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

Day Five

Everyone was sitting under a big tree, on a blanket, eating "lunch from the future". They were all just trying to relax, but Shippo was still psyched from what happened yesterday.

"I can't believe you missed it!" he practically shouted in Taki's face. He then started a big charade of how it went down, complete with commentary. "The girl was like, whoosh! And the other people were like, whoa! And she was like, give it! And they were like, no! And then, bam, bam, pow!" He was on his back now, with a goofy smile on his face. "You really missed it."

Kagome set down her chopsticks and sighed. "Right before she left, she told us we needed to stick to one goal, and I think she's right. We've been trying to do too many things at once. From now on, the jewel shards come first." Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at Kagome. Kagome sweatdropped.

"Oh, so I guess we just forget about Naraku?" Inuyasha said matter-of-factly.

Kagome frowned. "N-no, Naraku is still a threat, but we still need to prioritize."

"Prioritize?" Miroku repeated. He held up his hand. "Hellooo? I'm dying here!"

"It's because of Naraku that Kikyo took away 50 (a few expletives here) YEARS OF MY LIFE!"

Cautiously, Shippo piped up, "Let's not forget Kohaku." Taki wasn't going to say anything, because she knew that would just enhance the problem.

"Guys! I was just trying to help…" a distressed Kagome squeaked.

"HELP?" everyone except Kagome and Taki screamed. A huge uproar ensued, with yelling, flailing of arms, and Shippo getting knocked unconscious. Taki finally had enough. "Stop!" she screamed in that super high-pitched voice she can have. They all froze and looked at her. She was beginning to turn red from anger. "Now, I wouldn't know, since I didn't actually hear her, but maybe you're throwing this a little out of context. Maybe she meant to stop spreading yourself out so much, to stop trying to solve everyone else's problems, to do one thing at a time." She huffed. If she knew that her advice would start arguments, then she wouldn't have told them in the first place.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." The calm came back and they continued eating.

After about an hour of walking, the trail ended with a small, quaint village. This small, quaint village also just happened to be burning to the ground and being hacked with a huge ax. Taki slapped her forehead. She knew only two people with huge axes, and Berserker was too freaking stupid to do something like this. That meant one thing…

"Die, you piece of mummified scum!" Astaroth didn't have a lot of patience anyway, but fighting Voldo just made it worse.

Voldo hissed in reply. He hadn't landed a blow yet, but neither had Astaroth. These two had been fighting for hours. The village miko saw it coming as soon as they came and managed to evacuate everyone. After that, all hell broke loose.

"We should go," Kagome suggested.

"There's nowhere to go but through here or up. We can't go around because the forest is overgrown here, and going up is a bad idea since there's a thunderstorm coming." Miroku was right; clouds were looming right above them.

The clash of metal against metal brought them back to reality again. "Stop holding out on me, worthless maggot!" Astaroth bellowed. Voldo hissed what sounded like a negative response. "Liar!" Astaroth yelled, and swung his ax. Voldo easily evaded, making the ax crash into a burning house. Pieces of burning wood came flying at them, which Voldo slithered away from. Astaroth got hit by one, but he didn't feel it because he's already dead. Go figure.

When a piece of burning debris landed really close to Inuyasha, he decided it was time to intervene. "Let's get this over with," he said with exasperation, unsheathing Tetsusaiga.

"The one without a face creeps me out," Kagome said warily. The fire on the debris was barely more than an ember now. Taki spat on it and put it out. "I've seen the bigger one around before, he's a pushover," she explained, "I can deal with him."

"Guess that leaves me with snake boy." Inuyasha began approaching Voldo.

"I'll…go…with you…" Miroku hesitantly volunteered. Kagome opted to stay out of this one, along with Shippo.

Astaroth was about to swing at Voldo one more time when Hiraikotsu flew into the building beside him, coming just inches away from his face. He didn't flinch when burning splinters seared his face, only glared with all white eyes at Taki. Voldo saw his window of opportunity and curled into a peculiar ball and rolled off—right into Inuyasha.

"What do you want, worm?" Astaroth spat.

Taki yanked Hiraikotsu out of the burning building before it began to burn itself. "I could ask you the same question. Soul Edge isn't here."

"You're worthless and stupid!" He took a swipe at Taki, who responded by jumping on the flat part of his ax. During his follow-through, she clonked him with Hiraikotsu. He stumbled while she leapt off of the ax. Shaking his rattled head, he continued. "That nasty little beast has one, and I'll squash him like a bug to get it!"

"He doesn't have it," Taki said evenly, "He came here to get it, just like you, only to find it already taken." Mekki-Maru was sizzling again. She closed her eyes for a moment to phase out the pain. "Nightmare has that piece."

Astaroth paused, letting that all sink into his thick skull. "Even if that is true, I can still obliterate that-"

"Not today." With a crushing blow, Astaroth was out of the picture. Of course he wasn't dead, because…well, you know.

Backtracking to when Voldo bumped into Inuyasha…

"What do you think you're doing?" Inuyasha demanded. Voldo uncurled himself and began hissing.

"Is that supposed to be an answer?" Miroku asked. Voldo turned his attention to Miroku for the first time. He made this low hiss in the back of his throat and started moving and bending in weird ways. Miroku shrank back. "Are you coming on to me?" he asked, shocked and confused at the same time. There was no answer. "Hey! I don't roll that way!" he proclaimed.

"Man…" Inuyasha groaned, "I don't want him to touch my sword. Can't you just suck him up in the-"

"No way," Miroku said immediately, "I can't stand the thought of him being in my hand."

"Well, we've gotta do something." They both looked at him with uncertainty. Voldo was inching closer to Miroku, with Miroku trying to inch away. After he got about a foot away, Miroku couldn't take anymore. "Get away!" he cried, swinging his staff. Luckily for him, the staff clocked Voldo in the temple. He dropped like a sack of potatoes. Inuyasha and Miroku exchanged glances. They didn't know if he was dead, and frankly, they didn't care. "Works for me," Inuyasha said, and both of them took off to regroup.

Kagome, Shippo, and Taki were already together, waiting for them. "It was some demon who did this," Kagome commented. Taki nodded. Yeah, she thought, some demon and some human…

"He's not far," Inuyasha said after sniffing the air. "The fire's died down, so that's one less thing to worry about. My guess is if we stay here for the night, we could catch up with him in the morning." There was a mumbled affirmative as the rain began to pour. Just wonderful. Now they had two decisions: Take shelter under a tree and risk getting struck by lightning, or sleep uncovered and get drenched. They all stood there, staring at the clouds as the rain slowly put out the fire. As soon as it did, it stopped, and the clouds cleared to reveal the moon.

"How…" Shippo started, "h-how did…"

"One shouldn't question these things," Taki said, and with that, they all gathered under the nearest tree.

Alright, guys, this is where it all starts to wrap up. As soon as we get to Day Six, it becomes just about all cliffhangers at the ends. Sango should be back by Day Seven, so they might find out, but just maybe.