Chapter 17 – Where the Roads Meet

Wow, it's been forever since I last updated, huh? Anyway, I don't own Inuyasha, and this chapter will be kind of like the last one. Read!

Kagura flew over the tops of the trees, the bottom of her kimono just brushing the tops of the uppermost leaves, deep in thought. Normally being this high in the air, coasting on powerful wind currents, calmed her and made her think easier, but today she was confused and just about spitting fire about it.

They were going after that girl – Kaza, was her name – the daughter of the monk Miroku and Kohaku's older sister. Kagura knew she owed the girl – by some freakish stroke of luck, a fifteen-year-old girl had killed Naraku and gave freedom back to her, Kanna and Kohaku. Though she still didn't see why they had to go rescue her. It was none of her business – it was Inuyasha's, and she still hated that bastard mutt. But Kanna had taken a fancy to that girl, and that was why they were spending a perfectly good day rescuing a mortal girl – the daughter and traveling companion of their mortal enemies – from some dumbass of a bear demon she should have been able to take care of by herself.

Kagura was not happy.

"How much farther, Kanna?"

"Look for the winds." Kanna whispered, her white hair billowing around her pale face. "That's where she is."

Damn, Kagura thought angrily, can you please give me normal directions for once? But she could see a small whirlwind up ahead, at a small, sheltered cliff. She angled the feather towards it.

Time to end this business, she thought.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

The wolves were howling loud enough to wake the Shinictai, and Kouga had to take a deep breath and count to ten to make sure he didn't scream at them. They were hot on the trail of the bear demon that had kidnapped Kaza, but they had been for the past two hours. Normally these demons were slow and stupid, but apparently this one wasn't, and it was pissing Kouga off.

He was only doing it for Kagome – the girl didn't really matter to him, but she had done him a favor by killing off Naraku. Kouga had wanted to do it himself, but you know, if you can get some fifteen-year-old girl to do it for you, what the hell?

One of the wolves came up to him, panting and moaning, and Kouga listened intently. He'd gotten a trail – she was in the hills.

"Which one?" Kouga asked. "Can you tell which hill?" The wolf just shook its head.

"Aw, damn it." He grunted under his breath. "This'll take forever. Why the hell are we going after some girl anyway?"

But then he heard roars, and his nose pricked as an explosion of scents reached him. He sprinted out of the clearing, going faster and faster until he was in his whirlwind of leaves. His feet weren't even touching the ground. The smell of bear was there, thick and pungent, and he had to reach Kaza before the bear did.

He'd be letting Kagome down if he didn't – she loved that girl.

And he wasn't the kind of guy to let the girl who killed Naraku die. She wouldn't be any good to him dead.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Kaza's POV

"Do you know any way to get out of this dump?" I asked Kohaku, standing up and pushing against the barrier. "This isn't coming down. I have to find another way."

"What supplies do you have?"

"Um, lemme think about that – NOTHING. Me and my brains, that's about it. You?"

"I have a sword." He said slowly. "Food. Extra change of clothes. A couple candles. My sickle. A canteen of water."

"Damn, you are prepared." I said. "If only there was a way to get those to me, I could find somewhere to get out."

"Have you tried pushing things through the barrier?"

"Of course! It doesn't let anything through." I sighed, my hope deteriorating, and flopped back down. As I did, the shoulder of my yukata slid down, and without even thinking, I moved to push it back it back up. But Kohaku suddenly said, "Where did you get that scar?"

I looked down. Oh. It was that shoulder. There was finally a scar, thick and raised, a red-brown color that was different from the rest of the skin.

"This?" I smiled and ran my fingers along it. "When we were fighting, Naraku managed to stab me here. It's been healing pretty well, considering how deep it went into the skin."

He didn't say anything, then reached up and pulled down the shoulders of his shirt. I almost freaked out for a second – Oh my God, what are you doing! – but when he slid his shirt down, I only saw his chest for a second before he turned around and showed me his back.

And I thought I had it bad. He had scars all over his back – deep ones, thin ones, long ones, ones that barely looked as if they'd gotten any medical attention. But they were all centered around a flicker, embedded deep in his back, that I realized was a jewel shard. I gasped.

"Oh my God, what happened?"

"Naraku." He said simply. "It's the jewel shard that keeps me alive, but it's also one of about three jewel shards left in all of Japan. So over the years, I've been under attack a lot by demons trying to get this out."

"But why do you have a jewel shard in the first place?" I said suspiciously.

He pulled his shirt back on and turned around. "Let's just say it wasn't put there by my choice." Kohaku said softly. "You're not the only one who's been cursed by Naraku."

Before I could figure out this statement, there was a crashing and roaring, and all the surrounding trees were thrown into the air as the bear demon surged into the clearing.

I know what you're all thinking. Okay, here we go. Now is when Kaza will scream her fool head off and get into more trouble, and someone else is going to have to rescue her. Come on, she's done it a million times!

Hell no, not this time. In one split second – maybe it was because of Kohaku standing there, seeming to urge me on – that I decided that I wasn't going to be the damsel in distress anymore. I'd been stabbed, beaten around and starved because of it, and that was the reason I was in this damn cave in the first place. Like Inuyasha said, I was a Taijiya, now was the time to prove it.

And even if I wasn't the Daughter of the Wind, like Kanna said, it sure did sound cool, and it gave me a little confidence as I stood up and roared at the bear demon,

"YOU SON OF A BITCH, LET ME OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Yeah, wasn't making too much of an impact, right?

But then Kagura swooped forward in a rush of winds, and Kouga sprinted into the clearing with a howling pack of wolves at his tail. Kohaku leapt to his feet, pulling out a sickle from the back of his belt, the bear demon roared and looked around, confused as to who to attack, and suddenly I saw a flicker of light at the top of the cave that I hadn't noticed before. An opening.

Now we're talking.

"Kohaku!" I gasped. "There's an opening at the top of the cave! Can you get me out?"

He nodded and scampered around. I couldn't see anything, so I focused on the battle in front of me.

Apparently I had some very powerful allies. I didn't know why, but Kouga and Kagura both seemed to be fighting for me. While Kagura attacked him with her fan – all the while screaming, "Dance of Blades!" – Kouga and the wolves were running around his feet, trying to knock him off his feet. I grinned. I had no idea people liked me this much, and I wasn't about to complain.

Then I looked up and saw Kanna sitting on the feather with Kagura. Her black eyes met mine, and she turned the mirror towards me. Even from the great distance separating us, I could see that creepy image of me, with the winds whipping my hair around, and my heart quickened. I closed my eyes and turned around – I didn't want to think about that, not when we were in the heat of battle as it was.

But I was spared the thought as Kohaku's boot burst through the top of the cave, showering me in dust, and his hand reached down. I grasped it and he heaved me out into the bright sun. I stretched a little and looked down at the rock.

"I thought that'd take a little longer." I said. "You cut through solid rock."

He smiled. "Not exactly." He reached down and pressed in the rock – it left an imprint where his finger had been. "This is a gypsum deposit – the softest mineral there is. All I had to do was a cut it a little and from there I could just push through."

I grinned, even as the battle was going on right in front of me. "Thank you. And Kohaku?"

"Yeah?"

"Could I use your sword?"

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

"I can't find her scent." Inuyasha said to Sango. "I'm sorry, but I seriously can't. The damn bear smell is everywhere, and she never really had a scent to start with, so…"

"I know." Sango sighed, dipping the canteen into the river and watching as the water slowly filled it. "Some demon told me once when she was a baby that she didn't have a scent because she was surrounded by the wind so much it just erased her human scent and molded with her. It's the same way as that Kagura and Kanna don't have a scent."

"Well, it certainly doesn't help our cause." Miroku said, walking up. He looked down and saw worry in Sango's brown eyes, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "At least we have Kouga's scent to follow."

"We're only following that damn wolf's scent when we've got nothing left." Inuyasha growled. "I won't be following him around. We should be able to find Kaza by ourselves. I don't know why he's helping in the first place."

"It could come in handy." Kagome chimed in. "Come on, we should get moving."

Sango straightened up, feeling the crack of her knees and back, and sighed again. She needed to find Kaza fast – not just for her daughter's sake, but for her's. Sango knew she was a little old to be chasing all over Japan, especially just coming out of retirement after fifteen years. She was getting infuriated – they'd just found and rescued Miroku, and then Kaza had to be taken captive too! She knew she wasn't the only one – Inuyasha had been snappier than usual and Kagome had been very loose with the 's-word' in the past day or so.

She and Miroku walked over and she offered out a couple little fish to Kirara, who scarfed them up in a second. Sango smiled and rubbed her mane. "I'm sorry I don't have more to give you." She said softly. "But we don't have very much ourselves. Can you keep going?"

Kirara growled, and Sango and Miroku hopped on. Kagome and Shippou clambered onto Inuyasha and they took to the skies.

After another hour, the hills were getting closer, and Sango was ready to piss herself with anxiety. She could see disturbance building up like a storm in the forests around the hills, like winds converging in a huge tropical hurricane. Kouga was just ahead of them, as Inuyasha's nose told them, and she could see a tiny feather off in the distance – Kagura.

And in it all, Inuyasha said there was the smell of the wind, and there was only one human in the world with that scent.

Sango loosened Hiraikotsu in its leather strap, and Miroku grasped her hand. She smiled at him, and there was silent communication between them – the fight was coming up. The whole group knew it. Kagome was fitting an arrow to the string, Shippou had his little fists clenched, and Inuyasha looked angrier than she'd ever seen him.

"Ready, Sango?" He grunted. Sango glared at him.

"She's my daughter." She growled. "I'll take whatever that bear sends at me and send him straight to hell." Miroku chuckled and squeezed her hands.

Kagome gasped, and Shippou said, "What?"

"I sense the demon – I sense his jewel shard!" She said. "Inuyasha, go towards that overhanging, that little cave!"

"Got it." He said, and they turned towards the cave, and then she added,

"There's something else…something I haven't felt in a while…"

"What?"

"There's another person there, another person with a jewel shard…" Her brown eyes widened, and she whispered,

"Someone with a jewel shard in their back."

Sango's heart jolted. Her mind swam. She couldn't believe it.

But she knew it was Kohaku.

I know it's a bit of an unsatisfactory ending to one of the most unsatisfactory chapters in the story, but it took me forever to figure out how to do this chapter. I had like fifteen different versions and I kept jumping between them, so, yeah…well, all the drama's going to wrap up in the next two chapters. In case you couldn't tell, the chapter title, Where the Roads Meet, is referring to how the three different traveling parties – Kouga, Kagura and Inuyasha – will all finally meet up at the cave with Kaza, and of course, because Kohaku is involved, there will be a lot of drama. But whatever – I need to go to bed. My ever-growing list of swimming injuries continues, and I need to go to bed early. By the end of practice yesterday, I had hyper-extended both shoulders, both knees, and my right hip. Yeah. True tales of swimming horror. Please review! Arigatou!