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CHAPTER TWO

New Acquaintances

It was the same old story. They were all walking tirelessly along the road to another village. Well at least someone was walking tirelessly.

"Hey, do you think we could take a break? We've been walking forever," Kagome said, her question mostly directed toward Inu Yasha.

"Feh. If it were up to you we'd stop every two minutes," Inu Yasha said gruffly as he continued to trudge forward through the forest.

"Inu Yasha, It's well past mid day, we should stop for at least a lunch break," Miroku added nonchalantly as he strode next to Sango. He too was actually slightly tired from this mornings events.

"You too now monk? What's with you humans, can't you go for more than five minutes without complaining?" Inu Yasha grumbled. He showed no signs of stopping any time soon.

"This is ridiculous, he's not even listening to us," Sango said slightly irritated. "Usually he's a little better than this." Even in his better moods, it was always an uphill battle though.

"I betcha he's still mad about this morning. Aren't ya Inu Yasha?" Shippo said as he jumped up near him. He was met by a thoroughly agitated glare from the half demon.

"You caused it runt!" Inu Yasha boomed.

"Did not! You're just mean!" Shippo yelled back.

Sango, Miroku, and Kagome took on a look of exhaustion as the two began to fight for the millionth time that day. Before they knew it Shippo was wailing with a gigantic bump protruding from his head caused by Inu Yasha's anger.

"Do you always have to hit him? I really should say 'it'." Kagome said rather solemnly, looking down at the packed earth that her feet were encompassing. She merely got a grunt as a reply from Inu Yasha. She took that as a hint that he didn't want to be sat, so he would cut it out for now.

"Let's stop for a little bit," Kagome said knowing full well that Inu Yasha had no choice but to agree or he would be sat. Luckily all around them was very nice terrain, so they could stop just about anywhere and have lunch. They had all decided to just take a seat in the small clearing adjacent to the road they were traveling. It was surrounded by shrubbery and forest, but it was actually quite a beautiful spot. As expected, Inu Yasha jumped up in a tree as soon as they had figured out where they were going to have lunch. Apparently he wanted to be alone and brood. 'Oh well,' Kagome thought with a sigh.

Discarding her thoughts she pulled out some crackers she had in her bag along with a few miniature bags of chips and other things. 'This should get him down here,' she assured herself as she set out the food for everyone to share. It wasn't long before the wind began to carry the scent of the crunchy, untouched potato chips.

Meanwhile

It was quite dark, especially inside the cave of the wolf demon tribe. But that didn't stop him from noticing. "What the hell is that!" Kouga yelled, startling the rest of his pack from their slumber. As they opened their eyes, they all saw a small, insect like demon hovering above their wounded and probably dieing allies. All of them just stared, waiting for the strange creature to do something. After a few tense moments, the creature slowly moved into the chest of a female wolf demon, emerging with a small light held tightly in its clutches.

It was as if they were all frozen, no one moved a muscle. Kouga couldn't even believe what he was seeing. Who in the hell would have the nerve to try and threaten his clan like this? To try to take his allies' souls was ridiculous! His eyes never left the demon, and as it began to recede out of the den, he finally snapped out of his dumbstruck state.

"What the hell do you think you're doin'! You can't escape me!" He took off after the demon, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He cursed himself, noticing that he would have to take the long way down the cliff in order to follow the air-born thief. The tribe's den was very high up in the side of the mountain, and even he didn't jump the whole way down. But that just made him move faster down the dark paths. He knew them all like the back of his hand, and there was no way he was going to let such a rinky-dink little demon take one of his companion's souls. The one thing he hated more than dog-breath were those who thought they'd pull something over on him. 'Oh, whoever they are, there gonna get it.'

Strange, usually all of my soul snatchers would have returned to me by now, I'm still missing one. She gave pause to the thought and brushed it away. She could survive off of the other souls that had been brought to her, she just wouldn't be at her peak. Damn this body, she thought as she brought a hand up to stare at it. Ever since that battle, her powers seemed to be fading. Damn! She knew she had over exerted herself, but she had no idea that the effects would be this long-lived. Since then she had been feeling slightly strange, like she wasn't herself. No matter how many human souls she fed off of, none of them seemed to satisfy her body's need for energy. There just wasn't enough power in them. So she had decided to try and find a few demon souls hoping their effects would prove to be more long lasting. If that failed she had other options, one in particular. She had begun planning this a while ago but had not gone through with it just in case the girl was necessary. Now that there would be no need for her it was time that she reclaimed what was rightfully hers.

However in this state failure was a possibility. Ever since that battle she seemed to be fading.Keeping out of sight and undercover was the immediate solution, but she knew that would not solve everything. She would not continue on such a path for long.

If things went her way, she wouldn't have to do this for too much longer. She would finally have everything returned to her...

Back with Kouga

All was quite in the forest. Only the small noise of crickets could be heard. But there were intruders on the forest's peace. A soft glow began to appear on the blades of grass underneath the demon. Its position was easily given away in the dark.

"Finally, gotcha!" Kouga yelled triumphantly as he pounded his fist into the soul snatcher. As the demon dissipated, the soul began to hover back toward the cave, back to its rightful owner. Though Kouga had defeated the demon with ease, as expected, something left him worried. Nothing like this had ever happened around here before, although he did hear of something like this happening in some human villages. But what did wolf demons have in common with petty humans?

Unable to find an answer to his own questions, he took a sniff of the air. His eyes shot open when he realized what scent that was.

"Kagome!" Kouga blurted out. Her scent was faint, but it was in the air. It was slightly different though. 'What could've happened to her to make her smell different? Especially that kind of different?' He asked him self slightly worried, but trying otherwise to convince himself that she was probably perfectly fine. Even he was big enough to realize that dog-breath would protect her. Still, that scent mingling with Kagome's was disturbing. It was more than just the smell of graveyard soil that was making him cautious.

Deciding to find out for himself what the scent was, he took off in the direction where it seemed to becoming from. His thoughts wondered as he ran through the night. He was beginning to rejoice in the fact that he had been awoken from his slumber. He could see his Kagome again! He hadn't seen her since that battle with Naraku, and that didn't really count, considering it was a battle.

He though back to that memory disdainfully. He remembered doing a little bit here and there to help defeat him, but he also remembered that he was blacked out for the end of the fight. He had been critically hit by Kagura while attempting to attack Naraku. It had done him in. The only thing he knew about the end of the fight was that Naraku was supposedly destroyed. What became of his minions, he hadn't a clue. Inu Yasha probably played the hero once again. 'Damn him! It's great that Naraku's gone, but how the hell does he keep getting stronger? One day I'll get to him too...' He thought angrily. It was more himself that he was upset with. He was made to look weaker than that stupid half-demon right in front of Kagome. At the thought of her name he remembered something. He was the one who claimed her love, so nothing that mutt did mattered, and he missed his self-proclaimed 'mate'.

"Dog-breath better keep his hands off of you," he mumbled into the air while subconsciously speeding up his steps.

Back with the Gang

"Can we get moving again, it's not like I wanna sit around here all day," Inu Yasha complained while everyone else began to slowly get on their feet from their lunch break.

Miroku offered Sango a hand to help her get up. She just stared at his hand for a moment.

"Miroku," she began, then hesitated.

"What is it Sango?" He asked, his hand still offered to her for help.

"Why do you continue to where the beads over your hand even though your wind tunnel is gone?" She asked quickly, trying to act as though she wasn't nervous.

The monk looked at his hand for a moment, a smile coming to his face. "I guess it's just a habit, besides, it feels strange when it isn't there," Miroku explained before grabbing Sango's hand and pulling her onto her feet, causing her to come a little closer than appropriate to Miroku.

"Thank you," Sango said blushing slightly, looking anywhere but at the monk in front of her. She turned to see how everyone else was doing, when she felt that familiar annoyance.

"Lecherous monk!" She yelled out before slapping him on the side of the face so hard that she left a bright red hand mark on his cheek.

"Will you two hurry up?" Inu Yasha said grumpily.

"Let's get going," Sango said brusquely. Miroku just sighed, looking down at his hand. You did it again.

Kagome looked over at the rest of the group as she closed her bag. 'Well now Sango's mad, Inu Yasha is still in a hideous mood and here I am stuck in the middle. I need to go home for a few days.' Movement out of the corner of her eye stopped her thoughts. Shippo popped up from behind the rock he was resting against.

"Everyone is so unhappy today," Shippo said, stating the obvious as usual.

"I think everyone is just over tired," Kagome said brightly, trying to keep at least Shippo's moral up. She gave him a sympathetic smile and turned away. 'No sense in having every body in a bad mood. Besides, I'm not in a bad mood, I'm just not in a good mood. Wait! Wouldn't that mean I'm in a bad mood? What am I doing! I'm arguing with my self! I wish...'

Just then Inu Yasha popped up in front of her.

"You gonna walk on your own, or am I gonna have to carry you?" Inu Yasha asked his voice clearly agitated.

"Huh, why would you have to carry me?" Kagome asked confused. She looked around for some reason why Inu Yasha would be so angry. She saw nothing. That was just the problem, everyone had already started walking! Her argument with herself made her completely oblivious to everything going on around her.

"Come on let's go." Inu Yasha said tersely as he began to walk off in the direction the others must have went.

"I'm going insane..." Kagome mumbled as she jogged off after Inu Yasha.

Somewhere in the Forest

'I can feel his presence, he's coming closer. But what do I want? I...Never mind that. His group is with him, probably traveling back to Kaede. Could he have been the one to detour my soul snatcher? Surely not, I saw him escape Naraku with my own eyes. But the scent of my soul snatcher is coming from the same direction that he is...Confrontation cannot be avoided.'

With that thought she resumed her search. There was no way she could afford to lose a soul snatcher at a time like this. Her body was weakening already. Nothing made sense anymore.

On the way, on the path

"Sango, you're going to need to repair your hiraikotsu, right?" Kagome asked lightly.

"Yes, but first I want to visit Kaede. I have some things that I have to discuss with her," Sango answered hesitantly.

"So you're gonna leave after we get to Kaede's? We may have defeated Naraku but there are more jewel shards out there," Inu Yasha stated sternly. 'Just because Naraku is gone doesn't mean we're safe yet. The only way we would ever be completely safe is when the jewel was whole and...and what? That could be even worse, every demon would know where to find the shard with all that power in one place. Damn! Things were supposed to get easier once Naraku was gone!'

"Inu Yasha, I'm going home when we reach Kaede's," Kagome said matter-of-factly.

"What! You know there are still jewel shards that need to be found! We can't just stop now!" Inu Yasha yelled.

"Inu Yasha, we've been through a long battle, I think we should all take a break for a little while."Miroku added.

"Not you too! Fine! One week, that's all you get! We can't afford any more time!"

After his obvious close to the conversation, Inu Yasha marched to the front of the group, his arms folded over his chest.

"Well that went better than expected," Shippo said to Kagome, who put her finger over her lips, signaling him to be quiet.

"I can still hear you Shippo," Inu Yasha said from his position in front. Shippo covered his mouth with both hands and slowed down a bit, just to put some distance between a certain fist and his head.

"Calm down Inu Yasha. You've been pretty irritable lately." Kagome said in Shippo's defense.

"Feh."

"I swear, sometimes he can be so tiring," Kagome mumbled almost inaudibly. Giving a sigh at the end of her words. She closed her eyes for a moment, praying that she wouldn't get a headache.

She could hear a sudden gush of wind, it was familiar and really strong. It was also getting closer. 'I must be out of it...' Kagome thought as she opened her eyes to find Kouga standing right in front of her.

"Kagome." Kouga said as he grabbed her hands, coming close to her.

"Oh, Kouga! What a surprise!" She said brightly as she smiled. 'Great now Inu Yasha's gonna be even more upset.'

"What the hell are you doing here?" Inu Yasha growled.

"I came to see my woman, what else?" Kouga answered confidently.

"She is not your woman!" Inu Yasha yelled, very close to losing the remainder of his temper.

"Lighten up mutt-face, I was actually looking for the owner to a demon. I caught one trying to steal one of my allies' souls, but nothing can escape me. I finished it off, then I caught Kagome's scent and decided to drop in." Kouga informed them. "I'm glad you're alright though, you smell normal now. From far away there was something different about your scent." The second part was said only to Kagome and she raised an eyebrow at him. Before she could respond Inu Yasha cut in.

"Good so that means you can leave now?"

"Inu Yasha! He's only visiting, will you calm down!" Kagome said sternly.

"Sorry to interrupt," Inu Yasha said sarcastically glaring at her and Kouga still hand in hand. She noticed where his eyes had traveled too. She wished Kouga wouldn't grab her hands like that, but there really wasn't anything wrong with it.

But still, Inu Yasha knew her better that that. She looked furious now, she had removed her hands from Kouga's and they were now balled up into fists.

"What? You're ridiculous!"

"I'm ridiculous, you're the one cuddling' up with wolf boy!"

"Inu Yasha," Kagome took a breath, "sit boy."

Sure enough he went plunging to the ground headfirst. Kouga just stared at the two, slightly confused. They argued so much, but he just assumed that was to his benefit, he wouldn't have to worry about him and Kagome.

Shippo, Sango and Miroku just shook their heads. This always happened whenever Kouga was around. Some things never changed. Miroku then looked past the two into the forest, hoping that all this would be over soon and they could move onward.

From his spot in the dirt, Kagome could see Inu Yasha's ears perk up for a moment, then he jolted straight up.

"Kikyou..."

It barely even came out as a whisper, but just that one word seemed to express Inu Yasha's feelings, that tone was meant only for Kikyou. Kagome did hear it, and as much as it hurt her, she let her eyes follow his to a spot to the side of the road off in the trees. There stood Kikyou, glaring at them all.

"What are you doing here?" Inu Yasha asked remembering the battle with Naraku and how he had thought she had finally passed on. She's alive...

"Which one of you destroyed my soul snatcher?" She asked calmly.

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