AUTHOR'S NOTES
There isn't much to say… Besides the fact that I'm sorry my teachers gave me all these huge assignments so my bright idea to edit this as quick as possible failed… But, hey, I finished editing and I'm posting this at ten o'clock at night so there! And this is only possible because my sister isn't on the computer (I get it afternoon, she gets it evening…) so don't expect me to stay up late to do this often! I could be staying up to read my book—it's totally awesome! It's called The Silver Wolf and about this Roman girl who can turn into a wolf… adventure, sci-fi, and romance… what more could I want!—but nooooo, I have to post this stupid update! Whatever…
DISCLAIMER
Oh my God… do you people not get this! It's not that hard to comprehend: If it's not from the manga or TV show, WE OWN IT! NO FREAKIN' DUH!
Chapter Twenty-Six: The Boy She Thought She Loved
To think it had been twelve years—exactly. Twelve very long years… To think she remembered the exact date. But it was there. In fact, it had popped into her head that night when she woke up early to write some more notes. Sure, she had written most of what Yukie had said and done but every time she almost got to sleep she figured out something new. So giving into her sleeplessness she took her notebook and went a little ways away from the sleeping forms of her friends. Since it was the half moon it was a bit difficult to write since she didn't have cat eyes. But even her human eyes could see far better than any normal mortal.
'If humans are mortals what does that make demons?' wondered Yoshiko, not for the first time. 'What exactly would you call an immortal?'
Sighing, she returned to scribbling down a few more things she remembered Yukie saying and what she thought it could mean. Though half of it sounded silly she didn't cross out anything. It could all prove to be valuable later and to ruin it now would be idiotic. Then suddenly, almost out of nowhere, she realized it was nearing the middle of March. In fact, if she wasn't much mistaken, it was the same day she had left her brother twelve years ago.
"How to celebrate such a strange anniversary…" mused Yoshiko, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand.
"You're going to hurt your eyes in this lighting," said InuYasha, standing over her with his arms crossed.
"Nice to know somebody cares," sighed Yoshiko, resting her head on her knees. "I'm done anyways."
"What are you doing up this late anyways?" asked InuYasha, sitting down. He said it almost in a worried manner that caused Yoshiko to cock her head in confusion.
"Couldn't get to sleep," muttered Yoshiko, feeling too sleepy to come up with a better excuse.
"Looks like you could now," joked InuYasha, poking her arm lightly. Then he frowned. "Hey, you okay? You look kind of pale."
"Hmmm?" said Yoshiko, trying to keep her eyes opened. "Oh, I'm fine. Don't worry."
"You're not getting off that easily," said InuYasha, rolling his eyes and moving to sit on the back of his heels to get a better look at her. "I would think that you're maybe sick. You really don't look good at all."
"Shove off," yawned Yoshiko, pushing the half dog demon over. Surprisingly he didn't yell at her but just glared. "Just tired, okay?"
"No, not okay," said InuYasha, stretching out on his side completely. "Something's bothering you."
"Are you butting in, InuYasha?" teased Sango, sitting up. Sueko, Miroku and Shippo soon followed her. "We see Yoshiko getting into people's lives all the time. You going to join her?"
"What?" cried InuYasha, jumping to his feet. "She's my friend! Can't I be worried every so often?"
"Sweet," murmured Yoshiko into her knees, stretching out. Then she got to her feet just as the sun was starting to rise. "But I'll be just fine. Oh, and—"
"Where do you want to go this time?" sighed InuYasha, crossing his arms. "You just saw Utako and Takeno. I don't think you want to repeat those experiences any time soon."
"Maybe she wants to see Sesshomaru," said Miroku, his eyes twinkling. Yoshiko laughed.
"Last time I saw him I gave him quite a bit to think about," she said. "I think it would be best to not see him anytime soon."
"What did you say to him?" asked Sango. Ever since she and Yoshiko went first met Utako she had been taking an active roll in Yoshiko and Sesshomaru's relationship.
"I told him I didn't care that he had kissed Rheda," shrugged Yoshiko. "I think that's what had been bothering him because he had been awfully quiet after one day."
"I still don't get it," muttered Sueko, shaking her head. The reason she said it quietly was so InuYasha wouldn't notice. But he did anyways and turned his gaze up at the sky, blinking guiltily. It was actually quite funny.
"Anyways, I remember there being a library at the Tiger Demon Den," said Yoshiko, grabbing up her stuff. "So I was going to see if it was still there."
"Just because Yukie showed up?" said Sango. "Well, we could all go if that's what you're doing."
"No," said Yoshiko abruptly. "Rheda might be there and if other people were there we could get lost in the den…"
"That's such a pathetic excuse," said InuYasha, rolling his eyes. "Look, we have nothing better to do. Let us come with."
"I'd much rather be alone," snapped Yoshiko, swinging her bag over her shoulder. "I'll catch up later."
With that she walked off without any clear reason for why she snapped or a specific destination. She had no real thought of going anywhere near the place where her aunt might be—which that probably ruled out going to see Sesshomaru as well. Plus she really did just want to be alone. It left her with time to think and for the first time since she met Sueko and the others she thought of her brother. And she didn't mind. After a while she turned north, toward the mountains, hoping to look for the Spirit Shrine.
Half the day went by and she didn't bother stopping at any of the villages along the way until she realized that she recognized the surrounding area. In fact, she had been here almost five years ago. But still she didn't think about visiting the village until she stumbled across a very familiar clearing…
In this clearing stood the remains of a half finished hut. Upon seeing it Yoshiko's breath got stuck in her chest. This was the place where she had almost reached her dream and where she had lost her first love. Sighing, she walked over to the hut and rested a hand on the wall. Carefully. If she had put any more pressure on it she was sure it would collapse. In fact, she was surprised that it was still standing after all these years. After all, there was no point in keeping it anymore seeing as how Raoul was dead and she had run away in fear. Even though this village had always been very kind to her… more so than her home village…
"I wouldn't let it decay," said a girls voice from behind her. "It was the last thing Raoul ever worked on, after all. Besides, we always hoped you would come back."
"What would be the point?" sighed Yoshiko, turning toward the owner of the voice, her hands touching the hut behind her. "I wouldn't be able to do anything with it."
"You could live in it," said a young woman, hovering at the edge of the trees. She wore the regular garb of a village girl along with a weathered green bandana. It covered the top of her long dark brown hair. A little bang peaked out and fell into her brown eyes. All in all there wasn't really anything special about her as she held her skirt out of the mud with one hand and a few flowers in her other. "That was the point of it, wasn't it?"
"The point was to live in it with Raoul," said Yoshiko, looking up and away. "What brings you here anyways, Tani?"
The girl held up the flowers in her hand and replied, "Came to visit Raoul."
At this Yoshiko's head snapped back at the village girl. But it seemed like Tani didn't realize this reaction but just walked toward the hut and into it. Hesitating at first, Yoshiko then followed the girl inside and saw her crouching in one of the corners. Noticing Tani muttering a few things the half-demon staid in the doorway, respecting the girl's space. Then Tani set her flowers down on a slight mound in the hut and stood back up.
"We buried him here because I thought that you would come back and stay here with him," she explained. "Just because he's dead doesn't mean you can't be with him."
"You can't hold onto someone who is dead forever," said Yoshiko.
Suddenly she realized that she hadn't let go of him… but forgotten. In a way to stop the pain she had banished Raoul completely from her mind. And suddenly, looking upon the place where he had died, memories flashed back to her and tears started streaming down her cheeks. Tani, an almost indifferent look plastered on her face, walked over and hugged the half-demon. It surprised Yoshiko at first when the arms circled around her neck (the girl was pretty tall) in a loose hug. When the tears stopped Yoshiko took Tani's arms and pulled her away.
"Why do you come here?" asked Yoshiko.
"I don't blame you…" muttered Tani, looking away. But when the half-demon's grip tightened the girl sighed and looked at Yoshiko. "You weren't the only one that loved him."
The only thing Yoshiko could think of doing after that was letting go of Tani and nodding. It was a numb sort of nod, like she wasn't sure how she should feel. In fact, she didn't want to think about how she felt about it. She muttered a quick "Good-bye" and then rushed off, feeling tears welling in her eyes again. This time she tried to fight them back, hoping that she could just forget about him again. But her short visit to her would-be home opened a door that flooded her brain and heart with memories she never wished to revisit. Despite her wish she found herself stumbling through the trees much like she had after Raoul had died. Finally she stopped and sat down, willing Kikyo to show up again and wash away all her pain. Instead somebody else showed up.
"What are you all upset about?" came a familiar, almost painfully happy, voice. "Cheer up! I don't like depressing people."
A hand appeared before Yoshiko's face, a lot like when Kikyo had showed up, and like five years ago she took it. Slowly she got to her feet and found herself face to face with Yukie, a small smile on her face. The happy expression almost made Yoshiko feel sick. Grabbing her stomach she pulled out of Yukie's grasp and turned away, tears falling down her face again. She tried to tell Yukie to go away but the words wouldn't come and a flash of Kikyo's stern face popped into her mind. At the short intense glare the tears stopped.
"Are you okay?" asked Yukie, as Yoshiko started hiccupping.
"I'm fine…" choked Yoshiko. "Please, just leave me alone…"
"I really don't think it would be safe to leave you alone," said Yukie, hands on her hips. "What are you doing alone anyways?"
"Being alone," muttered Yoshiko in little more than a whisper. "To give me time to think about my brother. He died on this day, twelve years ago."
She couldn't believe she was staying it out loud to another person. But it was almost like the words had been put into her mouth. Maybe it was another way of Yukie being psychic, she could make people answer her questions truthfully. In fact, she could recall reading about it somewhere… And then she realized she hadn't read it but somebody else had. Maybe Yukie? But then why was she recalling it?
"That's a very depressing date to remember," said Yukie, scratching her head. "Don't you think it's a bit sad to recall this day over every other one?"
"Depressing?" said Yoshiko thoughtfully, turning around. "Funny, I never put depressing to it. I just always found it odd that I could remember the day. I never put 'depressing' to this day."
"Is that why you were crying?" asked Yukie, causing Yoshiko to wipe her swollen, red eyes.
"Actually, no," sighed Yoshiko, feeling again as if the words were being put straight into her mouth. But she really didn't mind. She wanted to say it anyways. "I just went by the place where I saw this guy I liked die… While he was building our home."
"Like…" said Yukie perplexedly. "Like? He was making your house and you say you only liked him?"
"Well, I can't really be sure that I ever really loved him," said Yoshiko, her voice a little higher but not really yelling yet. "I just kind of wanted to love him so I could feel normal."
"It's almost impossible to be normal, dear," said Yukie, "because nobody is normal."
"Maybe not normal… so I could feel human, how about that?" said Yoshiko. "Which is why I want to find the Spirit Shrine. Maybe it could make me human…"
"That's a bit selfish," said Yukie.
"Then I won't have to worry about my fear," said Yoshiko. "About being a demon and hurting my friends. Because I'll be human and nothing near being a demon."
"That's true…" muttered Yukie. "But what makes you think that the shrine has that sort of power?"
"I don't really. It was my own deduction seeing as Akemi could send a demon almost stronger than her to hell," said Yoshiko. "And the fact that many of the strongest priestesses got their powers from that shrine. Plus the Shikon Jewel was created only because of the existence of the Spirit Shrine."
"You are intelligent," said Yukie with a sly smile. "Well, I'll tell you this much: the power of the Shikon Jewel is nothing compared to that of the Spirit Shrine."
With that she started to walk away, but this time it was Yoshiko's turn to ask a question.
"Where did you read up on your information?" she blurted out. With a grin Yukie turned back around.
"It's nowhere you couldn't find it. In fact, it's been under your nose the entire time; you're just too afraid to go find it," said Yukie. "The library rotates but with the awakening of the stones there hasn't been anytime to move it. See ya!"
"How can we leave if Yoshiko isn't around?" cried Sueko as the group decided to start traveling again. "She wouldn't be able to find us if we keep moving our location!"
"Yoshiko's a big girl. She can find us when she wants to," muttered InuYasha. He wasn't really in the mood to argue.
Sueko sighed. "I guess you're right… but she might be a bit cranky when she comes back and discovers we found another elemental stone without her or something."
InuYasha raised his eyebrows at the girl, surprised at what she had said—she'd usually continue arguing about something like this.
"Are you coming or not?" asked Sango, lifting up her boomerang from where it had been leaning against the hut.
With a shrug InuYasha followed Sueko, who rushed inside the hut to grab her book bag before following Miroku, Sango, Shippo and Kirara.
Oddly enough, InuYasha wouldn't mind running into some sort of demon or another. Even though the group was up on their feet again he still felt extremely bored… and it's not like he could ask Sueko if he could borrow that weird game thing because Shippo was playing with that. And the game would probably be very lame, like that Pok-mon one.
Sueko seemed to notice InuYasha's restlessness because she said to him with her arms crossed, "Don't tell me you completely forgot about that CD player I gave to you!"
"That thing?" said InuYasha. "Oh… it kind of broke…"
"What do you mean it broke!" cried Sueko. "It was brand new when I gave it to you! Don't tell me you broke it!"
"I didn't break it!" cried InuYasha, crossing his arms also. "It just wouldn't play anymore. It's not my fault it suddenly stopped working! All that stuff from your time is really confusing to work with anyways!"
Sueko uncrossed her arms and stared blankly at him. "You mean it suddenly stopped working? Like that?"
"Uh huh…"
Sueko laughed. "I get it now! It needs batteries!"
"What!"
But Sueko ignored InuYasha as she started digging around in her book bag, pulling things out once and a while that got in her way and shoving them into Miroku's hands. Miroku looked bewildered at the many strange things from Sueko's time that were in his hands but then Sueko cried out, "Tada!" and pulled out two small cylinder-like things.
"What are those?" asked Shippo from Sango's shoulder in amazement, looking at the things in Sueko's hand.
"Batteries," said Sueko. "See, they give electronic things power…"
"Uh huh…" said Miroku, trying but failing miserably to look like he understood what Sueko had said. Plus all the weird objects in his hands were already overwhelmed him.
"Now where's the CD player?" asked Sueko impatiently, turning to InuYasha.
"Um…" said InuYasha, digging around for the strange object that played music. He found it eventually and handed it to Sueko. It looked as though she was taking it apart as she pulled two cylinder things similar to the "batteries" in her hand, only to replace them with the two in her hand. Shoving the other two somewhere in her book bag, she gave InuYasha back the music-thing and said, "There, it should work now."
"Um… Sueko? Would you like your things back?" asked Miroku sheepishly as Sango and Shippo picked up a few of the strange objects to examine them.
Sueko laughed, and started putting the things back in her book bag as InuYasha stared at the music-thing, trying to figure out how to make it play. Eventually Sueko took the thing out of InuYasha's hands, pushed a button, and shoved the thing back into his hands impatiently. But before InuYasha could put the earpieces in a familiar scent filled his nose.
"Someone's coming…" he muttered, trying to look through the trees to see them.
"We've been walking for not even ten minutes and already some demon's after me?" said Sueko.
"No… It's definitely a human," said InuYasha. Even though he could hear the mortal approaching he had to give them props for being so sneaky—it took even him a while to tell where they were coming from and he was the demon. Well, half demon…
"Well, if it's human then we don't really have to worry, now don't we?" said Sueko confidently.
"Not all humans are good," said Sango, looking around as well.
After several minutes of the group trying to sense where the person was coming from and not really making much progress in their travels they finally showed themselves. And in seeing this person InuYasha's first thought was, 'Kikyo…'
Seconds later InuYasha mentally hit himself for thinking such a thing. Kikyo was long gone—not even her dead self was around anymore. However, the woman standing before them looked very similar to the Kikyo InuYasha once knew. Her outfit looked like the outfit of a priestess, except instead of it being red and white it was blue and white. The woman's hair was put up in the same fashion as Kikyo's except instead of it being black as night was the same pale brown color as that of dead leaves on the ground. Her face was narrower than Kikyo's, and she was smaller than her as well. In fact, it looked as though this woman hadn't taken care of her health as well as she should have if her pale complexion and slenderness had anything to say to it.
The most alarming thing about the woman besides reminding InuYasha so much of Kikyo was her eyes. They were quite ordinary, plain eyes that were hazel in color. InuYasha couldn't read the woman's expression at all as it was pretty indifferent looking, but her eyes seemed to tell all that she was thinking and felt. They were deep, sad eyes that looked like the person had experience many terrible things despite her youth. And that only made InuYasha think of Kikyo even more.
Before the group could say anything the young woman spoke first, with her eyes looking at InuYasha as though looking through him as she said, "Are you the half demon InuYasha?"
At first Yukie's words only succeeded in confusing Yoshiko as she wondered aimlessly back to Sueko and the others. Then again she wasn't really thinking about what the woman had to say but more about Raoul. She missed him: his smile, his laugh and the look in his eyes whenever he brought her flowers. Every time she had felt so awkward but he was always okay with it. He never saw it as a 'I'm don't really like you' but more of a 'I'm a shy girl that's not that intone with her feelings.' And in truth that was exactly what she was. Had been. Now she wasn't as shy but more outgoing. But she found it was a far more effective way to hide what she felt, even to herself. Suddenly the last time Raoul brought her flowers played in her head.
"Hey Yoshiko, you got a moment?" he had said, climbing up the hill to her.
"Yeah, it's not like I've got anything to do. You're the one that's busy with all your farming."
"I got you these," he said, handing her some flowers.
A small sad smile crossed her face as she took the flowers delicately and looked down at them.
"Thank you," she said in a small voice.
"That's not the only reason I came," said Raoul, his voice sounding so confident. "I was wondering if maybe you would like to spend the rest of your life with me. In our own house…"
Yoshiko gasped and looked up, happiness dancing across her face. A grin was on Raoul's face as the half-demon cried out loud "Yes!" and leapt at him, encircling his neck with her arms. A few villagers that had come to watch clapped and cheered, knowing that this day had been coming for half a year now.
Then the vision faded into darkness, soon replaced by Raoul's crippled, bleeding body as the ogre stood over him. Yoshiko soon shook it out of her mind, knowing if she dwelt on it she would end up crying again. Suddenly she knew where the library was, the one Yukie had mentioned. But before she could decide to go there her ears twitched a familiar sound. She groaned as a wind tornado made it's way in front of her and turned into a wolf demon—a wolf demon that she knew all too well: Koga.
"Hey darling, I brought you something," he said with a grin, holding up some freshly picked small blue flowers.
Yoshiko gasped, but this time not out excitement but in horror. With shaking hands she took the flowers, her bangs shadowing her eyes. A look of confusion crossed over Koga's face as Yoshiko started to shake all over. She didn't even know if it was from silent sobs or from anger. Finally she managed to speak.
"Why?" she hissed. "Why me? Why flowers?"
"Because you're a funny, entertaining, quite attractive and an outgoing young woman!" said Koga. "Who couldn't help but like you?"
In his words echoed almost the exact same thing Raoul had said to her when he first brought her flowers. His answer was a little different but they both meant the same thing. They liked her and as far as they were concerned she was the best girl they could have ever met. But to her eyes they would be far better off with somebody else. Would have been, in Raoul's case. Before she could say anything, however, Koga was moving onto the next question.
"And I brought you flowers because that's what guys do for girl's they like," said Koga. "Bring them gifts like flowers. Why, you don't like them?"
"No… I love them…" muttered Yoshiko. "But…"
"Hey, you okay?" asked Koga, cocking his head to the side to try and look her in the eyes. "Was it something I said?"
"It was everything you said!" choked Yoshiko, the tears starting to fall down her cheeks again. "I don't deserve it, Koga! I don't even deserve a jerk like you! Please, just leave me alone!"
"In this state?" cried Koga. "I don't think so!"
"What is it with everybody today?" screamed Yoshiko. "I don't care if I don't look fine! I won't be fine until you just give me space. Leave me alone, god damn it!"
"What's up? You really don't sound like you're doing all that good," said Koga, sounding deeply worried. "I don't think I've ever seen this side of you. What brought this about?"
"Everything," hissed Yoshiko, pushing Koga away. "I don't want flowers! Where the hell am I supposed to put them? I DON'T HAVE ANYWHERE TO LIVE!"
With that she threw them on the ground and stepped on them with her foot. But Koga just gave her a pitying look, acting as if he knew how she felt. But he didn't. He couldn't. Nobody could. Thirteen years ago she lost her stepmother and her father. Twelve years ago her father died and she had to leave her brother. Eight years ago she burned a village just to kill a freakin' demon. Six years ago she met Raoul and almost though she had found her happy ending. A year later he died and she was left alone again. Now everything came crashing down on top of her as if meeting Sueko and the others had punctured the dam that kept everything back. No, they had completely destroyed it because it wasn't coming at her in a steady gush. It was everything falling on her at once and her so-called friends were just standing on the sidelines, laughing.
"So next time I won't bring flowers," shrugged Koga. "I'll bring you something that you can take with you when you're traveling.
"I'm sorry, Koga, but there won't be a next time," muttered Yoshiko darkly, shaking in anger and frustration. "I want you to just leave me alone. And I mean it. Don't you ever come near me again, understand?"
"Excuse me?" said Koga, blinking. "What, are you breaking up with me?"
"Idiot!" snapped Yoshiko. "We were never together to begin with! Now leave me alone!"
With that she turned on her heels and left Koga standing alone, confused. But she didn't care. All she cared about was getting as far away from her memories and her pain as possible. Slowly she started to mend the rift between her bad times and the slight happiness she had. She knew it would be a long process and she decided to hole up in the Earth Shrine until she was sure she could face Sueko. There was no need of snapping at one of her friends like she had with Koga. With Koga she felt no regrets but she knew that it would hurt Sueko. And that was something that Yoshiko wouldn't be able to live with.
'But I'll have to face her at some point,' thought Yoshiko. 'I just can't do it now.'
Surprisingly, as she slipped off to sleep that night, her last thought wasn't of Godric, Raoul or even Sueko. No, instead she imagined in great detail Sesshomaru and Rheda kissing… and she felt as if a bit of her heart was ripped away. Part of her didn't know why, but she still found herself crying herself to sleep.
Before the group could say anything the young woman spoke first, with her eyes looking at InuYasha as though looking through him as she said, "Are you the half demon InuYasha?"
"What's it to you?" muttered InuYasha crankily.
"I'll take that as a yes," said the woman, her face still indifferent.
"May we ask what your name is?" said Sango kindly.
"Sachiko…" the woman muttered as if not wanting to mention it. But then she turned her head back to InuYasha and said quite clearly, "I have a proposition to make."
"With me?" cried InuYasha, surprised. This was probably going to make him end up somewhere he didn't want to be.
"What kind of proposition?" asked Sueko curiously.
The young woman named Sachiko hesitated before saying, "I need you to… destroy something for me."
"And you can't do this on your own why?" muttered InuYasha, crossing his arms tiredly.
"Because… it's too difficult for me to do it on my own. No matter how many times I've tired… I just can't," said Sachiko, not meeting InuYasha's eyes.
"Uh huh…" said InuYasha, his tone and face full of doubt about the girl.
It seemed as though Sueko didn't find this at all suspicious as she asked, "What do mean 'destroy something'?"
"She's a shape-shifter," said Sachiko simply.
"You mean you want us to kill a demon for you because you're too weak to do it on your own?" said InuYasha.
Sachiko's eyes narrowed. "It's not that I'm weak… It's more complicated than that."
"A shape-shifter?" said Sueko, looking amazed. "Isn't that what Shippo does?"
"He can't do it that well," said Miroku.
"What do you mean I can't do it that well!" cried Shippo.
"Are you going to do it or not?" asked Sachiko impatiently to InuYasha.
"What's in it for me?" asked InuYasha in almost a teasing manner.
Sachiko's lip curled up ever so slightly as she pulled out a perfectly round, deep blue stone and held it up to InuYasha.
"What's that supposed to be?" said InuYasha, raising an eyebrow.
"It's a water stone, you idiot!" cried Sueko, smacking InuYasha on the back of the head. "Are you blind!"
"You don't have to shout…" muttered InuYasha, rubbing the back of his head.
"So?" said Sachiko, waiting for an answer.
Before InuYasha could open his mouth in reply Miroku had said for him, "We'll do it!"
Sachiko stood there, rolling the stone around her hand with her fingers, before closing her hand completely around it and putting it back in her pocket. Seeing this, Sueko cried, "Wait, you're not going to give it to us?"
"I can't give it to you until you do what I want," said Sachiko simply. With that she turned to leave, adding before disappearing completely, "I'll be back soon."
"Yes, but how do we do what you want when we don't know what to do?" muttered Sueko, crossing her arms.
"We know what we're supposed to do, though," said Sango.
"Oh, yes, we're killing a shape-shifter. How specific!" said Sueko huffily.
"It's not like there's that many around to choose from…" said Miroku thoughtfully.
"But why'd she go to InuYasha to do it?" asked Sueko curiously.
"Feh!" said InuYasha with a laugh. "She's probably heard about how powerful I am!"
"Hmm… You're not that powerful…" muttered Sueko.
"Who says!" cried InuYasha.
Sueko smiled sweetly. "How can you be so powerful yet so arrogant?"
"What? Hey!"
"You two are so immature!" said Shippo.
"And you aren't?" muttered Sueko.
"I'm not immature!" cried InuYasha.
"Well, I'm not immature so it has to be someone!" said Sueko, glaring at InuYasha. InuYasha stopped in his tracks and glared back, and Sango, Miroku and Shippo stopped traveling to see what would happen next. They weren't too surprised with the results.
"InuYasha!"
"What?"
"SIT!"
A young girl with raven colored hair sat underneath a tree, twirling around a fancy red and black dagger with her fingers as she thought of nothing in particular. She was dressed in strange garments: an odd looking white shirt with a green skirt. She also wore very strange shoes, which were brown and made of leather. Her outfit was unheard of in the Feudal Era but she'd have fit right in at some other era. But the strangest thing about her yet was her bright blue eyes, which was extremely rare in Japan. But she wasn't just some ordinary girl.
She heard footsteps nearby but didn't do anything about. In fact, it looked as though she had never noticed them at all even though they were barely twenty feet behind her, as she continued to twirl the wicked looking dagger in her fingers. Not only was the blade of it extremely sharp, the handle of it had blades coming out of it too. The girl looked unbothered by this, seemed only bored as the dagger continued to spin by her fingers touch.
The owner of the footsteps was a woman that went by the name of Sachiko. The girl didn't need to see the woman to tell this; she could just tell by the pattern of the footsteps. Flicking the messy black hair out of her face, she tiredly waited for the woman to finally notice her appearance.
It didn't take long. Sachiko barely passed the tree the strange girl was leaning against before spinning around hurriedly and glaring at her. When the girl didn't look up at her Sachiko sighed wearily and said, "Just what do you think you're doing, Sukiyama?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?" said the young girl, not looking up, only staring straight ahead at the spinning dagger.
"Stop pretending to be someone you aren't. I feel sorry for the poor girl you're impostering!" ordered Sachiko.
"Oh, don't worry about what she thinks," said the girl cheerfully. "She's no longer alive!"
Sachiko blinking a few seconds before screaming, "You mean you killed the poor girl!"
"Oh, no, nothing like that!" said the girl, giggling girlishly and waving a hand, stopping the dagger from twirling. She set the dagger next to the ground where a belt with the dagger's twin laid beside the tree, and then she stood up, twirling slightly just for the fun of it before standing face-to-face with Sachiko. Except Sachiko was pretty tall so she was towering over the girl.
"She was already dead," said the girl, continuing with what she had said. "That made it difficult to get what I wanted accomplished… especially when his new wench showed up…"
"What are you talking about?" said Sachiko angrily. "Wait, I'm not sure I want to know… Would you just turn back to yourself?"
"Fine, you party pooper!" said the girl, faking hurt. Putting her arms at her sides, the girl closed her eyes and narrowed her eyebrows as she concentrated. Suddenly, a line of light started at her feet and as it went up, she changed. Her odd, brown, leather shoes became simple sandals; her green skirt grew to a strange blue, yellow, and white kimono-like dress; her white shirt from a different time formed to be the torso to the kimono; her height grew to compete with Sachiko; the messy black hair became more tame and grew to her waist; nearly her whole entire face changed except for the eyes, which stayed that bright blue color.
The girl had turned from Higurashi Kagome to Tanaka Sukiyama.(1)
"Better?" said Sukiyama with a slight smirk, crossing her arms like the transformation had been a big drag. But it never bothered her.
Sachiko just shook her head at Sukiyama. In response Sukiyama said in dramatically hurtful tones, "I've always respected you, Onee-chan! I can't understand why you don't like me back…"(2)
"How could anyone like you?" cried Sachiko. "You're pure evil!"
"Well… I was thinking we could look past that in our relationship…" said Sukiyama pleasantly.
"What scheme are you cooking up now?" Sachiko asked tiredly as if wanting to change the subject.
"Nothing right now," said Sukiyama with a dramatic sigh. "My last thing didn't go so well… If only his new wench didn't show up!"
"Who are you talking about?" asked Sachiko.
"I was trying to get those shrine stones everyone is so fascinated by," spat Sukiyama heatedly. "Being Sesshomaru and that half tiger demon didn't work, so I tried to get what I wanted out of that half demon mutt, but that other wench showed up, ruining everything!"
"A half dog demon…" muttered Sachiko.
"Why would you care about him for?" said Sukiyama, still sour from the memory of her failed plan. "Are you allies with him or something?"
"I guess you could say that…" muttered Sachiko, as though she was just realizing something, while at the same time looking as though she was trying to hide something.
"Hmm…" said Sukiyama, not sure if she should question her sister further or not. But she figured the attempt would be rather pointless so she decided not to.
"So…" said Sukiyama, examining her fingernails closely with an indifferent expression on her face, "have you come to try again?"
Sachiko glared. "I'm past that."
"Sure you are. Keep telling yourself that…" muttered Sukiyama, not being able to hide the grin that showed up on her face.
But as soon as it had come it quickly melted away as, with a look full of hurt and anger, Sachiko stepped closer to Sukiyama only to slap her on the face—hard.
Sukiyama lost her cheerful attitude as she put a hand to her smarting cheek and narrowed her eyes at her sister.
"I don't have time for your teasing," spat Sachiko. And without another word she spun around and left Sukiyama standing under a tree.
Sukiyama leaned over to pick up her belt, tying it around her waist and putting the dagger back into it.
'Sometimes I wonder if she actually thinks it's my fault mother and father are dead…' thought Sukiyama before leaving the tree.
"Talk about your weird experiences," sighed Sueko after the groups meeting with Sachiko, raising her arms to stretch for no particular reason.
"I don't know…" muttered InuYasha. "There's something about her that I don't like…"
"Would that be because she reminds you too much of Kikyo?" said Miroku in a teasing way.
InuYasha growled. "Don't you people think I have other things going on in my mind besides my dead girlfriends!"
"Not really," said Shippo, which earned him a bop on the head.
"Who's Kikyo?" asked Sueko curiously.
"Just some girl that got tricked, along with me, by Naraku," said InuYasha with a shrug.
"Wow…" said Sango, amazed at what he had said. Which just annoyed him further.
"Oh!" said Sueko. "So was she the girl that got you stuck to a tree for fifty years?"
"Uh huh…" muttered InuYasha, his eye twitching ever so slightly.
"Don't tell me you're still not over her yet!" cried Shippo, pretty bodily considering InuYasha's mood.
"WOULD EVERYONE JUST SHUT UP ABOUT IT!" bellowed InuYasha.
"Fine," muttered Sueko, crossing her arms and trying to look bothered by it.
When InuYasha noticed something bouncing in the grass his mood did not improve at all. Sueko noticed this too and stared wide-eyed as the thing hopped up to InuYasha's chest and started sucking his blood.
InuYasha smacked his hand on the thing on his chest, causing it to fall to the ground as it muttered, "No respect… no respect whatsoever…"
"Is that you, Myoga?" asked Sueko curiously.
"Oh, so now you remember me…" muttered Myoga, jumping back up to InuYasha's shoulder and crossing his arms moodily.
"What do you want, Myoga?" asked InuYasha tiredly.
"Master InuYasha, I really would expect better of you," muttered Myoga. "Didn't anyone ever teach you to respect your elders!"
"But you're a flea!" said Sueko.
"Honestly!" cried the flea.
"What do you want, Myoga?" asked Miroku patiently.
"Well, as you well know I left so I could find out about the 'Last One's' ancestor and—"
"My name is Sueko!" cried Sueko bitterly.
"Let me finish!" cried Myoga, jumping up and down and waving his arms about. Sueko just muttered bitterly and crossed her arms.
"Anyways! After leaving I found out some interesting information about the Water Shrine," continued Myoga.
"Really?" said Sueko, uncrossing her arms. "Does that mean it's nearby?"
"It's several leagues west, so I suppose you could say it's nearby…" muttered Myoga.
"Don't humans protect the Water Shrine?" thought Sango out loud.
"Did," said Myoga solemnly. "Apparently the village that protected it was destroyed nine years ago. Though I can't figure out how precisely it was destroyed, just that it is…"
"A whole entire village… destroyed?" cried Sueko, amazed.
"Was the shrine damaged as well?" asked Miroku.
"I saw no signs of it," said Myoga. "Though, of course, there could have been some sort of barrier over it to protect it, making it to where no one could find it by mere sight… However, I doubt an ordinary mortal would possess that sort of power. Besides, the Earth Shrine's barrier wasn't that strong at all, and that too was protected by humans…"
"You went to the Earth Shrine too?" asked Sueko.
"No, I was with Yoshiko and we went a long time ago," said Myoga. "Are you telling me she never informed you of this?"
"She told me…" said Sango.
"Maybe she didn't find it that important…" said Sueko. "It would be pretty random to just suddenly say, 'Hey, guess what? I visited the Earth Shrine with Myoga!'"
"She was actually just visiting the spot that they buried her brother," said Sango. "And then she decided to go to the Earth Shrine. But all she found there was the bit about the legend, which she already explained to us."
"Anyways, what were you going on about?" said Sueko, turning back to Myoga.
Myoga sighed, obviously annoyed by the girl. But he continued, none of the less.
"Apparently there were two survivors of the village," he said. "But all I know about them is the fact that they're sisters and their family once protected the shrine. Except they seem to have gone their separate ways and no one knows of their whereabouts."
"And somehow I'm not surprised by this at all," muttered Sueko. "That's usually how it goes in fantasy-adventure books and stuff. And then eventually the readers get to figure out about them towards the end. But in the books nearly someone always dies…"
"What are you talking about?" said InuYasha.
"Never mind…" said Sueko, sighing.
"What else do you learn, Myoga?" asked InuYasha.
No one really needed to hear Myoga's answer. They could tell by his sheepish, guilty look.
"Figures," muttered InuYasha.
"Did you find anything out about Yukie, then?" asked Miroku.
"Erm…" mumbled Myoga. "Just that she went back north… to the Spirit Shrine's location…"
"Useful…" muttered Sueko, rolling her eyes.
Suddenly a crashing noise occurred. The group turned around to find a giant beetle demon ready to attack. In fact, it started to spit this strange liquid out at them. It almost hit Shippo but he jumped out of the way before it got on him. Plugging his nose, he cried, "EWW! It's a giant stink bug!"
"A beetle?" said Sueko. "Hey, Myoga, it's your relative!"
But it turned out that Myoga was no longer sitting on InuYasha's shoulder. He must have fled as soon as he had sensed danger.
InuYasha pulled out Tetsusaiga, looking merely amused by the presence of the demon. Sueko got out her sword too, and without any difficulty for once.
However, despite its weak appearance, the Wind Scar failed to defeat the demon. And the shell of it seemed to be so strong that Sango's boomerang had no affect, and InuYasha's and Sueko's sword only just bounced off the demon's back. Shippo even gathered enough guts to use his Fox Fire but that didn't do any good either.
As her friends tried to think of what they should do to defeat the stinkbug Sueko got this crazy idea. Crazy because she was pretty sure it wouldn't work. Yet she still wanted to try.
Sighing, Sueko closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. She tired empting her mind of all thought, just as Yukie suggested. Then something very strange happened. It was as if her sword had taken complete control of her body and mind. In fact, Sueko felt as though she was becoming a whole different person. Though this lasted only for a brief moment of time. But it was long enough for the sword to make Sueko hit the ground with her sword, creating this chunk of earth that formed from the swords tip to come out of the ground and fly on top of the demon, crushing it with it's large mass and weight.
When it seemed as though Sueko had returned to her normal self, she looked at her sword quizzically before noticing that everyone was looking at her. Turning a bit pink, she smiled sheepishly and said in a high-pitched voice, "Well, that sure was interesting, wasn't it?"
"What did you just do?" asked InuYasha, his eyebrows raised.
"I don't know," said Sueko, shrugging. "I was just seeing if I could do anything with my sword… apparently I can…"
"Maybe that was the power of the Earth Shrine…" said Sango, looking at the huge chunk of ground that was no longer there.
"So far you have tapped into the power of the Wind and Earth Shrine," said Miroku thoughtfully. "And created a defense shield, and killed a spider demon without knowing how… So you have yet to tap into the powers of the Fire Shrine and Water Shrine."
"Thanks, Mr. Obvious," muttered Sueko.
Miroku glared at her as InuYasha said, "So what's the Water Shrine's power? Splashing the demon with water?"
"I don't think my ancestors are that lame!" said Sueko.
"Can we get a move on now?" asked Shippo, jumping up to Sueko's shoulder. "I don't feel like sticking around until another stink bug shows up."
"Why complain? You just have to rely on us to save you anyways," teased Sueko. But she picked up her book bag that she had sat down and the group went along with Shippo's words.
REVIEWS
I know. Such a lame ending… I'll work on editing the next one as soon as possible, okay? I've just had a lot of homework lately so that's why it took me a while to edit this one. Anyways… let's review to reviews because I have nothing else to do… Can you believe we have 41 of them now? And there's only like… 26 chapters that I've uploaded so far… (I'm extremely behind with editing so my word document actually has like 30 chapters… BUT I'M WORKING ON IT!) so that's like two reviews per chapter… if you estimate the average, which I just did! Oh my goodness gosh… Okay, review praising…
icygirl2: Um… I think two new characters makes it more interesting… And we're working on that legend thing! But the thing is you'll have to wait forever on that… Sorry!
Elf.hanyou-Yorie: What, "elemental hanyou" not good enough for you! Okay, just kidding… God, every time I see the word elf I think of Lord of the Rings… I haven't watched the movies in ever even though they're like the best movies ever… And that reminds me, I have yet to watch the Star Wars movies! Maybe I should work on my lack of Star-Wars-ness when I go over to Ravyn's house… except we'll probably be too busy writing fan fic or watching anime… sigh Okay, you never replied to Chapter 26, I just felt like making a random comment about your username… Hope you don't mind. It's spiffy!
FOOTNOTES
Okay, I needed footnotes again, so sorry for "stealing" it from you, BlackTearsOfDarkness. Not that you invented footnotes, but whatever…
1: When I edited this I realized that if I put Kagome's full name perhaps I should put Sukiyama's… So I quickly found some Japanese surname website and picked one at random… Apparently it's one of the top five common Japanese surnames in the Tokyo area… or something… the website wasn't exactly clear…
2: Onee-chan means "Big Sister" in Japanese according to my Love Hina manga #4… so if I'm wrong by this yell at the Tokyo-pop translator's, not me! I can't find it in my Japanese dictionary… (I stole it from my sister. Don't tell or no Pocky for you!) And in Love Hina it doesn't have a dash between Onee and chan but I put it there because… I felt like it… and it made more logical sense (You don't go "Shippochan"! You go "Shippo-chan") and… it looked better that way… I'm in a Sailor Moon mood. STUPID SAILOR MOON AMV!(3)
3: Can you have a footnote for a footnote? Whatever, AMV means Anime Music Video. If you haven't been to then… GO THERE!
Sayonara! And don't forget to review… 'cause you love me and if you do I'll give you free electronic Pocky?