Many stories have been told of the experiences of a particular group of adventurers from the feudal era of Japan, and many more are still being told and will continue to be told of the wayward monk, the taijya, the kitsuni, the hanyou and the schoolgirl from the 21st century.

When a story begins, it isn't really a beginning, because there was always more events that led up to that beginning. You may have studied much of the history of the Inu-no-tachi, but here are some things you have yet to hear, and must know, before we begin our actual account. So here is yet another beginning.

"I can't believe you wore that old thing to the wedding. The least you could have done was wear a formal kimono."

"I washed it didn't I??" Inuyasha muttered in a harsh whisper at Kagome.

"Still." She looked radiant in red and white silk kimono she insisted she just 'had around the house' that suspiciously resembled a miko's costume.

"My haori is suitable for ANY occaision thanks." He looked away from her and stuck his nose in the air. "Keh!"

The two ceased bickering across the aisle at one another when the flutes began to sound announcing the march of the bride and groom

Shippo and Kohaku glanced at one another and the Kitsuni rolled his eyes. Kirara swished her tail and Myouga the flea scanned the room frantically, praying that his persistant deposed fiance' Shoga hadn't caught up with him at an all too convenient wedding ceremony.

Miroku and Sango glided down the aisle silently and serenely taking their place between their closest friends and family and kneeling in front of the shrine.

Kagome had gotten up at the crack of the dawn to help paint Sango white and dress her in a most elaborate kimono that was a gift from Kagome's mother. Her hair had been arranged in the style of a hime the day before by a woman in the village that had once been trained as a geisha. Sango was by Kagome's estimate wearing an extra twenty five pounds of silk, hat, ornaments and makeup but it was Kagome that was exhausted. She hadn't been able to sleep well since the jewel had been wrested from Naraku's remains and completed. "Well... almost completed." She glanced at Kohaku. She was afraid as the time grew near to complete and purify the jewel, what it would mean to her, and her friends, or for that matter, how she would purify it at all.

Inuyasha had other things on his mind. "She better not sneak off when she gets rid of that damn thing..."

"Towards my wife, I undertake to love and respect her, be kind and considerate, be faithful, delegate domestic management, and to provide gifts to please her." Miroku smiled gently as he recited the traditional undertakings of the buddhist faith.

"Towards my husband I undertake to perform my household duties efficiently, be hospitable to my in-laws and friends of my husband, be faithful, and discharge my responsibilities lovingly and conscientiously."

The two then shared the Shinto traditional glasses of sake, symbolically united at last under the eyes of their allies, friends and family.

Kohaku had insisted on spending his last days with Sango in the village where they were born two short months after her wedding. They visited the secret flower feilds together and played in the woods with Kirara, exterminated nearby youkai together as though they had never been apart. He insisted on organizing the remaining supplies of the village and made certain they would be easily accessable to Sango when she should need them. One morning a few hours before dawn he went outside and dug another grave next to the other memorials of the clan while Sango was sleeping.

She was not sad. After all, how often do you get the chance to show someone how special they are before they're gone?

Kagome refused to try to destroy the shikon no tama with a wish. Throughout the gem's history, it had been tried many times and had always ended in despair. The demonic qualities of the bauble seemed to twist and destroy any good that people and youkai had tried to accomplish through it's power. Like making a wish to the devil, if you left any small detail of the wish vague it would be changed and ruined. The evil souls housed inside desired to add nothing but sorrows to its aura.

The young Miko could find no solution to dispose of the shikon, the closest anyone had ever come to destroying it was Kikyo attempting to take it, and keep it in the next world. but it had just found its way back again. For a while she toyed with the idea of in fact, sending it to the world of the dead, but there were occaisions that it could possibly be brought back. She after all had been there twice and returned each time, as had Naraku, Sesshomaru and who knows how many other youkai would manage it in the future.

She could only come to the conclusion that it somehow was destroyed eventually. After all the Jewel of the Four Souls had never been heard of in her own time...

A faint memory glinted in her mind... long ago... years ago... one of the last times she had been involved with the business side of her family shrine... it was unpacking the souvenir shipment with her grandfather on the day before her birthday.

"Now listen Kagome... the shikon no tama has..."

"This kind of keychain isn't popular anymore. Anyway... Jii-chan, did you remember my birthday?"

A few hours later, Kagome finds herself about to jump into the well.

"I knew it!" The Hanyou boy jumped out of the forest canopy blocking her path to the well. "You're sneaking off to your cozy Tokyo home... with a soft bed, pillows and hot bath water never to be seen again. Without a word of goodbye to anyone!" His eyes flashed with more than a hint of anger.

"Oswari."

"EIIGH!"

"I'm not planning on leaving permanantly Baka. I have to go back for a while and take this stupid jewl with me.

"NO!" he started clawing the ground, anxious to be released from the subduing effect. "You're NOT taking it back to Tokyo to destroy it. I WON'T allow it!!!!"

Kagome arched her eyebrow and crossed her arms. "I see you haven't given up hope of becoming youkai with it. I had thought you would reconsider since you know what that means for you. Or do you think that the Gem would make an exception in your case and allow you to have your wish the way you want it when it has never done anyone else the same favor?"

"I don't give a damn about that stupid rock!" He began to push himself up.

"Oh?" Kagome said dismissivly."Then why are you so adamant about me staying?"

Inuyasha's mind rushed a response. "Because if you purify it from there, you won't be able to come back. And I can't live with that." But he couldn't say that out loud. It betrayed too much fear.

He stood up and gazed down into her brown eyes. He captured her left hand in his and wrapped his right arm around to cradle her body and pull her close. "Because." He stated simply.

She looked up at him and smiled softly. "I misjudged you."

Inuyasha hijacked her expression and raised his own eyebrow.

She freed her left hand and reached up to his neck. Inuyasha held his breath.

slowly she pulled the Kotodama beads over his head. "I guess... you don't need these anymore."

Inuyasha was awed. He felt nearly naked without the necklace. By removing it, Kagome demonstrated that she trusted him, not only to not harm her to steal the jewel, but she also removed the physical control she had over his behavior.

She placed the beads in his hand and adjusted her backpack. Inuyasha took advantage of his position and used the arm still around her to pull her into a close hug.

They stood there together, quietly drinking in one another.

"I want her to be happy..."

"I hope he will be happy..."

At that moment, when the two hearts were of one mind, both human and hanyou, the shikon began to take on a new sheen. It became enveloped in light and the darkness within it dissipated. The Youki within Inuyasha's body sensed the urgency of the retreating evil powers, and the darkest corners of him sensed a sudden absence. He released Kagome and looked to the white shining sphere that was suspended around her neck. The shikon had no remaining demonic power. None at all.

"Well I'll be damned."

Of course, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

"You're damn right you'll be damned... if you don't stop bothering me while I try to study for this exam I'll damn you beyond all hope of reincarnation myself!"

He knew she could, she'd gotten better with a little practice after all, but it was a question of if she would... and he knew she wouldn't.

"Fine... I won't ask you again. I'll just find a way to entertain myself."

"You're always freeloading, why don't you help my family out around the house instead of loitering, bothering me, and eating a free meal?" She mumbled distractedly while she worked out a formula on her scratch paper.

"Keh! I can help out if I want to." Inuyasha picked up the laundry basket of clean clothes and began to put them away for her.

"Hmmmmmmmm" she heard him say a few minutes later. She dismissed it as him trying again to get her attention.

"When did you wear this last..." Inuyasha mused aloud.

Kagome turned from her work in exasperation to tell him off, and saw him holding up a particularly interesting set of purple lacies.

"I think I may need to keep these, so that I can find out who stole the back of your clothes" he stated with a smirk.

"I am going to use one of my pre-sharpened number two pencils to seal you to my bedpost if you don't put those down right now" she deadpanned.

"Is that a promise?" he arched his eyebrow suggestivly.

Kagome stood up and sashayed over to the Hanyou. His ears twitched endearingly. She took his clawed hand and gently led him over to the open window. She situated herself in front of him and the window and sweetly said his name "Inuyasha...it's about pantylines."

"Panty.." gasp ... "lines?" he thought to himself. His palms started to sweat. She placed her hands on his chest and leaned forward slightly. Inuyasha closed his eyes.

"GET OUT!!!" she shouted as she shoved him out the window.

She slammed the window closed and locked it. "Damn him. when did he start acting perverted like Miroku anyway?"

Inuyasha hadn't taken that much abuse since the very last time Kagome had oswaried him. "Damn Bozue... him and his damn advice... DAMN!"

In times of relative peace, hearts have the time to love. Given enough time, hearts will fully heal and when the stars, time, events and love aligns, even more beginnings begin.

"I see you didn't bother to change."

"I washed it. but I suppose you'd prefer if I was wearing something more formal?"

"No. I think its appropriate... more you... and today is more about you than the clothes." She ran a hand across his shoulder, smoothing the material.

"Oh really?"

"Yes. and besides. My mother has Two different sets of clothes for the other ceremony."

"Other?... ceremony?"

"Yes, you didn't think she could live without seeing her only daughter getting married did you?"

"So what is this? the dress rehearsal??"

"No, this is the wedding for this side of the well."

"Nobody told me I had to do this twice."

"I'm telling you now."

"I don't think..."

"Hush, we're starting. Lets not keep our friends waiting?"

"Keh." The flute music began, and Inuyasha found himself walking towards the shrine with Kagome at his side. He could smell the ceremonial sake, a kitsuni, an old woman, and another very familiar couple that had recently enough been on the other end of these proceedings. He adjusted his sword at his side, and prepared himself to enter the beginning of the rest of his life.

First, comes duty, then comes love, then comes marriage, then comes... well you didn't think they'd keep their hands to themselves forever did you?

"Is that one always going to cry?" Inuyasha asked with a certain amount of alarm.

Sango and Kagome flashed him dirty looks and otherwise ignored the question while Sango attended to the first baby she hadn't had time for until now.

Inuyasha began to pace in front of the door again, about to wear a hole in the tatami floor.

"No Inuyasha... it eventually sleeps, but then, I can't vouch that the other one won't wake up a begin his own tirade." Miroku sat calmly on the floor failing to offer his friend any comfort.

"I'm losing it."

"Nonsence Inuyasha, I'm sure your.." Miroku stifled a laugh. "litter, will be as sweet and charming as my little Shina-hime."

"Ignore him Inuyasha," Kagome said over the din of the squalling newborn. "Twins sort of run in my family."

"I wish you had mentioned that... and the fact that unreasonable females run in it too... I might have reconsidered this whole business!"

"That's not just her family Inuyasha, all females..."

Sango turned around and silenced him with an expressionless face. The air crackled and sizzled around her.

"... are wonderful."

"Inuyasha... come here. We need another set of hands." Sango gestured to him to sit beside Kagome's futon. Inuyasha squatted down next to his wife. He had almost as rough a time as she did, listening to her in pain, smelling her exhaustion and knowing he couldn't do anything more to relieve her as she suffered. Sango handed Inuyasha the firstborn of the twins, a son, with pointed ears, and a light dusting of dark fuzz on his head. Kagome took the other baby, with a white covering of baby hair and puppy ears gracing the top of her head like a tiara, to her breast and began to nurse her into blessed peace and silence.

He could sense their very very small, but present youki. He had sired hanyou children, just like himself. He smiled. Now knowing a way that his father must have felt when he was born. It made him feel a little bit closer to a man that had shaped who he was, but had never known. He took Kagome's free hand and squeezed it.