Beyond the Darkness
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A/N: Wow, has it been a while since I lasted posted or WHAT? Anyway, sorry for the looooong delay. I've been sick with a cold, been infected with a stye, and also been blessed to have an infection in my leg as well (blessed? Ah, who am I kidding *-*). But at least I'm finally on summer break. Woot! So this is the beginning of season two. However, I'm going to keep the chapters rolling with in the two-digits since it's that way on my Word Processor, since it's all on one doc. Hope you don't get confused! If you do, then maybe I'll just put "Season Two" at the top or something. I dunno. But ANYWAY. Enjoy and welcome back to Beyond the Darkness. I hope you missed it as much as it missed you! LOLs! Just kidding! R&R por favor! Grazi! Ciaozies! ^-^ (My new favorite face!! d: ) -Michele
PS: Sorry for the short length. The next chapter is much longer, I promise.
::Chapter Twenty-One::
The small, auburn fox-demon boy had just come back from gathering his favorite nuts: acorns. His friends were waiting out in the clearing they were camping out in so they could begin eating what Kagome had brought from the future for them.
"There you are, Shippo," a young woman donned in strange priestess clothing chimed. The clothes she wore, Shippo knew, were the type of attire that they wore back in her time.
"We'd feared you might have gotten lost," chuckled the monk, Miroku. Shippo tossed his gaze over to the man in dark monk's robes sitting next to Sango, the demon-slayer. Knowing Miroku, Shippo expected him to pull something lecherous in about two seconds.
Suddenly, as Sango was about to open her mouth to say something, her brown eyes bulged and her face burned red. Shippo could spot the monk's hand resting on her backside, rubbing it in seduction.
Shippo sighed at this usual routine. A loud smack echoed through the forest and in place of where Sango's hand had made contact with Miroku's face was a bright red handprint.
"He never learns," sighed Kagome. Shippo nodded in agreement and dropped his acorns onto the ground.
"That's for sure," Shippo mumbled after.
"Okay everyone, time for lunch!" Kagome announced and began to pull out many bento boxes filled with freshly-cooked modern-time food.
"Yum! I can't wait!" exclaimed Shippo, rubbing his hands together. Kagome handed him a bento box and a pair of chopsticks. "I hope there are some of those yummy octopuses in here."
"Regardless of what Lady Kagome put in our bento boxes, I'm sure it will be just as delicious," Miroku said.
"I agree. Kagome put so much time into making these lunches for us. We are forever grateful," Sango said after.
"Oh you guys," Kagome said, waving them off and handing them their own boxes. "It's not that big of a deal. Really." Then, she peered out over her friends' shoulders and spotted the dog half-demon who traveled with her.
"InuYasha, lunch!" she called to him like a mother. Shippo turned to InuYasha's direction and saw the tiny, pointed dog ears that poked out from his massive mane of white hair twitch and he stood up to walk towards his circle of friends.
Shippo opened his bento box and broke apart his chopsticks. He squealed with delight.
"Yay! Tiny, weird, yummy octopuses!" he exclaimed and immediately grabbed one to stuff it in his mouth.
Kagome sighed, but smiled at Shippo's youth. "Shippo, those are weenies, not octopuses."
But Shippo seemed to ignore her. The only thing he loved more than acorns were these yummy, eye-less, tiny octopuses.
Just as he was about to stick it in his mouth, it was suddenly swiped from his chopsticks. Shippo gasped and turned.
"InuYasha!" Kagome cried. Shippo's eyes widened as he saw InuYasha pick out the little octopuses, each one stuck on each of his claws. He stuck one finger in his mouth at a time, chewing them with delight.
"Hey, Kagome. These are good!" he exclaimed, his face bright. Shippo cried and jumped to smack InuYasha on his head.
"Hey InuYasha! Those were mine!" he shouted, tears falling from his wide, topaz eyes.
InuYasha looked angrily at the crying fox demon, now sitting on the ground. He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.
"Geez, calm down, Shippo. Haven't you ever heard of respecting your elders and sharing?" InuYasha retorted. "Kagome can just go home and catch some more octopuses anyway."
Kagome stood from her sitting place and growled. Her fingers curled into fists as she shouted, "Sit!"
The string of subjugation beads around InuYasha's neck glowed and dragged him face-first into the ground with such a force the strongest demon in the world could not suppress.
A loud thud echoed through the trees around them as InuYasha's face stuck in the ground. The once-crying fox demon took one peek at him and began to laugh at the half-dog demon's humiliation. Kagome folded her arms and stuck her chin in the air.
"That's what you get for stealing other people's food, InuYasha. Let that lesson be learned," she said.
InuYasha's retort was muffled by the hard dirt his face was stuck into and Kagome was glad; the last thing she wanted to hear was the complaints of InuYasha and the subjugation beads.
"How incredibly rude and inconsiderate of InuYasha," Sango said to Miroku, the two of them talking loudly enough for even InuYasha to hear.
"Indeed, he is a bully," Miroku added. "But what can we expect from InuYasha anyway. It's just like him to steal food from younger kids." Both Miroku and Sango shook their heads with disappointment.
"Hey!" InuYasha shouted when the subjugation had been called off. "I heard that!"
But before InuYasha, or anyone else for that matter, could say anymore, a fox-demon woman ran out from behind the bushes and into the clearing. She was a very beautiful woman with long auburn hair, big topaz, and a body shaped so flawlessly it could belong to a goddess.
Her eyes were wide and her cheeks were glistening with tears. This woman had been crying so hard, her topaz eyes were turning red. But what startled everyone was that the woman was screaming.
"SHIPPO!"
InuYasha, Kagome, Miroku, Sango, and even Kirara— the two-tailed cat demon— looked over Shippo's way. His eyes were wide at the sight of the woman and even glistening just a little. Was he crying? Who was this mysteriously beautiful fox-demon woman and what relation was she of their fox demon? How did she know their Shippo.
Their mental question was answered soon after when Shippo muttered a word that made everyone gasp.
"Mother."