pure-thornless-rose: Hey there reader(s)! Heheh... Here's the 2nd chapter to Oh Brother. There's A LOT of dialogue spoken here and I didn't even bother to put it in script form... Sorry. Anyhow... Enjoy!

I DO NOT OWN THE SHOW INUYASHA OR ITS CHARACTERS. Just my original characters and my story; and whatever I have in my home...


Oh Brother
Chapter two: That Stupid Barrier
By pure-thornless-rose

"Great..." Inuyasha said sarcastically after Aeri told him of the two days it would take, "Just great..."
"I know, isn't it?" Aeri smiled.
"You're too cheerful for your own good, y' know that?"
"I'm just happy 'cause I know I can find my big brother now—that he's still alive y' know?"
"Yeah, whatever..."
"... Um...so about your brother..."
"What about him?"
"Who is he?"
"You wanna know?" She nodded. "You REALLY wanna know...?"
"Yeah."
"Then I'm not telling you."
"Ugh... Well you've been grouchy..."
"WELL THAT'S MY PROBLEM..."

"Cranky head..." it was Midori this time.
"Shut up, you dumb green ball of feathers..." Then he began to grumble and sulk, slowing down his pace so that he was behind all of them. Midori faced Inuyasha from Aeri's shoulder.

"I'd stop calling me that if I were you." She scowled a bird scowl.
"What're you gonna do about it? Huh? Ya stupid green ball of feathers!"
"You'll find out in the near future, Inuyasha. You'll find out." She glared at him and turned back around.

"Stupid bird..." Inuyasha murmured to himself. Luckily no one heard. Then Aeri turned to Midori.

"I think we should leave him alone for a while, Midori," she whispered. Midori nodded. Suddenly she started flapping her wings and took off, hovering around Aeri.

"Have it your way..." she said, "I'm gonna go scan the area for anything."
"Okay." Aeri nodded. "Just come back when you see something interesting or something of that matter."

Then Midori nodded and took off, flying high and ahead of them. She searched around, seeing nothing but the trees and the road. She flew around in circles and gazed into the scenery, alert for anything interesting.

Meanwhile, with Aeri, Inuyasha and Lady Sakita, Inuyasha was still sulking in the backround. Lady Sakita was continuing on quietly as usual and Aeri was soaking up the day as she walked on. She was still in her bubbly mood (even after Inuyasha's tiny fit).

"At least she's useful for SOMETHING."
"Inuyasha..." Aeri shook her head. "I should tell you that she has more uses than just scanning the area around us."
"Like I would care what else she's able to do."
"Fine... whatever." Aeri shook her head again.

Then Midori came soaring back, looking a little ruffled. Suddenly she swooped in and landed on Aeri's arm.

"I spotted something in the distance. It's a swarm of poison insects, coming this way—and fast!"
"Well that goes MY day..." Inuyasha growled.
"Poison insects...?" Lady Sakita stopped, along with the others, with the sound off this message.

Shortly they could hear the swarm closing in.

"Yeah... something I just love to see come by... It's definitely Naraku's doing..."
"Man...! The first dangerous thing that comes my way, I can't suck it up with my wind tunnel...!"
"Hm... I have my own way of getting around these pests!" He reached for his Tetsusaiga.
"Here they come!" Midori said.

Suddenly, the swarm was surrounding them from above. Inuyasha then pulled out the Tetsusaiga and it grew large, as it should. Aeri and Lady Sakita seemed a little surprised. Midori, however, took off from Aeri's shoulder and flew straight into the swarm. But transforming on her way. She grew large, very large, kind of like what Kirara does.

"That's a huge sword, Inuyasha...!" Aeri said.
"Yeah, well... The green fluff's huge too!"
"My name's MIDORI! Get it right and use it when referring to me, okay?!" Midori screeched back as she cut through the swarm; her wings were blades on the insects, slicing them with her high speed.

Inuyasha used the Wind Scar and eliminated half of the swarm. Aeri and Lady Sakita were both amazed by the sword, but they had to keep their focus on the swarm, they were surrounding them as more seemed to appear out of nowhere. Lady Sakita had nothing to fight with and so did Aeri, even though she had her wind tunnel. But their defenselessness was proved wrong when Lady Sakita used her miko powers on the attacking wasps and Aeri fought her way through with the use of her own hands. Yeah, she knew how to fight, quite unusual for a fourteen-year-old girl in Feudal Japan. Inuyasha took notice of this but he continued on destroying the wasps. Soon, their numbers trickled down to only a few, some were leaving and the rest were destroyed.

"I think it'll be a good idea to follow the rest of those insects!" Inuyasha suggested.
The two nodded and Aeri whistled. Midori flew down and Aeri and Lady Sakita jumped on. "You wanna ride?" Aeri asked.
"Nah... I can run. Let's go!"

They nodded again and Midori took off and flew in the direction of the swarm. Inuyasha started for the swarm as well, running through the fields and past the trees.

--Minutes earlier--

"Hey... I see something all the way back there!" Shippo pointed towards the sky.
"Where?" Kagome looked and squinted her eyes but the object of Shippo's interest was too far off to see.
"All the way over there in the sky. It's not coming this way though..."
"Why... that looks like a huge swarm... of... of... of Naraku's poison insects...!" She was now able to determine the gargantuan, rippling blur in the sky.

"Do you think we should follow them? They always seem to lead us to somewhere important when we do—not that I'd want to... But, y' know... eep..."
"Oh-hoh, Shippo. You don't need to worry." She laughed. "But maybe we should follow them. They might lead us to everyone else. And plus... I have plenty of arrows."
"Oh-okay..."

"Thing is... their so far away. I don't even have my bicycle with me either..." But regardless of those words, she began running towards the same direction as the poison insects. As fast as she can, she ran and ran, with Shippo on her shoulder.

"Hey...!" Shippo seemed to notice something about the swarm. "How come there's only a few left now? There was a huge swarm a minute ago..."
"You're right, Shippo! Something must've destroyed a lot of them...!" Suddenly, she thought about her other friends. "Hey Shippo, do you think they're all there, killing the insects?"
"I hope so!"
"Then let's keep going!"
"Yay! We're going to see them soon!"

So they continued running through the forest.

--After all that running and flying--

The remaining wasps of the swarm soon came to a large castle. But there was a barrier that only the poison insects were able to penetrate, while everything else was rejected. Inuyasha and company soon arrived at the barrier and stopped right before it.

"Rrrgh... he put a barrier around the place..." Inuyasha growled.
"So this is where Naraku lives?" Aeri asked as she jumped off Midori's back.
"Possibly... or it could be another phantom castle... either way... HE could be in there right now..." Inuyasha said as he examined the barrier.

It was a glowing, blue, force field type of...uh... thing. Also, touching it only burned the offending object. Aeri learned that when she threw a stick at it and the stick burst into flames and dropped onto the ground in the form of ashes.

"Whoa..." she sweat-dropped. "Yeeww..." Then she poked the ashes and threw another stick and watched the whole process repeat itself.
"Will you stop foolin' around? We gotta go find a way to get in!"
"Okay... okay..." The she was hit with a small idea. "Hey Midori, Lady Sakita? Inuyasha...?" She said to catch their attention. "How about you two fly around and I'll stay with Inuyasha and look around down here."
"Good thinking." Lady Sakita nodded.
"Yeah... okay." Then they took off and left.
"Wow...! You became useful..." Inuyasha murmured. Aeri pouted and stuck her tongue out at him in return.

"You know... what, Inuyasha—?"A different voice came in, panting in between. "You should be more kind to others."
"What the..." Inuyasha turned around and saw two familiar faces.
"Yeah... she's right y' know?" Then a little voice popped up.

"Kagome? Shippo?" Then he smiled.

"Thaaaaat's us, alright!" Shippo smiled back up at him. Aeri poked out from behind Inuyasha and stared at the little fox demon, then to Kagome. The two took notice of her immediately.

"Hi there." Kagome smiled at her. "What's your name?"
"Hi, I'm Aeri."
"Hi Aeri!" Shippo greeted her and jumped onto her shoulder. Then he noticed something about her. "Hm? Hey... You look... familiar...?"
"Shippo's right, Inuyasha. Do we know her?"
"Ehh... that's probably 'cause she's Miroku's brat sister."
"WHAT?!?" They yelled simultaneously. Shippo fell off of Aeri's shoulder.
"Yeah!—hey! I'm not a brat!"
"Are to..."
"Are not!"
Are to...!"
"Are—never mind...! Hmph! Anywho... you two must be Inuyasha's friends." She smiled again and they smiled back.

"So you heard about us...?"
"Only when I asked who his friends were—we just met yesterday."
"Wait..." Shippo jumped back up on Aeri's shoulder. "You're Miroku's little sister?"
"Yes I am. Have you heard from him lately?"
"Sorry... Shippo and I were the only ones who found each other right after Naraku caused that BIG explosion. We were all separated because of that. Which reminds me... did you ever find the others, Inuyasha?"
"No... so far... I've run into you two, her and her stupid bird, and another priestess."
"Her bird? A priestess?" Shippo asked.
"Yeah," Aeri nodded, "Here they come too. "Then she looked towards the sky.
"Aeri, Inuyasha!" Lady Sakita yelled down to them. Then they landed.
"Ahh!! She's HUGE!!!"
"Don't worry, uh... Shippo, Midori only bites the bad guys."
"Not true! I don't bite at anyone all... Not even the bad guys. I don't like the taste of junk food..."
"She can speak?" Kagome asked at the sound of Midori's voice.
"Yup!" Aeri nodded.

Then they all introduced themselves to each other.

"Oh! I nearly forgot!" Aeri exclaimed, "Did you find any way in?"
"No... I flew around a couple times but all it was, was a huge glowing barrier."
"I didn't see anything either." Lady Sakita chimed in. "How about you two?"
"Actually..." Aeri sweat dropped, "Inuyasha and I never really got started."
"Yeah... Kagome and Shippo came in after you two left..."
"Well in that case..." Lady Sakita began to suggest, "Maybe we should begin now."
"Yes!" Aeri said rather happily. "So let us all go now!"
"Oh boy... she's happy again..." Inuyasha stepped away from her. Everyone else just smiled... or smiled nervously.
"Oh... and for the sake of your well-being... don't touch the barrier, okay?" Aeri cautioned them. "This is why..."

Then she threw another stick at the barrier and everyone watched it burst into flames and drop to the ground as a pile of ashes. Kagome and Shippo took heed and everyone trekked around the castle. But no one found anyway past the barrier once they circled the whole thing. Inuyasha seemed fed up with it and everyone else was disappointed.

"There's no way around or past this barrier..." Lady Sakita finally admitted for everyone.

They nodded in agreement.

"So what do you suppose we do now?" Aeri asked.
"Well... before we were side-tracked, we were headed for my dear friend Lady Kaede's village."
"Then we're off for the old hag's village..."
"Lady Kaede's village?" Kagome asked.
"Yes... that's where Aeri and I were headed for in the beginning."
"Then we met Inuyasha."
"C'mon, let's go... Getting into THAT place ain't helpin' any one of us right now... thanks to that stupid barrier..."

Inuyasha was already heading back to the dirt road. Everyone just followed.


p-t-rose: Well there ya go! Um... thanks and come back for the next chapter! I hope you all liked it too!

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