I stared in shock as Kagome cuddled Inuyasha half to death squealing, but it was not Kagome that scared me, although she was a bit frightening. Inuyasha was a child, not emotionally, literally a child. Kagome was freaking out over 'how adorable he was.' Although he was cute, I was still very confused about what I had just stumbled in on.
"Inu…yasha?" I asked, but as I heard my own voice I began to tremble. My voice was really high pitched, like when…I…was…little….oh no. I looked at myself. I no longer had the body of a woman, but a mere child. What happened to me? Why was I like this? Then, like any child would…I…I threw a tantrum. I started freaking out, yelling, and practically pulling on my hair. I dropped to my knees and started to sob.
Shippo, Kirara, Miroku, and Sango ran into the room as fast as they could. As I had done they stared confused at what they were seeing. I hadn't seen them come in and wouldn't have, if not for Sango who started freaking out. I whirled my head around to see her panicking. She too had been turned into a child, but what freaked me out a bit more was that Miroku, Shippo, Kirara, and Kagome were normal. How could this be…? Then it hit me.
"Damnit! This is all because of Hinako!" I shouted in my high pitched voice.
"She truly cursed us, Miroku?" Sango asked in her high pitched voice, which was much softer than usual. Miroku blushed, Sango was so adorable, and hearing her voice like that was unexpected.
"I don't know that it's a curse, Sango." He replied. She suddenly looked really sad.
"Kagome, please let go of me!" Inuyasha shouted in his sweet little kid voice. Not even close to harsh at all! It was so different. Kagome released him and we all started to try and calm down.
"So, what do we do, Kagome?" I asked hoping maybe she could fix this.
"I'm not sure." She replied regretfully.
"Miroku?" Sango asked.
"I have no idea." He said.
"Well, we need to find Hinako. She did this, so maybe she can fix it?" I said.
"Good idea!" Shippo replied.
"Problem is she disappeared in that light yesterday. So how do we find her?" Kagome asked.
"Inuyasha, Shiori, can't one of you track her down by following her scent?" Miroku asked us.
"Not like this." We said pathetically almost simultaneous. Everyone sighed.
"Wait, I have an idea!" I shouted happily. "My father could find her!"
"Your father?" Inuyasha asked.
"Yupp, I'm pretty sure he's still alive and kicking. He'd be on Mt. Ookami. If not him, then someone else on the mountain or in the village below would help. I know everyone there!" I told them.
"So where is this mountain?" Miroku asked.
"From here?" I asked with a smile. "I have no idea." Everyone sighed. "But, I can call someone from the mountain to take us there."
"How?" Sango asked.
"By howling." I told her. So we gathered our things, Miroku carrying Sango's Hirikoutsu and Kagome carrying the Tetsusaiga, and left the village. Once far enough away I was ready. I concentrated and transformed into my true form a giant black wolf, but since I was a child I was only slightly bigger that Kirara. Then I raised my head and howled, I howled as loud as I could and then waited for a reply. Nothing. I howled again crying out as hard as I could. Then waited. On the wind, I heard it. A reply.
"Who are you?" It said.
"Shiori, daughter of Kiba and Reiko. I need assistance." I howled.
"We shall be there soon. Please wait for us, we shall move as quickly as possible." It howled back.
"Be warned now, it's a very strange situation I am in, but you would have to see it to believe it." I howled once more.
"We are prepared for anything. We leave now." It howled in reply.
"Thank you." I finished. I shifted back into my normal, unfortunately child-like, form. Everyone stared at me in anticipation, for all they had heard were my loud howls, except for maybe Inuyasha, Shippo, and Kirara, who heard both my howls and the other but understood nothing of course.
"They're on their way, they said to sit around and wait for them." I explained. This made everyone happy. One step closer to getting this over with and back onto our journey to find Naraku. We just sat around for a bit, Inuyasha was sitting alone under a tree, Sango was playing with Kirara in her small-cat form, Miroku was relaxing in the sun, Shippo was playing with his top, and Kagome was reading a book in the shade. Not me though, I heard a noise in the woods and snuck off on my own to investigate.
While walking I was sure I'd heard a noise behind me so I spun around but kept walking backwards. I then proceeded to accidentally walk into a tree. I hit my head on it and as I turned around to cuss at the inanimate tree I found myself staring into big brown eyes.
"Uhm, sorry I wasn't looking." I told the young girl. She was a very pretty human girl, she had long black hair that was mostly down but in a small pigtail on the side, and she was wearing an orange checkered Kimono.
"It's ok. My name is Rin, what's yours?" She asked.
"Shiori." I told her.
"Want to pick flowers with me, Shiori?" She asked.
"Well, sure I guess." I replied. So we wandered deeper into the woods and picked as many flowers as we could find. She finally led me to an opening in the woods. There a two headed dragon and a familiar green demon was sitting in the grass.
"Rin! Where have you been girl and who is this girl you bring with you!" He shouted. Oh no, I knew who it was. It was Jaken…so then this girl was the one Sesshomaru had sent Jaken to look for the last time I was with him. He had said Rin and Ah Uhn…which must be the dragon. Still, why would Sesshomaru have a human girl with him? That was stranger to me than the fact that I was a little kid again. Maybe, he really was changing into a better person, weird. Then I heard a sound from behind us in the forest. I turned around to see Sesshomaru staring down at me silently.
"Shiori?" He said with a questioning tone.
"Uhh…hello Sesshomaru." I replied. This was really embarrassing. He said nothing just kept on staring.
"Come with me." He told me, more like ordered me. So I followed him alone to the opposite corner of the field. When we were far enough away from the others he spoke with his back to me. "This kind of thing wouldn't happen to you if you were with me like I'd ask."
"I told you before. I owe Inuyasha, so when I'm done helping him, I'll go with you. I belong with you." I told him. It sounded strange coming from me like this.
"He will get you killed." Sesshomaru said seriously.
"The only person who'd get me killed is me. Be nice if I had my swords though. It sucks fighting with my claws." I swung at the air and somehow managed to trip myself. I fell back onto my rear, it hurt a lot. I looked up and saw him staring at me from the corner of his eye. "I really miss you Sesshomaru." He said nothing, but couldn't look at me anymore either. I forgot the fact that as a child my emotions show a lot easier than as an adult, so without thinking I made a very sad face. I really wished he'd said something.
"How long will this take." Sesshomaru asked.
"Not sure, Naraku has gone missing again." I told him.
"No, how long until you become an adult again." He said.
"I don't know that either. We're going to Mt. Ookami to see my father so that we can track down the demon Hinako that did this to us and fix it." I explained.
"Sesshomaru," I began as he finally turned around to look at me, "do you miss me?" I asked. I was glad I was a child with no care. Normally I would never ask him something like that. He won't answer either way, but at least I asked.
"Yes, I do." He replied. I felt my eyes widen in shock. He answered me. Not only that, but he gave me the answer I actually wanted to hear. I smiled at him. He sort of half smiled back.
"I'm sorry I'm like this right now. It's not a very proper visit." I explained.
"It's fine." He replied. He walked over to a tree and sat under it. I just watched at first, and then I followed him and sat down next to him on his pelt. He didn't mind surprisingly. I laid my head on his arm and we sat there for awhile. Just being with him made me so happy. I couldn't bear to leave him again, although I knew I must. I stayed as long as I could, but after an hour or so I heard the howling on the wind again. It was the wolf from before telling me they were near. This, although originally a good thing, made me sad. I really didn't want to go.
"Hear that?" I asked him.
"They're calling you, are they not?" Sesshomaru confirmed.
"I don't want to go, but going will get me my body back." I told him.
"Then go." He said. "I know you will return." I gave him a sad nod, got up, and transformed. I answered the call, looked at him, and ran off back to Inuyasha. When I got back it seemed no one had even noticed I was gone. In the air I could smell it, the wolves were almost here. I gathered everyone together as the wolves finally approached. They reverted to their human-like forms to address us.
"Is that really you Shiori?" The wolf demon in front asked.
"Yes, it is unfortunately. " I replied.
"Wow, when you said you were in a strange situation, well, I never imagined it'd be something like this." He continued. "Anyway, we'll lead you and your friends home if you're ready."
"Thanks everyone." All the wolves smiled at me and we headed off, back to my home, and soon hopefully, back to normal.