Disclaimer: The Inuyasha story does not belong to me but to Rumiko Takahashi and I thank her for bringing it to us.
Chapter Nine: The Raven Twins
The group made their way through the pass between the mountains, the wind carried drifts of snow and ice that made it hard to see.
When they made it to the village, broken homes and bones scattered about were all they found. The weather was getting terrible as the drifts became flurries. Only Inuyasha could see father than ten feet away.
They headed towards the center of the village, looking for clues when Inuyasha stopped them.
" We're being watched, be careful." He pulled out tetsusaiga and held it defensively in front of him.
There was a loud screech from somewhere above them, but they couldn't tell where it came from through the snow drifts.
Inuyasha sensed it first and grabbed Kagome, jumping out of the way as a pair of large arm length talons jammed into the ground where she had been standing.
When Inuyasha put her down he looked up and saw a giant beast poised and ready for round two.
It was a raven demon, but he knew it wasn't one of the raven twins. This was a lesser demon that was more animal like then other demons, and lacked the ability to appear human, much like Kirara. This thing was much larger and not anywhere near as pleasant. It had a long sharp beak, beady eyes, sleek black feathers mixed with armored scales, and feet with razor sharp talons.
It screeched again and flapped its large wings, lifting up into the air and disappearing into the haze.
Inuyasha wanted to use the wind scar on it, but using it when he couldn't see the target could be dangerous, so he waited and watched, his dog ears swiveling and twitching with every sound.
" Sango duck!!" Inuyasha yelled, as he did the demon swooped down and barley missed taking off Sango's head.
As the demon turned around Sango swung hiraikotsu in a wide ark. It went strait towards the bird, but a strong gust of wind knocked it off course and it clipped the demons shoulder. It was enough to bring the large demon back to earth as it hit the ground with a crash. It thrashed and screeched as it tried frantically to get back into the air, but it couldn't.
Inuyasha approached it and raised up his sword, ready to finish it. Right as he started to bring tetsusaiga down he felt himself being lifted up and hurled backwards into an old building. He used tetsusaiga to help him sit up. He looked up and saw a young man with long black hair and a red mark down the right side of his face looking down at him. When he tried to get up the long haired demon struck him across the face and he was knocked backwards several feet.
"Inuyasha!!" Kagome screamed, and struggled against a hand wrapped around her neck that belonged to someone that looked like the demon that attacked Inuyasha, but with shorter hair in a high ponytail and a blue stripe on the left side of his face.
It was obvious that these two were the raven twins. Inuyasha quickly jumped to his feet and went after the one hurting Kagome but was cut off by the one with the red mark. He barely avoided being run through as the black wings that sprouted from the twin's back shot razor sharp feathers towards him. He leaped to the side and then towards Kagome again.
By this time the twin with the blue mark found what he had been looking for. The small bottle hidden away that housed the rest of the jewel. In the process he had ripped her shirt halfway off and this infuriated Inuyasha.
"Kagome!!" Inuyasha screamed as he slammed his fist into the attackers stomach and knocked him to the ground. Inuyasha pushed Kagome behind him as he turned again to the twin on the ground. He readied himself to strike, but heard the other twin coming up behind him. Right as Inuyasha turned around the twin had brought his clawed hand up, ready to bring it down.
Then suddenly a small paper sutra flew through the air and stuck to the twins forehead. It sparked and glowed, the demon roared then fell limply to the ground. Inuyasha saw Miroku attaching another sutra to the other twin. The large crow had also been subdued.
When everything was calm again Kagome focused and located the jewel shards. They had them stuck in between their shoulder blades. Kagome pulled the shards from their backs and the dark aura that surrounded them disappeared and was replaced with a lighter, peaceful one.
The large demon also calmed and shrank to a much smaller size. Its eyes seem to clear as if it had been in a trance. When Miroku pulled the sutras from the twin's heads they remained unconscious for a while.
Souse opened his eyes slowly and looked around, taking in his surroundings. He saw that he was in a decaying old hut and his brother Iji was beside him smiling.
"I'm glad to see your awake brother." He said, taking him by the arm and pulling him to his feet.
"What happened Iji, what's going on?" He asked, confused as to why he was here and who the other people in the room are.
"These people," he said pointing over to Inuyasha and the others, "they saved us from ourselves. Don't you remember? The jewel shards we found. They turned us into something horrible."
Souse concentrated for a moment and all the horrible memories came back. He grabbed his head and fell to his knees as he remember all the things they had done while the jewel had controlled them.
"I can't believe we did those things brother. How could we?" Souse said, as Iji pulled him back up again. He held his shoulders tightly and made him look at him.
"It couldn't be helped Souse. We didn't know that would happen. Don't blame yourself."
Souse nodded and Iji patted him on the shoulder.
Iji turned to Inuyasha and the others, " Now I think its time you were introduced to our saviors." He pointed out each of the group and they introduced themselves.
Iji had woken up long before Souse and had everything explained to him as his brother slept.
Inuyasha and the others had also learned several things. Souse was more immature and a little smaller, the red mark on his face. Iji was bigger and seemed to be more of the boss. His face had the blue mark.
The large bird that had attacked them in the beginning was named Karasu. He was an extension of the brothers power, which is why the jewels evil affected him as well. In a way he reminded them of Kirara. Much like Kirara, Karasu had a large demon form and a smaller harmless form.
After they had talked for several hours, they learned the brothers had found the jewel shards while hunting. They felt the power inside them and used them, but had no idea it would turn them into heartless monsters.
"So what are you going to do now? Where are you going to go?" Kagome asked the twins.
"I don't know…" Iji replied.
"Come back to the village with us. We could really use strong allies right now."
Souse looked over at his brother. He appeared to be thinking it over. He finally smiled and nodded in agreement.
They all left quickly as the weather became unbearable. Snow pounded and the wind screeched. The farther they got away from the mountains the better the weather got.
They stopped for the night when they reached what was left of Taku's inn. Inuyasha lifted up a portion of the main wall and placed long beams under it to make shelter for them. They quickly got a fire going to stave off the nights cold but were worried about it going out during the night. Souse and Iji offered to stay up and watch the fire since being full demons, they required little sleep.
A/N: Well I'm finally getting close to having this story back to its old self. I don't have much to say other then as always please leave a review. Also Brandy Enox my fan art artist has really been wanting some comments on the artwork she made for this story. So please check out the fan art I have posted of Sai, Ryouta, and the secret cave. A comment would be very appreciated.