InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Strange Wishes ❯ Temptation ( Chapter 11 )

A dewy mist eclipsed the newly erected huts of the village as the predawn light filtered in through the gaps in the bamboo flap that served as Kaede’s door.

Kagome awoke, her body ensconced in her warm sleeping bag, just as the hazy beams were slipping past the threshold. She was wondering what had caused her premature arousal when she heard a tiny sniff. It came from a nearby lump quivering under her covers, and she pulled them back to see Shippou, curled up in the fetal position and wearing an agonized expression, crying quietly.

Kagome brushed her thumb over his cheek, brushing away the tears. He peered up at her with watery eyes, the green hue that normally evinced his facile naiveté and innocence now darkened, revealing the turmoil that lay below the surface.

“I was just...thinking about...Papa and Mama...and my brothers and sisters,” He said tearfully, a slight pule in his voice.

Salty tears stung the corners of her eyes as she drew him close, letting him cry into her shirt. She offered him solace in her arms, tacitly telling him that she understood.

Mornings like these were only a fraction of the reason why she despised Naraku. So pernicious was his evil, so vile his heart that he would traumatize a child as sweet, fun-loving, and special as Shippou, branding him with scars that would take a lifetime and a half to heal.

Visions of the many times she had waited at an unconscious InuYasha’s side bandaging his beaten body zipped past her mind’s eye. He had kept only one scar out of all the wounds he’d ever had, and it lay directly over his heart. It was the place where Kikyou’s arrow had pierced him. Every time she and Sango bathed together Kagome saw the horrible cicatrix left by her younger brother’s Kusarigama. Miroku...his scar was unique in that not many had the faculty to destroy the person they lacerated.

Kagome sat up in bed, rocking Shippou back and forth, stroking his hair as he wept. His tiny body, though a bit bigger than it had been when fate had arranged their first meeting, was no heavier than that of a small sack of rice.

Peeking about the hut, Kagome noticed that they were the only ones there, everyone else already up and about. The last embers in the hearth having died out hours ago, the dull rays of burgeoning sunlight illuminated Shippou’s chestnut hair, “You’re not alone, Shippou. You’ll never be alone.”

He nodded against her chest, wee fists twisted in the blue cloth of her shirt as a moist breeze forced the bamboo flap aside, the sunshine flickering through the many slits in the reed door.

“Let’s go watch the sunrise. It always makes me feel better when I’m sad or scared,” Kagome cooed, kicking off her sleeping bag.

After leaving the warmth of the hut, Kagome carried Shippou to the periphery of the village and up a slope, her bare soles skimming the dew-laden grass as she made for the crest. Sitting down, she sighed as she observed by land before her, painted with the rose light of the sunrise, the glass surfaces of the rice patty fields glowing gold. She palpated the Shikon shard on her necklace as it fluoresced a pale pink under the amethyst expanse of the heavens, the young fox shifting around in her lap and rubbing his eyes as he watched the scene of ephemeral beauty with a somberness that belied his years. - * - * - *-

Stretched out on the roof of Kaede’s hut with his head propped up on his palm, the hanyou’s golden eyes took in the sight of the miko and the kitsune sitting at the top of the hill, the mingled scents of their tears swimming in his nostrils.

He had experienced many a morning like this, Kagome and Shippou watching the sunrise as the smell of their grief tainted the virgin breeze. The kit was lucky in that respect; he was babied, cuddled, cared for by his four surrogate parents who shared their worldly wisdoms with him in any way they were able. Kagome had always been the best when it came to matters of the heart though. How many times had she been there for him, enabled him to forget about the bad things? All it took was a simple brush of her hand against his, one of her resplendent smiles.

Mother used to hold me like that when we would watch the sunrise, InuYasha thought as the wind ruffled Kagome’s hair. Kagome...she’s....

He grimaced, casting his eyes about him covertly. No one was there.

She’s beautiful, InuYasha failed to stifle his sigh, and his body sagged as a blissful lethargy seeped through him.

All awareness having been sapped in his Kagome-induced torpor, he didn’t registered the slipping of the clay underfoot until it was too late. With a loud clattering of tiles the hanyou slid off the roof and landed on the ground outside Kaede’s door with a thump.

He gasped for air as he stared up at the sky dazedly, his senses taking their time returning to him. Sango’s concerned voice reached him along with the patter of footsteps coming closer, “What’s wrong with you, InuYasha?”

Face burning, he mumbled, “Nothing. Ow!” He complained as a renegade tile belatedly tumbled off the roof and shattered on his forehead.

Sango’s face came into focus, the ponytail that went with her slayer uniform drooping over her shoulder to tickle his face as she hovered above him. He was slightly repulsed by her redolence, which was as much Miroku’s scent as it was hers. “I thought dogs always landed on their feet.”

“That would be cats, dear Sango,” Miroku said, appearing at her side. He extended his gloved hand to the hanyou, “Allow me to help you--”

“I don’t need your damn hand!” InuYasha snarled, springing to his feet. Kirara peered up at him curiously, “What are you looking at? Stop dawdling!”

Mewling, her body became engulfed in fire as she took on the giant appearance of her alter ego.

Shifting to face the pair still sitting atop the hill, he consoled his infringing upon their melancholy with the mental image of wringing Takakuri’s greasy neck in his claws, which would only happen if they tracked down his half-brother.

“We have to get going,” InuYasha grunted when he’d bounded up to them, his arms hidden under billowing red sleeves.

Shippou peeked over Kagome’s shoulder, his now dry eyes locking onto the hanyou timidly, and InuYasha could see the green orbs becoming opaque once more, bottling up the pain the hanyou knew all too well. Kagome then stood up, allowing the fox to hop out of her arms so he could join Miroku and Sango on Kirara’s back.

She flashed InuYasha a demure smile, her brown eyes sparkling like diamonds from within her shadowy visage made darker by the pool of crimson sunlight on the horizon just behind her, a flawless imitation of her miko aura. He turned his head away as soon as he realized that he was blushing, offering her his back whilst trying to force his heart out of his throat, “Get on, wench.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“No,” He rebounded without thinking.

“Keh,” She said playfully. “I need my backpack.”

A smile twitched the corners of InuYasha’s lips as Kagome flounced past him to Kaede’s hut, emerging with her giant blue pack in the yellow one’s stead.

Skipping toward him, InuYasha pivoted just as she jumped, catching her thighs as she landed on his back. She grasped his shoulders through his thick haori as he took to the skies, Kirara tailing him.

That day was a good one for traveling, a clement zephyr complementing the effulgent sun and slightly cloudy weather. Combined with the freedom of pushing the limit of his speed and having Kagome nestled on his back, the balmy ambience made InuYasha more content than he’d had the privilege of being recently.

“Kagome,” InuYasha hissed her name as he leapt across the cap a dusty plateau, trying to catch up with Kirara. “Have you sensed anything yet? A jewel shard?”

He frowned when she didn’t answer. She had been quiet for the past few hours. Now a little after midday, it was the time when Kagome would normally have been talking the fuzz off his ear.

He glanced at her over his shoulder, and his eyes widened at the sight of the sleeping miko, her head pillowed in his mane of alabaster hair, a strand or two caressing her face as he jumped down a steep slope.

His first thought was that it would serve her right if he were to shout her awake; they could have bypassed a shard and not known it! As soon as the idea of jostling her out of her nap solidified however, her happy sigh made him hesitate. They hadn’t even left the western lands yet, and it wasn’t as if he couldn’t sniff out Sesshoumaru or Takakuri if they were near.

I don’t know why I’m letting her get away with stuff anyway. She’s not even awake to fight me on it! InuYasha thought with a snort as she snuggled into his neck. A quiet smile flitted over his lips as he flew onward.

Another hour passed before they stopped to eat, Kirara and InuYasha touching down in the center of a forest glade. The sounds of a river purling could be heard not far off.

InuYasha set Kagome down in the grass as Miroku gathered the kindling for Shippou to light with his fox-fire, “Oi, Kagome.”

“Mm?” Eyes opening slowly, her pupils shrank from the sunlight. “Wha--? I was asleep?”

“I guess you were,” InuYasha said in a fabricated tone that suggested he might get angry.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“I--uh...,” His cheeks pinked as he looking away. “You seemed tired.”

Kagome yawned, blind to his discomfort as she pulled her backpack off and fished around in it for their lunch, “I guess I’ve just been having trouble sleeping.”

“Keh! Looked like you were sleeping pretty well from where I was standing,” InuYasha muttered. Kagome giggled, a barely noticeable redness dusting her cheeks.

“Kitsune bi!” Shippou shouted, and the sticks that had been piled in the small patch of dirt caught fire, the twigs snapping a crackling as they combusted.

“Do you have to say ‘Kitsune bi’ every time you use your fox magic?” Miroku asked conversationally.

“It helps me focus,” The kit replied, folding his arms over his chest.

“I’m going to go and get some water to boil the ramen and stuff,” Kagome informed them as she hefted her pack over her shoulder once more and headed off toward the sound of the stream.

“I’m coming with you,” InuYasha declared.

He heard Shippou’s exasperated voice saying as he was walking away, “It’s a wonder Kagome doesn’t ‘Osuwari’ him, the way he tags after her all the time.”

“She didn’t get water enough to make it how I like last time!” InuYasha shouted back before stomping after Kagome.

He followed her through the coppice and the few meters to the stream, his hands tucked in his sleeves.

“You don’t trust me to get enough water?” Kagome questioned, digging an armful of water bottles from under the mass of school books.

“Feh, just because you don’t get enough water doesn’t mean I don’t trust you. See, you only filled it up halfway!” He accused, throwing out a claw at the barely filled container that she’d carelessly immerged in the stream. “I don’t want dry noodles.”

She shook her head, but filled it up a bit more anyway, “I’m glad.”

“Yeah, you should be. Dry ramen is a sin of nature.”

“No I meant,” She straightened up, holding the bottle to her bosom, “I’m glad you trust me.”

“Of course I trust you, Kagome,” InuYasha said, meaning it. I trust you more than I’ve ever been able to trust anyone since Mother died.

Her saccharine smile made him wish he could confess all that he felt for her, “I trust you too, InuYasha. More than you’ll ever know.”

Staring down at her, something fell into place deep within his subconscious. His inhibitions melted away as the sensation intensified, his demon blood roiling inside his distending heart. The sudden, inexplicable urge to take her in his arms and cover her with his scent was only obtunded by his frenzied denial of the possibility that Kagome might accept his advances.

She said it herself: we can’t--we can’t be together. A human and a hanyou can never be...just like Kikyou said. It’s wishful thinking, nothing but a fantasy.

He egressed from the dark confines of his mind when he realized Kagome was moving toward him. The distance between them shortening with each soft footfall of her shoes, her hand coming to rest over his heart, “I just wish I could show you how much I trust you.”

Her words sent his imagination spiraling out of control, Fuck! I can’t do this!

He wouldn’t let himself return her touch, couldn’t reach out for her no matter how much he ached to respond to her soul’s melody. It took every last particle of his self-control to keep his hands anchored at his sides as his name left her lips in a whisper.

“InuYasha...I trust you...I could never not...trust....”

As she stared up at him with an all to familiar luster in her gaze the knowledge that he could only resist the temptation for so long was poignant.

Had not something gone terribly wrong in that instant his body would have betrayed every one of his disincentives. It came in the form of a gelatinous tentacle shooting out of the depths of the water to wrap itself around Kagome’s ankle, pulling her away from him whilst drawing her toward the river.

“InuYasha!”

Instant panic inundated the hanyou, “Kagome!”

There were no prerequisites to his leaping toward her and grabbing hold of her hands, her cries for help smothered as the bluish-gray tentacle pulled them both below the surface.

Meanwhile back at camp their friends had heard the commotion and arrived at the riverfront to meet the sight of Kagome’s abandoned pack and water bottles.

Sango was the first one to overcome her shock, dropping Hiraikotsu and making for the river. Before she could dive in however, Miroku caught her by the arm.

“Please, Sango! I don’t want you putting yourself in harm’s way!”

“Dammit, Miroku, our friends are at the bottom of that river!” She screeched, her umber eyes tinged with hysteria.

“ROAR!”

The earth quaked as a flash of fire zoomed between the pair, the fire-cat diving into the waters.

“Let me go, baka!” Sango shouted struggling against her betrothed’s might hold.

“Shippou!” Miroku signaled to the kit whilst steering Sango toward him.

“What are you--?” Sango’s words died in her throat when she ran headlong into the giant pink orb that was Shippou, who used his ductile vastness to keep her away from the river, where Miroku stood waiting at the ready.

He jumped when InuYasha emerged from the river soaking wet, an equally drenched miko in his arms. Panting as he clambered up the bank, the hanyou laid Kagome out on the ground, where she lay unmoving, but breathing.

Shippou having resiled after being thwarted, Sango joined the threesome at the riverbank, “Where’s Kirara?”

At that precise moment a torrent of water exploded as if from a geyser, bringing the fire-neko out of the river along with a mammoth, tentacle-covered youkai, orange pupils blazing in the centers of its furious red eyes.

“An octopus!” Shippou shrieked from behind the shelter of Sango’s discarded weapon.

“It’s not a.... Shit, it is,” InuYasha growled, pulling Kagome further away from the shore.

“The Shikon no Tama is mine to possess!” The octopus-youkai thundered, and his jaw went slack when he saw that the thing had their fragment clutched in one of its eight viscous arms.

Before it could bring the shard to its rictal orifice however, Kirara lunged, biting down on the appendage, its greenish blood splattering all over them as she severed it with a jerk of her head.

“NO!” The creature cried as the Shikon no Tama fell into the stream with a plunk.

InuYasha would have dove after it then, I can’t leave Kagome!

The monk seemed to have read his mind, because next thing Miroku had thrown his staff aside, “I’ll get it!”

“Miroku!” Sango screamed as he pierced the water’s surface, a tentacle missing him by inches.

The slayer raced to recover her weapon as what few tentacles that hadn’t been sundered by Kirara penetrated the water after the Houshi, and before she could register the frightened cry of a certain Kitsune, Hiraikotsu was hurling toward the grayish extremities of the octopus-youkai that threatened the monk that had gone in pursuit of the jewel fragment, Shippou clinging to the bone-boomerang for dear life.

“Shippou, no!” Sango yelled as the octopus batted Hiraikotsu aside as if it were a plaything as Shippou’s claws failed him, and the kitsune was sent flying through the shower of green mucus as the weapon gouged the earth on the opposite bank.

“AAAAAAHHHH!” Shippou screamed as he flew helplessly toward the monstrous octopus, but it seemed kismet had different plans when Kirara intercepted him, the kit landing in the safety of her buttermilk fur. “Kirara, you saved me!”

Soaring in fiery circles around the river-monster, she snapped at the constantly oscillating extremities with her massive jaws. The creature wailed and screeched when Kirara ripped off the tentacle that had twisted itself around her flaming foot, flailing madly as it tried to catch her. Shippou shrieked once more as it unleashed a hidden arsenal of appendages that twisted around the cat and fox, bringing them to its ugly face.

“Aberrant neko!” It crowed, Kirara and Shippou trapped within four thick, jellylike arms. “Now you will feel the sting of retribution, servant of humans!”

She yowled as the octopus sunk its aciculate fangs into her, her body convulsing as Shippou watched in horror.

“Kirara!” Sango hollered, tears leaking from her eyes as she wracked her brain for a way to get Hiraikotsu back.

What happened next was over before anyone could comprehend just what had taken place; a small something shot out of the surrounding trees to strike the octopus-youkai in the eyeball at light speed, wrenching a howl of pain from the creature just before it was hit once more in the other eye.

The distraction liberated the pair from the thing’s grasp, and Shippou clung to the unconscious neko-youkai in his arms as her body shrank back into that of a kitten’s at the pitch of her supple arc toward the riverbank.

“No!” Sango wept, running over to kneel beside the kitsune as he and Kirara rolled to a stop on the riverbank. “Kirara!”

“Leave them alone, River-demon! You’re fight’s with me!”

Everyone present turned toward origin of the newcomer’s voice. Perched in the bows of a towering elm was a ferine old man, his nakedness covered by thick furs and his wrinkled skin clinging to his muscles, his head bare of all but a few hoary strands and a slingshot in one hand. His other hand was supporting Miroku, whose sodden violet robes were sticking to his skin. Assumably having been rescued by the old tree-swinger, the monk held onto the Shikon no Kakera’s necklace with a grip as tenuous as the thread that kept him suspended above the abyss of unconsciousness.

From Kirara’s side the taijiya sucked in a sharp breath, “Miroku!”

The octopus-youkai cackled darkly, green blood pouring from its eyes, “You intend to defeat me with your petty human weapons? I shall devour you as I did your entire village!”

The old man bared yellow teeth, “Today is the day I, Basuto, get my revenge and slay you, hell-beast!” Searching for a stone to equip his slingshot with, his gaze came to rest on the jewel in Miroku’s hand. Snatching it out of his fingers, Basuto deposited the Shikon no Tama in the cradle and took aim at the octopus.

“You idiot! Don’t--!” InuYasha’s deterrent came too late; the old man released the elastic that bridged the V of the slingshot and the jewel nailed the creature in the head in a conflagration of magenta.

“Basuto, you fool!” It bellowed, the waters riling about its remaining tentacles. “You have given me the Jewel of Four Souls!”

“InuYasha.”

At Kagome’s barely breathed words the hanyou’s head snapped back to her sopping wet form, her obsidian hair spraying in a wet fan about her head, “Kagome?”

“InuYasha, my jewel shard--”

“Don’t worry about it, Kagome,” He said firmly, squeezing her hand. “I’ll kill that puny youkai.”

The hanyou stood, stepping up to the shoreline, the water churning and spuming at him feet as the octopus glared down at him, its body taking on a reddish glow. The blinding light that heralded the transforming of Tessaiga as InuYasha drew it out caused the creature’s demented laughter escalate as the fused fangs of his father’s and his own mouth quivered expectantly in his grasp.

The few tentacles left intact snaked up the riverbank toward him, “You will meet the same fate as your cat friend, hanyou scum!”

“Shut up and take your medicine!” InuYasha barked, tilting his sword at the octopus-youkai. “Kaze no Kizu!”

White lightnings crackled along the length of the blade, rivaling the sun as they discharged, riving through the river-youkai until it was nothing but dust. As the octopus’ howl of pain died out among the trees the Shikon no Tama fell dutifully into InuYasha’s waiting hand, the waters continuing to foam and fume.

Turning away from the steaming river he sheathed Tessaiga and fell to his knees beside Kagome. He was covered in as much octopus blood and water as she was, the Jewel of Four Souls dangling from his clawed fingers.

“Are you alright?” They asked one another in unison.

Kagome replied first, a faint grin turning up the corners of her lips, “I’m fine, just...wet.”

“You sure?” InuYasha sniffed her, supporting her back as he helped her into a sitting position.

“I said so, didn’t I?” She retorted, though it didn’t contain her usual bite. “Are you okay?”

“Keh, what do you think?” He answered, relieved that she hadn’t been hurt.

“Thank Kami!” She flung her arms around him, and InuYasha could do little more than blush as Sango walked over to them, Shippou on her shoulder and Kirara laying limp in her arms. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“K-Kagome...,” The inuhanyou stuttered. The miko stiffened.

Pulling away from him as suddenly as she had hugged him, a deep red blush filtered into her cheeks, “I-I...um--”

Both were distracted when the voice of the old forest-dweller sounded, “You.”

Carelessly letting go of the Houshi, Basuto stepped up to the hanyou bearing an unreadable expression, “You have slain the river-demon.”

InuYasha didn’t recognize the look in the old man’s eyes. Getting to his feet warily, he shielded Kagome from the fur-covered troglodyte’s view, “Yeah, so what?”

The hanyou expected to be yelled at, insulted, perhaps even pelted with rocks from the old man’s slingshot. The last thing he expected was for Basuto to fall prostrate on the ground before him as if he were a god, kissing his feet in abject reverence.

He was shell-shocked to say the least, “What the fuck are you doing?”

Basuto straightened up, still bowing low, “You have avenged my village and my kin. For that I owe you my gratitude.”

“Is he okay?” InuYasha heard Kagome saying, and he looked to see her over near Sango, who was aiding Miroku in gaining his feet.

“I’m not sure,” The taijiya replied.

“I’ll be alright. I’ve endured far more exhausting exercises,” The monk said, a lascivious glint in his eye as he steadied himself on her shoulder with one hand, his other hand moving precariously low.

The taijiya stared at the fire-cat in the crook of her arm morosely, “The octopus-youkai’s bite contained a mephitic paralyzing agent. If we don’t find a cure soon, Kirara may never m-move...you hentai!”

“Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow!” Miroku cried as Sango grabbed him by the ear, successfully freeing herself from his grope as the kitsune on her shoulder shook his head.

“Where can we find the herbs for the cure?” Kagome queried when Sango was through with the Houshi.

Sango sighed, “They only grow in the far north this time of year, but I don’t see how we can make it in time....”

“You say your two-tail has been bitten?” The old man asked suddenly.

“Yes,” Sango began cautiously. “Do you know where we could find a cure nearby?”

Basuto nodded, “Your two-tail can be cured at my forest home. You must cross the river by foot however; all the bridges were destroyed long ago.”

“No problem,” InuYasha spoke up, his feet leaving large tracks in the sandy bank as he approached the river. “I’ll take you guys across.”

Everyone, as well as Kagome’s backpack, had made it across in two trips. After Sango reacquired Hiraikotsu, the old man led them in the direction of his home, flinging himself from tree to tree ahead of them as ably an Orangutan. They followed Basuto a short distance through the shady forest, Sango’s visage becoming darker with every second that Kirara’s eyes stayed closed. Soon the trees began to grow sparser and sunlight more abundant, so when they arrived at the top of a small slope overlooking a wide valley, they took in the sight before them in all its glory.

In the center of the vale was a behemoth of trees, its branches seeming to stroke the heavens. Nestled in the largest nook was Basuto’s home, but it wasn’t just any home. They saw as they walked down the slope and plied the bare expanse of land to the great tree that it was more like a mansion, forged from naught but boles and clay.

“Fifty years ago this entire valley was inhabited by my village,” Basuto told them as they stopped at the base of the colossal trunk. “In that time long ago the river ran through here, but one day the waters brought with them no fish, and that was the day the river-demon slew my family and the rest of them.”

His tone was dark as he gazed up at the swaying branches of the tree, but not really seeing them. the sounds of Sango’s footsteps broke the silence as she walked up beside him, placing her hand on his shoulder in a gesture of understanding. He turned his discoid to her, then to the fire-neko that was breaking laboriously in her arms.

“It was the day before I constructed my home from the logs of the other huts that I met Mageru. He helped me fight off the river-demon, he changed the river’s course so that I wouldn’t be plagued with attacks, he vowed to stay with me until the river-demon was killed and the death of his mate avenged...,” Basuto heaved a sigh, rubbing his temples. “And he was the one who rid me of the river-demon’s poison.”

“Is Mageru the cure you spoke of? Will he be able to help Kirara?” Sango questioned.

Basuto nodded, “Yes.”

“Okay,” The silver-haired hanyou began, “I’ll take everyone up one at a time--”

“No need!” Basuto said, hopping over to a rope that hung down from the high branches. “We’re already there!”

No sooner had he yanked the rope than a huge boulder tumbled out of the heights of the tree, and InuYasha felt the earth give under his feet. They were being brought upward by what appeared to be a giant fishing net, Kagome and Shippou screaming in delight as the web of rope hauled them up the trunk so fast that when it stopped they kept flying. InuYasha caught the miko and the fox kit before they fell, and Sango landed on Miroku, who had face-planted onto the deck that protruded from the main floor of Basuto’s home.

“Let’s do that again!” Shippou enthused as Basuto joined them on the balcony.

“Perhaps later, but right now we need to get that toxin out of your two-tail.”

Leading them through the sliding door, they entered an ostentatious foyer, a structure that resembled a modern staircase leading to the upper floors, the light of the day outside permeating the rice paper that fronted each window.

“Mageru!” Basuto called, looking around. “He must be up in his room.”

The gang followed him up a couple flights of stairs, but when they reached the third floor Kagome froze in the middle of walking down the hallway, her eyes wide.

“What is it?” InuYasha asked her, concerned at her odd behavior.

“I...there’s this aura. It’s almost like a...like a miko’s aura,” She said, narrowing her eyes on the length of hallway before them where the others watched as Basuto opened one of the doors.

“I apologize for waking you, Mageru, but I’ve brought some visitors in need of your healing powers,” The elder spoke to someone inside.

Stealing up beside them, Kagome and InuYasha peaked into the room, the former gasping at what met her eyes.

Curled up in a bed of dry leaves, his vibrant azure eyes trained on them, was a kitten about the size of Kirara. His coat was the clear blue color of the sky with spots of pure white like clouds. The white also tipped his ears, paws and the ends of his--

“Two tails,” InuYasha’s ears twitched as Kagome whispered. “Mageru’s a two-tail.” - * -* - * -  

“So you’ve been trying to kill this river-demon for fifty years?” InuYasha asked incredulously.

The sun had set long ago. When they’d taken care of the first order of business--getting Kirara to Mageru--the next order of business had become instantly clear. Now, hours after they’d left Kirara in the care of the neko-youkai’s healing prowess, they sat gathered around the hearth in the spacious eating room, empty bowls and chopsticks diffused on the floorboards about them. Sango and Kagome’s hair was still wet from their bath in an adjoining onsen on the second floor, both of them dressed in fresh clothes, their bloodied ones flapping in the wind out on the balcony. The scent of Kagome’s vanilla-honey body wash invaded InuYasha’s senses from where she sat with only a few scant inches between them.

“Indeed, you are the first people I have seen in a very long while,” Basuto answered the hanyou from the other side of the fire.

“But,” InuYasha gawked at him, “Aren’t you mad? I mean, you’ve been after revenge on this demon for the better part of your life, and then someone else comes along and kills it.”

The old man smiled wearily, “Well, I wouldn’t call it the better part of my life, but no, I’m not mad at all. The spirits of my ancestors and the other villagers have been put to rest. It matters not who gave them peace.”

“Feh! I still don’t get it.”

Kagome fingered the jewel that now rested in it proper place around her neck, “So that’s why you hadn’t heard of the Shikon Jewel, right Basuto?”

He squinted at the pink orb at the girl’s throat, “I’m afraid if I ever heard its legend I have yet to recollect it, but it is clear to me that the jewel was something the river-demon sought, which can only mean the jewel is evil.”

“Partially,” The monk said sedately from his customary place at Sango’s side, the taijiya seeming to have forgiven him for his earlier lechery. “The jewel is a thing of both good and evil, a conglomeration of the pure soul of a miko and the base souls of youkai. It’s immense power tempts those who possess wicked hearts, for it has the power to grant its holder any wish when whole.”

Basuto observed the jewel with renewed interest, “It isn’t whole.”

“That’s what we’ve been working on for the past two years,” Kagome said. “I was the one who broke the jewel in the first place, and Miroku, Sango, and Shippou have been helping InuYasha and I collect the pieces.”

“Now that we have most of the jewel though, more demons like that octopus-youkai are going to be after us,” The hanyou added.

“How much longer to you think it will take Mageru to cure Kirara?” Sango asked anxiously.

“Mageru is an excellent healer. I’m sure it will be soon.”

There was a pause, “Mageru has the power to heal any wound?”

Basuto’s gaze slid out of focus as he recalled the days of the past, “By my experience, yes. He has other powers as well. He is a water-neko of the ability to control water and summon rain as well as heal physical maladies.”

Sango twisted her finger’s together in the lap of her green kimono, “Do you mind if I go check on Kirara?”

Basuto nodded, “Certainly.”

Miroku followed her progress with his cobalt eyes as she disappeared up the winding staircase. Beside him Shippou imitated his mother hen-like movements.

The kit spoke his thoughts aloud, “Now that we have Naraku’s shard will we get attacked a lot more?”

“Keh! It ain’t nothing we can’t handle.” InuYasha snorted.

“Oh, yeah? What about Takakuri?” Kagome said pointedly, her tone devoid of any quip.

InuYasha snarled, “That was bad luck!”

“Uh...guys...,” Miroku addressed them, indicating the kitsune leaning heavily on the monk’s knee, his eyelids drifting shut.

“It is pretty late,” Kagome yawned.

The patter of footfalls reached them, and they looked to see Sango hurrying down the stairs, “Everybody, follow me, you’ve got to see this.”

Glancing at one another, they stood to follow her up to the third floor, where the slayer ushered them through the door of Mageru’s room.

“Oh...,” Kagome breathed, placing a hand over her heart as the others stared at the scene with eyes.

A fully healed Kirara and Mageru lay in the middle of the bed of leaves, each kitten curled around the other. Kirara was sleeping peacefully as Mageru stared down at her with an affectionate light in his blue gaze, his fluffy tails warming her body as she dozed.

Mageru didn’t twitch as Basuto slowly stepped forward, only moving his eyes to meet those of the old man’s when he knelt beside the verdant bed. They stayed that way for a long time, and InuYasha got the feeling that there was some sort of tacit conversation passing between them, something of esoteric nature that had everything to do with them.

The hanyou just barely picked up the elder’s quiet words, “Are you sure this is what you want, Mageru?”

The water-neko gave a curt nod of the head before he resumed watching over the kitten beside him. Basuto sighed as he stood, returning to the group who was still eying the two kittens from the door.

“Mageru wishes to accompany you on your quest,” He stated levelly.

Kagome blinked, “He what?”

“Mageru has kept his vow, that was to stay with me until the death of his mate was avenged, the river-demon slain. Now he wishes to travel with you and your friends.”

“I guess it couldn’t hurt,” InuYasha allowed as he watched the sleeping felines, nestled in the bed of foliage. “At least no more than having Shippou with us does.”

The hanyou’s insult when unheeded by the kitsune, who was quickly approaching slumber himself where he sat in Kagome’s arms.

“You are tired. Please accept my offer to quarter you here for the night; it is the least I can do for you for ending this long journey of mine.”

“We are most grateful, Basuto-sempai,” Miroku bowed to him, and he took Sango by the hand as the elder led them out of the room.

InuYasha lingered a little longer in Mageru’s room, wondering at the events of the past week as the night breeze swept past his silver mane through an open window. Mageru’s blue and white coat glistened in the light of the crescent moon, his eyes glowing with an inner fire that InuYasha recognized as the instinctual desire to protect what was precious despite all obstacles....

“InuYasha, aren’t you going to sleep?”

He slanted a glance at Kagome, the miko beckoning him to follow Basuto to the rooms that lay somewhere deep in the framework of the mansion.

“Yeah,” He grunted, exiting without looking back at the two youkai as he followed the miko down the hallway, keeping a safe distance between them.

He couldn’t help but recall their earlier conversation as he watched the moonlight splash off her glossy midnight hair, as she smiled back at him, encouraging him to keep following.

‘I just wish I could show you how much I trust you.’

The hanyou jerked his head away from her, needing desperately to get his mind off of the girl skipping down the hall ahead of him. He’d never been more confused. He knew she trusted him, but what did she know? She surely couldn’t know what trusting him meant, what loving him meant. Bad things didn’t touch her, didn’t affect her like the rest of them. She was always optimistic, always accepting, always Kagome.

Walking past an open window, it dawned on him just how much things had changed, the road of the neglected hanyou he’d treaded for so long had all but evanesced, replaced by uncharted territory, a path that was both terrifying and cleansing and filled with the scent of vanilla and honey.

Never before had InuYasha wished that it was the night of the new moon.