Kaya's Story (An InuYasha Fanfic)

Chapter 25: Enter, Koneko

The next morning was peaceful. Ryu took me on a tour of the village because it had changed a lot in 50 years. Everyone was on edge like I remembered, but this was a different kind of nervous. I thought it had something to do with the barrier, but I wasn't sure. The only one who was at ease was Ryu, who was smiling brightly as we walked through the village. We talked the whole time and his mood caused me to form a small smile, that is until we reached the river. On the shore, not far from us, there was a group of children in a loose circle around a girl who was on the ground. They were taunting her and some of them occasionally kicked her; I growled out of instinct. I saw Ryu glare at the group out of the corner of my eye. "I'll be back." I said as I began to walk towards the group. Ryu grabbed my arm and stopped me for a moment, "don't hurt them their just kids." "I know that, I'm just going to talk to them." I replied with a smirk. He dropped my arm and I continued on my way.

I approached the group and released an audible growl. A boy in the back of the group of children turned around, "what do you want?" He asked, sarcastically. "For you to leave that young girl alone. Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way," I said, showing the young boy my claws, "it's your choice." Most of the children had stopped what they were doing and looked at me, terrified. The boy gulped and took off running, along with several other children. "Move," I commanded the remaining children. They moved out of the way, so I could get to the young girl. She was curled into a ball on the ground, whimpering. "Now the ones who stayed, I would like for you all to apologize and leave this girl alone from now on. Got it?" The children nodded and did as they were told, all of them still extremely terrified. The girl moved once all the other children were gone. I held out my hand to help her up, but she flinched away. "I'm not going to hurt you," I said and sat down a couple of feet in front of her. She looked at me with tears flowing down her cheeks. "Why did you help me?" she asked, quietly. "Because no one deserves being beaten up like that. That reminds me, why were they doing that?" I asked as kindly as I could. "It doesn't matter. When you leave they'll do it again." She replied, her sobs becoming louder. I grabbed the girl and quickly pulled her into a hug, "I promise you, they won't." She was so shocked, she actually stopped crying for a moment. I let her go and she looked at me, sadness still filling her expression. "Koneko, are you okay?" Ryu asked from behind me. The girl looked down. "Your name is Koneko? That's a beautiful name. Mine is Kaya." I said to the girl. "I want to give you something. Here." Koneko looked up at me and I handed her the last smoke ball from my stash. "What's this?" she asked. "A tool used by young Demon Slayers to detour smaller demons. If they try to hurt you again, throw it at the ground in front of you and run." I explained, smiling. A small smile appeared on her face, "Thank you, Kaya."

A few days after meeting Koneko, I left to return to the Modern Era and check on Kagome. I'm sure being in this world couldn't have been easy for her and I sure as hell wasn't any help. Running off as I did, and I'm the one who said people don't change. I just hope she's okay. As I was thinking, I sensed a strong demonic aura quickly approaching; so, I stopped and drew my bow. It took two shots, but the demon never even got close to me. I would have left it at that, except something was shining on the ground where the demon had exploded. I picked it up and internally freaked. "Oh, please tell me this is not what I think it is?!" I yelled, even though there was no one around. I placed the jewel shard in a pocket in my kimono and continued towards Kaede's Village.