Chapter Four: Half-Breed

"Hanyou."

The word sprung up and out of Kagome's lips before she even realised she had said anything, but what had been a simple statement to her was like a slap to the half-demon in front of her. The girl cringed and fresh tears left a trail through the dirt and blood on her face. Gathering her scattered senses Kagome forced a smile to her face, trying to push her thoughts away from the last hanyou she met and what he and her previous companions had done to her, the well's energy was fighting her and with her diminished spiritual abilities, she had to fight a hard battle for control.

The girl peeked out from under her bangs when she realised that she hadn't been immediately purified at the revelation, her eyes were still wide with fear and it was obvious she knew that in her condition she couldn't stop herself from being purified, her fears were just building on themselves.

Kagome noticed the hanyou looking at her, making her smile more believable she spread her hands in a gesture of peace. She couldn't help but see how scared and hurt the girl was, and despite the pain in her heart she felt her automatic compassionate nature start to take over, she tried to fight it, whenever this had happened in the past, she had been hurt, but it was like her trying to hate something, it was impossible for her to do.

"It's ok; I'm not going to hurt you. I promise." She didn't move, the girl had to trust her first or else she would only be more scared. Despite her calm voice, though, the girl backed up even further, letting out a slight hiss of pain when a large boulder blocked her path. One of her wings was trailing on the ground beside her, it looked to be the most damaged out of everything, obviously whoever had beaten her had been aiming for her wings and torso, her head, arms and legs were almost side notes. It made Kagome sad just to see how far others were willing to damage each other.

"Why wouldn't you hurt me? You're a priestess, you're made to hurt demons." The girl spoke hesitantly, as if afraid that by pointing out the obvious Kagome would realise her mistake and kill her. Kagome shook her head and inched forward a bit, stopping when the girl noticed.

"I'm not like most priestesses, I believe in helping and healing all. Also," here Kagome used her hands to indicate herself, trying not to notice the girls flinch at her movement, "I hardly have enough spiritual energy to hurt a flea demon. I used it all to heal the village nearby of a disease that had been in the air." The girl eyed her and she felt the tentative brush of her youki, she inwardly raised an eyebrow, surprised a hanyou had any control of her demonic abilities, she had thought it impossible. The girl sighed softly in relief, but still seemed wary, not that Kagome blamed her, Kagome could do enough damage without her miko power, the girl was smart. "Let me help you, please."

The girl seemed to think about it, her eyes flashing around her. Kagome realised that she was looking for escape routes; she wasn't too surprised when the first way the girl looked was up, then to the left and right, before her eyes finally settled on Kagome and after a moments deliberation she gave a tentative nod. Now that she knew she wasn't going to die (at least not immediately) she had a mask in place although her mouth was in a thin self-deprecating line, clearly mad at herself for resorting to begging for her life.

Giving a small smile of her own Kagome resisted the urge to clap her hands, knowing that it would scare her patient. Edging forward she ignored the girl obviously shying from her touch, and started pulling off of the large pants. She winced at the bruises and cuts covering the girl, realising she didn't know her patients name she made a mental note to ask for it later. Gripping the girls' unbroken arm, she helped her up and wincing again, lowered her carefully into the steaming water. Taking off her clothes she went in after her, then taking some of her stuff from the bag a soul stealer had placed nearby before fleeing, she took out her softest scrubber and began to carefully clean the wounds, being extra-careful when she came to cuts on her broken arm, or an obviously broken rib. What had happened to this girl?

Her patient made soft sounds whenever Kagome came across a cut or bruise that was more painful than the others, but other than that, she made no sound. Eventually the inevitable came. Kagome knew from experience just how touch hanyou were about the things that made them different, and this girl was no exception, when Kagome had cleaned off everything down to washing and rinsing the girls hair, and had nothing left but her wings to do…she sighed.

"I'm sorry, but I have to clean your wings, one is broken in several places and I can't begin the healing process until it's clean." The girl stiffened as soon as she said wings, turning her head her patient glared at her from over her shoulder, she looked long and hard and Kagome started her back in the eyes, if the girl said no, well it would be her own loss, and a mistake, a big one. Finally the girl gave a stiff nod and turned to glare at the trees in front of her, her talons (which Kagome had finally noticed when cleaning her) digging into the under-water boulder she was sitting on.

Sighing with a small amount of relief, Kagome carefully gripped the fine wing in her hands and raised it from under the water. Gently she began to preen, letting her fingers run through the feathers, pushing out the dirt and blood, scrubbing lightly on any wounds. Despite the odd wince the girl made when she met a particularly bad scratch, she also noticed the girl starting to relax, probably despite herself. She smiled softly, no doubt only her parents had been so kind as to preen her, Kagome wasn't stupid, she knew how people felt about hanyou. As her fingers ran through the cleaner feathers, she felt the place where the wing had snapped. Expertly feeling around the break she nodded to herself, it was a clean break, it would be easy to heal. Tilting her head thoughtfully she realised that like most birds bones, these bones were hollow, so they weighed less it allowed them to fly easier. If she set the wing, she could heal it even with the small amount of her miko powers left.

"Excuse me?" When she knew she had her patients attention she continued, "I realised that the break in your wing will be pretty easy to heal, if you want I can set it and use my remaining miko power to heal your wing…" The girl had stiffened once again, sighing Kagome decided that whilst she was asking one thing, she may as well ask for more, as the saying goes 'in for a penny, in for a pound'. "And, by the way, what is your name?"

Surprisingly the girl relaxed slightly after the last question, she turned and glanced over her shoulder at the miko behind her, wondering if she was being foolish she answered the priestess anyway. "My name is Toriasha…will it hurt?" She seemed to resent the fact she had to ask, but didn't want to go into the healing blind. Smiling reassuringly at the half-demon Kagome shook her head.

"No, I've been told it's actually quite relaxing, don't worry, I wont purify you." The girl crossed her arms and huffed slightly, blowing her drying bangs out of her eyes, her posture reminiscent of Inuyasha's standard pose, so similar in fact that the pang in Kagome's heart returned triple fold.

"I wasn't worried. Go ahead, let's get this over with." Smiling slightly Kagome wondered absently if all hanyou's were brash in nature or if she just attracted them. Straightening out the wing she cringed at the scraping sounds coming from the bones, when they were in line Kagome placed a hand over it, then sending out her powers she examined the break from the inside. Her brow scrunched in thought and her eyes closed she didn't see Toriasha watching her over her shoulder, her eyes wide at the soft glow Kagome was emitting.

Feeling out the bone Kagome started to knit the two halves back together, healing the veins in and around the bone she smiled at the simple healing, the hollow bones made everything so much simpler, she didn't have to recreate marrow or nerves or anything, just bone. The healing was over almost as soon as she had started, opening her eyes she saw Toriasha watching her with slightly widened eyes, realising Kagome had seen her, her brows snapped together and a deliberately sneering expression replaced her slightly awed one before.

Climbing out of the water Kagome smiled down at the girl and extended a hand to help her out. Toriasha, though, seemed to remember that she was hanyou and Kagome was a priestess, her eyes were down and her face almost sad. Ignoring the hand she exited the water herself. Looking at the ruined clothes she shuddered but started to reach for them anyway, she seemed startled when Kagome suddenly grabbed them. She turned to find Kagome shaking her head at her.

"You can't wear these! They are disgusting, I didn't just get you clean to wear these and dirty up all the wounds again. Here you can borrow my miko outfit, it will hide your wings, its so large and bulky anyway, I'll just wear a spare for now." Grinning at her patients shocked speechless look she dropped her miko clothes into the girls' still outstretched hand. Looking Toriasha over she nodded to herself when she noticed the majority of the wounds were all ready healing, as had happened with Inuyasha, as soon as the wounds were treated the hanyou's body deemed them safe to heal and they were pretty much good as new the very next day. Of course the broken arm and wing would have taken longer, as it was the arm would take a day or two to heal completely, but if she put it up in a sling it should heal pretty fast anyway.

Dressing quickly she picked up her bag and slung her bow and quiver of arrows over her shoulder, turning she found Toriasha ready to go, though she was fingering the material of her temporary clothes and looking decidedly awkward. Kagome understood completely, the girl was a hanyou and would think it sacrilegious or something to be wearing something of someone so 'pure', Kagome almost snorted at the thought. Turning she began to walk into the forest saying over her shoulder,

"C'mon lets go to the village, I can finish healing you there. My name is Kaga-rei by the way; please call me by it, not miko or priestess or whatever." Seeing Toriasha beginning to follow her Kagome grinned slightly and moved forward with purpose, she hadn't realised how much she missed having proper company, the villagers and her soul stealers didn't count. The villagers were constantly in awe of her (the ones she saw anyway) and her soul stealers were simply companions, ones not even capable of conversation, talking by feelings instead of words. She was looking forward to the time it would take to heal the girl-child behind her, although the villagers mustn't find out that Toriasha is a hanyou, they had bad enough feelings about them after the spreading of the disease.

Little did Kagome know how right she was.

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AN: sorry, this one isn't that long. I don't have much time on my hands but knew you guys wanted some more. So here it is. Read, enjoy, review. :)