Curiosity - Chapter 13 - "Getting Acquainted... Well, Sort Of."

Silence engulfed the small hut for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. All stared at the girl who had just moments ago, been slammed into a wall yet again.

Cold eyes stared into the fearless brown eyes of Kagome, who was at the moment standing her ground, so to speak. "I will not back down. I have to get to the bottom of this!"

Suddenly she felt the pressure on her neck tighten, as if to bring her wondering mind back to her attacker. "What do you want now?" She choked out.

"I was wondering when you would decide to make your appearance. Did you not think that I would feel you following us all the way here? I may have been dead for two hundred years, but that doesn't mean that my senses have dulled any." Spoke an angry Touga. "Now I wish to know of all these attempts at taking Inuyasha's birthright Kagome spoke of. Is all of it true?"

He then felt Izayoi touch his arm and he turned to look down at her, "Darling, I think we should worry about freeing Kagome of his hold first rather than hearing of his attempts don't you? I wouldn't want our son mad at us for letting this lovely girl die at Sesshomaru's hand."

"Right as always my mate. Sesshomaru, release her this instant."

Sesshomaru didn't even respond to his father, he only kept looking at the young miko in his clutches. "Human, you dare to call this Sesshomaru 'stupid' and 'idiotic'? This Sesshomaru will not tolerate such things being said and for that you must die. No one shall disrespect this Sesshomaru in such a way." With that he tightened his hold on the miko one more.

Kagome was hardly breathing now; she brought up both of her hands to clutch the demon Lord's wrist in a feeble endeavor o remove his hand from her neck. Knowing this wouldn't work in the long run, Kagome narrowed her eyes and daringly choked out, "I am not... not... afraid of you." And then her hands began to glow faintly, whether consciously or not no one knew.

As Kagome began to fall into the darkness, the glowing only became brighter and that was when Izayoi noticed it. She tugged on her mates sleeve while looking desperately in Sesshomaru's direction. Izayoi knew that her mate's eldest son didn't exactly like humans, but the last thing she wanted was for him to die just when he had the chance to be with his father again.

Seconds went by and Touga didn't respond to her tugs, only looked on towards the young miko, who was staying conscious only by a thread. Finally she grabbed a hold of his ear and jerked him down to her, "If you don't hurry and physically remove your son from that girl he will be inadvertently purified!" She whispered harshly.

A quiet chuckle was her answer, which only infuriated her more. "Mate, Sesshomaru is strong enough to withstand being purified, we have nothing to worry about."

"Aye, you may be right. But if ye truly wish to be reunited with Inuyasha ye will stop yonder Lord before he kills Kagome, else you wish to face his wrath and that of their group. If ye really are the boy's parents come back from the dead only Kagome will be able to convince him. She is the only one he trust completely, even more so than my sister." Input the elderly miko.

With the thought of not being brought back together with his son without the help of this woman, Touga quickly made his way to his eldest side and placed a firm hand on his wrist. "Sesshomaru, you will release this woman now." He murmured.

Hard amber eyes turned to gaze at the man next to him, contemplating whether or not to follow through with the request. "Hn, this Sesshomaru does not show mercy to any human. She cannot be allowed to say such things and not be punished."

"You will release her this instant. Do not make me show my status in this pack to you."

Growling could then be heard coming from the current Western Lord and his hand began to spark green with his poison as he started to add his claws into the mix of things, defying his father even further. No one could tell him what to do; he was the Lord of the West! He can do anything he wanted because of his title.

Just as he was about to deal the final blow and end this miko's existence, everyone's attention was turned to the entrance of the hut.

"Lord Sesshomaru! Where are you?"

All eyes were on the small girl wearing the orange and yellow kimono standing at Kaede's door, while the child's eyes were staring at Sesshomaru and the body he was holding against the wall.

"My Lord what are you doing?" She asked as she walked towards the towering dog demon, ignoring the questioning looks from the other adults. Wide eyes filled with curiosity that only a child would have starred up at the fearsome Western Lord and then to the young miko pinned against the wall, still barely clinging onto reality. She instantly saw the green surrounding his nails and turned back to her Lord.

"Lord Sesshomaru are you going to hurt Lady Kagome? She didn't do anything wrong did she?" The young girl received no reply and looked back to Kagome then again to Sesshomaru with pleading eyes, "If you hurt her then Rin will be sad. Rin doesn't like to see people die; Rin has seen so many die already." She said as she hung her head low.

Silence clung throughout the hut while all the occupants stared at the seemingly human child until they heard a resounding thump, at which everyone glanced towards the sound and saw Kagome once again upon the floor, taking in big gulps of air.

But everyone turned to the child once again when she began to cry out, "Thank you Lord Sesshomaru! Rin is happy now!" She smiled up at him while hugging his leg. A few moments later she realized someone was looking at her, that was when she noticed Touga bent down to her level in front of her.

"Hello, what is your name and how do you know my son?"

Rin let go of Sesshomaru and pointed to herself, "I am Rin and Lord Sesshomaru saved me a long time ago from wolves. Who are you?" Then she cocked her head to the side and gazed up at Sesshomaru, "You have a papa? Why don't we ever visit him?" She asked curiously while both Touga and Izayoi were both trying to contain their laughter.

"Well my name is Touga, and yes he does have a papa, everyone does. But I have been away for a long while; perhaps now that I am back you can visit." He told Rin as he was standing back up, only to look at Sesshomaru.

"Don't give humans mercy huh?" Touga said under his breath so that only his son could hear.

"This Sesshomaru doesn't have to explain himself to you. Let us go Rin." He responded as he walked past everyone and out of the hut. Rin knew of course that they were heading back to the castle and skipped off after him, but not before turning back to the occupants of the hut.

"I am glad that I got to meet Lord Sesshomaru's papa! I can't wait to visit you again, bye!" And with that, she skipped back outside towards Ah-Un, got on him and followed diligently after her Lord.

"Well that certainly was odd. He never did like humans, so what in the world made him open up to that little girl? I just don't understand why he believes he is superior to all humans when none of them did anything to him. Maybe Kagome knows what happened, or perhaps Inuyasha." Izayoi thought forlornly.

Their attention was instantly back onto Kagome who was at the moment was standing up, while leaning heavily against the wall, and trying to make her was over to supposedly Inuyasha's parents. Before she even took a step Kaede was there and making her sit back down on the wooden floor.

"Nay child, stay there and rest, ye have been through enough today." Then Kaede turned to look at the regal dog demon. "May I suggest we start over, perhaps hear how ye came to be alive again?"

"How who is alive again?" Kikyo asked from the doorway. She scanned the room, eyeing her sister, her reincarnation, and then the young woman who appeared to be a princess.

"She must be the one who was supposedly brought back to life. But it isn't Urasue's work; I would be able to sense dark magic throughout her aura if it was. Her aura is completely clean, how curious."

Her eyes finally came across the dog demon. Kikyo settled on him for a while, just taking in his form, knowing that he looked familiar but couldn't exactly place who he was. Finally, it clicked in her clay head who he was and she was once again angered.

"So you have finally given into your beast have you? I knew it was only a matter of time. Now the question is how you did you do it, Inuyasha?" She questioned as her eyes landed back on Izayoi, "And who are you?"

A giggle made her turn to Kagome, "My goodness Kikyo you seem to be misconstruing a lot of things today. That isn't Inuyasha. If you would have gone over his aura with your powers you could have found that out. Even if he did become a full demon he would have still held his demonic aura he has as a half demon."

"Young Kagome is correct; I am Touga, former Dog Demon Lord of the Western Lands. I am Inuyasha's father. The beautiful creature standing to your right is Izayoi, Inuyasha's mother and my mate."

Kikyo was only what they would describe as "speechless" for several seconds before Kaede finally broke the seemingly never ending silence.

"Why don't we take a seat around the fire so that ye may tell us your tale?"

Touga glanced back towards his mate and silently beckoned her to come and sit by him near the fire. Once they were all seated around the roaring fire, each with a cup of steaming hot tea, Touga and Izayoi began to spin their tale, but not before they knew the name of their hostess.

"May I ask your name Priestess?" Inquired Izayoi

"Aye, I am the Priestess Kaede, younger sister to Kikyo." She answered while handing Izayoi her tea. As she pulled her hand away to grab hold of her own cup, Kaede's knurled hand was intercepted by a clawed one. She looked up at him with a wondering eye as Touga brought the back side of her hand to his mouth and kissed it gently.

When he removed his lips he still kept a hold of her hand and gazed at her with an admiration.

"Une telle belle prêtresse."

Kagome nearly choked on her tea when she heard this. She turned to stare at Touga, who had finally let go of Kaede's hand, while Kaede herself looked puzzled as she was trying to figure out what Touga had just said to her.

"Pouvez-vous parler français?" (Can you speak French?) Kagome asked excitedly.

The demon turned to her with wide eyes, before answering.

"Oui je peux." (Yes I can.)

"C'est merveilleux! Où avez-vous appris?" (That's marvelous! Where did you learn?)

Touga gave her a small smile before replying. He was certainly intrigued by this girl, not many demons and even fewer humans in this time knew how to speak a foreign language.

"Je vous remercie. Une des choses qui doit être appris à être un Seigneur est de savoir comment parlent des langues différentes. Française vient de se passer d'être l'un d'entre eux."

(Thank you. One of the many things that have to be learned to be a Lord is how to speak different languages. French just happened to be one of them.)

"Vous voulez dire, il y avait des Français au Japon à cette époque? C'est impossible, personne n'a vraiment navigué près du Japon à l'époque." Kagome asked curiously.

(You mean there were French people in Japan at that time? That's impossible; nobody really sailed near Japan back then.)

"Vous avez raison à ce sujet, mais il y avait une vie de clan chien démon en France à l'époque. Cousins de la nôtre en fait, et tout ce qu'ils pouvaient parler le français. Maintenant, qui vous a appris? Habituellement les humains n'ont pas besoin d'une langue seconde."

(You are correct about that, but there was a dog demon clan living in France at the time. Cousins of ours actually, and all they could speak was French. Now who taught you? Usually humans have no need for a second language.)

Kagome's face flushed a bit at remembering the reason she had been taught before she answered. "Ma grand-tante m'a appris après son retour d'un voyage à Paris. Elle a dit que ..."

(My Great Aunt taught me after she came back from a trip to Paris. She said that...)

Before she could even finish her explanation, a slap resounded throughout the room and Kagome raised a hand to her now stinging cheek.

"I knew it. You have fooled everyone around you, but you will not fool me. You will stop casting spells this instant witch or you will die at my hand." Kikyo said through clenched teeth, as she raised her hand to slap Kagome again, but was stopped by Izayoi grabbing the back of her kimono and holding her back.

"Priestess you have it all wrong, we were not casting spells if that is what you were thinking. The girl and I were speaking a different language called French, which I must say she is very fluent in and I condone her for that." Touga explained and praised.

Kagome gave a small appreciative smile towards the dog demon as Kaede talked to her sister again.

"Sister, I know of the many things that we were taught to be prejudice of as priestess's, but one of those things was not witches. Or did you forget about our grandmother, hm?" Kaede asked with a knowing smirk.

Kikyo was quiet for a few moments before getting up and leaving. But before she left, she looked to the dog demon one more time. "If you weren't casting spells, then what was it you said to my sister after you kissed her hand?"

Touga didn't even bother to turn around and face her, "I told her that she was a very beautiful priestess."

Kaede's head jerked up at that, cheeks covered in a deep red blush and her eye wide. "He must be daft to call this old woman beautiful. I didn't even consider myself that pretty as a young woman; no one did, except him. Oh how I miss him." Kaede began to get lost in memories past, but was pulled back out when her two guests began to explain their tale.

After about an hour Kagome and Kaede knew how both had come back to the living realm, minus the private parts of course. It was then that Kaede declared that it was time for bed. She went to the corner of her hut and pulled out two extra sleeping mats for Izayoi and Touga, she didn't get one for Kagome for she knew the young miko had her strange sleeping mat from the future.

Within minutes Izayoi and Kaede were asleep and only the young miko and the dog demon were left awake at the late hour. Touga starred at Kagome from his spot against the wall. He found it odd that the miko didn't ready herself for bed.

Kagome knew he was looking at her for she was looking at him out of the corner of her eye as well. "I guess that is one trait that Inuyasha inherited from his father, sleeping against the wall. Both want to be ready for any attack that could happen during the night."

"Why aren't you going to bed? You must be tired."

She looked over to Touga and gave him a look of appreciation for thinking about her. "No offense to you or Lady Izayoi, but I can't help but thinking that you two might not be who you say you are. Or that perhaps you're here to kidnap me on Sesshomaru's behalf to aid him in another attempt at getting Tetsaiga. I just want to be careful for right now, so I will be staying up tonight simply to watch my back. I don't think that Inuyasha would like it if I got into anymore trouble, he'll be mad enough when he finds out about the whole Sesshomaru incident."

He completely understood where the young miko was coming from. If he were in her shoes, he would be wary of them as well.

"Then I wish you a good night Lady Kagome."

Kagome took a sip of her tea before answering. "A good night to you to as well Lord Touga. And please, just call me Kagome; I'm not much of a miko anyways."