InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ My Darling Emiko ❯ A Dance From Fire ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Emiko woke up with a start and blinked the sleep from her eyes. Her ears twitched as she listened for the sound that woke her up. Ah, just Kaede making breakfast. Emiko yawned and stood from her spot in the corner and stretched. Ugh, I slept like hell she thought and wished for a nice, soft bed. Hell, even a tree has to be more comfortable than sitting in the corner she thought then remembered Inuyasha taking off to go sleep in a tree last night. Heh, smart boy she thought then went over to Kaede.

"Would you like any help?" she asked Kaede who was chopping up some herbs.

"Oh no Emiko, thank you though." And she smiled and went back to work.

"Okay then, I'll be outside. Could you tell the others that I haven't gone far?" she asked and Kaede nodded.

Emiko smiled and picked up her bag and went outside. The sun was barely up and the birds were just starting to chirp. She stretched again and yawned and went back towards the stream she was at last night to change into clothes more suited for traveling. She pulled out a pair of pants, matching shirt and jacket and with a quick look around to be sure that no one was about she changed her clothes. As she slipped into the jacket (which for those wondering is not a long jacket, more like a short leather jacket) she heard a noise behind her. Whipping around she saw that it was Kagome.

"Morning Kagome!" she smiled and put on a pair of fingerless gloves that were in the pockets of the jacket. Kagome yawned. "Good morning Emiko."

"So, where are we off to today?" Emiko asked as she carefully folded up the kimono and put it back into her bag.

"I don't know yet, Inuyasha usually is the one who says where we should go based on rumors of the shards" and Emiko nodded.

Emiko's ears twitched as she heard someone coming. Then she caught the familiar scent. "Good morning Inuyasha" she said without looking and he grunted in response.

"There is a rumor of a youkai with a shard in a village to the west of here, I think we should go there."

Emiko watched as Kagome smiled warmly at him and agreed. Heh, too cute she thought with a grin.

"Okay then, we go that way. I'll go get Miroku and Shippo" she said and left the two "lovebirds" (she barely stifled a giggle at that thought).

Miroku was just exiting Kaede's house when she walked up. He immediately smiled when he saw Emiko then leered at her snug outfit. She rolled her eyes at him.

"Inuyasha says there may be a shard west of here, are you coming with us?" she asked.

"Uh...yeah, where they go, I go" he said then leaned forward to whisper at her "you're not mad about last night?" he asked fully expecting to get a slap or something like that.

She leaned forward and whispered back at him "No. Being mad at you wouldn't change the fact that you'd do it again if you could" and she laughed at his expression. Too cute she thought with a grin and grabbed his arm. Just then Shippo emerged from the house.

"Shippo, we're heading to the west of here, you with us?" Emiko asked with a smile to the cute little kitsune.

"Where Kagome goes, I go" he said just as Kagome and Inuyasha came up behind him.

Thump! "What do you mean by that?!" Inuyasha asked with a growl as he thumped poor Shippo on the head.

"OW! She's my friend you jerk!" he yelled and scurried off to hide behind Kagome.

Inuyasha growled and turned around and started to walk away fully expecting the others to follow. Kagome caught up to him and they started bickering back and forth about his treatment of poor Shippo (who was sitting on her pack adding the occasional comment). Emiko and Miroku looked at each other, shrugged then followed after them.

After a while of listening to them argue Emiko had had about enough of the whole stupid argument and decided to butt in. "Hey Inuyasha, you wouldn't be jealous of poor Shippo would you?" she asked knowing full well what kind of reaction that would get.

He turned to her and glared. "Jealous of that KID!?" he growled "Don't be silly"

"Oh, so you're saying you just like picking on little kids then right?"

"I didn't say that!"

"So, you ARE jealous that he likes Kagome!"

"I am NOT jealous!"

"Are too!"

"Are NOT!"

"Yep, definitely jealous" she said to Miroku who was watching them both with wide eyes, they both were a ticking bomb.

Inuyasha growled and swiped at Emiko.

"Oooh! I hit a nerve!" She crowed as she jumped out of the way. "Wow, I thought the great Inuyasha would be a bit faster than that" she said with a smirk which (as we all know) only made him angrier.

"Knock it off both of you!" Kagome yelled "Inuyasha, if you don't stop that I'll say the word" she warned then looked at Emiko who was trying very hard to look the picture of innocence. "And you!" she pointed "Stop goading him!" and she turned around and walked off with a huff.

"Heh, see what you did" Emiko said and followed after Kagome to apologize

"Hey! You started it!"

Emiko wisely decided to ignore that comment at Kagome's look of death. Damn, I just wanted to see if he was as good a fighter as I thought "I'm sorry Kagome, I didn't mean to upset you" Emiko said.

"That's all right. Are you sure you're not related, I mean, you guys have such a similar temper." She said. Emiko looked shocked for a second and just snorted in response.

Suddenly she caught a smell of something at the same time that Kagome felt a chill.

"What is that?" Emiko asked.

"Youkai" Kagome murmured as the sleeping monster came into view.

"Any shards?" Inuyasha asked Kagome

"One, in its left hand" she said and dropped her bag.

Emiko shouldered off her pack and reached onto her belt to what looked like a small shealth. Sticking out of the tip of it, was a shiny black stick. Emiko pulled it out to reveal a one foot black pole, that had one red and one black silk scarf tied just below a three inch double edged silver blade.

"What are you going to do with that, stick it up it's nose?" Inuyasha snorted.

Emiko just raised an eyebrow and said, "Watch and learn" and twirled the stick, making the scarves flale in the wind. As she twirled it, it went from one foot to six, and the skinny silver blade went from three inches to seven, and only barely missed hitting Inuyasha in the face.

"HEY!" he yelled "Watch out!"

At his shout, the Youkai woke up.

"Oh good one Inuyasha" Kagome said with a snort as the youkai saw them and started to charge.

"Heh, watch this girl, I'll show you how to kill a youkai without some toy." Emiko just raised an eyebrow. "Sure, you show us how oh grand master Inuyasha" she said with a slight bow.

He growled at her in annoyance and charged after the youkai.

"Give me that shard!" he yelled as he charged towards the demon.

"Bah, make me!" the youkai yelled back and swiped at Inuyasha.

"Nice try, my turn" Inuyasha said with a smirk and swung the Tetsusaiga at the youkai slicing him open across the chest.

"Good one!" Kagome shouted at him and he smirked.

wow Emiko thought is he always that reckless??

"Wait" Emiko said as the youkai pulled out a sword of his own.

"So little dog, this is how you want to fight?" the youkai said as he swung his sword down on Inuyasha.

"Ugh!" Inuyasha dodged the swing but got hit by a punch as the monster guessed his next move.

"Okay, that's enough!" Emiko said as she watched Inuyasha go down. With a word to Miroku to stay with Kagome she charged the Youkai.

"Ah, another opponent!" The youkai crowed as he saw Emiko charging him. He went to swing the sword towards her, but she dodged to the right and slashed him in the side.

The youkai growled and put his full attention on Emiko and charged after her. She jumped around dodging and trading blows as best as she could hoping that Inuyasha would get it together and finish off this creep. Out of nowhere, the youkai put up a transparent black barrier around himself and chuckled evilly.

"Break through that you filthy hanyou!" it taunted

Emiko growled low, then cracked a small smirk before charging at the youkai. She held her Kawn Dao high over her head, and brought it down to the ground while coming to a stop, and yelling "Fire Dance!!" The black scarf glowed black, while the red turned to a flame. The black energy from the black scarf mixed it with the fire from the red, and charged full throttle at the youkai. it collided with the barrier and engulfed it in deep red flames, before smoke swallowed the entire scene. Once it cleared, it was plain to see that the barrier was gone, and the youkai was injured badly. Emiko grinned as the youkai screamed "Impossible!! How could a measly hanyou-" he was cut off.

"Hey!" Inuyasha yelled at the youkai. As the demon turned to face Inuyasha, Emiko stabbed it through the back. As she did that, Inuyasha swung his sword and in a flash the youkai was nothing more than bits and peices.

"Blech!" Emiko said "Nice one Inuyasha, I guess you're a better fighter than I thought" and she smiled.

"Bah, of course I am girl" he snorted and looked to Kagome. "Can you see the shard?" he asked and she walked to a peice of the monster and picked it up.

She held the shard up and pulled out her small vial and dropped it in. "Hey, you two fight good together" she said.

"Yeah Emiko, that was some pretty impressive power. It ws just like the Wind Scar." Miroku chimed in, as he looked at the path that had been engraved in the ground by Emiko's Fire Dance.

"Where'd you learn to fight like that?" Shippo asked.

"Ah! My father taught me" Emiko said with a smile and turned back to Inuyasha. "Where to now?"

"It's getting dark" Kagome said "We should find a spot and make camp for the night"

Inuyasha snorted "Bah, always have to make camp at night, if it wasn't for you being able to see the shards I'd keep going without you"

Emiko rolled her eyes and snorted at this and left them to fight it out. She walked over to Miroku.

"As the two remaining non-arguing people I suggest we find a place to make camp"

Miroku nodded and they turned around to find a spot to make camp back where they came from.

As they walked along Emiko asked questions about Miroku's past and he told her about the air rip and grinned as Emiko sympathised and hugged him. Behind them Inuyasha and Kagome watched them talk.

"She actually seems to like him" Kagome said as they walked along

Inuyasha grunted, glad that the subject had changed to something other than what they usually argued about.

As they came to a clearing in the woods Kagome dropped her pack and sat down. "Here looks like as good a spot as any" she said.

Emiko nodded and looked around. "Yeah, I'm going to poke around, I'll be right back" and with a smile to Miroku she walked off into the woods.