Tora-chan: I'm back!
Vitanie: You're in a better mood. Cold gone?
Tora-chan: Still have an annoying runny nose but besides that I'm fine. Just don't ask about work.
Vitanie: Why what's up with work?
(Tora-chan is now sitting in a corner with a black cloud hanging over her head)
Hiroshi: Vee, look what you did now! Hopefully when Aillas finally shows you'll be too distracted to make stupid comments like that.
Sora: Hiroshi, be nice and get Tora-chan to start the chapter, please. (Her eyes start to go dull as she starts to contact nearby spirits)
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Last time: The gang got Hideaki to join them, you'll find out how sometime in the future. Vitanie almost escaped and then started a fight with Rei. The gang shows up to help fight Rei, while Sora heals Vitanie's wounds. Now Vee enters the fight.
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Vitanie walked towards the fight with as much purpose as she could muster. She still felt weak but decided that she would have plenty of chance to rest after the fight. She noticed Leiko over by the fox that had tormented her before fighting off lesser demons. Sora was still by Kagome and the wall where the priestess was shooting arrows at any demon that got close to them. Yuki and Inuyasha where attacking Rei head on who was using his dark flames to keep the two at bay. Absently Vitanie noticed that Kohaku, Sango, Miroku, Hiroshi, Mari, and Shippo were nowhere in sight.
With a final burst of determination she focused her mind and let the stones draw on the energy she had gotten from Sora. She felt the wind start to shift slightly as she drew near the battle with Rei and felt the purpose right before Inuyasha released the wind scar. Rei dodged it with ease using the agility that all feline demons had to get out of danger. With a smirk he once again used his dark flame to push the two canines back until water suddenly burst forth to smother the flames.
Vitanie had a hand stretched out and smirked towards the panther.
"Don't mind me, I would hate to interrupt," she sneered.
"Decided to die along with her friends, kitten," he countered before dodging an overhead swing from Inuyasha.
"Stop teasing us, and fight," she snarled letting some of her anger feed the stones power. She tried to suppress the fire stone and let the water stone take dominance since they were fighting someone who controlled fire. Yuki came up beside her and cast a look toward her before heading toward the demon once again. His look said everything that she needed to know. Which to summarize said 'He's tougher then he looks, we can't win'. But seriously what would stop Yuki once in a fight.
Vitanie swung her staff in front of her just in time to divert a fire attack using wind to spread the flames. With a quick jump to the side she came up beside Inuyasha.
"I don't know what attack that was that you used a minute ago but could you combine it with a water attack if need be?" she asked as she doused another flame attack aimed at them.
"I don't know, but we could try," he said as he hacked through a smaller demon that had gotten past Leiko and Hideaki.
"Right, on my word," she said before she dodged a fire ball that her water wasn't able to completely smother. "YUKI!" she yelled to catch the wolf's attention. The wolf barely nodded as he did an overhead slash that made the panther dodge back. With the panther distracted with dodging the wolf demon Vitanie came up to the other side and used he staff and concentrated on the earth stone as she slammed it into the ground.
The resulting explosion pushed everyone back and partially destroyed part of the castle. As Rei was busy dodging large boulders Vitanie worked her way toward Inuyasha who was watching Rei's movement through the debris. When the dust was just starting to clear Vitanie made a slight movement in her staff to prepare for the next attack. The panther was just coming through the cloud straight at her when Vitanie yelled out.
"Inuyasha, NOW!" with that she released her water attack at the panther while Inuyasha summoned up the wind scar; they combined halfway to the panther causing the power of the attack to expand. At the last second before impact Vitanie saw him wrap himself in black fire before he disappeared.
She sighed heavily before dodging the shockwaves from the combined attack. She noticed the castle going up in black flames before it too vanished. Once the smoke cleared she looked around and noticed the damage her friends had gone through.
Kagome and Sora both had small cuts from their battle with the lesser demons. Hideaki had used too much energy at the start of the battle against Rei and was having problems standing without Leiko's help. He had some small cuts as well. Leiko looked worn out from protecting herself and Hideaki. Yuki had a few small cuts but was glaring at Vitanie so he probably got caught in the blast. Vee was beat and felt like collapsing to the ground and would have if it hadn't been for the young cat demon she found in her arms moments later.
"Big sister, are you okay? What was that explosion? You aren't going to leave us again are you?" Mari shot at her as she looked up in Vitanie's gold eyes with her worried blue ones. Mari was remembering the first time she had gone up against Rei a few years before. The panther had seared her right arm to the elbow making it almost useless. At the time Vitanie only had the wind stone and hadn't been able to douse the flames like she could now with the water stone.
"No Mari, I'm not going anywhere this time. I'm staying right here," she soothed the little demon. "Now where were you hiding, while we were fighting?"
"We were just outside in the woods, Sango and Kohaku stayed behind to protect us until Hiroshi woke up," she informed as she continued chatting in a rare talkative moment.
"Until Hiroshi woke up? What happened while I was gone?" she asked surprised.
"Hideaki knocked Hiroshi out before we could capture him," Leiko explained as she helped the fox over to the group.
"Okay. Now why is that fox helping us?" she asked glaring at the fox.
Hideaki flinched at Vitanie's ice cold glare as he tried to hide behind Leiko, "Yeah, sorry about everything that happened earlier. No hard feelings I hope," he tried to apologize.
"No hard feelings! You got to be kidding me right. You knocked me out against a dungeon wall earlier and you want me to forgive you like it was nothing?" she raged as she started to sway on her feet.
"Vitanie, maybe you should rest before you decided to take on another fight," Yuki chided as he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her to help her stay standing.
"You're so lucky I'm too weak to fight right now wolf. If I had energy I would kill you right now for holding me like this," she mumbled before she feel unconscious in his arms from fatigue.
"Let's move her over to where we have camp set up for Hiroshi. Once she wakes up we can figure out exactly what's going to happen next," Yuki said taking charge in Vitanie's place.
"Good idea. That will give us all time to rest before we continue toward the shrine," Kagome commented as she came up beside Inuyasha.
"The only thing I want to know is if we destroyed that panther or not. I have a feeling that we'll see him again before long," Inuyasha said looking over toward where he had last seen the panther. He's more powerful the Naraku. Which means until now he was in hiding most of the time. We would of know about him if he had been actively searching for the elemental stones, he thought as he stared leading the group with Yuki over to the nearby camp.
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Tora-chan: I think that's all for now. I know it's short but I ran out of things to write about.
Vitanie: So is Hideaki sticking around?
Tora-chan: Don't know. I think I'll leave it up to the readers. Of course I'll need about three people to respond though. Just incase I need a tie breaker. So should Hideaki stick around or should I send him packing? I'll need an answer before I start the next chapter, so I'll be waiting until then.
Hideaki: You mean I might get to stay around?
Vitanie: Nope, you'll have to beg the readers. (Smirking)
Hideaki: I don't beg!
Hiroshi: While they argue over whether Hideaki begs or not should we end the chapter Tora-chan? Or do you want to explain to readers why you're depressed about work?
Tora-chan: Oh that. My boss decided to demote me. Great thing to do just before Christmas isn't it. (Anger seething from voice, then more cheerful) Yeah, and maybe by the next chapter everything will be figured out for Aillas to show up. Ready Hiroshi?
Hiroshi: Ready. Thank you for reading, please review and have a wonderful night. (Bows).