Two of my best friends asked me to write an Inuyasha story, and this idea came to my mind.

Yéssica and Estefanía, this is for you with all my love :)

To all the Inufans, welcome and I hope you enjoy it.

For those who are not Inuyasha fans, I'm going to write everything in a way that everybody can understand, even if you haven't watched the anime or read the manga. The only thing you need to know is that 'Yōkai' means demon, I will use that word a lot throughout the story.

The characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi, but the story is mine. I DON'T GIVE PERMISSION TO POST MY STORIES ON OTHER PLACES/WEBS.

I want it to be a mysterious and intriguing story... let's see if I can do it.

It is also available on Ao3.

*Third Place Winner Best Drama at 2022 Q1 Inuyasha Fandom Awards run by The Feudal Connection!*

Warning: This story contains sexual content and violence.

Chapter One

Ancient Legends

Kagome passed that corner every time she walked back from university.

She was lost in her thoughts, contemplating that metallic fence in the distance that separated the huge forest from the limits of the city.

Almost every country had the same type of forest, occupying a third or even more of the territory in question. The only ones that were spared were several African countries, which were practically desert and sparsely inhabited, along with the South and the North Pole.

The largest forest in the world was located in Russia, where its extension was more than a million square kilometres, covering the entire northeast of the country.

In this case, the 'Forbidden Forest' extended through the north of the island of Japan and its trees reached the outskirts of Tokyo, the city where she was born.

The Japanese called it the 'Yōkai forest' or 'Forest of the Demons', and there were dark legends that passed from one generation to another about that vastly wild and unknown place.

According to those tales, all humans who dared to enter it disappeared without a trace. If any plane or helicopter flew over it, it vanished leaving no trail behind and no one would ever hear from the aircraft or its crew again.

For that reason, it was long ago that all the cities bordering the enormous forest had put up fences to prevent people from entering, placing signs that warned about the danger of trying to step into that area.

They also said that, if any of the trees were cut down, the next day they would grow back as if by magic. Though no one was brave enough to try to do such a thing.

Most of the population, including herself, thought all of it was a stupid legend someone invented many years ago to scare them and keep them away from those ancient forests.

Although she had to admit that it was really strange that the same thing happened all over the planet. Every country had a dangerous forest that politicians didn't allow the citizens to enter, and that seemed too much of a coincidence. The governments were in charge of keeping the inhabitants out of these places, and they made sure that no mayor tried to get their city to expand in that direction.

According to rumours, in several countries (including Japan) they had once tried to cut down part of the forest to build more structures... but it did not end well. The workers slowly disappeared and the uprooted trees grew back in a matter of hours, or so they said.

Nobody knew if that was true or not, but no builder or politician had tried to buy a plot of land in the forest for more than a century.

The legends also said that those places were inhabited by evil beings, some with humanoid forms and others not so much, who attacked the humans who were brave or stupid enough to try to walk among those trees and satisfy their curiosity.

They were called demons or spirits, and supposedly they could kill any human being in less than a second.

Kagome shuddered as she remembered that, four years before, a group of three boys from her high school who didn't believe anything the legends said had entered the forest to investigate. They never heard from them again.

She looked away from the towering trees that could be seen behind the fence and continued on her way. It was almost time for dinner and her family would be waiting for her in the Shinto temple where they lived. It was a family inheritance and they were in charge of keeping it in good condition. Quite a few people from the neighbourhood used to go on weekends to say their prayers, and her grandfather took the opportunity to try to sell them protective amulets or similar things.

He considered himself a Buddhist monk. The old man thought he was capable of creating very powerful talismans, but it couldn't be further from the truth. Her grandfather had the same spiritual power as Buyo, the family cat.

Kagome climbed the stone steps thinking about how close the forest was to her home (just a ten-minute walk) and entered the main house of the shrine. She was greeted by the aroma of miso soup, which instantly made her mouth water.

"I'm home!" she yelled, leaving her university folder and coat in the hall.

After changing her shoes for more comfortable ones to be at home she went in, sliding the door that led to the dining room.

Her mother Kimiko and her grandfather were there in the kitchen, and her little brother Sota was setting the table. He was finishing high school, while she was in her last year of university.

"Look, sister!" Sota said with a smile, pointing to a lemon cake in the middle of the table.

She smiled and couldn't avoid a sigh as she counted the twenty-two candles nailed to the cake, still unlit.

"Daughter! Happy birthday! You left so early this morning that I didn't even have time to congratulate you," her mother shouted, hugging her too tight.

Kagome held her breath and, once they pulled away, raised an eyebrow.

"I told you I didn't want to celebrate this year, mum," she protested quietly.

Her mother rolled her eyes.

"Nonsense. Even though it's been ten years since your father died, you know he'd want you to celebrate all your birthdays. Stop complaining and sit down, we have cooked your favourite food."

Kagome curled her lip down but obeyed, sitting next to her seventeen-year-old brother who was very excited about the cake. The lemon one was their favourite since they were very little.

"How was your day, Kagome?" her grandfather asked as he placed a bowl full of ramen on the table.

"Normal, as always. My friends gave me some clothes and they sang to me, but nothing else," she replied, licking her lips as she stared at the feast they had arranged.

When they were seated, the four of them gave thanks for the food and began to devour it like there was no tomorrow. She loved the ramen her mother made, the ingredients she used gave it an incredible flavour and Kagome couldn't do it the same way.

Soon after, they lit the candles and asked her to blow them out, making a wish.

Just before doing so, she saw in her mind the image of the mysterious forest she stared at every day when she walked home. Kagome wanted to know if the legends were true, so she blew with all her might. All twenty-two candles were out and her family clapped, showing her a couple of presents they had hidden for her.

Once she opened them, sharing many laughs, Kagome finally reached her bed after taking a good bath. She fell on her back and sighed. The day had not been as sad as she thought it would be.

Her mother was right. Even if they missed her father, they had to keep celebrating her birthday.

Kagome had been unlucky. He died on her twelfth birthday and, since then, every third of March she had asked her family not to celebrate anything.

Kimiko had always ignored her and, though that year Kagome wanted to celebrate less than ever as it marked a decade since that horrible day, she was glad that her mother hadn't listened to her. Between her friends and her family, they had distracted her enough that she didn't get depressed.

Kagome sat up slightly and held her laptop, which was on the pillow. Turning it on, she remembered all the mystery around the forbidden forests again and opened Google Maps.

As always, no matter how much she zoomed in, there seemed to be a thick fog over the huge forest of Japan that didn't let her see anything. Kagome could see the streets of Tokyo perfectly, the cars, people walking on the sidewalks... but as she approached the border of the forest, everything was a grey cloud.

She frowned, deciding to try another country's forest to see if the same thing would happen. Kagome scrolled across the map to China, sighing heavily when she saw that not one of the trees in that forest, which was much larger than the one in Japan, could be seen. She looked at three other Asian countries and several Europeans, and saw the same result in all of them.

Why were the satellites picking up such dense fog? She could see the forest from the Tokyo Tower, and Kagome knew very well that no clouds or similar were covering it.

It was another of the mysteries. No one had an explanation for why the satellites that orbited the earth couldn't capture images of the forbidden forests. There was no problem with the rest of the forests, but those were always covered by a very strange layer of clouds.

Kagome grunted in annoyance and closed her laptop, setting it on the table.

There were many things that she didn't understand. Why didn't they go into the forest with a great army? That way, if there was something dangerous, they could defend themselves and find out what was going on behind those trees.

Her grandfather said that they had already tried that in the past, and the only thing they achieved was for the army to disappear as happened to anyone who set foot in that doomed place.

She remembered that years before, an opposition party had promised to drop a bomb in the forest and destroy it, to show that everything was a lie and that citizens could enter without fear... but, as soon as they came to power, they changed their mind without giving any explanation.

They said that they could not destroy such a sacred place and that it was better to leave things as they were. Citizens had the rest of the island to live and they didn't need more space. The party was widely criticised for the abrupt change of opinion, but Kagome knew that similar things had happened in other countries.

It was as if the government was the only one who knew the secret of the forest and, once they came to power, they had to swear they'd continue to guard it and try to prevent the curious from approaching it.

Kagome laid down on the bed and, after covering herself, she closed her eyes and slowly plunged into the world of dreams.

She was facing the city limits, very close to the metal fence that separated the forest from them.

Kagome looked around and, after checking that it was dark and no one was watching her, she stepped closer. Putting her fingers between the diamond-shaped holes in the fence and looking at the forest, she saw that it was completely silent, so dense you could barely see it from two metres away.

There were so many trees that her gaze could not reach any further.

Kagome snorted. She started to walk alongside the three-metre-high wire fence, getting farther and farther from the city. After a long walk, her heart began to beat faster when she saw the end of the fence.

She had left Tokyo behind and the metal fence was no longer there. Instead, there were huge poster signs nailed every few metres, following the edge of the forest. They had messages in Japanese and English, and they said 'Forbidden zone. Entry is not allowed under any circumstances.

Kagome stopped by one of the signs, gazing at the huge trees before her. She had always been very curious about that forest and over the years it had gotten worse, to the point that all the mystery that surrounded it became her little obsession.

Something attracted her to that place. A part of her brain told her that it was all a great lie, but the other part warned her that it was dangerous, that if they didn't let anyone go there it'd be for a good reason.

She ignored the voice in her head and took a few steps until she reached the first tree. Kagome touched the trunk. It was as rough as any other tree, there was nothing special about it.

Feeling brave, she stepped in a little further.

She reached the third tree and darkness surrounded her. It was incredible. The starry sky was over her head before but, after only walking five metres into the forest, the moonlight was no longer visible and she could not hear a single sound.

The silence gave her goosebumps. That was not a good sign in all the scary stories she had read. If a forest was quiet, it meant that something dangerous was nearby.

She covered her face with her hands and patted her cheeks, trying to calm herself. It wasn't such a big deal, she had managed to enter the forest and nothing bad had happened.

She turned around to get out, but she heard something that made her blood run cold.

Breathing. And it was very close to her.

Kagome turned her head slowly, quite scared, hoping that it was an animal that had decided to approach her when it saw her there... but she met two eyes that were staring at her intensely from the darkness.

Its irises were blue with night-black pupils, and its eyeballs were completely tinted red.

She did not know any animal that had those eyes. Her entire body shook and all the blood drained from her face.

The adrenaline made her react as her mind screamed for her to run away. Kagome tried to run but did not even take two steps before that thing lunged at her with a deep and terrifying growl.

She fell to the ground on her stomach and felt its weight crushing her, its breath on the back of her neck and its claws digging into her forearms.

Her own cry woke her up.

Kagome snapped her eyes open and sat up on the bed. Her body was sweating and her breathing was quite heavy. She had dreamt of the forest many times in her life, but never in that way.

She got up and went to the bathroom to wash her face and calm down. It was three in the morning and she needed to sleep a little more, or she would be very tired in class the following morning.

Buyo was there when she went back to the hall, so Kagome took him in her arms and left him on the bed to sleep with her. That made her feel a bit more secure, though it took her a long time to be able to sleep again.

She couldn't get the image of those red eyes out of her mind.