The lady of the castle finished her meal alone. Outside the main hall there was a vague clamor. With a wave, she bid for the doors to be opened, and the petitioners came streaming in. Sitting upon the dais, she repressed a weary sigh. As servants hastened to clear the trays away and bring her

“No,” Kagome shot back. “Why should I expect to be intruded upon at all?” Hirokin smiled. Leaving the window, he paused beside a lacquered table. Servants had already laid out Kagome’s dinner there, in anticipation of her return. Picking up one of the delicately-prepared morsels, Hirokin eyed it for a moment, before dropping it back

From her vantage point on the opposite side of the street, Kagome looked on as she had for some days now, at the little boy who rushed between shops doing the dirty work that others considered beneath them. Though he toiled, emptying slop buckets and hauling around water or wood or bolts of cloth, his

The sprawl of the outlying township had grown. It seemed quite prosperous here, and Kagome was glad. She strolled through the markets and streets, unrecognized and unremarked upon. It was a bustling place, so the presence of strangers passing through wasn’t an uncommon thing, she supposed. A monk at the temple balked at Ikiryou. But

At the sound of his name, the great grizzled dog cocked his head to one side. The feral glint in his eyes receded. Trotting forward, he stood on his hind legs, pressed his forepaws to Kagome’s chest and licked her face. It was wet and smelly and unpleasant, but Kagome couldn’t stop laughing as she

Kagome breathed a sigh of relief as her feet touched solid earth once more. Hanging suspended in a ball of strange, wormy demons as she traversed the boundaries of the mortal realm hadn’t been anything less that gut-wrenching. But the danger had passed. She was back now, at last. As the Shinidamachu slithered away with

In a brilliant arc, Kagome’s arrows streaked toward the inuyoukai pair. Bracing themselves for a seeking strike, they leapt away and whirled. Their plan was to swat down the arrows with spear and whip as they changed course. It was a good plan. But the demons’ instinctive, well-timed slashes met only with open air— Kagome’s

Untouched by Sesshoumaru’s corrosion, the flooring at Kagome’s feet gleamed, a little island of beauty in the desolation that surrounded her. More than half of the tower had been melted away. What remained was a pitiful, broken shell. But Kagome could only feel concern for herself. Sinking to her hands and knees, she hacked up