Her Blood Sings For Me

Chapter Two - Farming Village; Miroku's Investigation

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'Knock, knock, knock' The banging on the wooden door echoed through the rather large building.

"Alright, alright!" Kagome snapped, her voice coming from behind the door, inside the room in question. She was standing in what was her bedroom of this time. This building was very odd for one of this era. It was built not only with wood, but with thick stone and 'magic' too. It was generally the main base of the group of monster hunters. It was Kaeda's house originally, but a lot ha been added on when the new traits began to appear in the yokai. It was now one of the largest buildings that had been built only by human hands, so it was a pretty big deal. Kaeda allowed both Sango and Kagome to live with her here, seeing as neither of them had a place to go. Sango's family was killed during one of their jobs a year or so ago. As for Kagome, well she didn't really belong in this time. She had no family or anything aside from the hunters she'd have to work with sometimes.

Kagome sighed softly as she dug through a pile of clothing. She pulled out an odd outfit, it looked like a combination of a normal miko's outfit and a yokai exterminator's. I guess the best way to describe it was a type of robe, in her green and white school uniform colors, that also had bits of protective armor added for extra precaution under the first layer. She changed into the outfit while Sango knocked on the door again.

"Kagome, hurry up already! Kaeda asked us to meet her!" She barked. She herself was wasn't wearing her normal cloths, but her black and red exterminator outfit. Basically, you could say it was similar to that of a ninja-style outfit only with armor and what not. Her boomerang-like weapon made of yokai bone, known as Hiraikotsu, was strung across her back, her katana was tied around her side with the use of her sash.

"I'm coming!" Kagome shouted as she'd finished tying up her miko outfit with light armor underneath it. She grabbed her bow and a batch of her sacred arrows, tossing them both over her shoulder and also stashed a dagger in each of her sleeves as her 'just in case' defense weapons. She sled the door open with a cheery smile to her slightly older friend. "Sorry, I had a bit of trouble getting everything to fit right." She rubbed her knee with one of hands as a gesture to explain. "I have to get these stupid bits of armor on and then put this over it!" she gestured with both hands to her 'priest's garb.' "I mean really, why can't I just wear an outfit like your's?"

Sango let out a slight chuckle. "Oh come on." she waved her friend along without giving any sort of answer.

The two woman, both looking as if prepared for combat, walked down the long hallway side by side until it ended and opened up into a large gathering room. There had been a table off toward the head of the room with an elderly looking woman in the basic miko wear on the farther side sitting on a floor cushion while two other open cushions sat on the side nearest the two. Without any hesitance they both took one of the opens seats.

"Lady Kaeda, " Kagome referred to the older woman respectively. "What is going on this time?"

"Ah Kagome. I'm sorry to have to call upon you just as your return, however, it seems there is a yokai disturbance in the next town over. It shouldn't be that difficult of a job, but I have no one else to rely on. And if it happens that the yokai is vampiric, you two are always the best choice. Sango, Kagome please."

"We will go." replied a calm Sango.

"Yes, no need to worry." agreed Kagome.

"Once you get their, go to the village leader. He will explain things and has also said that he will provide any housing needs during your stay."

Once hearing the last of the instructions, Kagome and Sango both stood up from their seats and turned to leave, Sango walking just ahead of Kagome. Kagome turned just before she left through the open door that Sango had just exited. "Don't worry. Leave it to us!" she said with a wave, before turning and leaving the room as well.

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Inuyasha was now in his grand bedroom, standing near a large open window and just starring out. His expression was blank at first, but then twisted into an evil, toothy grin as a rush of air swept through the window and caused his long silvery hair to dance in the wind. The way it shined and shimmered in this process made it almost seem as though his hair was actually made of bits of silver that were woven into tiny, soft threads. It whipped in front of his slightly paled face in a fashion that would make one think of how extraordinarily beautiful he was, only if it worked that way. His look, as we covered before, was far too dark and seemed to cancel out much of the beauty he held. However, when his face was calm, he would truly resemble that of a angel or even more so. Very few, if any, could match up to him.

His room was basically just for show, he didn't actually need it, but it was built just to show his power over the kingdom he self ruled. In all terms, the castle of hard stone wasn't really necessary; just a mark of his power and, all in all, kept most meddling humans out. Not that humans weren't easily dealt with by the monstrous beings that roomed this particular land. Yes, many yokai roamed free in his kingdom, so long as they didn't dare to threaten him, his followers, or anything else that belonged to him.

"Things are all set." the hanyou spoke aloud to himself. "Hahaha, Miroku should soon be executing our new plan."

Yes, it was the demonous Inuyasha that had sent a yokai problem off near the village of hunters. It was his plan to drive out the new miko, to see her skills and to discover if she was actually of the value that he'd heard. He doubted that she'd be a threat at all, but many of the humans seemed to refer to her as their savior. He laughed at this, his whole powerful figure shaking in light vibrations with the sinister sound escaping his lips. How could any human really believe that one lone woman could stop him in his rule?

"Like anyone could stop me and save those humans. She's just another weak mortal being like all of them!"

He continued to stare out of the large window with his captivating golden hued eyes that, despite the lingering shadows around and within them, could always convince his prey to fall right into his arms. Conveniently, the village that the hunters should be forced to protect was off in the direction he gazed upon. Not actually in visual sight, but he still knew it was there just off in the near distance.

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As the pair of hunters arrived in said village, they were greeted by a small group of cheering villagers. Men, woman, and even small children had gathered around. However, the woman waved them off, not really preferring said type of attention. It wasn't needed. The hunters did what they had to, they didn't expect anything in return, and surely neither of them felt the need to have everyone fuss over them this way. They weren't celebrities, they just were what they were for everyone's sake.

"Ah, you must by the two hunters Lady Kaeda has spoken so highly about." A man, probably a few years older then them, greeted the ladies with a bright smile. Surely, it wasn't just the fact that they were hunters that caused that grin. "I'm Tenkoto, but you may call me Ten if you wish. I'm here on behalf of Housanku, our town leader. He asked me to meet and escort you to his home." he explained.

A little too friendly, according to the two woman, but they followed along behind him as he led the way though the small village quickly. And they all ended up on the doorstep to what was probably one of the biggest buildings in the small farming village, yet still pretty small considering where the woman normally resided. Tenkoto, or Ten upon request, slid open the front door, leading the pair inside the building to a single room with a door on each wall. Sitting in the center of the room was an older man, not too old, but still old enough to be the father of either of them.

"Hello." His voice was respectful, but a constricted shock triggered by the clearly young age of the woman could still be read if you examined his face. "I take you are the hunters Kaeda has sent us. Thank you both for coming." he bowed his head slightly.

With the look that Kagome and Sango gave him, one that said something along the lines of 'Please skip past this, we don't need formalities, just tell us about the problem.' He prompted into explaining why they were called here with such hurry. "You see, there has been a yokai terrorizing us. I know we're just a small farming village, but it keeps destroying everything we harvest and was also killed a few of or men who take shifts watching over our food stores. Its beginning to create quite a problem, and we're running out of food. So far, it only strikes when the sun sets and stays out for an hour or so. But, even in this sort time, it destroys too much. Each day that it comes back, it gets worse and worse. Last night it totally destroyed all but two of the storage buildings and slaughtered the men guarding each one." His voice was grow desperate by the end. "Please, you need to get rid of it!" he pleaded.

"No worries, we'll handle it." Sango said assuringly. She was never one to hesitate about yokai problems or problems caused by anything for that matter. Yokai were just top on her dislike list. She'd been raised from the very start to always protect the human kind, or anyone and anything that was weaker and attacked for unjust reasons.

"What exactly does this yokai look like?" Kagome questioned a moment after, her light brown eyes intense.

"Ah well..." Housanku hesitated at first. "Its hard to say. Some have described it as a centipede-like creature and others say its more like a serpent. Though it is said to have abnormally large fangs--"

At that very instant, a loud crashing sound came from outside, along with a movement so fierce that the whole building rocked violently. Kagome nearly lost her balance to the shock, but was steadied by Sango's hand as she grabbed her friend and turned toward the door in a sprint. The two woman leaped down the set of three stairs, ready for action. Sango swung Hiraikotsu from her back, holding it in a half offensive and half defensive stance and Kagome had her bow with a arrow already strung inside it and ready for the launch.

A few villagers ran past them, each one of them with frightened sounds escaping their mouths; yells, screams, shrieks and curses all became a load, jumbled roar. They followed up the trail, opposite of the way everyone was running. Yet, nothing aside from a disassembled building lay ahead. Planks and splinters of wood, along with a ton of other damaged goods sprawled out across the dirt and grass ground. The two woman's eyes shifted frantically for their target, but nothing else happened as a horribly eerie silence fell over the world. They glanced quickly to one another without a word passing either of their lip's but somehow they both came to an agreement.

They turned their backs to each other, taking careful, calculated steps. Each huntress' head moved side to side with cautious, observant eyes. The two were roughly four yards apart when a rumbling from below shook the ground again, and then a rush of wind thrust up from the ground as the yokai jutted up from the broken earth. Upon this instant, Kagome let out a shriek of terror as she jumped into a turn to face the monster. It had been directing its long fork tongue at Sango, taunting and about to lash out at her, it heard Kagome's shocked, if not frightened, voice. It turned around to face her though half of its body was still buried beneath the ground. Its freakish thin snake pupils were just black lines in the redish yellow eyes that had narrowed dangerously into just slits themselves. The miko didn't mean to shriek like a child, but it was a woman's habit from her own world. She'd still yet to master ridding herself of those annoying habits completely.

She was a frozen as a statue carved from stone under the hypnotic gaze the beast held her in. This yokai wasn't like one she'd ever seen. The villagers were right about not being to decided between serpent and centipede. Its head was snake-like with the eyes and forked tongue, yet also had an odd insect shape to it. Its body had a mixture of scales and armor plates both with a shade of murky swamp green. Hundreds of little insect legs grew in two rows, one on each side of its long body. To top it all off, it had huge fangs. Not even like the one's of a snake, but worse. Like those of a saber tooth tiger, but pointed dangerously like they weren't for just ripping but injecting poison into one's system like needles used for shots of medicine or other things.

The yokai's mouth pulled open, strings of saliva strung between the upper and lower parts of its mouth, about to clamp down one good bite into the miko.

"Kagome!" Shouted her partner, snapping Kagome out of her trance just in time to throw herself to the side and avoid a direct hit by the huge fangs. She didn't escape all damage however. She throw herself hard onto the ground, scrapping up what little of her body that wasn't covered and one of the fangs scathed the back of her leg, right through the plates created for protection. The monster was about to attack her again when the giant boomerang style weapon flew through the air, chopping off several legs of the creature and slicing into its body with one swoop. This gave Kagome time to react. She leaped up from her grounded position, into a quick dash to the side. The creature's head followed after its now injured target. It had a taste of her sweet blood and craved more. But she had skidded to a stop and launched one of her special arrows straight at the yokai's face, puncturing and sticking into the right eye. The creature roared in discomfort, throwing itself half blind at the woman. She jumped back out of the way. With the creature's frantic attack, Sango launched off Hiraikotsu again; cutting into its body again, but not in half like it usually did.

They couldn't pinpoint what the problem was, it sent them both for a wild loop. Usually one of the young miko's arrows would have caused its victim to burst like an over filled balloon when a sacred arrow made contact with it. And Hiraikotsu was such a powerful structured weapon, that it was able to easily slice through the layers of the body like butter.

"I don't get it! Its not working like its supposed to!" Kagome shouted out, dodging the attacks the creature now sent at her.

This odd exchange of attacks continued for who knows how long. Many sacred arrows jutted out from the creatures body and several gashes created by Sango's weapon marked it too; with a thick redish liquid dripping from each and every wound. The creature never really scored any hits on the hunters, always switching back and forth between them with whomever scored a hit last. But, with each opening, the other launched an attack. They couldn't understand why things weren't really working, that hadn't happened before, not after this many attempts at killing it.

Kagome and Sango flung themselves out of the creature's path of now desperate attacks, crashing into each other with a painful jolt, but both pulled themselves up with haste to avoid the next of the lashings. The creature came out of its hole completely and was swinging its whip like tail around. And then they subconsciously agreed on something. At the very same time, they launched their attacks from just below the head, at the known weak point of the neck. The arrow and weapon of bone collided with the yokai at the very same time, the two weapon's strength uniting. The Hiraikotsu cut all the way through its body this time, the head of the beast falling to the ground with a sloshy thump. The arrow stuck into the stump of the rest of the creature, which collapsed to the ground a moment later into a massive, motionless heap.

"Interesting..." A mumble of Miroku's voice, talking to himself. He'd witness the whole thing far off from the thick brush. Just like he and Inuyasha set up, a chance to observe the hunters. Though, during the whole time of the battle between human and yokai, he couldn't help to to be entranced by the one woman's beauty. The lady with dark brown hair and the exterminator outfit, oh her moves were so graceful. Every step she made, every attack she launched. It was like a work of divine art. Her beauty was radiant, indescribable. The monk was left breathless with every look he made toward her...

The human male shook his head quickly, mentally slapping himself. "I have to get back to the castle." he said to himself as he turned around to go off. He hesitated though, sneaking one last look over his shoulder to steal a glance at the lovely woman and off he went in a run.