Ch8

Disclaimer: I own nothing other than the plot and the characters that don't seem familiar.
Naraku watched in slight fascination at Kanna's mirror. Even in watching the Inu-tachi for the few weeks, especially this mysterious blond female, he could tell that he was gonna have more fun than he ever had in the past. But what really surprises him was the fact that even though she was a ningen, there was something about this woman that makes him shake whether with fear or excitement, it didn't matter. Throughout his travel over Japan, he had never seen anyone with that bright golden hair or those bright blue eyes.

A smile slowly inched its way to his face as he thought of something. "Kagura, come here," he ordered. When the kaze youkai walked up to him, Naraku brought a hand to the mirror as its image of Usagi maximized. "There is a youkai called Ryu no Fuyu somewhere in the west, who I heard has been stealing souls of young women and placing them in a doll. The very image of this doll resembles this woman who is with InuYasha. Perhaps we can persuade him to get rid of InuYasha and his pathetic group of friends, in return of what he wants," he said, "And I have a feeling that what he wants is this girl." He handed Kagura a shard and motioned Kanna to go with her.

"You were never one to pay people back entirely, Naraku," Kagura said, "I figured you would want to kill the girl as well."

Naraku shook his head. "No, that woman may prove to be quite useful," he said. He chuckled deeply. "Not everything is as they seem," he added.

"So if this guy manages to kill them, you want us to get rid of him," Kagura said. She sighed and opened her fan. "Well, let's get this over with," she said with a bored tone, "Come on, Kanna."

Naraku watched with a sickening grin on his face as Kagura and Kanna vanished outside. "This might prove to be quite interesting," he said, thinking of the possible endings of the lives of his enemies.

/-/

Kagura and Kanna leapt off the feather as it shrunk back in the air with Kagura grabbing it to put back in her hair. They stood in front of large house made of stone. There was a whole in the roof where thick black clouds of smoke were emitting from the building. Kanna glanced down into her mirror and said in a soft tone, "We best be careful. He's powerful." Kagura just grinned smugly at Kanna's warning. She opened her fan and swung it at the door's direction, causing strong wind to break the doors.

Inside the accommodation there stood a powerful tall youkai. He had long sleek black hair that reached about his waist with a single white ribbon to tie it into a somewhat loose ponytail. His narrow green eyes stared at the two who had disturbed him. He wore a gray kimono-like uniform with pants and black armor on his shoulders and chest area.

Surrounding him were life-size clay dolls, all looking exactly like the one before it with long blond hair and blue eyes. Kagura was quite surprised to see the similar features the doll possesses just as Usagi. "Are you Ryu no Fuyu?" Kagura asked, glancing at the dolls cautiously.

"Yes, I am," he replied, "What business do you have to disturb my ritual?" He turned back to the doll that was chained to the floor. In his hand he held a bluish orb close to his chest; he slowly extended his arm out and the orb flew over to the doll's body, vanishing into it. "Perhaps this time, it will be correct," he said, staring at what was happening with anxious eyes.

Kagura stared at the orb and asked, "What is that thing?"

"A soul," Kanna replied. Kagura stared at Kanna, who didn't acknowledge her gaze and continued speaking, "A soul belonging to a ningen."

The orb entered into the doll and was immediately consumed by light as both the soul and body combined. The doll blinked its blue eyes and glanced around cautiously at first. Ryu (AN: For the sake of time and my laziness, I'm only calling him Ryu) released the breath he was holding in before and felt elastic that his efforts had finally paid off, but then the doll started to cry and begged to be released. The relief in Ryu's eyes was gone as he glared at the doll as it screamed with tears trailing down from its eyes. "Another failure," he muttered. He held his hand out and a large black sword came out of thin air. "You are not the one I desire," he said angrily, "Your soul is doing nothing but tainting my precious doll. Get out." And with those last two words, he sliced the doll in half, setting the spirit free, but before it could fly back to the body where it was stolen from, the dragon destroyed the soul, therefore creating a chain reaction of the comatose young girl's body to erupt into flames back in her village.

"Could the girl you're trying to resurrect from the doll be known as Usagi?" Kagura asked. When she saw Ryu look at her in shock, she knew that she was correct.

"How do you know her name?" Ryu asked. His green eyes watched Kagura carefully.

"Wouldn't it be easier to just go out kidnap her?" Kagura asked, not bothering to answer his question.

"Kidnap her?" he repeated. Ryu laughed and shouted, "Kidnap her what? Her remains?" He turned around, still laughing, as he walked over to the doll. He picked up the sliced up doll in his arms, all joking had ended, and stared at it as if it was a real live person that had died.

Kagura had no idea what he was talking about. He speaks of her as if she's dead, but if the same woman he's thinking about and the woman she's referring to is dead, than who exactly is traveling around with InuYasha. "I don't know what you're talking about, but the Usagi I saw is actually quite alive," she said, "She has the exact same features as this doll you're trying to bring to life."

Ryu slashes his arm in her direction and shouted, "What lies you're telling? There's no way that Usa is still alive…no way! How could she be if she has been dead for over a hundred years?"

Kagura glanced down at Kanna, who mirror revealed a very much alive Usagi in its reflection, shocking the dragon very much. "Does she look dead to you?" Kagura asked. The look on the demon's face made her wonder just who this mysterious girl is. "She's currently in the company of a hanyou that goes by the name of InuYasha."

"InuYasha, huh?" Ryu shook his head before tilting it back, laughing as if something was very funny. "Impressive, even after death, they were still able to reunite again. However that doesn't exactly mean that I believe you. Why should I when I had saw her die with my very own eyes?"

"There's something called reincarnation," Kagura said. She held out her hand with a Shikon shard on it. "Use this as a gift from my master," she said, saying the last word through her clenched teeth, "In exchange, you kill InuYasha and his friends."

Ryu took the shard from Kagura. Even from touching it slightly, he was able to feel the immense power coming from it. "You want me to kill InuYasha?" he asked, "If I do this, Usa will hate me for the rest of my life. She'll want nothing to do with me."

"If you manage to kill him, then we'll help you brainwash her into loving you," Kagura said.

Ryu thought about it, as the plan seemed to work in his favor. He may not had hated InuYasha, but he did couldn't stand him for having Usagi think of him like he was the only thing that mattered. She even had died for that little hanyou, despite the fact that those pathetic bandits were the ones that actually killed her, what made him truly dislike the silver-haired hanyou was the fact that she perished trying to protect him. Ryu's hand clenched tightly into a tight fist around the shard as a crooked grin appeared on his face. "If I get rid of InuYasha, you'll help me get Usa, correct?" He placed the shard into his armor over his chest as black scales covered the metal piece over the shard and felt the power surge through his body.

/-/

The group had landed into another village where they would spot a sad group of adults carrying a burned body of a young woman out to be buried. This had been the fourth village they've passed by this past week where a young woman was mysteriously comatose and then her body would burn with no explanation. According to many different villages, this type of unknown ritual had been happening for the past hundred years, causing many villagers to be frightened for their safety, as the culprit behind it was a youkai.

"Have any of you noticed that every one of those bodies have been girls?" Sango asked, "They've got to be nor more than twenty years old."

"They're also known to be very beautiful and kind as well," Miroku said. He sighed sadly, "What a waste," only to have Sango hit him on the head.

Usagi stared at the charred body with sad eyes. "Her soul's missing," she said out loud. Everyone stared at her in puzzlement, "The reason why she was in a coma was because her soul was stolen and once the soul was destroyed, so is the body."

"If you knew then why didn't you tell us in the first place?" Shippo asked.

"That's because they've already buried the body," Usagi answered. She thought back to the fights she had against Chaos and its underlings when they've stolen people's starseeds, or rather their souls, rendering them to either becoming comatose or a youma.

"But why girls?" Kagome asked, "The only youkai I could think about that would steal souls is Kanna, but she doesn't destroy them or choose her victims by gender, age, and personality."

"Yasha-kun, let's continue walking," Usagi said, "Perhaps we would come across some clues as to who this culprit is." She held a strong grip on Chibi-Usa's hand. "I have a strong feeling that this culprit is someone we've met before."

InuYasha looked at Usagi and nodded hesitantly. It would be dangerous if Naraku was doing this, but he had only been around for the past fifty years and these attacks have been around for about a hundred years. Just who is doing this and for what reason? His gut instinct tells him that the answer he seeks would be something he might not want to hear. After telling the villagers that they'll try to find the one responsible and avenge the deceased girls, the group continued on their journey. They were so busy trying to piece the puzzle together that they didn't notice that they were being watched.

Usagi stopped walking, catching the attention of her daughter, brother and friends. "I sense a shard near by," she said.

Kagome looked confused for a second. "You sure?" she asked, "I don't sense anything."

Usagi's closed her eyes and concentrated on the shard's presence. "It's being shielded by something," she said, opening her eyes once more.

"Okaa-san, is it that youkai that's been stealing those souls?" Chibi-Usa asked, clutching onto Usagi's arm with a frightened look in her eyes.

"Perhaps," Usagi replied, still glancing around.

Ryu's eyes widened when he heard what Chibi-Usa had called Usagi. "So, she already mated with someone," he said softly, eyeing the group, or rather the little girl clinging to Usagi, "No matter, mated or not, she will belong to me." And with that, he vanished, only to have appeared in front of his targets.

Usagi and Kagome shielded Chibi-Usa and Shippo behind them as Sango, Miroku, and InuYasha stood in front of them, ready to attack. InuYasha and Usagi silently wondered why this stranger seemed familiar and why he's staring intently at Usagi with a look of hunger in his eyes. InuYasha's golden eyes narrowed when he saw just how focused the stranger's gaze was on his sister. "Who the hell are you?" the hanyou barked, "And what do you want?"

"I'm surprised that you don't remember me, brat," Ryu said, only glancing at the younger hanyou for a second before looking back at Usagi, "After all, I was the one who saved you from those bandits all those years ago."

Usagi studied the tall youkai and knew that with the way he carried himself that he was very powerful. Her eyes widened when she finally recognized him. "Ryu-san, is that you?" Usagi asked, walking over to him slowly with a look of disbelief on her face.

"Usa," Ryu whispered softly, "When I heard that you came back, I felt like all my efforts to bring you back weren't even needed."

Usagi pondered what he meant when she had noticed a dark aura surrounded the dragon youkai, the very same aura that surrounded the dead girl's body over at the village. "It was you," she gasped, stopping. She took a step back and covered her mouth in shock. Everyone stared at her, wondering what had just happened. "You were the one who stole that poor girl's soul and all those other ones."

"I remember that girl, very pretty and seems to be very nice," Ryu said, as if what he had done was nothing wrong, "But she was nothing but a hypocrite, doing nothing except tainting my precious doll."

"Doll?" Miroku repeated in his mind. He had heard of people creating dolls and then sealing a soul in them. Kikyou was an example of such witchcraft, however Kikyou was dead and her remains was used to create the doll. So why does he have a sneaky suspicion that this doll was meant to create a replica of Usagi with the way Ryu was staring at the blonde.

Ignoring the guarding stares of the group in front of him, Ryu shrugged his shoulders. "The soul was about as useless as all the other hundreds during the past century, so I destroyed it."

"That useless soul belongs to an innocent young girl," Kagome shouted, getting her bow and arrow ready.

Sango held tightly onto her giant boomerang. "You're despicable," she yelled, "I would gladly slice you in half."

Usagi stood rooted in her place as InuYasha, Kagome, Sango, and Miroku rushed over to attack him. She couldn't believe her eyes and ears. The Ryu no Fuyu she had met those years ago was always so gentle and willing to lend a hand in her chores. She had trusted him, letting him have access to her home and everything. Was there a side to him that she did not see? Or perhaps it had something to do with the small shard attached to his chest.

"Minna!" Shippo shouted, snapping Usagi from her thoughts.

Usagi watched as the four fighters were losing against Ryu. That sword holds as much power as his own body and if he ever uses his weapon that means that he is serious and not playing around. He could be quite merciless when he could be. "Ryu-san, why?" she shouted, after not being able to watch him torment her friends anymore, "You weren't like this before. What caused you to be like this?"

Ryu slowly walked over to a tearing Usagi, leaving an injured group of friends behind him. "You never knew, did you?" he asked gently, stopping not too far from her, "I've loved you for so long. Ever since she glanced at me without fear, so full of compassion when I was injured. I wanted you to be my mate, but those filthy bandits ruined everything. As your body was cremated with everyone showing and respect and mourning, the feeling of hate grew until I sought to create a doll and encase soul similar to yours, but each and every one of those souls were useless. They only pretended to be kind and nice to attract a future mate."

"It was wrong. What you were doing was wrong, Ryu-san," Usagi shouted, shaking her head, "You can't go randomly killing people for a selfish reason like that!"

Ryu chuckled. "You haven't changed a bit, Usa, but enough talk," he said, "You're mine!" From that, his body started to grow bigger as he transforms into his true self. Black scales covered his entire body from head to toe. His green eyes flashed red as sharp teeth grew in. His hands and legs extended with sharp claws. His body stretched to be almost as long as a river. Ryu no Fuyu had grown into a full size dragon with a single shard hidden in the scales over his chest.

Usagi stood her ground and was ready to defend herself as Ryu's hand reached out to grab her, but instead she felt herself be pushed aside by Chibi-Usa. "Chibi-Usa," she gasped and watched in shock and horror as Ryu threw the young child to the side, hitting a tree roughly and slid to the floor motionless. She quickly rushed over to her daughter's side.

InuYasha glared at Ryu and jumped in front of him. "You bastard," he growled with his sword clenched tightly in his hands. "You're going down!" he shouted, slashing the sword down as his wind scar ran towards the dragon.

Ryu just slammed his tail down, creating an eruption of dust and soil to shield him, blocking the attack. "You're about as pathetic as you were all those years ago. You're weak and you'll never be able to get stronger," he snarled, "You were the reason she died, it was all your fault!"

"Go to hell!" InuYasha shouted, charging to the dragon.

Chibi-Usa slowly opened her eyes and looked up to see Usagi crying over her broken body. There was a sharp pain erupting all over the place from her head to her legs. She felt the blood she had coughed out drip down her chin and couldn't help but grin, despite the pain. "I did it, okaa-san," she whispered, "I was able to help you."

Usagi couldn't help but smile weakly back to her daughter. "Oh, small lady, you were always helping me, even if all you were doing was standing by my side," she said. She placed a hand over her heart shaped locket. "Now hold still, I'm going to heal you."

"Don't," Chibi-Usa pleaded, "If you us it, then everyone will find out. They'll try to hurt you to get it." She tried to crawl over to Usagi, but due to her injuries, she wasn't able to move in a way it wouldn't hurt. As if knowing what she had wanted to do, Usagi carefully lifted her daughter's body into her arms, as a fierce battle between the two groups continued in front of her. Chibi-Usa leaned her head over Usagi's chest and listened to her mother's heartbeat. "Okaa-san, ari…gato," she said, slowly slipping into darkness.

"For what, small lady?" Usagi asked, using the nickname she would've used on Chibi-Usa if she was born in Crystal Tokyo.

"For…loving me," Chibi-Usa said. Her red eyes started to shut themselves one last time as she whispered with a hint of happiness, "I love you, okaa-san." And then silence.

"Chibi-Usa?" Usagi called out softly. Her heard raced as she took noticed of how her body started to get heavy in her arms. Usagi brought the body close to her best, hugging it with all she's got, not caring if there was going to be bloodstains on her clothes. She had lost her baby girl again. The first time was when Endymion had perished in the hands of Chaos and now this. Tears ran down her cheek as Chibi-Usa's body grew colder and heavier with each passing second. "No," she whispered softly as she pulled back to brush the pink hair back and wipe the blood off of her cheek. Crushing her into the tight embrace once more, Usagi shouted at the top of her lungs, "NO!"

Everyone stopped and stared in shock as a bright light was emitting from Usagi and surrounded the entire forest. Those with good pure hearts felt comfort in the warmth of the light while those who had done wrong things could feel their hearts crying to be saved or forgiven for what they had done. The inu-tachi and the dragon didn't know what was going on as an unknown force immediately pushed them down. The light had vanished with Ryu lying on the floor as his body began to disintegrate into dust and vanished with only the shard left in his place.

InuYasha was sitting on the floor with a complete blank look on his face. He searched around to see that his friends were unconscious and that all their wounds had healed. He gasped and quickly turned to see his sister still crying over her daughter's body. "Aneue?" he whispered softly, crawling over to her carefully.

Usagi looked up and whispered, "I could've saved her, but she…she told me not to." She glanced back to Chibi-Usa's sleeping appearance. "All this happened because of me," she said, glancing back and forth from where Ryu's body once was and to Chibi-Usa in her arms.

"No! It wasn't your fault!" the hanyou said, "It was because I was weak and you sacrificed your life to protect me back then. If only I was stronger then you wouldn't have to die. Ryu was in love with you, aneue, which was why he did all that."

Usagi watched as Chibi-Usa's body slowly break up into dust and vanish into the wind. She sighed and rubbed the redness out of her eyes. "Yasha-kun, I think I should go by myself for a while," she said, already missing the warmth from the child's body. She glanced up at her surrogate brother and patted him on the head gently. "There's something I want to find out," she said, "Just what is it that I'm here for?"

He stared at her and wondered softly, "Isn't it to be with me? So we could be together again, isn't that reason?"

Usagi hugged InuYasha tightly and said, "Of course it is, but I'm pretty sure that there's something else that I'm needed for. Perhaps to help you against your enemy or to find someone to spend my life with. Nothing happens without a reason, Yasha-kun." She opened her locket and willed the crystal to break a small piece away; taking the shard, she hid it into his beaded necklace. "If anything happens, I'll know. This will serve in my place, to protect you until we meet again." She gave him one last hug before letting go.

InuYasha sat there and hugged her back. He wanted nothing more than to never let go and keep her by his side. But as much as he wants to do that, he can't be selfish to deny his most precious person her wish. "Promise me that we'll meet each other again," he whispered, letting go reluctantly.

Usagi smiled and planted a kiss on his forehead. "I promise," she said. She got up and started to walk away. "Try not to go after me, all right, Yasha-kun? This is my mission," she said, turning around.

InuYasha nodded his head. "As long as you don't take forever to see me," he promised. "Be careful," his heart shouted as he watched Usagi walk away.
AN: So ends Chibi-Usa's part in the story. The reason why I added Ryu no Fuyu into this story was because I wanted to have a mystery start to arise as Naraku and Miroku wants to know more about Usagi. Ryu no Fuyu pretty much translate to Dragon of Winter, since winter is the season of death and he was going around killing young women, the name seemed to fit him perfectly.