Last Time: The walk home from the elder hanyou's apartment had been relatively silent so far, as both human and hanyou absorbed all that had been told to them.
The hanyou was the first to speak.
"I…"

This Time:

"I… I don't see why we can't just leave things as they are, leave this… this 'time void' as it is, and just go back and rip Naraku up now. Maybe… maybe this way, you won't have to die! Whatever she's done changes how things happen, right"
The girl sighed. Again, the hanyou was giving voice to her inner thoughts. To him, however, her words were different.
"Yeah… that could happen. But so can other things. What… what if instead of Naraku killing me after his defeat, he kills you before he dies? Do you seriously think any of us stand a chance against him without you there"
She looked away, "… we can't take that risk, Inuyasha. And we shouldn't be playing around with time, anyway. It always screws up, especially in all those science fiction novels"
The hanyou was blushing, "I… I just can't… bear the thought of… of"
She turned to face him, "Sacrifices, Inuyasha. We all have to make them. Unfortunately"
Looking at the way his face suddenly appeared all the more troubled, the girl laughed, reaching over to hug him, "Stop scowling like that! It's not all bad. Unless you've forgotten, something's already changed… the old you… the past that your future self remembers… didn't know that I was going to die at the last battle with Naraku. You do. Maybe something'll work out, after all"
Inuyasha frowned, "But… doesn't that bring us back to the same thing you're talking about… that time could get messed up and Naraku could win"
The girl's frowned matched his, as she processed his words, "Um… yeah, I guess. Oh, this is just so confusing! The bottom line is… we shouldn't make things worse by leaving them as they are. It's… not right. We'll handle what's happened so far… and… and hope for the best. Besides, if we restore the timeline, the chances of things screwing up when we meet Naraku would be less, right"
"Meaning that you'll die"
She scowled at him, bopping him on the head, "Stop saying that every chance you get. We're going to try our best not to let that happen, right"
At that, the hanyou leaned over, kissing her lightly on her forehead. He smiled, "You can bet your life on it"
She sighed. They walked on silently.
"Ne… Inuyasha"
"What is it"
The girl was looking away, "What… what you said yesterday, when we were in bed... you said that"
Mentally, the hanyou froze, his heartbeat increasing, his face flushing as the realisation struck him. She… you mean, she did hear me after all?
"… that you loved me. Did… did you really mean that"
For a moment, the hanyou remained still, without responding. Then, he turned to face her, his hand coming up to her chin. He leaned forward. Their lips met.
"You can bet your life on that too"

"Are you ready"
"Yeah"
"Let's… let's do it, then"
Standing at the top of the well, the hanyou and the human girl prepared themselves for the journey ahead. Their hands met. Looking at each other, they both nodded, looking down into the well that would take them back to the world that Inuyasha called home. Readying themselves, they took the plunge, falling headfirst as they normally did.
But the well failed to activate.
Plummeting to the bottom, the girl screamed, and, instinctively, the hanyou reached out to grab her, to protect her from the fall. He never made it. In front of his eyes, he watched helplessly as the girl disappeared, not in the familiar miasma of energy that said that the well was doing its job, but in a bright haze of pure blue light, her eyes pleading with him to save her even as they winked out of existence.
With a dull thud, the hanyou hit the ground.
In an instant, he was back on his feet, looking around for her, failing to see her. He looked up, only to see the wooden roof above that told him he was still in her world. Leaping out of the well in one clean jump, he smashed aside the doors of the well house, sniffing the air around for any trace of her scent.
There was nothing. Soaring up into the branches of the nearest tree, he scanned the horizon for her again and again, hoping against hope to see her… somewhere, anywhere. Nothing.
The hanyou cursed, smashing a fist through the trunk of the tree. He dropped to his knees.
And roared her name.
A primal roar resounded in the quiet night, startling the sleeping city of Tokyo. Those who awoke from slumber saw what could only be described as supernatural - a creature of the night, veiled in flowing robes of blood red, its wild eyes shining a menacing gold, like those of a wolf, with fangs glinting in the moonlight. It leapt from building to building, moving at a speed that easily outpaced the few vehicles that traversed the roads below. With claws digging into concrete and hair of death-white raging wildly in the wind, its feral animal ears sought out what could only be its prey, as its roar morphed into a single word, a single name repeated like a dark litany… a girl's name.

Standing up to his full height in the morning sun that blazed down a brilliant gold, Inuyasha found himself unconsciously clenching a fist. Shifting his gaze to the large road beyond the quiet alleyway he had taken refuge in to keep away from human contact, his keen senses kept constant vigil, ready to react at the first sign of human life in an age unfamiliar with his kind. His mind raced.
The night that had just been condemned to oblivion by the rising sun was like a mindless blur - one he had spent racing hundreds of miles around the sprawling city Kagome called home, in an effort to detect some sign of the girl who had finally succeeded in doing what no other, not even Kikyou, had ever been able to do to him.
But his efforts, considerable though they were even by youkai standards, had come to naught.
The clenched fist moved, as though of its own will, meeting the target chosen to bear the hanyou's wrath, the sound of ripping metal and shattering glass a violent accompaniment to the fluids now gushing profusely onto the ground.
The hanyou was silent, removing his fist from the shattered wreck of the lone vending machine on the street he occupied. He gazed at his hand, but only saw hers - hers as they held hands just the day before, hers nestled snugly inside his firm grip as they walked down the street… hers as they had lain together in bed.
The light breeze picked up in a sudden gust, sending locks of his silver-white hair astray, obscuring his vision. His fist clenched again.
He had never felt this powerless before.

The hanyou allowed himself a brief sigh as he carefully measured water into the cup of instant ramen patiently awaiting his attention on the kitchen counter. His actions were routine, done without thought, his attention focused on the major problem at hand, as he dumped the cup of noodles into the microwave and set the device to the proper settings.
He smiled momentarily, his mind distracted as he watched the cup rotate within the microwave - the food it contained representing one of the few remaining elements of a love affair that had begun over five centuries ago.
It was hard being around her again after so long… hard to see her with another, even if that other wasn't really someone else. He shook his head.
Grabbing the cup out of the microwave, he crossed the apartment quickly, sitting down in front of his laptop computer, ready to face another intense session of scrutinising historical records and mythological lore databases, hoping to dig out something, anything, that would help them to put an end to the situation.
And hopefully, those two can find someone back there who might know a thing or two about it as well.
He stuck his chopsticks into the cup of noodles, mixing the contents idly as he stared at the screen and at the endless reams of data. He sighed again.
The door to his apartment came crashing down, its wooden frame splitting into pieces as someone stormed in, the intruder's distinctive shouting already identifying him as clearly as if the hanyou had turned around to look.
For a moment, Inuyasha closed his eyes, clenching his fists as he fought his rising instincts, as he fought every urge to return to the wild ways of his youth, to tackle his younger self and to beat him into a pulp.
Suppressing his once-violent nature, the elder hanyou composed himself, allowing calm to preside once again. He turned around, eyeing the younger hanyou.
"I don't lock my door. You didn't have to break it down, you know"
The younger Inuyasha glared at him, "Shut up! I don't have time to waste on things like that! Something's happened to"
The elder Inuyasha frowned, "You didn't go back down the well"
His younger self blinked, his ears twitching in surprise.
The other sighed, shaking his head as he tapped his nose, "You don't smell like you've been back there. Instead, you have the smell of this city all over you - what on earth have you been doing all night"
"Looking for Kagome"
The elder hanyou blinked, "What"
"Yesterday, we tried going back down the well. It didn't work and Kagome just… disappeared. I've been trying to find her all night"
"Why didn't you come to me sooner"
The two hanyous glared at each other. Silence.
The elder shook his head again, "Fine. It's not as if we really have to guess where she is, anyway"
"You know where she is"
"I have an idea. But first, we need to get back to the Higurashi shrine."