Disclaimer: I do not own the Inuyasha characters. They are owned by Rumiko Takahashi. The only character I own in this chapter is Otokonoko
Full summary: It is an age of war and no one can be trusted. Inuyasha comes upon a girl and monk and somehow gets swept up in the war he didn't want to be a part of
Chapter 1
The Attack
Otokonoko sighed leaning against the wall of the wooden tower. Being the one to sound the alarm when there were an invasion approaching was possibly one of the most exciting, yet boring, job ever. No one wanted to invade a tiny, peaceful village in Japan. This village was only known for harvesting rice, in fact, it was the seventeenth largest supplier of rice in Japan. Well one might, like Otokonoko, might consider it a minor achievement, the villagers thought of it as a lifetime achievement.
Otokonoko stretched and looked out into the horizon. No invaders, as usual. He yawned and turned his direction towards the village. He could see the shrine were they took in orphans. The houshi-sama that ran the shrine was quite young: maybe nineteen tops. Miroku houshi-sama came to the village two years ago and ended up staying to help the villagers. A young woman, Kagome-sama, who was probably sixteen-years-old, came a year later and stayed at the shrine to help.
Otokonoko couldn't help smiling: Kagome was a beautiful woman who was kind and smart. However, every single man in the village would love to have Kagome as a wife but she always refused their affections. She was an odd woman. Most women would die just to be in Kagome's position, but then again, Kagome wasn't like most women.
The young boy turned around and looked out into the horizon. Nothing…wait. Something had shifted in the grass. The boy's face paled as he saw hundreds of figures appearing on the horizon.
"Chikushou," the boy swore before sounding the alarm.
Kagome's head spun, her wavy ebony hair flying, at the sound of a bell echoing in the still air. She dropped her broom and raced towards the entrance of the shrine that overlooked the city.
"Nani?" she whispered seeing the figures marching towards the village. "Doushite?"
She had come to this village for one reason: to escape the war. She froze in fear, watching the figures approaching the village.
"Kagome-sama!" the voice of children cried. "What's going on?"
"Run!" Kagome shouted turning around, her face full of fear.
The children gasped at the face that was plastered on Kagome's usually cheerful face.
"Miroku houshi-sama!" the children screamed running towards the temple.
Kagome followed blinking back tears. She could sense a demonic aura from the approaching army. So they weren't here for her, were they? Kagome shook her head, clearing her mind of her negative thoughts. The children and Kagome burst into the temple where a young monk was opening a trap door.
"Hurry!" the monk said pushing the children inside. "You too Kagome-sama," the monk said grabbing the hesitant girl by her wrist.
Kagome gave a short scream as she fell into the fairly deep hole. She landed with a muffled "ouch!" before the children pulled her onto her feet. A few seconds after she stood up, Miroku landed rather gracefully where she had landed not so gracefully.
"Where are we?" Kagome whispered as Miroku pulled at a string, closing the trap door above their heads, sealing off their only source of light. And that was when all hell broke loose.
"Miroku houshi-sama! I'm scared of the dark!"
"Kagome-sama! They've got me!"
"Ahhh!"
"There's a ghost! Oni! Oni! Oni!"
"Hush!" Kagome said softly over the cries of the panicked children. "We have to stay quiet, all right?"
"Kagome-sama," a deep voice whispered into her ear. "I need you to stay with the children. I have to go make sure that the villagers are safe."
"Miroku-sama -"
"The children need you," Miroku whispered before departing through a tunnel where a ladder led to the surface.
The young monk carefully scrambled out of the hole near the outskirts of the village where he had climbed out off. He winced as he heard the cries of the villagers screaming in pain.
Chikushou! The monk thought running towards the village. Please don't let me be too late!
The monk burst through the thick bush and arrived at the village. He almost turned away at the sight of the bloodied corpses littering the roads. The young monk sensed a youkai approaching from behind.
Without wasting a second, the monk ripped the rosary beads covering his right hand and held his palm towards the youkai. The youkai stared for a second before scoffing. It ran towards Miroku before it realised it wasn't just running towards its target. It was being sucked in. It looked up and its eyes widened as it saw an endless blackness in the palm.
Within seconds, it was gone, and all that was left was an ominous breeze. The monk sighed, shaking his head in pity.
This is why I hate wars, he thought as he picked a pole that a villager had attempted to use as a defence. People die, youkais die…and all this for a crown. The monk stabbed his wooden pole through a youkai with a slight difficulty before extracting his weapon. He had to just leave his staff in the temple at a time of an attack. But why are they attacking our village? Miroku evaded a charging youkai and whacked it in the back, hard enough to send it flying to the ground. We have nothing. He evaded yet another attack and dropped down to the ground sweeping his leg under the youkai, causing it to fall onto its companion. We have no food for the warriors and we certainly don't have enough of beautiful women.
Miroku gave a sharp yell of pain, interrupting his thoughts, as a sharp blade pierced through his shoulder. He dropped to his knees as the blood slowly dropped to the floor. The youkais gathered around the one that had deified them. One youkai picked up a blade and raised it above the monk's head. Miroku closed his eyes, ready to die.
Before the blade could fall and slice through flesh and bone, claws ripped through the youkai's body, killing it in an instant. Miroku opened his eyes cautiously and stared up into a face of a tall figure.
"You OK?" the guy asked pulling Miroku up.
Miroku nodded gratefully before he saw that this boy didn't have human ears. He did look human, for the most part, but the monk could sense the youkai blood flowing through his veins.
"Y-youkai!" Miroku couldn't help but yell.
The boy's face tensed slightly and he turned around. "I guess I'm used to that by now," he said almost sadly as he began walking off.
Miroku watched the boy walk off and felt a wave of guilt wash over him. After all, this boy saved his life and he had rejected him, probably like hundreds of people had done before.
"Matte!" Miroku shouted. He ran up to the boy who had stopped walking. "Arigato," Miroku said between pants. "Please help…the villagers don't stand a chance…"
The boy sighed and turned to face Miroku. "You sure you want my help? I'm a hanyou, so what's stopping me from killing everyone here?"
"If you wanted to kill everyone, you would have done it already," Miroku replied smirking. "Miroku."
"Nani?"
"My name is Miroku. I'm a monk in this village."
"Inuyasha."
Miroku stared. 'Dog youkai?' How ironic… he thought almost smiling.
"Look out!" Inuyasha shouted shoving Miroku out of the way as a ball of fire shot between them. The flames hit a hut sending it in flames almost instantly.
Inuyasha and Miroku's heads spun in unison towards a pig youkai. It began charging towards them and Inuyasha grabbed a sword that had been hidden in a sleek black sheath. The sword came out, appearing rusty at first, before it transformed into a giant sword that resembled a fang.
"Tetsusaiga!" Inuyasha shouted slicing through the youkai.
Miroku watched as the hanyou began attacking the many youkai and was killing them with ease. This boy could easily drive the youkais out of the village and protect them.
Miroku felt something hot graze his cheek and he stood there, frozen. He could hear the explosion of wood clashing with fire as a house behind him caught alight. He turned around and saw that most of the village was now in shambles.
There was a large youkai crossing through the debris knocking beams of wood over with no difficulty. He began moving towards Inuyasha, ignoring the struggling villagers on his way. Inuyasha seemed oblivious to the youkai's approach as he was too busy slicing the heads off weak youkais.
"Inuyasha!" Miroku shouted as the head youkai raised its sword about to send a powerful attack towards the hanyou.
Inuyasha spun around and everything seemed to go in slow motion. The sword came down about to send the attack his way, when a glowing arrow sliced through the air and hit the youkai on the head. Both the youkai and Inuyasha turned to see a girl standing on a pile of debris nearby with a bow in hand and a determined look on her face.
"K-Kikyo?" Inuyasha whispered as the youkai nearby disintegrated into ashes.
The girl leaped down from the debris and ran over to Inuyasha and Miroku.
"Are you all right?" the girl asked the houshi-sama.
"I'm fine," Miroku said clutching his bloody shoulder. "Where are the children?"
"A youkai found us," Kagome whispered. "The children managed to escape but I don't know where they went."
Inuyasha stared at the girl that resembled Kikyo in awe. She looked a look like Kikyo but he could tell she wasn't Kikyo. Besides, Kikyo wouldn't be in a village in the middle of nowhere. No, Kikyo would be safe in her palace toying with the hearts of suitors who wanted to win her heart.
A loud bang behind them caused the trio to turn around. The youkais had succeeded in destroying the village but there was none left to celebrate their victory. Most had run away by then while the rest had been killed.
"We have to go now," Inuyasha said sheathing his sword.
Kagome's eyes widened at the sight of the hanyou. He caught her staring at him and she hastily turned away.
"Come on houshi-sama," Kagome said lifting up the injured monk.
A loud explosion behind them caused them all to be thrown through the air and landed in the hard dirt. Kagome gave a short yell of pain as she landed, rolling, before coming to a stop as her head landed on a rock, knocking the girl unconscious. Miroku sat up, wincing in pain, and looked around. They had landed maybe twenty metres from where they were standing previously. The village was now alight in flames and there was no doubt that many people had died. Some villagers may have escaped, as well as the orphans, but it would be impossible to find them now.
Inuyasha sat up rubbing his head and looked over at the unconscious girl lying nearby. Now that he could see her closer, she had some resemblance to Kikyo but she looked so different at the same time. Inuyasha sighed and stood up, dusting off his haori.
"Where are you going?" Miroku asked as Inuyasha began retreating.
"Away," Inuyasha replied. "You guys can fend for yourselves now, right?"
"Sure," Miroku replied sarcastically. "I can protect an unconscious girl with an injured body? Look, why don't you just help us get to the next village and then you can go."
"What!" Inuyasha shouted. "Why the hell should I help you guys?"
"You helped us before! Why won't you help us now?" Miroku protested.
"B-because…I have somewhere to be!" Inuyasha lied.
Miroku raised a quizzical eyebrow but said nothing more. He unsteadily got up and picked up Kagome's unconscious form.
"All right then," Miroku said. "Thank you for your assistance."
Miroku began heading down a road towards the next village, knowing fully well that Inuyasha was watching them.
Author's Note: So who can guess what's going to happen next? Please review! And no flames please!
Dictionary
Otokonoko: Boy
Houshi-sama: Monk
Chikushou: Damn it
Nani: What
Doushite: Why
Oni: Demon
Hanyou: Half demon