Curiosity – Chapter 16 – "Do We Have an Accord?"

*Minutes before what could possibly be the end of Kagome's life.*

Kaede was flabbergasted that Kikyo would stoop so low as to pull something like this, and worst of all she looked as if she didn't even care what the outcome of this fight would be. Was she not worried of any consequences from a certain hanyou if Kagome did not make it out alive? Oh she had faith that Kagome would win this battle, but she could only hope that she would come out of it safely with a minimal amount of injuries. From the look of it though, that wasn't going to happen.

Hearing the gasps coming from beside her, Kaede turned to look over her fellow villagers, checking to make sure that none of them had been harmed before the barrier was set in place. Everyone surrounding her had not even a scratch on them, only worried and terrified looks upon their faces towards the young miko they had come to know and love.

Her eye finally fell onto Touga and Izayoi, both of whom looked angered by the sight they were witnessing before them. But something else caught her eye besides their angered expressions, it was the fact that Touga's eyes had taken on a crimson hue, which meant his demonic side felt the need to protect Kagome.

"Could that be because Kagome is part of Inuyasha's pack?" Kaede wondered.

The sound of breaking wood brought Kaede out of her reverie as she turned back to the battle, and what she saw nearly made her heart stop. Kagome was limping away from the bear demon after it took away her only weapon of defense. What was she going to do now? When was Kikyo going to stop all of this madness? At the name of her sister crossing her mind, she gazed at Kikyo out of the corner of her eye and was infuriated by what she saw.

Kikyo, her beloved, dearest, and only "living" family left in this world was smirking at the scene playing out before her. She seemed to be getting some sort of joy out of watching Kagome fight for her life. How could she get any sort of pleasure from doing this? Someone had to do something before Kagome lost her life for sure, and she figured she should be the one to do it.

Grasping the bow tighter in her withered hands, she began to gather all the power she could muster to attempt to break down her sister's barrier. Unfortunately she never got the chance to release her power because of the hand the fell on her shoulder. Kaede turned to gaze at her sister with anger filled eyes.

"You will not stop me from doing this sister. Kagome should not have to fight this battle just to prove something to you." Kaede seethed through her clinched teeth as she shook Kikyo's hand off her shoulder.

Narrowing her eyes Kikyo watched as Kaede begin to gather power again, only this time she didn't even amass half her power before one of Kikyo's soul collectors wrapped itself around Kaede.

"You will not help Kagome win this battle dear sister. She will have to use her own power to bring herself out as the victor. Since you will not stop making an effort to help my reincarnation you will have to be restrained." With that said, two more soul collectors wrapped themselves around Kaede, but no one moved to help her, for only herself and Kikyo could see the wormlike creatures.

"If only you knew my true intentions Kaede. It has nothing to do with entertainment as you think; it has to do with Kagome showing how much strength and power she truly holds within her being. That is one thing that I have to know for what I have planned." Kikyo explained silently to herself.

Then both sisters' heads turned back towards the fight after hearing something hard slam into a tree followed by a loud crack that would be known to all as a bone cracking. There was deafening silence for only a moment before the entire village began yelling at Kagome, begging and pleading for her to stand up, or at least get out of the way of the oncoming demon. They all had come to know and love the young mysterious priestess so well throughout her time in their village that all of them were truly in fear for her life. The last thing they wanted to see was Kagome struck down and having to face her hanyou friend when he found out the news of her death, if it actually came to pass.

What the entire village saw next made them all fall into complete silence. Kagome has just put her arm above her head in a feeble attempt to protect herself, looking as if she accepted her faith. Many of the villagers turned their heads from the sight; they didn't want to see the young priestess die at such a fate.

But as the demon came closer, Kagome's hand started to glow brighter and brighter with what could only be purification power until finally, when the demon was only inches away from her, a bright blast of pink energy shot out from her hand and completely destroyed the demon. All that was left of the fearsome battle was the damage done to the edge of the forest.

"She couldn't have done that, she is untrained! Even myself as a trained miko cannot do that." Kikyo thought shockingly.

Meanwhile Kagome had realized that she was still alive and the bear demon was dead. She hardly believed that any of it was real, that is until the stabbing pain of her arm brought her back to the real world. Groaning in pain, she began to pull herself to her feet, leaning heavily against the tree for support while all the villagers gathered around her to offer their support.

A resounding flourish of questions inquiring about her health rang throughout the air but she couldn't answer any of them because she was still in shock over what had just happened.

One of the villagers who wasn't asking questions realized she needed Kaede's attention immediately, so he went and wrapped his arm around her waist and helped her to make her way back to Kaede, who had finally been released by the soul collectors and had rushed into her hut to prepare her medicines and bandages. This time she didn't care what Kikyo said about not treating Kagome's wounds, she needed medical attention that Kaede would not deny her.

Within minutes Kagome was leaning against a wall in Kaede's hut telling her all that she felt so that she could be treated properly.

"Child, ye need to drink this so that ye pain can be lessened." Kaede spoke while holding out a cup of her medicinal pain killer.

Shaking her head no, Kagome reached for her yellow bag with her good arm ad reached into one of the pockets and pulled out a little white bottle the grabbing a can of Red Bull that Inuyasha had taken from her.

"I'm sorry Kaede, but your herbs aren't going to cut it for me this time, the pain is too much. I need something stronger so I'll have to take some of my pain killers instead. My shoulder feels like it does when it pops out of socket. Wait a second." Kagome spoke as she swallowed a couple of her futuristic medicines and then took hold of her injured arm just above the elbow, twisted, and pushed her right shoulder back into the wall followed by an audible "pop".

Looking back to Kaede, and now Izayoi, grinning, she explained.

"Well, that's one last thing you have to do." She airily laughed out, knowing that her pain medicine had begun taken effect.

"How did you do that? Not even my darling Touga can pop his shoulder back in." Izayoi asked.

"I've just learned to do it over the years. Ever since I was little my right shoulder would pop out of socket at least twice a years, so I just got to the place where I could pop it back in myself." Kagome replied.

"Hm, I wonder if that passed over into Kikyo's next life. She always had trouble with her shoulder coming out of place." Kaede questioned to herself.

After that, Kaede, with the help of Izayoi, set Kagome's arm, cleaned the scrapes on her legs, wrapped her bruised ankle, and helped her into a different pair of jeans along with one of Kaede's miko kimono tops, for the rest of Kagome's shirts were dirty.

It was at this time, after almost an hour of working that Kikyo walked in and stood over Kagome with serious look on her face as always.

"Have you finally decided whether or not to tell me of your world? Or better yet, why not take me there?" Kikyo asked.

"Sister, I hardly believe that this is the time to be discussing this." Kaede said from across the room.

Turning to look at her elderly sister, Kikyo basically took control over her like she used to as a child. "You will stay out of this sister. Or do you need to be bound again so that you may learn your lesson?"

Kaede didn't get the chance to reply because Touga came to her defense. "Miko, you will do well as to not threaten your sister as such. I know what you did to her during the battle and if you do it again I will dispose of you."

When Touga finished he went and leaned against the wall with Izayoi safely tucked in his lap as Kikyo began to scrutinize Kagome again.

"Well? What is your decision?"

Kagome stood up slowly and used the wall for support so that she could stare Kikyo right in the eyes.

"First of all you will not look down upon me; I do not wish to feel demeaned. Second, I am tired of all this nonsense, so I will take you to my world, but there are a few conditions you must follow." Kagome spoke bravely.

The other occupants of the hut were silent as they waited for Kagome's conditions, all of them nervous of what they might be.

"Condition one: you will convince Inuyasha to give me five extra days back home along with my original three for a total of eight days in my world.

"Condition two: you will take any and all the blame for anything Inuyasha comes up with, because it is your fault that I wasn't home in the first place AND the reason that I missed one of my tests.

"Condition three: you will not hurt anyone in my family or anyone else in my world for that matter If you do, you will be brought back here immediately.

"And the final condition: if Naraku ever finds out about my world and I find out that his informant was you, I will personally hunt you down and kill you myself." Kagome seethed the final condition through her teeth.

Silence once again engulfed the hut as Kikyo thought all of Kagome's demands over. Finally after minutes of waiting, Kagome stuck her good hand out and asked.

"Do we have an agreement? Plus I will remind you, Kaede, Touga, and Izayoi are witnesses to this, so they can back me up if you break anything in our agreement."

If there was any possibility for Kikyo to look even colder as usual, then she certainly looked it now as she reached her hand out and grasped Kagome's outreached hand.

"Agreed."

When Kikyo said that, a knocking was heard at the door followed by the head of a young woman popping into the hut and what she said made Kaede's blood run cold.

"Hello, I'm here to replace the village miko as requested."