(A/N) Whoot! I think I actually made my deadline, hopefully in everyone's time-zones! In this chappy, we discover another of Chi's abilities and they start to track down InuYasha! I know that the whole fruit thing in the beginning is kinda OOC for her, but it was originally Shippo, sooo… yeah. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

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Thanks to all my reviewers, you're awesome! WerewolfVampireWriter, Lily-chan818, tomoe-gozen52, sangoscourage!!

Oh, and I've kinda adopted =^^= as my sig, cause it looks like a cat, and, as my avi obviously shows, I am a cat lover! So this is what I'll use a lot of times to sign reviews, just in case anyone's wondering where that came from.

I do not own InuYasha, and I am officially too tired to come up with any remotely funny way to say it.

I peered down the slope and into the snake-demon's camp. They were swarming around like ants across their over-turned nest. I scooted backwards away from the edge of the cliff, back to where Kagome waited.

"No good." I said simply. "We stand no chance of getting there un-seen."

"There has to be a way!" Kagome insisted.

"Well, we can give it some thought." I mewed gently. "The sun's going down. We should stay here for the night."

Kagome looked distraught, but saw the sense in resting and nodded. I spotted a tree, its branches heavy with fruit, and walked over, hoping the ripe apples might cheer her up. But, on my way there, the ground suddenly wasn't under my paws anymore. With a yelp of shock, I fell, landing a moment later, though nothing was hurt but my pride.

"Chi, are you OK?" Kagome called worriedly.

"I'm fine," I answered, a bit breathlessly. "It's not that deep."

All at once, I noticed something that took my breath away: faintly, very, very faintly, I smelled InuYasha's unmistakable scent.

"Kagome!" I called excitedly. "He's down here!! I can smell him!"

"Really??" Kagome leaped down beside me without a second though, nearly landing on top of me.

"Ya," I said breathlessly.

The next problem became apparent: it was pitch black. I, with my half-demon sight, could barely make out Kagome's shape in the dark; she must be blind. A moment later, she posed the question.

"What now?"

I took a deep breath.

"Stand back, please."

I heard the shuffle of feet as she obeyed.

"Chi, what are you-"

"Please!" I hissed. "Be quiet for a moment! I need to concentrate!"

Going deep inside myself, I sought out the ancient memories of the sorcery lessons me and all my sibs had gone to. The remedial course had taught us the basics; controlling fire and what I was about to try were the lowest of the low. It had been years since I had last done it; it felt both painful and good, as though I had stayed under water for days and finally come up to breath.

I reached out with my mind, feeling loose particles of energy floating in the air. I brushed against Kagome's mind, catching a glimpse of her thoughts before she recoiled instinctively. I gathered the loose energy in a ball, balancing it in my upturned left palm. It was hot. When I opened my eyes, the shining ball of energy rested just above my hand, creatinga circle of light. At the edge of this circle, Kagome gaped at me.

"How did you…"

I shrugged. "I know a bit of remedial magic. Now let's go; we're wasting time."

The energy ball cast a circle of light around the tunnel, revealing slim-covered mud walls. As we walked forward, I was acutely aware of InuYasha's faint scent.

I don't know how long we walked for; it was long enough for my feet to start to hurt and my belly grind with hunger. Kagome only broke the still silence to hand me a bottle of water from her backpack occasionally. She never slowed.

My feet began to drag. Kagome had gone ahead of me, though I was the one who knew the way. It didn't much matter; there was only one way to go. We hadn't come to any side tunnels yet. She slowed her step just enough to stay in the circle of light. Perhaps my fatigue was due to the fact that I hadn't really slept two days and then raced around almost non-stop during the actual attack, plus the fact that I hadn't slept since then. I had no idea how long we had been walking, either. Kagome's stamina amazed me. How could she still be going strong, when she was only human? My half-demon body was having a hard enough time keeping up. The answer presented itself: love.

Another long stretch of time later, I stumbled to a halt, pressing one hand to the slimy wall and dimming the light, forcing Kagome to stop.

"Kagome," I said breathlessly. "I'm hanyou. You're human. If I'm this tired, how hard must you be pushing yourself? We need to rest."

Kagome slumped to the ground without protest, looking spent.

"We've been in this tunnel for three days." Her voice was husky with disuse. She passed me a bottle of water, which I drank, and slowly curled up, on the ground. She looked so small, so miserable. Gosh, what pain must she be going through?

We rested for a while, and I dozed; I was sure Kagome did, too. When we woke, I relit the energy ball and we set out again. We soon came to the first side-tunnel we had seen, and I was excited to find that InuYasha's scent grew considerably stronger. I beckoned to Kagome, and began to rush down the corridor. I stretched my mind as far as I could, not only making the light burn brighter, but looking for any trace of InuYasha's mind. That probably saved both our lives.

I suddenly encountered a huge, empty space, devoid of even most energy. I skidded to a halt just as my toes hit the edge of a cliff. I danced backwards with a startled yelp, Kagome leaping aside to avoid a collision. I stumbled over her, falling backwards and causing the light to go out. I lay for a moment, panting, my rapid pulse slowly coming back to normal. I stood up, reaching my mind out and making the light again.

I walked slowly over to the edge of the cliff. I gathered another ball of light and sent it down, watching it until it vanished into the darkness.

It never reached the bottom.

(A/N) Alright! I actually like this chap a lot, even though nothing major happens in it. It makes me even more proud of Chi's character!! Of all the characters I've created, I really think I like her the best, even though it's kinda like choosing between your kids.

If you want to see a pic of what I think the whole energy ball thing looks like, I was skimming DeviantArt looking for what I thought Chi looked like, and when I saw this, I thought it was totally perfect! Obviously, it isn't, cause Chi has blue-silver hair and I don't think she'd be caught dead wearing such a ridiculous outfit, but still. Also, I saw this pic after I wrote this chap. .com/art/Cat-Girl-s-Meow-62441440

I'm really looking forward to the next chap, again, not a whole lot happens, but it does move things along. Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to update till at least mid-week, probably the week end. See ya'll next time and please please please review!!

Oh, and if any of you are keeping up with The Strength of a Heart, it's been post-poned for a little bit, sorry! It will be up prob mid week, though!