Chapter One: The Midnight Alliance
In the empty black sky the stars twinkled without the distraction of the moon to set the scene below in inky blackness. A young woman sat beside a small campfire with her yellow backpack resting against her legs. She had situated her camp near the borders of a nearby forest. She looked about anxiously.
Please come, I beg you… Kagome was now a young woman of eighteen. For the past three years she spent the preponderance of her time traveling from her life in modern Tokyo to the Feudal Era to battle against the deceitful Naraku and restore the Jewel of Four Souls. Their task was nearing its end, but she knew that reinforcements were needed to end it finally.
Kagome's gaze shot straight ahead, as she sensed the approach of two jewel shards. She knew that at least one summons was being answered. Within moments, she saw the silhouettes of three men approaching her camp at a leisurely pace. Koga and his top two lieutenants, Ginta and Hakkaku, marched in an almost business like fashion towards Kagome's campsite. Koga walked ahead of Ginta and Hakkaku, and he saw that Kagome sat alone.
The trio came into the ring of firelight as Koga said, "I see the mutt face has left you alone, again. Where is he? Cavorting with his dead whore?"
"Enough!" Kagome commanded. "I did not send you an invitation to hear this. Inuyasha is not present on my request alone. Have a seat." Koga and his comrades sat across from Kagome. She offered them a bag of potato chips from her backpack.
"Make yourselves comfortable. I would like to wait a little longer to see if the other party arrives." She instructed the wolves.
The sound of logs crackling over a fire was soon joined by the crunching of three wolf demons eating potato chips.
"So what's this all about?" Koga asked between one mouth full of chips and the next.
Kagome slipped another log into the fire as she answered, "You will find out soon enough."
Soon enough two others stepped out of the forest. A demon woman with crimson hair braided back tightly to her thighs and mismatched eyes, one was bright blue almost a white that had a thin layer of dust over it and the other was as black as the moonless sky. She towered over Kagome with a curious look. The man next to her stopped behind her a few paces, he too had mismatched eyes of the same hues but in opposite sockets, his long blonde hair was tied tightly back in a long black leather strip.
"We came-," the red head started.
"-as you requested," the blonde man finished. Kagome had met the twins a few months ago when they last encountered Naraku. They had lost the rest of their clan to Naraku and sought revenge for their fallen comrades.
"Geist," Kagome nodded to the red head before looking to her twin, "Mitsu." Kagome invited the two to sit, Mitsu sat next to Ginta while Geist opted to lean against a tree on the edge of the ring. The twins showed no outward display but Kagome could see from the look in their eyes that they were talking in their minds. She found out after watching them in battle that they were telepaths and used this as an advantage, making them a formidable pair, not that they were not formidable on their own.
Minutes crept by and Kagome began to give up hope of seeing her other guests as Ginta handed her the empty chip bag. She took a deep breath to begin the meeting as she heard a small girl's voice call out from above,
"Hello there!" Kagome looked into the skies to see Sesshomaru, Rin, and Jaken riding atop Ah-Un. The two headed dragon circled as it made its descent to the camp. Ah-Un made a surprisingly silent landing and Sesshomaru dismounted from the beast. Jaken and Rin followed suit behind him.
"What is he doing here?" Koga asked. Mitsu studied the man as his sister looked on with apathetic disinterest.
"The same as you, Koga; he is here at my invitation." Kagome rose to meet Sesshomaru for she knew she needed to exercise a great deal more respect with him. Sesshomaru approached Kagome and she bowed. "I am glad that you decided to come."
He did not return the bow. "Your message said that you knew how to destroy Naraku."
"Indeed. I think I have figured it out, Lord Sesshomaru," Kagome said.
"Then why did you send me this?" Sesshomaru said as he held out his palm to reveal a shard of the Shikon Jewel.
"Some would call it a token of trust." She ventured to say.
Koga looked as if he would blow his top. "You never sent such a token to me."
Kagome maintained her cool stance. "Because you already trust me, Koga."
Sesshomaru closed his hand over the shard, "If I like what you have to say, priestess, I will return your shard." He took a seat to Kagome's right with Jaken and Rin close at hand.
Kagome returned to her seat and began. "We have all battled Naraku on many occasions, and we have all failed to defeat him. We have all tried our own strategies and techniques only to have Naraku escape time and time again. I think we are all going about this task the wrong way. Can anyone see the flaw in our actions?"
Sesshomaru was silent. Koga rubbed his chin. Jaken rolled his eyes. Rin wrinkled her brow in thought. Geist and Mitsu did not even seem to hear her either that or they were discussing it in their minds.
Hakkaku bravely muttered, "We're fighting alone."
"Exactly. While each of our groups is more than one person, they are not enough." Kagome moved her hands to emphasize her point.
"What are you getting at, Kagome?" Koga asked.
Kagome took a deep breath, "The only way for us to succeed in defeating Naraku is having all of us to fight together. I know that some may think that this is an insult to their power, pride, and ability, but this is not easy for me to say either. But if our individual efforts aren't enough then perhaps an alliance is worth a chance."
"Alliance?" Koga exclaimed, "With the mutt face? Never!"
Sesshomaru refused to grace her with a response, but Jaken took it upon himself to voice his disgust. "Mortals, half-breeds, creepy demon twins, and wolves! Bah! My lord would never sully his good name by being seen in the company of such a rabble!"
Rin turned the tables. "But I'm a mortal." Tears welled up in her brown eyes. "Do you not want me around Master Jaken? Lord Sesshomaru?"
Sesshomaru looked down at Rin as she started to cry her heart out, and for a moment, he felt guilt gnawing at his heart. Kagome watched Sesshomaru's face as he looked upon the weeping child. She recognized the glimmer of kindness and shame. Hope rekindled in Kagome's heart and she thought,
Ah-ha, so he doesn't feel so much apathy towards humans as he would let on. I may just be able to pull this whole thing off after all. Let's go in for the kill … Kagome reached out to Rin and smoothed the young girl's hair back.
"It's all right, Rin. If you want, you can come with us and we'll take care of you." For the most fleeting of instants, anger flashed in Lord Sesshomaru's eyes. Mitsu snicker lowly at something but did not seem to acknowledge the Lord's piercing glare.
Sesshomaru reclaimed his callous disposition and bluntly said,
"No." Rin's head darted towards her lord. Sesshomaru looked down to Rin's tear-stained face. At the sight of her sorrow, his will quaked. "We are going with them." Jaken fell over backwards from shock. Kagome's heart leapt within her chest. Koga sat with his mouth hanging open, utterly thunderstruck. Sesshomaru held his hand out to Kagome to return her jewel shard. She took it with respect.
Jaken lifted himself to his feet and began to squawk, "My lord! Are we really going along with this foolish scheme? Allying ourselves with mortals and half-breeds? Why it's prepos —" His sentence was cut short by Sesshomaru's hand clamping around his throat.
"I said that we were going with them, Jaken. That should be enough for you." Sesshomaru released Jaken roughly. Jaken bowed and backed away.
Kagome now turned to face Koga. "What do you have to say to my proposal, Koga?"
The young wolf lord sat cross-legged and the fire played upon his pensive face while he weighed options in his mind. Ginta and Hakkaku glanced about nervously while Koga thought.
Ginta whispered, "I think it would be best to help out Kagome."
"Shut up. I'm thinking," Koga grumbled.
Kagome threw a smaller log on the fire and then rustled through her backpack for some fruit snacks. She offered the treats to Rin and the small girl accepted them with a smile. Koga stood slowly and looked to Kagome. "We will join your alliance under a small condition."
"What is your condition?" Kagome asked.
"That all former grudges and vendettas are laid aside only until after Naraku's death," Koga said. "After that everything goes back to normal."
Kagome turned to Sesshomaru, "Do you agree to these terms, Lord Sesshomaru?"
"I have no grudge with Koga. You know where my animosity lies, but I will keep that to myself until Naraku is defeated. He is the greater threat," Sesshomaru spoke.
Kagome sighed, "Very well. I'm glad that I did not have to bring it up. It is agreed on our part as well."
"What about you two," Kagome turned to the twins who both bore wide smirks.
"A wise tactical advantage-," Geist spoke in a whispy voice just loud enough for them to hear.
"- we will join you," Mitsu finished off, his voice stronger than his ghostly twin. Nodding to the twins, she stood and turned towards the nearby woods. Kagome pulled a small mirror and keychain flashlight from her pocket. Utilizing both items, she flashed a signal into the trees. As Kagome returned the items to her pockets Sango, Miroku, Kilala, Shippo, and a black-haired Inuyasha emerged from the foliage. Mitsu gave a low snort of laughter he tried to play off as a cough while Geist just stared blankly.
Sesshomaru smirked from the sight of his brother in his vulnerable state. The new moon … it's not surprising seeing as he was born the night of a lunar eclipse.
The rest of Kagome's party reached her quickly. Miroku was first to speak. "All has gone well I take it?"
Kagome nodded, "Yes. They have all agreed to the alliance."
"Good," Sango said.
"Kagome," InuYasha grumbled, "Explain to me why we had to do this on the new moon?"
"Because, InuYasha," she began, "They will more than likely find out sooner or later. The jewel shard was our sign of trust to Sesshomaru. Koga already trusted us. The twins seem to trust us as well. This was an indication of trust to everyone; a sign that we are serious and not simply seeking an easy out of this situation." She turned to Koga, Sesshomaru, Geist, and their respective parties. "This was InuYasha's biggest secret, and by revealing it he is showing his trust and confidence that we will all band together for as long as it takes to destroy Naraku." The newcomers nodded in agreement, including Jaken.