Title: SB – Untitled 055 4/?
Author: Animealam
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Harry/Hermione. Mentions of Harry/Ginny and Hermione/Ron
Warnings: Time Travel (Re-do), violence, child abuse, manipulative but not evil Dumbledore, Character Death, Bad Ginny, Bad Ron, Romance/Het, Post TDH, EWE, Alternate Universe, AU 3^rd Year, Good Severus, Mentor, Mentor Severus, Powerful Harry, Violence.
Disclaimer: Nope, doesn’t belong to me. I only play with them a bit.
Summary: The war had been over for several years, and Harry’s life did not turn out the way he expected it. He ended leaving England and travelling the world. That’s where death found him, but he was the Master of the Hollows and second chances were a given. He would not waste them.

Chapter 4

They discussed it for a while, and finally agreed on his third year. The summer after his second year would give him time to work on a few things, like the Horcruxes. At least those that were already made and available. He would no longer be one, Nagini did not become one until the next summer, and Ravenclaw’s tiara was at Hogwarts. That one he could easily obtain during term. Harry would need an excuse to ‘discover’ the Room of Requirement, but he was sure Dobby would tell him, or one of the other house-elves would if he asked the right question. They all agreed it was going to be very difficult for him to behave like a twelve, and later thirteen years old, but he should try. He was back with a mission, but it did not mean he should not enjoy his second time back. There had been things he wanted to do that he never did. This was the chance to do them.

Even if Harry was not quite able to pretend to be a child, there was always the option to attribute any changes in personality to the events in the Chamber of Secrets, and the fact that the Sorting Hat wanted to place him in Slytherin. Harry could tell them he grew up a bit –or a lot- at facing death for the second year in a row. Or he could simply let everyone draw their own conclusions. He did have enough of a Slytherin in him to pull that off if he was of a mind to.

Lily thought that argument could actually work quite well with what they wanted to do, which was to avoid some -if not most- of the Headmaster’s manipulations. A distrustful child was not what Dumbledore wanted, or needed for his plans to work. Neither of those present were completely sure they could be totally avoided, but some certainly could.

The first thing to do, was to establish that Harry did not trust the old wizard any longer. For that, his childhood experiences and what had happened at school provided a perfect background. Harry had been too naïve and too trusting then. He wanted so much to fit in, and to finally belong somewhere at the time. So he ignored the warning signs. He had seen them, he was not that stupid… or perhaps he had been. Things might have been better for him if had paid attention to them.

Other children in his situation –abused- would have been wary, and become suspicious of the adults. He had been to a degree, but for some reason he had trusted Dumbledore blindly. Harry was told repeatedly Hogwarts was the safest place in the Wizarding world except for Gringotts, and yet, it had not been the case for him. After hearing this James suggested he checked himself for any kind of Loyalty or Compulsion Charms. His father did not think the old coot would sink that low, but it was better to be cautious. Everyone agreed.

Now with an older mind, Harry could see clearly all of the Headmaster’s manipulations. He could use that to his advantage in creating the right personality. He knew more, was also much more powerful since his adult magic would be getting mixed with his younger self’s. Hermione suggested he played his cards as if he had been holding back, which he had actually done the first time around. The Dursley brought him up that way.

Harry had never been allowed to do better than Dudley, even when the young wizard could have been top of his class. He once made the mistake of ignoring his aunt’s and uncle’s orders, and had been punished severely. He never forgot his ‘place’ after that. Not even at Hogwarts, where he just tried to keep his grades, and abilities, barely above Ron’s. Except in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Ron got jealous when he did better than him but he was expected to do well in Defence Against the Dark Arts, so he did.

To explain why he was not holding back any longer, he simply could tell them he believed, after all that happened to him, that he needed to be prepared in case his life was in danger again. There had not been any adult available to help him the previous times. He only himself to get out of any of the situations he encountered at school. This would guilt trip more than a few people, but it was the right thing to do to get them off their collective arses and start doing things, not just expect Harry to save them all.

Harry’s new attitude would certainly clash with Dumbledore’s plans, but that was what they wanted anyway. Although the manipulative old coot might try to get him back in line, Harry was not the boy he had been then, and it would be a cold day in hell for him to fall into the Headmaster’s trap again. It was important to disrupt as many of those plans as he could, especially those regarding Severus Snape as a spy. It would not be easy to befriend the Professor, but all spirits agreed it was possible, and he should try it.

Harry was to break his friendship with Ron. It was very important that he did so. At that point in time it was him who was holding the trio together. If he took Ron out of the equation then, he could save Hermione from him. Unfortunately Ginny was already obsessed with him since he rescued her from the Chamber of Secrets, but he might find a way to dissuade her. At the very least he could try to ignore her, and pay close attention to what he ate and drank. Or in the worst of cases, he could collect the Life Debt she owed him. This was too drastic, so he would leave it as a last resort.

The young wizard was of two minds about the Weasleys. They, as a whole, provided support and a semblance of family for him. He was truly grateful for it, and he was reluctant to loose it. Harry truly loved most of them. He knew that even if he did not continue being friends with Ron, the twins would still remain true to him. This was in part because they were members of the quidditch team, and he had more contact with them that he would have had if he did not play. The same as Mister and Missus Weasley, both of them genuinely cared about him. In his time line even after the Ginny debacle, Molly came to him. She asked him to understand her position, and to forgive her. She loved her daughter, and would defend her as any mother would. But she could also see that what Ginny did to him was wrong, and realized that it was not his fault, none of it was.

That time in the Chamber of Secrets, Harry protected Ginevra because she was Ron’s little sister, and it was the right thing to do. He did not do it because he had been madly in love with her. At that point in his life romance did not even cross his mind. Harry never encouraged Ginevra. It was Molly who did with the stories she told her daughter of the-boy-who-lived. She always assured the little girl, when she asked, that she would marry the boy when they both grew up. This was not something she could have known would happen. At the time he left, they had not been able to patch things up completely, but Harry was certain that one day they would have.

With Hermione’s, his parents, and Sirius assistance, Harry wrote an outline of his third and fourth years in an empty journal. He tended to carry at least one among his things. Although he much preferred to use his laptop, and tended to blog quite a bit of what he did during his travels. Harry spelled the journal to work like a day planner, with Hermione’s help, and to warn him ahead of each event so he could be prepared.

Harry also put a Blood Ward on the journal. Only he would be able to open it. To make it even more secure Harry would keep it in his mokeskin backpack. The backpack had been very expensive, but the investment was worth it. No one could take anything out of it unless they had put it in there in the first place, or Harry had keyed them to it. That last was a special feature he Spelled into the bag. He was not really sure why he added it, since he was travelling alone at the time, but he suspected that sooner or later it would come in handy.

Before he went back the group also discussed the possibility that things could get worse, at least for a while. Changing the past was risky business, no matter how they went about it or how careful they were. Some people that survived in his original time line might not in the changed one, and he should expect that to happen as a result of his different decisions and actions.

While he had to disrupt Dumbledore’s plans, and save Snape’s soul, he should not forget that his main concern was still to destroy Voldemort. They all agreed that it could be done at the end of the Third Task in his fourth year at the earliest, but it was not necessarily the easiest time to do it. For that reason, as much as Harry wanted to capture Pettigrew to prove Sirius’ innocence in his third year, he should not. That was the one event he was not allowed to change. The rat was necessary to bring Voldemort back. Also, a free Sirius would prevent him from getting closer to Snape. If he played his cards well, Severus could easily become a mentor, one a bit more stable than Sirius could ever hope to be.

His godfather told the young wizard some things Dumbledore had not allowed the animagus to tell him, and that would be very useful to him. Specially when he wanted to obtain Hufflepuff’s Cup, and Slytherin’s Locket. Harry was Sirius heir through a Blood Heir Ritual. This was a type of adoption used in some pure-blooded families when there were no heirs produced. It had fallen into disuse in most families about a century before the Marauders were born. But the Black library held quite a lot of information about spells and ritual no longer in use, some were not even Dark. Because of the Blood Heir Ritual, his right to the Black fortune and assets could not be contested. It was like he was Sirius son.

Sirius was disowned by his parents when he was sorted into Gryffindor. Yet he had been allowed to keep living at Grimmauld Place number twelve for some time, and to keep the Black last name. When Regulus died Walburga Black was left heir less. With no one she approved of to carry the Black name, Madam Black decided to accept whoever was her first born son’s heir. Sirius was a womaniser since he became interested in the opposite sex, and Madam Black suspected her son had quite a few bastards all over the place.

A womaniser he was, but Sirius had been careful not to leave any pregnant females. He did not want the responsibility of a child then, and to have to get married at wand point -because that was the only way he would have married anyone- to protect the witch’s honour. For this reason Harry was his only heir. His mother was not aware of that, or she might have changed her Last Will and Testament. At the time of Regulus’ death Madam Black was at odds with her nieces, Bellatrix and Narcissa, as well their husbands. She blamed them for her son’s death.

The Black Family Code of Rules allowed for the Headship of the Family to be claimed by a minor, as long as he or she, had already started Hogwarts. The Code was backed by the Rights of Succession Laws that had ruled their world for centuries. The Headship of a Family would automatically grant the minor assuming it adult status. For some reason James could not fathom, the Potters did not allow a minor to become Head of the Family, so Harry had to claim the Black Headship first. Once he had adult status, Harry could claim the Potter Headship. Neither could be revoked once he was accepted by the Family Rings.

As the Head of the Noble House of Black Harry gained access to the vaults allotted to family members. Bellatrix’s personal vault –where the Cup was- was a Black vault. Not only that, but he also gained all the vaults and assets of the LeStrange family through the marriage contract between Bellatrix and Rudolphus. There was a clause in which the family forfeited all their possessions to the Black Family Head should Rudolphus –the head at the moment- end imprisoned in Azkaban, thus dishonouring the Blacks.

Hearing this Harry had cursed long, hard, and in several languages. Dumbledore knew and should have told Harry, but he was aware the boy would not go back to the Dursley if he gained his independence. If that happened getting Harry to go back to Privet Drive number four would require full disclosure of the Prophesy, as well as a loss of control over the boy; something the Headmaster was not willing to allow.

All was finally settled, or as much as was possible since there would be changes depending on what he did once he was back among the living. Hermione and his mother had some last minute observations they believed he should take into consideration. The first time he went back after death, there had not been any changes to his body or his mental state because he returned the same day. But this… jump went further back, and the body he would find there was a scrawny and malnourished one. He should take that into consideration, as it would not be able to do what he was used to. His magic would be the same, but not the body. He would have to train from the start to avoid injuring himself.

Hermione suggested he take the time to make the potions he would need to heal his body from the malnourishment he suffered at the hands of his relatives, perhaps even see a Healer in St. Mungos for better results. He was in time to correct it, and grow taller than his meagre 5’7”. She knew his height was an issue for him. He might not have said much, and tried to ignore it, but it HAD bothered him.

To end the young witch mentioned there was the possibility that some… things from his younger self would remain. Hermione believed he and his younger self would merge, and while the older mind would prevail, so would the younger one’s emotional range. This had made Harry frown; he did not like it. Hermione thought this might actually work to his benefit, since it would be easier to behave like the twelve year old he was supposed to be.

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2. SB – Untitled 055 3/? Title: SB – Untitled 055 3/? Author: Animealam Rating: PG-13...
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Title: SB – Untitled 055 3/?
Author: Animealam
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Harry/Hermione. Mentions of Harry/Ginny and Hermione/Ron
Warnings: Time Travel (Re-do), violence, child abuse, manipulative but not evil Dumbledore, Character Death, Bad Ginny, Bad Ron, Romance/Het, Post TDH, EWE, Alternate Universe, AU 3^rd Year, Good Severus, Mentor, Mentor Severus, Powerful Harry, Violence.
Disclaimer: Nope, doesn’t belong to me. I only play with them a bit.
Summary: The war had been over for several years, and Harry’s life did not turn out the way he expected it. He ended leaving England and travelling the world. That’s where death found him, but he was the Master of the Hollows and second chances were a given. He would not waste them.

Chapter 3

Harry looked around the station. There should have been a train for him, but there was nothing. Then he saw four figures coming from the furthest part of the station. He recognized them at once, and one caused him great shock, as well as pain. Hermione. She was dead. He could not believe it, could not comprehend her presence at the station, and tears rolled down his cheeks. She should be alive! She should have been living happily with her idiot husband. He left Great Britain in part to let her live her life in peace, without Ron being jealous of him. But she was there, dead. Harry practically ran to her ignoring his parents and Sirius. He hugged her tight, burying his face in her bushy hair, and she returned his embrace just as hard. He had missed her so much, but he had not gone back and refrained from any contact for her sake. Perhaps he should not have kept away.

“Why are you here?” Harry asked his voice hoarse with emotion. “You shouldn’t be here Hermione. You can’t be dead! You just CAN’T!” His voice broke, and the other three spirits looked at each other knowingly. “You should be alive, happy with that idiot of yours. That’s one of the reasons I left, I did not want you have trouble with him. He could never forgive you stayed with me when he decided to leave back when we were hunting for the Horcruxes. He feared you would leave him again.” He knew that if he had asked her to go with him she would have left everything and gone with him.

“I died Harry,” she told him sadly at hearing and seeing his pain. There were tears running down her cheeks soaking his t-shirt. She had been observing him since that happened, and knew what he would not say aloud, or admit to himself. In all that time, he only a scant few relationships that never really lasted. Neither woman had been her. “It was about a year and a half after you left.”

“How?” He croaked still not letting go. He did not want to let go ever again.

“I died in childbirth.” Her voice was a strange mix between anger and sadness. “If I had received help on time the baby and I would have survived. Ron insisted I delivered our daughter at the Burrow even when my Healer told him there would be complications. The baby was not in the correct position. He would not let anyone but Molly deliver the child even when she had never done it before. Ron… Ron changed a lot, or perhaps we really did not know him. Molly wanted me to get the adequate help for us. She insisted on it, but Ron would have none of it. Molly had had all of her children at the Burrow, and I should do too; both of us died.” It had been terrible agonizing hours that she suffered trying to deliver her little girl, and she would never forgive Ron the torture he put the both of them through.

“Bloody bastard!” He snarled, the beginning of loathing in his voice. Then regret entered it as well as deep sadness. “I… I am sorry Hermione… I should have been there to force him to see reason. Hex the prat if necessary, I… I… should have kept in contact…”

“Don’t be sorry Harry,” she told him sincerely. It was not his fault at all. Neither of them could have predicted how Ron would turn out to be, even though perhaps they should have. “There was nothing you could have done. Ron was my husband, you know how outdated some things are in the Wizarding World…” Hermione trailed off. They were at least two centuries behind the muggle world in most things.

“Only in Great Britain,” Harry commented. “The rest of the world is not as backward.” He had seen and learned enough during his travels to know it was not so. They were at least up par with the muggles in most things, and in some others they even surpassed them.

“Yes, our world was in need of changes, but there were few who could achieve them. You might have, and I wanted to… but…” she sighed. “I should have known Ron would never let me be anything but a good little house-wife,” she paused. “I regret little Rose did not live, but not that I died. Life with Ron was unbearable. He gave me the same potion Ginny gave you, and while I resisted for a while, I was not as powerful as you were. I found out about the potion on my wedding day. He was so proud of it.” Her voice and face hardened with something akin to hatred. “Ron was so proud that he had tricked me and bested you. So proud that he got what you wanted. He knew you cared for me Harry, and he decided he was going to have me…”

“What?” He pushed her at arms length to look at her face slightly shocked by her words. He thought he had been discrete, that no one had seen how important Hermione was to him. How much he loved her. Harry did not want to get in the way since Ron was interested in her, or so he thought.

“I know Harry.” She caressed his cheek tenderly. “I know what you feel for me. I… felt the same way. Still do.” He crushed her against him, and she held on tight. “He liked me a bit, and saw that you liked me much more than a bit. That was why he told you he fancied me. The conniving git. Ron knew you would not make a move if you were aware he was crushing on me, even if he wasn’t. Then, in sixth year, the prat started giving me the same potion Ginny gave you.”

“Fucking idiot!” He snarled, and would have murdered the redhead if he had been there. The two youngest Weasley had hurt him -and her- so much. He could barely believe they were Weasleys. The rest of the family, even Percy in his own way, were honourable.

“He is. He did not expect me to resist the potions as long as I did. He told me all this on our wedding day. I was having second thoughts you see…” she trailed off. Then continued. “You told me you would be leaving after the wedding, and I was just about to leave as well. Something felt off about the whole thing, so I went to speak with Ron. I caught him mixing the potion. I was so shocked that I did not react on time, and he Petrified me. That’s when he gloated about what he did. Ron did not love me Harry, he did not particularly like me either, but he suspected you did and that was why you fought the potion Ginny gave you. He drugged me, and I ended making an Unbreakable Vow not to tell anyone.”

“Bastard! Bloody bastard, I’ll kill him!” He was furious, and ready to go back and destroy that red headed arse hole. He could not believe Ron was like that at all. How had he fooled them? He had seemed like a real nice guy, and yet he had been a consummated actor. Making them believe he was true to them.

“No son.” James decided it was time to speak, and placed a comforting hand on his son’s shoulder. “Killing him won’t serve any purpose.”

“Going back to just kill the idiot won’t help pup. Hermione is already dead, and you know there’s no way to bring her back to life,” Sirius said sounding quite reasonable. He had actually grown up now that he was dead, and the conversations they had through the Resurrection Stone had shown it.

“So I should move on, and let that bastard get away with it?” He did not like that at all. Ron hurt Hermione and he could not forgive him that. “If that’s so, then why isn’t there a train for me?”

“Because you do have a choice love,” Lily told her son. “As long as you’re the Master of the Hollows you will always have a choice.”

“And because of the Ward that killed you, you brought all the Hollows here,” James explained signalling the empty train station.

“It is sort of like tying them to you forever. So when you go back they will too, and you will always be their Master,” Sirius finished grinning.

“I don’t think I understand,” Harry looked at both confused. “Didn’t you just say that going back to kill the bastard served no purpose? And what’s this about forever being the Master of the Hollows?”

“Bare with us Harry and you’ll understand,” Hermione said. She grabbed his hand entwining her fingers with his, and guided him to a group of benches where they all sat.

“There were many things that went wrong Harry,” his father began.

“People that died but should not…” Sirius went on. Harry had gotten used to the way his father and his best friend completed each other’s sentences. They were a bit like the Weasley twins.

“Sirius?” Harry looked at Godfather full of hope. He had really missed him, and regretted his death so very much. He knew now it was not his fault that he died, but it had been hard to accept that truth.

“No pup, not me.” He sighed sadly. The animagus spirit knew Harry would hope to spend time with him, but that was not to be. “I actually should have lost my soul at the end of your third year. That bit with the Time Turner was not supposed to happen. As a result I lived longer than I should have. Not that I can complain, I got to know you because of that.” Sirius sighed again. “Things happened that should not have either. Dumbledore means well, he is not evil, or even bad, but he meddled too much in things he should not. He’s grown arrogant, and blind in his old age.”

“The old coot caused far too many troubles for too many good people,” James went on. “He cannot be allowed to do that. The fates are not happy with him, as he changed their plans.”

“The worst thing he did was destroy a soul with his machinations,” Hermione added. She saw Harry become thoughtful.

“Snape? Is that why I was never able to contact him?” Harry had tried to speak with him many times through the Resurrection Stone. There was so much left unsaid between them. He had wanted to thank the snarky wizard for all the times he saved his sorry arse, and to let him know he had earned Harry’s undying respect. But Snape never appeared, unlike the others. Even Dumbledore had the only time he had called him.

“Yes love, Severus,” Lily confirmed with tears in her eyes.

She had hoped to see him in the after life, to talk to him, and patch things up, only to discover he was gone. Simply gone and there was no trace that he ever existed, except for that rotting body his soul inhabited when he was alive. He did not cross. What he knew and what he remembered went to Harry when his soul dispersed. Severus never intended to cross over.

Dumbledore fomented Severus’ guilt over her death, and the way he treated her son increased it to such levels that he wanted everything to end. He could not bear the thought of facing her once he died. So he looked for a spell that would disintegrate his soul upon his death. He cast it on himself the night he killed Dumbledore. The night he condemned himself by murdering the beacon of the Light, a man he had loved almost like a father, even if it had been said beacon’s order.

Lily had not been aware of how much Severus loved her, or how much her rejection hurt him when they had been stupid teenagers. But she should have known. She had been aware of how hard his life was. Lily knew she was an idiot for not forgiving him, especially when she understood why he used that foul word. But she was angry that he was still hanging around with all of those evil gits that called themselves his friends but were anything but. They had used him, and Severus had refused to see it because he had so wanted to fit in Slytherin.

“The Headmaster demanded too much from him. He took advantage of his feelings for your Mum, and the psychological damage that your Dad and Sirius caused. He played with Professor Snape like a Chess Master. Professor Dumbledore did come to care about him, although not at first, just like he cared about you. But the Headmaster never let that sway him from his goals towards the Greater Good,” Hermione added, though she suspected Harry already knew some of this if not all. He had the Professor’s memories, and had viewed the memories of those last two years rather often for a while.

“We regret what we did to Snape son. We were bullies, terrible bullies.” James sounded truly contrite.

“Yeah,” Sirius agreed. “We’ve had time to see the consequences of our actions Pup. It’s not funny to realize that you had a hand at destroying a soul. So few are actually destroyed, not even what-his-name’s was.”

“There are still Horcruxes around?” Harry asked more than slightly alarmed at the prospect of Voldemort resurrecting himself again.

“No Harry, that’s not what Sirius meant.” Hermione reassured him. “The Horcruxes held a piece of his soul bound to the Earth, so he could come back. But once all of the piece’s vessels were destroyed, the soul became whole here… or as whole as it can get after what he did to it. You destroyed what kept him… alive you could say. Without them he stays here, and has. But that’s the thing, there’s still something left of him, but there’s nothing but what you have in your mind of Professor Snape,” she explained in her usual way, and he rewarded her with a hug.

“You never change,” he whispered softly into her hair. “I like this side of you.” Then he turned to his father and asked. “Why did you hate Snape? Why single him out? You said he knew many Dark hexes and curses, was that it?” Both spirits looked ashamed and guilty.

“He did know a few, but so did I Harry,” Lily admitted. She and Severus had been avid to learn magic, and his mother had many books. They had also read many muggle books on magic, and that had created their own very particular way of doing magic. “We learned together. His mother had many Dark Arts books, and we read some of them, but concentrated mostly on Light things. Believe it or not, he did not like the idea of killing or harming anyone when we were children. Except, maybe, his father; and that man I would have gladly killed myself. He was awful to Severus and his mother son.”

“I know Mum, I know now. I too would have cursed the idiot drunkard to hell and back.”

“Severus was very powerful love, much more than he let on. We both were, and could do things few could, even pure bloods.” She smiled proudly, her eyes a little glazed remembering one thing or another of her childhood friend. “We… we had less preconceived ideas about magic.”

“Was that it?” Harry inquired the still guilty looking duo, because for him that was no reason to torment another human being.

“No,” James responded. “He… he was ugly, poor…”

“A half-blood, a Slytherin, a scrawny little thing…” Sirius went on.

“Until that growth spurt in sixth year, remember? He became the tallest…” James trailed off.

“Yeah, he was about 6’3” when we left Hogwarts and he stopped at 6’5”. Anyway, he was a bookworm, top of class with Lily…”

“And he was her friend. We could not understand how a slimy Slytherin could be her friend. We… we believed he was too ugly to be her friend.”

Harry gaped at them. “I… I’m appalled!” He finally said. “That’s… that’s a load of shite! And you kept that grudge AFTER you ‘supposedly’ became adults? Sirius you were twelve years in Azkaban, and yet you still hated him for that?” He exclaimed in disbelief. He was frankly disappointed and it showed on his face. Both his father and Godfather cringed at his tone of voice.

“Well, yeah,” Sirius said ashamed. “But by that time there were more reasons. He was always trying to get us expelled, or at the very least get us into trouble…” he tried to defend himself, although he knew it was no excuse.

“So you had to lead him to a werewolf? What happened that night was much worse than you led me to believe. I saw the memory from his point of view. Merlin, I had nightmares for a few months afterwards, and it was not the first time I saw Remus transformed. I really can empathize with Snape on that. By Merlin’s mighty staff, you should have been expelled for almost getting TWO of your class mates killed! I really can’t believe how callous Dumbledore was.”

“He was. I really could not see how bad that was until I died Harry. It was too late to do anything, not even apologize, by then.” The animagus sighed. “Snape did have the right to hate me. I was an idiot.”

“Well, at least you can recognize that. So what is it that you propose?” He said with a sigh going back to the initial topic. Still, he could not hide how disappointed he was of his father, godfather, and the old coot.

“That you go back and fix some of these mistakes,” Hermione said bluntly.

“Go back? Hermione didn’t you warn me about messing with time in third year?” He asked askance. She had been rather adamant then that time was nothing to trifle with.

“I did,” She agreed. “But what we propose is not the same as with a Time Turner.”

“Huh?” Harry did not think he was following. “Not the same?”

“No love,” his Mum interjected. “There would not be a paradox simply because there won’t be two of you.” Her boy looked even more confused at her words.

“You’d be in your younger self’s body,” Hermione went on. “Your mind and magic -the adult ones- go back with you and merge with those of your younger self. You have already done this once, except you went right back to a bit after He cast the Killing Curse on you. This time you would be going back in time, a few years back.”

“I see…” He said slowly as he mulled what she had told him. It sounded feasible, still, many things would depend on their plans. “When exactly do you have planned?”

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Chapter 2

Just like the last time Harry found himself in a deserted King’s Cross. Unlike the last time, he had brought all that he had carried with him at the time he fell, which were all his belongings stored in his mokeskin backpack, motorcycle included. His cloak, the Elder Wand, and the Resurrection Stone were also in there. Harry had only wanted to keep the Invisibility Cloak; it had been his father’s anyway. But there had been attempts to get the Elder Wand out of Dumbledore’s tomb, several of them. So Harry had taken it without anyone the wiser. The wand was too powerful to be left there for the taking, and he still was the master of it.

The Ring he recovered from the Forbidden Forest a year after the battle. He actually stumbled upon it as he strode about the area where he had been killed. It had been morbid to be there, but he had been feeling the pressure of everyone’s expectations for the Defeater of Voldemort, and needed to ground himself. He had talked to his parents, Sirius, Remus, Tonks, and even Cedric since then. That last had been something he really needed to start healing. The young Hufflepuff did not blame him for his death.

Harry had tried to speak with Snape a few times, but oddly enough, the Potions Master never came. He asked the others if they knew if the Potions Professor was alive. Maybe that was the reason why he did not respond to his summons. He hoped it was so, but they all told him Snape was dead, and refused to say more. Their expressions filled with a sorrow that Harry could not understand; even those of his father and godfather.

Harry looked around unsure about what to do. As the Master of the Deathly Hollows he was the Master of Death. He knew he could go back to the Land of the Living. The question was, did he want to? The wizard did not have much to go back to, except for Teddy –his godson. He adored the boy, and no matter where he was he always managed to visit Teddy at least twice a year. Harry had become an expert at making International Portkeys just so he could visit his godson, he even had a license.

Andromeda sometimes allowed Harry to take the boy for a couple of weeks to where ever country he had been at the time. Little Teddy even spoke some Japanese, as Harry lived there for five years. The last time he saw Teddy they visited Disney World in Orlando Florida for a week. Both loved it, and Harry planned on a future visit once Teddy was older so they could try some of those incredible rides that would not allow the small boy on them yet. He had not seen -or heard fromRon and Hermione since their wedding, and his presence had been unwelcome by Ron.

<Flash Back>

Things with Ginevra had become decidedly uncomfortable. She was putting too much pressure on him to marry her, and Harry was really having many mixed feelings about it. He felt compelled to do as she demanded, much like one under the Imperious would feel; and just like with the Unforgivable Curse Harry fought the compulsion. It did not feel right, and neither did his feelings for Ginny. He and the youngest Weasley fought almost all the time. If he did not want to marry her just yet, then she wanted to move into Grimmauld Place number twelve.

Harry was scandalized by her suggestion. His moral values came from the Dursleys, and well… Vernon and Petunia were very old fashioned in that regard. They severely frowned upon unmarried couples living together, and it was even worse on sex before marriage. The young wizard knew Missus Weasley had similar beliefs; for that reason he was intent on respecting Ginny until they married, if they ever did.

He did not want to have trouble with the only family he knew, so he did not allow Ginny to move in. That had caused one monumental tantrum, but he held on to his beliefs. He also gathered all his resolution to avoid shagging her, despite her efforts to the contrary. She could be very persuasive, and some of the things she did, made him think that, unlike himself, Ginny was not a virgin. He was not sure what to think, or how to feel about that.

Feeling desperate by his refusal to do as she wanted, Ginny went to her mother with a bunch of lies. She told her that Harry had been intimate with her since they were at Hogwarts. That meant Ginny had been under the age of consent at the time. To Molly, this was a great offence, made even worse when her daughter told her that Harry refused to make an honourable witch out of her and still insisted in having sex. Like a lioness protecting her cubs, Molly had rounded on Harry, demanding he did his duty to her daughter and marry her. He could not go deflowering girls left and right without accepting the consequences of his actions.

Harry had been shocked at the accusation, he had not gotten that far with her –or anyone else- and he told Molly so. He told her that he agreed with her views, as that was about the only thing he had learned from his relatives that he believed was right. Harry even went so far as to offer to take Veritaserum to prove that he was telling the truth. He had not been aware that Ginny herself had been the one that accused him. He was calling her a liar, and Molly would not accept that of her daughter. Instead of pacifying the witch, she had exploded in anger and slapped him. The Weasley matriarch went so far as to present charges of rape as Ginny had been a minor and demand reparation of her daughter’s honour, which would force Harry to marry Ginevra.

The young wizard was shocked by Missus Weasley reaction. He did not blame her though. She was Ginevra’s mother and would protect her daughter like a lioness does her cubs. Harry did not want to have trouble with the Weasley, but now he knew he did not want to marry Ginny. The red headed girl was obsessed with him, and it seemed she was willing to go to any lengths to get him. To make matters more stressful for him, Ron believed his sister, and pressured Harry to do his duty to her. Only Hermione believed him. She knew Ginny never really got over her crush on Harry, and while she had accepted their romance, the young witch always had reservations regarding the red headed girl. Hermione and Ron fought over this often, but she held firm by Harry’s side.

He knew he had not done what that crazy fan girl accused him off, so Harry was calm. He was sad at losing the Weasleys because of that dratted girl’s obsession, but he still hoped they would see he was innocent and not hate him. Ginevra on the other hand was not calm at all. She had told her mother hoping the formidable witch that was Molly Weasley would put pressure on Harry to marry her. But she did not expect the dratted boy to deny her allegations so vehemently. Neither did she expect her mother to press charges. They were not true, and during the trial things that she DID NOT want her parents to know would come to light.

Ginny urged her mother to drop the charges. Molly refused, she would not be swayed in what she believed was her crusade to protect her daughter’s and the family’s honour. Harry had abused their trust, and betrayed them. She could not forgive him that. They did go to trial, and the ugly truth of who Ginevra Molly Weasley really was came to light. Under Veritaserum Ginny confessed that she lost her virginity when was twelve to a fifth year Ravenclaw –Paul Greer, who had been fifteen. It had not been an act of love, but a monetary transaction. Greer offered her a good amount of galleons to be her first. But he was not the only one she had been with. Somehow word got around among all the Houses, except Gryffindor, that she was available if the money was right.

The red headed girl liked this attention, but she liked it even more that the boys –and some girls- began giving her things or more money for her to be with them. Since then she had shagged around half the students at Hogwarts. Even when she dated Harry at Hogwarts she kept her ‘clients’. Her promiscuity was one of Hogwarts best kept secrets as few Gryffindors ever found out. Harry was the only guy that had resisted her charms and she was frustrated by it. She wanted to be Missus Potter and get to spend his money. Her mother always told her she would marry ‘the-boy-who-lived’ when they grew up. He was not cooperating, but her mother was never wrong, and she would do whatever it took to get him.

She also wanted to see if Harry was in bed as she imagined him, and since he would not cooperate she had drugged him with an Aphrodisiac and a Forgetfulness Potion. He did live up to her expectations, and that only made her want him more. During the trial it also came out that she had used Felizia’s Love. Just about the most potent Love Philtre around, even more so than Amortencia. It was a very Dark potion, and possession of it was a five year sentence in Azkaban no need of a trial. Using it earned who did twenty five years. Few, save the most powerful witches and wizards could resist the call of Felizia’s Love; Harry had, and for several years.

Ginny ended in Azkaban for forty years. It was the sum of the sentences for possession, and use of a Dark Love Philtre, as well as rape. Because giving Harry an Aphrodisiac and a Forgetfulness Potion to have intercourse with her without his consent amounted to rape. He had not wanted to have sex. He had, in fact, been abstaining for her, her family, and his own values.

Molly was horrified when all her beloved daughter did came to light. She wanted to deny it, wanted to tell her not to lie. But she could not. Ginny was under Veritaserum. She was not lying; all that she said was true. To think that she had once accused poor Hermione of being a ‘Scarlet Woman’; when her own daughter was one of the worst. She did not know her own daughter, and had raised a slut.

Molly could not help wonder where she went wrong with Ginny and some had the gall to tell her it began with her promising the girl that she would marry the-boy-who-lived. That was when the obsession began. She had to accept that perhaps it was true. Harry was a living wizard, not a fairy tale character. He was not at all like the boy she had painted to Ginny in her stories. The Weasley matriarch fell into a deep depression due to her failure at raising her only daughter. But Molly no longer accused Harry. He was innocent of any wrong doing. He was, in fact, her daughter’s victim. There was hope that the Weasley and Harry one day could patch up and go on like the family they considered each other to be. Molly was not lying when she told Harry that she loved him like a seventh son.

Ron, git that he was, refused to accept his own sister’s testimony and blamed Harry. He should have married her anyway. That was the way things were supposed to be, and the green eyed wizard should accept it. The best friends had severe arguments that had come to blows and hexes more than once. The red head’s temper had always been volatile. This would be the third, and last, time he abandoned Harry. The green eyed wizard was not going to accept him back again, if he did come crawling back. Their constant fighting was hard on Hermione. She was caught in the middle, and Ron accused her of wanting to leave him for Harry.

The dark haired wizard decided he did not want to ruin Hermione’s life. She loved the both of them, but in different ways. Harry was just a friend, her best friend. But Ron was her fiancé, the wizard she was going to marry and live with for the rest of her life. He decided the best for her would be to put some distance between them and hope she would be happy with the idiot she loved. The young wizard attended Ron’s and Hermione’s wedding because of the later. She was still his friend, and he loved her very much. He embarked on his journey all over the world a day after that, sure that she would be well taken care of. Whatever the prat was, he did love Hermione.

<End of Flashback>

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2. SB – Untitled 055 3/? Title: SB – Untitled 055 3/? Author: Animealam Rating: PG-13...
3. SB – Untitled 055 – 1/? Title: SB – Untitled 055 1/? Author: Animealam Rating: PG-13...

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Title: SB – Untitled 055 1/?

Author: Animealam

Rating: PG-13

Pairing: Harry/Hermione. Mentions of Harry/Ginny and Hermione/Ron

Warnings: Time Travel (Re-do), violence, child abuse, manipulative but not evil Dumbledore, Character Death, Bad Ginny, Bad Ron, Romance/Het, Post TDH, EWE, Alternate Universe, AU 3^rd Year, Good Severus, Mentor, Mentor Severus, Powerful Harry, Violence.

Disclaimer: Nope, doesn’t belong to me. I only play with them a bit.

Summary: The war had been over for several years, and Harry’s life did not turn out the way he expected it. He ended leaving England and travelling the world. That’s where death found him, but he was the Master of the Hollows and second chances were a given. He would not waste them.

Author’s Note: This is the story that I will most likely be posting to Potions and Snitches Archive, and Fanfiction.Net. I already have around 180 plus pages done, although there are some things that I want to correct/add before I post, this is why I’m only posting it here for the time being. It is by no means complete, and I was waiting until I had at least half of it, but it’s going to be a really looong story. I’ve only got so far as September first before the Feast done, and it’s already so long.

This chapter is basically a Prologue, and has no dialogs.

Chapter 1

Things did not go all that well for Harry after the war. He tried to go back with Ginny, but it did not work out as he expected. She loved the idea of ‘the-boy-who-lived’, not plain old Harry. She expected him to behave like a hero all the time, parade himself everywhere, and demand to receive special treatment. That was not who he was, he hated his fame and to be treated differently because of it. He thought she understood that he simply wanted a quiet life away from the public scrutiny. But Ginny did not. She demanded too much that they be seen in public as well as expensive gifts. At one point the only Weasley girl had tried to bully the goblins into giving her access to Harry’s vaults. They did not of course, she was not Missus Potter. It was then that she began pressuring him to marry her, but the young wizard was not ready to marry her. Especially not with the way she was behaving.

The break up was messy, and created a wedge between Harry, Molly, and Ron. The other members of the Weasley family knew Ginevra rather well. They were aware of how obsessed their youngest member was with the-boy-who-lived. They all suspected Ginny did not love Harry, but an image of him that she created in her mind. The youngest Weasley had stubbornly decided that she would be Missus Potter, and there was no way to dissuade her. She even resorted to lies that of course Molly believed because she was her daughter.

Things were so bad that Molly resorted to the Wizengamot to get the young Gryffindor to marry her daughter, arguing he had taken her virtue when she was under age. Harry had not touched her THAT way yet, and he won. It was then that the Weasley learned who Ginevra really was.

Harry tried his hand at being an Auror. He took the training, graduated, and started working at it. The job was not what he expected it would be. He did not like enforcing unjust and biased laws, nor did he like having to fight Dark Wizards for a living. He had enough of that in his young life to want to keep doing it for the rest of his time on Earth.

After several months as an Auror Harry realized it was not what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He had not really known there were any other options, no one told him, as McGonagall should have during his orientation in fifth year. They all expected him to know all about the Wizarding World, like a wizard born that had lived all his life in that world. But he was not, he was raised by magic hating muggles and knew even less that many muggle borns.

He had been living up to everyone’s expectations, and in his father’s shadow. Harry decided to take his life in his own hands, and he quit Magical Law Enforcement. But even that was a chore. They had great expectations of him being the new Ministry of Magic’s poster boy; and while Kingsley was doing a rather good job, things had not changed all that much from the way they were for Harry to feel comfortable enough to endorse them. It took Kingsley’s direct acceptance of his resignation letter for him to finally be free of the Ministry’s clutches.

At a loss of what to do with his life Harry decided to travel the world, and see what else there was for him. He was nineteen when he set off with a magical tent, a more modern magical motorcycle, a wallet connected to his vault, and all his worldly possessions in a shrunken trunk stored in his jeans pocket. Later he bought a backpack made of mokeskin. It had the same properties as the pouch Hagrid gave him for his seventeenth birthday, plus a few handy enchantments.

He left Krearcher in charge of Grimmauld Place, and hired Winky to help him. Together they were to rebuild the old dark house and make it liveable again for when he came back; although Harry had no clue when that would be. The young wizard travelled around England, Scotland, and Ireland first, like any muggle back pack tourist would do. He refrained from using much magic while in Great Britain as many people were reluctant to give him the space he needed and tried to find him.

During his travels Harry began learning about himself, and he started the slow process of healing the traumas Dumbledore had nurtured in his psyche, for the Greater Good of course. He had been raised like a pig for the slaughter, and once his purpose was served and he managed to survive, Harry needed to ‘unlearn’ many things and behaviours that were really never in his nature, but that the old coot foisted on him.

While travelling Great Britain as a muggle the young wizard discovered music. The Dursleys were not musically inclined with the exception of Dudley, so he had little exposure to it even when most children had. He loved it, and decided to learn to play the piano, and the guitar. It had been no trouble to add a piano to his magical tent when he bought one. Playing an instrument was not easy at first, but Harry realized he was not bad at all, and it relaxed him. He could spend hours playing, and as people said practice made perfect. He assisted many concerts of several styles of music most of which he liked, and he added the saxophone to the list of instruments he learned.

Harry toured Europe afterwards, and spent a summer enjoying the Mediterranean beaches and the sights. At the end of the summer he moved East ward, but he avoided the Middle East due to the political situation in the area. The young wizard had enough of wars and Dark Lords to last him a life time, and his name was rather well known even there. He spent six years in the Far East. Beginning with a year touring Thailand, and China, then he crossed to Japan. Harry liked the culture, and the food, so he made his residence in Okinawa Japan. There he found a Master -a Sensei- who took him in and taught him not only Martial Arts, but magic as well. Under Sensei Matsui’s guidance Harry Potter became a Potions Master.

The young wizard did have the talent for potions. He inherited it from his mother, but Snape had endeavoured to make him hate the subject, and for a while Harry had, associating it with the snarky and hateful wizard. But the Potions Professor had known Harry did not completely lack talent, and neither was he the idiot he claimed the boy was. He had been conflicted about seeing the good qualities of both James Potter and Lily Evans in Harry. That was not something Severus Snape wanted to do, so he tried his best to ignore it and compare the young Gryffindor’s behaviour to the worst his father could be.

In the end Snape did acknowledge Harry’s potential and somehow gave the boy most of his knowledge, and not just in potions. It had been Snape’s dying gift, a hope that with his knowledge Lily’s boy would manage to survive against all odds. To the young wizard it was such a precious gift. Through the memories he had seen, Harry knew the Potions Master had been as much of a bookworm as Hermione was. Learning had been one of the few joys the lonely wizard had left during his life. Harry did not feel he deserved the gift; and the knowledge was not the only thing he got from Snape. He received all the Potion Master’s memories.

Harry did not know how that had been possible in the short time that passed from the moment Snape asked him to look at him, and the man’s death. How he did it had not been amongst the knowledge he transferred; and the young wizard was sure that had to be the only time it was possible for those memories and the knowledge to be implanted in his mind.

The young wizard discovered he knew more than he was supposed to when he began ‘remembering’ spells, or things about places that he did not recall learning. The memories he discovered through his dreams, and originally he had no way to control them. It was only after he learned to meditate in India that he got a semblance of control over them.

It was in Japan under the supervision of his Sensei that Harry had worked into assimilating the knowledge so it would be readily available to him. Sensei Matsui helped the young English wizard to put into practice all Snape had known about the Mind Arts, and that not only included Legilimency and Occlumency. The Professor had a memory that was practically photographic, and it was due to how he had learned to organize it. Once he had compartmentalized his memories searching for one was easy. This also helped him read books faster and retain all that he learned. It did not mean that he understood all, but Severus Snape was an incredibly intelligent man on top of that. Harry got to know Snape like no one had, better than Snape knew himself, he ventured to admit.

The Potions Master believed himself cruel and evil. He was not. He was just jaded. He lived a hard life. His heart and positive emotions had hardened, but they were there, hidden, and apparently safe from anyone wanting to hurt Snape through them. He was protecting himself. Snape was quite capable of love, and of caring; he did for his Slytherin. They were in a way the children he would never father.

Snape was not a demonstrative man simply because he really did not know how; there had been precious little love and caring in his life. His mother, who did love him, had simply retreated into her mind unable to cope with the life she chose for herself and her child. She let Severus grow up alone. Harry’s mother had been able to teach him a bit about love and caring, but she too had abandoned him. Still, there was good in Snape’s heart even if he was not nice, did not know how to be nice.

The young wizard ended admiring and respecting his ex-professor. That was actually the main reason he became a Potions Master, to honour Severus Snape and the vast knowledge he transferred. The incredible gift he gave one idiotic child, even when the Professor was not sure Harry would live. Dumbledore’s plans were clear that he had to die, but Snape had faith that Lily’s child would survive. His life, his sacrifice, would serve as additional protection. He had known Harry had been in the Shack. He had been able to sense him ever since he made that oath to Dumbledore. Severus would not let the last piece of Lily left in the world be destroyed, Petunia and her offspring did not count and never had for him.

After five years and a Masters in Potions Harry went on with his travels; he did not feel the need to settle down yet. So he explored Polynesia, New Zeeland, and Australia. From Australia he travelled via boat to America. He worked as the ship’s cook. He explored Canada, Alaska, and the rest of the USA where he stayed for a while. The country was vast, and there was much to see and learn.

The USA had a very large magical community, comprised of immigrants from all over the world as well as the native people. The furore of the-boy-who-lived-and-defeated-Voldemort-twice’s disappearance had died out, so he felt safe going everywhere with the reassurance that he would not be recognized immediately. Harry had changed from the teenager he had been, and grown both his hair and his beard. The scar was no longer cursed and had faded enough that he could use Scar Removing Salves to get rid of it.

From the USA he went south, to Mexico, and that was when things changed for Harry. He had been in Tajin, an old Olmeca settlement and ceremonial centre. Like the other tourists he was exploring the site poking here and there, and admiring the ingenuity of the structure builders, when he discovered a Warded area. There had obviously been magical people when the city was inhabited. After his travels and the knowledge gained he could feel the Wards were powerful as well as very old. They also gave him the creeps.

Harry was curious, but he decided he would rather not get into any trouble. He was no longer the impulsive little Gryffindor he had been as a teenager. Still, he got in trouble anyway. It really should have been his middle name and not James. As he turned to walk away he slipped on a loose rock and fell backwards into the protection. The moment Harry crossed the Ward he saw a bright white light that blinded him, and seconds later his whole life passed before his eyes. He knew he was about to die, and did not fight it. Harry had died before, and he did not fear it.

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2. SB – Untitled 055 2/? Title: SB – Untitled 055 2/? Author: Animealam Rating: PG-13...
3. SB – Untitled 055 3/? Title: SB – Untitled 055 3/? Author: Animealam Rating: PG-13...

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Title: Present Time 19/27
Series: Inuyasha
Author: animealam (a.k.a. alandrem)
Rating: This chapter is R
Warnings: Some characters may be a bit OOC. Violence, the mention of drug use, attempted rape, and bad language.
Summary: Inuyasha discovers the present is more dangerous than he was led to believe.
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. Although I’ll probably add a couple more characters of my own imagination.
Author’s Notes: Finally the lemon has come!!!!!!! But after so much talk about it I hope it lives up to your expectations.

Thanks to telosphilos for co-writing the chapter and providing the basis for it, you did a great job, and sorry for not putting in chapter 18 that you co-wrote it too. I kind of posted it in a hurry.

And also thanks to my editors, evercool resurrected and Laz.

WARNING!      WARNING!      WARNING!

This chapter contains sexually explicit situations if you are underage, please refrain from reading and wait for the next chapter, it will not contain sex. With ff.net new regulations I am taking the risk of getting my story deleted so please kids behave. Also if you don’t like this kind of material stop here, I will not accept flames or complaints for writing a sexually explicit chapter, you were WARNED not to read if you didn’t like the theme.

This chapter will also be posted on my site and on MediaMiner.org sometime tonight.

Caressing the skin on his back gently, she reached one hand up to his shoulder and gently pulled him back to her.  His head rested on her collarbone, tucked tightly under her chin.  Grabbing the blanket, Inuyasha covered their legs, and by necessity his lap, to keep them warm.  She rubbed his ears with one hand and held him to her with the other arm across his chest.  Her touch was soothing him into a dangerous state of relaxation.  Yet, her scent, which he was now enveloped in, was alluring and arousing; so he had to work at maintaining control.  Running one of her hands over his chest and fiddling with his long beautiful hair, she nuzzled an ear and whispered into it.

“My beautiful hanyou.” The purring inu hanyou felt his blood start to heat at her soft endearment.  He turned a little in her arms to nuzzle her neck below her ear and whispered back.

“Hai mate?”  Kagome gave him a brilliant smile before kissing the tip of his nose.

“I like hearing you call me that, my mate.”  She told him as she kissed his cheek and then his chin.

Her hanyou felt himself start to harden and was glad she could not see it under the blanket.  He resolved to himself to leave soon, once things stated to go too far.  She did not know it, but the kiss to his chin was an instinctive submissive gesture among canine youkai.  She was unknowingly submitting herself to his authority and affection.  He could not help but react to it.

“Good” he replied after a moment.  He ran a finger down the edge of her jaw and drew her in for a real kiss.  He nibbled her lower lip gently before licking his mate’s teeth, returning the affectionate submissive gesture in kind before deepening the kiss. Kagome’s blood started to heat from her hanyou being half turned in her lap and kissing her.  He was kissing her with passion, so she ran her hands along his sides and face and kissed him back just as thoroughly. Her hand on his side was tickling his sensitive skin.  He broke the kiss and said with a smirk,

“If you are going to tickle me, I’m going to have to get you back for it.”

“Oh really? That sounds like a tickle fight to me.”  Kagome grinned at him as she purposefully tickled his sides and he started twitching away from her hands in her lap.

Being above his mate, he started trying to get her sides and under her arms.  He was mirroring her attacks as they both twitched and giggled, Kagome cautioning him to keep it quiet or they would probably wake someone up.  He was going for her underarms and neck when she surprised him by going for his inner thigh.  If her being so close to him while in heat was not enough, there was no way he could prevent his erection from twitching and hardening further.

‘Oh Kami! I need to stop this soon. But, not just yet, I’m… having fun.’ Were the young hanyou’s thoughts as he turned in her lap to face her, and then redoubled his assault on her sides with a soft growl.

Kagome was pinned when Inuyasha rolled to face her, but she did not care. They were having a moment of lighthearted fun and it was something so rare.  She was amused to find that his inner thigh was a ticklish spot; she would not have suspected it. Actually, she would have never thought Inuyasha could be ticklish. Alas, that nice spot was gone and her hand was now on the very top of his leg, just below the hip joint.

Moving her hand in a little to tickle her way back up his sides, she found herself touching something hard, thick and rod shaped.  The young woman was curious and she cradled it in the palm of her hand. Kagome gently tried to feel its length and get a measure of his size through his hakama.  Above her, Inuyasha froze; his mate’s scent had spiked sharply when her hand found the evidence of his arousal.  The caress felt too good and the young hanyou almost let out a groan; he needed to leave before he lost control.

Sensing his indecision and hesitation, Kagome pulled him down on top of her for a long hard kiss.  She continued to caress his erection though his hakama throughout their kiss.  His purring went lower, out of the range of human hearing, but she could feel its vibrations against her chest.  Removing her hand from him, she rolled them over so that she was pinning him instead.  Nuzzling his neck and chin, she molded her body neatly into his and went back to kissing him. It was all starting to overwhelm Inuyasha.

‘I have to leave!’ he thought as he fought the urge to move following the slow rhythm of her hand. He had never wanted to lose control so much before in his life. ‘It feels… it feels so good.’ Her soft, but firm body so willingly pressed into his felt very, very right.

He did not know what to do with his hands so he just held her to him, placing one arm across her shoulders and the other wrapped possessively from her waist to her hip.  Their position reminded him very much of a couple of the pages out of that ecchi book her mother had given him.  His thoughts traveled along those lines for only a moment before he caught himself.

‘Don’t think about that! I have to stop thinking about those fucking pictures or I’m going to loose it.’ He berated himself, trying to get some measure of control. ‘But it sure seemed like it would feel really nice and she’s… Argh! I have to stop thinking about this!’

He stroked her hair and one hand found its way under her pajama top to rub her back lightly. His mind started wandering again, this time to the ecchi fantasies he had been having about mating her. Her hips started to move where she had her pelvis pressed against his. The movements played havoc with him, as he started to rub himself mindlessly against her. A muffled groan came out of his throat, making the young woman smile. Straddling him as she came up for air, Kagome kept rubbing herself against him.  His purr was having possessively wicked effects on her sensitive breasts and groin.

She wanted more contact, but still keep it well short of ‘mating’ until she was not in heat, so she purposefully tried to stimulate both of them using her position.  Much to her surprise, her hanyou let out a whimper and grabbed her buttocks to hold her off of him while taking a few deep breaths as she rubbed his stomach and chest, paying special attention to his nipples. He let out another whimper, and took a few more deep breaths. Only then did he finally started to speak in a purring husky voice she had never heard from him before, but that she sure wanted to hear  more often.

“Gods Kagome! We need to stop or I’m going to lose it.”  Instead of answering, she kissed him, taking her time sucking his lower lip sensually.  “Please,” his voice had a slightly desperate tone, “I should leave and go take care of myself.”  He told her when she let him speak again.  Her hand traveled slowly up and down his entire torso making him bite his lip to still have some semblance of control.

“And what if I want to take care of you, my mate?” She asked him in a low whisper, as she looked in his beautiful golden eyes that had opened wide in surprise. Kagome could tell her offering was the last thing he had expected to hear from her. She could feel him shiver softly at the words.

‘Gods! I can’t believe I’m actually doing this. But, I want him, and I can see and feel he wants me too and… I… I never thought he would choose me.’ Kagome realized she was being unusually bold and he rather shy, but somehow she felt it was the right thing to do. ‘Even if I can’t go all the way, I can still make him feel good.’

“You could just consider it a promise of things to come for when you do claim me.” She smiled at him and her eyes held a promising twinkle.

<Flashback>

“You know,” Asami interrupted him, “I might sound like I’m repeating myself. But it is just that she can very easily push you beyond your ability to control your instincts, she needs to know so she doesn’t do it unintentionally.”

“I can see your point.” Inuyasha said with a sigh, knowing she was right. “I’ll try to find a way to speak to her. Even if she refused to be my mate, I would not choose another one.”

“Intentionally is another story.” Inuyasha’s eyes went wide.

‘Would… would Kagome really do that?’ His mind started reeling and a few ecchi thoughts from his fantasies began popping in. He had to shake his head to push them away.

<End of Flashback>

‘Now I have my answer, she’s… she’s doing it on purpose!’ Taking a deep slow breath to control his racing heartbeat, he told her,

“I would never impose on you, but if I lose control completely, I will take you and I don’t want it to be like that for out first mating. I could hurt you.” Giving him a long, slow, and deep kiss tenderly as a reward for admitting his fears, she slipped out of his hands and back on top of him. Kagome resumed her slow motions against him as she leaned against his chest.

“When I’m not in heat later, we will get into this situation again and I will expect you to claim me.” She whispered softly against his mouth, brushing his lips with hers softly until he pressed for the kiss.

“Hell yes! You can expect that I will fi…” He started saying but she shushed him with a deep kiss.

Kagome did not stop her movement, pressing herself against him as she kissed him, and all he could do was respond to it, raising his hips to meet her as they rubbed against each other. All resolve to leave was gone as his mind focused on her and the sensations she was creating. One of his hands went under her pajama top while the other made its way under her bottom to caress the soft skin of her buttocks as he urged her to move a little faster.

The young woman could hear both her and her mate’s pants as they strained against each other, he was also making some soft whimpering noises and he had to stop his kisses to bite his lower lip bloody in an attempt to stop what could have been a loud moan. Even if he had permission to mate with her, he did not want to wake the whole family. Kagome too moaned and gasped, but she had learned to keep it quiet when she had explored her body before; not wanting to get caught touching herself. She kept kissing him ignoring the coppery taste of his blood on his lips, as the bites healed fast.

Kagome suddenly tensed as she reached her climax, letting out a soft gasp and whispering his name, then lying on top of him panting and nuzzling his neck. The moment she came Inuyasha’s nostrils were invaded by the fragrance of her release, the smell so alluring and exiting that it set him off, and with a soft groan he strained against her one last time before letting go. In a last attempt to keep quiet he bit her shoulder drawing some blood, which he licked clean once he was back to his senses, his saliva helping it heal almost as fast as he did. They laid there for some time just enjoying their closeness until Inuyasha tried to get up.

“Please don’t go, let’s stay like this for a while.” Kagome asked him in a soft whisper as she nuzzled his throat, tightening her legs around his hips and arms around his neck.

“I don’t want to move either mate… It’s nice being like this.” He admitted softy as he nibbled her lips. “But I… just made a mess of myself, and I’ll still have to take care of the others…”

“Others? What others?”

“Ah… it’s a demon thing…” he began saying, turning slightly red, “it’s not like it is for a human male…”

“What do you mean? This was just like what I have heard it is for men.”

“Ah… well, as far as I can tell… from what I’ve heard Miroku say it’s usually once a night and well, for me it has just started…” Kagome’s eyes grew wide, the implication sounding very interesting, and she got the feeling she was going to like that part of being mated with an inu hanyou very much. “and… they’ll be getting more intense, so I… better leave.”

“I think I’m going to like that demon thing when you finally claim me.” She told him with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes that only made him blush harder. “Until then, let me take care of you Inuyasha,” she breathed his name softly making it sound like a loving caress. His resistance was weaning, “you are my mate after all.”

Placing his hands on her hips and chewing a bit on his lower lip, this time he just nodded.  She was right, as his mate, it was right for them to do this. And he had to admit he had fantasized many times about what it would be like to have her please him. This was his chance to find out.

Even if they had not gone through the final stage of mating yet, they would, and Kagome even made it sound like it would be soon!  He had not expected her to want to go all the way until she got used to the idea, but he was damn glad she had gotten used to it pretty quick. Actually, it was faster than he himself had, even if he had dreamed about it on occasion, he was still getting used to the fact that Kagome was really his.

Kagome smiled softly as she let herself get lost in his eyes. She loved them, their warm color, how they glowed in the dark, and the fact that sometimes; she could catch glimpses of his emotions shining through them. The young woman slowly stood up but he was a bit reluctant to let her leave, she explained that she was going to get some hand towels to clean him up as well as something he could change into that was not wet and sticky. She was back in no time with two towels, one of them wet, and his pajama bottoms.

When he saw her come back into the TV room, Inuyasha sat up on the couch and started undoing the knots of his hakama after he removed his under yukata that still clung to the waist of his pants. He hesitated in removing his lower garments, as he had omitted the fundoshi that night knowing he was only going to sleep and wanting to be more comfortable. Being naked in front of anyone made him feel too exposed, too vulnerable, and he had been ridiculed and scorned on the few occasions when he was a pup that others had seen him bathing. Because of those childhood experiences, he no longer let anyone in the past know when he did take a bath. In fact, he could almost bet they thought he was averse to bathing even if he did it just as often as possible, preferring to do it late at night or early in the morning when everyone was still asleep.

Kagome kneeled beside him, noticing the slight conflict in his eyes, and she smiled reassuringly and lovingly. She looked again into his eyes and this time she could see the trust in them as well as some emotion that she had never seen there before, her heart beating wildly as she realized it was love. The young woman started kissing his mouth again, savoring the feel of his lips and tongue as he responded. Then she slowly made her way to his jaw and chin, raining tiny kisses along the way.

Inuyasha had closed his eyes and offered his throat to her. The young woman could not know that there was no greater show of trust and acceptance he could offer her. Kagome took her time nibbling and kissing it, as her hands moved slowly and maddeningly along his chest and stomach, stopping every few passes to tease his already hard nipples. Every time she did that, he would make a soft sound in the back of his throat that sounded suspiciously like a dog-like little whine.

She kept making her way lower, and lavished his nipples with kisses as well as playfully teasing them with both tongue and teeth, wanting to know what he liked and if she remembered some lemons well. The young woman was sure he was enjoying her attentions as the little whines came more often and she could see him biting his lips to keep quiet. Kagome went lower still, taking a moment to dip her tongue playfully in his bellybutton and felt him squirm at her touch. The young woman finally reached the waistline of his hakama and paused to look at him; wanting to be sure he still wanted her to go on.

Inuyasha had his eyes closed and was laying half reclined against the couch back rest, enjoying the unbelievable sensations her hands and lips arose in his body, the times he had to pleasure himself paling in comparison. When he noticed she had stopped at the edge of his hakama he opened his eyes and looked at her expectantly. He noticed the query in her eyes and his hands that, at the moment, were clenched tight and moving to push the garment off, as he raised his hips a little and let her help him remove them.

Inuyasha laid there completely naked before her, and for a moment the memories of those childhood experiences came back in full force. What if she did not like what she saw? He knew his body was no different from any human male, at least not from the waist down, but, the lingering feelings of being rejected because he was a hanyou were still there. Some of that must have shown in his eyes because Kagome’s next words both surprised and reassured him that she liked what she saw.

“You are so beautiful Inuyasha,” she leaned on his chest to give him a long lingering kiss, as her hands caressed his strong lean thighs, which were covered with soft fine white hair, just as his skin was the soft creamy color all over.

“I’m not beautiful, but you are,” he told her softly and kissed the young woman. “I’m a hanyou… a disgusting half breed…”

“No,” she said before silencing him with a kiss. “You’re not disgusting, you’re perfect and so very handsome.”

Kagome took the damp towel and nervously proceeded to clean him up, Inuyasha was already hard again and he was big, just as Rin had told her mother that dog demons tended to be. But as she encircled his penis with the towel, she did not think that would really be a problem when he finally claimed her. She cleaned all the area of his genitals paying being careful not to hurt him, and the young woman was surprised that the body hair there was equally as white and as soft as the ones on his head even if they were curly. Besides, to her eyes he had a perfectly proportioned and beautiful body.

Inuyasha kissed her passionately before letting her make her way down again after the kiss, as her hand tentatively held him and slowly moved from the base to the top. Her hanyou’s reaction pleased her enormously, his eyes almost crossed as he let out low whimper and he pressed himself against her hand. She could see both hands were grabbing the blanket so tight that his knuckles were white.

“You like that?” She asked, wanting to know what pleased him as she repeated the movement of her hand, squeezing lightly. He looked at her and nodded, his eyes filled with desire.

Feeling more confident and actually trying to recall all she had ever read about pleasing a man in fics and books. She started to stroke his length slowly, then a bit faster, his hips trusting to her rhythm. He was panting, making those soft sounds and bit his lower lip, a fang showing and there was a tickle of blood too. To say that Inuyasha was in heaven was not doing justice to what he was feeling; he felt so close to reaching his peak when she suddenly stopped.

“Kagome please! Don’t stop.” He asked her as a frustrated groan escaped his lips; he could feel her moving on the couch and opened his eyes to see why she had stopped. The sight that greeted him was almost enough to set him off, her face was close to his manhood, and the ecchi thoughts ran wild on his mind.

‘She’s… she’s not going to…’ He began thinking only to loose his ability to think straight.

“Kagome!” He muttered, when he felt her soft tongue touch the tip of his manhood.

Kagome loved that reaction from him and set to explore him with lips and tongue. She licked and nibbled all of him, pausing enough time to lavish attention to the tip, when his soft whimpers, whines and occasional groan increased telling her he liked it. After teasing him a few times, she slowly took all of him in her mouth. Kagome had to admit it was a tight fit, but the ensuing husky groan was enough to convince her to go on. She began to work on getting the rhythm fast again, and for a moment, he kept his hips still. But he could not help it anymore and trust upward making her gag and her teeth scraped him a bit. Inuyasha gave a very canine yelp at that and sat up.

“I’m sorry! Did I hurt you too much?” Kagome asked contritely, and bit worried since she had scraped such a sensitive part of his body.

“No, not too much.” He managed to say still panting. “You just… surprised me.”

“Do you still want me to go on?” She asked looking at him, her face flushed and desire in her eyes. Unable to say more he nodded and leaned back down again.

She licked and nibbled him a bit more as she looked for any damage her teeth might have inflicted, but there was nothing visible. So she carefully took him into her mouth again and resumed her ministrations. This time when he trusted his hips she was expecting it and adjusted her movements to his. It only took a few trusts before he tensed, let out a soft strangled noise that could have been her name, and a warm viscous substance shot into her mouth. Kagome took it all gagging a bit. The taste was neither good nor bad, and unlike anything she had ever tasted before. Pondering a bit, she decided it tasted like him.

Inuyasha went completely limp and she moved up to kiss him, and lay beside him. He slowly reacted and drew her close to him, needing to cuddle and feel her beside him. Unable to find words to express his emotions he just kissed her; letting all his feelings pour into his lips. He had never been good with words anyway and he preferred to show her. Kagome responded with equal fervor to his long passionate kiss. It was followed by a series of kisses that were not long but still full of emotion. One of his hands cupped her cheek tenderly while the other slowly and lightly rubbed her back.

“Kagome… I… it was… never thought… arigato.” He sighed and shook his head unable to express himself.

“Shhh, it’s ok Inuyasha, you don’t have to say anything.” She told him and kissed his lips lightly. “We are mates and I… wanted to share something like this with you for so long.”

“Me too Kagome, me too.”

Inuyasha left her lips and softly nuzzled her neck, then started to nibble her throat making her shiver. Her already aroused scent spiked, and he was grateful for the good job she did pleasuring him. It would be a few moments before he had to take care of himself again. The hanyou lazily let his hands roam her body, getting familiar with all her soft curves.

He wanted to make her feel just as good as she did him, and in the little book he read a bit about it. He could not go so far as to taste her, even if he wanted to, for fear of loosing himself in her taste and scent. Even if her heat odor was fading, there was still enough lingering to do that. Pups at the time were not an option, and if he used one of those ‘condom’ thingies the mating would not be consummated as it should. Inuyasha decided he could wait and use his hands instead to bring her pleasure.

He was still purring and the vibration of his chest pressed to her sensitive breasts was a slow maddening torture for Kagome, she wanted… needed to feel more. And as he nibbled and licked from her throat to her earlobe, his hand started to travel following the soft curves of her body and under her pajama top to cup one of her firm breasts. He kneaded it tentatively mindful of his claws though, still, they managed to graze her skin without hurting it. His eyes were intent on her expression, wanting to know if she liked it. Kagome found the sensation quite arousing; it made her shiver with pleasure.

“I want to make you feel like you made me feel Kagome.” He whispered in her ear, eliciting a gasp when he sucked her ear lobe gently. “Do you want me to?” She opened her mouth to respond and moaned slightly as his thumb teased her already hard nipple. “You taste good,” he mumbled while busy with her ear. Kagome could only nod and tug softly at her top trying to get it unbuttoned, he was driving her crazy with his attentions.

Inuyasha helped her take it off and took some time to admire her. He had always thought she had a beautiful body and as he watched, he could tell she had matured a bit more since the last time he had a chance to peek at her naked form. Her breasts were fuller and more rounded. He cupped one of them again it was clear they were the right size for him. He went back to kissing her, just as his hand teased one breast then the other, and every time his claws came in contact with her skin she would shiver and gasp, making him curious as to what he was doing that she seemed to enjoy so much.

“Tell me what you like Kagome. What do you want me to do?” Inuyasha asked to her ear making her shiver again, this time he could tell she liked that, and lightly nibbled the lobe.

“Your claws feel good,” she panted, “when they touch my skin.”

“Like this?” he whispered while he trailed his claws across both her breasts and stomach, her only response being to moan softly, arching her back to press against his claws and nod slowly. He could not help but smile, happy that he seemed to be doing just as good a job at pleasuring her as she had done to him.

He chuckled softly as he proceeded to tease her breasts and tentatively suckled on her right nipple. That had an unexpected reaction from her; the scent of her arousal spiked and she arched against him again. For some moments he lavished both her breasts with attention, suckling and teasing with his tongue.

His hand made its way slowly to the place between her legs, the young hanyou had read enough to know he could go to the same place she had taken him just by rubbing a little nub of flesh that was there.  But he was in no hurry yet. It was safe enough for him to nibble and kiss her skin, leaving wet trails on her chest and stomach. Inuyasha could not have enough of the taste of her and the soft sounds she was making. Her soft mounds were still in need of more attention so he went back to them.

Miroku* had often mentioned how good it was to kiss those soft orbs of flesh and the lech had been completely right, the young hanyou could not have enough. His hand reached the place between her legs and he cupped it tentatively not sure what would be Kagome’s response, but she parted her legs to grant his hand access to that part of her that needed him so much.

He started rubbing her slowly at first, not pressing his hand too much afraid of hurting her. But soon she was pressing herself against his hand while her hips followed his slow rhythm. His mouth had reached her left breast and he lightly licked the already hard nipple. Assaulted by the sensation at both her core and soft flesh Kagome let out a soft moan as she arched her back to press herself against his mouth. Inuyasha took the hint and started suckling a bit harder and used his tongue to tease her delicate peaks, going from one to the other, touching her felt so good that he started to feel exited again.

Kagome tugged at her pajama bottoms needing to feel him against her skin, but he stopped her. The fact that she was still half clothed was something he was depending on to keep control as he could feel the stirrings of desire starting again, and soon he would need to take care of himself again. But he still had time, on the other hand if both of them were naked…

“Please Inuyasha, I need to feel you.”

“I know. I’m just not sure if I can hold on with both of us naked. I don’t want you to get pregnant just yet mate, it’s too soon and too dangerous.” He whispered in her ear and then moved to nibble her lips tenderly.

“Please…” she begged and kissed him passionately.

“No Kagome, it’s not the right time,” he told her softly as he nibbled her lips, and then kissed her deeply, silencing any protests.

Inuyasha remained firm about not taking off her clothes, but he lazily traced a pattern with his hand under her pants. As he cupped her mound, he could feel how wet and ready she was. He took his time exploring her inner lips carefully; he could tell she liked it. His fingers found the little nub of flesh that was so linked with pleasure and tentatively rubbed it with his forefinger.

Kagome had to bite her lip to keep herself from crying out; Inuyasha was driving her crazy with his touches and caresses. Never in her wildest dreams had she thought that it would feel like that to have him touch her. She knew a bit about pleasuring herself, but nothing she had tried while experimenting had prepared her for the sensations he was arousing in her body. She wanted him; she wanted him badly, almost to the point of loosing coherent thought, but not quite. A little voice in the back of her mind kept trying to remind her that they had no protection and she would get pregnant. Not that she cared an iota at the moment, but the voice was loud and it gained enough strength to keep her from making a mistake both would probably regret. Kagome contented herself with enjoying Inuyasha’s attentions.

It was clear that Kagome was on the brink of pleasure, and needed more to reach it, so he carefully introduced one of his fingers in her warm sheath. Kagome was not too tight, and very sleek with her own excitement. He pushed in as far as he could go and that action made her buckle and moan his name very softly. He went in and out slowly a couple of times before he introduced a second finger.

Kagome’s hip moved setting a faster and harder rhythm than he had intended in the beginning, but seeing as she really needed more, he let her guide his movements, adjusting to her pace. He distributed his attentions among her throat, her ears, and lips. Kagome let out a couple of soft moans as she strained against his hand, and she could feel herself going over the edge any moment and with a shudder as she gasped  his name everything exploded in a sensation that drove her over the edge.

Inuyasha’s fingers remained inside her until the young woman’s inner muscles relaxed, and then he took them out and smelled her scent on him before he tried to use one of the towels to clean his fingers. He would much rather lick them clean, but he decided not to on the side of caution. Kagome surprised him by grabbing his hand and slowly licked it clean. The young hanyou could only gasp at the sensations her tongue was creating; it was extremely arousing.

Once she was done cleaning his fingers, they cuddled for a while until she caught her breath and before it was time for Inuyasha to need attention again, just enjoying their closeness. The night air was even colder after their exertions so he wrapped the blanket around the both of them as Kagome snuggled against him. The blanket was also a convenient cover in case someone did hear them and came down to investigate, both had been careful to keep the noise down, but one or two moans had been loud enough to draw attention. There was no need for talk, as both reveled in the feeling of being in each other’s arms and of having let down their barriers for the first time since they had met.

*There are some people that think Miroku is inexperienced in the matters of love making, and that is the reason why he keeps asking women to ‘bear his child’. If one had agreed then he didn’t to ask any more. Well, I think he has experience and has made love to a few women. When Inuyasha and Kagome found him after he stole the Shikon no Tama fragments, he was at a sort of Geisha house, or whore house. He would not have been there just to drink tea, don’t you think? The fact that he has no heir yet could be attributed to him not having Inuyasha’s sense of smell, thus he didn’t catch the women when they were fertile.

This is just what I believe and for the purposes of the story, so it doesn’t necessarily mean I’m right.

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Series: Inuyasha
Author: animealam (a.k.a. alandrem)
Rating: This chapter is R
Warnings: Some characters may be a bit OOC. Violence, the mention of drug use, attempted rape, and bad language.
Summary: Inuyasha discovers the present is more dangerous than he was led to believe.
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. Although I’ll probably add a couple more characters of my own imagination.
Author’s Notes: Ok, on this chapter there are going to be some mentions of sex and rape and the damage it does, this is one of the reasons the rating went up. It is not overly descriptive, but telosphilos and I deemed it would work with were we’re going with the fic.

Thanks again to my editors evercool resurrected and Naoko Cat Girl

Asami watched him go and decided to get Kagome so they could talk. Her daughter was in her room trying to work on one of her many extra credit assignments, without much success, as there were a lot of things on her mind, when she found her.

“Would you like to join me for some dessert dear?  We could go out if you would like.”  She asked gently.

“Dessert sounds fine, but can I take a rain check on going out?  I get the feeling I’m not going to want people to overhear you chewing me out.”  Kagome said with a resigned sigh.

“Honey, I’m not going to chew you out, but I do want to know why you went off on him like that; as well as discuss matters pertaining to his proposal and how you want to handle that.”  Asami wished getting her daughter to talk frankly with her was as simple as getting Inuyasha to do the same. She was sure Kagome had been keeping a lot of her worries quiet lately to avoid distressing her. “I went and got ice cream today.  Let’s make sundaes or something to celebrate ok? Even if it began with a rocky start, it is still a happy occasion.” Kagome had to smile at that comment; her mother always found the positive side of things, and it was indeed a happy occasion, one of the most important of her life. “And, really, I’m not angry with you, I just want to know what’s going on.”

“Ok, how can I pass up on an ice cream sundae?”  Kagome said as she got up and followed her mother down the stairs. Asami and Kagome took their ice cream sundaes outside to sit under the Go-Shimboku tree.

“I’m glad it’s a warm night.  I do not want to have to worry about Sota or Jii-chan listening in.” She stressed, knowing that those two were quite nosy and prone to spying to satisfy their interest. “I suspect Sota might have heard a bit of your interview with the police and I don’t want to make him too curious.”  Asami tried to start the ball rolling using small talk.

“I guess so; I was surprised he did not ask me about the bruise on my face. Knowing him it’s rather strange. And tonight he seemed well aware who Lieutenant Watanabe was.” Kagome commented thoughtfully. Actually, Sota always asked whenever she ended up sporting a bruise or a scratch, knowing it usually had something to do with shard hunting and fighting demons. He always wanted her to tell him what ‘adventures’ she and Inuyasha encountered in the past.

“You can count on Sota to find things out,” Asami said with a gentle motherly smile, her youngest was just too inquisitive for his sake sometimes. “Don’t really know how he does it though.”

“Neither do I… just like Emi, she put two and two together and figured it out quite easily. I’m surprised the other girls didn’t,” she sounded puzzled. “Anyway, Inuyasha said something to her yesterday; and whatever it was got her off my back and she’s been redirecting Yuka’s attention away from us.” She paused and frowned thinking of her old friend, she was always a bit bossy but it was strange how she had taken an incredible dislike for the young hanyou when they had not even met before. Kagome continued with a sigh, “I think Yuka partially believes Inuyasha hit me or something. She has a lot of animosity towards him and keeps trying to push me at Hojou along with Arumi, but Arumi is just plain clueless.” Now her tone denoted annoyance at her friends, in the dim light from the lamps, and Asami could see it also reflected on her face.

“I see…” Ok, so the things that bothered her were starting to come out. She knew that oblivious boy was going to be part of the problem. “What do you think of Hojou?  He seems like a nice boy, but not very sensible to me.”

“He is a nice guy, but, he is TOO nice.” Kagome stressed that, nice was ok, but he overdid it most of the times. Yuck! “He has the backbone of a jellyfish as far as I can tell and I don’t really like that.” She sounded a bit disgusted.

‘Of course after meeting Inuyasha there is no point of comparison, even if he most of the times is rather selfish and insensitive, he can still manage to be sweet and caring on occasions.’ Kagome thought and a dreamy expression crossed her face. She was so happy he chose her over Kykyou, and for the rest of their lives to boot.

“I also can’t believe how someone with grades as high as his is unable to see through Jii-chan’s ridiculous lies…  I wouldn’t mind being his friend since he is a decent person, but I really don’t want to date him.”  Her voice sounded again a bit disgusted at the prospect, especially since she had already dated him before.

“Do you feel like your friends are leading him on somehow, and propping up some sort of fiction that you want to date him?” Asami asked frowning slightly.

Peer pressure was always something to worry about with young people. They might push Kagome too hard, and she was not free anymore. Besides, Inuyasha was still too insecure and had lived such a lonely life, he would not understand that her daughter might feel she had no choice but to comply with her friends. That could lead to a lot of troubles for the young couple, if she had understood right; the commitment was for the rest of their lives and could not be undone. Hanyous and their mates lived long lives, so there was a long time to keep grudges created by misunderstandings, and she knew both were prone to do just that. Their quarrel in the afternoon was proof enough.

“Yes,” Kagome agreed with a sigh. “They have set me up on a couple dates with him; I usually try to refuse but… Arrgg! They agree without asking me about it first!” She was more than a little peeved about that. “I keep trying to get him to go out with someone else without explaining about Inuyasha, but he keeps taking it wrong.  I’m starting to think he’s rather stupid for some things.” She said a bit exasperated at the dense young man.

“Well… he seems rather oblivious to the fact that your friends are the ones interested in starting a relationship, not you. But then sometimes people don’t see what they don’t want to.” Her daughter looked at her surprised since that was probably it.

“I don’t want to hurt him Mama; I don’t think it’s fair. So, I usually went out with him because it would be rude to stand him up and well… for something fun to do to take my mind off of our stuff in the past, or when I was really pissed at Inuyasha.” She admitted a bit chagrined, the young woman didn’t like to say words like that in front of her mother, but there was really no other way to explain how the young hanyou made her feel at times. Angry didn’t even begin to cover that. “Inuyasha does have a way of pissing me off often.”

“I can see that he would,” she had to smile a bit. He had little social skills and both were too stubborn. It was really a wonder they had fallen in love in the first place. “Darling I think you are going to have to hurt Hojou’s feelings. He wants a girlfriend, but you already have someone. And telling him that, is the only way he might leave you alone.” Asami finally said after thinking things over a bit. “He will get over it in time, and may still want to be friends.  If you let your friends keep leading him on, it will only hurt everyone in the end. Accepting Inuyasha’s proposal changes your life even more than it was.”

She went on explaining some of her reservations; Kagome was still a teen regardless of how mature she thought her eldest daughter was. She was going to miss an important part of growing up, which was getting to know boys and date. But Asami also understood the deep bond Kagome and Inuyasha shared, and it was not just teen infatuation, it went much deeper than that; their souls were bonded. And even though she possessed no real spiritual powers, she could see it. Kagome needed to be a bit drastic, and not just with poor Hojou, but with Yuka too in order to avoid misunderstandings in her new relationship.

“I know.” She agreed with a resigned sigh knowing her mother was right no matter how she had wanted to avoid that. Yuka had been her best friend for… ages it seemed.

“I think you also have to tell them that Inuyasha is your boyfriend, I suppose you have not.” She paused and saw Kagome nod once confirming it. “I don’t think it is wise to mention he is your intended yet… but… you can’t hide him anymore, him being a hanyou from 500 years in the past is not reason enough now. I think he has proved, at least to my satisfaction, that he can adapt if he wants to.”

“He has, hasn’t he?” Kagome mused aloud; she was really surprised at how he was handling living in the future among all the things he most certainly found strange. She could even say frightening, not that he would admit it to anyone, not even himself.

“I suppose you didn’t think he could.”

“No,” she agreed, shaking her head, still bemused by the hanyou’s change. “He always seemed so stubborn and set on things… at first I thought he couldn’t change, but he has been doing it slowly since I met him the first time.”

“Darling, Inuyasha is highly adaptable. Actually, I have never encountered someone with his ability before… he does it unconsciously most of the times. Besides, if he wasn’t, you can be sure he would have died a long time ago. It is one of his ‘secret weapons’; so secret I don’t think even he is really aware of what he does. He is also very intelligent,” she said and paused, then added an afterthought, “I wonder what his IQ is… at least 140… hmm… remind me to test him once his reading skills are better.”

“Mama,” Kagome said with a giggle as her mother had turned to professional mode almost on a dime. “He is not one of your patients… or is he?”

“No, he’s not. But I sometimes wonder how much psychological damage he has suffered… it is something that worries me about your relationship with him, even if I know he is not a bad kid… he… keeps too much pent up inside. I worry about what would happen if he explodes.”

“He turns full youkai,” was Kagome’s answer.

“He what?”

“He turns full youkai. It is sort of a defense mechanism. When he is too overwhelmed in a fight and his life is threatened, his anger eats him and he transforms if Tetsusaiga is not by his side.” She shivered a bit remembering those times he had lost it. The young woman had really feared not just for their lives, but for his sanity too. “He looses his mind and can’t tell between friend or foe… He… he goes into a killing rage. And it tortures his soul when we manage to bring him back and he realizes what he has done. This is because of his mixed blood, and why he needs to have Tetsusaiga with him all the time; it seals his youkai blood.”

“Oh my God! Poor boy, it must feel like a curse to him.” Asami exclaimed, seeing the pained and worried expression on her daughter’s face.

“In a way it is, although he doesn’t talk about it… I have seen how much it hurts him to mindlessly destroy life… and I know he is afraid that one day he might kill us, even if he has mastered Tetsusaiga now.” After saying this, both women remained silent for a moment, each with their own worries, until Asami finally spoke.

“Kagome, I would like to treat him. I think I might be able to help Inuyasha cope with some of the things that plague his mind. Do you think he would accept?”

“I don’t know mama, but he has already talked to you about things I would not have dreamed he would tell anyone, so, he just might accept.” Kagome ventured thoughtfully. “You’ll have to explain what therapy is though.” Asami just nodded, mulling things up, she had already offered an ear to his troubles and a solution. He might just accept.

To Kagome, it was clear that she had managed to gain his trust faster than anyone would have thought possible. And she knew of her mother’s reputation for being able to handle some very difficult cases. There were a lot of troubled kids that owed her a chance at a better life. A few still came back to visit and show her their families, and how well they were doing after they finally left treatment. If anyone was able to help her hanyou it was her mother. Then, true to their female nature, Asami jumped back to the first topic they were discussing.

“They need to understand you have a stable relationship, and respect it.” Kagome looked at her not comprehending what she was talking about until she went on. “That is what good friends should do.”

“You’re right of course,” she agreed with a sigh. They were back to the girls. Good, she did not like to talk about Inuyasha turning demon. Besides, her mother was indeed right that she had to make the girls understand that she was capable of making her own decisions. “I don’t like it, but I plan on dealing with it once and for all the next time it comes up.” Kagome attacked her ice cream with her spoon.  She made several lovely slices in it before deciding to take a bite. “In some ways,” she began saying thoughtfully, “I feel like my friends here are so immature, and that goes double when you add boys into the mix.”

“That is because you are an adult and they are still children.”  Asami told her daughter as Kagome looked at her in surprise.  It was how the young woman saw things herself, even if she sometimes fought with herself to remain just a simple Jr. High girl. She had never expected her mother to see it the same way. “Back in the past you are an adult Miko, carrying adult responsibilities.” Asami paused to make her point.

Ever since her daughter had started traveling to the past, she had investigated some of the customs of the time, to get a clearer idea of what she faced there and what was expected of Kagome. She wanted to be able to offer help and advice that would be of use in the Sengoku Jidai period. Adulthood was reached at a much younger age for both boys and girls. A girl Kagome’s age was usually already married and with at least one kid, if not more.

A human boy Inuyasha’s age… they had found out that his reincarnation would have turned 16 the day Kagome was attacked. And for all modern things they were going to take that date as his ‘official’ birthday, and what a way to spend one’s birthday. Inuyasha was old enough to search for a suitable wife and start a family, by human standards. He could have joined any samurai army, pledge service to any daimyo, or settle in any land that was free to farm. The hanyou was also the son of nobility, so he could have received lands to oversee by his parents. She was not really sure what his responsibilities would be by youkai standards though.

She was glad that Kagome was a passing for a Miko, a maiden dedicating her life to the spiritual path. It was the reason she guessed her daughter was still untouched back then. She was a pretty, knowledgeable, healthy, and strong young woman; and many a man would like to have an addition such as her to his household. Love was not as important back then when marriage was discussed. Also, the fact that she traveled with Inuyasha might give the impression that she was already taken, and she guessed few humans would be crazy enough to fight the young inu hanyou. In the back of her mind, there was also the worry that mating with him would hinder her daughter’s spiritual powers, Mikos were never to marry unless they renounced to being that. But it was also true that Kagome’s powers had nothing to do with training, and as far as they all could tell, she just had them.

“I suspect the fact you are a Miko is the only reason they have not tried to find a way to marry you off yet. And, with what you have told me, I’m sure Inuyasha would not have been considered for that.”

“No,” she responded with a sad sigh, “he would not, because of his demon blood… But some youkai seem to assume I’m already his mate, and now I know that is because of the pack.” Asami just nodded in agreement. “Although the people of the village seem to have begun to accept him… or at least get used to his presence,” she added as an after thought.

“As far as I’m concerned, all the time you have spent back there has matured you into an adult.  You tend to revert a little when you get a chance to get out from under those responsibilities for a time, but not very often.”

“The girls usually have something to do with that.” The young woman admitted, chagrined

“I can see that,” Asami agreed with a slight smile. Peer pressure again. “But you being more mature; is part of the reason why I am not flipping out about all of the pack stuff and the engagement.” She said as her small smile turned mischievous; she was sure her daughter had been thinking that she was acting odd. Kagome returned the smile, finally understanding. “I won’t pretend I don’t have any reservations about it, I am you mother after all, and I love you. But since I see you as my adult child, I have to know when to step aside.”

“I didn’t know you thought about it that way mama.  It is the way I see myself now…” she made a pause to eat some more of her sundae before it melted. “But… this mess is so bizarre… I didn’t expect you or anyone else to really see it like that. Who would believe I do the things I do back there anyway? I can barely believe them myself and I live them every day.”

“I think aside from the family, Lieutenant Watanabe probably would.” Asami began saying thoughtfully; Kagome’s situation was unique. “He has demon blood. On a side note, I think you should talk to Inuyasha about him later if he feels like it,” her daughter just nodded. “It was hard to believe for all of us too. If I had not seen him come through the door that time to get you, and actually touched his furry ears… I don’t think I would have believed it.”

“Yeah, it was quite a shock wasn’t it?” The young Miko said with a smile and a giggle. Her mother had latched to Inuyasha’s ears without so much as a ‘by your leave’, and then Sota had wanted to do the same. The poor hanyou had been quite annoyed and surprised.

“It was dear. I just want you to remember that I will accept you decisions because I know you’d always do your best to do the right thing. I might drop a hint or two there, but in the end it is still your decision.”

“Thanks for your trust mama,” Kagome was moved by her acceptance, and didn’t quite know what else to say so she went on. “I can see what you mean. When I am here, I tend to relax and act more like other kids my age, or at least try to,” Kagome said thoughtfully. “I miss being able to do that back there, all I wanted was to be just a normal Jr. High girl.”

“I can see that, and empathize with you honey. But I guess in this case we can’t change fate. I also think there’s a lot depending on all of you and the results of this quest.”

“No, I don’t think we can.” The young woman responded thoughtfully, “and it seems that way, but I really never dwell on that… I don’t think the others do either… it… frightens me, and I think it scares them too.” She then went on with something else that was bothering her and that wasn’t such a touchy subject. “I’m not sure how the chance of being a normal teen will have to change when we bring Shippou back and start acting as his parents… actually I’m a bit confused about that.”

“What do you mean? Maybe I can help you.”

“It’s… strange… I feel like there is some sort of subtle difference between being the pack leaders and assuming the responsibility of raising an orphaned member, and actually being his parents.”

“How so darling?” Now that was interesting, and she got an inkling about that, something to do with canine behavior. But wild life behavioral patterns were not her specialty, even if she found some interesting, good Ph.D. material, if she ever decided to go for it.

“I’m not really sure; it’s just a weird feeling. I might ask Inuyasha about it later, but I suspect he does not know either. Anyway, by our standards in this time, and even by demon standards in the past, we are too young to be his ‘parents’.”

“I think it might have something to do with duty, but I’m just guessing so I’m not really sure. I think… it is your responsibility to provide food, shelter and training. But being a parent is more than that, you don’t just provide for the needs of the body, anyone can do that, a parent will also nurture the heart, the mind and the soul, not that it always is so. I think Inuyasha might have been speaking of the pack providing for the physical needs.”

“I think I see what you mean… but… that seems a bit cold. Shippou is too warm and cute… you can’t help but love him. But… we allowed him get a bit wild and have not been disciplining him or teaching him the way we should. Little or not, he can be quite a handful to deal with as he usually does what he wants. How I wish we had known sooner that we were neglecting our responsibility towards him.”

“Well, you know now.  There is nothing to do to change the past; you can only try to make things better now. My reservations about that deal more with what sort of parents will you make than anything else.”

“Hmmm… I really don’t know.” Kagome said thoughtfully. “Although sometimes I think Inuyasha needs a parent more than Shippou, judging by the way he acts,” She paused to finish her sundae. “Thanks for the advice you gave me earlier, I think that might help a lot. I’ll tell Inuyasha when we have time to talk, even if I still have my reservations that he’ll be any of help on the discipline department.”

“Well, he is aware he has that responsibility now, so things might change even if he doesn’t have a clue how to go about it. Anyway, parenting has a lot of pitfalls that can sneak up on you. None of us parents had really a clue how to raise a child, but most of us like to think we managed. You can always ask me for help if you need it and advice… Your aunt Rin called today…”

“Really?” Kagome interrupted delighted to hear from her; the were not really blood relations, but she loved them just as much and in a way they had become closer to them, than her father’s brothers. Her mother was an only child. “How is she? And Aiko? I suspect Nouru is still as stubborn as always… It’s been AGES since we last saw them.”

“I’ve seen Rin every once in a while, and they are all fine. I talked to her about this and she wanted me to offer you her help too.”

“You told her? Mama she might believe we’re going nuts!” Kagome exclaimed with a groan, although Rin had been her mother’s best friend since she could remember. “What would uncle Sessho think of us?”

“Actually Rin understands the situation better than you might think, certainly more than I thought.” There was an odd tone on her mother’s voice… like… she had mixed feelings about that.

“Aunt Rin knows about modern youkai?” Kagome was really surprised to hear about this, something told her she was not going to like the answer.

“Yes, she does.” Asami said a bit of anger and hurt reflecting on her voice. “Your aunt Rin actually knows a good deal about youkai, being that she is mated to one…”

“What? Uncle Sessho is a youkai? But… I never sensed him… is she youkai also?” She asked, a foreboding feeling making her shiver a bit.

“Yes, he is a youkai, but your aunt is human. She volunteered to baby-sit so that Shippou could play with Aiko.  She explained some things on the phone, but she said she could not explain all, so I’m going to a sort of orientation meeting on Friday where I’m supposed to get filled in on the modern demon world.” Asami paused expecting Kagome to ask questions or start rambling, but her daughter was speechless, eyes wide and looking like she was having trouble digesting the news. “Rin expects it to last about all day, I’m afraid I showed her a bit of the family temper for not telling me about her family sooner.” The young Miko’s eyes were wide with surprise; she would never have suspected that her lovable aunt Rin knew about demons.

“What else was she hiding about her family?”  She asked through narrowed eyes, in the pit of her stomach a growing suspicion began building. And the young Miko did not like the feeling at all.

“Your aunt Rin is actually over five hundred years old…”

“What?!” Kagome’s head began spinning.

‘It can’t be! The name and the age are too much of a coincidence. Oh dear Kami don’t make it her… that’ll mean HE is still around!’ A cold shiver ran down her spine, these were not good news. ‘Inuyasha is not going to like it! He might even try to fight him again.’ Her fear and worry showed through.

“What is wrong darling?” Asami asked worried.

“I have a bad feeling about this.” She said in a low hoarse voice. “But please go on, I have to hear it all before I make a conclusion.” Another shiver ran down her spine, but the fear was more for Inuyasha’s sake than her own.

“I’m afraid your feeling is partly right.” Her mother said with sigh, Kagome left the remaining sundae on the bench and shot to her feet to begin pacing nervously. “She is mated to the current Demon Lord of the West Lands…”

“Sesshomaru! He is here!” Kagome interrupted sounding very frightened. “Where’s Inuyasha? Does he know? Is he carrying Tetsusaiga?” She spoke in a hurry, her words tumbling upon themselves. “Oh Kami no!”

“Yes, he knows his brother is still around and in a powerful position. Inuyasha went to the park to see if he could track the killers. Don’t worry about him being in any threat from Sessho.”

“Sessho? Uncle Sessho? One of Papa’s best friends?” Kagome asked her mother stopping her frantic pacing to stare at her in utter disbelief. Her brain had not connected Sesshomaru with her aunt’s husband.

“Yes the same, your Papa knew he was a youkai, and both of them put a spell on our family to keep you and the rest of us from connecting them to the people you know in the past.” The young Miko was speechless, something did not fit in. “They have made certain not to come over ever since you were pulled down the well the first time.  Rin told me that your powers have increased so much, that by now, you would easily see through Sessho’s concealing spell.

‘Oh Kami-sama, Kami-sama.’ Kagome repeated in her mind over and over again like a mantra. She heard her mother’s words, but she could not really assimilate them.

“I have to admit the spell worked, since even hearing Inuyasha mention his family name was Shirosenshi I did not make the connection until I read what was in the manila folder he gave me.” Her daughter just looked at her and she knew it was really hard to accept all this. “I think they were wrong to have kept the truth hidden, but it is over and done with now.” Kagome felt rather ill and hugged herself. Asami stood and gently moved her paralyzed, and shaking daughter back to the bench where they sat together, she held her in a loose comforting embrace until she calmed a bit.

“He’s been waiting to get Inuyasha; he’s always wanted to kill him because he is a hanyou and because their father gave him Tetsusaiga.” She said in a small voice.

“Sessho knows you and where we live Kagome, he even knows when Inuyasha came the first time, and he has not come back since then… It has been five hundred years or so for him, people change in time, and that too applies to demons. If he had wanted to kill Inuyasha and take the katana, he would have done that some time ago don’t you think?” She said, hoping logic would help calm her frightened daughter.

‘Uncle Sessho is actually Sesshomaru? I find that really hard to believe.’ The young woman thought, trying to follow the logic her mother had started, then she went on comparing the two personalities she knew. ‘Sesshomaru is a rather closed, cold, cruel and has tried to murder me as a side benefit to killing his brother.  Uncle Sessho, on the other hand, is kind, gentle, laughs a lot when he is among friends or family, and has been nothing but good to us.’ Kagome’s mind whirled with all the memories of both personalities. ‘Some articles in the paper described him as a rather ruthless and cunning businessman, always knowing where to strike his victim… that fits with the Sesshomaru we know… but business or politics are the only places where he is ever considered that. Could five hundred years really change him that much? I’m not sure I can accept that.’

“You really believe he changed don’t you?”  Asami nodded. “I suppose Rin is actually the same little girl that followed him around everywhere?”

“Yes, she is. Time and being mated to a human has done a lot to change him into a better person.” Asami explained and paused to let that comment sink in. “Rin says he very much regrets the way he treated his little brother and that he really did not understand much of anything until claiming Rin made him have to radically reexamine his beliefs.” Again, another pause; she wanted to make sure Kagome was listening and having time to assimilate what she was saying, it would make things easier. “He went through the same problems his own father had to defend his mate and his son. Sessho had to fight with all his might to defend Rin and his hanyou children from harm. It really made him empathize with Inuyasha’s situation and work to change the world.”

“Understanding Inuyasha and actually trying to change things? That sure does not sound like it’s him.” Kagome interrupted.

“With what you both have told me about him, I suppose it sounds rather farfetched. But both of them are in large part responsible for the peace we now enjoy and the integration of demons into human society.” Asami went on ignoring her daughter’s questions; they would be answered as she went on with the story. “Ever since the great demon war, three hundred years ago, things have been relatively peaceful and the youkai who refused to integrate or at least leave the humans alone were driven into what is now called the Untamed Lands.  Officially, that is where Inuyasha has been living for the past ten years as far as modern youkai are concerned.  It works as a cover story for both of you since they are practically stuck in the Feudal Era there.”

“There is a place where people still live like in the Sengoku Jidai? Where? I haven’t heard about anything of the sort.” She finally said after a long silence while she tried to assimilate what her mother told her. It was hard, a war among demons who wanted to live peacefully with humans? And they won?

‘I would have thought the majority of demons would have been against that kind of alliance, judging from what I’ve seen in the Sengoku Jidai. But I guess even demons get tired of fighting and not all of them are evil, no matter what some think.’

“It’s not actually a physical place as far as I understand… it’s sort of another dimension or something like that. But youkai and humans are in a perpetually unchanged era. I’m sure Rin will explain in more detail Friday.”

“I would really like to know how Sesshomaru and Rin got together.” She asked her mother instead, knowing the explanation about that place would have to wait; it had raised her curiosity. “As far as I have seen back then it doesn’t seem like it is ever going to happen. What with Sesshomaru proclaiming he hates humans? And why do you say that Inuyasha has been living there ten years instead of longer?”

“You remember Ryoutou and Itami?”

“Yes,” she responded sadly. They had been like family until they had died the year before. The couple didn’t have any kids and they had doted on both her and Sota.

“They had a son named Inuyasha who disappeared in the untamed lands when he was five.” Kagome looked surprised at that comment. “They were also the reincarnations of his real parents.”

‘By Kami! This is starting to be more confusing by the minute! But I can remember him now! We used to play together when we were kids, and… he looked almost exactly like Inuyasha looked when I saw his reflection on that pond long ago! But why didn’t I remember this before? Was it because of the spell?’

“I… I remember him now… but not before.”

“That is the spell’s doing. They made us forget about him and anything that might endanger your quest for the Shikon no Kakera.” Asami said slowly, she was still a bit pissed at having been kept in the dark. “Rin says the missing boy was Inuyasha’s reincarnation from the time he spent dead against the Go-Shimboku tree, but that the child ceased to exist in order for the well to work once he was no longer sealed. Since the times line up and Ryoutou and Itami were the reincarnations of his parents the last time around, Inuyasha has a real identity here and a good cover story for the intervening years. He can live here if he chooses after the jewel pieces are collected.”

“Oh my, I guess that makes sense. I’m going to have to think about that later, this is getting too complicated Mama.

“You tell me darling, it is really confusing. Itami and Ryoutou had specified that if Inuyasha was ever found he should be left in my custody too.”

“It’s like they knew…” Kagome mused thoughtfully before asking. “Does Inuyasha know about this?”

“Yes. He has been reading a letter Itami left him; they also left their diaries, so he could get to know them at least a bit. They also left a number of things for him to find, including his documents…”

“The folder he gave you yesterday?”

“Yes, that was it. Itami and Ryoutou left me some letters in there too as well as their wills… There was a letter from your Papa there too.” Her voice broke a little there. “He explains why he did not tell me and asks that we forgive him from not stopping all that happened, even if he knew about it. He said there was really not much choice. All this is very disconcerting. Especially for Inuyasha, I believe it has been very hard emotionally on him, on top of everything else.”

“I can see that, he has been acting odd since Friday, and after hearing this I can understand him. I guess things do pile on him too, even if he denies it. I… I apologized for sitting him after you left. That did not turn out the way I expected at all. We really talked for once, or more like he did most of the talking.”

“It’s good you finally listened to him. But it wasn’t just that misunderstanding that set you off wasn’t it?”

“No, I guess it has been building up since Friday for me too; I needed to vent and wound up taking it out on him after jumping to a completely wrong conclusion. I just… I just never thought he had ‘feelings’ for me. It was… always Kykyou before.”

“I think you were the only one that didn’t realize that he cared Kagome, and the same can apply to him. We could see clearly the way you both felt, I suspect your friends over there did too, but it was surprising to see that you two did not. But that’s not all of it, is it?”

“No, it really bothers me how close those men came… it made me relive the pain of Papa’s death.” She said softly, laying her head on her mother’s shoulder.

“I can see that darling.” Asami stroked her hair comfortingly.

“I’ve also been having nightmares about it, and it has made me realize how much I depend on our pack for protection.” She smiled a little even if she still felt disturbed by those horrible nightmares. Calling their group a pack sounded a bit strange to her ears, but that was what they had become and she had to get used to the term. “Add the nonsense with the girls and Inuyasha being here, acting like he belongs in this time, and I was ready to tear into someone.”

“I can understand that Kagome,” Asami told her and gave her a brief comforting hug.

“Thanks Mama, I really did not want to worry you…”

“Just remember I will always be here to listen. It’s not healthy to keep all of that tension bottled up.”

“Inuyasha has been trying to help, but getting him fully acclimated to this time is going to take work. I shouldn’t have done it, he rarely speaks what’s on his mind; and well, I was not far behind in that department either. Today was really the first time he opened up, so now I think we both know we need to do some serious work on relating to each other if we are going to make this work.”

“And you were surprised I see you as an adult.” Asami commented a proud smile on her face and messed her daughter’s hair affectionately. “You can come wake me up next time you have a nightmare and we can talk about it, so that you can get back to sleep. Inuyasha would probably like it if you would talk to him about it too. He seems to think very highly of the way you handle yourself around a fight.”

‘He does?’ She thought, and a voice from within her head responded.

‘He has tried to tell me as much in his own way’

‘Yeah, I was just not listening.’

“I am looking at a couple of different EMT training courses for you to take since you are going to be stuck here for a while.”

Asami went on telling her about what she found and how convenient it would be for her to learn to properly take care of not just Inuyasha after a fight. Because getting injured was something that could barely be avoided; and well, Inuyasha did get wounded a lot. Kagome argued that she was already doing badly in school to add more study, although she admitted that EMT training was more useful to her at the moment than learning geometry.

The young woman could see the advantages of that, not just for Inuyasha’s sake; Sango and Miroku had resulted hurt too on their battles, and she had always felt a bit helpless when they were far from Kaede Obaa-chan’s village. She had even ended hurt a couple of times, and she would surely appreciate some of the modern knowledge to treat her patients.

The young Miko was surprised that her mother was not overly worried about her falling grades, and her explanation was that she understood all she was going through at the Sengoku Jidai and that as important as it was to keep going to school, it was also very important; and probably a lot more; to make sure Naraku did not keep the Shikon no Tama and wreak havoc with the world. Asami didn’t tell her daughter, but Rin had been adamant that it should be their main concern.

“Mama, were there some courses on how to treat injuries on remote locations? Some that won’t deal with much modern stuff, as that is not available there?” She asked curious, something like that would really be helpful.

“I think there are, we can look at the catalog later. That is good thinking Kagome, and all I ask is that you do what you can at school. Actually attending class should help there. In the big picture, not passing and having to go to summer school or even repeating grade, isn’t that big a deal so long as you manage to live through your adventures to make it matter. Consider that being mated to a youkai or hanyou extends your life span beyond the human range.

“It does?” Kagome’s eyes were wide open in surprise. She would never have thought about it.

“Yes, you aunt Rin told me. Therefore, you’ll have plenty of time to get to high school. Besides, you will still be young when Sota dies of old age.”

“I hadn’t thought about it like that. I hadn’t really thought about how it would change things. I was worried about how Shippou’s presence would change my life, but… being mated with Inuyasha would be a bigger change. And I really don’t know anything about it, not even what sort of ceremony is involved.” Kagome said thoughtfully.

“I’m glad you are already sitting down, that was one of the things Rin, and I discussed today. There isn’t a ceremony per se, that is a human convention. Demons can smell a mated pair so they don’t need things like wedding rings. They often do have a party at the announcement to friends and family, but nothing like a wedding.” Kagome was eyeing her curiously, and started to turn red.

‘Oh dear, so I didn’t misunderstand what Inuyasha implied.’ The young woman wringed her hand a bit nervously; she also felt a bit excited at the prospect, as a few hentai thoughts regarding Inuyasha had crossed her mind. And he had such a great body! She was lucky… she would finally find out if his ass was as firm as it looked. Then she blushed, trying to get her mind out of the gutter.

“To blend with humans they often borrow from our conventions, but they don’t mean quite the same thing to them.” Her mother went on oblivious to the thoughts on her daughter’s head. “Casual sex is not very common for them, but that seems to be dependent on the species. Rin said it was a blood bond formed during intercourse that binds the pair for life.”

‘Intercourse? She means the mating is actually sex? Oh Kami! I have to… to…’ Her mind made a deep plunge to the gutter again. She suddenly felt very hot and fanned herself with a hand. ‘Make love to Inuyasha.’

“I suspect she will want to compare notes later, since you will be sisters in law and you will be an aunt twelve times over.” Asami went on not seeing the young woman’s antics. Kagome flushed a bit before responding.

“Oh my! No wonder Inuyasha didn’t say much about it! I am sure Rin and I are going to have a number of long talks, especially since she mated with Sesshomaru. How did that come about?” She wanted to change the subject since she needed to get used to what mating meant.

“Rin had always slept with him when she was a child using his tail as a blanket and his chest as a pillow. He had never really thought about it since puppies normally sleep with others.”

“Puppies?” Kagome interrupted then answered her own question. “Rin did look a bit like a cute puppy then. And it does sound logical that Sesshomaru would consider her a pup. She is really about six or perhaps seven years old.”

“Well, she reached puberty and he never knew what hit him.” Now that made Kagome chuckle after Inuyasha’s explanation about what being in heat did to him, she could imagine it was worst to a full youkai. She didn’t know that Inuyasha’s sense of smell was exceptional even for a full inu youkai, since he did not know that either.

“Wow! That must have really been a shock for the ice cold Sesshomaru.” Asami grinned; she and Rin had had a few laughs at it on the phone too.

“At fourteen, she hit her first heat and had a rather arousing dream while sleeping against him. He was so affected by it, it woke him up, and he had to leave to keep from forcing himself on her then and there. Unfortunately for him, losing her favorite mattress and blanket made her cold and woke her up, so she went looking for him. She found him waiting for his clothing to try, naked as the day he was born and trying to ride out the effect she had had on him.” Now that made both laugh.

“Oh I can almost imagine that scene; the great Sesshomaru had an accident.” Kagome giggled, it must have been a shock for the icy youkai.

“Her presence there completely cracked his self-control since he already loved her very dearly, even if he couldn’t admit it to himself, and she is human after all. Arousal is a positive feedback loop for most youkai from what Rin explained. It doesn’t end until both parties are sated or unless they both have enough willpower to back down.”

Kagome mouthed an ‘Oh’ of surprise and blushed all the way to the root of her hair, imagining Inuyasha and her in that situation. She forced back her hentai mind to keep listening to the story, as it was quite amusing. She had trouble imagining the Sesshomaru of the past being passionate, but the images she was getting were starting to become hilarious.

“So, Sessho was done in by his own nose. Rin’s arousal sparked his, and the scent of him had a pheromone or aphrodisiac-like effect on her. She claims they went at it for about three days straight with very few breaks and interruptions. It left her pregnant with Keishi.” Kagome could not help it, she laughed until tears rolled down her face. That must have been wild, no, she definitely could not picture neither of the faces she had seen so far of Sesshomaru as passionate.

“Dear Kami, now I know who to ask to keep him in line. It’s a shame they didn’t have decent birth control methods back then. Pregnant at fourteen, makes me glad I am from this century. That certainly explains why Inuyasha has been sleeping in a tree instead of inside.” Her respect for him grew; he had been protecting her from himself, and she had taken it all wrong!

“Yes it does, doesn’t it? I hadn’t thought the instinct was that strong or that it affected both parties when he asked to sleep outside. I suspect he doesn’t know about that. All things considered, no one who knows what’s really going on expects you two to last a month unmated since you have permission.” Kagome turned a bright shade of burgundy wine as she blushed all the way up to the roots of her hair. “You don’t have to be embarrassed about it. It is not like you are going to be doing it behind my back or without my permission.”

“It’s just that… it is rather an odd topic to talk about with one’s mother. The girls do talk about it, but I really just listen.”

“Well I’d much rather prefer to be the one you talk about it with, so I can do my best to explain and answer your doubts; sometimes those talks among girls confuse more than help.”

“I can see what you mean Mama, and I’m really glad we can talk about this, some of my friends don’t feel free to speak with their parents.”

“That is sadly one of the most frequent cases I see when I counsel teens. Now back to what we were talking about, I want you to marry in the human tradition once you mate and then we can move your things into his room since it has the bigger bed.” That got her a little nervous laugh and another blush. “Trust me;” Asami said mischievously, “you ARE going to want the bigger bed.”

‘Oh dear, oh dear, Kagome get a grip of yourself girl.’ She thought, but the image of a towel clad Inuyasha kept popping into her mind. ‘Come on, get those hentai thoughts under control!’ Suddenly she felt like the night was getting very hot again, so she starting fanning herself again. The blush probably reached all the way to her feet. She could also hear her mother laughing softly.

“You look almost as red in the face as Inuyasha did when I gave him the ‘Sex for Dummies’ book and he leafed through it. I’m surprised he didn’t pass out from it.”

Now those words made Kagome gape, she almost fell off the bench from the impression and then she burst out laughing until tears came to her eyes; imagining the poor hanyou’s face when he saw the book. He always refused to fall into Miroku’s lecherous conversations and looked quite flustered when the monk made lewd comments. He was probably quite shocked, that her mother of anyone else in the world was the one to give him something ‘ecchi’ like that.

“Oh Kami!” She gasped out of breath. “Oh Kami! I can just picture his face when you gave him that.”

“Yes, that was one funny sight; he was probably red for more than an hour.” Asami told her still laughing softly.

“But… why did you give it to him in the first place?”

“Well after talking with him yesterday, I think he knows the facts of life because he has seen them in nature. Probably even spied a few couples in the woods, but I don’t think he really knows what a loving and mutually satisfying sexual relation entails.” Kagome was back to blushing, “but I think you do, having some knowledge about it from the stuff you sometimes read.”

“Eeep!”

“I know you have been reading some stories that are NC-17…”

“Mama… I…”

“It’s ok Kagome, you don’t have to explain. I understand you might be curious about sex; it’s only natural. I was planning on talking to you about it, but well, there wasn’t the time. And now that knowledge might turn helpful.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well you’re both inexperienced, and that could make your first time, both disappointing and painful. Rin tells me male dog demons and hanyous tend to run a bit larger than the human range. So it is actually more important than I originally thought. Hopefully that little book will make things more pleasant for you and him by introducing Inuyasha to concepts like foreplay and oral sex.” Kagome was still blushing.

“I don’t think he would actually hurt me Mama,” the young woman said softly. “Inuyasha cares a lot about you; but he could get carried away by his instincts. And that is not just a demon thing; human males have instincts too and some get carried away. Rin expects that you will be a bit sore for a while until your body adjusts to it. He first time was rather painful because of their relative sizes so she warns potential daughters in law about it now.”

“Mama it still feels strange to me to be discussing this stuff so openly with you. Most of my friends would discuss it amongst themselves, but always behind their parents’ backs. None of them would even consider discussing their sex lives, or lack there of, with their parents”

“Don’t worry about it, remember you are an adult in my eyes and I want to know enough to be able to help you both. Part of that is helping you keep from getting pregnant, and no woman wishes another a bad first time. I also don’t want to walk in on you two either. I think you would both die of embarrassment and nothing spoils the mood like that.”

“Gah, I think we can make sure to lock the door. I don’t want to get pregnant either, but I’m not sure how best to prevent it.”

“I got you a prescription for some birth control pills. You can start them after your next period. They only work if you take them regularly, that was how you happened…”

Asami went on telling Kagome how inconstant she was with her birth control pills after marrying Yushiro; they had not really planed on having kids so soon but… well, they had been very happy that she was born. He already had started the company with both Sessho and Ryoutou as partners and was doing well, and she had just finished her masters degree, so she could dedicate all of her time to her. They talked a bit longer about small details like re-decorating the guest room to make it more to her liking, and moving her clothes there once they mated, before going back into the house.

The night surrounded the lone figure that walked along the deserted streets of downtown Tokyo. Her last costumer had been a real bastard, demanding her services but in the end refusing to pay and hitting her for daring to demand what was rightfully hers. Did she not comply with all his sick little games? The ugly jerk just wanted a girl that looked underage to please him, like some tawdry little sex slave. In the end she managed to steal his wallet while he slept, and stormed out of the cheap hotel room they shared.

“Fucking bastard!” She muttered. “Let’s see who laughs last.” The young woman walked faster. It was not late, but the streets were unusually deserted. A creepy feeling began taking hold and Michiko most of the times paid attention to them. “I better hurry; perhaps I can catch another costumer.” She kept talking to herself trying to push away the feelings of dread.

A red four door compact sedan, like the thousands produced in Japan, moved slowly beside her. Michiko ignored it for a few paces and observed it through the corner of her eyes. There were two men inside, one in the front driving, which the young hooker could see clearly. He was not a prizewinner on the looks, but he was not scary looking. The features from the one that sat in the back were concealed by the shadows.

“Hello darling!” The one on the wheel drawled. “What’s your name?” He asked, still driving as she had not stopped walking. For a moment she was annoyed; were these guys just trying to get a freebie? That sounded too much like a pick up line. But that was not going to happen; she was a working girl after all, and had to earn a living. One bad costumer a night was enough. Her clothing should have been obvious enough as to what her profession was, anyway, she responded.

“Michiko, what’s yours hon’?”

“I’m Bunko and he’s Takashiro.” The driver said pointing to the back of the car where the other man sat. “How about earning some extra yen?”

“Now you’re talking,” she said with a well-studied sensual smile. “What do I have to do?” Believing her feeling of dread was because she walked alone, the hooker decided to accept the company. After all, she needed the yen badly.

“Hmmm… Nothing much, just please my buddy and me.”

“Ok hon, but you have to pay in advance.” She said, remembering her last costumer; she did not want to repeat that. The man named Bunko grinned.

“It’s a deal then, hop in.” He stopped the car only long enough for her to climb into the back seat.

After receiving her payment, she started doing her job with the Takashiro guy. Nothing fancy, just fuck him on the backseat; although for the amount she was getting paid she did work a bit on turning him on. There was not much space to really move in the backseat, but well, they were the ones paying, so who was she to complain? As soon as the Takashiro guy started to get exited, things began to turn nasty.

The guy hit her, and started calling her names. Michiko protested, saying she wanted to call the deal off. There were a lot of things she would do for a client, but getting beaten was not one of them. Her body needed to look good for her to make some money with it. The hooker tried to open the door on her side, only to discover the child safety lock was on. The Takashiro guy ripped her clothes off, ignoring her screams and struggles. He had his way with her brutally beating her, and kept on doing it until the poor woman was unconscious.

Michiko recovered consciousness several times during the night, but it would have been kinder for her to never wake up. The men abused her body and mind brutally until she became unconscious, only to be revived and to have her torture start all over again. They raped and sodomized her, repeatedly damaging the tender tissues irreparably, ripping the perineum and cutting the labia major and minor to shreds. It lasted for what seemed like long hours; or perhaps even an eternity. She pleaded, begged, and cried to be left alone, but the only thing the monsters seemed to really pay attention to, were her screams of pain. Before her eyes swelled shut, she could see their pleased smiles whenever she let out a deafening keen of pain.

They never gave her a respite from pain, whenever she thought she could not bear it any longer, that it could not get any worse, or she could no longer scream; those two proved her wrong, bringing the pain to a new level. It was after one such session of torture that a loud commotion could be heard in the background. She was barely aware of curses being uttered, things being thrown and broken in anger. A door slammed, only to be slammed again several heartbeats later, accompanied by more cursing. Her captors argued in hushed angry tones.  One of them, Michiko could no longer see, plunged something sharp in her lower belly very slowly. Pain even worse than what she had experienced so far racked her body, as slowly the sharp object made its way to her heart. It tore a last agonizing scream, which was silenced by a brutal kiss, before death finally claimed the young hooker.

“KKKKKKKKKKYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Even though he was sleeping outside at the Go-Shimboku Inuyasha was the first to get to her room, claws ready to attack. Kagome had left her window slightly open and as he jumped inside he found her sitting on her bed crying hysterically and clutching her lower belly. His eyes tore through the room just as his nose searched for any disturbing scents. But there was nothing strange, only her fear and tears. He could also tell she was not hurt; carefully he approached the bed, sat on the side and called her softly.

“Kagome?” The young woman’s immediate reaction was to throw her arms around his neck and sob uncontrollably into his chest. Just then, the rest of the family arrived, all bleary eyed.

Inuyasha turned to look at them and Asami signaled for him to hug Kagome back. He did, a bit shy at having her whole family witness it, and the young hanyou wasn’t sure if Higurashi-sama had spoken to them about the mating yet. He could see the old man frown, but Jii-chan did not utter a word. The young woman responded by burying her face in the crook of his neck. Someone turned the lights on, making everybody blink.

“It was just a nightmare.” Asami told Jii-chan and Sota after taking look at the situation. “You can go back to sleep.”

“But… but…” The young boy stammered eyes wide with fear.

“It’s Ok Sota, don’t worry.” His mother told him in a soothing voice, messing his unruly hair. “Your sister only had a very bad dream.”

“But what if there was something…” The young kid began to protest again, as his eyes darted every which way scanning the room, still afraid.

“Look, Inuyasha is here.” She pointed at the dog-demon sitting on the bed with a sobbing girl in his arms. “If there was something bad around, don’t you think he’d be going after it?” Asami reasoned with her youngest.

“Yes… you’re right Mama. Inuyasha nii-chan is the strongest guy I know.” Admiration colored the young child’s voice; the inu hanyou was his hero. “He’ll keep us safe” Sota said, brightening as he remembered his encounter with the Nou mask. “He is awesome!” Inuyasha could not help but blush, unused to being the object of such admiration. Sota then went back to his room confident that the hanyou would protect them.

“You too Jii-chan, go back to sleep.”

“I’ll place some wards just in case.” He said, going back to his room for his papers. Before leaving he cast Inuyasha a disapproving look; he still had his doubts about having the demon at home. Although to his credit, the youkai was behaving distantly polite.

Asami sighed and shook her head, as she watched him walk to his room. His magic did not work, but at least he felt useful doing it. Jii-chan was back and stuck a few wards on her door as he chanted some weird things before going to his bedroom. The older Higurashi’s attention returned to her daughter, she was still shivering uncontrollably in the young man’s arms and was now fully curled on his lap. Kagome muttered something but the she did not understand what it was.

“She is saying ‘They hurt and killed her’ and ‘they are monsters’ over and over.” The hanyou explained to her. He still felt awkward holding Kagome so close when other people were in the room, but he guessed the sensation would change the more he got used to being mates. The older woman drew the chair from Kagome’s desk closer to the bed.

“Kagome darling, it was just a nightmare. Everything is fine now, look you’re in your room and we are here. You’re safe.” She knew about her nightmares, but this one was the first one that actually managed to scare her enough to wake the whole family. Speaking about them should at least have eased her mind, but she knew the knowledge that two serial killers were after her was enough to unnerve anyone no matter how mature they were and used to danger they were.

“It was not a nightmare Mama.” Kagome managed to say between sobs, her grip on Inuyasha still desperate. “They killed again, it was so horrible.” She shuddered and started crying again. Inuyasha gently rubbed her back trying to comfort her. He also started purring loudly, knowing the sound had helped to calm her before.

“Who killed again?” The hanyou asked softly.

“The park killers.” Both Inuyasha and Asami exchanged worried looks over her head.

“I think that some tea would be in order. Come let’s go down to the kitchen.” Asami suggested not wanting either Jii-chan or Sota hearing about it. Her youngest would really get frightened and the old man’s health was already suffering for his concern over his granddaughter.

Asami stood up and went to the kitchen followed by Kagome and Inuyasha, who carried the girl down the stairs not trusting her to walk by herself. By time the tea was ready, the young woman had calmed enough to be able to talk. She began telling them that it was not the first one, but the others had been more like memories, like seeing and hearing things through some sort of unfocused camera, with badly taped sound that she really could not make out. They were terrible, but with no actual feeling, unlike the one she had that night. The images were sharper the sounds clearer and more understandable, and she actually felt the agony of the girl and the pleasure of one of the killers. It had been like being inside of him and her at the same time.

Slowly, as she sipped her tea, Kagome described in detail each killing, to the point of telling what the girls had been wearing and how old they were. On the one she had that night, the young Miko was able to tell a few more details. So far, she had five nightmares with five different girls, the second one of them a very young and pretty crane youkai. Because of that, she had not given the dreams much importance, until she met the neko policeman. Before seeing him, she had not believed there were youkai in the present. Inuyasha started at the mention of the female youkai, and looked very pensive, the young woman noticed it.

“What is it Inuyasha?” Kagome asked and saw him look like he was thinking hard, he shook his head. Not wanting for a moment to worry or scare her anymore than she was. “Don’t keep things from me; I rather know what’s going on, we made a deal remember?”

“I just don’t want you worried…” He said softly with a resigned sigh.

‘It’s true, I did promise to tell her what’s on my mind… I just… I just think this might be too much, and I’m not sure about it yet.’ The young hanyou thought worriedly, then looking at her he spoke.

“But I guess you both have a right to know.”

“She does Inuyasha, and as you said I’d like to know too.” Asami looked at him, guessing that he had figured something out or knew about what was happening to Kagome.

“The neko police man told me there have been 18 victims…” He saw them gasp and their eyes reflect the horror they felt at such a large number of poor murdered girls. “Not all were girls; there are the two young men from Friday too. And… well… I’ve read three of those ‘file’ thingies they make of the killings. I have not gone far, but the second ‘victim’ was a young crane youkai.” Both Asami and Kagome gasped shocked, but remained quiet to let him continue. “Actually the neko told me there were two youkai and one a hanyou.”

“It… it was not a nightmare!” Kagome exclaimed shocked starting to panic, and Asami moved closer to hug her, offering comfort.

“I… don’t think it was,” he said slowly. “What you told us about the first three girls of your nightmare matches what I have read.” He agreed with her and could see Kagome shivering, while her mother tried in vain to offer some reassurance. In his eyes they both needed it badly, so he muttered softly but loud enough for them to hear it. “I’ll protect you Kagome; they won’t get near you again.”

“But… why is this happening to her?” Asami asked perplexed, and feeling relieved. She knew he would do her best to keep her daughter safe, Kagome relaxed a bit at his words too. But how could she be able to see that kind of thing?

“I don’t know.” Inuyasha responded, looking worried. “Maybe it is because of her Miko powers. Perhaps Kaede-baba or Miroku would know, I think I’ll go see them tomorrow.”

“Sounds like a good idea.” The young Miko managed to say, either of them could have some answer for that. But the prospect of ‘seeing’ every time they killed a young woman terrified Kagome. She was not sure she could deal with it. In her time wandering around the Sengoku Jidai she had not encountered such cruelty among many youkai, much less humans.

“Do you think we should inform the cops about this new victim?” Asami asked; the youths were silent for several moments deep in thought.

“No, I don’t think they would believe it Mama.” Kagome said with a sigh. Asami had to agree with that, Detective Nomura had made it clear he did not believe in psychic stuff. “Detective Nomura would probably think I’m going insane or maybe just cracking under stress.”

“I think the neko might believe it, Higurashi-san. My half-brother put him up to date on our comings and goings, except that he, thankfully, did not mention the jewel… still, it bothers me more than a little that he is around, but there are more important things than wondering what my asshole of a brother is really up to.” Inuyasha told the women, looking Asami in the eye.

“Inuyasha watch your language before my mother!” Kagome scolded him lightly, since she was really surprised that he was willing to put Sesshomaru in the back of his mind for a while. The young Miko had to agree to herself that even if she had seen the changes, she wasn’t really sure about who the Demon Lord of the Western land had become.

“Feh! Believe me wench, I am! I can sure think of a lot of worse things to call the bastard.”

“Inuyasha!”

“Feh! Watanabe asked for us to let him aid us in any way we thought could help.” He said changing the subject not really wanting to have a fight. “I think if Kaede-baba or Miroku can’t find a solution to this, then he might have an idea or two.” Inuyasha said, thinking aloud.

“It’s possible; do you think they have used Mikos to help with cases before in the past?” Asami asked.

“I don’t know, possibly… I might try to get something out of him without seeming to obvious about it.” Inuyasha replied and Kagome snorted in disbelief. “What?” He snapped at her.

“You and subtlety don’t go along in the same paragraph, much less the same sentence.” The young woman stated pointing a finger to his chest.

“Feh! That is what you think.” He retorted offended, he stole a glance at his future mother in law and noticed the slightly amused look in her face. “At the very least, we can go find the body and there might be enough ‘evidence’ there to get a good lead and track them to wherever they hide.” Kagome nodded. Inuyasha could smell her distress calming down as they made plans for how to deal with this new development. He guessed that his mate felt better if she felt more in control of what was happening.

“These guys are a couple of psychos,” she shuddered. “The sooner we can stop them the better.”

“I quite agree,” Asami said as she placed her teacup in the sink “We should get back to bed and try to grab some sleep.” She told the teens, but a look at her daughter’s face convinced her that was probably not something she was looking forward to.

“I don’t know if I am going to be able to get back to sleep now.”

“Perhaps you two can just stay up and talk or watch a movie.” She suggested, they might get to talk a bit more about the change getting married would create in their lives or plan more on how to deal with the nightmares. “I need to get some rest so that I’ll be coherent for my appointments in the morning, so I am going to head to bed. If you want you can stay home and sleep tomorrow.”

“Thanks Mama, but I don’t think I will stay. Being there keeps my mind from thinking too much… Would you stay with me Inuyasha?” Kagome asked, remembering her mother’s suggestion that she talk to him about the nightmares earlier that evening.

“Aa, I don’t think I can sleep either.” Inuyasha was quite frankly worried and knew that would keep him up even if Kagome did not want company.

Asami was seriously disturbed by the revelation that her daughter’s nightmares were not just simple stress reactions. Living through the deaths of others was certainly traumatic, and doing so in the way she had described was even worse. She needed to think about how to help Kagome deal with them, but until she could come up with an answer of some sort, her daughter’s fiancé would certainly take care of her.

After her mother went to sleep, Kagome led Inuyasha to the TV room. The night had become chilly, so she got a blanket from his bed while he turned it on and surfed through the channels for something at least half-decent to watch. At that God forsaken hour, most of what he found was those sales thingies, in the end he settled for whatever was on the Discovery Channel. He only wanted the noise and images to keep his thoughts from running amok or getting too deep. He was downright worried by the new development, those nightmares boded nothing good.

Kagome sat on the couch under the blanket while she waited for him to decide what he wanted to watch. At the moment the young woman did not care what it was as long as it kept her from falling asleep and the prospect of another nightmare. She also wondered if he would sit beside her; their relationship was too new for her to know what to expect from the young inu-hanyou. A small smile came to her lips when he sat beside her, she covered the both of them with the blanket and hesitantly snuggled up to him, and when Inuyasha did not protest and shyly passed an arm behind her shoulders to draw her closer, she got more comfortable.

As he held her close, Inuyasha buried his nose in her hair, savoring her sweet scent, made even better by the tinges of her ‘heat’. He sought the calming and peaceful effect she always seemed to have, but this time it was not there. His mind was going round and round, refusing to calm down. Those fucking humans managed to hurt her again and there had been nothing he could do to stop them. How was he going to protect her from nightmares or visions? He had promised both of them that he would. Those things were not something he could beat up, but stuff in her mind. He clenched his jaw in frustration and impotence, as he let out a low growl.

Kagome could feel how tense he was, and even see it by the tight set of his jaw and the way his eyes stared at some point beyond the TV. Her hanyou was definitely not watching it. Wanting to relax him, she softly stroked his cheek with a hand before moving it to the top of his head in search of the nearest ear. It was plain luck that she found out just a few days before he liked his ears petted and it helped him to relax.

She began to rub the base of his ear, and he tilted his head to allow her better access to it, but he did not start purring immediately like he had done whenever she lavished attention to them. Instead she had to work until his jaw unclenched a bit. Then the comforting sound and vibration appeared very softly, and it pleased her to know that he was beginning to loosen up. Maybe he would be willing to tell her what was on his mind.

“Inuyasha, what’s bothering you?” Her voice was soft, but she felt him tense anyway.

“Nothing wench, I’m…” He did not finish the sentence, the answer had been abrupt and out of the habit of keeping things to himself.

‘I… I made a deal with Kagome today… to tell her what bothered me in exchange for her to do the same… Damn! It was easier said than done…’

“Everything,” he finally said into her hair with a sigh as he held her closer, relishing the feel of the young woman against him. Kagome could not hide a small smile as she saw he was really trying to open up enough to let her know what was troubling him. The young woman remained quiet to let him speak. “How are we going to complete the Shikon no Tama, get rid of that fucking Naraku, deal with my asshole of a half brother, and catch a couple of really demented and sick human serial killers?”

“I… I don’t know,” she told him realizing how much the young man had to worry about. There were just too many things to solve that older men would go crazy trying to. And he was expected to deal with them when he was no older than she was. “All we can do is our best to solve these things. At times it seems like it’s too much for us… but lately I’ve been having the feeling that Kami-sama would not put us though these situations if he did not think we could handle them.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” Inuyasha agreed after thinking her words through, nuzzling her hair. “This is a fucking mess… the only thing I wanted was to keep you safe here too.” She gave him a soft kiss on the cheek for that admission.

“I know… I guess the fact that we travel through time makes it more complicated.”

“Kojiro said Sesshomaru told him something of the sort.”

“Kojiro?” She asked, surprised not recognizing the name.

“The neko hanyou. He asked me not to call him neko or Nomura-jiji would start suspecting something is going on.”

“Nomura-jiji?” Kagome asked chuckling. The detective was not old, not old at all, and very handsome. She wondered why Inuyasha nicknamed him that, but then he was known for calling people names no matter who they were.

“He won’t stop calling me kid.” He explained slightly annoyed.

“But you are a kid…” Kagome started saying.

“I’m no goat! I’m an inu youkai!” he interrupted indignantly.

“Goat?” For a moment, she was completely confused and then it dawned on her. He had not spent much time around humans when he was younger and the times he heard someone address him as kid were probably not good. It was just like her and not understanding that for him most females were bitches since he was a dog demon. She laughed softly and even a bit more at his puzzled expression. “You have that wrong Inuyasha.”

“I don’t…” He started to protest, but her fingers on his lips silenced him.

“Yes you do, a kid is a human youngster just as it also is the young of a goat. For us it is not an insult. Kid is the normal way to refer to one who is around our age. I’m a kid too.”

“Oh!” Inuyasha exclaimed a bit surprised, he had always thought that was some kind of insult. Kagome’s hand had moved to his neck and shoulder to massage them in attempt to ease some of the tension.

“You have been around me since this started so I tend to forget you didn’t hang around human or demons that much. Nomura-san was not being offensive. He was calling you the way he would call any other guy your age.” Inuyasha tried to shrug as he adjusted his position to give her better access to the sore spots. “Here let me s…” she corrected herself just in time, “move behind you. Your shoulders and neck feel very tense.”

“They are,” he agreed as he moved over a seat while she took his place.

“It’ll be better if you take off your haori, so there’s less fabric in the way of my hands.” He complied, leaving his inner shirt in its place.

Kagome gathered his silvery mane and braided it loosely, then tossed it over his shoulder where it would be out of the way. Inuyasha grabbed it and examined her handy work. It certainly seemed like an interesting way to keep his hair from getting in places where he did not want it. He would probably try doing something like that the next time he went to a hot spring. While he had been looking at his braided hair, she had placed a leg on either side of him and started rubbing his neck.

“You know? I don’t think it’s such a good idea to get you involved in the park killer case.” She commented as she kept rubbing his neck.

“Why not? Do you think I could sit back and watch this ‘police’ protect you? That’s my… Hmmm…” he did not finish saying as she hit a particularly sore spot on his neck. Her fingers felt so good. Kagome smiled softly at his response to her attentions, especially when his purr became louder.

“No, it’s just that I don’t want you to get hurt…”

“Then I won’t get hurt,” he interrupted her. “You know it takes a lot to actually harm me.”

Her hands felt so good as she rubbed his neck, but it felt even better as she started to move down to his shoulders. Kagome pushed his shirt lightly out of the way. Under the work of her small hands, he could feel how his body slowly started to relax; in response to the sensations, the pitch of his purr went a bit lower.

“You already have.” The young woman pointed out without stopping.

“It was nothing, Kagome. Besides, what they want me to do is boring. I have to sit behind this table and read all those ‘files’ they have, sniff out the stuff they took from the bodies and other places, and I also went and sniffed the places where they found the girls. Nomura-jiji took me to three today, but there was not much I could do there. His damn people had walked all over the places and messed the trails pretty bad.”

“Ok, so it’s not dangerous, but what about the Shikon no Tama or the well? You might slip up.”

“I won’t…”

“Inuyasha…”

“Ok, so I might,” the young hanyou admitted grudgingly, “but I am being careful of not mentioning the Shikon no Tama.” He was silent for a moment, enjoying her attentions, while he debated about whether or not to tell her some of his suspicions. They had been stuck in the back of his mind since he came back from the park and demanded some attention. “You know? I get the feeling I’m supposed to be here.”

“You do? How? Or what would be the purpose of you being here?” Kagome asked surprised, it sounded a bit farfetched.

“I’m not really sure yet… but… have you noticed that things sort of… make it easier for me to be here?” He told her thoughtfully, and then went on. “The scrolls Ofukuro’s and Oyaji’s reincarnations left for me… the fact that my own disappeared…” he let his voice trail off. “That there is actually a way for me to exist in this time…”

Kagome was enjoying finally getting him to speak his mind and have a serious conversation without a fight. He had a very valid point with his observations that things seemed to have been ‘arranged’ so he could stay in her time; she probably needed to think more about it, after she got all of the info on those scrolls.

The young woman was pleased that Inuyasha trusted her enough to be in such a vulnerable position while he allowed her to work on relaxing him. She was also actually touching him, like she had wanted to do for so long, brushing her lips against the back of his neck; the question that had popped into her mind about how sensitive his skin was got answered. He shivered and the skin quivered a bit, just like Buyo’s did when something brushed against its fur.

“Do you have any idea what I’m supposed to know to keep us out of trouble?” The young woman asked when he remained quiet for few moments. Her hands had started to knead the muscles between his shoulder blades.

“I think I’m going to have another talk with Kojiro. Not sure when it’ll be though.”

“And about us?”

“Your Ofukuro said she’d fill you in on everything before I left. She wanted to warn me in case I overheard you talking, I really… hmmm… that feels good… go lower.”

Kagome kissed him again between the shoulder blades and got the same response; she pushed his shoulders forward with one hand and kept him from getting up with the other on his side.  Rolling her thumbs and using her palms and knuckles, she went ahead and worked the muscles all the way down to the waistline of his hakama.  Inuyasha could not have stopped purring or moved aside if he had wanted to.

‘Oh Kami! This is sooo good, I never thought…’ The feel of his mate’s thumbs slipping into his pants startled him as she proceeded to work her way down to his lower back.

“Wha… what are you doing wench?”  He asked her quietly.

She could not possibly know how much he craved her touch all over his skin. It was a sensation he had never experienced before, the need to be touched, but it felt so good and right. Still, the location of her hands was making him nervous; they had brought a rather unexpected reaction.  Kagome was in heat, and even if it was starting to fade, she could unintentionally push him too far.

“Trying to make up for this afternoon by making you feel better… Do you want me to stop?”  Her touch was not sexual, or at least she thought so, but she knew he had never allowed anyone to do more than hug him, so getting a back massage might make him start feeling a little skittish. She would respect that, not wanting to put pressure on the young man, but she wanted to cuddle and take comfort in her fiancé, her mate.  They had not had a chance to celebrate earlier, so perhaps they could now.

“No, you surprised me that was all.”  He said gruffly, his ears twitching.  She noticed his ears twitching on their own accord and decided to work her way back up to them.  His purring was very soothing and comforting to her frazzled nerves. Her efforts to make him feel better were making her feel better too, pushing the fear and anxiety of the nightmare away.

A/N: WARNING!!!! The next chapter is a lemon, if you don’t like or can’t read it please wait until chapter 20, it is almost done and just needs some final adjustments, it won’t take long after the next chapter is up.

After reading some Rurouni Kenshin fics where they embed the lemon in a lower rating story, but with suitable warnings I decided this would work for Present Time. So it won’t be posted as a side story, but will be clearly marked so you can skip it if you like.

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In this and all future chapters as well as some of the previous ones I have to give Telosphilos co-writer status, she really helps giving some great ideas and developing the story. Thanks Telos!

On this chapter there is also some mention of sex, but I think it’s not enough to bother anyone.

Also this chapter ended being too big, so it was cut in two. Chapter 18 should be up in a couple of days. (It is done already so no worries that I’ll take long posting) And the same with the lemon, so for those hentais, just have patience (and I really hope you like it since, I’ve talked so much about it that I really hope it came out right.)

Also remember from the next chapter on no warning about OOC, but they will be.

Also thanks to my editors evercool resurrected, Naoko Cat girl and lightning.

Enough rants, now on with the fic.

As Kagome and Sota did the dishes and put the food away, Lieutenant Watanabe stopped by briefly to tell Kagome which shifts of the surveillance teams had youkai on them; so that she would not worry about them.  He had also warned her not to ‘Sit’ Inuyasha where they could be seen again, because it would make the humans curious. The surveillance team had noticed, but thankfully, he was able to convince them the young man fell down the tree.

Sota had laughed at that and started trying to tease his sister about it as they worked.  Especially because he knew the dog demon was not going to like the explanation the cop gave. As the kid kept teasing, Kagome was rapidly reaching the conclusion that little brothers were easier to handle in small doses.  And she would not rescue him from his hero’s wrath once he managed to incur it. Knowing Sota and her hanyou’s short temper the young Miko was sure that would happen rather soon, and she would let him suffer.

“You’re gonna get it, you little twerp.” She told her brother, annoyed at using the word Inuyasha used to describe Shippou at his most hyperactive.

“Wow, new word! But nah, I won’t.” Sota said laughing. “You can’t ‘Sit’ Inuyasha nii-chan anymore, but knowing your temper you’re gonna do it; and I want to hear how you explain that!” He laughed again. “Mama doesn’t want you to do that either.” That only got him a very demon like growl, which only served to make him laugh harder.

“Just wait until I’m finished here.” Sota could be a bit annoying some times, but at the moment she did not really have the presence of mind to retaliate like she used to.

Dinner had gone well as far as she was concerned, but she was starting to worry about where Inuyasha was, since he did not return after talking to Lieutenant Watanabe. Now that she had the time to cross a few words with him, Kagome realized she had over reacted since the neko’s aura and youki did not feel evil at all. He seemed to be quite a pleasant person, and she guessed she was going to get to know the hanyou a bit better, because of her situation. The young woman also pondered about what he had talked to Inuyasha about. He had not seemed very happy to see him and she was sure it was not just because he interrupted them, she thought and blushed a bit; there was anger there.

Asami was also getting worried. She had begun to understand more about the young man, he had a very healthy appetite, and if food was available and good he would not pass the chance. So whatever the neko told him she suspected it had upset Inuyasha. His sole presence would probably have that effect, after the reaming he gave him the day before, not counting that he had been in an emotional roller coaster for a few days. She decided it was best to go out and look for him, to perhaps offer to listen if he felt like talking again.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha was reclining in his favorite branch of the Go-Shimboku tree.  He was watching the last of the sunset and working on mulling over all of the things he had to think about, which was no easy task. His mind was in turmoil and he could not find a way to slow down all that went by. His emotions were no better, he was happy, depressed, sad, angry, worried, and afraid at the same time; and the poor hanyou did not know how to deal with that, he always kept those at bay. Among all those emotions, there was one that threatened to take control over the chaos. It was frustration at his inability to deal with all that was happening to him, and it made the young man want to scream and he seriously wondered if it would be that bad. Before he decided, he scented his foster mother coming toward him and looked for her on the ground.  There she was, walking right to the tree.

“Inuyasha?  Is everything all right?”  Asami asked in concern.

“I don’t know.  Too much is happening all at once.”  He replied.

He could not seem to pinpoint why he felt so comfortable around her.  It seemed to have something to do with how she really did treat him like one of her kids, and yet she had not once tried to take neither his autonomy nor his freedom from him.  She was welcoming without being confining, just like Kagome was most of the times.

“I know.  I suspect the changes are getting bit overwhelming at times.”  Asami wondered what had happened this time.  “I was worried when you missed dinner.  Do you want me to put your food away for later?”

“Nah, I’m a bit hungry.  I was thinking of spending some time in the park for a little while this evening.”  He told her and Asami nodded.  She knew that he meant he was going to try to catch the killers’ scents and track them down.

“All right, I’m going to have a long talk with Kagome about everything after you finish eating.  Is there anything you would rather have me leave out from yesterday?”  He jumped down in front of her and shrugged.  “Okay, go get something to eat.  I didn’t want to upset you by having you overhear us talking about you and the pack and not knowing what was going on.” Asami noticed he was holding another manila folder.  “What’s that?”  She asked him.

Instead of answering, he handed it to her.  She looked inside and saw the special dispensation in there.  When she saw the signature at the bottom, her jaw dropped a bit.  Putting it together with her phone call from Rin that morning she understood.  Rin’s comments about the youth’s mating sprung to mind. Her dear friend had insisted they meet to talk more about that, and she had actually been adamant. But the closest date they could agree on was Friday morning for breakfast at her place, leaving the rest of the day free, since the conversation would probably be long.

“Is this from whom I think it is?”  She asked after a moment.

“Yes, that is Sesshomaru, my half brother.” His voice was full of hate, but it became laced with puzzlement as he went on. “I don’t know what to make of it, that asshole did a lot to make things harder for me and now he turns around and does me a favor.  It’s frustrating. What’s more, is that he told the neko about the well, but not about the Shikon no Tama.”  She put a hand on his shoulder to try to reassure him as they waked into the house.

“I’ll put this away some place safe.  Perhaps in time we will be able to figure this out.” She offered and the young man just nodded, his mind going back to some of the chaos, for the moment his ‘brother’ took precedence.

Inuyasha chowed down his dinner rather quickly, packed up his skateboarding gear, and was out the door. He had not liked the idea of the protective stuff, but as his foster mother pointed out; if he fell, his lack of injuries would be much easier to explain if attributed to the gear.

Inuyasha went down the shrine stairs at a leisurely pace, he was in no hurry to reach the park, and wanted time to sort out his reeling mind and emotions before meeting anyone. The hanyou was sure that Dayu guy would ask some questions and so would the rest of his group, so he hoped he could also get to make some discrete questions of his own and see what he could find about the Park Killers.

Finding out things was something he did a lot back home, even if the rest of his companions was not really aware of that ability. He did not let them see what he did on purpose, not wanting to know what they would think about that, since it contrasted with the tough image he presented. Normally he would gossip with some of the forest inhabitants, letting them do all the talking and only once in a while providing some information heard elsewhere that might be interesting. He really didn’t like doing it and he had no friends among those he talked to, but most tolerated him well enough after he was unsealed.

It was usually the lesser demons who had no interest in the Shikon no Tama, or water sprites. Man! Those things sure knew a lot of stuff; it was only hard to get the important things sorted out from all the useless things they babbled about. He had even talked every once in a while with dogs, and it was surprising what the mutts could tell him. Rarely did he spy on humans and he had not spoken to them unless he was traveling with the rest of the pack, but still his superb hearing and hunting abilities had been useful on occasion; when he had to find out about demons that probably had a Shikon no Tama shard.

In his mind Inuyasha decided to replay the events of the day in hopes of getting them sorted out, and the first thing had been the visit to three of the previous crime scenes. Nomura-jiji had purposely chosen the most recent ones in hopes that he could get some leads. But there was nothing he could do on any of them but curse the cops as loud and proficiently as he could.

The places where a chaos of scents and tracks on the ground, too many people had been about after the bodies were found, and not just from the police. By the third site he was mostly able to tell individual scents of those who had been about, and even a few that should not have been there, including the killers; but the scents overlapped too much making it impossible for him to point in any direction. He was considering pointing the extra people out to Nomura-jiji once he had an idea of who they were, but that was going to require him to sniff the forensics team and the reporters.

The only thing they had been able to gain from those visits was the conviction that no one was to set foot on the scene of the next crime until the hanyou had gone through it. In Inuyasha’s opinion that was not an option; he hated to have to wait until those thugs tortured someone else. Nomura-jiji agreed with him and went so far as to tell him how frustrated he felt at having to wait for the next murder in hopes of getting a break, since he and Kojiro had to cope with that for the better part of two years. In a way the young man felt sorry for the cops, it was frustrating to say the least.

After returning to the shrine still feeling frustrated and a bit unnerved because Kagome’s scent was driving him nuts. He had that damn fight with her that broke his heart, only to have it patched up a few moments later when she finally listened to him, for a change, and ended up agreeing to be his mate. They had kissed and he had not felt happier in his life, only, he had to fight against himself to keep from claiming her right then.

It was not the time for them to have pups, and if they mated it would be a sure thing. He was still a bit uncertain about taking her; since from what he had managed to understand, she was too young by her time standards, barely a child, even if in his era she was more than ready to be married. He wanted to give her time, to do things her way for a change. He also needed some time to adjust to the idea of having her as mate. It made him extremely happy, but at the same time afraid that he might hurt her, or she him.

Not wanting to dwell so much on his doubts he turned his mind toward his other big problem, his asshole of a brother, Sesshomaru. He was really having a hard time believing his half brother had changed. But he had to admit to himself that there was probably some truth there. He had gotten the information from two entirely different sources that had nothing to do with each other. The scrolls his Ofukuro’s reincarnation had left him spoke of the great demon wars and that his bother fought for the hanyous’ right to live as well as an alliance with the humans. He had not finished reading that part, but he guessed he would find out that, indeed, his prick of a brother had mated the little girl Rin as the neko said he did. To him, that was funny, really funny.

Even with that knowledge, he was not ready to accept their words. Inuyasha had no love for his half brother. That bastard had done enough during his 16 years around to earn more than a couple of lifetimes of hatred. And yet, he was not the kind to let grudges fester for that long a time. He had forgiven Kykyou for killing him, and he would never be the one to attack Sesshomaru first. He of course defended himself and his pack from him, and would kill the damn cur during a fight… Well… he had not killed him in that one fight where Tenseiga bailed him out, although he could have. Actually, he had avoided him for all those years, only seeing Sesshomaru again when he went to search for Tetsusaiga.

And now that damn mutt had just sent word that he regretted his actions and had even accepted and sanctioned his mating to Kagome. It was… as if Sesshomaru had done him a favor, by supporting his right to claim Kagome. According to Kojiro, that paper he signed would be helpful against other demon’s protests. His older brother’s actions confused him, especially since he felt like the asshole was giving his approval. Not that it mattered to him what Sesshomaru thought… Of course it did not matter, why should it? He was his closest relative, the one that should have taken care of him when his Ofukuro died.

“Feh! I don’t give a shit what he…” He started grumbling to himself, only to stop when he heard angry voices arguing and got a whiff of a familiar scent.

Thinking hard he put a face to it, Dayu, the guy that had invited him to join his friends at the park and taught him a few tricks on Sunday. He also smelled surprisingly similar to one of Kagome’s friends, the angry one. The kid was afraid and in pain. Curious as to the reason why, he followed the scent to a darkened and deserted alley, he was surrounded by eight other kids that were taking turns at hitting and kicking him. His first reaction was to jump in, but he decided he would wait a bit to know what that was about.

“Watch out guys! We don’t want to hit him on the face and have his father on us.” One of the kids warned the others, when a tall guy with spiky hair did hit Dayu’s face.

“Why should it matter? We’ll beat the shit out of his old man too.”

“Don’t be stupid Jun, his father’s a cop. The boss warned us to be careful around this sissy; it seems the guy has contacts.”

“So we’re gonna rat to daddy?” The spiky one asked, he appeared to be these thugs leader. He placed a hard kick to the kid’s kidneys, sending him sprawling against another guy he received with a punch on the guts.

“I… don’t… need… him… to… fight… my fights… assholes.” Dayu panted, but managed to land a nice punch to the guy who hit him on the stomach. That would leave the thug a black eye as a memento. He turned to charge at the spiky haired guy only to be stopped by two of the other guys, to let their leader kick him again, he managed to twist enough and the kick ended hitting him on the hip.

“Yeah right, we’re gonna leave you as an example of what will happen to your gang if Fujimaro does not leave the park. So you better inform him well of what Takeshi wants.”

“Tell him yourself motherfucker!” Dayu struggled to get free, but the guys were bigger and stronger than he was, and he had already been beaten for a while. “What is your boss scared off? We beat… ooof!” He was not able to finish as someone landed a kick to his back.

Inuyasha had enough of watching, the Dayu guy was getting beaten to a pulp, and even if he should probably befriend the other guys if he wanted information on the killers, he just did not like their methods. Besides, the Dayu guy had been friendly and helpful the other day. There was still the chance that he and his group could tell him enough about the other gang to be able to track the killers.

‘Oh what the heck!’ He thought as he stepped out of the shadows he was hiding.

“I don’t think that’s a fair fight; that guy’s half dead, if you want a challenge, then you fight with me.” Nine pairs of eyes turned to look at him, and for a moment they just stared at the odd white haired man; the alley had little light provided by a single dirty lamp. His eyes glittered strangely, reflecting light like a wild animal, creeping the thugs out and surprising Dayu.

“Get the fuck back to wherever you came from, creep. This is none of your fucking business.” The thug closest to him said disdainfully.

‘He’s that odd looking guy from Sunday.’ Dayu thought as recognition flooded his mind. ‘I invited to come over to skateboard with us; I thought he was not interested when he did not show up Monday. These guys don’t want me dead yet, but they might kill him.’

“Wrong word asshole, I’m not a creep.” Inuyasha told the guy and before the others were even aware of what he did, the hanyou was standing beside him and landed a punch to his jaw sprawling the guy on the ground. “Now who’s next?” he asked, cracking his knuckles. Physical intimidation should scare off those foolish humans very easily; he only needed to do enough damage to frighten them.

“What the…” a couple of them mentioned, before launching themselves at him, a third trying to attack from behind.

Inuyasha just somersaulted out of the way at the last moment letting them crash against each other. Two were knocked out cold, probably hit their heads, the other caught himself on time, then launched a kicking assault that the hanyou easily blocked before punching him in the face and breaking his nose. He was being careful of not using his full strength, he really did not want to kill humans, just scare them away.

“By all the seven hells! You call this fighting? And here I thought you were going to offer some challenge, I’m getting bored.” He taunted the remaining guys, and he sounded quite disgusted. Four were out and still four to go.

Dayu momentarily forgotten, the two kids holding him went at Inuyasha with all they had, but the young man just avoided their punches easily. He was much faster than any of them, stronger too, so they would end with more than a couple of bruises. Wanting to try another of the kicks he saw on that movie, he jumped, hitting each guy with a foot and sending them sprawling against a wall. None moved, too stunned by their collision.

Inuyasha’s ears twitched and gave him just enough warning to turn and avoid getting hit by a knife; he caught it in mid flight and returned it the way it came. The weapon embedded itself on the light post behind the thug that threw it, on the way it managing to cut some hair on the way. He was always good throwing things at far distances, and the post was several yards behind the guy.

“I did not miss, if I had you’d be dead.” Inuyasha told them in a ‘matter of fact’ tone of voice.

“Who the hell are you?” The spiky haired guy asked, stunned, that wasn’t supposed to be possible and the lamppost was metal.

“Feh!” The hanyou snorted derisively.

“Damn it who the hell are you? Police?” Spiky demanded.

“Pick up your trash and get the fuck out of my sight.” The hanyou ordered him instead.

“No fucking way, I’m going to enjoy cutting you in tiny pieces.” Spiky said taking out a bigger knife and wielding it menacingly. It was a sashimi knife, the kind the yakuza liked to use because of its keen edge.

“Please no knives! We don’t want to get the police here!” Dayu told spiky, Inuyasha had started laughing when he saw the knife; both the thug and Dayu looked at him like he was crazy. Sashimi knives could cut through flesh and bone without much trouble.

“YOU want to cut me with THAT?” He managed to say between laughs; to him it was really hilarious. He had been run though with poisonous claws, and shot through the heart with an arrow. For the young hanyou that knife was like a toothpick compared to some of the stuff he had been slashed or cut with before. He opened his backpack and took Tetsusaiga out; in the dim light they would not notice it looked old and rusty. “You want to cut someone, you use something like this,” he did a couple of wrist movements with the untransformed sword. “Not a toy,” he said making it clear that he did know how to use it. The thugs’ eyes ogled and then beat a hasty retreat.

“Man you were awesome!” Dayu exclaimed moving slowly closer, he was in pain from the beating. “Is that sword real?”

“Yeah, it is.”

“Can I see it? And where did you get it? Most dudes would prefer a gun.” Dayu couldn’t help sounding both exited and pleased.

“I don’t like guns; Tetsusaiga was my father’s sword, now it’s mine.” He said letting Dayu see it but not touch, again taking advantage of the dim light.

“You did not tell me your name the other day only…”

“I did,” he interrupted Dayu’s flow of words.

“Your name really is Inuyasha?

“Yes, Shirosenshi Inuyasha.”

“I’m Ando Dayu, anyway thanks Inuyasha, those guys are a pain in the ass.” Inuyasha just shrugged as he sheathed Tetsusaiga. “I thought you were not interested in joining our group when you did not appear on Monday.”

“I was busy,” he said, as he started walking toward the lighted street, the other kid followed him walking slowly. Inuyasha adjusted his pace to his. “What was that about?”

“Oh, they want to take over our area.” Dayu told him as he ogled the knife stuck in the hollow metal post.

‘Geez he must be strong.’

‘Territorial? I guess some things don’t change. Fights like this are frequent back home, and not just among humans either.’ The young hanyou thought, it was nice to see that some things did not change through the centuries.

“The park used to be a very nice place until a couple of years ago, but then those guys came and began trying to sell us drugs. Most of the guys don’t agree with that stuff, so when we did not buy, and they couldn’t make money from us they decided to make us leave.” Dayu explained. It was something that was well known among the kids of the area and even some of the cops, although they did nothing to stop it.

“So? Why didn’t you?” This guy seemed to be very talkative, so he might as well start looking for information with him.

“We all live close by, and most of us have known each other for years. This is the only place around where we can hang out. No way were we going to let them have it, so one of the guys, Fujimaro, ended organizing the rest to keep those assholes away. So far we had, but lately they are getting more violent.” Dayu looked understandably upset.

“Yeah I can see that,” he commented as they walked. Their pace was really slow and the other kid was limping noticeably, he wondered if he lived nearby as they were not heading toward the park anymore. He was keeping his senses on the alert, but so far the thugs were not following them.

“So are your parents moving to this area? I had not seen you around before.” Dayu was really curious about this guy, the fact that he was strange looking was one of the reasons, but he had also dispatched the other gang almost in a flash and had not even been hit. Eight against one were really hard odds.

“I have no parents,” he responded, his voice flat and unemotional.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Dayu apologized, and Inuyasha just shrugged. “That day at the store you were with Higurashi-san and Kagome-chan…”

“I’m staying with them… Higurashi-sama is… my foster mother.” Inuyasha did not want to tell Dayu yet that he hoped to marry Higurashi-sama’s daughter and make her his mother-in-law, but it was on his mind. He really liked it and was grateful for her help.

“Wow that must be great! Higurashi-san is a really cool Lady. We’ve known the family for a long time.”

“Higurashi-sama is very kind… I’m glad she took me in.” That much he was willing to admit aloud. So far she had been treating him like her own son, and giving him the acceptance he was lacking since his mother died, and that only Kagome and the pack had given him. She had gone so far as to help him work out the engagement to her daughter and did not try to find fault with the fact that his instincts were not easy to control.

“Yeah she is really nice. But we’ve never seen her take any other kids she’s been treating before.” He said assuming Inuyasha was one of her patients.

“Treating?” Inuyasha asked puzzled, so far he was not aware that Higurashi-sama was some kind of healer. And he was not sick at all, a bit confused and overwhelmed by all the new stuff, but certainly not sick, demons did not get sick.

“You’re not a patient?” Dayu was frankly surprised; he would have to ask Yuka what she knew about him and the Higurashis later. Inuyasha shook his head. “Well… whatever, anyway Kagome-chan is my twin’s, Yuka, best friend.”

“So… that’s why you seem so alike.” He made a pause to sort their scents on his mind, and then added. “I don’t like her.”

“Yep, I have to say that most of the time me neither.” He admitted with a sigh, Yuka meant trouble most of the times for him or some of the guys in the gang. His sister was just too bossy for her own good. “She can be a pain in the ass, but sometimes she is not that bad.” He heard his companion snort in disbelief.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Inuyasha grumbled.

He had really disliked that girl, not only bossy but nosy too. The gall of her following them around and tying to pretend they were not. Who did she think she could fool? Even Shippou would have noticed since they were also upwind.

“She gave you trouble?” He asked with a groan, it was not a good start if his sister was already bothering the guy. The gang really needed someone who could fight as good as he did. Besides, even if he was not really talkative so far, he thought they might get to be friends.

“She wouldn’t leave Kagome and me alone,” he sounded really annoyed. “I didn’t want to bother with people yesterday, and she started yelling at me. She followed us more than halfway back to the shrine, thinking we wouldn’t know she was there, it was fucking annoying.” This was accompanied with another groan from Dayu.

“That was Yuka all right, although she is pretty good at stalking people, one of our b…” Inuyasha raised an eyebrow.

“Where I come from she wouldn’t have survived with those skills. She was too noisy; any prey would have heard her and ran away before she was close enough to do something.” His tone was sarcastic; if they considered her good what would they consider him?

“The other girls must have been around. Believe it, Yuka is really good. Anyway she is usually very protective of her friends, you didn’t argue with Kagome in front of her did you?”

“Of course I did.  That baka wench is always arguing with me… it’s not like I start it… most of the time anyway.” He added the last in his defense, and wondered why? It was not like he really cared what this Dayu thought of him.

“Huh uh, wrong thing to do in front of Yuka. Man! She defends Kagome like a watch dog, and she is also quite bossy.”

“That wench doesn’t need defending from someone like her! Kagome can defend herself better than you’d think. Besides, she knows I would do it for her.” That last comment got him a raised eyebrow from Dayu.

‘Hmmm… seems like Inuyasha and Kagome-chan are together, but Yuka has not said anything about that… now… I think I remember she did mention she was going out with a guy that was two timing on her. Could he be the one?’ Dayu looked at Inuyasha from the corner of his eye. ‘Hard to tell and I don’t think he’d take it kindly if I asked about that.’

‘Yeah right! Of course she needs protecting! That baka wench probably did a better job than you. You failed to protect her on Friday!’ That weird little voice in his head reminded the inu hanyou.

‘I didn’t know it was dangerous here!’ Inuyasha argued against the voice that was probably his negative or guilt ridden self. ‘Even Kagome agrees it wasn’t my fault.’ He pushed his guilty thoughts away; it was not the time to dwell on them.

“And anyway it fucking hurts when she hits you…” Inuyasha added as an after thought.

‘What the fuck?! He doesn’t need to know about that! Arg! I sound like a wimp! Grrrr!’ He told himself angrily, he was running looser at the mouth than his normal self and he began to attribute it to the stressful day he already had. ‘It is also my fucking job to protect my mate, no one else’s… well perhaps the other members of the pack, but not a bossy human wench’s!’

“Don’t I know it, and welcome to the club,” Dayu said with a sigh. “There was another kid that played with us, and he ended with a bloody nose once. So you’re damn right she hits hard. Also, when we were kids and I used to annoy Yuka, Kagome-chan always came to the rescue. And the worst thing was that I couldn’t hit back, man it was so frustrating!” Inuyasha chuckled, he understood the feeling well, he still wanted to get back at her when she overdid the ‘sits’, although he would never really do it. “She is also quite stubborn too.”

“You’re telling me!” Well at least someone else agreed with him that she was obstinate. “It’s nice to know I’m not the only one who thinks so. And if a bloody nose was all he got, then he got off lightly.”

“Don’t know how those two manage to get along without fighting. But then, I always thought they were crazy.” Inuyasha snorted at that comment, sometimes he did think Kagome was a bit odd, but perhaps now that they had agreed to talk things over he might understand why she acted the way she did. But he still was not going to let anyone else but himself refer to his mate as crazy.

“Kagome’s not crazy, but that sister of yours is another story. And anyway Kagome could take her any day in a hand to hand fight if she wanted.” Inuyasha chuckled, she would be really surprised that he thought highly of her as a fighter since he never told her… well he might have mentioned something on Friday, but he was sure she did not remember or notice it. He was wrong though, since she had noticed.

“Naw, I don’t think so, you have not seen Yuka fight with the gang. She can be just as though as any of the guys.” Even if he sometimes could not stand his sister, he had to admit she was just as good as any of them. Their father had insisted that they practice Aikido and Jujitsu since they were little. He really should have done better against all those guys, but his training was really for one on one fights. He did not really know how to handle that many at once. He was going to have to talk to his sensei at the dojo about that fight since his skills had never been tested outside the classes.

“I doubt it.” He really sounded skeptical, and against his usual ways he felt like should not put her down before others. “Kagome could break Yuka’s bones before she could do much.  She has gotten much better than she was when we first met. Besides, she is starting lessons soon.”

‘I still don’t know how I’m going to manage to teach her something, but I promised her and I intend to keep this promise.’ He reminded himself, there had not been the time to start lessons, but he was keeping it in mind for when they had some free time.

“Really? That would be interesting… and she didn’t do more to that kid because the sensei came to separate them before she could do more. She’s getting lessons? I always thought she wouldn’t.” Dayu commented and Inuyasha shrugged.

“I’m making damn sure of she does.” He stated firmly, perhaps he would not worry so much for her safety once she was able to defend herself better against youkai. At least until he arrived to protect her.

“Any reason why? Yuka was worried about a bruise the other day… You… you didn’t by any chance hit her, did you?”

Seeing Inuyasha’s expression darken made the kid worry that perhaps he had said too much. For a moment he began fearing that the white haired guy walking beside him was going to give him a worse beating than Jun and his cohorts. If looks could kill he would have probably dropped dead right there. The glare he was given was downright frightening, especially with those golden eyes. But he had to know, Kagome was a dear friend, and even if he was beginning to like Inuyasha, she was his friend first.

“How dare she think that I would never lay a hand on her like that?” He exploded furious, “she doesn’t know me, and it seems she doesn’t know Kagome that well either if she thinks Kagome or her mother would stand for something like that!” He almost trembled, girl or no girl, if Yuka had been present he would not have stopped himself from at least punching her.

‘You wanted to kill her at first.’ That unmerciful voice in his heard stated.

‘That was because I thought she was Kykyou!’

‘Even after you realized she wasn’t, you still wanted to kill her,’ the voice went on.

‘It was before I got to know her, before she… became my first friend. Before I… fell in love with her.’

“It’s because no one knows you that she thought you…” He did not finish as Inuyasha grabbed him by the front of his jersey and picked him up about a foot from the ground.

“I. DID. NOT. HIT. HER! Understood? I’ll die before I do something like that to her… She’s… I… I… I lo…” He was about to say to this guy’s face that he loved her so he stopped short and said instead. “She got into a fight on her way home from the movies and won.”

“Sorry for that,” he said in an appeasing manner. The fact that he almost said he loved his friend did not go unnoticed by the young man, even if he was scared shitless at the moment. “It’s… it’s not like I think you would, but Yuka actually thinks it was you who hit her. And well, she didn’t buy the excuse she gave. I really meant no offense.” Dayu stumbled a little bit from being dropped.

“Yuka can shove it up her ass!” He said trying to cool off and let go of the kid, he really was not to blame if his sister was such a bitch. “Your sister was bitching with her about it yesterday…”

“So you heard her…” Dayu asked not surprised that Inuyasha did not like his sibling, who would if you were accused of hitting your girl. The white haired boy nodded.

“I talked to that Eri girl about helping keep people from pestering her about it. She has enough worries as is, to add another one. So you better not bother…”

“Why would I? She is a really good friend! Besides I told you my sister is nuts.”

“I fucking noticed that! To think that I would ever harm Kagome…” His hand for a moment went to the rosary beads that were hidden under his shirt.

The rosary was her protection, they had kept him from harming her long enough to get to know her. He worried that if he ever turned demon, he might loose all reason and attack her… but he secretly hoped that if she ever became his mate, his youkai side would recognize the bond and spare her. It went against youkai nature to kill one’s mate. Dayu noticed that he fingered something under his shirt, in the dim light he could not tell what it was although he supposed it was some kind of necklace.

‘It’s odd that Kagome got into a fight… she… doesn’t hang around with any of the gangs,’ Dayu started thinking. ‘Some of the other guys from the other gang might have tried to mug her or… could she be the one that escaped the Park Killers? And they are not saying to protect her? It would make sense. That stupid Yuka forgot to tell her not to go through at night. Just in case Kagome is the girl that escaped I better not tell sis or the whole country would find out.’

“You should tell Kagome-chan not to go about the park at night; it has been dangerous and not just because of the gangs.” Inuyasha nodded in agreement, they had already found out the hard way.

“What has been going on?” He asked feigning ignorance, although he was not good at it and the other kid noticed he was trolling for information. Anyway Dayu decided to play along just in case he was right and Kagome was the girl that got away.

“Well, a couple of girls got raped; the guys got beaten until we decided to move in pairs. Although every once in a while the other guys would bother a girl, hope they were not the ones that fought Kagome. They are nasty.”

“Whoever they were, they are dead if they try again.” He stated firmly and Dayu realized that Inuyasha meant it literally. After seeing him fight, the young man had to admit, he just might be able to do it.

“And, well… the park killer started working in our park…” He watched Inuyasha’s reaction and just as he thought he seemed to be aware that Sakura Park had become the ‘hunting grounds’ as they referred to it on the news. “Actually he started working about the same time than the other gang appeared, my theory is that it is one of them.” Now that comment seemed to catch Inuyasha’s interest.

“Does anyone else think the same?”

“Naw, maybe a couple of the older guys, Fujimaro included. But the police would not listen to us,” he got a raised eyebrow. “They don’t think highly of kids opinions. Of course the uniformed cops come and ask if we have seen anything strange, but they really don’t listen, actually I think they have not told Nomura-san what we tell them. Thinking it’s just because of a territorial war.”

“And is it?”

“No, a couple of the girls killed were members of our group,” he added sadly. “We really want to catch this guy.”

“So why were you alone?” The young hanyou was filing all the information he was obtaining through Dayu. His choice in defending him was proving to have been the correct one.

Inuyasha realized that no one at the police had mentioned something remotely like what the kid was telling him and yet it seemed very plausible. The killers had been with those who started the war, they moved unnoticed through the park, so they were known to some degree. Only a youkai, a dark priest or Miko could have pulled disappearing acts like those needed to plant the bodies. And Kagome would have sensed them if they were youkai, so that left dark priests or some kind of sorcerers. He would too for that matter or have smelled youki; these guys were human and mingled among human kids, so they probably didn’t look that old. He decided to keep this to himself until he could find out more. He wondered if Kojiro would be able to do anything useful with that information.

“I was doing an errand for my mom, and well they had never attacked anyone outside the park before.” Inuyasha nodded accepting his answer. “They fucking had to attack when I left my gun at home.”

“Gun?”

“Yeah, since they almost killed Jichiro last year all of us have started using guns. He was shot in the head, and barely survived for a while. He is alive now, but he can’t do anything by himself anymore. It scared the shit out of us; he used to be Fujimaro’s second, and was really against using drugs, his brother had died because of them.”

“I see…” those smelly and noisy things. He was probably going to learn more about them than he really wanted. “Why guns?”

“We were also angry, we knew who they were and the police didn’t arrest them. They use guns; a knife is no use against a .38 or a .22 rifle.”

“No shit, why didn’t the police arrest them?” Inuyasha had started to gain some understanding of how the police system worked and found this strange. He wondered what the numbers meant, but figured Kagome could tell him later. He did not want to sound dumb.

“We don’t know, and I really can’t ask my dad, he is a police man. He’d probably kill me if he knew I have a gun… actually Yuka too since she also owns one.” Inuyasha just nodded and wondered if he had already met the man, but decided it was unlikely since there were so many police officers there. Still this kid family name was Ando, and he had met an Ando on Monday. “But well, things work that way. I bet their gang has someone in the police working for them.”

“I wouldn’t know, but I doubt it. Why didn’t you tell him what happened before you got the gun?”

“Yeah right, he’ll forbid me to go out. Besides if I told, I could have gotten the rest of the guys in trouble. We really don’t want to fight, we just have to.” Inuyasha shrugged at the comment, he really did not understand much about gangs and the loyalty among members. He had always been just himself and was just beginning to learn about companionship and friendship from his pack. “Why would you know if they had someone? Not even our best guys have found out how it is they manage to escape every raid.” He was starting to wonder if this guy had contacts with the police, but then, the Higurashis would not be providing for an undercover agent since they wanted that kind of thing kept well away from them.

“They could always trick them into setting up the raid and then moving their stuff when they know it is going to be coming. It’s an elementary tactic to get the enemy to do what you want them to instead of what they want, and it isn’t that hard to do.” Inuyasha offered an opinion; although he usually acted impulsive, he had learned a bit about tactics and strategy when he was a pup. He had also watched from the sidelines more than a few battles to gain more understanding of some of the principles involved in designing the campaigns.

“Hmmm, sounds interesting… Fujimaro might like to know about things like that.”

“Has he not studied tactics and the art of war?” Inuyasha inquired surprised, even he had learned a bit about that. He really did not think much of that guy’s leadership if he did not even understand the basics. His conscience nagged him a bit and he had to accept that he did not use them much back home, but still, he did know about it.

“Where would he? Actually, where did you? That is something they teach to the military and sometimes the high ranking police officers.” His dad had taken several courses throughout his career to be able to learn how to plan a good raid. Although his partner Goroko-chan always said he was a natural.

“I did war games as a child… I picked up more later.” Inuyasha told him with a shrug, for him it was the most normal thing. “It isn’t that hard, besides, if he is going to make any progress he needs to learn quickly, you are on the defensive and you need to regain your advantages back.”

Male children from daimyo families in the past were taught about war almost since they were born. He might have been considered a worthless hanyou, but his father was a great Taiyoukai and his mother the daughter of a powerful daimyo, and his grandfather had demanded that he be taught. The old man had even played with him before he died.

Inuyasha was surprised at that memory, he really never thought about his early childhood, when the old man was alive things had not been so bad for him. He never tolerated that others referred to him as a worthless hanyou or an abomination, but then he was really too young to understand. He did not want to remember the few happy times, because he tended to brood about what his life would have been if the old man had not died. In the end those memories were buried deep in his mind and he forgot.

“War games? Where? We usually played to be cops and robbers.” Dayu asked really curious, Inuyasha was silent for such a long time that he thought he would not answer. He leaned against the wall of a building since they had stopped walking the moment the white haired young man had grabbed his jersey and not resumed it.

“At my grandfather’s knee.” Inuyasha finally said, not really looking at the other kid.

“Was he some sort of military guy?” Dayu was still curious; Inuyasha’s answer did not really explain why he learned tactics. “Anyway, do you think you could teach some of it to Fujimaro and a few of the guys?”

“He was in a sense,” he responded looking away, seemingly distracted at the sound of truck. Dayu did get the hint that talking about the theme was probably not a good memory. “I might.” Was his response about teaching the other guy.

‘Never taught anything to anybody and now in less than five days I’ve been asked twice.’ He smirked at the irony of it and the huge changes in his life.

“It must have been interesting, to learn that. Last Friday we won, but things are starting to get really bad, two of our guys died…” He voice not only sounded worried, but also full of regret.

“How many of your friends were there?” Inuyasha asked curious and also to start analyzing the situation. “Two were killed and how many injured?”

“There were 27, nine of them were girls. Three of the girls were injured; one, Kumiko, is still in the hospital. Two of the guys are wounded too, Anzai is still in critical condition and… well they don’t really think he’ll make it with that head wound.”

“All in all, it’s not that bad of a toll. Five wounded, two dead, against four of them and… any idea how many wounded on their side?” The young hanyou asked ‘matter of factly’ as he analyzed the toll.

“You don’t have to sound so callous, all of them are friends!” Dayu said sounding a bit outraged at his tone.

“I’m not being callous. I’m just seeing this as an outsider. You could at least have avoided the girls’ wounds. None of you were paying attention to the five people smoking that damn drug under the tree. Damn stupid way to go about it, if you tell me.” Continuing to analyze against what he had seen, he believed at least one of the five was specifically aiming for the girls. That one, might have been targeting them to take out his frustration at having lost his victim of choice.

“We were! Sanzo was killed while keeping watch over them, as soon as they got ready to move the mother fuckers just shot him in the head point blank!” His voice denoted great pain and anger. Inuyasha realized the kid might have been a good friend, so against his usual wont, he toned down his next words.

“I’m sorry… but no one would have died if more of you were paying attention to the enemies within your midst.”

“So you’re saying it’s our fault?” Now the anger was directed at the inu hanyou.

‘How can he blame us? He wasn’t even there! Or was he?’ Dayu thought angry and getting suspicious, the only ones there had been the members of both gangs; if he wasn’t with his friends then he was with the others.

“How they hell do you know all of that?” He asked through narrowed eyes, a part of him knew Higurashi-san would not take into her home someone who was using drugs or was a member of a violent gang, but the guy beside him could have fooled her.

“I was there, you just didn’t see me,” was his response. He knew what direction Dayu’s thoughts were going. His would have been going the same way.

“You were? Where? I did a round and called Sanzo to keep an eye on them. I never saw you around.”

‘So… he feels responsible for the other kid’s death. Well nothing can be changed about that.’

“The guys were dancing, playing games and skateboarding.  The girls were gossiping and having fun. This Sanzo guy was watching the girls dancing and gossiping with a friend of his. If he had paying attention to them he would be alive and you would never have had to deal with feeling guilty for his death.”

“You still have not told me where you were. As the only other people there were the guys from Takeshi’s group.”

“Wrong, they were not the only ones. None of you looked up; you only looked within your normal visual plane.  I wasn’t on the ground.” He corrected the kid, he really did not think much of the way they organized themselves.

“So it was you on the tree?” The young man was clearly surprised. “I thought I saw something red there, but when I looked again there was nothing. You’re with them,” he accused full of hatred, and moved slightly away, looking weary, even if Inuyasha had saved him those kinds of tricks had been done before.

“No, I’m not. I was tracking the ones Kagome got into a fight with.  The trail led to a small group of five that sat under a tree smoking that drug and getting high off of it. There’s where I lost it.”

“Well… they do get in fights with the girls e… wait a sec, what does a drug have to do with letting you track?” That sounded so strange, how did he learn to track and why?

“The damn drug covered it over and made me sneeze.” He responded truthfully, somehow it did not occur to him that tracking by scent would sound strange to the other boy.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“I track by scent as well as sight and sound, and just discovered Friday that I’m allergic to the fucking drug.” That last part was admitted ruefully.

Inuyasha still could not believe that his demon blood had defects, but he was discovering in this time that youkai were not perfect. Dayu was torn between gaping and laughing, the allergy was funny and he was the first he ever heard of someone being allergic to dope. But he did not really believe the part of him tracking by scent.

“Oh come on what do you think I am, stupid? Only animals track by scent, we humans have bad noses. Or at least that’s what my dad says.”

“I track better than a dog can.  I’ve proved it to those guys at the university Monday.” He bragged, and since he really had proof that the humans of the time could understand he sounded even cockier than his usual self.

“Oh come on you’re teasing me!  Dad works with k9 in narcotics and well no one beats those dogs. Rurouni has proved that several times.” Dayu stated and saw Inuyasha shrug indifferently.

“I beat Rurouni and all his pack on Monday.” Inuyasha said to himself almost too low for the other kid to hear, but he did and raised his eyebrow puzzled. It was his problem if he did not believe him, then he changed the subject back to the war. He needed to find more information about the gang the killers seemed to be part of, besides he really did not like talking about himself. “Look, Friday I had a clue something was up more than ten minutes before they opened fire.”

“How could you? None of us did, and we have been around those guys for a long time. In fact none of us really believed it would escalate to an all out war. Weapons were more of a precaution and a way to keep things from going too far. They backed up whenever they saw us armed well enough to match them. I just don’t know why they finally attacked.” This last was said more to himself than to the white haired young man.

“I was up the three they were sitting by. I arrived there before them and since I didn’t feel like being seen, I went up. I heard two of them talking about attacking.  The fucking war startled me and I had to leave shortly after that so that Kagome could patch me up. I heard them talking about bringing more guys in with more guns. It was cryptic, but it was clear that they were being aggressive.”

“You got hurt?” Now he sounded worried, and with some disbelief as Inuyasha seemed healthy enough.

“Hai, only a scratch though. But I couldn’t stay longer, besides the damn drug gives me a headache from hell.” He said disgruntled, he could have probably caught the killers if the fucking stuff had not cloyed his nostrils.

“Anyway I still can’t believe that you track, it’s not something you hear about often.”

“It’s what I do.” Inuyasha said very matter of factly.

“That’s what you do?” He had a very puzzled look on his face

‘Does he mean that is what he does for a living? He can’t be that much older than me… 18 at the most although I doubt it.’

“Hai, I track,” Inuyasha responded simply, like it was some every day occurrence.

“Are you some sort of hunter?” He was still intrigued, hunting in his day an age was mostly done as a sport. It was usually expensive and did require the use of guns, which Inuyasha had already told him he disliked.

“You could say that.” He admitted without offering any more information. He had hunted for food back home and he also hunted for Naraku and the assortment of demons that ended possessing a piece of the Shikon no Tama. So his answer was true.

“How come you were able to hunt? There is nothing in Tokyo for that, nothing to hunt in a city.”

“I’m not from around here.”

“If you’re not from around Tokyo then, how did you meet the Higurashis?”

“Kagome got lost while on the woods,” he said with a sigh. He realized he would probably have to offer more information about himself than he had already done. He really did not like the idea much, but there was nothing he could really exchange in return for what he wanted to find out about the gangs. “I found her or vice versa… I wasn’t in very good shape at the time and she was in more trouble, than just being lost. So she helped me and I helped her. In the end she brought me here, I just arrived Friday and I’m still getting used to this place.”

“You had never been to a city before?”

“Not that I recall… I remember I was born in Kyushu*, though.”

“Wow! Where did you live then?” Dayu asked curiously.

“In a forest,” Inuyasha said. The other kid raised an eyebrow and scratched his head looking puzzled.

“You mean in a town near the…”

“No, I mean in the woods.” Inuyasha interrupted

“No town?” Dayu was incredulous; he really could not believe that.

“What part of forest don’t you understand?” He started to sound bit annoyed.

“No electricity?” He really sounded in a bit of a shock, as he could not picture a life without the modern conveniences. He was a city guy having nothing to do with nature; except for cutting the grass of his home’s garden. He had never even gone camping.

“No.” Inuyasha responded shaking his head at the odd expression on Dayu’s face, he could not really pinpoint what it meant. “No running water either before you even think of asking about it.”

“NO VIDEO GAMES!” He exclaimed and this time the young inu hanyou realized his expression was a mixture of disbelief and horror.

‘What can be that terrible about not having video games? Sota was equally shocked about that.’  Inuyasha scratched his head puzzled.

“Actually I’ve been wondering what the heck those are.” He said allowing his tone to sound puzzled and had to hide a smile as Dayu almost keeled over in shock.

The Ando boy could not picture a life where video games did not exist, as there had been one sort of games or another since he was born, and his father still owned an Atari from the time before he was born! And with no electricity or running water, Inuyasha sounded like some sort of hermit. No wonder he was so good at fighting, there was probably nothing better to do than practice all day. He had to admit though that for a guy with no contact with modern things he had learned to use a skateboard faster than many who had seen them around all their lives.

“My god, poor you! No wonder you’re so good at fighting, you were missing the greatest things in life!” Inuyasha looked skeptical at that, those video game thingies could not be all that good. For him, a nice dawn or sunset from his favorite branch on the Go-Shimboku or running as fast as he could through his forest just for the joy of it, where among the greatest things in life. “But we can solve that,” Dayu went on saying, “drop by my place anytime and I’ll show you.”

“Sure, Sota wants to teach me too; anyway I think I better walk with you to your house. Those guys might come back.”

“Thanks, eight were a tad too many for my tastes,” he said as they started walking again. “Now… Sota has a play station… I’ll call and see what stuff he has; kiddy things are no fun… I’ll lend you some of mine. Let’s see… resident evil is a cool one, lots of freaks and monsters to kill…”

“I’ve met enough monsters in real life, not sure what to think of them in a game.”

“There are no real life monsters. They are only tales to scare us as children and get us to behave.” Dayu states and Inuyasha just grinned, he would really be surprised if he found out that he was an inu hanyou and a couple elderly people walking in front of them were actually hawk youkai. Not to mention a weasel hanyou on the other side of the street. The hawks were somewhat amused by the comment, but they did not say anything.

“I don’t know, being nearly eaten by a bear isn’t pleasant and I know a lot of people consider wild boars to be pretty nasty. They are interesting to hunt, and they are really dangerous opponents.”

“But those are wild beasts, they are not really evil. But… you were almost eaten?” Dayu ogled while Inuyasha snickered wickedly.

“True, a couple times, when I was a p… child.”

“Man that must have been scary.”

“Aa it was. I’ve been in the wilderness since I was five; it was bound to happen sooner or later.” He said as some memories from his childhood when he was still too small to defend himself from humans and wild beasts popped into his mind. So he added, “There are also evil people. Some of them are real monsters.”

“Gods I can’t believe that. You were there alone? Since you were five?”

“Aa, it can be pretty nice sometimes, more peaceful than a city, I…” he stopped himself as he was about to say that he actually missed being back home, even if there were some things he liked about Kagome’s time, the forest had been his home for a long time.

“Sota is not a bad player, but with Higurashi-san there I think he doesn’t have anything interesting.” Dayu changed the subject when he realized Inuyasha was not going to finish what he was about to say. He was really puzzled about the other boy, his story just seemed so weird.

“You would be surprised by her open mindedness.” Inuyasha snickered and grinned quite wickedly thinking about what happened with Kagome.

“I didn’t mean that, she just doesn’t like violence much.” Dayu said remembering what had happened to her husband and how that had affected the family.

“Well… she likes me, or she would not have taken me into her home.”

“Yeah… if I’m to believe Yuka then you’re violent among other things. And I have to agree that some humans are monsters, Spiky’s gang leader is a monster all right,” Dayu said.

“I’m not evil or cruel, like that spiky kid, and being violent has kept me alive.” He stated and decided not to tell Dayu all the different types of monsters he had encountered in his life, some of them quite human.

“I can believe you’re not cruel or evil dude, someone else would have killed those guys today.” He agreed, and the young hanyou just shrugged again. He really did not like killing humans unless it was absolutely necessary.

“No point in killing them.  I just had to teach them a small lesson about picking their targets, although killing them would have been easier.” He stated nonchalantly since that was really the case.

“It would?” To the Ando boy it seemed he had ogled more than he had in his life during his conversation with Inuyasha.

“It’s easier to rip out a throat than it is to knock some one out.  If I’m not careful I could kill them on accident and that was not really my aim. It would have been bad.” Dayu shuddered, the guy talked about killing like he had experience at doing it.

‘Of course if he hunted for food, he’s probably used to killing animals.’ The young man thought.

“Of course it would, killing is bad…” Dayu began.

“Killing isn’t bad, the predator kills its prey, and it is a fact of life for the most part. Sometimes it’s either you or them.” Inuyasha explained as if it were self-evident.

“In the woods maybe, but here in the city it is bad. And yes I get some of your meaning none of us like the idea of killing, but it is either that or be sent six feet under.”

“I don’t think your situation reached that point yet, but if you don’t start planning and organizing it’ll be.” Dayu did not like the subject and decided to change to something less violent.

“Anyway, if you want I’ll show you around and also all the stuff there is to do in a city. Been to the movies yet?”

“No,” Inuyasha replied, glad he finally knew what the heck movies were.

“Great! There are a few good ones showing, you might want to ask for permission and we could go on Saturday after school.”

“Kagome and her Ofukuro are teaching me more about living in a city.  And I don’t need permission.  Higurashi-sama isn’t like that.”

“Wow, what I would do to trade my parents for her! I have to ask for permission. They usually grant it unless Yuka is being annoying.”

“Well, she knows I can take care of myself and Kagome too. But I think Saturday might be spoken for already though, Kagome has to make up her mind.” Inuyasha seriously considered taking him up on it since he was quite informative, but Shippou came first. As pack leader he had to be responsible for the pup.

“About?” Dayu figured it was a date or something like that.

“Whether or not to pick up a friend.” He responded cryptically, Dayu had stopped in front of a two-storied house with a nice garden in the front. He guessed that was his home, the scent from his sister was present.

“Ah ok, well she has my phone so you can tell me if you can make it. This is my place want to come in for a soda or something?” Dayu wanted to extend the conversation and get to know this guy better.

“Ah… no thanks, I think I better go back to the shrine.” Inuyasha said not really wanted to deal with as many people as there were scents for in the house.

“Really, come in, we’ll play something on the play station.” Dayu pressed a little. The guy was really interesting to talk to even if he did get the impression he did not talk much. His dialect was a little strange too.

“Dayu? Is that you? Mama is not going to like that it took you so long to do her errands.” Yuka’s voice was heard from the second floor window. The young man saw his white haired companion flinch, and look inquiringly at him. Then he remembered, Inuyasha might not want to deal with Yuka since she believed he was capable of harming Kagome.

“Yeah that’s Yuka. You know how to get back?”

“Yeah, I just have to follow my own scent back.” He said his ears flattened because of Yuka’s yelling.

“If you say so, anyway, I won’t be going to the park tomorrow, but maybe on Friday, so why don’t you drop by so I can introduce you to the guys? The way things are I don’t think they are going to let you close unless someone introduces you.”

“Ok, I’ll see you then or… have Kagome call you.” He added the last not really used to the new ways of communication people of the future had.

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