Author-chan's notes: HELLO!!!!!!!!! Meet chapter fourteen!!!! Sorry for taking so long in updating. Please forgive me!

A Clean Slate

(Chapter Fourteen: Sunrise)

Back with Shiro/Inuyasha, Miho, Yumeko, and Kumo

"So, Kumo, if you aren't here to hurt Shiro-chan, then what are you here for?" Miho asked.

"I already told you!" Kumo hissed, "I came to make sure Shiro stayed out of trouble!"

"I can look after myself!" Shiro snarled and started to squirm in Kumo's arms, "Now, put me down! I'm not a baby!"

"Like hell I am!" Kumo yelled back.

"Well, at least I'm not a blind baka spider like you!" Inuyasha said, sticking his tongue out at the spider youkai. Yumeko laughed.

"I don't think you understood me," Miho said coolly, "I want to know why you're here in our village in the first place. You said you were here to get your revenge on Shiro-chan."

"That was a misunderstanding!" Kumo retorted, "I was looking for someone else."

"Who?" Miho asked, glaring at Kumo. The spider demon looked down at the ground.

"My brother's killer," he murmured. Miho froze. Yumeko looked at the other youkai sharply. Shiro simply blinked.

"I-I'm sorry," Miho whispered. Kumo waved at her off-handedly.

"It's not your business. Why should a mortal like you care?" Kumo shrugged.

"But your description of your brother's murderer, it's identical to Shiro's, isn't it?" Miho asked.

"The one I gave you, yes," Kumo nodded, then he laughed bitterly, "I should have mentioned the white-hair and golden eyes! Or at least I should have said something about the dog-ears!"

"Dog-ears?" Miho blinked.

"His brother's killer was a hanyou," Inuyasha explained.

"See, if I had only mentioned the dog-ears, this mistake wouldn't have happened," Kumo pointed out, "Even if I had said something about his golden eyes, we wouldn't have this mix up."

"But, Shiro has golden eyes!" Yumeko protested. The others looked at her like she had gone nuts.

"You've gone blind, just like me, dreamer!" Kumo laughed, "As you can see, Shiro-chan's eyes are violet."

"B-But they were golden a few moments ago!" Yumeko sputtered.

"You're eyes must have been playing tricks on you, Yumeko-san," Miho suggested gently. The dream youkai sighed, but let the subject drop.

"Do you know the name of your brother's murderer?" Miho asked.

"Inuyasha," Kumo spat. In his arms, Shiro tensed feeling a chill go down his spine. Suddenly a vision appeared in his mind's eye.

***

"INUYASHA!" a voice screamed in rage. He turned, just in time to see the miko release the shaft from her bow. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as the arrow flew towards him. Dimly, he could feel the shaft enter his chest. The force of the arrow was so great that it kept going, even though it had already hit him. The arrow, dragging him with it, thudded against a tree, causing him to be pinned to it. He looked into the hard eyes of the miko who had shot him, shock and hatred coursing through his veins. But there was something else too -the pain of betrayal and a broken heart. He gave the woman one last hurt filled look, then succumbed to darkness.

'Kikyo,' he whispered, the twang of the bowstring still loud in his ears.

***

"SHIRO!" three voices screamed, snapping the boy out of his vision. The boy in question blinked, then looked at the startled faces of Kumo, Miho, and Yumeko. Miho, seeing that he was awake, laughed in relief and hugged Shiro fiercely.

"What in the seven hells happened to you?" Kumo asked, also relieved, "Right after I said that a cursed name you fainted."

"Kuso! Not again!" Shiro snarled in frustration.

"We better start looking for shelter," Yumeko murmured looking at the sky, "Why don't we spend the night in the woods? It will take too long for us to get back to village."

"What do you mean?" Miho asked, "I was able to run all the way here from there."

"That's because you were worried for Shiro-chan," Yumeko explained, "I'm guessing that right at this moment you're extremely tired, and you probably can't even walk for another mile."

"Kumo can carry her," Shiro pointed out.

"I'm already carrying you, remember?" the spider youkai pointed out.

"I can walk!" Inuyasha protested.

"So?" Kumo shrugged, "With your short little legs, you'll slow Yumeko-san and me down." Shiro made a face.

"Stupid little legs!" the boy snarled. The others laughed.

"There's a cave nearby here," Kumo announced, "Do you think you have enough energy to walk there, Miho-san?"

"Of course," came the stiff reply.

"Let's go," Inuyasha said gruffly, sounding (for some strange reason) much older than he looked like. None of the others took notice –except Yumeko.

***

Back with Masato and Aki

"This is all your fault, you freak!" Masato snarled at Aki.

"My fault?!" Aki hissed, "You were the one who got the demon rabbit mad."

"So?" Masato snorted, "It's still your fault!"

"How is it my fault?"

"IT JUST IS!!!" Masato yelled. After being chased by the bunny youkai from earlier, the two men just happened to stumble into a cave, which happened to be the bunny demon's lair. Inside the lair were more bunny youkai. The two men were surrounded by vicious giant bunnies with no way out. So naturally, Masato did what he always did –he blamed it on Aki.

"Masato-sama?" a timid voice from the shadows squeaked. Then a boy walked up to them. Behind him were more boys.

"Hey! It's my gang from the village!" Masato crowed, "We're saved!"

"Save us, Masato-sama!!!" the terrified boys wailed. They all ran over to him like a giant tidal wave. Soon Masato was buried beneath a giant group of boys.

"So much for that plan," Aki muttered, sweat dropping.

"Get off!!!!" Masato yelled from the bottom of the pile.

***

The next day (Back with Yumeko, Shiro/Inuyasha, Miho, and Kumo)

"My name is Kagome! Ka-go-me!" Fierce gray eyes looking at me…

***

"Just shut up and let me protect you!" A giant white dog and a girl I fell in love with…

***

"Wench!"

"SIT!"

*CRASH! * Another one of our arguments…

***

"I thought you said you hated my sent."

"Well, I lied." Delirious with pain and spider poison, I told her one of my biggest secrets. Those eyes, I could look into those eyes forever…

***

"INUYASHA!!!" Her again! The one who killed me, the one I couldn't trust enough, and the one who I, in a way, destroyed. I'm so sorry…

***

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Inuyasha screamed, waking up with a jolt. Sweat ran down his face and he gasped for breath.

"What a screwed up dream," Shiro muttered to himself. There was this girl in it, she had black hair and gray eyes –pretty like a doll. No, scratch that, she was prettier than a doll. He remembered talking (make that arguing) with her, but he couldn't remember the words. Even though he sometimes felt angry with her in the dream, he didn't hate her. Rather, he would have said that he felt like he loved her. But that last vision! At first he thought it was the same girl, but then he realized it wasn't. The last girl was older and much colder. The first girl had a nice, kind aura about her –even when she was angry. But the other one, the one dressed like a miko, had a hard look about her. Shiro shivered. But soon everything from his dream started to fade away except for two things –the faces of the girls.

"Shiro?" a voice nearby him murmured sleepily. The small boy looked at the sleepy face of Miho. The four of them (Kumo, Yumeko, Miho, and Shiro/Inuyasha) had opted to spend the night in the forest. After Kumo had cleared up the misunderstanding with Miho, the group had found a cave and had spent the night there.

"Yeah, Miho?" Inuyasha answered.

"Are you alright? You were screaming," Miho said, moving closer to the boy.

"I'll say," Yumeko muttered grumpily, "You woke everyone up."

"I take it you're not a morning person, Yumeko-san," Miho laughed. Over the past night, Miho and Yumeko had found they had similar likes and dislikes. The two women had become fast friends. It was almost as if they had known each other forever.

"I'm a dream youkai, what do you expect?" Yumeko growled, "The nighttime is my domain."

"Do you know where Kumo-san went?" Miho asked after she looked around the cave. Both Yumeko and Shiro shrugged. Miho sighed.

"I'll go look for him," Miho muttered, then walked out of the cave leaving Yumeko and Shiro alone. Yumeko grumbled to herself, then went back to sleep. Inuyasha, on the other hand, took the time to reflect on his dream.

"I wonder who those girls were," Shiro murmured quietly.

'Kagome –and Kikyo,' a voice in his head whispered.

"That so?" Shiro said out loud, "Kagome is a pretty name. So is Kikyo. But that miko –Kikyo –was, I don't know, messed up. She was like a shattered mirror image of Kagome. Now Kagome, I like. She has pretty eyes. Hmm. I wonder who she is? Could she be my sister?"

While Shiro was talking to himself, Yumeko listened. Each and every word the boy said Yumeko stored away for later use. She wanted to know everything about this boy. Especially how he got the Tetsusaiga…

***

Back with Masato, Aki, the village boys, and the evil bunny youkai

"I hate rabbits!" Masato snarled with feeling. The other boys around him nodded in agreement. All the boys had been wrapped up in blankets, old clothes, scraps of cloth, animal skins, ferns, and other things they couldn't identify. They had ended up looking like giant cocoons when the bunny youkai were done with them. Only their heads had remained untouched. Since they were wrapped up very tightly, they couldn't move their arms or legs at all. After the youkai had wrapped them up, the bunny demons took each boy out into a clearing and left them all in a heap. They had been like this since last night and none of them were happy about it.

"Be glad they didn't do anything worse to us, Masato-san," Aki pointed out, "I think this is their way of warning us never to enter their cave again." Masato snarled wordlessly at the magician.

"I hope no wild animals come an' eat us!" a random boy wailed.

"Or youkai," another boy added.

"KUSO!" Masato swore, "We forgot all about the spider demon!"

"I don't wanna be spider food!" a new boy cried, "I want my mommy!"

"Me too!!!!" all the other boys agreed (except for Masato because he was too busy planning on how to destroy the demon bunnies and Aki because he didn't have a mommy).

"Excuse me?" a female voice said gently, "Do you need help?"

"Of course not!" Masato snarled, "We're fine!"

"If you say so," the woman said. The boys heard the woman began to leave.

"No wait!" Aki cried, "Sorry for what Masato said, but we really could use some help, if it's no trouble to you gentle lady."

"You have no pride, Aki!" Masato snorted.

"If it means getting out of these cocoons, then I'll swallow my pride for the moment," Aki said.

"Very wise," the woman murmured. She approached Aki first, then cut him out of his crude prison. The young magician stood up and bowed to the woman.

"Thank you," he said politely, "I am known as Aki. May I know the name of the one who is rescuing my companions and me?" The woman was silent for a moment as she cut another boy out of his cocoon. Aki realized that the woman was wearing the red and white robes of a miko. Finally the priestess answered him.

"I am called Kikyo."

***

Somewhere else in the forest with Miho

"Where is he?" Miho murmured to herself. She had been looking for Kumo for the past fifteen minutes, but he was nowhere to be found. The young woman sighed and sat down on a fallen log, deciding to rest for a little bit.

"Miho-san?" a voice above her said.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" the girl screamed, jumping up from her sitting position. The voice above her chuckled. Miho looked up into the branches of the tree. There, sitting just a little bit above her, was Kumo.

"Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you!" Miho chided, relieved that it was Kumo and not someone else.

"I'm pleased that you were so worried about me," the spider youkai laughed.

"Come down from there!" Miho demanded.

"I have a better idea," Kumo murmured. Suddenly, strong webbing wrapped itself around Miho's waist. Kumo yanked the girl up into the tree branches.

"What are you doing?!" Miho cried.

"Bringing you up here with me," the demon answered. Soon Miho was sitting on the same branch as Kumo. She gave him a little glare and he laughed.

"What are you doing up here?" Miho asked. Kumo didn't answer her. Instead, he pointed towards the horizon. The sun was just beginning to rise, painting the sky different shades of gold, red, and orange. Miho was breath-taken by the beautiful sight. She was so awed she didn't notice when Kumo gently wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer to him.

"This is amazing," Miho whispered. She felt that if she spoke any louder the whole scene would vanish like a dream.

"I know," Kumo said, also whispering, "Every day, since my brother's death, I would always wake up early to watch the sunrise."

"Why?" Miho asked, turning her head to face him.

"I would make a wish on the sun," the spider demon replied, "I would wish that my brother was still alive. But that's a foolish wish. Not even the sun can grant that. So every night, at sunset, I make another wish."

"What wish?" Miho asked, looking up at Kumo's eyes.

"That I would be able to avenge my brother's death and kill Inuyasha," Kumo said, steel in his voice. When he had said those words, Kumo's blood red eyes had gotten a hungry, evil look in them. Miho felt a chill go down her spine.

"I have a question," Miho said.

"What?" Kumo asked, his eyes no longer having that scary look from earlier.

"Have you ever wondered why Inuyasha killed your brother?" Miho asked, "He must have had a reason. No one just kills for no purpose."

"Some youkai do," Kumo pointed out.

"But I thought you said Inuyasha was a hanyou," Miho said, her eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"He's half demon."

"And you're full demon. And I don't think you would kill without reason."

"How do you know?" Kumo asked. Miho cocked her head to one side.

"I just do," Miho said confidently. Then she smiled. Kumo shook his head and sighed.

"What did you do to me?" he asked.

"What do you mean? I didn't do anything to you!" Miho protested.

"Yes you did. You did the unthinkable, the unforgivable."

"What?" she asked.

"You saw my soul and stole my heart," he murmured. Then, in one swift movement, he kissed her and made his wish to the sun.

'Let this moment last forever…'

Author-chan's notes: Can you believe it?! Kikyo is in here! (Don't worry, this is an Inu/Kag fic and I'm not going to change that!) Hopefully she'll be gone very soon. Erm, I know the fluff in this chapter isn't Inu/Kag, but I hope you're satisfied anyway.