Chapter 4: Hunted

"Well, well, well." A dark and eerie female's voice rang out in the darkness. "So the miko has some sort of demonic artifact? And she can control it... Interesting in deed. Well then Doriko's loss was unfortunate but we have gained valuable insight into this matter. Bring me the girl. She may not be the hanyou you two botched finding me years ago but she will do sufficiently. Perhaps more so alive than dead after all."

"Yes Mistress Shinimegami." A gruff man's voice replied with reverence. "We shall make up for our past failure and Doriko's." He stepped out of the shadows and it was clear he was no man. He was an oni, all black skinned with white hair and yellow eyes.

"I trust Kuraiyoru. You have been most helpful and valuable to me. Now go and do as I bid. Succeed and you and Kuroi shall be greatly rewarded." She waved a long clawed finger and he disappeared back into the darkness. "Once I ensnare her brain and control her powers then I shall find the four crystals and the Shikon no Tama. Foolish Naraku doesn't even know the strongest half of the power he could possess. None of those fools do. It pays to be an ancient. You know these things..." She snickered and let out a long chilling laugh the echoed and resonated in the space.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking Kuraiyoru?" Kuroi a shorter, yellow-skinned, black eyed, and white haired oni asked looking up at him.

"If you're thinking of slaughtering the girl for ourselves, indeed I am."

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"So InuYa..." Sesshoku said as she traced the newest letters on the wall. "Almost there." She smiled and sat down to eat the food he'd brought. She hadn't seen him at all since that day but that didn't bother her. She felt safe knowing he was around to protect her. "I really need to take a bath and wash these clothes she thought looking down at herself. I'll do that now." She wandered out of the cave and across the woods to the stream. She could feel decaying evil presences all around knew that her guardian had been doing and extremely good job. She laid down in the shallow stream clothes and all and let the water roll over her.

"All of these damn dead corpses around makes it hard to sniff her out." A wolf oni on a tether whined. It was a huge wolf was in its true form and was about the size of a small horse with brown and cream fur and huge black eyes.

"Just find her!" Kuraiyoru hissed. "Your life and freedom are at stake here."

"She must not be here anymore because there's no scent of her anywhere." The wolf complained again.

"Sniffed harder!" Kuroi snapped beating the beast with a huge club. The wolf staggered up and put its snout to the dirt. The wolf oni suddenly howled and took off running ripping the tether out of Kuraiyoru's hands. "BAKA YARO!" They took off after it but were stopped dead in their tracks when they found it pinned to a tree by a large purple crystal spike. They looked up to see a dripping miko panting and holding her two hands together with her fingertips touching and her thumbs pointed towards them.

"What do you want from me! Soul Searing Spike!" She screeched sending another huge crystal shooting towards them from her hands.

"Sesshoku." InuYasha muttered dropping out of his lounging tree and racing to the source of the sound. He found Kuraiyoru had already run one of his foot long claws through her stomach as he gripped her at the throat. "Sesshoku!" He lunged forward baring his claws "Sankon Tetsou!" He screamed as he careened forward and was met with a handful of Kuroi's foot long claws to the stomach.

"Inu... InuYa... sha..." Sesshoku gasped wide-eyed as he doubled over on the ground and Kuroi pulled his claws out and licked them. A huge bright seal on her forehead cracked and started breaking leaving only a small chunk remaining.

"You must be a strong miko indeed to be keeping a hanyou brat as a pet." He mused as he licked. She gritted her teeth and felt her anger rise as InuYasha lunged forward again and met both hands, one in each shoulder. Just as a fire swelled up within her, Kuraiyoru thrust his claws into her chest producing a horrendous cracking from breaking bone and crystal. A huge light surged out of her knocking Kuraiyoru off of her. She stood firmly planted in the ground as her body twisted and convulsed a low growl left her lips as she became engulfed in fire.

"Now this is the fight I was hoping for. Seems you get charged up watching someone you care about get roughed up." Kuraiyoru grabbed InuYasha by the throat and spun one of his arms behind his back twisting it painfully.

"Let him go or you'll regret it." She hissed grasping her chest and pulling out the two halves of the crystal. She clutched the halves tight in one hand and everyone looked on dumbstruck as her hair flickered between white and black.

"Say Kuraiyoru... Doesn't she look a tad familiar to you?" Kuroi wondered looking at the stronger youkai. "Doesn't this scene feel a bit familiar?"

"Indeed... Then she wasn't mortal and she didn't die... Powerful enchantments Saikoinu had in his arsenal along with those damned swords. Heh. Seems he was as low as everyone made him out to be. Damned mortal lover glad he's gone now."

"Stop talking about my Poppa..." She hissed angrily as her hair flashed white for the final time and remained the color this time. Long dangerous claws and fangs soon followed as she reached her hand up and embedded the now whole crystal back in her chest. "Leave now or I'll be forced to take drastic measures." She stood up straight looking at the ground with her hands held limp at her sides.

"Kuroi. Take care of her." The smaller youkai nodded and disappeared at blazing speed. To the shock of himself and Kuraiyoru, she grabbed his unseen hand as he attacked and now clutched it fiercely flames dancing on it wear she held.

"Pure Spirit Wave." She said indifferently as she placed her hand on his chest and purple light shot out of it into him; he screamed in terror and pain. Kuraiyoru left InuYasha to aide his friend; he ripped him away from the oni miko and they both lay on the ground as she stood hovering over them. Kuroi ripped his shirt apart and eyed the scorched mark on his chest. His skin there was white and human in appearance.

"What the hell did you do to me?!" He hissed covering the affected area back up with his brown shirt.

"A pure oni, is a happy oni." She replied with a smile. "I am after all a miko. Purification comes in the job description."

"Kuroi. We'll take care of this later. Saikoinu's daughter and her power will be ours soon enough." He grabbed his weakened comrade and took off into the forest. She walked over to InuYasa and split her wrist open with a claw and let some of the blood drip on his wounds.

"Why didn't you kill them?" He wondered in disbelief.

"The small one has a pureness in him small as it maybe it still exists. I can't kill anything with a pure spark left. I refuse." She let out a blood curdling scream as her body started convulsing. Her hair started flickering between white and black again finally settling on black. She slumped over onto InuYasha and he looked at her dumbstruck a second time.

"What the hell are you? An oni or a human? Or an oni that can control your appearance so completely that you don't even give off youki?" He wondered grabbing her. Little did he know the last piece of the puzzle was about to be unfolded.

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"Momma! Come on Poppa's going to be home soon let's go to the gate and meet him!" A little girl shouted jumping up and down happily. A beautiful mortal woman strolled out of the large manor house dressed in a miko's outfit and grasped Sesshoku's hand happily.

"Have you missed your Poppa?" She wondered as they walked down the long stone paved avenue.

"Of course! Poppa plays with me when my brothers won't and he makes me feel like I'm just as big and strong as them. Besides he always brings me back a big wonderful story!" She jumped in the air happily then broke away and started skipping around in circles. "He makes me feel special like them even though I'm not." She said as she stopped skipping and waited for the woman to catch up.

"Oh but you are special! You're a very smart and kind girl. If you weren't would you have given Sesshomaru that sash of his mother's that you found? No you would have kept it." She pointed out. "You remember the pretty yellow one."

"I did it because I know why Sesshomaru is so upset and angry all the time." She replied with a tinge of sadness.

"Really? Why is that?"

"I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"I promised him I wouldn't even though he never asked me to promise." She replied taking the woman's hand again.

"Why do you like him so much when all he does is beat you up and call you names?" She wondered as they neared the gate.

"Because he gives me a reason to try to be strong. I'm going to become a big powerful miko like you so I can make him proud of me and proud to know me." She beamed with an innocent smile. The woman just laughed nervously and shook her head. They stopped near the gate and stood there waiting for the lord of the house to return. "Look it's Raioko!" She beamed happily as she pointed to the mortal boy now opening the gate. Something flashed in the miko's mind and she shoved Sesshoku away.

"That's not Raioko..." She hissed; at the same time Raioko was shoved into the dirt and two oni burst over him and lunged towards her. "Holy Light Spike!" She screamed bringing her hands together and sent five purple crystal spikes flying towards them. They dodged them all easily and took turns slashing her on one side each.

"Momma!" Sesshoku screamed getting to her feet.

"There's the little prize..." The large black one beamed with an evil smirk. In a split second he had her up in one hand and was sniffing her over.

"Kuraiyoru are you sure she's a hanyou? She doesn't look like any hanyou."

"That's because she's not Kuroi. We've been tricked." The larger one replied. They both looked over at the bleeding and nearly dead miko who was laughing lightly.

"Sesshoku is adopted. The daughter you seek was killed and burned at birth to keep her from being hunted by devils like you." Kuraiyoru let out a howl before driving his claws through Sesshoku and dropping her.

"We're leaving Kuroi." They both turned and dashed away before the lord of the manor could return.

"Now maintaining your disguise will largely be yours Sesshoku." The miko whispered as she crawled to her. "You have to try to keep the balance on the pure side. Or you'll be discovered." She slumped limp and dead on the small girl just as Saikoinu walked through the opened front gate.

"InuYasha. What happened here?" The little oni slowly climbed down from a tree and walked up to the youkai hanging his head.

"I'm sorry I couldn't protect them Poppa but I knew they were way to strong for me." He whispered.

"But not for Sesshomaru... Come on now there's business to attend to." He wrapped an arm around the boy and hugged him before walking past him and picking up the dead miko. "Take care of her will you?" He motioned to Sesshoku.