The next morning, Grace was sitting by the pond that Kagome was bathing in, while Kaede was putting her clothes over the fire.
"You got to be kidding! I didn't even think that there was a time before hot baths!" Kagome complained. Kaede tried to convince her to get out and she refused, and Grace tuned the conversation out in favor of the one from last night.
~ Flashback ~
"What did you do to it?!" Inuyasha said for the sixth time in counting.
"Stop barking, Inuyasha!" Kaede scolded.
"Leave it to her to wind of breaking it!" Inuyasha said bitingly.
"Technically it wasn't Kagome, but the foot that she tied to her arrow." Grace reminded him.
"You too, Grace? Whose side are you on?!" Inuyasha demanded.
"Inuyasha, remember that the foot has to go back to its original owner so Kagome can't help it if the foot actually went towards the crow." Grace said as Inuyasha grumbled.
"The Jewel has not been scattered into many pieces scattered throughout the land. One hundred, one thousand, who knows? All it will take it just one in the wrong hands to bring disaster." Kaede said as she looked at the three of them. "Kagome, Inuyasha, Grace, only by working together will the three of ye be able to recover the shards of the Jewel." Grace and Kagome gasped while Inuyasha smirked.
"You won't catching me complaining. I'm one of the 'wrong hands' you were talking about!" Inuyasha said. Kaede smirked back, one that wiped off the one on Inuyasha's face.
"Oh aye, I know that too well. That is why I want Grace to go with the two of you. That way you can be kept in check." Kaede said.
~ Flashback Ends ~
Kagome swam back up to the surface and began walking to the edge, when suddenly she looked up to see Inuyasha above her. He blinked twice and the two of them were silent for a moment, until Kagome shrieked loud enough for Kaede to hear.
"Sit boy!" Kagome said, and the Beads of Subjugation glowed before hauling Inuyasha down the hill until he landed face-first behind us.
"Thee alright, Inuyasha?" Kaede asked as Inuyasha sat up and grabbed the beads.
"Oh man, I forgot about this stupid necklace!" Inuyasha said.
"It serves you right for spying on me, you Peeping Tom!" Kagome said, getting dressed behind a set of bushes with Grace.
"Were you actually peeping on her naked, Inuyasha!?" Grace asked, looking at Inuyasha in shock and disbelief. He looked at her incredulously before looking away.
"No! Shows what you know! The real reason I came here was-" Inuyasha began, before Kaede interrupted him.
"Ye really came to steal this shard, correct?" Kaede interpreted. Inuyasha stopped talking and crossed his arms and legs.
"Think you're so smart, you old hag." Inuyasha muttered.
"Inuyasha, ye forget that only yon girl can find those shards. Only ye Inuyasha have strength enough to take them back one found." Kaede said.
"In case you haven't noticed I'm still here, aren't I? I can be around Grace; she's not half bad. I can put up with anything for the Jewel!" Inuyasha declared. Grace and Kagome stood in front of him.
"You really do hate me, don't you?" Kagome asked. Inuyasha's breath caught. In that outfit, Kagome looked a lot like Kikyo. When Inuyasha looked at Grace in a kimono, he started to blush a little and turned away. She turned away and grabbed her clothes, flinging water out of them before placing them over the fire to dry. Inuyasha was glaring at Kagome and growling menacingly.
"And what ails ye now?" Kaede asked. He didn't answer and kept staring at Kagome, who stared right back. Luckily the tension was broken by a woman, who walked from behind the bushes.
"Lady Kaede?" The lady asked as Kaede grunted and stood, walking towards her. "It's my daughter." The two of them began talking.
"Of course. Lead the way." Kaede said. Then she turned back to us. "I'll be gone for a while now. Try not to fight." She walked three of them were silently for a second, until Inuyasha looked at Kagome.
"Hey." Inuyasha said.
"What?" Kagome asked.
"Get undressed." Inuyasha said. Without saying anything Kagome picked up a boulder the size of a pot and smashed against his head. "Ow! That... hurt! Why did you-" He held his head while a large bump appeared.
"You're such a pig." Kagome said, glaring at him and disgusted.
"I didn't say 'get naked' stupid! I just can't stand seeing you in those clothes!" Inuyasha said angrily.
"Why? 'Cause I look like Kikyo?" Kagome asked. He stopped before turning his head to the side.
"It's got nothing to do with it, okay?" Inuyasha said defiantly.
"Then, should I change out of these clothes, too?" Grace asked as Inuyasha looked at her before he turned away.
"No. You're fine. I don't mind you being in those clothes." Inuyasha mumbled, looking away and blushing a little.
"Really?" Grace asked.
"Yeah." Inuyasha mumbled.
'Please, my little brother is more mature.' Kagome thought. 'But I can understand why he doesn't mind Grace wearing those clothes.' She looked at Grace. 'She looks like a pretty priestess.' She looked back at Inuyasha.
"Look, I don't want to do this either, okay? But we have to work together!" Kagome said. Inuyasha looked sideways at her.
"I ain't gotta do nothin'! It's you and Grace that needs me!" Inuyasha said.
'He does have a point since me and Kagome can't fight.' Grace thought. 'Even though, I am a fairy, I can't seem to unleash my powers yet.'
"Oh, I get it. So, you don't care of I leave?" Kagome asked. She began picking up her clothes and Inuyasha's ears twitched.
"Hey, where you going?" Inuyasha asked.
"What do you care? I'm going home." Kagome declared, gathering her clothes in her arms before walking off. "Goodbye, Inuyasha."
"You can't just leave! You-!" Inuyasha began.
"It's not 'you'. It's Kagome." Kagome interrupted him.
"Wait, Kagome!" Grace said.
"Wait, stupid!" Inuyasha called out to her.
"It's not stupid either." Kagome huffed.
"It's too dangerous for you to leave! You might get hurt!" Grace said in a worried voice.
"Don't worry, Grace. I'll be fine." Kagome said.
"Will you just wait and hear me out?!" Inuyasha demanded.
"Why? So, you can try and stop me?" she said, looking back.
"No, so you can give me your Jewel shard." Inuyasha told her as Grace facepalmed herself.
"Oh, this?" Kagome said, holding up the bag it was in.
"Bad move, Inuyasha." Grace sighed.
"Sit boy." Kagome commanded as Inuyasha smashed back into ground, and she walked away again.
"Why you..." Inuyasha groaned while growling.
"It's Kagome." Kagome replied as Grace sighed and walked over to Inuyasha.
"Inuyasha, you really need to work on your sense of subtlety and tact." Grace said, watching Kagome walk off. She helped Inuyasha up from the ground and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Come on. Let me heal you." Grace and Inuyasha walked off. In other part of the river, Grace was wiping off the dirt on Inuyasha with her handkerchief. Inuyasha just sat there and watched her do it. Inuyasha couldn't help but stare at her as he doesn't know the feeling, he's getting from her. Grace then sensed something off.
"What's wrong, Grace?" Inuyasha asked.
"I sensed something dangerous coming." Grace said. "And it looks like it's in the direction Kagome walked off to."
"What is it? A demon?" Inuyasha questioned.
"Yes, and one with the power to control hair! Inuyasha, get to the village and find Kaede, she'll be in danger! I'll find Kagome!" Grace said as Inuyasha nodded. They went into separate directions. True enough, she entered the tress and was almost knocked to the ground when she ran into something. For a second, she couldn't see it, until she noticed gossamer threads of black crisscrossing in the air in front of her. She gasped.
'Please, my Sacred Jewel. Help me get to Kagome!' Grace thought, pleading. The Sacred and Purest Jewel in her glowed and it cut through the hairs. Grace gasped before she continued making for the Bone-Eater's Well while the Jewel keep cutting down any hairs that got in her way. She arrived just in time to see Kagome being hit with hairs like whips, and she looked up to see a demon with short dark green hair, red eyes and a very, err, endowed figure, and she wore only a black kimono that reached her thighs, a black choker around her neck and black fingerless gloves that reached her elbows. She is named Yura.
"Kagome!" Grace called and ran forward as the jewel in her body use its powers to cut the hairs.
"Ooo, another girl to play with? How exciting. But first, I'll be taking that!" Yura said. She pulled the hairs back and one of them wrapped around the pouch holding the Jewel Shard. "You naughty, naughty girl! You shattered the Jewel!" Yura attacks Kagome. "If you don't know where the rest of the Jewel is…" A katana rising beside her. She pulled it out and leaped down. "I might as well finish you off now!" Grace ran forward to stop her, but another pair of hairs wrapped around her ankles and pulled her off her feet again.
"No!" Grace said. Kagome's eyes widened in fear as Yura soared closer and she fell over the edge of the well when she swung.
"No use escaping!" Yura said, throwing her sword down. But there was no sound of stabbing, and she landed with a leg on either edge of the well. With a command the sword rose back to her, the blade completely clean of blood. "Well, that was the strange. Come to think of it, so was that girl." The Jewel in Grace's body glowed and cut the hairs off her ankle. She started to run. "You can't escape either!" She sent a torrent of hair at Grace. The jewel glowed again and cut the hairs coming after her. Yura didn't send anymore at Grace, and Grace escaped towards the village.
~ The Village ~
Inuyasha is in the village and was getting to fight a bunch of women floating in the air with knives and swords getting ready to kill him.
Inuyasha: ''wait a minute! they're all girls from the village. what's going on? Planning to tie me up again? well I'm not giving in.
Kaede:[injured and crawling towards Inuyasha slowly] Inuyasha, don't do it! do not harm the girls!
Inuyasha: old Kaede! [leaps to where Kaede is] Wow, look at you. you're a bloody mess.
Kaede: ''have you nothing nicer to say?
Inuyasha: ''so why shouldn't I hurt em, huh? they're sure trying to hurt me.
[The girls close in on Inuyasha and Kaede]
Kaede: 'they're all under a spell. [looks around] Kagome? where's Kagome and Grace?
"Kagome said she was going home...not that it matters or nothing and Grace went to find her because she sensed danger. I don't need her to handle this." Kaede said.
"You mustn't. Do not touch the village girls." Kaede said
"Will you quit flappin' your gums already? Or have you forgotten they're after you too." Inuyasha said.
"Don't you understand, Inuyasha? We must get to the one who is controlling them." Kaede said. Suddenly, one of the girls fly at Inuyasha and attacks. Inuyasha dodges when all the girl's strings that were attached to them were all cut by an energy ball. Inuyasha and Kaede see Grace held an energy ball in her hand then she lowers it and runs towards Inuyasha and Kaede.
"Hey are you guys alright?" Grace asked.
"Better now that you have finally shown yourself. Did you manage to find Kagome?" Inuyasha asked.
"I did but Yura of the Hair that was her name manage to get to her and Kagome fell through the well." Grace said as Inuyasha picks up Kaede seeing how hurt she is when Grace comes over to her. "I'm sorry that I wasn't here but I hope this will make up for it." She puts her hand over Kaede's wound and she heals it making Kaede and Inuyasha look surprise.
Kaede: ''Grace, you continue to surprise me. Thank you."
[Inuyasha then begins to run towards the forest where the Bone Eaters well as Grace was running behind him]
Inuyasha: "Hang in there, Old woman!"
Kaede:[noticing a web of tight hair in front of them] "Be careful, Inuyasha! The hair..."
Inuyasha:[leaping through the air, and snapping the hair without feeling anything or getting injured] "You say something, old woman?"
Kaede: "Nevermind."
[Grace is following behind them until they come to a secure part of the forest where Inuyasha puts Kaede down and begins to dig a pit ]
Kaede: "Inuyasha, I am resting. Not dead."
Inuyasha: "Then, think of it as a hiding place. I'll even come back to dig you out, if I don't forget. [grabs a pile of leaves and spread it on top of the soil]
Kaede: "Are you sure? You better not forget."
"He won't forget. I promise to make him remember." Grace smiled. She follows Inuyasha as they walk towards the Bone Eater's Well. "I can try to bring Kagome back but I don't know if the well will let me go through."
Inuyasha: "Give it a try."
[Grace nods then jumps down the well and didn't see the blue light come out and she just plainly lands on the bottom...she looks up and sees Inuyasha's face showing at the top. She sighs and then jumps back out landing in front of it]
"Looks like it will be you who goes in and gets Kagome. Good luck." Grace said as Inuyasha nods then he jumps down the Well and the blue light comes over the Well as she sits down beside it to wait for Inuyasha and Kagome.
Next Time:
"Yura of the Demon-Hair"
See You Soon!
