"I don't get it," whined Inuyasha. "What she got that I don't?"

"Well Inuyasha," replied Kamali. "There are a coupe thing things that make males and females different. Most noticeable would be....."

"I don't mean physically!" snapped Inuyasha. "I mean why do people suddenly love her? I mean, Rasha's only been in the village for a week and already she got the entire town kissing up to her!"

He looked over his shoulder and jumped, realizing who he was talking to.

The little spirit grinned, revealing it's blood red teeth.

"You can talk?!" demanded Inuyasha.

"Clearly," muttered Kamali. "I often refrain from talking to strangers, but I decided it would be best for everyone if your mind didn't deteriorate so much that you have entire conversations with yourself!"

"You want I should pound you?" Inuyasha asked cooly, raising a fist.

Kamali giggled insanely. How he did that without even opening his mouth was beyond Inuyasha, but he wasn't really interested in grilling the little sprite, demon, imp..... thing, about it!

"So you gonna answer my question or what?" Inuyasha asked sullenly, looking back at Rasha.

"Well she is a matchmaker, and matchmakers do make people happy," Kamali replied.

Kamali came to hover on Inuyasha's shoulder as the hanyou perched on one of the houses of the village, watching th activity below with suspicious golden eyes.

Rasha, dressed as a priestess was sitting on the stoop of her shop, giggling with a handful of little girls like she was one of them.

"She's a demon!" snapped Inuyasha. "She should be feared! She should be off doing demon stuff, not sucking up to a bunch of snot nosed brats."

"She makes people happy so they like," Kamali shrugged. "When she makes people unhappy they hate her. Same hand you were dealt!"

"What?" asked Inuyasha. "What does dealing have to do with anything?"

"I was trying to sugar coat it, but if you're a big, fat stupid jerk, people will hate you," Kamali said dryly. "If you're nice and want to help, people will like you. Yukai, hanyou or human."

As if to testify to Kamali's words a woman came rushing out of her house and grabbed her daughter by the arm.

"You stay away from my Merine you filthy youkai!" screeched the woman, spitting at Rasha.

Kamali screamed and raised his 'hands' a scythe appeared and he flew towards the woman, gibbering incoherently.

"Hey what the?" demanded Inuyasha.

He leaped off the roof and grabbed for Kamali before the scythe could come down on the woman. Kamali disappeared before Inuyasha's hand connected. Inuyasha landed and looked about, puzzled.

"Where did he go?" he asked, looking around.

"Wherever it is he goes when he disappears," shrugged Rasha, rising to her feet. "Time to go home girls!" she told the children who scampered off, breathlessly waiting to tell their friends about their excitement.

Rasha disappeared inside her hut without a word to Inuyasha, leaving him there standing, feeling like a fool who couldn't even catch a stupid little ball of.... whatever Kamali was!

"Yukai!" The woman who'd angered Kamali spit on him.

"Hey!" he shrieked. "You old hag!" She hurried away with her daughter, ducking inside their house like those flimsy boards could protect them from him if he really wanted to get in!

"Geez, don't thank me or nothing!" he snapped. He leapt to the roof of her hut and banged on it just to be a pest before leaping rooftop to rooftop in the direction of Kaede's hut.

He dropped down and went inside to sulk in the company of those who couldn't glare at him and call him Yukai, like it was an insult.

Kaede's hut was warm and homey smelling. She had a pot of tea warming over her little stove and she was kneeling at a low down table, appearing to be at rest with a steaming cup of tea between her two hands.

"What troubles ye Inuyasha?" she asked him.

"I just got called a yukai," he huffed and sat down.

"And ye are upset?" she asked, taking a sip. "I thought ye would be proud to be called yukai and not hanyou."

"Well yeah, but the way she said it," Inuyasha replied. "She made it sound like a dirty word!"

"Perhaps ye are getting a taste of what life as a full demon is like? Tis not all fun and games!"

"You're a freaky old woman ain't you?" he asked her drily.

Kaede gave him an unimpressed look.

"You are a very rude boy," she told him.

"Yeah, I'll get over it!" He replied laying down. "So, anything good happening recently? Any curses you undid? Any curses you did? And how about demons? Any big bad demons, to fight, not including Rasha or myself? Is Kagome coming back this week? Where are Miroku and Sango? What about the little fox brat?"

"I am flattered ye have so many questions for me Inuyasha," Kaede said. "But I am expecting company and wish to be left alone. If ye do not mind."

"What?" he demanded. "You're kicking me out?"

"Yes," she answered simply.

"I can't believe it!" he snapped. "You can't seriously be kicking me out?"

"Inuyasha, Kagome will not be back for several days, if I wish to have a guest that is my own affair. If ye wish something to do, ye may go to the woods and build something."

"Build something?" demanded Inuyasha incredulously. "What do you mean build something?"

Kaede gave him a dark look.

"Inuyasha, if ye would be so kind as to leave it would be most appreciated!"

Inuyasha spluttered and then stormed out of her hut, grumbling under his breath about old women who liked to be mysterious for no reason!

"My lord Inuyasha!"

"Oh great!" groaned Inuyasha. He looked down, hopping by his left foot was the unmistakable Myouga the flea.

"As if today wasn't going bad enough, ~you~ had to show up!"

"Lord Inuyasha, I detected a most strange demon smell upon entering the city. I fear you have competition!"

"Heh! That's just Rasha," Inuyasha replied, leaping to the roof of a hut. He sat down, chin in fist. Myouga leapt up beside him and then onto his shoulder.

"You know this demon Lord Inuyasha?" Myouga asked him.

"Yeah."

Inuyasha looked at his tiny insect demon vassal.

'Reduced to chatting with Myouga,' he thought gloomily. 'Is this why I hang around, to be left behind to chat with that old hag and Myouga?'

"May I meet this Rasha, I am curious as to why she is here."

"Why not?" sighed Inuyasha. "It's not like I have anything better to do!"

He leapt to the roof of Rasha's hut and then to the packed dirt right in front of it. There was a large copper bell with a little sign beside it that said: Being alone is not a crime, but if true love you want find, then just give my bell a chime, to find you love I've always the time!

Inuyasha stared at the sign for a moment, wondering how Rasha had made it this far without being beaten up.

"I can't believe she gets customers this way," he muttered ringing the bell.

"Come in!" sang Rasha happily from within.

Inuyasha pushed open her door and paused on the threshold. Rasha looked up from a stack f papers she was going over and a huge grin broke out on her face.

"Inuyasha, so lovely to see you gain, come to get your star chart mapped?"

Inuyasha was too busy looking around the room in disbelief. Every wall was covered with charts and pictures, some were of the galaxy, others were of various zodiac signs from around the world.

Shelves and drawers were half open and crammed with more paper, off to the side was a room, blocked off by a beaded curtain.

Everything that wasn't paper in the rom was in pairs.

Two quills lay side by side, an ink pot and a spoon were tucked away together, Rasha's shoes were side by side, as were her bow and Kamali's scythe.

"Look I'm not here for some stupid matchmaking okay?" snapped Inuyasha. He flopped back on the floor. "I'm bored!"

"Well in that case you can help me organize!" Rasha said standing up, knocking a large pile of paper of her lap. "You'll never believe how many orders I have to fill and in such a short time. Everything in this room needs to go in there which will be my office. Kamali has run away it seems!"

"I ain't helping you clean!" snapped Inuyasha.

Rasha approached him with a smile on her face.

"Then leave so I can do it!"

Inuyasha thought about his options for a moment. If he did help Rasha, he'd be bored, certainly, but if he didn't, he'd even worse off.

With a sigh he got to his feet.

"Fine!"

"Good, do the heavy lifting!" she replied with a smile. She paused and tilted her head. "If it isn't Myouga the flea!" she exclaimed happily. She stooped down and picked up the tiny little demon. "I haven't seen you since I was knee his to dragork!"

"A what?" demanded Inuyasha.

"Uh, Lord Inuyasha it's a common minor demon from Saudi Arabia, related to dragons," explained Myouga from Rasha's finger.

"Distantly related," Rasha said firmly. "No family resemblance at all!"

"How did you know that?" Inuyasha asked Myouga suspiciously.

"Well you see Lord Inuyasha, your father was a great and powerful demon, revered and respected in many lands. He used to travel from land to land before you were born with his wife and Sesshomaru, your brother."

"How is he?" asked Rasha, dropping Myouga to the floor and picking up her bow. "Still single?"

"Uh, lord Sesshmarou and Lord Inuyasha aren't on speaking terms. In fact last time they met they tried to kill each other," Myouga replied nervously.

Rasha shrugged.

"Sibling rivalry!"

Inuyasha and Myouga shared a look.

"Anyway, I was only a very little girl when your father and Sesshomaru came to my home land to visit my mother Tiamat, she's revered as well. A very powerful demoness. Your father was quite a diplomat and very charming."

"Can't say I remember him well," Inuyasha muttered. "I don't even remember my mother very well!"

"She was a great beauty," Myouga explained to Rasha. "And very kind."

"So Myouga, how's your love life?" Rasha asked right out of the blue.

Myouga gaped at her.

"Uh, lady Rasha is that an all together proper question?" he asked. Inuyasha noticed how bright red Myouga was going and grinned wickedly.

"Careful there Myouga or someone might think you're a cherry!" he said wickedly.

"Leave the poor dear alone!" rasha scolded. "So Myouga, are you a summer or a winter?"

"A summer I believe," Myouga replied frowning.

"Favorite food, place, color, song and part of a woman's body."

Inuyasha and Myouga shared a nervous look.

"Uh, Lady Rasha, you're not getting any ideas are you?" Myouga asked, dripping sweat.

"Nonsense!" laughed Rasha.

"I better be off!" said Myouga, making a run for the door. Inuyasha leapt and caught him in his hands.

"Answer her question Myouga!" ordered Inuyasha, enjoying Myouga's discomfort. He stuffed Myouga under an up turned glass on the table and leered at the little flea.

Cheerfully Inuyasha grabbed one of Rasha's large bureaus and carried it to eh other room, humming to himself, things were looking up already.

When Sango, Miroku and Shippou returned from a demon hunting expedition they found Inuyasha lounging on Rasha's clean floor as the match maker interrogated poor Myouga, still trapped under the glass.

"Now Myouga, as soon as you tell me your favorite childhood toy you're allowed out," Rasha said in a reasonable voice.

"Lady Rasha I beg of you! Release me!" moaned Myouga. "This is humiliated!"

"The path to love is treacherous and full of pitfalls," she said wisely. "Now talk flea or I put you outside to roast in the sun!"

"Stop that!" ordered Miroku. He ran over and released Myouga from the glass. Myouga wasted no time in leaping away. Babbling something about a river of saki and doctor.

"What were you doing to the poor flea?" demanded Miroku.

"Asking him some skill testing questions," Rasha replied innocently. "He's such a baby1 he'll never find true love if he keeps shying away form sharing his inner feelings!"

Inuyasha was trying not to snicker. He was here simply for the tormenting of Myouga. Personally he thought any reason to stick Myouga under a glass and asked him questions he didn't want to answer was a good reason.

"I'm certainly glad you're back though," Rasha said. "If you could fill these charts out for me!"

She handed Sango and Miroku each a large piece of paper and a quill.

"Now be quick! The sooner you finish your chart the sooner I can get your names onto one of my many lists!"

"What lists?" asked Miroku frowning.

"The matchmaking lists of course!" laughed Rasha.

"You're not serious!" Shippou cried. "You can't match them up! They're happy just the way they are!"

He blinked several times as Rasha handed him a form and his own little quill. He screamed and dropped them, then dashed to hide behind Inuyasha, cowering behind the larger demon.

"Don't let her get me Inuyasha!" he wailed. "She's crazy! You saw what she did to Miroku last week! She tied him up!"

"Get off me!" snapped Inuyasha, pushing the smaller demon away.

Shippou rolled along the floor like a ball until Rasha stopped him with on of her large feet, also like a ball.

Shippou sat up and looked all the way up at Rasha who smiled down on him.

"Why are your feet so big?" he asked bluntly.

Rasha got an uncomfortable look on her face.

"My feet aren't big," she muttered under her breath. "Not where I come from anyway."

"Well here they're huge!" Shippou declared loudly.

"Shippou!" exclaimed Sango, startled by his blunt rudeness.

"You aren't a good judge of feet yourself Shippou, yours are too small!" Miroku replied dryly.

The next thing anyone knew Rasha was sprawled out on the floor giggling, poking at Shippou's little paws with an enthralled expression on her face.

"Eh hee!" she giggled. Shippou stumbled bac, trying tog et away from her. She grabbed his feet and played with them like he was a baby. "Eh hee! Eh hee!"

Sango, Miroku and Inuyasha shared disturbed look.

"Stop that!" Inuyasha ordered Rasha. "You're a demon! Act like one!"

With a sniff Rasha rose to continuing he task she'd been doing before Shippou's feet had entrap her.

Inuyasha was a bout to deliver another scathing comment, but he paused catching a familiar scent on the wind. He leapt to his feet and grabbed the Tetsuiga, staring hard at the door.

"What is it Inuyasha?" Sango asked.

"It's just a pottery wagon," Rasha replied dismissively, turning her back on the door.

The door slid open with a firm sound and framed in it's opening was a young woman dressed as a priestess, sporting a dark look and a bow and arrows.

"Inuyasha!" she spat.

"Kikyo!" he muttered.

Their weapons, at the ready and their dark looks froze everyone in a position of anxious fear. No one wanted to attract he attention of either one of those dark looks.

The spell was broken when Kaede ran up and tried to grab Kikyo.

"Sister, leave him be! Inuyasha harms no one!" she wailed. "Ye promised!"

"Hush Kaede," Kikyo ordered. "I will not harm here, but I will know what another demon is doing in my village!"

"You're village?" demanded Shippou. "This is Kaede's village!"

The dead priestess turned her stare upon the poor little fox demon who whimpered and ducked behind Sango.

"Hello, I'm Rasha," said the matchmaker as if a brawl wasn't about to break out in her house. "I'm that demon you're wondering about. I'm just here to run my matchmaking shop!"

"You are dressed as a miko," Kikyo said, turning her cold dead stare on Rasha.

"Priestess actually," Rasha corrected. "I'm an ordained priestess! Capable of performing legally binding marriages any time any place anywhere!"

"Who was the idiot who gave her that power?" Miroku demanded in disbelieving horror.

"I am Kikyo, miko of this village," Kikyo told her. "Guardian of the Shikon jewel. During my life time anyway. Through the carelessness of Inuyasha and that girl Kagome the jewel was shattered and now fragments liter the earth! Now any demon or human with petty, grasping ambitions can put their hands upon a shard and increase their power, and taint the jewel further! All because of them!"

"True," agreed rasha, nodding sympathetically. "But," she added brightly. "They did it together! And all serious relationships have their hardships. Inuyasha and Kagome have to find the rest of the jewel, Miroku's got a hole in his hand. These are just things they'll have to work out!"

Everyone stared at Rasha like she had grown another head.

"What does my wind tunnel have to do with anything?" Miroku asked.

"What serious relationship?" asked Inuyasha in the same tone. The two boys shared a shrug and a frown.

"Why don't we all sit down for a nice cup of tea and go over some star charts?" offered rasha in a soothing voice.

Everyone shared a look and then a wary nod.

Rasha bustled about, making tea, seeming oblivious to the tension in the room around her. No one wanted to sit too close to Kikyo and no one wanted Kikyo too close to Inuyasha.

When Rasha had made the tea, she knelt at the low table with the rest of them and poured. There was silence in the room until Kikyo broke it.

"You do not feel like a normal demon," she said coldly. "Who are you?"

"Why she is lady Rasha!" pipped up Myouga, leaping onto the table. "I came back when i smelled the delicious fragrance of Tiamat's own secret blend!"

Rasha smiled tolerantly and let a drop fall to the table for Myouga.

At his words everyone took a sip of their tea. Just as Myouga had said it was indeed delicious, strong and dark with a bit of a spicy after taste.

"Everything about you is odd," Kikyo said. "Your appearance, your mannerisms, your tea, even your demonic essence."

"She is lady Rasha, daughter of Tiamat," Myouga pipped up.

"We got that part!" snapped Inuyasha, bringing his hand down on the table, intending to slap the flea, who deftly jumped into the protectiveness of Rasha hands. Inuyasha's pound only made the table quake and the tea slosh over the sides of the cups.

Myouga it seemed had forgotten, or was in denial about the afternoon spent under a water glass on a table. Perhaps he preferred the dubious safety of Rasha's hand to the doubtless pain of Inuyasha's.

"Tiamat is the great dragon queen of Saudi Arabia. She is a great demoness, some think she might be as great as lord Inuyasha's father was," explained the flea. "The dragons, like birds are scholars and keep the secrets of the...."

Everyone around the table jumped three feet in the air as Rasha's hand slammed down onto the table with a loud ~thwack~ flattening Myouga.

When rasha removed her hand Myouga was a flat as a piece of parchment. He moaned and moved, regaining his 3D appearance.

"Rasha has been banished from her homeland for causing trouble," Myouga said, sitting down on the table, trying to look dignified with a huge bump on the side of his head. "Many believe she became such a problem child because she never had the wings of all her brother and sisters."

Rasha glared at Myouga as if she was devising the most painful way to kill the little flea. The usually cheerful matchmaker looked for the first time an angry yukai. Her pupils began to elongate, becoming long and narrow.

"Why were ye banished child?" asked Kaede hurriedly, trying to save Myouga from the very angry yukai behind him.

Rasha's appearance returned to normal as she turned her attention to Kaede.

"I was rather unprofessional around home," Rasha replied. "It was just some little thing, but before you know it, they're banishing you for a hundred and eighty years, less a day!" She laughed cheerfully, her anger towards Myouga forgotten.

"Lady Rasha has been banished more then any other demon in the world," Myouga said sagely.

"Why?" asked Miroku.

"Let's see, I was banished form home for unprofessionalism. I was banished from Egypt it was because I was performing a wedding ceremony on the Sphinx. I tripped and accidently knocked the nose off. But I glued it back on as soon as the ceremony was done!" she assured them. She paused. "But I don't think it's quite so sturdy as it used to be. Then came Turkey, I stayed there a whooping fifty years, then my enemies found were I lived and well, it was time to run again. India voted me public enemy number one. Some people are just so sensitive and in China I scared off al the king's suitors. As they banished me they shouted after me 'Go Japan! They like psychos!' So here I am!"

She smiled.

"Why didn't they just kill you?" Inuyasha asked, disbelieving that someone who'd made as many enemies as rasha would just be banished time and time again.

"Well you see being a daughter of Tiamat.." began Myouga.

The table cracked in half a huge clawed foot came crashing down on the table, right on Myouga.

Everyone jumped back, staring in horror at Rasha who'd stomped on her own table. She ground the ball of her foot down on Myouga with her lips set in a tight line.

When she pulled her foot back, Myouga was twitching and moaning in pain.

"Let me take your cups!" said rasha brightly, picking up the shattered fragments of cups that had broken when they fell off the table as the table was broken by a large dragon foot.

"Oh I understand," Shippou said as rasha walked away. "They didn't kill her out of respect to her mother!"

"That's right!" said Rasha quickly. "Out of respect for Tiamat! She's a scary mama!"

Myouga whimpered in pain and lifted one arm imploring seeking help.

"Lord, Inuyasha!" he gasped. "Save me!"

Inuyasha just sat there smirking. All this Myouga bashing was starting to make him think Rasha wasn't such a bad person after all!

Kikyo followed rasha around the room with her eyes, obviously not trusting the demoness matchmaker.

"Something of your story does not ring true. Why do you not seek the Shikon jewel?" she asked.

"I have better things to do with my time," Rasha shrugged. "After all, it's not like one little gem has the power of the world!"

"She's either insane of brilliant," Miroku muttered to himself, carefully peeling Myouga off the table.

"A little of column A, a little of column B," Shippou said, poking Myouga.

"By the way Myouga, have you met Kaede?" sang Rasha. "She's single too!"

Everyone choked and stared at her.

"Surly ye are not suggesting..." began Kaede, sounding scandalized.

"Don't be silly!" laughed rasha. "It's just that you're single, and he's single and you're both getting on in years. I thought you might enjoy one another's company! Sitting on the porch drinking tea sort of thing!"

Kaede gave her a suspicious look before turning her attention to her sister.

"What will ye do now Kikyo? Ye have seen Rasha poses no threat to the village. Will ye leave and return to your eternal rest?"

"No," replied Kikyo. "I have unfinished business!"

She turned to glare at Inuyasha.

"I will not rest until I have sent Inuyasha to hell!"

"You wanna start this again?" he demanded, grabbing the Tetsuiga. He bared his fangs, ready for her to make the fist move.

"Kikyo ye promised!" wailed Kaede. In a cold voice she added. "If I cannot trust ye, then ye have no business in my village!"

Kikyo rose to her feet, a deadly look in her eyes. Her clothes began to billow, blown by a breeze that seemed to be wrapped around her. She titled her head back and suddenly the souleaters she employed as her minions appeared, wrapped around her like a bizarre cocoon.

Miroku leapt to his feet and grabbed the prayer beads around his hand and took a fighting stance, ready to unleash them.

"Stay behind me!"

He found himself staring at the back of sango's head as she prepared to throw her boomerang.

He looked down at Shippou who stood be side him and they both shrugged, then moved to stand beside Sango, incase she needed help.

The souleaters began to fly around the room, zooming, blowing charts and clothing, lifting lighter objects clear off the ground and making them zoom about the room, almost as hazardous as the souleaters themselves.

"Watch out!" sango ordered. "Hose things usually go after dead people's souls, but with Kikyo commanding them we can't know what they'll do!"

"Kikyo stop this madness!" wailed Kaede, trying to grab her sister, but she was blown back into a wall. Three souleaters wound themselves around her, binding her in place.

"Stay out of this little sister!" Kikyo said coldly, eyes only for Inuyasha.

"This sure got bad real fast," Shippou muttered, squinting against the fierce wind, trying to keep from being blown over.

"That's why you don't drink tea with your enemy!" Sango muttered, turning her head against the vicious gust. "This is almost as bad as your wind tunnel Miroku!"

"Not true!" Miroku protested. "You're always on the good side of my wind tunnel!"

Inuyasha ignored everyone but Kikyo, staring at her, waiting for her to make the first move. The Tetsuiaga would be no good unless it was used for a human's cause, perhaps defending sango and Miroku would be as good as using it to protect kagome.

Inuyasha realized that he was fervently glad kagome wasn't here. Not only were meetings with Kikyo always stressful and confusing, leaving him doubting his own feedings and his own common sense, he didn't want to see her get hurt as Kikyo came after him. There were too many others between the two of them already!

"Come with me to hell Inuyasha!" bellowed Kikyo as her eyes began to glow white with the power of the souleaters.

Inuyasha deepened his stance, preparing for the worst.

"Stay low!" ordered a voice, that when whizzing past his ear. Only with his hanyou eyesight allowed him to see the faint form whiz towards Kikyo and only a hanyou or yukai would have been able to see the scythe come swinging down in a high ark.

Something inside his cried out against Kikyo being hurt.

The dead miko cried out in pain and blood splattered to the ground.

Everything froze for a moment, waiting breathlessly to see if the miko would collapse or not.

The power she'd been gathering around herself exploded, throwing everyone back into the walls of the hut.

Miroku caught Sango, who in turn grabbed Shippou seconds before slamming full force into the wooden wall hard enough to make it splinter.

The souleaters vanished and then everything was still once more.

Kikyo held her shoulder which bled.

Kamali appeared and whizzed around the room to stop in front of the beaded curtain, hovering over Rasha's shoulder.

The demoness held her glowing blue bow with it's golden arrows of light pointed at Kikyo.

Rasha let loose with one that embedded itself in the floor at Kikyo's feet.

"You should leave now!" she snarled, her pupil elongating as they had while glaring at Myouga.

"Lord Inuyasha, Rasha's rage knows no bounds. She must not take her truest form!"

Inuyasha looked at the angry dragon demon and wondered if maybe there wasn't something to that theory.

"I will return!" Kikyo promised. She limped out of the hut.

The others ran tot eh door in time to watch her rise of the ground, borne away by her souleaters, a faint rain of blood fell from her as she flew away.

"Right where the killing blow felled her!" cackled Kamali. "Nice night to sharpen my scythe on a lively corpse!"

"Corpse?" asked Rasha.

"Kikyo died fifty years ago and was recently reanimated by the witch Urasue," Kaede explained wearily. "My older sister was not so vengeful in life, but in death she is sustained only by her hate of Inuyasha and her desire to take him t hell with her!"

"She's awfully eager to go to hell isn't she?" asked Kamali. He laughed maniacally, sending shivers up everyone's spine.

"She and Inuyasha weren't serious were they?" Rasha asked anxiously, as villagers began to file out of their huts, wondering what the commotion from the matchmaker's shop had been. "I mean, things were platonic right? There are no kids I should worry about?"

"No!" shrieked Inuyasha. "Don't be disgusting!"

"Any other girlfriend I should know about?" Rasha asked him, planting her hands on her hips after placing her bow to elan against the wall of her hut. "I mean, how I can I match you and kagome up if your old flames keeps popping up?"

"Match me and kagome?" demanded Inuyasha. "That's disgusting! And Kikyo is not a girlfriend, we had a thing, but I was a long time ago!"

Rasha gave him a hard look and sighed.

"Matchmaking in this town is going to be so much harder then i originally thought!"

She looked over the crowd and a smile began to form on her lips, one that worried those who knew her best.

She bent down and scooped up Shippou, with a dreamy look she walked over to a little girl and set Shippou down beside her.

She grinned up at the others.

"Ain't they cute?" she cooed.

"Ka-Go-May!!!!" wailed Shippou.



In her floating castle, flying thousands of feet of the groung Sora looked out her tall arched window.

She let out a delighted girlish laugh.

"You can run, but can't hide my pretty!" she giggled. "Soon, you too will bow before the Bird Queen you silly little feather duster!"

She threw open her arms wide and spun about the empty throne room, laughing to herself happily.

She placed her hands against the smooth tubes that line one wall of her throne room. She laughed again more gently and stared into the thick clear liquid that filled it.

"Soon, with the egg of the Wonder Bird i will create my most perfect minion yet!" she said happily.



The Dancing Shadow looked up at the floating fortress of the bird queen, she ran her fingers up and down the hilt of her mother's sword.

"You can't stay in that castle forever," she whispered. "Soon Sora you'll leave the safety of your kingdom and come to earth, and then Your Majesty, you will be mine!"