The village they came to first a few days later was a quaint little place. The huts were well built and newer looking while the people dressed plainly and modestly. Kurama's eyes darted around a mile a minute looking at everything and soon enough he looked like a kid in a candy store. "Shippo this is perfect!" He exclaimed excitedly causing the little boy to stir in Kagome's arms.
"What?" he asked weakly.
Inuyasha frowned and watched the eager fox. "We're not stopping here Kurama. We've got time before dark."
"Oh come now Inuyasha," Kurama admonished. "We should stop for lunch. This town has a wonderful market! They deal in some rare items, you should go canvas for any shards being sold." Kurama offered.
"I don't feel any shards around," Kagome replied with a shrug.
Sango sighed. "This is like the pouch you gave Kagome isn't it?" she asked woefully aware.
"Exactly. Where do you think I learned it from? Go and search the market on the west of town just to check and I'll take Shippo out for some fox 101." Kurama offered as he approached Kagome holding out his arms eagerly.
"You are a thief, why should I trust you?" Kagome questioned with a glare at him that made Inuyasha shiver.
"I have no reason to teach him anything he won't need." Kurama replied with a stiff stare. "We're just going to play hide and seek."
"Your idea of hide is making yourself a tree," Shippo groaned, already well acquainted with 'hide and seek' Kurama style.
"Exactly. I'm going to teach you planking today. Because these houses are so newly made they will be easy to imitate."
Shippo sighed and jumped down running off with Kurama on his heels.
Sango looked around somewhat confused. "Where's Miroku?"
Inuyasha scoffed. "Probably away trying to hook up some girls." He waved them off. "I'm going to go take a nap since the fox obviously convinced you fools. Call if you need me." With that Inuyasha vanished.
Kagome gave Sango a heavy sigh and held out her hand to her sister figure. "I guess it's just us girls on the town."
Sango nodded and took Kagome's arm heading for the west of town. "You know Kagome, it's strange that these buildings are so new. Most villages don't just pop up this large."
"Maybe they just repaired from a demon attack?" Kagome suggested.
"Maybe. I hope they managed to kill the demon. If not we might end up saving the day again." Sango remarked. A few of the people were still working on the buildings as they came closer to the market. Hammers and wood cutting echoed through the area, but the vendors still seemed to be alright. People mulled around in the town passing out supplies.
"Ahoy, you young'ens, come here and give an old man a hand." An old gentleman called out waving them over.
Kagome and Sango glanced at each other, but came over. "What can we do for you?" Kagome asked.
"I need a pair of strong hands to help lift this up. He kicked the fourth wall of the little hut he was building that had ropes tied to it. He beat on his back and directed them each to grab a rope. "Alright, now pull!" he called. The group he'd gathered to help all yanked on the ropes, including Sango and Kagome, and the house lifted up. He began to hammer as they held it in place, waiting for him to finish. It didn't take long, and they walked out of the house.
"Thank you girls for your help, anything I can help you with?"
"We were actually wondering why everyone was building up?" Sango asked carefully.
"Aren't you from here?" He asked curiously.
Sango and Kagome both shook their heads. "We're travelers."
"Oh! My apologies. I thought you were helpers from the inn. We've had a recent demon attacking our city and he just won't leave us alone. Most of the merchants which made this city prosper have left heading up the road a ways to the next town over until we are back on our feet."
"What sort of Demon is it?" Kagome asked curiously.
"It's some big fire monster."
"Thanks for your help."
When they went to look for Shippo and Kurama they searched the entire village and couldn't find either one. Instead, they found Miroku at the well flirting shamelessly with several women. Sango winced and approached him rather angrily. "What do you think you're doing?" She asked the priest angrily.
The girls looked up at her somewhat confused, several scattered and left recognizing the look on Sango's face as an angry wife's glare.
"Nothing Sango, just watching these beautiful doves learn to fly," he replied dreamily. His hand slid down to one of the women's rumps and the girl jumped and squeaked. Sango backslapped him off his perch on the well before grabbing his ear and yelling at him angrily and stomping off.
A distant shriek screamed through the town that sent Kagome running. She bolted as fast as she could towards the noise all the while grabbing for her bow and attempting to snag an arrow. When the four of them reached the scene, Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, and Miroku, they saw what looked to be a large bloody mess. Blood was everywhere, all over the huts and in the streets, covering the few people who had been on the street, and it all was coming from one thing, a rather mutilated corps that was lounged out on the ground with its neck twisted twelve ways to Sunday. The beast was large, shaggy, and hurt looking like it was on steroids. In front of it stood a tall form - small in comparison - holding something to its chest.
The blood still spewing from the attacking creature, Kagome screamed in shock when the head flopped over and the paws of the beast dug into the ground. The form in front of the beast growled in anger and carefully crouched, a whip swished from the side of blood and Kagome recognized the creature before the beast. "Kurama," Kagome breathed in shock.
She knocked her arrow back as Inuyasha lunged with his blade into the fight. "Find the jewel! This thing couldn't be alive!" He called to Kagome. Sango raced forward as Kurama's whip landed across the beast's face.
"Where's Shippo?" Miroku asked looking around frantically. "Shippo!" he called searching for the small creature.
"Here!" A little voice yelped from Kurama's arms. Kagome sighed in relief and began to focus on the beast looking for the shard.
The fight moved faster than Kagome could count and the bear reared up on its massive legs towering like a sky scraper and roaring angrily at the pests attempting to kill him. He then did something that sent Kagome running out of the way, a rare occurrence, he huffed out fire at the lot of them. Kagome caught a glimpse of her friends catching a-flame before the fire reached them and screamed out in fear. Sango, Miroku, and Inuyasha tried to cover themselves as the fire landed on them, but Youko made no move to save his life. Instead, he slashed forward.
Kagome felt tears rolling out of her eyes and slamming into her hands as she stared at the lot of them. Pain, anguish, and desperation gripped at her stomach. She nearly fell to her knees if it weren't for all the battles she'd been in. Her knocked arrow flew towards the fiery mess, but it didn't connect. "Inuyasha!" She called as the fire's heat sent her farther away. "No!" She cried out in pain.
"Kagome just look for the shard! We're fine!" Inuyasha yelled angrily.
Kagome snuck back around the now burning building and relief washed over her. The fire had died and indeed, all of her friends were left un-fried "In the jugular!" she cried out, having seen it when the beast roared towards the sky.
Within the next few minutes, the beast fell like a fish to the ground. Dead, Inuyasha cut through the neck and dug around until he found the piece of flesh with the jewel in it. He dragged that over to Kagome, and she dug out the jewel. She looked at her friends and Shippo hopped onto her with a giant hug before beginning to babble about his adventure.
"… and then he came into town and Kurama slashed him down with his rose picking me up from the porch! He didn't even know I was there and he still managed to save me!" Shippo exclaimed as he rattled on. "Then when the bear was about to set us all on fire Kurama told me to close my eyes and the next thing I knew I felt his fox fire! He has fox fire too!" He patted at Kagome's arm. She slid to the ground and held him close, nearly crying.
"It's not nearly as strong as yours Shippo," Kagome felt a soft hand brush against her cheek, rubbing Shippo's head. "I've had to train long and hard to learn it. You have it naturally."
"Fox fire? Is that why you were all on fire?" Kagome asked quietly.
Kurama nodded. "If you're going to be set aflame, fox fire will protect you." He stepped back from her. "I couldn't reach you because you were too far away."
Kagome nodded. She still felt herself shaking.
"This little kit here will be able to do that too. Now if you all wouldn't mind, I'd like to find a bath." He held up his arms as his ears flicked down and he gave them a hopeful look. He was covered from head to foot in blood.
Kagome chuckled and nodded. "Alright. I think I saw one near the market."
"No, there's one near the well." Miroku replied. "Come on buddy, we'll get cleaned up."
The lot chuckled as the somewhat dirty Miroku flung his arm over the tall fox and led him away, Inuyasha following reluctantly in tow. Sango followed with Kagome and Shippo in the rear as Shippo continued to rave about his day.
When they reached the bath-house, all of the people from the town shuffled out of their way, avoiding eye contact. It wasn't any better in the bath and Kagome stuck close with Sango.
"Why do you think they keep staring at us?" she asked cautiously as she poured some water over Sango to wash her off.
Sango sighed, "Hell if I know. This whole town is kind of odd. Maybe they think we have something to do with that creepy demon."
"What type was it? Could you tell?" Kagome asked as she helped Sango wash.
"No, it looked like a bear made out of corpses though. What did you think?"
"Yeah, it was odd. I really don't know why a bear would have fire."
"Never mind that, at least it's dead." Sango smiled and traded places with Kagome.
After everyone was cleaned up, they prepared to leave town. An orderly man with a nervous stare stood in their way. "I am Mayor Darrow, please accept my humble thanks for ridding us of that monstrosity."
"You're welcome. It's sort of what we do," Kagome replied with a grin.
The man nodded nervously and glanced around at the townspeople. "Please, join me tonight and rest before you continue your travels as payment for killing the beast." He rubbed his hands together in front of himself, hunched over with beady eyes glancing about at the townspeople.
Kurama shifted uneasily behind the man.
Miroku sighed and gave a large grin. "Ah good sir! I see you are charitable indeed. Thank you for your kindness!" The monk nodded excitedly and allowed the man to lead them back towards his house. The innkeeper kept glancing at the other humans as he walked back through town.
Inuyasha rolled his eyes and gave a pouting face crossing his arms over his chest and looking away, begrudgingly accepting this.
"This doesn't feel right." Kurama spoke out, not following the group.
Sango and Inuyasha waited to hear him out while Kagome followed after Miroku and the innkeeper.
"What do you mean?" Sango asked as she looked over her shoulder at the man.
"Kagome couldn't sense the shard, the village has been ransacked by the demon before. It attacked Shippo and me. That breed of demon isn't typically around here. This man we are following is still nervous after the demon has been destroyed, and he holds no sway with the people. Quite the opposite is true, he is afraid of the people." Kurama offered quietly to the two of them. "Something's not right."
"Look, we get offered to come stay for the night a lot. If he hadn't offered it up himself we would have probably conned him into it ourselves," Inuyasha remarked.
"The inn of this town is that way." Kurama gave a thumb over his shoulder behind them.
"Times have moved on Kurama, the inns change places like this a lot. You can't expect them all to prosper. Plus the village was just completely burned down, they could have redesigned where the inn was." Inuyasha reasoned again. "Nothing's going to happen. If it does you can say 'I told you so' and we'll be fine."
The innkeeper and his following pack had stopped now and turned to wait for the rest of the group. Kurama stiffened as he caught the eyes of the man and gave off a low growl before following after Sango and Inuyasha who had begun towards Kagome and Miroku. When the group gathered, the innkeeper began towards their destination.
When they reached the inn it didn't seem out of form to Kurama. He entered the house with a weary look around but didn't find anything out of the ordinary. The innkeeper spoke hurriedly about how the demon had begun attacking a few weeks ago and explain the damage the demon had done, section by section instead of the whole village at once. Kurama didn't listen to the story, and as the food came out, he didn't eat the food. He picked at it moving it around, but ultimately didn't eat or drink anything from the house.
Later that night as they settled down in two rooms, one for men and one for women, Kurama noticed everyone fall fast asleep as though they had light switches. Even Inuyasha didn't stay up as late as he should have.
Kurama nodded to himself and got up slipping silently into the girl's room watching over Kagome. She had the jewels around her neck tucked into her bra tonight. Kurama held himself up in the top corner of the room on the wall adjacent to the door. He watched the door and waited. Sleep tried to claim him as he watched over the girl and the kit, but Kurama fought it off. He waited ever so silently in the corner. Well over half way through the night the door slid open to check on the guests, but no on entered the room. Kurama frowned and watched a figure attempt to slide in, then blink and walk away.
Kurama dropped from the ceiling and looked around the room rather confused. What would cause that? He thought over the night and eventually looked outside of the room on the door. Sure enough, the spell was from Miroku, the crafty monk had put a 'protection against evil' spell on the door, and had done a specific spell against theft on the door to Kagome's room. With his mind eased Kurama carefully headed back to his room checking the spell on their door as well. That one was a simple protection spell and wouldn't work if someone had an exact intent.
The next morning came quickly once Kurama had eased his own ill mind to rest, but the late night did take a toll on the fox. He merely smiled and followed after the group, his ears twitching here or there as he listened to what they said as breakfast was served. When Kurama first tasted the food on the table he ate with a vengeance nearly purring in delight at the taste. The rest of the table only nibbled on their breakfast, aside from the innkeeper who ate halfheartedly.
"Man Kurama, why do you like it? It's kind of bland." Shippo whispered to his newest mentor.
"You just don't taste the quality yet." Kurama offered.
Shippo gave him a strange look but set his bowl aside.
"So when you find him, what are you planning on doing?"
"After we defeat the beast we will peacefully extinguish the jewel with a wish," The monk offered as Kagome sat politely silent.
"What will you wish for?" The man asked.
"I still need to think about that. I might just keep the jewel and protect it." Kagome replied.
Kurama just shook his head. "The lore behind the jewel needs to be prophetic."
"What?" Kagome asked curiously.
Kurama shook his head. "I'll tell you later." He waved off.
After Kurama finished his rather large breakfast, the group headed out with the fox twitching. He walked near the middle of the group and his beautiful tail twitched about as though he were annoyed. His fingers were tensed in a ball, and his ears lay back against his head.
"Kurama what's up?"
"It's nothing. I was just thinking about something."
""What is it?" Kagome inquired walking by his side.
"It's nothing of importance. Let's be on our way well and then perhaps during our break or nightfall I shall say."
"Kurama, I've wanted to ask you, what are your partners like?" Miroku questioned.
"My partners?"
"Yeah. You mention having partners occasionally, but who are they?"
"Oh, well I have Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Hiei as my partners now. They were the other spirit detectives. Currently we're inactive and technically fired, but Koenma, or god for your purposes, calls us up every once in a while to go secure something or take care of something else."
"That sounds fun." Kagome remarked.
"Sometimes, it depends on what he's having us do. Most of the time it's very dangerous and we're under qualified for the job."
"Even you?" Sango questioned.
"Even me. In the future I'm just a human with a demon soul and some of my demon energy. I'm only at about forty five percent of what I am here."
"That's low," Inuyasha commented.
Kurama nodded, his ears twitching a bit and flickering around. "Well, Hiei is technically my partner. He is a fire demon who went in with me to steal from Koenma. We were captured by Yusuke, Koenma's spirit detective, and signed up for parole duty with Yusuke as our parole officer in exchange for good behavior, and services." Kurama slowed his pace a little and the others followed as the fox walked along with them. They were just out of town nearly an hour as Kurama explained the group to them, when he shook his head a few times and then stopped, grabbing a tree.
"It's that breakfast catching up on you," Inuyasha scolded. "You shouldn't eat that much." He offered.
"Breakfast?" Kurama looked up at Inuyasha curiously. "I didn't have breakfast today."
"Kurama?" Kagome approached him cautiously.
Kurama growled angrily at the girl and backed up closer to the tree. 'What the hell do you want?" he asked irritated with the woman for really no reason they could see.
"Kurama, why are you so pale?" Shippo asked as he jumped up on Kurama's shoulder and felt his head.
Kurama shook his head trying to clear it and merely found himself on his ass. Kagome rushed closer and grabbed his arm to support him as she reached up and put her hand over his forehead to check for a temperature. "Kurama you're burning up," she scolded angrily. Dropping her bag she dug around and pulled out a water bottle for him as Sango and Inuyasha helped leaning him naturally against the tree.
"'m not dead, just tired," Kurama complained as they moved him around like a rag doll. Kurama grabbed at the bottle as Kagome pushed it up against his lips. He pushed it away and his tail tucked between his legs as he rolled himself over, slipping between Sango and the tree. He shoved his shoulder against the woman sending her back on her ass as he pushed himself off into the woods a bit. He stumbled as he got off the gravel path and curled himself up against a bush growling at the lot of them.
"It's got to be the breakfast," Inuyasha complained.
Miroku offered his hand to the female warrior pulling her up as the three of them came towards Kurama. Kagome stayed back with Shippo, holding him.
Kilala jumped forward and pawed at the fox.
Recognition twitched Kurama's ears forward for a second before he let out a quiet yelping cry. Kilala stopped in her approached and tipped her little furry head sitting down in her spot.
Kurama brandished his fangs looking ferial as his pretty silver tail puffed and craned off his back. His ears pinned themselves back again and his long silver hair almost became his hackles, or fell into the dirt. His eyes gave off an eerie golden glow as his claws dug into the dirt and his feet dug against the grass.
"Get up you fool," Inuyasha scolded rather angry at the fox's antics.
"What was that for breakfast Kagome?" Sango asked cautiously as she grabbed Inuyasha's arm. Miroku stopped on her other side, all three behind the little twin tail.
"Um, I'm not sure." She admitted. "It kind of tasted like some tofu mixture."
"That could be. Spirit foxes love it, but it makes them sick, like cat nip." Sango offered as she knelt down and gently touched Kilala's head. "It's making him foggy."
"Why would he eat it if it made him sick?" Inuyasha asked irritated with the fox.
"It's really hard for them to resist eating it once they have a bite." Sango frowned as she watched the fox.
His eyes flickered around the group as though he were watching something. His head waved as his arms shook, obviously weak.
"Inuyasha, go up to him slowly." Sango suggested.
Inuyasha took a few steps forward and Kurama began to watch him, growling. He backed up a little farther, just pushing against the ground and securing his back against the bush he was nearly trampling.
"What should I do?" Inuyasha asked as he continued forward. Kurama wasn't attacking him.
"Just get him up. We need to help it out of his system."
"Eww! We're going to make him throw up?" Shippo exclaimed.
"We just have to get it rinsed out." Sango offered. "I hope we don't have to make him lose his stomach."
"It might be best if we did," Kagome offered. "The toxin is in his stomach so if he regurgitates then he could sooth it and he wouldn't be exposed any longer."
"Alright, make him puke." Inuyasha huffed. As he was almost within arm's reach of the fox, Kurama changed into a small 'white' furred fox with a few tails. He had a smokey undercoat making him almost glitter a gentle gray. He bolted off.
Inuyasha gave chase and caught the fox around the stomach nearly tackling the poor creature which made him yelp and squirm trying to bite Inuyasha's arm.
Inuyasha was too quick for the fox and quickly secured him going back over to Sango and Kagome. Miroku took Shippo as the fox left his surrogate mother knowing what was coming as Kagome took the panting white fox.
After about three minutes of struggling with the beast, and ten minutes of stomach upheaval, the fox was back in his human-like fox form panting heavily and curled up over Inuyasha's arm. The dog had caught him as he almost fell into his bile. With a quick heave up, Kurama shivered as he leaned against Inuyasha for support.
"Are you crying?" Miroku asked somewhat shocked.
The fox just turned his head as his knees gave out and buried it into Inuyasha's shoulder to hide his tears.
"God damn it fox! Get your shit together!" Inuyasha complained loudly instead of being a gentle soul about the man.
"Inuyasha," Kagome scolded as she went to Kurama and freed him from Inuyasha's grasp taking on his weight trying to lead the male away from their spot.
Miroku jumped to help wrapping Kurama's other arm over his own shoulder. The group cautiously made their way into the woods off the path following Inuyasha until they found a spot to camp which wasn't too far away. Kagome allowed the now exhausted, tear soaked fox to lay on the edge of camp as the others scurried about to set it up. Inuyasha scowled off to go get firewood while Sango and Miroku began to make a pit.
Shippo and Kilala stayed with Kagome. Kilala approached the fox and changed forms. He looked at her and winced. He struggled to get up and grab Kagome, who sat by his side, hiding himself from the cat. Kilala froze at that, obviously hurt, but cautiously approached crawling up around the fox and wrapping herself around him to support him.
Gradually Kurama eased himself against the cat just from exhaustion, and Kagome excused herself to start cooking dinner. Kilala lay her head on the fox's lap as the fox curled up with her as best he could, whispering quietly to the beast. His grip would flex in her fur as the day moved past, the group locked from his weakness just an hour out of town.