InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Midwinter Dream ❯ Strengthening the Seal ( Chapter 8 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

A/N: Hm, well, the plot is finally making another turn which I have been planning for quite some time now, so I hope you enjoy it! :D

Chapter 8

Strengthening the Seal

“Forget it.”

“That would be rather difficult to do...” Sheng admitted, sounding a tad dejected by her prompt denial.

“I don't care,” Kagome stated bitterly, trying to enjoy her third day of being there by eating some nice steaming food. Dried food got old quick. She got to thinking that maybe the old yÅkai knew that she only ate the food served to her if he was there, because he showed up quite often to watch the wonders of a woman shoveling her face. If he could stomach it, she'd bear with it, and that was that. “You already said you don't need to do it until later, so why bother now?”

Sheng gave a vexed sigh, and she could only imagine how much alcohol was on that breath. Probably enough to kill a fly. How that man could stomach the stuff even during breakfast was beyond her, and she certainly wasn't trying to grasp it.

“You put me in a predicament, Kagome,” he admitted as she took another bite of mild yet filling rice. “I either need your willingness or your unwillingness, and I prefer the prior.”

She scoffed, still in a foul mood from less than two days ago. At that time, it had been a quarter moon and waning. “Fine, then chain me up and drag me off somewhere, but I'm not helping that ass with anything if I have a choice.”

Sheng nodded a few times in consideration. “I suppose giving a narrower range of choices is an option...”

Kagome put down her chopsticks, which were almost agonizing to use with her left hand. She was not very hungry anyway thanks to her tendency to lose any appetite after arguments, and of those she's had plenty.

“So, I suppose that means I really don't have a choice, and you're just being nice about it.”

“Pretty much,” he confirmed. She didn't know why Sheng was suddenly and miraculously able to see her any time he so chose, but it was beginning to be annoying with the news he brought. “It only takes a day-”

“Which you also said about the 'yÅkai passage into power' bit,” she interrupted, lifting her tea cup to her lips.

“-and then it's... Well, yes, but this is entirely different.”

“How so?” she asked. Really, did she have to do it?

“Well, because you do not need to worry about a thing,” he stated. “All there is to do is walk in, watch a seal be strengthened, and walk out. You don't even need to say a word to him.”

By 'him', he meant Sesshomaru, and apparently this strengthening process was for some random yÅkai locked away in the bowels of Mount Fuji. The reason why she had to go there with him was currently lodged in her chest.

“Can't I just rip the Jewel out and hand it over?” she asked, sick and tired now of pretty much anything she could think of. Especially dogs. She had wanted to return to her friends yesterday, but was informed that she was to be kept at the o-shiro for 'safe keeping'. Sesshomaru itemized her enough as it was, now even the servants saw her as some thing to take care of while she was harbored there.

“That would be a tad deadly,” Sheng commented. “It won't be that bad. Just a day, and you're free to wait the rest of the time here for your duel to the death to resume.”

She glared at him to let him know that he wasn't being funny, and he took the hint. Scrubbing the now all too familiar facial expression away with a hand, Kagome gave a loud groan of resignation into her palm.

“Is that an 'I'll be perfectly happy to go along with things' groan?” Sheng asked her.

“No. It's a 'do I have to be conscious for it' groan.”

He chuckled, and sent her hair into further turmoil by ruffling the top of her head. If yÅkai invented hair conditioner any time soon she'd be delighted. “Yes. You do.”

She eventually agreed to go along with this procedure, on the terms that she didn't have to be happy about it, then said procedure was delayed for a few more days when Sesshomaru got word that she would have to accompany him. It made her laugh, really. Deep down that is. The all mighty and powerful lord of the lands, being too stubborn and hesitant to tolerate her presence for even a day and scrounging for a reason to hesitate, was about the funniest thing she had heard in ages.

She mostly kept to herself in those few days, finishing her book as her bones slowly mended and eventually becoming so bored as to resign herself to Sheng's side for hours on end. He warned her of the rumors that would spread from doing such, and she quite frankly didn't care. Sure enough though, within two days everyone officially thought that there was an odd interest between the two of them, and it made her laugh and wonder how a certain yÅkai tolerated it.

She was thinking as much during an informal meeting with the two yÅkaiess and yÅkai from quite a few days ago.

“No,” Tao disagreed. “'Chao-san' is better, by far.”

“I do not fully agree,” Li Hua, Sesshomaru's mother, replied. “I think that 'Sesshy' is a marvelous nickname.”

Kagome was happy that she could even put relatives against Sesshomaru in at least one thing. That was only topped off by the nature of this conversation in the first place, which happened to be entitlement to nicknaming. So far, Kagome had majority votes. Including hers, it was four to one in a group of five. She only voted for herself because of the name Lixue, which didn't suit her at all.

Tao didn't enjoy the game. “You all have no taste.”

Shu Fang giggled at the man. “Now now, this is all for fun.”

Kagome had a smile on her face, but she could feel the ghost of sadness tugging at her features. Apparently, none of the names she knew them by were real. Sheng's real name had over eight different names and quite a few words of entitlement to it, and since she didn't speak Mandarin she was completely clueless as to what it was no matter how many times he said it or wrote it down. The word 'Sheng' was the last bit of his third middle name and meant 'victory', so someone thought it would be good. Kagome felt amused by the fact that Sheng resented the nickname until a hundred years after it was assigned to him, and now it was the only one he used.

Tao scoffed. “Oh, yes, fun until something is made permanent.”

“Lighten up,” said Sheng before taking another drink. “How did we even start talking about this?”

“I called him 'Sesshy',” Kagome supplied, in reference to Sesshomaru.

“Ah. Yes. ... I like that nickname, too.”

Thusly, the conversation looped on itself and Kagome was left smirking at the yÅkai who didn't know how to waste their time properly. These people needed colorful board games...

A few days passed far more quickly than Kagome had anticipated, and she was just checking her bowstrings with Jia, the actual bow resting unstrung in the corner, when a servant arrived to be her escort. It was midday, which had given her ample time to enjoy a morning bath. The maids were rather scornful of the idea that she wear the haori and hakama which Kaede had given her, saying she was far prettier in the kimono. Kagome wanted to be able to move though in case Sesshomaru tried anything funny again, and next time she wasn't going to be so shocked that he was attacking her. If he ever pulled that dominant male crap on her again she was slicing off his family jewels to knock down his status by a few pegs.

“This is it?” she asked when the servant led her to the small group in the courtyard. There was Sesshomaru, Sheng, and herself.

“Were you expecting a royal procession?” Sheng asked with a smirk.

“Yes, actually,” Kagome replied. “With flags and drums and soldiers galore.”

Sesshomaru rolled his eyes almost discreetly while Sheng laughed at her.

“Perhaps if one just conquered a city,” he replied. “Otherwise, it is a waste.”

True... “So, when do we leave?”

They left promptly. Considering how bad it was for one's health to travel with Sesshomaru, Kagome found herself accepting Sheng's hand for whatever form of transportation they chose. Surprisingly enough, it was on aura clouds.

“You know what?”

“Tell me,” Sheng replied, sitting cross legged and completely at ease while being well over a mile in the air.

“I think I prefer the instant traveling thing,” Kagome stated, nervously clasping the yÅkai arm with her one hand in fear that she'd fall straight through the cloud with the slightest shift of weight.

“Minus the sickness?”

“No, it can stay and still be better,” she replied, wondering if the blood circulation to his hand was still fine. They were really high up, it was like looking out an airplane window... Minus the safe airplane.

As they rose even higher Kagome was beginning to feel lightheaded from the lack of oxygen, but Sheng said she should feel better by the time they reached the mountain top. The entrance was high up just to guarantee that no lizards could scale the mountain and free the prisoner, whoever it was. The poor guy, Kagome would die if she was left in a mountain.

“Can't they just find another way in?” Kagome asked as they floated for the less than obvious gapping mouth of the cave. The snow was apparently too deep to survive in, which really said something. She asked if he meant that it was too deep to walk through, but he supplied her with a vivid image of trying to step on the surface and falling through the powder for a good ten feet. It had been an odd winter for them, not that yÅkai particularly noticed as much. There was a lot more snow in the past than there was in the future...

“Perhaps,” Sheng acknowledged. “But we have checked every possible rout from the cavern he's in. It is either impossible or too long a distance for them to cross.”

Kagome shivered, and not just for the cold air which breathed on her from the mountain's depths as they drew near. She hated caves, far more so than she hated Sesshomaru. They were good for nothing in her opinion. They were cold, and dark, and deep, and could collapse on top of you without warning. The worse feature though was the thought of getting lost, or in this case left behind, and not being able to find her way back. She had confidence in Sesshomaru's senses to get himself out, at the very least, and she hoped that Sheng could find her if the bastard left her behind to rot in the pitch black.

Speaking of, how far was he going to go with them? “You're not going with me the entire way, are you?”

“No,” he admitted. “There is a barrier up ahead designed to admit only two.”

That was an eerie thought, which was made no better by how the darkness slowly began to consume them. She looked back to see the light of day, and was awed by the impossible cape of ice dragging over the cave's mouth. It glowed a watery blue, and then disappeared behind the bend. The very soft howl of her yÅkai companions' churning energy clouds wafted throughout the cave entrance, echoing off of boulders and jutting rocks. They were not deep enough to find stalactites and stalagmites yet, not at these temperatures. The coned rock formations which were commonly related to caves were something she more than definitely expected upon entering, so it was different to see in their place impressive daggers of ice reaching down and slanting with the eternal exhale of the cave, making it look like the fangs of some deep sea fish. The drippings formed small bubble mounds of ice on the ground, which she could only see when they were deeper inside and the snow recessed. Although it was still cold, it was not cold enough to support there being snow, and by the time the once melted streams of ice gave way completely to the rocky floor of the cave they landed and continued on foot.

“No need to be afraid,” Sheng told her as they walked, grit and stones grinding underfoot. Her vision was slowly beginning to fail, but that didn't stop her from noticing several odd holes up ahead in the ground. “So long as I am here, you have my guarantee that you will not fall.”

“Fall?” she asked, not able to suppress the fear in her voice.

He didn't answer, which was probably the worse answer he could give... As they approached one of the holes that invaded their path, she saw that it was very wide, big enough to fit three African elephants abreast at the top. How many it could contain in total though was a tad frightening, because she couldn't see the bottom.

“How deep is this?” she asked, kicking a fist sized rock into it.

“Deep enough that you would pass out from fear before hitting the bottom,” Sesshomaru supplied helpfully. She wanted to be annoyed with him trying to scare her, but as the lack of a clatter from the stone grew in seconds she was beginning to take him sincerely.

“Sheng, how is that even possible?” she asked, still listening for the rock.

“Ancient volcanic activity” Sheng informed her. “It could all collapse and change with the next earth quake, but for now we are walking over a giant air pocket.”

... Giant... Air... Pocket...? Like, an ant on a bubble the size of a beach ball?? She grabbed his arm again.

“Stop laughing at me,” she pouted, no longer able to see Sesshomaru walking ahead, despite his white clothes. “I can't fly like you guys. If I fall, it's over for me. That's a very real fear of mine, and if you don't think so then I suggest tying a boulder to your ankles and dropping into an ocean trench to see how fun that is.”

“Alright, alright,” Sheng replied, ruffling her hair just to annoy her. “Forgive us ignorant yÅkai. It is hard to see things like humans do. Is that not correct, Chao-san?”

“That is not my name,” Sesshomaru replied. He was closer than she thought, maybe just eight feet ahead of them. Dear kami, she couldn't even see her hand in front of her face, and here these yÅkai are walking just find around pitfalls and who knows what like it's a park path.

A few minutes later, once she grew tired of holding the yÅkai arm and walked between him and Sesshomaru, Kagome gave a horrible flinch when Sheng grabbed her around the waist.

“Yes?” she asked, completely blind and suffering from a mild heart attack. Damn yÅkai and their damn ability to see in the dark.

“You were doing fine,” he tried to compliment her. “The bridge makes a turn now though, so do not fall off.”

“... Bridge?” she asked, feeling her heart plunge into unknown depths.

“Yes,” he replied, turning her to face the correct direction. “We have been on it for quite some time now.”

“... How wide is it?” she asked, trying to hear Sesshomaru's steps over her pounding heart. She had been following him for a while and was used to going straight after thirty seconds.

“Give or take five feet,” he supplied, letting her go and making her almost die from fear. “Just keep walking and you will be fine.”

His voice echoed in that place, and she simply quaked on her feet. Oh, kami, she didn't want to do this. It wasn't fair! She wanted to see.

“What are you doing?” he asked when she took some steady breaths and held her hands in front of her.

“Making light,” she informed him, concentrating. It was rather easy now to produce an energy diamond the size of her fist, if not larger, but no matter how much she tried she could never split it. There was a glow, and Kagome took in many details. They were in a large cavern, judging by the lack of walls and a ceiling, the walkway was only two feet wide at this point, and the barest hints of Sesshomaru's clothing glowed light blue beneath his incandescent yellow eyes as he watched her.

Kagome gave a scream and lost her light source when her shoulders were grabbed and she looked back to darkness, knowing Sheng's face was there.

“Why did you do that?” he asked in a scolding manner as she listened to Sesshomaru walk onward, her scream still echoing down countless corridors and back again.

“For light?” she tried, wishing she could see his face. He gave a worn sigh and egged her to walk onwards, which was simply terrifying since the walkway was not five feet wide. Lying bastard... Even if it was to help her with her fear, he still lied...

“You do not know what that was, do you?” he asked, referring to her little diamond crystal.

“My energy,” she answered him. That's what it always was. Sesshomaru told her that, and had trained her on how to handle it so long ago.

She could hear the rustle of Sheng's hair when he shook his head. “That was not a mere form of energy. That was the solidified form of your soul.”

She was utterly dumbfounded and lost complete control of her jaw muscles. She didn't even think about the possibility of careening down a bottomless pit of darkness. “... My what?”

“Your soul,” he repeated for her. “If you exposed that in front of an enemy, they could do unfathomable things to you. Do not summon it ever again, even if it quickens your training.”

She nodded hesitantly, walking forward blindly. Her soul? That was... Impossible, right? Why her soul? ... Why was it like ice?! So, was Sesshomaru's like a flame? Was that actually his, or was he just using energy?? Oh, she hated dogs!!

A few minutes after the bridge had ended they rounded a rather sharp bend and down deeper into the mountain, and Kagome was shocked that her vision was slowly returning. She was now able to see the stalactites and stalagmites she had expected to see so long ago, and as she looked at the ceiling she tripped over the floor. Catching herself jostled her collar bone painfully, but she grinned in an agonized manner and bore with it.

“The barrier?” she asked, having yet to see the source of light. Yes, it was one, rippling with a red energy so fierce that every vein of it had a white center. Kagome always thought that barriers looked like soapy bubbles, with the swirls which warped around the outside in unpredictable patterns. Still, washing everything out in red was eerie.

Sheng stopped a good distance from it, and although Kagome wanted to beat Sesshomaru's now visible ass for not telling her what she had been meddling with for the last four years, she wanted more to not continue without the friendly old yÅkai.

“Sheng,” she nearly whimpered. Kagome was impartial to the idea of going into the dark scary cave with an evil yÅkai for company. Couldn't Sesshomaru be the one to wait outside??

“Go ahead,” he reassured, smirking as though he found her uncertainty highly amusing. “I'll be here when you are done.”

“But I-” Her left upper arm was suddenly clasped, and she stumbled to walk backwards. “Ah! Hey!”

“Do not waste my time with your hesitation,” Sesshomaru scolded her as she was dragged through the barrier and the cold suddenly intensified. Kagome jerked her head up just before being hauled around a corner, and Sheng was waving goodbye with that same smirk on his face.

Much bitching and yelling was involved after that, especially since Kagome wasn't able to loosen herself from Sesshomaru's iron grasp no matter how much of her energy she burned through. He eventually allowed her to walk forward, so now she could trip over her toes rather than her heels in the pitch black darkness they blundered into once more. Apparently the barrier was huge, because even after what felt to be seven minutes of solid bantering back and forth she still couldn't sense the other side of the barrier. By all means, this was what needed strengthening, but she had a feeling she was missing some facts. That, or there were some pretty decent barriers which operated on seals...

“-and I still don't see why you're an ass again!” she continued, being the special speaker for the last two hours. “I mean, four years is nothing for yÅkai, and here I am talking to you as though you're the same nincompoop who was hell-bent on Tetsusaiga! I mean, did none of that exist for you? ... Do you have selective memory and selective hearing??”

He guided her to bash her knee over a stalagmite, which were becoming more frequent and bigger the deeper they got. For being so narrow at the tops, she'd be hard pressed to take the two inch tip off any cone there with a hammer let alone her knee.

“AAAAAAGH!! You JERK!!” she cried, hopping on one leg for a moment while he continued at the same pace. The jumping did nothing for her pace or her clavicle though, so she gritted her teeth and walked on the leg. There was definitely going to be a bruise from that, she just knew it. Perhaps even swelling.

She was surprised when she walked too far forward, and was almost swept off her feet when she tried to take a step but couldn't.

“What?” she asked, guessing where his eyes could be in the darkness. He had stopped. “... Do you see something?”

He was silent for a minute, as though pondering a puzzle, then continued at his fast pace. “No. I was not expecting a magnesium vein.”

“... A what?” she asked. She waited a minute for an answer, and decided to let it go when they stopped again. Well, she stopped. It was her turn to do so, after all. Something felt very bad up ahead.

“... Yes?” he probed, seeking why she refused to move forward.

“What's up there?” she inquired, blinking at the darkness and nodding with her head.

“The sealed yÅkai,” he supplied, giving her arm a slight tug. “It will not harm you. Just do as I say.”

Her blood flowed at an unnaturally fast pace as adrenaline poured into her system. There was something up there. Something bad, and it called to the Shikon no Tama in her body. It didn't feel like a yÅkai though. It felt like her sixth sense was waving red flags, and as they drew closer those flags, staffs and all, began smacking her urgently in the face. But... If Sesshomaru was fine with this, and with more keen senses no less, then she supposed she had nothing to worry about. Right?

“Calm yourself,” he told her, not sounding very stern at all.

She nodded, yet still nearly died of whiplash by flinching when something spoke.

“If it is not the Lord Sesshomaru...”

“Then it is another figment,” Sesshomaru finished the sentence nonchalantly, guiding her through a small barrier which felt like a brief icy breeze hitting every part of her body. It gave her an excellent reason to shiver. “How is your sanity, Bashamon?”

... Bashamon?? Bashamon?! Kagome thought he was dead! As in, way past dead. ... Then again, this was the past, and not the future, but this was Sesshomaru's enemy, and he killed him the first time then let him live the second time...

...

Oye, that was enough to make her head spin. But still, Bashamon? And what was that about his sanity? Had he been in this mountain for four years?? Kagome would have gone stark raving mad if that happened to her...

“Lingering,” the yÅkai replied sourly. They seemed beyond the argumentative stage and into resigned resentment. “... Ah, I see you have laid the Jewel in another's hands...” Kagome felt like her arm was just plunged into a bucket of cold worms, writhing strokes feeling at more than her skin. She almost gagged, and tried to yank away.

“Be calm, miko,” Sesshomaru told her.

“Calm?” she asked, shaking her one good arm to get rid of what ever was up her sleeve. It didn't work.

“Why do you give such an item to a novice?” the yÅkai asked, freaking her out by how close his voice was. He was touching her!? What was he??

“Not my choosing,” Sesshomaru stated. “Now quiet yourself, I grow weary of your voice.”

Bashamon chuckled, and Kagome absolutely flipped out when the worms felt like they had just slithered to the mounds on her chest. She focused her powers into her hand and slapped the hell out of that yÅkai, which actually worked.

“You FILTHY piece of SHIT!!” she yelled, her hands glowing in the darkness. She could barely see the man she was trying to bludgeon, but that didn't stop her. What did stop her was Sesshomaru grabbing her left hand and guiding her closer to where he stood. Her fingers parted around his as his palm slid over the back of her hand, and she was pulled down to a kneeling position to touch something smooth and cold jutting from the ground. He held her hand atop the mystery item, and she noticed how warm his touch was. ... Okay, this was for the straightforward purpose that she do something, but Kagome couldn't help but blush slightly over him holding her hand. He was touching her, and she never felt more stupid in her entire life for letting it get to her. The bastard didn't deserve such a reaction from her!

“Just ignore him, and respond to me,” Sesshomaru told her, his voice dull like normal. “And do not release your control until I say so.”

“What?” she asked. She completely forgot her question when Sesshomaru's energy leaped almost viciously from himself, making a red glow light the area and give her pupils cause to spasm uncomfortably. She was ready to unleash hers as well as a safeguard from him, but his grip over her knuckles tightened and she forgot about trying as much. She watched as the wispy flames of his power reached out to her, stroking her being almost experimentally, curiously. She bit her lip and swallowed. It felt odd, but she would trust him for now. Besides, she barely thought about it as her eyes were locked with his. He looked so alien, and so strong and stoic with the reflection of his power dancing in his gaze. Above all though, and damn herself for admitting it, he was rather beautiful. And he was so close to her face that she could clearly see the blue sparks of her own eyes staring back at her from his.

His energy slowly felt its way around her until both of them were enveloped. She shuddered at how nice she felt, like having slept without blankets on a cool night and stepping into a hot shower. It was a welcomed feeling, and for some reason it felt so forbidden, so suddenly different.

“Alright,” he began, looking down at what was in the ground. It was a very ornate looking stake, made of something very dark in color and polished to reflect Sesshomaru's energy. “Loosen your control.”

“On what?” she asked, completely clueless and really uncomfortable. She had to swallow over how dry her throat was. It felt like he was actually touching her wherever his energy lay, despite how ridiculous that sounded.

“On your power,” he told her. “I need you to give me control of it in order to utilize the Jewel.”

“... So says the man who's been abusing me in every way fathomable of late?” she asked, her trust becoming firmly nailed to a wall and not moving.

“You will not be harmed,” he informed her.

She scoffed.

An almost forgotten presence hummed thoughtfully behind them, and she began to turn to look at the demoted yÅkai.

Kagome's attentions were redirected to Sesshomaru when he shifted his thumb ever so slightly over her wrist. Oh, why did that have any affect on her...? It wasn't fair... Just that one touch, one small shift in contact, and she could practically melt. It was enough to make her gag. ... Oh, kami, this wasn't the part that would take a day, was it?? She prayed to anyone who loved her that it wasn't.

“Just relax and ignore him,” Sesshomaru told her. “Try to meditate. Do not be afraid, and all will be fine.”

... Well, at least he knew she had reason to be afraid. Alright, the sooner this was done, the sooner they left, so she tucked her legs under herself, breathed in slowly, breathed out slowly, and tried to enter her zen.

It took a few minutes, but once Kagome finally felt her energy flow freely into the furthest spaces of her body and begin to waft from her being something went wrong. Something was attacking her, a foreign heat seeping into her and twisting her reality in a manner which screamed for her to react. She needed to defend herself, to get it away from her, to kill it. It needed to be gone, and the only thing she wanted to do was make it evaporate from existence. It was tainting her very soul, and made her bones vibrate to the brink of combustion. It was hurting her. It was going to kill her. She needed to kill it first.

“Kagome!”

She blinked, mouth dry and gapped to pant heavily. It was still there, wrapping around her existence like an octopus around its prey. She blinked again, the sound of another person panting not far from her ear. Strong arms were around her torso, and she was held tightly against a firm chest.

She was the prey!!

“Calm down!” Sesshomaru yelled at her, hugging her more tightly when her legs began to kick. “For kami's sake, I told you to not be afraid!”

“That's easier said than done for certain things!” she barked at him, his aura still invading hers. Why it taxed him to the point of labored breathing was beyond her, but this was ridiculous. “I can't do this! Just stop it! It feels horrible!”

“Just calm yourself,” he repeated for her. “You are in no danger.”

“That's not what common sense is screaming at me!” she almost bellowed. Oh, kami, it felt like he was under her skin and... Feeling... Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh... Noooooooooooo... Why?? It felt so horribly nice, and yet so very, very, utterly wrong...

...

Well, she didn't want to go through this again, so... “Just, hurry up.”

That seemed to be no problem for him, and she did her best to think of something else as his energy ran in several streams through her own, coursing over and slowly into her like water over a desert rock. Hm... She began to remember their conversation of the differences of powers. How yÅkai converted one form of energy into another... Was that what she was feeling? If so, then she supposed that the threatening bit which was still humming urgently in the fore of her mind was telling her that she was losing power. That it was seeping out of her in the form of something unusable. Something deadly, and threatening. But it didn't hurt her. She felt how controlled it was, like the violent waters rushing through an ever safe and secure fire hose. There was a lot of power, one which would hurt if it was unleashed improperly, but it wasn't. She was safe.

“Feel better?” he asked when she gave a shaky exhale.

“A- Yeah, a little,” she replied. “Do I need to do something?”

She heard and felt him shake his head, and wanted to giggle nervously when he released her. She got away from him, not escaping the sensations.

“Hold the stake, and that is all,” he told her, completely calm as usual. “What you are feeling now will intensify briefly, but try to control yourself enough to not attack me.”

She gave a snort over suppressed giggles. She had attacked him? Maybe that's why he was out of breath. She grasped the stake, and noticed that he didn't hold her hand there, and didn't even move. Instead, the most intense two seconds of her life ensued, and it felt like an eternity.

All of the energy coursing unfamiliarly through her was suddenly directed from its safe circulation, breaking through forces she didn't know existed in her as it focused on one thing. It was too fast for her to feel scared, or threatened. Something snapped, very deeply inside of her, and for a moment she sensed both sides of great power unlock, ready to pounce and fight over her soul in a vicious battle which cared only for portions of the prize.

Then it was gone. The powers were abruptly sealed and stilled, and it felt like her body sighed with relief as the strange energy misted from her. Still, Sesshomaru's energy remained engulfed around her person, and when she looked at him to ask why she noted his glaring. Not at her though.

She looked around, and Bashamon was standing tall over her, his feet planted about six inches from her thigh. There was a terrible gleam in his eyes, and it frightened her.

“Do not attack him,” Sesshomaru ordered, making her stop in doing just that. “You would only give him what he wants.”

Bashamon smiled insanely then, face dark save for a red glint in his eyes for the way his chin was lifted at them.

Kagome's hand was removed from the stake, pulled up, and she found herself standing and being led away from the crazed yÅkai. Passing through the icy barrier brought her to, and Sesshomaru's energy retracted from her body and back to himself.

“What?”

He looked at her. It was a stupid if not very open question, but she couldn't think of any other way to ask it.

He sighed through his nose, which she noticed before all of his energy left the air and plunged the cave back into darkness. “It is a long explanation.”

“We have time,” she told him, feeling his hand grab her upper arm again as they began to walk back.

“Yes. I, however, have no patience for enlightening you on such a thing,” he replied. Figured... She gave a huff, and settled on the silent treatment. He seemed to like that though, so it was a very long and quiet trip back. Hours of tripping later the faint glow appeared ahead she ran hazardously over barely lit rocks and formations back to Sheng.

“Sheng!” she yelled, running through the barrier. “Sheng! We're back!” Her voice echoed in the darkness, and for a moment she was worried. “Sheng! Get back here!!”

She stood on the edge of the shadow cast by the bend of the tunnel, staring expectantly. She was rather shocked when she heard quick steps, and glancing back she noted that Sesshomaru was running closer, then past her, then onwards.

“... Ah! HEY!! Don't leave me here!” she cried, jerking to a dash after him. She ran as best she could, scared that she didn't know what was underfoot. What was overhead. What was ahead. All she could do was hope for sure footing and listen for his footsteps, which were fading quickly.

“Hey!” she tried again. “Sesshomaru! Wait! I'm not as fast as you, and I can't see!” She couldn't hear him anymore. He was too far ahead. “Sesshomaru!” She was scared. She didn't want to get lost. “Se-!”

Her world stopped when she fell forwards. She didn't trip over something. She was falling. It was like thinking there was an extra stair step and trying to take it, only far worse. Her sudden inhale didn't echo back, it was swallowed by the nothingness underfoot.

She was falling. Oh, kami, no. Why? Why did she make that step? She'd never survive this fall!

Her lungs labored to drag air into them, wanting to scream for anything that would help her, and the breath was knocked out of her when her chest collided with something.

She grabbed it, terrified of what would happen if she let go, and she felt herself rising. She began breathing again when she was slowly pulled upright once more, and she felt her heart kick back to life when she dropped slightly and felt ground beneath her feet.

She was safe. She was alive. She wasn't falling, and being still was the best sensation in the world.

“Do not waste time,” Sesshomaru growled, releasing his hold on her to redirect it to her wrist. Kagome thought she'd die if he suddenly led her off the edge, then she realized how affronted she was.

“What the HELL!” she demanded. “I go careening into a pit of doom and you call it wasting your time!?”

“Yes.”

Well, that was certainly a simple answer. “You're so intolerable!”

After a minute, Kagome had a feeling that something was wrong. Sesshomaru didn't have a counter for that accusation of hers, meaning his mind was immensely on something else. Was something wrong? And where had Sheng gone off to?

Kagome was surprised when Sesshomaru got them running again, wondering a few times if the shifting and clicking of rocks wasn't her crushing some weird albino cave grasshopper. She was rendered to pants after a solid five minutes, and even with taking the strongest and longest leaps she could she was still being pulled along strongly enough to dislocate her shoulder.

“Can't you, just use some, energy, to get, out of here?!” she demanded, feeling like she had to yell for her weary voice to reach him.

“No.”

She huffed, for more than one reason. “Well, why not?!”

“It would be illogical.”

Damn him for sounding so cool and collected while her body ran on overdrive to keep up.

“Why!” she demanded.

“Because of various side effects which would prove unfavorable in both the present and the future.”

She blinked, and when they went downhill and looked up to see the light of day she blinked again. She didn't know if it was because her eyes were adjusting, or if things were just too fast, but after half a second of sudden movement she found herself sitting on a cloud with an arm around her waist.

“... Um...”

“Do not squirm, and you will not fall,” he told her bluntly, his voice tearing past her ear as they sped onwards.

“Actually,” she began anew, “you're hurting me.” And he was. Her right shoulder was being pushed towards her sternum. She was expecting him to indulged in that situation, but to her surprise he loosened his grip. She looked up at his face, but he ignored her.

... Hm... Well, he was still an ass. And he would go back to not giving a damn about her right when they returned to the o-shiro.

The further they were from the mountain the more energy Sesshomaru used, and very soon Kagome found herself keeping her eyes closed because of the speed. Breathing was rather difficult, and she leaned on Sesshomaru just to feel like the air wouldn't rip her off her perch.

When they arrived she leaped for the ground, cherishing it. Her happiness was short lived though upon looking at Sesshomaru, who looked around as though expecting everything to be on fire. She noticed Li Hua staring off somewhere before turning to regard them.

“Ah. You heard?”

“What of?” Sesshomaru demanded, stepping closer to the woman.

“The minor invasion,” she replied. “Apparently, some of the rebellious birds have partnered with a remaining force of reptiles, and are attacking the southern regiment.

Not that she was trying to listen, but Kagome couldn't hear what Sesshomaru said to his mother before taking off. She felt rather left out, but there really was no reason to accompany him on something she had no part in.

“Do not feel left behind,” Sesshomaru's mother cooed over her shoulder, making Kagome look at her rather than the disappearing lord. “Your inugami daiyÅkai will return.”

Kagome felt heat rise to her face and she turned away with a scoff to hide it. “I wouldn't mind if he spent the rest of the month away.”

She could swear the woman was smiling at her as she made her way for her room. Perhaps a conversation over tea with Jia would prove to be calming...

A/N: Was that random enough? :)

'Nincompoop' is a real word. I was completely shocked.

Anyway, sorry this took some time to write! If there are grammatical errors, please forgive me. I'm currently trying to re-read everything to correct those, so hopefully they weren't bad and I'll get them soon.

Thanks for reading! Review, please! :D