Kitty-chan: Alright! Chapter two! This chappy is a bit longer, but... whatever. These first two chapters are kind of the prologue, but they're really too vital to write as a prologue. They needed to be added as a full part of the story. So, gomen ne if you're getting bored. Alright! I don't own any of the Inuyasha characters. The only characters in this story I own are Kawaru and Devani. Other than that, the characters are the property of VIZ, and Takahashi Rumiko-sama.

(Now to see what has attacked Inuyasha... ooooooh)

Recap:

Miroku looked back at Inuyasha. "Does the name Kawaru mean anything to you?"...

"Kawaru..? ... That name does sound incredibly familiar… but it was from a long time ago."...

"She's been sealed inside a rock since a few years since you two got separated."...

"Take me to her then."...

"Kaze no kizu!" He took aim and sliced neatly down the left of the fissure, allowing power to surge from the blade and into the rock. The front of the rock burst open and dust rained from the sky as the light of the attack faded...

Sango and Miroku leaned closer to the rock and strained their ears to listen. After a few minutes they could distinguish a quiet high-pitched wail... Suddenly, the wail turned to a full-blown squeal as a green and white figure shot out of the rock and slammed into Inuyasha's middle, knocking them both to the ground with the new figure on top. Kagome jumped. "Inuyasha!"...

>>>>

Kagome stopped, her anxiety fading. She had expected some puppet of Naraku to be on top, ready to rip Inuyasha apart, but what she saw was quite the opposite. To her and everyone elses' surprise, there lay on Inuyasha not a monster, but a young girl, her arms locked tightly around his middle. She paused. The girl was a demon. That was subtly clear. She had greenish hair to match her green tank top and poofy green harem pants. Her ears were long and pointed and dragonfly wings sprouted from her back. She looked no older than ten years old.

Inuyasha grunted and sat up a bit, looking down at the young demon in his lap. He then looked up at Kagome, who shrugged. "Uhhh…."

"Inu no Nichan! You came back!" She abruptly looked up and gave him a pleading look. "What took you so long?"

"Uhhh… so long? I don't get it." Inuyasha muttered.

"What? Don't tell me you don't remember me!" Kawaru begged, giving him a long stare.

Inuyasha stared at her, attempting to remember. Oh he knew her alright, but the memories escaped him currently. He knew there was a whole group of memories he would regain if he could just grab one of them. "Uhhhh…"

"Come on! You know! Remember the wish?" she prodded.

Success! Inuyasha gripped the memory and everything involving the child came back to him. "Oh yeah. I remember you now. You're the dream demon that followed me around for, what… ten years?"

"Yep! Until you came up with a wish!" Kawaru released her grip on his middle and sat back, smiling broadly at his having found her identity in his memory.

"Speaking of wishes, where's your Eneruma? Aren't you always supposed to have one?"

"Oh! Yeah!"

"Or did you already use this era's wish?"

Kawaru floated off of Inuyasha's body, shaking her head. "No. I couldn't use any wishes under the seal anyway. But the Eneruma were the only things keeping me alive while I was in here, that is until Dev came along and gave me energy at night." She darted back into the rock and returned seconds later with a blackish-green orb in each hand. "I have two now! You deserve a wish for getting me out of there! What do you want?"

"Kawaru… I can't have another wish. I already had one, remember?" Inuyasha waved his hand. "Besides, I still want the same thing I wanted two hundred years ago, and you can't grant that wish."

"Oh… yeah." Kawaru's smile wilted, then rose again. "Then you decide who should get these two wishes." She held up the two orbs.

Inuyasha pondered for a simple few moments before pointing at Kagome. "Her. Give the first wish to Kagome and then we can decide on the second wish from there."

"Am I the only one who doesn't have any clue as to what's going on?" Kagome demanded of Inuyasha more than the others.

"Yeah, really. Explain, Inuyasha." Sango requested.

Inuyasha sighed, preparing himself for the long explination. "Kawaru is a Dream Demon, as you have heard. Ever hear of them?"

Miroku paused and stroked his chin a bit. "Actually, come to think of it… I think I have. They're extremely rare demons. Only around one hundred exist in the world at a time. They live longer than any other demon type. They also have the ability to grant wishes. It's their main duty, am I correct?"

"In simplest terms, yes. Dream Demons can grant wishes, but there are plenty of restrictions. Their laws command that they can only grant one wish per era." Inuyasha began, sitting down and setting his sword across his chest as usual. Kawaru plopped into his lap. He gave her a look, but did not try to move her.

"Era?" Miroku repeated, sitting as well.

"Yeah. A dream demon's life is separated into 100 year spans, called Eras. And each 100 year span, they can grant one wish. The more wishes they grant, the more powerful they become. The energy they use to grant the wishes is stored in those glass orbs, called Eneruma."

"Wait. If she can only grant one wish per era, why does she have two orbs now?" Kagome inquired as Shippo hopped into her lap.

"Yeah. If she has two of them, doesn't that mean that she can grant two wishes?" Shippo pointed at the orbs.

"True, but that's another weird rule. You see… at the beginning of each era, energy is collected and stored in the Eneruma for later use. At the beginning of the next era, energy is once again set aside, wheather the Eneruma from the last era has been used or not. A dream demon can grant two wishes in an era only if they did not use the last era's wish. See?"

Dev turned to Kagome. "Think of it as rollover minutes on a cell phone. If you don't use up all of the minutes in one month, you can use the minutes you didn't use the next month." Kagome nodded, then paused.

"How do you know about cell phones? You live in this era, don't you?"

Dev shrugged. "Yeah. But I'm a time sprite, remember? I tend to spend my time in whatever time period I choose. I tend to like your era, Kagome-san. It's very convenient. But I don't spend it in Japan. I tend to like spending it in Egypt or India. There's so much to see. But now that I know someone, I might visit more often." She smiled.

Kagome nodded again, then froze at the weird looks everyone was giving her. Miroku raised an eyebrow. "What the heck are you two talking about?"

"Oh don't mind me!" Kagaome waved her hands and turned to Inuyasha again. "So… the longer a dream demon lives the more powerful it gets?"

Inuyasha nodded. "Yeah. Well… actually it gains power more quickly if it grants wishes. Granting wishes gives it experience, and experience gives it power. It gains power if it doesn't grant wishes, but the gain is really slow. If a dream demon grants one wish every era, it will reach its peak of power at about the tenth era. Or about 1000 years."

"Wow. So… Kawaru, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you?"

"267." Kawaru answered bashfully. "I still have a long way to go. I've only granted one wish in my entire life so far."

"Wow… you look so young." Miroku mused.

"Dream demons age extremely slowly. They have to, to keep in pace with their age." Inuyasha informed them.

"Makes sense." Sango smiled. "Kawaru-chan, about the wishes, you said you granted a wish for Inuyasha at one time?"

"Yeah. Over two hundred years ago. He was only in his late fifties when I met him. A bunch of humans had learned of dream demons and found me. They were chasing me trying to get a wish, and I ran into Inu no Nichan. The humans turned on him, thinking that he was going to try and get the wish they wanted and attacked, so he fended them off. I wanted to grant him a wish for saving me, but I couldn't grant the one wish he had."

"To become a full demon?" Shippo guessed.

Kawaru gave him a surprised look. "Yeah. How'd you know?"

"Cause that's what he's still after." Kagome answered quietly.

"Oh." Kawaru looked up at Inuyasha to find that his gaze had been pulled to a nearby tree.

"Why couldn't you grant his wish, Kawaru-chan?" Miroku asked, leaning foreward.

"Laws of the dream demon tribe. No granted wish may change the true form of the recipient." Kawaru recited. "It's been that way since dream demons started granting wishes."

"Why? I mean… why did they make that rule?"

Kawaru looked at Sango. "Well, the wishes that we grant fiddle with the natural order of things as it is. The dream demon tribe doesn't want the world to go off the handle completely because of the wishes we grant. So, they make certain rules to try and keep us from sending things out of control. Because people are selfish most of the time. A lot of people we grant wishes for wouldn't care if their wish crumbles the world around them, as long as they got what they wanted.The tribe's just trying to keep us from throwing things too far out of the natural order."

"Oh yeah. That's tough logic, but it makes sense."

"So, what happened since you couldn't grant his one wish?" Miroku ventured.

"I just followed him around until he finally came up with a wish. That took about ten years." Kawaru laughed.

"Ten years!" Kagome exclaimed. "What did he finally wish for?"

Kawaru opened her mouth to answer, but it was immediately clamped shut by Inuyasha's clawed hand. "Come on. It's late. We need to set up camp for the night."

Miroku gave him a look. "Huh? But… lodgings at the headman's!"

"The village is miles away from here, Miroku. We wouldn't have time to get back before sundown." Inuyasha growled, setting Kawaru on the ground and standing.

"Why does that matter? Is tonight the new moon or something?" Sango looked up at the darkening sky.

"No. But I don't want to run into any nocturnal demons around here. This area is famous for them, after all." Inuyasha turned and headed into the woods. "Stay here. I'll go get us some firewood."

The group stared after him for a moment before Kagome turned to Kawaru. "Sorry about him. He can be crude sometimes."

Kawaru smiled. "Don't worry about it. Actually… He's different."

"How so?" Dev plopped onto Miroku's shoulder as the monk spoke.

"He's gentler than he was before. When I was with him, he always seemed to be unhappy, and he had no patience whatsoever. There's a softness to him that wasn't there 200 years ago." She smiled and stared at the point where Inuyasha had disappeared. "I like him better this way." She returned her attention to Kagome. "You must be one amazing priestess if you were able to calm him down to the point that he's like this."

"I don't think all of it was me. I think Miroku-sama, Sango-chan, and even Shippo-chan helped. Not to mention Kikyo… at one time." Kagome sighed. "But he's even become a lot gentler than when I first met him a little under a year ago. If he changed that much in that span of time, I can't imagine how different he is to you."

Dev poked Miroku's temple. "Houshi-kun… what did Sango-san mean with the new moon? What does the moon have to do with anything?"

"Oh… don't worry about it." Miroku waved his hand and smiled. Houshi-kun? That's one I've never heard before.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"I get a wish?" Kagome stared at the Eneruma that Kawaru held before her eyes.

"Yep. Inu no Nichan told me that you should get this wish." Kawaru nodded.

"And I can wish for anything?"

"Well…" Kawaru put a finger to her chin. "There are a few rules. They were set by the dream demon tribe thousands of years ago. The first of which is… I can only grant one wish per person… ever. I'm not allowed to grant a person more than one wish for their entire liftetime."

"Is that why Inuyasha couldn't get his wish?" Miroku pointed at Inuyasha, who lay sleeping a few feet away.

"Yeah. I already granted him a wish a long time ago." Kawaru glanced at the half-demon for a bit before turning back to her Eneruma. "The next rule is that I can't kill anyone. Well… technically, I could, but the dream demon tribe discourages it. They tell us to avoid killing. Personally, I'm not a murderer, so I won't kill anyone."

Kagome sighed. "Well… that rules that idea out."

Shippo stared at her. "What? Who were you planning on killing?"

Kagome chuckled. "Naraku. Who else?"

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Dev nodded.

"Who's Naraku?" Kawaru cocked her head.

Miroku paused before waving his hand. "He's no one that you need concern yourself with." Kawaru stared at him for a moment longer. "So… are there any more rules?"

"Yeah. As I said before, I can't change a creature's true form. For instance, I couldn't change Inu no Nichan into a full demon. Lastly, I can't bring people back to life. For two main reasons. One; the dream demon tribe forbids it. Once again, I could if I really wanted to, but the dream demon tribes goes with the reasoning of trying to keep our granting wishes from completely unraveling the natural order in the world. Actually, if you think about it, bringing the dead back to life would be worse than changing someone's true form." Kawaru shrugged. "Other than that, you can wish for anything within my power."

"Wow." Kagome looked down. "I don't know what to wish for. I mean… well, I do… but I have so many wishes I'd want to make to help us on our mission. Just making one of those wishes wouldn't help us very much. I'd need all of them to come true for it to help us." She stared into the fire. "I mean… I'd wish that Miroku-sama's curse would be lifted, and Sango-chan's brother were out of Naraku's grip, and that Shippo-chan's father had not died… but only wishing for one of those wouldn't help us much."

Kawaru sighed. "Sorry. I wish I could give you more."

Kagome smiled. "Oh, don't be sorry. It's unfair for me to expect you to grant three or four of my wishes."

"Hey, Kawaru… just a passing question, can you grant your own wishes?" Shippo inquired suddenly. "As in… could you wish for more Eneruma and get them?"

Kawaru shook her head. "No. It doesn't work that way. The Eneruma are only to be used on others."

"Oh. Alright." Shippo chuckled. "Just a passing thought."

Kawaru nodded and looked back at Kagome. "Well… I might be able to grant all of those wishes. Is there something that connects them? For instance, you could make a wish that effects all three of those situations?"

"Naraku." Kagome muttered.

Kawaru looked down. "Sorry. I told you I can't kill."

"I understand." Kagome sighed and silence consumed the group as she thought. After a moment, her head shot up and she pulled a small bottle on a string from beneath her shirt. "The Shikon no Tama! That's it!" Kawaru raised an eyebrow. "The Sacred Jewel connects them all! You know of the Shikon no Tama, haven't you?"

"Who doesn't?" Kawaru chuckled.

"The Sacred Jewel is something that connects them all!" Kagome looked hopefully at Sango, who nodded, smiling.

"Not all of them." Miroku muttered to himself, though the others heard him, staring at his right hand. "The Sacred Jewel had nothing to do with the battle between Naraku and my Ojii-sama."

Kagome paused. "Yeah, but without the Sacred Jewel, Naraku would be easier to take down. Not having the Jewel would make him an ordinary demon. You'd have an easier time of getting rid of your curse."

Miroku looked up as if finding out that they heard his mutterings. "Don't worry about me, Kagome-sama. Don't let me interfere with your wish. It's your decision after all." Dev poked his temple and inquired about his curse as Kagome turned back to Kawaru.

"Kawaru-chan… could I wish that the Sacred Jewel had never been created?"

"Kawaru shook her head. "No. Since its creation, it's involved so many people and caused so many things to happen. I couldn't possibly undo that. I'm not powerful enough. I'm only in my third era and like I said, I've only granted one wish in my life."

Kagome sighed. "That makes sense I suppose. I'll think of something else."

Kawaru nodded and stared at the ground, feeling guilty for not being able to fulfill the ideas that came to Kagome's mind. After a few moments, her gaze found Inuyasha still form and she floated over to stand next to his back. She stared at his back for a long time before placing her hand at different places. After a moment, Sango spoke up. "Kawaru? Why are you touching Inuyasha's back?"

Kawaru stopped and turned to look at her. "Have any of you seen Inu no Nichan's back recently?"

"Like, his skin?" Miroku gave her a look.

"Yeah. Have you seen his bare back?"

Miroku nodded. "Earlier this evening when we took a bath in the hot springs." Miroku used his staff to motion to the mountain behind them where the source of the hotsprings lay. "Why?"

"He doesn't have any scars, does he? You didn't see any long scars across the middle of his back, did you?" Kawaru gave him a pleading look and flew back over to the fire.

"No, he doesn't. Why do you ask?"

"Kawaru smiled weakly. "That's good to hear. It has to do with the night we got separated."

"You wanna talk about it?" Sango stooped down to look Kawaru in the face.

Kawaru looked up. "Well… a few days before we got separated, we stopped just outside a small village for the night. It seemed really routine. We build a fire, Inu no Nichan went hunting, and we went to sleep. We were both really tired from all the traveling we had been doing lately, so we decided to stay there a few nights. The next morning, a few kids stumbled onto our campsite and ran home screaming about demons. Later that day, I got jumped and badly beaten by a group of humans. I managed to lead them to our campsite, where Inu no Nichan fended them off. They claimed that Inu no Nichan and I were killing their livestock. They told us that for the past few months, some type of demon had been raiding their food stores and eating their horses. They thought it was us. I suppose it was because we were the closest demons around and they had no one else to blame."

"And did Inuyasha really kill any of their livestock?" Kagome ventured.

"He might've, but it would only have been that one night. We had never been to that particular village before. But I don't know what he went hunting for when he went out at night. I never saw the meat he ate."

Sango blinked. "You mean, he didn't give any food to you?"

"Oh no! There was no reason to bring any of his kill back to me. See… dream demons don't eat. We don't get energy from food like humans and most demons do. We live off of the emotions and energy of other creatures when they sleep. Emotions from dreams are mainly what we live on. Hence the name of our species." Kawaru chuckled. "That's the only reason I survived being sealed for the almost sixty years I was sealed before Dev came along. People would camp out and use my rock as somewhat of a shelter, and I would feed off of their emotions at night. I also stayed alive by gleaning a bit of energy from my Eneruma. When Dev came along, she gave me permission to pull energy from her when she slept and that kept me alive and got me back to full strength."

"So you weren't asleep in that rock." Shippo stated.

"No. The monks who sealed me sealed me alive and awake."

Sango chuckled. "Judging by how you gain energy, I think I see why you're so attatched to Inuyasha." Kawaru stared at her for a moment. "Did he let you draw energy from him?"

Kawaru nodded. "Yeah. He was my only source of nourishment the whole ten years. He told me I could take energy from him while he slept."

"Wow." Kagome smiled. Inuyasha certainly has a soft spot for unique demons. "Hey, Kawaru-chan… does it hurt the person when you take energy?"

"It can, if I take too much. Most of the time, it puts them into a dreamless sleep, and if I take more than I actually need, they wake up with a migrane that can last for a good few days." She changed gears back to her story. "Inu no Nichan might've killed one of their horses. But I doubt it. He can eat a lot, but not that much on his own."

"What happened after Inuyasha got the humans away from you?" Miroku pushed.

"Inu no Nichan and I knew that I wasn't well enough to travel in the condition they had put me in, so we didn't have a choice but to stay another night. That night… everything went wrong. The headman of the village had hired demon slayers to come and exterminate us. When I woke up, the battle was just starting. Inu no Nichan bought me time to escape, but as I was leaving, one of the slayers impaled his back with an axe. That was why I was wondering about any scars on his back, because the axe, I'm guessing, went pretty deep into his back. I tried to go back to help him, but a bunch of slayers jumped at me and I was forced to run away. A few years later, a few monks who feared my power as a dream demon sealed me into that rock. I never saw Inu no Nichan again until now."

A disturbing silence had fallen over the group as Kawaru finished her story. Sango was staring intently at her feet, her fists balled against her knees. Kagome looked back at Inuyasha. That's amazing. That had been done to him by a Slayer, and yet he has no problems being with Sango. She looked over at the Tayjin and paused at her expression.

"Demon Slayers… did that to you?" she whispered.

Kagome gave Sango a sympathetic look. "Sango-chan…"

Kawaru, too, looked over at Sango. "Kawaru-chan…" Sango began. "Did the slayers do anything to you?"

Kawaru paused for a moment, sensing the pain in Sango's words, before removing her left shoe and pulled her pant-leg up past her knee. It revealed a long red scar that began at her ankle and wrapped up her shin to her kness, as if someone had coiled a rope of fire around her leg. "As I was escaping, one of the slayers wrapped their whip around my leg and yanked the cord off really quickly to cut into my skin. They were trying to slow me down… I was lucky not to lose my leg."

For a moment, Kagome saw tears in Sango's eyes. After a pause, she bent her torso to the earth. "Forgive me and my people, Kawaru-chan. I am a Tayjin and I take responsibility for what was done to you."

Kawaru took a few steps away and was silent for a long time, staring at the top of Sango's head. She looked between the fire, Sango, and Inuyasha for a while before sighing slightly. "Don't worry, Sango-san. You weren't alive 200 years ago. It's not your fault." Sango sighed and sat back, but Kagome noticed that the guilt did not retreat from her eyes.

"At least except my apology. It's the very least I can do."

Kawaru nodded. "Sure."

"Hey… sorry to break the mood here,"Dev spoke up, floating off of Miroku's shoulder to sit on his head. "But if I don't ask, I'm gonna explode." Miroku rolled his eyes. "Kawaur-chan, you said that you granted Inuyasha's wish. What did he wish for?"

Kawaru giggled as Miroku was about to translate. "It took him ten years to come up with it, but he eventually used his wish."

"Wait… you can hear Dev? How?" Miroku stared at Kawaru. "How can you see her? You're not a priestess."

Kawaru shrugged. "I can't see her, but I can hear her."

"How?"

"Well, demons and other creatures of the same type as Dev can sometimes see or hear her." Kawaru explained.

"Wait… you're a demon, and she's a fairy. How can you be of the same type?" Shippo asked. He immediately recoiled as Miroku did his best to hold onto Dev to keep her from twisting Shippo's head off for calling her a fairy.

"Well, because of dream demons' nature and appearance, we are also classified as sprites, like Dev. So… in a way… we fall into the same category." Kawaru shrugged.

"I'm going to ask one more time before I explode." Dev muttered as she managed to quell her rage. "What did Inuyasha wish for?"

"He used his wish on a young dying hanyou boy we found."

"Huh?" Kagome gave her a wide-eyed stare. "He used his wish on someone else?"

"Yeah. I was shocked too. He was always so selfish back then. But… we found a young half-breed boy in some bushes. He had been attacked by demons and was slashed up pretty badly. Inu no Nichan wished for the boy to be healed."

"He certainly has a soft spot for uniquie creatures, doesn't he?" Kagome laughed.

"He certainly does. That hasn't changed about him. He's changed so much since I last saw him. He's grown up physically and mentally." Kawaru smiled and flew over to sit by Inuyasha's head and sighed. "I'm glad to be back with him." She curled up against him and closed her eyes.

Kagome smiled. "She's so cute." She whispered to Sango.

"Hey. I hate to break up this little love-fest, but Kagome-san… don't you have a wish to decide on?" Dev waved her arms from atop Miroku's head.

"Yeah. There's not much you can do to help our situation with just a single wish." Miroku shrugged. "The Sacred Jewel's been in existance too long for Kawaru to reverse."

"Yeah. Too bad we can't destroy it since it was shattered. Then we could avoid a whole set of problems." Shippo sighed.

Something clicked in Kagome's mind. "Yes we can!" she cried suddenly, causing the others to jump with surprise. They stared at her, waiting for an explination. "We can destroy it from the time it was shattered! I can wish that it had never come out of its dormancy!" Kagome nodded at Sango, who smiled. She then too looked to Shippo. Shippo raised an eyebrow at her.

"Why not wish that it hadn't been shattered?" he suggested.

"If I did that, it wouldn't do anything to stop the Jewel's cycle of bloodshed. It would only start a new one." Kagome reasoned, looking up at Miroku's downcast face. Her expression wilted. "Miroku-sama? What's wrong?"

Miroku sighed. "Nothing. Just… be careful, Kagome-sama. Time is a dangerous thing to mess with."

Kagome stared at the shards in the bottle for a long moment. "This world has become so dangerous because of the jewel. Naraku continues to grow in power, and countless demons under the influence of the shards are wreaking havoc. So many things could've been prevented if the jewel wasn't here. So many things within the timespan of now and when the jewel first reawakened. Sango-chan would be with her family… Shippo-chan would be with his father… Naraku would be just like any other demon… not to mention all the other countless people we've met who have been hurt by the shards. This world would be so much a better place if the jewel wasn't here."

Dev scoffed and crossed her arms. "Well… if it'll do all that, then by all means, do it!" She floated off of Miroku's head and started off to the side. "But don't forget what Houshi-kun said about time."

Kagome sighed as they settled in to sleep for the night. It'll undo a lot of things, like… Kouga-kun won't have his shards…Miroku-sama won't have his either… but, I'm sure more good will come out of it than bad, right?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"Wish time!" Kawaru cried as the group was finishing up breakfast. She grabbed her Eneruma and floated over to hover in front of Kagome. "Have you decided on your wish yet?"

Kagome sighed and nodded. She looked over at Miroku, who was staring at the ground. Did he know something she didn't know, or was he simply upset that his curse would not be reversed? No… he's not that selfish. What's wrong, Miroku-sama? She then saw Dev place herself on the bridge of his nose, drawing a small grunt of surprise from the monk. Dev was staring at her rather coldly. There's definitely something those two aren't telling me. They're acting so strangely. She waved it off, and decided to ask them about it after she made her wish. This was not a time to be having doubts. She was about to do something that would make the worldso mucha better place. She needed to stay focused on her goal. She shifted her gaze to Sango and Shippo, who both looked rather content. Inuyasha's face was completely blank. He hadn't been privy to the conversation around the fire the night before. Kawaru certainly looked excited. "Kawaru-chan… I wish that the Sacred Jewel had never come out of its dormancy."

Kagome saw Inuyasha's face contort with an unreadable emotion. She figured some of it was shock, and some of it was anger. It took her a fewseconds to calculate why this was an issue to him. Oh… the whole full-fledged demon thing… She sighed and looked at Kawaru's pensive expression. It made her nervous. She had paused, considering the priestess' choice and calculating the power it would take to fulfill the wish, and if she had that needed power. She stared at the Eneruma in her right hand for a long moment before her green eyes shifted to the one in her left hand. After a few more calculations, her eyes lit up.

"Ok! Yeah! I can do that!"

"You can!" Kagome cried excitedly, her hopes shooting up from where they had dropped at Kawaru's intense stare. "Great!"

"It'll take the energy from both my Eneruma to do it, but yeah, I can do it!" Kawaru smiled proudly.

Kagome hesitated, staring at the two orbs. "Wait… you'd have to use both of them? I don't want to take two of your wishes."

"No! It's fine! Actually, it's better this way. I'll gain more experience by granting one really taxing wish than if I grant two little ones. Please let me grant that wish! Don't take it back! Please!" Kawaru begged, fixing her with two large green puppy eyes.

"Are you sure, Kawaru-chan?" Kagome asked slowly.

Kawaru nodded vigorously. "Yes! I'm positive! I want to grant this wish!"

Kagome's gaze shifted to Inuyasha. His eyes had gone quite blank and they had a glazed quality to them. She had never seen these eyes before. She leaned toward him. "Inuyasha… are you alright?"

Inuyasha didn't answer for a long time. He felt a pain in his chest akin to the pain of his youkai self taking over. My dream… my goal… no Sacred Jewel…? All his life he had had his dreams and wishes stepped on. His every hope destroyed for what he was. But this one dream was like none of the others. He held onto this one with all his might. It had been the one dream that neither human nor demon could destroy, but now… in one fell swoop Kagome was managing to smash it to bits. Sure, she had good intentions, but that didn't change how it felt to hear her speak that wish. He felt just as if she had plunged an arrow deep into his chest, and only one thought came to mind. Betrayal…

"I'm fine." He finally grumbled, though it was far from the truth… and Kagome knew.

Kagome put a hand on his shoulder. He didn't even acknowledge it. "Listen… because of this wish… you can't become a full-fledged demon, and I'm sorry about that. But… can you see why I'm doing this?" Inuyasha didn't answer, but turned his attention to Kawaru.

"Now, concentrate on your wish, Kagome-sama." Kawaru commanded, holding up her Eneruma. Kagome obeyed and closed her eyes, trying to purge her thoughts of everything except her desire to end the Jewel's cycle of carnage.

The others looked on as Kawaru also closed her eyes and allowed the two Eneruma to float away from her hands. As the two of them suddenly shattered into small bits of black glass, darkness consumed the area, and winds seemed to be suddenly blowing at them from all sides. Their ears were filled with nothing but the deafening sounds of the wind, and Inuyasha immediately grabbed onto Kagome and held her close, as if to keep them both from blowing away. Miroku put his arms around Sango for the very same reason, and kept glancing down at his right hand, almost expecting it to be the cause of the ferocious winds. After all, the only place he had ever felt such wind was from the cursed hole. Sango did not object to his embrace, and instead, grabbed his cloak and held tight, her fear beginning to grow.

Kawaru began to look around as if something had gone wrong; as if things had suddenly gone out of control. Sango felt Miroku's arms tighten around her as he watched the giant rock that had been the dream demon's prison loomed up behind her. The hole created by Inuyasha's Kaze no Kizu began to encircle the young demon and after a moment, closed down on her entirely, sealing her in and drawing a scream from her throat. Sango looked up at Miroku. "What's going on? Where'd Kawaru go?"

Miroku gritted his teeth, and shook his head before casting his gaze about a bit. "Dev's gone too!"

"Kagome! HELP!" Shippo suddenly screamed as he was lifted off the ground in the wind's iron grip. After an agonizing moment, two red streaks of light came down on his small body and the air was thick with his scream. There was a flash of red and when it faded, Shippo was nowhere in sight."

"Shippo-chan!" Kagome lurched foreward, but was restrained by Inuyasha, who pulled her back to him. Kagome gripped his fire-rat kimono for dear life. "What's happening?"

The next scream was that of Miroku. Sango found herself suddenly holding his upper body as he dropped to his knees and doubled over, clutching at his right hand in agony. "Houshi-sama! What's wrong?"

"My hand!" Miroku paused in his screams of terror and pain to speak. "It feels like it's on fire!" His scream intensified as the burning sensation shot through the rest of his body and his muscles gave a violent jolt, causing him to writhe in Sango's arms. Sango began to slightly panic, trying her best to keep herself under control as the monk suddenly began choking as if the air itself was strangling him. After a few seconds of this, his breathing stopped altogether, and he went limp in her arms.

"Miroku-sama!" Kagome yelled, once held fast by Inuyasha.

This wind… this is the thing that grants the wishes. It's somewhat a tangible form of Kawaru's energy stored in the Eneruma. Is it not supposed to touch humans? Why is it killing them? Inuyasha growled and tightened his grip on Kagome. It won't get Kagome!

Sango screamed the monk's name as she tried to shake him back, but his body had already gone cold. Slowly, his body lost its weight and he dissolved into the blackness that surrounded them. Sango called his name once again as Kirara ran up to offer her comfort. Sango stood and rounded on Inuyasha. "Inuyasha! What's going on? What's happe-!" Sango's voice stopped, cutting off her speech as the same red lines that had banished Shippo came down also on her body. She screamed loudly as the streaks seemed to cleave her thin body in half. The line suddenly caught Kirara's body as well, and her panicked cry joined Sango's scream until they had vanished completely.

"Sango-chan!" Kagome buried her face in Inuyasha's chest and gripped his shoulders tighter than ever. In response, she felt Inuyasha's arms tighten across her back. "Inuyasha! What's happening? Where did all the others go?"

"I don't know what the hell this wind is, but I won't let it hurt…" Inuyasha trailed off as he spotted something in the distance.

A bow with an arrow drawn to the string.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome looked up, horrified that the wind wight've effected him as well. She noticed his stare was aimed behind her, so she too took a glance behind ther to see the oddly suspended weapon.

The arrow released, vanishing into motion and reappearing when the tip imbedded itself in Inuyasha's chest. Inuyasha screamed as not only the pain of the arrow shot through his chest as his weight left the ground and he found himself suspended by the arrow, but also at the painful memories that the weapon managed to dig up.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome immediately grabbed the arrow in an attempt to free him as she had before, but unlike last time, the arrow would not relinquish its hostage. "Inuyasha! Please stay with me! I can't get the arrow out! Open your eyes!"

Slowly, Inuyasha obeyed, fixing her with his orange gaze, glazed with death. He suddenly grabbed her and weakly pulled her to him, deeply inhaling her scent. Kagome threw herself into the embrace, as if perhaps if she held on, he would not vanish and follow the others. "Inuyasha! You made a wish 200 years ago, right? How do you stop this wind? I have to stop this wind so that it'll stop hurting all of you!"

She could feel his body shake as he summoned the last bit of his strength to answer. "It's not… the wind that is hurting us." She froze, not bothering to ask the question that she knew he would next answer. "It's… your wish."

Kagome pulled away slightly as his head dropped to rest his chin on his chest, and his arms fell limply at his sides. "What! My wish? I didn't want this! No!"

"Don't… forget me… wherever you…end up..." He moaned as his consciousness began to flee. "… and I won't… forget you." Darkness swallowed his vision.

Kagome watched in helpless horror as his form plastered itself to a tree and he melted away into the dark. "Inuyasha!"

The ground beneath her feet vanished and Kagome fell to follow suit with her travel party...

... dissolving into the void of her wish.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Kitty-chan: ANGST! Okies... feeeeeeeeel the Emo-ness. Ok. Be sure to visit my sis pish-posh at her site. I'll post the links to her site on my bio! Be sure to check them out! Revieeeeew!