Mrryl: Wow, the things you find out when you read your own story online… such as this entire beginning thing will be clumped together… regardless of the fact that I start a new line whenever someone else speaks… grrr!

Litadrene: Yeah… I thought you knew that?

Mrryl: Hahaha… very funny. Shut up.

Litadrene: Ouch, touchy. Alright, I'll be touchy too! PUT NEKOGOME IN THIS CHAPTER OR I'LL BEAN YOU!

Mrryl: Okay… sheeze. By the way, tell me if this chapter seems different in its description. I want to see if music changes my perception and the way my mind thinks… a little experiment, I'd like to call it. (By the way, the music I'm listening is Out of Your Mouth's "Draghdad". It's a pretty good CD, if you're into heavy metal/semi-techno industrial stuff, which I sorta am.) Also, I don't own Inuyasha, or anything else related to anything TM'ed in this chapter!

When Inuyasha reached the village he found it in a bad condition, multiple huts

lay in crushed semblance of what they used to be. It seems that the youkai haven't stopped attacking even though I wasn't here. Inuyasha thought as he ran towards Kaede's hut. It lay in crumbled mockery of it's former stability. Kaede sat next to it, a large bloody gash in her forhead.

"Inuyasha, ye have returned!" she yelled to him as he ran towards her. "I have dire news for ye, a youkai attacked not long ago. It isn't really strong, it's only advantage is it's great size! It walked over the village, the villagers chased it off and are trying to kill it even now." That was when he noticed, not a single person besides Kaede was still in town, everyone must be chasing off the demon, or dead.

He kept the latter out of his mind, then asked, "Umm… which way did it go?" she pointed to the west, where Inuyasha could see a large lizard youkai, he would have called it a dragon only it looked more like Gogira (Godzilla to the non-Asian world) than a dragon. Pulling the short-shafted spear from its holster on his back, he ran towards the youkai.

Looking at the battleground, he could see a few villagers wounded, leaning against trees, blood dripping from various wounds across their bodies. Two men lay dead, or at least unconscious, on the ground. The youkai, which Inuyasha dubbed, "Gogira", was extremely tall, looming above even the Goshinboku. It's claws were covered in blood, some of it was dry but most of it ran off the creature's claws. The mouth opened in a feral scream of rage as it dove at the closest villager: A man in his mid-thirties was effectively wielding a longbow. It seemed to notice that its left side was bristling with arrows.

Inuyasha leapt forward, running as fast as he possibly could he jumped towards Gogira, swinging the short spear in a wide arc. It whistled its own screeching cry, much like that of an eagle, swooping in for its prey. The spear's small head bit into the youkai's flank, tearing a gout of blood from a small gash. The creature lost sight of its prey as the villager dove to the side, smashing into the ground with a nearly concussive explosion. The villagers near it ran away, fear finally gripping their hearts as Gogira began to rise from the ground, dirt falling from its snout as it looked around.

Inuyasha was the only person in range, so it dove for him. "Shit!" Inuyasha swore as he ran away, Gogira smashing into the ground blindly again, shaking the very foundations of the earth. Or at least that's what it seemed to Inuyasha as the blast made him all backwards, onto the youkai's snout. Inuyasha gasped as it rose from the earth, carrying him with it.

"Oh damn! What am I gonna do?" he said to himself as the lizard youkai looked at the morsel on its nose, seeming to contemplate a way to get him off its nose and into its stomach.

"Well, only one way I can think of… I really wish I had a better idea!" he yelled as he raised the spear and thrust under him with all his might, the spears sharp tip cut through the scales and into the youkai's mouth. It screeched in pain and fell backwards, landing on its back.

The momentum that Inuyasha had gained from the youkai falling, however, sent him sailing into the trees behind the creature, knocking him against a branch and then into the dirt under the tree.

Gotta get up! Can't let that thing eat me! He said to himself as he stumbled up, his arms aching from the grasp her had on the spear. When he was mere feet away from Gogira, it launched itself at him, not even getting to its feet it just pounced, nose down, at Inuyasha.

"SHIT!" he yelled as raised his hands, reflexes telling his hands to push away the 20 ton weight of death that was currently intent upon ripping him to shreds. Quite suddenly Inuyasha heard a sharp crack and a bright yellow and blue flash. It appeared ot be lightning that issued forth from his hands, it struck the snout of the Gogira and enveloped the entire body. The youkai stopped in mid-flight, its scales turning a dull gray and then darkening to that of an onyx. The onyx-youkai crashed into the ground, totally motionless.

"What the…." He was stunned, what just happened? He thought to himself as he watched the heavy statue gogira rock slightly in the wind that was just now brewing. "Hmmm… seems like rain." He said out loud as he walked over to the body, tapping it with his hand. No sooner had he done this then a large red-black ball of light flew from the body, only to shatter like a glass ball in the air. Immediately after this odd occurrence, the entire corpse began to crumple, leaving only a heavy powder all over the grass, which soon blew away on the heavy winds that ceased just as abruptly as they rose.

Kaede came riding up to him, an entourage behind her consisted of 4 peasants with spears and 2 with bows. All of her guards were on foot, running to catch up with the mounted priestess. She stopped just as he nearly slammed into the flank of the somewhat large workhorse. "Inuyasha… what happened? You look as though you have seen a kami!"

Inuyasha quickly told her all that had occurred, ending with the remains being blown away by the winds. She listened quietly and nodded when she felt it was appropriate. Finally she told Inuyasha, "This is a skill my older brother, Ano, had. He used it with his large spear to vanquish many fearsome youkai. He always acted as though this were nothing important, only as natural as walking or eating. I treated it no differently." The villagers gawked at Inuyasha, their expressions reflecting their incomprehension. Finally one seemed to have a revelation.

"Then… he would be the reincarnation of Ano, would he not Sister Kaede?" the other villagers finally understood and surrounded him, acting as if he should know each one of them. When Kaede told them to leave him alone he nearly gasped for lack of oxygen.

Reaching the village, a subject Inuyasha had completely forgotten in the excitement came to him. "Miss Kaede? Where was Nekogome through all of this?" she started in the saddle.

"Ah! I had forgotten all about her! She is still in the remains of my hut. The brazier hit her across the face when my hut was demolished, it wasn't lit but she was knocked unconscious. I left her in the rubble because the creature kept moving, so I thought she would be safer hidden there. Wait! Where are you going?" she yelled as Inuyasha dashed towards her hut, moving faster than he had ever before.

Panting, his heart beating in his chest like a hummingbird, he reached the debris. Reached for a piece of debris he pulled it up, throwing it behind him as he quickly reached for another piece. After a few moments of this quick activity he saw her most of her abdomen. He worked on getting the debris off of her face and finally managed to get everything off when a few of Kaede's guards ran forward to help him.

Once she was free he bent over to hoist her up, only to feel her awaken in his arms. "Inu- Inuyasha? Is that you?" he finally noticed the tight scarf wrapped around her eyes and remembered her condition, then he blushed. She knows my touch! He thought to himself as he answered her.

"Yes… are you alright? Unharmed?" he asked. She seemed to shiver in his arms and he pulled her close, earning some dark glances from a few of the villagers. She blushed, saying, "Umm… I think I'm alright. My head hurts a lot but other then that… I'm fine."

Before he could say anything she pushed herself out of his arms and stood up, sniffing. "What happened?" Inuyasha explained, everything except his special talent. "Huh. So you humans killed it. Whatever." And she turned towards the forest, stumbling to a tree and leaping up into it, grumbling about weak humans.

"What's her problem?" Inuyasha mumbled to himself, surprised when Kaede answered him. "She is hurt, vulnerable. She doesn't like the fact that ye accept her so easily. It unnerves her." So he found himself watching her, every movement and expression played across face, watching her for hours, unaware even when night fell and she sniffed, jumped down the tree and walked over to him.

"So, you gonna skip supper? Come on!" she pulled him into the makeshift hut that the villagers had built for Kaede, sitting on the ground and saying, "So, Kaede… food?" Kaede, instead of commenting on her rudeness, chuckled and ladled out three bowls of food. A full hour later the food was eaten, Kaede had two bowls, Inuyasha five, and Nekogome had somewhere between 20 and 40. Finally they wrapped up in their blanket for sleep, Inuyasha using his sleeping bag. He barely noticed when he heard someone shiver and a slight heat snuggle up beside him, and Nekogome's odd scent of sweat and oils coil with his own….

There ya go… this isn't going to be like the series all that much! I'm making Nekogome more emotional and fluffy than Inuyasha is in the series because females are usually more emotional… and you'll find out another reason later on…. but not yet!

--MRRYL