Out of Control

Blood spattered everywhere as Inuyasha claws connected with Kagome's flesh. Luckily, she had attempted to move out of the way, so the attack simply tore deeply into her shoulder, rather than the back of her neck. Unluckily for Inuyasha, the sight and scent of her blood snapped whatever little bit of control that Ilyo still retained.

Midway through his leap, Ilyo started changing. His fangs lengthened, growing at least an inch. His claws did as well, curving into vicious, scythe-like weapons. His body began to glow with a bright red light, similar to the colour his eyes had turned.

Hitting Inuyasha hard in the stomach, the momentum of his tackle carried both of them into the side of another large flower pot. Gasping for air, Inuyasha attempted to free himself from Ilyo's grasp. He found however, that escape was essentially impossible; Ilyo's grip was just too tight.

As Inuyasha struggled in his brother's iron-like hold, he suddenly noticed that the air around him was getting uncomfortably hot. As he continued to flail around uselessly, the temperature began to climb exponentially. Inuyasha screamed in pain as his flesh began to cook and his hair started burning. The heat radiating off of Ilyo actually caused Inuyasha's hair to catch on fire.

Bringing both hands down on the back of Ilyo's neck, Inuyasha managed to buy himself enough time to put a little bit of distance between himself and his brother. Beating out the fire in his hair, Inuyasha started thinking, trying to come up with a way to defeat his enraged enemy.

Before Inuyasha could invent a plan, Ilyo attacked. He leaped forward, his arms spread wide and his teeth exposed in a vicious snarl.

Seeing he had a clear shot at Ilyo's chest, Inuyasha took the opportunity to attack. He slashed the air with his claws, unleashing the wind scar at Ilyo, who continued on head first, plowing directly into the center of it. Inuyasha smirked to himself, confident that the head on blast had destroyed his opponent. His confident smirk was replaced by a look of disbelief a second later however, when Ilyo emerged from the energy, completely unscathed. His leap carried him into Inuyasha's smaller form once more, knocking the smaller demon off of his feet.

Reaching out, Ilyo hauled Inuyasha from the ground by his throat. Holding him up, he extended his other hand out to his side and became completely still. Inuyasha's gaze was drawn to the outstretched hand, and his fascination grew as light began to form in the center of Ilyo's massive palm.

His fascination quickly turned to horror however, as he realized what was happening. He began to struggle wildly in an attempt to free himself, but Ilyo's grip was strong and his efforts were in vain. He let himself go limp after several moments, resigned to his fate.

Suddenly, with a quick jerk of his thick wrist, Ilyo tossed Inuyasha up into the air.

The demon's last thoughts as he flew through the air were I'm sorry I ever met that stupid human. She's been the cause of all of my problems for centuries. Then, the lightning bolt that had been forming in Ilyo's hand hit him. As one hundred million volts of electricity coursed through his body, his mind went blank, and Inuyasha was no more.

When Kagome saw Inuyasha's body fall to the rooftop and remain unmoving, she instantly knew that he was dead. Her gaze switched to Ilyo, who stood staring at the smoking corpse, his face completely hidden from her. She got up and winced slightly as sharp pain lanced through he injured shoulder. She didn't want to look at the cut for fear of passing out due to the gruesomeness of the wound.

Due to the development of her spiritual powers over the years, Kagome's natural healing ability was much more advanced than the average human. She could feel her power flowing to her shoulder, working to seal the large gash. After several moments, her shoulder was completely healed. She worked it around a couple times and was delighted to find herself free of pain.

With that taken care of, she decided to go check on Ilyo. Making her way over to where he was standing, she moved in front of him so that she could see his face. She had to bite back a cry of horror at the sight. His eyes were had yet to fade from blood red back to gold and he kept snarling and growling quietly around the large fangs that were now in his mouth.

What was even worse however was the change she could sense in his aura. He wanted to kill. It felt almost the same as the aura given off by the full demon Inuyasha. Kagome did notice one major difference though: Inuyasha's aura had been evil and she could tell that he wanted to kill. With Ilyo, she could sense that not only did he want to kill, he also wanted to cause pain, hurt and torture. She knew that if he attacked her now, she would not die quick like Inuyasha had. It would be a slow, incredibly painful death that would take days, if not weeks. She shuddered at the thought.

As he stared at the human in front of him, Ilyo's first thought was to kill her. But then a scent hit his nostrils and he recognized the female in front of him. Just like that, he snapped back into control of himself. His aura began to shift back to normal and his fangs and claws slowly shrank back to their normal size. His eyes glowed red for another few seconds before they too returned to their regular golden colour. Looking down at Kagome, he realized that her eyes were filled with tears. He was just about to reach out for her when he detected a demon behind him.

Whirling around to stand protectively in front of Kagome, he let out a sigh of relief when he saw present day Sesshomaru staring at the body of Inuyasha. Sesshomaru looked up at Ilyo. "What happened?"

"He attacked Kagome so I had to put him down," Ilyo stated simply.

Sesshomaru nodded in understanding. Slowly he went over to Inuyasha's corpse and stared down at it silently. After a moment, he stooped down, grabbed hold of it, straightened up and slung the body over his shoulders. "I was coming to tell you that you two should get some rest. Dinner will be served in a couple of hours." Sesshomaru then walked down the staircase, carrying his brother's smoking corpse with him, leaving Kagome and Ilyo standing there alone.

Kagome was the first to speak, breaking the tense silence. "Ilyo, we need to talk. Things are getting weird."

Ilyo looked at her. She smiled back at him nervously. He put on a smile full of false confidence. "What are you talking about, Kagome? Things aren't getting weird. In case you haven't noticed, you're standing on the roof of a castle, beside a giant dog demon, and you are preparing to do battle with a god over some pieces of a jewel. Things aren't getting weird. They are just plain fucked up." This brought a genuine smile to Kagome's face, but only for a moment.

"Come on, Ilyo. You know what I'm talking about. First, Hojo tries to hug me, so you throw him through a window. Then, Inuyasha attacks me and you throw him through a door. Then, when he attacks me again, you fry him. What's really going on?" Kagome looked relieved to finally get that off of her chest.

Ilyo attempted to downplay his actions. "I am just protecting you. You are our guide. If you were to die, we would be helpless." It hurt Kagome to hear him say that, even though she was pretty sure he was completely full of shit.

"Is that all it really is? I feel something between us, even though I've known you less than forty-eight hours. I feel safe around you. Plus, you're not bad to look at, either." She smirked up at him playfully as she said this. Her grin fell however, at the sight of his face, which was scrunched up into a strange expression.

Ilyo was remembering back to what Sesshomaru had said in the hallway. With a sigh, he shook his head lightly and focused his gaze on Kagome's face. "We cannot be together. You know that. I would stay young long after you aged and died. Not to mention the fact that you are only eighteen years old, and I'm nearly one thousand." His arguments were meant to let her down gently, but tears once again filled her eyes. He quickly changed tact."I'll tell you what. After this conflict is over, we'll talk again and we can go from there. How does that sound?" He awaited her reply with bated breath.

After a moment's consideration, she nodded. He sighed in relief and turned to walk back downstairs.

"Ilyo!" At the sound of his name, he whirled around, just in time to catch Kagome as she leaped into his arms and kissed him, right on the lips. Then she slid out of his arms with a giggle and ran down the stairs. He watched her go with a bemused look on his face.

Ilyo stood on the roof for a half an hour, pondering his ultimatum. He had no doubt that after this conflict was over, she would remember what he said. But by then, it would be too late. What Ilyo had neglected to point out to Kagome was that even if they were successful in defeating Kuttsoh-turas, the jewel would be destroyed and he and his brothers would return to their era. Without the jewel, Kagome would be unable to access the Feudal Era. They would never see each other again. Ilyo remained on the roof until Sesshomaru came searching for him, to announce that dinner was ready.

Turning, Ilyo stared silently at his brother. Sesshomaru noticed this and quietly moved to stand beside him. "What is wrong, Ilyomaru?" When Ilyo remained silent, Sesshomaru deduced what the cause of Ilyo's sudden moodiness by Kagome's scent; it was all over the elder dog demon.

"Woman troubles, I presume." When Ilyo nodded, depression already setting in, Sesshomaru smirked a little. He was surprised, however, when Ilyo turned to him with anger in his eyes.

"Why, goddamn it? Why must everyone in this cursed family start caring about female mortals?" he yelled. "First, it was father, then Inuyasha. Even you, the mighty Sesshomaru, had feelings for a human girl. Now, I have inherited the curse."

Sesshomaru was shocked by how hard Ilyo was taking it. "Come on now, Ilyomaru; this is not a bad thing. You both have feelings for each other. Why not let them show through? She obviously has no problems being with you."

Sesshomaru tried to be logical, but Ilyo was having none of it. "Don't you understand? She will die and I will live for countless more years, unable to erase her from my mind. It would drive me insane!"

Sesshomaru stood there calmly and let Ilyo shout at him. It was never good when someone as powerful as Ilyo bottled things up. Once his brother had stopped his ranting, Sesshomaru spoke up again. "Be reasonable, Ilyomaru. Do you realize how selfish you sound? Think about her and how she feels." Ilyo was silent as he thought about that.

Sesshomaru turned to leave, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. "I gave her hope. I told her that we'd talk more if we survived the coming battle. She was overjoyed. But you know as well as I do what will happen if we win." Sesshomaru nodded. He realized that Ilyo had let Kagome down easy, giving her hope, even if it was a false hope.

Suddenly, an idea occurred to Sesshomaru. Quickly he excused himself. "I've got to go now. Dinner is ready if you want any. I trust you can find your own way down to the kitchen. Good bye."

Leaving Ilyo alone on the roof, Sesshomaru quickly made his way to his office on the second floor. Once inside, he closed the door and moved to his book shelf. He searched for a minute before he picked a book off the shelf and went and sat down at his desk. Kicking back his feet, he opened the book and began reading.

After nearly an hour of searching, he finally found the passage he was looking. Grinning widely, he exited his office and climbed the stairs until he stood in front of Kagome's room. Sesshomaru knocked on the door and when no one answered, he quietly swung it open. Kagome was passed out on the bed, obviously exhausted by her close call earlier in the day.

Walking over to her, Sesshomaru stood over her bed and raised both hands over her body. His eyes turned red and his body began to glow with a bluish-purple colour. He started chanting in a strange language and the glow expanded to encompass the sleeping girl. He chanted for at least ten minutes before falling silent and slumping slightly. He rested for several moments, before turning and exiting the room.

As he made his way back to his office, Sesshomaru muttered under his breath, "You'd better appreciate this, Ilyomaru."

Back in Kagome's room, she rolled over and sighed. Then her mouth opened, revealing sharply pointed fangs.