DISCLAIMER: Do I really need to say it? Honestly, if I owned this would I even bother writing on this site?
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I blew a strand of silver hair out of my orange eyes. It had been a while since I had felt that power. I didn't know quite how to describe it but I guess you could say it felt pure. Just after those bright lights had streaked across the sky. One had landed nearby and I had picked it up. A little pink shard that radiated purity. I had done a little research and found out that it was the Shikon no Tama. Apparently a miko in strange green clothes had accidentally broken it when trying to get it back from some crow demon.
I also found out that I could sense them. They radiated peace and comfort and other good things, so it wasn't hard at all to find them. The real problem was the demons going after and/or possessing the shards. Most of them were pushovers, but there was the occasional odd one out. Like that weird tanuki(raccoon dog) I had fought that was 30 feet tall that terrorized a village with magical replicas of itself.
I hate it when other users of magic use their magic for evil. You see, I was (and still am) a fox demon. I use fox magic along with weapons and my demonic energy. Not to brag or anything, but I'm pretty amazing at all three. I digress.
Today I would be finding my third shard. I could feel I was getting close when I heard a cry of fear. I decided to quicken my pace to see what was going on. When I reached my destination, I found a small fox demon, no older than fifty (that's young in demon years), running from a rather large snake demon. I could feel the shard moving with the snake, so I jumped into action.
I leapt in between the snake and the kitsune and slid several senbon out of my yellow kimono's sleeve. I threw them with perfect accuracy right into it's skull. Then I located the shard and ripped it out of the thing's body. It instantly disintegrated and I turned to the demon child behind me.
"You okay?" I asked while bending down to look at him. He had auburn hair and forest green eyes. An extremely fuzzy tail poked out from his baggy pants along with fox-like feet and legs.
"Th-thank you," he stuttered. He must have been terrified.
There was an awkward pause before I decided to break it, "My name's Surai, what's yours?"
"Sh-Shippo," he replied shakily.
"Well Shippo, it was a pleasure meeting you. Maybe we'll see each other again someday." I said with a small smile. I turned and was about to leave when Shippo called out to me.
"W-wait! Please don't go!" He cried. I stopped and turned towards him and raised an eyebrow as if to ask him 'why should I'. "I-I'm all alone. Please take me with you! Please!"
I sighed and thought over whether or not I should. 'Hmm, lets see. The pros are: I could have assistance on my quest, his cuteness could probably get us the occasional free place to stay,' I smiled at that, 'But, he could slow me down, and there's an extra mouth to feed. Ugh, I'm gonna have a headache in the morning.'
"Alright, kiddo, c'mon," I said while motioning for him to follow. He let out a happy cry before hopping up onto my shoulder.
We traveled at high speed through the forest in silence for a few hours before it got dark. I let Shippo off my shoulder and began to gather things for a fire. Once that was done I sat down in front of the fire with Shippo.
"So," I began, "why are you out here all alone?" I immediately regretted asking that for his faced morphed from content and sleepy to sad and lonely, "Err…you don't have to answer that. I was just curious."
"No, it's ok. Two evil men called the Thunder Brothers killed my parents. That's why I was trying to attack that snake demon. I could smell the jewel shard and tried to take it back from him, but…"
"But things didn't turn out as planned," I finished for him, "Hey I can sympathize. My parents were killed by a thief named Onigumo fifty years ago," I paused, "and if you want, you can hang around with me as long as you like. We are the same kind of demon after all," I gave him a foxy grin which he returned. It was really nice to have company.
XXX
Three days later
"No," I said flatly.
"But-" Shippo pleaded.
"No." I said it a bit firmer this time.
"Please! I'm sure I can do it," His eyes held only determination.
"Shippo, it's too dangerous and you don't have nearly as much experience as I do. I mean, you can hardly hold a transformation for a few minutes."
"Then this'll be good practice," he said enthusiastically, "You said yourself that this one would be easy!"
I pinched the bridge of my nose, "Shippo, there's no guarantee that you'll be safe. Just because I can beat them doesn't mean you can. I am stronger than you after all."
He pouted but didn't say anything else. Instead, he sat down and moped. I sighed and walked over to him.
"Alright, alright. But don't expect me to save you if you mess up," I said.
He just laughed happily and hugged me. I couldn't help but laugh at his cuteness while he began frantically getting ready for his first solo jewel shard capture.
XXX
"Are you ready Kiddo?" I asked. I couldn't deny that I was rather antsy about his first time stealing a shard. He didn't have any weapons experience, his foxfire couldn't hurt any demons yet, and his magic was rather weak. However, he was a kitsune and one thing was for sure: kitsunes always had a plan.
"Of course I am Nee-chan!" He answered excitedly. We were currently positioned in a set of bushes under the shade of two rather large trees. Our hiding spot was positioned just off of a battlefield where two figures were sitting. That's when one of the figures shouted.
"Listen to you! How can you eat in a place like this, the aftermath of a battle? You suddenly decide you're hungry and take everything out of my backpack! What's wrong with having a leisurely lunch by a pretty stream or a field of flowers? Oh, you…! You're so uncouth!"
I twitched my head to the side, 'Backpack?' I shook my head, 'Now is not the time to question trivial things.' I turned to Shippo and motioned for him to get ready. He nodded and poofed out of sight. Meanwhile the figures were discussing strange things like things called bicycles and rockets. I just shook my head, mystified.
Suddenly, the sky darkened. I smirked knowing full well what was about to happen. The two figures were on immediate alert.
"What?" the red clad one yelled while shooting up from his position on a rock.
A vortex opened up and began to swirl before them. I smirked, so far so good.
"You there!" a mysterious, echoey, voice demanded, "You possess a sacred jewel shard!"
"What?" Red demanded once again
The person sitting next to him asked, "A demon?"
"No…that's foxfire," a third voice interjected. I hadn't seen another person but at this point I was more alarmed about Shippo, who had just poofed into his ridiculous blob transformation.
"Hand it over! Or I'll kill you!" The pink blob-thing floated forward and bumped into Red's head. I face-palmed. 'Dammit Shippo! I told him not to use that transformation! It looks ridiculous.' I looked back up in time to see Red smack the balloon-ish thing that was my partner in crime. He began to deflate and twirled in the air. Then he morphed back into normal form and landed face first on the ground.
"Oww!" he exclaimed while rubbing his cheek and standing up.
"Huh?" everyone questioned after moving over to the battered kitsune demon.
"A child?" The female questioned.
"What're you doing? You heathen!" Shippo tried to escape as Red grabbed him by his tail, "Hey!"
"You've got a tail! Hah! You're just a baby fox in disguise!" Red announced smugly. So far I wasn't so happy about how he was beating up on my little bro.
"Yea, I'm a fox!" Shippo announced as if it were the most obvious thing in the world(which it was).
"Huh? A fox? How cute!" The female announced while stepping up behind Red, "Let me hold him next!"
"Why're you lining up behind me?" Red asked angrily before suddenly being dragged onto the ground by a stone statue, which had replaced Shippo. The unexpected weight allowed for Shippo to seemingly disappear and make his way around the girl to get into the yellow bag that the she carried.
"Huh? A jizo statue?" She then turned, hearing a noise in the background, "My things!"
Shippo rummaged through the girl's bag before holding up a container "Here it is! A fragment of the Sacred Jewel!" He then turned around to face Girl and Red, and leapt into the air, "Ah-hah-hah! It's mine! Farewell!" he then disappeared in a swirl of fox fire which disappeared in a puff, leaving them stunned.
"He disappeared!" Girl announced.( for now she's calling Kagome Girl and Inuyasha Red because she doesn't know their names)
A skull behind them began moving. It had a bushy tail sticking out the back that made it painfully noticeable. 'That's it, as soon as this is over, I'm giving that kid lessons on fox magic,' I thought exasperatedly. Red and Girl turned around to see Shippo escaping via skull. Red clenched his fist and pounded it into Shippo's head. My fists clenched, but I didn't help him. He needed to learn on his own.
Eventually, everyone settled down and the girl began helping Shippo. She sprayed something on the bump on Shippo's head saying how it might sting a bit.
"Why are you after the Sacred Jewel fragment?" Girl, now known as Kagome, asked Shippo.
Shippo got worked up, like he always did when he talked about the unfortunate demise of his father, "To avenge… To avenge my father!"
"Avenge? Was your father killed?" She asked him.
"Hmm… So you wanted to gain strength by using the Sacred Jewel fragment?" Red(now Inuyasha) asked while pulling out a glass jar from his blood-red kimono. Kagome glared at him and attempted to take the jar away from him.
"Hah! I'm strong even without the Sacred Jewel fragment!" Shippo announced proudly. However the other two weren't listening.
"What're you doing?" Inuyasha yelled. The two were wrestling over the shards.
"Are you listening?" Shippo yelled, infuriated.
"Huh?" Inuyasha asked while he stopped fighting with Kagome. He looked over at Shippo.
'Shippo's handling himself pretty well. I think I'll head over to our meeting place for now,' I thought. Earlier we had set up an area where we would meet after we got a hold of the shards. It wasn't too far from the main road so I could follow Shippo when he began moving along with the odd duo. Kagome was riding on a strange metal thing with wheels. Shippo was riding with Kagome while Inuyasha jumped through the trees along side them.
"Your father possessed a Sacred Jewel fragment?" Kagome asked incredulously.
"Those two go around killing demons who possess fragments," Shippo huffed. He obviously wasn't happy about that fact.
Kagome stopped "Those two?"
"The Thunder Brothers," Shippo said, anger evident in his tone.
Inuyasha stopped on the tree above them, "Thunder Brothers?"
A voice from Inuyasha's shoulder piped up "You mean, Hiten and Manten? I have heard that they are unruly, mean brothers."
Inuyasha just huffed, "So what? If we defeat them, we'll get several fragments at once!"
"Don't make me laugh! You wouldn't be able to take them on! You're just a half-demon, aren't you? I can smell the human in you! Just a half-demon, you should stay out of demon affairs!" Shippo accused.
"Oh dear," I mumbled, "Looks like it's time to intervene."
Just as Inuyasha was about to jump down and thump Shippo on the head, I stepped out from the bushes I'd been hiding in.
"Now, now Shippo. You should know better than to criticize those based on their heritage."
"Nee-chan!" Shippo cried out happily while running to greet me.
I laughed and caught him in a hug after he jumped at me. "I'm very sorry for the trouble he caused," I apologized while bowing to them.
"Huh? Who are you?" Kagome asked. Inuyasha stepped in front of her protectively, putting his hand on the hilt of his sword.
"Oh how rude of me, my name is Surai. As you can see I am a fox demon like my little brother here." I said while putting Shippo on my shoulder, "It's a pleasure to meet you both."
Kagome stepped out from behind Inuyasha and smiled, "It's nice to meet you too! My name is Kagome, that's Inuyasha and-"
I felt something on my cheek and smacked it. A flea demon floated into the palm of my hand, "and that's Myoga," Kagome said.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Myoga greeted.
I raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything about it. Instead I put Shippo down(to which he protested) and said: "Well we must be going."
I was about to leave along with Shippo when Kagome called out "Wait! You have shards of the Shikon No Tama don't you?"
I turned slightly to look at her, a slight smirk on my face, "So, my predictions were correct, you can sense the jewel shards. That must mean you're the clumsy priestess who shattered it in the first place aren't you?"
Kagome blushed deeply and rubbed the back of her head, "Uh…heh heh, yeah that's me," She paused as if realizing something, "Wait…you didn't answer my question!"
"Oops, silly me," I said feigning innocence, "Seems I forgot."
"Stop messing around!" Inuyasha growled while unsheathing his sword and pointing it at me.
"Ok, ok, sheesh, let a girl have a little fun wouldja?" I said, "Anyway, yes I do have shards, and no, I won't give them to you," they stiffened and a mischievous smile spread across my face, "Unless you let me help you that is."
XXX
UPDATE 12/26/11: Hi, I figured I owed my readers something, so I updated this…Aaaannnd I'm working on chapter 2 which should be up by tomorrow.
~Tanks wif wuv
SIN