Waiting in the Village

[Sango]

The only sound coming from a young woman walking through the village closest to Inuyasha's Forest was the soft sound of rustling clothes and the padding of her sandals against the ground as she observed the activity of the villagers going about their lives. In fact, even the small sounds she made were drowned out in the noise of the village.

Across her back was slung a huge bone shaped like a boomerang, clearly marking that she was not just any villager, despite her clothes which made her fit in as one. The small two-tailed nekomata sitting on her shoulder also revealed that she was not.

Sango halted outside of a certain, very familiar hut in the middle of the village, then entered for a moment. When she exited Kaede's hut once more, she held the two hollow shoulder guards that she wore with her battle clothes, some berries and plants, a few containers, and a rock. She then sat down in front of the hut, and, after opening one of her shoulder guards and the container of one of her liquid poisons that she kept inside it, she began crushing the materials she had and mixing them together, creating some more of the poison she used on demons.

[Ruki]

The village, this was the best place to search for Inu Yasha and his group of friends. Hunting them down one by one sounded like a good plan, until the kitsune realised that after the first kill the others would be on guard and it would be most likely impossible to kill them one by one. So, the demon made a decision, act as a messenger and give an ominus warning of danger in the future....or possibly try and befriend them. The latter sounded much less fun, but much more safe.

In the end, it was the warning that he decided to go with. It wasn't until he came out of his deep thought that he realised that almost every human was staring at him. 'd**n humans, haven't they ever seen a demon?' he thought to himself.

After wandering through the village trying to find someone not afraid to talk to him, he found a beautiful young girl, and with a demon by her side, she would most likely not be afraid of his presance. He approached the young girl and cleared his throat, "Excuse me miss, but I am a messenger, looking for a half demon that goes by the name Inu Yasha. By chance do you know where he is?"

[Sango]

The demon exterminator looked up from her poisons as she was spoken to, and fixed her gaze on Ruki. She was somewhat surprised to see a demon in this village as it was poor and not much could be gained by attacking it. Unless of course Kagome was here with her shards of the Shikon no Tama, but she was still in her era at the moment, going to school apparently.

Sango knew immediately that this youkai was lying about being a messenger. No doubt he was after Inuyasha, Kagome or the shikon shards she held. She could feel the evil aura surrounding his body. Instead of immediately fighting the youkai, however, Sango decided to hear him out.

He may be an evil demon, but he might say something useful. Afterall, Naraku has sent us things like this before. This demon could merely be a messenger. Sango thought, although it was highly unlikely.

"He left the village not a minute ago. I do not know where to, however. You may tell me what the problem is, and I'll tell him when he returns," Sango said as she gave Kirara a look, silencing the untransformed youkai's growls.

[Miroku]

The soft sound of jingling mingled pleasantly admist the various other sounds of regular village life. People chattering, children laughing, numerous animal sounds. It was all too-familiar, and yet he appreciated the sounds as much as if he had only heard them for the first time. You see, it wasn't often that he had a chance to really relax. Just relax, and not have to worry about things. Of course, there was always that faint little worry in the back of his mind.. the one that plagued his nightmares and had pretty much ruined his life altogether..

.. but who cared about that today? The weather was nice, the faces were pleasant, and he was in a very good mood. A smile adorned the features, and his indigo eyes sparkled in the sunshine.

The jingling sound, of course, belonged to Shakujou, which he held in his right hand. The left one swung down by his slender side loosely, and his brown-sandaled feet walked across the ground smoothly. He had an exact destination in mind, though did take the time to smile and wave to various passerby.

As he neared the hut of Kaede, a nice, friendly place he had come to know as a sort of 'safe haven' in his travels, his eyes immediately fell on the young girl seated outside, apparently getting her taijiya things ready for their next departure. As peaceful as it was here, they couldn't remain in its serenity forever. Soon, they would have to depart. But neither Kagome nor InuYasha had shown up in the forest, which was where he had just been, and he didn't see them around here, either. Shippou was not in sight.

Maybe they would get a chance to rest here a bit longer after all.

Eyes traveling up from her beautiful face and to the person that she was speaking to, his own eyes narrowed for a moment, as he observed the being. Obviously a youkai, he did not look like an immediate threat, but one could not be sure.

"Hello," he spoke softly yet strongly, making his presence known. He came to a stand beside Sango, eyeing the youkai. He had missed all of their previous conversation, if they had had one at all, but had caught onto the word, "InuYasha."

[Sango]

Even before Miroku had spoken, Sango had known that he was coming as she had heard the jingling made by the rings adorning Shakujou, and looked in his direction as he approached.

"Houshi-sama... This youkai says he has come with a message for Inuyasha. He is not with you, so I must assume you have not seen him or Lady Kagome." Sango said, trying to signal him through her eyes that this demon was not to be trusted, but not to say anything to give away this mistrust. Sango didn't think this was necessary, however, as Miroku no doubt had felt the evil demonic aura by now and knew better than to show his mistrust until the demon's true purpose was made known.

"I have asked him to reveal his message so that when Inuyasha returns we may give him the message." Sango added, watching Miroku closely for his reaction.

Although Sango had no way of knowing that Ruki had a shard of the Shikon no Tama with him, she could tell that his aura was very strong, so this too led her to believe that this Kitsune youkai was helping Naraku.

[Ruki]

"My message is not for you, but for Inu Yasha. It is for his ears alone, it has to do with a certain family member of his. So, when he comes back, please tell him to meet me. I shall be where the town ends, and the forest begins," Ruki stated, turning on his heels are walking away. 'Whoever comes,' he thought to himself. 'Shall face certain death. I was unstoppable before, and now with the jewel...'

He silently laughed to himself, coming to the end of the town. Using his Fox Rush ability, he appeared in the tree, next to the hive of saimyosho. "Now to wait..."

[Sango]

Once Ruki was gone, Sango stared after him, a concentrated and suspicious look on her face. She wasn't stupid, she now knew that this youkai was definitely up to no good. Afterall, if he had just had a message from Naraku, there was no reason for him to not want to say it to the whole group, or at least all of them that were there at the moment. He was obviously going to try to do something to Inuyasha, since there was no other reason why he would want to tell only Inuyasha since Sango knew that all of them had experience with Inuyasha's family, and the only living one left was Sesshomaru. Sango couldn't think of anything that had to be said about him that all of them couldn't hear.

"Houshi-sama, does it not strike you odd that he must tell only Inuyasha about something family-related when his only family is Sesshomaru?" the taijiya asked Miroku, turning her head to focus her brown eyes on the houshi once more. "He may be another demon sent by Naraku to kill Inuyasha. It wouldn't be the first time. Do you think we should follow him and find out his purpose before Inuyasha gets there?"

[Miroku]

Miroku turned his eyes away from the other male and back to Sango, eyeing her carefully as she addressed him. The two had grown to know each other almost as well as siblings, though his intentions towards Sango were /not/ that of a brother.. (xD), and he could tell from the look in her eyes and the tone of her voice that something was up.

"No, I have not seen InuYasha or Kagome," he answered with a nod, and then turned to look at Ruki. A message? For InuYasha? From whom? Who would possibly send InuYasha a message? Naraku? But why would he bother with a messenger boy? Something did not feel right. Sango was correct in that he /had/ sensed something the moment he had arrived. Though he was a Houshi, being a low-level Buddist monk, he bore strong spiritual feelings, and evil was circulating throughout the atmosphere.

"Yes.. that makes perfect sense," Miroku said to Sango, turning to stare at the demon after she stated that he should reveal his message to them, so that they might tell InuYasha when he returned.

He immediately took a disliking towards this youkai, and his brows raised as the boy said that he would not tell them his message after all. A bit of suspiscion flared within him, though he struggled to contain his emotions for the time being. His thoughts were along the same lines as Sango's, and after Ruki had left, he walked closer to her and nodded at her words.

"It does sound odd," he agreed, contemplating inside of his head for a moment. "I don't know what in the world he would want to tell InuYasha about Sesshoumaru, if he really /was/ a messenger, which I doubt he is..." He smiled bitterly.

"He might be working for Naraku..." he agreed, and let out a sigh. "I don't know.. it's hard to say. If we follow him, at least we'll be able to stop whatever he wants to do to InuYasha.. I do not think his intentions are good at all; I sensed horrible waves from him," he winced.

"I think.. we should follow him. He might catch InuYasha off-guard, and we should probably be there, just in case."

[Sango]

Sango nodded in agreement, although Inuyasha was unlikely to be caught off guard by another demon. That usually only happened if the demon looked like a human.

"Yes. It would be best to be careful. My father told me that not all kitsune youkai have only the power of deception, and something tells me that this one has more than that. If it were only deception, how is it that his aura could have grown so evil? I will bring my equipment with me, for though we are not Inuyasha, he might think attacking any person just as good as Inuyasha..." Sango commented as she finished mixing one of her poisons and put the newly made poison into a container and placed it into her hollow shoulder guard. Once that was done, she picked up her taijiya equipment and turned toward the hut.

"I won't be long." she told Miroku, indicating that she was going to change into her battle clothes. Although she didn't say anything further, the expression on her face clearly said that Miroku would get hit in the head with Hiraikotsu if she caught him trying to watch.

Sango entered the hut, and looked around it for her clothes. She saw them sitting in a folded pile in one of the corners of the hut, so she walked over and picked them up, unfolding them as she did so. Once she had on the tight black part of her clothes, she attached her shoulder and elbow guards as well as the sash that went around her waist to keep on the katana and the guards on her stomach and part of her back. To finish off, she changed into the shoes she wore during battle. The poison-filtering mask was around her neck as well.

Once she had quickly checked the chain she kept in one of her hollow armguards as well as the poisons in her shoulderguards, she left the hut once more, pulling her hair up into a high ponytail as she went. She adjusted Hiraikotsu on her back, then started toward the end of the village where Ruki had told them he would be. "Shall we?" she asked Miroku, looking back over her shoulder at him.

[Ruki]

(OCC: Can't post anything....but I just realised....I am not a good Inu Yasha RPer....I can't write long posts like that like I can for other thing.)

[Sango]

((Ooc: It's okay, you're not required to here. Once Miroku posts once more, you should be able to post again.))

[Ruki]

(OOC: I know it's not "required", but I feel stupid for not being able to.....)

[Miroku]

Miroku turned to face Sango as she spoke of what her father had told her. He didn't know that much about her father, nor the rest of her village members, though he liked hearing more about her past. He would never question her, however, as that would surely be painful. Whenever she was ready to tell him things, such as now, he would be willing to listen. He nodded thoughtfully at her words, and a smile slowly began to adorn his features. "You are so wise, Sango.. I am glad to have a companion such as you."

Slyly making his way towards her, he paused as she picked up her taijiya things and made the announcement that she was off to change. Deliberately going over possible ways to get a look at her in his head, the young monk was cut short by the blatent expression on her face, and he chuckled wearily. "I'll be here," he said in a sing-song voice, and let out a sigh as she disappeared from view for a few minutes.

Will I ever win?.. he questioned himself mentally.

.. Probably not, he thought with disdain.

Brought out of his melancholy thoughts by her sudden reappearance, Miroku nodded and smiled once more, eyes shining brightly. "Yes, let's go," he said enthusiastically, rushing forward to keep in step with her and walking beside his young taijiya friend, Shakujou held tightly in his right hand. He struggled not to let the object sway too much, as he didn't want the demon to hear the jingling sound that his staff made when he ususally walked.

[Sango]

As Sango made her way toward the end of the village to the place where Ruki had told them to send Inuyasha with Miroku next to her, she wondered yet again what Ruki's purpose was. She supposed she would have to ask him when they arrived, although she didn't really want to. It just seemed odd to ask your enemy why he or she was trying to kill you while you fought them. Well, there was always the option of forcing it out of him once she and Miroku had defeated him, should a fight become necessary. She was nearly convinced that it would get to that point because of Ruki's demonic aura.

As the two companions neared the edge of the town, Sango took hold of one of Hiraikotsu's straps, readying herself for the approaching battle. She didn't want to get caught off guard in case the kitsune youkai decided to try a surprise attack without saying anything first. Kirara mewed and jumped off of Sango's shoulder, making it obvious that she too was getting ready. Sango watched as Kirara's adorable small nekomata form was surrounded in flame which only diminished somewhat once she had transformed into her large cat form. Then she growled, meaning that Ruki was nearby, which Sango could also tell.

Sango halted as the group reached the base of the tree where Ruki sat and looked up into the tree at Ruki, waiting for him to make the first move.

[Ruki]

Ruki watched as the group came closer, shaking his head, Why are they here without Inu Yasha? Stupid fools...I should kill them..... When they stopped at the base of the tree, Ruki leaned back, and flipped out of the tree, landing with barely a sound a few feet away from the humans.

The kitsune looked over the two for a few moments before speaking up, "Why are you here?"