InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Beauty & the Beast ❯ Chapter 2

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Beauty & the Beast

By: Cassial_Darkfox

Still don't own any Inuyasha charactors and still own Sitora and everyone else, minus Shinjiru. She's my sister's charactor, so no theiving.

Speaking - "..."
Thoughts - '...'
Telepathy - ~...~

Chapter 2

Now as Kagome sits in the forest far from her village the thinks about what her mother meant. She wasn't feeling very companionable so she went off alone earlier on in the morning to just think. Sango told Kagome that the search around the village for youkai was, for the time being, through. So seeing no reason to stay home and see Hojo, Kagome took off.

She had brought her bow and her katana just in case something came across her in the forest. Being defenseless wasnt something Kagome planned on doing in the near future.

Kagome had finally seen Inuyasha, he came without Shippo. He tried to apologize, but she wouldn't let him.

*Flashback to two days ago*

"I'm so sorry Kagome."

"No, Inuyasha. You have no reason to be sorry. I shouldn't have reacted the way I did before. I'm sorry."

He took her in his arms and hugged her tightly, "I should have told you sooner. And after I told you she meant nothing to me, I'm so, so sorry Kagome. I do love you, but not in the wa you need me to. I want to, but I like what we have now. As friends."

Kagome's arms wrapped around Inuyasha's middle and she hugged him back, "I know Inuyasha and I don't blame you for what you feel. I also can't help what I feel. I'm going to ask you to so something for me."

He pulled away just enough to see her face, "Anything."

"I want you to stay away for a while."

"But-"

"No, you said anything. I need time to sort things out and I can do it best if I'm alone. Can you do that for me?"

Inuyasha nodded, "Yeah, I can do that for you."

Kagome smiled, "Thank you Inuyasha." She laid her head against his chest and fell asleep.

He smiled down at her, "You're welcome Kagome."

*End flashback*

When she had woken up it was dark and she was in her bed at home. She hadn't seen him since then and she knew he was staying away because she couldn't feel his youki either. That alone had shown Kagome that Inuyasha was willing to give her room to sort things out.

She sighed, 'I'm so bored.'

From behind her Kagome heard the bushes rustle. Very slowly she turned around and saw something silver. 'Inuyasha?' If it was Inuyasha she was going to hurt him for startling her. 'No,' Kagome thought, 'it's bigger than Inuyasha and has a tail.'

Kagome drew her katana and sat her bow down. Now in a defensive crouch she waited, hoping the stranger would reveal itself, but whatever it was didn't. So she slowly got to her feet and quietly started to walk towards the bushes. Once within range she took her sword and moved the bush to the side and revealed what the cause of the noise was.

There in a clearing stood a tiger, except it was colored strangly. The tiger's stripes were a dark blue and the main body color was silver. The under side of the tiger's body-it's stomach, and the inside of the tiger's legs-were a pure white. It's back was to Kagome so she saw that the back of the tiger's ears were black, which was normal for a tiger.

Suddenly it's head rose from where it was sniffing and looked to the right, deeper into the forest. Then the tiger growled and crouched down in an attack position.

She felt it, Kagome felt the approach of a missive youki coming towards the tiger. When it finally came into view it was another tiger, except this one's stripes were red and the tiger's body was black. It was growling loudly at the other tiger and stalking toward it. Then to Kagome's horror it turned toward her and charged.

Not even her sword would be enough to help Kagome against a youkai that strong. She shielded her face with her arms and fell back from the bushes. All that rang through her mind was the sound of the tiger's growls and the sound of breaking bone. Kagome, however, felt nothing, but she dared not to look up afraid of what she might find.

Another growl, this one different than the first, penetrated Kagome's subconscious. She risked one peek and what she saw surprised her beyond belief, the blue and silver tiger was standing in front of her attacking the black and red tiger. The silver tiger's left hind leg was bleeding badly, but it didn't even bother him.

The black tiger growled and launched itself at the silver one. The silver tiger jumped behind Kagome and grabbed her by the back of her kimono. They launched up into the sky.

Kagome saw the silver tiger's blue eyes narrow at her and in her mind she heard, ~Jump on my back, hurry.~ She did as she was told and held on to the tiger's fur.

Very quickly they fell towards the ground, but the tiger landed with grace in front of the black one. The black one charged again and this time the silver didn't dodge, it faced the black head on. Just as it seemed the black one would collide with them the silver sprang up and used it's back paws to tear up the black's back. When the silver turned and faced the black Kagome saw that the black one was bleeding worse than the silver was.

Two sets of four tears in the black's fur bled profusely and stained the dirt with crimson. With an effort hardly akin to the tiger they were just facing the black leapt slowly away and the silver followed it swiftly, with Kagome still on it's back.

Though she didn't want to go with the warring tigers, Kagome mused that it would be safer than anything else. So she held onto the tiger's fur tightly. a light growl from the tiger beneath her drew her attention back to the tiger.

~Would you mind not holding on so tight. It hurts.~

Kagome blushed and let her grip on the tiger's fur slack some. "Sorry." She was almost jerked off of silver when it stopped suddenly, there in front of them stood not one tiger as they were following after, but three now. "Shit."

On each side of the injured black one stood a tiger. The one to the black's left was dark blue with white stripes. On the black's right stood a tiger that was all black with dark green stripes covering it's body.

Silver felt another youkai approaching fast and to distract them from feeling the youki attacked the three tigers.

She watched as the silver lunged at swiped at the three tigers with it's front paws. It struck the blue and knocked it away from the fight into one of the trees surrounding them; it didn't get back up. Then silver stuck the ground with it's right front paw and down from the skies came snow and wind.

From above them came a howl accompanied by a large inu with wings dropping from the sky almost shrouded in the snow. It was black and the tips of it's wings were red. The inu landed in front of silver and just looked at them.

Kagome almost feared that it was with the other tigers, but when it turned towards the tigers and growled she knew it was with silver. The loud growl was followed by a series of small earthquakes. Then from the ground rose large pillers of rock and went to where the enemy tigers were standing.

At once they withdrew from the fight back into the forest hidden by the snow.

The inu looked past silver at Kagome and sniffed her, ~What is your name?~

"K-Kagome." She was starting to get cold, it was only spring after all and snow wasn't normal in spring.

It bowed, ~My name is Koa.~

"Are you going to take me back to my village?"

~I can not now, there is too much a risk of us meeting back up with Saisuke; the black tiger.~ He turned towards the sky, ~Come we must go.~

The silver crouched down and Kagome got off. She saw the tiger's injured back leg and went to it. Kagome heard the tiger growl in warning, "I'm going to help." Her hands hovered just above the wound and her miko energy went out to the injury. The bleeding injury was gone in seconds.

Silver purred in thanks and crouched back down to offer Kagome a ride. She accepted with a smile, but her world went black before she could move.


******


Kagome could hear voices but couldn't see anything. Then she felt pain in her chest so excruciating she felt herself scream.

His brown eyes watched from the door. The miko had helped one of his soldiers heal from a life threatening injury. That wound was laced with poison, so the miko, by healing her leg removed the poison. Now all she required was rest, the miko was a different story. She had suffered from six broken ribs; that alone would take two months to heal. Her energy level was also dangerously low for a miko.

So his doctors worked on her with all of their skills. They were all youkai and only ever treated youkai, so treating a human would be a test if they were really the best. If they weren't and the miko died, then he would simply kill them.

The head doctor approached him, "My Lord she will survive, but she will be out for at least three days."

He nodded, "Have her moved to a room in the south wing near Koa. And have Kagura arrange to have someone feed her."

The doctor bowed, "Yes, my Lord." He returned to Kagome's side and checked her pulse, he gave orders to one of the lower doctors and Kagome was on her way to her room to recover.

Still he watched from the doorway, this one intrigued him. She had willingly saved his general and she had even got on the tiger's back without fear or hesitation. He planned on using her recovery time to learn about her and her village.

"Are we interested already? Surely you plan to have her killed."

His chocolate brown eyes eyes settled on a red eyed female dragon. "Kagura, where have you been?"

She rolled her eyes, "I was out doing something you asked me to do. I found Inuyasha. He is in a village courting a female miko."

'Could it be her?'

Kagura's eyes held a gleam, "Not that miko, my Lord, another one. Her name is Kikyo."

His eyes narrowed at hearing that name. "Keep a close watch on the hanyou and miko. Report back to me at the end of every week."

"It is getting harder. The villagers have hired youkai exterminators and now they are patrolling the forests. I can not hide forever, my Lord."

"Should you need to stop your surveilence then you may, but until that time continue as you are doing." He turned his eyes back to the miko that was now sleeping.

She sighed, "Yes, my Lord." Kagura walked away and set off for the village that Inuyasha was occupying.

The doctor helped move Kagome to a room that, as told, was just down the hall from Koa. After she was settled into her room all of the doctors left her to her sleep. His eyes, however, stayed trained on her face. This miko looked familiar to him, but why?


*******


Koa sat on the floor slowly sipping his tea as he listened to Sitora complain again. She had wanted to see the miko that had saved her life, but her Lord wasn't letting anyone bother her. Sitora was pacing back and forth in his room, which annoyed him to no end. He remained calm and quiet, knowing that she would break for a breath and he could catch her off gaurd.

"I just wanted to see how she was doing. Maybe be able to see the face of the miko that saved my life; a youkai's life." She sighed heavily and plopped down on the floor. "He's a jerk."

This time Koa laughed, "Only you could get away with that Sitora." He reguarded her seriously, "You know how injured she was, and it seems our Lord has taken an interest in the young miko. Perhaps for the better."

"Well, if he keeps acting like he's got a sword up his ass; it's not better." Her blue eyes watched Koa as he drank his tea. It would be comical in any other situation, him a large inu drinking tea from a bowl. If she wasn't so upset with their Lord, Sitora would have told him he looked like a neko doing that. Her best times were spent making fun of Koa, and he in return doing the same to her.

Sitora did actually like Koa more than she should have; them both being generals to their Lord made it hard to have any relationship with him. Even if they could have had a relationship Sitora didn't think Koa had any feelings for her other than that of a friend. So she kept her distance and never told him how she really felt.

"Sitora you need to calm down, maybe go maim something." He sighed when he finished his tea. Koa stretched out his wings and stood up.

She growled, "I could maim you and get two birds with one stone." Her eyes narrowed at him, "Or are you going to ge elsewhere?"

"No," He considered, "I think a spar with you is a good idea. There is nothing else to do, so I'll accept your challenge."

"Really?" Sitora's ears perked up, they had never fought before. Koa always told her there was no reason, they were on the same side so it would be fruitless.

"Yes,really."

She jumped up, "We can use the private dojo." The tiger led the way out of his room and to the dojo down the hall.

On their way they past the miko's room and were surprised to find that their Lord wasn't there. Both wondered where he could have gone, they couldn't feel his youki anywhere.

Up ahead of them Sitora saw a falcon perched on one of the small statues in the hall. The small falcon was usually with their Lord, on his shoulder most of the time. Sitora watched as the falcon's ice green eyes landed on her and Koa; in those eyes Sitora saw something was wrong. However, she didn't dare ask what. Those eyes also held anger.

They past right by the falcon and didn't say a word.


*****


Sango ran to Kagome's house as fast as she could. She heard what happened.

Big news travelled fast in a small village like theirs. Kagome was missing, no one had seen her since yesterday afternoon. Her father had found Kagome's bow in the fores near the sight of what looked like a fierce fight. Blood was everywhere and no remains were found.

Kirara flew up beside her and Sango jumped on the fire neko. They flew up the shrine stairs and when they reached Kagome's house Sango jumped from Kirara and ran into Kagome's house.

The first thing that greated her was Kagome's mother sobbing into her father's chest. Souta was in the corner also crying. Her mother looked up and saw Sango, "Oh, Sango." She went to Sango and hugged her. "You heard."

"Yeah, what happened?"

"She went out into the forest yesterday and never came home. Your father is out in the forest right now."

Sango nodded, "I'm going to go help him." She ran back out the door and hopped back onto Kirara. "Take me to my father."

The fire neko roared and sped off towards the forest. They flew among the clouds for a split second, then they dropped to the ground and landed near Sango's father.

He was studying the ground. "Come here Sango."

She walked over to where he was standing and looked at the ground. There was blood spattered all over the place, except it was youkai blood. Her eyes followed the trail, "There was a fight between two-tigers is what these tracks look like-and then one of them ran. Kagome's foot prints vanish here," She pointed to the ground where Kagome had been lying, "and it looks like she was drug up."

"Yes, it does. But to safety or danger?" He held up her bow, "This was found over in that bush, where the fight between the tigers started. Her sword is missing."

"If she had it with her, then Kagome could have defended herself. Except there would be no way she could fight off two or more tigers."

Kirara mewled behind her and Sango turned. Kirara was looking up in the trees.

Sango smiled, 'Perfect timing.' "Inuyasha I know you're up there. Please come down."

He dropped from the tree, "Just don't tell Kagome I'm here."

"Why?"

"She asked me to stay away for a while."

Sango's father reguarded the hanyou with half interest. "Why are you here then?"

"I heard that there was a fight here last night and came to see what happened."

"What," He asked, "did happen?"

"There were tow tigers fighting. Then one ran away and the other followed. The one that followed was ambushed by two more. So three tigers attacked one." He shrugged, "I was told that the one that was ambushed had a friend show up and the other tigers ran off."

"Oh, no." Sango shook her head, "This can't be possible." Tears sprang to her eyes.

Inuyasha smelt her tears, 'The only thing that can make Sango cry is her family and-' He paniced, "Where is Kagome?"

"She was right in the middle of this fight between the tigers."

"What?! Is she alright?"

"She's gone Inuyasha. We don't know where she is."

"Did they take her?"

Sango nodded, "I think so. We don't know where they went though."

Inuyasha stood in silence. "I will go find her." He took off into the trees.

Sango's father turned to her, "Come on, we should head back to the village. for now there is nothing we can do."

They walked back to the village in silence, both hoping that Inuyasha would find Kagome. However, Sango had the strangest feeling that would not go away. Something told her this was going to be more than Inuyasha could handle.


*****


'So this is where the miko is from.' He watched the two youkai exterminators leave. Seeing the hanyou had been a surprise, he never expected to see him again.

Also that the miko was friends with a youkai extermianor and yet still be willing to help youkai was another shock. He wondered just how much this miko meant to the hanyou. It was clear that the news of her disappearance upset him, but how much?

He stalked through the trees and watched the village from afar. No other sign of youkai in the entire village, except the slayer's neko. His eyes scanned the village and spotted the shrine, that's where he went.

It was easy to tell that the miko's family missed her. His eyes landed on the girl's mother, 'Odd. Her aura is different than that of the miko's.' He looked over her grandfather and brother and came to the same conclusion, the girl was different than the rest of her family and village. 'The girl's aura is pure like any miko's, except there is a slight difference. Behind her purity is something else; something strong.'

He left the village and went to where Sitora had fought the other tigers. He could still smell blood from the enemy tiger, 'So this is his doing.' His chocolate eyes followed the path of the fight and he growled. 'It was a trap all along.' The growl that spilled from his lips was threatening.

From his waist he pulled a sword, with a flick of his wrist the entire battle area was decimated. He returned the sword to his side and left, he needed to talk to Sitora.


******


She looked over at his smirking form, "You are so dead."

Koa laughed, "As you have said before and yet I am still here." His eyes were trained on her form, she was panting badly. "Perhaps you should give up." He sighed when she stood up in defiance.

"No, I wanted this fight and I'm going to win no matter how long it takes." Sitora growled, her leg hurt a lot, but she wouldn't tell him that. She lunged at him and saw he was ready to dodge, so she watched his movements and when he dodged she followed him. Her left front paw connected with his side.

He came to a stop and stayed on his guard. All of the air had been knocked out of him in that hit and he needed to regain his breath before he could defend. After seeing her jump at him Koa noticed that she was being careful not to put all of her weight on her leg that was injured. 'She should not be wanted to fight me if her leg is injured.' His eyes met her defiant ones, 'She will just have to be taught a lesson.'

Sitora watched his movements closely, he was regaining his breath. "Come on Koa, I'm ready for you." 'In more ways than one.' She added mentally, then shook her head to rid herself of those thoughts.

"Fine, you asked for it." He roared and just as when they fought the tigers, rock spears shot up from the ground under Sitora's feet.

Her roar followed his and from out of nowhere shards of ice fell towards him. By using his element on her Koa said he was willing to risk his life in this fight. Sitora answered his dodge with another roar and snow formed around her body and shot at the black inu.

His wings were tucked close to his body as he dodged each of her attacks. With the snow it was getting harder to see, so Koa used his power over rocks to trap Sitora. If she couldn't move than she couldn't pull a surprise attack on him. He noticed the snow starting to clear up and saw Sitora trapped just as he wanted it. Koa walked over to her and smirked, "Do you give up?"

She didn't answer.

He stepped closer to her, now his nose was just inches away from hers. "Do you give up?"

Sitora tried to get loose, being this close to him wasn't a good thing. "Let me out!" She fought against the rocks that held her. Koa being as close as he was, he was bound to notice something; something Sitora didn't want him to notice. "Koa I mean it. Let me out of here!"

"Not until you give up." His eyes focused on her as she tried desperately to get loose. "Say it."

"Let me go!" Sitora's movement made the boulders give some, but not enough to get out all the way.

Koa watched her, 'Why doesn't she just give up? It would be faster.' "Sitora-" He was cut off when he caught a wiff of her arousal. His wide eyes watched her as she struggled, 'Is it me doing this to her?'

Her eyes clouded with tears; she knew he smelt it because there was no way he couldn't. Each of her muscles tensed and she hit the large rocks with her battered body. Finally she broke free. Sitora didn't stop to rest her tired body though, she ran as far and as fast as she could away from Koa.

He saw her make a break for it, "Sitora wait!" She didn't stop though. Koa started to follow her, then thought better of it. He decided to let her go and cool down some.

Using his massive wings he leapt out of the large window that covered most of the hallway. He glided down into the forest where he knew no one would disturb him. Koa landed near a small pool and laid down, today was going to be a long day.


******


After checking on the miko he went to find Sitora and Koa. Sitora was nowhere to be found, while Koa was outside the palace walls. Deciding to leave Sitora be, he went to where Koa was. He leapt over the palace walls and felt Koa's youki not too far away.

He found the black inu lying down near a small pool. "Koa."

He looked up, then seeing who was there he stood up to show resepect. "My Lord?"

"Sitora is gone. Do you know where she went?"

Koa's eyes left his Lord, "No I do not Lord. She left after our spar was finished. I didn't think it would be wise to follow her." He turned back to his Lord's scrutinizing stare.

"I want to ask about the fight with the tigers. What were the colors of the tigers?"

"The first one was black with red stripes. The two that showed up to help Saisuke were blue with white stripes and black with dark green stripes."

"Saisuke? You've fought this one before?"

He nodded, "Yes, that one is always after Sitora."

"These are the tigers that killed my last generals. If you and Sitora weren't so strong you wouldn't be here. I want you to find Sitora and return to the palace." He turned away, "As soon as you can Koa."

"Yes, my Lord." Koa watched his Lord vanish into the trees.

Finding Sitora wouldn't be hard, getting her to see him and even talk to him were going to be the trick. He sighed and felt for her youki. It was masked. "Fine, I'll do it the hard way."

Koa jumped up over the small pool and found a large rock jutting out of the ground, he landed on it. He howled into the air and the ground answered with a short rumble. His ears listened closely to the trembling ground. It stopped when he barked, he found her. She wasn't far from the castle, in a ravine to the south of the castle.

His steps were slow as he headed towards her location. This wasn't going to be fun. 'Sitora.'


*******

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