Chapter 14 – To Freeze
''You're not being fair to her, Kikyou, and you know it very well.'' Miroku spoke, ignoring the way the miko glared at him.
''He's right, she just regained stability in her life and you want her to leave it all behind,'' Sango said, knowing her friend was being unfair. ''Don't be selfish, she lost everything she ever had and just recently found a place she could call home. Don't force her to turn away from what could possibly be a happy future.''
''Happy?'' Kikyou snorted, not believing what she was hearing. ''Do you really think she could be happy living in the same place as InuYasha's brother? I thought you guys heard all the rumors and what InuYasha said about him! She can't be happy with someone that cruel and heartless!"
''Half-brother,'' InuYasha muttered, crossing his arms in front of his chest. ''It's the wench's choice anyway, who cares about what happens to her? Just get the shards and let's go!"
''I'm inclined to believe that she's quite happy with Sesshoumaru-sama,'' Miroku spoke, tilting his head to the right. ''Didn't any of you notice how she looks at him for support? She trusts him, and the little girl too, I don't think half of the rumors are true.''
''If you were there and heard what he said to her, you wouldn't be behaving like this,'' Sango pointed out, hoping to win over this little argument they were having for a while now. ''It's pretty obvious that Sesshoumaru-sama cares about both humans, even if it's just a little.''
''The only thing that prick cares about is his land.'' InuYasha scoffed, finding it hard to believe that his half-brother could give a second thought to anything besides power and conquest.
''She's a miko living in a place full of youkai, they're going to kill her!" Kikyou hissed, annoyed at her companions for failing to see what really mattered here.
''She takes care of Sesshoumaru's ward, I doubt anyone would try to kill her since the girl is greatly attached to her.'' Sango spoke, shrugging.
''She also pledged allegiance to the House of the Moon, only Sesshoumaru can kill her if she brings dishonor to his name...'' Miroku spoke, looking pensive. ''I doubt he forced her to do this though, she must trust him if she offered her loyalty so freely.''
''Oh, I feel much better now knowing that only Sesshoumaru can kill her,'' Kikyou sarcastically spoke, rolling her eyes so hard she thought they would get stuck inside her skull for the rest of her life. ''That solves all of my problems, why didn't anyone tell me this sooner?"
''It's not hard to annoy the prick though he doesn't usually show it,'' InuYasha spoke as he shrugged. ''He kills people for looking at him in the wrong way, I'm not sure the wench will survive for too long.''
''Thank you InuYasha, you surely are helping us a lot here!" Sango groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose.
This was pointless, they had been discussing the same thing for about an hour and no progress was being made. Sango felt as if they were running in circles and wondered for a second if InuYasha's stupidity had somehow started to spread like a virus and ended up affecting Kikyou, because the taijiya couldn't find another explanation for the girl's sudden stubbornness.
''He's dangerous, we can't leave her with him." Kikyou said, making Miroku almost groan in frustration. Years of training his patience seemed to be put to test right now, for he was about to give up on trying to be reasonable.
''It's her life, leave her-'' He was about to finish his sentence when Kikyou's eyes suddenly widened and she got up, running to grab her bow. ''What's wrong?''
''A shard!" She shouted and in the same second, InuYasha grabbed her by her waist and started to run, leaving the monk and the taijiya to catch up with them.
Dodging the trees, InuYasha ran as Kikyou guided him through the woods. She got her bow ready and infused an arrow with her reiki, the shard wasn't that far and she needed to get it before it disappeared or anyone else arrived there. Miroku and Sango quickly caught up with them, sitting on Kirara's back, and after a while the trees disappeared, making them face a dozen wolves.
Kagome and Sesshoumaru were already there, a bow on her hand and a sword on his, while Rin and Shippo were flying on Ah-Un's back. Kagome noticed that the girl looked strangely afraid of the wolves and made sure to get her as far as she could from them, she would need to ask either Sesshoumaru or Jaken about this later since both of them looked strangely protective of her right now.
''The shard isn't with any of them, Sesshoumaru-sama.'' Kagome spoke, frowning as she looked around. In a moment the shard was on her left and in the next one it was in a completely different place, leaving the miko confused. How could it be moving so fast?
''Show up now asshole! Stop hiding like a coward and come face us!" InuYasha shouted as he unsheathed his rusty sword and Kagome watched it transform with wide eyes into a brand new one.
Slowly, the wolves advanced on them and after spending a little while pushing them away, the hanyou quickly got frustrated. The wolves were just a distraction, it was useless to fight them and he decided to end the game.
Shoving Kikyou back, he prepared himself for the attack and with a quick move of his sword, unleashed the Kaze no Kizu, making half of the wolves be torn apart. Kagome's eyes widened, but not because of how powerful the attack was, instead, the one who possessed the shard became angry and his aura shifted, making her sense a second shard.
''He has two shards!" Kagome shouted, firing when a wolf suddenly dashed forward. ''Dammit!" Cursing when the youkai dodged her attack, Kagome threw herself on the ground and barely avoided being bitten.
Quickly putting a barrier around her, she threw her bow on the grass and made an annoyed sound when the wolf advanced on her again. He wasn't close enough for her to use a sword but not far enough to allow her to use her bow either, making her feel frustrated.
Narrowing her eyes, she watched as the demon circled her and concentrated on the spot behind it. An arrow made of pure reiki appeared and slowly started to follow the demon, which was oblivious to its surroundings, and Kagome stood still with a blank expression on her face. When she saw that it was going to attack her again, she narrowed her eyes and the arrow dashed forward, hitting the beast's back and making it turn to ashes right in front of her eyes.
Kagome picked her bow from the ground and backed away to a safe distance, noticing that Kikyou stood a few steps away from her and had a concentrated look on her face as she aimed and fired without taking a break. InuYasha was cutting the wolves into tiny pieces with his sword while the slayer and the monk fought together, Sesshoumaru was being surrounded by at least seven wolves and Ah-Un was spitting fire from where he stood, keeping the demons at a safe distance from the children.
Kagome wondered for a second where Jaken was, and wasn't really surprised to see him hiding in the branches of a considerably high tree, she could barely see his green form from where he stood and she scoffed. And he dared to call her the useless one.
From the corner of her eye, she noticed that a wolf was going to attack and got her bow ready, but when the demon was about to lunge forward and she was going to fire, something happened. The youkai stopped suddenly and slowly started to back away from her, she eventually noticed that this happened with all of the wolves and wondered what was going on.
''What the fuck are they doing?'' InuYasha asked as he warily eyed the wolves, watching how they all seemed to gather around a certain spot and suddenly, a gust of wind hit their faces and they were forced to close their eyes.
Kagome was confused, before she closed her eyes she had been standing at Kikyou's side and now that she opened them, she was surrounded by wolves and they all eyed her like she was their favorite meal. Alarms went ringing on her head and she saw that standing a few steps away from her was a tall youkai, then her eyes widened when she felt both shards on his body.
Quickly scanning him, she saw the familiar glow of the shikon on his feet and was about to warn the others when a hand suddenly grabbed her chin, forcing her to stare at the ookami youkai.
''You shouldn't be able to sense the other shard,'' The youkai commented, his brown eyes narrowing as he stared at her. ''There's a barrier around it, how did you do it?''
''I'm a miko, we are trained to detect holy energy.'' Kagome answered, but he seemed dissatisfied.
''The girl back there, she didn't notice it, so why did you?'' The youkai asked, holding her face a bit too tightly for her liking and turning it from left to right as he examined her. ''Oh well, I guess it doesn't really matter, you can sense the shikon and you are quite attractive to the eye… I think you're good enough to be my mate. I have no desire for the complete Shikon no Tama, but if my woman can find an extra shard or two for me I won't complain.'' He said with a shrug, making Kagome's eyes widen.
''What?!" She shrieked, not being able to do anything because if she hurt him, she would be torn apart by all the wolves that surrounded her.
She pressed her lips together as she remembered what Sesshoumaru taught her, and as she looked around, she realized she was hopeless. There was no way she would able to run away when she was caged between a dozen wolves and a demon manhandling her, she also didn't have enough control to create an arrow for each one of them, and panic slowly started to take over her mind.
She tried to calm herself down. Sesshoumaru was there, not only him but Kikyou and the others too, no one would be able to do anything to her, but when she felt the youkai's arm encircling her waist and bringing her closer to his body, she froze in place.
Kagome blanked out completely as images of the day Onigumo tried to have his way with her entered her mind and fear took over her body. She bit back a scream and closed her eyes tightly, she didn't feel her body moving, but in the moment she opened her eyes again, she had her dagger infused with reiki tightly pressed against the youkai's neck.
''Touch me again and be prepared to live without your hands, youkai!'' She bit out, her voice sounding strange even to her own ears.
She counted the seconds and waited for the moment where the wolves would tear her apart for hurting their alpha, and it was only then that she noticed her dagger wasn't the only thing pressed against the youkai's neck.
There was a sword too, with a really sharp and shiny blade, pressed close enough to draw blood, while her dagger only made a small burn as a warning. Following said weapon with her eyes, Kagome noticed that there was a pale hand attached to the hilt of the sword, and the magenta stripes on the wrist seemed strangely familiar to her.
''Touch her again and this Sesshoumaru assures you that your hands will not be the only thing you will be living without,'' A deep voice said as the blade was pressed tighter to the youkai's neck, drawing even more blood than before. ''If you manage to stay alive, of course.''
Eyes widening, Kagome looked up and saw that the daiyoukai looked as bored as always, and she let out a relieved sigh when the youkai let her go. Quickly moving away, Kagome positioned herself behind Sesshoumaru and looked around only to see that all the wolves had backed away, the daiyoukai's aura seemed to overwhelm them enough to force them into submission.
''Sesshoumaru? What are you doing here?'' The youkai asked, making the inu raise an eyebrow at him.
''This is my territory, or have you forgotten where the West is, Kouga?'' He answered, slowly removing his sword from the wolf's neck and watching him as he stood.
''We're already in the West? I was actually going to meet you, you could have introduced yourself more nicely, you know.'' The wolf groaned as he rubbed his neck, grimacing at the blood that kept flowing and now stained his clothes.
''You are as stupid as I remember,'' The daiyoukai spoke, making Kouga glare at him. ''I still do not understand how they chose you to be one of the four Lords.''
''I'll have you know that I take care of my lands properly, thank you!" The wolf huffed, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
''Great, fleabag knows icicle and they're friends.'' InuYasha, bored with the scene, muttered under his breath as he rolled his eyes.
''Shut up, mutt.'' The wolf barked, glaring at the hanyou.
''Why you- I'm going to kick your ass!" InuYasha shouted as he stood in a fighting stance, making Kikyou sigh.
''Kouga, what do you want? And why are you in this Sesshoumaru's territory?'' The inuyoukai asked, ignoring the way the miko tugged the sleeve of his haori and peeked from behind his back.
''I'm not really sure if it's only happening with me, but lately, I've been having trouble with the ryu youkai,'' The wolf spoke, suddenly turning serious. ''They are invading my territory but not attacking, I feel like they're searching for something and that's getting rather annoying.''
''Indeed,'' Sesshoumaru muttered, his eyes narrowing slightly when he noticed that he wasn't the only one with problems. ''Their Lord assured this Sesshoumaru that they would be controlled, but I am inclined to believe that this will not be happening anytime soon.''
''I see, I'm glad that I'm not the only one with trouble here…'' Kouga muttered before shrugging. ''It was nice meeting you again Sesshoumaru, I'll have you informed if anything else happens.''
''What do you think you're doing by saying goodbye? Come back here and fight me, mangy wolf! I want the shards!" InuYasha shouted, waving his sword in the air like a child who demanded attention.
Moving a bit to the left so he could take a proper look at the girl that hid behind the Lord of the West, Kouga spoke while completely ignoring the hanyou. ''I will come back to you later, my woman! For now, I trust Sesshoumaru will keep you safe!"
''I'm not your-'' Kagome tried to speak, but before she could finish her sentence, a whirlwind took over the place and she was forced to close her eyes.
When she opened them again, the youkai was gone, leaving her gaping at the spot where he stood just a few seconds ago.
If you paid enough attention, you would be able to hear a certain hanyou muttering curses under his breath as he lamented the loss of two shards.
