Chapter eleven: Miroku!

It had been a couple of months since Yasha had first arrived at the Shikoku Kingdom and life was settling down extremely well.
It felt like she had lived here for all her life.
She and Sango spent some time together. Yet Yasha had yet to see Miroku and she continued to search the castle.

Kagura had proved to be quite worthy of company, the girl was surprisingly chatty wen she wanted to be and Kagura and herself got along rather well. Inuyasha had his mood swings and Yasha had returned to normal, she didn't feel broken anymore. And all of them were surprised when she was totally different one morning, that was when they learned that she was just like Inuyasha. Sesshomaru, however, was much more civilized than the two, and the friends usually shared games of chess with each other late most nights. Although there wasn't much of win on either side, it only ended in stalemate or both retiring because there was no point in continuing.
It was late one night and Yasha and Sesshomaru were just finishing a game of chess, the fire was crackling merrily away in the fireplace, and the stone room had an eerie light cast over it, the massive book cases gave the study an extreme intelligent appeal and Yasha couldn't help but love this room, the books were fascinating, the chairs large and overstuffed, and the warm bear skin under her bare feet got rid of some of the extra echoing in the room."Well I see its stalemate again," Sesshomaru said quietly as he peered over the large stone chessboard. Yasha looked at her queen over on his side of the taken, if only she hadn't lost that she would have been able to win, "Yes, I agree, another stalemate to add to the tally"

Sesshomaru leant back into his chair, "You know you're the only one I can play seriously"
Yasha rose an eyebrow, "What do you mean?" she asked curiously. Sesshomaru smirked, "No one else can survive for under half the game, they get taken within the first half hour"Yasha nodded, she knew the feeling, she glanced over at Sesshomaru to see him have closed his eyes and was just sitting there, totally relaxed and in his own world, "Are you tired?" she asked quietly. He opened his eyes slightly and nodded, "Paperwork keeps me up"
Yasha smiled, "Then you should be off in bed then"Sesshomaru watched the board, "Yes, I think I may retire for the night"
She nodded and she knew he was off to Kagura's chamber; they were such a secret romantic couple. She watched as he stood up and walked over to the large oak

door, he pulled it open and stepped out, but stuck his head back in, "Thank you for the game" he added in the same flat tone.
Yasha grinned, "Anytime"
He nodded and with that gently closed the door and left without another word or sound.
Yasha sat there staring at the board; it always ended like that. It was so frustrating!
She sat there for a little while longer staring into space, thinking about Inuyasha and how different he is here then when he's out on his own or with just her.
She thought about her future, she often thought she had none, the idea scared her and she felt alone.
Inuyasha had scared away her last suitor, and wouldn't give an explanation to the reason why he did it, but Yasha didn't mind, she didn't like the rich upstart anyway.
She had her heart and mind set on someone much more fine and superior. Sounds from downstairs broke her out of her thoughts and she ran over to the window and looked out, it was raining slightly and the grounds were foggy and unclear with the gentle rain that was falling like a sparkling curtain.
She looked around before realizing that it was just the guards changing shift. But as she turned around to go back to her chair a chill ran through her and she spun around and looked outside again.
She squinted and looked around before movement caught her eye and she nearly screamed when she saw it was a human falling down just next to the forest edge. She picked up her feet and ran to the door and wrenched it open and running down the hallway, a couple of guards asked her what was wrong but she yelled something in a frenzy while she ran and it only came out in incoherent sentences.

Breathing hard she ran down the large stone stair case nearly tripping twice over her scurrying feet, and it was when she ran around a corner she knocked into someone.
Inuyasha stumbled back wide-eyed, "Mind where you're go. . .What the hell are you doing woman?" he barked, just realizing who it was and rubbing his head.
Yasha shoved him aside before she took off again.
But Inuyasha was too quick and grabbed her upper arm and spun her around to face him, "What's wrong?"
Yasha stared up at his eyes before her mind caught up, "Miroku!"Inuyasha frowned at her, "What do you mean? Who?"

Yasha shook her head while she tried to catch her breath, "He's hurt! I . . .got to go . . help him" she managed to say in between pants. Inuyasha stared at her, what on Earth was she talking about?
But before he could ask anything else Yasha broke free and ran down the hallway and out the front gate. He sighed and ran after her, he would find out when he followed her. Yasha ran as fast as her legs would carry her down to the west side of the forest, she stopped and looked up at the castle, counting the windows until she came to the study one, she drew a invisible diagonal line from the window, down to the ground and followed it with her eyes.
She nearly fell over with what she saw; a person's arm was protruding out of the bushes.
She ran the last few steps and spread the bushes apart and gasped.
A young man was lying there, face down in the dirt with ripped and bloodied clothes.
She gently eased him over onto his back and stared down at him.

He was a handsome fellow with short black hair tied neatly into a small ponytail, with numerous piercings on both his earlobes, his face was scratched and bleeding but that wasn't the worst. Over his chest were several deep gashes, bleeding profusely, as she looked over his arms an arrow stuck out of his left arm and around his hand was a purple cloth wrapped around with a intricate beaded rosary wound around that.She carefully snapped the arrow in half and closed her eyes as she felt a wave of fear overwhelm her.

When she was back to herself again she gently but quickly pulled the arrow out again and wrapped the sash from around her waste around his wound.
Inuyasha had drawn his sword and was running blindly in the dark, following Yasha's scent.
How could've he been so stupid as to forget a fire torch? Her scent was getting thicker so she was obviously somewhere near, he stopped to listen and smell but the gentle rain was fleetingly washing away her tracks and he only came up with the faint forest sounds of the odd bird going to its perch for the cold rainy night ahead or a deer rustling around in the dense undergrowth, but the familiar noiseless atmosphere was ruined when he heard a shattering ear piercing scream.

"Yasha!" he yelled as he ran forward.
He got no reply but he saw the tip of her white ear ahead, "Yasha!" he yelled again, still no answer, what had happened?
He ran forward and saw a dark haired bleeding man leaning against a tree panting heavily as he held Yasha close to him, holding her tightly across her chest with the other.

Inuyasha looked at Yasha, seeing her frowning in pure anger and frustration, he would have grinned at her face but on the current circumstances, well, let's just say it wasn't appropriate.
"Let her go" Inuyasha growled, holding the sword out in front of him, the tip pointing at the strangers neck.
Yasha was shaking her head, "Don't Inuyasha." she growled, her tone told him to step away and that her anger was growing with each passing second.

Inuyasha just ignored her, he stepped forward, holding the sword deadly still even though inside he was shaking, "Let. . .her. . .go" he ground out.

Yasha broke away and snapped angrily, "Miroku! You pervert!" The man was dumbfounded when she said his name. "What did you say? Oh-no. now I've really lost it. You wouldn't happen to be that sweet little girl I knew. The one with the ink in her hair would you?" he smirked.

"I'll show you sweet." she muttered.

"Now, now Yasha. Lets not do anything rash." he was pushing buttons he knew he shouldn't be.

Yasha was short fused and he knew it, both of them did. She pulled her fist back to strike Miroku, but Inuyasha held her arm back so she couldn't move. Then he mimicked Miroku, "Now, now Yasha. Lets not do anything rash." That's it. Last straw. First she landed one on Miroku's arm, then stood up and whipped around and kicked Inuyasha really, really, really hard in the shin. She smiled proudly, they moaned in pain.

On the way back, Yasha carried Miroku on her back, and Inuyasha limped alongside her.

Yasha began to feel tired, and sick all of the sudden. And she managed to make it to the gates.
Yasha handed Miroku to a guard, and gave him instructions. Then walked into the castle, dragging her feet slightly. She was out on her balcony, looking up at the sky when she couldn't stand anymore and felt her knees buckle and her body hit the cold, hard, wet stone, and passed out.