A/N: Thank you so very much for loving this story.
Beta: Cstorm86 - you definitely have to check out her stories.
The Miko and the Shampoo Thief
He ran through the field, wind blowing in his fur, his paws hitting the ground in a fast pace as he dashed across the grassy field towards the safety of the forest. His keen ears caught some people calling after a 'cute puppy', but his brain barely registered that and recognized they spoke of him.
It wasn't the first time she touched him. He'd carried her on his back, she'd assisted him during that dreadful new moon night.
And yet, all he could think about was this one hug, the fact that she'd scooped him in her arms and wrapped in her arms and scent. The foreign feeling of being safe, of being wanted, of belonging, that had washed over him, had been overwhelming. He should've felt restricted as she'd held him against her soft body, but all he'd wanted to do had been to wrap his own arms around her, returning the protective, affectionate hold.
This was different. This time the contact wasn't brought by necessity, but because of her wish to actually touch and hold him.
He couldn't remember anyone except his mother ever wanting to embrace him, no matter the form he was in.
Confused and panicked, not prepared for this, he'd ran away like a damn coward.
Was she angry with him for not accepting this gesture of affection? Would she ever try to do it again? Did he want her to?
Hell, yes, he wanted her to! And now she was going to be angry with him. He stopped on the edge of the forest and looked back to where the two women ran after him. Her face was flushed, but she didn't look irate. Maybe if he did some groveling she'd forgive him? Well, it had been her fault for startling him like she'd done, it hadn't been his fault he'd panicked.
But he was pretty sure pointing that out would be wise.
'Inuyasha?' came her mind voice, as melodious as her regular one. 'Can you follow the trail in the forest?'
'Keh, sure I can!' he barked back. 'I'm waiting for you two!'
'Thanks!' Kagome reached him and stood beside him, looking at everything but him, her cheeks covered in pink. 'I'm sorry for squishing you.'
'Feh,' the Akita puppy turned his head away. 'Forget it. You just startled me, wench.'
Ugh, how big of an understatement it was.
But, honestly, sometimes it seemed she made it her personal mission to keep him out of balance, pushing him out of the paths he already knew, changing the centuries old rules, giving him freedom he didn't deserve, looking at him as if he was actually worth something while being what he was.
Sango joined them and Inuyasha started to lead them inside the forest, much slower now.
He was not sure what emotions welled up in his heart, all mingled together, but he knew that as long as Kagome was at his side, he didn't care what was awaiting them. He was going to protect his miko and let her lead him down the new path.
.
Mrs Honda watched the two women and a puppy disappear in the forest, standing with a cup of tea in hand. Her husband walked slowly to join her.
"Dear?" he asked.
"I heard stories, but always thought they were old wives' tales," she muttered.
"Stories?" her husband blinked. "Which ones? There are quite a few bouncing around the village, with all the babbling bored people do."
"Oh, the ones about the Higurashi family keeping an inugami," she cast a sideways glance at him. "When you greeted them, there was no puppy. When I talked to them, there was no puppy. And just after I left miko Higurashi to perform her duties, a puppy appeared out of the thin air."
"You're looking for supernatural things where there are none, Aki. Maybe she kept it in her sleeve," the man shrugged. Mrs Honda chuckled, but didn't argue. Whether it was a real inugami of old tales or a regular dog, she was glad that the miko came to rid their house and business of the mischievous youkai.
After all, that was what mattered the most.
.
Kagome ran after the cute little puppy that was at the same time the most esteemed shrine guardian.
Who she'd pressed against her bosom. For a second there she'd forgotten he was a man. A very handsome man she had a crush on. And she'd pushed his... face...
'Goodness gracious, how am I to look him in the eye?' she thought as she ran. Her face burned, only in part because of exertion. 'He must think I'm mental! It will be so awkward now...'
Behind her back, she could hear Sango running, the other woman hot on her heels. Kagome prayed to all the gods there were that Sango hadn't realized her slip up. So far she didn't comment on it or snicker, so Kagome had high hopes... But maybe she was just waiting for the most terrible moment to tease her. She was a bit like a cat, waiting patiently to pounce on her unsuspecting prey.
Inuyasha dashed across the field as if he was chased by terrible demons, not two women. Kagome worried they'd lose him in the shadows of the forest. But before she had a chance to call for him to stop, the puppy did just that, glancing at them as if to tell them to move faster. Kagome guessed he was still embarrassed and angry with her. She guessed he was eager to get the work done and disappear to sulk somewhere. She really had to find a way to apologize, but now was not the time nor place.
"Thanks," she just said and as soon as Sango was with them, the Akita led them into the forest, following a narrow, meandering path.
The forest was pretty, but not as wild and overgrown as the woods around the shrine, where people could walk only down cleared out paths, or to brave the thick and tangled undergrowth, spider webs and anthills. Kagome guessed it made sense, here hotel visitors could just go for a stroll in the forest close to the hotel, not bothered much, if the path they were on led to a ravine or ended abruptly on the top of a cliff. In regular intervall s Kagone could see posts painted white, with boards containing maps with their location marked on them. The wind shook most of the ra in off the trees so only once in a while a drop of water tell on her head, but the ground was rather damp.
Inuyasha led them down a thin path that meandered between the trees and came close to the info boards. It sometimes seemed to disappear just to reappear a few meters away.
Sango was walking behind her looking around with keen eyes ,as if waiting for an ambush. Kagome was following the puppy, who had a much easier time, walking through the bushes and weeds. They were silent, not wanting to give away their location to the youkai.
Kagome wondered what it could be. What kind of youkai stole towels?
She tried to sense it with her reiki| but it was either too far away, or it could mask its presence, or her skills were not good enough. She trusted Inuyasha that he would sniff it out. He was following the trail like a true bloodhound. It was reassuring to see his fluffy tail, curled over his back and sticking over the twigs and leaves in front of her.
'Wait a minute, am I staring at his ass?' A sudden mortifying thought appeared in her mind - along with an image of the hanyou, sans his fire rat robe, wearing only a fundoshi and looking over his shoulder back at her - and Kagome tripped over something hidden in the weeds that reached her knees. With a gasp of embarrassment and shock, she fell forward, trying to brace herself for impact and outstretching her hands to at least not hit the ground with her nose. She closed her eyes when Sango gasped her name and hit something hard, warm and smelling of wild wood.
"Huh?"
A chuckle was her response.
"You trying to kiss the nettles?" Inuyasha asked.
"M-maybe?" Kagome breathed out, blushing and trying to get her footing back. His body was sturdy and warm, his grip on her reassuring and making a flock of butterflies swirl in her belly. It definitely wasn't the right time.
"Nice catch," Sango praised, no small amount of relief in her voice. Kagome smiled with gratitude at the shrine guardian, who once again saved her.
"Thanks, You saved me." Kagome whispered. She turned her head away before she started to blush like a high school girl.
"Keh," he let go of her when she tried to take a step back. "You were in your head too much again, huh? Planning one of your stupid stories again?"
Kagome wasn't sure if she was more relieved he didn't know why she'd tripped or annoyed that he insulted her stories, without even reading them. Unless... Maybe he'd read them? Maybe he was the mystery feedback giver after all... When she'd asked him he'd told her he didn't know anything about the notebook, but... Kagome entertained that idea for a moment before discarding it. Inuyasha wasn't the type to lie. Or to take something of hers without her permission.
"Anyway, we're here," Inuyasha's voice brought her back from her musings. She looked around curiously, but all she could see were trees.
"Where?..."
"The hollow."
"Ah, there!" Sango quickly noticed the hollow in one of the thickest trees around them. It was located well over three meters above the ground and was hard to miss.
A pale pink towel hung from it like a banner.
Inuyasha leaped to the branch nearest to the hollow and peered inside.
"Yup, there's all the human shit, I think," he said, reaching in to take out of the hollow a small framed photo of a family on a beach.
"Great! Can you, please, take it all out of there, so we can return it to Mrs. Honda?" Kagome asked. The hanyou shrugged and set to work, making bundles from the towels and stuffing them with other things. Then he dropped them to the women, waiting to catch them and set them aside.
"That was too easy," Sango said. "Youkai are territorial creatures, they will fight for what they deem theirs."
A snicker came from above their heads and Kagome glanced up to Inuyasha, who paused in his work and looked to the woods. Then he glanced down at her, a huge smile on his face.
"Hide and wait, it's coming. Remember, the battle is all yours, taijiya," he added and swiftly crawled up the tree to hide
"He's up to something, but I can't get him to tell me," Kagome informed Sango as they crouched behind a convenient patch of leafy bushes.
"It'll be fine, Kagome," Sango said, clutching something that looked suspiciously similar to a ninja throwing star, only made of bone.
In the silence of the woods, soon they could hear two voices nearing the thick tree with the hollow.
"The goodies are really good, Mr. Nobunaga," said a high-pitched voice. It sounded happy and jovial, but not without a hint of servility.
"Uh... That's good... So, again, how much will it all cost?" asked the other voice. It sounded hesitant.
"Oh, for my best buyer, Mr. Nobunaga, only five hundred acorns and fifty nuts," the first voice said and quickly added. "It's an outrageously low price, master Nobunaga, no one will sell so much goodies to you so cheap. I practically cut me own throat with this price. It's so low only because of our long history of business!"
"Thanks, I guess..."
"I know your fiancee is a collector of all things human, so I came to you first, to offer the wide variety of products. Robes, blankets, odd paintings, curtains, razor blades on sticks, even the potions humans use to cleanse their bodies, all top quality stuff."
"Oh... That's nice of you, Mr Fuwa," at this moment the two hidden women finally could see the approaching men as they neared the tree.
The first one was a squirrel, not bigger in size than Kirara, his tail fluffy and his tiny hands moving as he spoke. He wore a dark, simple kimono. Beside him walked a lizard, thin and light green in color, wearing a dark green kimono with brown obi. His eyes sparkled like gems while the squirrel's glinted from his furry face. The lizard was twice the size of the squirrel and had to lean his head down to talk to him.
'Your mighty opponents, ladies,' Inuyasha snickered in Kagome's mind. 'Fight honorably and strike truly.'
The two youkai approached the tree and stopped. The squirrel eyed the pile of the towel bundles and glanced to the hollow,
"Is something wrong, Mr Fuwa?" asked the lizard when he saw his companion scowling. "Can I see the goods now?"
He pointed a tiny claw towards the stolen items.
"I can't believe it!" the squirrel, his tail swishing, threw his hands in the air. "Someone tried to rob me! Truly, Mr Nobunaga, we were in luck, coming back when we did. Five minutes later and the vile thief would be on their merry way with my wares!"
"Oh..."
"The world is such a dangerous place, where people can't turn around without nailing down their belongings!" the squirrel lamented.
"Says the youkai, who stole all those things from the hotel!" Kagome rose to her feet and pointed a finger at the two youkai.
"A miko!" the lizard exclaimed in terror and fainted.
"Hey!" Kagome glared at the unconscious lizard while hearing Iuyasha's snicker in her head. "I ain't that scary!"
Meanwhile, the squirrel tried to use her moment of distraction to escape, but Sango jumped in front of him and when he tried to climb a tree, her throwing stars pinned him to the trunk in a flash.
Half an hour later, after a lecture about stealing stuff from others and selling it, and a solemn promise of not doing that ever again, Kagome let the squirrel go. Sango used that time to rouse the lizard and give him a lecture of her own, boiling down to 'human items are odd and can be dangerous, giving them to an intended mate might put her in danger'. Inuyasha and Kirara had watched them from the overhanging branch, each expressing their amusement in their own way.
Finally, Kagome and Sango carried all the retrieved stolen objects back to the hotel, for Mrs. Honda to sort out. They didn't share the story of the glorious battle they'd waged against the sneaky youkai, just promised the thief wasn't going to plague the patrons of the hotel anymore.
When they walked back to the shrine, Mrs Honda watched them go back the same path they'd come earlier. Her husband sat beside her, both folding the rescued towels.
"And there was no Akita puppy," she muttered with a small smile, too softly to be heard by her spouse.
.
The small valley was barren, rock cliffs surrounding it bearing scorch marks. The floor of the valley was covered in small pebbles, no grass growing out from between them. No water trickled down the steep slopes the wind seemed to stop to almost a crawl as soon as it entered the valley. Even the sunlight seemed to be dulled in the area.
In the center of the valley, encircled by a rice rope, with sutras hanging limply off it, stood a rock. It looked ordinary, even if big.
A regal-looking man in armor and a woman in a flowing kimono, walked around the rock and placed candles around it. Nine candles were lit by their hand before they stood in front of the rock. The flames were eerily blue.
"Empress," they spoke, bowing deeply. A presence seemed to seep out of the rock, not strong enough to take shape yet, but easy to detect already. The man's wings fluttered at the feel of the youki restrained by the rope. The woman beside him fisted her hands, the air around her cooling as she tried to stay calm against the - unseen but pressing on them - ancient gaze.
"This one is pleased with what you've accomplished," spoke a melodious, feminine voice from within the stone.
"The spider is not yet entirely convinced about our impending victory," the woman said, her voice faltering a bit as she spoke.
"It is of little consequence. If he tries to stop us, we shall crush him," the presence whispered. "As long as the shiro inu is chasing your warriors as they weaken his lands, we can focus on our search. The blade that can cut the rope and the arrow that can shatter the rocks that imprison me. Then I shall repay you for your servitude, raising both the Panther and the Moth daiyoukai. Go and find them, bring them to me, so I can rise and take my place as the rightful ruler.""
"Yes, Empress," they both bowed and took a deep breath when the presence faded away. The candles burned no more, and the valley appeared void of all life once again.