Kikyo stared blankly at the lagoon, her eyes empty of much emotion. The soul collectors that belonged to her dove in front of her, and they deposited the stolen souls of the dead that they had collected. She couldn't, after all, live without these stolen souls of the dead.
The dead priestess' mind wallowed about, her thoughts really only focused on one thing at the moment: Inuyasha.
Where was the hanyou? She knew that once the half-demon saw one of her collectors, he would come running to her; he was pathetic in that way. So, once a healthy bit of time had passed, she had been quite startled to realize that Inuyasha would not be coming today.
Her expressionless face never unfroze, her brown eyes still glazed over the water's gentle surface. It must have been her reincarnation's fault, she decided, why else would he not come? Usually the younger girl did not interfere much, but she must've this time.
Pausing her thoughts, she slowly turned her head around. She could feel the presence of a demon… someone was watching her. Once fully facing the woods that edged the waters, she noticed the parting of the canopy of the trees above, and a somewhat large spider demon was hanging from one of its threads, staring at her with eight darkly flickering eyes.
"And what do we have here. Hmm? A priestess… oh yes, another priestess soul. How very nice, yes, yes…"
Kagome opened her eyes, but soon closed them, seeing that everything seemed blurry and was giving her a slight headache already. Okay… she had to survey the scene she was in, try to figure out what to do next. Opening her eyes slowly, her eyes adjusted and were able to clear her vision. She couldn't recognize anything familiar, so she figured she must've have been taken quite a bit far from where she had started.
Everything seemed sort of dark, and it seemed like the air wasn't clear. Squinting her eyes, she then saw that not too far from her, there was some sort of translucent cocoon, with Kikyo inside. Startled, she attempted to move, but only realized now that she was immobilized. What? Finally, she also noticed that she, too, was in a cocoon similar to one like Kikyo's.
She began to struggle, trying anything she could to give her a bit of leeway to move. Nothing worked. Frustrated, she moved her eyes to look back to Kikyo, and she opened her lips as much as she could, calling sharply to the other woman, "Kikyo! Kikyo!"
No reaction from the other cocoon- it seemed that Kikyo had been knocked out for the time being. Kagome frowned slightly, then glanced around again, to see if she could do something somehow. There was nothing around, just a heavily vegetated part of the forest, it didn't seem like it would be easy to walk here. Then, out of what seemed to be thin air, a spider had swung down in front of her.
"Eeep!" she yelped, instinctively trying to move back, but paralyzed where she was, so she stared at the ugly thing straight on. It was black, with red marks randomly here and there, with huge purple-looking fangs, no doubt poisonous. Her eyes hardened, she said roughly, "Let me go!"
"Let you go? Ah, don't be silly, little priestess. No one here to save you, oh no, no. Your soul is mine. Two priestesses' souls… that'll give me quite a bit of strength, don't you think, little girl?"
Not answering at first, she wondered if the spider would actually gain as much he thought he would, Kikyo's soul, after all, was hers, was it not? She only had a little bit, enough to keep the body alive, and she had to steal more souls so she could actually move and function. Her thoughts moved onto a different train of thought, "NO! Inuyasha will come! INUYASHA!"
The spider-demon made a sort of chuckling sound, and clamped together its pincer-like fangs a couple times before it responded, "The little half doggy demon? Poor, poor little priestess, she thinks that the half doggy will defeat the spider! Poor, poor little priestess…"
It's words made her flush; must they always bring up the fact that he was a half-demon? What did it matter? He was just a strong as any demon, and stronger, with the human heart he had. You would've thought the demons would've figured this out, considering he's defeated everyone that's faced him head on except Naraku and his brother Sesshormaru. This spider would be no different, it too would die, "He's stronger then any demon!"
"Tsk, tsk, it's almost sad how the little priestess thinks she's going to be saved. Poor little Kagome."
Her name coming from the spider's voice startled her: how did it know her name? She hadn't muttered anytime. Almost reading her mind, the demon chuckled.
"Confused and bemused, little Kagome? That's because the spider has already begun to harvest your soul… and so secrets tend to slip out. The spider knows your little attachment to the half doggy, your hatred for the doggie's attachment to the dead priestess."
Kagome did not answer, as she did not know what to say. All she could think of was Inuyasha.
"Oops! The spider has to leave the little priestess. New prey has just stepped into the spider's web. Bye-bye, little Kagome!"
Inuyasha was desperate in his search for Kagome, since he couldn't locate her scent anywhere- where did it go? Sometimes he would catch a wisp, and he'd sprint in that direction, but then it would disappear again. Whatever took her was dead, that was for sure. That was, if he could find it.
The angry half-demon stopped suddenly, and looked back to where they should be, on Kirara. His eyes' eyebrows rose, unsure of what had happened to them. Now where did they go? Grumbling that they couldn't even keep up with him, he turned forwards and continued on looking for Kagome. He couldn't waste any time waiting for the others.
Sango pulled at her wrists, trying to free herself. How did they get stuck here? Kirara had been following after Inuyasha, but then she had gotten stuck in something, so they had jumped off to see what happened, only to be entrapped themselves, each not too far from the other. If only she could somehow reach her blade, she could free herself from what seemed like a web.
The monk didn't have much luck either, and there was no way he would even try his Wind Tunnel. The actual enemy wasn't in sight, and there was the risk that he would suck in the others. Not that he could free the Tunnel anyways, stuck like this. Glancing sideways, he saw Sango struggling to free herself, and Shippou not far from her. Kirara seemed to be out of sight.
Shippou seemed to be unconscious, Miroku noticed, so he turned back to face Sango. Only he and her had a chance to free themselves, with Sango's odds higher. He saw that she was trying to reach for something, no doubt a knife or something of the sort. There wasn't anyway to help her, so he looked around, to see if he could free himself. His staff? Unfortunately, he could see it down on the ground.
He rationally realized that there wasn't much they could do, only wait till the spider-demon that wound this came back, and fight it then, or, for some strange reason, Inuyasha came back for them and helped. He doubted this, for he knew that Inuyasha was near hysterical about Kagome's disappearance.
"Lookie here, some new prey…" a low voice taunted, and the black spider hung down from the canopy above, and hissed at them, drawing itself lower, "Good day for the spider. Usually never have this many strong souls, nope. Two priestesses, a monk, and a slayer? Good, good day."
Two priestesses? Sango realized that it must be this demon that had captured Kagome. Glancing to Miroku, he too had come to the same conclusion. She readied herself, noticing that the spider was coming closer to her. If even for a moment, if it released her to shroud her in a cocoon, it would be her chance to attack.
Climbing onto the invisible web, it crawled over to Sango; its two front legs grabbed her and hoisted her slightly. Sango took her chance: she flipped out a blade and stabbed the spider, leaving it to screech in the unpredicted attack. It shot a stream of silky threads, and it soon enveloped the demon slayer, leaving her to struggle within the cocoon. It turned to Miroku and did the same, without touching him though. It would not make the same mistake twice.
The web now disturbed, Shippou awoke and saw that both humans had been trapped. His eyes widened, and did not know what to do. He watched motionless as he saw the spider grab both cocoons with its legs, and begin to disappear into the bushy branches above, so he jumped. He grabbed onto the back of one of the cocoons, making sure that he was out of the spider's vision range. He could only hope Inuyasha would find them soon.
The silver-haired half demon continued to sprint, his breathing sharp. Finally, in a clue to find Kagome, he could smell the presence of a demon. It was here. Stopping, he looked around carefully, trying to pinpoint the direction of the demon. It was unnecessary, however, for it dropped down to him, chuckling as it did so.
"Aw, here's the little doggy. Looking for the little priestess? Or maybe the monk and the slayer? Or maybe even the dead priestess?"
His hand immediately sought out the hilt to his Tetsusaiga, and pulled out the fang, threatening the spider. A scowl on his face, he growled at the demon, "Where are they!" he readjusted the position of the sword, "Unless you want to die right now."
"That's not very nice. Maybe the little doggy wants to now what's happening to them right now?" it paused, but Inuyasha did not interrupt, "Their souls are being harvested… but they've all been placed in different areas. Oh no! How will the little doggy save them all? Their souls are rapidly being devoured… not enough time. By sunrise tomorrow, the last one will be dead."
Chuckling cruelly, it rose into the depths of the trees before Inuyasha could respond, and it soon had disappeared. Inuyasha did not move for a moment. They were all captured? Damn it! He should have made sure to stay with Miroku and the others. Kikyo too?…
He had no idea where to start, and he looked to where the sun was. High point of the day, night was far off, and the morning even further; however, was it enough time? Could he find them all? Snarling, he shot off into the trees, vowing that he'd find them all.
TO BE CONTIUNED