A/N: Hello again my lovely readers. First, a big thank you to EasilyAmused93 for joining the fave-family. Welcome, welcome. And a big thank you to those who have my story on their Alert-list.

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha: this series and all of its wonderful (and gruesome) characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. I do, however, own Aiko and her background story, and plausible other OCs that may appear throughout this series (I've not completed writing this story as of yet).

Without further ado, here's the newest chapter. Enjoy.

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Chapter 4 - Invisible Strings

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Yura's wakizashi flew up from the bottom of the well, which she easily caught when it was within reach.

"La…?" Yura then said once more, looking confused down at the bottom of the well.

"She's … gone …?" Yura muttered in her disgustingly sweet voice.

"You don't have to say that twice!" I sneered menacingly at her as I stood in an attack position.

Yura glanced over at me and tilted her head slightly to the side, looking confusedly.

"La…?" was all she said as she jumped up into the air once more, her wakizashi secured in her hand.

"You heard me! She's gone because of you!"

I felt a maddening anger in me, and I was purely intent on using my wrath against her. Something shifted within me as I glared menacingly up at the mononoke. I felt so furious; she was the reason that Kagome was gone! I was alone now…

"La… don't be so sad … you'll join her soon enough," she said with her nauseatingly sweet voice.

Then she attacked me … and I saw red.

I didn't have any control over what happened next, and I could only remember swinging Ōginsairensā at her. Then everything went black.

~oOo~

When I came to myself once more, I was kneeling in front of Kagome's school uniform. They were still lying beside the well, forgotten when we were attacked by Yura. Tears were gently streaming down my pale cheeks as I missed Kagome. She was gone …

But was she really gone … like … dead?

No.

I was pretty sure that she was alive. I had a feeling that she had ended up getting home.

Home, I thought forlornly.

I was stranded in this time. Somehow, I knew that I couldn't use the well to get back to her. She was my ticket back to the present.

No, I couldn't give up. I had to get to her! With determination, I stood up and climbed up onto the rim of the well. I glanced down at the darkened earthy ground at the bottom of the well.

"Here goes nothing," I muttered to myself.

I jumped. My borrowed clothes billowed around me with the pressured wind as gravity stepped into the equation. I was willingly jumping into the well. The ground came closer… and closer… and…

I reached the bottom, but nothing exceptional happened.

My eyes shifted up to the top of the well. The presence of Yura was still swiveling around me.

I was still in the feudal era.

"DAMNIT!" I exclaimed in frustration.

My hands clenched into tight balls, with my knuckles turning white. I couldn't get home without Kagome … and she was already back in her rightful era … our rightful era.

I roared out in frustration, tears streaming down my cheeks anew. Above I heard the ruffling of feathers as birds squawked with their fright of hearing my emotions.

What do I do now?

I kept my eyes towards the sky, thinking of any plausible plans. Then it struck me.

InuYasha!

With newfound purpose, I climbed out of the well, which felt like it took no time at all. My blood was pumping fiercely in my veins as I ran with all I had towards the village.

~oOo~

I soon reached the village, but something was totally off. It was quiet … too quiet. Usually at this time of the day, the villagers would be buzzing around, doing their daily chores and converse with each other. But the streets were empty. Not a single soul was here.

There was the presence of Yuri, however, and it was like it surrounded the whole village. Even when I ran from the well and through InuYasha's Forest, her presence was consistent. I couldn't pinpoint the exact location of her, which disturbed me to no end. It was infuriating.

Come to think of it … what happened between me and Yuri? Did I battle her?

I couldn't remember it. All I could remember was me swinging Ōginsairensā at her … then nothing until I found myself sitting in front of Kagome's school uniform. For the life of me, I couldn't recall what happened in between. I only had the feeling of exhaustion coursing through my body. I had a feeling that I had fought against her. But then why couldn't I remember doing so?

A presence I knew too well was coming my way. The next second, I heard the soft shuffle of naked feet landing on the earthy ground of the street. I turned around and faced InuYasha, who was looking incredulously at me.

"Where's the other girl?" he asked me in an annoyed manner.

I glanced down at my feet for a second and figured he was hinting towards Kagome's whereabouts, I glanced up at him to answer my suspicions: "She's…"

But I didn't get to finish my sentence. Something shifted in the air and all around us, the women of the village arose and was hovering in the air. Their arms were stretched out to their sides and their heads were bopping like a ragdoll's. It was like someone was puppeteering them. They circled all around us, surrounding us.

"Keh…" I heard InuYasha say in aggravation.

The women all held some form of a weapon – sickles, meat axes, you name it – in their hands, which all were raised at the same time. Yuri's presence was shifting all around in our vicinity. I only managed to draw my weapon, ready to defend myself but not to attack.

They attacked.

"What are you…?!" InuYasha exclaimed.

They all attacked him, not a single one of the women attacked me. Weird…

My green eyes studied the movements of InuYasha as he defended himself from their attacks. He had grabbed two of the women's wrist; the wrists which was sported with a weapon and forced said women down to the ground.

"Wait, InuYasha …" I yelled as I hastily walked over to him, "Don't hurt them…"

"Well! If it isn't the village women!" he exclaimed with a slightly surprised voice.

He had apparently not heard me, so I opened my mouth to repeat myself, but I was beaten to it by Kaede's wise voice.

"Do not injure them!" she exclaimed loudly.

My eyes shifted instantly over to her and I gasped. She was lying on the ground, a grave wound on her left shoulder was streaming with blood as she shuffled closer to us. Quickly, I ran over to her and kneeled down beside her. Ōginsairensā was in my right hand as I placed my left hand on her back.

"Don't move Kaede-sama, you will only aggravate your injuries," I said in a hushed voice.

When I shifted my attention back to InuYasha, he had already dealt with the women of the village, though they didn't seem to be dead – just unconscious.

"Kaede, you witch," InuYasha said as he went over to Kaede and me.

He squatted down beside Kaede, opposite from where I was.

"What are you up to, all drenched in blood?" he asked in a bored manner, like he didn't really care about Kaede.

Kaede shifted a bit and looked up at InuYasha with her good eye: "As tactful as ever, I see…"

Kaede was definitely one for dry humor, and I would have laughed if it wasn't for the seriousness of the situation. Rustling sounds could be heard from the center of the village, just as Yura's presence shifted around us. My eyes landed upon the women who were rising as if invisible strings were pulling at them.

"Why are your women after me?" InuYasha asked.

From the corner of my eye, I could see that he was watching the women being pulled up once more.

"They are all under the power of someone … or something else," Kaede said tiredly.

"Yura," I said as I shifted my gaze completely over towards InuYasha and Kaede, "she's a mononoke."

InuYasha looked at me and was about to ask me a question, but Kaede interrupted with a slightly weak voice: "Where's Kagome-chan? Call Kagome-chan and bring her here!"

"Kagome-chan is …" I began to say, but once again as I tried to tell them where she was, I was once again interrupted.

"No need. I can take care of this myself, hag!"

InuYasha stood up and flexed his claws, ready to take down the village women.

"No! No, you must not…!" Kaede exclaimed panicky.

InuYasha was standing still, taking in his opponents, which weren't his real opponents.

"Hear me now. The village girls are not in their right minds … and so do not deserve your claws!"

Kaede was clearly stressed over the situation, her voice worried. But InuYasha was prepared to defend himself from the villagers.

"Spare me your 'higher morality', Kaede! Didn't they almost kill you?"

I was standing up as well, prepared for their possible attacks. Ōginsairensā was clutched tightly in the grip of my right hand.

"Hear me InuYasha … unless you defeat the one who manipulates them from the shadows …" Kaede tried to lecture him, but he wasn't having any of it.

"There's no time to be so careful!" InuYasha exclaimed angrily.

One of the girls was flying towards him with a meat cleaver held high above her, ready to strike down at him.

Kaede was desperate as she uttered: "The hair, InuYasha! Cut the hair attached to the girls!"

She could see hairs … it was the same thing as Kagome had exclaimed back at the well. But I still couldn't see the hairs that Kaede was talking about. And apparently InuYasha couldn't either.

"What hair?! I don't see any hair!"

InuYasha swiped an attack towards the previously attacking woman, but just before he could scratch her with his claws, the woman flew high up into the air. The other women began to fly towards him, but his focus was entirely on the woman high above him.

"Behind you!" I yelled out – I wanted to help, but I didn't want to injure the women.

It happened so suddenly. Three of the women flew around InuYasha, ensnaring him with invisible strings. It was easy to see that he was incapacitated, like he was bound. The woman who had previously been above him charged down towards him with her meat cleaver. But before I could warn him, he jumped out of the way. He was muttering something to himself, then he jumped backwards as if he was trying to pull out the puppeteer … Yura.

But it didn't work. Some of the invisible strings around him loosened and he fell down to the ground. Dust billowed up around him as he harshly slid over the ground.

Why was she after InuYasha?

Using innocent people to do her bidding was just so wrong. And I couldn't help but wonder why she wasn't trying to harm me. It didn't make any sense. If I just could take her out. But I couldn't pinpoint her exact location, her yōkai presence was everywhere around us.

InuYasha was hurled up against a nearby tree, the invisible strings tying him to it, squeezing him against it. Wait, why weren't they cutting through him?

When Yura attacked Kagome, she was able to cut through her clothes and draw blood. But no such thing happened to InuYasha. Was it perhaps his yōkai blood that somehow protected him?

"Curse it…" I could hear him sneer out.

Any moment and he would be headless. That's what I thought, but just then InuYasha roughly pulled at the invisible strings. The tree he had been tied to was shred to pieces and he was somehow free from the strings. I gaped at him; he was indeed powerful.

He jumped back to where Kaede and I were, his back turned towards us.

"I looked death in the eye for a moment there…" he said as he moved a hand up to his throat.

Kaede then said dryly: "A mere human would be headless now."

I glanced down at her, completely agreeing to her dry statement. Yura's presence once more shifted and I glanced up. The men of the village were now raising like puppets with weapons in their hands.

"Damnit, she is using the men now!" I sneered with annoyance.

InuYasha shifted his gaze up as well and scuffed, clearly irritated at the situation: "We won't make any progress at this rate."

I solemnly agreed to his statement. InuYasha then squatted down in front of Kaede.

"Move your brittle bones!" he snapped at her.

Kaede shuffled herself up onto InuYasha's back and once she was secured, he stood up and watched me with calculating eyes.

"Go," I said as I sheathed my sword, "I'm right behind you!"

And we ran, or rather, I ran, and he jumped over twenty feet in one stride. He was soon out of view, but I could still feel his presence, which I used as my guideline to where he had jumped off to. Speaking of presence, I could still feel Yura's, but her presence was weak and didn't shift. The villagers weren't following us.

I ran towards InuYasha's presence, and I registered that I had entered the InuYasha Forest. Yura's presence was near non-existing in here. Soon I found myself near a great tree, though not as great as the Goshinboku. Underneath it rested Kaede with InuYasha sitting beside her, front towards me. I ran over to them and then I kneeled beside Kaede.

"Old witch. You said you can see the hair?" InuYasha said in an aggressive tone, "Then show me where it leads!"

I scowled at him: "Can't you see that Kaede-sama isn't in any condition to do so?" I said sourly.

That hanyō had no respect at all! Kaede glanced at me with a mild eye, her breathing steady and deep.

"My eyes are not what they used to be … and in this condition …" Kaede said as she shifted her gaze over to InuYasha, "That is why we need Kagome."

InuYasha furled his brows at the miko's statement: "You mean she can see it?"

That's right, Kagome spoke of hair before she fell into the … "InuYasha, we must get Kagome-chan…"

He glanced at me, his eyes narrowing at me as he seemed to remember something: "You were about to tell me back in the village … Why isn't she with you?"

My hands clenched around the red fabric of my borrowed hakama and I shifted my gaze down to my clenched hands. I could feel the pressure of tears building in my green eyes.

Turning my eyes away from them, glancing at the forest floor, I said in an angry whispery manner: "We met the mononoke, Yura, near the well … I tried to protect Kagome-chan from Yura's attack … she got pushed into the well and I have a feeling that she has returned to our own time."

I felt angry at myself for not being able to protect Kagome as I was supposed to.

"Why aren't you dead then?" InuYasha asked me nonchalantly.

I hastily looked back at him, his golden eyes slightly narrowed and looked puzzled.

"I … don't know … after Kagome-chan fell into the well, I felt an immense anger and attacked Yura, but I can't remember what happened afterwards …" I shifted my eyes down to my lap for a few seconds, before they returned to his golden eyes, "Something strange must have happened, because she didn't attack me at the village…"

"Hmm," Kaede said in a thoughtful manner, her eye closed as she began to think deeply – well, it looked like she was thinking deeply.

InuYasha pulled my attention back to him: "How come you didn't go after her?"

"I couldn't … I tried, but it seems like I need Kagome-chan to get back to our own time."

"Well," InuYasha said as he stood up, "Seems like it's up to me then."

"You'll stay here with Kaede, while I pick up that stupid girl," he said determinedly.

"Wait," I said as I stood up as well.

But he had already taken off, leaving me with Kaede.

"Damn that hanyō!" I uttered annoyedly, "I need to be at Kagome-chan's side."

"And that you will be, Aiko-chan," Kaede said gently and I shifted my gaze back to her.

Her arms were resting on top of her stomach, relaxing the best she could considering the grave wound on her left shoulder. I kneeled down beside her.

"How can I, when I can't get to her and I don't know where Yura is hiding?"

I rested my hands on top of my knees and stared desperately at her face.

"You can feel her, can you not?" Kaede asked me, her brown eye locking with my green ones.

"Feel? … you mean her presence?" I asked confusedly.

"Yes. You can sense her presence. Tis a rare gift for a human."

I lifted an eyebrow at her, "That may be, but I can't discern where exactly she is … her presence seems to be all around in the air, though it's not close to where we are right now."

She sighed at me: "That is the hair that makes it hard for you to find her exact location. But I have faith that you will be able to do just so."

Kaede seemed tired and she closed her eye.

"How?! Tell me!" I exclaimed desperately.

I clenched my hands in my hakama, desperate for some answers.

Another sigh left Kaede's weathered lips: "Close your eyes and focus on the presence. Look deep inside you and you will be able to find her."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in through my nose. Slowly I let it out through my mouth, to then repeat the action.

Focus on the presence, I thought.

I could feel the presence just outside the forest. The presence was swirling around in the air.

Focus on it.

Instead of Yura's presence being like a fog, it began to take form. I took another deep breath in through my nose and blew it slowly out through my mouth. The foggy presence took shape and turned into many thin lines crossing each other. It reminded me of some sort of spider web, though it didn't exactly take the form of a spider web, but the idea was there.

Focus.

One of the strands of hair was almost glowing. In my inner eye, it looked almost red, like it was a life-line. That is the strand of hair that will lead me to her, I was sure of it. I took another breath and let it out again.

Focus.

The red strand of hair lead me away from the village and towards a cliff.

There!

In my inner eye, I saw a great cocoon of hair, which seemed to pulse red. That was where she was hiding. Inside the cocoon of hair.

"I found her," I said patiently as I opened my eyes and glanced down at Kaede.

Her eye was closed, and her breathing was steady: "Go," was all she said.

"Will you be alright on your own?" I asked her while I got up from my kneeling position.

"Yes. Now go," she said almost impatiently.

That seemed a bit out of character for her, but maybe it was her wound that aggravated her. Though she wasn't looking at me, I nodded to her and began to run in the direction where Yura's nest was. As soon as I exited InuYasha's Forest, I felt the air shift and I could feel a wave of hair going after me.

Behind me!

I drew Ōginsairensā and turned around to cut down the wave of hair. I heard my sword cut clean down through the invisible hair and heard it turn to dust as if it had been destroyed. Surprised that my sword was able to cut through the invisible hair, I glanced down at Ōginsairensā, the blade gleamed a sharp silver with the soft rays of moonlight that hit it.

I must continue, I thought as I once more ran, cleaving every invisible wave of hair that happened to attack me.

~oOo~

"Cur … Curse you!" I heard InuYasha exclaim with pain lacing his voice.

I was finally there. Yura stood upon one of her hairs, I could feel it with the presence that surrounded me. InuYasha was held up in the air, gravely wounded from what looked like cuts made by a sword; her wakizashi. But where was Kagome?

"Hm. So half-yōkai are only half-strength after all," Yura taunted InuYasha with her annoyingly sweet-sounding voice, "Poor you. You wanted this to make you a full yōkai, didn't you?" she slowly pulled the pouch with the Shikon Jewel shard out from between her breasts, taunting InuYasha with what he wanted the most.

Where are you Kagome?! I thought as I searched the vicinity.

My eyes landed on InuYasha's red suikan moving towards the ball of hair in the air, with skulls hanging outside of the previously whole cocoon. The person under it turned towards me, and I saw that it was Kagome who was under it. She looked unharmed and I let a sigh of relief out. We nodded to each other, indicating that we had registered each other, then I shifted my focus back to InuYasha and Yura.

"No moving now. If we don't behead you properly … that beloved hair of yours will get stained with blood," Yura said sweetly as she took aim at InuYasha's neck.

"Don't you dare!" I yelled up at her.

Both of them shifted their gazes towards me, only just now registering my presence.

"YOU!" Yura screeched at me, her eyes shining with the barest amount of fear.

She turned away from InuYasha and shifted her invisible hair around so that she was closer to me. I could feel the presence of her hair shift around me, readying to ensnare me or harm me.

"Oh, I seem to have made an impression," I taunted at her.

She sneered at me, clearly annoyed with my taunting words. The presence shifted and I knew she had sent a wave of hair towards me, targeting my back. In the last second, I turned around and cut the hair. The sound of the hair disappearing was clear in my ear. I faced her once more, Ōginsairensā tightly secured in my right hand.

"Now what did I do to piss you off?" I asked her curiously.

I must have done something to her under the blackout I had back at the well when I first met her.

Her eyebrows went straight up to her hairline in surprise.

"La…? You don't remember?" she asked, confused.

Before any of us could get an answer, InuYasha's clawed hand emerged from in between her breasts. His hand was soaked in her blood, with most of it dripping off of his claws. Then he pulled his hand out, leaving a giant hole in between her breasts.

"Hey, couldn't you have waited till I had gotten some answers, you bastard?!" I yelled, irritated at InuYasha as he slowly landed on a rock near me.

He was still wrapped in some of Yura's hairs; I could feel its presence.

"Keh," was all I got from him, when Yura stabbed her wakizashi into his bloodied hand.

"How very rude," she uttered unsatisfied by his actions, "Grabbing the bosom of a woman you've only just met."

I stared at her when I figured out that she was still very much alive, though she should have been dead with the giant hole in her chest.

Is she only a puppet herself? If she is, then where's …?

My train of thought was disrupted when she pulled out the pouch with the Shikon Jewel shard from between InuYasha's bloodied fingers.

"Hmph," she said in a displeasured manner, "and to have taken my Shikon Jewel shard while you were at it. Stubborn, aren't you?"

I was staring at her, trying to figure out how to kill her. She must've been a puppet herself, but then where was the puppeteer?

Before I could search out the presence of the real Yura, the sound of rattling skulls pulled my attention up at the ball of hair. I saw Kagome trying to crawl her way up at the nest. But I wasn't the only one who'd registered Kagome's movements.

"You, girl!" Yura uttered in anger as she swung her right hand, making the hair that Kagome was crawling on shift to try throw her off.

"And where were you watching?!" InuYasha yelled angrily at Yura as he struck her back with her wakizashi, which he had pulled out of his hand.

Yura was clearly becoming angrier and … nervous: "Shut up, animal!"

It must be the puppeteer she was trying to hide in her nest. I had to get to the nest!

"Huh, you were calm enough when I ran you through … but now you seem a touch nervous," InuYasha said, having Yura's full attention.

Now was my chance. I closed my eyes and focused on the real presence, trying to discern the best possible way of getting to it.

"Is there something here that you don't want us to find?" InuYasha asked Yura

Just as I found my path to where the presence was the strongest. Which was inside a skull. I jumped up on the invisible hair and began to run up on it. Then I jumped over to a new lane of hair and continued up towards the nest.

"InuYasha! Aiko-chan! There's something about that skull," Kagome yelled to us and pointed at the skull which presence I had felt, "Something in it!"

Kagome didn't only alert InuYasha and me, but also Yura, whom swung herself towards Kagome. Her wakizashi hung a bit from her dismembered hand which was swinging after Yura.

Almost there!

Yura swung her wakizashi down towards Kagome, but instead she met the steel of my blade.

"Tch!" Yura exclaimed at me as she jumped away from me, fear clear in her eyes.

"Your opponent is me!" I said to Yura, then I spoke over my shoulder to Kagome: "Get that skull!"

She nodded and continued to climb her way up the nest towards the skull. I shifted my eyes back to Yura, seeing her fuming with rage over not being able to get Kagome away from the skull.

"You're afraid of me?!" I uttered with astonishment.

She was scowling at me by my comment, not at all happy that I had seen her fear of me.

"What happened at the well? Tell me!" I yelled at her.

But she kept scowling at me, not uttering a single word to me. The only thing she did was grasping her wakizashi in her still attached left hand and charged me. The blade arched towards me in a sideway motion. I parried it, easily – her swordsmanship wasn't that great.

"I'm not gonna satisfy you with an answer!" she sneered at me, a remnant of her sweet voice still underlining her tone.

She swung her wakizashi at me once more, and this time I simply dodge it.

"Why the hell not? You have nothing to lose by telling me!" I yelled back at her while I made my own attack against her.

I swung my blade in a downward motion, but she parried it by pushing my blade to the side with her wakizashi, then she jumped up and away from me.

"But you have all to gain!" she said with a sneer marring her facial expression.

Damn yōkai! I thought as I jumped after her, using her web of hair as landing platforms for every jump I made.

After the third jump I was almost at her. Knowing that there were no more hair to use as a landing when I made the last jump, I jumped after her and swung Ōginsairensā at her in a sideways motion. She parried my blow, and I felt myself being grabbed by gravity. I was falling. Thinking quickly, I searched for the nearest presence of her invisible hair. Luckily, it was right under me, and I landed in a squat. I glanced behind me and saw that Kagome almost had the skull within her grasp. My eyes shifted back at Yura, who was staring evilly at Kagome. Just as she was about to swing her hair to control the hair at the nest, trying to shake Kagome off of the nest, crescent formed blades of crimson cut off her remaining arm.

"Remember the Hijin Kessō?!" InuYasha yelled at her from the rock he was standing on.

Fury erupted on Yura's facial features and not a second after, InuYasha had Yura's wakizashi in his chest. Yura's newly dismembered arm was still holding the tsuka. Blood squirted out of the newly made wound in InuYasha's chest.

"Fool," Yura sneered at InuYasha, her dismembered arm flying back to her.

Her wakizashi was still in the hand as she send it flying towards InuYasha, going for the killing blow.

"I'm immortal!" Yura yelled as the wakizashi flew at an incredible speed towards InuYasha

Suddenly, Yura froze in action, her dismembered arm with her wakizashi stilled in the air. The repeated echoing sound of dunk, dunk, dunk resided from somewhere behind me. Turning abruptly around I saw Kagome using an arrow to crack the skull, which the presence of Yuri was the strongest, the puppeteer.

"Girl, you're dead!" Yura screamed at Kagome as her dismembered arm flew towards Kagome, her wakizashi pointing straight at Kagome.

I can't reach it in time, I thought panicky as the sword came closer and closer to Kagome.

Kagome kept her focus on stabbing the skull with her arrow.

NO!

Just as I thought it was to late, the arrow pierced the skull and went straight through it. Yura froze, like her strings had been cut, as another sickening crack resounded around us. A second after, Yura dissolved, like she wasn't even there to begin with. The only thing left of her was her clothes, which slowly fluttered down to the ground, landing on top of the mountain of skulls.

Just as the clothes landed, I felt gravity kick in, the wave of hair I had been standing on disappeared. But my fall wasn't long, yet I landed upon a lot of skulls, which cracked and shattered at the force of my fall and weight.

"Auch," I muttered as it hurt a bit.

"So, Yura … you hid your soul in a comb," InuYasha said from right behind me, "No wonder nothing I did to your body hurt you…"

I slowly got up and walked the few steps that were between me, Kagome and InuYasha.

"I-InuYasha… you're injured…" Kagome said concerned for InuYasha's well-being.

He didn't look good; his hadagi – once white – was now stained with his blood, most of the white fabric had turned into a crimson smear.

"Because you gave me your cloak…" Kagome said, saddened about it while she gave back his suikan.

"Never mind about me … where's the Shikon Jewel…?" InuYasha asked.

I glanced back at the bundle of clothes, which had been Yura's and saw Kagome walk towards it.

She grabbed the pouch it had been in and pulled the small pink shard out of it: "Here it is…"

She stared at it for a while, before she put it back into the small pouch. Meanwhile, InuYasha got up, the skulls which he was upon clattered as they were pressed against one another.

"Let's go, Kagome … Aiko."

Huh?

He said our names … I stared at him, completely flabbergasted as he for once had uttered our names. He began to walk away but stopped up when neither Kagome nor I followed after him. His golden eyes shifted between Kagome and me a few times.

"What's wrong?" he asked, clearly not understanding the significance of him saying our names.

"You said our names," I said astonished.

He raised an eyebrow at me: "What about it?"

Kagome then answered for the both of us: "Are you trying to be … a little bit friendlier?"

"Of course," InuYasha said sarcastically.

I couldn't help the deep sigh that left my lips.

"I've always wanted a fool and a weakling as friends …"

Sarcasm was literally flooding through his every word, and here I thought …

"Hey, I saved your life just now!" Kagome uttered with annoyance as she placed a hand upon InuYasha's battered back.

He was paralyzed with pain as her hand touched his back, falling fore over against the skulls.

"So, what's wrong?!" Kagome asked sarcastically, "A weakling couldn't hurt you, could she?!"

Well, if she's the weakling … then that would make me the fool. Another deep sigh left me as I folded my arms in front of my chest.

"Oh, shut up…" InuYasha muttered against the skulls.

Suddenly I felt a new presence, though this one was definitely a weak one. I glanced around, but I wasn't able to spot anything other than the hundreds of skulls we were standing upon. I shrugged my shoulders and began to walk back to the village, with Kagome at my side and InuYasha still lying upon the skulls.

A/N: So that's it for this time; I hope you enjoyed it. If you remember what happens next in the manga, you all know who appears in the next chapter. Stay tuned and I'll see you all next Sunday.

A/N – a few glossaries:

Hijin Kessō – (飛刃血爪) Claws of Blood.

Suikan – a form of wide sleeved hunting jacket.