They traveled for four more weeks with no luck on any jewel shards yet. Kagome still had not told inuyasha about them being mates. Everytime inuyasha would get angry or irritated, her tattoo would respond painfully. As long as he was calm, so was the tattoo. She had to keep from screaming out 'sit' everytime he said 'stay' without realizing what she was going through. Kagome held in her anger as she fell for the fifth time that day. Sango helped her up and looked at her in concern. "Are you okay kagome? You keep falling an awful lot today." Kagome sighed. "Im fine sango. Just clumsy i guess." Shippo poked his head out from Kagomes pack. "Can we take a break and go take a bath kagome?" Kagome smiled at him. "Of course shippo. Lets go." "Yay!" Shippo cheered as he lead the way. "No peeking miroku!" Kagome called out as she followed shippo. Miroku sighed. "You know inuyasha, she didn't tell YOU not to peek..." sango whapped him with hirakotsu in irritation. "Stop houshi-sama. Something is wrong with kagome and you know it." Miroku sighed in concern and nodded. "Yes. Everytime she falls, i sense a demonic presence within her." "And you're just NOW telling us this?" Inuyasha growled. "What if it is controlling her or hurting her?" Miroku frowned at him. "If it was like that, i would have told you immediately. The presence is protective of her. It is familiar to me, but i cant place it. She is always rubbing her hip when she thinks we aren't looking. Right where the shikon jewel was ripped from her hip. I have tried to ask her about it, but she becomes flustered and very evasive. I cant get her to talk about it." Inuyasha sighed in concern. What the hell was kagome hiding, and why wouldn't she talk to him about it? Didn't she know he would always protect her no matter what?
Kagome sighed as she and shippo swam in the hotsprings. She felt like she was forgetting something, but she didn't know what it was. She shrugged to herself and relaxed in the water. She closed her eyes for a moment before bolting upright and leaping out of the water, running to her backpack, searching for the things she had forgotten. Her body began to shake as she stared at her bag and counted backwards. One, two three, four, five...five days...it still wasn't here yet. It was always here on time. Unless...She dove back into her bag, grabbing the item her mom had placed in there as a joke. Well it seemed the joke was on her now... "ill be right back shippo!" Kagome shouted as she ran a short way away and used it. She placed it on the ground and paced back and forth. This object now had the power to change her life forever.