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Chapter Eight: Joining Forces
By morning, Inuyasha and Mei Lhi had returned to their half-demon forms and their wounds were nearly healed. Kagome had made breakfast, and was still waking up.
It turned out, that Mei Lhi and Inuyasha had one definite trait in common -besides looking nearly exactly the same as one another- they both had the same temper.
"Here you go. If you're still hungry, I'll give you another helping...I think I made too much food today..." Kagome said, laying out plates.
Inuyasha and Shippo started scarfing down their food, forgetting completely about their chopsticks. Mei Lhi watched her older brother and the kitsune, wide eyed, then raised a curious eyebrow, finally rolling her eyes and wrinkling her nose in disgust. She had her chopsticks in her hand and was eating her food at a normal pace, staying very neat, and making the scarcest trace of a mess.
"Inuyasha, you know, your sister has much better table manners than you." Miroku noted.
Inuyasha looked up from his bowl long enough to give the monk a death glare that could kill a tree, then continued to eat. Miroku moved from his seat next to Inuyasha to a space between Sango, Mei Lhi, and Kagome.
"Mei Lhi, he's quite frightening today..."
"Your point is...?" Mei Lhi replied, watching her brother and Shippo eat.
"Oh well...I guess...Uh..."
Mei Lhi shook her head and sighed. She calmly ate her food until she felt a hand rubbing her backside. She sensed Miroku right behind her, then taking aim, hit Miroku square in the face with a hard punch, sending the monk flying through the door, landing ungracefully on his ass.
"HENTAI!!!" She screamed.
Inuyasha looked up in time to see Mei Lhi send Miroku soar out the door.
"Whoops...I forgot to hold back...oh well...he deserved it..." Mei Lhi said, suddenly calm.
Miroku stumbled in, a mark embedded deep in his cheek. He looked at Mei Lhi, smiling as if nothing happened, then finished his food. Inuyasha let out a low growl, then hit Miroku, knocking him down.
"I have such a terrible head pain in my head...I've been hit twice in the head already..."
"Keh. It's your fault. You and your 'possessed hand'...just keep in mind that Mei Lhi is my sister." Inuyasha said, his voice dangerous.
Mei Lhi nodded, took a sip of tea, then turned to Miroku, giving him a death glare just as deadly as Inuyasha's.
Kaede suddenly walked in.
"Child, ye said something about having a subduing spell placed on you by Hanajima. What's the word, for future reference?" Kaede asked.
"Oh...it's s-i-t." Mei Lhi replied, shuddering slightly.
"You mean, osuwari?" Kagome asked.
Inuyasha and Mei Lhi fell flat on their faces onto the floor. Mei Lhi attempting to push herself up to her knees (without success) , rubbing her forehead, then squinting her eyes from the sudden pain.
"Yes...that word..." Mei Lhi said, brushing a few splinters from her face.
The table had broken, since Mei Lhi had fallen through it, and Inuyasha hit the tatami mat on the floor, which was lucky, since his fall was less painful.
"I'm so sorry!!!" Kagome apologized.
The 'sit' wore off, and the two were able to get up again.
"Never...say...that...again..." Mei Lhi whispered furiously, now brushing wood from her hair.
"Well, then I'll just have to remember to cover your ears before I say it to Inuyasha." Kagome replied.
"And what if it's to be the other way around? Or if it's an accident, like the one just now?" Inuyasha asked.
"I doubt there will ever be a time when I will have to say 'sit'-Oops."
Once again, they fell on their faces, lying there until it wore off. When they were up again, Kagome continued.
"As I was saying anyway, I seriously doubt there will be a time I will need to use the word on Mei Lhi. She doesn't seem like she needs it too much...Well, accidents...they happen, and they're hard to avoid...but if I happen to let the word slip on accident, be quick to cover your ears."
"Well, I certainly feel so at ease now..." Mei Lhi said sarcastically.
The others gaped at her in shock.
"What? What'd I do?"
"It just seems that for you to be sarcastic is out of your character, that's all..." Sango answered.
"Well, then you don't know me very well, do you? You'll see...you'll need that subduing spell in no time..."
"We should be going soon...if we want to get more shards before Naraku!" Inuyasha said.
"Who's Naraku?" Mei Lhi wondered.
"An evil youkai that's gathering the shards of the Shikon no Tama, in order to obtain the completed jewel and use it for evil." Miroku said. "We all have a dealing with Naraku...you see, Naraku cursed my grandfather and all future generations with kazaana, an endless wind tunnel of suction. Eventually, I will die if I don't have the curse broken...Naraku is using Sango's younger brother, Kohaku as a servant, by controlling him with a Shikon shard. Naraku also convinced Inuyasha to steal the Shikon no Tama fifty years ago, disguised himself with Inuyasha's appearance and killed Kikyo. This caused them both to hate each other-"
"Hey, baka, you forgot a part." Inuyasha cut in.
"What part was that, my dog-eared friend?" Miroku asked innocently.
Inuyasha looked at the monk strangely. Then responded, "The part where Kikyo nearly killed me and I was sealed."
"Oh right...how strange...I just noticed...you two were sealed around the same time...only, Mei Lhi was released before you..." Miroku said.
"Kaede-bachan, do you have two spare kimonos?" Mei Lhi asked.
"What will ye be needing them for, child?" Kaede wondered.
"The battle between myself and Inuyasha, well, it damaged our fire rat fur armor...I was wondering, because I wanted to repair them."
"There's two on the shelf over there." Kaede said, pointing in the direction of the shelf.
"Thank you, Kaede-bachan!"
Mei Lhi grabbed a white kimono with a red obi for herself, then grabbed a black one with a white haori for Inuyasha.
"Change into this." Mei Lhi said handing the black kimono to him.
"No, I'm fine..." Inuyasha replied.
"You're going to change now so I can fix it...while we have time. You do want to find that Naraku guy, don't you? Besides, you can't fight with broken armor. No samurai is that stupid..."
"Who're you calling stupid?!"
"I'm not calling anyone stupid! You're just so damn stubborn!"
"Isn't that the truth?" Shippo said.
"Say that again, I didn't quite hear that..." Inuyasha said to the kitsune, cracking his knuckles menacingly.
"I-I didn't say anything!"
"That's what I thought..."
"Oh hell...since you're not going to change, I guess I'll have to do it for you..." Mei Lhi sighed.
"What?!"
Inuyasha grabbed the kimono from Mei Lhi's hands. Angrily, he walked out of the room. Mei Lhi had a smile of satisfaction on her face, then she too walked out of the room, reappearing minutes later in the white kimono, her fire rat fur folded nicely in her hands.
"How's it look?" She asked.
The others nodded with approval. Inuyasha walked in and handed Mei Lhi his fire rat fur, then sat down in a corner of the room, obviously in a temper.
"Anyway, these Shikon shards you were telling me about, I got some...I think...I was fighting a wild boar youkai...it was on my way to find Inu- chan..."
"'Inu-chan'?" Everyone questioned.
"Oh honestly...I can call my brother a nick name if I want to...now as I was saying, I defeated the youkai, obviously, and then I found these two pink shards and they were glowing purple...It was really weird...but I had no idea what they were...so I just put them on my necklace..."
Mei Lhi reached around the collar of her kimono, then pulled her necklace out from under her clothes. She took the two shards off of the necklace, then handed them to Kagome.
"I believe these are yours." Mei Lhi said.
Kagome put the two shards into the little glass bottle that contained about four other identical pieces.
"Well, let's go then...I would like to meet this Naraku..."
Everyone looked at Mei Lhi like she was crazy.
"Meet him? Are you sure you're feeling alright?" Miroku asked, approaching the hanyou girl.
"Don't even try to come near me, you hentai." Mei Lhi said fiercely.
"But Naraku hates Inuyasha, and you're related...you'll probably be killed."
"Feh. I'd like to see Naraku try...to me, personally, Naraku seems like a big wuss I mean, seriously...he gets to you by using people or things you care for what kind of guy does that?! He must be having too much sake or something-what the hell are those things?!" Mei Lhi said suddenly, pointing at four flying insects.
"Naraku's poisonous bugs...they probably heard everything you said..." Miroku answered.
"Oh well...I don't care...well maybe I do now..."
The four bees had just turned into a cloud.
"I'll be back in a minute...wait here..."
Mei Lhi was out the door, and the moment she stepped outside the insects attacked her.
"Stupid pests...I could kill you all in my sleep...such weak things you are..."
The bees buzzed angrily.
"Sankon Tetsusuo!!!" Inuyasha's shout sounded.
"I don't need your help!" Mei Lhi yelled angrily.
Bees fell to the ground, and Mei Lhi drew her sword.
"Mane suru! Kaze no Kizu!!!!" She screamed.
'How is it that she can use my attacks? Her obvious ability is to be able to mimic anything...anything that she's seen used before, anyway...' Inuyasha thought.
About half of the swarm fell out of the air, but the fallen bees were replaced by at least double the amount that had been there before.
"Oh great..." Mei Lhi said sarcastically. "Just what I wanted...more of these stupid bugs!"
'The hive...where is the hive? Every bee has a hive...all I have to do is find it...' Mei Lhi's thoughts reeled.
Her gold eyes scanned the area, then she saw it.
"There!" She cried.
Leaping into the air, she approached the hive, but was blocked by a barrier. Inuyasha took out his sword.
"Mei Lhi, move."
Shrugging her shoulders, Mei Lhi moved aside. Tetsusaiga's blade turned red, and Inuyasha brought the sword down upon the barrier, shattering it. Mei Lhi looked on in awe.
With the barrier destroyed, Naraku's bugs started coming out by the thousands.
* * *
Kagome gathered her bow and arrows and dashed outside.
"Kagome! What're you doing out here?! Get back inside!" Inuyasha yelled.
"No! There's too many of them! You and Mei Lhi can't get rid them all by yourselves!"
Kagome got a arrow and fitted it into the bow, pulled it back, took aim, then released it. The arrow shone with purple miko light, and killed dozens of the bugs. Sango, Shippo, and Kirara had come outside.
"Kirara!" Sango called.
The taijiya got onto the nekometa's back, then flew into the air.
"Hiraikotsu!" She cried, throwing her boomerang.
"Kitsune Bi!" Shippo yelled.
Bluish green flames shot from the kitsune's hand. Kirara was swatting at the bugs with her paws, knocking several from the sky. Miroku finally came out of the hut. Each time any of them killed the bees, more came out.
'Then there is just one choice...even if it puts my own life on the line...it will be the only way...' The monk thought.
Slowly he raised his arm and started to unravel the rosary around it.
"MIROKU! NO! DON'T!!!!" Inuyasha, Kagome, and Shippo yelled.
"Everyone! Grab onto something!" Miroku shouted.
"Houshi-sama! Don't do it!" Sango cried.
The monk took off the rosary, and the air void opened.
"KAZAANA!!!!"
A/N: Ooh! Cliffy! You gotta review now! *evil grin*
Chapter Eight: Joining Forces
By morning, Inuyasha and Mei Lhi had returned to their half-demon forms and their wounds were nearly healed. Kagome had made breakfast, and was still waking up.
It turned out, that Mei Lhi and Inuyasha had one definite trait in common -besides looking nearly exactly the same as one another- they both had the same temper.
"Here you go. If you're still hungry, I'll give you another helping...I think I made too much food today..." Kagome said, laying out plates.
Inuyasha and Shippo started scarfing down their food, forgetting completely about their chopsticks. Mei Lhi watched her older brother and the kitsune, wide eyed, then raised a curious eyebrow, finally rolling her eyes and wrinkling her nose in disgust. She had her chopsticks in her hand and was eating her food at a normal pace, staying very neat, and making the scarcest trace of a mess.
"Inuyasha, you know, your sister has much better table manners than you." Miroku noted.
Inuyasha looked up from his bowl long enough to give the monk a death glare that could kill a tree, then continued to eat. Miroku moved from his seat next to Inuyasha to a space between Sango, Mei Lhi, and Kagome.
"Mei Lhi, he's quite frightening today..."
"Your point is...?" Mei Lhi replied, watching her brother and Shippo eat.
"Oh well...I guess...Uh..."
Mei Lhi shook her head and sighed. She calmly ate her food until she felt a hand rubbing her backside. She sensed Miroku right behind her, then taking aim, hit Miroku square in the face with a hard punch, sending the monk flying through the door, landing ungracefully on his ass.
"HENTAI!!!" She screamed.
Inuyasha looked up in time to see Mei Lhi send Miroku soar out the door.
"Whoops...I forgot to hold back...oh well...he deserved it..." Mei Lhi said, suddenly calm.
Miroku stumbled in, a mark embedded deep in his cheek. He looked at Mei Lhi, smiling as if nothing happened, then finished his food. Inuyasha let out a low growl, then hit Miroku, knocking him down.
"I have such a terrible head pain in my head...I've been hit twice in the head already..."
"Keh. It's your fault. You and your 'possessed hand'...just keep in mind that Mei Lhi is my sister." Inuyasha said, his voice dangerous.
Mei Lhi nodded, took a sip of tea, then turned to Miroku, giving him a death glare just as deadly as Inuyasha's.
Kaede suddenly walked in.
"Child, ye said something about having a subduing spell placed on you by Hanajima. What's the word, for future reference?" Kaede asked.
"Oh...it's s-i-t." Mei Lhi replied, shuddering slightly.
"You mean, osuwari?" Kagome asked.
Inuyasha and Mei Lhi fell flat on their faces onto the floor. Mei Lhi attempting to push herself up to her knees (without success) , rubbing her forehead, then squinting her eyes from the sudden pain.
"Yes...that word..." Mei Lhi said, brushing a few splinters from her face.
The table had broken, since Mei Lhi had fallen through it, and Inuyasha hit the tatami mat on the floor, which was lucky, since his fall was less painful.
"I'm so sorry!!!" Kagome apologized.
The 'sit' wore off, and the two were able to get up again.
"Never...say...that...again..." Mei Lhi whispered furiously, now brushing wood from her hair.
"Well, then I'll just have to remember to cover your ears before I say it to Inuyasha." Kagome replied.
"And what if it's to be the other way around? Or if it's an accident, like the one just now?" Inuyasha asked.
"I doubt there will ever be a time when I will have to say 'sit'-Oops."
Once again, they fell on their faces, lying there until it wore off. When they were up again, Kagome continued.
"As I was saying anyway, I seriously doubt there will be a time I will need to use the word on Mei Lhi. She doesn't seem like she needs it too much...Well, accidents...they happen, and they're hard to avoid...but if I happen to let the word slip on accident, be quick to cover your ears."
"Well, I certainly feel so at ease now..." Mei Lhi said sarcastically.
The others gaped at her in shock.
"What? What'd I do?"
"It just seems that for you to be sarcastic is out of your character, that's all..." Sango answered.
"Well, then you don't know me very well, do you? You'll see...you'll need that subduing spell in no time..."
"We should be going soon...if we want to get more shards before Naraku!" Inuyasha said.
"Who's Naraku?" Mei Lhi wondered.
"An evil youkai that's gathering the shards of the Shikon no Tama, in order to obtain the completed jewel and use it for evil." Miroku said. "We all have a dealing with Naraku...you see, Naraku cursed my grandfather and all future generations with kazaana, an endless wind tunnel of suction. Eventually, I will die if I don't have the curse broken...Naraku is using Sango's younger brother, Kohaku as a servant, by controlling him with a Shikon shard. Naraku also convinced Inuyasha to steal the Shikon no Tama fifty years ago, disguised himself with Inuyasha's appearance and killed Kikyo. This caused them both to hate each other-"
"Hey, baka, you forgot a part." Inuyasha cut in.
"What part was that, my dog-eared friend?" Miroku asked innocently.
Inuyasha looked at the monk strangely. Then responded, "The part where Kikyo nearly killed me and I was sealed."
"Oh right...how strange...I just noticed...you two were sealed around the same time...only, Mei Lhi was released before you..." Miroku said.
"Kaede-bachan, do you have two spare kimonos?" Mei Lhi asked.
"What will ye be needing them for, child?" Kaede wondered.
"The battle between myself and Inuyasha, well, it damaged our fire rat fur armor...I was wondering, because I wanted to repair them."
"There's two on the shelf over there." Kaede said, pointing in the direction of the shelf.
"Thank you, Kaede-bachan!"
Mei Lhi grabbed a white kimono with a red obi for herself, then grabbed a black one with a white haori for Inuyasha.
"Change into this." Mei Lhi said handing the black kimono to him.
"No, I'm fine..." Inuyasha replied.
"You're going to change now so I can fix it...while we have time. You do want to find that Naraku guy, don't you? Besides, you can't fight with broken armor. No samurai is that stupid..."
"Who're you calling stupid?!"
"I'm not calling anyone stupid! You're just so damn stubborn!"
"Isn't that the truth?" Shippo said.
"Say that again, I didn't quite hear that..." Inuyasha said to the kitsune, cracking his knuckles menacingly.
"I-I didn't say anything!"
"That's what I thought..."
"Oh hell...since you're not going to change, I guess I'll have to do it for you..." Mei Lhi sighed.
"What?!"
Inuyasha grabbed the kimono from Mei Lhi's hands. Angrily, he walked out of the room. Mei Lhi had a smile of satisfaction on her face, then she too walked out of the room, reappearing minutes later in the white kimono, her fire rat fur folded nicely in her hands.
"How's it look?" She asked.
The others nodded with approval. Inuyasha walked in and handed Mei Lhi his fire rat fur, then sat down in a corner of the room, obviously in a temper.
"Anyway, these Shikon shards you were telling me about, I got some...I think...I was fighting a wild boar youkai...it was on my way to find Inu- chan..."
"'Inu-chan'?" Everyone questioned.
"Oh honestly...I can call my brother a nick name if I want to...now as I was saying, I defeated the youkai, obviously, and then I found these two pink shards and they were glowing purple...It was really weird...but I had no idea what they were...so I just put them on my necklace..."
Mei Lhi reached around the collar of her kimono, then pulled her necklace out from under her clothes. She took the two shards off of the necklace, then handed them to Kagome.
"I believe these are yours." Mei Lhi said.
Kagome put the two shards into the little glass bottle that contained about four other identical pieces.
"Well, let's go then...I would like to meet this Naraku..."
Everyone looked at Mei Lhi like she was crazy.
"Meet him? Are you sure you're feeling alright?" Miroku asked, approaching the hanyou girl.
"Don't even try to come near me, you hentai." Mei Lhi said fiercely.
"But Naraku hates Inuyasha, and you're related...you'll probably be killed."
"Feh. I'd like to see Naraku try...to me, personally, Naraku seems like a big wuss I mean, seriously...he gets to you by using people or things you care for what kind of guy does that?! He must be having too much sake or something-what the hell are those things?!" Mei Lhi said suddenly, pointing at four flying insects.
"Naraku's poisonous bugs...they probably heard everything you said..." Miroku answered.
"Oh well...I don't care...well maybe I do now..."
The four bees had just turned into a cloud.
"I'll be back in a minute...wait here..."
Mei Lhi was out the door, and the moment she stepped outside the insects attacked her.
"Stupid pests...I could kill you all in my sleep...such weak things you are..."
The bees buzzed angrily.
"Sankon Tetsusuo!!!" Inuyasha's shout sounded.
"I don't need your help!" Mei Lhi yelled angrily.
Bees fell to the ground, and Mei Lhi drew her sword.
"Mane suru! Kaze no Kizu!!!!" She screamed.
'How is it that she can use my attacks? Her obvious ability is to be able to mimic anything...anything that she's seen used before, anyway...' Inuyasha thought.
About half of the swarm fell out of the air, but the fallen bees were replaced by at least double the amount that had been there before.
"Oh great..." Mei Lhi said sarcastically. "Just what I wanted...more of these stupid bugs!"
'The hive...where is the hive? Every bee has a hive...all I have to do is find it...' Mei Lhi's thoughts reeled.
Her gold eyes scanned the area, then she saw it.
"There!" She cried.
Leaping into the air, she approached the hive, but was blocked by a barrier. Inuyasha took out his sword.
"Mei Lhi, move."
Shrugging her shoulders, Mei Lhi moved aside. Tetsusaiga's blade turned red, and Inuyasha brought the sword down upon the barrier, shattering it. Mei Lhi looked on in awe.
With the barrier destroyed, Naraku's bugs started coming out by the thousands.
* * *
Kagome gathered her bow and arrows and dashed outside.
"Kagome! What're you doing out here?! Get back inside!" Inuyasha yelled.
"No! There's too many of them! You and Mei Lhi can't get rid them all by yourselves!"
Kagome got a arrow and fitted it into the bow, pulled it back, took aim, then released it. The arrow shone with purple miko light, and killed dozens of the bugs. Sango, Shippo, and Kirara had come outside.
"Kirara!" Sango called.
The taijiya got onto the nekometa's back, then flew into the air.
"Hiraikotsu!" She cried, throwing her boomerang.
"Kitsune Bi!" Shippo yelled.
Bluish green flames shot from the kitsune's hand. Kirara was swatting at the bugs with her paws, knocking several from the sky. Miroku finally came out of the hut. Each time any of them killed the bees, more came out.
'Then there is just one choice...even if it puts my own life on the line...it will be the only way...' The monk thought.
Slowly he raised his arm and started to unravel the rosary around it.
"MIROKU! NO! DON'T!!!!" Inuyasha, Kagome, and Shippo yelled.
"Everyone! Grab onto something!" Miroku shouted.
"Houshi-sama! Don't do it!" Sango cried.
The monk took off the rosary, and the air void opened.
"KAZAANA!!!!"
A/N: Ooh! Cliffy! You gotta review now! *evil grin*