Disclaimer: theworldsgreatest01 does not own Inuyasha and never will.

Summary: This story begins long after Naraku has been defeated, the original Inu-tachi has had children of their own, one for each couple, and named them after their fallen loved ones. Inuyasha and Kagome had a daughter, and named her Kikyou. Miroku and Sango had a son, and named him Kohaku. There is a legend behind the two descendants of those who defeated Naraku, and the Inu-tachi found that their reign of peace was short lived, that a new threat was dawning, and their children would be the ones to defeat it. This chapter takes place shortly after the new Inu-tachi embark on the search for this new threat, Kohaku is now 18, and Kikyou is now 16.

Authors Note: This is only the first chapter and doesn't explain much about what is going on and how these events came into play. All the details regarding this story will be out shortly in a prologue chapter titled, "The Bad Beginning." Rated M for later content.

Chapter One: Sibling

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"I could have handled it just fine, thank you very much. I don't need saving and I never will. Not every girl you see needs a hero to save her from a tiny, weakling spider demon." Kikyou threw a decrepit, long and hairy amputated leg into the pile alongside her along with the rest of the disassembled corpse of their last opponent. Brushing her hands off, she resumed the action with a casual air. "I'm not in need of any help from anybody. When are you going to get that through your thick, hollow skull?"

Kohaku said nothing, only pausing to inspect the bones protruding out of the scattered remains in search of a few with potential to be molded into new weaponry. He clenched one securely intact within the torso, the insides still fresh, and deftly pulled at it until a resounding crack rang through the forest and he grinned in triumph, holding it before his eyes and inspecting it in satisfaction.

He didn't mind her ramblings about his lack of intelligence, he happened to be used to it as a matter of fact. Kikyou glared in his direction when she failed to receive an answer. She just needed to reassure herself, and he knew very well of that. So he held his tongue and allowed her to vent.

Kikyou looked down at the tattered limb she grasped and snapped it in two with an effortless ease, grimacing as she did so. "See if this is good enough." she called, picking up a second body part identical to the one she broke and tossing it to the bouzou.

He caught it, and used a scalping knife to tear away the layers of flesh until he caught sight of ivory bone. "A bit weak…" he said, then glancing up at the raven-haired quarter demon he tried to amend his mistake. "But it is a fine choice for the base of a staff! There will be some use for it."

"You and Sango had better make some good ones this time. The last Niigata was a piece of crap. Splintered and I didn't even use it yet." she mumbled, raising the head of the demon in her palm and gazing dazedly at it. Her arm bobbed it from side to side making it dance for her amusement. The numerous eyes that bordered its pincer mouth were now vacant and diaphanous.

"Of course your brutal treatment of the blade had nothing to do with it." Kohaku stated sarcastically. He placed the last of their gatherings in the pile he had organized them into and stepped back to examine their findings. It was getting considerably late outside, the moon hid half its face behind a tuft of gray clouds, the stars were the sole offerings of light to the them while they searched, and even then they could barely see more than two yards ahead of themselves. Sango had insisted upon them scanning the remains though, since the spider had been a certifiably formidable foe. The rest of the group agreed, and the two younger ones were sent off while their parents rested. Kohaku heaved a sigh of relief and inhaled the brisk night air, then smiled at their pooled efforts. The aftermath of the battle was cleared and more armor would be made from the victory.

"This is a reasonably good haul. We can wrap these up and bring them back to camp." he turned toward Kikyou. "Ready?"

She hummed in response. Her expression was blank while she dropped the head and it landed with a repulsive thump. Rouge blood trickled, slithered down her forearm and pearled at her elbow; she watched the race between competing rivulets for a moment, then wiped her palm on her hakama, leaving a red smear there. He observed her actions in curiosity, then opened his mouth to speak, but was cut across.

"I wish you would stop doing that." Kikyou retreated from her perch on the boulder and stood facing him.

"What?"

"Trying to save me from things." she replied, her tone soft. "When we fight something, we fight it. We have to look out only for ourselves. That's how things get done."

Kohaku swallowed hard at first, thinking of all the occasions that he had pulled her from harms way, went in the direction of an attack to take the blow meant for her, protecting her all throughout combat. It took a solid length of time to remember so many memories, yet he recounted every last one from when they were children. There wasn't any way to explain it, it seemed like pure instinct in the beginning. When they would run off to play together, at least one of their parents never forgot to pull him aside while Kikyou frolicked off and remind him, 'Keep an eye on her, Kohaku-kun.' or, 'Make sure she doesn't get hurt!', 'Watch out for Kikyou.' until it became a defaulted habit on his part and carried on through the years. He knew her since the day of her birth. A lot has changed as they stand there, he was already regarded as a man, and she was a woman, even though they were not adults.

And more and more, Kikyou appeared to be drifting away. Or had he been isolating himself? Kicking a small pebble by his toe, he stalled his reply. She called him less, the last time he heard the word nii-san leave her lips was almost two weeks ago. "I don't know." A couple of steps forward his feet shuffled. He looked up and saw the moon finally revealing its face in full glow. He stared intently at it. "When we were little, Inuyasha first grabbed my shoulder and…made me promise something. He said, 'Do me a favor kid.' I nodded and he made me swear on my own life to never let anything happen to you. Back then I already knew because it was after that time you got bit by Idate when he shape shifted as that snake.

"And after I made that oath, it made me feel as if I really was your big brother. I wanted to be. You always made me feel important when you called me that."

Kohaku smiled and took in the features of the ground next. He noticed as his chuckle faltered and a blush grew, Kikyou eyed him, and the manner in which he knew this without looking directly at her was because she hadn't made a smart or rude comment in return of such information. "You're my…my…"

He screamed at himself for being embarrassed of claiming her as anything relating to him. He was thankful for the thin bangs that sat at his forehead and dropped his head down so that they might conceal his heated face. Keeping his focus on a snail languidly inching toward his foot, a thin trail of silver fluid streaking the ground behind it, Kohaku cleared his throat.

"You're my Imoutou-chan. And, I-I want to be there for you. Not only that, but you're the only friend I have besides Shippou and Kirara. I believe its normal for me to be protective of you, and want to keep you safe from harm." Kohaku lifted his foot and stepped back to allow the snail its passage. "All older siblings have that need to be needed, I guess."

"Nii-san." Kikyou whispered, and once he looked up and revealed his flushed face, she shook her head. "Is that it? I told you I'm not a little kid anymore-"

"I know that. Its just better for me to keep that small reminder that you used to be. We used to be-kids." He flashed a nervous lop-sided grin and motioned with the direction of his feet to trek the underbrush to the campsite where the others waited, he knew, anxious for them to return. "Nice to entertain that idea."

Gradually, they took their time to get there, and Kohaku was filled with a deep seated happiness at this. Growing up was a part of life, as well as everything else. Along the line ties bend and loosen with the wear and tear of the journey, bonds will break. It was natural for them to have been getting distant and the phrase big brother to be said less and less. Why did it feel like discouragement for him?

"Chichi-ue said that being out here would do this to us both. Make us develop faster than the average adolescents. There's a slight sliver of fear in me when I hear it. I'm scared that this might make us cold, hardened. The truth is, I don't want to change at all. I don't want to do this every day, I don't want to grow up." he thought, and chuckled.

Kikyou acknowledged this with a raised eyebrow. He glanced at her sheepishly. "Those girls in the villages we breeze through…" she began, and he saw her frown mentioning them. "they ask me if I'm related to you, because you call me your sister."

Kohaku wondered why she brought them up in this case. Her eyes found his and stayed there, suggesting that she was bold enough to discuss such a topic without any hesitation. "I tell them who you are to me."

He nodded. "And what do they say?"

"Nothing." The light of the fire ahead was clearly kindling and its warmth even spread to where they trudged in the thicket. Kikyou held her chin up and stared ahead. "When they go off they say plenty. They think I'm lying, don't care about it and say I could never be even the slightest bit acquainted with you. Maybe a family of demons they say…but never with you."

She looked at him again. "You seem to be very popular in every town we go to."

Finally, when he realized she was finished, he filtered the whole awkward situation. Was this the reason why she stopped referring to him as that? All in spite of a few women who had horrible manners. He wanted to tell her how bad it felt to be unknowingly stripped of his own title, but changed his mind and asked, "Are you feeling as though calling me that is giving me an excuse to be your hero all the time?"

She froze on the spot, at the very edge of the forest together, he halted as well and watched expectantly. Kikyou dropped the sack of bones he had not known she was carrying the entire time and the noise clattered in his mind, like the empty stirrings of objects long forgotten; and strode to him, placing her hand on his shoulder. A blinding pain shot through his back and neck, turning the world white in a second. Opening his eyes, he caught her sarcastic pitying expression and saw the blots of blood on her fingertips when she removed her hand from its place. He squeezed his wrist with the other hand to stop the flow of pain. He hadn't noticed it before.

"How long have you had that wound?" she questioned, then glanced at him. "Hasn't it healed yet?"

"I suppose it didn't." he said as Kikyou roughly yanked down his collar to inspect the gash that spread from the base of his neck to the start of his bicep. Her nails tenderly traced the skin surrounding it.

She spoke after a space for thought. "I'm not crippled and I'm not helpless. That you have to understand. I want to be able to be stronger than I am, because right now, there is someone out there trying to destroy us all." Kohaku cursed as she attempted to piece the separate folds of flesh on either side together. "But I know boys like to be reminded of how much someone else needs them, too."

Her eyes searched his. "It's stupid. When we were little it was enough to pretend to be my savior, to be there. Out here we have to be better or else we die. I understand it perfectly, I don't need any explaining. I don't care what happens, 'cause I'm used to taking my frustrations out on the things roaming in these woods that I share bloodlines in common with." She paused in fussing over the wound and dropped her hands to rest on his arms. The muscles there tightened on contact. "I can take care of myself." Kohaku shied from her stare, then scratched his head. "I know. After the fight with Hana you allowed me to help you. That was the first time you did though. I felt more like I was in your thoughts. People say that when we get older, we drift apart. That its natural. I want to stay as your Nii-san. But the less you say it the more it feels like we really aren't related…"

He admitted to himself long ago that normal problems, disagreements, would evidently sever their imagined kinship. They could not pretend it forever! It was a thing that happened, all childhood friends were lost to each other when the years caught up to them. And he accepted it with no rejections. He remembered when he wished he was as brave as her. When they were young comrades.

"Nii-san, I don't know you enough, but I always figured we knew each other better than everybody else." Kikyou took a step through the bushes that divided the cleared site for their residence and the jungle of trees they stood in. "We've been searching for Maburoshi just a week now. All we have is each other, right?"

Kohaku could muster a single "Yes." alone.

"Then I won't have to worry about you telling anybody about this little talk we had, hm?"

He smiled. "It isn't likely, Imoutou-chan."

She looked at him and gave the semblance of a smile back, folding her arms. "Good. Now, Nii-san…if you're done being afraid of killing things…For me having to carry this heavy thing, you'd better make some good things to crush stuff with."

Dragging the bag of demon bones behind her, Kohaku followed close behind Kikyou, peeking at the ground as they passed through the leaves and greeted their family, making sure that there were no snakes anywhere writhing at their feet.

A/N: theworldsgreatest01 openly welcomes reviews and criticism. to theworldsgreatest01, all reviews are good reviews.