"I'm staying with Inuyasha."

Seiichi couldn't speak for several minutes, and stared at Mizuko in disbelief. Then his harsh violet eyes narrowed into a murderous glare, and she flinched, as if she'd been slapped. "Are you out of your god'damn fucking mind?!" he shouted angrily, making her wince again. "This has to be your most idiotic idea yet!! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" His blood boiled inside his veins as he glowered at the girl. Her resolve was beginning to give way -he could sense it- but then it rebounded and she stared at him defiantly.

"You can't tell me what to do, Seiichi." she retorted stubbornly. "I can do whatever you I want, and you can't do a damn thing about it." She'd never sworn before, and it felt weird to force one in. But unfortunately, that was the only way to get Seiichi to listen.

"I can't eh?" he asked bluntly. "Why the fuck do you want to stay out here anyway?! Do you like living like a damned animal?"

"I'm not living like an animal!" she said back, her temper starting to flare. Why were they even arguing about this? He had no right to tell her where she wasnt' allowed to go or what she wasn't allowed to do. He was supposed to be her friend, not her mother.

"Then why are you acting like a bitch?" he asked calmly. Mizuko's cheeks burned with anger and embarrassment. Her hands were clenched in tight fists at either side of her, and she stomped forward so that she was directly in front of him and stared up into his face angrily.

"Bitch? Look who's talking!!" she shouted back at him. "Ever since we were kids, you've done nothing but yell and complain about every stupid thing! And you know what? I'm sick of it. So stop acting like somehow you're better than me!!"

"I'm not trying to act better than you. I'm trying to keep you from getting yourself killed, stupid!" he shouted. That caught Mizuko off guard. She stared up at him dumbly, completely at a loss how to respond. "You're more accident prone than any other person I know. And staying out here is just asking for something to happen." he continued, his anger starting to dissipate a little.

Inuyasha yawned boredly, having lost interest in the fight a long time ago. "Look, this is getting us nowhere. Let's just get going already. I'm tired of sitting here listenning to you two ramble on and on."

"I don't recall asking for your input, dog." Seiichi answered coldly, staring at the demon with disgust. Mizuko sighed and shook her head. When he wasn't givng her a hard time, he was picking a fight with Inuyasha. Everyone always seemed to get on Seiichi's bad side. She was starting to wonder if he even had a good side.

"Look. I'm not returnning home until I find out more about what's going on. There's got to be a reason for the Slayers to even exist, and I want to know why." Mizuko said. "And no one inside is going to tell me anything. So I'm going to try the outside."

"Reality check: there doesn't have to be a reason. Demons are the scum of the earth. Brainless, man-eating bastards that serve no other purpose than to take up space. And in order to keep them from killing us, we kill them. There's no need for an elaborate explanation."

"Well...I don't accept that."

"You don't accept anything."

"Let's just go already." Inuyasha interrupted again. "You're both being--" He paused for a moment, and then glanced around the area suspiciously. Mizuko saw his tense posture and looked around as well. From what she could tell, nothing was going on. There were no noises at all: no footsteps, no rustling, no birds cawing at all...completely silent. Maybe that was what was making Inuyasha so tense.

Then suddenly his head snapped back and he lunged forward, grabbing Mizuko around the waist and leapt backwards with Seiichi close behind as a large mass fell through the trees in front of them. It looked like a massive troll, or at least the body of one anyway. The head had been severed. Mizuko only managed to stare at the corpse for a few seconds before she turned away in disgust, trying to keep herself from getting sick. She didn't have the stomach to handle things like this.

"What the hell?!--" Inuyasha said in disbelief before leaping away, joustling the already nauseous Mizuko as he did so, narrowly avoiding a large flying object. It flew past them for several yards and then turned around, heading back in the direction it'd come out.

"A boomerang?" Mizuko asked out loud. It was the only explanation she could think of. Nothing else she knew of could fly in a that sort of pattern. The large object was caught by a woman as she walked out into their clearing.

She seemed to be only a few years older than Mizuko. with long jet black hair that she kept back in a ponytail, and experienced chocolate brown eyes. She was dressed in an outfit similar to Mizuko's except that her armor plates were a bright coral pink. She held the boomerang-which was about the same size as her- casually in one hand, like it weighed nothing.

"Well...that was easy..." the woman said to herself, seeming unaware of their presence. She examined her kill for a moment, pleased with her success, and then turned to leave only to see Mizuko and Seiichi. "Who are--"

"No fair, sis!" a young boy shouted suddenly coming into the clearing. "I-I saw that one first!!" He was much younger than Mizuko, not even a teenager yet, with dark brown hair that looked black except for where the sun hit. Like his sister, he was also dressed like a Slayer, with green plates. In his trembling hands was a odd looking weapon, a sickle and chain if her memory was correct. Weird.

"Sorry, Kohaku, but you took too long..." his sister answered, smiling at him teasingly. Kohaku made a face, and then glanced over, his eyes locking on Inuyasha.

"W-Wha?! Another demon!!" he shouted in alarm, sounding terrified. Inuyasha stared at the boy with an uninterested expression as he threw the chain at him, and caught the blade with ease.

"Get a'hold of yourself, kid. I'm not gonna eat ya. You're too scrawny." he said, purposely trying to scare him. And he was obviously succeeding. Kohaku squirmed under the half demon's gaze, and then looked to Mizuko and Seiichi for assitance, and was the first to actually notice how they were dressed.

"You two are Slayers?" he asked curiously. Mizuko and Seiichi immediately glanced at each other and then nodded. Kohaku smiled slightly and then turned to the woman. "Hey, Sango! Those two are Slayers!!" he shouted. Sango looked over at them curiously, and then smiled as well.

"Really now?" she smashed her boomerang into the ground and walked over to them, giving Inuyasha a cold look as she passed him. "What brings you two all the way out here, and with him no less. Are you from a nearby base?"

"We're from Headquarters." Seiichi answered calmly. Sango looked startled and then smiled.

"Well...you've traveled quite a distance. Why don't you come with us to our base. It's not too far from here." Sango offered. Mizuko glanced at her two friends and then nodded. "Great. Follow me..." she said, before motioning for them to follow them into the woods. Inuyasha grumbled slightly as he followed. So now they were heading into a Slayer Base full of people who would kill them on sight?

Fantastic.