Aljan Moonfire does not own Inuyasha.

"Speaking."

'Thinking.'

Chapter 5 - Hanyou

"Damn it!" Inuyasha snarled, clearly resisting the urge to take a swipe at the monk who was currently attempting to attend to his wounds. "That bastard…" he muttered threateningly under his breath, not for the first time.

Miroku sighed, and replied as he finished tying a bandage into place. "Inuyasha, you really are too reckless." He chided, slightly mockingly.

Inuyasha simply glared, knowing by now that any attempt to deny that charge would fail against the monk's many, many examples to the contrary. Kikyo, watching from the other side of the clearing they had stopped at for the night, frowned almost imperceptibly at the hanyou's language, but had to admit that he (from his perspective at least) may have had a fairly good excuse to rant as he had been doing on and off for the past few hours.

It had been over a month since she had first agreed to join the motley band of people at Kagome's request, and it certainly hadn't been a walk in the park. The small group seemed to be quite wary of her (not that she could really blame them) and all of them except for Inuyasha even seemed to go out of their way to avoid her.

The monk, who seemed subdued in comparison to Kagome's stories of him, seemed to always keep an eye on her, watching for any sort of suspicious behavior. The taijiya, Sango, had also done so, but the slightly hostile attention of the demon slayer had been tempered by the woman's obvious grief over the loss of her best friend. This continued to confuse her though; hadn't she known that Kagome would be forced to leave the group?

That was beside the point though; she knew that despite Inuyasha's clumsy efforts, she wasn't at all welcomed in the group. Miroku and Sango were wary of her, just waiting for her to betray them. The small kitsune (presumably Kagome's Shippo-chan) mostly took refuge with them, and also seemed to be at least slightly afraid of her. The small two-tailed Nekomata that the taijiya rode was the same, but avoided her less out of fear and more out of wariness.

Inuyasha tried to make her feel welcome, but he wasn't exactly socially adept (understatement of the century) and could only do so much. Even then, though she would always love Inuyasha, being around him 24/7 had also made her less oblivious to his faults. He was rude and reckless, always charging into fights and other less physical altercations with all the subtlety of a maddened bull. Even then he was crude and tactless at the best of times, always sticking his own foot in his mouth at the worst possible moment. All of this was displayed almost perfectly by the most recent fight said hanyou was brooding over.

Well, rather than the fight (which he did lose, the battle ending once he was beaten to a pulp and his opponent leaving him moaning on the ground with a few pointed insults clearly meant to rub his defeat in) he seemed to be devoted to insulting his most recent (and also most long standing from what she could tell) adversary.

She had never really seen the Lord of the West in action before, but it was clear to her than even if Inuyasha had, with the help of his father's fang, managed to reach a level of strength where he could completely over power most of his opponents, Sessshomaru was much, much, just … more… at almost everything else. Skill, technique, perception, speed; even his insults were superior the hanyou's. If it really came down to it he was even better looking.

She knew Inuyasha very well though; just as well as Kagome really. It came as no surprise to her that the two brothers (half-brothers, she was sure both would insist) would clash on just about everything; Inuyasha jealous of his perfect, pure-blooded, elder sibling, and Sesshomaru completely indifferent to the younger's many, many issues. That on top of their original – if uneven - rivalry (probably stemming from the Inutaisho falling in love with a human in the first place) and every meeting between the two was a disaster just waiting to happen.

That didn't even count the strangeness before the actual battle. Even she had been taken aback by it; but knowing Kagome's (which probably equaled out to being hers as well for that matter) luck she shouldn't have been really. She hadn't noticed her at first, having no where near the senses of the demon lord, but when the 'anonymous' figure had formed she had immediately recognized the persistent tugging on her soul, even if the aura was different.

That had also given her pause; auras just don't change like that. If it hadn't been for the recognition by the portion of their soul she contained she may not have recognized her at all. She knew the monk hadn't, and he was probably the one most trained in such things besides herself. She was still struggling to understand what could have happened to her over the past month though.

Speaking of such, it was obvious that over the month she had been separated from the group the young miko seemed to have run into the daiyoukai at least once, and possibly multiple times. From what she was able to glean of the conversation Kagome was clearly doing better than she had the last time she'd seen her. If the daiyoukai had anything to do with it she, despite her almost instinctive misgivings when it comes to demons, couldn't really find it in her to disapprove. If the inu youkai ever hurt her though, well… she couldn't be held accountable for her actions.

Shaking her head to clear it of the distracting thoughts, the miko returned her attention to the two men before her as their argument seemed to escalate. Giving a silent sigh of exasperation, Kikyo rose to her feet silently and left the campsite, seeking some quiet to continue her thoughts in.

She didn't notice the slightly narrowed pair of dark eyes that followed her movements out of the clearing.

.-.

Sango was confused.

She was also suspicious, grief-ridden, and all around aggravated. This really wasn't all that unusual actually; she could be very emotional when it came to the things – the people, really – that were most important to her. What was unusual was that all of these emotions were focused around different people than usual.

Of course there was her brother first of all. She had always doted on the boy in that way elder sisters do as they grew up, and when he became the last member of her family - her village – that she had any chance of getting back she had grown to love him all the more fiercely. He was just about all she had left after all.

Even as she had grown closer to the members of the group (most namely Kagome and Miroku) she had never let go of the hope that one day she would have her little brother back. In that fateful fight with the newest batch of Naraku's spawnings all of that hope vanished along with the fading light in Kohaku's eyes.

He was gone, and he was never coming back. If it weren't for Miroku she may have completely drowned in the unending grief that realization brought. But he had been there, and despite his own wounds, and the poison that had him quite out of it for the week or so following the battle, he had managed to pull her through. There had obviously been some help from Kaede-baasan with her more physical wounds, but Miroku had been her anchor.

It was not until another week had passed since the battle that she began to wonder where Kagome was; knowing that if she'd had a choice the small miko would have been at her side as well. The answer she had managed to drag out of Inuyasha just didn't make any sense at all though!

That was where a lot of the confusion, aggravation, and suspicion came from.

It made absolutely no sense at all for Kagome, one of the sweetest and most forgiving, but also incidentally the most stubborn and loyal, people she'd ever known, to voluntarily give up on a quest she herself had all but started and wasted four years of her life on! Miroku was just as clueless as she was, barely even remembering the time around when she left, and Shippo refused to speak about it at all.

As a result she had no choice but to take Inuyasha's rendition of Kagome's departure as the truth; something she didn't want to do at all. To make matters even worse, immediately after Kagome left he had brought Kikyo into the group as a replacement, only upping the tension that seemed about to suffocate all those involved.

Nobody, except for Inuyasha of course, trusted the undead miko, and with very good reason. She had tried to kill Kagome more than once in order to claim a soul that was no longer hers, and had repeatedly stated her intentions to take Inuyasha with her to hell at some point. It was just common sense to watch her with suspicion really.

That wasn't even considering what she had noticed over the past year in regards to Kagome. The girl had become quieter, more thoughtful, and she had even begun to move with a kind of grace that she had never seen before in the usually clumsy miko. The fact that it was the kind of movement only seen in decent fighters – ones with good trainers at that – made it all the more worrying.

Also, she had noticed that even before Kikyo had joined the group she'd been hanging around their general vicinity much more often than usual. It was suspicious then, and now she couldn't shake the feeling that the undead woman was somehow involved with both Kagome's departure and her changes beforehand.

And so, as Sango watched Kikyo observe the budding argument between Miroku and Inuyasha (one that was bound to involve Shippo as well at some point) she was completely unable to discern anything from the clay-woman's expression. When the miko rose and exited the clearing her eyes, narrowed in suspicion, traced after her movements.

Soon her body followed. There were only two people involved in this mess that she hadn't questioned yet. One of them, being a Nekomata, couldn't speak. The other had just left the clearing and was swiftly moving out of even Inuyasha's sensory range.

She had some questions, and for once she was going to get some straight answers - even if she had to beat them out of her friend's previous incarnation.

.-.

Approaching the moonlit brook that shimmered from just beyond the edge of the trees, Kikyo took swift and precisely measured steps out of the forest. Stopping at the bank of the small creak, she crouched down, red hakama billowing around her legs, to dip slender fingers into the cool water. Watching with seeming fascination as small ripples spread from the meeting of clay and liquid, she didn't even glance up as she spoke, "So how long will you follow me, Taijiya?" she said.

There were a few moments of silence before the grass behind her rustled in answer. "For as long as I need to, Miko," came the just as stilted response. "I want some answers." She said, her voice wavering between implied threat and uncertain civility.

Kikyo stood at the somewhat surprising response and turned to face the young woman behind her. Meeting the dark eyes with her own inscrutable gaze, the undead woman was surprised by the multitude of emotions swirling there. "Answers to what?" she replied, raising an unnaturally perfect brow in question.

At the seemingly innocent question the dams holding back Sango's many questions burst, and the words spilled in an uncontrolled flood off her tongue. "Like, why are you here? What did you have to do with Kagome leaving? Why did she even leave in the first place? What has been going on with her over the past year? I know that something was off – and I know that you have something to do with it. And how does all of it involve Inuyasha? – If it does at all…" she trailed off, breathing hard as she finally ran out of words – for the moment at least, Kikyo was sure.

Kikyo took a large unneeded breath a let it out in a huff of slight amusement. "That's a lot of questions," she commented wryly, slightly unsure of how to respond. "And I would think that you'd already know the answers to some of them at least." She continued.

"Well, I don't." the slayer shot back, frustrated.

Struggling against a smile, Kikyo muttered, "Clearly," underneath her breath before continuing. "Do you really want the answers though?" she asked. "If you don't already know then it might be unpleasant to hear."

Sango stared at her for a moment trying to discern the undead miko's motives in saying something like that, but the miko's face was unreadable. She set her jaw stubbornly. "Yes. I'm sure." She replied.

'Should I tell her everything of it?' the miko wondered as she pondered the answer. Kikyo continued to study her in return for a moment, before seeming to come to a decision. "I'm here because Kagome asked me to be." She finally replied to the first question.

Sango just stared at her for a moment taken aback by even this first answer. "Wait, what do you mean? I thought Inuyasha was the one who asked you." She frowned as she replied confused.

"Well, yes, he did." Kikyo said, still inwardly amused. "But that's not why I'm here."

"Then why are you here?" Sango asked again, frustrated with the non-answers.

"The story behind my decision to be here is a fairly long one, and one not entirely mine to tell. I also don't trust you enough to tell all of it." The miko finally answered. "But I suppose the answers to your questions don't infringe too much upon it, at least not enough for me to have any reason not to tell you."

She paused for moment, wondering if the taijiya was going to interrupt her, but when the other woman didn't continued. "To answer a few of your questions you need to understand that the relationship between myself and Kagome was nowhere near as bad as it may have seemed." Sango once again looked as if she might interrupt at this statement, but managed to hold back whatever question was trembling on her tongue.

"It was not all that long after that fiasco at Mt. Hakurei that we came to a truce, and while at that point we were not enemies any longer, we were also not quite friends." She paused for half a moment. "That changed about a year ago. Something happened then to Kagome, something I will not relate without her permission." She stared deeply into the slayers eyes as she said this, trying to make a point as the woman made to object. Sango grimaced slightly but finally conceded with a nod.

Nodding in return Kikyo continued, "It was then that Kagome asked me to train her, to help her become strong, and to teach her how to use her miko powers." She paused again for a moment. "I accepted."

Sango stared wide eyed at the other woman, wanting desperately to ask the questions that teetered dangerously on the end of her tongue. Knowing though that to push too much probably wouldn't end well; she swallowed the questions and continued to listen.

"Over the past year I did indeed train her whenever we got the chance. As of right now Kagome is more powerful than even me, though admittedly less experienced, and I have taught her almost everything I know. As she asked though, I kept it hidden. She knew that the only chance she might have against Naraku was to train in secret, so that even her companions would not know of it. As of a month ago though, I came to regret that decision." Kikyo paused, her expression growing slightly mournful as she paused in her story.

"I am not sure why you do not know this part of the story yet, but I shall relate what I know of it all the same. During that last battle over a month ago you were not the only one injured. Kagome too suffered relatively grievous wounds, and as she acquired them she almost fatally distracted Inuyasha. I am not completely clear on what happened next, but what I do know is that those of your group not injured sent Kagome away, ordering her to go back to her home, and practically banishing her from your group."

Kikyo lowered her head slightly in respect for her reincarnation's loss. "Broken-hearted and in shock, she obeyed as best she could stand, not knowing what else to do. Before she left though, she requested that I join your group when Inuyasha asked and, once again, I agreed." She finished.

Sango was in just as much shock as she was now sure Kagome had been. 'It's no wonder those two didn't want to tell me,' she began to think angrily. 'What the hell were they thinking? But Kagome, poor Kagome… they must have broken her heart… It makes me wonder if even she can forgive them.'

Having some inkling of Sango's thoughts as her emotions flashed unhidden over her face Kikyo once again grew thoughtful. 'So she didn't know after all…' she thought, pondering the implications. 'I'll trust her with one last thing then.'

Before Sango could even open her mouth to comment on the story, Kikyo once again spoke, staring seriously at the woman before her. "That, of course, is not the entirety of what happened that night. However, I will tell you one thing more if you swear not to tell the other members of the group, especially Inuyasha, of it."

Broken out of her thoughts and shocked by the proposition, Sango didn't even stop to think about it. "Of course." The words spilled out of her words in an almost unintelligible hurry. She grimaced slightly as she heard herself, embarrassed. "I mean; I won't tell, I swear." She stated seriously, correcting herself.

Seeing the resolve in the taijiya's eyes, Kikyo nodded and began. "Kagome did not go 'home'." As she said this she emphasized the last word meaningfully.

Sango was confused for a moment, not quite understanding, but then her eyes widened incredulously. Then, seeking affirmation, she raised her gaze to meet Kikyo's and said, "You mean..?"

Kikyo gave an almost invisible smirk. "Yes."

As Kikyo confirmed what she had said, Sango's eyes narrowed slightly, considering the consequences. Kagome was still in this time. That meant she was somewhere out there, probably continuing her quest for the shards on her own. Also, if what Kikyo said about the results of her training over the past year is true, she probably won't have too many problems handling it.

It was also more than just likely that they would eventually meet again. While she wasn't exactly looking forward to Inuyasha's reaction when he found out, she couldn't help but be grateful for Kagome's decision, and whatever part Kikyo played in it.

Turning her attention back to the undead miko that was patiently waiting for a response, she said, "Thank you," and gave a slight bow. "Thank you for telling me," she continued. "You have given me a lot to think about." She frowned at this last, but the gratitude was almost palpable.

Then she stood, a look that varied between thoughtful and angry on her face, and turned to leave, the forest barley making a rustle in her wake. She soon disappeared among the trees, quickly vanishing from the undead miko's sight as she made her way back to the group's campsite.

Kikyo herself did not follow for quite a while, choosing instead to take the rare quiet time to meditate for a bit, desperately hoping she had made the right choice in revealing as much as she did to the taijiya. But if she hadn't… If this was the wrong choice…

'I hope you can forgive me, Kagome. And I hope you won't need to.'

.-.

Over a week later…

Kagome sighed in relief as she sat up from where she had been leaning over her latest patient, the wound she had been tending to finally closed. The man she had been healing had sliced his own leg open while at work chopping wood for his family's fire. While not a large injury, it had been quite deep for such an everyday wound and had taken a bit of effort to heal properly.

Not that she was at all averse to tending to such mundane injuries after the last village she had visited. She'd take something like this over an unnatural plague every day. Just thinking about the kind of deaths that disease had caused and would have caused still made her shiver in disgust. Naraku was one sick bastard to have thought up such a thing. Not that she didn't already know that, but…

Closing her eyes and shaking her head slightly in an almost imperceptible movement, Kagome quickly attempted to rid herself of the distracting thoughts. Turning her attention back to the woman and child that had watched her work anxiously, she smiled and said, "He'll be fine with a few days rest." She assured the pair hovering on the other side of the man. "He should be able to get back to work within the week." She continued, giving the man's wife a comforting smile.

The woman smiled back tremulously, reaching up to wipe worried tears from the corners of her eyes. As she took away her hand, it was apparent that the woman was just about as plain and ordinary as they come, but the relief and love obvious in her expression as she gazed at her spouse made her beautiful.

The she turned her attention back to the miko and spoke, "Thank you, my lady," she said softly as she released her son from her grip. "Thank you so much. I don't know what we would have done without you, Kagami-sama." She bowed her head, her gratitude apparent.

Kagome smiled awkwardly in return, inwardly wincing as she returned the half bow with a tilt of her head. "You are welcome," she returned. After the results of her actions at Bertu, she was simply grateful to not have to deal with anyone groveling in gratitude or apology. The thanks still unnerved her slightly, but she was learning to accept it as best she could.

"But your thanks are not necessary," she continued, "I would have done it regardless." She was also, if she did say so herself, learning how to accept it with grace. Hopefully.

After exchanging a few more awkward (at least on her end) pleasantries with the woman she left the small hut that belonged to the family, squinting her eyes against the setting sun as she did so. Glancing to the east, in the direction of the village of Bertu, she sighed again.

It had been over a week since she had left the village, and she still couldn't get some of the things that had happened there out of her mind. First and foremost was the plague. She couldn't help but worry about what Naraku was up to, and if something like that would happen again, except perhaps on a larger scale.

Running a close second was Sesshomaru. She seemed incapable of keeping the daiyoukai out of her thoughts for long periods of time, and the state of her previous companions, especially Sango, was beginning to worry her as well. She still couldn't help but wonder at how easily he had distracted her from their presence though. Was it just him? She didn't think she had ever blushed more frequently and in such a short period of time before. At that thought she couldn't help but flush again in embarrassment.

She blinked abruptly as she was broken out of her thoughts by a young woman running up to her, shouting at the top of her lungs, "Kagami-sama! Kagami-sama!" she skidded to a stop in front of the bewildered miko before looking up at her and continuing. "Kagami-sama, some of the village men found a young girl collapsed in the woods! Some of the women have brought her to the hot springs, but she's so injured, we don't know what to do! Can you help her?" she asked worriedly.

"Of course." Kagome said. "Take me to her immediately."

.-.

Pushing gently past the concerned women surrounding the girl, bushes rustling at her feet, and into the hot spring clearing her eyes immediately fell on the child. Eyes widening with horror, she gasped as she noticed the horrible shape the poor girl was in.

She looked to be around thirteen or fourteen years old, her face caked in so much blood and mud she couldn't tell if it was injured or not, much less her general features. Her hair was tangled and torn, as well as missing large clumps in places, and just as dirty and blood covered as the rest of her. She was wearing a much too large set of shirt and pants, but the sleeves were short and she could see that one arm was clearly broken in multiple places, and both were covered in countless scratches and bruises.

The girl's nose also looked to be broken and bloody, and the clothes were roughly torn in places and were held up by only thick rope. It was obvious that the girl had been beaten, and badly, and this was just from what was visible outside of the clothes. She was almost scared of what the girl looked like under them.

Straightening her spine, Kagome rushed to the child's side. She would have to clean the girl off before she did any healing, if there was any dirt in the wounds when the skin healed over…it would not be pleasant for the girl in any case.

Before she began though, she turned to the concerned women surrounding her, "If all of you would leave us for a moment?" she asked. At the somewhat surprised and slightly suspicious looks, she explained, "I'll have to get her clean before I begin to heal her, and if she wakes it will be embarrassing enough if I'm the only one here." She left unsaid her concerns of the girl's reaction to being surrounded by so many people after receiving such brutal injuries.

The women nodded and made sounds of agreement as they thought of how they might feel in the girl's place. Before they left though, one of the more considerate women left behind a clean, spare kimono for the girl-child.

Picking up the girl as carefully as she could manage, she moved her closer to the spring. As Kagome was laying her down though, something felt off, as if her instincts were screaming that something wasn't right with the situation. Shaking off the feeling, she paused in concern when the girl gave a low groan.

She had hoped she would be able to at least clean the girl off before she woke up; from what she could tell, it was going to be an incredibly painful experience if she was conscious for it. Quickly reaching for the rope, she had it undone and was beginning to remove it when the girl's eyes suddenly snapped open.

Sitting up reflexively, the girl let out a hoarse scream as her body reacted to the harsh movement. Her eyes immediately flashed to Kagome and they widened in obvious fear at her presence. She rapidly began backing away, but didn't have far to go with the hot spring directly behind her.

After she noticed this for herself, her eyes bounced desperately around the clearing, looking for other escape routes. Finding none, she returned her attention to Kagome and began to speak, voice low and hoarse from previous screaming, "I'm sorry! Please don't kill me!" she begged. "I'll leave, I swear, you'll never have to see me again! Just, please don't hurt me!" Tears streamed down the girl's face involuntarily and Kagome automatically reached out in concern.

Aborting the action midway, she instead took the girls hands in her own, to stop her from moving about unnecessarily. The girl stopped begging at the action and looked down, her eyes still wide with fear and her breath coming in short gasps. Kagome made soothing sounds, attempting to calm her down.

"It's ok, I won't hurt you," she tried to reassure the girl in a soft voice. "I promise. I want to help. And after I get you cleaned up, I'll heal you, alright?" she continued.

Gripping the girl's overly large shirt before she could say anything in either confirmation or to object, Kagome pulled it off of her in a single swift motion as carefully as she could. The girl, who had seemed to be calming down, once again shoved away, this time to the side and along the bank of the hot spring, practically fleeing from Kagome's line of vision.

And this time Kagome knew why. There, plainly visible now that the shirt was off, were two mud caked, blood spattered wings held half open at clearly awkward angles. Her mind blanked for a moment. Then she immediately realized what her senses had been trying to tell her.

"You…" she breathed in shock, "You're a hanyou."

.-.

The girl winced at the soft, final statement. She knew what would happen now, it wasn't like it was the first time something like this had happened, though it was admittedly the first time a miko had been involved. She quickly looked around for any less obvious escape routes. She had never been purified before and she wasn't exactly relishing the chance to experience such a thing.

The miko made a movement towards her that she barely caught out of the corner of her eye, and she cringed, cursing the fresh tears that left new trails through the dirt and blood on her face, as well as the weakness they displayed. Was…was this the end? She squeezed her eyes shut in horrified anticipation.

When nothing happened after a few moments, she opened her eyes slightly to peek at the miko kneeling not to far from her. She hadn't moved an inch since that last, and was staring at her with an odd expression on her face. Then she slowly spread her arms out to her side, empty hands facing the girl.

"It's ok; I'm not going to hurt you." The miko repeated, as if she hadn't even seen them. "I promise."

The miko didn't move after that, but that just made her even more afraid. No one, no one who knew about her had ever reacted that way. It was unfamiliar, and almost more terrifying than if the miko had reacted in the expected negative fashion. So, despite the calm voice, the girl backed up even further, letting out a cut off hiss of pain when a large boulder blocked her path.

One of her wings was trailing on the ground beside her, and it looked to be the most damaged out of everything. The ones that had… had done this to her; they had been aiming for her wings and her torso, she knew that the rest of her looked mostly normal so they'd been almost side notes to… them.

Turning her attention back to the miko, she was surprised by the emotion she recognized in the holy maiden's eyes. It was sorrow; sorrow and sympathy. Why… why was she looking at her like that? She clearly knew what she was; she had said it herself… so why..?

"Why wouldn't you hurt me?" she said, both hesitant and suspicious. "You're a priestess; you're made to hurt demons." The miko shook her head and inched forward a bit, stopping when the girl noticed. What was with this miko? And what was it about her that made her respond at all?

"I'm not like most priestesses," the miko pointed out, as if the girl was unable to tell that for herself. "I believe in helping and healing all." Right, like she hadn't heard lines like that before. "Also," here the miko used her hands to indicate herself, and the girl tried not to flinch at the movement. "I don't have all that much energy at the moment, so I'm not much of a danger to you right now." She claimed.

Not trusting the miko in the slightest, the girl eyed her for an endless moment. Biting her lip in careful concentration, fighting through the pain, she tentatively grasped a small portion of her yoki to confirm the claim. Extending the thread of energy to wrap around the other female, she frowned in concentration.

Just as the miko had said, there wasn't much readily available energy within her… there was something though, just beneath the surface that she couldn't quite identify. What..? She stretched herself more, both curious and wary, but just as she might have felt something…

The thread snapped back into herself, what remained of her small energy resources almost completely depleted. Exhausted, she collapsed, but didn't do more than flinch as the strange miko rushed to her side.

'She…she's really worried about me…' she thought with a faint sense of wonder. Then her vision blurred, and even as she strained against it, darkness encroached upon her line of sight.

The last thing she saw before she finally passed out was two concerned blue-gray eyes framed by long curtains of silky black hair.

~ Author's Note ~

Well, chapter five has finally arrived. Hey, that kinda rhymed… I think… *slightly embarrassed cough* Anyway, I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to post this, but a combination of an increasing college workload, writer's block on all of my stories, and other 'real life' concerns have been conspiring against me for the past few weeks. Sorry again, but there is a warning on my profile concerning such things. Procrastination can be a horrible thing…

This chapter introduces a new character though, so hopefully that makes up for the delay. Also, especially to those who read the original version by night flame miko, this where my story has really started to diverge from that one. Hopefully my way of doing things is working for it though! Feedback is always appreciated, so tell me what you think of how I portrayed Kikyo and Sango in the first part; I'm a bit unsure about it still.

Thank you for you patience with my rambling *cue exaggerated bow*, and please, do review. See ya next time…

~ Aljan Moonfire ~