Hi! Woohoo! I kept my "non-promise" promise to get Chapter Five up! :) (Yeah, I'm working on the smiley face addiction, and I'm getting better.) :)
Keledrena: I try! ;)
Jabba1: Don't worry, if I change categories I will give plenty of warning!
Sadie Joyce Myst Lady: Yeah, New Zealand is a wonderful country. I'm dying to go back! And don't worry about the length of the review, I just love getting them! ;)
dizzy4: Why thank you! I'm trying to make the plot as seamless as possible! Let me know if you find any iffy parts in the plot, and I'll try to fix em!
Henio: ah… that time is coming up soon! ;)
All right, so here is one warning… I WILL be changing the rating of this story, but that won't happen for several chapters. It will move up to PG-13 due to certain… conversations. It'll still be a PG story for awhile though. (Although the language can be a bit rough. Not too bad though, I think.)
Sorry to say, not too much action in this chapter (I'm not all that great at writing action scenes.) This is a 'talkie' chapter.. you have been warned. :) And, again, there is a lot of explanation around the Inuyasha storyline, for those of you who might not know it well. It's been awhile since I've seen the episodes that I talk about, so don't take everything for the solid truth. I did it from my memory, and that can be a scary thing! :)
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Serena was shocked when she felt the claws ripping through her shirt, but her instincts and training as Sailor Moon soon kicked in. She arched her back in, fell forward and quickly rolled over, ignoring the pain in her back. She looked up and saw fiercesome teeth coming towards her. Her hand began to reach for her brooch, but the teeth were knocked away a second later by a red blur. A moment later she saw in someone's arms and behind a bush.
"Are you all right?"
Serena looked up. She was currently in the arms of Darien. She blushed but nodded.
He sat her down and checked her back. With a sigh of relief he said, "Just a scratch. You moved quickly out there." He held admiration in his face.
"Thanks, but I'd be a goner if it wasn't for you and Inuyasha."
Darien shrugged, then peeked around the bush. He looked back at her with surprise clearly written on his face. "They've already killed the demon. Come on."
Serena too was surprised, but held it in.
When they stepped out from behind the bush they saw Inuyasha cleaning off his sword. Serena walked up to him.
"Thank you for saving my life."
"Keh," was his response. Kagome had already warned her about the half-demon's favorite word, so Serena just smiled and joined the rest of the group who were talking about the attack.
"That was a pretty weak demon, wasn't it?" Darien was asking.
"Yes, probably just after the jewel shards." Miroku guessed.
"No he wasn't," Inuyasha said. Everyone turned to look at him.
"What do you mean?" Kagome asked.
He wiped his swords one last time and sheathed it. He shook his head. "Nothing. Never mind." They pestered him for a few minutes but he refused to say anything more.
"Well fine!" Kagome said, finally fed up. "We're going to make camp in that clearing ahead. It's getting late." Inuyasha was about ready to argue. "NO arguments! Besides, Serena got hurt and we need to clean her cut and fix her uniform." She knew Inuyasha would not argue with that.
"Keh."
Kagome grinned. She was right, she had won.
They started for the clearing and once there set up camp. Sango had run ahead to find some water so that they could cook dinner. She came back with a bucket full of water and a big grin.
"Guess what Kagome?" Her eyes were sparkling, and Kagome's eyes lit up.
"Really?!" Sango nodded. "Oooh, it's been so long!"
Everyone but Serena and Darien seemed to know what they were talking about.
"Uh, Kagome?" Serena said, the question obvious in her voice.
"Oh! There's hot springs nearby! You, Sango and I get to bathe!"
Serena too lit up at this news. "That sounds wonderful!"
Right after dinner the girls headed for the hot springs. After making sure no hentai monks had followed them they stripped down and got in.
"This feels wonderful," Serena said.
"Enjoy it, it'll probably be the only one for awhile," Kagome warned. She saw Serena grimace. "You get used to it after awhile. And you appreciate your tub back home so much more!"
Serena smiled sadly. "Yeah, I guess so."
"Oh!" Kagome said, her face falling. "Don't worry, we'll figure out a way to get you home."
"I hope so. I just wish I knew why I was here, why we were allowed through the well."
"Everything happened for a reason, Serena." Sango said. "You may not like what happened but sometimes good can come out of bad." She sighed. "I don't spill my life story to everyone I meet, but since you are a part of this group now, you need to know. Besides, it'll explain my hatred towards Naraku."
Serena listened to Sango's condensed version of how she came to join the group. She had grown up in a loving family and had a younger brother, Kohaku. She was one of the few female demon exterminators from her village, but she was one of the best. One night all the best exterminators were called out to rid a castle of spider demons. Kohaku came along. It was his first extermination.
Sango killed a huge spider demon, and then everything went wrong. Before she knew it all of those she had come with were killed by Kohaku, including their father. She saw the thread leading from her brother to the king, who was actually a spider demon in disguise. She was glad that it was not Kohaku's fault, but when he tried to kill her, she could not bring herself to fight back. She tried to kill the spider demon but the guards shot her and her brother full of arrows. They were both buried.
But Sango was not dead. She fought her way out of the grave and was nursed by the prince. He broke the news to her that while all the exterminators were gone, someone had attacked her village and killed everyone. He told her that the one who had done it was Inuyasha. He gave her a jewel shard and told her it would give her the strength needed to kill Inuyasha and get her revenge.
Obviously, she eventually discovered that Inuyasha had nothing to do with her village's demise and that the shard was poisoning her mind. Once the shard was gone, she began to heal, and stayed with the group. She learned that the prince had actually been Naraku, and he was the one who murdered her village. To top it all, Kohaku, kept alive by a jewel shard, was under his control. So she sought Naraku and planned to kill him to avenge her family's death, her village's deaths, and to hopefully rescue Kohaku.
Serena was speechless for awhile, and was startled from her thoughts when Sango continued speaking.
"So my past holds horrible things, and I would love to change it all if I could. I know I can't though, so I have to look at the good things too. Kagome is my best friend, and I can't imagine a life where I didn't know her. Inuyasha, once you get past the gruff exterior, attitude and harsh words, is a good friend. Miroku… well, life is interesting with him around, that's for sure."
"Don't kid yourself Sango, you know you care for him!" Kagome teased. Sango just blushed.
Serena agreed wholeheartedly with taking whatever good you can get out of the bad. Thinking about Ami, Lita and Rei reminded her of that.
"Okay, so that explains why you hate Naraku, but what about the rest of you?" Serena asked.
"Well, have you noticed that Miroku has a cloth and prayer beads covering his right hand?" Kagome asked and Serena nodded. "That covers a hole in his hand. When the cloth and beads are removed a wind tunnel erupts from his hand and sucks in everything around him. He inherited it from his father who had inherited it from his father. Miroku's grandfather was cursed with the wind tunnel by Naraku and the only way to get rid of it is to kill Naraku. Both Miroku's grandfather and father were sucked into their own wind tunnel and it will happen to Miroku someday. That's why he hates Naraku so much. That's also why he asks every pretty girl he sees to bear his child for him. He wants to ensure that if he doesn't kill Naraku in time that there will be someone who will. Of course, he hasn't been very successful in getting anyone to have his child, but it isn't from his lack of asking!"
"I haven't heard him ask anyone," Serena pointed out, actually thinking more along the lines that he had not asked her.
"Well, he was going to ask you when we first met you at the well, believe me," Sango explained, "but then he saw the death glare Darien was giving him and decided against it." Serena blushed a deep red.
"He has too much respect for Sango to ask her," Kagome said, causing Sango to blush.
"Well, he values his life too much to ask you, Kagome, because Inuyasha would kill him if he did." And so Kagome joined in on the blushfest.
"That reminds me," Serena said with a devious smile. "You said you'd tell me about you and Inuyasha later. It's later and he's not around so spill!" Sadness flashed across Kagome's face and Serena felt bad. "I'm sorry! If you don't want to say anything you don't have to, I understand!"
"No. No, I'll tell you. Besides, it explains why Inuyasha hates Naraku and in turn why I do." She fell silent for a moment, collecting her thoughts. She glanced at Sango, who gave her an encouraging smile. "All right, here goes. Mind, this is going to be a short version of the story, or else we'd be here all night.
"It all started a little more than fifty years ago. In the village we were at when you first got here lived a priestess named Kikyo, and she was the protector of the Shikon Jewel. Demons were forever trying to get the jewel in order to make themselves stronger, but Kikyo just had to shoot them with a purifying arrow and they were goners. As a priestess she had the power to purify and to heal with the slightest thought.
"As I said, demons wanted the jewel and Inuyasha was no exception; however, Kikyo never killed him, just simply shot at him to discourage him. Eventually they fell in love with one another. Kikyo said they could be together if Inuyasha wished to become human on the jewel. He would be human, the jewel would purify itself and disappear, and he and Kikyo could be together. So he agreed.
"During this time Kikyo was nursing a thief named Onigumi, for he had been all but burned to a crisp in a fire. Onigumi was an evil man who greatly desired Kikyo. So great was his desire that when the chance to become half-demon came along, he took it. He took hundreds of demons into his body, and became what we now know as Naraku.
"On the day Inuyasha was to become human, Kikyo was working in a field. Naraku shape shifted into Inuyasha and dealt Kikyo a fatal blow. When Kikyo did not show up with the jewel Inuyasha thought she had changed her mind and so in a fit of rage stole the Shikon Jewel from the temple. He did not get far, for Kikyo, with the last of her strength, pinned him to a tree and put him under a spell of sleep. Before she died she told her sister, Kaede, to burn the jewel with her, and so it was done and all was at relative peace for fifty years.
"Of course, fifty years later I came through the well, but you already know how Inuyasha came to be free and the jewel shattered. What I didn't mention was how I came to possess the jewel. As I said, Kikyo had the jewel burned with her body, but that didn't get rid of it. Instead it ended up in the body of her reincarnation, me.
"So there I was, the reincarnation of Kikyo, forced to work with Inuyasha. I was attracted to him from the start," Kagome blushed a deep red at this admission, "but he just saw me as the shard detector who looked like the woman who pinned him to a tree. And whenever he was nice to me, I wasn't sure if it was because of me, or because of Kikyo. That all was bad enough, but it gets worse.
"Not long after Inuyasha and I began looking for the shards a witch kidnapped me. She had stolen the remains of Kikyo and out of her remains and clay had formed a copy of Kikyo. But the copy needed her soul, hence my kidnapping. The witch forced my soul from me using magic and gave it to Kikyo. Right about then Inuyasha showed up and Kikyo tried to kill him. I somehow managed to call back my soul but a part of it remained with Kikyo. Now she's given up trying to directly kill Inuyasha, instead she plans to pull him down to hell with her so that they can be together for eternity. Inuyasha agreed, but won't go until Naraku is dead, for he still seeks revenge for Kikyo's death.
"That clay copy is still wandering around somewhere. Whenever she's close by Inuyasha runs to her just so he can be with her for awhile." She sighed. "He loves her so much, and I know that, yet I couldn't stop myself from falling for him. Every time he runs off to her it hurts so bad. But I said that I would stay by him, and I will keep my word until the day he goes with her to hell."
Serena was silent, soaking in the story. She had no clue that the bright, cheery Kagome held in so much pain.
"Enough of this sadness!" Kagome exclaimed, getting up and moving to her clothes. "I'm turning into a prune!"
Sango and Serena looked at their hands. They too looked like shriveled raisins. They were not long in getting out of the water and soon they were all dry and heading back to camp.
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The guys watched as Sango, Serena and Kagome headed to the hot springs. Miroku tried to be discrete in getting up, but Inuyasha was waiting for him to do so.
"Where do you think you're going?" he growled to the monk.
"Merely to protect the women, of course." He managed to look completely innocent, but no one was falling for it.
Inuyasha flexed his clawed fingers pointedly. "Sit down." Miroku sat in his tracks.
The guys were not having as easy a time talking as the girls did. Miroku decided to break the uncomfortable silence so turned to Darien.
"So what's your story, Darien?"
"Huh?" he asked, looking up from his thoughts.
"What's your story? What is your life like back in your era?"
Inuyasha flicked his ears in their direction, not outwardly showing his interest in the answer. A sigh reached his ears.
"Nothing special. I'm studying to become a doctor." He realized that they probably did not know what he meant. "A healer of sorts, and school and studying take up much of my time."
"Keh, sounds like Kagome," Inuyasha grumbled to himself.
Miroku ignored the disgruntled half-demon. "That's it? All you do is go to school and study?" He was pressing for details.
"Well, my friend works at the arcade that Serena sent Kagome to, so I go to the arcade to visit with him some. And of course I enjoy bugging Serena every once in awhile." A grin reached his lips.
"Are you and Lady Serena…" Miroku was trying to find the right word to finish his question, but Darien got the gist of the question.
"NO! She's too young for me! I'm six years older than her!"
"How old is Lady Serena?"
"Fourteen."
"That's a marriageable age."
"Not in my time! We don't marry until our twenties, maybe eighteen or nineteen in some occasions."
Miroku and Inuyasha were taken aback by this, but did not say anything.
"All right, so you and Lady Serena are not together. Are there any women in your life?" Miroku finally arrived on his favorite subject.
"No… not really." He flinched as the 'not really' slipped out. He knew Miroku was going to pounce on that, but he was wrong.
"So there is a woman!" It was Inuyasha who pounced on the slip.
"Do tell!" Miroku added.
"Well… she's hard to describe. She's a girl I feel compelled to protect. She can be extremely strong one moment but then timid and scared the next. When it comes down to it though she is brave. I barely know her, but I think I would gladly die for her."
Miroku and Inuyasha stared at him without saying a word and he felt a blush rise to his cheeks. They were too lost in their own thoughts to say anything. They both related to certain aspects of what he had said, and were soon lost in thoughts. One was thinking of a spirited demon exterminator while the other was thinking of a girl from the future. Soon Darien too was lost in thought, although his flittered from a mystical warrior to a cute Meatball Head and back and forth.
They all were silent until the girls returned. It seemed that the girls had a lot on their minds too for they only called good night to everyone and then went to bed. The guys followed once they were sure the girls were settled in and comfortable.