AbhorsenSabriel87: Hey readers! This is chapter two, and now I shall give you the poll answers!
Chibi Jou: That's my job!
Sabriel: --shoves him out of room-- Stay out of my room brat!
Chibi Jou: But- --door closes in his face--
Sabriel: --sighs-- ANYWAY.... the polls.
Anna: The answer to question 1?
Sabriel: You'll find out in this chapter!
Anna: Question 2?
Sabriel: You'll find out in the third chapter!
Anna: --eye twitch-- And Edgar Allen Poe was the one reported saying "All's well that ends well".
Sabriel: Yup! Reviewer responses!
femalesesshoumaru - --jumps up and down, clapping her hands-- Yay! You figured it out! You are so cool! This is my other fic reposted! Excellent eyes ma'am! And as for the polls, I didn't really expect anyone but a hard-core literature nut to know that.
Anna: I knew the answer…
Sabriel: …My point exactly.
kitsune-kun – Duh guy, you have. This is Nikki's Story reposted, reformatted, and rated up… And thanks for the compliment! --chibi smile--
Sabriel: That's it for my reviewers, so now onto the disclaimer! --a girl with golden eyes and silver hair walks in-- Kieira!
Kieira: --walks over-- Yes, milady authoress?
Sabriel: -.-U Could you do the disclaimer please?
Kieira: Certainly. My lady AbhorsenSabriel87 has no copyrights to the Inuyasha show or cast, so please do not sue her, for it'd only be a waste of your money.
Anna: Well done partner!
Kieira: Thank you, Miss Anna.
Anna: --groans-- I'm your partner, not your employer!
Sabriel: --sighs-- Kieira is Anna's partner in law enforcement and you'll see her if I ever get around to writing the sequel to Twice Lost, Thrice Found. Now onto the story at hand!
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"Choose your friends carefully. Your enemies will choose you!"
Yasar Arafat
---The group of five simply stared at the young lady who, the night before, had entered their camp severely wounded and carried by Inuyasha. Now, she was sitting upright, her curls shining brightly and her dark ocean-blue eyes fixed on the group. Kirara sat in the girl's lap, purring at being absently petted. A small smile was on the girl's face as she surveyed the shocked looks on her new companions. "There's no need to look at me like that," she said, her voice rolling and musical with a foreign accent. "I heal fast, but I have you to thank f-"
---"Who the hell are you anyway?" Inuyasha yelled at her. "Inuyasha!" Kagome hissed at him. "No," he replied. "I want to know exactly what's going on around here! Who are you and why-"
---"Sit boy!" Kagome's voice rang out as the prayer beads around Inuyasha's neck glowed pink and pulled his face harshly into the forest floor. The young lady blinked in surprise and looked at Inuyasha carefully. Recognition flashed through her eyes and she smiled at the boy, who was now just getting to his usual sitting position. "Say," she said quietly, voice almost purring, "aren't you the young man I saw on the roadside last night?" Her nose twitched slightly and she cocked her head a little, but almost instantly reached up and placed a hand on her neck. "Ouch," she muttered. "Didn't realize I was that badly hurt."
---"You were pretty badly injured when Inuyasha brought you to our camp," Miroku said. "Are you feeling quite all right now, miss?"
---"Oh, I feel fine now," she replied, smiling. "Whoever patched me up did a beautiful job." She smiled at Kagome, who blushed a little. "I assume that was you, young miko?"
---"Well, yeah, but my name isn't 'miko', it's Kagome," she replied.
---"Just as my name isn't 'miss' young monk." The girl's next response was directed at Miroku with a slight smile.
---"Well then what is your name?" Shippo asked from Kagome's lap. The young lady smiled at him and rubbed his head. "You're a cute one, little fox," she replied. "Why don't you introduce yourself and your companions before I give you my name." The little kitsune nodded and pointed to each of his friends in turn. "I'm Shippo, and this is Kagome, Miroku, Sango, and Inuyasha."
---"Inuyasha?" the girl questioned. "The half-demon Inuyasha with the legendary Tetsusaiga?"
---"Yeah," Inuyasha replied. "What's it to ya?" The girl smiled brightly at the group and muttered something in another language to the sky before returning her sparkling green-blue gaze to the group. "This is better than I could've hoped!" she said merrily. "The Goddesses must be on my side today!"
---"Why is that?" Inuyasha snarled, placing a hand on his sword. Kagome shot him a look as one of confusion crossed the newcomer's face. "I heard from a wolf demon a few days back that if I needed some help that I should search out the miko time-traveler named Kagome and the hanyou Inuyasha."
---"His name didn't happen to be Kouga, would it?" Miroku asked, seeing Inuyasha's response to the information. The young lady shook her head. "No, it was a young female demon named Ayame. The one named Kouga told me it was better that I stay with them because..." She cut herself off and bit her bottom lip as if to keep from laughing. "What?" Inuyasha snapped. "What that flea infested wolf say?" The girl pulled a complete innocent look as she looked at the sky. "Nothing," she replied, half-smiling. "Nothing at all."
---"Well, putting that matter away," Kagome said, glaring at Inuyasha, "what's your name?"
---"And how'd you get so badly injured?" Shippo chipped in. The girl blinked and smiled at them all. "I guess I owe you that much and more," she said quietly. She took a deep breath and continued in a story-teller's tone. "My name is Nikki McCloude. I came across a particularly foul demon in my journey and the end result was its death and my presence here before you."
---"Where exactly are you going?" Sango asked. The girl's bright face suddenly seemed darker and her eyes narrowed in anger, as if remembering an unpleasant scene. "I'll go wherever I have to," she muttered, voice now deathly cold. "I seek revenge for my village."
---"What happened to it?" Kagome asked, leaning forward slightly. The young woman's eyes were cast downward in a glare and two tears fell into Kirara's fur. The little cat demon mewed slightly and looked up at the young woman, who was now shaking. "That's the other reason the wolf demons told me to find you," she said. She raised her eyes, sparkling with tears while blue lightning flashed in their depths, to the group once again. "You and I have the same enemy. My village was massacred by the demon known as Naraku."
---A hushed silence fell over the group for a moment, as if the words their new companion had just spoken cut off their voices. Even the forest they camped in was eerily quiet as they thought about her information. Sango was the first to break the silence. "We'll most certainly let you come with us."
---"But-" Inuyasha started, but he was cut off by a glare from Sango that'd he'd seen only when they were fighting and she continued. "We'll need all the help we can get in fighting Naraku. All of us here besides Shippo have our own scores to settle with Naraku." The young red-head named Nikki nodded, curls shining like gold and copper in the sunlight. "I accept the invitation," she replied, "but I fear I must decline." As the group started to protest, she held up her long slender hands for silence. Inuyasha noticed that although they were pale and graceful, they were also covered in pale scars like a swordsman would have. "Listen to my reasoning before you protest," she continued, quieting the small group down. "I fear that I may only stay with you until sunset, or until we reach the next town, whichever comes first."
---"And why's that?" Inuyasha snapped. "Are you different in the day than you are at night? Or perhaps you're a spirit who has to recharge her earthly body at night with dead souls!"
---"How dare you speak that way to me!" Nikki yelled, standing swiftly, apparently not realizing that she was not wearing her kimono. "You have no idea the circumstances, you pathetic dog!"
---"What'd you say?!" Inuyasha shouted, also standing while everyone scrambled to their feet to prevent the inevitable fight that was bound to ensue. Inuyasha's left hand gripped the sheathed Tetsusaiga tightly as his right hand twitched, as if he wished to grab the young human by the throat and tear it out. "You heard me!" the other shouted back. "I should have listened to Lord Kouga and chased Naraku with him! Finding you was not only a mistake, but a disgrace!" Then, eyes flashing with blue fire, she bent down, swept up her bloody kimono and sword, and then ran into the woods faster than expected from one so injured. In fact, she ran as if she wasn't injured in the slightest, and had gone from the humans' sight in an instant, Inuyasha closely following.
---"Get back here you witch!" he yelled after the fleeing mortal. "You'll pay for that comment!" He chased her out to the main road, where she fled in plain view down the center of the wide road. She glanced back at him, glaring at him as if she despised him with every fiber of her being. She stopped suddenly and stood tall at five feet, eight inches, holding her sheathed sword in her left hand and her kimono in her right. When Inuyasha stopped naught but fifteen feet away, she called to him, "So you wish to do battle, young hanyou?"
---"Young?" he called back to her, a smirk crossing his face as he cracked his knuckles and took up a fighting stance. "I'm probably older than you, unless you are what I thought," he ended tauntingly. Nikki's eyes narrowed as she flung her kimono to the side and unsheathed her sword expertly with her right hand.
---The blade was finely crafted steel with some sort of crystal embedded in the base. Both edges of the blade were sharp, and by the look of it, there was no curve what-so-ever to the five foot long blade. "You shall regret your words, little boy," she growled coldly.
---"Try it," he spat back. "Stronger and more able people than you have tried and failed ningen, and personally, I think I can take you out without my Tetsusaiga."
---"We shall see." Almost in an instant, the young lady had darted out of sight and right behind Inuyasha, sword raised to slice him in half. Only his keen nose was able to tell him in time where she was, and he darted out of the way before she swung and punched her in the lower back, where he knew one of her more grievous wounds was. The wound spurted blood on impact and sent her sprawling onto the ground. But instead of falling onto her face, Nikki landed on her hands and sprung back upright almost instantly, as if the punch had been nothing more than a push. "Excellent," she stated, not even out of breath as she smiled at him. "You did better than I expected."
---"Well, you are bleeding really badly," he stated, also smirking. "I simply trusted my nose."
---"That will help you in many things, but since force will not move you to leave me be..." Nikki changed the positioning of her sword so that she held it as if it were a dagger. Her eyes flashed as she touched the point to the ground lightly and said, "Then perhaps some magick." Focusing her eyes on Inuyasha, she pushed the sword point into the ground slightly, wounds reopening from the stress of the task and bleeding heavily into the bandages. "Hey stop that!" Inuyasha shouted at her, concern now evident. "You'll kill yourself if you put that much strain on your body!" Apparently not listening, all Nikki did was begin to speak in that same rapid and flowing language as before. Her sword glowed a pale golden, but then changed rapidly to red as her eyes fluttered shut and she fell to one knee. But still she spoke, her wounds now flowing freely and her words becoming more and more quiet and forced. "Stop it!" Inuyasha shouted, running towards her. She stopped speaking for a moment to gaze at the oncoming red haze and smiled.
---"Ayame was right," she whispered. Her body slumped forward and leaned against the flat as Inuyasha got to her, the others just then coming into view. "Inuyasha!" Kagome called out, running up to the two, Sango, Miroku, Shippo, and Kirara in tow. "What happened?" Inuyasha pulled the unconscious girl off her sword as the others ran up and laid her gently down on the earthen road. "She tried using some sort of magic on me, but it backfired," he explained. "I tried to tell the stupid idiot not to put that much stress on her wounded body, but she wouldn't listen!" He stopped as he realized Kagome was rewrapping the bandages, much tighter and thicker this time. "What are you doing?!"
---"What's it look like I'm doing?" she snapped back. "We have to take her with us to the next town over so that she can be healed by a real doctor. Otherwise, she may die here. So, are you gonna carry her, or should I have Miroku-" Not even allowing her to finish her sentence, Inuyasha swept up the unconscious girl in his arms and walked over to the edge of the road. Kagome smiled as he walked over and picked up Nikki's kimono, just throwing it over his shoulder casually before continuing to walk up the road. She motioned for the others to follow, not even noticing the fresh handprint on Miroku's face and the dark scowl on Sango's.
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Sabriel: That's it this chappie! Now, is there anything I'm forgetting?
Anna: Other than the fact that you still haven't said anything about Sesshoumaru yet?
Kieira: And forgive me for pointing this out, milady, but are you not also forgetting the polls?
Sabriel: o.O ...I get it guys. Alright, I'll hit two birds with one stone on this one!
Anna: -.-U
Kieira: And how is that, Lady Abhorsen?
Sabriel: --eye twitch-- I do the polls!
Anna: --anime falls--
Kieira: -.-U
Sabriel: Now, Question #1) When does Sesshoumaru enter the picture?
Anna: And how, pray tell, do you think they'll know that?! Especially since you didn't even get that far in your last version of this fic?
Sabriel: I dunno.
Kieira: -.-U What is question 2, Lady Sabriel?
Sabriel: --eye twitch-- You're too proper Kieira. Anywho, Question #2) Why does Nikki need to leave the group before sunset?
Anna: I'm not even gonna say it. See ya kids. I'm goin' back ta work. --walks out door, picking Chibi Jou up and ties him to a chair before walking out of sight--
Sabriel: Not another of her mood swings... Ah well, Question #3) Who said "Against my will I stand beside my own reflection"?
Chibi Jou: That's easy! It's the- --door slams shut by magic--
Sabriel: You just got served little bro. Now, I bid thee ado, my faithful readers.
Kieira: Sayonara until we meet again!
Sabriel: --big smile-- Bye!