Chapter 53 Wind

The morning dawned to reveal four very drawn and exhausted elders and a still struggling Otome in the little hut. It was then that the group decided to deal with the enemy they had dragged home. The man in question had been trussed up with magic enhanced ropes, and immobilized with Miroku's sutras. Hopefully he had spent a miserably uncomfortable night in the little storage building on the side of Kikyo's hut.

Within the hut, before anyone made a move to exit, a great gust of wind blew through the open windows. Sesshomaru remained seated beside his foundling, where he had been all night. His eyes widened as a fine layer of gray ash rose from the girl as the breeze passed Otome. His mind screamed, "NO! Not again!" Even though he remained calm in appearance, he grasped the girl's hand even tighter. Beside him, the women gasped at the scene.

All eyes turned to the still girl and expected to see her disintegrate into a cloud of dust. All held their breaths and prayed for a miracle. Instead of her demise, the group noticed that the removal of the ash revealed her true color beneath. Streaks of deepest black shone through the gray layer of her hair, and the breeze revealed patches of her normal skin tone.

Kikyo knelt beside the quiet girl, and carefully stroked her face with a wet cloth. More of the sickly gray film disappeared, showing healthy skin beneath. Sango reached over and ruffled the faded hair and more dust blew away. Within moments, the two women had cleaned away the sickly color of purification.

Gently, Kikyo pulled the collar of the kimono away from her shoulder and searched for the navy demon markings. With a bit more wiping, she found a very faint blue line arching across her chest to circle her neck. A collective sigh of relief was felt in the hut as it seemed their friend would recover.