Chapter 1: Evil in a Bombshell

"I'm going home for a few days, okay guys?" Kagome said to her friends. Inuyasha was asleep, so there was no one there to stop her from leaving. Unless he woke up, of course, but Kagome's 'Yummy Sauce' would leave any human snoozing peacefully for a few hours.

"Ramen, don't leave me!" Kagome jumped as Inuyasha muttered in his sleep.

"What on earth is he dreaming about?" Sango asked.

"I have no idea...See ya later, guys!" Kagome said, nervous that his demon blood would cause him to wake up.

"Huh? What's going on? Where are you going?" Inuyasha was suddenly fully awake, "Hey, get back here, you baka wench!" Chasing after her, Inuyasha tripped over Shippo's leg. "You little brat!" Now Inuyasha was ticked. Kagome's 'Yummy Sauce' must have had some kind of sleepy herb in it!

"Inuyasha," Kagome began.

"Oh no! Ah crap! Here it comes!" Inuyasha braced himself expectantly, but the dreaded word never came. "Huh?".

"Bye!" Kagome shouted to him as she jumped into the well.

"Hey, no fair!" Inuyasha yelled to her, although he knew she couldn't hear him.

"I can't believe that I'm gone from home so long that a war broke out in my absence!" Kagome confided in Sango as they bathed in a hot spring. Kagome had returned a mere 3 hours after she left. Inuyasha had tried to weasel information out of her when she had arrived, but only brought back pain upon himself. Kagome felt guilty of sitting him so hard. I'll give him some ramen later, no 'Yummy Sauce', as a peace offering, she thought, "Anyway, I have to stay home until the end of the war." she finished of with a frown, "Please be careful while I'm gone!".

"No way are you leaving for that long!" Inuyasha yelled.

"Too bad for you, I will if I want to!" Kagome yelled back, got up, and started running while tears formed in her eyes. Kami, she hated good-byes!

Kagome ran to the Goshinboku the moment she got home. How could Inuyasha have been so cruel to her? It wasn't her fault that her time was at war! It was George Bush's fault for attacking Japan! Kami, how she wished that Inuyasha was more accepting of her choices. He had become more and more protective of her over the years and now he was getting overly protective!

"Kagome!" Her mom yelled at her from the house, pulling her out of her thoughts, "Kagome, come on! Get onto the ground and get away from the tree!"

"Why, mom?"

"Don't you hear it, Kagome?" Her mom's voice sounded pleading, "It's the a..." Kagome's mom's voice was drowned out by a deafening explosion. Looking up, shocked, Kagome realized too late what her mom was trying to tell her. Her mom's sentence, should it have been completed, would have been this: "It's the air raid siren!", but that didn't matter now. Now, it was too late.

Inuyasha sat grumpily in the Goshinboku tree and glared in the direction of the well. How could Kagome believe that going home for the remainder of the war was a safe, or even a good idea! She could get killed! He would have to follow her and nobody was going to stop him now that he'd made up his mind! Not Shippo, not Sango, not Miroku, not Kirara, and most definitely not Kagome! That wench was coming with him, whether she liked it or not!

Inuyasha jumped from his perch and ran towards the well. A feeling of dread encompassed him suddenly, causing him to stop dead in his tracks. Something hit the side of the well, and it hit hard. Inuyasha was unsure if this nose was tricking him or not. To make up his mind, he peered over the edge of the well. What he saw made his eyes widen and his jaw drop, for there, in the bottom of the well, Kagome lay in a crumpled and slightly charred mess, the scent of fear, confusion, desperation, blood, and gunpowder radiating off of her like heat radiates off of the sun.

"Kagome!" Her name escaped Inuyasha's lips as he stared in horror at the injured miko below, "Kagome...". Inuyasha jumped down to scoop up his friend. 'You kid yourself when you say she's just a friend...no, I can't think like that!' Inuyasha thought. Gathering the young girl in his arms, he was relieved to hear her heartbeat. 'At least she's not dead' he thought. Just then, however, a single tear rolled down her fragile cheek as she awoke in his arms.

"Inu-Inuyasha?" Kagome's voice was a hoarse, raspy whisper. Inuyasha knew that it was hurting her to talk.

"Shh...I'm here, don't talk." He said, his voice dripping with concern.

"Mom...she w-warn-ned m-me about th-the si-iren." Her voice was getting quieter.

"I thought I told you not to talk!" His voice's intensity scared Kagome, who began to cry, "Uh...um...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry! It's okay! I'm not mad!". The girl in his arms began to cry harder and Inuyasha didn't know what to do. "Sango! Miroku! Shippo! Someone!" He yelled towards the village about 200 meters away.

"Sango, wake up!" Shippo began to shake Sango to the best of his abilities.

"Huh? What's wrong, Shippo?" Sango asked. Miroku had gone to get firewood for Lady Kaede and Sango must have dozed of in the meantime.

"I smell Kagome and something else! Something weird!" He said, sounding scared. Suddenly, they heard Inuyasha calling them.

"Sango! Miroku! Shippo! Someone!" Inuyasha didn't sound like himself. He sounded worried. Grabbing her Hiraikotsu, she and Shippo left the hut and ran towards the source of the voice. What they saw made Sango scream slightly and made Shippo jump onto her back, for there stood Inuyasha with a mangled and crying Kagome in his arms.

Miroku stacked the wood he had gathered behind Kaede's hut just as he heard a small scream. 'Odd, that sounded like Sango...that was Sango!' the monk grabbed his staff and ran to her side, only to gasp at the sight before him. Inuyasha was holding an injured and sobbing Kagome, a look of worry on his face. The worry quickly dissolved into anger as he looked at his friends stood frozen in place.

"Well don't just stand there! Kagome needs our help!" He said, bringing them all to their senses.

"Inuyasha, what happened to Kagome?" Shippo was the first to speak.

"Yes, why is she crying?" Sango added.

"And why is she injured?" Miroku completed the series of questions.

"I don't know! But let's help her and then we can chat!" Inuyasha began walking towards Kaede's hut and the others followed at a distance.

Kagome had passed out again. Inuyasha began pacing outside of Kaede's hut as Kagome was being tended to. Miroku, also temporarily kicked out of the hut, rolled his eyes and sighed at the worried hanyou.

"Inuyasha, stop! You're making me dizzy!" Miroku finally spoke. Inuyasha muttered something like "baka monk" and stopped to lean against the hut, "Are you almost finished in there, Inuyasha's driving me crazy!" Miroku shouted into the hut.

"Almost...there! You guys can come in now!" Sango shouted from the hut.

"Finally, what took you so long" Inuyasha asked as he stepped into the hut.

"Ye should be grateful that Kagome survived. Her injuries were great and numerous. Tell me child, what happened to Kagome?" Kaede questioned the boy in front of her.

"I don't know!" Inuyasha exclaimed in an angry voice, "What am I, psychic?".

"Ow, where am I?" Kagome muttered in an exhausted voice.

"Oh, you're awake." Inuyasha said softly. He didn't want to wake the others. He had annoyed them all day, so they deserved their sleep. He also didn't want to scare Kagome again.

"Inuyasha? Am I in the Feudal Era?"

"Well, you aren't on Mars, so you must be." Inuyasha's voice was sarcastic.

"You don't have to be so snippy about it!"

"Sorry. So, what happened to you anyway?"

"My mom yelled something to me about the air raid siren, and then there was an explosion. I remember hitting the side of the well, but then I just remember darkness," Kagome's voice sounded sad, as if there was more to the story than she had told him.

"And then?" Inuyasha wasn't buying her story. Annoyed, Kagome struggled into a sitting position.

"I told you, I don't know! Now help me up!"

"Not until you tell me!"

"Not until I've seen it for myself!"

"Seen what?"

"None of your business!" The two continued arguing, oblivious to the audience they know had.

"Fine then, but I'm coming with you, where ever it is that you're going!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!" Inuyasha reached down and helped Kagome into a stand. The two exited the hut and Sango, Shippo, and Miroku sighed as they fell back asleep.

Along the way to the Bone Eater's Well, Kagome stumbled several times, accidentally reopening 3 of her wounds. Inuyasha didn't like the thought of her walking at all. Worried, and without asking, Inuyasha scooped Kagome up into his arms.

"I can walk just fine on my own!" Kagome's protests came quickly.

"No, you can't! You're going to hurt yourself even worse if you keep trying to walk and your slowing me down in the process!"

"Fine, just don't you dare start acting like Miroku!"

"What? So you can 'sit' me to the other side of the earth? Yeah right!" Inuyasha joked, hoping to lighten the mood. Guess what? It worked! That is, until they reached the well.

"So, should I go down first to make sure that this 'air raid' thing you talked about is over?" Kagome, growing tired, gave a meek nod. Inuyasha put her down gently and jumped through the well. Unfortunately, he first had to get some debris on the side out of the way. Quickly taking a look around, he saw that the once busy city was as good as flat! The smell of blood, gunpowder, and rotting corpses made him want to gag. 'Maybe Kagome should wait until she's healed to come here' Inuyasha thought. Suddenly, he gasped. He had to stoop Kagome from coming here, no matter what!

"Kagome, I really don't think you should go back until you're fully recovered!" pleaded Inuyasha.

"No, I have to see if my family is okay!"

"Well I'm not letting you leave until you're healed."

"SIT!" The rosary around Inuyasha's neck glowed a dangerous shade of purple, and then, BAM! Inuyasha ate dirt! Kagome struggled her way to the well and was about to jump in when a gentle but firm grip on her shoulder prevented her from leaving.

"Kagome, if you're going, then at least let me come too," Inuyasha admitted defeat. Kagome nodded and Inuyasha picked her up, jumping into the well to be greeted by the familiar blue light. Kagome could smell the ashes and gunpowder, although she is human.

"Kagome, I'm so sorry, I was hoping that this might have been cleaned up if you would have waited a while."

"Can you smell where my family is?" Kagome was trying to be strong, but her voice wavered with fear.

"Yeah," Inuyasha was slightly anxious about her reaction to what he knew. Her family wasn't even whole right now. As in, they were in pieces.

Inuyasha reluctantly brought her to the kitchen, where most of her family was. At least, he thought that it was her family. It was kind of hard to tell. Kagome started to shake as she silently mourned the loss of her family. Inuyasha knew cruelty, but this was cruel on a whole new level. It gave new meaning to the word "unfair".

"Kagome, what happened here?" Inuyasha asked her in a quiet voice. Kagome didn't answer as she stumbled to the only thing left standing. There stood the Goshinboku, mocking her. When she saw the tree, she whispered her reply to Inuyasha.

"Evil, all wrapped up in a bombshell..."