Disclaimer: Sorry I don't own either the lyrics (htose are Bonnie McKee's) or Inuyasha.

A/N: This chapter Kagome nearly gets slaughtered by a samurai...hehe, later we learn more about this guy and he's not cool, he's mean...Kagome pays for it later...or at least the samurai TRIES to make her pay for it...My AOL is still on the fritz. (sighs) So I'll offer up another paragraph in appeasement...(pouts) I'm sorry about being late...I've had more play practice and more "friend" trouble. Now a guy friend that I've always enjoyed teasing has turned against me and says I "betrayed" him but I don't know HOW I did that and he won't tell me anything, just won't talk to me. I'm really sick of my life...but at least I still have you guys, eh? (smiles) Drop me a line...when I get onto AOL I shall endeavor to check it...I can only be on one at a time and have to restart the miserable computer when I go on Internet Explorer b/c AOL is like insulted that I'm not on it...grrr...it's so stupid! well on with the fic:

The Fish, the Samurai, and the Beast

"I never have seen an angel

I gave up watching the skies

Whisper softly to me, honey

But don't lie—don't you lie…"

There were already several other local women bathing when Shisuki and Sakana reached the springs. As they approached a female sentry, a little girl posted high in a tree watching the road for peeping boys and young men, whistled to them, alerting the bathers that the new arrivals were harmless. Shisuki laughed and waved at the sentry as they passed by. Sakana remained quiet, but she smiled slightly, her spirits beginning to ease with the communal hospitality these people exuded.

The girls rounded a small bend in the road and found themselves at the edge of the hot springs. Five other women and girls were already there, but two of them were drying themselves off, their flesh prickled from the chill of leaving the warm water. They turned and looked to the newcomers with curiosity, and then surprise when they recognized that a stranger accompanied Shisuki.

An older gray-haired woman, shrugging on her cotton kimono, squinted at Shisuki and Sakana as they approached. She was the first to speak, "Shisuki, good day to you, and…who is this young woman with you today?"

Shisuki bowed respectfully and Sakana followed suit swiftly, although so many new people before her was frustrating and confusing. Shisuki gestured to her, "This is the girl my brother, Toka, and I rescued from the river. She doesn't remember her name, so we call her Sakana for now."

The older woman smiled and the youngsters giggled. "Fish? Ah…but Shisuki, she's much prettier than a fish!"

Sakana, as she was called, bowed her head in respect again and murmured a quiet "Thank you…" though she failed to see how the old woman could call her pretty when she was so filthy!

Shisuki and Sakana stripped their clothing off and stepped into the hot spring, shivering with pleasure as the steamy water enveloped them. The three remaining in the spring were all young women aged from about 30 to 20, Sakana guessed—and they all had a hard time not staring at her as she slipped into the spring beside them. It wasn't that she looked any different from them—it was that she was that she was covered in a fine layer of dried river muck and sweat. Her hair was an absolute catastrophe, and most of her body was covered in bruises and scrapes…she looked like a refugee from a war.

Her face was bright red as she settled into the water. She tried avoiding the other's stares—but she knew full well that they were watching her, gaping. What she didn't expect was for them to pity her…

"Oh you poor thing!" one of them, the youngest she thought, squealed and moved through the water to sit beside her through the steam.

The other two joined the first wordlessly, leaving only Shisuki on the other side of the spring, smiling at the bemused expression on Sakana's discolored, dirtied face.

"By the time we're done washing you you'll be the most beautiful girl in the whole village!" the eldest peeped, excitedly.

The other women began splashing her and scrubbing on her skin with their own towels and washcloths, rinsing and forcing the filth off her body and face. When this was done they attacked her scalp. One of the women had a comb, and after dunking Sakana and cleaning her scalp with a rough soap, they helped straighten her hair out. The pain she felt as they cleaned her so brutally nearly made her cry—but at the same time she felt immensely happy. It was almost like being amongst family…they cared for her as if she were one of their own when in fact she was a complete, nameless stranger. She was completely worthless but they treated her like a queen…she smiled through the pain…and alongside her Shisuki smiled too.

An hour or so later Sakana was freed from the spring a completely changed girl. The women helped her into her new green and white kimono and tied the small obi as ornately as they knew how. When they were done all four of them withdrew and admired her, calling her pretty, no, beautiful! The youngest of them asked her how old she was.

"I don't remember." She blushed at this, hating that she had to tell them something so vague that it sounded like a lie, especially when they'd been so absolutely kind to her, but they nodded, apparently believing her.

The youngest, Sakana thought her name was Sumi, spoke again, "I think you must be about fifteen, or sixteen. About my younger brother's age." She seemed taken with this idea, "You're so pretty, he'd fall for you in a second!" Sakana wasn't sure how many more times she could say 'thank you' without her tongue falling out.

Finally the women started to head away from the springs, but they didn't make it far before the sentry screamed out a warning, "Look out! Boys coming! Boys! Boys!" and then her words were choked out of existence for a moment and the five women were left in a strange, terrible silence. Inside Sakana there was a feeling, oddly enough, of acceptance, as if she'd faced trouble a million times before and always been able to survive and escape it. But the silence didn't last long.

A man's shouting came then, ricocheting off the trees, "Don't move! I've got the beast!" there was a whistling sound from an arrow, the snap of a bow and the fearful scream of the sentry.

The women around Sakana were whispering and whimpering in fear. They were starting to back away from the bend in the path that lead toward the river and the protection of the village beyond. They were trying to flee into the hot springs, away from danger on instinct. But Sakana didn't move from where she stood, rigid, her mind spinning away, her memories trying to surge to the surface but failing. Her head hurt…

Shisuki stepped quickly forward and grabbed Sakana, pulling her back toward the springs, away from the sounds of danger…

Then there was a sound, a strange laughter, and above them a shadow passed, leaping from tree to tree. The trees shook around and abovethem…Sakana tried, desperately, to free herself from Shisuki's arms, to see what the creature was—and why in the seven hells she felt attracted to it…why did she feel she needed to follow it? But Shisuki was stronger than she was—especially so soon after her brush with death in the river, her arms were wrapped around the nameless girl, restraining her. She was never able to stare up at the passing shadow; she merely sensed it passing.

A moment later she broke free of Shisuki, frustrated, and looked through the forest in the direction that the shadow had taken. What had it been?

The women rushed up behind her then and all four ushered her up the path hurriedly, fear dancing in their widened eyes. They rounded the bend in the path and saw the sentry, shivering in fear, standing beside a man on a horse. A bow and a few arrows were obviously slung over his shoulder—and in the limb of one tree branch high up there was one lone arrow…

"What happened, Yume?" the eldest woman asked, shivering beside Sakana and Shisuki.

The child opened her mouth to speak but the man on his horse interrupted her before she could even make a sound, "I came down the path trailing a beast I saw along the river. When I came the girl saw me and called out the alarm, and the beast was about to spring on her but I shot at it and scared it off." Sakana felt a shiver of unease pass through her. She didn't believe everything the man said. He was wearing armor, she saw, a sure sign he was a samurai…

The women moved forward and began to bow before him respectfully. They chanted and muttered their enormous thanks to him, and to Sakana's disgust they weren't just faking. She could see the stunned admiration in their eyes. They were helpless! Sakana felt her hands curl into fists. Give me that bow and an arrow and I'll show this samurai thug whose boss!

When the samurai noticed that she wasn't bowing he cocked his head and narrowed his eyes at her. "Wench," he hissed, "Where are your manners, I just saved your life!"

The other women looked to her, horrified that she would remain standing as the samurai questioned her…had she forgotten even how to give proper respect? Shisuki grabbed Sakana's ankle and tugged on her frantically.

She didn't budge. "No you didn't." she told the samurai, blinking calmly.

His face flushed a livid crimson, "You miserable bitch!" he shouted and the other women closed their eyes tightly in fear, shaking their heads. They remained absolutely still. Sakana didn't even blink when he screeched at her, she calmly regarded him, considering his bow and arrow…I wielded such tools once…I know I did…

"I should kill you for this insolence! Not only am I a samurai, you half-witted bitch, but I just saved your worthless life!" spittle flew from his lips as he spoke; it landed in his horse's mane. The animal looked genuinely bored by the whole exchange. Sakana felt the same way.

"I don't believe we were in very much danger. And had I had a bow and a few arrows I wouldn't have missed." She smirked when his face blanched with shock at her words.

The samurai drew his sword, ready to kill her, his face a mask of fury…

Shisuki leapt to her feet and stood in front of Sakana, bowing from the waist up, desperately begging the samurai to listen to her. "Sir, good and dear lord, I beg you, have mercy on this girl. She was pulled from the river but a week ago with a terrible bump to her head. She remembers nothing—not even her own name! Please forgive her—she doesn't know the weight of her words!"

The samurai snorted with disgust and sheathed his sword. "Her words hold no weight. She's merely insane. She's not worth killing." He yanked hard on his horse's reins and the beast abruptly opened its eyes wide and wheeled around, its hooves kicked up dirt on the other three women and the young sentry who were still bowing.

The three women and the sentry quickly brushed themselves off and sprinted up the path, leaving the hot springs and the other two girls alone. Shisuki's face was red with some indeterminate emotion, as she looked hard at Sakana, her brown eyes narrowed.

"You almost got yourself killed Sakana! If you were like this before your accident it's a wonder you lived to this age at all!" the younger girl turned and quickly ran away up the path, following the other women. After a moment Sakana followed her, feeling bitter. What was that thing? Why do I not respect samurais? I know I should've just bowed…why is it I feel like I'm not one of these people? Why do I feel that way? I must've been just like them before!

She looked to the quickly retreating forms of the other women, the sentry, and Shisuki, and she felt embarrassed, ashamed. Yet at once there was something inside her that refused to believe that she'd been wrong, a stubborn streak that screamed in her ear that she was different from them…she didn't belong with them in that village…she didn't even belong in the kimono she was wearing!

Something stirred in her and she turned to look back into the shadowy forest once, searching it for something—though she knew not quite what…

After a moment she jogged to catch up with the others, leaving her instincts, the hot springs, the river, and the creature behind her.

High up in a tree a mile or so away, a half-demon by the name of Inuyasha was pondering his encounter with the bathers and the samurai thug. He knew, because he'd trailed them after his attack on them the night before, that the samurais were taking their wounded to the nearest village for treatment. At first he'd thought that harassing them might make him feel better, might take his mind away from the fact that he could smell her.

It was the river. Her body must've washed up somewhere nearby—he could scent the lingering heavenly aroma, oddly enough it didn't smell of death at all…but it was always faint, and the hanyou wasn't one to believe his nose over his eyes. He'd seen Kagome go over the cliff, fall into oblivion. And he knew a mortal shouldn't have survived the fall or the ride through the water afterwards. And Kagome, for as wonderful, powerful, and beautiful as she was, had been mortal.

Smelling her meant nothing…nothing…yet even so he couldn't stop shaking his head in wonder at it. The scent had been along the river and also at the hot spring. But although he'd paused to observe the bathers for a moment—when they had their clothes on of course—the samurai had come upon him, startling him, and then the sentry and seen him and screamed…and it was silly of him…

Kagome was dead…only his guilt made him smell her. The grief he still felt inside because he'd never said the things he should've to her, never spoken his heart to her…and now she was dead. If she'd been alive he would've smelled her more, or seen her among the bathers…no, it was only his grief, his guilt that had led him to the river, forced him to follow her scent…

He groaned to himself, fighting his own emotions down, swallowing the lump in his throat. He needed to kill something…anything…

The samurais were in the village…he could at least scare them…

And the river…the Jewel Shards…the Shards…he had to find them before someone else found them…The hanyou leapt from his perch in the tree and ran through the forest, a red streak, a crimson flash.

He was heading for the river…

Endnote: the next chapter is "The River." I've already given you a clip from it...basically Kagome is drawn to something in the river...you'll see...but for the hint, here goes:

"Well…" she paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts, "Think about it Miroku: a village is the most likely place for anything to happen. If Inuyasha has gone completely feral he might attack the village for food. If some other demon finds the shards and empowers itself with them it'll attack the nearest place to the river—and that's the village."

Miroku was nodding slowly, "Yes, my dear Sango," the words were idly said, the monk was actually in deep thought and not trying to embarrass the demon slayer, but nonetheless she blushed red and looked away when Miroku spoke again, "I think that makes sense…but there's also the samurai castle on the other side of the mountains…"

Sango looked back at him now, an angry expression clearly written all over her face, "You just want to go there because there will be pretty princesses and courtesans for you to pop your ridiculous question to." she snarled.

Okay, I'm sorry it doesnt look like too much of a hint but (sighs) at least you can get a little of a laugh out of it AND you get to see that soon Miroku, Sango, Kilala, and Shippo will be on their way to the village...will they find Kagome? Hehe...sorry again that I was late, but I gotta get going again...(sighs) Hope you enjoy, thank you for reading and please drop me a line kay? THANK YOU!! till next time...next is "The River." see you then...