A Letter to a Friend
"I don't believe this…" InuYasha growled angrily. The half-demon was sitting cross-legged in the corner of Kaede's house, his entire body tense with frustration and impatience as he looked at the frail straw curtain that was currently blowing about, allowing gusts of wind and rain to spill in inside the frail abode. "We should be heading north, not stuck here!"
Frowning somewhat, Kagome sighed as she looked outside, understanding all too well the half-demon's frustration. The immense storm that was currently pouring down from the heavans was one of the worst she had seen in quite some time, instantly saturating everything unfortunate enough to be caught outdoors. Leaving her, along with InuYasha, Shippo, Miroku, Sango, Michiru, Kaname, and Kaede trapped in the old priestess's home for the foreseeable future.
As she looked at the rain that was bleeding through the walls of the simple house, Kagome felt an edge of guilt cutting into her as she heard Kaname murmured, "I'm sorry." Looking up at the latest apology offered by the Shikigami User, Kagome saw that Kaname's face was even more a picture of guilt that it was earlier.
"So am I," Michiru grimaced with guilt similar to his sister's, and with a shadow of confusion darkening his eyes. "I don't know how this could have happened. That spell we cast…it shouldn't have done anything like this!"
"It's not your fault," Kagome told them reassuringly, feeling extremely embarrassed by their situation. Not to mention feeling a measure of the guilt that they so clearly projected. "I'm the one who asked you two to try and do something about the rain, remember?"
"Yeah, but I still don't understand what went wrong," Michiru responded, shaking his head in humiliation.
"Hmph. I know what went wrong," InuYasha fumed, staring hatefully at the rain. "What went wrong is a certain someone who kept pestering you and Kaname because she didn't want to get wet!" Then he leveled his slitted, yellow eyes at Kagome, making it abundantly clear with his gaze exactly who he meant when he said 'a certain someone'. "Seriously! It was just a spring shower! It's not like it was any big deal!"
Furrowing her brows at the half-demon, Kagome felt a 'sit' command making its way to her lips. But instead of invoking the Beads of Subjugation, she averted her eyes and looked out towards the monsoon that currently held them prisoner. I guess I can't blame InuYasha for being a little stir-crazy. Heck, I'm starting to get that way as well! Heaving a heavy sigh, she lowered her eyes and added, Besides, it's not like he's that far off the mark...
It had all started that morning, shortly after breakfast. She and the others had been all but ready to start out towards the north when clouds floating overhead had rumbled ominously before it began raining. It had been a fairly light storm then, just a simple, spring rain, and InuYasha had just wanted to bull through the rain. Sango and Miroku, while none too enthusiastic of getting soaked, were also eager to get on the road. But as much as Kagome understood their impatience, she wasn't as enthused about getting soaked and mucking their way through muddy roads. Such treks numbered amongst one of her least favorite things about life in the Feudal Era, and was to be tolerated as a necessary evil.
But then, just as Kagome had been about to heed her friends', she had looked about at the Kururugi twins, and saw that they were about as enthusiastic about the idea of traipsing through the rain as she was. And that was when she suffered a jolt of inspiration; if the Shikigami under Michiru's and Kaname's command could manipulate the forces of nature, why couldn't they make the rain go away, and come again some other day? Or at least die down, or something?
I guess I should've realized it might be a bad idea when I saw how unhappy Michiru was about it, Kagome found herself thinking. He knows about as much as any of us can about the Shikigami. But… Sighing, she looked out at the ongoing storm, and thought about how simple it had seemed earlier. She wasn't asking for the twins to wave a wand and make the sky sunny for days on end; all she was hoping that they could maybe make the weather a bit fairer for traveling. And while neither Kururugi was convinced right away, a steady barrage of pleading, persuasion, commenting about how miserable travel conditions could get, the possibility of catching a cold, and asking them what could possibly go wrong, had succeeded in getting Michiru and Kaname to reluctantly agree.
Both Kururugis had been less than optimistic of their chances of success, and had given everybody fair warning that they weren't sure if the magical wind they were summoning would defuse the storm. But still, Kagome had been hopeful as their Wind Shikigami rose up into the clouds. Only to have her hopes doused, along with the rest of her, when the clouds swelled up less than a minute later. The formerly grey stormclouds turned into dark, massive thunderheads, with huge jags of lightning shattering the sky. Accopanied by huge roars of thunder, the once gentle rain turned into a merciless deluge that forced everybody in the village under cover.
"I told you a little rain was nothing to worry about, Kagome, but would you listen?" InuYasha fumed, his glower boring into the staring hatefully at rain. "Who knows how long we're gonna be stuck here before this stuff clears up?"
"I suppose we should just take this as a lesson on the perils of tampering with nature," Miroku stated sagely, looking with concern at the roof, as if wondering if it would hold up beneath the veritable waterfall it now endured.
"I really am sorry," Kaname told them as Michiru looked even more humiliated.
"C'mon, it was an accident, that's all," Sango told them with a smile. "Stop beating yourselves up over it. You're still learning about your powers, right?"
"Hmm…I guess you're right, Sango," Michiru eventually admitted, his cheeks coloring somewhat. "Still…"
Oh, great. As if this day wasn't going badly enough! Kagome groaned, rolling her eyes at the way her friends were looking at each other. The last thing I need to deal with is Michiru's crush on Sango! Darting a glance at Miroku, she discovered that he was still sitting where he was, as sedate as only he knew how to be. Apparently unconcerned about how his apparent rival was eyeing his true love. At least Miroku knows how to keep a level head. If it were InuYasha, he'd probably be flying off the handle by now!
Taking a moment to wish that InuYasha would learn to do something about his explosive temper, Kagome forced herself to look away from the two of them. She didn't have anything against Michiru in particular, and she did realize that his feelings for Sango were genuine. But the fact of the matter was that he and Sango were about as poor a pairing as she could imagine. The two of them have absolutely nothing in common! They're complete opposites! Kagome knew. Honestly, if it weren't for Naraku showing up again, Sango and Miroku might actually be on solid terms, instead of being as messed up as they are!
Thinking evil thoughts about the most evil demon of them all, Kagome was jolted from her thoughts by another blast of thunder. Looking out into a storm that showed no signs of subsiding, she sighed and shook her head. Whatever problems she might have with Michiru would have to wait for the time being. The only thing she could do was ride out the storm as best as she could. So the modern priestess opened up her backpack and started going through it. So, what to do…? she asked herself as she rifled through the various odds and ends. Most of it were clothes, medicine, and food, but Kagome had taken to bringing a few things with her on her journeys through the Feudal Era. Shojo comics, her schoolwork, and a few other things. I'd like to save the comic for later…and I'm definitely not in the mood for homework!
As she continued to dig through her bag, Kagome eventually happened upon a pad of paper, as well as pen. For a time, she looked at those items blankly, until divine inspiration lit up her thoughts. Digging out the items, she extended the tip of her pen. "What are you doing, Kagome?" Kaede wondered just as Kagome was about to start writing. "Some of your studies?"
"Not really," Kagome smiled as best as she could. "I just remembered that I haven't sent a letter to Janis in a long time. Not since right after we came back fromKururugiVillage, in fact. So I thought that I'd write to her, tell her everything that's been happening with us lately."
"Huh? Who's Janis?" Michiru wondered blankly, looking from one face to another for an explanation.
"A friend of ours," Sango explained, meeting Michiru's blue-gray eyes. "We met her a while ago. Before you first showed up, Michiru."
While Sango and the others started telling Michiru and Kaname about the American girl they had met, Kagome was ordering her thoughts as she looked at the blank sheet of paper. Then, remembering that Janis had a hard time reading Japanese, she began to slowly write the letter in English. "Dear Janis, it sure has been a long time since I saw you last. I still remember crying when I saw your plane taking off from the airport when you had to leave Japan. Of course, InuYasha was upset, too. Not that he'd ever admit it!"
Smiling at this, Kagome gave a moment's thought as to how she should continue. "Things have been pretty strange over where I am. Remember how I told you about Michiru Kururugi, a Shikigami User from our time, and everything that happened with him? Well, you're not going to believe this, but he found a way for people without special powers to use the Bone-Eater's Well!"
Taking a moment to imagine the shock on Janis's face when she read that part, Kagome wrote, "It all started when Michiru stopped by the Higurashi Shrine, checking to see if InuYasha or I had gotten back. We decided to have lunch together at my place when Grandpa told me something amazing; that somebody had found a Shikon Jewel Shard in the present!"
"You know about Kyle Wyvern, the guy who writes all those books about Japanese magic and mythology? Well, it turns out he discovered the Jewel Shard sealed in amber from a sacred tree, and he had it on display at a book-signing of his. Anyway, InuYasha and I, along with Michiru and my family, we decided to check out the signing, to see if it was a real Jewel Shard." Kagome paused for moment, wincing at her memories of what happened next. "It turns out that the Jewel Shard was real. However, while we were looking around the civic center, when we found an urn that supposedly contained a demon. Unfortunately for us, the demon was also real!"
"Its name was Ryokage, and it went on a rampage after escaping from the civic center! The first thing it did was go to a prison so it could take a body for itself and feed on the evil of all the prisoners!" Kagome wrote, feeling sickened just by thinking of the people Ryokage had killed. "It took everything we had, but finally we were able to kill Ryokage. After it was all over, Wyvern gave us the Jewel Shard, along with a magic compass that can track down virtually any demon, as well as Shikon Jewel Shards that are beyond my range to detect. He even gave us a digital video camera to record things with, and I'm even getting paid for it! He also agreed to give us anything we could use from his collection, as well as food and medicine."
"Wyvern also told Michiru about this theory of his, and that he thought that the reason the Bone-Eater's Well only worked for me and InuYasha is because we became linked to it when his blood and the energy from Kikyo's arrow sank into the tree. Still, I wonder how you were able to use the Well. Maybe because of the kamuitama, that power of the gods you had at the time?" Kagome pursed her lips before continuing. "Anyway, Michiru used his Shikigami power to create a bunch of pendants that allow the person wearing them to pass through the Well. And he brought another surprise for us; it turns out that he has as a twin sister, named Kaname. Now, he had told us about her before, but the surprise is that it turns out that she has the same powers that he does! I have to admit, I was pretty surprised by this; after all, Sota is my brother, and he doesn't have any special powers that I know of. Then again, Michiru and Kaname are twins, so maybe that has something to do with it."
Frowning, Kagome considered the worst part of the news she had for Janis. "Also, I'm afraid I have some bad news. Remember how I told you that Michiru helped us kill Naraku? Well, we were wrong. Naraku is still alive. So are Kagura and Kanna. Making things even worse is that Naraku managed to get Kohaku back under his control!" For a few seconds, Kagome debated tell Janis about Michiru's feelings for Sango, but finally decided against it. Besides, she was certain that Sango's heart firmly belonged with Miroku; no use bringing up a romance that she felt was doomed to failure. "Anyway, we just found out from Myoga that there's something strange happening in the north, and it might have something to do with Naraku. So as soon as we can, we're all heading there. Hopefully, this time, we'll find Naraku and finish him off, once and for all!"
Sighing, Kagome finished with, "That's about it for me. I hope everything's going well with you and your family. I sure do miss you, though, Janis. It was nice having another girl around, and especially one who understands what I'm talking about. Don't get me wrong, Sango's a great friend, but there's a lot of stuff that she really doesn't get. Anyway, take care, and wish us luck! Sincerely, your friend Kagome."
Satisified with the letter, Kagome folded it back up and placed it securely in her backpack. "Listen, everyone, would it be alright if I made a quick trip back home? Since we have a little time, I'd like to send this letter before we head out."
"But of course, Kagome," Kaede smiled warmly. "I see no reason not to. And it doesn't look like the rain will be stopping any time soon."
"Great! Thanks!" Kagome responded as she brought an umbrella out of her backpack.
"Just be sure to hurry back, okay?" InuYasha grumbled as Kagome took off into the rain. "Dammit! We have a lead on Naruku, and we're stuck here!"
"I really am sorry about all this…" Kaname murmured.
"Hey, you've already said that you were sorry! You don't have to say it so many times!" InuYasha growled good-naturedly, or as good-naturedly as he could, considering the weather. "Besides, you did warn us that you weren't sure if you'd actually be able to stop the rain! So relax, already!"
"Still…that blast from our Wind Shikigami shouldn't have caused all this," Michiru muttered unhappily. "I just don't understand how this could have happened…"
"Hi, Mom!" Kagome burst as she calmly entered the house. Grateful that the foul weather wreaking havoc in the Feudal Era wasn't being mirrored modern world, she set aside her completely soaked umbrella, already intent on changing into something dry.
"Kagome! What are you doing back already? I thought you and the others were heading north this morning!" Mrs. Higurashi exclaimed as she came into view. Then she took a look at the condition her daughter was in, and brought her hand to her mouth. "And what happened to you! You're soaking wet!"
"We kinda got rained out for this morning, Mom," Kagome explained, her already dampened mood becoming even more sodden as she thought about the conditions in the past. "We won't be able to leave until this storm clears up, so I decided to spend some time writing a letter to Janis."
"Oh, you mean it's raining in the Feudal Era?" Pausing to consider this, Mrs. Higurashi soon decided. "In that case, why don't get changed before you head back? And take along a raincoat as well?"
"I was already planning on that. The last thing I need is to catch a cold before we go up against Naraku!" Kagome grumbled, shuddering at both the chill and the absolute horror of such a scenario. "Still, first thing's first! I better get this letter ready to go! Mom, you'll deliver it for me, won't you?"
"Of course! I'll have it out for you first thing tomorrow!" Mrs. Higurashi promised. "Now, while you're getting it ready, why don't I make some soup for your friends?"
"Really?" Kagome smiled.
"Certainly! After all, we wouldn't want them catching a cold, either, would we?" With that, Mrs. Higurashi went towards the kitchen, while Kagome went to her room, and went about her business.
Phew. There are times I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't come home every now and again! Kagome thought somberly. Grateful to know that she had the support of her loved ones when she needed it.
"Dammit, Kagome!" InuYasha grumbled, his teeth bared as he seemed to bury himself as far beneath his fire-rat fur kimono as he could. The rain continuing to come down with no signs of ever letting up. "What is taking her so long?"
"Settle down, InuYasha," Kaede urged him. "It's not as if we need Kagome to return this instant. Even if she were to do so, I highly doubt that you will be able to leave today."
"I'll say! The storm's still getting worse! And feels like it's getting colder out!" Shippo groaned, rubbing his sides in an effort to stay warm.
"I think you're right, Shippo," Sango noted, shivering at a gust of wind that surged through Kaede's home. Shivering at this blast of window, Kirara huddled closely to the Demon Slayer. Realizing the two-tail's desire, Sango picked her up and cradled her in arms. "Even Kirara's getting cold."
"This is the last time I ever try to manipulate the weather," Kaname grimaced, her arms wrapped about her body as she shuddered before the ill wind.
"Same here," Michiru agreed, mirroring his twins movements. "At least until I can actually figure out how to not have it backfire in my face!" Feeling the storm's fury through the mystical sense of his Shikigami, the Kururugi boy looked about his chilled companions. Kaede was truly suffering, and even InuYasha, who very rarely complained about such things because of pride alone, didn't bother trying to hide the fact that he was chilled. As he looked at Miroku, he saw that the monk was frowning thoughtfully as he looking at the door leading outside. Puzzled by this, Michiru watched as Miroku stood and proceeded to the door, pulling in a section of the straw curtain that divided the inside from the outside. "What is it, Miroku?"
"Something is very wrong here," Miroku mused as he examined the curtain. "Look. The rain has started freezing."
"What?" Michiru wondered, his eyes widening as he realized the monk was right. The damp straw curtain was semi-solid with ice. "Is it really that cold out?"
"But it can't be! It's very nearly summer!" Kaede protested, despite the water that was halfway frozen on her door. "How can the rain be freezing?"
"I don't know. I'm not sensing any demonic power," Miroku admitted. "What about you, InuYasha? Do you smell anything?"
"Not a thing!" InuYasha admitted, and then recoiled as a gust of cold wind surged through the door. "Dammit! Close that thing up already!"
"How could it possibly get so cold?" Shippo wondered nervously as the temperature continued to drop.
"I don't know," Sango admitted before turning her attention to the Kururugi twins. "Michiru? Kaname? I hate to ask you this, but I think we should risk you using your magic again."
"What?" Kaname blared in distress.
"But Sango, it was our using magic that caused this mess in the first place!" Michiru protested, still feeling shame at his role in their dilemma.
"I understand, but the way things are going, I'm not sure we have much choice. If it keeps getting colder, we're all going to freeze in here," Sango explained, holding Kirara as tightly as she could. "I'm not saying that you two should try and manipulate the weather, but we could use some heat in here."
"Agreed," Miroku concurred. "If you were to just use your Fire Shikigami to make it warmer in here, then it should be okay."
"Well…maybe…" Michiru stalled. The last thing he wanted to do was to take their current predicament and make it even worse. "What about you, InuYasha? What do you think?"
"I think that it's getting damned cold in here!" InuYasha growled as the wind continued to blow even more icy rain into the small house. "If you two are gonna do something, than hurry up and do it!"
"Um…okay," Kaname conceded nervously before turning to Michiru. "You ready, bro?"
Michiru gave a quick nod. "As ready as I'll ever be, I guess," he admitted, and with that, the two of them brought their hands together, calling forth the power within. "Oh, flame burning bright," he and Kaname began, pentagrams spinning into existence at their feet. The now-familiar feel of the Shikigami emerging surging through him. "Lend us – what?"
"Michiru, Kaname! What is it?" InuYasha shouted as something shifted in Michiru. Something had gone wrong. He could feel the way the magic was flowing, and could sense something not right about it. Before either he or Kaname could say anything, however, pillars of magic had erupted from the both of them. Two waves of icy blue-white energy, so unlike the blazing red of their Fire Shikigami. However, the twins were unable to speak, their mouths frozen open as they stood helpless to do anything but watch as the power took form.
"What?" Shippo wailed as the Shikigami took shape. But instead of two lions, a pair of icy bairs appeared in the air above them. "Th-those aren't their Fire Shikigami!"
"Dammit!" InuYasha snarled, the cold forgotten as he leapt into action. "Everybody out! Hurry!" His words lighting a spark beneath the others, they ran for the door as quickly as they could. Even Michiru and Kaname were jolted into activity, and soon escaped into the driving rain.
"Kaede! Hurry!" Michiru heard Shippo cry as soon as he was outside. Turning about, he saw the eldery priestess struggle to her feet. But time had not been good to Kaede, taking whatever fleetness she might once have had, and the cold had obviously drained her. InuYasha was already helping her, virtually shoving her out the door. Just before the spirits Michiru and Kaname had summoned exploded into twin waves of power, filling everybody's field of vision with brilliant white…
"Whew! I sure hope everybody appreciates this!" Kagome grinned as she climbed out of the Well. Her mood brightened by a combination of fresh clothes, hot soup for her friends, and best of all, the bright, blue sky that shown through the trees of the forest. "It looks like the storm's cleared up! It's about time!" Completely carefree, she got on her bike and was soon on her way towards the village.
However, once she got in sight of the village itself, Kagome received a shock. Almost everything in the village, from the houses to the fields, everything was coated with a layer of ice. "What the –?" she wondered as she rode past the fields, watching as the people there freed their crops from the minimal ice that caked them. Pedaling down the path, she felt the ground crunching beneath her in the manner of frozen earth slowly thawing.
"How the heck did this happen?" Kagome demanded of no one as she continued. The closer to the village center she got, the worse the ice became, until it was so slick that she was forced to walk her bike. All around her, villagers were already working to chisel the ice off their homes.
Frowning in concentration, Kagome opened her mind to the world around her. However, she couldn't sense any demonic presences, save for the ones she already knew. She was about to track down a villager and ask what had happened when she heard a familiar voice crying out, "Foxfire!"
"Shippo?" Kagome gasped before turning in the direction the voice seemed to come from. A few seconds later, she caught of the little fox-demon, who was using his magic to melt away the icy shell around one of the house. "Shippo! What happened?"
"Oh, Kagome!" Shippo grinned as he turned to look at her. As she drew up to him, however, he looked down at the frozen house, and his expression became very sheepish. "We, um…we had a little accident…"
"A little accident?" Kagome repeated disbelievingly, glancing about the frozen disaster the village had become. "What do you mean? What kind of accident could do this?"
"Uh, maybe you should ask Michiru and Kaname," Shippo told her, and suddenly Kagome got a very bad feeling.
"A new Shikigami?" Kagome gaped as she confronted Michiru, who was presently using his Fire Shikigami to help melt Kaede's house of the small glacier that had formed around it.
"That's right. I think that the knowledge that Dad imbued us with somehow caused this new power to wake up," Michiru explained, his cheeks tinged with shame as he worked. When the modern priestess had returned searching for him, she had caught him in the midst of using his Fire Shikigami's magic to help melt the small glacier that had formed around Kaede's house. "That would explain why the same power woke up in Kaname and me at the same time."
"I see," Kagome smiled ruefully. "You know, I'd ask you what this new Shikigami's power is, but I think I already have a pretty good idea."
Flushingwith humiliation, Michiru nodded. "The power of Ice, and the Shikigami are in the form of a bear." Frowning somewhat, he went on, "I guess that's why our Wind magic caused that storm to get even worse. The Ice power was already waking up, and it affected the magic."
"I guess that makes sense," Kagome admitted, remembering the first time Michiru had journeyed with them, and how the emergence of a new Shikigami had sometimes caused him some trouble, though not to this degree. "So…do you two have it under control now?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Once a Shikigami wakes up, it's easy to control," Michiru explained. "At least I know why things when wrong before. I don't feel quite so dumb." Snorting at the block of ice that encased Kaede's home, he added, "I'm just glad that the rest of the village isn't as bad. The other houses only got frozen on the outside."
"I saw," Kagome confirmed, recalling how there had only been minimal amounts of frost on the outskirts of the village, while the houses closer to Kaede's place were caked over with ice. "So, how are the others?"
"Well, most of them got out before Kaede's house froze over," Michiru reported, his features darknening somewhat. "But InuYasha…well, he stayed to get Kaede out, and…"
"Yes?" Kagome wondered.
"Achooo!" InuYasha sneezed, groaning miserably as he leaned forward. "I don't believe this…"
"Are you feeling better yet?" Kaname asked as she massaged InuYasha's shoulders, her hands imbued with the power of her Fire Shikigami. Some time had passed since the accidental emergence of the twin Ice Shikigami had flash-frozen much of Kaede's Village. Time in which most of the group ha spread out to aid the rest of the villagers in performing damage control on both the homes and the crops. Leaving Kaname and Kaede to tend to the half-demon, whose nose was red and abused, and was already showing signs of having caught a nasty cold.
"Hey, you don't have to worry about me, Kaname," InuYasha spoke gruffly, his efforts to sound tough impaired by the raspiness with which he talked. "I'll be just…just…achooo!"
"You have sympathies, InuYasha, as well as my gratitude," Kaede stated, bowing slightly towards the half-demon. "If you hadn't gotten me out of my house when you had, I'd have certainly been frozen instead of you."
"That's right, InuYasha," Kaname smiled, though she winced somewhat at the memory. InuYasha had just gotten Kaede clear of the door when the magic of the Ice Shikigami erupted and froze over much of the village, but he had been caught when the power was channeled out the door. This, combined with the steady downpour which had already soaked him, resulted in him being encased in a pillar of ice. Even after being extracted from the ice, he remained badly chilled, with shivers running up and down his entire body. "I'm just sorry that I didn't know about this new power. If I had…"
"Hey, it's not your fault, Kaname! You couldn't have known that this…would…" InuYasha fumbled, barely stifling another sneeze.
Kaname was about to offer further condolences, when another voice was heard crying, "InuYasha!" Looking about as one, the three of them watched as Kagome walked her bike towards them. "The others told me about what happened."
"Yeah, ain't you lucky you weren't there for it," InuYasha sneered and sniffled. "What the hell took you so long, anyway?"
"Well, lucky for you, my mom decided to make some soup for all of you." Taking InuYasha's abrasiveness in stride, Kagome smiled and produced several thermoses. "Here! This should help you feel better."
"Food, huh?" InuYasha responded, smilng as he eyed the thermos. "Come to think of it, I am pretty hungry."
"Okay, then!" Kagome smiled, bringing out a small cup out of her backpack. As soon as she poured some of the broth in, she handed it over to InuYasha. "Here you go."
InuYasha reached for the cup, took a sip from it, only to grimace in disgust. "Ugh! Kagome! This soup is cold!"
"It is?" Kagome wondered in disbelief. Then she looked at the cup, and realized that there was no steam rising from the soup. "Oh, I guess you're right. I better fire up the burner."
"Don't worry about, it Kagome. I can heat it up for you," Kaname assured them, moving over to InuYasha's side.
"Really? Great!" InuYasha grinned as he relinquished the cup. Taking it in her hands, Kaname narrowed her eyes in concentration, focusing the power of her Fire Shikigami about her hands as she had before. Magical heat radiated from her hands and enveloped the cup. After several seconds had passed, steam began wafting up from the broth.
"There, that should be better," Kaname smiled, returning the cup to InuYasha.
Sniffing at the soup, InuYasha took another sip of it. "Ah, yeah, that's much better, Kaname."
"You're welcome!" Kaname smiled in return, glad to be able to help make amends for what she had done. However, as she looked at Kagome, she found herself confronted with eyes filled with irritation. "Uh…is something wrong, Kagome?"
"Hmm?" Looking up from the soup, InuYasha also noticed the sudden shift in Kagome's mood. Immediately wary, he told her, "Hey, the soup's just fine now! Really!"
"Hmm? Oh. Okay," Kagome muttered absently. "Listen, I'm gonna go pass out the soup to the others. I'll be back in a couple minutes." That said, the raven-haired girl turned and departed, taking a moment to glare a few daggers in Kaname's direction. As for InuYasha, he considered pressing the issue for a moment, but soon decided against it. The last thing he wanted right then and there was to be slammed into the ground face-first.
