As if in a daze, Kagome stood before the porch steps of her crumbling, blasted home. She’d had no destination, after parting ways with Rin. Her feet had brought her here of their own accord.

The house looked about as bad as she’d thought it would. Outside of the town proper, it had still received its fair share of damage. The woods surrounding the glade were as scorched as the house—trees split and blackened as far as the eye could see. Any hope Kagome’d had of reuniting with Ikiryou seemed lost to her now. All she could hope for was that he’d escaped the flames, and fled deeper into the safety of the wilderness.

Choosing to believe it, Kagome ascended the warped, creaking steps. Musty and frayed, the reed curtain stood slightly ajar. Kagome’s eyes narrowed as she glimpsed a flutter of motion through the gap. Reaching instinctively for her bow, she shouldered inside.

Pale shafts of watery sunlight streamed through the holes in the ceiling. It gave the dim, dank space a grotto effect, and its occupant an aura of ghostly mystery. Leaning against the edge of her snarling dog-legged table, Hirokin leafed through the pages of her old, battered geometry textbook, steam curling above the chipped china cup beside him.

Kagome lowered her bow with a scowl. “Am I hallucinating?”

“I should think not,” the demon prince replied, “but then, that would depend on what it is that you see.” Closing the book and setting it aside, he looked at her mildly. “Why do you ask, I wonder?”

Kagome grimaced, letting her weapons slide to the floor. “I haven’t slept much these past few days. When that happens, I can’t always be sure. I see…strange things, sometimes. Visions. It’s like a waking dream—well, more of a nightmare, really…”

Hirokin cocked his head, a scathing smile playing at his lips. “My, that does sound vexing.” As Kagome glowered, he gestured in a smooth, even sweep. “Why don’t you rest here, my lady? The bath is drawn and waiting.” His eyes flicked over her grimy face. “I daresay you could use it.”

Kagome flushed, glancing behind her at the darkly gleaming tub, the air around it balmy and glittering. It did look inviting. Figuring that if this was a death-trap of some sort, she’d be almost grateful for it, Kagome shucked off her sooty clothes and climbed over the ledge. As she eased herself down into the too-hot water, Hirokin’s eyes skimmed over her naked body with passing interest.

“What are you doing here, anyway?” she asked him narrowly, sluicing her chest and shoulders. “Just felt like snooping around on me some more?”

“You needn’t be so suspicious of me, Kagome-sama. Think of me as a kind, elder sibling who looks after your interests.”

“You’re nothing like either of those things,” the miko snapped, glaring at him as he glided over to kneel at the foot of the tub. “What sort of ‘kind sibling’ gets his rocks off me abusing him?”

Hirokin laughed at this, so silvery and light it threw Kagome for a loop. Propping his cheek in one hand, he smiled at her—truly smiled—and Kagome’s face flushed all over again.

“You presume way too much,” she grumbled.

“Do I?”

“Yes—by insinuating that you and I are any sort of ‘family.’ Why even go there?”

“You are still Sesshoumaru-sama’s ‘sister’, are you not?”

“Maybe,” Kagome said lowly, not liking this latest insinuation of his even more. “But what does that have to do with you?”

“Everything,” Hirokin replied in perfect seriousness, the eyes that met hers a serene, ocean blue. “He is, above all else, the brother of my choosing.”

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi