RKG: We decided since we were troubling with coming up with the next part of 'The Price of Pride' we should concentrate on other things.

YKG: Kika, for example.

RKG: And, er, Survive This. If anyone actually reads it.

Kika

Chapter Three The First Sign of Danger

"Mom!" Kika hollered as she walked in. No response. "Mother! Where are you?!"

She ran into the living room. Kagome was not in her rocking chair. Fearing for her mother's safety, she searched the whole house. She wasn't in there. Kika wondered where her mother could be. If she isn't in the house, there's only two places where she could be, she thought. The shrine and the well. Kika searched the shrine. Kagome wasn't there either. Kika went to the well.

The well was old and box-shaped, and covered with a tarp. Legend has it that it sent anyone who fell in it to the past, and people (or demons) of the past could go into the present time. Kika's deceased grandfather had put a separate shrine around the well to insure that no one could jump into it. Kagome was the only one who had time-traveled in their family, and made some friends in the past—and enemies. Her father was one of her enemy's soldiers. Most of her enemies were demons. But whenever Kika was about to learn who Malcolness's lords were, he would come through the well and threaten Kagome's life by killing a family member.

Kika arrived at the well shrine's door. It was open.

"Mother, are you in there?" she asked quietly, while walking into the darkness.

She felt the door close behind her—by someone else—and lock behind her. Inside the shrine was pitch black. Kika grabbed the pole beside the stairway, allowing her to keep her balance as her eyes began to focus. She saw her mother's body at the end of the stairs, barely moving.

Kika put her right hand two inches away from her nose. She closed her eyes and imagined fire lighting up the whole room, as if it were a very big and bright light bulb. "I summon the light of the eternal flame!" she shouted, opening her eyes.

Light showered the room. Kika jumped the flight of stairs, landing a foot away from Kagome. "Mother?! Are you all right?"

Kagome's eyes blinked in Morse code I'm wounded and weak. Feigning death. Giant millipede in darkness, waiting to kill you. Go get Inu-Yasha.

"But how?"

Well.Kagome's eyes closed as she hardly breathed.

"Okay, mom. I'm going to get him. Just stay alive. Don't you dare die on me!" Kika jumped into the well, crying with the knowledge that she would indeed be too late.

Kika climbed back up the well. She had landed in a forest. A person with silky white hair that fell to the hips and a kimono red as the setting sun had his or her back to her. Kika ran up to the person.

"Excuse me, but do you know where a half-demon named Inu-Yasha is by any chance?"

The person turned around, revealing a male form as Kika gasped. He was a demon. His pale skin was almost the same color of his white dog-ears. His orange cat-pupiled eyes studied her. She noticed his long claws were touching the handle of an old-looking sword. He smiled big enough for her to see his long, fang-like canine teeth. "Who's asking?"

"My mother. You see she's badly injured by a humongous millipede, and she wants him to save her with me."

"Why you? You're just a kid." Kika's face went red with rage and embarrassment. He began studying her again as if missing an important detail.

"I'm a half-breed and the only demon I know is Malcolness, my father." His grin was wiped off his face immediately. Fear replaced it.

"Is your name by any chance Kika Sango Nanimo? And is your mother named Kagome?"

Kika nodded. She knew that this demon was Inu-Yasha.

"Oh, shit."

"Excuse me? Did you just say 'oh sh—' "

"Yeah," he rubbed the back of his head. "Now, what's the problem?"

"She said something about a gigantic millipede. Her aura is flickering."

"Your mother never told me what auras really meant when she said that they were flickering or weak."

"It means that she is dying . . . or worse," Kika cried, softly. She wanted it to be a dream and for her to wake up soon.

"Well? What are we waiting for?" Inu-Yasha lifted her onto his back as he jumped into the well—fearing for Kagome's and Kika's lives.

He jumped out of the well in one swift movement and let go of Kika. They both began looking for her.

"Mother?" Kika announced worriedly. Even thought her spell was still working and it was still bright as day, her mother was not in the light. She had been dragged into the darkest shadows.

"Stupid move." Kika stared at Inu-Yasha, as if he was crazy and would boon be informing her that he was joking. His face was stolid. He looked at her, showing almost no emotion, but his eyes showed her that he pitied her. "You just gave us away for the demon."

Kika tried to conceal her rage, but it was too late. "How old are you?! 16?! Listen, you don't have much experience of killing off demons as much as I do, so don't tell me that we should be silent. You and me are both half-breeds (E/N: Grammar, wah!), how would you know he full extent of a demon if your father died when you were young? I've been stuck forcing off my father from my family for the past fifteen years. So how would you know?!"

Inu-Yasha was smiling as if he knew how to top off her rage. "I'm physically 18, not 16! I'm immortal, and you are too, so don't give me any crap on how I don't have any experience with demons. I'm not telling you how old I really am. You're not growing up anymore, physically either because Kagome and Malcolness agreed to your immortality, but I'll explain that later. Your mother told you about my father, didn't she? Damn. She promised to keep that a secret. I have a full-blooded demon older brother who loathes me, so he tries to kill me every chance he gets. I'll get to that later, too. Don't give me any-more crap right about now. Maybe later, but after I see your mother."

He stopped suddenly when they heard something heavily sliding against the old polished wood floors. Something bright in the shape of a hemisphere smashed into her chest below her left shoulder and connected to her half of the Shikon No Tama. (Jewel of Four Souls, Shikon Jewel) with such a force that is slammed Kika onto the ground.

"Kika!" Inu-Yasha said, hustling to her side. "Are you okay?"

They looked at where she had been hit. Inu-Yasha was flabbergasted. Whatever it was, it had pierced through her skin, dodged the bones of her rib cage, and lodged itself between her thumping heart and left lung—not leaving a scratch on anything except for the muscle it bore through. It was shining a bright white as the muscles continued to bleed. He inhaled carefully, if he took in too much of Kika's scent he would faint because of his keen sense of smell he had inherited from his dog-demon father, the great Rowdeye. (E/N: I don't know if that is his official name so bear with it.) If he fainted, he would be unable to protect Kika from what danger lay in the shadows. He smelled an intertwined blood scent: Kika's, Kagome's, and two of his main enemies'—Naraku and Sesshoumaru.

"Use your healing spell as much and as fast as you can, okay?" She nodded in pain, the gleaming red blood continued to flood from her wound. Kika began to perform the same ritual from before.

"Kika, are you okay?" a voice called from the darkness. Kagome's body began to slowly move out of the deepest shadows. Inu-Yasha's heart leapt. He didn't notice that behind her warm smile were her cold, black eyes. "Inu- Yasha, I'm glad your back. Come here and give me a warm hug."

"Kagome? Where's the demon?" he said, slowly advancing towards her.

"It was a false alarm. Why won't you come over here now?" Her arms were outstretched, waiting for his embrace. Then, out of the blue, Inu-Yasha heard a noise coming up quickly from behind him. He dodged the object as quickly as possible, but Kagome didn't. He looked at what pierced Kagome to her death and was surprised it was Kika's sword, Blade.

"Blade, return," she calmly said. Inu-Yasha turned to her, enraged.

"What the fuck did you do that for? She's your god-damn mother!" But as soon as he saw her, he wished he hadn't said that. Kika was shaking, too weak to keep herself propped up against the well. Her eyes were clouded with mystified tears. Her head was leaning agains thte well. The wound was pouring out more blood than ever, and she was too weak to finish the spell. Fear swept over him as he ran to her, forgetting about Kagome's sudden and uncanny murder. "Kika what did you do that for? You should have been performing the ritual."

Kika let out a little laugh as she smiled weakly. "That's not Mommy."

"What? But how?"

"Mommy never wore cologne. She never liked the shadows. She never grinned with cold, icy stares," she was painfully gasping for lack of air that she was missing out on. "Mommy never held the scent of Na before. Mommy doesn't have black eyes—she has beautiful brown ones. Plus, what was forced into my body was her half of the Jewel of Souls. My mommy was already dead."

Her eyes closed; her breathing was slow and barely audible, and she stopped shaking. Then, she stopped breathing, as her skin became icy cold quickly. She was falling into death, too quickly for Inu-Yasha to bear.

"You're not dying on me, Kika!" he hollered as if she could still hear him. Her body went limp in his arms. Is she dead? He thought. No, she isn't. She's still clinging to life. I have to save her.

He gingerly opened her mouth with his left hand as his right arm was cradling her head. He began to resuscitate her when he noticed her lips weren't like ice cub, but instead they were warm. She began to breathe again, slow and strong. But Inu-Yasha knew if she wasn't unconscious or resting her wound would reopen, and she would bleed to death. But luckily, she was unconscious. He watched her sleep peacefully for a while, glad to know that Kika was still in the world of the living.

"Thank god she's alive, eh, Inu-Yasha?" Inu-Yasha whipped around, angrily remembering that malice-filled voice anywhere.

"Naraku! Show yourself asshole!" The corpse slowly got up, transforming back into Naraku. "Where the fuck is my older brother?"

"Right here, you little shithead," Sesshoumaru said, protruding form the shadows behind Naraku.

"You guys are going to pay for killing Kagome and hurting Kika," Inu-Yasha said, baring his fangs. "Even though my back was turned, I know that you did something to her. I smelled your blood in her flesh."

"So you noticed, half-breed," Naraku said, looking at his blood-crusted hands, "that when you were coming here I killed Kagome? Did you know that she wept for you? She was pathetic. A good kill, but too weak for my taste."

"So, you tried to kill Kika? Because she's stronger?"

"No, little brother," Sesshoumaru mused, smirking. "We don't want her dead. She's ours."

"She's nobody's; she's her own owner."

"In this time, but not in the past. Naraku's fortune teller told him that Kika will be brought into our time when she's fifteen. You were going to, weren't you, little brother?" Sesshoumaru saw Inu-Yasha's face flush with disappointment as Inu-Yasha's secret blew right in his face. "I thought so. The fortune freak said that if all connections were lsot to little Kika, then she would be ours. So we planned this to kill you and everyone else she knew. We already burned her house. Kagome's dead. Since you're here, we'll kill you too. We'll destroy the well so she'll never come back here. And all of our men are looking for your comrades, Shippou and Miroku.

"She'll have no one to save her from us," Naraku laughed.

"What do you want with her?" Inu-Yasha asked, grabbing his sword. Naraku only laughed harder before answering Inu-Yasha's question.

"Oh, just nothing. Only just to scare her, fight her, dirty her up, wash her down, and other little details."

"You're a sick bastard, Naraku; and you and Sesshoumaru will pay for your sickness." He said, drawing his sword. He was about to kill them, when Sesshoumaru grabbed something from behind him, making Inu-Yasha stop in his tacks.

"You're not going to kill Kika as well?" Sesshoumaru mocked. Inu-Yasha searched for Kika, but Sesshoumaru was holding onto the nape of her neck. He had slyly taken Kika when Naraku was distracting Inu-Yasha. "Now, nothing will save you. Kika was the only reason we couldn't kill you, because you were only six inches away from her. If we killed you, Kika would have died as well. Now, it's time for you to say your fond farewells to little Kika who won't be able to hear you."

Naraku snapped his fingers grinning. "Metabolic Bindings."

Chains shot up from the ground. Inu-Yasha jumped away, nearly missing the chains. He bagan slicing the chains, only for them to multiply every time. His leg got caught when he noticed that kika was stirring in her older brother's arms. A second later, he was fully bound by the chains, tucking him into an eternal slumber.

"Say good-bye Inu-Yasha. You're death will be slow, but Kika won't know till she meets you in death."

"Don't kill her," Inu-Yasha pleaded.

"Don't worry, Half-breed, the only way that she'll die is if she kills herself, when we're not around, which will be rare." Kika's eyes fluttered open as the chains began to tighten their grip on Inu-Yasha. She gasped and broke free of Sesshoumaru's grasp.

"Purifying beam!" she cried, falling to the floor. The chains dissipated into thin air, blinding everyone with bright white lights. As soons as the chains were loose enough, Inu-Yasha broke free, grabbed Kika's once again unconscious body, and ran into the well.

He ran twenty-eight miles nonstop, with Kika still held tightly in his arms. Inu-Yasha didn't look back, but he knew that they weren't following him—yet. Sesshousmaru's sense of smell would track his scent in about fie hours, but it didn't matter to him. He was almost ther.

Inu-Yasha banged the door open to the shrine where he, Miroku, and Shippou were hanging out at for the time being.

"Inu-Yasha, what's up?" a Buddhist monk asked.

"What's in your hands?" a kitsune added.

"Miroku, Shippou," Inu-Yasha panted. "I'll explain everything. But I have to tell you this now: this is Kika; Kagome is dead."

TO BE CONTINUED. . .

RKG: Now you HAVE to read the next part.