Chapter 9 – Traveling
Sango was lost in her thoughts. She wasn't even paying attention to Kagome and Inuyasha anymore.
"How long to you think she'll keeping doing that?" Shippou asked, looking at Kirara.
"Merow," was what she replied.
Shippou sighed. "Yeah, me neither."
Inuyasha had finally brighten up and tried to run away from the girl, but it seemed no matter how fast her ran he still got sat or smacked in the head.
"Kagome! Stop!" Inuyasha pleased as he ran around.
Kagome didn't reply she just sat him. "I can't believe you!"
Shippou sat down and crossed his arms. "I don't think Kagome will ever run out of energy. Sango, are you going to make them stop?"
Sango snapped out at hearing her name. "Huh? Oh, yeah. I guess." She watched the two running. "Stop, please, stop," she said with no effort of making herself heard.
"I don't think that worked," Shippou said. Sango didn't pay attention to the little youkai. She had turn around and was looking towards the greenery.
Miroku and Kameko were coming back. Kameko didn't have any expression on her face. Miroku had a slight blush to his though. This made the taiji wonder. 'What went on?' she thought. 'And do I even want to know?'
Kagome had stopped beating the hanyou for a moment to see Kameko come back with Miroku. "Kameko-chan! Are you ok?" she said coming up to her friend.
The girl smiled at her friend. "Yeah, I'm fine. Miroku is a good listener." She said smiling at the houshi.
Kagome and Sango look at him. "He didn't try anything, did he?" Sango asked.
Kameko laughed. "Hardly. I don't see why you call him a hentai houshi. He doesn't seem like that at all."
The whole group (including injured Inuyasha) was staring in shock at Miroku. Miroku was blushing brightly now and was rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "Heh. Yeah, I don't see why either," he joked.
Kameko walked strait up to the hanyou. He was preparing for her to hit him or something. She couldn't help it. Tears streamed down her face once again. She wiped them off and a couple hit his battered face. She shook herself to get composed again.
"Look, buddy. I tend to hold grudges. It's a problem I have. You see, I may act like I forgive you, but I haven't. I either wake-up one day and forgive you or you give me reason to forgive you. I'm sure you're not great on the last part. So you'll probably have to settle for the first. We can be on speaking terms or whatever. I don't expect much from you and I'm sure you feel the same way about me. Now lets get going before Kagome finishes up her job." Kameko turned around and began to gather her things.
It took a moment for Kagome, Sango, Miroku and Shippou to follow her lead.
Inuyasha blinked a couple times before moving. He put a finger up to a nasty gash to find it not there. He had felt it tingle; thinking only blood was coming out of it. Instead it had healed. And he knew his youkai blood had nothing to do with it.
'Could it be?' he asked as he started to follow the others. 'Nah.'
They traveled in silence. Sango was still thinking.
'How is this girl connected to Hikariko?' she asked herself, looking at Kameko. 'She says she's not from this land, yet she looks almost like Kagome, and they aren't related. Strange. Kaede-sama was right. They could be sisters.' She glanced at Miroku, who was talking to Kagome. 'And exactly what did the two of them talk or do when he went after her? He was blushing when they came back. Did he try anything? If he did then why wasn't there a handprint on his face?' She looked back to Kameko. 'Was he telling the truth when said he was in love with her? I suppose when he saw her he withdrew his marriage proposal to me. What does she have that I don't?'
Shippou jumped on to Kameko's shoulder. "You're staying with us, right?"
She looked at the kitsune. "Yes. I figure that this might be fun. Something I can tell my grandchildren. They'll think I'm crazy and won't believe me. All the better though."
He laughed. "You're funny. I wouldn't think you were crazy."
"That's because you'd know the story. Besides, I want to the crazy old grandma that tells 'tall tales'. It's been a goal of mine since I met a crazy old grandma."
*~Five Days Later~*
Inuyasha eyed Kameko as they continued their journey. There was something more to her. He could sense it. Something in her sent that told him. 'But what!' he thought. He looked at Sango. She could sense it too. 'Agh! Why does everything have to be so hard? Things were fine till she showed up.'
"Inuyasha, did you hear a word I said?" Kagome asked.
"What? Oh, no. What did you say?"
"I asked you if we could stop by the village coming up." She pointed down the road. It didn't look too big.
He could smell fish coming from it. 'Must be a fishing village,' he thought looking at the small river running near it. "Yeah, lets stop there. Maybe we can get a boat and travel down river. See if we find any shards."
'Him and those blasted shards,' Kagome thought, she didn't act on it. She only nodded. "Good, and then we can replenish out water supply."
"And I can get a lance," Kameko said.
"Lance?" Inuyasha asked.
"Yeah, you know, a long stick with a pointing end on the end of it. Fishermen use it to catch fish." She rolled her eyes. "Guess you might call it a spear. Same thing."
Inuyasha crossed his arms. "Feh. Whatever."
"Is that his favorite word?" Kameko asked Shippou.
"I think so. He uses it a lot. Might have been the first word her learned," he replied.
"Your weapon of choice is a spear?" Sango asked.
Kameko looked back at the young woman. "Kinda. It depends. In close situations I'll use daggers and knives. For something that's not far, nor close a tomahawk will do. And for distance I use a lance with a atlatl."
"At-ul, at-ul? Sango tried the foreign word. "What's that?"
"It's a type of, uh, thrower for the lance, or spear. Depending on the person it can go quite far then."
"And what is it a tom-uh-hawk?" Miroku asked.
"Hmm. Best way to put it is, uh. Well, it looks like an axe, could be used as one. You throw it too. It can be very dangerous. I hope you know what knives and daggers are."
"I do!" Shippou said happily, then looked sad. "But I don't know how to really use them."
"Maybe I can teach you to use the daggers and a knife." She patted the top of his head. She looked at Kagome. "How often do you fight?" They hadn't had really any problems in five days, but Kagome had said they came upon demons a lot, and vice versa.
"Depends. Some days none, other days way to many."
Kameko gave her a look. "Oh, nice."
"Yeah, you better know how to defend yourself. I'm not going to help you." Inuyasha said.
Kameko snubbed him. "Don't worry. Wouldn't want a pendejo like you to worry about me. No offence Kagome."
Kagome waved her hand and smiled. "None taken, but Inuyasha better watch out for you just as much as me, or his name is going to be mud." She gave the hanyou a warning glare. He didn't say anything, knowing she'd fully act upon her words.
The villagers looked at Inuyasha and Shippou warily as they entered. To the others they just kept their distance, not sure if they could be trusted.
"Why do they stair?" Kameko asked no one in particular.
"Because Inuyasha and Shippou are demons. One can not be sure if they can be trusted," Sango explained.
Kameko made a face, being silly, and thinking at the same time. A woman walked by and gave Shippou a look of disgust. Kameko stuck her tongue out at the woman.
"Well I never," she said and walked away.
"People can be so rude," Kameko said lightly. She picked up Shippou and put him on her shoulder. She was about to say something when a couple of children came running towards them.
"Ah! Youkai! Youkai!" cried a little boy.
The second little boy stopped in front of the group. "Y-youkai!"
"What's this about a youkai?" Miroku asked the first one.
"Get him away!" the second said, pointing at Inuyasha.
"Oh, he's not going to hurt you. He's as docile as a kitten," Kameko said. She gave the hanyou a look.
Inuyasha just narrowed his eyes at her. If Kagome wasn't there, and hadn't threatened him, that girl would be mincemeat right now. "Feh."
"We can help you," Kagome offered. "Just tell us what's wrong."
"A youkai is in our house!" said the first.
"No, Shiro! They have youkai with them," protested his brother.
Shiro looked back at him. "We need all the help we can get, Goro. Father is depending on us." Goro whimpered, but obey. He stood behind Shiro. It was obvious who the elder of the two was. He looked back at them. "Can you help?"
"We'll help," Sango said.
"She's a taiji-ya," Shippou said from his perch on Kameko's shoulder.
Goro looked a little hopeful. "Really?" he said in a small voice.
"Yes," Sango replied. "Now take me to this youkai. On our way there, tell me what happened."
"We didn't now what was happening at first." Shiro began; he gave his younger brother a look, then continued. "Mother was the first one to see it. It frightened her so bad that she ran to our aunt."
"Where is your aunt?" Inuyasha asked.
"A few miles north," Goro offered. "Meep!" he said when Inuyasha looked his way.
"What else?" Kagome asked.
"Then Father saw it. At first he said it'd go away. Said it looked like a weak youkai," Shiro said. "Tried to scared with some incantation, he did."
"Did it work?" Miroku asked the boy.
"At first we thought it did, but then it came back. This time it was violent. Before it just went though out the hut not doing anything. Soon as it saw Father and he tried the incantation it went mad."
"You're father is not a houshi or anything I take it," Kameko said.
Shiro shook his head. "He grew up near on. Thinks he knows everything because he did. At least that's what out mother says sometimes." The other snickered.
"How old are you?" Kagome asked.
"I'm ten summer's old. Goro is eight."
"You have older brothers, right?"
"Yeah. Ichiro and Jiro. We also have a younger brother, Rokuro," Shiro explained.
"What about the third?" Kameko asked.
"Huh?" Shiro asked. "Oh, yeah, Saburo. They're all gone now with their own families."
"How'd you know that?" Shippou asked.
"Well, each other their names mean 'first son,' 'second son,' and so forth. He skipped the third son. I was just curious as to what happened the third son."
"Six boys," Kagome said. "I couldn't handle that. Boys…are boys. I mean, look at Miroku and Inuyasha!"
Kameko and Sango, who couldn't help it, laughed. Shippou didn't get what was going on. "Yeah, six is way to much for me," Kameko agreed. "Four is my limit. What about you Sango?"
Sango looked calmly at her. "I have promise to bear ten, even twenty children."
Kameko's eyes bulged out. "Surely you can't mean you said to a guy you'd give him that many kids. What kind of selfish boy is he?"
Sango pointed ahead of her. "That would be Miroku."
"Their engaged, so to speak," Kagome explained.
Kameko was still in shock from before, now it seemed more permanent. She had stopped walking and didn't notice Kagome and Sango go on with out her. Shippou tugged her hair. Slowly she returned to normal.
"Here we are," Shiro said. Goro was glued to his brother's side. "Be careful when you come in. We aren't sure how will it take to visitors.
Something came flying in front of them. An older man, who was being chased by what appeared to be a girl, followed it.
"That's father and the hisa-me. At least that what we think she is" Goro explained.
"It doesn't look that bad. Once we're through with it, you'll have nothing to fear," Inuyasha said. He unsheathed the Tetsusaiga.
See Inuyasha draw the old appearing sword Kameko nearly laughed. "What are you going to do with that thing?" She asked him. Shiro and Goro were apparently wondering the same thing.
Inuyasha didn't reply because the Tetsusaiga had trance formed. He looked over his shoulder at Kameko and gave her a smug look. She returned it with a dark one. "Heh, didn't think anything of this ol' sword. Showed you didn't I?"
"Just get in the blasted house already," Kagome said.
A/N: Ok, Hisa-me is a female demon of death in Japanese mythology. Trying to work on two stories (this one and a Trigun one) at once here. Sorry if I take a while on the next update. Thanx lilgirl (#3!), glory240, and Aaroyle (#2!) for the new reviews! C'mon peeps! I'm just asking for some lil' reviews. Comments, suggestions, something! @_@