InuYasha Fan Fiction / Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ In Pursuit of the Green Dragon ❯ The Priestess and the Alchemist ( Chapter 33 )

Kasama Castle, 16th-century Japan

Uncle Souta was...gone.

Kagome stared numbly at the place where he'd vanished. She didn't even know if he was dead, but he had certainly been very badly injured. Those burns...her stomach gave a lurch at the memory.

Something gleamed in the patch of dry, cracked earth, and Kagome felt the familiar presence of a Jewel shard.

Puzzled, she reached for the tiny fragment half-buried in the dirt. Uncle Souta must have been standing right on top of it when he produced the fire that had brought down Envy...but where had it come from?

"He left his jewel shard behind," Al said.

He stood close to her, his hand hovering uncertainly in the air, as if he wanted to touch her, but didn't quite dare.

Kagome blinked up at him. What?

Her bewilderment must have shown in her face, because he continued: "Kagome-chan, we found your vial, with the shards, after Envy kidnapped you. And we discovered that Professor Higurashi could use it to power a transmutation circle. Just like the two of us did, that day at the house..."

He paused, and she nodded, remembering how together, they had transformed the rice crackers into a perfect statuette of a horse. This was followed by immediate relief that her shards hadn't been lost, after all.

"So, that's how Uncle Souta managed to..." Make a spectacular fireball. Drive off the dragon. Kil-- "But, alchemy? How did he know--?"

"Brother and I taught him a little. He really wanted to learn." Al's normally cheerful freckled face was solemn. "He wanted to help rescue you. And he probably saved all of us—I'm not sure any of us could have fought against Envy without alchemy."

Inuyasha did. But she didn't speak her thought out loud.

"Look," Al continued. "I have your other shard. I hope it's okay if I keep it for a while longer—"

"Al! Need your help here!" Edward's distant voice called, urgently. He was standing near the castle's shattered main gate, using a long pole-axe to fend off what looked like a giant rat.

Nearby, Miroku and Sango were battling an insectoid youkai with far too many legs and large mandibles.

"Professor Higurashi was a real hero." With a gentle squeeze to her shoulder, Al ran to help his brother with the dispersal of the castle's remaining youkai, who were no doubt hoping to get their hands on the Jewel shards once again in Kagome's possession.

A real hero... Poor Uncle Souta! He had seemed so out of place here. It didn't seem fair that he was—he was—

Dead.

Kagome knelt there for a long time, her fingers curled tightly around the shard, feeling the sharp edges dig into her skin, feeling that she ought to at least cry a little over her great-uncle's disappearance (not dead not dead not dead), feeling she should be helping her friends cleanse the castle.

But she couldn't make herself move. She was tired...and cold...but mostly just tired. And the tears never came. She was as dry as the earth beneath her knees, drained of all life, all moisture.

Oh, Uncle Souta, I'm so sorry you were dragged into this. And what am I going to tell your brothers?

She sighed, feeling hollow and useless, and couldn't make herself move despite the distant sounds of fighting and the conflicting sparks of youki and Miroku's purifying energy.

After a while, she felt the tingle of a familiar youki against her senses.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha's rough voice was low with unaccustomed gentleness. "Are you all right?" He frowned down at her. "I can smell blood."

"I'm..." --all right, she started to say, but the words wouldn't come. "I..."

A shudder wracked her, then another, melting into continuous shivering. Her teeth began to chatter.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha's hands were very warm as they lifted her to her feet. "Are you hurt? What did that bastard Envy do to you?"

She stared at the front of his scarlet fire-rat jacket, trying to get control of herself. His grip tightened around her upper arms, holding her upright.

"N-nothing," she managed to stutter between her chattering teeth. At his disbelieving scowl, she added: "It's j-just a scratch. B-but I'm—I'm c-cold."

He released her abruptly, and she felt a stab of disappointment. I'm weak, she thought. He's probably--

A warm, slightly prickly soft weight settled over her, and before she had quite registered that Inuyasha had draped his jacket around her shoulders, his arms came around her, and drew her against him in a strong embrace.

She leaned into his chest with a grateful sigh, wrapping her arms around his torso. His skin was hot through the cream-colored silk of his juban...and he smelled like, well, himself. It was comfort and strength and rough kindness.

Her teeth stopped chattering after a while, and her shivering began to subside as his body heat seeped slowly into her own chilled flesh. She relaxed.

Mmmmm, she thought, drowsily. I've been cold for days. I'm so tired...

"Kagome?" His voice shivered up from the bones and muscles of his chest, vibrating against her cheek and ear. "Are you sure you're all right?"

"Fine," she murmured. Talking felt like a lot of work, but she had to reassure him. "This is the first time I've felt warm since Envy captured me."

His arms tightened around her shoulders, and she felt his breath puff against the top of her head.

"Me, too," he said, so softly that she might have missed it if she hadn't been pressed against him from cheek to hip. His arms tightened fractionally, and she felt his cheek press against her hair. She felt so safe. Cared-for. Loved.

Loved?

She remembered how it had been in Kaede's hut, after Edward had drained his youki. Sleeping at his side, waking with his arms around her—it had felt right. Comfortable and, just...right.

"Inuyasha?"

"Hm?"

I love you. She struggled to compose her thoughts. "Uh, thank you for saving me," she said, at last. It sounded lame, even to her.

"He didn't save you," said Kouga, from behind her. "I did!"

Kagome started in surprise, and Inuyasha instantly released her, almost pushing her away. She missed his touch immediately, and drew his jacket tightly around her.

"Of—of course, Kouga-kun," she heard herself say, polite even when on autopilot. "I'm sorry."

She heard Inuyasha growl, very softly, from his place at her shoulder, and saw Kouga grin maliciously.

"I, um," she continued, feeling the silent, jealous anger simmering from the hanyou standing at her side.

True, she did owe Kouga for helping her in the castle. On the other hand, Inuyasha had actually killed the dragon...

She felt Inuyasha's arm press gently against the small of her back, and his hand come to rest on her hip. "What I really meant to say was—"

Kouga rescued her from her floundering. "Eh, no problem, Kagome. Just wanted to make sure you remembered which one of us really was the hero here!" His grin faltered as he met Inuyasha's glare. "I gotta go—Naraku's still out there, somewhere. Take better care of my woman this time, dog-face."

"You bastard, she's not—" Inuyasha began, angrily and right on cue.

His point apparently made, the rather battered-looking wolf-prince waved cheerily at her. "Bye, Kagome! See you soon!"

And he turned to go, still limping a little.

"Thank you, Kouga-kun! For everything!" she called after him, and without breaking stride, Kouga gave her another wave.

"Good riddance," muttered Inuyasha, not quite under his breath, not releasing his hold on her hip.

* * *

It was nearly noon before the last of the youkai left Kasama Castle, and the group was able to cease their efforts.

By that time, Kagome had managed to recover somewhat from her state of shock and exhaustion. It took her some time to find her bow where it had fallen under the weird-looking automobile that Edward and Alphonse had built. Once she found it though, she joined in the efforts to drive away the lingering remnants of Envy's youkai retainers.

Envy's surviving human guardsmen, the one who had called themselves the Sons of the Dragon, limped away on the road leading south to Edo, swearing never to forget their master, and vowing to remain loyal to his memory forever.

This was the sort of stuff that historical movies in Kagome's time made a big deal about, but when confronted by the real thing, she found herself suppressing the urge to roll her eyes.

Edward didn't bother showing the same restraint as the last of the men shuffled off with defiant mutters.

"Damn it, why are people so stupid?" he demanded of Kagome, as she handed him a cup of cloudy green tea made from matcha powder. "I mean, they lived with Envy for months. Couldn't they see what he was?"

Miroku, standing nearby, shrugged. He looked as exhausted as Kagome felt. She supposed none of them had gotten much sleep the night before.

"I don't know, Edward-sama," Miroku answered for her. "But I think their reverence will probably flourish in the dragon's absence." He smiled cynically.

Kagome nodded. "They'll probably forget all about the fact that he used to go crazy and eat everything—and everyone—in sight," she added bitterly. "Chouko told me about it...before Envy ate her. And I saw it with my own eyes." A thought struck her. "It makes me wonder about the group that Ikeda-san belongs to, though."

"The Sons of the Dragon," Ed breathed, his expression wavering between triumphant and appalled.

"No wonder they wanted Envy so badly!" exclaimed Al, as he walked up to the tiny fire that Kagome was using to heat water.

He picked up a clean tin mug from the assortment that Kagome had found among the other supplies in the car. Kagome measured out a careful spoonful of tea powder, and filled the mug from the steaming kettle.

"What are we going to do?" Kagome blurted, giving voice to the anxiety that had been unsettling her stomach and sending her thoughts in dizzying circles all morning. "That horrible Ikeda-san...if we return without the dragon...what will happen to my other uncles?"

She saw Inuyasha hunch slightly at his words, and felt guilty. She hadn't meant to remind Inuyasha that he had been the one to utterly pulverize the dragon, but still, they had a problem.

"And what's gonna happen to us?" Ed muttered. "The way I see it, we're either going to have to stay here," he jerked his chin at their surroundings, "or go back to 1925. It's a choice between bad and worse," he finished glumly.

"Especially if we return to 1925 empty-handed," sighed Al. He took a sip of his tea, grimaced, and hastily put the mug aside.

There was a short silence as Ed stared thoughtfully off into the middle distance. Kagome could almost hear the gears turning in his brain. She found herself chewing her lip anxiously, and tugged at the neck of Inuyasha's jacket, which was threatening to slide off her shoulders.

It was too big on her, even wearing it with the long bell-like sleeves detached and tied around her waist in a makeshift sash. Inuyasha had insisted that she keep it for now, and given the torn and bloodied state of her blouse-like chihaya, she had made only the faintest of polite protests.

Alphonse was now giving this addition to her attire a frowning glance. Kagome saw him meet Inuyasha's level stare for a long moment before turning away. Inuyasha smirked, and Kagome felt her cheeks grow hot.

So maybe a concern for her health and modesty hadn't been the only reason for Inuyasha insisting that she wear his clothing... Kagome sighed at this none-too-subtle mark of possession, but decided she didn't really mind. Maybe Alphonse would back off a little.

Or maybe it would just make him try harder.

She sighed again. Alphonse turned his attention back to her, his hazel eyes concerned. "Kagome-chan, are you all right?"

Before she could answer, Ed sprang to his feet. "I've got it! I know how we can bring Ikeda a dragon!"

Kagome and Inuyasha exchanged worried glances, both having learned to regard Edward's fits of enthusiasm with deep suspicion.

"Brother, I don't know--" Alphonse began, frowning doubtfully

"Edward-san, you don't have to—" Kagome said, at the same time.

He shook his head. "I do! I'm responsible for a lot of this mess. After all, it's my fault that Envy ended up in this world, and in Tokyo, and that Professor Higurashi was forced to come along...and it's my fault for teaching the Professor just enough to alchemy to really hurt himself. Damn it!" he swore, his voice dropping to a whisper on the oath, as if he were cursing himself. He looked at Inuyasha. "I want to make things right for the Professor's family...but I'll need your help."

Inuyasha scowled, and began to edge away with a wary air.

"It doesn't involved alchemy this time," Ed added hastily. "Just some heavy lifting."

Alphonse cocked his head. "Brother, what on earth—?" He blinked, as if struck by sudden realization. "Wait, you're not seriously thinking of using that serpent youkai?"

Inuyasha's scowl deepened. "What serpent youkai?"

"There are still youkai left in this area?" Sango and Miroku said in one voice, each looking equally worried.

Ed raised his hands placatingly. "A really big snake youkai could pass as a small dragon, couldn't it?"

"Only if you're an idiot," growled Inuyasha, looking more wary than ever.

"Look, there's this really huge youkai that gave us trouble at the castle," Ed explained hastily. "It was really persistent about wanting to steal Al's jewel shard. I finally had to shove it into a box to get it to leave us alone."

"A box?" said Sango, disbelievingly. "You put a youkai—a large youkai—into a box?"

"Well, it was more like a cage," Al interjected, hastily. "Made of solid stone."

"Which is why we need him," Ed pointed at Inuyasha, who was trying, futilely, to hide behind Sango, "to help us. Carry it out of the castle and load it onto the car."

"We may need to strengthen the roof first, Brother," said Al. "And the suspension."

"Mere details," Ed said, airily. "But that youkai--it's big, it's got scales, it's got fangs--if you're someone like Ikeda, what more do you need?"

"What do I look like? A pack-horse?" demanded Inuyasha.

But Kagome noticed that he had stopped trying to scrunch down behind Sango, who was observing the conversation with an interested air.

"You look strong," Ed said, craftily. "Really, really strong."

Kagome had to smother a laugh as Al got into the act.

"I don't know, Brother," he said, very carefully not looking at the hanyou. "I mean, thanks to you, Inuyasha-san was in a coma just a few days ago. This might be too much for him—"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Inuyasha stomped over to glare at Alphonse. His belligerent pose was somewhat spoiled by the fact that he had to tilt his head back to look up at the much taller alchemist. "I'm not some wimpy human!"

"Prove it," said Al, holding his ground.

"Fine," snapped Inuyasha. "I'll go get your stupid snake-in-a-box."

Kagome and Sango exchanged glances.

Must not laugh, Kagome told herself, sternly trying to suppress the giggles that rose like soda bubbles as Inuyasha strode off towards the castle, the two Elric brothers in tow.

Miroku didn't bother to try and hide his grin. "Every time," he said. "It works on him every single time."

Then he paused, and flexed his hand, staring at it.

Kagome noticed that his face had gone a sickly pale under his tan.

"Houshi-sama, wh--" Sango began, having evidently noticed the same thing.

With a sudden, violent gesture, he tore off the rosary sealing his cursed hand, and pulled away the gauntlet.

His palm was whole again, unmarred. The Kazaana had vanished utterly.

"This is a trick," Miroku said, his voice a strained whisper. "A trick. It has to be! I won't be fooled."

But he couldn't tear his gaze away from his hand.

"It's Naraku," Kagome said, quietly, hardly able to hear her own voice over the hammering of her heart. But certainty had settled into her soul, resonating like the sound of a great gong. "I think he's dead."

* *

While they waited for Inuyasha and the Elric brothers to return, Kagome told Sango and Miroku about her rather bewildering period of captivity in the castle.

In return, the monk and the youkai-taijiya related all that had happened after Kagome's abduction, including Ed's miraculous healing of his brother's injuries, and Uncle Souta's desperate insistence on trying to learn alchemy.

Miroku was understandably distracted by his hand, studying the palm, now whole again.

He refused, however, to believe Kagome's assertion that Naraku was dead, and Kagome, without any proof except for the absence of the Kazaana and her own strange conviction, didn't insist.

After about an hour, Inuyasha, Ed, and Al returned.

Inuyasha, too, greeted the surmise of Naraku's death with skeptical protest--"Bastard's always been too tough to kill before," was his comment.

"But he didn't have the Jewel with him this time," Kagome countered, then dropped the subject when Inuyasha's doubtful expression turned mulishly stubborn.

If Naraku was really dead, they'd hear the news soon enough, she told herself. In the meantime, they had to deliver a dragon--or at least a reasonable facsimile of a dragon--to that horrible Ikeda-san in 1925.

As promised, the snake youkai was indeed enclosed in a sturdy--and extremely heavy--stone box, now embellished (thanks to more of Ed's alchemy) with air-holes and a hinged end fastened with a baroque-looking lock.

After a hasty removal of the knapsacks tied to the roof of the makeshift automobile, Inuyasha heaved the stone box up there.

The roof began to sag, and the automobile creaked alarmingly under its weight, and Ed was forced to hastily transmute a set of wooden supports to keep the roof from caving in.

Alphonse did not say "I told you so," out loud, but his smirk was eloquent enough.

After a hasty conference between Ed and Al, a second transmutation beefed up the car's axles and suspension system.

Then the car began to slowly sink into the muddy ground it stood on.

Wearing identical horror-stricken expressions, Ed and Al sprang into action.

When their initial attempts to drive the car to a more solid piece of ground resulted only in the tires digging deeper and deeper ruts, Inuyasha stepped forward. With much grumbling, he joined Al at the rear bumper, and pushed, enabling Ed to drive it up onto the patch of rock-hard dried dirt where Envy had met his demise.

"What now?" asked Miroku, around another cup of tea, when all of these operations had been completed.

Kagome smothered a yawn, and wondered how the others would react if she suggested taking a nap before doing anything else.

She was happy to discover that Sango, at least, shared her sentiments. According to what Sango and Miroku had told Kagome, none of the others had gotten any sleep the night before in their efforts to reach the castle.

"There's a village in the valley down there," Sango said, pointing. She brushed at her mud-spattered leather armor with a moue of distaste. "Perhaps we can get a hot bath and lodgings for the night."

"Yes, please!" Kagome added, eagerly. She had the sinking feeling that either Ed or Inuyasha would veto the idea in favor of forging ahead, though.

In fact, Ed did look ready to protest, but Inuyasha surprised her. "And we can make sure that someone looks at your wound, Kagome." His tone brooked no argument.

"We have a first-aid kit," Kagome said, smiling gratefully at him. "But a hot bath and some clean clothing would be wonderful."

She saw Ed and Al trade looks, then Al nodded slightly.

"That sounds like a good idea, Sango-san, Kagome-chan," said the younger alchemist.

"But then we'll head back to the well tomorrow," Ed interjected, his tone wavering somewhere between a question and a command.

* * *

The village in the valley below Kasama Castle was a prosperous place, with many cottages surrounded by large rice paddies, and an impressive Inari shrine with finely-carved guardian kitsune statues flanking a large, red-painted torii gate.

To Inuyasha's relief, the villagers were overjoyed to hear that their strange, terrifying daimyo was no more, though Inuyasha's tell-tale hanyou ears and clawed hands got a number of searching looks while Miroku and Kagome were telling the story of Envy's demise.

In return, the shrine's priest and the village headman spoke of the terrifying massacres that had occurred at irregular intervals, when their lord had changed shape from human to dragon, and no one had been safe. These events had naturally scared pilgrims away from visiting the shrine, so times were growing hard for the priest and his family.

Despite the suspicious looks directed at Inuyasha, the threat of two foreigners and a hanyou were apparently offset by the presences of a Buddhist monk and a miko amongst the party, and they were all offered hot baths, meals, and a place to sleep in one of the pilgrim guesthouses.

And that damned monk didn't even have to perform one of his fake exorcisms this time, thought Inuyasha smugly, as he gobbled up the last grains of rice from the tray of food set before him.

It was only a little past noon, but Kagome looked ready to fall down with weariness. Her wound had not been serious after all, and Inuyasha could smell no hint of infection on it, but she was gray with fatigue, and still reeked faintly of dragon-musk.

And that too-tall bastard Alphonse was still being way too attentive to her, damn him!

A set of futon mattresses were laid out, and everyone except Inuyasha curled up gratefully for a nap.

As was his habit, he sat against the wall, Tetsusaiga propped up against his shoulder, watching as his companions quickly dropped off to sleep.

Without witnesses to see, Inuyasha let himself smile at the sight of Kagome, fast asleep and still wrapped in his jacket. She was safe! It had been torture, these past few days, not knowing if she was alive or dead.

Brave and strong, she had nearly managed to escape the castle by herself--okay, maybe that wimpy wolf lent her a little help, but knowing her, she did most of it herself.

And now she was back where she belonged: with him.

His gaze flicked over uneasily to Alphonse's lanky form, his feet sticking out past the end of the quilt.

Inuyasha had watched Alphonse watching Kagome all morning, had noted how the foreign sorcerer still stood a little too close to her, how he rushed to help her at each opportunity.

But it had been Inuyasha that Kagome turned to after her uncle's death, and Inuyasha that Kagome still trusted to protect her, even when all he could do was offer her his fire-rat armor, too late to prevent the dragon from nearly eviscerating her.

The long scrape was ugly but shallow, but it could have been worse. A lot worse.

Inuyasha inhaled deeply, filling his lungs with her comforting scent. He didn't want to think about either the dragon or Alphonse right now.

With any luck, his help in lugging that snake-in-a-box (still tied to the roof of the car) would speed the Elric brothers on their way home, and with them, would go the bad luck that Edward brought with his "ideas" and the raw jealousy that Alphonse inspired.

Then Kagome will be mine again, thought Inuyasha. All mine... His eyelids drooped, and he fought to stay awake.

* * *

Despite his impatience to be gone from this place, Ed had to admit that the nap felt good. He awoke a couple of hours later, feeling lazy and warm...and in need of the latrine.

He considered rolling over and going back to sleep for a little longer--no one else, except Inuyasha, seemed to be awake yet--but his bladder protested. He sighed, threw back the quilt, and crawled to his feet.

Inuyasha's golden gaze flicked over to him, and returned to Kagome. Ed yawned, and tiptoed to the door of the guesthouse. Slipping into his shoes, he made his way across the courtyard, and walked out the gate to the row of wooden latrines standing some distance away.

Nature's call answered, he decided to go for a walk. And to see if there was any hope of getting a mid-afternoon snack.

A brisk walk around the shrine's grounds, and the collection of cottages clustered outside the red gate, helped to clear his head of the lingering fuzzy feeling that always followed naps. The shadows had grown long while he'd been sleeping, though the sun was still some distance above the horizon, and the air was still mild and warm.

As he began to head back toward the shrine, he saw that Kagome must've woken up in the meanwhile and decided to take a walk, too.

Inuyasha was strangely absent, though. Instead, she was trailed by a boy who looked to be about eleven years old.

"Hey, Kagome-san," bellowed Ed, waving at her. "Where'd you pick up the stray?"

Both of them stopped and stared at him as he trotted over to them.

The boy frowned as Ed drew closer, and put one hand on the leather-wrapped handle of a crude but effective-looking hand-scythe tucked through the belt of his short robe. Ed noticed a weighted chain looped around his waist. It made the kid clank a little as he walked.

Kagome--no, damn it, not Kagome, and no wonder the kid was glaring at him—waited calmly for him to approach. The girl might have been Kagome's twin, even down to being dressed in the same red-and-white priestess's outfit that Kagome wore, but this girl's clothing was unsullied by the grime and damage from dragon claws.

That unnatural stillness should have been his first clue, Ed thought. That, and the fact that this girl's hair was smooth and glossy and utterly straight, unlike Kagome's thick unruly mane.

Ed approached cautiously. "Um, sorry, I thought you were someone else," he apologized, attempting a bow in her direction.

"Kikyo-sama is not--" began the boy, looking annoyed.

"Kagome and Inuyasha are here?" the girl asked, her cool voice effortlessly overriding the boy's. He fell instantly and respectfully silent, his hand dropping away from the scythe's handle.

"Um, yeah," Ed replied. Okay, so Kagome and her twin knew each other? Stranger and stranger. Then memory of something Miroku had told him days ago clicked. "Are you perhaps, um, Kikyo-san…er, sama?" Wasn't she Inuyasha's old girlfriend, right?

She inclined her head gracefully. "You have the advantage of me…we have not met before, I believe," she murmured.

"I'm Edward Elric." Something felt subtly wrong about her, he thought, trying to study her without staring too openly. "But please call me Ed." He turned his attention to the kid, who was scowling again. "And you are--?"

"Kohaku!" said Sango, in tones of evident delight, as she approached them.

The kid's expression underwent the most amazing transformation at Sango's words, shifting rapidly from his initial don't-mess-with-me look, to shame and guilt (and Ed knew those emotions just a little too well, himself), and finally settling on a cautious joy.

"Ane-ue," replied the boy, grinning at her. "Guess what? Kikyo-sama just killed Naraku!"

"What?" Sango stopped. "Kagome-chan thought this might be the case, but how--?"

"He was already badly injured," Kikyo answered, quietly. "I assume that he had already encountered your group before we met on the road."

"He was trying to steal my shard, Ane-ue," Kohaku added. "But Kikyo purified him."

"Speaking of the Shikon-no-Tama," Kikyo said, still in that quiet, somewhat unnerving monotone. "Naraku had not even a single shard in his possession when we encountered him. This concerns me--he had nearly completed the jewel, and if it fell into the hands of a youkai or an evil human now..."

"Kagome's got the jewel," Ed interjected. As Kikyo stared at him, her dark eyes piercing but her face expressionless, he added, "As far as we can tell, Envy--that's the dragon that my brother and I were chasing-- stole the jewel from Naraku. And Kagome stole the jewel from Envy, and then Inuyasha killed Envy. Bastard," he added, rebukingly, though even he wasn't sure if he was referring to Envy or Inuyasha.

Both of 'em, he thought, still angry about losing his and Al's only way home.

"I see," Kikyo said, softly. "Then the jewel is nearly complete?"

Sango nodded. "Envy took Kouga's shards, and Kagome already had two, so...yes."

Ed frowned, trying to decode the weird undercurrents flowing between the two women. Sango's expression in particular was an odd mixture of sad and defiant.

"My shard," Kohaku said, breaking into the tense silence. "It's the final one, isn't it?" He reached back, and a bit gingerly, touched a place at the base of his neck.

"Kohaku--don't!" Sango moved suddenly, wrapping the kid in a fierce embrace. "No one wants you to give it up!"

Ed was getting more confused by the moment, but it didn't really seem like a good time to break in with a string of questions.

"Don't I deserve death?" asked the kid, his voice a little muffled from being pressed against Sango's shoulder. "Father...the other youkai-taijiya...all the terrible things I did while I was Naraku's slave..."

"No! No..." Sango looked like she was holding back her tears with a superhuman effort. "I can't lose you, too, Kohaku!"

"If the Jewel is completed, it can be wholly purified and its baleful influence removed from the world by a selfless wish," Kikyo said. Her tone never changed as she spoke, but she bowed her head sorrowfully.

"Just exactly what is the deal with the kid here?" Ed asked, at last. "And why does he have to die?"

Canon and Historical Notes

Hi everyone, I'm back from my trip to Japan. Sorry about the delay in posting chapters, but jet-lag caught up with me, and I've spent the last week-and-a-half moving through my work-days like a zombie, feeling absolutely clobbered by fatigue. I did have the opportunity to visit Hikone-jo while I was in Kyoto, so now I have a much better idea of what a Japanese castle looks like, though Hikone-jo was built in the 1620s, about 70 years later than the setting of this story. The castle had lots of courtyards, so at least I got that part right. *g*

juban - a white cotton garment, like an undershirt, worn under a kimono. Inuyasha is shown wearing a cream-colored juban under his fire-rat outer garments.

matcha - traditional Japanese powdered green tea, made from dried and pulverized tea leaves

chihaya - the top part of a miko's outfit, which looks like a white, kimono-style blouse.

Inari shrine - a Shinto shrine dedicated to the fertility god Inari. Kitsune are traditionally associated with Inari shrines. Kasama is the location of one of Japan's most famoud Inari shrines.

Ane-ue -extremely respectful term for "older sister"

As always, thanks to Ginny, aka kokoronagomu, for beta-reading, and for supplying some of the correct clothing terminology in this chapter. You rock, my dear!