What the hell...?

No...there was no way that little.../thing/ could have posed such a goddamn threat. It looked too child-like to be so damned...creepy. Scary. Those weren't really the words, but they came close enough to count. A heavy feeling accompanied him, the kind that made your stomach turn. And for a moment, he felt like he'd done something horribly wrong and was hiding it from someone very important...

The Tetsusaiga was brandished closer to the hanyou's body now, more in attack position than threat. Those twitching vines were starting to worry him, if just a little bit, since dead things usually twitched for a bit and decided they needed to be dead now.... Nope, still moving. Like the bee you hit with your swatter than just didn't lay still...

"What's he talking about, Kagome?" Inuyasha asked quietly, not able to keep the - worry? fear? - from his voice. And then...he recognized those fumes...

Kuso.

Covering his nose and mouth with a sleeve, careful not to breath the toxic gas, he backed up and covered Kagome's as well, sticking the sword in the ground in front of him. The aura of the sword would shield them a little, acting twice fold as a shield while the hanyou held the miko close enough to block the gas. The fumes were already spreading, as if in an attempt to flush out any living thing in the area. There was no escaping, unless...

...But how were they supposed to defeat that thing?

"Any ideas?" he probed, even quieter this time. This.../thing/ sent enough shivers down his spine that he was actually quiet.

"I don't know what he's talking about..."

She forced, the whisper making her feel even worse. It was almost nauseating, this way he was looking at her like he understood every single insecurity, every single flaw magnified and gaudy.

And the fact that Inuyasha sounded so quiet -- so disturbingly muted and worried -- it made the sickening feeling that she /should/ explain what had happened so long ago all the stronger. But that would be admitting far too much...allowing him to know how foolish she was to an even greater extent.

The schoolgirl was not about to let that happen as she stifled the urge to worm out of Inuyasha's embrace, something she felt decidedly undeserving of at a time like this. At a time when everything was supposed to be perfect and ... /no/. She was getting ahead of herself. This was how it was going to be, right? She'd already made that decision -- to brave all the big baddies that followed their path.

"I don't know -- Tetsusaiga should be able to disturb the jaki enough...but still...I don't know..."

That, at least, was the truth. The last time she'd seen../it/...it was a baby. An intensely frightening baby that Inuyasha had saved her from in the nick of time, but still. There was no way it could've grown so fast, and there was no reason for the weird look in its eyes.

"What?" He rolled his eyes. "You're such a pathetic liar, Kagome. Don't tell me you forgot. I spent far too much effort for you to just /forget/..." His dripping tone settled into an amused drawl as one slender eyebrow arched nonchalantly, unimpressed and undisturbed.

Hm...there was no way....He disliked the idea that Kagome might have lied to him, but considering this little /thing/ here...

Well, he probably would have lied about an encounter with the little freak, too. The midget just seemed to unnaturally comfortable in the face of an enemy - namely him - so unnaturally uncaring, as if this was an afterthought on his to do list...

/Eat lunch, take a walk, take a nap. Oh, yeah, and I should kill Kagome and Inuyasha and take the jewel to kill some time./

That just wasn't right. Naraku was one thing; he would at least be interested. This little thing just looked downright bored. As if he was a child - a fairly normal child - who was trying to pester a bit of information from a friend that they'd discussed many times before. If the hanyou knew one thing about this unnatural child, it was that he had to die. Now.

A little voice still nagged at him, telling him Kagome had hidden things. He was undoubtedly, horribly curious, though curiousity and fear and anger wasn't always the best mix. He pushed that back, deciding a talk was best to take place after the fumes were gone and the acursed child was dead.

"Well, we can't just stand here and hide," Inuyasha stated in his usual tone, as much to the child as to Kagome. "To think I had nearly forgotten this." Releasing the miko, the hanyou ripped his sword from the ground, holding it out to his side. "I don't know what you did to Kagome, but it doesn't matter anymore. You'll never hurt her again. Bakuryuuha!"

His voice seemed to echo and vibrate as he said the words, bracing himself. The blade glowed bright white, causing the hanyou to squint but not look away. With a great sweep, the light erupted all over, the famed Tetsusaiga full-filling its legend. The power that could destroy 100 youkai was directed solely at the demonic child, no doubt visible for a mile or two outside the forest. One could only hope the twisted being knew how to die properly...