"Ow! Ow! Stop that, ani-chan."
Inuyasha uttered a low growl and stopped poking at Hikaru's hand. Dawn was several hours past and she was restored to her normal self. Except for the Shikon shard still in her hand. No one had any luck removing it.
Miroku came forward with some bandages. "It's obvious that none of us can remove the shard. Let's hide it instead. Maybe a solution will come to us later." He knelt at her side and began using the bandage to wrap her hand, concealing the shard.
"What good will that do? Others will be able to sense it," Inuyasha demanded.
"Um, actually, Inuyasha, that might not be the case."
"What do you mean, Kagome?"
She studied Hikaru a moment before speaking. "If I didn't know that she had the shard, it would be easy to say that she didn't have it. I can sense it, but it's very faint."
Sango looked up from maintaining her Hiraikotsu at them. "It may be possible that since Hikaru possesses both houriki and youki, like the Shikon Jewel, then the combination of them masks the shard's presence."
"That is possible. If so, than that gives us an advantage."
"How? Naraku will know that the last shard has been found by now," Shippou huddled on Kagome's shoulder.
"Ah, but he knows that a young miko has the shard. Kagura and Hakudoushi didn't find out that the miko was actually a hanyou at her human time. Naraku will be sending his agents to look for such a miko."
"Don't bet on that," grumbled Inuyasha. "He's not as dumb as that."
"Well, it wouldn't hurt to hope, Inuyasha," commented Hikaru. The houshi had finished his work and she was flexing her fingers and wrist to make sure that she could move her hand freely.
He also handed her some prayer beads. "These are the same kind that I use for my wind tunnel. They might further hide the Shikon's presence from others." Over the bandages she pulled on a glove that had the fingers cut off; the cuff of the glove went up her sleeve. She nodded and wrapped the beads around her hand and wrist.
"I think that we better head back to the village. Tonight is the night of the new moon. After what happened last night I don't think that we want to be caught out in the open like that again," Juanyu suggested. He didn't mention that Inuyasha would be the one to turn human this time.
The others agreed and headed out. The shadow-half youkai scouted ahead in case of trouble.
Inuyasha was silent during the return trip. He didn't like how this was going. The shard was a part of his imooto now; Hakudoushi was right in that the only way to remove the shard from Hikaru would be to cut off the hand. He didn't want that. He also didn't want her corrupted by the shard. He could see no way out of this situation short of making the Shikon Jewel whole again….
Which would mean that Hikaru and Naraku would have to meet face-to-face. Inuyasha grimaced and for a moment, focused on where to put his feet. Dammit, there was no other way to resolve this, not to his liking at least.
On his back, Kagome knew that he was thinking about something hard. He had this quiet, reserved attitude about him whenever he was thinking about something. It didn't take a lot for her to know that he was thinking about Hikaru. They all were. She wanted to say something, something to comfort him or give him hope for the future. But she couldn't think of anything that didn't sound contrite. Instead she leaned down and hugged his shoulders. She hoped that he would understand.
"Hm. So, a young miko is in possession of the last Shikon shard. I'm disappointed in you, Hakudoushi. I would have thought that you would have worked harder in your attempt to gain it."
Naraku glared at his minions with his usual cold, deceptive stare. Hakudoushi was trying not to protest further in his defense about the failure. Kagura was doing her best to ignore them both, yet she focused enough that Naraku couldn't accuse her of wondering thoughts.
"I've sent out the Saimyoushou to find her," the little youkai stated. "It shouldn't take them long to find her and the shard."
Naraku sneered. "You shouldn't have bothered. It is unlikely that Inuyasha and his friends would be so foolish as to let the girl run around on her own." He paused as one of the Saimyoushou returned from scouting and hovered near his shoulder. Naraku listened for a moment to what the insect had to say. By the end, he was smiling. He gave a wordless command and the Saimyoushou went to rejoin its brethren.
"Hakudoushi, Kagura, I have a new assignment for you."
"What is it?"
"We know where all the shards are. All that remains is to collect them. Go and keep track of Koga. Because of the shards in his legs, he moves quickly, but your wind power should be able to match his land speed."
Although they were confused, neither of them argued. They left on a feather out of sight. Kagura was curious as to what the Saimyoushou could have told Naraku that changed his attitude so quickly.
When they were gone, Naraku chuckled. "Ah, Inuyasha. How rude of you. You never told me that you had an imooto. And now she has the last shard. This should make things very interesting. I wonder though…what will you do when the shard and the girl become corrupt? Kill her?" His chuckle grew into a laugh as the idea filled him with malicious glee.
The man raced through the forest as if the beasts of hell were on his heels. And in a sense they were. A pair of large bear youkai forced their way onward not caring what got in their path. The human knew that he was only prolonging the inevitable, but he had to get through. It was a mad hope that someone would see him and try to help him. But the fact that no one had come when he first cried for help made this hope a slim one.
The bears did reach him and he had the dignity to not scream when they tore into him. This was helped when one of the bears slashed his throat open with a claw. Blood sprayed everywhere and more flew into the evening air as the youkai finished dismembering him.
When they were done, they paused in a zombie-like stance. Each of them seemed to be listening to something that only they could hear. Suddenly they turned on each with a growl. The assault was brief and unsatisfactory. Both youkai ended up on the ground bleeding too heavily for their bodies to heal. A wet, sticky thud resounded through the woods as they fell.
From the deepening shadows, a woman emerged tapping a long flute on the palm of one hand. A scowl marred her beautiful features and showed her for the oni that she was. A booted toe nudged one of the corpses and she sneered.
"I thought that one of them would be tougher than this…how sickening and pathetic. At least the nosy human is rid of."
Without a backward glance, she walked away from the rotting meat towards her home. She needed to find some more candidates. If only there were some worthy fighters close by.