Disclaimer: I'll have the usual 'don't own Inu-Yasha' special please, along with a Root Beer.

A/N: Second chapter! Huzzah! (I wonder if I'll do this every chapter --') I absolutely have to thank all the lovely reviewers: wildthudakat, and mangadreams. Cookies!

Silver Water 7: Kudos! I have to mention that my reference says that comes from Youth and Love (don't know what that means), but I wouldn't be surprised if they were wrong. But the author is correct! Kudos and a cookie for you!

The difference between despair

and fear, is like the one

Between the instant of a wreck,

And when the wreck has been.

The mind is smooth, -no motion-

Contented as the eye

Upon the forehead of a Bust,

That knows it cannot see.

Chapter 2

The village was empty when the group arrived with their guide. There was an unnatural silence, not even the sound of whispers. Kagome glanced around before looking at the guide.

"Where are all the people?" she asked quietly. Miroku nodded seriously. "I would like to know as well," he said. The guide motioned them to the house closest to them. "The rest of the village is in this building," he answered. Inu-Yasha looked at the building dubiously, but remained quiet as the man knocked.

"Who is it?" a gruff voice answered. "Yuu, with a group to help us," he answered. A small slot opened and an eye looked at the bunch before opening the door.

"Please come in," the man said. "We are grateful for your assistance." They went inside, Yuu bringing up the rear.

The building was bigger than they realized, and full of people. Kagome saw with pain that most of the people there were women with children and elderly people. There were at most 12 able-bodied men, a few looking no older than 15. There was a pile of battered weapons in the corner of the room towards the door.

The man that let them in bowed and introduced himself. "I'm Aito, the leader of this village. I assume that Yuu told you of the situation?" he looked at each of them before settling on Sango.

She stepped up and bowed. "I'm Sango. Yes, he told us of the youkai. We of course offered to help. I have a few questions. Firstly, what kind of demon is it, and do you have a plan of how to defeat it?"

Kagome was surprised at Sango's professional transformation. She shook her head, telling herself that she should have expected it, considering her background. Apparently Aito was surprised as well, blinking before continuing.

"It appears to be a bull youkai, or something related to that. As for a plan of attack, we are inexperienced with these sorts of things, so I'm afraid we don't."

Sango nodded and asked him to gather the men that would assist them. The 12 that Kagome had seen earlier stepped up with nervous looks.

"Now then," Sango started. "If it is a bull youkai, the best way to defeat it would probably be to knock it down, then rope its feet and head before delivering a death strike. Containing it before hand will give us a better chance of killing it cleanly without too many injuries. So we'll need a lot of rope. I can rope pretty well, but anyone else who has experience would be good."

She looked to Aito, who nodded. "I'll send someone to get the rope. Meanwhile, I know of at least three men in this group who know how to rope something." He pointed them out.

While Sango asked them about their experience, Kagome went to sit outside with Miroku. "Do you think it will be hard to defeat it?" she asked him worriedly. He looked thoughtful while he answered. "It shouldn't be too hard, but any angry youkai should not be taken lightly."

Kagome nodded. "I'm glad that Sango knows how to organize attacks. I think that many of the villagers died because they didn't think of a systematic way to go about it." Miroku agreed.

"Don't worry, Kagome," Shippo said, patting her cheek. "With Sango and Miroku and Inu-Yasha to protect you, nothing can go wrong." Kagome smiled and tickled him. The migraine was still lurking in the back of her head.

She decided not to mention it as they headed to where the bull usually approached the village. The meadow was trampled with holes all over, hidden by the broken grass stems. They didn't have to wait long, for as soon as they settled down, the ground started shaking.

Everyone jumped up and went into the positions Sango described – a semicircle open towards the bull and defending the village.

The bull was thrown off for a second before charging the circle. The group threw stones they had gathered while spreading out to surround the bull.

The bull paused. This is new, it probably thought to itself.

They were moving into phase 2 of the plan. They had to distract it, making noises on alternating sides to confuse the youkai. Inu-Yasha would then tip it over, and they would rope the feet and its head. The last phase was the death strike, which Inu-Yasha happily offered to deliver.

The scene inside of the building must have affected him, because he hadn't complained about anything.

Looking back on it, Kagome should have known he wouldn't follow along so easily. She had her suspicions, but she let them go. Unfortunately, Inu-Yasha was – and always will be – a plan-killer. But it was too late for her to do anything.

Inu-Yasha was about to tip the bull youkai over, when he decided to move the death-strike up a few phases.

"I'm right here in front of the thing. I should just kill it now, and save everyone the trouble," he reasoned to himself.

The bull had a rope around its head when Inu-Yasha tried to kill it. It swung its head in a high arch, pulling everyone holding the rope into the air. One of its horns pierced Inu-Yasha's arm, and he punched it, trying to get away.

Kagome, it so happens, was on the end of the rope that flew in the air. With Inu-Yasha currently indisposed, she landed hard on the ground. Dazed, she stumbled across the field.

"Whew, that was a doozy," she mumbled to herself. She had a growing knot on the side of her head where it hit a tree root.

She didn't know that Inu-Yasha was fighting the bull right behind her. All she knew was that the migraine had increased to extreme proportions, and she just wanted to lay down. She walked on, blissfully ignorant of the bull about to charge Inu-Yasha.

Inu-Yasha kind of regretted his decision. The death-strike hadn't worked too well. In fact, he hadn't even delivered it, due to the youkai's stubbornness. "Damn it!" he thought angrily as he jumped out of the way.

His anger was replaced by fear as he saw Kagome walking in the path of the running bull.

Kagome felt the ground rumbling but thought nothing of it until she heard Inu-Yasha frantically call her name. She irritably turned around to face him. Couldn't he see that she was tired of the stupid bull youkai and wanted to be left alone!

Her words dried up and her eyes widened. She saw the 'stupid bull youkai' running with full speed towards her and lowering its horns. She was about to be impaled, and all she could do was stand there and stare stupidly at approaching death.

Suddenly there was a loud ripping sound, and the bull exploded in front of her, splattering her completely with blood. Inu-Yasha stood in front of her, his sword down and smoking from the attack.

Kagome blinked. "Well, that was unexpected," she thought. She noted detachedly that her migraine had disappeared.

And then she was in pain. It spread through her until it was all she could feel. She unconsciously grasped her eyes, whimpering. Sango was checking a man on the ground nearby when she heard her.

She quickly called Inu-Yasha. "We have to rinse the blood off of her quickly," she said hurriedly. "It has acid in it that can really damage her." Inu-Yasha picked her up and they ran back to the village.

Once there, Sango stayed with Kagome while Inu-Yasha went to find water. "You'll be okay in a second, Kagome. Just stay calm. Breathe," she told her. Inside she was worried.

Inu-Yasha sprinted back with a huge barrel of water that he dumped over Kagome. Immediately the burning sensation lessened.

Sango checked her arms and her face. Luckily she had been wearing a long-sleeved shirt, so the burns on her arms were minor.

Surprisingly, her face wasn't badly burned, considering a lot of blood hit her there. The only problem was her eyes. Sango was very concerned but she tried not to show it. "How do you feel?" she asked. Kagome opened her eyes, and Inu-Yasha clenched his fists. They were red, as if she had been crying.

"My eyes itch something awful," she answered. "But at least the migraine's gone." She raised her hands to wipe her eyes, but Sango stopped her.

"It's best that you don't touch your eyes until after you wash them," she said soothingly. Kagome frowned but shrugged. "I suppose that makes sense." She paused then looked around.

"Hey, Sango. Are we in a cave or something? I can't even see you." She shifted until she found Sango's shoulders and grabbed them. Sango looked up at Inu-Yasha worriedly. She didn't want to tell Kagome that they were in the middle of a room with lights all around them.

"You guys? Are you still there? Why are you so quiet?" Kagome asked, confused. Her voice lowered. "Where are you?"

Miroku ran panting to them with Shippo on his shoulder, overhearing her last question. He looked at her eyes, blankly staring at them, and his face paled.

"This is not good at all," he thought.

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A/N: To those of you who made it to this point, thanks for bearing with me. I know that action scenes can become boring, especially I prefer dialogue myself. To those of you that didn't: what are you doing down here? if you read the first chapter (hopefully you have) you know that the star means that you can try to guess who wrote the poem/quote. If you didn't know, you do now. I think that this one is fairly easy, but hey. ;)