Chapter 11 – To Discuss

Rin warily eyed the man with puppy ears as she munched her fish, he was trying to scare her but she wouldn't back down. Putting on a cold expression that rivaled Sesshoumaru's one, the little girl glared back at the hanyou and they both stood like this until the miko knocked his head with her bow.

''For Kami's sake InuYasha, are you really going to enter a glaring contest with a child?'' Kikyou said, annoyed at how her friend was behaving.

''That girl is no child, she spent too much time around the bastard and now she's his clone, look at her expression!'' The hanyou complained as he rubbed his sore head.

''The only child I'm seeing here is the idiot, I wonder how you came to travel with some as unmannered as him.'' Kagome muttered as she sat close to Rin and protectively put an arm around her shoulder, making the girl smile briefly at her before she returned to glare at the hanyou.

''Desperate times require desperate measures,'' Kikyou said, grimacing. ''The Shikon's aura got too strong, no one was able to hide it anymore and many youkai started to threaten the village. InuYasha was one of them but after a while, I realized he was harmless and we became friends, he helped me to protect the place until the day the jewel broke.''

''How did this happen?'' Kagome asked, frowning.

''I don't know,'' Kikyou muttered as she bit her lip. ''Everything was normal on that day, I took care of the young ones, InuYasha helped the elders and we were living peacefully until the jewel started to burn on my neck. It ended up hurting me and I threw it away, when it touched the ground, it floated and simply exploded in the air.''

''The fragments went flying everywhere, Kikyou's hand still has the burn mark from when she held the jewel to throw it on the ground.'' InuYasha spoke, making Kagome's eyes widen when her friend showed her the scar on her left hand.

''I don't understand, that shouldn't have happened.'' She spoke, pressing her lips together.

''We left the village to find the fragments of the jewel, I can feel them and we're trying to collect them before they fall into the wrong hands.'' Kikyou sighed. ''But what happened with you, Kagome? You were gone for a year and a half and when I meet you again, you have a kitsune calling you his mother and the Lord of the West on your side.''

''A year and a half?'' Kagome's eyes widened, she had been with Sesshoumaru for a little more than three months, that meant she had been held captive for a whole year. ''I see, I'm sorry for disappearing, I simply couldn't help it.''

''Is this the only explanation I'm going to get?'' Kikyou spoke, biting her lip and frowning at the woman she considered her sister. ''I thought you were dead! I tried to search for you in the shrine but the place looked like it had been abandoned, what happened?''

''I still don't know what happened to Kaede-sama and everyone else,'' Kagome spoke, making Kikyou frown. ''One day, she woke me and said that I had to travel to a village close to yours, claiming that they needed help. I thought it was weird but did as she said, when I arrived at the village though there was nothing wrong with the place and after spending a few days resting, I decided to come back, something wasn't right.''

Sesshoumaru listened to the story with interest, but as much as he tried to solve the puzzle that had been formed inside his mind, nothing was making sense to him. The Shikon no Tama shouldn't be able to simply explode into small pieces, there was something wrong with this whole story and he couldn't discover what it was.

''When I came back, the whole place was empty. At first, I thought thieves had raided the shrine and killed everyone but I didn't see any marks of a battle or corpses, so I discarded this option. I searched everywhere but nothing valuable seemed to be gone, everything was still there, except the mikos.'' Kagome said, frowning as she recalled how confused she was on that day.

''I decided to leave and search for you then, the empty shrine unsettled me and I didn't enjoy being alone, but I should've stayed there…'' She gulped, and Sesshoumaru noticed the change in her expression and the fear that suddenly clung to her skin.

Silently asking for support, the miko moved to face him in a quiet plea and his eyes softened slightly when he noticed this. Nodding at her, he patiently waited until she gathered her thoughts and spoke again, her voice trembling ever so slightly. ''I met a few of Onigumo's men on the road, they decided they needed some female company and took me to their master. I've been Onigumo's slave for a little more than a year until I managed to escape.''

''Dear Kami..." Kikyou whispered as her eyes went wide and her face paled, she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Kagome didn't give her time to digest the new information though, she continued talking and the older woman had a feeling that if she stopped, she would never be able to speak of that again.

''I met Shippo there and took care of him. While I was running away from Onigumo's men, I found Rin and she helped me.'' A small smile appeared at the younger miko's face as the little girl who stood at her side suddenly hugged her.

Kikyou, though still in shock at the revelation, paid attention to what her friend was saying. She heard the rumors about Onigumo, he was ruthless and many claimed that once he raided the villages and burned the houses down, he took every single survivor and made them work for him until they became too weak to be useful anymore and were killed. Death seemed to follow his steps, and anyone who had the misfortune of meeting him seemed fated to reach the other side of existence sooner than expected.

''I couldn't leave Kagome-chan alone! She was tired and weak, and yet, she tried to protect Rin-chan from the bad men!" Rin spoke, making the slayer look at her with soft eyes. The girl was an interesting little thing, the way she spoke mirrored pretty much the daiyoukai's speech and Sango found herself wondering about how two beings so different ended up meeting.

''That was very brave of Kagome-sama.'' She commented, truly impressed.

''I couldn't leave two kids to die because of me, I wouldn't be able to rest in peace. Luckily, Sesshoumaru-sama saved us!" Kagome spoke, smiling brightly at the daiyoukai, who simply shook his head at her, as if silently saying that what he did was nothing really important.

The monk and the slayer watched the exchange with curiosity. They both, though appalled at what had happened to the miko, didn't dwell on the thought of what she had been through while in Onigumo's possession and instead, decided to focus on the scene right in from of their eyes.

Both of them noticed how she seemed to hesitate before speaking about this subject and how her eyes searched the daiyoukai's ones for support. The look of pure gratitude she had when she smiled at the Western Lord after saying he had saved her made the slayer and the monk wonder if the rumors they heard about him were true.

They had never met the inuyoukai before, the only things they had heard about him came from InuYasha, who had a biased opinion that involved him being shunned by society with the influence of his brother and disliked for simply being born. The slayer knew the world was merciless with hanyous and that most youkai disliked them, but the human-hating image of Sesshoumaru that InuYasha had created in their minds simply didn't match with what she was seeing.

How could he be a cold-hearted bastard when it was clear that both human girls searched for him for support? If he truly hated humans, she doubted he would even bother to keep the two of them around.

InuYasha, upon hearing the good deed Sesshoumaru had done, scoffed. ''I bet the asshole had an ulterior motive to do this, he wouldn't be able to save a bug unless he wanted something from it. He's a heartless and bloodthirsty bastard! ''

''You call him bloodthirsty and yet, you were the one who attacked us without a reason.'' Kagome said, not forgetting what he did earlier.

''Seeing him is already a reason to attack, the bastard is always trying to kill me just because I'm half human!" InuYasha snapped back and Kagome glared at him.

''I didn't see Sesshoumaru-sama do anything against you ever since we came here, he only defended himself from your stupid attacks. And even if you want to kill him, that is not my problem, there was no reason to attack me too.'' She spoke, raising an eyebrow at the hanyou's annoyed expression

''Anyone that stays on that bastard's side is worth dying!" InuYasha growled and Kagome narrowed her eyes at him.

''Even an innocent miko and two children that have nothing do to with your stupid sibling rivalry?'' Kagome snapped back.

''Listen here wench-'' InuYasha was about to snap when Kikyou grabbed him by one of his ears and painfully twisted it, making him scream in pain. ''What the fuck, Kikyou?''

''You will behave, InuYasha!" The miko snapped, twisting his ear one more time. ''Kagome is right, until now, Sesshoumaru-sama did nothing against you and you were the one who started this whole fight so don't you dare to call her a wench!"

''But-'' The hanyou tried to protest, but a single glare was enough to shut him up.

Meanwhile Kagome and Sesshoumaru watched the exchange with curiosity, who would've thought that a fragile looking miko like Kikyou would be able to tame the wild hanyou with such ease?

''You told Sesshoumaru-sama that Kikyou was the one you were searching for if I remember correctly,'' The monk spoke, making everyone turn to look at him. ''Why were you looking for her?''

''And why did you tell the Lord of the West about the Shikon? I recall you saying that she was the keeper, I thought this was a secret in the miko society.'' The slayer asked, confused.

She herself only knew about it because she had been born in the village where the jewel was once kept and her grandfather had been one of the men that were chosen to look over the keeper every once in a while. No one else knew about this besides a few slayers and priestesses, so why would this girl freely talk about it with a youkai?

''Almost a week and a half ago we faced some trouble,'' Kagome sighed, knowing they were suspecting her of being a traitor. ''One of Sesshoumaru-sama's warriors had been badly hurt and they called me to heal him. When I arrived there, he explained that he got injured while trying to separate five youkai who were fighting over the fragments of the jewel.''

Pulling the necklace out of her kimono, Kagome held it for everyone see, briefly noticing that InuYasha's eyes widened at the sight of the shards. ''I had to explain why I knew about the shards to Sesshoumaru-sama, in return, he gave me them to protect.''

''Sesshoumaru? Giving away something that could make him more powerful?'' InuYasha snorted as soon as she finished speaking, it had to be the biggest bullshit he ever heard in his whole life. ''He is almost as power thirsty as Naraku, I doubt he would let the chance of getting the jewel slip away from him.''

''Unlike what you may think, little brother,'' Sesshoumaru finally decided to speak, making everyone turn to look at him with wide eyes. ''Power acquired with the help of a jewel is of no use. I walk the path of supreme conquest and I will get more powerful by my own merit, not because of some cursed piece of marble.''

''Umm, who's Naraku?'' Kagome decided to speak, noticing how tense the atmosphere had become once the Lord of the West had spoken. She could clearly see that InuYasha was about to explode and she didn't want to deal with him anymore.

''Onigumo's dead,'' The monk started to speak, making Kagome turn to face him so fast that her neck hurt from the abrupt movement. ''There are rumors that he was so evil that thousands of youkai wanted to take his soul. He freely offered it to them and in return, asked for the opportunity to live once again, thus becoming Naraku.''

''Dead?'' Kagome whispered, her eyes widening as she gripped the hem of her kimono tightly.

''Yes, rumors say that one of his buildings caught on fire and he got trapped inside.'' The slayer spoke, and after her words finally sunk into Kagome's mind, she smiled darkly at them.

''I did it,'' She said before she burst out laughing. ''Dear Kami, I really killed him!''

''You did what?'' Kikyou asked, completely confused.

She could see brief flashes of the girl she knew but this Kagome in front of her was almost a completely different person. The twisted smile she had on her face now was almost enough to make Kikyou believe she had lost her sanity while she was in Onigumo's possession.

''His building didn't get on fire, I did it.'' The miko said as her laughter became a soundless chuckle. ''He tried to kill Shippo that day, I snapped when I saw him with a blade close to my son's throat and attacked him with the closest thing in reach.'' She said, pulling the small kitsune closer to her body as if reassuring herself that he was really there.

''The thing happened to be a torch and I didn't think I would survive so I decided that if I was going to die, I would take Onigumo to hell with me too and set his clothes on fire.'' Kagome shrugged, in that moment she realized she had really accepted her death in the past and wondered what had happened to the girl full of hopes she once was.

''It was bound to happen, sooner or later someone would have gotten tired of his actions and hired an assassin to deal with him.'' Sesshoumaru simply said once he noticed the shocked look the others had on their faces.

''I never thought I would agree with the asshole but he's right. I had heard a few rumors about one of the human Lords wanting to hire an youkai assassin to kill Onigumo a few days before the news of him dying were spread." InuYasha said, shrugging too.

Kikyou, still shocked by everything she heard today, nodded before her expression hardened and her eyes narrowed. ''Naraku was Onigumo, so that means a part of him still lives. We can't let him get the jewel, there are rumors that he plans on collecting all the shards to wish to be a full demon.''

''I see,'' Kagome muttered, then after taking a look at Rin, that was almost falling asleep, she decided that they needed a break. ''Now that we discussed a part of what we needed to, how about we rest?''