Disclaimer: All characters in this chapter belong to the lovely Rumiko Takahashi.


¸.·´¯`·»¸.·´¯`·» The Last Princess «·´¯`·.¸«·´¯`·.¸

A Fic by Eden

¸.·´¯`·»¸.·´¯`·» Chapter Two «·´¯`·.¸«·´¯`·.¸
¸.·´¯`·» New People «·´¯`·.¸




Late that night, Kagome gathered her weapons—the weapons she used, anyway—and clothing and prepared to leave her home. She also took an ample supply of money.

Among the clothing items she brought were several kimonos and three shinobi shozoko. Three of the kimonos were simple, yet elegant everyday wear. The last three were much fancier, as they were for special occasions. The shinobi shozoko were her ninja garbs. Made of the finest silk with the exception of one, and extremely lightweight, they had many pockets, inside and out, to hold all her small weapons. Since it was used to blend with the snow, her white shinobi shozoko was made of warmer material, lightweight wool. The silk garbs consisted of a camouflage printed one, to blend with forestry, and a midnight blue one to blend with the night.

Going from room to room and glancing around, Kagome decided she was ready. Clothed in the midnight blue shinobi shozoko, she was covered head to foot, save a small slit near her eyes. As she inspected herself in front of a full-length mirror, she smirked at how well she would blend with the night. She would blend so well that if the unsuspecting eye of any being, even a hawk youkai, set an eye on her, they wouldn't have noticed her.

She set out, small weapons and money in various pockets, larger weapons, namely her swords, bow, and fukiya, carried on her back, and didn't look back. If she had, she would have noticed Kouga spying on her.


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Kagome had traveled quite a distance when she encountered a lone baby kitsune staring at her with wide, curious eyes. He was sitting at the opposite edge of where she stood in a small clearing. In a few short hours, the sun would begin to rise. She blinked, and then growled.

"Why are you staring at me, child?" she snapped.

Ignoring her question, the kitsune moved forward a few steps.

"I'm Shippou. Who're you?" he asked innocently.

Before she could answer, a sword-drawn figure clad in a red kimono was flying at her.

"KYAHHHHHHH!" the attacker hollered.

Kouga was about to make himself known, thinking Kagome was going to be hurt. She proved him wrong.

Using her lightning-quick reflexes, she drew Masamune and Murasame from the scabbards on her back and crossed them in front of herself in an "X", deftly blocking the attack as the kitsune watched on horrified. Her assailant landed roughly on the ground and charged again. Dodging the attack, she reached in a pocket, grabbed a shuriken and hurled it at her target. It whizzed passed him narrowly missing his cheek, imbedding itself deep into a tree—the tree Kouga happened to be next to. Caught off guard by this, Kagome's unknown attacker turned to look at the shuriken. That was a big mistake on his part because Kagome advanced quickly and kicked his legs from under him. Stepping one foot on his chest, she rested her two swords against his neck; similar to the position Kouga had been in the day before.

She studied him under the light of the moon, taking in the red kimono, the amber eyes and long silver hair. Upon his head were dog ears.

Hmm…a hanyou…she mused to herself.

"Who are you?" she asked coldly, narrowing her eyes.

"Get off me, bitch!" he spat glaring at her.

"No," she said flatly. She could tell he was beginning to lose his temper.

"Dammit, wench! Get the hell off me!" he ordered harshly.

"Let you up? And have you attack me again? You must think me incredibly inane," she sneered.

Sighing in defeat, the hanyou said, "I'm not going to attack you. Just let me up!"

Giving him a cold, hard stare that promised immense pain if he tried anything, Kagome slowly removed her swords from his neck and backed away.

Jumping up, the half-youkai wiped himself clean and sheathed his sword. Kagome, watching him do this, did the same with her weapons.

"Who are you?" she repeated.

Before he could answer with another retort, the kitsune piped up.

"That's Inuyasha," he said dryly, receiving a glare from said hanyou.

Nodding in acknowledgment, Kagome asked yet another question. "Do you always attack people without thinking? Or are you just stupid?"

Inuyasha growled at this and was about to shoot off a snide comment when the kitsune spoke again.

"Yep. That's just like Inuyasha. You should see him when he fights with his brother. It's always, 'fight first, talk later.'"

"OI! Shut up, brat, or I'll pound your face in!" Inuyasha snarled.

Kagome shot a look at Inuyasha and slapped him with her tail as she asked the kitsune, "And who are you, little one?"

"I'm Shippou!" he exclaimed, jumping onto her shoulder. "Who are you?"

"My name is Kagome."

"Oh. Hi, Kagome. Why do you wear that mask?"

"She thinks she's a ninja," Inuyasha snickered.

Glaring at the hanyou, she unwrapped her mask and took it off, revealing her face. "I wear this to hide my identity from the people who are after me."

Inuyasha raised a brow. She looks like Kikyou, he thought. Except she's a youkai. I wonder who's after her.

"So, bitch, what are you doing running here?" Inuyasha questioned gruffly.

Kouga decided to make his presence known at that moment by jumping on Inuyasha's back pounding his head.

"Hey, dog turd! Don't call my woman a bitch!" he yelled.

Kagome's eyes widened at the sight of the wolf, then quickly narrowed.

Inuyasha rammed against a tree—the same tree the shuriken was stuck, ramming Kouga painfully into the sharp points of the star. The two began fighting as Shippou stared in shock at the sudden appearance of the ever-persistent Kouga.

Kagome just watched as her features took on a look of boredom. Inuyasha was slowly gaining the upper hand.

Deciding she'd seen enough, she turned to look at Shippou who was still perched on her shoulder, and said, "Let's go. They're too busy acting like children, trying to outdo each other in masculinity that they won't notice our absence for a while."

The kitsune nodded in agreement.

So the pair left the fighting 'children' and began walking in the direction Kagome had been heading originally.

"So, Shippou. Do you talk to just any demon? If I were like most others, I would have killed you," the ninja asked.

"Nah, I don't. I could tell you were a kind person deep down, even if you don't show it. I have a thing for sensing people's auras," the young cub boasted proudly.

"Hmm…" Kagome replied. "I see, child."

They hadn't gotten far when she began counting down in her head.

5…

4…

3…

2…


Before she reached one, the testosterone driven males suddenly appeared behind them, huffing and puffing. Turning to face the two, Kagome noticed Kouga had scratches on his face while Inuyasha had bumps on his head and gashes in his kimono. Grinning inwardly, she applauded her accurate estimation.

"So I see neither of you was able to best the other," she observed.

"Feh! Are you blind, wench? I kicked his ass!" Inuyasha scoffed.

"Oh yeah, dog turd? You wanna go again? I'll beat you down for the second time!" Kouga threatened.

"You two act not much differently from two little boys fighting over a toy sword," the youkai princess smirked. "And for the record, I AM a ninja."

Turning to Kouga, she let a growl loose, causing the youkai and hanyou both to back away a little.

"You? What are you doing here?" she barked.

An angelic smile graced the wolf's features as he replied, "Why, taking care of you, Kagome-chan!"

Her growl grew louder as Shippou jumped off her shoulder and carried her pack of clothing.

"I don't need anyone to protect me, as I so clearly proved to you yesterday when I kicked your ass sparring," she spoke flatly, turning around to keep walking.

Inuyasha burst into whoops of laughter.

"You got beat by a girl!" he laughed.

"You did too, dog face," Kouga grumbled.

"Either go home or come along, but don't weigh me down," she called over her shoulder as she reapplied her mask, leaving a dumbfounded Kouga and a smirking Inuyasha to follow.


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In the trees, a figure clad in white surveyed the clearing before him. He had been waiting for the hanyou to appear and was going to attack him when he noticed a shrouded figure with a black tail enter the clearing.

This changes everything, he growled as he watched the scene unfold and listened as the woman spoke with the kitsune child. They hadn't talked long when his growl turned into a snarl as his insipid brother suddenly appeared in an attack toward the woman. Trust Inuyasha to do everything totally on impulse, not thinking things through.

Sesshoumaru was about enter the area, thinking the woman would have been sliced in half. He was utterly surprised at her speed and how deftly she parried and countered Inuyasha's attacks, finally landing him flat on his back, her swords at his neck.

Needless to say, he was mildly impressed by the girl. He hadn't known anyone with that speed, other than himself.

He watched as the girl unwrapped her mask, showing her face. His eyes widened a little. Her markings looked just like his, but they were gold.

By then, the wolf had finally appeared and begun sparring with Inuyasha.

Sesshoumaru scowled.

"Let's go. They're too busy acting like children, trying to outdo each other in masculinity that they won't notice our absence for a while," he'd heard her say as she began walking away from the oblivious fighters.

Glancing between his brother and the wolf, and the girl and the kitsune, the youkai Lord contemplated whether or not to attack his brother, or follow this inuyoukai named Kagome.

He decided to follow the wench, careful to stay upwind from her powerful nose.

She was once again talking to the kitsune, now identified as Shippou.

A few minutes later, the hanyou and wolf reappeared. Sesshoumaru smirked at how she spoke to them. Turning around, she started to walk away.

"Either go home or come along, but don't weigh me down," she'd said, reapplying her mask.

Sesshoumaru decided to trail them, amused by what he was watching.


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The group trailed on, Kouga and Inuyasha incessantly quarreling. Their ongoing argument had caused Kagome's patience to wear thinner and thinner until finally it was dangerously close to its breaking point.

Opening her mouth, the ninja was about to say something extremely vulgar to shut the two up when she suddenly froze mid-step. Eyes darting around, she felt a chill tremor through her body as she sensed a presence tainted with a familiar evil—an evil she hadn't sensed in so long.

"Naraku…" she whispered aloud as she instantly drew Masamune and Murasame.


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Some distance away, Sesshoumaru furrowed his brows and wrinkled his nose at the putrid scent. It didn't reek of the foul human smell, but it didn't match that of a hanyou or youkai. It just smelled…nasty, like the undead.

Slightly perplexed, he noticed Kagome's sudden halt and knew she felt it too.


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The hanyou, still arguing with Kouga, jerked his head at the now wide-eyed, inert Kagome. Her attention, he noticed, was focused on some unknown object.

"Oi! Wench! Why the hell are you just standing there? Let's go!" he yelled rather rudely.

"You can't feel it?" she asked, her voice soft.

Kouga was about to begin questioning her when both the wolf and hanyou noticed some unknown emotion flash in her eyes as they were suddenly attacked.

Soul stealers, Inuyasha thought. That could only mean one thing—Kikyou is here.

They were heading straight toward Kagome's back at an alarming speed. Whirling around, the ninja sliced the heads off the three serpent-like youkai who were first approaching, and began to run backward as she noticed more heading for her.

Quickly sheathing her swords, she grabbed her tessen, opened them to form razor-sharp fans and threw them Frisbee style at the oncoming serpents. When her fans returned to her like a boomerang, she closed them and redrew her swords. Swinging at the last soul stealer and severing it's head, Kagome felt herself being lifted roughly into the air.

The hands that grabbed her turned her harshly around, and Kagome was faced with a very large, very violent-looking female centipede youkai.

Inuyasha and Kouga, on the other hand, were in a mess of their own, or they would have gone to aide Kagome. While she had been fighting off soul stealers, spider heads quickly surrounded them.

Shippou was caught in the middle of it all—literally. On his one side, Kagome was fighting soul stealers and now an angry centipede youkai. On his other, were Inuyasha and Kouga battling spider heads. All the poor kitsune could do was watch with wide eyes, and duck under Kagome's pack when things got too heated.

Kagome had cut off the arms that were holding her, causing the centipede to drop her and curse at her angrily.

"I know you have the Shikon no Tama, bitch! Now hand it over!"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Kagome cried.

"I was hoping you'd say that," sneered the many-armed woman with a vicious grin.

The moment after she said that, she swiped one of her clawed hands at Kagome's left hip, digging into the flesh.

Crying in pain, the ninja slashed off the arm, but not before it withdrew a large chunk of her flesh and a sparkling red jewel the size of a golf ball.

The Shikon began falling and would have hit the ground shattering, but yet another hand from the woman snaked out and grasped it.

Kagome sliced the hand holding the jewel as the centipede hissed, and only succeeded in cutting the priceless Shikon in half. One half remained in the not-completely severed hand of the youkai while the other half Kagome caught and put in one of her pockets.

The centipede woman glared at Kagome, contemplating whether to attempt taking the other half, or returning with what she had. She decided to do the latter, and immediately disappeared, taking half of the Shikon with her.

Kagome looked over her shoulder and saw two things—more soul stealers quickly gliding toward her and Inuyasha and Kouga battling spider heads. She was beginning to get tired from the blood loss from her hip, and began feeling overwhelmed.

Her crescent began to bleed red and she was about to transform when a surge of power she'd only felt once before coursed through her and Kagome blacked out.


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When she awoke, Kagome found herself in a large and unfamiliar, but beautifully decorated room.

The wood furniture exhibited extremely fine and elegant craftsmanship. These objects, the dresser, vanity, nightstands and the bed she lie on, were made up of a highly polished mahogany, and trimmed with gold.

The rug on the floor depicted an image of a fluffy white dog standing serenely in front of a rising sun, the red at the beginning of the sun fading into a gold in the sky. The dog had red eyes, and a blue crescent on its head. Strangely enough, the dog looked somewhat like Kagome's demon transformation.

As she looked around the room, her eyes scanned everything. They rested on an oil painting of a beautiful, smiling woman, undoubtedly an inuyoukai judging by the tail and facial markings, standing on a bridge overlooking lilies in a pond. At her side was a young boy with silvery hair and a white tail holding her hand.

Looking down at the bed, she realized the sheets were of black silk, a sharp contrast to the white, two-piece sleeping kimono she wore.

Wait…! Sleeping kimono? Bandage?? she thought as she noticed the bandage on her left hip. Then it finally registered to her that the ninja garb she'd donned earlier wasn't in the room, along with her weapons, and the half of the Shikon.

Jumping out of the bed, she searched frantically around for the Shikon and her swords. The other items she didn't care about losing, but those three things were absolutely priceless, and could not be replaced.

"I see you have awakened," said a deep, amused voice.

Turning around startled, Kagome saw to whom the voice belonged. It belonged to none other than Sesshoumaru.






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