Kagome was dumped roughly on her butt in the middle of a large hut. She grunted as she hit, casting daggers at her captor with her eyes. The man apologised, and knelt before her, carefully untying the gag around her mouth.
"Where am I?" Kagome instantly demanded, "What do you think you're doing? What's going on?"
"Please, miss, don't yell-"
"I'll yell all I want to, thank you very much!" Kagome hollared, right in the man's face, "Ive been tied up and dragged off with some stranger! I have a right to yell!"
Kagome was started to see the man actually wince, drawing back, as if he expected her to somehow get free and attack him.
"Please, take it easy. I told you, you won't be hurt at all!"
"Why was I brought here!?"
"She wanted to meet you, is all."
"Who's "she"? And if she wanted to meet me, why didn't she just ask!?"
"So," came a new voice, "This is her?"
Kagome looked over her shoulder to see a woman walk into the room, looking down at her with curiosity.
Kagome blinked.
The young woman was obviously a hanyou, like InuYasha. Her eyes were a dark green, and her hair was pale blue. At the edges of her ears were what looked like little fringes that reminded Kagome of the feathery gills some fragile sea creatures had.
Half-demon. Some sort of ocean demon, I would guess...
She was, in fact, rather lovely. Except Kagome really didn't like the way the woman was looking at her, looking her over like she was the oddity.
"You are Kagome, yes?"
"That's right..." Kagome turned back to the man as he suddenly cut the binds that held her wrists, and started on the ones on her legs, untying the bolo straps. Kagome rubbed her wrists, and looked back at the woman, "Are you the one who wanted to meet me?"
"That's right. Hmmm. You're not all that much to look at."
Kagome blinked, "Hey!"
The woman looked over to a table, where Kagome's sword lay, "You use a sword. And a bow?"
"That's right...who are you? Why was I brought here? Why did you lie about some demon attack-"
The hanyou woman turned back to Kagome, cutting her off, "Were your hands hurt in the struggle?"
"My..no.."
"Good. Can you stand?"
"Uhh..." nervously, Kagome stood, looking around at the two people in the hut with her.
The hanyou woman suddenly grinned brightly, "Excellent! Now, let's go outside. The targets are waiting."
Targets?
Kagome moved towards the table where her sword was lying, expecting to be attacked at any moment, or at least be prevented from getting her weapon. She was therefore surprised when they waited for her to pick up her sword.
Kagome turned to them, watching warily, holding her sword tightly. But they made no move to stop her, and so she sheathed her sword, for now, and followed them outside.
She blinked in surprise.
"What on earth....?"
Just outside the hut, the sun was shining brightly, and the air was still. Birds called in the distance. It was a beautiful day. They were standing on the edge of a clearing, the ground swept free of any debris. A fence encircled the clearing, painted white.
At one end of the rectangular clearing, stood 5 bags of sand, each with a large bullseye painted on it in red. They were perched up on top of barrels. At various distances on the ground, were brightly painted stones, evenly spaced from the targets to the opposite end of the field. At the distant end, stood a rack of many bows, and several quivers of arrows.
The man who had grabbed Kagome walked beside her, watching her nervously, making sure she wasn't limping or anything. Kagome began to get the distinct impression that he was somehow submissive to the woman.
The woman turned, and regarded Kagome closely, "I suppose you're wondering why you're here?"
"Yeah, I already asked that!"
The woman smiled, "I am called Emi of the Bow. I am unbeatable in archery, the best these lands have seen. I have heard that you are....talented....with a bow as well, and so I had you brought here. Now we will see which of us is better. Although just looking at you, I think I have nothing to worry about. You're not even that attractive, now that I see you in sunlight."
Kagome blinked, "You had....you kidnapped me for some stupid archery?"
Emi frowned prettily, "'Stupid' archery? Are you certain you're Kagome?"
"Yes I'm Kagome! I can't believe you did this! What about the demon attacking the village? Was that all made up?"
"Oh no, not at all. There's a small demon around here that's been trying to get up the nerve to attack my village. I'm sure it probably found the courage it needed by now, and should be attacking. I just wanted a diversion for your friends."
"How do you even know about us? What village?"
Emi sighed, annoyed, "You all came to my village earlier to get water, remember?"
"Oh...that village."
"Correct."
"Then why are we out here?"
Emi smiled again, "This is my personal archery training grounds. Do you like it? I built it myself, over a few years, clearing out the area, putting in the fence....I spend most of my time out here."
Kagome turned to the man, frowning, "And you? What's your part in all this?"
The man looked apologetically at Kagome, "I...I'm Jinto. I'm sorry, miss, I really didn't want to-"
"Jinto's sort of my...slave. Sort of."
"Emi saved my life once," Jinto spoke gently, his voice growing warmer, "And I swore to be as her vassal for anything she wanted of me. I...I'm sorry if I hurt you, or-"
"Oh Jinto, be quiet! She's obviously not hurt...." Emi seemed to be looking Kagome over very closely.
Kagome looked back at Emi, and crossed her arms. She felt oddly defensive, "Look, I have more important things to do than stand around here shooting arrows! My friends are out there chasing after a demon!"
"My dear, nothing is more important than archery."
That's why you have only one friend, Kagome thought savagely, And he's apparently a slave, at that.
"My friends are!" Kagome snapped, and turned on her heels, and marched down over the steps, "I'm leaving."
Emi smiled coldly, "You can't leave."
"Just watch me!" Kagome yelled over her shoulder.
Kagome walked towards the fence, and was about to pass it, when a faint light blue shimmering light sprang up around her. Blinking, Kagome put out her hand, to feel some sort of barrier around her. She turned, and saw the barrier was around the entire archery field.
"You let me out of here right now!"
"No can do, my dear."
"So you're some sort of Priestess too?"
"No, not at all. Jinto, however, has power with such things."
Kagome shot the young man a glance filled with venom, and Jinto shrank back.
"Now then, shall we begin?" Emi walked down over the steps, and towards the rack, where the bows were standing. She picked out one she was familiar with, and an arrow, and turned to regard Kagome.
Kagome balled her hands into fists, "I am not doing this! My friends are fighting a demon!"
"Oh poo, it's a small demon. The hanyou can handle it, don't worry. I didn't want to kill anyone, just make sure you wouldn't run away."
"Look, I don't like just leavin - run away? Now hold on!"
"That's right. And from what I'm seeing, I'm glad I did. You obviously know you're in the presence of your superior, and you're afraid to compete against me." Emi looked Kagome over again, "In both skill and appearance! Why don't you just admit defeat right now, and we can be done with it?"
Kagome simmered. She was getting rather tired of being told she had no skill with the bow, and that she wasn't nice looking...what one had to do with the other she had no idea, but she was starting a slow burn.
Just give the stupid cow what she wants and be done.
"Fine. You're better at archery than I am. Now lower the shield so I can go."
Emi's pretty face scowled, "You're not doing it right!"
"What, now I'm not giving in good enough for you!?"
"You're supposed to mean it! I can tell by your voice you don't really think that! Say it right!"
Kagome started to grow red in the face, "You're crazy, you know that? You dragged me here and now you won't let me go? I'm tired of this! I want to go find my friends! Put down your shield!"
"No!"
Kagome turned towards Jinto, and started walking towards him, "If you don't lower that shield right now, so help me!"
Jinto, alarmed, turned and ran to hide behind Emi.
"I challenged you to a contest!" Emi yelled, "You have to accept it!"
"Forget it!"
"I knew it!" Emi yelled, "You're not as good as I am with the bow, and you're not cuter than I am!"
"Will you shut up!?" Kagome hollared back, "I never said I was!"
"He did! He insulted me!"
"Who did!?"
"That hanyou!"
Kagome stopped, confused, "Wait...what? InuYasha?"
"The hanyou in crimson!"
"That's InuYasha...you were talking to him?"
Emi huffed, crossing her arms, "He came over to me while I was practicing in the village, and we started talking. He's very attractive...and I thought he had heard of me, Emi of the Bow. So I started talking to him...he said he never heard of me."
Kagome just listened.
"So I told him I was the most skilled archer in the lands. And he had the nerve to tell me I wasn't!"
"That soun-"
"He told me that someone named Kagome was a much better archer than I was! Said she had more skill, and was more talented at it! Said she was cuter than me, too!"
Kagome suddenly seemed to have lost her voice.
Emi shot Kagome a hate-filled glance, "You can't be the same Kagome! You refuse to fight me! You can't have any skills! And you're not cuter than I am! You're not!"
A hot flush crept up Kagome's neck, taking over her face, "L-Look, I...uh..."
InuYasha..said that? About me?
"Now," Emi said firmly, "We are going to have the contest, and that is that. Choose your bow and let's be done with this!"
Feeling strange, Kagome walked to the rack, and picked up a bow.
She felt like she was moving in slow motion, her thoughts and mind a whirl. InuYasha was bragging about her? He was...
She suddenly saw his face again, as they were walking back from the village. How smug he had looked. How oddly happy, pleased with himself.
A small part of her was annoyed...now she was stuck with this crazy person....but she was more...touched.
He was...bragging. Over me. Bragging.
Kagome looked down at the bow in her hand, lost in thought. InuYasha had never bragged over her before. He had been boasting over her skills with the bow.
He said I was skilled with the bow. More skilled than she was. He said I....he said I was cute...
Her heart was pounding.
Emi's voice cut off her thoughts, "Well, are you ready or not? I'm waiting!"
Kagome suddenly blinked, and anger swept over her. She spun around to face Emi.
"No, I'm not, and I'm not doing this! I already told you!" Kagome threw down the bow. Right now she was more intent on finding her friends, making sure they were ok. She had only picked up the bow in the first place because her mind had started wandering all over the place.
"You're not getting out of this! Pick up that bow and draw!"
"Make me!" Kagome hollared.
"Kagome!"
She turned, suddenly startled to hear a different voice, and blinked to see InuYasha, walking towards them. Before Kagome could even warn him about the barrier, the hanyou walked easily through it towards them. His eyes were watchful as he took in Emi and Jinto, and he moved towards Kagome.
"What's going on here?" he asked her, "Miroku, Sango and I went to fight this big, dangerous demon, and it was some wimpy little thing. I thought you guys were going back to the village to help?"
I guess demons and half-demons can get through that barrier, Kagome thought to herself, And humans can't. Odd.
"Yeah, well, I was sort of kidnapped," Kagome said hotly.
InuYasha blinked, and turned towards Jinto, his hand moving towards his sword, "What?"
"Easy, easy!" Jinto said quickly, moving his hands in a placating manner, "It wasn't really a kidnapping! Emi just really needed to talk to her, that's all! So I...made up the story about the big demon..."
InuYasha snorted, annoyed, "What the hell was so important you had to drag her here alone?" He eyed Jinto with a hard glare.
Emi interrupted them, pointing straight at Kagome, "This can't be the person you were telling me about!"
"What?" InuYasha turned his attention back to Emi, "Yeah she is."
"Hah! She's not interested in archery at all! She called it stupid! And she certainly is not cuter than I am!"
"Hold on," InuYasha spoke, growing angry, "You dragged her here for some archery-thing?"
"A contest, you fool!" Emi said, her lovely face red with anger, "And she won't do it!"
"I told you!" Kagome yelled, "I wanted to find my friends! That was more important!"
"Nothing is more important than archery!"
"You're hopeless!" Kagome yelled back.
"Let me show you something," Emi said, and walked towards the rack of bows. She picked one up, and grabbed a bow. She moved to the farthest shooting point, and took aim. After not even a second, she released the arrow. It hummed across the space, and embedded itself perfectly in the very center of the target. She turned, grinning.
"There, you see? That is pure skill. She has nothing. She has no skill like that."
Kagome was about to speak, when InuYasha stepped forward, walking towards Emi, his arms crossed.
"Oh please. You call that skill? The sun is shining, there's no wind. The target's not moving. You can take your time, you're not running for your life, or in the middle of battle. You've got the best of all situations.
I've seen Kagome in the pouring rain and wind, with a moving target, one that's usually trying to kill her, and she only has a certain amount of time, and she still manages to hit perfectly! Don't make me laugh. You, skill? Hah!"
Emi was practically quivering with anger. She turned to Kagome, and pointed at the target, "Shoot! NOW!"
Kagome had been staring at InuYasha's back, shocked speechless. He had never been so supportive of her ability before....and had never come to her verbal defense so fast. She found she didn't have anything to say, and for a second, she wasn't sure her voice would even work.
InuYasha looked over his shoulder at Kagome, and suddenly saw her face. His own bloomed red at her shocked expression, but he said and did nothing, just waited for her lead. He would follow her decision.
Now, looking at Emi, anger swept through her. She was annoying the living hell out of her. She was a whining, spoiled child who was screaming, "Not fair!" when Kagome refused to play along.
Fine.
InuYasha blinked. He had seen that expression before.
Kagome marched over to the rack again, and picked up a bow, and picked up a quiver. She slid the quiver on her back. Everything felt heightened to her, she could feel the breeze on her face, could hear the birds chirping a distance away, and knew her anger was putting her into her zone.
"Need more than one, hmm?" Emi grinned, "Expecting on making mistakes?"
Kagome said nothing. She felt Emi and Jinto's eyes on her, and stronger, felt InuYasha's. And she was suddenly aware she did not want to fail this. Not in front of him. He had bragged about her, had boasted over her, and she didn't want to let him down.
Would not let him down.
Kagome slid an arrow from the quiver, and took aim. The peaceful feeling washed over her, the one that told her she was one with her bow, and she released.
She took another arrow, and released. And another, and released.
Four times she did this, quickly taking an arrow, taking aim, and releasing, feeling the skill flowing through her, feeling as if she were guiding the arrows with her own heart. And in a way she was.
After releasing the fourth arrow, she lowered the bow, and looked at Emi.
The female hanyou was staring at the target with an open mouth, shocked.
Emi's arrow was completely encircled by Kagome's arrows. One above, one below, and one on each side. Kagome's four and Emi's five made a perfect cross.
InuYasha spoke, his voice gleeful, "That's skill."
Kagome kept her eyes from InuYasha's face - for some reason she didn't think she could make eye contact with him right now...she was feeling oddly euphoric, but a small part of her knew she shouldn't make eye contact. Not right now.
She put the bow back on the rack, slipped the quiver from her shoulder and placed it next to the bow, and turned to Jinto.
"Put. Down. The. Barrier.
Now."
Blinking, Jinto turned, and made some strange motions with his hands. The pale blue light flickered, and vanished.
Kagome turned on her heel, and walked from the clearing.
InuYasha watched her go, pride warm in his chest. He had known she could do it, but Kagome often doubted her own skills. Jinto watched Emi nervously, but the female hanyou just watched Kagome, silent, shocked. She had been neatly, and perfectly, beaten.
InuYasha looked back at Emi, and grinned.
"And she is cuter than you."
Kagome walked along the path, feeling almost chilled, the way she often did when she came out of her zone. It was hard to explain, but she always felt so in tune with the bow. It was like something else took a hold of her, and guided her. At first she had thought it was Kikyo's presence, but now...now she knew better. Izumi had explained the truth to her, and Kagome no longer felt like Kikyo's leftover. She had her own skills, her own powers. And as always, when they left her, she felt sort of chilly.
"Hey, wait up!"
She turned to see him running along the path behind her, long silvery hair trailing behind him. He was grinning.
He caught up to her, still grinning at her, "You should have stuck around, you missed her face!"
"Uh...yeah..."
Kagome suddenly turned, walking along the path again.
"You ok?" he asked, concerned, falling into place alongside her.
"Oh..yeah, just...you know...we should catch up with Miroku and Sango."
Kagome kept her gaze on the forest path. She was afraid to look up. At his face. In his eyes.
"...He said she had more skill, and was more talented at it! Said she was cuter, too!"
"..That's skill."
She wanted to take his hand.
Kagome balled her hands into fists, alarmed at how badly she wanted to slip her hand into his. To look in his eyes. Those golden eyes.
No. I can't do this again. I can't. I won't.
"Will you cheer up? Gods, Kagome!"
Blinking, startled from her thoughts, she looked up at him. He was walking beside her, watching her closely, a slight hint of annoyance in his eyes.
"InuYasha?"
"Cheer up! You should be excited!"
"Why-"
"Kagome! You just had your first challenge, and you passed it!"
"My..."
"Someone wanted to challenge you, and you won! You defeated them! Why are you looking so upset?"
Kagome blinked. She realized that in his world, he was always being challenged. And always worried he would fail. So he was excited for her. That she had passed her first challenge!
"You're right!" she blinked, and smiled, "I was challenged, and I won! I beat her!"
Kagome threw her arms in the air, "I beat her!"
"You massacred her!" InuYasha smiled at her.
"I cleaned her clock!"
"You totally...huh?"
Kagome giggled at his expression, "It means I beat her."
"Oh! Yeah, you cleaned her clock!"
Kagome giggled again.
They walked together, smiling at each other. Kagome could feel his happiness, his pride in her.
InuYasha.
"Kagome!"
Up ahead, Miroku and Sango, waiting for them.
Kagome laughed, and started running, "Guys! You'll never guess what!"
END
