Beginning: Fire, Inuyasha, Fire
Chapter 1: The cloth of the Fire Rat
He could smell the blood from miles away. Giving him a wide berth, Kagome and Shippo gave each other a look that worried look they always get when Inuyasha smelled disaster. Crawling like a dog, Inuyasha slowly sniffs his way up the path they were walking on, then veers left over a hill and catches his clearest scent yet.
"It goes this way," Inuyasha said as much as whispered. Kagome gestures with her hand, giving him all the invitation he needed to run off.
"Come on Shippo, lets not let him get too far ahead of us," She whispered,
jumping on her bike and throwing Shippo in the basket before taking off after the impossibly fast half-demon.
The run wasn't a long one for Inuyasha, his speed outdoing any mortal human by miles. He found the source of the smell in a not-to-uncommon battlefield.
"It happened again," he whispered to himself. Another field of mutilated bodies of a demon versus human battleground. There were plenty on both sides, so it was nearly impossible to tell the result of the slaughter.
By the time Kagome and Shippo arrived, Inuyasha had already dug several graves,
mostly mass burials to try to cover as many bodies as possible for when Kagome arrived.
Kagome and Shippo hardened their resolve when they saw the carnage, and it took them the rest of the day to clean the battlefield of everything but the stench of blood.
The sky had turned impossibly black and the moon had risen to a swelling crescendo of an almost full moon night. The trio had made a campfire and were staying close to attempt to fend off the stench. Kagome was, as usual, sort of leaning into Inuyasha, feeling sorrow and cold that no girl should ever have to deal with.
"I just wish it all would end. The war, the battles, the deaths, all of it," She whimpered to herself. Inuayasha, with his dog ears of steel, heard every word of it.
"It will end. But humans are proving to be a forceful attacker, going beyond the strength that demons thought humans had. The humans have the upper hand and they know it. The demons will eventually fall."
"But why?" Shippo had to but in, "Why does there have to be a war at all? Sure there are evil demons, but there are evil humans too. And I am a good guy, and so are you Inuyasha."
Inuyasha thought about it for a while, but slowly shook his head, "No Shippo, there is one thing missing in almost every demon that humans do have. And its the only reason that the forces of humans around the world have banded against demons. They can't feel love, affection, or even sorrow. They only feel on power, hate, and personal conquest.
Demons don't have families, only very small species, and they aren't in this war. Like you and me Shippo."
Kagome had all but silenty regarded the statement Inuyasha was making, hating the whole idea. And then she realized something, "Inuyasha, how long do you think your supposed to live?"
He gave her a silent look, one that showed he was confused by her question, "I suppose I would live until I was about 2000 or so until i was too weak to protect myself."
She grimaced. "Inuyasha, I live 500 years in the future. If that were true, you would be still alive in my time."
Both Shippo and Inuyasha stared at her. Inuyasha whispered, "How many demons live in your time?"
Kagome's answer was one that had her crying before she even finished saying it, "None."
Inuyasha carried Kagome to her sleeping bag and laid her in it. He said, "Maybe, just maybe, we can make that one."
Shippo of course cut in right between Inuyasha's arms and laughed, "You mean one HALF!
ha ha ha!" BONK. Another bump on Shippo's head, from guess who. Shippo slinked away to his bedroll whispering, "no respect..."
Inuyasha was left to contemplate his thoughts on the surprising revelation that the human demon war may just be the war to finish off all demons, including him. he wasn't sure what he thought of that.
The next morning, Kagome woke up Shippo and whispered, "Inuyasha is missing!"
He sprang up, screaming, running around in circles, and finally ended up in her lap.
"Why does he always do this to us?"
"Do what?" Came a voice from above them.
Kagome and Shippo looked up at Inuyasha on a tree, leaning against the trunk. Kagome screamed,
"You coulda told me you were up there when I was calling you!"
He yawned, "It was too much fun watching you." At that precise moment, before Kagome could retort to that, a scream came from over the mountain. Inuyasha was out of the tree and halfway there in one long jump. Kagome could only scream, "Your cloth is on fire!"
Inuyasha, in his imminent arrogance, completely ignored her, figuring that she was only yelling for him to slow down. He searched for the source of the scream and quickly found it,
He came upon two women who were in battle, fighting over a child who looked like he could be demon or human.
Inuyasha settled upon a nearby tree to listen to the exchange. After a while he realized it was Kaguya and some girl he had never seen before, and they were obviously enemies. Both had their weapons drawn. Kagura's hairpiece was drawn and she was whipping constant "Dance of the Blades."
Her opponent, a girl with a black sword, was dodging them with ease, moving back and forth long before the blades ever hit.
The child looked to be an 8 year old. It was a boy that had silver hair...and demon ears. It was almost a spitting image of Inuyasha himself. Inuyasha was almost unable to decide what to do, until Kagome showed herself climbing over the hill on her bike. Both combatants saw her coming, and thats when Inuyasha struck. Taking a flying leap he attacked his known enemy, Kagura.
"Wind Scar!" The yellow wave of earthly destruction flew towards Kagura, and throwing a Dance of the Dead to attempt to divert it. Throwing up one of her feathers, she flew away, screaming at him, "Stay out of my way Inuyasha." and with that she was gone.
Kagome saw the child, Inuyasha, and the girl with the black sword. Looking at both of them, she asked, "Who is that child?"
The girl, looking at both of them pointedly, said, "Your son."