Disclaimer: "Inuyasha" characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. Rated "T" for language and somewhat mature themes.

Warning: My first real attempt at Fan Fiction so all reviews would be GREATLY appreciated. I hope I kept everyone in character

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Open...

Close...

Open...

Close...

Open again...

Yeah, this sucked. Flicking her fan closed once again, she decided that there absolutely had to be better things out there than sitting around watching this brat scheme things that seemed to be more for his own morbid amusement than any of Naraku's plans. However, the thing that irritated her the most was the fact that he was not even talking to her, but to one of Naraku's ugly bug things. There really was no reason for her presence other than he fact that he knew she did not want to be there. Annoying her seemed to be the brat's speciallty...

"Kagura," came the drawling voice. His voice always seemed to give her the chills when she was not execting it, so young sounding but completely lacking innocence. "Stop playing with that thing. I'm trying to concentrate here."

"Hmph... If I'm bothering you so much, why not just let me leave?" She knew he would not agree; he took some type of sick pleasure in controling her.

For the first time in hour, Hakudoshi broke eye contact with the insect and turned toward Kagura with skeptical eyes. He was silent for a moment as though he were actually considering her request be fore saying, "Things would be better off if you weren't here."

"In general or right now?"

The child grinned wickedly. "Both."

The wind sorceress's lip twitch a little as she took off on her feather, careful not to turn her back on the treacherous incarnation.

He must have had some type of motivation for leting her go like that. Hakudoshi was not the type to do nice things for people. She could only assume that he either planned to report to Naraku that she had run away again or that he was going to plot something she was not supposed to know about. Either way, she would have to enjoy these fleeting moments of semi-freedom. Hakudoshi and Naraku had been on her like a hawk ever since she had beseiged Goryoumaru's place.

Goryoumaru... She imagined that she could still feel it sometimes, his white hot beam of light coming at her head-on, piercing her unprotected chest, the searing heat closing her wound, stopping her from losing any blood but at the same time leaving her with a gaping hole through her chest. It was amazing though.. truely bizarre and amazing how in the few seconds that death had a hold over she was able to think more clearly then she ever had before that. She knew for a moment exactly what she wanted before she would sucumb to her own mortality. It was a foolish type of though, and she knew that if he knew what been going through her mind right then, he would think she was weak like a human or his half demon brother... perhaps he did know. The little girl had made it painfully obvious that she had not come simply to ask for help.

He must know by now. At the time, she had just assumed that she would be dying anyway, that it would not matter what he thought if he noticed, but in the end, she had lived. Sitting there beside him, she felt naked, but not just simply because her top had come off (although that had not helped much...), but she felt like her mind was an open book once again, the same way it was to Naraku or Hakudoshi. He could see right in and knew all too well why she had come, how she had given in to such a petty desire. She mentally cursed her foolishness. Everything that had been going through her mind then seemed so pathetic in retrospect. So what if she wanted to see him one more time? She would have been dead and would not have known any better. She highly doubted there was any afterlife for an incarnation like herself.

Still... she had wanted to see him again, and...

He had held her.

She could not help but wonder what it would have felt like had she been conscious, why he, with only one arm, had bothered to go out of his way and save someone like her. Deep inside, somewhere were her heart should have been, a stupid little girl imagined that it was because he cared for her. It was a ridiculous thought though. The little human girl had probably begged him until he gave in. That kid was another one who could read Kagura like an open book, although strangely she did not feel as violated as when Hakudoshi and Naraku did it. There was a gentleness and an innocence about the child that Hakudoshi lacked no matter how similar they looked in age.

Kagura wondered if perhaps she too lacked something that a real living being had. not that it mattered though. She did not care what she was as long as she was the wind and she was free.

Free... perhaps for a couple of hours before she had to go back to Hakudoshi and Naraku and whatever punishment or suicide-mission they had planned. She did not care. For now she could do as she pleased and nothing mattered, just as nothing had mattered when she had been injured and had sought out her single desire. Perhaps now...

Perhaps now... she could go see him again.