Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Disclaimers always make me sad. It forces me to leave my imaginary world of believing I own things, which I do not (Like Inuyasha).

A/n: Sorry it took me soooooo long to update but I have been dealing with long essays due, mid-term exams, work that goes along with essays, and the Pre Standardized Assessment Test (aka PSAT). It has been a very busy 3 weeks.

Kagome took off in a sprint off towards the clearing with Mariko on Kagome's heels. The bulky pasture of flowers and grass was slowing Kagome down. Inuyasha was getting farther away from her. He was nearly out of sight. 'Hurry Kagome, hurry!' her mind kept screaming.

" Speed up Khali! I have things to do!" Inuyasha whined.

"Sulking doesn't count as 'things to do' Inuyasha." Khali responded calmly. That was just the opposite of what she was feeling. 'Come on Kagome, I can only keep him entertained for so long. I can sense your presence here. I can also sense your anxiety, but this is between you and him.'

Just then Khali got an idea; she might be close enough to Kagome to enter her mind. "Scream Kagome, call out to Inuyasha now. Even if you can't really see him now, you know he will be able to hear you."

'That's it!' Kagome thought, 'I need to yell.' "Inuyasha!"

Inuyasha's head snapped sharply to the left of him, towards where he had just walked; and for a while he debated whether or not what he just heard was real. He headed back the way he came to follow the voice.

Mariko, who had not seen Inuyasha, thought miserably that her friend was going out of her mind. 'she must have really loved him.' Mariko looked to where Inuyasha had just been and had only seen the girl.

Inuyasha landed only a few inches from Kagome's face. Before either of them could speak, Kagome's look-a-like Khali appeared out of nowhere, "It's about time you caught up to us. If you had taken any longer Inuyasha would have run off for sure."

The young couple could only stare at her. "You knew Kagome was alive and didn't tell me?" he roared.

Mariko had just caught up to Kagome in the clearing. Her face must have matched the way she was feeling because Khali filled them in quickly.

"And you're a psychic?" Mariko asked.

"Yes." Khali responded.

"Right. Well you might be, I mean who actually thought there were real demons in the past. I guess anything's possible." Mariko added nervously.

"That doesn't explain why you look like me." Kagome stated quietly.

"Oh, I'm Kaede-sama's niece. My mother died After giving birth to me. My father, Kaede-sama's little brother died the day after I was born and I was raised in Southern Japan. My family thinks I'm dead." Khali informed them.

"Why haven't you gone back?" Mariko asked.

"It wasn't time to yet. Now it is time to." Khali replied. Khali's head twitched to the right and her smile faded and then morphed into a apprehensive look. " We have to leave now. It is no longer safe to be here. Kaede-sama, Shippo, Sango and Miroku are on their way. We must leave now."

" Where is Khali?" Merrick bawled as he paced furiously back and forth in the cabin near Mount Fiji. Merrick was a tall, lean man. He had short brown hair and light brown eyes and a stunning smile. Despite his appearance he was a very strong, powerful, and angry young man. He was also manipulative, especially to women who would come to believe that he loved them. H was ruthless; he did whatever he had to, to get to his goal. At one point the woman had been Khali, but she wised up before he could obtain the information about the Shikon shards. He was dressed in a long, black kimono.

" I'm sorry sir. We had her, but this guy jumped us from behind. He was strong; he took out two of my very best men. He could've had me but he stopped to see how Khali was doing." Jason responded.

"Was it a demon?" Merrick asked.

"The way he took down my men that fast, what else could it be. It seemed like she was expecting him to show up. I think she's working with him." Jason said. He than added quickly, " I know your policy on failure, but I assure you it will never happen again." He closed his eyes and his breathing became shallow as he waited to be attacked by Merrick.

" You had better. I'm sparing you because I like you. You're my best missionary. Remember this baka, watch what your doing, this is your only time to mess up. The next time I won't hesitate to attack. Send some men out around this mountain. She's close." Jason left the room quickly, not even glancing over his shoulder to look at Merrick.

"You're here my love, I can feel it. You have what I want and I will do anything to get it. Even- I'll even fight you over it." Merrick stated looking out of his window.