I'm late on an update… I know… Three months late… so as long as I don't have any excuses we'll just get moving then.

Also, in case you haven't noticed, I don't own Inuyasha

Inuyasha: Heritage

Chapter Twenty-four: Patching Up

"This creep's body is letting of some bad fumes!" Korou said covering his mouth and nose. "Must be some kind of defense!… Hey 'Yori? Are you alright?"

The girl nodded her face was half covered by her sleeve. "It's starting to make me sick! And I can't catch my brother's scent over this either," she mumbled through the fabric. "I have a hunch this might be one of Naraku's little rats! Dad used to tell me that sneaky tricks like this was his strong point!"

Korou growled! This meant that Naraku knew that they were still alive! We've lost our element of surprise! He thought.

"This is a deadly miasma! We can't just sit here and suffocate!" he felt his hand being gently wrapped in hers as she pulled him up. He followed her closely. He never would have thought that her hands could be so soft when she'd grown up learning archery and fighting techniques, it made him very aware of his rough and calloused palms.

Suddenly Kayori's hand lost its grip and she staggered a bit. She would have fallen if Korou hadn't caught her.

"Are you okay?" he said.

Kayori shook her head, "We're going in circles, and I can't breathe!"

He looked around, she was right, the miasma coming off the body was messing with their heads, not only that but they couldn't see through it. He stared into the purplish mist, he could see the silhouette of the slain demon just in front of them.

"Damn! This is starting to mess with our minds!" Korou yelled ramming his fist against a nearby tree.

"What a minute! Can you hear that!" a shrill laugh was barely audible.

"Great! Now I'm positive that I'm goin' crazy! What if we don't make it out of here!" he yelled throwing his fist against the tree again.

"Stop! You're starting to panic!" Kayori yelled, "I'm sure that laugh was real, we both could hear it!" she said standing up, holding her sleeve over her mouth and nose.

They heard the laugh again, but only this time it was a sort of sad scream that sent shivers down her spine.

Korou grabbed her shoulder with his good hand and held her back. "There's something over there!" his growled.

Kayori followed his gaze and saw a small figure standing other the freshly slain demon. "You killed my brother! You filthy wench! You will pay!"

"Kayori! DUCK!" Korou grabbed her around the waist and they both tumbled to the ground as something shot over their heads.

Kayori's head shot back up to see their attacker. A man's head, with a face identical to the previous attackers, yet the head was attached to the body of a parasite-like creature, but she couldn't stare at him for long as he threw himself at them again.

Kayori was able to jump to her feet on her own as Korou rolled to the side out of the path of the demon. Suddenly Kayori could feel something pulsing within her. He was threatening her, she suddenly and unconsciously held it back. With horror she remembered the last time that she'd had her demon heritage show it's self and refused, even for this creep, to let it happen again.

"What's wrong? " Korou yelled to her.

"Nothing!" she snapped, trying to concentrate on her options. She searched her memory for something that would help her. Without warning the creature launched itself at her without thinking she rolled to the side and was back up on one knee behind him.

A bright pink aura appeared around her hand, quickly shaping it's self into a solid bow. All the archery tournaments had finally paid off, like her parents had promised, as she pulled back the string as an arrow materialized. She let go aiming for the demon, who was pinned to the tree behind him with the arrow.

She let out a sigh of relief and sank to the ground, the arrow pinning the now dead demon dissipated, as did the bow in her hand.

"Remind me not to piss you off!" Korou said wide-eyed behind her.

"Kayori! Korou! Where are you!" Koji's rang clearly around the trees.

"Koji!" Kayori yelled happily as her dark haired brother appeared from behind the trees holding a sleeve over his mouth and nose.

He scanned the clearing looking at both Kageroumaru and Juuroumaru laying dead at both ends of the clearings. "Glad to see the two of you are okay," he said slightly nervous.

"Enough small talk!" Korou snapped.

"I think these fumes are gonna make me barf!" Kayori yelled. "Get us out of here!" Koji gladly complied and about ten minutes later they were out of the miasma.

Kayori ran to the nearest bush and puked. "I… hope… this… goes… away!" she said.

"Don't worry it's already dissipating! And we're not in it anymore so you can breathe easier," Ryku said sliding off of Kirara's back.

"Ryku! Oh my god what happened! You've been completely run through!" Kayori screeched looking up at him.

Ryku had to admit that he was in a great deal of pain but he didn't want everyone to worry. Kayori thought otherwise.

"You're still bleeding! We don't have proper medicine to help it heal! Not only that but you're full human! You won't heal as well as the rest of us well!" She pressed her hand to his forehead, he opened his mouth to complain but he was never given the chance. "The fever's already setting in! Stop trying to act like a hero! Just admit that it hurts!" she snapped beginning to tear at his kimono to examine the wound.

"What should we do?" Koji butted in.

"Is there a village nearby?" Somaru said as well.

Shippo stood aside, he could see that Ryku was in a great deal of pain, and his face was slightly flushed. The others were arguing over what to do.

"Kirara," he whispered to the fire cat, "Do you remember taking Kagome to the well?… Good, now can you take Kayori and Ryku there? They have better medicines for injured people like Ryku."

The fire cat nodded and walked over to Kayori and nudged her elbow.

"Kayori! You should take Ryku into the world beyond the well! There's much better medicine there!" Shippo said, explaining for Kirara.

Kayori's eye widened with slight hope! "Why didn't I think of that before? Come one Ryku!" she said helping to him to Kirara.

"What world beyond the well?" Koji interrupted slightly confused.

"I'll have to explain everything to you later!"

"What a minute 'Yori! You've got to tell me about this before we get too excited!" Ryku said quickly. "I am not jumping into some well, especially if there's water at the bottom!"

Kayori smiled and seated herself in front of him on Kirara's back. "Don't worry there isn't any water— just some old demon bones and some sharp rocks," she turned to Shippo, "I'll be back in a week or so— it's not very far from here, I just don't know how long it'll take to get Ryku patched up."

"Oh I thought you were gonna just push him in a creepy well and leave him there seeing as how he's useless human now!" Korou said with a smirk.

Kayori shot him a vicious glare, she opened her mouth to say something but Ryku spoke first. "Don't worry, I'll be back in a week," and slapped Korou's forehead, Leaving in it's wake a binding charm. Korou's eyes crossed as he tenderly reached up to touch the tender spot. But when his clawed finger made contact, it gently shocked his hand and head.

He yelped, and Kayori smiled, "Have a nice week!" And Kirara took off into the sky, disappearing behind a low hanging cloud.

Korou delicately reached up to his forehead and was shocked again.

"Every heard of Trial and Error?" Somaru murmured.

"We'll have to jump together, I don't know if you can make it on your own," she said.

"So we jump and end up 500 years ahead?" Ryku raised his eyebrow quizzically.

"Yep, I've done it hundreds of times!"

Ryku carefully slid down Kirara's back with Kayori's help. The wound had gotten steadily worse, and he had the growing suspicion that he'd been poisoned. Kayori noticed his quiet fear and pulled his arm over her shoulder to help steady him. "You have to get worse before you can get better," she smiled slightly.

"Way worse," he said feeling his stomach turn violently.

Then she jumped into the well, and he fell with her.

"Gram!" Kayori screamed running from the well house.

Ms. Higarashi poked her head out the kitchen window, "Kayori! You're back, you worried me last time when you left so soon with out telling me!" she said happily.

"Gram! There isn't much time! Get whatever medicines we have that'll help with poisonings! Is uncle Souta there?"

"What are you talking about? No Souta left after breakfast this morning," she said slightly worried.

"My friend is very badly injured!" she yelled running back to the well.

The elder woman didn't need much more convincing after that. She quickly busied herself with making a bed in the living room and gathered every kind of medication she could find.

She heard the door bang open and her granddaughter appeared in the doorway with a young man at her side. Ms. Higarashi gasped, the boy couldn't have been a day over seventeen, most likely younger than that. He was also probably very handsome if his face wasn't so pale and sick. What has she been up to? she thought.

"Lay him down in the living room," she said quickly, trying hard not to drop any of the bottles she was carrying. "Do you know exactly where he was injured?"

Kayori didn't answer. She grabbed the cloth around his chest and tore it down the middle. "I could have gotten it off by myself," Ryku murmured weakly.

"Then why haven't you?" she replied.

Ms. Higarashi leaned over to see the wound and had to turn away with shock, the actual lesion was smaller than she'd expected but the flesh around had bruised and turning a nasty purplish color.

"I'll go see what they have at the pharmacy, I don't think we have enough," said grabbing her purse. "Don't answer the door!"

Kayori nodded and turned back to Ryku. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I have a gapping hole in my gut," he said quietly as Kayori carefully cleaned it with the hot water and clean washcloth. He winced slightly.

"Here, take this, it's a pain killer," as she shook two orange pills from a bottle and passed them to him. He was barely able to swallow to two tiny pills before she opened a can of something and forced him to drink it. "It'll help counteract the poison," she explained. It tasted bitter yet the look on her face told him that if didn't drink it on his own then she'd make sure he did one way or another.

Sure enough the medicine made the wound feel better. He quickly drifted off to sleep; by the time he woke up he was in a different room, in a more comfortable bed, and in different clothes. He felt incredibly sore, and when he tried to sit up he was welcomed by a sharp pain in his side where his injury was.

"Feeling better?" a familiar voice said towards the door. He looked up, slightly startled.

It was Kayori leaning up against the door to the bedroom with a small smile on her face.

"How long have I been asleep?" he asked rubbing his head.

"Oh, about two days," she said examining her nails.

Ryku tried to remember the past few days, and then he noticed what Kayori was wearing. A black skirt that came up to about mid thigh, a white blouse with an emerald tie, a pair of knee high black stockings, a pair of polished black shoes, and a black blazer with a school crest over the left breast.

"What are you wearing?" he asked keeping in mind not to stare at her long, tan, perfectly sculpted legs.

"A school uniform," she said in a bored tone. "Gram insists that I go to school while I'm here."

"Ohh," not that Ryku understood that, but then again she did look nice in it, with her long silver hair braided down her back and her uniform didn't look half bad on her either.

"Well Ryku, maybe if your feeling better tomorrow I can take you out to show you Tokyo," she said with smile.

I wish she'd smile more often, it makes her eyes shine like their suppose to. He thought blissfully.

"Umm, Ryku? Are you okay?" her voice interrupted his fantasies of her laughing and smiling peacefully in a low cut shirt.

"Just drowsy!" he answered quickly. She raised her eyebrows and left the room. Ryku promptly smacked himself for having perverted thoughts, but it didn't make much difference.

Mwahahahahaha! So the love triangle begins, RykuxKayorixKorou start rooting for your favorites! I'll be back for another update as soon as I can get it up. Once again sorry about the long wait, this time I'll have it up sooner!