He had been intent on going after the monk, but upon seeing the male was not only awake but that the monk was heading back toward the group he had just left he gave up that idea. Sulking at the missed opportunity he turned back to follow him anyways when the woman from the group walked by, grumbling about something. Hmmmm...I still need to get her to that ogre to complete that task. Turning to follow her he forgot about the monk, putting that task to the side for later.

"Finally," the raven haired girl grumbled. She had finally overpowered the girl, but she wasn't sure how long that would last. She was stronger than the girl with her raw power while she, she was a priestess with more training and a more tamed power that she could control. Tho when it comes to that half breed she is stronger. That was a curious thing. The girl had little in the memory department when it came to the Hanyou, so she wasn't sure why, with so many heated interactions between the pair, the human girl seemed to care for Inuyasha. "Inuyasha," she spat, her eyes narrowing as she thought of the male she had been courting. The male who had promised to become human for her. The memories flickered thru her brain, of the two of them walking hand in hand after months of skirting the edges of their relationship. Their first meeting hadn't been great. She had been injured and had assumed the person watching her was demon or even a human after the jewel. She had been confused because she could feel his demonic energy and yet, there had been an almost human-like feeling to his aura.

After that it had been just him following her, asking about this and that. The jewel a question since it seemed that he had never heard of it. When he had he had confessed that if he had one wish he would want to become full demon. "You didn't love him tho," came a soft voice. Growling at the girl again trying to break her control over the body she now shared with her incarnation.

"I did love him," she countered. They had shared so much, her first kiss and his as well. They hadn't kissed much after that, the Hanyou slightly un-nerved when he had nicked her with his fang by accident. It was the only thing that bothered her and it had seemed to bother him as well so she had proposed to him at one point about changing his wish.

*The pair sat in the very spot where she had been struck by him several months later, their hands intertwined as they looked out into the forest. "You could change your wish, Inuyasha." He looked to her in question, unsure as to what had brought about such a statement, but waited to see what she thought. "You could wish to be a full human, you know, wish to be like me." He seemed unsure of this request, but he didn't say anything so she again continued, this time trying to convince him. "If you were to make such a wish, unselfish, then the Shikon no Tama would fail to exist and I could be a normal woman." He finally nodded after a moment. He could help her and then they could be together.*

He had agreed to her idea and then months later, after all they had been thru, the days in the sun things had darkened. Her dream had twisted into a nightmare. The man she had given her heart to turning on her like a rabid dog with a deadly blow to her soul and her body. Thrusting the images away she paused in her walk. Looking behind her, toward the darkened woods she narrowed her brown eyes. "Come out before I purify every inch of your disgusting form," she hissed, Kagome trying to see who she was talking to. She wouldn't let this bitch harm her companions, tho like Kikyo she wasn't sure why she worried about them. After all, Shippo was a full demon, tho a kid still, and Inuyasha...he was more than capable of surviving without her aid. Still, she had grown a rather strong attachment to the Hanyou, well, to both of them. She wasn't going to allow someone to use her body to hurt them. Watching thru a blurry vision, Kikyo still keeping her under, she watched a human...no...he was a demon. The energy coming off of his tainted with such evilness that she felt fear shiver thru her body. Stop freaking out, stupid girl. I am not weak like you and this demon is nothing. Though, even as she thought this she knew that being in Kagome's body would hamper her. The girl, tho having similar powers, did not have the strength to handle Kikyo's own power, yet. He just looked like a human, his skin a pale beige color and his eyes a bright green, almost luminescent, color. He was dressed in black kimono, his hair short and black was spike slightly with some locks longer and hanging over one of his eyes.

He didn't look too foreboding, if one based him on appearance, but his green eyes were cold, with almost a frosty look to them. He approached her, stopping just feet from where she stood. "Am I talking to one who is split in two?" he inquired, tho he managed to sound uninterested there was a glint in his eyes. Those cold eyes held so much, but those ideas were hidden from her view and she was rightfully distrustful of the male. "I just ask as I heard you talking to yourself...or maybe to whatever voice was communicating with you." Then he seemed to throw those ideas away, a smirk twisting his features. "Or maybe you're just a crazy woman talking to those violent voices that wish ill on all around you." Her eyes narrowed at this, feeling the girl again trying to force her control over her body. Was she buying into this bullshit.

"Doesn't matter, now does it?" Kikyo questioned. "As you can't assist me in my predicament." She had let that slip. She was sure that this male was behind her soul being split between them. "You smell of graveyard dirt so I know that you aren't the main necromancer. You might be a slave of one such creature, but you are not one that could help me." She secretly wanted to know if he could truly help her. She had no body to speak of and Kagome's just wasn't a good fit. She wasn't about to keep on fighting herself when she had revenge to deal out.

"You are right," he stated with a bow. "My name is Narakunoshimobe, tho not many know me personally most have had dealings with my master." This made a brow rise in confusion. She had certainly not heard that name before. "Ah, you might have died before meeting my master, but he does have in his employ an ogress."

"An ogress?" she queered. "What good will an ogress do me?" He smirked.

"She is a demon ogress and one that is skilled in making bodies for souls such as yours. She could make you a body that would be better equipped to home your powers." This was fishy as it could get, but the idea of getting her own body held such allure. She hadn't wished to be brought back, sure as when she had died all she had needed done had also been finished. "If you don't want my assistance than I shall be on my way to my master." He turned to leave, a smirk appearing again as he turned his back and began to count silently in his head. He knew she would fall for the bait. She was human and human's were not smart creatures in his opinion. He just needed to give her time. She would crack, his master had said as much when he had handed him the incense to bring her forth. He had been looking for this girl since her appearance in his world. His master had heard rumors of the Miko's reincarnation and needing to know had brought him into his employ. Well, more had created him into his employ as his servant.

"Wait," Kikyo growled, Kagome pushing her way back up for just seconds before Kikyo pushed her down. She could feel the unease of the other woman, but she wouldn't allow her to dissuade her and so it seemed that the young girl was trying to push her way back up to make her leave. "Where is she?" He bowed again.

"I shall take you to her." With a turn he headed off, the former priestess following behind slowly, unaware that the girl she had pushed under was experiencing more of her memories. If she had thought to actually ask the male more questions she would know that the longer she took the more the souls would entwine, with only one winner of the body.

"So, why do you want to help her?" the kitsune inquired of the monk that was now traveling with them, the bike handles grasped in his hands as he moved it along the road. He had wondered about the contraption, Inuyasha still giving him the side eye as they traveled down the road. "You took the shards from her so why would you care about her?" He thought back to the fact that after he had left her, going to a tavern and not quite enjoying the woman that had been serving him. None of them had the beauty that she had had. He was bored with his attention from the less than attractive girls and after finally escaping he had thought back to her. He wanted to find her, maybe learn more of her story as she appeared to be such a strange woman as well. When he had camped down for the night, not sure of where she would have gone, he had felt the presence of another near him. An evil aura that flickered past him. It had been too fast to follow so tasking himself with dealing with it later he had rested himself at a local inn before heading out early the next morning.

"Truthfully, I was curious about her at first, but after all that you have told me I can see that I was wrong to take the shards a-"

"So, hand them over," the Hanyou stated gruffly, holding his hand out for the items in question. Miroku stopped walking, blocked from his path by Inuyasha. Shaking his head he maneuvered the bike around the male.

"Now, now, I don't think that Lady Kagome would have wanted these precious shards in your hands," he stated, gaining a smack on the back of his head from the male in question. "No need to be violent. We will find her and then I will hand them to her, tho the ones I earned myself I shall keep." Inuyasha growled at him. "It's only fair."

"You want to talk about fair? Like you're some revered monk or something," the silver haired male snarled. "I could smell you all over her.." he faded off, letting the other male know that he knew about his other tendencies he tended to do when in the presence of a female. "I wouldn't think a monk was so disgusting, tho you are a human." Miroku scoffed.

"First off, you don't know what I was doing or why and as for being a human," he stated, not bothering to look at the male. "You're half one yourself." That elicited a snarl from the male. "If I had known you were her mate or whatever I would have kept my hands to myself." At the balked expression on the male, his eyes grew wide.

"They're not mates," Shippo stated from his spot in the bucket, still clinging to his father's pelt. "Just strangers on a trip..." then he faded off, a pause as he appeared to be thinking of something. "No, wait, wasn't she some random person?" Miroku shot a glace at the now perturbed male on his left.

"Shut up, runt," Inuyasha hissed.

"You travel with some random person and save them?" the monk inquired with a slight smirk. "Doesn't sound like some random person." This earned another growl from the Hanyou. He shot them both a death glare.

"Just drop it, monk," he grumbled. "Why not talk about something important, like this Naraku guy you're hunting." At this the air grew thicker. The tension and hate from the mention of his enemy seeming to sober him up. "What kind of demon is he?"

"I never got to meet him. He showed up about fifty years ago and my grandfather battled him..." he faded off for a moment, deep in thought of the demon who had cursed him. "They battled several times over the years, but each time they met he was different."

"Different?" Shippo asked, Inuyasha trying to act uninterested in the chat, tho the timeline would have put the appearance of this demon at the time that Kikyo had sealed him to the tree. The day she had died.

"He took on different appearances, his appearances borrowed from different humans." He looked down at his hand again, the fear of what could happen in just a few years time depending on how often he used his cursed weapon. "In the last battle he was a woman, a beautiful woman from what I am told and my grandfather, tho a man of holiness was still a man." Inuyasha scoffed.

"A pervert is what you mean." Miroku seemed to ignore him, tho a sad smile graced his lips.

"Naraku split his right palm, going thru the beads, in his attempt to get away." A pregnant pause followed his reveal. "He was cursed and all of my family that was born of my grandfather found that they too were bound by this curse. He said it would soon swallow us up, destroying our family heritage. Our future." Inuyasha opened his mouth to speak, but the next words stopped him. A cold feeling crawling over his skin at what was revealed to him. "The Shikon no Tama disappeared fifty years ago and yet, it is back. Shattered, but still of use to the one who almost obtained it before it was taken with the priestess who was guarding it."

Kikyo. It can't be and yet...

"He almost had it, killing the young Miko who had it in her possession. Entrusted upon her was a cursed jewel for her to keep purified." It finally all fit together. Kikyo being killed by someone who had resembled him. It had to be her since she was the one that had been last with it, before it had disappeared with her into the afterlife. Just what could he do?

"Oi, monk, what does he look like now?" Miroku looked up at him, his face serious as he frowned at the question.

"If I knew that I would have already killed the bastard and then I wouldn't still have this," he grumbled, again looking at his cursed hand. "But as you seem to have a female with you that shares the body with the one who was killed by the same bastard, I feel that I shall assist her removing the other soul or at least quieting it back into its former state." Inuyasha looked down now. Kikyo, she was dead because of some bastard that had wanted the jewel, but that still didn't make sense. If he had wanted it, then why hadn't he come for it before Inuyasha? Or at least after Inuyasha for his prize?

"That sounds like a good plan," Shippo stated to the shock of the Hanyou. He had almost forgotten what the monk intended to do once he came across Kagome again. "I'm worried about her." He was too, but at the same time...he could talk to her. Get her to understand who had really killed her. He couldn't start a relationship with her as she wasn't really here, but he could at least give her peace and if he was being truthful...It would also give him peace since she really hadn't hated him.

Fucking hell, half breed! She still betrayed you! a voice in his head hissed. True. She had still betrayed him, not the Naraku fiend. Shaking his head he agreed with them. "We should at least get her back." Miroku looked over at him with a gleam in his eyes. Flushing at the male in anger he clarified, "She can see the fucking shards!" At this the monk looked thoughtful and Inuyasha realized his error.

"You know what Kagome would say now?" the kitsune said with an amused smirk. 'SMACK' "Stooooop!" Looking rather happy with himself the Hanyou snorted and resumed his trek back to Kaede's village. She would have answers to all this, after all she had been there fifty years ago. Maybe she had just been a little brat at the time, but she had been stuck to Kikyo's side and could tell them who she had assisted or run into that would have known their relationship at the time.

I think I shall leave it at this for now. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. :) Thanks for reading!