"I am truly sorry" he spoke, with a dissonant serenity accompanying his voice. Haruna, the figure standing before them, meant every word. "This world was beautiful, but I must follow the master's command."

Inuyasha was backed against a wall. There were stretches of land for miles in each direction, but there was nowhere to run. There was no home left for him to run to, nor any refuge to seek asylum. The only thing he cared about was the dying girl clasped in his arms, as she did not have long. Kagome's blood pooled onto the ground at an alarming rate as her breathing grew weaker. "If you let her die, you'll be a monster like me…like everyone you're killing." He growled, glancing at the well only a few hundred meters away.

Haruna was not listening, instead letting the rain roll down his face as he looked up to the darkened sky. He was fully capable of killing Inuyasha in a heartbeat, but for that moment, he wanted to appreciate something, he needed to take himself out of the standoff. Haruna did not want to let Kagome die either.

"I can't let you near the well." Haruna said, with his closed eyes following Inuyasha's movement to the letter. "All I'll need is a few moments, and I'll let you both on your way." He did not need to open his eyes to know Inuyasha was going to make a run for it.

"Please…" Haruna began. "…I don't want to have to kill any more people. You can't imagine what my day has been like already."

"Enlighten me."

Haruna's expression darkened, as his slit-like eyes fixated on Inuyasha. "Have you ever heard the voices of the dead, demon?"

Inuyasha remained silent.

"I have. First, I could talk to my loved ones, to my relatives who have long since passed…" Haruna began again, with a somber tone in his voice. "then I could hear my wife…my beautiful wife…who was taken from me, just like you are about to take that woman's life right now. I failed to act for the greater good, but she is happy in the other world. That gave me some comfort."

Inuyasha slowly circled around Haruna as he spoke, but without warning, felt the cold, skeletal grip of his fingers around his neck. Haruna hoisted him against a wall, and Kagome was dropped to the ground.

"But then, I started hearing the voices of my enemies…and they began to cause me to lose quite a bit of sleep. They tormented me from the afterlife, taunting me. Haunting me. I began to starve myself inadvertently when I drilled this hole in my skull." He continued, pointing to the scar on his left temple.

Inuyasha struggled to breathe as he clawed desperately at Haruna's arm.

"Then I heard the people I had let down, the ones I couldn't save"

Haruna tightened his grip as he pushed the half-demon harder against the side of the wall.

"And now I hear the voices of everyone who has fallen at my hands. The voices…they don't…" Haruna trailed off, as he looked up at Inuyasha with not a human face, but with one deformed by years of horror. "…They whisper things…things no one should ever hear…" Haruna trailed off as he began laughing. It was as mirthless and as cold as the hand he was killing Inuyasha with, like a high pitched shriek woven in between a child's chuckle. "and then I heard the master's call…his voice shut out all of the others, like a flood that washed away my sins. He asked me to do his work…he asked me to purify my country."

"Kggg….." Inuyasha struggled to blurt out, as he saw Kagome's body lay motionless now.

"but I need what she knows. I need what Kikyo knows. I wish there was another way, but there isn't."

Haruna's grip slacked, as Inuyasha slumped to the ground, coughing uncontrollably.

The rain poured harder as Haruna locked eyes with Inuyasha.

"You must understand" Haruna spoke. "It may kill her, but it's the only way I can save anyone. The only way I can save myself"

Inuyasha drew his heirloom blade in his off-hand, but Haruna remained unfazed.

"You can't hurt me that way…you already tried. Even if you get away from me…you know I can follow you anywhere."

"Not through that well." Inuyasha sneered defiantly "and I'd rather die than give her up."

"I beg to differ."

"If you want her, you'll need to come through me. I'm going to stand aside, not after you wiped out an entire village getting to me. Not after you lied to me. You're not in this to save people…you just want out of whatever hell you put yourself in."

"As you wish…but you won't make it to the well."

"Oh?"

"You're dumb enough to stand there, lecturing to someone like you think they cared. Instead, maybe you should worry about giving a demon a chance to stall you."

Haruna began to speak, but spun around, alarmed. He couldn't make out a thing in the rain, including the sound of piercing arrows. It all happened in a flash, but Haruna soon found himself riddled with holes and pinned to a wooden side of an inn.

He struggled to make out the figures...he saw the demon and the priestess, but another demon, a woman with a boomerang…a monk? He struggled to pull himself free from the arrows, but they came out slowly from his twisted body. His bones spiraled and curved in many places, and he lacked the strength to pull free the arrowheads that had pierced through the wall. Haruna grunted furiously as he rocked back and forth, with the shafts jigging in his wounds. "Gods damn it, no!" he yelled, finally collapsing onto the ground. Haruna quickly got up, sprinting to the well, but it was too late. The half-demon was gone. The girl was gone. Whoever had helped them were gone as well…and a fog began to fill his mind.

Haruna began to lose his sense of touch with reality…the fog was so inviting…so warm…so familiar…he saw them again, his loved ones, his brother, his father…it was going to start all over. He knew his enemies were coming, and then the villagers, and then the demons. His mind became a warm soup that he floated in, feeling it rush past his limbs as he sunk to the bottom of a wooden cup. The lights grew dimmer as all of his thoughts slowly came to a stop.

"Do not give up, my child" The master spoke. "Think of all you can save. See the world which I hope to create. See a world free from evil."

Haruna pulled himself out of the fog, and found his feet planted firmly into the ground. The rain had passed. It was midday now; a few moments away from reality let half a day go by. He knew it was getting worse.

There was little time. Haruna approached the well, staring down into the countless souls wandering aimlessly below. He flung himself headfirst into the well, determined to find this girl, wherever she may hide before he can't come back anymore.