Thanks to my very rare reviewers. Reviews don't come easy for me so I appreciate every one. HEAR THAT? YOU ARE APPRECIATED! Okay, enough raving, here's the next chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or any of its characters or Soul Calibur II or any of its characters.

Day Three

After everyone woke up and ate, they took to wandering around in the forest. No one was the least suspicious to Taki's new night life, or the two daggers, one of which grew more demonic as the days passed, that she hid very well on her person. Kagome came very close, though:

"Sango, there's something different about you," she said quietly.

"How so?" Taki asked calmly, although feeling the pressure of a possible discovery.

"In your spirit," Kagome said, "it feels more evil than-" Kagome cut herself off and looked ahead of them. "Jewel shards," she whispered.

Inuyasha stopped right where he was. "What's that?" he asked pryingly, getting into their conversation.

"I said…" Kagome started, and then thought better of it. "Sit." CRASH! She stepped over him. "They're this way."

"It wasn't that big of a deal," Inuyasha mumbled as he got up, the spell wearing off.

Kagome cleared her throat loudly. Inuyasha got the point and dropped the subject.

They eventually had in their sights a boy sitting on a boulder with a small glowing fairy buzzing around him. The boy, dressed in odd-looking green clothes and a matching hat, was looking at the ground with boredom while the fairy was raving heatedly about their recent experiences. "I swear, if I hear 'is that a fairy? Is that a fairy?' one more time, I'll burst!" Navi began flitting around with irritation. "And those stupid kids, thinking they can pull on my wings. I'd like to pull on one of their limbs and see how they feel, you know what I mean, Link?"

"Eh?" was Link's apparent answer. He looked up after he saw a shadow on the ground.

Navi paused, confused. "Close enough." She continued her rant, oblivious to her new guests. "And another thing: What does it take for people to listen to you? I think I've yelled 'hey!' about a thousand times now. Yes, stupid, I'm talking to you…" Navi finally saw what Link saw and freaked. She put back on her sweet, innocent voice. "Hi, I'm Navi, this is Link. Have you heard of something called 'Soul Edge'?"

They all looked confused; Taki played along. "Um, no, but perhaps you've seen a demon pass through here?"

"Well…" Navi paused, "I haven't. How about you, Link?" Link nodded his head enthusiastically. "Ooh, he does!" Navi said. Link hopped off the boulder.

Inuyasha pushed himself ahead of the masses to stand in front of Link. He was considerably taller, so he had to look down on him. "Okay, kid, tell us where it went."

Link nodded again. He pointed due north. "Seyaah!" he practically screamed. Everyone looked at him like he was crazy, except Navi of course, who was floating next to his head serenely. "Seyaah!" he yelled again, still pointing. Taki was in the back, shaking her head. Good luck getting a comprehensible word out of him, she thought to herself.

Inuyasha was already irritated. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Hah!" Link answered matter-of-factly, "Hmm."

Kagome suddenly had an idea. "Do you play charades?" she asked.

"Auuaah!" Link said in affirmation. He put up two fingers.

"Okay, two words." Link nodded. He motioned towards the sky.

"Cloud?" Link shook his head. "Air?" That still wasn't it. "Blue? Bird? Fly? Cloud?" Link let his arms down, exasperated. He looked at them like they were idiots, then reached behind his back, pulling out his ocarina.

"Ocarina?" Shippo was still guessing.

"Shut up," Navi said bluntly. Shippo glared at the little feisty fairy. Link began to play the Song of Storms. The rain came down right on cue. They all looked up, amazed. Link smiled at his handiwork and equipped his bow and ice arrows. He shot at a tree. A piece of the bark froze and the path that the arrow took left small snowflakes on the ground, which promptly melted from the heat.

"Frozen tree?" Shippo tried again.

"Didn't I say to shut up?" Navi snapped. She now had a zero tolerance for kids.

"It's ice," Taki said, "If we go north we'll find an ice demon with the jewel shards." Link jumped up. "Seyaah!" He played the Sun's song, and the rain stopped. He looked towards Taki's direction with a newfound interest. Suddenly, he unsheathed the Master Sword and pointed it straight out. "Hah!" he screamed. Taki soon realized that he wasn't pointing at her, so she turned around to see Cervantes, standing with both of his blades in hand and looking very peeved.

"You," he drawled, pointing at Miroku. Miroku looked at him innocently. "You've been hitting on my daughter, haven't you?"

"Since when did you care?" Taki mumbled.

Kagome heard her. "Come again, Sango?"

Taki immediately started playing with her ponytail. "Um, I have something in my hair."

"Sir, I've hit on a lot of people's daughters. Could you be a little more specific?" Miroku said. Cervantes went on to fully describe Ivy. "Oh yeah, her," Miroku recalled hesitantly, "You don't have to worry. Nothing happened."

"Really," Cervantes said tiredly, "Well, I haven't had a fight in days, so I'll pretend that something did happen. INSOLENT FOOL! I'LL MAKE YOU PAY!" Cervantes went charging at him.

"Wind Tunnel!" And in less than five seconds, Cervantes was no more. All that was left was Soul Edge and Nirvana, abandoned on the ground.

After a while, Inuyasha spoke. "Well, if we've had our fun, can we get going?" A crash was heard in the distance. Maniacal laughing followed. "I've been waiting for this," Inuyasha said, unsheathing Tetsusaiga and running off with demon speed.

"Wait! You don't have to run so fast!" Kagome began taking pursuit, carrying Shippo. Miroku looked to Taki. "I'm coming," she said. Miroku turned and followed Kagome.

Taki and Kilala were left alone with Link, Navi, and the two blades. Taki picked up Soul Edge, which was looking at her intently. "Don't you eyeball me," she hissed, and the sword looked away. Gathering her bearings, she looked to Navi. "Is fairy-wary having a bad day?" she said mockingly.

"Peace, Taki, and thank your lucky stars I didn't snitch on you. I figured we had enough problems, right Link?"

"Uh-huh," Link said.

"And we'll be back for Soul Edge later," Navi added.

Taki scoffed. "Come if you dare." She removed her kimono and looked at herself in a puddle on the ground. "Sango was right; they are going to notice big time." She huffed. "But for the money, an actress I shall be." She looked to Kilala, who'd just transformed. "Let's go catch up." She mounted Kilala and they both took off.

Link and Navi watched them until they disappeared over the horizon. As soon as they did, Navi got in Link's face. "Link, you idiot, why didn't you speak their language?"

Link stared at Navi for a second. "Navi, I'm the silent hero! I've got a reputation to look after, you know that."

"Well," Navi replied smartly, "your 'reputation' just wasted us a lot of time! Play the Song of…that-village-we-just-came-out-of." So Link played the Song of that-village-we-just-came-out-of and they were transported there.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha, Kagome, and Miroku finally happened upon the ice demon. Yet, they were not attacking it, but were staring blankly at it. The reason why was clear: the demon was wearing half of a shirt, really tight pants, and it appeared to have its nails polished and makeup on. However, it looked too muscular to be a female. All of them were pondering the demon's sex silently until Miroku elbowed Inuyasha.

"Go ask it of its gender," he whispered.

"No way! You ask it," Inuyasha whispered back.

"I'm not going to ask it…"

"Hey!" The demon finally spoke. It had a very bass voice. "Are you going to give me your jewel shards, or do I have to take them from you?"

Kagome covered her jewel shards with her hand. "I really hope that isn't a woman," she squeaked.

A roar was heard, and soon after, Taki and Kilala arrived at the scene. Taki jumped off of Kilala, gripping Hiraikotsu. "I'm here," she announced, staring at the bishoujo demon. Everyone looked at Taki and did a double take.

"What the-" Inuyasha stuttered.

"Uh, Sango?" Kagome said slowly.

"Ooh," Miroku said. No surprise there.

Shippo looked up at Taki, squinting. "Hey, Sango, there's something different about you. Uh, did you change your hair?"

"I want jewel…" the demon noticed Taki. "…shards?" We now know that the demon was male, because no female would stare so hard.

Taki saw her window of opportunity and took advantage. She sauntered up to the demon until they were almost nose to nose. It was painfully obvious that he was nervous; he would look in her eyes for a second and then back down to her chest, then back up again.

"Do you like what you see?" Taki said smoothly.

"Uhh…" was the demon's answer.

"That's what I thought." With lightning speed, she knocked the demon over the head with Hiraikotsu. The demon fell to the ground and got into the fetal position, covering his head. Taki continued slamming the demon in the head. "What kind of girly-man demon are you?"

"I'm in touch with my feminine side," he cried, "Is that a crime?" Taki stopped smashing the demon's head in to step back and look at the damage she caused him, an amused look on her face. The demon slowly peeked at her, the fear evident in his eyes, then was up on his feet quickly, laughing maniacally again.

"Big-busted woman! You should have finished me off when you had the chance! Now I will use my manipulative powers over ice and snow to destroy you all!"

"Manipulative?" Kagome repeated, "As in you can't make the ice yourself?"

"Is there a problem with that?" the demon said defensively.

"Feh, you're about as harmful as an underwater fire." Inuyasha was looking amused now. "It's spring. There's not a trace of snow or ice. There isn't even water for another mile!"

"Oh, well, I guess I have to do this the old fashioned way—with my bare hands."

"Wind Scar!" The demon dropped his stance and ran away, screaming in a high-pitched voice.

"Hey! He's getting away with the jewel shard!" Kagome said, already frustrated with this thing that called himself a demon.

"Not for long." Taki threw Hiraikotsu towards the demon. As he saw the giant boomerang heading towards him, the demon screamed even higher and tried to run faster, but to no avail. As soon as Hiraikotsu touched him, he spontaneously combusted. Hiraikotsu flew back into Taki's hands without a singe. Out of the debris, something flew into Kagome's hands: the jewel shard. She quickly put it with the other jewels.

"Okay, that was weird." She looked at Taki with newfound interest, as did everyone else. "Sango, is there something you're not telling us?"

Quite contradictory to her nature, Taki smiled sweetly. "No, what makes you ask that?"