Flame: ok, here is the next chapter, and thank you to those of you who read this story and even more thanks to those of you who review! All my reviews lift my spirits and make me feel good so please review!
Translations:
Yume – Dream
Arigato – Thank you
Wakatte – "alright" or "I understand"
Onegai – Please
Hai – Yes
Nee-chan – older Sister
Matte – Wait
Last Time:
"How dare you! You impudent little half-breed child! I deserve more respect than that!" Kikyo yelled outraged. By this time Kagome had finally figured out why Kikyo was yelling for all to hear about 'the respect that she deserves' and acting scandalized, it was because she wanted the other villagers to hear and come and decide that we were treating her badly and kick us out of the village.
"Flame-chan, once we get her secured, I would like you to meet someone, though they are your complete opposite of a cat. Would you please just give them a chance?" Kagome asked.
"Sure, if it means that much to you I will give this friend of yours a chance." Flame offered.
This Time:
Chapter 9: Getting Ready
"Kagome-chan, how are we going to get her to shut up?" Flame asked looking at the still screaming Kikyo.
"Sango-chan can do that. Sango-chan would you please introduce your Hikaratsu to Kikyo-san?" Kagome asked her friend/sister.
"Of course, I think that they might even get to be as good of friends as Hikaratsu and Miroku-kun! Maybe they'll be even better friends, who knows?" Sango said delightedly.
"Ok well while you do that, Miroku could you please go look for some stout string? And a blindfold? Please?" Kagome asked.
"Of course Kagome." Miroku answered and then left to find the items she requested.
"Kagome-chan I believe that you remember Shinka and Mouka? Have you met Yume yet?"
"No I don't believe I have, how old is she?" Kagome asked.
"She's 14, and has a twin brother named Kai." Flame answered.
"It is an honor to meet you Kagome-sama, Flame-hime has told everyone that we are to treat you as we would someone of her blood. And seeing what I have today, I would willingly treat you as such even if Flame-hime had not instructed us to." Yume said as she bowed to Kagome.
"Oh, onegai don't bow to me! I get enough of that from people just because I'm a miko, and I cant tell them not to bow to me because that wouldn't be proper, but I really don't want to be bowed to just because I know someone!" Kagome begged Yume somewhat desperately.
"Wakatte, since you seem to hate it so much I wont bow to you unless we both happen to be at a formal function, how does that sound?" Yume asked.
"Arigato!" Kagome said smiling.
"Kagome-chan should we go see your friend now?" Flame asked.
"Hai! Lets go, he is in the cave under Sota's room." Kagome said leading the way and dragging her younger brother allong to put him to bed. When everyone got inside Kagome began giving orders: "Sango, its safe to go get Kilala and her Kittens now so why don't you go and get her? Miroku, go and get Shippo ok? We don't want him to think that we forgot about him or that we haven't been able to stop Kikyo from trying to purify everyone yet. Flame could you come with me please?"
"Nee-chan what about me?" Sota asked his older sister.
"You, my dear brother should not be out of bed and so as soon as we get Inuyasha out of the cave your going back to getting better, and there will be no discussion about it, understood?" Kagome asked.
"Hai, Nee-chan, Wakatte." Sota said, sad that he wouldn't get to go and help take Kikyo to the holy mountain.
"Ok now that that's settled I'm going to go and get Inuyasha." Kagome sates as she pulls up the trapdoor to the cave. After Kagome had climbed down she let her eyes get adjusted to the light then she said "Inuyasha where are you? "
"I'm right here." He said from somewhere in front of Kagome whose eyes were still getting used to the darkness but she could see his eyes. "Is it ok to come out now?"
"Hai, come on there's a latter behind me and I want you to meet a friend of mine, she's a half-firecat demon." Kagome said as she grabbed Inuyasha's hand and pulled him to the latter so he could go up first.
Once the two were back in Sota's room, Kagome made introductions: "Inuyasha this is Flame, she's a half firecat demon; Flame this is Inuyasha, he is a half dog demon." Kagome said.
"Pleased to meet you, if you are Kagome's friend then you must have a good heart, otherwise you would not be where you are now, Kagome's special that way." Flame said genually glad to meet him as she had only come across two other half-demons, and both through Kagome.
"Nice to meet you too, I guess, I thought that all half-demons were hunted down and killed at a young age?" Inuyasha asked, curious to see how she had survived so long.
"Everyone in my lands are forbidden to hunt half-demons, and if I catch someone hunting them down, I hold trial and usually have them relocated to another land. I refuse to harbor anyone who would hunt down a child just because they are not the same." Flame said her voice had turned passionate due to the topic.
"Matte, what do you mean by 'I refuse to harbor anyone who would hunt down a child just because they are not the same'?" Inuyasha asked.
"What I meant by that statement was that since I am the Lady of these lands I wont let anyone reside here if they are hunting down anyone just because they are different. I will however, let them live in peace if they are no longer actively or passively hunting or helping someone who is hunting down people if they are different." Flame answered trying her best to explain it to him.
"Oh, now I get it, I didn't know that you were the lady of these lands." Inuyasha said. "And I'm glad that someone is doing something to try to create a place where half-demons can live in relative peace."
"Well someone had to eventually, and no one else seemed to be doing a thing in that direction, and I couldn't stand it any longer! So once I discovered that I myself was a half-demon, and was the late Lord of the Eastern Lands own daughter, I just had to do something, and now I had the means to do it!" Flame explained.
"Flame-chan, will we be stopping by your palace on the way to Mt. Hakurei?" Kagome asked.
"Yes Kag-chan, we will to gather supplies and to get Shinka to help keep the miko contained, since you have trained with the both of us as well as Mouka we are almost immune to miko attacks of all but the strongest kind." Flame said, then she asked, "will you be coming with us too Inuyasha?"
"Umm, I guess if it's alright,…" Inuyasha said uncertainly.
"GREAT! The more the merrier and that way I can be sure that the villagers wont find out about you and try to come after you while I'm not around." Kagome said and clapped her hands together once.
"Hey! I can take care of myself thank you!" Inuyasha said hotly offended that the human girl thought that he couldn't take care of himself.
"Hey! That was uncalled for! She was just worried about you! She considers you as her friend now and as her friend she is intitled to worry about you! Look at me, I'm at least 10 years older than her and she treats my safety with as much care as if I were an infant!" Flame whispered furiously only loud enough for Inuyasha to hear, but not Kagome, glaring at him the whole time for the look of hurt that crossed Kagome's face and the sent of sadness that she was beginning to emit. "And you know what? I let her because it makes her feel better and because I know that besides my own blood, there's someone who genuinely cares about me, and not just because I'm their Lady! Now you apologize to her or you will never be welcome in my lands again!"
"Feh, like I care, it'll just be one more place I'm not welcome!" Inuyasha said and like Flame he made sure that the now silently crying Kagome couldn't hear him, but at Flame's furious glare (and the fact that his fire-rat robe was starting to smell like smoke,) he relented and said; "Kagome, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way…" after his apology he trailed off sadly when he smelt her tears and realized that he had really hurt her with what he said and was instantly afraid that he might actually run off, the first person who showed him kindness since his mother died.
Kagome sniffed slightly, smiled, and said "Its ok Inuyasha, I know that sometimes I smother people, not every one comes out and tells me to stop though," at Inuyasha's slightly panicked look, she hurried on, "and most of the time I don't know that I'm doing it, so if I start again, feel free to stop me."
"Ok, if you say so…" he responded worriedly, and thought 'I'm going to try to not be so mean about her smothering me again, and as long as it's not too overbearing she can smother me as much as she wants.' And with his new resolve, Inuyasha began his slow journey of trusting someone other than himself.
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AN: ok! Here is the long awaited chapter 9! I am sorry for the nearly month-long wait but, I was just stuck, I know where I want to go, but am not necessary sure on how to get there, so forgive me if I get terribly long winded, and I cant really help the somewhat filler chapters, but there are some points that I will need for later, so please bear with me… suggestions, comments? Please tell me in a review and check out my other story: The Prophecy. In this story Sesshomaru finds an old scroll that his father wrote and on it is a prophecy, and a letter addressed to Sesshomaru, as the story progresses, it will have the finial battle and eventually the prophecy will make sense.
Please review!