1 – The Wound

It was a normal, sunny and beautiful day in Tokyo, Japan. Normal for everybody else, except for one, young girl, who could experience something no-one else could. She could travel through time.

And so she did, once again.

There was this old, dried well in a shack in her home's yard. And that well led her 500 years back in time, to Japan's feudal era. But only she could travel.

She and a dog-eared hanyou boy called Inuyasha.

And that day this boy was sitting at the well back in his time, waiting for her to arrive. She had been gone for a few days. And, unlike Inuyasha admitted, he already missed her. But he was too proud to go get her with him.

"Haven't seen her yet?" asked a man in black robes, Miroku, who just walked to Inuyasha. The boy shook his head slowly.

"I have an idea", Miroku sighed, rubbing his neck. "Just go and get her."

"Keh!" Inuyasha snorted, but suddenly saw a small flash of light from the bottom of the well. Inuyasha's dog ears jumped up and he smiled a little. If he had a tail, it would be wagging. Miroku smiled too. Kagome started climbing up the well along a ladder.

"I'm back", Kagome cheered and jumped out of the well.

"Welcome back, Kagome -sa..." Miroku tried to say, but was interrupted by this:

"Let's go already!" Inuyasha urged and took the lead, the duo following him. Soon they were in Kaede's village. This Kaede was was one of their friends, an old lady, the leading priestess of this village. Even as a leader, she lived in an old, pretty small shack. This was also home for Inuyasha and his friends, where they lived when they weren't on their way, hunting Shikon jewel shards.

The trio got in...

"Nice to see you again, Kagome-chan!" greeted Sango, who sat by the fire in the middle of Kaede's hut. Her beloved pet-cat Kirara mewed and ran to Kagome, rubbed against her leg and purred. Kagome smiled, took the cat in her arms and came in.

"We have just finished our cooking", Kaede said, while stirring the soup in a pot above the fire. With his dog senses, Inuyasha could smell the scent very sharply, and oh man it was delicious! He, of course, didn't want to admit it.

Everyone sat around the fire as Kaede dished out the soup in small bowls.

"Tomorrow we will be on our way again", Inuyasha announced while eating.

"Yes, I have packed up all we will need in my backpack", Kagome winked.

So the night came. Kaede's hut was divided in two. One side for women (and Shippo, the women didn't mind the little one sleep beside them), other for Inuyasha and Miroku. Everyone seemed asleep, except Inuyasha. He laid on his back staring at the ceiling. It was so quiet, even he couldn't hear a thing... Until he heard someome get up from bed. Inuyasha turned his head towards the "women side" and saw Kagome, walking towards him.

"Huh? Sleepwalking?" the boy wondered quietly. Kagome just smiled, kneeled down and placed her hand on his forehead.

"Na-ah", she said and laid down beside him. Inuyasha blushed harshly, but closed his eyes and leaned against the girl, who laid her ear on his chest.

"Heh, I can hear your heart pounding!" she smiled. For a while both were quiet, until Kagome whispered;

"I'm so glad everything is alright."

Inuyasha closed his eyes, and after a while, they both fell asleep.

"Hello...!"

'Huh...?'

"Hello! Good morning!" That was Shippo. And Inuyasha sat up right away after seeing the little, grinning boy. "Had a nice night did ya?"

Inuyasha looked like he was making up excuses, Kagome just nodded with a smile.

"Okay now, let's have some breakfast", Miroku announced. "We'll be leaving soon."

And so the group left. They had been walking for almost two days by now, but no demons, no sense of Shikon shards. Until suddenly...

Inuyasha heard a step from somewhere quite far. Far enough for only him to hear it. He stopped the group from walking and grabbed his katana's handle.

"It's coming closer. A demon."

Everyone got ready for a fight. Inuyasha could hear the demon's steps getting nearer and nearer. And finally it jumped out from the woods. And so the fight began.

This demon was pretty tough. It was very fast and slick. And just when Inuyasha was trying to make kaze no kizu, the demon finally hit him. It's huge claws ripped his right arm open so bad it shattered his bone and made blood scatter. Inuyasha fell on his knees and held his hand on the wound, baring his fangs.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome shouted and ran to him. "Are you okay?! You're not okay!"

"I think my bone is broken..." Inuyasha hissed in pain. His arm felt like it's burning.

"Inuyasha!" Sango shouted and turned to Miroku. "Houshi-sama..."

"We'll take it from here", said Miroku.

It would be so easy to just kill this demon with Miroku's kazaana, but it was too big – he wouldn't be able to endure it. So they had to rely on his demon exorcism tags, Kagome's arrows, Hiraikotsu and Kirara.

It took a while, but the demon was finally finished. And no-one got hurt, except Inuyasha.

"Dear Buddha, that was one of a fight", Miroku sighed, rubbing his neck. "How about Inu...?"

The boy was still on his knees, blood bleeding like a waterfall, doing something his friends had never seen before – he was licking his wound like a almost made others grin, but when they heard him whimper and walked to him, they sure weren't amused anymore. The boy's mouth and cheeks were stained in blood.

The arm was ripped apart and the wound was so deep they could see the shattered bone.

"This must be the deepest wound I have ever seen..." Kagome said. "It must be treated right away!"

And so the girl took her backpack and started looking for her fist-aid kit. But what on earth? She had dug the pack three times, and finally emptied it completely, but the kit was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh please don't tell me..." Kagome shook her head, hopeless. "It seems I left the kit at Kaede's."

"WHAT?!" everyone shouted.

"We must get back to the village", Miroku said. "As soon as possible."

And so they got on their way. Inuyasha walked last of the group. He didn't want others to see him licking his wound. But Kagome looked over her shoulder and saw this, so she turned around sand said:

"Don't do that. It wont help."

"Don't you tell me what will and will not help! My mom never disallowed this!"

Kagome went quiet, sighed and turned back towards the group.

They wouldn't get back today yet, so they camped in the forest, by a small river. They started building up the camp. Miroku carried some branches for fire, which Sango lit up with matches Kagome gave her. Kagome had taken a few pots of instant ramen from her backpack, and a small iron pot for boiling the water.

"I'll get the water!" Kagome shouted back at Sango, who nodded. Kagome walked to the river – and saw Inuyasha's clothes as a messy pile on the shore. For a while Kagome just wondered what was going on, until Inuyasha squirted out of the water.

"Inuyasha! Come eat! We have some ramen!"

"Thanks but no thanks."

'What? Inuyasha doesn't want ramen?' Kagome wondered. But, oh well, all right then. She couldn't make him.

The water was boiling in the pot, and Kagome gave everyone a pot of ramen. After they had eaten for a while, wet-haired Inuyasha joined them.

"I knew it! You would never skip ramen!" Kagome smiled. "Here!"

"I don't feel hungry", Inuyasha said. Kagome's eyes widened.

"What's with you? Do you have a fever?" she asked, maybe more like joking. But when she reached to Inuyasha and touched his forehead...

"...You have a fever..."