InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Nigatsu no Hoshi (Stars of February) ❯ A Most Unexpected Visitor ( Chapter 11 )

Disclaimer: I don't own inuyasha!…BUT! I DO own any original characters in his story. So ha! I found a way around the system! Mwuahahahah! Ahem…

Suteki: hey peoples. I'm glad you liked the last chapter, I was hoping to get some kind of response out of that one, glad it worked.

Shizuka: keep your eyes open for new characters coming up soon!

Suteki: oh yeah, that reminds me. If any one would like to see my own sketches of demon kagome, or the two upcoming characters, email me and I'll send them to you.

Shizuka: we tried to get them up on mediaminer, but it didn't work for some reason. But, she's REALLY good! So think about it pwease. I've seen 'em, and they're pretty cool. You wont be disappointed!

Suteki: if you don't want to bother going into my profile to get it, here's my current address: inu_luver@yahoo.com . arigatou!!

Suteki: one last thing, I wanted to give a shout out to my 2 faithful readers at mediaminer.org. First off, essie! Thanks for keeping up with this, and for reviewing so often, I'm glad you like it! I know that she's already read this chapter, so might not read her own shout out, but I'll mention her again next chapt. And second, to hanyou_kagome, I'm glad you're so enthusiastic about all my stories, thanks for all 3 of your reviews, they made my day!

And also to Kagome3007, who posted some very entertaining reviews, I know I mentioned you before, but didn't want to leave you out this time. =)

And for my reviewers at ff.net, namely: Yumiki-Chan, The_Magician, Josie (Inuyashasmate), animefreak808, inukaglover132, and HeartAke. THANKS! I loved reading ALL of your reviews, and I'm sorry I didn't thank you all earlier, but, DOMO arigatou!

(*your name here* if you reviewed! Lol)

Chapter 10: A Most Unexpected Visitor

As kagome made her way back to the hut, she continued to smile to herself. She could feel in her soul, that her mother was happy for something, and she thought she knew what. `I'm glad you accept this mother.' As she continued to walk however, she was assaulted by another wave of dizziness, this one more powerful than the last ones. She fell to one knee, supporting her head in her hands.

"What's wrong with me?" she worried out loud. "why's it getting worse? I thought for sure this would have passed by now, its been over a week." She stayed like that for a good five minutes, as the forest spun in circles around her. Her body started to heat up, and she shivered at the chills that rolled up and down her spine. "help…me…" she whispered into the dirt.

Inuyasha stepped out side, not being able to help being worried about kagome. He wasn't going to follow her, but wanted to be the first to know when she returned. As he leaned against the walls of the hut, something caught his attention. He caught Kagome's scent not to far from the village, but something was mingled in it as well, but he couldn't tell what it was at first. It was very faint, so he took in a few more nose-fulls of air, `fear! She's scared! Of what?' when the question popped into his mind, he flew into the forest in desperate search of her.

`Could it be another demon? It couldn't be Naraku could it? I cant sense another presence anywhere in the area, what could she possibly be scared of?' he quickly caught site of her form. She was kneeling on the ground, her elbows holding her up as she rested her head between her forearms. "Kagome?" he voiced quietly as he approached her slowly.

Kagome couldn't process much of anything, her head was heavy and it felt like she was falling and didn't know when she'd hit the ground. She didn't feel him approaching; it wasn't until she heard him voice her name the she knew he was standing above her. She tried to raise her head to look at him, but she couldn't move her neck at all. She started to sob in frustration, "inuyasha…help me…" she whispered again.

He was quickly at her side, and he slowly pulled her over to sit in his lap. Her help limply fell backwards into his chest. There were beads of sweat forming at her brow, and her face was flushed. "Kagome, what's wrong with you? What happened?"

She fought to open her eyes, and as she managed to, she focused onto his eyes. As she locked with his amber yes, she felt as if she were drawing strength from his worried orbs. She smiled as she felt the dizziness slowly subside, and her head lighten a little. "I don't know inuyasha, I'm sorry to have worried you. I think I'm just getting a little sick is all, must be the transformation along with the stress."

"Are you sure? I mean, I know that your body is still getting used to the changes and all, but-"

"Its okay, I'm fine now, just take me back to the hut, I'm tired." She interrupted as she started to sit up. He helped her stand as she held onto his shoulders. "Thank you inuyasha, I don't think I could have made it back without you. Its strange though, it simply disappeared so quickly." She leaned up and chastely planted a small kiss on his nose. He eyed her wearily, wondering also, how she recovered so fast. `Must be her demon blood that healed her…' he told himself.

He picked her up, and then leaped into the nearby Goshenboku. He rested his back in the arch of a branch and the trunk. He pulled her close into his embrace, and she curled up in his lap. She had fallen asleep as soon as she settled, and he stayed awake staring at the top of her head still with a worried look on his face. `What's wrong kagome?'

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The others had fallen asleep the night before, all wondering where the two members of the group had gone. Upon sharing his theory of where the couple was, Miroku ended up with a rather large bump on the head. In the morning, they awoke to find that they still hadn't returned. Shippou was getting testy, and Sango was starting to worry.

Back in the god tree, a young demoness was starting to stir. Kagome woke up surrounded by warmth. She snuggled closer into it when she felt a slight chill, and was greeted by a soft purr. `Purring? Since when do sleeping bags purr?' her eyelids fluttered open, and she was met by anything but the warm oak walls of her hut. She was staring a good 50 feet down at the forest floor. She stiffened and then looked up when she felt the warmth tighten around her. She smiled when she saw Inuyasha's sleeping face. He looked so sweet and innocent when he slept, almost like a child. His lips were parted lightly, and his ears were twitching every once and a while. She couldn't resist, she reached up and rubbed one of his furry ears, and bit back a giggle when his chest rumbled with another purr. She leaned forward and kissed him gently on the lips. When she pulled away, she watched as his eyes fluttered open as well, and met hers. His mouth made a curious "o" as he tried to remember what was going on, and why he was purring. `Purring? Oh crap, she didn't hear me purr did she?' as if reading his mind, "Inuyasha, is that purring that I hear?" "Purring?! Keh! Only neko's purr." He said defiantly, while a small blush crept onto his cheeks.

"Oh really?" she asked in a slightly mischievous tone. She leaned forward again, only a hair's breadth from his face and stared into his eyes. He blinked a couple of times at her in confusion. Then his eyes widened as she lowered her head to the base of his neck and she began to nuzzle against him, and was…purring back? He closed his eyes and leaned into her, giving into his animal instincts, and nuzzled her back, while the vibrating in his chest mingled with her own.

Just then, the couple both picked up a familiar scent, kagome smiled while inuyasha scowled. "Kagome! Okasan?!"

"Up here shippou-Chan!!" she yelled from her perch in the tree. "There you are! I thought something happened to you, I was starting to get worried. Come down here please! I'm hungry!"

Kagome continued to stare down at the ground, and then threw a questioning look up at inuyasha. He smiled, "feh, come on woman, you look like a little koneko stuck in a tree. You're a powerful inu youkai, don't tell me you're afraid of heights."

"Inuyasha! I've never even dreamed of jumping down from this high up and living! You've got to be kidding me!"

"You've gotta learn some time," he eyed her as he continued to smile smugly, looking as if he was enjoying her insecurity.

Kagome didn't like being talked down to like a little girl, so she looked back down at the ground determinedly. She sucked in, held her breath, and then leaned forward a little, getting ready to ease down. Inuyasha, getting bored of watching her move so slowly, nudged her backside with one of his feet. She shrieked, and then fell the rest of the way off the branch with a "EEEP!"

Inuyasha leaned over the limb to watch her falling. Her feet were always pointed at the ground, and her arms were above her head. Her hair whipped violently upward, and her clothing billowed in the air. She closed her eyes tight as she approached the ground, but was surprised when her feet came into contact with the ground, and all she did was softly bend her knees, and she was fine. She blinked in surprise, and then looked back up to inuyasha, smiling ear to ear. "ha! Told you I could do it!"

"You did??"

She glared at him, but quickly was reminded of Shippou's presence when he latched onto her leg. "That was amazing okasan! I didn't know you could do that! I thought I was going to have to kill inuyasha there for a second when I saw him push you." Kagome laughed down at him, and rubbed between his ears. "Come on, let's go eat."

With that, she picked up the kitsune, and ran back towards camp, once again lavishing in her new powers, quite happy with herself.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

When kagome and inuyasha had returned with shippou, Sango had been extremely relieved, and thus lectured kagome about leaving without telling anyone where she was going. Miroku on the other hand, sat in a corner, quietly smiling to himself, this didn't go unnoticed by the hanyou. "Oi monk, what are you smiling about?" inuyasha asked as he came to sit next to him. Miroku's smile grew, and his eyelids slanted at inuyasha, "So…how was it?" inuyasha continued to eye him, confused again. "How was what?" Miroku bit back a giggle, "how was she??" he emphasized the last word as he directed his gaze to kagome, who stood at the other side of the room. Inuyasha blushed a deep crimson, and then smacked the perverted Houshi in the back of the head, "none of your god-damned business. You had better shut your trap, and get all those filthy images out of your head." Miroku rubbed the back of his head, one eye shut in pain, while he smiled innocently, "why, I don't know what these images that you speak of, could possibly be my dear man." Inuyasha growled, and in a low tone, "the ones of kagome naked, fulfilling your sick fantasies. You know damn well that's what you're thinking." He whispered through clenched teeth. This earned a weary laugh from the monk, but that stopped as they both heard a small gasp and gulp from the far side of the hut. They both turned their heads, to see kagome, red as a tomato, glaring at the both of them. `oh crap, forgot about the ultra-sensitive dog ears'

The group went on to have breakfast, after kagome had given both boys they're punishment of cleaning the hut spotless, and then making they're own breakfast. The morning passed by slowly, as the group lounged around outside, enjoying the brisk air. Kagome and Sango were sitting outside in two lawn chairs (courtesy of kagome) and staring into the cloud-filled sky. "Hey, kagome-Chan." "Yeah?" "You think we should start our training now? You said you wanted to wait a few weeks, and I think now's a good time to start." "Training? You mean like combat training?" "Yeah, the boys and I were talking while you were gone last week, and we think that we figured out a good plan." "Okay, care to share it with me?" "Okay, inuyasha will be training your new demon powers of course, while Miroku helps with new incantations and such, while I'm your one-on-one battle instructor! Sounds exciting nay?"

Kagome smiled widely, "I would love that Sango! It'll be nice to keep all our skills polished, even if we aren't fighting Naraku anymore."

The two girls went to find inuyasha and Miroku. They found Miroku lying lazily under a tree, and inuyasha in some random tree. They talked about the battle plan, and decided that kagome needed to train her youkai powers first thing, so her and inuyasha made their way to an open field where they were free of distractions.

"Alright kagome, now raise your claw up infront of you like this." Inuyasha instructed as he held her wrist from behind. "Now, do you think that you have any poison or anything in these bad boys?"

"I don't know inuyasha, I haven't really used these things yet. How will I know?"

"Honestly, I have no clue. My brothers the only one with that ability. Maybe you don't have it, but every youkai has their own unique ability, we just need to find yours." He let her drop her wrist, and then took a step back to look her over while scratching his head in thought. "Okay, here's what we're gonna do. We'll start with your claws first, see what they do, and then we'll fine-tune everything else from there. Alright?"

"Okay, that sounds good. Now…how do I use my claws like you do? You have two techniques that you use, how do I learn to do that?"

Inuyasha smiled in pride, he never imagined anyone would ask for his help on how to use his own attacks. "First thing, lift your hand up again like I showed you," she did so, "now close your eyes, and search your body for your youki." She closed her eyes, and her ears started to hum as she searched within herself. She found jumbles of power, she couldn't distinguish between any of it, and so she just grabbed what she could. "Now focus it at your hand, and we'll see what happens." He waited in anticipation, curious to see what she could do.

Her hand started to glow, and then the light shot out of her fingertips, destroying a large boulder a few hundred yards in the distance. "How was that?!" she asked enthusiastically. "Impressive, except…I couldn't tell if that was your youki or you miko energy. It was hard to read. You couldn't find your youki then?" her smiled started to fade, "I don't know. I couldn't really tell what was in me; I couldn't feel spiritual powers, or youki energy. It's all mixed together." Inuyasha rubbed his chin in thought. "Huh? That's strange. Try again, and this time, try to dig into the power you felt. Pick it apart until you can feel a specific power cord, something familiar and distinctive."

She closed her eyes again, `wow, inuyasha sure seems to know what he's talking about, I've never heard him sound this intelligent before in these past 4 years.' she delved back into the depths of her soul, searching for something `distinctive'. She found the power that she felt before, but this time, she tried to get closer. The humming became louder the closer she got, and it was getting very uncomfortable. She came as close as she could without being in pain, and strained to sense what the power was. The vision started to form behind her closed eyelids, almost like what she was looking at was a real object, as real and solid as the rock she stood on. She squinted when it began to shine, and she tried to look passed the light. When her eyes focused, she saw a swirl of two colors, one purple, and the other red. The two colors looked as if they were dancing, but as she tried to get closer, she noticed that they weren't doing anything of the sort. The two power forces were clashing violently against each other, they were fighting. She felt as if she needed to get close to it, to ease them. But as she did, the persistent vibrations became unbearably painful. She was all of a sudden forced out of her own mind, watching as the power disappeared from her view.

Her eyes flew open, and she fell to the ground in pain. Inuyasha, completely caught off guard, fell to the ground with her. `I don't get it, she looked fine. What happened to her while she was meditating? This isn't good, this isn't normal!' he screamed to himself. "Kagome, kagome! What's wrong, what happened?" kagome didn't say anything, she lay in his arms panting.

"There's a battle waging within her, can you not feel it hanyou?"

Inuyasha's head jerked up when he heard the soft voice. He saw, what appeared to be a miko. She didn't wear the usual garb, but it definitely was miko. The upper haori was white, but she didn't tuck it into her hakama, she only tied it closed at the waist. What's more, the sleeves only went down to the elbow. `She's a mated priestess? That's impossible.' She wore a hood so he couldn't see the color of her hair; he guessed it was black though. Her hakama looked very odd, they didn't flow to the ground, but tied off just below the knee. She was indeed one with spiritual powers, or else would not have chosen the distinctive colors, but she looked almost like…he couldn't explain it, she was different, she had an animal look to her face. Then he saw them, she had two red slashes on her face, one below each eye. `a youkai?!'

"Who are you?" he asked in an almost threatening tone

"Do not fear me, I am not here to harm you, or the miko. I have traveled far to see that one." She said in a very soft voice.

"who ever said I was scared of you? And you didn't answer my question! Who are you?! And why are you looking for kagome?!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Back at the hut, shippou was playing with Kirara again, waiting for his okasan to return. He was running to tackle the neko youkai, when he stopped dead in his tracks. The neko "mewed" in question, but the boy only stared into the distance. `it cant be!'

Without a word, he ran off in the direction of kagome and inuyasha, running on all fours. His mind was racing with questions and possibilities. When he came to the clearing, the first thing he saw was kagome lying in Inuyasha's lap. She looked like she was injured so he ran to her side. "Okasan, okasan. Kagome? Is she alright inuyasha?" when he looked to inuyasha, he wasn't even looking at the kit, but his eyes were searing into something on the other side of the clearing. Shippou followed the inu's gaze to the woman in the strange miko garb.

The woman's eyes were wide the moment the kit ran through the field, calling to the other miko, `okasan? He thinks she's his mother?' As she watched as the kitsune took notice of her, she smiled warmly, and removed her hood. `Blond?! No miko's have such a hair color, no human has that hair color!' inuyasha noted to himself. Her hair was indeed a bright yellow, except it darkened at the ends into a deep orange, almost red color. It was in a high ponytail, but it still fell to her lower thigh. As inuyasha continued to survey her, his eyes moved to the top of her head, `those are…' the top of her head were indeed adorned by ears, much like Inuyasha's but they were red, and they pointed more at the tips.

The woman didn't acknowledge Inuyasha's questioning eyes. "Shippou? Is that you? You're alive?"

Shippou's eyes filled with tears, and he ran to the woman. He latched to her leg as he cried into her clothes. "Shippou, its you. Its really you." The woman was now crying as well. "Okasan, I thought you were dead!"

Japanese:

Koneko: kitten

Hakama: those Japanese pant things. You know, like what Kikyou and Kaede wore.

Haori: the jacket that inuyasha, Kikyou, and Kaede wore.

Suteki: ohhhh, cliffy! Sorry its so short, I figured id be mean and leave it here. So, how you likey?

Shizuka: ha! Told you we had some surprises left in us, lol.

Suteki: okay, in the next chapter, the secret of the strange new `miko' is revealed. And why does shippou think that she's his mother, if his mother was killed by the thunder brothers? And why is she looking for kagome, and how does she know what's happening within her? All will be answered! Review please =) ja ne!