosity.

She wondered how she was going to explain to her grandfather that now they were going to have to take care of a dragon.