Awakening

Inuyasha's jaw dropped when he heard that.

Kagome almost smirked at the sight of the stupid expression on his face, but then she thought about why that look was there in the first place, and it immediately got a lot less funny. It wasn't until she looked around at everybody that she remembered she was in the company of two more demons, one of whom was the Lord of the Western Lands. He would undoubtedly be pretty pissed off by the fact that he couldn't return home.

Before Sesshomaru could make his opinion known however, someone else spoke. "It's probably better that you two are trapped here right now, anyways," Ilyomaru stated. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru looked at him like he was insane.

"What the hell are you talking about? You think its better that we are stuck in an era that I know very little about, and he knows absolutely nothing about?" Inuyasha gestured Sesshomaru, an expression of disbelief on his face.

Ilyomaru nodded solemnly. "Trust me; you do not want to be in our era right now. Something big is about to go down. It would not be good if two of the most powerful beings were destroyed, and if you two were there when it happens, you would be hunted down and slaughtered, along with anyone who stands with you." Ilyomaru said this very seriously, but both brothers looked at him like he was crazy.

Sesshomaru was the first to speak up."Maybe Inuyasha could be destroyed that easily, but not me. I am Sesshomaru, Lord of the—"

Ilyomaru cut him off there with a raised hand. "We all know perfectly well who you are, and it makes no difference. This guy would take you out, regardless of how powerful you are." Sesshomaru looked skeptical at this statement but he remained silent.

Inuyasha spoke up next. "Well, if this guy is so powerful, what does he want to kill everyone for? I mean, what's the point. Apparently we're no threat to him." Sarcasm was not Inuyasha's strong suit, but his it was literally dripping from his last statement.

"He doesn't want to kill everyone, just those who have come in direct contact with the Shikon Jewel."

When she heard that, Kagome decided to stick her nose into the fray."Why does he want to do that?"

Ilyomaru looked at her, as if sizing her up. After a moment, he nodded. "Good question, mortal. This guy, he doesn't like the power the sacred jewel can bestow on a person. If used correctly, their power could rival those of the gods themselves. He has taken it upon himself to see that the jewel is never complete again. Anyone who has seen or touched a piece of it has felt its power, and he doesn't want them to get it into their heads to gather the rest of it. So he kills anyone who has touched or seen it. As we all know, both Inuyasha and Sesshomaru have handled the jewel. They would certainly be killed."

"Well then, what the hell are we supposed to do? Just sit around in this era until this guy gives up and goes back to wherever he came from?" Inuyasha asked, rather aggressively. Sesshomaru nodded in agreement. Despite their differences, neither ever backed down from a fight.

"He will not give up. Unless you have forgotten, your human here has in her possession seven shards of the jewel. Have no doubt, he will come for them." This was met with silence.

The statement was so shocking that Kagome even overlooked that he had called her Inuyasha's human. She quickly realized that there was one major glaring flaw in Ilyomaru's belief.

"I thought you said we are stuck here? If that is true, doesn't it mean that nobody can come here through the well?"

Ilyomaru grinned at that. "I never said he would come through the well. No, he will make his own portal, and once he is here, the only ones who will be able to stand up to him will be us."

"What do you mean he will open his own portal? Exactly how strong is this guy?" Inuyasha voiced the question, but it had been on everybody's minds.

"He is extremely powerful. Perhaps you have heard of him; his name is Kuttsoh-turas." Sesshomaru gasp of surprise drew the attention of Inuyasha and Kagome.

"What is it? Do you know him? Is he as powerful as Ilyomaru says he is?"

Kagome's question seemed to have caught Sesshomaru by surprise, because he actually answered without any hostility in his voice. "He is extremely powerful. He has to be. He is, after all, a god." This announcement was met by silence from everyone present.

Ilyomaru was the first to break the silence. "That is why I was watching you two battle. I was going to approach you and offer what little protection I could, but before I could announce my presence, you destroyed the well, and we ended up getting sucked into this era. It is better protection than I could have given you," he admitted in a soft voice.

Ilyomaru's confession prompted a question from Sesshomaru."Why have you not revealed your presence to either of us earlier?"

"To tell you the truth, I was, until quite recently, sealed up in a tomb. I had been left there, forever to sleep, by previous allies of our father. For four hundred years, I lay sealed within my tomb, until the explosion of power brought about by the destruction of the Shikon Jewel awakened me from my slumber. I should have immediately came to you and told you my tale, but instead, all I could think about was gaining my revenge on the demons that had sealed me away." His eyes started glaring red then. Kagome jumped back from him in fear, but he quickly regained control over himself and continued his story.

"Soon after being released, I found out that they had convinced my father that I had simply forfeited my duties and left. I now knew that my father was dead, along with my mother. I also learned that all of the demons who had participated in capturing my father had been killed during the period I had been sealed away. I also learned that I now had two brothers: one had taken my inheritance as Lord of the Western Lands, and the other was a half-breed." He looked up at that point, and noticed the uneasy expression on Sesshomaru's face. He had just declared that Sesshomaru had stolen what was rightly his.

Ilyomaru smirked and shook his head."Do not worry needlessly, Sesshomaru. I have no interest in ruling over any lands. They are yours, and will remain so. Anyways, after learning that my revenge was pointless, I resolved myself to learn more about my remaining family. It was easy to learn about you Sesshomaru; as a demon Lord, your antics are very well documented. Inuyasha, on the other hand, was a little harder to learn about. I learned that you had been sealed to a tree by a mortal priestess, fifty years prior to my awakening. I scoffed when I first heard that, but I quickly learned that it was true. Apparently, the weakness for human females runs in the family." Inuyasha blushed a bit at this, but Ilyomaru paid no attention to him. He just proceeded with his tale.

"I found out that you had been freed from your resting place and learned that you were now tracking down the shards of the scared jewel. I was told that you were seen traveling with a human demon slayer, a human monk, a small fox demon, and another human female, again with spiritual powers. Apparently she was the one who had shattered the jewel. At that time, I was made aware of another who was searching for the jewel; Naraku. I was disappointed when I learned that both of you had failed to destroy the creature. But, at that time, he was not my first priority. I watched as you and your humans continued on your adventure Inuyasha, and I watched as you grew closer to the human known as Kagome, even though you clearly still had feelings for the resurrected human priestess that had sealed you to a tree for fifty years. But at that same time, I heard a tale that shocked me. Sesshomaru had been seen traveling with a human child. I didn't believe it, until I saw it with my own eyes." Sesshomaru said nothing, but he was clearly uncomfortable when he was the topic of the conversations.

After a moment, Ilyomaru shrugged and went on with the story. "I watched as you, Inuyasha, were plagued with guilt over your new feelings for Kagome and your old feeling for Kikyo. And I watched as Kikyo was killed by Naraku. I watched as you abandoned his friends just to see if rumors of a wounded priestess wandering around were true. I continued to observe as you battled Naraku for his final shard, and I watched as he fled. I watched as everything started to fall apart. When you fought Naraku for the final time, and he managed to steal Kagome's nearly complete jewel, I thought it was over. I was about to interfere, but Sesshomaru beat me to the punch. I watched as the two of you worked together to destroy Naraku once and for all. But that wasn't the end. With his last bit of power, Naraku shattered the jewel once again and spread the shards throughout the land." Ilyomaru paused, and Kagome took the time to remember back on that time, and her feeling of horror as the jewel was shattered once again in front of her eyes.

Ilyomaru continued on then, clearly caught up in his memories. "When you and your friends continued on their quest, I knew something had changed. The monk no longer had a strong enough reason to continue and so he left the group to settle down with the demon slayer. The young fox left as well, to return to his home. The only ones left were you, Inuyasha, and you, Kagome. As you spent more time together, it was clear to me that you were growing apart. I noticed that the feelings you two once shared were quickly losing their intensity, transforming your feelings from lust and romantic love to nothing more than friendship and comfort with one another." This time, it was Kagome who blushed, realizing that what he had just said was the perfect dscription of her changing feelings for her half-demon comrade.

"During that time, I started to realize that the gods had become concerned . I quickly discerned the cause of their worry to be the Shikon Jewel. One god in particular, Kuttsoh-turas, seemed very angry. I knew it was only a matter of time before he came down from the Heavens to get rid of the jewel once and for all." He paused and looked up at Inuyasha and Sesshomaru. "I decided to reveal myself to you then, and warn you of the danger. I came across you two fighting like little children however, so I was forced to wait and see how your little battle played out. When I saw that the well was about to be destroyed, I knew what the implications would be. I tried to stop you, but I just wasn't quick enough. Now we are trapped here, until such time as Kuttsoh-turas comes for the shards of the jewel." He fell silent finally and focused his intense stare on his brothers.

Throughout the tale, Inuyasha and Sesshomaru had remained quiet, but now Sesshomaru spoke up. "How long?" he inquired. When Ilyomaru raised an eyebrow in question, he clarified. "How long until Kuttsoh-turas comes here to kill us? How long will we be forced to stay in this era, with no other demons, surrounded only be humans and their contraptions?"

Inuyasha had been about to ask the same thing, but he quickly shut his mouth when Ilyomaru started to respond. "I do not know for sure. Judging by the amount of beings who have handled a piece of the jewel however, it could be as much as a month." At this statement, Sesshomaru, Inuyasha, and Kagome all gasped in horror.

"Do you mean to tell me that I will be forced to put up with all three of you for a month?" Kagome screamed into Ilyomaru's face.

He simply smirked back at her. "If you think that is the worst aspect of this whole situation, you've got another thing coming, little girl."

"What do you mean?" Kagome asked him slowly, apprehension colouring her tone.

"Think about it for a minute. This is the future. We demons live a very long time. That means we might encounter our future selves, and we have no idea what may have happened to us over time. We could very well end up battling ourselves."