DISCLAIMER: I do not own Inuyasha nor do I make any money from this story.

Prologue: The Device

Deep within the forest, the rush of wind through the trees suddenly silenced. A stench had settled with the humid air over the foggy creek. The birds had all scattered long ago. One deer lay trembling against the evergreen banks, and under cold, melting moonlight, the creature sunk its snout into the water. Its broken face dyed the rocks red: the water rippled ruby against its hurried breaths.

The doe had not yet succumbed to the torrenting outlet, but demons were winding their way through the muck, up the river toward the scent of the blood, that beating heart. The fallen animal had no time nor strength to scurry as a group of hanyou children silently descended from the thick branches above it. As water cut its way through the rocks, stillness once again took hold of the rocky valley only to find a new rumble in the distance. The dead deer melted away in the stream as the sound of an encroaching army pushed the half demons back into the woods.

The shuddering of ten thousand armored plates continued to rattle in the distance, and hour by hour, their footsteps came closer to the bloodied rocks. Passing through the humid forests, the troops were heading westward toward a small village known to house the nearly completed Shikon Jewel. By directive of their daimyo, the small force would enter the stronghold at night and take the jewel from Kagome with unparalleled swiftness and brutality.

"Naraku-ue, I've invested my entire family and fortune into this battle, and I now pray," the man said. Between sharp black eyes, a scar showed that he had long ago began sacrificing in the name of the demon. In his forties, Hiyashuuto watched carefully from the jagged floor as Naraku's long arms slowly shifted an object over in his lap. He sat on a throne of stone organized as if by fortune itself.

The spider demon paid no attention to the flattery and pulled the hexagonal column closer to his face. Hiyashuuto could see deep etchings in the stone, places where it had worn flat and polished. He could almost see the layers of stone inside, but as he expected to see soft streaks of limestone, he caught sight of something metallic, a mesh over faint blue light. He strained to get a better view.

"I don't understand why you keep these filth around," Kagura remarked from beneath a shaded pillar near the mossy entryway.

The older human looked at the water sloshing around his ankles. Swaying algae had been growing for many years in the empty, crumbling room. The fountain poured into the crooks and sinkholes in the stone floor before running off through the castle's main structure and falling toward the bluffs. Beyond that, the waterfall stood with a thousand bones at its base. Hiyashuuto knew this waterfall as well as any.

"When he fails us, I get to kill him myself," Kagura paused to frown, her narrowed eyes flashing briefly in the darkness, "and all of his lineage."

The human did not flinch. Instead, he kept his eyes toward his master, the great demon, and the stone column so idly spinning in his hands.

"Nonsense, Kagura," Naraku said lightly. "Let Hiyashuuto continue his journey tonight. He has done exactly as promised and his next mission is far too important to waste his head over." The smile he let creep onto his pale face sent shivers through both Kagura and Hiyashuuto.

He moved against the thick, green plants to kneel before the demon. "I dutifully accept my next mission."

Naraku clutched the cylinder to his chest with all of his spider-like appendages: "I want you to find the creatures on the puppet I gave you. Bring me a finger from each."

"I have done as you asked." Hiyashuuto's face was mangled, but still he spoke with characteristic poise. The flesh had been peeled back from his skull as though skinned. Where a scar once lay now sit only bandages melting against the red, oozing eye socket. Kagura could smell the infection from her distance spot against a kudzu-covered column.

Naraku merely smiled. Between the herbs his daughter had crammed into his wounds and the obscurity of losing his depth perception, he didn't notice that the stone cylinder was sitting alone on the other side of the room.

The water had risen to cover most of the floor, and schools of fish darted through the deeper pools. Hiyashuuto frowned at his feet, once again soaked in algae and plant life. The stones he had seen sunken into mud now lay submersed in green. The long red scarf Kagura had tied around her neck in honor of his arrival streamed down from her perch and into the water. Red fluttered softly through the deep waters beneath her and into a gentle stream flowing out of the damp, cragged room.

Her scarf seemed to predict the wounds on his face, and Naraku narrowed his eyes in dark glee.

The ningen took another wobbly bow. His fingers were wrapped around worn hilt of a sword at his waist; his index finger stroked an etching in the hardwood handle as he patiently waited for his freedom.

"I'm surprised you survived that encounter," Kagura seemed to chide from her perch. Her narrowed eyes gleamed with the scarf from damp blackness. Hiyashuuto was once again unmoved. He rose to let his gaze falter toward that she-demon's voice, but the one eye he had left couldn't focus through the shadows. His head still throbbed.

"I am no longer fit to serve you, my lord."

After a long silence from Naraku, the demon slowly rose. The grey and blue robes he tied with vermillion ruffled as the eight spidery arms protruding from his back scurried behind him. They idly picked at stone as the demon walked forward. Hiyashuuto was certain his life would soon end: his family's honor and blood would be poured down this beast's throat.

Instead of striking, Naraku walked right past him. The spiny appendages briefly touched the man's face, glided against the red gauze and swollen flesh. The demon saw both determination and weakness in the ningen's eye. The weariness of blood loss, age and battle had begun to etch into his face.

"I must rest," the man began, but the demon was gone before he could finish.

Kagura shifted in her seat behind him, but the sound was drowned out by splashes in the water. Hiyashuuto had finally let himself tumble down into the pool. He put his back against the weathered stone tiles now crumbling against turquoise, and his black eye finally closed.

The youkai behind him frowned as she leapt from her perch. The scarf trailed behind her in a sudden gust of wind.

"When the storms come, you'll drown in here, you old fool."

"You are older than I," he mumbled. "Fool."

She scoffed at him through sheets of ivy. Her pale fingers reached around the red fabric and tugged it from around her neck. She dropped it into the deep pool at her feet, and they both watched the currents carry it away. Kagura saw his face slacken as his hand fell from the hilt and into the glistening water around him.

Author's Notes: I badly wanted to write fanfiction again, so I decided to start with a fandom I know and love. This alternate universe tragedy has many plans, so we'll see how those pan out.

Language Notes: For clarity, I decided to italicize words in Japanese rather than allow some kind of false and continuous movement between the languages. Generally, foreign words are italicized anyways. Regardless, this shouldn't interrupt the flow too much. I also find a brief dictionary pertinent.

daimyo - lord, subordinate to the feudal shogun

hanyou - half-demon

ningen - human

-ue - suffix for utmost respect (archaic)