Insane-san says: This chapter is way later than it was supposed to be... I ripped a tendon in my shoulder and I went through some serious pain. I am still in pain, however, I am feeling better. After this chapter I WILL update Nefarious. I WILL. WILL WILL WILL. Read on, and please review at the end. Because...

I said so.

Peacock Feathers

XIII

"Repeat that again, Inuyasha?" I asked timidly.

Inuyasha growled quietly, trying to seal his anger. "Up the stairs, through the right passage, not the left; through the door, down the stairs, through the left passage, left again, left again, up the stairs, up more stairs, go straight until you get to triple door, and straight on to the banquet hall."

'He says it like it's easy...' I said to myself saddly. "Umm...One more time, please? Maybe?" I shrunk down at the frusterated look on his face. "For the twenty-third time, girl? No! Twenty-three times should have been enough for a three-year-old to memorize." He fumed.

I clapped my hands together and looked pleadingly at him. "Just one more time?" I asked slowly, raising the pitch of my voice as I pleaded.

His body relaxed and he sighed angrily up into the air. "One more, but that's it!" I stared at him and listened closely to the directions, glad that I had won.

"Up the stairs, through the right passage, blah blah; through the door, blah blah blah, blah blah, left again, left again, up the stairs, blah blah blah blah,"

My face paled.

"Blah blah the banquet hall, okay?"

"Ummm...Umm..." Panic held me and I played my fingers together. "Why can't you come with me, again?" I asked quietly. His face twisted into something that I couldn't place, but then it was just an annoyed sneer. "Because I have more important things to do besides eat a ton of garbage."

'Well if he has better things to do than that, then I should too. I'm...I'm not that starving, really... I should ask him if I can go with him...Yeah, I will!' I thought. My determination rose.

"Inuyasha," I said his name stiffly, readying myself. He raised a black eyebrow. "Yeah?"

I swallowed and eyed him.

"What about my clothes?" I blurted out. He smirked darkly. "If you care about a few blood spots like that, then I don't think you'll do well here." He shook his head and walked past me. I spun around and watched him walk off with his thumbs in his pockets. "One more time, Inuyasha? Those directions..." He disappeared around a corner and I heard nothing from him.

I slapped my cheeks and gave a hard stare at the floor ahead. "To the triple door!" I shouted with fire. My face faltered. "But what came before that...?" I walked fast until I saw a flight of stairs. 'These?' I wondered. I walked up. My army boots clicked on the shining marble stairs. I tried to resist the urge to remove my boots because I could still feel sand crunching around inside them...

I reached the top and sighed with despair. "The next part was...Think, think!" I gripped the sides of my head. "He only told me TWENTY-THREE times!" I hissed to no one. "Go straight? Or was it right? Left again...but..."

"I see you're finding your way just fine." A voice said with a cocky air. I whipped around and saw Inuyasha.

I could feel heat rising to my neck and ears and I swallowed unpleasantly. "Yes, I am." I quickly recovered.

He smirked and tapped the claws on his right hand against the chain around his neck reapeatedly. One claw at a time hit the chain. My face got more and more tense. I was about to crack, when his smirk faded and he said,
"You're so hopeless...I guess I'll have to show you the way." He put his arm down and walked past me. "Keep up or I'll leave you behind!" He shouted at me over his shoulders.

I was just so speechless. What made him decide to help me? Oh well, that didn't matter at the time anyway, I was just glad that he decided to, whatever the cause. I smiled broadly and followed him, knowing that even if I was slow, he wouldn't leave me behind.

'...At least I'm pretty sure he wouldn't...' I thought darkly to myself. We walked on.

"So...When we first arrived here, why was everyone waiting for us and cheering?" I asked upon a thought. "Well, ya see," I looked up at the back of his head as he spoke. "A magical unicorn with psychic abilities sensed we were both in the land, and then she FLEW to the city and told everyone to prepare a feast." He looked over he shoulder at me with a happy smile.

I remember blinking a lot for some reason. My eyes were dry. "Why do you always have to mess with me?" I asked.

His grin went away completely. I stared into his yellow eyes and watched those slitted pupils. "Because I don't like you."

I swallowed and picked at the dried blood on my shorts. He turned his head and we kept walking. I can't really remember what happened on the way too well, but before I knew it we were in front of a triple door.

"Inuyasha," I sighed with a smile, thanking him countless times in my head. His arms winced as he clenched his fists tightly and he tilted his head a little bit to look behind himself at me. He stared at me through his bangs and cleared his throat quietly.

"Yeah?" He said. "Thanks for waiting around for me..." I said, smiling. He tried to glare at me. "KEH! I didn't 'WAIT AROUND' for you. I was--" I opened the doors and walked through before he could finish.

A sudden confidence was building inside of me as I walked in. 'Hey, this is great! I can smell food! I don't care about my dumb, shredded, bloody clothes anymore. PAH! And who cares about the many, many people sitting around and staring...at me...'

I stopped dead in my tracks and looked about me. There were several long tables that were connected to eachother in different ways. Demons of all kinds were sitting in every single chair and staring at me. Except for one. Sesshomaru was in a large chair at the farthest end of the room looking down at his claws like he didn't give any cares.

All was silent.

I stood there.

Their surprised faces turned confused. Some where angry, others were unreadable. Then Inuyasha stepped in front of me. He stood there in a kind of, 'I'm the man!' way and crossed his arms. He swept his gaze around the table and then fixed his eyes on a single person. When I found the person he was staring evilly at, I looked at her too, kind of shyly through my hair so I wouldn't seem weird or anything...

She was thin and sat straight up in her chair. It made me think of how I was supposed to sit, or how a princess should sit. I usually kind of slouched forward over my food... She had red eyes and wavy black hair that was held up in a bun. She had feathers in her hair. My nose winced when I saw them. She was wearing an elegant kimono and looked like a pretty picture. Only kind of evil, in some weird way...

My face started burning as I looked between Inuyasha and the girl.

The demons stared; questioning, disgusted, careless, sneering.

Then Inuyasha spoke up in a growling drawl, "This is the Chosen One."

There were gasps and the red-eyed woman's eyes flickered to show shock. She closed her eyes to hide her emotions. Her lips twitched.

After some time, everyone bowed their heads low and then sat back up straight. There were murmurs racing throughout the room and everyone continued to gaze at me. Inuyasha walked towards a tall brown chair with red velvet lining. He sat down and landed in a sloppy position. He glanced towards a chair next to him and flicked his clawed fingers over to it a few times. I got the message and went to sit in the chair.

It was a few seconds before I realized that I was sitting in largest chair of the dining room. Even larger than Sesshomaru's.

This made me smile a little despite the looks I was getting.

It was golden with red and white designs in the seat cushion and arm rests. I stroked my fingers over the soft material of the huge arm rests with a content smile on my face. I looked towards Inuyasha. He had his eyes fixed on the red-eyed woman. He looked like he was extremely deep in thought and angry at the same time.

She smiled mockingly at him and waved air in her face quickly with a white fan. She looked away.

I gripped my fingers into the fibers of the arm rests and gave the side of her face a hard, searching stare. The smell of cooking food grew stronger and more enticing and I felt my stomach growling angrily. The murmuring quieted down and now some demons were just holding quiet conversations with one another.

"Inuyasha, will the food be ready soon?" I asked him without looking. "Tchhh...Have some patience, woman." He said loudly and chipped some dried blood off of the claw on his thumb. The murmuring started up again. Everyone was throwing shocked glances at Inuyasha.

I blinked. "Do they not like blood, Inuyasha?" I whispered. He smirked broadly. "Do they not like blood?" He reapeated me in a question. His smirk grew and he stared at me witha disbelieving face. He let out a low laugh.

My heart sped up and I clamped my mouth shut and stared. I couldn't help but wonder what was so funny.

The whole room was completely silent. And I mean completely. You could hear a stupid pin drop. The demons were looking at Inuyasha and then me. Inuyasha had gone back to examining his sharp claws. I was still really nervous and feeling weird.

The red-eyed woman was eyeing me strangely. Searching me for something, it seemed. There was an evil presence about her. I could almost feel it sweeping against my skin. The hairs on my neck and arms rose and I stared right back at her. It was like the feeling I would get when I sensed a ghost. Only with her it was warmer somehow...Like when you know you're too close to a fire and you should take a few steps back.

She was three chairs next to me. Just fanning herself. Something was burning my thigh. I reached a hand in my pocket and carressed my diamond as if to calm it down. It only burned more. My throat grew agitated and I couldn't swallow, for some reason. Then, for a split second, the whole room turned into a dark, eery land with no trees and dead leaves and things flying around in the wind. A purple mist was creeping through the air. Then it went away.

I took in a gasp of air and clenched my fingers harder into the arm-rests. My eyes widened and then narrowed.

A questioning glint lit her eyes and then it faded. She closed her fan and placed it gently on her lap. I wasn't aware of anything in the room then except her. She was...not right.

She raised a sleek eyebrow.

I stared at her, unable to speak. I was wondering about many things. Despite my hunger, I wanted to walk out of here with Inuyasha and have him spill everything to me. Everything that I was supposed to do. Even if it meant...Excuse me, training with him, I would have right then.

I felt sort of wrong just sitting there and then I suddenly knew why. I stood up and ignored the sharp intake of air coming from Inuyasha.

I cleared my throat nervously. "Hello everyone. I'm...I'm Kagome Higurashi." I nodded my head a little.

They all gaped at me. Then to my surprise, one by one they stood and introduced themselves.

I just faintly heard Inuyasha muttering curses to each one as they stood.

When I had met with all of them the only one left was Kagura. For a moment I was almost sure that she wasn't going to stand up. But then, she did. She turned to face me and stared straight into my eyes. That flaming, tingling feeling swept against my face and I ignored the urge to gasp and walk backwards. She put out her smooth hand.

"I am Kagura. This city was kind enough to let me stay here when I was alone. I have lived here for a long time."

I nodded. "I'm Kagome Higurashi." I reached out my hand to her. "I-"

Right when my hand reached out, this enormous blast of white smokey stuff came out of my arm, and my arm alone. It slammed into Kagura and pushed her with such force until she reached the far wall. Once she was there, she was actually blasted through the wall.

There was such a shock in me as I had never felt.

My whole body shook and I couldn't bring myself to drop my arm. "KAGOME!" Inuyasha shouted. I snapped out of my spacey state of horror and saw him shaking me. He sighed through his fangs. "I've been shaking you and calling you." He swept his eyes over me.

"What the heck did you think that would do, blasting her like that?" He asked.

"A question I think we'd all like to ask." Came Sesshomaru's drawl from across the room. He was an inch away from the gigantic hole in the wall. He looked completely calm. Everyone else was all scared and staring. "N-n-no, I think I don't want to ask any questions." A small man whispered shakily. Everyone seemed to agree.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and clenched my fingers together. "I didn't mean it. It just...happened, Inuyasha." I murmured to him.

He grabbed my shoulder and led me out of the room. I saw him glance back at the hole in the wall and at Kagura's slumped, dirty form. Blood was spilling out of her sleeve.

"Well, at least you did it before me." He said with a smirk. He closed the door behind us and we kept walking. I didn't know what do to at that point. I was so scared of myself. I was afraid of what I had done. I killed someone and I didn't even think about doing so...

'I killed someone...I killed someone...I killed someone...'

My eyes were strained open and my sweaty hands were together. My breath was short and I allowed myself to be led by Inuyasha. Half of the time I wasn't even aware of myself walking. My legs were moving on their own.

"I'll get you to your room and get you some food later, how 'bout that?" He asked. I didn't answer.

He opened a door and we walked into a dark bedroom. He turned on the light. "So I guess now you can wash up and get some new clothes...And sleep, I guess." He yawned and stretched his arms up. He stopped abruptly.

"Hey, it was kinda funny. You just," He put his arm up. "Put your arm up and BAM. She dies." He laughed.

My stomach gave an awkward churn. If it had been on a movie or in a book, I would have laughed.

But I killed a woman.

"Kagome, she wasn't an innocent person. She was an evil lady who was gonna die by my hands sooner or later. You just got to her first is all." I winced and walked towards the bed. I didn't look at my surroundings just then. I was to absorbed in my own world.

"Okay, go take a bath or somethin'. You're makin' me mad." He said with frustration.

I nodded slowly and walked towards the bathroom door. I walked in and closed the door behind me. I stood in that large bathroom with shaking hands and wincing eyelids. I knew once I got over the shock, what followed wouldn't be fun.

I look back and it's scary how alone I felt when I was in that bathroom.

I felt myself sinking down to the floor.

Right when I was about to be eaten by my own thoughts, the bathroom door popped open.

Insane-san says: Woof. There's the chapter. Now massage my shoulder while you review it. oo