LXXXIV

Nil Admirari

"So, that's the Alpha of Echigo…" Sango's voice is quiet and thoughtful, and she is very careful to make sure the words and their tone can in no way be interpreted as insulting. She could keep her thoughts to herself, but she is trying to put a point on her knowledge of this Kouga, without being too open about it. Judging by the way the wolves sit around her, satisfied, pride in their posture, she knows she's guessed right.

She has heard some things about this Alpha over the last few years, and especially since the end of last summer, but when word of yōkai travels in her circles, it never includes their proper names. If they even have them. So many are just beasts… Like these wolves around her. But it's the ones with names, the ones who like to imitate the humans they claim to despise, who are the most dangerous. So her training had taught her; so she had experienced herself, with the one who had killed her father, taken control of her brother-

Peace. This is not the time. You can't afford to be distracted; you owe Kagewaki-dono too much. She breathes in, and out. Digs her fingers into the dirt and grips it in two solid handfuls. Ignores the flicker of red at the corner of her eye. The wound in her back, which Kagewaki-dono assured her has healed as well as can be expected, pulses with sudden agony. It takes all her strength to hide the stab of pain, and when it passes Sango scoots back a bit toward her sleeping roll and stretches out there on her left side, trying to pant silently.

How long will she be waiting? It certainly didn't take long for the Wolf to arrive, but he might decide to let her wait just to make a point about who is in control of the situation. Would he return bearing a message for Kagewaki-dono? Would the miko send one, or come herself, or stay out of sight? Sango had almost insisted on meeting her, on proof that she was real and that she wasn't a prisoner, but the look in the Alpha's eyes had held her back.

All this time, whenever she had thought of this other woman, Sango had thought of a poor fool who had overestimated her powers and ended up a captive. But the Wolf spoke of her like a treasure, and didn't seem to realize that he was doing it. Didn't seem to realize that he was giving away so much just by the way his face changed when he spoke of her, thought of her. Could it be that the most unlikely, the most impossible of the rumors were true?

"There is a miko who lives with the wolves in the Ou Mountains. She is the Wolf's woman, beloved of the Alpha of Echigo. Together they cleansed the harpies from the eastern peaks. Do you think she loves him in return? Maybe she uses softness as a leash to tame him!"

Sango had scoffed when she first heard that, and rolled her eyes every time after. Women could be captives of yōkai, raped by yōkai, maybe even seduced by yōkai. But loved? A demon can't love. It's not in their nature.

Having seen him, she still doesn't think that she's wrong, but there is definitely something possessive, something more than just lust or a lust for power, in the way Kouga speaks of his woman. What kind of emotion could drive such a beast? Perhaps it is merely the pleasure of having something dangerous become an asset instead of a threat. But then, what does that say about the miko? Why would she do… any of this?

Sango keeps her suspicions to herself. She will see if they are worth anything later. At least the miko is likely to be on my side.

It's only been half an hour since Kouga left when he returns, but Kagome is already awake and frowning drowsily at the light as it slowly brightens the walls. He crosses the room to her side, and reaches down to brush her always-disobedient bangs away from her eyes. "Awake so early? But we were up so late, Kagome. Looks like I'll have to try harder to tire you out."

"Kouga. Really? Don't go all… Miroku on me." He gapes at her, almost insulted, but she continues before it can really sting. "It's too early for you to be running off without me, where did you go? I hate waking up alone, it's cold." She pushes herself up on one arm, and pulls Sho close to her body with the other, as if he's just a squishy pillow.

The pup doesn't seem to mind; in fact, the glare from his half-closed eyes is directed at Kouga, as if to agree with her question and its tone. From Kagome, it's one thing, but he won't take defiance like that from a pup, and plucks Sho unceremoniously out of her grasp.

Sho grumbles; Kagome grumbles. Kouga drops the pup onto the furs piled on the floor, and crawls in where Sho had been laying himself. Kagome's arms come around him easily, and he gives himself a long moment to breathe her sleepy scent. "I was called by one of the patrol groups. I meant to be back before you noticed I was gone."

The words come out muffled against her skin, and she tugs at his hair until Kouga lifts his face from her chest so she can hear him better. "They found a woman trespassing, and wanted me to see if she was a danger."

He's pleased with himself for presenting the information in a neutral way, but Kagome tenses against him immediately. "A woman ? Not that wind witch again, the one who was attacking when Shippou…"

"No, not her. Just a woman, a normal human." He pauses, then shrugs and tells her the rest of it as carelessly as he can. Part of him is curious to see what her reaction will be. Part of him is afraid. "She says her name is Sango, of the Taijiya clan."

"Taijiya?"

"Yokai exterminators." He says it dryly, devoid of emphasis, and then sucks in a pained breath when Kagome's fingers, instead of continuing to card smoothly through his hair, grab double fistfuls of it and yank.

"Ow – Kagome – hair."

"Oh, sorry! Sorry!" She stops pulling and pets the hair down tenderly, but her frown grows fiercer, as if to make up for not having something to pull. "But seriously, what? What does that mean! Yokai exterminators?" She takes a deep breath, and with a cold, precise little voice that has nothing of blame in it, she breaks him completely. "Then did you kill her?"

"What? No! Of course not!" He speaks placatingly, a little hurt she thinks he would after so many months with him, and more than a little confused at her lack of anger. Kagome's then did you kill her is in the same tone with which she told Shippou that Hiten was being very bad.

"Kouga! She kills yokai as her job, and you left her there because of me? How do you think I'd feel if she hurts you, or the pack? And the Wolves on patrol, are they-"

"Fine. Kagome. We are all fine." He stares at her wide-eyed, utterly surprised. This is… almost the opposite of what he expected. He's almost too confused to breathe. Kagome is unique in many ways, but she's still human. Sango is also human. Shouldn't she be on Sango's side? But Kagome only cares that she's Taijiya. What does that mean?

Kagome is still looking at him expectantly, and Kouga realizes that he stopped talking too abruptly, and he's been silent too long. "She's no threat, Kagome, I promise you. If I need to, I can kill her easily. But there's something strange about her, and about where she claims to bring her message from… And she smells like death, though I'm sure she's still alive."

"Like death?" Her eyebrows draw together. "Is that supposed to reassure me?"

He nods, wrinkling his nose at just the memory, then stops. "Ah… well, maybe not. But from her smell, I'm guessing a shard of the shikon no tama is the only thing keeping her alive. I don't have your sight, so I can't say for sure. She reeks of it, though. Where she got it from and where she keeps it, I don't know, but I have my suspicions." Kagome's raised eyebrow encourages him to share. "Her message? It's from the daimyo to the north."

"But isn't the north where you said everything was…" She stops as he nods again. "Oh. Well, that's… interesting."

He presses his face against her chest again. "It is."

"And the message?"

He sighs, and she pulls at his arm until he rolls over enough to look up at her from one eye. "I don't know, I haven't read it. It was sent to both of us, so I brought it back here to read it with you." With one hand, he gropes down by his knees where the paper rolled away when he grabbed hold of Kagome. "This. Here."

She takes it from him with both hands, and the wax crackles as the seal is broken, then again as she unrolls the page. "Since you didn't kill her, where is the exterminator staying? She can't come anywhere near here, it wouldn't be safe."

"No, it wouldn't." Her concern warms him, even if he hadn't expected it. "I left her where she was, a cave at the edge of our territory. The patrol is still watching her, she won't get away. There were no hints of anyone else near her, and she didn't show any sign of keeping an eye out for companions, so she must have come alone. She's brave, I'll give her that."

Kagome scowls, then shakes her head. "I won't. And I can't read this, this looks like something in my history textbook." She lets go of the bottom of the paper, and it rolls itself back up before she hands it back to him, but he puts it aside on the furs again.

"I'll read it to you, when you want me to."

"Is there a reason to wait? And –" She prods his shoulder with a finger, and this time he looks up and meets her eyes. "Why didn't you tell me there were other humans you have to worry about besides the occasional priest or miko?"

He shrugs, stretches out to lay more comfortably beside her, and tucks an arm around her back. "Because they're dead, now. Or mostly dead. If she's not the last, she's one of the last. The Taijiya clan made their living hunting yōkai for other humans with less strength and skill. But they went too far, targeted someone too powerful, and something they weren't prepared for wiped them out. Word came… I don't remember exactly when, a few weeks after you did. All the lower yōkai were rejoicing that they didn't have to worry about being hunted, but I had more important things on my mind."

Her flush is pleasant, and he allows himself to enjoy the way she doesn't meet his eyes before he continues. "How it happened, I don't know, and since it wasn't my business, I wasn't curious. But however they were slaughtered, the whole clan is gone now. No matter how much money they have, the daimyo won't be able to kill us off by throwing it around anymore."

"So… so she's a mercenary? Or she was." Her eyes go cold, just like her voice had before. Again, he is reminded of the look on her face when she shot Hiten, the sudden and perfect awareness of life and its price. "A murderer."

"Kagome? That's not really-"

"She kills yōkai for money! What else should I call her? And it's not just her, is it? I saw what people were like in Edo. I know who it is that's likely to hire her. Did you think I was too out of it, too badly wounded? That I didn't notice how afraid of you they were, how disgusted when I let you carry me? For no reason!"

His heart stops beating, then starts again. He can feel something burning in him, from his fingertips to the points of his ears. "Kagome –"

"I'm not done! If you hadn't found me and cared enough to bring me to them, I would have died. If you hadn't taken me away I don't know how long they would have been willing to care for me, or what they would have asked in return when I was better. Knowing that was bad enough, but exterminators?"

Kouga is listening, but not sure he understands. He hears every word she says, but it's like she's speaking a foreign language he's only begun to learn. He knows the meanings of the words, but the way she puts them together is the last way he expects. He has to replay what she's said three times in his mind before he can accept what it really means. She's angry at these humans. She hates the threat this woman poses, the way she does her job. She knows without asking what it really means that they call themselves exterminators.

He had thought there would be explanations necessary, that he would have to describe the horror of finding a den full of slaughtered pups and females, all but defenseless with their males gone hunting, later to be killed off one by one. That he would have to tell her about the methods of these Taijiya, the potions and poisons, sleeping draughts and smoking herbs they used. About their weapons, harvested without care from the bodies of the yōkai they'd slain.

Instead, she surprised him again. He should be over this by now, he thinks, but it hits him fresh every time. How does she always understand?

"Kouga, I don't think I care what her message is. This Taijiya."

Much as he wants to agree with her, the specter of problems that had occurred to him the moment he saw the roll of paper is too large to ignore. "It's not her message, though." He points it out gently, but she looks away from him all the same.

"Well, I don't care about a daimyo's message, then. Aristocracies are stupid anyway." The words sound almost petulant, but he knows she doesn't mean it. Her face is dark with too much understanding.

A/N: The doom... continues! Next up: the message, and what it really means. This chapter's title means... be surprised at nothing!

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