Chapter 16

Author Note:

Why am I being super awesome and posting this so early? Because today was my last day of high school for the rest of forever, that's why!!! Yay, it's summer! Now read a slightly depressing chapter.

"Come out now, pretty ladies, time for some eats," one of the human thugs grunted, sticking his head inside the carriage and smiling wickedly. "Hold out your hands and we won't 'ave any trouble."

The women all shifted so that they were in a sort of line, waiting to be pulled from the carriage. Kagome watched from the middle of the que of women as the first girl held out her hand and a shackle was attached to it before she was tugged out the door to wait for the rest of the procession.

One by one each woman was shackled and pulled from the carriage, each cuff linked with a long, heavy chain that connected the line of girls to one another. Finally Kagome was at the front, facing the smelly, oaf of a man who held a metal cuff open and ready to clamp down on her wrist.

"You're the one I hit on the head," he sneered amusedly. "The boss was right pleased, especially with that pretty necklace you kept around that pretty neck."

Kagome gasped and looked down, the shikon shards were gone! She had a minor heart attack before realizing that though she could still sense them near b y, she could also sense that they hadn't been tainted just yet.

The key word being 'yet'.

Another thing she could sense was the familiar aura of the youkai that Sesshoumaru had gone after, and she had no doubt that he was the one that now held her shards. She didn't know why the youkai hadn't used them, maybe the demon that had captured her was weary of their power? Or perhaps he simply wanted to taunt her as he tainted each shard right in front of her. Who knew? All she did know was that she had to get them back before the demon had a chance to use them.

She also hoped that the fact that this youkai was still alive simply meant that he had somehow managed to escape from Sesshoumaru, not that he had somehow defeated the taiyoukai.

"Now then, give me your hands, I won't bite," the ugly brute smiled wickedly, showing his yellow teeth.

Kagome put her hands behind her back.

"Oi! Wench, give me your wrist!" He grunted angrily, snatching her arm and roughly pulling it towards him so he could chain her. The cuff clamped down on her wrist, the thick, metal restraint cutting into her skin painfully. When he was finished he pulled her forcefully from the carriage and watched as she fell to the ground, laughing maliciously at her pained cry.

"Next time just give him your hand," an auburn haired girl said darkly as she helped Kagome to her feet. "Disobedience will only earn you a lashing."

"Oh," Kagome said stupidly as she brushed the dirt from Sesshoumaru's haori. She felt bad about getting it dirty, but truthfully she had forgotten she was still wearing it...and besides, there wasn't much she could do about it now. "Thank you for helping me, um, what's your name?"

"Aiko," she said shortly, not bothering to look at the miko, but staring straight in front of her instead.

"I'm Kagome," she muttered as the next woman was thrust from the carriage and stumbled to her side, the chain connecting them clinking noisily. She gave the girl a shaky smile, a smile that was completely ignored. Shuddering, Kagome turned back to the auburn haired woman. "Why won't the other's talk?" She whispered.

Aiko sighed. "They have been here too long, gone mad like caged animals. Soon I'll be like that," she said with only the barest hint of emotion. "I suppose you will too, but until then, we can exchange names I suppose."

"You've already told me your name," Kagome said wearily.

Aiko turned to look at her with an expression of detached confusion. "Oh, that's right, now I remember." And with that she sighed and faced forward again, her eyes staring in front of her. Kagome doubted the girl even comprehended what she was seeing.

I've got to get out of here! She screamed inwardly.

"Ah, good job men, I suppose you'll be wanting your pay now?" A sickeningly cheerful voice said as the three brutes that had pulled them from the carriage snapped to attention. Kagome instantly knew it was the evil demon from before, his demonic aura nearly making her retch, and just as she had suspected she could tell he had the shards on him. "There will be twice as much in it for you if stay to ready my camp," he informed them as he tossed a satchel of yen to the men.

The largest man caught it gracelessly and smiled. "Yes boss."

The three lumbered off promptly to start a fire and set up tents. They had been flying before, Kagome had eventually figured out, but they had touched down in a small forest clearing about twenty minutes ago.

"Now, my beauties," the demon smiled, turning to the line of chained women after the men had hurried off. "Why don't you welcome your newest sister-bride?"

"Yes, Master Shigeru," they chanted in unison and then turned to Kagome. "Welcome, sister."

Kagome shuddered as ten pairs of eyes all focused on her; ten pairs of eyes that didn't seem to see her at all.

"Now, show me your proper respects my brides," Shigeru instructed, crossing his arms and watching as one-by-one each woman lowered themselves to the ground into a low bow.

Kagome remained standing and his sole attention was suddenly upon her. She hadn't done it to be defiant - she just didn't know she was supposed to bow - but as soon as his cold, hard eyes narrowed at her, she realized that she would much rather stay standing.

This guy is a serious prick, she decided.

Shigeru eyed his newest prize with annoyance. She stared right back at him, her chin lifted in the ultimate snub to his superior status. Slowly he walked over to her, stopping only once he was standing right in front of her, looking down at her determined expression with a sneer.

"You will bow, pretty miko," he said in a dangerously sweet voice.

Kagome gulped and clenched her fists. "No, I don't think I will," she said, surprised at how strong her voice sounded even though she was terrified. She may have gotten herself captured, and she may be chained like some slave, but she was a twentieth century woman! Heck if she was going to feed this guy's over-inflated ego.

"Without your trinkets, you are nothing but a poor excuse for a miko," he sneered, pulling the vile of shards from his robes and dangling them in front of her face.

The Shards! She gasped inwardly. Every instinct she had was screaming at her to take them and purify the demon before her, but her mind - finally deciding to be useful for once - told her that he would kill her before she could even get the chance.

Kagome glared at him and refused to submit. "You can't use them, they'll give you power, but they'll drive you mad," she told him as his eyes narrowed.

"I know this, girl! I am a deceiver, I know deception when I see it! These shards promise power, but I have seen the power they give: a frenzied insanity. I have no use for them, but that does not mean I will allow you to keep them," he growled, stowing the vile of shards back in his robes and straightening his stance. "Now, you will bow!"

She felt a pull at her sleeve and looked down into the auburn haired girl's pleading eyes, the first true expression Kagome had seen her wear. "Please, you will be beaten," the girl warned her.

The young miko looked at the pleading girl for a moment before resigning herself and turning back to the youkai in front of her. "Take pride in what you do, or don't do it at all," she said, repeating the words Sesshoumaru had told her so many nights ago. "You're nothing but a bully, I won't bow to the likes of you!"

The youkai scowled fiercely, looking as though he might hit her before he was able to school his features into a haughty smirk. "Ah, resistance is such an unbefitting quality," he told her, lifting a hand and motioning to the bulky men behind him. "I believe my newest bride needs to be taught some manners...ten should do it."

Kagome's determined facade melted into a look of confusion as Aiko dropped her hold on the miko's sleeve and groaned. Not a second later and Kagome was released from her chains only to have her hands bound to one of the spokes of the tall carriage wheels. She pulled against the tight ropes in vain, grunting as her wrists burned from the friction.

"Now, now, pretty miko," Shigeru cooed as he came to her side, running a finger through her hair. "Will you bow?"

"No!" Kagome hissed. "Now you let me go right now or I'll purify you into next week!"

Shigeru laughed. "It seems to me that your hands are preoccupied."

She growled and he merely continued laughing, stepping away from her as one of the horrid men lumbered over with an evil grin on his face and a leather whip in hand. "Ten?" He asked.

"If you can count that high," the youkai sighed, crossing his arms and watching Kagome with a fierce interest.

Kagome gave one last futile tug on her restraints before closing her eyes and gritting her teeth for the pain that she was about to endure. Sesshoumaru, where are you?

CRACK!

Kagome cried out, the pain across her back like a white hot knife being pressed into her flesh. Not even the haori they hadn't removed - probably because Shigeru did not want other men looking at his bride's bare back - offered much protection.

"Will you bow?" Shigeru asked again.

Kagome blinked the tears from her eyes and shook her head.

CRACK!

Her knees wobbled and she felt cold, stinging air against her raw skin as the silk spilt beneath the harsh whip, leaving a long tear in the fabric and probably a matching tear in her flesh.

"Will you bow?" Shigeru repeated, a low growl building in his throat at her continued defiance.

"You're sick!" She choked.

CRACK!

Kagome felt blood trickling down her spine as she stumbled against the carriage to remain upright. Her head was spinning from the pain, her blood pounding in her veins as sweat and tears streaked her face.

Shigeru didn't ask this time.

CRACK!

Kagome was on the edge of consciousness, she could barely see past her tears, barely hear past the pounding of her heart. Her back was both numb and on fire at the same time, feeling like her skin was trying to peel itself away from her very bones.

It was all she could do to keep upright, all she could do to keep staring at the dirt and blood - her blood - beneath her feet. She didn't even notice that the next hit never came, didn't notice how her human tormenter had cried out as his head was sliced from his body with deadly precision, falling to the ground just as his two counterparts had done before him. She didn't even notice when Shigeru started yelling, throwing balls of fire at the silent menace before him. Nor when his hands were severed by a poisonous green whip and his face melted so quickly it was as if the two acts were simultaneous.

What Kagome did notice was the pale, clawed hand that was currently slicing through her bonds.

"Shards, get the shards," she managed to mumble incoherently as her world spun and she was tipped into the firm hold of a steady arm.

"Miko," Sesshoumaru growled, shaking her gently. There was something off about his voice, something about the urgency it seemed to have that she knew wasn't quite normal, but she was much too out of it to dissect the situation any further.

"I'm sorry," she managed to say as her teary eyes found his face. He swam in her vision, his golden eyes never quite coming into focus. "I bled all over your shirt."

And she passed out.

Sesshoumaru just stared down at the unconscious girl resting in the crook of his arm, and for the first time in as long as he could remember, he was shocked. She was bleeding...a lot. Bleeding all over him, but he didn't care. The scent of her blood had lost it's appeal the moment he had seen her torn back.

Now it only disgusted him.

He had heard her cries, heard the crack of the whip as it hit her skin, and it took all of his self restraint to keep from transforming right then and there. He couldn't remember the last time he had been so angry, couldn't remember the last time his blood had boiled so hot that it threatened to consume him. He was so mad his hand was still shaking, his claws unsatisfied. He wanted to murder every living thing he could see, every tiny, insignificant creature that even happened to look at this girl in an unpleasing fashion.

When had he grown so attached to her? When had the very thought of her death become so upsetting? He didn't know, and quite frankly, he didn't care. After all - what did it matter? She was honorable and strong and interesting, and he had obviously decided that a world that included her would be much more satisfactory than a world without.

For some reason he wanted her alive, and what Sesshoumaru wanted, Sesshoumaru got. Simple. Easy. The miko would live and that was all there was to it. Anyone who had other ideas...well, he would kill just them as he had the pathetic fire demon that lay dead at his feet.

And a fine kill it had been. The fire demon may not have been astoundingly powerful, but he was an adequate opponent, though, Sesshoumaru cut him down within seconds. The dog demon had never killed someone of this caliber so easily. It both thrilled him and confused him, making him wonder why this simple, human, slip of a girl invoked such strong reactions out of him.

This was a question he could not seem to answer, and so, he would think of it later. Right now he had a bleeding miko to tend to.

"I told her to bow, she wouldn't listen," the Aiko sighed. "Now look at her."

Sesshoumaru's tore his gaze away from Kagome to look up at the line of women he had previously ignored. The one that had spoken to him was shaking her head and breaking the chains around her wrist with only the slightest bit of effort.

"Hanyou," he addressed her harshly, "why did you not free yourself before now?"

"Hm?" She looked up at him as she began to break the other women's chains one-by-one. "Well, I wasn't powerful enough to defeat Shigeru on my own. I could have escaped, but he would have caught me and then I'd be in the same state as your miko there."

Sesshoumaru saw the sense in her words, but Kagome's current condition forced him to hate the girl for not trying. Despite the beating the girl would have faced should she have failed, she should have tired. Her wounds would have healed in hours, Kagome's would take weeks.

"You are princess Aiko of the Southwestern kitsune tribe," he said, though it was a statement not a question. "You are in my debt, you will accompany me to your father's manor and tend to the miko as payment."

She nodded distractedly. "What of the women?"

Sesshoumaru spared the lifeless beings a glance as he reached down into the bloody mass that was once Shigeru and grabbed the vile of shards, only a few of the girls showed any signs of acknowledging their freedom. "The ones that are able may follow."

She just nodded again. "I will lead the women, but she needs help soon. I will assist you when I arrive. Thank you."

Sesshoumaru nodded, gathered the miko to him further, and took to the skies.

Chapter Note:

Goodbye high school

Kiss my ass

You were fun, yet kinda dumb

My adolescence is in the past

Now review because it will make me happier than I already am!!!