Chained: In More Ways Than One
Any Sign of Her
Inuyasha and his other companions managed to regroup deep in the middle of the woods.
"Any sign of her?" Inuyasha asked them. Disappointed and feeling a little guilty when he saw neither of them had Kagome with them.
"Nothing in my direction." Miroku pointed back the way he came from the south.
"There isn't any sign of her in the north neither." Sango added on.
Inuyasha hadn't found any sign of her in the east direction he had come from either even with his demon like senses. He was becoming really worried because Kagome had now been missing for the whole night and the sun had already begun to rise in the sky.
"Well there is only one other direction we can check then because I didn't find anything either... West." Inuyasha lead his group with comprehension. Whenever he heard that word his hated full demon half brother popped into his head. (what a mouth full)
They hadn't been walking in that direction long when they stumbled onto the path of broken tree's the ogre had left behind.
Inuyasha gawked as he walked into the middle of the path to look down it only to see the field they had been battling in earlier not too far away. "How'd I miss this?" The other just finished emerging from the bushes to find Inuyasha putting his nose to the air.
Most of the scent was washed away by the rain but Inuyasha could pick up a hint of Kagome's aging scent. This is definitely the way she had came.
After he got over his shock he immediately turned around and started to dash in the other direction not waiting for the others to catch up leaving them in confusion.
Inuyasha knew at the end off this path he would find his best friend Kagome. Hopefully alive. He traveled so fast he missed another scent that had joined up with hers on the path.
Inuyasha screeched to a halt after realizing that he had passed the ending of the path because he noticed that Kagome's scent had disappeared but then he picked up a slightly familiar scent.
'What's that?' It wasn't very strong because it was old so it was hard to tell who's it was. Inuyasha began to back track following this new scent until he began to circle around a tree.
He had the erg to look up and when he did he noticed something green near the top. "I'd know that uniform anywhere." Inuyasha immediately jumped up to the top to retrieve the piece of Kagome's skirt.
Inuyasha sniffed it to get a reminder of Kagome's scent. It still smelt strongly of the Miko. He tucked it in his sleeve for safe keeping.
'How is it that her scent just disappears. Her skirt was in the tree meaning she had to drop around here somewhere. ' Inuyasha was having a hard time picking out Kagome's scent over the ogre's. He had then resulted to his hands and knees.
The other's arrived on Kirara not to long after to find Inuyasha in his undignified position. They all dismounted and stared at Inuyasha in question. Wondering if he even knew they were there but then he spoke to them.
"Gods it's every where!" Shouted a frustrated Inuyasha as he threw some of the mud at a tree that had stuck to his hands as he had crawled.
"What's every where?" Asked a questionable monk as Shippo climbed on his shoulder to get a closer look at what Inuyasha was talking about. The only thing he could see that was everywhere was mud.
"The scent of the ogre! Some how it has managed to cover a large area blocking out almost all of the underlying scents but one." Inuyasha replied as he sat in the mud crossing his arms in annoyance. Not caring because he was already dirty beyond imagination.
"What scent are you talking about? " This picked Shippo's attention. Inuyasha pointed in the direction of the tree he had been circling earlier with out even looking up. Shippo immediately pushed off Miroku's shoulder to check out the area Inuyasha had pointed too.
"I don't know why but I recognize it." Inuyasha said in thought as Shippo began to sniff the area.
"I don't know how to explain the familiar scent that isn't Kagome's but I think I know how the ogre's scent spread over such a large distance…" Sango paused to make sure Inuyasha was paying attention to her which he now was.
"Kagome probably purified the demon and its ashes got spread by the wind but since then it's rained so now you are sitting in…" Sango trailed off again this time with a sigh not wanting to break the news to the dirty hanyou.
"It's purified ogre isn't it." Sango could only shake her head in confirmation. Inuyasha stood up in disgust but it didn't help his plight because he was almost completely covered in the stuff.
As the grownups scrabbled over the unimportant issue Shippo had been following the scent with his nose which lead him to pile of leaves at the bottom of a tree that looked like there had once been a human body sitting in them recently.
Shippo caught everyone's attention when they heard the sound of leaves flying. He could faintly smell another scent mixing with the one he had been following. As he reached the bottom he confirmed the identities of the two scents and it wasn't good.
'Oh no. What could Sesshoumaru possibly want with Kagome.' Shippo was afraid to tell Inuyasha because he knew he would most likely go on a rampage at the mere mention of his half brother's name.
"What are you doing?" Sango asked Shippo as she kneeled beside him. He jumped a foot in shock. Shippo hadn't noticed the others walk over he was so deep in thought.
"Well you see I followed the scent that Inuyasha said he found familiar and I found out… it was… and…found" Shippo began to stutter as his nerves about telling Inuyasha got to him because he knew he would most likely to take out his anger on him.
"Spit it out already!" Yelled the impatient hanyou mentioned formerly.
"It's Sesshoumaru… Sesshoumaru has Kagome." Shippo covered his head waiting for the hit that never came. He peeked out his fingers to see Inuyasha frozen from shock mid reach towards him.
Shippo hoped he stayed that way at least long enough for him to make his escape.
While listening the monk had decided to lean against a tree but then felt something wet soak through his robe. He looked down only to see what looked like mud… but he knew better and he voiced his feelings about it loudly.
But then Inuyasha was snapped back into his motion of grabbing Shippo by the tail. Snapped back to rea;ity by the loud disgusted noise the monk had made.
After Miroku looked around he noticed the tree he had decided to rest against was the only tree covered in the stuff (The one Kagome hit). Miroku grumbled to himself about his bad karma as he tried to rub it off with a near by clean leaf.
"What do you mean Sesshoumaru has her? How could you even tell that if I couldn't.
He's my brother an my nose is better than yours. " Inuyasha brought Shippo to his face in an intimidating manor.
Shippo didn't appreciate the comment of his inferior senses to the hanyou's.
"I may have an inferior sense of smell but at least I have a bigger brain to do more with what I have then you ever could." Shippo took hold of the said superior nose and as soon as Inuyasha dropped him to grab his nose in pain Shippo scattered to hide behind Sango as soon as he hit the ground.
Inuyasha made to go after him but stopped at the glare he received from the giant boomerang wielding Amazon women.
"Their scents meet up in that pile of leaves. I think the reason Sesshoumaru's scent wasn't covered was because he arrived after the ogre had been purified and the rain. Kagome's scent was completely washed away by both." Shippo made his point from the safety of Sango's back where Inuyasha couldn't reach him.
"I bet Sesshoumaru killed her on sight!" Inuyasha claimed after examining the area himself and confirming Shippo's info. He was beginning to crack under the quilt of losing his best friend.
*Wrack* Sango hit Inuyasha over the head to snap him back to sanity.
"Calm down Inuyasha. If he killed her on sight we would've found a body. I doubt he would be carrying her corpse around or bring her someplace else to just to kill her. He must've taken her with him for some reason. She's still alive."
"What the hell would my brother want with Kagome?" Ask a confused hanyou who looked around at his friends for answers. They all shook their heads because they had no idea either.
"We have to continue searching for her." Inuyasha was going to jump right back into the hunt when Sango pointed something out.
"First, you don't know which way Sesshoumaru took her so you aren't going to be able to track them. Second, you guys have to take a bath." Sango commanded as she held her nose.
Inuyasha's ears immediately planted to his head. He hated baths. Sango and Kirara were the only two who had avoided the mud. Well if he had to take a bath he was taking her down with him.
"What are you doing?" Sango screamed and ran from Inuyasha as he picked up a glod of wet purified ogre and aimed to fire at her.
Sango hadn't gotten far when she felt the glod hit her square in the back. *splat*
"Thanks a lot Inuyasha." Sango said sarcastically as they went on their way to find a hot spring to soak in.
"Your welcome." Inuyasha responded. Sango didn't know if he knew she was being sarcastic or he actually thought she was thanking him.