Whew! It's been something of a hectic week. ACen Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Then I started my new job at Wal-mart on Monday. I'm exhausted. When I'm done at work I come home and babysit while making dinner. And no matter how tired I am, I make myself take a walk even so. The past couple nights I've all but fallen asleep reading my back stories of this fic and one other because I write on my breaks at work. Gotta be sure to keep them plot holes out of the story!

So yeah, expect part three to have a bit of delay on it when we get that far. I'm not typing anything up until I'm more used to my schedule.

BUT! There will be no delay for any chapter of this part of the fic! All the chapters are typed up already and waiting for their issue date. Hurrah! And I am slowly writing more chapters so I will hopefully have it finished someday. prefferrably before you all get tired of it.

ANd do tell me when or if I cross the line into bad fanfiction. I absolutely abhor bad Fanfiction. Tell me what has crossed the line and I'll fix it.

Now on to the chapter I wrote with the characters I have on loan from Rumiko TAkahashi.

And do pay attention to the title, For that's all they really do throughout the whole chapter.

A Run Through the Forest

Everyone knows that there is a great deal of time spent in life where nothing meaningful happens. Strange occurrences do not happen everyday no matter whom the day happens to be happening to. Conversely, while strange things do not happen everyday, a lot can happen in a single day and what's more, strange out-of-the-ordinary things tend to happen all at once. It is as if the boring days are there just as a sort of repayment for the days we wish weren't quite so interesting.

So it has been with Aki and her life. Not every day of her life is quite worth chronicling, but most often the days that are worth being reported on tend to happen in clusters, three days here, a week there and a full month of nothing in between. Unfortunately, Aki was in the middle of an extremely long string of interesting days.

She was currently being chased by Kouga-in-denial and heading in whichever direction gifted her with the most space to run, but this situation was much to tame for the fates. No way was this all that was going to happen to her. That would be too kind of Life.

Somewhere ahead of Aki's mad game of run-mousy-run, another interesting situation was unfolding.

He was angry, though his frozen features would never betray his wrath. He had stumbled across his disgusting half-brother's group yet again and of course the situation had degenerated into violence.

Sesshoumaru faced off with his younger sibling and wistfully wished he were anywhere but here. But here he was and here they were and fight they would. It was the way of things. It was rather disgusting how horribly predictable his altercations with the hanyou went.

They would see each other. Insults and yelling would follow until all that was left to settle the encounter was violence of some kind or other. It was boring, routine.

So here he was, his claws extended and dripping with the toxins he'd inherited with his blood.

There was Inuyasha, wielding their honorable father's sword despite his unworthiness of the weapon, taunting Sesshoumaru with his inability to even touch it.

In a blur they raced toward each other for the attack, both smugly certain the other would fall under this supposedly infallible blow.

Sesshoumaru's claws found purchase in a target. He could feel the poison entering the victim of his attack, but the hair that fell over his arm wasn't the silver of his brother Inuyasha. It wasn't even the darkness of the Hanyou's many companions. This hair was gold and it confused him that he could've missed the presence of so strange a creature as had managed to get between Inuyasha and himself at the very moment before their respective blows would have landed properly.

He backed up in stoic confusion, withdrawing his claws from the flesh he had mangled. Bright Green eyes stared up at him empty of any true emotion as Inuyasha likewise withdrew his sword from her side. Something about this creature in front of him tugged at the back of his mind but he dismissed it as unimportant.

The female turned away from him slowly, barely managing to finish her move before gravity and weakness forced her to her knees. "You two okay?" her broken question alerted everyone of the two small figures previously obscured by the tall grass.

Shippou and Rin barely nodded as the shock of how close they'd come to being shish-ka-bobbed slowly sank into their reality. This crazy woman had come out of nowhere to knock them out of the way and take the blow that would have killed them before they even realized they were in danger. And as they watched, her blood flowed into the slowly growing pool underneath her.

Shippou's shock wore off first as his brain began processing what his wide eyes were telling him. "Aki-chan!" he gasped loudly to cover the loud wail that welled up at the back of his throat.

All those present jumped in surprise as the kitsune's exclamation of recognition knocked them out of the brief spell of shocked horror they'd sunk into upon realizing what had nearly been lost in the wake of the brothers' bickering. Kagome rushed over to the kneeling figure of her barely recognizable friend as Aki quickly pushed herself off the ground and stumbled.

Aki corrected herself before anyone could catch her and began to walk away. She needed to keep moving. There was a demon chasing her for a stupid re-race and she refused to drag anyone else into their ridiculous conflict. She stumbled through the tall grace only to fall into the fringe of trees that circled one edge of the inus impromptu battleground. Dizziness assaulted her senses. She suspected that was the poison making itself felt. Kagome caught up to her as she fell against a maple tree.

Kagome reached out to touch the girl and pulled back in surprise as Aki fell the rest of the way to the ground. "Sango! Hurry!" the high school student wailed with worry. Her former tutor was losing consciousness, which was always a bad sign when blood loss was involved.

Kagome reached out again and gasped at the heat pouring off Aki's skin.

"Here you go, Kagome-chan" Sango breathed into the almost-miko's ear as Miroku wandered over on her heals. The monk busied himself by trying to staunch the flow of blood while Kagome rummaged in her pack for bandages and an antidote.

Sesshoumaru followed the humans in mild curiosity and stinging guilt. His Rin had almost been run through by his actions. Without this stranger's timely intervention his darling distraction would be a dead distraction by his own folly. That didn't sit well with him and so he owed this stranger and he would repay her spilled blood. But first, he had to know how to find her later in order to offer such repayment.

The taiyoukai breathed in, tasting the air and searching for the new scent that should be hers. He knew the scents of all the others well enough so the new scent that should be there would be hers. But there was no new smell in the air. The blood scent hung in the air without any identifiers for him to remember. How could this woman-child baffle the senses of the great Sesshoumaru? And in her current condition? He moved to gain a clear view of the female's injured form and was alarmed to see the death phantoms gathering around Rin's savior. These mortals weren't working fast enough! He concealed his exasperation and made his decision. His hand strayed to Tenseiga and it sprang from its sheath with a pleasant ring.

Though he had gained a clear view, he did not have a clear path for Tenseiga to do its work; Inuyasha's blasted wench was in his damn way! Sesshoumaru growled at her to move but the little scamp simply froze. Finally Inuyasha hauled the little human out of the way as the others stepped back to watch him with interest.

Rin tugged absently at his sleeve and he realized, truly realized that he'd nearly lost the little human child. He'd nearly lost her happy chattering and bright laughter. True he could simply have Tenseiga erase her death, but Sesshoumaru was convinced death was not something she needed to re-experience. And he wasn't so convinced that the Tenseiga could work its magic so drastically twice.

He refocused his attention on the woman that had prevented his having to test the reproducibility of the sword's ability and watched as a tear of blood tainted with his toxins fell at an impossibly slow rate towards the ground. She coughed and a trickle of blood crept out the corner of her mouth. Without another thought, Sesshoumaru let the blade slice through the air with all the strength at his command.

The wounds closed almost instantly and her breathing eased. She appeared as if she were only sleeping peacefully.

The group collectively held its breathe as they waited for her to open her emerald eyes.

A sound from the other side of the abandoned battlefield drew Sesshoumaru's attention away from his latest act of apparent charity. Over top the tall grasses swaying in the breeze he could see a rather determined looking miko moving swiftly towards them, or more to the point, towards the slowly rousing stranger that he had just saved. He didn't like this. His instincts almost had him growling ferally before he could suppress it. What was wrong with him? Had Rin's near death and the near death of her savior affected him so much? Before this the inu youkai would have never believed himself capable of being so…easily changed, manipulated, and without anyone actually trying to change him.

Could it be? Could what Inuyasha was seeing be true? Was…Kikyou running…to him? Dare he believe it; dare he even think it? As Inuyasha watched the approaching miko with disbelief and apprehension, he concluded she must be. Why else would she be there? Kikyou approached to within touching distance and Inuyasha opened his previously occupied arms (consequently dropping Kagome on her rear), only to watch as the miko sailed right passed him without even a glance in his direction. He got nothing but an elbow in the ribs from Kagome as he observed Kikyou hurrying to the side of the injured Aki. He harrumphed and said "Feh!"

Kagome rushed to keep a close watch on the undead miko. Kikyou had proven tricky and underhanded in the past and Aki had just been brought back to life. It would seem rather stupid to allow someone to just walk up and kill her out of spite after putting forth the effort to bring her back to life.

Amazingly enough, Kikyou was just examining Aki for any lasting health threats. "Baka," Kikyou declared under her breath as she worked. For all that Sesshoumaru's sword had saved Aki's life and closed all her wounds, the flesh that had just been closed was still too tender in the miko's opinion. And the poison was still in Aki's system. If she moved around too much she'd re-open the wounds and the poison would cause yet more damage in slowing her down. Kikyou sighed; the girl was hopeless. She had to smile a little though; it was part of her charm.

Aki pushed herself into a sitting position and winced. She tried to figure out just how the hell it was that she was still painfully breathing. She had been dieing, she was certain of that. But she was now in too much pain to be blissfully dead. What the hell had happened? She shrugged and swiftly regretted the movement. Her eyes opened slowly, letting in the light of day. She took stock of her surroundings through every sense that she had. She didn't miss the amount of blood on the ground, on her clothes, and…ugh! In her hair. She stood up gingerly and glanced down at the miko glowering up at her.

"Hello, Kikyou," She smiled down at the miko. "Still trying to keep me in one piece? I would've thought you'd have given up by now."

Kikyou smiled indulgently, "What, and lose your charming discourse? How would I survive?" She quipped. The miko was amazed by the transformation she saw in herself. Keeping company with Aki and her ghost friend had her feeling more alive than she had ever felt when she actually was alive. Granted Fred could try her patience something awful. "Besides, I enjoy the challenge." She watched Aki's sad eyes as she chuckled.

Aki's soft chuckle caused her to wince painfully. A second later she coughed and caught the blood it brought up in her hand. She ignored the thick liquid and took in a deep breath to test the air for scent herself. "Great," she grumbled quietly, " just what I need." She turned swiftly to Kagome while simultaneously removing a small plastic tube from the bag slung over her shoulder. "Here," she shoved the film tube at Kagome, "Before I forget."

Puzzled Kagome peered at the little container and took a deep breath, "I'd really like to know how you always manage to gather so many shards in so short a period of time," the ninth grader wondered aloud.

"Can you give me the container back?" Aki requested, blatantly ignoring her interest. "I don't have anything else to put them in." She motioned for Kagome to hurry; she didn't want her trouble spilling on the others.

Kagome nearly dropped the shards three times in her hurry due to Inuyasha's many varied antics. She finally got frustrated enough to yell the 'word' at him. He continued to be obnoxious, but in a much less disruptive way since he was plastered to the ground.

Kagome added Aki's contribution of shards to her own cache and handed the film tube back to her waiting former tutor. "There you go," Kagome smiled.

Aki took the little container and put it back in its place before she promptly turned and left

The group left in the clearing could hardly believe her abrupt departure and were quite frozen with their surprise. That is until Kikyou gave out a most uncharacteristic growl and started chasing after Aki and yelling at her to stop and rest.

After a brief glance at everyone else who'd been left behind everyone felt an unexplainable urge to follow. An urge Kagome helped along by wondering briefly aloud why Aki hadn't handed over all the shards in her possession.

Soon Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, Miroku, Kirara, Shippou, Rin, and Sesshoumaru were chasing after the strange almost pure youkai and the undead miko, for various reasons. The most unclear of which being Sesshoumaru's.

"Oi! Why are you following us? You aren't interested in the shards," Inuyasha called back to his elder brother.

"Indeed," Sesshoumaru answered evenly. It wasn't really an answer. Though the inu youkai hadn't really put forth the thought of intentionally annoying his half-sibling, that's exactly how Inuyasha took it. Sesshoumaru hadn't exactly answered the question, really.

"He's not chasing the shards," Kikyou spoke up condescendingly. "He's following Aki."

"Why would he be interested in Aki?" Shippou asked, slightly bewildered and very suspicious of the undead miko.

"Because Aki doesn't carry scent." Kagome guessed. "Because she saved you and Rin and managed to run this quickly directly after being brought back to life. I mean, don't you think that's interesting?" she asked the kit.

"Well, yeah," Shippou answered, "But I know Aki. I knew her before. I mean he did meet her that one time, but she looked completely different."

Sesshoumaru stared at the kit, silently demanding an explanation for that last comment. Unfortunately Sesshoumaru's stare can be quite quelling to a young kitsune, and Shippou only gulped before instantly shutting up. Mentally the taiyoukai sighed before dismissing the child's statement. Children were so often confusing reality with illusion and dream. For all he knew, this Aki had saved the little kit from him in the boy's nightmares. Sesshoumaru nodded to himself. Yes that had to be it.

They were slowly catching up to their prey since she had seemingly stopped for some reason. Sesshoumaru was inclined to believe the female had stopped due to a sudden wave of weakness. His toxins still were affecting her, though he was sorry about that.

And she was suffering from the poison in her body, Aki's dizziness had finally prompted her to stop temporarily but it couldn't make her give up completely. She would not call a stop for rest, especially not with so many following in pursuit for various reasons. What was she, a fox?

"And so we meet again," a vaguely familiar voice called to her from the boughs of a tree 20 feet in front of where Aki rested against another giant of vegetation in unwilling repose.

Aki groaned, was everybody determined to bother her today? "Hello, Windy," she begrudgingly acknowledged the detachment.

"It's Kagura! Ka-gu-ra!" red eyes flashed with annoyance.

"Right, right," Aki offered to placate the demon. "What do you want Kagura? I'm kind of busy at the moment." Understatement of the era.

"I'm following orders again," Kagura replied grumpily.

"I don't have time for this right now," Aki muttered, rather grumpy herself. I mean really, trying to keep at the head of a rather determined parade of humans, youkai, and certain undead individuals is not a pleasant thing to worry about. More especially when you're trying to somehow keep certain parts of the parade from clashing with certain other parts of the same parade and all while being incapable of doing so in a Johnny-on-the-spot sort of way.

"Orders are orders," Kagura grumped. She was having a bad day too. Naraku had quite pointedly let her know she was expected to goad Aki into following her to his pre-decided point of ambush because she was (in his opinion and greater knowledge) incapable of taking the strange demon on her self. Just taking orders was bad enough, but being declared incompetent to perform a basic snatch and kill maneuver was simply maddening. It was even more upsetting since Kagura hadn't ever fought Aki before, so there was no real basis for his declaration. In fact, Kagura had never seen Aki fight before.

Aki sighed, "Fine. Follow your orders." Then she blinked, "What are your orders exactly?"

Kagura blinked, Forewarned was forearmed and would definitely make her job harder. Then again, Kagura planned to screw this up anyway. Defiance in subtle ways, such a delightful revenge for having to follow orders in the first place. The detachment shook her head at Aki before bringing up her fan and weapon of choice. "Prepare yourself," she offered in warning. She truly did like Aki.

Aki's eyes widened with surprise and trepidation. The first grouping of the pursuit was about to stumble in the middle of her altercation with Kagura. They wouldn't have a chance to realize what was going on before Kagura struck.

The wind user flicked her fan partially open and yelled her attack to Aki, "Fujin no Mai!"

Aki smiled grimly before turning her back on the attack and stretching out her wings to offer cover to her defenseless and bewildered entourage. She grit her teeth as the pain of her sensitive wings wracked through her body.

Shippou gave out a little squeak of fright at watching Kagura's familiar attack approach and impact on the nearly transparent wings held up in front of the group. Lucky for him, Rin's shriek of terror conveniently covered the sound he'd made.

Aki balled her hand into a fist, allowing her claws to draw her own blood as she forced herself to be patient. No attack could last forever. There had to be a pause, a lull, something for her to wait for. And there was. The moment the wind stopped cutting into her, Aki whipped around and sent a ball of her miko power flying at the detachment.

Kagura screamed in surprised pain as the ball rebounded off the tree behind her and splashed holy power in her direction. It was barely a hit at all, but more than enough to send the wind user running in terrified retreat. Really, if she wasn't so terrified she might have realized flying would be quicker.

Aki clenched her shaking and abused hand before taking off herself. Kouga was catching up and that couldn't be good for anybody involved.

He was so close in fact, that the minute Aki disappeared a cloud of dust skidded to a stop in the exact same spot previously filled by the fleeing youkai.

"Oi, Kagome!" the reason for the dust cloud greeted his favorite miko-in-training. "Still keeping company with that dumb dog?"

As always, Inuyasha took instant offense to the wolf's words and demeanor. "Shut up, you wimpy wolf!" the hanyou bellowed. "What are you doing here?" he demanded in accusation.

"I could ask the you the same thing, Dopey Dog!" Kouga continued, not phased in the least.

Kagome smiled forcedly, the kind of smile reminiscent of computer-enhanced images. "Hi, Kouga-kun. What brings you so far from your tribe?" she asked with a little more than polite interest. She really did care what happened to the wolf-youkai tribe. Not to the extent that Kouga an Inuyasha imagined, but there you have it.

Inuyasha's mumbled exclamations and curses went unheard as Kouga replied. "I'm tracking a demon wench who cheated in a race against me. Never thought I'd actually run across my woman, though it is a pleasure."

"She went that way, Baka!" Inuyasha broke in pointing after Aki. "What are you waiting for?"

Kouga looked to Kagome for confirmation and she just nodded as the rest of the group took off after Aki again.

Sesshoumaru thought quietly to himself that this female was certainly full of surprises.

"So that's how Aki's been getting Shikon shards without fighting," Shippou thought out loud.

"Well she did say she challenged them to contests and such," Miroku reminded the kit.

"When did you meet Aki?" Kagome asked slightly surprised that the monk actually knew her former tutor.

"It was a while ago," Shippou answered from her shoulder. Miroku nodded from Kirara's back. "He met her right before she left that first big batch of shards with Kaede."

Sesshoumaru kept one ear to their chatter attempting to glean information from them without appearing to care what they were talking about. Rin's grip on his clothing shifted and he glanced down to ensure she was securely attached to his side for this trip. The sudden seductive scent of impersonal blood threaded through the trees to flood his olfactory nerves. It would appear that the wolf-youkai had caught up with Aki and caused her harm. Subconsciously Sesshoumaru sped up his pursuit, unintentionally goading Inuyasha to speed up as well.

In reality, Kouga had caught up with his 'demon wench' all right. He'd caught up with her so well, he'd actually run into her knocking both him and her out of the upper branches of a rather tall tree.

Down, down, down they fell, until Aki briefly wondered if they had somehow managed to fall out of the tree into a canyon that extended far below the roots of the tree. It was such a long drop that the impact with the ground knocked Kouga unconscious and tore open those wounds Kikyou had been so worried about. It was all Aki could do to remain conscious and breathing, and that's how they found them some moments later.

Kagome, Sango, and Kikyou pushed everybody out of the way to get to the injured partial youkai. Kikyou plucked a single hair from Aki and used it to stitch the biggest wound up. Kagome cleaned the wounds to be stitched (or not) with supplies from her pack and Sango prepped the bandages that would be used after the stitching was done and all the wounds were cleaned. She also stood on guard to ward off Miroku should the need arise.

Miroku was quite busy enough with keeping Kouga away from the injured Aki while the girls worked. He eventually persuaded Inuyasha to help him deflect the wolf-youkai; it was especially easy to do so after Kouga obnoxiously resorted to his standard insults of the hanyou. That and his inappropriate overtures to Kagome really sealed the deal for Inuyasha.

Sesshoumaru stayed out of all the hubbub. He was above such juvenile behavior. Only the girls were worthy of his aid, should he deign to give it and they had no need of it, being fully capable of doctoring Aki on their own. So he just stood by and watched Rin attempt to comfort the Green-eyed center of attention.

Aki puzzled him. She generously accepted Rin's efforts by making the girl feel she had need of such care. No youkai truly needed the child's form of comfort. No normal youkai would accept aid from a stranger graciously. Sesshoumaru couldn't understand it and he was always wary of what he didn't understand.

Kikyou was adjusting the herbal bandages one last time when Kagura reappeared. Before anyone else could react, Aki launched another bolt at the wind-user only to miss once again as Kagura quickly retreated.

Aki sighed tiredly. She glanced over at Kouga, "You still want your stupid re-race?" she asked the wolf prince.

Kagome glared at Kouga significantly and he swallowed uncomfortably. It was apparent that if he were to demand his race right now Kagome would never forgive him. "It can wait," he grumbled before taking off to meet up with his tribe.

Aki erupted in a coughing fit just as he departed. It wasn't pleasant. It wasn't mild. It definitely brought up more poisoned blood. "Ugh!" Aki swallowed, attempting to sooth her throat. She glanced about her and noticed everybody was staring at her. She raised an eyebrow; that was one thing she liked about traveling alone, nobody stared at her like that. The former tutor shook her head. What she wouldn't give for that solitude now! What wouldn't she give for a hot bath too?

A scent blew past her nose. Was that…sulfur? Yes! It was, and water too. Hot Spring! What a stroke of luck! Now, how to get there from here with some amount of privacy insured at the end of the trip? She glanced around the small crowd hovering around her formulating a plan of action.

Aki gave a false sigh, let them think she was truly too tired to run anymore. Slowly she walked over to the little girl dancing at Sesshoumaru's sleeve. The child was filthy and in dire need of a good bath too. Carefully, Aki picked the little thing up, determinedly hiding the pain it caused her lest Kikyou pick up on the damaged state of her hands. Miko powers didn't take kindly to youkai blood after all.

"Hello, what's your name?" she asked the little girl.

"I'm Rin," the girl in her arms smiled toothily.

Aki grinned back. "How would you like to go for a bath?" The girl's eyes widened looking into the miko-demoness's green ones. "There's a hot spring over that way," she motioned in the direction of the scent.

"I don't smell one," Inuyasha said confused.

Aki snorted, "You can't smell me either and I'm right here." Inuyasha glared at her, but her attention had reverted back to the child she was holding. "So how about it Rin?"

Rin's smile grew as she nodded her consent and Aki took off toward the spring before even Kikyou could let out a yell.

"Well," Sango cleared her throat, "at least she left us a direction and a destination." Miroku and Sango sat astride Kirara and set off in the direction Aki had indicated.

The whole processional followed suit with varying degrees of annoyance coloring their features.