Love of friends
Chapter 9: Enter the ACC!
BC: Let's just cut to the chase. I don't own Inuyasha and neither do you. But if you want to read my warped mind's version, here it is. Enjoy.
Along one of the many worn paths of Feudal Japan, and sprawled out on the branch of a tree... was a girl. She looked to be about 15 years old, and asleep. This girl was wearing a pair of loose-fitting, blue, hakama and a blue haori with wide enough sleeves to fit two arms in. Sleepily, she flips over, and reaches up to her slightly unkempt hair, brown, with a slight orange tint, to scratch between her tworounded, triangular ears, set a little back on her head. Slowly she starts to awaken and soon, she's sitting up on the branch, her feet dangling off the side. The girl then slides off the branch to land leisurely on the ground. After stretching, she starts off down the path. The cuffs of her pants lay over the top of her bare feet, but they are just short enough that they don't hit the ground. With each bouncy and carefree step, a sword jiggles in a makeshift sheath over her shoulder. It isn't hard to tell it was once a quiver for arrows, even with a rope wrapped all the way around it.
After walking for some distance down the path, the wind picks up for a moment and a scent from behind catches her attention. The demon girl stops in mid-step, turns around, and sniffs at the air. Her bright blue eyes scrunch up, trying to make sense of the scent. She looks around, jumps up in to the air and pushes off with her feet, from a nearby tree trunk, to land on a wide branch. After slightly losing her balance, she grabs onto another branch and steadies herself. She sniffs at the air again and shakes her head. It just didn't make sense, "Fox and dog demon... and it smells like it's coming from the same area. But, the two demons don't get along well!" she pauses for a second to think over what she had said, and laughs. "Well, most of the time anyway. Hmm... It must be them, I can smell humans too." She hops of the branch and runs off at a fast speed, into the forest.
"Can we stop yet?", whines Shippo from Miroku's shoulder, "I'm tired…"
Miroku looks over at his young passenger, "Why would you be tired? I've been carrying you around."
"I was walking earlier!"
Inuyasha suddenly halts in the middle of the path, almost causing Kagome to crash into him. "Inuyasha? Is there something wrong?"
"I can smell smoke…"
Sango looks to the front of the group from the back, "You don't think it's a destroyed village, do you?"
Inuyasha searches around, distractedly, while sniffing at the air, "There's no blood... and the smell of smoke isn't very strong."
Miroku looks up from his argument with Shippo, "Maybe it's a camp full of lovely young women!"
Sango turns to him, with a glare, and Miroku clears his throat. "Though, I could be wrong..."
"Well we're gonna find out." and Inuyasha continues to walk down the path. Kagome stares at the hanyou, they had been walking along this path all day and he was becoming increasingly more... edgy.
"Are you coming, or what?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah." Kagome runs in between Sango and Miroku and skids to a stop in front of Inuyasha. He stands there, shakes his head, and then they all continue to walk the path.
Shippo sits on Miroku's shoulder, a hand on his stomach. He was hungry, and the small fox demon wasn't the only one. Problem was, Inuyasha wouldn't let them stop, and whenever Kagome looked ready to sit him, she would see his determination and become silent. Slowly, a scent reaches Shippo's nose. He sniffs at the air and hops off the monk.
"Shippo... what are you doing?" The fox doesn't answer and, before Miroku can ask again, Shippo bolts.
Kagome's almost knocked over by the orange blur, "What the..."
The kitsune runs a ways down the path, stops, sniffs deeply at the air again, and runs into the trees. Inuyasha is the first one to regain his senses and go after him but, after a moment, the others follow.
Shippo was running as fast as he could but, just before entering a clearing, Inuyasha grabs him by his tail. The rest of the gang eventually catches up and Kagome looks at Shippo from above Inuyasha's shoulder. "What is going on?"
Shippo looks around nervously, "Umm..."
"I'll tell you what it is." He shoves the small demon at Kagome, "A ways back, I caught the scent of a demon, we had gone down the same path as them. It was weak for a while, but then we started to catch up with 'em." Inuyasha looks around the clearing and snarls as he spots fish roasting above a fire. "Xxxx... I can't tell where they're at, their scent's all over the place. Whoever set this trap, wanted to make sure I couldn't find them." He slowly enters the clearing, the others follow and spread out around the fire.
Shippo jumps from Kagome's arms to some tall grass to hide. The others prepare in case of an ambush. Inuyasha readies his hand on the hilt of Tetsusaiga, Kagome takes her bow off her shoulder, Sango getsHiraikotsu ready, and Miroku gets any talismans he might need set up.
"Come out now, unless you want a fight!" There was silence from their surroundings. Silence, until it's broken.
"You don't need to shout." Calmly, the female demon in blue walks into the clearing from the opposite side of the fire. She's not really smiling or frowning at the others, just watching.
"What is all this, some kind of trap? You plan to attack us?"
"My plans are mine, so you'll find out soon enough." The demon smirks and walks away from Inuyasha, to the left side of the fire, and towards Sango. "You must be the demon slayer, Sango. Defeating demons easily with your weapon..." She points to the boomerang on Sango's shoulder, "and a ferocious, giant, cat demon... which I don't see."
She turns around after hearing a small meow, coming from the general direction of Shippo. The demon then starts to scratch at her head. "Maybe it wasn't as big as I heard."
She then turns back and walks down the line to stop in front of Miroku who she, in turn, points to. "And you must be the monk, Miroku."
He bows and grabs hold of her hand, "You wouldn't be interested in bearing my child, would you?"
The demon girl tears her hand away from the monk and takes a step back. She gets ready to attack and takes a swing when something catches her eye, Sango's mouth had dropped and her eyes widened as she clutches at Hiraikotsu. She halts her claws and looks straight into the surprised monks face, "Lucky for you, there's someone out there that doesn't want you removed from this world. Otherwise, I'd grant the favor." She continues to stomp down the line, though she's still looking at the monk and when she turns back and spots Kagome, her anger increases. "And you...!"
Inuyasha pulls the Tetsusaiga partially out of its sheath, but stops as the girl finishes her stalking.
She sniffs, and takes a surprised step back. "I... I..." She blinks, "Don't... know you." The demon slowly edges past Kagome, and cautiously backs away. When she turns back around, she's face to face with Inuyasha. "And you're that cocky half-demon, Inuyasha!"
"What's it matter if I am, or if I'm not?" he leans forwards and sniffs, "As far as I can tell, you're nothing more then a half-demon yourself!"
"I never said that I wasn't... you just happen to be cocky."
"Just who do you think you are?"
"I don't have time to argue with you..." She starts to walk away from the still furious Inuyasha, but stops after a few steps, "Where is he?"
Inuyasha stomps his foot and growls, "I'm not done with you yet! And just who are you looking for, anyway?"
"The fox demon traveling with you, least, I thought there was one..."
It was now or never. This demon wanted him. He could run now... but then she might attack the others. He couldn't let that happen! Shippo takes a deep breath, and shakily answers from his cover, "Here... here I am." He climbs out and stands up as tall as possible. What did she want from him?
The half-demon crouches down by the kitsune. "So... my guess is, you're Shippo."
He slowly nods his head.
"Good." She smiles lightly to the younger demon "Nice to... meet you." She looks at him a bit longer, and gets a big grin on her face. She then rises and turns back to walk around the fire. "Go on and have the fish... It's not like I could eat all of that. And it's not that hard to catch them, so you might as well." She takes her arms, folds them up behind her head, and walks away.
Kagome was confused, and rightfully so. First this demon comes out of nowhere. Soon, she's ready to attack Miroku, and stops. And the whole thing with Shippo... what was this girl, bipolar? The demon looked ready to come after her, too, and then acted like she had seen a ghost. She didn't even introduce herself! Yet, she seemed to know about them... Kagome was about ready to question the retreating form, when she notices something. "Inuyasha! She has a jewel shard at her wrist!"
This instantly catches her attention. Mouth slightly ajar, the demon walks back around the fire and towards Kagome. "How did you...?"
"Stay back!" Inuyasha draws his sword and points the transformed Tetsusaiga right at her.
She jumps back a step, snarl on her face. But then she shakes her head, as if to clear it, and her expression changes to one of worry. She puts her hands in front of her, and takes another step back.
"Either give up the jewel shard, or fight!"
Her face twists to anger. "Fine!" She shoves her left hand into her right sleeve.
Inuyasha prepares for an attack, "Stand back everyone! Who knows what attacks she can use!"
The girl looks up in shock, "Attack?" at the same time, she pulls her hand out of the sleeve. A jewel shard held between her thumb and forefinger.
"Huh?"
"Sorry Inuyasha, I thought it was in her wrist... not her sleeve."
"Are you trying to make me look like an idiot Kagome?"
"You do that pretty good all by yourself, Inuyasha."
"Shut up Shippo!" His attention turns back to the half-demon, when she speaks.
"So... you have been searching for the shards." She stares hard at the fragment then, sticks out her hand to the others. "Here."
Kagome's jaw drops, "You're just going to hand it over?"
"Why not?"
"I'll tell you why." Inuyasha takes the flat of the sword and sticks it out in front of Kagome.
"What are you doing now?"
He ignores her and continues to talk with the other half-demon. "Do you know what that is?" says Inuyasha.
"A shard of the Shikon Jewel?"
"Do you know what it does?"
"It..." she stares down at her fist, "It gives power."
"Who in their right mind refuses that? This must be a trap."
"Or I might have seen what something so small can do. I don't trust it. I was actually hoping to trade it for food... but if it keeps you from attacking, I might as well hand it over." She holds it out again.
Kagome tries to move around the Tetsusaiga, but Inuyasha won't let her. "Stay there Kagome."
"How bout I just give it to you?" She takes a step forward, but Inuyasha points the sword back at her.
"I still say this is a trap!"
"But then how am I..." she growls, and then beckons to the fox demon. " Shippo, come here."
"What are you trying to do now? Kidnap Shippo?"
"No. If you won't let me go over there, or her..." She points to Kagome "over here, then I'll let him deliver it."
"And what's going to stop you from killing him over there?"
"I'm not going to attack a defenseless kid!"
Shippo walks over to her, "I'm not a defenseless kid!"
"Really?" She rises an eyebrow.
"That's right! I'm an adult! And I know a lot of attacks."
"How can you be an adult if I'm not an adult?"
"You're not an adult?"
"Well, I don't think I am. But what does it matter to be an adult? Between your friends, you don't get any more or less respect. It's how you are to others that matter. I'm just me." She hands the shard over to Shippo, "Go on and give this to that human Inuyasha is so adamant on protecting. And maybe sometime, you can show me what you can do." She stands and starts to leave again.
Shippo stares at the shard, and then calls to her, "Wait!"
The demon stops and looks back over her shoulder.
"You never told us who you are."
"I didn't?" She looks at the others, slowly shaking their heads. "I didn't!" She chuckles, "I guess it can't hurt... I'm Talgi." She then runs off before anyone can ask anything else.
Shippo climbs up to Inuyasha's shoulder and passes the shard over to Kagome. For a second, the demon and half demon watch where Talgi had left. Shippo's the first to talk, "She... was kinda strange."
"Not just her." scoffs Inuyasha.
"Huh?"
"Her scent, too."
"I couldn't smell much through the..."
"That's what I'm talking about."
"Oh..."
Inuyasha walks over to the still stunned monk. "Are you really that stupid?"
"I didn't expect a reaction like that..."
"You're lucky she didn't take your head off."
"Thank Buddha..."
"That's probably not the person you should be thanking..."
He leaves the monk, confused, and drops Shippo of at the fire. "Eat."
"But you said..."
"If she didn't kill us then, this shouldn't kill us now."
Shippo looks skeptically at the fire, grabs one of the fish, and takes a big bite. He then starts tearing in to it. "Finally, food!"
BC: Yeah so... my ACC is Talgi!
Talgi: (Shadows are gone) Yo.
QJP: It's about time! I've been waiting for this chapter!
PLP: Well, so have I!
BC: Guys, I know both of you have been waiting! But, know you got a chance to read it, so there's no need to fight. That's it from me. BC, over and out! (Smile with V-sign)
QJP: BC, are you gonna end the chap. soon?
BC: (Through clenched teeth) I can't, I'm stuck!
PLP: Hold still. (Smacks BC in back of head with purse)
BC: Yeeeeow! (clutches head)
QJP: Why'd you do that PLP?
PLP: (Holds out lollipop) Look BC, candy!
BC: (snatches candy) I'm confused... is pain good or bad?
QJP: I guess it depends on why it's being done... and how funny it is.
Talgi: I thought you guys were done...
BC: Oh, right... See ya!