Part 3

Disclaimer: They're not mine.  I never said they were.  I like Inuyasha DVDs and graphic novels, and Viz is the greatest company in the world.  kowtows in homage  The story "One eyes, Two Eyes, Three Eyes" is from Grimm's Fairy Tales. The rating has been upped because of gore in this chapter; the gore is, however, in keeping with the original story.

Morning found the group of travelers huddled in a circle, munching on traveling biscuits and passing around a precious bottle of Ramune soda that Kagome had saved for a waterless occassion.  She was amazed that it hadn't cracked during the trip.

"I wonder if she's coming back?" Shippou asked, wide-eyed, staring at the view of the house.

"Given her description of her circumstances, she's probably doing a laundry list of chores right now," Kagome said with a shrug.  "Inu-yasha, do most youkai families treat each other with such scorn?"

"If there's a hanyou . . . yeah, this is normal," Inuyasha answered with a snort.  "She's lucky she wasn't tossed on her ass out the door when it was apparent she was closer to hanyou than full youkai."

"I guess not every family can be loving," Kagome mused, sadly.  "Even though I pick on Souta and get aggravated with my mother and grandfather . . . there's never any thought of us separating, for anything.  Or treating each other like servants."

"I think most families could be like that if they tried, human or youkai," Sango offered, surprising everyone. She was staring at the clouds and didn't notice Miroku's hand, which was creeping closer and closer to her derrierre.

"My parents loved each other, and me," Shippou piped up. 

"We're sort of like a family, in our own way, as well," Kagome said, her smile returning.  "We've been through enough together that we're probably closer than most families can ever hope to be."

"Feh." Calmly, Inuyasha stood up and away from the group, his expression hard.  "There's a difference in our kind of family and their kind of family, however. We consider ourselves . . . equal.  They don't consider her their equal at all." He shielded his eyes against the approaching sun, and sighed.  "Looks like she's on her way, with a different sister in tow.  They're going to that damn tree again."

As one, the group turned to face in that direction.  They were fairly out of sight, hidden in the tall grass, although they had a good view.  Niiko had the goat with her, and the other one, who was tall and lanky and unattractive, directed her with sharp orders to let the goat graze and not to move an inch out of sight.

"Sheesh," Shippou complained.  "They really ARE mean to her!"

"They don't trust her at all." Kagome sighed.  She looked sadly at the scene in front of them, and then noticed a tingling on the edge of her senses.  "Hey guys . . . I think I sense a Shikon shard  . . ."

At that moment Miroku's hand found its target, and a loud smack resounded through the hillside.

Niiko groaned in despair as Sanko settled herself down stiffly for a bout of meditation.  The youngest sister fancied herself a spiritualist, and no one in the house dared to question just why.  Maybe it was the third eye, staring calmly out of the world from the middle of her forehead.  Maybe it was just her superior nature. 

"You can take a nap, if you like," Niiko said hopefully.  "The sunshine is warm and the walk up the hill was so long, I'm sure you're very tired."

"I'll live," Sanko snapped, never opened her two main eyes, although the third one flashed angrily.  Niiko sighed and skirted Baa-chan around the edge of the Old Tree, where the grass was still safe to eat.

"How are we going to get the Shikon shard from the tree if THEY'RE still sitting there?" Shippou wailed quietly. 

"We'll just hang out here until they go home for the evening," Kagome said, although she didn't sound so enthusiastic about the prospect.

"Why couldn't you have detected it LAST night?" Inuyasha asked crossly, sulking. 

Kagome rounded on him.  "I'm SORRY my powers aren't perfect! It's not like I ever had formal training or anything!"

Inuyasha was quickly in her face, although they both managed to keep their voices low.  "Yeah, but I thought you'd been getting better all this time!"

"Excuuuuuuse me for not living up to your expectations!"

"MY expectations? You're the one who said she was getting better!"

"That's because I THOUGHT I WAS!"  Kagome stomped her foot angrily, but avoided using her "sit" power, since surely the other youkai nearby would sense a holy spell.  Instead, she peered up at him, almost nose to nose, and said in an earily earthy voice, "Give me more time."

"Keh," Inuyasha said, rolling his eyes and pretending the voice she'd just used on him hadn't sent shivers up his spine.

"Kagome sure is scary when she wants to be," Shippou commented quietly, and Miroku and Sango nodded in terrifed agreement.

Kagome had walked off in a huff, and settled herself down at their campsite again, refusing to look at Inuyasha.

"Do you hear voices?"  Sanko asked suddenly, all her eyes opening and looking around wildly.

"N-no!" Niiko said, biting her lip.  Sanko peered down her long nose, slitting her eyes, but then resumed her meditation, this time closing all three of them.

"Let me know if anything happens," Sanko said, coldly.

Niiko nodded in submmission.  "Yes, sister."

The afternoon wore on slowly, and by some miracle, Sanko seemed to have fallen asleep.  At least all her eyes were closed, and she was breathing regularly, without the forced tempo of meditation.  Hardly daring to believe her luck, Niiko crept towards the camp her new friends had set up, hidden in the tall grass on the other side of the hill.

"Greetings," Niiko said nervously, playing with her ragged skirt.  There was a strange tension in the camp, but Kagome immediately stood up to greet her.

"Welcome! Are you hungry? Here, make yourself at home!" 

Before long, Niiko found herself stuffed with strange and exotic foods again, as the group laughed and chattered with her about her two sisters and their own adventures.  Kagome, the human girl, was refusing to speaking to the white-haired hanyou, in what Niiko somehow grasped was another lover's quarrel.  Despite this, the conversation was rich, and the time passed quickly.

"I've got to go back," Niiko said, longing in her voice as she stared at Kagme's remaining stash of snacks.  "Sanko won't sleep for nearly as long as Ichiko did."

"Before you leave, I have a favor to ask," Kagome said, smiling.  "May we visit your tree this evening?  I believe that the missing Shikon Shard we were looking for is there, after all."

"Sure!  Just be careful not to drop any plant life on the ground, lest it be turned to dust."  Niiko stood up and shook herself off. 

"We will.  Thank you!"  Kagome bowed prettily, and then waved goodbye to Niiko, who was quickly fleeing, worried that her sister had woken up during the revelries.

She returned to the tree, relieved to see the goat still patiently munching and her sister still apparently asleep.  She released a breath that she hadn't realized she was holding, and returned to bet Baa-san, who nosed at her skirts placidly.

Not soon after Sanko's eyes fluttered open.

"Did you have a nice rest, sister?" Niiko asked timidly.

"Hardly," Sanko said huffily.  "I told you, I was meditating.  Let's go home."

They trudged down the hill, the goat in tow.  Niiko was very worried that her visitors had been spotted, but as her sister made no mention of it, she put it out of her mind.

Once home, she cleaned the shoes, and then ran to the kitchen to cook while Sanko went to the tea room, where her mother and Ichiko sat, eating their usual cold rice balls. At least their mother was eating them. Ichiko watched longingly, but apparently they had been forbidden to her that afternoon.

"Well? How did it go?" her mother demanded.

Sanko grinned maliciously.  "I pretended to sleep but kept my third eye slitted open the entire time.  Our little Niiko has friends! And they look like there's a few humans among them, too!"

Her mother was so horrified that she nearly fell off the couch.  "HUMANS? On our LAND?"

Sanko nodded, her grin becoming wider and splitting her face, making her look more like a shark than a spider.  "And they fed Niiko."

Ichiko just had to ask, "What kind of food?"

"Human food, you pig," Sanko snapped.  "Mother, what shall we do?"

The older hanyou recovered and reastablished herself on the raised couch.  "We have two choices.  We can either kill the humans, or kill her reason for visiting the humans."

"There were at least two demons among them, a hanyou, and also the powerful aura of a miko.  Plus one had the feel of a priest, and one had the look of a demon hunter."  Sanko's grin faded a bit. "I don't think we can kill them easily."

"Then we'll just have to take away her reason for going up the hill every day."

"What do you mean, mother?"

It was their mother's turn to grin evilly. "Bring me the goat."

Niiko had begun to honestly think that she'd gotten away with her afternoon excursion when she heard a horrible screech of agony coming from the living room.  Dropping an expensive imported Chinese teacup, she dashed to the sitting room, only to nearly faint at the sight.  Her mother was covered in blood, and her two sisters were feasting on . . . something.

Her heart sank to the floor when she realized it was the goat.

"We won't be needing dinner tonight," her mother said, licking her lips with her long tongue and bringing a handful of raw meat up to her mouth.  "We're perfectly satisfied with this."

"Here, Niiko, have the heart!  It's the best part!" Ichiko laughed horribly and tossed a bloody ball toward's Niiko.  Reflexively, she caught it, but she began weeping when she did.  It was still warm.

"Why?" she asked, shaking, but she faced down her mother, her eyes burning with unspoken anger.   "Why have you done such a thing?"

Between grisly mouthfuls, Sanko said, "It's an appetizer.  The main course is your human friends!"

The three feasting demon women snickered as they continued their gory meal.  Niiko could not longer stand the sight of them.  She fled the house.

"Heeeeere Shikon shikon shikon . . . come heeeeeeere little shard," Kagome said as they tiptoed around the tree. 

"You said you sensed it earlier today!"  Inuyasha spat impatiently.

"I DID," Kagome retorted.  "And you started arguing with me and I LOST THE SENSE.  Be quiet and let me concentrate!"

Inuyasha sighed and rolled his eyes.  Sango and Miroku watched with amusement from the side, while Shippou cased the ground.  Inuyasha's ears twitched, and he turned toward the house, where a figure had suddenly emerged and was running up the hill, illuminated only by the rising moonlight.  He sniffed the air.

"Blood," he said softly, then turned to the rest of the group.  "Hey guys, we got company coming.  I think it's the girl."

Kagome and Shippou ceased their search as Niiko's skinny body made its way up the hill.  She was carrying something small and dark, and as she approached, Inuyasha's nose twitched again.

"Niiko-san?" Kagome called, and her voice startled the other girl so that she tripped and fell face first.  The object she had been carrying fell out of her hands and rolled a bit.  She rose to her hands and knees, and crawled to the object, where she collapsed again.

With a glance to each other, the group wordlessly moved toward the girl.

"Run away!" Niiko's broken wail echoed through the early evening.  "They'll kill you and eat you next!"

"Next?" Kagome asked, confused.  "Niiko, what happened?"

The crying three-quarters youkai held out her hands, which were covered in blood.  "Th-they killed my goat! As punishment for letting you stay on the land!"  She clutched the object to her chest again, and quivered in aguish.

"Oh no!" Kagome said, her hand coming to her own throat. "I'm so sorry!"

"I figured as much, when I smelled the blood," Inuyasha sighed.  "And you have part of it with you.  The heart?"

Niiko sat up then, sniffling.  "Ba-chan wasn't even at fault.  She was an innocent . . . b-bystander." She broke into a wail again.

Inuyasha squatted in front of her.  "So what are you going to do with it?"

"I'm going to bury it," Niiko said, decively.  "There, under the tree."

"We'll help," Miroku offered.  Sango had reached a comforting hand to pat the girl on the back.

By the light of the moon, they dug a shallow hole in the cursed earth.  Miroku even said a prayer for the unlucky animal. 

They offered to let her camp with them that evening.

"Oh no," she said, horrified.  "You have to run away.  They said that Baa-san was an appetizer!"

"Feh," Inuyasha snorted.  "As if we'd be scared of a couple of low-level low-lifes like them.  Probably they just killed the goat because they knew it wouldn't fight back."

"And we can't leave just yet.  We're still missing the Shikon shard."

The others added words of agreement, and finally Niiko caved in.  She sure didn't want to return to the house, after all.

As they settled in for the night, a curious change came over the tree.  Bark that had been black and crusty turned to burnished copper.  The leaves, which had been dead for months, came back to green life and then took on a soft silvery hue.  And the tree sprouted fruits, golden pears which hung heavy from its enchanted branches.  The pure sacrifice of the goat's heart had cleaned out the corruption in the tree's roots, freeing it forever.

There is still more to come! What would a fairy tale be without a handsome prince?