Chapter Text
Sesshoumaru drew out his energy whip even as he strode down over the dunes. His boots sank into the fine grey sand as he advanced assessing the writhing lesser youkai, their behaviour and their targets. Unexpectedly, at his approach the creatures turned as one and fled back towards the sea with more speed that they had shown in attacking the Inutachi. Despite his efforts Sesshoumaru did not manage to swat more than a few of them before the rest were out of reach, wriggling through the waves and rapidly disappearing towards the horizon. Those that he had struck crumbled into paper scraps that scattered over the sand. Closer to the water Inuyasha swore and sent a final Windscar at the stragglers, briefly cleaved the tide. Then there was no sound but that of his half brother cursing the unexpected turn of events over the sussurus of wind and tide.
Sesshoumaru drew a slow breath in through his nose, bracing himself for interacting with his father’s abrasive offspring and weighing up whether the creatures had been a ploy to lure him back. He quashed the irritation that that thought engendered. Dispelling his whip he approached Higurashi Kagome’s companions and his own retinue. Rinn was the first to notice him.
“Sesshoumaru-sama?!” Rinn'sshrill voice rose like a seagull and she writhed free of Ah’s grip to scramble up the beach towards him. “Sesshoumaru-samaaaaaa!”
Jaken followed close behind, trying to hook her with his staff, shouting for her to slow down, to show some decorum, to not shame their lord, he did not look up.
The Party turned, almost as one, from watching for the snake-things.
The next words fell from almost all of the Inutachi’s lips simultaneously:
“It’s Sesshoumaru… Sesshoumaru?! Your hair?!”
Jaken stumbled to a halt and looked up at his master and, for once, was completely speechless. His eyes however became wet with distress and he stuffed a fist in his mouth.
“Sesshoumaru-san! Rinnhas missed you!” The child bounced around him like a puppy, “ You look very different, is it a special day? Should Rinn have her her short too?” Sesshoumaru let her frisk, satisfied to note she looked healthy and undistressed.
The youkai-exterminator was the first to find a rational tongue, emboldened by Sesshoumaru’s lack of aggressive behaviour, she shouldered her bone boomerang and asked, “Sesshoumaru-sama. Where, might we ask, did you come from so suddenly? I was certain this area was empty of…” She trailed off.
Other Threats. Sesshoumaru could hear the sentence she did not complete.
Sesshoumaru inclined his head and began to gesture back to the crease between sand dunes where his boot prints began, there the sunset reflected in a sharp glint off something and the Taiyoukai narrowed his eyes. He had not seen any objects when he had squeezed through the mirror. Abruptly he turned his shoulder on the group and strode back to the spot.
The light had come from what appeared to be a circle of silvery ice set in a pink lacquer frame with a handle*. It appeared to have fallen from the pocket of a large, overstuffed and garish yellow bag. Sesshoumaru fastidiously picked up the lacquer item between finger and thumb. The surface reflected his face with a clarity that no still pond surface or bronze mirror ever had.
“Oi! Put that down! That’s Kagome’s! What the F-”Inuyasha’s obscenities were overridden by Shippo’s high pitched exclamation “That’s Kagome’s Bag! How did you fit?! You can’t have come from there!” Even as the kitsune cub said this the child was circling the bag and Sesshoumaru, eyeing the footprints with uncertainty, “could you?”
Sesshoumaru held up the mirror, twitching it out of reach of Inuyasha’s grasping hands. “This device belongs to Higurashi Kagome?”
“Oi! How do you know her whole name?!” Inuyasha lunged for the item again and Sesshoumaru calmly swatted him aside, looking to the youkai exterminator for verification.
“Uh… Yes - that’s Kagome-chan’s… do you know where she is?”
Sesshoumaru gave a half shrug which, to someone familiar with him, indicated uncertainty. The inutachi were not familiar, Jaken was still catatonic and Rinn was not the sort to consciously recognise or translate subtleties. Sesshoumaru let out a short snort and elaborated simply: “Higurashi Kagome is on the other side to the device.”
~o0o~
Kagome watched as the Taiyoukai advanced on the creatures, everything seemed to flow in slow motion across the mirror surface. She watched the snake-things flee and the brief interaction between Sesshoumaru and her friends. She let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding when it became apparent there would be no hostilities between them. And then he was striding intently back towards her, the field of view giving her a close look at his boots before he pick up his side of the mirror.
Sesshoumaru looked blankly into it and she could tell he couldn’t see her. But she could see him, and the others, and they were all ok. It was comforting, even when the view was suddenly obscured by fabric, yellow fabric. And Kagome had to laugh, a queasy homesick laugh, because she recognised that it had been put in her bag and she could guess what the other side of the mirror had looked like. Very Pink. Carefully she broke the bronze mirror free of the stand and carried it in her mouth back to the keep.
~o0o~
On the first day Kagome took Sesshoumaru’s challenge to escape the story-place on her own to heart. She picked a different direction from the one they had taken in their hunt the previous day and had loped as straight as an arrow for an hour, only to find herself back at the keep. She tried this six times in different directions. Each time the snow thawed more and the air became warmer but nothing else changed. Finally exhausted, Kagome crawled back to the keep and slept through the night.
On second day she searched the castle from attic to cellar for a secret door, a portal home, some indication of what was expected of her. There were no other mirrors, only windows and Kagome climbed through every single one she could through, in both directions, including those on the second and third floors. She had set the small mirror in the feasting hall, periodically returning to it to prod it and see if anything had changed. As the sun dropped behind the horizon on the second day Kagome crouched on a divan before it, watching avidly. Occasionally she saw one or two of her friends pass by in agitated conversation. They appeared to be concerned but not frantic. The background appeared to be a temple and the other mirror propped on a low surface. Probably steps by the look of it. Kagome could just see the edge of her yellow bag beside it and wondered if putting the mirror out had been Sesshoumaru’s doing. The surface remained solid and cold. No one responded to her calls.
The third day Kagome searched through the castle gardens - She squeezed through anything vaguely resembling a doorway. The roses had returned in a wild riot of blossoms, their heavy musk redolent on the air. Kagome snuffed for any sort of incensey-magical-smell until she sneezed but couldn’t find any trace of magic to guide her search. She became hungry and went the banquet hall. There was plain rice, and soy sauce*. She would have been satisfied with that alone but Sesshoumaru’s contempt haunted her and she returned to the forest and, between wriggling through arched tree roots and searching for potentially magical caves, she practiced hunting until she had caught three rabbits. Remembering that she was the mistress of her castle she carried them home and demanded of the hall that they be cooked. She had tempura rabbit, soy sauce and rice for supper which slightly salved her sense of defeat at self-rescue. Lacking any other idea of what to do with herself Kagome carried the bronze mirror out into her basking spot in the rose garden. She sat and watched hopeful of seeing her friends, watching the surface long into the night and falling asleep still in the garden.
On the fourth day the mirror shattered.