Akimoto stood in a clearing, glaring intensely at the floating old woman Taiitsukun.

"Do you have something you wish to say to me, child?" Taiitsukun was completely unfazed by Akimoto's fierce expression.

After Akimoto had left Inuyasha behind, she spent the next two days limping around, only resting occasionally, looking for jewel shards to no avail. When Akimoto had woken up on the third day from only a very few hours of sleep, she had found Taiitsukun in this nearby clearing.

Akimoto clenched her fists as her body shook with anger. Unconsciously, the silver glowing symbols appeared on her skin while her pupils glowed. The wind started to pick up and swirled into a whirlwind around them. Shoulders trembling, Akimoto looked down at the ground and clenched her teeth. She wanted so badly to go off on Taiitsukun about what she did, but, at the same time, feared about what the consequences of doing so might be.

And even if that weren't the case…

Akimoto finally realized that the whirlwind was coming from her when she saw the glowing symbols on her legs. She grimaced as she rolled up her sleeve and witnessed the same symbols on her arms. Her abilities had somehow activated even without the microphone.

Is it because…I'm angry? Are these powers based on emotion like my darkness is?

Seeing the symbols only reminded her of the incident a few days ago when she accidentally shattered the Shikon Jewel. The faces of the scared and enraged villagers filled her head. She was once again hit with heavy regret.

"I cannot read your mind, girl, so instead of emoting and throwing a tantrum with your wind, use your words," Taiitsukun demanded, snapping Akimoto out of her thoughts.

The wind died down and the symbols disappeared. Again, without Akimoto's conscious consent.

Remembering her ire towards Taiitsukun, Akimoto took a deep breath and tried her best to keep her poker face and keep her emotions under control. "Why…?"

"Hmm? Why what?"

Akimoto kept her voice low and steady, but there was a little bit of tension in it that could be detected. "…why did you give that demon the jewel?"

"Is that not obvious? I did it to motivate you to use your powers. And it worked, did it not?"

Akimoto could literally feel the rage boiling up inside of her, but still did her best to keep her cool. "You put the lives of thousands if not millions of people in danger just to teach me a lesson?"

"It was an important lesson. You wouldn't have learned any other way."

Clenching her fists once more, Akimoto said, "I broke the jewel because of what you did…"

"You broke the jewel because of your inexperience. If you knew what you were doing, that wouldn't have happened."

Akimoto spoke through her gritted teeth. "If you knew that I didn't know what I was doing, then why put me in that situation?"

"You learned how to use your powers, did you not?"

Snap.

The symbols returned upon Akimoto's skin and an immediate fierce whirlwind encircled the two of them with the force of a minor tornado. Some dirt and small rocks got caught up in the winds and spun around them.

"YOU PUT PEOPLE'S LIVES IN DANGER!" Akimoto shouted.

Ignoring the display of power, Taiitsukun remained unaffected and spoke in her usual tone. "They'll be fine."

"They won't be fine! Even if I manage to find some of the jewel shards, demons will come across the ones I didn't find and use them to hurt innocent people!"

Taiitsukun responded, "Demons were capable of killing humans before they got the jewel shards. At least be grateful that none of them are in possession of the entire jewel."

"How…" Akimoto's fury slowly turned into sadness. The wind died down, dropping the dirt and rocks. A light breeze remained, however. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes as she looked down at the ground. "How could you be so callous? Why…did you make me do that?" I know she said it was to teach me how to use my powers but…why did it have to be that?

Taiitsukun sighed. "You know, you're not very good at hiding your emotions."

Akimoto looked up at her, confused about this off-topic remark.

"For years, you've tried so hard to appear as if nothing bothered you. That might have fooled the people of your world, but now that you're being pushed, you can't keep up the façade for very long. It's always interesting to see at what points you just can't handle pretending anymore."

Akimoto looked at her with an expression of concern and mild annoyance. Is this just a game to her? And what does she mean by "always?" Has…has she been watching me…before she even met me? Akimoto found it hard to form any words to dispute what the old woman was saying. She had already proven before that she knew more about Akimoto than she logically should have been able to know.

Akimoto shook her head to get the distracting thoughts out of her mind.

"Don't change the sub—"

"Such an arrogant child...thinking you know what's best; thinking that you can predict outcomes better than I can when your knowledge does not even begin to reach the depths of my own." Taiitsukun's eyes narrowed. "Listen up: You lack many things that would make you a competent protector."

Akimoto lightly gasps, but otherwise remains silent as she allowed those words to sink in.

"Even without being able to see into the future, I know for an absolute fact that without my interference, you would have lost the entirety of the Sacred Jewel to some creature at some point. In this event, said creature would undoubtedly use that power to ruin the lives of many more innocent beings than a creature with a single shard. That is without question. In the current scenario, even though the jewel is shattered, each obstacle that you face will be much more manageable to you and will give you opportunities to hone your skills. The skills, mind you, that you only now realize that you have because I know that you require extreme circumstances in order to learn certain lessons. I. Did. You. A. Favor."

Avoiding eye contact, Akimoto spoke with an unconfident tone. "I would have protected that jewel with my life."

"Given how little you care for your own existence I have no doubt that that would be the case. Nevertheless, you'd die in vain. Now listen up: people are going to die. You must face facts Akimoto, you can't save everyone. And sometimes, sacrifices are necessary for the most favorable outcome."

Akimoto opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it as she reconsidered her response. I don't agree with that. People's lives are not the right "sacrifices" to be made. I don't care what the ends are…it doesn't justify the means.

But…

She's right…I can't protect anyone right now…not as long as I don't know how to control this power. Akimoto held up her palm and looked at the glowing symbols on it. I didn't tell this wind to start blowing…it just did it on its own.

Taking out her wand, which she had kept in place against her waist via the elastic waistband of her pants, she looked at the glowing item.

I wonder…

Taiitsukun closed her eyes and turned away from the young woman and spoke in a lower volume to herself. "However, that isn't necessarily the case here. At some point, you will have to accept that, though."

Not completely hearing what Taiitsukun had said, Akimoto responded with, "What?"

"Never you mind." She then turned back around to face Akimoto. "So, does all this whining mean that you wish to give up and go back to your world?"

Wiping the accumulating tears away from her eyes, Akimoto, despite being called out, put her apathetic poker face back on as she looked up at the old woman. "No. I'll stay. I'm getting those jewel shards back."

Taiitsukun gave a small approving smile. "Very well. Now," she scanned the area, "I know this display of yours was done by accident, but do you remember how to purposefully activate your wind powers?"

Akimoto remembered releasing her power against the demon and how she used her voice to activate the attack. Realizing the exact method in which she made her powers work caused Akimoto to frown and blush profusely.

Taiitsukun, puzzled at this reaction, cocked an eyebrow as she asked, "What is it now?"

I was so caught up in the moment that I didn't stop to think about what I was doing! I said something so cheesy and then I sang in front of everyone! They saw and heard everything! Do I really have to sing in order to control my powers?! It makes sense since it's a microphone, but seriously?!

Taiitsukun just awkwardly watched the silent Akimoto clearly going through something internally, but could only gather that she was feeling anxious about something.

This girl gets stuck in her own thoughts quite often, doesn't she? Taiitsukun asked herself. After a few moments, she decided to break Akimoto out of her situation. "Akimoto! I asked you a question! Do you or do you not know how to activate your wind powers?"

With an uneasy frown, Akimoto, still with a flushed face, said, "I…I might…"

"Then show me!" Taiitsukun gestured to a nearby tree.

Akimoto knew what she needed to do, but she really didn't want to do it. She cared little for Taiitsukun's personal opinion about her voice, but it was still embarrassing.

"Well?"

Grimacing, Akimoto faced the tree and held the glowing mass of silver light that was in the shape of a microphone up towards her lips. She took a deep breath and exhaled.

Get over it, Akimoto. If this is what you need to do to keep people safe, then so be it, she told herself.

Akimoto envisioned in her mind what she wanted her wind to do: blow the leaves; make it obvious that it was her will making it happen. Face still reddened, Akimoto closed her eyes and sang out a perfect, steady note into the head of her wand. In an instant, a wide stream of wind with the force of that of a tornado came rushing out from her. Within a split second, the tree she had aimed at (and those around it) had uprooted and began to fly away at fearsome speeds.

Upon hearing the intensity of the blast, Akimoto's eyes shot open to witness this unfavorable display. Too strong! She concentrated hard on making the gusts stop.

The force of wind then reversed as if it were a vacuum, pulling everything it had pushed towards the young woman and her mentor at the same ferocious speeds.

Akimoto, with a terrified expression, and without any intent or warning, had stopped the output of energy. The silver glowing pattern on her body disappeared and her eyes went back to normal.

But it was too late.

Some of the trees still had enough momentum to continue being hurled in the direction that she had directed the wind to go. Akimoto was only capable of shielding her face with her arms and closing her eyes tight as one of the trees came rushing towards her.

Before the tree with the biggest threat could reach her, Inuyasha jumped in front of her and used his claws to slash straight down the middle of the tree so that both halves flew past them to the side. The other trees had finally lost momentum and fell to the ground with a large thud.