Chapter 3-
They walked to Kaede's in silence. Shippo had found a spot on Kagome's shoulder, Miroku was walking behind them. InuYasha was taking the lead, but he kept looking back. Kagome didn't notice, since the whole way she simply was staring at the ground, and every once in a while her shivers were increase.
Miroku watched Kagome carefully; he was quite worried about her. He noticed also that her teeth started chattering, he tightened his grip around his staff. Looking around, than he looked back to Kagome and walking forward.
Shippo curled around her neck, he hoped his tail and him would give Kagome some extra heat. She seemed to cold, but he didn't say anything to her, Miroku or InuYasha. Why, he didn't know. He sighed almost sadly, and hoped they would get to Kaede's faster.
InuYasha looked back once more, and saw her get worse. He stopped and turned around fully, and said to her, "You're getting worse. Whether you want it or not, I'm taking you," When she stopped, he took her and carried her in his arms. Than started running at a much faster pace.
Seeing that InuYasha had started running/jumping, he too picked up his pace. He ran as fast as he could, he couldn't match him, but he was close behind. He thought he felt a presence nearby, but he assumed it was simply just the stress of Kagome being injured doing this to him.
InuYasha saw Kaede's place in view now. He glanced down at Kagome, whose crystallization wound had gotten large, he glanced at his own. Still same size, colour and place. His eyes narrowed, it felt as if he hadn't got rid of the demon that did this. But he had, the ice-demon was gone.
Suddenly, a black blur passed them. InuYasha stopped and looked around, wondering what it was. Again, the blur passed them, it seemed faster than Koga! Finally, it stopped before InuYasha, and once she had stopped her features could be seen clearly.
The demon was clearly female, she had black hair and her eyes were yellow with cat-like pupils. Black ears were poking out of her head, and her nails were black sharp long claw-like. She had a long black tail coming from behind her. She wore a black tank-top with a black leather top, and black pants that only went just below her knees. She had boots as well.
She walked closer to InuYasha and hissed at him, "Give me the girl. And the fragments of the Shikon Jewel," Her cat-like eyes narrowed, and she awaited, Her ears turned towards him, "And, I am not a hanyou, like you" She said quickly, seeing he had ears not too different from her own ears.
He growled, did they always have to point that out?! He glanced down at Kagome, who either fell asleep or fainted from the wound somehow, it wasn't bleeding or anything. He replied to the cat-demon, "No. You can't have either," He looked around for Miroku; he had been slowed down for some reason.
"Looking for your other friend? He's being stopped by my sister, along with the Insects," She than quickly, catching InuYasha out of guard, punched him in the face. He stumbled back, in surprise, than the cat-demon quickly grabbed Kagome, and she jumped into the shadows of the forest, she gave off a yowl.
InuYasha attempted to follow her, but a slash came at him out of nowhere. He looked around, expecting the black clothed cat, but instead, he saw a redheaded cat-demon fleeing. He didn't bother following her, she didn't have Kagome. Sniffing, he started following Kagome's scent.
He kept following it, till he stopped at a river, "Damn! The water lost the scent!" He looked around, looking for a clue of some sort. But he found nothing, the cat-demons left nothing behind. He ran back, and followed Miroku's scent. He found him with Shippo.
"Where's Kagome?" Miroku asked, seeing that InuYasha was now alone.
"The damn demon got Kagome! I couldn't follow them since they went through the river and who knows where they stepped out of it!" He snapped at Miroku. He glanced down at Shippo who had begun to scold him for losing Kagome, "Shut up, you shrimp! You would have lost her too!"
Shippo crossed his arms over his chest, but said no more. He glanced up to Miroku, who was looking around. Shippo than looked back to InuYasha. You could see rage coming from his eyes, he stepped closer to Miroku. Just in case, really. You never knew about InuYasha.
Miroku's hand tightened around his staff, his narrowed eyes looked around them, than back to InuYasha, "What do you suggest we do? We have to find Kagome, what we are left with nothing. Not even the slightly clue to lead us in a direction," He rubbed the back of his head with his free hand, than lowered it again.
"How should I know!!" InuYasha replied bitterly, than crossed her arms over his chest. He looked into the dark areas of that forest. Why would they take her? If they just wanted the jewel, it would make sense. But they easily could have just taken the jewel, and left her… He sighed.
"What about the ice-arrow wound that demon did? What happens if she's getting worse?" Shippo said, looking quickly to Miroku and InuYasha back and forth, "We have to find her quick!"
"You're right," Miroku agreed, sighing.
Shippo looked around, than saw a piece of crystal not too far from them. He turned back to them and asked, "Was it here where we fought the ice-demon?"
"We? Oh…you…" InuYasha started, he started walking towards him, his hands in a position that made it seem he was ready to strangle something. He said to Shippo, "You little runt! You di-" He was cut short by an interruption of Miroku.
"No. But it was here where the cat-demon took Kagome," He walked over to where Shippo was. He knelt down, and looked at the crystal, than looked to InuYasha, "Does this crystal have Kagome's scent?" He asked as InuYasha walked over to them, to see what they were looking.
InuYasha sniffed once, and the faint smell of Kagome's sweet scent filled his nose, "Yeah," He answered simply. Than it clicked on. We can see if there are more! It should lead us to Kagome and whoever kidnapped her! He looked at Miroku and Shippo, "Lets go!"
~Meanwhile~
Kagome while being carried quickly through the forest, her left hand every couple minutes would pick at her wound. Little pieces of crystals fell to the earth beneath. Heh, guess the story of when the kids dropped the bread to lead them back home actually kinda helped. Instead of bread, I'm dropping crystals… She looked over to the black-haired cat-demon that was carrying her.
Beside the demon carrying her, was another very much like her. She guessed they were sisters. What was black on one demon, was red on the other. Red-hired, red clothing. Kagome noticed that her right arm was numb now, she could barely move it. She asked now, "Um, why are you kidnapping me? What did I do?"
The black-haired cat that was carrying her, who seemed to be the stronger one, the older one, didn't answer. Instead, the other red-haired demon answered. She had some sort of accent, "Me haven't no idea, we gots order from stronger demon. Me sister might know, but me doesn't. Maybe she'll answer."
The older cat-demon didn't stay anything still. Her slanted eyes were narrowed. She finally said, "We gots orders from a demon called 'Naraku' or something. Me-I really didn't really know why though, you seems like a pretty weak girl. Useless really, nots a demon or anything."
Kagome flushed, and she snapped at the two cat-demons, "Weak!" She was quite defensive, "You know how many demons I've killed and survived? Probably more than you've encountered!" She would have crossed her arms at this point, but she was being carried.
"Oh, shuts ups! I don'ts really care!" The black cat hissed at Kagome. Her grip on Kagome tightened, she stifled a yelp. She could feel the demon's long black nail/claws digging slightly into her skin.
Finally, Kagome felt that the cat had stopped running. She was dropped onto the ground, "Hey! Ow!" She cried, than looked around. She didn't recognize this place, where was she? It looked like the other forest by Kaede's village, except this one had large red flowers, with blue middles.
"Where are we? Why this place? How far how we gone?" Kagome asked the two cat-demons, waiting to see which would answer. While waiting, she attempted to get up, but along with her limp right arm, her legs seemed to be numb as well now.
"We ares in a place in a forest where Master tolds us to take yous here. Me don'ts know why you're here, and me says pretty far froms where we weres," The red-haired demon answered. She crossed her arms over her chest, and golden cat-like eyes watched Kagome carefully.
The black-haired one didn't say anything, she looked around simply. After a couple minutes, she yelled to the shadows in an annoyed tone, "We gots her here! Now where's our reward! You betters keep your side of the deal!" She snapped, looking around.
"Well, well. Look what the cat brought in, " A voice said that seemed to be all around them, "Now, you may go. Your reward isn't far from here, you should be able to smell it."
The black-haired demon suddenly turned into a medium-sized black cat. Her sister too turned into a cat, only red. They both shared a moon-shaped mark on their left shoulders. They looked at each other, than the black demon sniffed at the air, and started off in a direction. Her younger sister followed after her.
Kagome looked around, trying to find the voice that spoke. She managed to say out loud, "Naraku?" She could sense that many shards were near her. Than she asked angrily, "What do you want?!" She awaited his answer, her warm brown eyes narrowed, still looking about her.
"Kikyo?" Kagome gasped, seeing a women in the priestess clothes.
~With the Others~
InuYasha in the treetops, he jumped quickly from branch to branch. Than dropped to the floor, when the crystals here and there changed to the ground. Miroku was carrying Shippo, and they were behind, after all, InuYasha was going as fast as he could find the crystals.
He reached an open field, and he looked around. In front of him walked a black cat along with a red one. They seemed to have an angry expression. The black one turned to him, and looked him over. Like to see if it was InuYasha or someone else. Finally, the black one said to him.
"Yous InuYasha, I suppose?" Said the black cat.
"Depends who's asking," InuYasha answered bitterly, his hand was reaching for his sword. Just in case, though the two medium-sized cats didn't look too threatening. But you never knew with Demons, these probably weren't their human-like shape anyways.
"Wells, than. We gots a message from a demon. His name is Naraku. He told us to tell yous before we gots our reward for taking the girl," She paused, than continued, "He said, that the girl Kagome and this other called Kikyo are both under his care. But both have been positioned, as have you. Theirs is fatal, but yours, just to slows you down. They only have a certain time left to live."
"What?!" InuYasha yelled, his golden eyes blazing like fires in a rage.
"Hey, don'ts blames it on us. We didn'ts do nothing," The red coloured cat replied to InuYasha, her eyes narrowing. She than started walking off. The black cat looked at her, than to InuYasha. She than looked around, and she sighed. She started walking along with the red cat.
She -the black cat- than stopped, and looked back to InuYasha, "Oh yeahs. You can only save one. They both ares in different directions, now anyways. And ifs you choose to save the Kikyo girl, she will regains her whole soul. If yous choose the Kagome girl, the Kikyo one will die."
The cat than quickly chased after her younger sister, and they both disappeared into the shadows of the forest. They left InuYasha frozen, not knowing what possible he was supposed to do. Sure, he loved Kagome. But… He didn't want Kikyo to die. Seemed like an obvious choice.
"Why am I having a hard time? I said I chose Kagome, I told Kikyo that! Than why can I not make myself to tell that I chose Kagome? This… This shouldn't be too hard… But it is…" InuYasha said to himself, his eyes watching the ground. His ears kept alert, than he heard running footsteps approaching him.
He turned around, to see who had come. The monk and the runt finally came. Took them long enough… He crossed his arms over his chest and said to them, "Feh! Someone else would have thought you had stopped and gave up or somethin'! You missed two cats telling me something!"
Miroku narrowed his eyes, than put down Shippo on the ground. Turning back to InuYasha, he asked him in worry, "What has happened? Did you not lose the trail that Kagome left for us?"
"Yeah! Why did you stop? C'mon, let's go! We're wasting time!" Shippo said, pointing forwards. Not that necessarily was the right direction anyways; he just needed somewhere to point, "Hey… Something's wrong! What is it, InuYasha?"
InuYasha looked at Shippo again, and he snapped at him, "Of course something's wrong, you runt! Kagome's in danger! It seems that the ice arrow actually poisoned her, and the arrow that hit me is to make me go slower. Not that I feel any different," He added the last part as an afterthought.
"Perhaps not yet. But I believe than you will begin to slow down," Miroku said. He turned around, towards their left. He felt a presence, he looked back to InuYasha, "We should go that way. I feel somewhere near there, a powerful demon near that direction."
InuYasha nodded, and they set off. But he was troubled, even though Kikyo was set to kill him, he didn't want to be the reason of killing her. He sighed, but there was no way he could possibly save both the women, was there? He tried to think hard, but no matter how hard he thought, there was no way.