DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN INUYASHA

Chapter 1: Blood

It was another warm sunny day, when Inuyasha and his companions sighted a village settled at the base of a rolling, green hill. Their vantage point at the top of the hill gave them a clear view of the goings on below. "Why this village is beautiful!" exclaimed Kagome, clapping her hands together, her eyes shining with sheer delight. "There must be at least a hundred houses here. Look there, the big ones are all clustered around a small lake and in turn surrounded by many cozy-looking cottages. And they are in all sorts of colors! I can make out pink, blue, yellow…"

"It's too big for a village," said Miroku, standing next to her, "It looks more like a small town and quite prosperous at that. Even from here I can make out that most of the buildings are two-storied. The buildings surrounding that central lake are rather ornate. Why one of them is almost five stories high and a pagoda at that! Its multiple roofs are done with green shingles and the eaves are wondrously rounded at the ends. The walls seem to be made of stone and painted in such an astonishing shade of scarlet. And just at look at that long finial at the top. It seems to be made of gold!" He paused for a bit, collecting his breath and taking the time to observe more of the unbelievable scenery before him.

"The rest of the big buildings appear to be wider than that eye-catching pagoda; though much less ornate, or ostentatious depending on your taste. They are pretty huge though and I am guessing that they are taverns and houses for the leading men of the town. There's a stone wall surrounding the whole town and encapsulating all the dwellings. It even has ramparts and a barbican. Where most villages and towns make do with simple mud and wood fences and a few guard towers for protection, all of this gives off a hint of opulence. In all, I would say that this is a very ambitious little town hoping to attract more people and trade, to grow by leaps and bound," said Miroku, finishing his assessment.

"Yes," said Sango, "it certainly looks well defended. That stone wall is quite formidable. They look tiny from up here but I can still make out that those figures patrolling around the gate are armored soldiers. I'll need to get closer though, to get a good measure of them. Nevertheless, you can't mistake all those paddy fields engulfing the whole town in a huge circle. We are almost at the edge of them. And there are plainly dressed peasants hard at work in these fields. Since we can't see any simpler dwellings nearby I'm sure they live in this town or village. No matter how prosperous it appears, this town still relies on agriculture as its primary occupation.

"Yes, those indeed are peasants," conceded Miroku "and it's a good guess that they belong to the town. But they could have been hired by people living in the town. I think this primarily did start off as an agricultural village many years ago and used to be much smaller. This medium-sized town that we see now has surely arisen from it."

"Maybe these peasants live in those colorful cottages that I first remarked on," said Kagome. "They are smaller and plainer then rest of the buildings, plus they are far from the centre and closer to the walls."

"Perhaps you're right Kagome," said Miroku, "I think we should stop in this remarkable place and rest awhile. It's sure to have many taverns and…"

"Can you sense any fragments of the shikon jewel, Kagome," said Inuyasha, always to the point, breaking into Miroku's tirade.

"Um… no Inuyasha."

"And there's no demonic aura nearby, either. So let's move on. No point in wasting precious time here," said Inuyasha gruffly as he abruptly turned away from the site and strode off in the opposite direction without so much a by your leave from his companions.

"Wait, Inuyasha," shouted Kagome, causing the hanyou to halt mid-stride.

'Now what?' he thought. 'She's going to pester me to stop in that stupid village-town so that she can sleep in a nice clean bed and have real food for once. What is real food anyway? That spicy, savory stuff they make in these taverns isn't all that great anyway. How is it any more real from all that game I capture? Food is just food right. It's always the same whenever we come across anything that passes for civilization. Along with the others, I'm always outnumbered. What is it with these pathetic humans? Why do they always wanna relax along with good food and soft beds and listen to that stupid music that they play in some towns?'

"Inuyasha, you just finished a battle with the demon Ryukotsusei. It was one of the toughest battles you've fought yet and I think you really should have some rest before we start off for another," said Sango, in a pleading, albeit concerned voice.

"Well I emerged from it unscathed, didn't I?" said the hanyou, turning towards them with raised eyebrows and a wide grin, "besides, I just learned the backlash wave of Tessaiga. I want to practice it on a really strong demon and for that I need to find one. And one definitely won't come to me if I waste away in this town. So…"

"Well then go ahead Inuyasha. You maybe bursting with energy but I'm exhausted. Sleeping on cold, hard forest floors and living on pitiful game instead of a balanced meal day in and day out isn't exactly my idea of fun. So I'm going off to that town while you go hunt your demon and I'm staying there until I want. You can come back for me when your killing spree is over," said Kagome and mimicking his technique of not waiting for a response, she bounded off in the direction of the town. The others followed her wordlessly, astonished by her guile though nonetheless pleased and leaving a gaping Inuyasha in their wake.

'Why that… that girl,' he thought cupping his fists and gritting his teeth. She knew he wouldn't leave her and gave him no choice but to follow her to the silly town against his wishes. Cursing silently he followed the rest in as slow a pace as he could manage. 'There go another few days down the drain. As soon as we get there, Kagome and Sango will head off to the nearest inn or tavern or wherever there's good food and warm baths available. Miroku will try to sneak off to the nearest brothel, or tea house or whatever. Shippo goes wherever Kagome goes, likewise with Sango and Kirara. He could join them or just make himself scarce. No one really cared. They only needed him when there were demons to be slain or bandits to take care of. So engrossed would they be in their humanly pleasure pursuits that they'd completely forget about him… at least until they needed him.

'And why should they?' his conscience asked. The only thing that you ever do is complain. How long are you guys gonna take? You're just lazy Kagome. You humans are pathetic weaklings… and on and on and on. No wonder they hated his company.

'But I'm right,' reasoned Inuyasha to himself. Every hour that we waste here, the more time Naraku gets to collects shards and plan his insidious plots.

'Nevertheless taking a break once in a while shouldn't hurt that much' said his conscience. 'You may never admit it publicly but even you are usually grateful for the brief reprieve from those long-winded battles. You can't pull that tough-guy act with me.'

By this time, they were at the entrance of the town and Inuyasha felt encumbered by a familiar dread as he saw the scenes around him. The town's gates were wide open and there was a small queue of people carrying all sorts of wares from agricultural produce to bales of fine cloth. It must be market day. The traders were probably queued up to pay the tax on their wares. His group didn't have anything to sell and so should manage to get in without difficulty. But as they expected the sentry at gate used his rather large Nagamaki sword to block their entry.

"Halt, you cannot enter this town demon," said the sentry, addressing Inuyasha and ignoring the rest.

Miroku stepped forward and put on his most charming expression. "Oh him, he's just a half-demon and he's completely harmless. I assure you of this. I'm a holy monk who has performed countless exorcisms and sacraments on innumerable demons. Furthermore, these lovely ladies travelling with me are a priestess and a demon-slayer. Do you think that people such as us would keep the company of a harmful demon, much less vouch for him?"

The sentry appeared a bit baffled at that and he looked in turn at all their entire group, mostly focusing on Inuyasha. Shippo had morphed into a cute human girl and was desperately trying to hide his tail while Kirara was curled up into a ball on Sango's shoulder thereby avoiding suspicion.

"So you claim monk. You have a half-demon and two demons travelling with you. Who knows what havoc they can wreak in our peaceful town?"

The entire group was startled at this and they all gazed at the middle-aged, but lean and healthy looking sentry with bewildered expressions. 'How did he recognize Shippo and Kirara?' they all thought. Most curious and suspicious people were so distracted by Inuyasha that they barely paid much notice to anyone else. This man was very observant.

Even Miroku had lost his cool composure. He was the quickest to recover and quickly changed his expression to one of polite respect. "You are quite perceptive sir. We do indeed have two more demons travelling with us. But if you observe a little more carefully, you'll see that Shippo is just a little kitsune demon with nothing in his arsenal but a bag of childish tricks that can entertain much more than cause harm.

Shippo who had by now poofed into his real form gave Miroku his meanest, toughest glare. He couldn't manage to look anything else but cute, however.

"As for this nekomata here, she's our pet. She won't do any harm to anyone unless she senses malice from them. The same goes for this hanyou. You seem quite competent and from the little that I can see of your town from the outside I believe you have sufficient means to take care of any trouble within it."

"That's because we avoid it entirely by refusing entry to potential ruffians and demons," bellowed the sentry. "We are competent yes. There are more than a hundred soldiers in this town. But I don't see any reason to let your rabble in."

"Forget it Miroku," said Inuyasha. "I never go where I'm not wanted. Don't plead for me anymore. I'm tired of listening to this fat guard. You don't want us in your precious town, runt? Well don't worry. I won't step in if you begged me."

Before the guard could make a reply, a distinctly feminine scream came from behind him, shattering their cold tableau. He turned behind and a highly disheveled woman about his age appeared, carrying a crying infant in her arms. "Heisuke," she said to the guard, "There's a huge demon attacking the barracks. At least fifty men have died and many more are being slaughtered. No sooner did she say this that a screaming mob appeared behind her. There were at least thirty people, all bloody, heavily bruised with their clothing in tatters. "Help, help," screamed one as he ran at top-speed away from the rest. Another man in the mob, bleeding heavily from a huge gash on his shoulder collapsed on the mud right in front of them. They all stared at him. There was no movement. He was certainly dead but everyone was too frightened to check.

Another man, his left arm cleanly cut off, limped towards the guard who was previously addressing Inuyasha's group. "Heisuke," he murmured, "the barracks have been destroyed and the town is under attack. We did our best but the soldiers within have been slaughtered. It's up to you and the rest here to… you have to…"

Heisuke grabbed him by the shoulders and said, "What Fusazane? Did you see what manner of demon it was? Did you…"

The limping man collapsed against Heisuke and slid to the ground, never to rise again.

Another woman among the mob was more helpful. She was much less injured than the rest, with only a few bruiseson the visible parts of her body. By now all the guards at the gate had gathered around them. The other people standing around, the traders had made themselves scarce long-ago as soon as the bloody mob had appeared. Only Inuyasha and his gang remained with Heisuke and the rest.

The woman who was less injured and able to speak coherently said, "It's a terrifying, twenty foot demon. It has large fangs and white hair. It's crushing everything around it with its fists. It simply came out of nowhere only minutes ago. One moment we were standing in the market, buying necessities and the next there's screaming and bloodshed all around. I think the demon came from the west side of the town. Screaming people ran here claiming that he had destroyed the barracks and we fled with them."

Still more people poured out of the town gate. Some of them ran up to the guards. A kid with a bloody eye-socket in place of his left eye screamed, "The demon is heading toward the shrine."

A few of the others echoed the kid's message. The guards all instantly tensed up at that.

"We can't let anything happen to the shrine," said Heisuke, "Lady Sayuri is in there. We have to save her. She is the beating heart of this town"

At the mention of the word 'Lady', Miroku's ears perked up and he said, "Um… guardsmen, we shall help you defeat this demon and defend your town."

They all turned to look at him. "You, didn't I tell you and your rabble to leave. As you can see, we have enough trouble."

"We are leaving," shouted Inuyasha, "we'd never even dream of helping you."

"See how it is," said Heisuke looking at the hanyou angrily, "No sooner do demons turn up that havoc follows. This is too convenient to be a coincidence."

Inuyasha's ears twitched at that and his hand instinctively went for Tessaiga's hilt. 'If it's a fight this man wants… he thought.

Kagome noticing this, immediately caught hold of the hanyou's wrist. "Wait Inuyasha," she said fixing him with an intensely pleading gaze. It stilled him instantly. She turned to the guard. "Despite what you think of demon's, Heisuke sama, this one here can help you. Believe me when I say that he has a compassionate heart and overlook his demonic appearance for now. Me and my companions will assist you in defeating this demon. All we need is your trust."

Heisuke and the other townspeople were overcome by the passionate sincerity in Kagome's voice and appearance and they stared at her in bewilderment. Inuyasha broke the spell by saying, "Hey! He just insulted me. If you think I'm gonna help more worthless humans especially ones who insult me, then you're the dumbest wench I…"

"SIT"

Three hours later…

Inuyasha and the gang were in front of the five storied pagoda that they had previously admired from the hilltop. It was even more grand-looking up close. But no one took the time to even glance at iy now. Everyone one was occupied with the wreckage around them. The beautiful houses that had earned their enamor just an hour ago were now all leveled to the ground, with their fragments scattered around amidst human corpses and blood.

The surviving townspeople too were gathered around, some just staring blankly, some moaning out in anguish and some like Heisuke and the less injured young woman, whose name was Momoko, were organizing aid for the wounded. Kagome and Sango were with them, doing all they could to bandage, clean and comfort the injured. Inuyasha and Miroku helped some of the men to clear out the debris and search for all the corpses. It was approaching night-time and they were all exhausted with the fight and their current salvaging efforts.

Luckily the storehouses at the farther edges of the town were intact and volunteers were now bringing in hot porridge that they had cooked on a big fire out in the open. They were far from achieving normalcy, but slowly a weary calmness had settled around everyone and bit by bit, even the anguished were recovering their composure and making an effort to help.

It was close to mid night when everyone settled into exhausted slumbers, some on futons that were battered but still intact, while some on the cold hard ground. A few of the guard stood watch, sharing three hour shifts. Kagome was clustered with her companions, Inuyasha and Sango on either side of her, while the taijya had managed to keep the hanyou, Kagome, Kirara and Shippo between herself and a disappointed Miroku.

Miroku's, "Sango, when I offered to share my body heat with you I only meant that…" had earned him a jaw-breaking punch and ear splitting whack. She was confident that he wouldn't try his tricks on her. At least for tonight. Nevertheless, she kept one arm around Hiraikotsu just in case. 'There was no trusting that lecherous monk.'

The night slowly gave way to morning and they all woke up to a blazing yellow dawn. After a filling breakfast of grain porridge, everyone settled into the rebuilding efforts. Very quickly, it was time for lunch.

Inuyasha was holding a gigantic wooden wall, that was still intact and carrying it towards one of the makeshift storage sheds when Heisuke approached him. The hanyou instantly stiffened and his eyes crackled with anger. The guardsman was smiling at him though. "You have my apologies Inuyasha. You truly have a compassionate heart and noble soul. Not only did you kill the demon yesterday, you stayed behind to help rebuild our town. Anyone else would have run away."

Inuyasha just gave him a bored look at that. He was about to say that he couldn't care less about this dumb town. If not for Kagome and her subjugation command…"

"You are the most honorable half-demon I have met. Not that there is any abundance of those. In fact, there is only one other that I know of."

"If you don't mind Heisuke, I'd like to get on with whatever I'm doing…"

"Of course. But I have brought an invitation for you. Our great lady Sayuri wishes to see you. If you could take a break now and…"

"Say," said Inuyasha, throwing the large piece of wood in his hand onto a huge pile of the same. "Where was this lady of yours yesterday? I didn't see her helping with the demon or even coming out to our aid later."

"The lady Sayuri resides in our holy shrine. It's the only undamaged structure that remains standing in our town."

"You mean that great pagoda?"

"Indeed. She is a holy priestess and I'm certain that it's the enormity of her spiritual powers that left our shrine unsullied. That's why she must never come out. She is too valuable…"

"A priestess of great spiritual powers you say. Then why didn't she come out and purify the demon?"

"She cannot, she… it's only because of her that we have survived and the town still stands, although on a crippled leg."

'Oh jeez,' thought Inuyasha, 'If I hadn't been here.'

"But you must see her."

"Hmm… okay. Take me to her," he said while thinking, 'if only to get away from this useless mucking around, rebuilding and shit…'

As soon as they entered the large pagoda, Inuyasha's senses tingled as he sensed a demonic aura. 'In this shrine!' he thought.

This way, said Heisuke, leading Inuyasha to an elaborate, spiral staircase. With every step up, Inuyasha sensed the demonic energy getting stronger. What was he being led to?

They finally approached a large, gilded door that opened into a cavernous chamber. On entering, Inuyasha was momentarily stunned by the beauty surrounding him. It was like stepping into a color whorl. All around him he could see elaborate flowers of every color possible, interspersed with green leaves and shrubs. Was he in a forest? There were butterflies swirling around and grass at his feet. Where was he?

As his eyes adjusted to the riot of color he could make out a black circle in front of him in the centre of the room. At first it was unremarkable, just an aberration in the sparkling beauty around him but slowly, it started to clear and he could see a black robed, heavily veiled figure in the centre. He turned to where Heisuke was only to see that he had disappeared.

"This is all an illusion," said a feminine voice. "Only I am real."

The voice was coming from the figure in the centre and as Inuyasha realized this, the pretty scenery around him disappeared until all he could see was the black-robed, figure. Its face was hidden by heavy a black veil.

He pulled out Tessaiga and pointed it at the figure. "Who are you and what kind of trick is this?" he shouted.

"The people of this town that you're in call me lady Sayuri, a great priestess. And indeed I have led them to believe such. In the previous village that I was, they called me Reika, a great healer as I had led them to believe. You can call me…"

"Shut your trap. You're a demon. You reek of an aura that's demonic and familiar to me but I can't place it. Tell me the truth who the hell are you and…"

At that, the black figure removed her veil. It revealed a pale face, emerald eyes and long, long, white hair.

Inuyasha's eyes widened and the face before him gave a wide, pink smile. But he wasn't looking at that. Something at the top of her head captured his attention.

"As I was saying, you can call me, onee san. I am your sister."

Inuyasha's voice failed him as he stared at nothing but her ears. They were a perfect replica of his, twitching with every word she said… her scent reeked a little of his own… and of… Sesshomaru's…"

"What the hell…"