Catse: Gah! Another update! Finally! Yays! Okay, now that that's been done, thankies for the updates! Kojika85 and me really appreciate them! Okay, now down to business. This is the next chapter I wrote. The next one up should be from Kojika herself, so please be patient. It'll be up soon! Okay, now, on with the story!
Disclaimer: You know this already. Let's move on, shall we?
"So you say you have no idea how you got here? Hmm..." The monk known as Miroku thought aloud, the fire dancing across his features.It was night time, and the group had been traveling non-stop for most of the day. Now they sat at a fire they had built, talking about the days events and rumors as Kagome cooked up a stew of none other than ramen.
"Yep. Unless lightning proves to be a portal of some sort, then I have no idea what the hell I'm doing here. And if that hand of yours comes any closer to me I make sure I cut it off!" Catse growled, watching as the houshi quickly brought his hand back to his staff as if he hadn't even reached out for anything in the first place.
"Is there anyone else that was hit with lightning other than you? Maybe they're here too." Sango offered, hoping that maybe that had a lead. She wasn't certain how Catse could travel though lightning, for she knew that it was enough to kill a normal person. Then again, this new girl had survived a hit from Sesshoumaru, and from what she knew, the girl wasn't demon. She would know so otherwise.
"Hmm...Let's see...Hey! Yeah, there was! This annoying kid named Hane and this chick Koji! I don't like either of them though. Oh! And I got a bone to pick with that chick! How dare she think she can knock me down so easily!"
Catse continued to growl as everyone looked on in amusement.
"Well, what do they look like? Maybe we can help you find them?" Kagome asked as she began to serve everyone their ramen.
"Well, let's see. The girl looked to be my age, with really long straight black hair and blue eyes, and...oh! She was wearing a black sweater and black jeans, and steel toe boots too, I think..." Catse thought about it seriously and finally nodded. "Yeah, steel toe boots."
"And the boy?" Sango prodded.
Catse thought about that too, before finally giving a rough description of what she remembered. "He had very messy blonde hair and blue eyes. He wore a blue uniform and carried a suitcase. But I don't remember much after that."
"Keh. Typical woman! You don't remember anything on purpose, don't you?" Inuyasha shouted from his spot in the tree. He sat, Indian style, with his Tetsusaiga leaning on his shoulder.
"Of course not you idiot! Why would you think that?" Catse shouted up as Kagome passed her a bowl of ramen.
Inuyasha looked ready to argue...about as ready as Catse.
"I don't know. You just showed up out of nowhere wantin' help! What do you really want, eh? What kind of demon are you to think I can't see right through your stupid act?"
"Demon?" Catse inquired, twitching her eye. "Demon..."
"Uh-oh..." Shippo mumbled around soup. They all knew what was coming.
"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM YOU BASTARD! I DIDN'T ASK FOR HELP! YOU GUYS OFFERED IT! AND ALL I WANT IS TO POUND YOU FREAKIN' FACE IN YOU JACK ASS!"
"Yep..." Sango mumbled.
"She sounds strangely familiar..." Miroku commented, drinking some of the broth.
"YEAH! WELL YOU DIDN'T NEED TO ACCEPT THE HELP, NOW DID YOU? YOU'RE HIDING SOMETHING AND I WANT TO KNOW WHAT!"
"FINE! I'M HIDING THE FACT THAT I THINK YOU ARE A TOTAL BASTARD!"
"OH REALLY! THAT'S ALL?"
"NO! I THINK YOU'RE A-"
"Calm down now, both of you!" Kagome shouted, but not as loud as the other two. Both Catse and Inuyasha threw her a glare, before they finally calmed down a little.
"I still think you're up to somethin'." Inuyasha finished off, before the taboo words were said and he found his face stuck in dirt. Kagome set a bowl of ramen next to his head as he mumbled curses into the ground, and when he finally did come up, and wiped the dirt from his face, he took the bowl and jumped back into the tree like a wild cat with a meal.
After they had eaten, Catse sat back and began to ask questions about everything she had seen so far.
"So, let me get this straight? You're half dog demon, and half human right?"
Inuyasha didn't answer. He appeared to be ignoring her. Catse was prepared to get into another argument, when Miroku answered instead.
"Yes he is. In fact, the man that you were hit by earlier is his older brother."
"Ah, right! By the way, what did he want? What fang was he talking about?" Catse inquired, picking her teeth with a twig she found nearby.
"He was talkin' about Tetsusaiga." Inuyasha said as he glared away from the group. Catse guessed it was because he was trying to set her off again. She didn't mind. She'd pound this guy into the ground the same way the word "sit" did, and show him she wasn't just some girl that marched by here every day. She was Catse! The most Dangerous Punk in SAHS! And no Dog Demon lackey was going to show her any different.
As if to give effect to his words, Inuyasha lifted his sword into the air.
"That thing looks old and rusty. Why would he want that thing?" Catse inquired, ever so bluntly.
"It's not old and rusty! That's just the appearance a normal person sees!" Inuyasha shouted, but Kagome cut him off.
"It transforms into a very large sword."
"Oh, you mean like the one he was holding earlier?"
The entire group nodded as one.
"Ah, okay. I understand now. That appearance is like an illusion. Alright! So, this Sesshoumaru...Does he attack often?"
"Not too often. Why do you ask?" Sango continued, resting against her large boomerang.
"'Cause I want revenge!"
The entire camp went quiet.
"Please tell me I heard that right. Did you just say you wanted revenge?" Kagome inquired, a brow cocked in confusion.
"Yeah, what, you deaf? I want revenge! No guy comes in and blows me over, no matter how gender confused they are! I'll kick his ass!"
"Good luck." Inuyasha offered.
"What's that Dog-Boy?"
Before Inuyasha could answer, Shippo did the honors.
"No one's ever beaten Sesshoumaru before, so he has doubts of you doing it."
"Shut up fox!" Inuyasha threatened, but Shippo stuck his tongue out and jumped up to Kagome's shoulder.
"I see. So he thinks he's tough because he's never been beaten?"
Again there were nods.
"Well, you know what? I heard somethin' a while back that makes more sense to me than that! You don't get strong from never being beaten! You get strong when you fall and get back up again! So boa boy won't be able to take me on, because I've fallen quite a bit! Got scrapes all over my knees and everything!"
Sweat drops spread to the entire group as Inuyasha looked the other direction.
"Um, Catse. I don't think that's exactly what the saying means." Kagome added, but Catse wasn't listening. She was in her own little world already.
"I am going to take that boa accessory on his shoulder and strange him with it! Then I'll grab his hair and tie it in so many knots he'll have to take a week to brush it out again! Then..."
"Ah, give it a rest Kagome. She ain't gonna hear you." Inuyasha grumbled. He was watching the stars. Kagome knew why he was nervous. The New Moon was very soon, and he would be human. He felt uneasy being that away around them, and now they had a new addition he didn't trust hanging around? Anyone in his position would be uneasy.
Just then though, as Kagome was watching Inuyasha, she happened to notice a not so welcome sight cross over the nighttime sky.
It was one of Kikyo's Soul Catchers, the little dragon like creatures that hunted for Kikyo's source of life. Considering it was floating here meant she was close, and the fact that it passed over with out a soul meant she was trying to lure them to her.
Of course, that wouldn't be difficult for Inuyasha. Every chance he had he went to her, but Kagome understood. She had never had a love like Inuyasha had had, but she could understand from the pain her own mother kept for her father that showed every once in a while, that those loved were never really forgottenﾁcever.
Inuyasha would keep going to Kikyo, until she was dead again or he was dead by someone else's hands. Any other way wouldn't keep them too far apart.
Well, as Kagome thought, Inuyasha immediately stood up and left, without a word to where he was going.
Kagome glanced at their little camp, to notice that Miroku, Sango, and Shippo were already on their feet and packed up.
Catse followed their lead, asking to where their dog friend had run off to, as Kagome put out the fire, saddled her bag to her bike, and they were off.
They all followed closely behind Inuyasha as he went, Catse proving to be the fastest runner of them because of how well in shape she was, and the fact that she was wearing pants and no skirts or dresses like Sango, Miroku, and Kagome were.
Shippo kept up with her, and once tired, actually jumped to Catse's shoulder. She didn't know what to make out of it, but decided that in her curiosity, she would ignore the gesture and allow it just this once.
They lost sight of Inuyasha when they came to a barrier, in which Inuyasha ran through, but they could not. Everyone else stopped, but Catse didn't notice, and kept running.
She managed to somehow run through the barrier, and barely even noticed that Shippo had been knocked off by the power of it.
Hell, for some reason, she was so straight forward in her running, she didn't even notice that the trees were thinning out, and she was coming to a lit up clearing.
When she did get to the clearing though, she stopped and stared at the young woman that sat beneath a tree, petting one of the weird dragon things.
She looked up just as Catse stopped, and gave her a quiet, curious look.
"Who are you?" She asked, standing.
"That's what I wanted to ask. You certainly look familiar!"
The woman smiled, her pale skin almost creepily glowing as she did so.
"You look different than many. Where do you come from?"
"SAHS." Catse answered without thinking. Then again, what would she say to a woman from five hundred years in the past.
"America! You know! That large floating island that everyone suddenly bumped into and founded! Yeah, that's the one! Ever been there?"
"SAHS? I've never heard of a place like that."
"Exactly. Which means I'm from too far away for you to concern yourself with."
"Kikyo!" Inuyasha voice echoed through the trees as he came running in. For an instant, he stopped to stare at Catse, then at Kikyo.
"Kikyo? Hmm..." Catse thought out loud, before glaring at the woman. "I've never heard of you in my life."
"Catse, what the hell are you doin' here?" Inuyasha shouted.
"I followed you! What else? You looser are the reason we left camp on short notice!"
"Catse? Hmm..." Kikyo thought to herself.
"Yeah, what! You want a fight? 'Cause I'm about ready to rip your pretty black hair out!"
"You shut up woman!" Inuyasha shouted at Catse, giving her a glare that meant death. "And you better leave this place! You don't belong here!"
"Why should I? You ain't my father!"
"Yeah well-!"
"Inuyasha, that is quite enough." Kikyo whispered, reaching towards the tree. Sitting there, almost like someone had set them there only recently, were a finely made bow and a quiver of arrows.
Kikyo took them in her hands elegantly, setting the quiver on her back and pulling out an arrow. She strung up her bow, knocked the arrow, and aimed it at Catse.
"What the freak are you doin' lady? Weapons like that are illegal!"
'Catse you idiot. This is five hundred years in the past. This is when you were killed or killing!'
"You are in the way. Die woman!" Kikyo shouted, the arrow loosed from her bow. Catse saw the event in slow motion, almost as if she was frozen in spot when time had been slowed. The arrow came close, almost to her nose, when it stopped suddenly.
Catse sighed her relief and also to get rid of the shout she had prepared for after she got hit, when she noticed the hand holding the arrow.
"Inuyasha...?"
"Didn't I tell you to leave? You're so stupid!" Inuyasha shouted in Catse's face.
Most would have cried. Many would have listened. Catse...was weird.
"You idiot! The hell I'm leavin'! She just shot at me! That freakin' lady just shot at me!" Catse shouted, pushing Inuyasha out of her way as she marched towards Kikyo. But to her dismay, Kikyo had, in the time of the argument, knocked another arrow and loosed it at her just as she came close. This time, Inuyasha couldn't stop it.
"Catse!" Inuyasha ran, almost in slow motion...but it was too late. The arrow had left Kikyo's bow and hit...the tree?
Inuyasha stopped in mid stride to stare at the arrow that had pierced through an old tree to the left of them. Kikyo stared at it as well, only she had a tranquil face instead of the shock of Inuyasha's.
A glint of silver reflected into Catse's eyes, and she looked up only to see the sword of 'anime'.
"What the...? The sword...?" Catse wasn't sure why the sword had suddenly appeared in her hands, or how it had known exactly where the arrow was coming so as to hit it. But without it, Catse would have had a hole the size of Texas stuck in her head, and Inuyasha would be stuck with the freaky dragon chick.
"You knocked it away...?" Kikyo mumbled.
Catse didn't miss a heartbeat.
"You're damn right I did! You think a silly arrow like that is going to faze me! You dumb broad! Now get your ass over here so I can give you the beatin' you deserve! You definitely need it!"
Kikyo glanced at her, a shine of contempt reflecting in her eyes, before her dragons wrapped like a cocoon around her and lifted her into the air.
"We will meet again...Catse. And Inuyasha, don't forget me..." She disappeared amongst the stars, with only a trace of light to show she had even ever been there.
Inuyasha walked over to Catse and stared at the sky the same way she did. After a moment, Inuyasha turned his eyes to glare at Catse.
"You could have been killed." He grumbled.
"Oh please. Some chick with a few measly flying worms thinks throwing a stick is going to hurt me. I've seen younger than her do worse than that!" Catse shouted, marching off. But really, she was thankful she got out of that alive. She didn't know the woman, or her reasons for attack, but she was powerful, and Catse wasn't sure exactly what would happen at their second meeting.
The rest of the group appeared a few minutes earlier, and after explanations had been exchanged and apologies given and accepted (none from Catse of course), the group left off to continue their journey.
Catse: There, what do you think? I generally like the chapter! Please review! We like reviews! They make us feel loved and everything! Pleeeeeaaaaaasssssseeeeee! Okay, now that's going too far. But still review. We'll appreciate!