Inuyasha woke up slowly, the sounds of morning in the forest furtively intruding into his senses before finally jarring him awake. He irritably opened one eye, realizing for the first time that he was suddenly on the ground. Must've fallen out of the damned tree, he thought ruefully. He pushed himself up, his muscles strangely stiff and resistant, and looked around him. His head was swimming, and before long he let himself flop onto his back, eyes closed, so as to listen to the forest around him and clear his head.

He had been turning Kikyo's words over and over in head since the previous night, trying in vain to figure out exactly what she had meant. Sure, she had cut her own lip with the kappa's tooth, and sure, he had gotten a taste of her blood, and maybe even that kid's, but what the hell did that matter? It wasn't like he hadn't tasted blood before.

Intending to take one last look at the sky before continuing on his journey, such as it was, Inuyasha opened his eyes and stared up at the sun. Pain flared instantly in his eyes, and he let out a surprised cry as heat lightning seemed to flash in his brain. He rolled onto his knees, white hot stars racing across his vision, and shook his head furiously. Tears stung his eyes as his ears began to ring.

"Damn it all," he growled, digging his claws into the soil as a spasm of pain fell over him. "Did Kikyo do this?"

As if in response, a cool, slender hand fell on his shoulder.

"Hell will welcome us," Kikyo's voice cooed from behind him.

Sudden rage flashed through him, and Inuyasha wheeled around, lashing out blindly with his claws. They found no purchase, and he overbalanced, stumbling back down to his knees. In spite of the pain, he forced his eyes open. He was alone.

"What the hell?" Inuyasha said, suddenly apprehensive.

Deep in the forest a bird began to sing. The nose echoed cacophonously in Inuyasha's ears and he grit his teeth angrily at the maddening din. It was quite a while before he bothered trying to stand again. He could tell that his feet had no intention of staying under him, so he simply stayed put, waiting for the episode to pass. In time he felt confident enough to hoist himself to his feet, still leaning against a tree. His eyes still burnt and the world was still spinning crazily around him, but he decided to return to the kappa's lake, thinking that perhaps he had caught a fever that might be helped by the cool water.

------

The morning was cool and pleasant, with a gentle breeze playfully rippling the grass. Sango and Kirara had been walking for nearly an hour with no particular place to go. Without Kagome's ability to sense the Shikon Jewel to guide them, their lives had quickly become those of wandering exterminators, and while it wasn't necessarily unfulfilling work, it was rather unproductive. It seemed as if there was a mysterious lack of demons in the vicinity, at least near the villages. Yesterday's rat notwithstanding, they had not encountered a single wild demon of any kind, much less one with a shard of the Jewel.

Not that it matters, Sango thought a little glumly. Kagome took most of the Jewel with her when she left.

The matter of the Jewel had clung tenaciously to the back of her mind for a while now, though it had mostly been supplanted by thoughts of her friends until this particular moment. It seemed almost selfish to be thinking of the Jewel when there were so many other matters, personal matters, that ate at her. Although Sango knew that she had never thought of Kagome as merely a tool for shard-hunting, she still felt awkward thinking of Kagome's departure in terms of the loss of the Jewel. It seemed like a callous shift in priorities. Nonetheless, it was important to decide how best to continue now that the possibility of fully completing the Jewel was gone.

In some ways, she had decided, the removal of Shikon Jewel from the playing field was a boon. If the Jewel couldn't be completed, then Naraku obviously couldn't harness its evil power to its fullest potential. Granted, it was now impossible for the Jewel to be completely purified, but it seemed like a rational enough argument to say that the Jewel was safer if it was divided between the two eras. Unless, it suddenly occurred to her, Naraku or something else realized where the rest of the Jewel was and crossed over into Kagome's time to retrieve it. It seemed unlikely that Kagome could single-handedly protect the Jewel from a powerful or determined enough foe.

Sango frowned. Whenever Kagome invaded her thoughts her heart grew heavy. Sango pushed her friend out her mind and sighed.

-------

Though the lake was not far off, it took Inuyasha over an hour to reach his destination. His equilibrium seemed to be deteriorating and the sunlight sliced angrily into his eyes. He walked slowly, moving from one tree to another to keep his balance, all the while uttering a string of epithets and curses. His skin was flushed and hot, and icy beads of sweat raced down his back. He became increasingly nauseous, and twice his stomach churned and twisted so badly that he dropped to his knees retching. The noise of the forest filled his head, bouncing against the inside of his skull like gravel. Finally, when the tree line was finally held at bay by the lake's small beach, Inuyasha staggered to the ground and drug himself towards the water. He wasn't sure if there was anyone else around, his sense of smell was flooded with a metallic, bitter scent, but by this point he didn't care. With what felt like all of his effort, he pulled himself into the shallows and thrust his head beneath the surface.

The cold water washing over him felt delicious, and he waded further out into the lake. His robe was quickly sodden and it clung to him like a tangle of wet vines, but he was unmindful. All that mattered was the flood of coolness against his flesh, and for a moment he felt very much refreshed. Inuyasha let himself float, facedown, for as long as he was able, letting the silence of the water swirl around him. He shut his eyes, welcoming the comfortable blackness. At last, when his air was spent, he threw his head back and let the warm air rush over him again.

When he opened his eyes a thousand voices shrieked in his head, and he staggered backwards as if in retreat. The sunlight reflected chaotically off the surface of the water in a radiant, scintillating storm of brightness. Inuyasha covered his eyes, crazily sure that they would burst from the pain, and stumbled clumsily through the waist-deep water. He blundered back and forth for what seemed like forever, not daring to remove his hands from his eyes, until at long last a cloud mercifully passed in front of the sun.

Inuyasha opened his eyes slowly, blinking back caustic tears. Staring up at him from the surface of the water was his own reflection, waxen and haggard. His eyes were bloodshot, the pupils nearly invisible slits. His normally pristine hair clung to his face like dirty strings.

Pathetic, he thought to himself with a snarl. Too damned pathetic.

He swiped at the reflection with his claws and it exploded into maddening frenzy of white hot light before tauntingly returning. The face looking up at his was infuriatingly defiant even as it looked disgustingly weak. Inuyasha bellowed, driving a fist through the reflection and then staggering up onto the bank. He was dimly aware of blood trickling between his fingers from the angry wounds his claws had dug into his palm.

As he left the water behind he found it necessary to walk on his hands and knees again, no longer because his balance was faulty but because his strength seemed to have abandoned him. His arms shook under his own weight, but he drove himself forward with pure anger until at last he collapsed against the gritty, sandy soil.

"Are you alright?"

The voice was that of a child. A human child. Inuyasha could smell it now. It was female. Inuyasha looked up, only to find it standing over him, its eyes wide with concern and fear. Fear. Inuyasha smiled to himself. The stink of the child's fear coursed through his senses, setting his body ablaze with long-forgotten energy. Inuyasha dug his claws into the soil with anticipation.

"Are, are you alright?" it repeated.

It was small and lean, with slender muscles wound tightly beneath smooth, tender skin. Inuyasha could hear its heart pounding in its chest and he could almost taste the sweet blood coursing through its body. Its legs looked strong. It would run. It would run and he would chase it down.

Inuyasha didn't bother to stand, he simply gathered himself on his haunches and sprang at the child, his claws lashing out evilly. The child threw itself backwards, barely avoiding his talons as they zipped past its eyes and sitting down hard on the ground. Inuyasha was upon it instantly, his claws sinking deep into the meat of its shoulders as he throttled its head against the soil. When its struggling began to slow, Inuyasha jerked its head to one side and bit down hard on its throat, teeth slicing cleanly through delicious flesh as the rich, hot taste of blood rushed into his mouth. The child clung to him weakly as he began to consume it…

The little girl's scream snapped Inuyasha back to reality. His hand was closed tightly around her left ankle. For an instant he was too stunned to let go, and he stared stupidly up at her until her she screamed again. He released her, shaking the last traces of the bizarre fantasy from his mind. For some reason she didn't bolt immediately, instead taking a few slow steps backwards, her tiny body trembling. Inuyasha lay on the ground watching her. His skin turned to gooseflesh as he realized that his mouth was watering.

"Run, you idiot!" Inuyasha screamed at her, and she did just that, bolting off down the path to the village. Her basket of laundry spilled out onto the dirt.

Inuyasha rose to his feet. He was shaking, not with fear but with excitement. He could see his heart pounding through his chest as if it were trying to escape. It felt like every hair on his body was standing on end. His breath was hot and trembling. Every fiber of his being wanted to bolt after the fleeing girl, run her down and leap upon her…

At his side, the Tetsusaiga began to pulse warmly. The furor in his heart was calmed for the briefest of moments, then began to grow again. Grimacing, Inuyasha brought his fist up sharply against his forehead. A small pain, like a wasp sting, lingered as twin trails of blood snaked down either side of his nose. He hit himself hard enough to cross his eyes, but at least the shaking stopped. Inuyasha gave the girl one last look as she disappeared down the path, then he leapt into a tree and disappeared into the woods.

-------

The cold breeze whipped against Sango like a slap in the face. She sensed nothing nearby, but her hand fell reflexively to the hilt of her sword. The chill wind was gone in an instant, leaving only the warm summer air in its wake. Sango found herself staring into the woods, though she wasn't sure what she expected to see. Just as she had convinced herself to move on, a crow shrieked in the distance. It was answered by another of its kind. And another. And another. At her side, Kirara growled softly.