Three weeks later…
When I got home later that day, everyone greeted me, seeming worried about me. I was grateful to everyone, but I really wanted to be by myself. I sat in our tallest tree to look out over the mountains. I thought on and on about Inuyasha and the way he used me. The fact that he was, was what was hurting me the most. I thought I meant more to him than a reminder. I held the jewel shard in my heart and I cried. "Inuyasha… Inuyasha, how could you do that to me! Don't I mean anything to you?"
For those next three weeks, I held the jewel shard and cried over Inuyasha. I needed the shard to give me strength to get over what he did to me and the way he scarred my heart. "I'm never giving you this jewel shard, Inuyasha! You're going to regret what you did to me, you hear me!" I finally shouted to the sky. After eating lunch each day, I'd go down to our small forest and sharpen my claws. This time, however, I saw his face as instead of Miroku's for target practice.
Despite everything, despite how much I hated him for what he did to me and put me through, I still felt a lot of love for Inuyasha. I knew I'd never be able to show him what's really in my heart, but I figured that if worst comes to worst, I'd be able to show him my true strength in his time of need. It's the best I can do since I do consider him as a friend.
After training solo for three weeks, I looked up at the slowly disappearing moon. Inuyasha's time of vulnerability was going to be two nights from now. I wondered what it was like for him to lose his powers. Considering how strong he is now, I'm sure that he hates being human because human bodies are so much weaker than demon bodies. I looked at myself; I'm more than half-demon, I know that now, but in so many ways, I'm weaker than Inuyasha. Even though my mother was powerful, something about being all, but not quite all demon made me unusual. It's like there's an chemical imbalance going on inside of me; I felt like that was always holding me back.
I liked being alone to train, but my best friend, Raye was always there to talk to me. I felt better having someone to confess everything to. I told her all about my confusing feelings for Inuyasha and the fact that I really couldn't show him my true feelings. My leg was now completely healed, so I felt like I'd be strong enough to handle anything. Best of all, I felt so strong that I felt like I didn't need my jewel shard anymore. I decided that it was best to keep until I next saw Inuyasha. Then again, if I find more jewel shards, I might be able to use them to become either all demon or half-demon. I thought about being full demon, but I didn't like what I saw. I saw myself going into a very dark place that not even Inuyasha could fish me out of. I felt like I was going to kill everything in my path. Despite what I felt about him, my demon nature wasn't going to discriminate the good from the bad. Not that Inuyasha is totally and purely good, but he's better than any other demons I knew.
I decided to head out, maybe let myself drift closer to where Inuyasha and the others were camping out. I doubt they were still at the same camping site, but I knew I could always follow his scent. A few moments after I left, the hair on my neck stood up. I looked behind me and saw Raye running towards me. She seemed to be injured because she was stumbling and looked really off.
I rushed back over to her. "Raye, what happened?" She tried to get off the ground, "a wolf demon. A wolf demon came after me…"
My ears perked up, "There's no way in hell…"
"What?" There was a brown blur and it was Koga. He laughed, "Ah, the half-breed following Inuyasha around… It's nice to see you again."
"Cut the pleasantries, Koga! Why were you attacking my friend?" He laughed, "All right, you can drop the disguise! I know you're not who you appear to be!"
"Princess, he tried to kill me!"
"You! You tried to kill me! You were going after my jewel shards!" I looked at Raye and she didn't look like she'd be the type to do that. "Raye, is that true?" In the midst of tears, she nodded, "Yes. I wanted to become stronger like you, so I thought I could use some shards to do that."
"I don't buy that one bit! Reveal yourself, Naraku!"
"Naraku?" I shook my head, "Naraku did this before with Inuyasha and Kikyo." I looked back at Raye and she had transformed. I shrieked when I saw Naraku rise off the ground. He looked really powerful, so much that I figured I had to pull all the stops out on this one.
I pulled the jewel shard from my heart and held it in my hand. I shot a look at Koga, "Hey, take this and hold on to it for me. Let's see if we can take this guy down."
"Are you serious?" He said jokingly with a smile. He walked over to me and took the shard. He put it in his right arm and cracked his knuckles. "After you, princess…"
"Gladly." I smiled at him and when I faced Naraku, I let everything out. I glared at him and charged at him with a shriek. I jumped onto him, scratching his face. I placed my hand around his throat. "You caused Inuyasha so much grief, you don't deserve to live!" I grabbed his throat, made my way off of him, grabbed his collar and lifted him up. "Aren't you going to fight back!"
"Oh, you don't want to see him fight back! Naraku's as nasty as they come." Koga laughed, "May I?"
"Sure." I let go so Koga could get a clear shot. Unfortunately, even with the power of three shards, Koga was reflected by a barrier that Naraku built up around himself. I gulped, "That's right. Naraku has most of the jewel shards!" He held it out as proof; a glowing black, nearly complete jewel.
The evil in his eyes was enough to make me want to strike him. I jumped at him, somehow getting past the barrier and got my hand around his throat again. For some reason, I wanted to kill him, but I had a fear of killing. I felt him working his way into my mind. I got overwhelmed by that feeling that I had to let go. I saw that he had his hand nearly pasted against my stomach. There was a dark energy revealing around it. I couldn't move, paralyzed in fear and everywhere else. I started sweating and shaking all over when suddenly he stopped. He reactivated his barrier and floated off.
Koga marched up next to me, "I guess he's still weakened from that battle at Mount Hakurei, otherwise he would have finished you off." He knelt down next me as I lay on the ground. I looked up at him and he opened his hand, "here's your shard back."
"Wow… I guess you're not quite as bad as Inuyasha thinks you are."
"No… he's just protective of Kagome, but I think he gets her into so much danger. It sickens me; she'd rather be with that mutt than me, a full-fledged wolf demon."
"You know, half-demons aren't less important than full demons. And why does everything have to be about power? Why does everyone need power? What's so great about it?"
He helped me up. "You're weird, you know that."
"Like I don't know," I stood shakily. "I'm convinced that my father could have been half-demon and somehow, I got tangled in all of this messed up stuff. Like, I flipped out on Inuyasha the other day. It's like I'm as strong as a full demon, but emotion-wise, I just flip completely in all kinds of directions. I mean, it was crazy… I got all emotional, I was hysterical… like I flipped out on him the other night, just cuz I said I'd give my life to save his. Then I wanted him to get more hurt by the poison from this spider-head demon and I really didn't mean that and…" I fell to my knees and replaced the jewel shard. I panted, "What the hell did he do to me?"
"Who, Naraku or that mutt?"
"Naraku… I don't know what he did… it's like he infiltrated my soul." I then caught a whiff of something. I rushed on all fours back home
