Hurray! Part two! WE are now going to start figuring out what Aki now looks like. And this chapter should be really fun because Shippou and Miroku are in it. should be interesting, especially since Shippou hasn't seen Aki since before that evil witch broke Aki's cover spell. I'm so demented. Hanako shows up again too! And I know at least a couple people really liked her!But seriuosly, where the hell do I come up with these chapter titles from anyway?
All questions must be submitted in writing. And I know you can do it. I've already had one person accomplish it!
The Inuyasha cast and natural habitat have been relocated to my basement while developers scope out the studio where they used to live. Now I have unlimited acesss to them 24-7. Wee! This should be fun.
Perversity on Parade
Waiting, for anything, is not a lot of fun. IT is always particularly tiresome and can often be slightly nerve-wracking. The experience of waiting is a part of life and everyone will suffer through it at least half a dozen times in their life and quite likely more than that.
There are some who argue that life is just a collection of waiting periods. We wait to be born. We wait to grow up. We wait to grow old and be taken care of by our family. WE wait to die. Though finding people who actually wait for the last two is difficult. And it is quite hard to believe that we're aware enough before birth to be awaiting the event, but others disagree as it is in the nature of people to disagree. It still does not negate the fact that waiting, in and of itself, is an unpleasant occupation.
Especially when you're waiting for someone to do something.
"When's Kagome coming back?" Shippou asked for the hundredth time in that voice reserved for children that are impatiently waiting for something they really want. Most any parent could identify it after having taken a moderately long car ride.
Thus it was a good measure of Miroku's monkly mettle when he forbore taking violent measures against the kit upon hearing that same question once again. "Soon Shippou," he replied gently after counting to ten, repeatedly. "Kagome-sama said she would come back today. It takes some time to collect her supplies and pack them for travel." The monk recited his answer mechanically with an internal sigh. "After all, she had not thought to be able to come through the well again until you helped her yesterday. She had to go straighten her personal affairs and round up her things." Miroku barely managed to finish his answer when his brain followed the wonderful path of what those 'personal affairs' could be.
Shippou heaved a big sigh. He wished Kagome was here. He wondered what she was doing. Maybe she was getting smothered in hugs from her mother. The kit whined enviously. He wished Kagome was here to smother him with hugs! Kagome gave the best hugs and she'd promised to bring him something sweet this time. And a surprise.
Shippou loved surprises. He couldn't wait! Perhaps the surprise would be a new toy. He hoped it wasn't something too girly. Maybe it was something to eat, besides the sweets Kagome's promised. Maybe it was some magical thing from Kagome's time. Yeah! That would be so awesome!
He glanced at the well, still nothing. Shippou heaved another big sigh. "When's Kagome coming back?" One hundred and one.
Miroku's eyebrow twitched, the counting was no longer working. The monk had finally had enough. With flames of irritation in his eyes he growled Shippou's name in warning before lunging after the quickly fleeing kitsune.
It was just as Miroku was triumphantly laying hands on the demented child that there came movement from the well. "Kagome?" Shippou asked. All of his previous terror evaporated instantly. All was right in the world if Kagome was back.
But the figure climbing out of the well wasn't Kagome. Hell the person climbing over the wooden rim wasn't even human, and she sure wasn't Inuyasha.
Shippou and Miroku were only expecting those two to come out of the well, not this stranger. As far as they knew only Inuyasha and Kagome could go through the well. What exactly was going on here?
In any case, caution before curiosity. "Stay back Youkai!" Miroku assumed a defensive stance with Shippou behind him. Kagome would kill him if he allowed anything to happen to the kit.
Unfortunately, Shippou wasn't going to have any of that protecting stuff. He wanted to know who the stranger was and why she seemed so familiar.
Upon hearing Miroku's warning, the female's head snapped up to look on him with startled green eyes. She raised an eyebrow and smiled at them carefully, still getting used to some of her changes. Aki had managed to grow skilled enough with her illusions to hide some of her new attributes, but others were just more stubborn.
Her hair was lighter than it had been before she met the witch, but not as light as it was without her illusions. Her talons were now just clawed fingers. Aki's ears were back where they belonged but still pointed despite her efforts to the contrary. Her eyes refused to go back. Her height was moderately reduced, but not enough to put her back to the height she used to be.
At this point she was just incredibly thankful her wings and tail were gone. It was a lot easier to travel without them.
Still, she looked nothing like her regular self as Shippou had just helped to prove. Hell, she couldn't even be mistaken for human.
"I take it you were expecting Kagome?" she observed evenly. Her voice didn't even hint at her sudden descent into shallow depression and minor anger at her ghostly friend. He was having a big laugh at her right now she just knew it! 'Nobody'll be able to tell the difference' her left foot!
"How do you know Kagome-sama?" Miroku asked suspiciously though politics demanded he be polite about it.
Shippou couldn't care less about diplomacy and he very well did jump to morbid conclusions. "What have you done to Kagome? You've done something to her I just know it! Hah! Kagome's dead or wounded on her side of the well and I'll never see her again! It's all your fault! You did it!"
Aki blinked, "Geez Shippou, I hadn't realized you so disliked Kagome that you would kill her off without waiting for answers or explanations. Though I noticed you didn't ask about Inuyasha."
"Ah!" Shippou squealed hysterically. "She knows my name, she must've done something to Kagome! Kagome would never give up my name to a strange demon willingly! Now she's going to kill me and wipe out the last of my family! Don't let her do it! Don't let her get me too!" he pleaded with the monk.
"Where are Inuyasha and Kagome-sama?" Miroku demanded.
"How the hell should I know?" she shrugged. "I haven't seen them since I gave Kagome my shards and met the noisy fur ball over there."
"My but the fur ball gets louder at every meeting," Fred added as he appeared next to Aki.
"Fred!" Shippou smiled at the ghost then looked puzzled at the demon again. "Only one person has willingly given Kagome shards and she called me fur ball then too," he thought out loud.
"Do you know this demon?" Miroku questioned the kit.
"Nope, Aki was human," Shippou replied. His eyes widened on his version of a viable explanation, "This youkai has stolen Aki's mind and is using it for her own devious purposes. Oh poor Aki! Reduced to wandering as a mindless zombie in search of her mind, but doomed never to find it."
Miroku did not refrain from bopping the little kitsune on the head. Shippou's startled "Ow!" was buried under his attempts to cover his head with his small hands and Fred's uproarious laughter.
"Nope, 'fraid not," Aki shook her head strait faced. "This," she motioned to her hair and ears with her clawed fingers, "is what certain evil witches thing is hilarious."
"That's what a mind-stealing youkai would want us to think. Ow!" Shippou's semi-serious outburst was cut off by another bop on the head. "Quit that!" he hollered indignantly at the monk. They shared a heated look before the monk delivered another blow.
"I'm serous, it's really me. What'll it take for you to believe me?" Aki muttered. "I know you, Kagome and Inuyasha. I just came through the well. I'm wearing basically the same clothes as I was when I met you, except they're not covered in mud. Look, I even have a cache of shards that I was going to give to Kagome," Aki said, brandishing the little plastic cylinder. Still, Shippou looked inclined to disbeliever her. "We ascertained that Inuyasha didn't know what 'asinine' meant."
"Aki!" Shippou exclaimed, though he still leaned more towards the ghost.
"Prefer the ghost to the 'strange' youkai, do you? You prejudiced little fuzz ball you," Aki muttered.
"Well, whoever you are, I think it best you hand over those shards," Miroku declared in a reasonable voice.
"I'm not giving them to you. For all I know, you could be some random, demented bandit beating on poor Shippou until bigger fish come to fry," Aki refused, point blank. "Besides I was going to leave them with Kaede before I head out."
"Head out to where?" Miroku inquired.
"Shard hunting of course," she replied.
"But then why do you not wait for Kagome who can sense them and join us?" he asked the logical question.
"Aki-nee-san can sense them too!" Shippou informed him.
"Oh no! Not you too," Aki groaned.
"Oh she has that ability too, you say," Miroku pondered wickedly. "Perhaps I should travel with you then." After all, a good-looking female demon and a ghost could be better traveling companions than a volatile hanyou, whiny child and a well-protected miko.
"But Aki, Inuyasha calls you 'Aki-nee-san'," Shippou whined, bringing an abrupt halt to Miroku's happy train of thoughts. The explicit reason why was undeniably spelled out by Shippou's next words. "I don't think Inuyasha would like Miroku anywhere near his 'nee-san'," Aki raised an inquisitive eyebrow at that. "Kagome calls him a pervert a lot."
Aki snorted, "Don't worry Shippou, I wasn't going to let him travel with me anyway. He wouldn't be able to keep up. I seldom stop to rest, even at night, and I've gotten a lot faster than I used to be."
Dear gods! A woman with such stamina! What marvelous thing had he done correctly in a past life that the powers that be strove to reward him with such a wondrous gift? Whatever it was, he'd take it! And take it and take it…
"You can get that thought right out of your head because it's not happening," Aki cut across his daydreaming.
"My dear, I'm sure I have no idea what you could possibly mean by that," he declared innocently, his face schooled to look as unthreateningly confused as possible.
"Don't believe it Aki," Shippou eyed the monk suspiciously, "He's always doing perverted things. Kagome's started making Inuyasha keep watch for Miroku peeking on her while she bathes."
"Shippou, you wound me," the purple garbed man placed his hand over his 'wounded' chest.
"Another voyeur," Aki snorted. She just seemed to collect them like knickknacks collect dust. "Look Fred, he's a kindred spirit for you!"
Shippou had scampered away from Miroku when the monk realized his act wasn't achieving the desired response and the jig was up before he could ask his question. That all-important question that he must ask as many women as possible. Now he couldn't ask. He was most displeased. All right, he was slightly enraged, but just a little and definitely ready to pummel the querulous child. The child, he just realized, was hiding behind Aki's pant leg, clinging to it and smirking at him.
It was just like the kit to hide behind a woman.
Despite his disgruntled attention being firmly settled on the kitsune, Miroku did not miss the pointed look Fred sent the delectable female, or her equally sharp though somewhat subtle negative gesture in return. He smelled something juicily 'adult' and he would not stand for being left out despite the presence of young Shippou. "What was that about?" he raised his eyebrow at the pair, dismissing the evil child for the moment.
Aki just shrugged and braced herself. Fred was going to try to lie. Fred was a very bad liar. The lies he came up with were either so lame as to be quite a bit more than improbable (think 'nothing' and go from there) or damn near impossibly embarrassing and equally unlikely to happen. Of course no one ever believed his lies, but he persisted in the attempt, to the amused chagrin of his conspirators caught in the lie with him.
"Oh we were just continuing a previous discussion," Fred began, to Aki's controlled shock. This might actually work. "No matter what I say, I can't convince Aki to let Hanako Kiss the daylights out of her while I watch."
Aki's stomach curled up and died. Nobody in their right mind would believe-
"Hanako is a female, partial to your friend?" Miroku asked, just to ensure his understanding of the ghost's subject. At Fred's nod, Miroku's eyes slightly glazed over and he commented, "That would be a most wonderful thing to see."
Aki almost allowed her jaw to drop. The monk believed it? Hell, he wanted it to happen.
"Yeah that's what I was saying," Fred shrugged innocently, as if they were merely speculating on the weather. "But Aki just won't see it my way."
"I may have gotten you killed," Aki replied haughtily, "but my guilt is not so great as to perform intimate acts so that you can feed your vices."
"It's too bad though," Fred carefully flung his arm over the back of Miroku's shoulders in a conspiratorial manner, he had to be careful not to allow the appendage to sink into the monk's skin. He'd been told it was a most unpleasant feeling. "Hanako would've really liked it."
"Hanako wouldn't have let it stop with a kiss!" Aki declared evenly.
"Even better!" Fred cried with glee and Miroku's brain began to short circuit.
"I am not going to lead someone on just because you can't get laid!" Aki retorted shortly.
Miroku stared at her then back at the ghost. "Um, What does 'get laid' mean?" Shippou asked the monk's question.
"Ask Fred, he's the one who's so obsessed with it," Aki smirked mischievously at the ghost. The effect of which spilled over onto Miroku and he gulped. The Deviousness reflected in her eyes was quite terrifying on a very special level. A level that in no way tempered his natural reaction to a female of Aki's unique caliber.
"What does it mean, Fred?" the child's inquiry caused Fred to smirk.
The ball was in his court and he really didn't believe Shippou was as young as he appeared. "Well, it's," He began and very nearly impaled himself on the pointed end of Aki's sharp look. The monk next to him swallowed at the threat in her glare. "It's something you'll have to wait about five hundred years to figure out," He finished lamely. He really wasn't sure when that particular phrase came to be used but he was sure it wasn't tomorrow or the next day.
"Aw come on! That's too long to wait!" the boy whined at the unfairness of the world, the universe, and Fred.
"It's alright Shippou," Aki soothed the kit. "Besides you don't really want to know too many details about Fred's obsessions."
Shippou pouted but conceded her point. Fred's obsessions were probably demented and disgusting. Or maybe perverted, after all, he did want to watch Aki and this Hanako person kiss and do more stuff, not that he knew precisely what that stuff was but it was probably up the same tree as Miroku which he knew was disgusting and perverted.
"In any case," Aki continued steamrolling over Fred's protest. "Fred and I need to be heading through the village now. Do you know which way your group will be going?"
"Ah no," the monk answered. "There have been no new rumors as of yet."
"Really," Aki remarked blandly. "That seems rather strange."
"Do you know where any shards might be, Aki?" Shippou asked seriously.
"Afraid not, Shippou," she replied equally as serious. "I've managed to collect everything I've come across."
"Really? And you're still not fighting for them?" Shippou couldn't believe it.
"I told you, she's got the gods' own luck," Fred remarked.
"That's really awesome," Shippou nodded to himself. "I mean even Miroku had to fight youkai to get his. What do you do?"
"I argue. I annoy. I negotiate. I outsmart. I arrange contests over them since I've taken on some crazy youkai bits of my own," Aki listed.
"Do you steal?" Shippou asked.
"No," Aki said firmly. "Everything I do is completely above board and honest. The youkai and people know what I want and what I'm doing. I don't want them that badly."
"Really? 'Cause Miroku tried stealing ours and that was one way to do it without fighting," Shippou thought to himself.
"You're not shaping up to be a very good monk," Fred shot at Miroku.
"I never claimed to be an honest monk, just humble and good." Miroku answered defensively.
"Yeah but good in what way?" Aki wondered aloud. The lecherous smirk on his face had her retracting the question. "Never mind, I don't want to know!"
"But my dear Aki, you asked a very good question. I'd love to show you," Miroku began to creep closer to her.
"I really don't want to know!" Aki took a bigger step in her stride to the village. They'd all begun to walk to Kaede's while they were talking. She had a very good idea as to why Miroku had chosen to follow her, but Shippou as an escort had come as something of a surprise. "Hey Shippou, weren't you going to wait for Kagome?" she asked. Perhaps if she reminded him of his original occupation he might return to it, leaving her with only Miroku to get rid of.
"I'm making sure the monk keeps his hands to himself," Shippou replied.
"Not only a voyeur and a thief, but a lech as well," she murmured. "How could you have become a monk with such tendencies?"
"You haven't even heard his signature question yet," Shippou continued, nodding reprovingly at Miroku.
"And what could that be?" Aki asked indulgently. She didn't really care, but she could tell that Shippou was eager to expound upon the monk's many perversities.
"He asks nearly every girl he meets 'Will you bare my child?'" Shippou really got in the spirit of things and acted the part of a suave delinquent, even attempting to mimic Miroku's voice. "Then he feels their bottom which they always object to. Kagome's almost certain he was brain-damaged as a child!"
"Please tell me you don't actually say that," Fred grimaced. "That has to be the absolute worst pick up line I've ever heard. You don't really think you're going to get any action from that, do you?"
"Ah," Miroku hung his head. "Might you have some pointers for this humble monk then?"
Fred snorted, with all of his greater knowledge, of course he had pointers!
Aki cut him off before he could speak. "I very much doubt that anything Fred could teach you would do you any good. This is after all, a different day and age then from when you were alive," she soothed the ghost's ego.
"True," Fred acknowledged her point. "The times and people are different. Too bad though."
"Is it that different where you and Kagome-sama come from?" Miroku asked curiously.
"It's so different there's hardly a similarity to relate to," Fred answered.
"They're not that different Fred," Aki countered him. "You're comparing across times, cultures – oh no," she groaned as a specific scent reached her. "Why couldn't we have been quicker about dropping these off again?" She had tensed considerably in the space of a second.
"Because fur ball and voyeur didn't believe you were you," Fred smirked. "Really you could just out run her."
"That's rude," Aki answered absently just before a sizable creature bounded into their presence and trapped her against a nearby tree in an overly sincere hug.
"AKIII!" the rabbit youkai cried, dementedly happy to have her paws on her favorite person once again. "Why do you insist on keeping your sexy self gone so long?" Hanako whined. "Have you come to visit? Are you going to stay a while? Why are you in the company of that male? I don't think you should be anywhere near him! I saw him come in with that perverted hanyou, and he never leaves Kaede's errant apprentice alone, even when she bathes! The kit's alright I suppose," the rabbit youkai dismissed him, "though he also came in with the perverted hanyou – "
"Hanako! Must Breathe!" Aki gasped while pushing her admirer away.
"Errant apprentice? Perverted hanyou?" Miroku asked confused, both at the descriptions and the sudden appearance of a strange youkai that knew all about him and the group.
"The errant apprentice is probably Kagome and trust me, it's one of her more flattering descriptions for the girl," Fred smiled ruefully. "Inuyasha's the perverted hanyou, though all things male are perverted in Hanako's opinion. You, me, Shippou, the village, Helpless puppies on the side of the road…"
Miroku blinked, what a strange creature. "Who's Hanako?" he asked for clarification, he could probably guess and very likely be right though.
The ghost stared at him in disbelief then pointed at Hanako.
"You don't know who Hanako is?" Aki asked. Both the monk and Shippou shook their heads. "But she's always here, she's supposed to be watching the village."
"Correction, I'm looking after the village with Kaede," Hanako declared. "I don't introduce myself to perverts that come in with the perverted dog boy and head straight for Kaede's in a peaceful enough manner. I figure only one of us should be distracted by their antics." The bunny sniffed. "So are you going to spend sometime with your love bunny or are you going to chase after more of those little pieces of trouble?"
Aki gritted her teeth at Hanako's new self-given pet name. The rabbit was all the time trying to get Aki to call her by endearments of a generally suggestive nature.
"We'll be chasing trouble of course," Fred delighted in crushing Hanako's attempts at a relationship with Aki. It wasn't because he looked down on same sex pairings. Hell, he was all for a little girl on girl action, as long as he got to watch. No, he liked cutting off Hanako's attempts just to watch her reaction.
And it was hilarious to be sure. A sweet smelling ball of leaves was launched through his head to impact on Miroku's shoulder and burst open dispersing the leaves to the whims of the moving air. The monk blinked in surprise while Hanako erupted at Fred, "Butt out you perverted afterlife reject! You just wish you were alive and female so you could partake of the purest form of love that ever was!"
"And which form of love is the purest again?" he asked because he was absolutely certain he could rebuff the answer.
"The love of two females with each other of course!" Came Hanako's very predictable response.
"That's not the purest form of love," Fred declared.
"What!" Hanako screeched.
"The purest form of love is the one of yourself. You will not hurt yourself unless you desire it. You can't leave yourself, so it will last forever and your love can never be stolen away from you." Fred answered smirking smugly. Try to beat that!
"That's perverted!" Hanako rejected the idea based solely on its being offered by a male. "No creature can survive without the love and care of others, therefore mine is still best!"
Love of one's self, huh, Miroku mused. He imagined some of his female acquaintances indulging in some 'self love'. They looked to be having too much fun for it not to be sinful. He was just going to have to see to it that their energy was directed into other 'less sinful' activities.
Aki glanced at the terrible stars in Hanako's eyes and the drool forming on Miroku's mouth and finally decided to bolt. She highly doubted her rudeness would in any way hurt either of them trapped as they were in their own personal La-la lands. She picked up Shippou and made a clean escape, even managing to ditch Fred. Perhaps they'd distract each other so much she'll make it out of the village before they recovered.
Aki snorted, Yeah right. That'll be the day the sky falls down.
"Aki, child," a familiar old voice called.
"Kaede," Aki greeted the elderly miko who was currently gazing past her as she approached. The former English tutor frowned, "What are you looking for?"
"The parade that usually follows you," Kaede replied evenly. "I had some things to discuss with Hanako and I figured with Shippou here Miroku would be coming in as well."
Aki grimaced, "They're all busily attending a summit in fantasyland." Kaede's quizzical look forced her to elaborate. "Hanako is imagining her idea of pure love, which I'm sure includes me in an out-of-character experience. Fred is delighting in instigating her more expressive declarations and having a great deal of fun toying with the insides of Miroku's imagination. Miroku is drowning in the sensual after images brought about by Fred's cleverly worded arguments with Hanako. His images most likely also include me having an out-of-character experience."
The corner of Kaede's old mouth headed north at the thought of so many minds heading south in the presence of the female in front of her. Though one thing had her slightly confused. "Why out-of-character and not out-of-body?"
"Because they don't want me out of my body, they want to join me inside of it," Aki replied evenly.
"Aki, child, you have a way with words," the old miko chuckled. "I'm surprised to see you again so soon. Last I saw you there were a great many problems you had to deal with."
Aki nodded, having the fact that she was part demon sprung on her like that had left her reeling. "Yeah, but it turns out I almost instinctively knew how to do what I needed to learn, the rest is just practice and patience. We won't know all that I can do until I suddenly find myself doing it." Aki shrugged to loosen her shoulders as Shippou jumped down to go play. "Fred says my mother and grandmother planted the knowledge before the spell was cast. They knew the spell would wear off one day, they just didn't expect it to be broken like it was."
"Well at least they thought to provide you with the knowledge you would need," Kaede nodded. "And you seem to have gotten used to moving with your new extremities."
Aki nodded, "Like I said, all I need is practice. I've actually come through the well before on a test run to see if I was up to resuming the shard hunt."
"You were successful I take it?" Kaede smiled.
Aki offered up a quirky smile, "Yeah, hence why I'm stopping here." She dug out her shards in their plastic container and handed it over to the old miko. "I thought I might've run into Kagome on our side of the well, but it didn't happen."
"She should be here soon, why don't you wait?" Kaede suggested.
"Nah, I need to get moving," she stretched her arms over her head to help loosen up the new muscles she was developing.
A couple of nearly mature boys stopped to stare surprised at the feeling that ran through them at the sight. Kaede chuckled at them gently.
"What?" Aki asked in confusion, the old miko gestured to the boys. Their faces, one and all, were flaming up as they hastily looked elsewhere. "You'd think they got caught with their hands in the cookie jar." She was still confused. Why would they look at her like that?
"It's not just them, married men are careful not to gaze upon you for fear of getting caught by their wives reacting the way those boys did," Kaede informed her.
"I still don't get it, I'm no raving beauty. Why, where I come from people would normally pass me over for something better," Aki told Kaede honestly. She'd certainly never had a bevy of admirers following her around.
"That may be, but even before you changed the villagers noticed you," Kaede said gently. Still the other woman's face was filled with confusion. The miko sighed, "What you are, Aki, is rare. These people have never met anyone with your coloring before. Your manner of dress is provocative and strange in their eyes. You forget that their idea of physical beauty is a woman with most of her teeth and hair that doesn't fall out, a strong body and childbearing hips. Anything more than that is otherworldly. They revered you as a miko after you saved the children down at the river and the men felt guilty to feel," here the miko chuckled, "what they felt for a holy woman. Now that you've become youkai, what little guilt they feel is only when they are caught by their wives. They still revere you for your power and generosity of spirit, but now you're game for depravity."
"Do my hips really look like good childbearing ones? I hadn't realized I was that big." Aki asked the miko dismissing the rest of what she just said. Sure she was now going to avoid the village like the plague, but while she was here she wasn't going to let the mass exodus of reason among the villagers get to her. Their adulterous desire for her participation in their fantasies was not going to affect her. Nope. Her policy in this situation would be 'hear no evil, see no evil, smell no evil' and run like a bat out of hell at the first opportunity.
And in the future, Aki would be careful about saving children in front of entire villages. From now on she would do all her saving of people in private, the better to keep track of who knew about it in order to avoid them forever afterwards. She never wanted to be faced with such a weird, lusty situation again!
"I don't understand why so many of you young ladies assume you have to have a great deal of weight to have good hips for childbirth," Kaede shook her head.
"Maybe it's because you have to gain so much weight when you're pregnant," Aki suggested with a shrug. "In any case, I gave you the shards, let you know the situation and now I'd like to take off while the 'parade' is still late."
Kaede nodded, "Alright then. Careful child, there is much out there that will do harm to gain the shards."
"Don't worry about me," Aki shrugged off her concern. "They can't really hurt me, and they'll never be able to kill me."
"Before you go, Aki, answer me one question and please be truthful. Do you ever fight for the shards?" Kaede asked.
"I don't kill for them Kaede, isn't it enough to know that?"
The miko sighed. The woman from the future did fight, though it was probably more in defense and most likely very unconventional by the standards of the age. Aki hadn't said she didn't fight, just that she didn't kill. Perhaps she had lied to the others and they had believed it. They believed it because they wanted to, because it made them feel better to believe Aki was in no danger.
It surprised Kaede that Aki's friend wasn't more against this. It surprised her that Aki wanted to do this on her own. It made the miko ponder just what motivated the woman as Aki walked to the edge of the village before sprinting into the trees.
