Last time: Michelle and Kay got into a small fight, that turned into a sparring match with InuYasha. Dawn was worried sick about the girls and was watching shows from the last time they were there.

Chapter 11: I'm Sorry

Kay blocked an attack from Sango's sword and thought how good she was at swordsmanship. It was taking all her strength just to hold Sango off. She hardly let an opening for Kay to try and strike. Sango struck again, sending Kay back a couple of feet. The ground was torn up underneath her feet, and she was sweating a lot. Sango was hardly using any strength. Well, it seemed that way.

Kay dodged an attack and then sent her sword towards Sango, having it blocked by the demon-slayer. "Very nice. You're getting better," Sango complimented.

Kay smirked and dodged another attack and then froze. "Sango! Look," Kay said, looking away from camp.

"It's one of Kikyo's soul collectors!" Sango said, watching the demon as it held a soul in it's grasp.

"I'm going to follow it. Knowing InuYasha, he's going to go to Kikyo," Kay said, transforming her sword back into a handle and running towards the soul collector.

"Wait!" Sango said, taking a step forward. But Kay was already gone and heading towards Kikyo.

- - -

Sango, Kirara and Charlie had finally returned to camp, though without Kay. She had said that Kay found something, but wanted to pursue it alone.

"Keh. Stupid human," InuYasha said, glaring into the forest. His eyes widened when he saw the tail of one of Kikyo's soul collectors. "I'm going to go get her."

InuYasha stood up and walked into the forest. "Wait! InuYasha! You can't go while you're human. What if you get hurt?" Kagome said, getting up and grabbing his arm.

"I'll be fine," InuYasha said, turning towards Kagome. She gasped and let go of his arm reflexively, and he walked off into the forest.

That look... What was he thinking? Is Kikyo here? Kagome thought, her hand lowering slowly and tears brimming her eyes. She blinked them away and went back to the fire, sitting so she could see the edge of the forest.

InuYasha felt bad for leaving Kagome there, but he had to find out why Kikyo is here. He followed a soul collector as it slowly flew through the forest, heading to it's master.

- - -

Kay was hidden in a tree, hiding within the branches and watching Kikyo as she stood in the middle of the clearing, taking in souls. Kay could hear someone coming, and she turned to see... MICHELLE! Michelle smirked and looked at Kay, smiling. I found you, Michelle said to Kay using her mind.

Kay nodded and turned back to Kikyo as Michelle climbed up into the tree. Kikyo looked into the distance and then said, "InuYasha. So, you've come."

"Kikyo..." InuYasha walked into Kay's view and looked at Kikyo carefully.

"I have some information for you." Kikyo walked towards InuYasha. The dark forest seemed to glow with the individual soul collectors and souls floating around. Kay scooted forward a little bit. It was lucky that InuYasha was human, or else he would have caught the two peepers.

InuYasha's breath was caught in his throat. He couldn't believe Kikyo was here... But... I feel bad for just seeing Kikyo. Why? Why do I feel bad? InuYasha asked himself. His thoughts echoed into the two girls and Kay smirked.

"Naraku... After he captured those two girls and used them and you to resurrect that demon, he went farther north, into the mountains," Kikyo said.

"Thank you, Kikyo," InuYasha said.

Kikyo walked towards InuYasha and said so quietly that Kay had to use her mind to hear Kikyo's thoughts, "I know the past is behind us. We cannot have a future together. I do not belong here, in this world. You already have someone who you can love."

InuYasha's eyes widened. Kikyo took InuYasha into a hug and he returned it.

How typical. It's always like that. And then Kagome will find them like this and assume something happened, Kay thought.

InuYasha and Kikyo came out of their embrace and Kikyo backed up. Her soul collectors wrapped up around Kikyo and flew up into the sky, leaving InuYasha to stand there, looking up. InuYasha turned to look at the forest, around where Kay and Michelle were sitting in the trees. The two girls looked down to see Kagome standing there.

A tear fell down her cheek and InuYasha took a step towards her. Kagome ran, as fast as she could.

Kay jumped down from the tree and ran after her, not caring that InuYasha knew about her following Kikyo now. She ran after Kagome, and she could see Kagome start to run faster.

Once Kay was out of her sight, Michelle jumped from her tree and walked over to InuYasha. She glared at him and looked him straight in the eye. He cringed inwardly and Michelle kept her glare up.

"What?" InuYasha said, the harshness gone from his voice.

"What is with you, jackass?" Michelle said, poking him hard in the chest. InuYasha took a step back at the sheer force of her poke, and also because it was harder on him when he was human.

"What do you mean?"

"Are you really so thick! Why did you do that?"

InuYasha didn't answer and looked past Michelle to where Kagome disappeared to. He felt horrible, even though he didn't do anything but hug Kikyo. He sighed and walked back to camp, leaving Michelle to stand there, confused by what InuYasha had done.

- - -

Kay ran as fast as she could, almost catching up to Kagome. She was a little ways away, but then she lost her. Kay looked around and then saw her, leaning against a tree, her shoulders shaking.

Kay slowly walked up to the girl against the tree and put a hand on her shoulder. Kagome looked up from the tree, tears streaming down her face. "Kay..." Kagome said, sniffing a couple of times. The wind went through the trees and blew her hair in her face.

She really does look like Kikyo, with her hair going in her face like that. But, she's not. She's so different. And I think she's prettier. InuYasha is blind. He can't see what a great person Kagome is... Kay thought, watching Kagome's hair flow in the wind and in front of her face.

"Kagome, it wasn't what you think," Kay said, her eyes pleading that she would think that also, but knowing she wouldn't.

"Than what was it? Why was he there?" Kagome shouted at Kay.

"He went to see Kikyo, but the reason she wanted to see him was to tell him that she knew where Naraku was," Kay said, acting like Kagome's shouts didn't affect her in any way.

"But... that's not what I saw..." Kagome said quietly.

"Kikyo said that InuYasha could not be with her, and that he has another love anyway... Now, who do you think that is?" Kay said, smiling lightly.

Kagome breathed in shakily and then hugged Kay tightly, holding onto her neck and crying into Kay's shoulder. Kay awkwardly patted Kagome's back, not sure how to react to someone hugging her. She never had anyone hug her. Kagome pulled back from Kay and then wiped her eyes.

"Uh... Should we go back to camp? We might get there before morning. You did run quite a ways," Kay said, turning to walk towards camp.

Kagome nodded and followed Kay through the forest, keeping her eyes on the ground.

Kay walked through the forest, pushing aside any branches in her way. Kagome followed closely behind. Did InuYasha accept that Kikyo was not for him? That it was not meant to be? I didn't have enough time to check his thoughts. Maybe I'm checking thoughts too much; invading to many people's privacy. I wouldn't like it if I had my mind constantly checked by someone else. But, of course, I have some valid reasons to check their thoughts... Kay told herself.

Kagome closed the gap between the two and stayed unnaturally quiet. It scared Kay slightly.

- - -

Everything was quiet in camp. Everyone but Kagome and InuYasha were asleep. Leaves fell from the branches and one fell into Kagome's hair.

The half-demon, who was still human, got up from his spot next to a tree and plucked the leaf out of Kagome's hair. She looked up at him with sad eyes, blinking away tears.

"Kagome... I... I'm sorry," InuYasha croaked out. His voice was barely audible, hardly heard to the young priestess. But she heard it.

A tear fell down her cheek and she hugged InuYasha, crying into his shirt. "I've always wanted to hear you say that..." Kagome said, tears muffling her words a bit. Though, the reason he may have said that is because he is human... But either way, she was grateful.

InuYasha put a hand on her head and closed his eyes, letting Kagome cry.

"Thank you, InuYasha," Kagome muttered.

- - -

In the morning sun, InuYasha transformed back into his normal half-demon state. His eyes became golden once more and his hair white. His ears also turned into the cute little fuzzy things on top of his head. InuYasha's human emotions were gone and replaced with... Nothing, really.

Kay woke up early, her hair a mess and brain scrambled so bad that she couldn't remember her name at the moment. She looked around and saw a fire burning and InuYasha sitting in front of it, looking at it intently. Why was the weather always so nice and sunny here? Hm... Whatever.

Kay got up and walked over to the fire, scratching her head and blinking away sleep. She yawned and then looked at InuYasha carefully. She reached out with her mind and smiled. Kay knew that he apologized, but he was sure acting weird. He acted like nothing was wrong, and that nothing happened last night.

"You hungry?" Kay asked suddenly. InuYasha looked up. He nodded and looked over to Kagome who was sleeping soundly with Shippo huddled up in her arms. She shifted in her sleep and stretched, slowly getting out of her sleeping bag. She turned to look over to InuYasha and Kay and smiled softly.

Kagome grabbed her backpack and moved over to where InuYasha and Kay sat, watching her soundly. She set her bag down and looked through it, finally finding what she was looking for and taking out three cups of instant ramen. (oO;)

"Mm! Ramen!" InuYasha said, scooting closer to Kagome. Kay scooted a little closer to Kagome also, waiting patiently for the ramen to cook and be served.

By the time that the first cup of ramen was ready, almost everyone, save Michelle, was up. They ate their ramen happily, having Michelle join them a bit later, cursing them for not waking them up. Once finished, they got up and started to leave without words.

Kay stopped.

There was someone there.

Someone...

She turned around and looked to see nothing but forest and the path they had just traveled.

"What is it?" InuYasha asked.

"Someone's there... I can sense them," Kay said, looking around.

Michelle sighed and said, "You are such a moron."

"No, really! I can sense something..." Kay said urgently.

Kagome walked forward, in front of Kay and said, "Yeah, I can sense them too... I wonde--"

Then, Kagome was gone. She disappeared.

"KAGOME! KAGOME!" InuYasha yelled, going to where she was standing and sniffing.

"I didn't know it would be that easy. Naraku spoke like it would be hard to get the girl away from you," said someone standing behind them. They all turned around simultaneously to see a strange demon standing there. The demon had long, purple hair that was up in a ponytail and purple eyes with long slits for pupils. Her skin was light and she wore tight fitting clothes, and pointed ears. Her clothes were black and revealing, like a leotard with no straps and the shortest skirt imaginable. And her clothes were hard, so they were more like armor than clothes, and her feet had hard, black boots that reached her knees. Above her collar bone was nothing else, and her arms were bare also. Her hands had black claws, claws that were held up to Kagome's neck. She also had purple lips to match her eyes and hair.

So, what Michelle and Kay saw was this: a slut.

"Kagome!" InuYasha said. He sniffed the air. "You are an incarnation of Naraku, aren't you!"

"Very good. So you aren't as dumb as you look. Congratulations," the demon said in her calm voice. She sounded a lot like Kagura, except happier and had a softer voice.

InuYasha growled and grabbed the hilt of his Tetsusaiga. Kay and Michelle pulled out their swords and they instantly transformed into their normal state. InuYasha pulled out his sword, which also transformed.

"Let Kagome go!" InuYasha said.

"InuYasha, you must be careful. You can't harm Kagome," Sango said, holding her Hiriakotsu and taking a step forward.

"I know that," InuYasha growled.

"We have to get Kagome out of there!" Shippo said, gripping Miroku's shoulder.

"What are you all muttering about? Why don't you try and get your little priestess friend here?" the demon asked.

"Who are you?" Miroku asked, hoping to buy some time.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't introduce myself. I am Katakoutai. I'm sorry that you won't be able to meet my sister for a while, but I have to leave," Naraku's incarnation said. "Kagura!"

Katakoutai's hair blew in the winds that Kagura made as she landed to the ground. Kagura grabbed Katakoutai and then flew into the air using her giant feather. Katakoutai continued to hold onto Kagome, who struggled in the female demon's grasp.

"InuYasha! INUYASHA!" Kagome yelled, holding out her hand towards the group.

"Shut up!" Katakoutai yelled, knocking Kagome hard over the head. Kagome was knocked out instantly.

"Kagome!" InuYasha yelled. He growled at the disappearing demons that flew through the sky. "Dammit! They got away!"

"Charlie!" Kay started to run and jumped on the now transformed Charlie. Michelle and InuYasha also jumped onto Charlie and Shippo, Miroku and Sango went on Kirara. The cat and dog flew into the air, following Katakoutai and Kagura.

"I hope Kagome is all right," Shippo said.

"I'm sure she'll be fine," Miroku assured him, but no one really believed him. Silence went over the group like a plague. They looked off into the distance and saw smoke rising into the air.

"Is that Totosai's home?" Kay asked, looking carefully in the distance.

"Yeah. It is. We should stop there... Maybe we could get my sword sharpened..." InuYasha growled.

The animals moved down to the ground, landing in front of Totosai's home... Though, no one found it very suspicious that Kay knew who Totosai was.

Next time: The group goes to visit Totosai, and he tells them the secrets of Kay and Michelle's swords.

Michelle: Awesome!

Kay: Oh yeah!

Michelle: I can't wait! But... If we're trying to find Kagome, why are we stopping?

Kay: Like I know. InuYasha's such a moron.

InuYasha: What did you say!

Kay: Shut up.

Charlie: The next chapter is Aoirohiken and Papuruhiken!