Chapter 7: Battles and Jewel Shards

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Within two hours, they had found a village plagued by a panther demon with unnatural strength and speed. They promised the villagers aid in return for food and lodging for the night - a request which was readily granted. Silver waited in the forest as Kagome thought it best the villagers not become aware of him and shoot him, thinking him another demon that threatened them.

As they munched on rice and dough balls for lunch, Inuyasha and the group listened to complaints about how the demon was destroying valuable crops and farmland, and killing those who strayed too far from the village. Although the wards laid down by their now deceased priestess were strong enough to keep it from the main part of the village, they couldn't stay within them and still gather and plant enough crop to trade and to feed their families.

After lunch, Kagome, Sango, and Shippo toured the village while Miroku and Inuyasha discussed a brief outline for tonight. They anticipated that the demon would attack at nightfall, when it was easier to pass undetected through the fields, looking for prey. They planned to use themselves as bait, luring the demon to them, and then destroying it before it threatened any more lives. With luck, it would have a shard of the Shikon No Tama imbedded in it that they could then add to their collection.

The girls returned within the hour, laughing and smiling at the adventures they had had. Now familiar with the kind people who had taken them in, they were even more determined to see the demon killed so that the villagers who sheltered and fed them could return to their lives. On the way to the hut that they would be using for the night, Inuyasha and Miroku outlined their strategy for finding and destroying the demon menace. When they reached the shelter, a modest building with a thatched, stone roof, thin doors and wooden floors, Kagome went over to a corner, pulled out her sleeping bag and snuggled into it, not even bothering to shrug out of her clothes - a dark blue skirt which showed off her shapely legs and a white collared shirt, open enough to expose just a hint of her cleavage. She informed everyone that she was taking a nap so that she would be refreshed for tonight's battle. Sango went outside to clean her weapons, with Miroku following close behind. Inuyasha, not wishing to go back out into the village and deal with the stares and curious and fearful gestures he always encountered, sat on the other side of the room, folded his arms over his chest, and settled down to wait.

Nightfall came far too late for Inuyasha's liking, He had begun to pace around the room, itching to move, to fight, to do something other than sit in the small, crowded hut and bide his time. His body moved with fluid grace as he walked back and forth across the floor.

"Inuyasha, you're going to wear holes in the floor if you're not careful," Kagome remarked eventually, though to be truthful, she was rather enjoying watching him even as she pretended to be engrossed in filling her quiver with arrows. As she sanded her bow, she peered up at him through her lashes, her gaze following him around the room. She admired the way his haori draped about his body, the way his muscles bunched underneath the folds, and the way his body tensed up from his head to his toes. Just looking at him sent a shiver running through her body, and she was glad it was a cooler night where her spasms could be mistakenly attributed to the weather rather than her emotions.

He glared at her for a moment, and then resumed pacing. "I'm tired of waiting" he told her, though not as sharply as she'd been expecting. It seemed he was speaking to her again, something which she appreciated, having no desire to be in a constant fight with him. Unless it was a fight for dominance - that she might enjoy having.

Kagome shook her head to dispel such thoughts, grateful when Miroku's head popped through the door. "It's time," he told them before disappearing back outside.

Kagome and Inuyasha looked at each other, and he extended a hand to help her up from the floor. She took it, noting how easily he hauled her to his feet. She held onto it a moment longer than was necessary, appreciating the feel of his hand in hers, the brief touch of his skin to hers. He squeezed it, a small gesture of reassurance and then let it drop. They moved outside without speaking.

Together, the four of them headed straight for the field. They fell into step, each knowing exactly where to go, where all the others were. It was an instinct born out of years of hunting together, of fighting together. They knew each other's patterns of movement as well as any seasoned army troop. In this moment, regardless of whatever personal issues they were dealing with, they were one. One group. One unit. One force. Within minutes, they were out of the wards and headed to the clearing that separated the town from the woods. They were intentionally avoiding the rice fields and other agricultural lands, not wishing to cause more damage to those essential growing grounds.

Kagome and Sango fell into an easy banter, acting as if they were just two foolish girls out for a nighttime stroll, talking about boys and clothes and other feminine topics. The boys trailed close behind, silent, watchful and alert. There wasn't a lot of cover out in the field, but they made do with sparse bushes that dotted the landscape here and there.

At some point, about ten feet from the forest edge, the girls stopped. They had discussed it earlier, and decided that, although they needed to be close enough to draw the demon out, entering into its home territory was a sure way to get someone injured. They hoped that their close proximity, especially with the darkness, would be enough to lure it from its jungle territory.

After ten minutes had passed, they were all beginning to get a bit antsy. Kagome and Sango, after a brief heated glance, edged just slightly closer to the forest grove, shortening their distance from ten to eight feet. They waited another ten minutes, at which point Kagome and Sango reverted to discussing the most mundane topics possible - the weather, new Japanese clothing trends. Unfortunately, with Miroku and Inuyasha huddled close, listening to every word they were saying, it wasn't the time to have a real girl conversation.

A twig snapping nearby halted their meaningless conversation about whether polka dots would make a comeback in a world filled with more sophisticated styles and tastes. The girls, true to their part, shifted and squirmed nervously.

"You don't think it was wrong to sneak out, do you Sango?" Kagome asked in a nervous, girly stammer. "I mean, no one knows about it. What they don't know, won't hurt us, right?"

"There's no way anything out here is dangerous," Sango told her calmly, playing the confident, older girl. "Stop worrying. It was just a twig."

Something exploded from the edge of the forest. Before the girls could even turn, it was upon them. It reached for Kagome, but was repelled back by a massive force that attacked it from it's left flank. Inuyasha's blades of blood slammed into it, drawing blood in massive rivulets that rolled down its skin. It snarled, turning to face him, and leaving the girls for a moment. Weighing in at close to three hundred pounds and stretching to a good ten or eleven feet, this panther was massive, easily 1 1/2 times the size of a normal panther. It's glowing violet hide and dagger-like fangs clearly marked it as a demon.

"Kagome," Inuyasha asked, his voice focused, "Can you see a jewel shard?"

She looked closely, trying not to get distracted by the memory of those razor sharp fangs so near to her body. Her eyes roamed the panther hide, looking for the tell-tale glint of a shard. Sure enough, her Miko vision quickly detected an anomaly in its demon aura.

"There," she pointed. "In its neck, right at the base of it". It seemed to hear her, and turned to face her more quickly than she had expected, rushing at her with inhuman speed, faster even than a usual demon. Its nails raked down her shoulder and back, drawing blood. Kagome screamed as it tore into her skin, but the impact was lessened as Inuyasha's weight hit it, drawing it away from her, and preventing it from savagely mauling her, as was its intent. Blood flowed down her shoulder from the long gashes, dripping onto the ground.

"Kagome," Sango yelled, rushing over to her.

"Don't worry about it Sango," Kagome said firmly, ignoring the way spots danced in her vision and her knees trembled as her body began to feel the affects of the blood loss. Her gaze and focus remained solely on Inuyasha watching as he and the panther engaged in a deadly dance that one of them wouldn't walk away from. The panther demon roared and lunged, fangs and claws extended. Inuyasha dodged out of the way just barely, trying to get enough space to draw the Tetusaiga. Unfortunately, keeping the demon close enough to prevent it from going after anyone else meant that he didn't have the maneuvering room necessary to complete that action.

That is, until Miroku's staff got close enough to smash down upon the demon's head, delivering an especially potent shock of magic from the seals upon it. It hissed, changing direction in mid-air to attack the monk standing so close within its grasp. WHAM. Sango's boomerang slammed into it with the force of a small car, knocking it off its feet, and away from its intended prey. The distraction was all that Inuyasha needed. With a yell, he unsheathed the Tetusaiga. It emerged from its sheath with a stunning brilliance, momentarily blinding the beast as it transformed into its magnificent form. Inuyasha looked at the snarling panther demon, driven back by Sango and Miroku's joint attacks.

"Say goodbye," he told it, a triumphant smirk on his lips. He released the sword's power, watching as it slammed away from him, a deadly magical wave that obliterated the demon standing before him. Chunks of it fell to the ground, one of which pulsed with the faint signs of life.

"Kagome, " he called, turning around to look at her. She was less than a few feet away from him, her skin paler than usual. Her steps were shaky, but still she came forward. Coming to stand at his side, she peered at the demon, shaking her head to try and clear it so that she could focus. The world was wavering in her vision, and it made it difficult to concentrate. But the jewel shard was like a beacon, shining brightly and clear even when the rest of the world had begun to dissolve into meaningless shapes and forms.

"There, she pointed," directing Inuyasha's attention and hand to the piece of the demon that shook and thrummed with unnatural life. His claws tore into the piece, pulling free a small crystalline shard from the middle of it. The moment he did so, the piece stopped twitching and the rest of the body lay still, finally having passed on from this existence and into the next.

Inuyasha pressed the jewel shard into Kagome's hand, watching as her magic turned it from black into a shimmering purple. With trembling hands,she unscrewed the vial she wore around her neck, and placed the jewel shard into it, watching as it joined the others. When it was clear that she couldn't get the top re-screwed, Inuyasha took it from her, his fingers deftly closing the lid and trapping the jewel shards within their glass container.

The moment he looked up, he smelled the blood, strong and heavy in the air. He pulled Kagome around, staring in horror at the long claw marks that cascaded down her shoulder. They had stopped bleeding profusely, but blood still dripped sluggishly from the wounds, and Kagome hissed in pain as the movement caused sharp pain to burst in her side.

"Dammit, Kagome. We have to get you to a healer". He pulled his haori off his shoulders, pressing it to her back, flinching when he saw the the way her muscles spasmed in pain at his touch and when he heard the whimper of pain that escaped her lips.

"Inuyasha," she said, her world spinning faster and faster, too quickly for her to make sense of. He looked at her, sensitive to her every need right now.

"Catch me," was all she managed to get out before she lost her balance and tumbled to the ground. She didn't even feel the strong arms that grabbed hold of her, cradling her in their embrace.

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Author's Note:

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