InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Price of Vengeance ❯ Chapter Sixty: Contemplate ( Chapter 61 )

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, etc. Rumiko Takahashi does, and I only wish I had a small microcosm of her imagination...

 

A/N: A certain nymph is dedicated to my generous Fairia, a certain eagle to my friend Tausha, and certain feathers dedicated to my valiant Vyncent, who encouraged me in dark hours.

 

WARNING: Some language (which includes more of Jaken's bad poetry) and lime. (Words edited on ffnet)

 

Chapter Sixty (Contemplate)

 

They mocked her in hissing whispers. They echoed and sang madness to her in the dark depths of her cold and lonely mind.

 

~Mad...~

 

*No.*

 

~Mad...mad...mad...mad...mad...~ They taunted her, laughed at her, whispered to her of darkness and death, anger and vengeance...

 

*NEVER.*

 

Never would she allow them to control her. She was above them. They were but empty whispers...whispers perhaps of the dead souls she stole to keep living...

 

"I am Kikyo." She spat at them, the bitterness almost overwhelming. "I am a PRIESTESS."

 

~Mad...mad...mad...mad...mad...~

 

If she were mad, it was not from dementia, but from anger. She burned with it.

 

She had burned FOR it...

 

It was her fault. That girl. That reincarnation. Kagome. How she loathed the very name of the pitiful little thief who had stolen her soul, usurped her powers, taken her love...

 

~You never loved him...~ The voices whispered back, and then broke apart into sing-songing echoes that spread through her darkened mind, until she wanted to scream with their unending persistence.

 

~Never...never...never...loved...never...loved...never...never..~

 

That bitch had done this to her, created this darkness within her pure soul. Kagome was the one who had turned her into this walking being of ash and bone, bound by unconsecrated earth and dark arts, forcing her to steal the souls of the dead to live just a little longer so that she might try and taste a semblance of humanity once more.

 

That girl had taken everything from her, stolen what was rightfully hers...life...love...possibility...

 

*I will kill her for what she did to me!*

 

~Mad...mad...mad...mad...~

 

She was not Naraku. The madness of his dark soul would never claim HER. She was Kikyo, a miko trained from birth. She had the power...the PURITY...to keep back the darkness!

 

The voices spinning in her head denied it. ~Madness...you can't deny us...~

 

~Can't...~

 

~Madness...~

 

~Deny...~

 

~Madness...~

 

"NEVER!" The shriek came from her cold lips, and the white miko stood there, her icy composure broken under the endless onslaught. Her small fists were curled tight in rage, and her dark eyes burned with unholy anger. The power shimmered around her, the darkest fuchsia and melting red of anger, the purer energy of a priestess's calling drowned out in the rage and anger that fueled the dead miko's existence.

 

She shone with the malignant, fuchisia-wrapped power of the tainted Shikon no Tama, though she would deny it ever.

 

From the darkest shadows, a darker being watched, and his crimson eyes glowed with delighted contemplation as he watched the lost miko's breath come in sharp, short heaves and her cold body tremble with the raging madness that was barely contained within it...

 

*~*~*~*~*

 

"What the hell is that?" InuYasha took a deep sniff, wrinkled his sensitive nose and looked down-right disgusted.

 

Koharu appeared affronted, even though Kaede was unperturbed by the hanyou's bad manners. "Ye shouldn't worry over it, InuYasha. This is not for ye, but for Kagome."

 

"What the hell is in it?" InuYasha wrinkled his nose again. "It smells like weeds."

 

Shippo giggled. The stuff really did smell awful.

 

Koharu snapped. "I made this recipe myself, hanyou. Kagome-chan has suffered badly with increasing nausea, and this stew of 'weeds' are the only things she can keep down!"

 

Miroku looked surprised at Koharu's tone. The usually mild girl was acting positively bitchy. Her moods seemed to be changing with lightening-fast frequency, and the houshi mentally cringed when he thought how frequent Koharu had been going from cheerful to weeping to anger to happy, as the burden of pregnancy toyed with her emotions.

 

"Er..." He started tentatively, but Koharu's eyes flashed at him, making him drop his indigo gaze to stare meekly down at his own bowl of fish and rice.

 

InuYasha wasn't as sensitive. Crossing his arms as he sat knees-out across the fire, he scowled. "There isn't one piece of meat in that mess!"

 

Kaede regarded the hanyou with a mild look while Koharu looked ready to upend the bowl of vegetable-soup over his head. "Is there a reason Kagome needs meat, InuYasha?"

 

The red-robed hanyou snorted. "Of course Kagome needs meat, Baba! She's carrying pups, isn't she?" He gave Koharu's soup a dark look. "That stuff wouldn't feed a mouse, let alone an inu."

 

Koharu looked thoughtful, and Miroku was amazed again at how quickly the girl changed her moods---almost as quickly as Kagome. "Lady Kaede, if InuYasha is correct---"

 

The hanyou just snorted.

 

"---than perhaps Kagome-chan needs protein. She is tired so much of the time, even though she eats all that she can keep down."

 

The old priestess nodded slowly, lost in thought. InuYasha just scowled at them both, before interrupting with his usual finesse, "Stupid onna. Hanyou pups aren't like ningen brats. We're carnivores." He grinned, showing his sharp canines.

 

"InuYasha," Kaede directed, "what else does Kagome need that we do not know of?"

 

InuYasha shrugged. "I don't know much. Just that she needs meat. And food. Lots of food. And water. Kagome smells as dried out as you are, Baba, and she ain't old. Pups don't grow strong on weeds and crackers!" He glared at the inoffensively tasteless wafers Koharu had placed alongside the bowl of soup set aside for Kagome's lunch.

 

*Pups?*

 

Both of Miroku's brows shot up in astonishment, and Koharu's deep brown eyes widened as she squeaked out her surprise vocally.

 

"Pups? Kagome is carrying pups?"

 

InuYasha scowled at them all, his black brows making a vee over amber eyes. "Of course she's carrying pups! She's as big as a house! Don't tell me you stupid idiots didn't know!"

 

Shippo, wrapped around a purring Kirara, yawned sleepily and piped up, "I knew, InuYasha!"

 

Miroku turned around to stare at the little kit, who just yawned again and buried his rust-colored head against Kirara's creamy fur. Three tails flicked at him---copper-sand and black-tipped foam.

 

"Kagome's having TWINS?" Koharu almost squealed with delight, her brown eyes shining in utter joy-filled happiness.

 

There was a gasp behind him, and Miroku's head whipped back the other way to stare at the stunned expressions on Kagome and Sango---who had returned from their slow, meandering walk to the water spring behind Kaede's hut---just in time to hear Koharu's outburst.

 

InuYasha was there in a flash, grabbing at a suddenly weak-kneed miko. Kagome's brown eyes were wide, and she let out a hoarse whisper. "Twins?" Her small hands fluttered wonderingly over her thickened waist, and she seemed at a loss for what to say. Miroku watched as Kaede, Koharu, and Sango hovered anxiously behind the silver-haired hanyou as he picked Kagome up like she weighed nothing and carefully laid her down on her futon. As soon as InuYasha had set the miko down, he was pushed aside so that the three onna could fuss over Kagome, who still looked as if she had been hit by a tree.

 

"Oh, Kagome!" Koharu's voice bubbled up happily. "You must be SO happy!"

 

Kagome still looked too stunned to be happy.

 

"Well, this certainly explains some things." Was Kaede's dry comment.

 

"Imouta, do you need anything?" Sango leaned over the young miko, concern in her dark eyes.

 

InuYasha rolled his amber eyes at Miroku, whose sentiment matched the hanyou's explicitly. By tacit agreement, they beat a hasty retreat out of the hut.

 

"C'mon, monk." InuYasha growled. "Let's go hunt up some damn meat."

 

Miroku couldn't have agreed more!

 

*~*~*~*~*

 

“What's that?”

 

“Meat.”

 

“I know it's meat, you dolt. I meant, what TYPE of meat.”

 

The hanyou let out an exasperated sigh, and then said heavily, as if he were speaking to one simple-minded, “It's fish.”

 

“Well, duh!”

 

InuYasha just glared at the black-haired miko who could get him riled quicker than anyone he knew.

 

Well, almost anyone...

 

Sango leaned over Kagome's shoulder and frowned. “It's liver.”

 

“Ew.” Kagome made a face. “Fish guts?”

 

“It's good for you.” InuYasha growled. “You need to eat it.”

 

“I'm not going to eat THAT.” Some of the old fire was in Kagome's eyes, and the older priestess saw it with some pleasure. Since the hanyou's return the day before, Kagome had seemed more alive. It was almost as if the two of them were like siblings, needing to squabble over every little thing. Even Sango and Miroku, who could usually calm the stubborn pair, could not seem to contain them. But Sango seemed to have opened up more, and she was as quick to snap back at InuYasha as Kagome had ever been.

 

“Yes. You. Are.” InuYasha enunciated each word while gritting his teeth.

 

“She doesn't have to eat it if she doesn't want to.” Sango replied, staring at the pushy silver-haired hanyou who was her mate.

 

InuYasha glared at the taijiya, before turning his glare back to her pregnant friend. “It's good for you.”

 

Kagome made a face. “It stinks.”

 

Sango frowned even more. “It's raw.”

 

“Who cares if it's raw?” InuYasha growled. “It's good for the pups, and you need to eat it.” He shoved the bowl full of squishy fish back at the girl, but Sango intercepted it.

 

“No. She. Doesn't.” The taijiya snapped, taking the bowl out of InuYasha's claws.

 

“Yes. She. Does.” InuYasha snatched it back.

 

Sango growled.

 

Kaede watched them all with a placidly amused air, while Kagome suddenly seemed troubled by the tension between the hanyou and demon slayer. The miko, ever sensitive to the moods of her friends, put up a pacifying hand. “Sango...InuYasha...”

 

“When you carry my pups, wench, I'm gonna make you eat this crap, too.” InuYasha glared at Sango, who suddenly flushed bright crimson, and dropped her eyes.

 

InuYasha grinned his triumph, and now it was Kagome's turn to look like she was going to murder the obnoxious hanyou for embarrassing her best friend.

 

It was time for her to intervene.

 

Kaede stood up, and all three pairs of eyes turned her way. Kaede calmly took the bowl from InuYasha and dumped the contents into the steaming pot set to boil over the crackling fire. “I thank ye, InuYasha, for the getting of it, and he is right, Kagome. Ye need the protein, and fresh liver contains the most nutrients for the pups ye carry. But ye need not eat it raw. I will boil it for ye, and when Sango's time comes, I will do the same.”

 

Twin blushes flared across the girls' cheeks. InuYasha crossed his arms over his broad chest, and flashed his fangs in a superior smile. He loved it when he was proven right.

 

Kaede's brow arched.

 

Amber eyes blinked, and the toothy grin disappeared as two pairs of brown eyes gave thoughtful contemplation on how best to murder the obnoxious hanyou---quickly.

 

Oops.

 

*~*~*~*~*

 

A slight smile curved the sensuous mouth of the dark hanyou as he contemplated the woman kneeling in front of him. Red eyes thoughtful, he stared at her, waiting for the cold miko to give some hint or sign of impatience, as a lesser creature might have. But this dark beauty had the patience of the next world, eternity, to surround herself with, and it was finally he who broke the empty silence between them, his velvet voice slightly edged with a mockery of polite inquiry.

 

"What is it you wish, my Kikyo?"

 

The miko raised her head slightly, so that her enigmatic eyes could look into his. There was the familiar withdrawal of a trained Shrine maiden there, and an icy contempt that made him want to curl his claws around her delicate white throat and choke the un-life from her just to gain a reaction from the dead bitch...

 

"Why have you not killed the girl Kagome?" The miko answered his question with one of her own.

 

Naraku smiled faintly and leaned back against his silken cushions, pulling the white furs closer around him with a lazy air. "What, you still worry yourself with that child?"

 

The cold eyes were unfathomable, showing no emotion in their dark, shadowed depths. "You are a fool, hanyou."

 

The red eyes glowed a moment with anger over the miko's insult, but the heat cooled into thoughtful consideration as he regarded the dead miko before him.

 

"The girl Kagome is dangerous. She could kill you, Naraku." Kikyo said sharply, though her voice was soft.

 

*Lyrical...*

 

Naraku dismissed the threat with a negligent wave of his hand. "Kagome can no longer use her sacred powers. She is no threat to me now."

 

"You don't know what that girl is capable of." Kikyo hissed, warning lacing her tone.

 

The dark lord stared at the little miko with faint amusement, his red eyes as unreadable as the miko who faced him. "Perhaps I do."

 

There was a faint flush on the white cheeks of the dead priestess, and Naraku reveled in what it revealed to him. Kikyo despised the young girl whom some called her reincarnation.

 

Dark eyes dropped beneath the glowing red gaze and Naraku's mouth curved in a sardonic smile when the faintest hiss of a whisper reached him. The emotions contained in that fervent demand revealed far more than the cold priestess would ever admit to.

 

"I want her death."

 

"And I want you." Naraku said with almost a purr, loving the game of cat and mouse. The priestess's head shot up, and her mouth curled in derision. Naraku's smile startled her for a moment, it was not the reaction she had been expecting, and Naraku delighted in keeping those around him off-balance. "But we cannot always have what we want, can we, my love?"

 

Kikyo's lips thinned into a hard white line as his dark laughter mocked her demand.

 

*~*~*~*~*

 

"Imouta?"

 

Kagome stirred under Sango's soft inquiry. Blinking tiredly, she dragged a weary hand across her eyes. She always seemed to be sleeping these days, but sleeping was better than just lying there, wide awake and yet too weary to move. The betrayal of her body's exhaustion made her grumpy and restless. She'd give anything to just MOVE.

 

The concern in Sango's brown eyes made Kagome give her a weak attempt at a smile. "Sorry, onee-chan. I'm just tired."

 

Sango nodded in sympathy. Placing the tray beside the young miko, the taijiya curled up on her side so that she could easily reach across Kagome's widened stomach and tuck a napkin around her.

 

Kagome looked at her bib with a wry smile. "I feel like a baby."

 

Sango touched the pale cheek, love and understanding shining in her honey-touched eyes. It was almost amazing how expressive the taijiya's eyes had become. Kagome would have never believed it if she hadn't seen it for herself.

 

"You are so beautiful, Kagome. Even now, when most women look burdened, you seem to glow."

 

Kagome looked at Sango askance. "You're kidding, right?"

 

"No, imouta." Sango's fingers combed an inky tendril off of the white forehead. The moment was broken, though, when they heard a loud bellow outside. Sango shot to her feet with a quick, lithe movement that Kagome envied. Kagome struggled to sit up even as Shippo came bursting through the door.

 

"Okaa-san!" The little kitsune leapt for Kagome's arms, which came up automatically to encircle the little cub.

 

"What is it, Shippo?" Sango demanded, her soft voice hard as she laid hand to her katana, ever ready at her side.

 

"WOLVES, Sango!" Shippo trembled more from excitement than fear. "InuYasha just caught wind of 'em, and went chasing off with Miroku to go find out where they are! He said to stay here, and protect okaa-san!"

 

*Wolves?* Kagome blinked.

 

*~*~*~*~*

 

Ginta was delirious. He fought vague half-wisps of dreams and nightmares, saw strange visions in his feverish brain, and wondered if he was losing his mind...

 

Phantom eagles flew through his dreams, their raucous calls both frightfully challenging and reassuringly close. Why he should feel both relief and gratitude for BIRDS was beyond him! All his life, he had hated birds. Loathed them.

 

The Birds of Paradise, ancient enemies of the eastern wolf-tribe, screeched through his hazy mind, and Ginta flinched. Pain, numbed by familiarity, tingled along his limbs, and he wished fervently for Hideki's numbing juice. That nasty brew was so foul it made an ookami's eyes water with the stench of it, but it would have at least let him pass out, beyond pain or dreams...

 

So many dead. So many lost. What would he say to Koga, when he saw him? IF he ever saw him? He suddenly wished that Koga was there, reassuring him with his ear-wincing bellows and bluntly rough words.

 

Kami! He'd even settle for Hakkaku at this moment!

 

"Ginta?"

 

Who was that? It wasn't Hakkaku. It was feminine and soft. Somehow familiar, but nothing he could lay claw on. Could it be his Lady? His head felt dizzy, and he fancied the wind circling around inside his pounding head like a tiny whirlwind.

 

"Ginta? It's me, Kagome."

 

Kagome?

 

Ginta's gummy eyes popped open in surprise, and he groaned as his pupils dilated in the lamp-light held just above him. Promptly shutting his eyes, the grey-haired wolf youkai muttered under his breath.

 

"Ginta, you're safe now." Kagome was saying softly, and patting his shoulder. That was nice of her. Kagome had always been a nice girl. Too bad Koga had never been able to keep her long enough to make her his mate. But then again, if Koga HAD mated Kagome, then Lady Kagura would never have come to the caverns and saved him. And Lady Kagura understood wolves like Kagome, sweet as she was, never could...

 

"Ginta, you're gonna be okay, okay?"

 

His mind was playing tricks on him. Was Kagome repeating herself, or was he just hearing her words twice? Ginta's mind wandered, and he was just happy that he was safe and okay...it was a good thing he had told the eagles to take them to his sister's village...Kagome would help them...heal them...

 

Darkness finally claimed him, and the exhausted ookami slipped away into unconsciousness.

 

*~*~*~*~*

 

Lady Kaede closed her single eye tiredly. She suddenly felt her long years pressing down on her, and wished fervently for the energy of youth. Age had crept up on her, and while she had reconciled herself to it and made her peace with the passing years, so that she could take the tossed insults of InuYasha with a wry amusement and no offense, she still didn't like it when her age caught up with her.

 

There was so much to do, so many things to attend to. She didn't need to be here, leaning against the wall. She should get up, refill the water cask, and then take it around to those patients who might be awake and thirsty. But she felt numb and wooden, and she could not seem to gather the strength to straighten up.

 

Koharu and Sango had been a great help, caring for the wounded ookami and their furry brothers. InuYasha, who had smelled their distinctive scent across the village, had come running back from investigating, bellowing that he needed Baba-sama, and quick. Kaede smiled drily in memory. That hanyou was a brat, but a likeable one for all that.

 

Few of the ookami youkai had been awake or even coherent. An older ookami, who told her his name was Nobu, had growled out that they had been attacked by acid-spitting worms, and from the numerous wounds, and the few who survived even after being brought to the village by passing eagle youkai who had not tarried once they dropped their cargo, wary of ningens, it had been a rather nasty engagement.

 

Koharu had departed some time ago, the dark circles under her eyes and drooping shoulders signs of exhaustion even the enthusiastic girl could not ignore. Sango had stayed longer, until InuYasha had shown up and demanded she stop for the night. The hanyou was very protective of the taijiya, Kaede thought distractedly.

 

Sighing, the old woman lifted herself up from the wall and bent down to pick up the wooden cask. Moving slowly, she stepped across the futon-littered floor of what was normally the breeding shed, and stepped outside into the night.

 

The air was bracing outside, and while it cleared the fog from her mind, Kaede still eyed the lowering clouds with foreboding. Already the village had experienced two seperate snowfalls. Although the drifting flakes had not stayed on the ground to freeze, it was only a matter of time. Normally the winter months were cold, but dry. These storms were being pulled in from the mainland, and the old priestess's ankle throbbed painfully as she filled the empty cask from the water barrel that stood just outside the impromptu hospital.

 

She should be overseeing the villagers, helping them to prepare for the coming winter. It would be a hard one. The bamboo mats that covered the doorways to the huts were too thin a shield from wintry blasts---she should see about having the carpenter make stout shutters to place over door and window. Firewood should be cut and stocked up, much more than had been already. The men had been hunting and fishing, but they should double their efforts. The distracted miko wondered if there was enough rice stored in the granary to last a hard winter. Rice was a staple they could not do without...

 

And speaking of doing without, she must replenish her herbal supplies. They had grown dangerously low of late, between treating wounded youkai and the seemingly continuous round of fevers and chills that claimed the villagers with the unseasonable weather.

 

And still there was the concerns of Kagome, and the young girl's increasing pregnancy. Kaede had too little knowledge concerning the bearing of youkai young, and too much in regards to ningen birth. With the revelation that Kagome bore more than one babe in her womb, Kaede felt overwhelmed. In a normal pregnancy, the old priestess oculd have used her sacred powers to monitor the child, and would have known immediately. She suddenly felt inadequate to the tasks laid before her, and she silently prayed.

 

Kaede felt the weight of her responsibilities on her tired shoulders, and she leaned against the water barrel for a moment, her worn face tired as the feelings grew overwhelming. But she had ever been one who could push her worries away and take up where she had left off, trusting those spirits above her to care for what she could not, and not burden her with more than she could bear. They had ever comforted her in dark hours of doubt, and her trust in them was explicit. They had never betrayed her, and she trusted them now.

 

She would leave it in the hands of the kami...

 

Something caught her attention. From the corner of her eye, she saw a softly glowing globe of golden light. The old priestess watched in wonder as the tiny butterfly, it's wings almost transparent, seemed to hover just above her, bathing her face in a soft nimbus of warm candle-light. The tiny creature's delicate wings fluttered, and the old miko could feel a faint sense of reassurance before the kochou darted away.

 

Smiling softly, for now and for memory, for the kami had always comforted her when the darkness seemed closest, Kaede bowed her aged head and made a sign of reverence and respect as she whispered in a low, time-roughened voice a prayer of thanks and gratitude for a lightened spirit as the kochou danced away in the dark night on sparkling wings.

 

*~*~*~*~*

 

Miroku felt almost drowsy as he leaned back against a conveniently placed rock in the heated warmth of the hot spring. It was located a convenient distance from the village that few ventured there after dark, but not so far that he would regret the chilly walk home through the leaf-stripped trees.

 

It was unusual for him to be soaking this early in the morning. The sun---if there was a sun brave enough to peek through the sullen grey clouds that seemed to cover the horizon all the time now---would rise in a hour or so, and he knew the villagers would be stirring soon to start the new day.

 

It had been a long night. He had taken up vigil over the wounded ookami who lay on pallets in the breeding shed at midnight, relieving Kaede so that the old miko could claim some sleep. While he was not the healer that the old priestess was, he had some small knowledge and knew when he should summon another who knew more than he. But, thankfully, nothing untoward had occurred, and he had spent the hours merely tending the small needs of those unable to tend themselves.

 

Still, wolves were a grumbly, restless lot, and Miroku had been relieved when Koharu had come to nurse the wolves. He had spent but a moment alone with her, holding her close in a strong embrace. He loved the feel of her against him, and knew he was torturing himself needlessly by holding her so tightly. His body had responded to her warmth and returning affection, before she had disengaged with a small pat on his hand and moved briskly back inside at the call of a grumpy old ookami demanding water.

 

With a sigh, Miroku had turned his steps toward the hot springs. He had been spending quite a few hours there, and if he eased his body's frustrations in the silent emptiness of the burbling spring, there was no one to comment.

 

Feeling replete, the houshi sunk further beneath the swirling surface and closed his indigo eyes as he allowed his tensed muscles to relax into the heated embrace of the warm water. The touch of it along his tired muscles was almost like the caress of a woman's soft hands, and his mind followed that thought in dreamy contemplation until he came awake with a groan as he realized his body had reacted to his pleasant reflections.

 

Most springs were dedicated to meditation and prayer, but he always seemed to be unable to focus his mind properly when it came to the fairer sex---

 

He jerked upright in the water, deeply blue eyes widening.

 

*Who?*

 

She was a vision. An incredible vision. She could not be real, she was too delicate to be of this earth. It seemed as if she might be made of steam and mist and fantasies that whispered across his conscious.

 

He rubbed his bead-wrapped hand over his eyes, trying to dispel the vision. But she did not disappear, and the virile monk's mouth curved in a slight smile of happy realization that she was NOT a mere figment of his wandering imagination...

 

The woman was so delicate, her pearlescent skin so transparent, she seemed as if the very mist had spawned her. She was of an average height, but the length of her slim legs and the narrowness of her waist and hips made her seem smaller. Her face was wide and heart-shaped, her lips slightly pouty under high cheekbones and angled brows. Her hair seemed to flow around her, like the steaming mist that enveloped them both. It was a silvered blue-green in color, and the cat-shaped eyes that stared back at him were a deeper shade of silvered green.

 

She seemed poised on the edge of flight, but there was a flicker of curiousity in her heavy-lidded eyes, and Miroku's smile widened with delight as he realized that the vision was bare of clothing or concealment. His eyes darkened into indigo, caressing the delicate curves revealed to him as he felt his body react strongly to the vision's presence.

 

The woman stood frozen, tense, as if afraid of him. But she should not fear him, he was only a mere houshi, an appreciative houshi to be sure, but an easy man of gentle persuasion. Bringing all of his considerable charm to bear, Miroku made a graceful bow in the tennyo's direction and said softly, "I welcome you, my lady."

 

Sea-green eyes contemplated him behind thick lashes, and Miroku kept his smile pleasant and innocent. Did the vision know how tempting she was, with those sultry eyes and pouting lips?

 

"You come here often." The woman's voice was soft, like water flowing over his senses. "I have watched you."

 

"Have you?" Miroku asked, not at all discomfited by the woman's words. He eased away from his rocky perch and stepped forward slowly, allowing the water to kiss his skin in gentle waves at his movement. The beautiful woman seemed poised as if for flight, and he did not want to scare her away.

 

Damn, but it had been so long...

 

The woman studied him, her eyes touching across the wide expanse of his strong shoulders and the innocently deceptive smile that subtly encouraged her to remain with him. He was about to utter a sincere plea for her to come and join him when she surprised him by stepping forward and sliding easily into the water. His disappointment at having her enticing curves thus hidden was disintegrated when she moved closer to him, so that their breaths mingled. Extending a fine-boned hand, she touched the hard muscles of his chest with a faint caress, as fluid and feathering as the water that surrounded them. He looked down into her compelling eyes and whispered, "Who are you?"

 

"Niaya." She whispered, coming closer so that her body touched his. Miroku held his breath, overcome with the sensations of heat that surrounded him. Her voice was enticing, her glance seductive. He wanted to kiss her, to feel her lips melt under his own, and gave in to the compulsion. Leaning forward, his deep blue eyes persuasive, he softly touched his mouth to hers, trying to keep the motion light so she would not be frightened away.

 

He stiffened slightly as he felt her hands sliding over his shoulders to pull him closer. Her mouth opened and the kiss she returned to him was fierce and needing. He felt, suddenly, that seducer had become seduced, and where another man might have pulled back in surprise at the woman's boldness, Miroku just chuckled in delighted anticipation...

 

*~*~*~*~*

 

Miroku walked through the woods, a contented smile tugging at his mouth. Relaxed and feeling as if all was well in the world, the houshi strolled unhurriedly back toward the village. The rings of his staff tinkled merrily as he contemplated the mist-filled memories of a delightful morning spent at the hot springs.

 

Delicate Niaya had proven to be quite bold, and he had been content to let her have her way with him. What was a helpless man to do, held in the thrall of a beautiful youkai maiden? The water youkai's appetites had been insatiable, her knowledge surprising, her touch inspiring. She had finally left him with great reluctance and a whispered promise to return sometime, if she were to be there and he alone.

 

It had left him feeling used and discarded, and he did not mind in the least. With a cheerful smile, he contemplated being "used" often in the hopefully near future. A slight part of him felt a twinge of guilt when he thought of Koharu, happily unaware of his before-dawn tryst with a beautiful tennyo, but then he eased himself with the thought that the girl had already told him that she knew he was not one to ever be loyal to only one woman. There were so many beautiful women in the world, and he was helpless to avoid them. It was not in his nature, and his smile turned tender as he thought of the mother of his forthcoming child. Koharu was a truly giving woman, and understood him completely. She would be grateful that he would not burden her with his healthy appetite...

 

"Miroku, you hentai!"

 

The monk glanced up to the trees in surprise, raising a brow as the irate hanyou jumped down from the sturdy limb he had been crouched on. InuYasha gave the houshi a sharp look out of narrowed amber eyes while Miroku tried to appear innocently curious.

 

"Have you been looking for me, InuYasha?" He asked fairly mildly, given the circumstances.

 

InuYasha scowled. "Damn it, Miroku, you are---" The hanyou paused in mid-sentence, his sensitive nose twitching. Miroku could feel a flush creeping up his face, he had forgotten how sensitive inu youkai noses could be.

 

But InuYasha was not interested in what the houshi had been up to. He had caught a whiff of something else, and white claws grasped the hilt of his Tetsusaiga as a low growl came out of the red-robed hanyou.

 

Miroku tensed, his hand tightening on the wooden haft of his staff. His blue eyes scanned the silent forest around them. "What is it, InuYasha? What do you sense?"

 

"Youkai." InuYasha spat out. "And quite a few of them. C'mon, monk." The hanyou bound up off of his feet, leaving the monk to follow as quickly as he could, hot memories forgotten as the possibility of danger to the village swept them away under a cool determination to defend his home and his hearth.

 

*~*~*~*~*

 

"Jaken-san!"

 

Jaken froze upon hearing that voice. Raising his yellow eyes to the heavens, he prayed silently for salvation.

 

The fickle Fates ignored him.

 

"OOMPH!"

 

Jaken's breath whooshed out under the impact of Rin's small, yet sturdy, body colliding into his. Wrapping her smalls arms around the green imp, Rin screamed out joyously, "I've missed you, Master Jaken!"

 

*Stinking turnip!*

 

He scowled at the precocious brat, which didn't deter Rin's enthusiasm in the slightest. She disentangled herself from him but kept a tight hold on his three-fingered right hand, no matter how much he tried to take it back.

 

Jaken glared at the watching youkai, who were grinning over the tug of war he was having with Rin's viselike grip on his claws.

 

"Gah!" He growled at the ningen girl. "Let go of me, you stupid little weed!"

 

"But Jaken-san! I want you to come play Eagle-Youkai with me!" Rin protested, her deep brown eyes beguiling.

 

"Stupid girl! I don't have time to play---" Jaken paused a moment, suddenly realizing just what game the girl wanted to play.

 

*Eagle youkai?*

 

A picture of feathered perfection formed in his mental eye, and Jaken could feel a blush rising to his bulging cheeks. His yellow eyes turned dreamy, and his free hand---the one not presently gripped by Rin---fell opened on his chest, where his heart had sped up at the thought of Lady Lusaidh.

 

*My tennyo flies on eagle's wings, the better to make my heart sure sing...*

 

Pure poetry! He was becoming a master at it. Look how easily the words fairly oozed out of him. It was the unmistakable signs of a before-unknown gift for verse, come to flower with the gentling influence of true love...

 

"Jaken-san!" Rin interrupted.

 

"WHAT?!" Really, the girl was the utter limit! He would strangle that brat if only me Lord would let him!

 

"I've got some eagle feathers right here. See?" Rin held up a mess of bright green feathers, clasped tightly in her little fist. Jaken stared at them, un-comprehending.

 

"They make it easier to pretend!" Rin finally let go of his claws, but only so she could pluck a few feathered treasures from her fistful and wave them in front of Jaken's face.

 

Jaken's beak fell open in surprise, before he snapped it shut with a smirk. "You stupid little ningen! Those aren't eagle feathers. Those are PARROT feathers."

 

Rin shrugged. "That's okay, Master Jaken. We can just use them to PRETEND we're eagle youkai."

 

"Stupid girl. Now where did you get them---" Jaken paused, horror suddenly dawning as he contemplated the obvious answer to his irritated question.

 

There was only one parrot in residence at the Taiyoukai's castle---the little green parrot who graced Lord Ryota's shoulder and squawked his name repeatedly as the oushi traversed the grounds. The little green parrot that the bull Lord was so proud of, preening and showing it off until Jaken could turn a darker shade of green with envy, though other, more uncivilized youkai saw the noisy creature as a nuisance and an irritant.

 

*She couldn't have. She couldn't!* But Jaken could see all too well a picture of Rin plucking the long, brilliantly colored tail-feathers of Lord Ryota's trained pet.

 

Jaken stared at the little ningen girl, who suddenly wouldn't meet his eye and was biting her lip. Her hands, with their betraying fistfuls of green feathered finery, went behind her back as if she could hide her mischief.

 

Jaken froze as he heard a loud roar---a BULLISH roar---bellow across the courtyard.

 

"Eep."

 

*~*~*~*

 

"She is gone, my lord." The white girl with the soul-lost eyes bowed to her Master, her voice that of a tiny child's, her spirit much older...and empty.

 

*Kikyo...*

 

So she had gone, as he had half-expected she would. The cold miko thirsted for vengeance, and would not be denied her dark desires.

 

She was growing more like him every day.

 

*Tainted.*

 

Delightful thought.

 

With a negligent wave, Naraku dismissed the messenger, and Kanna turned and slipped out of his rooms without a sound to stir the silence. The red eyes glowed knowingly over the beautiful, nearly-completed bauble he held cupped in his palm. He did not have to worry over the miko's abrupt departure.

 

"She will return, for I have what she wants most."

 

The swirling fire of the nearly completed gem seemed to glow brighter for a moment, the inner lights gleaming malevolently from the inner sphere of the Shikon no Tama.