Kagome and Sesshoumaru had sat outside the cave and had made a small fire. The others had remained hidden inside the cave. They were sure that Sesshoumaru had noticed them and it was better for them not to show up right now. That was exactly what the dog demon was thinking – he couldn't bear looking at them after the confession he had made in front of Kagome. Can you imagine Sesshoumaru embarrassed?
"Inuyasha always causes problems." Kagome said mostly to herself but then shook her head and sighed. She couldn't help but think that she was the one to blame for everything that happened. Unknown to her the others were thinking the same thing, with one change – every one of them blamed themselves for everything.
"Too bad that he got separated from Tetsusaiga." Sesshoumaru surprised her by sharing one of his thoughts.
"Why?" Kagome asked.
"Although the effect of the sword's barrier had been reduced by the Shikon shards and his want to become a full demon, I think that Tetsusaiga was still keeping his human emotions in him. That's why he recognized you." Sesshoumaru explained.
"So now, without Tetsusaiga, he will completely revert to his demon side?" Kagome asked, already knowing the answer.
"Yes." the dog demon answered. "At first I thought it was bad that he had Tetsusaiga but now... I take my words back. Now he has seven shards and he is full demon, without any stoppages."
"What do you think we should do now?" Kagome asked and Sesshoumaru thought for a moment before answering to her.
"My brother isn't stupid." the dog demon started. "Until now the human feelings he had were 'clouding' his mind."
"What do you mean?" Kagome asked a little confused.
"I'll try to explain it to you." Sesshoumaru said and looked at her. "In his hanyou form Inuyasha's demon and human sides are mixed up. You've seen how loud and uncontrollable he is." he waited for Kagome to nod and then continued. "In his human form he must be more talkative and understanding, right?" the girl slowly nodded, again, and he continued. "And in his demon form he is just a mindless killing machine. Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you?"
"I think so..." Kagome said unsure. "You mean that, now, with the Shikon shards he is full demon but he hasn't lost his mind?"
"Yes." Sesshoumaru nodded. "Only his human feelings and emotions are hidden away from him and if he doesn't get rid of the shards he'll loose them."
"I doubt he'll ever want to do that if he thinks that Kagome is dead." Kagura's voice was heard as she landed on the clearing in front of the cave.
Sesshoumaru calmly stood up and stepped in front of her, while the others rushed outside and prepared to fight. Kagura looked at them a little startled that they were all there but then turned to the dog demon a little annoyed.
"Calm down." she said and glanced at everybody, reassuringly. "I'm not here to fight."
"What do you want then?" Sesshoumaru asked first.
"I came to warn you about Inuyasha and Naraku." the wind demoness said and that caught the attention of the humans and demons in front of her.
Kagome stepped by Sesshoumaru's right side and looked at Kagura, a little untrustingly. "And why would you do that?"
"She wants Naraku dead as bad as us." Sesshoumaru said calmly, not waiting for her to answer. "Maybe even more..."
"That's tight." Kagura nodded. "Naraku holds my heart. He can kill me whenever he wants, so I can't stay here for long."
"What do you have to tell us?" Miroku stepped beside Kagome.
"Naraku gave Inuyasha a fake Shikon shard. Actually it is a shouki crystal. And right now Inuyasha is heading toward Naraku with Kohaku." Kagura explained and hearing her brother's name Sango ran to the wind demoness.
"Kohaku?" she asked worriedly. "Is he alright? Has Inuyasha done anything to him?"
"No." Kagura answered and Sango sighed in relief. Kagome couldn't help but feel bad that her friend was afraid that Inuyasha could hurt her brother.
"What are Naraku's intentions?" Sesshoumaru asked.
"He wants to make Inuyasha his servant. That's why he gave him the fake Shikon shard." Kagura said and worriedly looked around as if afraid that someone might have followed her. "The closer Inuyasha gets to Naraku, the stronger his influence will grow. You have to stop him from going there."
"How?" Miroku asked. "We don't even know where he is. And something tells me that you can't tell us where to find him."
"Yes." Kagura nodded. "Naraku made a spell that prevents us, his servants, from revealing his location. You have to find a way to get Inuyasha away from Naraku." with that said Kagura didn't wait for another question or comment and flew in the air on one of her feathers. "I can't stay any longer. Good luck." she said and was gone in the sky.
"That was unexpected." Shippo grunted and jumped on Miroku's shoulder.
"I can't think of a way to bring Inuyasha here or even away from Naraku." the monk said mostly to himself.
"I have an idea." Kagome said and everybody looked at her. "We have one shard left." she started and took the shard out of the small glass bottle on her neck. "I already can feel the Shikon shards as it is, but I thought that I could try to contact them... I mean Inuyasha's shards."
"Can you really do that?" Sesshoumaru asked a little untrustingly.
"I don't know, but it's worth a try." Kagome half smiled.
"I don't know, Kagome-sama..." Miroku said a little unsure.
"Yeah, Kagome-chan, look what happened when Kaede-baachan connected you with only one shard." Sango pointed out.
"Don't worry, guys." Kagome laughed a little nervously, which only Sesshoumaru noticed. "I promise I'll be careful. Besides, what could possibly happen?"
The others looked at her with uncertainty on their faces but then reluctantly nodded. They moved away from Kagome to give her place, just in case. She smiled at them and held the shard in her hands. Then she closed her eyes and stayed like that for a while. She tried to picture Inuyasha in her mind and called his name repeatedly. Soon enough the shard in her hands started glowing in pure pink light.
Kagome felt light and free, it was like she was flying. Suddenly a sharp pain in her chest made her eyes shoot open and she saw that she was somehow jumping from tree to tree with enormous speed. In front of her, on Kagura's feather along with her, was flying Kohaku.
'Wait a minute...' the girl managed to stand the pain in her chest just enough to think over about what she was seeing. 'I must be seeing through Inuyasha's eyes... But why? I just wanted to contact the shards... And that pain...' suddenly she stopped moving and heard a familiar growl, then she finally lost to the pain and passed out.
Inuyasha suddenly stopped jumping and stood on a tree branch. Kagura noticed that he wasn't following and flew not too close to him. "Hey, why are you stopping?" she asked the hanyou and he answered her with a low threatening growl, not looking at her.
'What the hell was that?' Inuyasha asked himself and sniffed the air. 'There's nobody from them here...' he thought about the girl and he other humans and demons with her. 'How come I smelled her? And I felt another Shikon shard...'
"Inuyasha," Kagura took him out of his thoughts and this time he turned to her. "Let's go. Naraku is waiting." she guessed that Kagome and the others have found a way to contact him and couldn't help but feel happy. But a dark thought went through her mind – when she had been on her way to the castle, Naraku had contacted her and had told her to help Kohaku and not to allow Inuyasha to run away at any cost, and that meant that Naraku knew she had warned his friends.
'I guess Naraku could wait.' Inuyasha thought and turned back toward the forest. 'I can deal with him later. That shouki crystal is making me stronger but I don't know if I would be able to stand that bastard's control when I get close to him.' the hanyou smirked at the thought of killing that annoying dog demon, who thought he could be defeated so easily. 'I will kill them all... and take the shard.'
"Hey!" Kagura almost shouted. "Are you listening to me?" she asked and wanted to fly closer to Inuyasha but Kohaku tugged at her sleeve and when she looked at him he shook his head. As soon as the boy had showed her that it wasn't good idea to near the hanyou, Inuyasha turned toward them. "Well?" the wind demoness asked.
"Naraku sees everything, right?" Inuyasha asked, looking at Kagura and she slowly nodded. "He'll know when I'm ready to come to him. If you want to live you won't stop me." with that the hanyou ran off in the direction he could feel the shard was.
Kagura was ready to follow Naraku's order and not let him get away and attack him, but Kohaku stopped her. "Naraku-sama, said to leave him alone." the boy said and the wind demoness looked at his lifeless and emotionless eyes – she immediately knew that Kohaku was under Naraku's control and she had to listen to him. "We should go back." with that they were off in the direction they were originally headed.
Kagome slowly started to come to consciousness. She opened her eyes and saw that she was in the cave. Sango noticed that she was awake and crawled to her. Kagome slowly lifted herself on her elbows and looked at her friend.
"Kagome-chan, are you alright?" the demon exterminator asked, concern not hidden in her voice.
"Yes..." the other girl said and sat up. "I think so..."
The others, except Kouga who seemed to be still sleeping, were outside of the cave but Sesshoumaru had heard Kagome speak and they had come inside. "What happened?" the dog demon asked.
"I..." the girl rubbed her forehead, trying to gather her thoughts, then she continued. "I think I contacted with Inuyasha's shards and I think he noticed me. But there was something strange..." her words trailed off as she remembered the pain in her chest and that she was seeing through the hanyou's eyes.
"What?" Miroku asked.
"I could see through his eyes and I felt a sharp pain in the chest..." Kagome explained and the others looked at her oddly. "What could that mean?"
"It means that dog-face has absorbed the shards in his body." Kouga, who had woken up just a few minutes before Kagome, startled them.
"That's bad, isn't it?" Shippo asked, jumping in Sango's lap.
"Yeah." the wolf demon said and involuntary flinched, seeing Kagome's worried look. "We can't take the shards out of his body just like that. We'll have to make him want to take them out."
"What would happen if we remove them without him wanting to do that?" Kagome asked, her voice a little shaky.
"He'll die." Kouga said offhandedly and Kagome barely managed to hold back a gasp and her tears.
"So, what are we going to do now?" Shippo asked, looking mainly at Sesshoumaru.
"We'll wait for him to come to us." the dog demon said and turned to exit the cave.
TBC