That goddamn asshole.

He betrayed Kagome. Even if I don't know who the hell he is, he betrayed her. That isn't forgivable.

When the attack hit me, it hurt pretty damn bad. I was on the ground before it was over. When it did finally stop, though, that bastard Naraku and the other two were just standing there with a fucking smirk on all their faces. It pissed me the hell off.

"Kagome!" I yelled. I couldn't find her. Then this noise came from behind me, and I turned around and saw this gigantic machina. I thought Naraku couldn't figure machina out, so I thought it was one of those little kids. It made me even angrier to know that.

"Sakura!" Kagome called out to me. She was running toward me from quite a ways away. I forced a relieved smile. As she got to me, her glaive materialized in her right hand.

"You're not going to fight this thing, are you?" I asked. She nodded, with that freaky smile of hers.

"It's weak against lightning, so if I can just find Auron…" Kagome looked around for a second, then found Auron lying among everyone else. They all looked unconscious. She pouted, but only lost the grin for a moment. "Guess I'll have to do it alone!" It sounded like she was trying to sound disappointed.

She pointed the blade of her glaive at the machina, which took until that moment to realize we were there. It was just that goddamn huge compared to us. Anyway, some electricity started to gather around Kagome's blade, and then the machina made an attack. It shot missiles out at us in, like, fifty thousand different directions, so it was hell trying to avoid them. But we did. Then Kagome thrust her glaive upward and yelled: "Thundaga!" And twenty or thirty lightning bolts all crashed down on that dumbass machina. That killed it, for damn sure.

"Awesome," I said, approaching the smoking machina with a grin. "Your magic still amazes me, Kagome-chan. That kicked ass."
"I know!" She was always so cheerful. It was kind of scary. She and Soujirou were always like that.

Then the electricity stopped flowing around the glaive. The blade was glowing white now – she was using curative magic – and a wave of translucent white energy swept over the clearing. All the grass was restored completely, as were all the people lying in it. They all sat up, rubbing their heads or muttering some curses or something. Axel got up first and ran over to Kagome.

"Kagome, what happened?" he said. As if he didn't know. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Her smile seemed to anger him.

"I swear to god, I'll kill that Podge if it's the last thing I do…" His fists were clenched and he looked really pissed off.

Then Auron, Soujirou, and Ryou got up, plus the other two girls. Apparently, Kagome knew them, but I couldn't say I had ever even heard of either one. Actually, I was pretty sure she'd told me about the one with red hair, but she didn't say anything about where she knew her from.

"Now that you're all awake again," Kagome said, "I'll finish my explanation…"

Everyone was silent, waiting for her to continue.

"First, I'll let everyone know who everyone is." She gestured toward the girl with the red-tipped hair. "This is Miyako. She's the other half of our team, known as the Hellbringers. We are both part of the Organization, as well as Axel." Everyone sort of gasped or said 'What!'. It was very surprising to all of us. Then she went on, now looking at the girl with black hair.
"This is Steph. She and I, along with everyone here but Miyako, grew up in the same orphanage." That one really got me. This was the first thing she'd said about that orphanage to anyone but me.

"What?" Ryou sounded confused. "I don't remember growing up in an orphanage…" He paused for a second. "But, then again, I don't remember growing up at all."
"Hey, I don't either!" Soujirou said. He looked terrified. It was funny, really.

"It did happen, though." Kagome's glaive vanished, probably at her command, and she crossed her arms in front of her. "You know how I used to be an illusion?"
Miyako and Steph looked amazed as hell. "What!" they both yelled.

"I was an illusion," Kagome said again. "Miyako, you're a ghost. It's the same thing, sort of, only I never died. You were brought back from the dead, and I was brought to reality."
Miyako nodded with a satisfied, informed look on her face. Steph frowned.
"So how come I'm not some kind of nonexistent thingy, huh?" God, I hated her. At first, anyway.
"Just because I was created and Miyako died doesn't mean you have to, too." Kagome looked away.

Auron then spoke up: "Kagome, did you say Miyako was a ghost?"

Kagome looked at him strangely. "Yes… Why?"

"I, too, am not of the living world." That made everyone gasp, too.