Chapter 3: The Past

"What did he mean by that?" Kagome asked confusedly.

"Sesshoumaru hit Inuyasha with his poison claws and apparently he only has a little time until the poison starts to work." Sango explained to Kagome.

"What?! Inuyasha can't die. We have to find an antidote." Kagome yelled.

"And we will find one." Miroku exclaimed.

"What are you guys talkin' about? Who said I was gonna die?" Inuyasha walked up to Miroku, Shippou, Sango, and Kagome. Kagome ran at Inuyasha and hugged him.

"I don't want you to die!" Kagome cried.

"Uh, what's going on, you guys? Why does everyone keep saying I'm going to die?" Inuyasha asked as he pulled Kagome off of him.

"You were hit with Sesshoumaru's poison claws, and if we don't find an antidote soon you'll die from the poison." Kagome said with tears in her eyes. Sango walked over to Kagome and tried to keep her from crying.

"What have I told you before about crying, Kagome." Inuyasha said trying to cheer Kagome up.

"No crying." Kagome answered, with a little smile on her face. She had stopped crying and was wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Right. Now, I didn't die from the poison before. What in the world makes you think I'm going to die from it this time?"

"Did you forget that you're in your human form, Inuyasha? You don't have your hanyou immunity or whatever you want to call it. The poison can easily get into your blood, and can therefore kill you if it reaches your heart." Sango tried to explain.

"We have to get to Lady Kaede to see if she has an antidote or knows how to get one." Kagome suggested.

"I agree completely. She is probably the best chance we have at finding an antidote." Miroku and Sango agreed.

"Either her or Kouga." Kagome said.

"We are not going to Kouga for help. I'm not going anywhere near him. Neither is Kagome." Inuyasha yelled.

"But, what if we have to? What if he has something we need?" Miroku asked.

"Then Kagome stays behind."

"What?! I'm not going to stay behind just because you say so. Just because he loves me and you don't like him. I'm not that eager to see him again, but I'll do whatever it takes to keep you from dying." Kagome yelled at Inuyasha. She was just a little surprised at her own words. So were Inuyasha and the rest of the group.

"Well, Inuyasha, I guess she told you." Shippou exclaimed laughing.

"Shut up, you little runt!" Inuyasha yelled at him. "We only go to Kouga if we absolutely have to." he explained, glaring at Kagome.

"Well duh! Do you really think we would go to Kouga for help when we don't need to? How stupid do you think we are?" Kagome hesitated before shouting "Don't answer that."

Inuyasha was watching Kagome as she turned to get her things to leave. "We should go now. We don't know how fast the poison will spread, and take affect. If it starts working while we're on our way to Kaede's, we will have some trouble." Kagome started walking in the direction from which they had come earlier, the way towards Kaede's village. Sango, Miroku, Shippou, and Kilala followed Kagome and Inuyasha ran up beside her.

"So, you really are that concerned about me? What in the world makes you think that the poison will work?" Inuyasha asked looking at Kagome.

"Well we might be wrong about the poison. It might not work, but if it does work the way we suspect and we don't do anything about it, you will most likely die. And I don't want that to happen. I need you to help me find the Shikon no Tama pieces. After all, you are the one that wants it so badly. If you die, I could find the jewel by myself and you wouldn't be able to use it." Kagome explained.

"What?! There's no way you're going to find the jewel without me.You can't even... uh. What are you looking at!?" Inuyasha yelled at Miroku while Kagome started laughing. Miroku had been watching Inuyasha yell at Kagome.

"Honestly Inuyasha. You're such a kid. I know we wouldn't be able to fight Naraku without you." Kagome explained.

"Yeah, you better believe it. You ain't got a chance without me." Inuyasha exclaimed, pointing a thumb into his puffed out chest. Sango and Kagome started laughing while Miroku and Shippou just rolled their eyes. "What are you two laughing at? What's so funny?" Inuyasha demanded.

"You, that's what. You're so stuck on yourself." Sango managed to say during her fit of laughter.

"I am not stuck on myself. You're dreamin'. C'mon let's keep moving." Inuyasha replied angrily. They all walked in silence for a long while when suddenly Inuyasha collapsed.

Sango and Miroku put Inuyasha onto Kilala and Sango rode behind him. "I knew this was going to happen." Kagome exclaimed worriedly.

They finally got back to Kaede's village after about four hours.

"Lady Kaede! We need your help!" Kagome yelled, searching for Kaede.

"Kagome, child, you're back so soon. What be the problem?" Kaede replied, emerging from a nearby house.

"Inuyasha was cut with one of his brother's poison claws. We need an antidote. Do you have one?" Kagome answered.

"That depends on what kind of poison it is. What kind was it?"

"Uh, we don't know." Sango answered after a few seconds of thinking. Since Inuyasha collapsed, he looked like he was sleeping, but now he had opened his eyes.

"It's... anqelibury poison." Inuyasha said with some difficulty.

"Inuyasha's awake!" Kagome yelled joyfully.

"Yeah, I'm awake. Sorry if... I scared you, Kagome." Inuyasha slowly and carefully got down off of Kilala, with the help of Kagome and Miroku.

"Anqelibury poison, is it? I don't have an antidote, but I know how to make one. But there is one problem. I don't have one of the necessary ingredients. I need an anque plant from Paradise Mountain." Kaede explained.

"Paradise Mountain, isn't that where Kouga's tribe dwells?" Miroku wondered.

"If it is... then Kagome isn't going." Inuyasha replied. Inuyasha was wobbling slightly as he stood next to Kagome, and he almost fell into her, but Miroku caught him by the arms.

"What do you mean I'm not going? The only people who can tell me what to do are my grandpa, my mom, and me. I'm going whether you like it or not!" Kagome hollered as she turned to face Inuyasha.

"No... you're not going. I'll... tie you to a... a tree if I have to." Inuyasha tried to yell back. Then suddenly Inuyasha collapsed again.

"Inuyasha! Inuyasha, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you mad, but I have to go. I'll be back soon, I promise." Kagome explained to the now sleeping Inuyasha. "Take care of him, please, Lady Kaede. We need him." Kagome requested of Kaede.

"Do hurry. Ye do not have much time, Kagome. Ye have but twenty-four hours. The flower will die from the mountain within that time. God speed child." Kaede replied. Miroku helped Kagome up onto Kilala between him and Sango, and they flew off in the direction of Paradise Mountain.

"It shouldn't be too hard to tell if he's anywhere near, because of the Jewel shards he still has in his legs. We will be able to tell if he's around and we'll start the search for the flower." Kagome suggested, as they flew toward Paradise Mountain.

"How do we still know if he even stays there anymore? I mean, his tribe was wiped out and there's hardly anything up there anyway. Why stay?" Sango asked holding a sleeping Shippou.

"I don't know, but I have a feeling he's there now, and it has nothing to do with the Shikon shards. I'm not really sure why, but I think he's there right now, somewhere on the mountain, just waiting for something to happen." Kagome answered to the surprise of both Miroku and Sango.

The group was quiet for quite a long time, when suddenly something shot at Kilala, but missed. Kilala was startled and Sango lost control of her for a while. Kilala went flying in all different directions and Kagome almost fell off. "Shh, it's okay, girl. It's okay. You're fine. Shh." Sango tried to sooth Kilala. "Man, what in the world was that? It flew straight up at us." She exclaimed after she had calmed Kilala down to full control again.

"I don't know. It was going very, very fast. I didn't see what it was." Miroku replied. Kagome was looking around at the ground from the direction the object came from. She thought she saw something, but she couldn't make out what it was. The object that had shot past them before came falling back down, and landed right in Kagome's lap. It was an arrow with a note attached to it.

Tell Inuyasha to leave Naraku to me.

Kikyou

"What's that Kagome?" Miroku asked looking over Kagome's shoulder.

"It's nothing important. Don't worry about it, but I did find out what the object was that almost hit Kilala. It was an arrow." Kagome responded, giving the arrow to Miroku and then Sango.

"Wow, so that's what it was. That seems to make sense." Sango answered. "But who shot it?"

"I don't know. I didn't see them." Kagome lied. "Hey, are we there yet?"

"Almost. We still have about a half an hour until we're there." Sango replied. She could sense Kagome's worry and she tried to comfort her. "Don't worry about Inuyasha. He'll be fine. He's really strong, he'll make it."

"Yeah, I know, but I'm still worried. What if the antidote doesn't work or we don't make it in time. I almost lost him before we had met you. He almost died in my arms. It was a while ago, we were traveling down the river in a boat and we saw this girl named Nazura and she got attacked by this youkai called a Spider Head. We saved her and she brought us to the temple she lived at. The priest then told us about how the mountain was swarming with these Spider Heads and that a lot of people had already been killed by the youkai. Inuyasha wanted to leave, but I convinced him to stay, to help these people. We stayed part of the night at the temple until we woke up to find our room swarming with the Spider Heads. We ran off into the woods and got a shock just as we stopped to rest. Inuyasha was turning into a human. Myouga told us that there was one time in every half-youkai's life when he loses his special powers, and they never reveal it to others. Well, then Nazura showed up and asked us to help the priest because he was stuck in the temple surrounded by the Spider Heads. So we went to help. Inuyasha told Nazura and I to wait outside, so we waited for a while. Then we saw Shippou's warning sign, and we ran inside. Shippou was being held down by one of the hands of the head youkai, which actually turned out to be the priest himself, and Inuyasha was being hung upside down in the priest's web. He looked like he was going to pass out. His eyes were partway closed and they had a blank look to them. I rushed up to where he was using the web to climb, and I pulled him down. Well, actually, we fell, but that's not important. Nazura and I ran into a small side room and jammed Tetsusaiga into the door. The seal from Tetsusaiga held the door closed and kept all the youkai out. But, Inuyasha was still out cold. He had been bitten by the priest and there was a deadly poison circulating through his now human body. Myouga said he could help him and he started to suck the poison out. He swelled to a size bigger than Inuyasha's head, but Inuyasha woke up." Kagome had tears in her eyes as she remembered that day. "He spent the rest of the night sleeping in my lap."

"He'll be okay, I promise." Miroku exclaimed.

"I was so scared that Inuyasha might die, and that's the same way I feel now. Inuyasha may be rude sometimes, but..." Kagome stopped talking.

"What is it, Kagome?" Sango asked. Sango was trying to see Kagome behind her and she wasn't paying attention to what was in front of her.

"Sango, look out!" Miroku warned, but it was too late. They went flying into something right in front of them. Sango held on tight to Kilala, while Kagome had a hold of Sango's boomerang strings and she was dangling off of Kilala.

"Someone help, please!" Kagome yelled. Miroku had somehow remained on Kilala's back, and he and Sango were trying to hoist Kagome back up onto Kilala's back. Kagome's hand slipped off of the strings, and she would have fallen if Miroku hadn't grabbed a hold of her hand suddenly. But Miroku couldn't hold on any longer and Kagome's hand slipped from his grasp only seconds later.

Wow, this chapter was pretty long! I didn't expect this much, lol. Oh well. It's gettin' good, isn't it? Well, I'm the author so you ppl have to tell ME. Byes, updating soon.