Something Happened to the Miko by Harlecorn

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha or its characters, merely the plot and my own OC's.

Something is wrong with the Miko.

I do not know what has happened, but her slow shift from what she was into what she is currently from just a few months ago is now starting to concern me.

When she officially moved into the Western Palace, she was the same effusive, ever loving, almost to an annoying degree, girl that she had been since she first came to this era.

Then, she started to withdraw. She stopped taking meals in the dining hall, opting instead to eat in her kits room with him. Concurrently, she also started sleeping in his room. While it was not unusual for her to have the kit sleep with her, it is strange that she has stopped using her own bed. According to the staff, she also takes clothing from her own room to her kits to prepare there in the mornings, as well as having nightwear kept there.

She also does not wander the grounds anymore. She almost exclusively stays in the Library next to my study. The only time she seems to leave is if the children are in the gardens after their lessons, and even then, it's not as often as it used to be. While my Library is large, she has to have read nearly every scroll and tome it holds.

She has stopped greeting the servants and guests that she does still see in her seemingly self imposed solitude. Her smiles no longer reach her brilliant blue eyes, which no longer sparkle and her laughs are forced.

I have detected no illness or major changes in her scent, other than an ever present nervousness and an undercurrent of guilt that now filters through.

Staring at the report in my hand, not reading it as I think on the miko, I try to think back to when the changes started. It was shortly after the Spring Equinox Banquet. I do not recall anything happening at the banquet, she sat with myself, Rin and my First General, Akiro- her kit having been sent to bed hours before- teasing and laughing. As it got late, she and Rin retired for the evening, and then the next morning, Rin arrived for breakfast, while she and her kit did not.

What happened that night that changed her?

Looking up and over to the wall shared with the Library, I focus my hearing on the miko currently reading and hear nothing but her heartbeat, breathing and the sound of paper being handled. Furrowing my brow, I turn my gaze back to the report.

How do I recover her self as she was before?

I no longer am shocked by such thoughts. I have long accepted that I care for the strange time travelling girl who seemingly crash landed into this era and wormed her way into my thoughts and life. It was why I invited her and her kit to live here with Rin and I to begin with. She was distraught when the well closed and being in that village was wilting her. Being here brought her back. Until the banquet.

I sigh. I will have to start with asking her what ails her before I can ascertain how to resolve the situation.