AUTHORS NOTES:
No one is reading this fan fic, but we like writing it so much we're still posting. By the 20th chapter, if no one is still reading this, well, TOO BAD FOR THEM!!! They are missing out on a very interesting and entertaining fan fic, and it's their loss! If you actually are reading this fan fic, here's a cookie and a prayer that you'll reply to our fan fic and make us feel all happy inside. :) Anyways, here's more…
DISCLAIMER
We still don't own InuYasha, but Kayhera is keeping a good lookout for a well. :D Meanwhile, we do own the following: the five shrines, Sueko, and… well, in this chapter, that's it. Oh, and Sueko's family and odd cat… The cat is quite confused… Neko seems to like InuYasha a lot too…
By the way: Neko is cat in Japanese, which just goes to show how pathetic Sueko is when it comes to naming things. :) Now, enough chitchat, here's more! R&R! (read and reply)
Chapter Three: The Five Shrines
"Yay! Sueko! You're back!" cried Shippo, jumping up and down and InuYasha and Sueko climbed out of the well.
Noticing her frown he stopped jumping and turned to InuYasha.
"What did you do this time!?" he yelled.
"Wh—what!? What makes you think I did anything? She won't even talk to me anymore so don't go blaming everything on me!" said InuYasha, crossing his arms and looking away.
"Humph!" said Sueko, throwing down her book bag and sitting down huffily.
"Are you all right?" asked Sango kindly.
"Oh yes, I'm just fine. Everything is just fine," said Sueko sarcastically.
"I think I'm with Shippo on this one. What did you do InuYasha?" asked Miroku.
"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" yelled InuYasha.
In reply Miroku stood up and hit him over the head with his staff.
"Would you like to repeat that?" he said calmly.
"What was that for!?" cried InuYasha.
"Because you're lying to him about what you did to make Sueko so mad!" yelled Shippo, his little hands in fists.
"Do I need to spell it out for you?" growled InuYasha.
"You know you're quite outnumbered so you might as well give us the truth," said Miroku calmly.
"He didn't do anything, okay? Now will you all just all shut up?" cried Sueko, not looking at anybody. In fact, her eyes were closed like she was really pissed off but didn't want anybody to notice.
There was a moment of silence in which InuYasha sat down huffily and Miroku followed suit. Shippo walked over and started beating up on InuYasha's knee until he just punched the little guy over the head. Then a small figure bounced onto InuYasha's nose and started sucking his blood.
"Master InuYasha, nice to suck you again," came the small voice of Myoga the flea.
"What the hell!?" cried Sueko, leaning in closer to look at the small flea on InuYasha's nose.
"Ah, would this be the new spiritual women I have heard rumors about?" said the flea.
"Excuse me? Me? Spiritual? You've got the wrong girl!" laughed Sueko.
"Didn't Kaede say something to that effect when we went to go see her?" muttered Sango.
"Do you mind?" growled InuYasha, flicking Myoga off of his nose.
"I get no respect…" wheezed Myoga as he floated to the ground.
"Do you do that to him often?" asked Sueko, eyes wide.
"Every chance I get," muttered InuYasha, a bit shocked that she was actually talking to him again. It usually took a while for Kagome to be nice to him after getting angry with him.
"Whatever," said Sueko, sitting back down and crossing her arms.
'Maybe she's a bit more like Kagome than I thought,' thought InuYasha, rolling his eyes.
"So, what news do you bring Myoga?" asked Miroku.
"Some great news, actually," said the flea, sitting down and crossing each of his four arms.
"Well, get on with it all ready," said InuYasha impatiently. "We don't have all day!"
"It's night time," muttered Sueko angrily.
"Thanks for the forecast, Miss Know-It-All," snapped InuYasha.
"I don't know everything and we do have all night because it isn't like we're doing anything at this moment," said Sueko icily.
"How would you know that? You ran on home!" cried InuYasha.
"You weren't being all that cooperative, now were you! Or nice for that matter!" yelled Sueko.
"All right you two! Just calm down!" said Sango.
"Humph!" said both InuYasha and Sueko, looking away from each other.
"As I was saying, when I heard about the young maiden that had come through the bone eater's well I had to investigate. Along the way I heard that the five shrines of the elements had been seen glowing, as if they were suddenly awake after many years," said Myoga importantly.
"Wait, wait, wait. Bone eater's well? Five shrines of one thing or another? Glowing shrines? What are you talking about!?" cried Sueko, waving her arms around as if trying to slow everything down.
"The bone eater's well is the well that you fell into," explained Sango. "I know nothing about these shrines, though…"
"That's because nobody is supposed to know about them," said Myoga.
"So why do you, huh, flea?" said InuYasha menacingly.
"Because I knew your father who once helped to protect one of the shrines. In fact, all dog demons protect the Wind Shrine," said Myoga matter-of-factly. "There are five shrines. Two protected by humans, two by demons and the fifth by a neutral source. The two protected by mere mortals is the Water Shrine and the Earth Shrine. The dog demons protect the Wind shrine, as you know, and the tiger demons protect the Fire Shrine."
"So what protects the fifth shrine?" asked Miroku.
"I'm not there yet! Be patient!" said Myoga angrily. "As I was saying, each of the four shrines has four magical stones connected to the element the shrine promotes. For example, there are four Wind Stones, each of which are missing."
"What do these stones look like?" asked Sango.
"They're quite ordinary stones with the same color as the element it is tied to," explained Myoga.
"That doesn't work though, flea. Wind doesn't have a color!" laughed InuYasha.
"No, but the color of the Wind Stones is yellow," said Myoga.
"Wait…" muttered Sueko, eyes widening.
"What?" snapped InuYasha.
Sueko just sat there as if in deep thought, her eyes wide. But the fact that she wasn't saying anything was annoying InuYasha so he sighed and grabbed her by the shoulders.
"Hello? Are you going to say something or not?" he cried, shaking her.
"Oh, yeah," said Sueko, blinking. "You said the stones of Wind Shrine were yellow, right?"
"Yes," answered Myoga.
"And they're all missing, right?"
"Yes."
"Do they look like this?" asked Sueko, pulling out a chain with a medium sized yellow stone from her shirt. InuYasha could tell why it had been hidden. It would look a bit dorky against her purple sweater.
"Where did you get that!?" cried Myoga.
"It's a family heirloom. I got it for my fifth birthday," said Sueko, tucking it back into her sweater.
"What does that mean?" breathed Sango.
"It means that my theory was correct," said Myoga, looking smug.
"And what theory would that be?" growled InuYasha, suddenly in a bad mood. The thought of Sueko having a purpose to stay here reminded him of Kagome. Besides, she reminded him of Kagome enough she didn't need to stay here!
"The theory that this beautiful young women is the missing link in the protection of the final shrine: the Shrine of Spirit," said Myoga dramatically.
"Speak English, bug!" cried Sueko. "If I'm important and spiritual and all that junk that I didn't think I was then at least make it so I can understand what the hell you're saying!"
"The protector of the fifth and final shrine is you… Sorry, I haven't gotten your name yet…"
"Kimochi Sueko," said Sueko a bit awkwardly, as if she didn't really like introductions to begun with, but now she had to do it all over again.
"Then you, Kimochi Sueko, are the protector of the Spirit Shrine," said Myoga dramatically, as though he had to say the whole thing properly or else.
"Erm… all right then," said Sueko nervously, obviously not used to this sort of thing. "What does that mean?"
"It means your protect this shrine!" snapped InuYasha. "What else is it supposed to mean?"
"Well… what do you mean by protect?" asked Sueko, glaring at InuYasha.
"You protect the stones for each of the shrines," explained Myoga.
"I protect all that?" Sueko gapped.
"It is your duty to find each of the stones and put them in their proper place so that nobody can make it into the Spirit Shrine," stated Myoga.
"What's so special about this fifth shrine?" muttered InuYasha.
"It is what gives mystical powers to a select few who can gather all the stones and… well there's one other thing that you have to have to get in but… uh… I…" said Myoga, blushing.
"You don't know what it is, do you?" muttered InuYasha.
"Well, it's not from a lack of trying!" said Myoga, jumping up and down. "Besides, the last person to go into this shrine was the Priestess Kikyo."
"Who?" said Sueko, blinking.
"Just some girl who had tremendous powers. She protected the Shikon Jewel for some time. Then Naraku tricked us into fighting and she bound me into the God Tree in the forest," explained InuYasha tonelessly.
"This isn't like you…" said Sango. "Normally we couldn't get you to say anything about Kikyo!"
"Wasn't Naraku the guy who killed Kagome?" said Sueko.
Without a word or sound InuYasha stood up and walked away.
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"Okay, that was stupid…" muttered Sueko, watching InuYasha walk away sorrowfully.
"No one blames you," said Sango, trying to make Sueko feel better. Not that Sueko knew why… did she look upset?
"I'll go talk to him…" sighed Sueko, getting up and walking away.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," started Myoga, but noticing Sueko wasn't paying attention, gave up.
All she wanted to do was apologize to InuYasha for being such a wrench, but Sueko found that terribly difficult when she found InuYasha.
See, he was sitting. Like, on a tree branch.
It was an awfully tall tree…
Sueko sighed. She would just have to grit her teeth and climb up it—that's how much she wanted to say sorry! Though apparently it was a very loud sigh, or he just had excellent hearing, since after Sueko had sighed she heard someone cry, "What are you doing?!"
She looked up, and blushed. "I—I wanted to apologize!" she called up, feeling very stupid and foolish for not being able to climb up the tree.
InuYasha looked away from Sueko. "You didn't need to…"
"Yes I did!" she cried. "Oh, this is stupid!" and, taking a deep breath, started climbing up.
"What is your problem?" cried InuYasha.
"I don't like heights," said Sueko through gritted teeth, her eyes silted as she climbed, inch by agonizing inch, up the tree.
InuYasha paused, as if unsure of how to respond to that. Apparently that's not what he meant. "Why are you climbing up the tree?"
"To apologize!"
"Why are you apologizing!? I already said you didn't need to!"
"'Cause—I—want—to!" panted Sueko. By now she had reached the part of the tree InuYasha was sitting at. InuYasha rolled his eyes, but gave Sueko a hand and pulled her up so they were both sitting on the branch.
It was then that the weirdest thing happened. Sitting on the tree branch, digging her nails into the bark so she wouldn't fall, Sueko was looking at InuYasha's face—he was trying his best to look like nothing was bothering him but you could tell something was—and this… tingly feeling occurred in the pit of Sueko's stomach.
"Uh…" moaned Sueko.
InuYasha, thinking Sueko was nervous about being up in the tree, put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Don't worry! You won't fall!"
Sueko's heart started beating really fast, and her cheeks were reddening, though she didn't have the slightest clue as to why. Shaking her head, Sueko tried to ignore these alien feelings and said, "I'm sorry."
"What are you—oh. I already said you didn't need to apologize!" said InuYasha.
"But I wanted to! I was being stupid! I shouldn't have brought up Kagome!" cried Sueko, sitting up. But that made her wobble so she put her hands on the branch again to steady herself.
"But you don't need—" started InuYasha, but gave up. He sighed, looked up at the sky, as if to be deep in thought again. Instead he said very quietly as though it took all he got to speak, "How much do you know about—about t—that night that K—Kagome died?"
Not only was Sueko not feeling good at all, but she really wasn't expecting this! She really wanted to give him a hug because he looked so sad but she'd probably just fall off the tree branch she was sitting on and die a horrible death, so she decided against it.
"Well…" said Sueko quietly. "Sango told me that you were battling this Naraku guy—and also how he'd cursed Miroku with the Wind Tunnel, killed everyone Sango knew, and made you cursed to a tree—so you were fighting him for revenge and all, but then Kagome—" 'Oh, what's another word for died? Killed? Mutilated? Oh, think!'
"Yeah," said InuYasha suddenly, stopping Sueko's train of thought.
"You really liked her, didn't you?" asked Sueko, talking so quietly her voice was barely a whisper.
"Well, I was in love with her," said InuYasha, giving a half-shrug as though his heart wasn't in it.
The two didn't talk for a while but just sat there up in a tree. Sueko realized that it wasn't so bad sitting there… it actually wasn't that high up…
"What's it like?" asked Sueko suddenly, kicking her feet back and forth a little.
"What?" said InuYasha, looking back down at her.
"Falling in love," said Sueko with a small smile. "I've never done it before."
InuYasha gave a small laugh. "Why ask me something like that?"
"I'm just curious…" said Sueko a bit timidly.
"Well, it's… weird," said InuYasha. "I don't know! Why are you asking me?"
Sueko shrugged, giving up.
"You're really weird. You know that?"
"I'm not weird!" snapped Sueko.
"Not in the bad way…" said InuYasha defensively.
"How could it possibly not be in the bad way?" asked Sueko, crossing her arms and forgetting her fear of heights for a moment because of her anger.
"Look, I've met quite a few weird people and I know the difference between good weird and bad weird. So trust me on this one," said InuYasha.
"Humph," was Sueko's only response, and left the two in complete silence for a few minutes.
Breaking the silence, InuYasha said quite moodily, "Don't go expecting me to go protecting you all the time, either!"
'That's random!' "What do you mean?"
"Well, it's a cruel world out there and I'm not killing all the demons that go after you!" explained InuYasha crankily.
"Hmm…" said Sueko. "I have a sword."
"What?" said InuYasha, raising an eyebrow at Sueko.
"I have all these family heirlooms and one of them is a sword," she explained, shrugging. "That work for you?"
"Uh… sure, I guess…"
"You know," said Sueko thoughtfully, "I should probably run back home anyways. I sort of left kinda abruptly… without telling anyone…" she added with a mumble, blushing slightly, though it was dark outside so no one would have seen it.
To her surprise, InuYasha said casually, "I'll go with you," before quickly climbing down the tree.
"Um…" said Sueko, not to what InuYasha just said, but the prospect of having to climb down the tree.
"Oh…" said InuYasha, looking up at Sueko, sighing, and climbing up to help bring her down.
Her heart skipped a beat as InuYasha made contact with her skin, but Sueko hastily ignored it and mumbled a hurried "Thanks" before walking quickly towards the well, not even waiting for InuYasha. But he could keep up, so that's okay. Actually, with the strange feeling she was experiencing, Sueko just walked past Miroku, Sango and Shippo (and Myoga too if he was still there) without even saying hi. She kind of felt bad as she went carefully down the well without saying a word, but she really wasn't in the mood.
It had to be PMS. It was the only explanation. But she wasn't having cramps…
"You're in a hurry," commented InuYasha in modern day.
Sueko just shrugged and headed over toward the house.
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"Tell me why you need a sword again," said Sueko's dad about ten minutes later, handing Sueko's great-great-great-great-and-about-ten-other-greats-something's sword to his only daughter.
"To battle demons, dad!" cried Sueko. 'I've only explained that to you about ten hundred times already!'
The father shrugged, as if giving up, and once Sueko had gotten the sword and was saying good-bye to her parents, hissed in Sueko's ear, "If that punk-kid makes a move on you, hit him with that sword."
"Dad!" cried Sueko, not bothering to keep her voice down. "He's not Miroku!"
"Who's Miroku?" asked her mom, oblivious to her husband's warning.
"Nothing…" said Sueko, waving a hand aside. Shippo had told her about Miroku's strange habit of touching woman in… an inappropriate spot…
"Bye mom and dad!" said Sueko happily, waving.
"Yeah. Bye," said InuYasha.
"Bye, Neko!" added Sueko, stroking her black and white cat. Neko, noticing the presence of InuYasha, started to sniff him.
"Feh," greeted InuYasha. The cat meowed.
"Okay, you're done now," said Sueko, moving the cat away gently with her foot. And, getting one last hug from her mom ("Mom, you're done too!"), Sueko and InuYasha headed back towards the well—and back into Feudal Japan.