roses and the tulips have withered away, they had their day

[distrustful]

The priests at the shrine have started to trust InuYasha a little more. Ever since the start of the new year, when InuYasha helped with mochi tsuki, they've actively greeted InuYasha whenever he comes around to spend time in the quiet forest behind the shrine. Even though there's always a slight lump in his throat that forms in response to the purity of the air by the shrine, the peace and quiet the shrine offers is well worth the discomfort.

Unfortunately, spending so much time around the shrine also means that InuYasha gets asked to help out with chores. Most of them aren't too much trouble — he's fine helping to sweep, or even cleaning out the trough to make sure the water's clean for use. But today, there's some type of murkiness inside the shrine itself, they tell him, and they suspect that it's some type of lingering youkai.

It'd be less of a problem if it weren't for how all of the workers are starting to fall ill, rashes spreading over their body.

A few hours' worth of time in the shrine makes it clear what the problem was: susuwatari hovering in the corners of each room, lurking in the darkness. Tessaiga clears them quickly enough with a few spiraling wind attacks, but InuYasha doesn't escape unscathed. Some of the soot ends up in his nose as he stumbles out of the shrine, coughing and disgruntled.

The priests offer him payment, but InuYasha refuses, choosing to walk out towards the forest instead and flop in the grass.

His head hurts.

Comments

[phosphor]

"'Taku," Rin says when he approaches, catching the sight of smudged, black and gray soot on InuYasha's face and, standing out even more, in his pale hair. Rin lifts a hand to scrub at the back of his neck as he crosses the grass, still dry and yellow from winter.

"What were you doing? You look like you got in a fight with a grill and lost. Were you helping the temple out?"

The temple is why Rin came, more than InuYasha. He didn't have school during the day on weekends, and often found himself at a loss for what to do, if Nuriko was working and Yukio was on a job that he had neglected to invite his brother along on.