InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Haunted ❯ Even the Monkey... ( Chapter 8 )

AN: Well, since the proverbial cat's out of the bag and everyone knows about Shippo's little secret (or at least mweph and random do), then I guess no one was confused about Miroku's stalking of the poor kid… as he's trying to prove "it." Wow, I can't do subtle very well, can I? I thought the big Shippo thing might be confusing, but fortunately I was mistaken.

 

YES, Kikyo is going to be in this story, but not for forever (pippet_jimmy), like in the actual show-thingy, because I tend to make Kikyo a melodramatic sob story, which is not Kikyo. And I don't like her. I respect her and can understand why she does what she does, but I'm not fond of her. I'm an InuKag person myself.

 

No fear! Don't worry (Livvy22)! Miroku is not going to be evil! I would never make him evil, unless it's evil in a way that he would be because I'm trying to keep everybody in character here. So there's no question about me making him evil on a whim, just because I feel like it. Never!

 

I'm sorry that I didn't make this clear before (Livvy22), but I thought that I'd mentioned in the last chapter that Inuyasha will turn alive again on the half-moon between no moon and full moon, that it so say there will be no moon, half moon, full moon in that order. Sowwy! (Grins sheepishly)

 

As to why the transformation (poltergeist to alive-ish) didn't happen before (Sangome), Inuyasha wasn't actively resisting the curse. He was a friendless, identity-lacking, kinda emotionless, specter-thing. But he's slowly becoming alive again, and so the curse that made him a poltergeist is being counteracted (gonna get into that more in later chapters…), so when the curse was weakest, it failed. I'm sorry, but Kouga is gonna stay normal because otherwise he can't visit Kagome every once in a while and make a certain somebody all jealous, thus revealing that certain someone's feelings for another someone….

 

THANK YOU DEMNTED-SQUIRREL! This is the second posting of this chapter because of you! I thank you very, very much for pointing out my terrible mistake! So I changed it. I can't believe I made Inuyasha pick up that piece of wood. (Hits self on head) THANK YOU, again!

 

TO FANFICTION.NET READERS: I just (yes, just) noticed -to my abject horror- that Mandy, Antonio and Harold (my dividers) have been cruelly ravaged by being posted. To see what they should really look like- if you care at all in the slightest- you should take at them at mediaminer.org. (Unless of course you're reading it there at this moment, in which case you've seen then and are thinking something like, "no big deal! Don't have a cow!" or whatnot.)

 

Disclaimer: Who on earth- or anywhere else, for that matter- would be so deluded as to believe that I own Inuyasha in some way? (Besides my extensive manga collection). No one, anywhere would be so deluded, right? Right?!

 

Haunted

 

Chapter Eight: Even the Monkey…

 

"I need a shower." Sango announced to her room. "A nice, long shower." She needed to calm down, relax. Miroku had gotten her upset, with his laid-back attitude on a subject that she considered quite serious. She gathered the necessary hygiene products and clothes before storming out of her room en route to the nearest bathroom. Yes, shower would make her feel much better.

 

She hurried into the small, peach-tiled bathroom and firmly locked the door, checking it twice before she was satisfied, a habit that she'd picked up after living in the same house with Miroku for just a week.

 

With a sigh, Sango stepped into the shower, pulling the curtain shut behind her. Hot water worked wonders on a bad mood. She recognized it as a bad mood, something that had the potential to ruin her day.

 

The almost painfully hot water soothed her, sending up plumes of steam into the bathroom and making the air muggy. Sango closed her eyes, massaging her scalp with shampoo. She let her riled nerves calm and detached herself from her emotions as her father had taught her to do. She had been a child with a wild temper, she remembered, and so her father had taught her how to soothe herself in order to stop the violent tantrums that she had been prone to. The result: she was now a relatively calm and collected individual, with more common sense than most. Thanks to her father.

 

The dull ache that had grown familiar since the death of her family washed over her, and try as she might, Sango couldn't remove herself from it. She scrubbed vigorously at her skin, as if trying to wash away the feeling. With a resigned sigh, Sango realized that it wasn't removable. It was a part of her now. She'd probably never be rid of it, but she didn't mind at all. After all, it was all she had left of her family, wasn't it? There was no self-pity in Sango's thoughts, only a determined practicality and level-headedness as she examined her situation fully. Sango was no stranger to grief.

 

Her mother had died when she was seven in a hit and run incident that Sango would never forget. The telephone rang, a young eager Sango expecting a call from her grandmother answered the phone cheerfully. "Hello!"

 

The man on the other end hesitated. "Hello. Could I please speak to Mr. Miyagi, please?" Sango, disappointed that it wasn't her grandmother wishing her a happy birthday, called to her father, who took his time coming down the stairs, a large graceful cat with silent feet, and took the phone.

 

Curious about the phone call, a young Sango had stood next to her father and watched her father's face fall into blank shock, to horror, then grief in an instant. "What is it, Dad?" She asked.

 

Her father placed a trembling hand on her shoulder. "Could you please go get Kohaku and tell him to come to the living room?" He asked slowly, jerkily. Looking back, Sango could understand his point of view. How did you tell a seven-year-old, actually, eight the day after, and a three-year-old that Mommy wasn't coming home again because some drunk truck driver had run a red light and hit her without a second thought, or even looking back?

 

So she'd grieved, and gotten over it. Regretfully, Sango had no recollection of her mother. She was like an old dear relative whom one sees every decade or so. The incident brought back vague memories of old tears and days of grief, but just memories. As cold and heartless as it sounded, she'd gotten over it. After all, one can't grieve forever, just as one couldn't stay truly angry or happy forever. That's just the way it went.

 

Sango opened her eyes. Hot water was a wonderful thing, indeed. She felt calmer, soothed, more in control of herself. She would deal with it. She'd get over it, but she'd still miss them. She'd never forget. She'd find the murderers, and make them pay. That's the way those things worked, after all.

 

Sango turned off the water and grabbed the white fluffy towel that she'd brought in with her. Much better. She felt much better.

 

(\ /)

(•. •)

(›‹)

 

"Okay. See you soon!" Shippo chirped. He hung up the phone and bounced gleefully out of the room.

 

The challenge had been set. The contestants had been readied. Let the games begin!

 

Casually, Miroku followed Shippo out of the living room, dropping back behind him for inconspicuousness. Shippo didn't seem to notice and he hurried obliviously down the hallway. But if Miroku was right, he was aware of him, all right. He could hear him, smell him, sense him. Well, he wasn't so sure about the sensing part. Shippo turned a corner. Miroku, a few yards behind, turned the corner and blinked in surprise. "Where'd he go?" He wondered aloud.

 

There was some giggling behind him. "Looking for someone?" Shippo asked casually. Ooh, he was a clever one… Miroku gave him a calculating look.

 

"How did you do that?" He asked suddenly, trying to catch the small child by surprise. Unfortunately for him, Shippo had been expecting the question.

 

With a small mischievous smile, Shippo replied cryptically, "Now that would be telling, wouldn't it?" He sang, skipping down the hallway again. He chuckled gleefully to himself. Oh, this was going to be fun!

 

Miroku sighed and hurried behind him. This was going to be a long and occupying experience. But, if he was right, it would be worth it, indeed. It was obvious that Shippo knew what was going on, too. It was going to be a challenge.

 

(\ /)

(0.o)

(><)

 

"I thought you'd be glad…" She admitted. "I thought that I might cheer you up." Her grin turned slightly self-sardonic. "I was hoping to help in some way."

 

"You already have…" he murmured quietly, back still to her. Kagome's eyes widened in surprise at the remark and inquire as to which comment he'd been referring to, but before she could respond, he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

 

She blinked.

 

And blinked again. If she didn't know any better, Kagome would've sworn that she was dreaming. And a very strange dream at that. One in which Inuyasha had been hit really hard in the head and was saying things that he didn't mean. Maybe he'd snapped? She wondered dazedly. Maybe switching back and forth from being a poltergeist and then alive again broke his head. Or maybe he'd meant it…?

 

She wanted to believe it. She really did, which shocked her a great deal. She'd figured it was a passing fancy, a little crush. But it had been almost two months, and those things didn't last that long, did they? She pursed her lips and then hurried away from the tree back to the house. She stopped abruptly, several yards away from the back door. No, she needed to think a bit. She wanted solitude. She headed for the hill where she and Inuyasha had spent the early morning, then turned away after walking about a food. "If anyone was watching me right now," She thought with a smile. "They'd think I was nuts." The library/ballroom would be perfect, although now it had a big hole in the ceiling… Fortunately it was unlikely to rain any time soon. She headed back towards the house, took off her shoes at the door and slid it open. She paused for a moment, looking out across the overgrown lawn to the forest, in which was a shed, in which was an urn, in which there was probably a certain poltergeist.

 

Abruptly, she hurried into the house, sliding the door closed behind her. Down the hall she went, passing by Miroku, who seemed to be stalking an amused Shippo without as much as a "by your leave,". She led around the corner in her socks and carefully, almost reverently, opened the doors to the ballroom. With a gentle sigh, she shut the doors quietly behind her and stood in the middle of the room, looking up at the hole in the ceiling.

 

Kagome shifted uncomfortably. She felt as if someone was watching her. "Anyone there?" She asked cautiously. She turned her gaze away from the large hole to sweep the room.

 

"Just me." A familiar voice admitted in the same soft tone he'd used earlier. Inuyasha floated off the bookshelf that he'd been laying on -in the same position as when he'd been lying on it- and sank until he was a few feet off the ground.

 

"Hi." Kagome ventured. Neither of them spoke for a while, both unsure of what to say despite their familiarity. Kagome found herself staring up at the whole in the ceiling again when Inuyasha broke the silence, he voice echoing in the large room.

 

"Sorry about that." Kagome slowly brought her gaze down from the patch of blue sky in the otherwise dun ceiling.

 

"What do you mean?" She asked, confused. Still floating on his stomach, the poltergeist-once-more indicated the ceiling with his finger. "Oh, that." Kagome waved her had airily. "It's okay. At least you didn't make a crater in the ground, right?" She offered with a smile. Her words echoed softly, mocking the silence left in their wake.

 

Inuyasha looked at her out of the corner of his eye. The clear bright sunlight drifted through the hole and illuminated her face, which held a gentle smile on it. She was looking at the hole in the ceiling again. He looked away, choosing instead to examine the crater that he'd made.

 

Kagome snuck a glance at her companion. Had she said something wrong? Inuyasha was unusually touchy about the strangest things. "So, what brought you here?" She inquired. It seemed odd that they ended up in the same place to think -or brood, in Inuyasha's case.

 

He took a deep breath and his eyes stared hard at the ground. "You." He said simply. Kagome stared at him openly this time, mentally urging him to elaborate. And that's exactly what he did. "This first time I saw you, I was on that bookshelf." He told her. "You were admiring the room." He said shortly.

 

Kagome suddenly sat upright. "I was right all along!" Inuyasha brought his eyes up to look at her in confusion. "I knew someone was watching me!" She explained. "But not in a good way. It gave me goose bumps." She admitted sheepishly, tucking a nonexistent strand of hair behind her ear.

 

"Mm." He said back. His eyes slid inexorably back to the hole in the floor. He'd been remembering, trying to understand what and why. Of course, her arrival in the room had just made him feel more jumbled about the whole topic. Hell, he wasn't even sure what the topic was as of now. He had just been sitting, letting his emotions fly free, uninhibited and tell him what was what. Then he'd figure out why. Then, if he saw fit, he'd shut up the emotions.

 

"I wonder where Mom and Shippo are…" Kagome was saying. "I hope they're okay. I mean, they should've been back yesterday, or the day before." She worried, tucking another nonexistent strand of inky black hair behind her ear.

 

"They're probably fine." Inuyasha said, gruffly reassuring. "Worrying about it won't do them any good anyway." Kagome nodded slowly, ignoring the bite to his comments.

 

She looked out the large windows and at the garden that her mother had started to renew with a sigh. "But still…" She trailed off. "I can't help it, you know?" She smiled ruefully.

 

Inuyasha nodded. The two of them sat in silence, both avoiding the conversation that had taken place earlier, yet both of them reflecting on it.

 

_|__|_

(•.•)

--( • )—

(___)

 

As she'd once told Kouga, the dead did indeed dance so prettily. They obeyed her every command mindlessly, without hesitation. They were completely loyal, devoted to her as long as she held her fan. The fresh corpses stumbled up the bushy ravine onto Kouga's territory, blood still pouring from some wounds. Kagura couldn't help but smile wickedly. He'd hate her all the more for this… But it was a brilliant plan, if she could say so herself. And for once, it wasn't Naraku's idea.

 

The corpses stumbled blindly, unseeing eyes rolling in their sockets as they made their way up to the house. Kagura waved her fan gently and one of the cadavers detached itself from the small band to knock. Kouga would be knowing what to suspect. He'd probably smelled them already. She anticipated the rage that would burn in his cerulean eyes as he promised her death yet again for all the hell that she'd given him. And then she would laugh in his face, as usual, unreachable on her feather, and attack him with his own dead kinsmen.

 

The only warning she got was the snapping of twigs underneath bare feet before Kouga sped past her, his hand missing her gut which he was determined to rip out and feed to his wolves. As she'd presumed, there was a raw, burning fury in his eyes and he headed for her again, completely ignoring the flailing dead that tried to grab him.

 

He didn't say anything as he leaped for her feather, intent on killing her for good. He'd already said the threats, the insults, everything. Calmly, Kagura brought her feather higher into the air, completely out of reach of the furious man below. It didn't stop him from trying, however. He leaped high into the air, fingers almost touching the bottom edge of the feather. "Oh, so close." Kagura acknowledged with false sympathy.

 

Then, he did speak. "Something wrong, Kagura?" The way he spat her name was akin to the vehemence one would use with a curse word. "Care to come down and finish this once and for all?" He raged below her, gasping for breath between each jump.

 

"I'd rather see you fight them," Kagura indicated the dead surrounding the angry man. "It would be so much more interesting." Kouga growled at her. "What a waste." She sighed prettily. "And after all the trouble I went through to prepare them."

 

Kouga's eyes were like cold bright jewels as he answered her between gritted teeth. "You're sick, Kagura." Of course, he'd already told her that before, but it didn't matter. "Come down! Stop hiding!" He roared helplessly. He jumped again, and Kagura had the dead run under him in a group. When he realized what was going on, he tried desperately for the feather, fingers just skimming the underside.

 

He fell back to earth, hitting the dead bodies of his clan. They fell to earth, bones crunching, cold dead flesh hitting the ground with a meaty thud. He howled his rage to the skies and Kagura laughed, reveling in the sight, in her power to hurt him so terribly. She laughed at his as he screamed his fury, feet covered in the blood of his relatives. He was right, she was sick. So very, very sick.

 

She was so intent on him that she didn't feel the small round thing that sped through her wind, didn't hear it as it whistled closer. Then it his her in the shoulder. With a hoarse cry, Kagura nearly toppled off of her feather. The pain was intense, bone-achingly so. A deep, painful throb spread down her right arm. Stunned, she let go of her winds. Her feather drifted closer to the ground. With a glad shout, Kouga leaped again. But his legs were tired; she was still out of reach. Magenta eyes wide in shock, face betraying childish surprise, she drifted closer. Kouga braced himself, leaping into the air at the right moment.

 

Kagura very nearly didn't make it. Fortunately, she slumped forward precisely the right moment, and Kouga's would-be deathblow aimed for her face instead brushed the top of her head, pulling out a clump of hair and giving a great cry of exasperated rage. The sharp pain in her head was just what Kagura needed, however. With a start, she sat up on her feather, eyes glazed in pain as blood flowed from the wound. That was careless, she thought to herself. Wearily, she summoned her winds around her and rose in the air and away, not bothering with any witty comments to Kouga as she went.

 

"Damn." How had it gone wrong? They'd been so close to killing her that time. Kouga stared unseeingly at the dead bodies of his clansmen. The bullet a little higher, the death blow a little lower… She was damned lucky. He clenched his fist tightly around the piece of hair he'd torn out of her head.

 

Ginta, closely followed by Hakakku, ran up to him. "Did you get her?" They asked anxiously. They stared uneasily at their cousin. Kouga was staring at a length of black hair in his hand. "Kouga?"

 

"She's gone," He bared his teeth in a grimace. "Come on." He walked to a small shed next to the house and unlocked it. He pulled out three shovels and handed one to each cousin, keeping on for himself.

 

Ginta and Hakakku expressed their regrets and began digging in silence, all three of them thinking. Kouga gritted his teeth and dragged a dead corpse into the grave he'd dug. The earth was rich here, nourished with many other dead done in by Kagura. His property was filled with dead bodies that Kagura had made walk onto his property.

 

She was the reason why he and his cousins were the only people around for miles. All the neighbors that live close by had been his kinsmen. She'd killed them all off in a huge massacre, the horde of dead stampeding across his property. Naturally, he'd never forgiven her and never would. And he still didn't know why she attacked in the first place, completely unprovoked.

 

Kouga burrowed his shovel deep into the earth, rich and moist from death. Hell, he didn't give a damn about why she attacked any more. He just wanted to kill her. He let a small savage pleasure seep into his mind. They'd made her bleed, made her hurt. They'd been so close to giving her an eternity in hell…

 

The shovel bit into the ground again and Kouga flung the dark brown dirt over his shoulder with a grunt. He carefully grabbed the nearest body and placed into the makeshift grave. There was not time for anything else. Who knew when the wind bitch would strike again? Damn her to hell...

 

(\ /)

(0.o)

(><)

 

Delighted giggled bubbled from Shippo's grinning mouth. He crawled under the fence with ease and walked into the forest. This was going to be interesting. A muffled curse came from behind him. "Potty mouth!" Shippo shouted gleefully. "Miroku's a potty mouth!" He was having so much fun… Miroku was putting himself through hell willingly.

 

"I suggest we go back to the house," Miroku called. "There could be all sorts of things back here that would delight in eating a small kitsu-" He cut himself off. He had no proof… yet. "child." He finished.

 

"Inuyasha probably scared them all away with his dog breath." Shippo replied and ducked underneath a bush, then over a log. He was going to find the longest and most hazardous trip through the forest.

 

"What's that about my breath?" Inuyasha's voice echoed between the trees and the poltergeist appeared with a puff of grey smoke, eye to eye with Shippo as he floated on his stomach.

 

Shippo leaped back in surprise before retorting wittily. "You don't have any." He grinned at Inuyasha's eyes flashed gold for an instant.

 

"I'm gonna get you on the next half moon, Brat." He warned. Miroku crashed about in the foliage behind them and the annoyed dirty man shoved his way through a bush.

 

"I must admit, Inuyasha." Miroku pulled a wet leaf off of his face in distaste. "You walked right into that one."

 

"And you're nest on my list, monk." The poltergeist growled lazily, still at eyelevel with Shippo. An ear flicked in the purple-eyed man's direction.

 

"Where's Kagome on that list?" Shippo asked wickedly. He was rewarded when Inuyasha's grey cheeks flushed peach, then bloomed pink.

 

"Well beneath you!" The angry spectral half-demon made a futile swipe at the ginger-haired boy. Shippo chuckled and continued on his merry way down the nonexistent forest path.

 

"What are you doing, Miroku?" Inuyasha asked curiously as the man sighed wearily and tramped down the ravine after Shippo.

 

"Following Shippo." Miroku indicated the rustling bushes as the mischievous child scrambled through a bush.

 

Inuyasha raised his eyebrows incredulously at him. "Is it really worth it?" He stared blatantly at Miroku's current state of being.

 

"Quite." Miroku pushed a branch out of his way and let it fly. The branch whipped back through Inuyasha's head. The determined man slipped on some dry leaves and fell on his rear with an "oof!"

 

"Why?" Miroku picked himself off the ground and started off after the ginger-haired child. He hopped over a bush and plunged into another with a muffled exclamation.

 

"Because I could be right," Miroku answered cryptically, unwilling to tell the poltergeist any more. He might laugh at him and call him an idiot like the rest of them. "And if I am, than I must know."

 

"Uh," Inuyasha floated effortlessly next to Miroku as he fought his way through a large growth of vegetation. "Well, I think you've lost him now." Miroku shook his head.

 

"Can't lose him," He gasped and slid down the slope of the ravine. "Shit!" Inuyasha's eyes widened in surprise. Miroku wasn't one for cursing, of course, in this case… The poor man had slid into the small brook at the bottom. Although it was only two feet deepest at most, Miroku had somehow managed to get completely soaked. "That was lucky."

 

Inuyasha snorted derisively. "Lucky?" He echoed incredulously. Miroku picked himself up and tried unsuccessfully to wring himself out a bit.

 

"Lucky that I didn't hit my head on any rocks and die, lucky that I didn't break anything." He flicked his wet bangs out of his eyes before continuing stubbornly after where he assumed Shippo had gone. "With my luck today, I probably would be."

 

"Uh, Miroku?" Inuyasha paused, floating above the middle of the stream. "Shippo went that way." He indicated the other side of the river that they'd come from.

 

"What?" The wet and bedraggled man plunged across the stream again. "Are you sure? Did you see him?" He peered up ahead.

 

Inuyasha tapped his nose. "I can smell him." Not as well as before, but it was enough to pick up his disguised scent. "And I can see the tracks." He pointed to the little sneaker tracks in the mud by the riverbank, then some disturbed foliage.

 

"Well then," Miroku pulled his shirt away from his chest and wrung the cold material out. "Lead on!" he pointed ahead dramatically. Inuyasha shook his head and came to the conclusion that Miroku was a true weirdo.

 

(\ /)

(• .•)

(><)

 

Shippo grinned as he looked out the kitchen window. It'd take Miroku a while to figure out that he hadn't stayed in the forest for very long at all. He'd probably be stomping around in there for at least an hour, if he asked for Inuyasha's help. As a poltergeist, Shippo realized that Inuyasha didn't have a superb sense of smell or hearing. The two of them would probably follow around the Shippo-simulacrum's trail for hours before giving up and coming home.

 

And imagine their surprise when they would find Shippo waiting for them! Shippo giggled again and reached up on the tips of his toes for the door to the refrigerator. Managing to open it, the ginger-haired miscreant looked around the food, deciding what to eat. Milk? Nah. Pickles, orange juice, pickles, cheese, pickles, sliced ham, pickles- why had Mr. Higurashi insisted on so many jars of pickles? - leftover rice, nah. Shippo closed the door with disappointment and leaped at the door to the freezer, where there was surely some ice cream or something else yummy and sweet and cold.

 

"Got it!" Shippo said triumphantly. Now all he had to do was open it. The poor kid was hanging from the freezer door. After a pause for though, Shippo pushed his legs against the refrigerator door. The freezer door swung open, Shippo still attached, breathing out a sigh of frigid air. Dropping from the door, Shippo leaped into the air to see into the freezer. Was that an ice cream tub he'd gotten a glimpse of?

 

There was a smothered chuckle from behind him. Shippo whirled around, worried that it was Miroku. Sango stood in the doorway, a hand on the doorway and a smile on her lips. "Need some help?" She asked him. Shippo nodded and she picked him up so that he was eyelevel to the freezer.

 

"Ice cream!" Shippo gave a delighted cry and squirmed in Sango's grasp. "Ice cream, ice cream!" He chanted jubilantly. Sango laughed quietly and picked up the much-anticipated tub. She placed it on the table with Shippo and closed the freezer door. When she turned around again, Shippo had opened the tub of ice cream and his hand was smothered with the frozen confection, closed eyes the picture of bliss.

 

"Are you allowed to eat that now?" Sango asked him. Shippo opened one bright green eye to look at her reproachfully. He hugged the tub close to his chest protectively.

 

"You're no fun," He complained and sucked on the tips of his fingers. His green eyes watched her carefully, a hint of pleading in them. Shippo would never beg outright, but he knew how to be subtle about it.

 

Naturally, Sango gave in. Who could resist those shining green eyes? "Oh, I'm sure I could overlook it." Shippo gave her a big grin, the sticky ice cream smeared all over his face. "Just don't tell, okay?" She whispered to him and handed him a spoon.

 

Shippo nodded and brought out a huge spoonful of the partially melted ice cream and miraculously managed to fit the whole thing in his mouth. He savored it for a moment before swallowing it. Sango watched him with an amused smile.

 

Suddenly, the ginger-haired boy froze and grabbed his head. "Don't make yourself sick," Sango teased. Shippo hunched over, hands on his head and whimpering. Uh oh. With her luck, he had an allergy that she wasn't aware of, perhaps of dairy. "Shippo!" She leaned forwards, staring close at the poor child as he closed his eyes in agony. "Shippo!" She shook him gently and he didn't respond. "I'm gonna call emergency." She decided and rushed into the living room to grab the phone.

 

"No!" Sango stopped, her hand reaching for the phone as he spoke. "Brain freeze!" He wailed, topping on his side, the big silver spoon that Sango gave him dropping on the table and splattering melted ice cream on the table. "Oww, it hurts!" He shook his head vigorously.

 

Sango sighed with relief. Trust Shippo to get all melodramatic. She sat down at the table and wiped the ice cream off of the table with a rag. "It'll pass in a bit," She assured the kid.

 

"I know," Shippo said, hands still clasped to his head. "This always happens. I keep forgetting, though." He picked the spoon up off of the table -Sango wiping the sticky stuff off of the wood- and placed it back in his mouth. He was about to stick it back in the tub when Sango presented him with a bowl.

 

"No getting your germs all over the ice cream," She told him firmly, a strong believer in hygiene. "I like ice cream too. Use the bowl." He nodded in acknowledgement and dug out as much ice cream as he could into the bowl.

 

After a moment of watching him eat way too much ice cream for his own good, Sango casually ventured a question. "Seen Miroku around anywhere?" She frowned as Shippo went stock still for a moment, the grinned evilly.

 

"Inuyasha's leading him around in the woods," he laughed. "looking for me!" The laughter subsided after a moment and the little miscreant attended his ice cream bowl again.

 

Sango looked at him in confusion. "Why?" She asked finally. Shippo merely giggled and shook his head as the ice cream began to take root in his system.

 

"I can't tell, it's a secret." He chuckled. "Miroku's being silly, and Inuyasha doesn't know the difference!" He bounced on the table, the ice bowl nearly empty. "They'll never catch me!" He leaped off the table, ice cream tub in tow.

 

But Sango was quick, very quick. She caught the hyperactive boy before he'd gone two feet. "Oh no, you don't." She held him up by the back of his shirt. "You leave the ice cream here." She grabbed the tub from her and set him back down. "Now run along." She shoed him off.

 

Shippo giggled again and ran out of the room and thumped up the stairs, feet pattering away into the distance. Sango shook her head. He was going to feel very sick later… She wiped off the table with the dishcloth and put the ice cream back in the freezer, shaking her head. And what were Miroku and Inuyasha up to?

 

She sighed and walked into the living room, picking up a book on her way to the couch. She felt like reading, anyway. She suddenly gasped suddenly and snapped the book shut, then looked at the cover. Obviously Miroku's… She put the book back where she found it, her face quite red from embarrassment.

 

"That idiot…." The insult lacked bite, however. "Where is he…?" Sango murmured.

 

(\ /)

(• .•)

(><)

 

She felt faint, dizzy.

 

Feverishly, Kagura looked at her arm again. Knowing those damned wolves, there was probably something poisonous coating the bullet and the only reason she wasn't dead yet was because she was demon. Her hand was clasped tight over the hole in her shoulder and her left arm was completely numb, the fingers tingling and cold. The blood had finally clotted and dried, the iron tang invading her nose as she hastened to the cave. By the time she got there, she should be a bit more presentable.

 

If Kagura was anything, she was fiercely proud to a fault. She would never, ever come running to Naraku of all people, begging to be healed. She didn't need him, didn't want him, but he controlled her. And she hated him for it, of course.

 

Her hold on the wound lessened as she felt the muscles reknit themselves, the shattered fragments of bone move together. Slowly, her arm reassembled itself. "Kouga…" She murmured wickedly. "Don't go to sleep tonight. I'm going to pay you a visit." Her head bobbed on her weakened neck as the feather encountered slight turbulence. Revenge was a bitter victory, but it would be hers nonetheless.

 

(\ /)

(•.•)

(><)

 

Kagome knew that Inuyasha was gone, though she didn't see him or hear him leave. She just felt an emptiness where his presence had once been. She didn't even blame him. After all, he'd come to the ballroom to be alone and try to think, just as she did. So after he left, Kagome stayed by in the big room all by herself, looking up at the hole in the ceiling for some strange reason as she thought, letting her mind drift wherever it willed.

 

She didn't know how long she sat there, only that he butt was getting kind of numb from being on the floor so long. Kagome stood up and brushed off her skirt before sitting in an old dusty chair behind an uninstalled bookshelf, maneuvering around some old scraps of wood and paper that Inuyasha's fall had dislodged from their proper places. She looked up at the bright patch of sky in the ceiling again and gasped, eyes widening in surprise.

 

Kagome didn't even think twice. She dove under the chair, peering out from behind a broken board as the giant white feather descended. Barely daring to breathe- her respiration seemed to echo dramatically in the room- she watched an elegant yet wounded figure stumble off the feather. The large pinion shrank and the strange magenta-eyed woman stuck it in her hair, grasping her shoulder all the while.

 

Under normal circumstances, upon seeing the amount of blood that was covering the woman's clothes and hands would've rushed out to help. But these were no ordinary circumstances. The woman had arrived on a giant shrinking feather, and Kagome felt a strong malevolence, something cold and alien, about her. She wasn't coming out, even if the woman keeled over dead.

 

"Just like old times, huh?" The woman addressed the room in a hoarse sardonic tone. She looked at the hole in the floor meditatively. "Someone's been doing some remodeling while I've been away." She remarked. Regarding the ceiling, she amended her statement. "Or some fool doing daredevil tricks." The strange woman sat down heavily and pulled her hand away from her arm. "That bastard Kouga."

 

Kagome's eyes widened. "Kouga?" She wondered, not aloud of course. "What does he have to do with it…?" The woman pulled the torn cloth away from her arm with a wince. "Did he… Why?!" The Kouga she'd met had been uncouth and impulsive, but not so violent. Of course, she didn't really know Kouga…

 

"Ouch." She hissed, her fingers digging into the nasty hole in her arm. Blood spurted forth onto the floor in a wet smattering of sound. "Those wolves are getting clever, to think of such a distraction." She murmured to herself, the word echoing throughout the room so that Kagome heard them.

 

Oh, so it was Kouga's wolves. But that made no sense. Maybe they'd attacked her for being on the property. The woman was facing away now, grabbing a splinter of wood off of the ground. Kagome watched with baited breath and wide brown eyes the older pulled up her shirt to get at the wound better, revealing a large spider-shaped scar on her back. It looked as if it was done with a branding iron, or something.

 

Kagome decided frantically that she was in a gang and that was their symbol, and the feather, well, it was… Logic dictated that the feather didn't exist. So it was just a figment of her imagination. That settled it, she thought haphazardly, her mind so panicked that she didn't stop to register her thoughts.

 

"Kagome, Kagome," Kagome heard Shippo trying to sing the old nursery rhyme, but forgetting the words. "Kagome, Kagome!" He sang again. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" he giggled. Kagome could help but make a face. He sounded like he was drunk. If Miroku gave him her grandfather's sake- and it was sacramental sake, at that! - she'd kill him.

 

The effect that the child's voice had on the strange woman was radically different from Kagome's. She'd been dozing gently and suddenly sat bolt upright in surprise, wincing because of her arm. She frowned in irritation and pulled out her feather again. Kagome watched intently as it grew. The woman hopped on and soared up into the sky with a brisk rush of wind.

 

And she was gone.

 

Kagome blinked, still hidden under the chair. What if it was just a trick, and the woman was still there? "What on earth are you doing?" A voice grumbled. "Is it just me, or is everybody acting like nuts today?"

 

Kagome jumped and hit her head on the bottom of the chair. "Ow!" She crawled out from underneath it and sat down on the floor to nurse her head.

 

"What were you doing?" Inuyasha asked again, watching her curiously. Kagome rubbed her head on last time and tucked a nonexistent strand of hair behind her ear, a telltale sign that she was nervous or unsure about something. He smirked slightly. He could read Kagome like a book. Or better, since he hadn't tried to read in over five hundred years.

 

"You're gonna call me crazy," She began. "But I swear that I'm not lying!" She put her hands up in defense before Inuyasha had the chance to say anything.

 

"KAGOME, KAGOME!" Shippo howled. "WHERE ARE YOU, KAGOME!" Apparently he'd made a few,,, adaptations to the song's tune and lyrics. He threw the doors to the ballroom open with a bang, a peeved and dirty Miroku closely pursuing him.

 

"KAGOME, KAGOME!" Shippo leaped an incredible two yards and landed on Kagome's head. "I FOUND THE KAGOME!" He laughed. Miroku stomped in after him and shut the doors tightly, lest any sugar-crazed children tried to escape without him.

 

"Shut up, Brat." Inuyasha snapped at the crazy child. "Kagome's trying to tell me something." Shippo was silent for a while and Kagome took a deep breath.

 

"As I was saying-"

 

"INUYAAAASHA! INUYAAASHA!" Shippo burst out, very much out of tune. "STINKS LIKE DOGGIES!" Sango opened the doors a crack and peered in with curiosity before stepping in the room and closing the doors firmly behind her for the same reasons as Miroku.

 

"Shippo." Miroku said sharply. "Hush, let Kagome speak." But Shippo had a devious green spark in his eye and was not deterred in the slightest. Sango sighed and sat down next to the bemused raven-haired girl. Ice cream had certainly been a bad idea.

 

"MIROKU, MIROKU!" He tried. "I'M BEIN' STALKED BY MIROKU!" Miroku looked at the swooning kid in irritation.

 

"Hey, Shippo!" Kagome whispered in his ear. "Guess what?" Shippo blinked drowsily. He was in the stage when the sugar-high became a sugar-low, yet still had the capacity to be weird and annoying.

 

"KAGOME, KAGOME!" He belted out, breath reeking of warm ice cream. Kagome winced and Inuyasha wrinkled his nose.

 

"I have a secret, Shippo!" Kagome tried desperately. Shippo shut up immediately and looked at her solemnly. "It's very important, and I need to tell everyone, okay?"

 

Shippo thought for a moment before replying. "But, then it's not a secre-" Kagome nodded vigorously and cut him off.

 

"I'm glad you agree." She told him quickly. Miroku and Inuyasha exchanged glances. "Now." She turned back to Inuyasha and Miroku. "Now, I know it sounds crazy, but just let me tell you what happened, okay?" They were intrigued and nodded for her to go on. "Well, I was sitting in that chair-" She pointed to the old, moth-eaten chair- "And just looking at the hole in the ceiling when this giant feather came down out of the sky and landed in the room. I hid underneath the chair- that's when you saw me, Inuyasha- and watched her. She had a wound on her arm and she was talking about Kouga and something about old times and the house and remodeling and daredevils and wolves and ambushes. Kouga's wolves, I think they bit her really bad. They ambushed her because she was on his property, probably." Kagome took a deep breath and continued.

 

"And then she lifted up the hem of her shirt to see the wound in her shoulder better"- Miroku watched her in fascination- "and there was this big burn mark on her back that looked like a spider. And then Shippo was singing and she flew away. On her feather." Kagome concluded, blushing slightly.

 

Silence. They all stared at her in surprise. Then Shippo said, "Well, I had this dream once where I was surrounded by corn and I was trying to eat it but it kept flying away." He looked at her solemnly.

 

"I wasn't sleeping." She told him flatly. Shippo looked disappointed. Miroku hesitated before speaking.

 

"Are you sure that it was, well, really there? Not just some imagining?" He asked skeptically, running a hand through his curiously damp and twig-ridden hair. "I have read legends in which such things were possible, but…" he trailed off.

 

"It really happened!" Kagome protested. "There was this cold, evil coming off of her and it made me all tingly and I know it was real!" She waved her hands in the air.

 

"She's right." Inuyasha confirmed quietly. The other three turned to look at him. He drifted a few inches over the floor in the middle of the room. As soon as he was sure he had their attention, he pointed at a splattering of reddish-black blood that lay on the floor. "And here's the proof."

 

_|__|_

(•. •)

--( • )--

(____)

 

Sango couldn't help but stare as Miroku tramped through the doors, looking decidedly worse for wear. There were twigs from various plants in his wet and tangled hair and he was damp all over as if he'd gotten all wet a while ago. There were several scratches on his let arm and a long gash on his right. "What in the name of…" Sango trailed off. "What happened to you?" She put down the newspaper and stood up.

 

"I went on a journey of discovery." Miroku replied piously. "With a ghost as a guide and nothing but the clothes on my back, brave adventurer that I am." He took off his dirty, waterlogged socks and put them outside.

 

"I'm a poltergeist," Inuyasha explained patiently. "I'm not a ghost." How many times did he have to explain it to them?

 

"Poetic license," Miroku replied as he pulled the various twigs and plant vegetation out of his hair. Sango disappeared for a few minutes and came back with the first aide kit in hand.

 

"Ah, thank you, Sango." He received the box reverently. "Salvation is at hand!" Sango stared at him, perplexed as he rifled through the box.

 

"Did you get yourself drunk?" She asked incredulously. "Because it sure looks like it." Miroku was certainly acting strange…

 

"I told you," Miroku pulled out some rubbing alcohol and poured some on a cotton swab. "that I was on a mission of discovery." Inuyasha snorted.

 

"And what did you discover?" He asked, arms folded across a spectral chest as he floated a few inches above the ground.

 

"That poltergeists aren't good guides." Miroku replied. Inuyasha glared at him. "And that Shippo is a very clever young man who delights in the pain in others. Unless," He turned on Inuyasha. "You two were in it together."

 

"Nonsense." Inuyasha snorted and looked away huffily. "Why would I ever team up with The Brat? There's nothing in it for me…" Miroku idly taped a band-aid to wrist over a scratch.

 

"That's what you'd want me to think!" Miroku said triumphantly. "Now, let's just say, hypothetically, that you were in it with Shippo, and-" Inuyasha cut him off with another snort as he floated towards the door.

 

"Why would I do it, though?" He challenged with an irritated glance over his shoulder as he drifted slowly nearer and nearer the door.

 

"Because you have certain… similar traits." Miroku suggested coyly. Inuyasha whirled around and suddenly Miroku found himself face to face with the angry poltergeist.

 

"That's not true!" Inuyasha retorted hotly. "Shippo is a whiny little brat! I'm nothing like him!" He huffed.

 

"I'm not referring to personality traits, Inuyasha." Miroku told him with a subtle smile. Inuyasha looked at him curiously. Sango did too.

 

"I mean, you two are… distant relatives. Half-cousins." Miroku tried. "Similar physically." He decided. Sango was watching the two of them carefully, apparently keen on her newspaper but more keen on the conversation unfolding before him.

 

It dawned on him, Miroku could tell. Inuyasha knew what he meant. "You're getting your families mixed up, monk." He said gruffly.

 

"But nonetheless you understand what I mean," Miroku pulled another leaf out of his hair. "And that is what I'm trying to get at." Sango peered over the edge of her newspaper at them. She was completely in the dark on this one.

 

"And now, I'm off to find our little miscreant." Miroku sighed and looked down at himself. "And after that, I'm going to find some time to change." He decided firmly. His clothes were most certainly not comfortable as is. "Shippo!" He called wearily. "Shippo, come out!"

 

"He'll be running around the house somewhere," Sango said suddenly. Miroku turned. He'd forgotten she was there. She didn't seem to have paid much attention to him and Inuyasha, though.

 

"Why is that?" Miroku asked with increasing dread. He was envisioning snares, booby traps and all manner of terrible things that the mischievous child would've had time to set up.

 

"Umm," Sango shifted nervously in her seat. "He had a bit of ice cream this afternoon while you were away." A little? What an understatement. Miroku was going to give her hell when he found out.

 

"Why?" Miroku asked her. "Why on earth did you give him ice cream? Why now?" He looked exasperated and pulled a twig out of his hair. "How many of these things are still on my head?" He asked himself.

 

"Whoops." Sango said carelessly. Miroku merely shook his head in defeat and left the room to go follow the sugar-crazed child around the house. Inuyasha disappeared with a small puff of smoke. She went back to her newspaper.

 

(\ /)

(•. •)

(><)

 

A great calamity broke out simultaneously, Sango exclaiming over the color of the blood, Shippo crinkling his nose, saying it smelled weird, and Miroku leaning over for a closer look, exclaiming over the strange story.

 

"Well, that settles it," Sango crouched over the droplets on the floor. "There was a lady on a feather, and she felt evil. When she heard Shippo, she flew away." Kagome blushed and opened her mouth to speak.

 

"I know how stupid it sounds." She admitted. "But that's what I saw. It's like those people on the TV shows that talk about seeing aliens and spaceships or being abducted. It's crazy."

 

"But in this case," Miroku acknowledged, "true. Very true." There was a gleam in his eye, one of excitement. Hesitantly he brought a finger closer to the blood on the floor in morbid fascination.

 

"Don't touch it!" Inuyasha barked out. Miroku backed away hurriedly. At his questioning look, Inuyasha explained. "It's partially demon miasma, which is strange." He brought his nose closer to the floor sniffed it.

 

"So what would happen if we did touch it?" Shippo asked, peering out at the stuff from behind Kagome's thigh as she crouched next to it.

 

Inuyasha indicated the fragments of wood scattered across the floor. "See for yourself." Miroku grabbed a handy piece of splintered wood and dipped the tip into the blackish-red pool. The wood sizzled and melted. With wide eyes, everyone scooted away from the dangerous stuff. "That's what would happen." Miroku tossed the bubbling piece of wood away hastily.

 

"Youch." Kagome commented. "But how could that be blood?" She wondered aloud. She was surprised when it was Miroku and not Inuyasha who answered.

 

"It's potent demon-blood." He explained. "Very, very potent. And that explains the woman's feather." He frowned a moment before continuing. "Miasmic demon blood?" he wondered. "But how?" he stared at the stuff as if searching it for answers.

 

Inuyasha looked at him curiously. "How do you know about it? Demon blood and miasma?" Everyone looked at him as the poltergeist spoke.

 

Miroku shrugged vaguely and looked at the demon blood. "I grew up in a temple. My foster father taught me about it." He shifted slightly, uncomfortably. He was hiding something, Inuyasha realized. But what?

 

"So demons do still exist." Kagome said slowly. "And… and… they walk among us!" It sounded like some old sci-fi flick, but it summed it up perfectly.

 

"Hm." Sango hummed calmly at Kagome's outburst. It was a good thing she knew demon-lore, then. Well, she knew how to kill 'em.

 

"So what are we gonna do?" Kagome asked. "Should we do anything?" She'd grown up believing that demons were terrifying creatures of evil, but now… Inuyasha certainly wasn't evil, and he was a demon. And the lady, though she felt evil, had acted like one, not like some mindless killing machine.

 

Shippo trembled by her side. "Nothing." Miroku said calmly. He knew what happened when you tried to tell people about those sorts of things. They called you crazy and laughed. And kicked you out of school. "What can we do?"

 

He glanced at Shippo. The kid watched him carefully, too.

 

(\ /)

(•. •)

(><)

 

Miroku was starting to get on his nerves. Shippo glanced behind him and just as before, there was Miroku, trailing him like a lost dog. He needed to get away, or he'd be discovered. Shippo suddenly sprinted around the corner of the hallway and crashed into the bathroom. He was small, he could fit behind the trashcan, next to the toilet and Miroku would never know.

 

A moment later, Shippo heard heavy footfalls down the hallway. Closets opened and closed as Miroku searched. The bathroom door creaked open and Shippo suddenly found himself face to face with the triumphant adult. He squeaked and shot out of the bathroom, sprinting pell-mell down the halls, turning left then right, tumbling down one flight of stairs and then turning another corner and don't look back because Miroku was behind him- Shippo's heart raced as he slammed open a door and ended up in the basement. He peeked out around the door and say Miroku walk jog outside in search of him. The cool air soothed his nerves as he closed the door and trotted behind a cardboard box. With a shuddering sigh, the ginger-haired boy relaxed for a moment, closing his eyes and pulling a small scrap of parchment out from behind his ear.

 

Shippo's image flickered and changed. The revealed demon flicked his big bushy fox-tail and stretched out his fox feet. Suddenly he stiffened, baring small pearly fangs in the gloom. Someone was there. He could smell them, hear them. Kagome's story about the strange woman floated to the surface of his mind. "Foxfire!"

 

A small flame flickered into life on his fingertip and he threw it into the darkness. It gleamed like a flare, flickering as it drifted slowly to the ground. Shippo gulped. Where were they? The person… He whirled around and met a green gaze. "Foxfire!"

 

Buyo blinked, not in the least bit alarmed. Whew. Only a cat. A big, fat cat. Said bulky feline wandered away, and the mischevious boy let out a sigh of relief. He opened a small fist and let the spell sit in his palm. He pressed his hands together and they began to glow slightly with pale fire as Shippo renewed the spell. Suddenly the cardboard he was hiding behind was hurled away and Miroku stood before him, pointing an accusatory finger, a delighted grin on his face.

 

"Caught in the act, kitsune!" He smiled. Shippo gritted his teeth. Damn. He was caught, after so many years of maintaining his secret. The revealed kitsune gulped as an old saying floated into his mind.

 

"Even the monkey falls from the tree."

 

(\ /)

(0.o)

(><)

 

AN: I know, bad grammar on the 2nd paragraph from the last divider! But it's supposed to be, don't worry. It is expressing Shippo's panic as he runs from Miroku. Why is he panicked? My answer: ever play, "hide and go seek" in the dark? Even though you know the person who's seeking you out, you can't help but scream in terror when they poke their face out from behind whatever and shout, "Boo!" and surprise you. Or maybe that's just me… Let's just call it instinct, on Shippo's part and inherent weirdness on my own.

 

…and I have "Stoned" by Dido stuck in my head for some inexplicable reason…

 

Anyway…

 

Thanks for reading! Tell me whatcha think!