As the demons drew closer Kagome's breath caught in her throat. There was a lot more than she had originally sensed, it was nothing short of an army. One hundred at least. More aura's hovered at the edges of her senses and she had to hearten herself with the knowledge that she had faced greater numbers and come out victorious. She ignored the voice that pointed out the fact that she was sans windscar and the wind tunnel.
The miko took a steadying breath and drew her bow taught.
The attack came from the sky. All the worse for the bat-winged enemy, for if the creatures had hoped to take the trio by surprise they, instead, were forced to split the first wave of their force into two halves as Kagome's sacred arrow streaked through their ranks and diminished any lower-class youkai nearby to ash. Several stronger creatures now sported smoking burns and the enemy force was at least six warriors lighter.
Kagome cursed inwardly. The demons were quick and just scattered enough that she could not get enough lined up to do any significant damage to their ranks. The miko took in what she could of the shifting creatures as she looked for another opening. Most were a pale blue to gray, hairless, and with bones that protruded against their flesh like starving animals. Their fangs were uneven needles and their eyes a blank staring white. Whether these things were blind or not she could not tell. As it was they were still creepy as all hell.
Kagome took another breath and tried not to think of the reinforcements that flapped their way towards their position. Another pink-clad arrow sung through the air and two more went down. The beasts seemed to realize her position and her heart nearly stopped as she noticed the two dozen closest to her break away from the formation and dive straight for her. Kagome's white bow flared pink with her power and she prepared to knock the first demon to reach her aside, only to flinch back as the whistling of a whip hewed the first two attackers into bits and scattered the rest.
"Y-Yoko?" Kagome had turned to look at the kitsune and was taken aback by the almost Sesshomaru-like coldness that had entered his eyes. His attention did not deviate from the enemies scattered above them The miko would never have believed he was able to be so serious. His eyes slid to her and she looked away, flushing for reasons she did not want to think about.
"Concentrate." Hiei chimed in as innards spilled around him. Mangled body parts twitched around him, but despite the gore staining the grass and dirt at his feet, not a drop seemed to dirty his person. Kagome could not say the same. Several dark spots stained her custom made fire-rat clothes and there was a smear on her cheek where an intestine had slapped her wetly on it's flight past. The bat-like youkai were surprisingly timid considering they had been the ones to pick the fight. Indeed they seemed content to heckle the trio and their force divided and re-formed like ocean waves above them.
The large cloud of their remaining forces joined the chaos above them nearly blotting out the sun in their numbers. The beasts danced just out of range of her arrows, jeering and shouting down at the three below them. She squinted up as she sensed a strangely familiar aura somewhere within the mass of strange youkai. She gasped as two dropped out of the seething mass of wings supporting a weakly struggling figure.
"Shippo!" She cried with dismay and disbelief. She had never thought she would be reunited with her old friend in this fashion. The bats holding him shot her taunting smirks as they dug their claws into the not-so-small kitsune and drew a yelp out of him as blood dribbled from the fresh wounds on his shoulders and onto the filthy tatters of what she assumed had been clothes at one time.
Disbelief gave way to rage and a spark of blue flashed through her normally pink aura. "Get your filthy hands off of him!" Her snarl would have given youkai-inuyasha a run for his money.
"We'd be glad to..." The first one rasped as it's comrades snickered where they darted around, behind, and above the hostage. "If you take his place." Kagome grit her teeth together as the pair drifted boldly closer so that her human eyes could clearly see the pathetic malnourished state of her old friend.
Her rage only grew as the limp form of her kitsune friend drifted closer and she saw the discoloration of his skin from burns, bruises and open wounds that leaked. His hair was dreadlocks from lack of care and five matted tails hung limply behind him. She drew her bow and aimed only for the group to laugh.
"Your bluff wont work, miko." Chortled one of the beasts holding Shippo, "Boss told us how important this kitsune is to you. You won't risk hitting it."
"Your boss doesn't know shit." She growled as she drew on a power she had not used since the defeat of Naraku. Hitomiko had been the catalyst to a very useful lesson she had learned during her final days in the feudal era, and while she may not be using the sacred longbow of Mt Azusa, for it probably still lay in the stretch of trees outside her shrine, the technique had been long mastered. Her pink of her pure aura bled purple then blue as she channeled every iota of power she could into the ability. She would take no chances.
She aimed where the wings of the pair holding Shippo overlapped behind him. If she were firing a normal arrow it would have to tear through the kitsune's heart to reach it's target. With resolution in her heart she let the brilliant blue arrow fly. The demons smirked and held their hostage higher only for their eyes to widen in shock as the whistling arrow disappeared and bypassed the kitsune completely. Kagome ignored the sudden dizziness from the strain of drawing so much power out of herself so quickly and ran to where the fox's body thumped loudly into the dusty earth.
"Shippo!" She sobbed as she dropped to her knees next to his battered form. Her hands trembled while she smoothed his dirty hair away from his equally filthy face. She held her ear to his chest and cried with relief at the sound of his heart. Kagome ignored the strange dark snowflakes that caught in her eyelashes and began to cover Shippo's unconscious form. The miko may have had eyes for only one thing at the moment, but Yoko and Hiei had witnessed the enormous blast of energy that had decimated almost all of the bats.
The two demons exchanged a look and Hiei nodded before disappearing in a flash. Cautiously the silver fox approached the unstable miko and her fallen five-tail companion.
"Some escaped the blast. Hiei is tracking them. They won't get far." The silver fox eyed the red kitsune with something akin to disgust as he covered his nose. "The boy needs a bath."
Kagome bit her tongue on the sharp comment she wanted to throw Yoko's way. She could not stop her body from shaking, whether it was from strain or guilt she knew not. Though she'd had no way of knowing that Shippo had been imprisoned, still, she felt as if she was to blame for his suffering.
"Ka...gome?" His voice was raspy and weak and she flinched as she spotted several places where his teeth were growing back. The gum was scarred as if the fangs had been repeatedly pulled.
"Shhh I'm here. You're safe." Her voice broke as moisture gathered in her eyes. She closed them until the stinging passed and offered him the bright smile he was used to.
"I knew...I knew I'd see you again." He offered his own malformed smile and she leaned forward to rest her forehead against his as a few of her rogue tears dropped onto his skin and created streaks in the grime on his cheeks.
"Rest. We'll have time to talk when you're better." She promised as she gathered him to her as best she could and fished Inuyasha's Haori out of her bag to spread over him. "You've gotten so big." She murmured as her lips twitched with a ghost of a smile, "and I missed it." The sting pricked the back of her throat and she swallowed.
By the time Hiei had returned shaking blood off his katana a sedate fire was crackling. Kagome crouched over the stripped form of the red fox with a barely glowing hand running gently over his abused chest. The bruises were wiped away as if she had taken a cloth to mud, but her hands were forced to linger on the many deeper wounds that cris-crossed over his chest and arms. Even his tails had not escaped punishment.
"It surprised me, too." Yoko mumbled from where he lazed against a tree, one leg up and an arm draped over it. "I never knew miko could heal demons." Though he also never knew a priest or priestess whom had felt the desire to try.
"Hn." The apparition agreed as he took up shop in the tree Yoko leaned against.
"Articulate as always." The silver fox teased as his golden gaze lingered on the pair near the flames. In all honesty the fox was a little jealous of the newcomer. Jealousy was not an emotion the fox was used to feeling, for usually what he sought he got be it a material treasure or the glistening jewel of a maidenhead. Honestly the kitsune was growing tired of how the miko seemed to warm to everybody except for himself.
For kami's sake the vixen had even managed to charm Hiei. Not many could claim true friendship with the taciturn cursed child, but he could see it in the way the apparition interacted with her, much the way he interacted with Yukina. Hell, she even treated the icy lord Sesshomaru more warmly than she treated himself. She had warmed to his human ego Shuichi easily enough, so what about his true self was so off-putting?
Honestly, what did that little five-tail have that he, The Yoko Kurama, could not give double.
A figure not so far away from our heroine narrowed his crimson gaze as he wiped away the blood that dripped from his bitten lip. Those damn cave-dwellers had made a clumsy mess of his only valuable hostage. He had specifically told the idiots not to linger within her range with the hostage, and the stupid beasts had been hovering about her like a cloud of moths above a flame.
He'd make sure to inform their queen of the failure of her children. Perhaps he would inform her of each individual failure with a different instrument and see what kind of symphony he could coax from her throat.
His eyes hovered hatefully over the pair near the fire before he vacated the area. His barrier was not what it once was, he could not indefinitely conceal his scent and presence, as the miko had demonstrated that night by the stream.
Soon. Soon he would have her, and they would be bound together for eternity.
Emerald eyes opened up to the world of darkness and saw stars for the first time in nearly two years. His surroundings were so peaceful, and the pain that had tainted his body was hardly there at all. He turned his head to where Kagome dozed in a kneeling position at his side and lifted a clawed hand to run through her black tresses. She came awake with a start and gifted him with a watery smile.
"Shippo!" She threw her arms around his healed torso and buried her face in the crook of his neck and let loose the floodgates. His embraced her gently as she soaked his chest with her wracking sobs. "I'm so sorry Shippo."
"Kagome..." He hated to start off with the heavy stuff, but it was important. "Kagome there's something you need to know." He rubbed soothing circles on her back as she slowly calmed down.
"Naraku's back."
A/N:
I read that a kitsune gets a tail for every century of life which is how it was decided that Shippo gets five tails. That being said I assume Yoko has nine tails (You know since he's supposed to be 1,000 years old and Yoko usually refers to a nine-tail fox), but if that's incorrect please correct me.
