Shel pokes head in the room. 'Are they in here?'

"Nope." Hostage InuYasha replies.

Shel stalks into the room. 'Those damned Gwen Stafani fans are everywhere. This is—."

"B-A-N-A-N-A-S!" Gwen Stafani fans come in then leave. Shel tugs at her hair. 'Stupid Gwen Sta-fucking-fani! Hmn…oops! InuYasha! Turn on the censor!'

"Oh boy…"

Yes my arm is healing…..slowly…yet healing none-the-less. On to the chapter!

Ghost of You

Chapter 16

If It Was Worth It…

Sango raised her Hiraikotsu. "How'd you do it?" Ren scratched her chin. "Oh? You mean the murder; how I killed the oh-so "powerful" priestess. Well it was easy, actually. You're familiar with Tsubake right?"

She didn't let them answer. "Of course you are. Well, I stole her shigikami trick. I just used a real snake instead of a paper one. Mixed demon blood, mushrooms, and homemade poison. Totsuya here," the snake let out a sickening hiss. "accepted it of course and the set up began."

"Set up?" Miroku repeated. "You mean to tell us that InuYasha was a day late on purpose?"

Ren twirled a finger around in her hair. "Purpose, accidentally on purpose, dos it really matter? He was late and that was that."

"But!" Shippo insisted. "He promised! How did you control what day he came back?"

Ren sighed. "Your small voice annoys me. Like claws on rocks."

The kit growled.

Ren continued. "I made a deal with someone. You wanna guess or should I just tell you?"

"Not…Sesshomaru?" The taijiya stuttered. Although it was damn next to impossible to make a deal with that demon. Yet Ren smirked.

"Bingo. I told him I would get Tetsusaiga for him if he delays the battle. But he was so-o-o-o-o-o-o-o stubborn! He said:"

"What purposes will that serve? I shall be the one to dispose of the half-breed."

Ren blinked once slowly. "Maybe. But if I didn't kill him? What if I got you Tetsusaiga anyway? Wouldn't it feel good to kill your brother with his own sword?"

"He didn't really like the fact that I referred to InuYasha as Sesshomaru's brother but hey, we made a deal. He got the battle to linger one more day, and I knew that would trigger something in that pathetic miko. And of course I was right."

"This whole time…" Sango turned her teary eyes to the ground. "InuYasha…it was Ren's fault. And I yelled at him…"

The houshi 'hmn'ed and nodded. "We all blamed him…and he didn't even mean it."

Ren ran a finger over bottom lip. "Okay I see. Through all that, you blamed him, he blames himself. Are you sure he's not dead?"

Sango glanced worriedly at Miroku. He shook his head. "There's no way."

Ren yawned. "Anyway, Totsuya killed Kagome because she got a little worried and InuYasha arrived just in time to find her corpse. Yet…there's one little problem that has occurred or," She touched her cheek with her palm of her left hand. "MIGHT occur. You see the souls of the shigikami victims get loose and flutter away."

A small butterfly fluttered around in the hut…

The butterfly was back and Shippo was starting to think of it as annoying…

The butterfly flexed its wings and squeaked scaring the hell out of the houshi…

"That was…" Miroku thought for a second. He frowned. "Kagome's soul. Why couldn't I …why didn't I see it before?"

Ren acquiesced. "Right." ((I'm using big words!)) "But it should have turned into a ghost. I wonder if…the soul is not whole?"

"No." Sango retorted. "There's a priestess who still has part of the soul." The dragon snorted. "Kikyou? She's alive again? I thought Kagome killed that witch."

"Obviously," Miroku observed. "She came back when Yumi left."

Ren snarled. "Then there might be time for Kagome to come back. I really hope not. I wonder…"

"Wondering about…?" Sango was fed up with the dragon's presence. But they were getting answers. Ren blew a strand of hair out of her eyes. "The doubled ghost has made it here yet. If the soul itself can't become a ghost, the shigikami can make a hollow double. But if the soul isn't whole…the double won't be very pretty."

Miroku exchanged glances with the taijiya. "Double?"

"If it was worth it…I would do it…"

Kirara gave a mew snapping InuYasha out of his thoughts. "But ya know, Kirara, I've still got too many people to protect."

Kirara growled. Careful, Sango's mine to protect.

Being away from the group felt really wrong. It's true what they say: Cats are only great company until they talk back. And Kirara liked to meow a lot.

It was really dark, more or less midnight. InuYasha shoved branches and bushes out of his way. "Damn I really wish the sun would come back for a while." Kirara growled in response. She fell to the ground after running into InuYasha's leg. "Mer?"

InuYasha froze. His whole body went numb; his heart was beating loudly in his ears.

Kirara jumped in front of his. There…impossibly sat a very dirty and muddied Kagome. Her clothes were torn and her hair was messy and tangled. She looked up at the hanyou and neko with lifeless brown eyes, reminding the two of Kohaku.

"K—Kagome?"

The miko turned her head away. "No."

She shivered. "Not the real one anyway."

Ooooh….spooky! ((puts on a witches hat)) O.o. Boo! Halloween! I wuv Halloween! You get candy! I hate being too old for it…

Okay, 'bout the no answering reviews in chapters now. My gud buddy has sent the petition ((with 600 signatures)) 3 times with no reply. Now I received a notice from fan fiction saying I wasn't allowed to answer reviewer's questions in e-mails. ((I think I said this in chapter 12-14?)) I'm sorry FFnet but you may NOT tell me who and to who not e-mail! People we must stop this!

But…((wink wink nudge nudge)) I won't e-mail any of you because I dun want to be banned! Later and look out for the next chappie urm…soon? PAIN!