Chapter Three: Fight Or Flight

"This is a bit of a squeeze, isn't it?" Mai asked as the company flew high over the landscape of ancient Japan. She was wedged, along with everyone else, on Kirara's back, and one false movement would mean a fall to certain death.

"Who's hand is that!?!" Sango yelled.

Miroku quikly turned and said, 'It's not-!" but Snago's hand flew up and slapped him. "-Mine."

"Yeah right," Sango rpelied.

"But it wasn't." Miroku said.

"Keep your hands off me, you lecher." Sango said.

"Will you just watch and keep the mountain in view?" Inu-yasha said.

"Hey guys, we have trouble," Yugi - who had the unfortunate potion in the back, said. As they struggled to turn and look, they saw nine black seeds, their hooves surrounded in flame, galloping on air towards them. All the beings' hoods showed no faces, but pure black emptiness, except for their leader whose hood concealed a large red eye that Inu-yasha's keen eyes now saw quite clearly.

"What the heck are those?" Joey asked.

"They're practice for me and my sword," Inu-yasha said, drawing Tetsusaiga. At the motion, the head rider advanced, and drawing his own twisted jagged blade. The other riders followed suit, and came at them, surrounding Kirara and the company in a circle.

"What do we do?" Kagome said, "I have no room to fire my arrows!"

"Perhaps my Wind Tunnel-" Miroku said, but then they were over come with the sound of a thousand buzzing Demon Insects that seemed to shield the riders.

"The Shang-youshou!" Yugi cried.

"These are Naraku's henchmen," Inu-yasha said, "I should have known!"

"We have to land," Sango said. "We can't fight wasps and the riders! Down Kirara!" she cried, and with a roar, Kirara went into a nose dive down into the trees below them, as the riders above followed, they sent out many high pitched, earsplitting shrieks, like the cries of a thousand tortured souls. At the hideous sound, everyone covered their ears, and Kiara started to thrash around in pain, until she could longer keep steady. They were just barely under the trees when Kirara lost control, and in a panic to get away from the sound the riders were making, she threw everyone from her back, and they all fell to the still too far ground below.

Meanwhile, the riders, galloping overhead, thought their task done.

"Inu-yasha is dead," Takashi said. "Now to collect his head."

------------Transition-------------

"HEY! Is anybody left alive?" Inu-yasha called out as he hung from a tree limb.

"I'm okay!" Kagome answered, she had landed in a briar patch, "Ow! Thorns!"

"That two times I've fallen out of the sky," Joey complained, sitting up in a mud puddle, "Kirara needs seatbelts."

"Stop- OW- complaining," Mai said, also climbing from Kagome's briar patch.

"What happened?" Yugi said, "It happened all so fast."

"Meow," Kirara mewed, coming to them with her head down low in shame.

"Kirara, are you alright?" Sango asked her pet. Kirara mewed and jumped into Sango's arms.

"Her? What about me?" Miroku said, "I nearly broke my neck."

"Well you didn't," she said. "Those horrible riders' shrieks obviously have a terrible effect Kirara."

"They had an effect on me too," Bakura said, "Look," he held up his Millennium Ring, and it was bent and dented. "I don't it'll work as a compass for a while."

"Great! We can't find the blasted Chalice without the Ring!" Inu-yasha growled.

"Then we'll just have to fix it," Serenity said.

"If I may pose a suggestion," Myog said, popping up on Inu-yasha's shoulder.

"Where did you come from?" Inu-yasha asked.

"Why, Lord Inu-yasha, I've been with you the whole time." Myoga said.

"Then what was all that jazz about you only being here for council!?!" Inu-yasha yelled.

"Well, you need my council now, so I'm here," Myoga said, "Unfortunatly, Serenity my dear, the forgers of the Millennium Items took their secrets to the grave. And no mortal man in these lands can reforge the Millennium Ring… except maybe one person…"

"Oh no," Inu-yasha groaned, "Not him!"

"He's our only option," Myoga said.

"Oh, look at my clothes!" Kagome said, "they're all ripped from my fall in the briar patch. I can't walk around Feudal Japan like this! Clean clothes get enough attention."

"Take this," Miroku said, opening his pack, "I figured we might need it when we reached the Cave where the Chalice rests."

"Priestess clothes?" Kagome asked with apprehension.

"My clothes are too small for you," Serenity said.

"And mine are a little to big, kid," Mai said.

"Great," Kagome said as she took the robes. "But keep an eye on that lecher, I don't want him watching while I change."

"Great idea," Inu-yasha said, "I'll just-"

"No you won't," Kagome said.

"It's not like I haven't see it all before." Inu-yasha said.

"Sit boy," Kagome said. FLASH WHAM! Inu-yasha was down for the count.

------------Transition-------------

"Well, at least the Tetsusaiga's not broken again," Totosai said, examining the foreign Ring. 'Otherwise I'd have to take another fang from that big mouth of yours… And there aren't any more demons that your father didn't kill left around to make it lighter."

"Very funny," Inu-yasha said, "Just fix it. We need a compass to find Amateratsu's Chalice."

"You're looking for that old thing?" Totosai asked, "Why on earth for?"

"Long story short, Inu-yasha killed a demon Kaede was bound to, and now we have to save her life."

"Oh, so that curse finally caught up with her?" Totosai asked.

"How do you know abut it?" Bakura asked.

"Some demon came around forty of thirty years ago, wanting armor that could withstand sacred arrows. He had a big mouth- just like you, Inu-yasha. And at the time, he had a head of bright red hair, and spiffy green kimono. He was trying to pass himself off as a human, but anyone with common sense could see through his borrowed skin, especially with that bright red mark on his forehead. It was a scar almost shaped like a third eye. He complained that if it was pierced again, he would die, and blamed it all on a one eyed priestess from the north. When you all showed up, and I met the one eyed old bat, I figured she must have been the priestess all them years ago."

"Did you make his armor?" Kagome asked.

"What, are you kidding me?" Totosai said, "He wanted it made of dragon scales! Do you have any idea how hard those things are to get a hold of? I turned him out with out a second thought."

"You sure are picky about clients," Mai observed.

"You'd be picky too if you had fifty odd rag tag miscreants showing everyday to make a sword or breastplate." Totosai took the Ring in his hands, and started pulling and flicking at various prongs. Then said, "Hmmm. Big job. Need two or three days."

"TWO OR THREE DAYS!?!" Inu-yasha yelled. "Kaede dies at sundown tomorrow!!"

"Okay, okay, so it's a rush job," Totosai said, "Why don't you pick around the shop and I'll have it ready in a little while."

"What shop?" Miroku asked, looking around the cave.

"This one," Totosai said, pulling back a curtain in the back, "Feudal Armories and Accessories. Help yourselves to whatever you need at my own persona discount, but be care customer lost an eye in here- which reminds me: if you find it, let me know," and the old fool was gone to fix the Ring.

-------------Transition--------------

The Riders sniffed the ground, and searched the trees. "I can't find a single sign of him," Nobu hissed.

"Neither can I," Takashi said. "Blast! He must have survived."

"What about the others?" Kazou asked.

"They mean nothing to me. It is the han-you we must have. Where could they be hiding?"

"I have found something," Ryota said. He handed a bundle of clothing to Takahi, who sniffed them, and started to laugh.

---------------Transition---------------

After three hours of waiting, Totosai finally emerged from his workshop, the Millennium Ring glittering like new. "All done. I believe I've outdone myself. It no easy feat to repair an item of foreign make."

"It looks incredible!" Bakura said, putting it around his neck. "It feels so much lighter! Did you by chance release an evil spirit that was in this?"

"Oh…" Totosai said, scratching his head, "You mean he wasn't suppose to be in there?" Everyone fell down in exasperation and frustration. Then Inu-yasha jumped up, grabbed Totosai by the collar and yelled "Of course he's not supposed to be in there, you idiot!!!! He's an incarnation of Naraku!!"

"Well he seemed like a nice enough fellow. Guess I shouldn't have given him that discount card," Totosai said.

"DISCOUNT CARD!?! We don't have any money!!!!" Inu-yasha snarled.

Just then, Bakura noticed that his wallet was gone from his pocket. "Oh no! He took my wallet!"

"Great!" Inu-yasha said, dropping the old man. "Lets get out of here before I go crazy!"

"Too late for that," Totosai remarked. "Well, good luck, and tell Li to come by whenever he wants."

-------------Transition---------------

"You have failed," Naraku said as his nine minions bowed before him. "You know how replay failure."

"Naraku, give me nut one more chance," Takashi said.

"How will you find Inu-yasha to kill him if I do give you a second chance?" Naraku asked him.

"I know of a way," Takashi said. And he tossed out Kagome's ripped uniform.

"Excellent," Naraku said. "And I know of the perfect pawn to use in our game."

------------Authoress' Note--------------------

Bluerain: Sorry for the long wait. Hope you're enjoying the story. Please review.