Author's Note—Thank you ChildlikeEmpress, purplerebecca and mano for the reviews you left last chapter—it had been such a long time since I'd written anything, and reading them was tremendous encouragement. In other news, I finally joined Live Journal and I am going to try my hand at maintaining an Inuyasha fandom/writing diary. Feel free to stop by and say hello!—the journal link can be accessed through my author bio. New chapter appears below, comments, as always, are sought and welcomed!

Chapter Four

The first two days out Akio tried to have as little as possible to do with his two strange cousins. To his annoyance they managed to keep up, though he could tell it was harder on the kid. The silence between the two factions was punctuated by curt and thinly disguised sniping between the older two over where, when, and how long they would stop, and by eager updates from Kichiro, who was still picking up a trail on the winds and directing them further and further west, in the direction of the coast.

It was painfully obvious to Akio that the kid was trying his best to make friends with him. It was equally obvious that his sister disapproved of the efforts. She irritated him, and in effort to keep his temper Akio found himself ignoring both of them as much as possible, sitting apart with Kirara during their rests with his cap yanked down on his head, drowning them out whatever ways he could.

Which was what he was trying to do now. They had stopped for a mid-morning rest in a rocky outcrop above a road—wide and observably well-traveled. Scattered pines gave them further shelter on the embankment. Akio huddled with his back against one of the large stones, chewing the last of the dried food he'd packed with him.

"What is that?"

The kid was back at his side again—hesitantly smiling and hopeful.

"iPod," answered Akio, without removing the earbuds. He looked at the younger boy covertly from underneath the cover of his ball cap.

Kichiro studied the object with fascinated eyes, biting his lip to keep from asking further questions.

Akio sighed.

"Here," he said, pulling off the ear pieces and handing the set over to him, "It plays music. Those go in your ears, push that down."

Akio watched as Kichiro cautiously held the two tiny speakers up to either ear, his gold eyes growing larger and his mouth gradually widening into a tiny fanged expression of amazement and delight as he listened. His white dog's tail quivered with excitement.

Akio reluctantly grinned.

"Spin this and it'll play different songs," he instructed, pointing at the wheel.

Kichiro eagerly complied. His tail thumped lightly against the ground.

"Stop it," Akio heard a voice say quietly behind him.

"Stop what?" he asked, turning his head around to Emi.

"You're laughing at him. I saw you." Her voice was very low and cool, and she was looking at him, Akio realized with a jolt, like he had just come out of the backend of a boar.

"I wasn't laughing at him!" he answered heatedly. "Why would I?"

Akio stood up. He knew good and well what she was accusing him of. He'd taken his share of teasing over his youkai heritage, and indignant resentment filled his breast. He certainly wasn't going to take accusations from a spoiled, wannabe princess who'd grown up on a nice sheltered estate that his stuck-up and (according to Dad's account) questionably balanced youkai uncle had probably ripped a lot of throats out to obtain.

"Go ahead—why would I?" he demanded, stepping face to face with her. His eyebrows bristled and their eyes locked angrily.

But to his surprise, she didn't respond. She threw him one final, stony glare and stepped away, nearly stepping on a cat-sized Kirara, who squealed and leaped out of the way. Akio turned back around.

Kichiro was still kneeling and holding the ipod, but his tail had gone still beneath his legs.

With something like shame, Akio realized why. She hadn't wanted to say the thing out loud in front of the kid, hadn't wanted to hurt his feelings. He winced and cursed himself inwardly.

"You shouldn't mind Emi when she gets angry."

The kid was still staring at the ipod, but Akio could tell he was no longer paying it attention.

He felt like an idiot.

"She looks after you, doesn't she?" he answered, dropping down to sit next to him.

"Yes," the boy admitted. He didn't look happy about it. But he also seemed to recognize that he finally had his older cousin's attention, and took advantage of his opening for further conversation.

"Once a boar youkai came to meet Father, and he brought his son with him. His son was about your age."

Akio listened with mild interest.

"They were both full youkai, and when I tried to talk to his son he called me a half-breed, and a dirty hanyou, and then Emi knocked him down and broke one of his tusks. His father the Boar was very angry about it. He almost got into a fight with Chichi-ue."

"Your sister's good at knocking people down," Akio remarked dryly.

"Oh, yes!" Kichiro beamed.

"You know, my Dad's a half-demon, too. He took a lot of crap from people when he was growing up."

"My mother told me he has dog ears." Kichiro grinned shyly.

Akio grinned back.

"Yeah, he does."

"Why do you look so human?"

Akio shrugged.

"I do have these—I'm only a quarter-demon, you know." He held up his hands, and for the first time Kichiro realized his cousin had pointed claws like his own.

"Does anyone ever hate you because of them?"

"Nah, I wouldn't say hate," Akio answered, and wondered uncomfortably if that was true. "My parents have lived in that since before I was born, my mom's a miko and my dad protects the villagers from warlords and other demons. Most people always give you a hard time if you're different. Better people get over it once they get to know you. I have a lot of friends my age."

"I wish I had friends my age." The kid didn't seem to be feeling sorry for himself, but matter-of-fact.

"I guess you don't get a lot of visitors at your house."

"No," Kichiro answered.

He's not a bad kid, Akio admitted to himself, taking in his cousin's white hair and seeing the similarity to his own father's. He remembered that their mother Rin had once lived with his parents, too. He hoped he hadn't been behaving like too much of jerk the past couple of days, and imagined the lecture his mother would, no doubt, have given him.

"We should get going soon." Emi had reappeared.

"Right," Akio answered her sullenly. She was right, they'd waited long enough. He yawned, stretched and shook his shoulders, then rotated his neck. From the corner of his eye he watched as the kid repeated each of his movements.

Kirara stretched her front quarters, then her back, and transformed into her full-grown form with a small roar of fire and air.

"Did you ever meet Chichi-ue?" Kichiro asked, watching as Akio relaced a tennis shoe before he standing up.

"A couple times, I think. I dunno. I don't really remember."

Kichiro looked shocked.

"I remember you," Emi volunteered, to his surprise. Her clothing was straight and she was ready to go, and she was staring at him with those impassive golden eyes. Akio searched suspiciously for signs of mockery in her voice, but she seemed to be playing it coolly neutral.

"Yeah, well I remember you, too." What Akio couldn't remember is whether or not he had cried when she knocked him down when they were little. He sincerely hoped he hadn't.

"I thought you were a spoiled brat," he added.

To his satisfaction, the pale skin of her nose and cheeks turned an angry pink.

"You had a runny nose and chewed your food like Ah-Un."

"Spoiled brat," he answered.

"Don't think you can call me that!" her eyes flashed and the faint purple stripes on her lower cheeks seemed to turn darker.

Akio smiled, pulled his cap lower on his head, settled back against the stone and closed his eyes. Kichiro looked at Emi's rage-filled countenance, and then nervously back to his cousin.

"Then quit acting like a spoiled brat," Akio said, not opening his eyes.

Emi's eyes narrowed, and half-second later the side of her hand was sailing toward his midsection.

Akio sprang to life.

"Hey, Quiet!" he said, stopping her arm with one hand and holding the other up in a gesture of silence.

"Ill-bred—"

"QUIET!" he hissed.

Emi froze.

From somewhere down the road below them, they heard the sounds of horses approaching in the distance. Akio let go of her arm, spun around and cautiously lifted his head over the stony outcrop.

In the distance on road below, a group of men appeared on horseback. Akio watched for several moments.

"Men—Bandits, by the look of them," he finally said, stooping back down and turning to face them. "We should stay quiet."

"Do you think that they have anything to do with Chichi-ue's disappearance?"

Akio shook his head.

"I doubt it." He quietly and carefully reached for broken branch of pine, and watched as Emi moved with even more swiftness for her naginata, uncovering the blade from its silk as she scanned around them. Whatever else she was, he grudgingly acknowledged, at least she looked like she knew what she was doing. For now.

"How many?" she asked in a low voice.

Akio risked another quick glance.

"Twenty, twenty-five."

Tense minutes passed by as Emi and Akio waited quietly, listening to the plodding hoof beats and wheezes of horse and men. Both their attentions were intently focused below.

Kichiro leaned forward on a small group of rocks, still holding Akio's ipod in one hand, resting his weight with the other on the stone before him, trying to peer closer to the top. Kirara mewed a low warning.

There was a creak, then a sudden and loud rumble as all three rocks broke loose from the sediment, tumbling Kichiro head over heels behind them down the embankment. He landed hard on the seat of the pants by the edge of the road.

Through the settling dust Kichiro looked up, and into the face of a startled human riding a horse. The man was overweight and large, wearing scavenged armor and a machete on his hip.

All movement stopped. There were angry and confused shouts from further down the caravan.

Kichiro watched with wide eyes as the man's expression turned from one of surprise, into an unsettling and dangerous smile. He reached for a pike strapped upright against his saddle.

To be continued.

I realize this installment focused exclusively on my original characters, but never fear, I haven't forgotten about Rin—or a few other familiar faces. New chapter to appear soon!