ICMKP Chapter 6

Nekoyasha didn't get good enough sleep the entire week. On the last night of the week, she gave up and decided to stay up until she feels even a hint of drowsiness. In the meantime, she sat by the palace garden to look at the night sky.

"Mind if I join you?" said a voice from above her. She turned her head and saw Koga. Her cheeks lightly turned pink.

"Go ahead."

Koga took a seat next to Nekoyasha.

"Can't sleep either, huh?"

"I had trouble sleeping the whole time we were here."

"Really? How come?"

"I've been thinking about things too much."

"If it's about the Hellcat…"

"No, no. I'm not as worried as I was before. I find it so strange to be around humans and not get picked on or screamed at."

"Inuyasha told me about you and your father."

Nekoyasha winced. "That rat." She lay down against the grass.

"I'm sorry," Koga apologized.

"It's okay. I'm kinda getting used to it. I actually never really met the guy, at least not from what I can remember. From what my tribe told me, he went ballistic when he found out that my mother was a demon."

"He thought she was human?"

"At first, yeah. She had it all planned out. She disguised herself as a human and met my father, who fell in love with her. Then she wanted to bear his child for the sake of her tribe. My very existence was to rid of the tribal stone."
"How is that possible?"

"Well, being half human, but also half demon, the stone won't turn me into a Hellcat, nor will it harm me. With my being half demon with the innocence of a human, I can make the stone disappear so it would never fall into the wrong hands ever again."

"What will happen then?"

"I don't know. It might turn me into a full demon, or a full human, or something else. For all I know it would take me with it in its disappearance."

Koga shuddered at the thought, and Nekoyasha gave him a weird look.

"Are you worried about me?" she asked.

"I just don't like the idea of you gone," Koga said smugly.

From a distance, Kagome, Sango, and Shippo found them as they were searching for where the voices came from when they woke.

"What do you think they're talking about?" asked Sango in a whispered tone.

"Maybe they're gonna confess their love to each other!" Kagome whispered.

"Hey! What're you girls doing up this late?" Inuyasha said from behind them, with Miroku behind him.

"Shh! We don't want them to see us!" Kagome whispered, pulling Inuyasha down. "We heard Koga and Nekoyasha talking and want to know what they're talking about."

"I didn't know you for very long," Nekoyasha said to Koga. "So why would you care whether or not I'm gone?"

"To be honest, I saw you again after that day with the demon," Koga said. "Shortly after I became leader, my pack traveled to find a permanent home when we came across the ruins of your tribe's home. I found you frozen against the wall of a cave and never felt so upset. I couldn't crack the ice, so I started a fire to get it melting."

Nekoyasha sat up and looked at Koga with wide eyes.

"You started the melting of the ice I was in?" she asked. Koga said nothing, but looked down solemnly. She looked down and decided to put her hand upon his, making Koga stare at their hands.

"Thank you," Nekoyasha said. "I promise I won't disappear."

Koga held her hand back.

"You're welcome. I'll protect you 'til my death."


The next day was the expected day of Yukizo's arrival. The group trained harder than ever while they waited. But as late afternoon arrived, Inuyasha and Nekoyasha both began to get a little weak.

"Dammit! Tetsusaiga's not transforming!" Inuyasha complained, waving his blade around like a stick.

"It must be the night of the new moon tonight," Shippo said.

"Aw, crap," Nekoyasha complained. "Just what I need. Fighting the demon who froze me in the first place while in a human form."

"So you become human on the new moon too?" Kagome asked.

"Well, I am Inuyasha's cousin and half human," Nekoyasha said. "I'm sick of these lunar nights. I can't fight as well on a new moon, and I lose control on a full moon." The group just remembered that full moon night.

"This can't be good," Miroku said. "If Yukizo and the Hellcat are as strong as Nekoyasha says they are, we'll need her and Inuyasha's support."

"Maybe we can try to stall them until sunrise?" Sango suggested.

"I think that's the best thing we can do," Kagome said. "Until then, you two stay in that shrine."

Inuyasha and Nekoyasha groaned in unison, but went into the shrine Kagome pointed at.

As the sun went down, their ears were replaced with human ears and Inuyasha's hair turned black, while Nekoyasha's stayed her natural dark brown color. Nekoyasha peeked through the window.

"They should be here by now," she whispered.

The others waited just outside the shrine, which was near the outside of the village. They too were waiting and ready for Yukizo and the Hellcat.

Sango made a silent gasp.

"I sense a demonic aura approaching," she said, readying her Hiraikotsu.

"Me too," Miroku replied, gripping on the prayer beads on his hand.

Kagome had her bow in one hand and an arrow in another, Koga cracked his knuckles, and Ginta, Hakkaku, and Shippo surrounded the shrine.

They heard something approaching, and soon saw a glowing figure. As it got closer, they saw that the glowing figure was the Hellcat. It stood like a human, but it had monstrous paws for feet and hands and a devilish cat head with soulless eyes. The Hellcat was followed by a man in white who seemed to turn the ground he stepped on into ice.

"That must be Yukizo," Kagome pointed out. "The demon who froze Nekoyasha after Naraku killed her mother."

The two demons stopped as they approached the three humans and the wolf.
"Hm," went Yukizo. "None of you are that cat girl. Where is she? I want nothing to do with you humans except for the girl."

"You won't touch her," Koga said angrily.

"I'm gonna have to," Yukizo replied with a smirk, looking at Koga, "if I want to keep her frozen just like Naraku wanted me to."

"Shut up and die!" Koga yelled, charging at Yukizo. The Hellcat shielded him and Koga started slashing at him.

Miroku, Sango, and Kagome headed for Yukizo to fight him. Yukizo used his ice powers to create many weapons to fight them with: blades, spears, and even miasma.

Kagome gasped silently.

"I can sense a Shikon shard from Yukizo!" she yelled over to Sango and Miroku. "It's in his right palm!"

"Yukizo has a jewel shard?" Inuyasha said, peeking through the window of the shrine. Nekoyasha peeked also, watching the three humans battle Yukizo and Koga struggling with the Hellcat.

"Koga shouldn't fight the Hellcat alone!" she said, and darted out of the shrine to run to Koga.

"Nekoyasha! Stop!" Inuyasha yelled after her, following. Shippo, Ginta, and Hakkaku bolted after them.

"Inuyasha! Where are you going?!" Shippo yelled.

"To stop Nekoyasha from going after the Hellcat!" Inuyasha yelled back.

Nekoyasha ran to Koga's side.

"Are you alright?" she asked, looking at his wounds. He looked up at her.

"Why are you here? You should be at the shrine!" he said, continuing the battle with the Hellcat.

"You can't defeat it on your own!" Nekoyasha yelled.

"But you can't help me the way you are!"

"The hell I can't!"

Nekoyasha bolted at the Hellcat and punched her palms against its stomach. The Hellcat jumped back, the area where it was punched sizzling.

"I've got priestess powers, remember?" she said, looking back at Koga with a smirk. He smirked back and got up to finish the battle.

Yukizo glanced at the two of them fighting the Hellcat.

"There she is!" he said, darting toward Nekoyasha.

Just as Yukizo was within a foot of Nekoyasha and her noticing too late, Koga punched Yukizo back.

"Goraishi!" he yelled when it clawed at the ice demon. On his right hand was a claw weapon.

Yukizo fell back, a huge wound on his chest. He growled.

"You stupid wolf!" he yelled, charging at Koga.

"Don't. Call. Him. STUPID!" Nekoyasha yelled, punching her palms into Yukizo, making him fly back.

Kagome quickly shot one of her arrows and got Yukizo in the hand with the shard.

"Wind tunnel!" yelled Miroku, releasing the prayer beads from his hand, and Yukizo quickly got sucked into the void in Miroku's hand.

"It's over," Sango said, putting her weapon down.

"Nekoyasha, are you okay?" Koga asked, going to Nekoyasha's side.

"I'm fine but what about the—" Nekoyasha started, but got attacked by the Hellcat, who was angry to have been forgotten. She fell, Inuyasha catching her.
"Nekoyasha!" he said in a worried tone.

"I'm okay, cousin, but Koga…" she replied, looking toward Koga. The Hellcat charged at him and she watched as it jabbed its claw through Koga's stomach.

"KOGA!" Nekoyasha screamed in horror.