Inu Yasha sat on his bed and watched the girls fix their hair through the open bathroom door. Specifically, he watched Kagome, though there was something fascinating and exotic about the entire ritual. Though his own hair was longer than any of theirs, all his involved was washing, drying, brushing and tying back with a cord. For women, however, preparing one’s hair for a special occasion involved an arsenal of dangerous-looking appliances, brushes, combs and sparkly doo-dads. It was also a bonding experience: The women chatted, giggled, gave each other advice and admired one another’s clothes, hair and skin. Choosing hair fobs generated the kind of excitement Inu Yasha or Shunusuke might have devoted to choosing a new sword. One girl would pick a pretty comb but instead of sticking it in her own hair, she’d hold it out to one of the other girls and tell her how good it would look in her hair. The other girl would insist the comb would look better in the first girl’s hair, then help her put it in place. This went on for more than an hour while the fascinated demon turned into a fascinated human without noting the change as he usually did. Also before the hour was out, Inu Yasha was joined by the other guys, though only Miroku seemed quite as interested in the ritual as Inu Yasha was.
        "Hey, Inu Yasha," Shippo teased as he bounced on the bed behind his friends, "maybe you should ask them if they’ll put some of those sparkly things in your hair!" The little kitsune had disdained a tuxedo in favor of an upgraded version of his kimono, which Yuki had found for him in a doll shop of all places (no where else had things his size that didn’t look like a toddler should be wearing them).
        Inu Yasha spared him an unamused growl and continued watching Kagome’s back get more and more bared as more of her hair got piled onto her head. She was even pretty from behind, he thought, and her skin was so smooth. He was snapped out of his reverie when Shippo thumped him on the head to get his attention.
        "Inu Yasha, are you listening to me?" He pouted. "I asked what you were going to tell Kagome’s human friends about your new look."
        Inu Yasha rubbed his skull and shrugged. "I don’t know. If it was just my hair I could say I dyed it, but it’s everything." He sighed. "Maybe I should go to Sesshomaru’s hiding place…"
        Kagome hesitated, then pushed the comb the rest of the way into Yuki’s hair. "If you think that’s best, Inu Yasha…"
        The guys were startled to discover the girls weren’t too distracted to know they had an audience. Even Myouga blushed with embarrassment. Inu Yasha cleared his throat and replied: "I don’t want to. Anyway, Hisui and Mikoto probably know already, thanks to that spy that smelled me at the shrine. I just don’t know how to answer the questions from other people about the way I look."
        "You could tell them the truth," Kagome suggested as she resumed fixing Yuki’s hair. Meanwhile, Sango was playing with Rei Rei’s hair, trying out different barrettes and combs, while Yuki did her hair. "It’s not like any of the ones not working for demons could really do anything about it. And like you said: Hisui and Mikoto probably know already, so the secret’s out, anyway. Just tell anybody who asks that you’re a half-demon, and this happens to you sometimes," she had a sudden thought and her painted lips twisted into a smug smirk," then tell them Mikoto Asano gets that way, too."
        Inu Yasha shook his head. "But he looks more human than I do when it’s not his time. I mean, he doesn’t have ears like mine to give him away, just the eyes, claws and white hair."
        Kagome frowned. "Oh yeah. I wonder when his time is, anyway. Yuki?"
        Yuki looked over her shoulder at her brother, who shook his head. She replied: "I’m sorry. We can’t tell you that. It’s not the new moon, though."
        Rei Rei glared at her in the mirror. Just when she was ready to accept that Yuki and Shunusuke weren’t their father’s allies, one of them would say something like that. Oh well, she guessed Mikoto’s time of the month wasn’t important unless it was tonight, after all. Anyway, what if Shunusuke’s claim that his father hadn’t killed the Great Demon of the East was true, and the real enemy was Hisui? Was Mikoto an accomplice, or just as much a victim as she was? If he was, why did he take her wand and banish her to China? Were those Hisui’s orders? And why hadn’t he denied his involvement in Kouri’s murder when she’d accused him of it during their battle? All things considered, it seemed to Rei Rei that Mikoto Asano was guilty, either because he’d struck the death blow or because he’d helped or covered for the real murderer: His mother Hisui Oukami, the Great Demon of the North. Either way, Mikoto was going down.
        "I guess you’re right, Kagome," Inu Yasha was saying resignedly, "I’ll just tell the truth if I’m asked. I have Sesshomaru’s people to back me up now if anybody wants to make something of it."
        Miroku chuckled. "I never thought I’d see the day when you depended upon Sesshomaru."
        Inu Yasha bristled at that. "I don’t depend on him for anything! I’m just saying I can count on more back-up than just you guys now that I’m working for my brother, that’s all!"
        "You’d be dead if it wasn’t for Sesshomaru," Shunusuke reminded him.
        Sigh. "That doesn’t mean I depend on him! I’m his brother, so he sent his guys to cure me of that poison."
        "I don’t think being his brother was the reason—"
        Inu Yasha turned around and smacked Shunuske with more speed than he was usually able to muster in his mostly-human condition and snarled: "Whatever! He helped me out, but that doesn’t mean I’ll go whining to him for help every time I get in trouble!"
        He would’ve said more, but Kagome decided she’d had enough of that argument and left the girl-bonding session to give her boyfriend a piece of her mind. She stood before him with her hands on her hips and bent over to put her face in his. "Now you listen to me, Inu Yasha," she began, then realized his eyes were fixated on something a bit south of her face and chucked him on the chin to make him look at her. "My eyes are up here. Thank you. As I was saying… Sesshomaru in this time is a lot different from Sesshomaru in your time. For one thing, he’s more mature, but most importantly, he doesn’t want you dead. I think that’s a really big improvement over your usual relationship, don’t you? Also," she ticked off more reasons on her fingers, "he doesn’t want Tetsusaiga, the Jewel, or to kill any of your friends, and he doesn’t take orders from Hisui. He didn’t have to hire you, either, you know. I think that’s going to work out really great, especially after this whole thing with the Jewel is over and…and…" she blushed, "you know. Whatever you decide to do afterwards." She straightened up and looked away. "I mean, if you want to stay with me and…you know…you’ll need a good job, right?"
        He reached up and took her hand, forcing her to look at him, and smiled. "That’s one of the reasons I’m working for him," he explained haltingly, "I wanted to be able to provide for us…someday, you know, when the Jewel is whole and Naraku is destroyed and all that." He brightened: "And Sesshomaru can teach me to use weapons from this time and all that weird shit he’s always using. Spy stuff. It’ll be cool!"
        Kagome had to smile at that. Inu Yasha as a James Bond-esque secret agent wasn’t such a stretch as she looked at him in a tuxedo with his long, dark hair pulled back. He really did look sexy like that. Especially with big, brown eyes and more color to his face. She liked how small her hand felt in his, too, now that she took the moment to notice. Too bad they weren’t alone just then…
        "AHEM!" Myouga loudly cleared his throat and hopped onto their joined hands with an important scowl on his face. "That will be quite enough of that! You two will behave yourselves tonight, or I will simply have to go to Kagome’s mother about it! Do you understand me, you—urk!"
        Inu Yasha squooshed the little flea between finger and thumb and tossed him over his shoulder to be caught by Shippo. "Save that lecture for Miroku and Yuki, Flea. Kagome’s not that kind of a girl."
        Kagome blushed. Miroku grabbed Myouga from Shippo and shook him in front of his face. "Now see here, Flea! What two consenting adults do in the privacy of their own bedroom is their business, not yours!"
        "I’m—only—concerned—about—Inu Yasha—and—Kagome!" Myouga stammered between shakes. He wriggled out of Miroku’s fist with a glare for those who dared laugh at him (everybody) and added: "But if I was concerned about you and Miss Asano, I would tell you that girl is much too young to be doing those sorts of things! From what I understand about the customs of this time, a woman of Yuki’s age is too young to marry, much less be doing married things. And as for you, Priest, if you think you can make love to a woman without any kind of consequences—"
        Miroku tapped him on the head and snapped: "I have every intention of marrying her if she’ll have me, but as you’ve so depressingly pointed out, she’s a bit young for that!" Suddenly he realized he’d declared his intentions to the group before he’d brought them up with Yuki and wanted to hide under the bed. "Er, I mean…um…that would seem to be the, uh, I mean…that’s what I’d like to…"
        Yuki stared blankly at her own reflection in the mirror while Miroku tried in vain to explain himself. Finally, she asked quietly: "So that’s the only reason you’d want to marry me? Because we had sex?"
        "NO!" Miroku hurried to assure her. "That’s not a good reason to marry anybody! Just because the sex is incredible—"
        "That’s more than we needed to know…" Shunusuke muttered.
        "—doesn’t mean the marriage will work. There has to be love and friendship and trust. Things you can’t get from just sleeping together!"
        Yuki left the bathroom to stand in the bedroom doorway so she could look him in the eyes. He gulped and forced himself to return her steady gaze. "So what you’re telling me is," she said carefully and tried really hard not to grin like an idiot, "you’re in love with me already?"
        "’Already’?" Miroku blinked. "Uh, did I move too quickly?"
        Everybody’s jaw dropped at that.
        "You jumped into bed with her just hours after you met her, and you want to know if you moved to quickly?!" Inu Yasha gasped.
        Yuki gave him a severe look. "Leave him alone!" Then she smiled at Miroku. "It was love at first site, right Miroku?"
        The priest almost fainted with relief. He nodded vigorously and gloated at the others. "That’s exactly right! Sometimes, you just know—"
        "Oh stop it!" Shippo snorted. "You run after ev—mrf!"
        Shunusuke slapped his hand over Shippo’s mouth, then tucked the struggling kitsune against his side. "Love at first sight is a beautiful thing. Let’s hope it lasts. So…marriage, you think?"
        Yuki glowered at her brother. "Laugh it up, Jerk Boy…"
        "I’m serious!" Shunusuke turned a deadpan look on Miroku, who looked even less happy with him than Yuki. "I’m sure my father will be delighted to know your intentions with my sister are perfectly honorable, Sir."
        "Shunuske…"
        "In light of that, I think you should do what Inu Yasha did and line up a job in this time," Shunusuke went blithely on, still hanging onto Shippo, who’d given up on escape. "My father pays very well, if you’re interested in that kind of work. Otherwise, there are many very fine shrines and temples in this time."
        He at last released Shippo, who nipped Shunusuke’s hand for his trouble, then went to sit on the other side of Inu Yasha.
        Shunusuke rubbed his finger and gave Shippo a hurt look. "I don’t think Yuki wants to live in the Feudal era, though, I really can’t speak for her, of course."
        Miroku and Yuki exchanged meaningful glances, then Yuki said: "You’re closest. You pound him."

         Later…
        "So, are you gonna marry Yuki, or what?" Shippo whispered in Miroku’s ear to keep Yuki from hearing the question. He sat on the back of the couch where Miroku was sitting with Inu Yasha and Kagome. Yuki was in one of the chairs with Sango in the other. Rei Rei was having a serious talk with Shunusuke out on the porch in an attempt to ascertain once and for all what side he’d take if she had to fight his father.
        Miroku slouched a little lower in his seat and flipped to another channel on TV and had to laugh when he realized the show was full of magical girls in silly costumes doing battle with evil. "I haven’t officially asked her," he growled at Shippo. "Quit asking me about it!"
        "By the power of the Moon, I punish you!" Cried the girl with the funny yellow buns in her hair. Sparks flew and a bolt of light smote the girl’s enemy, an evil-looking woman with dark hair and a sexy dress.
        Inu Yasha snatched the remote out of Miroku’s hand and changed the channel. "At least she didn’t make Pretty Space," he muttered. First channel: Cooking show. Second channel: Bonsai gardening. Third channel: Talking head. Fourth channel: Fat guys in loincloths, wrestling.
        "Sumo!" Kagome exclaimed. "Don’t change the channel, Inu Yasha!"
        Sango squinted at the TV, then turned a sour look on her friend. "That’s disgusting, Kagome. How can you watch that? I’ve never liked Sumo."
        "No?" Kagome asked innocently. "I think it’s cool! But if you don’t like it…" She took the remote from Inu Yasha and surfed. Cooking, cooking, anime, anime, anime, anime, anime, cooking, sappy romantic movie, anime, anime.
        "What’s with all the—whatever that is?" Inu Yasha asked, waving his hand at the TV when Kagome found another channel with anime on it.
        "Anime," Kagome and Yuki replied in unison. "It’s really popular," Kagome added.
        "No shit," Inu Yasha growled. "Why do people want to see that instead of real people—Wait! What was that one?"
        Kagome backed up a channel to an anime featuring a bunch of guys doing battle with demons on the streets of Japan. "Oh! Yu Yu Hakusho! I love this one!"
        "Leave it there!" Yuki agreed excitedly.
        They watched the show for a few minutes, then Inu Yasha complained: "Too much like work."
        "Yeah," Miroku and Shippo agreed. "We do this kind of thing all the time," Miroku boasted.
        "No big deal," Shippo added smugly. One of the characters turned from a red-haired human to a tall, white-haired kitsune, and Shippo’s eyes lit up. "See? They even had the brains to get a kitsune on their side!"
        Miroku chuckled. "So did they also have the brains to get a priest?" He raised an eyebrow at Yuki, who made a so-so motion with her hand.
        "A sort of a priestess, actually. She’s a great martial arts master, who also has a temple. Genkai’s her name. She’s not in this scene, though. Just the guys."
        Inu Yasha noticed that the bad guys all appeared to be demons of some kind. That wasn’t really fair, he thought. After all, he was half-demon and he was one of the good guys. "How come their only demon is a kitsune?"
        Kagome pointed at the screen. "See the guy with the spiky black hair with white in it? The one with the katana? That’s Hiei. He’s a demon and he’s one of the good guys."
        That made Inu Yasha feel a bit better. Not only was Hiei a demon, his weapon of choice was a sword. Good lad. Inu Yasha could relate to this guy, especially since he didn’t smile a lot, indicating to him that this Hiei took fighting seriously. Also, he was very good with that katana of his. Hmmm…

        Out on the porch, constructive things were being accomplished, though Rei Rei was no closer to trusting Mikoto Asano’s children than she was after the battle in Pretty Space. Though they were willing to defy Mikoto, it looked like Shunusuke and Yuki would be neutral, rather than fight their own father. However, Shunusuke seemed convinced that Mikoto had been framed by Hisui just as completely as Rei Rei had been.
        "So she blamed you to get Dad to take your wand and banish you," Shunusuke explained to his less-than-agreeable audience, "and blamed Mikoto to make you fight him. She probably wanted him to kill you, but I know my Dad, and he wouldn’t kill a girl who’s even younger than Yuki. Anyway, he probably figured out that you couldn’t have killed Kouri."
        Rei Rei huffed and looked away. "So if he didn’t kill Kouri, why didn’t he tell me that when we fought? I asked him directly!"
        "I don’t know," Shunusuke sighed. "He might’ve been afraid of what Hisui would do to Kouri's son if he told anybody the truth, or maybe Hisui outright threatened to kill Shouri, too, if Dad didn’t play along." He shrugged. "I really don’t think Dad killed Kouri! Their friendship wasn’t faked, it’s just not like my father to do that to a person. He’s honorable, no matter what you think. I don’t think his mother is, though. You know she’s killed all of her other children, don’t you?"
        No, Rei Rei didn’t know that and it turned her stomach to think about it. "Nice family."
        "I don’t acknowledge her as part of my family," Shunusuke retorted tightly. He clenched and unclenched his fists in silence for a while, then sighed. He started to run his fingers through his hair, then remembered it was tied back and let the hand drop back onto the railing. "In a way, I think it’s good that she’s involved with Sesshomaru. I don’t think she can manipulate him like she can my father." He looked into the magical girl’s eyes and smiled a little. "If you want a good ally, one who could really stand up against Hisui Oukami and have a prayer of beating her, I’d talk to Sesshomaru."
        Rei Rei considered his words for a while as she gazed into the darkness between the trees. The sea was beyond them, but she couldn’t see it with just the stars to light the night sky. "Sesshomaru," she thought ominously, "the Great Demon of the Western Lands. Can he really help me fight Mikoto and Hisui?" She wondered what he was like. If he was anything like his brother, he was a royal pain in the ass, but from Shunusuke’s tone, Rei Rei guessed Sesshomaru wasn’t like Inu Yasha.
        "He said he wanted to talk to me," she told Shunusuke after a while. "I wonder what he’ll say." She took a step back so she could bend over and put her chin on her arms on the railing. "Probably take my wand away and send me back to China. Gods, have you any idea how long it’s going to take me to make up all the homework I’ve already missed?!"
        Shunusuke forced himself not to laugh, though it was pretty funny that after all she’d been through she was most worried about making up her homework. "I don’t think he’ll send you back to China."
        She sighed. "Oh well, at least I get to go to a Ball. Too bad I’ll probably have to fight instead."
        "Yeah," Shunusuke agreed, "pity, that. And Just when I was starting to make some headway with Sango, too."
        Rei Rei rolled her eyes. "Poor baby." She had to admit Shunusuke was pretty good looking, for the son of her most hated enemy, but she’d never liked him, even when he was still in high school. It was just because all the girls were madly in love with him, and it was like the guy could do anything perfectly: Sports, music, academics, Kendo. And he was rich on top of it all. Something had to be wrong, she’d always thought, then when Mikoto killed Kouri, she’d figured it out: He was part demon. Being related to Mikoto and Hisui didn’t help his image any, either, she thought smugly. Sango could have him.

        Sesshomaru tucked a cell phone into his breast pocket and hooked his beeper onto his belt under his jacket. Then he buttoned up the jacket and turned in front of the mirror to make sure everything was in order. Hisui was still in the bathroom putting on her face. This was the part of going out that he never understood: A woman had a limited amount of face, so why did it take her so long to paint it? He’d even watched the process once or twice in his lifetime and still didn’t understand. As far as he could see, it involved colored cream, a few different colors of powder, a colored pencil and some sticky black goo that was brushed onto her eyelashes to make them look longer and thicker. Ah, and he couldn’t forget that awful stuff that she smeared onto her lips and which got onto his when he kissed her, no matter how much sealer she put on top of it. Lipstick. Dreadful stuff. Though he did find flavored lip gloss entertaining. Anyway, near as he could tell, the goal was to apply as much make up as possible with the end result being that the woman looked like she was wearing no makeup, except for the lip and eye goo. That being the goal, Sesshomaru didn’t understand why the girl didn’t just apply lipstick and mascara and be done with it! And powder, oh how could he forget powder, since a woman must surely spend half of her adult life in the ladies’ room powdering her nose with other women. He suspected women went to the bathroom in packs in order to discuss their dates’ various merits or lack thereof. The nose powdering was just a flimsy excuse to put their heads together and tear apart their men, then they would return to the table with benign smiles and lay on the charm.
        He adjusted his cufflinks, paced about the room, sat down by the table and drummed his claws on its surface. He checked his watch. "Hisui! What are you doing in there?"
        "I’m almost finished, Darling!" She called back sweetly.
        "You’ve been ‘almost finished’ for forty-five minutes," Sesshomaru muttered under his breath. She had a tiny face and short hair, so what in the hell always took so long?!
        "I heard that!"
        Sesshomaru sighed, got up and went out onto the balcony for some air that didn’t smell like their respective colognes and her cigarette smoke and to think about the problems of a human Inu Yasha and a magical girl. No, he decided, the problems tonight would be Hisui and Mikoto—more the former than the latter, from the information he’d been able to gather. Disgruntled minions were great sources of dirt. Disgruntled kitsune minions even better. Now, it was highly probable that Shinnai was lying, since Sesshomaru could really think of few other reasons why the man would talk to his greatest romantic rival. Therefore, Sesshomaru had gone to other sources to check out the kitsune’s claim that Hisui had killed the Great Demon of the East, then blamed Rei Rei for the fun of humiliating her fallen foe by making other demons believed he’d been felled by a magical girl. Hisui hadn’t planned on Mikoto keeping the girl’s magic wand, however, and had wanted the powerful artifact for herself. Unlike Hisui, Sesshomaru wasn’t inclined to underestimate Mikoto, but the fact that Hisui had apparently just let Mikoto keep the thing told Sesshomaru that part of Shinnai’s story at least wasn’t true. Furthermore, if Mikoto and Kouri had been so close, why would Mikoto let his friend’s killer live? True, she was a teenage girl, but once transformed, she was a super hero…of sorts. Then it hit him: Mikoto had seen his own daughter in Rei Rei, so he merely disarmed and banished her. After all, without her wand, she was just another schoolgirl. Too bad Yuki couldn’t be so easily disarmed. Sesshomaru remembered the swath of destruction Yuki’s power had left behind when she’d saved Kagome from Mikoto’s operatives.
        There was another interesting point: Yuki and Shunusuke had defied their father more than once that week. Why? Especially Shunusuke, who was the official heir? According to the boy, he disapproved of his father’s plan to take the Jewel of Four Souls from Inu Yasha, but why continue to defy him after he renounced those plans?
        And why did Rei Rei believe Mikoto had killed the Great Demon of the East? All of Sesshomaru’s information, from Shinnai and others, pointed to Hisui as the slayer. Had she done it, then framed Mikoto for the murder? Frankly, he wouldn’t put it past her.
        Sesshomaru sighed heavily and wondered anew what he saw in that woman, then the patio door slid open to reveal his reason: "Gods, you’re beautiful!"
        Hisui slunk into his arms for a kiss, then pulled away to put on her lipstick.
        "Beautiful and deadly," Sesshomaru thought. His kind of woman. Too bad she was so childish sometimes.
        She gave him a smile that set his heart aflutter and held out her hand. "Shall we go, Darling? I’m simply dying to see your annoying little brother as a human!"
        Sesshomaru took her hand and let her lead him back into their room, then out of it. "I’m sure he can’t wait to see you, either, my dear."
        Giggle.