Jewels are Forever

Summary: "Trade? What kind of trade?" Kaede asked as she eyed her suspiciously. The demon slowly began to sit upright and replied: "The shards for her body. I want life. I will be Kagome and you will have the jewel shards."

Chapter Four: Playing with Dolls

InuYasha took to the air, landing only once to collect Shippou. Behind them, the angry mob waved deadly looking farm implements and demanded the fleeing demons' blood, along with several other body parts, the loss of which would have resulted in a very painful death. The demons didn't stop running until they came to an abandoned shed by a stream and ducked inside. As they sat panting on the dirt floor, Myoga asked: "I don't suppose you kept track of the trail we were following, Shippou?"

The kitsune's jaw dropped. "He was carrying me—and flying! What do you think! Ahhh!"

InuYasha hoisted him by the tail once more to glare at the boy, nose to nose. "You've lost the trail?"

Shippou crossed his arms and gave InuYasha and indignant snort. "Well, that's not my fault, now is it? If you hadn't picked me, maybe I could've still followed it!"

"If I hadn't picked you up," InuYasha reminded him with a menacing growl, "your hide would be on a wall hanging right about now!"

"Idiot," Shippou muttered under his breath, earning him another violent shake.

InuYasha threw him at the doorway. Shippou skidded in the dirt, and then tumbled out the door, coming to rest upside down against a tree. "Find it!" InuYasha commanded, but Shippou had had enough.

"Find it yourself!" the fox snarled as he righted himself. With an angry fluff of his tail, Shippou put his nose in the air and stomped away.

Back in the shack, InuYasha fumed as he watched the boy's silhouette disappear over a hill. Stupid kid! Who needs him? InuYasha told himself. The little fox would only get in his way. Soon he could no loner see Shippou though he could sense him, just as he could feel any other demon's presence when they were nearby. Did that mean his quarry was not near? He only sensed himself, Myoga and Shippou. They must have fled in a direction other than the one the demon had taken. InuYasha cursed his own foolishness for running away instead of putting his quest first. Kagome only had a few days to live, three at the most! He could have fought the whole lynch mob and easily defeated them, then gotten on with more important things. Instead, he had run away from an easy battle and had lost the soul-thief's trail. He close his eyes and clenched his fists tightly. Not only didn't he sense any demons other than his companions, he didn't feel the jewel, either. They had obviously run in the wrong direction, but back tracking would mean an encounter with the furious villagers.

InuYasha sighed: If he killed those people, Kagome would never forgive him. The thought of fighting humans sent his hand instinctively to hilt of his Tetsusaiga, his father's Steel Cleaving Fang, and his thoughts to the day when he and Kagome had followed his brother into the black pearl where his father's grave was hidden. Kagome alone had been able to draw the sword from its resting place, after the mighty Sesshoumaru and InuYasha himself had failed to so much budge the thing. What good was the blade to him now? It couldn't bring back Kagome's soul or tell him where to look for the demon who had stolen it, along with the shards of the Shikon no Tama.

Myoga decided to throw caution to the wind and suggested his master go after Shippou, who had, after all, been very helpful. "And you really can't expect him to follow a scent from the air! You must learn to control your temper, InuYasha Sama! And to be reasonable!"

For which sentiments, InuYasha squished him, but he left the hut in pursuit of the offended kitsune, anyway.

It didn't take InuYasha and Myoga long to catch up to Shippou, who, as it turned out, had rediscovered the trail. Or more correctly, the one who had made the trail had discovered Shippou. InuYasha crested a small hill in time to see the little fox spirit slam against a tree with a painful gasp, then drop to the earth where he lay, unmoving, while a small woman in and elaborate kimono crept toward him, giggling. Not a happy, pleasant giggle that inspired good feelings in the demons hearing it, but a cruel, hungry giggle that gave even InuYasha a chill.

"Woman!" InuYasha shouted.

She paused in her stalking of the unconscious Shippou and turned her head to see who had hailed her. Her movement was stiff and deliberate, almost jerky. Her hair was jet black and she had beautiful dark brown eyes set in an ivory face. Those lovely eyes didn't blink as she stared at her challenger and showed no emotion at all.

Sparkles at the base of her throat caught InuYasha's eye: A dozen slivers of the Shikon Jewel imbedded in her skin. "The jewel!" he gasped, just as Shippou moaned, drawing her attention back to her prey.

Myoga clung to a bead near InuYasha's neck and watched the strange woman approach the helpless kitsune. "A demon! Stop her, InuYasha Sa—WHOA!"

"Pick on someone your own size!" InuYasha charged down the hill, meaning to tackle her, but in a ripple of movement, she was behind him. A surprisingly strong hand slapped him between the shoulders, and to his complete astonishment, InuYasha tumbled across the grass and up the next hill.

He jumped to his feet with a raging snarl: "No kidding, she's a demon! And she has Kagome's jewel shards!"

"And probably her soul, as well," Myoga finished in a trembling voice while clinging for dear life to his chosen prayer bead.

InuYasha cracked his knuckles and watched the demon-woman as she turned in her weird way to face him. Too-white skin, eyes that didn't blink, and her tiny unmoving red mouth seemed painted on her face. Shippou came to and started shaking the cobwebs out of his head. The demon paused, and her headwhipped Shippou's way, then jerked back to InuYasha.

Shippou recovered enough to get up on his feet and make a dash for InuYasha's position on high ground, but another ripple, and the creature pinned him under a delicate, sandaled foot. "InuYasha! Help me! She's the one! Ugh!"

The demon put her weight onto Shippou's back, and he cried out in agony as it threatened to break. "I will kill him," the demon said in a voice that was jerky as her movements hen she turned her head to address InuYasha. "You will not attack."

"Won't I?" InuYasha charged the demon again, but she back flipped out of the way, somehow scooping up Shippou with her feet and carrying him with her, and landed square on his back.

There was a stomach-turning crack, a blood curdling scream, and then Shippou fainted on the spot. The demon hopped off his back and turned once again to InuYasha.

"Dead. Now you will leave."

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, as well as Ranma ½ and Maison Ikkoku.

Author's Note: I do dislike Kagome greatly, but somehow she ends up in my fanfics. I must say her and InuYasha are and "okay" paring. Not the best, not the worst, just "okay".