It's just the same thing all the time

Never get what I want, never get too close to the end of the line

Eyes wide, breaths ragged and harsh, Inuyasha stood in the meadow and scanned the tops of the trees for signs of a soul collector. His hands trembled at his sides and he had to fight the impulse to scream. There was no scent to follow. Not for a barrier. Not for Kagome. Not for Kikyo. There was no scent in the clearing except the damn scent of that stupid bastard and even his scent disappeared into thin air. He followed Sango's scent to where the barrier had been. Run around like an insane person for what seemed like an eternity and still, nothing. How far had Kikyo managed to go in such a short span of time? It didn't sit right with him at all. He had to be missing something and they were running out of time.

"Monk don't you sense anything?!" Inuyasha snarled as he glared half-crazed at Miroku who similarly was scanning the surrounding forest with a practiced eye. Despite almost an hour having passed without any sign they were even heading in the right direction, the monk seemed to maintain a calm that Inuyasha was just not capable of possessing. It didn't help that the monk was acting rather strangely either. Not at all how he normally acted when trying to sense an aura if he even reacted to sensing one in the first place. Miroku had glanced upward when they first arrived. His mouth pursed but slightly open and loose. Those sapphire eyes fixed as if he's looking at something in the distance that neither of his companions could see before he shook his head and sighed.

"I'm not sure," Miroku murmured more to himself than to Inuyasha as he narrowed his sapphire eyes and furrowed his brow. His eyes darted around the forest in no particular set direction before he sighed heavily and turned to Inuyasha, "Due East I can sense two…"

He regretted stating a concrete direction, even if merely in the general sense, as the increasingly green half-demon took off yet again. It seemed an exercise in futility unlike any they had ever encountered before. Even with Naraku there was at least some indication as to his whereabouts or motivations in advance. Here...there was no way to know what they might find. Of course, there was the obvious revenge motivation against Inuyasha but to go to such lengths...

It seemed like it would be easier just to kill Inuyasha outright rather than resort to this. To put in such effort into what could only be described as torture seemed excessive. In some ways, Miroku wondered if she even intended to be found and if not, exactly what that meant for either of their dear friends. Perhaps she merely wanted to cause Inuyasha to descend into madness and the monk didn't particularly look forward to having to deal with a grief-stricken, addled half-demon capable of tearing him apart. He would, naturally, for as long as he remained in this world but that didn't mean...

"Two," Sango interrupted his dark thoughts as Kilala transformed and she mounted with practiced ease before gesturing for the monk to join her, "Two of what?"

Miroku followed the half-demon's aura for a moment longer before slowly moving towards the transformed demon and getting on. His behavior had been concerning and uncharacteristic. Not to say Miroku's face would've betrayed his underlying fear to the untrained eye. It was a mask of serene calm, defiance and confidence. Sango, however, knew him well enough for the sudden seriousness and slight hesitation to betray his true feelings on the matter.

"Barriers," Miroku replied in a calm, even tone devoid of emotion as he settled behind the slayer, "One clearly belongs to Kikyo but the other…is more difficult to describe…"

~o~o~o~o~

"I should go back," Jiro mumbled to himself as he tightened his grip on the thick branch he'd grabbed to defend himself, "This was a stupid idea. Stupid stupid stupid..."

All he'd wanted to do was apologize for being an ass. He had gone too far like he always did when he got his heckles up. He got that from his dad. Father never knew how to control his temper and his sister had always tried to get Jiro to bet on how quickly he'd apologize after. The record was five minutes. It was always because of his runaway mouth. Never cruel or anything. Just more...

Shuddering when he heard Kagome's heart-stopping scream once more, his grip tightened around the blunt instrument as he picked up the pace. He was such an idiot. This woman he was up against was nuts. Absolutely insane and crazy powerful. Able to control somebody to the point they almost died with no way for them to fight it and...

He had a freaking stick.

"What the hell am I doing?" Jiro swore softly before flinching when he saw one of those floating, nasty noodle things floating just up ahead. They looked kinda like snakes but also like something straight out of Pokémon. A Dragonair maybe? Shit if time travel and mutants were real why couldn't Pokémon be, right? He'd managed to avoid them so far although *how* he had no idea. Maybe it was like Pokémon and you had to step directly in front of them or something because they should've noticed him by now. It wasn't like his presence wasn't noticeable. Hell he'd managed to step on like every dumb twig on the way here. It made no sense. None. But nothing made sense anymore. Nothing.

What made this nonsensical situation so much worse was that he was clearly on his own. That woman in the clearing obviously had no intention of helping. Some friends they were. And InuYasha was probably either dead already or kidnapped again so there was no counting on a random appearance to save the day either. It was up to him and he'd been following the crazy lady religiously for what seemed like forever. Didn't she ever get tired? Damn.

Speaking of things that made no sense, why was he here again? Talk about bad life choices. He had no idea where he was. No clue how this world worked or what to expect. He barely knew this girl. He felt under-qualified for this.

"This is such bullshit," Jiro breathed before shuddering when he saw the grotesque snake-like creatures glisten in the moonlight like they were covered in some type of slime, "Why snakes? I hate snakes."

It was in that moment that one of the flying bastards seemed to notice his presence and began floating towards him. He regretted saying anything louder than a whisper and tensed.

"Nope," Jiro breathed anxiously as he began rapidly retracing his steps when the thing picked up speed, "Nope. Nope. Shoo. Go away. Go away."

Squealing girlishly when the thing darted forward at inhuman speed, Jiro clenched his eyes shut and ducked and waited...and waited...and waited...

Cracking open one eye, he was startled to see a blue bubble surrounding him and his eyes shot open in shock. Despite all the screaming, Kagome must be somewhat okay if she was helping him like this. Sighing in relief, Jiro shakily to his feet - holding his stick at the ready before dropping the damn thing like it burned when it too began glowing that ethereal blue.

"What the literal..." Jiro breathed as he stumbled away from the no longer glowing blunt instrument and landed painfully on the ground outside the bubble which shimmered before dissolving before his eyes. Holding up his shaking hands to inspect for damage, Jiro tried to slow his rapidly beating heart before gasping when the silver bastard started approaching again.

"Shit. Shit. Shit. Go away. Go away," Jiro hissed as he began scrambling backwards across the forest floor in a blind panic before holding his hands defensively in front of his face when one of the things made of nightmares rushed him.

Another flash of blue light had him cracking one eye open and he watched with morbid fascination as the snake screamed softly before dissolving. His mortified gaze searched for the source of the blue light and he swore when he saw where it was coming from.

"What the fu..." Jiro swore softly as wide brown eyes watched the light retreat back into his body, "Oh, I am so done."

So apparently this was happening now. Just the cherry on top of a whole series of events that had made no sense, challenged his understanding of reality and generally sucked. There had to be radiation here or something. Just like out of the superhero movies he fell into a batch of radioactive what have you and now he had gained superpowers. Take *that* scientists who said that wasn't possible. Showed what they know. Still might be right about dying horribly from cancer though. Radiation wasn't good for you thus the mutation to begin with. Why the hell did he ask this girl out? If he had just been a decent friend and not done it, he wouldn't be here right now. He really needed to work on his impulse control. That was for damn sure but what's done was done and now he was radioactive with stupid blue twinkly light powers. Great. Just...just great.

Unsteadily getting to his feet, Jiro reached for his weapon of choice with trembling fingers just as a few more of those noodles from hell began rushing towards him.

"Come on," Jiro huffed as he held the stick up like a baseball bat and prayed his newfound power would just do it's thing, "Make my day."