Chapter 63: Stalker

A few days had passed since the reunion between the two of them, now the night was at its peak power, while the only thing keeping the darkness at bay are the small stars that are spotted every now and then and the moon that emerges every so often from the clouds. 

From the temple that Kikyo took as her temporary abode a warm light emerges, making it seem like a beacon of comfort and warmth in this dark night. 

"Turn them off! Turn them off!"

"Don't exaggerate, we already know they can't burn anything I don't want them to."

The room that radiated light and comfort outward, was on fire, literally on fire. Some sticking to the edges of the room, some on the floor reaching almost to the ceiling and some even floating in the air defying all logic. 

"How could it go so wrong?"

"Oh, I don't seem to be skilled at cooking complex things... Although it's not like I've ever tried either."

Floating in the air while dodging the flames that every now and then get bigger or longer as if they had a consciousness of their own, Saya uses her hands to try to put out a small fire that got stuck to her beard, though that is ineffective causing her to stop that useless work and look up at the ceiling with a look of utter resignation while letting out a few words of pure doubt. 

Sitting on the floor and giving no importance to the clear expression of defeat that Saya has, Asahiko continues to stare at the pot in the center of the room in which the food should be, although now it is completely engulfed by the flames making it impossible to see inside. 

"What's going on here?"

Entering the room from a sliding door, Kikyo who always dresses in her priestess garb and carries a longbow on her back, looks at the surroundings of the room without any astonishment, almost as if she expected this could happen. 

"No problem, it's just the place is on fire."

"It was bound to happen at some point, clearly you are missing in this specific activity.... Haven't you noticed that he puts anything in his mouth, whether it's poisonous or not and that every time he says cook he just sticks a piece of meat to a stick?"

Responding to Saya and ignoring the "Exaggerated" Asahiko blurts out from behind as he wipes his flames that are scattered around the room and throws the pot that has nothing inside it. Kikyo's face momentarily loses its indifference, though she quickly fixes herself not before Saya notices this.

"You know, even though I'm with him at all times, it doesn't mean I always look out to see what he does and doesn't do."

Placing an expression that reflects something like "It's kind of obvious, it would be weird if I did" Saya receives a simple nod from Kikyo and then Kikyo settles into a corner of the room as she closes her eyes. 

"By the way, I had considered that you went out to get rid of the uninvited guest. No, don't get up. It'll just be a useless waste of energy, it looks like he has something planned."

With Asahiko's words and the subsequent vibration of one of her ears, she stops Kikyo who was already ready to leave again, before a dark smile appears on her face. That smile was certainly strange, it wasn't like the one he always uses and not the one of harmless enthusiast either, it was closer to the one that appeared when he was digging into Kikyo's thoughts.

Hours later... 

Christopher/Asahiko pov. 

A new day and a new adventure to start... Yeah, why the hell am I kidding myself, this thing already started a few hours ago and I can admit that the first victory was mine by avoiding the entrance that the stalker had prepared. 

Thinking stupid thoughts to myself, since there is nothing to do with the exception of watching Kikyo heal a few and locating the stalker with a taste for bugs. Yes, that stalker is Naraku. His insects have been going in and out of the limit of my perception for a few hours now... Like he's testing my skills. 

"It's over, you can take him out now."

"Me here thinking of giving you a surprise and you come to shatter my illusions... who cares."

Complaining rather nonchalantly to Kikyo, she looked to where there was now no one she was dealing with and followed that up by releasing my tails to start launching a hail of projectiles towards the stalker. 

The orange projectiles shot out of my tails like a cruise ship barrage, then made a beautiful parabola in the air something I never managed to do in geometry classes and finally the annoying insect was eliminated from my perception. 

"Too bad, if we weren't in a forest I'd make them explode to make everything more beautiful."

What? Like any good person with flame skills, I obviously have an inner pyromaniac and a taste for explosions. Yeah, I'd better focus on finishing these annoying things.

"By the way, since you didn't respond to my earlier words. Do you really think this"

"It's already here."

Without being able to finish talking about whether this strategy is seriously going to bring Naraku out, I'm interrupted by Kikyo who looks in a particular direction and quickly my attention is focused there as well. Leaning on a tree branch and dressed in his usual attire, my second bag of fun, ahem, ahem, enemy. He makes an appearance in front of us.