Kagome woke up at the crack of dawn the next, she don't know why but she had the strangest feeling that she was being watched while she slept; Kiya had been long gone since she felt Kagomes aura become disturbed and saw that she was stirring in her sleep a few hours before sun rise. So when she woke she immediately flared her aura to see if anything was close by but to her relief and disappointment the area was clean, she was hoping for a good fight to alleviate some tension. So stretching a bit to wake her muscles she scratching her back while yawning then went to grab her stuff to do her morning ritual.
After her morning prep she put on the same attire she had on yesterday "might as well wear these again since I didn't do anything but yell yesterday." She thought while changing. Tying her kantana to her side Kagome grabbed her pack and headed off continuing her journey, since she became more advanced in her miko abilities she could sense jewel shards further away, so she headed west as she felt a jewel moving in the direction.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Back at Kaede's hut Inuyasha was the first one up, but didn't make any noise for he was too busy thinking about yesterday. "Kagome didn't feel sad about anything that happened yesterday like she normally is about things like that… all she did was yell angrily… she just acted so out of character." He thought, then came another right after that one, "Why was that woman Kiya trying to keep me away from her? And what did she mean by 'start a new life'? … If Kiya was alive for as long as she says she was maybe she knew my old man, she said that she knew those of royal status! … I don't know!!! … I just don't know!" Thought Inuyasha and he sighed lightly and put his chin on the crown of Kikyo's head. "She brought Kikyo back to life… but did she do that on her own or did the gods make her do it? … What was their purpose in bringing her back?" Inuyasha squeezed his eyes shut; all this thinking was starting to give him a serious headache.
"Inuyasha are you well, I'm getting disturbing vibes off of you." Kikyo asked in a bored emotionless voice, she was awake but her eyes were closed.
"Hm? … Oh yea I'm fine just thinking is all." He replied a little waverie after he registered what she said. He wasn't paying attention at first, his thoughts still haunting his brain.
"What were you thinking about Inuyasha?" Miroku chimed into the conversation after sitting up to look at him.
"Just Kagome and how she reacted to everything… Oh and a conversation I had with the woman that brought Kikyo back to life." He said with a shrug as if it were nothing and started nuzzling Kikyo's head.
"Inuyasha you spoke to the woman you spoke to the woman that gave me life?" Kikyo questioned pulling her head away from him to look at his face the best she could in her position.
"Well…" He started but Kaede quickly cut him off.
"Inuyasha ye must tell us what she said." Kaede said after hearing some of the conversation, that's when she cut him off. Then Sango sat up a moment later to listen in, she stayed quiet most of the time she wasn't in the mood to talk.
"Alright I'll tell ya now will ya get off my back!!!" he yelled lifting Kikyo and setting her next to him so he could think clearly while he talked. "Firstly, she told me I wouldn't find Kagome when I went looking for her yesterday cuss she's been covering her scent. Secondly, she's the most powerful miko youkai in the lands of Japan. Thirdly, she said she's an inu youkai and that she's like some kind of worker for the kamis." After he said this he stopped for a moment trying to think of what else she said, he never was good at repeating what people said, nor was he good at soaking up a lot of information in one sitting.
"Inuyasha before ye continue did the woman give you a name?" asked Kaede as she passed around cups of hot tea.
"Yea she said her name was Kiya!" he exclaimed happily, happy that he remembered her name. But after he said her name gasps were heard from Kaede, Miroku and even Sango.
"Inuyasha are you sure she said her name was Kiya? The living god! Not only a god but a legend!" Miroku questioned to confirm that he was hearing him right to make sure that this was indeed the same Kiya that they were talking about, Inuyasha only nodded his head the positive for his answer.
"Not only a god Miroku but the very first and only miko youkai around." Sango finally spoke.
"Hai this may be the woman that Kagome is to turn to for further training." Kaede said rubbing her chin between her thumb and index finger looking into the fire. Everyone turned their gaze toward Kaede for further explanation.
"What do you mean Kaede?" Asked Sango
"What I mean is Kagome's miko powers probably rivals that of a gods and who better than to train her than a miko youkai who is in fact a god." She said
"What do you all know about her anyway?" Shouted Inuyasha from his corner with a scowl on his face, he didn't like it when other people knew something he didn't.
"Inuyasha miko's, monk's… and apparently demon slayers secretly looked up to Kiya because of her great spiritual power. We wanted to be like her, just as others wanted to be like Midoriko. Kiya is a noble, honorable being she would not cause harm unless necessary. Though I am puzzled as to why the demon slayers would look up to such a being since their living is to eliminate those of her kind." She said shifting her gaze to Sango.
"Yea Sango, Why would the demon slayers look up to someone their trained to kill?" Inuyasha asked narrowing his eyes at her.
Sighing Sango rested her chin atop her knees and looked into the fire watching the flames caress one another for a while before she spoke.
"We looked up to her for many things really. Her honorable nature, her ways in fighting combat alone when she's up against thirty enemies or more, her strength, her sincerity, we saw her past the power that everyone sees her for. Kiya is one of her own kind, though she is youkai she couldn't live among them for she poses a threat for her power and she couldn't live among humans because she's youkai. She has no place among us there for she made one for herself. She is a lone being she is no ones ally nor is she anyone's foe. She helps those who are in trouble when she's there to help, just as Midoriko did when she saved human from the demons. We looked up to her because she is an individual who help no matter who the person was, a child, a grown up, a thief, an elder it didn't matter who, she would always help. But we only knew her as a past legend, and great warrior, someone who died with honor like Midoriko we didn't know she was still alive." Explained Sango then drank her tea greedily to refresh her throat. All the abuse it's had the past couple days' talking wasn't in her favor.
"The monks thought her a legend also!" Miroku said resting his head on his hand.
"We thought her dead many years ago too. This means she has lived for many centuries, a very long life." Exclaimed Kaede
"That reminds me, she said that she couldn't die." Inuyasha practically yelled.
"What do you mean Inuyasha?" asked Miroku
"When we were talking and she was getting me all aggravated and stuff I was gonna cut her down with Tetsusaiga, she put her hand up to stop me and said 'you cannot kill what cannot die.'" He repeated her quote sarcastically.
"If that is true the kamis must have made her so… So she truly does work for them. Did she tell you how she assists the gods Inuyasha?" asked Kaede
"Yea she said when they want something done they send her to do it for them." He said mentally patting himself on the back; he was starting to get good at this remembering stuff.
"If that is so then there must be a reason they wanted Kikyo back to life other than just her honesty to Inuyasha, there must be another reason."
"What are you talkin' about you old hag!!!" Inuyasha snapped leaning forward with his hands on both knees.
"Inuyasha do you think the kamis would give a gift to every being that confessed to their wrong doing." Sighed Miroku answering for Kaede.
Blinking a couple times, "Well… no… but what would they want with Kikyo?" he asked settling back into his corner starting to fidget from his irritated ness.
"Inuyasha that is a question I've not an answer for." Said Kaede taking a sip of tea.
For the rest of the morning they sat in a comfortable silence had something to eat then packed up and headed out mid afternoon to start their travels looking for the remainder of the jewel shards.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
In the forest Kagome felt like she was walking circles. "This demons playing with me I know I've seen that tree before… ugh this is getting frustrating." "I know you're out there, so why don't you just show yourself and give me the jewel shard and I'll spare your life." She said putting her hands on her hips looking around. She could feel him coming, just a low class youkai no big deal. She heard shuffling of feet then nothing. Then a low chuckle emitted from the being, the vial noise echoing all around her making it hard to pin point where he was. Silence once again came to the clearing; pulling her kantana out and transferring her power to the blade she took a stance ready for anything that would come at her.
"Pathetic human, you think that worthless excuse for a sword will bring harm to me. Hahahaha, you give me your jewel shards and maybe I'll spare your life." The youkai came out of the shadows and stood five feet away from Kagome scanning her curvy form with his eyes. "Better yet maybe I'll just take you and the shards and you can be my bride." He said with a smug look.
Kagome on the other hand wanted to puke at the way he was looking at her, not that he was ugly he was quite attractive; a few inches taller than Inuyasha muscular and tan he had golden brown hair that went to his mid back and bangs that ended at the top of his eyes that cut straight across a low class bear youkai who thought he was hot stuff and was only able to take that human form because of the jewel shard in his forehead. But what he didn't know was that Kagome was still peeved from yesterday and was in NO mood to be wooed by some cocky ass demon.
"HA. As if I would go with some one like you, you six foot yoo-hoo." She snorted then said in a threatening and stern voice, "Now I'm gonna ask you one last time. Give. Me. The. Jewel. Shard."
The demon didn't know what this yoo-hoo was, but he didn't like the way she was defying him so in lightning speed he had Kagome by the throat feet dangling two feet of the ground and slammed her back against a tree making her cry out in pain. "You will listen to me bitch I will take the jewel shards and become ruler of the land and your going to be my bride and stand by my side and watch everyone bow to me, and you will not defy me again." He hissed tightening his grip causing her to gasp for air for it was getting harder to breath. She put her hands on his chest to try and push him off but her strength was long forgotten because she was too busy trying to get air into her lungs, but mustered up enough air to spit in his face. "Over my dead body you prick." She hissed mustering up some more air.
"You will submit to me!" he shouted then slammed her into the tree again making her howl in pain once more.
Off in the distance the Western lord was scouting his land when he heard a familiar voice howl in pain. "Hn." So he redirected his line of travel and headed towards the stress call.
The demon still had Kagome hanging in the air with his one hand and started to roam her body with his free hand. "My, my your delicious." He said trailing his hand up her right pant clad thigh with his claws slicing through the material to her pants into her skin about three or four inches making her ooze blood while kissing and sucking her neck. "Get… off… MEEEE." She shrieked on the last word as she fell to the ground on her butt, for a white light went by so fact and took her captor with it leaving blood and limbs splattered everywhere.
"Uhh… what just happened?" she asked herself then hissed in pain as it traveled up and down her whole right leg. She covered her mouth with her hand at the sight she saw, her right leg was a bloody mess and was still gushing out blood. When she went to move it a string of pain shot right through her leg. "Just my luck I get some crazed demon that wants me to be his bride and slices my leg to bits to make me submit to him… ugh… what else could go wrong…" while she was mentally scolding herself, Sesshoumaru came back flicking his hand to get rid of the access blood. Stopping three feet away from Kagome he noticed she was deep in thought, "Miko." His voice was deep, smooth, and cold.
Looking up Kagome saw Sesshoumaru standing there just staring at her with no emotion on his face. "Great now I have him to deal with." "Hey you, what's up?" She breathed and cringing in pain as she got hit with another wave of it.
Narrowing his eyes, he had to suppress the urge to growl at her. "How dare she refer to this Sesshoumaru as a 'you'." "Miko you will address this Sesshoumaru as Lord Sesshoumaru not you." His words were cold and hard and left no room for argument.
"Where is the half-breed, are you not traveling with him?" he asked with his icy façade.
"Nope! Just me, myself and I; Inuyasha mated that dead bitch. His appearance makes me sick and I refuse to travel with him." She said crossing her arms and bit the inside of her mouth because of the pain. Sensing her pain in waves Sesshoumaru just raised one elegant eyebrow, "Why would the miko bite back the pain she feels. She is human she should whine like one." "Hm. Miko you have three days to leave my lands, if not gone I will rid you myself." And with that he turned to leave.
"HEY… I ain't going anywhere anytime soon with my leg like this. Do you hear me." She yelled after him.
He stopped in his tracks and turned his head to peer at her from the corner of his eye, "Do what you must you have three days." Turning his head back he continued on his way with a smirk on his face, he liked it when she got a riled up it proved to be quite amusing to the great Taiyoukai. "Miko you will have three days and only three days… Inuyasha you fool mate a dead one when you could have one so alive and with fire." Thought Sesshoumaru and then he shook his head and scowled at the thoughts he just had of the miko. He decided he would examine why he had such thoughts when he got back to the palace.
"What a jerk! Just leaves me here in a bloody heap, wouldn't even carry me to a stream so I could clean my wounds… Yea right Kagome get a grip, Sesshoumaru the great stick up the ass western lord carry what he despises the most. HA. When hell freezes over, and he probably wouldn't even do it then." Thought Kagome with a scowl on her face.
While Kagome muttered about 'Damn dog demons and their pride' she ripped three strips of her pants and braided them and put it in her mouth and then army crawled over to her sword and pack while her jaw was busy clamping down on the material because the pain was shooting everywhere in her leg. Breathing heavily Kagome put her pack on her back then sat up with a scream and tied her sword to her side. Sitting for a while her vision started to get blurry and felt like she started to see things, "Alright is it just me or is there a woman standing there… no I think I'm hallucinating, that's right I'm going crazy…" as Kagome was arguing with herself the woman started to get closer causing Kagome to stretch her head back to get away from the figure since her body was no use she thought she could at least get her head away. The last thing Kagome saw was the woman kneeling down in front of her and her hands were coming at her person, then she saw black.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
As Kagome blacked out Kiya grabbed the shoulder strap to Kagomes pack to keep her from falling. Lightly sighing she took off Kagomes backpack and gently laid her on the ground, removing her sword Kiya grabbed the pack and took both items to a near by bolder. After she did that she opened the flap to the backpack and looked for the cloth she saw Kagome bring back to camp the other night after her bath. "Ahh." Stuffing the rag in her boot she went back to Kagome and lifted her into her arms bridal style with great care and walked to a near by stream.
Setting her down by the water carefully, Kiya cut Kagome's pant leg right above the five gashed in her right leg with her claws and started to pull the tattered material off when she hit Kagome's boot, looking at the object interfering with her task, "Such strange footwear, just look at all those ties… Hmm, I've no idea how to take it off." So Kiya pulled the material back up Kagomes leg and cut it down the side then pulled it out from under her leg. Taking the rag out from the top of her boot Kiya dipped it in the cool water and started to clean Kagome's wounds.
After Kagome's leg was all cleaned up, Kiya called for her firepower to heat up her hand. Placing her hand over the wounds you could hear the open flesh and skin singe under the intense heat for her hand was as hot as fire, taking her hand off after a moment Kiya watched as the infection that was starting to form slowly fade away. "That should stop the bleeding and keep it from getting infected anymore until I stitch it shut." She said to an unconscious Kagome, and picked her up bridal style once more and walked back to where Kagome's backpack and sword was. Setting her down Kiya flared her aura and let it stay to let anyone who was about know that she was around and close by, she say out to gather some wood for a fire.
Coming back a while later arms full of wood, Kiya dropped the wood to the ground and started to place them properly so she could build a fire. When she was done placing the wood she shot fire from her index and middle fingertips setting the wood ablaze. With a satisfied nod of her head her next task is to close Kagome's leg wounds, so walking over to the pack Kiya started her search. After many weird bottles and odd clothing's later she came upon a little white box with a red cross on it, "Hmm, I wonder if this has anything useful in it?" So Kiya opened the little box and found many strange tubes and clear things with objects in them, crimson red eyes landing on an of white roll of cloth that was labeled GAUZE she took it out of the box and looked at it, "What is g-au-ze?" she questioned saying it like a foreign language, shrugging she set it to the side deciding she'd use that to cover Kagome's leg after she closed the wounds.
Looking back into the box she found a needle and skinny string on a spool, "these should do!" taking the needle over to the fire she place it over a rock setting in the middle of the hot flames to sterilize it. Once the needle was clean she threaded it and went to work on Kagomes wounds. "Your more trouble than a mischievous pup little miko." Kiya said in a calming tone as she put the last stitch on Kagome's leg. Grabbing the gauze she lifted Kagome's leg and put a large rock under it to suspend it so she could cover the wounds properly.
After that was finished it was sun down so Kiya got up and grabbed Kagome's strange bedding and opened the flappy part then went to Kagome picked her up careful not to tear her stitches and gently slipped her inside her portable cocoon and pulled the flappy part up to rest under her chin. "I will be here when you wake for your training will begin very soon. Though I wasn't expecting you to meet me like this I was planning on making quite the entrance…" she smiled "Seems that you beat me to punch, so this is how we must meet." She said then stood up and walked over to the tainted jewel shard on the ground "Hmm" bending over and picking it up she examined it and watched as it grew even more tainted, "Even with the strongest miko powers in the world you still choose to be tainted because I am youkai…" turning to Kagome she smiled softly "It stays true to you little miko, even one as powerful as I cannot purify the jewel." "You truly are a special one." She said walking back over to Kagome she kneeled down beside her and grabbed the little bottle that holds the other shards hanging around Kagomes neck and opened it and put the tainted shard with the others. "You have many obstacles to go over Kagome, being heart broken and leaving Inuyasha was only your first step, but in the end everything will turn out just fine." She said and put the cork back in the bottle and watched as the shard purified. "Don't even have to be conscious to do it eh?" she chuckled and walked over and put everything she took out of Kagome's backpack back in it and closed it, then settled down by the fire keeping an eye out for any intruders.
"It seems I need to pay Sesshoumaru a visit, his scent is all over this place… He should get to his palace within three days so I shall leave by that time… Kagome will have to make due while I'm gone." Thought Kiya, but what she didn't know was Sesshoumaru gave Kagome three days to leave the Western Lands.
