Good Will Hunting

by Kyen

~Moon Phase 8~  Wolf’s Howl

            Inuyasha groaned and cracked open his eyes. He managed to make out an elfish face with a crescent moon and silver hair, leaned against it’s own chest, bent in sleep. Wait. Crescent moon? Sesshomaru! Inuyasha reared up and away from his elder brother. Startled, the older demon looked around blearily and focused on Inuyasha.

            “Feeling better already?” he asked.

            “What…don’t do that to me again!” Inuyasha sputtered.

            “Don’t do what? Save you or have his face in yours when you wake?” Kagome asked him. Xiang Yao was hiding a smile and trying to control laughter.

            “Save me?” Inuyasha asked.

            “They told us the whole thing,” Sango said. “You were being gutted by the corpse of your mother, but somehow managed to destroy her and then Sesshomaru healed your wounds with Tenseiga. Xiang Yao here took care of Kanna.”

            “Kanna was there?” Inuyasha cried out. He heard a clink and looked down. Several shards of glass were at his feet. He fingered them and sniffed, “They smell like Kanna.”

            “Of course they do,” Xiang Yao said. “They’re from her mirror.”

            “Her mirror?” Inuyasha asked, looking up.

            “Inuyasha, did you not listen? She’s lying dead in the glade where you fought your mother’s remains,” Xiang Yao replied. “Her mirror cracked when she fell.”

            “Inuyasha, tell me, what made you realize that the corpse wasn’t really your mother?” Kagome asked the demon as Miroku handed him a plate of wild boar meat, freshly roasted for breakfast.

            Inuyasha thought back, “You know, it was something Kouga said.”

            “Kouga?” they all asked, save for Rin, Jakken, and Sesshomaru. Now everyone turned to Xiang Yao, “You know Kouga?”

            Xiang Yao blinked, “Well, yeah. They’re the pack that raids my home town every Demon Moon.”

            “You mean your village can’t handle Kouga and his group of losers?” Inuyasha asked, clearly annoyed and disgusted.

            “My village specializes in making poison powders, not fighting, like me,” Xiang Yao replied. “But still, why Kouga.”

            “Well, when we were done fighting, Kouga told me I would never be anything because my pride and emotions blinded me to what was there in front of my face,” Inuyasha said. “And when I remembered that and then I realized the woman before me wasn’t my mother. She was dead, and this…that was just an imitation that could never live up to what she was.”

            “Wow, I’m proud of you Inuyasha,” Kagome said. “You actually listened to someone.”

            “What does that mean?” Inuyasha demanded.

            “Oh dear,” Miroku and Shippou said in unison. And indeed, at that instant a fight broke out, and only Sesshomaru smacking Inuyasha over the head quailed it.

            “Why me?” Inuyasha mumbled as the others began to take down camp.

            Back in Xiang Yao’s home village, Kouga and his gang had indeed come to raid it, but this time they had stayed a little longer when they noticed something was amiss. It had hit Kouga just a few hours after sunrise. The Huntress wasn’t there. Usually he got a good fight out of her before he and his brethren would disappear into the night once more. Well, without her all the fun was gone.

            “Anything else, Master Kouga?” Ieo asked the wolf demon.

            “Where’s the Huntress? You’re daughter I believe,” Kouga said, spitting a bone at her feet. “Where is she, whore?”

            Ieo managed to keep her tongue, “She…she was taken by another demon.”

            “What?” Kouga reared up. “What do you mean she was taken?”
            Ieo winced, “What I mean is that another demon bested her and now she is in his service.”

            “His?” Kouga pressed. “That narrows the field. Who is the person who defeated her?”

            “A powerful dog demon called Sesshomaru,” Ieo replied.

            “Sesshomaru?!” Kouga howled. “Tell me, does he travel with another silver haired demon? A half hanou!”

            Ieo looked up, “Yes, he does!”

            Kouga’s grin suddenly widened, “You may be of use after all. Tell me where they are.” Where Inuyasha is there is Kagome. Ieo rushed to get her scrying glass.

            “Nice move,” Xiang Yao said, falling back a step as Sango pressed her advantage over the Huntress.

            Sango smiled inwardly and kept on in a mad rush. She kept outward calm, but inside her heartbeat was racing and he muscles ached. They had been fighting for an hour now, and Xiang Yao wasn’t letting up. She was like water – calm one moment and then erupting into a current so strong Sango felt she actually drowning as her onslaught came on.

            Suddenly, Sango felt her blade batted aside and felt the edge of Xiang Yao’s pressed against her flesh. The Huntress had pulled a very difficult move. As Sango was coming in fast for a forward thrust, the Huntress and simultaneously batted her sword away and dropped the ground. The force of the bat was reduced because of this and she had barely two seconds to flip he blade in her hand and aim it up at her throat. She had done it, too.

            “Cough up,” Miroku said and held his hand out to Shippou. “She won.”

            “Oh, fine,” Shippou growled and slapped several coins into Miroku’s hands.

            “You betted on the match?” Sango cried indignantly.

            “Well, yeah, we we’re bored,” Miroku said innocently.

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