Hirokin inclined his head. Through the damaged roof, a light drizzling rain had begun to fall. The drops glowed as they touched him, and he dissolved shimmering before her eyes. “…Until we meet again, my lady.” Alone, Kagome sank down into the tub, feeling oppressed and bereft all at once. Hirokin, she stewed to herself,

“Some ‘brother’ you’ve been to him,” Kagome said, crossing her arms at the chest. “Or maybe treachery is just par for the course with you.” Hirokin smiled, sharp and inscrutable. Inwardly, Kagome fumed. “You demons,” she muttered. “I really can’t stand you.” “What a foul mood you’re in, Kagome-sama—and no wonder.” Wrinkling his fine nose,

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

With nowhere else to go, Kagome returned to the castle. Damaged though it was, it was the most solid structure still standing in Edo. The courtyards and approach had become a refugee camp of sorts—men hammered and hefted while women scurried about from tent to tent, checking in with one another and tending to the

In the days following the youkai attack on Edo, the sun didn’t quite seem to rise, as if it couldn’t muster the strength to lift the abiding gloom. Ash gray skies brooded over the ruined city. Only the cries of vultures and carrion crows rent the heavy silence, their dark winged shapes peppering the broken,

Kagome frowned, perplexed. Caught off guard, she slackened her hold—on Hirokin and the drawn arrow both. “At last,” he rasped out, slicking a hand through his disheveled hair as he panted and leered, “I am convinced.” Kagome stared hard at him—at the abominable lust that contorted his features, that deranged his demonic aura. Here on

“Tessaiga,” Kagome muttered. “Give me the sword,” Hirokin said, “and I will do as you wish.” The miko advanced a heated step, her reiki searing through the encroaching ice. “Give you Tessaiga—so that you can destroy it? So that you can steal its powers and use them to rebel against Sesshoumaru?” Hirokin’s blue eyes flicked