InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Hallow Be Thy Name ❯ Trick or Treat? ( Chapter 2 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

 

 

Chapter 2 – Trick or Treat?

 

 

 

 

 

A witch, a princess, a dinosaur...whatever that was, looked like a type of youkai to him. Inuyasha quickly lost track of all of the different types of costumes he saw the human children dressed up in merely in order to receive free candy from strangers, an act that was apparently taught to be an extreme no-no the rest of the year. Go figure.

 

“Trick or treat!!”

 

But he did enjoy this holiday.

 

“Bwah!” he yelled, jumping out from around the corner just as the children finished grabbing their pieces of chocolate from the bowl on the entry table.

 

High-pitched screams mixed with laughter filled the genkan, as the children all scrambled over themselves to leave Eri's house as quickly as possible, their frantically pounding hearts threatening to fly from their chests as giant smiles rested hidden behind mask-covered faces. Grinning to himself, a look that made him even more threatening as it showed off his glistening fangs, Inuyasha smirked at the lack of fear in the scents of the children’s parents waiting for them down at the end of the street. Ignorant fools; they had no idea what creatures truly still lurked among them. They were lucky he just plain ol' liked children, as opposed to liking them for dinner.

 

Admittedly, the words Inuyasha and liked children were among those that the hanyou had never thought would one day go together in the same sentence – at least not without the word doesn't tossed in between – but the fact that he himself would be a father in a couple of months had truly worked wonders on his disposition regarding other people's offspring.

 

“Ooo, that was a good one,” Yuka commented as she entered the genkan, not that the hanyou hadn't heard her approaching footsteps a mile away. “Candy corn?” she offered, holding out a small bowl of the colorful pieces of formed sugar and wax.

 

His ears automatically lowered to his head at the reminder of what'd happened as a result of that 'candy corn' crap two years back, and he muttered a quiet, “Feh, no thanks,” in as polite a tone as possible, when all he really wanted to do was yank that bowl out of Yuka's hand and chuck it across the room. Yuka, remaining unaware of what'd happened to him as a result of the food fight at Eri's party the year before last, merely glanced up at his ears as they lowered, having remained fascinated by the appendages ever since the initial realization that they were real.

 

Seeing his wife's friend divert her attention to the top of his head, Inuyasha inwardly smirked, as he deliberately raised his ears erect and turned them both forward, honing in on the sound of Yuka’s quickening heartbeat.   

 

The girl didn't fear him, and in fact, she was utterly fascinated by him, but Kagome had told her long ago that Inuyasha was a very private person, and didn't like talking about himself all that much. She supposed she could understand that, only vaguely being able to imagine how truly horrible life must have been for him growing up, having to constantly hide what he was from the people around him, not to mention how crazy their world must be to somebody with his advanced senses. He could probably still hear those same children as they continued to move door-to-door down the block, as well as the countless other Trick-or-Treaters that were happily running around the neighborhood.

 

Not to mention all the distant traffic noise, barking dogs, blaring music... Yuka wondered if he could even keep focused on it all, or if it just faded away into the background as white noise. Then again, she knew it would probably drive her nuts if she could hear all of that and not be able to ignore it as insignificant background static, so she was sure that was probably the case with the hanyou before her, although, with the way his ears were currently focused directly on her, she was also sure that he could probably hear every noise she was making with crystal clarity, even if to her own ears she was currently as silent as death.

 

“Ummm...how...how about some popcorn?” she asked him then. “Eri and Kagome are making a batch in the kitchen,” she explained, mentally berating herself for acting like a nervous fool.

 

Inuyasha merely raised an eyebrow at her, detecting her rising nervousness.

 

“What's up?” he asked her bluntly. “I know you don't fear me, so why so nervous all of a sudden?”

 

Yuka flushed at being called out on her behavior. No, she didn't fear him, and it wasn't truly as if she had a crush on him, either. He was her best friend's husband for crying out loud! But...he was awfully attractive, and those ears...

 

It's always the ears... Inuyasha mentally chuckled, catching Yuka's eyes wandering upward once more.

 

Releasing an exaggerated sigh of feigned exasperation, Inuyasha tilted his head down in Yuka's direction as though he were bowing to her as he stated, “Keh, go on already. I ain't gonna bite ya.”

 

Her eyes widened in instant understanding, then quickly setting down the bowl of candy corn she'd been holding, Yuka reached up with both hands and immediately began fondling his ears. They were very soft, and fuzzy, just like a puppy's ears! She didn't dare take advantage of his generosity, though, and she was just about to let go when Kagome's voice politely asking, “Popcorn?” startled not only her, but the hanyou as well.

 

Inuyasha's cheeks flushed a dark pink as he sprung up and away from Yuka's touch. Because she'd been rubbing his ears, he hadn't been able to hear Kagome's approach, but that was no excuse, he told himself. The miko in question couldn't help but to find the whole scene amusing, however, as she desperately tried not to laugh at her husband and friend acting as though they'd just been caught making out or something. Kagome knew damn well how fascinated Yuka was regarding Inuyasha's ears; she asked her about them constantly.

 

As for her husband, well, it wasn't as if his ears were a private part of his body or something. Yes, his ears were technically an erogenous zone, but in reality it felt no different for him to have somebody pawing on his ears than it did for anybody else to have somebody touching their own ears. How anybody truly reacted to such contact all depended on how it was done, and whose hand it was.

 

“I was...that is...we were just...”

 

Kagome's laughter instantly silenced Yuka's babbling, and Inuyasha was just about to say something in the girl's defense when the audio appendages that were truly at fault twisted of their own accord, as he detected the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps out on the lawn.

 

“Incoming!” he stated instead, and everyone quickly scrambled to get out of the genkan so that the hanyou could do his thing.

 

“Kagome...” Yuka started to say once the girls were safely back in the living room.

 

“Don't worry about it,” Kagome brushed off, admitting a bit of actual history as she confessed, “The first time I saw Inuyasha, the very first thing I did was walk right up to him and tweak his ears.”

 

“Whoa...and he just let you?” Yuka asked in bafflement, remaining unaware of the tiny detail that Inuyasha had actually been unconscious at the time.

 

Still, Kagome's mother had also done the same exact thing, and Inuyasha had been wide awake for that one, and he had just stood there and let her. He'd probably been too shocked to protest.

 

Back by the entrance to the genkan, waiting just around the corner, Inuyasha smiled to himself at the memory evoked by his wife's words. Not that he had any recollection of Kagome tweaking his ears while he'd still been under Kikyou's sealing spell, but he remembered the night shortly after their wedding when she'd first confessed to having performed the act. He'd of course forgiven her for molesting his ears while he'd been asleep, especially considering that he'd wound up seeing her completely buck-ass naked just a few days later. He'd said that was an even trade in his book.

 

Of course, Kagome had playfully disagreed, and had demanded the right to tweak his ears again, to which he'd told her that she could molest his ears for as long as she wanted, so long as she did so buck-ass naked. She'd most definitely ended up naked that night, as had he, and if memory served, he was pretty sure that a few ear rubs had indeed been tossed in there somewhere.

 

Rutting like animals in the middle of the forest hadn't been the ideal setting that he'd wanted to provide for her, of course, but she'd been understanding of the circumstances, and at least they hadn't had to sneak off while worrying that someone from camp might catch them or realize what was going on. Miroku and Sango had known they were married, after all – plus they were also married, themselves – so whenever Inuyasha and Kagome had disappeared for a few minutes they'd known damn well the reason why, and they'd known damn well not to follow them, too.

 

That lesson had been drilled into Miroku hard and fast, and it'd had nothing to do with the hanyou's fist, but rather, threats of cold and lonely nights by the beautiful slayer who was also his wife. Sango had told her husband under no uncertain terms that he was to leave Kagome and Inuyasha alone when it came to their 'excursions' out into the woods from time to time if he also wanted to enjoy such excursions for himself.

 

Inuyasha couldn't help but to smile to himself at the reminder of all that had changed between then and now, but quickly dropping his grin to get into character, he was ready for the children once they silently (to their human ears) slipped into the genkan, hoping to steal some candy without anyone noticing their presence, not that they were truly trespassing when Kagome had that big drippy 'Enter' sign hanging up on the front door.

 

He didn't want to risk truly frightening anyone too badly, at least not to the point of them missing out on their candy, so just like before, Inuyasha waited until he heard a piece of candy disappear from the bowl for every child accounted for in the entryway. It'd be a horrible guessing game for a human to attempt, but with his advanced senses, it was literally child's play, pun intended.

 

His nose clearly distinguished between the four different scents of the four different children currently present, not to mention how easily his ears picked up on their separate breathing and heartbeats. Yuka had been correct in her assumption that all of the other noises of the city just faded away into the background, but he was actually capable of remaining focused on several different and independent things at the same time when he needed to. Hearing the fourth piece of candy disappear, and catching the last of the four scents of anxiousness change into relief and joy, he coiled his leg muscles, and pounced.

 

Piercing screams filled the night as the children all dashed outside as quickly as humanly possible, while the distinct sound of laughter could be heard from an older child waiting somewhere outside, presumably from the person in charge of keeping an eye on that particular group of youngsters.

 

Straightening up from his crouch, Inuyasha allowed a small chuckle to audibly escape his lips. The children back in Kaede's village never reacted that way to his presence, but then again on the other hand, he had never jumped out at them with his claws and fangs bared and a snarl on his face that suggested he'd just found the perfect meal. Stepping forward to close the front door that the children had left wide open in their hasty departure, a single triangular ear turning to pick up the sounds from behind him was the only indication that he heard Eri's approach, though it was enough of one for the nineteen-year-old to know that he was aware of her presence.

 

“Are there any cool demonic tricks you can do to kick things up a notch?” she asked, this friend of Kagome's being less fascinated with his ears and more fascinated with the magical aspect of his entire being.

 

Shaking his head, Inuyasha answered, “Not any that wouldn't take a decent sized chunk out of your parents' house.”

 

Eri's eyes widened a bit at that revelation. Giant and destructive displays of youkai powers were probably not a good idea , especially when her mother and father were actually home, merely watching TV in their bedroom to allow the 'kids' to have their fun. They still had no idea that Inuyasha's hanyou getup wasn't a costume.

 

“What if I draw out your youkai blood?” Kagome offered as she and Yuka both entered the doorway to the genkan, each with their own small bowl of buttery popcorn in hand.

 

“That's probably not a good idea,” her husband admonished. “What if something goes wrong?”

 

“Oh, nothing will go wrong,” Kagome said while waving off his concern, having complete confidence in herself and her ability to control Inuyasha's youkai blood. Her miko powers were at full strength, after all, and add her youkai powers on top of that...

 

“Famous last words,” Yuka teased, tossing a handful of buttery goodness into her mouth.

 

“Well, I suppose you could always use these if you needed to,” Inuyasha conceded, briefly tugging on his beads.

 

Kagome had again offered to remove the rosary after her absorption of the Sacred Jewel and the extra powers she'd gained as a result, but he'd once again refused, insisting that the subjugation necklace remain exactly where it was. His desire to keep the beads was in part sentimental, because after everything they'd been through over the years, the beads were yet another way in which they were connected. But in truth, Inuyasha's greatest fear was still that he might one day lose control over his youkai blood, for whatever reason, and even though Kagome was now strong enough to stop him with her miko powers should the need arise, he'd much rather only have his face slammed into the dirt then be forced to endure the pain of purification.

 

She could hardly fault his logic on that one.

 

Kagome had promised to only to use her powers on him as an absolute last resort, like if the rosary broke while trying to 'sit' him and he was still on a murderous rampage. If that were the case, then he'd never forgive her if she didn't zap him one to put an end to it. He already knew from personal experience that he could survive levels of purification that would be lethal to pureblooded youkai, a bizarre and unique benefit of being hanyou, he supposed.   

 

“What are you guys talking about?” Eri asked, being both unaware of the purpose of the rosary, as well as what Kagome had meant when referring to drawing out his youkai blood.

 

“You'll see...” the miko answered cryptically, as she closed her eyes and began concentrating.

 

Kagome had since learned that she could draw out Inuyasha's youkai blood at will, just as the Tetsusaiga had done back when he'd been fighting Kanna's mirror-monster. She could pull his beast to the surface but leave his human heart and mind still in control. It was actually excellent practice for Inuyasha, learning to maintain control on his own while transformed, to help prevent the future possibility that he feared above all else, his youkai half running rampant. Usually, he wasn't so nervous about what she was doing, but then again, Kagome recalled with a smirk, she usually reserved this particular ability for more...intimate...activities. He was undeniably distracted at those times, and more or less just let her do whatever she wanted, not that he didn't thoroughly enjoy it himself.

 

Yuka and Eri both gasped at the visible field of energy beginning to glow around both Kagome and Inuyasha, but even more so, they were shocked at the physical changes their friend's husband was suddenly undergoing. His claws and fangs quickly and significantly lengthened, and dark purple jagged stripes appeared on each cheek just below his eyes. Said eyes suddenly snapped open in that moment to reveal a horrible demonic red glow, with eerily piercing blue pupils.

 

Thinking he'd have a little fun at their shocked faces, Inuyasha stood perfectly still, gazing between all three women menacingly, until the tiniest hint of nervous uncertainty began to creep itself into Kagome's scent. Maybe it hadn't been a good idea to draw out his youkai blood while he wasn't being distracted by mating. What if a child showed up dressed as a youkai? Would he attack it?

 

“Inuyasha...?” she voiced hesitantly, mostly convinced he was just playing because she was sure she'd done the spell correctly, but still slowly beginning to wonder as he merely continued to stand there.

 

He didn't even move when the front door slid open once more, a pair of children merrily asking “Trick or treat?” only to run screaming as he slowly turned his crimson gaze in their direction. They left without any candy, but at least he didn't chase after them.

 

“Okay...I think I should reverse it now,” Kagome muttered aloud, and in that moment, his eyes snapped back to hers, and he lunged.

 

Inhaling to shout the subjugation command proved futile, as his hand was clamped firmly over her mouth long before she could have uttered the word.

 

“What's the matter?” he cooed in her ear, the extra timber of his full-youkai voice making him sound like the villain of every horror movie Kagome's friends had ever seen.

 

Yuka and Eri were both utterly petrified, terrified for their friend but at the same time knowing that there was absolutely nothing either of them could do except make matters ten times worse by trying to interfere.

 

“I thought you liked it when I came out to play,” he continued, sticking his tongue out and running it along the inner shell of her ear.

 

Despite herself, Kagome shivered at the contact before promptly fixing her husband with a glare to end all glares. She didn't fear him, no matter what form he was in. Smirking wickedly, the hanyou-turned-youkai locked eyes with his wife, and Kagome instantly saw the sparkle of recognition burning behind his crimson gaze. As frightening as his transformed appearance could be, she'd seen those red and blue eyes of his on several occasions by that point in their marriage, and thinking back to his first few transformations, from before they were married, the difference between his 'inu-youkai feeling passionate' gaze and his 'inu-youkai gone mad' gaze was night and day to the woman who knew him so well. When he removed his hand from her mouth, there was a playful note to her voice as she said, “Your 'Mr. Hyde' routine won't work anymore. I know it's you.”

 

Chuckling then, Inuyasha pulled back, and turning his eyes to meet her two panicking girlfriends, he comically shrugged, and then said “Boo.”

 

They actually both flinched for a second, before their fear scents simultaneously disappeared to be replaced with confusion, but there was no question, he'd gotten them. He'd gotten them good. Yup, he definitely loved this holiday.   

 

“Whoa!” Yuka stated then, being the first to brave speaking after what'd just taken place. “How did...that is...you can...I mean...whoa!”

 

“How did you do that?!” Eri translated, gesturing up and down with her hand to indicate Inuyasha's altered overall appearance.

 

Kagome figured she could share the secret of her husband's youkai blood without revealing that he sometimes also turned human, or that he was actually from the past, so she took that moment to tell a vastly rewritten version of how Goshinki originally broke the Tetsusaiga, and how it'd become apparent that the ancient sword, which had been 'passed down' to Inuyasha by his father, had in fact functioned as a seal of sorts, to help keep his youkai blood in check. His father had simply been so powerful that the pull of his youkai half was too strong for a half-human body to handle, and were it not for the Tetsusaiga, Inuyasha could have, at least back in the beginning, been reduced to a mindless bloodthirsty killing machine.

 

But Inuyasha was much stronger now, she explained, and he had much more power over his youkai blood, rather than his blood having power over him. Kagome also told them of how, with the Tetsusaiga's help as an anchor, he'd experienced his first transformation where his mind had remained clear. Because she was a powerful miko, she'd since learned how she could offer herself as the anchor his mind needed to stay focused, instead, enabling his youkai blood to rise to the surface without blackening his human heart.

 

“You make it sound like I'm the only one here with youkai blood, mate,” he purred so quietly that only Kagome, with her own advanced hearing, could hear him.

 

Granted, her ears were nowhere near as powerful as his were, but her hearing was definitely more defined than your average human's since her merger with the Sacred Jewel's youkai.

 

He made a valid point, for Kagome could, in theory, lose herself to her youkai half just as he could, but her own miko aura was the only seal she needed to forever prevent that from happening. In order for her to actually lose control, something would have to hinder her miko powers.

 

Her youkai side could still rise to the surface in extreme cases of emotional stress, however. She knew that because she'd experienced it first hand, though her miko aura had still kept her mind balanced enough to not really lose it. The difference was unquestionable, like Inuyasha's earliest transformations sans Tetsusaiga versus the times his sword had actually assisted him with the power boost.

 

Of course, she could willingly allow her youkai aura to dominate her, too, just like whenever Sesshoumaru assumed his true form, the daiyoukai's transformation into a giant dog being completely voluntary. She knew she could do it because she'd actually done so, though only once, calling upon so much of her miko aura that the strength of her demonic one had risen to compensate, and her mind had still been her own during that instance, as well.

 

Switching his own transformation on and off at the flip of a mental switch was an ability that Inuyasha had still yet to master, but his control was a hell of a lot better than it used to be, and in most cases, he was in fact the one who reverted himself back into his hanyou form, himself, after she had brought his youkai blood to the surface. Seeing that he was failing to do so in that moment, however, Kagome was just about to push Inuyasha's youkai blood back into dormancy herself when a snarling growl escaped his throat without warning, causing the miko to jump slightly and her two friends to cling to each other for support.

 

“Don't do that-” Kagome began to protest, but she was instantly silenced by her youkai husband barking out, “Hush!” as he quickly ran outside.

 

Kagome was instantly on his heels, following Inuyasha out onto the lawn despite her tabi-clad feet. As soon as she stepped outside, she spotted him. Fortunately, he hadn't taken off after anyone or anything, instead remaining on Eri's property while appearing to sniff the air.

 

“What is it?” she whispered, suddenly wishing that she had her bow.

 

Shaking his head in mild confusion, Inuyasha finally answered, “Not sure,” as he continued to search the air for any unusual scents.

 

Something demonic had definitely brushed itself up against his heightened senses, as he was more sensitive to the feel of foreign youki while in his full-youkai form. Perhaps one of the reasons why he'd never before detected any youkai in Kagome's time was because he'd never before allowed himself to be in his transformed state for more than a few moments during sex. He was hardly in a position to be paying much attention to the world around him during those times.

 

“Is everything all right?” Eri hesitantly asked from the doorway, and cringing at the way the girl flinched when he turned to face her direction, Inuyasha took that moment to clear his head and allow the feel of his wife's soothing aura to help calm the raging passion of his youkai blood, thus reversing his transformation.

 

He couldn't think straight while in his full-youkai form, anyway, bloodthirsty beast or no bloodthirsty beast. His canine instincts were much too close to the surface when he was like that, and he didn't want to risk damaging the bizarre comfort zone he'd managed to establish with her friends.

 

Fortunately, the way Yuka quickly exclaimed, “That was so cool!” quickly led the hanyou to believe that he hadn't permanently freaked out his wife's friends in the slightest.

 

“What had you so spooked?” Kagome asked him then, and shrugging in what he hoped was a nonchalant fashion, he answered, “Probably just another kitsune.”

 

“Another kitsune?” Yuka echoed, and Inuyasha was just about to tell the truth until the look in his wife's eyes stopped him from blabbing the secret of last year's haunted house. Like he gave a rat's ass if that stupid little punk lost all his points.

 

Oh well whatever.

 

“Keh, I've just seen a couple of kitsune around the city from time to time, is all,” he answered instead, and the way Kagome leaned against him in tender affection instantly made the small lie worthwhile.

 

Gently resting a clawed hand upon his wife's pregnant belly, Inuyasha smiled broadly at the feel of the baby tapping against his hand from within, before gesturing toward the house and saying, “Come on, Okaa, let's get you back indoors.”

 

“Actually,” Eri spoke up then, “the night's probably just about over as far as the Trick-or-Treaters go, so if you two wanted to go ahead and head out now to enjoy the rest of your evening together, Yuka and I can clean up here.”

 

Yuka adopted a comical look of disgust, having hoped to avoid getting stuck with the 'clean-up' duty, but at the same time she definitely didn't want to stick their friend with the dirty business, so instead she agreed with Eri as she said, “Yeah, Kagome, you two go and have fun. We can take care of any late stragglers that show up begging for candy.”

 

Smiling, Kagome thanked her friends for their generosity and hospitality from throughout the entire evening. She just had to step inside the genkan to retrieve her sandals from the getabako, since she'd rushed outside without them in her hurry to see what Inuyasha had sensed. Once her lacquered zori were gracefully in place, she and Inuyasha were off, leisurely heading down the street to find their own private little adventure for the remainder of the night.

 

Inuyasha was very conscious of his wife's pregnancy, and he refused to let Kagome over do it, but the fact of the matter was that she was much stronger than the average human now, and so as long as she insisted that she felt just fine, he had no choice but to believe her. He knew that Kagome would never take any unnecessary chances with their unborn child and would tell him the instant she felt the need to rest, or to return to the shrine.

 

Walking down the sidewalk with his beloved by his side, Inuyasha couldn't help but to keep glancing her way. Kagome's appearance in hime robes literally took his breath away. She was so stunning, and it didn't disturb him in the slightest that she bore a resemblance to his mother dressed like that. The image of 'mother' fit Kagome perfectly, considering she herself was about to become one. That was his child growing within her swollen belly, his seed and her body that had created life beyond their own.

 

It was truly no wonder how Kagome had ended up becoming pregnant so quickly after the completion of the jewel. After all, at the time they'd believed that they could no longer pass through the well, so it had only been a matter of days, as the timing had turned out, that she'd run out of those 'pills' she had been taking to prevent pregnancy. Because everything had finally come a close, the first chapter of their lives over and done with, Inuyasha had seen no reason to continue holding off on the family they'd both so desperately wanted, and she had agreed, so they'd purposefully not bothered avoiding her time of fertility.

 

Even so, that hadn't necessarily meant that she was going to get pregnant right away, and he'd been more than a little surprised when he'd noticed the change in her scent so quickly. Informing his wife of what he'd detected, able to tell so early thanks to his youkai senses that were still more advanced than her own new ones were, it'd definitely been a happy occasion, the miko just as surprised but equally overjoyed.

 

Construction of their own hut hadn't taken as long as Miroku and Sango's dwelling, mostly because he was half youkai and could do much more work more quickly, but even so, assistance from the village carpenters had still been required, as he'd lacked the knowledge of how to properly construct a home all by himself. That said assistance had been so readily supplied had been astounding in its own right, since it was sometimes still hard for him to accept that the villagers accepted him, but he had been humbly grateful.

 

Most of the villagers had simply gotten used to Inuyasha by that point, and in such a small community there was truly no keeping any secrets, so everyone had known that the couple had been holding off on building their own home until after the completion and purification of the jewel, and everyone had been happy for them when their sacred mission had finally come to a close. Inuyasha and Kagome's hut had been built away from the village proper, on the other side of the shrine near the Goshinboku, so those who might have secretly felt uncomfortable having a hanyou truly living as a member of their community at least hadn't needed to worry over seeing him walking around town from day to day, as he'd had no intention of becoming that intertwined with everyday village life.

 

He didn't feel like an outcast at all to have his and Kagome's dwelling rest so far from the others, and in fact, he appreciated the privacy. The location of their hut had been his decision, not the villagers’. Inuyasha had never felt all that comfortable in large crowds, after all, and living in the center of town would've made him too nervous, like the villagers had them surrounded. He had definitely appreciated that they'd welcomed him, though, when they could have easily ordered 'the beast' and 'his whore' to leave their village. Instead, everyone had continued to call the surrounding forest by his name, and he'd more or less been acknowledged as the village protector. Therefore, Inuyasha living at the border of the forest made perfect sense to them, and those who would not have felt disgusted to have had him as an active member of their neighborhood had understood his desire for solitude and had taken no offense at his self-imposed isolation.

 

Inuyasha hadn't known what he would've done had the villagers rejected his marriage to Kagome, or his fathering of her unborn child. At the time, they'd thought that they were stuck in his time, forever, and he'd felt horrible for everything his wife had given up merely to be with him. Had they been rejected from the one place since his childhood exile that he'd ever dared to call home... Well, fortunately that had not been the case.

 

Nor had it turned out that Kagome was forever banned from visiting her own century. He would never forget how they'd come to realize that they could still pass back and forth through the well. How panicked he had been before he'd realized that he and Kagome were not permanently separated from one another. It'd been only the third time since his mother's death that he'd shed tears, and the second time that said tears had been shed for the girl named Kagome.

 

~~~Flashback~~~

 

As dawn's early light filtered in through the edges of the covered window in their sleeping chamber, Inuyasha continued to remain motionless in bed, despite his state of wakefulness. They were only two weeks into spring, after all, so the mornings were still fairly chilly, and he wanted his sleeping wife to be able to enjoy the comfort of his body heat for as long as her slumbering mind insisted she still needed to rest.

 

Not that he appreciated the cold all that much, himself.

 

While the hanyou would forever insist that he didn't feel temperature changes the same way humans did, that wasn't to say that he didn't greatly prefer the warmth of snuggling up against his wife's soft and caring body, burying his nose in the crook of her neck, inhaling her wonderful scent with every breath. Breakfast could wait. Besides, since they were long since out of ramen, that meant that just like every morning since moving into their hut, he'd have to go hunt something in the forest to prepare for that morning's meal, as they had nothing yet in the way of a vegetable garden. If he was going to have to go freeze his ass off in the crisp morning air looking for rabbits, then he at least wanted to accumulate as much 'cuddle time' as he could muster first to help make the trip worthwhile.

 

Though come to think of it, it was getting to be time to really look into planting a garden of sorts, since they were entering spring. Even though he could survive on a diet of meat alone, Inuyasha knew that Kagome, as a human, needed much more variety in her meals. Well, okay, so she wasn't truly a pure human any longer, but that didn't matter. She was still mostly human, and she was a breeding one at that, so he definitely needed to make sure she got all those 'vai-te-mihns' she always used to talk about in regard to eating various foods. They couldn't mooch off of Kaede's generosity forever.

 

The elder miko had already agreed to take care of Shippou for a couple of months, so that they could enjoy what Kagome had called their 'belated honeymoon'. They greatly appreciated her agreement to do so. The runt would be living under their roof soon enough, but in the mean time, Inuyasha was thoroughly enjoying their intimate privacy.

 

Holding on to that last thought, Inuyasha snuggled himself even closer to Kagome's nude form under their layers of blankets. It was a minor miracle that his usual morning excitement wasn't poking her from behind, but he supposed that his desire to let her sleep-in that morning was so great that it simply overrode every other desire his body contained, including that one. It had only been yesterday, after all, that he'd discovered the change in her scent that he'd come to associate with pregnant females.

 

It was a distinct change that he'd noticed in Sango's scent as well, when the ex-slayer had been with-child. He'd admittedly been surprised to notice the change in Kagome's scent so soon, and he'd honestly second-guessed himself for a moment at first, wondering if his nose was just playing tricks on him, considering he'd only lived with her other new scent for a little over a month, but double checking had confirmed it for him. She was pregnant.

 

It was only six weeks ago that his wife had merged herself with the youkai essence of the Sacred Jewel, thus permanently altering her natural scent to include the delicate undertones of what had once been the scent of the jewel itself. It wasn't really a hard change to get used to, though, considering Kagome had often been perfumed by the jewel's odor anyway, with how infrequently the shards had ever left her person. Having to accept her new scent was a small price to pay for the wonderful gift of having her lifespan increased to match his own, not to mention how much more powerful his wife had become in every other aspect of her life. Inuyasha would forever be thankful to the youkai of the jewel for sacrificing their independence for her sake.

 

Once he'd realized that his nose wasn't playing tricks on him, and that the new change he'd detected in her scent was really there, he'd pulled her into a sudden and fierce embrace, quite without warning, and without any explanation to their friends who had witnessed the act, as he'd done so during their midday meal get-together at Kaede's. Having finally managed to choke out after a moment that he'd just suddenly realized that Kagome was pregnant, the atmosphere in the elder miko's hut had instantly turned to one of celebration, as everyone present readily congratulated the future parents, including the elder miko herself.

 

Kaede had had nothing but kind words to offer her young apprentice who had honestly been just as surprised as the rest of them at her husband's words. Kaede had stated with confidence that Kagome, as far as she knew, was the world's first pregnant miko, but she was also the world's first miko to have absorbed the essence of youkai without turning evil, so that the young girl had gone and broken yet another rule had hardly seemed surprising, Kaede had stated mirthfully. She'd even offered Inuyasha a gentle and sincere hand upon his forearm, as she'd told the hanyou of her faith in him to be a wonderful father.

 

They'd ended up staying up late into the night, Inuyasha and Kagome, discussing everything that had suddenly changed in their lives yet again. Kagome wasn't upset to have become pregnant so quickly, even if it was a little surprising. But she was looking forward to becoming a mother; it was something she'd always secretly wanted for her future, and she'd known ever since she'd first realized her feelings for the dog-eared hanyou that there was no one else in the world that she wanted to be the father of her children.

 

On the other side of the coin, having children was something that Inuyasha had never thought possible for somebody like him, at least not until the day he'd confessed his feelings for the girl he'd known had loved him for some time, agreeing to make her his wife and to make the most out of their rather uncertain lives together. Children had still been out of the question, at least in the beginning, but the subject had at least no longer been taboo. Kagome had told him long ago of her desire to one day be the mother of his children, and despite his usual silence on the subject, he'd known that she'd known that he'd wanted a family with her more than anything.

 

Now, it appeared that his ultimate desire, surpassed only by his previously fulfilled desire to have her with him throughout his long life, was about to be granted. Kagome was with-child, his child, and Inuyasha could say with finality that he'd most definitely never been happier than he was in that moment.

 

It was no wonder Kagome was so tired, sleeping in so late, considering how late he'd ended up keeping her up the night before. Even after their discussion had finally come to a close, he'd then been 'up' for another expression of their love, and she had responded to his advances wholeheartedly. They hadn't rutted, or mated, or fucked, or any other words he occasionally applied to the act, depending on its intensity and duration, but rather, the hanyou would say with sincerity that he and Kagome had made love last night, just as they had made love their very first night together, when he'd first somehow braved confessing his feelings aloud to the girl.

 

The fluttering, nervous, enraptured feelings of love that had overtaken his heart their first night together were parallel to the feelings that had been running through him last night as he'd gazed into his wife's eyes and known that together, the two of them had created a new life.

 

Of course, all good things had to come to an end, so it was only a matter of time before the woman in his arms finally stirred, inviting the chill of morning as she pushed back the blankets to rise from their futon. Inuyasha frowned as he watched Kagome apply layer after layer of robes upon her previously naked body, asking in a playful tone, “Now what'd you go and do a thing like that for? I was enjoying the view.”

 

Smirking, the miko turned her gaze to her equally naked husband, who had made no attempt to hide his lack of attire from where the blankets had been pushed away from his person.

 

“I'm afraid it's much too cold to journey to the latrine in the buff,” she said in mock apology. “But if you don't mind me giving any visitors to the shrine such a show, I'll remember to keep the robes off once the heat of summer is upon us.”   

 

Growling possessively, albeit in a rather playful manner, Inuyasha lunged from their bed before Kagome even had time to blink, wrapping his naked body around her clothed one in a tender, loving embrace.

 

“Maybe I should build a new latrine. One connected to the house, like you're used to.”

 

“With no manner of plumbing?” Kagome replied. “No thank you,” she teased, adding, “Even I wouldn't be able to stand the smell. You'd probably pass out.”

 

The miko giggled as she felt the man wrapped around her growl in the back of his throat. The type of growl she'd almost call a purr were it not for the minor detail that he was canine.

 

“With me unconscious, you'd be free to have your way with me,” he murmured, kissing her neck, while grinding his rapidly hardening erection into her thigh. Apparently, once Kagome had been permitted to wake up on her own, his 'morning excitement' had decided to pay them a visit, after all.

 

“I already do that now anyway,” she answered, turning in his arms just enough to seek out his mouth with her own. The kiss was slow, deliberate, and bespoke of many things to come, just as soon as she returned from answering the call of nature.

 

Inuyasha chuckled as his wife finally began squirming in his grasp, more desperate to get away. Releasing her then, he kissed her nose, and promised to get the fire burning hot again in her absence. A nice warm hut was much better for partaking in certain activities, especially when those activities required the removal of clothing.

 

````

 

It was midday when the miko finally let her hanyou husband depart to hunt them something to eat. They'd had a small meal of rice to tide them over, but her growling stomach had quickly reminded Kagome that they hadn't yet had much in the way of real food that morning. Besides, she was eating for two now, as the saying went, and although she knew that she wasn't really supposed to increase her normal diet all that much, she would concede that Inuyasha was probably also right in that a youkai baby needed more meat during its development than a human one would.

 

They weren't sure how youkai-like their child would actually be, considering Inuyasha was already a hanyou, but they might be dealing with an infant that would be more hanyou itself, rather than three-quarters human, if Kagome's own youkai attributes were also to be taken into consideration. Neither of them knew if her youkai properties counted, if they were truly in her blood at all or only in her body on a spiritual level, and if her hanyou aura could affect her unborn child in any way.

 

Youkai were beings of magic, after all, and were much more sensitive to things like auras than a human would ever be. Did the auras of a demonic unborn infant's parents affect its development as strongly as their blood work? Only time would tell.

 

The day was turning out to be a rather peaceful one, until suddenly, Kagome was reminded of her all too recent thoughts on youkai and auras, when a demonic aura the likes of which she'd never felt before suddenly brushed up against her miko senses. Something, or rather someone, was on their way to the village, approaching rapidly.

 

They were given just enough of a warning to get all of the villagers inside before a daiyoukai of Sesshoumaru's stature suddenly emerged from the heavens above, his monstrous form of a towering feline collapsing in upon itself in a cloud of jyaki to reveal the form of a rather handsome and well dressed man, his elven appearance made solid just as his boot-clad feet lighted upon the earth.

 

“Who the hell are you?” Inuyasha demanded with a protective hand around the miko at his side, while his other hand hovered over Tetsusaiga's hilt.

 

Kagome was not unarmed, as a full quiver of arrows rested snugly across her back, while she held the bow from Mt. Azusa in a white-knuckled grip. Something about the youkai currently standing before her had her more nervous than she could recall feeling against any of their other foes in a long, long time.

 

What the hell did this guy want, anyway? They had nothing that was of any value to anyone else, unless he was yet another straggler running late in his pursuit of the Sacred Jewel. It'd only been a month and a half since its destruction, after all, and every once in a while...

 

“I seek the jewel,” the daiyoukai answered, not bothering with introductions.

 

Bingo… Kagome thought, mentally rolling her eyes but knowing better than to show any such disrespect on the outside.

 

He was by far the most powerful youkai who'd ever shown up looking for the thing, and Kagome would really rather avoid pissing him off it at all possible. Daiyoukai weren't supposed to want the jewel, or at least, that was the impression she'd gathered from Sesshoumaru's continued disinterest. This guy was dangerous.

 

It was a good thing he hadn't managed to come across any of the shards, the miko thought then, even as she wondered if perhaps the shards themselves had still disinterested this particular daiyoukai, and as such he had been deliberately biding his time until after the jewel was completed, letting her do all the dirty work. Too bad for him that he took so long to react to the feel of the completed jewel, though Kagome was silently thanking every kami she could think of that he hadn't actually shown up while they'd still had it.

 

While the barrier she'd placed around the jewel after first returning to the village with the completed bobble had successfully masked its presence from the scores of lower youkai the likes of which Inuyasha had battled alongside Kikyou over fifty years ago, Kagome had known that stronger beings would still be able to sense its presence, and thus home in on its supposed location, even after she purified it.

 

And a small handful of what they'd called 'middle-ground' youkai had indeed shown up looking for it from time to time ever since then, but fortunately, none of those youkai had ever posed a true threat to them or their village, most of them just youkai who were roughly humanoid in shape, or at least bipedal, and able to speak, as they'd all coherently demanded the jewel. They had all been disbanded easily enough.

 

Unfortunately, even after successfully purifying the jewel, the youkai just kept coming, apparently following some rumor or another, ignoring the fact that they could no longer sense the jewel's presence since they had already known they were attempting to mask its presence with a barrier.

 

Kagome still recalled how Yura of the Hair had said she'd heard of the jewel's reappearance through rumors among the oni clans, the woman not having known the jewel had been shattered until she'd seen for herself the single shard of it that had been in their possession at that time. It was easy to understand how something like them finally getting rid of the jewel once and for all would be something that hadn't made it through the rumor mill yet, either, since every time another youkai showed up looking for the stupid thing, none of them had ever lived to tell about it.

 

Which unfortunately meant that everyone still thought it existed.

 

Hmm, we're going to have to see if we can spread the word, ourselves, Kagome thought then, but one problem at a time.

 

“Feh, you're too late, asshole. The jewel's long gone,” Inuyasha answered.

 

Kagome mentally cringed at her husband's show of bravado. Couldn't Inuyasha tell how much more powerful this guy was than any of the others?

 

Of course he could, she realized quickly, not that that meant he would ever back down from a fight.

 

What happened to not wanting to leave her as a single mother? From the way the daiyoukai's eyes narrowed at Inuyasha's words, it was clear he put about as much faith in the hanyou's statement as everybody else had. But at least he hadn't started attacking them outright, yet. They needed to get him away from the village.

 

“Do not think me a fool, hanyou,” the feline dayoukai spat in reply. “Your kuromiko has merely perfected her ability to mask its presence.”

 

At his words, Kagome took a moment to think of things from his point of view. It was looking even more likely that the reason they'd never seen him before was because he had in fact only been interested in the jewel once she'd completed it.

 

Once I'd completed it 'for him'... she corrected sarcastically in her mind.

 

Once the jewel had finally been whole, it had pulsed with an intensity of power that a few broken shards had never come close to matching, so knowing when her job of reassembling it was over would have been a no-brainer for somebody as powerful as the youkai standing before them. Then, shortly after arriving in Kaede's village, Kagome had managed to perfect her masking barrier, at least to what her current level of miko abilities had been at that time. She'd known that her barrier would only mask the jewel's presence against the world's weaker youkai, but it'd truly been the weaker, mindless beasts that had been the greatest threat at the time, anyway, as they attacked in the largest numbers, and without rhyme or reason. They were animals, truly wild beasts, and her barrier over the jewel had successfully ensured their village's safety from such monsters.

 

Having already known what they'd wanted to do with the jewel once it was eventually completed, Kagome and Inuyasha hadn't wasted any time with quickly returning to her home, telling her family of their success and saying their farewells. To somebody like the daiyoukai standing before them, the miko quickly realized that the moment she'd slipped through the well, it must have felt as if the jewel had disappeared from their world – which it had – but so then when they'd returned again the following morning, he would have also felt the jewel's return, and concluded that her attempt to 'mask' the jewel completely against stronger youkai had failed after a period of time.

 

He had undoubtedly sensed it when she'd first applied the only true barrier she'd ever kept around the jewel, so he'd already known that she'd been attempting to conceal its presence, and therefore, he'd probably remained steadily on course, even as she'd temporarily returned to the future. He'd probably only felt more sure of himself when the jewel's muted aura had reappeared the following day.

 

Keeping that in mind, then it probably stood to reason that a couple of days later, when Kagome had made her wish on the jewel and acquired its power, the daiyoukai had merely assumed that she'd finally managed to perfect her masking cloak. He'd probably continued to head in their direction at a slow and steady pace, taking his time because he'd felt that there was no need to rush, especially since the miko had finally perfected her ability to mask the jewel, thus ensuring he had all the time in the world to retrieve it, because nobody else would be a threat to him in his pursuit of the bobble, and it would therefore be waiting safely in her possession for his arrival.

 

He'd probably only become agitated as he'd continued to decrease the distance between himself and their village, and had still continually failed to sense the jewel even in the slightest. Surely he would have started to doubt that any miko could've so thoroughly hidden its presence from someone as powerful as himself. Maybe he'd started to panic that in its invisibility, it had successfully been moved to another location entirely, which was why he'd suddenly transformed into his true form to quickly close the final gap between them without any further delay. He thought they'd hidden it; the possibility that the jewel had actually been destroyed had probably never even entered his mind.

 

Good luck explaining that to the daiyoukai now, though. Ah, well, it was worth a shot.

 

“Lord Neko,” Kagome began slowly since she didn't know his name, ignoring the nasty look her husband sent her way for addressing the bastard so honorably. “The jewel is truly no more. While I admit to having originally placed a small concealing barrier around it, which I'm sure someone of your power could have easily seen right through, I have since successfully removed the jewel from this world.”

 

Inuyasha would give credit where credit was due. At least Kagome wasn't showing any fear in front of the bastard, even though he could feel her shaking from where he still kept his hand around her waist for support. She also hadn't blabbed a single thing about actually taking the jewel's powers into herself. Good girl.

 

“Insolent wench!” the daiyoukai hissed.

 

Uh-oh...

 

“Kagome!” Inuyasha shouted, grabbing her with his other hand and yanking them both off to the side mere seconds before a blast of energy scorched the ground where they'd just been standing.

 

It was at that moment that two more fighters appeared on the scene, one dressed in the robes of a monk despite his status as a husband and father, the other wearing the form-fitting black leather uniform of a youkai slayer, even if the outfit felt a little tighter in certain areas than it used to.

 

“Where's Shourio?” Kagome shouted, pleased to see her demon-slaying friend come out of retirement, but concerned for the woman's two-month-old baby.

 

“With Kaede!” Sango answered while flinging Hiraikotsu.

 

The daiyoukai easily deflected her weapon, while simultaneously slashing out with multiple blades of youki, blasts of energy that were similar in nature to Inuyasha's soul shattering iron claw, only much...much stronger.

 

“Look out!” Miroku shouted, barely throwing up a barrier in time to protect himself from the energy blasts, while Kagome, who was much closer to Sango in that moment, threw up a larger barrier to protect both herself and her friend.

 

Inuyasha easily dodged the blades, and then quickly got himself into position for an attack of his own. They needed to move the battle away from the village, damn it!

 

A fierce roar from the sky drew everyone's attention, then, as Kirara suddenly flew overhead, growling something offensive to the daiyoukai that only a fellow feline would understand. As the humanoid neko was temporarily distracted fending off the flames of the dive-bombing nekomata while Kirara successfully herded the man away from the village and towards Inuyasha's Forest, said hanyou took that moment to draw Tetsusaiga and immediately retaliate with a powerful Wind Scar attack, shouting “Kirara, up!” to ensure their loyal companion avoided the blast.

 

“You will hand over the jewel!” the daiyoukai shouted then, as he drew his own sword, subsequently absorbing the power of the Wind Scar and flinging it back at Inuyasha in his own version of the Backlash Wave.

 

“Inuyasha!” Kagome cried, unable to reach him in time, but after the dust settled, it was quickly revealed that Tetsusaiga's sheath had protected him as he dropped the cracked scabbard into the dirt.

 

“We don't fucking have the jewel, you bastard!” he yelled, tightening his grip on Tetsusaiga's hilt as the blade began to crystallize. “Diamond Spears!”

 

Inuyasha was correct in his assumption that the daiyoukai's sword could only absorb energy-based attacks, as the neko quickly maneuvered to dodge the giant spears of adamant he sent hurling in his direction. Kagome didn't hesitate to quickly launch an attack of her own in that moment, as she sent arrow after arrow soaring straight for the guy. Two of them hit and damaged his armor, while a third missed completely, but her forth arrow made loud contact with the bastard's leg, as he cried out while crumpling to the ground from his temporary loss of use of the limb.

 

Her miko powers were strong, but the daiyoukai was also strong, and it would take a force of purification beyond Kagome's ability to reduce him to sparkly dust. Just because she had finally gained full control over her miko powers didn't mean that she was suddenly the most powerful miko to have ever lived. She was a decent miko, but the man they were currently up against was a very powerful daiyoukai. Her original arrows, that were already strong enough to destroy weak youkai, Sesshoumaru had been able to catch mid-air without even burning his palm.

 

Truly, crippling the guy as she'd just done had been one hell of a lucky shot.

 

It'd also very nearly been her last.

 

“Damn you!” he yelled, as he flailed his arm in her general direction, a wide arc of youkai energy shooting from his fingertips to create a rapidly approaching wave of destruction.

 

Kagome could do nothing but squeeze her eyes shut, hoping her barrier would deflect the blast she had no time to avoid. It was a very good thing they'd gotten the fight away from the village, and even their own home wasn't in the path of the wave. Not that the area was free of all structures...

 

Before Kagome even knew what hit her, she was in the air, wrapped securely in Inuyasha's protective arms. He'd gotten a mild jolt from initially coming into contact with her barrier, but even before she'd realized what was going on, her subconscious instinct from her youkai side had instantly recognized her husband's aura and had immediately dropped her shield, something she wouldn't have been able to do so quickly had she not possessed a youkai side.

 

As he came back down for a landing, depositing her several meters away in the direct vicinity of Miroku, he gave her a quick chaste kiss before shouting “Keep her safe!” to the monk and quickly heading back to finish off the daiyoukai while he was still down.

 

Kagome hadn't missed the loud explosion that had sounded from somewhere behind where she'd previously been standing, and turning to look in the well's direction in that moment, she gasped at the amount of destruction the daiyoukai's energy blast had caused.

 

The Bone Eater's Well had been completely obliterated. Not that the outer wall to the time portal couldn't be reconstructed, as this was in truth not the first time she'd seen the well of the Feudal era come to ruin, but the sheer number of toothpicks its wood had been reduced to made the miko ever so grateful that her husband had whisked her to safety, even braving her deflective barrier to do so.

 

This is bad, that guy's really powerful.

 

By the time Inuyasha made it back to the fallen daiyoukai, releasing another blast of diamond spears in his direction, the guy had already regained mobility of his leg and was able to dodge most of the spears, successfully slicing through a few of the others with a youki-based blade that appeared to emerge from his fingertips at will, like a dagger of super-charged energy similar in concept to Sesshoumaru's poison whip.

 

Damn cat, he can probably extend and retract the thing like his claws...

 

With Miroku's staff strapped to Hiraikotsu, the giant boomerang made a second trip in the daiyoukai's direction, then, and was deflected much less gracefully as its spiritual barrier burned the neko's hand as he batted the weapon away. At the same time as Sango flung her weapon in the daiyoukai's direction, Miroku also threw several of his most powerful ofuda towards the beast, most of which made contact as the daiyoukai focused his attention on deflecting Sango's attack.

 

Still, it appeared as though all they were doing was pissing him off. The monk had never thought that there would ever come a time when he'd actually miss the Wind Tunnel, but if he could have picked a single moment in which he wanted to have the curse back, only temporarily, it would've been right then.

 

That's it! I'm not a little girl any more… Kagome thought. “Kirara!” she shouted, quickly mounting the fire-neko and taking to the skies, bow at the ready.

 

“Inuyasha, let him have it!” she shouted, and though she could detect her husband's nervousness for her safety, there was no way she could miss the look of pride he also shot her way, as he tightened his fingers around Tetsusaiga's hilt.

 

“Come on, Tetsusaiga! Let's show him what we can do!”

 

I'm not some puny hanyou, Inuyasha thought with conviction. Daiyoukai blood also flows through my own veins.

 

Everyone felt it as his blood pulsed seemingly in time with their own heartbeats, as Tetsusaiga glowed and drew forth Inuyasha's youkai blood, his mind remaining as focused as ever. The daiyoukai's eyes widened ever so slightly as the hanyou's scent changed, but that was the least of his worries when he also detected the rapidly altering scent of the kuromiko currently flying above him.

 

What is this...? How did I fail to notice the sheer magnitude of youki in her aura? It literally screams of the Shikon jewel!

 

Eyes bleeding red, and her hair flying about her in a wind not created by Kirara's flight, Kagome drew on her own youkai strength, as she prepared to launch a rapid succession of arrows into her husband's Wind Scar.

 

Let's see the daiyoukai absorb that.

 

“Take this you bastard!” Inuyasha bellowed as he swung his sword, “Wind Scar!”

 

The daiyoukai prepared himself, posed with his sword to absorb the hanyou's attack, but his eyes quickly widened in surprise to note how much more powerful the attack was this time around. At that same moment, he also felt the rapid approach of burning missals of purity, as the miko above him seemed to turn more youkai than human, bleeding every ounce of her reiki out of her very being and into her arrows.

 

“Curse you!” he shouted as the duel blasts consumed him, not that a daiyoukai of his stature would go down without a fight.

 

Sending out a blast of his own aura in retaliation, the severely wounded neko quickly adopted his truest form, rising into the sky as a monstrous feline, easily dwarfing Kirara whom he quickly batted from the sky before the nekomata had time to avoid it.

 

“Kagome!!!!” Inuyasha shouted in horror, losing his transformation as he bore witness to both his wife and her neko steed falling lifelessly to the ground, Kirara having reverted into her kitten form upon being knocked unconscious by the daiyoukai's sudden blow.

 

As if that wasn't bad enough, a severe wind picked up in the immediate area, caused by the very aura of the daiyoukai hovering before them. The force prevented Inuyasha from leaping after Kagome's falling form, as he was pushed backwards midair when he attempted to do so, and when Kagome's unconscious form made contact with the earth, everyone cringing at the sound of impact coupled by her rag-doll appearance, she immediately began rolling from the force of wind they all had to fight against merely to remain on their feet.

 

Before Inuyasha had a chance to reach her, her body fell into the hole that was currently all that remained of the Bone Eater's Well, and his breathing literally stopped as the feel of her aura immediately disappeared.

 

No...No!

 

He could hardly go after her, not with the giant daiyoukai still posing quite a real threat to his other friends, and in fact their entire village. But what made it so heartbreaking was that he didn't even know if he could go after her, or even, if she was…

 

No, she couldn't be dead. He'd still felt life from her aura until the moment she'd disappeared into the well, which obviously just meant the well had successfully transported her into the future. But...even though he was pretty sure that she was still alive, she was undoubtedly injured and in need of medical attention, and her family never expected to see her again, so they would never check the well-house for her return. So if he didn't find a way to go to her, then Kagome might die at the bottom of the well in her time!

 

Oh gods...oh gods...

 

“Inuyasha!” Miroku shouted then, snapping the hanyou out of his spiraling thoughts. “Focus man! We must finish this, now, for Kagome's sake!”

 

“Right!” Inuyasha agreed, nodding with conviction, while praying to every god he could think of that the well would let him through, and that Kagome would still be alive on the other side when he arrived.

 

Hang in there, Kagome...mate...I'll come for you.

 

Blinking back the tears that threatened to impair his vision, Inuyasha ignored the dampness of his cheeks while he concentrated on Tetsusaiga once more, as the blade began to change a final time. Instead of crystallizing, this time, the blade developed an outer layer of scales.

 

“Dragon-Scaled Tetsusaiga...” Sango breathed in understanding.

 

Hopefully, the lumbering daiyoukai would have no idea what that particular attack was supposed to do, and wouldn't realize how much easier of a target he was while in his massive true form. She knew how desperately they needed to end this battle, and now.

 

Managing to fight the wind to get to where Kirara rested, the slayer scooped up her fallen neko companion, whom she could tell was injured but would recover, and quickly as possible made her way over to Miroku's side, her prayers with their hanyou companion and his wife.

 

“This ends now, bastard! Die!” Inuyasha shouted as he swung his sword, and the smug look on the daiyoukai's feline visage quickly morphed into one of panicked realization as he realized the hanyou hadn't swung in his direction and he felt the blade slice through his youketsu instead, the very source of his demonic aura.

 

Youkai were magical beings, after all, so they could therefore be killed by destroying the anchor of magic that bound them to the physical world. No harm need befall their physical bodies directly, which were in truth just manifestations of their magical energy, anyway.

 

The same wouldn't be true for Inuyasha, who had a genuine physical body and would probably just permanently become human if his youketsu were destroyed, but for a youkai, destroying the youketsu was sort of the equivalent to if you could remove all of the electrical activity in a human's brain. If you destroyed the energy that was the life force, then the being would die.

 

The daiyoukai's roar echoed loudly throughout the region, as everyone observed his body slowly disappear into nothingness. Once he was dead, Inuyasha took two seconds to retrieve Tetsusaiga's scabbard and make eye contact with his friends. Miroku and Sango both nodded solemnly, silently telling him that they understood and supported what he had to do. Wordlessly, Inuyasha nodded back then sprinted for the hole in the earth where the well had once stood, and leapt in without hesitation.