No longer agonizing that Kirara would spill her darkest secret, Kagome experienced a period of relative respite. It didn’t last long, however. In comparison to the stark distress she’d felt for herself and her son, her growing restlessness hadn’t registered. But now that the first threat had passed, she felt her irritations chafing more and

That night, Kagome couldn’t sleep. As Inuyasha snored on untroubled, she tossed and turned in bed beside him, unable to get that damning look of Kirara’s out of her mind. Somehow, Kirara knew. Somehow, though there was nothing Kagome nor anyone else could apparently detect, Kirara had discovered what Kagome wished most desperately to hide—

Still admiring the fine little set of clothes, Kagome didn’t notice at first how darkly silent Inuyasha had become. Tensely, she turned to him. The rich patterned silk slid through her fingers, rustling in the feathery wrappings as it fell. “…Inuyasha?” she asked him faintly, holding Shin protectively to her. “Those fancy clothes,” Inuyasha muttered,

As a village priestess, Kagome had been around a lot of babies. If she put her mind to it, there were certainly a few things about Shin that struck her as not exactly ‘normal’ for a human infant fresh out of the womb.  He was very quiet for one thing. Instead of wailing, he just

As the days passed and the moon cycled slowly through its phases, baby Shin remained perfectly and perplexingly human. At first, Kagome was frankly too tired to be troubled by it. Too in love with her newborn son to worry over what form he took. She might be biased, but in her eyes he was

At Kaede’s doorstep, Sesshoumaru landed. With Kagome in his arms, he shouldered through the patchy door curtain. A startled gasp rent the air. Through the haze of her pain, Kagome saw Rin kneeling there on the tatami across from Kaede. They’d been having tea, it seemed. “Old woman,” Sesshoumaru said, striding forward as Kagome groaned

Kagome sank back to the ground. Her kimono was wet beneath her, and growing wetter. Blankly, she stared ahead toward the sun-dappled trees. Her vision blurred. Tears trickled down her cheeks. This can’t be happening, was all she could think. “Kagome,” a voice said to her, as if from afar.  But when she turned her

Kagome returned home in a morbid haze. As she trudged up the porch steps in the deepening dusk, it was like she’d lost time. She was so spaced-out she didn’t even realize she’d been soaked to the bone until Inuyasha arched a brow at her and said, “What happened? You fall into a creek or