Ekaterina sat before the oil lamps and watched the flames bounce and flicker. Her shadow danced as if possesed by the light.
"Something terrible's going to happen, isn't it, Penelope?" she asked one of the memorial tablets.
The Cyrillic-inscribed tablet didn't answer of course. Ekaterina's eyes dropped to her paper. In her hands was a brush. The brush suddenly jerked forward in the direction of the ink stone. Ekaterina let her hand be guided through several different motions. After a minute or so, the brush lost it's brief spark of life an limply fell from Ekaterina's thin hand. Ekaterina gazed at the ink strokes. Most were bold, black, stubborn strokes the nearly criss-crossed the entire page.
"Overpowerment," Ekaterina murmured and turned her attention to the other brush strokes.
These strikes were thin and ranged from a pitch black to a whitish gray. They surrounded the bold strokes. Around the entire paper were tiny dots. In the center was one huge blob of ink. Ekaterina bit her lip.
"Misaki-chan," she said softly. "I don't want you to go tomorrow because something will happen, but I can no longer keep you here like a caged bird." She looked up at the memorial tablets again. "My little girls, why did you do it? Why did you do something so terrible? We died for you, not so you could do something so foolish, but so you could live and be happy"
A tiny, cool breeze whizzed around the room. It made the oil lamps flicker. Eventually, their flames were extinguished.
Ekaterina sighed and stood up. "That was a foolish question"
She walked out of the room and, with surprising agility for a woman her age, jumped onto the roof. Ekaterina took out a few talismans from her kimono fold and read the words written on them with the glow of the moonlight.
"Someone is going to fall."

"LET'S GO! LET'S GO"
Kagome sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Who's screaming?" she mumbled.
Sango, who had been sleeping beside her, yawned and said, "It must be Misaki." The girls got up and slid open the door. Misaki was marching up and down the walk way, chanting "let's go!", over and over.
"Shut up, Misaki!" Inuyasha growled from inside one of the rooms.
Misaki slid open the door to Inuyasha's room and kicked him. "I SAID 'LET'S GO"
Grumbling and still half-asleep, everyone but Shippo got up and followed Misaki into the warm kitchen. She hurriedly gave each person a bowl of tea and said, "Hurry up and drink! We gotta go get Sesshomaru"
Miroku sipped a bit of the tea and asked, "Do you have any idea where we should look first"
Misaki smiled. "Nope"
Inuyasha smacked down the tea bowl with such force that it nearly broke. The cooling tea sloshed out of the cup and spilled on the table. "You expect us to wander around this forest until we find him"
"In short, yes. There aren't many places where he can be"
"What's that mean"
"Ekaterina-san is sure that he's inside a building and the only buildings in the Awayuki Forest are this house and a rundown temple a couple yards from here." Miroku blinked. "A temple"
Misaki nodded. "Yes. There used to be hundreds of temples in this forest. People from the continent considered this land very holy and built sacred sites here. According to Ekaterina-san, most of these sites have simply vanished and only two remain. Sesshomaru must be in the other remaining site"
Inuyasha wrinkled his nose. "Something smells here"
Misaki smiled sheepishly. "Well, I haven't really gotten around to cleaning those dishes and"
"Not that." Inuyasha closed his eyes and sniffed the air for a few seconds.
"What's the matter, Inuyasha?" Kagome asked.
Inuyasha sniffed for a few more seconds before answering. "There's something weird going on"
"What do you mean?" Sango asked.
"Inuyasha's right," Miroku concured. "Something has changed"
Everyone sat in silence for a few minutes and tried to deduce what this meant. There was an indescribable energy swirling around. It was something that threatened to grow bigger and bigger until it smothered everything in its wake. What was it?
Misaki stood up. "There's no sense in trying to figure out something when you don't care about it, so let's go"
"Well, I don't care about Sesshomaru, but I'm going," Inuyasha mumbled.
Misaki stared down at Inuyasha for a few seconds. "Why don't you care about him? Do you truly hate him"
Inuyasha scoffed. "That's the most asinine question I've ever heard. Of course I hate him"
"But why"
Inuyasha stood up. "Look, quit asking me questions. You wanna go rescue Sesshomaru, then go ahead. I'm just in this for the shard. Now let's go"
Everyone stood up and silently walked out of the kitchen. Misaki lingered behind and raised her arm. The bluish furisode sleeve with its flurry of pastel pink sakura petals scittled down her arm and revealed the nasty scars Sesshomaru had left on her wrist.
Sesshomaru, she thought, that was not you. At that time, I was blinded by my emotions, but now I realize that couldn't have been you. Beneath that cruel exterior beats your gentle and kind heart. No matter what it takes, I will find it.
"Misaki, are you coming?" Kagome called.
Misaki dropped her arm and ran out of the kitchen.
Sumiko walked meekly into Loathe's dark room and sat down. Loathe was leaning against a pile of blankets and tossing a ball back and forth with her hands. She looked so inoccent and childlike that it made Sumiko shudder.
"You wanted to see me?" she asked as she smoothed her skirt over her folded legs.
Loathe grinned and nodded. "Yup, yup!" she said gleefully. "Sumiko, I want you to do me a favor. Would you go broke some of my big toys"
Sumiko cocked her to one side and and raised her golden eyebrows. "What do you mean"
Loathe pointed at some wooden figurines across the room with her foot. The figurines were carved out of wood in a huminoid shape and had painted faces.
"See, they're my tiny toys. I want you to find my big toys. And this is what I want you to do to them." Loathe grabbed a few more balls from the little basket beside her and threw each one at a figurine with such tremendous force that wooden figures actually broke apart. "These tiny toys are made of wood, but my bigger toys are made up of blood and guts." Loathe stood up and made her black skirt flare out as she twirled around with delight. "The big toys are gonna spill their red guts all over that ugly clean snow and you're gonna help them, Sumiko. Just imagine all those red, swirly guts on the clean snow. That'll show them who's boss"
Sumiko gasped and paled a little. She felt the contents of her stomach reeling at the thought of people's insides spilling out of their bodies. Loathe noticed her expression and giggled.
"Why do you look so sick?" she asked and skipped over to her.
Sumiko gazed at the ground, ashamed that Loathe had seen the look of terror and revulsion on her face. Loathe reached out and fingered one of Sumiko's short curls.
"Your hair's so pretty," she said with childish fascination and twirled the golden curl around and around her finger. "It's all curly and springy and gold. It's short and very cute. My hair's all long and boring. It's a very dull color, huh? The color of dead people after they're burned"
Sumiko sucked in a shuddering breath and said nothing. Loathe let go of her curl and skipped back to her spot.
"Go break my big toys and tell Kaiein to clean up that mess the tiny toys made," she ordered and started juggling the balls.
Sumiko nodded, got up, and raced out of the room.
"Ugh, how much longer?" Inuyasha asked with exasperation. "It smells like crap here"
They had been walking for about two hours in deep snow and had already noticed that the snow in this particular area differed from the snow they were accostumed to seeing. The more they walked, the grayer the snow became and a foul sench was replacing the fresh air.
Miroku stopped suddenly. "Something's coming"
Everyone stopped and gazed around the area. At first, no one saw anything except dead trees and gray snow. Suddenly, something in a bright golden color appeared in front of them. It was revealed that it was actually a pair of wings. The wings opened with a mighty force and sent up more of the foul air swirling in their direction. Everyone held up their arms in front of their faces to shield thmeselves from the stench.
"You have been invited to this realm," a meloncholy, feminine voice said. "That is why you haven't been affected by the power of this snow"
Inuyasha opened his eyes and saw a young woman with golden curls. "Who the hell are you?" he demanded.
A feather from the girl's wings fluttered down and landed on her outstretched palm. "My name to you is Sumiko. I have been sent to destroy you."

I fear school is sapping my energy. Or maybe this chapter sucks because I suck at writing. Hmm . . .