Sooo here's the second part of chapter 3. You know how Kagome sometimes talks to herself? Well there's some (a lot) of that in this chapter. Don't freak it's not too bad or long. (I think). Oh and btw, I thought I'd mention my chapters will always start out with Kagome's POV unless I say otherwise.

Enjoy!

Walking through the woods, the sky was a dark sea of velvet and the moon a bright, glistening orb cresting in its waves. No clouds tarnished the crystal clear, starry night and everything could be seen. Trees towered over stock-still, waist high grass, far taller than every imaginable. Moonlight seeped through the highest leaves, washing the forest in a blur of black and white, creating odd, geometric patterns that splashed across my bear arms and legs. It was like stepping into an old movie from decades ago full of cliché, ancient samurai's slashing each other to bits. I slapped my forehead, realizing that I belonged in one of those films.

Shadows flitted through the foliage, darting from one branch to the next, taunting my paranoia. Leaves would shake in random far apart places, and every time my uneasiness would skyrocket a little higher.

It's just the squirrels. Yeah, they're just looking for nuts.

The feeling from back at the hut hadn't disappeared and I was constantly glancing over my shoulder searching for something-anything-but with every nervous peep came nothing. I was sure I was being followed. But by what?

"Why, of all places, did I decide to take a walk in the forest? In the dark. Alone. At night."

A warm, swirling sensation pooled in the base of my skull. A jewel shard. It was like an unending, sun-warmed soda pouring into every fissure, every void, of my head. It was neither chilled nor scalding, but perfectly, satisfyingly lukewarm and completely everywhere. There was no way of getting rid of the pounding, encompassing feeling; not until the shard was wholly purified. But that was only because I was far enough away from the shard that I only vaguely its aura. Probably the one from the other day. Closer was a whole other story, though.

The night was silent, the crunching of my footsteps the only noise that broke the quiet. No wind rustled the trees, no crickets sang a tune, no animals scurried about in search of a midnight snack. The quiet was deafening, so much so, that my ears rang.

"I can't believe I even considered Inuyasha murdered... What's wrong with me?" I screamed, grabbing fistfuls of hair and pulling. "He was here the whole time! Besides, it's Inuyasha! He wouldn't intentionally physically hurt a human."

'Course, what else would I use it for?"

I guess I can't say the same for verbally. I sighed. "What's with all these crazy ideas today? First I think Inuyasha killed my family, which is completely untrue any way you look at it, and second I think about using the jewel to bring them back from the dead!" I loosed a short dry laugh. "I'm being ridiculous! Even if I did use the jewel to bring them back, I wouldn't want them to turn out like Kikyo."

The jewel always grants a wish, but not always in the way the wisher desires most.

"Yeah, definitely better if I just stop any thought process at all," I murmured, coming upon the Goshinboku.

I walked to its thick, knotted trunk and plopped to its foot. After the identification, I'd laid at the foot of the tree of ages in my time for hours, unthinking. Just being. It was weird how I could sit in the same exact spot in two different centuries. I bet no one else has ever been able to do what I've done. I mean, c'mon. Let's see someone else jump into a well and come out in the feudal era! Even more unbelievable, I've killed something! I've actually taken something's life! I laughed. "Through all this craziness though, I've still somehow managed to make some amazing friends and even fall in lo-"

I sighed. "There I go thinking again."

"Oh hello, dearie!"

I flinched. What the heck? " Uhh, hello?" I called, wondering if I'd imagined the sound.

Just the squirrels.

"What do you want most in this world?" The voice cooed.

Okay, definitely not the squirrels.

I scanned the surrounding trees. Nothing lurked, but the shadows. "Who's there?" I asked, reaching for my bow and arrow and realizing with horror I hadn't brought them.

"Only the person who'll make your dream of dreams come true!"

"Is that supposed to mean something to me?" I asked. I'm being so rude! What's gotten into me!

I started to apologize, but was cut off. "Why, yes of course my sweet. What do you want most that's furthest from your grasp?"

What? Who is this nutbar? "Show yourself!" I yelled, real panic surfacing. "I'm warning you! I've got friends with tempers!"

To the right, a girl about my age stepped from the shadows, an unnatural white glow emanating from her pale skin. She donned a sky-blue child's garb that barely skimmed the tops of her thighs featuring green and black swirls. Her features were small and pixie-like, her tiny ears pointed. She wore her white-blonde hair long with side bangs sweeping across her wide grey eyes. Funny, I didn't know they had side bangs back in the feudal era.

That should've immediately tipped me off. Something wasn't right.

"I have heeded your command," she said, crossing her arms and drumming long, slender fingers on her elbows, "Now what?"

I can't believe it. She's asking me what to do?

"Oh, sugar, I can read your thoughts so you might as well say anything you want to my face," she spoke in a soft, baby voice.

"Okay?" Creep.

"Again. I can here you," she sang, lifting her chin and closing her eyes.

"Alright," I said, more confident than before. "What's your name and why are you here?"

"Doesn't matter what my name is and I'm here to restore what's gone from your life!" she said excitedly.

"And that would be...?" I asked, standing on the tree's roots.

Exasperated she continued. "Isn't there anything you've lost with no return recently?"

Images of my mother, brother, and gramps immediately popped into my head before I could even think to, uhh… not think.

"Ahhh, so there is!" she shrieked, clasping her hands together and bouncing to my side. She grasped my hands and her expression fell into seriousness. She stared into my face and I was suddenly transfixed by the depth of her haunting, grey eyes. "What would you do to have your family back?"

Not trusting my words I thought my answer. Nothing, I don't need them back.

Her eyes flashed purple, red, green, yellow, blue, orange, black, and back to gray over and over again, cycling. It was overpowering. I couldn't look away.

"And what would they say if they could hear you now?" She asked quietly in staccato. Her eyes flashed white and my chest flooded with guilt and misery. I'm being controlled!

I shoved the emotions away, focusing on the good to offset the bad feelings. Inuyasha. Her eyes flashed white again, glowing brighter with each passing second. Regret and sadness swamped my heart except this time, I couldn't shove the feelings away. They were bottomless and stemmed from every memory I had. Even the good. I wasn't totally sure I wanted push away that emotion. With it came a sense of power. I was suddenly stronger and tougher, yet dominated. I succumbed to the sadness and remorse. It was my lifeline. Without it, I was nothing. I let the emotion flow.

"My, my you're a persistent little thing, but everyone gives in eventually." It's all my fault they're dead. I should be doing everything in my power to get them back! The thoughts were not mine. They were forced into my head, by the girl standing before I could not stop them. "That's right. They would be disappointed and angry if you didn't save them when you had the chance. They would never forgive you. They would never see or speak to you in the afterlife. They will not watch over you from death because they will not care. All because you didn't grant them the salvation they so rightfully deserved."

In a daze, I asked, "What do I have to do?"

"Make a wish," she whispered, squeezing my hands, eyes shifting to a permanent gold.

I knew I was being controlled, I knew. But there was nothing I could do to stop myself. Her gold eyes were intensifying, sucking any free will, any resistance I had left, from my mind. I love you, which is why I have to save you. "I wish my family was alive."

She let go of my hands and twirled away, laughing maniacally. The fog lifted from my senses and thought process slowly pooled back into my brain. My hands flew to my head and clawed at the skin.

"You tricked me." I said in a low voice.

"No shit, little girl," she replied, twirling her hair with one finger.

"You're gonna wish you'd never met me." Or, rather, Inuyasha and Tetsusaiga.

"I'd like to see you try."

My vision went red. "Who are you? What do you want with me?"

She laughed her small baby laugh, dropped her hair, and stood, feet shoulder width apart, arms stretched outward. "I am the embodiment of misery and unfulfilled wishes. I transcend time and all its limitations, which is how I became aware of your 'dilemma' if you will. I feed off of people's desires and the sadness from which they originate. I control mortal's emotions and create sorrow. I instill these feelings of want and greed upon my prey, intensifying them until they crack. When my subjects make a wish for their desires or what they've had that's vanished off of those negative feelings, I gain power." She smiled evilly.

"So, I just had to wish for something? Couldn't you have just told me that?"

"No," she blinked her large eyes, "Where's the fun in that?"

"Okay so you've got your power. Now what? You go on your merry way and I go back to my life feeling like garbage."

She put a finger to her chin, thinking. "Yeah, pretty much except for one small detail," she said, squinting and holding her thumb and forefinger together.

"What? My eyes get to change colors too?"

"Nope. Not even close! You get your wish!"

"Wha-?"

"Oh, you still get your wish. Didn't I mention?"

"I think I'd remember if you did! You can't do that. It's not right! You can't just bring back the dead!"

She laughed. "Who ever said anything about bringing them back to life?"

I sputtered, "But-What-You said-Huh?"

She laughed. "My power comes from the manipulation of those wishes. The more I twist them, yet keep them exactly as the wisher asked, the more power I receive. It's like a big game."

My heart sank. As much as I wished my family could stay as they are now, I'd still hoped there was a way to get them back to how it had been before the accident.

"See!" she exclaimed, eyes brightening. "You did wish your family was here with you! I can guarantee you'll forget they were ever dead!"

"Forget… wait no!"

A wrecking ball force crushed my body. My limbs contorted and condensed until it felt like I was compacted into a small box. The pain was instantaneous and unimaginable. The last thing I saw before I shut my watering eyes was the girl with her arms stretched, palms up, head tilted to the sky, and metallic, silver beacons of light pouring from her eyes. I opened my mouth to scream, but no words came. Only air, until, hope against hope, noise made it to my lips.

"INUYASHA!"

And everything went white.

####

I jumped through the trees, meticulously combing the air for Kagome's scent. It was nearly impossible to catch the trail since she hadn't followed any set path. For some god forsaken reason she'd decided to flounder through the thick foliage with no particular goal set in mind.

I came to a halt on the top branch of huge oak, shaking the entire tree. I crouched and sniffed the air searching for a straightforward path. Man, it's like she was TRYING to confuse me. Her scent twisted throughout itself, winding back and forth in circles, zigzagging in sharp turns and dead ends. I closed my eyes to strengthen my concentration. Inhaling deeply, I tried to pinpoint her true path. Of course my focus was all shot to hell when a large something crashed into me.

I was thrown from the branch, but caught myself with one hand on another before crashing to the ground. I looked up, expecting to find a rock or a small mountain, but found nothing. What the hell was that?

"INUYASHA!"

My ears flicked, instantly recognizing the shrill scream. Because who could forget something so high-pitched and annoying I thought frowning.

I let go of the branch and fell to the ground. I hit the forest floor running, flattening bushes and leveling a few small trees out of my way. An electric charge zapped through the air, decimating my ears and raising the hairs on the back of my neck. I stopped dead in my tracks. I threw my hands over my ears, trying to block any of the strident sound, but it was no use. Even through my hands the noise was just as forceful as ever.

It was over before it started and I dropped my hands to my sides. "Kagome!"

I felt my lips shape around her name and my tongue flap in my mouth, but all I heard was the pounding of blood in my ears and a deafening silence. My hearing was gone.

Suddenly, a bright dot of light flickered in the corner of my eye. It was roughly a mile away, but my vision was more than able to see the minute speck. I squinted. What the hell is that? The flame was right by the tree of ages and unmoving. Last time I checked there wasn't any water by the tree.

Suspicious I took a step forward, but was knocked flat on my back by a violent gust of wind before I could get anywhere. My neck snapped against a rock and pain shot through my head. I quickly sat up, rubbing my forehead to see that the night was no longer dark.

A blazing column of white light erupted just behind the Goshinboku, igniting the night like a bolt of lightning. It was like a massive white fire, but nothing burned in its wake. It swallowed the trees, carving a definite path through the forest, quickly advancing.

Picking myself off the ground, I blindly ran through the dense forest, every fiber of my being screaming "Run! Get the hell out of here!" But there was nothing I could do. Panic gripped my raw muscles as I was fully engulfed in the searing light.

####

Every nerve in my system scorched, my skin crawling. The hair on my head electrocuted the delicate, pale skin the sun had never seen. My nails ripped from their hollows, my eyes liquidated and poured from their sockets. My flesh melted revealing hard white bone that blackened and disintegrated.

The pain I felt at this moment, inside my mind and outside my body, was vastly greater than that of the loss of my family or the realization of not being loved in return. No competition. This was hands down the most agonizing, horrendous, appalling feeling ever to have struck my soul.

When I opened my eyes, all I saw was a white mist hanging in the night air. It was neither dewy nor moving, but completely unnatural. It reflected the forest and my own emaciated body, my eyes that stared at nothing. When I reached to feel, to touch, the dust that should've been the only remains of the person formerly known as Kagome, I found something utterly different in both touch and sight.

I was completely fine.

####

As the light dissipated I realized without much surprise that my hearing had returned.

"So suddenly a fire that doesn't burn explodes and I go deaf. That's not a coincidence." A scream tore through the dark from the direction of the tree. "And then there's that."

I took off sprinting, ripping Tetsusaiga from its sheath as I ran. The screamer didn't pause for breath, but kept on endlessly shrieking. That's my Kagome I thought sarcastically. I couldn't help, but laugh at her antics. Does she honestly think I'm going to leave her alone? Only when the night fell silent did I frantically push myself even faster.

"Kagome!" I yelled with no response.

Arriving at the tree of ages, I quickly sniffed the air, but there was nothing to smell. It's like she was never here. Her scent was completely gone and there was no trace of another human or youkai.

"Something's not right," I muttered to myself.

A small groan drifted from the other side of the Goshinboku along with rustling leaves and cracking bark. I dashed around the tree, annoyed at my own ignorance. Use your brain, Inuyasha. Look around.

The only thing in the moonlit clearing was a white residue that coated the tips of the grass. "Kagome!" I called.

Another small whimper quietly wafted from the tree of ages. I spun to find Kagome sprawled across the thick roots that branched from the trunk of the Goshinboku. Her eyes flickered beneath her lids as she tried to force them open.

I rushed to her side, quickly sitting, and pulled her into my lap. Glancing at my surroundings, I watched as a thin white mist evaporated before my eyes into nothing. Just like Kagome, it had no scent. I let go of her arm to trace a claw through the fog. A layer of white scum coated my nail, but as soon as I shook my hand to get rid of the gunk, it dissolved into mist again. This just gets weirder and weirder.

I looked back down at the girl in my arms. Her hair was knotted and cascaded to the ground over my leg. Her pale face was sweaty and coated in grime and soot. Her highly inappropriate clothes were charred and crumbling at the edges. But somehow she still looks… FOCUS! "Kagome," I said, shaking her. "Wake up."

She stayed silent, unmoving.

"Kagome, c'mon you gotta get up!" I said, marginally louder.

She groaned again, this time slightly opening her wide, brown eyes, but hastily closing them. My shoulders relaxed and tension I hadn't realized I'd been holding breezed from my muscles. She squeezed her lids together, wrinkling her nose, and cracked one eye open so that a sliver of brown peeked through her thick, dark lashes. Immediately, they snapped open wide and she violently jerked out of my arms landing hard on the packed dirt.

"Well I knew I was a repulsive hanyou, but I thought you were aware of that too," I said, sarcasm dripping.

She didn't say anything, just looked me up and down, confusion clouding her body language. Her eyes were wide and calculating. Still sitting, she slowly began scooting away, her arms visibly shaking.

"Alright you've lost it. Kagome what's going on?"

She stopped scooting and I raised an eyebrow in her direction. All of sudden she started uncontrollably laughing.

I frowned. "Kagome?"

She suddenly stood and lunged toward my body. I was completely unprepared and she tackled me to the ground. Straddling my waist, she leaned towards my head and… grabbed my ears.

No one. Touches. My. Ears.

I snapped up and she flew off my body landing in a heap next to my legs, somehow still giggling. "What the HELL is going on?"

"You have cat ears!" she said, laugh and diving for them again.

"If you haven't noticed that by now, you're even stupider than I thought, wench," I said dryly, gently shoving her away. "And their dogs ears, dammit!"

"Do you have normal ears?"

"Does it look like I do?" I asked, lifting my hair.

"Have you ever had a haircut?"

"Does it matter?"

"Why don't you wear shoes?"

"About that…"

"Are you wearing a unitard?"

"Am I what?"

"Have you ever trimmed your fingernails?"

"SHUTUP! Geez what's with the rapid fire?"

"Do you-"

"No more questions. What. Happened?" I asked, placing my hands on her shoulders.

She pulled away. "I'm fine."

"Not what I asked, but good." I smiled. "So then what happened here?"

"I really wish I could tell you, I really do…"

"So spit it out then, wouldja?"

"One more question? Please," she gave me a puppy-dog face, which, because of my nature, I was obligated to acquiesce.

I folded my arms waiting.

"Who are you?"

Alright, so I haven't been getting much feedback. At all. I'm not sure if you guys really want me to continue or not. If you do PLEASE let me know through review. If I don't get much response then I guess I'll just delete the story. No sense in writing a lost cause! :)

Excerpt from next chapter (if I continue):

"In some ways, she will be like a newborn babe. She will have no recollection of anything that has transpired in her life, but will be completely aware of anything that she has learned. Like reading, writing and any basic knowledge.