Chapter 1

Japan

1482 AD

He could hear it and he tried to tune out the dread that was filling his soul. His brown eyes, made dark by the dimness of the forest scanned between the trees. Bursts of light could be seen before they died out only to be replaced by the constant lights of a burning fire. He could hear the screams of men. Of women. Of children. Monstrous sounds permeated the air in triumph, in fear and pain. He cringed inside as war ravaged the country. He wasn't an old man – just recently married. He was not prepared for the rampages that stole and cut down the hope and life right before his eyes. He wanted to run but he couldn't. And while he wanted to admit that it was bravery, he wasn't sure. Courage as well as crippling fear could hold him to the spot he now maintained.

His mind forced the death and carnage away from his mind. The clashes of the sword were a distant toll for the death hour. The shinigami would have much work to do as they shuffled willing and unwilling souls out of this plane of existence. He focused on the huddled figure of his young wife as she sheltered the centre of his universe. He inhaled and brought to the front of his mind the reason for their silent departure from the village. He'd known. He'd know this would happen. He'd pushed the crazy visions of death and destruction aside. He belittled their importance. When the first youkai attacked, he'd been paralyzed with disbelief. And later, when he had seen his death, he mobilized his family. They'd rested long enough. They needed to get away from here to minimize detection.

"Kyomi?"

"Haku…" she whispered.

"We must keep moving. We need to get to…"

"I know. This is so sad. We've only had a day, Haku. One day."

"If I had-"

"No. No. Don't blame yourself. You were shown this destruction to save your family. And that is what we will do this night."

He suddenly realized that once they got to their destination, he would never again look upon her beautiful face. He'd never touch her soft dark hair. He'd never see her laughing green eyes again. This would be their last moment together. Desperately he sought her hand, the ache eating away his soul. This was where they ended. There was no afterlife for them. No one would know of his or her sacrifice for many years – if ever. "I have loved you from the first. And with my last breath I'll love you and our family." He touched her skin.

"My love." She whispered, her chin trembling with the unshed tears. "Ours was a path lined with gold when our love was young. We were smiled upon and happiness bestowed upon us by those who saw our fate. I am happy to have found fulfillment in your arms. In your heart. I too will love you with my last breath." A tear shimmered down her delicate face. "I wish there was another way. But it is not to be. We were joined so that this would happen – so that there would be hope for the world. Can you feel it, Haku?" she looked into his eyes. "There is a greater, darker evil waiting in the wings and its destiny lies with our blood. Our blood shall be its poison. Our legacy shall survive." She titled her face up as his mouth descended to covers hers in what she knew would be the last. She wished they had more time but even then, they could not do much more than hold each other. She was still weeks away from ever being intimate. And they had only this night to say their goodbyes. He lingered momentarily, breathing in her essence before helping her up.

They journeyed in the shadows grateful that their precious cargo slept all the way. And she hoped that state remained. They hurried along as the sky began to lighten. Apprehension tugged at them as luminous eyes peered out at them. They hurried along in near silence sorrow eating at them. Hope pushing them forward. Finally, the narrow trunk of their target loomed up before them. He extended his arms and she placed the sleeping bundle there.

"Kami watch over you on this quest, my life." She said kissing the wrinkled forehead. No more words were said – final kisses were given then he turned away. He didn't look back because he couldn't stand to see her crumbling face. Nor could he face her retreating form. He stepped up to the young tree of ages, awe filling him. The future was bundled up in the life energy of a plant – such a simple yet inconceivable notion. Taking a hunting knife from his waste, he cut the bark just enough to get some sap. His lips began moving, whispering the words that would whisk his precious child away from him. The same words that would require his life-breath as payment. The sap was wiped across her brow and eyes then he held the sleeping child up the tree. Light was all he knew then he knew nothing else.

1500 AD

She notched another arrow, facing down the angry snake before her. It towered above her but she did not fear it. She feared nothing but the possibility of a stronger demon securing the jewel that she protected. "You and your kind will only perish here. Why do you persist in seeking what cannot be anything but your destruction?"

"SSSSS! Priestess, you will soon die and one of us will take the jewel from the cold grips of her dead form. We will win."

"Not even when I am dead." She said and released the arrow, dispatching the vile creature.

He watched her from his perch – this famous, last and true miko. She hadn't flinched once during this encounter. In fact, she seemed disappointed at the outcome. She was young. A child by his measure. But all humans were children to youkai. They lived only so long. This one seemed aged by her struggles. The battle ended and she stood rooted to the spot. Her eyes turned in his direction and he was surprised.

"Show yourself!" the voice held an authority that no doubt many demons responded to as a challenge. He was different from most. He had no intention of making himself a target for her purifying light.

"I have no quarrel with you miko." He responded.

"Then leave this place. Or do you seek the jewel like every one else?"

"Jewel? What jewel? I don't need no stinking jewel." She was silent then he heard her walking away.

He was intrigued by the slight woman that wielded so much power. After forcing information out of a low-level demon, he returned to the village. The jewel seemed like the kind of thing he would need to effectively make his mark on this part of the country. He was only a half demon – this strange jewel would grant him his wish. He would be a full demon. He watched her as she sat facing the river. She was still except for the breeze that teased at her hair. For many days, he did this and not a word was spoken between them. Until…

"Are you ever going to join me, Inuyasha?" he was startled. He had not given her his name. He watched as her eyes came to look at him. "Do not be so surprised. Your name is infamous – the illegitimate child of a human princess and her youkai lover. The Halfling son of the great demon lord. Inu no Taisho." He said nothing. Many people knew of his heritage and sought him out regularly to test their power. He proved them weaker than himself. "And I know you know my name. What demon doesn't know of the last of the great mikos? What demon lord has not sent an assassin to kill me and retrieve that which was entrusted to me?" She looked away and against his better judgment, he approached her. He took his seat at her side, a pout on his face. "It seems you are after the jewel after all, Inuyasha. Tell me, why do you seek it?"

"I will use it to become a full fledged demon."

"So power is what you seek? Like the rest?"

"Why do you keep it?" he said. "Humans cannot use the power. What good does it do? All it brings you is trouble."

"I didn't ask to be given the task of protecting so powerful an object. It was my duty to use my powers to protect it as did the priestess before me." He listened to her patriotic words and noted the underlying sadness. She looked at him and her dark eyes almost shattered the ice mantle around his heart. Such emptiness. Her young features mocked the ancient knowledge of her brown eyes.

"If you're so tired of it, let me take it off your hands." He said.

She didn't respond for a while. "Do you think me beautiful, Inuyasha?" That shocked him. Beauty was not something he recognized like most. He spent all his life surviving the harsh world and trying the play the hand he was dealt. He had no answer to her question and suddenly all the knowledge and experience he had seemed pale in comparison to what he now knew he didn't know. "I am a young woman but the legend surrounding my kind has erected an effective barrier around me. Men look at me and see a warrior against the darkness of this world. Truly, I do not know if there is anything beyond that. But I wonder. I see the girls of my age blossoming under the careful affection of young men and I-" She stopped and looked out at the flowing water. "I must return to my duties." She said and rose, leaving him to wonder at this strange woman.

He spent his days watching her back while she fought. More and more he saw that her compulsion was not protection but a secret desire to be ended. She hunted these specters more than she awaited their attack and a protective element welled up in him. He didn't like it one bit.

It was three months since their meeting and against his nature he grew attached to her. He spent more time in the village helping the people, playing with the children. Every so often, the woman and her young sibling disappeared, returning when the light waned. He didn't ask where they went. He was certain she would not endanger her young charge. When she was not defending the village against an attack, she was beside him.

"Inuyasha-where do you come from?" she asked him one day.

"Nowhere. I was born into a world that hated me. I traveled away from them when I was old enough to protect myself in the wild."

"Do you ever wonder where you belong?"

"I don't belong. I walk the line of two worlds that hate each other. I should not exist."

"You are like me." She said.

"You? You are human. You have a family, friends and people that care for you."

"And yet, this all seems so much like an illusion. The blood in my veins tell me that I belong her yet my heart and my soul wander after…something I know nothing of. It is like I lost something before I even knew it. I feel fragmented. Lost. Seen but not seen."

"You are delusional, woman." He said gruffly hardly feeling unsympathetic to the sentiments. She grew up with a family to love her. Sure, she lived a lonely life now but how could she think to wish for something when she had it already.

"In all the time that I have known you, you have not once said my name. Woman. Wench. Miko. Priestess. Do you not see me as a person, Inuyasha?" he looked at her and saw now that she was not trying to hide her burgeoning affection for him. He didn't want to see it. She was an enticement that he could not afford to have. He was of youkai heritage. She was destined to kill his kind. He even knew that his demon side repulsed her. It was another reason that he refrained from touching her. Her voice weaved a web about him. Her smell tempted him beyond logic. Her loneliness called out to his and wanted to satiate it. He took a careful step away from her. They continued their walk. He dragged his eyes away from her, deliberately falling behind her so he could have a little reprieve from her scent. He thought of their many conversations. He heard the subtitles. She wanted more from him than he was willing to give.

He observed her small frame. She was a slight creature. Her head, he knew, would rest just under his chin should he hug her. He pushed the thought away. He had watched her over the past months. He noticed his increased sensitivity to her smell, her voice – he refused to touch her. He thought of her desire to be done with this tiresome life. He knew she didn't want to be priestess anymore. He knew she wanted a normal life and it seemed she had pegged him to fill the role of companion. The idea seemed like a dream to him – to be needed by someone other than himself. But as right as it might feel, something was skewed about this whole affair. Other than the obvious canyons that yawned between them, something else held him back from taking the step he knew she wished him to. His mind went back to her voice and he realized it to be unnatural to her. Hearing it at first, he thought it was just a low, husky sensation that wanted to tame him. Now he knew different. He caught glimpses of how she really sounded when she spoke to the children or held a young babe. He knew she yearned for one of her own but again he saw the impossibility of the role she laid out for him. Her voice reminded him of a light – no a flower in first bloom. Bright. Young. Vibrant. Ready to take on its roles and responsibilities but soon realized the hardships of live and the inevitability of time. It had withered and faded under the pressures and routines. That was her voice – close to the end of her life.

He was deep in his thoughts, he didn't realize that she had stopped and was now facing his advancing figure until he bounced into her. "Oi, watch it?"

"You were the one who wasn't paying attention." She said a little breathlessly as his hands tightened on her upper arms. "Have you thought about what I proposed?" she said softly. He knew what she spoke of. Only a few days ago, she had suggested that he use the jewel to become a full human and live out his life with her. He'd been so appalled that he ran away from her, cursing her for her stupid dreams.

"I am not human, woman. I cannot live as your men do."

"You have been doing that for months now. You stay inside the village more often than not."

"I do not want to become some weak human. I want to be a-"

"It is not worth it. And the jewel would not grant you such a selfish wish any way. This wish I give you is noble and pure. Worthy of mention. Do you not care for me, Inuyasha? Do you not yearn for me as I yearn for you?"

"Yearn? I yearn to be stronger. What benefit would becoming a human be to me?"

"You would not be lonely anymore. I want to be the person that fills that ache-that hole-I want you to make me whole." He put her away from him because his human side hungered for her. It wanted the companionship that she offered. But at what cost? Was it worth giving up the heritage he knew he had a right to? Could he see living with her until he died the death of man? His demon blood roared in denial of such a fate. It echoed through him. The thought made staying in limbo seem heavenly to his Inu blood. "I-"

"Don't start spewing rubbish, wench. This same dribble cost my father and my mother their life. Love is what you people call it. Well, woman, I cannot love. I don't know what it is."

"Do not deny what you feel between us." She said. "I will not press you. I will not beg you. I require your decision. Now. I need to move on. If this is not an option, I must continue in this way until I die of age or am killed." The thought of this woman dead made his hear stutter, pause then slam into his chest. Suddenly, humanity with her at his side didn't seem so bad.

"I will meet you at the meadow in the morning. Bring the jewel – I will make your wish. Maybe we'll both find peace after this."

Japan

2000 AD

"Mom! Grandpa! Souta!" she said running down the stairs. "I'm going now." She saw her mother at the door and she kissed her as she went through the door. She waved to her grandfather as he swept the yard. That was when she saw Souta standing at the door to the well house. "Souta! You know you're not to play around this place?"

"I'm not. It's Buyo. He's in there and won't come out." As proof, he showed her the bowl of cat food. Kagome didn't like the well house. It gave her the creeps but she knew Souta wouldn't be happy until Buyo was out safely. She sighed.

"Fine, I'll go get him." She went in, apprehension eating away at her nerves. "Here kitty. Come one Buyo. I've got a nice plate a food for you." She said peering around into the darkness. Something brushed her foot and she screamed, terror exploding throughout her body. She looked down and saw that it was Buyo. She sighed in relief, picked up the cat and scolded him. Its response was to bat at her hair. She scowled at it and turned to go back out.

A shiver ran down her spine and she hugged the fat cat closer to her. She looked up and saw the terror on her brother's face. He was stuttering and pointing behind her but she was too spooked to look. Buyo scrambled out of her arms just as a force pulled her backwards. Something was holding her, restraining her – speaking to her.

"The jewel, I must have the jewel. Give it to me."

"Let me go!" Light exploded around her palm, out of her and into the strange creature. The ethereal conglomeration of light faded and she was once more at the bottom of the well.