"So, you're saying Sesshomaru wants your jewel to kill Inuyasha?", Kagome asked.
She sat across from me with a spoonful of ice cream hanging out of her mouth. We were supposed to be setting up a game plan for going back to the feudal era, but we both seemed to be doing more eating than talking. She got two scoops of birthday cake ice cream while I settled on coffee and a bagel.
"Yup", I replied with bread chunks clogging my words.
"How do you know?", she asked, pulling the utensil from her mouth.
"My grandma told me that could be the only reason he's after it. Sesshomaru is too strong to want my jewel for personal reasons. The Black Shikon is only good for healing and purifying. A demon wouldn't be able to use that ability without some consequences to himself. So, it has to be that", I replied.
Lowering her head in dismay, she let out a long sign and placed the silver spoon down on the table. "You're right. If what your Grandma told you about the jewel is true, then we have no other choice but to fight to protect it", she said holding a fist up to her face.
Her look of confidence soon faded as she drifted off into thought. "But, that would mean he needs my jewel too. How are we going to keep him away from it? You have a spell on your's that won't let him touch it, but anybody can take mine! What if he comes after when I'm alone? I can't defend myself against Sesshomaru! He's a full demon and I can barely handle Inuyasha!", she rambled.
I grabbed her face in my hands to stop her before she went into full panic mode. With a few confused blinks she looked at me, now able to focus more clearly. "That's why we have to stay together. If we work as a team we can collect the rest of the shards of your jewel and combine the two together before anybody else gets their hands on them", I stated.
"But", Kagome stuttered. "Inuyasha wants the jewel for himself to become a full demon. There's no way he'd let us take them both, even if it is for a good reason. His mind is set on becoming like his brother."
"We'll tackle that problem when we get there", I explained. "Right now we have to work on finding all of the shards before they get into the wrong hands, okay? Do you know where the rest of the pieces are?", I asked her.
Kagome's face sunk and she slumped down into her chair. "When I shot it with my arrow, the Shikon Jewel kind of went... everywhere. It broke into a million pieces and are scattered all over the place. We have no idea where they all are, except that Naraku has a big chunk of them already. He's been collecting them as long as we have, but doing it much better than us."
She'd explained to me earlier that the Shikon Jewel was broken, but she left out the details of how it happened. I couldn't judge her though, I probably would have done the same thing in that situation. However, it did create a relatively big problem for us. The only time I'd been around Naraku was when he gave an arm to Sesshomaru in exchange for defeating Inuyasha. I don't remember him having the gift when he snuck into my room the other night, so it must not have been very good present.
Naraku's aura was so toxic when we met that I couldn't look at him for long without feeling like I was going to pass out. Even a piece of the White Shikon Jewel was extremely dangerous for him to have power over. We needed to get it back from him soon before he came looking for the other half. It appeared as though Kagome and Inuyasha had recovered a little less than that much of it. It dangled around her neck as mine did, glinting in the light.
"Excuse me", a small voice called from beside us.
We both looked over to see a young boy wearing an apron and a name tag that read 'Shouto'. He looked to be no older than thirteen, probably the son of the people who owned this place. His face was full and kind looking. Until his gaze landed on something in front of his face. He looked at it inquisitively for a moment, but then shrugged it off and turned back to us. It must have been a fly or something.
He gave us a big welcoming smile as continued, "Can I get you ladies any refills on your waters? Maybe some more coffee for you, Miss?", he asked sweetly to us.
Kagome and I both agreed to a refill on our drinks and he leaned down to grab the cups. Stopping in the middle of us with his head looking between the jewels around our necks. There was a glimmer in his eyes that I could see from beneath their kind exterior. Lustful intentions absorbed his gaze, as his orbs switched back and forth between our necks.
"Those are beautiful necklaces you've got", he said still hanging his head between us, hand firmly gripped around our water glasses. "Are you two sisters? They look to be apart of a set. Best Friends maybe?", he pried further.
Kagome and I both exchanged strained looks to one another. I could feel the warmth of my jewel burning at the center of my sternum from the young boy's proximity. There was something suspicious about him and I felt it more and more each second. The sheath of composure he was holding together was falling apart the longer he hung between us. His once brown irises were turning black and his skin was fading into a greenish grey hue. As if he was coming down with the flu in front of us.
"We got them down the street at the jewelry shop", Kagome lied.
"They aren't special at all I promise! You can go down there right now and buy the same thing. Everyone has one around town, they're very trendy. The classic look is really coming back into style these days", she blabbed in a panic. I knew she could sense the same thing I was feeling.
Small beads of sweat spackled his face and neck. Hands so slimy with moisture that our waters were beginning to slip from his grip. Large exhales of hot breath were raggedly escaping his mouth as his eyes danced back and forth with furocity.
"Do you mind if I touch them for just a moment?", he asked reaching out for both of our necks.
The glasses he was holding onto abruptly dropped from his hands. Shattered glass shards and liquid flung in every direction as they made contact with our table. Everyone in the room let out a gasp and a woman from behind the counter called out the boy's name with a harsh tone.
"I'm so sorry", he said. "I don't know why I did that. This has never happened to me before. It looks like I splashed water on your necklaces. Let me take them to the back to dry them off. It will only take me a moment. That's the least I can do for being so much trouble."
I grabbed Kagome by the hand and yanked her out of her seat. Barely avoiding his intruding fingers as he snatched at our throats.
"No thank you", I replied harshly. "We actually have somewhere to be right now."
The boy looked up at me with a dark and blank expression. "Please, let me help you clean up. This was all my fault after all. I'll only be a moment and then you can go on your way", he said putting back the sweet tone in his voice. Standing up straight, he shot us a creepy grin and placed his palm out in front of us.
"I said no thank you. We don't have time for that and it's not a big deal. We can wipe the water off ourselves", I said with a furrowed brow.
I was beginning to get annoyed with this kid. He didn't know me or Kagome as far as I knew but he was so forceful in his efforts to help us. This was going way past the point of good customer service.
"Is everything alright", the female manager asked. She was standing behind the boy with her arms crossed over her chest, tapping her foot in frustration.
"You're making quite the scene today, Shouto. What has gotten into? Are you listening to me? Hello? Don't ignore me when I'm talking to you, Shouto", she snapped, but the boy wasn't listening. His eyes were still locked on us. "I'm so sorry, girls. I don't know what has gotten into him today. He must be a little under the weather. He's usually always been one of my best servers."
"It's really not a big deal", Kagome butted into the tension with a light hearted, but wary, giggle. "Accidents happen all the time. I mess up everyday of my life, so it's not a big deal."
"Let me pay for your meals. Everything is on the house for going through all of this. And it's coming out of your paycheck, Shouto. Now apologize to these kind customers! They didn't have to be this nice about this. You should be very grateful", the woman barked at her employee.
"I don't care about my paycheck", he said with a still blank expression. "I want the jewels. Master Naraku told me to retrieve the jewels. That is all I care about now."
Kagome looked over to me with a shocked face, mouth open in awe. I gave her the same one back. We had both just heard him say that Naraku sent him to retrieve the jewels, but he couldn't have meant the Naraku that we were just talking about. There was no way that was possible. We weren't even in the same time period for him to know who Naraku was. I whispered to my partner that we had to go and she nodded in response.
Bolting from the cafe and out of the doors we could hear the woman screaming after us. But she wasn't really yelling at us, she was yelling at him. The small body of the young kid was sprinting after us. His run was haggard and tired looking. The pigment of his skin was getting more grey every time I looked back.
"How far away is your house", I shouted to Kagome. Both of us were wearing down from running so long, and we needed to find a place to take shelter quickly before the boy caught up to us.
"I live about a block from here", she stated out of breath. "Take this next right and we'll be there in less than a minute."
We kicked it into high gear and rounded the corner. I could see the large gate of a strine in front of us and knew that it must have been Kagome's home. A wail entered in my ears and I looked back to see Kagome sprawled on the concrete. She'd tripped in exhaustion and was lying helplessly on the ground, yards from our attacker. I turned around to rush over to her only to be stopped a flash of red fabric.
"I let you go home for one day and you can't even stay out of trouble that long", huffed the sarcastic voice in front of me. "How am I supposed to keep letting you come to this world when all you do is put yourself in danger?" He lifted his sword up and into the direction of the boy.
"No, Inuyahsa! Don't hurt him", Kagome begged from the ground. "He's being controlled by Naraku. There's a Shikon Jewel in his back, I can see it. He's just human boy", she frantically explained.
Though I couldn't see the jewel shards like she could, I was sensing the same thing. His aura was clearly that of a human but he acted as though he was being programmed like a robot to complete a task. Naraku was using him as a puppet to get to us.
"If the kid's got a jewel shard that's even more reason to kill him, if you ask me", the half demon snorted.
"Wait", I called from behind him. They both spun their heads around to face me. "Where is the jewel, Kagome?"
"It's in the back of his neck. Right under his hairline", she replied still on the ground.
"That's an easy place to slice. I bet you I wouldn't even have to use the Tetsaiga for this one", he said moving towards the slow moving kid and placing the thing sword into the belt of his robe.
The closer the boy got to us, the slower he ran. He looked exhausted with dark sweat pouring from his glands. Whatever power Naraku had given him wasn't strong and had worn off very quickly. Though he was still coming towards us with dedication to his mission, he was no longer a threat.
"Don't get so excited just yet, Inuyahsa. The kid may no longer be a threat to us but the thing coming out of his ear might be", I said in horror.
They both looked over to the exhausted kid and gasped when they started to see what I just had. A small bug was buzzing out of his ear. Another one, and then another, and another until a swarm of them were buzzing around his head. He seemed unfazed by it. The haze that was placed over his mind must have rendered him completely unconscious. He was now being controlled by the will of the jewel shard and the insects inhabiting his body.
"UGH! That's disgusting!", Inuyahsa said. "And it must mean that this is definitely Naraku's doing. Only he has the ability to control these bugs. He must have sent them here to find a host to take the jewels from you two. What a sneaky bastard."
"We can't hurt him. He's completely innocent in this situation. There has to be a way to get the jewel shard and those insects away without killing him in the proccess", I said. I would feel terrible if this kid was injured ,or worse, for something that had nothing to do with him would crush me. He was just trying to do his job and our presence alone put him in danger.
"Well, when you come up with a plan to let me know. Until then, I'm going to get that jewel from the little shit one way or the other", Inuyasha replied. The dog eared man lunged over to the sluggish boy in an instant, but before he could attack he was slammed to the ground by an unknown force.
"Sit boy", Kagome yelled.
She was standing up off the pavement and wiping dirt off of her skirt. I had no idea how she had done that to Inuyasha with only words, but I wished I'd had that for Sesshomaru. It would have saved me a lot of hassle, but there was no time to ask questions about their weird power dynamic now.
"Inuyasha", I called to the groaning half demon. "If you can GENTLY take him to the ground, I can probably get the jewel out of the back of his neck", I said.
"Probably?", he barked back. "Probably isn't good enough for me. I can take this pipsqueak down in two seconds if you'd stop butting in", he yelled over to Kagome.
"Well, I wouldn't have to butt in if you weren't such an insensitive jerk all the time. Have a heart sometimes, Inuyasha! Everything isn't always about the jewel", she exclaimed stomping her foot on the pavement.
"Having a heart is for weak little girls like you! If I left everything up to you, we'd have been dead a long time ago. You're just too much of a wimp to get things done on your own, just like right now. You need me, Kagome. Just face the facts and this will go a lot smoother for everyone", he snorted with a smug smile.
I could hear another hard force rumble the ground as she told him to sit for the second time. A wail of pain came from the half demon but I was no longer paying attention. In the midst of their bickering they hadn't even noticed that I was making my way over to the boy. He was practically dragging himself onto the pavement trying to get to us. Scratches and bruises trailed up and down his exposed arms from falling over himself, and his clothes were tattered and wet from sweat during our chase. Poor thing was barely hanging on, but the spell that Naraku had put on him wasn't letting him go no matter how much he suffered. I takes an evil individual to take advantage of a child like this.
He reached a bloody and quivering arm up to me with a blank stare and said, "Give me the jewels… I have to get the jewels for Master Naraku…"
I extended my hand out to him, before having to swiftly pull it back. The Saimyosho were swarming him again, buzzing over his limp figure for protection. They were menacing to say the least. Hundreds of them hovered over his head with an ear splitting vibration. I knew that I needed to get them away from him to extract the jewel but I wasn't sure how to approach them without putting my life in danger as well. Or risking them snatching my jewel.
"Move out of the way", Inuyahsa said jumping in front of me. "I'll take care of the bugs, but you have to swear that you can get the jewel from the kid. Got it?", he said cracking his claws, preparing to fight.
"I can do it", I stated with insecurity still weighing down my voice.
I had never done anything like this before. The Black Shikon Jewel around my neck had been controlling me up until this point, but it was about time I learned to harness my gift without its guidance. While Inuyasha slashed at the Saimyosho, I ran to the groveling kid. Kneeling down to his level, I asked, "Are you okay, Shouto? That is your name right?"
He only continued to groan quietly about needing the jewels. He was so weak all he could do was lie lifeless on the concrete with his face on the ground. Brushing the hair at the nape of his neck away, I could see the spot where the jewel had been embedded. A small scar was made when the shard was wedged inside.
The moment I touched the raised skin, my own jewel began to glow. There was a tugging sensation at my neck and I allowed the feeling to guide me in the right direction. I placed the object in my free hand and lowered it to the kids neck. All of a sudden the space between the two surfaces glowed and sparks erupted in every direction. With a pull upwards, I reeled the shard from the boys skin. Once it was out, the small piece flung into the air and a large insect quickly buzzed over to grab it.
"I got the Jewel out, but one of the insects has it!", I yelled over to Inuyasha.
"Oh no you don't", he said leaping in it's direction. He caught the Saimyosho in mid and air sliced it in half with ease. The rest of the bugs fled when he had the jewel shard firmly in his grip. There job was done here and they had failed.
"You did it", Kagome yelled while running over to us. "I told you that you'd figure out how to use your powers. You made that look easy", she said beaming with pride.
"I guess I did", I said back.
My joy was overshadowed by the daunting presence that Naraku had left with me. I think we all knew that this small win was nothing in the grand scheme of things. We would have many more of these to go before beating Naraku and his henchman.
"Let's not get our hopes up just yet", Inuyahsa said, stating what I'm sure we were all thinking. "This seemed more like a test than anything else. He was trying to gage your power in this world, without mine and Sesshomaru's help. Everything about this seemed too easy."
A weak groan came up from the ground, pulling us out of our conversation. Shouto was doubled over in pain, rubbing his wounds.
"Don't touch those. You'll get an infection that way", I said down to him. Kagome rushed over to use and opened her backpack. Inside was a plethora of medications and creams. I took out a few and began nursing his injuries.
"I guess it's a good thing I live on an empty street", Kagome laughed. "Or else everyone would have gotten a good look at your ears, Inuyasha."
"My ears would have been the strangest thing about this whole interaction? There were insects coming from inside this kid's head, but my ears are weird? You two must live in a strange world then", he said with a shrug.
"We've got to get him back to the cafe. I think that lady was one of his relatives. She can probably take him to the doctor. He's starting to look a little dehydrated", I stated. "Can you carry him on your back, Inuyasha?"
"I thought my ears were weird. If I walk into town with him on my back wouldn't I be a distraction? That's what Kagome said", he pouted over to his companion.
"Oh, Shut up. I've got a hat in my bag you can cover them up with. Grab the boy and let's go", she demanded. She stomped over to her backpack beside me and dug within it until she pulled out a baseball cap. Inuyasha looked at it with a funny expression.
"How do I put it on? Is it a helmet or something", he asked with big puppy eyes.
Kagome huffed and forced the cap over his head. They bickered for a moment about personal space, and it should have annoyed me. All they did was fight with one another, however, it always amused me. It was like a weird way of showing affection.
With Shouto hauled on his back, we made our way back into the city. Everyone shot us bewildered looks because of Inuyasha's appearance but we tried to act natural like we didn't notice. Once we'd made it to the cafe, the woman behind the counter ran over to us. We told her that he was sick and out of it and that it wasn't his fault that he chased us. It didn't take much to convince her because he looked like death dangling over Inuyasha's shoulder. She thanked us for not being hard on him and promised she'd close up for the day and take him to the doctor immediately. Before we left she told us to come by whenever we wanted for free coffee and ice cream, which was sweet, but it was our fault he was in the state that he was now.
After seeing my skill of extracting jewel shards, Inuyasha practically dragged me to Kagome's house to return to the Feudal era. I explained that I wasn't supposed to go back there per my Father's wishes, but they pleaded with me to follow them. With a reluctant slump of shoulders I agreed to go back, but not before calling my house and telling them I'd be leaving. The phone rang twice before and old cranky voice picked up the phone.
"Hello? Who is it? Don't you know I'm taking a nap right now? What do you want?", Grandma's agitated voice screeched through the speaker of my cell phone.
"It's Kimmy, Grandma. I'm going back to the Feudal era with Kagome and wanted to tell you before I went, so Mom and Dad didn't freak out. Can you tell them for me", I asked.
"Ah, you're going to spend the night with your friend for a while. That is so nice of her to let you stay over so unexpectedly", she replied.
I took the device from my ear and stared at it with confusion. I didn't say anything about staying the night with Kagome. I said I was going to the Feudal era, not a slumber party.
"Grandma what are you talking about?", I asked.
"Okay, Kimmy! Have fun with your friend! We'll see you in 4 days, okay? Be safe. We love you", she said before abruptly hanging up the phone.
"You're grandma sounds like my grandpa", Kagome said from beside me laughing. "Always making up some excuse for why I'm gone."
When she said that it hit me what the old woman was doing. Mom was probably right next to her and she had to make something up to not get both of us in trouble. For a cranky geezer, I had to give her credit for being quick on her feet.
We went in Kagome's house and picked up a few food items, medicine, and extra clothes for the journey before heading to the shrine. Inuyasha jumped in first and then Kagome. I stood outside of it, nervously pondering if it would let me go through or if I'd plummet to the ground. I'd only ever gone through my own well before. Hopping up onto the edge, it lifted my legs up and tossed them over the side. In a bright flash of light I was thrust through the portal of the well, waiting in anticipation for where it would lead me on the other side.