Ch18

The light had vanished and everyone took notice that they were no longer looking though InuYasha and Usagi's memories. Everyone looked around and saw that the youkai's body had disappeared without a single trace of his remains left. Lying nearby was Usagi's motionless body, a growing pool of blood could be found surrounding her.

"Aneue," InuYasha whispered, his voice quivering. He quickly took off and hurried to her side. Gently, he lifted her body slightly off the ground and could feel her body growing cold.

"InuYasha, how is Usagi-san?" Kagome asked, running over to him, "Will she be okay?"

He placed his hand over the wound and could feel that the wound was still open. "Why isn't she healing?" InuYasha muttered. The strong overpowering smell of blood revealed that she most likely lost a large substantial amount of blood, which made him worried.

"InuYasha, she's a ningen," Miroku said, "It's not possible for her to heal without proper medication. It would be better for us to try to heal her as much as we can and then bring her to Kaede-sama's village."

InuYasha couldn't hear his friends. His body began to shake as the fear of losing his beloved sister hyet again when he felt somebody giving him a slight push on his back. He turned his head to see Suicine looking off into a separate direction and then back at him. "What is it, Suicine?" he asked. The large wolf-like creature looked at again at another direction and took a few steps forward before looking back at him.

InuYasha's golden eyes widened as he remembered the faint scent of his half-brother that lingered on his sister's clothes. "You know where he is?" he asked.

"Who's 'he'?' Kagome asked. She watched as InuYasha quickly took off his top and made a makeshift bandage with it, wrapping it around Usagi's body tightly. Then without warning, he lifted up Usagi and quickly followed the wolf that ran off in a direction. Quickly getting on top of Kirara behind Sango, she shouted, "InuYasha, wait!"

Shipo transformed into the pink balloon and allowed Miroku to climb on him and the two groups quickly gave chase after Suicine and InuYasha. Everyone was wondering just what was going on and if Usagi was going to be okay. After seeing the past memories that InuYasha and Usagi shared and seeing the tragic separation between the two, they wished to all the gods in the world that everything would turn out all right.

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Sesshoumaru sat off to the far distant from where the children were playing. He watched as Rin and Kohana kept themselves busy and entertained with Ah-Un. The two headed dragon was asleep on the grass, ignoring the merrymaking that was occurring as the girls climbed onto his back and slid down his tail. As the girls' laughter echoed through the air, Sesshoumaru felt a foreign cold chill crawling down his spine.

He didn't understand what this feeling meant since this is the first time he had ever felt this way. However, he had heard someone mentioning once before that when they felt this type of chill, it usually meant that something bad was going to happen. Sesshoumaru's golden eyes narrowed. Something bad? The two girls and himself are in the protective barrier Usagi had put up. What bad thing could happen?

Then there is this young woman. Usagi, what exactly is she? A ningen who is taking care of a youkai child. A ningen, whose scent only brings more questions than answers before there's something hidden. A ningen who has powers similar to a miko, where she not only create barriers that would prevent youkai from attacking and do purification, but also protect youkai from other ningen.

But what is also bothering him is the strangely familiar scent. Sesshoumaru knew for sure that this was the first time he had met this young woman but something was lingering in the back of his mind and telling him otherwise. This scent reminded him of the woman he once spotted with InuYasha when he spied on him.

The demon lord mentally shook his head. That was impossible. That first and only time he had spied on his brotyher was when he was still a child over a century ago. There's no way that ningen was able to survive all those years. But if she was able to survive, then it would mean that she was not just an ordinary ningen as she seems and that would account of the aura that she gives off.

Kohana was on top of Ah-Un's back when she stopped in place. The small crystal she wore around her neck began to pulse, with each pulses lighting up the crystal. She pulled on the string, taking the shard out from hiding under her clothes. Staring at it, Kohana had a bad feeling that something bad had happened to her mother.

Rin noticed her friend had stopped moving and stared at her curiously. "Hana-chan, are you okay?" she asked tentatively. She went closer to her and tapped on her shoulder. Rin peered over the youkai's shoulder and spied the small jewel in her hands. "Pretty," she whispered.

Kohana didn't hear her friend. Her attention was only on the glowing shard.

Despite the fact that Sesshoumaru's face was facing away to the side, his golden eyes were watching the two children carefully. He watched as the pink haired child stopped and took out the jewel around her neck and when his young charge stared transfixed at the jewel. The jewel looked like any crustal that could be found when dug from the earth but there is something that might prove to be helpful or harmful to him.

It might have something to do with the amount of power that is emitting from the jewel. He was surprised that there wasn't any youkai that came charging in, demanding the jewel, believing that it was the coveted shikon no tama. He knew for a fact that it's not the shikon no tama based on the knowledge that whenever a youkai has a shard in their possession, their powers would increase and from what he can see, the young child's strength and powers are still weak.

"HAHAUE!" Kohana's sharp scream interrupted his thinking.

Sesshoumaru watched as Kohana jumped off the dragon and ran off, his eyes following her. The familiar scent of his half-bred brother, Usagi, and death surrounding the two made him get up as he watched them come closer.

"Sesshoumaru!" InuYasha screamed when he landed in front of his brother, skidding to a stop. "You have to help us!" he said urgently, panting hard and trying to catch his breath. He gently placed the unconscious woman in his arms down on the ground and looked pleadingly at his brother. "I know that I'm the last person in the whole world besides Naraku that you would want to help, but please, just this once!"

"What happened?" Sesshoumaru asked. He walked over to InuYasha, who looked desperately at him. On the outside, he was calm and collected, but inside, he was worried. He saw how powerful Usagi can be and here she was lying a few feet from death.

"Naraku sent a youkai he had created and apparently his goal was to capture Usagi-san," Kagome explained. Her eyes narrowed in confusion as she asked, "How do you know Usagi-san?"

"Hahaue!" Kohana shouted, rushing over to Usagi's body.

Rin quickly followed behind her and looked like she was about to cry. "Is Usagi-san all right?" Rin asked in a tiny voice, "Why is she sleeping?"

"That would be your answer," Sesshoumaru responded to Kagome. He grabbed Tenseiga, the sword his father had left for him, and again he could see the tiny goblin-like creatures circling around Usagi. The only difference is that these creatures refused to go any closer to the dying woman, much to his confusion. Rather than waiting for those creatures to change their minds and drag Usagi's soul to the underworld, he quickly slashed his sword to dispel them.

Silently everyone kept quiet and watched with anticipation. Usually after swiping the Tenseiga, the person he had revived would immediately open their eyes and regain consciousness, but Usagi was still unconscious.

"Why isn't it working?" Kagome asked, completely puzzled by the results. She wasn't quite sure what was supposed to happen since she had only witnessed Sesshoumaru use the sword once.

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed in slight frustration. Another mystery about this woman he has to figure out.

"Why?" InuYasha whispered, before bending over and banging his fists onto the ground with Usagi's head in the middle, shouting, "WHY?" For once in his life after the first death of his sister, he didn't care when tears started to fall down and landed on Usagi's face.

All around, the emotions ran rampant. The children cried and sobbed out loud as the adults had silent tears coming to their eyes. Sesshoumaru was quiet and his face was calm with no emotions.

Bright flashes of light soon caught everyone's attention. The flashes soon became constant and arrived from different areas. The light came from Suicine, Kohana, and InuYasha's directions and were emitting from the small shards that Usagi had given to them. As if mentally talking to each other, Kohana quickly grabbed Suicine's shard and hers and thrust them into InuYasha's hands. His hands shaking, InuYasha cupped the three shards in one hand. To his amazement, the three shards merged and formed into one slightly larger crystal.

"InuYasha, what is that?" Kagome asked. She knew that it wasn't the Shikon no Tama, but she could feel that this was possibly more powerful than the cursed jewel itself. She worried that if anybody, human or youkai, knew about this crystal, Usagi's life might be in bigger danger, especially since what had just happened and discovering that Naraku has some plan for her.

InuYasha didn't respond, but even if he did, Kagome wouldn't have paid attention since what happened next had distracted everyone in the area. Everyone watched with their jaws dropped when Inuyasha brought the slightly enlarged shard over to Usagi's body and something inside her locket began to glow. The covering of the heart shaped locket opened up to reveal the glowing coming from the beautiful crystal inside. When InuYasha brought the shard closer, the piece in his hand vanished into the larger crystal in the locket. Once the crystal was completed, the glowing haven't stopped, instead it spread throughout Usagi's body.

The simple kimono Usagi wore glowed and began to change form into the long flowing white strapless dress with golden circles the decorated the top. Nobody knew the significance of the dress, except InuYasha who knew that it was the dress Usagi had worn as Princess Serenity. Everyone's attentions were averted from the dress when the glowing soon took place on her forehead and a golden crescent moon appeared. Once all the glowing subsided, Usagi's form had reverted from the Tsukino Usagi, the last surviving member of a family who dedicated their lives to forming bonds with youkai, to Princess Serenity, the last member of the moon race.

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