One Less Star, chapter 13

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Chapter 13

Kagome came awake when she rolled over in bed and her arm, flung out, encountered no other form. Even unconscious, she knew that Rin was supposed to be there, and dragged herself up from dreamland.

Bathroom? she thought groggily, and strained her ears to hear the tread of returning feet. After several minutes and no Rin, a feeling of anxiety made itself known in the pit of her stomach. Aware of Takeshi’s acute hearing, she tried to get up and move to the hallway as quietly as possible. The fusuma slid soundlessly on its track, and Kagome crept toward the kitchen on silent feet.

The room was utterly dark, and still. Kirara lay in a box by the smoldering fire and raised her head when Kagome entered. She was just about to ask the fire-cat if she’d seen Rin when she heard a thud from behind the house. Poking her head out the door, she saw Rin leaving the outhouse. Bathroom, she said to herself, relieved, and was about to return to bed when a shadow detached itself from around the corner of the little structure.

The squat, bulky shape pronounced it to be Masuyo, Takeshi’s favourite lieutenant. Remembering the tiger-youkai’s flat black eyes and leering grin, Kagome found herself charging out toward them, Kirara at her heels.

Masuyo pinned Rin against the rough plank wall with one hand flat against her chest, inside her yukata. Rin struggled against him, beating with her fists at his shoulders and kicking at his legs but she was laughably weak in comparison to his immense demonic strength. His other hand was busily trying to unfasten his hakama and he peered down, muttering under his breath at the stubborn knot.

“Sesshoumaru-sama,” Rin wheezed, unable to draw enough breath to call more loudly.

“Get away from her,” Kagome commanded, her voice cold from the single most powerful force of anger she’d ever felt. It was one thing for her to be pawed and groped, but quite another for a girl only thirteen years old.

Beside her, Kirara transformed into her larger form and glared through slitted red eyes at the youkai. Over Masuyo’s shoulder, Rin met Kagome’s gaze and her face lit up with hope and relief.

Masuyo turned quickly, his hakama still only half undone. “Ah,” he said, his happy grin revealing a mouthful of knives. “Can’t wait until Sesshoumaru comes back, I see?” His grip on Rin was almost negligent, restraining her effortlessly. “Never fear, ningen. There’s enough of Masuyo for both of you.”

Kagome felt her face contort into an expression of extreme disgust. “I’d wait centuries for Sesshoumaru before I’d have anything to do with you, you… you gross thing,” she told him, revulsion churning in her stomach. “Now, let her go or you’ll be sorry!”

As far as threats went, it was fairly lame, but Kagome felt determination burn within her. Clearly, however, Masuyo didn’t see her as much of a threat. He slid his hand further inside Rin’s yukata and gripped her tiny breast in his meaty hand.

“Or what, girl?” he taunted. “Or you’ll say it again?”

Kirara sprang at him then, locking her jaws around his throat. With a heave, she jerked Masuyo away from Rin. The two of them fell to the ground in a snarling tangle of thrashing limbs, and Rin scrambled away on her hands and knees, fingers scrabbling on the ground for traction.

But Masuyo was crafty, and a seasoned warrior. He latched his own fangs, in turn, into Kirara’s neck and kicked a foot into her still-healing belly. With a hiss of pain, the fire-cat fell back, staggering away and breathing raggedly.

Masuyo lurched to his feet and wiped the blood from his face and throat with a careless paw, his eyes gleaming with malevolence as he advanced upon Kagome. She looked around frantically for some sort of weapon she could use against him, but there was practically nothing between her and the house.

“I was looking forward to a little bit of fresh virgin,” he said, licking his fingers clean. “Even though you’ve been had by Sesshoumaru, I don’t imagine that lovely fellow is much capable of pleasing a female.” He grinned, displaying gore-stained fangs. “I, Masuyo, will show you how it is done.”

Kagome grabbed for a stout twig by her feet. Her fingers closed around it and she straightened just as he reached her. “Let us go, or I’ll kill you.”

He only laughed at her and yanked her yukata off her shoulder, closing his mouth over the rounded cap of it and sucking hard. That’ll leave a bruise, she thought irrelevantly, and began gathering her purification powers, letting them flow into the twig.

Masuyo pulled the other side of her yukata off, baring her to the waist, and looked down at the pale flesh revealed to him in the moonlight.

“No wonder Sesshoumaru has not killed you,” he mused. “Perhaps I won’t, either.” He leered at her, flat eyes glinting dully, like wet black pebbles. “At least not for a while.”

Kagome’s reply was in the form of a vicious jab with the twig to the side of Masuyo’s neck. Even fired by purification, the pink-glowing wood did not pierce him easily, and Kagome had to call on every scrap of strength she possessed to force it in, sliding deep.

With a startled cry, Masuyo released her to clap a hand to his neck, trying to wrench out the offending thing. But the purification worked fast, eating at him, permeating his form with the warm glow of holy light.

Kagome stumbled back, almost tripping over Kirara, and watched him die. His face was frozen in a rictus of pain, and his arms thrashed impotently against a foe he could not defeat. His mouth opened wide in a soundless scream, and then he was just… gone.

She pulled her yukata back over her shoulders, and belted it tighter around her waist as panicked thoughts whirled in her head. What to do, need a plan. Someone would have felt the surge of power, and with all those demonic ears, she was sure that someone had heard a little of the altercation.

She had killed Takeshi’s second in command; the Lord of the North was sure to be furious about that. And it was clear that Rin was not safe; Kagome had to get the girl out of there, send her away to where she wouldn’t be in danger any longer.

But how? Kirara was injured again, and not able to take the girl’s weight. Getting Ah-Un from the stable would only attract attention. But Shippo…

“Rin,” she said, “stay here. I’ll be right back.” Rin, standing frozen by the outhouse, only nodded as Kagome dashed away.

Kagome ran up the steps and fairly flung herself into the little bedroom Shippo shared with Kohaku. “Shippo!” she whispered anxiously, “Shippo, wake up! Right now!”

“What’s wrong?” he asked in alarm, pushing himself to sit up and blinking sleep from his eyes.

“Masuyo tried to force himself on Rin,” Kagome babbled, her hands busy as she scrabbled together his clothing and shoved it at him. “Get dressed. You have to take Rin away. Go find Sesshoumaru, make him come back.”

He struggled into his things and was already following her down the stairs before she’d finished speaking, tying his hakama as he went. “I have no idea where to look for him,” he said, his voice low.

“Me neither,” said Kagome bleakly, dashing outside to where she’d left Rin. “The important thing is to get her out of here so no one else tries anything.”

Rin was huddled against the side of the outhouse, thin shoulders hunched as she wrapped her arms around her waist. She twitched violently at the sound of their approaching footsteps, but relaxed when she saw who it was.

“Shippo’s going to take you to find Sesshoumaru,” Kagome told her, peering back over her shoulder as she heard a noise from within the house. “Don’t wait. Go now.”

Shippo knelt and told Rin to stand behind him, with her arms around his neck. In the next moment, he was a huge pink ball and Rin was scrambling to seat herself atop it, clutching at whatever she could gain a handful of, which wasn’t much.

Kagome hoped that dawn would hold off long enough for them to get past the mountain and out of sight. That was them safe, at least. With a last, anxious glance at the floating blob rapidly fading into the shadows of the night, she scurried back toward Kirara, scooping the now-small cat into her arms.

She ran back to the house and wondered what the hell she was going to tell Takeshi when he couldn’t find Masuyo.

* * *

Sesshoumaru stood on the edge of the cliff and surveyed the carnage below. The last two days had been frustrating for him as he studied the orgy of violence brought by the huge cluster of low-level demons. What was their origin, their purpose? It did not help that his thoughts were continually pulled back to his home and its current occupants. Usually it was Rin’s face, mournful at his departure, that tended to linger in his mind’s eye, silently reproaching him for leaving her, and indeed he missed her as he always did.

But this time… ah, this time. This time there was another pretty face, sad and bereft. There were other dark eyes pleading for his return, other soft little hands reaching for him. Sesshoumaru wondered when, exactly, he had become so susceptible to such things, for he had not been able to stop thinking about Kagome for more than a few minutes at a time since he had left his home.

He had truly hated having to leave her so soon after their first encounter. There were so many other positions to try, after all.

But apart from his resuscitated libido, there was another, more dangerous longing buried deep: he knew now what it was to have a house full of activity and bustle, with the sound of young voices, the energy of children. He knew what it was to feel the soothing presence of a female at his side, and it had awakened within him a need for it to continue.

“I want more!” exclaimed the demon inside, the primitive part uncaring of repercussions or racial distinction. It didn’t care that Kagome and Rin were merely human, would age and die within a short century. All it knew was that they pleased it, and it wanted more of them.

But this Sesshoumaru was not ruled by his primitive self. Rather the opposite, in fact; his iron self-control was why he was here instead of at home, in bed, in Kagome. His generals had been with him the entirety of his reign, and he trusted them as he trusted few beings in this world; if they felt his presence were needed, he would be there.

And so he watched, face impassive as always, from his lofty perch. On his left stood Kado, a bull-youkai, with a neck the size of a small tree and fists like boulders. His coarse features belied an agile mind and faithful disposition, however, and Sesshoumaru was satisfied to call him ally.

To his right was Matsuko, the bird-youkai who had come to fetch him. She was far stronger than her slender limbs and willowy frame would suggest, with a startling ingenuity and aptitude for battle tactics. She had served Inutaisho for centuries, and then had come to Sesshoumaru’s service upon his father’s death. It was she who broke the silence.

“They are far too focused for such a mindless mass.”

She was correct, Sesshoumaru could see. These were base, mindless oni. The way they structured their attacks, the way they managed to evade his own forces, how they knew to avoid villages under protection and instead attack those deemed unlikely to be invaded-- all were the hallmarks of higher intelligence, of a capability of tactics.

“Who directs them?” he asked.

There was silence for a moment, and Kado glanced at Matsuko. She looked away, thin lips compressing further, and Kado dropped his gaze.

“I have my suspicions, my lord,” Matsuko said at last, “but Kado believes it unseemly to suggest such a perfidy.”

Perfidy? “Speak,” Sesshoumaru commanded.

“I suspect Takeshi-sama,” she said bluntly. “Kado-san, though a fine warrior,” here she bowed to her comrade to take the sting out of her words, “is yet unable to see that this game of bait-and-switch, of luring us to one site only to attack another, is a tiger’s ploy. I have seen it many times, over the years, ever since your esteemed mother wed Inutaisho-sama, my lord. It is how the Northern lords fight.”

Matsuko turned to face Sesshoumaru, bright eyes beady and black in her narrow face. “And the time is nigh for his yearly pestering of you, too, my lord.”

“But what could be Takeshi-sama’s motive?” demanded Kado, his florid complexion reddening further. “What possible reason could he have for attacking the South when his own holdings lie to the North? He cannot think to surround the West with his possessions, can he? His resources cannot stretch to that extent.”

“No,” Sesshoumaru answered, eyes latching once more on the battle below as a suspicion unfurled in his mind. “Examine what results have been gained.”

Kado exhaled, the thick ridge of his brow crinkling in thought. “Dozens of villages left in ruin, hundreds left homeless…”

“More than that,” Sesshoumaru prompted. “What other changes have occurred? What is now here that was absent?”

Comprehension dawned on Matsuko’s face. “You, my lord,” she said. “You are here now. Instead of being-“

“Home,” Kado interrupted, finishing for her as he caught on. “A diversion, my lord?”

Sesshoumaru nodded grimly. “A diversion.”

Matsuko sneered, taking to the air. “A diversion that ends now,” she hissed, incensed. She’d never liked the tigers of the North, even less now that their treachery was discovered.

A rather awful expression of rage filled Kado’s face, making his coarse features even more ominous. “After you, my lord,” he said, leaping from the cliff to fall with ponderous grace to the village below once Sesshoumaru was aloft.

The three of them swept down upon the horde of demons, and for a moment there was nothing but a cacophony of death-screams and the spray of black blood amidst flashes of brilliant blue and acid-green. Sesshoumaru took out the lion’s share of their foe with a few strategic blasts of Toukijin, leaving Matsuko and Kado to take care of any who managed to escape total destruction.

When it was over, the others rejoined Sesshoumaru at the center of the carnage.

“What now, my lord?” Matsuko asked, absently wiping her bloody claws on her hakama-leg.

“Now,” he replied, “you put this land to rights. I return home. When you are done, you will join me there.”

They bowed; he ignored them, gathering a cloud of youki beneath him and launching skyward, bound for home.

* * *

Shippo could clearly hear Rin’s sniffles as he floated them as swiftly as he could away from the house of the Lord of the West, but he did not dare transform back to comfort her until they were past the first ridge of the mountains and beyond even the far-reaching sight of the tiger-youkai.

Once dawn lit the countryside, he scanned the area below for a suitable place to land and rest for a while. A sunny little hilltop, at the bottom of which trickled a narrow green brook, seemed perfect. He touched down and transformed, then caught Rin before she could tumble to the ground.

“Shippo, I’m cold,” she whispered. He saw the tears in her yukata and felt an enormous surge of frustration that he was still just a boy, small and weak, and unable to protect and avenge his friend. Shucking his haori, he helped her into it when he saw how slowly she was moving her arms.

“I was so scared,” she said. “I thought I was going to die again, but this time Sesshoumaru-sama wouldn’t be there to bring me back.”

“But you didn’t,” Shippo replied quickly. “Kagome saved you, and now I’ve got you, and everything is going to be fine.”

Rin burrowed into its warmth and curled against him, laying her head against his shoulder as his arm came around her. He sounded so determined. “You really believe that, don’t you?” she asked.

He looked surprised. “Sure, don’t you?”

“Shippo-chan,” she said urgently, “think about it. We’ve just left Kagome-san alone with only Jaken and Ah-Un. Kohaku is still… like that,” she said lamely, not knowing how to describe the boy’s dysfunction, “and Kirara was hurt again, trying to help me.”

“Oh, no,” Shippo said in dismay, worried for the neko-youkai, and then the import of Rin’s other words sunk in, chasing away any warmth and comfort the early sunlight might have provided and leaving him with a cold, hard stone in his belly. “Oh, no,” he groaned again.

“Yes,” she whispered, eyes huge and shadowed. “What if they decide to try with her what Masuyo wanted to do to me? Kagome-san is strong but even she can’t defeat dozens of youkai warriors and Takeshi-sama. He’s almost as strong as Sesshoumaru-sama.”

The children stared at each other a long, tense moment, and then Shippo spoke. “We’ve got to find Sesshoumaru right away.”

“But where?” Rin wanted to know, and despair was plain on her face. “We don’t even know why he left. He could be anywhere.”

Shippo was afraid and anxious, but he swallowed hard and bit the inside of his cheek to keep his fear from showing on his face. He didn’t want to add to Rin’s distress. “Let’s go to Edo,” he said at last. “Maybe Kaede will know what to do. I’m pretty sure I know how to get there from here.”

Rin nodded and they both jumped to their feet. “Do you want your haori back?” she asked, beginning to unwrap it from her slender frame.

“Nah,” he said, though he was cold in just his yukata and hakama. “You keep it.” Then he transformed, she hopped on, and they were airborne once again.

It took them all day to get to Edo, and was long past dark when they finally arrived, touching down by Kagome’s well. Rin shivered from the cold of flying aloft so scantily clad and near fainting from hunger, and Shippo was exhausted from taking another shape for so many hours. But more than his fatigue, he keenly felt anger at not being able to do more to protect Rin.

“Which way?” Rin asked, sounding just as tired. In the dark, only an experienced eye could pick out the trail through the forest.

Shippo took her hand and started in the direction of Edo. Staring dully at the worn track through the trees, he was barely conscious of anything but the cold, clammy feel of Rin’s palm against his.

If only I were bigger, he thought furiously, I could have killed Masuyo, and Takeshi too! All of them, for upsetting Kagome!

But there was nothing he could do about it. Clenching his jaw, he concentrated on seeing and listening to their surroundings; even this close to the town, there could be danger.

Soon, they were stumbling into Edo, the familiar clusters of shabby, patched dwellings a comforting balm against his raveling nerves. A little of the oppressive worry lifted from him, and he felt a spurt of energy.

“Almost there,” he told Rin, and tugged on her hand to hurry her.

Even from the outside, Kaede’s home was redolent of medicinal herbs and holy incense. That, too, soothed Shippo. He flashed his companion a smile as he thrust aside the door and, the last of his energy waning, fell inside.

With a speed that was surprising for her age, the old priestess had an arrow nocked on her bowstring and aimed right between Shippo’s eyes before they had the time to scramble to their feet.

“Kaede-sama!” he squeaked. “It’s just me!”

After a long and tense moment, she lowered the bow. “Shippo,” she said slowly, eye scrutinizing them in the dim light, “have ye never learned how foolish it is to startle a sleeping miko?”

“I’m sorry,” he began. Then, plaintively, “Do you have any food? And something for Rin to wear, so I can get my haori back? We’re both really cold.”

Kaede sighed. “Rin, is it?” she asked, beginning to examine her stores for something to feed them as they crept further into the hut. She hoisted the pot of leftover soup back over the banked fire, coaxing it to life again.

Once the flames were crackling merrily away, she asked, “How does Rin come to be with you, Shippo? And where are the others?”

Neither answered, and she turned back to see the two of them curled up in her bed, covers pulled up to their shoulders. Both children lay on their sides facing each other, quite asleep. With the fire going, she could see dark circles under their eyes and the weary downturn of their mouths. The girl, Rin, had scratches on her cheek and throat, and there was a set to Shippo’s jaw that spoke of great anxiety.

“What can have happened to you?” Kaede murmured, tucking another blanket around them. The sense of foreboding that had sparked to life within her at their sudden appearance flared greater. “Inuyasha, I hope ye and Kagome and the others are well.”

* * *

Shippo lurched awake the next morning with the cry of “Kagome!” on his lips. Sitting up, he stared wildly around Kaede’s hut, trying to place where he was.

“Finally,” commented a disgruntled, masculine voice.

“Kaede?” Shippo asked, confused. But the hand that brushed aside the tatami door was not Kaede’s, nor were the tall body and beponytailed head.

“Took you long enough, squirt,” Kouga said, trademark grin in place. “I’ve been waiting hours for you to wake up.” He stood in the centre of the hut, his size and youki seeming far too big for the little building to contain. He glanced down at Rin and sent a mischievous grin Shippo’s way.

“I thought you’d still be too young for that sort of thing,” he drawled, “but I’m glad to see you haven’t picked up Mutt-Face’s way with the ladies.”

Shippo didn’t know what he meant until he remembered Rin was sleeping beside him, curled up tight against his heat. At that moment, she rolled closer to him and threw her arm around his waist, mumbling, “Shippo? Come back to bed.”

Face aflame, Shippo leapt from the pallet, eyes wide. “No! Nonono! It was just sleeping! We were so tired and cold and-“

“Kouga,” began Kaede as she entered her home, “leave off teasing Shippo. I fear there are grim tidings, and would not wait longer to hear them.”

Chastened, the wolf demon dropped to a crouch beside the fire and accepted the bowl of miso soup Kaede offered. Shippo tucked the blankets round Rin once more-instigating another cheeky grin by Kouga-and gratefully received his own bowl.

He refused to talk until every drop was gone, and then began to stuff rice balls into his mouth at such a rate that Kouga was forced to hold the plate far out of Shippo’s reach until he actually began to swallow some.

The worst of his pangs sated, Shippo gulped some scalding tea and sighed.

“It’s all a big mess,” he began, “and it started when Sesshoumaru brought Kohaku to us.” He quickly described everything that had happened in the past month, ending with, “and now we’re trying to find Sesshoumaru so he can come home and fix everything.”

He sighed and looked over at Kouga. “What are you doing here, anyway?”

“I came to check on Kagome, since it’s been a long time since I’ve seen her.” He cracked his knuckles, handsome face grim. “I think I’m glad I did.”

“You think to go to Sesshoumaru’s house and help Kagome?” Kaede asked, even though she already knew the answer. Young men, young demons, they were all the same.

He nodded. “And after that, I’m going to find Inuyasha, rip off his arm, and beat him with the wet end,” Kouga continued as he stood, looking completely bloodthirsty. “I’ve known for years that she was too good for him, and here’s proof.” Then a thought seemed to cheer him. “At least now it’s obvious, even to her. There’ll be nothing in the way of her becoming my woman, now.”

And with a rakish smile, he ducked from the hut and was gone in a cloud of dust.

“You didn’t tell him about how Kagome-san and Sesshoumaru-sama like each other, did you?” Rin quietly asked Shippo from her place in Kaede’s bed.

“He wouldn’t have believed me anyway,” Shippo told her, resigned, and handed her a bowl of soup.

Kaede stared at them from the far side of the hut. “There is something between Kagome and Sesshoumaru?” she repeated, making sure her elderly ears were not deceiving her.

“We’re pretty sure they’re in love with each other,” Rin replied with the first happy smile she’d managed in over a day. Then she slurped more soup.

“Rin is sure,” Shippo corrected. “I’m just… unnerved by it.” He glowered down at his third bowl of soup as if it were responsible for all his current woes. “I think something weird is going on with Miroku and Kagura, too.”

Kaede looked faintly queasy. “Ah, Rin needs more clothing, does she not?” she said by way of changing the subject. “I shall see what is available in the village.”

When she was gone, Shippo pelted Rin with a rice ball. “Why did you have to tell her about Kagome and Sesshoumaru?” he demanded. “We can’t be sure anything’s going on. It could just be some… tension.”

Rin stared at him as if he were daft. “Shippo,” she began slowly, “even I heard them, the night before he left. I know you could smell what happened. Your nose is almost as good as Sesshoumaru-sama’s.” Giving him no time to preen over the compliment, she continued, “And Jaken spent an entire day complaining about what he had to wash out of the dining room tatami.”

“Fine!” he exclaimed, hands up in an expression of defeat. “Fine. I admit it. Something’s going on between them. Between them, between Miroku and Kagura… maybe Jaken and Kirara are having a secret affair, too!”

He flopped backward, resting his head on her legs, and slung his arm over his eyes. So much was changing, confusing him terribly. He wondered how Sango was, if Miroku had saved her from Inuyasha-

That train of thought brought him to a sudden stop. The idea that one of them needed to be protected from another of their group made him feel nearly sick inside. They’d been together for so long, fighting and living, that it was unthinkable that Inuyasha could have been so stupid and weak as to use the tainted shard and cause this whole mess they were in.

It hadn’t been that bad, before. Between Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango, Kirara, Kagome, and Shippo’s own growing store of skills, they’d been able to cut a swathe through the demon population. Over the years, they’d become a smoothly integrated organism comprised of six beings, and it had begun to look like they actually had a chance in hell of winning against Naraku.

Inuyasha’s abilities in particular seemed limitless. He kept pushing, discovering more techniques with Tetsusaiga, strengthening himself mentally and physically. If he’d continued on as he’d been, Shippo had little doubt the hanyou would have become almost as powerful as Sesshoumaru one day

And now, it was all ruined. They were all split up, in danger, perhaps dead. Inuyasha had done the unthinkable, and everything was falling apart.

Does he want to be a demon that badly? Shippo wondered sadly. Does he want to end it all so soon? Because he knew that once Inuyasha was a full demon, he wouldn’t matter any more. Kagome wouldn’t matter, Miroku and Sango and Kirara wouldn’t matter. Nothing but killing would sate the animal Inuyasha became when his demon side took over.

And their little family would be gone.

It’s gone now, Shippo supposed, gritting his teeth against the sinking feeling in his belly. It had been gone as soon as Inuyasha jammed the shard into his own neck, commencing a chain of events that would change everything.

“It’s all ruined,” he whispered, voice muffled by the fabric of his sleeve over his face.

Rin bent over him, putting her arms around him as best she could. “Not everything,” she contradicted with a hug. “We’re still okay, and as soon as Sesshoumaru-sama comes home, he’ll fix everything.”

He removed his arm from his face and looked up at her. Her gaze was clear and trusting, completely confident in Sesshoumaru’s abilities. That sort of unconditional faith was amazing to him. When he was a kid-a baby, even smaller than he’d been when he’d first met Inuyasha and Kagome-he’d thought his parents were invincible, too. But his mother had died, and then the Thunder Brothers had killed his father, and he hadn’t had complete trust in someone since, no matter how much he loved them.

“Has he ever failed you?” Shippo asked.

“Never.” She smiled beatifically down at him. “And he never will.”

Her surety was contagious. Shippo felt a spark of hope alight within him, and smiled back at her tentatively. She hugged him harder, just one quick squeeze, before releasing him and snagging another rice ball.

“So,” she said around her mouthful, munching happily, “what do we do now?”

“I’m your protector until Sesshoumaru gets back,” he replied seriously, “so I have to make sure you’re safe.”

“Oh,” she said, brow creasing as she wondered at the implications of that. “And how are you going to do that?”

“I’m going to keep training, like Sesshoumaru was teaching me,” Shippo declared with a firm nod. “In fact, now that I’ve had breakfast, I’m going to get started right now!”

He bounded out of the hut, tail streaming in the breeze he caused. Rin followed at a more relaxed pace, sitting on the steps and watching, calling out the occasional bit of advice to Shippo as he went through his katas.

Kaede returned with fresh clothing for both Rin and Shippo, but didn’t call attention to herself, preferring to watch in silence for a while. The young fox-demon was flushed and perspiring from his efforts as the day grew warmer, and the girl watched him with admiration and affection in her eyes.

She held back her sigh, dismay and resignation mingling within her at the evidence of the bond between them. She felt great worry at the tale Shippo had told her, and hoped that all would soon be resolved. She worried most for the two before her; the others were older, more experienced, but it never failed to tug at her heart, the knowledge that innocents were in danger. If she were able, she’d pack them off to some remote cave where she knew they would be safe.

But what was safe? No place was proof against Naraku’s evil, not in all the lands of Nihon. Their best hope for defeating him was Inuyasha, and if he had given in to temptation and allowed himself to be corrupted, then Kaede feared that hope was lost.

But no, she reminded herself. There was still Kagome and Miroku, and Sesshoumaru and Kagura as well if what Shippo said was accurate. Kouga would fight both on Kagome’s behalf and for his clan’s revenge, and she knew that Kikyou-onee-sama was still at large and determined to bring about Naraku’s downfall as well. So really, there was nothing to be worried about.

She stepped forward then, holding out the clothing to the children, and grimly hoped that if she reminded herself often enough, she might eventually come to believe it.