“Shit!” Kagome gasped.

Wrenching back her hand, she stared down at the table—and the bloodied root slices swimming atop it. Pain seared white-hot through her wounded finger. In her distraction over Sesshoumaru, she had cut herself open to the bone.

Kaede stood, Rin rising as well—their own injuries momentarily forgotten. “Kagome-chan…are you all right?”

“Kagome-sama!” Kanako wailed from behind her, seizing hold of her arm as she caught sight of the carnage at last.

“Stop that,” the miko bit out, shaking her off. “I’ll be fine.”

In an embarrassed fluster, Kagome healed the gash in her knuckle. Her breath hitched slightly at the drain of her reiki. Even for a minor injury, mending oneself in this way was terribly costly. The price of desperation, Miroku had once described it.

Transmuting spirit into flesh…what youkai managed without a second thought, humans could only accomplish painfully and arduously—if at all.

Sweeping the ruined roots into the pail with the peelings, Kagome scrubbed down the table as tense silence descended once more over the room and its occupants. While Kaede was solemn, Rin was crestfallen. Kagome felt a prickle of guilt, but there was nothing for it. Better she be the one to rip the scales off their eyes.

Of course, Sesshoumaru himself was dispassionate as ever in the face of her distemper. With an air of studied courtesy, he raised the teacup to his mouth again, though she knew he did not care to.

A well-mannered beast, indeed.

Catching her glaring eye, he set down the cup and pulled a silk pouch from his haori. It vaguely resembled a coin purse. Glancing back toward his downcast ward, he extended the pouch to her.

“A gift,” he said simply, folding his hands into his sleeves as she accepted it from him.

Kagome set down her knife altogether as Rin pulled wonderingly at the strings. It wasn’t unusual for Sesshoumaru to bring her presents. In the past, it had been kimonos mostly. But since Rin had become a priestess, he’d seemed to understand that such gifts were no longer appropriate.

As Rin’s hand vanished into the pouch and reappeared with a strand of glistening pearls, Kagome’s jaw fell slack. The young woman clapped a palm to her own lips in surprise, her eyes alight as she glanced between the necklace and Sesshoumaru.

“They’re…”she said faintly, as the pearls trickled through her fingers like beads of milky light. “Sesshoumaru-sama…they’re beautiful.”

“…Aye,” Kaede echoed in awe.

“Put them on,” he said.

Rin’s fingers fumbled with the silver clasp. Reverently, she looped the shimmering string of pearls around her neck.

“Beautiful,” Sesshoumaru agreed, his gaze equally resplendent.

With a tremulous smile, Rin rose and went over to the looking-glass perched on a shelf, Kaede in tow. As the two women admired the gift, Kagome endeavored to retain her composure. It wasn’t just the flagrant extravagance that riled her. It was the object itself—a necklace, of all things. Strung with beads like the rosary she herself had bound him with. Beads of pearl.

There was a salaciousness in the sheen, the arrangement. A declaration in the sealing click of the clasp. It wasn’t just a necklace—

It was a symbol.

As Kagome’s gaze shifted from Rin to Sesshoumaru, there was no room for misinterpretation in the heated stare that met her own. He was baiting her, she realized. He had been baiting her this entire time—trying to drive a wedge between herself and the others. Kagome alone stood in the way of the Beast’s unchecked devastation. Unable to overpower her directly, he was attempting to weaken her through alienation—by hacking away at her emotional foundations, her friendships and loyalties.

And she had been letting him.

With tremendous willpower, Kagome relinquished her white-knuckled grip on the table edge. Forcing down her base anger, she broke his hateful gaze and crossed over to his ward. Guardedly, Rin looked to her, her fingers curling loosely—yet possessively—around the string of pearls. The immodesty of the gift was starkly apparent. That it should be refused point-blank was obvious to all, yet Kagome could see the want reflected in Rin’s dark eyes, the gleam of defiance.

Kagome despaired at the sight, though it wasn’t her apprentice’s fault. Sesshoumaru’s lust poisoned everything it touched. But Kagome would protect her. She would contain it.

She would contain him.

Lightly, circumspectly, the miko skimmed her fingertips along the strand of pearls. A silky, liquid coolness seeped into her skin. It wasn’t sorcery—but the sensation was entrancing all the same. Gently but firmly, Kagome locked eyes with her protégée.

“It’s a lovely necklace, Rin-chan. You should wear it on your wedding day.”

A soft, grateful sigh left Rin’s lips at this concession. Tearfully, she nodded in reply. Kagome smiled as she turned away, leveling her gaze upon Sesshoumaru.

“Could I have a word with you?”

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi