Chapter 4

The demon charged at her at full speed. Not having arrows ready because her bow broke a month back she had to use her body to channel her energy. This drains her faster. She shot her hands forward and a white blast erupted from her hands. It struck the demon and pushed it back, but was not able to kill the beast. It stopped for a moment and scratched itself where the blast had hit. It laughed for a few seconds then charged again. Again Kikyou shot off another blast of energy at the demon. Again the demon was pushed back, just not as far as last time. Again and again she tried, then she lost all energy and fell.

'Oh no.'

            Ranma then woke from his slumber and his eyes snapped open. He bolted strait up from where he lay.

"Kikyou!"

            Ranma rushed out the door as fast as possible and was greeted by the sight of Kikyou, on the ground, being charged by a rather large demon. The demon was smiling a toothy grin, knowing that the fight was his, and soon he could rampage all he wanted.

            The demon rushed in at full speed, closing in on Kikyou. He may be big, which limited his movement, but he wasn't slow. Closer and closer the demon came. He was now a few feet away from the priestess Kikyou. Now a few inches, and now… she was gone? The demon started to frantically look for its target. It found her a few yards behind him, in the arms of the pigtailed youth, Ranma.

            Ranma set Kikyou on the ground. He found that she was still alive, but was unconscious for some reason. Ranma noticed that there wasn't a bruise or scratch on her, and couldn't come up with a reason as to why she would be unconscious. He did how ever take notice of the demon that was now screaming its head off. Ranma got up and faced his opponent. He felt no remorse for demons that killed for fun, and this one was going to pay.

"Hey! Why is she unconscious?" Ranma demanded from the demon.

"She used up too much energy… She was quite weak before hand. Now stand aside and let me have my fun." The demon said with a grin. It really didn't know how big of a mistake he was making. Sad, really."

"Shut up! Ya gotta get through me first!" Ranma said, taking a defensive fighting stance.

"Gladly." The demon said, before rushing Ranma.

            Ranma waited until the demon got to about a foot in front of him, before jumping up and kicking the thing across the right side face, knocking him a few feet to the left. The demon picked him self up off the ground and rubbed his right cheek.

"Human! You'll pay for that!" The demon said while rushing him. (Once again. He really is quite stupid)

"Idiot."

            Ranma found an opening and haled down a fury of punches to the demons gut. Then after five seconds of beating, Ranma stopped and backed off. The demon doubled over and threw up everything it had for lunch that day. The demon was then disintegrated by Ranma's Mouko-takabisha.

            Seeing that the demon had, in fact been reduced to ashes, Ranma walked back to where he put Kikyou. He picked her up and carried her back to the cabin they were staying in. He hoped that Kikyou's energy was like ki, and would comeback after a while. He noticed that her body was cold, as if she were dead, that no warmth except for her breath was being emitted from her.

'That's weird. I hope that's just a side affect of the techniques that she uses.'

            Ranma stayed up to watch over her as long as he could, but soon found him self drifting into sleep. After everyone in the village were inside their homes, (The ones that were still intact anyway.) and sound asleep, Kikyou's soul collectors came through an opened window and gave Kikyou what was needed for her to continue living in this world. This went unnoticed by everyone in the village. Even Ranma.

            The next day Kikyou was the one who woke up to the sun beaming down on her face. She quickly shut her eyes and put up her hands to block the sun's rays. She waited a few seconds for her eyes to get used to the light then slowly dropped her hands. She noticed that her soul collectors must have paid her a visit that night, or she would not be awake right now. Then realization dawned on Kikyou's face, of the events that happened the night before. That was when one of the village doctors entered the small cabin to check on Kikyou.

"So, your awake! You had us all worried, especially that friend of yours." The doctor said, glad that she wasn't in a coma or anything.

"Tell me. What happened to the demon that attacked last night?" Kikyou asked, her face showing no emotion.

"That friend of yours killed it…Ranma I think his name was." The doctor said, rubbing his chin as if he were in deep thought. Kikyou's eyes widened briefly at this revelation.

"How could he have killed the demon? He is just a regular boy." Kikyou asked, confused as to how the boy who she had found so annoying could be powerful enough to kill a demon.

"I think he might be a little more than regular. He beat the thing to a pulp then killed it with a weird yellow light that came from his hands. There are rumors going around that he might be a demon, in human guise." The doctor said with a strait face.

"That can't be. Ranma is a regular human…but if he were strong enough to kill a demon…" Kikyou said, while going into deep thought.

"You two must be great friends for what he did though. Not only did he save your life. He also watched over you almost all night. He fell unconscious eventually."

"We just met two days ago." Kikyou said, correcting the man.

'Why would he risk his life to save me? And why would he watch over me? We don't know each other at all.'

"Really? Then Ranma's must be one special person. Not many people would do what he did."

"True. Perhaps I should thank him." Kikyou said, still wondering why Ranma would go through the trouble of saving her, and how he survived. "Where is he now?"

"He's in the cabin with the children in it. They've been asking him to tell the story on how he "killed the evil demon and rescued the beautiful priestess" all day. Sad though…for the children anyway."

"Why is that?" Kikyou asked.

"He killed the demon in less than a minute… there really isn't all that much to tell."

"Then why do they want to here it so much?" Kikyou asked. The doctor smiled.

"Simple. It changes every time he tells it."

"Oh." Kikyou said, not sure what the doctor meant by that.

            Kikyou then left the cabin, much to the doctor's protest, to go find Ranma.

"…And I jumped twenty feet in the air doing ten flips on my way down on top of the demon's head."

"I thought you said that the demon had a horn on its head." One of the children said, starting to catch on to Ranma's bragging.

"It broke off when it rammed into the tree."

"Which tree?"

"The one out side. Now shut up and listen to the story!" Ranma yelled. it was hard being the cool guy.

            This is when Kikyou entered the room. She over heard that part of the conversation, and began to realize what the doctor meant when he said the story changes every time.

"The demon didn't have a horn." Kikyou said, standing next to the doorway.

"Kikyou, your awake! That's great. You slept longer than I did!" Ranma said, standing up from his official story telling chair.

"Is it that late?" Kikyou asked.

"Yeah. I thought you would never wake up. You must have exhausted more of your energy than I thought." Ranma said, shaking his head up and down.

"May I talk to you for a minute? There are things…I want to say." Kikyou asked, trying to word her sentences carefully.

"­­_Now­_ you want to talk to me?" Ranma asked, sarcastically. Kikyou nodded, ignoring the sarcasm.

"Sure." Ranma said, Following Kikyou outside of the cabin.

            Kikyou lead Ranma to where she had been searching for herbs the other day. This was the only place they could really talk in private.

"What do ya want?" Ranma asked, genuinely curious.

"First off, I would like to thank you. I would have been killed if it weren't for you." Kikyou said, giving Ranma a deep bow.

"Aw, that's nothing. I would have done it for anybody." Ranma said, smiling. He was happy he was finally talking with her and not at her for a change.

"Now I have a few questions."

"What are they?" Ranma asked. Kikyou took in a deep breath.

"Are you a demon?"

"Nope." Ranma said, tilting his head to one side. He didn't know where that came from.

'Good.'

"Half-demon?" Kikyou asked.

"No, I am one hundred percent human." Ranma replied, answering Kikyou's next question of "What are you then", without even realizing it.

"Then how did you beat the demon? There are very few humans I know of, that can even fight demons, and they use some sort of weapon. You seem to be carrying nothing."

"I've trained to become the best martial artist in the world. I've fought a lot worse than that demon."

"I still don't see how your fists could penetrate the demon's thick skin."

            Ranma walked over to the closest tree he could find. It was fairly thick, and would take a while fore someone to chop it down. He then punched the tree, causing it to blow a hole strait through and out the other end.

"Simple strength. I can also use my ki to make myself stronger also." Ranma said, facing Kikyou once more.

            Kikyou didn't flinch at all. She was startled, but that was all. There was no reason really, as to why a human can't beat a demon in unarmed combat. It just wasn't done very often.

"Where are the remains of the demon? Did they dispose of it this quickly? I didn't see any blood anywhere." Kikyou asked. She knew, that without a doubt, Ranma was more powerful than he seemed.

"There wasn't anything left but the ashes. I blasted that sucker!" Ranma said, lifting up one hand and blasting away the remains of the tree he had just punched. Chunks of wood flew everywhere and the wind picked up a little bit.

"That…is interesting." Kikyou said, mostly to her self.

'Maybe letting Ranma follow me around, will be more of a benefit than an annoyance. He certainly is an interesting person if he would risk his own life for someone he had just met.'

"That? Not really…" Ranma said, scratching the back of his head.

'A descent conversation for once, and not just a one sided one!'

"That's all I can think of for now. Shall we return to the village?"

"Sure… but how long are we going to stay? I really need to find a shard of the shikon jewel thingy." Ranma said, walking towards the village, Kikyou right next to him.

"We will leave in the morning. Is that soon enough?" Kikyou said, looking at her new traveling companion.

"Yeah! That's great!" Ranma said, excitedly.

'I hope she opens up more now. It was getting boring talking to a brick wall.'

            The next morning, Ranma and Kikyou left down the dirt path that they had followed before coming to the town. They were both silent. Both Ranma and Kikyou liked the current silence. It held understanding. They now had a common understanding of each other. Ranma knew that Kikyou liked the silence, so would try to keep quiet. Try as long as he could anyway. Kikyou knew that Ranma liked to talk, so she would try her best to talk back. Unless he was being an idiot, then she would ignore him. Then Ranma broke the silence with a simple question.

"So…where are we going?"

"I don't know." Kikyou answered in her usual tone of voice.

"Really? I thought that you knew your way around here!"

"My knowledge of this area is limited."

"Huh?" Ranma said, intelligently.

"It has been a while since I last traveled here, so I don't remember much."

"Oh." Ranma said in understanding.

            Silence. Again there was silence. Ranma just walked next to Kikyou, taking in the sights. Ranma stayed silent this whole time. He really didn't know what to say. Then he remembered the soul collectors he saw the first time he met Kikyou.

"Hey, I got a question." Ranma said, folding his arms.

"What is it?"

"Those soul collector things. What do you use them for?"

"To collect souls." Kikyou stated bluntly.

"Why? Why would you need souls?"

"I only have part of my soul. And because of this, my body needs something to fill the gap. That is why I passed out when fighting the demon. I ran out of souls."

"Really…how long do those souls last?"

"Depends on how much energy I use up."

"Oh… What will happen if you run out of souls for too long?" Ranma asked, guessing the answer.

"I will die."

"Oh…" Ranma responded, not knowing how to respond.

Silence…Silence…Silence.

"Wanna sing a song?" Ranma asked. He may not sing, because he thought it was feminine, but he didn't really care right now. He was bored…that, and he was sure that Kikyou had a good singing voice, and he wanted to here it.

"No."

"Aw, c'mon."

"No." Kikyou was getting annoyed again.

"Please. I wanna here you sing…that didn't come out right…well…" Ranma said, trying to find the right words without embarrassing himself.

"No." Kikyou said, somewhat startled by what Ranma said.

'I wanna here you sing? What's he talking about?'

"C'mon, Kikyou." Ranma begged again.

"…"

"Kikyou?" Ranma asked.

"…"

"Are you ignoring me again?"

"…"

"Aw c'mon…you don't have to sing if you don't want to!" Ranma said, throwing his hands into the air.

"…"

"Aw man! Not again!"

'Kikyou one. Me zero.'

They walked in silence until nightfall came.

"We should make camp here." Kikyou said, breaking the silence.

"Sure…Hey! You talked!" Ranma practically yelled.

"Yes. What's your point?"

"Aren't you mad at me or something?"

"No. You were just annoying me."

"Oh…"

            Then the soul collectors came. They seemed to appear out of nowhere. They probably did actually.

"How come they're coming out now?"

"They are almost always with me when I'm not in a town. They usually show up when I sleep, to protect me."

"Always?"

"No. Just when I don't need souls for a while."

"Ah…. okay."

            Ranma then spotted the one that he saw the day he met Kikyou. Just now it seemed to be snuggling up against him instead of trying to bite its head off.

"Uh…what's it doing?"

"They must not see you as a threat anymore. Maybe they saw you save me… that one…" She said, pointing to the soul collector that was currently snuggling Ranma. It was a bit smaller than the other for some reason. "Seems to have taken a liking to you."

"Cool! I'll name it D-chan!" Ranma yelled.

"What?" Kikyou asked, her eye, almost twitching.

"D for demon and chan for cute. Some one I know named her pig P-chan. I'm just following her example."

"Do what you want with it…" Kikyou said, turning away to go find a place to sleep. She then turned around and smiled. "It's yours." She once again turned away.

"Hey thanks!" Ranma almost yelled.

'My first pet…Wait a sec., did she just smile?'

            D-chan looked at Ranma for a few seconds then started to snuggle against him once again.

"*Sigh* I'll never get him." Kikyou said to her self before lying down to sleep.

'He's not so bad…He just talks too much.'