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CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE: Chapter Seven
 
        Keiichi and Karami returned to their room at the Green Mermaid around nine Sunday night, under escort from Shunusuke and Inu Yasha, who remembered to wear a cap this time. Kagome spent the night at the Asano’s, however. She sat on the edge of Yuki’s bed and gently wiped the girl’s forehead with a cool, damp wash cloth. When she did regain consciousness, Yuki cried until she fell asleep again. Kagome’s presence seemed to comfort her, since she hadn’t awakened in more than an hour. "Poor girl," Kagome thought, remembering all the fights she and Inu Yasha had been involved in. She hadn’t killed anyone yet, but she knew it would tear her up as badly as it did Yuki. Just knowing she’d tried to kill people (demon-people, so far) was painful. How Inu Yasha could kill with a clear conscious was beyond Kagome’s capacity to understand. Maybe it was the time he lived in, when the nation was at war with itself more often than not, or maybe it was just his violent nature (well, he was a demon after all). Kagome thanked the gods that she lived in a time of peace.
         Memories of Inu Yasha in battle melded into less violent memories of him…less violent, yet still scary, always scary with him. She saw him human, beaten and bloodied, offering her his blood-smeared coat to cover her nakedness when she’d almost been boiled alive. With a little smile, she remembered the first time she’d seen Inu Yasha as a human, when the Spider Heads had poisoned him and he’d spent the night with his head cradled in her lap. She could still feel the silky texture of his dark hair on her fingertips, hear his quiet voice as he told her she had a nice smell.
        Kagome closed her eyes and clenched her fist. "I can’t believe I ran away!" He was going to kiss her, and she’d let her embarrassment over Shunusuke discovering them run her off! Inu Yasha must be furious with her. He’d barely spoken to her since and had merely grunted responses to other people. Inu Yasha in sulk mode. "I am such a jerk! He must think I’m a total flake!"
        She sighed and went to the bedroom window. Not much of a view even when it wasn’t dark: Just trees and through them something that glittered, which Kagome took to be the sea, but mostly it was just trees. She rested her elbows on the sill and set her chin on her knuckles with another sigh. What would his kiss feel like? Would it be nice? All warm and soft and gentle? Kagome closed her eyes and was in his arms again. He’d smelled like sweat and rain and fear, still keyed up from the fight and rescuing her from Tachi. That wild look in his eyes and alert prick to his ears were so familiar to her. She smiled at the memory of how safe she’d felt and how fast his heart had beat, like a trapped bird. She dreamed of his kiss on her lips, moving down her neck, his nose nuzzling her, sniffing, drinking in her scent.
        Then suddenly he was there, standing behind her, waiting to be noticed. "Kagome?" He whispered, careful not to wake Yuki. "How is she?"
        Kagome turned around and looked up with her eyes still shining from the memory—and it wasn’t him at all. "Shunusuke," she coughed, and a flush crept across her cheeks. How had she mistaken Asano’s voice for Inu Yasha’s? "Oh, um, she hasn’t woke up at all since you left. I think she’ll be alright for the rest of the night, but someone really should stay with her."
        Shunusuke nodded and sat on the edge of his sister’s bed."He looks awful!" Kagome thought worriedly, then asked aloud: "Are you alright?"
        He shrugged, turning a game smile on her. "I will be. I’m more worried about Yuki right now." His clothes were soaked and water dripped from his hair onto his shoulders and drizzled down his chest. Kagome took the cloth from Yuki’s head and went to the bathroom to freshen it. Yuki had been sopping wet, too, when Kagome arrived. She and Karami had managed to get her undressed and into her nightshirt without waking her, but the sheets had been wet, so they’d had to wake Yuki up anyway to change them, which turned out to be a good thing, since Kagome needed to borrow some clothes, anyway. While they’d changed the sheets, Yuki had just sat in the chair in the corner of the room and shook and wept, her face as pale as a ghost’s. That’s how Shunusuke looked now, Kagome thought: Like a ghost. She lay the fresh cloth over Yuki’s forehead and said softly: "You should put on some dry clothes before you catch cold, Shunusuke."
        He nodded but didn’t get up right away. "Would you like me to bring you something to wear?" Kagome asked. "That way you won’t have to leave her. I don’t mind." Shunusuke smiled. "Thank you, Kagome, but my things are just over there. I’ll be alright."
        Oh, right. She knew that. She’d been looking at his open suitcase ever since she entered the room. Kagome blushed. "How about some nice, hot tea, then?"
        "That would be nice," he replied in a hollow voice, "thank you."
        Kagome nodded and left, closing the door behind her so he’d have some privacy in which to change his clothes, and went to the kitchen to put on a kettle. Inu Yasha was already there, trying to figure out how the stove worked. He’d changed into dry clothes: Jeans and a white T-shirt, but his wet hair had already soaked the back of the shirt. The kettle of water sat on a burner, but he hadn’t sorted out how to make the burner hot. From the look on his face, he was about to the lose the battle with his patience.
        Kagome startled him by reaching between his body and the stove to turn the appropriate dial. "See, this one says ‘left front’, which is where you’ve set the kettle," Kagome explained, forcing a warm smile onto her face, "so you need to turn it on ‘high’—meaning, high heat—so it gets hot enough to boil the water."
        He nodded, choosing to fiddle with the boxes of tea bags rather than meet her eyes. Kagome lay her hand over his before he could get a box open, wrapped her fingers around his and gave them a little squeeze. "I’m sorry I ran away earlier," she whispered, moving close to him and looking into his face. He nodded again but still wouldn’t look at her, so she released his hand and lightly touched his cheek, pressing until at last he turned his head and their eyes met. "I think I was still scared from the attack. I’m sorry. Are you angry with me?"
        Angry? Hell no, he wasn’t angry with her! He just felt stupid for being left in the lurch like that. He shook his head. Kagome slid both arms around his neck and leaned against him. Heart pounding like thunder, Inu Yasha put his arms around her. He closed his eyes, then opened them again with a sigh. He leaned down, and her eyes closed just as they had before. His lips touched hers, delicately at first, then firmly as he found his courage at last. Silk, he thought, warm, honey, soft, delicious. He inhaled her rain-fresh scent, delighted in the heat and softness of her body against his and the pounding of their hearts. He released her lips and trailed fleeting kisses over her cheeks, then down her throat, the fluttering of her pulse tickling him, then he caught her mouth again with passion.
        The tea kettle’s shrill demand for attention ended their tryst. Blushing happily, Kagome turned off the stove and helped Inu Yasha find tea cups for everyone and a tray for Shunusuke and Yuki. "That shirt is soaked," she teased with a tug at the garment in question. He pulled it off with a mischievous grin that turned decidedly smug when she gasped at the sight of his naked chest. He wasn’t broad or bulky like Shunusuke, but rather lean and hard, and pleased her greatly. He left Kagome with the tray and went to his room to fish up another shirt. Shippo was crashed out on the bed, apparently napping, but his eyes opened when Inu Yasha opened the closet door. "Well?" The kitsune demanded. "Did you do it?"
        Inu Yasha pulled the button down chambray shirt off its hanger, slipped his arms into it and pulled his hair out of the collar as he turned to face Shippo with a satisfied smirk. Without comment, he went into the bathroom to find a towel to dry his hair a little better, leaving Shippo giggling behind him. The kitsune was waiting for him in the living room when he emerged. Inu Yasha flopped onto the couch, then Kagome joined them with the teapot and three cups. She poured each of them some tea, then snuggled contentedly under Inu Yasha’s arm to drink hers. Shippo grinned from ear to ear to see his two friends so cozy at last. Inu Yasha and Kagome just sort of glowed.
        Next morning, sunrise. Inu Yasha had learned to sleep with his head at the end of the couch nearest the kitchen to keep from getting a sunbeam in the eye before he was ready to wake up. Fat lot of good it did him this morning. No matter how quiet humans might try to be, they couldn’t sneak past his keen ears. Inu Yasha tried to ignore Shunusuke when he opened the doors onto the porch, tried to ignore the pleasant ocean breeze that blew into the room when he left them open, but it was no use. He was awake now and had just as well see how Asano was faring after last night’s events. Shippo grumbled in his chair, rolled over and went back to sleep.
        Shunusuke wore nothing but a pair of shorts, enjoying the way the cool breeze felt on his chest. He rested his forearms on the wet railing and stared sadly at the golden, pre-dawn glitter of the sea between the trees. The horizon glowed red and orange, but the sun hadn’t shown itself yet. Poor Yuki. She’d never used her power on anything but inanimate objects, and even using restraint, she still shattered that boy’s face. He bowed his head and silently thanked the gods that his power had manifested itself in a non-violent form. His was the power of the mind, telepathy and visions of past, present and future. Yuki’s power was combative and destructive. Shunusuke sighed as he wondered what power his little brother would show as he grew older, hoping it was gentle, like his own.
        He didn’t turn when Inu Yasha mimicked his pose beside him and asked abruptly: "Tell me where your family gets youkai power."
        Asano stared at his hands for a few moments, then looked up at the trees again. "My father is half-youkai, like you. A demon raped his mother—supposedly as some kind of retribution for something my family had done to him. I don’t think she was supposed to survive the attack, but our women have always been unusually stubborn and strong." The corner of his mouth lifted in a wry half smile. "Maybe you’ve noticed. Would you believe Yuki was exercising restraint when she zapped that boy last night?"
        Inu Yasha frowned; that was restraint? They were silent for a while before Shunusuke continued: "It happened more than four hundred years ago. Father says he hunted the demon for years, to avenge his mother, then he had a vision of the demon’s death and realized he was wasting his time, since it would have nothing to do with him." Shunusuke knit his fingers, then let them drop apart again. "Father saw that the demon’s own brother would kill him—and that’s just what happened."
        "Four hundred years ago?" Inu Yasha mused. "That’s a long time."
        "About your time," Shunusuke told him, still not meeting his eyes.
        Inu Yasha scratched behind an ear. He knew of a lot of demons in his time. Maybe it was one he’d heard of. Knowing what kind of demon had committed the rape would help him better understand the nature of Yuki’s power. "Did your father tell you the demon’s name or what kind of demon it was?"
        Shunusuke made a sour face and spat: "A dog-demon named Sesshomaru."
        "What?!" Inu Yasha grabbed the human by his shoulders and shook him. The look in his eyes made Shunusuke flinch. "Sesshomaru?" Inu Yasha shook him again. "Is that what you said? Sesshomaru?!"
        Shippo appeared in the doorway, now very much awake. "Sesshomaru raped your grandmother?" He stammered. "You’re descended from—holy gods, Inu Yasha! Do you know what that means?"
        Shunusuke shook himself free of the demon’s grasp. "What’s Sesshomaru to you? Friend or enemy?"
        Inu Yasha ran his hands through his hair and leaned against the railing again to digest what Shunusuke had just told him. Sesshomaru had raped a human woman and sired a child. Why hadn’t he heard of this? Maybe it hadn’t happened yet in his time. Then something else Shunusuke had said sunk in: Sesshomaru was killed by his own brother. Heh. That had to be the best news he’d had in ages. He was destined to slay the insufferable, conceited asshole Sesshomaru.
        "Inu Yasha…" Shunusuke turned him about by the shoulder."
        "He’s my brother."
        Shunusuke could only blink at him in wonder for a few moments while that information registered. "Did he have any other brothers?"
        Inu Yasha shook his head. "Just me," he replied with a smug little grin. "So I’ll kill the asshole, eh? Any idea when that’ll happen?"
        "You mean, it hasn’t happened yet in your time?" Inu Yasha shook his head, still grinning happily. A delightful vision of Sesshomaru perishing on the edge of the Tetsusaiga danced in his mind. Marvelous, he thought, absolutely fantastic. Wait till he told Kagome about this! Sesshomaru was one person he knew she wouldn’t mind seeing him kill. "No love lost, then?" Shunusuke pressed him. "He’s your enemy?
        "The demons chuckled. "He hates me because my mother was human," Inu Yasha explained, "and because I was my father’s favorite, since he actually loved my mother and never loved Sesshomaru’s." He turned to lean his back against the rail and smile at the heavens. "We spend a lot of time trying to kill each other. See, he wants our father’s sword, which Father willed to me, and can only be used by one with human blood."
        "And to protect a human," Shippo interjected helpfully. Inu Yasha nodded. "Right." He had been the one who was supposed to inherit all of his father’s wealth and lands, but Inu Yasha didn’t tell them that. He’d been too young and weak to defend himself against his older brother when his parents died, so Sesshomaru had taken everything for himself, leaving baby brother to live the life of an outcast. Their paths hadn’t crossed again until Sesshomaru’s quest for the Tetsusaiga had led him to Inu Yasha.
        "I guess that makes you, what?" Shunusuke was saying thoughtfully. "My great uncle?"
        A great uncle? What a bizarre thought, though not nearly as bizarre or ironic as Sesshomaru having a half-human son. It was perfect! Sesshomaru hated humans so much, it was fitting that he have a half-blood son. Inu Yasha wondered when this rape would take place, or if it already had, and his brother was just incredibly good at keeping secrets. Ah, but hadn’t Shunusuke said his father had hunted Sesshomaru for a time before having his vision? Surely, he would’ve heard of a human hunting his brother. Unless it happened while he’d been pinned to the tree by Kikyo’s enchanted arrow. If the whole thing had come and gone during that time, it was possible he wouldn’t have heard about it. Inu Yasha decided to look up the Asano family when he returned to his own time and get to the bottom of this. Or maybe he could just ask Shunusuke’s father in this time."I want to talk to you father," Inu Yasha declared, earning a wry smile from Shunusuke. "What? Won’t he talk to me?"
        "Oh, he’ll talk to you alright," Shunusuke chuckled. "He’ll be thrilled to talk to you. I’m smiling because I don’t know how much I want him down here with all the trouble Yuki and I have been getting into. He won’t be happy to know we’re trying to solve this problem on our own."
        Inu Yasha frowned. "You said you can’t involve law enforcement. What else would your father want you to do?"
        "Let him handle it." Shunusuke turned around and swirled his finger in a tiny puddle on the railing. "He’d send out his personal guard—more like ninja in expensive Italian suits and sunglasses—to ‘encourage’ Tachimora and his boys to clear out."
        Inu Yasha failed to see why that was such a bad idea and said so. "You don’t get it," Shunusuke slapped his hand onto the rail, splashing rainwater onto his chest where it glistened like little bits of gold in the new morning light. "I can’t go through my whole life with daddy handling every problem I get into! He’s everywhere, all the time, like an overbearing mother hen, like he thinks Yuki and I are made of glass! I’d think he already knew what was going on down here, only I haven’t noticed any of his men roaming around."
        "Some ninja," Shippo snorted, "if they’re so easy for you to spot! I can hide better than that!"
        Shunusuke shook his head. "I don’t ‘spot them’ with my eyes, Shippo. I sense them," he tapped his skull with a wink. "Yuki got the killer energy, I got the Jedi mind tricks."
        "The--?" Inu Yasha and Shippo asked at once.
        Shunusuke hastened to explain. "It’s from a movie. Star Wars. The mystics in the movie are called Jedi and they have these mental powers that enable them to move things around and talk to each other with their thoughts. They even get visions. One of the bad guys in these movies calls it ‘Jedi mind trick’." He shrugged.       "Pretty good movies, actually. I think we have the tapes here, if you want to watch them some night. They’re even subtitled in Japanese, so you’ll know what’s going on.
        "The demons just smiled and nodded, pretending to understand. Shunusuke wasn’t fooled. "You guys have no clue what I’m talking about, do you?" They shook their heads in unison. "Didn’t think so."

        Inu Yasha broke the news about Sesshomaru to Kagome over breakfast. As he’d expected, she freaked out. "You guys are Sesshomaru’s grandchildren?! I can’t believe you’re related to Inu Yasha! This is so cool!" She coughed and hastened to amend: "I mean, except for the Sesshomaru part."
        They gobbled omelets made by Shunusuke, who was as good with a spatula as he was with a practice sword. Yuki just picked at her food and sighed miserably. After a half hour of that, her brother got fed up and told her pointedly: "The boy will recover, Yuki. I feel it." When that only got him a skeptical look, he demanded: "When have I ever been wrong?"
        She pushed egg around her plate with her chopsticks and sighed again. "I’m going to the hospital today to see what I can find out anyway." "What if they have you arrested?" Kagome argued.
        To which Yuki replied impatiently: "If they were going to have me arrested, they’d have done it by now." Shunusuke agreed. "I don’t think they’ll have her arrested," he told them, then added as he popped a piece of food into his mouth: "I put the fear of Dad into them last night."
        Yuki dropped her chopsticks with a clatter and jumped to her feet, tipping her chair over onto the floor in her anger. "You did what?! Shunusuke! I can’t believe you involved Daddy in this!"
        "I didn’t ‘involve’ him," Shunusuke told her, "I just threatened to if they told the authorities about Inu Yasha. Sit down, Yuki."
        Inu Yasha was more worried about how these "authorities" would interpret the boy’s claims about how he got his injuries. Would they believe a girl had shot blue light at him to smash his face? If he and Shippo were supposed to be a secret, then it was unlikely people in this time were used to seeing or hearing about Yuki’s kind of power. How could that be explained away? He saw the attack again in his mind and remembered what Shunusuke had said: That was Yuki using restraint. He watched her as she righted her chair and sat down to finish her omelet with a disgusted look on her face. The attack had left her all torn up with worry over the damage she’d done to a human. "And she’s Sesshomaru’s granddaughter?" He thought incredulously. Sesshomaru wouldn’t have given that boy a second thought. Of course, Sesshomaru probably wouldn’t have left him alive, either. He looked at Yuki and Shunusuke more closely, struggling to find a hint of his brother in their human faces. They were handsome kids (Yuki was especially lovely), with delicate features like Sesshomaru’s, but that was were the resemblance ended. Their hair and eyes were dark brown and their skin fair and utterly devoid of blemish. Yuki’s small mouth reminded him of his brother’s, perhaps because it was usually saying something to irritate him.
        "Let me see that picture of your family again," he said to Yuki. Her father had been in it, but Inu Yasha didn’t recall that anything about the man had given him pause. He’d seemed to be just another middle-aged Japanese human male, going a bit a gray at the temples and a tad soft in the mid section. Yuki didn’t move. "It won’t do you any good," she muttered. "He dyes his hair and wears contact lenses to hide his youkai eyes. You can’t tell what he is from looking at him."
        "I want to see his features," Inu Yasha retorted, getting up to find her purse and retrieve the picture himself. "My brother’s features are very distinctive, aren’t they, Kagome?"
        Kagome grunted over a mouthful of food: "I think he looks like a girl."
        "You, too?" Shippo exclaimed. "I thought he was Inu Yasha’s sister the first time I saw him."
        Yuki realized what Inu Yasha was doing and followed him into her bedroom. "You don’t go into a woman’s purse, Dog Boy!" They heard her scold him. That was followed by the sound of what was probably her purse connecting with something solid, likely his body if his yelp was any indication. Then she stomped out of her room, carrying her purse in one hand and her wallet in the other, Inu Yasha on her heels rubbing his arm. They sat down again, and she pulled the picture out of its plastic sheath inside her wallet. "There," she barked, slapping the picture down next to his plate. "Does Daddy look like his father the demon rapist?"
        "Sesshomaru does a lot of cruel things," Inu Yasha growled as he studied Asano’s face, "but this is the first I’ve heard of him raping anyone. He usually ignores humans, in the same way you might ignore ants as you walked along a path." He picked up the picture and held it closer to his face. "I wonder what your family did that made him think raping one of your women would be an appropriate punishment." The elder Asano smiled back at him, frozen in a happy moment in time with his arms around his wife and Shunusuke, whose arm was around Yuki. Little Kei rested on his mother’s hip. They were all making a weird, split-fingered sign at whoever stood in front of them, out of the picture. Asano-san didn’t look as intimidating as his reputation according to Shunusuke. In fact, Inu Yasha thought he looked rather friendly, but then looks could be deceiving. Sesshomaru was a very beautiful demon, with pleasant features and an impeccable wardrobe but inside he was nothing but cold and cruel. The younger Asanos got their good looks from their father, Inu Yasha decided, though their mother was pretty, as well—in a round-eyed sort of way. Her hair was dark, shot through with gray and worn cropped short over her ears. Not very feminine, the demon thought, the soft texture of Kagome’s long tresses coming to mind. Hm. The youngest boy looked a bit more like his mother than his father.
        Kagome and Shippo left their chairs to look over his shoulder at the picture. "Why are they doing that with their hands?" Shippo asked, looking to Kagome for an answer.
        The humans looked embarrassed as Kagome replied: "I have no idea. It’s just this Japanese thing. Everybody does it." Shippo and Inu Yasha looked at her like she’d just sprouted horns. "No, really. Everybody makes a victory sign when they get a candid picture taken."
        The Asano kids nodded their sheepish agreement. "That is so weird," Shippo muttered and went back to looking for Sesshomaru in Asano-sama’s face. "He doesn’t look like Sesshomaru," he said after a little while.
        Yuki rolled her eyes. "I told you: He dyes his hair and wears colored contact lenses. His hair is normally white and he has eyes like Inu Yasha’s. I’ve only seen him like that a couple times, though."
        Shunusuke nodded. "Same here. He took off his disguise when he told us the truth about himself—each of us, individually, when we turned ten. I’m not sure why that was a magic number with him…"
        Inu Yasha tried to imagine the man in the picture with hair and eyes like his own, but it didn’t make him look much more like Sesshomaru. Maybe it was his big, happy smile that was spoiling it. Sesshomaru never looked happy, even when he had the upper hand in a fight. Yuki took the picture from under his nose and tucked it back into her wallet. "Daddy says he looks like his mother," she said impatiently. "Except for the hair and eyes, I guess. I’m sure he wouldn’t like it if you told him he looks like your brother, Inu Yasha."
        "Don’t worry," the demon grouched back, "he doesn’t."

        Later…
        "No, Kagome!" Inu Yasha snapped. "It’s safer if you stay here. Shunusuke can have your things brought to you. Right?" He gave Shunusuke a very pointed look. When Asano tried to wriggle out of the argument, the look turned dangerous.
        "Well, I could do that…sure…" Shunusuke agreed unconvincingly. He felt like a total stranger being dragged into a marital dispute.
        "See?!" Inu Yasha turned back to Kagome with a nagging sense of deja vous. Didn’t they just have this argument Saturday morning at the well?
        Kagome seethed. "I’ll be fine if you escort me back, Inu Yasha. Like you did with Keiichi and Karami."
        "They’re not my girlfriend!" He hissed back, then choked when he realized what he’d just said.
        Kagome’s eyes fluttered at him in surprise. "I’m your…girlfriend? Really? Do you mean that?"
        Shunusuke collected Shippo and Yuki and headed for the porch. "What a beautiful day! Don’t you guys think it’s a beautiful day? I think we should go outside and enjoy this—"
        "Get back here!" Inu Yasha ordered, stopping the trio in their tracks. They turned on their heels and nervously slunk back to sit very primly in their chairs in the living room. Kagome and Inu Yasha resumed their face-off by the kitchen counter.
        Kagome jerked Inu Yasha’s face around using his handy forelock handles. "Don’t evade the question!"
        "I’m not evading anything!" He growled back and brushed her hands away. "Yes, you’re my girlfriend, ok? I mean, if that’s what you want…"
        Kagome blushed and shyly rubbed the back of her head. "Um…sure. If that’s what you want…"
        "Well, I want it if you do…"
        "Ok…" Kagome blushed some more and twirled a lock of her hair while staring at her toes. "If you want it that way, I want it that way…"
        Nervous pause, then Shippo piped up with: "So are you guys an item, or not?!" They blushed at him. He rolled his eyes. "Oh for crying out loud. You two are so pathetic."
        Kagome tossed her head and turned her back on him. "Oh, like you’re all over telling Rei you like her."
        "I just met her yesterday!" Shippo retorted, but he was blushing under the scrutiny of the others in the room. "I think she’s nice…"
        "And…" Shunusuke prodded.
        Shippo scratched his head. "And cute…I guess…"
        "And…" Kagome prodded.
        The fox grinned. "And she looks really cute in that tiny swimsuit she was wearing yesterday!" He coughed and amended quickly: "But that doesn’t mean I like her like her, just that I like her. Not like you guys! It’s definitely like like with you…right?"
        Inu Yasha raised a confused eyebrow. "What in the hell did you just say, fox?"
        "That we’re a couple," Kagome translated. "Aren’t we?"
        "Uh…" Inu Yasha gulped, blushed, played with one of his ears, smiled feebly. "Yeah. If…that’s what you want…"
        Yuki threw a coaster at him. "You’ve already been over that! She wants you, you want her, you’re a frickin’ couple, ok?! Just say it! It’s soooo easy!" She fluttered her eyelashes and imitated Kagome’s voice: "I love you, Inu Yasha," then looked macho and imitated Inu Yasha’s voice: "I love you, too, Kagome," then she snarled at them: "Then you kiss! Easy. Do it. Now."
        Kagome and Inu Yasha blanched and sweated at her, glanced at each other, couldn’t handle it and turned their backs to each other instead. "L-love?" Inu Yasha stammered at the same time Kagome stuttered, "I don’t kn-know…"
        Shippo buried his face in his hands. Shunusuke tried very hard not to laugh and failed horribly. Yuki got really pissed, stomped over to the couple, turned them about, then pushed them together with a strength that surprised both nervous so-called lovers. "Say it, dammit!"
        "Yuki," Shunusuke chuckled, "they’ll say it when they’re ready."
        Shippo added: "Yeah, Yuki, leave ‘em alone."
        "SAY IT!"
        Gulp. Sweat. Shiver. "Uh…K-Kagome…I…uh…"
        Then the phone rang, startling everybody in the room. The only one who didn’t dive for it was Yuki, who was still determined to get a confession out of Inu Yasha and Kagome. Inu Yasha grabbed the phone first, pushed the on button and said: "What do you want?"
        Kagome snatched it out of his hands and apologized to whoever was at the other end. To her surprise it was Rei. "Hi, Rei. How’d you know I was here?"
        Stupid question. "Well, I heard that Tachi attacked you outside the hotel last night, and Inu Yasha—" she hesitated, then asked in a hushed voice: "Can he really fly, Kagome? Tachi’s been telling everybody Inu Yasha’s a real, live demon!"
        Kagome took a deep breath and shot a frightened glance at Inu Yasha, who was standing close enough for his keen ears to hear what Rei said. "What if he is?" Kagome asked hesitantly. "What do you think of that?"
        Rei didn’t even need to think about it. "I think it’s totally cool! We need a supernatural power to beat a guy like Tachi. Oh! That’s what I’m calling about! Put Inu Yasha back on!"
        Kagome handed him the phone, the stern expression on her face warning him to be more polite this time. "What’s he done now?" Inu Yasha demanded wearily, and Kagome threw up her hands in disgust and went to flop into one of the living room chairs.
        Rei whispered even more quietly: "I went downstairs for breakfast this morning," she began nervously, "but none of the staff was there. There were just these guys…they looked sort of Yakuza, I mean, like a serious gang, not like Tachimora’s. They’re just a bunch of kids. These guys are adults. And I think they have guns." She gulped. "I pretended I forgot something and came back to my room to call you. You can’t come back here all by yourself, Inu Yasha! I think it’s a trap for you."
        "Fuck."
        Kagome stopped being angry at his bad manners right then and there. "What is she telling you, Inu Yasha?" She got up slowly, swallowing hard against the chill in her belly.
        Inu Yasha ignored her for the time being. He’d just had a very bad feeling about Rei. Tachi had seen her with Kagome and Shippo. Shippo and Kagome were here with them, but Rei was alone at the hotel, unguarded and probably helpless against both the amateurs and the professionals. "Stay in your room, Rei," he advised her in a tone that tolerated no argument and got none. "Lock the door and don’t let anybody in. Don’t go out. Do you understand me?"
        She started to cry. "Why? You don’t think they’d—"
        "Tachi saw you with Kagome and Shippo yesterday," Inu Yasha interrupted. "Kagome and Shippo are here with me, but you’re vulnerable. Just do as I say!"
        Kagome gasped. Rei! She was all alone over there! Someone had to go get her before the gang did! "Inu Yasha, you have to go get her!"
        "That’s a good girl," he told Rei. "I’m calling the police," Rei sobbed.
        Inu Yasha shook his head vehemently. "No! Let us do that! I’m going to let you talk to Shunusuke now, ok? Tell him what you told me." He handed the phone to Asano, then started to pace between the counter and the glass doors to consider his options.
        Kagome and Shippo paced with him. Yuki hung by her brother, trying to hear what was being said on the other end of the phone line. With her other ear, she listened to Inu Yasha. "Tachi called in reinforcements," he explained. "Rei says they’re older than Tachi’s usual gang and thinks they might have guns." He paused for an instant, then resumed pacing. "What are guns, Kagome?"
        "Firearms," she told him, matching him step for step. "Probably handguns, meaning small enough to fit in your hand."
        "Like a musket?" Shippo asked.
        Kagome nodded. "Right, only more advanced and a lot smaller."
        "Shit," the demons muttered together. "This is bad," Shippo added.
        Inu Yasha stopped, and they stopped with him. "Is it? I’ve never fought an opponent who has a…gun. What does it do, aside from make a lot of noise?"
        "It shoots a lead slug into your body at a super-high velocity," Yuki explained coolly as Shunusuke hung up the phone and joined them in the living room. "It also has an extremely long range, so your opponent could be too far away for you to prevent him from shooting at you, and once the shot is fired, the slug is too small to be seen and can only be dodged with the best of reflexes—and a lot of luck." She sat down and continued thoughtfully: "I can slow a bullet with my power enough to ruin its destructive capabilities, but I can’t stop one completely." Kagome’s eyes went wide. "You’ve tried it before?!"
        "Just with blanks," Yuki assured her. "Daddy’s too overprotective to let me practice with live ammunition."
        "Speaking of your ‘daddy’," Inu Yasha cut in, "this might be the time to tell him what’s going on." He turned a serious look on Shunusuke. "You said you scared Tachi’s men just by threatening to call your father. They don’t know he’s youkai, so what scared them? Those ‘ninja in expensive Italian suits’ that Yuki mentioned?"
        The siblings exchanged worried looks and didn’t say anything for a few moments, then they seemed to come to some kind of agreement and nodded. Shunusuke explained: "They’re not ninja," he smiled and laughed a little, "well, not as such. They’re youkai—full-blooded youkai. That’s why I can sense them, and probably you can, too, when they’re around." He nodded to Shippo. "Most of them are kitsune, who he hired for their shape changing abilities, but there are other, human-like varieties on my father’s private payroll."
        Youkai for hire? Mercenary demons? Inu Yasha and Shippo raised their eyebrows at that concept. In their day, no demon with any pride would allow itself to be hired by any but another full-blooded demon, if at all. The senior Asano must be some man to have earned enough respect in youkai circles to for them to accept his money. "I’ve never heard of mercenary youkai," Inu Yasha told Shunusuke after a while. "Your father must be a very powerful man."
        Yuki snorted her contempt, but Shunusuke was the one who responded. "He has led one of Japan’s wealthiest and most influential families for more than four hundred years—and managed to keep the truth about himself a secret from all but his wives and children. Any who break his confidence," he shrugged, "disappear."
        Kagome shivered and snuggled against Inu Yasha’s side. "You mean, he has them killed?"
        Shunusuke shook his head. "I don’t know. I just know nobody ever hears from them again."
        "So let’s make Tachi and his people ‘disappear’," Inu Yasha growled. "Call your father and have him send his youkai down here to take care of these—"
        "No!" Shunusuke and Yuki snapped at the same time. "I won’t involve him in this. We’ll call the police and let them handle it."
        "And tell them what about Inu Yasha?" Kagome argued. "How do you explain him?"
        Shunusuke turned a level gaze on Shippo, who made himself smaller against the seat cushions. "Shippo could impersonate him, minus the demon parts. Who’s going to believe a guy like Tachimora when he says he saw a man with dog ears?"
        Yuki shook her head. "It won’t work. Inu Yasha doesn’t have a past in our time. There’s no official record of his birth or life. The cops’ll be all over that."
        "Then someone will invent one for him," Shunusuke told her on reflex, then realized what he was suggesting. "Which brings us back to dad. Shit."
        "So call him!" Inu Yasha insisted. "Unless you think we can still handle this on our own…" For once in his life he actually had doubts that he could handle a bunch of violent humans on his own. Frankly, Yuki’s description of guns was making a cautious man out of him. She said her power could slow down "a bullet" but she hadn’t said anything to indicate she could slow down more than one at the same time, and there would be many if all of the newcomers had these guns.
        Shunusuke and Yuki did some more silent communication and from their expressions, seemed to be arguing. After a few minutes of brow furrowing and frowning, Yuki gave a triumphant hmph, and Shunusuke turned his back on her and sulked.
        "Well?" Inu Yasha demanded. "What that all about?"
        "I win," Yuki declared smugly. "We call Daddy."
        "I thought you were the one who didn’t want daddy to know what you did with your power last night," Inu Yasha growled back. "Are you afraid of those men with guns."
        She gave him a withering look. "You betcha, Dog Boy, and you should be, too. Shunusuke, make the call. You better check up on Keiichi and Karami, too, while you're at it. Meanwhile," she pushed herself off the chair and offered her hand to Inu Yasha, "you and I are going to go get Shippo’s cute, little girlfriend."
        "She’s not my girlfriend!"

Chapter Eight