See chapter 1 for disclaimer. I'm far too lazy to make a quick copy/paste; instead, I decided to take more time to write this explanation why I didn't.
Crouched nearby the side of the mansion, InuYasha, Miroku and Shippo were each fanning fumes from a small fire in front of each of them. The smoke went under the mansion; faintly, there was a chattering of teeth. The former, who was still in a rather uncomfortable state due to the unseen presence of the new moon, was growling lowly, hardly putting much effort into waving his fan.
Finally, the monk would put his own fan down, turning to look at him. "What, you're still bitter?" He was met with a rather cold glare from InuYasha, one that hung there for a few moments before he actually explained.
"Well, obviously. We come in - as a TEAM - to kill a demon." He paused for a moment, looking to the other two males of the original group; both nodding confirmingly. "Then we were halted by a freakish bunch of women." He paused again; after a quick scan around to see if they were being watched, there was a slow nod of the head from each of them again. "Then we were told to kill the demon for no pay, and for a meal if we do it in an hour."
Miroku quickly spoke up as Shippo put down his own fan, turning to look behind him; he saw something moving around the side of the house, but stayed silent for fear of being hit with something by one of the larger males. "Well, to be fair, we never specified we wanted to be pa-"
The monk got half-way through the word 'paid' before being punched in the side of the head, falling over to nurse what would become a rather nasty bruise. "Damn it, monk, you never told them to pay us?"
"Well, no, I hadn't thought to...the rumor was that a bunch of girls needed help with a demon, and..."
"And you just jumped at the chance to be rejected by several girls at the same time, didn't you?" Since Miroku really had no answer for this, he just stayed quiet; picking up his fan, and starting to feed the fumes back under the building. On a high from this victory in a string of defeats, he leaned back to brag to Shippo; to see only a fox tail vanish behind the corner of the house. "Shippo! Where are you going?"
He gets no response. After looking down at Miroku for a few moments, he decides against bringing him along; just getting up himself, and wandering off after Shippo. Miroku just continues to fan, sighing dejectedly, apparently not noticing the demons leaving him behind. In truth, he was looking back over what had happened earlier, to see where things went downhill.
It was just shortly after the clan of women had taken them off-guard with that last question...
"Who said we were paying you?"
...and the team was clustered around a small, ratty-looking couch. They all opted not to sit on it, as it seemed as if it would collapse in the face of a gentle breeze, despite the reassurances - interestingly, in the form of shouted orders - from the lead woman. Shippo and Kirara soon hopped onto it; causing it to creak ominously. Both jumped off just as it more or less turned to lumps and dust.
"You're replacing that." She snapped her fingers, and two women - different ones than before, and clad in white instead of black - cleaned the remains of the couch, including dusting off the kitten-like demon...much to her amusement. "Now, to business. There's a demon under this estate that had been causing some of my sisters to be extremely bitter."
Under his breath, the hanyou muttered, "Only some?" This got a snicker out of Miroku, and an elbow to the chest by Kagome. After being stared at for a while, InuYasha sighed, and waved his hand, letting her continue.
"...Right. No meal for the loudmouth." She took a well-planned step back, just in time to dodge a swipe with the Tetsuaiga scabbard. "One of you, calm him. Or no meal, period." There was a chorus of 'Sit', though only one was needed; and the temporary human took an unplanned trip to the ground. The lead woman paused a moment, nudging InuYasha. Once he started to twitch and move, she backed up from him. "Take care of it how you will."
The team - once the leader managed to get back to his feet - turned to leave, before half of them found moving more difficult. Two women had gotten in the way of Kagome and Sango, and a third had picked up Kirara, petting her carefully. After noticing, the males turned around, coming back to the group. "Hey, we have to do this by ourselves? Sango's the demon expert!" Shippo called up; retreating behind InuYasha after a cold glare from the lead woman.
"I will not sit idly by while these women work for no pay. -You- three will slay the demon, -these- three will not." She explained, the three women leading the femme half of the team away. "Smoke it out, I don't care. Do no more damage to the mansion, or you will be compensating us fully."
Another chorus, this one of groans as more women forced the men out the door and to the side of the house, three fans thrown out after them. This was in the morning. There they had stayed for several hours.
InuYasha stood just out of sight from where Miroku was, around the corner. He looked down to see Shippo, staring unbreakably in front of him. He slowly followed the fox demon's gaze, and tilted his head dumbly. "...Oh, damn it. You've -got- to be kidding me."
In front of them, there was a sign with the words "HOT SPRINGS" emblazened on it in bold, red letters. And behind it, free of any unnatural barrier, was a gigantic boomerang stuck in the ground, and a bow leaned against it. Now, usually he would be understanding, for it had been explained to them that the men would work. But, faced with no meal, boring work and his woman getting the hot springs without lifting a finger...anger.
"Rrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaagh!"
One would hate to be the Hot Springs sign right then.
Yeah, I know I didn't accomplish much story-wise this time around, but... >.>;