Onwards to chapter three!!!
Disclaimer: Still don't own Inuyasha (Sobs)
"I wonder if Shippou's alright." Kagome mused quietly. She was riding on Inuyasha's back while Sango and Miroku, who were riding on Kirara, flew beside them. They were just headed back towards the village, their heads full of what information they had learned about Mizuki.
"Keh, Shippou's just fine." Inuyasha assured.
Kagome sighed. She'd have to make it up to Shippou somehow.
While Inuyasha and the others had been talking to Kaede and Myouga, Shippou had been following the tiny group, led by Mizuki, into the forest.
They had stopped at a clearing, but Shippou could have sworn that before they entered the clearing, he felt a tickling sensation throughout his entire body.
"Alright, children." Mizuki began. "What do you want to do?"
"I'm hungry." a little boy said, placing both hands on his stomach.
"Mizuki-sama," Aya, Arata's daughter, spoke up. "You know we like to look at your more prettier self."
Prettier self? Shippou thought. What the heck is she talking about?
As if it were an answer to his question, Mizuki's black hair suddenly blew behind her as if in a gentle breeze, her clothing changed as well as her hair color. Her hair became such a shade of white that it looked like a very light blue color, it reached down to her knees and was suddebly held up in a ponytail, her haori and hakamas were suddenly replaced with a white kimono which had wide sleeves and only reached two inches above her knee and was bound together by a black sash knotted into a ribbon behine her back, she suddenly wore black knee high boots but her eyes still looked the same.
"Much better!" Aya screamed happily.
She...she transformed!? Shippou thought. He suddenly began to panic as Mizuki's blue eyes fell on him. Her lips curved in a smirk.
"It seems that we have an unwanted guest." she said. Shippou felt his knees turn to lead. Was this woman going to kill him?
Mizuki silently approached him and knelt in front of him. "Hello," she said a smile replacing her smirk. "Why do you look as if you've seen a ghost?"
Shippou suddenly felt relief flooding through him. So Mizuki wasn't really going to kill him after all! Whew!
"Mizuki-sama," the same boy said, still holding his belly. "I'm hungry!"
"Yes, yes." Mizuki said giggling as she stood up. Shippou watched as she walked in front of the children. She placed a slender hand on the ground which glowed green and Shippou's eyes widened as a tree as tall as an eight year old slowly grew out of the ground. It's leaves were filled with fruit such as apples and oranges and some of it's branches hung low on the ground.
The children all made a rush for the fruits as Mizuki sat down next to a nervous Shippou. "Here, have an apple." Mizuki said handing the kitsune an apple. Shippou hesitated before Mizuki shoved it into his paws.
"You are one of the companions of Arata-sama's guests, are you not?" she asked to which Shippou nodded.
"What is your name, young kitsune?" she inquired, glancing at him from the corner of her eyes.
Shippou hesitated before he gave her his name.
"I know your companions asked you to keep an eye on me." Mizuki said simply. Shippou's eyes slightly widened when he heard what she had said. "Don't be afraid," Mizuki said, quite amused at the kit's nervousness. "I promise I won't harm you, I'll even answer some of your questions."
Shippou looked into her eyes and found no trace of a lie. "Alright," he began. "Why is it that you bring these kids out here?"
"Why? Well, Shippou let me tell you first that Iam hiding from my sister. Using my gift at illusions, I hide myself underneath the guise of a miko. Your friend, Kagome could still sense my youki though." she paused as she watched Aya happily eat an apple. "However, If I keep on hiding myself using illusions non stop, I'll drain out my energy, so every afternoon, I come here to be in my true form."
"But, why bring children?" Shippou asked again. To his surprise, Mizuki quietly laughed. "At first," she began. "I never intended to bring them along, but Aya saw me, followed me and couldn't keep her mouth closed about what she saw. She ended telling the rest of the children about me and there you have it."
Shippou nodded. "How did you bring out that tree?" he asked.
"Iam an elementalist."
"Oh."
Mizuki smiled warmly at him. "Ah, If you have anymore questions, better ask your companions. Iam sure they know about me by now." Mizuki said as Aya beckoned to her.
"Mizuki-sama, I'm thirsty." Aya complained. Mizuki approached the child and once more put her hand on the ground which glowed with white light. Shippou watched in awe as a small depression, the size of a basin, formed under that hand and a second later, the depression was filled with water.
As the children came to drink, Mizuki called out to Shippou. "Come, Shippou-chan, you must be thirsty."
Shippou threw aside his apple and joined the rest of the children.
Kagome sat underneath a tree at the edge of the village, biting her lip nervously. "Shippou isn't back yet." Kagome said as she saw that the sun was about to set.
"There he is now!" Sango pointed at a bunch of children who were accompanied by Mizuki out of the forest. Kagome ran to the fox who, when noticing her, seperated from the rest of the group without Mizuki noticing. He ran to Kagome and jumped into her arms. The group of children had now entered the village.
"Shippou-chan! Are you okay?" Kagome asked giving Shippou a tight bear hug as everyone else approached, eager to greet the young one.
"Uh-huh, I'm fine, Kagome!" Shippou assured.
"See Kagome? The whelp's fine." Inuyasha said, folding his arms.
A moment later, everyone was sitting round a small fire underneath the same tree at the end of the village. They were all eager to hear about Shippou's little adventure. The young kitusne then told them all about what had happened when he followed Mizuki into the forest.
"See Inuyasha? Mizuki's not bad." Kagome said.
"Keh."
Curious Shippou looked up at Kagome and asked: "Why would Mizuki be bad?"
Kagome then told him all that Kaede and Myouga had related to them earlier. Shippou's eyes particularly went round when Kagome told him about Mizuki's relationship to Sesshoumaru.
"Still," Inuyasha began when Kagome had finished the tale to Shippou. "I think we should just keep an eye on her."
Miroku sighed. "Alright," said the monk. "If she dosen't prove to be troublesome for tonight, then she's alright." the others nodded their heads in agreement. Kagome sighed and looked towards the sky as the possibility of a sleepless night loomed in the atmosphere.
Mizuki sighed and from the window in her room she saw the moon shining brilliantly in the sky. Being the complete night person that she was, she deicided to leave the comfort of her chamber and venture out into the night. The air was cool and crisp as she walked around the sleeping village. Not one lamp was burning from the houses.
Mizuki's feet eventually led her to same field where she had met Kagome. Kagome, she looked so familiar, that it was because of this that the moon demoness became so restless. She couldn't quite put a finger as to who Kagome resembled, though.
She sat down on the cool grass, lifted the illusion which hid her true form, and looked into the moon. That girl Kagome, Mizuki thought as her eyes reflected the moon's light. She looks so...so familiar. It's starting to be troublesome.
She silently buried her face in her hands as an image of a priestess appeared in her mind. Black straight hair, white haori and red hakamas. Mizuki suddenly realized that Kagome resembled, and even smelled like Kikyou. Though she was not so sure as to the girl's scent though. She didn't have a keen nose.
Could she possibly be related to Kikyou? Mizuki thought silently. However when Kikyou's name surfaced in her mind, she felt a long lingering sadness.
Kikyou, you know I didn't mean to be the cause of your death, right?
If she could have gone back to the time when she had helped the black haired hanyou, who had caused Kikyou's death, she wouldn't have helped him. As she remembered Kikyou, she suddenly remembered Inuyasha pinned to the tree.
He almost looks like his brother...
She silently remembered his calm and cold eyes as she brought her knees to her chin. She knew that her companion had been fond of her and yet she never returned his feelings for her. She even remembered overhearing Myouga and the Inu no Taisho talking about how hopeful they were that Mizuki would change the way Sesshoumaru was.
The Inu no Taisho would have had been very disappointed to know how horrid their relatonship had been.
As Mizuki continued to stare at the moon, from which she had gotten her name, she suddenly saw a winged figure, silhoutted against the moon's light, in the distance.
"Hey, Inuyasha look." Miroku said, from their positon underneath the tree at the edge of the village, they were easily hidden in shadow. Under this tree, they suddenly spotted Mizuki, in her human form, making her way to the field.
"What's she doing out here in the middle of the night?" Sango asked as everyone continued to watch as the girl sat down and revealed her true form.
"She's up to no good." the hanyou said. Kagome gave the hanyou an annoyed look then said: "In my opinon, I think she's just remembering something, something painful."
Kagome saw the pained and sad look on Mizuki's face and wondered what the moon demoness could have been thinking. Perhaps, she was thinking about Kikyou...
"Hey, what's that!?" Shippou asked pointing at the sky. Everyone looked up and there, silhoutted against the moon's light was a winged figure.
Mizuki continued to stare as a dragon slowly flew to the ground. The thing that landed in front of her was a dragon. It was at least twenty feet tall and had a wing span of at least five meters, it was as white as the moon and on it's head was a diamond as large as a saucer.
"Kaze," Mizuki whispered quietly, as she approached the dragon to pat it on it's head, which was lowered so that she could pat it. "She sent you here, didn't she?" Mizuki asked as she stroked the dragon's neck. The dragon as if saying 'yes'.
Mizuki pulled away from the dragon and looked sharply at it. "Tell her I don't want to return, tell her that I wish to stay here." she said as she turned away. The dragon flew up in the air and landed neatly in front of her. "Are you so loyal to my sister that you intend to battle me, Kaze?" she asked. Kaze suddenly glowed with a gentle white light and the twenty foot dragon shrank to the size of a small dog, still retaining it's features though.
Mizuki smiled as the now tiny Kaze flew and landed neatly on her shoulder. "So you wish to remain with me?" Mizuki asked. In response the dragon growled softly in agreement.
"A pretend priestess hanging around a dragon? That is just ironic." a voice said. Looking up, Mizuki spotted a woman riding a feather. Instantly, Mizuki knew that this woman was a wind user. The woman in question jumped off her feather and landed in front of Mizuki. The dragon at her shoulder growled menacingly at the woman and as it attempted to jump off Mizuki's shoulder to transform into it's larger version, Mizuki held it in place with her hand.
"Who are you?" Mizuki asked, her voice didn't sound pleasant at all. In fact she sounded evil and cold.
The woman surveyed her for a moment before saying: "So I guess you would be Mizuki eh?"
"What if Iam?"
"If you don't wanna be killed, you should follow me like a good girl. An old friend is dying to meet you."
"I do not have any friends who have wind users under their service."
Kagura smirked at her. "Is that another way of saying that you do not wish to comply?"
"Obviously."
"I really didn't wanna scar that pretty face of your's you know, actually I want to so... Fujin no Mai!" Kagura shouted sending her wind blades at Mizuki, who jumped out of the way. The dragon at her shoulder jumped off and turned into it's normal size.
"What the hell is Kagura doing here?" Miroku said as they watched Kagura send her wind blades at Mizuki.
"Inuyasha, we should help her!" Kagome said rising to her feet. Sango and Miroku followed suit Inuyasha, however, still remained sitting on the ground.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome urged.
"Keh! Let her die at Kagura's hands for all I care!"
Kagome gave Inuyasha a long hard look. She knew why he was acting this way. It was because that he was enraged to learn that Mizuki had been the cause of Kikyou's death.
"Fine! Be the stupid arrogant jerk that you are!" Kagome shouted and without saying anything more she turned on her heels and ran to where Mizuki and Kagura were battling.
There! I'm dine with this chapter, what could possibly happen in the next one I wonder..
