InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ 1000 ❯ Part Two: The Method ( Chapter 2 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Striking Falcon 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Supernatural / Adventure | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 11.09.2008 | Pages: 8 | Words: 8.7K | Visits: 551 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Supernatural / Adventure | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 11.09.2008 | Pages: 8 | Words: 8.7K | Visits: 551 | Status: Completed
Author’s Ramblings: I was asked (by my know-it-all cousin) why I decided to start this fic instead of finishing the ones I already have. I told him to mind his business and leave me alone (your wedding cake falling apart on you will make you grouchy) but the truth is that I needed to start this fic. I was under a lot of stress when I started this, so this was helping me blow off some steam. . .before I maimed someone. Add to that the fact that I kinda don’t know which one to start on next. Second Chance took so long that the inspiration for everything else sort of jumbled around, sort of like a file cabinet falling over. Hopefully I will know which one to pick back up when the third chapter for this is posted. . .
Though a little help from you guys is always appreciated. ; )
Back when I was but a child and Kikyou was your age, our village was protected by the Lady Miko and a pair of houshi. The houshi were brothers, twins, and orphans raised at a nearby temple. When the waves of oni became too much for our Lady, the houshi brothers would come down from the western mountains to her aid. Miroku-san reminds me of the pair, with the same dark eyes and devilish smiles.
The oldest brother was more responsible. Frequently he meditated in the woods to the south of the village. He was quiet, soft spoken and respectful to our Lady.
The younger brother was rambunctious, the ladies’ man of the pair. His reki was strong, much stronger than his brother, yet he chose to spend his days doing more. . .entertaining activates.
As I said before, the pair were beloved of our village yet as much as we loved them, it paled in comparison to how much they loved each other. . .
That is why , when the eldest was slaughtered by a group of minor youkai, none were more devastated than the brother left behind. . .
Part Two: The Method
She stared into the dank musty depths of the well, the light from the cracks in the wooden walls of the well house flickering pinpoints that barely touched the darkness surrounding her. Oh her back was a new bookbag, her old, brightly hued companion replaced by a dark green hiking pack. Her sleeping bag was rolled up on top of it and inside, other than a snow white version of her pack, were various supplies she would need on her journey, including a thick, in depth study on various herbs and plants that was fully illustrated and widely extensive on practical uses. On the sides of the bookbag were solar panels and little plugs that were useful for charging her mp3 player, the only piece of technology chosen to take with her.
Inside the little mp3 player were her favorite songs, pictures of her family (both past and present) and a video, one that she’d made of Inuyasha and the others one night after they settled into camp. She felt she. . .needed that little piece of tech, the only thing small enough to not be a big deal if it were lost in this era, yet enough for her to keep her connection to the friends and family she was leaving behind. She knew the risks she was taking and had attempted to make every precaution. . .but she knew that there was a chance. . .
A chance that she would never see her friends and family again.
Kagome glanced over her shoulder and smiled, tears in her steel brown eyes as she waved. Her mother waved back, struggling with tears of her own as she, Kagome’s grandfather and Souta stood in the threshold of the well house door. “You will be careful, won’t you?”
“Yes Mama. I will.”
“I-“ Kagome’s mother stepped forward then backed away, her hand fisted against her lower lip as she struggled not to cry. Her baby was leaving, this time to roam the dangers of the Feudal Era on her own without the friends that she depended on.
‘She’s so brave,’ she said to herself as Kagome stood up and adjusted the pack on her back. She was dressed so differently, her school uniform retired to hang from a hook on the back of her bedroom door. Now she wore black wide legged pants and a fitted shirt. She had on tennis shoes now, but there were an extra set of clothes, a coat and a pair of all weather boots deep within that pack. With her hair pulled back and a pair of fingerless gloves on her fingers (Kagome thought it made her look tough) she looked less like her baby and more. . .
‘More like a. . .a warrior,’ Kagome’s mother said with a soft smile. ‘My baby’s seventeen now, and responsible for saving the world. . .all by herself.’
“You’ll get my school work for me, right?”
Mrs. Higurashi blinked, then smiled and nodded. “Yes dear, I’ll have it here when you return.”
“Good.” Kagome inhaled deeply, her bow in her hands and her quiver attached to her upper thigh, and exhaled as she stared into the depths of the well. “Here we go,” she said to herself as she stepped up to the lip of the well. “No more running or hiding behind Inuyasha. No more feeling useless and alone. No more trembling behind the skirts of my friends while they get hurt.” She turned around, her eyes swimming as she took one last glance at her family, and allowed herself to fall backward into the well.
(I)
Kagome walked along the dusty path, the way bare of grass and lit by the spotty afternoon sunlight that shone down from between the branches of the trees that bordered the dirt way. Little animals stopped to watch the miko as she walked, their beady little eyes curious as she walked and read from the small diary in her hands. Since learning about the legend and the likely hood that it could be fact, she wracked her brain with a plan of action. Of course she wanted to get stronger as fast as possible, but she didn’t want to go on a killing spree, killing youkai at random. Unlike most miko of the Feudal Era, she knew that the species of the creature didn‘t make them evil.
Add to that the possibility that she could come across a youkai stronger than her and without backup she would have to be extremely, EXTREMELY careful with her chosen enemies. So far so good, as it had been three weeks since she started her journey and her only encounters were with (for some odd reason) frog youkai on power trips.
Weird. . .
‘Let’s see,’ Kagome said to herself as she turned the page. ‘From what I’m understanding, I’ve killed at least five youkai since I came to the Feudal Era. That means I have-‘ She calculated quickly, then groaned miserably.
“I have at least nine hundred ninety one to go. Great. Bleh.” She frowned and stuck out her tongue. “This is going to take foreve-“
“AHHHHHHH!” a scream sounded from somewhere deep in the forest. “Someone help! Save us!”
Kagome turned and ran toward the sound, her footfalls heavy as she picked her way through the foliage. She burst from the trees into the clearing and her mouth fell open, her eyes wide as she stared up in horrified awe at the monstrous oni that towered above her from the opposite edge of the glade. It’s power signal was massive, a darkness that oozed and popped against her skin like boiling mud. It’s skin was a dark purple, blotched with darker spots that appeared to be dried blood and gore. The horn on it’s head was long and thin, like a unicorn’s would be, and stained an unhealthy yellow with crimson dripping from the tip.
It’s talons were long, it’s mouth shaped in a vicious canine snarl and it’s eyes were piercing little beads of crystal blue. Kagome shuddered, then gagged as her sudden intake of breath brought the stench of death, dried blood and excrement. “Oh my God,” Kagome whispered to herself as she struggled not to heave. “This thing reeks!”
“Not like my scent little onna?”
Kagome looked up and found startlingly beautiful crystal orbs glaring at her, it’s snout a misshapen smirk as it shook the viscid remains of its latest victim from its inch long talons and racked them over the grass. “Like I your scent much. Tasty you will be.”
“Oh come on,” Kagome groaned and pulled her bow from her back. “Why does every oni I come across either want to eat me, rape me or rape me then eat me? Do you guys have a meeting on what to say?”
The oni laughed, it’s powerful thighs twitching sporadically against the strain of supporting it’s massive upper half. Kagome quickly nocked an arrow and fired, the tip charged with reiki before it pierced through the air toward her target. The arrow struck the oni’s chest and it roared, outraged and in pain, before it returned it’s attentions to her.
It pounced, and Kagome jumped back and away instantly, her body on high alert as the oni chased her around the clearing. She barely ducked its claws but not the sweep of his hand as it caught the side of her hip and batted her across the clearing. Kagome flew with a scream to the other side and was silenced when the hard trunk of an unforgiving tree met her back. She slumped over, lights dancing in her vision as she slowly fell to the blood soaked grass beneath her.
Her back felt like it was on fire, the pain arching like dark ballerinas from nerve ending to nerve ending as it shot down her arms and legs. Kagome groaned and struggled to sit up, a frown set on her bubble-gum pink lips when the oni began to laugh.
“Little match for me you are,” it rumbled from above her. It sank it’s claws into the cotton fabric of her dark shirt and plucked her body off of the ground as if she weighted little more than lint. “Little fight you’ll put up now. Kongol will enjoy himself, then I will eat your jewel shards.”
The oni shook her fiercely and laughed when she fell again, this time with the ripped remains of her shirt dangling from its claws. Kagome cried out in agony, the pain she was already feeling flaring to new life as dirt clouds kicked up around her from the force of her landing.
‘Why,’ she asked herself as the oni ripped away her pants and tossed them toward the forest. ‘Why can’t I protect myself? Why aren’t I better than this?! I’m so tired of not being able to protect myself! I. . .I don’t want to die like this!’
The oni grabbed her arm seconds before it began to blaze. Licking from underneath Kagome’s pale skin were lavender swirls of fire, with indigo and rose ripples that immediately engulfed the oni. It shrieked in agony and attempted to fling her aside but her tiny hands latched hold of the oni gigantic fingers and refused to let go.
The pain vanished so suddenly that it left Kagome confused but grateful as her eyes finally opened. The flames leaped gleefully along the oni’s purifying flesh and the sickening odor of burning flesh and fecal matter thickened in the hot, stifling atmosphere. The oni screamed one final time before exploding, it’s innards streaking across the clearing to transform it into a crimson tribute of Hell. Kagome fell back to earth, this time landing on her feet, and closed her eyes as what remained solid fell back to the ground in fat, putrid plops.
Kagome opened her eyes, pushed her hair out of her face and looked around her. “Wow,” she breathed in disbelief. “What happened. . .and why is the world so red?” She blinked rapidly but her attempts to clear her rose hued view of the world seemed to be in vain. She raised her hand and wiped at her eyes, first her left before starting on her right. Her left eye cleared instantly and Kagome continued to gaze around as she struggled to clean her remaining eye.
Once both were clear she blinked and looked around, her fingers splayed across her open mouth as the objects around her blurred and wavered. She squinted and blinked but nothing seemed to return her sight back to what it was before the fight. ‘Gah,’ she panicked as she began to remove her contact lenses. ‘What happened? Did something tear when I hit that tree?!’
But her fears of going blind were forgotten when the first contact came out. It slipped from her still fingers and lost itself in the grass, alone until a second landed beside it.
The world without her contacts was so sharp, sharper than she’d ever seen with her glasses or her contacts. Colors were more vivid and everything around her so in focus that for a moment Kagome thought she was hallucinating. ‘Oh wow,’ she said as she turned in place. The sharp outlines of the leaves high above her, the teeny ants that scuttled busily between the thin cracks in the bark of the trees, and the ripples in the fur of a lone rabbit several yards away; nothing was missed by her suddenly improved vision.
“But how,” Kagome wondered aloud. “How did this happen? I’ve always needed glasses, always. What happ-“ She glanced down at her hands. A dawn of understanding shone on her crimson drenched features as she studied her hands and the blood that dripped from her fingertips. Her nails, her knuckles, even her wrists were stained with the life force of the rogue oni and Kagome, though bothered by the sight, was awestruck as well and feeling as if she were just on the cusp of understanding something important.
“Its the blood, not the killing that makes you,” she realized. “But what would happen if I washed it off? Would I still be like this?” She picked up her backpack and her bow and retraced her steps back to the hot spring she visited earlier that morning. She tromped along steadily, her usual bashfulness at being reduced to a sports bra and a pair of panties strangely absent as she made her way through the woods. When she spotted the springs she dropped her things and immediately immersed herself in the warm, soothing waters. She rubbed furiously at her hair and skin, then shook her head and rose from the depths of the water.
Kagome opened her eyes hesitantly, first the right before the left sprang open and she let loose a happy, high-pitched giggle. “I can still see!” she cheered to the woods surrounding her. “I can SEE!” She slapped the water triumphantly and laughed again.
“Its not the youkai, it’s the blood! I’ve been doing this wrong the whole time!”
(II)
“Have you done something to upset her, Inuyasha?”
Inuyasha glared up at the houshi, golden orbs narrowed in aggravation as his claws gouged deep score marks in the soft, rich farmland soil.
“Hell no,” Inuyasha snorted and growled at the disbelieving look in the houshi’s eyes. “I don’t give a damn if you believe me. When Kagome left she was fine! Now I can’t find her and her mom doesn’t know where she went!”
“Inuyasha’s right!” Shippou chirped up from between Kirara’s shoulder blades. “Kagome promised Inuyasha ramen if he let her leave and even Inuyasha’s not stupid enough to say something to jeopardize that.” Sango and Miroku nodded at the wisdom of the kit’s statement and turned when Inuyasha sighed. They found him gazing over his shoulder at the well, his amber eyes distant as he remained in his dog-inspired place of rest.
‘I just don’t get it,’ Inuyasha said to himself as his gazed into the well’s darkness. ‘Why? Why would she leave without us? Is she trying to get herself killed?’
Kagome’s mother’s greeting on the other side was less than expected. She was always happy to see him (‘Even a worthless hanyou like me’) but she seemed stressed, more stressed than he remembered the woman being in Kagome’s three years of passing through the well. She still managed to give him a smile and a huge bag of ramen before telling him the worst: That Kagome wasn’t there and hadn’t been in the present era for some time.
Of course he freaked out and demanded to know where Kagome was, but Mrs. Higurashi merely shrugged, smiled and sent him along his way. It was Souta who filled him in on what he could and let him know that Kagome had gone on some mission in the past. The family hadn’t seen the teenager in quite some time but a note found by the well told the family that she was still ok and well on her way to finding what she was looking for. What she was looking for Souta hadn’t a clue, only that, “Onee-chan wants to get stronger. She says she’s tired of being a sissy. . .or something like that. I was playing BioShock when she was talking about it. That game is so cool Inuyasha! You’d like it!”
“What does she need to be stronger for?” Inuyasha complained and shot a fearsome glare back at the well. “I’m the only one that does any real fightin’ anyway!”
“She might want to help out,” Sango offered and shrugged when his piercing gaze fell on her. “What? You know Kagome -“
‘But what’s she looking for?’ Inuyasha wondered as he rose up and dusted the grass from the backs of his thighs. He gazed into the sky, at white fluffy clouds that drifted lazily across the pale blue sky, and at the sunlight as it streamed through the fading green leaves of the trees above him. ‘Why didn’t she want us to go along?’
“So what are we gonna do Inuyasha?”
Inuyasha blinked and gazed out of the corner of his eye. The others stood waiting, watching as their self-proclaimed leader seemed to sink into himself.
“I don’t know what happened on Kagome’s side,” Miroku whispered to Sango when Inuyasha turned and began to walk away. “But I don’t have a good feeling about it and neither does Inuyasha.”
“You can’t blame him for being worried though,” Shippou chirped. “This is their first time being separated. I’ve known them the longest and I’ve never known them to be apart for so long.”
“I think we should leave Kagome-san to her busines-“
“Finish that thought and die, Miroku,” Inuyasha snarled in the holy servant’s face. “Just leave Kagome by herself huh? Well fuck that! I’m going after her, and when I catch up to her I’m gonna-“ He paused mid threat, his nose tipped in the air as something familiar caught his attention. He leaped into the sturdy arms of the tree above him, then sprinted towards the scent. Miroku and the others followed quickly, their curiosity cast aside as Inuyasha’s blazing form darted along ahead of them.
They arrived at the village just as a group of traveling merchants passed through the village gate. They reeked of oni, sweat and fear but deep underneath these scents, nearly erased by the others, was the unique signature of reiki. It was strong, pure, and didn’t have the same bland scent as most pure energy. This energy felt alive, free and, out of the twenty people that stood around the small wooden supply wagon, it was a small pregnant woman sitting on a tired looking horse that the reiki seemed to cling to like a second skin.
“Is this Kyoto Village, where the miko Kaede resides?” one of the merchants, an elderly man with a large, misshapen purple cap, inquired as Sango and Miroku slowed to a stop.
“Yes, it is,” Sango replied while Miroku nodded and stooped over to catch his breath.
“Welcome, travelers,” Miroku finally wheezed. “How do you know our beloved miko?”
“And why do you smell like death warmed over,” Shippou groaned and covered his nose with his paw.
“Shippou, how rude!” Sango admonished with a shake of her finger. “Don’t say things lik-“
“Rude my ass,” Inuyasha growled angrily. “I was about to ask the same thing. Hey you!” He grasped the old man by the front of his haori and hefted him into the air with one hand. “What the hell happened to ya, huh?”
Miroku shook his head in disappointment, his eyes closed as if he were weary with the whole thing, then raised the end of his staff high into the air. He loosened his grip and it fell with a slight whistle, the rings jingling rather loudly when they finally clunked the hanyou on top of the head.
“OW!! Damn it Miroku!” Inuyasha snarled as he whirled on the man. The merchant leader fell to the ground without complaint and scrambled back toward the wagon in the center of the group. The villagers had crowded around them at this point, everyone knowing by experience that whenever the hanyou yelled it was bound to be entertaining.
“What was that for?”
“You know what that was for,” Miroku replied as he swept the staff through the air. “Please remember your manners. Ah,” he said and bowed slightly as Kaede hobbled toward him. “Kaede-sama, the merchant here asked for you by name.”
“Oh?” Kaede responded with surprise. “Whatever for?”
“I’m not sure,” Sango shrugged. “But I think he was about to tell us.” Everyone turned expectantly toward the merchant chief, who by now had gotten over his frightening experience with Inuyasha.
“We’re only traveling merchants during the summer you see,” the elderly man said after an attempt to straighten out his cap. “We travel far, even to the mainland, in order to trade and sell our wares. Seeing as how fall is almost upon us we decided two lunar cycles ago to head back home.”
“Two months,” Shippou whispered into Sango’s ear.
“I know that,” was her hushed answer back. “Why’d you tell me that, Shippou?”
“Oh, sorry,” he apologized and blushed. “I’m so used to telling Kagome that. It just kinda. . .slipped out.”
Inuyasha growled at them, his eyes narrowed in warning before turning back to the merchant. Sango and Shippou rolled their eyes but did as he “suggested” and paid attention.
“We were traveling from the north, coming back to our little settling place, when cat youkai ambushed us. My daughter Yori was already ill-“ he gestured toward the woman sitting on the horse “-so we tried to appease the youkai in an attempt to get them to let us go. They demanded our children, every last one of them, and in turn they would leave us alone. We would not think of such an option, so the youkai determined to eat all of us.
“They had already killed three of our men when the strangest thing happen-“
“It was a miko!” a little girl chirped as she ran towards Kaede. “She appeared out of nowhere, like a tenshi or a kami! She-“
“Hush, child,” the girl’s mother shushed and placed a finger over her lips. “Allow Renji-san to explain everything.”
“Oh, but Mama-“
“Shush!”
The girl pouted, but sent Kaede an apologetic nod and allowed her mother to drag her away from the adults.
“As the child said,” the old man, Renji, began after clearing his throat. “A young woman appeared in the center of our group. She was beautiful, with long, dark hair that she kept back and the most heavenly face.” The younger men behind him mumbled in agreement, their faces flushed with the memory, and gave each other cheeky grins.
“OK damn it,” Inuyasha snapped irritably. He’d had enough of this lustful hero worship and just wanted to know what happened. “Get on with it you old goat!!”
“Inuyasha!”
“She killed them!” the little girl from before chirped again. “She had this arrow that glowed and when it hit the first one, it exploded and became ash-“
“Ami.”
“Soon they all were all dead and ashes fell down like pretty snow. She got a little blood on her, but she didn’t seem to mind it too much-“
“Ami. . .”
“And the best part was when she took out this mysterious little box and healed Yori-chan!”
“Ami!!”
“Uh-oh,” the child muttered dejectedly. “I think I’m in trouble.”
“The miko healed her?” Kaede asked and gestured toward the woman on the horse. “How?”
“I fell,” the young woman spoke up and blushed when everyone turned to her. “Before we left the mainland, I slipped on sharp rocks and fell into some mud. For days it just itched, then it turned red and began to fester. That’s when the fever and pain began.
“But when the neko were dead the miko turned to me. It was like she could smell the sickness oozing from my wound. She opened this strange pack-“
“It shone on the sides!” little Ami chimed in again. “Like little square mirrors that were painted black! Why would someone want so many black mirrors, Mama?”
“And pulled out a strange white box,” Yori continued while Ami and her mother argued. “It was small, white, and smooth, with a cross in the center painted red.”
“A red cross you say?” Miroku said as he and Sango exchanged glances. “And the box, was it filled with strange medicines and strips of thin, yet supple cloth?”
“Yes,” Renji nodded. “Are you familiar with her?”
“And the miko herself,” Sango continued as Shippou and Inuyasha began to put the pieces together. “Did she wear a golden chain, one with a clear glass vial with tiny slivers of a pink jewel around her neck?”
“Yes, yes she did,” Yori replied. “She said it was the reason she couldn’t stay with us. She nursed my leg and told us to come here so Kaede-sama can look at it.”
“Did she say anything else?” Inuyasha demanded heatedly. He growled when she was slow to answer and loudly yipped when Sango whacked him with her boomerang afterward.
“Um, the m-miko whispered s-something to my b-b-b-“ Yori stammered, her skin frightfully white as Inuyasha continued to complain. Sango whacked him again and all was quiet, the color returning to the pregnant woman’s face as Renji began to speak for her.
“The miko blessed the child inside and gave me this,” he passed Sango a sheet of notebook paper. “I watched her write with a strange pen on a scroll made of this odd, white material.”
Sango mouthed the list of things to herself before passing it back to the merchant. “It’s a list of things she should eat,” Sango told Miroku and Shippou. “Fruit, vegetables, and meats, what kinds and how many she should try to eat in a day.”
“Ah,” Miroku nodded sagely. “That was most wise of Kagome. Have you followed the list?”
“Yes houshi-sama,” Renji nodded while Yori smiled and rubbed her large belly. “And since then things with Yori have been wonderful. She would be sick frequently, but she has been the picture of health since following the list.”
“The baby’s calmer now, too,” Yori replied gratefully. “I’m thankful for that.”
“Well then,” Kaede sighed as she approached Yori. “I wish to see this injury.”
“Of course.”
Kaede began to lead Yori’s horse toward her hut, where she and the young woman would be able to talk in quiet while Kaede checked Yori’s health. Sango walked up to Renji and waited until Yori was inside to ask, “The miko Renji-san, did she say anything before she left?”
“Such as?”
“Where she might be going, perhaps,” Miroku offered helpfully. “Or where she might have been? We’re her friends and we desperately need to find her.”
“Well. . . no,” Renji shook his head. “No, the miko directed us here and continued toward the north. She did something strange though, something that frightened me when I first saw her do it.”
“What was it?” Miroku asked and frowned when the poor old fellow paled. “Come now, you can tell us. What did she do?”
“I-I think she thought we were already gone,” Renji began, and his hands began to tremble. “I circled back to thank her again when I f-found her with what looked like a cup, except it was a light, light red and shiny like a mirror. She went to each of the seven neko youkai-“
“Seven?!” Shippou gasped in amazement. “Kagome killed seven youkai, all by herself?!”
“She let their blood fall into the cup and when she finally filled it. . .she poured it over her head.”
“What?!” Sango and Shippou shot back.
“You must be mistaken sir,” Miroku replied with an appeasing smile. “No miko, no less Kagome, would-“
“But she did,” Renji insisted feverishly. “I swear it on my life, she poured the blood of those foul beasts over her pure skin and clothes!”
“But,” Shippou said back. “Why would she do that?”
“She spoke a number too,” Renji told them. “Then picked up her things and went on her way.”
“A number. . .” Miroku fell silent and turned to his inner thoughts. He remembered something his master said long ago, something about youkai blood and a count. . .and what would happen if the right number was ever reached.
“Great Kami-sama!”
“What?” Sango asked aloud. “What is it Miroku?”
“The miko,” Miroku asked and, in an unexpected act of furious desperation, grasped the older man by his collar and jerked him forward. “What number did she speak? It’s important! What number did she speak?!”
“Th-the number two hundred twenty six!” Renji stuttered fitfully as Sango and Shippou tried to pry him free. “Please houshi-sama! It was the number two hundred twenty six!”
(III)
He did not know when it began, but by the time he noticed it was already too late.
It started innocently enough, with his first sighting of the girl when Jaken proposed his insane idea of gaining the Tetsusagia from his Great Father’s grave. He remembered how odd she seemed, clinging to the unworthy hanyou like a second skin, fear pouring from her pure scent in strangling torrents. Yet she still managed to shriek her offense at him and his deductions of her. As time went on her fear diminished, leaving foolish determination behind.
She honestly believed herself to be worth the same as Inuyasha, and that Inuyasha in turn was worth the same, if not more, than the Great Taiyoukai himself.
He huffed, sunlit orbs narrowed slightly at the darkening horizon. Even now, years after their first encounter, her audacity offended him on the highest levels. Her ineptitude was comical at best but her will. . .
‘Her will. . .’
He frowned, displeased, and turned away from the sky and the cliff face, his stride strong and proud as his pristine figure merged with the darkness of a nearby forest. He remained in his thoughts, relying on his senses to find the way back to camp where a small child and an even smaller toad sat bickering in the rapidly fading twilight.
‘Never has this Sesshoumaru witnessed such foolishness.’
She would become stronger over the years, much to his disbelief and amazement. He was a witness to the girl-no, woman-child’s true power, the intensity of the reki that could bubble through the surface of her innocence and inexperience.
‘She would become quite the force if she were only trained properly, . . .’
He mentally tossed those thoughts aside, not even stopping to wonder why he even cared as his foot landed on a dry twig on the outskirts of camp. The bickering ceased instantly and both toad and girl turned to him with welcome smiles and bows.
“Sesshoumaru-sama, this heathen never ceases to press on your loyal servant!” Jaken croaked in offense. “She ran off, just as you forbade her, to amuse herself in a nearby field of useless weeds!”
“Is this true Rin?”
Her head drooped, her ponytail swaying slightly from the motion, and nodded. “Hai, Sesshoumaru-sama. I did leave camp but it was only for these.” She held out a handful of flowers and herbs, some with an odor so repugnant even Sesshoumaru wrinkled his nose in distaste. “They’re flowers that Kagome-san showed to me a long time ago. This one-“ she plucked free a particularly offensive one and held it out for Sesshoumaru’s inspection. “She said to dry and ground down into a paste in case I scrape my knees. She said that this will keep them from becoming infected.”
“I see. . .”
Rin looked up at him hopefully, reading the taiyoukai’s steady gaze for some time before dropping her head again. “But I know I am still wrong. I’m sorry Sesshoumaru-sama. It won’t happen again.”
“See that it doesn’t. As for the ‘flowers’. . .”
“I will take them further into the forest so they can dry.” She scampered away quickly, her orange and black yukata little more than a blur as she disappeared into the forest. One look downward sent Jaken following after, though his progress was more flight than feet as a well placed boot sent him on his way.
His mirth at the flying frog was short lived as curiosity took it’s place. ‘Hn,’ he said to himself as Jaken’s landing, some couple of yards away, made his left ear twitch slightly. ‘Though it should not surprise me that Inuyasha’s onna would share that little bit of information with my ward.’ He thought back to the last time he encountered the miko, the fierceness in her eyes as she protected Rin from So’unga’s madness. He looked over her then but now something inside the youkai locked onto the girl. It was simple really, his decision, and he quickly rose from the tree stump. His footsteps were quick, his mind centered as he followed the sounds of his ward and retainer.
He would answer this question named Kagome, and he would do it by learning from the enigma herself.
(IV)
The northern waters were cold, bone chillingly so, with slabs of ice that floated lazily on the water’s surface. Sometimes these slabs would freeze together, making a large blockade of sorts that sailors had to chip a path through before their ships could reach the frozen island north of the main islands of Japan.
Kagome stood quietly on the ship’s bow, her attention on the approaching horizon as the crew of the whaling ship sang lonely songs of life at sea. Songs of bravery, of men lost at sea never to see their families again, and of ships that sank into the icy abyss were lost to her ears, though she heard them well enough.
A shrill call shattered her train of though and she looked up, eyes that were once a deep chocolate brown now shimmering green-hazel, quickly focused on the birds that flew high overhead. Their beady black eyes scanned the waters for the hunt and Kagome felt a sort of kinship with them. She had not seen her friends, those in the Feudal Era and those in her own time, in nearly six months, yet she felt less inclined to seek them out as she struggled toward her goal.
She was at the halfway mark and already she could feel the benefits singing in her blood. Her vision was twenty times better than it used to be and she was stronger, faster and she had more control over her reki and it’s uses. Experiments with it gave her new ways to use it, using such common objects such as stones and sticks to wreak havoc on the evil youkai she targeted. Once she would have been dismayed and disgusted at the amount of carnage she was now capable of, her stomach lurching unsteadily whenever Inuyasha or the others would eviscerate an enemy. Now her only thought was the count, the power, and reaching her goal.
‘Only 500 more to go,’ she whispered to herself. ‘And on this island there is rumor of at least 30 youkai that have gone rogue.’
“Lady Miko?”
Kagome blinked out of her musings and turned to the sailor, her gaze as cool as the biting wind as she gave him her full attention. He gulped involuntarily and hurried with his news, his desire to be near the tiny onna lessening with each second in her company. “W-we will arrive at the island in a few hours. Perhaps you would like to rest b-b-before we dock?”
“Hm,” she hummed softly, then turned back toward the sea. The sailor scurried away, her disinterest in him his dismissal papers as he hurried back to the safety of his other crewmen. The miko was beautiful, heartbreakingly so, with her pale skin and oddly hued eyes, but this sailor was old enough to know that even the most beautiful flower could have thorns waiting to pierce through your skin.
Kagome knew the other crewmen were afraid of her and at one time that would have bothered her. Deep inside her human heart still judged her actions but the changed blood seemed to muffle its influence. She lifted her head at the cry of the lookout man, her dark hair shifting over her white jacket shoulder. She could just make out the tiny sliver of land that slowly approached them and she sighed. ‘Thirty oni,’ she reminded herself. ‘Slay those oni, then back to Nippon itself. This should be simple. . .’
(V)
They walked slowly, plodded really since earlier rains had turned solid dirt into thick swampy mud patches. The group was splattered in mud and gore from a recent dealing with a youkai they thought had a jewel shard. Miroku had become their ‘shard detector’ since he once hunted them before joining Inuyasha and Kagome. He couldn’t sense the shards well enough to track them but he could recognize their power signature when they were close to one. . .
Which left them plodding along with no destination, waiting for the exhausted houshi to sense something, anything that resembled a shard.
“I’m tired Inuyasha,“ Shippou whined from his place on Kirara’s shoulders. “Can’t we take a break?“
“I think we should,“ Sango sighed wearily. “Miroku hasn’t caught anything all day. “ She gave the houshi an apologetic smile. “No offense Mirokj-sama, but you’re not as good as Kagome at this.“
“I know,“ he exhaled loudly. “I would never have guessed how hard it was to do this. Kagome surely deserves some credit.“
“Kagome deserves to have her ass kicked.“
The group gave the hanyou a weary glance, knowing without words that, though they all worried, Inuyasha took Kagome’s leaving felt like defection, and as such Inuyasha took it personally. He couldn’t understand what he did wrong, what he said to piss her off enough for her to leave. He wanted her back, more than he wanted the Shikon no Tama, to beat every youkai part out of Naraku, even more than he wanted to use his brother’s pelt as his own personal toilet. Inuyasha was scared for the little miko from another time and the longer it took the group to find her the more bearish and impossible he became.
“Inuyasha, be nice!” Shippou scolded angrily. “Everybody else is worried about Kagome! Why do you have to be such a jerk about it!”
“Look you little run-”
Inuyasha paused mid grasp, his nose in the air as the odor of mud, coming rain and wet, rotting vegetation was suddenly shoved aside his one track mind. Winter was coming, the scent of mint, cold and acid quick on the wind. Inuyasha snarled viciously and turned, Shippou forgotten as he hurriedly unsheathed Tetsusiaga. The blade transformed instantly, becoming the fabled death bringer in his clawed hands as he pointed it’s deadly tip toward the source of his displeasure.
“Your manners need improvement, hanyou,“ Sesshoumaru greeted coldly. Gold clashed with amber momentarily, then shifted when Sesshoumaru glanced about the group. “It would seem you are missing someone.“
“Shut the fuck up Sesshoumaru!“ Inuyasha snapped. “Nobody asked your ass, and nobody asked for you either!“
“Excuse me, Sesshoumaru-sama,“ Miroku interrupted as he stepped between the two youkai. “We are missing a member. Have you heard anything as to her whereabouts?“
“As if that pompous ass would give one flying fuck about a puny ningen,“ Inuyasha groused irritably. “Hell, he probably doesn’t even know her name.“
Miroku sighed to himself and silently asked the kami for patience. He felt the true meaning of one of Kagome’s odd futuristic saying, though the rocks were one hanyou incapable of saying anything without liberally sprinkled profanity, and a full blooded youkai with a superiority complex.
“We are having difficulty finding the jewel shards without her-“
“We wouldn’t be if you would just let me ask Kikyo-“
“NO!“ Sango and Shippou both shouted at him. “Kagome would be hurt if she came back and found Kikyou here with us.“
“Well she wasn’t thinking about that when she left!“ Inuyasha shot back.
“We don’t know what she was thinking about?!“ Sango replied and Shippou added, “I don’t blame her for leaving! You’re always telling her that she’s so weak, so scared of everything! She can’t help that she’s a girl Inuyasha! Oh, no offense Sango-chan.“
Miroku fell silent, his earlier prayer for patience mentally repeated as the others of his group argued. Sesshoumaru seemed forgotten by everyone but the houshi, who now watched the taiyoukai stand silently, in the only patch of decent grass in the entire ruined field, and frown slightly at the little group.
“Kagome has been gone for quite some time,“ Miroku explained while the other’s kept arguing. “It has put quite the strain on the rest of us.“
“Hn.“
‘Right,‘ Miroku said to himself. “If you do see her, Sesshoumaru-sama, will you convince her to turn back to us. I’m afraid that. . .she is attempting something dangerous.“
Sesshoumaru turned to him, his thoughts his own as his steel like gaze pierced into the holy man. “This something dangerous. . .“
“Um,“ Miroku replied once he realized that the taiyoukai meant for him to explain. “I can’t speak of my reasons for this, but I believe someone has told her the One Thousand legend. Surely you know of the one I speak of.” He continued at Sesshoumaru’s glare. “A villager that came in contact with her spoke of a number. At the time I didn’t understand, but after a little research I believe what she is attempting is-”
“Impossible,” the taiyoukai finished for him. “Utter foolishness spread through humanity like a disease.”
“That may be true but Kagome may believe it. If so she could be putting herself in harm’s way. Should anything happen to her then it happens to us all. Kagome’s the only way to purify the Sacred Jewel and destroy Naraku.”
Miroku frowned when Sesshoumaru merely turned and disappeared without a word. ‘Must have insulted him,’ he determined and turned back to his companions. “Hey Sango!” he called and quickly waded his way through the mud. “I don’t think Hirakotsu will fit there!”
(VI)
The courtyard was stately and large, with large pavestones swept clear of dirt and debris. The walls surrounding the castle complex were solid, well built and were solid defense against danger
‘That,’ Kagome said to herself as she glanced toward the guard tower overhead. ’didn’t save them.’ She walked through the gates unhindered, the tower and the mutilated body of the dangling guard none of her concern. The sky above, gray and choked, continued to spit out tiny slivers of ice. Kagome wasn’t worried about the stones icing over. Her footfalls were sure partly because of the boots from her time. She embraced the weather, her white winter suit insulating her from the biting wind and freezing rain.
She stood quietly, listening with her ears and her sensing with her reki for any survivors, anyone who might be worth saving, before releasing a pent up breath. “I’m too late.”
She picked up a nearby stick and shook it once, watching as it burst into flames before approaching the castle doors. She flung the doors open and tossed the torch inside, then swiftly closed them as the stench of death and decay assaulted her nose. She was more than too late, if the stench were to serve as proof. The oni were long gone, the castle occupants dead for some weeks before her arrival. Kagome turned and descended the stairs, her determination to catch them no less diminished as she prepared to leave.
She stopped at a small whimpering, then raised her bow, and demanded, “Come out! Show yourself!”
The world paused and Kagome searched again for any signs of life. She found a weak youki signature coming from a nearby case of barrels. She used an arrow to rap on the side of one of the wooden caskets, wondering to herself how the group of oni missed it. “I said come out.”
Ears, cute, round and furry, were the first to poke out of the smallest barrel before little paws boosted the face of a beautiful white bear into her field of vision. Its black eyes were huge and scared and it trembled violently inside its hiding place. She returned the arrow to it’s case and held out her hand. “Come on,” she coaxed softly. “They’ve gone. It’s safe now.”
It sniffed around, then gave a sad whine and clambered out of the barrel. Kagome stood by as it shimmied down, her gaze instantly fixed on an angry gash along the bear’s furry white side. “Here,” she said as she firmly grasped the bear by the back of the neck. “Let me see.” She gently inspected the wound, the bear once again shivering. The gash was small, but deep, and Kagome tisked in disapproval. “They ought to be ashamed of themselves,” she mumbled to herself as she wiped away a little of the blood surrounding the wound. She rubbed her middle finger and thumb together, then slid her middle finger down the wound. Pink energy sparked from the bear’s skin in it squealed in fright and struggled to be free of the miko’s grasp.
“Be still,” she said as she closed the last of the injury. “Or you’ll open it again.”
The bear growled but held still long enough for her to finish, then jumped down from her arms and glanced up at her. She turned to the bear, then the castle as the beginnings of a great fire roared inside. “You can come with me if you want to,” she offered. “Maybe we’ll find your family along the way.”
The bear snuffled, then padded to her side on all fours like an oddly shaped dog. Together they walked through the gates of the ruined fortress, with Kagome unaware of the small trace of warmth, of humanity, that returned to her eyes.
(End Chapter)
SF: Someone asked me what I planned to do about Kagome’s morals. Well I kinda felt that I would have to warp them just a little bit, then straighten them out.
Sango: Because her new power and her methods of using it have to have an effect on her, right?
(SF nods)
Inu-chan: I still think having her run around by herself is incredibly stupid. She’s not strong enough to protect herself.
Rin: And I’m having trouble understanding Sesshoumaru-sama’s part in the story SF-chan.
SF: Tee hee. I know. That’s the plan. The third and last part will be up soon.
Though a little help from you guys is always appreciated. ; )
Back when I was but a child and Kikyou was your age, our village was protected by the Lady Miko and a pair of houshi. The houshi were brothers, twins, and orphans raised at a nearby temple. When the waves of oni became too much for our Lady, the houshi brothers would come down from the western mountains to her aid. Miroku-san reminds me of the pair, with the same dark eyes and devilish smiles.
The oldest brother was more responsible. Frequently he meditated in the woods to the south of the village. He was quiet, soft spoken and respectful to our Lady.
The younger brother was rambunctious, the ladies’ man of the pair. His reki was strong, much stronger than his brother, yet he chose to spend his days doing more. . .entertaining activates.
As I said before, the pair were beloved of our village yet as much as we loved them, it paled in comparison to how much they loved each other. . .
That is why , when the eldest was slaughtered by a group of minor youkai, none were more devastated than the brother left behind. . .
Part Two: The Method
She stared into the dank musty depths of the well, the light from the cracks in the wooden walls of the well house flickering pinpoints that barely touched the darkness surrounding her. Oh her back was a new bookbag, her old, brightly hued companion replaced by a dark green hiking pack. Her sleeping bag was rolled up on top of it and inside, other than a snow white version of her pack, were various supplies she would need on her journey, including a thick, in depth study on various herbs and plants that was fully illustrated and widely extensive on practical uses. On the sides of the bookbag were solar panels and little plugs that were useful for charging her mp3 player, the only piece of technology chosen to take with her.
Inside the little mp3 player were her favorite songs, pictures of her family (both past and present) and a video, one that she’d made of Inuyasha and the others one night after they settled into camp. She felt she. . .needed that little piece of tech, the only thing small enough to not be a big deal if it were lost in this era, yet enough for her to keep her connection to the friends and family she was leaving behind. She knew the risks she was taking and had attempted to make every precaution. . .but she knew that there was a chance. . .
A chance that she would never see her friends and family again.
Kagome glanced over her shoulder and smiled, tears in her steel brown eyes as she waved. Her mother waved back, struggling with tears of her own as she, Kagome’s grandfather and Souta stood in the threshold of the well house door. “You will be careful, won’t you?”
“Yes Mama. I will.”
“I-“ Kagome’s mother stepped forward then backed away, her hand fisted against her lower lip as she struggled not to cry. Her baby was leaving, this time to roam the dangers of the Feudal Era on her own without the friends that she depended on.
‘She’s so brave,’ she said to herself as Kagome stood up and adjusted the pack on her back. She was dressed so differently, her school uniform retired to hang from a hook on the back of her bedroom door. Now she wore black wide legged pants and a fitted shirt. She had on tennis shoes now, but there were an extra set of clothes, a coat and a pair of all weather boots deep within that pack. With her hair pulled back and a pair of fingerless gloves on her fingers (Kagome thought it made her look tough) she looked less like her baby and more. . .
‘More like a. . .a warrior,’ Kagome’s mother said with a soft smile. ‘My baby’s seventeen now, and responsible for saving the world. . .all by herself.’
“You’ll get my school work for me, right?”
Mrs. Higurashi blinked, then smiled and nodded. “Yes dear, I’ll have it here when you return.”
“Good.” Kagome inhaled deeply, her bow in her hands and her quiver attached to her upper thigh, and exhaled as she stared into the depths of the well. “Here we go,” she said to herself as she stepped up to the lip of the well. “No more running or hiding behind Inuyasha. No more feeling useless and alone. No more trembling behind the skirts of my friends while they get hurt.” She turned around, her eyes swimming as she took one last glance at her family, and allowed herself to fall backward into the well.
(I)
Kagome walked along the dusty path, the way bare of grass and lit by the spotty afternoon sunlight that shone down from between the branches of the trees that bordered the dirt way. Little animals stopped to watch the miko as she walked, their beady little eyes curious as she walked and read from the small diary in her hands. Since learning about the legend and the likely hood that it could be fact, she wracked her brain with a plan of action. Of course she wanted to get stronger as fast as possible, but she didn’t want to go on a killing spree, killing youkai at random. Unlike most miko of the Feudal Era, she knew that the species of the creature didn‘t make them evil.
Add to that the possibility that she could come across a youkai stronger than her and without backup she would have to be extremely, EXTREMELY careful with her chosen enemies. So far so good, as it had been three weeks since she started her journey and her only encounters were with (for some odd reason) frog youkai on power trips.
Weird. . .
‘Let’s see,’ Kagome said to herself as she turned the page. ‘From what I’m understanding, I’ve killed at least five youkai since I came to the Feudal Era. That means I have-‘ She calculated quickly, then groaned miserably.
“I have at least nine hundred ninety one to go. Great. Bleh.” She frowned and stuck out her tongue. “This is going to take foreve-“
“AHHHHHHH!” a scream sounded from somewhere deep in the forest. “Someone help! Save us!”
Kagome turned and ran toward the sound, her footfalls heavy as she picked her way through the foliage. She burst from the trees into the clearing and her mouth fell open, her eyes wide as she stared up in horrified awe at the monstrous oni that towered above her from the opposite edge of the glade. It’s power signal was massive, a darkness that oozed and popped against her skin like boiling mud. It’s skin was a dark purple, blotched with darker spots that appeared to be dried blood and gore. The horn on it’s head was long and thin, like a unicorn’s would be, and stained an unhealthy yellow with crimson dripping from the tip.
It’s talons were long, it’s mouth shaped in a vicious canine snarl and it’s eyes were piercing little beads of crystal blue. Kagome shuddered, then gagged as her sudden intake of breath brought the stench of death, dried blood and excrement. “Oh my God,” Kagome whispered to herself as she struggled not to heave. “This thing reeks!”
“Not like my scent little onna?”
Kagome looked up and found startlingly beautiful crystal orbs glaring at her, it’s snout a misshapen smirk as it shook the viscid remains of its latest victim from its inch long talons and racked them over the grass. “Like I your scent much. Tasty you will be.”
“Oh come on,” Kagome groaned and pulled her bow from her back. “Why does every oni I come across either want to eat me, rape me or rape me then eat me? Do you guys have a meeting on what to say?”
The oni laughed, it’s powerful thighs twitching sporadically against the strain of supporting it’s massive upper half. Kagome quickly nocked an arrow and fired, the tip charged with reiki before it pierced through the air toward her target. The arrow struck the oni’s chest and it roared, outraged and in pain, before it returned it’s attentions to her.
It pounced, and Kagome jumped back and away instantly, her body on high alert as the oni chased her around the clearing. She barely ducked its claws but not the sweep of his hand as it caught the side of her hip and batted her across the clearing. Kagome flew with a scream to the other side and was silenced when the hard trunk of an unforgiving tree met her back. She slumped over, lights dancing in her vision as she slowly fell to the blood soaked grass beneath her.
Her back felt like it was on fire, the pain arching like dark ballerinas from nerve ending to nerve ending as it shot down her arms and legs. Kagome groaned and struggled to sit up, a frown set on her bubble-gum pink lips when the oni began to laugh.
“Little match for me you are,” it rumbled from above her. It sank it’s claws into the cotton fabric of her dark shirt and plucked her body off of the ground as if she weighted little more than lint. “Little fight you’ll put up now. Kongol will enjoy himself, then I will eat your jewel shards.”
The oni shook her fiercely and laughed when she fell again, this time with the ripped remains of her shirt dangling from its claws. Kagome cried out in agony, the pain she was already feeling flaring to new life as dirt clouds kicked up around her from the force of her landing.
‘Why,’ she asked herself as the oni ripped away her pants and tossed them toward the forest. ‘Why can’t I protect myself? Why aren’t I better than this?! I’m so tired of not being able to protect myself! I. . .I don’t want to die like this!’
The oni grabbed her arm seconds before it began to blaze. Licking from underneath Kagome’s pale skin were lavender swirls of fire, with indigo and rose ripples that immediately engulfed the oni. It shrieked in agony and attempted to fling her aside but her tiny hands latched hold of the oni gigantic fingers and refused to let go.
The pain vanished so suddenly that it left Kagome confused but grateful as her eyes finally opened. The flames leaped gleefully along the oni’s purifying flesh and the sickening odor of burning flesh and fecal matter thickened in the hot, stifling atmosphere. The oni screamed one final time before exploding, it’s innards streaking across the clearing to transform it into a crimson tribute of Hell. Kagome fell back to earth, this time landing on her feet, and closed her eyes as what remained solid fell back to the ground in fat, putrid plops.
Kagome opened her eyes, pushed her hair out of her face and looked around her. “Wow,” she breathed in disbelief. “What happened. . .and why is the world so red?” She blinked rapidly but her attempts to clear her rose hued view of the world seemed to be in vain. She raised her hand and wiped at her eyes, first her left before starting on her right. Her left eye cleared instantly and Kagome continued to gaze around as she struggled to clean her remaining eye.
Once both were clear she blinked and looked around, her fingers splayed across her open mouth as the objects around her blurred and wavered. She squinted and blinked but nothing seemed to return her sight back to what it was before the fight. ‘Gah,’ she panicked as she began to remove her contact lenses. ‘What happened? Did something tear when I hit that tree?!’
But her fears of going blind were forgotten when the first contact came out. It slipped from her still fingers and lost itself in the grass, alone until a second landed beside it.
The world without her contacts was so sharp, sharper than she’d ever seen with her glasses or her contacts. Colors were more vivid and everything around her so in focus that for a moment Kagome thought she was hallucinating. ‘Oh wow,’ she said as she turned in place. The sharp outlines of the leaves high above her, the teeny ants that scuttled busily between the thin cracks in the bark of the trees, and the ripples in the fur of a lone rabbit several yards away; nothing was missed by her suddenly improved vision.
“But how,” Kagome wondered aloud. “How did this happen? I’ve always needed glasses, always. What happ-“ She glanced down at her hands. A dawn of understanding shone on her crimson drenched features as she studied her hands and the blood that dripped from her fingertips. Her nails, her knuckles, even her wrists were stained with the life force of the rogue oni and Kagome, though bothered by the sight, was awestruck as well and feeling as if she were just on the cusp of understanding something important.
“Its the blood, not the killing that makes you,” she realized. “But what would happen if I washed it off? Would I still be like this?” She picked up her backpack and her bow and retraced her steps back to the hot spring she visited earlier that morning. She tromped along steadily, her usual bashfulness at being reduced to a sports bra and a pair of panties strangely absent as she made her way through the woods. When she spotted the springs she dropped her things and immediately immersed herself in the warm, soothing waters. She rubbed furiously at her hair and skin, then shook her head and rose from the depths of the water.
Kagome opened her eyes hesitantly, first the right before the left sprang open and she let loose a happy, high-pitched giggle. “I can still see!” she cheered to the woods surrounding her. “I can SEE!” She slapped the water triumphantly and laughed again.
“Its not the youkai, it’s the blood! I’ve been doing this wrong the whole time!”
(II)
“Have you done something to upset her, Inuyasha?”
Inuyasha glared up at the houshi, golden orbs narrowed in aggravation as his claws gouged deep score marks in the soft, rich farmland soil.
“Hell no,” Inuyasha snorted and growled at the disbelieving look in the houshi’s eyes. “I don’t give a damn if you believe me. When Kagome left she was fine! Now I can’t find her and her mom doesn’t know where she went!”
“Inuyasha’s right!” Shippou chirped up from between Kirara’s shoulder blades. “Kagome promised Inuyasha ramen if he let her leave and even Inuyasha’s not stupid enough to say something to jeopardize that.” Sango and Miroku nodded at the wisdom of the kit’s statement and turned when Inuyasha sighed. They found him gazing over his shoulder at the well, his amber eyes distant as he remained in his dog-inspired place of rest.
‘I just don’t get it,’ Inuyasha said to himself as his gazed into the well’s darkness. ‘Why? Why would she leave without us? Is she trying to get herself killed?’
Kagome’s mother’s greeting on the other side was less than expected. She was always happy to see him (‘Even a worthless hanyou like me’) but she seemed stressed, more stressed than he remembered the woman being in Kagome’s three years of passing through the well. She still managed to give him a smile and a huge bag of ramen before telling him the worst: That Kagome wasn’t there and hadn’t been in the present era for some time.
Of course he freaked out and demanded to know where Kagome was, but Mrs. Higurashi merely shrugged, smiled and sent him along his way. It was Souta who filled him in on what he could and let him know that Kagome had gone on some mission in the past. The family hadn’t seen the teenager in quite some time but a note found by the well told the family that she was still ok and well on her way to finding what she was looking for. What she was looking for Souta hadn’t a clue, only that, “Onee-chan wants to get stronger. She says she’s tired of being a sissy. . .or something like that. I was playing BioShock when she was talking about it. That game is so cool Inuyasha! You’d like it!”
“What does she need to be stronger for?” Inuyasha complained and shot a fearsome glare back at the well. “I’m the only one that does any real fightin’ anyway!”
“She might want to help out,” Sango offered and shrugged when his piercing gaze fell on her. “What? You know Kagome -“
‘But what’s she looking for?’ Inuyasha wondered as he rose up and dusted the grass from the backs of his thighs. He gazed into the sky, at white fluffy clouds that drifted lazily across the pale blue sky, and at the sunlight as it streamed through the fading green leaves of the trees above him. ‘Why didn’t she want us to go along?’
“So what are we gonna do Inuyasha?”
Inuyasha blinked and gazed out of the corner of his eye. The others stood waiting, watching as their self-proclaimed leader seemed to sink into himself.
“I don’t know what happened on Kagome’s side,” Miroku whispered to Sango when Inuyasha turned and began to walk away. “But I don’t have a good feeling about it and neither does Inuyasha.”
“You can’t blame him for being worried though,” Shippou chirped. “This is their first time being separated. I’ve known them the longest and I’ve never known them to be apart for so long.”
“I think we should leave Kagome-san to her busines-“
“Finish that thought and die, Miroku,” Inuyasha snarled in the holy servant’s face. “Just leave Kagome by herself huh? Well fuck that! I’m going after her, and when I catch up to her I’m gonna-“ He paused mid threat, his nose tipped in the air as something familiar caught his attention. He leaped into the sturdy arms of the tree above him, then sprinted towards the scent. Miroku and the others followed quickly, their curiosity cast aside as Inuyasha’s blazing form darted along ahead of them.
They arrived at the village just as a group of traveling merchants passed through the village gate. They reeked of oni, sweat and fear but deep underneath these scents, nearly erased by the others, was the unique signature of reiki. It was strong, pure, and didn’t have the same bland scent as most pure energy. This energy felt alive, free and, out of the twenty people that stood around the small wooden supply wagon, it was a small pregnant woman sitting on a tired looking horse that the reiki seemed to cling to like a second skin.
“Is this Kyoto Village, where the miko Kaede resides?” one of the merchants, an elderly man with a large, misshapen purple cap, inquired as Sango and Miroku slowed to a stop.
“Yes, it is,” Sango replied while Miroku nodded and stooped over to catch his breath.
“Welcome, travelers,” Miroku finally wheezed. “How do you know our beloved miko?”
“And why do you smell like death warmed over,” Shippou groaned and covered his nose with his paw.
“Shippou, how rude!” Sango admonished with a shake of her finger. “Don’t say things lik-“
“Rude my ass,” Inuyasha growled angrily. “I was about to ask the same thing. Hey you!” He grasped the old man by the front of his haori and hefted him into the air with one hand. “What the hell happened to ya, huh?”
Miroku shook his head in disappointment, his eyes closed as if he were weary with the whole thing, then raised the end of his staff high into the air. He loosened his grip and it fell with a slight whistle, the rings jingling rather loudly when they finally clunked the hanyou on top of the head.
“OW!! Damn it Miroku!” Inuyasha snarled as he whirled on the man. The merchant leader fell to the ground without complaint and scrambled back toward the wagon in the center of the group. The villagers had crowded around them at this point, everyone knowing by experience that whenever the hanyou yelled it was bound to be entertaining.
“What was that for?”
“You know what that was for,” Miroku replied as he swept the staff through the air. “Please remember your manners. Ah,” he said and bowed slightly as Kaede hobbled toward him. “Kaede-sama, the merchant here asked for you by name.”
“Oh?” Kaede responded with surprise. “Whatever for?”
“I’m not sure,” Sango shrugged. “But I think he was about to tell us.” Everyone turned expectantly toward the merchant chief, who by now had gotten over his frightening experience with Inuyasha.
“We’re only traveling merchants during the summer you see,” the elderly man said after an attempt to straighten out his cap. “We travel far, even to the mainland, in order to trade and sell our wares. Seeing as how fall is almost upon us we decided two lunar cycles ago to head back home.”
“Two months,” Shippou whispered into Sango’s ear.
“I know that,” was her hushed answer back. “Why’d you tell me that, Shippou?”
“Oh, sorry,” he apologized and blushed. “I’m so used to telling Kagome that. It just kinda. . .slipped out.”
Inuyasha growled at them, his eyes narrowed in warning before turning back to the merchant. Sango and Shippou rolled their eyes but did as he “suggested” and paid attention.
“We were traveling from the north, coming back to our little settling place, when cat youkai ambushed us. My daughter Yori was already ill-“ he gestured toward the woman sitting on the horse “-so we tried to appease the youkai in an attempt to get them to let us go. They demanded our children, every last one of them, and in turn they would leave us alone. We would not think of such an option, so the youkai determined to eat all of us.
“They had already killed three of our men when the strangest thing happen-“
“It was a miko!” a little girl chirped as she ran towards Kaede. “She appeared out of nowhere, like a tenshi or a kami! She-“
“Hush, child,” the girl’s mother shushed and placed a finger over her lips. “Allow Renji-san to explain everything.”
“Oh, but Mama-“
“Shush!”
The girl pouted, but sent Kaede an apologetic nod and allowed her mother to drag her away from the adults.
“As the child said,” the old man, Renji, began after clearing his throat. “A young woman appeared in the center of our group. She was beautiful, with long, dark hair that she kept back and the most heavenly face.” The younger men behind him mumbled in agreement, their faces flushed with the memory, and gave each other cheeky grins.
“OK damn it,” Inuyasha snapped irritably. He’d had enough of this lustful hero worship and just wanted to know what happened. “Get on with it you old goat!!”
“Inuyasha!”
“She killed them!” the little girl from before chirped again. “She had this arrow that glowed and when it hit the first one, it exploded and became ash-“
“Ami.”
“Soon they all were all dead and ashes fell down like pretty snow. She got a little blood on her, but she didn’t seem to mind it too much-“
“Ami. . .”
“And the best part was when she took out this mysterious little box and healed Yori-chan!”
“Ami!!”
“Uh-oh,” the child muttered dejectedly. “I think I’m in trouble.”
“The miko healed her?” Kaede asked and gestured toward the woman on the horse. “How?”
“I fell,” the young woman spoke up and blushed when everyone turned to her. “Before we left the mainland, I slipped on sharp rocks and fell into some mud. For days it just itched, then it turned red and began to fester. That’s when the fever and pain began.
“But when the neko were dead the miko turned to me. It was like she could smell the sickness oozing from my wound. She opened this strange pack-“
“It shone on the sides!” little Ami chimed in again. “Like little square mirrors that were painted black! Why would someone want so many black mirrors, Mama?”
“And pulled out a strange white box,” Yori continued while Ami and her mother argued. “It was small, white, and smooth, with a cross in the center painted red.”
“A red cross you say?” Miroku said as he and Sango exchanged glances. “And the box, was it filled with strange medicines and strips of thin, yet supple cloth?”
“Yes,” Renji nodded. “Are you familiar with her?”
“And the miko herself,” Sango continued as Shippou and Inuyasha began to put the pieces together. “Did she wear a golden chain, one with a clear glass vial with tiny slivers of a pink jewel around her neck?”
“Yes, yes she did,” Yori replied. “She said it was the reason she couldn’t stay with us. She nursed my leg and told us to come here so Kaede-sama can look at it.”
“Did she say anything else?” Inuyasha demanded heatedly. He growled when she was slow to answer and loudly yipped when Sango whacked him with her boomerang afterward.
“Um, the m-miko whispered s-something to my b-b-b-“ Yori stammered, her skin frightfully white as Inuyasha continued to complain. Sango whacked him again and all was quiet, the color returning to the pregnant woman’s face as Renji began to speak for her.
“The miko blessed the child inside and gave me this,” he passed Sango a sheet of notebook paper. “I watched her write with a strange pen on a scroll made of this odd, white material.”
Sango mouthed the list of things to herself before passing it back to the merchant. “It’s a list of things she should eat,” Sango told Miroku and Shippou. “Fruit, vegetables, and meats, what kinds and how many she should try to eat in a day.”
“Ah,” Miroku nodded sagely. “That was most wise of Kagome. Have you followed the list?”
“Yes houshi-sama,” Renji nodded while Yori smiled and rubbed her large belly. “And since then things with Yori have been wonderful. She would be sick frequently, but she has been the picture of health since following the list.”
“The baby’s calmer now, too,” Yori replied gratefully. “I’m thankful for that.”
“Well then,” Kaede sighed as she approached Yori. “I wish to see this injury.”
“Of course.”
Kaede began to lead Yori’s horse toward her hut, where she and the young woman would be able to talk in quiet while Kaede checked Yori’s health. Sango walked up to Renji and waited until Yori was inside to ask, “The miko Renji-san, did she say anything before she left?”
“Such as?”
“Where she might be going, perhaps,” Miroku offered helpfully. “Or where she might have been? We’re her friends and we desperately need to find her.”
“Well. . . no,” Renji shook his head. “No, the miko directed us here and continued toward the north. She did something strange though, something that frightened me when I first saw her do it.”
“What was it?” Miroku asked and frowned when the poor old fellow paled. “Come now, you can tell us. What did she do?”
“I-I think she thought we were already gone,” Renji began, and his hands began to tremble. “I circled back to thank her again when I f-found her with what looked like a cup, except it was a light, light red and shiny like a mirror. She went to each of the seven neko youkai-“
“Seven?!” Shippou gasped in amazement. “Kagome killed seven youkai, all by herself?!”
“She let their blood fall into the cup and when she finally filled it. . .she poured it over her head.”
“What?!” Sango and Shippou shot back.
“You must be mistaken sir,” Miroku replied with an appeasing smile. “No miko, no less Kagome, would-“
“But she did,” Renji insisted feverishly. “I swear it on my life, she poured the blood of those foul beasts over her pure skin and clothes!”
“But,” Shippou said back. “Why would she do that?”
“She spoke a number too,” Renji told them. “Then picked up her things and went on her way.”
“A number. . .” Miroku fell silent and turned to his inner thoughts. He remembered something his master said long ago, something about youkai blood and a count. . .and what would happen if the right number was ever reached.
“Great Kami-sama!”
“What?” Sango asked aloud. “What is it Miroku?”
“The miko,” Miroku asked and, in an unexpected act of furious desperation, grasped the older man by his collar and jerked him forward. “What number did she speak? It’s important! What number did she speak?!”
“Th-the number two hundred twenty six!” Renji stuttered fitfully as Sango and Shippou tried to pry him free. “Please houshi-sama! It was the number two hundred twenty six!”
(III)
He did not know when it began, but by the time he noticed it was already too late.
It started innocently enough, with his first sighting of the girl when Jaken proposed his insane idea of gaining the Tetsusagia from his Great Father’s grave. He remembered how odd she seemed, clinging to the unworthy hanyou like a second skin, fear pouring from her pure scent in strangling torrents. Yet she still managed to shriek her offense at him and his deductions of her. As time went on her fear diminished, leaving foolish determination behind.
She honestly believed herself to be worth the same as Inuyasha, and that Inuyasha in turn was worth the same, if not more, than the Great Taiyoukai himself.
He huffed, sunlit orbs narrowed slightly at the darkening horizon. Even now, years after their first encounter, her audacity offended him on the highest levels. Her ineptitude was comical at best but her will. . .
‘Her will. . .’
He frowned, displeased, and turned away from the sky and the cliff face, his stride strong and proud as his pristine figure merged with the darkness of a nearby forest. He remained in his thoughts, relying on his senses to find the way back to camp where a small child and an even smaller toad sat bickering in the rapidly fading twilight.
‘Never has this Sesshoumaru witnessed such foolishness.’
She would become stronger over the years, much to his disbelief and amazement. He was a witness to the girl-no, woman-child’s true power, the intensity of the reki that could bubble through the surface of her innocence and inexperience.
‘She would become quite the force if she were only trained properly, . . .’
He mentally tossed those thoughts aside, not even stopping to wonder why he even cared as his foot landed on a dry twig on the outskirts of camp. The bickering ceased instantly and both toad and girl turned to him with welcome smiles and bows.
“Sesshoumaru-sama, this heathen never ceases to press on your loyal servant!” Jaken croaked in offense. “She ran off, just as you forbade her, to amuse herself in a nearby field of useless weeds!”
“Is this true Rin?”
Her head drooped, her ponytail swaying slightly from the motion, and nodded. “Hai, Sesshoumaru-sama. I did leave camp but it was only for these.” She held out a handful of flowers and herbs, some with an odor so repugnant even Sesshoumaru wrinkled his nose in distaste. “They’re flowers that Kagome-san showed to me a long time ago. This one-“ she plucked free a particularly offensive one and held it out for Sesshoumaru’s inspection. “She said to dry and ground down into a paste in case I scrape my knees. She said that this will keep them from becoming infected.”
“I see. . .”
Rin looked up at him hopefully, reading the taiyoukai’s steady gaze for some time before dropping her head again. “But I know I am still wrong. I’m sorry Sesshoumaru-sama. It won’t happen again.”
“See that it doesn’t. As for the ‘flowers’. . .”
“I will take them further into the forest so they can dry.” She scampered away quickly, her orange and black yukata little more than a blur as she disappeared into the forest. One look downward sent Jaken following after, though his progress was more flight than feet as a well placed boot sent him on his way.
His mirth at the flying frog was short lived as curiosity took it’s place. ‘Hn,’ he said to himself as Jaken’s landing, some couple of yards away, made his left ear twitch slightly. ‘Though it should not surprise me that Inuyasha’s onna would share that little bit of information with my ward.’ He thought back to the last time he encountered the miko, the fierceness in her eyes as she protected Rin from So’unga’s madness. He looked over her then but now something inside the youkai locked onto the girl. It was simple really, his decision, and he quickly rose from the tree stump. His footsteps were quick, his mind centered as he followed the sounds of his ward and retainer.
He would answer this question named Kagome, and he would do it by learning from the enigma herself.
(IV)
The northern waters were cold, bone chillingly so, with slabs of ice that floated lazily on the water’s surface. Sometimes these slabs would freeze together, making a large blockade of sorts that sailors had to chip a path through before their ships could reach the frozen island north of the main islands of Japan.
Kagome stood quietly on the ship’s bow, her attention on the approaching horizon as the crew of the whaling ship sang lonely songs of life at sea. Songs of bravery, of men lost at sea never to see their families again, and of ships that sank into the icy abyss were lost to her ears, though she heard them well enough.
A shrill call shattered her train of though and she looked up, eyes that were once a deep chocolate brown now shimmering green-hazel, quickly focused on the birds that flew high overhead. Their beady black eyes scanned the waters for the hunt and Kagome felt a sort of kinship with them. She had not seen her friends, those in the Feudal Era and those in her own time, in nearly six months, yet she felt less inclined to seek them out as she struggled toward her goal.
She was at the halfway mark and already she could feel the benefits singing in her blood. Her vision was twenty times better than it used to be and she was stronger, faster and she had more control over her reki and it’s uses. Experiments with it gave her new ways to use it, using such common objects such as stones and sticks to wreak havoc on the evil youkai she targeted. Once she would have been dismayed and disgusted at the amount of carnage she was now capable of, her stomach lurching unsteadily whenever Inuyasha or the others would eviscerate an enemy. Now her only thought was the count, the power, and reaching her goal.
‘Only 500 more to go,’ she whispered to herself. ‘And on this island there is rumor of at least 30 youkai that have gone rogue.’
“Lady Miko?”
Kagome blinked out of her musings and turned to the sailor, her gaze as cool as the biting wind as she gave him her full attention. He gulped involuntarily and hurried with his news, his desire to be near the tiny onna lessening with each second in her company. “W-we will arrive at the island in a few hours. Perhaps you would like to rest b-b-before we dock?”
“Hm,” she hummed softly, then turned back toward the sea. The sailor scurried away, her disinterest in him his dismissal papers as he hurried back to the safety of his other crewmen. The miko was beautiful, heartbreakingly so, with her pale skin and oddly hued eyes, but this sailor was old enough to know that even the most beautiful flower could have thorns waiting to pierce through your skin.
Kagome knew the other crewmen were afraid of her and at one time that would have bothered her. Deep inside her human heart still judged her actions but the changed blood seemed to muffle its influence. She lifted her head at the cry of the lookout man, her dark hair shifting over her white jacket shoulder. She could just make out the tiny sliver of land that slowly approached them and she sighed. ‘Thirty oni,’ she reminded herself. ‘Slay those oni, then back to Nippon itself. This should be simple. . .’
(V)
They walked slowly, plodded really since earlier rains had turned solid dirt into thick swampy mud patches. The group was splattered in mud and gore from a recent dealing with a youkai they thought had a jewel shard. Miroku had become their ‘shard detector’ since he once hunted them before joining Inuyasha and Kagome. He couldn’t sense the shards well enough to track them but he could recognize their power signature when they were close to one. . .
Which left them plodding along with no destination, waiting for the exhausted houshi to sense something, anything that resembled a shard.
“I’m tired Inuyasha,“ Shippou whined from his place on Kirara’s shoulders. “Can’t we take a break?“
“I think we should,“ Sango sighed wearily. “Miroku hasn’t caught anything all day. “ She gave the houshi an apologetic smile. “No offense Mirokj-sama, but you’re not as good as Kagome at this.“
“I know,“ he exhaled loudly. “I would never have guessed how hard it was to do this. Kagome surely deserves some credit.“
“Kagome deserves to have her ass kicked.“
The group gave the hanyou a weary glance, knowing without words that, though they all worried, Inuyasha took Kagome’s leaving felt like defection, and as such Inuyasha took it personally. He couldn’t understand what he did wrong, what he said to piss her off enough for her to leave. He wanted her back, more than he wanted the Shikon no Tama, to beat every youkai part out of Naraku, even more than he wanted to use his brother’s pelt as his own personal toilet. Inuyasha was scared for the little miko from another time and the longer it took the group to find her the more bearish and impossible he became.
“Inuyasha, be nice!” Shippou scolded angrily. “Everybody else is worried about Kagome! Why do you have to be such a jerk about it!”
“Look you little run-”
Inuyasha paused mid grasp, his nose in the air as the odor of mud, coming rain and wet, rotting vegetation was suddenly shoved aside his one track mind. Winter was coming, the scent of mint, cold and acid quick on the wind. Inuyasha snarled viciously and turned, Shippou forgotten as he hurriedly unsheathed Tetsusiaga. The blade transformed instantly, becoming the fabled death bringer in his clawed hands as he pointed it’s deadly tip toward the source of his displeasure.
“Your manners need improvement, hanyou,“ Sesshoumaru greeted coldly. Gold clashed with amber momentarily, then shifted when Sesshoumaru glanced about the group. “It would seem you are missing someone.“
“Shut the fuck up Sesshoumaru!“ Inuyasha snapped. “Nobody asked your ass, and nobody asked for you either!“
“Excuse me, Sesshoumaru-sama,“ Miroku interrupted as he stepped between the two youkai. “We are missing a member. Have you heard anything as to her whereabouts?“
“As if that pompous ass would give one flying fuck about a puny ningen,“ Inuyasha groused irritably. “Hell, he probably doesn’t even know her name.“
Miroku sighed to himself and silently asked the kami for patience. He felt the true meaning of one of Kagome’s odd futuristic saying, though the rocks were one hanyou incapable of saying anything without liberally sprinkled profanity, and a full blooded youkai with a superiority complex.
“We are having difficulty finding the jewel shards without her-“
“We wouldn’t be if you would just let me ask Kikyo-“
“NO!“ Sango and Shippou both shouted at him. “Kagome would be hurt if she came back and found Kikyou here with us.“
“Well she wasn’t thinking about that when she left!“ Inuyasha shot back.
“We don’t know what she was thinking about?!“ Sango replied and Shippou added, “I don’t blame her for leaving! You’re always telling her that she’s so weak, so scared of everything! She can’t help that she’s a girl Inuyasha! Oh, no offense Sango-chan.“
Miroku fell silent, his earlier prayer for patience mentally repeated as the others of his group argued. Sesshoumaru seemed forgotten by everyone but the houshi, who now watched the taiyoukai stand silently, in the only patch of decent grass in the entire ruined field, and frown slightly at the little group.
“Kagome has been gone for quite some time,“ Miroku explained while the other’s kept arguing. “It has put quite the strain on the rest of us.“
“Hn.“
‘Right,‘ Miroku said to himself. “If you do see her, Sesshoumaru-sama, will you convince her to turn back to us. I’m afraid that. . .she is attempting something dangerous.“
Sesshoumaru turned to him, his thoughts his own as his steel like gaze pierced into the holy man. “This something dangerous. . .“
“Um,“ Miroku replied once he realized that the taiyoukai meant for him to explain. “I can’t speak of my reasons for this, but I believe someone has told her the One Thousand legend. Surely you know of the one I speak of.” He continued at Sesshoumaru’s glare. “A villager that came in contact with her spoke of a number. At the time I didn’t understand, but after a little research I believe what she is attempting is-”
“Impossible,” the taiyoukai finished for him. “Utter foolishness spread through humanity like a disease.”
“That may be true but Kagome may believe it. If so she could be putting herself in harm’s way. Should anything happen to her then it happens to us all. Kagome’s the only way to purify the Sacred Jewel and destroy Naraku.”
Miroku frowned when Sesshoumaru merely turned and disappeared without a word. ‘Must have insulted him,’ he determined and turned back to his companions. “Hey Sango!” he called and quickly waded his way through the mud. “I don’t think Hirakotsu will fit there!”
(VI)
The courtyard was stately and large, with large pavestones swept clear of dirt and debris. The walls surrounding the castle complex were solid, well built and were solid defense against danger
‘That,’ Kagome said to herself as she glanced toward the guard tower overhead. ’didn’t save them.’ She walked through the gates unhindered, the tower and the mutilated body of the dangling guard none of her concern. The sky above, gray and choked, continued to spit out tiny slivers of ice. Kagome wasn’t worried about the stones icing over. Her footfalls were sure partly because of the boots from her time. She embraced the weather, her white winter suit insulating her from the biting wind and freezing rain.
She stood quietly, listening with her ears and her sensing with her reki for any survivors, anyone who might be worth saving, before releasing a pent up breath. “I’m too late.”
She picked up a nearby stick and shook it once, watching as it burst into flames before approaching the castle doors. She flung the doors open and tossed the torch inside, then swiftly closed them as the stench of death and decay assaulted her nose. She was more than too late, if the stench were to serve as proof. The oni were long gone, the castle occupants dead for some weeks before her arrival. Kagome turned and descended the stairs, her determination to catch them no less diminished as she prepared to leave.
She stopped at a small whimpering, then raised her bow, and demanded, “Come out! Show yourself!”
The world paused and Kagome searched again for any signs of life. She found a weak youki signature coming from a nearby case of barrels. She used an arrow to rap on the side of one of the wooden caskets, wondering to herself how the group of oni missed it. “I said come out.”
Ears, cute, round and furry, were the first to poke out of the smallest barrel before little paws boosted the face of a beautiful white bear into her field of vision. Its black eyes were huge and scared and it trembled violently inside its hiding place. She returned the arrow to it’s case and held out her hand. “Come on,” she coaxed softly. “They’ve gone. It’s safe now.”
It sniffed around, then gave a sad whine and clambered out of the barrel. Kagome stood by as it shimmied down, her gaze instantly fixed on an angry gash along the bear’s furry white side. “Here,” she said as she firmly grasped the bear by the back of the neck. “Let me see.” She gently inspected the wound, the bear once again shivering. The gash was small, but deep, and Kagome tisked in disapproval. “They ought to be ashamed of themselves,” she mumbled to herself as she wiped away a little of the blood surrounding the wound. She rubbed her middle finger and thumb together, then slid her middle finger down the wound. Pink energy sparked from the bear’s skin in it squealed in fright and struggled to be free of the miko’s grasp.
“Be still,” she said as she closed the last of the injury. “Or you’ll open it again.”
The bear growled but held still long enough for her to finish, then jumped down from her arms and glanced up at her. She turned to the bear, then the castle as the beginnings of a great fire roared inside. “You can come with me if you want to,” she offered. “Maybe we’ll find your family along the way.”
The bear snuffled, then padded to her side on all fours like an oddly shaped dog. Together they walked through the gates of the ruined fortress, with Kagome unaware of the small trace of warmth, of humanity, that returned to her eyes.
(End Chapter)
SF: Someone asked me what I planned to do about Kagome’s morals. Well I kinda felt that I would have to warp them just a little bit, then straighten them out.
Sango: Because her new power and her methods of using it have to have an effect on her, right?
(SF nods)
Inu-chan: I still think having her run around by herself is incredibly stupid. She’s not strong enough to protect herself.
Rin: And I’m having trouble understanding Sesshoumaru-sama’s part in the story SF-chan.
SF: Tee hee. I know. That’s the plan. The third and last part will be up soon.