I do not own any of the Inuyasha clan, but I do own a couple of the new chars, and I want it noted they are mine, or a friend's and if you want to use them you must ask my permission or Calum the angel's. She's my buddy and if you read her stuff you might notice we have the same new chars, that's because we came up with them together. Don't worry, we may have a common bad guy and common chars, but in our experience in our Yu-Gi-Oh fics and Legend of the Sitting Ducks story that we will go in totally different directions. Now that I've bored you all half to death. On with the main event!
Inuyasha sniffed delicately and frowned.
"Something's not right," he muttered. "There's something out there." He sniffed again. There was a strange smell in the air, one that was distinctly a demony smell and wholly different from any demon he'd ever smelled before.
He cocked his head, focusing.
"What is that smell?"
"Inu-ya-sha!"
He growled to himself. He'd been so intent on the strange smell in the distance he hadn't noticed Kagome's scent creeping up on him.
"Come on down here Inuyasha!" she ordered. "I've got noodles!"
"Ramen?" he asked excitedly. He was down the tree in three seconds flat, rummaging in her large back pack. "Sit boy!" she laughed.
He was thrown to the ground, but it wasn't as bad as some.
"Kagome!" he snapped crossly.
"Oops sorry!" she laughed. "I didn't mean it that way!"
He rubbed his back and looked up at her, growling. She pulled out a canister of ramen noodles and like some sort of magic, his pain went away.
"What were you so focused on?" she asked him.
"There's a funny smell out there!" he replied, continuing to rummage through her bag, searching for a second canister. He ate the second one raw as she cooked the first one.
"What kind of smell?" she asked as she cooked the noodles.
"Funny," he replied around a mouthful of raw noodles.
She wrinkled her nose and sighed.
"Okay, what does funny smell like?" she asked.
"I don't know, kind of spicy and dry," he shrugged. "Kinda demony too!"
Kagome rolled her eyes.
"Was it a demon?" she asked.
"I dunno, maybe, maybe not," he replied, swallowing and then taking another mouthful. "It doesn't smell like a normal demon!"
"How does a normal demon smell?" she asked curiously, flopping back on the grass.
"Kind of like pines and flowers," Inuyasha replied. He paused. "Sort of like the land, plus a demon smell, then their own personal smell!"
"How do I smell?" asked Kagome, wondering what a demon's answer would be.
"I dunno, different," he replied unemotionally.
Kagome huffed and rolled her eyes, staring up at the pale blue sky, speckled with white fluffy clouds.
"Different how?"
"What is this, twenty question?" he demanded. "I'm eating!"
"I know!" she looked at him sideways. "You've got noodles hanging out of your mouth!"
He slurped them up and wiped his mouth on his sleeve.
"So Kagome," he said leaning closer, crushing the ramen can in one hand. He leaned down over her, his hair falling to the side. He gave her a smile. "Have I told you how wonderful..."
"The other noodles are over there!" she said drily, pointing.
He leapt away and snatched the second cup of noodles and downed those too.
"Can I have more?" he asked eagerly.
"Well I'll see if I brought more," she told him. She sat up and grabbed her bag. She tugged it onto her lap and began to look around when she heard a frightened scream.
Sango came running towards them, Kirara running at her heels. The young demon slayer stopped in front of them, her kimono looking rather askew.
"Miroku's gone!" she screamed wildly. "His room is empty and his bed's in disarray, it looks like he was kidnaped!"
"Kidnaped?" demanded Kagome. She jumped to her feet. "Come on Inuyasha, we have to examine the scene of the crime!"
"What about more noodles?" he wailed.
"No time for that now!" she scolded.
"That's not all!" wailed Sango as she held up cute little Kirara who had a note tied around her neck with a red ribbon. The note said: Somebody likes you!
"Somebody likes you?" asked Kagome frowning. "What does that mean?"
"I don't know!" replied Sango. "We've got to go! Now!"
"Right!"
She and Kagome took off. Inuyasha watched them go, blinking.
"Somebody likes Sango? He scratched his head. "Who?"
"Inuyasha!" screamed Kagome, looking over her shoulder.
With a groan he ran and caught up with them. He slowed to allow Kagome to climb onto his back as Kirara went big and Sango jumped onto her back.
The two demons made much better time carrying the humans then they would have running with them.
"Thank goodness, ye be here," said Kaede, standing in front of the sliding panel of Miroku's room. Inuyasha dumped Kagome off his back and threw the door open.
"That strange smell is here too!" he exclaimed. He dropped down and sniffed. He followed his nose around the room to the door. "Whatever it was, left here!"
He took off in the direction of the smell.
"Inuyasha!" screamed Kagome.
"Get a ride with Kirara!" he shouted back. Seconds later Kirara caught up with him, Kagome glared at him as Sango slipped out of her kimono, wearing her demon slayer outfit underneath.
Twice Inuyasha and Kirara paused to sniff the ground and decide which way whatever it was that had Miroku had run.
They were going deeper into the forest, deeper then they usually went.
"There!" said Kagome, pointing.
Ahead was Miroku. He was tied to a tree with a gag in his mouth. He looked frantic, he made mumbling sounds like he was trying to talk to them.
He had a note on his forehead.
Kagome and Sango dismounted Kirara as Inuyasha drew the Tetsusaiga to defend against anyone who might attack.
"Hey look!" said Sango. She pulled the note off Miroku's forehead. The others came over to see what it said. Miroku screamed at them through his gag, slamming his foot against the tree to get their attention.
"Somebody?" asked Inuyasha.
"It's written in the same hand writing as the note around Kirara's neck," mused Kagome. "It must be from the same person!"
Kagome pulled the gag out of Miroku's mouth.
"She's gonna eat me!"
The usually placid voice of the lusty young monk was at least an octave higher then normal.
"Who?" asked Sango. She ducked behind the tree and began to untie his bonds.
"I don't know!" he whimpered. As soon as his arms were free he grabbed Inuyasha by the front of his shirt and shook him.
"She came into my room when it was dark. I couldn't see her. She said she needed some advise. She asked me if somebody really liked someone, but had trouble saying it then should that someone do something drastic to show that other someone how they feel?"
Inuyasha tried to puzzle that out.
"Is somebody the same person as someone?" he wondered.
"It made more sense when she asked me," Miroku snapped. "So I said yes, then she sat down on my mat and asked me if that somebody was really nervous if maybe someone shouldn't give them a little help. I said yes. She said thanks, she hit over the head with my walking stick and then the next thing I knew I was here! She was telling me to stay put because it would spoil everything if I went anywhere. While she was talking someone was tying me up. When my bonds were securely tied this face and hands floated in front of me, and then leered at me and then it was gone! Then she just walked off!"
The other three shared a look.
"Floating face with hands?" asked Sango unimpressed.
"Walked off?" asked Inuyasha in the same tone.
"Why did you let a strange woman into your room?" asked Kagome drily. She thought about it a moment. "Never mind, I know!"
"I thought she was talking about me and her, but she wasn't!"
"Or maybe she just really likes you and this is how she tells you," suggested Inuyasha.
Miroku made a face.
"That's not funny!" he snapped.
Inuyasha rolled his eyes.
"Let's get back to the village," he said. "Miroku just wants attention!"
"I do not!" snapped the monk, sounding very offended. "Besides, how could I tie myself to a tree?"
"I dunno, maybe you got that badger to help you," shrugged Inuyasha. "The shapeshifter."
"That wasn't funny Miroku!" snapped Kagome, smacking him in the arm.
"We were really worried!" agreed Sango in annoyance. "Next time you want to play a stupid prank, play it on your own time!"
"But it really happened!" whined Miroku. "Kirara, you believe me don't you?" The large demonic beast turned its head aside as if to say 'humph!'
Kagome and Sango got on Kirara's back.
"Miroku, you can walk back!" said Kagome. "If you're going to play mean jokes and scare everybody then you can just think about that a while as you walk back! Next time we won't be so quick to come to your rescue!"
"But it wasn't me!" he whimpered as they loped off.
"The nerve of that guy!" huffed Kagome. "Scaring us like that!"
When they returned to the village, Kaede was waiting.
"Where be Miroku?" she asked frowning.
"He was playing a cruel joke so we made him walk home!" replied Kagome, jumping off Kirara's back. "He would have us believe some strange woman crept into his room and then he was tied up by a face and hands!"
"Most peculiar. This is most unlike Miroku," mused Kaede. "Perhaps he had too much sake the night before!"
Shippou came running up.
"Lady Kaede!" he cried. "There's a big worm demon attacking some villager! Out by the bone eater's well!"
"Not the well!" shrieked Kagome.
Sango grabbed her large boomerang and leapt onto Kirara's back, and the pair were off. With a groan Inuyasha followed with Kagome on his back and Shippou on his shoulder.
"You have legs," he reminded the little fox demon.
"But they're stubby and not as fast as yours!" whined the little fox. "Besides, you let Kagome ride your back!"
"Listen you-oo-oo-oo!" Inuyasha fell face first into the dirt road.
Kagome looked back at Kaede, only twenty feet away who had blank expression, with a slight eye twitch.
"Stumbling over thine own feet Inuyasha?" called the old wise woman. "Perhaps ye be not as fleet of foot as we once thought!"
"I'm not clumsy!" cried Inuyasha, jumping up, dumping Kagome and Shippou onto the road. He held up his fist towards the old woman. "If it wasn't for this stupid pothole!"
"Uh, Inuyasha," said Shippou sounding worried.
"Not now!" snapped Inuyasha. "Lots of wagons pass through here, maybe you should fix it so someone doesn't break a wheel!"
"Inuyasha," said Shippou more urgently.
"And another thing, how come whenever I do something wrong it's all 'maybe we were wrong and you aren't as good as we originally thought,' but when I do something good, I don't even get a thank you!"
"Inuyasha!" whined Shippou, tugging on the other demon's pants. Inuyasha stomped down on Shippou. Had Shippou been human he would have been badly hurt, but being demon he only had a bump on his head.
"How about a good job Inuyasha," continued Inuyasha, ranting on passionately. "Or a thank goodness you're here Inuyasha. Or we couldn't have done with without you, Inuyasha!"
Kagome looked to where Shippou was staring with horror.
"Inuyasha!" she said worriedly.
"And why don't you take this stupid necklace off?" shrieked Inuyasha, tugging on the beaded necklace around his neck. "All I ever hear is 'sit boy!'"
"Sit boy!"
"Ugh!" He slammed into the ground like an invisible foot had stepped on him. "See?" He looked up to see if Kaede had seen how terribly he was being treated.
"Inuyasha, look!" Kagome grabbed him by the back of the head and thrust his nose almost into the dirt.
The 'pothole' he'd tripped on was a foot print. A huge foot print, thirteen inches long, not including the less pronounced indentations that must have been cruelly curved claws. Three toes and a heel with a claw of its own.
"What could have made that?" he wondered. He sniffed. "It's that same smell!" he exclaimed.
"What does it mean?" Kagome asked.
"What smell, I didn't hear anything about a smell! How come no one told me about the smell!" whined Shippou. Inuyasha ground his face into the dirt right next to the indentation.
"That smell!" he snapped.
"Kagome!" sobbed Shippou, jumping into her arms.
"Come on," she said getting to her feet. "We can check out the weird smell later, right now Sango needs our help!"
Kagome jumped onto his back, still holding Shippou in one arm and Inuyasha ran.
When they got to the clearing with the bone eater's well, villagers had formed a ring around it, with Sango battling the large green worm. Each end of the worm was red, making it impossible to decipher which end was its head.
"About time!" Sango snapped, catching her boomerang and then throwing it again as Kirara jumped out of the way.
Inuyasha pulled out the Tetsusaiga, which changed from rusty piece of junk to a magnificent weapon within seconds.
"Come on you butt ugly worm!" he taunted it. As the worm lunged at him he took one swipe with the mighty Tetsusaiga and slit the worm right down the middle.
Instead of falling on either side of him and writhing for a little while, it exploded in a shower of red goo.
Inuyasha stood, holding the sword above his head for a moment, blinking the red goo out of his eyelids. The entire clearing was covered in it. Sango, Kagome, the trees, the villagers, him, Shippou, and the well!
"Inuyasha!" whined Shippou. "Why'd you have to go and make that mess?"
"I didn't plan it!" he growled, sheathing the sword, only to find, to his complete horror the sheath was filled entirely with the sticky paste.
"Eww!" Kagome wrinkled her nose as he turned the scabbard upside down and a large pile of the goop plopped to the ground.
The only thing not covered in the thick red muck was Kirara, who had become small and ducked behind a bush just in time. The bush was covered, but she was fine.
"Let's get to the hot springs and wash our hair!" moaned Kagome.
"Yeah," agreed Sango.
"What about that foot print? And the smell?" demanded Inuyasha.
"You can check those out Inuyasha," Kagome said in disgust. "Shippou, Sango and I are going to wash off!"
"Oh goody! I get to come too?" demanded the fox demon, looking much happier.
"Sure," agreed Sango. "I'll even teach you how to do the backstroke!"
"Yippee!" cheered Shippou, he ran along behind them laughing happily as the three went off in the direction of the hot springs.
Inuyasha glared at the villagers and then turned to go.
Splat!
He looked down at his foot, firmly planted in the thick red goo and felt his eye begin to twitch.
He made his way back to the village. Slime dripping from his hair into his face and from his clothes onto his feet and he was confident he had slime in every orifice of his body. As he walked he cleaned out of his ears. Getting a sizable dollop of goo from each.
"I'll never look at jam the same way again!" he grumbled.
Kaede was kneeling next to the large foot print, with Miroku who had finally gotten back.
"Inuyasha?" asked Miroku, spotting him first.
"The worm demon exploded when I killed him!" Inuyasha said tightly.
"Shouldn't you go wash off?" asked the monk, raising an eyebrow.
"What's the point, it got everywhere, even in the well!" he replied. He knelt next to the footprint and took a few practice sniffs. He became aware of stares. He looked over to find Kaede and Miroku staring at him with the same expression.
"What?" he demanded.
"Inuyasha, methinks ye should go clean up," Kaede told him drily.
"I told you, there's no point, it got everywhere!" he snapped.
"Then perhaps you should clean everywhere first," suggested Miroku succinctly.
"Meaning?" growled Inuyasha.
Miroku vanished and returned a moment later with a large wooden bucket, filled with soapy water and a rag. "Go clean up the well, and then clean yourself up!"
"What about the foot print?" demanded Inuyasha in disbelief.
"It's not going anywhere," Miroku told him, thrusting the bucket at him.
"Yeah but.." began the dog demon.
"Inuysaha, do ye wish me to get Kagome to make ye sit?" threatened Kaede.
"You miserable old bat!" snapped Inuyasha, grabbing the bucket from Miroku, who swept off again. "This is exactly what I was talking about earlier! I get no respect!"
He turned to go.
"Inuyasha!" called Miroku. Inuyasha turned and had another bucket thrust at him. Water sloshed over the side and soaked him. "Do a good job!" The monk gave him a pleasant smile which made Inuyasha think he wasn't entirely over being left alone in the woods to think about what he'd done.
Inuyasha walked back to the bone eater's well, passing the other villagers, just coming back, grumbling to himself.
"Stupid Kikyo's sister," he muttered. "Damn Kagome, and her stupid sit command!" He came back to the clearing and looked around. Miroku wanted him to do a good job did he? Well Inuyasha would do a great job.
When he was done not one speck of the red gook would remain on a leaf or strand of grass. Oh no, all the red gel would be in the well, just waiting for Kagome when she went back to her own time. That would teach her for all those sit commands!
When he finally limped back from his cleaning job, the clearing was spotless and so was the outside of the well, but the inside! He had cleaned himself off too, knowing they'd never let him go in search of whatever had left the foot print if he didn't.
When he got back, everyone was in their hut, eating.
Inuyasha smelled ramen and all his anger disappeared.
He ran to Kaede's hut and threw open the sliding door.
"I smell ramen!" he declared.
"Oh, I'm sorry Inuyasha," Kagome apologized. "We ate all of it!"
"What?" he shrieked. He ran and grabbed the pot, sure enough, it was empty. He ran and grabbed her bag, he began to throw things over his shoulder looking for more. "Kagome how could you? You know it's my favourite!"
"Well, maybe if you hadn't eaten two entire containers this afternoon you could have some now!"
It was too much. First he was deprived of his third helping of ramen at lunch time, then he was covered in slime from a worm, then he had the clean the slime, and now they had eaten all the ramen without him?
"How could you eat all the ramen?" he screamed. "I'm so sick and tired of doing all the work around here! Inyasha do this, Inuyasha do that! Save us from this big scary worm demon! Now clean up the mess you made while we go teach a snot nosed brat how to swim!"
"Hey!" protested Shippou.
"Sit boy!"
Inuyasha's second rant of that day was cut short and he was slammed once more into the ground by that stupid sit command.
"If you don't have anything nice to say," began Kagome calmly. "Don't say anything at all!"
"Your behaviour is very childish Inuyasha," said Miroku, taking a sip of his tea without looking at him. "Really quite abominable!"
"My behavior?" demanded Inuaysha. "She tells me to sit and it's my behavior that's bad?"
"Sit boy," said Kagome calmly.
When he got up Inuyasha glared at them all.
"I'm leaving to find the Shikon jewel on my own!" he snapped. He slammed the paper thin door shut, but his force made it bounce open. He shut it again. As he stomped off he heard:
"He'll be back, he needs you Kagome to tell him where the shards are."
"Stupid Sango!" he muttered sullenly.
He tripped again.
"STUPID POTHOLE!" he screamed at the foot print. He got up and stalked deeper and deeper into the forest.
"I don't need Kagome, I'm a demon, I can handle anything I come across!"
A golden arrow flew past his nose so close he could feel the wind. It hit the tree behind him. He slowly turned to see a shape silhouetted against the night, holding an ornate, glowing blue bow, without a string and unloaded.
The figure reached up to the bow, as if to knock an arrow and then pulled its arm back, a glowing golden arrow appeared, held as if it were a normal one.
"Next time I aim for the tree and hit you!" snapped the figure in a female voice.
"Who are you?" demanded Inuyasha.
"Get back there!" the person ordered, letting the golden arrow fly.
Inuyasha threw himself back and rolled to his knees. He came nose to nose with two golden arrows knocked and ready to fire.
"Get back there!" she ordered again.
"You're not the boss of me!" snapped Inuyasha.
A glint of silver out of the corner of his eye was all the warning he had. He jumped back and dodged a series of strange silver glints in the air, feeling the air woosh as they sliced down, aiming for his chest but he couldn't see what was making them.
"Kamali!" called the strange woman. "That's enough. He's got the message!"
A pale circular face, with blood red fangs, and glowing red eyes appeared. It wore a strange tall, flat hat with a brim and a wide red ribbon across the base of the hat. It wore a blood red bow at its neck and its hands were merely clawed, hollow red gloves with clutched a scythe menacingly.
"Get back to that hut and ask the miko to forgive your rude behavior," ordered the woman in a deadly voice.
"Or what?"
Inuyasha was pinned against the tree behind him, which brought back, terrible, painful memories of Kikyo. He pushed those aside for another day.
He took stock and nearly collapsed.
One arrow had pinned him to the tree at the neck, the other between his legs, far, far, far too close for his comfort.
"Remember folks," said the woman, making another arrow appear. "Neuter your pets to keep the population down!"
"Alright!" snapped Inuyasha fearfully. "I'll go, I'll go!"
The arrows pinning him disappeared.
He took a moment to collect himself and thank every star in the sky that one arrow had been lower. When he looked up to glare at the woman she was gone.
He ran back to the village.
He threw open Kaede's hut's door.
"Kagome! Kagome!" he called.
"What?" she demanded crossly, sitting up in her sleeping mat. Sango turned on the lantern and glared at him.
"Kagome, I saw her, the woman who kidnaped Miroku, with the face with two hands and everything!" he explained.
"Yeah right!" she yawned.
"No I did!" Inuyasha insisted. "She ordered me to get back here. She threatened to hurt me. She pinned me against a tree!"
"Like Kikyo?" asked Kagome.
"Yes, like Kikyo!" Inuyasha agreed.
"You probably had a nightmare," Kagome said, slipping back under her covers. She put her back to him.
Sango turned out the lantern.
"I wasn't even asleep!" Inuyasha protested. "She was real!"
"If you're not big enough to come back and say sorry, at least let us get some sleep Inuyasha," she told him.
"What?" he demanded. "You think I came back here because I wanted to? After the way you treated me?"
"Sit boy," she yawned.
It was a very gentle slamming, but he was slammed into the ground none the less.
"You don't believe me fine!" he snapped. "I'm leaving!"
"Goodnight!" she called as he stepped outside.
"Hello Inuyasha," said Miroku. Inuyasha jumped and glared at the monk, leaning against the hut. "I was just passing by and thought I'd check on the girls!"
"You pervert," Inuyasha muttered.
"I couldn't help but over hear your conversation," Miroku continued brightly.
"Yeah I'll bet," grumbled Inuyasha.
"It hurts doesn't it?" Miroku asked him. "Not having them believe you I mean."
The demon glared at the monk and thought longingly of the Tetsusaiga, which could only be used to serve a human. If only he could wipe that smirk off Miroku's face with the sharp end of the sword!
He stalked away, to the God Tree, the tree he'd been pinned to. In a strange way, getting pined to that other tree made him want to be here, made him want to return to the scene of the original crime.
He leapt up into one of it's high branches to sleep, as he lay down on his side, a thought occurred to him.
"I came back!" he screamed into the dark forest. "She doesn't want to talk to me right now, But I came back!"
Confident that whoever the crazy lady with the little demonic minion was, he'd be alright. He hoped so anyway.
Not surprisingly though, that night he dreamt of Kikyo and being pinned to the tree.
The peace of the morning was interrupted by screams and the sound of a violent path being thrown through the forest..
Inuyasha felt the ground shake, even as high up in his tree as he was and he stared to the east.
Huge clouds of dust were being kicked up into the air, birds flew into the sky, squawking madly. The crowns of several large trees went crashing to the ground.
Inuyasha jumped down and ran into the village, where everyone was already awake and half dressed.
"What is that?" cried Kagome.
"I don't know!" replied Inuyasha. "But it's coming from the bone eater's well!"
They took off, Inuyasha carrying Kagome, Kirara carrying Miroku and Sango. Shippou yelled after them, telling them how mean they were for leaving him behind.
As they approached the well, the sounds of great violence grew louder and louder. The earth shook so badly Kagome had to keep an eye out for falling tree limbs.
Thanks to her watchful eye Kirara and Inuyasha were able to avoid four potentially dangerous falling tree limbs.
Inuyasha skidded to a halt and let Kagome off his back. He drew the Tetsusaiga and prepared to run into the clearing with Miroku, Sango and Kirara while Kagome prepared her bow.
The two demons, the demon slayer and the monk were pulled up short when they saw a large worm beast, the same dark green with red tips as the day before, thrashing wildly, angrily.
This time they could tell which end was it's head though. One end open to reveal rows, upon rows upon rows of wildly gnashing teeth.
"I killed you!" Inuyasha snapped indignantly.
The huge tail shot towards him and hit him, knocking him back as far as Kagome, who was stringing her bow. She gave him a curious look.
"I guess he remembers," Inuyasha said getting to his feet.
He ran back.
The worm's head came towards him, mouth gaping.
Sango's boomerang came flying through the air and severed the worm's head. It fell to the dust a few feet from Inuyasha. The same red sludge that had covered everything the day before leaked out of the disembodies ehad and the body.
Sango caught her boomerang and stopped it. She had a satisfied look on her face.
"I think it's safe to go home now!" she said, her voice muffled by ehr mask.
Miroku crept forward, examining the large worm corpse very carefully.
"I wonder what this red smile is?" he mused. He scooped up a bit with his first to fingers and examined it carefully. He took a hesitant sniff. "There's no smell," he commented.
"I coulda told you that!" retorted Inuyasha, laying the Tetsusaiga on his shoulder, rather disappointed he hadn't had a chance to use it. "It's the same red crud as yesterday."
Kagome came out of the bushes, her bow finally ready with a quiver on her back. She must have heard their conversation though because she hadn't knocked an arrow in place.
"Those things sure are easy to kill," she commented. "That must be it's mate or something come to avenge the one we killed yesterday."
"Yeah," nodded Inuyasha.
"I wonder if they've reproduced lately," wondered Miroku. "If so, we may have a whole swarm of worm demons in only a short time."
"Gee I hope not," replied Kagome. "That would be terrible!"
"I can handle it," boasted Inuyasha.
Sango screamed.
"It's moving!"
Sure enough the long body, was beginning to twitch and writhe.
"Death throws," said Miroku calmly.
As the body twitched more of the red substance leaked out of it's huge wound. Inuyasha stared at it in distaste, while Miroku seemed to be enjoying his examination of it.
"I wonder if this gel has any properties that can be used to benefit the village," Miroku wondered. "I hope so. On top of all the slime Inuysha gathered yesterday, we'd have plenty."
"I don't think anyone is going to use that stuff any time soon," Sango said bluntly.
"Oh I don't know," Miroku replied. "It might make a nice lip gloss!"
Kagome and Sango shared a look and made a face.
Inuyasha sheathed the Tetsusaiga and walked over to the well to sit down on it's ledge. Miroku poked the worm with his stick.
"It has rubbery skin!' he exclaimed in delight. "Look you can poke it and it leaves a funny little indent!"
The others groaned as he kept poking it. His staff slipped and he accidently poked it right into the open, bloody stump.
Kagome gagged and Miroku looked as though he'd just been punched and a large flux of the red slime oozed out over the stick and onto the ground, creating a little river.
"That's gross!" exclaimed Kagome.
"Yeah Miroku!" agreed Sango in disgust.
"It went down my shoe," said Miroku with a pained expression. He pulled his staff out, increasing the flow of the red semi-liquid.
As he walked away Sang couldn't help but notice that the death throws, the writhing and twitching was getting worse.
Kirara growled deep in her throat, her hackles raised.
Sango followed the large beast's gaze. The trickle of red was almost connecting the head and the body.
Sango deepened her stance, preparing for trouble. In only one more second a thing line of red would connect the severed head to the body.
As soon as the slime touched the severed head, the death throws stopped being death throws and became the movements of a very angry creature,
"Miroku get away from there!" she shrieked, but too late.
The tail hit him in the back, knocking him to the grass. The body began to rise in the middle. The red slime began to boil and then expand until it had become as thick as the rest of the worm, and the severed head wasn't so severed anymore.
Sango threw her boomerang, aiming for the weakened spot in the worm's neck. It past through again. She cheered silently but her joy was short lived. Instead of again becoming severed, the slime reattached the head before it could even hit the ground.
Still reattaching its own head the worm dove towards her. Kirara knocked her out of the way just in time, but the large worm caught her beloved Kirara in it's huge mouth and tossed it up, as though it would swallow Kirara whole it lifted its head up and opened it's jaws, right beneath Kirara.
Suddenly Kirara changed direction in mid air, still falling limply, but Miroku had caught her in his wind tunnel and was pulling her towards him, away from the worm's jaws. Kirara hit the ground beside the worm, wounded by alive.
The worm targeted Miroku, but an arrow in the side of it's jaw made it pause.
It reared up to it's full height and targeted Kagome.
"Kagome!" called Miroku, still laying in the grass, wrapping his prayer beads around his hand. "Get to the village and get a torch. The only way to defeat this beast is to burn it's slime before it can regenerate!"
"Right!" Kagome took off at a run.
Sango threw her boomerang again. The worm puled up short, making Sango's weapon miss it's mark.
"Go with her Kirara!" she called to the large beast.
Kirara rose to her feet, laboredly, bleeding from a belly wound and ran towards Kagome, who leapt onto it's back and soon they were out of sight.
Sango's boomerang missed on it's return trip, as the worm dodged again, but she wasn't worried.
Behind the worm, Inuyasha was preparing to strike with the Tetsusaiga. Sango just wanted to keep it's attention on her while Inuyasah struck.
He leapt up, bring the sword up over his head, preparing to bring it down and slice the worm as he had before, when that damned tail slammed into him, right in midair.
Inuyasha crashed into a tree.
"The back end if more dangerous then the front end!" wailed Miroku.
"It's learning!" screamed back Sango. "It knows to fear the Tetsusaiga and my boomerang! It's watching Inuyasha and I too closely for us to get close to it. You'll have to do something!"
"I don't think I can fit the entire worm into my wind tunnel!" Miroku replied.
"You won't have to," grumbled Inuyasha. He stepped behind the monk and held the Tetsusaiga tightly. "Do it!" he ordered the monk.
Miroku looked at him and nodded.
He unleashed the wind tunnel.
The pull was instantaneous. Sango, who wasn't even in it's direct path had to drop to the ground and hold tight to the grass, resisting it's pull.
The worm began to slide towards Miroku, fighting, trying to get away. Fight, slowly, inch by painful inch the worm edged closer and closer, struggling to escape. When Inuyasha thought the worm was close enough, he gave Miroku the command.
Miroku wrapped his beads around his hand, stopping the wind tunnel.
Inuyasha sliced at the worm with the Tetsusaiga. Viciously he hacked it to bits. When it lay in eight different pieces he stopped to rest, breathing hard.
The worm didn't explode this time.
Kirara appeared over head, flying, with Kagome on her back, Kagome held a torch.
"Catch Inuyasha!" she called tossing it to him as Kirara landed.
Inuyasha sheathed the Tetsusaiga with one hand and held the torch in another. He approached the nearest piece of the worm.
"You're not coming back from this!" he told it.
The golden arrows buried themselves in the dirt right by his feet. He jumped back and stared into the tree line.
In the trees stood someone who must have been the same woman as the night before.
"Back up!" she barked.
"You've got to be kidding!" snapped Inuyasha, drawing the Tetsusaiga.
He was going to make her pay for the night before.
"Put it away!" she bellowed.
"Yeah right!" scoffed Inuyasha, leaping to attack.
The woman watched him come calmly.
When he was only a foot away, she pursed her lips and breathed. A thin stream of something very frost like floated towards him, engulfing the Tetsusaiga.
Inuyasha watched in horror as the Tetsusaiga once more became rusty.
He was still on a collision course though.
He was pulled back by something that grabbed his arms. He as very confident he knew who. He was dropped to the ground next to Kagome. Looking up he saw the strange aple little creature from the night before, wielding it's scythe still.
The woman jumped down from the tree.
She set a large basket down on the ground, and very tenderly she began to scoop up the red sludge and drop it into the basket.
"There now," she said to it soothingly. "I won't let those nasty people hurt you!"
"What on earth?" wondered Sango.
"He only wanted to find his mate," the woman replied. "Then those nasty humans started to shoot arrows at him!"
"That's the woman who kidnaped me!" hissed Miroku.
"And the one who pinned me to the tree," Inuyasha shot back.
"Sorry for not believing you before," Kagome apologized.
"Think nothing of it lady Kagome!" Miroku said grandly.
Inuyasha gave the monk a dirty look.
He turned to give the woman a closer look a realized something with a violent start.
"You're a demon!" he shouted.
She nodded.
"Last I looked I was!"
There was a very tense moment in which everyone tried to figure out how to handle this demon.
"Let's help!' said Kagome. Hesitantly she began to pile the red muck into the basket. After sharing an incredulous look the others joined in.
"Why did you kidnap Miroku?" Sango asked.
The woman simply tapped her nose.
"He wasn't in any real danger," she offered. "Kamali was in a tree near by, weren't you little one?"
Kamali let out a high pitched giggle that sent a shiver down Kagome's back.
"Kamali's really very shy," the woman told them. "He doesn't like to talk in front of people!"
"What's you're name?" Kagome asked her.
"My name is Rasha," the woman replied smiling.
Inuyasha was grumbling to himself, about how easily everyone seemed to be able to forget that this woman had threatened him the night before.
When they were finally done piling the worm muck int the large basket.
Rasha pulled a lid on and hoisted it onto her back.
"Time to get you home to Molly," she told the basket. "She must be worried sick!"
She straightened up.
When Inuyasha got up he noticed something rather disconcerting about her. She stood at least six feet tall. She had very long bluish silver hair tied back in a braid that fell to her calves. Her hands were clawed, she had delicately pointed ears, and had sharp teeth, like many demons. Her skin was tanned, like she spent a lot of time in the sun.
She was dressed much like priestess, with a white kimono top with long bell like sleeves and long red, very loose pants. Peeking out of the hem of her pants were three cruelly curved claws.
"Did you leave the foot print?" he demanded.
"What foot print?" she asked, confused.
"The big one!" he replied.
Blushing slightly she tugged up the hem of one pant leg to reveal a huge foot with three toes with long claws, and a hell with a claw. She walked on what must have been the ball of her foot, leaving her hell high in the air. She let her hem fal back down, almost obscuring her entire foot.
She looked very capable of handling herself in a fight, even without her magical bow, or her little freaky friend.
"By the way," she said. She turned to Inuyasha. "I'm very sorry about how I treated you last night. I was rude and overbearing and very threatening. I was just very angry at the way you'd gone and sliced up poor Hank. I think I may have come a little to close to scarring for life and I'm sorry!"
"Yeah well you should be!" he snapped, not quite willing to forgive her just yet.
"I really must be getting this guy back to his wife," she said, still friendly as if he hadn't just been rude.
"We'll come with you!" offered Kagome.
"Yes," agreed Sango. "I would like a chance to explain to these demons not to come so close to a village ever again!"
"Alright," agreed Rasha.
Miroku and Sango got on Kirara's back as Inuyasha let Kagome clammer onto his.
"Why do we have to go with her?" he grumbled.
"Because she's taking the worm back to his home, because Sango's right, we don't want him coming back and because I want to know where this worm lives in case he does come back!"
Rasha led the procession to a mountain. At the base of the mountain Kagome looked up fearfully.
"That looks treacherous," she whispered.
"Not to worry," Rasha assured her, placing the basket on the ground. "No need to go up the mountain."
She removed the lid of the basket and let out a long echoing, bellowing call.
The mountain began to shake, jarring small rocks loose.
Everyone shared a nervous look, but Rasha seemed unconcerned as if she did this every day.
Suddenly the side of the mountain burst open and huge gaping jaw with rows of teeth was barreling straight for Rasha.
"Found your hubby!" she called cheerfully, holding up the basket.
The large worm, bigger even then the other paused. The worm made a violet motion and let out a sound, much like a cough.
Out of it's mouth fell two pink gems. It grabbed the basket, with the red goo in it and then disappeared back inside it's mountain.
Rasha looked at the pinks shard in her hand.
"No payment is necessary!' she called to the gaping hole in the mountain. There was a sullen bellow form deep within the cave. "But if you really insist thank you very, very much!"
"They're pretty I guess," she said to herself, walking away from the mountain, seeming focused on the two shards. "But they probably aren't worth very much!"
"You're right," agreed Miroku, eagerly. "Let me take them off your hands!"
"Oh, no!" shouted Inuyasha. "If anyone gets those shards of the Shikon jewel it's me!"
"These are from the Shikon jewel?" Rasha asked curiously.
Inuyasha cursed himself for letting that slip.
"Here you go!" she dropped one into Inuyasha's hand and the other into Miroku's. "I don't really have any use for Shikon shards right now!"
"What I need right now is a place to stay!"
"You can come to the village!" Kagome offered. "I'm sure Kaede would love to have you!"
Rasha gave her a smile, which Kagome returned.
Keade was only too glad to welcome Rasha to the village. Kagome could tell Keade was very surprised to have met a demon who wouldn't want shards of the Shikon jewel and who had given them up so easily.
Kagome thought that was good too. It probably meant that Rasha would understand how important it was that the shards didn't fall into the wrong hands.
Rasha was invited to eat with them, which she accepted graciously. As they ate, every now and then Kamali would appear to take something off Rasha's plate.
"You be welcome to stay here child," Keade told her.
"Oh thank you," Rasha replied. "Do you by any chance have any old building I could convert into a shop?"
"Methinks so," Keade replied. "But, why would a demon want a shop?"
"Oh well you see I'm a demon by birth, but I have a trade," Rasha explained.
"Ah," Keade took a sip of her tea.
"And what be your trade?"
"Matchmaker!"