Insane-san says: Here is yet another Peacock Feather's chapter. I decided to put Nefarious on hold for a while. It isn't exactly my favorite story because I feel that this one is my baby... -gigglesnort-

My cousin, who lives in Ohio, saw the title to this fanfiction and was so impressed with it, he stared at the computer screen for a while with his mouth open. That was only the title to the story, mind you. Hahah. It was funny. PROUDNESS!

-cough-

Well, I spent all of yesterday blissfully thinking it was Wednesday. But then I realized that it couldn't have been Wednesday, because that was my parents anniversary...And that was over.

So then I was like, "OH MY GOD! IT'S THURSDAY! I HAVEN'T FINISHED THE CHAPTER!" So I ran out of the pool, shoveled down my dinner, and now I'm here finishing this chapter...

My sister read the last chapter of this fanfiction and underlined many errors. It was so disgusting to me because I proof-read it three times, and even ran it through a spell-checker. o.O

-...kicks her computer-

Kagome...

I tried to open my eyes.

"Who's calling me?" I groaned.

...Kagome...

The voice whispered sadly.

A chill ran through my body.

My eyes jerked open.

It was dark. 'A dream?' I wondered. I tried to get up. To my nightmarish horror, I realized I was chained to a bed. No girl should ever have the thoughts that I had when I put two-and-two together...I was scared. Really scared. I didn't know what to think.

The scent that wafted around that place was suffocating. It was intoxicating. It reeked of something strange. It was the scent of ill; of sickness. It was the smell of everything gone wrong. I closed my mouth to keep in a wretch. I closed my eyes tightly and ground my teeth. I tried hard to think about what I was doing there and where I had come from.

I remembered at once with a gasp. I must have been abducted! 'The horror of it all... What a nightmare!'

I tried to move myself time and again. Struggling against the chains and hurting myself. By the feel of it, I was wearing a dress. It was soft and velvet. I could feel it against myself. It was all I could do to keep my mind away from how that dress came to be on me. My head was pulsing and my breath was shuddering. I jerked myself up constantly. The chains were ripping through the sleeves of my dress and cutting my arms. I could feel the hot blood trailing down my elbows.

After what felt like hours of trying to free myself, exhaustion consumed me. I lay breathless on top of that soft bed. I hated it. I hated it with every ounce of my being. It was very cruel of it to cushion me in my state of anger. My heart squeezed tightly when a sudden thought came to mind. 'Inuyasha!' My eyes stared helplessly into the darkness. Maybe whoever took me took him, too. It didn't feel right to hope for that so much. I had a lot of doubt that he was there with me.

"Inuyasha," I breathed out hoarsely. I got no answer. I turned my head back forward and closed my eyes sadly. My breathing slowed back down and I tried to shut off my mind. It didn't work.

Then I heard a little voice whisper through the darkness. The hairs stood on my neck and my eyes opened wide. I listened.

"...doing?" That was all I could hear. It was a rising and falling whisper. Some was quiet, some was loud. It moved through my ears and echoed strangely through the room. "What did you say?" I choked out. I swallowed and listened.

"What are you doing?" The little voice rose and fell and swirled around. It was a ghost. I tried to think of an answer to give the dead child. My eyes swiveled over the blackness. "Someone stole me." I said stiffly. It sounded good enough. I heard a little shy gasp.

"Stealing isn't nice," He said. "Not nice." Ghosts have strange voices. The only way I can describe it to you is like...Their voices glow. They echo sometimes, and their tone changes quickly. They have glowing voices.

I felt myself smiling. "You're right." I said. "I want to go back home, but someone chained me here. I can't move." I felt a small, cold hand touch my arms. "Don't be scared." He said sympathetically. "Maybe the people who live here will help you." I frowned. "I think the people who live here are the ones that took me." I said in a convincing voice. I heard a small noise of realization.

"I get it now." I heard him clap his hands together. "You were with the feather-lady!" My pupils shrunk. I remembered the feathers and the trance I was in. 'This boy knows that woman...?' I wondered. "You've seen me before, little one?" I asked in a motherly tone. I could hear the smile in his voice. "Yes," I felt him fingering at my chains. "The feather-lady brought you here. She showed you to the dark man." My heart skipped a beat. What he was telling me didn't make me happy at all.

"The dark man?" I asked quietly. "Yes, the dark man." He said. "I think he likes you a lot because he stared at you for a long time." My mouth opened and I looked away from the direction of the boy's voice. I paused a moment to collect myself. "What happened then?" I forced myself to ask. "Then," He continued. "He told the feather-lady to wash you up and put you to bed because it was late." I let myself breath again and I closed my eyes. "I see." The little boy made an agreeing kind of sound. "Thank you for telling me." I said with a forced smile. It was impossible to be happy where I was, but I tried to make myself seem nice.

"You're welcome!" He said cutely. "My name is Ichiro. Your name is Chosen, right?" He asked happily. The smile faded from my face. That title was the cause for everything. Chosen. That was my name. That was what I was. I was chosen to be Chosen.

"No," I said, shaking my head. "My name is Kagome." The boy clapped his hands a few times and said, "Oooh! Okay! Well, I hope you get out in the end...I'm too little to help you." He said sadly. I frowned. "It's alright. I'm sure I'll be okay...I'm sure." The little boy chuckled a little and I could hear him shuffling his feet. Then he gasped and said, "I just thought of something!" My heart bounced at the sudden loudness. "What did you think of?" I asked. "Okay, I thought of an idea." He said with a stomp of his foot. "You can just ask the dark man to let you go! Maybe if you say 'please,' he'll release you! Mama always said that you won't know the answer to something unless you ask."

I smiled hopelessly.

"Yeah, I'll just ask him to let me go, right?" He didn't sense the sarcasm in my voice. Being so young, I doubt he even knew what sarcasm was. "Yeah, yeah," He shouted. "You can just ask him! It's like my mama used to say," I nodded. "Yes, I heard what your mama used to say..." I sighed. "Maybe for the heck of it, I will." The boy laughed deviously and clapped his hands. I'm sure he felt like a genius.

"Go ahead, ask him!" He said excitedly. I raised my eyebrows. "And how am I going to do that, exactly?" I asked.

"He's sitting right over there in that chair!" The little boy shouted. I knew he must have been pointing.

If I had been older...And maybe over-weight...I would have died from a heart attack. I knew I would have.

The shock...That went through me...It was terrifying. The dark man...He had been there the whole time, from start to finish. Even before the time I woke up. It was awful. I wanted to wake up from the nightmare. I couldn't convince myself that it was all real. It was too terrible to be real. My eyes filled with tears and I stared in the direction of the ceiling. It was impossible. He couldn't be there.

"Are you sure?" I whispered. I whispered it. Because I knew he was there.

"Mhm," I heard. "He's there. He's been watching us. He's real quiet, though." I swallowed dryly. My blood was pounding through my veins hotly. A familiar sensation swirled through my stomach and my body pulsed painfully. I tried to swallow back what I knew wanted to come up.

Those powers of mine.

'Calm down, calm down,' I hissed to myself. Then I told myself something I never thought I would think. 'What would Inuyasha do in a situation like this?' The truth was I had no idea what he would do. Sometimes he seemed cool, and other times he wanted to jump into something head-on. If this dark man was who I was beginning to think he was...Then I was in bad trouble.

"Well, you've done all you can do. I'll take your advice. Thanks." I tried as hard as I could to keep a tremble out of my voice. The little boy yawned and said, "You're right, I should go to bed. I'm sleepy. I'm always sleepy." His voice faded and his presence disappeared from the room. And he was gone.

It was just me and the dark man.

The man couldn't possibly have known what we were talking about. The only things he could here were my replies to the boy. And I hadn't given anything away. So then I started developing a plan. If I allowed my powers to come out, there would be a huge explosion and I'd be free of the chains and the dark man would probably blow up. For all I knew, the whole room could have exploded, but I would be safe.

I was completely still on that bed. My jaw trembled with my deep breathes. Sweat dripped slowly across my head. I waited.

I waited for the right moment. I waited and waited...

'Now!' I gave in to the painful pulses of my powers and pressed myself deeper into the mattress. Light surrounded me. But it was so bright, I was blinded. I couldn't see anything. My eyes spilled tears from the sudden brightness, but I still tried to catch a glimpse of the room.

'Something's not right. Where's the sound of explosions?' I was seriously ticked off at that point, not to mention nervous.

Then I heard this kind of hissing sound...My whole body was starting to feel nicely cool. The sweat dried from my body and I didn't feel very scared anymore. My eyes closed peacefully and I became very relaxed. The pain in my arms and legs and everywhere else on my body vanished. 'Am I healing myself?' I thought. The pain was gone and I was cool and relaxed. That was really good.

But it really sucked, too.

I blinked several times, trying to see. Then...Something cold touched my face quickly, as if to test my skin. Then the coldness returned.

Someone was touching my face. With cold, long fingers.
My mouth opened and I stared blindly. The light disappeared. It was black once again.

"Fascinating..." I heard a low, cold voice; taunting and cool. My teeth clenched and my face twisted in its anger. "Get off of me." I hissed. He let his fingers stay an annoying few moments longer before he withdrew them. "There's no need to be cruel." He said quietly in that dark voice. "We can get along." I chewed back my seething and turned my eyes away from his voice.

"Not if you chain me down." I said snobbishly. He snickered darkly through his closed mouth. "That is for your safety...and mine."

He was suffocating me with this kind of evil around him. His very presence had filled the room with that stench that clogged my lungs and made me ill. I was suddenly taken over by a kind of taunting arrogance. I dared to smirk. "That's because you're scared of me. I can heal myself and blow stuff up." I tried to chuckle cockily like Inuyasha would. "I am the Chosen after all...Stronger than anything in the world. And I'm said to be the only one that can kill you, isn't that righ--"

Something dry and rough curled around my neck tightly and silenced me immediately. It was the same kind of tentacle-root as before when I was being held up in the air...Well, at least it wasn't slimy. But it was still pretty gross.

"Which is why, I am going to kill you right now." He hissed. My eyes widened and the tentacle pressed harder on my jugular. I stopped breathing completely. I felt the blood in my head pulsing and I tried to close my eyes. I coughed without sound. But then, the root loosened. "But..." He said barely above a whisper. "It can't be yet..." The tentacle slipped off of me. I gasped hugely over and over.

"The morning shall be very interesting...Dear Chosen." I could hear him smirking at the title. "Goodnight."

After he said that, the air was thick with what I can only describe as poison. It was sickly sweet and my lungs sucked it in without warning.

I passed out.

When I opened my eyes again, the room was lit. I gasped and tried to sit up. Unfortunately, the chains reminded me that I was a prisoner. I sighed in depression and looked around the room for the first time. It was a medium-sized room. Like any normal house-hold bedroom. The walls and floor were stone. There was a window behind me letting in a lot of sunlight, and there was a chair about eight feet away from me to my right. It sat in the corner of the room by a large steel door.

I looked down at my dress but could barely see it through all of the thick chains. I could see and feel dried blood on my arms and hands.

I frowned and slammed my head against the pillow.

'Stupid Inuyasha.' I'm not really like, one-hundred percent sure why, but I was really mad at Inuyasha. I wanted him to come crashing through the door, screaming curse words and holding Dark Man's head, or something like that...

I sighed and blamed him for my situation. I wondered what he was going through. Was he close by? Was he far away?

I could only guess with a sad look in my eyes.

Kagome...

My closed eyes winced.

...Kagome.

A frown curled over my face.

Kagome!

I ground my teeth and turned my head away.

KAGOME!

My eyes snapped open and I sat up with a gasp.

My eyes met with the dark brown eyes of a woman not much older than me. She had long brown hair tied up in a pink hair band. She wore armor that looked like it was made out of pink marble. I found myself thinking that it looked very nice on her. I was lying in front of her lap on top of something furry. She stared down at me with a serious face mixed with worry. "Thank goodness you're awake. I need to speak with you quickly."

I blinked and stared.

"You need to give me the directions to the place you last camped. Please look around and tell me to the best of your memory!" My heart started pounding and my head spun. I tried to sit up but failed. I waited a moment and was then able to sit up. My eyes snapped open wide and I saw that I was riding on a large cream-colored cat with two tails. Fire came from her great paws and she ran on the air. Her eyes were like huge beautiful rubies. Long white sabers protruded from her mouth and she seemed very much focused.

I was flying through the air on an over-sized monster cat.

"Kagome," The woman shouted. I flicked my eyes towards her in a slow stunned kind of way. "You must hurry and tell me! We aren't exactly safe!" Sweat rolled off her face as she shot her head around to view the surroundings for danger. Then I heard a roar. Loud and rumbling, echoing through the trees and mountains that spread out around and beneath us.

Then something flew up beside us. It was huge and yellow...It was big at the front and gradually grew thinner towards its end. It had eyes...And a mouth. Someone was riding on top of it. "Sango," The man yelled. "Miroku," She shouted back. They nodded at each other as if to verify that they were both okay.

"I don't mean to sound like a wimp," The huge yellow thing said. "But we really need to get out of here..." The man, Miroku, slammed his staff against the yellow things head and said, "Silence, Hachi! This is no time for cowardice. Lady Sango and her noble cat are going as fast as they can. And if you want to get out of here so quickly, why don't you speed up?"

A smile tugged at my lips and I sniffed in the fresh air. I looked down below us and saw us pass over the village that Inuyasha and I got our weapons at. Sango, as she was apparently called, eyed me almost suspiciously. I guess when you save someone everyone knows as the Chosen One, you kind of don't know what kind of person she's going to be like. And when you see her smiling in the face of danger even though she's not smiling at the danger,

It's kind of disturbing.

"Follow the path beneath us. I'll tell you when to veer left." I shouted over the wind. She nodded and her cat kicked her legs harder than ever through the air. We followed the path in a paranoid silence until I saw where Inuyasha had suddenly turned left and found where he wanted to camp. I pointed. "Through there. That's the last place I slept at. But we left there in the morning and went further along the path." I shouted.

"In that case, we should continue along the path, Sango." The large yellow creature, Hachi, turned back to the right and flew swiftly over the path. Sango's cat ran through the air and kept her pace above him. Then I saw steam rising from the trees to the left. My heart lurched and I thought of Inuyasha. I heard the roar again. I shuddered and instinctively shrunk into myself so I would feel smaller.

"Go into the trees where the steam is rising." I shouted. They ripped through the air to the left and I almost fell off Sango's cat.

"How did you guys get me out?" I asked loudly once I had my balance again. It was a split second after I said it that I realized it sounded really snobby. Either they didn't notice, or they didn't comment on it. "It is a long story that will be well told later, Lady Chosen. Now is not the time." Miroku said with a hint of a nervous smile.

My dress flapped in the wind noisily and I felt very naked wearing it even though it was thick. My face flushed horribly when I thought of Inuyasha seeing me in a dress. It just couldn't happen. I had to change! Immediately! Sango seemed to sense my disturbance and placed a hand on my shoulder. She comforted me for the wrong reason. "Don't worry. We'll make sure you'll be safe. That's what we came for."

I nodded with a forced smile. I wouldn't say it out loud, but the only person I felt safe with was Inuyasha.

'Although, he wasn't far away when you were abducted by the feather-lady.' A little voice in my head said.

I shrugged it off with furrowed brows. Sango patted her cat's side and said, "Kilala, we're landing."

We hit the ground softly and Sango swung her legs over the side of her cat. Miroku jumped off of Hachi, and to my complete astonishment, Hachi poofed into a raccoon-dog in a puff of smoke. He took a leaf off of his head and placed it in his kimono pocket. That's right, I said Kimono pocket. He was wearing clothes. He walked on two legs, too.

I gasped and pointed stupidly. "He turned into a raccoon!" I shouted. Then I tripped forward on my knees off Kilala and landed clumsily on my feet. I stared with my mouth open. The other three stared at me the same way. They looked at each other and then looked back at me. Then they burst out laughing.

My face flushed and I crossed my arms. I opened my mouth to say something, but the laughing had stopped. Everything went from something hilarious to something horrifying and silent. I stepped slowly to the direction they were looking in. My eyebrows raised in an extremely sympathetic frown. My hands came up to cover my mouth and my eyes filled with tears.

All of the rocks that surrounded the hot springs had been smashed to rubble. Craters lined the outer parts of the springs where someone had used their fists with and amazing force. There were ragged claw marks ripped through every tree surrounding the springs. Some trees were even ripped out of the ground and had holes in them from someone's fists. What made me really start to cry was the blood that was on some of the trees from someone hitting them so hard.

I stood there shaking with quiet sobs, staring.

Then I felt a hand on my back. I curled my hands into fists under my chin and spun around. Sango stared at me compassionately like she knew how I was feeling.

Let me tell you straight, she had no idea.

"Kagome...This was made by your guardian, right?" She asked softly. I lowered my fists, but they remained clenched at my sides.

I nodded. Sango nodded. "Kilala should be able to track his scent. Can you get back up there for me?" She asked quietly. She walked up to me to help me up Kilala, but I jumped up before she could touch me. I didn't want to be touched. I didn't want to be helped.

I just wanted Inuyasha.

"I'll follow you." Miroku said. Hachi slapped a leaf onto his head and transformed into that huge yellow thing.

Then we were off again.

Kilala would point her nose and sniff deeply, and then she would dart off in another direction. Hours passed in concentrated silence. Miroku and Hachi followed us without noise and the roaring of the creature stopped a while back. The sun set and we were still moving through the air. I was wide awake. I didn't want to be asleep once we found Inuyasha.

We would find him. We just had to.

Once the full moon was high in the sky, I knew that they planned to run all night and through the next day.

Another hour passed and still nothing. My heart was sinking lower with each minute. It sounds corny, but it was true. Inuyasha was the only one I trusted in that huge world that I didn't know. That whole ordeal brought me a lot closer to him even though we were apart.

Sango and Miroku were talking quietly to each other. The night was very still and there didn't seem to be any wind at all.

Then I saw it.

Flashes of yellow light. I heard cries of fury and saw more flashes.

"What's that?" Sango asked, more to herself than to us. My fingers gripped tighter around Kilala's soft fur. I moved myself closer up. My heart hammered in my chest and I listened without breathing. We got closer to the flashing lights bursting through the trees.

I had seen that kind of light before, but only once.

We broke through the trees and hit the ground. My heart stopped. There was an enormous ogre that had just started falling to the ground when we landed. Its insides were spilling out its front, and one of its eyes were missing. It had great slashes all over its purple body. It was at least sixteen feet tall. With horns and claws and a dirty loin-cloth...It was disgusting. And standing in the shadow of its falling form...Under the moonlight...With ogre blood splashed over his body...

Was Inuyasha.

My heart fluttered and a girly grin slapped my face. He looked really cool.

The ogre hit the ground with its knees and the whole earth rumbled. I slipped off Kilala and stood looking at his back. His arms were covered in blood up to below his shoulders, and there was a large tear in his pants down by his left ankle. The thick red blood dripped from his sharp claws. Little blood spots dotted parts of his white hair. The ogre leaned to its right and landed on its side, dead.

The earth shook again.

"Hn. Stupid fool." Inuyasha said with a smirk in his voice. Then one of his ears turned. Kilala lowered her head and hissed. She obviously sensed danger coming from him. Sango moved her hand slowly to the huge boomerang that was strapped to her back, and Miroku raised his staff in front of himself. Hachi ran and hid in the trees.

Inuyasha turned around in two steps. His eyes met mine. We both froze completely. Time had stopped for us.

I heard the far-away sounds of someone speaking, but I didn't pay attention to them. I saw Inuyasha's ears move as he heard them too, but he stayed looking at me. We both had our full attention. Neither of us moved. It was a very emotional moment, but we didn't show any emotion at that time at all.

Then Inuyasha took in a rasping breath and a stunned realization came into his eyes. My eyes started getting wet again, and I didn't want to cry in front of him. I tried to hold it back. The fear that I felt in that room with the dark man came crashing down on me. I felt my jaw trembling. "Kagome." He said. It felt so good to hear him say my name again. There were split seconds when I was in that room that I thought I would never see him or the light of day again.

Then I kind of exploded into loud, racking sobs. "You big stupid idiot!" I screamed. Then I ran and hugged him.

I wrapped my arms around him tightly and cried and cried and cried... He felt stiff and taken aback for a second, but then he hugged me back. That should have made me feel better, but I just cried harder.

"So this is really the Chosen Guardian, huh?" I heard Sango ask. I felt Inuyasha stiffen. He also tightened his arms around me. 'Oh yeah,' I suddenly thought to myself. 'That's right. Inuyasha doesn't like people very much.' I tried to take deep breathes to quiet that kind of gasping thing that happens to people once they've cried for a long time.

"I knew from the slashes in the trees and the crushed rocks that you weren't normal," I felt Inuyasha stiffen even more at that word. "But I never even ventured to think you were a demon." I turned my head back to look at her. I blinked back my tears to clear my vision. I was more-or-less done crying. "I agree." Miroku said. They looked at each other out of the corners of their eyes. Kilala's hair was still bristled on her back. I glared her sharply and she forced herself to relax, almost fearfully. I blinked in surprise.

"Kagome, do you really feel safe with a demon?" Sango asked with a raised eyebrow. Inuyasha broke away from my hug with a snarl and shove me behind him. He stretched his arm out in front of me. "Don't speak to her so casually!" He snarled. I stepped left and right lightly, trying to think of what to do or say to calm the situation. Kilala hissed and stepped in front of Sango.

"You wanna go, you walking carpet!" Inuyasha shouted at Kilala. Kilala let out a panther-like roar and I saw a good view of all of her sharp, white teeth. "If you don't calm down, I'll really let her at you." Sango said, crossing her arms with a glare.

"Good," Inuyasha yelled. "If you want to rush to your deaths so quickly, let her at me so I can kill her in one swipe. Then I'll come for you!" He growled darkly with a grin. Sango and Miroku readied their weapons. "We won't go easy on you if you persist!" Miroku shouted in a warning.

Inuyasha stepped forward and shot his middle finger into the air. "Bite me!" He yelled.

"I-Inuyasha," I tapped his shoulder. "What?" He asked without looking at me. "They're the ones that saved me."

Silence.

Inuyasha's claws dropped. "What...?" He asked blankly. "I...I woke up, and I was on Kilala's back...They saved me and brought me to you." Inuyasha stood still for a long time without saying anything. "They did." He said flatly. I nodded and went next to him.

"They did." I said. "Maybe we could try and get along for just a little while?" I asked carefully. Inuyasha's eyebrow twitched and he lowered his head and glared away from them. "Th...Th...Th..." We all leaned closer to him to try and catch what he was trying to say.

His face scrunched in frustration and he inhaled deeply through his nose. "Thank you for rescuing Kagome."

Miroku and Sango were surprised by what he said. They stared at him in silence. "Sure..." Sango said quietly, like she wasn't sure that that was the right thing to say. "It...It was our pleasure." Miroku said, scratching his head. They put their weapons away and looked at each other. "There, see?" I said, smiling. "And you should both know that Inuyasha never says 'thank you.'" I raised my finger to make a point.

"HEY!" Inuyasha shouted and spun around to face me. "I do so say th...th..." He swallowed. "What I just said to them!"

I raised my eyebrow. "Pffft," I put my hand to my mouth. "That's pathetic."

Before Inuyasha could say anything, Miroku butted in. "Excuse me, but we really should make camp." A vein swelled on Inuyasha's head. His eyes narrowed and he turned around. "Let's just get one thing straight here," He said, tilting his head to his shoulder. His long hair fell over his shoulder and his eyes flashed challengingly. He looked like a psycho.

"Save Kagome or not...I make the rules around here. I call the shots. I'm in charge. No one...But me."

He was meant to seem menacing to them, but he gave me chills. I would not like to be on Inuyasha's enemy side...

"It was only a suggestion," Miroku said, raising a hand in defense. He smiled innocently. Sango opened her mouth. "Miroku!" She said his name in angry disbelief. "Don't act like you're apologizing!" Miroku looked at her in fear. "It really was only a suggestion..." He laughed nervously. "Let's go find some place to make camp, Kagome." Inuyasha said to me.

I nodded. He glanced at me up and down and seemed deep in thought for a moment. I tried not to seem embarrassed. It was weird...I felt really different around Inuyasha. It must've taken a kidnapping to make me realize it, but how I liked Inuyasha wasn't...

...Normal...Anymore.

He sighed uncaringly and looked up at the moon. "I don't know why I'm doing this, but I guess I can carry you there." He said arrogantly. My eyes widened. "You will...?" I knew I shouldn't say much of it, because if you say too much about something nice Inuyasha did, he'd get mad at you for it. You have to hear what he said, and when you hear it, then that's it. No questions, no comments.

I stopped talking right away and went up to him. He lowered himself and I climbed onto his back. There was dry blood all over his shirt. I knew it wasn't his, so I was calm about it. I held onto his shoulders and he bolted off. I turned around quickly with what little time I had left, and waved Sango and Miroku to follow. I still wanted to hear how they had saved me.

They disappeared behind us and Inuyasha picked up speed. 'Does he plan to lose them...?' I wondered.

"...You..." I blinked and moved my head closer to his to hear him better. "Hm?" I stared.

"You okay?" He asked. I blushed a little at the question. I didn't expect him to ask that. I smiled happily. "Yep. I'm okay." He gave a grunt of acknowledgment. "I'll tell you everything once we make camp." After I said that, it seemed like an enormous weight was lifted from him. It was then that I realized he was probably thinking about the possible things I was going through.

There were way too many possibilities to think about...Way too many.

I started feeling really sorry for him. While I was chained up talking to a ghost boy, he was running like a maniac trying to find me. The longer he took to find me, the worse things that could have been happening to me... 'Poor guy.' I thought. I patted his back.

"Don't worry, nothing very bad happened. I'm okay." He nodded. He was much more relaxed then.

There was a moving shadow above us. I looked way up and saw Kilala's belly. Hachi was next to her, way up in the sky...

While they flew in the air, I flew on the ground.

"Thanks for trying so hard to find me, Inuyasha." I said. "Hn," He shook his head. "I was so close to his base, I could smell the stench of his minions. If that ogre hadn't tied me up, I woulda been there." To my dread, I found myself wishing Sango and Miroku hadn't saved me. I wished that Inuyasha had been the one to save me, even if it meant being in that room for a few more hours.

'I'm a horrible person,' I scolded myself. 'I should be very grateful to those two for saving me. It's wonderful that they saved me...'

I shook off my stupid daydreams of an angry, heroic Inuyasha and tried to focus on the blurred trees around us.

After a little while, he slowed down and stopped. We were in front of the mouth of a huge cave. It was freaking huge. I stared with my mouth open. "Woah..." I gazed at it. Inuyasha lowered me off his back. "Kagome," I looked at him questioningly. "Hm?" I crossed my arms behind my back. "You're in a dress." My heart stopped and my face flushed. 'Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap!' I panicked in my mind.

I pulled at part of the dress skirt and suddenly found its purple color and swirly, velvet designs very interesting.

"You got it at that place?" He asked with narrowed eyes. I didn't look at him. I nodded with a frown. Why did I feel so guilty?

Wind blew all around us as Kilala and Hachi landed. "I'll get you new clothes tomorrow." He said, and he made his way inside the cave. I was unsure of what to do for a second, but then I stumbled after him. I knew that he expected me to follow him.

Sango, Hachi, and Miroku followed me into the cave. Kilala lay down at the entrance and went to sleep.

"Persistent bunch, ain't ya?" Inuyasha grumbled under his breath. "I heard that, Guardian." Sango said warily. "So did I." Followed Miroku. "And I did, too!" Hachi stated firmly. Inuyasha's teeth gritted and I heard the sounds of his knuckles popping.

"Inuyasha, calm down." I hissed in a whisper. "They're so annoying." He whispered back angrily. "I can still hear you." Sango said in sing-song. Inuyasha whipped around. "So what if you can hear me?" He barked. "I can say a lot more interesting things behind your back if you wanna listen more!"

Then they went off again with their shouts and insults and threats.

I fingered my forehead and looked at them all, trying to find a solution. 'Oh, man...' I sighed to myself.

'This is going to be a long night.'

Insane-san says: WOOT. Another chapter, another day. Took me hours. WOAH. Yep. 11:29PM in the Eastern time, baybee. Hope you guys enjoyed this one. I liked writing it. I pressure-washed about a fourth of my driveway, and my hands are shaking from the vibration. I'm surprised I was even able to write almost a whole chapter. XD -- That's a laughing face if you turn your head to the left. (for all who don' know)

EVERYTHING went as planned. I'm updating on Thursday (because I'm stubborn), so even if you don't read this on Thursday, just know that it was up! -evil smirk-

Until next time, m'loves. An enormous THANK YOU to every single person that reviewed. Much love, guys.