Prologue

"Are you sure we can do it?", the young half-demon asked.

"Absolutely," the young girl answered. "The Shikon-no-Tama makes demons more powerful by enhancing their demon blood, so it should make your human blood dominant, if you wanted it to."

Presently, Inuyasha and Kikyo were sitting side by side, discussing their future together. Inuyasha had always wondered if there was a way to permanently suppress his demonic aura, like during the new moon. On the beach with Kikyo, he had voiced this. They were getting set to be married, and he had wondered if there was a way to become full human. As a child, he had been shunned by both demons and most humans, each hating the half that wasn't their kind. The last thing Inuyasha wanted for his children was a life as hard as his, and he would do anything to prevent it. That is where the legend of the Shikon-no-Tama, the Jewel of the Four Souls, had been mentioned. To fully awaken his human blood and to purge his demon side, such an end could be achieved.

"But it is just a legend, after all," Inuyasha sighed.

"All legend stems from truth," Kikyo retorted.

Smiling, Inuyasha wrapped his arm around Kikyo, pulling her closer. She rested her head on Inuyasha's chest, and they stayed like that until long after the sun had set.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

CLANG CLANG CLANG

Inuyasha woke with a start. That was the alarm warning the whole village of danger.

"PIRATES!!"

Inuyasha didn't need any further prompting. Bolting from his bed he paused only to put on his Fire Rat kimono and grab his keepsake from his father. Sword in hand he rushed out side. Pirates, both human and demon, were pillaging the village, setting fire to looted houses and businesses, and killing all resisters. Inuyasha's only thought was of Kikyo's safety, and he took off toward the direction of her house. He knew Kikyo was a master marksman, as long as she had a gun, be it pistol or rifle, she could take care of herself, just as Inuyasha's skills rested on blades.

Turning the final corner to Kikyo's street, he heard gunshots. He smiled when he saw her. She had her choice pistol and was defending her little sister. As soon as Kikyo saw Inuyasha, she ran to him. After embracing, Kikyo told her sister to go into their house and to stay there. Meanwhile Kikyo and Inuyasha ran to help the rest of the village.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the offending pirate's ship, the captain was consulting with his Third mate.

"Are you sure the he is here," the Captain asked. "We cannot afford to be wrong."

"Yes, Captain. I could hear his thoughts the moment we made landfall. We will find the Chosen One."

At that point, the captain gave a grin evil enough to put the Devil himself to shame.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Deciding they could protect more people, Kikyo and Inuyasha split up. Transforming Tetsigia, Inuyasha killed pirate after pirate. All the demons were weak worm and snake yokia, and the humans were just that, human. The only thing that was threatening was the sheer number of pirates, no matter how many he killed, they just kept coming.

That same thought ran through Kikyo's mind at that moment, so she fought her way back to her house to check on her sister, Kiede. When she reached her house, or what was left of it, she almost collapsed.

"KIADEE!!!"

Kikyo ran in and hastily followed the trail of destruction that ultimately led to her sister, broken and bleeding. Among other things, she had a broken arm, and was out an eye.

"Who did this to you, what did they look like?!" Kikyo demanded.

"It…It was…him….Inuyasha."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"INUYASHA!!!"

"Kikyo, thank goodness you're…."

Inuyasha stopped short as Kikyo raised her gun against him, tear stains lined her cheeks.

"Kikyo what are you.."

"It was you, you brought them here. You hurt my SISTER!!"

"What? Why would I bring pirates here, they took my mother, my father, everything and everyone I loved, for what reason would I bring them here."

"The Shikon-no-Tama. A little convenient that they came right after I told you about it, isn't it? Your going to use it to become full demon. You betrayed us. You sold us out to pirates."

"Where are you getting this?"

"Kiede. Thought you killed her, didn't you? She's tougher than you think. As you beat her you gloated about how you fooled every one. How you fooled me…"

"Kikyo…"

"I don't want to hear your lies, do you think I would believe you over my own sister?"

"I didn't do any of those things! You have to believe me!"

"SHUT UP!" Kikyo shouted as a new torrent of tears fell from her eyes. Her body posed to shoot, a posture Inuyasha saw countless times. It rang true to Inuyasha that staying and trying to talk some sense into Kikyo was no longer an option. If he was to live, he had to run.

Kikyo pulled the trigger before Inuyasha had taken one step, the bullet ripped into his shoulder. Inuyasha cried out once, and woke up.

The Beginning

Waking from his dream, Inuyasha clutched his shoulder and one of the only two scars on his body. The other was on the back of his shoulder, where the same bullet had exited his body.

"Another reason I hate being human," he mumbled, once the phantom pain had subsided. Once a month, during the new moon, Inuyasha became human, and he always had the same dream over and over, a dream of that day.

Knowing that he would never get back to sleep, the black haired Inuyasha got out of his bed, crossed his captain's quarters, and opened a glass cabinet. From it, he took a goblet and a bottle of rum. He poured himself a full glass, then drained it in one gulp. Even as a human, Inuyasha could hold his liquor with the best of them, but with an empty stomach, and tired body, around the fourth glass, a slight blush colored his cheeks.

Hearing his captain's cry, but knowing the reason, his first mate and best friend, Miroku, knocked on Inuyasha's cabin door.

"Inuyasha, are you all right?"

"WADDU'YA WAN', MROKU!"

Miroku sighed, knowing that his friend had drunken himself into a stupor. Letting himself in, he found Inuyasha in a sad state. Three long forgotten, empty bottles littered the floor, and a fourth was clutched in Inuyasha's hand. Every month it was the same.

"Bad dream?" Miroku asked, but fully aware of the answer.

"Mmm…" was all Inuyasha could manage, though with a slightly sobered expression on his face, one of pain.

"Come on, Captain," Miroku said, wrapping one of Inuyasha's arms around his neck to steady his captain and friend as he guided him back to bed, kicking bottles out of the way as he went. Prying the final bottle from Inuyasha's hand, and taking a swig himself, Miroku laid his friend down, and left the cabin.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

After being shot by Kikyo and fleeing the village, Inuyasha's heart hardened.

"She believes that I am in league with pirates. Well…," he said looking at the hand that had been clutching his shoulder, covered in blood, "I wouldn't want to make her a liar."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After healing, and with only Tetsigia and his Kimono to his name, Inuyasha traveled to the nearest Oceanside town, he began trying to find possible crew mates. If he was to gain a ship and even a crew, Inuyasha had to get some serous money, neither of these things came cheap. In town he heard of an cabin close to the edge of town, by the ocean.

It was apparently a old herbalist and her son lived there, giving medicine to those who needed it, even pirates. Because of this, the people of the village feared the cabin and gave them a wide birth, only venturing there under dire circumstances. But just because they had dealings with pirates, didn't quite merit such a response Inuyasha speculated.

Hoping to find work, he went to the farm and was shocked to find that the son was a hanyou, like him. He was easily 25 feet tall, with medium length black hair tied in a pony-tail. His head was long, like a horse, with large, circular, sky-blue eyes that glittered in the light. He was very muscular and his skin was tan, but upon closer inspection, was covered in scars. Inuyasha wasn't too surprised, their kind was often treated harshly.

He looked quite strong, so just in case, Inuyasha's hand never left Tetsigia's hilt. When the hanyou boy looked up and saw him coming, his gaze immediately went to Inuyasha's sword, and his eye's betrayed his fear. The large hanyou ran into the hut.

This puzzled Inuyasha, he had assumed that those scars had come from being in many battles, but the hanyou seemed to cowardly for that hunch.

"YEEEAAAAARRRRGH," came a voice from the hut.

Inuyasha looked and was shocked to see a bent old woman running at him with a log almost as big as she was.

"Babayaga?!?" thought the astounded Inuyasha.

Shocked still, the young Inuyasha did nothing as "Babayaga" beemed him over the head with her log, breaking it in half.

"Wat'er you doin here, eh? Come after our land hav ye'?" the old woman fumed.

Still slightly shocked over the unprovoked beating he had just received, Inuyasha answered, " N-no, I just heard that you helped pirates, and, well, I was wondering if I could, maybe, work for you?"

The woman looked at him suspiciously, but soon turned away. "Come on inside."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sitting inside the hut along with the old woman and her hanyou son, and applying an salve on the ever growing bump on the top of his head, Inuyasha listened to why she attacked him.

"Folks hav been after our land for some time now. This region has only a few demon folk around, so the people in the village you came from are very cautious."

This rang true for Inuyasha as well. On more than one occasion passing through the town, he had seen mothers usher their children into their houses or men getting a better grip on anything that could be used as a weapon."

"It's even worse for Jinengi," the old woman continued, motioning to her hulking sun, who was working on some herbs in the corner. "Just because he 'as a bit of demon blood in his veins he is sunned and attacked. Wouldn't heart a fly, him, but because he is different…"

Inuyasha then took a closer look at Jinengi's scars. All were well healed over, no doubt thanks to his medicinal knowledge, but the sheer number of them must have meant that he had gotten them over the years, since childhood.

"Anyway," Inuyasha was pulled out of his thoughts, "you said that you wanted work?"

"Yes," Inuyasha answered. He then began telling his story. "Ma" wasn't particularly keen about Inuyasha's plan to become a pirate, but she had long ago taken a neutral stand on it, and said nothing.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"What's going on?"

Miroku turned to face the owner of the voice. A close friend of him and Inuyasha, Sango was the captain's third in command.

"Inuyasha was having that dream again," Miroku informed the concerned X-demon slayer.

"I just wish there was something we could do," Sango said, looking up at where the moon should be.

"All we can do is wait, and help Inuyasha all we can tomorrow," Miroku said, putting his harm around her.

It was moments like this Miroku was able to keep his hands in check, but just barely.