A/N: Today's story's short, cuz the past week I was busy writing FFFE's chapters and trying to finish a chapter of Forest Spirit, so I hadn't much time to come up with Barks.

How Many?

A villager was sitting in front of a hut, repairing a basket. He was peacefully doing his job when he saw a traveler stumble along the road. The man stood up and walked to the stranger

"Are you alright?" he asked. The stranger looked up, his face pale and his eyes tired, dark bags under them. He swayed as he walked, obviously tired.

"Is this the village of the youkai slayers?" he rasped out. The villager quickly grabbed him under his arm to prevent him from falling.

"Oh, if you mean the great gang of youkai slayers, the answer is yes. But the rest of us are just ordinary farmers and traders," he said. "Do you want me to lead you to them?"

The stranger just nodded and the villager led him to lady Kaede's hut. When he made sure the stranger was talking to the old miko and the team of the slayers he walked back home and finished his work.

An hour later Kaede brought the messenger back to the villager and asked the man to keep him for the night so he could rest before his journey back to his village. The man nodded, pleased to have some company. The two men ate supper together and then sat with cups of sake to look at the darkening sky. The villager's name was Yohi while the traveler was called Hiro.

"So," Yohi asked. "How many went?"

"How many went?" asked the asked man in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"The group of our slayers adjusts the size of the party going to do an extermination judging by the information they have. So - for example, sometimes only the lady Sango and Inuyasha go, other times Shippou the kitsune and the monk Miroku... You know, we in our village often bet what they're going to face based on the members of the sent party. So, how many?"

"Let's see..."Hiro took a sip of his sake. "There was the lady youkai slayer and the young miko and the hanyou."

Yohi whistled. "Oh, pretty tough, the miko Kagome and Inuyasha are the strongest of them all and if they take lady Sango it means that there will be a lot of damage to your village or fields."

"Is she so destructive?" Hiro asked in surprise, the woman didn't look like a very violent one.

"No, Inuyasha will go overboard when he knows lady Kagome and lady Sango have each other's back." Yohi laughed and waved a hand. "But you should be thankful monk Miroku no longer has the power of the wind tunnel in his hand. I've heard once he sucked in half of the crops while catching a group of rouge kappa." One thing was sure - Yohi was really fond of the famous slayers living in his village.

"Oh gods..."

"Inuyasha has great power. His sword can tear through the ground or produce adamant shards as long as you're tall in great quantities. Lady Sango's boomerang can do a lot of damage, but she can only put holes through buildings and roofs, not make them evaporate. Lady Kagome's arrows are very dangerous to youkai of all kind, but they also an explode and destroy stuff at times, since she puts a lot of reiki in them," Yohi proudly elaborated on the subject, missing the sudden paleness of his friend's face and his shaking hand.

"Oh, gods, I've sent them to my village," Hiro whispered in terror. Suddenly being plagued by a few mischievous monkey youkai didn't sound that bad.