InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Birth Marks ❯ demon day part II ( Chapter 17 )

Thanks to all those people who reviewed! And one special person who's seen movie #3 told me that Inuyasha was only 200 years old. I'm going to make Sesshomaru 500-800 years old then. One hundred human years equals one hanyou year and again double for demon years. The scale is mine, but thanks for the info! Warning: minor spoiler if you haven't seen the first movie (affections touching across time)

 

I GOT MOVIE #1! I GOT MOVIE #1! I GOT MOVIE #1! I GOT MOVIE #1! I GOT MOVIE #1! YAY!!! But I still don't own any of our doggie friends!

 

Chapter 17: demon day II

 

Last time: “an invitation. I have to go to the castle in two weeks and make an official appearance at the annual spring ball. You're coming with me,” Inuyasha squatted down beside Kagome as she read through the notice, “you'll help me with the reply tonight. Right now, we start with your training, c'mon,” Inuyasha grabbed Kagome's upper arm and dragged her of to the clearing that Inuyasha had been in earlier.

 

This time: “but…but…but!” Kagome sputtered, dragging her heels in the dirt about five centimeters.

 

Inuyasha looked back at Kagome and smirked, “I do have a nice ass, don't I?” Miroku laughed heartily at the comeback and received a glare from Kagome that meant long torture if she could even move tonight.

 

Her face went pale and then crimson as the digested the remark, “you, you egotistical, narcissistic, contemptuous, insensitive jerk. You know I wasn't…” Kagome was cut off as Inuyasha finally gave up with pulling her to today's training grounds for picking her up and throwing her onto his shoulder (fireman way, with butt right there in the air(man, if Kagome was in her skirt, Miroku would be one happy camper!)).

 

Miroku watched them leave and a boomerang on steroids coming through the air to connect with his scull. One thing went though his mind before he decided to take a siesta: #what'd I do? #

 

Clearing with Inuyasha and Kagome

 

“ten laps. That should stretch you out enough” Inuyasha said, putting his hands on his hips, looking down at the demoness that he had thrown into the dirt. She sat up to a kneeling position and rubbed the base of her tail, hoping to relive the pain of landing on it.

 

# standing like that, Inuyasha looks like my track coach… wait a minute! ten laps, that's nuts! # Kagome thought, staring up at Inuyasha in an annoyed manner. He looked down and saw her eyes go big and glassy, reflecting the morning sun in the infamous puppy-dog eye look (hey! That's Shippou's move!). “Inuyasha,” Kagome dragged out his name in an attempt to up the cuteness level, even putting in a little tail wag. “why do I have to do ten laps? Can't I just do, oh… three? Please?” she grinned like her baby-pool likeness and added in a bat or two of eyelashes.

 

Inuyasha looked away mid-sentence so he could resist `the look.' “ten laps, before I decide to make it twenty laps. And that puppy attitude won't get you anywhere with me, pup.” That was worse than calling her wench and he knew it, but he held the microscopic string of hope that she would use that as fighting fuel, not sitting fuel. Kagome stood up with flames in her eyes and started leaping away, “no jumping yet, just running!” Inuyasha yelled after her and she stopped jumping and started running, grumbling the whole time.

 

By the time that Kagome was on her fourth lap around the tree line of the clearing, she was looking a little unmotivated. “come on, pup, Shippou can run longer than you!” Inuyasha called across the clearing. With an amazing burst of speed, Kagome ran half of her so-called track and held her hand up to try to deface her personal motivational speaker. Inuyasha saw this in barely enough time to keep his facial scars minimum and jumped into a tree to supervise…and out of immediate striking range.

 

Kagome looked up at the tree and started running again the sooner her laps were done, the sooner she could give that silver hair of his a haircut.

 

Inuyasha's pov (English journal that seemed to fit that I wrote earlier in school.)

 

Something seemed different. He didn't know exactly what. But it was there. Nothing compared to his five senses seemed different as far as he could tell, but there was always that sixth sense kind of thing. That arcane feeling in your gut telling you to be cautious. That feeling was more intense now that she was in her demon state.

 

Ever since… since that possession (Affections Touching Across Time, that one) several months ago. The seal that the Shikon jewel had on her may have been cracked when that tainted jewel shard was put in her forehead. He didn't know she could do a lot of those things normally, or maybe she could. #well, I'll find out today # is what he thought as she finished her laps in record time. Her claws, that's what was setting him off. Power flowed differently around her claws than most demons, except his half-brother of course. Now to see if they would work, he took a deep breath and called her over, silently signaling her to attack.

 

Normal pov (and back to pulling things off the top of my head)

 

Kagome gave a savage grin and jumped up into the branch that her sensei was on. She gave a powerful thrust downward with her arms and legs onto the branch and managed to crack it slightly as Inuyasha flailed around trying to gain back his balance(I do that a lot to people on the jointed balance beam). Inuyasha growled, distracting her enough to knock them both off the branch.

 

Kagome on the bottom, used her legs and kicked Inuyasha off to land in the middle of the field. Kagome flipped mid-air and landed on her feet… make that her knees and toes. Kagome leapt to Inuyasha, “I always wondered why mom had me do gymnastics, now I know,” Kagome said, distracting Inuyasha to wonder what gymnastics were. Kagome went in to punch in his face, but he ducked at the last second, connecting with Kagome's bent knee.

 

A hiss of sympathetic pain came from the edge of the clearing. There was Miroku leaning against a tree with his legs crossed Indian style and his hands discreetly covering the male Achilles' heel. Inuyasha was on the ground, crying in a fetal position. “that was a low blow, Kagome, just a little too low!” he sobbed through tears.

 

Sango nodded in sympathy as she and Shippou came out of the tree line also, “ I hope that you didn't mean to do that Kagome-chan. That's just fighting unfairly” Sango expressed, leaning her shoulder on the tree's rough bark. Inuyasha nodded painfully and Shippou couldn't say anything, so he went for the pitying look.

 

Kagome held her hands up in defense, “I didn't expect him to bend over like that! I was going to trip him!” she cried, her eyes wide. Kagome bent over the red mass of a man, “Inuyasha, you have to stand up so I can help you back to camp to get some ice for your…ah, hot pants,” Inuyasha whimpered and stood up just enough to wobble, with Kagome's help, back to camp. And by just enough, I mean that his head and front were parallel with the ground, trying to protect his `extra sensitive spot.'

 

“here's your ice pack, Inuyasha. Good thing there were a couple of these in my first aid kit for things…like this,” Kagome couldn't help but giggle a little bit at Inuyasha's expense. Besides, he shouldn't have gotten a demoness mad. Especially one that doesn't know how to control herself and her moves yet. He was gingerly sitting against a tree and on his red blanket that had been retrieved earlier. “I guess no more lessons today…”

 

“no” was Inuyasha's immediate reply, “I just will tell you what to do, But no more sparring. You remember what happened that one time when you were possessed, right?”

 

“which time?” Kagome voiced everyone's dry thoughts.

 

“The time when you tried to kill me”

 

Kagome waved her hand, showing her palm, to silently tell him to go on.

 

Inuyasha sighed, “the time that you tried to pin me to the Goshinboku”

 

Kagome's mouth opened in an `oh' and the rest of the groups' jaws dropped at that startling news. Kagome sat down and stared Inuyasha in the eye, “yeah, and I said I was sorry afterwards, your point?”

 

“you told me later that you could see what was happening the whole time. Do you remember you using an acid claw attack?” Kagome nodded hesitantly after a second. “good, then that's what I want you to do for the rest of the day. Try to get your acid claw to work on will. The others will help.” The humans went pale, they didn't want to be killed by some demoness just learning how to use her claw-based attack. “Miroku will help you center and Sango will set up targets if you are able to center.” With that said, Inuyasha leaned his head against the tree and started centering himself. He took a deep breath, sending the demonic version of painkillers to his abused manhood. # I may not have the healing abilities of chichi-oya, but thank the forgiving gods that I have his ability of painkillers! #

 

they watched Inuyasha supposedly go to sleep, “well, lady Kagome, we'd better find somewhere quiet so we can work on your centering. This way,” Miroku gestured to the opposite side of the camp and beyond.

 

Inuyasha cracked open one of his golden eyes, “don't go too far, monk, I want to be able to sense you,” Inuyasha warned, startling everyone with the no-nonsense voice of a pack-leader.

 

“do not worry Inuyasha, we are only going into the forest to a stream that I ran across earlier…” Miroku explained in his most convincing voice.

 

“no, stay within sight of me,” Inuyasha interjected, staring Miroku down into a submissive position. Miroku, being human, didn't understand the challenging leadership part of taking Kagome out of the campsite and didn't say anything. Kagome, who understood somewhat, placed one hand on Miroku's shoulder and pushed him down to the ground. Kagome sat down facing the monk and got into a comfortable position.

 

“ah?” Miroku started asking, but was cut off by a quick shake of Kagome's head. Some things are best not asked about, especially asking a pack's leader's commands. Taking the alpha-female out of the alpha-male's sight, in Inuyasha's opinion, was a bad thing to do. Especially a lesser male leading a high-ranking female and not the other way around. That could be considered a direct challenge for alpha-male.

 

Kagome took a steadying breath as a silent signal for Miroku to start and dropped into a meditative pose. Miroku took one last glance at Inuyasha, “right. Well, lets start at the basics: calming. Your posture is correct, now concentrate on your breathing. Pretend its colored good and bad. You exhale the bad colors out of your mouth and inhale the good colors in through your nose,” Miroku fell silent as they both dropped into the spirit world of their minds.

 

“Miroku? Mi-ro-ku-u! where are you-u?” Kagome yelled through the white emptiness of her mind. The mist reminded her of the one year that Eri had that Halloween party where she dropped the whole ten pound block of dry ice in a puddle outside her door on accident. The whole neighborhood had a pea-soup fog all night! Kagome giggled at that memory and that's how Miroku's mental form found her. Or what she assumed to be Miroku's mental form. The man in front of her had shoulder-blade length hair pulled back into a ponytail and purple markings on his face.

 

“lady Kagome, you don't spend much time here I assume? By the looks of this place, we'll have to start from scratch to make your training grounds,” he said in what could have best have been described as liquid silk. Miroku gestured with his golden staff and started walking away to blend into the mist with his white yukata.

 

“wait, Miroku! What am I supposed to do?” Kagome said, running after the rapidly disappearing figure.

 

Miroku turned back to face her and smiled, “whatever your heart imagines, lady Kagome, just let your imagination create a place where you are comfortable to think and let it happen. I have a waterfall in my spirit plane!” Miroku grinned and left Kagome to her own devices.

 

Kagome stopped and looked down at her feet, letting a small braid fall into her face, “what's this?” she asked out loud, bringing it up for a better look. She used her other hand to feel the rest of her hair - braided just like the strand in front of her face and put up into a messy bun that would stay in place no matter what she would do. She looked up to her left and a full-length mirror materialized itself out of the fog.

 

# so that's how it works, huh? # she thought as she silently wished for a field of flowers. The mist took on a green tint and grass snaked out from where she was standing to every direction she could see.

 

“creepy,” Kagome noticed that there were only two colors in the area: green and white. Looking up, Kagome imagined a blue `Colorado-like' sky. One of the exchange students that she had befriended had once told her that it was the most beautiful thing she could live under.

 

And along with the sky, Kagome put a border of distant mountains to her left and a forest on the other three sides. A clearing, perfect to feel safe and secure. Looking around, she noticed that it was Inuyasha's forest that she was now standing by. The mist was reduced to a small thing that sneaked around the trees and her ankles, reminding her that this area was only in her mind and was not real.

 

It was quiet, too quiet (I love that line!). with all the visual beauty surrounding her, she had missed the noises of the forest that seemed never to stop. And with a deep breath, Kagome conjured some song-birds to break the silence.

 

A twig snapped, Kagome turned and dropped into a defensive position, drawing her claws up to her face. Miroku's mental form stepped out from behind one of the larger trees and held up his hands in a placating gesture. “lady Kagome, you have done well in such a short time. I remember that it took me a month to create mine. You have a lot of potential just with this little show.”

 

“uh… thanks. I guess,” Kagome looked around at anything but Miroku. # this place is still too empty, I need a dojo (training building)… over there would be great! # Kagome cleared her thoughts and imagined the dojo that she had been taught at for many years before she met Inuyasha, at a constant insistence from her mother. A building appeared to her right, seeming to build itself out of the mist like everything else.

 

A hand made itself known, surprising, on her shoulder. Kagome turned to see udder fascination in Miroku's violet orbs. “well, at least we can be inside to work on your ki,” he put simply, gesturing for Kagome to go first into the thatched-roof, rectangular building.

 

Once Kagome settled in from admiring her handy-work (she even remembered indoor plumbing!), she kneeled down in front of Miroku. “now, look for the light around me. That's my aura, what color is it?”

 

“purple” Kagome giggled out, seeing the cloud that would match Miroku's robes perfectly. Miroku grinned back and spread his aura out to encompass the room.

 

“now, what I'm doing is relaxing and seeking you out spiritually to help you. In real life, I'm slumped against the tree believe it or not. Now you try it, just relax,” he purred, sounding oddly like a cat as he pulled his aura back in.

 

Kagome let out a long breath and imagined spreading out to feel every corner of the large room. She felt something like water flowing out of her and along the floor. She gasped as she realized that she could feel the roughness of the hardwood floor on the other side of the room and the cotton of Miroku's clothes as he shifted slightly to look around at her aura.

 

Miroku felt his jaw drop as he saw Kagome's aura surround him. He had always felt opposites within her, but to see it manifest itself was a whole different matter. Swirls of pink and dark blue went around, letting off little flashes of energy every time they touched. The blue wrapped itself around Miroku, as it was currently more available than the pink, and gave the sense of `very powerful: be careful.' Miroku nodded slightly, “Kagome, try to draw it all back in now, but draw the pink in first.”

 

Kagome nodded and cracked her eye open slightly to see what her aura was like. She noticed that Miroku shuddered every time a blue tendril touched him, “why don't you want me to pull the blue in first?” she asked, worried for Miroku's welfare and hiding the pink in a place in her soul.

 

“we are here to work on your demon abilities first today, we might get to your miko powers if you don't pass out first. The blue is the demonic aura and the pink is your miko aura. Almost impossible to have such opposing forces in the same body,” he explained. “now, pull in your demon aura, just don't put it away. Let it surround just yourself.”

 

“ you're shivering. You don't like my aura, do you?” Kagome asked, drawing in the youki until it just looked like Kagome was glowing blue.

 

“no, its just that no matter how many times I look at you, I don't believe that you can be part demon like Inuyasha. It doesn't really suit the you that I have come to know.” Miroku gave a withering smile, “now, focus your energy into your fingertips. Inuyasha once told me how you did this when your were…ah… possessed by that moth demon.” Miroku inwardly cringed. That had not been a happy memory for any of them, especially Kagome.

 

Kagome's fingertips started to get warm and tingly, she looked down to see her claws now manicure-perfect and glowing yellow. Kagome didn't know how, but she immediately knew how to use this `new-found' attack. “tsumesan (acid nail)!” she yelled as she flung her hand toward the far wall to their left.

 

Five neat holes started burning in the wall, steadily getting bigger as Miroku steadily got paler. The holes stopped burning at about a foot diameter and wood pulp dripped to the floor in a sickly splat. Kagome stood up and inspected the holes, daring to stick her hand in one of the pulp piles. Kagome thought it felt like pudding and brought one finger full up to her sensitive nose to sniff the type of poison. There was none left, it had completely evaporated before Kagome even touched it.

 

One word went through Miroku's mind when Kagome inspected the pulp: eww! He pulled his face into check before standing up and joining Kagome in inspecting the holes, “that, it seems, is your youki attack. It looks like a cross between Sesshomaru-sama's acid claw and Inuyasha's Sankon Tessou. Interesting.”

 

The real world (I haven't seen that show yet)

 

Inuyasha looked on to the meditating pair. He could see Kagome's aura fluctuate as Miroku taught her the exercises to control her aura. Miroku `fell' back into his body briefly and gave off a scent of fear. He locked eyes with Inuyasha as Kagome's nails began to glow, Inuyasha nodded and Miroku went back into the world of Kagome's mind.

 

“good, Kagome is learning faster than I thought she would. And we'll be able to contact Miroku when lunch in ready,” Inuyasha commented, moving to sit a little closer to Sango in case those glowing nails decided to get launched. With the pain-killers in place, Inuyasha was… creepily amicable.

 

Sango decided to get some patchwork done while Miroku and Kagome were stationary, “its interesting to see Kagome in this form. Except for the tail and the demonic features, she looks like she used to do when she was human. Don't you think so Inuyasha?” Sango looked up from the threading the needle that Kagome had gotten her several months ago and stared at the houshi.

 

Inuyasha nodded, “yeah. Of coarse this is what she really looks like, not human like my time in the cycle. I don't really know if she can even throw a decent punch, let alone fight against another demon. True she can shoot those arrows of hers, but she would get killed in any close-range fight. I learned the hard way growing up, but Kagome at least has us to teach her how.”

 

Inuyasha stood up and re-adjusted his haori, “I have to go, ah, look for something for later tonight. I'll be within hearing distance.” He grabbed one of the old pieces of cloth for herbs from Kagome's pack and disappeared into a bush, hunting for the proper herbs to make the ink to reply to his half-brother's… request.

 

In Kag's mind

 

They had settled back down in the middle of the room, Miroku staring over Kagome's shoulder constantly looking at where the acid holes were only minutes beforehand. Kagome waved a clawed hand in front of his face, snapping him back into the present. Miroku gave an embarrassed grin, showing that his mental form was indeed demon-like. Complete with fangs and pointed ears.

 

Kagome smiled back, “that comment earlier, that this form doesn't fit what you think of me as, I'll just say that I know more about your past than you do about mine. You'd be surprised to learn that I know a lot more than I let on that I know. But it just seems easy now to let you guys believe that I'm helpless and can't take care of myself.” Kagome refused to look at the disbelieving Miroku the whole time she was talking, letting a small bit of color come into her cheeks.

 

Miroku nodded sagely and stared, trying to catch Kagome's eye, “you're getting tired. I can tell because you are flickering back into the real world and I can hear Sango starting to get lunch ready. We've been `sitting still' for a couple hours now and I think if we stay stationary any longer, our legs won't work properly.” That was true, Kagome could feel her physical legs get tingly from lack of circulation and movement. Yep, time to get up.

 

Real world a minute later

 

“Kagome, lady Kagome?” Miroku was shaking Kagome's shoulder, trying to wake her up with minimal risk to his health. They were starting to worry, what if she was stuck in her own mind! Miroku's hand slipped a mere centimeter from her shoulder in his thoughts, a millisecond later, Kagome's thumbnail was on the major tendon, threatening to cripple it.

 

“not right now Miroku, too tired,” she mumbled, not even giving him the grace of opening her eyes. Miroku nodded unseeingly and removed his hand, whole I might add.

 

# good, she's just sleepy. Even with a demon's metabolism, that mental session was tiring. And to think of it, Shippou is older than her and probably wouldn't last as long as she did. # Miroku thought, sitting down to stare up at the clouds waiting for Inuyasha to come back.

 

True Kagome looked older than Shippou, but that was just because she had spent the last ten years of her life living and growing as a human. In essence, she had passed all the childhood inu/haninu phases and yes, that would come to haunt her later. One was a metabolism the same as she had been six: needing sleep if she worked too hard. She was mature enough mentally, but her body was still young for a demon.

 

Shippou knew that he was older than Kagome currently, but he didn't care. They treated each other as mother and son even if it was (presently) not true.

 

“Shippou, can you go and tell Inuyasha that Kagome's done training for the day? By the time you find him, lunch will most likely be ready,” Sango said, digging through Kagome's pack for something edible and easy to cook. Because of her taijiya training, she never really had learned many domestic things. And cooking was on that list of non-perfected skills.

 

Shippou looked up from his tops and nodded, running to where his nose pointed him to Inuyasha. As soon as he left, Kagome started stirring. “Wh… where's Shippou?” she asked, staring at the toys that Shippou had left on the ground.

 

She started standing up and Sango rushed to her side, “Kagome, I sent Shippou to get Inuyasha and you shouldn't move that much.” Kagome shook of Sango and started walking the direction that Inuyasha and Shippou took. Sango tried to stop the demoness, “he's not in any danger Kagome, they're both within shouting distance and we'll be able to tell if they were!”

 

“Then why didn't you just yell for Inuyasha?” Kagome asked, clearly getting run over with maternal instincts.

 

“I didn't want to wake you up! That's why. And it looked like Shippou was bored.” Sango tried to prove her argument.

 

“And safe. You don't send a kit…”

 

“Momma!” Shippou yelled and the next instant Kagome was running after his voice. She came into the clearing with Inuyasha holding Shippou up by the tail and giving him an evil glare. Maternal instinct took over and Kagome disappeared in a green and black blur. The next moment, Inuyasha had five clean cuts across his arm and Shippou was being held by Kagome with her other arm and feet on the ground in a crouching posture.

 

Inuyasha looked at the cuts and back to Kagome. She was mad. No, not mad, pissed. Her maternal instincts had gone on overdrive in her full youkai form and the only thing running through her mind was to protect the kit.

 

# oh, shit! # was all Inuyasha could think as he crouched in, what he hoped to be, a submissive position. He crawled slowly, stopping every few steps, towards Kagome. She growled a warning and Inuyasha yipped back an apology in the most soothing way he could think, :: mate. Sorry. Pup safe. Accept sorry?::

 

Kagome lightened her grip on Shippou slightly and looked down on him. He looked and felt uninjured. ::pup sorry:: Shippou barked, trying to snap Kagome out of the condition she was having with her instinct high. Shippou's bark seemed to work, as Kagome lowered him down to the ground and allowed Inuyasha to come closer.

 

He pulled his hair aside to bare his neck, showing trust and submission. The cloudiness in Kagome's eyes cleared as she saw this. “why did Shippou call for me?” she asked, brushing Inuyasha's hair back into place.

 

Inuyasha stood up and grabbed a sweet-smelling package, “Shippou almost made me drop this,” he held up the loose bundle, “and I don't want to go hunting for them again.” He held it out for Kagome to take, “feh, I have to find some more things first. Go back to camp and take the runt with you”

 

Shippou stuck out his tongue at the word runt, accidentally letting Kagome see. She grabbed the back of Shippou's neck lightly in a warning and he immediately stopped with a small yip. Inuyasha turned and left, smirking slightly at Kagome letting her instincts admonish the kit. He even bet that she didn't even notice anything. It would be interesting tonight to see what she would act like.

 

# what do I need now, pine wood, a feather, and something to hold the ink in. great, that's all I need, pine sap on Tetsuiga. # he thought, looking up at a pine tree that looked like it wouldn't give up any branches without any persuasion.

 

Kagome looked after Inuyasha for a minute, then turned and walked back to camp, where she found Sango hanging old rags on branches for makeshift targets. “is everything alright Kagome?” she asked, hanging the last piece of cloth on a branch and jumping down.

 

“yeah, Inuyasha and Shippou just startled each other, that's all. are those my targets?” Kagome asked, setting the herbs down by the fire and sending Shippou back to his toys to play with.

 

“yes. Now I saw that you can summon your attack, so lets see if you can fire it also. Start with that target over there,” Sango pointed to a fairly large boulder with a piece of cloth marking the target. Kagome took a deep breath and held her hand up to a firing position. The yellow warmth traveled up her arm and concentrated in her fingertips. Once she felt it build up enough, Kagome flicked her hand at the boulder. A total of…1 acid arrow grazed the boulder, revealing that the inside was a geode (cool! It's one of those rocks with the crystals on the inside).

 

“well, at least you got one in the same general direction as the boulder. Could you at least have the rest of them not topple the rest of camp?” Sango said, standing up from the quick duck that she had to do and looking at the acid hole behind her. Miroku had the smarts of being behind Kagome when she did this so didn't have to move from his sitting position.

 

“hehehe… oops” Kagome said, looking and mentally keeping track of where the other four “acid arrows” went. One grazed the boulder, another behind Sango, one came uncomfortably close to her backpack. HiraiKotsu was inches away from being melted, and the last one had created a decent-sized fire-pit to use later.

 

“oh…kay… lets just use one finger until you can shoot all five without hurting, killing, or dissolving anything. Try again,” Sango said, borrowing some slang that Kagome had taught them.

 

Kagome nodded and pointed her finger at the target, letting the energy only go into that one. She fired and still missed the cloth, but hit the boulder at least (and dissolving half of it at the same time). “well, that reminded me of my cousin's rei gun (spirit gun) attack (foreshadowing! Yu Yu Hakusho). At least I can hit the same area as the target now!”

 

“yeah, let's just hit the actual target now,” Sango said, brushing off the rei gun comment to ask later. They worked on hitting the target until Inuyasha came back carrying a pile of green pine wood, intending on burning it to make the ink for the letter.

 

There were only a few more rags left when Inuyasha came in and dumped the wood into the hole made from Kagome's earlier target practice. “Shippou come over here. I want you to dry out that wood as much as you can so it won't smoke, and then call me over.” Inuyasha instructed, seeing that the kit was bored out of his mind and needed something to do before he tried to pull one of his infamous pranks.

 

Inuyasha sat down by Kagome's backpack after inspecting the melted hole right above it. he didn't say anything as he began to dig through it for something sharp, like that can lid that Kagome insisted on putting a handle on to make something called a `pizza cutter' whatever that was. He set the pizza cutter on his lap and pulled out a handful of colorful feathers. Kagome's eyes were drawn by the colors and Inuyasha struggled to form a straight face.

 

“pick one you like. I'll make a quill out of it,” he said, pulling a skinny black one out and applied the cutter to the end at a 45 degree angle, cutting of the round tip and replacing it with a pointed one. Kagome looked through blue ones from the birds of paradise, to purple ones from the carrion crow, to a furry looking one that changed colors but was mostly blood red. She held up this one and Inuyasha took it and cut the tip.

 

“it's a phoenix feather. Suppose to help with the calligraphy, but all I know is that thing's going to stay around a while no matter what you do. The fire will only clean the ink out of it and that's it,” Inuyasha explained, twirling it to catch the light and fluff out. Inuyasha looked over to where Shippou was supposed to be, only to see a white blanket of steam covering that area and blue flashes of fox fire. “you can even let Shippou try to destroy it, but he couldn't.” he continued, handing it to Kagome.

 

The feather sparked with purple flames, acknowledging Kagome as its owner. Kagome put the tip to her forearm to test how sharp it was and purple ink came out and started writing by itself: “hello, we are one now, you and me, lady Kagome. And you will find me most useful after I have tasted your blood!” The pin tip pricked her and the ink turned into a dark brown color to a black and back to purple. “now we are one,” and it fell to the dirt. Kagome's blood covered up the writing and when she wiped it away, the writing was gone.

 

“that was weird, was it supposed to do that?” Kagome asked, picking up the quail tentatively.

 

“good, I picked the right feather then for you. It was hard since I didn't know your preferences. Now watch mine.” Inuyasha put his black slim one on his arm and it did the same thing, writing in a bright red that looked more like welts. After a while, the black one pricked Inuyasha and fell to the ground also. “wooden ones do the same, but they leave splinters all the time. So I like to use feathers. Now, help me with these herbs will ya,” Inuyasha spotted the package of now-dry herbs by the fire. He used his claws to de-leaf them and started chopping the stems into dust.

 

Inuyasha held up the carefully separated leaves for Kagome to see. “these are the herbs used to make a letter smell formal. I may have not learned how to write, but I know how to make the ink at least. You probably don't know how to make the ink, correct?” Inuyasha asked, remembering that she had Shippou using something called a ball-point pen that lacked the formal flare of the kanji. Kagome nodded and tried to remember the look and scent of the leaves before Inuyasha put them away. Inuyasha wrapped the dust and leaves in the herb cloth and put them in a hidden pocket in his haori.

 

Shippou had just finished steaming the wood and it was now as dry as it could be and he was exhausted. Inuyasha walked over to the kit and picked up a piece of wood to test its dryness. He nodded at the kit and started splitting the larger pieces with Tetsuiga, still covered by sap by the way. Inuyasha placed the wood in a burning pile and used one of the longer sticks to get some fire to start this second one of pine.

 

“when you feel up to it, make this fire as hot as you can and try to burn all the wood. I want coal by the time it burns out, got it?” Shippou nodded and looked warily at the pile of wood that had pieces that were as big as himself. This would take all day!

 

“well, since there's nothing else to do right now, and you're awake, we can work on your fair fighting.” Inuyasha emphasized, feeling a little twang down south.

 

“it was a mistake! Honest! I didn't mean to! I haven't been able to practice in a long time with the whole `weak human' you've labeled me as! And that's what I would be practicing if you would let me go home every once in a while!” Kagome started to fume. This was not a good thing and he hoped that she would start getting physical soon instead of sitting him.

 

“whatever you learned in your time wouldn't help us against demons! You can barely even beat up a normal human, let alone a demon!” Inuyasha said, internally smirking.

 

“that's because you've never let me fight before!” Kagome clenched her fist, almost to the point of drawing blood on her palm.

 

“the only time I let you fight, you ran for cover and those bandits almost skewered you!” Inuyasha said eerily calm, letting some worry into his voice.

 

“point.” Miroku said, remembering what Kagome and Inuyasha had told him about how the jewel was shattered. The arguing couple ignored everything outside of their quarrel.

 

“they had weapons and I was still new to the idea that this world has demons everywhere you turn!” Kagome drew back and punched Inuyasha's jaw.

 

# about time! # Inuyasha thought, ducking the punch and grabbing her wrist. She used her other elbow and dug it into his stomach as a distraction to get some distance. Mainly, the other side of the campground behind the used-to-be boulder.

 

“I never would have thought of doing that,” Sango whispered to Miroku, glad that they weren't part of the fight so far. The fight lasted far into the afternoon, sprinkled with sits and stays here and there. They didn't even stop for the dinner that Miroku had put in the Dutch oven that Kagome had brought. Too bad because it was slow-roasted beef stew.

 

Eventually, Shippou came out of his lack-of-energy-from-drying-the-wood spell and worked on the fire, making the little flames into a decent-sized bonfire that was a background to Kagome and Inuyasha fighting.

 

Just imagine the scene: Inuyasha and Kagome with several scratches on their bodies, as well as bruises on Inuyasha's part, silhouetted against a roaring orange wall of flame. With Sango, Miroku, and Shippou with chunks of stew on various stages to the mouth while Kagome gets a good kick to the stomach in, sending Inuyasha through the bonfire out of sight. There was a collective `ooh' from the audience as Kagome was tackled by a fire-engulfed monster that turned out to just be Inuyasha. They continued as Miroku saved two large portions in the pot and placed it by the fire to keep warm.

 

Extra long for my apology of taking a long time to update. 17 pages on word where my previous record was only 12 pages. I was grounded from the computer and that's why. There is a prayer that one of my friends gave me a while ago that you all might like on my bio page.

 

In the next chapter, we will be seeing Kagome's animal-like form as well as Shippou's!

 

Until then, keep writing and reading and have a happy outlook on life ( or not!), dark