It took several more days for the taijiya to be healed enough for travel. During that time I worked at making myself useful around the temple: washing floors, sweeping leaves, and boiling water for tea. The monks more or less gave me free roam about the temple and rewarded me with steamed buns and rice. While not my usual carnivorous diet, it was at least something to fill my stomach, and I was grateful for it.

The taijiya, in the meantime, pretty much just stayed to himself sulking the entire time. Partly because he couldn't get up, and partly because he was a jerk and no one wanted to be around him, anyway. At least that's how I felt. The monks still brought him food and water and looked after his wounds, but conversation between them seemed limited to formalities. Oddly, though he was obviously distraught at the prospect of taking me with him, he had not once put up a fight about it. It was perplexing that he could be so rude to me, yet have so much respect for the monks that he dared not question them.

Finally, the day of our departure arrived. The taijiya had seemed weak on his feet, but somehow still managed to heft that ridiculous spear of his around without much trouble. I had procured a bundle of buns for the road, while the taijiya took nothing but the jewel. The head monk presented it to him, encased in a small bamboo flask full of holy water.

"We entrust it to your care, then, Taijiya-dono," the monk said as the exchange was made. "I pray you keep it safe, and keep yourself safe of its curse."

The taijiya bowed and secured the flask to the sash at his waist. "I am in your debt more than I can repay. I apologize for being unable to complete my initial task."

I didn't really consider that much of a loss. "Hey, I worked off your debt for you while you were stuck in bed, so you'd better be grateful!" I shot at him. He scowled at me briefly but held his tongue.

"On the contrary, I would hardly consider this a failure," the head monk replied. The taijiya raised an eyebrow at him as he continued, "The service we requested of you was to dispatch the threat this youkai posed to the temple. I can safely say that the youkai is no longer a threat to the temple, and the objective was achieved without resorting to violence. Simply because the task was not completed in the way you would have imagined does not mean it was not completed."

One of the apprentice monks appeared holding a folded robe. "A change of clothes, as your current garments are badly damaged."

The taijiya held up his hand and shook his head. "You are too kind, but I am already too indebted to you to accept any more. The jewel was the agreed payment and I shall not impose myself further on you good monks." Talk about humble! Who was this guy and what had he done with the self-important jackass?

The two of us bowed again and turned to leave. "Bye, and thanks!" I shouted, waving as I left. "If you see that white dog again, let me know!" I heard a creak beside me and saw that the taijiya had tightened his grip on his spear, looking down at me suspiciously. Oh, get over yourself.

The journey was silent, but I hadn't really expected anything different. While the taijiya had been enough of a chatterbox when he was taunting me, now that he had to leave me be he had nothing to say. Which was fine, since I had nothing to say to him, either. It's not like I wanted to go along with him, but if he insisted on taking the jewel, I had no choice.

As the day dragged on and the trip got longer, the silence was really starting to wear on me. Yeah, neither one of us particularly cared for this arrangement, but it did neither of us any good to stay at odds with each other if we were going to have to put up with each other for however long it took for him to go wherever he was going and find out whatever he was trying to find out. So, I finally decided to try an icebreaker by asking him something that had been bugging me for a long time.

"So... what's your name, anyway?" I wondered. He'd gone from "man" to "taijiya" but had yet to progress into an actual name, and if I was going to be with him for an extended period of time, I couldn't very well just keep calling him "man".

"I have no name for the likes of you," he said in a monotone, not even looking at me.

... "Man" it is, then. I didn't really understand what the big deal was, though. I'd think it would be pretty horrible for no one to know your name and instead have to make up epithets as a placeholder.

Day became night and we set up to make camp. Though I had offered him a share of my buns, the taijiya had refused anything from me, and had therefore gone without food for the day. Really, it was one thing to have an unfounded hatred of me, but he was just hurting himself in the process. He'd made a fire and left me to keep it stoked while he went to a nearby stream to look for fish.

I hugged my knees, poking the fire with a stick and sighing. Although Yachouon had never really shown much compassion towards me, at least he didn't outright hate me like this guy did. Though like with Yachouon, situations like these got the abandonment paranoia pumping again, and I kept my nose on him continuously to make sure he wasn't using a food run as an excuse to ditch me. I may not particularly like the guy, but I didn't like the feeling of being hated and abandoned by anyone, either.

Thankfully, he returned after only a few minutes, a large trout pierced on the end of his spear. I looked up at him excitedly, eager to finally get some meat in my belly, but he merely snorted at me.

"This is not for you. I only agreed to have you accompany me, not be your caretaker. If you wish for something more substantial than a steamed bun, then I suggest you look for it yourself." He sat and propped the spear between his knees, letting the fish dangle over the fire to cook. Selfish bastard... though if he refused any food from me, I guess I shouldn't expect any from him.

I clutched my knees and grimaced, reminding myself of the reason I hadn't had any meat in weeks. That being that I could understand animals' speech and couldn't bring myself to kill anything begging for its life. I wasn't going to be able to subside on carbohydrates alone for very much longer, so I was going to have to get over this somehow, but...

"How do you do it...?" I wondered aloud. The taijiya flashed me a questioning glance as I continued, "How is it so easy for you to kill something that's done you no harm and is begging you for mercy?"

He pursed his lips and after a long pause responded, "I do not know how I am supposed to take a question like that." He reached out to pinch the fish's flank to test its doneness, then resumed roasting it over the fire. "Though it has been my experience that one's innocence has little bearing on how much they value their own life. If anything, it is the most wicked who posess the greatest will to live."

Okay, so... I just had to tell myself that all the little forest creatures were really evil and deserved to die? That didn't make much sense. I had been figuring I could use necessity as an excuse, but who was I to judge my needs to be more important than theirs? But he wasn't really addressing the crux of my problem, since this had nothing to do with whether the animal "deserved" it.

"What I mean is... well, like that fish you caught. What if you knew it was a mom fish, and the dad fish and baby fish were going to be sad that you killed it?"

The taijiya looked at me like I was crazy as he proceeded to gut said fish with the edge of one of his spear's blades. "You are more than welcome to roll over and die if the idea of inconveniencing anyone else is so distasteful to you. The reality of the world, however, is that every action you take affects someone negatively somewhere, even if you did not intend it, and even if you are not aware of it. The four buns you took are four buns those monks cannot eat, which will therefore force them to make more to make up for it. The grain they take for those buns may have been something a deer would have stopped to graze upon. Because the deer did not stop to graze, the hunter has no game to bring home to his family. Because the family has no food, the youngest amongst them dies."

He stopped momentarily to look up and see me clutching my mouth and tense with guilt. He rubbed his neck awkwardly and looked away, muttering, "That was all hypothetical, I am not saying you are causing a child to starve somewhere. What I am saying is that if you desire to survive, it is not something you can afford to dwell on. On the other side of that, sometimes you do something seemingly innocuous that you end up regretting for the rest of your life..."

I nodded and hugged my knees. I was going to have to kill something eventually if I wanted to survive. I had already killed that swarm of youkai without any thought as to how they felt in order to stay alive. Maybe my problem was that I was just starting to overthink things.

The taijiya nibbled at his fish for a while before finally breaking the silence again. "While we're in a chatty mood, I have a question for you. What were you doing at that temple? You mentioned something about looking for a white dog."

... Was he asking this because he knew something? I knew the monks seemed to think she was a monster, and I definitely wouldn't put it past this guy to share the sentiment, but even if he did, he might at least know where she went.

"... I was looking for my mother," I finally responded.

The taijiya put down his fish and looked at me intently. "A bake-inu like yourself, no doubt."

I flashed him an angry look and shouted, "She's not a bake-anything, she's a normal dog like me!"

"Normal?" he said, giving me a bemused look. "I am not aware of any normal dog who looks like a human. Tell me, how many winters have passed since you were born?" I blinked, not understanding the point of the question, but to humor him began counting back on my fingers the number I could remember. After I got past three, he interrupted me by saying, "A 'normal' dog would be an adult after one year, yet you are still a child. Or is that merely a form you assume to fool people?"

"I'm not trying to fool anyone!" I shot back. "I can't talk in my dog form, and the hands are useful. Yes, I am part youkai, but that doesn't mean I'm evil!"

The taijiya leaned forward, as if pressing me. "What led you to believe your mother was near that temple?"

I scooted back, a little disturbed. Why did he suddenly care so much? "I... followed her scent along the river, but lost it in the forest," I answered cautiously. "And the monks said she'd come through, though they thought she was a youkai."

"Scent. Brilliant. Having you along may be a blessing in disguise," he mused to himself thoughtfully. ... What was he getting at?

Before I could wonder much further, a chill wind whipped through the branches, blowing out the fire. The taijiya clutched his arms instinctively and shivered, half his upper body only having bandages for protection due to his shredded clothing. Not to mention he was wet from fishing.

"Maybe you should have taken that robe from the monks..." I suggested, not that there was much that could be done about that now. The taijiya glared at me as he rubbed his bare shoulder. Right, he'd already been enough of a burden on them so deserved to freeze to death, apparently. It was one thing to be humble, it was another altogether to just be needlessly stupid.

I sighed, knowing full well what the only option was to keep him from freezing. Why did I keep having to save his stupid butt? If he was always this careless, it was a miracle he'd survived as long as he had before he met me.

I transformed into my dog form and placed my paw on his shoulder. Immediately he whipped around, grabbing his spear and rolling away from me. He crouched, holding his spear in my face, his eyes wide with shock. I cocked my head, wondering how I'd startled him so badly. I guess I was kind of big for a puppy.

Slowly I backed down, trying to be as non-threatening as possible, before returning to my human form. "I'm... sorry. You just seemed really cold."

He slumped against a tree, holding his spear protectively in front of him. "Do not touch me. I do not wish to associate with the likes of a bake-inu." He then curled up with his spear hugged tightly against him.

I rubbed my forehead and sighed. Okay... okay, be that way. If he wanted to wake up an icicle, well, he'd have just relieved himself of any use of the Shikon no Tama and I could be on my merry way. And then I could... eat him or something for good measure. No use having perfectly good meat that won't talk back go to waste.

I took one last glance at his huddled form before shifting back into my dog form and curling up underneath a tree. It was no use. No amount of selfish rationalization could keep me from feeling responsible for him. But I couldn't do anything if he insisted on being a pompous ass. Not to mention these nagging feelings were probably going to keep me from getting any sleep.

My thoughts were interrupted by a sudden weight against my back. I didn't have to turn over to look to know what it was, and my tail flapped on the ground a few times in response as I tried to suppress a grin. "Not a word of this to anyone," came a muffled voice from my fur. Hey, I'm a dog. I'm not about to start talking.