4/23: This is my other chapter, since Akira nearly took my head off for not updating for three weeks.  Not that she's reviewed the last one anyway.  Oh well, the next one is started, two pages into it already.  *sigh* Akira, you'd better be so happy. . .

Well, as usual, I own nothing, but I'll be damned if I don't break into her house one day and steal everything.  I've also made a decision that since certain other people reading over my shoulder wake up at four in the darn morning, I will too.  Gives me more time to type, ne?  Maybe I can go to-*gasp*-two chapters a week!  *gasp* *other noises of amazement*

Well, I've made this part before I wrote down the actual chapter, so it will be updated as I think of things to add.  It's my little journal of updated-ness.  I'm going to add something probably every day, so you can see me procrastinate.

4/24: Another update. . .I'm going to start typing it now.  Yay!  But only because I didn't bring the papers for my original fic, so. . .this becomes my last option.  *sigh* Oh well.  At least it'll get posted earlier.  And waking up at four may do wonders for your energy levels, but I feel sick.  *whine*

I remember why typing in ComSci gets so much done. . .I'm on page two already!  Yay!  Look at me go. . .

4/28: Heh-heh. . .it's a little past four in the morning. . .typing this up and eating Fritos. . .yum. . .I have like eight quotes I now have to use in this story, darn it, and plot of this story actually starts in this chapter. . .meaning the end is nigh!

~*~

"A what?"

"Blood mage.  Magic by blood, bleeding sorceress. . ..whatever you want to call it."

"I heard what you said," he scowled.  "My ears are good for hearing, not just playing with.  What is it?"

She didn't answer at first, but frowned lightly, and closed her eyes, obviously deep in thought.  After a moment, the smell of blood from the cut had that sprung up on her arm faded, and the cut slowly shrunk, eventually not even leaving a scar.  She sighed in relief.  "I don't need blood for them.  I'm a blood mage.  One who uses blood with magic.  Healing spells aren't normal spells."

". . .Is that supposed to help me?"

She sighed again, this time in annoyance.  "That's the dictionary definition of blood mage, anyway."

"The what?"

"Never mind.  Being a blood mage means my spells are only castable if I use blood while casting them.  It gives them more power.  Hence why you can actually smell the blood I use when I cast smells."

"What about Akira and Biiru?  They haven't been bleeding everything they've cast a spell."

"Biiru hasn't cast any serious spells yet, and Akira hasn't either.  Biiru is a blank mage, anyway.  He doesn't use anything to cast spells.  Most mages are blank mages.  Akira is a fire mage, probably the. . .third most common type.  There are a few very common types of mages, and then there are types like me.  Rare types.

"Common mages?  Good thing there aren't many of you, people would be bleeding all over the place."

"Blank mages are the most common.  A blank mages doesn't need to use anything on a spell; their spells aren't powered by anything other than the actual mage.  Then there are fire, water, thunder, ice, plant, and animal mages; they're the next common kinds.  Blood mages are in the bottom three in population, I'm willing to bet.  But. . .that's because blood mages have the highest death rate of all the mages."

". . .Are they the most dangerous?"

"No.  The most dangerous mages are all gone now.  They were killed.  Death mages were the most destructive mages to ever exist.  They could only use their powers with the power of death."  She looked back at the girl's side of the hut.  "I think Kagome is a blank mage.  She hasn't cast anything. . .but I don't feel anything.  Usually you can feel something from mages, but blank mages don't give anything off."

He nodded.  "Good.  I don't think I'd be able to deal with her running around constantly bleeding everywhere. . ." Realizing what he was saying, he stopped and shrugged.  "Not that it's important to me. . ."

"Course."  She looked around.  "Where is that old hag?"

"Kaede-baba?"  Ang nodded, and Inuyasha shrugged.  "Dunno.  I thought she'd had woken up by now, anyway.  She's certainly lazy."  Inuyasha paused for a moment, his ears perking on his head, swirling around and listening to something.  Ang tried hard not to stare at them, but they were too interesting to ignore.  "Biiru's back."

Ang didn't comment on the look on his face, since she was pretty sure she had the same expression.  He looked like the idea of Biiru walking into the house was the worst idea he had ever heard of.  Ang didn't particularly want him to come in, either.  She sighed to herself.

A few seconds later, Ang could hear Biiru walking down the path, and the bucket of water swaying back and forth.  He walked inside with a vibrant smile to counteract her weak grimace, and put the bucket down in a corner.  He sat down next to Ang, much to her chagrin.  "So, how ya feeling now?"

"Better. . .Biiru, why isn't my energy coming back?"

His smile faltered, but he plastered it back securely in a few seconds.  "Ang. . .you mean it's not?"  She stared at him.  He shifted guiltily on his spot on the floor.  "Well. . .do you have an idea why it's not?"

"Iie.  But I think you might."

"Well. . .ano. . .Shi gave you a lot of energy a while ago, didn't she?"  Ang nodded.  "Since you're not her priestess anymore, she doesn't need to be worrying herself over you and your energy levels.  In fact, you're pretty damned lucky she didn't just take all your energy to begin with."

"Nani. . .?"

"She's letting you regain your energy, before fully removing all of the energy she loaned you.  She could have killed you if she had simply taken it all without letting you heal yourself first."

"Biiru, what the hell are you saying?"

"I'm saying, you were dying!"  Biiru jumped to his feet, glaring angrily at her, the expression totally out of place on his face.  "Dying!  You've been dying for months down and I'll be damned if you even realized that you were in the least bit of danger!  Shi has kept you alive, by essentially forcing energy into you, even when your body was trying to kill itself!"  He took a deep breath.

"Biiru, calm down. . ." He turned around in surprise, to see Akira standing nearby with a look of apprehension on her face.  She smiled gently, the smile having an obvious calming effect on the Priest, and then ruefully shook her head.  "You woke everyone else up.  Kagome is trying to get back to sleep, I think, and Kaede has been awake for some time, tending to some of her more delicate herbs."

"Ang."  She turned to look at with frowning hanyou with an absolute blank look on her face.  "Daijobu ka?"

"Hai."  The answer seemed instinctive, not actually an answer.  Her tone was as empty as her face, a slight waver in the one word answer.  "Daijobu."  She stood up, but kept her eyes focused on Inuyasha, rather than look around the room.  "I. . .I'm going to take a walk."  She walked out of the tent, shaking slightly.  Inuyasha kept his eyes on her, waiting for the usual scent of blood to drift back to him with the wind.

Akira stepped in front of his line of sight, distracting his rapt attention.  "Let her go," she whispered, making sure the empty miko didn't hear her.  "She needs to think right now."

"She's dead."

Biiru winced, but looked away, unable to argue the hanyou's point.  Akira shook her head, a look mirroring Ang's in her eyes.  "Iie, Inuyasha.  She's just as dead as Kikyo is, except she never truly died.   She was artificially given life, but she never felt the actual emptiness of death.  But it haunts every move she makes, it's evident in her eyes. . .you're seen the blankness that takes over them sometimes."

"She should be dead."

Akira took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.  "She is alive."

"She ought to be dead."

"She's alive!"

Inuyasha stared at her in surprise.  The usually genki kaji no miko (Authors note: that means something like "the hyper priestess of fire.") had just screamed in his face, causing his exceedingly sensitive ears to flatten on his head.  A low growl unintentionally escaped from his throat before he could quell the instinct.  He didn't want to fight Akira with the given circumstances.  "Do you want me to take this outside," she asked, in a deadly low voice.

Much as the hanyou would have loved to take advantage of the opportunity to fight the miko, he didn't relish the idea had having to try to explain anything he did to the others.  He shook his head.  She back off, breathing heavily.  ". . .Good."

"Akira, maybe you need a walk, too."

She smiled, back to her usual self.  "Nope!  Because I have. . ." almost as if they had magically appeared, she pulled two packs of something wrapped in layers of plastic from out of her robes.  "Ramen!"  Inuyasha stared in disbelief, unable to decide if she should glomp her for brining ramen, or if he should attack her for being such a strange person.  Noticing his expression, and taking it for happiness over the ramen, she smirked.  "I'll start the pot, ne?"  Unable to say anything else, he nodded."

As soon as she was completely focused on getting the pot to boil without breaking it somehow, he looked at Biiru. "Is she always like that?"

"Like what?"  He seemed immune to the way she had just switched from full-blown fury to calmly cooking.

"Changing back and forth."

He looked confused for a moment, and then nodded.  "Oui."  Inuyasha shook his head in disbelief, and Biiru allowed a small smile to come back onto his face.  "It's not as bad as you think.  She's usually happy."

Inuyasha nodded, and looked at the water Akira was watching.  He glanced out the window, overtaken by the strangeness of the whole situation.  It's not even noon yet, and today is already really damn weird.  He watched one lone bubble float to the top of the pot.  And who the yell eats ramen this early, anyway?

~*~

Kagome slowly opened her eyes.  She had managed to fall back asleep after Biiru had startled her awake, mainly because Akira had promises her she'd deal with him.  But now, she could smell ramen cooking, and her stomach demanded to be acknowledged.  But she didn't want to move, either.  As soon as she went into that room, she'd have to cope with those three crazy Priests.  She kind of wished they'd leave.  But they did keep things. . .lively, although usually this age was known for that.

Eventually, the call of the ramen was too great for her stomach to ignore, and she crawled out of her room, and looked sleepily around.  Akira was silently watching the pot, Biiru looked like he wanted to go run outside and check something, and Inuyasha was a mixture of uneasiness, annoyance, and confusion.

"A watched pot never boils, Akira."

"Unless you kick it."  Kagome chuckled.  These two were okay, but Ang was a little. . .out there, to be nice about it. And she was rather high maintenance.  Akira poured some of the ramen into a bowl, and offered it to Kagome.  "Want some?"

She politely accepted, and Akira poured another owl, and held it out towards Inuyasha.  "Here."  He shook his head.

"I don't want any."  Everyone stared at him in shock, Akira nearly dropping the ramen bowl.  "What?"

Kagome walked over, and put a hand on his forehead, and then shook her head.  "He's not sick."

Annoyed, he brushed her hand off his head, and stood up, giving everyone a half-hearted glare.  "I'm going outside to find Ang.  The ways she's out of it right now, she'll walk right into my brother without realizing it's not a bush or something."  With that said, he walked out.

Kagome watched the swinging mat, confusion stewing in her mind.  Is he. . .actually worried about her?

"Oi, what's wrong with him?" Miroku poked his head in the hut, and pushed aside the mat, a huge grin on his face.  Megan followed him inside, a huge grin on her face.

"You guys are back early.  What happened, did you forget something?" They shook their heads.  "Then what?"

The smiled at each other.  "You remember how much smoke there was when the town went up, right?  When it first caught fire?  A large village, pretty far away, actually, they saw it, and thought it might be dangerous, so they were worried.  They sent a huge freaking task force of warriors and demon exterminators to check it out.  We told them what happened, and how we needed help and that there was money involved, and they agreed to rebuild the town for us!"

"How close are they?"

"Half an hour.  They're sending scouts around to 'check for nearby threats and dangers to the welfare of those you are protecting,' or something like that.  They want to pretend this is still a serious military mission, I guess."

Biiru looked at Akira.  "How far do you think Ang could walk in how long she was gone?  Around an hour, I think?"

She shrugged.  "I don't know, pretty far, I'd guess."

"And how quickly do you think Inuyasha could catch up?"  The duo looked uneasily at each other.

"What are you saying?"

"A hanyou could be considered a threat, especially one as strong as Inuyasha.  I'm positive those scouts will see him as a danger, and not realize he won't hurt them.  The scouts will attack him if he doesn't make it to Ang and back within a half an hour or so.  And it if makes it to Ang, they might think he's attacking her if he tries to get her to come back."

"What should we do then?"

"No one here could even hope catch to catch up with Inuyasha now.  So nothing.  There's nothing to do except wait for him to get back. . .if he does."