Manipulated – Part One:  The One Who Brings the Cold

Disclaimer: Where the author’s name is, it says ‘Corisu Li’. Not Takahashi Rumiko. Therefore, I believe that you can draw your own conclusions.

Corisu Li: This idea just popped into my head one day... And I liked it! Excuse to write angst! That part probably won’t come in for a few chapters yet, but it will... in time...

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A grin and a flaming red handprint decorated the face of the houshi as he walked alongside a fuming taijiya. Her face was adorned as well, with a scowl and a flush. "Hentai..." she muttered, fixing her eyes on the ground and continuing her rant inside of her head.

Kagome spoke up from behind them. "Miroku-sama... don’t you ever learn?"

Miroku blinked and glanced back at her. "Of course I learn, Kagome-sama. But it takes a practiced and skilled mind to know which lessons to disregard."

Inuyasha snorted. He was ahead of Miroku and Sango, leading the group as always. Shippou had been left at Kaede’s, much to the hanyou’s contentment. The kit’s incessant questions and pestering remarks left him on edge... which made it likely that he would say or do something in retaliation... which always ended in getting ‘sat’. Not fun.

Miroku linked his fingers behind his head and tilted his face upward, flooding it with sunlight. Days like this made it almost possible to forget about his curse...

As the fabric of the purple glove brushed his neck, he sighed imperceptively. ‘Almost...’

The quest for the Shikon no Kakera was progressing quite well. Even though Naraku held a large amount, the group was positive that they had rounded up nearly all of the shards that he didn’t possess. Sooner or later, they would have no other course of action than to confront him... that was, if he didn’t confront them first.

Miroku dropped his hands, suddenly finding the feeling of the cloth unbearable and disgusting. As he walked, he became immersed in deep thought while staring at his gloved right hand.

Meanwhile, the redness had almost fully faded from Sango’s face, leaving only a faint pinkish tint just under her eyes. She lifted her head, preparing to voice the remarks that had been flying through her head after the event of a few minutes ago. Her intended words died in her throat, however, when she saw Miroku’s face.

‘He’s brooding over the kazaana again...’ she thought, tearing her gaze away from the houshi, then glancing at him sporadically, hoping that Kagome didn’t notice her furtive looks and that Inuyasha didn’t turn around. ‘This is the third time in two days. I wonder if it’s paining him...’ Her mouth opened, as if to ask him this very question, but Kagome’s head popped up between the two of them before she could say a word.

"What are you two so sad about? It’s a beautiful day!"

Miroku jerked in surprise, jarred from his thoughts, then let his hand fall back to his side, offering the girls a trademark grin. "It’s nothing, Kagome-sama. Just the unimportant musings of a monk."

"Oh..." Kagome shrugged and sighed. "It’s uneventful without Shippou-chan here. I haven’t even had an opportunity to say ‘you-know-what’ today."

A ‘feh’ came from the red-clad hanyou. "Like you need an excuse to say it, wench. You just want a reason to go get the brat."

Sango and Miroku took a few steps to the side, away from the miko who had abruptly burst into flames. Kagome’s eyebrow twitched a few times and she began to walk a little faster.

Inuyasha kept walking, unaware of the inferno that he’d sparked. He would have remained unaware if Kagome’s accelerated stride hadn’t driven her within arm’s reach. She tapped him lightly on the shoulder. "Oh, Inuyasha?"

Her honey-sweet voice should have tipped him off. It would have tipped off the biggest of idiots... which leads to follow that Inuyasha wasn’t the biggest of idiots, although he was pretty close.

"I told you, we’re not going to get the stupid brat!"

Miroku and Sango flinched.

The next, highly predictable chain of events was as follows: "Osuwari! Shippou’s not a brat! Osuwari! I am NOT a wench! Osuwari! You can’t tell ME what I can and can’t do! Osuwari! Osuwari! Osuwari!"

Sango and Miroku stood at the edge of the crater in which Inuyasha was buried. Kagome stood at the other side, breathing heavily while glaring down into the hole.

Miroku sighed and nudged a rock into the pit with a toe. "And they say I never learn, Inuyasha."

Several loud curses (directed at the monk) exploded from the hole. Half concerned the statement, while the others concerned the rock that had plonked down right between the hanyou’s ears.

Then, abruptly, there was silence. It was as if Inuyasha’s voice box had been muted. The vein that was throbbing in Kagome’s forehead vanished as she called down to him. "Inuyasha? Are you okay?"

More silence. Then, Inuyasha bounded upward, landing beside Kagome and shoving her behind him. "Something’s coming," he muttered.

Sango found herself shivering slightly. A moment after Inuyasha had said those two words, she had felt it for herself, which was strange. Kagome was usually the one to sense demon auras. The air had become freezing cold, and the taijiya’s breath formed clouds as she exhaled, thankful that she was wearing her relatively warm slayer uniform, as opposed to her kimono.

The hairs on the back of Miroku’s neck were standing on end, and his eyes were wide, searching the surrounding area for any sign of danger.

Kagome shivered behind Inuyasha, mentally berating herself. ‘Why, oh, why, oh, why didn’t I wear jeans?’ She could feel goosebumps rising on her exposed legs, and gave another shudder.

Inuyasha’s eyes were fixed on one particular area of forest. He could smell what the others couldn’t, which was why he was the only one who knew the direction of the threat. "Over there," he said, pointing, then blinked a few times. His voice sounded dull, as if the words had clunked to the ground after leaving his lips. His companions looked apprehensive as well, but they followed his gaze.

The tops of the distant trees seemed to dim, as did the sky above. The vibrant green faded into a nondescript shade of gray as the group watched. When one tree’s color was paled, the process moved on to another... and each successive tree brought the wave of grayness closer and closer to the assembled.

"What’s going on?" Miroku asked, his voice taking on the same flatness as Inuyasha’s had. "Is there some sort of youkai that can do something like that?"

Sango shook her head, hugging herself in an effort to warm her body. "I don’t think so. This is different... A different feeling. It’s like..."

"It’s like pure evil," Kagome supplied, sinking to her knees and shutting her eyes tightly. Inuyasha looked over his left shoulder to see how she was doing and was immediately alarmed.

Her lips had taken on a bluish hue and her cheeks and nose were bright red. Her closed eyes only seemed to add to the feeling of frailty that Inuyasha sensed from her.

"Kagome-sama? Are you all right?" Miroku inquired, taking a few steps toward her shivering form.

Kagome exhaled in a burst of white mist. "C-cold..." she muttered.

Inuyasha half-heartedly muttered something about ‘weak ningen wenches’, but his heart wasn’t in insulting her. He was too worried to put effort into it. He quickly removed his haori and draped it over her shoulders, then turned back to the approaching grayness.

Kagome hugged the cloth tighter to her body, but didn’t open her eyes. The mixture of cold and the feeling of the approaching entity combined to nearly paralyze her.

Sango raised a hand and took hold of Hiraikotsu’s strap. The trees in front of them were beginning to gray...

Then it emerged.

Upon first glance, it appeared to be a wizened human male, but upon closer inspection, differences emerged. The face of the figure was gaunt and bony, and where the eyes should have been, there were only staring hollows of blackness. The skin was of a pale charcoal; one wizened hand protruded from the sleeves of its black robes, gnarled and tapering off to claws that seemed to be longer than the hand itself. Lank white hair framed the thing’s terrifying face.

Sango’s eyes widened and she let her hand fall, clapping both hands to her ears and stepping backward. Lacking eyes in the back of her head, she tripped over a stone and crashed to the ground, but she kept creeping backward as if she didn’t notice, desperate to put distance between herself and the... thing...

Kagome uttered a short cry and buried herself deeper into the warmth of Inuyasha’s haori.

This left the two males to stare at the figure, wondering what magic it was working to affect the girls - and the environment - in such a manner.

It took another step forward, then rasped, "Shikon..." The sound was like the grating of old bones.

Inuyasha was disgusted at himself for even considering being afraid of such a frail thing. "W-well, you’re not going to get it!" The words lost their biting quality on the dead air, but he disregarded that for the moment, drawing Tetsusaiga from its sheath and being newly disgusted at the tremor that had been in his voice.

Miroku readied himself as well, holding his staff ready. He cast a look back at Sango, whose back was pressed into a tree trunk, her eyes wide and her breathing erratic.

With a yell, the hanyou threw himself forward - and effortlessly severed the thing’s arm. Leaping away, he gave a chuckle. ‘No threat there! Just some old-’

"AAAH!!" Inuyasha dropped his sword and stared at his hands. They were raw and red, as if they had been burned. Tetsusaiga had grown cold after it had made contact with the being... so cold, in fact, that it became impossible to hold it.

"Miroku, don’t touch that thing! Not even with your staff! It’ll just freeze you!"

"I wasn’t planning on touching it, Inuyasha!" Miroku called back. He then muttered to himself, "If brute force won’t work on this thing, we’ll have to try something else...’ He let his hand stray to the interior of his robes and withdrew three ofudas.

Inuyasha ran to Kagome, not noticing what Miroku was doing at the moment. She was still huddled, shivering. "Kagome, get up! We can’t fight that thing... we have to defeat it with miko power! Come on!"

Kagome’s eyes fixed on his face, but she didn’t speak, even when he set her on her feet by picking her up under her arms. He pulled her bow from her back and fitted it with an arrow, placing the bow between her slack arms.

Meanwhile, Miroku dashed forward, holding the ofudas aloft. When he had nearly reached the creature (or could no longer stand the coldness of its aura) he let fly.

One connected with the being’s forehead, and that was all that he needed. The thing hissed, "Shiii..." before becoming utterly still.

Inuyasha cheered Miroku in his mind as he moved Kagome’s arms to the bow. "Come on... take it..." Her eyes lifted once more, and when she blinked, they cleared considerably. Her shaking, pale arms grasped the bow and arrow tightly as she took aim. Inuyasha stayed near. The last thing that he needed was for her to fall.

She released the arrow, then slumped forward, her ashen face obscured by her dark hair. Inuyasha caught her easily, then looked up. Miroku was too close!

"Miroku!" he called, but his voice fell short. The arrow, blazing with miko energy, blew past the monk and struck the being between its eyes - and directly through the middle of Miroku’s ofuda.

Instead of the explosion that all had anticipated, for a long while, it appeared that nothing had happened. Then, a rip seemed to appear in the very air behind the creature, and its body vanished into it.

Miroku’s eyes widened as the whooshing air from the rip whipped about his body, ruffling his robes and hair.

A darkness descended upon the entire area.

And from somewhere within the darkness, a monk screamed.

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