II. To Catch a Thief (Part I)

I had been on the road for a week. I was sick of sleeping in the cold, and running low on food.

"I hate to bother you, sir," I said, "but I sensed an ominous presence lingering above your inn, and I thought to myself, 'That man could use a wandering priestess such as myself to exorcise his place of business.'"

Yes, I was imitation Miroku, poorly, and no, the innkeeper clearly didn't believe me.

Still, he seemed to be willing to humor me, asking, "A wandering priestess, you say?" Well, at least he hadn't thrown me out in a rage like the last fellow I'd offered my holy powers to. Yet.

I was learning very quickly that the locals here had a very low tolerance for charlatans; I'd already been thrown out of two towns in as many days.

"Yes," I said carefully. Any luck and I'd have food. Kirara too. "I am a priestess, and I wander."

"You wouldn't happen to be the one with the Jewel of Four Souls, would you?" he inquired.

I was pleasantly surprised. I'd been nurturing my rumor for four days now, and it had somehow managed to get ahead of me? Hopefully, it wouldn't be long now.

"No," I answered nonchalantly. "But I think I met her on the road." I'd found that this lie, at least, was believable when I told it.

"Really?" the innkeeper asked me. "I can tell you need somewhere to stay. If you could elaborate, you've earned yourself a meal and a bed."

"Long black hair, sad blue eyes, very tragic," I said quickly. Possibly too quickly to be believed, but I was hungry.

"Did she say where she was headed?" he asked.

"No," I answered. He started to lose interest. 'Food and a bed, Kagome! Food and a bed!' "But she said that she was collecting 'Jewel Shards.'"

"Jewel Shards?" the innkeeper asked. I had him again.

"Something about the Jewel getting shattered into shards and the like…" I shrugged. "Is that the information you wanted?"

"Yes, yes," he said quickly. Maybe I wasn't the only liar. Something else, too, wasn't quite right about this man, but I didn't know what. Not for the first time that week, I found myself wishing that I had access to my damn powers.

"May!" the innkeeper called.

A slender woman in a pink kimono entered, bowed to the innkeeper, and led me away. As I left, I thought I caught a glimpse of something green wrapped around the innkeeper from the corner of my eye, but I dismissed it quickly. I was too busy being delighted that my rumor was traveling faster than me to worry about things I might have seen. I was going to meet my thief very soon.

If only I'd known how soon it would be…


I was having the oddest dream.

I was sitting on my own shoulder as I walked through town. All the locals were greeting me warmly, but something was very off. Their eyes were unfocused, as though they weren't seeing me at all.

"Can I help you?" the innkeeper asked politely. Or at least, that's what Big Me heard. Shoulder Me was hearing something quite different: "Help me! Help me, please!"

Now he was offering me the opportunity to stay the night, but he was really saying this: "No! He'll take you too. Run away while you can! Run!"

"Who is he?" I asked. Instead of answering me, the innkeeper turned around very slowly and I stared in horror. There was a green vine protruding from the back of his head, trailing down his back and out the door. Every now and then it pulsed violently. "Run. Run while you still have your mind!"

Suddenly, I saw that May, his assistant from earlier, had a vine growing from her neck as well. Disturbed, I directed Big Me back outside. The innkeepers weren't the only ones…

All the unfocused locals had the strange vines, and they all seemed to converge on a single point near the town square I'd passed while searching for the inn.

'Don't go there, Kagome,' I warned myself inwardly. 'You know it just means trouble.'

Ah, but I'd forgotten that Trouble was my middle name, especially when there are people to be protected. Kagome Trouble Higurashi, that's me. Even in my dreams, I get off on near-death experiences. Therefore, trouble just attracted me, and the mystery element of the whole thing attracted me even more.

Big Me started running towards the town square as fast as she could, me bouncing up and down on her shoulder. She stopped so suddenly, though, that I nearly fell off.

There, in the center of town, was absolutely nothing of any value. It was just a clearing a little wider than the rest of the town, a little busier. How dull. Still, I stared in awe. Trouble. Where Big Me saw nothing, I saw a hungry green plant, a demon of some sort, and it was feeding off of the locals greedily with its vines.

Even as I watched, one of its victims fell to the ground, completely drained of life, and now the hungry vine was detaching itself and crawling towards Big Me slowly, menacingly, and I was screaming, "NO!" at the top of my lungs.

I woke up in a cold sweat and checked the back of my neck. To my relief, I didn't have a hungry vine growing there, but suddenly I could sense that something was very, very wrong. I took up my bow and arrows and tried to wake Kirara, but she was sound asleep. Had there been something in the food? But then, why wasn't I…

'You tend to be immune to these things, remember?'

Right. Some sort of weird priestess immunity. Whatever was going on here, I would have to handle it without Kirara's help.

May entered with a strange seed in hand. Even from here, I could see the vine trailing from the back of her neck pulsing like the artery of some grotesque heart. Using my bow as a bludgeon, I managed to knock May out and ran like hell to where the demon plant was in my dream, leaving the sleeping Kirara to fend for herself. I doubted they were interested in her, anyway.

'Kagome, you've finally lost it. You're fighting invisible plant monsters in the middle of the night.'

Silencing the voice of doubt, I came to the town square. Empty, as expected. Where was the central plant? I couldn't seem to see it anywhere.

I closed my eyes and focused to the best of my adrenaline-powered abilities, wishing for all the world that I'd thought my decision for this quest through. No powers, no companions, and now I was alone in a strange village with a demon plant just waiting for the opportunity to eat me.

Yet I'd sensed something, somehow. That counted, right? Wasn't that powers?

A part of my mind argued that sensing things wasn't really "real" powers. After all, Sango could sense things, too, and she was no priestess. That worked for me. I focused my powers—no, my senses—on where I knew the heart-plant to be, and when I opened my eyes…

There it was, pulsing in all its people-eating glory.

Almost instinctively, I set an arrow to my bow and drew it back, ready to fire. Maybe I couldn't purify it, per se, but I could do a little bit of damage, right?

As though realizing that I had sensed it, it suddenly began glowing red, which, in my personal experience, was not a good color. Then there was a pulse of red light, and another, and now the pulses were growing faster, frenzied, as though building to a brilliant FLASH and then…

Fade to black.


I dreamed, but I don't recall of what I dreamed. I just remember the strange mix of urgency and despair. My first real memory was of my itching nose. I couldn't seem to scratch it. In my fuzzy pre-conscious state, I was frustrated. I tried to scratch again, but my arms weren't listening. I think I started mumbling something to them along the lines of, "Damn lazy arms… dunwannalisten…"

That was about when I really woke up.

At first, everything was unfocused, but as I slowly began to wake more and more… I wished that I were back asleep. I was still in the clearing with the monster plant, only I was wrapped up so tightly in one of its vines that I could hardly breathe, my back propped against the beast. Not the best position.

Then I noticed him. His back was to me, but he was clearly a demon. He had unnatural silver hair and Inuyasha ears protruding from his skull, and (I almost squealed in delight) a tail. He had a tail! Absently, I wondered if this was the "thief" I was looking for. Was he under the sway of the demon vine as well?

'Another victim, perhaps?'

At the moment the thought popped into my head, he turned around and the victim idea died in my skull. He had the most beautiful, golden eyes I had ever seen… and they were not the terrified eyes of a victim or the blank eyes of the vine-villagers. His were the unfeeling eyes of a villain.

'This plant… it's his, or it's working with him,' I realized abruptly. I didn't have time for any more thoughts, though, because he suddenly spoke.

"You're awake." A beautiful voice for a beautiful creature, but his tone… so cold.

"Are you working with this vine?" I said, struggling against my bonds. "Killing people like that—controlling them—it's wrong!" His eyes narrowed at my statement.

'What have you gotten yourself into, Kagome?'

"Why is it you can see my vine? And how is it you know its nature?" He asked. "Answer me now, woman, and I'll spare you, I promise."

Great. A Sessoumaru-wannabe was giving me death threats. Unfortunately, after receiving them on a regular basis from a host of demons and a certain half-demon "protector" of mine they had lost most of their effect. I liked death-threat demons best, actually. All bark, no bite. I almost sighed with relief.

I looked back into those terrifying eyes again, though, and the sentiment there chilled me. He wasn't threatening me. He was informing me of the inevitable, and Inuyasha wasn't coming to save me. I didn't even have any powers. Maybe I was out of my league. Best to submit and wait for an opening.

"I'm a priestess," I answered. 'Though right now, I'm a bit useless in that regard…' "I can see things others cannot."

"That is no answer," he stated. His expression softened, and his gaze became distant, as though he was thinking. "A priestess would still be unable to… Unless…? No, no…" Then he was back, and he turned that terrifying gaze back on me. "You're lying."

"About being a priestess?" I said. "I most certainly am not!"

"You're no priestess," he said. I wondered if he knew that he had just struck a nerve? "I'd sense your spiritual energy, if you were."

Ouch. "Well," I said sullenly, "maybe I'm having some… problems with my powers. And they're not working because I'm really stressed out, between trying to collect the last few Jewel shards and worrying about Shippo and…"

He silenced me, and a dark grin lit his face. "Jewel shards?"

'That'll teach you to look before you leap, Kags. Deny! Deny as you've never denied before!'

"I don't know what you're—"

"And here I thought that they were just rumors designed to bring the mighty Youko Kurama out of hiding," he said, suddenly close to my face. Startled, I breathed in deeply. His scent made me dizzy and a bit lightheaded; I almost sneezed. He pulled away just as quickly as he'd approached and, to my horror, the nearly complete Jewel was in his hands. I hadn't even felt him take it from my neck.

He looked quite pleased with himself as he began to expertly examine the Jewel, and it occurred to me that this demon was obsessed with trinkets. Had he forgotten me entirely? 'Not like that would be a bad thing…'

After about five minutes of turning the Jewel over and over in his hands, he finally said thoughtfully, "There are pieces missing."

"Yes," I commented, feeling sarcastic (and still dazed by his odd scent). "Of course there are. Thus 'Jewel Shards.'"

Suddenly his attention was on me again, but it wasn't nearly so terrifying as moments before. "How did this happen?"

"I accidentally shot the Jewel with an arrow," I confessed frankly. Why was I saying this? "It shattered. Are you going to let me go now?"

"I said I wouldn't kill you if you answered my question," he said, returning his attention to the Jewel. "I didn't say that I would let you go."

"You—You said…" I thought back. My thoughts were a bit fuzzy, so it took a few moments. He'd promised not to kill me. Damn. "…never mind."

He had totally lost interest in me now. All that he could see was the Jewel. Thieving bastard.

'Wait, wait. Thief, like the one from the villages?'

Figuring that I might as well ask, I said, "Are you the thief who left all those poison roses for village girls to find?"

He turned his attention back to me, a sadistic grin on his face. "That I am."

"Why would you do that?" I asked. "Because you could?"

He was studying the Jewel again. How much could he study that one object? It was a pink sphere with cracks. That was it. No more.

"Hello?" I prompted him. 'Why are you bothering him, Kagome? He could kill you.'

"Punishment," he mumbled. He was turning the Jewel in his hands again.

"For what?"

He looked me straight in the eyes. "Wanting what they shouldn't."

Suddenly, I remembered the conversation I'd overheard, the one that had started this whole mess:

"No, it's not him," the other girl sighed. "I am in love with a demon."

This caught my attention immediately.

"A demon?" Nona was skeptical.

"The one who robbed father last week."

"Was he handsome?"

"He was absolutely beautiful, Nona," Sakura swooned. "He even winked at me!"

"Well, someone's full of himself," I said. I was beginning to feel more comfortable with this demon, and I didn't know why. He was still dangerous; he had just been… de-clawed, somehow. He didn't exactly have a subduing spell wrapped around his neck like Inuyasha, but… I don't know how else to explain it.

He snorted, so I continued. "You know, I got locked up in a basement because of you."

"A basement?" He sounded amused. I think he was laughing at me.

"They were going to burn me," I explained. "That isn't funny, by the way."

"Not at all," he said. He was still laughing.

I didn't say anything for a few minutes, but then, very softly… "I have them, you know."

"Have what?" he asked absentmindedly.

"Your roses."

At this he looked surprised, and he turned to look me straight in the eyes. "Then why aren't you poisoned?"

"Why aren't I unconscious? I have weird priestess immunity," I said, still feeling uncharacteristically open. "They're in my bag… So pretty…"

"Well, if you have 'weird priestess immunity' when it comes to my plants, why are you so intoxicated right now?" he said.

"Wah?" was all I could muster at this point.

He appraised me carefully (I think, because by that point I was really out of it) and said, "You're quite pretty for a human, you know. And cleaner than most."

For whatever reason, I found this incredibly funny. "Pretty! You just said 'pretty'!"

He was still giving me that appraising look. "I haven't had a lay in a few days…"

"Really?" I asked. "Because I don't think I've had a lay in my life, and I'm eighteen!"

This, by the way, was also extremely funny.

My laughter was cut short, though, when he leaned forward and almost violently covered my mouth with his, and I think that I kissed him back just as forcefully, his intoxicating scent making me more and more dizzy, and then…

"I love you too, Inuyasha," I mumbled as I pulled back for a breath.

I tried to lean into him again, but I think he stopped me first. Either that, or I passed out. I do remember seeing him walking away from me, though. I was spending most of this quest of mine unconscious.


When I woke up (again), I was alone in the town square. The demon vine was gone, the demon who'd kissed me was gone, the Jewel was gone, and I was curled up in a ball, freezing cold. Memories suddenly came back to me in a flood, and I panicked. Had he…? No, he couldn't have. Could he?

At least I was still wearing my clothes. Good sign, right? Nothing bruised or broken, either. I could (hopefully) worry about the rest later.

While I was still adjusting myself to my surroundings, the innkeeper appeared, followed by six or seven angry villagers. Uh-oh. Time to leave already?

"There she is!" he shouted. "She's the charlatan who tried to con her way into the inn!"

'Dammit,' I cursed. 'Don't they even care that their demon plant is gone? No? They're going to attack me anyways?'

In about fifteen minutes, I was formally banned from the village. The residents were unusually efficient. They showed no signs of being attacked by demon plants, either. Had I just been dreaming? My hand absently strayed to my neck, where the Jewel once hung. It was gone. Not a dream. Damn.

Once outside, I ran into a well-rested Kirara who had been thrown out as well. My bag, too, had found its way to the village's border. Slinging it over one shoulder and my bow over the other, I set off, and Kirara followed.


"…and he was gone when I woke," I finished.

Kirara thought on my story, and then suggested that we go get Inuyasha.

"Not yet," I said. "I want to try and retrieve it on my own, first."

Kirara commented that my determination to "do it on my own" was going to get me killed.

"He didn't kill me before," I pointed out. "Why would he do that?"

Kirara suggested that it might have been the promise he'd made me: life for information. I didn't have any more information that would interest him, though.

"Kirara, please understand this," I pleaded. "This trip has just gone from bad to worse. I need to at least try and recover the Jewel, if only to say that I did."

Kirara implied that Inuyasha would be willing to help.

"The Jewel is my responsibility, Kirara," I said. "Inu won't always be there to help me."

Kirara retorted that he wouldn't mind always being there for me, especially if it meant me not dying a horrible death.

"I don't intend to die," I said. "Are you going to come with me, or will I have to find this man alone?"

"Mrow," Kirara said sullenly.

I grinned. At least I wasn't alone. Had my powers been working, I might have noticed just how not alone I was, might have felt the Jewel's presence mere meters from my position.

I still wouldn't, however, have heard a malevolent whisper in the dark, a chillingly beautiful voice whispering, "You, my strange little priestess, are a mystery… one I have every intention of solving."


Minor Edits Made: 12/1/07