Kaori awakened to the sound of a rooster crowing in the distance. Sunlight barely peeked in through the window, casting long, shadows over the room. Inuyasha was still slumped against the wall, but Kaede's futon was vacant.

'I was hoping to tell her good-bye before I left, but I'm not gonna go out and search. She'd probably try to stop me from going anyway,' Kaori thought as she stretched her stiff muscles; her shoulder didn't hurt too much, thankfully.

Just before she headed out the door, she glanced over at Inuyasha. His features were so relaxed and peaceful, like they were when she found him stuck to the tree. If you saw him this way, you wouldn't be able to guess how temperamental and stubborn he really was. Deciding to leave on a good note, Kaori picked up her blankets and draped them over his slumbering form. Giving his dog ears a gentle rub, she left the elderly healer's hut.

Luckily, there weren't too many people out and about this early, so Kaori was able to walk through the village without attracting too much unwanted attention. Birds chirped happily overhead and puffy white clouds rolled lazily across the sky. Kaori's focus wasn't on her surroundings; it was on the tree line directly in front of her.

'Inuyasha's Forest; I guess it can't be called that anymore.' Kaori glanced behind her at the stirring village. For some unexplainable reason, she felt kind of bad leaving. 'But I've got to get home. I don't belong here.'

As Kaori started her trek into the woods, Inuyasha was having an odd dream about being in a snow covered meadow, surrounded by jasmine flowers. The air around him was freezing with the softly falling snow, but there was a soft, warm feeling covering him. Not even his bare feet were chilled as he walked through the knee-deep snow. His ears twitched at the sound of a woman's distant laughter. Curious, he sprinted off in the general direction of the sound, hoping to find who was out there.

"Inuyasha…" the voice whispered with a giggle, urging the hanyou to run faster. "I'm right here."

"Where are you?" His rational brain didn't stop to process that he didn't even know who was calling for him. All that mattered to him was that he reached her.

Suddenly, a figure was becoming clearer that closer he got. Her back was turned to him and all he could see was a long mane of jet-black hair. Inuyasha raised his outstretched hand when the woman turned around.

She was adorned in the standard, modest priestess robes with a bow grasped loosely in her hand. Her hair was pulled back on the sides, creating a beautiful silky curtain framing her delicate face. But what stunned the hanyou the most was the familiar pair of deep chocolate brown eyes staring back at him.

"Kikyo," Inuyasha took a shaky step forward; his eyes were wide in surprise and confusion.

"Inuyasha," the miko sighed happily, running to meet him. She launched herself into his warm embrace, nuzzling her face into his chest. "I've missed you."

Inuyasha wrapped his arms around the petite girl's waist, hugging her to him. His eyes closed of their own accord when he inhaled her natural scent. "I've missed you, too," He whispered into her hair, smoothing it down with his free hand.

"You left me completely alone," Kikyo said quietly.

"I know, and I'm sorry," His voice was gruff with emotion. "I'll never leave your side again; I promise." He breathed in another heavenly whiff of Kikyo's scent, but something wasn't right about it. Inuyasha's golden eyes snapped open and he looked down at the woman caught in his hold.

Her hair was shorter and thicker, but it still had the same color and shine that Kikyo's did. She was still wearing the priestess robes, but they looked a bit big on her tiny frame. The thing that still bothered him was her smell: jasmine and honey.

"Kikyo?" the hanyou asked, pulling back slightly. But the eyes that stared up at him weren't the color brown he loved and associated with Kikyo. In their place, was an astonishing, sparkling, sapphire blue.

"AAGH!" Inuyasha shot up from a dead sleep, jumping to his feet, only to crash into the floor thanks to the blankets wrapped around his ankles.

'WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!' Inuyasha's heart pounded almost painfully against his ribs, and his mind raced in circles, trying to make sense of the dream. 'Damn wench! She's following me even in my sleep!'

He turned around in the hut, noticing for the first time that he was completely alone. The hanyou attempted to take a step towards the exit when he felt a soft fabric rub against his bare feet. Crouching down, Inuyasha picked the material up and gave it a hesitant sniff. The strong aroma of honey and jasmine flooded his nose.

'What the hell?' Inuyasha threw the blanket as far away from him as he could, acting as if it we poisonous. 'Why would she cover me?'

"Kaori?" Kaede called. Sensitive youkai ears picked up on the old woman's voice as she called out again for the young girl.

'That stupid wench better not have disappeared with my Sacred Jewel,'' Inuyasha growled internally, shooting out of the hut at breakneck speeds. He soared over the rooftops, gliding easily twenty feet into the air with each bound. His ears twitched in the direction of Kaede's distressed calls; he bolted off in her direction.

"We've searched everywhere for her, but she's not here, Lady Kaede," announced one of the villagers as he approached the woman.

"Could it be she's gone off on her own?" pondered the priestess. "We spoke of those who seek the Sacred Jewel, but had we not spoken enough?"

'"Stupid wench better not have lost the Sacred Jewel," Inuyasha grumbled. He took in a few deep whiffs of air before point his sights at the edge of the woods. "Not again. You better be alive."

Kaori hiked through the dense mass of trees surrounding her, climbing over logs and ducking under low hanging branches as she went. She had no idea which was she was going except that she kept getting fleeting glances of the Sacred Tree through the gaps in the leaves.

'I have to be heading in at least the general direction, right?'

After several more minutes of stomping through the underbrush, there was a pause in the tree line. A small clearing was up ahead and at its center: the Dry Well.

Kaori reached into her pocket and pulled out the Shikon no Tama. Stupid little thing had caused her enough trouble already.

Unbeknownst to the girl out of time, a large Karasu-Youkai easily the size of a small turkey- was watching her with three greedy blood-red eyes. Once Kaori revealed that she still possessed the Shikon Jewel, the youkai saw its chance, and took it. With a near ear-splitting caw the demon crow lunged for its long desired prize.

Kaori whirled around it time to see eight razor sharp talons aimed directly at her. Instinctually, she dropped down, narrowly avoiding death. She felt a few of the claws brush the top of her head, momentarily getting caught in her hair. She didn't bother looking to see where the demon was before she began running blindly in a random direction.

The crow's screeching cries of fury reverberated around in her head, disorienting Kaori. Her pace slowed marginally as she attempted to block out the horrible sound by covering her ears. But that was the only opening the youkai needed. Swooping down on top of the girl, he clamped down onto the arm holding the Sacred Jewel.

"Let go of me!" Her livid shouts echoed through the forest, reaching the searching inuhanyou's ears.

"Damn wench!" Inuyasha growled, speeding up his pace. "Why the hell did she have to get herself into trouble again? Does she have a death wish?" Following the acute fragrance of honey and jasmine, Inuyasha burst through the trees, not believing his eyes at the scene playing out in front of him.

Kaori was being lifted several dozens of feet above the ground by a furious, determined crow youkai that had a death grip on her forearm. Unfortunately, she was higher than the hanyou could jump without going to the unstable tops of the trees.

"DAMNIT!" Inuyasha roared, trying to think of a way to get her down and get back the jewel. But he was about to figure out that he didn't have much to do at all.

Kaori heard Inuyasha's livid voice from below and chanced a glance at the ground. Her vision swam once she saw how high she was, but that was the least of her problems at the second. The crow, sensing its prey was distracted, took that moment to fling the girl from his grip, letting her plummet towards the earth.

Kaori's hands opened in an instinctual effort to grab onto something to stop her rapid descent, but in doing so, she released her grip on the Shikon no Tama.

'Not her'

Inuyasha sprinted forward, leaping up to catch the falling girl before his brain had time to catch up with his actions. Kaori's heartbeat was racing and she was physically shaking. Up above them, the Shikon Jewel was disappearing down the youkai's gullet.

Realizing that he was still holding Kaori, he unceremoniously dumped her in the dirt, earning himself a vicious glare. Both the hanyou and the reincarnated miko momentarily forgot their fury towards another as they stared up as the crow transformed into something out of a nightmare. It grew a dragon's tale, a body the size of an eagle, and it's eyes glowed with the power pulsating through its demonic body. Instead of it letting out its usual shrill, ear-splitting echo, the Karasu-Youkai released a resonating sound that resembled a cross between nails clawing down a chalkboard and a woman's terrified shriek.

Inuyasha's ears pressed flat against his head while Kaori did her best to plug her own. Being a human, she couldn't imagine how someone with enhanced hearing, like the hanyou beside her, could stand it. It took the pair several moments after the screeching subsided that they noticed the bird was nowhere in sight.

"You idiotic wench! Why the hell would you take the Sacred Jewel and practically wave it around in everyone's faces!" Inuyasha bellowed, rounding on the miko.

Kaori shot up from the ground and got right in Inuyasha's face. "Well excuse me if I wanted to go home and not be stuck in this stupid era! If I went home, I wouldn't have to hear you bitching at me all day about the damn jewel or what I'm doing wrong!"

"Are you really that stupid or do you just want to die? Cause from where I'm standing, it's kinda hard to tell! Who the hell in their right mind decides to go take a walk with the most powerful item on the earth flashing for everything to see?"

"It's not like I was waving it around going 'Look at me; I have the Shikon Jewel! Please come abduct, rape, or kill me to get it!'" Kaori snapped sarcastically. "Do you really think that I thought walking a few hundred feet would kill me?"

Inuyasha barked out a humorless laugh. "No, cause you didn't think! And as far as walking a little bit not killing you, it almost did. If I hadn't been here, you would've died and it would've been no one's fault but your own." Inuyasha grabbed Kaori's wrist and yanked her up onto his back. "We've got to catch up to that damned crow before it gets too far out."

At first they were running, then…they were flying.

Inuyasha's leaps easily took them twenty feet into the air with each one. His feet barely touched the dirt beneath for more than a second before he was already soaring through the air again. Kaori had a death grip on his bright red haori while her eyes were clamped shut at the ground flying away and towards her with each step of the powerful inuhanyou beneath her.

"How exactly do you expect to fight the stupid demon if we can't reach it?" She shouted over the rush of the wind.

"Kikyo was a master archer; we'll get a bow and arrows and you'll shoot the bastard from the sky in one shot."

'Are you insane?!' Kaori's thoughts were almost frozen after that. She wasn't Kikyo! How many times did she have to tell him that before it broke through his thick, dumbass skull?

They were already hurdling across the roofs of the village; the crow was a low flying dot several yards in front of them. Inuyasha snatched up a bow and quiver of arrows from an unsuspecting middle-aged man. The hanyou tossed them over his shoulder at the wench clinging to his back.

"Here, I'm gonna jump and you take the shot," he commanded, hastening his steps. The youkai was visibly insight not too far ahead. Smirking, Inuyasha glanced back at the miko unsteadily holding the bow with the arrow notched into place. "Get ready." The muscles in his powerful legs tensed, coiling for the right moment…

The bird was directly overhead.

Now!

"Take the shot!"

'I hope this hits!' Kaori pulled back the string and let it fly. The arrow shot towards the demon, but fell lazily from the sky when it was only a few feet away from its target, landing in the river beside them. 'Damn!'

'What the hell? I thought the old bat said she was Kikyo's reincarnation!' Inuyasha fumed, glaring at the girl.

Kaori notched another arrow and shot again; again the arrow fell short.

Inuyasha's enraged roar split the fairly silent atmosphere. Letting go of Kaori's waist he dropped her onto the wet ground in a heap. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? I don't care what anyone says; you are NOT Kikyo!"

"It's about time that got through to you! MY. NAME. IS. KAORI!"

Snarling, Inuyasha took off, leaving the livid human behind. Or so he thought. Kaori bolted up and took off along the river-albeit at a slower pace-behind the pissed inuhanyou.

'I can take down this bastard better and faster than that wench ever could!' He thought, taking to the cliffs alongside the river. Soon, the hanyou was above where the crow demon was flying above the river

'Keh, watch this wench!'

"IRON REAVER SOUL STEALER!" Inuyasha thundered, bringing down his razor-sharp claws through the startled demon. It didn't even have time to turn around before being slashed into dozens of pieces.

"Where's the Jewel?" He asked frantically when his feet landed on the sandy riverside. His ochre eyes hungrily searching the surface of the water, as if the Shikon no Tama would shoot out of it and into his hand.

Kaori had managed to catch up to Inuyasha at the same time he sliced the demon to shreds, unfortunately for her, she was also caught in the carnage. Bits of the bird rained down in the river and around her, each of them still twitching.

'EW…not again.'

Her attention on the scattered remains around her was short lived when she felt something large, pointy, and twitchy on her head. With shaky fingers, she reached up and pulled off one of the crow's feet. She promptly screamed and flung the thing as far away from her once her brain processed what had just happened.

A mass of black began floating up from the river, quickly becoming larger and larger as the seconds flew by. Soon, she could see a beak and a blob of a body, and wings. But only one foot…

Glancing around, Kaori noticed the crow's foot wedged in between two fairly large rocks, twitching and flailing wildly as its body flew away without it.

Inuyasha growled quietly, seeing the youkai reform thanks to the power he so desperately coveted. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a lot of movement. Kaori was struggling to tie something to one of her arrows.

"Fat chance she'll hit anything but the ground with that."

Notching the arrow into place, Kaori aimed it high in the direction of the receding youkai. Taking a deep breath, she let the arrow fly.

"I get it," murmured Inuyasha.

'The foot can't help but be drawn to the power of the jewel that binds it.'

The arrows soared up, up, up at the crow in an almost vertical slope.

"C'MON!" Kaori growled.

The arrow struck; a cocky smirk appearing on both Inuyasha and Kaori's faces as the bird disintegrated into nothing. But something went horribly wrong.

A blinding pink light flooded the sky, outshining the sun for several seconds. Hundreds of pink rays of lights scattered themselves across the sky in every direction as the Shikon no Tama was shattered completely.

Inuyasha jumped over to Kaori and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Where is it?!"

"Uh…"

One of the shards landed in the riverbank, just a couple of feet away from the two. She plucked it out of the water, holding it up for Inuyasha to see.

"I think it's a shard from the jewel…"

Inuyasha's eye twitched several times, staring unbelievingly at the woman in front of him. "Wh- WHAT DID YOU SAY?!"

Karasu- crow