The royal son of the great dog yokai, Lord Inuyasha Taisho, glowered before his small audience, impatient golden eyes narrowed in the direction of a cowering flea demon. Myoga, Inuyasha's nuisance of a fainthearted elder, trembled in the presence of the silver haired warrior who sat staring aggressively, the massive blade crafted of his father's fang, Tessaiga, hoisted over his shoulder.
As usual, Myoga wished he had not gotten involved and instead stayed out of the young Lord's affairs, but he'd feared for Inuyasha's safety and came to mediate between the villagers and the hanyou. When it was made obvious Inuyasha would listen to no one when it came to the Shikon Jewel, Myoga decided to make a pact with the villagers. The miniscule creature was now brought before his Lord, where he shook under the weight of Inuyasha's response.
"The villagers want what?" Lord Inuyasha grumbled, picking the flea up by the back of his shirt, using two claws to swing him limply at eye level. "What kind of a stupid offer is that?"
"Please, Lord Inuyasha," Myoga stammered in a high-pitched quiver, "It is a considerate offer. With the Priestess Kikyo as your betrothed, so too does the Shikon Jewel come into your possession."
"But I can't kill her." Inuyasha flatly accused, swinging Myoga a little harder and thinning his eyes further.
"Of course not! Priestess Kikyo would be your wife." The flea, now turning a light green colour, sped quickly through his words in a pitiful attempt to reason with the arrogant dog hanyou, "If you stop your attacks on the village, they will betroth to you Kikyo, and Kikyo is the protector of the jewel you seek! Once her lifeline adapts to your own after the mating ritual is consummated-"
"That had better not be part of the contract!"
"No, No." Myoga assured, and finally, his master set him down to dizzily spin out until falling over onto his side, continuing from there, "She is betrothed to you, and you stop attacking, nothing more."
Inuyasha was silent for a moment as he considered this, turning his back to Myoga as he stared out from the tree bough they were situated upon. A tall tree just outside the village they had been discussing, one Inuyasha slept in regularly. He had no idea what Myoga got up to, but Inuyasha himself hadn't had a real home in a long enough time he couldn't recall the last place he'd truly lived; not that it mattered. He turned back to Myoga – there was only one thing that mattered to him now.
"The shikon jewel." He confirmed, and Myoga nodded.
"It comes with the Priestess."
Cracking a wry smile, the half demon closed his eyes. Betrothed and married didn't mean mated, it just meant the wench had to hang around. And if he didn't give her a demon mating mark one way or the other, or consummate that mark, she would never slow to his aging process, she would die in such a short time, really. Before long, he would inherit the jewel, and he could finally get what he deserved.
"Alright, stupid flea, go tell them." With that Inuyasha pinched the flea by the back again and dropped down as fast as he could to the forest floor below, despite the shrieks Myoga made as they fell.
Reaching the ground, Myoga whimpered, "Some warning, next time, Sir."
"Nevermind." Inuyasha scoffed, flicking the flea in the direction of the village. Cupping his hand, he called after the elder as he ricocheted through the air, "Tell the villagers that I accept their ridiculous offer!"
Alone in the woods, Inuyasha breathed in a happy sigh of relief. After years of attacking the village and attempting to catch Kikyo off guard, enough destruction had finally brought in some return. And it was not without loss – he had obviously never gained the jewel, meaning each attempt, no matter his fury and drive, had been foiled by the very priestess he would now be "given" in return for his ceasefire.
"I'll finally be a great demon." He said to himself, and though no one was there to hear it, he affirmed out loud, "A true demon."
Only the forest rustled in response. Inuyasha settled down to wait for Myoga to return and let him know it was time to come down to the village and collect his earnings.
XOX
"Sister Kikyo?"
Hair like two rivers of ink swayed wildly on the breeze as the pale priestess turned to her younger sister and caught her eye across the plain. Though the meadow containing the Bone Eaters Well was usually still, this afternoon a tense wind brushed through, unfriendly and chilling despite the late summer sun high in the sky. Keade stared after her sister, who stood at the lip of the well with a distant expression unreadable on her face.
"Is it true?" Kaede pressed, rushing through the field and stopping at her sister's side. Looking up with wide brown eyes, the young girl grabbed Kikyo's hand in her own as swiftly as she arrived. "You aren't betrothed to that hanyou, it can't be, can it?"
Kikyo gently pulled her hand back and ran her fingers down Kaede's face, softly reassuring her though the words wouldn't come. Surrounded by the din of the clashing winds, for a moment it seemed only the two of them lost in a vortex. Reminded why she had come by the crashing atmosphere, Kikyo smiled down at the small girl and brushed some errant strands of dark hair out of her face.
"Listen to me, Kaede." Kikyo placed her hand on her sister's shoulder and leaned in so every word could be understood, "I will not be betrothed against my will, and Inuyasha will not attack the village anymore. But for that to happen…I must go away for a while."
"Kikyo, no!"
"Kaede, please." Kikyo silenced Kaede with a single look. Though the girl's chin quivered, she shut her mouth and stared defiantly away.
"Why can't you simply fight Inuyasha?" Kaede brushed a tear from her eye, "You've always fought before."
Kikyo silently revelled in the sad truth, that even while Inuyasha had attacked her village and put her kin at risk, initially they had been warming to each other before it became apparent Inuyasha was only after her for the jewel. Even when he claimed to want to become human, she suspected he meant to use this as a trick against her, and they had never discussed the possibility again. After this, Inuyasha had become increasingly violent in his attacks; and now this. She shook her head angrily.
"I won't fight him." Kikyo sighed, "He is not all bad, and he can learn. But he will never learn if he gets this jewel. So, I am taking it with me, where he cannot reach. Do you understand?"
Kaede let out a huff of breath, mouth clamped tight. Kikyo tipped her little sister's face back with the tips of her fingers, so the small girl looked her in the eye. Despite the tears welling, Kaede finally nodded and clenched her eyes shut. She let Kikyo pull her into a warming hug, knowing it would be the last they might share for a long time. After a moment, Kikyo patted Kaede's back and pointed her in the direction of the village.
Scurrying off to the outskirts, Kaede ran a few paces before stopping and turning in her tracks to watch her sister from behind the boughs of the trees. Kikyo stepped forward to the well, raising her fingers into a steepled position, and began to murmur a prayer under her breath. She went on this way until a whirlwind of light appeared before her. Without opening her eyes, Kikyo stepped up onto the edge of the well, and in a short second, had disappeared down into it.
Watching her sister careen into the darkness of the well, Kaede shrieked,
"Sister Kikyo, no!"
The girl sprinted back in the direction of the well, ignoring the stabbing of branches in the bare soles of her feet as she poorly navigated her way, stumbling forth with all her energy until slamming into the well with her full weight to stare down into its depths.
Below, she saw nothing but bones.
XOX
Kagome slammed her front door open, one shoe halfway on her foot as she awkwardly attempted to pull it on with one hand and make her way out of the house with the other. Behind her, the sounds of her family settling quietly down to dinner announced just how loudly her ambling exit. Her mother's voice rose from the dining room,
"Are you alright, dear?"
"Fine, mom!" Kagome called back, groaning as she stomped her foot into the shoe, flattening down the back and turning to yell behind her, "I'll be back from my, er, meeting with Hojo in a couple of hours!"
"Be safe!" Her mother reminded her. Kagome sighed and shut the door, then started across the shrine grounds.
For months, her classmate Hojo had been pestering her about a date. Kagome had brushed it off again and again until it had come to the point where her friends accepted for her and had all but forced her to go; for the first few dates, they had gone on group outings with other friends like Yuka and Ari, meeting with pairs of classmates at places like the arcade, WacDonalds and the movies. But Hojo had become impatient and asked her out on a solo date, until cornering her one night on her way home.
She shivered as she recalled how she had felt abducted, how he had been so close to her the whole night, how he had tried to hold her for a kiss at the end of the evening even though she had pushed him away. When he shoved her roughly back, the grit of the concrete wall bit her skin from behind. He had dejectedly asked what she didn't like about him, and though she had felt bad, more so she felt manipulated. Finally, he stomped off in a fury and she had raced inside her house, locking the door behind her. Unsure of what to do, Kagome had gone on the next date, and the next, and nothing had happened, but a feeling of dread continued to expand in her chest.
Now it was time to put a stop to it before it got even worse.
She knew her friends wouldn't understand. Everybody at school loved Hojo. Trudging along across her family's shrine, Kagome stared at her shoes, wishing this was one conversation she didn't have to have. Why couldn't Hojo go back to being the dorky middle-schooler who had tagged along with all her friends, hung out at sports clubs, the Hojo who had been so friendly and always so polite to her. Now he was pushy and kind of scary. Kagome stopped, wrapping her arms around herself.
A loud rumbling noise disrupted her from her reverie, and Kagome turned her head to the direction it came from. Across the shrine ground, the old wellhouse seemed to pulsate with a vibrant glow, an otherworldly presence that beckoned her forward.
Forgetting about Hojo momentarily, Kagome broke her path toward the street and instead made her way toward the wellhouse, hypnotized by the strange energy that had suddenly occurred. She approached with caution, slowly making her way up the old steps that had accumulated enough leaves to tell her that Gramps had not been out this way in a while, despite his daily rounds of the property. She clasped the doors in her hands and slid them back, slowly revealing the wellhouse.
Before she could scream, the light erupted, absorbing her into its powerful glow. In a moment, Kagome was gone, the only evidence left behind of her having been there at all, was the wellhouse doors still ajar, allowing the summer breeze to roll its way through.