NOTE: MANGA VERSION ONLY!

SLASH!

The blade barely missed her.

Kagome began to back up and lose the grasp of the bandits as the dead thug slashed again. Each time he missed and only slashed her clothes, leaving them in shreds. She continued to back up until she reached a wall. There was no escape. Her exits were cut off by other bandits, and the dead thug was reaching her quickly.

'No.'

He raised his blade above her.

'I-I'm going to die here . . .'

He smirked crookedly.

'Inu-yasha . . .'

He brought it down.

'INU-YASHA!' she shut her eyes.

CRASH!

Kagome felt no pain from the impact, much less any impact. Being bold, she opened her eyes slightly, expecting to see the living dead bandit before her.

But what she saw was Inu-yasha's back, breathing hard while facing the corpse suddenly a few feet away, his armor hanging by a snag an revealing the nest that harbored the demon crow. The bandits, even, were either beat up by Inu-yasha, or just thrown back from the impact of his entrance.

"Kagome," Inu-yasha's voice brought her back to reality. "You alright?"

She found her voice. "Y-Yeah . . . I think." She wasn't sure exactly since she was practically exposed to all wandering eyes, mainly the conscious bandits. But they quickly backed away in fear when they heard the snarl coming from the demon before them.

Kagome suddenly found herself holding The fire rat robe, and looked up to Inu-yasha. "Cover up," was all he said. She did so.

Inu-yasha flexed his claw's and looked menacingly toward the demon crow. "So crow, thought you could get away with the jewel, eh? Well, just to let you know that I got first dibs on it, so lets be reasonable here. Give me the jewel and I'll kill you quickly."

The Crow chose to attack him with the katana. "Fine!" Inu-yasha charged at it and stabbed his hand through the crows nest, the crow coming from the other side. The corps slumped over Inu-yasha, but he threw it aside toward the bandits, causing them all to runaway from the corps and for their lives. The crow, meanwhile, fled with the Jewel in its mouth.

"Oh, no, you don't," he snarled, picking up a spear. He threw it to the retreating crow. "Stop, coward!" The spear missed it.

"Dammit," he turned his attention back to Kagome, who finished wrapping herself in his haori. He kneeled next to her. "Are you alright?"

Kagome looked up to him, noticing his worried expression. "I'm ok, but . . . why was I in a different place? And . . . what happened with you?"

Inu-yasha looked away with shame. "I'm sorry," he said, "I thought that since I knew where the place was, I could get there faster. If I thought of using my nose before, I could have -- you wouldn't have . . ." he stopped.

"Its ok," she smiled to him and stood up with his help, looking around, "but right now, we gotta go catch the demon crow! Help me find me a bow and some arrows!

Inu-yasha dashed towards the direction the crow went, Kagome on his back readying the arrow. Ahead he already saw the crows silhouette form, and they were catching up to him fast.

"Ready Kagome?"

"Hopefully."

He already knew why she was uneasy. Kagome wasn't sure if her archery is as good as she was before. After this day, she progressed greatly, but the first time she did use a bow and arrow, it was a horrible shot. It could still be the same, even though the two knew that they will eventually kill the crow and shatter the jewel along with it, but neither of them were going to take chances anymore, especially Inu-yasha, already vowing it to himself.

"We're nearing the crow. Get ready."

"Right." Kagome brought the arrow back along with the string and aimed. 'Let this work. Please!' she fired, the aim perfect.

"Yes!" Just then the wind blew from the side, knocking the arrow off course and missing the crow by a mile.

" . . .What!" Inu-yasha cried.

"Well . . . at least my aim was straight."

"I guess . . ." he muttered, "but that doesn't explain the wind. Try again!" Kagome readied the next arrow, and fired another clean shot.

This time the crow moved aside.

"Aw, come on!" Inu-yasha shouted in annoyance. "It's like it knows that it expected the arrow!"

"Fate is not on our side today . ." she suddenly realized what Inu-yasha just said, "Wait, what did you . . ."

"Not time to repeat," he quickened his pace, "the changes have already started!"

Sorry its short, but I wanted to update as early as possible, especially after all the reviews sent for me to update . . . and all the threats. Well, hope u all like it, and review if u all want to find out what happens.