A New Pack

Dragons

Kagome and her pack arrived at a village at mid morning. Totosai suddenly disappear before that. Everyone wasn't surprised at that. Not to mention that Myoga disappeared as well. When they entered it, they noticed that there was something odd about this village. The rice patty fields looked dry and there were hardly any livestock as well. Everyone started to feel uneasy about this village. When they entered the village, the villagers surrounded them.

"Um, anybody have any ideas?" Shippo asked.

"Not at the moment." Masahiro said. Everyone was getting nervous around these villagers. Suddenly, they all sit on their knees and bowed.

"Please help us!" The villagers said. Kagome and her friends were confused and nervous at the moment. They didn't know why the villagers were suddenly acting this way.

"Um...how can we help you?" Masahiro asked, sweat dropping.

"It's the nine-headed dragon!" A villager said.

"The nine-headed dragon?" Kagome asked.

"He has kidnapped all of our children!" A villager said. Everyone gasped.

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After a few shouts about the nine-headed dragon. Masahiro asked all of the villagers to stop with their shouting and lead them to the village leader. They were lead to a hut where they met Nakajima the village leader. Nakajima was surprised to see a miko traveling with a group of demons and a hanyō. But that didn't really matter at the moment.

"So what can you tell us about this nine-headed dragon?" Hansuke asked.

"It was several months ago when the nine-headed dragon appeared. He destroyed our fields and killed off most our livestock. Then a month later, all of the village children had vanished. We looked everywhere near our village. A week ago, one of the children returned to the village and she told us that the nine-headed dragon was keeping all of the children hostage. We couldn't understand why this dragon was after our village. We have nothing of value." Nakajima said.

"That is strange." Masahiro said, rubbing his chin.

"But are you sure that there is nothing of value here, Nakajima?" Tomoe asked.

"I'm certain." Nakajima said, "Unless..."

"Unless what, Nakajima?" Kagome asked, her brow arched. He turned his head left and right. It was like as if he was making sure that no one was listening of what was about to be said. Masahiro looked over at Kagome and she nodded. She quickly placed a soundproof barrier around the room to keep out anyone trying to listen in. Nakajima looked surprised when he saw a blue barrier around the room.

"It's a soundproof barrier." Kagome said, "Don't worry, no one can hear us."

"Well, it's possible the remains of Yamata no Orochi, the eight-headed dragon are buried here." Nakajima said.

"The remains?" Shippo asked. Kagome remembered the tale of Susanoo and the eight-headed dragon, Yamata no Orochi. Susanoo was banished from the heavens because of his rude behavior towards his sister's court, Amaterasu. He descended to Izumo in the western part of he met a couple crying with their daughter. They told him that the Yamata no Orochi, the eight-headed dragon, will be coming for their daughter. Susanoo struck a deal with the couple: if he killed the dragon, he would marry their daughter. They agreed and Susanoo went off and killed the dragon. After he killed it, he found a sword, the Kusanagi, inside of the dragon's belly. Then he presented the sword to his sister as an apology to his misdeeds. The sword later became one of the imperial treasures of Japan.