Long midnight hair flickered into her face with the cool breeze. It teased the bottoms of her pants and the grass beneath her bare feet, sending goose bumps up her arms and legs. Timidly, she tried to hook her hair behind her ear but the wind caressed it back into the open.
"Kiki!" a familiar voice called out from behind her, and she turned to smile at the owner. Scampering his way up the hill was her cousin, a young fox demon by the name of Shippo. "I haven't seen you in a while!" he exclaimed when he reached her, and she nodded in reply.
With that, he turned to face the village before her, sighing contently. "I can see why you love it up here. You can see everything." He said to her. She held a finger to her mouth to shush him, smiling out upon her home. He kept quiet for a moment, but then spoke again. "It's cold up here, though. Kaede wants you to come back to the hut."
Kiki crouched down so she was at eye level with Shippo. He shivered as her deep violet orbs curiously flickered at him. Her arms rested casually upon her chest, a good size for a girl of her 16 years. Her red kimono pants majestically spread themselves around her feet, and the right sleeve of her white kimono shirt covered her hand as she reached for Shippo. Her fingertips lightly brushed his cheek and she smiled, nodding.
Shippo nodded back at her and began his descent down the hill, not looking back to see if she was following. She would fulfill any request from the one who had cared for her from her youngest days. Yet before she followed her young cousin, she peered over her shoulder and took one last glance at the grave of her deceased adopted aunt, Kikyo.
"Child, you must be freezing! Come, sit by the fire." Kaede beckoned to Kiki as she entered the hut with Shippo at her feet. "A fine job retrieving her, Shippo. She would have stood on that hill for hours if not for you."
Kiki contentedly lowered herself to sit by the fire, holding up her hands to it. As if excited by her presence, the very tips of the flames licked at her palms and warmed her entire body from top to bottom. "Now child, have some broth to warm your bones. The wind must have picked up quite a bit once you stepped outside."
Kiki nodded and accepted a bowl from the old priestess, although warm enough already. She sipped it steadily as Shippo and the old woman chatted.
"So what brings you to this village, Shippo? Surely your mother wouldn't have let you come in this brisk fall weather without a reason." Kaede asked, handing Shippo a bowl similar to Kiki's, also containing broth. Shippo looked saddened and took a large sip from his bowl before setting it down and sitting beside it in Indian style. He rested his hands on his knees and leaned forward to speak.
"Mother and father are off fighting demons from the south. They left three days ago, with instructions to come here. I didn't and still don't know where they are." He replied, shrugging and shaking his head. Kiki choked and set her bowl down next to her, thumping her chest to clear her throat. Shippo's parents never left him alone in the den, so the news was surprising.
"Kiki, child, are you alright?" Kaede exclaimed, and looked up from Shippo to her. She nodded and held a fist up to her mouth, still coughing. Once she was finally through, she picked the bowl back up and sipped it silently. Kaede turned from her and back to Shippo, looking thoughtful. "I haven't the slightest idea why your parents would leave like that, yet rest assured that they know you are here. When your parents return to the den they'll come here to retrieve you a day or so later."
Shippo nodded and Kiki finished off her broth, putting the bowl on the ground. "Kiki, I have some herbs I need for one of the women in the village. Could you go fetch them for me?" Kiki nodded and Kaede told her the woman's problem, and what herbs were needed. As she left the hut with the names of the herbs running through her mind and a basket clutched in both of her hands, the breeze picked up once more. She giggled and headed off towards Inuyasha's Forest.
"Is this… No, that's not it." Kiki murmured to herself as she scanned the ground for Black Cohosh. She already had quite a bit of Calendula in her basket but needed some other herbs for the woman's remedy. She had lost track of where she was an hour or so ago, so had decided that it was better if she found the herbs Kaede wanted before the old woman found her. Unknowingly, Kiki had positioned her feet so that when she took her next step, she tripped and began to slide down a hill.
"AAAAAAAAIIIIEEEE!" Kiki screeched, clutching the basket to her body and curling into a ball as well as she could. She skidded to a stop by hitting a large tree root and dropped the basket with a loud "Oof!".
"Ooooow…" She whined, rubbing the back of her head. "That KILLED." Curiously, she tried to stand, only to fall back onto the ground with a cry of pain. Her right leg throbbed, and she could feel it swell underneath her baggy kimono pants. "Somebody… anyone? Someone please help me!"
Kiki sat on the cold, hard ground for an unknown period of time, the wind worriedly flinging her hair and cloths from side to side. With a sigh of defeat, she slowly and calmly lifted herself from the ground and onto the tree root, allowing her leg to hang limply in the air.
"Ki…Ki…Kikyo?" A boy's voice echoed behind her, and she swiftly turned to see who it was.
"AUGH!" She cried, closing her eyes and bringing her leg closely to her. She had rammed it against the root when she turned, causing a great burst of pain through her body. Her eyesight was blackening quickly, yet she still managed to see to whom the voice belonged.
A boy no more than 18 years of age was pinned to a great tree by one, lone arrow. He had beautiful silver hair cascading halfway down his back, with two lone bundles resting on his chest. His eyes were a piercing yellow color, and from his hair protruded two crisp, white dog-ears. His clothing was a red kimono with a white kimono undershirt, and his feet (although most of his lower half was covered in tree roots) were apparently bare. His expression was that of disbelief, but turned smug when he saw how much pain Kiki was in.
"So, Kikyo, I guess your little spell didn't work half as well as you wanted it to. I'm alive, and it apparently hasn't been too long if you're still here." He laughed tauntingly, pointing a finger with a long, claw-like fingernail at Kiki. She lifted a hand to her head and shivered silently, trying to sort her tumbling thoughts.
'I must be dreaming…Is that boy calling me Kikyo? Doesn't he know she's dead? Moreover… Why does he think she's me? Do I really even look like her?' Kiki thought, opening her eyes once more. Her eyesight was in better condition, though only slightly. "I'm not Kikyo." She stated blankly, glancing at him with her deep purple eyes. "My name is Kiki."
"No way! You have to be her! There's no way you could smell so much like…" The boy's words drifted off as he saw her purple eyes and his nose twitched as he lifted it to smell. After doing that, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped in amazement. "You're…You're not her."
"Well, duh! Kikyo's been dead for fifty years! Nevertheless, I sure would have liked to meet her. She was supposed have been a very strong priestess." Kiki snapped, finally grasping the situation as the boy's face twisted from distraught to that of anger.
"She's WHAT!" he exclaimed, reaching for the arrow as if to pull it from his chest. It sparked with powerful spiritual energy, scorching his hand. "Damn… It still won't come out!"
Something dawned on Kiki and she disbelievingly turned her head towards the boy. "You…You…You're INUYASHA!" She exclaimed, finally deriving a conclusion. She had been told the story of Inuyasha and Kikyo when she was younger and it was another thing that drove her to be so amazed by the dead priestess.
"What's it to yah?" the boy snarled, giving you a cold glare. Kiki shook her head, still in shock. "Well? Speak up!"
"That…That…THAT SPELL WAS SUPPOSED TO LAST FOREVER!" She howled, slowly standing up on the root of the tree she had been sitting on. "You were supposed to spend the rest of your life stuck to this damned thing! Asleep! And then you'd DIE of old age and rot!"
A look of surprise crossed the boy's face, as if she had slapped him. It quickly morphed into that of hatred. "What did I ever do to you, huh?" He snapped, claws coming out. "If I wasn't stuck to this damned tree, I'd teach you a thing or two!"
"Allow me to solve your problem!" Kiki exclaimed, limping over to the boy. Her leg shot bolts of pain along her side but she ignored it. Her pride was overrunning her common sense; if she released Inuyasha from the tree, it would prove to be a difficult fight. However, Kiki was confident enough with her spiritual powers to let him loose and battle with him.
"W-what?" he stammered, surprised again. Kiki approached him and grabbed the arrow protruding from his chest as if to pull it out. The combination of her hand and the arrow did not produce what she expected however; an explosion of light filled the area, blinding her. She could feel energy being sucked straight out of her hands and into the shaft, and the image began to flicker. The illusion of a round gem-like object replaced that of the arrow, and was the source of all the light. In a standstill moment the jewel flew into Kiki's hands, and as suddenly as the light had come, it faded. Out of pure surprise, she fell off the root and into the dirt, clutching the object to her.
Inuyasha looked limp for a moment, his body slouched over and his hair masking his face. Then a deep, insane chuckle echoed across the area, morphing into an outright laugh. His body unslouched and he held up his hands in the classic "Muhahahaha!" villain stance. Kiki looked at him, wide eyed, and then at the jewel in her hands.
"Ok, girl. Hand over the jewel and I'll kill you quickly." Inuyasha said with a smirk, ripping away the roots that had grown around his lower body.
"No." Kiki said firmly, standing. Her stance was suddenly steady and she felt re-energized and refreshed. Something told her not to hand over the jewel. The boy, in response, lunged at her. She did a one-handed back-handspring out of the way, clutching the jewel in her right hand and landing in another fighting stance facing towards him. The move completely surprised her, having never been able to land it. "Must be the adrenaline…" She smiled casually at him."Care to try that again?"
A series of lunges and dodges followed, Kiki and Inuyasha dodging between trees and brush, making their way steadily out of the forest. Kiki set her hands up as if she were drawing back a bow, using only her pointer and middle fingers for both hands. The image of a bow and arrow flickered in bright pink light, and the arrow flew at Inuyasha as soon as she let go of the imaginary string. It struck him in the shoulder and scorched right through his kimono, causing him to growl in pain. "Wind!" she called quickly, raising the hand containing the jewel into the air. Gusts of leaves and branches swirled around them, blurring Inuyasha's vision.
"Iron reaper soul stealer!" Inuyasha called, slashing through the twigs and leaves. The wind didn't let up, and Kiki made her escape off into the direction she thought was the bone eater's well. She came upon it quickly and searched all four sides for a rock she had placed there many years ago.
A six-year-old Kiki is dancing through the woods with a younger looking Kaede in close pursuit. "Watch out, child!" Kaede called, but it was too late. Kiki had tripped over a root and gone skidding head first into a clearing. She sat up, spitting leaves out of her mouth but stopped dead when she saw a boy no older than 18 pinned to a tree by a lone arrow before her.
"Mother! Mother!" She shrieked, pointing. She stood too quickly for her clumsy feet and fell backwards onto her bottom. Kaede slid down to her and helped her up. "Mother a boy! We have to help him!"
"No, child. We must leave him be. That is the boy, Inuyasha, that I told you about, remember?" Kaede calmly stated, pointing. "You must never come here without me, and you must never touch the arrow protruding from his chest. He will not awaken if you do, but just to be on the safe side I would prefer it if you didn't."
Kiki nodded and skipped off to the right. "We're going to the well, aren't we Mama?" she chorused, quickly losing interest. Kaede smiled and followed, and they soon came upon it.
"Now, child, pick up that rock and put it on the side facing the village. No- not that side, Kiki. My, you have a terrible sense of direction. Yes, that's right. Now if you ever get lost and find this well, just follow the side with the rock coming from it." Kaede shrugged off a pack she was carrying and the younger Kiki skipped over to help her. "Now let's rid ourselves of these bones."
"I can't believe I forgot that…" Kiki murmured to herself as she ran in the direction the rock was on. A chilling wind caressed at her feet, sending shivers up her spine. "Yes, I shouldn't have forgotten. I just got so angry…" Kiki continued running towards the village, unsure of what to do. Was it wise to lead that boy back to the village? If the wind was at her feet now, was it still whirling itself around him? As if to answer her questions, she felt the boy's presence approaching her from behind and coming on fast. She jumped nimbly out of the way as his claws came slashing down on the air where she had been.
"Damn you, girl! Stop jumping around!" Inuyasha growled, slashing at her again. She dodged but tripped over a branch and went flying forward, into the dirt. As Inuyasha's claws came crashing down at her, she rolled out of the way. He managed to cut deeply into her left arm before she was up and running again.
"Dammit!" Kiki cursed under her breath, dodging another attack, much slower than she had been before. She jumped and skid down a grassy hill, the village in view before her. Upon coming the beginning of a path around the rice fields, Inuyasha jumped in front of her and cornered her against the steep hillside.
"Finally, you have nowhere to run. Now hand over the jewel." He demanded, holding up his claws. "And I'll make your death quick and painless." Kiki let out a glass-shattering shriek, calling the attention of all the elements around her. The water that the rice soaked in began to crash against the sides of the path and the wind picked up swiftly. Kiki fell to her knees and put up another spiritual arrow stance, pointing it directly at Inuyasha.
"You'll never get your hands on this jewel." She snarled. By now she had realized what it was. "Its sacred powers are far too great for that of a half-breed."
It was exactly the right thing to say. Inuyasha's senses were dimming with well-held-back fury. Kiki's deep purple eyes intensified her glare, making her look very much like Kikyo when she had pinned him to the tree. Her arm was bleeding, her face twisted in that of hatred and anger, and she had a bow and arrow pointed right at him.