Hey guys! Here's my normal end-of-the-week post. I have to say end of the week because I can't seem to post on Fridays D. Enjoy!

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"What?!" Miroku said aloud suddenly.

"What is it Miroku?" Kagome asked.

"I sense strong spiritual energy!" he stated.

"Where is it?!" InuYasha asked.

Miroku had to center himself for a moment and then opened his eyes and pointed, "There! That way!"

"All right!" InuYasha took off quickly where Miroku had pointed.

"Let's go Kirara!" Sango ordered as the cat demon followed InuYasha.

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Kaede was thrown away from the demon in retaliation from her dose of spiritual powers. Her, already, hurting sides felt another shockwave of pain roll through. The demon growled loudly as it curled up on the ground, half of it, now purified from Kaede's barrier.

"If I don't take care of this, now, then the demon will return to it's burned form and continue to kill people in this village!" Kaede thought angrily.

The girl stood up painfully and put up another barrier and ran at the demon. This time, though, the demon managed to knock her away and into a small shed, which tore it apart.

"Oh no!" The woman shouted, "The demon killed her! What can we do?!"

"We have to fight it!" The man said as he picked up his club in his burned arm but was stopped by a priest.

"Wait! That woman is not dead... In fact, I'm not so sure that she is a human..." the priest advised.

"What do you mean? She is obviously a priestess!" The man asked, but the priest just stood with his eyes half cracked at the wreckage of the shed.

There was suddenly a pulsing that arose from the shed.

"There! You see?!" the priest pointed out.

"What is that?" the man stopped in his tracks and set his eyes dead on the shed.

Some of the wreckage shook with the pulsations from underneath it and finally everything suddenly burst as the woman jumped from the wreckage, high into the air, and then landed on the ground.

"She looks... different... but how?!" The man turned to ask the priest.

Gold eyes set on the demon and the woman rushed at it at speeds no human could possibly accomplish. The spiritual barrier arose from around the girl which was stronger this time! She rushed at the demon and engulfed it with spiritual energy. The light from the purification became too bright for the villagers to look at as they all looked away.

Kaede finished the process and jumped back, landing on the opposite side of where the villagers stood. The light dissipated and the villagers looked up to see a man, wearing worn clothing looking at himself. Kaede looked at the man and smiled.

"So I was right!" She said aloud.

"Wha- What is this? Am I really alive?" The man was in shock.

A woman from the group of villagers walked out of the group, pushing people out of the way and looking at, what seemed to be a demon, now a man.

"K-Kaoru?... Is it really you?!" The woman asked with tears forming in her eyes.

The man looked up and saw the woman, and then his eyes grew wide and teared up as well as he ran to her, and she to him. They shared a long embrace and the villagers sighed with relief.

"How long have I been gone?" The man asked as the villagers gathered around.

"You've been missing for nearly a month!" one of the men replied.

"My love, what happened to you?" The woman asked sadly.

"Well I remember hunting alone, and then coming upon some woman, who feigned injury. I offered her help but she turned on me and the next thing I know I'm on fire! I believe she was a witch who bewitched me to roam the earth as a fiery demon! I hope no one was harmed because of me..." The man explained.

"Well, I'm afraid that a few people have fallen, but we are glad that it's all over now..." one of the men replied.

"Yes, but who was it who saved me?" The man asked suddenly.

"A woman... a very unusual woman who left just as soon as you were returned to normal," the town priest said looking at where they had last seen her.

Satoru and Saiya turned to their injured father, and their mother and asked, "Mommy, will that woman ever come back?"

They looked at each other and then smiled as they looked towards the sky.

"Let's hope that we have the honor of seeing her once more children," the mother replied.

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Kaede sat at the bank of the river and looked back at the waterfall.

"Well, turning back into a demon caused my ribs to heal faster, now all I have to do is get back to everyone... But why is it that I transformed back so early?" Kaede thought looking at her claws through her newly transformed golden eyes.

"There!" A boys' voice yelled from downstream.

Kaede looked up and saw InuYasha, carrying Kagome, who smiled widely when she saw Kaede.

"She's a demon again!" Shippo yelled with a smile from Kagome's shoulder.

The group arrived, including Sango and Miroku who landed next to Kaede on the ground.

"You're all right!" Shippo bounced to Kaede and she picked him up.

"I'm glad to see that you're okay as well!" She said with a relieved smile.

"What happened to you?" Kagome asked looking over the girl for injuries.

"Well, I -" Kaede started before being interrupted.

"There she is! Mommy! Daddy! Over here!" a young girl's voice yelled out of nowhere.

Two children ran up to Kaede and two adults followed. Shippo looked down at the unfamiliar children from Kaede's arms, confused.

"Why did you leave us?!" Saiya asked.

Kaede knelt down to them and smiled saying, "It was time that I got back to my own family."

"You mean you don't like us anymore?" Satoru asked sadly.

"Not at all! I could never not like you guys! But I needed to leave to find my family," Kaede replied with a smile.

"We're so glad that you're all right, we were afraid that you had taken off with those injuries still!" The woman said with a worried look.

"Injuries?" Kagome asked, seeing some remnants of scratches on the girl that were quickly healing.

Kaede stood back up and looked at the worried faces of her friends and parents and said, "I'm fine! I promise!"

"My sister and I saved her from the river! We pulled her onto the bank and daddy brought her to our home to clean her wounds!" Satoru explained.

"Yes, she had broken ribs and some pretty bad scratches as well," The man added.

Kaede butted in and said, "But I'm fine now!" she said with her hands up defensively with a nervous smile.

It was late in the evening and the sun was finally starting to set. In order to explain the days' events, the family of four invited the travelers to their home to put them up for the night. At this point, the man had his arm wrapped and treated by Kagome's first aid case.

"You say she purified a man who was under a spell?" Miroku asked, astounded.

"Yes, the man had been missing for quite some time now, and it was strange that, what we had thought to be a demon, appeared around the same time. I'm afraid he will never be the same, though. He just learned that he was the reason that six of our villagers had been killed over the past month. But hopefully, we can all recover from this. We wouldn't have been able to if it wasn't for this young woman," The man explained.

At that point, Kaede had fallen asleep, as well as Saiya and Satoru.

"She saved my daughter and my husband... If it weren't for her, they would have been burned..." The woman looked to Kaede who was sleeping with her back against the wall, and her Tetsusaiga in her grasp.

"You're daughter?" InuYasha asked.

"Yes, I'm afraid that Saiya managed to get away from me when Kaede had gone out to look for the demon. My husband went after her but the demon came close to destroying him as well. Kaede jumped in the middle of the two and put up her spiritual powers against the demon. She saved both of them," The mother said gratefully.

"Let me ask you something, "Kagome started, "Does your daughter run off frequently?"

The mother and father smiled and said, "Yes, it's quite strange, because our son does not stray too far away from home, but Saiya has always gone missing for hours at a time. There was a time when she was gone overnight, and we were out until the early morning hours looking for her, only to find her asleep under the stars by the river banks."

"Well that sounds familiar," InuYasha said looking back to Kaede.

"You must have been very worried about her," the father said with a smile.

"Yes, we always worry, and it doesn't seem to fade her any in stopping her ways of going off on her own," Kagome replied.

"Well, if we've learned anything from our Saiya, it's not that she doesn't care that she's making us worry, it's that she just can't stop exploring. It's just her way of living, even if it means making us worry. She's decided to live the way she wants to live, and we know that we can't change her mind," The mother explained.

"Yeah, we're just really worried that the one time that we're not looking for her, she'll be harmed..." Kagome said sadly.

"I would have trouble believing that she would be so easily hurt. From what we saw earlier today, she has the heart of a fighter, and the strength of one as well. You're very lucky to have such a girl traveling with you," the man said gratefully.

The five travelers looked back at the sleeping dog demon, who was finally sleeping soundly without any nightmares.

"Yeah... I guess we are pretty lucky," InuYasha said putting an arm around Kagome as they all smiled at the girl.

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For the Next Chapter!

Kagome walked outside and looked up at her daughter and asked, "If you're going to eat, then you better come and get some food before everyone else eats it all!"

Kaede looked down at Kagome with a gloomy look in her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Kagome asked, beginning to wonder what was on Kaede's mind.

The woman demon jumped down from the top of the hut and stood with her back against the hut, looking down at her feet. At that point, Shippo and Kirara walked outside as well.

"There's still a little bit left, Kaede! You better get something to eat before InuYasha finishes it!" Shippo advised with a smile.

InuYasha quickly sprinted out of the hut and gave Shippo a knock on the head saying, "What was that?!"

Although this would normally amuse Kaede, she couldn't help but have a certain issue keep her from even giggling.

"Come on, Kaede, what's wrong?" Kagome asked again, this time getting the attention of the other three outside with her.

"Listen... I think I'm going to have to go back to my era..." she began.