Explanation at the bottom... Chapter 8

Koodori Joshuu

Chapter 8

Her Heart

"You will come with me." the voice commanded. Kagura felt compelled to obey the voice, but something stopped her. There was something wrong with the picture.

"Show yourself." another voice commanded, she recognized this one, Sesshomaru. "State your business."

"Kukukukuku…" The man stepped closer so they could make out his features. "I have come to collect my daughter."

Suddenly a icky green tentacle shot from the body and grabbed Kagura. She struggled with it, so it punched a hole through her.

A scream tore from her throat. She was going to die, the tentacle had shot clean through her, and the pain… It was like being slowly roasted over a fire, long and drawn out.

"Hirakosu!" Sango expertly threw her boomerang and cut the tentacle off, Kagura fell to the ground with a thump.

"Come, Kagura." All eyes went the lump on the ground, Kagura? "Come, or I will kill you."

Slowly, she got up, the pain was lessening, was she dying? Kagura didn't know, but the one thing she did know was that she was going to give the bastard a piece of her mind.

"Make me." The pain was almost gone, she stood up defiantly and pulled out two fans. Both of them were ornately decorated with flowers and birds, and the ends were sharpened to a point, an excellent slashing weapon. She stood, weapons out, holding her ground. "You think a threat like that will make me obey you?" She ran towards the figure, her footsteps light and heard by all in the hallway, "How dare you presume that I would go with you without a fight!" She went in to slash his chest, then his neck. Panting heavily, she stepped back. Only to find that the man was still alive, and waiting for her to finish so he could attack. Another icky green tentacle came at her, she closed her eyes and waited for the impact, but it never came.

Sesshomaru was shocked, well not shocked, because Sesshomaru is never shocked. But he had to admit, his mind blanked out for a fraction of a second when he heard the identity of the thief.

Kagura.

He would have chuckled, but that would be a very un-Sesshomaru like thing to do. It figured that she would be the one that would elude him. She had passion, more passion than reason. Not that too much passion was a horrible thing, but it does make people short tempered and makes them do rash things.

Like befriending commoners.

Working for those of lower classes.

Getting into a fight for someone she didn't even know.

Posing as a thief to return stolen objects to their rightful owners.

Now that was an interesting one, a thief, stealing in the name of a goddess. But all objects stolen had been stolen before, and returned to their proper owners. This placed it in a class similar to Saint Tail or Kaitou KID.

Wait? It?

Kagura was a thief, a thief is a person, not an it.

So why did he call her an it?

Was this the thing his father had meant when he said to look from other points of views?

His thought process was cut short as he heard Kagura giving the other man a piece of her mind. "How dare you presume that I would go with you without a fight!", and saw her go in for the kill.

Except the man did not die. In fact, he was still standing, and smirking. And when he saw the green tentacle go towards her, he was swiftly by her side to move her out the way.

"Come, Kagura." the man was saying. "I can give you anything you want. Money, fame, wealth…anything." He stepped closer. "All you have to do is come with me."

Sesshomaru set Kagura on her feet as she started yelling at the bastard. "You underestimate me again. Why would I want those stupid things! You came in and ruined my night! What makes you think that I would come with you anyways? Even little children know better than to go with strangers!"

The stranger smirked. "Kukukukuku…" Sesshomaru knew this scent from somewhere. This fowl, putrid scent. "Because I have something you would be very interested in."

He felt Kagura freeze. "And what would that be?" She held her fans up, ready to defend herself if he attacked.

"Your freedom."

If you had dropped a pin, you would of heard it falling. All the occupants in the room froze. They all knew Kagura, and she loved her independence. To hear that someone else had it was mind boggling.

Miroku spoke up. "How can you say you have this lady's freedom? Slavery is illegal in this country, and any binding spell of that sort would have been detected by the Council." He also got his staff ready in case the man attacked. Next to him, Sango got lifted her boomerang just in case.

Sesshomaru, meanwhile did some quick thinking. Kagura had been pierced by a tentacle, but yet for some reason still alive and kicking, literary. This man claimed that she was his daughter and he held her freedom. When the man had first appeared, Kagura screamed in agony as the man squeezed a beating lump of something. He closed his eyes to think. There had to be something that he wasn't paying attention. He smelled the scent of five people, heard five people breathing, five hearts beating, but one of the hearts was in the wrong place. Unless somehow that man had two hearts and someone didn't have one…

The pieces of the puzzle slid and clicked into place as he opened his eyes to survey the scene. "By her freedom," Sesshomaru said addressing the man, "you mean her heart."

"Kukukuku… You're a bright one, aren't you." the man snarled, "Yes, that is right. I have her heart. Pity that you'll have to die now." The green tentacle shot towards Sesshomaru. Before anyone could react, he pulled out his energy whip and sliced the thing in two. Then before their eyes, it regenerated and attacked again. Sesshomaru kept slicing it into two and was clearly getting irked.

"This is a waste of my time." He sent a jolt of energy down the whip, shocking the man. Swiftly, he jumped in front of him and sliced his stomach open, then jumped back again. "It is a disgrace that I had to get close to inflict damage, Naraku." He waited to see what the man would do now that his identity was discovered.

"Damage indeed." And the wound closed up. "I will deal with these humans first," he said airily, motioning to Sango and Miroku. "Then I will deal with you two." He held his hand out in a dramatic gesture.

And the hand was shot off. Sesshomaru noticed that another person had joined them. Another human, female. He sighed mentally, these humans were really annoying.

But Naraku's eyes were wide open, his hand had not just been shot off, it had also been purified. A miko maybe?

"Naraku! I order you to give up and turn yourself in!" Kagome's voice rang out. As she walked towards them, she had her bow ready to fire another purifying arrow. "You have no right to the Jewel."

Naraku looked at them. As Kagome had been talking, the others had closed in around him, weapons ready to inflict some serious damage. He decided against trying to go against all of them and instead opted to escape.

"I will come back for you, my daughter. Either that, or die." He gave Kagura a painful squeeze to her heart and made his escape by disappearing, cackling crazily.

Hours later found the five people in a room in a meeting, trying to make heads or tail of things.

"How is that man your father, Kagura." Sesshomaru asked.

She glared at all of them, "I don't know. The one I call father," she was referring to the one who had raised her. "is my adoptive parent. My biological mother was close friends with my parents. She probably handed me over to give me a better life."

"He has your heart Kagura. What are you going to do?" Kagome said softly. "I'm surprised you lived this long. I'm afraid that if you don't get your heart back soon, it might disintegrate." There were wide eyes and open mouths at this. Kagura kept her head down.

"I'm going to get it back from that bastard, that's what. And show him what happens when I'm threatened." She paused for a minute and asked, "What jewel were you talking about Kagome? And what do I have to do with it?"

Kagome lips became a thin line, but was spared from answering as Miroku spoke. "The Shikon no Tama, the Jewel of Four Souls. It's crystallized energy, it's a very powerful item if you want power. If used for evil, it will become corrupted and warped. But there is a theory that if it's used for good, all the energy might be used up and it disappear." He paused. "Most people think it's a myth now, which is better that way so no one tries to go after it. But how Naraku found out…"

"You know, there is a myth in my country," Sango said, "where the Jewel is supposed to originate from. They say that a very powerful miko named Midoriko sacrificed her soul to slay many demons. Her soul and those of the demons are what makes up the jewel. Legend has it that the two forces to this day still fight in the jewel. That way, it can be used for good, or evil, depending on the user."

"He wants you, because he thinks you have what it takes to find the Jewel." Kagome's lips were still in a line. "You have the shouki shards that would help him find the Jewel." She chewed on the bottom lip, hesitant. "Kagura, I need you to steal the Shikon no Tama before Naraku does."

"Ha! See, see, see! I told you that she would prevail! You should never underestimate mortals!" The goddess was gloating after things went her way that night, giving her companion a headache.

"But she was supposed to give in and Naraku was supposed to rule the world in two years…"

"That's because ye of little faith." she admonished, "Trust them a little. It won't kill you."

"You do realize that the Elders will be very disappointed since things did not go as they had planned tonight?"

She laughed. "Things went the way I wanted them to go." But suddenly she lost her energy and collapsed in a chair looking sad. "But from now on they need to hurry. It's going to be a race against time…no mortal can escape death…so much to be done…" She fell asleep, curled up in an armchair, as the god draped a blanket around her. He sighed, thinking about the events that would follow. There was a huge splotch of red on the white sheet of life. There were many other splotches of red on the cloth, but this one worried her the most. There was one more crossroad in time before this play would be finished. And once again the decision would not lie with them, but in the hands of a little girl…

A/N: Yay! New chapter. Fore more info on why I haven't been updating and what's going to happened to this story, please check my livejournal. My username is mi-kyung, but otherwise, it's my homepage and it's written on my bio.

Thank you to all those who reviewed. Even to those who didn't give me positive comments, they were the ones who made me keep thinking about this story.