Chapter 2: The Search

AN: Howdy! I'm coming back with this story cause I love it! It's so much fun! Although I'm looking back on the last chapter and noticing a bagillion typos since I can't spell. But it's still an exciting story for me. And normally I hate stuff with romance. To tell you the truth, it's really hard for me to write it cause once something gets mushy enough I feel stupid and I start typing really slowly and I can't bear to look at the screen. Which really hindered me in For The Longest Time, but, hey, it came out. ...Why the HFIL did I tell you that? And why did I use HFIL? You won't even get that joke unless you know the DBZ dub. Sigh, just R&R, please! Whoops! I don't own Inuyasha. I keep forgetting the disclaimer! I write too much. Wait, no I don't. Well... crap! No more nothing! Story now!

Early that morning Inuyasha had gotten up to tell the villagers that there was no possible way for them to slove their disappearance problem and hopefully they wouldn't attack in the process. As he began making his way down to where the town leader lived, he noticed Miroku standing outside of the inn staring as if he were in deep thought. "What're you up to?" the hanyou asked as he watched him for a moment.

"I can't help thinking," Miroku replied, "that something isn't right about this whole situation."

"Yeah," Inuyasha answered. "It's that we're still here."

"No, that's not what I mean. You would think we would be able to get some minor idea of what happened to those people."

"Whatever. All I know is that once I've talked to them, we're getting out of here. Wake up the others and have them all get ready to go."

"Fine," Miroku sighed as he watched him walk off. He lingered where he was for a few more minutes before turning to get the others.

"I just can't shake the feeling that we're missing something," he thought as he neared the rooms. "I wonder..." He turned from the inn and began to head off into the village.

Inuyasha was out of sight now, which was probably for the best since he probably wouldn't be too happy if he found out that Miroku wasn't trying his hardest to get them out of town. The monk made his way through the streets, looking to see if there was anyone out there that he hadn't all ready spoken to that might give him some answers. Suddenly, he noticed a couple of interesting people chatting in one of the side streets. Interesting in the fact that they were two beautiful women, that is. He quickly rerouted his course and headed toward them.

"Why, hello, ladies," he said with an odd grin. "I was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me."

The girls looked at him, then back at each other and started giggling loudly.

"Okay, I'll take that as a 'yes', then," he replied, trying to figure out the best way to take advantage of this situation without getting his friends too mad at him. "First off, I was wondering if you've noticed anything strange circulating around the disappearances in this village lately?"

They continued to giggle. "No, we haven't," one finally said through her laughs.

"We haven't seen anything out of the ordinary, so to speak," the other said.

"What do you mean, 'so to speak?'" Miroku asked, as their laughter died down and they smiled at him strangely.

"Oh, don't worry," the first said. "You won't need to bother with things like this much longer."

"Something isn't right about these girls," he thought. "That's quite a shame..."

Suddenly, they were right in front of him. "Um, may I help you with something?" he asked nervously. Then again, maybe things weren't going so bad...

"Oh, yes you can," the first girl replied. "Come with us."

"Well, I'd love to, but..." Miroku was cut short as suddenly everything went black and he remembered nothing more.

Sango and Kilala had finally reached the spot where they had last seen Miroku and were searching the area separatly. "Kilala, can you pick up a scent?" Sango, who was magically in her fighting uniform, asked as they landed near where they had parted. The whatever the heck she is began sniffing around on the ground to see if she could pick up a scent. Suddenly, she arched her back and began to growl softly.

"What's is it?" Sango asked as soon as she realized what her partner was doing. Kilala continued to stare in the direction that Miroku had left in in the same manner.

"It's a demon, isn't it?" she asked as she continued to watch her. "I knew it. We'd better find him before something happens."

Sango jumped onto Kilala again and they went off on the ground after the scents of the monk and the demons. They traveled for several minutes before they came upon a rather forboding forest. "They're probably in there," Sango thought, looking at the dark trees and the mysterious shadows of the woods. "I hope nothing's happened to him..."

"Come on, Kilala, let's go in there!"

Kilala, however, seemed very tense and slightly confused, and took a step or two backwards.

"What's wrong? Why aren't you going?"

She turned her head back and growled a little.

Sango was getting very confused. "What's wrong with this forest?"

Kilala again turned her head back toward the woods and growled menacingly. Then, she began sniffing the ground.

"Do you mean that this area is so over run with the presence of demons that you can't even sense Houshi-sama anymore!"

She nodded.

"Great," Sango sighed, "it looks like we have our work cut out for us then, huh? Come on, the more time we waste, the less time he may have."

Kilala finally seemed to have picked up her courage and darted into the trees. "Try your best to figure out where he is," Sango said as they dashed through the forest.

The wind and branches rushed past them as Kilala followed whatever path she had found. They were going deeper and deeper into the forboding woodland, and a dark gloom seemed to grow with every step. After a while, Sango felt as though they had been going through the forest forever, or like some pathetic author was having an overly extended search to make the chapter longer...

Anyway, the dark grew darker and a heavy stillness filled the air, when they suddenly noticed an eeiree light in the distance, toward what was probably the heart of the forest. As they came within a few meters of it, Kilala suddenly stopped again, looking at it strangely.

Sango leaped off her back. "This must be the place," she mumbled. "Come on, let's sneak up there and see what's going on." They walked as quietly as possible to the edge of the trees that were just outside of the odd glow. They peered around the trunk of the nearest tree.

There was a fairly large clearing with a few torches placed at the edges. Many women were walking around the area carrying bowl, jars, and other items that seemed to contain inscene of some kind. Toward the base of one the tree on the opposite side a large, flat stone sat.

It was on top of this slab that Miroku lay. He appeared to be asleep, and had a small, contented smile on his face.

Sango looked at him for a moment and sighed. "Maybe it was just him..." she thought as looked for a second longer. She started to turn away from the clearing, figuring that it would be best just to let him have his way, when suddenly, she heard one of the women speak.

"Is the ceremony almost ready?"

Sango immediatly turned back around. "What!" she whispered as she began to watch the women again, trying to see where the voices were coming from. Toward the back, one who seemed to carrying things like the others had been stopped by another, larger woman.

"Yes," the one with the jar replied. "Very soon, it will be ready and our master plan will finally be completed!"

Sango and Kilala now watched every moment in the clearing with fearful, unblinking eyes. They both seemed to be thinking the same thing, "What do they mean by 'master plan?'"

It was just then that Sango eyes strayed upwards toward the tops of the trees she and her partner hid behind. She noticed that there were some large objects hanging from the branches. As her eyes went around the trees in the clearing, she noticed a similar situation on the other trees surrounding the clearing. Finally, one of the hanging figures caught the light, and Sango gasped.

The rotting corpse of a man was tied by it's arms to the largest limbs of the trees. In fact, almost every tree had a body on it, some older than others. Thirteen total could be seen, however, there was a fourteenth tree.

Miroku was directly under it.

Kilala had apparantly noticed this as well, and her eyes were darted from the women to the dead men.

Sango's breathing had sharply quickened once she realized where Miroku was in comparison to everything else. "What's going on?" she thought as the strange women continued to carry spices and herbs throughout the opening in the trees.

AN: And there's chapter two,although compared to my usual chapters this was incredibly short, but there's only so much you can do with two characters running through a forest, you know? I haven't gotten any reviews on One yet, so I'm assuming all of you (if any of you) are reading this for the first time, so tell me what you think so far! There are four more chapters to go, if you're wondering. And if you did read it and didn't review (why not?), I made a few changes in Chapter One in case you thought I was being inconsistant with a few things. But I won't go into detail if you're just starting this, it's not really important. Please review, I love it and I tend to look at my reivewer's stories if you like readers! That was a pathetic, but true, attempt... Crap! I'm ranting! Ja ne! (that's the first time I've ever used that one!)