The whole village was silent and dark. There was light only in one small hut, near the village shrine. Inside were our friends. Inuyasha was lying next to the fire. Kagome was kneeled by his left side, Kaede at his head and Miroku at his legs. Sango, Shippo and Kirara were sitting aside and only watching.
"Here's the shard." Kagome said and handed the small peace of the Shikon no Tama to the old Miko.
"Thank you, child." Kaede said and placed it between two of the beads from Inuyasha's rosary.
"Kaede-sama, what exactly are we going to do?" Miroku asked after the old woman took her previous position.
"It is simple." she started. "I will activate the shard's powers, you will create a barrier around Inuyasha, and then I'll connect the shard with the barrier..."
"Sounds good." Miroku said. "That way we should be able to isolate Inuyasha from the sound."
"But there's one more thing." Kaede said and looked at Kagome.
"What is it?" the girl asked worried.
"The shard might get tainted." the old Miko said calmly. Kagome wanted to say something but Kaede continued. "Inuyasha's human heart is good enough to keep the shard pure, but he also has a dark demon side. I can't say which side will become stronger with the shard. So we need your purifying powers, Kagome."
"We'll have to connect Kagome-sama and the shard, right?" Miroku asked and Kaede nodded.
"Do you agree with that, child?" the old woman asked and everybody looked at the girl.
"Of course I agree." Kagome nodded firmly.
"Alright, let's start then..." Kaede said.
The old Miko and Miroku brought their hands in front of their faces, in praying position. Kaede started chanting something and after a few seconds the shard on Inuyasha's rosary started shining with pink light. Then Kaede stopped and Miroku started chanting. Around the hanyou appeared a blue barrier. Suddenly Kagome started to feel strangely light, her vision blurred and she thought she was going to fall asleep any minute.
Sango, Shippo and Kirara watched their friends with concern. The cat demon and the kitsune were in Sango's lap. Shippo didn't know why but he was afraid. He snuggled closer into Sango and continued watching his friends. The demon exterminator frowned when she saw the dizziness that seemed to have engulfed Kagome.
Soon a bright pink aura appeared around Kagome. She felt like something was pulled out of her and her vision started to turn back to normal. She could see the aura around her being pulled toward Inuyasha and it started to surround him. The beads of the rosary started glowing and the shard turned into one of them. The barrier and the aura started to become more transparent until they couldn't be seen anymore.
Kaede and Miroku opened their eyes and looked at Kagome. She was staring at Inuyasha and looked like hypnotized. Miroku looked at the old Miko worried and she went closer to Kagome. Sango looked questioningly at the monk and he shrugged and shook his head, showing her that he didn't know what was going on.
"Kagome," Kaede shook the girl's right shoulder. At the sudden movement she snapped out of her trance and looked at the woman at her side with a blank look. "Kagome, are you alright?"
The girl stared for a while and finally seemed to come to herself as her eyes moved around to take in her surroundings. "Y-Yes... Yes, I'm fine..." she said and even gave Kaede a small smile.
"Thank God..." the old woman sighed and relaxed.
"Did we make it?" Kagome asked looking first at Miroku, then at Kaede.
"Kaede-sama..." the monk turned to the woman.
"We did everything right." the old Miko said. "We'll see if it works when he wakes up. Now we need some rest, especially you, Kagome."
As if to prove her right Kagome yawned and smiling she nodded. Everybody lied on their futons and very soon they were in dreamland. Kagome wanted to be the first to see Inuyasha when he wakes up, but although she tried not to fall asleep, she failed.
It was morning and Sesshoumaru was again walking through the forest. His three companions were following him not too far behind. The more he approached the village the more the sound dug into his head and made him feel highly irritated. He surely wasn't the type to admit that it wasn't only irritating but it also hurt like hell. He wouldn't even admit it to himself.
"Jaken-sama, do you know where we're going?" Rin whispered.
"I'm not sure but I think we're headed toward Inuyasha's village." the green demon answered.
"I wonder why..." the girl said mostly to herself.
"It's something to do with that sound." Jaken said. "That Inuyasha... It's his fault, I'm sure!"
'I'm not...' Sesshoumaru thought. 'It is because of my brother, I can say that, but it's not his fault.' he continued walking, listening to what the two behind him were talking.
"Jaken-sama, you've been with Sesshoumaru-sama for a long time." Rin whispered to the green demon in front of her. "Have anything like this happened before?"
"I don't think so." he answered. "But, you know, he doesn't talk too much and leaves us whenever he wants."
The girl sighed heavily and didn't say anything else. Jaken remained silent too. Rin felt tears of worry and frustration well up in her eyes but she wasn't going to let them come out. Worry for Sesshoumaru and frustration because she couldn't do anything to help him. She was angry too. She was sure the dog demon knew they were fallowing him but he still didn't show it, he didn't even get angry at Jaken. 'Things are really serious.' she thought.
'You couldn't have seen me like this, Jaken.' Sesshoumaru thought. 'The last demon who could make this sound died 80 years ago.'
The dog demon walked during the whole day. Knowing that he was ignoring them Rin didn't pay attention to the volume of her voice and wasn't whispering anymore. At first Jaken tried to make her to be quieter but she refused to listen. He now knew that his master was pretending that he hadn't noticed them, but didn't want to make him mad with being noisy.
They were very close to the village. It could be seen in the distance. Sesshoumaru wasn't looking good. He felt like he was going to pass out any moment. And he was sure Inuyasha must be dead by now – if that sound could affect a great demon like him like that, a hanyou surely had no chance. But there was another thing that concerned him – if the sound hadn't stopped yet, that meat that his brother was still alive. So, that was another reason to reach the village faster.
Like he had thought he was going to be at the village by evening. He stopped on a hill to look around. There, in the distance, beyond the village, was a huge explosion and suddenly Sesshoumaru doubled over, his hand on his right ear. Rin and Jaken could see blood starting to run down from his left ear. They immediately rushed to him to help him.
'If this doesn't kill him...' were the last thoughts of Sesshoumaru before he lost consciousness.
TBC