Full Moon

Time and Tears

I don't know when or how I mustered the courage to get up.

My breathing was erratic as I looked away from my weird, tattoo-like mark and sat up, pushing my auburn bangs from my wet face, the rain still drizzling above me. My legs felt more like gel than they ever had as I shakily settled them beneath me, standing.

"It's okay, Luna. It must only be a dream," I tried to reassure myself as I looked up, seeing the raining sky above me. I shivered once and adjusted my hoodie, zipping it up. Then I started for the wall of the well, where vines were growing, the roaring that was echoing above me growing louder than before, now near a screech. "All you have to do is get out of this well, and then you'll wake up. You must have fallen and hit your head. And when you wake up, Kagome will be there, and she'll explain everything…" I trailed off as I grabbed onto one of the vines littering the side of the well, not believing a word that I was saying.

I knew what was going on. I knew this was real, as crazy as it seemed. I just didn't want to believe it - and who could blame me? I'd just been attacked by a monster, been saved by some strange figure enveloped in a glowing light, and now I was trapped, with more monsters probably on their way.

And who knew where Kagome was. I wasn't sure if the monster that had tried to eat me had swallowed her, or if she'd gotten away. Just the thought that she might be dead made my heart shudder in pain.

But if she was still alive? Since I'd gone through the well and ended up wherever I was now, if she were still alive, there was the possibility that she was here with me, only a few steps away.

The thought that a live, smiling, answer-filled Kagome was in my reach gave me courage, and I gripped the vine closest to me harshly, tugging to see if it would hold my weight. Surprisingly, the vine was thick and sturdy enough to hold me, so I began to climb, keeping my eyes trained on the sky above me, blinking rain out of my eyes. I tried not to think about the roaring, screeching voice that sounded close enough to breathe on me as I headed up the well's wall, but no matter how hard I tried to force the thought away, still it plagued my mind.

What kind of monster was waiting up there for me? Would it be large, huge, and snake-like, like the monster that had found me in the well, or would it be smaller, looking harmless though it was harmful?

Though I didn't want to find out what was waiting, I climbed further up the well, until my hands were resting directly at its lip, about to pull me out of it. As the roaring vibrated through me, my hands shook, and I poked my head out of the well. Surrounding me were trees, in front of them a flat landscape of grass. The air that passed by me was cold and chilly - much colder than it had been before I'd fallen into the well, when I'd been following Kagome.

Though I wanted to scream at the sight, I forced myself not to, knowing that I had to stay calm if I wanted to succeed in finding my friend - in finding a way away from the monster growing closer to me, directly on the other side of the thick forest of trees. I had no idea where I was, or how exactly I'd ended up there, but I knew I definitely wasn't in Japan - at least, not the Japan I'd been in before.

Adrenaline started to pulse through my veins as I slowly pulled myself out of the well, the roaring at all an all time high, fear shivering down my spine. But even with the added speed of adrenaline, I wasn't fast enough to hide before the monster came barreling out of the trees towards me.

When I saw it, I did scream, unable to help it. I stumbled back, hitting the edge of the well as a giant praying mantis-like creature swept its saw-like arm my way, barely missing me. The almost-blow put me into shock, so when the creature stepped forward, I was defenseless, unable to run.

The creature's eyes met mine, and I was staring into twin pools of boiling blood. "Irazumi," it hissed in a buzzing voice, raising its claw to strike at me again.

And I knew it was the end for me. Still unable to move, breathe, or think, I said my silent goodbyes to Kagome, Rin, and my family -

And then the monster screeched, crying out as an arrow flew through the air and embedded itself in its saw-like arm. Shock coursed through me as the creature reared back, and more arrows came its way, embedding themselves into its buggy flesh. I heard a human shout and a few cries as the monster started to slink away, though the voices sounded fuzzy as I blinked, suddenly feeling dizzy.

I saw bodies - humans - rush forward towards the monster as it tried to escape, embedding more arrows into its arm and torso, the creature letting out more foul screeches. I sank to the ground as the people passed me, my body leaning against the well as the world turned dark, the darkness surrounding around me.

Before I passed out, I saw an elderly woman's face appear above me. She was staring at me with wide eyes as my world spun dizzily, telling me that everything would be alright…

And I wanted to reply, telling her that I didn't believe her - because everything was certainly not alright - but my mouth didn't get the chance to move before the darkness took me.

When I woke, I was sitting by a tree, the wind blowing softly around me, the sky blue above the trees branches. I shook my head as I looked around at a vast, empty space, where, off in the distance, I could faintly see a small village. People moved around the town as I stared, my eyebrows creasing, not understanding what was going on.

The people in the village looked…strange. Old - not in age, but in the way they dressed. Even from far away I could see they were waring kimonos and hakamas - traditional Japanese dress, certainly not something you saw very often anymore. Or, at least I myself hadn't seen much of it. But maybe if I asked Kagome -

I gasped as everything came rushing back, and I remembered what had happened to me. My memories of the past few days flooded through my mind like a movie in fast-forward, moving much too quickly, though I somehow still managed to understand them.

I had fallen through the well, and Kagome was gone - trapped somewhere in whatever place it was that we had ended up in. I had just been attacked by a giant praying mantis, and someone had saved me…there had been an elderly lady however over me.

I looked around again as my mind pieced everything together quickly, realizing that I must have been in another dream, since the world around me was bright and surreal. I sighed as I pushed myself away from the tree and stood up, deciding to have a look around. I knew from past experience that I wouldn't be able to wake up until my body was ready to, so getting in touch with my dream's scenery couldn't hurt.

Maybe I would see Rin again. After what I had been through in the last few minutes, I knew her smile would cheer me up, and I found myself wishing for it.

As I walked away from the tree and the village grew closer, I walked by a tiny pool of water. And as I walked by the pond I caught my reflection, and the reflection made me pause.

My mouth gaped open as I stared at it, my mind in jumbles once again.

Staring back at me was the face of a young girl, her auburn hair tied back into a ponytail, her green eyes big and bright. She wore a flower-printed sundress and had on sandals, a gleaming watch on her wrist. As I rose my hand and moved it, she waved at me.

I stepped back from the pool as terror and confusion flooded me, knowing exactly who that little girl was.

I'd seen her before, in a variety of photos. She was six years old, and she liked to spend time outside. She was very curious, and was learning to speak Japanese…

Her name was Luna, Luna Webster.

The little girl whose reflection shone in the pond was me.

But why had I turned back to being six in this dream? Why wasn't I my normal self, like in the other dreams?

I hadn't dreamed about myself being younger since the night before I'd come to Japan, when I'd once again had my normal dream, the one I'd dreamed every night since I'd turned seven. So why now? What had changed? Did it have something to do with me falling through the well?

"Luna-san."

When the voice spoke, my thoughts were shattered, and I turned around to face a boy, probably a few years older than my current "age". He smiled at me in a slightly creepy way as I stared at him, not sure I'd heard him right.

"Did you just speak to me?" I asked, cocking my head at him in confusion. I didn't remember ever having seen the boy before, but somehow he seemed to know me.

The boy's smile curved at the tips, and he nodded. His black hair was long and pulled back from his face in a traditional style, and he was wearing the same traditional clothes that I'd spotted the people in the town wearing, his robes a dark color. His brown eyes looked friendly enough, though, somehow, when I looked at them I got the feeling that they should have been a different color, instead of their dark brown that was nearly black.

"Yes, Luna-san," the boy said as he reached towards me, offering me a strangely colored, almost ivory flower. "It's been a while since I saw you last. Where have you been hiding?"

My eyebrows furrowed as I looked from the boy to the flower, not sure if I wanted to take it or not. It was only a flower, so it couldn't possibly hurt me, but I'd learned from both reality and my dreams to not take things from strangers.

That and, in the dreams I'd had since I'd arrived in Japan, flowers always seemed to do something to me. I couldn't forget the flower that Rin had first given me, and the one I'd picked from the meadow we'd been in: the too-bright red and golden flowers, the red one of which had died in my grasp.

"I'm sorry, but…how do you know me?" I asked as I looked from the flower to the boy, whose smile dimmed since I wouldn't take his offered gift. Try as I might, I couldn't seem to remember him, though the harder I looked at him, the more I got the feeling that I knew him from somewhere, though I wasn't sure where that might be.

"You used to come here often, Luna-san," the boy said as he pointed to the village with his flower-free hand, never taking his dark eyes off of me. "We were friends. I'm saddened that you don't remember me," his eyes turned dark again as he offered me the flower another time.

And I felt bad for the boy. Those eyes of his looked lonely, and though I had no idea who he was, he obviously thought highly of me. So, giving into my feelings of guilt, I took the strangely colored flower from him, feeling it was the least I could do to ease his sadness.

But, taking the flower turned out to be a mistake.

The moment it passed from his hand to mine, it caught flame and turned to dust, and I started to feel dizzy - not the dizzy that I normally felt when I was falling out of a dream and back into reality, but the kind of dizzy that meant there was something wrong with me.

The world spun around me as my body grew heavy, and I fell to the ground, landing right next to the little pool that had shown me my reflection. My eyes caught the surface of the pool, and in it I saw something else standing next to me where the boy should have been: a taller figure, which looked almost like a man.

I turned my eyes back to the boy, afraid. I opened my mouth to speak, and it felt dry. "What did you...do to me?" I asked the boy as he walked forward and stared down at me, looking like a giant as his dark eyes narrowed, and his curving smile turned ugly.

Suddenly, the sky overhead turned dark, and the wind began to blow again, whipping the tree leaves. I felt my hands begin to shake and my vision begin to render spots as the boy towering over me lengthened, until he wasn't a boy at all, but a man, his dark hair long and wavy, whipping in the wind. He was the figure I'd seen reflected in the pool, and his eyes finally suited him now, because they were pulsing and red.

The man laughed in a dark, sinister way, his voice much different than the boy's. "Irazumi, did you really think you could hide from me for long?" he asked in a rhetorical way, as if he assumed that I knew everything that was going on. "That was foolish of you, and now that I have you lying there, you won't be able to escape," his eyes flashed as his smile curved again, horrifying though his face displayed nothing but calm.

The dream around me continued to grow darker as I fought to move, my vision blurring again as I felt sick. I knew what I was seeing wasn't real in the normal sense because I was asleep, but I also knew that I had to find a way to escape, because something about this dream was different than the others -

The man standing over me was scary and evil, and though I was dreaming, I felt like he might be able to actually reach out and touch me - or use the dream to track me down so he could capture me in real life. And I certainly didn't want that.

All I wanted was to wake up again, find out what was happening in the real world so that I could go home.

As the evil man laughed silently my left hand managed to twitch, my fingers scraping at the dirt underneath me. And by the time the man noticed what I was doing, I had already managed to fling a handful of dirt at him, distracting him long enough so that he broke eye contact with me, and whatever weight had been pressed onto my chest disappeared.

And my body started to feel heavy then, the sinking kind of feeling I got whenever I was about to exit a dream. I found myself able to woozily stand, glaring at the evil man as he looked back at me.

I expected him to be angry. I expected him to cry out in rage, or try and attack me. But he didn't do any of that.

In fact, he stayed calm, laughing at me as the dream faded into darkness, as if he had already won the battle we were now waged in.

When I woke up for real, there were tears in my eyes, and my hands were shaking again, the elderly woman's face staring at me as I blinked. She didn't say anything for a moment as her one good eye connected with my gaze (the other eye covered over with a patch of some sort), looking as if she felt sorry for me.

And I didn't blame her - because I felt sorry for me, too. I wasn't normally one for self pity, but what I'd just been through had shaken me so bad that it had actually brought tears to my eyes…

Not that the evil man was that scary looking, because he wasn't. It was the darkness that had seemed to gather around him that had scared me, the way he'd laughed as if he had no heart at all, that he was simply a big, black void full of nothing.

The elderly woman sighed as she picked up a bowl from her side and dipped a cloth in it, wringing it out before placing it on my forehead. I looked up at her with confusion in my mind, not really sure why she was helping me. For all she knew, I could have been her enemy.

"Ye are alright now, child. Please, take the time to rest," she said as she set the bowl back down next to her, turning back to look at me. I furrowed my eyebrows at her old-fashioned speech, but she didn't comment on it. "I am sure that ye have many questions, but they will have to wait for the morning," I saw her head turn as she looked out a window to her right, and I swiveled my head along with her, following her gaze.

The window was small and covered over with a tarp-like covering, but I could still tell that it was night.

"I-I can't wait until morning!" the words flew out of my mouth, and the elderly woman turned to look at me, shock in her good eye. I knew that I was causing her problems, because she probably wanted to sleep as well, but I was so shaken by everything that had happened to me and was still happening to me that I'd finally reached my breaking point. "I need to know what's going on-NOW!" the last word was louder than I'd intended it to be, and the woman sighed again as I suddenly sat up, feeling all of the blood rush down, the cold cloth falling to the ground.

The elderly woman and I held a staring contest for a few moments as my body shook violently - from anger, from pain, from shock, from adrenaline. My fists tightened so tight that I started to feel blood escape my veins as I kept my eyes glued to the elderly woman, who wore the same traditional dress as the people in my dream had. I worked to piece the puzzle of where I was and what was going to happen to me together in my mind as the elderly woman's glare grew weaker, and she trickled towards giving in and telling me what I wanted to know.

And that's when I felt it: my neck began to ache as something bit into it, and broke contact with the elderly woman, smacking my hand against my neck to kill whatever bug had decided that they wanted an early breakfast.

However, when I pulled away my hand, it wasn't a bug that was attached lying in it, but something else. Something that was dressed almost like a person, squished from my slap at first, but quickly puffing back to life.

"Ah, so it is you, Luna-sama," the creature said as it stood on the palm of my hand, looking happy to see me. "When I saw that flash of light cross the sky, I was sure you must have arrived, and-"

The strange, small creature didn't get to finish its sentence, because I hurled it across the room as I screamed.

"What is that thing?" I cried as I backed up, and the little creature landed on the floor by the elderly woman, who hardly looked fazed by my shout, sighing. I landed against the wall of the hut I was in and looked around again, realizing that the place looked much too old and primitive. "Where am I? Who are you?" I looked back at the elderly woman again then, and her calm gaze sobered me, and I sucked in a giant breath, trying to calm myself down.

I had no idea what was going on, and the dream I'd woken from had shaken me, but still…I didn't want to lose my head. Until I was able to find Kagome, I was the only one in this weird world or time or whatever it was looking out for me, and I had to be able to take care of myself. I didn't want to give the elderly woman any reason to throw me in the local loony bin - or hut, or whatever they had.

"I understand your confusion, Luna-sama," the little creature, which I now assumed was a flea or some other sort of biting bug, crossed its arms as it looked up at me. And though the sight of it still freaked me out, I made myself look down at it, made myself stay calm. "It is only natural to be alarmed, but we will not harm you," he glanced at the elderly woman sitting next to him, who was still looking at me. "Kaede-san, how long has she been with you exactly?"

The woman, Kaede, looked down at the little flea, and I furrowed my eyebrows as I noticed the difference in the honorifics the flea-thing used for us - Kaede was older than me, and yet he was only using "-san" for her, and "-sama" for me, the latter of which was a higher-ranking honorific as far as I knew, probably close to the term "Lady", which would have made me "Lady Luna".

"The girl has been here only a few, short hours, Myoga-san," Kaede replied to the flea, using the creature's name. "We found her near the Bone Eater's well. She was being attacked by a youkai," a shiver traveled up my spine as she used the Japanese word for "demon", and I was suddenly reminded of my time in the well, which had by no doubt been more terrifying than my short time with the praying mantis.

I'd been attacked by the giant snake with a wolf's head. And the figure that had been shrouded in the glowing golden light had told me that I would continue to be attacked, that the demons would surround me…

And it seemed that he was right already. I'd been attacked by the praying mantis demon, and the evil man in my dream - though the evil man hadn't looked like a demon.

Could it be possible that some demons didn't look like monsters, but humans, and that both the evil man and the figure shrouded in the light had been demons as well?

My head started to hurt as I thought about this, pounding to the point where I was sure I was going to be sick. I had too many questions, and no answers, so I decided to set my thinking aside for now, and see what Kaede and Myoga had to say, since Kaede had helped save me, and Myoga seemed to know at least something about what was going on, since he'd known I was coming, and he knew my name, though I'd never met him before…

Myoga crossed his arms and sighed, sitting down on the floor closer to Kaede. "If Luna-sama has already been sought out, then it's exactly as I feared it would be," he said gravely, before he looked up at me again. "When you arrived, a bright light pierced the sky. That was you, wasn't it?" he asked, looking both intent and troubled.

I thought back to when I'd first woken up, when I'd been lying at the bottom of the well, rain splattering my face, what seemed like a million years ago now. I remembered it all too well: my arm had been throbbing, and a white light had erupted from the spot where the black, tattoo-like mark now was.

"Yes," I nodded, and Myoga's face grew pale, even more worried. I tried to keep myself from panic as I showed him my arm, and the mark that was on it. Kaede must have seen the mark already, because she didn't look as surprised by it, though Myoga's eyes widened to an incredible length. "When I woke up, my arm was burning. But it stopped when the light appeared. It came from this," I looked down at my arm along with them, examining it better this time.

On my forearm was a black crescent moon shape, a vine-line design curling around the bottom half of it, what looked almost like cheery-blossom petals surrounding its top half. The moon was darker than the design, easily the most noticeable thing about the mark, and my heart sank when I looked at it.

It was too creepy. All of it.

"It is a moon," Kaede observed as she looked at the mark, before her eyes met mine, darkening. "It is said that the mark of the Irazumi reflects the Irazumi that bears it. I wonder why this design chose ye…"

Myoga looked as though he was about to say something, but I spoke before he could, my throat feeling dry again. "It's my name," I said solemnly, feeling as though bile was rising in my throat. "Luna was the Roman moon goddess, though she was also known by other names. And her symbol was the crescent moon, so my name literally means 'moon'."

It was a creepy coincidence, though I knew that it was nothing but the coincidence. There was no way that my name and my situation could be linked, though my name and my tattoo-like mark were obviously linked, somehow part of each other.

The room sat in silence for a moment as everyone absorbed my situation, thoughts about my name, my strange tattoo, and the attack that had been waged on me no doubt circling through their minds. And as we sat, my own mind drifted from my tattoo and name to the thing that was plaguing me the most:

The meaning of my new title, Irazumi.

The word "irazumi" meant "mark on the skin", or tattoo, which explained the mark that was on my arm now, which I assumed was a way of recognizing the Irazumi, but that didn't tell me anything about what the term meant to the demons…

When I'd been in the well, traveling between the Higurashi's shrine and wherever I was now, the figure in the glowing light had explained my title and what it meant briefly, but not enough for me to really understand. And it bothered me. Though my life seemed to have been torn from me, I felt that I still had the right to know what was being done with it.

I steadied my shaking hands as my eyes settled on Myoga, who looked back at me as if he already knew what I was going to ask.

"Myoga-san," I said with as strong of a voice as I could manage. "Please, will you tell me about the Irazumi?" I added a bow as an afterthought, wanting to be as respectful as I could.

Myoga seemed a little harried at the question, but he nodded anyway, asking me to please not bow. "Yes, I can see where you would be curious about that. The history of the Irazumi is long and fast, but I'll give you the short version of it," the little flea stood then, clearing his throat, looking up at me solemnly.

I kept my hands clasped in my lap as he began, not wanting to show off the fear that I felt, the sinking, hopeless feeling that was overtaking me.

Myoga began: "No one knows exactly where the Irazumi came from, but they have existed for many, many a century. The long and short of the matter is that they are all ningen," - which I knew meant 'human' - "cursed to bear powers that they themselves cannot use, powers that are sought out by the youkai who hunt them…"

Myoga's eyes turned almost sad then. "My previous master, the Inutaisho, made a pact with the Irazumi - he offered them protection from the lesser youkai if they would in turn give him the power he sought - their power. You see, despite what most youkai may think, an Irazumi's power cannot be passed on unless it is given freely. As long as the Irazumi lives, if they wish to pass their power along to a youkai, they may do so, but only at a small rate. Half of the Irazumi's power stays with them, and half of it leaves. But once the Irazumi dies, if they wish, the full amount of their power is passed onto the youkai of their choosing, and will stay with that youkai for fifty years, after which it must be passed onto another ningen - the next Irazumi."

My mouth felt dry as I tried to understand what he was saying.

"So," I summarized. "Your master made a pact with the Irazumi, and they agreed? They gave him power as long as he protected him, and when they died, after fifty years, it passed onto another human, and he offered them the pact again?"

It sounded complicated, and a little bit backwards, but Myoga nodded his agreement.

"Yes," he said, sounding relieved that I understood at least a little bit of what was happening to me. "My master was indeed one of the highest ranking youkai, but with the added power of the Irazumi, he managed to build what you might call a kingdom for himself. Many Irazumi stayed by his side over the years, and through that time not only did his power and kingdom grow, but also his fondness for ningen."

My eyebrows furrowed as I processed this newest piece of information. I didn't know much about demons, but from what little I did know, it seemed nearly impossible that there could be a demon that actually liked humans. Not that it seemed like a bad thing - because I didn't see how demons and humans were really all that different, aside from the fact that they looked different, and that the demons were undoubtably stronger than the humans, and probably lived longer…

But aside from the fact that Myoga's Inutaisho had grown to like humans over a period of time, and the fact that I was the new Irazumi, I didn't see what anything Myoga was saying had to do with me.

"It's wonderful that the past Irazumi and the Inutaisho used to be friends," I said, feeling slightly angry now. "But where is he now? How did I become the Irazumi? What-" I stopped myself before I could say the last bit, my hands shaking again though they were clasped in my lap.

What was going to happen to me?

Myoga had said that his previous master was the one who had protected the Irazumi. Did that mean that the Inutaisho wasn't around anymore, and that I was for all reasons and purposes royally screwed?

Myoga closed his eyes as he sighed. "I cannot answer your question of how you became Irazumi, as it is not my place. However, sadly, my previous master is gone now," he said, confirming my worst fears - that I was alone in this cruel twist of fate, and that I was probably going to be eaten by some hideous demon that didn't know the true use of the Irazumi's powers.

I clutched a hand to my face as I felt sick, and Kaede looked worried. "Is there nothing we can do to help Luna-sama now?" Kaede asked as she turned to look at Myoga, her face composed despite what was going on. "The Inutaisho was not an unintelligent youkai, he must have had a answer."

Myoga brightened as he nodded. "Yes, the Inutaisho did certainly have an answer," he said, and then looked back at me. "Through years of protecting the Irazumi, my master developed a sort of bond with them. It became his prideful duty to protect the Irazumi, what most youkai consider to be the highest class of ningen. And in order to ensure that the Irazumi would remain protected after he was gone, he left items that would seek out the next Irazumi when they arrived."

I had no idea what he was talking about, but Kaede obviously did. Her good eye grew large as she looked down at Myoga. "Inuyasha's sword shall lead him to Luna-sama?" she said, looking to Myoga for confirmation.

I felt confusion wash over me again when they mentioned this person - Inuyasha. I had no idea who they were, but their name…it sounded almost familiar.

The little flea nodded at Kaede. "Yes," he said, nodding. "The Tetsusaiga will be drawn to the newest Irazumi, thus leading Inuyasha-sama to Luna-sama," he looked over at the covered doorway then, as if sensing something. "He is probably already on his way, in fact. The Tetsusaiga will be unrelenting in its quest to find the Irazumi. He should most likely here arrive by morning."

My hands began to shake again as everything sunk in, my mind buzzing with Myoga's mention of the Tetsusaiga, among other things. I wasn't sure whether or not Myoga knew that I was familiar with the sword, but I decided not to bring it up. I could tell that he was hiding something from me, and that bothered me.

I didn't like being lied to, especially since this was my life that was being toyed with.

I pulled my hands away from my face, feeling dizzy though I didn't feel bad enough to be sick anymore. "It's alright. Just forget about it - forget about everything," I said as I tried to stand, Kaede's good eye widening as I moved - or tried to move, anyway, because I was so dizzy I came crashing back down to the floor, sitting again. "Nobody has to come after me. Nobody has to protect me. I'll just go back through the well, back home to my country. I've never seen any youkai. No one should bother me there," I sighed as I leaned my head against the wall behind me, my hands shaking again as I brushed my auburn bangs from my face.

I wasn't cut out to be an Irazumi. I knew that. I wasn't sickly or confined to a bed, and I was able to move around just fine, but I certainly wasn't a fighter. I wouldn't survive if I was forced to be around demons - even if someone were protecting me.

I had to go back through the well. I was sure that it would lead me to the Higurashi's shrine, and once I got there, I would simply explain the situation. I would tell Kagome's family that she had fallen into the well and that they needed to send someone in after her, to bring her home. I would tell them that somehow, the well seemed to transport you to a different time (back in the past, if my reckoning was correct, as crazy as it seemed). And then I would tell them that I needed to go back home, where no demons would be able to find me.

I obviously couldn't stop being the Irazumi, but I was only human, so I would only live so long. And once I was dead, in fifty years there would be a new Irazumi, and they could go through the well and be hunted by demons and protected by the Tetsusaiga and its owner.

This wasn't me. I didn't want any part in it. I didn't want to have anything to do with it.

I only wanted it to stop so I could go home. I didn't care about anything else.

When I blinked, Myoga was standing on my knee, looking straight at me. And I could tell that there was something bothering him, his eyebrows furrowed in the worst of ways. And, seeing his face, I felt my heart sink to the bottom of my chest, my whole body starting to shake again.

This was awful. I just couldn't take it.

What horrible news was he going to tell me now? I could tell that there was something, sitting on the tip of his tongue, so horrible than he was wondering if he should even say it.

"Luna-sama," Myoga's voice was small when he spoke, full of regret. "I'm afraid, now that you're here, that you won't be able to leave. As long as you are the Irazumi - and that title will follow you until your death - you must remain here. It is part of the curse, and I'm afraid that there is no way to reverse it."

The words hit me like a nail hitting a board, and I stiffened. My heart broke in two as the horrible truth - the truth that I had been fearing ever since I'd pulled myself out of the well and into the past - sunk in.

I wanted to leave, but there was no way out. I would never see home again. I was trapped here, in this world full of demons.

My life had officially ceased to be mine.

"Luna-sama-" Kaede started to speak, but I cut her off, turning to look at her blankly.

"I'm sorry, Kaede-san," I said as I looked at her, feeling numb, my voice sounding cold and robotic, as if it had been programmed. "I'm feeling tired now. Is there any place I can sleep? I have more questions, but can continue this conversation in the morning?"

Kaede looked surprised by my question, but she nodded anyway, standing up immediately. "Ye may sleep here, Luna-sama. Myoga-san and I will keep watch outside, and we will greet ye in the morning, when Inuyasha arrives."

Myoga hopped off of my knee then, bid me goodnight with a weight in his gaze, and exited the little hut. Kaede pulled out a tatami mat for me to sleep on, along with some covers, and bid me goodnight as well as she bowed, exiting a few minutes after Myoga, leaving me all alone with my thoughts…

I stared at the mat for what seemed like a long time, before I finally crawled my way over to it and lay down, pulling the cover over me. It was nothing like my bed back home, or even at the Higurashi's, but being wrapped in a blanket comforted me a little bit, and as my body relaxed from being stiff, I began to shake violently again, shivering.

The truth that I had learned about the Irazumi - what I now was, unshakably - was horrible, and I knew that Myoga was hiding things from me, and not just about how I had become Irazumi (which was no doubt linked to how he knew my name). There were a few things he'd mentioned that bothered me, but it was the mention of the Tetsusaiga that bothered me the most.

He'd said that the Inutaisho (who I now was beginning to think was the figure I had seen in the well, surrounded by the golden light, probably a ghost considering that the demon was dead) had made it so that the sword would lead Inuyasha to me - who I could only assume was one of his sons, who hopefully liked humans, too, and who Myoga seemed to trust…but Myoga had failed to mention the other sword that I'd seen in the well and my dreams, the Tenseiga. Would that sword lead to me as well, and would the Inutaisho's other son - the one with the cold, hard eyes - come after me?

Why had Myoga only mentioned Inuyasha? Was there something wrong with the other son? Were his unfeeling eyes a reflection of his personality? And if he knew about the Irazumi, then what would he see me as? Would I be a asset and friend…or property?

I didn't know anymore, because I couldn't think. Everything in me felt overloaded and broken, and all I found myself wanting to do was lay there, trying to forget the faces of the people that I would never see again. Because though I wished things were different, everything I'd ever known was now gone - my friends, my family, my home. I could never return to what I had been…

The night was pierced by a splintering howl as I curled into a ball, crying for the life that had been stolen from me.

Hello, everyone! Thank you for reading the newest chapter of Full Moon. This has been the longest chapter so far, and possibly my favorite (I think I may say that for every chapter). I really hope you enjoyed it!

I haven't mentioned this yet in the story (which I find shocking!), but I don't own Inuyasha. I really wish I did, but it's owned by Rumiko Takahashi, not me.

In this chapter, there are a lot of honorifics. I tried to use everything properly, but since I've only watched Inuyasha in Japanese a few times, I don't remember how exactly everyone is addressed. So, if there are any honorifics that are wrong, please tell me so that I can correct them...

This chapter is decidated to my wonderful reviewers! Thank you: Crystal Wolf Guardian 967, KuramaMustangElric, .., Heve-chan, and ImmolationPiggieOfDoom.

I'm working on the next chapter now. Please stayed tuned, and keep reading!