Kagome ignored her family, and instead focused only on her opponents. Before Byaku and Kiara could form a tandem, she fired an arrow to separate them. From the arrow spread evil energy, causing any greenery in its path to darken and decay.
The arrow also had another ulterior motive, as it was able to shave a single hair from Kiara's fur, and with her magic, Kagome formed the strand of hair with the paper to form a shikigami copy of the firecat. It was an exact replica, with the accuracy of a reflection. They jeered at each other and clashed in midair, and soon it was impossible to discriminate between the two.
Byaku decided to focus on the one controlling the shikigami, by attacking her with hiraikotsu; however, comprehending the tears of the grandpa and mother watching in fear, caused her not to use all of her strength. It didn't matter anyway, as the kuro miko formed a barrier to protect herself.
Another arrow was fired, and Byaku dodged, but the arrow curved back at her, according to the archer's will. She dodged again, but dropped the shard, and Kagome was able to call it to her with her magic. Immediately upon her touch, the shard darkened. She said nothing, leaving with what she had come for, the shard. She didn't answer the calls of her family, but she did appear to observe them, albeit with an expressionless face.
Byaku and Shihai moved to chase, but they still had to deal with the fake Kiara. Both animals were equally fierce in their approach, causing great difficulty, as neither Byaku nor Shihai were sure of which one to aid.
Shihai closed his eyes in deep concentration. In his mind he saw the piece of paper central to the shikigami, and could hear that paper fluttering in the almost intangible wind. He informed Byaku of the enemy's identity, allowing her to quickly use hiraikotsu to destroy the impostor and cause only its initial paper form to fall harmlessly to the ground.
"We'll save your her," Byaku promised the family. "A shikigami user has to stay within a certain range to operate her monster; therefore, she can't be far. We'll save her, and bring her back."
"She has been this way for a long time," the grandpa said seriously. "We always thought that maybe a small fragment of her former self might still exist, but I fear we have been hoping for too long. She must be stopped." The mother agreed sadly.
"I know, you hate to see her this way. You can't forgive her for the things she's done, but don't forget the person you knew, the person you shared memories with, the person you loved. She is still there. I will find her."
"Thank you, thank you," the mother repeated, allowing her tears to escape. "You are really a kind person, a very kind person. I was ready to give up, after hoping for almost 14 years. Oden was her favourite food. I cooked oden everyday, thinking she might return home and act as giddily as she did as a child. I thought today might be the last day I cooked it, but I will cook it tomorrow, and the days after until she returns. Save her, I beg of you. I still believe her. Reach her and tell her that when she returns, her favourite food will still be waiting for her."
"I will, I promise. A mother and daughter, are meant to be together."
The mother returned to the kitchen, to clean the mess. The grandfather grumpily assisted, complaining about yet another oden.
"Don't worry, I feel that today's will be the last one in a long time," she assured him.
"It would be the happiest day of my life," he admitted.
Kiara with her two riders, followed the paper as per Byaku's directions. She had been counting on Kagome to recall the paper, thereby revealing where she was hiding, hiding from her family. She sensed it was close.
"You really are going out of your way to help them," Shihai said out of the blue. "Even if she was once the smiling girl from that photo, her current form is dreadful. To me it seems your thinking about your own experience. By saving that family, do you somehow think you can alter your own reality?"
"I just want to help them, that's all," she answered. "But, you might be right. I still regret a lot of things about what happened. I might only be helping them because I sympathize with their situation, but maybe that's better than fighting only for myself. I simply didn't want them to lose faith. As long as I fight, they can keep hoping. Besides, we can't return to our world without the shard."
"This place doesn't look bad. I imagine these kinds of things don't happen often. This world might be more peaceful than ours."
"Don't you feel attached to the place where you were born?"
"Not, exactly."
"Maybe this world really is better. Maybe our beliefs are outdated. Maybe their technology is improving the world. Still, in this world I see hopes and beliefs almost are not anywhere. If this world is the reality, then our world is a fantasy."
They followed the paper to an open area with a forest, where loggers had cleared the trees away. Byaku scanned the environment, and her intuition caused her to worry. She tried to warn the others, but they had disappeared. She noticed a fog that she had noticed before. Painfully, she realized that she had walked into a trap: Kagome had let them follow the paper.
Byaku ran forward, but met a strong barrier. Shihai and Kiara were inside, she knew. Even if they pressed at opposite sides of the barrier, facing each other, they still wouldn't be able to touch or see or hear one another. Somehow, somehow, she had to get in.
Shihai tried to peer through the fog, but could not find Byaku. He wanted to prove he was strong and courageous, but he wasn't quite ready. Frantically searching proved fruitless, and his attention was drawn to a shadowy figure approaching from one end of the fog. Kiara's growling intensified, as did his anxiety, as Kagome appeared.
She stopped just in front of him, and raised her hand with her palm up, like a kind person offering candy; however, in her hand was the tainted shard. After an incantation of the dark arts, the shard began to glow darker, as it gathered evil energy from its surroundings. From the shard grew a Naraku puppet, although it still caused real fear for Shihai.
"Don't run," the kuro miko spoke spookily, as if reading his mind, "he wishes to have a word with you."
He didn't run, even though his mind told him to. The fog grew stronger, and soon both Kagome and Kiara disappeared from his vision. He was now alone, with Naraku, and all he could hear was the gulping tension in his throat and the dark chuckle of the man facing him.
Naraku let words slither from his tongue: "How long will you run, before turning around and looking closer at what is reality?"