AUTHORS NOTES:
Congrats to our first reviewer, BlackTearsOfDarkness, who is author to a very, very excellent fan fic called "When It Rains." I recommend it to any Harry Potter fans out there! She gave such a nice review! I like the cat too. Shame you only saw a little bit of the cat in the last chapter… later on in the story you learn more about Neko. Let's just say it's more of a dog then a cat… And thanks for the comments! If you want to give any criticism don't mind in doing so, just as long as you do it nicely—otherwise you'll hurt Sueko's feelings! ;) Now, I'm warning you, this is kinda a longish chapter—wait, that shouldn't be a bad thing!
DISCLAIMER
We don't own InuYasha, or Kouga, or Sesshomaru (though Kayhera doesn't care about the fact that we don't own Sesshomaru :D ). Though don't get your hopes up, Kouga and Sesshomaru don't show up in this post. But they'll show up soon as possible!!!!!
Yoshiko is from the great mind of Ravyn89, so you can't have her, sorry. Plus Sueko belongs to me… and the plot, that belongs to us too! And… I think that's it… oh, wait—nope, that's all. Well, I'll shut up now so you can read. :) R&R!
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Chapter Four: Yoshiko, the Tiger Demon
It was quiet. Of course, that was the way Yoshiko had lived for the past five years when not fighting demons. She followed no path in particular in the forest but seemed to forge one all her own. Cats have a good sense of direction. Not that she was a cat. Yoshiko looked quite human except no normal human has orange hair, green eyes, black stripes on their cheeks, and tiger ears and tail. This was because Yoshiko was only half human. The other half was tiger demon.
Walking alone quietly in the forest left a lot of time for thought. And, quite naturally, her thoughts tended to wander to her brother. For many years he had done good, gaining his dream of being a medicine man. Then it was like he dropped off the face of the planet. Twice now she visited his small house to yield no clues to where he could have disappeared.
'That's what you get for living alone,' thought Yoshiko, turning north toward a village she knew to be near by.
Normally she avoided humans as much as possible knowing they would mistake her as a demon and attack. Even after the destruction of Naraku demons still attacked unsuspecting villages.
But it was because of Naraku that she was heading to this specific village. It was rumored that the half-demon InuYasha had finally destroyed Naraku only after the reincarnation of Kikyo had been killed. Also there was a whisper of another mortal girl with greater powers even than the priestess; that in some way she was connected to the shrines…
It was because of the Water Shrine that her father had been killed. He had possessed one of the four water stones, something as greatly sought as the Shikon Jewel had once been.
During her thoughts her ears twitched and she found her eyes flicking from side to side.
'You're near a village. You're bound to hear something,' thought Yoshiko continuing on her way.
But just as she took one more step somebody came jumping out of the trees. With one flick of her eyes she registered that her attacker had a sword. In the time it takes to blink an eye, Yoshiko had drawn her own sword and the sound of metal hitting metal was filling the forest. She had yet to turn toward her attacker.
"Wait, InuYasha! Wait!" cried a girl, stumbling out of the trees right in front of Yoshiko.
Her eyes flicked to her attacker, quickly taking in the white hair, dog-ears and yellow eyes. Smiling she jumped a fair distance away so she could see every move he made.
"Did she call you InuYasha?" implied Yoshiko.
"What's it to you!?" cried InuYasha, leaping forward and swinging his large sword.
"The Tetsusaiga…" muttered Yoshiko, leaning backwards so as to dodge the attack.
As InuYasha brought his sword up, attempting to cleave Yoshiko in two, she kicking out, sending him flying into a tree.
"Um… why are they fighting?" asked the girl, speaking to a woman in armor and carrying a large boomerang.
"Though he wouldn't admit it, InuYasha is a bit protective of the village and wouldn't let any demon attack it," explained the women.
"What makes you think I want to attack the village?" asked Yoshiko, pushing her hair out of her eyes.
"Feh," said InuYasha, standing up and readying his sword. "Don't play innocent, DEMON!"
With that he rushed forward, aiming for Yoshiko's neck. This time she made no attempt to dodge. Instead she brought up her own sword and blocked the blow one handedly.
"How often do you train, InuYasha?" inquired Yoshiko, a laugh attempting to rise up her throat.
"My training is none of your concern," replied InuYasha, trying a blow to the head.
Yoshiko moved quickly to dodge and come behind him. She lifted her sword, thinking of only hitting his head with the hilt when another sound came to her ears. The woman was throwing her weapon.
Recovering from her shock in a mere second, Yoshiko punched the boomerang aside and turned back to InuYasha. It had been enough time for him to recover as well and he was aiming a blow at her waist. She smirked and brought her fist down on his hand. In surprise InuYasha dropped his sword and jumped away. It returned to its original form.
"Demon, be gone!" cried another male voice.
"What is it with you people?" cried Yoshiko, dropping to the ground, sheathing her sword and tripping InuYasha all in one fluid motion.
The source of the voice was a young monk who had been aiming a blow at her head with his staff. But Yoshiko's sudden drop had tripped him up, allowing her to grab his staff. As she stood back up she used the monk's staff to swing him around and into InuYasha.
"Miroku!" cried the woman, rushing forward while drawing her sword.
"Do any of you give up?" asked Yoshiko mildly.
"Get off, monk," growled InuYasha.
"Um… hi…" said the girl, waiving. "Would you mind not fighting?"
"I don't know. Will they stop attacking?" replied Yoshiko.
"And let you go and attack a defenseless village? I don't think so!" yelled InuYasha.
The girl's reply was to walk over and hit him on the head.
"Be nice! You attacked her!" Then she turned to Yoshiko. "I'm Sueko by the way. This is Sango, Miroku, InuYasha and hiding over there in the bushes is Shippo."
A small fox demon popped his head out of the bushes and grinned sheepishly.
"How cute. A squirrel," said Yoshiko calmly, turning back to the girl introduced as Sueko. She was dressed strangely in a tight purple and faded blue outfit. On her shoulder she carried a large bag and, most peculiar still, she carried a sword. "Please tell me you can use that thing better than your friend."
"What?" said Sueko, blinking. "Oh! This? Nope, I've never used it before in my life."
"But you are that strange girl that came out of the well," probed Yoshiko.
"Well, I wouldn't necessarily say strange…" started Sueko but Sango cut in by saying, her sword still out: "What would it be to you?"
"Well, seeing how cat-like I am… I'm just simply curious," shrugged Yoshiko. "But if you are not the girl related to the shrines then I'll be on my way."
Without even a last look at InuYasha she turned on her heels and started walking away. Then the sound of somebody picking up something came to her ears.
"Where do you think you're going?" growled InuYasha.
"Oh, look. The little doggy still wants to play," laughed Yoshiko, looking back over her shoulder. "Well, I've got news. I all ready beat you. Bad. I suggest giving up. Not only fighting me but fighting with that sword unless you decide to use it properly."
"What do you mean use it properly!?" cried InuYasha. "I can use it just fine!"
"Of course you can. And the squirrel in those bushes is brave," smirked Yoshiko.
"Hey! I am too brave!" cried Shippo, shaking a tiny fist at her.
All she had to do was hiss and he jumped right back into the bushes.
"I believe I've proven my point," said Yoshiko, rolling her eyes.
"Wait! Don't go!" said Sueko, stepping forward.
"Be careful!" cried Sango.
"What now?" sighed Yoshiko, turning back around. The girl was awkwardly unsheathing her sword to show that it was glowing a slight blue color. "Where did you get that sword?"
"Family heirloom," shrugged Sueko. "But do you know why it glows?"
For a while Yoshiko just looked from the sword to Sueko in an almost unbelieving matter. Then she started to laugh and she walked over to the girl.
"Sueko!" cried Sango.
"Oh, don't worry. I'm not going to hurt her," said Yoshiko in an amused way. "But I think the sword just answered my question."
"What question?" snapped InuYasha.
"That this girl—Sueko, is it?—she's the 'Last One' that my father spoke about before he was killed," said Yoshiko, suddenly very serious.
"The last one…" muttered Sueko. "That's what my name means…"
"What does that have to do with anything?" asked the monk named Miroku. "You were asking whether or not Sueko was the girl that came out of the well or not. You were not asking anything else."
"The 'Last One'—the powerful being who protects the fifth shrine—and this girl are all the same thing. Or person."
"Which is it?" asked Sango, still holding onto her sword.
"I don't know," said Yoshiko.
"You mean I could, like, not be a person?" said Sueko, blinking.
"That's exactly what I'm saying," said Yoshiko with a slight smile.
"That's kind of creepy…" muttered Sueko.
The wind blew through the trees from the south. Instinctively Yoshiko checked the wind for any sign of demons. It seemed InuYasha was doing the same. Then suddenly all four warriors got into a fighting stance.
"Sueko, go hide with Shippo!" ordered Miroku.
"But… I want to fight!" cried Sueko.
"Please. This is not place for little girls," laughed Yoshiko.
"L-little? Oh, I've had about enough of you!" yelled Sueko.
"Are you trying to give away our position?" said Yoshiko smugly.
"Hey, I didn't have to make InuYasha stop fighting you!" said Sueko, trying to cross her arms but since she had a sword in her hands it was kind of difficult so she gave up.
"And I don't have to be here. I could leave if I wanted to."
"Why don't you? We can handle this demon ourselves," said InuYasha.
"So I can leave you with all the fun? Not likely," laughed Yoshiko.
"No fighting each other while we're trying to fight a demon, you two!" said Sango, retrieving her giant boomerang.
"I think she should just stand back and let me do the dirty work," laughed InuYasha.
"Here it comes!" said Yoshiko, drawing her own sword.
Bursting out of the trees a split second later was a large serpent demon. Two trees fell down, causing Sueko to move a bit closer to Sango. At the same instant Yoshiko and InuYasha smiled and jumped forward.
"It would be kind of nice if the girl could defeat the demon instead of InuYasha," said Sueko. "Go girl power!"
Clang! The scales of the serpent seemed just like metal, repelling both sword attacks. InuYasha laughed and jumped back.
"So you're going to be like that, are you?" He brought his sword over his head and brought it crashing down, wind sweeping forward in great force.
"Are you trying to kill me!?" cried Yoshiko, jumping up and into the tree.
The serpent disappeared under the attack. Yoshiko smiled as she recalled the name of Wind Scar. He was definitely a dog demon. Least ways, half dog demon. When the attack cleared up the snake lay motionless.
"All right, InuYasha!" cried Sueko, bringing her hands up in the air.
"Oh, please," said Yoshiko, rolling her eyes. It was at this very moment that the serpent started to get up.
"You've got to be kidding me!" cried InuYasha. "I killed it!"
"Really, you are an idiot," laughed Yoshiko, jumping out of the tree and walking in front of the demon. "Now step back before you get yourself hurt."
Her sword hung loosely at her side as the demon raised its head. Its yellow eyes searched for something and finally rested upon Sueko. Hissing, it started forward as Yoshiko brought her sword up in front of her.
"FIRE WAVE!" she cried, swinging it sideways. From the point she started swinging to where she stopped a wall of flame appeared before her. Then Yoshiko pointed her sword at the serpent and it fell upon the demon. It screeched out in agony as it withered and died. Turning away from her victim, Yoshiko sheathed her sword and started to walk away.
"Hey wait! You're leaving all ready?" said Sueko. "You can't go now!"
"I'm just going to get some water. I'm thirsty," stated Yoshiko.
"Well… fine…" said Sueko, rolling her eyes.
Smiling to herself Yoshiko stepped into the woods. Then she popped her head back out.
"You guys coming with?" she asked.
"I… guess…" muttered Sueko.
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"So why are we dragging her around?" complained InuYasha the next day as the group headed towards the next village.
"Um… because she saved us?" said Sueko.
"I could have done that!" snapped InuYasha.
"I'm sure you could. And she's kind of nice too. In a really weird way…" added Sueko.
"I can hear, you know," muttered the tiger demon.
"All right," said Sueko. "Hey, what's your name, anyways?"
"Yoshiko," the tiger demon said.
"Okay. Yoshiko," said Sueko, trying it out. InuYasha rolled his eyes.
A sudden rustling in the bushes ended the trios' "conversation."
"Who's there?" cried Yoshiko, looking very alert.
"It's human…" muttered InuYasha.
"And you would know how?" asked Sueko.
"I can smell it," said InuYasha.
"Ah yes, doggy-boy, the great sniffer," scoffed Yoshiko.
"Hey! He's a cute doggy-boy!" said Sueko suddenly, wrapping an arm around a startled InuYasha. Then, realizing what she was doing, quickly let go and stepped back, turning the same shade of red as the half demons' robes.
"Um…" said InuYasha.
"Whoever's there, show yourself!" called Miroku.
There was more rustling in the bushes, and then a peasant woman appeared before them, looking quite frightened for what seemed for no reason.
"What's wrong?" asked Sango gently.
"M-my brother… attacked… there's a d-demon in the v-village!" cried the woman, dropping to her knees in grief.
"It's all right. No need to be frightened," said Miroku sympathetically, going towards the woman and putting an arm around her. "We'll deal with the demon."
"Who says?" said InuYasha.
"You're so heartless!" said Yoshiko to InuYasha. "Come on guys, let's go."
"How do we know it's not a trap?" cried InuYasha.
"That's true…" said Sueko thoughtfully.
"If it's a trap, we'll deal with it when it comes," said Yoshiko, who started walking towards the village.
"Fine by me if you get yourselves killed," said InuYasha, crossing his arms.
Everyone followed Yoshiko, and Sueko grabbed InuYasha by the arm and dragged him with her.
"What was that for?" cried InuYasha.
"Well, I suck when it comes to using my sword, you're actually good with yours, so I thought I'd bring you along," said Sueko simply, a smile spreading across her face.
"Feh."
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A few minutes later the group reached the village, but the sight was not at all what Sueko expected. The village was—well, there was no longer a village, since the whole thing was destroyed. A cluster of women huddled together, quite frightened of the thing that was standing in the middle of the now destroyed village. He—or, maybe, it—was a large man with wide shoulders and long black hair pulled up in a ponytail, but the weirdest thing about him was the four tentacle-like arms coming out of his sides.
"Well, ain't he pleasant!" commented Sueko cheerfully.
"I've seen uglier," said InuYasha.
The man—who Sueko guessed was a demon of some sort—noticed Sueko and the others and grinned. "You have made my life so much easier."
"How does that make sense?" asked Sueko.
"He's a demon. He doesn't have to make sense!" cried InuYasha, unsheathing his Tetsusaiga. Yoshiko did the same with her sword.
"You want to play, don't you?" laughed the demon… man… thing. "Fine by me!" He held his right hand out, and all of a sudden this black energy came out of it, and the dead bodies lying around them just stood up.
"Oh great. Zombies! Just what we need!" complained Sueko, crossing her arms.
"He's a necromancy!" breathed Yoshiko in amazement.
"You think?" cried Sango and Miroku.
"Um… guys, what do we do now?" asked Shippo, backing into Sueko.
"We fight, you idiot!" cried InuYasha, cutting one of the "zombies" heads off with his sword.
"Shippo! Sueko! Go back into the forest!" cried Miroku, holding a zombie off with his staff.
"Hell no!" cried Sueko, trying to unsheathe her sword. But it didn't want to come out. Yoshiko sighed and grabbed the hilt of the sword, yanking it out of the scabbard.
"Thanks…" mumbled Sueko.
"It's too dangerous! You can't even use a sword properly!" cried InuYasha.
"Can to!" said Sueko, gripping her sword and trying to cut a zombie's arm off. It just barely grazed his arm, cutting it.
"Besides, practice makes perfect!" said Yoshiko. InuYasha glared at her.
The demon-man-thing glanced at Sueko, who was swinging her sword blindly at a zombie trying to attack her, and smirked. One of his large tentacles reached out and grabbed Sueko around the waist.
"Hey!" cried Sueko, trying to hit the tentacle with her sword. But of course she wasn't doing so well at it, so it just barely grazed the surface.
"Just what I was looking for," said the demon.
"What? Me?" blinked Sueko.
"Leave her out of this!" cried Sango, throwing her giant boomerang at the demon. The boomerang just bounced off the tentacle, not doing any damage at all.
"She's a big girl! If the demon wants to fight her, then let her fight him!" cried Yoshiko.
"Are you nuts?" cried InuYasha.
"Well, the girl needs practice!"
"So you're just going to let herself get killed?"
"Enough!" cried Miroku, hitting a zombie aside the head with his staff.
"Now would be a good time to have that Wind Tunnel!" commented Shippo. Sueko was surprised Shippo was still there. "FOX FIRE!" cried Shippo suddenly, throwing little blue flames at the demon.
The demon laughed. "You think that will stop me?"
"Maybe this will!" cried InuYasha, cutting one of the tentacles that were just waving about with his sword. It got cut right in half.
"How dare you!" said the demon.
"Feh!" said InuYasha, punching a zombie that was trying to get him from behind. "You're just a load of talk!"
"So what if I am? I have powers too," said the demon.
"Not very good ones," said InuYasha as another zombie tried to get him.
"They just keep coming!" said Sango, hitting one with her boomerang.
"What about me?!" cried Sueko.
"Get yourself down!" said Yoshiko.
"It's kind of hard to do that when your damn arms are pinned to your sides!" cried Sueko.
"I'm not the one that's stuck. You are."
"That's nice. MAYBE YOU COULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!"
"But that would be too easy," said Yoshiko.
"InuYasha, can you kill her for me?"
"Make up your mind. You want her dead or not?" cried InuYasha, who had stopped using his sword against the zombies and decided to use his fists.
Sueko just scowled, struggling against the tentacle.
"Don't worry. I won't be killing you or anything," teased the demon-thing.
"All right," said Sueko. "THEN WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WITH ME?!"
"What a feisty little girl," said the demon.
"I'm not little!"
"Yes, yes! Well, I can't exactly go killing you when I need you alive."
"So you'll just be taking pleasure in torturing me instead?!"
"Not quite. I need you alive in order to get the stones."
"Stones…" said Sueko thoughtfully. "Oh. Well, too bad, because I won't be helping you!"
"I can always make you," said the demon, grinning. "Or just use your sword."
"Huh?" said Sueko, cocking her head to the side.
"Your sword! Don't you know your sword senses the stones?" cried the demon in disbelief.
"Um… I guess…" muttered Sueko.
"It glows blue when there's a stone around," explained the demon hastily. "So I'd be able to use you to collect the stones!"
"And you want these stones why?" asked Sueko.
"So I can get into the shrine and become more powerful!"
"I thought you already were powerful," said Sueko. "At least, I thought you thought you were powerful."
"You can never have enough power," said the demon.
"All right, good for you. Well, you can have fun in your own little world of powerfulness, but I won't be part of it!" said Sueko stubbornly.
"Shut up, silly girl!" cried the demon, whacking Sueko on the head with another one of his tentacles. "There's no way to escape me!"
"Oh…" Sueko's head was pounding and her eyesight slightly blurred as she swayed back and forth, suddenly feeling dizzy from the blow to the head.
"You demons are all the same!" cried InuYasha from down below. "All you ever want is to be stronger, and to have more power. Well, no one gets what they want, and I certainly won't let you get what you want!" And with that, InuYasha cried, "WIND SCAR!" as a swirl of wind surrounded his sword and he was able to cut the tentacle keeping Sueko trapped off the demon.
"You think you can defeat me that easily?!" roared the demon.
"Yeah, pretty much," said InuYasha.
"I could easily just kill the girl and take the sword instead!" cried the demon. Another tentacle went toward Sueko. Yet slightly dizzy, Sueko still managed to stumble away and the tentacle, instead of cutting her in half, just scrapped her stomach area. It was still deep enough that Sueko fell down, not able to stand while in pain.
"FIRE WAVE!!!" cried Yoshiko, swinging her sword to create the wall of flame, which she directed at the demon. The demons screams filled the air as he burned to death.
"Sueko!" cried Shippo, running toward her "lifeless" body.
"I'm all right," said Sueko quietly, smiling shakily at everyone hovering around her.
"No you aren't! You're bleeding to death!" cried InuYasha.
"I'll deal with her," said Sango, setting down her boomerang. "How about you three go over there or something," she added, shooting a meaningful look to Miroku, Shippo and InuYasha.
"Feh," muttered InuYasha, walking away towards the trees. Miroku and Shippo followed, Miroku sighing slightly.
"Will she be okay?" asked Yoshiko, who looked as though she didn't care whether or not Sueko lived, but it was evident in her tone of voice that she did.
"She just got badly cut right along here," said Sango, pointing to Sueko's gut wound.
"I'm right here, you know," muttered Sueko.
"You just need to rest, okay?" said Sango, who started taking off Sueko's shirt to bandage the wound.
"It's not that bad…" mumbled Sueko.
"It will be if I don't tend to it," said Sango. Then she gave a small smile. "You did pretty good though, considering it was your first real battle."
"No I didn't. I sucked! Everyone else actually did something. Even Shippo. I'm just useless," mumbled Sueko.
"That's not true! You did what was only expected of you," said Sango.
"Practice makes perfect," chimed Yoshiko.
"Yeah… sure…" muttered Sueko.
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It was still dark outside when Yoshiko sat up from her mat and walked out of the hut with her sword. Before closing the flap of the hut completely she took one last look at the sleeping form of Sueko. Even for her wound she was sleeping peacefully.
"She's such a stupid little girl," muttered Yoshiko proudly.
Taking a deep breath outside she started to decide whether to go deep in the forest or by the lake. Suddenly a small noise caught her attention and Yoshiko swung around, unsheathing her sword. Stepping out of the hut was none other than Sueko, fully dressed and holding her sword.
"Where are you going?" whispered Sueko.
"Why aren't you resting?" snapped Yoshiko. Then she smiled. "I guess you could come train with me if you wanted to."
"Really?" said Sueko excitedly. "You would do that for me?"
"Yeah, why not? It's been a while since I've had somebody to train with. It'll make for nice change. Besides, you can only get better with practice," laughed Yoshiko. "So, in the forest or by the lake?"
"The forest!" said Sueko excitedly.
"All right. But don't exert yourself too much. We don't need your wound to reopen," said Yoshiko sternly.
Sueko nodded and followed after Yoshiko. She tried to walk slower than usual so the poor girl wasn't running to keep up but every once and a while she would have to stop so Sueko could catch up. But she didn't complain and they walked into the forest quite a ways in complete silence. Just like every other day in Yoshiko's life.
"How about here?" she said suddenly, stopping in a place that looked like any other spot in the forest they had walked through.
"What's so special about here?" said Sueko, cocking her head to the side.
"It's far enough from the others that they won't find us and close enough that we'll be able to find them again," said Yoshiko. "But I wouldn't try coming out into the forest alone. You can get lost easily."
"I know I can. But how come you don't?" asked Sueko, leaning against a tree to rest a little.
"Have you ever seen a cat get lost?" smiled Yoshiko.
Then suddenly she pulled out a dagger and stabbed it in a tree. Sueko's eyes went wider than usual and suddenly noticed her sword was starting to glow blue.
"You have one of the stones!" cried Sueko.
"What?" said Yoshiko, turning to her. "What rubbish are you spouting now?"
"You took out that dagger and my sword started to glow. The demon that destroyed the village… he said that my sword glows whenever one of the stones is around," said Sueko. "So… InuYasha should have killed you! And you're trying to kill me, aren't you!?"
Yoshiko just stared at Sueko for a while. During this moment of silence the sun started to rise, filling the dark forest with such colors as pink and orange. It almost seemed like it was on fire. Sueko stood up straight and drew her sword.
"Well, you can try and kill me but… but… but I've got a sword!" she cried.
A smile crossed Yoshiko's face and she started to laugh. She laughed so hard she had to prop herself against a tree to stop from falling down. Then just be even safer she sat down. This was definitely not what Sueko had expected.
"Why would I want to kill you?" laughed Yoshiko. "If I wanted you dead I would have done it earlier. And could have."
"How am I supposed to know how an evil mind works…" glared Sueko.
"Look, evil minds aren't normally smart unless they've been at this thing for a very long time. I'm only 19 and haven't that long of time to become smart. Plus my family isn't made out all that smart of demons anyways," said Yoshiko, still smiling. "You heard that necromancy, he told us his plan before doing anything about it. And he's probably one of the smartest low level demons out there."
"Well, you could be older than you look. Demons do that! InuYasha is older than 50 and he only looks 16!" said Sueko defiantly.
"You are stubborn!" laughed Yoshiko. "Look, I'm just out here to train. I do it every morning. I didn't know I had one of the stones."
"Well, you do!" said Sueko stubbornly. "My sword says so."
"I use my dagger to warn me if any demons are coming. It can almost sense a demon's aura when it comes close. I never knew why it did it just that it could."
"Maybe the stone's inside of it! We'll have to break it open!" said Sueko, walking over to the dagger and grabbing the hilt. Yoshiko jumped to her feet but then smiled as the girl tried but failed to pull the dagger out. "Sheesh! How deep did you put this thing?"
"Deep enough I guess," laughed Yoshiko. "Now how about, before you use up all your energy, we train?"
"But… oh fine!" said Sueko.
"So you can put that away," said Yoshiko, nodding at Sueko's sword.
"How am I supposed to train without a sword?"
Yoshiko bent down and picked up two sticks about the same size. She tossed one at Sueko, who fumbled with it.
"We'll practice with these," smirked Yoshiko.
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"InuYasha? Have you seen Sueko anywhere?" asked Sango.
"Nah. The girl must have ran away because she felt so bad," shrugged InuYasha.
"Yoshiko is gone too. We should probably go looking for Sueko," said Miroku.
"It's almost lunch time anyways!" said Shippo, shielding his eyes against the sun as he looked up.
"You're point is?" growled InuYasha.
"Sueko normally lets me play Pokey-man," shrugged Shippo.
Suddenly InuYasha hit Shippo over the head leaving a large bump.
"You two are so childish," sighed Miroku, hitting InuYasha on the head with his staff.
"And you're different?" muttered Sango, grabbing her boomerang and starting off toward the forest.
She had hardly stepped toward it when stumbling out of it came an exhausted Sueko. Sango dropped her boomerang and grabbed a hold of the girl's arm to steady her. The relief was evident across Sango's face. InuYasha rolled his eyes but in the next minute was drawing his sword when he saw Yoshiko advancing out after Sueko.
"Not much of a welcoming comity, are you?" said Yoshiko, blinking in surprise.
"Where did you take Sueko?" said Miroku threateningly.
"We just went out for a walk," said Sueko, not looking at InuYasha. "And I'm going to go take a nap. See yah." And as suddenly as she had appeared Sueko left again, staggering towards the hut.
"What did you do with her?!" growled InuYasha, striding up to Yoshiko, glaring.
"All we did was practice. That's all!" said Yoshiko, holding her hands up in defense.
"Practiced what, exactly?" asked Sango.
"Sword fighting!" said Yoshiko as if this was obvious. "Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to have lunch." Yoshiko followed Sueko's path to the hut, making the flap sway slightly.
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It didn't take that long for Sueko to figure out what was wrong with her (mince the gut wound, of course). She had watched and read enough about it to figure out what it was. It was the only explanation for the weird way she felt… the way she felt around him. What Sueko wanted to know was why the one guy she had to have a crush on has to have a dead girlfriend. Like, really! Let's go making life harder by having to fight demons and be in love with a half demon that'd never like her back!
'Luckily all it is is just some silly crush that I'll get over with in a month or two. Hopefully,' mused Sueko one night as she attempted to fall asleep. The problem was that the way she wanted to sleep was too painful—it was rather difficult to sleep on your side with a gut wound, after all—so she was forced to lie on her back, which was never a comfortable position. It helped that the only view she had was the ceiling of a hut, which was probably only made of straw or very thin wood. Sueko couldn't figure out which… it wasn't like she was born in the Feudal Era or anything, she was just visiting.
Sueko just couldn't sleep. She sat up, leaning against the wall, and rummaged quietly through her book bag lying nearby. Maybe she could just read for a little while and then try to fall asleep again.
She opened a book only to discover there wasn't enough light in the hut to read by. Sighing, Sueko shoved the book back in and pulled out her GameBoy, only to discover ten minutes later that the batteries were too low to play—at least she had already won her Pokèmon game so many times it didn't matter whether or not she saved it.
'Now what is there to do?' thought Sueko, dropping the Game Boy in her bag and hugging her knees close while ignoring the pain in her stomach from her injury. Sueko looked up and her eyes widened as they laid sight on a sleeping InuYasha. 'He looks so peaceful…
'Ugh! InuYasha, do me a favor and GET OUT OF MY HEAD!' thought Sueko, closing her eyes and leaning her head on the wall in frustration. 'I can't wait for a month to go by. Maybe then I'll get a grip and move on from my stupid crush, but I still have to wait a whole month! A whole four weeks! A whole thirty days!' Sighing, Sueko laid back down on her mat, closing her eyes and attempted to fall asleep again. But a random thought struck her that made her eyes open wide again.
'Kagome died a whole month ago—a whole four weeks ago—a whole thirty days ago…'
Sueko sighed. She wished Kagome wasn't dead. If she were still alive, InuYasha would be happy. Though the two of them would be together again… InuYasha would still be happy… that's all that mattered to Sueko at the moment… that and for her to get better at fighting. Her sword skills—well, they down right sucked!