Title: Nightmare
By: EVL5011
E-Mail: Evilwithagun5011Aol.com
AN: Just to let the reader know, I've decided not to include Miroku and Shippo. Its not that I don't like the characters, I just didn't want to many people in this story, it makes everything so much easier for me. Maybe, I'll have them briefly appear in one of the chapters (at least one of the two).
Chapter 1: Contagion of the mind
Somewhere far away, within a fortress covered by demon magic, Naraku sat on the floor of his room. A black shapeless mist hovered behind the evil hanyou, strange incoherent voices cried out from within it. "Animus, I need your special gift to destroy an enemy of mine. His name is InuYasha, and he has something that I want." The shapeless creature hovered above the floor and listened to Naraku's request. "InuYasha and his friends are in search of jewel shards, you must stop them at all costs and retrieve the few shards that they possess." Naraku turned and faced his new ally. "Take this single shard of the Shikkon Jewel, it will increase your power significantly. Now go and destroy them." The black mist covered Naraku's hand and the jewel shard disappeared. The strange mist slowly passed through the wall of the room and disappeared.
Meanwhile, in a vast field of grass, InuYasha, Kagome, and Sango journeyed through the beautiful grassland. The three came to a halt and decided to rest a while. They had been walking for two days, on a quest to find more jewel shards. Kagome and Sango both stood over the top of a hill and admired the glory of nature. "Its quite breath taking." Commented Kagome. Sango nodded her head in agreement and watched as a flock of birds flew overhead. Off in the distance, the two girls noticed what appeared to be a somewhat large village. "InuYasha, come and look at the view from here!" Kagome turned and noticed InuYasha lying on the ground. The hanyou was watching the clouds pass by. "Feh! Leave me alone!" yelled InuYasha "We've been walking for hours and we still haven't found a single shard of the Shikkon jewel. All this walking has made me hungry, don't you got anything to eat?" Kagome walked over to the silver haired hanyou and sat down beside him. "Sorry, I don't. I saw a village in the distance though. Lets go over there, maybe they have some food." Kagome stood up and walked back over to Sango. InuYasha got up and was suddenly startled by a loud thunder. The hanyou turned around and noticed black clouds in the sky.
The light blue skies were turning black and a massive thunderstorm was approaching. "Kagome, Sango, lets get going. I don't think it's a good idea to stay outdoors. Kagome, you said there was a village somewhere." InuYasha walked over to the small hill and looked into the distance. "The village is over there." Sango pointed towards the horizon, showing InuYasha where the village was. With the storm behind them, the three adventures made their way across the evergreen fields and headed towards the small village.
After running for a while, they finally arrived at the village. The sky was now completely pitch black, and nobody was to be seen outside of the village. InuYasha, Kagome, and Sango cautiously entered the village. InuYasha noticed an open door and the three took shelter inside of the small house. "Hello? Is anybody here?" Kagome looked around the room. She noticed a kettle of boiling water over a fire, two plates with uneaten food, but not a soul, besides them. "Where could they be?" she thought to herself.
InuYasha looked around and smelled the scent of something strange in the air. He told Kagome and Sango not to leave the room. InuYasha entered the next room and found no one inside. The hanyou exited the house and ran through the rain, he entered another house and noticed the same thing. InuYasha ran from house to house, but found not a single person. Its as if everyone was whisked away. InuYasha ran back inside and locked the door behind him. "Something's wrong, I can't find anyone in the village."
"Where do you think they could've gone? Especially in this storm?" asked Kagome. The three remained silent as the storm poured down on the village. Thunder shattered the silence and shook the small house. "InuYasha, I feel the presence of something nearby, but I'm not sure what it is." Sango opened the door slightly and looked outside. The rain drenched the ground outside and the wind was blowing violently. "InuYasha sat down by the small fire and remained silent. The hanyou set tetsusaiga on the ground and looked down at the floor. "Well, at least I know that I'm not the only one who feels something strange. I smelled something foul in the air, but it didn't smell of any youkai, that I've come across." InuYasha contemplated on what he could've smelled, the scent had dissipated. "Whatever it was, its probably responsible for the village being empty. Although, there's no blood anywhere, where could everyone have gone?" InuYasha grabbed a piece of food off of a nearby plate. Kagome and Sango both sat down and poured themselves some water with tea. "Its strange that someone would leave a kettle of water boiling unattended. Whatever happened here happened fast." Sango took a sip from her cup and listened to the rain hitting the small house. The wind howled outside and caused Kagome and Sango to feel uneasy.
Suddenly, there was a strange moaning in the room next door. It sounded like multiple people crying out in agony. InuYasha and Sango both stood up and grabbed their weapons. The two carefully approached the wooden door and opened it. The room was dark. The candles that lit the room had gone out, when, a burst of lightning lit up the room. Sango and InuYasha caught a glimpse of a strange creature. The two moved back, and the cries got louder, a large shapeless mass of black smoke appeared in front of them. The faces of the dead were vaguely visible inside of it. Kagome gasped in horror as it entered the room. InuYasha recognized its scent; it was whatever he had smelled earlier. The faces of the people inside of it seemed to plea for freedom.
InuYasha unsheathed tetsusaiga and swung the phantom sword at the strange, shapeless being. Tetsusaiga passed right through it and the shapeless creature remained unharmed. "InuYasha! Our weapons won't have any effect on it. Its not a demon!" yelled Sango. "So what is it then?" asked InuYasha while moving back. "It's a Akurei! (Evil Spirit)" InuYasha turned around and noticed that they were being backed into a wall. He quickly used tetsusaiga and cut the wall down, giving them more space to maneuver.
"I've had enough of this!" InuYasha commanded the two girls to move back. He raised tetsusaiga into the air concentrated on searching for the Wind Scar. "There! Now's my chance!" The hanyou swung tetsusaiga and a massive force exploded towards the strange black spirit. Part of the wall and ceiling behind the Akurei was destroyed. Rain poured in and saturated the wooden floor. Once the dust and debris cleared, the black mist reappeared; it was untouched by InuYasha's futile attack. The Akurei drew closer and stopped mere feet away from them. Suddenly, a dark red mist entered the entire room. It appeared to be coming from the Akurei. InuYasha, Kagome and Sango began to inhale the strange mist. They immediately felt sick to the stomach; the smell was that of a rotting corpse. Our three heroes felt tired and fell to the ground. They resisted the urge to sleep. It seemed that the red mist wasn't strong enough to render them unconscious and they immediately got back up. InuYasha rubbed his eyes and wiped the tears from his face. His strong senses were doing more harm then good. Kagome and Sango moved back, when Kagome felt the presence of a Shikkon jewel shard. She knew the Akurei had it, but she couldn't see it. InuYasha noticed Kagome looking strangely at the spirit and knew that something was afoot. The red mist made it hard to see in front of them and the Akurei was moving slowly for some reason.
"What is it Kagome? Does it have a shard of the sacred jewel?" InuYasha moved back and held tetsusaiga tightly, knowing that any moment the Akurei could strike.
"It does, but I don't see it. The strange mist around it is hiding it." Kagome and Sango both moved back further into the room. The two girls noticed that they were out of space. In a desperate move Sango walked forward and ordered that InuYasha move. She held the large boomerang in her hand and threw it with all of her strength at the Akurei. The strange black mist was struck with the massive boomerang and dissipated into a fine ash. Strangely enough, some of the red mist remained in the air and gradually disappeared. A single shard of the Shikkon jewel fell to the ground and Kagome approached it with caution. "You got to be kidding me, Tetsusaiga couldn't hurt it, but Sango's weapon did?" InuYasha walked out towards Kagome and felt the rain pelt him from above. Sango followed behind and looked at the jewel shard that Kagome held in her hand.
As they stood outside of the partially destroyed house, all three of them felt sick to the stomach. An unsettling feeling caused each one of them to become dizzy. Their entire bodies felt weak and cold. Suddenly, their vision became blurred and obscured for some unknown reason. They entered a trance like state, staring at each other with unseeing eyes.