Chapter Seventeen: Camping in the Cold

Well…more of the goodness of Kikyo X Inuyasha pairings again. Earlier on, I had introduced a certain cliffhanger to the plot where Kikyo shouted Inuyasha's name. Here's the next chapter to this story. Enjoy!


Chapter Seventeen

Kikyo rushed to where the piece of red cloth stuck out from the white snow. Another chilly wind blew the still atmosphere of the area. The demon was already probably gone, judging that she could not sense his presence.

"Bah!" The half-demon got up from the snow, rubbing away the blood stain from his injured mouth. There were bruises covering over his bare arms. "Where did that freaking youkai go to now?"

Where's the arrow that I shot?

"What?" Inuyasha looked at the priestess who was staring at him.

"Nothing…" she replied back softly. Her mind began to wander off, questioning for the location of the purifying arrow she had just shot. She turned back to look at the half-demon again. "We have to find that demon. He's a force not easily subdued."

"Pah! Any demon is easy for me to kill!" Inuyasha boasted with his egoistic approach. His ego was far too big to accept failure. He folded his bruised arms, closing his eyes for a moment. "It's just careless of me to let this idiot demon slip!"

Inuyasha…always was trying to behave tough…

"What again?" Inuyasha snapped back at the priestess who was giving a small smile at him. The wind blew again, with her tied hair following its direction. "If you're gonna' look at me one more time, I'll…" He folded up his red sleeves to the priestess.

"Something's not right here," Kikyo replied with a short sentence.

"You didn't get that thing?" A black haired priestess stood before a demon with snakes crawling around her body. She stared hard at him. "No jewel, no aid given to you."

"She had a hanyou with her," the demon replied back with the shining purple streaks on his face. "And she attempted to kill me with her purifying arrows."

"Oh, is it?" Tsubaki questioned back with a sudden interest shining in her eyes. She raised one arm, with a green snake encircling it. "So did you take any damage?"

"I won't be here if I had received an arrow," the response made the dark priestess' eyes widen at what he had just said.

Impossible…how can Kikyo miss…?

Tsubaki gave a sharp smirk after a few seconds, and closed her eyes. "So it is true," she spoke back with her eyes still closed. "You may pursue her another time. And be sure to take this jewel this time."

"I won't risk my life for such a priestess who has powerful purifying power!" he snapped back at the priestess. Tsubaki looked back at the demon.

"What a pity," she made a sympathetic sound. "Surely, you won't want me to give you a send-off, am I right?" She whispered a few words which made the demon glow such that it suddenly caused excruciating pain to him as he howled.

"OKAY, I'LL GO BACK AND DEFEAT THEM," the youkai panicked and begged for mercy as a talisman on his back tried to purify him. "Just don't purify me away!"

"Very well," Tsubaki replied back with her long flowing black hair blowing with the direction of the coming wind. "It was your choice. Now go!"

The demon sprinted off as soon as she had raised one finger to the direction of the north. "And be sure to come back with the jewel!" She shouted to him, continuing to maintain a smirk on her face.

This time…Kikyo…I'll be better than you, and I having the jewel would be much better off…

"Kikyo," Inuyasha looked at the priestess who had sat beside him. Night had fallen, and a small fire had been set up with the few twigs found deep in the snow. It was the only visible warm item amongst the snow-covered plains. "I can't understand what you're saying. What do you mean by you shot me with a purification arrow?"

"If you didn't take the damage from my arrows," she pondered over the mystery. "Then did he take the damage?"

But it is impossible…he'd have died instantly when shot by my arrows…

"Priestess?" The half-demon crept up behind her rapidly, only to be hit comically by one of her arms in which he fell back into the snow.

"Don't disturb when I'm pondering over important matters," Kikyo replied back sarcastically with her eyes closed. The half-demon got up, with an irate look on his face with of course a red mark on where the arm had whacked him.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?"

"Nothing," she replied back coldly this time. "I have no idea where my arrows have gone to."

"So that's what you've been pondering around all this time?" Inuyasha was getting a little irritated at Kikyo's preoccupancy with the matter earlier on. "It's just some freaking arrows!"

"Inuyasha…" Kikyo replied back abruptly but softly. "If you had purification items, you will worry about them being lost too, because it can be quite dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands. And the arrows I shot did not disappear since the youkai is still around."

"So what does this crap mean?" Inuyasha answered like he had never heard anything. "If it's gone, then it's gone."

"Did you feel anything during the battle?" Kikyo questioned him out of the blue.

"What feeling?"

"Like any strange feeling."

"If you could want me to count in," Inuyasha shrugged his head. "I only had the feeling of wanting to defeat the demon." The priestess was silent again as there was no reply back. She looked deeply in the orange color of the fire. Another chilly wind blew across, causing some snow to fall from the high branches, with some impacting on Inuyasha's head.

"Woah! It's cold," he looked up at the tree which contained much snow on its branches. He turned back to look at Kikyo. "Hey, don't you have anything beside straw to keep warm?"

"I have only straw to wear as winter clothing," she replied back sharply but not turning to look at the half-demon once. "Unlike yours, you have a rich winter kimono to wear." Inuyasha responded with a comical sweat drop look on his face.

"It's not some rich winter kimono as you perceived it to be," the hanyou's tone become solemn and serious suddenly. "It's something unique. Watch." All of a sudden, Inuyasha took off his red coat and threw it on the fire. Kikyo stared for a moment before realizing what was going on.

"You're really foolish to burn your own kimono," she replied back to Inuyasha. However, she was to be soon proven wrong. The fire continued to burn, and the red coat continued to remain unscathed. "Magic?"

"Just a blessed coat," he replied stretching out his hand to take back the red coat. Readjusting it on his shoulders, he shared the same gaze as Kikyo towards the burning fire, with the priestess pausing for a moment to take another twig to light it. "The Robe of the Fire Rat."

"My teacher used to tell me about such a mystical item," the priestess responded to Inuyasha's speech. "But I never believed such a thing existed. So it can really resist fire?"

The half-demon continued to look at the burning fire, ignoring what Kikyo had said. "Never mind, that was a stupid of me to ask," she gave a small chuckle before taking another wooden twig to fuel the fire which had held out against the cold. "We can't find that demon until it's daylight."

"Why daylight? Can't it be now?"

"I'm just a mere human," Kikyo replied back slowly, showing a humane and kind gaze in her eyes. "People may assume that I have the powers of a goddess, but I'm just a human actually with much of the disabilities." Her expression had turned from a neutral and calm one to that of a sad moody expression.

"Fine fine! Then daylight!" Inuyasha snapped back impatitently. The priestess maintained her gaze into the campfire continuously.

Now where are that priestess and that wretched half-demon?

The demon ran from tree to tree, quickly sprinting across to spot the scent of the priestess and her hanyou helper. His hand, filled with claws similar to Inuyasha's, clutched tightly as he continued to make a rapid move across the snowy plains.

"Now now, demon," he heard of the laughing half-demon whose voice came out of nowhere. "You're searching for that priestess right? I warn you; that jewel is mine."

The evil demon stopped and stared at the emerging figure of Inuyasha from the dark trees.


End of this chapter! Time to update next time. I'll see ya all next time! Bye!

Glossary:

Nothing much so far!