Thank you for reviewing (the two of you). Anyway, I'm sorry that there was such an intermission between chapters, hopefully I will be able to update quiker now that summer vacation is here, I am also sorry for the length, but this chapter was starting to kill me and I wanted to get it done.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha...but if I did I would be so loaded!

Chapter 2

The Tormented Soul Behind that Haunted Gaze

Kikyou almost screamed in frustration as he caught her once more. She was too tired now to fight back, and her chest heaved as she gasped for breath. Her stare was defiant, she hoped that it would make him angry. She didn't know why. He was also heaving, his white hair was tickling her face and she could feel his breath on her face. It was warm compared to the night around them. She blinked and mentally slapped herself. What was her problem? He had kidnapped her, intending to steal the Shikon no tama from around her neck and had almost killed all of her fellow priestesses, and that was only if his word was to be trusted and he had not lied. How could comeone that killed little girls really be trusted afterall?

"What is that scent you wear?" He asked suddenly. She blinked a couple of times before she was sure that she had heard the question correctly.

"Jasmine. Why?" She asked shortly, not because she meant to but because she still hadn't caught her breath. He scowled.

"'Cause it stinks." He answered. She scowled back at him.

"What is your problem?" She yelled. She had finally lost her temper. He seemed taken aback but quickly recovered.

"What're you yellin' for?" He hollared right back. She pushed him off of her as he had not expected her to do so and then she slapped him.

"Did your mother ever teach you any manners or was she as barbarous as you are?" She yelled again, tears in her eyes at the inhumanity of it all. His eyes were wide and he was silent, simply staring off in the other direction as the force of her hand had snapped his neck to the side. She thought she saw tears forming, but then again, the light wasn't very good in the forest. When he finally regained his voice it was quiet and deadly and it made the hairs on her body rise.

"Never speak about my mother." He got up and pulledher roughly with him, using her wrist. She stumbled to her feet and felt her wrist twist. It was painful, but she said nothing.

"Now, give me the Shikon no tama and I'll be on my way." He demanded, fixing her with another of his glares. She regained her confidence and narrowed hers at him.

"No." She anwered, confidence her main goal, it seemed to work. He grunted.

"Fine then I'll take it from you ugly." He said, pulling her toward him and reaching for the string that hung about her neck. She used her free hand to stop him, pulling out one of the many concealed weapons that she carried on her person. She slashed at the hand that was going for the jewel and focused miko energy into it to let him know she meant business. He drew back, sucking in air through his teeth.

"What the hell was that?" He demanded loudly.

"The reason that I am the bearer of the Shikon jewel." She answered him, giving him a hard stare. He looked slightly afraid.

"The wound...won't close." He said, face the picture of pain. She looked at him for a few more moments.

"Why do you want it so much?" She asked him curiously.

"Oh wouldn't you like to know." He said sarcastically. His ears twitched and he finally straightened. Blood still oozed from the wound.

"You're not just gonna let me bleed to death are ya'?" He asked suddenly. She sniffed indifferently.

"You killed a priestess, I promised her sister revenge, I have kept my word." She told him, turning on her heel and walking down the path, back toward her village.

He had cursed as he had watched her walk away, it wasn't fair. It had been there, it had been right there and he had missed it. He sat in the tree pinning away like a child, hand over a still bleeding wound. He was begginning to feel faint from the loss of his blood, he assumed that he would have to go and see a healer soon. He grunted in annoyance. Why was he so weak? If he were a full demon he bet that the wound would've healed without a second thought to it, but here he was, his half-mortality making him weak, causing him to be close to death in only a few hours. He pushed himself up against the trunk and stood slightly stooped as he looked over the landscape. There was a town not too far away, he would go there and get the healing, then he would follow the woman's scent and destroy her and her village. He took off into the air without a second thought.

The town was small and the people there all backed away as soon as they saw him, some running with their fear. He smirked, he may not be able to fool other demons, but humans were ignorant and always had been. None of them needed to know that he was a child of taboo, only that he would be able to destroy them all, if he so wished. He walked down the street and looked about, trying to see if he could find a sign that said "apothecary." No such luck. He stopped an old man in the street.

"You, old man." The man's full attention was on him, he looked mortified. "Where's the village healer?" He demanded. He pointed a shaky finger in the direction of a rather large central building. Inuyasha grunted and headed in that direction without so much as a thanks. He didn't even stop when the guards told him to halt, he simply walked on, ignoring them and their human weakness. His bare feet were muddy, for it had been raining, and they tracked into the house behind him. Many of the maids exclaime and started to chastise him, but when he looked at them they fell silent out of fear and simply started to clean the floors once more.

"You! What do ya think ye're doin'?" Asked a guard. He was about to give him the same death glare he had entreated the maids with when he thought slightly better of it. He fixed him with a hard look, crossing his arms and demanding:

"Where's the doctor?" The man frowned and was about to open his mouth to make a retort, but all he had to do was glower and the man stopped and answered:

"In th' back room." Inuyasha moved on, the stunned guard gawking at his back, not entirely sure what had happened.

He traveled along the twisting and turning corridors until he made his way to where he wanted to be. The door was closed and his nose picked up the scents of herbal medicine and sickness and of course the people that resided within. He covered his nose in distaste and then slid the door opened without annoucing himself and walked in. It was a scary scene, the man that lay in the palat smelt of sick and decaying life and the other was quietly feeding him something that was causing him to gag. He couldn't help but slightly gag himself at the morbid scents. Ugh, humans. He thought to himself.

"You! Old man! Are you th' doctor?" He asked through his sleeve, his voice was slightly muffled by it. The man turned in shock to see that there was someone there but quickly compoesd himself. He bowed deeply, pressing his forehead to the floor.

"My Lord youkai, how may I be of service?" He asked in a thin and wavery voice. This was more like it. He allowed himself a smirk behind his sleeve before pulling it away.

"I need you to fix this." He told him, baring the slash across his chest. The old man nodded gravely. The man that he had been treating was seeming to be having a rather hard time over where he lay.

"Do not worry, Genji-sama, you will be fine for now, it will only take a moment or two to fix this man and then send him on his way." He assured him. He helped the man lie down and then stood slowly, walking to the door and motioning for Inuyasha to follow him out. He did so and waited as the doctor closed that shoji and then opened another, beckoning him inside.

"Kimono off." He told him. He listened grudgingly and sat corss-legged on the floor, waiting for the other to sit down.

"Well now young lord, it would seem that you had a bit of a scuff with someone." He told him, seating himself and digging through his bag. "Hope it was nothing too serious." Inuyasha sniffed disdainfully.

"What seems to be the problem then?" He asked him.

"It won't heal." He answered. The doctor looked at him in dismay.

"I'm not quite sure what you mean Lord." He told him. He sighed at the idiocy of humans and explained it very slowly.

"I mean, it won't stop bleedin'" He answered. "and I always heal completely within hours of havin' my guts spilled, but this time it didn't stop or heal at all." The doctor stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"Well you're in luck, I just so happen to have just the thing for that." He took out a jar and undid the lid, the smell was a horribly bitter one and he found himself scrunching his sensitive nose. He dipped knarled fingers into the salve and then smeared it onto the wound carefully, reapplying it every once in a while. Finally he finished and Inuyasha found that he smelled abysmally, but he would put up with it if it worked, and it did. The blood flow had already stopped in some spots and the others were begginning to dry up. As soon as that happened he knew that he would start healing. He laughed wickedly to himself. Now he could go and destroy the village and get the Shikon no Tama. He did something that he did not often do, just then, he got to his knees and bowed his thanks to the old man. Then he opened the door and took off down the hall, there was no use waisting time, the scent of his prey would be too old if he did.

Kikyou found herself where she wanted to be hours after she had gotten away. She was exhausted, afterall all that running could do a number on someone. She stumbled into the viallage and everyone that was out working in their gardens or on the fields dropped their tools to come and greet her. She gave them all a weary smile and straightened herself, forcing her aching feet to find their way one in front of the other as she made her way to her hut. She went in without hesitation and found Kaede and the priestess whom she had made the promise of revenge to talking quietly as they sat, the window on the other side of the room opened to permit the entrance of light. They heard the rustle of the grass mat that covered the door as she brushed it aside and both faced her, getting to their feet to come and help her.

"One-san!" Kaede cried happily. She embraced Kikyou firmly.

"The others told us that you had been taken by the demon and were surely dead." She told her, brown eyes wide. Her smile was one of someone whom had grown old and was tired of being there as she looked down at this young child that was more like a daughter than the latter. The other priestess bowed to her low and formally.

"Thank you for seeing that my sister's vengeance was exacted." She told her. Kikyou nodded bitterly. Yes he was dead, and it would have been a slow death, if he was even dead yet, though she knew that he would be soon if he was not now.

"Imotou-chan, would you please...bring me some tea?" Kaede nodded and went over to the fire promptly to take the kettle off and pour some of the boiling beverage into a cup for her. She accepted greatfully as she sat down, folding her hakama expertly.

"Please, tell me how...I want to know how my friend's killer died." The other girl said suddenly. She turned her brown eyes onto the other priestess and held her gaze for a moment before answering.

"It is my fault that your friend died." She told her, turning her gaze into the tea that she held, the deep amber coloured liquid swished to and fro' in her slightly shaking hands. Her voice sounded stunned and she knew that if she were looking at her, her hazel orbs would be rounded like saucers.

"Your friend visited me for help with a herbal remedy for a dying man in your village, if she had not come here to me, or if I had not been entrusted to this," She pulled the jewel from under her kimono, "then she would never have died." She told her.

"That isn't true, it wasn't your fault." She protested, she looked up into the other's eyes once more, sadly.

"He attacked her because he smelt the jewel on her, he thought that she might have it. That is why she died the way that she did." She confided. The priestess gasped.

"That can't be, I won't believe it!" She cired, angry it seemed at having to hear that she was the one at fault.

"You helped her, that was a good thing, I will not believe that you were at fault for such a thing. She chose to come to you, if it is anyone's fault then blame fate!" She sat back, flustered. Kikyou was shocked that she would so readily defend her. She had caused the death of her friend, but she refused to let it stand as that.

"The only thing that matters is that he is dead." She said with finality, her voice calm and quiet once more.

"I must return to my village to help that man, if it is not already too late." She told them. She stood and bowed.

"Thank you for your hospitality, and I hope that you will come and visit us some day." With that she thrust aside the curtain and was gone. She sighed and finished her tea, her thoughts troubled. She hoped that he really was dead and that it wasn't just some sort of wishfull fantasy.

Onigumo, who was a theif, landed in the small port of Hokkaido with the ship called Jade Peony from the continent of China. It had been a very long time since he had been home to Japan, and it had changed drastically already, despite the fact that he had left when the warring states was passed its prime and the fighting had died down enough that they were once again allowed the luxury of travel. He was a theif, and he knew the towns and villages inside and out, save for some that he had never made it to when he had still been living on the Japanese isles, before he had crossed the sea for the larger pickings in the Chinese territory, as well as Koryo and India. He smiled impishly to himself as he stepped out onto the main street of the town and through it toward the wilderness. His feet shuffled on the ground as he made his way along. There were plenty of little towns to steal from and pleanty of women to woo. Perhaps he would have enough by the end to afford himself a geisha, that would be a wonderful thing. He had spent so long without the company of a woman of any class that he was almost dying to simply take one on the road. But he decided against it. He may have been a dishonest man, but it was below even him to rape a helpless woman.

He whistled a tune as he made his way along, there were trees that he had remembere leaving as saplings that had grown quite tall in his absence and there were people that he thought he may recognize on the road as well, people that may have been young children when he left. It had been...well he wasn't sure how long and so he took a minute to figure it out in his head. He was un-educated, but knew enough to be able to count years and days. Finally he came to the comclusion that it had indeed been fifteen Japanese new years since he had left for the continent. He whistled his slight awe at the prospect. That was when he saw a travelling merchant's cart and he thanked his lucky stars. Already he had some prey and it hadn't even taken long. And to his luck even more, there was no one on the road to help the man if he called out for it. He drew his katana and grinned maliciously.