Legal stuffs: InuYasha does NOT belong to me *sigh* but to the genius Ruminko Takahashi~ I don't own any of her characters either~

Discovery of the Last Shard

"Kagome!! Hurry!" The desperate dog demon, nose pressed to the rocky ground, beckoned to the girl. "Every second counts! If Naraku finds the last shard of the Skikon no tama, this will all be for nothing, we'll all be doomed!!" His voice cracked, displaying some of his well hidden terror about the undecidedness of ALL of their fates. Kagome turned, preoccupied. "I KNOW that Inu Yasha, but searching this randomly won't help us at all, besides, Miroku and Sango are far behind." She sighed sadly, so tired of this desperate chase..The 5 companions had been scouring the whole land, exhausted, trying to find one elusive sliver of the infamous Shikon no Tama. Discovering shards had never been so difficult in the past. They were present almost everywhere that demons or evil humankind resided. But it seemed that as the danger increased, the findings decreased. This was the last strand, the only hope. With the last shikon shard, Naraku, who currently held the rest of the jewel, would most certainly destroy everything everyone held dear, including their lives. Kagome twisted a strand of raven black hair, tension in every line of her slim body. Just then, Sango and Miroku swooped down low, clinging to Kirara's golden fur. "Kagome-chan!" Sango cried happily, "Where's Inu Yasha? I think we've found something!!" She landed softly on her feet and ran in the direction Kagome pointed, stiff from the long ride. Miroku stayed behind, radiating his usual calmness, a slight frown in his brow. Kagome turned briskly to him, "What did you find? Sango seemed awfully excited, and I can tell your just bursting to tell me" Miroku grimaced at how easy he was to read sometimes "Someone with some information, that's all I am allowed to relate to you. He specificly threatened our lives if we tell anymore." He grabbed his staff tighter, clanking the golden rings together softly. "WE'RE GOING! NOW!!!" The dog demons gruff voice broke through the silence, and a second later Kagome was dragged onto Inu Yasha's back .Forced to protect her face from the rapidly whipping branches flying back at her, she buried her face in his thick white hair. 15 minutes later, Inu yasha gasped for breath and halted. Feet away from was a small hut. "Here?" He asked Sango, twitching his nose suspiciously at the place. "I don't like it, it reeks of magic and pain, and-" "The two rarely mix favorably, I know. But it's what's available to us" Miroku finished Inu Yasha's sentence understandingly. He addressed Kagome, "Kagome-sama, he said he wants to see you alone, but we'll be close outside" Sango enforced his words by hitching her Hiraikotsu higher on her shoulder and grinning menacingly. Kagome nodded, and began to walk towards the entry, wondering what on earth this person had to tell her, and only her. Before she even reached the door, everything began to.dissolve. That's what it looked like to her, that her surroundings were dissolving around her, leaving her in a murky Twilight, perfect semidarkness.

Inu yasha stared unblinkingly at the building Kagome walked into, ears cocked for the slightest sound, every pure white hair seemed to be straining towards the hut. Miroku walked over to him, placing a hand on his ridged shoulder. "I don't believe senses are going to make much of a difference..." "WHY? Because that.child is doing sorcery in there? What on earth does he want?" he growled. Sango laid down her Hiraikotsu and walked over to the others. "Somehow or other, Kagome is the key to all of this, we have to wait. Don't worry; I don't think she'll be hurt, he only said 'I want to make her realize where it is. This is such a delicate process, I need her to realize for herself.'" "FEH" Inu Yasha glared. If he can't say anything out right, without a bunch of riddles, he's an untrustworthy fool!"

The silence rang In Kagome's ears..

You spend so much time watching the hanyou..always always watching, spying, watching others, thinking of others..figuring out THEIR minds, guessing ..guessing.watching.. "EEP!" the girl twirled. The voice had come out of nowhere. However, Kagome realized, it wasn't the stereotypical deep, echoing "scary voice" of movies, but the voice of a child that had rung in the darkness, speaking gibberish to her confused ears. "Umm..I not sure if that was an insult or advice, abut are you the one who knows about the shikon shard? Have you ever taken time off life to look at yourself? To turn your eyes inward? Fool, you hurt all of them now.... "eh?' LOOK!!!! Just look..forget the outside, and look, or hope is lost, life will give way to a twisted mockery of life, friends will die, and the future you believe is so separated and safe will die, as he rises, the greatest manipulator of the greatest evil....look..please.

She swallowed, and turned her mind towards herself. She couldn't explain how she did it, or why, but all she knew was that the twilight was now midnight, and a small shard glowed, deep inside...her own body, her own heart.

"In her BODY?" Inu yasha snarled, "HOW?" A small boned, thin haired youth stood in front of him, dwarfed several times by the dog demons billowing red clothing. Undaunted by Inu Yasha's presence, he stared calmly at the group, passing the unconscious body of Kagome to Inu Yasha, assuring him she was fine. "Something must have happened that fateful moment when she shattered the Jewel. The shard is imbedded deep inside her heart; it has been there the whole time. If she had known about this beforehand, she would never have found it." "And this presents a problem" Miroku added. "Naraku wants that shard desperately. It would be terribly convenient if the shard could remain safely hidden in her, but he will continue to hunt it, and he will simply kill Kagome in order to receive it. Also, Inu Yasha's goal, although unadvised, is still to gain the entire jewel" The boy nodded, and started to say something "also, there is the matter of-- --"He halted, looking shocked. A trickle of blood dripped from the corner of his small mouth, and he gasped painfully with failing lungs. Confused, Inu Yasha looked, finding a sleek silver sword imbedded in the flesh of the dying boy, shining in the moonlight. A second later, it dissolved, and disappeared. Sango crouched, staring into the trees ahead of them, "it was thrown.he's in the trees, I can barely sense him, but-"She whispered, and a second later, havoc was wrecked. In what took a total of 5 mere seconds, a long, blood colored jellylike form sped out into the open field, and swiftly latched itself onto Inu Yasha's face, filling his mouth and nostrils with itself, suffocating him mercilessly. With muffled shouts, the dog demon thrashed violently with his sword, cutting again and again through the creature that again and again reformed, unaffected. From close range, Inu Yasha couldn't manage a Kaze no Kizu, and he was weakening. He had never fought an enemy without a concrete body. On his knees, he turned clouded golden eyes towards Miroku, whose right hand was already unwrapped, prepared for a Kazaana. But Sango ran to grab his hand, leaving her spot by the unconscious Kagome. "Houshi-sama, the Samyousho! This..Thing.. somehow works for Naraku, and you'll only get poisoned by the bugs!!!" She looked so desperate, and half of Miroku wanted only to erase that look from her face my any means possible. But Miroku shook his head, giving a quick glance to the left, where hundreds of the demon bugs fluttered silently amongst the faded tress. It was a hard sight to see Inu Yasha on his knees, so readily admitting he needed help, and Miroku needed to give that help, poison or no. He shook Sango off, and opened the winds. Bits of the creature began to rain in the air, looking for all like droplets of blood, and mixed with the Samyousho, rapidly sped towards the hand of the monk. With each bug sucked in, Miroku flushed, shaking and weak, but continued. And each second, Inu Yasha's airway became less and less threatened, until he finally managed to battle the diminished creature off, and it slid back to the trees from where it had come. Breathing quick, shallow breaths, Inu yasha rose, glancing first at Kagome, then at the monk. Alarmed, he sprinted to Miroku, who had collapsed on the ground, every inch of him shaking violently. "Its worse" He whispered "Worse than before" He tried to focus his eyes on the young demon huntress, who was rummaging through Kagome's backpack, searching for the small bottle of medicine the girl always carried around in it, that had healed the monk so long ago. "I'll be fine once she finds those pills. Inu Yasha, listen to me. We NEED to protect Kagome Sama, at all costs. Until we can figure out how to get that shard out, she has to stay out of Naraku's clutches. We both know the safest place for her right now is her world, the one place Naraku doesn't know about. Can you go with her, keep her there for the time being? You are the only one she's going to listen to." Inu Yasha bit his lip, seeing the truth in Miroku's words. But he wanted to fight Naraku; he wanted to end it all! Running to another world, running.It seemed so cowardly, so foolish. So like a pathetic Hanyou. He didn't WANT to run. But Kagome. "I'll go. FOR NOW. Damn it, you'd better come up with a solution to this fast, because a demon can't live in a world like that. And this demon WON'T." He stalked off, and picked up Kagome's exhausted body. Without looking back, he ran towards the old well. Miroku smiled "Now we" he said touching Sango's hand lightly, "get to fight for them all alone, and in the end I hope humans hold more worth than anyone ever believed." Sango blushed slightly and nodded, waiting for the monk to heal.