Disclaimer: The characters of Inuyasha are owned by Rumiko Takahashi, but this story belongs to me.

Chapter Eleven: Fox Fire

"Haaa!"

Inuyasha screams as he slices the demon in half. He turns to Kagome with a smirk she had never seen before. She was beginning to worry that he was enjoying his new sword just a bit too much.

A cry of rage caught Kagome's attention. Turning quickly she saw a bear demon shake with rage and begin to charge towards her, promising her death with his eyes. Kagome let an arrow fly. When it actually hit the target and the demon fell she was sporting a smirk of her own.

She still wasn't able to use her special arrows, however. They guessed that she probably had to be a certain level to use different arrows. It made sense, a little irksome though.

"We've been traveling for days," Kagome said as she reached down and picked up the gold. "Hey, look! We've got another feather! Yay!" She put the items in her pack. "Do you think…"

Inuyasha turned from sheathing his blade, concerned with his companion's sudden silence. "What? What's wrong? Kagome, are you ok?"

"I feel something." She puts her hand to her chest, looking off into the distance. "I can't explain it. It feels warm, it's calling me."

"Calling you?" Inuyasha strained to hear anything unusual. "I don't hear nuthin."

"Let's go find it."

Inuyasha was skeptical. What if it was a trap? "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

She looked at him. "I am positive. We have to go."

With a curt nod Inuyasha scooped her up and began to race in the direction she indicated. He trusted her instincts. It wasn't as far as they had worried it might be. Soon they saw the flashes of light in the sky.

"There," Kagome said. "We have to go there!"

Lighting lights up the sky, and thunder booms so loudly that Kagome had to hold her hands over her ears. She couldn't imagine how loud it must seem to her dog demon friend with the super hearing.

"Are you sure we hafta go this way?" Inuyasha yells.

Kagome yells back, "Yes! I'm positive!"

Since she didn't have super hearing, she couldn't make out what his last remark was. It probably wasn't a bad thing since it wasn't a particular friendly phrase.

She was about to ask what he said when she noticed that his ears just perked up.

"It's Shippo!" he yelled so she could hear him. "Let's go!"

With speed that rivaled the lightening flashing around them, Inuyasha raced into the valley towards their youngest friend.

The little fox kit was huddling in the cracks of some fallen rocks, just out of reach of the two demons. Tears were streaming down his face. A large hand reached in and finally caught hold of his tail. He was pulled up and held in front of a huge bald headed demon. He slumped in defeat.

He was too tired to yell 'foxfire' one more time. Just before he gave up, he was yanked out of the demons hands.

Inuyasha dumped Kagome and Shippo unceremoniously onto the ground and pulled out his sword.

"Time to kill a couple demons." He cracked his knuckles and lunged at them.

Kagome looked down at the trembling kit. He looked like he was in shock. Gently she picked him up and held him like she would a baby.

"Shippo?" She called softly. "Shippo, are you okay?"

Finally his eyes focused and he saw her.

"Kagome!" She held him as he cried.

Looking up she noticed that Inuyasha had not quite won the battle. It was unusual, since Inuyasha usually disposed of enemies rather quickly. Unfortunately, in THIS battle it looked like he was just barely hanging in there.

"These two are tougher than the others!" Kagome yells to Inuyasha.

"Oh REALLY?"

He brought his blade down, only to have it blocked. This time the enemy did something none of the others had done before. It started to fly. Sure they fought demons that flew earlier in the game, but never one who went from a land walker to a flyer. And he was using some weird little object, like a horseless chariot, to fly with.

"There's something different about them!"

Inuyasha swung again, but the blade did no more than cut off a few hairs of the handsome long-haired demons.

"Save the chatter AND FIGHT!"

Kagome glared. But she knew that he wasn't going to listen to any more of her warnings. So she picked up her bow and notched an arrow. She hit the bald headed demon with the arrow. Her rump hit the ground as she fell in surprise. The arrow didn't faze him one bit. In fact, he was looking at it like it was a neat piece of new jewelry. It also had one rather bad side effect… it drew his attention away from Inuyasha, and onto Kagome.

With a gulp Kagome jumped to her feet and grabbed Shippo. The wailing kit was in no shape to fight, and she couldn't fight AND protect him, so she had to find a place to stash her young friend. Plus get away from the demon barreling down on them.

Inuyasha watched as Kagome took Shippo and ran. Good girl, now I can focus on fighting. Which he did. Well, at least up until he heard the girl scream.

The bald demon was holding Kagome by her hair three feet off the ground. He opened his mouth wide, preparing to enjoy his meal. Shippo was on top of the demons head biting it, but wasn't even noticed.

There's no time! I can't get to her in time! Inuyasha was close to panicking. Would a feather bring her back if she was bitten in half?

With a roar Inuyasha threw his sword. The demon he was fighting laughed then lunged at him, ripping through Inuyasha's side. The dog demon dropped to the ground, holding his side. Glancing past the demon he was fighting he saw Kagome and Shippo standing over the now dead demon with a sword in his belly.

He was a bit irked, however, to see that Kagome hadn't taken Shippo and ran. She was walking up to the dead demon and inspecting its head. Then, to make matters worse, she reached down and touched it! Inuyasha growled loudly made a mental note to yell at her about that.

Suddenly the demon in front of him noticed his fallen brother and went into a rage. A bolt of lightening barely missed Inuyasha, who thanked the gaming gods for giving him good reflexes. He swore he'd never choose one of those strong but slow players ever again.

The pain in his side was becoming unbearable. He knew he was loosing a lot of blood. He also knew that he couldn't dodge the attacks forever.

Blades of Blood.

Those three words suddenly popped into his head. Instinct took over and Inuyasha dipped his claws into his blood and swiped at the demon.

"Blades of Blood!"

The droplets of blood formed tiny blades as sharp as razors. They sliced at the demon in front of him. Unfortunately, the cuts were not fatal. Painful and plentiful, but not fatal. He dropped to the ground again. What was THAT? He looked at his claws in wonder. When his nose picked up a familiar scent he looked up in terror.

Kagome is coming! Sure enough, the girl in the sailor style outfit was racing towards him with his sword. Inuyasha might have been amused at how odd the sight looked if his heart wasn't trying to leap out of his chest. He tried to yell at her to stay back, but his throat closed up. NO!

The demon's attention was now on her and he let loose a powerful lightning attack.

The loss of blood had slowed down Inuyasha's reflexes. He couldn't reach her before the bolt of lightning did. His eyes were wide as he saw her, with Shippo in her arms, engulfed in a blindingly bright light.

He saw red.

Rage. That's the only thing he could feel. He couldn't see anything or hear anything except for the blood raging through his body, taking control. His body was on fire.

When Inuyasha finally came to his senses, he was standing beside Kagome's limp body. As he reached out to touch her he noticed that his hands were dripping with blood that he was sure wasn't his. A quick glance around let him know that the demon had been disposed of. Messily.

"Kagome…" His throat hurt and his eyes burned. He dropped to the ground and picked up her body, holding it close. The grief was almost overwhelming. He touched his forehead to hers. "Kagome… I'm so sorry…"

His heart about stopped when he saw her eyelids flutter open.

"Ack!" He screeched and scooted back.

Slowly Kagome sat up and looked around. She wrinkled her nose at the sight before her. Blood and guts were all over the place, including Inuyasha's claws. There wasn't time to make a remark about it before those blood soaked claws were pulling her in for a tight hug that nearly cut off her oxygen supply.

"I thought you were dead," he whispered.

Kagome smiled, hugging him back. "Would've been a good time to try out those phoenix feathers, huh?"

Inuyasha pushed her back and gave her a little shove. "Don't even joke about that!"

Even though Inuyasha had released her, she felt something clutching her. She looked down to see a little russet ball of fur.

"You okay, Shippo?" she asked.

"You came."

"Keh, of course we did."

Once again, the little kit started bawling. Kagome held him and stroked his hair, unsure of what else to do. She looked at Inuyasha for advice, but he simply shrugged his shoulders and looked the other way.

Continuing to stroke Shippo's hair/fur, Kagome looked around the battlefield. Something was wrong.

"It's all bloody and gory."

"Keh, I killed the demons, didn't I?"

"Yeah, which, by the way, was very very scary how you did it. But usually the enemies disappear. They don't stick around."

Cocking his head to one side, Inuyasha studied the remains of the demon. "Well, the bald one disappeared. After you touched it, anyhow. And speaking of that, ARE YOU FREAKING OUT OF YOUR MIND? He could have still been alive and skewered you!"

"Hmmm…" Kagome thought, completely ignoring the admonishment, "That's right. He did. I pulled this out of his head." She opened up her palm to show him what she found. It was a tiny pink piece of stone. "When I pulled it out, it was black. After I held it for a minute it turned pink. This is what I was feeling."

"What?"

"The feeling I had that I was being pulled, remember? This is what was pulling me. And I think that other demon has one too. I can feel it."

Kagome stood up, still holding Shippo, and walked over to the largest pile of remains.

"Ug. Its right there near that eyeball…."

Inuyasha sighed. "Do you want ME to get it?"

She put on her brightest smile and her biggest puppy dog eyes. "Would you?"

With a little guidance, Inuyasha found the little black stone. He plucked it out of, where, he wasn't sure quite what that was, anatomy wasn't his strong subject in school, then gave it to Kagome. He watched in fascination as it slowly turned pink.

"I think this is the Shikon jewel, or at least part of it." Kagome said. She pulled out the necklace her mother, her computer simulated mother, had given her. "Mama gave me the first shard with this necklace. I didn't know what it was then, but now I do." She sighed heavily. "I wonder if all the boss battles will be this messy. Or if they will all have shards."

Inuyasha shrugged. "Dunno. Guess we'll find out though." He looked down at Kagome's new furry accessory. "Do you plan on letting go of her anytime soon, runt?"

"They were killed."

Kagome sat down. "Who was killed?"

Shippo sobbed, "My parents, they were killed!"

Inuyasha swore colorfully and sat down next to Kagome. "In the game?"

The kit nodded. "But it was so real. It looked like them and sounded like them." He sniffled. "It even smelled like them."

Kagome rested her head on Shippo's. "I'm so sorry, Shippo. The same happened with my mother. It was really hard to not think of her as real. It felt real."

"They made me watch. Papa was skinned." Shippo burst into tears again, this time Kagome joined him.

They cried together for awhile. Inuyasha got angrier and angrier with each tear that fell.

"Naraku is sick. This game is sick. He has a lot to answer for." Inuyasha growled. The game was being taken too far. "Quit!" he yelled. "End Game!" Nothing happened. "Game Over!" Nothing. "Someone pull the plug and get us out of here!"

Wiping her eyes, Kagome stood up. She extended her hand to the dog demon to help him up. Holding onto Shippo she started towards the east.

"Where ya going?"

Kagome looked back at Inuyasha.

"Well… I felt another shard in this direction… but I'm thinking our first stop should be some water. Man, you stink!"

With a rude gesture, Inuyasha stormed off in the direction of the river they had passed earlier in the day.