I lifted my head, golden eyes staring into the trees before me. "I smell it…" I rasped, clenching my claws in front of my face. "The blood of the woman who killed me." a smirk flitted across my features. "And she's coming this way."

I listened as the sounds of something big got closer and closer.

"Give me the jewel!" yelled a voice that could barely be defined as female.

"I don't have it!" exclaimed another. It wasn't exactly familiar, but then again, I could tell I'd been out for a long while, if the vines around me were anything to go by.

There was a huge crash, and a scream, and suddenly a odd white, orange and black cat flew between a the trees, followed by a girl. Her hair was almost white, her pants tight-ish and blue, with an odd pink shirt. Pink circles were in front of her eyes, but even with all these differences, there was no mistaking the scent. "Hello Kikyou." I sneered. "Playing with bugs now are we?"

The girl looked up at me, and fear and confusion written all over her face. Yes, it was definitely Kikyou, despite the disguise of different clothes and hair. "Did you… Are you the boy on the tree?"

I furrowed my brows. "What're you talking about? What's it look like! Of course I am, now let me the hell down!"

"But I…."

"What you doin' acting so stupid anyways? Why don't you do that bug like you did me?"

"Huh?"

"Lost your mind with you old age, Kikyou?"

"Old!? Now wait just a- -"

"She's here."

The centipede woman suddenly burst through the trees, swooping down on her. Kikyou screamed, something I'd never seen her do, ducking down. Arrows shot from the tree line, embedding themselves in the demoness' side. She shrieked, baring her fangs at the villagers that had come out, holding ropes were attached to the arrows.

"Okay, now Pull!" shouted one of the men, and they yanked the Centipede away from Kikyou, who visibly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness." she whispered. "I was saved. Thankyouthankyou!"

I rolled my eyes, glaring at her. "Your pathetic, Kikyou! Needing villagers to save you from such a weakling demon!"

"That's it!" she snapped, sending made a glare that could freeze ice. "I am not Kikyou! You better get that freaking straight! I don't know who she is, but she ain't me!"

"Yes you are! If you weren't how could you smell so- -" I froze as she stepped onto the vines, glaring at me through the pink circles. Her scent. It wasn't Kikyou's. It was just very very close. "Wait…. You aren't her."

"That's what I said, dumb-ass! My name is Mamoiro! Ma-Moi-Ro!"

It sniffed turning my head to the side. "Your right. You're too scrawny. Kikyou was way cuter than you."

She rolled her eyes, hitting my head with the odd stick-thing in her hand, which had escaped my notice up until then. 'Bitch.' I thought.

X (Mamoiro's POV)

Feeling much better, I sent a smirk at the white-haired A-Hole. "So, what the f- -EEK!" I squeaked in horror as lots of arms (5 instead of 6, I noticed smugly through my panic) grabbed me around the waist. I scrambled for a hand-hold to keep from being dragged away. "Let go!" I yelled, as I barely latched onto to something, resulting in my being lifted only part ways up.

"Ow ow ow! You let go!" shouted the boy. Apparently what I ended up grabbing was his hair. I didn't feel an ounce of remorse.

"GIVE ME THE SACRED JEWEL!" yelled the centipede woman from behind me. I heard her move in and sent my fist flying blindly for her. From the resulting crack, I assumed I'd hit her nose. She shrieked in pain, and sunk her teeth into my side. I screamed as well, letting go of the boy, watching as a pinkish-purple light fell from my side. It looked like a pearl, or some sort of jewel, and at the moment, it was all that I could see.

I hit the ground hard, and Bouyo was immediately at my side, pushing my cane into my hands, meowing frantically. Keeping my eyes trained on the light, I painfully pushed myself up, my side throbbing the whole time.

"Gimme the jewel, quick!" exclaimed the boy on the tree, but before I could even begin to think if I should comply, something huge, thick, and alive crushed me up against him on the tree.

I gasped, feeling my whole body shaking in absolute terror. I wasn't a coward, but this was too much. I couldn't see anything, I couldn't tell what was going on, and there seemed to be a really good chance that I would die in the next few minutes.

"Don't be a coward, girl." he sneered.

"Shut up!" I cried, feeling my eyes fill with tears, but not letting them fall.

The demon woman laughed evilly. "I heard some half-demon spawn was after the Scared Jewel! It was you, wasn't it?"

I started to shake harder. Half demon?! What the hell was going on!?

"Half is all I need to kick your scaly ass!"

Making up my mind, I looked up to where I assumed his eyes were. "Listen, are you serious? Can you actually do that?"

"Hell yeah I can!"

The demon woman laughed, and watched as the bright light, which as the jewel apparently, grew fainter.

"It swallowed it!" exclaimed one of the villagers, who were apparently all still here. "Lady Kaede, what do we do!?"

The demon made a horrible noise, which morphed into a cackle. "At last! My power is completed!"

The thing around me tightened, and I gasped in pain. "Ahh!" I gasped, clutching tighter to the boys shirt.

"Pull out the arrow." he said, and I could feel his glare. I couldn't answer, because I couldn't lift my head. I was getting dizzy, and I couldn't draw enough air into my lungs. "Pull out the arrow, and I'll save you. Understand?"

I lifted a shaky hand, running it up his chest as I searched for the shaft of the weapon. I finally found it, clenching my fist around it. It was my only chance. I didn't care what the consequences were for releasing the half-demon from his tree, but I couldn't stand the thought of being slowly crushed to death.

Putting the last of my strength into it, I pulled backwards as hard as I could.

The arrow seamed to disintegrate in my hand, with the same light that had been on my hand in the well.

"It's gone!" cried Kaede. "My sister's spell on Inuyasha is gone! It was supposed to last forever!"

"Inu… yasha?" I whimpered, as the edges of my vision started to go black. I was going to die. This was it. No more Mamoiro.

Inuyasha laughed maniacally. One of his hands lifted, and he brought it down in a slashing motion. Suddenly a bright yellow light surrounded us (unfortunately allowing me to see that it was centipede part of the body that had wrapped around me) and we both fell to the ground, me landing on my ass, him on his feet.

The demon screamed in pain as half of her body was destroyed by the light. Inuyasha laughed again, and another light shot out, gifting me the lovely sight of what was left of her body being cut in half long-ways .( O.o; )

"Ew….." I groaned, as a piece landed beside me. I yelped as one of the sharp buggy legs poked my leg. "It's still moving! Gross!"

"Find the jewel, quickly!" said Kaede, from only a few feet away. "It will be glowing."

I nodded. Walking shakily (blindly) towards the glowing spot in the dark. Of course, being the wonderful people that they were, they just watched and gave me no help as I fumbled around, tripping on invisible rocks. Finally I fell ONTOP of part of the body, smacking my hand quickly on the spot as I scrambled off. "It's there, it's there, gross!"

She walked foreword calmly, ignoring as I was traumatized by bumping into another section that actually grabbed me. The light rose a few feet in the air, and the legs released me, so I guessed that she had took it out.

She stepped over, taking my shaking hands, depositing the (thankfully clean-feeling) jewel into my hands. "Only ye may posses the jewel." she said sagely.

I sniffled pitifully, sending her a half-glare, half-pout. "You suck." I sobbed miserably.

She chuckled. "Why are ye upset with me, child?"

"Because you suck."

I heard a crunching noise, and whipped around. "I held up my end of the deal, kid." came Inuyasha's voice. "I saved your whimpy ass from a whimpy demon. Now gimme the jewel!"

"You didn't say you wanted it." I mumbled, rubbing away the tears and trying to act a little less like a little kid. I was almost 16, after all, today's media should've desensitized me years ago. "You just said to pull out the arrow."

"Well I do. I saved your life, don't you think it's a fair deal?"

Nodding, I stood up, fully intent on giving the jewel to him. He saved me, after all. It was just a jewel. I didn't care what it was worth, or that it had been inside my body for possibly my entire life. It was out now, and I was alive. Sounded liked a fair trader. Hell, I probably owed him more.

"Nay child!" cried Kaede. "Pay no heed to Inuyasha!"

"But- -"

"I hate having to wait!" yelled Inuyasha, and I could hear in his steps that he was running foreword. "And hate the way you smell!"

I took a step toward him, jewel-in-hand, only to trip on part of the skeleton the demon left behind. I fell foreword, and when I was half-way to the ground, the yellow-light lit up my world again.

Right. Above. My head.

My adrenaline levels already having been way out of whack from the horrible day I'd been having, I found myself on my feet and running away before I could even really register that I'd been attacked.

"Get him!" yelled the men, and I could hear arrows flying through the air, and shattering as they hit the area his footsteps were coming from. I tried to convince my legs to stop, tried to remind them that we had intended to give him the jewel all along, that the longer we ran the more likely it was we'd be hit with that yellow light, but hey were like totally different beings, beings that were not going to listen to me no matter what I said. It was as if Kagome had possessed them or something.

"Prepare yourself!" yelled Inuyasha from a lot closer than I would have liked. Jerking sideways on instinct, my body expecting something to be thrown, I watched as the light tore the ground where I had just been sending. Just the air off of it sent me to the ground, and halfway over a small cliff.

Inuyasha jumped over me, and I could hear him land at the base about a story and a half bellow me. "Give it up, kid!" he said cockily, as my struggles to stay at the top slowly failed.

"I-I-I-I-" I stuttered. I was trying to say that I wasn't against him in the first place, that the only reason I ran was because he scared me so badly, but I was still so amped up from adrenaline that I couldn't work my mouth around the words.

Suddenly lots and lots of pink lights flew over my head, flying down and forming what looked like a necklace on Inuyasha's neck. "What the hell is this!" he yelled, trying to yank it away, but every time it got over his nose it would start to glow, lighting up his pissed-off face for me to see.

"Quickly child: The Word of Subjugation!" yelled Kaede from somewhere being my struggling legs. "It matters not what word you use, but your word has the power to hold his spirit!"

I didn't know what subjugation meant at the moment (though later, when I'd calmed down, I'd realize it meant 'force to submit), but I didn't have time to think as I finally lost my balance and toppled over the edge.

Inuyasha, who was still trying to remove the necklace, caught me on instinct, and I could see his frightening, demonic glare in the quickly fading light of the beads. "Bunnies!"(2) I cried, trying to scramble out of his arms.

For a second there was a confused look on his face, before his necklace glowed suddenly I was thrown about a foot away as he did a nose dive into the dirt. I stared at the light in shock and sat up, yanking at the necklace frantically. "What the hell is this thing!?"

"I'm sorry Inuyasha." came Kaede 's calm, if slightly smug voice from above us. "Even you lack the power to remove it."

"We'll see about that you old hag!" he shouted. "I'd come up there and finish you off myself if you didn't look half dead already!"

Kaede hummed to herself. "Oh, Mamoiro? What exactly was that word you used earlier?"

I blinked up towards her, still in a sort of confused, tired daze. "Umm, bunnies?"

BAM!

"Eek! I'm sorry Inuyasha!"

X