Kurama ran his hand through his long hair. He let his eyes shut for a moment as he walked behind the group at a lazy stroll. Sango was the closest in front of him, and she kept glancing backwards as they moved.
"Is there something you would like to ask me Sango?" Kurama questioned as she looked back again. He plastered on a pleasant smile.
"It's nothing, just a silly question."
"Oh? What is that?"
"Did you ever find someone to love?" Sango asked quietly as she dropped back next to him.
Kurama blinked and frowned as he considered that question. "I never kept a romance alive if that is what you mean. I have loved before. I love my mother. I loved Midoriko. I have a special place for my current allies too, but it's a different kind of love."
"Why didn't you seek romance?" She questioned gently.
Kurama dropped his head and shrugged. "It was never something I made time for. I had plenty of flings, although I always made sure to keep from impregnating anyone. I had a deep relationship with Sesshomaru too, but I wouldn't consider it love as it was never anything completely serious on my side of things. Why do you ask?"
"I was thinking about how the demon societies I have known have a special place for love, and the ones who achieve love settle down, and typically don't bother humans any more. That led me to thinking about you and Sesshomaru. I don't think Sesshomaru has someone to love aside from maybe Rin, and he is reckless with humanity." She couldn't look at him. "You," her voice spiked, "well, I'm still making up my mind," a nervous laugh rolled over her, "but you are gentle with humanity in the future and I wanted to know if it was because you did have someone you love," she rushed, blushing as she spoke.
Silence hung between them like humid air. "And what about you Sango, do you love the monk?" Kurama questioned quietly. His voice was low like a cymbal's single droning note.
Sango blushed like a tomato and nodded. "You're an odd one out in this group. Kagome has Inuyasha, I have Miroku. Shippo and Kilala entertain each other, even if it's not in that sense."
"Yusuke has Keiko, Kuwabara has Yukina," he mused aloud, "Hiei has Mukuro," he added with a chuckle, "and again, I am the odd one out," he replied quietly. "I'm used to my position Sango. There is no need to worry about upsetting me with displaying your affections."
"Wait, you're the same way in your own time?" Kagome asked, shocked.
Kurama glanced ahead of the two of them to see Shippo was riding with Miroku and Kagome had dropped back to see what was going on. The boys glanced over their shoulders and paused as they realized how far behind Sango and Kurama were.
Kurama yawned and stretched aimlessly. They began to walk again approaching the next bend in the road.
Inuyasha stopped again and looked back at Kagome. Kurama was gone. The group looked around, confused. Inuyasha scoffed. "So much for getting an answer. Come on, let's get going. He can keep up."
The group rounded a bend into a town, carefully making their way across the river that defended it. The bridge, an expansive thing, had traders crowding it with boats pushed against the shore.
The group threaded through the town, carefully avoiding the majority of the massive population, and sticking near the outskirts.
"This would be a good place to stop for the night. We could replenish our food, and relax," Miroku offered. "They even have a public bath," He limply gestured towards a wooden sign. Villagers were edging around them still.
"No, we need to get through this. Something isn't right here," Kagome offered as she looked around. "I was just learning about the history of this area and I don't remember an affluent town here," Kagome warned quietly.
"I feel it too," Shippo shivered on her shoulder hugging her neck. "It's like we're being watched."
The group glanced around at the people, cautious as they continued through the village. The villagers ignored them, avoiding eye contact at all costs.
"This is the third village we've run into in this area that has been weird," Inuyasha huffed.
"We should see what the problem is. Maybe we can help." Miroku suggested as he looked around. A young woman was standing off to the side near a vendor. He caught her eyes. She smiled at him and bowed before scurrying off. "I'll go ask- Ah!" the boomerang smacked into his head.
"You're not going anywhere." Sango scolded. Shippo jumped over to Kagome's shoulder hiding in her backpack.
"We stick together and get through this. Whenever we separate, something bad happens." Inuyasha reminds them.
"What about Kurama?" Sango whispered, looking around for the fox.
"He'll be fine. He can meet us on the other side." Inuyasha pushed the group ahead.
"It's strange though, he just vanished out of thin air. What if something happened to him already?"
"No, he just didn't want to answer your question Kagome." Inuyasha scoffed folding his hands behind his head and looking towards the sky.
"The villagers are scared of something though. I'm going to go ask that vender over there," Miroku ducked the grab and walked up to the old man bowing in front of his wears. He greeted him with a prayer as the others looked on. As their conversation continued, the group waited impatiently.
A woman approached Inuyasha wearing a low bound outfit, she smiled seductively and offered him a drink. "Welcome outsider," she held up the drink to his lips as he glared at her.
"What the hell is this?" Inuyasha demanded stepping back and pushing the cup away. "What are you doing?"
"You're new to town, aren't you? It's customary to be greeted."
Two fit men approached the girls. Kilala began to growl at the approaching people. "Welcome stranger," the two men spoke in unison offering the girls an arm.
Kagome blushed and stepped back, her back coming flush with Inuyasha's.
The man smiled warmly. Suddenly, his head spun backwards and he crumpled in pieces to the ground.
The woman jumped for Inuyasha, and Miroku yelled in shock. The man in front of Sango lunged forward as well. The woman died within seconds of leaping forward and the glass spilled across the ground as Inuyasha drew his blade. Sango's boomerang fell atop the man's head. All of the merchants ran towards them as Sango threw her boomerang towards Miroku. He was on his back with the old man trying to suffocate him.
The boomerang swung through a hoard of people, who all burst into black blood and random bug parts as they fell to the ground. More still towards Kagome's side were sliced through like butter, cleaved in half from something invisible to them.
"That's Kurama's attack!" Inuyasha offered as he fought off his own hoard. Free, and with a clear way back, Miroku made it to the group.
"We have to get out of here." Miroku panted for breath. "Run for the far side of town!" He told the group.
"Keep together!" Sango urged pushing Kagome forward and smashing through people with her weapon. They bolted as a unit, Kagome staying beside Miroku.
When they made it out of the village on the far side, They stopped and looked backwards to see the villagers had stopped on the edge of the town, before crawling back towards their hiding holes, waiting for the next victims to pass through.
Dust covered their view and they looked around for the reason, but found none. The group continued forward. "Kurama?" Kagome called looking around. They hurried forward again until the air around them sighed in relief and birds began to chirp in the trees. "Kurama!" Kagome looked around again, waiting for a reply.
"I'm right here," Kurama whispered from behind her, between her and Miroku.
The group screamed and jumped in shock, landing away from him. He laughed and smiled offering a hand to Kagome as she glared daggers at him.
Shippo crawled out of the bag and jumped at him. "That was so scary! They were ants!" He squealed in fear snuggling into Kurama's chest.
"You could see passed their illusions?" Kurama questioned.
"Only when they were close to your energy," Shippo frowned.
"Yes, well," he shrugged. "Ant demons are very good at hiding their territory, however, they build anthill barriers which hide demon energy from view."
"How could we see them?" Sango questioned bluntly.
"They puppet the skin of humans to attract prey." Kurama offered calmly. "I'm not sure why it didn't hide Kilala and Shippo."
"Kilala and I only use energy when we need to."
"Still, the barrier must have some sort of limit for how much energy is needed for it to be active on the individual."
"So where did you go?" Inuyasha asked cautiously.
"I was in their plane. I could see them and they tried to restrain me, but that is a feat few have managed even in my time."
"Shouldn't we kill them?" Miroku questioned looking back over his shoulder. "A demon population that eats people and manipulates their skin to capture more?"
"There are thousands of ants in that hill, if not more." Kurama remarked shaking his head, "Taking them on would be senile. Let's just get as far away from here as we can."
"What about the humans they will kill?" Miroku pressed.
"Ants are relatively harmless. They typically eat corpses unless someone walks through their territory."'
"So we're just going to let them go?" Inuyasha demanded putting his sword over his shoulders. "What about that first town too. Were they ants?"
"No, they were something else. I don't know what was going on with that."
"How can you just leave these places untouched when you know that they are going to kill humans?" Miroku asked, staring back at the town.
"They aren't malicious. They are just trying to live." Kurama replied quietly. "If you came across a pack of deer and you weren't hungry, but they were cornered, would you kill them all?" Kurama asked walking away from the ant hill. He stopped once he was at the front of the group and turned back to watch Miroku struggle with the question.
"These are demons. They eat people," To Miroku that made a huge difference.
"We were overwhelmed even with the wind scar," Inuyasha remarked.
"We should still do what we can."
"And what? Create a mass genocide of ant demons because we can't stand to see them playing with human corpses? What would we do if we saw a random ant mound? Would we kill them then too because they were overthrowing the human population?" Kurama demanded angrily. "How about the wolf demons, or the mountain lions. Let's just go through and eradicate the whole world of all demons because they eat humans, all of them!"
"I'm sorry! Okay? I can't just ignore that they're sitting there waiting for humans to wander by so they can kill them."
"They're not. Those ants are living their own life, and even if they can't do it out in the open, they're getting by. Let them be."
The group walked in relative silence until Kurama pulled off Kagome's bow, cocked an arrow, and shot. Four crow-sized birds fell to the ground. He collected them and caught back up with the group, putting the arrows back in Kagome's quiver. He gutted the birds as they walked, or did what he could.
"Kurama, can you answer my question from earlier?" Kagome breached as they stopped to let him wash up. "Are you the odd one out in our time too?" Kagome asked nervously.
Kurama frowned. "We just spent all that time getting through the ant hill and you're concerned about my dating status?" Kurama questioned incredulously.
"Yeah," Kagome frowned.
"There are more people in my group than just those I mentioned. When I need someone to be at my hip, I can pick up Botan or Shizuru."
"But that's not love, just picking someone up for an event. That's not the emotional relationship that we're talking about." Sango crossed her arms over her chest.
Kurama laughed. "Being single is not a sin." He shook his head. He pulled the birds through the water a couple times.
"Look," Sango requested gently, "we want to learn more about you. Don't stop that by answering questions odd, just tell us."
"No, I'm not interested in relationships at the moment." Kurama strung up the birds. "So yes, in a way, I am an odd man out. At the same time, I choose to be that odd man out so it's not a problem for me."
They stopped to cook the birds as deep night came over the group. It wasn't until they were positioned out that Kurama breached conversation next. "We have a long way to go," Kurama mused as he stared off towards the distance.
Inuyasha nodded. "We'll get there though," he assured the fox.
"Can't we travel faster for a while?" Kurama asked softly.
Inuyasha frowned, "We typically run when there's danger, not just to get there faster."
"Inuyasha, we only have a month. If we want to make it to where I feel Midoriko, we're going to need longer than that at this pace."
Inuyasha frowned and watched the fox, "So what you're saying is there's nothing close enough for that to be enough time?"
"According to what I can feel, yes." The fox's yellow eyes steadied on Inuyasha, a grim face knitting his lips down. "It would take two months to get out there. It would be a four month trip."
"Can you and I get there if we run?"
"Sure, maybe in a week. I could make it in about five days if I didn't have to stop and rest," Kurama explained.
"Fine, I'll go with you, but if we get there and it's something major," Inuyasha warned, "we'll be missing our back up."
"Inuyasha, I am your back up." The fox smiled, his shoulders back and his chin up, gloating about it.
Inuyasha chuckled and turned to the group. "Alright, so Kurama here can sense a jewel way off north, but it's going to take us, walking like this, about two months, and we just don't have that kind of time."
"Inuyasha?" Kagome asked softly, "Are you leaving?" Kagome grabbed the straps of her over-full bag and tipped her head down, nervous.
"We'll be gone for about a few weeks, and in the meantime, Kagome, you will be searching around here for jewels, and then we can head back to the well together."
"Alright," Kagome dropped her head, kicking at the dirt road.
"Don't worry too much about us Kagome," Kurama teased. "I can keep him in tip top shape," he admits. "Unfortunately, we really should get going."
Kagome sighed and nodded. "Fine, we'll see you in a while then. Stay safe."
With that, Inuyasha and Kurama bolted off.
Kagome watched them go with a fist in front of her chest. "Do you think they will be alright?" Kagome asks softly.
"I'm sure they'll be fine, Kagome. If anyone can keep Inuyasha safe, it's Kurama." Shippo pipes up.
"I needed to hear that," Kagome nods. "Let's just hope they come back in one piece."
"In the meantime, we can keep looking around here for shards." Sango suggests. "Do you feel any of them close?"
Kagome frowns and reaches out with her senses. "Not really. I can't even feel the one they're after to tell you the truth. The closest one I feel is, that way." she points east.
"Then that's where we'll go." Sango nods and the group heads through the woods.