4 months. Hmm, that's not THAT long is it? Okay, I know, BAD KIM! I need to write more…sigh. Anyways, I've got, like, 7 stories all going at once. Oh, one for every day of the week! Well, I have to work tonight—at least I don't have to dress up as Dorothy this time—but we can only pray for rain. Read and review please, flame me if you'd like for not updating.
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Disclaimer here
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Last time…
"You know, you guys can never just accept help without prying, can you?" She asked, removing the bandanna to reveal a pair of jet-black ears similar to InuYasha's. "Yeah, it's me. I've come to retrieve the little twit. I've heard she came back here. Please tell me she hasn't killed Daddy yet."
"What? Can't you see him? He's sitting right there," Shippo pointed to the red-clad half demon.
"Nope. I can't see him either. The twit learned that trick from me and used it on me. Though I've got a lot more people than Mom that I can't see. I can't see Daddy…and many people who aren't even in existence!" She finished with happiness.
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Chapter 33: You what?!
"Wait a second," Kagome said suddenly. "When exactly does InuYasha d-die, Hikari?" She forced out the last word.
She thought for a second. "When I turned twelve, she was seven."
'Feh,' InuYasha had said. 'I get killed by a seven-year-old?' Of course, Hikari couldn't hear him.
"Where is she?" Kagome asked flatly.
"I don't know exactly, but I will be able to find out when we start looking. I suggest you leave that—" she nodded toward the little Hikari, "—in the future for safe keeping."
"She refers to herself as 'that'?" Shippo muttered to himself.
Hikari looked at him. "Aw, it's adorable!" she exclaimed.
Shippo blushed.
"What?" Sango, along with the others, looked lost.
"Shippo's a bit…smaller now, then he is in my time," she explained.
InuYasha stood up. "Let's go find her so we can reverse everything she's done!" he headed for the door.
"Wait InuYasha," Kagome called. "Hikari," she said strangely, feeling odd about talking to her girl like an adult. "You said you taught Hitana the technique she used? Well, don't you know how to undo it?"
"That's right!" Miroku said, having an epiphany. But Hikari was shaking her head.
"Nope," Hikari shook her head. "I've been trying the entire time we've been sitting here. The only reason I can see Miroku, Sango, Shippo, and Mom is because I stole them back from Hitana years ago."
"How did you end up here?" Sango asked quietly.
InuYasha sat back down with a 'humph', and Kagome felt him close to her, his clothing brushing her bare skin, sending electric currents up her arm to her brain.
"When Hitana was 5, she displayed…disturbing traits. I was around 10 or eleven. I knew what she would become. I'd seen it. But, I'd seen it during my time of vulnerability—which had never happened before. Everyone just assumed that I couldn't have them then.
"Well, I did." She paused. "She was around 6 when she stole sight from me. I was in a world of emptiness. I could see no one but strangers." She took a deep breath. "And then, at 7, she caught Daddy off guard and killed him. He was always gentle with us." She shook her head, her eyes closed, and lips pursed. "She took advantage of that. Mom refused to abandon her baby girl. But, Hitana left in search of something—what, I didn't know at the time. I hunted her for two years. I was seventeen and my fighting skills had improved." Her voice quieted. "I had inherited the Tetsusaiga when Daddy died."
InuYasha made inaudible comments to himself, knowing Kagome could hear them, but even she could hardly decipher his erratic thinking.
"I fought with her and discretely took back some of my loved ones. She left me hanging from the side of a cliff. But a friend saved me. Together, we found out what she had been searching for—a way to go to the past. But he knew. He knew how to do it. And he also knew that she knew he knew how to accomplish it. He came here with me, but for the sake of the future, I can't let you guys see him. He's looking for her and he'll contact me when he finds her."
"How?" Miroku asked, riveted by her story.
She tapped her temple, a devilish grin on her face. "I guess you could call it telepathy, but it's more than that. Our connection is…special." Kagome narrowed her eyes at her daughter and Hitana blushed. "In Mom's time…I guess you could call it…imprinting?" She smiled sheepishly at the angry expression on her mother's face. And by the shocked faces around her—that she could see—that's what they called it, too.
"You what?! With him?!" Kagome abruptly stood up and stomped to the door. "Let's go find her. Now."
"Now you're talkin'," InuYasha said, following her out the door.
"Kagome's still scary when she's angry," Shippo shuddered.
Hikari sighed. "That damn mind reading of hers. No way to get around it yet. She's only mad because she knows who he is. Well, let's go anyways."
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Sorry it's shortish. REVIEW DAMMIT! OR I'LL FOREVER HIDE IN A CLOSET WITH ALLEN WALKER!! Wait…that'd be awesome…(dirty grin)
