With Shippo in the lead, Kagome made headway towards the castle that he said was in the direction they were heading. Kagome was in a whirl with too many questions that didn't have enough answers. Who would want to burn the whole village down? How could they have subdued both InuYasha and Sesshomaru? How could they have made Sesshomaru turn back into his humanoid state while being in his yokai state? Kagome had seen that massive dog lord and even InuYasha fighting him was hard to do. The questions just seemed to keep coming when Kagome almost tripped over Shippo, who had stopped in the middle of the road.

"Shippo!"

She looked at her friend but noticed that he was cowering, practically terrified as he looked forward. Kagome turned to look at what he was looking at and saw the large castle looming at the edge of a far off mountain side. Even Kagome gave a small gulp of apprehension.

"I'm going to assume that that is the castle?"

Shippo nodded stiffly. "I- I think so. I remember them going this way."

"Who owns that castle? I sense such a powerful presence there…"

"I don't know. I don't recognize it but… but that's where he led everyone."

Kagome bent down and held out her hands out to Shippo.

"I can see you're scared. Come on, I'll carry you the rest of the way."

"Thank you, Kagome…" he said, holding onto her tightly.

She held onto him pretty tight as well as they went toward the castle.

When they finally got to it, it was almost dark and Kagome decided they should at least have something to eat before they tried to sneak in. She gave Shippo some of the candy she had brought as well as fixed them both a cup of ramen. Once they were full, Kagome sighed and stood up.

"You ready, Shippo?"

"Yeah…"

He jumped back into her arms and they made their way to the entrance of the castle, watching as a trail of people walked into it, all held by chains. The castle had a drawbridge that they were going across but was simple nonetheless.

"How are we going to get in, Kagome?"

"I'm thinking if we hang out until the last person goes in on those chains then I can slip into the line and go in like everyone else. We'll go around the side here and see where it ends so I can blend in."

"What about me? They'll know I don't' belong."

"You may have to go in a different way. Can you do something so that you won't be noticed?"

"I can use my cloud. I hope it doesn't run out before we get to the entrance."

Kagome nodded as they went through the brush to head to the end of the line of people. When they saw it, there was unfortunately a guard. Kagome cursed as she thought of what to do.

"Shippo, can you distract the guard for a few seconds so that I can get at the end of the line?"

"Sure thing!" he said, even though his voice shook.

Shippo ran towards the guard and jumped up, turning into his pink balloon self and started bouncing on the guard's head, making him distracted. As the guard tried to catch Shippo, Kagome slipped behind the last person and finally Shippo 'disappeared', the guard mumbling under his breath about 'odd things about' and went to the back of the line. Kagome sighed of relief that the guard didn't notice her as she made sure to walk like the others while she went into the castle.

When she finally got in, the gate closed and the guard that was behind her left to go up front. Kagome looked around for a second and saw Shippo against the wall. She motioned for him to go and find InuYasha and he nodded, running away down a hallway. Kagome looked around again and slowly began to back away from the line of people when an evil aura overtook the courtyard and made Kagome look up. Coming out of the large window was a strange looking creature with no hair and green and slimy skin. A kappa… Kagome perceived but she then gasped, noticing a shining light in its head. A Shikon Jewel shard!

"Welcome to my castle." He said, looking down at the line of people below him, his deep watery voice as slimy as him. "I am Jurishi, the Kappa King. You will be kept for safe keeping until we finish our meals from the other towns that we have captured…"

Kagome quickly slipped away and went toward the hallway where she thought she saw Shippo heading. I hope we're not too late…

Once Kagome was able to slip away from the crowd, she found herself lost in the corridors of the castle and tried to focus on just finding InuYasha. She grabbed a torch from the wall and began to go down a flight of stairs, which she hoped led to some sort of dungeon.

"Shippo!" she whisper-yelled, still going down the stairs. "Shippo, where did you go?"

She didn't hear anything (nor did she expect to) and slowly kept going down the stairs. As she got to the end of them, she thought that she heard the sounds of children crying. She made a face but kept going when she entered the cells of the dungeon. Kagome gasped as she looked at all of the children that were in the cells, chained and unchained. She noticed the farther she went, the more the children grew older, until she was in the 'teenage' section of the cells.

"You, lady!" someone yelled, making Kagome jump.

She looked over at a young man about her age that was leaning on the bars.

"Yes?"

"You better get out of here before he gets a hold of you. Is that your real age?"

"Yes…? What's going on here?"

"That kappa king is really powerful. He captures the villagers and then destroys their home. Then, he uses his powers to turn people into children."

"Children? Why would he do that?"

"Kappas are known for eating children but trying to find them without a parent around is sometimes impossible. So, he decided to just turn the parents into children as well; the more the merrier or something."

"Don't kappas eat small children though? Like the ones in the front of the cells?"

"Yeah but it takes him a bit to make us older people turn into the little children. We take time."

"So… how old are you?"

"I was fifty. This is my second round of that crazy power he has… Last I heard, from some of the older ones, he even got a hold of some yokai."

"He did?! Where are they?"

"They're in the back of the dungeon in their own spot. They're the hardest to get down to size, being so old and all. He was… not kind to them."

"What do you mean? Tell me, I think they were my friends." Kagome said, practically shaking the bars.

"I only heard about it but this guy over here knows. Hey, Chizo!" he yelled behind him. "Come tell this nice girl what you told me about those yokais."

Kagome waited, hoping that no guards came, as another young man walked up to the bars.

"Lady Kagome?" he said, looking at her in confusion.

"You know me?"

"You help Lady Kaede with all of the herbal necessities and you also are friends with that hanyou boy, InuYasha."

"Yes, I am. Tell me, where are they? InuYasha and Sesshomaru…"

"Like Kino said, they're down there in a separate chamber but… I don't think what you'll find is going to be good at all. See, not only does this kappa have the ability to change adults into children, he has enough power to even suck out the yokai powers in yokai, reducing them to nothing more than humans."

Kagome couldn't believe that.

"You mean… you mean he extracts the yokai blood from them? How is that possible? Only the Shikon Jewel is capable of that…"

"Not quite sure how he does it, but I heard one of the guards talking and they were talking about how the kappa kind reduced the two yokai he captured to mere humans. The hanyou was easy since he was already half human but the other one… well, they said he had a hard time with that one and so some other measures were taken. Turning them human was the first step in the process to turning them into children. From what I understand, he has only gotten so far…"

"All we know is that we can hear the screams from here." Kino said, shaking his head. "Those poor boys…"

"Kagome! Kagome!"

Kagome turned as Shippo jumped into her arms.

"I was looking for you."

"I found them! InuYasha and Sesshomaru but… but they don't look the same or smell the same. I also smell a lot of blood."

Kagome made a face and set Shippo down.

"Lead the way, Shippo. Thanks guys for the information!"

Kagome ran off with Shippo to locate InuYasha and Sesshomaru.

They went through another hallway when Shippo stopped at a door and jumped up, looking through the bars.

"They're in here. I told InuYasha that you were here…"

Kagome moved him as he got on her shoulder and looked in through the bars.

"InuYasha? InuYasha are you in there?"

"Kagome?" she heard faintly.

Her heart skipped a beat as she sighed of relief.

"Yes! Yes, it's me!"

"Kagome, what the hell?! You have to get out of here! If that kappa thing finds you then you'll be eaten!"

"I'm not leaving without you."

"Seriously, Kagome, get out of here. It'll take him a while to get to me and Sesshomaru but you can easily be turned into a child and eaten. If you did I would never forgive you."

"I'm not leaving without you."

Kagome heard him scoff and she looked around, trying to figure out how to get them out there.

"Shippo, do you see a key anywhere?"

"I'll see if I can find one."

"It's not use. It's on a guard… Please, Kagome, get out of here."

"I'm not leaving without you. How hard is that to understand?"

"If you have to save someone, save Sesshomaru."

Kagome gawked at the door between them and then grabbed the bars on the door.

"What do you mean by that?! You've never told me to do something like that before."

"He's in worse shape than I'm in… I'm used to turning human and being human, at least for a night every month but Sesshomaru… they really messed him up."

Kagome frowned at the door, very confused.

"I thought the village had only been destroyed three days ago? Why are you talking as if it's been a while?"

"Three days? It can't be that short. We've been here at least three months."

"Months?! Wait, did you tell Shippo to hide?"

"Yeah, I told him to wait for you…"

"I got the keys, Kagome!"

"Shippo, you said that the village was destroyed only three days ago."

"It was."

"InuYasha said that they have been in the dungeon for at least three months."

Shippo frowned. "That can't be right. It's really only been three days, I promise." He said, holding out the key ring to her.

Kagome took it and tried to keys and finally unlocking the door. It swung open and she walked in, finding InuYasha in human form chained to the wall. She ran to him quickly, hugging him around the neck. InuYasha took in her sweet smell and her warmth, not afraid to hug her back.

"You're an idiot, you know that?" he asked.

"I know… InuYasha, Shippo said that's it's only been three days since the fire. Did something happen? I mean…"

"I don't know. I swear it's been three months. I would know if it were only three days but look at the etchings on the wall. I've been counting the days…"

Kagome and Shippo looked at the wall and sure enough, the numbers counted out to a little over ninety, which is three months or so. Kagome looked at the wall, dumbfounded. How in the world could that be? A cough caught their attention as InuYasha turned quickly.

"Are you planning on getting us both out of here undetected?"

"I was going to try… Where's Sesshomaru?"

"Over there but he's… he's in really bad shape. I've never seen someone like him go through the stuff he went through. Even I feel sorry for him."

Kagome walked over to Sesshomaru, who was laying against the wall. When she got there, she noticed that he wasn't breathing right and his usually stark white hair was as black as InuYasha's. Touching him, she noticed he had a fever and he opened his eyes a little. Upon seeing her, Sesshomaru flinched as if she were going to hit him. Kagome was deeply concerned.

"Dear god… who could reduce your brother to this state?"

"You see what I mean? Ain't no three days in that state of mind."

Kagome breathed in and walked over to InuYasha, unlatching his bind and then unlatching Sesshomaru's leg that was held by a shackle on his ankle. Shippo jumped into InuYasha's arms, hugging him as Kagome tried to get Sesshomaru to come with her. Every time she tried to touch him, he would jerk away and curl into a ball.

"Here, let me try…" InuYasha said, walking over. He touched Sesshomaru on the shoulder and shook him. "Hey, it's me. Someone's here to save us."

Nothing happened until InuYasha was putting his brother's arm around his shoulder, lifting him from the ground.

"Come on, we gotta go if you're going to save us. If we don't Sesshomaru may not be alive to a see another day. I know the way out of here through a back way."

Kagome nodded and followed the two out, wondering what in the world was going on and how it could have been done.

how could this have happened?! we'll see in the next part.