A/N: Hey! Recently I updated the list of trees for the fae of this story.
I know it was a while since the last update, but I wrote this and the next chapters together and this one is easily twice the usual length - I didn't cut it because it just felt right as it was.
Thanks to Fawn_Eyed_Girl. for your feedback


26


In the honey golden afternoon, with the wind carrying a promise of rain in near future, the Sacred Tree stood among the Yasha no Mori, ageless and serene. Near it a proud, strong oak grew, its branches swaying and leaves rustling gently in the breeze. On one side of the Sacred Tree was a cherry weeping red and white petals. Around these three alders and apple trees, elm and a multitude of other trees grew, from time to time shifting spots as if to visualize the changes in paths of lives of the yasha of the Isle. Among the thousands of vibrant colors and different shapes one could easily miss an alder that grew bent, almost resting on a yew that was next to it. Both were covered in a thin web of vines that seemed to come out from between the roots of the yew and looked almost like chains. The alder was wilting, it didn't have much leaves, and they all were half-dry. Golden lights of the caretakers of the tree seemed to drift by it and not notice the state the alder was in.

Through rows upon rows of the trees, from the shadow of the Sacred Tree, the Emperor watched the alder for a long while, its ears twitching and tail sweeping across the grass, creating a lot of little blue bell flowers. The Emperor turned to peer into the well and touched its rim with its nuzzle.

"Whatever the outcome of this task is, Sesshomaru. I implore you, if it ever comes to this and your little brother finds himself in the need of a miracle grant it."

"My Emperor, what did you foresee that you ask such a thing of this one?" Sesshomaru stood motionless, his face empty of emotions. The Kirin appeared as it had been before, radiant and ethereal as it stood next to the well of its predecessor.

"Recently I saw the Jewel of Souls in my dreams. It has been taken from the place it had been hidden from me for centuries."

The wind shook the trees around them, picking up the Kirin's mane and Sesshomaru's hair.

"In hands of a wrong person it might bring the second destruction of the Isle ad force you all to relocate to the continent," the Emperor said calmly, as if it didn't mean that it would perish with the island.

"Is this one right in assuming that none of us aside of you can track it down and ensure its safety?" the noble lord asked after a moment, observing the creature closely. The Kirin sighed and lowered its tiny head.

"Correct. When its power is dormant, only I can sense it, but not track it down. But there will be a hunt for it, once these that have dark hearts learn of its return."

"How can we ensure its safety?" Sesshomaru's voice didn't sound urgent. There were yasha that would turn to evil deeds if that suited their plans and goals, but he doubted any of them would be strong enough to pose any threat, none could use the Jewel, that could have only one master at a time.

"In my dream your brother was one of those that guarded it," the Emperor peered into the well again. "Strong trees grew around the meadow where it was held, finally in hands of its destined bearer. That will leave only the Lunar Mirror not yet held by a yasha I'd approve of."

"So, is this," Sesshomaru gestured towards the well. "To test this one's little brother and see if he is fit to guard the Jewel?"

"Maybe," the Kirin sounded amused. "Or maybe I just wish to join a pair of star-crossed lovers."

Sesshomaru sighed and went to sit under his tree to meditate. It was clear that the Emperor would not give him clear answers, just vague and cryptic predictions based on its dreams. It was serious, the Jewel had been hidden for centuries now. The last time it had been used it had been by a human miko the Kirin had lent its power in a fight for good of the Isle. But when Touga and his inu had arrived at the spot where the miko had been ambushed meditating, all they had found was her body, lifeless and twisted. No one had seen the Jewel since. It was told to be a capricious thing, semi-sentient as all the Kirin's artifacts, picking its bearers and lending its power only to them. What use could one have for an artifact that wouldn't work?

The inu looked at the well. And to think his foolish little brother would be somehow involved in retrieving and guarding the Jewel... He was in no doubt that the boy would be in need of more than one miracle.

"If you wish, I can allow you to see Inuyasha's progress," the Kirin called out to him. Sesshomaru didn't move.

"This one has little interest in seeing the half-breed prancing across that land. This one has better entertainment in watching grass grow."

"As you wish," the Emperor snorted amused at his retort and turned to per in the well, one ear turned to listen to the wilting alder's leaves falling on the forest floor. "Interesting times are ahead," the celestial creature whispered too low to be heard even by the keen ears of the sennin.

.

Inuyasha woke up to the song of a lark somewhere overhead. He was laying in a dapple shade of a willow tree, The aura was full of pleasant smells of nature and the most amazing smell of them all - Kagome. And some other people, but he ignored them for now. He inhaled deeply, trying to decipher some of the scents lingering on Kagome's, then he finally opened his eyes.

Kagome sat next to him, reading a book. She looked so relaxed and sweet. That was when Inuyasha noticed the bizarre clothing she was wearing. And... A bright blush crept over his face. Kami of the Isle, he could see her legs... They were sticking from under a scandalously short skirt for a human, folded neatly to the side as she sat.

She noticed him looking at her and smiled.

"Hey, are you okay, Inuyasha?" she asked, putting her book aside.

"...Legs..." he managed to say, unable to take his gaze from the shapely appendages. Yasha women weren't ashamed to show more skin, but humans... Well, let's just say he didn't expect to see Kagome's knees.

"I took off my socks," she said as if it explained anything. "Because you ruined them. Again."

"What?" he scowled. "I did no such thing! And what would have they cover anyway?"

"Oh, osuwari!" the girl glared at hum. "This was my last good pair!

Inuyasha, pinned tot he ground by the necklace around his neck, was grateful he'd been laying and contemplating the fact that,, albeit similar in looks and temperament, this wasn't his Kagome.

The girl stormed off, away from the shadow of the willow, allowing him to collect his thoughts and focus on other scents. He could hear this Kagome talking to a pair of humans just behind the veil of the willow leaves. There were two other yasha too, a young fox and an old cat. There was no hostility between them all. Inuyasha tensed when with rustling of black robes a man approached him. If not for the spell binding him, Inuyasha would have sat, but now he was able to only scowl up at the man as he sat down. He was spirited and smiled kindly.

"I've heard that you are being punished, my friend," the stranger said and shook his head. "You really have to think more before you speak."

"Who are you?" Inuyasha asked bluntly, causing the man to laugh good-heartedly. His aura was soothing.

"I'm Miroku," he informed him. "And I see that I really have to talk to Lady Kagome about the usage of the beads. We can't let her overdo it or you will lose your memory."

Inuyasha sat up when a woman pushed away some of the willow branches and looked at them.

"Are you two ready to go? Shippou spotted a big building on a lake, it might be Naraku's hideout."

"We're right behind you, dear Sango!" the man chirped and patted Inuyasha's shoulder. "Come, we have to go."

An hour later Inuyasha was walking behind the rest of the group that apparently were traveling with the Inuyasha of this realm. He was certain that this wasn't an illusion, it had to be a different world he was thrown into by the well. It felt too real and too detailed to be a vision. He kept quiet and listened keenly with his dog ears to the rest talking, figuring out that he should try and learn without giving away that he wasn't their Inuyasha. He didn't want them to get hostile.

The neko and the kitsune were no threat, albeit they were called youkai not yasha in this realm. The fox was a little pest, but it wasn't like he was different fro any other children Inuyasha had seen in his life. The humans... Well, they could be dangerous, specially if they teamed up.

This Kagome was a miko - he smirked at the thought that in this world she was what she'd always wanted to be. Her reiki was actually pretty high, but she was lacking the discipline training and experience could provide.

The priest, Miroku, was certainly a stranger to Inuyasha, but he was a pleasant fellow, if a bit on the pervy side. He seemed to be focusing his stupid advances on the other female of the group, so Inuyasha decide it was fine. He was strong as well, with a tainted magic sealed in his right hand.

The last member of the group was a youkai slayer called Sango. Inuyasha was vaguely familiar with that name and face, but he wasn't sure from where he knew her. In this world she was a fierce warrior, worthy of a cherry tree.

The group was searching for a jewel an artifact that had been shattered and had to be put together, because its shards were used for evil. And they all were also joined in the goal of bringing down an individual they called Naraku, the spider hanyou.

Ah, yes, in this world hanyou were a thing and apparently Inuyasha was one. It looked like in this realm youkai and humans sometimes produced offspring that was of neither of their races, but a strange mix between them. Both races put a stigma on the hanyou so Inuyasha was pretty pleased that in his land it was not that weird.

His learning came to an end when they entered a land that obviously had been flooded recently. Water pooled in dips in the ground, trees and other plants were often uprooted or bent, in a distance a village was located - it was on a small rise, so only the outskirts of it had been ruined. In the lowest part of the countryside was a big lake, with a building floating or being built on poles in the middle of it. From the village to the lake shore a small, somber procession was walking, a palanquin at the head of it. A somber, haunting tone of a bell rang over the landscape.

"A procession?" Kagome blinked at that sight. A veil was moved aside in one o the palanquin's sides and they caught a glimpse of a petite body an head covered by a mask, peering out for a moment before drawing back. "Look! There's a boy in there!"

"I presume," Miroku sighed heavily. "The villagers are going t sacrifice him to appease the kami and prevent more floods."

"Dumb humans!" Inuyasha barked. This world was similar to his own and in his own killing a person was not the sacrifice the kami wanted. Even humans knew that spilling blood on the sacred ground was the best way to get your ass cursed! He highly doubted here the kami would be more inclined to accept death of something living.

"Can't we do something?" he heard Sango ask, hesitantly. He snorted and ran towards the procession. He wasn't going to ask permission, he was going to act. From the noises behind him he knew his companions ran after him. Kagome called his name, but he didn't wait.

"What the hell are you doing sacrificing a boy!?" Inuyasha leaped between the palanquin and the group of men right behind it. They stumbled back, fear clear in their faces.

"Ah, a youkai!" some of them exclaimed in fright. Others glared at him.

"Step aside and don't interrupt us," one of the men, dressed far better than the rest, commanded "We need to deliver the sacrifice to the shrine boat before sunset."

"If your kami wants life sacrifice it is no kami, but a monster!" Inuyasha crossed his arms in front of himself, scowling. The men gasped at that statement, this time casting wary glances at the lake, as if to make sure the kami wasn't angry and raising the waters already. The men at the front of the procession looked almost outraged enough to charge at him. A staff, tinkling with gold rings, hit him on the head from behind. "Ow!"

"Peace," Miroku stepped to beside him, putting his staff horizontally between him and the humans. "There's no need for violence. Inuyasha here wasn't trying to insult you. We're a group of traveling exorcist and might be of help to you - we have strong suspicion that there may be foul play concerning the one demanding human sacrifice. Was your kami always demanding life for their protection?"

"No," one of the men in the back of the group said. "It was just recently hat we were told that to keep the floods from happening we have to give up our children."

"As a taijiya I have an obligation to deal with youkai killing humans," Sango said from Miroku's other side.

"We work as a team," Kagome shook her head. "Let us investigate and help you," she said to the villagers.

"Can it be? Can you help us?" some asked, but the headman waved his hands and shook his head.

"How could I seek an easy way out of this when it is my son that is to be sacrificed? So many has already given up their children." he objected. "And what if you all are just a bunch of con artists and we anger our kami more?"

The group tried to persuade the villagers, but they went after their headman's words. Inuyasha stared after the procession hurrying down the road.

"They're so bloody stupid, serves them right to anger their deities!" he grumbled.

"Oh, we have to help, Inuyasha," Kagome patted his shoulder.

"Do as you please, I will have to stay behind and deal with this," Sango declared.

"No one stays behind," Miroku shook his head. "As Lady Kagome said earlier, we're a team."

"Hey, guys, there's a boy spying on us!" Shippou pointed to a nearby bush, which squealed. Inuyasha leaped that way and dragged a boy from behind the leafy covering. The kid got to his feet, brushed off and scowled up at them all.

"I want to hire you lot," he declared.

It was the most normal thing that Inuyasha hit the bossy brat on the head. The foolish human had no idea how to make bargains with yasha. His companions scolded him for his action before the kid led them deeper into the vegetation growing near the road. There, in a soggy meadow, the boy spread his belongings and offered for them to pick what they wanted as a price for their job. He also explained how he was the headman's son and that the boy in the palanquin was an orphan stand in chosen by his father - and the brat's best friend.

Inuyasha shook in disgust at the amount of foul play on the headman's part. Now it was no wonder he didn't want to seek an alternative solution to a sacrifice. It was not his son's blood that would be spilled and he couldn't afford anyone learning that his son wasn't in the palanquin. At least Inuyasha's companions were sufficiently grossed out by this, even the monk, who had knelt to examine the goods.

"These are some nice items," the priest said, picking a shell necklace.

"I bet they're stolen," Inuyasha grumbled.

"Well, we don't have to take them," Kagome said cheerfully.

"You said you deal with exorcisms and stuff like that," the boy waved a hand towards the lake. "So, you chose your stuff and go to do your job."

"You have to really learn to not irk Inuyasha," Shippou told the boy as Inuyasha hit him on the head a few times.

"Inuyasha, that's enough!" Kagome objected. The yasha glanced back at her.

"The fox is right. The brat has to learn proper manners," he told her and hit the idiot a few more times. He wasn't hitting that hard, anyway. He could have done him way more harm. Had they any idea what a yasha hailing from the winter court would have done, if approached so casually about a bargain? He'd heard stories of some of them, like the one who had sliced a human in thin stripes and sent the poor thing back one stripe weekly, all of them alive, unable to die or even communicate with their kin. A few bumps on the head was nothing.

"Alright, I'm off," Sango told them.

"We're off, as a team," Miroku stood up, slipping a few things into his pack.

"Right," Kagome smiled and grabbed Shippou to help him on her shoulder. All of them glanced at Inuyasha, who dropped the headman's son to the ground where he crouched, rubbing his head.

He wasn't their Inuyasha. He was a yasha, not a hanyou. But for a time he was their companion and he appreciated their easy kindness towards him. It reminded him of his Kagome and her little brother. He was in this world to find something - the sacred water - and he had a suspicion that dealing with the possible imposer water kami was the challenge he had to face. He found himself pretty glad he wasn't alone, he had people he could rely on, even if he didn't really know them.

"Keh," he stood up. "Let's get it over with."

It was after the sunset that they entered a small boat and followed the one with the masked boy. The lake water was deceptively calm, clouds conveniently covered the stars and the moon, the only sources of light a few faint lamps hanging along the roof and gate of the building raised half a meter over the water. It looked dark and foreboding, rising over the lake like a kelpie planning to lure an unsuspecting victim onto its back. The boat with the offering was let through the gate, which was not even closed.

The brat pointed to the guards at the gate, as if Inuyasha and others couldn't see them. The yasha snorted at their puny weapons and auras. It was a child's play to leap from the boat and onto the raised floor the guards were on. A hit to the head took one down, the other got a kick to the gut and Inuyasha was victorious. Even Kouga could take care of these guards.

He waited, smirking smugly, until his companions climbed onto the raised floor of the gate, then he led them towards the main room of the shrine. It was nothing like what yasha or humans of his world built, narrow pathways lining the walls while water corridors and basins were between them, like paths and yards would in a normal estate. Knee-high railings prevented people on the platforms from falling into the water.

They slipped inside and to his relief the interior had normal floors, even if he could hear the water sloshing under their feet as they walked. The main room was pretty easy to find, with the kami yelling about being tricked and a shaky voice of a boy trying to appease him. Without thinking much and with only a glance back at the humans with him, Inuyasha unsheathed his sword and ran into a big chamber, brilliantly lit and decorated.

"How dare you try to deceive your deity!"

The small boy was kneeling in front of a raised throne, smelling of panic and desperation. The man standing over him, raising a trident and poised to strike the boy, were wearing elaborate clothing and was supposedly the kami. There were some more guards along the walls, but they were weak, so Inuyasha ignored them.

He was maybe a yasha, one that was half of the winter court, but he didn't like the idea of killing pups, even human ones. And posing as a deity was a crime in on itself. His dear mother would have gone berserk and would have leveled the shrine, foaming at the mouth and causing insanity in any weak-minded creature around her. He just wanted to teach the fake kami a lesson. He'd come here hoping to fin a real kami and ask for the sacred water so he could offer Kagome a choice to be a yasha like him and be free of the stupid human social boundaries... and hopefully let him court her.

One sniff told Inuyasha that this was no kami.

"Oi, bastard!" Inuyasha leaped in front of the boy, so the 'kami' couldn't
t strike him. The brat needed to be protected and that was what Inuyasha did - he was a cherry after all.

"What is the meaning of this intrusion?" the male with the trident exclaimed, stepping back from Tessaiga held in Inuyasha's hand. The yasha snarled at him, ears laid back. "Guards! Seize them!"

Miroku and Sango engaged the guards armed with spears, while Kagome r and the brat ran to help the boy scramble back. Briefly, Inuyasha wondered how often they did that - it was clear that the team worked as one unit, the fighters taking care of the defense, the weaker members of the group moving in to grab the helpless victim. He wondered if he was acting like the Inuyasha they knew. He doubted he was far off the mark, others didn't look shocked at his actions.

"I am the headman's son! Don't be angry, I am here to be the sacrifice!" the brat exclaimed, falling to his knees in the spot where the other kid had been just a minute ago.

"No! I have to be the sacrifice!" the other boy cried out and struggled free from Kagome's grasp to join his friend on the floor.

"Are you two insane?" Inuyasha barked. They weren't there to desecrate a deity's dwelling with killing of any creature, no matter how idiotic.

"It's too late!I'll flood the land for this! I'll punish your village and prove my divinity!" the male raised his trident again. The sounds of fighting behind them were dying down, most guards knocked out. "But first I'll kill you both for trying to deceive me!"

"Please, no!" Kagome knelt and wrapped her arms around both boys.

"You are a goat fucker, not a kami!" Inuyasha moved again, the blade of Tessaiga intercepting the fangs of the trident. The metallic keening that resounded from the sword gave Inuyasha a pause and he looked at it in surprise. He'd managed to parry the attack, but the blade reverted to its dormant, unassuming sleek state. "What the fuck?"

"Ha! Witness the heavenly power of my trident!" the 'kami' exclaimed and lifted his weapon, but this time not to strike, but to call forth the magic in the item he held. Water surged through floor boards and swirled around them all.

What happened next was a havoc of screams and water getting in his eyes and ears. He turned on his heel, brought out from his shock at having his weapon forced into dormancy, his mind focusing on Kagome. He saw her for a few precious moment, surrounded by foaming, turbulent waters, looking back at him with fright.

It wasn't his Kagome, but he' be damned if he didn't leap towards her, fighting against the current pushing them away from each other and coiling like a dragon's tail. He called her make, his hand reaching for her, but before he could get to her sudden darkness enveloped him.

.

When he came to, Inuyasha was floating on calm water, his robe dragging as he was pushed to the shore of the lake by - what his nose informed him about - a bunch of fish. He blinked and looked at the starry sky before movement from the bank caught his attention.

Miroku and Sango, soaking wet and looking like half-drowned cats, hurried to where the fish parked him in the shallow water. He sat up, shaking his head to get water out of his ears.

"Have you pushed us all to the shore? Thank you for helping us."

"Was there someone else?" the pair of humans asked worriedly.

"No, only you three," the fishes informed as they floated in the water.

"Is that a real kami?" the monk asked. "Inuyasha here says he is an imposter and we are almost certain he is correct in his assumption."

"...He was a servant to the kami, like us. But then he stole the kami's trident and imprisoned the kami in a cave. We can't go on the land to undo the seal.," the fishes were explaining.

"So, we have to release the real kami before we can take out the imposter?" Miroku mused. Inuyasha stood up.

"Okay, do that," he told the humans and turned towards the shrine on the now calm lake.

"What are you going to do, Inuyasha?" Sango asked, frowning at him.

"Feh! You humans can handle stuff here. I hafta go. In case you forgot, Kagome is still there!" he barked.

He could hear them calling after him, but he didn't care. They could call him reckless and pig-headed all they wanted, that didn't matter. What mattered was the fact that on the other side of the expanse of water was Kagome of this world and he - in absence of her Inuyasha - had to ensure her safety. As he crossed the distance he touched the hilt of Tessaiga at his side, but the sword merely pulsed weakly to acknowledge its master. it would take a longer time to sense it singing, a music he knew for so short, but already knew in his soul.

'Rest,' he told the blade. 'I'll deal with this with my claws and fangs.' He couldn't risk using Tessaiga anyway, the trident was a true divine weapon and it could even break Tessaiga. In his world many kami-blessed artifacts could dispel yasha magic and erode their items. He didn't plan on endangering his heirloom blade like this, especially when he was pretty sure he could deal with the imposter with his own claws.

A few minutes later he was running down one of the corridors of the shrine compound, following Kagome's scent. Or, more like following Shippou's scent. Scared foxes stank to high heavens. Kagome's call of his name was a great help in pin pointing her location in the damp place smelling of incense.

"Inuyasha!" she called, her voice carrying all the fear and anxiety, all the despair. It was like a prayer, a spell that could make everything go well. It wasn't his Kagome, but what it mattered anyway? She was in need of help and he was almost there to aid her. His heart squeezed for a second when he finally reached the room where she was.

The young priestess knelt on the damp wooden boards, the three children gripping at her soaked garments and looking with fear clear in their pale faces at the fake kami approaching menacingly, hands outstretched to grab them all, face twisted in a vile sneer.

Kagome's face was pale, tendrils of hair sticking to her forehead and cheeks, but she tried to protect the children, to urge them to flee away from the male. She kept between them and the imposter deity, trying to evade him as soon as possible. Her bow was wet and useless without her arrows, the quiver on her back empty. Were the arrows simply lost in the eddies or had she shot them?

"Kagome!" Inuyasha leaped to tackle the attacking man, not hindered by the fact that he couldn't draw magic from his tree, that Tessaiga was dormant, that he had no real plan to action. "You bastard fake, I'll claw you to bits small enough for fish to eat!"

"You insolent mongrel!" the man yelled in anger and turned his whole attention to him.

As they tumbled through the paper wall and off of the walkway into the cold water, Inuyasha clawing at the monster and taking the last breath before being submerged, he caught a glance of Kagome running towards the hole in the wall, calling him in worry as he descended in the dark waters, accompanied by the fake kami, who tried to escape his grip and coil around him at the same time. Inuyasha hated fighting in water, he hated the voice o the male, telling him that he was going to drown him on the bottom of the lake, he hated that he was unable to shift in his battle form while the imposter deity changed in a giant water snake and trashed in the water, dragging him deeper and deeper. The fake deity retained the upper half of his body, holding his trident and trying to skewer Inuyasha on it whenever he got too close, a wicked smirk on his face.

But all that was nothing, because he had Kagome to protect. He would find a way to keep her safe.

His courageous Kagome. The girl, who trusted in him to help her when she couldn't handle things, but who would do what she could to defend herself and to help others. The generous, genuine, gentle girl, who followed her dreams even if it meant going behind the back of her grandfather. The brave beauty who had undone his seal, who had pulled the arrow from his heart only to fill it with wonder and admiration for this seemingly frail and weak creature, who feared neither his magic nor his strength, who rode on his dog form back, who danced with the yasha under the moonlit sky.

The currents hit against him, water filling his eyes and ears, air so precious and so hard to keep in his lungs. His claws did almost nothing to the scales of the snake, probably thanks to the divine protection of the trident or other shit. He didn't dare use his fangs, in this form they were not sufficient to take down the snake and he'd lose the rest of his air. The coils of the monster wrapped around him and tried to crush him, to force the breath out of his chest. He felt pulsing in his ears and dark spots flowed across his vision, the view already obscured by the murky water and mud the snake stirred at the bottom of the lake. The need for air was starting to burn in him and he regretted not thinking his actions thought. He should have come up with a better plan, one not involving a dog fighting a water snake in its element. Whenever he managed to slip out of a portion of the snake's body, another loop would tighten around him. He clawed at them, dislodging scales and drawing blood, but it was way too little to do real damage. His ki attacks were more effective, but only at close range, especially the blades made of his own blood, since the blood dispersed in the shifting waters way too quickly to solidify. The fake kami looked at him, mocking him with his smug, arrogant glare and toying with him, knowing that it was only the matter of time before he had to breathe or die.

Was he going to lose this fight? Was he to die in this foreign world, the world that knew no yasha, where the roots of his tree didn't reach? Was he to die away from his Kagome, unable to defend this other, yet so similar, Kagome? Was he going to leave his companions to deal with this beast alone, without his help?

That would mean he had failed the quest given to him by the capricious Kirin. The thought of never seeing Kagome again made him want to howl. She'd not have a choice to become a splendid yasha miko. The water was cold and pressure against him was almost too much. He longed to be out in the open air, running and leaping through the forest around the den of his family. He yearned to hold Kagome again, spinning under the starry sky. Hell, he even wanted to see his obnoxious friends again. Would his spirit be able to find the way back to his world? Would it be forced to linger here and fade away like a cry of a lone dog on a windy night?

Many would give up, but he was a cherry tree, these thoughts waking in him new determination. He had to escape these damn coils and get a breath, so he could beat the snake out of his foul skin. He had a duty and he was not going to give up as long as he could move.

Accepting defeat would mean accepting never going home, never kissing Kagome, never teasing his brother, meeting his old acquaintances.

So he fought and he tried to swim up for the surface. But whenever he got too close, the snake would pull him down again and they would struggle against each other again.

They were in the middle of such a struggle when a glimpse of divine energy caught Inuyasha's attention. Both of them glanced to the side, where not too far away from them, an earring fell on the lake floor. There was a brief cringe from the snake and then the water exploded out in a tremendous eddy that swirled around them, pushing further and further from them, foam lining the currents as they coiled around them and revealed the bottom of the lake to those that stood on the walkway of the shrine near the edge of the whirlpool. Air flowed to fill the empty space, sweet, crisp air that Inuyasha gulped like the best of the sake the Master of the Potions used to dip his guests in.

He looked up from where he and the snake were frozen in battle, his golden eyes finding the familiar face of Kagome, Sango and Miroku close to her.

So, he guessed, they had rescued the real kami. It had to be the source of the earring that parted the waters.

"Oi! Where's the kami?" he called up, leaping away from the imposter, who glared up at the humans.

"We released the water deity!" Miroku yelled, his gaze turning to the group on the walkway. Inuyasha heard a bunch of voices, too silent to be understood over the rushing waters around him.

"Get the trident, Inuyasha!" a moment later Kagome ordered him, after the first moment of concern her face was now expressing impatience. "She needs it!"

"What?" he called back. Was the kami not able to rein in one stupid water snake of her own lake? Or maybe it was because the fake deity had a jewel shard - Miroku had told him earlier they were enhancing powers... Or maybe the duo of humans had released the kami from her prison, but her powers were still sealed and she needed her trident to unleash her divine abilities? Or, maybe, it was a test put forth by the kami?

"I am the kami now!" the snake man yelled and lifted his trident. "I hold power over the glorious trident and I command the waters!"

The energy around the weapon pulsed and dark clouds gathered to cover the sky. Rain started to pour and in matter of seconds howling winds gathered to form a twister of water and air that towered where the parted waters had once been. Inuyasha barely avoided being sucked in the violent current that rose far into the sky.

Sango, astride Kirara, was a great help in avoiding the trashing tail of the snake, she bravely charged the monster and threw her giant boomerang at him. It was knocked to the side, landing aimlessly on the walkway a way away from the others, while the fake kami pointed his trident at the warrior woman. His attack almost hit her, Kirara avoiding it in the last minute, the blow of water only grazing them and making them wobble in the air for a moment. The next attack was already being aimed at them.

But at that point Inuyasha clawed his way up the sleek, scaly body of the snake and grabbed him by the forearm, using his free hand to land a satisfying punch to the snake's face.

"I have enough of you!" he yelled and was smug for a split second, seeing as the snake's concentration slipped and he lost his half-human form. A giant snake head was now in front of him and Inuyasha groaned when these needle sharp teeth grabbed his arm and the beast plummeted down into the turbulent lake again. As they went down the water snake hit the twister, sending it away from the shrine. The people on the walkway were screaming something, but it was lost in the wind, then the water closed around Inuyasha again, his ears picking only muffled sounds.

This time the snake was not trying to drown him and Inuyasha had a good vantage point to harm his sensitive eyes and nostrils - which he happily did, causing the beast to writhe and shake as he rose and fell over the water's surface, foam and pieces of debris swirling around them. Inuyasha drank some of the water, but this time he didn't have to hold his breath for long before the snake leaped up, trying to get away from his claws dragging across fine scales covering his head. They were much easier to get through than these covering the rest of his body.

During one of such surfacings, Inuyasha heard Kagome calling his name.

"I'm fine! It's nothing I can't handle!" he yelled back to her.

"Stop dawdling and get the trident!"

"The twister will reach the village soon!" yelled the bratty headman's son, huddled together with his best friend. Shippou stood next to them, staring at the little figure standing at the edge of the walkway, in front of Miroku.

"She could be a bit worried," Inuyasha grumbled and glanced up to see Sango on Kirara, ready to swoop in at any time.

He felt a brief pang of longing. This world's Inuyasha had a group of real friends, comrades in battles. They seemed to be a bit awkward, especially the youkai slayer, who often got this sorrowful look on her face, but they worked as a team. Earlier today they bickered, teased each other, simply enjoyed being around each other.

Back in his world, he didn't really have such close friends. True, there was Kouga and his pack, but it was more of a rival friend than a comrade friend. Inuyasha wouldn't include him in a late night pantry raid. Before his escapade to the human realm - an escapade he'd paid for by spending a century of solitude - he'd been usually roaming the lands alone. Many shiro inu didn't want to befriend the mix breed, a lot of lesser yasha either was afraid of him or wanted to get some favors from befriending the son of Inu no Taisho. He hadn't been alone, he had his family and a bunch of people he could spend time with, but he felt as if all the bonds, aside of his family ties, were now slack. After all, a century had passed. He'd heard Uka was now married and with a kit of her own, Shiori was running a village where she helped other mix breeds, Jinenji was so engrossed in his gardens he rarely left them nowadays, even Royakan was doing his own thing in his beloved forest. He hadn't have time to go visit them yet and suddenly, as he watched the brave human woman readying her boomerang, he longed to find friends that he could take on escapades and adventures, like this world's Inuyasha had this bizarre pack of humans and youkai.

The moment passed and he shook his head before he dug his claws into the eye of the snake, making it roar and finally let go of his other hand, protected from the worst of his bide by his fire rat robe. He grabbed the trident, also released from the snake's maw, and threw it towards the group eagerly waiting for it on the walkway. It spun as it went, hissing through the air, but before it could reach the outstretched hands of the humans, the tip of the snake's tail hit it and made it slip in the water mere meters of them.

"I'll get it!" yelled the brat and leaped in the lake to retrieve it. A truly courageous and idiotic move, since the water was full of snake, strong currents and mud lifted from the bottom, that obscured vision.

Inuyasha dove after the kid and was almost impressed when he got to him at the same time the idiot took hold of the divine trident. The yasha in turn grabbed his collar and quickly started swimming up, knowing that the fake deity had to be right behind them.

The lash of the muscular tail that came when they were almost at the surface, was practically expected, but it still forced a groan of pain from him. They would be snatched in the looping coils of the snake, if not for Sango, who dove on Kirara into the lake to lift both Inuyasha and the barely conscious boy. Who, of course, had dropped the damned trident back to the lake floor.

He climbed behind Sango on Kirara's back, the slayer holding onto the drenched, shaking boy.

"I'm going in," he called to her over the wind.

Sango merely nodded as Kirara flew just over where the snake was frantically searching for the lost weapon in the murky water. The twister was a bit away now, but the water was full of shit. With a yell, Inuyasha leaped off of the flying cat and plummeted down, drawing Tessaiga.

Now, without the protection of the trident, the measly beast was no match for the shiro inu blade, which flashed into its battle form at the same time he got near the snake, who looked up and readied to fight him.

As if a thing like him could stand a chance. With a yell, Inuyasha slashed his sword through the pale flesh of the monstrous snake, cutting through scale and bone as if they were made from paper.

The beast tried to reattach the sliced off parts, but suddenly a powerful gust of wind caught them and Inuyasha smelt tainted magic on the wind. He glanced towards Miroku, who had a pulsing, twisting black hole in his hand, sucking in the bits of the snake.

"I'll take care of the clean up!" the monk exclaimed. Inuyasha nodded and dove in the water, seeking for the spark of divine power that led him straight to the half-buried trident. He grabbed it and swam back to the place where Kagome was waiting. He effortlessly leaped on to the wooden boards and handed her the trident, pretty smug at his success. The miko grabbed it urgently and held for the little woman in rich clothes standing in between all the humans.

"Goddess, please, do your magic," she said and the woman laid a hand on the wet wood of the trident. Inuyasha cringed at the hot wave of divine power and light, but in a flash the woman was a regular human size. With a calm expression she lifted the trident and called off the rain and twister, which by now almost reached the shore.

The lake calmed and the sky cleared, showing a dawning light seeping from the east.

When his friends and the village boys boarded the last boat at the shrine to go to the village, the kami looked at Inuyasha and without a word gestured for him to join her inside the shrine.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome called after him.

"Go, make sure the idiots don't drown," he wave a hand. "I'll be there in a while.."

As he walked after the woman, he could see how badly the fight had influenced the compound. Some of the poles it stood on had been broken, making parts of the floor sagging. Paper walls were drenched, some roof tiles crashed to bits on the walkways. Multiple servants were working to return the shrine to its usual state.

The kami didn't pay any attention to them, gracefully walking by when they bowed to her. She led him to the same room where Inuyasha had seen the fake deity for the first time. Most of the decorations were crooked or missing, but the woman went to the raised part of the floor and sat on it. Then she turned her ageless, kind eyes at him.

"It's rare to see a yasha in this realm," she said. Inuyasha's ears perked up.

"You... You know?" he breathed out.

"You are not the first one, who has been granted this chance to pass to this realm," she chuckled and he sighed. Of course, he wasn't the first yasha seeking the divine water. Of course,a water deity would know.

"So, you know why I am here, then, water goddess," he said after taking a deep breath. "I, along with my companions, restored you to your rightful place. Will you grant me my wish?"

She laughed, a sound akin to water trickling down silver bells.

"Oh, I was to be restored, no matter if you or the one you are standing in for would do it. I remember both you fighting my unruly servant and the hanyou bravely risking his life to help." she waved a hand. "It was already done before you came into this world, yasha. This realm is not inferior to your. Your actions here mirrored what would have happened, were you not allowed to enter this realm. You haven't changed the course of history, just as the hanyou wouldn't in your realm, were he thrown there."

He reached a hand to rub his temple, this explanation made his head spin.

"So... Will you give me the water or not?" he asked, hesitantly, unsure what to expect now. He'd hoped by beating the fake kami, he'd get the real one's favor, but she just told him that his participation in the battle had been irrelevant... Right?

"You jumped to save my worshiperss," she put a finger to her lip. "Yasha don't usually help humans they aren't attached or indebted to."

He glared at her. This was right, but he couldn't not help the brats, Kagome would have been not pleased and the others in the group would have been cross as well.

"Was it not what the hanyou would have done?" he asked

"Yes, but he has an affinity for humans, a certain fondness he doesn't want to admit to. He is able to wield his sword because of his desire to protect."

"I defend what I choose to," Inuyasha shrugged. He felt as if the woman's eyes could peer into his mind and hear, and he was growing uncomfortable in her presence.

"Very well," the deity clapped her hands. A pair of fish-like humanoid servants came in. One held a tray with a small burner, fragrant smoke rising from it. The other bore a different tray, with a wooden bottle not bigger than a hand, carved in geometric shapes.

The kami licked the bottle and gestured for the incense to be left next to her.

"Here, yasha," she said when the servants were gone again. She handed him the bottle with both hands and he accepted it in a similar fashion. "You held yourself admirably in your trial. You may take this. I trust you shall not misuse it and whatever happens, you will keep true to the values you keep in your heart. Go with my blessing, visitor from the land of Wa Arawn."

Inuyasha's eyes widened in shock. He knew this name, it was one his father once had told him. It was not given to him by the one called by it, but it still sang of ancient power, of the summer light smelling of fresh flowers, of winter frost and spring rain, of the rich herbal scents of autumn. That name sang to his very essence the song of homeland, for it was the true name of the Emperor.

"How..." he gasped and fell forward, his head falling into the kami's lap where she sat, the fragrant smoke coiling around them both. She ran a motherly hand over his tousled and still damp hair before the magic swelled around him.

The name of the Kirin, known to but few on this side of the well, called Inuyasha home and the yasha eagerly followed, this time not by leaping into a well, but by slipping into deep slumber.

.

When Inuyasha came to, he was laying sprawled out as much as it was possible on the bottom of a dry well. Moss covered the walls and floor, higher replaced by vines. He looked up and saw a glimpse of sunlight shining off of the Kirin's glistening horn.

He was back. He'd have so many questions for that kami, from where she knew the sacred name of the Kirin was the first one of many. He inhaled deeply, basking in the feeling of his tree, in the heavy scents of the Yasha no Mori wafting down to him.

That other world, he felt as if it had been not exactly a dream. An experience as close to reality as a daydream is tot he visions of slumber. Whatever had happened there, he remembered it - both as something he'd experienced and something akin to a story woven by a storyteller. He had a flash of... feeling, knowing the one he'd been standing as for the past day, the hanyou who had been an outcast for way too long, only to fin a pack companions he could trust and rely on, who he could protect and fight for. Briefly, Inuyasha wondered if he could fin people like them, who would not fear or want to use him, but who would accept him as he was. Could he find such people in his old friends he hadn't seen in a century? Or, maybe, maybe he could find not only his own Kagome, but also the rest of them - the monk and the slayer, the fox and the cat? He wouldn't mind being friends with humans, Kagome and Souta were humans after all.

"Is he still slumbering?" his ear twitched when he heard Sesshomaru's voice. His brother sounded impatient. His older brother had gone to that other world. Inuyasha wondered if he could drag this story out of his sibling one day.

"Shut up, I'm coming," Inuyasha sat up and then leaped out of the well and onto the soft grass under the Sacred Tree. In his hands he still held the wooden bottle. He showed it to the Kirin, who nodded.

"When three days pass and the water is... accustomed to this realm, you may go and see your precious Kagome," the Emperor said. "Now, let me teach you what to do if you find yourself wishing to change a human in a yasha."

"Wait, I have to wait?" Inuyasha exclaimed and scowled.

"I am afraid yes," the Kirin stepped closer. "Three days is the time the water need and this is what it is. Now, listen. We don't have much time. It seems that fate found a pastime for you to help you wait for the water to be ready."

Inuyasha blinked at the tone of urgency in their voice. He glanced to Sesshomaru, who stood nearby, holding in his hands a scroll of paper.

"Father summons us," the elder brother said plainly. "You are of age now, a member of the pack. When shiro inu go hunting, you will run with the hunt."

Inuyasha swallowed his denial of this order. To be a member of the hunting party was always his dream, running with the shiro inu, protecting the land, keeping peace, fighting alongside his father and brother. It was the duty and honor of their kin and he longed for it with his shiro part. This was a chance to prove himself, to try and tighten his bonds with his kin loosened by decades of solitude. He glanced down at the bottle in his hands.

He could go to her as a hero of a battle, a warrior recognized by all inu. He could tell Souta the story of the hunt and he could tell Kagome how the land would prosper now in peace from anyone who had attacked it.

"Alright," he looked up in the Kirin's pink eyes. "Teach me."

A/N: Next time we will see what Kagome is up to!