September 29

When we arrived at the village a few days ago for our exorcism, we had no idea what we were in for.

As soon as we arrived we were met by some men who frantically told us the story of what was going on.

A demon had possessed various people in the village throughout the past few days. The first woman he possessed had tried to stab her husband, another person had tried to throw the village headman into the river. They had tried to lock up the possessed but it was no use because the demon would escape to find its next target.

Just that morning the village headman had been possessed and the demon had made him run off into the woods. Some men had tried looking for him but they couldn't find him and feared the worst.

Miroku assured them that we would find the headman and stop the demon. From there we went off towards the last place they had seen him into the woods just outside of the village.

"This is certainly an odd situation," Miroku said. "I wonder what this demon could have to gain by possessing the village."

"You're right," I replied. "There doesn't seem to be an end goal here. Maybe it's just doing this to be cruel."

"Who cares what it's motivation is?" Inuyasha said with his usual fierce determination. "Whatever it is, it's going to die by my sword."

Miroku paused. "I sense a demonic presence around here."

"I do too," I replied. "It's coming from this direction."

We continued on deeper into the woods when all of a sudden the village headman jumped out of the trees. He looked normal except for the fact that the eyes were bright red.

"So you're the exorcists?" Instead of a normal voice, he had the deep and chilling voice of the demon possessing him.

"Get out of that man's body right now or you'll have us to deal with," Inuyasha said.

"You don't scare me!"

"So you're making us use force?" Miroku said. He threw a sutra and it landed on the man's head. The demon was immediately exorcised and it turned out to be a blob of a creature as black as the night with glowing red eyes.

"Hmm, a monk? This could be interesting!" the demon said.

"Oh no you don't!" Inuyasha said. He charged it with his sword but the demon dodged his attack. The demon didn't really have a form, it was almost like a shadow with the way it slipped past Inuyasha's attack. Then it went straight for Miroku who collapsed when the demon went into his chest.

"Miroku!" I exclaimed, running over to him. I bent down next to him and for a moment he didn't move but then he shoved me away and stood up.

"Pathetic that you thought you could stop me!" Miroku said in the voice of the demon. "Now you're going to pay!"

He ran at us and swiped his staff, Inuyasha and I dodged it but we didn't want to really fight him for fear of hurting him.

"Damn it, Miroku, snap out of it!" Inuyasha exclaimed as he dodged being hit by Miroku's again.

There was an incantation I knew that was good for exorcising demons. Kaede had told me about it in passing a little while ago. As I ran from Miroku's attacks I tried to remember it.

All of a sudden, I tripped over a branch and Miroku pinned me down, about to stab me. I lifted my hand and said the incantation and it worked. The demon was expelled from Miroku who collapsed onto the ground in a daze. But now the demon was looking directly at me.

"You're quite a powerful priestess aren't you? Your powers will serve me well."

"Kagome!" Inuyasha said as he lunged towards the demon.

It was the weirdest feeling to be possessed by the demon. Everything seemed to get colder. I could still think but I wasn't in control of my body.

Miroku and Inuyasha hesitated for a moment probably trying to figure out how to stop the demon without hurting me. Then I raised my bow and arrow at them.

"Kagome…" Inuyasha said.

I tried to resist but I found my hand pulling back the arrow anyway. Inside of my mind the demon chuckled.

That's right, priestess. You're going to kill them both.

No! I thought. I tried to fight it but it was no use. I had no choice but to let the arrow fly.

To my relief, Inuyasha and Miroku managed to dodge it but then the arrow exploded knocking them onto their backs. It shocked me; I didn't know I could do that!

My attention then turned to Inuyasha and I began to chase after him another arrow ready to go in my hands.

Yes! Kill the half demon!

Please don't make me! I thought. But resisting wasn't working. I was still chasing my husband through the woods.

We reached a dead end and my arrow was aimed right for his chest.

"Come on, Kagome. Fight it. Don't do this," Inuyasha pleaded.

The tears finally fell from my eyes. I pulled back the arrow but I fought with all of my might not to release it; I was fighting so hard my hands shook.

Come on you stupid girl! Kill him!

"No," I whispered. I didn't know how much longer I was going to be able to keep this up. Why didn't Inuyasha run away? He was desperate to protect me, but he should have been trying to get away from me. "Inuyasha, run. Please."

Then another weird thing happened. Something slammed into my back and I felt almost an electric jolt. Just as quickly, the hold the demon had on me was lifted and I had control of my body. Miroku had placed an exorcism sutra on me. I dropped my bow and arrow and fell to my knees mortified by what I had done.

In a second, Inuyasha was by my side. I threw my arms around him and buried my face in his chest. "Yasha, I'm so sorry!"

He kissed the top of my head. "It's okay, baby." To my relief, he didn't sound angry or anything. He was just relieved that I was now safe.

"Inuyasha, use the wind scar on the demon!" Miroku said.

Inuyasha let go of me and then lifted his sword again. He used the wind scar but again the demon was so lithe and shadowlike, somehow it was able to slip past the wind scar.

"What?!" Inuyasha exclaimed.

The demon gave an evil laugh. "You're quite powerful for a half-demon. Your powers will be useful to me." It flew at Inuyasha and hit him with such force that it knocked him onto his back and the tetsusaiga flew out of his hand.

Miroku and I glanced at each other nervously as Inuyasha sat up on his hands and knees, the demon voice coming from him laughing hysterically. We knew that with Inuyasha possessed, it would be a lot harder to stop him.

"Wow, you are really powerful for a half-demon," the demon said. "Let's dispose of the priestess and the monk and move on."

Inuyasha growled and Miroku and I jumped back when we saw that his eyes were red. With his fangs and claws razor-sharp, he walked towards us looking menacing. More than anything, I was worried about him. Inuyasha hadn't changed into a full demon in such a long time and I didn't want what had happened before to happen again.

"Kagome," Miroku said as we backed away from Inuyasha.

"What?"

"Run!"

Inuyasha lunged at us and we ran in different directions. He went after Miroku first.

"Inuyasha!" I exclaimed as I went after them. I had been able to get through to him before, so I hoped it would work again. But this was a different circumstance; he was possessed by another demon.

Inuyasha jumped in front of Miroku and slashed at him with his claws over and over which Miroku dodged and deflected with his staff.

"Snap out of it, Inuyasha! Come on!" Miroku exclaimed. On the next swipe of Inuyasha's claws, he was a bit too slow and when Inuyasha cut him across his chest Miroku screamed and fell to the ground.

"Miroku!" I didn't have time to run over to make sure my friend was okay because Inuyasha turned on me next.

His red eyes looked at me and snarled. Inuyasha wouldn't hurt me, I thought, I know he wouldn't. Even before when he had turned into a full demon he had stopped before he hurt me. But when he started running towards me with his claws at the ready, my heart sank. Maybe he really was going to hurt me.

I ran from him trying to figure out what to do. I should have grabbed the tetsusaiga but if I went back I would fall right into his sharp claws. I had taken the subjugation beads off and couldn't use "sit" anymore. If I could get him close enough to me, I could use the exorcism incantation that I had used on Miroku and see what would happen.

I froze when I realized he had stopped running. I looked back at him and he seemed to be having an internal struggle with himself. He dropped to his knees and clawed at the ground. "Get out of me you bastard!" he said to the demon in him.

I inched closer to him unsure of what would happen. "Inuyasha…"

He growled again and I jumped back for a second but then I kept coming closer to him. I had to be calm. His consciousness was still there. He wouldn't intentionally hurt me. I bent down in front of him. "Relax, honey."

Maybe I had put too much faith in him. Suddenly, he leaped forward and I was on my back while his hands grabbed both of my arms. His claws dug into my skin, his sharp fangs were inches from my face. My heart pounded, my eyes brimmed with tears. I hated to see my husband this way and I hated that I was afraid of him. I tried to calm my breathing as I put my hands on his purple striped cheeks. "I love you," I whispered. "I love you so much, Inuyasha."

He stopped growling and his face softened. He still looked like a full demon, but I knew my husband was still there. "I love you too."

I said the exorcism incantation and the demon was forcibly expelled from him. Inuyasha collapsed and I knew I had to get rid of the demon.

"How dare you!" the demon shouted.

The black form hovered above me and I pulled out my bow and arrow. Just as it flew towards us again, I shot the arrow and it disappeared.

"Kagome…"

I turned to Inuyasha who was trying to sit up, still dizzy from being possessed. I bent down to him and held him in my arms. "It's okay," I said comfortingly.

"I hurt you," he said as he noticed the cuts on my arms from where his claws had dug in.

I kissed him. "It's fine."

"Where's Miroku?!" he said in a panic.

"I'm right here," Miroku said. He limped towards us clutching his chest with the tetsusaiga in his other hand.

"Miroku...I'm sorry, I...I didn't mean to…"

"Don't worry about it," Miroku said, sitting next to us. He handed Inuyasha his sword. "You were possessed. It wasn't your fault. I'm glad Kagome was able to bring you back to normal."

Inuyasha hugged me again. "Yeah, I'm glad too."

"Excuse me."

We looked up to see the village headman walking towards us. So much had happened that I had nearly forgotten about him. "I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for saving my village and saving my life."

"It's not a problem at all," Miroku said.

"I'm so sorry that you had to go through so much on our behalf. Please, come back to the village and we'll make sure you have a nice meal. I'll also double your pay."

"Sir…" I said.

"I insist. And, kind monk, we should patch up those wounds."

Miroku winced a bit; there was still blood covering his chest. "Thank you."