The following morning was cold. Inuyasha was already up. Thoughts of the previous day's encounter with his brother bothered him no end. He didn't rescue anybody. Instead somebody rescued him. Naomi, a simple feeble human, saved Inuyasha, a half demon and son of the great Inu no Taisho. Inuyasha was on the brink of defeat at the hands of Sesshomaru-
He was down on his knees gasping for air. He was feeling desperate as Sesshomaru advanced towards him slowly yet scornfully. Sesshomaru was speaking to him, but the words were falling on deaf ears. He was supposed to be rescuing Naomi, but now he himself had to be rescued by someone. Things were not working out. Sesshomaru had his poison claw almost ready and an attack at this time would prove very injurious if not fatal. The girl was yet to be saved and he was in a very sticky situation. But right when Sesshomaru was about to attack, something came crashing into him and things became blurry. He was with Kagome and the others. Sesshomaru was at a fair distance from him now. But what had happened? Where was the girl? He looked around to find her. She wasn't with Rin and Jaken. To his surprise, she stood right beside him. His amazement knew no bounds and he had so many questions. But it was not the time for questions. Given an opportunity, Sesshomaru would attack back and harder than before. It was too risky. The safest way out was to run while they still could. Everybody looked confused, and he used the moment to get out of there as fast as he could. The girl was quiet the whole time. He hadn't rescued her but she was safe. Sesshomaru wouldn't have let her go. Then how did she make it there? More importantly, how did he make it without getting attacked? The only explanation was that the girl had saved him. But how could she out run Sesshomaru? How could Sesshomaru not catch her?
"Ne-chan wake up. It's morning already." Kagome spoke slowly.
"A couple more minutes mother." Naomi said and turned away from Kagome.
"Ne-chan this is Kagome. We have to go. Wake up." Naomi murmured in her sleep but she didn't open her eyes. Inuyasha couldn't bother to waste time. He took some water and poured it all over Naomi.
"Gah! What the hell! That was cold! Who did this?" Naomi woke with a jolt. The cold water did the trick. Kagome smiled sheepishly.
"Inuyasha is always like this. Don't mind him Naomi." Sango said as she offered a towel to her. Miroku was watching and plotting to touch Naomi's bum. He spoke to her as she wiped away all the water.
"So, Naomi. We got off to a bad start yesterday. I wasn't being very polite. What do you say we start all over again?"
She was still suspicious of him, but she approved. "Thank you so much. I'm Miroku, a monk by profession, and what do you do?"
"I'm studying in college. Planning to become an engineer."
"Engineer? What's that?" Sango butt in to keep Miroku from getting out of control.
"I can't explain. It's complicated. And what about you guys? What do you do?"
"I'm a demon slayer. We are professionals who rid villages of demons in exchange for food or money." Sango trailed off to the day when Kohaku tried to kill her under the spell of the spider demon. Tears began to form in her eyes and she was staring at her feet.
"What's wrong Sango?" Naomi placed a hand on her shoulder with concern. Sango wiped her tears quickly and managed a quick smile. She said," Just a memory from the past. My brother is under the control of Naraku. His name is Kohaku. Naraku is using Kohaku by keeping him alive with the help of a jewel shard embedded in his back. I want to kill Naraku and rescue my brother. That's all."
Naomi was confused a little. She said, "Who is Naraku again?"
Kagome sat her down a little away from the others, and explained the whole story. "…So he wants the jewel. He already has the most shards and he wants to collect the rest of them. A few are with me. Sango wants to save Kohaku and Miroku will be swallowed by the wind tunnel in his hand unless Naraku is killed. That's why we are all together on this one and our ultimate objective is the death of Naraku."
Naomi understood the situation completely. But a few things were still not answered.
The jewel was with Kikyo and Kagome is Kikyo's reincarnation. Kagome can see the shards of the sacred jewel because of powers from her past life. She can sense the jewel and she can keep them from getting corrupted. But what role do I play in all this? Only Kagome and Inuyasha could pass through the well. How could I pass through it? The jewel shards changed colours when I held them and Kagome couldn't sense the shards when they were with me. How is all of this happening?
"Ne-chan. Ne-chan. What's the matter? You seem lost."
"You're right. I am lost. There are some things which don't fit right in this story of yours."
"What do you mean?" Kagome couldn't see why Naomi was having such difficulty.
"Kagome, there are a few things which you don't know of. It's about the jewel and me." Naomi was serious, but she was still not sure about telling Kagome of the incidents with the jewel.
"What is it ne-chan?" Kagome was concerned looking at Naomi's countenance.
"I'll explain it to you with an example. C'mon lets go back. I'll need volunteers for this little trick." She winked at Kagome, while the latter was left guessing.
Naomi led the way to where the others were. Sango was better and Miroku was sitting with her. Inuyasha was bullying Shippo and Kirara was scratching herself. Nobody noticed the fact that Naomi and Kagome had returned.
"May I have your attention please? Ladies, gentle-demons and flirtatious monks today I present to you, magician Naomi with trick called-where did the jewel go? For this I need five volunteers. Thank you all." Naomi sure did gather everybody's undivided attention with this little display. She turned to Kagome and said, "I'll need you to face the other side and not look at what we do. I'll be asking you some questions, so be very attentive and make sure you answer the questions correctly and honestly. This is necessary."
"Okay ne-chan."
"Okay people. Kagome is ready. Now I need you guys to do as I ask you to. I will be using some signs to communicate with you. So please respond accordingly. This is a very important exercise. Believe me; you will be alarmed when you learn what wanted to show you." Naomi walked to them and she took out the bottle with the shards. She gave each of them some shards. Inuyasha got one, Shippo got one, Sango got two and Miroku got one shard. She signalled all of them to be quiet. Then she spoke-
"Kagome, I have distributed a few shards among Shippo, Sango, Inuyasha and Miroku. Now tell me, can you sense the jewel shards?"
"Yeah." Kagome said.
"How many do you sense?"
"I sense, four…no five shards. I sense five shards."
"Good. There are five shards which have been distributed here. Now Kagome, I want you to tell me each time you sense a change in the arrangement or the number of shards. Okay?"
"Okay." With that answer, Naomi signalled Sango to give her shards to Miroku, who was standing next to her. Kagome did not respond to the change. She asked Inuyasha to give his shard to Shippo. Kagome still did not respond. She signalled them to observe all of this. Then, she walked over to Shippo, held out her palm with the open bottle and signalled him to hand over the shards. Shippo did as he was asked to do and waited for Kagome to say something. Just as expected Kagome spoke, "The aura of the shards…it just weakened. I can only feel four shards now." Miroku became suspicious and he was about to correct Kagome. Naomi stopped him. She said, "Alright. How about now?" as she collected the remaining shards from the others slowly. Kagome was sounding worried and she said, "The shards…they're disappearing one by one. I can't feel them. They vanished. Ne-chan they vanished!"
"Okay. You can turn around now Kagome." Naomi watched Kagome in a tensed state.
"Don't worry dear. The shards are right here." Naomi said and she showed the bottle in her palm. Kagome breathed a sigh of relief.
"So what're you trying to show us here?" Inuyasha hadn't understood the purpose of this little trick. Miroku stepped in and said-
"Kagome could sense the shards when they were with us, but she couldn't sense them when the shards were with Naomi. Kagome thought the shards disappeared as Naomi took them. So, what Naomi showed us here, is that Kagome can't see the shards when they're with Naomi. Am I right?"
"Dot on target Miroku. But that's not the end of it. There is still one thing that none of you know about." Naomi said and she opened the bottle. She took a few shards in her hand and everybody watched in disbelief as the shards changed colours from purple to blinding white before their very eyes. Naomi put the shards back in the bottle and the shards became purple again.
"How did you do that?" Inuyasha was the first to ask.
"I don't know. It happened the first time I touched the shards. But I was too scared to tell you guys. I didn't know that I'd land up here. But after escaping from Sesshomaru, I had to tell you." Just then, Inuyasha cut her short-
"How did you manage to save me and run so fast yesterday? How did you do that?"
"I used the shards. When I saw you using the shards in your sword, I thought I could use it too. I held them and ran…fortunately for us it worked well."
"I never sensed the jewel shards or you using them." Kagome added.
"That's what I wanted to show you. I don't know how it's been happening.
Instead I thought you guys might know." Naomi sounded disheartened.
"Kaede might have some answers." Miroku said. Everybody turned to him.
He said, "She's the only one who knows more about the jewel than any of us. We have to go to her as soon as possible." Everybody agreed and they left for Kaede's immediately.
--
Kagura was on her feather flying high in the sky. She was in search of Sesshomaru-the only demon with strength enough to defeat Naraku. She was desperate to rid herself of Naraku. Of late Naraku had begun bothering her too much. He issued death threats for almost no reason at all. The situation called for extreme measures. Naraku could kill her any minute without warning her. She had to find Sesshomaru and somehow get him to kill Naraku for her.
As she flew plotting and scheming, a wasp came to her and conveyed Naraku's message.
"Alright." She said with great distaste, as the bug buzzed away. There was a new turn of events. Naraku's command to her was out of the ordinary. She thought-
He wants me to follow a new human in the band of Inuyasha. But why the new one? It should have been Kagome-the girl with the shards. If Naraku's interest has shifted from the priestess, then this new member in Inuyasha's group must be of greater interest to him…or this person poses a greater threat to him. I need to know more about this.