Hey all! Thank you for all the reviews, and sticking with my story! Here's my next update!
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
"InuYasha! I can sense a great amount of demon power! It must but the vast amount of spiders that we ran into last night!" Miroku shouted from atop of Kirara.
InuYasha was carrying Kagome on his back, and Kirara managed to get up enough energy to carry Sango, Miroku and young Shippo on her back as well. They had all decided that after the sun had risen and InuYasha's wounds had quickly healed because of it, that they would go find Kaede as quickly as possible.
"Yeah... I sense a demonic aura too..." InuYasha said in a low tone.
"If I didn't know any better... I'd say that it was Kaede's aura... and her scent too..." InuYasha thought to himself.
InuYasha suddenly stopped and Kirara turned back to see what he was doing.
"What's wrong?" Kagome asked.
"Kagome, I want you to go with Miroku and Sango. I smell blood up ahead and I'm not sure what to expect yet..." he quietly ordered her.
Kagome knew that InuYasha was worried. She could tell that he knew something and he didn't want to tell her until he knew for sure that what he sensed was true.
"Yeah... okay," Kagome replied as she was let off of InuYasha's back and walked over to Kirara.
"Wait a minute... Kagome," InuYasha called.
Kagome turned back towards him and said, "What is it?"
InuYasha gave the girl a firm and concerned look and asked, "Do you still have those prayer beads?"
Kagome opened a little pocket in her backpack and found the small cloth, holding the separated beads.
"Yeah, here they are," Kagome replied looking at InuYasha and wondering what he was wanting.
"Keep them close at hand... You might find a use for them in a few minutes..." InuYasha said quietly.
"Sure... I'll keep them right here," Kagome replied with a smile.
BOOM
Loud noises, most likely from battling, began to pierce the ears of the travelers.
"InuYasha, the demonic aura is approaching!" Miroku pointed out.
"I sense some jewel shards!" Kagome added.
"Here it comes!" InuYasha announced, unsheathing the Tetsusaiga.
An injured spider demon rushed into the area where the travelers were and then stopped upbruptly when it saw them.
"There's... more of you! Demons! Just like her!" the demon yelled in a scared tone.
"So this is where you've run off to!" the dangerous tone of voice shot through the trees and into the clearing.
"It's... Kaede!" young Shippo pointed to the dark figure who stood at the top of a nearby tree, looking down on them.
"Kaede?" Kagome wasn't sure what to think. She sounded somewhat like her, but she looked like...
"She's transformed again!" Miroku said in surprise.
"I thought that's what I could smell..." InuYasha stated, putting his hand on the hilt of his Tetsusaiga, unsure of what he was supposed to do now.
Kaede looked down from her tree to see her friends and family looking up at her with shocked and scared facial expressions. The girl smirked at them with an evil grin.
"So I see that you're all alive! How gracious of you to come to watch me destroy this last vermon!" The girl swooped down from the tree and the spider tried to flee.
"Where do you think you're going?!" Kaede yelled as she flexed her elongated claws and made one swift movement and destroyed the spider quickly and easily.
Kaede landed on the ground, her back to the group. She lifted her hands, which were soaked in the blood of the demons and rubbed her fingers together as though she wanted to feel more of it.
InuYasha made a step forward and said in a quiet tone, "Kaede, listen to me... Where's the Tetsusaiga?"
Kaede suddenly remembered that the gang was behind her and turned to them with her demon grin on her face.
"Oh gee, I don't know, it's around here somewhere..." she said, flexing her claws again.
InuYasha was careful about his movements. He knew that, as a full demon, Kaede would take getting anywhere close to her as a threat and might attack them. But for the moment, he took out his sword and held it out to the girl, as if he were lending it to her.
"It's okay then, just touch my Tetsusaiga and you'll return to normal. Just come over here, and put your hand on it," InuYasha said reaching out the sword to her with small, easy steps.
The girl scoffed and took a few steps away from her father saying, "Sorry, no-can-do. I'm more powerful than ever and I'm not going back! Why would I want to be weak?!"
InuYasha just kept making his small steps towards the girl, not willing to give up trying to talk to her.
"Just take the Tetsusaiga, Kaede, please... Just take hold of it..." he insisted.
The others were practically sweating bullets. Miroku knew that if things lost control, he would have to use his wind tunnel, and he had his hand at ready. Sango wasn't sure what exactly to think of this. She knew that Kaede was more dangerous than they could ever imagine. Kagome was staying as strong as InuYasha. She understood that Kaede was feeling the effects of being stronger, but just like InuYasha, she would need the proper guidance to reverting back.
"Didn't you just hear me?! I said that I'm not touching that thing! Being transformed gives me purpose! I feel more powerful than ever! All I want to do is destroy, and I like that feeling!" Kaede said, walking back once again.
InuYasha growled and said, "Just take it! You don't know what you're talking about!"
"Don't I?! Don't I know?! I know what power feels like, and I like it! And I'm not going to let anyone stand in my way!" Kaede jumped towards InuYasha, dodging his attempts to thrust the sword upon her, and kicked him away.
InuYasha flew back into several strong trees and knocked them over, being buried among them.
"InuYasha!" Shippo yelled in fear, looking back to Kaede who began to laugh.
Sango and Miroku stepped in front of Kagome and Shippo and Miroku held his hand out in front of him, preparing to open the wind tunnel.
"Just pick up the sword, and I won't have to do this, Kaede!" Miroku explained.
"I don't have to listen to you, monk! I'll take care of you just as I have those spider vermon!" Kaede sprinted forward, flexing her claws once again, and pointing them at Miroku and Sango.
Just before Miroku opened the wind tunnel, he was pushed out of the way by Kagome as she ran from behind him and Sango.
"Kagome!" Sango shouted, wondering what she was going to do.
Kaede smiled evily once more as she reared her claws back and readied to swing them.
"Time to end this!" Kagome shouted, holding up the string of prayer beads and started praying.
Kaede's eyes widened and she stopped just in front of Kagome, knowing what she was doing. The full demon growled and began to run away from the others as fast as possible.
"Hurry Kagome! She's getting away!" Miroku tried to rush the girl's spiritual powers.
Just as hope was about to leave the group, the beads around Kagome's hands shot away from her in several directions, the girl still praying.
Kaede had left the area fast and looked back at the scene. She was about to convince herself that she had managed to leave in time to escape when she saw the beads shoot out at her and form around her neck. She stopped what she was doing and landed on the ground, pulling and tearing at the beads.
"What word should I use!?" Kagome asked.
"Make it whatever you please! Just hurry Kagome!" Miroku continued to rush the girl.
"Uh... Well... Wait! I know! HEEL!" Kagome shouted.
BOOM
Kaede fell to the ground, hitting at such force that it knocked her out of her full demon state and unconscious.
"You did it!" Shippo jumped up and down in happiness.
InuYasha reapproached the group looking around for Kaede and saw the grins on everyone else's face.
"Where's Kaede?!" he asked.
"It's okay, InuYasha, I got the prayer beads around Kaede's neck and she's down for the count!" Kagome declared happily.
The group ran to Kaede's side and looked her over. Her hair was black, indicating that she had transformed back into her demon/human blood form. As the group sighed with relief, Kaede slowly opened her eyes and looked up at them.
"...Wh..What happened?" she asked.
The group looked to her and they all gasped at the same time.
"What is it?! What's wrong?!" Kaede asked sitting up quickly.
"You're eyes... They're... brown!" Sango stated, still staring down at the girl.
Kaede then realized something and looked down at her hands. She, no longer had claws, but stubbly human nails. She reached up and felt her ears, they no longer had any sort of point to them. She knew then that her demon blood had ebbed away once more.
Kaede looked at her hands and noticed that they were covered with blood. She almost jumped at the sight but she smelled the blood and noticed that it was merely spider blood. She was relieved to know that no human was harmed.
"Kaede, I thought that you said that you only lose your demon powers once a year... Hasn't that time already passed?" Miroku asked.
"I'm... not sure what's happening... Hey! What's this for?!" Kaede noticed the prayer beads around her neck.
"You were full demon and we needed a way to bring you back," Kagome explained.
"Well I'm not full demon now! Take them off!" Kaede did as InuYasha had done when he had first realized what the beads had done to him. She tried to pull the beads off but they lit up and prevented her from doing so.
The others smiled and Miroku spoke again, "I do not think that it would be wise to do so. Now that we know that you can transform into a full demon at any time, we may need to make use of the beads again."
"Come on," InuYasha picked the girl up from under her arms and put her on her feet.
"Let's go get Tetsusaiga and then we'll go back to the village and rest," InuYasha looked the girl over and then led the group towards the direction where Kaede had come from as a full demon just moments earlier.
The group arrived at the clearing where Kaede had destroyed the torn apart shrine. Kaede walked over and picked up the Tetsusaiga and sheathed it. She then turned and looked at the shrine, which was completely destroyed.
"Did I do that?" Kaede asked.
"What was this, Kaede?" Kagome asked.
"If I remember correctly, it was something similar to a rat demon shrine. It was producing thousands of demons at a time, that's why there were so many of them," Kaede replied, looking over the site.
"What?!" InuYasha was shocked. What other demon could possilby do this besides the rat demons?
"If you're wondering, it was a creation of Naraku..." Kaede added.
"We should have guessed that he would pull something like this," Sango said looking around the wreckage.
"What do you last remember about your battle with the spider demons, Kaede?" Miroku asked.
Kaede thought back to just before she lost most of herself to her full demon state.
-Flashback-
Kaede struggled against the tight hold that the web had on her and shouted, "I don't believe you!"
"Oh really? You don't believe that we killed three unconscious humans and a demon feline?! Well perhaps when we kill you, and you rejoin them in death, then you'll finally understand how weak you and they really are!" The demon said as he watched his underlings wrap the girl in the sturdy material.
"And after we kill you! We will go to the village in which your other friends are and kill them as well! We will have defeated you as easily as Naraku said we would!" The demon laughed uncontrollably.
Kaede's anger grew in intensity. She looked to the ground and saw the Tetsusaiga, untouched, and then looked to the shrine in which more and more demons were emerging from, and then thought of how they could actually kill everyone in the village, and how her friends and father may have met their early death. She began to growl in anger and her body quaked with power.
"What's this?!" the demon stopped his laughing and looked down at the girl, whose body began to pulse as it was completely wrapped up into a web ball.
"You're...not going...to kill me... NOT HERE, NOT EVER!" Kaede shouted as she ripped the hardening substance from her body as if it were nothing more than a thin paper.
-End Flashback-
Kaede didn't want to share any of that information because it wouldn't have been helpful and she didn't want to tell them of what she had gone through fighting the spiders.
"Not much really... Just that I had dropped the Tetsusaiga and then I felt the same anger that I normally feel just before I transform," she commented.
"This must have been your work then, unless another demon with the same strength decided to stroll through the area," Miroku suggested.
They all turned around and saw that Kaede had settled on the ground from exhaustion.
"Maybe we should return to the village and get some rest," Sango suggested.
InuYasha walked over to his tired daughter and picked her up, loading her onto his back. As he did this, the group noticed that Kaede had fallen asleep.
"It must have been quite the battle for her. Fighting for hours, then her body going through such a rough transformation," Miroku commented.
"Don't forget the fact that she's probably been awake for two days straight. She would probably handle it better if she had part of her demon side working. But now that she's human it's all catching up to her," Kagome added.
InuYasha turned to them and said, "I wouldn't be surprised if she slept for at least a full day. Come on, let's go."
Sango, Miroku, Kagome and Shippo rode on Kirara's back as InuYasha carried the exhausted Kaede on his back. He was careful to run smoothly so as not to wake her up.
"So what do you guys think that this could mean?" Kagome asked solemnly.
"What do you mean?" Sango asked.
"I mean, why do you think that Kaede transformed into a full demon and then back into a human if she's only supposed to do that once a year?" Kagome asked looking down at the sleeping girl on InuYasha's back.
"Well, I wondered if perhaps she had not been completely honest with us about her transformations," Miroku pondered.
"You think she lied to us?" Kagome asked.
"I don't know. I'm not sure to think if she had not told us about certain times when she could not control her transformations, or if she honestly doesn't know why this is happening to her. Even so, now we're at even more of a disadvantage because now we don't know when, or if she'll ever return to her normal self. For all we know, she could stay human from this day forward," he finished.
Kagome, Sango and Shippo looked down at the girl, now wondering the same thing.
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
The group arrived back to the village and entered the old man's hut. The man had just gotten up and was on his way out to perform his daily chores.
"I see that you have found the young woman! Is she all right? She looks different than before!" The man asked.
"She's fine. She's just a little tired. I'm sorry, do you mind us staying here for just a little while longer?" Kagome asked.
"Not at all! I have more than enough room for all of you," the old man replied happily.
"We shouldn't stay here for more than a few hours," Miroku warned.
InuYasha had just sat Kaede against the wall as he turned and said, "Why's that?"
Sango stepped forward, holding the exhausted form of Kirara in her arms and said, "He's right. We should only stay here for a few hours to allow Kaede to be still while she sleeps, but we must move on quickly, otherwise word could get aroud that we're here."
Kagome sighed and said, "I suppose you guys are right. We should probably leave right after lunch."
"Yes. We don't have to leave in a hurry, just leave sometime soon. That way Kaede and Kirara can rest," Miroku added.
"Well if you must leave, then I am at least glad to have met you all!" The old man said somewhat sadly as he left the hut.
InuYasha sat down across the room from Kaede and let out a deep sigh as well.
"We should all rest for a few hours then. We've got plenty of time before lunch and we need to be on guard for the rest of the trip," he said.
The others agreed and bundled up next to the fire, Kagome cuddling next to InuYasha and Shippo cuddling Kagome. For now, all they could do was rest.
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Chapter Teaser!
"What's wrong now?" Sota asked walking out of the cabin.
"I'm not sure that you'll get this done in time..." Shippo repeated.
"You mean, this?" Sota dangled the finished remote in front of Shippos' face.
Shippo got up quickly, again knocking Myoga from where he was sitting and grabbed the remote, looking over it.
"It's really done?!" Shippo asked in a child-like tone.
"Yep! All finished! It's all ready for you to use it!" Sota replied happily and tired.
Shippo smiled and then looked up at Sota and said, "Come on, we've got to get you guys somewhere safe."
