Chapter 19

Don't hate Akihiro yet guys...

The rest of the day happened in a blur. When Akane and Akihiro left Kagome to rest, the women in the village demanded to know why they were keeping a demon in there. It took some time for Akihiro to get the ladies to calm down, and once he did, he explained to them their reasoning, or rather Akane's reasoning, for keeping Kagome with them.

The village was a sanctuary for mikos and mikos in training. So there were only females there, varying of elders, young women, teenagers, and children, of course with the exception of Akihiro. It would only be normal that they would be strongly against having a demon within their home.

"Akihiro! Why is there a demon here!?" One of the mikos shouted to him when they walked out the room.

"Yeah! I thought we were supposed to destroy demons, not keep them with us!" Another miko shouted. There were many more shouts coming from the mikos, so Akihiro had to raised his voice to quiet them down.

"Ladies, ladies! Please calm down! There is nothing to worry about!" He shouted over the many voices.

"But there is a demon in there!" A teenager shouted. Akihiro nodded.

"Yes there is, and there is a perfectly good reason." They all quieted down, patiently waiting for his response.

"Now, this demon is special." Akihiro began.

"How so?" An older woman asked.

"She is the younger princess of the southern lands." He said. Many of the mikos gasped, their eyes widening.

"What is she doing here?" A young woman asked.

"Lady Akane and some of her students found her in a pond. She was out cold. Lady Akane has found out that this demon has miko powers, and a large amount as well. She wants to train the demon to control her powers properly." Akihiro explained. This caused an uproar with many of the mikos.

"We can't have a demon in our village!"

"It goes against what we do, which is purify demons."

"We have to destroy this demon before it destroys us!" Akane heard many of what the mikos were saying and stepped up.

"We cannot destroy this girl." She said. The mikos stopped and looked to her, shocked and wary looks on their faces.

"And why not! It's what we do! We purify evil demons!" One miko shouted, and the others agreed with her.

"Yes, exactly, we purify evil demons, and this girl is no evil demon. I have heard her tale as to what happened to her before I found her, and this girl has been through something that most of you here have not. Her soul is pure, despite her being a demon. Her miko powers are powerful, along with her demon powers. If we train her, then she will use her powers for good, but if an evil being gets to her first, then this evil person will taint her and use her for bad, then we will all be in danger." Akane said. They were quiet, thinking over what she said before someone spoke up.

"Who is this evil being you speak of?"

"Naraku, the half demon." Akane said. All of the women gasped, terrified looks on their faces as they finally realized the situation.

"Yes, Naraku had tried to capture her before I found her in the pond. We must keep her here without telling anyone else of her location. I hope you will all understand." Akane said.

It had taken a few more minutes of persuasion to get all the villagers to comply with their wishes, but everyone eventually accepted their current situation, though none were happy about it. Though some of the children didn't mind, as the ones who were being taught by Akane were told that not all demons were evil, and Akane had said that Kagome was not evil, so they didn't think that she was evil either.

The next morning came by swiftly. Kagome was awoken by Akane. She opened her eyes and looked into her violet eyes and smiled. She smiled and sat up, yawning and stretching.

"Good morning Princess Kagome." Akane said, bowing. Kagome giggled.

"Please, Lady Akane, you may just call me Kagome. There is no need for you to show me formalities when I am in your home." She said. Akane smiled.

"Well then, when we are alone, you may just call me Akane. No need for the others to think that I am showing favoritism." Akane said with a wink. Kagome gave her a bright smile.

"Well, I was about to prepare breakfast. As a demon, I assume that you would rather have your meat rare?" Akane said, sitting up straight.

"No actually, I eat my meat cooked." Kagome said. Akane looked shocked.

"So you mean to say that some demons do eat their meat cooked?" She asked. Kagome nodded, but then shrugged.

"Well, my race of demon, the rare demon of the season, we eat our meat cooked because we are not a type of animal, so our stomachs cannot stomach rare meat. Any other demon, though, can eat their meat rare or cooked." Akane nodded then smiled.

"Well, I guess you learn something new everyday." She said. Kagome smiled as well. Akane stood up and Kagome stood up with her.

"Could you point me to the direction of the baths? I would like to clean myself." Kagome said. She hadn't taken a bath since she took that walk with Kikyo and she was feeling extremely dirty.

"The baths? You mean like an indoor hot spring?" Akane asked. Kagome nodded. Akane laughed lightly, confusing Kagome.

"We do not have indoor hot springs. We all bathe in the river. It comes from the waterfall at the very top of the mountain. It helps cleans our body as well as our souls, so we only bathe twice a day, once in the morning and once before we go to bed." Akane said. Kagome nodded, then realizing that she would be bathing out in the open, she blushed.

"Do not worry Kagome. There is no need to have a sense of modesty when around our female friends." Akane said, giggling.

"It's just that the only person to see me naked was either my father or my personal servant, and that was when I couldn't bathe myself." Kagome said. Akane nodded.

"Well, you will get used to it now that you are living with us." Akane said, walking out of the room. She walked to a closet down the hallway and opened it to get a towel and some soap for Kagome.

"Speaking of that, we really need to talk about that." Kagome said. Akane nodded. They were walking through the village to the river. Everyone in the village stared at Kagome, malice and hate filling their eyes. Kagome looked down, rubbing her arms, feeling very uncomfortable with all the mikos glaring at her. She could feel the miko energy in their air, and it was a lot of it. It was practically suffocating her. She knew it had something to do with her being a demon.

"Do not worry about them. It is expected that they will be against a demon being in our sacred home." Akane said. Kagome nodded.

"Now, you were saying something about your stay here?"

"Yes." Kagome said. They finally made it to the river where a few women were still bathing. Akane turned to Kagome.

"We will finish our conversation at breakfast. When you are finished, come to the serving hall. That is where breakfast will be served." Akane said. Kagome nodded and Akane walked away. Kagome turned to the river and sighed, a small blush on her face.

She disrobed and quickly walked into the water, her bar of soap in her hands. She kept her towel by the edge for when she decided to get out. The other women who were still bathing drifted farther away from her and Kagome frowned.

Humans, so afraid of what they don't know. I mean, if they got to know me or even talked to me once, they would realize that I am not a danger to them. They always base what they do noe off of past experiences. But... I suppose that is what everyone does.She thought. She looked to the three ladies in the river and gvave them the brightest, most genuine smile she could. Their eyes widened and they began to whisper to one another. Kagome turned away, giggling.

Funny that they don't realize that I can hear them. She thought with a smile on her face. She quickly finished bathing and redressed in her blue and silver kimono that Akane had grabbed for her on their way to the river. Akane had repaired her kimono while she was asleep.

Breakfast was good, though Kagome sat by herself. She had went into the serving hall and the loud chatter immediately dimmed down to whisper, though she could still hear their whispers about her, and she looked down, trying to avoid eye contact with the women in the room. Most of what they said hadn't affected Kagome at all, but it was the nasty insults that hurt her the most. They would say things like "disgusting demon" or "tainted piece of trash". Some would even call her a whore. She had to stop her beast from killing the person so she just tried her best to tune them out.

After breakfast, she had her conversation with Akane. Akane told her that she would start her training in a week to allow her time to get over the events of two days ago, but Kagome insisted that they start tomorrow. She wanted to get her mind off of it. Actually thinking about it would only bring her down. Akane reluctantly agreed. Then she said that Kagome would be trained by the three mikos that were with her when she found Kagome, which were Junko, Kayemo, and Yana. Kagome agreed. Though she really wanted to be trained by Akane, she knew that as the shrine keeper, Akane's hands were already full. Then Akane said that she would be relocated to a room next to hers, as Kagome could not stay in the shrine room forever. Finally, Akane brought up the subject of her family, which Kagome had been impatiently waiting to talk about.

"You won't be able to see your family until your training is complete." Akane said. Kagome's eyes widened.

"What!" She shrieked, then she shook her head. "You can't possibly keep me here without letting me tell my family where I am first. They're all worried about me. I have duties and an important decision to make." Kagome said.

"I realize that you are upset, but you must reason with me. The reason that you cannot leave is that the possibility of Naraku coming to capture you again is very high. We cannot take that risk." Akane said. Kagome scoffed.

"I'm the Princess of the Southern lands. Our army is second best in the entire lands. I think I have enough protection. And the walk should not be far." Kagome said. Akane raised an eyebrow.

"Do you not realize how far from home your are?" She asked. Kagome's eyebrows shot into the air, and panic set into her eyes.

"What do you mean? Where am I?" She asked.

"You are at Mt. Junsuina Taki in the eastern lands. You are very far from home." Akane said. Kagome's eyes widened further and she began to feel faint.

"I-I think I need to lie down." She said. Akane nodded and stood up. I will leave you to yourself. When you are ready to continue our talk, I will be out in the village." Akane said. Kagome barely acknowledged her. She sighed, lying down and looking up at the white roof.

What am I going to do?