A Story of Hope

When Asai woke up it was dark and the group had stopped again for the night. She sat up, looking around. "Where's the pretty lady?" she asked.

Sango looked up from the dinner she was cooking. "You're awake!" she commented, smiling.

Asai nodded. "Where's the pretty lady?" she repeated.
"Kagome went to a near by stream with Inuyasha." Miroku explained. Seeing Asai's confused, look he added. "The man with dog ears."

"Oh." She frowned. "But I want to see the pretty lady! She was nice to me!"

"Kagome should be back soon." Sango told Asai "But until she gets back why don't you play with Shippo? I'm sure he'd love a playmate." Shippo nodded, grinning.

Asai looked the kitsune over. "Is he a demon?" she asked.

"I'm a fox demon." Shippo said proudly.

"Mama said that a demon po- po-"

"Possessed." Miroku told her.

Asai nodded. "Mama said that a demon possessed me." She said nervously.

"Only bad demons posses little girls." Sango said gently. "You don't have to worry. Shippo's very nice. He won't do anything like that."

The little girl looked back at Shippo. "I promise you won't have worry." He said confidently. Asai smiled. "I'll show you my spinning top!"

Meanwhile, Kagome and Inuyasha were sitting at the stream. Kagome was sitting right next to it so that the water rushed past her feet. Inuyasha opted for a seat a few feet away, leaning against a tree.

"We should start thinking about getting back." He told her.

"Is it getting dark?"

"No. The sun already set."

"Oh." There was silence for a few seconds. Then Kagome spoke again. "Was it a nice sunset?"

"What?"

"Was today's sunset nice?"

"Oh. No." Inuyasha replied, "It just kinda turned gray and then black." There was silence again. This time he Inuyasha broke it. "Was that how it was when you turned blind?"

Kagome shook her head. "No." she replied, "I just fell asleep with my sight and woke up without it."

"What's it like?" he asked. "To be blind."

"Come here." Kagome told him. Inuyasha did, sitting next to her. Hearing him sit down, she carefully put a hand out, attempting to cover his eyes. "Did I cover your eyes?"

"No." came the muffled response. "You got my mouth stupid."

Inuyasha took Kagome's hand gently pulling it from his mouth and to his eyes. As soon as her fingers came in contact with the skin next to his eyes, a bit of black, just a little brighter than usual flickered across her line of sight. Kagome gasped, pulling back.

Inuyasha frowned, opening his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"When I touched your eyes my sight got brighter!." She said excitedly.

He grabbed Kagome's hand, putting it back next to his eyes, this time he kept them open to see what she would do. Kagome's eyes went wide. Her vision was back. She could tell that it was dark, yet she could still see just as well as she could if it was daylight. "Inuyasha…" she said, "I can see…"

"You can!" he said loudly.

She nodded. "But I can see myself. Like I'm not using my own eyes."

Inuyasha frowned again. He held up three fingers in front of Kagome. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

When Kagome saw the fingers from the other side, she knew exactly what was going on. "Three." Kagome replied.
Inuyasha nodded. "So you can see."

"But Inuyasha!"

"What?"

"I'm using your eyes!"

He stared at her open mouthed. "Huh?"

Kagome removed her hand and her world slipped back to black. She put her hand back and her body came back into view. "When I'm touching you next to your eye it's like I'm borrowing your eyesight!" she told him. "I see what you're seeing." Kagome took her hand away again. "But when I'm not touching you I go back to black. She reached out to get Inuyasha's sight again.

"OW!"

Kagome flinched. She hadn't been expecting his loud exclamation.

"You just poked me in the eye wench!"

Kagome frowned. "I'm sorry." She said, "I didn't see where I was aiming. And don't call me wench!"

"Only a wench would poke me in the eye!" he screeched.

"Well sorry." Kagome said standing up and heading towards the forest, the opposite of the stream.

Inuyasha looked back, glaring, but he immediately stopped. "Kagome!"

"What?" she kept on walking.

"Stop!"

"Why should I?"

"Just stop!"

"No! I'm not going to let you boss me around."

"STOP!"

Kagome walked into a tree and fell over.

"I warned you." Inuyasha said smirking. He walked over, helping her up. "Come on. Let's go back to the group." Kagome nodded and Inuyasha pulled her onto his back.