Ice and Snow, Mind and Heart

Chapter 77: Waiting

"Yuki... while I was pinned to the Sacred Tree... did you go North to look for your father?"

There was a long moment's silence during which the only sound was the wind blowing through the trees. Inuyasha watched Yuki as she stared back at him before she finally responded.

"I went East, Yasha."

"You said that before." Inuyasha nodded, but he continued to watch her carefully. "But did you go North?"

Silence.

"Yuki... did you find your father?" Inuyasha asked, a hint of wariness in his tone though his eyes softened kindly at his sister.

Yuki didn't reply; instead, she turned her head away and stared off into the distance. Inuyasha kept his eyes on her intently, waiting. And finally, she replied.

"No, Yasha. I didn't."

Inuyasha's brows furrowed unhappily at her answer, but Yuki stood up. With her back still turned to her friend, she said, "I'm going to go check on Kohaku again. And you really should go to Kagome."

With that, she walked off, the wind rustling through her caramel hair and the sunlight hitting the lighter highlights in her hair as it shone down through the gaps between the branches and leaves above. Inuyasha watched her go, and he sighed to himself. He still felt a little doubt in Yuki's response but i t was clear that whether she had told him the truth or not, she did not want to discuss the matter. And he respected her enough that he would let the matter go.

'All right.' He thought to himself as he turned to go toward the Bone Eater's Well, the opposite direction from Yuki's path. 'I guess I should go see what Kagome's gotten up to.'

Meanwhile, Yuki walked back toward the village, passing by the stream that was the humans' water and food source as she did. A glance to the side and Yuki saw her reflection in the water's surface for just a second before the water broke as a fish swam close to the surface. In that second, she saw the familiar long caramel-coloured hair that fox demons shared and her dark blue eyes - a feature all arctic fox demons shared - staring back at her. In that second she saw not her own eyes reflected back at her, but the eyes of another. Eyes she had seen only once in her life.

And Yuki turned away from the stream.

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Two days passed and despite the fact that Yuki missed Sesshomaru, she found that she enjoyed the small reprieve they had been granted.

Unfortunately Jaken didn't feel the same way and he remained miserable at being left behind, which Yuki supposed could only be expected. Rin was more productive than the little imp demon; after moping for half a day after Kagome also left, the human child began exerting her energies in helping Yuki and Lady Kaede around the village.

Miroku would sometimes join them; and it was the first instance of his accompanying her as she collected firewood that Yuki discovered the seriousness of the aftermath of their encounter with Magatsuhi.

"What?" Yuki asked, stopping in the midst of collecting another log of wood to stare at Miroku.

The monk nodded gravely.

"It appears that when Magatsuhi caused Kagome to faint, he also somehow managed to seal her spiritual powers."

"So that explains why she couldn't purify Kohaku's shard." Yuki murmured, frowning at the grave news. She recalled how Sango had explained that Kagome had been unable to purify Kohaku's shard, hence the fact that the boy was still unconscious.