Chapter 30

The next morning, Kagome picked up Lizzie at 8 and drove her back to the compound. Lizzie was surprised to see them enter a mountain cave,

"You LIVE here?"

"Not all the time, no. Well, a couple of my children do. But, my husband and I live on a huge ranch just west of the Canadian Rockies."

"Wow.", was all Lizzie could comment.

Pulling into the parking area, the two women got out and went inside. Lizzie was shocked to see so many people inside the house,

"All they all your children, Kagome?"

"Hmm, most are. 122 of them. But, then there is my husband, his brother, his brother's wife and their 7 children, my oldest son's wife, Yuki and my granddaughter Emily. Oh, and then there is Kouga, a friend of ours."

"You had 122 children? Your body looks fabulous. I'm jealous. What's your secret?"

"Magic spell. Placed on me many, many eons ago. Keeps me young.", Kagome said, smiling.

Kagome got the attention of all present and introduced Lizzie,

"Since there is so many of you and only one of her, I'll introduce her and you can all introduce yourselves as you get the chance.", she said.

Her introduction of Lizzie caused a group of male pups to chorus a line from "Animaniacs",

"He - ll - o Nurse!"

Along with a few whistles, causing Kagome to say,

"Now Now boys, calm down."

Lizzie's reaction was to blush deeply. Before the topic turned to Jones/Naraku, Lizzie had a chance to talk to a few of the people there. She was especially fascinated by the fact that Sesshoumaru and Kouga were full demons. Talking to Kouga, she said,

"Are you mated, too, Kouga?"

"Yea, my mate Ayame and I have been together for nearly 400 years.", he boasted.

"Wow. And do you have children too?", she asked.

"Of course. At last count we had 525 pups and, let's see, oh, 978 grandpups. Then there's the grandpups' pups. And those pups' pups."

"WHOA. How do you have so many?"

"I'm a wolf, my dear, and so is my mate. When you have an average litter of 4 or 5 pups a year, it's easy."

"A year?", Lizzie gasped.

"Of course. That's my mate's role. To populate."

"So where are they all?"

"Well, when you have that many, you do lose some, I'm afraid. But most live in Japan. Not all have been able to achieve human form. Some of my pups are strictly wolves. They're still demons but look like wolves."

Inuyasha called everyone together and the topic turned to Jones/Naraku and where to find him. Lizzie immediately spoke up,

"That's easy. He's in Jamesville. He runs an insurance office there. His name is Clayton Walters."

Sesshoumaru's face paled at the name, "Did you say Clayton Walters?"

"Yes."

"Why, do you know this guy?", Inuyasha queried..

"He sold insurance to some of my workers. Became friends with some of them."

"These guys he became friends with, they wouldn't happen to be the guys who left your office under the spell?", asked Inuyasha.

"And messed with your car?", asked Yasha.

"Yes they would."

"With a friend like Naraku...", started Shaoran.

"But, this Walters looked nothing like Naraku.", Sesshoumaru continued.

"Magic spell?", offered Bunza.

"Nah. We could all see through it.", said Izayoi.

"Unless it came from a high ranking witch.", said Inuyasha.

"Adimara?", suggested Ian.

"I said high ranking. Your mother defeated her way back when - when she was still a novice.", Inuyasha said.

"Plastic surgery?", suggested Phillip.

"Not for the 1800's and such.", said William

"Bunza may have a point.", Kagome admitted, "Magic."

"It can't be a spell.", Inuyasha insisted, "Sesshoumaru could see through a simple spell like that."

"Adimara calls herself a White Witch. But the magic I'm talking about is dark magic."

"Dark magic?"

"Yes. When you bring a person back from the dead you need a body to house the soul. Preferably, their original body, even if you have to recreate it from ashes."

"Ok. Go on.", said Inuyasha.

"If you can't get the original body then you can house the soul in a body of another until you can retrieve the original body."

"We destroyed Naraku's body.", said Sesshoumaru.

"Yes, we did. So how do you get back a body that was destroyed?", said Inuyasha.

"By killing and absorbing the blood of innocents.", Kagome said, sadly.

"How many innocents?", asked Yasha.

"I don't remember the exact number, but it represents the degree of severity of destruction of the body."

"So, what you are saying is, that Adimara revived Naraku without a body, using at least one other hapless person's body, and they are killing people in their schemes to be able to retrieve Naraku's previous body?", queried Inuyasha.

"That's what I'm saying. I've never heard it done before, but, yea, that's the theory.", Kagome said, "There's just one thing, though."

"What's that?", asked Inuyasha.

"They only have so long to finish the job."

"Why's that?"

"Because after a few centuries, the soul begins to eat away at its wrong body. Kinda like acid on the skin."

"That could explain why Naraku hasn't shown himself to us,", Inuyasha theorized, "Instead we've seen Kagura, Kanna, Tsubaki, the Band of Seven and Adimara. But, not Naraku himself."

"I thought you said he doesn't sully his own hands dad?", asked Kellen.

"He's cocky, though. He likes to show up to see his handiwork.", said Kouga.

"You know, I kinda think we got mixed up into this earlier than Naraku expected.", commented Yasha.