Kagura slowed as she noticed an old, yet somehow familiar, castle on the horizon. Her thoughts were still racing, even though it had been several hours since she had left Sesshoumaru’s castle. Above all of her worries was the question of whether or not Kouga still held a grudge on her over his fallen comrades. (Does he still hate me? No… he couldn’t possibly… after all, there is what he said to Inu Yasha earlier…)

Kagura’s thoughts were broken as she suddenly noticed the immense jyaki that radiated from the castle. As she concentrated, she noticed that the energy was indeed vaguely familiar. She moved closer and realized immediately whose lair she had stumbled upon. Michiko had taken one of Naraku’s former hideouts for her own!

Realizing that she may have a chance in battle against this other mistress of the weather and winds, Kagura sped down to the castle. Though she previously had doubts about facing Michiko, Kagura’s mind was too clouded with other problems to stop herself. At the moment, it seemed that Michiko was the base of all of the problems that Kagura was mired in. If she could personally defeat the bitch, she could press forward with her life.

Old habits surfaced as Kagura arrogantly landed in front of the castle and pushed the door open. She remembered this particular castle and knew its layout like the back of her delicate hand. As she noticed the candles flicker, Kagura called her fan to her hand. With a quick snap, she had opened the small fan and was prepared for battle. Surprisingly, no one came to attack.

Kagura was quick to make her way down to the castle’s dungeon—she knew that Kagome had to be somewhere in there. With each step down the staircase came another memory of how Naraku had once treated her. By the time she had reached the bottom, she radiated anger, which only served to fuel her powers. She was indeed ready for battle.

(This is too easy…) Kagura slowed as she entered the dungeon room—she could hear Kagome’s soft sobbing in the distance. Her yokai senses picked up every sound in the room. Though faint, she could hear the breathing of another in the room—Kagura had walked into a trap…

Oh, how things had changed in the past couple of weeks. It had been five weeks prior that Sayaka had decided to begin tracking Sesshoumaru. Two weeks ago, she had first met and fought against her now close friends Kagome and Sesshoumaru. Two weeks suddenly seemed like a lot of time. In that little space of time, she had realized that she had spent her whole life training to fight a man innocent of her accusations. She had come to love for the first time and also gained a group of friends she would never have otherwise obtained. After all, neither a normal human nor yokai would befriend a hanyou such as herself. Then again, she never thought that she’d meet another hanyou so much like her, either.

Perhaps it was in her frustration that she had failed to hear anyone enter the room. She nearly jumped when she felt strong arms snake around her shoulders. She calmed herself, though, as she recognized the familiar scent. She gently placed her hand on his as she whispered his name, "Inu Yasha…"

Inu Yasha leaned over her shoulder and placed a quick series of kisses up her neck to her jaw. "What’s wrong?"

Sayaka drew in a heavy breath as she began to relax her tense muscles. There was plenty wrong, according to her, but she didn’t want to make a big deal of it right now. "Nothing much…"

Inu Yasha couldn’t avoid noticing the hesitation of Sayaka’s reply—she had to be lying. "Come on, something’s the matter… can you tell me?"

Sayaka didn’t like not saying anything, but her heart told her not to breathe a word of grievance to him. "Nothing, I’m just… frustrated about something."

Well, something was better than nothing, Inu Yasha supposed. He absent-mindedly rubbed her hand with his thumb as he rested his chin on her shoulder. "You know, you can tell me anything, Sayaka… I won’t get mad—after all, I well… I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for these last few days. I’ve been so busy worrying about Kagome that I haven’t been paying any attention to you."

Yes, at least he was admitting to it. Sayaka felt a smile tug at her lips as she replied, "I understand… Kagome was your friend before me… I guess I’m just being selfish or… nah, never mind… Just… don’t worry about it too much, Inu Yasha."

Inu Yasha hesitated and then turned Sayaka around so that she could see him. His golden eyes were slightly bloodshot and his face was slightly red and puffy—she could tell that he had been crying.

He drew in a deep breath as he released Sayaka. "Thank you… I was hoping that you would understand… You see… A while back, well, a few months ago, Kagome and I were rather close. She was the one who taught me to trust and I don’t think that I would have nearly as many friends now if it hadn’t been for her. I thought that perhaps she and I were…" Inu Yasha paused and added quietly, "soul-mates… I thought that I was going to spend the rest of my life with her… and I was fine with that. I wanted to be with her."

Sayaka reached out for Inu Yasha’s hand and pulled him closer to herself. "What happened?"

Inu Yasha swallowed. Even now, talking about this made it difficult for him to save face in front of Sayaka. "She was hurt by Naraku. Sesshoumaru saved her and then she stayed with him under the guise of the hanyou woman ‘Kana’. I wasn’t able to see her for several weeks and… she fell for Sesshoumaru. She is still one of my very best friends and I certainly don’t want to lose her."

Sayaka bit her lip and looked towards her futon on the other side of the room. "It’s okay… Inu Yasha… I imagine you have others things to do and I would like to take a nap for right now."

"Sayaka?"

Sayaka released Inu Yasha’s hand and turned away. "Just go."

Inu Yasha reached out for Sayaka’s shoulder and, upon her hesitation, pulled her into a tight embrace. "Sayaka, I probably said things the wrong way… Listen, I don’t see her that way anymore. She’s just a close friend like Miroku-san or Sango-chan… I want to be here for you… with you. But only if that’s what you want, Sayaka."

Tears stung in Sayaka’s eyes. She had wanted him to actually confess to her, but now seemed hardly the time. Moments before he had spoken of Kagome possibly being the person that he had wanted to spend his life with. Although he had explained that things had changed, he didn’t give her much time to process all of it. "Inu Yasha…"

Her voice broke, but she continued, "I need some time to think about things… We’ll talk about this in a little while, okay?"

For a moment, Inu Yasha felt his entire body go numb as he let go of Sayaka. Slowly, he backed out of the room, hoping that what she was saying didn’t mean what he thought it did. "Sayaka, I love you…"

"I love you too, Inu Yasha… I just need some time alone." The tears began to stream over Sayaka’s cheeks, but she dared not to turn and allow Inu Yasha to see. As she heard the door close, she immediately fell to her futon. Though she didn’t truly want to sleep then, she cried into her pillow until she was able to.

An icy pain washed over Sesshoumaru as his mind wandered to his stolen love. It had not been very long since they had last seen one another, yet he missed her terribly. If all it took to close the distance between them was to give in to Michiko’s demands, so be it. He would rather die now than to go on living a hollow life without Kagome, especially knowing that he could save her.

As the rain continued to fall, Sesshoumaru paused to look down at his mud-soiled hands. Had he truly sunken so low? His inner pride now chided him as he recalled that before he had met Kagome, he would never have done such a thing. Yet, here he was Sesshoumaru—the great Taiyokai—in the icy rain, digging in the mud. Why, now he could be mistaken for the same riff-raff that he had so often looked down upon—soaking wet and filthy. (No… It’s not wrong! I’ll do anything I have to. If it means Kagome’s safety, I’ll stop at nothing… She was willing to die for me… An ultimate sacrifice such as that is the greatest gesture of loyalty… After all, what is a little soil on my hands in comparison to her life? I won’t lose her as I did Aki…)

But, then again, he had sworn revenge not against Naraku, but Kagura. Perhaps it was that he had seen that she wasn’t as ‘evil’ as he had once believed her to be. He felt as though he had been in a similar situation. It had not been unusual in prior years for humans to come to hunt him and his wolves down in revenge for a lost family member. He knew that he had never bore a grudge against these people who would come after him—unless, of course, they did manage to harm him or one of his kin.

Then there was also the factor of his supposed fiancé, Ayamé. The wolf girl he had quite technically pledged himself to many, many years before. His main excuse before for not fulfilling that pledge had been that he still had to battle Naraku. But, Naraku was gone now. Fulfilling his obligation to the wolf tribe would be the most honorable action. All of the in-fighting of the tribes would come to a halt and he would be able to help lead his people to better themselves. With the skills and valuable lessons that he had learned the hard way, Kouga could very well turn the wolf tribe from a group of savages into one of the most formidable yokai clans in the country. Of course, all of that would come with the sacrifice of the affections he wished to direct somewhere other than in the wolf tribe.

"Kouga!"

Kouga turned his attention to the taijiya woman as she burst into the room, holding the child Rin in her arms. The woman appeared as though she had just woken up and seemed fairly alarmed. "Kouga, have you seen Sesshoumaru?"

Kouga shook his head slowly. It did seem odd, once he thought about it, that the Taiyokai had not made his usual rounds today.

Sesshoumaru’s eyes narrowed as he set the wind sorceress down on the now empty futon. He grimaced as his cold stare fell to Sayaka. "She went out on her own and fought Michiko-sama. Needless to say, she didn’t win. When she awakens, tell her to be more careful with her life."

As the Taiyokai turned to exit just the same as he had entered, Sayaka reached out and grabbed his arm. "You aren’t Sesshoumaru!"

Golden eyes softened as they returned Sayaka’s gaze. "So what if I am not?"

Sayaka hesitated, remembering that whomever this man was, he had not harmed her and brought Kagura back. "Just… well, you’re with Michiko then, right? Can you tell me how Kagome is? Is she okay?"

The man’s disguise faltered momentarily as his golden eyes faded to an emerald green. "You’re friend is okay. She isn’t quite happy about being Michiko’s hostage, but she is in good health."

Sayaka sighed relief as she released his arm. "Before you go, what is your name?"

A smile graced the man’s lips as he allowed his true form to be visible to Sayaka for a moment. "I am Enryomaru."

Before Sayaka could say anything further to this man, he returned to his guise as Sesshoumaru and leapt from the balcony. Nearly instantly, he vanished in the forest at the edge of the castle’s grounds. Sayaka closed the door and turned back to look over Kagura. It appeared that Enryomaru had tended to a few of her wounds, but Sayaka could also tell that her friend was still going to be feeling the battle injuries for at least a few more days. That man… he didn’t seem like someone who would be in the employ of a wicked woman such as Michiko.

As she leaned against the wall, she accidentally pushed a mirror off of its hangings. She jumped in surprise as the glass shattered around her feet. A bad omen…

Sayaka shrugged the thought from her mind as she began to remember the topic that she had discussed with Inu Yasha previously. She couldn’t seem to push him from her mind and thus felt the weight her worries had doubled. Granted, he said that he was over Kagome, but he had done nothing to prove such to her. She disliked that she doubted him so much, but also felt that if she did not doubt somewhat that she would find her own heart as shattered as the glass that was all over the floor now.

Ja ne,

Ryoko Yuy / V Shape Otaku