Chapter Nine
An irritated Inu Yasha stomped his foot. "Come on already? What's taking you so long?"
Hokaje didn't reply, the earlier smile on her lips had faded, her eyes along with it into their now state of complete whiteness.
"Feh, it's about time..." Inu Yasha grunted, hiding the slight uneasiness that was bubbling inside him. 'When she switched our souls before, she did it without hesitation and difficulty. But now...she seems as if she's actually going to pull something off that requires more than what she would usually do...'
Kagome, who was standing behind Inu Yasha, clutched the Nikon jewel and its shards. 'Come on think, girl! What should I do with the jewel and shards so they won't end up with Naraku?' She sighed heavily, not daring to turn towards Naraku for fear he might know what she was thinking. 'Oh...' Suddenly, she gave a gasp as an idea hit her. 'Of course! Why didn't I think of it before! So stupid...'
Kagome turned towards her right and walked towards Sango. 'Sango is in Inu Yasha's body. So if I give her the jewel now, it'll be Inu Yasha who will have it after the soul-switching. That way if Naraku tries to take it by force, we'll be ready. Kagome, you're brilliant!' She smiled, giving the shard to Sango who immediately understood, tightly griping the jewel in her hand. Both sighed a heavy relief when they sensed no movement from Naraku.
'It does not matter anyway,' Naraku grinned in his thoughts, having known before hand Kagome would deliver the jewel to someone else. He then set his eyes above at the surrounding trees. 'Do not fail me, Kagura.'
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High enough and close enough to see, but not be sensed, Kagura waited impatiently. 'What is taking this soul switching demon so long? She is just standing there.'
Kagura gave a quick gaze at her fan. It would be simple to just turn and leave...but she knew what would happen if she were to do that. Still, she could not ignore that biting nag entwined within her thoughts, screaming that this was her golden opportunity. 'Naraku believes I can use my wind power to guide the souls into the wrong body...Then that means I could do the same with his. I can make him stay in that body. He will no longer have power over me. I will be rid of him forever...'
Clutching her fan tighter, Kagura's impatience grew ten-fold.
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Hokaje motionless state of being remained unchanged. The uneasiness that Inu Yasha earlier sensed spread to the surrounding demons and humans. But by then, it was too late.
The whiteness that had engulfed Hokaje's eyes released itself as beams of light from her pupils, quick to drown the bodies and souls standing in front of her. White orbs appeared above the light but unlike the first time they had been separated from their bodies, the orbs did not scatter and shuffle themselves within each other.
She had not missed it though. Kagura had clearly seen the soul that was Naraku's exit from the green demon's body. Jumping closer to the scene, Kagura swept her fan with her wrist, aiming at that particular soul.
'I will no longer belong to anyone!'
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The light died.
Motionless bodies scattered around.
Kagome was again the first one to wake up before the rest. Gazing around, she no longer saw any trace of Hokaje. However, the uneasiness she had earlier experienced would not waver. Moving her arm to place her hand on her head, a familiar lilac orb fell from her palm. It twinkled dully under the ground's dust particles.
'What? Why do I have the jewel? Isn't Inu Yasha supposed to have it...?'
It was at that point Kagome realized her hands had yet to be relieved of claws.
Kagome's scream pierced through the air, and as before awoke the rest.
"Inu Yasha, what's wrong?" Shippo asked walking up towards the screaming halfling. "Are you that glad to be in your body?"
"Everything's wrong! I'm in Inu Yasha's body! But...It's me...Kagome..."
"What!" the fox demon exclaimed. "But how? I'm in my body!" Shippo did a quick double take around himself to make sure.
"It's not just that..."
Kagome and Shippo turned towards the new voice that joined their conversation, Miroku.
"This...This...How can this be...?" he said. "I'm...But I'm supposed to be in my body...not this...pervert's..!"
Shippo edged closer towards the monk."Miroku...?"
He gave a sharp glare at Shippo, followed by a shriek. "I'm not Miroku! I'm Sango!"
"What!" Shippo and Kagome claimed in unison.
Kagome turned towards the scattered bodies that were slowly hoisting themselves up. She gulped. "Then...if Shippo is in his own body..." She observed the scene and saw its calm state of being. "But we're not in our body then..."
A unified screech filled the air. Kagome and Sango recognized their own voices, knowing who housed inside their bodies.
"Oh...no..." Shippo sighed, finally aware of the situation. "Maybe there was some mistake...? Or maybe Hokaje..." He trailed off, knowing the situation was next to hopeless.
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'What?' Kagura had returned to her hiding spot to avoid being noticed and was staring at the scene below her with confusement. 'But I was sure I had hit Naraku's soul...It was the only one I aimed for. No one else's...'
She further gazed at the bodies below, her bewilderment increasing. She noticed Kikyo was gone so it was obvious she had no problem with the soul switching. Sesshomaru was requesting for Rin and Jaken, the demon the had earlier contained Naraku's soul, to hasten the pace.
Kagura kept her eyes on the green imp as he struggled to keep up with his lord, hoping for a sign that would show her Naraku still remained trapped in that body. Jaken was at the point of catching up with Sesshomaru when an object caught his eyes. He ran towards what appeared to be a wooden staff twice his size in length that was laying on the ground. Picking it up, he gazed bewilderedly around for his master. Kagura leaned closer, her eyes on the green demon who was yet again running to catch up to Sesshomaru. In his desperate attempt to do so, he fell face first on the ground.
Kagura sighed. 'Definitely not Naraku...'
Defeated, she plucked a feather from her hair and was about to toss it in the air when she noticed Inu Yasha surrounded by his traveling companions directly below her. The fact that Inu Yasha had not yet sensed her kept her there. She crouched to hear their conversation. To their surprise they were all screaming.
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"That bitch! What did she do to us?"
"Calm down, Kagome! I mean Inu Yasha...!"
"We must discuss this..."
"Discuss my ass!"
"As much as I would like to have my own body back-"
"Oh sure you would! It's bad enough you stroke my legs when we're in our own bodies, but do you have to do it while you're in my body? That's still a violation you know! You pervert!"
"You guys! Calm down! Yelling-"
"Ah! Oh no!" Kagome finally stopped the arguing as she brought her hand to her mouth, an odd thing to see since she was in Inu Yasha's body. "The jewel! Where's the jewel!"
"Kagome..." Inu Yasha began. "What do you mean...'the jewel'? You do have it...right?"
She turned towards him, giving him a weak smile. "Heh, you see...funny thing...I remember having it...but..."
"But now I have it."
Everyone's attention was turned towards the voice. A familiar and despised figure in white baboon fur stood before them, Shikon jewel in hand, Kagome's shards in the other.
Placing them inside some unknown compartment, he lifted his head to show his malicious grin. "Now Inu Yasha..." He walked up towards Kagome's body.
Kagome meanwhile in Inu Yasha's body gasped. 'How does he know that Inu Yasha's in my body...? Unless...Did he plan this...?'
Naraku placed a hand on Inu Yasha's throat. Kagome's delicate neck began to quickly bruise with his tighting grip. Sango, Miroku, and Shippo were not hesitant to act, well maybe Shippo was a little.
"Let him go..." Miroku hissed.
Naraku ignored his threat as well as everyone else. "Killing you in this manner was not how I imagined your death would be. Such a humiliating way to go...you should know that after I'm done with you, I'm going to kill your friends as well. Your whole quest has been in vain. You all die now."
"And ruin my fun? No way!" a familiar voice cut through.
"Wha-!" before Naraku could finish his word, he was fiercely thrown back by an unseen force. Hokaje suddenly appeared before him, blocking Inu Yasha and the rest from his grasp.
"Why do you interfere?" Naraku demanded, standing up.
Hokaje gave a light hearted laugh. "What do you mean? I did this, so I get to play with them. You're not the director, I am!"
"Out of my way!"
Faster than the blink of an eye, Naraku found himself with Hokaje's rod dangerously close to his throat.
Inu Yasha gazed in awe. 'But she didn't even have the rod with her until know...'
"Step closer and you'll know what'll happen," Hokaje grinned. Unlike Naraku's tainted snickers, Hokaje kept her almost child-like quality in her laughs even when threatening someone with their life. "You know you can't take me...Naraku." Her grin did not waver.
Shooting unexpectly from above, a huge flying feather piloted its way towards Naraku who quickly climbed on top, next to the some what shaken Kagura. All watched as they soon disappeared into the clear sky.
"Now then, wench!" Inu Yasha suddenly demanded bringing eveyone's gazes back towards earth. "You-!"
"Sorry!" Hokaje said with another smile. "But I can't change your souls back."
"WHAT!" a four-voiced choir screeched.
Her smile grew. "I don't want to ruin my fun!"
"To hell with your fun! Change us back NOW!" Inu Yasha demanded.
"Even if I wanted to...I can't..."
"Wha...?"
"It's hard to explain...see...I can only change your souls once."
"What do you mean?" Inu Yasha spat, his anger and impatience rising.
"I can only extract your rightful souls from your body once and only once."
"Then what is the problem?" Miroku stepped up and asked. "I understand that you have already extracted our souls that one time when you first switched our souls but right now, our souls are not in their rightful place. I am in Sango's body while she is in mine. The same with Inu Yasha and Kagome. I do not see why you can not just simply extract our souls now."
Hokaje's smile returned. "Funny thing about souls...they accustom real easily. As you know souls are in their rightful place by the matching of their aurora with the body that is emitting the same one as theirs. When a soul is forced into a body that does not match it's aurora, it can make the body match it's aurora in order for the soul to be more at peace with the foreign body. This process take a certain amount of time, depending on the soul and the body. Usually it takes months, the shortest but on rare occasions when there is a strong bond between the two objects, that process can be shortened to days."
Hokaje gazed at the perplexed faces before them. She sighed. "What I'm saying is that I can't switch your souls because between the short period of time that Inu Yasha was in Kagome's body and Miroku in Sango's their souls forced the bodies they were in to match their auroras. Thus I can not extract their souls because technically speaking-and taking into consideration this is how my powers work- Inu Yasha and Miroku are, according to their soul and body auroras, in their rightful bodies."
She giggled, as if realizing it for the first time. "Man, you guys must really have to hots for each other!" Her giggling turned to laughter as she saw the waves of scarlet that entered each of their cheeks.
"But hey," Hokaje said, beginning to float in the air. "Don't get all depressed. If you find my brother, I'm sure he'll help you." She disappeared but even so, her voice was heard.
"At least I think he'll help you. He works a bit...different than I do."
The silence that fell on the group was thick enough to suffocate in.
"So..." Shippo sliced through. "Why can't she switch your souls again?"
The heavy sigh that was released slapped Shippo.
"What? I don't get this kind of stuff..." he sobbed.
WWEEEEEE! Sorry I took so long. See, for your patience a nice long chapter. Thank you for waiting and of course leaving your reviews. I hoped you all understood that whole thing with Hokaje and why she couldn't switch their souls. I tried to explain it as best as I could! If you didn't get it, don't worry Shippo didn't either! I'm kidding! Just leave me a note and I'll try my best to explain it to you. THANK YOU VERY MUCH! please don't forget to leave your thoughts in reviews! Much appriciated!
NEXT CHAPTER: The Inu crew is stuck! How will they get out of this mess? Before jumping into anything that will get them into more trouble, the crew decides to take breather...but just for one day. Then after that it's off to find Hokaje's brother! (P.S. a little Kagome/Inu Yasha action)