. . .No, it has NOT been forever since my last update, I swear. This has been written for god knows how long, but. . .I'm a dirty lazy slacker or something. I dunno, shoot me. Anyway, this is part 23, of the soon-to-be-finished fic. I have an ending idea. . .

And yes, that will be the FIRST planned part of this fic.

And no, I have no idea what happened to the last chapter. It didn't look too pretty, but I have no idea. Sorry! My breaks appear to have broken too, so...; A new style!

"Heyo, all!" Akira stepping into the hut, smiling broadly. "What're we eating for dinna tanight?"

Everyone stared blankly at her for a moment before returning to whatever they had been doing. Kaede cleared her throat slightly. "Lady Kagome is making something. . .I do not know of it, but she says she likes it, so we must assume that it will be good."

Akira walked over to Kagome, and peered over her shoulder at the mass amounts of food she was cooking. Akira nodded in approval. "Meat. . .veggies. . .salsa, and tortillas. Would it be a fair guess that you're makin' us tacos, Kagome-chan?"

"Yes."

Akira frowned at the slightly curt tone. Mau. ". . .Kagome-chan, Miroku-kun doesn't eat beef, does he?"

Kagome paused, bit her lip, and then continued to stir the meat. "I don't think Buddhists are prohibited from eating meat. . .I thought that was a Middle Eastern religion."

Akira shrugged. "How should I know? I'm not too big on religion, y'know."

Kagome sighed a little. "Then why'd you ask?"

"I was just wondering. . ." Akira leaned back a little, making a face. Maauu. . .everyone is so nice today! Wonder what's got them in such bad moods?

The door guard swung aside again, and an annoyed white-eared dog padded into the room, not looking at anyone. "We better be having something good for dinner."

Kagome frowned over the meat and scowled. "Short term memory, Inuyasha. You asked me what we were having for dinner five minutes ago, remember?"

" 'It better be good' is not a question is it?"

She sighed, put the spoon she was using down, and massaged her temples. "You sure know how to bring out the worst in me, Inuyasha." She turned and gave him a very dirty look. "You're way too grumpy for me to deal with. Go take a nap or something, before I have to use that thing on your neck."

With a grumble, Inuyasha sat down and leaned against a wall. He glowered at Kagome, and muttered, "Not before I get to eat."

She closed her eyes for a moment and picked up her spoon as he continued to glare. She resumed stirring with a hot plate, and Akira sat down next to it and relaxed in the heat. Kaede and Miroku quietly began to start a peaceful conversation, going on about medicinal herbs, but no one else joined the conversation and eventually they gave up and listened to the meat cooking in silence. This was then followed by the group eating in eerie silence.

Inuyasha suddenly looked up and glowered at Akira, who blinked and swallowed innocently. "Oi. Where's that girl?"

She shrugged, looking down and taking a bite out of the taco and chewing it slowly. "Obviously not here. She's missing dinner, too."

"You mean. . .that you let her run off on her own?"

The group exchanged a look, with a few of them loosing color in their faces. Inuyasha stared at her for a few more seconds. ". . .So, right after she killed one of your friends, you let her run off on her own, into a forest full of people who want to kill her?"

She nodded.

"BAKAYARO!"

"Hmmm. . ." Angela watched the priestess with a slight sense of amusement. "Quite the novice, aren't we? What is Shi thinking?" The young priestess spells were unable to counter Akira's strong fire magic. That wasn't a surprise, since Akira's magic was very strong, but she was having little to no effect, which was simply. . .pathetic. It was taking her multiple spells to extinguish even small parts of the magical fire. Ang shook her head in disgust. "Pitiful. . .that's why you're aligning with Naraku for the moment, isn't it Shi? You need a Shikon shard. . .you can't afford to have such a weak Priestess. And you're a greedy little bitch, you just want a shard for yourself. That's why you wanted me to go through the well in the first place, wasn't it? You've been after these shards for a while. . .or perhaps it isn't even the shard you're after. Could you be foolish enough to go after the entire jewel?" She smirked a little. "Mau. Too bad I'm here."

Another amused smile came onto her face as she watched the Priestess struggle. "Too bad I don't think that you deserve to have the Shikon no Tama. Maybe I do."

She jumped out of the tree she had been sitting in, purposefully making noises as she shuffled through leaves, slipped a pair of slim daggers into her hands, and began chanting a spell. She smirked as the miko turned around and entered a defensive stance. Angela let her spell finish out, and the extra power she was showing faded away. She shook her head. "Too slow, Miko-san."

"Who are you?"

"Quite possibly the person that you were ordered to destroy. You should be happy you found me, Shi won't be so angry." She looked at the area and shook her head sadly. "And you are pathetic. You can't even put out a simple magical fire?" She murmured a quick spell and Akira's fire spell quickly died away. "You didn't study enough."

"W-What did you just do?"

"Oh, do you need a crash course?" She sighed, and pushed some hair behind her ears. "Well. . .very well. I usually don't give these to people I should simply kill, but I'll make an exception for you. Besides. . .killing a totally defenseless person isn't quite as. . .fun. For every spell, there is a counter spell. For every death spell I can cast, there is a life spell that you could counter with. For every spell that does something, there is a spell that does the exact opposite. The trick is simply knowing the other spell."

"Who are you to question how good of a Miko I am?"

"Quién eres tú?"

The Miko paused in confusion, slightly removing her guard. ". . .That's the same language that all of them are speaking, isn't it?"

Angela smirked. "It's modern day Spanish. It's quite easy to speak. You should learn it."

"Who are you?"

"Why don't you start? It's polite to introduce one's self before demanding another's name."

". . .My name is Aika."

She nodded. "Aika, huh? Nice to meet you. So, tell me, how did Shi contact you?"

". . .How. . .why would you think I would even know what you're talking about?"

"The fact you try to take offense to play it off it a good clue. But anyhow, you are Shi no Miko, are you not?" Aika lifted her head and stood up properly, like an offended lady would.

"Are you asking me?"

Angela moved the remaining feet between them and held a dagger to her throat. "You magic may have the backing of the Goddess of death itself, Miko, but don't forget I once had that power. I know much more about hand-to-hand combat than you do. And Shi can't help you there." She forced the dagger closer to her throat, cutting back on her air a little. "And if you are not aligned with Shi, then you are of no importance to me. If that's the case. . .then I can just kill you now."

"Ma-matte! I am, I am Shi no Miko!"

". . .Why'd Shi send you here?"

"She wanted Shikon shards. She said I should get them here, from this exact time and place. She said to look for a demon-like man named Naraku and to borrow some shards from him."

". . .Not enough power, right? Shi's out for more power again, isn't she?"

Aika nodded. "Yes."

Ang took a step back, removing the dagger from Aika's throat, and then suddenly kneeling and driving the daggers into the ground. "Thank you. I give you ten seconds to run now."

"N-nani?"

"Ten. . ."

Aika stumbled backwards a few steps.

"Nine. . ."

"You can't do that. I have more magical power than you do!"

"Eight. . ."

She gulped and began chanting a spell.

"Seven. . ."

Before her spell could even fully begin to power up, Ang's daggers flashed, the spell she had cast on them earlier beginning to take effect. They flashed blood red, and raised from the ground a few inches, taking her hands with them. Aika's face paled. "That's a. . ."

"Six. . ."

"You didn't! You couldn't have cast that spell unless-"

"Five. . ."

Aika turned and ran.

Angela smirked. ". . .Zero."

Akira's head jerked up. It had fallen down in the middle of a stupid argument between Kagome and Inuyasha. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to concentrate, and gritting her teeth. "Will you two shut up?"

The both paused mid-fight, blinked, and looked at her. "What did you say?"

"I. . .I can feel something. Magical echoes. One from before. . .that was being held back so I didn't feel it. . .and one from just now. Whatever she did, it was huge. She-"

The door swung open. "Konbanwa, minna."

Inuyasha instantly covered his face. "Get out of here!"

The flap closed again, before anyone even had to chance to do more than recognize Ang's voice. Kagome looked over at Inuyasha with annoyance and confusion. "Why'd you say that, you idiot?"

"Can't you smell it?"

"Smell what?"

Inuyasha frowned and looked at Akira. "That's right. You all are human, bad noses. Did you. . .see it?"

Akira shook her head. ". . .No. But I can guess at what happened. . ."

"What did she do?"

"I have no idea."

"Mind if I come back in now?" Without waiting for an answer, Angela entered the small hut again, with a perfectly neutral expression on her face. Everyone else proceeded to stare at her in total shock and a good deal of horror.

". . .Ang. . .what did you do?"

She shrugged a little. "Not too much, Akira. I went for a walk in the woods, and I ran into that priestess from earlier. You remember her, Inuyasha? She wasn't very nice to me. She was pretty rude. She died, sadly." Ang reached up and wiped a streak of blood on her face, and examined it. She looked down at her arm, which was covered in strips of red. "I think a bit of her might have gotten on me. . .these clothes are ruined. . ."