Ah, a new chapter. It's nice to be early when you're doing the chapters... Nothing like being early, listening to your iPod (J-Pop), and eating instant ramen to write an InuYasha fan fiction well. Or... something like that.

Save Me From Myself

Chapter Five: Eyes of White

So, we were to set off. Back then, I didn't realize how serious this whole thing was. I was just happy to get rid of it. So happy. I didn't really start to feel horribly sad until later... Though, I would have to change myself... This horrible curse didn't just change my body, it changed my soul.

- - -

About three days later the group decided that Kagome was well enough to travel, but they still made sure to go at a slower pace so they wouldn't aggravate her wound. Kagome slept a lot, but InuYasha always made sure to hold onto her tightly.

Later in the day, Kagome woke up and looked off into the distance. "InuYasha," Kagome said, poking the back of the hanyou's head, "I think I sense a strong spiritual aura." Kagome's voice was just loud enough for the other's to hear.

"I sense it, too," Miroku said, looking in the same direction as Kagome.

"Well, that's the way that we're gonna go, then," InuYasha said, turning the group to follow the way Miroku and Kagome thought the person was.

After a fairly short time traveling, the group reached a large, bustling village. Not many people noticed when InuYasha and the other demons walked through the village, which was a relief.

InuYasha wouldn't let Kagome down, so she wouldn't re-injure herself. Though, she had to scratch her back really badly.

Soon enough, they found themselves in front of a huge shrine. The group walked inside and found themselves looking at a really big room inside the really big shrine. In the back of the room was another door, and they all walked towards it. Once outside that door, almost everyone gasped.

In the shrine courtyard was a beautiful pond in the middle of it; next to the pond was a single sakura tree, the blossoms falling off it elegantly. Kagome turned her head to the right and saw a beautiful priestess sitting on the floor, meditating.

"Um... Excuse me..." Kagome said shyly. The woman looked up towards them and smiled. Her black hair was long, and flowed freely. Her eyes were a bluish color and seemed bright and happy.

"Yes?" the miko asked, her voice soft and delicate.

Miroku asked the question first. "Will you bear my children?"

"PERVERT!" Sango shouted out, hitting him in the back of the head with her Hiraikotsu.

Kagome groaned and walked up to the miko sitting on the floor, looking quite shocked. "I'm sorry about him. Anyway, what I wanted to ask, is if you could try to take care of something?"

The priestess nodded and said, "What do you need taken care of? It must be something very powerful if you were to ask me to help you with something... If I'm not mistaken, you're a miko as well?"

Kagome nodded and said, "I'm not trained, though. Anyway, I need you to take out a jewel that a demon put in my back. My friends tried to take it out, but they had no luck... Even the monk, who you met," Kagome glared at Miroku, "couldn't even get close to it. So, we figured that someone with great spiritual powers could help."

The miko smiled and stood up. "Why don't you just sit there, so I can get the jewel out?" Kagome sat. "Now, where is it?"

"My back."

The woman walked over to Kagome's back and sat down behind the unfortunate girl. The miko lifted up Kagome's shirt which caused Miroku to grin widely and InuYasha to blush a little bit.

"This jewel is powerful," the miko said, her hand heading towards the jewel. Kagome's wound wasn't fully healed, but the Bachiatari Jewel was still visible.

Her hand seemed to be passing through an invisible barrier; she struggled to move her hand towards the jewel.

"Just a little more..." said the miko, her fingers just millimeters away from the jewel.

"Why is she having so much trouble?" Shippo asked InuYasha.

He shrugged and replied, "Maybe it's because humans aren't supposed to touch it? It sort of hurt when I touched it..."

Just when InuYasha finished speaking, the woman barely touched the jewel. A bright light shone from the place of contact, and the miko screamed. Immense pain flew through her body, reaching every part of her body. She screamed so loudly that her voice went hoarse.

After the light went away, the miko was thrown back as far as she could be before hitting a wall, and Kagome was thrown forward a little bit. The miko was leaning against the wall that she hit, her head not visible. Tears fell onto the floor of the shrine, and the miko started to crawl over to the pond.

"W-what just happened?" Shippo asked, looking around. The force of the light had pushed him to the ground as well.

"Is she all right?" Sango asked, taking a few steps towards the miko crawling towards the pond.

The miko reached the pond and looked at her reflection in the surface of the water. Somehow she managed to let out another scream on seeing her face.

Miroku took a few steps toward the miko as well. "What--?"

The miko turned around, her eyes now a milky white and her face horribly disfigured. Her shaky hands touched different places on her face as tears rolled over huge lumps that appeared near her eyes. Her jaw was a little crooked and her lower lip looked like it couldn't go up straight. One eye looked like it had been punched and had a huge lump over it, too. Not to mention all the scars on her face.

The woman turned around so the others couldn't see her face anymore. "I... I can't... I can't see!" the miko shouted, even more tears falling to the ground.

The miko knelt on the ground and muttered to the group, "Please... Just leave..."

So they did.

Kagome was in a state of shock, and InuYasha had to lead her out of the shrine so she wouldn't walk into anything and hurt herself.

Once they were a ways from the location of the strange incident, Kagome thought out loud, "What just happened?"

"I don't know..."

Kagome sighed and said to the group, "Not that you'd want to, but I don't want anyone to try and take this jewel out anymore... Okay? We'll figure out a different way."

"I can't help but wonder, though," Miroku started, putting a finger on his chin, "what could that jewel possibly do?"

"I don't know if I want to know," Kagome said, glaring straight ahead. Well, she did sort of want to know, but not really. Obviously she would be a bit curious.

Sango sighed and said, "Well, let's hope that we don't find out the hard way."

"Is anything ever that easy?" asked the kitsune.

- - -

Deciding that it wasn't really safe to stay in that village, the group left to go stay somewhere else, like the middle of the woods. Even though the girls and Miroku wanted to stay in a bed, they all agreed that it was too dangerous for them to stay, with the whole thing with the priestess and all.

The group had no idea what to expect. They had no leads on Naraku, and they didn't know anything about the Bachiatari Jewel or the Shikon Jewel, so they decided to go towards Kaede's village to rest up a bit.

Their rest would be short-lived, though.

I won't be here tomorrow, so I may not be able to work on my chapters... Sorry that this is a short chapter.

Edit: Okay, I will be here tomorrow. We had a really bad storm so we can't leave. My mom figures that it's going towards our destination.