Shattered Heart by KitsuneDragonheartLove

It Now Begins

the first chapter is short, but the ones that follow will be increacingly longer.

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It Now Beguines

The sun was setting over the barren ridge of a lonely mountain, the landscape appearing to be covered in blood from its crimson rays. Halfway up the mountain, a lonely hut surrounded by old trees, their branches twisted and blackened by time. Next to the hut was a lightening-struck pine tree, its splintered trunk, a warning to those foolish enough to come that way.

A large feather appeared on the evening sky, closing in on the hut's premises. It landed right in front of it, a woman jumping off right before it touched the ground. The feather shrunk and she placed it back in her hear. The wind appeared to swirl around her for a bit. Then it stopped. Silence seemed to thicken in the already silent clearing now that the breeze stopped rattling the leaves of the trees.

A stray gush of wind made her smirk as she approached the hut. It told her that her powers meant nothing here. Surprisingly, this didn't frighten her as much as it should.

Her red eyes examined her surroundings in search of any threat. Finding nothing, she entered the hut where an old woman was expecting her. She was sitting in a corner of the room studying the younger woman that came in. Her confidence was surprising and somewhat disturbing, but the old woman was pleased by what she saw.

The young woman started to play with a fan she always had with her. "Is it ready?" she asked the aged figure in front of her.

The old woman was wearing an outfit similar to the miko grab, only it wasn't white and red, but gray and a dark shade of crimson. Her eyes were gray and, like the red ones of her visitor, appeared to have no pupils. She looked into those red eyes and answered by asking her back. "What do you think? You know I still need the final ingredient. Have you brought me his blood?"

The red eyed woman gave her a confident smirk and extended her hand to her. "Take as much as you need!" she answered.

The old woman did as she was told. With a dagger she seamed to pull out of nowhere she cut a small wound into the woman's wrist. The blood that resulted from this was collected in a small bottle.

Gray eyes rose to meet red ones. "Come back after midnight, it'll be ready by then." She told her, then added "Is he sure of this? This will severely tip the balance..."

"I'm still out of his graces so he wouldn't tell me anything." She sad, snapping her fan open again, and she continued, not loosing the old woman from her sight, "As for the first part, I think I'll stay and watch. I've got nothing else to do till you finish."

She retreated in a shadowy corner of the room, her eyes studying the old woman's every movement. She saw her take a bottle with a strange mixture in it, pricking her finger and mixing the drops of blood with it. After about half an hour, the old woman opened the bottle that had the blood she collected from her earlier, HIS blood. She poured it, along with the other ingredients she prepared earlier, in another bottle. "Now, we only have to wait." Was all the woman said.

Red eyes narrowed. "If it's ready, why do I have to wait? The sooner I get it to him, the better. What do we have to wait for?" she was growing impatient and she didn't like it. It was enough she had to go on a mission which she didn't know the purpose of. It was understandable he didn't trust her after her latest attempts of escaping his influence, but not even telling her why she had to visit this strange old woman was too much.

"Your impatience isn't helping. You can't take the potion yet because it needs to settle and the two bloods need to mix. Miko and youkai need to neutralize each other before it can be used. If you touch it now, it might purify you, if it doesn't, your demonic energy will block its power and the potion will be useless." It was the longest speech the old woman gave since they met. It also confirmed some of her suspicions.

She decided to take a risk and ask her, it was the only way to find out what his plans were. "What does this potion do anyway?" she tried to act as if she didn't care, but her curiosity seeped through her every word. A long silence followed. She was about to lose hope of an answer when gray eyes appeared right in front of her. "You can't fool an old woman like me that easily. Being left out is hard for you, Kagura?" The young woman looked at her in surprise. "You told me yourself you're not in his graces anymore, but old Akiko knows more then people, or demons, give her credit. I'm surprised he sent you here after what happened. But it was his choice..." the old woman trailed off, her finger pointing at Kagura's nose.

"But I can't help but satisfy your curiosity, not that it will help you in any way. This potion makes demons immune to miko energy, temporary anyway. It only works once, so, if you want back in his graces, you better remind him that."

Silence reclaimed the lonely hut. Finally, the sun set and the potion was finally ready. Kagura left the hut, her feather taking her into the night, to Naraku's castle, where her fate awaited.

"Remind him? Why? If he is so foolish to forget something so important, why should I bother reminding him?" she said to herself while she was floating on the night sky.

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i already have this story posted on several sites. the only way you'll get me to go on is to reaview! reaview! reaview!