until just now had been severed from the demon. The next thing she felt was a hard landing in the grass.
"Sesshoumaru-sama! How good that you are here!", Rin shouted relieved and Jaken also breathed a sigh of relief. Before the huge demon worm had even really noticed what had actually happened, Sesshoumaru had apparently easily killed him with a blow of his claw. Now there were only a few remains of the monster in it Grass, but that wasn't the only thing. Rin ran up to Kimie, who was lying motionless on the ground. Inuki was already with his mistress.
“Kimie-san?” Rin crouched down on the floor and shook the girl's shoulder slightly, which then stirred again. "Jeez ...", Kimie groaned in anguish and held her head down. "Can someone please write down the license plate number of the truck ...?" In fact, she felt as if she had been run over by a 20-ton truck. Jaken only looked rather skeptical at this question. "What is she talking about?"
"Maybe she hit her head." Rin guessed. "Are you all right Kimie-san?"
Kimie turned her gaze to Rin and it seemed as if she had to sort out her memories first."I ... think so.", She finally answered and slowly straightened up. Still holding her head, she briefly let her gaze wander. "Where did that beast go?"
"Sesshoumaru-sama has defeated it!", Rin announced immediately happily and smiled. Now Kimie noticed the remains of the demon, which were scattered everywhere, when she also saw Sesshoumaru. He stood a few meters away from the others on the meadow and looked over at them carefully. Kimie hesitated briefly, but then let out a small "Thank you." announce. Somehow she was still uncomfortable with this youkai, even if she had spoken to him fairly normally yesterday. But shortly afterwards Sesshoumaru was back to normal.
"It seems to me that your sword took a lot more damage than you.", The youkai said suddenly and Kimie listened. She immediately saw the fragments of her sword lying in the grass. She got up and picked up first one, then the other half of her sword. "Jeez!That's really perfect! ", Kimie sighed with an ironic undertone. Basically the sword, or at least what was left of it, now consisted of a total of four parts. Once from the divided scabbard and then from the divided blade.
"I can't believe that! What damn crap!" Kimie cursed angrily. Only now could she get really upset about it, before that there was no time for that. But Jaken didn't really understand the excitement. "Why are you so upset?" He asked indifferently. "It's just a very common sword!"
"With which I just happened to be able to keep the demon at bay until Sesshoumaru came!" Kimie contradicted angrily and was about to burst. But she thought better of it, that wouldn't have helped anyway. Holding the broken pieces in her hands, she sighed. "I can then take that to the scrap metal. It's no longer even good as a bread knife."The group continued on their way shortly after this incident. Kimie, now without a sword, trotted after the others, brooding. Actually, nothing more could go wrong that day. She continued her brooding when the group took a short rest around noon. The whole time Inuki sat in front of Kimie in the grass and cocked her head. The girl only seemed to get depressed from all the sitting around, so she decided to take a little walk while the others rested.
"Where are you going?" Sesshoumaru's voice penetrated Kimie's ear, whereupon she stopped moving. "I'm just going for a walk.", She answered shortly and turned around. “Or am I not allowed to?” She was still a bit pissed off, as you could hear in her voice. Sesshoumaru gave her a quick look, then replied coolly: "If you want, go."
And that's what Kimie did and went away with Inuki. Rin looked after the two somewhat perplexed.It had not escaped her that Kimie had been in a bad mood the whole time.
Kimie thought about various things along the way. On the one hand she thought about how things would go on now and on the other hand when Kagome, Inu Yasha and the others would find her. Well, it wasn't as bad as she had thought at the beginning to be with Sesshoumaru, but all these other demons were getting on her nerves by now.
Kimie and Inuki walked around for a while until they reached a small river.
"Hmm ... We seem to have gone quite a long way away.", Kimie said thoughtfully and turned around. “We'd better go back, Inuki.” But just as the two were about to make their way back, the girl heard a noise that sounded very much like the thunder of horse's hooves. Kimie stopped and looked away. A group of riders came straight up to them and reached them very quickly.When she saw the men closely, Kimie caught her breath. The day could be even worse than before, that was clearly proven!
"Well, my little one? Traveling alone?", One of the men asked the girl and grinned confidently. After taking a quick look around, he continued: "Your bodyguard is probably not around this time."
Kimie didn't want to believe it. They were actually the robbers from last time! Or rather, the pitiful remnants that Sesshoumaru hadn't made into minced meat. And the guy who had spoken to her was her leader. Kimie recognized him clearly, also because of the wound on his face she had inflicted on him. Presumably he wanted to get revenge on her for it, but she wouldn't surrender without a fight. Kimie wanted to draw her sword right away, but she had to remember what had happened to it right away. > Damn it! It broke! <, it suddenly occurred to her again and she would have liked to start cursing out loud. > Shit!But now I'm really in a bind! <
But she couldn't continue her thoughts because one of the robbers grabbed Kimie from behind and covered her mouth. So she couldn't possibly call for help, but Inuki suddenly intervened. He jumped up to the robber and bit his arm. "Argh! Those stupid mutt again!", The man cursed, who still didn't let go of Kimie until the dog finally tore a large piece of cloth from his clothes. When Inuki tried to attack again, an arrow shot past him by a hair's breadth.
> Inuki! <Kimie, still unable to speak, sensed that this could have ended badly for her dog. She had to do something. But what? In a last desperate attempt, the girl managed to shake the robber's hand from her mouth and before she could be silenced again, she called Inuki: "Inuki, run away! Go!"
The mongrel looked briefly at Kimie, but obeyed immediately after another robber shot an arrow at him.He ran across the area as fast as he could and was soon out of sight of the robbers.
"The mutt ran away!" Shouted one of the men, but the leader didn't seem to care. "Let him! It's just a dog and we have what we wanted anyway." With that he glanced at Kimie and grinned. "I hope you will enjoy your stay with us, my little one."
Kimie's mouth was bandaged with a gag, then she was dragged rather roughly onto one of the robbers' horses. Immediately afterwards the men rode away again.

"Where's Kimie-san staying for so long?", Rin asked himself insecure and also looked a little worried. Actually, the group wanted to move on soon. Jaken just yawned, bored. "Oh, she'll be fine. Besides, she has her dog with her. He'll look after her ..."
At that moment there was a loud bark. Rin turned around and saw Inuki standing on a small rise. The dog bent down briefly for something it had probably put on the ground beforehand, and then ran towards the group.Rin immediately ran to meet him happily. "There you are again, Inuki! Where is Kimie-san? Is she coming?"
The dog stopped by the little girl and nudged her head nervously the whole time. “What's the matter with you, Inuki?” Rin couldn't explain the behavior of the mongrel, who was pacing restlessly in front of her. It all struck her as weird and she wasn't sure how to react to it. Then Inuki dropped something on the ground in front of her feet, which he had just carried in his mouth. The girl bent down and picked it up. "A piece of cloth?" Thoughtfully, Rin twisted and turned the rag back and forth, but couldn't really do anything with it.
"Rin, give this to me."
When Rin turned around, Sesshoumaru was standing right behind her. Without arguing, she handed him the piece of cloth and watched him curiously as he looked at it for a moment. > The smell of people. And he is not unknown to me. <
At first Inuki just watched the youkai and didn't get any closer.He looked a little insecure. With its head slightly lowered, the dog looked at its counterpart.
"I think I know what he's got." Sesshoumaru said with his eyes on the mongrel. When Rin and Jaken asked what was going on, he didn't answer, but went straight to the dog. When he got there, Sesshoumaru looked down at Inuki. Several feelings were united in his gaze. It was as if the dog wanted to say something like, "I've never trusted you and I don't trust you now. It's true that I attacked you and you really have no reason to help me. But now I am fine or badly dependent on it. Now I am standing here in front of you and begging you for help. "
How Inuki was feeling at the moment, Sesshoumaru could only guess, but the youkai knew for sure what apparently had happened and what the dog might want from him because of it. Inuki looked down and without a sign of aggression, seemed to be waiting for a reaction.After a moment, Sesshoumaru made a decision.

How long this uncomfortable ride had lasted Kimie could not estimate. But it seemed like an eternity to her. When the horses finally stopped, Kimie was roughly dragged down from the horse she was lying on and dragged into a cave near a forest. There she was first freed from the gag, then she was thrown onto a small bed made of straw.
"Ouch!" With eyes full of hate, Kimie looked at the men who had lined up in front of her. The leader stepped forward. "So, my little one! I don't think your man will follow us this far. So now we have all the time in the world."
"And how do we decide who is allowed to