Angelus

Sesshomaru took some time to thoroughly clean himself in a shallow pool bordering the violent river. Before his eyes, the scenes that happened earlier, both in his head and in reality, were replaying again and again. Shaking his head, he called forth his youki and rose in the sky, heading toward the dreaded clearing where everything spiralled out of control. The blackened sky was turning a deep marine blue, edging on pink at the eastern horizon where the sun would soon rise.

His black boots delicately touched the ground beside the desecrated body of the tiger youkai. The fire was dying for lack of wood to feed on, and its smell mixed up with the stench of blood, death and sex to create a sickening symphony of aromas that the taiyoukai would not forget soon enough.
His cold golden eyes settled upon the nude, disfigured form of the youkai. For a long moment he pondered if he should revive him, if Tenseiga would be powerful enough to remove those terrible injuries from his body and bring him back to life. For if the tiger was breathing, he could kill him once again, kill him to destroy the memory of what he saw, kill him to avenge himself for the humiliation he received, kill him to extinguish his rage at the unexpected failure of his questioning of Kitana. Kill him to expel the last remnants of the disgust he felt for her actions mere hours ago.

Instead, he extended his hand toward the carcass and let his dokkasou engulf the criminal, rejoicing when the acid started to eat through the flesh. Nothing would be left of that creature who only knew how to bring destruction to this world. Sesshomaru was not an avenger, not a hero; he was much too cynical to try to save anyone but himself. But the ways of this demon were so revolting that had he known he would have ended his life by himself. Now all he could do was watch as the earth sucked in the liquids that once were a tiger youkai.

Returning to the skies, he let his mind wander toward the black-skinned creature that had been part of his life. She had grossly misinterpreted his reactions and fled away from him; she was now a danger to what was his to protect, and he was at a loss at how to react to this. Should he go after her and bring him back to his group or be happy to be rid of her presence, he didn’t know. Pursuing Kitana this very night was useless; she would certainly not want to be found and he would simply loose his time. He decided to give her some time to herself, let her come to him from her own free will. If she didn’t come back, it would be her decision, not his, and there was not much he could do about that. He would deal with the consequences later. On the other hand, he knew she was not particularly attached to her life and he had unintentionally severed the only ties she had with this world. He wondered if she would do something stupid before he could meet with her again.

He finally caught up with Rin and Jaken who were preparing the morning meal, Jaken as unwillingly and Rin as happily as usually. He sat before them and watched as they activated themselves around the camp, gathering wood for the fire or watching as the mushrooms and fish roasted near it. The face of the young child he mentally held under his body imposed itself over Rin’s features, the two girls so similar to each other that he had to avert his eyes and look away. Fighting against renewed waves of nausea, he almost shuddered thinking that flashes like this one were probably a daily occurrence for Kitana. His posture as straight and as proud as ever, he decided he would somehow find her again and set things right with her. He did not care about her tears, or about her opinion of him; he simply wanted his inner peace brought back to him. Maybe she would know what to do.

--

Kitana wandered aimlessly for about two weeks, travelling mostly by night and resting during the day. She purposely avoided meeting with Sesshomaru and his travelling companions; the intense waves of disgust she felt from him were enough to deter her to have contacts with him forever. His position was relatively easy to determine for her: his huge energy signature, unrivalled by most of the inhabitants of the country, was like a beacon to her senses.

So she travelled in the opposite direction, oblivious to the fact that he was following her from afar. She was blinded by her sorrow and angered at herself for having let Sesshomaru witness the worst side of her. The monster in her. She made a point to slaughter every group of bandits and each lower youkai that crossed her path, unleashing her fury upon them and secretly hoping that maybe one of them would be strong enough to put an end to her misery. She had tried in a faraway past to destroy herself; however the symbiotic creature that she used as clothing was ruining every attempt that she made by hardening and deflecting any blade she used. Her love, Jess, found it on a strange altar on a planet inhabited by the creatures she was born from. At first she had been afraid of the thing, as when she touched it black tendrils sprouted from the jewel and totally covered her body with a thin black membrane. She couldn’t fight against it, nor remove it from herself, but the thing apparently wanted her to be alive and well and she wasn’t harmed in her struggle to get free from it. The following months she slowly learned how to control it and use it to her advantage as a moldable suit; the thing reacted to her very thoughts and desires, shaping itself instantly to answer her needs. She was glad to finally be able to wear apparently normal clothing, her unique anatomy making it difficult for her to dress herself. The usefulness of the symbiote as an armor was discovered later on, and only physical attacks that she could not anticipate were able to pierce through it. She was now determined to find a creature strong and swift enough to deliver her that kind of blow.

In her rampage, she found herself back to the dreaded hot springs where she had intimately met with the red-haired Ines. She had lost count of days and nights while travelling blindly toward her death and upon hearing the bubbling sounds of the hot water and feeling the heated, damp air on her skin she decided that she could as well rest there for the day, hidden from view amongst the luxuriant foliage of a tree. The idea of a hot bath was appealing to her. She did not care about bathing for days and was nothing but a filthy mess, her claws and tail caked with old, dried blood. So she settled in the tree and dozed away, waiting for the sun to set and allow her the safe use of the place.

She was awakened from her slumber in the late afternoon by a group of poorly dressed women carrying small infants to the hot springs. Bathing and cleansing the younger ones was a dangerous necessity; hypothermia menaced their survival when bathed in the cold rivers and wood was too expensive to be wasted for a toddler, so the mothers of the nearby village walked to the hot springs twice a week with their child in tow. None of them knowing how to swim, they used the shallowest basin for their needs, chatting idly. One of them said something that caught Kitana’s interest.

“That poor Ines. As if she had not had enough burdens to bear, with her strange hair and foreign heritage, now a demon possesses her!” exclaimed one of the women, who was better-looking than the others.

“A demon you said?” asked an older woman.

“Yes, a demon! I saw it with my own eyes while I was cleaning her room at the lord’s castle. She was trashing madly, two men were needed to hold her down while I gathered the broken remnants of what she destroyed! I tell you, the pricey vases that I picked up in pieces would have fed my family for months!”

“Trashing around in a temper tantrum does not mean one is possessed by a demon, Yuri-chan.”

The old woman’s affirmation was said as if she thought the other completely stupid.

“But I tell you! She kept uttering insanities about how her powerful demon lover would come to her and free her from the tyranny of men, destroying the ones who would stand in her way! If you heard her voice then, you would know what I am talking about! I still shiver when I think about it! She is clearly possessed!” she said with conviction.

A third woman, who seemed to be more reserved than the other two, entered their conversation while she rubbed the dirty skin of a three-years-old boy with raw, home-made soap.

“I heard, Yuri-chan, that two different exorcists tried to cure her from her hallucinations and they failed.”

“Oh I know, I know. But what could an old miko and a half-senile monk do against such a strong demon? This girl was sane a month ago, before the night where they found her here, you know. I would say that she got possessed by the spirit of the hot spring on that night, and now it is lingering inside her body. If you lot were not accompanying me here today, I would surely not bathe my poor child in these dangerous waters!”

Kitana sighed inwardly. The humans’ typical unawareness of their surroundings still amazed her, but she wouldn’t be the one to tell this woman that danger was lurking not in the water but above her head. So, the princess was going crazy because of her, did she? She was definitively skilled at disappointing people, she thought. At least she could try to fix that mistake.

She waited until they left before descending from the tree and immerging herself in the water. Trying her best to rub the crusts of blood from her body, she sighed, wishing she had a piece of this soap she saw the women use earlier. It would not be an easy task to clean up without it, but she had a rendezvous with a princess this very night and had to be proper for it.

--

A couple of hours later, as the sun was slowly setting on the horizon, an ill-assorted group of people were hungrily devouring a meal in a small room on the second story of the castle. Around them, folded on many shelves were hundreds of beautiful court kimonos. Sleeping mats were furled in a corner with a large, yellow worn-out bag. A monk and a leather-clad female demon slayer were sitting side by side, the monk sporting a red handprint on his left cheek and a pleased, hazy look in his eyes. Before them a strangely clothed young girl held a young fox youkai child in her arms. The child was fighting with a white-haired dog hanyou clad in bright red haori and hakamas for a rice ball when a “Sit boy!” and a load crashing noise was heard.

“Kagome-chan, wasn’t it a little too extreme to sit Inuyasha? The princess could have heard!” said the slayer.

“He was asking for it, Sango. Really, he was. He has been robbing Shippo’s food all night long. Beside Miroku’s barrier is supposed to block all the noises and scents from us, isn’t it Miroku?” answered the black-haired girl with a green skirt, Kagome.

“And our auras, dear Kagome-san, and our auras. This barrier could fool Naraku himself!” retorted the monk while he rubbed his aching cheek. The slayer was eyeing the hand occupied with the cheek warily though, as if suspecting it of hiding its true destination.

Sighing, the slayer responded.

“Yeah I know, but it couldn’t prevent the floor to collapse under Kagome’s spell, could it?”

“Oi, wench!” yelled the boy in red. “There’s no way her spell would be strong enough to do that! I didn’t even felt it! Feh!” said an insulted Inuyasha, straightening up his posture, arms crossed and chin in the air. The fox imitated his attitude, protected by Kagome’s arms coiled around him.

Kagome rolled her eyes up and resumed eating, not paying attention anymore to the antics of the fox child and Inuyasha.

“So monk, couldn’t you ask for a better room than this closet? We are cramped in there! And those holy sutras you put around the room give me the creeps!” asked the dog-eared boy.

“My dear Inuyasha, it was the only way we could be close enough to the princess to assist her in case the demon came by. She is obviously not possessed, as nothing happened when I hit her on the head with my staff, so we now have to capture the demon that haunts her.”

“Monk, if you hadn’t hit her, she wouldn’t had fallen unconscious, knocked out by your blow, and the Lord may have given us a better room to lodge in,” said the slayer with her arms crossed, a nerve pulsing on her forehead signalling her ire.

Sighing, the monk retaliated.

“My dear Sango, as I explained to the Lord, it is the holy energy she received that put her in a blissful sleep. As she hasn’t slept well for weeks, it was good for her!”

“That’s NOT the point. Beside, Miroku, aren’t you able to make an invisible barrier? That would have saved us the humiliation of hiding in a closet, peeping to the princess by a hole in the door!” added the irate slayer.

It had been three days now that they were crammed inside this walk-in. Granted they spent the day outside in the village, buying food and supplies for their travels, but each evening they had to return to their uncomfortable chamber to spy on the princess.

It was Kagome who first led them to that country town. She detected the presence of a Shikon jewel shard nearby and, as it was one of the group’s quest to assemble the pieces of the jewel before their enemy, they had explored the large village. To their surprise, they had found that the jewel was embedded in the shoulder of a foreign girl, a girl who was promised to the youngest son of the local Lord.

The woman was clearly not well in her head, but it was hard to tell if it was from the effect of the jewel or from her true personality. She had shrunk away from Miroku’s touch, a behavior that was perfectly normal considering the lecherous ways of the monk, but it became weirder when she refused Kagome’s presence around her. She spoke madly about her lover, a strong demon who would destroy them all, and they had decided not to intrude upon the princess anymore. Rather they would wait to see if a youkai would come by for her, and maybe discover who had implanted the girl with the shard. Inuyasha’s nose detected very faint traces of something similar to Naraku’s stench on the girl, and it comforted them in their decision.

Three long days had passed since then, with three nights spent piled up in this closet. The food was not bad, but the Lord’s patience was wearing thin and soon the monk’s head couldn’t take anymore hits from the demon slayer. All the more reasons to end this farce as quickly as possible.

In the late afternoon, Kagome had suddenly let go of a vase she was examining at a local shop, and Inuyasha barely managed to grab it before it shattered on the ground. Irritated by the girl’s attitude, he was about to chide her rudely when she spoke.

“Shards are coming this way. At least three of them. They are to the south-west, about an hour away from here.”

The friends had sternly regrouped, convinced that whatever was coming close to the town was linked somehow to the shard in the princess’ shoulder. They decided to let it come to them, and if it didn’t they would chase it down the next day. They had to get these shards and free the princess from her curse, but they also needed the money promised by the Lord and they would get nothing if they killed the demon out there in the woods.

A small mewing resounded in the small closet, causing everybody to still. A tiny two-tailed cat that was standing at the door, looking at the other side by a small hole, had all its hairs standing on ends.

“Something is coming! Everyone prepare yourself!” said the monk, raising, a pile of sutras in hand.
Kagome rose alongside him, adding “The demon with the three shards is coming straight at us!”

In the room, the princess was not sleeping at all. She was not aware of the presence of the strangers in her closet, for the door had been shut from the inside when she destroyed pricey kimonos the week before. For weeks now she had waited for the return of her lover. A sudden movement at the window made her turns her head and a large smile adorned her face as a slender, feminine black creature entered the room by the windowsill.

“My love, I knew you would return to me!” exclaimed the princess before throwing herself in the arms of the creature.

At the same moment, the doors of the closet opened and many holy sutras were hurled forcefully at Kitana, sticking to her forehead, shoulders and arms. Kagome was targeting her with a pink glowing arrow and Inuyasha and Sango backed them up, swords at the ready. Kirara ran to the window in her small kitten form before transforming in a roar, effectively blocking the only way out of the room. The fox child was the only one seemingly unafraid, as he decided to hide in the closet and finish up the food while everyone was occupied slaying the vile demon.

Kitana was dumbfounded. She had hoped to enter the room unnoticed and try to reason with Ines, and instead she found herself surrounded by a group of menacing people that her senses didn’t detect before they barged in the room. She normally would have reacted to their attitude with a swift movement from her tail, beheading or gutting them before they could execute their threats, but she was faced with another problem: her movements were severely impeded by the red-headed girl who was all over her. She tried to push her back by the shoulders, but the princess held her by the neck and wouldn’t let go. The girl’s first intentions were clearly to kiss her but she was as startled as she when the others made their entrance and now was holding onto her for her dear life. Highly irritated, Kitana hissed, baring her fangs.

“What is the meaning of this?” she asked from beneath the sutra glued to her forehead, frowning in a typical Sesshomaru way.

“Don’t move, demon! Or you will feel the steel of our weapons!” said Sango.

“My love, protect me from them, they are evil, I recognized the monk, he attacked me with his staff!”

The said monk was not concerned by the princess at all though. Worry seeped from him as beads of sweat slowly rolled from his forehead, only to be caught by his frowned eyebrows. He never imagined that they would have to face such a strong youkai. The sutras he used were powerful enough to completely immobilize Inuyasha himself and kill lower youkai, so why was it not effective? Analyzing the scene, he realized he didn’t felt any demonic aura coming from the creature, who was clearly struggling to be freed from the princess rather than worried about the sutras or the weapons pointed at her. The struggle itself was soft and gentle, as if the weird female did her best not to hurt the girl. Something here was not right. Kagome said that three shards were approaching, yet this female didn’t act like a demon possessed by the tainted power of Shikon shards. Could Kagome be wrong? Was the real demon lurking outside, distracting them with this creature while he sneaked upon them?

“Ines, stop that!” Kitana said to the amorous and terrified girl. “Don’t you see what is happening? You are becoming crazy!” she added, trying to be firm but not wanting to hurt the princess.

Shippo, as clever as he was, jumped on Kagome’s shoulder and whispered very loudly in her ear.

“Kagome, don’t you think it’s strange that this youkai has not tried to eat the princess or to kidnap her? She doesn’t even use her as a hostage! It’s as if she was the one under attack by the princess, really!”

Tension was heavy in the room, everyone’s eyes were glued to the weird black female youkai who was clearly unable to untangle herself from the princess limbs. She stopped moving when she heard the high-pitched voice of the fox and replied, “Of course I would not eat- well, kidnap her! Who would want such a brat around anyway, throwing fits of temper whenever something displeased her! Sorry, but not me. Couldn’t one of you help me with her rather than just stare at me?”

Of course no one from the group helped her, and in despair she used the only thing she knew that could peacefully put an end to the girl’s fight. In a flash she stung her neck with the tip of her tail, rendering the princess immediately unconscious. When Ines became flaccid in her arms, Kitana knew she did the wrong thing. The princess’ protectors were now convinced she was an enemy to exterminate. Using the limp body as a shield, she protested vehemently, wide-eyed, as the aggressiveness of her opponents reached new heights.

“Wait, wait, all of you wait! Couldn’t we just talk it through like reasonable, civilized people instead of waving weapons and arrows and… pieces… of paper… around?” she said, removing the sutra from her forehead.

The quizzical look she put on the offending piece paper added to the awkwardness of the situation, confirming a disturbing doubt in the mind of the monk.

“Talk… it through, you said?” asked Miroku.

“Feh! Since when fucking youkai want to discuss rather than have a good fight?” Inuyasha added venomously.

“SIT boy! I told you not to use this word, you just never learn!” said an irate Kagome, realizing too late that she had just rendered their best fighter useless in the midst of a difficult situation.

With a thud, Inuyasha’s face met with the wooden floor for the second time this night. His body, though, was not the only one to hit the floor as Kitana was so surprised by the intervention that she let go of the limp princess; she then hastily tried to catch her up, miserably falling beside her.

Slowly sitting herself and rubbing her bruised forehead, Kitana looked at the young people around her with a tired look on her face.

“Since three of us are already acquainted with the floor, and that I and the boy over there will probably be having a hell of a headache in the next moments, maybe it would be better if the rest of you joined us down here? This whole ordeal is becoming highly ridiculous. I am here to help the princess, you seem to have the same purpose in mind, so I suggest we start it all over again from the very beginning and you help me understand what is going on here.”

Miroku and Kagome looked at each other. The situation was so irregular that in their confusion they were tempted to follow Kitana’s suggestion. Kirara, Inuyasha and Sango on the other hand, were well-versed in the treacherous ways of youkai and were not ready to give her any chance at attacking their companions. The demon slayer steadied her stance and waited warily, while her friends finally sat themselves in the middle of the room.

Kitana took a deep breath, definitively cursing the day when Sesshomaru saved her life. She wouldn’t be in this mess if it wasn’t from him and she would find a way to make him pay. Remembering his green face while he was retching uncontrollably on the riverbank, she told herself that maybe, he already paid the price. Sighing, she looked at the group carefully before talking.

“So… Will one of you explain me what the hell is going on here? I was expecting guards maybe, not…” she said, her glance jumping from one face to another. “Not a group of enraged teenagers!”
Once again, she missed a very good occasion to keep her mouth shut.

“Feh, we aren’t no teenagers, youkai!” Inuyasha answered, clearly irritated at the comparison between him and an immature human boy. “Don’t you have eyes to see? We are strong fighters and we’ve been hired to destroy the demon who possessed this princess, like it or not!” he said, crossing his arms and raising his chin up in the air in an arrogant way.

“Yeah, like it or not!” mimicked Shippo from Kagome’s shoulder, waving his little fist in the air in an attempt at intimidating Kitana.

Kitana was now fighting against laughter. She could easily sense their confusion, the outrage of the red-clad boy at behind called a teen, the fear that the young fox child was trying to hide behind his threats, and what interested her most, the curiosity coming from the most level-headed members of their group, the monk and the young sitting girl. She decided she would use that at her advantage and maybe, maybe, be gone of this room with no more princess problems on her hands.

“Well, please forgive my impertinence. Let’s call it a truce, okay? I am Kitana, and I am here tonight to help Ines go over her… confusion. For she is no more possessed than anyone of us. She just has a… hard time adjusting to her new life as a future wife, that’s all, really. She needs a good talk to settle the matters, that’s all.”

“Like hell she is not possessed!” continued the hanyou, now rising again. “The girl has a jewel shard embedded in her, and we all know who did that! Beside, you reek of blood, youkai. Did you really think you would fool us with your sweet talk? Really, you sneak in covered in blood, put the girl out of consciousness and expect us to sit and talk to you? Do you think we are stupid, stupid?”

The tension grew again. Sighing, Kitana studied the foul-mouthed boy with more attention. So, he had smelt blood on her, did he? His sense of smell clearly surpassed that of the others, and his silver hair reminded her of another one with a keen nose. There was no reason to lie to him if she wanted to settle things quickly and easily.

“Yes, you are right; I was attacked by human bandits on my way here. I also had to kill some offending youkai yesterday, and although I cleaned up their scents may very well still be on me.”

Inuyasha’s gazed was trained upon hers, and none of them wanted to be the first one to look away. Finally, after what seemed like hours, he diverted his gaze from the weird female with a “Feh!” He would not trust her, but at least his friends were warned that she was truly dangerous.

A little more at ease, Kitana surveyed the occupants of the room one by one and stopped at the monk.

“What did he mean by a jewel shard embedded into her?”

Miroku coughed in his right hand, before settling his gaze into hers.

“Please, do not concern yourself with the words of our friend, when he is angry he says things that make no sense. If I may ask, how exactly did you want to… help her?” asked Miroku. “By rendering her unconscious?”

Kagome gave the monk a solid elbow nudge in the ribs, while Kitana looked at them with a puzzled face.

“Well… she won’t be out for long, just long enough to find a solution without being… disturbed… by her inappropriate behavior.”

If she could have flushed, Kitana would have at this very moment.

“Who are you, to her? The princess seemed to know you intimately? Why do you think you can help?” asked Sango, sword still pointed to the stranger, ready to attack at the slightest sign of danger.

Kitana really felt a headache coming. The others could be swayed relatively easily, but this one would prove difficult. Bracing herself for what was to come, she answered with honesty.

“Ines and I have… met some weeks ago. I saved her and her party from the attack of demons, and we ran into each other again some days later, at a hot spring. She was already a mess, believe me, but I was too weak at the moment to detect it or… resist her. She… looks strikingly similar to a beloved one that I lost long ago. When I realized what I had done it was too late; I left her but she became crazy, completely revolted. As I seem to be part of her problem I want to mend up what troubles I may have caused. I thought I could talk her out of her folly. But even after that she will still be fragile, she can’t accept being forcefully married to a man, and she will need help.”

Everyone was digesting the information when Kagome talked.

“It was her who, ehm, well, you two had… with… and then you left and… Really?” she stuttered, flushing a nice shade of red.

Kitana closed her eyes, counting up to ten before answering. Throbs of pain were assaulting her head and she couldn’t decide if the cause was the fall or the utter mess she was entangled in.

“Well, if you want to know if she seduced me, then the answer is yes. Really. But it was a big mistake from my part to let her have her ways with me and I have to fix it. The girl may be possessed, but not by a youkai. It’s her own inability at dealing with reality that’s harming her most.”

They were flabbergasted. A muscle twitched under Miroku left eye, Sango had completely relaxed her stance to look at Kitana wide-eyed. Inuyasha’s face was as red as Kagome’s and he tried to look everywhere but at Kitana, which was comical in a way since she was sitting right in front of him. It was finally Kagome who broke the heavy silence.

“Well, it’s fine, really!” she said with a forcefully cheerful tone. “Really fine! You know were I am from there are many couples like you and her, I mean it’s still weird but it is accepted, it’s called homosexuality and it’s not that much of a difference you know, the important thing is love, really it’s fine, well it gets more complicated for babies and religious wedding and all but you know when you love someone you don’t care about what sex he or she is, it’s just love and… it’s fine really!” she added, sounding completely unnatural and embarrassed.

Kitana was amused by her antics; it was as if she was even more uncomfortable than herself about the whole situation.

“Well Kagome, I wouldn’t say it was love, really” she said, mimicking her expressions, “it was more, like, purely physical in a way, but you are right it’s no big deal. If you would just give me some time to fix the problem then we would all be on our way and… the Lord would be happy that you exorcised Ines! Don’t you think it’s the best idea?”

Miroku was mumbling, saying something like “two women… together… two…” while his eye still twitched and his hands began to do the same. Kagome and Inuyasha were unable to talk again, so Sango took the matters in her hands.

“What guarantee do we have that you won’t harm her, youkai? I know your kind, and even though there are some good ones amongst you, most are destructive and unfaithful.”

It was then that Kitana saw the small bottle that contained some jewel shards, hanging around Kagome’s neck.

“Kagome, may I ask what is it that you carry around your neck, please?”

Kagome jumped, surprised, and hid the vial in her hand.

“Well, it’s nothing, really” was all she seemed to be able to say at the moment, like a scratched disk. The giant fire cat who protected the window growled when Kitana leaned forward to have a better look at the bottle and its content, effectively stopping her movement.

“Those… things are dangerous, you know. They can do terrible things to youkai, turning them into savage beasts. Why are you carrying them?”

Kitana’s eyes were showing no greed or lust for the shards, only genuine interest and to some extent, wariness. It was Inuyasha who answered.

“It doesn’t concern you at all, wench! It’s what we do; collect the damn shards so they don’t fall into the wrong hands.”

His tone was sharp and defiant, but she could tell he was not lying.

“So… you are telling me that you don’t want to obtain the supreme power of these shards for yourself, even though you collect the pieces? Is it what you say? How do you want me to believe this?” she added with a severe frown.

“You don’t have to believe us, youkai,” said Sango, raising her sword again, “as it is none of your business. But Kagome here is one of the few who can purify the shards, removing all the taint from them. We will find a way to make it disappear when we complete it. Now answer my question, don’t do as if you didn’t hear me.”

Kitana looked at Kagome intensely. The slayer was a hardened warrior, but she spoke no lie that she could detect, even though Inuyasha seemed to take offense at what was said. As far as she could tell, they had no ill-intent at all and it was true that the shards in the vial had a different energy than the ones she gathered. Fumbling in her small belly bag, Kitana put out the three shards that she found.

“Kagome. I found these while battling a strong youkai; they were helping him heal from his injuries faster that I could make new ones. If I give them to you, will you let me do what needs to be done with the princess? I promise no harm will come to her, and you will be the ones to receive the honors for her recovery.”

Miroku was massaging his chin, thinking about the whole situation. It was unheard of for a youkai to give away jewel shards without an afterthought or a wicked plan in mind, and so far the only one who did that was Naraku himself. Also, this strange woman seemed to be really honest with her intentions about the princess, after all Ines was really a pain to deal with so who in his right mind would meet with her twice for the sake of helping her? Then his thoughts wandered, Ines, Kitana, and his eye and hands started twitching again…Until Kagome snapped him out of his daydreaming.

“So, Miroku… What do you think?”

“Feh! I say we take the damn shards and I get her acquainted with my Tetsusaiga!!”

“Sit boy!”

As the power of the sacred beads forced the dog-eared boy to kiss the wooden floor once again, puzzling Kitana even more, Kagome waited for the answer of the monk. He was pensively stroking his chin.

“Well, it may be the better way to go. But of course you understand that we cannot let you alone with the princess at all. You will have to discuss with us as witnesses, to be sure that no harm comes to her.”

Kitana scrutinized Miroku intensely, making him a little nervous. She sensed arousal from the monk, and now that she looked at her she realized that the leather-clad woman was very aware of it as well; she looked as if she could read the man’s thoughts and was about to murder him.

“Well, then that’s a deal! I think I’ve done enough harm, already. Here are the shards, take good care that they don’t fall in the wrong hands.”

She handed the shards to Kagome and was amazed to see the dark magenta swirls of energy inside of them replaced by a pure, bright pink one.

With the threat of the tainted shards gone, Sango and Inuyasha finally sat with their companions, still wary of the stranger but less tense.

“So, Kitana, I think you need to know something before attempting to reason with the princess, though.”

It was the first time that one of them called her by her name, and it was a welcome change. The monk continued.

“Contrarily to what you said, Ines is truly under the control of some youkai. A shard of the jewel was somehow implanted under her skin, and it may very well be the reason of her disturbing behavior.”

The ebony female was focused on the words of the monks, even though the slayer and the hanyou acted with a renewed suspicion after hearing his revelations.

“We know now that you have no interest in the shards, that’s why I think I can speak freely to you about it. We have been ambushed here for days with the intention to catch the demon who embedded the shard there in the first place, and you showed up in its place. If the princess’ previous behavior is triggered by the shard, then there is no doubt that she will not listen a word of what you have to say until the shard is removed.”

“Well, then I’ll let you remove it. She will awake soon, and I want her to be as normal as possible.”
Nodding, the monk waved to Kagome. The young girl bended over the prone body, reaching with her soul to the dark shard that pulsed under the pale skin of the princess.