The next morning, having little else to do with her, Kagome tasked Kanako with assisting Rin in her duties. As the days passed, however, it became clear that the younger miko was about as happy to be burdened with the waif as Kagome was.

“She doesn’t mind what I say,” Rin complained to her a few weeks later. “She’s always either staring off into space or pestering me with questions about you.”

“Try to be patient with her,” Kagome replied tiredly as she tested the curative they were making. “She hasn’t had much of an upbringing.”

“Why is she even here?” Rin pressed, giving her head an irritable shake. “I still don’t understand it.”

Kagome frowned, but didn’t reply. A few minutes later, Kanako burst into the hut, a shower of dirt falling from the roots clutched in her skeletal fingers. Despite Kaede’s attempts to put some more meat on the girl’s bones, Kanako seemed to possess the sort of poor constitution that would always leave her looking wasted and frail.

“Kagome-sama! I have brought the herbs you requested,” the waif exclaimed breathlessly as she scampered over, Rin glowering at her from Kagome’s side.

“Thanks, Kanako-chan,” the miko said offhand as she accepted the bruised, dirty plants. “I think another handful should do the trick.”

“Yes, Kagome-sama—I will fetch it right away!”

As the girl hastened from the dwelling, Rin turned toward her mentor with arms crossed and brow arched. “Well, she certainly has no trouble minding you, Kagome-chan. The way she acts,” Rin muttered, somewhat snidely, “reminds me of Jakken-sama.”

Kagome stiffened, any allusions to Sesshoumaru putting her that much more on edge. Between her raging hormones, the summer fever rampaging through the village, and the month since Mayuri’s murder hurtling to an ominous end, the miko’s nerves were wearing wire-thin.

“I’ll finish up here,” she said shortly to her apprentice. “You can go home.”

“…Alright then,” Rin said, glancing uncertainly at Kagome as she took her leave.

The moment Kanako returned from her errand, Kagome advanced swiftly upon her. The waif quailed as the miko snatched up the roots and fixed her with a reproving glare.

“Rin-chan says you’ve been giving her trouble.”

Kanako crumpled at Kagome’s feet. Pale bulbous eyes pivoted up in pleading, the girl’s bloodless lower lip quivering. “She is cruel to me, Kagome-sama! She yells at me and strikes me—she hates me I am sure!”

“I don’t have time for this,” Kagome bit out, wrenching the hem of her hakama from Kanako’s desperate grasp as she turned back toward the fire. “Stop misbehaving and do as she says.”

“Please, Kagome-sama—let me assist you instead!” Kanako rasped as she crawled after her. “I will be useful to you, I swear it!”

Kagome grit her teeth at this familiar and tiresome refrain. She had even less use for Kanako than Rin did—particularly now, when her mental and spiritual preparations were consuming the bulk of her attention.

“Go and apologize to Rin-chan,” she said sternly, rounding upon the waif when she whimpered in protest. “Now.”

As Kanako slunk grudgingly away, Kagome released a low breath of frustration. Sweeping her hand through her long tousled bangs, she finished the fever remedy with a burst of reiki and took the kettle off the fire to cool. By the time she’d delivered the curative to the afflicted, the sun had long since set. Trudging back to her home in the near-total darkness, she collapsed rather than sat before the trunk at the far wall and with shaking fingers, extracted Tessaiga.

For a while, she held the sword to her heart and listened. Though it did not brood to her as it had to Inuyasha, she imagined she could still feel it resonating with the low, portentous thrum that had settled in her bones. Her whole body ached, but this sensation was different—deeper. More than an intuition—

A knowing.

And so, when she felt the subtle darkening of the air, when she felt her blood run cold and the boundaries of her reiki barrier warp beneath invisible winds of demonic power, she was as prepared as she could possibly be. Stowing Tessaiga reverently away, Kagome took up her weapons and went out to meet her dead husband’s brother.

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi