Kagome wasn’t sure what astonished her more—the fact that Hirokin was part of Sesshoumaru’s inner circle, or the fact that Sesshoumaru had a ‘childhood friend’. Even imagining her brother-in-law as a child was difficult enough, though she supposed he couldn’t very well have sprung from the womb as he was. Shaking her head at all the ridiculous thoughts swirling through it, Kagome stormed off into the woods.

At the first stream she came across, she ripped the shell from her pocket and plunked it down into the babbling current. Despite the weighty sound it had made as it struck the surface, the strange token fluttered winglike to settle on the stream bed, glowing faintly as it came to rest upon the silvery stones.

Kagome didn’t know entirely what to expect from this sort of summoning. But as the river demon appeared moments later in a wavelike surge of youki, she wasn’t the only one unprepared. Hirokin’s blue eyes widened at the arrow blazing a few inches from his face, the expelled water crashing around them in an icy spray.

“You’ve got a way with words, I’ll give you that much,” Kagome said lowly, stoking the flaming point of her arrow anew. “So give me one good reason why I shouldn’t blast your head from your shoulders for all the hell you’ve put me through.”

Hirokin winced as a tongue of reiki licked the air just above his pale, perfect nose. “‘Hell’, Kagome-sama? I am sure I do not know what you mean…”

“Oh, I think you do,” the miko muttered darkly. Ears lowered, the wild dog prowled the raised shore beside her, his gimlet eyes staring Hirokin down just as intently. “Was it just a bit of spring cleaning you were doing, when you decided to flood out the Western Lands? Or were you driving all that riffraff eastward on purpose, hoping a swarm of human enemies would crush me where demons had failed? You couldn’t launch a direct attack against me without pissing off Sesshoumaru, but if I got taken out in some random skirmish, that could never be pinned back conclusively on you.” Smiling in open challenge, she said, “Well now, here’s your chance, Hirokin: Sesshoumaru can’t trace you here, and I’m threatening your life. So why don’t you go ahead and take your best shot at me?—I dare you.”

The river demon had the audacity to smile back. “My,” he said silkily, “how like him you are.” As the miko’s brow creased at this, he continued blithely on, “I must admit, Kagome-sama, you figured that part out far quicker than I’d thought.”

“Which part?” she demanded.

“The ‘purpose’ part,” Hirokin responded mildly.

Kagome’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah, well, I’ve figured out quite a few things about you, Tactician-san. Guess you conveniently forgot to mention that you’re Sesshoumaru’s right-hand man?”

Hirokin’s brilliant blue gaze seemed to flicker. “You never asked.” Drifting a few discreet inches from her, the river demon regarded her from the center of the stream, his expression wry. “At the risk of sounding impertinent, Kagome-sama, do you truly believe I would have bothered to introduce myself to you if I meant to assassinate you from the shadows?”

Kagome frowned. It was the one thing about all of this that just didn’t quite add up.

Lowering her bow a little, she asked him, “What did you mean by it, then?”

“Why, to gain your attention, of course,” Hirokin said smoothly.

The miko scoffed. “Well, you certainly have it now.” Shaking her head, she added on a mutter, “Figures Sesshoumaru’s best friend would be a creep like you…”

A wrinkle of indignation marred Hirokin’s pretty brow mark, before his draconic eyes slid slowly aside. “Is that the sword Tessaiga you are carrying with you?”

“It is,” Kagome said, touching her fingers warily to the frayed hilt protruding from behind her shoulder.

Hirokin’s lips curved knowingly as he approached the shore. For some indefinable reason, Kagome fought the nervous impulse to retreat a step.

“Let me tell you a little story, Kagome-sama, about one of the powers that you and your late husband stole.”

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi