Chapter 3: NO WAY!
"Come on already," InuYasha whines. "Aren't you curious as to what that bastard Naraku is up to now?"
"Well, go find Kirara then!" Kagome shouts from the spring water where she and Sango nervously crouch as low as they can to avoid being seen by their male companions. Miroku is in a relatively similar situation.
"If I could I would have left you all along time ago," InuYasha states. He gazes up at the sky in the direction if Kirara's departure. " Kagura and Kirara's trail is too high. It is impossible to track them." He then hears the murmurs of bickering behind him and spins around only to realize that he is being ignored.
"You get out first! It is indecent for us to expose ourselves," Kagome yells at Miroku.
"Ho, As a gentleman I practice chivalry. I insist, ladies first." Miroku says calmly.
"CHIVALRY!?! Your perversion becomes even more twisted each day!" Sango yells back. Miroku sighs in defeat.
"Alright then," he says as he begins to pull himself out of the water. Sango and Kagome freeze with terrified faces.
"NOOOOO!! DON'T GET OUT!!!! AHHHH!" Kagome screams, flailing her arms in the air. Sango quickly covers her eyes and shrieks. Miroku sinks back into the water.
"You girls stop fooling around!" InuYasha barks. "Hurry up and get dressed. It's not like you have anything to hide!" The girls flash very offended glares at InuYasha. Both of them look thoroughly pissed.
"And what is THAT suppose to mean?!!" Kagome roars. InuYasha strikes an innocent face as he tries to recall what he just said. Then, realizing the misunderstanding in his remark, he seeks a little help from Miroku.
"That's not what I meant! I meant that it's nothing we haven't seen before!"
"InuYasha is a peeper too?!!" Sango asks.
"Nani?! I am not!"
"InuYasha! Why must you be so inconsiderate?!" Kagome screams. InuYasha steps backwards and looks at Miroku out of the corner of his eye for support.
"Don't try to drag me into this." Miroku whispers in response to InuYasha's glance.
"Fine!" InuYasha growls. He got himself into this mess and he is determined to get himself out. "I have much more important things to do than spy on naked girls!"
"Oh, like spying on MIROKU!" Kagome hisses back. Sango joins in for moral support on Kagome's behalf. As they continue their argument that seems to have switched to an issue involving a 'relationship' between InuYasha and Miroku, Shippo hops over to Miroku.
"Does this conversation cause a discomfort Miroku?" he asks. Miroku nods. "Then why don't you say anything?"
"Then I will only become fuel to the fire."
"Oo, that is very wise, Miroku." Miroku nods again. The feud behind them has now become a full-fledged water war. The girls throw up waves of water at InuYasha who responds by childishly kicking water back at them and cursing in a not-so-childish manner.
A little ways up north of the springs, Kagura steers her giant feather down to just above the earth's surface before it poofs back to its original size.
"I will let you off here. It is more convenient for me this way," Kagura tells Kirara before tossing the feather upwards again and vanishing. Kirara stands, gazing into the sky. For some unexplainable reason, the world seems more beautiful to her as a human. She smells the gentle scent of her friends and follows a dirt path in their direction. As she nears them she can hear the sounds of a quarrel in the water.
"What is this?" Kirara mentally questions herself. "All of a sudden I feel.. so… so nervous. Everything is so different in this body." Suddenly a horrifying thought enters her mind. " What if… what if they are mad at me. This is probably one of Naraku's tricks and I am falling right into his plan. They will be so mad if they find out that I didn't even try to resist this. If something bad happens to them, it will be my entire fault. If something happens to InuYasha… I will never be able to forgive myself!" Kirara trips and breaks one of her sandals. "I am leading them right into a trap!" She scrambles to her feet and runs in the opposite direction of the springs. The loose sandal disappears under the dust of the road. Kirara continues to run until she is out of breath. She leans against a tree for support.
"My running distance is limited in this form," she thinks to herself. She falls to the ground and weeps out loud. "I'm so … STUPID!"
At the spring, InuYasha detects the scent of their missing friend. He begins sniffing the air to find the exact location of the smell. Before he can identify the direction Kagome pelts him in the back of the head with a rock.
"What the hell are you doing?!!" He barks at her.
"Winning the war!" She triumphantly shouts. InuYasha continues to trace the scent and follow it. The girls watch him disappear up the road with a fully clothed Miroku and Shippo behind him. They realize that while they were "winning the war" Miroku had gotten dressed and was now proceeding with an unknown mission up the road. "WAIT!" Kagome cries as she and Sango quickly rush to dress themselves and catch up.
"What is it InuYasha?" Miroku asks as he follows behind InuYasha.
"It's Kirara's scent but… there is something strange about it." InuYasha crawls closer to the ground and sniffs. He bumps his nose against something in the dirt. Sitting up he uncovers the object. He picks up a broken sandal and sniffs it. "It has her scent on it and also…" he sniffs again and with a cold tone completes his statement, "Naraku."
"What did you find?" Sango calls to him as she and Kagome arrive. InuYasha doesn't reply and continues tracking. Miroku fills the girls in on the little information they have. Naturally Sango becomes very concerned and takes her place beside InuYasha as a lookout while he concentrates on smells.
"It's this way," InuYasha instructs.
Kirara huddles close to the tree as the familiar voices approach. "Why? I don't understand all these emotions. They were so much more simple in my other form." She thinks to herself. She can now smell them coming and seeks refuge behind a nearby bush.
"There." InuYasha says, pointing to a bush ahead of them. Kirara begins shaking and can't understand why. She hears the footsteps come closer. "Oi, you there! Come out!" InuYasha orders. Kirara tries to move but she can't. The bush begins to quiver as a result of her shaking. She tries to speak but her voice only comes out as a squeak. "I said, come out NOW!" InuYasha demands and tears the bush apart with a swipe of his claws.
Kirara covers her head with her arms to shield herself from the crumbling remains of the bush.
Everyone shares the same shocked expression except InuYasha who hasn't quite figured out what is going on.
"Hey, girl! Where is…huh?" InuYasha stares puzzled. He moves really close to get a good look at this girl. Their noses are almost touching when he sniffs twice and she in return, sniffs twice. "Kirara?"
"H-hai?" At this moment everyone simultaneously jumps back with the same response;
"NO WAY!" Kirara could only sit, wide-eyed and motionless. Shippo hops over and looks up at Kirara's face.
"Kirara? Are you…human?"
"But she still has her ears and tail," Kagome points out.
"She took on a human form, but.. She's still a full youkai," Sango informs Kagome and Shippo.
"But.. how?" Miroku questions. Kirara's ears press flat against her head with shame.
"Naraku." She says in nearly a whisper.
"Naraku!?" InuYasha shouts. He grabs Kirara by the collar of her dress and lifts her before him. "Did you make some kind of deal with him for this?!" He yells at her. His furious expression instantaneously changes to a surprised face when he sees how shaken and terrified Kirara's human face is. It is very strange that in this instant InuYasha focuses on Kirara's eyes. When she was a saber-toothed fire cat, her eyes were entirely red. Now her irises are a deep burgundy. It is also strange that in this instant InuYasha notices how beautiful Kirara's eyes are. She has eyes that had a mature appearance of a woman who has endured much in her life. He is suddenly reminded of Kikyo. She had similar eyes except they are very cold and Kirara's are much gentler. Not only her eyes but everything about her in particular seems so gentle and beautiful. In the realization of how hostile he was being to her he puts her down and steps back.
( Kirara has been alive for a very long time in human years. Most demons have a life expectancy far longer than any human could ever imagine. Aside from this, Kirara appears the age of a 19-year-old human. So let's set up the age differences. Kagome is 15.Miroku is around 21 while Sango is about 18. Considering that InuYasha did not age while he was sealed he would be somewhere in between 17-20 in demon years. I perfer to think of him as 17. Of course it is harder to calculate a Hanyou's age than a human or youkai. As for Kikyo we will assume she was in the same range as InuYasha and perhaps older than him. I prefer 19. That leaves Shippo at the age of around 6. The real hard ones are Naraku and his detachments. Technically, Kagura and her siblings haven't even been alive for a year but their appearance of age is left for you to determine. )
"InuYasha?" Kagome addresses him with concern.
"Gomen," Kirara says aloud to distract everyone's attention away from InuYasha. It is obvious to her that something is unsettling to InuYasha concerning this situation.
"Why?" Kagome asks.
"I made you all worry." She stands up. "I apologize. Also, I am unable to explain to you why this has happened. If you don't mind, I would like very much to return to camp." Kirara walks past everyone with a saddened face. They decide that it is a good idea to return to the camp.