Prologue
It was a beautiful afternoon in the land of Japan. The sun shown bright and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. Forests dotted the landscapes for miles around, giving the scene a calm and peaceful feel. In a small clearing, barely enough to reveal even the larger of mammals, a group consisting of a hanyou, a monk, a slayer, two youkai and a peculiarly dressed maiden came to an abrupt stop. The girl looked around wearily, her dark brown eyes showing deep apprehension.
"InuYasha?" she said hesitantly, feeling surprisingly unwilling to state her feelings, "sense a jewel shard."
"Huh? Where is it, Kagome?" He asked, his amber eyes digging into hers.
Kagome was silent for a moment, almost debating saying that it was a mistake. She didn't have a good feeling about retrieving this particular shard, for some reason. She got a bad feeling, one that sent her miko powers into overtime. But, glancing at her monk friend's hand, she immediately pushed it away in shame.
"It's southeast…"she mumbled.
InuYasha smirked, "Southeast it is, then," He bent down to allow her access to his back. She climbed on, feeling that warm sensation she always felt when she came into contact with her hanyou friend. It was scary yet oddly comforting. Following their suit, Kirara, Sango's Two-tailed cat demon, transformed from her kitten guise into the body of a large cat, almost equaling the size of a lesser horse. Her mistress, the monk, and the demon kit Shippou situated themselves upon her broad back.
Glancing back impatiently to see if his friends were ready, for humans always took to long, InuYasha took off, his superhuman strength and speed taking both he and his cargo to amazing heights. Skimming across the forest canopy, InuYasha scented the air for any scent of iniquity, "Are we close, Kagome?"
"It's down there." She pointed to a large clearing, where, true to her extraordinary gift, a large, black oni with glossy dull-pink burn patches that InuYasha could even see from that distance. As InuYasha landed in the clearing, he noticed the eyes were neon yellow had dirty gray hair.
"Where is it, Kagome?" InuYasha asked, letting Kagome fall off his back.
Kagome shivered at the repulsiveness on the creature. "In his forehead," She said, pointing to the exact place where she saw the glowing jewel.
"Alright, then, time to take this hideous bastard down!" InuYasha yelled. He didn't bother to use his Tetsuaiga; even with the jewel shard the oni looked to be very weak. Biting his palm with his sharp canines, InuYasha prepared to use his Blades of Blood.
"Blades of—" However, he was cut short, for the oni moved at break-neck speed and backhanded InuYasha into a giant tree. The assault would have killed any human. But InuYasha wasn't entirely human, so the impact had just left him half-conscious. However, he still wasn't able to move at all and what's worse, a now very angry oni ran at him with a look of blood lust in his eyes.
With his reactions slow, Kagome knew he wouldn't be able to move out of the way in e. Sango, who had just arrived on her cat, tried to use her Hirakos to save her friend. But the oni, whose shard gave it immense speed and intelligence that it didn't otherwise have, just caught the giant bone boomerang and threw it right back. Luckily, Kirara's fast reflexes dodged the back-firing weapon. Landing to the floor, Sango ran at the oni to stall and let InuYasha gain his senses.
Miroku stood back with the cat and the kit felt helpless since although he had his Windtunnel, he couldn't use it for fear of swallow his friends or the shard up into the depths of his hand. To his utter horror, the demon slayer was thrown back by the force of the arm. He ran to her aid, Kirara and Shippou at his heels. The oni, satisfied with the slayer, turned back to hanyou.
Kagome, who stood back to assess the situation, realized there was only one option left. Her arrows. Allowing her slowly acquired miko instincts to take over, Kagome got her bow, slung the quiver over her back and mounted the arrow. Just as the oni reached for InuYasha, she shot the sacred arrow. As soon as it hit its target, the energized arrow blew the demon's outstretched hand up.
The oni made a terrifying screech and backed away from InuYasha, but only to fix its chilling sights on Kagome, its yellow eyes turning a bright red. With the same speed with which it came at InuYasha, it grabbed Kagome by the neck and rammed her in a tree. A sudden intense burst of pain caused Kagome to scream out in pain. She looked down as far as she could (for the oni's wide hand around her neck prohibited most of her view) to see, to her horror, that a bloody branch stuck out of her thigh. She felt queasy and wanted to faint, but the beast that held her aloft tightened his grip on her frail neck, reminding her that if she fainted, she would die. With that thought in her mind, the girl suddenly felt very awake. But as alert as she was, she still felt helpless as her only weapon was her bow which now lay a good 10 feet below her. Feeling panicky and slightly betrayed that no one had come to rescue her, she pounded and tugged at the hand encircling the slender column of her neck until it started throbbing and turning blue. He leaned closer to her, his yellow eyes spitting malice and perverse pleasure at her pain. He gave a low hiss, like he was laughing at her inevitable defeat.
And slowly, mockingly, the oni tightened his grip, and although the pain on her throat was excruciating, Kagome realized that it wasn't his full strength and, glancing at the bloody stump that had once been his hand, she was thankful that she had at least wounded him good for the pain on his left hand was dulling his strength, which was the only reason she wasn't suffocating.
Those thoughts brought back her spirit and her senses. She was Kagome Higurashi of Tokyo, Japan; Kagome Higurashi, whose miko powers rivaled that of her successor, Kikyo! Wasn't she the one who fought against demons like Naraku and Sesshoumaru who were over 10 times stronger than this monster? And wasn't she victorious over them every time?! She'll be damned to the seven hells if she was going to die at the hands of this weak oni!
The sudden anger and determination gave Kagome a plan. She used what strength she had and reached behind her to her crushed quiver, and yanked an unbroken arrow between her and the tree, tearing the back of her shirt and even slicing thin line on her back. She winced at the slight sting but ignored it. Using her adrenaline-induced strength, she shoved the sacred arrow into the oni's forehead. Right where the jewel was placed. The oni screamed at such a high pitch, Kagome's ear rang as she hit the forest floor 15 feet below. Pain coursed through her leg as the wound was crushed between her and the ground, filling the gaping hole with dirt. A large thud told her without even without looking that the monster was dead.
Grunting in pain, Kagome used the last of her adrenaline to push herself up and stand. Careful not to use her injured leg too much, for the slightest pressure was excruciatingly painful, she limped to the pool of blood and treaded into the warm, sticky liquid, picking up the black jewel. Upon her touch, the immediately turned light pink and its aura glowed to that of perfect. Kagome smiled and closed her hand around the jewel. Bad mistake. The pain in her leg suddenly doubled to a mind-numbing agony, making her stumble and fall.
"Kagome!" Sango, Miroku, and Shippou yelled as they ran to her. But InuYasha got there first. With his preternatural speed, he caught her just before she hit the ground and jumped out of the mass of the red liquid and laying her next to a tree.
Worry filled his golden eyes, and his voice was frantic as he took her small shoulders in his clawed hands. "Kagome, you baka! Do you realize that you could have gotten your self killed! You should have let me save you." He yelled at her almost limp form.
The wounded girl's fiery spirit woke up in spite of her horrible wounds, and she wanted so badly to retort, but as she opened her mouth, exhaustion hit her. She closed her mouth and slumped back into the tree, her eyes closing and her breathing suddenly labored. Sango saw her soul-sisters distress and exhaustion and her eyes blazed with their own fury.
"InuYasha! Now is not the time to yell at her, she's wounded badly and she just saved your ass!" Sango yelled at him, and InuYasha's ears flattened against his head. Sango never swore, so when she did you'd better back off, because she meant business.
"How far is Kaede's village, InuYasha?" asked Miroku, trying to change the subject.
"About 15 minutes away if we took Kirara," he hinted, his amber eyes quickly glancing at the full-grown cat then back on Kagome, filled with worry.
"Kirara!" Sango said urgently, and Kirara ran to her mistress and kneeled so they could mount Kagome on her back. She groaned in pain as they lifted her onto the cat's back. Kirara screeched her rebuke as InuYasha, in his haste to get to Kaede, jumped on her back rather roughly.
Kagome, whose pain was now making her delusional, laughed weakly at InuYasha. He was such a worry wart. It was only a small little hole; Kaede could heal it in no time. She tried to tell InuYasha not to worry, but before she could speak, everything went black.
sk-sk-sk-sk
Kagome woke up with pain searing in her leg. At first she couldn't figure out where she was at and almost screamed but bit it back when she heard InuYasha and Kaede. They were talking in low in voices but for some reason she could here them crystal clear.
"I don't know, Kaede. Maybe we should wait until she heals; I'll feel bad." InuYasha said, his husky voice laced with rare calm
Kagome felt fear spread through her body. What's he talking about?
"No InuYasha." Kaede rebuffed, "Her wounds are very severe, if ye wait until she is healed the whole village will be destroyed."
There was a moment of silence while InuYasha considered what she said. "Yeah, I guess we're gonna have to leave her here." He said.
It took Kagome only second to register what he just said. Furious, she stumbled to her feet, and tripped to the flap of the doorway in one long stride, wincing at the pain. Clasping the straw flap, she yanked it opened, nearly ripping it away from its place. She didn't notice.
"What do you mean your leaving me behind?" she yelled at the hanyou and elder priestess.
