Kagome was waiting for the opportunity to discuss some things with Inuyasha as they were all sitting inside Kaede's place. She waited until Sayuri went outside for fresh air.
"Inuyasha?" Kagome called
"What?" he replied
"Are the nightmare things that Sayuri has, well, are they the reason why she seemed to never be around at night."
"Yeah...she didn't want anyone to know about it cause they make her cry. How did you know they were nightmares?"
"Myoga told us. He said they were mostly memories from her childhood that scare her so badly that she can't breathe."
"That's pretty close..." Inuyasha muttered to himself as Sayuri came back in
Shippo leaned over to Inuyasha and whispered,"Are we ever gonna go look for more shards?"
"You know as well as I do Shippo, that we cant leave until Kohaku gets better cause Sango isn't gonna leave without him!" he whispered back
Their voices were low, but Sango had still heard their conversation,"I don't want to hold any of you back by making you stay here with Kohaku and I. He's not your responsibility. I will stay here until he recovers and then join you again later."
"But Sango we need you to fight with us!" Kagome protested
"Please Kagome! I don't want to prolong Naraku's defeat! If it means I have to stay behind while the rest of you kill him, then that's what i'm going to do!"
"Are ya sure? Cause we could use the help!" Inuyasha encouraged
"Yes, please Sango. We can wait for you."Miroku added
Sayuri said nothing. She still wasn't in the mood to speak to anyone.
" No. Go and find more shards so we can beat Naraku." She said holding back tears
The group gathered their things but paused outside the door. They were hoping Sango would change her mind. Kaede , who was sitting in the corner of her hut, finally stood to speak.
"Child, ye should go with them. They could not possibly defeat Naraku without you."
"But kohaku-"
"Your bother will be fine in my care! He would want you to help the others!"
"Kaede...I..." argued Sango
"Hush child! I'll hear no more of it! Get you things and go!"
Kagome smiled as Sango grabbed her weapon and joined them outside. Miroku was pleased as well and showed his joy by immediately groping her.
"Miroku!" she yelled, planting a hand on his face
"It's all worth the pain..." he muttered
"So what are we doing?" Sayuri asked impatiently
"We're gonna look for shards if Kagome gets off her butt and tells us where they are!" Inuyasha answered
"I'm trying Inuyasha! I think they're a couple villages from here!"
"Wait, what shards?" Sango asked
"The ones we were goin' after before Kagura showed her ugly face!" Inuyasha growled
"Well, I don't know if I would necessarily call it an ugly face. Kagura is full of beauty and-" Miroku's voice stopped short when Sango took his staff from his hands and hit him in the back of the head with it.
"Hmm...someone must be in a good mood!" commented Sayuri
"Yeah, that's Miroku for you" Shippo agreed, shaking his head
Later , the group arrived at what seemed to be a deserted village. Sayuri quickly took action by throwing the door open that belonged to one of the houses.
"Sayuri! Don't do anything rash!"' Miroku warned
"I don't feel like waiting today!" she said opening the door to the next house.
Inside, she found a woman and her two children cowering in fear. When Sayuri opened her mouth to ask what the problem was, the family began throwing things at her.
"Get away you wretched demons!" the woman shouted, "The village lookout said you'd be coming to terrorize our village, but I wont let you!"
"I'm not gonna-Hey!" Sayuri fell backwards as a large pot hit her," Damn! Quit throwing stuff!"
Kagome raced towards Sayuri to make sure she was alright when an older man appeared and made the woman stop.
"What is your business here demons?" he asked
"What?" they all chimed, a bit surprised
"Your business here, what is it? Our lookout said he spotted a group of demons coming our way. If you're here to cause trouble then I suggest you leave before we are forced to harm you." the man instructed
"Look old man!"Inuyasha started, "all we want is the shard that's here in this village! There wont be any trouble if ya just hand it over. But if you don't then-"
"SIT BOY" yelled Kagome, "Sorry about that. He's not really a threat it's just that we're here to-"
"No! You and your demon friends are NOT welcome here."
"Please, listen to a man of reason. I am a man of Buddah and I assure you that we are not here to harm anyone." Miroku said , trying to convince the man to let them speak
"There are no shards here for the likes of you! And any human who travels with demons has no reasoning left in him. Only an insane man would travel with monsters!" the man answered
Sayuri grabbed the man by his collar and suspended him in mid-air, "Listen here! If you don't give us the shard then we'll have to get physical!"
"Sayuri...you're not really helping us to convince him!" K.agome said
"I don't think we're going to be able to reason with her..."Sango whispered
The man suddenly blurted out that the shard was located in a temple at the top of a hill in the village.
"Wow..that worked much better than you plan Kagome!" Shippo said jumping onto her shoulder
Sayuri dropped him and turned towards the stairs that led to the temple. They seemed to go on for eternity. Then she looked behind her and noticed that Inuyasha was still planted into the ground from Kagome's 'SIT'.
"If you guys plan on going up there then you're gonna have to get off your butt some time today Inuyasha..."she said
"Shut up!" he yelled, pulling himself up,"And whaddya mean 'you guys' ?"
"Well, I'm not going up there!" sayuri crossed her arms stubbornly
"You are too!" Inuyasha shouted, grabbing her arm and tugging her towards the stairs
"No im not!" Sayuri smacked his hand away!
"Why the hell not!"
"Cause I don't want to!"
"Then you'll have to stay down here...with all the villagers!"
"FINE! WE NEED A LOOK OUT ANYWAY!"
"A look out?" Sango, Miroku, Shippo, and Kagome chimed
"I don't think we were the demons that the look out saw! We didn't come on the direct path that the tower looks out on.." she pointed to the tall structure in the corner of the village
" I see..." miroku pondered for a moment and then began climbing the stairs.
Inuyasha was already far ahead of them . Sango and Kilala followed after Miroku, but kagome and shippo stopped on the 3rd step.
"I'll be fine! They're just villagers." Sayuri said, answering Kagome's question before she could even ask it
Miroku had caught up with Inuyasha and was questioning him, "Why do you suppose she wouldn't come Inuyasha?"
"I dunno, she's Sayuri! She's probably looking for a fight cause she's in a bad mood? Hey Kagome!" he yelled behind him " Are you sensing the shards?
"Uh-huh! There's only one though Inuyasha."she shouted back
Meanwhile, the villagers were all beginning to warily come out from their homes. They eyed Sayuri suspiciously as they went about their business. A small girl appeared by Sayuri's side and tugged at her sleeve.
"What?" asked Sayuri.
She gave the girl an evil look and the girl winced but quickly regained her courage, "Are you the leader?"
"What!"
"My older brother is the lookout and he said he spotted a group of demons dressed in fur. They were led by someone wiht long black hair. That's you isn't it?" the girl smiled
"No. I'm not in charge." Sayuri answered
The girl didn't leave though and Sayuri snapped at her, "WHAT DO YOU WANT?
"Ayako! Get away from her! She'll kill you!" the girl's mother came and swept her into her arms
"Mommy, she's not the leader but she's nice and-
"There is no such thing as 'nice' demons Ayako!"
"That's right"' the mother was making Sayuri angry with her words so she barred her teeth at them, "I'll kill you all!"
The mother and little girl ran screaming. Sayuri walked the other way, pondering what the woman had said
At the same time, Kagome was trying to convince an old monk to give the shard to her, "So you see, we want the shards for good, not evil."
"Just how am I to know you are not lying?" the old monk asked, "Especially after you threatened one of my villagers?"
" Uh...Well, we're really sorry about that! It's just that some of our group is impatient and hot-headed!" she said glaring at inuyasha and thinking of Sayuri
Three demons were just entering the village gate. The first two hurried to shut the large doors while the other sniffed the air.
"All right you guys! I smell Mutt-boy nearby so that means Kagome should be here too!"
"Right boss!" the others chimed as the leader sped off with a huge gust of wind
" Why can't he just wait for us once in a while!" one muttered
" Uh-huh! Those shards of his are too hard to compete with!" agreed the other
Inside the village, Sayuri sensed someone's arrival. She sniffed the air to get a scent but wasn't familiar with it.
Koga was looking for someone who could point the way to kagome but all the villagers had run inside, scared. The only person left outside was Sayuri. She took a quick look at Koga and decided he wasn't worth her time. She turned around and walked the other way.
"Hey woman" Koga yelled," Stop!"