InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Of Miko Training and Duels ❯ chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

They all nodded, except Inuyasha who stood, ready to argue his way into coming. But it would have to wait as a shout of, “Kaede! Priestess Kaede! You must come quickly! White air snake demons are invading the village!” broke through the air.

 

They all turned to the voice, which belonged to one of the village people who had taken a to being a scout for Kaeda, looking for anything that was out of the ordinary in the village.

 

“Yes, we're coming.” She said, getting up as quickly as her old bones would allow her. “Let us go take care of them before they cause any real harm. We do not want anyone to kill one by accident and have my sister angry.”

 

Nodding again they left, hoping to find the villagers inside of their homes and away from any danger. But when they reached where the demons were, they were already gliding away…and two of them had souls in their hands.

 

“Who's?” Inuyasha asked. “Who's did they take?”

 

Kaeda nodded and went over to the hut they had come out of. The man inside was already pulling a cover over a body…there was already one, small, body covered.

 

“Yours?” she asked, and the man only sniffed slightly and nodded. She left him to grieve on his own and went back to the others.

 

“A child and mother. Stillborn and she must have died in child birth.” She sighed. She had forgotten then the women had been going to give birth soon, and the possibility of a death, and she hadn't put up a barrier. “It is my fault, I should have remembered.”

 

“No,” Sango said, patting her arm. “It's not your fault. Now let's go back to your hut and get some rest for tomorrow.” She glanced at Inuyasha who was watching the sky in the direction the soul stealers had left. “Inuyasha?” she said, and he turned and walked back to the hut silently with the others.

 

…With Kagome and Kikyo…

 

Kagome had fallen asleep as they had been moving through the trees but was suddenly awoken by a strange lights that were going by her face. Opening her eyes she looked for the source of the light and saw more soul stealers heading in the direction of Kikyo, all of them holding something. And it was something that Kagome knew was a soul.

 

“You're awake.” Kikyo said, taking another soul into her body. “I thought you were going to sleep this whole trip.” Kagome only glared at her. She didn't hate Kikyo, no, but she did dislike the miko. From the little that Inuyasha had told them all, Kikyo had once been a kind, caring, loving miko. But once she was dead, only hate was there and she became a hating, mean, evil priestess.

 

“No, I wanted to watch you steal someone's poor soul and keep it for yourself.” She retorted, making Kikyo laugh.

 

“You have spirit, Kagome. That will come in great help when I am training you.” Kikyo said.

 

“Maybe I don't want your training.” Kagome said, knowing it was futile to say anything really. “Maybe I just want to go back to Inuyasha and the others.”

 

“Fine then.” Kikyo said, and she gestured for the soul catchers to let her go. She dropped to the ground and was about to run when Kikyo said, “But I shall have to kill you now. I am going to have my soul back, weather I have to find a way to force it to submit later or not.” Kagome was now frozen to the spot.

 

“Fine.” She said finally. “But you could be a little nicer.” At this Kikyo laughed.

 

“My niceness died when I did.” Something shot through her eyes and she turned around to keep walking. “Come,” she said. “We are almost there.”

 

Knowing she would have to go the rest of the way on foot, and not really caring, Kagome followed, trying to keep away from the soul stealers who seemed to have taken quite an interest in her.

 

And Kikyo was right. Not five minutes later and they had come to the base of a tall mountain, had turned to their right, walked a little ways, and come to the gaping mouth of a large cave.

 

“Here your training will start.” She said. “But my guess is that your friends shall come after you and we shall have to more.” She walked inside and continued. “If not then it shall all happen here.”

 

Kagome found that the cave connected to a lot of other, small cave systems, and that they were on the main path. They took this one the whole way, meeting only bugs and small animals who liked the dark and quiet.

 

They finally came into a large open space that had nothing in it but a few torches and such things to light them. Kagome looked up, as it was light inside there even though none of the torches were lit, and found a large hole.

 

“Wow.” She said. “You live here or something?”

 

“When I am not looking for souls.” Kikyo replied. “Or helping or looking for Naraku.”

 

She heard Kagome gasp. So she hadn't known that she had been helping Naraku? What a foolish child.

 

“So what am I suppose to do?” she asked, looking around again. There didn't seem to be any weapons or books or anything lying around that she thought would help her to learn anything.

 

“You're suppose to learn.” Kikyo said. “Now watch. I am going to teach you how to hide your energy. It is a basic skill and you'll need it. As your powers grow if you do not hide them every demon in Japan will start to come after you.” Kagome gasped again and Kikyo almost rolled her eyes. “After that I think I might teach you not to be afraid or every little thing.”

 

“I am not afraid of everything!” Kagome said, mad now. “I was just…surprised.”

 

“Closing your mind needs to be put onto the list to.” Kagome clapped her hands to her head, which made Kikyo laugh. “That isn't going to help.” She looked around and said, “Let's get started. We only have a year and we're wasting time.”

 

Kagome watched as she walked to the center of the room, closed her eyes, and let her arms go a little limp. Then, suddenly, Kagome was able to see a pink and black aura forming around Kikyo. She almost gasped, but made herself swallow it, not wanting Kikyo to think her afraid again.

 

“Can you see it?” Kikyo asked. Kagome nodded, remembered that Kikyo couldn't see her, and said, “Yes.”

 

“Good,” Kikyo said. She was slightly surprised. Most of the students that she had taught hadn't been able to see anything until Kikyo had let almost all of her guards down and more then a few demons had sensed her.

 

`She's good,' Kikyo thought. `I might not even need a year to get her up to my level.' Kikyo only wanted it to be a fair fight. If Kagome got to strong, she knew it would still be fair, but she would lose. Then again…once Kagome started to get her powers under control they might grow anyways without Kikyo's help.

 

“Now watch.” She said. Slowly, so that Kagome was able to see, she started to draw the energy back into herself. “See how I am drawing it into myself? You must do this. You must feel the power doing this, you must want it to go into you.”

 

“Ok.” Kagome said, not quite sure she really understood. She watched as Kikyo opened her eyes and gestured for Kagome to try it.

 

“Slowly.” She said. “If you do it to fast you might…” she stopped as she watched Kagome close her eyes and draw the power into herself. She did it quickly and quietly, no moaning or groaning, as she had heard for her other students.

 

`She could be the one.” Kikyo said. “The one to defeat all demons. That is, if she lives.' Kikyo was referring to an ancient prophecy that stated that one day all demons, half demons included, would one day be eradicated by a powerful miko. It was not really a very comforting thought.

 

When Kikyo was no longer able to see even a trace of power, it had taken longer since Kagome's powers were still growing, and they were even greater then Kikyo's, she said. “Good. Now, to keep it inside of you, you must want it to. Think of yourself as a bottle, holding it all in. Don't let any of it out. Find a place inside of you, and hold it there.” Kikyo thought about telling her that the strongest place to hold her power would be her soul. It could grow faster there, stronger…but, then again, it could also be dangerous for the first time.

 

Nodding, her eyes still closed, Kagome did just that. `This seems easier then I thought.' She thought. `But where to put it?' Then a thought came to her. `My soul…it's big, right? It can hold it.' So she felt for it, her soul, and found it filling her. She thought all of her power into it and it went, quickly, and didn't move for a moment…then it started to grow. She gasped and opened her eyes.

 

“What now?” Kikyo said. She really didn't have to ask though, she knew what was going on. Kagome had put her energy in her soul on her own and at once it had started to grow. It had taken Kikyo's weeks to even get slightly bigger.

 

“Nothing,” Kagome said, though. “What next?”

 

Kikyo thought. She had thought it would take her all day to master this skill, but it hadn't even taken her half an hour! She wondered if she was ready for closing her mind.

 

“Fine,” she said more to herself then Kagome. “Your mind is next. You need to close it. If there is another demon, like the one that Naraku made, you do not want it to read your mind and what you are about to do.”

 

Kagome nodded, remember the time when Inuyasha had gone full demon for the first time. That memory was going to stick with her for a while.

 

“Now, this is very complex in a way.” Kikyo started. :This skill has many parts to it, many ways to keep someone out.” She wondered if Kagome understood so she said, “Understand?”

 

Kagome nodded again and said, “Yeah, I have to put up walls, just like on a house.” Now it was Kikyo's turn to be confused but she didn't say anything about it.

 

“Yes,” she said. “But more then walls. Mirrors, walls, water, everything.” When Kagome opened her mouth Kikyo said, “Yes water. Dense water, false water, everything.”

 

Kagome nodded again, making sure she was quiet now.

 

“Just like the other things, you have to think about it.” Kikyo said. “But you also have to reinforce them, put them in a good order. You do not want to have mud and water next to each other, they will fall easily then. You can have any elements, anything you want, as your walls. But mirrors and walls are best. Try it.”

 

This time Kagome was doing this all without really knowing what she was doing. She closed her eyes again and thought about every element that she knew about. And all of a sudden she was inside of herself, in her mind. It was big, really really big, and filled with her power, or, really, the color of her power.

 

She sat down inside of herself, and she also sat down in the real world. Then, one by one, thinking of every element that she knew she drew them up and put them around herself. At first, when a mirror started to rise out of the energy around her, she had been scared. Then she thought that everything must come for this power. She let it surround her, far out and away from her, then she put up another one, thicker, and another.

 

She then went to mud. Three walls, getting thicker as they went, came up. Then to fire, making the backside of the nearest mud hard. Next came come rock, three layers, also getting thicker. It wouldn't get hurt by the fire, and it would stand. Next came air and wind, getting stronger as it came, three layers also. Next, water, getting deeper and denser in the three layers.

 

Then came more mirrors, these thick as well. Finally, she was forced to stand up while she put up her last defenses. She had just enough room, at the end, to stick her arms out to each side or lay down if she wanted to. Her last three layers were light and darkness, mixed. How she had made them mix evenly and not do anything weird, she had no idea.

 

She opened her eyes to find that it was now dark and Kikyo was once again taking souls into her body.

 

“How long…” her voice came out merely as a crock, which made Kikyo look at her. She was still able to speak. This child was powerful, more powerful then she had expected.

 

“There is water there,” she said and pointed. “And it has been four hours and ten minutes.”

 

Kagome gulped down the water, got more form a spring Kikyo pointed out at the side of the room that Kagome hadn't noticed, and said, “Can light and darkness mix?” for a moment Kikyo said nothing, and Kagome thought she had said something bad.

 

“If the will is strong enough, yes.” She finally. “And it is the strongest. It has only been done once, though, by the women who taught my master.” She saw Kagome's eyes widen and knew she had done it as well. “I shall not try to break yours, then.” She went on. “If you can do that then I'm not even going to try.”

 

A/N: Yeah, another chapter done!! Hope you like, and RandR please, I want more reviews!! Lol

 

--Nene