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“Ugh, it would be my turn to help you the one time there’s an actual spirit to exorcise!” Kagome twisted her hair into a tail to wring the fish oil out. Thick and smelly, it oozed into the puddle still growing at her feet. “Just my luck it’s the spirit of an old lech who liked that particular batch of sake a little too much. Oh eew, it’s in my shoes!”
Miroku, poised somewhere between contrition and flight, coughed sheepishly. “Ah hah-hah, my profoundest apologies, Lady Kagome. If I had been just a little quicker with that last ofuda…”
“No, I think that contrary old jerk would’ve hit someone with an entire barrel of fish oil even if you’d been quicker.” She tried to scrape the oil off the skin of one arm with the other, also oil-covered, hand. It did not work particularly well. “You can make it up to me by asking our hosts to set me up with a bath. A really hot one. This is going to take forever to get clean. And how am I supposed to explain fish oil stains to Mama? Ugh!”
Sango, with Kirara on her shoulder, had gotten stuck with dealing with their embarrassed host. The poor man bowed over and over again, apologizing for his deceased grandfather’s behavior. Inuyasha and Shippō had retreated as far from Kagome as they could get, pinching their noses over the stench of the fish oil. Kagome couldn’t even muster any outrage over it, either. She sort of wished she could escape the smell, too.
It took a little while, but their host did manage to come up with a reasonably hot bath for her. It took four shampooings to strip the oil out of her hair and the smell still didn’t quite go away. She emerged from her scrubbing glowing pink and smelling of jasmine-scented fish. Even she knew it was not a pleasant combination.
Their host had set them up for the night in two rooms. She finished her bath just in time to join everyone for the evening meal, though Sango and Miroku looked a little pinched around the eyes as she sat down. Kirara, curled up in Sango’s lap, sneezed. Shippō bravely settled in right beside her, as close to cuddled up as he could get and still eat freely. Inuyasha scowled.
“Why don’t you go eat in the other room?” He jabbed at the open door with his chopsticks. “Let the rest of us eat without havin’ t’ smell your stink?”
“Inuyasha!” Sango looked outraged.
“Unwise, my friend.” Miroku winced.
“You’re a jerk!” Shippō jumped to his feet.
Kagome glared, glanced down at her plate, and snatched a grilled fish from one of the dishes. It made an oddly crunchy splat sound when it landed with force across Inuyasha’s nose. “Why don’t you go eat in the other room so the rest of us can eat without having to hear you!”
Everyone stared at her, shocked, while the fish slid down Inuyasha’s face to land unnoticed in the bowl of rice he still held in one hand. Muttering to herself, Kagome simply reached for her own chopsticks and rice bowl, then looked around as if missing something.
“They didn’t send us any sake?” she asked as Inuyasha came to himself with a start and scowled at the fish in his rice. He opened his mouth, probably to shout, but she kept talking. “After all the trouble we went to for them, and they didn’t even send it as an apology? Not very good hosts. I should talk to that boy about it. It’s almost rude!”
Miroku blinked a few times, then shot Inuyasha a warning look and shook his head. “Ah, no, Lady Kagome, they didn’t. I didn’t think you liked sake…”
“It’s just been a long day and I wanted a little sake, that’s all.” She sulked as she put a bit of pickled vegetable in her mouth. “Is that so much to ask?”
“Uh, are you sure you’re okay, Kagome?” Sango frowned with concern. “You’re…um. You didn’t hit your head, did you?”
Kagome looked up sharply as Inuyasha opened his mouth again. Hoping to head off a round of bickering, Miroku waved his bowl. “Now, now, we’re all out of sorts after what happened this afternoon. My profoundest apologies again for that, Lady Kagome. I think we should all eat and try to get some rest tonight so we can put it all behind us. Don’t you?”
Inuyasha scowled at him, but Kagome only frowned. After a miraculously silent moment, she nodded. “You’re right. We shouldn’t waste the food they did send us. Maybe things’ll look better in the morning.”
The next morning, Kagome still smelled faintly of the fish oil. Inuyasha spent the day grumbling about moving too slow, but everyone noticed he never suggested she ride on his back so the others could ride Kirara and they could cover more ground. In point of fact, he kept a conspicuous distance from her for most of the day.
Kagome, on the other hand, seemed not to notice or care. She seemed a bit vague and confused. At least for the morning, everyone put her behavior down to the strangeness of the day before.
Until midday.
“There’s a stream ahead of us,” Inuyasha called back from his position ahead of their column. “We can stop there. Refill bottles an’ make some ramen for lunch. Ya still got ramen in yer bag, right, ‘Gome?”
For a long moment, she didn’t react, didn’t even seem to have heard him. She just kept walking lightly forward the way she had all morning, as if she hadn’t a care in the world. Then she noticed the hanyō staring at her impatiently and stopped abruptly to look around in confusion.
“What? Why is everyone looking at me?”
Sango and Miroku exchanged a concerned look. “Inuyasha asked if you still have ramen in your bag,” Sango answered dubiously. “Are you sure you’re all right? You’ve been a little odd all day.”
“Oh. Um.” Kagome looked around again, one hand closing on the strap of the bag on her back. “I…think so? Sorry, I…just woolgathering, I suppose. Wait, we’re not going back to the village? We’re going to eat out here?”
“What the hell do you mean, we’re not going back?!” Inuyasha yelled, maintaining his distance. “Why the hell would we go back? We got shards t’ find and a spider t’ squash! The hell’s wrong with you?”
Miroku held out placating hands, but it was too late. Kagome went red in the face. “There’s nothing wrong with me! What’s wrong with you, talking to me like that! And you want me to give you food after that? Maybe I’ll just keep it all to myself!”
“Now, now…” Miroku tried again. “It’s been a difficult couple of days. I’m sure we could all use a rest. Why don’t we get to this stream and sit down for a bit?”
Kagome turned her nose up with a huff. “Fine, then. Let’s go. I’m fine.”
Except she didn’t seem fine. While she did have ramen in her pack, she marveled over it as though she’d never seen it before and certainly didn’t know how to prepare it. Sango ended up doing most of the cooking, and Kagome still ended up burning the little she took charge of. She even startled so badly when Shippō jumped onto her shoulder, she nearly fell. Worried, Sango and Miroku kept a close eye on her through the afternoon.
Sango took over the preparation for the evening meal. Miraculously, Inuyasha waited until everyone had finished eating before he turned an irritated amber gaze on the miko.
“So what the hell’s your problem, ‘Gome?” he demanded. “You ain’t talkin’ like yourself, you’re actin’ like you don’t know anythin’ anymore, and you ain’t said anythin’ more ‘bout the shard we been followin’ for days. So what gives?”
“What gi—” Kagome glared at him, going pink again. “Nothing! Leave me alone!”
“I ain’t gonna—”
“Okay,” Sango broke in. “That’s enough! I think it’s time for some girl time! Get your stuff, Kagome-chan. Let’s go soak.”
Kagome blinked at her. “Soak?”
Sango grinned. “I’m surprised you didn’t notice. There’s a hot spring back there against that hill. We can have a good, long soak and the guys can stay here to guard us.” She delivered that last with a fiery glare at Inuyasha and Miroku and a suggestive hefting of Hiraikotsu.
Miroku chuckled nervously and held both empty hands up in a gesture of surrender. Inuyasha huffed and jumped up into a tree at the edge of the campsite. “Whatever.”
Kagome took an oddly long time collecting her bathing supplies, considering how often she did so, but she wore a beaming grin as she and Sango set off for the spring. They headed off just at the start of twilight, before the sun had fully set but well after it had descended below the forest canopy. They would have just enough light to bathe by if they didn’t dawdle too much.
Sango disrobed and washed without delay, eager to get to soaking and girl talk. Kagome, on the other hand, paused at some point. When Sango noticed, she found Kagome staring, sort of blank-faced.
“Kagome?” she asked, suddenly self-conscious. “Are you all right?”
After a moment, the miko blinked several times and shook her head. “I, uh, yes. I’m fine. Sorry, I… I’ll hurry up!”
Her smile then seemed just a touch lascivious, but Sango put it down to her imagination. It really had been a long couple of days, and as the water worked its magic on her muscles she realized how much she’d really needed the relaxation. Idly, she wondered if she could talk the monk out of exorcism as a money-making scheme and into just selling protective charms and the like. Maybe she could step up her efforts at nuisance-yōkai hunting to try to make up the difference in their income.
Then Kagome stepped awkwardly into the water and immediately moved surprisingly close. It caught Sango’s attention, and she realized abruptly that Kagome hadn’t taken nearly enough time to go through her usual bathing routine before getting into the water even if she was trying to hurry. Kagome loved her baths, enjoyed going through a meticulous routine, and usually hummed her way through the process even if they were pressed for time. She hadn’t done that, this time. Something seemed very wrong.
“Hey, Kagome,” Sango began, starting to feel genuinely alarmed for her friend. “What’s going on? You’ve really been—wait, what are you doing? Kagome? Why are you—Kagome?!”
Not very long after the ladies departed for their bath, Miroku sat meditating beside the fire, eyes fixed on the flames. He wanted badly to follow them, though not for his usual, less than savory reasons. Something seemed very wrong with Lady Kagome, and he wanted to listen in on their conversation, to know what had gone wrong. He still felt responsible for the debacle of an exorcism the previous day, and he feared she remained angry with him for what had happened.
Inuyasha thumped to the ground not far to his side. Surprising, since he’d looked to have settled in for a good, long sulk. Miroku didn’t move or change his focus, but he pulled his awareness a bit further back to himself and his surroundings. The hanyō folded himself into a sitting position close by. He faced the flames, hands hidden inside his sleeves, and stared silently for a very long moment.
Miroku merely waited.
“Yo, Miroku.” Inuyasha finally broke the silence. “I wasn’t watchin’ close enough. What really happened, yesterday?”
“Do you wish me to go through the entire day, my friend?” He couldn’t resist goading him just a little.
“I’m talkin’ about that mess at the end.” It came in a near-growl. “That bit where you were supposed to just get rid of the damn ghost, but Kagome ended up stinkin’ like fish first. Did she screw somethin’ up, or was that all you?”
Miroku suppressed a guilty wince. “Ah. No, Lady Kagome did an excellent job of holding the barrier in place for me. I’m afraid the error was entirely mine. We did have the spirit cornered, down to the last ofuda, but it…was a stubborn one. I should have expected it would not go quietly after all the trouble it caused the family in their storehouse. I simply didn’t anticipate it would use a distraction like that to try to escape through one of us.”
“It didn’t hurt her or anythin’, right?” Inuyasha’s tone turned dark. “She’s all right?”
Frowning, Miroku mentally reviewed the chaotic scene. The lid of the cask had bounced off her shoulder, but it was small and relatively light. It might have bruised her, but she hadn’t really seemed to react, that he’d noticed. He felt fairly certain the barrel itself had sailed, upside-down and spewing oil, directly over her head without actually touching her. His focus had been more on the spirit they were trying to send on. It had virtually exploded out of the sake barrel it had taken over and charged at Kagome, who was distracted by the oil pouring over her. He’d managed to get the final ofuda in place, but it had been a near thing.
Hadn’t he?
“So far as I know, my friend.” He could only shake his head. “But I do agree, she has seemed…very odd, since then. I’m afraid I have no explanation.”
“She stinks, too.” Inuyasha wrinkled his nose. “All the bathing she does, and she still stinks like that damn fish oil.”
“I…had noticed that…” Miroku’s frown deepened as he considered it. “Surely that should fade in another day or so?”
“It—” Inuyasha tried to respond but was interrupted by a scream from the direction of the hotspring.
“Stop right there, Kagome!” Sango sounded shrill, shocked. “I never thought— You! What’s gotten into you?!”
Both males rose from their seats, exchanging a confused look. This had never happened before. Screams from bathing women usually meant they needed to charge in with weapons drawn, but this time the scream seemed directed at one of those same women. Should they run to the rescue? For who?
Their conundrum solved itself a moment later when Sango stalked out of the trees with dripping hair and her clothes, rucked around awkwardly as if she’d pulled them on too quickly, sticking to her still-wet skin. She appeared pale, as shocked as she’d sounded, with spots of color high on each cheek and across her forehead. Her bathing things had clearly been collected hastily, her still-dry towel hanging over the edge of her bucket.
“Lady Sango, what—” Miroku began, cutting himself off as the slayer stalked past him to her belongings and took an ungraceful seat on her blankets. She jammed her bathing things into her furoshiki and immediately folded her arms tightly across her breasts.
“Don’t. Ask.” She snarled the words, sparing him not so much as a glance. Instead, she sent a glare back the way she’d come.
“Hey, where’s Kagome?” Inuyasha demanded.
Sango turned her glare on him. “Coming.”
He shrank back slightly. “What the hell’s your problem?”
She gritted her teeth and looked deliberately away, arms still folded tightly across her front. Inuyasha may not have figured it out, but Miroku had. He turned wide, startled eyes on their clumsy miko as she stepped, humming, out of the shadows under the trees. Because he faced him, Miroku saw Inuyasha wrinkle and cover his nose indelicately. Kagome didn’t seem to notice. She wore a small, mischievous grin and had clearly taken the time to dry and dress properly. The moment she caught sight of Sango, though, her smile turned into a pout.
“Aw, come on, Sango, what’s wrong?” She went to her own things to put her bathing supplies away, but kept Sango in view. “We’re both girls! And we’re friends, right? What’s the harm? It was just a little fun!”
“It was too weird! Never do that again!”
Shippō, until now mostly asleep on Kagome’s blankets, stirred. Sleepily, he pushed himself up on one arm, rubbing his eyes with the other. “What’s all the noise?”
Kagome chuckled and patted his head. “Sango didn’t like a little prank I pulled in the hot spring, that’s all. Don’t worry about it, sonny. Go back to sleep.”
Inuyasha caught Miroku’s gaze and mouthed, “Sonny?”
Sesshōmaru tilted his face upward slightly, catching a breeze as it wafted lazily by. It carried the scents of his quarry. He had brought his little group close, now, but for the last two days he had noted something very wrong with one of the scents among the group he sought. With the scent he sought. Something had badly fouled the brazen miko’s scent, and he wondered idly what his idiot half-brother could have dragged her into this time.
He would find out soon enough.
Still, having brought his group in striking distance, he waited patiently for an event he knew would occur eventually. Long observation dictated he would not have to wait long, either. His quarry abruptly changed direction first, turning somewhat to his surprise to angle back toward the village he thought of as their base of operations. They should have traveled several more days before making that turn back. Something had certainly gone wrong.
When he detected the hanyō’s departure from their camp while all the rest of the group’s auras remained stationary, Sesshōmaru seized the opportunity to bring his own group in contact just two days after he’d found them. They had camped against a cliff in a semicircular niche protected at the back by the cliff and on two sides by large boulders. It made for an acceptably defensible camp. He simply swept through the open side, Jaken leading Ah-Un with Rin drowsing in their saddle directly behind him.
Peculiarly, the monk noticed him first, long after any of them could have risen to take any kind of meaningful defensive action.
“A-Ah, good evening, Lord Sesshōmaru,” the human male greeted him nervously as he used his staff to get to his feet. “To what do we owe the honor of your visit, today?”
But Sesshōmaru’s attention had focused entirely on the two females in the camp, sitting uncharacteristically far apart from each other on opposite sides of the fire. The slayer, nekomata on her shoulder, had risen to stand beside her oversized weapon though she had wisely not yet laid hand to it. The little miko - Kagome - remained seated on her blankets with the kitsune cowering behind her. She regarded him with confusion, perhaps a touch of wariness, and no recognition whatsoever.
He suppressed a frown, kept his rising irritation out of his voice. “What has happened to your miko?”
The monk blinked, gaze reflexively flicking to the miko in question. Worry washed through his scent and showed briefly in his expression before he returned his attention to the daiyōkai. “There…was a small mishap a few days ago, but no one was injured. Why do you ask, my Lord?”
“Her scent has changed.” He kept his eyes on the miko, who only frowned and folded her arms across her abdomen defensively.
“Oh, ah, well…” The monk rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “The incident I mentioned did involve a cask of fish oil. I’m afraid Lady Kagome quite literally caught most of its contents.”
The subject of their discussion gave a small, irritated huff and turned her face away, nose in the air. “You all keep saying I stink, but I bathe all the time. There’s nothing wrong with me!”
“No one said there’s anything wrong with you, Kagome.” The slayer frowned. Her tone held a faint doubt as she spoke, as though uncertain of what she’d said. “I’m sure the smell will fade over time. It’s just…a little odd, that’s all.”
“It’s not like I can do anything about it.” The miko actually pouted. “I think maybe you’re all crazy. I don’t smell whatever it is!”
Sesshōmaru regarded her while the two humans attempted to soothe her. Something about her demeanor, about the way she spoke, seemed…off. Her mannerisms, as well. He remembered her, knew her, to be a dynamic, passionate human who threw the whole of herself into whatever held her attention. Seated passively on her blankets now, however, she simply held her arms close across her midsection and pouted like a spoiled child.
Clearly, his objective would have to wait until he had solved this puzzle. The two humans appeared entirely useless, as they had already spent at least four days in her altered presence and still seemed clueless. Obviously, the idiot hanyō would be worse than that. He’d actually left his pack unguarded with the miko like this. The boy did not even bear consideration.
“Where is the hanyō?” he asked, interrupting the almost-argument. He returned his gaze to the monk, but his attention remained entirely on Kagome.
“Oh! Ah, he’s…gone to attend to some personal…business…” The monk faltered toward the end of the sentence, gaze flicking guiltily toward the miko again.
Kagome showed no reaction to that exchange at all, instead holding to her pouty sulk. Her expression did not so much as twitch at mention of his absent half-brother. Even the kitsune winced and eyed her with concern, but she did not seem to notice. Very strange.
Sesshōmaru glided to one side and folded himself gracefully into a sitting position against one of the largest rocks near the open side of the little camp. “Jaken.”
“Yes, Lord Sesshōmaru?” The imp answered tentatively, glancing dubiously around the small area.
“Settle Rin and Ah-Un.”
“My Lord?”
A glare silenced any further argument.
“Ah… Lord Sesshōmaru?” The monk ventured after a long, stunned moment during which Jaken hustled to lay out blankets for Rin. “Do you intend to stay the night?”
Sesshōmaru merely quirked an eyebrow at him. His intent should have been obvious.
To his credit, the human didn’t falter for long. “Is there something we can help you with, then?”
The question of why hovered, unspoken, behind his words. Disinclined to answer outright, since he still hadn’t really answered that question to his own satisfaction, the daiyōkai merely leaned back and closed his eyes. “Hn.”
Inuyasha returned before sunrise. His enraged shout at finding Sesshōmaru in the camp wakened everyone. Monk and slayer lunged for their weapons, still half-slumbering. Kagome sat up, wide-eyed and startled. The kitsune beside her opened his eyes wide. Rin jerked awake with an abortive shriek. Ah and Un curled around her protectively, dislodging Jaken from his position on their flank. Sesshōmaru snapped Inuyasha across the mouth with his yōki whip without so much as rising from his seat.
“Be silent, fool,” he growled.
“What the fuck are you doing here, asshole?!”
The daiyōkai quirked an eyebrow. “Guarding your pack, hanyō. Since you clearly cannot be trusted to do so.”
“Hey—”
“Now, now…”
“You know…”
Inuyasha, Miroku, and Sango spoke over each other, the hanyō still at the top of his lungs. Kagome’s voice rose over them all.
“Oh, shut up, Inuyasha!” she snapped. His ears laid flat to his skull. “They’ve been here all night! If you want to argue about it, wait for a decent hour when nobody’s trying to sleep! Nobody’s interested at this time of night! I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m going back to sleep. Everybody just shut up!”
She turned her back on the little camp and pulled her blankets up over her head, leaving her friends blinking at each other in suprise. Sesshōmaru watched her speculatively. She had voiced no recriminations, shed no tears, hadn’t even disciplined Inuyasha by activating the kotodama. For a long moment, everyone remained silent, motionless. Then the kitsune turned to burrow back under the blankets at her back and Sango shook herself out of her stupor.
“She’s got the right idea. I’m going back to bed. Save it for later, Inuyasha, or go find a tree somewhere else. I really don’t want to hear it.”
Inuyasha turned his shocked, angry glare on Miroku then. The monk simply shrugged and moved for his own blankets. Rin snuggled down against Ah-Un’s side, and Jaken flopped over onto their tail. Within a few moments, the camp had settled again. Inuyasha stood at the open side of the circle, fuming as he glared at Sesshōmaru. The daiyōkai held his gaze for a time, then simply closed his eyes again.
Several more minutes passed before Inuyasha stomped off toward the nearest trees, growling to himself.
After the sun had risen and the camp had mostly roused of its own volition, everyone seemed unusually subdued and out of sorts. Kagome drifted somewhat aimlessly, offering assistance here and there but largely staying out of the way as Sango prepared breakfast. Sesshōmaru watched, bemused, fully aware that this was not the usual state of things. Miroku returned from his morning ablutions with an armful of dead wood to add to the fire. It was as he broke a branch into pieces small enough to fit that the most glaring change in Kagome’s behavior manifested yet again.
She’d drifted idly behind him, unnoticed, when suddenly he straightened dramatically and gave a strangled half-shriek. Eyes wide, he froze for a second with the broken halves of the branch in either hand. In the next moment, the bits of branch went flying as he whirled around to face Kagome and slapped both his hands over his own backside.
“Lady Kagome!” he choked out. “What—”
Words apparently failed him as she grinned. “What’s the matter, Miroku? Everyone’s so sour. I just thought I’d see if I could lighten the mood some!” She stepped toward him as she spoke. He backpedaled without moving his hands.
Sango stared from one to the other of them while Inuyasha stomped into the camp from wherever he’d slept. “Oi, what the hell, ‘Gome?!” he demanded. “Did you just—”
“Do you see what it’s like, Monk?!” Sango yelled right over him, brandishing the spoon she’d used to stir breakfast. “What it’s like to have someone just randomly grab you?”
Miroku paled, then his feet tangled in a pile of blankets and he went over backward. Hard, since his hands remained firmly planted on his own rear end. His head bounced off the rocky ground. Sango hustled over the check he hadn’t cracked his skull while Inuyasha glowered at them both. Shippō and Rin, laughing uproariously, added to the chaos by skipping around the area just outside the camp with their hands on their own backsides.
Sesshōmaru kept his gaze on the ridiculous comedy unfolding at the center of the campsite while his true attention remained on Kagome. He saw her grin broaden when Sango began to yell, saw her snicker when the monk fell, and saw when her azure gaze flicked to him and the grin became a calculating, ‘innocent’ smile. He noted every step as she sidled around the rock circle toward where he stood near the mouth of the encampment. While Sango roughly pulled the monk into a more comfortable position atop the blankets and argued with Inuyasha about retrieving medical supplies, he also noted the moment the miko chose to strike.
He permitted the attempt, amused.
Her fingers impacted one of the plates of his kusazuri just as mokomoko wrapped around her wrist and lifted her off her feet. She squeaked, startled, as the bit of fluff brought her around front to face him. The camp went suddenly dead silent as every eye turned to watch.
“Enough.” He put enough of a growl into his voice to hold their attention. “The problem with the miko is clear enough.”
Blue eyes widened, and she reached up with her free hand to pull at the fluff holding her wrist firmly captive. She even tried kicking - futilely. “There’s nothing wrong with me! I’m fine! Ow, let go! It was just a little fun!”
“Oi! Let ‘er go, asshole!” Inuyasha snarled, already reaching for his sword. He didn’t draw, though. Doing so would have been both pointless and foolish, since the daiyōkai held the miko firmly captive.
Ignoring both the demand and the fishy odor coming from his captive, Sesshōmaru turned an icy glare on his idiot half-sibling. “The ‘small mishap’ the monk spoke of. What happened?”
“It’s none o’ yer damn business! Let ‘er down now!”
“An exorcism.” Sango ignored Inuyasha’s tirade to answer, frowning in concern. “It was… There was actually a ghost, this time. Or a spirit. Something. It tried to escape by throwing things and doused Kagome in fish oil. Could you let her down, please, Lord Sesshōmaru?”
“Let go of me!” The miko continued pulling at the fur wrapped around her wrist. “Have you no sense of humor?”
“Hn.” As the monk began to rouse, Sesshōmaru considered what he had gathered about the miko’s changed condition and when it had begun. It all coalesced into a new, displeasing whole. He leveled a glare on the woman still dangling from his fur. She froze, eyes wide.
His hand closed on a sword hilt. “Yes. The problem is clear enough.”
“Wait. Wait, what are you—” She renewed her struggling. “Don’t! Wait! There’s no problem! What are you doing?”
With no other warning, he whipped his sword from its sheath and swung the blade at her side. Inuyasha lunged in the same instant, but far too late to make any difference. Sango scrambled after him, face white. Shippō screamed. Miroku gasped and held a hand out in a completely futile gesture.
Tenseiga’s blade passed through Kagome’s torso as easily as if she weren’t there. The shadow of the old human man he’d seen overlying her body as soon as he’d touched the sword’s hilt, however, contorted and shredded as if he’d sliced through a silken curtain. It faded away with a final, anguished cry of, “I was just having a bit of fun!” The stench of fish oil faded along with it.
The miko went limp, head sagging in unconsciousness.
Once more, the camp descended into shocked silence as Inuyasha froze and Sango ran directly into his back. Sparing them no thought, Sesshōmaru took two long strides and gently lowered Kagome atop her blankets. He made certain her head was pillowed comfortably before turning, deliberately standing between her and the rest of the camp as he slid Tenseiga back into its sheath.
“She is unharmed. Now.” He raised an eyebrow. “The spirit your monk failed to exorcise has been evicted.”
Inuyasha whirled to glare at Miroku. Sango followed suit. The monk blinked owlishly, and then seemed to finally catch up to what had happened. “What?”
“Yet over a period of several days, you all failed to recognize what occurred during that exorcism.”
The glares faltered.
“And you, Inuyasha, left your pack vulnerable to chase after a woman five decades dead.”
“None ‘o yer business," the hanyō growled.
He raised the other eyebrow. “If I were an enemy, I could have slaughtered your pack and disappeared long before you returned.”
“Mmn…” Behind him, Kagome stirred and groaned softly. He turned in time to watch her eyes flutter open. “Wha’s all the noise? Inu—ah, Lord Sesshōmaru?”
“Miko.”
She blinked, confusion in her gaze as she looked around the campsite, then returned her attention to him. “Um. Where are we? Did something happen? What happened in the brewer’s storehouse? And, um, when did you join us?”
“What is the last thing you recall?”
Frowning, her eyes unfocused as she thought about it. “I…remember…fish? Or, no, fish oil! A barrel of the stuff, I think?”
“Your friends will explain, then.” He turned and moved back to the seat he’d occupied all night, well pleased with the way events had fallen out. Ignoring Inuyasha’s quiet growl on his way past merely made it better.
Kagome stared after him for a moment, then turned her attention to the others present. “Uh, guys? What happened?”
It got garbled and took far longer than it probably should have, but in the end everyone had the tale in full. Kagome spent half an hour hiding her very red face in her hands while Sango and Miroku related a few details. At the end, she turned a wide-eyed, surprised look on Sesshōmaru. “You…cut me in half?”
“Tenseiga is a sword which cannot cut physical objects, miko.”
She blinked. “Oh, that’s right. You cut the spirit in half, then?”
“Removed him, yes.”
She threw a sidelong glance at Inuyasha, perched atop one of the boulders across the campsite, then grinned impishly. “You could’ve explained it to them before you swung a sword at me, you know. I think you gave Inuyasha a heart attack.”
“I wear both swords openly. Had he used his senses, he would have known.”
“Yeah, well, everyone needs a little help now and then. Sometimes, an explanation can go a long way.”
“Hn.”
“Speaking of which, you really helped me a lot without anyone even asking. I’d like to thank you for that. Is there anything I can do for you?”
He eyed her speculatively for a long moment, then nodded. “Rin.”
“Yes, Lord Sesshōmaru!” The little girl broke off playing practically mid-stride, reversing course to come to her guardian’s side. She beamed at Kagome, then turned her attention to the daiyōkai and clasped her hands together. Suddenly, she seemed near vibrating with excitement.
Kagome smiled at the little girl, glancing between them in confusion. “Lord Sesshōmaru?”
“You may grant Rin’s request. She has spoken of little else in weeks.”
At his nod, the little girl stepped to Kagome’s side and took hold of her sleeve, tugging lightly with one hand while crooking a finger on the other. Kagome had to suppress a giggle at the cute gesture as she bent down to put her ear beside the little girl’s face. With an exaggeratedly suspicious look around the camp, she cupped her hands around her mouth and leaned in to whisper for a few seconds.
Kagome’s eyes widened with surprise. Across the campsite, triangular dog ears twitched and Inuyasha gave a disgusted snort. In the other direction, Shippō plastered both hands across his mouth to keep from laughing aloud.
When Rin finished, Kagome beamed at her. “Of course! Tonight, and any time you come to visit us from now on!”
The little girl squealed and ran off to rejoin Shippō, beaming ear-to-ear. Kagome giggled fondly, then transferred her attention back to Sesshōmaru. “That’s really it? Because I’d’ve done that just for the asking. I was possessed, though, and you saved me when no one else had even realized it yet. Isn’t there something I can do for you as thanks?”
He hadn’t intended to ask for anything else, didn’t realize he had an answer for her until it came out in response to her pressing. “I wish to know how it is you are so very different to other human females. You speak strangely, carry strange items, behave differently than even the slayer with her warrior’s upbringing. You are more educated than any human I have ever encountered, male or female. If you are willing, I would like to hear about you.”
Her mouth dropped open into a startled ‘O’ for a few seconds, and then curved into a wide, genuine smile. “You want to know about me? Isn’t that a little strange for you? Curiosity about a human?”
“I wish to know about Kagome.” Something about her smile arrested his attention. He couldn’t remember having seen her smile like that at any time, not even when he happened across their group and held back to avoid having to listen to his idiot half-brother.
“Then I will be happy to tell you about Kagome. Higurashi, by the way.”
He blinked.
She giggled. “Higurashi Kagome. That’s my name. And you’ll have your story time tonight after Rin gets hers, okay?”
That evening, he watched the miko cuddle a pup under each arm with a picture book open in her lap, reading a tale to them just as Rin had begged for since the last time the two groups had met and the young ones had taken the chance to play together. The kitsune had spoken of Kagome’s Storytime, and the idea had lodged in Rin’s mind. At the time, he thought it peculiar he had no particular aversion to seeking the group out to sate his ward’s curiosity, considering most of their meetings had carried some level of antagonism. Now, as the small ones drifted into dreams…
…he found himself looking forward to his own “Storytime.”