Inuyasha and the power of pure sound

Dislamer: I unfortunately do not own niether inuyasha nor Kamen Rider Hibiki, both of these belong to their respective creators, the idea to blend these two however is my original creation

It is a time of great and terrible social unrest for a single corner of the world, the feudal era in Japan. Where rouges, bandits, and raging samurai traipse across the country side unchecked and unchallenged. Very few are safe from the terror of being attacked. Innocent women and children are cut down or raped, villages are burned, blood is spilled, and priceless treasures are stolen without a second thought. But with all periods of time change is due to come and the changes to the feudal era will be catalyzed by a very special group of people. And it is here that their story begins

We turn our attention towards one of the more peaceful areas of Japan, all is calm as birds sit in the trees singing their songs, while farmers work in the fields. All is calm until, a cry for action goes out. "Stop him he's getting away." 'He' is apparently a young man, with long silver hair, wearing a flowing red robe, with pair of the most feral looking yellow eyes that one has ever seen. But it is not these traits that are eye catching, its the two dog ears that stand out from the top of his head.

This strange man runs through a local village dodging the arrows and spears thrown by the villagers with incredible ease, all the while a malicious smirk plastered on his face. He then leaps a fantastic height over the armed men, landing on the roof of the local shrine. With an insidious chuckle the man rears back his right fist and with one well placed strike plows through landing inside. Using his sleeve to protect his sensitive nose from the powerful sacred incense burned inside the temple, the man finds the object of his desire. A necklace centered on the thread a between several, what appear to be bones, is a single purple jewel that shines with a radiance that could rival the sun.

Continuing his pattern the man swiftly shoots forward grabbing the necklace, mere seconds before a group of armed men plow through the temple doors knocking over incense burners starting a fire. With a sneer the dog leaps cleanly though the opposite side of the roof, again mere seconds before the building burst into flames with a colossal explosion. The man soars through the air, barely braking a sweat despite all he has done. Greedily clutching the jewel within his right hand, "Heh, at long last," he snarls with a sneer, "the opportunity to become a full demon is finally in my hands." The dog man quickly leaps across the land spanning dozens of feet within a singular jumps. But when victory is seemingly within the demons grasp, someone arises to stop him. A feminine voice rings out across the courtyard. "Inuyasha!" and there at the temple gates stands a woman, and from her attire it can be judged that she is a priestess. With an angry scowl on her face the woman pulls back the string on her bow, and after a mere second of aiming time lets the cocked arrow fly with a sharp wiz.

Her aim proves to be true for as the demon man is leaping in front of a tree the arrow strikes him in the left shoulder. The shock of the impact forces him to drop the jewel, and the speed of the projectile pins him to the tree, a look of pain twisting his face. The jewel lands on the ground with a light clink. The man now known as Inuyasha looks at his assailant, a look of confusion gracing his face. "Ki – Kikyo what, I thought ugh-" and with that the demon man passes into unconsciousness. The priestess Kikyo falls to her knees blood spurting from a deep gash on her shoulder. The various villagers rush to the aid of their priestess, among them a little girl with short black hair, wearing an orange kimono, a bandage wrapped around her right eye. The girl cries to the priestess, "sister Kikyo, sister Kikyo." One of the villagers also keels next to the Lady Kikyo, "Milady that wound -", the little girl, assumedly Kikyo's sister, finishes the man's though for him, "You're hurt really bad."

Lady Kikyo just stares at the simple jewel in her hand, "All of this, for the sacred jewel ugh." The pain of her injury quickly catches back up with Lady Kikyo, another villages steps forward and tries to help her. "Milady, you're in pain someone quickly help-." He is interrupted by the raven haired priestess, "I won't feel this pain much longer." She then turns to her sister, and with her hand shaking like a leaf passes the jewel to her. "And so I give this to you, the "Shikon no Tama," which you must burn with my body. It must not fall into the hands of those who would abuse it." And with her last breath spent the Lady Kikyo tumbles to the ground dead. Later that evening the body of the priestess is cremated with the "Shikon no Tama" in her hands, he final thought in this realm of existence is "I shall take the Shikon no Tama with me into the next world." But unknown to everyone there is another spectator to this tragedy, standing on a distant hill, is a strange warrior, his body (AN: I say he because it is difficult to tell the gender of anyone wearing Kamen rider gear) is encased from head to foot in intimidating blue armor, in his had is not a sword, nor a spear, nor an ax, but a bugle. The armored warrior simply scowls behind the visor of his helmet, turns his back to the funeral ceremony and begins to walk away, with only a single though going through his head. "Now one era ends, but another is about to begin."

The Pair Who Overcame Time and the Boy Who Was Just Overcome

Time passes, as it tends to, much to the chagrin of beautiful women everywhere. The vast fields are eventually filled to the brim with expansive cities, and the tiny village of the feudal era, has blossomed into the modern city of Tokyo. But in spite of the exciting grandness of the city our attention is focused in a very small corner of Tokyo, a small shrine placed seemingly haphazardly between the more modern buildings, the older building creating beautiful yet startling contrast in the modern street. Within the house of the compound sit two people a beautiful young woman, with long black hair, and a pair of sparkling brown eyes, wearing a pink sweat shirt and a pair of blue jeans. Sitting across from her is a elderly man wearing a priests outfit. "The Shikon no wha-?" asks the girl incredulously, the reason for the incredulousness in her voice is the small key chain in her hand across a small metallic rectangle is a short prayer, and beneath that is small marble, that looks remarkably like the purple jewel that almost started a small war many years ago. The old man replies in the wizened voice usually associated with ones elders, "The Shikon no Tama, my dear girl. "The Jewel of Four Souls"."

"Grandpa, you don't honestly think that tourists are gonna' actually buy these tacky things do you?" The old man scowls a little bit and sternly replies, "Kagome dear, that is not just a keychain, the crystal at the end is an authentic replica of an ancient jewel which, huh?" the old mans lecture apparently goes in one ear and out the other as Kagome, as now know her is using the keychain in her hand as a cat toy to play with her calico tabby "Buyo". The elder of the Higurashi family clears his through in a feeble attempt to regain his granddaughter's attention. "As I was saying, that crystal is a replica of an ancient jewel which -." Again the old man's lecture falls on deaf ears, as Kagome continues to play with Buyo. The conversation takes a different turn as Kagome changes the subject. "You do remember that it's my birthday tomorrow right?" The old man suddenly sweatdropps, whether he's embarrassed or surprised by this sudden change in conversation we'll never know for sure. The old man unsure of himself then says, "Well I was planning to wait another day but…." Kagome then interrupts her grandfather again, "So you did get me something let me see, let me see!"

In spite of her original excitement of receiving a present, her response to the gift itself proves she is less than thrilled at what she sees. In he hand is what appears to be a shriveled up alligator leg. With a large amount of pride and reverence in his voice Kagome's grandfather begins to prattle on about his gift. "That my dear, is an authentic mummified hand of a water imp that many years ago…" with a deadpan look on her face Kagome slowly lowers the "Water imp hand" down to Buyo's level and simply says. "Here Buyo, Eat." The cat grabes the mummified "demon remains" and takes off like a shoot, Kagome's grandfather close behind him shouting something about it being a antique or some such nonsense.

Kagome V.O: Replica this authentic that: everything here has a story.

Later that evening the family is sitting down to dinner, Grandfather Higurashi going into another one of his stories, this one a bit more bizarre than the others. "I tell you these pickles are full of history." "Not half as full as you are." Kagome replies in a deadpan manner.

Kagome V.O: That's me Kagome Higurashi, age 15. The old man sitting in-front of me is my Grandfather, he's the head priest of our shrine, not that there are any other priests here any way. The squirt to my right is my little brother Souta, he's okay as far as little brothers go. The woman to my left is my mom, she loves me very much.

Meanwhile in darkening twilight we see someone walking down the street towards the shrine. Well walking is actually an understatement, what this person is doing is literally dancing down the street. (A.N: play climax jump hip hop version) Closer examination reveals this person to be a young man either sixteen or seventeen years old with a big smile plastered on his face. He has short brown hair, wearing a simple black t-shirt under a grey jacket and a pair of jeans. His lively brown and bespectacled eyes are closed at the moment focusing on one of his accessories, the large headphones over his ears, clearly being the source of his desire to dance, and blocking out most outside distractions. He leaps and jumps around in a manner that would make most street dancers green with envy. As he moves up the shrine steps he pulls something out of the pocket on his jacket, and as the song blaring through his headphones comes to a close he pulls them off and knocks the door in-front of him, at this moment only one thought goes through his head. "I hope Kagome likes what I got her."

Inside the Higurashi home the knock on the door was clearly heard by the small family sitting down for dinner. Kagome seeing this as an opportunity to get away briefly from her grandfathers ramblings quickly shoots up from her place at the table. "I'll get it." Then as if she was shot out of a gun she rushes to the front door. Spending a second to make herself a smidge more presentable she slowly opens the door. "Excuse me, does a Miss Kagome Higurashi live here?" Before Kagome can give her reply the young man quickly interrupts her. "I don't hear an answer." Kagome simply giggles at her friends silly antics, "Konichiwa Jin." Her male friend smiles back at her, thinking "Kami-sama she has a beautiful smile," but simply saying "Konichiwa Kagome-chan."

Kagome V.O.: That's my good friend Jin Shirinui, an exchange student from America. When I first met him I thought he was kind of weird, but now that I've known him for over a year now I realized, that he is a little weird, but it's part of his charm I guess is what you would call it. He has a couple little quirks that make him who he is. The first gets on the nerves of the teachers constantly, he almost always wears those headphones and he is almost always listening to music, unless he's talking to someone that's when he takes them off. Another thing is that when my other friends and I first met him he was very shy around us, as he is around most people that he only just met, but now that we know him and he knows us, his personality did a complete 180 becoming one of the most emotionally open people I know. The last I still can't fully figure out, and that is the bizarre necklace he has around his neck, it's a simple string connected to a weird looking ornament, that for all intents and purposes looks like a small tuning fork. When I asked him about it, he said that is was something his late grandfather left him after he died, so I stopped asking about it after that. But there is something about it, whenever I look at it I get a weird feeling that I can't fully explain.

"So Jin what brings you out here at this time of night?" "well I was busy working on something and…" Jin's explanation is cut short as Kagome's mom comes wandering into the hall. "Who's as the door dear?" But upon seeing who is standing outside, Mrs. Higurashi suddenly gets a very wide smile on her face and then speaks to Jin in a seemingly overly polite manner. "Well, konichiwa Jin." Jin's eyes widen slightly and sweatdrops nervously. "Um, konichiwa Higurashi-san." Truth be told if it wasn't for Kagome's mom, the two probably wouldn't be as good friends as they are today, it was her that suggested that Kagome try to reach out to Jin and try to make friends with him, stating that he was probably shy and lonely and just needed someone to talk to. Long story short the two hit it off pretty quickly, and once she saw how handsome and how polite, and kind Jin is she made no secret in the fact that she thought the two would make a good couple, so she would try often to get the two together, alone, in the hopes that they would confess their feelings to one another. Needless to say the two teenagers quickly become embarrassed to almost no end when Kagome's mom gets involved with their relationship.

"So Jin what brings out here this evening?" asked Kagome's mom. "Well you see, I was working on something and I was hoping to give it," he is interrupted again by Kagome's mom, "I sure you can wait a little bit, you see we were just about to sit down and eat dinner, would you like to join us?" Jin caught in an unfamiliar situation sputters and stammers nervously. "W-well I-I wouldn't want to impose." "Oh, nonsense" replies Mrs. Higurashi, "you know you're always welcome into our home, come in sit down," nearly pulling poor Jin into the house, and his arm off in the process, whilst he cries "well if you insist." Kagome blushes atomic red at her mom's forwardness with her friend, she couldn't remember a time after she introduced Jin to her mom, when she didn't have to stress that she and Jin are just friends, nothing more. But her mom didn't want to seem to listen. When she returned to the table, she seen that her mom had somehow managed to convince Sota to scoot over and allow Jin to sit in his original spot putting him right next to her, her blush advances from atomic to full body, she quietly sits down next to her friend the two quietly glancing towards each other than quickly averting their gaze in pure embarrassment.

"So Jin what are you doing out here tonight?" Asks Sota, "well as I was saying, I know Kagome's birthday is tomorrow and I was going to give this to her after school but well, I just decided that the sooner I take care of this, the better." Jin then reaches back into his pocket and pulls out a square object wrapped in simple blue paper with a gold ribbon bow on top, "Happy early Birthday Kagome-chan." Kagome excitedly takes the package out of Jin's hands, "if you want to open it now go ahead." Gingerly Kagome unwraps the package, revealing a CD case, with a CD inside titled, "K-chans B-day mix", Jin then begins to explain the meaning of his gift "You see this is why I asked you who your favorite bands were last week, I've been busy making this, I hope you like it, it's got their best songs on there." Kagome looks the gift over for a little while before turning to her friend and then saying, "I love it thank you Jin." Punctuating the sentence with a quick peck on the cheek, to whit Kagome's grandfather starts sputtering at the audacity of a public display of affection between two people who are not man and wife, Sota responds as any little brother would, by making gagging sounds, Kagome's mom's smile gets even wider proving that it was indeed physically possible to do so, and the two teenagers simply blush in embarrassment. Each for a different reason, at this moment Kagome is thinking, "Oh no, why did I do that? I feel like such an idiot right now." While Jin had one thought rolling through his stunned and currently hormone addled teenage brain, "She kissed me, she kissed me."

The next morning we find Kagome ready to head to school, wearing the female uniform for her high school, a white shirt tied off with a red ribbon, and a green skirt. She heads out the front door calling back inside to her mom, "Mom, Jin's here were heading off to school now." "Okay sweetie you two have fun now." replies her mom, causing Kagome to blush for the nth time in less than 14 hours. As she walks off to meet Jin in front of the compound, she sees Sota standing in front of the well house. "Hey, what are you doing?" she asks, Sota turns towards his older sister, revealing that he's holding a bowl of cat food, and replies with a nervous sounding, "Nothing!" Kagome puts her hands on her hips a adapts the superior older sibling tone, "You're not supposed to play in there you know." Sota then replies, "I'm not, it's the cat." They both stare into the dark building unable to see old Buyo with the limited amount of light created by the open door. Both begin to wonder "did he go into the well?"

As they both begin to contemplate what to do, Jin comes dancing up in his usual manner. "Hey, Kagome-chan what's the hold up we're gonna' be late to class." Kagome turns around, "sorry Jin we just have a little bit of a situation here." "Well what kind of situation, I might be able to help." Kagome stops and thinks for a minute, before finally deciding, "why not, well probably need some help to get this done fast, okay here's the situation, our cat Buyo has probably wandered into the well house, and we need to get him out." Jin simply scoffs, and a confident smirk crawls across his face, "is that all? Then you came to the right person, I love cats and cats love me, this shouldn't take 50 seconds if we all look together." Sota gulps nervously, "why do I have to go?" Kagome turns to her little brother and with an annoyed look on her face and responds. "because you were the one looking for him in the first place." Suddenly a gentle scratching sound comes from inside the building, Sota begins to shake a little, "there's something down there!" Kagome turns to her "chicken" of a brother "yeah: the cat duh." Jin frowns a little bit at the brief moment of brother/sister rivalry, "come on Kagome it wont take us more than a whole minute if we look together."

As the pair begin to walk down the stairs towards the well, Kagome begins to notice something strange, she then thinks to herself "that sound it's coming from inside the well." Then something brushes against her leg and she lets lose a panicked scream "Kyaa!" Jin leaps up from looking under the staircase while Sota falls on his seat from shock. "what, what happened, what?" asks the older boy franticly. Of course the source of the fuss is the reason they came in here in the first place. "there you are you naughty kitty, you're gonna' make us late for school today aren't ya, aren't ya." Says Jin as he picks up the pudgy pussy cat, his one man dialog with the cat quickly regressing into baby talk. Sota then points an accusing finger at his older sister, "you did that on purpose, your just making of me because I'm scared and then your all, ahgh!" Kagome then gives her brother the stink eye while retorting, "look who's talking Mr. "why do I hafta' go?""

Suddenly an eerie purple glow begins to permeate the cover on the well, the glow gets brighter, and brighter until Sota can notice it, "Sis behind you!" he shouts. There is a loud crash rings throughout the tiny building as the cover on the well explodes off, sending large splinters of wood everywhere. The strange light begins to solidify and then grabs Kagome, Jin whips around tossing Buyo towards the stunned Sota, "Kagome grab my hand." Calls Jin reaching out, Jin takes his friends hand as the strange rapidly solidifying energy drags the hapless girl down the well, "I got ya' K-chan, I got ya'!" Jin's efforts, while brave prove futile as he too begins to tumble down the well, a thought then occurs to the courageous young man "choktomata, I may have Kagome but whose got me?" as the two friends tumble down the well, the energy reveals itself to be a monstrous woman, with six arms and a long tail made of bone replacing her lower half. The creature then speaks, "I live again, my strength is returning." Jin's eyes widen in shock and fear as the long bone tail re-grows flesh changing into the lower body of a centipede. The demon woman looks at Kagome's frightened face and realizes something, "You have it don't you? Give it to me." Licking the terrified girls face with a tongue that would make Gene Simmons jealous.

Kagome then thrusts her palm forward in an attempt to throw the monster off of her. "What are you doing let go of me?" "Yeah let go of her you freak!" But Kagome's thrust does more damage then Jin's struggling, as her forward palm unleashes a small wave of pink energy removing one of the centipede lady's arms at the shoulder, but even this does not deter the demon. "Foolish girl I must have the sacred jewel." It was then Jin did something that actually helped, or to be more precise his tuning fork did, the strange energy of this "between zone" causes a strange reaction with Jin's family heirloom, causing it to release powerful sound waves, and when the demon hears the high pitched noise, the reaction is almost instant, using her remaining uppermost arm she trys to block out the sound, but lacking another arm high enough to cover her ears she finds herself writhing in agony. "This noise, stop it, stop it now!" Jin seeing her reaction grabs his lucky charm and holds it closer to the bug woman, "back, back you monster." It is only now that the demon lets the two teenagers go, finally dropping them both to the bottom of the well, next to her disembodied arm. After a few moments Kagome is the first to fully recover her wits. "I guess we fell into the well." Jin then shakes his head to fully disperse the rapidly developing cobwebs in his brain. "Then what was that whole thing with the hands down winner of the ugliest woman in the universe contest." Kagome then closes her eyes in concentration. "Maybe we hit our heads or something." Jin casts a quick glance towards the demon woman's arm that lays lifeless nearby. "And then we both have the same dream that seems unlikely."

"Well whatever happened it's over now." Kagome then turns up to the top of the well and yells upwards. "Hey, Sota go get grandpa." Kagome's request for help is met only with silence. "He probably took off, the little twerp." "Well we'll worry about him later, come on we can use these vines to climb out." The two slowly traverse their way up to the opening emerging not in the shrine as they expected, but in the middle of a forest. Kagome looks around nervously trying to find any sign of her home. "What the-? Jin I could be wrong, but I don't think we're in Tokyo any more." The two recover from the stunning sight, just enough to try and find their way back to the shrine. "Sota, grandpa, Mom, where are you?" "Sota, Higurashi-sama, oyaji, anybody!" after looking around for several minuets both teenagers begin to get even more worried. "Okay this is weird, its almost like your family shrine hasn't even been." Jin is unable to finish his though as Kagome finally sees a familiar landmark. "Oh! Jin look, it's the tree." and sure enough standing as tall and majestic as ever was the sacred tree that was the center of the Higurashi family shrine. "This means were practically back to my home." But Kagome's feelings of relief and elation are cut short as she comes across a bizarre sight. There on the tree surrounded by thick vines is the same silver haired man who caused so much trouble, only a little while ago. At this time Jin can only comment, "now there's something you don't see every day." The bespectacled boy's musings are cut short as Kagome gets closer and closer to the strange looking boy. "What the, Kagome get back here!"

As the raven haired girl gets closer to the silver haired youth she realizes something very unusual about his anatomy. "Wow! Jin, this guys got ears on the top of his head, almost like dog ears." She then muses to herself, "I feel like I want to touch them." Suddenly from behind the unusual trio an angry voice yells towards them, "Hey get away from there!" Kagome squeaks in surprise as several arrows wiz past her, embedding themselves in the tree. The two active youths turn around finding themselves surrounded by a group of angry looking men with bows and arrows. One man apparently their leader steps forward and speaks in a commanding tone, "strangers surrender yourselves now." Jin then thinks to himself. "That is definitely not just a suggestion, but I cant let them hurt Kagome." He then turns towards his slightly younger friend. "Kagome stay where you are I'll deal with these guys." The leader speaks again, "I won't say it a third time, surrender now or we will need to use force." Jin's face creeps upwards into a confidant smirk as he places his headphones over his ears. "If you guys want to mess with me I should warn you all right off the bat, I'm pretty strong."

(A.N. : play double action gun form) The brown haired boy then leaps into action, using his hip hop moves to kick, punch, and throw any one who gets to close to him, all the while having a wild grin on his face. "This is awesome I've been wanting to cut loose for a while now." Everything seems to be going well, until one of the men manage to sneak pass Jin's defences and grabs Kagome. "Jin help me!" Jin whips around to see that his friend is in trouble, "hold on Kagome I'll-" Jin's personal call to arms is cut short when another man sneaks up behind him during his period of distraction and knocks the would be defender unconscious with a sharp blow to the back of the head. Jin's last coherent thought after is a simple phrase. "Aw geeze, the back of my head." But all that comes out of his lips is a nonsensical mumble sounding along the lines of, "Gigagoble." (A.N: stop playing double action gun form)

When Jin finally regains consciousness he finds his arms and legs bound tightly his backpack and all his other gear missing, including his glasses, which strangely enough haven't fallen off once during this entire episode. The first thing he hears both relives and pains him, as Kagome shouts at the collected villagers, "you didn't have to tie us up you know! My friend was only trying to protect me. " her tirade however is left unheard as the various villagers mutter speak amongst themselves. "such strange clothes they wear." "Do you think its war?" "Of course it is and during the harvest season of all times." "Do you think they are demons in disguise?" "If the girl isn't the boy surely is he fights like a demon." The rest of these various conversations are promptly ignored by Kagome as she suddenly hears a very familiar voice near by. "Oh, my head, did some one get the license number of that wrecking ball." Kagome then looks down at her friend, "Jin are you okay." Jin then looks up at his raven haired companion, "yeah, yeah I'm fine just point out the guy who sucker punched me so I can return the favor." Kagome just sweatdropps at Jin's attempts of machismo, "Um, Jin haven't you noticed something weird about these people." Jin carefully glances around squinting hard at them, "not really for you see I'm kind of missing something right now." Upon realizing that her friend is no longer wearing his glasses she then corrects her mistake. "Oops, sorry, well all of the men here are wearing topknots it's almost like Japan during medieval times." There conversation is stopped when a man shouts out to the crowd. "Make way for the High Priestess Lady Kaede." Both teens turn to see, more in Kagome's case than Jin's an elderly woman wearing red and white priestess robs holding a bow in her right hand, with an eye patch over her right eye. Both teens wonder the same thing "Now what?" The old woman then digs into a pouch at her side ad withdraws a handful of white powder. She then throws it at the two teenagers. "Demons be gone!" "Hey!" yells both youths. Jin then accidentally swallows some of the white powder revealing it to be purifying salts. "I like salt as much as the next guy but this is ridiculous." He thinks to himself. Kagome then yells at the elderly priestess, "hey, were not demons okay." "Ye, be not?" asks the older woman with a look of confusion on her face. "Then why were ye both found in the forest of Inuyasha?" one of the villagers then tries to take a guess at the origin of the two companions. "May haps they are spies from another village." Lady Kaede turns to this man and speaks to him. "If this be true then they both be fools of the highest caliber. Why would they spy on a village as poor as ours." It is then that the holy woman gets a good look at Kagome's face, the priestess then gains a look of surprise on her face. Kaede then kneels down to the level of the two friends and then roughly cups Kagome's face in her withered hands. "Let me have a look at ye, yes it is there but how?" Jin only has one thought going through his mind at this moment. "Okay, just what is going on here?"

Later as the moon rises both teens sit in the hut of Lady Kaede, after the subject of who's friend and who's foe has been fully resolved, the elderly priestess then hands the two youths each a bowl of simple stew. "Wow, this looks great" comments Kagome, "real food at last," says Jin. "Bear us no ill will children," says Kaede "for tho' I see that neither of you mean us any harm, in these troubled times of war no stranger may be welcomed amongst us without deep distrust." Kagome then turns to Jin an then states the obvious. "So I guess we really aren't in Tokyo huh?" "I guess not." The old priestess looks at the two strangely clad youths with a confused look on her face. "To-Ki-Yo? Never heard of it is that where your people are from?" Jin then decides to clear any future confusion. "It's where Kagome's people are from Miko-san I am from else where in the world, I was just on a special training trip." Kagome just has a confused look on her face, brought on by Jin's unique explanation, "Uh, right what he said, so we should get going." But she finishes her thought in her mind with, "although I have no idea how were going to get back though." Kaede then flashes back to the day many years ago when the priestess Kikyo died and asked that the sacred jewel be cremated with her body. "It has been fifty years since that tragic day."

Meanwhile outside something stirs in the grass around the village, something big, something evil, and something familiar. There is a loud crash as the evil entity begins to tear the village apart. Kaede and the two youths rush out of the hut in response to the panicked cries of the villagers. "What's going on?" yells Jin over the din of the noise. Then they see it, "kami-sama" mumbles Kagome in fright, "you again!" yells Jin in anger at the giant centipede woman. The demon woman lowers her head until it is level with the three spectators, and hisses at them. "Give me the sacred jewel!" She rushes past them knocking them all off of their feet. Lady Kaede turns to Kagome a look of pure shock plastered on her face. "The sacred jewel? Ye still bear it?" Kagome just looks over at the old woman, "I have no idea, I mean I've heard of the jewel but I don't," "Kagome look out!" yells Jin as the monster woman turns around to try another pass. It was then the girl had a revelation, "that thing, it's after me." One of the villagers then turns to the priestess, "Lady Kaede our spears and arrows have no effect on it." The old woman contemplates the situation for a moment. "Then we must lead it to the dry well." And now it is Jin's turn to have a revelation. "The dry well, the well we climbed out of." Kagome then turns to lady Kaede, and asks her an important question, "which way to the forest?" Before Kaede can reply Kagome takes off in a seemingly random direction. "Where the light is coming from right?" "Kagome wait up!" Calls Jin as he rushes after his friend, pausing only a moment to grab a large scythe from an unconscious farmer commenting, "I need this a lot more than you do right now." As Kagome runs from Madame centipede her mind runs a mile a minute, "someone will save me right? They've got to." "Mom, Grandpa, anybody please. Somebody help me!"

Meanwhile deep in the woods the sleeping young man in the red robe, begins to twitch and stir. His eyes open, a malevolent sneer on his face "I smell it at last, the blood of the woman that killed me, and its getting closer." Kagome continues to run into the forest with the centipede demon hot on her heels. "The Jewel give it to me." "I've already told you I don't have it." The centipede demon lashes out at Kagome, missing the girl by a hair but causing the ground underneath her to explode violently throwing her into the air, and with a hard thud she lands in-front of the great tree. She then hears a masculine voice not the gentle and caring voice of Jin but this one is rough and almost malignant. "Hello Kikyo, playin' with bugs now are we?" Kagome looks up in surprise at the red clad, silver haired youth who stares back at her. Kagome thinks to her self. "Did he just talk?" And then finally says, "So, you are alive." The boy scoffs at Kagome, "why are you taking so long to kill it. Just finish it off like you finished me." Inuyasha pauses his tirade briefly to take note of "Kikyo's" outfit. "You look pretty dumb there Kikyo. The Kikyo I know wouldn't waste time." By Kagome is irritated to no end, "That does it. Kykio, Kykio, Kykio, whoever she is, she's not me because my name is -" once again an emotional tirade gets cut short as Inuyasha the comments, "she's heeree." Kagome whips around to see Madame Centipede mere inches away from her. But she is then saved as several of the villagers have launched arrows with ropes into the bug demons sides using them to yank the monster away from Kagome. Kagome lets out a relieved sigh "So I was saved." Inuyasha then scoffs at Kagome a second time. "You've gotten pathetic Kikyo." That is when Kagome has had enough, the whips back towards Inuyasha and begins yet another emotional tirade. "Look I'm telling you I AM NOT KYKYO! Whoever she is." Inuyasha scoffs yet again, "and I'm telling you have to be her. 'cause if you weren't you wouldn't smell so-" Inuyasha pauses to take a whiff of Kagome's scent and then realizes, "you're not her." "That's what I've been trying to tell you, my name is Kagome, Kah-Goh-Meh." Inuyasha simply looks away scoffing for the nth time today, "you're right Kikyo was cuter, much cuter." "what did you say?" Kagome's verbal assault on the dog boy is halted in its tracks as the centipede woman grabs Kagome yet again. In a panic Kagome grabs the closest anchor possible, Inyuasha's long hair. "Ow, ow, ow let go will you."

As Inuyasha gets closer and closer to suffering premature balding, someone very familiar has finally managed to catch up with everyone. With a cry of, "LET HER GO!" Jin leaps high into the air his "borrowed" scythe flashing in the moon light. Jin brings his scythe down to try and sever one of the demons arms, but is knocked aside as easily as a fly. Jin flies back and finally stops his unexpected flight time when he crashes violently into a nearby tree with a sickening crunch, and a pained moan of "not exactly my proudest moment, is it." Seeing her friend hurt in such an extreme manner Kagome lashes out at the demon women. "LEAVE HIM ALONE." And with another display of the amazing power she showed while falling down the well she causes several more of the demon woman's arms off. She stares wide eyed at her accomplishment and then thinks to herself, "I did that before, in the well. But how did I do it?" Suddenly a bright purple light begins to shine from within Kagome's left side. "Now what's happening." Madam centipede charges again burying her sharp teeth into Kagome's side, tossing her into the air. Following a violent spurt of blood, a familiar purple jewel also starts flying through the air. One thought comes to Kagome's mind at this time "it came from inside me. Is that the sacred jewel?" Kagome then tumbles to the ground with a loud thud, followed shortly afterwards by the sacred jewel with a light tink. Inuyasha then starts yelling at Kagome. "Hey you, give the sacred jewel." Kagome is unable to process this request before the centipede demon attacks again, this time opting to wrap her impossibly longer lower half around the two trying to crush the poor girl. The Chilopoda (A.N: scientific name for centipedes) laughs maniacally at the pain and misery of the two, leaning in close to gloat about her victory. "I'd heard that there was a half-demon spawn that yearned for the sacred jewel. It must be you isn't it?" Both Kagome and the barely conscious Jin are confused by this statement and both ask themselves the same question. "Half-demon? Just what is this guy?"

Inuyasha's mouth splits into a confident smirk, "tche, half is all I need to beat your scaly hide. Anything more than that and it would be a waste of my time just looking at you." Kagome then looks up at Inuyasha and then asks him an important question. "Hey listen, you can talk big but can you back it up." Inuyasha simply scoffs yet again, "better than your human friend could." Jin somehow manages to hear this from fifty yards away and decides to respond. "Hey dog boy, at I did more in past fifty minutes than you have all day. So how bout you think twice before you decide to insult somebody." Madam centipede turns towards Jin and yells at the boy "SILENCE, human filth. Before I finish the job that the tree behind you so kindly started." Jin simply scowls at the demon woman, his eyes ablaze with insubordination and courage. Madame centipede turns back towards the pinned couple and continues gloating, "and as for you two what can either of you do when your pinned to that tree." Madam centipede bends down and using her freakishly long tongue to scoop up and swallow the jewel while saying, "you are all powerless to stop me." The collected villagers then begin to panic, "it swallowed the jewel!" "Lady Kaede what are we going to do now." All those gathered there watch in fear and in some cases fascination as the arms that were removed reattach themselves to Madame Centipede's sockets. "It's rearming itself." Says Kagome, forcing Jin to use all of his willpower to prevent himself from face-faulting from the horrible yet unintentional pun, thereby prompting further injury. Madam Centipede convulses for a few seconds before the human like skin covering its upper torso explodes off of her like a second skin reveling a more hideous visage beneath it. "ugh, and I thought she was ugly before," comments Jin. If Madam centipede heard this comment she either chose to ignore it or to deal with the impudent human later, she simply reveled in the new found power that accompanied her transformation. "At last" she shrieked "my power is complete." Her grip on Kagome and Inuyasha begins to tighten, forcing the girl to groan in pain as she feels her bones begin to give and her lungs start to collapse under the pressure. "It's crushing me!" Inuyasha then looks down at Kagome and then asks her a simple question, "hey, can you pull out this arrow?" Kagome looks up and the "half-demon" with a confused look on her face. Inuyasha then asks again, "I said can you pull this arrow out or not?" Then lady Kaede yells towards the pinned pair, "NAY, child do not remove the arrow. If it is pulled from his body Inuyasha will be free to destroy us all." Jin then snaps awake from his stupor at this comment, "destroy us all, that doesn't sound like a very good thing to me Kagome-chan." Inuyasha then yells at everyone, "at least with me you all have a chance whereas that," gesturing towards the mutated Madam centipede, "thing's gonna' eat you." He then turns to Kagome, "and what about you, are you ready to die yet?" Kagome struggles internally for a moment, "I don't know what I should do." She thinks to herself, "but given the choice," and at the top of her lungs she proclaims her decision to everyone present. "I chose to live."

With a bright flash of pink light the arrow binding Inuyasha to the tree disappears, everyone around has the eyes wide in shock and aw. "It's gone, my sisters has vanished." Jin knowing Kagome the longest is the most surprised. "What just happened here?" Inuyahsa's body pulses with power and he begins to snicker sinisterly. And with an amazing burst of power Inuyasha breaks free of Madam Centipede's bonds. Allowing Kagome to fall free and hit the ground with a thud, amongst the shredded pieces of Madam Centipede's lower body. Jin then rushes, (read: hobbles), over to her side. "Kagome are you alright?" But instead of immediately answering her friends question she stares in awe at the raw power that the two demon combatants are showing, (A.N: play Real Action) Madam Centipede shrieks in pain and anger, "wicked child!" Inuyasha turns towards the insect woman his claws extending to their maximum length, "nasty hag!" Madam Centipede growls viciously and charges the Hanyo boy, but with a cry of "IRON REAPPER SOUL STEALER!" Inuyasha shreds Madam Centipede's torso spilling insectoid gore all around him. (A.N: stop playing Real Aciton)Jin then turns to his stunned companion and says to her, "well one thing we know for certain now, he is strong." Kagome just nods dumbly at her friend's observation. But she is then shocked out of her stupor when the shredded pieces of madam centipede begin to quiver and shake, Jin shoots up in surprise "Ho, my god!" he screams. Kagome then begins to panic and she also shoots up into a sanding position clinging to her friend in fear, "it's still moving." Kaede moves forward and begins to speak to the young girl. "Find the glowing flesh quickly young one. That is where the jewel will be, it must be removed at once lest the flesh of Madam Centipede revives itself." Kagome looks at the old priestess incredulously, "tell me your joking." Jin then comments with surprise clear in this voice, "We might have to go through all of that again?" Kagome begins to rapidly look around the various chunks of flesh, until she sees one that glows with the unusual purple light. "There that one, right there." The elderly priestess keels down next to the body and removes the glowing stone, causing the various pieces of the demon to rot away leaving only the bones. "Talk about a crash diet." Jokes Jin, causing Kagome to look over at her friend with an "are you serious?" look in her eye.

The priestess the gingerly places the jewel in Kagome's hand. Kagome looks at the tiny yet powerful sphere in her hand, "what's this for?" "Only ye may posses the sacred jewel." States the wizened priestess, "ye, who resembles the dead Kikyo." She adds to herself mentally. "But how did it get inside my body?" Asks Kagome, "yeah" adds Jin, "what would you be doing with a jewel wanted by demons?" Inuyasha the reminds everyone of his presence by crushing some of Madam Centipede's bones beneath his feet. "Exactly, humans can't use it so why bother keeping it?" The hanyo cracks his knuckles allowing his claws to extend themselves again. "So, if you hand over the jewel right now, I won't have to start sharpening my claws on you." Both Jin's and Kagome's eyes widen in shock. "Aw great, now we got to deal with the guy who killed our first problem." Jin's comment is audible to all but Kagome's shock prevents stuns her into silence so what she thinks is only heard by her own mental ears. "You mean to tell me he's not the hero?"

Next time: The seekers of the Sacred Jewel, and its guardians.