I love all of you who reviewed!!!!!!!!!!! Thank-you thank-you!!!!!!! And
for those who didn't review.you can make amends by.guess what!!
REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!! Ok now to answer everyone's kestions..:
Rose, vicious-wolfe, lis3386, foreyedbookworm: A geisha is a woman who trains for a long time in the arts of entertaining, singing, dancing, and flower arranging just to say a few. They are taught to be graceful and elegant and to please men, but they do not sleep with men nor are they strippers. They also perform tea ceremonies at the teahouses where they work. They are, in addition to there many qualities, very articulate and spend a lot of the time just talking to the men, while serving them tea and sake (rice wine).
Kikyou-oneesama: Geisha's are not prostitutes and the teahouses aren't prostitute houses. That is a very common mistake because sometimes a young geisha would have her virginity sold to the highest bidder.but it wasn't a very common practice.
Chris-san: Yes sometimes they would be bought at a very young age and it is true as well with the standing on the roof with the singing, but I thought that was a little um.harsh with the nails bleeding... hehehe ^_^ and there were also a lot of other things that they did to the maikio to that where really mean.
Kat: I have read the book Memoirs of a Geisha ^_~ it is a good book! The reason why my story is different from the practices of geisha from the book is because they vary over different time periods and plus some of the things in there wouldn't really work with my plot ^_^;;;;
Disclaimer: This is getting really really really old.but.a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do ^_^;;; I don't own Inuyasha, Rumiko Takahashi does.SHE IS THE BEST MANGA WRITER EVER!!!!!!!!!!!! Hehehehe now, ONE WIT DA FIC!!!!!!!!
Kagome and Sango where in the middle of the Yin and Yang dance that they had worked so hard on when Kagome kept getting a feeling that somebody was staring at her. I mean she was performing for the entire crowd but she felt as though this pair of eyes was only meant for her. (a/n corny.^_^;;; but that's ok.) Kagome began looking around the room to see if she could find the stranger. Finally finding him sitting at a small table in the back of the room, he had long silver hair and two little doggy ears. (a/n I think they are soooo adorable!!! Don't you?) Her eyes met his briefly before they flicked downward again because she was now entering a complex stage of the dance.
'I have to concentrate.'
They ended the dance with both of the girls posing on the stage waiting to be resurrected. After a few stunned seconds the crowd did nothing but stare. Thinking they were failures the two girls stood up and began to leave but as they did the crowd erupted in cheers and applause. Each of them grinned took a small, graceful bow, walked back over to their elder sister.
"That was beautiful! You couldn't have done it better and I think you have defiantly won the crowd over. Now you are to go over to the table with Miroku-sama and Inuyasha-sama because they wished to see you after you finished. Remember your training while speaking to them.
I don't think you have met Miroku-sama but I know you have seen him and have heard of his reputation. He can have a quick tongue and likes to make girls swoon. Sango, be mindful in what you say, I think he had his eye on you." Tsune cautioned them.
Sango blushed; it was true what she had said. Sango had watched the monk's eyes following her, but she knew his standings as being hentai. "Of course, nee-chan."
They walked over to the table in the back and bowed before sitting.
"It would please me to know the names of you two beautiful women." Miroku said turning on the charm. Inuyasha scoffed knowing his friends tactics.
"My name is Sango. We know you by reputation Miroku-sama and have seen you here many times before." Sango said warily eyeing the monk.
"Well, Sango, have you ever heard that it is best not to believe rumors? I'm sure a beautiful girl as yourself would be wise enough to know this." Miroku told her flashing her a grin, he couldn't wait to make this give fall absolutely in love with him.
"We have also seen you try to attract the attention of our older sister many times before, but however many times you have been here, I believe your friend here has not." Sango told him sweetly taking him by surprise. She had perhaps gone a little overboard, but she kept getting this feeling that there was something oddly familiarly about him, which just creepped her out.
'If it's a battle you want, it's a battle you get.' He thought mischievously, this girl was a challenge, which he would love at the moment.
"This is Inuyasha, he is prince of the western land. I believe you have heard of his father? Inutashio-sama?" Miroku inquired, using Inuyasha's standings as a prince to take Sango off her guard
"Of course." The maiko told him. Not letting her shock show in neither her face nor in her voice.
"Feh." Inuyasha couldn't really think of another way to enter the conversation so he said his usually line. "What's your name?" He demanded looking towards the girl who hadn't spoken yet, taking her briefly by surprise.
"My name is Higurashi Kagome." She said bowing her head slightly. She didn't know what his problem was or why he was so rude. 'He's a prince so I guess he's used to getting his way.'
"I believe that Inuyasha would like to ask Kagome-chan a few questions so I suggest that we go find a quieter place to talk." Miroku told the table knowing that his friend would want to figure out who she was and why she looked like Kikyo. Sango just snorted at the 'chan' he added onto the end but quickly turned it into a chough.
"I know that you usually take women to the bedroom but I would suggest that we go to the balcony instead, Houshi-sama." Sango told him, resenting the fact that he was hitting on her friend.
'Ah ha! Touché!' Sango thought.
Inuyasha nearly choked to death from hearing this, Kagome tried the best she could to keep from laughing but bit so hard on her cheek she drew blood, and the priest, you could say in the least, didn't expect that. He lost his composure for a second before regaining it and smiling his 'I'm-so- innocent' smile.
"I see my reputation proceeds me Sango-sama, but if you are that eager." Miroku just laughed softly at the gagging sound the girl across from him was making. Her face completely paled.
"Well, Miroku-sama. I see that you are everything that I thought you would be, a perverted monk with nothing better to do than hit on unattainable women. Now, shall we proceed to the balcony?" Sango said defending herself quite well. Kagome was trying terribly hard to keep from bursting out into gales of laughter and Inuyasha just watch amused at his friends verbal war.
The group made their way to the staircase in the corner of the room. Climbing up the stairs they all sat around a small table inside a small room with the door wide open so they could look out into the night. It was almost a full moon. What was an almost complete globe in the sky, was huge tonight, placed randomly among the stars. The large orb seemed beautiful to everybody, except one person, this was a warning as to what would happed in a few nights.
"Damn it." Inuyasha mumbled to himself. He hated this time of month. He always felt weak and his brother usually ended up nearly killing him. Miroku glanced at his friend knowing that in a few days it was going to be a hard.
"What's wrong?" Kagome saw the frustrated look cross the hanyou's face when he looked up into the sky at the hanging sphere.
"None of your business wench." He snapped back looking at her. She looked so much like Kikyo, it was uncanny, yet there was something different about them. "Kami, you look so much like Kikyo. Who are you??" He demanded once again getting angry at the thought of Kikyo betraying him and this look-a-like was sitting directly across from him.
"I told you who I am! My name is Kagome! I am not Kikyo or whoev-" Kagome stopped abruptly. She had heard about a girl named Kikyo. She had been the one to betray the royal family and had been murdered days later but only before swearing revenge.
"Kikyo." Sango repeated quietly.
"I heard about her, but.why did you think.that I was her?" Kagome asked him. She had also heard that one of the princes had fallen in love with this other.
"You look like her, wench, why else? She's dead though, it doesn't matter." He scoffed not looking at Kagome but to the side; unexpectedly he stood from the table and went out the door to lean on the railing.
"I am sorry about Inuyasha. He's a bit touchy and tonight is also the full moon which means tomorrow is the new moon." Miroku said not telling them what was so special about the new moon but only leading them on.
"Does he.turn human during sometime soon?" Kagome asked Miroku. Having living in a shrine she had some experiences with demons and hanyou's and the characteristics of their life styles.
"Yea I do, during the new moon." The dog hanyou announced from his post at the railing. Sango and Kagome looked curiously at Miroku expecting him to tell them why Inuyasha had heard.
"He's a hanyou, remember? Good hearing." the monk told them correctly interpreting there perplexed faces
Kagome got up and walked over the to demon and stood silently next to him.
"I am really sorry about Kikyo." She said quietly. People had been telling Inuyasha this all week but nobody ever meant it. Yet when he looked at Kagome; Inuyasha knew there was something different about this girl.
"Feh. What would you know about death? You're probably just as bratty and as rich as the other geisha's, sent here to make their family's more money." Inuyasha accused her. He didn't want her to be different from the girls, he wanted Kagome to be rich and bratty so he could hate her just as he did ever other girl that had ever spoken to him.
Kagome bit her tongue to keep herself from snapping back at him. She had remembered when her father died, the way she had felt when she had lost a loved one. Memories began to flood her of things she had not thought about in years. Things she had hoped to forget. How her father had been sick for several months and how she hadn't been allowed to see him because the village feared the disease spreading. How when he died his body had been so riddled with death, it had been inhumanly pale and thin, his eyes had been glazed over but Kagome shook that memory from her head.
"You are like them, I knew it." Inuyasha blamed her once again, misinterpreting her silence.
"No I am not. My father died when I was 8 years old and my family didn't have enough money to support themselves so I was sold here to become a slave and learn how to entertain slobbering rich men. You have no idea what it's like to be poor because you are a prince. You probably never had to lift a finger in your life." She spat back at him. (a/n this is an inu/kag fic. Don't worry. Just had to have a fight between them. ^_^)
Taken aback by that comment he just growled at her. This girl was completely different from any other girl in his life and exceptionally stubborn. He looked down on her and couldn't help smirking at the angry look on her face, it look so cute. 'Ahhhhh, ok.where did that come from?' He looked down on her again and now she just look pissed off and confused.
"What's so funny???" This boy was trying Kagome's nerves.
"Nothing." He left the railing and went and sat back down with Sango and Miroku who where arguing about something.
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"What do you mean that our dance was just average???? How would you even know? I bet that was the first time you had ever seen it in your life!" The hentai monk had struck a nerve on Sango that really made her mad.
"Yes, it was a good dance but I've seen better, that's all I can say." Miroku told her in a voice that said he was completely innocent even though what he said he thought completely and totally false.
"Well, you seemed to have a completely different opinion when you were practically drooling over Sango while she danced." Kagome said hotly. She had had enough of guys for tonight. Miroku couldn't think of a comeback in time and was left hanging as the two girls exited the room, both reasonably pissed off.
They found themselves sitting with Tsune at a particularly large table with large presents on the table around them. While watching Tsune open the presents, they saw the prince and monk slip out the door.
"Ok now I will choose two presents which I will give to my little sisters." This brought the maiko's back from their daydreams about the two boys. She picked up two seemingly random gifts from the pile and handed them to the teenagers who both looked shocked and delighted. After watching her for over a year in getting gifts the girls knew that the gifts there nee-chan was giving them where ones from the most prominent and eloquent of her fans meaning the presents were bound to be expensive and gorgeous.
Sango opened hers first to find that it was expensive makeup in a beautiful ivory box that had little tiny carvings of tiny elephants on it. The box had been imported all the way from Africa and the make-up from England. She gasped and bowed her head in thanks.
Next Kagome unwrapped her own gift. It, too, was foreign. It was a stunning small cherry-wood box with pink flowers surrounding the outside, outlined with gold. Inside was a tiny wooden mahogany hairpiece with a delicate flower on it. She also bowed in gratitude toward the original owner of the gift.
Neither of the contributors seemed please, to put it mildly, to whom their gifts were going to. Tsune appeared not to notice and proceed to open the rest of the presents while thanking each of the guests in turn for giving her gifts. The rest of the night was uneventful except one of the drunken men nearly threw up but managed to make it outside.
When the evening was through, they found their way to back to their room to retire for the night. Since they had become a geisha's little sister they had been treated better because Kagome and Sango had become a profit source for the okami. They resented her even more for it now because the way outa- san treated the other girls and the way she was exploiting Sango and Kagome for money. The maiko's new room was larger than there last, had a dressing table with a three-way mirror and a small changing screen. The girls' put there gifts on the dressing table and changed into a small thin linen cloth, which they used as pajamas.
The next morning they finished their chores early and went to seen Tsune who had summoned them.
"Will you girls please take these herbs to Kaede-baaba? I have so many that I don't really know what to do with them all." Tsune handed the girls a small box of spices and herbs. "I also believe that she needs a little help in her shop."
"We will be back later nee-chan." Kagome and Sango left with the box in hand and started off to Kedae's Tea shop.
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"Konnichiwa baaba!" The two girls said in unison as they entered the shop and bowed.
"Hello girls, I've been expecting you. Tsune said you would come by today." The old women smiled and invited them toward a small room adjacent to the shop.
"I don't know if you saw me or not but Tsune invited me to watch your performance last night and it was marvelous. I think that was the best I had even seen it presented."
"You've seen it performed before?" Sango asked her in amazement. The way Tsune had been talking about it she had thought that nobody even knew about it.
"Yes, yes, I have and I also know about that legend. Well, of course I do, everybody does, but I happened to know more about it than most. It is strange how reality can become so different from what people think it is. What I am saying probably seems like nonsense to you, so let me show you." The old woman stood up from the table and walked over to a bookcase where she pulled out a large and delicate book. It looked a thousand years old.
Setting it on the table she opened to pages that had been yellowed through time. Finally finding the correct page she pushed it toward Kagome and Sango and pointed towards a passage on the page.
'Yin and Yang have been know through out history as the two, almost identical, beings who saved the world from eternal chaos and the unknown being that sought to rule the world in hatred and war. Unbeknownst to most people, however, is the true legend of Yin and Yang. The symbol of Yin and Yang is a circle with one side pure white only disrupted by a small black circle. The other has is all black with a tiny white sphere in it joined together by a curved line. Yin was the black side, which represented the fact that she may have stubborn and had a quick tongue but she had a good heart and loved almost everything and trusted almost anyone. Where as Yang appeared to the one that was the kind and loved everything, but that was only an act used to deceive people and as soon as she was through using them she dropped them and sometimes even killed them. The true legend of what happens goes like this:
Yin was created more powerful than Yang because the kami's knew that she was the one with the good heart and the proper ability to maintain peace in the chaotic world and Yang was there only to be Yin's protector.
However the evil-minded girl failed her job because the more she thought about Yin being more powerful, beautiful and ultimately more kind than herself it brought Yang to become resentful of her. The Unknown person who had ruled in chaos before they showed up became Yin and Yang's advisor proclaiming that all he wanted was peace, but all the while plaguing Yang's mind, telling her that she was the rightful ruler and that Yin did not deserve the power that she had. The kami's saw what was happening to Yang and they knew that Yin would not believe that her counterpart was evil so the kami's created 3 protectors for Yin. The three guardian's and Yin all became friends very quickly but where a very unusually group. Yang envied her for having the friendship of two and the love of the other because she also loved the one called.'
Then the page was just ended. On closer inspection Kagome found it was ripped.
"WHAT?!?!? Where's the rest???" Kagome said staring down at the torn page. It had been like reading a good book and it stopping in the middle. Sango looked equally upset at the missing half.
"I am so sorry girls but I haven't been able to find it either, I have looked for it half of my life for it but that doesn't matter now, I have gifts for you." The old woman wasted no time in giving them the gifts and taking there minds off the legend.
"Sango, for you, I am sure you will have missed this." Kaede handed Sango a small hand-carved boomerang that had a small intricate design. (a/n it's the hiraikatsu.but I'm gonna give it transforming powers so I can go from big to small ^_^)
"MY HIRIAKASTU!!!!!!!!! How.how. how." She could barely contain her excitement. "This has been passed down in my family for generations! All of them were demon hunters and my hiriakastu has been around forever!"
"I am glad you enjoy having it back." Kaede smiled at the delighted girl.
"I hope it still works.HIRAIKASTU TRANSFORM!!" Sango shouted while standing up. All of a sudden the normal-sized boomerang became enormous, filling a lot of the space in the tiny room.
"Erk.Sango can you make it normal.onegai.it's crushing me." Kagome told her from her position on the ground.
"Right.hiraikastu.retransform.gomen Kagome." Sango said sweat dropping
"Kagome um.time for your present." Kaede noticed that Kagome still looked all swirly-eyed from the boomerang hitting her head but she continued on with the gift giving any way. @_@
The old woman drew out a small wooden box with a plain symbol on the front. Kagome and Sango looked at the tiny box with obvious interest. After closer inspection they saw that it was a Yin Yang. A talented artist carefully painted the small circle on, the curve moving very carefully inside the sphere. There was something extraordinary about this simple painting that anyone could have done. Dismissing the feeling when eagerness and impatience arose as Kaede opened the box. The old woman slowly and ever so warily picked up a small necklace. It was on a small silver chain that held a single charm. The charm was a small but strangely familiar, it was half of the black and white symbol on the box; Yin's half, the black side with a single slivery white dot in the middle.
"This is very valuable, Kagome, you must take special care of it. The raven color is made of black pearl and the white sphere in the middle is a mother of pearl. It is an ancient piece of jewelry and very delicate."
"I thank you very much for this beautiful gift.it's just that it seems very expensive I don't know if I should take it." Kagome looked at the small, and fragile charm in her hands, there was no doubt about it, it was one of the most valuable things she had even touched, let alone had the chance to have.
"I insist. You girls now must go back to the Teahouse now, Tsune-chan must be waiting for you." Kaede told them.
"Thank-you for the wonderful gifts and we will leave but first we have a gift to you from nee-chan." Sango said eyeing the small basket of herbs.
"Tsune-chan sends her gratitude as well." Kagome picked up the basket and handed it to Kaede and then got up. The to girls bowed showing there respect for the elder and then departed.
Watching the two girls leave Kaede walked back over to the bookshelf and withdrew a small piece of yellowed paper. She brought it back over to the book that was lying open on the table and placed it inside where it fit perfectly with the rip.
"I am sorry Kagome and Sango, you just must not know about this just yet." Kaede murmured quietly to herself before placing the book back on her self and attending to the shop.
The teenage girls where half to the teahouse idly chatting.
"I wonder where the other half of the necklace is. You now, Yang's side." Sango asked Kagome while watching her carefully slip on the necklace.
"I don't know. We'll have to ask Kaede next time we see her."
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That evening Kagome and Sango where to perform again but it wasn't their 'signature' dance, as the elder sister called it, it was one less complicated but performed with no less grace than the last.
That evening Miroku and Inuyasha had shown up again. They had been intrigued by the girl's ability to be both very stubborn and hot headed and appear to be graceful and quick-witted. Most maiko that they had seen, well mostly Miroku, would quickly agree with them on any subject just to win them over, and a lot of them giggled and blushed as Miroku flirted endlessly with them. It had been a long time since the flirtatious priest had seen a girl with such a fiery attitude such as Sango and it gave him such a thrill to verbally duke it out.
Inuyasha had no interest really in coming back but his friend had insisted and he had given in a little more easily this time than Miroku would have thought. They both were wondering if they would get a chance to talk to the girls again.
This time it was Tsune's doings that brought the four back together. She had noticed the night before and thought that these boys would be possibly suitors for her to younger sisters. While maiko were performing on the stage Tsune walked over to Miroku and Inuyasha.
"Miroku, I have a favor to ask of you." She said in a soft flowing voice that made Miroku almost melt. Tsune was a very well trained geisha that could make almost any man do her biding. She had the graceful way with words and movements that could emphasize the way she was speaking and stress her words making them even more elegant and beautiful.
"Anything for my lovely Tsune."
"If you go into the forest and to the left you will find a small path. When you follow that path it will lead you to my secret garden in the back. Earlier today I was back there and I lost one of my earrings that my grandmother gave to me and I hold it very precious to my heart. It would mean the world to me, Miroku if you could go find it for me." She asked batting her eyes lashes.
"Of course, I would love to, and Inuyasha has excellent eyesight, and would be glad to help as well." The monk told her.
"Oh arigato houshi-sama, but onegai, don't tell anyone about the garden." Tsune left the small table in the back and made her way towards the front where her admirers were sitting at the large table.
The priest and the royal left the room and started on the path towards the garden.
When Kagome and Sango finished their dance Tsune told them the same story but in more of a friendly order than a request. They to left the building and began towards the hidden pathway.
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"I don't know why I have to come along on this stupid hunt for a tiny earring." Inuyasha complained.
"Oh shut-up and help me look." Miroku told him.
"Ya, ya, and your suppose to be my friend; why did you just volunteer me li-" Inuyasha stopped mid-sentence and perked up. "Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Miroku strained his ears before he heard something, it sounded like someone talking. "Could be a robber or a someone looking to do some vandalism."
"Come on, let's sneak up on them and give them a little scare." Inuyasha said with an evil grin spreading across his face. (predictable, eh?.^_^;;;)
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"Did you see Inuyasha-sama and Miroku-sama? I saw them earlier, but they had left." Kagome asked her companion as they entered the garden.
"I wonder where they had to go in such a hurry." Sango mused aloud.
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"Did you hear that?" Inuyasha asked his friend in a whisper. "I sounds like, like girls!"
"I can't hear as well as you, but I heard someone talking come on lets get a little closer and we might be able to see them." Miroku told him as they slowing began creeping towards the unsuspecting people. The large garden was full of statues bushes and trees so it wasn't very hard to hide. Slowly moving closer they both caught a glimpse of the only other people in the garden, two girls.
On closer inspection they saw that it was, Kagome and Sango!
"What are they doing here??" Miroku hissed in a quiet whisper.
"How the hell am I suppose to know??" Inuyasha to looked just as bewildered as his best friend. "Come on lets just follow them and see what they are doing."
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"Well, Sango, it seems that you want to talk to Miroku again." Kagome told the other geisha-in-training with a sly smile.
"WHAT?!? I thought is was just fun to make fun of him." The girl told Kagome, beginning with resentment and ending in a smirk mixed in with an evil sort of laugh. "You didn't seem to mind when you and Inuyasha had that little private talk out on the balcony."
"Very funny. I just told him I was sorry that Kikyo died because I remember I was really sad when my father died. I just thought it would be nice if someone who knew what death was like said something to him. He actually got very mad though.but I guess he can't help it. I said some really mean things when my dad died." Kagome told her friend while walking slowly looking at the ground for the missing earring. "Anyway. So Miroku seems to like you."
"I just think that Miroku is a hentai. I mean he practically hits on every pretty girl that he sees, so I thought I would just rattle him up a bit and show him that not every girl is some stupid submissive weakling." Sango completed with a smirk.
"Go Sango!"
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Both of the boys behind the statue were completely lost, deep in thought about the conversation they had heard.
'So she really was sorry.I am such an idiot, I didn't mean to make her feel bad, it's just that she looks so much like Kikyo, but acts so different.'
'Hmmmm..I was certainly right about Sango. She is much different from any girl I've met before.and she said she wants to rattle me up a bit eh? Well, Sango, I except your challenge!'
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"But you can't forget, they are both defiantly cute!" Sango told Kagome.
"Defiantly!" Kagome answered as they burst into a fit of giggles.
Suddenly they both heard a loud crash behind them. Swiveling around they saw Miroku and Inuyasha lying in a heap next to a statue. They were both were looking part scared, part amused, and (the trait that every guy has.^_^;;;) part cocky.
"What are YOU two doing here?!?!?" Sango yelled at the top of her lungs, but not before blushing and wondering how much of the conversation they had heard.
Kagome couldn't even talk. She just turned bright red before opening her mouth, gaping. She began to let out a noise that sounded strangely like a growl.
"HIRIAKASTU TRANSFORM!!!" The trained demon hunter pulled out a small boomerang, which enlarged in less than a second into a massive lethal weapon.
After several minutes of yelling, eight large bruises on the head from the hiriakastu, and Kagome yelling obscenities (remember this *is* Kagome yelling this stuff, so she must be pretty damn pissed.*_*;;) they finally managed to explain that they where looking for Tsune's earring and that the boys had thought the maiko to be intruders. Kagome and Sango then promptly began fuming about their older sister who had undoubtedly set them up.
"Well why didn't you tell us you where here when you first found out it was us???" Sango stilled enraged at there conniving trainer, but mostly from embarrassment at having admitted several things right in front of Miroku and Inuyasha.
"We were having to much fun." Was Miroku's cocky answer, which earned him another 'WHACK' on the head from the oversized boomerang.
"Look!" Kagome exclaimed while noticing something on the ground. "It's the earring. Can we please go back now?"
The odd looking group walked silently up toward the teahouse, and Miroku's final parting words before they left to go back to the palace where directed toward Sango:
"You know you can't resist me." He told her with a wink. Sango was now the one left hanging.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 13 FRIKKIN PAGES ON WORD!!!!! HALLELUJIA!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok, ok. I really hope you like I have spent almost two weeks on it. I got writers block for a while.hehehehe. sry to those who I kept waiting! R&R what else is there to say??? Oh and any question just e-mail me or review me..hehehehe..stargirl864@hotmail.com! ~_^ enjoy! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Signing out
-stargirl
Rose, vicious-wolfe, lis3386, foreyedbookworm: A geisha is a woman who trains for a long time in the arts of entertaining, singing, dancing, and flower arranging just to say a few. They are taught to be graceful and elegant and to please men, but they do not sleep with men nor are they strippers. They also perform tea ceremonies at the teahouses where they work. They are, in addition to there many qualities, very articulate and spend a lot of the time just talking to the men, while serving them tea and sake (rice wine).
Kikyou-oneesama: Geisha's are not prostitutes and the teahouses aren't prostitute houses. That is a very common mistake because sometimes a young geisha would have her virginity sold to the highest bidder.but it wasn't a very common practice.
Chris-san: Yes sometimes they would be bought at a very young age and it is true as well with the standing on the roof with the singing, but I thought that was a little um.harsh with the nails bleeding... hehehe ^_^ and there were also a lot of other things that they did to the maikio to that where really mean.
Kat: I have read the book Memoirs of a Geisha ^_~ it is a good book! The reason why my story is different from the practices of geisha from the book is because they vary over different time periods and plus some of the things in there wouldn't really work with my plot ^_^;;;;
Disclaimer: This is getting really really really old.but.a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do ^_^;;; I don't own Inuyasha, Rumiko Takahashi does.SHE IS THE BEST MANGA WRITER EVER!!!!!!!!!!!! Hehehehe now, ONE WIT DA FIC!!!!!!!!
Kagome and Sango where in the middle of the Yin and Yang dance that they had worked so hard on when Kagome kept getting a feeling that somebody was staring at her. I mean she was performing for the entire crowd but she felt as though this pair of eyes was only meant for her. (a/n corny.^_^;;; but that's ok.) Kagome began looking around the room to see if she could find the stranger. Finally finding him sitting at a small table in the back of the room, he had long silver hair and two little doggy ears. (a/n I think they are soooo adorable!!! Don't you?) Her eyes met his briefly before they flicked downward again because she was now entering a complex stage of the dance.
'I have to concentrate.'
They ended the dance with both of the girls posing on the stage waiting to be resurrected. After a few stunned seconds the crowd did nothing but stare. Thinking they were failures the two girls stood up and began to leave but as they did the crowd erupted in cheers and applause. Each of them grinned took a small, graceful bow, walked back over to their elder sister.
"That was beautiful! You couldn't have done it better and I think you have defiantly won the crowd over. Now you are to go over to the table with Miroku-sama and Inuyasha-sama because they wished to see you after you finished. Remember your training while speaking to them.
I don't think you have met Miroku-sama but I know you have seen him and have heard of his reputation. He can have a quick tongue and likes to make girls swoon. Sango, be mindful in what you say, I think he had his eye on you." Tsune cautioned them.
Sango blushed; it was true what she had said. Sango had watched the monk's eyes following her, but she knew his standings as being hentai. "Of course, nee-chan."
They walked over to the table in the back and bowed before sitting.
"It would please me to know the names of you two beautiful women." Miroku said turning on the charm. Inuyasha scoffed knowing his friends tactics.
"My name is Sango. We know you by reputation Miroku-sama and have seen you here many times before." Sango said warily eyeing the monk.
"Well, Sango, have you ever heard that it is best not to believe rumors? I'm sure a beautiful girl as yourself would be wise enough to know this." Miroku told her flashing her a grin, he couldn't wait to make this give fall absolutely in love with him.
"We have also seen you try to attract the attention of our older sister many times before, but however many times you have been here, I believe your friend here has not." Sango told him sweetly taking him by surprise. She had perhaps gone a little overboard, but she kept getting this feeling that there was something oddly familiarly about him, which just creepped her out.
'If it's a battle you want, it's a battle you get.' He thought mischievously, this girl was a challenge, which he would love at the moment.
"This is Inuyasha, he is prince of the western land. I believe you have heard of his father? Inutashio-sama?" Miroku inquired, using Inuyasha's standings as a prince to take Sango off her guard
"Of course." The maiko told him. Not letting her shock show in neither her face nor in her voice.
"Feh." Inuyasha couldn't really think of another way to enter the conversation so he said his usually line. "What's your name?" He demanded looking towards the girl who hadn't spoken yet, taking her briefly by surprise.
"My name is Higurashi Kagome." She said bowing her head slightly. She didn't know what his problem was or why he was so rude. 'He's a prince so I guess he's used to getting his way.'
"I believe that Inuyasha would like to ask Kagome-chan a few questions so I suggest that we go find a quieter place to talk." Miroku told the table knowing that his friend would want to figure out who she was and why she looked like Kikyo. Sango just snorted at the 'chan' he added onto the end but quickly turned it into a chough.
"I know that you usually take women to the bedroom but I would suggest that we go to the balcony instead, Houshi-sama." Sango told him, resenting the fact that he was hitting on her friend.
'Ah ha! Touché!' Sango thought.
Inuyasha nearly choked to death from hearing this, Kagome tried the best she could to keep from laughing but bit so hard on her cheek she drew blood, and the priest, you could say in the least, didn't expect that. He lost his composure for a second before regaining it and smiling his 'I'm-so- innocent' smile.
"I see my reputation proceeds me Sango-sama, but if you are that eager." Miroku just laughed softly at the gagging sound the girl across from him was making. Her face completely paled.
"Well, Miroku-sama. I see that you are everything that I thought you would be, a perverted monk with nothing better to do than hit on unattainable women. Now, shall we proceed to the balcony?" Sango said defending herself quite well. Kagome was trying terribly hard to keep from bursting out into gales of laughter and Inuyasha just watch amused at his friends verbal war.
The group made their way to the staircase in the corner of the room. Climbing up the stairs they all sat around a small table inside a small room with the door wide open so they could look out into the night. It was almost a full moon. What was an almost complete globe in the sky, was huge tonight, placed randomly among the stars. The large orb seemed beautiful to everybody, except one person, this was a warning as to what would happed in a few nights.
"Damn it." Inuyasha mumbled to himself. He hated this time of month. He always felt weak and his brother usually ended up nearly killing him. Miroku glanced at his friend knowing that in a few days it was going to be a hard.
"What's wrong?" Kagome saw the frustrated look cross the hanyou's face when he looked up into the sky at the hanging sphere.
"None of your business wench." He snapped back looking at her. She looked so much like Kikyo, it was uncanny, yet there was something different about them. "Kami, you look so much like Kikyo. Who are you??" He demanded once again getting angry at the thought of Kikyo betraying him and this look-a-like was sitting directly across from him.
"I told you who I am! My name is Kagome! I am not Kikyo or whoev-" Kagome stopped abruptly. She had heard about a girl named Kikyo. She had been the one to betray the royal family and had been murdered days later but only before swearing revenge.
"Kikyo." Sango repeated quietly.
"I heard about her, but.why did you think.that I was her?" Kagome asked him. She had also heard that one of the princes had fallen in love with this other.
"You look like her, wench, why else? She's dead though, it doesn't matter." He scoffed not looking at Kagome but to the side; unexpectedly he stood from the table and went out the door to lean on the railing.
"I am sorry about Inuyasha. He's a bit touchy and tonight is also the full moon which means tomorrow is the new moon." Miroku said not telling them what was so special about the new moon but only leading them on.
"Does he.turn human during sometime soon?" Kagome asked Miroku. Having living in a shrine she had some experiences with demons and hanyou's and the characteristics of their life styles.
"Yea I do, during the new moon." The dog hanyou announced from his post at the railing. Sango and Kagome looked curiously at Miroku expecting him to tell them why Inuyasha had heard.
"He's a hanyou, remember? Good hearing." the monk told them correctly interpreting there perplexed faces
Kagome got up and walked over the to demon and stood silently next to him.
"I am really sorry about Kikyo." She said quietly. People had been telling Inuyasha this all week but nobody ever meant it. Yet when he looked at Kagome; Inuyasha knew there was something different about this girl.
"Feh. What would you know about death? You're probably just as bratty and as rich as the other geisha's, sent here to make their family's more money." Inuyasha accused her. He didn't want her to be different from the girls, he wanted Kagome to be rich and bratty so he could hate her just as he did ever other girl that had ever spoken to him.
Kagome bit her tongue to keep herself from snapping back at him. She had remembered when her father died, the way she had felt when she had lost a loved one. Memories began to flood her of things she had not thought about in years. Things she had hoped to forget. How her father had been sick for several months and how she hadn't been allowed to see him because the village feared the disease spreading. How when he died his body had been so riddled with death, it had been inhumanly pale and thin, his eyes had been glazed over but Kagome shook that memory from her head.
"You are like them, I knew it." Inuyasha blamed her once again, misinterpreting her silence.
"No I am not. My father died when I was 8 years old and my family didn't have enough money to support themselves so I was sold here to become a slave and learn how to entertain slobbering rich men. You have no idea what it's like to be poor because you are a prince. You probably never had to lift a finger in your life." She spat back at him. (a/n this is an inu/kag fic. Don't worry. Just had to have a fight between them. ^_^)
Taken aback by that comment he just growled at her. This girl was completely different from any other girl in his life and exceptionally stubborn. He looked down on her and couldn't help smirking at the angry look on her face, it look so cute. 'Ahhhhh, ok.where did that come from?' He looked down on her again and now she just look pissed off and confused.
"What's so funny???" This boy was trying Kagome's nerves.
"Nothing." He left the railing and went and sat back down with Sango and Miroku who where arguing about something.
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"What do you mean that our dance was just average???? How would you even know? I bet that was the first time you had ever seen it in your life!" The hentai monk had struck a nerve on Sango that really made her mad.
"Yes, it was a good dance but I've seen better, that's all I can say." Miroku told her in a voice that said he was completely innocent even though what he said he thought completely and totally false.
"Well, you seemed to have a completely different opinion when you were practically drooling over Sango while she danced." Kagome said hotly. She had had enough of guys for tonight. Miroku couldn't think of a comeback in time and was left hanging as the two girls exited the room, both reasonably pissed off.
They found themselves sitting with Tsune at a particularly large table with large presents on the table around them. While watching Tsune open the presents, they saw the prince and monk slip out the door.
"Ok now I will choose two presents which I will give to my little sisters." This brought the maiko's back from their daydreams about the two boys. She picked up two seemingly random gifts from the pile and handed them to the teenagers who both looked shocked and delighted. After watching her for over a year in getting gifts the girls knew that the gifts there nee-chan was giving them where ones from the most prominent and eloquent of her fans meaning the presents were bound to be expensive and gorgeous.
Sango opened hers first to find that it was expensive makeup in a beautiful ivory box that had little tiny carvings of tiny elephants on it. The box had been imported all the way from Africa and the make-up from England. She gasped and bowed her head in thanks.
Next Kagome unwrapped her own gift. It, too, was foreign. It was a stunning small cherry-wood box with pink flowers surrounding the outside, outlined with gold. Inside was a tiny wooden mahogany hairpiece with a delicate flower on it. She also bowed in gratitude toward the original owner of the gift.
Neither of the contributors seemed please, to put it mildly, to whom their gifts were going to. Tsune appeared not to notice and proceed to open the rest of the presents while thanking each of the guests in turn for giving her gifts. The rest of the night was uneventful except one of the drunken men nearly threw up but managed to make it outside.
When the evening was through, they found their way to back to their room to retire for the night. Since they had become a geisha's little sister they had been treated better because Kagome and Sango had become a profit source for the okami. They resented her even more for it now because the way outa- san treated the other girls and the way she was exploiting Sango and Kagome for money. The maiko's new room was larger than there last, had a dressing table with a three-way mirror and a small changing screen. The girls' put there gifts on the dressing table and changed into a small thin linen cloth, which they used as pajamas.
The next morning they finished their chores early and went to seen Tsune who had summoned them.
"Will you girls please take these herbs to Kaede-baaba? I have so many that I don't really know what to do with them all." Tsune handed the girls a small box of spices and herbs. "I also believe that she needs a little help in her shop."
"We will be back later nee-chan." Kagome and Sango left with the box in hand and started off to Kedae's Tea shop.
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"Konnichiwa baaba!" The two girls said in unison as they entered the shop and bowed.
"Hello girls, I've been expecting you. Tsune said you would come by today." The old women smiled and invited them toward a small room adjacent to the shop.
"I don't know if you saw me or not but Tsune invited me to watch your performance last night and it was marvelous. I think that was the best I had even seen it presented."
"You've seen it performed before?" Sango asked her in amazement. The way Tsune had been talking about it she had thought that nobody even knew about it.
"Yes, yes, I have and I also know about that legend. Well, of course I do, everybody does, but I happened to know more about it than most. It is strange how reality can become so different from what people think it is. What I am saying probably seems like nonsense to you, so let me show you." The old woman stood up from the table and walked over to a bookcase where she pulled out a large and delicate book. It looked a thousand years old.
Setting it on the table she opened to pages that had been yellowed through time. Finally finding the correct page she pushed it toward Kagome and Sango and pointed towards a passage on the page.
'Yin and Yang have been know through out history as the two, almost identical, beings who saved the world from eternal chaos and the unknown being that sought to rule the world in hatred and war. Unbeknownst to most people, however, is the true legend of Yin and Yang. The symbol of Yin and Yang is a circle with one side pure white only disrupted by a small black circle. The other has is all black with a tiny white sphere in it joined together by a curved line. Yin was the black side, which represented the fact that she may have stubborn and had a quick tongue but she had a good heart and loved almost everything and trusted almost anyone. Where as Yang appeared to the one that was the kind and loved everything, but that was only an act used to deceive people and as soon as she was through using them she dropped them and sometimes even killed them. The true legend of what happens goes like this:
Yin was created more powerful than Yang because the kami's knew that she was the one with the good heart and the proper ability to maintain peace in the chaotic world and Yang was there only to be Yin's protector.
However the evil-minded girl failed her job because the more she thought about Yin being more powerful, beautiful and ultimately more kind than herself it brought Yang to become resentful of her. The Unknown person who had ruled in chaos before they showed up became Yin and Yang's advisor proclaiming that all he wanted was peace, but all the while plaguing Yang's mind, telling her that she was the rightful ruler and that Yin did not deserve the power that she had. The kami's saw what was happening to Yang and they knew that Yin would not believe that her counterpart was evil so the kami's created 3 protectors for Yin. The three guardian's and Yin all became friends very quickly but where a very unusually group. Yang envied her for having the friendship of two and the love of the other because she also loved the one called.'
Then the page was just ended. On closer inspection Kagome found it was ripped.
"WHAT?!?!? Where's the rest???" Kagome said staring down at the torn page. It had been like reading a good book and it stopping in the middle. Sango looked equally upset at the missing half.
"I am so sorry girls but I haven't been able to find it either, I have looked for it half of my life for it but that doesn't matter now, I have gifts for you." The old woman wasted no time in giving them the gifts and taking there minds off the legend.
"Sango, for you, I am sure you will have missed this." Kaede handed Sango a small hand-carved boomerang that had a small intricate design. (a/n it's the hiraikatsu.but I'm gonna give it transforming powers so I can go from big to small ^_^)
"MY HIRIAKASTU!!!!!!!!! How.how. how." She could barely contain her excitement. "This has been passed down in my family for generations! All of them were demon hunters and my hiriakastu has been around forever!"
"I am glad you enjoy having it back." Kaede smiled at the delighted girl.
"I hope it still works.HIRAIKASTU TRANSFORM!!" Sango shouted while standing up. All of a sudden the normal-sized boomerang became enormous, filling a lot of the space in the tiny room.
"Erk.Sango can you make it normal.onegai.it's crushing me." Kagome told her from her position on the ground.
"Right.hiraikastu.retransform.gomen Kagome." Sango said sweat dropping
"Kagome um.time for your present." Kaede noticed that Kagome still looked all swirly-eyed from the boomerang hitting her head but she continued on with the gift giving any way. @_@
The old woman drew out a small wooden box with a plain symbol on the front. Kagome and Sango looked at the tiny box with obvious interest. After closer inspection they saw that it was a Yin Yang. A talented artist carefully painted the small circle on, the curve moving very carefully inside the sphere. There was something extraordinary about this simple painting that anyone could have done. Dismissing the feeling when eagerness and impatience arose as Kaede opened the box. The old woman slowly and ever so warily picked up a small necklace. It was on a small silver chain that held a single charm. The charm was a small but strangely familiar, it was half of the black and white symbol on the box; Yin's half, the black side with a single slivery white dot in the middle.
"This is very valuable, Kagome, you must take special care of it. The raven color is made of black pearl and the white sphere in the middle is a mother of pearl. It is an ancient piece of jewelry and very delicate."
"I thank you very much for this beautiful gift.it's just that it seems very expensive I don't know if I should take it." Kagome looked at the small, and fragile charm in her hands, there was no doubt about it, it was one of the most valuable things she had even touched, let alone had the chance to have.
"I insist. You girls now must go back to the Teahouse now, Tsune-chan must be waiting for you." Kaede told them.
"Thank-you for the wonderful gifts and we will leave but first we have a gift to you from nee-chan." Sango said eyeing the small basket of herbs.
"Tsune-chan sends her gratitude as well." Kagome picked up the basket and handed it to Kaede and then got up. The to girls bowed showing there respect for the elder and then departed.
Watching the two girls leave Kaede walked back over to the bookshelf and withdrew a small piece of yellowed paper. She brought it back over to the book that was lying open on the table and placed it inside where it fit perfectly with the rip.
"I am sorry Kagome and Sango, you just must not know about this just yet." Kaede murmured quietly to herself before placing the book back on her self and attending to the shop.
The teenage girls where half to the teahouse idly chatting.
"I wonder where the other half of the necklace is. You now, Yang's side." Sango asked Kagome while watching her carefully slip on the necklace.
"I don't know. We'll have to ask Kaede next time we see her."
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That evening Kagome and Sango where to perform again but it wasn't their 'signature' dance, as the elder sister called it, it was one less complicated but performed with no less grace than the last.
That evening Miroku and Inuyasha had shown up again. They had been intrigued by the girl's ability to be both very stubborn and hot headed and appear to be graceful and quick-witted. Most maiko that they had seen, well mostly Miroku, would quickly agree with them on any subject just to win them over, and a lot of them giggled and blushed as Miroku flirted endlessly with them. It had been a long time since the flirtatious priest had seen a girl with such a fiery attitude such as Sango and it gave him such a thrill to verbally duke it out.
Inuyasha had no interest really in coming back but his friend had insisted and he had given in a little more easily this time than Miroku would have thought. They both were wondering if they would get a chance to talk to the girls again.
This time it was Tsune's doings that brought the four back together. She had noticed the night before and thought that these boys would be possibly suitors for her to younger sisters. While maiko were performing on the stage Tsune walked over to Miroku and Inuyasha.
"Miroku, I have a favor to ask of you." She said in a soft flowing voice that made Miroku almost melt. Tsune was a very well trained geisha that could make almost any man do her biding. She had the graceful way with words and movements that could emphasize the way she was speaking and stress her words making them even more elegant and beautiful.
"Anything for my lovely Tsune."
"If you go into the forest and to the left you will find a small path. When you follow that path it will lead you to my secret garden in the back. Earlier today I was back there and I lost one of my earrings that my grandmother gave to me and I hold it very precious to my heart. It would mean the world to me, Miroku if you could go find it for me." She asked batting her eyes lashes.
"Of course, I would love to, and Inuyasha has excellent eyesight, and would be glad to help as well." The monk told her.
"Oh arigato houshi-sama, but onegai, don't tell anyone about the garden." Tsune left the small table in the back and made her way towards the front where her admirers were sitting at the large table.
The priest and the royal left the room and started on the path towards the garden.
When Kagome and Sango finished their dance Tsune told them the same story but in more of a friendly order than a request. They to left the building and began towards the hidden pathway.
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"I don't know why I have to come along on this stupid hunt for a tiny earring." Inuyasha complained.
"Oh shut-up and help me look." Miroku told him.
"Ya, ya, and your suppose to be my friend; why did you just volunteer me li-" Inuyasha stopped mid-sentence and perked up. "Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Miroku strained his ears before he heard something, it sounded like someone talking. "Could be a robber or a someone looking to do some vandalism."
"Come on, let's sneak up on them and give them a little scare." Inuyasha said with an evil grin spreading across his face. (predictable, eh?.^_^;;;)
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"Did you see Inuyasha-sama and Miroku-sama? I saw them earlier, but they had left." Kagome asked her companion as they entered the garden.
"I wonder where they had to go in such a hurry." Sango mused aloud.
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"Did you hear that?" Inuyasha asked his friend in a whisper. "I sounds like, like girls!"
"I can't hear as well as you, but I heard someone talking come on lets get a little closer and we might be able to see them." Miroku told him as they slowing began creeping towards the unsuspecting people. The large garden was full of statues bushes and trees so it wasn't very hard to hide. Slowly moving closer they both caught a glimpse of the only other people in the garden, two girls.
On closer inspection they saw that it was, Kagome and Sango!
"What are they doing here??" Miroku hissed in a quiet whisper.
"How the hell am I suppose to know??" Inuyasha to looked just as bewildered as his best friend. "Come on lets just follow them and see what they are doing."
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"Well, Sango, it seems that you want to talk to Miroku again." Kagome told the other geisha-in-training with a sly smile.
"WHAT?!? I thought is was just fun to make fun of him." The girl told Kagome, beginning with resentment and ending in a smirk mixed in with an evil sort of laugh. "You didn't seem to mind when you and Inuyasha had that little private talk out on the balcony."
"Very funny. I just told him I was sorry that Kikyo died because I remember I was really sad when my father died. I just thought it would be nice if someone who knew what death was like said something to him. He actually got very mad though.but I guess he can't help it. I said some really mean things when my dad died." Kagome told her friend while walking slowly looking at the ground for the missing earring. "Anyway. So Miroku seems to like you."
"I just think that Miroku is a hentai. I mean he practically hits on every pretty girl that he sees, so I thought I would just rattle him up a bit and show him that not every girl is some stupid submissive weakling." Sango completed with a smirk.
"Go Sango!"
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Both of the boys behind the statue were completely lost, deep in thought about the conversation they had heard.
'So she really was sorry.I am such an idiot, I didn't mean to make her feel bad, it's just that she looks so much like Kikyo, but acts so different.'
'Hmmmm..I was certainly right about Sango. She is much different from any girl I've met before.and she said she wants to rattle me up a bit eh? Well, Sango, I except your challenge!'
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"But you can't forget, they are both defiantly cute!" Sango told Kagome.
"Defiantly!" Kagome answered as they burst into a fit of giggles.
Suddenly they both heard a loud crash behind them. Swiveling around they saw Miroku and Inuyasha lying in a heap next to a statue. They were both were looking part scared, part amused, and (the trait that every guy has.^_^;;;) part cocky.
"What are YOU two doing here?!?!?" Sango yelled at the top of her lungs, but not before blushing and wondering how much of the conversation they had heard.
Kagome couldn't even talk. She just turned bright red before opening her mouth, gaping. She began to let out a noise that sounded strangely like a growl.
"HIRIAKASTU TRANSFORM!!!" The trained demon hunter pulled out a small boomerang, which enlarged in less than a second into a massive lethal weapon.
After several minutes of yelling, eight large bruises on the head from the hiriakastu, and Kagome yelling obscenities (remember this *is* Kagome yelling this stuff, so she must be pretty damn pissed.*_*;;) they finally managed to explain that they where looking for Tsune's earring and that the boys had thought the maiko to be intruders. Kagome and Sango then promptly began fuming about their older sister who had undoubtedly set them up.
"Well why didn't you tell us you where here when you first found out it was us???" Sango stilled enraged at there conniving trainer, but mostly from embarrassment at having admitted several things right in front of Miroku and Inuyasha.
"We were having to much fun." Was Miroku's cocky answer, which earned him another 'WHACK' on the head from the oversized boomerang.
"Look!" Kagome exclaimed while noticing something on the ground. "It's the earring. Can we please go back now?"
The odd looking group walked silently up toward the teahouse, and Miroku's final parting words before they left to go back to the palace where directed toward Sango:
"You know you can't resist me." He told her with a wink. Sango was now the one left hanging.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 13 FRIKKIN PAGES ON WORD!!!!! HALLELUJIA!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok, ok. I really hope you like I have spent almost two weeks on it. I got writers block for a while.hehehehe. sry to those who I kept waiting! R&R what else is there to say??? Oh and any question just e-mail me or review me..hehehehe..stargirl864@hotmail.com! ~_^ enjoy! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Signing out
-stargirl