The next morning we headed to the north and soon found ourselves in a small village by a river. As we entered the village I watched all of the humans faces as I passed. All I saw was anger, hatred, and sadness in their eyes; they despised me. I never understood why humans hated me before they even knew me. I am a demon, but still if I'm walking through your town nice and calmly I don't think I'm going to kill you. So I feel I don't deserve the looks. Besides, if I was, giving me harsh looks would make me kill you faster, fools. As we walked a man approached us, angry.
"Leave demons, unless you came to pay your respects for if not, prepare to face the wrath of Mistress Hinako!" He shouted.
"Who the hell is that, and why should I care?" Inuyasha asked, annoyed.
"She is our protector, a goddess!" An old woman shouted.
"It's probably just some demon!" Inuyasha shouted back.
"She is not a demon!" The old woman shouted back. "Now go to the shrine and beg for forgiveness for your impudence!"
"There's no way in he…" Inuyasha began.
"Sit boy!" Kagome shouted. Inuyasha crashed hard into the ground.
"What the hell?" I whispered. Shippo giggled.
"We will we go to the shrine." Kagome told the old woman, who was staring at her in awe.
"Thank you young miko, you have such great power! I am sorry that we didn't realize sooner that these demons were under your command and thus no threat." The old woman replied. Kagome gave a strange laugh. "I shall lead you all to the shrine." She said and began to walk.
"I feel like somehow this is going to end badly." I said suddenly getting a horrible feeling in my gut.
"What could possibly go wrong?" Miroku asked, sarcastically.
"You just want to go to see the mistress." Shippo said.
"How absurd! I simply wish to pay my respects to this, Goddess Hinako." Miroku replied slyly.
"Liar." Shippo whispered.
"Off we go!" Miroku shouted walking off ahead. We all followed after Miroku and the old woman after I helped Inuyasha up out of the crater created by his body.
"I'm going to regret this…" I said as I reluctantly followed.
The shrine house was huge and beautiful. The woman led us to the door and motioned for us to go on. As we entered I could feel a chill in the air, as well as a harsh smell of demon.
"Welcome travelers," said a soothing female voice from the shadows, "I am Hinako." Out of the shadows walked a beautiful demon woman with a soft smile, long silky black hair, bright blue eyes, and a gorgeous flowing Kimono.
"Hello Hinako." Miroku said as he bent down on one knee and took Hinako's hand. Sango then grabbed him by the ear and pulled him away just before he attempted to grab Hinako inappropriately. Hinako gave her a dirty look.
"Jealousy, so childish."She whispered. Sango glared at her. "What is your business here?" She asked.
"That damned old woman made us come! She didn't believe me when I said you were a demon! I was right!" Inuyasha shouted.
"Such a temper on you, half demon." Hinako replied, her smile quickly fading. "Much like a child indeed." I laughed at this. "Find something funny mixed breed?"
"Yes, in fact. Your statement, for Inuyasha truly does act like a child. Not to mention the fact that he is completely right for once!"
"You too are like a child." She told me.
"How so?" I asked curiously.
"You are naïve and ignorant. I can tell, through your eyes I can see, you feel a great amount of fear and sadness. You use this as an excuse. Your fear of not meeting his expectations of you. Honestly, just because you wish to be a full demon does not mean you can ignore your human self. Thinking you are strong because you have great outer strength is what makes you ignorant, for you are weak on the inside. So perhaps, instead of trying to get stronger on the outside you should fix yourself on the inside, stop pitying yourself because you have emotions, embrace them." She told me. I stared at her angrily. Although much of what she said was true, it was also true that as a demon I had an obligation to not show any emotion and I am more demon than human. "Didn't you hear me? Just because you want to pretend you're a full fledged demon does not mean you can be! That is where you are naïve!" She sighed and looked me over. "I will now pass judgment on the three of you."
"Who are talking about?" Inuyasha asked.
"The three of you shall now gain a second chance to understand where you need to improve yourselves. I feel that you have to understand something you perhaps were never taught in the first place. So now I declare that you shall relive and relearn what you must forever remember!" She shouted. Suddenly there was a big flash of light that lasted about 30 seconds. When I could see, the shrine was gone, as well as Hinako. Everyone else was fine, other than maybe a bit shook up. It was almost sun set when we finally were back in the village. Miroku, claiming a dark spirit was amok, got us a nice place to stay for the night. We had a huge dinner, and we ate and relaxed comfortably.
"So, did any of you figure out what Hinako meant?" Kagome asked.
"Honestly, no, nor do I care." I told her.
"Yeah, same here, she was just putting on a show so she could escape." Inuyasha shouted.
"I agree." Sango replied.
"It seems like she may have put some kind of curse on three of us." Miroku said. He shivered remembering how he may have been the one to anger her. Suddenly, I felt woozy. I stood up.
"Am I the only one not feeling well?" I asked.
"No, I'm feeling a bit strange myself. I think it may have been the food." Sango said. She looked a bit out of it.
"No kidding." Inuyasha replied.
"My tummy hurts too, I think I just ate too much." Shippo said.
"Well, then we should all go to sleep then, since no one's feeling very well." Kagome replied. We all headed off to our rooms. It took me a bit to get to mine. I was extremely dizzy, great I probably had food poisoning or something. Human food does this to me once in awhile. Depending on what it was. I sighed and laid down on my bed. I couldn't go right to sleep for some reason either, so I ended up staring at the ceiling for awhile until I was finally unconscious.
All in all, I got a good night's sleep, until a loud squeal woke me up. I jumped out of bed. It had sounded like Kagome. I ran out of the room and to the next room where the sound had come from. Strange though that Kagome would be in this room, it was Inuyasha's. The door was wide open. As I swung myself into the doorway I stared in shock at the sight that lay before me. I just stood there my mouth gaping as the squeals continued. Kagome was fine, but Inuyasha…was definitely not.