Chapter Two

Unfortunately for Inuyasha, throwing up did not help at all. Dammit! If I am attacked, I'll hardly be able to dodge! He raged silently, while slowly making his way towards the Bone Eater's well, for lack of a better place to go. He half-fell, half-sat down against the side of the well, trying to calm his stomach, which was giving him some nasty pains. Inuyasha hardly got to relax, however. The familiar scent of wolves reached his sensitive nose, and he mumbled angrily as he forced himself to his feet. Ears twitching irritably, he waited for the smell to be more informative of exactly what wolf it was. His face scrunched up in annoyance as he recognized the unmistakable scent of Kouga, Ginta, and Haggaku. Another smell sharply hit him: youkai blood, Kouga's blood.

"Dog face! Get out of my way!" Kouga yelled, leaping over Inuyasha's head.

Before Inuyasha could retort, a huge youkai came crashing through the trees, entering the clearing. It had a somewhat human face, with a wolf-like body and leathery bat wings. The youkai roared, and charged. It ignored Inuyasha and continued to chase Kouga. In a few short moments, they disappeared, but he didn't take his hand off of Tetsusaiga's sheath. The youkai came back, but Kouga was long gone.

At the sight of Inuyasha drawing out his sword, the youkai sniffed him, and said, "You aren't a wolf, are you? You're probably just a waste of time!"

Contorted in discomfort as Inuyasha's face was, it tightened in confusion. He just stood there, ready to be attacked, but nothing happened.

"You…you k-know him, don't you?" the youkai cried out again pointing to the direction Kouga had fled, and Inuyasha could now tell that it was female.

Once again, he remained silent, watching the youkai with strange eyes.

The odd-looking youkai quivered with rage. "Answer, me, dammit! You know Kouga and he told you everything, didn't he?!"

Suddenly another youkai, resembling the first, landed from the sky to stand beside the female, making the earth shake. This one fidgeted nervously, perhaps in fear of the other's wrath.

"She never says that!" he exclaimed, pointing to the female youkai, clearly meaning that she never said such words, but Inuyasha didn't know this.

"Damn you, hanyou! Say something, shit face!" the female shrieked again, flapping her leathery wings furiously and flexing her claws on her stubby paws.

"She never says that!" the male youkai repeated, stomping his feet, slowly hollowing out the dense bed of dry grass.

Inuyasha continued to stare, as if in a stupor. He didn't feel like saying anything about this very weird situation, which clearly angered the youkai further. Her claws dug into the crumbly dirt, creating holes in the ground. Inuyasha concentrated on keeping his footing as the ground shook with each stomp the youkai took.

"Fine! He went…" Inuyasha threw his arms in the air, picking a random direction and pointed, "that way."

The female youkai's demeanor changed at once and her teeth gleamed in a horrifically pleased grin. She then said thank you in the most polite language possible, promising to repay Inuyasha for his help. Nodding to her mate, she took to the skies, the male following, still muttering something about mood swings. Inuyasha flopped on the ground, letting his guard down. Leaning against the well, he fell asleep.

Inuyasha jerked awake at the sound of footsteps crunching on leaves. Abruptly, he stood up, though he felt very weak and all he wanted to do was sleep. Suddenly, a girl appeared in the clearing, looking directly at him. She had long, dark blue hair in pigtails, and looked about as old as Kagome. Sporting armor, she looked like she'd just arrived from a battle.

"You're Inuyasha, right? I'll kill you right here!" she declared, brown eyes glaring at him.

Inuyasha peered at her strangely, smelled only a human, and scoffed, "Yeah, that's me. What's your problem? I have nothing to do with humans."

"You! You killed my older sister, Tsubaki! I'm here to take revenge for my sister!" she yelled, pointing her own Shikigami at him.

"HEY! Stupid human, do you think I was going to just let that black miko kill me?! She's the one who tried to kill me first! Go away, before I rip you up!" he growled angrily, flexing his claws at her after thinking for a moment who exactly she was talking about.

"I'm not scared of a hanyou. I, Kuma the miko, will kill you," she said, then whispering orders to her serpent.

How does this girl know who I am? Without warning, the shikigami came up right in front of him, and tore straight through his chest. Choking out a painful groan, he fell over the edge of the well and plunged down to the bottom, unconscious, as he left the Sengoku Jidai.

"Hmph! That will teach you, damn hanyou," Kuma sneered, disappearing back into the forest, which was growing dark as the sun sank down, creating a haze of pink and orange in the sky.

***

Kagome hummed to herself as she munched her dinner with her family, savoring every bite. It was all so good! Forgetting manners, she picked up as much food with her chopsticks as she could, and crammed it into her mouth, unable to suppress a happy sound. Her family had all stopped eating to stare. She was enjoying her food too much to notice. Clean hair, clean clothes, soft bed, and such delicious food! She even shaved her legs. How good it felt! Every time she came back, her reaction was the same.

"Kagome?" her grandfather said, trying desperately to get her attention.

She swallowed her last bite, and realized everyone was gawking at her. "Sorry! What was that, Grandpa?"

"Are you sure you're eating well enough over there?" he further inquired.

"Of course! It's just that nothing is as good as your cooking, Mama!" Kagome answered, beaming at her. Her mother thanked her in a warm smile.

"Sis, why don't you bring Inu no nii-chan with you? Are you having problems again?" Souta prodded.

"Inuyasha? Not really, but he's sure been moody lately!" Kagome replied, and thanked her mom for the food.

"I'll be in my room!" she called, after cleaning her dirty dishes, and started up the stairs.

Kagome's mom gathered up the remaining plates and started to clean the kitchen. "I'm so glad she's happy."

After a few minutes, Kagome heard a knock on her door. Her mother had to take a quick trip to the store to get more of Souta's allergy medicine, and Souta would be accompanying her.

"So watch over your grandfather, all right? We should be back in about an hour," her mother said, and kissed her goodbye.

"Ok, see you later!" Kagome watched them leave and walked to the living room.

Plopping down on the couch, she decided to watch some television. Something felt weird to her though, and the feeling kept bugging her. Finally she flicked off the television, slipped on her shoes, and went outside to investigate. She sensed something, though she couldn't make out what it could be. It wasn't a Shikon shard or anything like that. Kagome found herself standing in front of the well house, and opened the door. Not knowing why exactly she was doing this, she walked down the steps, and pointed her flashlight down into the well. She gasped at the sight of Inuyasha, collapsed on the floor of the well.

Inuyasha!

Wasting no time, since it was getting dark, she hurriedly climbed down the ladder and kneeled down by Inuyasha. Inspecting him with the flashlight, she gasped at the bloody wound on his chest. She tried calling his name, but got no response. Holding back her tears, she hoisted his limp body onto her back, and nearly fell over. He's too heavy! How am I going to do this?! She thought desperately, setting Inuyasha back down on the ground. Suddenly, he stirred, and his golden eyes opened up to look at her.

"Inuyasha! Are you alright?!" Kagome asked, leaning over him.

"Ka-kagome…the sun is going down," he mumbled, sitting up slowly, but hardly having the strength.

"The sun…" Kagome trailed off, staring up out of the well, which was now dark.

Inuyasha gasped and his body shook as his hair darkened from white to black, and his youkai ears disappeared, being replaced by human ears. The once lethal claws shrunk to blunted, fragile human ones, and his fangs dulled to ordinary teeth. He felt himself grow weaker, and his senses dimmed. His wound stopped healing, and for the first time he could actually feel his body hurting from the fall. He sank down, his hands the only thing keeping him from falling back on his stomach.

"Inuyasha! We have to get you out of the well," Kagome said, but didn't know how this would be done.

Slowly, Inuyasha rose to his feet, and instantly put his right hand to his chest, where the wound had started bleeding again. Kagome jumped up and supported him with her shoulder. He coughed and pushed her away, motioning for her to get on his back so he could climb the ladder. She felt wrong for letting him, but reluctantly got on his back as he made his way out of the well. The second he got out she slid off, before he dropped her. Inuyasha made no effort to move any farther.

"Come on. Let's go in the house," Kagome gently urged, but stopped when she saw his face.

"I think I'm going to puke…" he muttered, before falling to his knees and doing so.

Kagome ran to the clothesline, which her mom still hadn't taken care of, yanked a sheet off, and ran back to Inuyasha, giving it to him to wipe his mouth with, not even thinking about what she was doing. Kagome helped him up and supported him, walking into the house. Quickly, once they got inside, she cleared off the couch so he could lay down there.

"Damned girl," Inuyasha muttered, finally somewhat comfortable on the couch.

Kagome leaned over. "Inuyasha, don't talk. You can tell me later, ok? I'll be right back."

Inuyasha fumed silently, eyes closed as he waited. What the hell made that girl think she could just stalk me like that?! Dammit, I'll kill her too! It's almost like she knew I was about to change to human…Shit! She could be in league with Naraku! He continued to reprimand himself for once again not keeping track of the moon's phases. The sharp

pain in his chest angered him farther, as he pressed temporary gauze on it. The sickness from before had not gone away, and he was starting to become delusional. On top of everything else, he was sweating.

Finally, Kagome came down the stairs with a first-aid kit. She came over and felt his forehead, which was extremely hot to her hand. He has a fever too? No wonder he couldn't fend off whatever attacked him. That explains his throwing up, too. I hope everyone else is all right, she thought worriedly, as she prepared to dress Inuyasha's wound. Since she'd done it so many times before, she no longer needed assistance, or anyone else to show her. Somewhere in the back of her mind, the thought that she was becoming more like Kikyou surfaced, but Kagome quickly shoved it away.

"Hot in here," Inuyasha said quietly, trying to focus on something in the room, and not having much luck.

"Oh, I'll fix that!" Kagome answered, jumping up to pull the chain on the ceiling fan.

Inuyasha's eyes widened in confusion and surprise as the blades went around faster, creating a draft. He still wasn't used to the ceiling fan. He shifted slightly away. Kagome stopped at the look on his face.

"It's just a fan," she said, not able to suppress a grin.

He peered at her with half-closed eyes. "A fan? That's not a fan."

"…It is too a fan. We've been over this before. Now take off your shirt, so I can stop the bleeding," Kagome replied, staring at him with defense in her eyes.

Inuyasha tried to remove the shirt, but it disturbed the wound, and he fell back from his sitting position, grimacing. She helped him, and finally started to bandage up his chest. Kagome couldn't help but think about the dozens of times that she'd done this. Only, it was different this time. His wound wouldn't heal normally, like a hanyou's would, but at the slow rate of any other human. She had to take care in doing this. Suddenly, she felt extremely nervous. As she went along, Kagome suddenly was impacted with the strong sense of a Shikon shard. The aura was strangely black, but the shard itself was not fake. Why didn't I notice it before? She thought, pausing. She sensed it in his wound, right in the middle. How on earth did it get there? She worried silently.

Inuyasha's brown eyes met her worried face. "What is it?"

"W-what?" she responded, startled out of her reverie.

Coughing, Inuyasha stared at her. "You stopped."

I have to try and get it out.

"There's a Shikon shard in you," Kagome said, returning the glance, "But, it's been soiled."

Inuyasha's expression hardened, and he heaved a painful sigh, still looking at her. Kagome had no idea what to do. When Tsubaki had cursed her, there was no way out of it, unless the black miko was killed. Her stomach twisted.

"That girl was Tsubaki's younger sister, and I guess this proves it," Inuyasha said weakly, thinking back on their trouble with Tsubaki.

Without replying, Kagome reached out her unsteady hand, and as it neared Inuyasha, a violent wave of dark energy passed through her. She recoiled quickly, holding her hand.

"Do you feel strange at all?" She asked, still rubbing her hand.

"No, not yet anyway. That stupid little miko girl, Kuma, or whatever sought revenge. Keh! She thought she killed me!" he burst out in response, sitting up abruptly despite the pain.

"She almost did…. She's trying to curse you…" Kagome trailed off, staring at the floor.

"But…..but! She didn't kill me! Yeah. Wow, Kagome, that fan's goin` really fast…" Inuyasha insisted, suddenly feeling very dizzy as he stared at the moving blades, not really meaning to.

"Are…you okay?" Kagome asked, looking up at that strange statement, "Inuyasha?"

"Hm?" Inuyasha answered, turning to her slowly.

A second after that reply, he fainted on the couch.

***

That was Chapter Two. Eh….good…bad…annoying? TELL ME!