Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Inuyasha characters based on the anime/manga, nor do I claim to own them, though I do claim to love them. :-) I do own the other characters and the plot, so please don't steal them/it. Thank you!! And I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1: Kyerie's Terrible Tale

The day was warm, the sun shining high in the sky. It was sometime past noon. It had been five years since that horrible night when Onsai had died. Kyerie, now eighteen, was sitting on a somewhat high tree branch, her legs dangling off, her back against the tree. Rikku was sitting on the ground below, looking into the forest that surrounded them. The two sisters practically looked the same as they had, except slightly older and wiser, and both sisters had hair that trailed further down their backs. Rikku now wore the traditional clothes for a priestess, though instead of the common red she wore a dark green. They had left their home village nearly a year prior to travel around and find any information they could about the demon that had killed their father, the demon called Naraku.

"I think we're nearly there," said Rikku softly.

Kyerie nodded. "I remember meeting Kaede once when I was very little. She was a lot older than mother, though. I hope she's still alive…"

They fell silent. After a few moments, Kyerie jerked her head toward the sound of footsteps. There were multiple people moving toward them. Four adults and one child by the sound of it, and one was slightly ahead of the others. She sniffed at the air. The majority are humans...but are they friend or enemy?

"There are people heading toward us," Kyerie said quietly to her sister.

Rikku stood up, preparing herself to draw her bow and an arrow if she had too, and looked in the same direction her sister was looking. Seconds later a man came running into view, apparently chasing after something he'd probably dropped. By the look of him, he was a monk. His clothes seemed to fit that title. He also carried a staff. The two sisters quickly took in his black hair and purple-black eyes. He appeared to be about twenty. Kyerie also noticed prayer beads wrapped around his right hand.

The monk straightened up and noticed Rikku, but failed to notice Kyerie above in the tree. Rikku watched the monk suspiciously as he walked over to her. And then he did something neither of the girls had expected. He grabbed hold of each of Rikku's hands and looked deep into her eyes.

"Hello, my name is Miroku. Would you do me the honor of bearing my child?"

Rikku looked at him a bit confused. Kyerie's eyes narrowed. What the hell? The half demon jumped down from the tree and pulled the monk away from her sister. Kyerie picked Miroku up by the throat and when she spoke her voice was cold.

"If you lay one more hand on my sister I'll kill you, lecher."

At this point a sacred arrow surrounded in pink-purple spirit energy flew past Kyerie's ear and hit the tree. A female's voice said, "Drop him." Kyerie did just that. Miroku fell to the ground and landed on his behind. She and Rikku turned to look at the group that had come into view. Kyerie's eyes ran over them: a demon slayer with dark brown hair and eyes of about eighteen, a small two-tailed demon cat on her shoulder; a short fox-demon child that looked about eight; a human girl who looked fifteen with black hair who was holding a bow, the arrow pointed directly at Kyerie; and amidst them all the half-demon. His hair was long and silver-white, his eyes golden, dog-ears atop his head. He was holding a large sword out in front of him, prepared for battle.

Kyerie's breath caught as she looked at the sword he was holding, her eyes somewhat wide. She exchanged a glance with her sister as Miroku scurried over to his group of friends. That sword. Is it really him? The one father told us of so long ago, the one brother met last year when he was traveling?

"We did not mean to upset any of you and we do not wish to fight," said Kyerie softly. "It's just that this monk, Miroku, asked my sister to bear his child. Had it not been for that I wouldn't have threatened to kill him."

The demon slayer automatically began to give Miroku a looked that clearly said 'I'll kill you myself.' The monk scurried over behind Rikku and Kyerie as if hoping they'd protect him while the demon slayer shot daggers at him with her eyes.

"Maybe we shouldn't have helped him then?" said the little fox-demon, crossing his arms in front of him.

"You would've deserved it you damned pervert," said the half-dog-demon, now holding his sword more loosely.

Kyerie moved forward and took the sword from his grasp. He angrily said "Hey, give that back!" but Kyerie ignored him as she took a few steps backward out of his reach and examined the sword.

"So this is the Tetsusaiga…" said Kyerie with interest, and then her eyes turned to the half-demon. "So then you must be Inuyasha?" She handed the sword back to him lightly and he sheathed it, it taking on it's rusty form as he did so.

"Yeah," said Inuyasha. "And who the hell are you?"

Kyerie smiled. "Oh, please forgive us. I am Kyerie, leader of the Kyatto Clan."

Rikku gave a small bow. "And I am Rikku."

"Leader of the Kyatto Clan?" said the girl with the bow and arrow suspiciously. "We've met the leader of the Kyatto Clan."

"I know," said Kyerie. "That was our brother, Shuyin. He, Rikku and myself are the three leaders of the Kyatto Clan. You," she looked at the oddly dressed priestess with the bow and arrow, "must be Kagome," she looked to the demon slayer and the two-tailed cat, "Sango, Kirrara," she looked at the fox-demon, "Shippo," and lastly she looked at Miroku, "and we've already had our acquaintance."

"We did not mean any trouble," said Rikku. "Our brother has told us about all of you and he seems to like you all very much." She paused. "We were just going to see an old priestess named Kaede."

"You know Kaede?" Kagome asked.

"We were going to see her too," Shippo spoke up, "while Kagome goes home."

"Home?" said Rikku.

"Through the bone-eater's well," said Shippo brightly.

"Come on, let's go," said Kagome with a smile and they all followed her to the village of the old priestess.

- - -

"Last time I saw the two of you, Rikku was only a baby," said Lady Kaede, her eyes moving over the two siblings.

The entire group was sitting within Kaede's hut except Kagome. She had gone straight to the Bone-eaters well so that she could go through it to her home. Inuyasha had acted suspiciously toward the two siblings the entire time they'd walked together to the village, but now that Kaede had confirmed that she knew them, he had relaxed.

Rikku smiled. "We've been meaning to come and see you, but things have been busy."

Kyerie nodded. "Ever since we've had to take over the leadership of our clan."

"So it's true then?" said Kaede quietly. "Lord Onsai is dead?"

"Yes," said Rikku, no longer smiling. "He was killed by Naraku. I trust you saw him just before?"

The old priestess gave a small nod. "Yes, he came to see me. I'd heard rumors of his death but no one could ever confirm it. I figured it must be true though. It's been five years since I last saw him. He came to visit me every so often, you know," Kaede added.

"I imagine mother would've wanted that," said Rikku softly. "Father knew she'd have wanted that."

"Onsai was a good man," said Kaede. "Helped me with numerous amounts of things. And Saya was a good person too. Always trying to help others no matter what the cost would be for herself."

Kyerie nodded. "Our parents were very brave, honorable."

There was silence. Inuyasha and the others said nothing, until Miroku turned to the sisters with interest. "So tell us about this Kyatto Clan of yours…"

"Gladly," said Kyerie, and she and Rikku launched off into a description of their home, their friends, the village, and the people within it.

- - -

Kyerie watched the setting sun as Rikku stood some distance away talking to Sango and Inuyasha. Shippo and Kirrara were running around, chasing each other and Shippo was laughing. Miroku moved to Kyerie's side.

"There's something I've been wondering," Miroku said. "If you don't mind my asking, how is it that Shuyin and yourself are half-demons, but Rikku is a human? If you have the same mother and father, shouldn't she be a half-demon as well?"

Kyerie's hands balled into fists at her side and her eyes closed, blocking out the beautiful sunset. She remembered that night clearly, too clearly… She went through so much pain that night, so much pain. And we couldn't help her…we just couldn't. But we got even, that bastard got what was coming to him. Finally Kyerie opened her eyes and looked over at Miroku.

"It was late one night. My mother, Shuyin and I were traveling to see a friend of our mother's. Another priestess – Lady Kaede. Mother was weak, I remember, because we'd been traveling for a long time and the fear of her father dieing didn't help. She needed rest. My brother and I were young, very young but I still remember it so clearly…"

A three year old Shuyin and two year old Kyerie walked on either side of the woman, each holding one of her hands. Shuyin had turned three only months before while Kyerie's birthday had only been about a week before. The tall, beautiful woman looked down at them with a smiling face, her long brown-blonde hair swinging around her, her green eyes shining.

"Mother," said Shuyin in his small, young voice that was much wiser than that of any human three year old. "You need to get some sleep!"

"Yeah," said Kyerie, agreeing with her brother as she always did as a child.

"Okay, okay," said Saya, looking down at her children. Saya sat down seconds later, her children standing in front of her.

"We'll get firewood!" said Shuyin. He took hold of his younger sister's hand and led her into the woods in search of wood. Kyerie took her hand from her brother's grasp and bent down to pick a pretty red flower.

"Mommy will like this," said Kyerie joyfully.

Shuyin smiled and picked up several pieces of wood. "She will."

Kyerie held the red flower in one hand and picked up wood in the other. Shuyin stopped suddenly, cocking his head to listen though Kyerie was humming peacefully.

"Kyerie, shh!"

The little girl automatically obeyed the brother she looked up to so much and stood stock still. The two siblings listened hard. There was a loud scream that came from the direction they had left their mother. Shuyin dropped his firewood and grabbed hold of his sister's hand, pulling her as he ran toward their mother. As they drew nearer, they heard voices.

"No, please," came their mother's voice, and they could hear her trying to scurry away. There was the distinct sound of an arrow flying through the air and hitting someone.

"Bitch!" They heard the sound of what sounded like the man smacking Saya across the face and then the thud of her bow falling to the ground.

"Mommy!" Kyerie called in fear.

They came close enough to see their mother being thrown to the ground by a muscular, greasy looking man before they were both suddenly being pulled backward.

"Got you," said one of the men who had grabbed hold of them. Kyerie let out a blood-curling shriek of terror. The two men carried them away from their screaming and crying mother and further into the woods. Next thing Kyerie knew, she'd been thrown on the ground, her head hitting hard. She caught a brief glance of Shuyin lying on the ground beside her and the two men walking away before everything went black.

"He forced himself on her?" said Miroku in disgust.

"As much of a pervert as Miroku is, even he wouldn't do that," said Inuyasha, just as disgusted as Miroku. Inuyasha had heard Kyerie speaking even from a distance because of his demonic ears and had wondered over halfway through the story.

"What happened after you regained consciousness?" Miroku asked, trying to shake the thought of someone doing such a horrible thing. At least I'll wait until I have the consent of a woman...

Kyerie launched into the story again:

Kyerie opened her eyes and saw her brother leaning over her, looking worried.

"Are you okay?"

Kyerie nodded and then sat up. "Where's mommy?"
Shuyin looked pale, much paler than usual, which was saying something as the siblings were naturally pale. He grabbed hold of his sister's hand yet again, pulled her to her feet, and they took off in the direction of their mother. Before they'd reached her, they heard sobs and whimpers. When she finally came into view, Saya was lying curled in a ball on the ground, tears streaming down her bloody and bruised face. Her eyes found her children in a sort of relief but she did not move. Instead, she whimpered some more and whispered to herself.

"Please Onsai, please forgive me. They forced themselves onto me. I did not wish it. Please forgive me, my love. Please…"

"Mommy?" Kyerie kneeled down beside her mother and looked into her distraught eyes. Her mother did not move.

"Kyerie," said Shuyin, "those men hurt her…they hurt her really bad."

Kyerie was shaking slightly as she stood up. She and her brother let their young eyes meet and simultaneously nodded. Though they were only two and three years old they knew what they had to do. No one could hurt their mother and get away with it, no matter how old they were. Kyerie dropped the red flower she'd been clinging to ever since she picked it, and it fell several inches from her mother's face. The siblings turned, anger and rage boiling up in them, anger and rage that no child should ever have to feel, and they followed the scent of the three men through the forest.

Behind them, their mother reached weakly for the red flower as her children left her alone once more, knowing they were intent on vengeance…

"What happened to the men?" Inuyasha asked quietly, though he already knew.

Kyerie looked at him, remembering the blood and the horrified screams from the men as they tried to get away. "Shuyin and I killed them. It was the first time we'd ever killed anything. We were so young they hadn't expected us to ever come after them, I think, and that's why they hadn't killed us. Even when we showed up at their camp, they didn't expect us to be able to do much more than scratch them a bit, or bite them even. They laughed at us, taunted us…And then they got a big surprise. They'd pissed off two half-demon children by hurting their mother, one of the people they loved most in the world, so there was no way either of us would give up. So they ran but they didn't get far…and then we killed them."

Kyerie paused and looked at her sister. Rikku and Sango were laughing together now.

"My father was furious that such a thing had happened to my mother, but he didn't blame her, nor did he blame Shuyin or me. He blamed himself, I think, for not going with her. And once Rikku was born, he never blamed her. He loved her exactly as he loved us and raised her as he did us. He said the thing he'd regretted most, excluding the entire incident itself, was the fact that he hadn't had the chance to get to the men before Shuyin and I had."

Kyerie smiled at this thought and looked up at the sky. The sun was disappearing now and this night would be the new moon…

When Miroku next looked over at her, he gasped. "Kyerie…you're…"

Her hair was lighter now, almost a dark brown color instead of the blue-black it had been. Her eyes were no longer cat-like, though they were still the same color as they had been. Her ears were no longer pointed, her claws and fangs had disappeared. She nodded. "I'm human, yes, I know."

She looked over at Miroku and Inuyasha and saw a drastic change in the other half-demon's appearance. His hair was now black, his eyes brown, his dog-ears gone. Kyerie's eyebrows rose slightly and she tilted her head.

"How strange," she muttered, "that we should both become human at the same time…How very strange indeed…"