"A-Un has to stop again already?" Setsuna whined, "Kirara can fly longer distances than this!" She kicked a few rocks in the field A-Un chose to land in and watched them move the long grass in the distance.

"He can sense demonic disturbances," Towa said, remembering her childhood in the forest with the rest of her family, "and he seems to be getting really restless. Maybe there's something going on in the village up ahead. We should stop and check it out before flying over."

Setsuna said, "We don't have time to stop and play games everywhere we go!"

Moroha turned around from the small hill she was standing on and said, "Guys, there's definitely something weird going on with everyone in the village over there." She pointed away from them.

"What's wrong?" Setsuna asked, walking up behind her.

Oh now she cares once Moroha says something, Towa thought angrily as she followed both of them.

Over the hill they saw a few huts in the distance, surrounded by a small river. A few people here and there laid on the ground, almost as if they had fallen asleep in the middle of the day. "Okay," Towa said, "that is weird."

"Keep your guards up," Setsuna said, taking the lead, "we don't know what we're up against yet." The scent in the wind is strange, she thought, almost like someone purposefully tainted it. She leveled her naginata and walked toward the closest path.

Towa stayed right behind her. As they approached a woman laying on the ground, a basket of food still in her arms, it was obvious she was no longer alive. Towa gasped and looked away. "She's dead!"

Moroha began coughing behind them and struggled to stay upright. "It's poison!" She quickly put on her demon slaying mask.

"What posion?" Towa asked, "I don't smell anything."

"I don't feel anything in the air either," Setsuna replied, looking down at her own body.

"It's burning my eyes!" Moroha said, jumping back away from the path, "You two really don't feel a thing?" She blinked away her unwilling tears. Uncle Kohaku once said Sesshomaru is immune to poison, they must have inherited that from him.

As Towa examined the scene she watched as the bones of some of the villagers were ripped from their flesh. "Whoa! Someone's stealing bones!" She pointed to them moving across the river.

A boy jumped out from behind a building, fan in hand. Jakotsumaru waved his fan and extracted more bones into his wagon.

"Sourge of swallows!" Setsuna shouted, attacking him with her bird energy attack.

He quickly moved away. "What's this?" he asked, "Some humans didn't succumb to my poison?" He paused. "Wait, you're not human."

"Guess again!" Moroha shouted, jumping up and readying her bows and firing off an arrow.

Jakotsumaru blew away her arrows with his fan and jumped backwards. "You're half human," he snarled at them, "half demon. Your bones will make an excellent addition to my collection."

"Why are you collecting bones?" Towa asked.

"You think now is a good time to stop a chat with him?" Setsuna asked, readying her naginata, "Really, Towa? Focus!" There is no way we're related, she thought. "Scourge of swallows!"

How am I supposed to fight when I don't have a weapon? Towa asked herself.

Just then, Jakotsumaru launched a wave of demonic arrows at them. Setsuna quickly dodged while Towa braced herself on instinct. Having only ever gotten into fights with humans, she was used to just bodying attacks from boys who wanted to pick on her but this was different!

Her nails clacked against the arrows and broke them apart in midair. Right, she had claws!

"What?" Jakotsumaru said in shock, "Even my poison arrows didn't do anything to you? What manner of half-breed are you?"

"Uh," Towa said awkwardly, "my father is a dog demon. But enough about that! What are you doing with these people's bones and why did you attack this village?" Maybe these people did something to this demon, she thought, Uncle Sota's notebooks say sometimes humans can disturb demon sites without realizing it and the demons can react violently.

Jakotsumaru replied, "With these bones I'll bring my father back to life!" He lunged straight for them.

"Heavenly arrow barrage!" Moroha shouted, launching her arrows in the air and disapating some of the poison surrounding them.

As Setsuna and Moroha moved in for more attacks, Towa found an abandoned sword from a dead warrior on the ground. I don't really know how to use this but I can't just stand here, she thought, unsheathing it.

When she saw an opening, Towa leapt forward and tried to use the sword against Jakotsumaru. She cut right to his shoulder, unbeknownst to her was covered in demon armor. The blade broke instantly and flew directly at Moroha's face, slicing her up.

"Ah!" she screamed, "Towa watch it!" She jumped backwards and shouted, "Blades of blood!" Large blood blades cut through Jakotsumaru from behind.

As Towa stood off to the side and stared at her broken sword, Setsuna moved in and cut Jakusumaru into pieces with her naginata. Surprisingly to Towa, she had a huge smile on her face as she did it, as if she enjoyed brutally cutting down an enemy to shreds.

"Alright!" Setsuna said, "We finished him off easy!" She turned to see Towa staring at her. "What?"

"Nothing," she said.

Setsuna said, "Why did you hesitate so badly? If Moroha and I weren't here that guy would have killed you, you know that don't you?"

"I don't know why I hesitated," Towa confessed, "I've never had a problem fighting humans in the other world...but I always had to go easy on them so I wouldn't hurt them too bad." This era is different, she reminded herself, here it's either kill or be killed and I'm going to have to get used to it fast or else I'll be dead weight. She looked around at the dead bodies that covered the entire village.

Moroha took off her mask and said, "You can't think about not hurting people here, Towa."

"Right," she replied, then paused, "what should we do with all these dead people though?" She walked around and saw the cart full of bones Jakotsumaru was using to collect to revive his father.

"Why not just leave them?" Setsuna asked.

"No, Towa's right," Moroha said, "we should give them all proper burials."

Setsuna lowered her head and said, "Really?"

"I have an idea!" Moroha added, jumping up and down, "We can get it done super fast if we make it into a race! Whoever digs the most holes the fastest to put all these people in, wins!"

"Okay!" Towa said, "but what do we win?"

"Bragging rights," she replied, "and uh...the next time we stop they get to decide where and when! Are you in, Setsu?"

She sighed, "Fine but let's hurry."

Together the three of them got all on fours and dug human sizes holes like dogs, kicking up the dirt in every direction. It didn't take more than a few hours before they finished. Moroha had the most, Setsuna second, and Towa had the fewest. By the time they were done, the sun was getting low in the sky.

"Wooo whoo!" Towa shouted, "I had no idea digging holes could be so much fun." She bent over and cleaned off her hands with water from her waterbottle.

"But you lost," Setsuna said, "besides, now we have to put all these people in these graves. We'll probably be done by the time it's dark out." She glanced at the sun, "looks like it'll be a clear night for the full moon."

Towa nearly fell over. "What?!" she said, "It's almost the night of the full moon already?! Really?!" She looked around in panic.

Moroha asked, "Yeah, why? What's the matter?"

"That's my time of weakness," she whined, sinking the ground, "I become human for the entire night until sunrise."

Moroha leaned over her and said, "But I thought you guys are twins. Wouldn't that mean you turn human at the same time?" She looked back and forth at the two of them. "Setsuna here turns human the day after the full moon, right at sunrise to sunset."

"We're fraternal twins," Towa explained, "not identical. We're no more alike than any ordinary sisters, we just so happen to be born together." She stood back up and explained, "I hate being human. I can barely sniff out a thing and everything is always too hot or too cold."

"You'll be okay, Towa," Moroha replied, "Setsuna and I will make sure you stay safe. Right, Setsu?"

"That is in the best interest for the entire group," Setsuna said coldly.

Once everyone was properly buried, night fell quickly. Together the girls got ready to sleep outside of the village with A-Un. Once the sun set completely, Towa's dog ears disappeared, her hair changed to black, her eye color turned to dark brown, and her claws changed into ordinary human nails. She turned and watched Setsuna stay wide awake.

"You can't sleep at all?" Towa whispered to her. And she's been like this for 10 years to keep our mother in suspended animation, she thought sadly, maybe if I didn't get transported to the other world, my dreams would have been taken instead.

"Don't worry about me so much," Setsuna said hastily, "you're the one who's not pulling your own weight. Why do you bother holding on to that broken sword?"

Towa held up the hilt and said, "Well I guess I feel bad. I stole it off of that dead guy back there and then as soon as I tried to use it against a demon it broke. Maybe I shouldn't have taken it after all." She gazed down at it and watched as the metal glisened in the rising moonlight.

Towa wanted to fall asleep, but the ground was hard against her now human flesh. The night slowly grew colder. Her father's fluff could only keep her so warm, despite it's softness and perfect use of a pillow. Even the blankets she brought back from the modern era weren't enough. Although A-Un laid beside her head his scales weren't actually comfortable to lean up against. Eventually nature called anyway.

"Where are you going?" Setsuna asked.

Towa turned on her smartphone flashlight and shined it in her sister's face. "I'm just going pee, I'll be right back."

Setsuna covered her eyes, "How do you have a little sun in her hands with no fire?" she paused, "Never mind, just hurry up."

Not wanting to go anywhere near them and the campsite in general, Towa made sure to stay downwind as she did her business. Once she was done, she swore she heard rustling in the trees.

"Setsuna?" she asked, "Are you over there? Don't scare me like that! You know I can't really pick up any scents right now!" She shined her flashlight in the trees and saw three grown men approaching her. "Whoa, what do you want!?" she demanded.

"Just our luck," one of the men said, spitting off to the side, "a lost little girl in a forest."

Towa tried to run, but the men outran her up the hill and grabbed her from behind. She attempted to scream, but they covered her mouth and held her limbs tight. Ropes were quickly tied around her wrists, ankles, and mouth and she was dragged over rocks and back into the forest so dense the moonlight couldn't reach it.

Am I really getting kidnapped in feudal Japan right now!? Towa thought, panicking, I don't believe this! If I were still my normal self these men would dead already! She paused, Maybe not dead but definitely feeling sorry!

"Stop fighting so damn much," the shirtless man demanded, "no one is coming to rescue you, girly."

Towa tried to wiggle away even while they were watching but it was no use. Two men picked her up and revealed a carriage to her. What are these losers doing with a whole carriage? She thought.

When they opened the door, they revealed several more girls tied up inside. Towa resisted getting thrown in but the men's strength overpowered hers. She planted her feet into the ground as hard as she could and resisted with all her might. She kept pushing and pushing her toward the opening.

The next thing she knew, something hard hit her in the back of the head and the night turned black.

Out cold, Towa couldn't help but remember a piece of her childhood. She couldn't have been three years old yet, she was just toddling along and becoming aware of the reality that her father would often disappear for days or weeks at a time, only to return much later as if nothing happened. Even being so little, she could tell her father possessed great strength and power and she greatly admired it.

One day, he turned to leave them once again, and she started toddling after him.

"Can I go with you, Father?!" Towa asked, "Please, can I?"

"Stay here with your mother," he said quickly as he continued to walk away from her.

"But I don't want to stay here!" Towa whined, slowly turning into a scream. Tears fell and her mother tried to calm her down.

As Sesshomaru walked away with Jaken, Towa pretended to calm down in her mother's arms so she'd set her down and leave her alone. It didn't take long before she saw her chance to follow her father's scent through the thick underbrush of the forest to the edge of the barrier-someplace completely forbidden to her. She noticed her father slowing down. He stopped before he reaching the edge.

"Towa," he said without turning around, "why is it you've decided to follow me?"

She popped up out of the bushes. She thought she was being sneaky, of course she couldn't hide from him.

Jaken demanded, "Answer, child! Your father asked you a question!"

"I want to go with you," Towa said, "I don't want to stay trapped inside this stupid barrier with Mother!" She stomped on the ground. "I want to be a big powerful demon like you one day! I don't want to be a half demon anymore!"

Sesshomaru finally turned to face her, at the same time he heard Rin's cries in the distance looking for her. He glanced down at his daughter and said, "A half demon?"

She nodded. "I wish you married a real demon like you and then I'd be a real demon too," she whined, "but I love Mother, so I'd want her to be there. Maybe she could...uh...um..." she didn't know or understand the term "nanny" or "nursemaid" but she carried on speaking, "but instead you made me a half demon! Why?! Why did you make me this way?!"

"Towa," he said, kneeling down to her eye level, "if I cut you down the middle, would this side be human and this side be demon?" He pretended to use his hand to slice her in half and pointed to her left arm, and then her right.

She sniffed her tears away. "No, I would just be me...but in pieces."

"You're not half and half," Sesshomaru said, "you're both a human and a demon at the same time."

"I'm both at the same time?" she repeated, confused.

"Towa!" Rin said, running up from behind her with Setsuna, "There you are! I was so worried! Don't run off like that again!" She kneeled in the tall grass and hugged her tight.

Sesshomaru took his chance to stand back up and attempt to leave again, but Towa wasn't having it. "No!" she shouted, "I still want to go with you!" She pulled away from her mother who pulled her back. Towa turned and cut into her lower arm by her wrist.

Rin screamed and recoiled in pain as her blood spilled. Towa gasped. Setsuna pushed her sister down. "No! You hurt her! Don't hurt Mother!"

Jaken said, "Towa your mother is a mortal. That means she has delicate mortal flesh that you as a half demon can rip apart with ease! If you're not careful with your claws you could easily kill her!" He stopped and turned around to see Sesshomaru leaving. "Wait, Lord Sesshomaru!" Then ran through the barrier.

Towa stood back up and held her mother's hand. "I'm sorry, Mother," she said, then leaned over and licked the wound.

"It's okay," she said, pulling her hand away and revealing the three scratches left behind, "I'll be okay, Towa, but you have to be more careful with your claws."

When Towa turned to look at her father and Jaken once again, they were gone. One day I'll follow him out of here and they'll be nothing he can do about it! she thought.

When she woke up, she was now inside the nearly pitch-black carriage. Being an ordinary human girl now, she couldn't see much through the darkness. Not even the window gave her much moonlight to see how many girls were in there with her. 4, maybe 5.

"Hey," she said, struggling to sit up while bound, "where are we going?"

"We're all about to become part of Lord Aoi's harem," the oldest girl answered, she looked to be around 17.

"I'm Towa," she said, "what are all of your names?"

"Mayu," the oldest said.

"I'm Mei," the youngest answered, appearing to be around 12.

"We're Akira and Sakura," the two in the back said, looking to be identical twins around 15.

Towa struggled to gain her barrings after the carriage started moving. She said, "Okay so, what's the plan to get out of here?"

"The plan?" Mayu asked, "Don't die, hopefully."

"That's it?" Towa said, "Really? How long have you guys been traveling like this?" She helped the other girls get untied so they could relax.

Sakura explained, "Since daybreak. These men claim we'll be at Lord Aoi's mansion within the next few hours, long before sunrise."

Of course it's before sunrise, Towa thought, but we have to do something! Who knows what this crazy feudal lord will do to us before I'm half demon again! "We can come up with a plan for escape before then," she insisted. If I don't escape out of here myself, will Setsuna and Moroha notice I went missing? Will they even care?

"How are we supposed to get out of here?" Mei asked, "Even if we do, those men out there are stronger than us, faster than us, outnumber us, and we don't have any weapons to use against them even if we really wanted to fight them."

"Come on now," Towa said, "just because we're a bunch of girls doesn't mean we're helpless."

Even in the weak moonlight, she could tell the other girls weren't convinced. Towa tried to take it easy on them. Maybe terrible things had already happened to them and now they were too scared to fight back, fearing something worse could happen.

It was still the middle of the night when the carriage stopped, and the door opened once again. This time a man carried a torch while another dragged them out one by one. Their grips were hard against Towa's elbows. Their strength pulled her away with ease.

"Lord Aoi is going to wake up to a beautiful surprise," one of them said, throwing Towa to the steps.

"Get off of me!" she demanded, leaping back to her feet, "That's no way to treat a lady!"

"Shut up and get inside!" he said, pushing her down again, "Don't make so much noise. If the lord wakes up before sunrise, he'll beat you before he rapes you."

The wooden steps bruised Towa's back as she landed on them hard. She could already feel them forming. She watched as the other girls were shoved around. Instead of saying anything they simply coward in fear.

Towa said, "You think you're so tough, pushing helpless little girls around, don't you?!" She looked passed the carriage through the moonlight as best as she could and saw movement in the trees. Setsuna's white hair shined just enough for her to catch it. So they had notices she disappeared, and they came to rescue her!

Two men pulled her back and threw her through the curtains of the mansion. The other girls quickly followed. "Towa, what are you doing?" Akira asked, "You're going to get us all killed!"

"Just follow my lead if you can," she whispered back.

A man kicked her in the head, knocking her down. "Didn't I already tell you to shut up?" he said, "I won't tell you again, girl." He unsheathed his sword, ready to make his mark on her.

"No!" Mayu begged, "Please don't hurt her! Strike me instead if you must!"

He slapped her across the face so hard she slammed against the floor of the mansion. He readied his sword once again. Towa sat up and said, "Throwing us little girls around isn't so hard now, is it? It's easy, too easy for men like you. Just look at you! You probably work out all the time."

Another man asked, "Work out? What are you saying?"

"Don't listen to to the concubines!" the man with the sword said.

Towa continued, "For so many big and strong men like yourselves, hurting us is like...like...kicking puppies! We're easy targets! If you want a challenge you should fight half demons instead."

"Half demons?" another man laughed, "Don't be absurd, they're almost as easy prey as little girls, not like the real things."

"Oh really?" Towa asked, "Then why don't you prove it by fighting the half demons just outside." She motioned toward the wilderness.

A man stepped inside and said, "That girl's not wrong, there's a couple of demonic auras outside. Ready your spears and arrows! Get into position! Go! Move it!" He motioned for them to hurry up.

The men prepared their weapons and ran outside. Sakura asked, "What were you talking about, Towa? Are there really demons outside?"

"Yeah my sister and my cousin are out there," she replied, "I saw them. They'll come for us, you'll see."

Meanwhile, outside, Setsuna and Moroha had noticed Towa took too long to return. They followed her scent down the path through the moonlit path and waited for the right moment to attack.

Setsuna leapt out first. "Cyclone burst!" With her naginata she created a powerful windstorm, knocking all the men down and out in every direction.

Moroha screamed, "Towa where are you?!"

"Who dares intrude on my mansion in the middle of the night?!" a man's voice boomed from down the hallway. An older man stood in long robes in the darkness and readied his bow and arrows.

He's probably that lord dude they were all so worried about, Towa thought.

"Heavenly arrow barrage!" Moroha said, launching a barrage of arrows directly at the mansion. They struck through several pillars and the boards the men stood on. The lord coward and ran back inside.

Meanwhile flaming arrows rained down on Setsuna and Moroha. Setsuna used her cyclone burst to make them fly away from her and Moroha. The mansion itself struggled to remain upright from her attack.

"Towa!" Setsuna called out, "Where are you? I know you're in there!"

Towa finally braced herself as the wind died down and ran outside. "I'm here!" she called out.

"Let's go," Setsuna said, "we're getting you out and leaving." She cut through her ropes and freed her instantly.

"Wait!" she stopped her from walking away, "We can't just leave them here, all these girls have been kidnapped and taken from their homes."

"What do you expect us to do about it?" Setsuna asked, "Give them a ride?"

Towa asked, "Why not?" She turned back inside to see the girls were now even more afraid than they were before. She huddled together and stayed far away. "Hey, what's the matter?"

"Stay away from us demons!" Akira said.

"We're not going to hurt you," Moroha said, "besides, I'm practically human, actually I'm 3/4 human. Here, let me help you out with that." She untied them all and they still weren't convinced. Instead they ran deeper into the mansion to get away from.

"Hey! Wait!" Towa shouted after them.

"Let them be, Towa," Setsuna said, "that's what we get for helping people." She turned away and faced the now ever brightening twilight sky.

Towa replied, "Even if they're not grateful, I am. Thanks for coming to rescue me. I promise I'll try to pull my weight from now on."

"What are you talking about, you were amazing in there," Moroha said, stepping outside to join them, "you goaded those guards into attacking us outside and kept all the other girls calm. Not everyone can do that. You pulled your own weight even while getting kidnapped."

"Thanks," she smiled.

Together they walked back into the forest. As the sun rose up, Setsuna looked up at the sky. "The sunrise!" she said happily. The colors in the sky changed as the sun hit the horizon. Her eyes went big and round with excitement.

"It's about time," Towa said, exasperated.

Setsuna stared directly at the sun as it came up over the horizon and across the valley. As Towa's hair turned white and her dog ears returned, Setsuna's hair turned black. Her dog ears and fangs disappeared. Her eyes turned dark brown.

As the sun slowly revealed itself, it also showed off the nearby town, a peaceful looking small village despite having a rude lord as it's ruler.

Towa sighed in relief and flopped onto the ground. "Finally! I'm normal again!"

"Yes!" Setsuna said. Then put her bag down and pulled out an entire new outfit. She quickly stripped away her demon slayer uniform.

Towa looked up at her asked, "You're changing right here?"

"It'll only take a second," she said, quickly taking the fabric and wrapping it around herself. After she tied it off, she pulled out a plain apron and took her hair out of the high ponytail. With it down, it reached all the way down her back. She instead tied it up in a low ponytail to give her more of a hime style. "There! Transformation complete!" She beamed.

"You packed an entire kosode in your bag?" Towa asked.

"That's right," she replied, then turned away from them, "this is my chance to be an ordinary girl." As Towa stood back up, Setsuna got in her face and said, "And I'm not going to let you two ruin this for me! Stay here and mind your business!"

Towa asked softly, "Ruin what? What are you talking about?"

"Just stay here," she insisted, walking away from the mansion and toward the village.

"Where are you going?" Towa asked. Her sister ignored her and carried on.

"Leave her alone, Towa," Moroha said nonchalantly, "this is normal for Setsuna. For as long as I can remember she's always wanted to be human. Whenever this time of the month comes around she always wanders off to some regular village and pretends she's not half demon."

Towa watched her sister disappear into the town and instantly blend in with the other village girls. "That's fine and everything," she said, "but why did she want us to stay here?"

"Duh," Moroha replied, "she can't be normal if she's with her half demon sister and quarter demon cousin tagging along. Just let her be."

Towa asked, "But what if she needs help?"

Moroha said, "Setsuna is from here, remember? She can take care of herself even as a human, Uncle Kohaku made sure of that. Just stay back and let her be happy for once."

It was true. This was the first time Towa had seen Setsuna be happy in a long time, at least since they were little. But she didn't understand, why would anyone want to be a weak human? She was in real danger the night before because she was an ordinary human girl. Towa tried to think back to when they were little and they'd transform into humans. Did Setsuna love it back then too? She couldn't remember.

Instead of minding her business, Towa followed her into town from a distance. She watched as she talked with shop keepers and other women. Some of the men noticed her and said something. It was as if she was an ordinary girl.

She's so happy, Towa thought, making sure to keep her distance.

After spending the entire day within the town, Setsuna didn't come back until nearly sunset. The people of the village were worried for her safety but she insisted on leaving anyway. She waved goodbye and walked into the trees where her sister and cousin waited.