Fancy Disclaimer: The characters of InuYasha are not my own.

Warning(s): N/A. Safe for most ages!

A/N: Tenkyou is translated to mean insanity. Oh, and the spellings for InuYasha's sword vary; I like mine best.

VI. Insanity

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The gentle cascade of the petals in the breeze, the spiraling of the green stems, and the overall exotic scent of the lilies—the scene was ethereal. Kouga had dropped his precious gifts, his blue eyes hard with obvious rage. His eyes flickered to Souta, but he didn't recognize the boy.

His nose twitched once. Twice. He openly smelled the air. Taking slow steps forward, he took in Souta's scent. There was no mistaking that scent. He found a human from Kagome's pack.

"Somebody going to answer me?" Kouga smirked, choosing not to mention the familiar scent.

"Reanimation and possession. It looked like a spider demon managed to control the lesser demons used for the reanimation and possession. Our friends are...puppets." I didn't hesitate on telling Kouga, and he took it better than I had expected.

"So it's not just the demons then," Kouga frowned, bowing his head to hide his thoughtful eyes.

"What do you mean?" Souta asked as he moved away from the open graves.

"It's nothing I can't handle," Kouga replied in a proud tone.

"Kouga," I said with some annoyance.

He stopped puffing out his chest, his blue eyes boring holes into my retinae. How many years had we known one another? In all those years, I'd never seen the emotion that played within the pools of his eyes. He looked so weary, frightened, and sad—to a terrible extent.

"We can't talk here. I have a camp a few miles east of here. Come on," he muttered, waving at us to follow him.

Souta gave me a look, and I shrugged. We resigned to following Kouga. He didn't utter a word during the journey. The only sound that broke the silence was the rumbling of Souta's stomach. When my stomach began to rumble, Kouga flashed us a scathing look. Kouga hadn't changed much at all.

The camp we came upon was much smaller than I expected. Ginta and Hakkaku must have been out hunting or trying to catch up to their faster companion. Oddly enough, I wanted to see those two guys.

"Do you know anything about what's happening? My sister—Kagome—was," Kouga cut Souta off with a shake of his head.

"I don't know anything about that zombie load. I only know about what's been happening to my pack and the rest of the demons across Japan," Kouga frowned, taking a seat around a few charred logs.

Souta took a seat that was to the right of Kouga, and I took a seat directly across from the blue-eyed demon. Everytime he looked at me, I remembered the afternoon that I lost Sango. The look was the same.

"What's been happening?" Souta reminded me of Kagome, but he had a very mature demeanor.

"Tenkyou." Kouga began to rub two sticks together to start a fire.

"Tenkyou?" Souta repeated, glancing over at me.

"What is this human doing here anyway?" Kouga asked in a grumpy fashion.

"Kagome was a victim of the spider demon. I'm not sure how or why, but it happened. The Bone Eater's Well is no longer functioning, so he's stuck here. Let's make the best of this," I said with a smile.

Kouga raised a brow to question my sanity, and Souta just blinked at me. For a moment, I expected Sango to thump me on the head. When no such hit came, the smile fell from my face.

"Tenkyou as in...?" Souta asked, prying for answers.

"Insanity. My pack calls—called—it that. Demons all over Japan are losing their minds. I had to slaughter half my pack just to get away. My family...my companions...," Kouga trailed off and his eyes hardened with all the things he'd obviously witnessed. "On my way here, I heard that it was widespread. The humans don't know what they're up against. One by one, villages are being attacked. They think it's a peaceful time. Humans," Kouga grunted and spit on the roaring fire.

"What do you mean by that? Insanity, I mean," I inquired, leaning forward to show my interest.

"Fighting. Raping. Self-inflicted wounds—sometimes fatal. It's chaos. I watched a female kill her entire litter off. She bathed in their blood. There's no reason left. Just when everything was going good." He leaned back on the ground and stared up at the evening sky.

"What are we going to do?" Souta looked over at me, but I had no response.

"We? What lines are you feeding this kid?" Kouga snorted. "You couldn't handle half of the things we've been through. Just drop him off somewhere, monk." Kouga's words held merit, but I couldn't leave Souta out of the search for answers when his sister was involved.

"He has a right. You should understand why he wants to do this," I said, gently crossing my arms for more warmth.

"I'm supposed to do this. This is my mission. I waited three years for a chance to get here. I'm going to set things right. For Kagome," Souta said as his gaze grew distant. "I'm not as weak as I was then." His heart was in the right place, even if his decision was outlandish.

"It looks like we'll be heading west then," I said, gaining Kouga's attention.

"Why west? That's cur territory." Kouga looked like a moody child when he glared off to the side, and I couldn't help but smile softly.

"Because Sesshoumaru has Tessaiga and Hiraikotsu," Souta replied, having heard some tales from InuYasha.

"Mm," I made a noise in agreement. "We should follow InuYasha and Sango. The spider demon wouldn't let them far from its control, not when Sesshoumaru has Bakusaiga." With a sudden crackling of the fire, I fell silent.

Everything was falling apart around me, but had there truly been any pieces of my life to crumble? Insanity was picking at the seams of our lives. Once again, a foe had managed to unite the two times. With only three people, did we even stand a chance?

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Author Rant

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I apologize for taking so long to update, but readers will have to get used to the gaps in updating; I'm a busy girl. There is some alone time coming up for Miroku and Kouga. Wink, wink. And no, it's not smut.

I should emphasize something. I do not write porn. If readers are looking for hardcore smut, I apologize. I will never stoop that low. If there is ever smut in this story or any of my other stories, it will be for a very good reason. And it will be a beautiful thing.

Possible Question(s): Eh, you should understand everything. Review or message with any problems.

Reviews are loverly!

Ja ne.