The Sins of the Father

~ One Hour Earlier – Tokyo, 2012 ~

Souta was asleep on the couch.

Of course, while Yuki didn’t plan it, it certainly made things easier for her.
Perhaps she could leave now, while he was dozing and therefore unaware of her
actions. That would be the best case scenario, since she really wasn’t all
that fond of knocking him out. Souta was her favorite uncle, after all.

Of course, Souta was her only uncle.

‘No, that’s not quite true anymore, is it?’ Yuki thought, as her eyes
widened briefly in realization. According to that kitsune she did have another
uncle – one who was a full-blooded inu youkai.

Yuki felt a tiny rush of excitement as she thought of her father’s half brother.
According to Shippo, the dog demon had been extremely powerful – even more so
than her own father had been. If she was able to make the well work for her,
she would have to seek him out. The opportunity to actually meet Sesshoumaru
was just too tempting to pass up. With the way that Shippo had described him,
he must have truly been an awe inspiring person. Her father and her uncle must
have been very close. Shippo didn’t say anything about their relationship,
but Yuki just had a feeling that her father held his older brother in high regards,
and it would be wonderful to hear about her father from someone who had truly
known him.

A brief thought passed through her head, and the young hanyou’s expression
hardened momentarily in response.

Her mother had truly known her father. She had loved him, mated him, and yet
she never once told her anything about him. Her mother had been weak in that
way and had never once gathered the courage to talk to Yuki about her past.
Instead, she had someone else do it – a complete stranger. Well, perhaps he
wasn’t a stranger to Kagome, but Yuki didn’t know that at the time because her
mother never talked about anything that she might have considered important
– like the fact that she had met her father 500 years in the past. Like the
fact that in her youth she had befriended and adopted a young kitsune youkai.
Like the fact that she had once fought against an evil hanyou whose actions
were affecting her life even now.

And like the fact that her father had a brother.

Yuki ran her hand through her hair and scowled.

Whatever. So her mother was too much of a wimp to tell her anything herself.
It didn’t really matter, she supposed. Shippo had enlightened her quite a bit
about her mother’s past and also her father, and now that she was going to be
traveling down that well she’d be able to seek out and find someone who could
tell her all the things that the kitsune had left out.

She had so many things she wanted to ask him, too - not only about her father,
but about herself. Yuki had at least a hundred questions she needed answers
to about her strength, her abilities and her heritage. They were questions
that her mother had never been able to answer, because no matter how much time
she had spent in the company of an inu-hanyou, she was not one herself.

Not that Sesshoumaru was one, but having been raised with one he certainly
would have a better insight on them than most. At least that was what she hoped.

Of course, there was one question that nagged her the most. It was a question
about her body.

Yuki was thirteen years old and would be fourteen in less than a month. Her
body was almost fully developed. And yet, she had never had a period. Not
even in her human form. She never put much thought into it until one of the
girls in her class had asked her if she had a tampon – which she didn’t, of
course, but the question had made her realize that most of her female classmates
had already reached that point of development. So why hadn’t she?

With a grimace, Yuki looked down at herself with interest. She was tall and
athletic, she had a slender waist and her breasts were probably as developed
as they were going to get, given that she wore a C cup. She definitely had
the body of an adult, so why didn’t she get a monthly cycle like the rest of
the adult human female population? Certainly, the answer must lie somewhere
within her inu-youkai heritage, and even though the question was as embarrassing
as hell, she would not pass up the opportunity to ask him about it when she
finally got to meet her uncle. Hopefully, he wasn’t the squeamish type who
embarrassed easily about ‘feminine’ issues.

After all, she had no one else to ask, and for a few years now she had been
plagued with nightmares that she would just go into heat like a common bitch.

Yuki shuddered at the thought.

Yes, she would certainly seek out Sesshoumaru – if only so that he could set
her mind at ease.

A loud snore brought Yuki’s attention back to the dozing Souta.

‘Sesshoumaru… ‘The Killing Perfection’… what a wicked name. I bet he’s
really cool. I doubt he’d be the type to fall asleep while watching a kung
fu marathon, leaving a half drunk beer on the coffee table and half eaten popcorn
kernels all over himself, the couch, and the floor.’ She thought with an
affectionate smile as she glanced at the amusing, but somewhat pathetic figure
of Souta. His mouth was wide open, and he was snoring. Also, since he was
quite tall, his legs were not so gracefully hanging over the armrest.

Normally, the way he was sprawled out would invite any number of malicious
pranks by Yuki. That arm that was so casually tossed over the side of the couch
would probably be more ‘comfortable’ in a basin of lukewarm water. Not
only that, but with the way the rubber sole was peeling away from the leather
on his right boot, she realized with a twinge of regret that this was the perfect
opportunity to give him a hot foot – it was something that she had wanted to
do since they had watched that one Tom and Jerry episode together, and she had
a box of wooden matches set aside just for that. But under the circumstances,
she felt that she’d better not.

‘Uncle, you’re getting off easy…’ She thought with a small smile.
Internally, however, she was grateful. After all, with him asleep, she was
essentially alone. Hitomi had left an hour ago for work, and therefore Yuki
was not going to get a better chance to pack and head for the well house.

As quiet as a mouse, Yuki left the room. She took the stairs two at a time,
making certain that her footfalls were nearly silent as she headed towards her
room. She needed to retrieve a couple of things first before she could leave,
after all.

A quick glance out the window told her that the sun was setting – not that
she needed to glance out the window to know that, because Yuki had her own internal
clock. Since her body underwent a drastic metamorphosis each night, she had
long since learned to recognize the preliminary signs.

A tiny shiver passed through her, indicating that her transformation was imminent.

The first thing that changed was her heart rate. Ever so slowly, her heart
rate increased, as the blood that traveled through her veins shifted from human
to something a bit more primal, more demanding. This was followed by a general
tingling all over and a slight tugging pain at the top of her head. Her fingernails
then hardened and elongated into pointed claws that were sharp enough to tear
flesh away from bones; each small change helping to make her into a dangerous
predator.

She began to pant as her lungs expanded to accommodate the additional oxygen
she needed as a hanyou. Meanwhile, her eyes stung and her vision blurred when
her normally big brown eyes shifted to a muted gold. Her visual acuity simultaneously
increased and decreased as this happened. Her peripheral vision sharpened,
and her distance vision improved dramatically, however she lost the ability
to distinguish between certain colors and the things that were closest to her
became somewhat blurry. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do about
it since the color blindness and nearsightedness were part and parcel of being
an inu hanyou, and as such were traits that she shared with other canines.
Fortunately, the changes to her eyes were followed by a huge increase in her
ability to distinguish scents. Her enhanced sense of smell more than compensated
for the slight losses she suffered with her adjusted hanyou eyesight. And when
she coupled her enhanced sense of smell with her enhanced hearing, she became
able to identify her surroundings in a way she was never able to do as a mere
human. Overall, her senses performed a hundred times better. Therefore, Yuki
hardly noticed the minor drawbacks with her visionstyle='color:red'>.

Unfortunately, her enhanced hearing came with a drawback that made it difficult
for her to blend in with ordinary humans.

Yuki reached up to gently tug on one of her new, highly sensitive canine ears
and frowned. She could probably explain away everything else, but her ears
would give away her true nature each and every time.

On the top of her dresser, she had a small, cedar box which contained some
pins and bands that she used to pull back her hair. Also, the black wig that
she had snagged from Hitomi was haphazardly tossed on top of her bed.

She grabbed the wig and studied herself in the large mirror above her dresser.
She had never tried to put the wig on over her canine ears and wasn’t entirely
sure how it would work.

Yuki pulled her long white hair back into a band, and flattened her ears to
the top of her head. She had to make a conscious effort to do so, but it was
the only way that she was able to get the wig over them. Unfortunately, as
soon as she had the wig positioned correctly, she tried to relax her ears and
they popped right back up and pushed the wig up with them.

She grabbed a couple of the pins and sighed. There was no other option for
her unfortunately – she would have to pin her ears back. It would be uncomfortable,
and it would affect her hearing some, but at least she’d be able to keep the
wig lying flat.

Satisfied that the wig was positioned correctly, Yuki turned towards her backpack
in the corner. She grabbed it and haphazardly emptied it out onto her bed,
getting rid of her books and homework and making room for more important things
– like supplies. It wasn’t as if she was planning on studying biology over
on the other side of the well, after all.

She checked all of the side pockets and paled when her hand briefly touched
something plastic.

She had completely forgotten about her brief conversation with Watanabe.
With a grimace, Yuki slowly withdrew the plastic bag and studied its contents.

At first glance, one would think the bag contained fruit chews, but Yuki knew
better. Watanabe had given her three hits of ‘Frute’ – a highly potent street
drug that was currently all the rage. It came in liquid form and was rumored
to be quite bitter, so the pushers injected the drug into fruit chews in order
to make it palatable – thus the name. Doing so also kept the drug discreet.
A non user would automatically assume that the ‘fruit chews’ were the innocuous
snack that they appeared to be, and not a dangerous, highly addictive narcotic
with hallucinogenic side effects.

The drug could also be injected directly into the blood stream for a more potent
and immediate effect, but then its usage became more than obvious since the
injection site would turn a bright red and remain that way for several days.
Needless to say, the edible version of the drug was far more popular amongst
the younger crowd.

With a rapid shake of her head, Yuki thrust the plastic bag back into the small
compartment on the side of her backpack. She couldn’t think of anything else
to do with it at the moment, and she certainly didn’t want to leave it in her
room. Souta might not recognize them for what they were, but Hitomi surely
would. And if such a thing were to get back to her mother when she returned,
Yuki would be one dead hanyou. She highly doubted her mother would give her
the opportunity to explain.

And what would she say, anyway? After all it would be so easy for her to take
the bag and dump its contents into the toilet. One simple flush and the Frute
would be history.

So why was she hanging on to it?

‘Better not to examine that one too closely right now.’ Yuki thought,
as she began to stuff her backpack full of the things she thought she would
need – underwear, toiletries, a few pairs of jeans and some sweaters. Once
she thought that she had packed enough clothes, Yuki grabbed a dark blue knee
length trench coat from her closet and tugged it on. It was perhaps a bit warm
for the season, but it was necessary, since it had been modified by her mother
to hide the Tetsusaiga in its folds.

Next to the cloak hung a dark blue baseball cap that Yuki brushed off as unnecessary,
now that she had the black wig. Both the trench coat and the cap were meant
to conceal her hanyou nature on the few occasions when it was necessary for
her to go into public in her hanyou form.

Lastly, Yuki grabbed the Tetsusaiga and secured it to the inside of her coat,
and glanced at herself in the mirror.

She looked mostly human, if a bit Goth, and figured she could probably pass
as eccentric. Except that her eyes were still a very inhuman shade of gold.
Yuki grabbed a pair of sunglasses from her dresser and put them on. Well, they
definitely hid her eye color, but she wasn’t entirely sure how they’d be accepted
in Meiji Japan, so she took them off and stuffed them in her pocket. She figured
she’d put them on if necessary, and since she planned on staying out of sight
during the darker hours for the most part, hopefully they wouldn’t become necessary
at all.

Hurriedly, she grabbed her pack and ran down the stairs. A brief glance into
the living room reassured her that Souta was still out like a light. Good.
Quietly, she snuck into the kitchen and started raiding the cabinets for ramen
and other things that were easy to prepare. There wasn’t much – her mother
had pretty much taken everything with her – but she was able to find a few cups
of ramen, some candy bars, and some fruit snacks. She made sure to store the
fruit snacks as far away from the pocket containing the ‘Frute’ as possible.
Kami forbid that she make that mistake.

Another quick check on Souta, and Yuki was out the door, making her way over
to the well house. She was going to make it. She really was going to do it,
and no one was going to be the wiser. She was almost there, when –

“Good evening, Yuki-chan! Is your mother around?”

Yuki winced when she heard that voice of all voices from behind her. How come
she didn’t hear him approach? Oh yeah, the wig. Not that it mattered – for
some reason neither Yuki nor her mother was ever able to hear him approach.
Not even when she was in full hanyou form, which, now that she thought about
it, was somewhat worrisome.

Yuki frantically ruffled through the pockets of her coat and found her sun
glasses. After putting them on, she turned around to face her visitor with
a forced grin.

“Hello, Hojo-san. No, okaa-san is… taking a holiday.” Yuki answered, thinking
fast on her feet to try to come up with a plausible excuse for her mother’s
absence. She didn’t know if Hojo would accept her answer – he worked with her
mother after all, since Hojo was the hospital pharmacist – but it was worth
a shot. At any rate, she needed to get rid of him so that she could get down
that well before Souta woke up.

“Really?” He asked with a frown. “Eri-san said that she hadn’t been herself
the past few days, and she hasn’t been at work, so I thought I’d stop by. But
you said she’s on holiday?”

Yuki nodded, trying desperately to look as naïve as possible. Not that it
mattered, it was highly doubtful that Hojo-san would be able to detect the lie
in her words regardless. The man was as thick as they came.

Hojo had always been a part of their life, unfortunately. He was always around,
always watching, and always offering to help - especially when one or the other
of them fell ill. It was unnerving how he would appear with just the right
remedy. And half the time, he would know that they were coming down with something
or other before even they did.

It was… odd how he would seemingly seem to know that something was going
to happen to them before it did. Kagome never noticed this, but Yuki did.
In fact, there was once was an occasion when they might have been robbed, but
for Hojo’s timely appearance. The always smiling pacifist had chosen that particular
time to show up with a particularly sharp and nasty looking sword that he had
‘inherited from his father, and wanted to show to Kagome-kun, since he knew
that she had an interest in ancient weaponry.’ The idiot that had broken in
via their back door took one look at Hojo’s long and sharp sword (it had put
his own serrated knife to shame) and quickly ran right back out the way that
he came in. That was a bit stupid on the robber’s part, since it was highly
doubtful that Hojo had even known how to hold the sword correctly, let alone
wield it.

Still, the whole incident had made Yuki suspicious. Of all times for Hojo
to show up, with of all things, a sword, it had to be right then. It was as
if he had an inside track on what was happening inside the Higurashi home, and
it was really quite creepy. But when she had called him on it, it turned out
that Hojo was as dense as ever and just happened to be in the right place at
the right time.

“Yuki-chan, was that one of your friends? I didn’t know that you were expecting
company… gomen… I think I may have scared him off. Would you like me to run
after him?”

His response had just confirmed to her how much of a baka he was.

But he was an intuitive baka.

Whatever. He was annoying.

But even though Yuki didn’t like him very much, she had to admit that he was
very nice to her mother. In fact, her mother had once told her that Hojo-san
had been extraordinarily kind and helpful to her when she had been a young,
unwed pregnant teen. Even though he had apparently had a crush on her mother
at the time and must have been devastated by her pregnancy, he had proven to
be an unwavering friend to her when most of her other so called friends had
snubbed her due to her predicament.

Kagome had also told her how Hojo-san had often accompanied her when she went
out in public during that time. His presence protected her from many a disapproving
glare, since those that saw them together had assumed that he was her husband.
Yuki snickered at the thought. It was obvious even to her that Hojo had wanted
– and still wanted – to take on that particular role.

Fortunately, her mother didn’t look at him in quite that way. And as she took
in his soft brown hair, brown eyes, and clueless smile, Yuki shuddered. Thank
god her mother at least had some semblance of taste. There was such a thing
as ‘too nice’, after all.

“Well, at least that’s better than the alternative, I guess. I feared she
was falling ill again. You know, your mother was always sick when we were in
school – remind me to tell you about it sometime.”

Yuki groaned.

“You already have told me, Hojo-san. Several times.”

‘And I certainly don’t want you to get into it now – I need to go before
Uncle wakes up.’ Yuki mentally added. Not that she would want to listen
to him anyway. Sitting there while Hojo-san prattled on about all of Kagome’s
exotic high school illnesses was the ultimate torture, in Yuki’s book.

“I have? Oh… I don’t remember. So, when is your mother coming back, Yuki-chan?”

Something flashed briefly through Hojo-san’s eyes, putting Yuki on alert.
She narrowed her eyes, and her hand automatically went to hover over the spot
where the Tetsusaiga was hidden beneath her cloak.

“She’ll be back when she comes back, Hojo-san. Now if you don’t mind, I have
something that I need to do.”

“Ah… yes. I imagine that you do.” Hojo answered.

He stood there for a moment, completely still as he slowly regarded Yuki.
The omnipresent smile was gone, and his countenance had shifted into something
weary and knowledgeable.

The overall effect was disconcerting, and the young hanyou felt like she was
under a microscope. Had it been under any other circumstances, she would have
freaked over the weird behavior that Hojo-san was suddenly exhibiting. Had
her mind not been entirely focused on jumping into the well, she might have
noticed that his eyes flashed momentarily as he regarded her. She might have
noticed the brief spike in youki coming from him, when there should have been
none at all. But she did not notice those things. Instead, she merely felt
relief when Hojo’s smile returned and his expression changed to something innocent
and familiar, and when the young pharmacist tossed her a bottle of pills, she
reached out and caught it deftly.

“What is this?” She asked, bemused, as she stared at the brownish orange plastic
bottle with a white top. She shook it. It was completely filled with capsules,
but there was no label on the front of the bottle indicating its contents.

“Just an antibiotic. Keep it, Yuki-chan. And give it to your mother when
you see her. She… will have need of them.”

“But… okaa-san’s not sick!” Yuki said, her voice filled with confusion.

Hojo didn’t answer her accusation. Instead, he merely shot her an unreadable
look before he turned to walk towards the long steps leading down to the street
and away from the shrine. After a moment he stopped and turned his head somewhat
so that he was looking at her out of the corner of his left eye.

“And Yuki? Keep it safe.” He said cryptically before continuing.

Yuki watched him for a moment, completely baffled by the strange confrontation.
She shook the bottle of pills in her hand, and shrugged her shoulders. It wasn’t
that it was unusual for Hojo-san to give Kagome something like this – they had
a whole closet filled with homeopathic remedies for everything from backaches
to boils, courtesy of Hojo-san – but the way he was acting was definitely… off.

“Weirdo.” Yuki muttered under her breath as she casually stuffed the bottle
of pills into the other, empty side pocket of her backpack. She shrugged her
shoulders and started walking toward the well house again.

After she had entered the well house, the man known to her as Hojo turned and
stared at the decrepit building with a mixed expression of worry and nostalgia.
A hooded figure joined him and they watched in silence as a soft blue glow became
visible through the small gaps in the wood that the building was constructed
with.

“I don’t agree with what you just did, you know. Don’t you think we have manipulated
time enough by now? Besides, by changing one thing, it may change everything.
You may have just made things… worse.”

The other figure spoke in a dulcet, very feminine voice.

The man known as Hojo balled his hand into a fist so tight that a drop of blood
fell from where his exceptionally long fingernails cut into the soft meat of
his palm.

“It is worth the risk.”

The figure beside him merely shrugged her shoulders, and the two of them began
the long descent down the shrine steps.

~*~

~Meiji Era~

Yuki wasn’t sure the well was even going to work for her.

Needless to say, she was pleasantly surprised when immediately following her
daring jump into the dark abyss of the old well, she felt the old magic surround
her. For a time, she was weightless, surrounded by the stars of the night sky,
and all her worries seemed to fall away. She wondered if this was how her mother
felt the first time she jumped through the well, and then remembered how her
mother had been instantly attacked by a centipede demon, and Yuki felt what
she thought was a sympathetic ache in her side at the thought.

“Givvvveeee itttt tooooo usssss…”

The soft and creepy voice pierced the silence of the nothingness that surrounded
her, and Yuki’s head jerked upwards in alarm.

‘What the hell?’

For a moment, she could see several sets of glowing eyes amongst the stars,
and her heart began to race in response. However, by the time she wrapped her
hand around the hilt of the Tetsusaiga that was tucked safely behind the voluminous
fabric of her coat, the magic had receded, and when she looked up she saw the
night sky instead of the roof of the well house.

And there were no more glowing eyes.

She must have imagined the whole thing.

Whatever. Glowing eyes and spooky voices aside, Yuki decided that well travel
was cool. Pleased with herself for succeeding in traveling to what she
assumed was the past, Yuki bent her legs and used all of her hanyou strength
to jump out of the well.

“Fuck, that was… wicked!” Yuki said with a smile. Her eyes widened
momentarily in shock when she noticed the man gaping like a fish in front of
her.

“Oh shit.” She muttered under her breath. Would she have to
fight? After all, she had no idea how Meiji era – she made a rapid assessment
of the guy – warriors would take the appearance of a cursing, strangely
dressed girl suddenly sprouting from an old well.

She tilted her head quizzically as she continued to regard the dark haired
stranger. Did she even make it into the Meiji era? After all, the guy had
a hair cut the likes of which would fit in with no trouble at her school. She
highly doubted that the spiky look was the height of fashion in late 1800’s
Japan. Actually, if it wasn’t for the lack of a well house, she might have
thought that the well spit her out someplace else entirely, based on the stranger’s
appearance.

“Tenshi… uh… miko-sama! How can I assist you?”

The man suddenly crawled over to her and bowed at her feet. Yuki quirked a
brow in amusement. Being mistaken for a goddess or a priestess was definitely
not something she had anticipated, but it sure beat the hell out of being recognized
as a hanyou. Never the less, the big guy’s groveling was becoming awkward,
and he looked completely uncomfortable doing it. In fact, she doubted he had
ever bowed to anyone, much less a thirteen year old hanyou before. Therefore,
the prankster in her couldn’t resist the opportunity to have some fun with the
guy.

A wicked smile slowly worked its way across her face, and if the big guy wasn’t
so busy staring at the dirt he might have questioned her validity as a so called
tenshi or priestess right then and there.

“Rise to your feet, oh lowly one, and tell me your name. I command this of
you.”

A little voice in her head hollered loudly that she was probably signing her
death warrant with her audacity, but she didn’t care. It was too much fun to
watch the tall, muscular, brown-eyed, dark haired,
handsome warrior rise to his feet and look at her with reverence.

Wait – Handsome? Where did that come from?

“Sagara Sanosuke, Miko-sama… you are a miko, right? Or a tenshi?”

She couldn’t help it, she smirked.

“I am no miko, mortal one. In fact, I am the great goddess Higurashi Yuki…
and you should bow before me!” She said in a tone that was regal and lofty.
However the effect was ruined when, after she saw his eyes glaze over in appreciation,
she muttered “such a baka…” under her breath.

Of course, the man who had just introduced himself as Sanosuke caught the softly
muttered insult, and his eyes narrowed as he became abruptly skeptical of the
so-called tenshi that not only had a mouth that rivaled his own, but also seemed
to be having a good laugh at his expense.

“Hey – what kind of miko or tenshi uses that kind of language? You curse like
a sailor. What are you, really, and where did you come from, girl?”

“That’ll be ‘girl-sama’, Sanosuke!” Yuki answered haughtily, and she
smirked at him. However, her hand drifted within her coat to hover over Tetsusaiga’s
hilt when she realized that the big guy was not amused. In fact, he was about
as far from amused as possible.

His cheeks were reddening with what could only be interpreted as embarrassment,
and Yuki realized that she had been caught. Not only was she caught, but based
on the way the big guy was grinding his teeth, he probably wanted to make her
pay for humiliating him. Or, at the very least, he probably wanted her to launch
into a big ole explanation of what she was and where she came from – the truth
of which would mean her death. After all, Shippo had said that youkai and hanyou
were not seen kindly during the Meiji era. In fact, according to Shippo, they
were not seen at all.

She briefly mused over her options, and after a moments consideration, mentally
checked ‘beat him into a bloody pulp’ off of her list.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t handle him – it was that she had no desire to draw
attention to herself just yet. And getting into a brawl right off the bat was
contrary to her goal of finding her mother. Therefore, the wheels in her head
spun as she tried to think of a way to get out of this confrontation peacefully.

There was nothing for it. She’d have to distract the big guy and make a run
for it. It was the oldest trick in the book, but hopefully it wasn’t one that
was widely used in the Meiji era.

She swallowed the lump that suddenly appeared in her throat, and pointed to
a spot over his shoulder.

“Look! It’s… it’s a youkai!”

‘Lame, Yuki… like that’s going to work.’ She added mentally, and therefore
she was taken by surprise when the big guy’s eyes widened in fear, and he turned
to face the spot that she’d pointed to.

‘Huh. Either youkai are more prevalent around here, or that guy is the
biggest superstitious fool I have ever seen.’ She thought, as she took off
at a run. She didn’t get far, however, before she felt a stinging pain in her
side and Yuki fell to the ground. Something had hit her. Something… sharp…
and glowing.

Her eyes filled with horror, she looked down at her side and realized that
she had been hit with a star. What’s more, the damned thing was painful and
it was slowly draining her strength.

How could a simple star affect her so much? And why the hell was it glowing?

She reached down to try to pull it out, but quickly pulled her hands back when
they were burned on contact. But while her hands were down there, they had
brushed over something else protruding from the cut. Something that shouldn’t
be there. Frowning, she carefully reached for the cut again, this time taking
care not to brush against the glowing star, and she wrapped her hand around
what appeared to be a cool metal chain, wet and sticky with her blood.

With a sharp pull and a loud cry, she withdrew the chain that had been embedded
inside of her body. In doing so, she dislodged the glowing star and the bloody
piece of metal fell to the ground beside her. Still, the damage had already
been done and the effort of pulling the foreign object from her body had drained
what little remained of her strength. Yuki was shaking from the additional
pain caused by her removal of the chain, and she was rapidly losing consciousness,
but she had enough strength left to hold the foreign item in front of her face.

Her eyes were clouded and her sight was blurry, but she could see that there
was something hanging from the chain. She could also feel it – it had a seductive
energy that called to her, and subconsciously she tightened her grip around
it. Reverently dangling the chain in front of her, she could vaguely make out
the round jewel attached to it. It was dark purple in color, and the inside
of it was swirling with a mixture of reiki and youki that should have cancelled
each other out, but didn’t.

Her vision was rapidly failing her, she was in a tremendous amount of pain,
and she could barely hold on to consciousness; however none of those things
bothered her as she beheld the beauty of the jewel that came from inside of
her.

Something in the back of her mind was screaming a warning, but Yuki ignored
it, instead she used all of her remaining energy to focus on what she held in
her hand.

It didn’t seem right that it should be covered in blood, even if it was her
own, so she painfully wiped the jewel against the soft grass.

Peripherally, she became aware of the fact that others were approaching her
– their voices urgent, and filled with concern.

They didn’t matter.

“She’s over there – I don’t know what happened, I swear. She came out of the
well, and I thought she was a tenshi or a miko. That old man at the inn told
me a big fable ‘bout such a girl coming from the well, and I guess when I saw
her, I thought that there was some truth to the old story. But she’s no tenshi,
nor is she a powerful miko… she’s just a girl, and she’s bleeding on the grass.
Please help her.”

Yuki recognized the voice as the one coming from the man she had met when she
came out of the well. She frowned, and held the piece of jewelry tighter to
her chest.

He would not get her treasure.

“How did she get injured?” Came the voice of a young boy.

Sanosuke sighed heavily.

“I don’t know how it happened exactly. She said there was a youkai in the
area so I turned around and threw one of the stars that the innkeeper gave me
in the direction that she indicated. But instead of going in the direction of
the supposed youkai, it turned around and hit her. Like… like a boomerang.”

There was a brief pause, before someone spoke again.

“Figures. I made those stars for the innkeeper so that he could travel the
woods safely from time to time. They are designed to seek out the closest source
of youki. I imagine that’s why he gave them to you. Once he knew that you
were headed here, he gave them to you so that you could protect yourself against
the youkai and oni that still wander the oni forest.”

It was the boy’s voice. Did he want her jewel? He wasn’t going to get it
either.

“So why did it hit her?”

That Sanosuke really was dense. That idiot wasn’t going to get her
jewel either.

Something was mumbled, but she didn’t hear it, since the wig muffled sound.
Aggravated, she raised her free hand and ripped it off. There, that was much
better. Now she could hear if they were conspiring against her.”

“She’s a youkai??? No… no fucking way… she… she doesn’t look like a
youkai. She just looks like… like a young girl.”

Yuki turned her head and snarled in the direction of the people approaching
her. She couldn’t see them well, they were rapidly fading away, but she could
at least make out that there were three. The man that she had seen earlier,
the boy that she had overheard, and a very, very old miko.

The old miko pushed her way in front of the other two, and was stopped momentarily
by the young boy.

“Tsubaki-sama… be careful.”

Yuki rolled on her back and blinked her eyes at the sightless old miko who
was suddenly standing over her. She growled a warning and held onto her jewel
so tight that the chain cut into her hand, causing it to bleed. She didn’t
care. She’d be damned if that old bag was going to take what was rightfully
hers…

And then the old miko whispered something above her, and despite herself, Yuki
fell into a deep sleep.

She didn’t notice when the old miko bent over and pried the jewel out of her
hands.

She didn’t hear the words that fell from the old miko’s lips.

“So many years… so many lives wasted… my own included… for this.”

And she didn’t see when the old Miko straightened up and ordered the man and
the boy to carry her into the shrine house.

But she did hear the old Miko when she spoke directly to her mind. She heard
the words deep within that silent space between wakefulness and sleep, and she
shivered at the implications.

“You are a fool to bring this here now, young hanyou. You are a fool… and
you are not worthy.”

~*~

A/N: Finally, another chapter! Sorry for the delay, but it was the end of
the semester and I had a couple of papers due and so all my stories suffered.
But I hope this chapter was worth the wait! I apologize for Yuki’s behavior
with Sano… she’s a little immature at times. I assure you, before the end of
the fic she will grow out of it. Right now, she’s at that awkward stage and
she’s at the edge of adult hood. She hasn’t yet fallen over that precipice.
On that note, what an interesting conversation that would be to bring up to
sesshy… boy, does Yuki have the wrong idea about him, ne? *snicker*

Regarding the Yuki/Sano thing, since I’m getting mixed reviews about this “pairing”:
they won’t be able to stand each other initially, but all the tension will eventually
lead to an attraction. It will be a slow burn though, and I’m not entirely
sure where I’m going to take it. I do know that whatever I write it will be
tasteful, considering how young Yuki is. However, keep in mind that Yuki will
not always be so young. ;). Also, one of my reviewers on another site said 'How come
Kagome never detected the jewel on her daughter?'. Well, the answer to that is Kagome
never even detected the jewel on herself until she was pulled into the well. My thought is that
it was the magic of the well that made it detectable. I'll probably touch on that when the time comes.

Also, I’d like to extend a great big thank you to Diane who has beta-ed all
the back chapters. So I will be updating them this week accordingly. Thanks
Diane!

Deep Serenity: Just wanted to let you know that I'm going to put up a modified version of
my story outline up to this point, since I understand that when you are reading an epic, novel length
story over the course of several months, little details become difficult to remember. Hopefully, my outline
will help to bring everything together :).

Japanese Words:

Kitsune – fox

Inu youkai – dog demon

Hanyou – half demon

Kami – god/gods

-chan – little

-san – mr/mrs

-sama – lord/lady

Okaa-san – mother

Gomen – sorry

Baka – idiot

Tenshi – celestial being

Miko – shrine maiden/priestess

Youkai – demon

Reiki – spirit energy

Youki – demonic energy