Virtual Reality
Chapter Eight
Kagome stared at her surroundings, unable to actually see anything wrong with the area; however, her sixth sense was going nuts. The evil she felt was more powerful than anything she had ever sensed before. It was so intense, so strong, that she almost couldn't believe it. It was suffocating; she nearly choked on the sensation. 'I hope I don't become sick.'"It just feels so evil," she stated softly, brown eyes troubled. "I have never felt anything so evil as this place. I think this is what Soku-no-Kumi just might feel like."
Inuyasha growled, even though he couldn't smell, see, or hear anything threatening or slightly evil. "I bet the Elves have something to do with this. They're trying to stop us from completing your quest," he stated, tone angry. He hated how the Elves kept twisting things around to Kagome's disadvantage. 'They are all so dead when I finally get to see them. Oh so very dead.' "But I have a news flash for them--we are NOT going to fail!"
The miko smiled up at him, suddenly feeling much better. It was nice to know she had his support; she also liked his optimism. 'I don't know what I would do without him,' she thought, her eyes holding a soft look just for him. "You're right. Thank you." A determined gleam entered her brown eyes, intensifying the chocolate color. "Now, let's go show them up!"
The hanyou grinned, finding her happy enthusiasm rather catching. "Good idea." He resumed walking, his grip on the female gentle but firm. Of course, he kept his eyes, ears, and nose open for any sign of danger, even though he continued to sense nothing. His nose didn't pick up the scent of any demon; his ears heard nothing unusual; his eyes saw nothing evil or dangerous. Everything seemed just fine to him, but he trusted Kagome. If she said the area was evil, he would believe it.
Inuyasha continued to travel until he came across a wide, gray path. He wasn't quite sure what it was, but it had yellow and white lines running parallel down the edges and middle. He could smell something funny in the air, and his ears picked up distant rumbling, like soft thunder.
"What is this?" Kagome wondered, staring at the gray object in awe. It was so long that she couldn't see the beginning or end of it. "What could it possibly be for?" 'I've never seen anything like it. It has to be at least a hundred feet wide and a couple of miles long.'
The dog demon looked around, his golden eyes unsure as they took in everything. "I don't know. Maybe it's an illusion." That seemed likely to him, but he couldn't tell if it was the truth or not. The road looked real. Also, something inside of him kept saying that the gray road was real, whether he liked that option or not.
She shrugged slightly. "It appears harmless, although if it was dangerous, I wouldn't be able to tell. There's so much evil around her that I can't single anything out." She sighed sadly. 'I wish I could be more help. I wish I had better powers.' "Should we cross it? Or see if we can go around?"
Inuyasha took a few deep breaths, calming down as he mused over their options. 'We could go around, but that we take far too long. We simply don't have time because of Kagome's quest, but... crossing the road could be dangerous. Do we dare risk it? Do I dare risk Kagome's life? Then again, if she fails her quest, would her life be forfeit anyway?' He eventually came to a decision, hoping that it was the right one. "I think it's safe to cross. Besides, this is the quickest way to the palace." He stepped toward the path, golden eyes alert.
A hanyou suddenly appeared in front of him, his red face one of a monkey. His body was white fur, the hair somewhat long and coarse, covering his feet but leaving his evil-looking nails free. It looked like a cheap costume. The dog demon instantly took a disliking to the newcomer, mainly because costumed-man smelled bad.
"Who are you?" the inu youkai demanded to know, automatically tightening his grip on the miko in a protective gesture. He was not going to let anything bad happen to her ever again. 'The instant he makes a move to harm Kagome, I'll kill him.'
"Naraku," the monkey-dressed male replied, his voice even sounding evil. "And you have entered my territory." He laughed, the sound sickening and dark.
Kagome made a face as she felt her insides squirm. The man made her feel sick, his evil miasma flowing out of him and curling around her like slimy tentacles. She called up her magic to force the evil miasma away, and she succeeded. It was hard, but she did it. The only thing was that the awful tentacles left her with a great desire to take a long, hot shower with lots of anti-bacterial soap.
Inuyasha couldn't see it; in fact, he appeared to be immune to it. The miasma avoided him, moving around him as if it knew the inu youkai would be a bad target. Also, every time the miasma touched him, it would begin to smoke.
Unfortunately for her, she could see, smell, and sense it, which didn't bode well for her. The black miasma seemed to be a concentration of pure evil. She couldn't feel any good inside of it or Naraku. 'It doesn't seem possible, but I think he is completely evil. How can that be though? Doesn't everyone have some good in them?' After another look at the newcomer, she mentally shook her head. 'I guess not. I can't sense a single speck of kindness or compassion inside of him.'
"We just going to the Japanese Palace, so move out of our way if you don't want to get hurt," Inuyasha advised, his voice slipping into a growl. There was just something about the hanyou that ticked him off.
Naraku chuckled, slightly tilting his head to one side. "Don't be in such a rush. I merely wish to play with you for a while." He gestured toward the gray path behind him. "I don't suppose you know anything about an old game called 'Frogger', do you?" Before Inuyasha could answer, he continued on to explain a few things. "It was a game in which a little frog tried to cross a rather busy highway, dodging traffic and such to get to the other side. This is what you are going to do. You're going to play human frogger"
"I don't know what you think you're doing, but I don't think this is allowed!" the inu youkai snapped. 'This sounds illegal to me. No one should be able to control his territory this much. He actually changed it to something more modern, adding in something that cannot exist here. I hope he gets his ass kicked by the Elves for messing around like he is.' "And we don't have time to deal with you!"
The monkey-dressed male shrugged. "That is none of my concern. What you should be worrying about is the road... not your time limit." He began to walk away. "Good luck getting across. I can't wait to see you flattened like a pancake. This is going to be so entertaining, don't you agree?"
The dog demon set Kagome down and launched himself at the other man. "Sankon Tetsusou!" With a slash of his claws, he sent an empty monkey costume fluttering to the ground in shreds. Naraku had disappeared.
"How did he do that?" the miko wondered, walking up to inspect the white cloth. "How did he just disappear?" It didn't make sense to her. Of course, a modern road in the middle of ancient Japan didn't make sense to her either. Considering that Naraku was probably a hacker, she figured that anything was possible.
Inuyasha scowled. "I don't know, but I do know that he ran like a little baby!" He growled, kicking at the costume. 'Annoying coward. Can't even stick around to fight for even a second.'
"So... what do we do now?" Kagome inquired, her eyes focused on her friend and ally. "Do we try to cross the highway, like Naraku wants? We could try to go around it."
The silver-haired man shook his head. "We don't have time to do that. With the time limit so short, we'll have to beat Naraku's little 'game.'" He picked the miko back up. "Let's go."
The silver-haired woman sighed softly. "This does not bode well for them. Naraku is a skilled hacker... with far more powers than he should have."
The dark-skinned woman shrugged. "Big deal. They'll either defeat him or end up dead. Either way, we'll most likely achieve our objective."
The blonde frowned. "I don't know. This hacker is too dangerous. He bends and breaks so many rules, but nothing can really be done about him. He always seems to escape any punishment."
"He must know things about this game that even we don't," the pale female stated. "And it's obvious that something needs to be done about him. He kills every player who enters his domain--not a good thing."
The black-haired woman grinned. "Kagome and Inuyasha will be just fine. They'll win any 'games' he throws at him, and in the end, they'll defeat him. Trust me... I know."
"I really do hope you're right." Blue eyes troubled, the blonde went to the reflecting pool and began to watch the miko and hanyou approach the treacherous highway.
"It seems almost too easy at the moment," Kagome commented, brown eyes anxious. "He said we were supposed to dodge cars and such, but there's nothing here." She nervously bit her lower lip. 'This is looking really bad. The feeling I'm getting from this is most definitely not good.'
"Maybe he screwed up or something," Inuyasha suggested. "Considering what a big, stupid baby he is, he probably forgot to add in the cars." He shrugged slightly, his expression slightly arrogant. "There's only one way to find out." Every cell alert, he took a step onto the gray highway.
Instantly, cars, trucks, minivans, and semis of all types began roaring by, a few nearly running Inuyasha and Kagome over. He barely jumped back in time, eyes wide with surprise. As soon as he was a foot away from the road, all the vehicles disappeared.
"I nearly got ran over by my favorite Ferrari--a convertible one," the hanyou stated, blinking a few times in shock. He had only seen pictures of cars, mainly because people didn't really own cars anymore. They still existed, of course, but they just weren't needed anymore. After all, a person could go anywhere and see anything while in virtual reality.
"It was a lovely silver color, just like your hair," Kagome replied, a small smile on her face as she tried to adjust to the surprise of almost being run over by a non-existent car. "So... we try again?"
He nodded. "I'm going to have to run fast. Get ready." He tightened his grip on the miko and then made a dash across the road.
Inuyasha noticed a blur of red and dodged to the right, barely avoiding being hit by a large truck. Then, he jumped over a tiny black sports car.
"INUYASHA!" Kagome screamed. A giant semi was heading right for them, and since he was still in midair, they couldn't dodge. She could see the fading sunlight reflect off the metal girl into her eyes, and the purple metallic chrome coloring would have been pretty if her mind hadn't kept forming a picture of her splattered against the lovely paint job.
"Shit!" he cursed, turning so that his feet were towards the approaching vehicle. 'Please let this work.' He came in contact with the semi, bending his knees to absorb most of the impact. Then, he launched off the eighteen-wheeler, aiming for the edge of the highway.
"Crap!" Inuyasha swore again as they nearly hit a blue and black diesel truck.
Kagome held her breath as Inuyasha bounced off the top of the truck and went flying. The hanyou landed on his feet, still carrying the miko, and began dodging vehicles once again. Everything was going so fast that the female could only make out blurs of color.
'Red. Blue. Black. Red. Green. White. Red. Red. Black. Purple.' She shook her head, a small ache forming in her temples. Staring so hard at the blurs made her eyes hurt.
Inuyasha suddenly leapt into the air, jumping off of a semi and going flying through the air. They landed on the grass and went rolling, Kagome ending up on top of Inuyasha. Her face was an inch away from his, their noses almost touching. Her arms were on either side of his shoulders, her chest resting on his. The remainder of her body was sprawled out to the side.
Both blushed and Kagome quickly pushed herself off of the hanyou. "Sorry," she mumbled, feeling rather embarrassed. "And thank you for getting me across that."
"No problem." He sat up and looked back at the highway. It was completely empty; not one car or truck drove down it.
"How'd they all just disappear?" she wondered out loud.
The hanyou shrugged. "I don't know, but I do know that I hate Naraku," he responded gruffly. "Fucking bastard, trying to get us killed."
"Let's just get going," Kagome suggested, standing up. Her wounds only slightly ached from the rolling around and the strain she had put on them. "Or we could break for the night and tackle everything in the morning when we're rested." She wasn't quite tired yet, but she didn't know about the inu youkai.
"I would rather finish this tonight. Who knows, maybe the Elves gave Naraku the quest of keeping you from completing your quest," he replied. "I don't want to give him time to think up more cruel things to do to us."
"Good idea," she agreed. "Although, I don't believe he'd be able to think of anything worse than what we just went through."
"Human frogger." He snorted. "How sick is that?"
"Very sick," Kagome responded as Inuyasha stood, dusting himself off. 'He has a cute butt.' She immediately blushed, realizing just what she had thought.
Inuyasha looked around, but he didn't see anything dangerous or even slightly unusual... well, besides the miko's blush, which he ignored. "We need to hurry, so do you want to ride on my back or do you want me to carry you? It's your choice."
"I'll ride on your back," she replied. 'He won't be able to see my blush then.'
"Okay then. Get on." He knelt down in front of the miko, allowing her to climb on and wrap her arms around his shoulders. "Ready?"
Kagome nodded. "Yeah," she answered. "Let's go."
The blonde gave a small sigh of relief. "I honestly thought they were going to become flat, little pancakes," she stated, her eyes on the reflecting pool.
"But they survived," the black-haired female replied. "Told you." She grinned. "I'm never wrong."
"Yes, that's true, but you can only predict things correctly to a certain extent," the silver-haired woman reminded her, tone soft.
"Urd, you are really depressing sometimes," the dark-skinned woman grumbled. She hated being reminded of her limitations or shortcomings.
"But I speak the truth, do I not?" Urd inquired, voice calm.
The dark-eyed woman frowned. "Yes, but you're still depressing," she insisted.
"Now, don't you two get into a fight," the blonde stated, blue eyes flickering back and forth between the other two. "Your time would be better spent watching over Kagome and Inuyasha or planning out our next activity."
Urd nodded. "You are correct about that. I will watch over the two players."
"I'll do the planning," the black-haired woman volunteered, rubbing her hands together eagerly. "In fact, I think I'll go do that now." Grinning, she walked off, eyes sparkling with anticipation and mischievousness.
The blue-eyed girl sighed. "There are days I worry about her," she said, and then she went back to watching the image of Kagome and Inuyasha in the reflecting pool.
Inuyasha kept on running at top speed, making everything whiz by them and become nothing but blurs. He did keep his senses on high alert, but he didn't see, hear, or smell anything dangerous, so he kept his worry level to a minimum.
Kagome, on the other hand, become more and more worried. As they approached the castle, the feeling of evil and darkness only increased. Everywhere she looked, she could see black blurs that were Naraku's miasma, things that reached for her but couldn't touch her because of how fast the hanyou was running.
"There's the palace," Inuyasha announced, although he didn't sound to sure of himself. The palace didn't look anything like it was supposed it.
While it should have been beautiful, with plenty of glorious landscaping,, a dark palace with bone decorations on the outside walls stood there. The only reason the miko and hanyou could tell it was the palace was because the basic structure of it had remained the same. It still appeared Japanese in style, but it had many evil-looking additions. Tombstones decorated the front yard as well as bones. The ground was bare of any life. Any trees on the property were dead.
"Naraku must have made this his home base," the raven-haired girl stated, a look of anxiety in her eyes. The sight of the renovated palace unnerved her a bit, but there was nothing she could do about that. 'At least Inuyasha is here with me. If I didn't have him beside me, I'd probably freak out. This place is down right creepy.' She mentally shivered.
Inuyasha set Kagome down right outside the front door. "Once we get inside, I want you to stay behind me and out of sight."
"Why?" She didn't like the look on his face. It worried her more than the sight of the palace did.
"I smell demon."
"How many players does Naraku have working for him?" the blonde wondered, chewing on her bottom lip. "I know we wanted to challenge Kagome and Inuyasha; we didn't want to kill them."
"I don't know how much help the hacker has, but he has at least three or four. Two are not in the vicinity, which will be a boon to the two," the silver-haired girl replied. "I believe they will be alright though. After all they have faced, they are ready for almost anything Naraku might throw at them."
"I noticed that you said almost anything," the blue-eyed woman stated. "That's not good."
"I am not our sister. I cannot predict what is going to happen like her," the second female responded. "But, I do have faith in Kagome and Inuyasha. They will survive this obstacle and go onto the next. The only question is, will Kagome pass the final test?"
Kagome blinked. "What kind of demon? How powerful is it?" she asked, glancing at the wooden front door.
"I don't know what kind, but it is powerful. It's not as powerful as Ryuukossei, but it's not weak either. I'll be able to take care of it, but you'll have to stay out of the way," Inuyasha answered. "I don't want anything to happen to you, so promise to stay out of trouble."
She laughed but nodded her head. "I promise to do my best."
"Good." He gently kissed her on the lips, quickly pulling away. "Let's go." He opened the door, glanced back at the miko to make she was following, and walked inside.
Kagome stayed on the hanyou's heels, brown eyes wide with surprise. 'He kissed me,' she thought. 'He kissed me.' She blinked, still in a state of shock. 'His lips were so soft, and he was so gentle...' She smiled. 'I want to kiss him again so... I'll give him a kiss as soon as we're out of danger.'
Inuyasha pointed at a corner of the room that was shrouded in shadows. "Hide there. The demon's coming."
"I'm already here," an evil voice stated as a tall, ugly demon stepped out of the shadows. "Get ready to die, because I'm going to kill you."
The hanyou laughed. "I don't think so." In one smooth move, he drew his sword, watching it transform into a gleaming fang. "You're the on that's going to die!" He launched at the enemy as Kagome hid in the corner, watching everything as best as she could. It was hard to keep her eyes on the two combatants as they ran around the room, dodging through shadows and behind pillars.
Amazingly enough, the demon turned out to be fast, something that annoyed Inuyasha to no end. He could barely keep up. "Hold still!" he demanded, swinging his sword at the enemy's throat.
"What? Are you having trouble keeping up? Are you too slow to keep up with Goshinki?" he taunted darkly, an evil smile creeping onto his face that bared his sharp, dangerous-looking teeth for all to see.
'This is stupid. I'll just use the Kaze no Kizu and kill him that way. He won't be able to dodge that,' Inuyasha thought smugly. 'He won't even be able to see it coming.' "Prepare to die!" he shouted as he readied himself to use his attack.
"I won't let you use the Kaze no Kizu on me," Goshinki stated, grabbing a hold of the Tetsusaiga and wrenching it out of the dog demon's grasp.
"Shit!" the hanyou cursed, more colorful words coming out of his mouth. "Give me back my sword!" He lunged at the enemy, but he wasn't quite fast enough.
"Go get it." The ugly youkai threw the rusty-looking sword across the room into the shadows. To get to the sword, Inuyasha would have to go through his enemy.
"Fine then. I'll just have to resort to something else," the inu youkai growled, tone dark and menacing.
Kagome watched Inuyasha's eyes turn blood red as his face changed. His nails grew longer and more deadly-looking. Something about him disturbed her, but she wasn't frightened. The changed Inuyasha just felt unstable and chancy to her. She knew that he wouldn't hurt her, but she didn't know what he would do exactly, and that was what worried her.
"Be careful, Inuyasha," she whispered, licking her dry lips.
"Sorry, but your lover-boy is going to die today, no matter what he looks like," Goshinki stated.
The silver-haired hanyou cracked his knuckles. "Let's get down to business." With a dark smile on his face, he ran at his opponent, nails positioned for a strike.
Goshinki didn't even see it coming. He could only partly dodge the blow, ending up with an arm cut off instead of missing his heart like the hanyou had intended. "I can't read your mind anymore," he said, sounding surprised. "Why not?"
"In this form, I'm stronger," Inuyasha replied. "And no one can touch my mind. So, say good-bye." With a loud roar, he sliced off Goshinki's head, sending it rolling.
Within moments, the head and body turned to dust and then vanished, leaving nothing behind.
Kagome walked up to Inuyasha, her expression unsure. "Inuyasha? You okay?"
He nodded. "Yeah, just help me find my sword."
"Okay." She immediately began searching for it, finding it in a far corner covered in cobwebs that it had gathered when flying through the air.
Smiling, she took it too her friend and secret love. "I found it!" she declared happily, giving it to him.
The instant Inuyasha laid a hand on the blade, he returned to normal. "I don't like changing," he told her. "It shortens the life span of my character. If I use it too much, my heart will give out and I'll 'die.'"
"Then why'd you use it?" Kagome inquired, curious. "I'm sure that if you had tried you could have retrieved your sword."
He shook his head. "Maybe, but what good would it have done me? Goshinki could read my mind. I needed to use my full demon form if only to keep him from doing that."
'He does have a point there,' she thought. "I understand now. You know that the form has it's uses, but you don't like using it because it's dangerous to your heath."
"Pretty much." He sheathed his sword. "So, are you okay? Were you hurt?"
"No," Kagome replied instantly. "You kept Goshinki far too busy for him to even approach me. Thank you." She hugged him, quickly pressing her lips to his before backing away from embarrassment, her face bright red.
'She can be so cute sometimes,' Inuyasha thought, smiling. 'So very cute.' He caressed the side of her face with one hand and then began looking around. "So... where do we go from here? Where's the statue?"
The miko blinked. "I can sense something strange. It's not evil. I just now noticed it," she informed him. "I guess I was too busy paying attention to the fight to notice anything that wouldn't hurt me."
"Could it be the Shikon no Tama?" he wondered out loud, tone curious as he kept his senses on full alert. After dealing with Goshinki, he wasn't going to take any chances. Kagome's life, or character's life, was much too important to him for that.
"I don't know. Maybe." She shrugged. "It'd be nice if it was." 'If I can sense the Shikon, why now? Why couldn't I sense it earlier?' She mentally sighed. Things were so confusing.
"Maybe the Elves finally got my message and decided to make up for all the crap they've put you through," Inuyasha suggested. 'I sure hope so, otherwise I will kill them. If they did decide to make up for everything, I'll only kick their asses from here to Soku-no-Kumi.'
Kagome looked around. "I think it's this way." She pointed down a dark hallway. Along both walls there was only one window, and it had been boarded up. Needless to say, it looked spooky.
"Alright. I'll walk beside you to keep you safe," he replied sincerely. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you."
She smiled up at him, love shining in her eyes. "Thank you, Inuyasha. I appreciate it more than I can ever say."
So, side by side, the two walked down the hall, both tense and alert. Neither wanted to end up dead, not when they were so close to completing the quest.
The wooden floorboards creaked with every step they took, sounding as if they'd break any second. Strange noises came from inside the walls, sounding as if small monsters were trapped inside. Considering what they knew of Naraku, they didn't put it past him. He probably had encased tiny creatures inside the walls, just for his own sick and twisted pleasure.
"That way," Kagome whispered as she gestured towards a black door that was slightly ajar. "Whatever I sense is inside that room." She bit her bottom lip. "I also sense a lot of evil inside there. I think it's Naraku."
Inuyasha grinned. "He's so going down. We'll take him by surprise." Being as quiet as possible, he went to the door peaking through the crack. What he saw wasn't what he expected.
"Oh shit."
CotA: Hey minna-san. Sorry it took me so long to update. I've been rather busy, and on top of that, I've been lazy. Not good, to say the least. The good news is here's the next chapter. I finally got it done, which I am so happy about. And the idea about human frogger? That wasn't mine.
Zebez: That was RL Cassie's. She got the idea while watching some really stupid people run across a busy street and nearly get hit.
CotA: Right. And I'm sorry the chapter was a little shorter than usual. I tried to make it my normal 5,000 words, but I came up about 430 short. ::shrugs:: Oh well. I'm so tired right now that I don't care. It's too early to be doing this. ::yawns:: Well, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
Sess-chan: Yes, and reviews would be good, especially since I worked so hard on this chapter.
CotA: ::raises an eyebrow:: You worked so hard? You? As I recall, I was the one doing all the typing.
Sess-chan: But I was the one who gave you most of the inspiration for this chapter. I suggest you give me the credit I am due.
CotA: ::frowns:: I don't think so. ::looks at Zebez and Kali:: If you'll excuse me, I have some things to discuss with Sess-chan for a few minutes. ::shoves Sess-chan out the door::
Kali: 'This promises to be interesting.' ::follows::
Zebez: Right. I guess I'm the only one left. ::shrugs:: The review responses are below. ::hears a dog yelp outside the room:: And if you'll excuse me as well, I want to go watch this discussion. runs off
Sakura onto Hitomi: ::accepts the cookies:: Yea! Sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar... ::eats a cookie:: Sooo good. Thank you! ::hugs Sakura-chan::
inuyasha-girly-2007: I'm sorry, but I take forever to write a chapter. And I will try to update soon.
Kittymui: Thank you for your support. ::hugs Kitty-chan:: I'll try not to keep you waiting too long.
Yanou: The women aren't exactly evil. They have their reasons for doing what they're doing. You'll understand better when you learn who they are.
Makoto Lita: You don't have to mention me, but thanks. I appreciate it. ::hugs Makoto:: And I'll try to write more.
ArtemisMoon: I can kinda picture the three women as fangirls too, but I'm not gonna give away who they are and what they're planning. It's a surprise. ::grins evilly::
kitsunes-girl370: Good for you! I don't update as often as I should, but maybe that's because I got some stupid writer's block. ::takes a hammer to the writer's block and pounds away:: And nothing I'm doing is working. Oh, and if you want me to beta read anything, just send it to me.
Bikutoria: Geez, you're good. The dark territory is more than one obstacle rolled into one neat little package.
inuyasha kagome2: Yes, stupid annoying fairies. I don't care for them too much either. shrugs But they're kinda important, mainly because they relay messages.
eruinichil: I'm not gonna tell who they're for or why they're doing anything. You'll learn eventually.
Raining Fire: yes, fluff. I tried to put a little bit of it in there.
Kim: I will update soon.
Lady Icykimi: There's no reason to be sorry. I accept most critism with open arms. As long as you don't royally flame my story, I'm okay. Yea! I finally wrote a chappie with no errors! Note: I also read through it a few times to make sure of that. And your doggie had puppies? How kawaii!!! I love puppies! And I'm glad you like my uniquiness. It took me a while to come up with this fic. And I love SessKag too. They're one of my favorite couples. I also like Kouga/Kagome. I'm not sure why. I just do.
Footballchik21: You're supposed to be confused about what the three women are up to. It's a secret.
Evilfire4321: I will try to update faster, but I can't promise anything.
SilentSlayer: I'm not telling who the three women are. And as for Naraku... I think this answered your question.
Knight Star: I'll try to update soon.
Pline: Yes, Sango and Miroku will be in the sequel. So far, I figure that the sequel will be about six or seven chapters long.
BlackFireRose: Yes, I'll email you when I update. I believe you're already on my emailing list. And please be patient with me. I know that I take forever to update, and I am sorry. I tend to get writer's blocks quite often in stories.
Dragon Man 180: Castrated with a dull spoon? Ah... right. Okay. I feel rather sorry for them now. And There's a reason why everything's happening to Kagome. You'll find out what it is before the story ends.
kayla: Thanks. Athough a virtual reality story can be realistic, I don't know. ::grins::
Sakura Fujimia: Yea! An A for creativity. smiles Thanks for the support. I appreciate it.
Princess Anubus: I don't think you'll die of waiting. I have yet to do that, and I've waited for updates on some stories for months. ::shrugs:: But I'll try to update soon, just in case.
Crispy Muffin: Progressing fast? I could have sworn that it was going slow. ::shrugs:: Oh well. And maybe I can help you a little on your story. I'd be more than happy to help you through a writer's block if I can. Really. I know what it's like. ::curses at her current writer's block::
jdls: Thank you. ::grins:: I love the fact that you're so pleased with it. And who the three women are is a secret. Oh, btw, do you speak French? I'm just curious.
Linear: Thanks, and I'll try to update soon.
rina: Thank you. ::smiles:: I appreciate your enthusiasm.
Soup: Thanks. ::grins:: I worked hard on that to help build... ah... I forgot the word. ::sweatdrops:: Oh yeah! Suspense!
mmmooonnnkkkeeeyyy: I will try to update soon.
PWA: I've read a little bit of Fruits Basket. Isn't Kyo-kun the cat? Or is he the rat? I can't remember.
Animefan2003: Thanks... although I believe you would have a problem going "medieval on my ass." You will probably never be able to find me. ::grins:: But the best of luck to you.
AJaKe: Thank you. I'm trying hard to do something a little different from everyone else.
x-bandet-x: I'll try to update as soon as I can. Really, I will. Promise.