Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter 24 – Training Day (Part 2)

Unfortunately, as much as Yasha and InuYasha wished to continue their intense training, fate was against them.

Once InuYasha had calmed down from his exhilarating flight and bolted down a quick breakfast, both Yasha and he had continued their "lessons". Tsuru had explained to the rather disappointed Yasha that even by full youkai standards he was still a bit young to have a fully developed youki. On the other hand Tsuru assured the young hanyou, that since he now had the same access to his youki as a full youkai he would probably gain an even better control of his powers than InuYasha. Yasha would naturally grow into his power just as a full youkai would, while InuYasha would have to contend with gaining control of his very powerful fully developed and mature youki.

Both InuYasha and Yasha continued to meditate and for the first part of the day they made great progress, but as the afternoon continued both hanyou found it increasingly difficult to find their youki let alone control it.

Just as InuYasha was about to completely lose his patience, Kagome came to the rescue reminding her frustrated mate that the closer the night of the new moon came, the weaker his natural powers.

Finally both hanyou gave up and informed Tsuru that they would have to wait till morning for any further lessons.

Not wishing to detain the now fully restored youkai from his own quest of returning to his beloved for longer than necessary, InuYasha also informed the helpful crane that they would continue down the road come morning, any lessons would be held as they traveled. Gaining control of their youki was wonderful, but the quest still held first priority.

As the sun began to set, both hanyou retreated within the cave and Tsuru was captivated by the sudden and extreme change that washed over the two hanyou, now humans.

At first the crane did not wish to make either of the temporary humans uncomfortable, but as the evening wore on he finally felt compelled to observe "I truly did not believe that ones as powerful as you could really lose all of your youki. To be quite honest, I thought that with the new access to your powers, that you might not change at all, or that the change might only be cosmetic, but I am unable to detect any of your youki, not even the smallest trace."

InuYasha nodded, and replied "I wasn't sure if we would change normally or not either, but this is exactly what happens every month. We're still stronger than a regular human, but not a bit of youki."

Not wishing to make the temporary human any more nervous than he obviously already was Tsuru decided to quickly change the subject and observed "I wonder if we should check the prophecy for new clues, I know we decided that it had become mostly useless since my arrival, but now that half of the quest is completed I was thinking there may be some new information to be gleaned."

Realizing that any distraction was a good thing for the two hanyous turned humans Kagome chimed in "What a great idea. There's a real possibility that we might be able to pinpoint the spot in the prophecy which refers to the crowns. Now that we know what the crown of destiny is and who it was intended to help, we might be able to pinpoint that part. Where I come from they say hindsight has perfect vision* so we should be able to pick it out!"

The quintet quickly gathered around the well worn prophecy and soon relocated the spot where Tsuru's arrival was foretold, they then proceeded slowly, carefully reading each line. It took much longer than anticipated, but finally after reading and discarding several dozen paragraphs of gibberish, they hit pay dirt.

The little princess, reading faster than everyone else, was the first to spot the vital lines exclaiming "Everyone listen to this - 'Liquid stones of power, lie easy on the true ones' heads. Control that which was once wild, gain the power that once was sought'." Quickly continuing before anyone else could interject, the excited princess continued "The stones were once liquid that dripped to make those formations in the cave and probably dripped to form the crowns."

Then before the princess could continue to hog all the fun Kagome interjected "And InuYasha's youki was wild and uncontrollable, and he originally wanted the Shikon jewel so he could gain the power of a full blooded youkai."

At everyone's nod of agreement they once again started to read, looking for the next clue. The one that would lead them as quickly as possible to the mysterious relic they still need to find.

The evening had progressed, the little princess and Kagome had nodded off, but InuYaha, Yasha and Tsuru continued their perusal. Tsuru eventually excused himself, he need to stretch his legs, as it was hard for the lanky youkai to sit in one position for hours on end while in his human form. The two hanyou turned humans barely acknowledge the youkai's departure and return as they carefully read and reread each line.

It was nearly dawn when Yasha excitedly pointed to the text and turning to his older counterpart whispered "Listen to this – 'Wings of power raise you aloft, fly to your destiny, fly to your goal, fly to your home' – you just learned to fly using your youki power, and what are we looking for - this quest is your destiny, the relic is definitely your goal, and it's what you need to get home."

Tsuru who had was aroused by Yasha's excited whisper added "If we need to fly, I can be of help, I believe I should be able to transport Yasha and the little princess with little difficulty, and InuYasha, you should be able to transport your mate if I remain close by to supervise you."

InuYasha nodded, but was cut off from replying by the arrival of dawn's first light. Tsuru looked on in wonder as the two dark haired, dark eyed humans began to transform, first to change was their midnight hair, which in moments bled all hint of black and once again turned to it's near pure white, then glancing down to the two hanyou's hands the crane noticed the regrowth of the deadly claws that the half demon's used to such great effect. Next Tsuru realized that both InuYasha and Yasha had closed their dark brown eyes only to open them a moment later revealing their once more golden orbs, but the most amazing change occurred last of all. Tsuru was mesmerized as both sets of human ears shrank and then totally disappeared only to reappear on the top of the two hanyou's heads as their trademark puppy dog ears.

As soon as their transformation was complete both half demons began to sniff and their ears began to swivel and twitch. Tsuru realized that after a night of what must have been near total sensory deprivation (at least by inu standards) the two were reorienting and regrounding themselves. As soon as the two had settled down Tsuru felt it was safe to comment "We should let the ladies rest a bit more and then let them know of your discovery in the prophecy. We will have to keep an eye out for this location that we will need to fly to, did the prophecy have anything else to add?"

All three once again turned back to the prophecy reading and discarding several more paragraphs only stopping when the two slumbering humans began to stir.

Neither Kagome nor the princess were at their sharpest first thing in the morning so all three males wisely allowed the two females to visit a nearby bush and then offered them cups of hot water flavored with edible flowers to produce an herb tea like result.

Once both girls were more awake Yasha reread his find in the prophecy. The princess, with the ebullience of youth exclaimed "This is just what we were looking for; I just know we are almost there, I can feel it! Now we only have to locate the next clue in the prophecy!"

Smiling Kagome slowly began to speak "I am not sure if we will have to search for more information right now. I have to agree that Yasha found a valid clue, but since we've been able to walk or climb everywhere this road we have been following leads, I say let's keep following the road, I think that it will lead somewhere where we will not be able to follow, not without flying. I believe this road is here just for us to follow, I've been thinking a lot about this. I bet that once InuYasha and I return home, if any of you were to return to this land, the road that we have been following will no longer exist."

Eyes wide with shock, InuYasha asked "You really think things have been set up for us to this extent? That this road we are on is here just for us and our quest?"

Nodding Kagome replied "Yes, I truly do believe this road, this cave; everything is here just for us. I think this quest is bigger than us, bigger than just finding the relic and getting back home, bigger than just keeping the relic out of that nasty old exorcist's hands. We saw it before with the Shikon No Tama, objects of great power do not just stay lost, they have a way of turning up sooner or later**, if this relic is anything like the Shikon was, it has a certain 'life' of it's own, whether it is made of living beings like the Shikon or if it is just made up of energy or raw power it will do it's best to control it's own destiny. The big question is - what does it want us to do? My own personal opinion is these objects should be destroyed. The old exorcist flat out said she wanted to use it to increase her own power, that puts it on the same sort of level as the Shikon and that makes it incredibly dangerous."

Tsuru rubbed his chin and then spoke "If you follow that line of reasoning miko, the crowns of destiny should have been destroyed, but instead they were used as they were meant to and have freed both your own mate and Yasha from the possible loss of their minds and souls."

Nodding eagerly Kagome quickly resumed "True, but I bet the crowns would have been useless to anyone other than InuYasha and Yasha. Just one look at their shape and it was obvious that they would not fit anyone else; I wager that they had no other function or use other than joining with InuYasha and Yasha. The relic on the other hand that's a whole different story, I for one would be very happy if it had one specific user and purpose, but from the way the old exorcist talked, I fear it can be used by anyone with the proper knowledge and not necessarily for good."

Worriedly, the little Princess inquired "If that's the case, what will we do? How will we keep others from using the relic for evil, will it try to corrupt us, or my father, or the scholars, and if you use it to get back home, what will you be able to do to keep the old exorcist from using it for evil?"

Gazing directly into his mate's eyes InuYasha sighed and spoke softly "We can only try to figure out if the relic is good or evil or neutral. As for getting home, if we can't find a way to destroy or neutralize the relic we may not be able to return, the risk to our world might be too great."

On that somber note, the group quietly packed their belongings and one more started down the road.

* Kagome changed the adage "hindsight is 20/20" to "hindsight has perfect vision" since she knows that the others would have no idea about 20/20 vision (or 6/6 vision for our metric readers) since these standards for measuring vision did not come into use till the mid/late 1800's!

** Was thinking of the "Lord of the Ring's" One Ring of Power – those things never stay lost like they are supposed to!