The Ages and Between

by Kuronohime

*

Inuyasha unceremoniously wiped away a trace of grease from his chin before continuing to devour a bowl of pork teriyaki. Kagome watched the unappetizing display before her and reached for a napkin from the pocket of her school uniform.

“Here, use this, you slob.”

The hanyoo disregarded the offered item with an uninterested glare. Shippo sat next to Kagome and happily accepted the piece of paper to clean his mouth with.

‘Well, at least some demons do have manners.’ Kagome thought as she surrendered a read and blue paper cloth to the small kitsune.

The whole Inutachi had retreated from their, yet again, latest Shikon hunt. The jewel was half way completed and Kagome found it only just that she go back to her own time to enjoy a well-deserved, long, soaking bath with the company of Ayumi Hamasaki. In fact, she had already packed, but agreed to stay for the meal.

When they were finally fed, Kagome bid her companions farewell and headed for the well with Inuyasha. He had insisted on accompanying her for the sake of her security. As of late, there had been an increasing number of spider demon activity near the well. Surely a human weakling such as Kagome, could possibly not defend herself against such foul beasts. Even though the demons in question were barely the size of a thumbnail and possessed very little threat to anyone who wasn’t a flea demon. But Inuyasha had chosen to leave that bit out.

Still, Kagome knew the real reason why Inuyasha just had to see her off every time. He missed her. Even if he wasn’t man enough to admit it. Sango had disclosed the fact that often times he would either perch in a tree near the well or just stare at the pits in anticipation of her return. Of course, he had tried to do so in secrecy, but it was a demanding task to try and hide things form an extremely well-trained demon hunter - who had a nosy little kitsune accomplish. Even though Naraku would more likely be riding on unicorns on a rainbow bridge before Inuyasha admitting to such conduct. Kagome was happy, nevertheless.

It wasn’t always a picnic leaving behind her friends and family only to return to the warring ages where demons roamed the land and people still died from such simple things as flues. But knowing that at the end of the well, midst the horrors, there was someone always anxiously waiting for her, made it much more reassuring to return.

Inuyasha and Kagome halted at the well. They stood in silence for a while. Lacking the courage to do or say anything more, Kagome turned to look at Inuyasha and said: “Well, I better be going now.”

The half demon laid his boyish, pale, golden eyes on her and stayed quiet even though his eyes spoke out his unvoiced feelings of hurt that she was leaving. Leaving him, again. Then it seemed like he was mustering up his courage to say something. But his nerves failed him and he turned his gaze away.

“Be back soon, ok? I don wanna come down and drag yer ass back by force.”

Kagome sighed and smiled. “Aye, aye, boss.”

‘I will miss you, too.’

She gave him a carefree wave as she leapt into the pits of the well.

---

Back at her own room, she gave her desk full of homework a pleading look. She quite didn’t know which was worse. The definite possibility of being eaten alive by a 15-feet serpent demon in the Feudal era or Algebra in the modern era. She tossed her backpack on the bed and left to downstairs.

“Hey, grandpa!” Kagome greeted the elderly man who was immersed in a newspaper in the kitchen. “What’s my illness of the week?”

Her grandfather was roused by her voice and put aside his paper. “Oh, hello, Kagome. Yes, if your friends are inquiring, you’re suffering from arthritis.”

Kagome grabbed an apple form the kitchen counter and grimaced. ‘C’mon grandpa! I’m only 15!’

When she had compiled enough food, she return to her room with her loot and slumped unwillingly to her seat. She reached for her math book. Ayumi Hamasaki would have to wait.

---

It was a new day and Kagome was full of renewed energy. She had managed to finish a wekk worth of schoolwork and couldn’t wait to get back to the Inutachi. Yup, she would definitely on any given day rather take on the demons than the Algebra. She approached the shrine with a backpack full of food and other supplies. She fixed the bag on her back and peered into the well. Hopefully Inuyasha was already there, waiting for her. She had brought him a special treat this time. The girl smiled and leapt through time.

---

For a moment, Kagome was blinded by the light that burst into her vision as she exited the time vortex. From the bottom of the well, she looked up at the cloudless morning sky. She climbed up the slippery rocks and heaved herself over the ledge of the well. To her dismay, Inuyasha was not there. But she didn’t dwell on it for long. The air felt crispier than in ages. The sun was warm and bright. She breathed in deeply and headed to Kaede’s village.

As she entered Inuyasha’s forest, she marvelled everything around her. She never did pay enough attention to her surroundings. Everything looked so new, fresh and interesting. Had that sapling always been there? Or that trail of yellow flowers? How about that little pond over there? Kagome frowned. She seriously should stop walking around blindfolded from now on.

When she reached the edge of the forest she expected to be greeted by the villagers who should be cultivating their fields at this time of the day. There usually were women carrying water and children playing in the field. But the sight that unfolded before her instead was horrifying. There was nothing. A patch of grass and more woods, but besides that, nothing.

Surely she couldn’t have gotten lost? She had walked that same route hundreds of times. It was not simply possible that she was lost. Kagome turned back to the direction of the forest and was about to return to the well when she sensed a presence near her. She caught movement in the corner of her eye and jumped. “Who’s there!” She demanded. But there was only yellow flowers swaying in the breeze. Had she imagined it? All kept quiet.

Her features relaxed and she straightened up from her slight shrivel. She still glared at the silent edge of the woods suspiciously, but decided to head back. When she turned her head, she almost bumped into a tall man with silver hair who stood right before her. Familiarly golden eyes studied her calmly. “How did you see me, human?”

His question softly faded into the wind as Kagome desperately tried to calm her racing heart down. She had almost tripled backwards by the surprise. After the initial shock, she wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be afraid or glad to see a familiar face. Even though the person wouldn’t have been her first pick.

“Sesshoumaru,” she gasped, “what is going on in here?”

The man frowned. Kagome missed his subtle gesture and twirled around to study her surroundings further. There was definitely something off with the scenery. And what were all those strange birds on the trees? She had never seen such avian creatures before.

As the girl marvelled the skies, the dog demon behind her was grinding his teeth. He found her behaviour atrociously insulting. A human had the impudence of turning her back at him! His eyes flashed with the crimson that usually foreshadowed an act of violence.

“I am not this Sesshoumaru you speak of.” A deep voice grumbled.

Kagome pried her attention away from the landscape and turned to face him. His claws twitched. The girl was about to protest at his ridiculous statement, but then she gave his features a closer look. She took a step closer and stared at his face. There wasn’t a crescent moon symbol on his forehead. In fact, there was no symbol at all.

Otherwise his looks were agreeable enough and with a quick glance he really did look a lot like the killing perfection, Sesshoumaru. The man had similar long, silver hair and forelocks that framed his chiselled features. He was about as tall as Sesshoumaru, but his golden eyes reminded Kagome of someone else.

“Oh, you’re right” she smiled apologetically.

The demons nostrils flared. Had she any tact at all! To gawk at him at such a close proximity and brush off her mistake so casually.

“I’ve rarely seen your kind. I thought that not that many of you existed anymore. Are you a relative of Sesshoumaru’s?”

In addition to her indiscretion and impudence, she had no decency to show any sign of concern over her well-being at his presence. He could rip her throat open just as easily as taking a breath. What was this creature?

“In which sort of delusion you assume you can address me so informally!”

“Well, excuse me.” Kagome breathed in. She didn’t have any patience for that kind of rotten attitude right now. She had to find out what was going on and something told her that this pompous oaf would not be of any help in that matter. “Hajimemashite yoroshiku. I am Higurashi Kagome. And I am taking my leave as of this instance. Goodbye, mr. Stuck-up-on-formal-introductions.”

Why were all dog demons so rude? She had no time to waste arguing with him. With that decided, she began trudging away. As elegantly as one could in a miniskirt and a backpack the half of her bodyweight which constantly made her gravitate towards the ground.

The baffled demon, which was left standing in her dust, scarcely remembered when his pride had suffered such an insult. He could only ogle after the peculiar human girl as she descended the way to the field below them. Why hadn’t she been scared of him like all other humans? Who was the dog demon she spoke of? Did she have some kind of relations to his pack? And why did she dress like a harlot?

He followed her.

---

Kagome was making her way to Kaede’s village. Or where she estimated it should have been. It was hard to tell since everywhere she looked, there was just more forest, more trees, trees, trees. She could hardly see the forest for the trees.

Once in a while she peered over her shoulder. That self-appointed expert on manners was following her. Not even trying to shadow her, but just bluntly walked after her in plain sight. She was as amused as she was irritated. Dog demons were curious to a fault.

After an hour of trekking which included her falling flat on her behind, getting tangled on tree roots, getting a nasty rash on her right leg and suffering from numerous insect bites, there were no signs of civilisation what so ever. She came to an abrupt halt. Her back was aching from the weight of her pack of which’s straps had buried themselves to her shoulders. She was cold from sweating in the wintery weather. This was pointless. She could just as well walk to the end of the world and find nothing. As long as that stupid dog was stalking her, she might as well make him be of some use to her.

“Hey, excuse me!” She called him.

The dog demon that had stopped some distance behind roused his attention at her.

“Umm, do you know if there’s a village somewhere around here?”

The demon merely scoffed and curtly ignored her.

‘Oh, definitely a relative.’

Kagome placed her hands over her hips and took a deep breath. “Aaaree theerree aanyyy peeoopleee aaanyywheeereee neeaaar?” She exaggeratingly articulated. Maybe that would get through his thick skull.

The demon’s ears twitched, but besides that, he didn’t react.

“PEEEEEOOOOOOOOOPLEEEEEEEEEE?” Kagome raised her voice.

In a swift motion the man pressed his hands over his ears and hissed at her. “Silence that insufferable noise, human!”

“Fine. Just answer a simple question. Is there?”

“What?”

“Is there a village anywhere near here?”

The demon lowered his hands and carefully sniffed the air.

“There are no humans in the proximity of 40 ri.” He concluded.

“Ri?” Kagome mused aloud. “How much is that in kilometers?”

“That is a foreign unit of length to me.” The demon replied somewhat irritated. Why was he obliging this woman with answers? This was getting bothersome.

“Okay… How long it would take me to walk to the nearest village?”

The dog demon’s lip tightened. “I would estimate that it is a three days walk there. By a human.” Before Kagome could ask anything else the demon raised his hand “I am not obligated to advice you any further. You are getting quite tiresome with your queries.”

The human woman made a peculiar gesture of rolling her eyes which went by him. She sighed and shaded her eyes while looking at the sky. There was about few hours of sunlight left. Enough time for her to return to the well… If only she had any idea in which direction it was.

“Damn” she murmured under her breath. She had never been that good of a navigator, but at this completely unfamiliar environment it was impossible even with a compass. Presuming she had had one. If she got lost she could bump into much more unpleasant demons than her current company. She glanced at the solemn silverhead.

“Umm, Mr. Dog Demon--“ she began, but the demon cut her short, loudly remarking: “Human, I do not answer to such title. This person has a name. ”

Kagome crossed her arms and waited for the demon to continue.

Briefly he pondered would it be worth the trouble to allow her to know his name if he’d simply end up eating her. What a waste of courtesy. But let it not be said that the dog demon clan was without class.

“Toga.” He rumbled.

The girl nodded. “Okay, Mr. Toga…” She paused for a while. If he was proving to be anything like the other stubborn dogs she knew, it would be a job to convince him to help her.

“I have a proposition.”

There was an oddly familiar smirk of arrogance on his face when he replied “Demons of class do not negotiate with lowly humans.”

“But you don’t strike me as stupid.” Kagome smiled back at him. It was always a safe bet to appeal to the pride of demons. “Man of your intellect would surely appreciate a good bargain.”

Toga’s left eyebrow lifted ever so slightly to indicate that he was listening.

“I need you to guide me back to where I came from.”

She knew he was about to object. “Ah, your troubles won’t go unrewarded!” She exclaimed.

Kagome swung her pack on the ground and began to dig for something. A while later her hand came in contact with coarse paper. She pulled out a brown paper bag.

Intriguing odour offended Toga’s sense of smell. Much the like woman, the scent was nothing he had encountered before.

The girl pulled out a brown lump of… presumably foodstuff from the paper wrapping. Toga took a few unconscious steps closer to her and that fascinating lump. At that moment Kagome was grateful for the dog chocolate she had brought along for Inuyasha. The silverhead was visibly interested.

Kagome handed out the piece of chocolate for Toga. “Here, try it.”

Toga eyed the lump suspiciously and Kagome shook her head. “Seriously, why would I try to poison you when I need your help?”

She did have a point there. Toga quickly snatched the lump, trying to make as little as possible contact with her filthy skin. He carefully sniffed the brown, sweet lump. His salivary glands immediately set off. It smelled delightful and he had to swallow down the impatient pool of liquid in his mouth. He took a last, careful glance at the girl before tossing the lump in his mouth.

Kagome could actually see his pupils grow wide. She knew she had him.

After Toga got over his first ever sugar rush, he wanted more at once.

“No!” Kagome scolded when the demon had tried to reach for her goody bag. “Only after when you get me back to where I came from.”

He snorted. “Why do you assume I’ll let you live that long.”

“Because…” Kagome began and focused all her priestess energy around her. Deep fuchsia pulsed from within her and Toga was knocked back by a hot throb of energy. “… you wouldn’t stand a chance against me.”

---

Toga was murmuring under his breath as the odd pair made their way back to the well. Why in the name of gods he had to take a stroll on that day. Or rather, why did she had to be wondering on his lands. Oh, god, why did he have to stick his nose into this one. He could have just left and leave her be, but goddamn that sho-co-lat was the best thing he had ever tasted.

As they made their way through the forests and meadows, once in a while he delicately sniffed the air to confirm their route. The only thing they had to go on was the trail of her scent. Toga inhaled deeper and languorously mused her scent. It was sweet, a mixture of foreign flowers and cherries. It wasn’t at all unpleasant considering how bad humans usually reeked.

“Human,” he suddenly remarked and made Kagome almost lose her balance on the hill they were climbing.

“What is this peculiar fragrance of yours? It’s unlike the usual reek of a human.”

Her big brown eyes widened momentarily. Was he actually paying her some kind of backhanded compliment?

“It’s probably L'Oréal.” She replied and heaved herself up the rest of the steeper part of the hill.

Toga was already standing at the top and watching her struggles. He gave her a confused look and Kagome explained that is was a chemical substance to wash her hair with. The demon man scratched his chin and pondered aloud. “So, you are of a wealthy heritage as you have the means to purchase costly perfumed bathing oils. What confuses me is why you dress like a trollop.”

“A trollop?” Kagome panted while trying to correct the position of her pack.

“That would be a common woman.” Toga answered politely.

“Com--?” She was about to ask, but realized his meaning in the middle of her own sentence. She let out a frustrated shout. He had the nerve to call her a whore.

“SIT!!”

A screaming flock of scared birds made their escape from the abrupt noise, but other than that, the forest was uncomfortably silent. Had she seriously just tried to sit a full-fledged dog demon?

Toga was giving her a slow stare which spoke of his suspicion that he had given too much credit to her intelligence. The young woman was blushing fiercely and trying to explain something about a reflex around dog demons.

After a while of awkward hiking they stopped and stood in a small clearing in the middle of the forest. The embarrassed woman tried to get over her previous blunder and observed the milieu. They had to be close to the well by now.

“Umm, why did we stop? I think we’re not far.”

Toga was lazily scanning the bushes and he replied without turning to look at her. “Your trail ends here” he said and pointed at a bald spot on the ground.

Kagome blinked in dull disbelief. It wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be possible that her trace ended here, because there was nothing here. “You’re mistaken” she laughed nervously.

He gave her an annoyed glare. “The trail ends here. If you are not in trust of my words, be welcome to sniff your own way back to where you came from.” He took a deep breath. “I kept my word. I brought you as far as I could. Now, hand me those sho-co-lats.”

Kagome wasn’t listening. She was merely staring at that bald spot of no return.

Toga and his unwitting human companion were walking around the ancient woodland. Or rather, Toga was keeping a track on the strange human woman who seemed to be wondering aimlessly at that point. She appeared to be in some state of shock, Toga mused.

“It has to be here”, she muttered once in a while to herself.

There might as well have been a gaping crater on the ground; the demon doubted she would have even seen it there. It was pointless of her to search for a well in that condition. He shook his head lightly. This charade had gone on long enough. He was getting hungry and bored and the girl would not satisfy either of those needs. Toga gave a last glance at that peculiar creature and headed back to his pack. What nonsense.

Kagome was still trudging along without direction. She hardly even realized that Toga had left her. Neither did she notice when her feet came to a halt. Her backpack glided off her shoulder and she slumped down next to it. For the life of her, she couldn’t figure out what had happened that day. There had been absolutely nothing out of the ordinary when she had woken up that morning. No, everything had been perfectly fine. She even had managed to get a good night’s sleep. Nothing unusual during her morning routines. Everything had gone just accordingly until she had climbed out the well. She had sensed it then. She had arrived at the wrong place. Or perhaps at the wrong time. She didn’t know.

Kagome sat still for some time until she decided that she would get nowhere if she didn’t keep moving. There had to be something, someone, who knew what was happening. This wasn't the first time the well had acted up. There had to be something behind it. She would find out the cause and fix the problem. It's that simple. She dusted her skirt and picked up her bag.

‘I should head… that way’, she decided.

When she turned, once again, Toga was standing right in front of her. He had appeared almost from thin air.

“What the…!” She yelled and tried not to fall over. She balanced herself against a tree trunk. “Would you mind not doing that every time!” Kagome said slightly startled. Toga didn’t pay any attention to her. “Phew,” she sighed and looked at him suspiciously, “Where were you?”

“Duck.” Toga grumbled.

“Huh?” Kagome frowned at him. But before she could turn to face the direction Toga was looking at, he knocked her down.

“Uff!”

Kagome’s face was greeted by a damp hummock and she furiously spat moss out of her mouth. She was prepared to give that man damnation when she’d get up. Before she could move, a bright flash arched over her body.

“Kurotsume!”

Powerful blast of black light shot out of a katana that had appeared in Toga’s hand.

Kagome could barely make out what was happening, being blinded by the forceful discharge of light. Toga ran off to the direction of the light and she heard the screech of metal clashing with metal. Someone was grunting and moaning until another wave of light made everything quiet down.

Kagome crawled up and rubbed her eyes. Further away, on the bed of hummock laid limbers and lumps of flesh. What she was able to make out of the remains there had been a small pack of demons lurking in the forest. Toga had been just in time to save her. Kagome cursed herself for being so caught up in her own worries that she had forgot to secure the area.

Toga was hunching over the bodies and tore a piece of cloth from one of the corpses. He straightened up and cleaned off the dark streaks of blood that tainted his blade. Kagome met with his gaze and watched how the urge of adrenalin was dissipating from his eyes.

“Thank--“ she began until her eyes veered to the katana in Toga’s hand. She gaped at it with stupefying disbelief. There was no way she could forget something like it. That ominous jewel in the handle. The narrow blade in its slumbering form. The sight of Inuyasha being absorbed by that very weapon and turning to its slave.

‘So’unga.’ Her mind whispered the name carefully like it was a curse word.

She had thought it impossible that anyone could wield that blade. No one else, but…

Kagome’s eyes very slowly, almost too afraid to, turned back to Toga’s. The red glow had completely disappeared and two familiar amber orbs looked back at her. Amber orbs that for years had always offered her comfort, love and an endless source of infuriation.

The young priestess was hit by such a shock of realization that it almost threatened to shake her out of her state of consciousness.

“Y-you are… Inu no Taisho…” She stuttered and backed away.

The man sheathed his katana and hid it neatly to his clothing while simply stating, “I am not. I am the son of Inu no Taisho.”

Numbness crept up from the soles of her feet to her entire legs. Kagome began falling when Toga hurried to her and grabbed a hold of her, forcefully keeping her from dropping to her knees.

“This place is not safe.”

The girl watched his brow furrowing with something that might have been annoyment of his close proximity to a human or the perpetual stick chafing his ass. Had Kagome been in a more coherent state she would not have done what her foggy brain deemed as a good idea at the moment.

She glided her palm over his cheek, unable to tell where Inuyasha began and where Toga ended. She felt the warmth of his skin creep though her touch.

Afresh her audacity left Toga flabbergasted. His immediate impulse was to throw her off his arms. He was disgusted by the fact that he had even decided to help her, let alone save her life and let her clammy hands run over his face like he was a pet dog.

He tried to distance her from his face while trying to hold her up by her shoulders, but her persisting hand didn’t leave his cheek. Her half-lidded eyes slid from his eyes to his tightened lips.

Some kind of recognition lit her eyes so wonderfully that it lured Toga to pull her just a bit closer. When she looked at him, her eyes held something he had never seen in the eyes of his lovers. They were full of love and adornment. It confused and scorned him.

Unwillingly his mouth relaxed and partly opened when he pulled her closer again.

Just as he was reaching back to her in his own unintelligent trance, the girl slipped out of awareness. Toga snapped out of his trance when her body suddenly turned limp and he had to struggle to keep her from slipping from his embrace.

In a flying brief moment, her glow was gone. Toga was left standing in the woods with a woman who had dark rings under her eyes and cracking lips from dryness.

The dog demon sensed that others of his kind were on a scout not far. They were closing in on him and the girl. He sighed deeply through his nose. How was he supposed to explain this?

***

Kagome stirred her eyes in a place without sunlight. Her hands explored the surroundings and she found herself lying on a bed of fur. When the girl’s eyes came accustomed to the dimness, she made out that she was in some kind of a shed. There was nothing else inside except her makeshift bed. Soft voices murmured irascibly outside the shed. It sounded like a woman arguing with a man. After the woman ceased talking, she heard shuffling and someone entered.

“You have awoken.” Toga’s voice stated above her.

She was about to ask where they were until her stomach gave a mighty growl.

“Uh, I’m sorry.”

Toga didn’t remark in any way, but just simply tossed her something that was tied in a lump of clothing.

“You lost consciousness earlier due to exhaustion. Eat and dress, I’ll be waiting outside.”

Kagome tried to stand up, but she felt awfully wobbly. Besides, as she soon came to realisation, she wasn’t wearing any clothes. When the fur slipped off her chest and revealed her state of undress, she blushed fiercely and grabbed the hairy piece of animal skin to cover her from Toga’s eyes.

The man simply gave her an accentuated stare to eat what she was given and without saying anything, left her.

Well, it’s not like Kagome had really expected him to ask about her health or even pretend to be interested in such trivial things. She reached for the sag and opened it. There was a small array of berries and some dried fish with a flask made out of skin. Kagome pulled out a wooden cork and drank greedily. She hadn’t had anything to drink for almost a day. The cold water hurt in her empty stomach.

After she had finished with her “meal”, she checked what was left of the sag. It contained only one unceremonious rag made out of animal skin. It was worn and there were patches of fur here and there. Kagome tried to search the shed for her own clothes, but to no avail.

She decided against going out in her birth suit, so she resignedly inched into her new outfit. It looked more like a potato sag jumpsuit that was mix-bred with a hairless cat. The girl wrinkled her nose at how the material braised her skin.

She had to bend on her way out of the shed and when she stood up she saw dozens of dog demons gathered around small bonfires. As soon as she had stepped out, twenty pairs of eyes were on her. Most of the gazes she was given were either gleeful or disgusted.

The males were all tall and well built. Some of them repairing their weapons in the light of the fire. The females were all gorgeous with their slender physique, fountains of silver hair and flawless skin.

Most of the females were in a small group. All had been gathered around a particularly beautiful demoness that was dressed in a seifuku.

‘What?’ Kagome’s mind immediately shrieked. It didn’t bother her too much that she was midst powerful demons of which any could kill her in a flash if she just looked at them funny. Nobody screwed with her school outfit. They cost a fortune.

Kagome marched straight to the group of females who all stopped talking as she approached. The one in the seifuku gave her a particularly dismayed stare.

“Um, excuse me, miss. I believe you are wearing my uniform.” Kagome called her out.

The demoness moved aside some of her friends and walked up to Kagome. The human girl almost felt intimidated when the 6 feet-something supermodel-like demon goddess came up to her.

“This is a far too luxurious item for a peasant slave like you, human. Besides, it looks much better on me, even if your belly flaps have loosened the waist some.”

Kagome felt like protesting at the demoness’ attitude when her head fast-replayed what she had just heard and caught a word in the middle of the female demon’s sentence.

“A slave? What are you going on about? I’m here to… Uh… I’m… Umm… Anyway. I am not a slave and I want my dress back. So, could you kindly return it to me? ”

The seifuku demoness gave her companions an amused look and they all burst out laughing.

“What a bundle of joy you humans can be,” she smiled joylessly. She bent her head down and almost whispered to Kagome “If you don’t like being a slave, in that case, you can be my dinner.”

An elegant hand was just about to lash across the fragile neck of Kagome when a stronger hand caught the demoness’ hand mid air.

“Ishu, that’s enough.”

Toga threw the offending hand away and stepped between the human and the demoness.

“She’s not for your amusement, Ishu.” Toga rumbled.

The woman called Ishu sneered at Toga. “Spoilsport.” But as Toga was the son of the clan leader, Inu no Taisho, Ishu did not challenge his authority. She backed away and left with her entourage.

“Hey, my dress!” Kagome yelled after them, but Toga stopped her from lunging after them.

When she wasn’t able to claim back what was rightfully hers, Kagome aimed her blazing anger at Toga.

“Oh boy, you’ve got some explaining to do!”

Toga didn’t really feel obliged to explain anything to her, but to avoid any further commotion he decided it was best to talk to her in private. He guided her outside the dog demon camp. One of the male demons yelled an extremely offensive remark after them. Implying that Toga was off to “do a dive in the dark” with his new human toy.

Kagome was so enraged that Toga had to carry her kicking and clawing away from the offender she had tried to attack. As Toga was doing his best to keep Kagome away from manslaughtering the demon, the human girl gave that foul mouth a good bloody stare as she was being carried away from the camp.

When they were a good distance away and Toga was sure that no one would interfere with their discussion, he began, being true to his style, very laconically explaining that he had brought Kagome back to their camp after she had passed out and the other demons had found them. Because her outfit raised too many questions, he thought best to get rid of it. (At which point Kagome wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be more mad about her dress or the fact that Toga had manhandled her while she slept.)

“Okay, I understand. What about the slave bit?” Kagome raised her eyebrow at him. “I’m not about to play some personal laundry lady for you, do you understand?” To emphasize her words, she raised her hand and a small fuchsia energy ball exploded on her palm.

“I do not think you have other alternatives at this point. It is too lengthy a walk for you to get to human population without any knowledge of the land or skills of hunt.”

Kagome crossed her hands and weighted her options. He did have a tedious point there.

“Fine!”

Kagome walked up to his face and keenly started at him.

“But I will do no laundry.” She stressed.

Toga was captivated by the fire he saw in her. She was so close that her priestess energy clashed with his youki. It was almost like static electricity had surrounded him. He could sense her power and determination. It fascinated him against his will.

The young priestess spent her night in a restless wake. Occasionally distant echoes of moonless howls brought her mind back to the present and turned her attention to her stomach which was panging from hunger. Kagome curled up into a small bundle, trying to fight off the sharp caress of the cold. She didn’t have a blanket, pillow or any other forms of her usual comfort. Her bed was just a simple skin of a bear on a pile of prickling hay. Her breaths came out in white puffs telling her that the temperatures outside were below zero. She shivered with hunger and coldness, longing to be back at home.

“Please let this all be just a bad dream.” Her voice came out thin and strange before she closed her eyes again.

---

A loud gurgle woke Kagome from her shallow sleep. She cradled her stomach in her hands. Well, if there was a positive to her situation, at least her “belly flops” would be gone after this whole ordeal.

Rays of light crept into her shed from the small opening of animal skins that hung over the entrance as some sort of a door. But it didn’t prevent the cold from creeping in, she dryly noted. All her muscles were aching and stiff from the bitter night.

Kagome massaged her sore limbs. When she reached her hands up to give some attention to her neck, her rugged animal skin jumpsuit gave out a noisy rip. The stitching on the side of the garment had decided it had served enough many battles and masters. Kagome’s suit had been torn all the way down to her hips.

“Fantastic.”

She couldn’t find anything in the shed to repair the suit with, so she squeezed the animal skin sag tightly to her chest in attempt to guard her modesty. Last night she had noticed that her trusty backpack wasn’t in the shed, so she assumed that Toga had left it where she had passed out when they had searched for the well. Hopefully it would still be there. She had some spare clothing in there, as well as food and drinks. Oh well, chips and soda anyway.

Kagome crawled out of her temporary accommodation. The ground was still white with humidity that had crystallized on the grass in the frost of the night. It looked like everything was coated with sparkling powder sugar. A thickening mist hovered above the grass where the spring sun laid out its rays on the icy green canvas. It melted the last breath of night away making it vaporize into the air.

The young human girl couldn’t see any demons near the camp side which she was thankful of.

She quietly crept out of the shed and headed back to the place she thought her backpack would be in. She had barely taken a footing in the forest when a voice nearby retorted.

“Do you even have any understanding of where you are heading?”

Kagome stopped on her tracks and sighed heavily.

“You’re welcome to join me,” she turned around and looked at the source of the voice “Toga.”

The tall silver-headed dog demon emerged from the shadows and came closer to Kagome.

“What are you planning?”

“Actually...” The woman began, “you could help me find my yellow pack. You know, the one that you left lying in the forest while you dragged my unwilling unconscious body to your demon lair.”

Toga crumpled his eyebrows together in a manner that suggested he was about to protest, but suddenly his eyes grew wide. He sniffed the air very carefully.

“What...” he was just about to ask something, but a realization cut him short. His nostrils flared, confirming his suspicion. The woman was emitting a faint odour that wasn’t there the day before. It was spring and he was certain that he human woman was entering estrus. Spring in the demon world was common for demons to be getting into that state. Albeit it was early.

“What ‘what’”? Kagome asked when Toga seemed lost in his own thoughts.

“Nothing. Keep quiet and I’ll take you to your belongings.” He curtly answered and walked past her.

‘As polite as ever and so early in the morning, too.’ Kagome thought to herself and followed Toga deeper into the forest.

---

When they reached the area where Kagome had first lost her consciousness the human girl quickly spotted her yellow escort under the shades of a grandfather maple tree.

‘God, let my Ramune be safe!’ She prayed and hurried to her property. She dropped to her knees and tore the zipper open. A single tear almost escaped her eye when she saw everything untouched.

“Thank you, Kami-sama!” She erratically yelped and attacked a bag of chips.

The Taiyoukai stayed behind and settled for observing that strange human rustling a bag of glassy paper. She was definitely something he had never encountered before. Somewhat annoying and insolent, but he had to admit that she had an air of fearlessness to her considering that she was away from home and amongst a pack of demons.

The priestess was busy stuffing her face with junk food and hadn’t noticed that her torn garment had peeled down from her upper body and was slipping lower and lower which, by all means, had not gone unnoticed by the demon lord.

The fragrance of her fertility mixed with delicious odours of foreign delicacies created unfamiliar sensations within him. His ember gaze swept the contours of her bosom, stomach and hips. Even his stubborn demon pride was past denying that she was of fine breeding.

Toga grinded his teeth together when the human let out a whimper of pleasure as she downed a bottle of juice. The juice dribbled down her neck and to her bare breasts.

Kagome wiped the delicious nectar from her chin and turned to offer some to Toga for his help. He was keeping his usual distance from her, but Kagome was taken aback by the weird expression he had. His eyes seemed to be fixed on something and Kagome glanced down.

Her whole upper body was stark naked and in his plain view.

In super human speed Kagome pulled the garment back up and reflectively screamed at Toga. “YOU HENTAI!”

Toga snapped out of his trance and quickly tossed his chin up.

“Don’t flatter yourself into thinking that I’d be tempted by the least by your repulsive flesh, human.”

Kagome could have been offended by his remark but the faint blush on his cheeks made his words less hurtful. He turned his back at her and Kagome could see so much of Inuyasha in him. The intimidating future leader of all dog demons was after all still just very much of a boy, just like his son.

“Could you please not turn around. I’m going to change my clothes.”

Toga’s shoulders gave a slight shake as he laughed dryly. “Don’t fret, there’s nothing that would compel me to do so.”

But he could feel the warmth on his face.

---

After a plentiful meal and a change of clothes, Kagome picked up her backpack and looked at her demon companion with a renewed energy.

“Toga, you said that the nearest village is in a three days walk by a human.” She gave a pause. “How long would it take from a demon?"

Toga lifted his eyebrow and musingly answered. “I’d say that it would take a quarter of sunlight. To get there and come back, I mean.”

“So, you could take me there and bring me back in three hours?”

“That is a foreign unit to... Excuse me! Why on earth would I agree to take you there?”

A cunning smile swept across Kagome’s face. “I have more of that chocolate for you.”

Toga didn’t take a second to answer.

“Deal.”

Inuyasha was fast, but riding on the back of Toga felt like riding on lightning. Kagome could barely make out anything of their surroundings and she held on to Toga for her dear life. Every time Toga descended down to jump back up for more speed, Kagome squeezed herself flat against his back in fear of falling off of him.

The young demon lord couldn’t remember when he had last run as fast. Even the hardest wind didn’t catch up to him. His feet made the ground tremble with his powerful kicks and the air howled around their bodies as he tried to get to the village as soon as he could. The reason for his haste were the small fingers that gripped to the front of his robes and the arms that wrapped around him. And most pressingly the soft heaps of flesh weighing against his back and the soft thighs under his palms.

Toga had agreed to carry the human in a “piggyback”. A strange and intimate position that didn’t seem to bother the human half as much as it bothered him.

And the thing that irked him the most was that... He was getting accustomed to her scent and touch. Every hour that passed between them, he felt less and less bothered by her. It terrified him to no end and he just wanted to get rid of her, the quicker the better.

"Umm."

Toga's ears perked by the small voice behind his back.

"What?" He asked annoyed.

"I need to... uh, get off." Kagome piiped into his shoulders.

"We're not at our designation yet." Toga replied and made no effort to slow his pace.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious. I just need to get off."

"Why?" His voice grew sourer in apparent exasperation.

"I... Need to... Go pee pee." Kagome tried to bury her words deep into his shoulders.

"You what now?" Toga had never heard of such place. Why did she need to go to Pee Pee when they were on their way to the human village. A detour would mean substantial loss of daylight.

"For the sake of..." Kagome grumbled and her knees squirmed. They were hit by a gust of wind and Kagome had to bellow against the turbulence "I NEED TO TAKE A PISS!"

Toga almost lost his grip on Kagome's legs as her scream violently slammed into his ears. He took a tighter hold of her thigs and abruptly descended to the ground.

Kagome hopped off his back and quickly headed to the nearest bush.

"And don't you dare--" Kagome began but Toga cut her off "Wouldn't cross my mind."

Kagome straightened her skirt and disappeared behind the thicket.

Toga turned his back to her and listened to their surroundings. Only birds and crickets for miles on end.

He sat down on the mossy ground and took in his surroundings. The far mountains gave the air a crisp undertone. Big fluffy clouds lazily drifted across the cerulean sky. Under other circumstances Toga would have maybe taken some form of enjoyment out of this outing.

Toga flexed his fingers. He could still feel the subduing warmth of flesh against his palms. He slowly brought up his hand to his face. There was that distinct odor of soapy flowers that clung on his skin. He inhaled that peculiar mixture of natural and chemical aroma. Maybe if all humans smelled like that they would be less disliked by beings with sensitive sense of smell.

He heard a ruffle emerging from the bushes and casually swiped his hand across his cheek. As if there was something on his face he wanted to wipe off.

Toga rose to his feet and asked his companion if they were ready to continue.

Kagome nodded but there was a demure growling coming from her stomach. The girl tried to will her stomach quiet by pressing her hands against it.

Low draught of air escaped the demon lord's lips. There was no helping it. If the human wasn't fed now she would surely complain about her hunger at some point and they would be forced to take another recess to their tour. Humans were so feeble with their constant bodily needs. Demons could easily endure weeks, months if necessary, without any upkeep. Paltry mortals died if deprived water for mere few days.

“Come, follow.” Toga ordered and began to briskly walk ahead. He could hear her small feet quickly beginning to brush the grass behind him so he didn't bother to look if she was following.

Some distance away Toga stopped and pointed at the ground that grew wild with hay and subshrub. “There. There's some berries over there. You need to eat.”

Kagome wasn't exactly sure how to take to his bossy care-taking. His tone was rude and made her feel like more of a burden than she obviously knew he saw her as. But all the same while he could just abandon her in the middle of literally nowhere and leave her to the vulptures at any moment he saw convenient. So, the girl gathered, from that point of view she must still be on his better side if he bothered to help her get her stomach full.

“Thanks?” Kagome hesitantly replied and kneeled near scattered strawberry plants. Not much was in season at this time of spring in Japan, but the strawberries were already plump with ripeness and the hot red skin on them looked very luscious.

Kagome pried an especially ample specimen off the plant and tossed it into her mouth. It wasn't very sweet and Kagome continued to explore the different nuances of every subsequent berry. The smaller ones tended to be more sweet. By the end of it her fingers and corners of her mouth were dripping with squished berry juice. When her fingers began to stick to each other and the strawberry leaves, she tried to suck them clean.

Toga observed as the human dipped her digits one by one into her mouth and twirled her tongue around them trying to sop the juice off. Lastly, she coated her index finger with a dab of saliva and rubbed the edges of her lips.

Kagome caught his stare and felt suddenly very conscious of her table manners. It wasn't exactly easy to try and eat sophisticatedly while crawling in the dirt. Sure, the super model demonesses could probably eat out of a garbage can and make it look chic, but Kagome had to do with her gawky fingers and short legs.

“We will be losing light if we stall much longer. Come.” Toga ordered.

When Kagome got up from the bushes, Toga added more gently “If you are still hungry, I can probably provide you with some game when we return to the camp. That is... I could go hunt something.” He tried to keep his voice as uninterested as he could.

“Some rabbit stew would be nice!” Kagome exclaimed. Then a practical realization hit her. “Oh, but do you have any kettles?”

Toga helped her back up to his back and answered “Cookware? We eat our game unprepared.”

Figures. Kagome thought. “Never mind, skewed rabbit it is then.”

----

They arrived at the outskirt of the village. Toga dropped Kagome off his back and retrieved to the forest.

“I’ll be back soon. Wait for me here.” She whispered from the edge of the trees and disappeared.

But Toga wasn’t sure if he would be there when she came back. He looked at the barricade of trees that hid the village behind their wall of leaves and branches. Now the girl could be with her own and he wouldn’t have to be bothered by her. He wouldn’t have to think about her. He wouldn’t…

Against his better judgment, Toga found himself still staying at the edge of the village, waiting for Kagome. She had been gone for a long time; it would be dark by the time they returned to the demon camp. The young demon lord sighed and pressed his forehead to a tree trunk. Still feeling the ghost of her body on his back. He cradled the trunk between his hands.

His mind was in a turmoil, torn between his reason and wholly new feelings that terrified him. He felt disgusted with himself of how he allowed that human to make him jump through hoops for her. He had succumbed to a role of a buffoon, begging for a treat for every trick he performed for her. His dignity greatly suffered by every favor he did for her. It was unnatural. He was supposed to be the one to make her do his bidding. Without any sentimental clemency.

“Toga?” A gentle voice called him.

He didn’t turn around. His claws pierced the bark of the tree. He wanted to run from her voice. But the haunting scent of her heat nailed him to his place. Quietly a pair of arms draped around him from behind. Toga shivered. Why didn’t that human fear him?

“Is everything all right?” Kagome asked softly, her tone laced with concern. Small fingers sensuously ventured on his chest and burned through his layers of clothing.

“No.” His voice came out strangled. He shoved her hands away and spun around. Kagome took a step back and her big, round eyes filled with confusion. She hugged her hands against her chest in a defensive gesture. The inu youkai closed the distance between them. Kagome had to tilt her head upwards to look him in the eyes.

“Why have you no respect for me?” Toga growled. When he was so close to her she stood barely to the level of his chest and seemed smaller and more fragile than she truly was.

Toga gripped her shoulders and forced his mouth on hers. Kagome whimpered from the sudden contact and tried to keep her hands between them – shielding herself from his onslaught. That small sound rattled something primal inside the demon. Her whimper sounded like a squeak of mouse to a hungry cat. He snarled and threw Kagome on the ground. He followed her to the bed of grass and pinned her body down with his own.

Kagome breathed in quickly.

The dog demon hooked a seam of her clothing with the tip of his claw and pulled back. The clothes on her body were torn to shreds effortlessly. Kagome didn’t shy away from his eyes.

“Please...” She breathed. Not finishing her sentence, leaving Toga unknowing if she wanted him to stop or continue. No matter, he had already decided.

Toga adeptly took a hold of her hips and turned her body around so that she was on all fours in front of him. Like a good submissive bitch.

Toga marveled the arch of her back and glided his hands on her naked contours as he untied the robes on his umanori.

“I can take no more of this.” He admitted out loud. “I must have you.”

He didn’t wait to have her approval, it was unnecessary. In his mind, she was his and rightfully his to claim. His to undo as he pleased. Toga guided his hardened male organ to her rump and forcefully, almost violently, entered her.

Kagome mewled. Urged him to continue. Her heat engulfed him, made him see, hear or feel nothing but her being. He dug his claws to naked flesh on her hips. Kagome trashed her head.

“Aaaaaaaaaaah.” She screamed in fervor. Trickling blood mixed with her sweat as she took on his merciless thrusts.

Toga couldn’t hold it in longer. He had willed himself not to unravel already when entering her. The painfully tight knot in his belly felt like the grab of strong fingers that squished his intestines and testicles into a small ball. Squeezing so hard that they would burst.

Toga let out strangled grunts as he released himself.

But it wasn’t Kagome’s warmth around his member but his own hand. Toga was still leaning on the tree trunk and panting from the dissolving memories of his fantasy. When the afterglow of his release dissipated, his reason slowly came back to him. Guilt and shame washed over him.

Such vile thoughts. He hid his face into his hands.

----

Kagome barely registered the sunset and the rising moon. She continued to walk back to the forest in blind disbelief.

What she had gathered from the locals was that she had travelled well over 3000 years into the past. To this foreign place where she had no friends and no way of maybe ever returning home. The well wouldn't be constructed in few millennia and, as far as she knew, it was her only ticket home.

Kagome instinctively stopped at the place where she had parted with Toga, not fully being aware of stopping. She fought back all the tears in her eyes and the emerging feel of panic in her chest. She was left with an empty void within herself. Would she ever be able to hug her mother, bicker with her little brother, travel with her friends of be finally held by Inuyasha? Were all those things that would fade from her memory in time, dreams that would cease to exist as she was left to survive in this strange and hostile time?

At least she had managed to acquire a kettle by trading her necklace for it. A pretty sweet deal considering she had won that trinket on a gashapon machine. Of course, a kettle wouldn’t offer her the same comfort than her home and friends would have.

The young woman hardly noticed as Toga hopped down from the tree she was slumped against.

“If you are done with your inquiries, we must take our leave. I'm sensing demons nearby.”

“Yeah, you're right.” Kagome replied without as much as a blink.

Toga grouched on the ground so that Kagome could more easily climb on his back. She wrapped her arms around him and Toga was glad that his earlier release had taken the worst edge off the effects of her touches. Kagome curled against his back and Toga jumped high above the trees.

---

At the dead of night, they arrived at the dog demon camp. Kagome no longer rode on Toga's back. She had dozed off so many times and kept slipping on his back, twice dropping the kettle, that Toga had grown most irritated and decided to carry her back on his arms and bind the kettle to his waist.

When he walked past some male inu youkai, he couldn't help noticing the hungry gleam in the eyes of some of his brethren. They were obviously no more immune to the scent of a ripe untouched fruit than he was. But unlike Toga, they had no moral obligation to hold themselves off.

Toga bared his fangs at some of his fellow demons as a gentle reminder that the woman was his property. His.

Most of the male dog demons averted their eyes, but some defiantly followed Toga's moves from the shadows, licking their lips with anticipation.

Toga entered Kagome's hut and gently placed her on a tuff of fur and skin. He had to pry her fingers off his clothes and felt disturbing concern over her. She had a snowball's chance in hell if a pack of demons decided to sully her, powerful as she may be. Toga finally got Kagome off of him and looked at her slumbering figure. Small, fragile.

Toga exited her hut and sat smack middle of the entrance. He could easily go without sleep during the time her heat needed to pass. He would sit there guarding her sleep even if it made him feel submissive and humiliated. But he rather faced the snickers and snide comments from his pack than let them rape and rip her apart. A thought that should have been completely insignificant to him, but for the reason he still denied knowing, felt very significant to him.

---

Toga had sat on guard for the rest of the uneventful night and was already pretty confident that no one was bone-headed enough to challenge him, as horny as his companions might've been. The humidity was getting thinner and Toga knew that the sun was only few moments away. Right when he was sure that Kagome would still have her maidenhood intact in the morning, he felt a strong demonic aura near him.

An older male approached him and even though he appeared calm, Toga could sense his ominous agenda.

“Yanagi-san, I advise against what you are about to attempt.” Toga growled and tensed his muscles.

The one called Yanagi simply smiled lazily bearing his pearly fangs.

“Toga-san. You are not the king here. You have no first right to our prey, may as you be the general’s son or not.” His languid voice sounded almost gleeful. “Need I remind you, you are inferior to me in age and in rank.”

Toga stood up and faced Yanagi eye to eye. Toga saw the seeping crimson in his corneas, adding threat to his statement.

“There's truth in what you say, but this woman is already taken. She's mine.” Toga crossed his arms and lifted his chin up in an attempt to look bigger and taller which there was no real need to. He was clearly more sizeable than Yanagi.

The other demon snickered “Save your lies. I can easily smell from here that she is unspoken for. ”

Yanagi tried to push past Toga, but Toga halted him with his blade.

“Don't worry, Toga, if you so wish, I won't take her life.” Yanagi lowered his voice to almost a whisper “I'll even save some for you.”

The thought of Yanagi, or anyone else, toughing her, made him ill with rage. She was his to have, and when he'd wanted to have her, he would make sure she begged him to have her.

“Your last warning.” Toga snarled and felt his own eyes becoming hot with blood rushing to them.

“The hard way it shall be.” Yanagi replied and pulled out his own sword.

Toga didn't hesitate. Their rugged blades clashed together creating bursts of sparks. Neither demon used the real form of their swords because both understood that lashes of full demonic attacks could potentially destroy their camping base. So, the two demons merely competed by fencing. Toga was reasonably sure that he could have won either by using his special attacks or with just his hands, but he didn't want to actually kill Yanagi. So he refrained from using his real strength, even though Yanagi proved to be an excellent swordsman. Toga had to use all his concentration to avoid the swings of his opponent's blade.

Yanagi swirled his katana effortlessly around Toga. Toga snarled as he was reduced to simply block his hits and not being able to deliver some back. A quick glint of steely gray flashed before Toga's eyes and white strands of hair fell to his feet. Toga was missing a fistful of his mane.

“Why bother defend her? She's just a human.” Yanagi laughed and cut some more of Toga's hair before the younger male could evade. Yanagi made a swift diversion for which Toga fell. Toga tried to lunge his sword at Yanagi, but the older demon went another direction. Before Toga could recompose his bearing, a sharp blow knocked him on the ground. Toga lost the grip on his katana and fell face first into the ground. Before having the chance to get up, Yanagi bestrode him, grabbing a hold of Toga's hair from behind and pulling his head up.

“As of yet I haven't hand any complaints. I'm guessing that she will even like some of the things I'm about to do to her.” Yanagi's words came out hot against Toga's cheek. Yanagi raised his sword and was about to pin Toga by the shoulder but Yanagi soon found himself laying on the ground.

Toga flung Yanagi's sword somewhere in the bushes and grabbed the other demon by his throat. Now Yanagi was underneath Toga and Toga let his claws pierce the skin of his opponent.

“You will leave now.” Toga growled, resisting the urge to sink his claws all the way through his neck up to his spine.

When Yanagi didn't reply, Toga let his claws sink even deeper. “And not come back until a week has passed.” Yanagi started to have trouble breathing and could only produce gurgling noises.

Toga moved his face so close to Yanagi's that he could taste the blood that was gathering in Yanagi's throat and mouth.

“A week. Nod if you understand.”

Yanagi's eyes slowly began returning to their aureate color and he weekly nodded. Toga let go of his throat and let him lay on the ground. Toga picked up his own katana and entered Kagome's hut without even glancing back.

-----

The sun was up and the first light crept to walls of the hut. Toga wiped beads of sweat from his brow. It was hot in the hut. Partially because the sun was getting warmer by the day, partially because two persons in a small confined space created heat on their own. But mostly because Toga hadn't shaken off the adrenaline rush from the fight he had moments ago and Kagome smelled like a banquet to a starving man. Toga tried to moisten his dry mouth and reached for a small clay cup which served as Kagome's refreshment. He downed a few gulps of water and leaned back to the wall of the hut.

He had spent the whole night debating what to do about that peculiar human creature. He couldn't abandon her in the forest or take her back to the human village. The demons would make mincemeat out of her If left in the woods. And Kagome was clearly not like other humans. She dressed like she came from some faraway land and she had enormous miko powers. Other humans would burn her on the stake if they knew.

She was better off with him, Toga sighed and succumbed to the thought. But as long as she was in heat, she wouldn't be safe with his kin, not even perhaps himself. Toga looked at her sleeping figure and held his desire at bay. Her bare long legs were uncovered since Kagome had kicked off the fur blanket in the heat of the night. Sweat trickled down her smooth thighs in small streaks. She tossed her head in her sleep and grabbed the animal skins beneath her body. Her chest was rising and descending as her breath quickened.

Toga crawled soundlessly next to her makeshift bed and watched her brow crease and relax as she continued to dream of things Toga had no understanding about.

“Mama, the air conditioning is not working. Can I go out and buy an ice-cream?” She mumbled in her sleep.

Toga couldn't resist his curiosity any longer. He carefully grazed her lips with his thumb and they felt just as soft as he had imagined they would. He smiled. But suddenly, as if driven by a lash of whip, he backed away from her. His hand trembled so he tried to calm himself down by burying his claws into his forearm. He cradled his hands against his chest.

Kami, he had no shame or control over himself. That woman made him act and think in manners that he had never conceived possible. What would he succumb to? A puny human, miko or not, would not make a fool of a noble youkai. Who did she think she was, goddamn! Humans were filthy, ugly, feeble creatures. He'd rather burn in hell than defile himself with a weaker constituent.

Toga had almost convinced himself to resign his duties as that human woman's aid and guard until Kagome let out a small sigh and murmured someone's name in her sleep.

“Inu..sh.”

Toga crept back and observed her for longer. He had thought humans to be filthy, but her scent was absent of odors he usually associated with humans. Rorearu? He tried to remember the name of the soapy scent Kagome had mentioned that first day. Though did it really matter? Toga dipped his head into her hair and inhaled her scent. A shiver ran up his spine and instinctively he needed more of her.

Her smell would cling to him he thought as he continued to nuzzle her raven locks. He couldn't stop his hands from venturing down to her thighs. So smooth, so soft, Toga marveled half-consciously. This would be enough, he promised himself. Just a little touch to get it out his system, he swore.

But when his hand warily massaged her soft flesh, the human unexpectedly opened her legs for him.

“Inu..sh.” She murmured again and sighed.

The air fused with the scent of her arousal and fertile state. Toga could feel his eyes practically burn with blood-red desire. A sizeable bulge strained the front of his umanori. His hands stopped their venture on her body and he squeezed a wisp of her silky hair in his fist.

Before being able to stop himself, Toga had disrobed himself. He went to get the clay cup and situated himself next to Kagome. Slowly his hand sought for his throbbing member and began ministering strokes on the hardened organ. He let his free hand roam her body while he buried his head in the crook of her neck.

He gave a tender lick to her throat and Kagome let out a broken breath. In his imagination it was his name Kagome whispered. It was for him that she opened the gates to her inner sanctum. The speed of his strokes increased and he shut his eyes.

----

Sometime later Kagome woke up from a nice, relaxing dream. All things considered, she had had a good night's sleep. Even the usual coldness didn't disturb her night. She yawned and flexed her arms. Maybe she was starting to get used to the prehistoric setting she was stuck in. Maybe things wouldn't...

“Gyaaaaaaah!” She shrieked when her train of thought was cut by the realization that a man was standing in her hut. After the frantic brain of the scared-shitless Miko realized that it was Toga, Kagome gave up on trying to find whatever suitable for throwing at the intruder.

“Good Lord, Toga!” She huffed. “You took years of my life just now.”

Toga remained in his stoic stance and stared at her blankly. It seemed to Kagome like the poor man hadn't had a wink of sleep for a week. His complexion was pale...er than usual and his eyes bleary. And his expression was somewhat... constipated.

“Umm, is everything all right?” She inquired carefully.

The question seemed to snap Toga out of his trance. He cleared his throat and picked something up from the ground. It was a small clay cup, her drinking cup as a matter of fact. Rather it wasn't filled with water but with a thick murky ooze. Toga hastily placed it next to her bead and leapt away.

“Use it.” He murmured under his breath, barely audible.

Kagome picked up the cup and examined the ooze.

“How? What is it?” She placed the cup under her nose and took a sniff. It smelled like salt and protein. Toga buried his burning face into his hands but Kagome was too busy to notice.

“Smells like egg whites. Looks like, too.” The miko mused aloud and dipped her index finger in the cup. The ooze clung to her finger like mucus. She pressed her thumb and index finger together and when she parted her fingers, a thin string of the ooze appeared between them.

Toga shook with anger and humiliation. “Quit jesting around, woman! Just use it on your skin!”

Kagome wanted to shout back at Toga for yelling at her, but was silenced by his face. He was either having a stroke or he was actually blushing. Either way, Kagome was really confused about what was going on.

“Hey, is everything okay with your face? I mean, you look kinda... scarlet.”

Toga quickly turned his back at Kagome and spoke sharply back at her. “Never mind me. You need to apply it on your skin.”

“Why?” She demanded.

Toga slapped both of his hands on his forehead and tried to restrain himself from going over at her and either smacking her on the head or trying out another way to get his scent on her. Idea of the latter made his pants feel rather uncomfortable.

“Just. Please. For once. Do as you're told.” He begged. His voice was filled with sincere stress and strain. Kagome saw best not to argue with him further.

“Okay...” She muttered. “Where? I mean, where do you want me to 'apply' it on my skin?”

Toga swallowed painfully before answering. “On your inner thighs and abdomen.” Before submitting himself to further inquiries, Toga left her hut. Kagome was left behind with the clay cup in her hands and a puzzled look on her face.

---

Outside the hut, Toga sighed with relief and rubbed his wary face. At least now the other demons wouldn't cause him any more trouble. It was pretty much obvious to everyone that he had spent the night in the human woman's quarters. And with his scent masking her untouched state, no-one would dare to challenge his position as the one who had claimed her and owned her. And maybe his own scent on her would subdue his own primal urges for fornicating. His brain would interpret the scent as a sign of conquered prey. It would hopefully lessen his urges.

---

Short while after, Kagome pushed her way out of the hut. Dressed in one of those strange futuristic clothes of hers. This time she was wrapped in all the colors of the rainbow, like a human canary. Making her stand out like a sore thumb in the forest that was muted green. That creature's vanity rivalled her stupidity, Toga rebuked in his mind. Did she truly that badly want to be an easy target for hostile demons and predators? With those strange pants that were practically glued to her shapely long legs. And that whimsy, totally weather inappropriate shirt that did absolutely nothing to hide the shape of her bosom. Toga stared at Kagome's ass and smelled the intense scent of his sex on her body. In less than three blinks, he had gone from flaccid to painfully hard. Against his earlier forecast, instead of holding his sexual instincts at bay, smelling his own semen on her just made him want her even more badly. It made him want to take her right there and then.

“Is your stomach okay? You've been acting really weird this morning?” Kagome asked but her voice sounded like it came from a deep cave at a great distance. None of the words were even recognizable to his brain anymore. So, Toga didn't even try to reply and just crudely ran off. Kagome tried to wave after him, but he didn't hear her before disappearing into the woods.

“What the hell?!” Kagome yelled behind him and some of the dog demons further away in the camp stared at the strange human.

As soon as Toga was somewhat sure that he was out of earshot for the other demons, he stopped running and tore his umanori open. He grabbed his throbbing member and began to violently tug it. He wasn't taking much pleasure from his ministrations, he just wanted to rid himself of the need. Grunting and shivering he quickened his pace and relentlessly squeezed his tortured organ.

He forced the last drop out and collapsed on the mossy ground. Pressing his face against the greenery, panting. Why on earth did this have to happen now? He had lived through hundreds of spring heats in his life and not once had any female affected him like that human did. Admittedly he was intrigued by the opposite sex and many times had been asked to sire them. He was, after all, the son of the Great General, once to rule the Western lands. Sharing his blood was highly sought complement among the females. But Toga didn't really have that much interest in continuing his bloodline yet. Even though he found some of the offers tempting. But he had his reasons to forgo.

It was true that some of the inu youkai enjoyed recreational mating but it wasn't as common as it was among humans or other youkai species. Inu youkai mainly mated for reproductional purposes during the spring when the bitches were in heat. Outside of that time frame, males were forced to either couple with other youkais or, on the very rare occasion, with humans. But as the meaning was not to breed, some males sometimes killed their partners to ensure that their bloodlines were not soiled or diluted with other species.

Abstinence had never been a trial or a burden to Toga. He had had ”lovers” in a sense that there had been some innocent courtship at his early teens when the lure of women first hit him. As tempted as he might have been a few times, his body never had betrayed his reason. Until now.

Toga dug his claws in the soil. If that human was ever to offer herself to him, he had just as much chance denying her as the willow had a chance of not being swayed by a stormy wind. He growled at the thought. He would have to make sure it would never happen. Whatever his cock demanded, he refused to tarnish his bloodline. That human would not seduce him. There was just one pressing problem. His treacherous nose. If he just as much as caught a sniff of her heated scent, his willpower crumbled like a dry leaf. Toga groaned and sank his face in the moss.

Unless. His eyes lit up. Unless he couldn't smell her. It would solve the problem. Toga rejoiced his ingenuity and grabbed a tuff of moss in his hands. He laughed manically.

----------------

Back at the camp, Kagome was trying to find something to do. All the demons avoided her presence, which she was used to, but there was something bothering her in the way they did it. Usually when she had been in the proximity of other demons, they simply held their noses high and turned their backs at her. Now they seemed almost... Scared? They would quickly eschew her when she came near and instead of showing open disdain they looked concerned and began whispering to each other. It greatly bothered her, but she knew there was absolutely no-one she could ask about it.

Defeated, lonely and bored, Kagome decided to let it be and headed into the forest. Maybe there could be Wood Sorrel, roots and other edible plants to be found. She couldn't rely on her stock of chips forever. Toga still owed her that rabbit, though.

Kagome trekked her way in to the forest, making sure to not wonder too far off from the woodline. If she ran into trouble, there was no-one saving her ass. The miko crumpled her nose when a twig lashed at her leg, tearing into the fine fabric of her leggings. These weren't an ideal outfit for the time or the weather, but she had wanted to pack lightly to save room for food when leaving home on that particular day. Plus her mom hadn't had the chance to do laundry yet, so she was stuck with some unconventional choices regarding her wardrobe. It's not like actually thought ideal to wear leggings' and tank tops in the spring. But it was still better than skirts and kimono's when it came to mobility. Besides- Kagome stopped suddenly and quit defending her clothing to someone who hadn't even questioned it. She sensed a demonic aura nearby. She carefully hoisted her bow up and drew an arrow from the leather quiver fastened to her back.

The aura wasn't threatening but it was overwhelmingly strong. Kagome squeezed the bow in her hands.

'It's better to sit this one out. I should just back out slowly. It might've not noticed me yet. Better for both of us to avoid confrontation.' Kagome tried to calm herself as she began walking backwards. Not wanting to turn her back at that great aura that clashed with her own reiki. But she could sense that it was too late. The aura suddenly darted straight into her direction. Kagome froze, knowing that whatever was coming at her, it would outrun her effortlessly. The whole area was taken over by that magnificent aura in just seconds. It waited her in the shadows.

Kagome remained in her stand and scanned all the bushes, the peak of her arrow following her gaze.

"Put down your weapon, human. You are at no harm here."

Kagome almost dropped her bow when she heard the voice. Following that voice was a figure that peaked from behind a large tree.

In awe, Kagome let the string of her bow loosen and descended her weapon. She stared at the youkai that gracefully walked towards her.

It was a inu youkai, a small girl. For the first time Kagome was seeing an inu youkai child. The girl was probably way older than Kagome was, by decades maybe, she wasn't sure how they aged, but she appeared to be around 12 by human standards. She was dressed in a dark blue hakama, with a great white fur shawl draping her shoulders. Her hair was fair as snow and it was held up and divided into to two long tails. Her bangs were also held up, revealing a delicate crescent marking on her forehead. But what was most fascinating feature about the girl, was not what was on the outside, but what was in the inside.

All dog demons Kagome had come to know by now all had a flaring, hot aura. This girl did not. Her aura was cool and calm, terrifyingly strong. Actually, Kagome had sensed an aura similar to this girl. And now when she thought about it, that crescent marking was also familiar.

"You are.. Are you Sessh.. Umm, uh, oh." Kagome stumbled on her words. This had to be the mother of Sesshoumaru. Toga's wife. Or wife-to-be. And obviously the name of Sesshoumaru would hold no meaning to her. Yet.

"I am the daughter of the great Sesshoumaru-sama. The lord of the Eastern lands. I am... Kimiko." She answered to Kagome's unintelligent stammering with a polite smile.

Okay, so obviously the killing perfection was named after his grandfather. And the miko had to admit, he took way more after his mother's side of the family. In many regards.

"Will you not introduce yourself to me?" The suave soft words of Kimiko's sounded equally friendly as they sounded threatening. But Kagome sensed no ill intentions from her aura. Maybe her seemingly deadly demeanor was just part of her personality. Chills ran through Kagome's spine. If that lady ever meant business, depicting from her aura, she would grow to be some piece of hard meat in her womanhood. She could probably easily kick the asses of all the male inu's Kagome knew.

"I'm... Kagome... Uh. Daughter of the Higurashi shrine." She clumsily tried to introduce herself in the same fashion as her interlocutor.

Kimiko chuckled gently. Even though her honey golden eyes remained cold as dry ice. She closed her eyes and turned her back at Kagome. Kimiko could clearly smell the scent of a certain male inu on Kagome. Quite an interesting move from his part.

"Run along now, Kagome. We'll meet again." She flicked her wrist as a goodbye and disappeared back into the dark of the forest.

Kagome didn't wait for a second admonition. The small hair on her skin stood up all over her body.

----

When Kagome returned to the village, Toga still hadn't gotten back. Somewhat disappointed, Kagome sighed and headed back to her lodgings. When she was nearly there, she was stopped by an rude knock on her back.

"Hey, ow, watch it!" Kagome protested and tried to rub the aching spot. She turned around to meet a familiar face that hovered way above her own. What was even more familiar, was the dress on the body of said demon. Ishu. They would have to have another discussion about private property, Kagome decided, but Ishu had another thing coming.

"Is it true!?" Ishu fumed. Quickly she covered her mouth and nose in disgust. "Oh, kami, it is!" She skreighed when the offending odour drifted down wind to her nose.

Kagome swiftly forgot her gripe about her school uniform by this new accusation.

"What now?" Kagome grumbled.

Ishu tried to reign her gag reflex, at least enough to let that human harlot get a piece of her mind.

"How dare you? Have you no common sense or decency, you... You loose slag!"

Kagome almost fell to her behind from the sheer force of the other woman's voice. She wiped off droplets of saliva that had splattered on her face as Ishu was yelling at her no more that few inches away.

"Say it, don't spray..." That would just go way above Ishu's head. "What exactly are you excusing me of?"

Ishu snickered dryly and crossed her arms. "Oh, feigning innocence now? I suppose you are completely unaware that Toga's cock went up your cunt last night then?"

Intense heat gathered around Kagome's face. One third of embarrassment, one third shock and last third of sheer anger. WHAT WAS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!

"I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!" Kagome shrieked, her eyes burning just as hot as her cheeks and Ishu had to actually take a few steps back, just to avoid any permanent hearing damage. "NO-ONE'S... NOTHING WENT UP... NOWHERE LAST NIGHT! OR ANY OTHER NIGHT!"

If there was any way possible that someone hadn't heard their previous shouting, now it was utterly impossible. The dead could hear Kagome's bellows.

On cue, Toga suddenly appeared to stop the females from shouting each other deaf.

"Enough!" Toga firmly announced and stepped between the human and the demon woman.

"What is she talking about?" Kagome pointed at Ishu from behind Toga's back.

"How could you?!" Ishu shouted and pointed right back at Kagome.

"What is going on?!" Both women yelled at Toga.

Toga hung his head low for a moment to take a deep breath through his mouth. Then he looked unwaveringly at Ishu. His words were slow and articulated.

"Just what do you think happened, Ishu." Toga harshly said. It wasn't a question.

Seeing his determined eyes, the fighting spirit left Ishu.

"You cannot seriously mean..." She tried to comprehend while still pointing at Kagome.

"It is not your business, Ishu." Toga answered more softly now. His voice was sounding a bit odd, but Kagome didn't have time to give it any thought.

"What are you two talking about?!" Kagome tried to butt herself into the conversation but the demons crudely ignored him.

Ishu shook her head. "How could you do this? To Kimiko? Your mate? How could you possibly go and rut another woman? A human, nonetheless!"

The heat that had just began to dissipate from Kagome's cheeks, returned with a vengeance. Ishu, and now thinking about the behavior of the other demons, suggested that they were all under the impression that Toga had laid with her. But how could they have come to such a conclusion? And more importantly, why was Toga not denying it!

"It's not..." Kagome tried to explain, but Toga silenced her with a wave of his hand and a glare so powerful, Kagome lost the track of her own sentence. It was also that Kagome finally noticed that Toga's nose was stuffed with moss.

'Whatta?'

"What I do with my property is on my decision. And I haven't mated Kimiko, yet, as you are aware. If you find my discreetness lacking or distasteful, that is your concern, not mine." Toga's tone of voice confirmed that the discussion was over. Ishu didn't try to argue any more. She simply shook her head at Toga and gave a final parting scowl at Kagome before storming off.

Toga shut his eyes close. He could feel the fuming hot reiki behind his back.

---

Toga entered Kagome's hut in the wake of said woman's steps. Kagome seated herself on to the pile of skins and didn't wait for Toga to find comfortable place to sit in.

"Explain. Now." Kagome commanded.

Toga leaned his body on his hand that rested against the wall of her hut. No point beating around the bushes.

"You are in heat." He answered. Expecting that to make Kagome suddenly realize everything.

Kagome blinked a few times. It had been explained to her by Sango that male demons referred to ovulation as being in heat. It simply meant the time females were fertile.

"So what if I am? What has that got to do with any of this nonsense?"

Toga turned his eyes on Kagome and gritted his teeth. How did she not understand.

"I was... forced to take measures ensuring that no other male would try to claim you." He explained under his breath. Hoping that the human woman was capable of doing some reasoning on her own. And not to force him explain in any more detail his humiliating acts.

But all his answer did was to create more confusion in Kagome's head.

"I still don't understand. What 'measures' are you talking about?" She had an eerie inkling on his answer, taking how all the other demons thought Toga had slept with her. But she wanted to hear the whole thing.

Aggravated, Toga decided that she would never drop the subject lest he give her a full explanation. Even though he reeeeeeally didn't want to.

"Your heat makes you smell tempting to men. Especially since you are a maiden. Though my kind rarely engage in those kinds of activities with human women, some were tempted to lay you. And it doesn't always end in there. I know that some kill their partners afterwards, ensuring that there are no unwanted offspring from such joining. Youkai don't take kindly to diluting their bloodline." Toga swallowed trying to figure out how to sound as nonchalant as possible about the next part. "I didn't particularly hope that to happen to you. So I offered my cum to you so you could stray any other males off. If they smell me, they won't be tempted to touch you since they would have to answer for it to me."

Kagome listened to his explanation silently. Taking in his words. The world in the ancient times weren't full of puppies and rainbows, yes, she knew that perfectly well, but what he was saying sounded really harsh.

Youkai males actually raped and killed women just for recreational fun? And they would rather take an innocent life than risk the chance of bringing a half-breed into the world? Kagome had no idea how truly hated Inuyasha and other hanyous really were in the eyes of full youkais. They were nothing. Less even. Just now she could truly see and feel the hate and fear Inuyasha must have been forced to suffer through whole his life. Because that man who stood in front of her. Telling her calmly that it was a common practice to rape and kill human women just to satisfy their own twisted desires.

"Do you think like that?" Kagome quietly asked. "Do you think it's okay what you kind does to women that might carry unwanted offspring?"

Toga was puzzled by her question. He settled for answering her truthfully.

"I think nothing of it. I have never been in a situation where I would have had to contemplate on the morality of such action. But what I do think is that a man should have more dominion over his desires than to succumb to the will of his cock."

Kagome slightly blushed at his coarse word. She bit to her lower lip.

"Have you ever been tempted to?" The question came out half-subconsciously. She really didn't know what she wanted to hear him answer. And couldn't really blame him for not wanting to answer at all. But those... uh, inventive nose plugs of his just tugged at her curiosity. Toga swiftly turned his back at her.

Why would she want to know such a thing? Had she noticed something? Did she remember what happened the night before? Toga's brain frantically thought. Was he really that much influenced by her that he would lose control like that? Toga sneezed the tufts of slimy moss out of his nose and relished at the ability to breath freely again. His joy was quickly clouded by her scent. It wasn't as overpowering as it had been earlier. Her heat was obviously passing but it still called out to his blood. What was he supposed to answer her when even he didn't want to admit her effect on himself.

Kagome understood from his silence that he was reluctant to talk about his temptations or lack thereof.

"I think that hanyous are beautiful." She broke the short silence. Just to lift off the awkwardness unknowing that she just increased his confusion.

"They are an even balance of the two worlds of strength and heart." She thought about Inuyasha while speaking and smiled to her own thoughts. "I think that you full youkais easily dismiss them as weak, but they are anything but. I've seen them fighting powers that not even you could defeat. No matter how high and mighty you think of yourselves. But hanyous are free of those failings that you are blind to. I think they are positively... perfect."

Toga's eyes widened. He had never known any hanyous intimately to form any definite opinion besides what had been taught to him about them. But why was she telling him all that? He had always supposed that humans hated hanyous just as much as youkais did. After all they were just as inconvenient reminder of unnatural joining to humans. Or maybe... She didn't look upon such joining as unnatural. Would she not mind bearing a halfling child? Toga's head was swimming with thoughts he had never entertained before. As confused as he may have been, he was sure that that human woman was really extraordinary

They stared at each other. Each taking an shaky step in their minds towards each other's world.

"Well, may as it be..." Toga coughed. "Your heat will pass tomorrow and you don't have to worry about those kinds of things for another year."

Kagome suddenly remembered that she was lathered in... Toga's intimate product. Thought which called a deep rouge on her cheeks regarding the future. Dogs did have a period of estrus once a year, but...

"Uh... You did know that human females have heat once a month, right?"

In that instant, Toga had turned into a salt statue.

"What?" he wheezed.

Days passed and Kagome worked hard getting the mental image of being slathered in dog love juice off her mind. But almost whenever she saw Toga, the thought persisted. Well, at least the other males let her be now. Even though some of them thought she was either a floozy or a personal demon laundry slave. Or both. Or worse.

But did it really matter. She didn't need the approval of snooty beasts that, if what Toga had told her was true, were far more deprived of any morals than even the worst people she knew. The idea of dog demons running amok raping and killing women was rather disturbing. But she was fairly sure that Inuyasha, Sesshoumaru or even Toga was never capable of such. Even if she didn't really know the latter yet.

Kagome wasn't sure how long she had been stuck in the past past, but it was probably weeks by now. Besides Kimiko and Ishu, Toga was the only demon, or person, she had really talked to. It was pretty safe to be assumed that Kagome knew him better than the rest of his extended family probably did.

Toga was stoic and pompous, but there was a softer side to him even if he worked really hard hiding it. All the fresh berries, chopped rabbit meat and flasks of water that kept appearing to the entrance of her hut were a tell-tale sign that he worked in earnest to keep her, if not happy, at least alive.

Not a day went by when she didn't miss her family and friends though. Toga may have been a softie on the inside but he wasn't much company. He liked to keep to himself and even when he did spend some time with Kagome, he wasn't exactly the life of the party. He had, however, agreed to take Kagome out hunting on this very day.

Kagome was in her hut preparing her equipment and assembling a proper outfit. She tried on a pair of leather shoes she had made herself from the leather Toga had brought to her. They felt a bit awkward on her feet. She was no cobbler, alright. Kagome hoped that today they would find some more animals she could skin and make some of her own leather. Drying out and preparing an animal skin for to be used as leather was a long process but did she really have anything better to do here? Clues on the mysteriously disappeared well hadn't been exactly flooding in as of late.

Toga didn't knock when he entered her housing. Well, not that there even was a door to knock on. He had dressed himself much lighter than usual and his long hair was kept neatly up. He had much more fitted hakama pants and a tighter shirt with leather patches covering his knees, shoulders and elbows. The lighter outfit was probably more suited for hunting due to its easier mobility than his usual heavy kimonos. It also accentuated his fit physique that had somewhat been obscured by his normal clothing.

Kagome couldn't really stop her eyes from noticing that he actually had pretty broad shoulders. Almost unlike all the other somewhat androgynous inu youkai males, Toga was very buff. He had muscular arms and a very ripped chest. Not that Kagome would ever actually use that word to describe a man's build. But in Toga's case, there was no way around it. He was very ripped.

Toga stood in content silence while Kagome made a mental map of his every muscle. He couldn't help but to feel a little proud that Kagome was obviously having a hard time getting her eyes off him.

“Would you like a painting of it?”

The young woman's neck almost snapped when she tried to quickly force her face in another direction. A direction where Toga was not standing at.

“A painting? Of what?” She repeated and tried to will her cheeks not to blush.

“Of my body. You seemed interested in it.” Toga even smirked a little when he noticed how visibly uncomfortable Kagome was.

“N-no, it's not like...” Kagome stuttered and wanted to lie that she had been just marvelling his outfit. But truthfully, she could hardly tell what color his outfit was now when she now wasn't looking at it. She could barely even remember he had an outfit. All her mind had focused on was what was under said outfit.

Before Kagome worked herself too embarrassed, she realized that Toga had just cracked a joke. On purpose!

“Come on, you cheeky dog, I'm ready to get going.” Kagome settled saying and picked up her equipment.

---

They had been out and about only for couple of hours but they already had enough meat and skin for Kagome to manufacture her own fashion line of rabbit furs and shoes.

It had been surprisingly fun to be out with Toga. He had been in an unusually good mood and really patiently taught her hunting tips. And Kagome herself was learning fast everything he taught her, maybe a first in the history of her learning anything. Toga was an unexpectedly good tutor when he was not scoffing and turning his nose at her. He also had managed to crack another joke somewhere along the day and Kagome had started to worry that the end of times was near.

Kagome burst out laughing when Toga first had showed and explained to her, in great detail, how to set up a trap for small game, and later that same day ended up stepping into his own trap. When Toga cussed and struggled against the ropes he had hid in the grass, Kagome laughed so heartily that Toga could not help himself and joined her laughter.

Kagome clamped her mouth with her hand, in shock to hear that strange noise coming from Toga. But as their eyes met, Kagome could not stop the giggles that escaped her sealed lips. And for once, Toga's eyes were not harsh or scorning, but echoed Kagome's own warmth.

They held their gaze interlocked until neither was laughing anymore. Kagome felt lightheaded from all the chuckles and couldn't grasp at all why Toga was still looking at her. And with something else than disgust in his eyes. It felt strange. Strangely hot. Kagome moistened her drying lips with her tongue. Toga's adam's apple moved when he swallowed and it made Kagome break their eye contact as her gaze descended onto his neck.

She could see his collar bones peeking from the neck hole of his shirt. It was an oddly sensual sight. Those collar bones rested just above two very sculpted pecks. Pecks that probably felt hard as rocks.

What the hell was she thinking, she stopped herself there. Kagome scolded herself and looked away. God. He had absolutely no warm or cozy thoughts about her, he had made that abundantly clear on many occasions. She was a lowly, filthy human. He was a demon. A dog demon. He was Inuyasha's father, for crying out loud! Toga was practically her father-in-law. Kagome felt her skin crawl. What the hell's hell. Was she that big of a harlot that she had actually just entertained “not safe for work” kind of thoughts about her father-in-law's hard pecks? It didn't even matter if for some crazy reason he was into her that way, it was a HELL NO go for her. Nope. Nopety nope, nope, nope.

She didn't feel like hunting any more. Besides, they had already caught more than enough for her needs. She wanted to get out of the woods. Right away. To her own ascetic little hellhole and she would sit there, in the dark, thinking about how horrible and miserable of a being she was. While cobbling rabbit shoes. Even better yet, she would find a lake. A deep, cold lake. She would jump there and let the chill drill into her core and bones until there was nothing left of that hotness she had just felt for her father-in-law. She would rather freeze over a thousand times than feel that forbidden hot throb between her thigs ever ever again.

Toga tried to untangle himself neatly working out the knots in the ropes. He wanted to still use them for another trap. His fingers slipped a few times when he thought about Kagome's gaze just now. He was no Casanova, but he knew a lust-ridden expression when he saw one. She had had that same look on her face back at her hut. Yeah, Toga had noticed her stealing a glimpse here and there of his body throughout the whole day. It felt nice. But it was nothing compared to that flash of desire he had just briefly seen on her face. Or was it? It was gone so quickly and now she was staring at her shoes so intently Toga was not sure anymore.

But then a waft of her unmistaken perfume of “fuck me into oblivion” hit his nose hard as the wind turned to his direction. He cut through all the ropes he had almost worked out already. To hell with them. When the object of his recent need for vigorous masturbation was standing in his field of vision practically inviting him to take her, he had no patience to even try to open a simple bowtie. At that moment he had forgotten, well, not perhaps forgotten completely, but chose to ignore his inner angst about cavorting with humans. He would have plenty of time to wallow in his wretchedness later.

Toga began walking towards Kagome, tossing the ruined ropes to the shrubs. There was such gravity in his eyes which upon seeing the girl felt her stomach churn.

“No.” Kagome whispered. She gestured with her hands for him to stop. Don’t.

Before Kagome could say anything more, a dark stream of something powerful swished near her ear.

“What…?” She didn’t have time to complete her sentence as another blast was headed her way. Kagome wasn’t fast enough to block it with her priestess energy but before she was hit, she felt two strong arms pulling her into a tight embrace. Toga was shielding her, absorbing the blast with his own reiki and body.

Shit. Toga cursed to himself. He had been completely distracted and failed to notice that they had crossed paths with a neko youkai. It probably hadn’t sensed Toga’s reiki since he had hid it, but the neko youkai could still sense Kagome’s energy.

The back of his shirt was sizzling and emitting vapours when the inu and neko reiki had collided on there. It burned his skin slightly but the dog demon knew he would heal up in matter of minutes. He let go of the baffled woman and turned to face his invisible enemy.

“Come out and face me.” Toga called out calmly. He wanted this to be over quick. He didn’t have time to play hide and seek with those damn moggies. Not today.

For a while he couldn’t sense anything. The forest was quiet save for the rustling leaves, singing birds and the fast breathing he heard from behind his back. Kagome’s heart was still racing from being nearly decapitated a few seconds ago.

The dog demon’s patience was growing thin when he spotted movement from somewhere up in the trees. It sure wasn’t any wood pigeon lurking up there.

Toga readied his claws and sent his own attack high up the trees. A big nutmeg-yew tree was hit by the force of his reiki. The old bark crackled and twigs, leaves and splinters of wood flew everywhere. A low hiss could be heard when a dark figure nimbly hopped off the branches.

A short neko youkai shook sawdust off from its black coat and glared Toga with a spiteful gleam in its deep olive eyes.

“Don’t you mongrels learn to keep to your own territory.” It huffed. “That quarry is mine.” The cat demon obviously assumed that Toga was there for the same reason as it was – trying to hunt Kagome. Toga didn’t feel the need to correct its assumption since it would not live long enough to gain anything from that information. But it did irk him that a lowly cat thought their lands as his.

“This land belongs to Inu no Taisho, you low breed.” Toga growled and flexed his muscles, readying himself for another bout.

The neko youkai created a diversion by lunging at Toga but it instead gathered its youki and released a dark slash of energy from its claws. Toga glanced to his side. He could easily dodge the energy but that would mean that it was going to hit Kagome. Toga slightly moved before the energy hit him full force. It sliced through his thin shirt, ripping the garment to tatters, cutting all the way to the flesh of his chest. A crimson spray erupted from his upper body.

Toga stood still for a moment, seemingly unfazed by the blow and peered behind his back. The little miko stared at him straight in the eyes with her widened own chocolate orbs. She remained unharmed.

”Chikusho...” Toga breathed between his clenched teeth. Strands of silver were caught in his blood as his hair had come undone by the blow. He glared at his opponent with a cold fire burning in his eyes. ”Kono yarou neko.” He growled and leaped forward, tired of flailing claws back and forth, it was time for a more hands on approach.

The silver-headed demon pounded his much larger body on his adversary, crushing the cat demon beneath him. A high pitched yowl was cut short by a sickling snap and Kagome could only see two feet sticking from under Toga that gradually stopped kicking. When after a while the dark body only lay limp on the forest bed, Toga rose back to his feet, removing the hands of his foe from his chest that had been dug into the flesh. Maroon colored streaks of blood flowed out of many small puncture wounds all over torso.

Kagome held both of her hands up to her mouth, upset by the gory sight.

“Toga…”

Said demon retrieved their spoils and came by her side to pick her up. He didn’t want to stay in the stench of that carcass with her. Toga jumped into the air and headed to a place they had passed with Kagome earlier that day.

---

It was a meadow deep in the woods. There was a small brook gushing serenely across the meadow and bright aureolin flowers dappled the greenery. They could catch their breath there before entering the camp.

The demon lord lowered the miko on the ground but as soon as he let go Kagome leaned back close to him.

“You’re hurt!” She gasped and carefully glided her fingertips over a tear in his shirt. The cloth was soaked in his blood; some of it had dried on his skin and glued the fabric to his wounds. The demon observed her ministrations quietly.

“This looks bad.” She mused out loud. “I’ll get some water and try to clean this for---“ Halfway through her sentence, Toga ripped his whole shirt off, tearing his wounds open in the process.

“Baka!” Kagome scolded him as blood began to stream anew on his chest. “You’re making it worse!”

Kagome pressed her hand on one particularly gaping wound, trying to supress the blood flow. The crimson liquid rushed down on Kagome’s hand leaving burning streaks on her forearm. His blood felt hot. Kagome didn’t know if it was a demon thing or just Toga’s personal peculiarity.

“Keep some pressure on it - I’ll go get the water.” Kagome said in a muted voice. She tried to remove her hand, but Toga placed his own hand on hers. His hand easily covered her whole fist. It felt gentle and surprisingly soft for a sword wielding demon warrior.

“I appreciate the concern, but I don’t need your aid. Demons heal fast and these are mere scratches.” His voice was low and tender. Even if he had just stated that, Toga still didn’t let Kagome’s hand go.

Kagome swallowed slowly. Her eyes shifted from his lips downwards to his naked torso. He looked like something out of a fitness equipment commercial. But no amount of time on an ab glider would give an average joe midsection like Toga’s. His toned muscles were no doubt a combination of a raw meat and veggies diet, constant battle training and amazing genetics. Maybe mostly genetics since no dog demon Kagome had seen in the past weeks could compare. Toga was simply… godly.

Toga began to slowly lean towards Kagome and she snapped herself out of her reveries. She quickly pulled her hand off his, admittedly, rock hard pecks losing her balance momentarily. Her companion did not stop her from falling backwards on the long grass – even though Toga definitely had the reflexes to do so. Instead, Toga followed her suit and fell on top of her.

Kagome found herself pinned down by a sturdy demon body with silver curtains of hair around them.

“I… You… Uh…” Kagome pushed back at his chest with both of her hands and tried to find a way to express how this was a bad idea. Very bad idea. The worst actually.

Toga curtly ignored her, as usual, and shoved Kagome’s hands out of the way before placing his mouth on hers. Kagome eyes widened with shock. She tried to protest, but his lips were hot and soft and made all kind of electric currents activate within her body. His kiss was actually pretty bashful; he placed his lips on hers and gently tickled her bottom lip with his tongue, but not actually forcing his tongue into her mouth.

The dazed woman wasn’t exactly sure if she returned the kiss or not, due to the mental meltdown of her brain at that moment, but she managed to turn her head enough so that she could speak through the kiss.

“No” She sputtered “This is wrong.”

Toga didn’t give her a break and returned his assault on her lips murmuring into the kiss “I know…”

His tongue felt like the wings of a butterfly caressing Kagome’s lips. She hadn’t noticed how her hands had slipped from his chest and toured to his back but her fingers were tentatively grazing his skin there. Beneath the skin were more of those divine muscles. His percentage of fat must have been close to zero. Kagome tried her best to focus on everything non-sexual in her situation to muster enough willpower to blast Toga’s ass of her body with her priestess energy. Trying desperately to ignore that the dog demon’s hands were massaging her neck oh so sensuously.

Toga could sense her resistance, but it did nothing to sway him. He was resolved on having her. But he wouldn’t resort to using force. He wanted her to want him. Just the thought of her begging him to ravish her made his manhood harden with mad desire.

Kagome dug her nails deeper into the skin of his back and tried to wiggle her way out from beneath him. As a counter measure, Toga pressed his hips down hard on hers.

“Oh.” Kagome breathed.

There was no mistake of his enthusiastic state.

It was exciting, yes. To have a man powerful and fine-looking as Toga wanting her. Kagome was forced to admit. Partially exciting exactly because it was also forbidden. But because of said forbiddance, this really could not go any further.

“You have to… stop…” Her voice trembled.

“Stop… Before what?” The smirk could practically be heard in his voice. “Before you don’t want me to stop?” He answered his own question while placing kisses on her neck.

Goddamnit! Why did his brazenness had to sound so sexy!

It may have been Toga’s first time of sex, but it wasn’t the first intimate encounter he had had. And those previous encounters hadn’t all been just hand holding either. Even if he had never put his shaft inside a woman before it did not mean that he didn’t have the knowledge of hundreds of years’ worth of foreplay. He knew how to drive one silly human mad.

His claws sneaked up to Kagome’s collar and slowly, excruciatingly slowly, began to cut her shirt open. He knew she would try to fight him but he distracted her by simultaneously grinding his hips into hers.

“Ah!” She let out a helpless gasp.

Toga was coming at her on all fronts - kissing her neck, working her shirt off and poking hello at her nether regions. The girl felt like her mind was melting, along with other things. But it would be so bad to enjoy this. Wouldn’t it? To relish those hands that finally freed her heaving bosom from their constricting clothing, to enjoy those lips that now left moist traces behind her ear.

“Ah.” She groaned again, this time sounding more decadent.

When Toga’s fingers found the small beads on the apex of her breasts and tauntingly squeezed and rubbed them Kagome involuntarily relaxed her legs, allowing the man on top of her to move more freely against her.

In a need for more the girl pulled Toga back into a kiss and this time she was the one pushing her tongue past his lips and entwining their tongues to a heated duel. Already at that point, she was dripping wet. Hardy any more teasing was necessary, but Toga wanted to savor everything about her. However, his leisurely lovemaking almost came to an abrupt end when Kagome suddenly untied his hakama knots loosening his waist enough for her to glide her hand over his hard member. She could just barely reach her fingers around his hardness.

Toga had to stop all he was doing because the overwhelming surge of pleasure disabled all his motor functions. Never in his hundreds of years of being alive had anything felt better than that small hand gripping and pumping his engorged male organ.

“Afff… Uoah…” Toga grunted between clenched teeth. He wanted for her to stop and continue so badly that he couldn’t even form a sentence.

When Kagome felt him shake under her touch, she lifted her head off the ground and moaned into his ear. “It’s so… big.”

Toga’s eyes rolled to the back of his head and he took tight fistfuls of the grass underneath them. If he didn’t hold on to something he was afraid he would fly off.

Toga might have had practical knowledge on foreplay, but Kagome had one Internet worth of knowledge on how to make a man ejaculate. She also knew that men where practically incapacitated after they came thanks to Yuka and one specially awkward discussion at Wacdnalds.

“Make sure to not make him too excited. Otherwise the fun will be over before it starts.” Yuka’s voice, mouth full of fries, resonated in Kagome’s mind.

So, she only had to make him reach his climax and he would be satisfied enough to let her be. She would be able to save her innocence and even a smidgen of her remaining honor. Whatever there had been left after she had ogled him the whole day and having some very unkosher thoughts.

She continued to rub his throbbing… thing and make whimpering noises. But when Toga refused to come, Kagome laid all her cards on the table. Fine. She would do anything necessary to keep him from getting into her pants.

“You are so hot. I want you to come for me.” Kagome recited lines from some dirty movies she had watched in the future. They seemed to have worked for the actors.

Toga tried to shake his head clear. “No… I need to be inside you.”

Neither of them knew at that moment what consequence Toga’s lust-filled words held. The gears of destiny were now in motion.

Grrr! Kagome fumed in her head. Why did dogs have to be so goddamn stubborn! ‘Come you gorgeous numbskull!’

The girl lifted her behind off the ground, squishing his manhood harder against his abdomen and her hand. Her lips found their way to his ear and brashly sought his sensitive lobe between her teeth. Unintentionally she was also turning herself on. Mortified of her bravado but also feeling oddly unhindered by trying to drive the man into coming. The line between acting false and true was blurring as their reciprocal teasing was heating to a boil.

“Mmmmh, Toga.” She moaned when Toga finally had gathered enough of his wits to taunt her back. His back was arched as he had caught one rosy nipple in his mouth sucking her erogenous bead while she still massaged his shaft.

The aroma of her willing sex nearly made him lose his earlier decision of not using force on her. Whenever he tried to sneak his hand to her waistline and pull her pants down, she either smacked his hand away or squirmed her hips to make him loose his grip on her clothes. The demon lord knew he would have to be in her quick before his body yielded under her ministrations.

Kagome felt how she was soaked through her pants. And when she gave one firmer squeeze on Toga’s tortured penis, she felt how small eruption of sticky goo was released from the tip. They were both only few steps shy of the finish line. And Kagome didn’t know anymore which one she wanted to get there first.

“I can’t…” She almost sobbed and squeezed her eyes shut. Toga’s eager hardness felt silky smooth in her palm. He really wanted her. That beautifully sculpted demi-god tried to make her just as horny as she was trying to make him. The fire between her legs was so intense it hurt. “I want you… Toga.” When she uttered his name, she finally let his hand inside her pants where his fingers immediately found the small pearl of pleasure above her entrance.

The girl from the future gave a throaty scream when the last of her crumbling will shattered to his touch.

“Oh, kami! Toga… Take me, please. Now. Take me!”

But when Toga finally heard her plea, it was too much for him. Combined with the mad-driving scent of her wanton flesh and the obvious wetness of her willing cavern he couldn’t take when she needily spoke those passionate words to his ear, trembling at the edge of her own orgasm.

Toga gave few hard thrusts against her hand when he knew there was nothing he could do to make his cock stop from shooting out his seed.

Shallow panting, heaving chests and quietness ensued. Their wet groins pressed against each other as both of them tried to catch their breath.

Toga looked at Kagome and she saw that unlike she had thought the hunger had not left his eyes. She wasn’t still over her carnal high when he was already to continue. Demons apparently had a better stamina than humans did. Kagome, in the afterglow of her own orgasm, wasn’t again sure if it was a good or bad thing. The demon nudged his still stiff shaft against Kagome, implying that she was not off the hook.

“If you two are quite done, Toga-san is needed back at the camp.”

The demon lord and the human priestess nearly jumped out of their skins when a soft voice spoke out from few yards away. Toga quickly corrected his clothing and rose off Kagome who tried to save what little was left of her modesty by hugging her chest and clamping her knees together.

“Kimiko!” Toga spoke slightly out of breath. Shit. He would seriously have to learn not to be so caught up in Kagome in her presence that he constantly wouldn’t be surprise by whoever was passing by. Though it had to be admitted that Kimiko could masterfully hide her presence even from more seasoned demons if she so chose. “How long—“

The petite demoness courteously cut him off with “Long enough.” Only Kimiko could interrupt someone and make it sound polite.

Before Toga could voice his next question Kimiko languidly batted her dark lashes and replied with a smiling voice even though she was not smiling herself.

“Your father requested.”

Kimiko glanced at Kagome who was still lying on the ground and added. “Alone, if you will.”

Toga seemed pretty surprised and looked at the equally confused human who was trying to get up without revealing anything improper in the process. The little demoness slowly walked to Kagome and obviously sized her current attire with bemusement.

“Don’t worry.” Kimiko said with a honey dripping tone. “I’ll escort her back.”

Her big child-liked eyes twinkled and stared at her mate-to-be. “Run along now, Toga.”

The walk back to the demon camp was a long and awkward one. Kagome couldn't muster up the courage to speak but Kimiko seemed indifferent nonetheless. The small demoness silently walked beside the miko, even though Kagome was sure that her pace, even while trying to be extra frisk in her step, must have felt like slouching to a full-fledged demon. They retained a courteous distance between each other and Kagome kept praying in her mind that Kimiko was not in a chattery mood. It would be just too much for her to handle. What could she possible even say to defend her actions? How she had but fifteen minutes ago begged her father-in-law to… Kagome felt hotness creep up her cheeks. Yup. She couldn't even finish that thought.

While Kagome was really hard trying not to die out of mortification Kimiko could still smell her future lover on the skin of this human woman. It did not much bother her. After all, she didn't have any romantic notions about Toga. The nature of their upcoming union was simply a matter of convenience to their clans. Nothing else. She had no other expectations or allusions otherwise. But to cavort with a human. That was quite… unexpected. Kimiko peered at Kagome behind her half-lidded eyes. What was so fascinating about them? They didn't even taste all that good.

***

"You sent for me." Toga entered a make-shift tent and kneeled before another dog demon. "Inu no Taisho" He added with a firm respect in his tone.

The elder demon lord being adressed was an impressive sight. He remained ever-impressive even in the eyes of his son that had known him for centuries. The Inu no Taisho wore an all-white pristine kimono with an equally immaculate shawl draping his armored shoulders. His armor was black and gave an aesthetic contrast to his white attire. He easily stood two heads' measure above his son – though now the demon lord was seated on a wooden stool at the back of the tent. His eyes were that same warm amber as his son's but deep creases in his skin gave away the fact that he was, indeed, very old. When he spoke, his voice quivered the very air with its deep bass.

"The time has come for our clans to reunite." Inu no Taisho declared without any greetings to his son. "I shall be waiting your return to the castle by the end of this moon cycle."

Toga stood up and waited for his father to continue.

Inu no Taisho's sharp gaze pierced through his son. He measured the younger demon with his eyes and sighed heavily before continuing.

"Word is that you have taken a…human consoler."

"Yes, Taisho-sama." Toga replied and clenched his jaws. He knew to expect some sort of reprimands.

"You know where I stand with my opinion of them."

"Yes, Taisho-sama."

Inu no Taisho leaned slightly back on his seat and kept his unflinching eyes on his son.

"With times as they are, I find it better that you relinquish your ownership of her."

The older demon sensed his son was about to argue and raised his voice slightly. The whole tent nearly trembled under the pressure of his bass notes.

"The decision has already been made. The human will fall under the service of the clan of Sesshoumaru. My command is effective immediately. "

Toga wanted to protest, but he knew that he would gain nothing that way. His father laid the law in all these lands. If nothing else, talking back at his father would earn Toga, and possibly Kagome, just further punishments.

"Let us not argue over this, Toga." Inu no Taisho looked at his son, his eyes softening woefully. "One son as a disappointment is plenty enough."

Toga knew the best course of action was to keep his mouth, but that didn't keep his fists from shaking with anger.

***

When Kimiko and Kagome finally arrived back to the base camp, most of the area was already deserted.

"Where is everyone?" Kagome asked and tried to look for any signs of Toga. But the hut Kagome had spent her time living was not in its place anymore. All that was left on the barren ground were the remains of hay she had slept in.

"My kinsmen have returned to the Inu Castle Fort." Kimiko answered nonchalantly while inspecting her claws. "They won't be returning." She added before Kagome got to ask.

"W- Wait, what? What does that mean?" Kagome was growing nervous. She knew what it meant. How could, how dare he just up and leave. He also abandoned her to the devices of this scary little demoness.

"It means that he won't be returning. You are free to go." It was true that Kimiko had been given the option to have Kagome as her personal wench. But she didn't really have any need for new servants. There could be other uses for human women but Kimiko was not interested in any further affiliation. The young demoness also had adopted a practice to never kill without the intent to either defend herself or eat. So, she saw best to just let the human go.

Kimiko hummed gently against the soft breeze.

Kagome frowned. "Where am I supposed to go?"

"That is not one of my concerns. There are plenty of human population centers. Seek their company and aid." The young demoness waved her hand as if brushing Kagome's question off.

"But… But…" Kagome tried to search for the words that would buy Kimiko's sympathy. But there were none. The miko knew she had nothing to bargain with. Kagome would literally be thrown to the wolves. Where Toga could be persuaded with food and flattery, Kimiko was far too intelligent and indifferent to flattery to let her ego hinder her decision-making. Talk was cheap, even cheaper in this era where the rights to live were a privilege bestowed only on the strongest. Everyone else had to fight for scraps. Kagome had nothing to offer for her patronage, save for her bow and some dead rabbits. But judging by Kimiko's outfit which was the nicest craftsmanship Kagome had come across this era, the demoness was well off. She would have no need for anything little Kagome was able to offer.

Kagome didn't bother finishing her sentence. She bitterly clenched her jaw. Whatever was to come, she would face it. Alone. She would not go hungry, thanks to her equipment and hunting skills, but a shelter was a more pressing matter since the demons had not left anything behind that would keep the cold from sinking its teeth into her bones during the nights. She couldn't ask for Kimiko's help, she knew better.

The miko could not believe that after everything, it was so easy for Toga to just abandon her. She had seriously misread his character. Was he relived to leave? Had he happily skipped to that castle fort with his demon friends – not glancing back? Was Toga just as heartless as his pillaging kin? He might have found raping and killing a distasteful sport but it wasn't exactly chivalrous to leave a woman to freeze to death either.

Kimiko observed with odd fascination the emotions that ran across the human woman's face. Like an infant, incapable of hiding the inner turmoil, she was. Like any other human, but still… So, peculiarly different.

"Thank you for brining me this far." Kagome said with a flat tone. Her voice revealed her defeat, but she asked for no mercy.

The demoness hadn't moved from her stance but she couldn't help but to feel a little admiration for the miko. Kimiko had been following Kagome's every move ever since she joined Toga's company weeks prior. Not for any particular reason at first, but to ease her insufferable boredom. It had been amusing to shadow the human's every move without that bonehead Toga ever catching a drift of her presence lest she allowed him to. The more she had tailed them, the more she understood why Toga had given the human such attention.

The priestess was clumsy. Could hardly survive the night in these parts of the land where all beasts wreaked terror. But she was also terrifyingly strong, evident not only by her holy powers, powers Kimiko knew the human hardly even understood the strength of, but her mental capabilities. Kagome had faced terror, despair and danger beyond what she was able to defend herself from, but she hadn't flinched. She didn't covert, run or cry. Plenty of times it was her foolhardiness that had made her stand up against Toga and other demons that questioned her rights to stand tall next to them, but in that stupid bravado there was also genuine courage.

Kimiko knew plenty of demons had, in addition to countless of humans, soiled themselves in situations Kagome would only get mad at and fight back. Even now, where anyone else would have pleaded for help, Kagome simply accepted her circumstances and decided to survive. Survive the nights alone.

Well, the young demoness smiled wickedly, if the poor miko only knew that some cursed bugs and roaming cat demons were the least of scary things that the night cloaked from the view, maybe she wouldn't have acted so brave to be left behind.

Foolhardy, clumsy and wearing her heart on her sleeve. That was the young priestess with powers that easily matched Kimiko's, if only Kagome knew how to use them. Not begging for pity, facing the storm with her head held high. Oh, what a stir it would cause to bring a human back to their fort, Kimiko's smile widened.

The wind picked up as the clouds huddled closer together in the murky sky above. Kagome felt the chill tickling the small hair on her arms. Maybe she could dig a hole in the ground to spend the nights in. If she stood on guard during the nights, maybe, just maybe she could survive if she slept during the day and whatever time there was in between, she would make way to the human town Toga had brought her earlier. She wasn't exactly sure where it was, but if she kept her heading to a straight line, she'd come across it in a week's time. She wasn't very convincing, but she could not give up. She could not lay still, cry and wait to be eaten.

A low rumble erupted from the clouds and Kagome saw how the clouds shifted, a dark silhouette moved within the gray, fluffy mass. Something green broke through and slithered downwards. It looked like some sort of lizard, like a snake with legs. But as it descended closer to the ground, Kagome could see it was not a snake, but a dragon. Two-headed, muted green dragon with a dark mane.

The dragon-like creature curved in the air and made a sharp dive above Kimiko. The thing landed dexterously between Kimiko and Kagome. Kagome looked at the dragon-demon, and above it hinds, Kagome saw Kimiko's eyes that were not fazed by the sudden appearance of the transportation demon.

"Whenever you are finished with worrying how you are going to live through the night, do join me." Kimiko cheerily announced and hopped on the creature.

The wind blew through Kagome’s hair. She clutched the mane of the two-headed dragon beast. Kimiko was sitting behind her, keeping her legs neatly tucked under herself. It was evident that Kimiko was accustomed to their current method of transportation whereas Kagome was trying awkwardly to hold on to her dear life to anything she could get a grasp on. They hadn’t been riding for long when the beast made a sudden jolty sprint into a thick pulp of raincloud. Misty droplets of water gathered on Kagome’s face and hair.

Kagome had to hold back her breath as they dived through masses of mist. It felt like they were swept against air and water in crashing waves one after the other. The cold clung to her skin and the pace they were racing against the wind made the priestess shut her eyes. The sheer force of the air made her eyes sting and water up.

As Kagome tightly held her eyelids closed, she could feel how the air around them grew heavier. It was harder to breath still and the flickering light of the sun dimmed behind her closed eyes. The roar of the wind around them died down and Kagome sensed they had passed through something. A bridge between what was mortal and immortal.

They had entered a realm of another existence.

Once she felt the tight grip around her chest ease, she drew in a much needed deep breath and opened her eyes. The beast's movements had slowed down and what she could see looming in the horizon flabbergasted her.

An overwhelmingly large structure, like a city, made out of clouds, or something resembling of clouds, hovered in mids of nothingness.

The two-headed beast roared and Kimiko firmly tapped the beast to its side.

“You will get your supper in due time, beast.”

The dragonesque creature steadily galloped the rest of the way up to a black iron gate at the edge of the city. The entrance was encased in a heavy, impregnable youki. The young human felt the spirit energy electrize even the fine hair on her arms. It called out to her holy powers, challenging them and fighting for dominance. Many had come there, seeking for victory but stumbled right at the gates. The city was protected by the ancient powers of the youkai, the strongest of their kind. Kagome felt that her mortal presence was not wanted in whatever place they had arrived to.

The gates complained in a deep metallic moan as they were dragged open.

All incoming demons had to enter through the gates since the city was shielded by a strong barrier of youki from above. The barrier breathed age, like it had guarded the city and the dwellers within as long as time had stood. Kagome felt literally in her skin that no amount of holy priestess energy could impale that barrier.

A guard in a complete armory, ready for any brave enough to to force their way in, guided them through the gates. Kimiko was a well respected member in their community, so the guard didn't even give a second glance to her escort who was a human and quite an unusual sight therefor.

Kimiko hopped off the beast and subtly gestured Kagome to get off. When their feed landed on the ground, the guard whistled for another nearby soldier to take the beast in. Kimiko halted the soldier and slightly bowed her head to make a request that went unheard by Kagome. The soldier gave a quick glance at Kagome and then disappeared to a nearby small storage room that was next to the gates. He came back with a black shawl and handed it to Kagome before taking ahold of the reigns on the beast.

“The Lady wants you to cover your face with this.” He said wrapping his hand tighter around the reigns, not explaining anything more.

Kagome tried to see Kimiko's face, but the young demoness had her back turned at her. Not wanting to rouse any alarms at the very start of her visit, she compliantly covered her hair and face with the musky-smelling garment she was given. With nothing but her eyes left visible, the small company set afoot.

Kimiko was escorted to her lodgings by an entourage of four guards; not because she needed the protection, per say, but because of her high status commanded attention. Her homecoming was to be embellished in the eyes of the common bystanders. Kagome walked closely behind Kimiko and observed her surroundings in awe.

They walked past buildings and structures she'd never seen before. The techniques and materials were of something fantastical she had never encountered even in the modern world, also the scale of the buildings and the whole city was grand. A stark contrast to the shabby camp she had stayed at previously mids the youkai. In the mortal realm, they lived like beats, in this demonic realm they seemed to live like gods. Even a beggar in this place would surpass the luxuries human kings had.

Now wherever she laid her eyes upon, the buildings were surrounded by gardens, fountains and temples. Every gate, door, pillar and roof was garnished with detailed engravings and every tree was draped with colorful orizuru. Gold and precious gems plated the exteriors like they were as common a building material as wood and stones were in the human realm.

“Keep up, will you.” Kimiko's buoyant voice commanded from some distance Kagome had failed to notice had grown between them. She had been so taken aback by all her senses that she didn't even realize being left back.

The thing that amazed her even more than the stunning architecture were the city dwellers that past her by. Elegant tall inugamis with pristine white hair clad in finest silks and satins. By their side, tanukis, shigikamis and all sort of demons wearing dazzling armour, wands, beads and masks. Children ran brushing past Kimiko's guard, laughing and howling.

Kagome tucked a rogue hair back and as her fingers were caught in the black mass dangling off her head, she realized she must've looked like a wind-blown mess under her disguise. A no-mark mids warriors and kings, out of place and time. A rouge brought up by the feeling of inferiority tainted her cheeks and she hurried her steps behind Kimiko.

***

After a relatively short walk, they arrived at yet another gate which surrounded a building Kagome could only describe as a feudal fairytale palace. The building look deceivingly demure in its dull white exterior, in contrast to other buildings they had earlier walked by that were extravagant carmine, deep onyx or even solid, unapologetic rhodium. But Kagome knew that it probably was just a testimony of Sesshoumaru clan's restrained taste on aestethics and display of true wealth that they didn't need to boast with noble metals on their exteriors. Kagome hadn't yet fully realized Kimiko's stature in the inugami community but she was beginning to understand that the Sesshoumaru clan was something to the likes of royalty here.

The elegant-looking hand-crafted metal gates opened, soundlessly, and the guards released Kimiko and Kagome to the reception of a welcoming house staff waiting by the gates. The young women were guided indoors and the guards headed back to their posts.

***

The house staff consisted of toads, ferrets, tortoises and of things and creatures Kagome could not identify. Everyone bustled about, one shouted something, another was easing Kimiko of her shoes while someone else was barking orders at lesser servants about baths, food and a fireplace. The human had never thought much about it, but she had never seen a servant inu youkai. All the busymen, servants, vendors, messengers and whatnot were always demons of different breeds other than inu. She loosened the shawl on her head. A sudden understanding dawned on her that the snootiness always exhibited by Sesshoumaru and the other inu youkai she had encountered had a strange basis in a twisted truth. It seemed that inu youkai were truly regarded as some sort of superior “master” race by all other demons. And Kimiko was crème dela crème.

A small knot twisted her chest. What a cruel joke to be born a half breed of a demi-god and a human which was even beneath the lowliest of the yokai servants. That which was the existence of Inuyasha. Being surrounded by this galore of luxury, Kagome, for the first time truly understood what that unfortunate mixture of blood had robbed from Inuyasha of his heritage.

She didn't have long to mull on those thoughts as a busy-looking older amami rabbit demoness ushed her to move.

“Through there.” She simply said and nudged Kagome forward.

“Wha--” Kagome tried to protest and search for Kimiko in all the hustle of swirling servants to no avail. Helplessly surrendering to the rabbit's guidance, she walked out of the entrance hall through a smaller, vacant room, through another room, and another and another until they had arrived to, Kagome assumed, to the servants' quarters. The demoness walked past Kagome to a sliding door closet at the back of the room. She pulled out an similar uniform to hers. She glanced at the uniform and then eyed Kagome from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. Displeased with whatever mental measurements she had taken, the rabbit tossed the uniform back to the closet and dug out another one from the bottom of the closet, then she grabbed a pair of geta footwear and placed them neatly on top of the folded uniform.

“Follow.” She once again concisely commanded and exited the room. Kagome followed suit and tried to keep up with her guide's pace while they nearly ran through rooms and hallways. Sometimes they would pass by other demon servants who were stopped in their tracks to openly stare at Kagome and some even turned their backs to her to whisper and laugh. Kagome didn't have time to give those gossipy hines a piece of her mind, but she made a mental note of it.

Before Kagome was able to finish her reprimanding mental letter to those mockingmaids, they had arrived to the very back of the building and stood at a very sturdy sliding door. Having lived her whole life in a temple and being the granddaugher of a temple and imperial architect enthusiast, Kagome instantly recognized that the sturdier shoji was for lavatory – a bathroom door essentially.

The older woman demoness slid the heavy door open and Kagome was nudged into a dimly lit, damp room that had the dull and earthy basement smell to it. The only source of light was from a small dormer above a wooden ofuro. There was a shallow basin next to the ofuro tub and a shanky rack that had bottles of liquid and coarse cloths piled next to them.

Kagome was told to remove her clothes and hand them over. She was elated by the prospect of a bath, but not so keen on having one in front of a woman she didn't know.

“Umh. Could I please have some privacy?” The human woman modestly pleaded.

The amami rabbit looked perplexed at first but the expression quickly tightened into a scowl.

“You do realize this facility is usually shared by at least five servants at a time? You are as lone as you will ever be, so get in the ofuro, princess.” The snarky retort was like a bucket of cold water, enhanced by the swift hands that made quick work to remove the shawl from Kagome's shoulders. Not wanting “help” undressing, Kagome submissively walked to the darkest corner of the room while the demoness heaved the sliding door shut. Kagome quickly undid her clothes and tried to hurry to the tub without being exposed to that scrutinizing gaze of her sour companion.

As Kagome eased herself into the tub, the earlier mental remark of bucket of cold water realized itself into a tub full of icy cold water. All the fine hair on her body stood out, teeth began reflectively rattle and as she hugged herself tightly, she could feel that the small supple beads on the tip of her breasts had become like rock-solid tiny pebbles.

'I-i-it'ssss.. f-f-reeezingg' She clattered and shivered as the older servant poured some soap on top of her and began scrubbing down her skin hard with one of those coarse cleaning cloths that must have been a precursor to modern sand-paper. The human's trembling and wincing did not go unnoticed by the demoness who replied with much the same kindness Kagome had gotten used to from demons.

“Get used to it, princess.”


****

After getting rid of most of that stench that the human was encased in and burning those abominations of clothing of hers, the amami rabbit knelt in front of her mistress' bedroom and announced herself. Sliding the shoji open, taking one step inside the room, kneeling again and turning to shut the shoji, she finally faced her mistress and gave a deep bow.

Kimiko was sitting beside her bedroom door that opened a view to a blossoming garden which splayed beyond her patio. But even the view paled in comparison to it's mastress' beauty, anyone would have thought.

“So. What do you think of her?” The fluttering soft voice asked the amami rabbit.

The servant being addressed, poised herself to a straighten her back to a dignified straight posture.

“She would require a lot of training. It's obvious she's not not from a lineage of service. Not accustomed to hard work.”

Kimiko had already made similar observations. Whatever this human was, she was not a commoner. A mortal of great latent spiritual powers, someone who drew in the attention of Toga who usually gave no interest in anyone. The human woman even had managed to pique interest within Kimiko herself, something she could not even recall happening for a long time.

“Fuyuki. Not a word of her presence here to anyone. If I hear so much as a chirrup from petite aves of her being her, I'll have your tongue.”

Fuyuki instinctively grabbed her left hand which was missing one finger.

“She's not here to replace you. I value the work you've done for my family for centuries. She's here simply because I took pity of her situation. Think of her as your help. But if she proves to be a bother, I'll have no qualms over disposing of her.”

The rabbit demoness knew Kimiko's good graces were not easily achieved but very easily lost.

“Yes, milady.”

Kimiko waved her hand at Fuyuki to signal she was dismissed. The amami rabbit leaved as swiftly and silently as she had arrived.

The mistress of the household kept her serene gaze on the mellow garden that bent around the large castle and the surrounding gates. Soft breezes tickled the evergreen leaves on her ancient Sakura trees.

'He deserves to squirm a little.' She smiled to herself, flashing a row of pearly white teeth.

***

“What do you mean 'nothing'!” Toga bellowed to a toad servant that was huddling his shoulders upwards in a defensive gesture at his master's rage.

“A human can't just disappear from all planes of existence!” He growled and grabbed his minion by the collar of his armored suit.

“Find her.” He hissed between his gritted teeth and pushed the distressed green ranidae backwards.

The toad gulped audibly before nodding and hurrying away from Toga's sour field of vision with a squad of other servants. When the inu youkai was left alone, his shoulders slumped and he let out a miserable sigh.

'Kagome'.