"Where are ye going, Inuyasha?"
Kaede watched him secure a blanket over the now sleeping Kagome, who had fallen back into a discontented unconsciousness, a fresh surge of dark magic gripping her system. Still watching her face as he answered, Kaede could see him lean closer to Kagome, his hair falling over her body as he lifted one hand to hers where it lay clenched at her chest.
"I want to go find Miroku and Sango." He kept his voice low so he wouldn't wake her; he knew she needed rest, and beyond that, he didn't want her to hear what he was going to say next. Kissing her cheek lightly, he gave her hand one last soft caress before pulling back and coming to stand, facing the old woman who sat with her bow at her feet. "I need to tell them that Kagome has returned… and that I need them to protect her when I go back."
"Back to Kagome's time?" Kaede's eyebrows leapt upward, lips creasing into a frown, "Inuyasha, if ye go alone, ye could risk-"
"I won't risk bringing her near that creep." He clenched his fingers into a fist, quaking angrily at the thought. "Nothing I could lose, even my life, is worth putting her in danger."
"Think about this." Kaede suggested firmly, "If ye fail, no one will be able to help Kagome, and she will likely continue to weaken under the curse. Speak with Sango and consider her knowledge before ye act; she may offer a solution to finding and destroying this entity."
She nodded her head, indicating that he was free to leave and that she would not press him on the issue any further.
Inuyasha's heart sank as he left the hut, ears pinned on the sound of Kagome's light breathing fading with each step. He knew that the older priestess was right. If anything happened to him before he found this demon, the curse would never end. It could kill her – and they weren't even sure what they were dealing with yet. They could only go off speculation. Maybe it wasn't even a demon; for all they knew, this could simply be a modern mortal who had disguised himself well, and Kagome really did need to go to a modern healer… he couldn't make up his mind. There were too many things that could put her in jeopardy.
As he came up over a small hill and made his way down toward Miroku and Sango's home, usually a noisy and active experience rather than a setting, he heard a familiar voice call to him.
"Inuyasha, what ails you this morning?" Sango appeared from her home; an infant bundled in her arms. For once he was quiet, a rare and unexpected occurrence that Inuyasha supposed made up for the lack of other neighbors up and about; they must be relishing their sleep.
"How did you know?"
"I spotted you from the window, and you are almost always perturbed." She chuckled over her infant's head, ignoring the flat fall of her friend's expression. She didn't need to observe him to say affectionately, "Sorry for teasing you, Inuyasha, I know it's been difficult. I mean it when I say you can tell me. Now, really, why the serious expression?"
"Ah, Inuyasha!" Miroku emerged holding the hands of his two small daughters, both toddling along after their father with a distracted babbling maintained between them. "Our good friend, we haven't seen you in a few days, how are you?"
Ears twitching, Inuyasha watched his two close friends as he held back words in anxious anticipation. The looks on their faces now, so serene and contented with the slow ways of what had become a somewhat ordinary life were about to be shaken with the news they had all been so hopeful for the past three years, just, not in the way they had hoped. He knew they would go from elated to worried, and the thrill of Kagome's return would be tainted by the attack that was now revealing an even darker undertone. Still, now back in the feudal era where he had been trapped without Kagome for so long, it seemed even more an unbelievable fantasy to hear from his own lips,
"The well has opened. Kagome is back."
Though the two young girls continued to chatter amongst themselves, and the small baby began to stir in the blanket that fastened him to this mother's chest, Sango and Miroku deadened to a stop, eyes flashing open in recognition. Glancing at one another shortly to gauge each reaction, the couple looked back to Inuyasha with mouths agape.
"Inuyasha! Where? Where is she?" Sango finally stuttered, her heart battling between excitement and confusion as she rubbed her infant son's back and began to scan the area just over Inuyasha's shoulder. Surely Kagome would be at his side after being separated for so long, so where was her long-lost best friend? Would she still be wearing a short kimono of green and white, would her hair still be long, or cut short? What if – she glanced at Inuyasha momentarily before resuming her search – what if Kagome herself had a child?
Could this be the reason for Inuyasha's downcast expression?
"She…" Gulping and starting again, Miroku and Sango noticed the half demon wrap his fingers around the hilt of his sword. "When I arrived in her time to get her, Kagome was being attacked by what I thought was a human."
Lurching forward, his friends gasped in concern at the revelation.
"Is she alright?"
"Where is she?" Sango repeated, growing frantic but keeping her voice as calm as possible over the tiny ears that rested below her chin. "Is she with Kaede?"
"Yes." Inuyasha finally answered the slayer, who started immediately in the direction of Kaede's home, all the while patting her child's back.
Miroku ambled behind his wife with their two girls at his feet now growing confused at the sudden departure. They usually didn't go to Kaede the priestess unless one was sick, so as soon as it was made obvious where they were headed, both girls quickly kicked up a string of trebling complaints, pulling their father's hand in protest as he followed Sango and their uncle with an almost enraptured motion.
"Girls, please, your Auntie Kagome has returned." Miroku sternly but sweetly addressed his children, whose attitudes turned as soon as they heard the name of the woman they'd heard so many stories of.
"The priestess who helped slay the horrible demon?" Kin'u chirped breathlessly.
"The lady who Uncle Inu is married to?" Gyokuto implored.
Inuyasha blushed as Miroku laughed lightly, picking up his pace now that the girls were cooperating. Soon enough they came upon Kaede's home, each with a growing suspense in their hearts; in moments they would be reunited with the girl that had brought them all together. It was only the weight of how they were meeting that kept the group silent as they headed inside, unsure of what lay waiting for them.
As they entered, Inuyasha tried his best to inform them,
"At first, we were sure it was just a jealous creep from her school." He held open Kaede's door, revealing the slightly rosy interior of her home as he allowed his friends to pass.
He followed after the young family, joining them in the single room where Kagome still lay limply on the floor. It was clear she was unaware of Kaede at her side nursing her with a quiet prayer and as well of the group as they entered. Sango gasped when she saw her friend trembling and lifelessly wilted to the sleeping mat, eyes clenched shut in a restless daze. The slayer dropped to her knees to take her hand, gazing at the face she had only dreamed of in three long years.
Inuyasha continued, allowing his friends a moment for reaction before he did so to make sure they were fully aware of his words, "I beat the miserable bastard to near oblivion, and would have gladly done more, but there are these rules in Kagome's era that could get her family in trouble, and I remembered, so I let him live enough to limp off. But then, the same kid showed up the next day, totally unharmed. Not a bruise on him. I realized the scents were different, and then he showed me proof of his absence at the time of the attack."
"So, you don't know who did this?" Miroku sat with legs crossed beside Kaede, joining in the healing prayer. Before he began, he turned to his young daughters. "Girls, can you help Kaede-Sama by picking some flowers just outside of the hut? They would look very nice up on her table."
"Flowers, Kin'u!" Gyokuto gasped, grabbing her sister's wrist, and pulling the girl after her out into the sunshine. Granted permission, the two were notorious for uprooting any plot they could get their grubby hands on, enraptured by the pretty multi-coloured petals that jeweled in the summer sun.
With the children out of the way for more serious discussion, Inuyasha bowed his head.
"No." He hated to admit it, and crossed his arms, looking away with guilty diffidence. "It's why I came back here so soon with her. I wanted to speak with Kaede, and with you, Sango. Perhaps you might know some history of a creature capable of transcending time… or living long enough to exist in Kagome's era. I can't figure out what this thing is, and somehow, though I did attempt to track it, its scent has since disappeared."
Sango chewed her lip, considering Inuyasha's request, taking time to remember all the lessons from long ago in her village. Although nothing regarding the passages of time came to mind, something her father had told her one day as they were training in the fields did surface as she thought about Kagome being attacked in such a horrifically violent, but ultimately non-fatal way.
"A demon will only imitate a human for two reasons, Sango, so listen well; if they are in love with a human and wish to approach them in a familiar way, they may feign a human form. Most would not stoop to this, much as they would never stoop to loving a human at all. The only other reason, and the more common of the two, is that they intend to take vengeance on a human. Killing a human, for a demon, takes no effort all. Exacting revenge on a human, that is different."
Somehow, this situation seemed to be composed of both reasons. Whatever had attacked Kagome certainly couldn't love her, but maybe… Sango thought about Naraku and how he had lusted for Kikyo, the foremost reason for his becoming the terrifying creature they had defeated. But one that had created, or sought to create itself in Kagome's era, in a time when demons were no longer a hazard? How could that be? And as far as the spell, what human or being in her time would be practicing dark magic to pull that off competently?
"Perhaps it is a demon from this time." Sango mumbled, "But there is no way of knowing, only that it is very unlikely to be human, rather trapped in a human's body or pretending to be one." Raising her voice back to a regular volume, she went on, "Inuyasha, if this entity didn't outright kill Kagome, then what you told us…" She clenched her fists, narrowing her eyes to think of such a thing occurring to anyone, let alone the best friend she had missed for three years. Unable to directly address the situation verbally, she let insinuation paint her next statement, "What he did to her, that was likely a genuine motivation."
"So, what are you saying?" Inuyasha leaned forward, having sunk down amongst his friends to survey Kagome, who began to twitch in her slumber as the monk and the priestess continued to cast a prayer.
Sango sighed.
"Whatever it is, this thing that attacked her, it might…" She lifted her eyes to meet Inuyasha's, apologizing with her gaze as she finished, "Wherever it is from, whatever it may be, it might intend to mate with her."
Silence fell on the hut, holding the group in its uncomfortable tension, until a slow rumble began to fill the room. Inuyasha heaved as his breaths came in heavy, uncontrolled gasps, responding to the guttural noise that vibrated through him.
Kagome let out a distressed moan. Instantaneously, Inuyasha reached out and pressed one hand to her leg, patting gently, a motion he continued even as his fury continued to darken with the clouds that had suddenly overtaken the sun just outside Kaede's window.