It was a cold night for the progressively getting huger mother to be which made her all the more restless. Inu wasn't helping, it was a full moon night so he didn't want to go out, he still hated his weaker body. She tried everything she could think of to get him to go but he wasn't having it.
"Take Shippo, he can keep you company since Sango is gone and you can't do girly babble besides he's practically a girl anyway."
The little kitsune started an attack but quickly found himself flung back to where he started by the irritated hanyou. Shiori meanwhile was flipping her ears back and forth while she pondered it, it was better than going alone she supposed. Still it lacked the fun of teasing her mate but it didn't seem like her mate was in a playful mood anyway. She stood, face half hidden by her hair and sauntered out. The nearest hot spring was only about a mile away anyway, perhaps Inu would change his mind later and join her. Shippo was babbling about something as he followed behind her but she flattened her ears back as to not listen. Besides she needed to watch where she stepped, it was too easy to fall over with her large belly.
A short while later, she was soaking her sore muscles in the hot spring, ears flapping back and forth at the little kitsune's high-pitched babbling. She wasn't really listening, the pitch just kept drawing her attention for a few seconds every once and awhile. She sighed and rested her head on her arms on the edge of the water, trying her best to drown out Shippo's story of what happened when he ate too much of some food called prunes from the dead girl's backpack, the last thing she wanted to hear was a gas story. She swished the tip of her tail in the water, making the little bell bobble hanging on it jingle to drown out Shippo a bit. Her eyes wandered over the trees and bushes nearby lazily for something to do. Her ears flipped forward at the sound of a branch snapping and she raised a hand for Shippo to be quiet.
"And there was quite the smell that da-…." The kitsune said closing his mouth as Shiori had asked. Shiori was reaching for her clothes while moving almost silently out of the water. She was just tying the sash and turning to speak to Shippo when an arrow shot past her head.
"Shippo, get Inu and Kirara now!" She yelled to the retreating form of the little kitsune who was already taking flight but fortunately in the right direction. But as she watched him she let her guard down long enough for another arrow to sink into her shoulder. She bared her teeth and growled menacing in the direction it had come from. She raised one hand up in front of her face before five little flames rose from each claw tip. She didn't have long to wait for her attacker to show, when the long, snow-white serpents began to appear, Shiori knew all too who was after her.
"Still vengeful, Kikyo?" She hissed, holding her ground for now, she couldn't run fast this far into the pregnancy. She had to hope her fire could keep the former miko at bay until help arrived. But before an answer came, three arrow points stabbed into her back, seemed the bitch was using her worms to keep the neko's attention while the miko snuck behind her.
"You could say that, after all I didn't get to kill you last time…" Came the miko's cold voice before she stepped out into the open. Her bow was already raised and she let the arrow fly, Shiori's roar of pain was soon heard as it struck her in the stomach.
"What makes you think you can?" Shiori asked through clenched teeth as she doubled over a bit.
"For one, he's not here to protect you and he can't tonight anyway.." Came the miko's reply, and for the first time in a long time, her voice wasn't its usual lifeless one.
"It's nearly morning…" Shiori growled back before starting to cough and a bit of blood leaked out from the side of her mouth.
"You'll be dead long before then…"
The miko could be right about that as Shiori soon fell on her hands and knees, she was starting to feel cold, she just had to try and stall the best she could until help arrived. Perhaps the cub could live if she held on long enough, that is if she could, she could feel the strength leaving her body already and she soon fainted.
Kikyo's serpents surged forward but soon hissed, the demon wasn't dead yet. Their master stepped forward and cocked back a final arrow, soon Inuyasha would be her's again.