Okay, so I'm hopelessly stuck on "Two Souls, One Heart," but that won't stop me from moving on with other stories! I swear, I will update on it, for those who actually read it, but in the meantime, please take this as a sort of peace offering.

Disclaimer: If I owned Inuyasha, the series would have started up again in America by now, and they would have dubbed the fifth movie in English already. Sheesh –cries in a corner-

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Many young children hear the word "evil," and think of tales told to them by their parents of a classic "bad guys versus good guys" scenario, a clash of light and darkness, and a happy ending for everyone but the wrongdoers. To the more mature, albeit inexperienced and still slightly oblivious adults, the word brought forth images of a darkened figure in a fierce battle against many strong warriors, or perhaps an everyday band of rogue thieves going on a slaughter or maybe a raid through a village. Either case, of course, could be seen with their points and their own logics, however varied they may be, but for those who have seen evil at its worst, stared it in the eye and defied it, these ideals were mere diluted versions of the true terror of that word and all that it implied. However, I believe that I am straying off topic here. I only speak of different views of the definition of the word "evil" because there are six particular individuals facing that same threat as we speak. Yes, I am of course speaking of Inuyasha the inu-hanyou, Kagome the reincarnated miko, Sango the demon slayer, Miroku the perverted monk, Shippo the young fox demon, and Kirara the twin-tailed fire cat demon. These friends were, of course, facing the only evil that seemed to loom over them, shattering their lives: Naraku the dark hanyou. Unbeknownst to our heroes, this evil man, this…monster, would do just that to one of our friends once again.

"Naraku, you sick bastard! Die!" Inuyasha cried as he hefted his mighty fang, the Tetsusaiga, high into the air. The blade, usually brilliant silver, was now coated in glistening diamond, making the sword look all the more regal when it caught the faint light from behind the thick clouds that loomed overhead. "ADAMANT BARRAGE!" The inu-hanyou sent his blade crashing down at a remarkable speed. The coating of adamant on the sword channeled itself from the blade and shattered into large airborne splinters that seemed to hone in on Naraku like heat seeking missiles. The massive shards of adamant hit their target spot on, each one shredding a considerable part of their enemy's body. When the attack was over, all that was left of Naraku was a floating head held within his barrier of miasma. Rather than be fazed by such a powerful blow, he merely chuckled under his breath at his opponent's tactics.

"Haven't you figured it out, Inuyasha?" Naraku asked smugly. The others watched in dismay as the menace began to regenerate his body, as if such a powerful attack as the Adamant Barrage was mere child's play to him. "You cannot destroy a body that is not even here, you pathetic half-breed," Inuyasha growled at the hypocritical nemesis on the other side of the battleground.

"Like you have any room to talk! You're a half-breed just like me!" Inuyasha's enraged cry bellowed out across the field. Naraku's eyes suddenly seemed to darken over in rage, more so than ever before.

"That may be true enough, but you were born that way," the amount of hatred evident in his voice only seemed to increase tenfold as he continued, "we're both hanyous, but you don't know the pain of having your soul divided by the void of darkness…" as he spoke, one of his innumerable tentacles was poised to strike the inu-hanyou. "But now, you will," Naraku sent the tentacle sailing toward Inuyasha, who easily brought his sword in front of him. The Steel Cleaving Fang easily cut through the tentacle like butter, splitting it down the middle. He smirked triumphantly, seeing his sword easily destroy a part of Naraku. His smirk disappeared, however, when he noticed the miasma clouding around him, pouring from the tentacle he had just severed. His eyes were wide with realization: that Naraku wanted him to destroy that tentacle. It was merely a set up! A trap!

Having no where to go, the inu-hanyou could only watch in horror as the miasma closed in on him, his fear only increasing when he realized that he was unable to move any muscle in his body. He sucked in a quick breath and held it, hoping that if he did not inhale it, it wouldn't cause any damage to him. Everything around him was dissipating into a purple haze. He could only reach out to Kagome's approaching aura and pray that someone could help him get out of this mess. He faintly head Naraku give another dark chuckle from somewhere outside of the miasma that blinded him.

"Holding your breath won't do you any good; the miasma is being absorbed into your skin, your eyes, and your ears. Soon, every ounce of that miasma will be inside of you," Inuyasha's pupils contracted three times over in pain when he noticed that what Naraku said was indeed true; the miasma was thinning out, and he could feel it corroding his insides. Oddly enough, though, it wasn't targeted at destroying him, but it seemed to create a sort of void between his two halves (demon and human)…and then he realized what Naraku's true intentions were.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome's heart raced in fear as her hanyou collapsed into the blood bathed dirt, Tetsusaiga falling idly a few feet to his left. Naraku loomed a few yards ahead of Inuyasha, smirking coldly at the inu-hanyou's convulsing body lying on the earth floor.

"Soon, you too shall face the pain of rejection because of your split soul, because of your appearance. You will know the pain of having mere fragments of what used to be something that was whole. You will understand what true turmoil feels like. And what of Kagome; how will you be able to handle her rejection?"

"Shut up, you bastard!" Kagome tore her gaze from Inuyasha's trembling form to notch an arrow onto her bow and release it toward her enemy. With a sinister chuckle, the evil hanyou dissipated under her holy powers and faded from sight. The miko mentally cursed Naraku for being such a coward before she slung her bow back onto her shoulder and began to make her way over to the –now kneeling- inu hanyou, ignoring the others that had just now entered the battlefield closely behind her. She couldn't help but mentally scold Inuyasha for running off without them to fight Naraku on his own this time.

"Inuya-"

"Stay away," she froze at his quiet, almost soft demand, although she could tell from the pleading tone in his voice that this was not like any of the other times he had snapped at her; oddly enough, he seemed…defeated. She started moving toward him again, her pace at a walk as she inched closer to her hanyou. It was then that she noticed that his dog ear was gone, replaced with a pointed youkai ear, much like that of Sesshomaru and Koga. Her thin brows drew together in confusion. How had that happened…? Although she could only see his left side from where she was standing, she knew that something was definitely wrong with him; his bangs covered his eyes as he bowed his head sadly. She reached out a delicate hand toward the hanyou to gently touch his shoulder in reassurance as she knelt beside him.

"What's wrong? Please, tell me-"

"That bastard…made me a monster…"

"What are you talking a-" before she could finish her sentence, he turned his head quietly to fully face her, and despite her best efforts, she could not keep her gasp of shock from escaping, despite retracting her hand from his shoulder to cup over her mouth.

His left half of his body resembled his youkai form: silver hair, red eye, blue pupil and iris, purple jagged streak along his jaw bone, and an elongated fang. What was different was that his dog ear was replaced with a pointed youkai ear, as Kagome had noticed before. However, his right half of his body resembled his human form: black hair, violet eye, no fang, and a human ear. Now the full extent of Naraku's words sunk in to her mind… "separated by the void of darkness…" Naraku's miasma was separating Inuyasha's demon and human blood. Kagome then recalled the legend of half demons that Ai-chan and the other hanyou children had told them on Horai Island. "The left hand represents the hand of the youkai, a symbol of strength and protection. The right hand represents the hand of the human, a symbol of nurture and comfort." Her expression softened as she looked down at his hands, noting that his left sported elongated claws, while his right held mere human nails.

Taking her reaction as rejection, Inuyasha cringed and jerked his head away, fearful of the taunting that he was so accustomed to. Seeing him misunderstand her actions, Kagome once again reached out to comfort him. "Inuyasha," she placed her hand once again on his shoulder in an attempt to coax him into looking at her. He eventually turned his head back toward the miko, his saddened expression softening slightly at her gentle gaze. Offering him a comforting smile, she explained, "I was just surprised with the change, that's all. I'm sorry to have done that and made you upset." He gave a half-assed 'keh' in an attempt to maintain his indifferent behavior, but in the state he was in, it was proving nearly impossible. She saw his worry in his eyes, his fear, even in his demon eye; his emotions were very much readable to Kagome. "Don't worry; none of us will view you any differently. Once we get back to Kaede's, we can ask for her help on how to correct this, alright?" She cooed to him as she stood and offered her hand to him. He ignored her hand and stood, too wrapped up in his own swirling thoughts to notice it in the first place. Understanding his dilemma, she wasn't hurt by the action. So, with an encouraging smile in his direction, she placed a hand on his back and started to walk with him back toward their friends.

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ugh…this one started off as a mess…but I promise it'll get much better! I know that I promise a lot of things, but I don't think I've broken one of them yet (I think). In the next chapter, you'll see the reaction Inuyasha's change has received in Kaede's village, and I'm warning you- it's not a good one. Stick around!