Inuyasha 1. Prologue: Rebirth

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Disclaimer: Inuyasha is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, serialized in Shogakukan's Shonen Sunday, animated by Sunrise, and distributed in America exclusively under license by Viz, LLC. I do not claim ownership to the characters contained herein. The plot only is my own creation, and I do it in homage of a series I love.  
**Story Summary**: In a world where youkai roam freely and humans fear the night, a young hanyou finds himself trapped in the body of an Akita with a human girl his only hope of redemption.  
**Chapter Summary**: All stories have a beginning. Some are darker than others. In which a spell is cast and a mind and soul are lost . . .

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1/5/04 A.N. Many months after this chapter was revised, I discovered research which indicated that my previous source regarding color vision in dogs was incorrect. This chapter has been edited to reflect the new information. The short explanation is that dogs view the world much as a red-green colorblind person does. See www. uwsp. edu/psych/dog/LA/davis2 .htm for a doggy-vision spectrum and www. mcw. edu/cellbio/colorvision/colorvision .pdf (remove the spaces) for more in depth information that applies across several species.

Also please note that this is an alternate universe fic and at no point in Rumiko Takahashi's story is Inuyasha turned into a dog by anyone.

**Dog's Body**

by  
**Smarty Cat  
**smartycat9383(at)yahoo(dot)com

**Prologue: _Rebirth_  
**

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I am secretly afraid of animals, of all animals except dogs, and even of some dogs. I think it is because of the **us-ness **in their eyes, with the underlying **not-us-ness **which belies it, and is so tragic a reminder of the lost age when we human beings branched off and left them, left them to eternal inarticulateness and slavery. 'Why?' their eyes seem to ask us.  
Edith Wharton

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'So . . . Death walks openly in the forest, Death in the shadows of the trees.'

The raven banked on silent ebony wings over the treetops. Thunder rumbled in the distance where a mass of storm clouds hovered on the horizon, but the sun shone down warmly on its back as it continued its leisurely search for food. An opportunistic and generally indiscriminate eater, it and the others of its kind never felt the need to flit about frantically in search of a delectable morsel as their more selective avian relatives did. When one did not care what one ate, it was much simpler to find adequate quantities of food. However, even the most enthusiastic scavengers had their favorite delicacies.

This one, in keeping with the feared and loathed reputation of its ancestors, preferred carrion, and it had sensed a dying spirit somewhere in the trees below. Drifting in lazy, ever tightening circles, the raven drew closer and closer to the source of the energy before pinpointing the exact location. It descended among the sheltering green leaves with a rustle of black feathers and took up a watchful position on a branch overlooking a small clearing.

A crumpled figure curled tightly in a protective ball on the mossy ground, having apparently dragged itself into the relative safety of a nest of exposed tree roots protruding from a washed out bank. Dried blood glowed in dull crimson drops in the patches of sunlight that dotted the forest floor, but the raven was disappointed to note the figure's ribcage rising and falling steadily. When the form beneath the tree began stirring uneasily, the scavenger took to silent wings and fled. The dying spirit it sought had already left the clearing anyway. Only a weakened predator remained, and the dark bird had lived long enough to know that it would not be wise to be present when the predator regained consciousness.

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'Death has many forms, wears many guises. Deceptive always is Death. Treacherous, treacherous Death.'

* * *

The hanyou shifted on the hard ground and tensed as awareness returned to his battered body. It _hurt_. His sluggish mind could hardly comprehend anything beyond the overwhelming pain, but his more primitive, animalistic senses assured him that for the moment he was safe.

Seething at this apparent weakness, the hanyou threw all the ferocity and stubborn tenacity of his youkai heritage into conquering the pain. The sharp, throbbing ache that started deep in his bones spread across every nerve ending in his body, intensifying into screaming agony with his slightest movement. He bit back a whimper and waged an internal battle within his mind and body in absolute stillness and silence. To draw attention to himself in such a helpless state would be to invite death. The pain finally subsided to a level slightly below intolerable, and he relaxed his muscles and lay panting and unmoving.

A strange stupor clouded his senses, preventing full awareness of his surroundings, but it faded away with a bit of concentration. He lay quietly, eyes closed, letting the knowledge filter in gradually. The familiar, comforting scent of trees and soil filled his seeking nostrils, and a steady breeze ruffled his hair gently, bringing with it the hint of approaching rain. Birds twittered cheerfully overhead, their chirps oddly reassuring. But the sharp metallic tang of his blood and the lingering reek of fear and ozone overlaid it all.

Slowly, almost reluctantly, his eyes cracked open into thin golden slits. The hanyou winced at the sudden invasion of light, and his face twisted into a pained scowl as swirls and blobs of colors danced through his limited field of vision. He blinked, trying to make sense of the abstract images his eyes were sending to his mind, and tilted his head slightly upward. Stabbing pains streaked across his body and painted jagged black lines across his sight before the world around him came slamming back into focus.

The hanyou fought back an illogical wave of alarm. He lay cloaked in the cooling shade of one among a group of tall trees with a scraggly forest clearing behind him and moss beneath him. That observation merely provided visual confirmation for what he had already deduced. The view was nothing unexpected, but there was something strangely wrong with the forest around him. The trees and the soil looked normal enough, if rather pale. However, perhaps because the light fell harshly against his pain sensitized pupils and a haze still clouded the edges of his vision, a subtle and almost sinister difference lurked just beyond his comprehension. The grass, the flowers, and the tree leaves were . . . off. If only he could put his claw on what that change was, but it was difficult to think beyond the pain lancing through his head and across his body.

What had happened to him anyway? He was unbelievably sore, and the tiniest movement sent small needles of agony stabbing into his bruised flesh. He had never hurt so badly after a fight or felt so weak and helpless!

Forcing back the pounding of his headache, the hanyou searched through the hazy cloud of his memories. Brief flashes of images and emotions slowly trickled through the shrouded fog of his mind, and bits and pieces began to painstakingly arrange themselves into a semblance of order. As the memories became clearer, he frowned.

Kikyou . . . had been angry with him for some reason . . .

* * *

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"Inuyasha!"

The hanyou whirled in a cloud of flowing white hair at the sound of his name being roared through the forest. Birds fled from the trees in raucous, fearful flocks, and a growl rumbled low in his throat in an instinctive response to the challenge. A beautiful young woman stalked through the trees toward him with a twisted scowl marring her perfect features. The hanyou froze, growl dying before ever reaching his mouth. He could not move. The force of her hateful glare as she raised her bow to his heart turned his limbs to stone.

* * *

Why was Kikyou mad?

Inuyasha cursed the demon trolls hammering at the inside of his skull and clung desperately to the vague scraps of memory.

* * *

"You traitorous bastard!" Kikyou hissed, as her eyes narrowed and the sheen of angry tears glimmered in their corners. "I thought I could trust you!"

The hanyou's ears flattened against his skull at the accusation, but he hid his uncertainty behind a customary display of bravado. "Keh! What are you talking about, Kikyou?"

"Don't pretend innocence. Such an illusion doesn't suit you, Inuyasha. We both know you tried to steal the Shikon no Tama."

He blinked, thoroughly puzzled. "Not recently. I don't need to if you're planning to give it to me. Why would I steal it?"

Her mouth twisted into a harsh, grim smile. "For the power. Onigumo said he saw you, and everyone knows you want it."

"Onigumo? That bastard was probably trying to steal it himself!"

"Don't lie to me, Inuyasha! Onigumo is not currently capable of stealing it. A crippled thief would not survive for very long if he tried, and he knows that. Besides, your hanyou taint was all over it!"

Inuyasha flinched as Kikyou's bitter words wounded him far more than any physical injury could. His hanyou taint? What had happened to the Kikyou who had trusted him, cared for him? Why had her faith in him been broken so easily? And why would she take Onigumo's word, the word of a known thief, over his? Because Onigumo was human and not hanyou?

Her fingers tightened on the smooth wood of her bow, and she drew the arrow back, pulling the string taut. "You will never have the power of the jewel. As its guardian I will not let you."

Inuyasha heard her icy words clearly, but he could neither believe nor accept them. He took a hesitant step forward, stretching out a clawed hand in a nervous, appeasing gesture and shaking his head slowly. "I'm not going to take the Shikon no Tama, Kikyou."

"Liar!" she screamed and let the arrow fly.

The force and hatred in her voice startled him and slowed his reaction, and he could not quite dodge her arrow. Inuyasha pulled the feathered shaft from his side and stared uncomprehendingly at the dark stain spreading across his suikan. There was a growing tightness in his chest, and his breath hitched in his throat. A strangled snarl burst from his lips, but even in self-defense he could not attack her. Shaking his head rapidly, his huge, unbelieving eyes hidden beneath his bangs, he took a half step backward.

Kikyou's eyes narrowed at the movement, and she discarded her bow almost carelessly as she approached him. She reached forward, clutching the red cloth of his suikan and pulling his unresisting body forward.

"You will not escape," she whispered softly, leaning her head against his chest.

Inuyasha's eyes widened in panic, and he lunged away, noticing the charge gathering in the air around her too late. The cold finality of her statement alarmed him more than the power that swirled around their bodies and ruffled their hair and clothes, power that slammed into his chest with ruthless force. The hanyou staggered backwards and whirled in a desperate attempt to escape the miko's wrath, yet even as he bounded forward mindlessly on all fours, he knew he would never make it to safety.

Kikyou's holy power washed over his body in a massive cascade of light. The brilliance blinded him, and he fell to writhe sightlessly at her feet. Inuyasha could feel the slick warmth of his blood coating his skin and forming a puddle around his thrashing form. As his pores bled and the burst of power swirled relentlessly around him, wave after wave of fiery agony crashed over him. He was trying to find the words to speak her name when every bone in his body shattered, and his voice ripped from his throat in a long, primal scream of agony.

Kikyou opened her eyes when the screaming finally ceased, and the clearing fell into an unnatural silence. She stared impassively at his bloody, crumpled form before turning to walk away.

A man with long hair and cruel eyes appeared silently at her side from the shadows. "I did not realize you possessed such power," he said calmly, though a hint of alarm lurked beneath his quiet words.

"_I_ did not know I had such power," the miko responded quietly, glancing in the direction of her home where the Shikon no Tama rested. She turned to him, and a small frown wrinkled her forehead. "Your injuries . . ."

"You purified them just now. I am indebted to you for that. You need not fear me." He offered her forgotten bow to her. After a brief hesitation she accepted and walked at his side as they left the clearing.

"I do not fear you."

He chuckled softly and glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. "Then perhaps you will call me by my true name. I am Naraku." He turned his head back to the clearing. "You did not kill him."

The miko stared straight ahead as she walked steadily through the thickening gloom, but a single shining tear raced down her pale cheek. "No, I did not kill him, Naraku," she agreed flatly. "I left him with a fate far worse to him than death."

* * *

Inuyasha snarled and tried to struggle to his feet, ignoring the pain that seared along his nerves, but his limbs refused to move correctly and his balance felt strangely off. He turned his efforts to rolling from his side to his stomach and glanced down at his hands where they were digging deep furrows in the ground.

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'No!'

The denial screamed in his mind emerged from his mouth as a startled yelp. Where there should have been clawed fingers he saw white-furred paws. Cold, horrified realization washed over him, bringing with it a strange sense of clarity. Inuyasha shuddered in alarm and whimpered as he forced himself to his feet.

The scent trail, although several hours old, was quite clear. Kikyou had left with Onigumo after turning him into a dog.

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'Why?'

Confused sorrow gave way to bitter, ruthless anger. Kikyou had betrayed him.

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'Why?'

He had been right to never trust anyone. Kikyou was the closest he had ever come to trusting, and it had led to this. Scarlet swirled slowly in the depths of his gold eyes. Both of them would pay. He would see to that.

A bloodcurdling snarl rose in his throat as the first flash of lightning streaked across the sky.

**__**

'WHY?'


	2. His History Is of Legend

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Chapter Summary: Enter Kagome. Little Red Riding Hood, eat your heart out.

**Dog's Body**

by  
**Smarty Cat  
**smartycat9383(at)yahoo(dot)com

**Chapter 1: _His History Is of Legend _  
**

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At once he became a thing of the wild, stealing along softly, cat-footed, a passing shadow that appeared and disappeared among the shadows.  
Jack London, The Call of the Wild

As dusk fell across Tokyo the streetlights flickered on one by one in a vain attempt to stave off the encroaching darkness. A slender girl glanced around warily, clutching her jacket tightly to her body as she moved away from the guttering yellow pools of light. As dangerous as it was to walk among the shadows, walking beneath the lights was even more perilous, and she knew it. People who stayed in their false security could not see out into the night although they themselves were easily visible.

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Easy targets. Well, I refuse to be an easy target.

Youkai roamed freely at night while most humans remained safely in warded homes with their doors and windows locked as an extra precaution.

"But not Higurashi Kagome, miko in training!" she whispered bitterly under her breath.

She bravely traversed the city in the darkness night after night. But was it for some noble cause such as fighting the evil youkai who preyed upon vulnerable humans like that blonde girl on that gaijin TV show? Oh no, _she_ was stuck traipsing around among murderers, rapists, thieves, and flesh-eating demons because cheerleading practice always ran late!

Kagome brushed a strand of wavy black hair away from her face as she increased her pace to a ridiculous looking but ground covering running walk, a familiar litany of plaintive questions running through her mind. Why did practice have to last so long? Why did she have to live in an isolated shrine several blocks away from everyone else? Why did she have to pass through the dark and frighteningly empty park on her way home? Why didn't her family just buy a car!

Not that anything had ever happened to her during her nightly trek home. No youkai had ever come leaping from the shadows and tried to rip out her liver as a dessert. Kagome had never even been accosted by a common mugger, but all that was irrelevant. The chance always remained, and it seemed to be growing more likely than ever.

"The muggers have more sense than to be out here after dark anyway," she muttered, ducking her head into her collar against a sudden frigid gust of wind.

Deeper patches of darkness moved among the shadows of the night just on the edges of her vision, and lately strange whisperings and rustlings always filled the air. Kagome might have thought such things were nothing more than figments of her overactive and adrenaline overloaded imagination, but youkai attacks had been on the increase for several months. The winter had been particularly long and hard, leaving humans trapped in their homes except for a few far too brief hours of gray daylight. Food had been scarce for all the wild creatures, and the hungry youkai were growing bolder, sometimes even emerging during the day to fulfill their bloodlust.

When consulted for help in quelling the attacks, Jii-chan would merely ramble on about the reemergence of the Shikon no Tama, whatever that was, and a great battle between human and youkai that was to come. Jii-chan had been dipping into the ceremonial sake quite frequently though . . .

"Hardly cheerful information. Too vague, mostly useless. Rather like me I suppose . . ." Kagome sighed quietly.

She knew she disappointed her grandfather. Since the day of her birth he had always had such high hopes that she would be the one to inherit the family shrine, but some miko she was turning out to be. She could not even handle a bow properly. Her little brother Souta was a better shot! As for the latent powers miko were supposed to possess, the powers that were hers by right of her bloodline . . . well, they were taking their sweet time to manifest.

Honestly, she had never met a person with true power. Jii-chan, for all his knowledge, seemed completely incompetent and ineffective. His wards and charms almost never worked, and when they did it usually was not in the manner that he had intended. Perhaps it was merely the sake hindering his ability . . . Nevertheless, Kagome had started to believe that the great miko of legend were merely benevolent youkai who had used their power to prevent the slaughter of their weak human "pets."

"And those youkai were probably killed by the others for their 'weakness,' leaving us poor humans alone and defenseless with only a handful of warded areas to take refuge in."

Kagome fully realized that talking to herself, even under her breath, was probably a bad habit, especially when stealth was required, but she needed the noise, the companionship of her own thoughts verbalized, to keep her sane during her nerve shattering nightly journey.

One hand curled nervously around the ofuda in her pocket, her sole protection against any attackers.

"And what protection it is," she muttered sarcastically.

A thin strip of paper with carelessly inked characters stretching down one side was meant to serve as a shield. _Yeah right_. She was seriously considering quitting the cheerleading squad.

"Maybe I'll take up kempo. It lets out earlier in the day, and then I'd actually have a _practical_ way of defending myself."

A twig snapped somewhere in the distance, jerking the girl out of her moody reverie. Kagome froze, fear and adrenaline pumping through her body and raising goose bumps on her already chilled skin. She turned her head slowly and with exaggerated care, scanning the empty expanse of the park, eyes wide and dark in her pale face. Gently sloping hills of green stretched out around her with only the occasional tree scattered about. Nothing moved with the exception of the lazy swaying of the tree branches. The cold wind tugged lightly at her loose hair, and an owl glided overhead on silent wingtips. She shivered.

"The bird of death!" the girl gasped then shook her head violently. "There is nothing to be afraid of. It was just a bird, just a nocturnal predator out searching for its breakfast."

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Just like the youkai . . .

She gulped nervously, hating the cynical whispering thought that appeared unbidden in her mind, and stepped forward a few paces, listening to the usual night sounds around her carefully. The birdsong was suspiciously muted. It was nearly full dark now, the soft gray colors of twilight almost completely replaced by the darker tones of midnight. Kagome silently cursed her bright red jacket that stood out like a beacon among the gloom. School uniform and dress code be damned, she was going shopping for camouflage clothes in solid navies and blacks tomorrow even if she had to skip practice!

Kagome bit her lip in indecision before reluctantly closing her eyes and extending her senses. Her breathing slowed and evened out as a stylized, dreamlike image of the area around her filled her mind. Youkai felt very distinct. They had a natural aura that gave away their presence to anyone who cared to look, but it required a high level of concentration and left humans vulnerable to attack even as they learned the location of their enemies. Most humans could sense youkai with a little effort, but Kagome was slightly better at it than the majority. It was the one concession to any sort of power that she might have, but the old fishwife from the market possessed the same enhanced ability, and she was certainly no miko or priestess.

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Nothing?

Kagome was surprised to find the area clear of any youkai presence other than the lingering half shadows of youkai that had passed through a day or so ago. Nevertheless, she shuddered at the thought of the creatures walking the same path she always used. Just a few hours had made all the difference between a safe passage and a deadly one.

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Wait a minute . . .

A faint spark of something to the north lit her mental landscape before flickering down to nothing, but it was not a youkai. She was certain of that. Kagome's brow furrowed as she opened her eyes and began to jog swiftly across the grass.

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I've never been able to sense people or normal animals before. So if it's not a youkai, what was it?

As her path wound up to a wooded tree line she slowed to a brisk walk. This was the part of her journey home that she hated the most. The lights scattered along the edge of the open park glowed as dimly as distant fireflies at the edge of the trees, and for the next mile she would be completely shrouded in the shadows of the forest with only the few shafts of moonlight that managed to break through the treetops to guide her.

The demon beast's forest.

Old people spoke of the area in hushed voices, and many refused to set foot beneath the green canopy even in broad daylight. It had been that way for as long as Kagome could remember, and according to her grandfather the fear went back fifty years.

It was said that five decades earlier a great beast, neither youkai nor animal, emerged from the leafy shadows, bringing with it the greatest storm Tokyo had seen in over a century. The beast, covered in blood and enraged to the point of madness, had savagely attacked anything in its path. Pools of crimson stained the ground amid a wet black torrent, and lightning and flooding cost many people their homes that day. Finally after several hours of intense fighting, a group of taijiya managed to injure the beast and drive it back into the forest. It had not been seen again since that day, but the elders swore that the demon beast still lurked among the trees, plotting vengeance and thirsting for blood.

"It's just a story. Just a story to frighten little kids. And I'm not a little kid."

Kagome took a deep, ragged breath, squared her shoulders, and stepped into the forest. The temperature seemed to drop radically, and she huddled into the meager warmth of her light jacket, thrusting her hands deep into her pockets as she shuffled along the worn dirt path.

A sudden flash of white appeared against the darkness in the corner of her eye. The girl whirled around, bringing out the ofuda and thrusting the paper ward in front of her in a strangely instinctual and fluid move. When absolutely nothing happened, she cautiously opened one eye. The area around her was completely deserted, and the barely visible sky was becoming increasingly darker over the treetops. Only the faintest sliver of a moon glowed in the sky. It was nearing the end of its last quarter. Tomorrow night would be the new moon, and her trek would be in complete and total darkness.

While staring up at the sky and fearing the night to come, Kagome abruptly realized that a good distance still separated her from the safety of her home. She stifled an exclamation of alarm and took off, resolutely bounding over the dips and bumps of the familiar trail and completely missing the pale-colored gleam that reappeared among the trees behind her.

Golden eyes narrowed as they watched the girl dash away, and lips rose to reveal only the faintest hint of strong fangs as one single, overwhelming thought ran through a hunger-maddened mind.

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'Prey.'


	3. Predator Prey Relationships

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Chapter Summary: Insert basic monster movie chase scene followed by a one-on-one-fight-for-you-life-against-a-berserker-canine-Inuyasha battle and complimentary light show! Run, Kagome, run!

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Crystaltear, this one's for you! I love my anime pimp!

**Dog's Body**

by  
**Smarty Cat  
**smartycat9383(at)yahoo(dot)com

**Chapter 2: _Predator/Prey Relationships _  
**

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Fire burst from its open mouth, its eyes glowed with a smouldering glare, its muzzle and hackles and dewlap were outlined in flickering flame. Never in the delirious dream of a disordered brain could anything more savage, more appalling, more hellish be conceived than that dark form and savage face which broke upon us out of the wall of fog.  
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

"Late, late, late, late! I can't believe I let it get so late without noticing! That was so stupid of me!" Kagome muttered under her breath as she jogged steadily over the dirt path. As her legs scissored in a strong, untiring rhythm she was almost grateful for those late-running cheerleading practices. Without the grueling and sometimes nearly torturous training the coach had put her through she would have never had the endurance to maintain such a brisk pace for an extended period over rough terrain.

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Of course, if it wasn't for practice I wouldn't be in such a situation anyway.

Her feet pounded in an even tempo on the trail, and her huffed breaths rang loudly in her eyes. Too loudly. The hair rose on the back of the girl's neck as the peculiarity of her present situation slammed into her consciousness. The forest was void of the usual night sounds, the birds and small animals rustling in the undergrowth, all the noises that terrified her with visions of lurking youkai . . .

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Wait a minute . . . Youkai?

Foreboding and cold fear washed over the girl, and her stride faltered.

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It's too quiet!

She screamed when the large pale form erupted out of the trees beside her, shattering the illusion of calmness, the expectant hush, that had fallen over the forest. Kagome dived to one side in an instinctive attempt to dodge its lunge, overbalancing and toppling to the ground as it sailed over her. She spit leaves and dirt from her mouth, bracing her hands against the ground and attempting to rise. High pitched bloodthirsty snarls and the sharp cracks of breaking branches rang in the air as the creature spun around, and she snapped one foot out at its head in reflexive defense. Her foot struck something solid, and she used that leverage to surge up from the ground in a dead run.

Kagome crashed heedlessly through leaves and brush, all her previous hope of stealth gone, her traitorous panicked mind forcing her to acknowledge that it had never really been an option. Branches raked across her skin leaving stinging red welts and snagged in her clothes, but she ripped out of their grasp without regard to the additional damage she wreaked on herself. Nothing mattered but escape.

Escape and the nameless terror gaining ground behind her.

Rhythmic puffs of air that were not her own screamed in her ears as she rushed headlong for the safety of her family shrine. The thinning trees no longer impeded her movement, and she pushed herself faster, the air burning in her lungs and a sharp twinge erupting in her side. Kagome burst out onto the concrete walkway leading to the well-lit park entrance and the street beyond it, the street where her shrine was located. Her eyes focused on the warm yellow lights that marked people and safety to the exclusion of all else as she focused the entirety of her will and energy into one final sprint.

It was not enough.

A heavy weight slammed into her back, hurling her to the pavement. Kagome gasped and choked as all the air was forced from her lungs, pained tears pricking her eyes, but still she fought, twisting and squirming, ignoring the blackness shading the edge of her vision. Death lurked in that blackness just as much as it raged in the creature above her, and she knew it. Sharp teeth grazed her skin painfully, accompanied by the sound of ripping cloth, as she thrashed desperately. Kagome felt cool air wash over the heated skin of her newly exposed upper back and in her renewed surge of panic somehow managed to roll over.

Fear washed over the schoolgirl's mind when she saw the dim shape looming over her, paralyzing all other functions but the voice in her head screaming to get away. Claws stabbed into her shoulders as she sprawled helplessly on her back, and the sting snapped her out of her daze. She removed one arm from its protective position around her head and struck out blindly with her fist. Pain erupted across her knuckles as her hand connected solidly with the creature's teeth. A strangled snarl reached her ears over the pounding of her own heart, and Kagome felt the weight on her body shifting. Seizing the brief chance, she bucked and wrenched her torso violently, kicking up with her legs. Her attacker was flung off.

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Need a weapon, need a weapon, need a weapon!

Her hands groped the area around her, searching for a stick, a rock, anything, but her seeking hands encountered nothing but rough concrete. Choked sobs wracking her throat, Kagome scrabbled desperately for the ofuda in her pocket. Any hope of protection, even a slip of paper, was better than none. A keening wail escaped her when she pulled out two slender jagged strips. She curled into a ball, clutching the torn ofuda and futilely covering her neck and head with her hands, too tired to run or fight anymore.

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Mama, Jii-chan, Souta, I'm sorry . . .

It was hopeless.

Hopeless.

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But I don't want to die!

The shift in air pressure that marked a new assault raised bumps on her skin, and she could not hold the scream vibrating in her throat back any longer.

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"No! Stop it!"

Warm, moist, rank air fanned across her bare arms and interlaced fingers . . .

But the stabbing pain of fangs sinking into her flesh and the darkness of oblivion never came.

Brilliant light flared in an expanding circle around her body, and power surged through the air bringing with it the sharp smell of ozone. The attacking beast was thrown backwards in midair with a startled yelp only to rebound and slam itself forward into an invisible barrier. Sparks erupted in the air out of nothing, and the stench of burning flesh and fur filled Kagome's nostrils.

When sharp teeth did not rip into her skin she uncurled herself enough to stare in disbelief. Her mouth fell open as horror mingled with stunned awe in her mind. The shimmer of pink light that curled and danced in a protective sphere around her body illuminated a feral face twisted in rage.

Long fangs that were bared all the way back to their raw red gums dominated that terrifying visage, and gold eyes blazing with hate stared unblinkingly into her own above twin purple slashes. A crazed gleam appeared in those hard amber depths as the creature relentlessly hurled itself into the shield.

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No, not gold eyes. Blood red and a blue like the heart of a flame. How could I ever think they were gold?

Kagome realized with an odd sense of detachment that she must be in shock, and the last thing she saw before slipping into blessed unconsciousness was a pair of white, triangular ears perched atop that disturbing head. The formless terror that had pursued her through the darkness now had a face, and it would remain permanently seared in her memory.

* * *

Hours or moments later, she was not sure, Kagome's eyes slowly fluttered open. She shifted slightly on the hard ground, wincing at the stiffness in her limbs. She was cold, very cold and wondered vaguely where her clothes had gotten to before the memories of the night came crashing back down on her. She shot up with a gasp, frantically checking her surroundings for any sign of the creature. Nocturnal birds flitted along on their business with reassuring chirps, and she relaxed fractionally. The park was calm. For the moment, she was safe.

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I have to get home! Mama must be so worried!

The girl struggled to her feet, clutching the tattered remains of her uniform to her body more out of ingrained modesty than for the meager warmth they provided. She staggered out the park entrance into the road, uncaring of anything else, her only goal to make it to the safety of the shrine and its wardswards whose power she had never fully believed in but which had suddenly proven themselves to be very real and very useful.

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And if an ofuda could do that_ I wonder what real wards could do . . . It was like containing lightning, having it bend to my will. There's no way my nonexistent powers could have protected me from such an attack._

Even in the legends of the great miko that Jii-chan was so fond of reciting over supper Kagome had never heard of ofuda responding so strongly when activated. She had also never heard that they could retain their power after being torn, but that defensive, burning bubble of light could only be attributed to the small pile of ashes clutched in her hand and slowly trickling through her fingers to scatter in the breeze.

Every step was slow, laborious torture. Needles traveled up her leg from a wrenched ankle, and her breath came in short, agonizing pants. Kagome did not believe that any of her ribs were broken, but they were certainly sore. Numerous small cuts and abrasions covered her skin from her flight through the forest and her tussles with the creature, and she whimpered softly as her abused skin stretched with her movements.

The street remained barren and deserted as she limped down its center, as it always had during her nightly walks home, as it probably always would once twilight fell, but the emptiness had never struck quite so keenly at her heart before.

__

Even if I had screamed for help no one would have come. No one would have heard me.

It was sobering, frightening, that she could have been killed so close to her home and no one would have ever known what had happened to her.

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Never again. I won't let it happen again.

By this time she stood at the foot of the shrine steps, and she felt her newfound determination fade rapidly as she stared in dismay at the ordeal ahead of her. The ascent was more horrible than she had anticipated. Kagome practically dragged herself over the worn blocks of stone, and no matter how many she climbed they seemed to stretch above her endlessly. She had also never quite realized just how tall and steep each of the individual steps was, even though she stayed squarely in the middle where the thousands of people who had climbed there over the centuries had worn them down.

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How can Jii-chan travel up and down these things every day at his age and still be so energetic?

She finally stumbled onto the level ground at the top and weakly grabbed onto one of the torii's supporting columns. Her body sagged thankfully against the cool, smooth wood, and she wanted nothing more than to just day there and rest.

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"Kagome!"

Her mother's alarmed scream penetrated the haze in her brain slowly. She raised her head with great effort to see her mother rushing from the bright warmth of the house with a panicked expression. The smaller, crouched form of Jii-chan appeared in the doorway as Kagome's arms loosened their grip on the column. She swayed on her feet, the bitter taste of bile rising in her mouth as her head swirled with sudden vertigo.

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Fall forward, fall forward, don't fall down the steps. Please don't fall down the steps. That would be really painful.

Her mother reached her at that moment, catching her daughter's crumpling body in her arms and gathering her close protectively. Kagome collapsed into her embrace with a sigh of relief, burrowing into the soothing warmth and familiar smell of the woman who had always kept all of her childhood demons at bay.

A flash of white and purple, terrifyingly large fangs, and hellish eyes lit by encircling sparks intruded on her disjointed thoughts, and she whimpered in her mother's arms.

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But what can Mama do against this demon?


	4. A Damaged Dog

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Chapter Summary: Kagome gives up her pompoms in the name of self-preservation and finds something most unexpected in the demon beast's forest.  
**A.N.** Regarding the time frame of this fic: it is an alternate universe set in a place that would be identical to our modern world if we had youkai wandering around in it. And since I'd like to keep Kaede and all the other human Sengoku Jidai crew around without them being over 500 years old or involving time travel, Inuyasha was sealed into the body of an Akita fifty years before the present time.

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For Crystaltear and kmf, for being so patient with me regarding this story. I'm sorry to keep you waiting, loves! Please forgive me.

Also for the animals in shelters and humane societies everywhere who have suffered as Inuyasha has suffered, but especially for Elvis the foxhound who gave me firsthand experience with the horrors of severe emaciation and my own wonderful rescued dogs who have taught me the ways of love and loyalty. May they all find loving homes at last.

**Dog's Body**

by  
**Smarty Cat  
**smartycat9383(at)yahoo(dot)com

**Chapter 3: _A Damaged Dog _  
**

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We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words.  
Anna Sewell, Black Beauty

"Kagome!"

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Oh, no, please not now . . .

The girl flinched as her name echoed across the school courtyard in a high-pitched wail. Pasting a strained smile on her face and clutching her book bag to her chest defensively, she pivoted on her heel to face the horde of teenage girls stampeding toward her. They thronged around her on all sides, pinning her and cutting off any chance of escape while barraging her with lightning fast questions. The chattering rose into one indistinguishable buzz devoid of true language, and Kagome swayed on her feet and dug her fingers into the smooth leather of her bag as she fought the urge to clap her hands protectively over her ears.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Eri's quiet question cut through the wall of noise with sharp precision, and the girls abruptly fell silent and really studied the object of their interrogation for the first time. Eri gently touched her pale friend's arm, and a weak but genuine smile flitted over Kagome's face.

"I'm fine, Eri. We better hurry or we'll be late for class."

The group broke apart after a few hurried glances at watches accompanied by some sharp gasps and dispersed to their respective areas of the school. Kagome entered her own classroom wearily, still flanked by her three closest friends, one of whom was eyeing her quite suspiciously.

"Why weren't you at school yesterday, Kagome?" Yuka demanded as they took their seats.

"I . . . didn't feel very well," Kagome murmured evasively, shifting uneasily in her chair.

Yuka leaned in closely, narrowing her eyes threateningly. Her voice came out in a dangerously silken purr. "Houjou-kun from Class B wasn't here yesterday either. Don't you think that's odd, Kagome? You were both absent on the same day. That's very suspicious." She suddenly grabbed Kagome's hands and enthusiastically pulled the startled girl closer, a wickedly bright smile dancing on her face. "So spill!"

Kagome's eyes widened from a combination of pain and surprise, and she vainly attempted to free herself from her friend's clutches while sputtering excuses. "How could you think I was with Houjou-kun? I was home all day!"

"He did have a baseball meet yesterday, Yuka," Ayumi interjected wryly from across the room.

Kagome stilled in Yuka's hands, turning her head slowly to stare back at the wide-eyed and intrigued faces viewing their display. Color rushed to her face, and she sank down in her seat with a mortified whimper.

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Everyone in the classroom heard Yuka! Now they'll all think I want Houjou-kun!

All eyes remained riveted to her increasingly red face, including a rather annoyed pair belonging to the teacher. When she met his disgruntled gaze, Kagome snatched her hands away from Yuka and scrambled to her feet, bowing awkwardly in respect.

"Might we be able to start class now that we're done discussing Higurashi-san's home life?" he asked snidely, setting his briefcase down on the teacher's desk with a resounding thump and eying Kagome over the top of his glasses. "I trust that you were in fact ill yesterday and did not skip my class to gallivant off with some boy? Even if he is on the baseball team."

"Yes, sensei," Kagome murmured and ducked her head in embarrassment. "My mother sent notification to the administration."

The teacher nodded curtly, satisfied with her answer, and class officially began. Kagome dutifully paid attention during the first few minutes of each class when the teacher entered, but as they progressed her interest gradually began to drift. She propped her chin on her hand, idly tapping her pencil against the desk as her math teacher droned on about the virtues of using augmented matrices to solve multi-variable equations. After a loud clearing of the throat followed by a sharp, reprimanding glare from the front of the room, she stilled her pencil sheepishly. Her friends looked over at her curiously and whispered among themselves, but Kagome could not stop her fidgeting. She felt restless, and her hands seemed to have developed a mind of their own as she set to work drawing meaningless doodles on her notes. With her need for movement satisfied, her eyes glazed over as her thoughts turned inward to memories of the incident two nights ago.

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What was that thing?

It had not been human, but she had been unable to locate any youki during her scanning of the park. This creature was something new to her, something different.

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Unless it's something old . . . I almost wish I'd paid more attention to Jii-chan's rambling.

Kagome's eyes narrowed as she struggled to remember what she knew of the legend of the demon beast. In every one of her grandfather's retellings he had referred to the creature as a beast, never once giving it the designation of youkai.

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It must be an animal. But what animal in Japan is that big and would attack a human so savagely?

The bell for lunch startled Kagome out of her musings, and she snapped out of her daze to see the throng of hungry students rush out the classroom door for the freedom of the cafeteria and courtyard. Eri and Ayumi hung back, waiting, as Yuka marched up to Kagome's desk. She grabbed Kagome's arm, pulling her from her seat without hearing her friend's pained whimper, and paused with her head cocked to one side as she studied Kagome's math notes intently.

"What is that?" she murmured to herself before raising firm eyes to Kagome's face. "I think we need to have a talk. You're acting weird."

"Huh?" Kagome yelped as Yuka pulled her from the room. Her eyes fell to the paper on her desk, and she stifled a shocked gasp. A pair of slit-pupiled eyes wreathed in flame stared back at her from the page.

* * *

Later that afternoon, Kagome meandered lazily along the well manicured sidewalks of her school, still mulling over the ridiculous interrogation she had been subjected to during lunch.

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I can't believe Yuka asked me if I was dating a gang member and had taken up graffiti! I only missed one day of school! And a lot of good that did.

Despite her enforced bed rest of the day before, her body had yet to recover from the abuse it had received. Forcing herself to walk without a blatantly obvious limp all day taxed already sore muscles, and she slowed further as she approached the open patch of ground where her fellow cheerleaders were going through their warm-up exercises.

"You're late, Higurashi." Kinomoto-sensei strode over with her hands on her hips. She shot Kagome a piercing stare. "And you were absent yesterday."

Kagome dropped into an apologetic bow, wincing behind the fall of her bangs as her ribs protested. Her voice wavered with strain as she murmured her excuses. "I'm very sorry, sensei. I was ill yesterday and unable to come to school."

"I don't want undependable people on my squad."

A tiny, wry smile curled Kagome's lips beneath the fall of her hair. "Then you need no longer concern yourself with me. I wish to leave."

A stunned silence greeted her request, and Kagome shot a quick glance up through her bangs. Kinomoto-sensei gaped openly though there was an unfocused quality to her eyes that suggested that she was not actually looking at the student before her. Kagome straightened carefully, one hand rising to hover protectively over the bandages on her torso. She let out her breath carefully and raised her head.

Kinomoto-sensei's eyes focused with sharp clarity on the girl at that protective gesture. They were most intent on the hand that Kagome quickly pulled away from her side. The teacher's eyes narrowed, and she stepped forward. Kagome retreated instantly but froze when the teacher's hand snapped out and snagged her uniform top. She practically stopped breathing as the cheerleading coach slowly pulled the material up, revealing a small strip of the beige bandage binding the girl's stomach. She released Kagome and stepped away abruptly.

"I grant your request to leave the cheerleading squad, but I'm sorry to see you go." She refused to meet Kagome's eyes as for a brief moment she dropped her wall of authority and superiority. "Though if this is the price of your participation I would not have you stay."

"Thank you, Kinomoto-sensei."

The older woman snorted. "You'll have to explain it to the rest of the girls, so don't thank me yet. Besides, you're not much use to anyone if you get yourself killed." The harsh lines of her face eased into concern as she delicately squeezed Kagome's shoulder. "Take care of yourself and be careful."

Kagome smiled weakly, unsettled at the coach's mention of death. When Kinomoto-sensei's hand dropped, she turned and left. Higurashi Kagome walked away from the group of girls doing acrobatics on the grass, and she did not look back.

* * *

Late afternoon sunlight flowed along the park paths in a golden caress, and Kagome closed her eyes and raised her face to better feel the heat. A happy sigh escaped her as the distant voices of laughing children drifted past on the spring breeze. Several hours of daylight remained, and the relaxed attitude of the park during the day provided a novel experience for the girl who had known nothing but the fear of the night journey. Kagome felt warm and lazy and not the least bit threatened. She wandered slowly among the flowers and ornamental trees, dropping the facade of health she had maintained at school. She openly favored her ankle and took small cautious steps that became even smaller and more cautious as she approached the boundary to the forest.

Kagome halted completely at the edge of the shadows. The thick, study trees of the small section of national park that had overflowed onto the city recreational grounds thrust up unexpectedly from the earth in a tall forbidding wall of greenery. The division was sharp, abrupt, and marked by giant scars in the earth, and Kagome thought of one of her grandfather's favorite talesone that she knew to be true because she had witnessed it.

The Tokyo City Council had wanted the forest destroyed several years before on the grounds that it was a haven for youkai and if they had nowhere to hide then they could be easily killed. So the council had called all the shrine and temple families as well as the local groups of taijiya to City Hall to enlist their aid. Jii-chan had laughed in their faces when he heard their plans, but when the council remained intent in their course, he had argued vehemently against the destruction of the forest, claming that it was a futile waste of valuable resources on the city's part. There had been snide comments that if the youkai disappeared then he would be out of a job, and Kagome remembered scoffing at the idea that the loss of the youkai would affect him in any serious way because Jii-chan was so ineffective that he might as well not even be a priest. However, he had simply smiled secretly and murmured something about the Go Shinboku and the reemergence of the Shikon no Tama. Then he had said something especially enigmatic, and his eyes had flicked strangely to Kagome's face.

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There is a balance, and you cannot hope to disrupt it. The forest stays.

And indeed it had stayed. Despite their best efforts none of the bulldozers had been able to breach the first trees, and the fires they had started quickly died out. The ruts in the earth along the edge of the forest gave silent testimony to their valiant but vain attempt.

"There is a balance," Kagome murmured absently, stroking her hand down the rough bark of the nearest tree. She stepped slowly beneath the canopy, and the shadows engulfed her in a cold embrace. Her heart pounded loudly in her ears, and she took a deep breath. "There is a balance," she repeated, her voice stronger. "Youkai own the night, but humans rule the day."

Her voice echoed strangely in the quiet of the trees. The giggles and shrieks of the children in the park faded behind her with each slow step, and only distant birdsong broke the silence. Children never played in the forest, and most adults considered it far too dangerous to venture away from the weak protection afforded by the path. Although youkai were not usually active during the day, it would be unwise to accidentally stumble across one of their dens. Kagome peered around nervously, but walked at a steady pace. The comfort she had felt under the open sky rapidly dissipated with each step that took her deeper into the heart of the forest.

"I am not scared," she chanted under her breath. "I am not scared, I am not scared, I am not_What is that?_"

She clapped her hands over her mouth in horror as her startled yelp reverberated in the air, but the strange patch of white lying among the greenery ten meters from the path did not move. With adrenaline surging through her body and her breath caught in her throat, Kagome eased over to the side of the path closest to the object. She stood on her tiptoes, wobbling slightly due to her injured ankle, and craned her head over the expanse of underbrush, but her vision remained obstructed.

Curiosity stirred in her mind, slowly pushing back the fear, and she took the first hesitant steps off the path. Thick, scraggly brush scratched light welts on her bare skin and tangled in her loose socks. Low branches hanging overhead forced her to crawl the last little bit, and she bit back a whimper as her hair snarled painfully. With her mouth dry and her heart pounding against her sore ribs, she reached out one trembling, clammy hand to push aside the final branch impeding her view.

A white streak flashed out, and strong jaws snapped together with a sharp click mere centimeters from her face. Kagome reeled backwards, too startled to scream, but the assault did not continue. The girl gasped as agony erupted across her side from the sudden movement and subsequent impact. Her breath came in short and shallow pants, gradually deepening and resuming its normal rhythm even as her heart slowed from its frantic galloping. She stared dazedly at the canopy from where she lay sprawled in the underbrush as the pain in her side abated.

Slowly she became aware of the ragged breathing near her ear. Kagome turned her head with exaggerated care to the source of the warm air wafting across her temple and saw what appeared to be white fur peaking through the shrubbery. Her hands closed convulsively at her sides, fingers digging into the dirt as she pulled her body back in instinctual fear before rolling onto her side with excruciating slowness. She shook her head to rid herself of her stupor and grimaced as her side throbbed with a sharp ache. Kagome rose to her knees shakily, suppressing a hiss as her ankle sent out a sharp stab of pain, and froze in place when her gaze caught the glazed, feverishly burning eyes glaring out at her through the leaves. After several long moments in which she did not breathe she noticed that the bright gaze seemed unfocused, the pupils wide and unseeing.

Kagome wet her lips nervously and swallowed the dry lump hammering in her throat as she crept forward and eased aside the final branch. "Oh, no." She could not suppress the moan of horror that rose in her throat. "No, no, no, no, no, please no." She closed her eyes tightly, banishing away angry tears and schooling a hard expression across her face. The atrocious vision was still there when she opened her eyes again.

A white dog lay collapsed among the undergrowth, too weak now to do more than keep its head up while glaring blindly into space. Kagome fought down a hysterical giggle as she counted the ribs standing out sharply against its side. Its hipbones rose prominently above its horrendously visible spine, and its white coat was dull and mangy and harsh. The animal was completely emaciated.

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He looks more like a fur-covered scrubbing board than a dog!

Her eyes trailed over the dog's head as she inched forward. His nostrils flared, and that disconcerting sightless gaze swung toward her. He snarled softly, menacingly, but Kagome realized it was merely a cover for his helplessness. She started trembling violently as she got her first clear look at the dog's face. Prick ears drooped weakly against a broad skull, and exposed, charred skin stretched tightly around sunken, listless eyes.

"Who could have done this to you?" The broken whisper escaped her mouth before she was even aware of consciously having the thought, and the dog's snarls rose in pitch, the two sounds weaving throughout one another in the silent air between them.

The dog shifted restlessly, but his movements seemed to be encumbered by something more than his weakness. Kagome followed the expanse of slowly healing burns down the dog's neck and forequarters. When she reached the strong bones of his legs that seemed far too large for the rest of his horribly frail body, she noticed that an exposed tree root had ensnared his right paw. Kagome reached forward slowly, afraid the dog might still have enough strength to lash out one more time in fear, but his previous actions had exhausted him, and he merely growled faintly when her hand brushed against his fur. She pursed her lips thoughtfully as she considered how to free him without causing harm to either of them, absently stroking his leg while he snarled with each touch.

She finally reached a conclusive course of action and pulled a length of medical gauze from her schoolbag, looping it and tying it off with a slipknot before sliding it over the dog's muzzle and pulling it closed. He shook his head angrily and struggled to rise to his feet, but Kagome firmly applied pressure to his shoulders with one hand while her other hand pulled at the root. It remained firm and unyielding, and she relinquished her grip on his shoulder, tugging the root with both hands and silently praying that her makeshift muzzle did not slip because he was starting to appear quite agitated. After many long moments of effort on her part and much thrashing and snarling on the dog's, his foot finally slid free. Kagome caught hold of one of the ends of gauze, tugging it over his head and down his nose then quickly stepped away. The dog abruptly settled down, practically collapsing once again now that the source of his stress was gone.

The teenager stood, staring once again at his glaringly obvious state of malnutrition before whirling and hobbling back the way she had come. She had seen a man selling ramen by the park entrance. Though there was none of fear that had marked her last flight through the forest, a similar sense of urgency settled over Kagome as she ignored the pain in her leg and side and broke into a jog.

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Wait for me, Inu. Please wait for me . . .


	5. Touched

As always, C&C is greatly appreciated, and if you have any favorite dog or animal-in-general related quotes please pass them on to me in a review or via my livejournal (linked to in my user page). I want to have one at the beginning of each chapter, and my current list doesn't cover every situation I have plotted. Credit will, of course, be given if I use a submitted quote.

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Chapter Summary: Inuyasha experiences a brief (very brief) moment of guilt and then he tries to eat while Kagome tries to feel him up.

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Dog's Body

by  
**Smarty Cat **  
smartycat9383(at)yahoo(dot)com

**Chapter 4: _Touched_**

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If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.  
Mark Twain

"Inu!"

Inuyasha raised his head from his paws and turned his hard golden gaze in the direction of the humans' path as the drawn-out singsonged call echoed among the forest trees. He snorted, ears pricking forward as he tested the air. The hair along his neck and shoulders rose reflexively when her approaching scent teased his nostrils.

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'So, the girl is back . . .'

He consciously forced his hackles to lower and his muscles to relax. It had been a very strange adjustment process getting used to this peculiar human. Even now he could not completely control this body's natural reaction to a smell so similar to the one that had created it.

He had thought she was Kikyou in the beginning, Kikyou come back to taunt him for his weakness. And he had been unable to kill her because of that weakness. It had left him raging in his husk of a body, helpless to defend himself, helpless to rend and crush those seeking human hands until her screams shattered the air and her blood ran hot in his mouth. Though infuriating at the time, he had realized in hindsight that it was probably in his overall best interest that he had been physically unable to attack the girl. When she had approached him despite her fear (and she had _reeked_ of fear), when she had touched him, freed him, fed him, the subtleties of her scent, so like Kikyou's yet so markedly different, had cleared his mind of the blood haze.

And underlying her natural odor had been the damning evidence of blood and illness wrapped in his own scent.

'So, she was the one . . . the one I hunted.' His ears flattened briefly against his skull in shame as vague, disjointed memories of his previous madness drifted hazily through his mind.

For a very long time he had had no sense of time and reality. Rage and betrayal, compounded by hunger, had reduced his intellect to its most primitive level, stripping his consciousness to only the basic necessities of survival. Fight. Flee. Hunt. Kill. However, he had never fully adapted to the form Kikyou had trapped him in. He lacked the coordination and agility to catch small, fast-moving game, and deer were rare in the forest so close to the city. Even if he did come across one, unabated hunger had sapped his strength, making a kill next to impossible. In final desperation, madness, he had taken to stalking humans. When he had still been aware of his actions they disgusted him. It was cannibalism in its way due to his hybrid lineage, and cannibalism of their own kind was forbidden among both his mother's and his father's peoples.

But eventually he became too hungry to care.

The girl had come along at quite a convenient time, or so it seemed. His hesitance to directly attack humans had reached its lowest point, and an isolated young female would be an easy and much needed meal. But he had underestimated her strength. Or overestimated his own. Whatever the true reason, she had severely injured him, and the new moon of the next night had left him on the verge of death. She had found him then and, not realizing who or what he was, had proceeded to restore him to health.

The regular meals of table scraps she brought revitalized his body, and he inwardly scoffed at her amazement at his quick recovery. He might be trapped in a dog's body, but he was still a hanyou with a hanyou's healing abilities. However, despite the generous amounts of food the girl brought him, he had yet to return to his full strength. Because she was ignorant of his true identity she did not realize the bounds his appetite could have, especially the amount required to recover his lost health. Though she starved him in a kinder way than he had starved before, it was not fatal. Some food was far better than none, and each day he grew stronger. Soon he would have enough strength to hunt and to kill and would no longer need to concern himself with her offerings. Then he would decide what he would do with the girl.

"Inu!"

Inuyasha rose, stretching extravagantly. His eyes narrowed as he set off toward the crashing sounds of her progress through the forest. Didn't she realize how loud she was?

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'One day you will realize what I am, human girl, and you will attempt to kill me as all the others have. But you too will fail.'

* * *

"Inu! Inu, where are you?"

Kagome cupped her hands around her mouth to amplify the call. She walked steadily down the forest trail, her large yellow bag slung over her shoulder and bouncing against her back with each step. Despite still fresh memories of the attack, the forest during the day was far less forbidding, and each day she found herself relaxing a bit more upon entering its shadows. The dog had a significant impact on her new attitude, of course. He was soothing, bad tempered as he was, because he was alive, had stayed alive. Her fear of the demon beast's forest evaporated with each new day marked by shafts of sunlight arching down through the trees and by the presence of the white dog . . . when he choose to reveal himself.

"Come on, Inu! I have ramen!"

She held up the still warm carton, waving it in the air expectantly. The undergrowth rustled to her right, followed seconds later by a large furry head staring balefully at her from between the leaves.

"That's a good boy!" she cooed, ignoring his snarled response as she approached a fallen tree. Kagome grimaced as she eyed the no doubt rotting wood. She dropped her bag unceremoniously beside the log before perching the ramen carton atop it a bit more carefully. She beckoned to Inuyasha as she shrugged out of her new, red uniform jacket and spread it over the tree before sitting down. "Come over here. We're going to try something different today, okay?"

The dog approached her warily, stopping well out of reach and sitting down. Kagome's lips quirked, and she quickly cupped her chin to hide her wry smile.

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Well, someone obviously doesn't like the routine deviating from the norm, but I've spent the last few weeks leading up to this moment. He's not going to change my mind now.

She honestly had not expected him to survive the first night after she had found him, but he had managed to surprise her. She had taken to leaving food for him near the tree where she found him. It was always gone by the next day, and he slowly began to move around. Kagome was overjoyed, and a plot began to form in her mind. She had always wanted a dog, and now she had one . . . even if he was wild, dangerous, and starving.

So Kagome was crafty and patient and embarked on a surprisingly successful process of desensitizing him to her presence. Each day she moved the food a little farther away from the tree and closer to her log, and each day she sat a little closer to him and stayed a little longer. Gradually he became accustomed to her presence, and some of his aggression and skittishness towards her vanished. However, he tolerated her only because she was useful to him, because she fed him, and she knew it.

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But I won't let it end there.

"Now, are you sure you don't want this yummy, healthy dog food?" she cajoled, pulling a small but still full bag of kibble from her bag. As always he turned his head away and raised his nose in the air, grumbling under his breath. In a human such an action would be considered an obvious negative and a deliberate snub, and the dog's action never failed to amuse Kagome. "Beggars can't be choosers, you know." She snorted. "Then again, you've never begged. Fine, fine, have it your way then. But that cost me a lot of money. Dog food isn't cheap! But I guess if you really don't want it then I'll stop offering."

Inuyasha huffed impatiently and flexed his paws, gouging lines in the dirt to release some of his annoyance. _'I am not your pet, bitch, so just shut up and give me the real food.'_

She leaned forward, tilting her head curiously. "I wonder why you're the way you are though. I wish you could talk and would tell me what happened to you. Did someone poison you once? Is that why you won't even touch it? Were you betrayed?"

He turned his head back to her, and a curl of fear twisted in her stomach at the sharpness in his cold golden stare.

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Don't be ridiculous, Kagome! You're imagining things. There's no way he could have possibly understood what you just said.

"I know, I know, just get on with the feeding, right?" she forced with fake cheer, pulling various containers from her bag. "You're lucky I'm so generous . . . and that Mama hasn't realized I've been sneaking out leftovers." She tossed a handful of fish cakes at his feet and watched him wolf them down, relaxing back into fond annoyance as the tension eased from his body. "You could at least show a little gratitude. Every day you get half of my lunch in addition to the leftovers, and _I _get hungry too!"

Several rice balls disappeared down his gullet, and he turned his remorselessly expectant yellow gaze to the ramen carton at her side even as he dipped his head into the obento box she had shoved to him with her foot.

"Somebody's got a healthy appetite. Guess I would too if I'd been starving though," Kagome mused aloud, idly stuffing the empty containers back into her bag.

His stare did not waver in its intensity, and she suppressed a triumphant grin. The dog loved ramen. He seemed to love all food actually, and who could blame him after he had gone without it for so long? However, ramen had been the first food she had ever given him, and that first life-saving meal had left quite an impression on the dog . . . which was why Kagome was using ramen as bait. She had not touched him since she had freed himhe did not want her to and, despite her cavalier attitude, she had a great deal of respect for his teethbut she was determined to change that today.

It's good that he's so focused . . . since I'm not going to allow my intentions to be swayed no matter what.

As his eyes followed her every movement, Kagome carefully put the ramen into two shallow bowls that she had brought just for this occasion. One bowl she put on the ground and slid carefully to him with her foot, but she clutched the other one tightly to her. The dog slipped forward cautiously, keeping his strange eyes on her even as he dipped his muzzle in the bowl. The flavored noodles and broth disappeared quickly, and he raised his head, eyeing the bowl in her hands hungrily.

The girl smiled and slowly extended her right arm, cupping the bowl carefully on her palm. Inuyasha's ears pricked forward, and he eased closer. Kagome just as slowly drew the bowl back. The dog stiffened, glaring at her angrily, something between an indignant snarl and a pleading whimper rising in his throat.

"Come on," Kagome cajoled softly. "You know you want it. Just come and get it. I won't hurt you."

Inuyasha bristled. _'How stupid do you think I am, human? I know what you want. You won't get it. I am not a fucking pet!'_

But the warm scent of the ramen teased his nostrils, and against his will his body pressed forward.

Inuyasha walked forward one step.

Two steps.

Three.

Every muscle in his body tensed to move and his eyes locked on her face, he began lapping at the noodles. Kagome held her breath, afraid that her tiniest action might drive him away. However, she could not withstand the temptation of those soft triangular ears forever, and her left hand rose slowly.

Her fingers barely brushed against the top of his lowered head. Inuyasha snarled savagely, jerking his head away from her touch and sending the empty ramen bowl flying out of her hand. He sprang away into the forest shadows, leaving the bowl facedown in the dirt and Kagome clutching her hands to her chest. Kagome slid off the fallen tree onto the ground and laughed shakily as she felt her heart racing through the material of her shirt. She closed her eyes, slumping against the rough wood at her back and raising her face to the treetops.

"Well . . . that went better than I expected."


	6. Language Barriers

****

Chapter Summary: Kagome hears voices (or rather a voice), Inuyasha wishes her hearing was more acute, and Kaede brings out the beads.

****

Dog's Body

by  
**Smarty Cat **  
smartycat9383(at)yahoo(dot)com

**Chapter 5: _Language Barriers_  
**

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I used to look at my dog Smokey and think "If you were a little smarter you could tell me what you were thinking," and he'd look at me like he was saying, "If you were a little smarter, I wouldn't have to."  
Fred Jungclaus

Danger lurked in the shadows of the demon beast's forest. It was widely known and undisputed knowledge that to enter the trees put a person at risk for grave injury or madness and that to leave the trail meant almost certain death. Yet every day a teenage girl did those very thingsentered the trees and left the trail for the sole purpose of a face-to-face meeting with death and destruction. A quite vocal, furry white death and destruction . . .

__

'You are a malevolent, groping bitch. Just give me the fucking food already!' Inuyasha shifted from paw to paw, rocking his body angrily so that the layer of dead foliage beneath him rustled a warning to the careless human girl as his snarls increased in volume to match it.

They had enacted similar lure, threaten, and retreat scenarios daily since the first petting incident two weeks before. The girl waved food at him, he came to take it, she groped him, and he left, expressing his disgust with a constant relay of vocalizations throughout the entire process.

Then she began withholding food.

Inuyasha was not amused.

His was a token display of resistance, and they both knew it. Despite his growling and grumbling and his apparent outrage at her manipulative tactics, he stayed. He met her every day of his own free will, and though constantly balking and uttering snarled protestations (he was a shockingly vocal dog though she had yet to hear him bark) at her affectionate overtures, he came to her willingly enough. Just never immediately.

"Come on, Inu," Kagome wheedled, crouching on the permanent layer of fallen leaves covering the forest floor and wiggling a stick of men's pocky enticingly in her fingers. "I just want to pet you."

His nose wrinkled in distaste, his lips rising and exposing the tips of his fangs. _'Stupid human. What makes you think I want to be petted? Keep your filthy human hands off me!'_

She frowned and straightened, rocking forward onto the balls of her feet and withdrawing her offering with an air of annoyance. Her hands moved to her hips to both maintain her balance and to express her displeasure before the one still clutching the stick of pocky rose and thumped closed-fisted against her chest. "My name is Kagome. Ka-Go-Me," she enunciated with force. "Higurashi Kagome."

At that they both froze, staring incredulously at one another.

Inuyasha was the first to move. A quiver ran across his entire body, almost impelling him to draw closer to her, to look into her wide, startled eyes from a shorter distance. He surged forward, landing in a crouch in front of her hunched from, and peered up into her shockingly blank face. _'You can hear me?'_

Kagome raised one hand to her head while casually shoving the pocky into his mouth with the other. Her fingers trembled, vibrating gently against his whiskers as his jaws automatically closed on the object forced between them.

"I knew it. I really haven't been getting enough sleep." She laughed weakly, sliding her hand out of her bangs and covering her eyes. "Now I'm starting to hallucinate."

She took a deep, ragged breath and bit her bottom lip. Her fingers scissored, and she peered out silently at him from between them for a long moment before sighing in a resigned manner and squaring her shoulders. Kagome beckoned, palm up and fingers loosely crooked. "Come here."

Inuyasha bristled but padded forward the final step between them, and she reached for him, sinking her hands into his lush, but dingy, white fur. Kagome wobbled a bit as she bent over him, running her fingers slowly through his coat along his back and sides while her thoughts chased each other in tangled circles.

He had started allowing her to do this several days before. However, his neck and head remained clearly off limits, and she did not dare attempt to initiate a tummy rub. He was too wary, too unpredictable, too dangerous. He remained coiled and alert beneath her hands, muscles tensed in preparation for actionviolent action if the soundless rumble throbbing along his ribcage was anything to go by. In many ways the dog was still wild, and she imagined he always would be to an extent. It was a part of his mostly nonexistent charm.

Kagome pushed the strange, snarled declaration that had seared through her consciousness mere moments ago to the back of her mind and focused on the look and feel of the perfectly _normal_, if bad-tempered, animal in her arms.

__

It's amazing how quickly his wounds have healed since I've been providing him with regular meals and putting weight back on him. I would have thought it'd take more time to recover from such extensive burns.

However, as far as she could tell he did not even have any scar tissue, and his fur had grown back thick and luxurious. The brief flashes of skin she saw as she tormented him with her affection looked pink and healthy, even where burns had left it black and blistered before.

__

It's as though it never happened, as if he was never injured.

Her heart pounded in response to her thoughts, an alarm that she did not understand stiffening her body. Kagome forced herself to breathe deeply and relax. She tilted her head to the side, studying his face while being careful to avoid staring directly into his strange eyes, but even the more delicate skin there seemed to have suffered no permanent damage. Inuyasha noticed her scrutiny and pulled away slightly though he did not fully leave the circle of her arms.

"Every day you meet me," she murmured, letting her voice fill the air and wrap between them. Her words had acted as a binding since the moment she found him, accustoming him to her presence, and he no longer snarled at her with each syllable she spoke. "Every day I come, and you're waiting for me. Why?"

Inuyasha shifted, wondering if she really expected an answer, wondering if this was some sort of trick, and, yet, he realized that he did not know _why_ he did it, why he followed her beyond the feedings he no longer needed. He just did.

"Summer is coming," Kagome continued, releasing him and sitting back on the ground, for once ignoring the jacket carefully spread on the earth a short distance away. Her nose wrinkled briefly at the decomposing leaves rustling beneath her and the smears of dirt already collecting on her skin and clothes, but she did not bother to move. She drew her knees up and rested her head on her folded arms atop them, looking beyond his shoulder to the shafts of light piercing through the canopy. "The days are getting longer and warmer, and I can spend more time with you before having to worry about being out after sunset. It's not so scary now . . . with you beside me. I used to be terrified to come in here, but now that I know you're here waiting for me I . . . I almost look forward to it, as crazy as that sounds. You follow me, and the shadows and the sounds aren't as frightening. You can hear and smell things that I can't, like an early warning system, right? If something doesn't bother you why should it bother me?"

She laughed. "The daylight probably helps too. Because I know you just come for the handouts. You don't like _me_; you like the food I bring you. You trail me, but you don't trust me. And that's okay. I don't blame you after the way you've been treated, and to be honest I don't trust you either." She cocked her head to the side and looked at him from the corner of her yes, a wry smile pulling her mouth up at one corner. "Not yet anyway. You don't seem so bad though so maybe I will. Someday."

Inuyasha could not completely suppress the strange and unexpected surge of emotion that stiffened his body, the first sudden drop of guilt that hit like a punch to his stomach followed by the unwelcome upsurge of hope that increased his heart rate. She was just a stupid human. Nothing she said mattered. It should not matter. It _did not _matter. They were empty words, the rambling of an ignorant, insignificant human girl who was too stupid to even realize what he was despite their mutual history of nearly killing each other.

"You look familiar in some strange way, like I should know you," she mused aloud, intruding on his own all too uncomfortable thoughts.

Inuyasha's nostrils flared as he swung his head around so swiftly that it nearly collided with her own. _'You did hear me, didn't you? You just don't know it. What are you, girl?'_

She reached out to touch his face, but he sidestepped her hand with a warning snarl. Unless she was putting food in his mouth, his head was and had always been clearly off limits, his neck and throat even more so. It went against his every instinct and past experience to allow her access to any sensitive or vulnerable areas. His ears were a particular cause of contention. Kagome found the fuzzy white triangles fascinating. Inuyasha did not want her hands anywhere near them.

His threatening display did not dissuade her advances, however. She made a shushing sound, almost like a purr, and redirected her hand to a different destination, lightly brushing the fur on the front of his legs as she baited him with a bit of candy. The warm, rich chocolate melting from the heat of her fingers lessoned his misgivings, and he permitted her to touch him as he plucked the candy from her hand with surprising delicacy.

Kagome hummed under her breath as she suppressed a grimace at the wet tongue curling about her fingers, scrubbing every last bit of melted chocolate from her pores. It was easier to study him when his attention was diverted and he did not care so much about the invasive feeling of her eyes scrutinizing him. There was something strangely familiar about the dog though, something that niggled the back of her mind every time she saw a flash of white from the corner of her eye.

Though still too skinny, his condition had improved a great deal since she first found him. The added muscle mass that came with regular meals and exercise had done wonders to his proportions, and his coat grew thicker and healthier each day, though it remained matted and dirty despite Kagome's best, if admittedly limited, efforts to finger comb it. However, when the light hit him a certain way he sparkled like sun-touched snow. Inu (she really needed to think of a better name for him) was built on clean, powerful lines and moved with the intense, fierce grace of a predator poised to spring. Or do battle.

__

That's it!

Kagome's eyes narrowed as her gaze roved every line of his body. Her fingers tightened, pinching thick folds of skin between them, and he growled warningly.

"Akita," she mumbled, sitting back in the leaves and staring blankly beyond him. "Gods, you're an Akita."

And she started laughing.

His wiry and somewhat foxy appearance, combined with the curled tail, alert posture, head shape, and perfect triangular ears were unmistakable now that she knew what to look for. There was no doubt about it; despite his size, he was not at all bearish or bulky. Her Inu was a true Japanese Akita, free of any influence from the old Tosa and shepherd outcrosses. His strange, too light eyes were the only other fault her untrained eye could pick out, but he did not appear to have any vision problems, and they really were quite attractive with his coloring.

__

He should have been safely tucked away in a breeding program somewhere instead of left injured and starving in a forest full of youkainot that I'm about to give him up now that I have him.

The starving, bedraggled, bad tempered dog she had found would be stunning with a bit more time and care. The idea that someone would treat an _Akita_ in the manner that Inu had been treated . . . it was unimaginable.

Inuyasha watched in startled silence as the heaving of her shoulders slowed and then changed subtly as tears began trickling from her eyes. His own eyes widened as his ears flattened against his skull.

__

'Oi! Don't cry!'

She peeked up at him, with a strange heart-rending expression. "You're beautiful. How could someone treat you the way they did? How could someone hurt you?"

He froze fleetingly in the midst of his uncomfortable skittering. She thought he was beautiful? No. _No!_ This girl. Kikyou. The blood. The fire. The agony. She had no idea what she had done to him, what he had been through. None. And she was the reason! She had done it to him.

Yet she cried for him.

__

'No,' he thought suddenly, angrily. _'You cry for the dog.' _A strangled snarl built in his throat, but he whirled and fled before it reached the air.

Kagome lunged forward, one arm flung out and reaching after his retreating form. She did not call him though. She could not. The word stuck in her tear-clogged throat, a little inarticulate whimper of sound that stood no chance of closing the widening distance between them. Her shoulders slumped, and she sighed. She felt strangely bereft without his belligerent presence at her side. The forest shadows loomed darker and deeper, but she missed more than simply the illusion of protection he provided.

"Stupid Inu. Why do I even bother?" A self-deprecating laugh bubbled forth from her lips, and she shoved her hair out of her face as she rose to her feet. "I like him though I can't imagine why. Stupid me. What a pair we are."

* * *

Kagome stepped out of the telephone booth and shielded her eyes against the bright glare of the sun. Her furtive gaze darted back and forth before she shoved a hastily scribbled note into her bag and began walking briskly up the street.

"Kagome!"

__

Damn.

Arumi called her name again and waved as she jogged across the street. She tucked some errant strands of wavy hair behind her ear as she giggled. "We're going to karaoke and then out for ice cream. Want to come?"

Kagome hesitated, biting her lower lip as her eyes flickered up and down the street, noting the length of the shadows. They had been let out of class early and she had already paid Inu his daily visit so she had a few extra hours before nightfall, but there were other things that she had hoped to accomplish in that time. She smiled apologetically and shook her head. "I can't today. There are some other things I have to do." Arumi's face fell, and Kagome felt a sharp stab of guilt strike her conscience. "I can walk with you for a little way though," she added as Yuka and Eri approached.

"So you're not coming?" Yuka asked bluntly, crossing her arms and shifting her weight to one hip.

Kagome shook her head again. "I can't today."

"Fine then," the other girl muttered, turning and walking off. Her friends fell in behind her after an uncomfortable pause.

After a few minutes of heavy silence, Eri glanced sideways at Kagome, a calculating glint in her eyes, and ventured far too casually, "You've never said why you quit cheerleading."

Kagome twirled a lock of hair around her fingers as she contemplated her answer.

__

How much can I tell them? How much would they understand?

"Going to avoid it again, Kagome? Planning to just stop talking again?" Yuka demanded snidely without bothering to turn around.

"No, I just . . . I never was that good at it, never really happy with it, and"

Yuka's right hand sliced out to the side in a negating gesture, cutting Kagome off mid-sentence. "You still don't just quit in the middle of the year!"

"It wasn't the middle, Yuka," Arumi chided nervously, stepping in as peacekeeper. She was quivering at the tension among her friends. "It was the beginning."

Yuka snorted, and though she did not turn around Kagome had no doubt that she was rolling her eyes. "But she was one for the last two years. Why stop now?"

Kagome's fists clenched at her side. They were her friends. Of course they would consider her actions to be their business. It was only natural, only to be expected. Why was she getting so angry?

__

I'll start snarling like Inu if this keeps up. Why don't I want to tell them the truth anyway? It's nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to hide. So why don't I want them to know?

She realized that they would not drop the issue until she gave them some sort of answer, however. She ducked her head and muttered a half-truth. "I got hurt. That's why I quit. I got hurt, and it scared me."

Arumi gasped. "Kinomoto-sensei didn't say anything about that!"

Kagome groaned mentally and massaged her temples, discretely checking their surroundings beneath her hand. They would have to part ways soon, and not just because she grew tired of their questions. "She wouldn't have. It wasn't supposed to have happened, and it was my fault for being reckless and stupid. I could have prevented it if I'd been more careful."

"Was that why you sat out gym for a week?" Eri asked, her voice brimming with curiosity.

"I didn't sit out!" Kagome replied, bristling with indignation. "I was the coach's helper."

"But it wasn't your turn!" Eri pointed out with all of the glee, and a hint of the malice, of a cat pouncing on an unsuspected mouse. "It was Arisa's turn. And you were limping too when you didn't think anyone could see you."

"Yes, well, you weren't supposed to notice that," Kagome responded dryly.

Eri bounced on the balls of her feet and raised her face into the sunlight, a satisfied smile curving her lips. "I know."

"So what have you been doing in the afternoons now, Kagome?" Yuka inquired with studied carelessness, turning to face them and walking backwards with her hands behind her head. Her casual tone could not disguise the tightness about her eyes and mouth, however.

"The usual. Working at the shrine. Helping Jii-chan con people," she replied flippantly, eyes narrowing on the street sign at the intersection ahead.

"Then why does he say you're not there when he answers the phone? You've been 'not there' for awhile now. It sounds like you _have_ been conning people. Us. And your family."

Kagome stopped, her knuckles turning white around her bag's handle.

Did her family know she was not out with her friends in the afternoon? What had Yuka told them?

She stared at the sidewalk, her blood pounding through her ears as she struggled to reign in her temper. "It doesn't matter where I am," she said through gritted teeth. "It's not your concern."

Arumi made a sound of distress that drowned out even Yuka's sharp gasp. "Yes, it is, Kagome! We're supposed to be your friends, and we're worried about you!"

Kagome backed away as her friend reached for her. "I'm sorry, okay? But you really don't need to know. It's better that you don't. So I'm not going to tell you. And this is where we part. Have fun. Maybe I can come with you some other time."

She turned off down a side street without looking back, but she heard their footsteps stop as her own slowed. Their voices as they conversed among themselves carried easily down the narrow street, and her back stiffened at their words.

"Something must be wrong."

"Should we follow her?"

"No," Eri said decisively. "She said it's not our business so it isn't. We don't fight, and we're not starting now. Maybe she'll change her mind; maybe not. Come on."

Kagome bowed her head as she heard them leave, their voices fading as the distance between them increased. How accurately their physical locations reflected their current relationship! Tears pricked at her eyes, but she would not let them fall and dashed them away angrily.

"All this for a dog," she muttered, but there was little bitterness in her voice and it was fully submerged in an odd kind of acceptance.

For some reason she felt the need to keep Inu's existence a secret. If everything went according to plan they would know about him eventually. But now . . . now was not the time to introduce the abandoned canine to her friends and family.

__

He's not ready yet. But he will be.

She hummed quietly while she walked, her hand fishing in her bag for the address she had copied from the directory as she paused at a crossroads. Kagome looked at the paper then gazed at her surroundings, biting her lower lip as she tried to discern her location relative to her destination. This part of the ward was new and unfamiliar to her, and she cursed the book's lack of detailed directions and maps.

"Which way do I go?"

"Can I help you? Are you lost?" a calm, melodic voice inquired politely in response to her muttered question, and Kagome looked up to see a very pretty girl in street clothes standing beside her.

Kagome blushed and quickly averted her gaze lest she be caught gawking. It was bad enough to be caught talking to herself in public, but to be caught by such a well-groomed and self-composed person was even worse. The older girl's appearance was immaculate even while exuding a natural air, and Kagome in her school uniform felt dowdy and rumpled in comparison.

The stranger's expression was polite and interested, however. She seemed friendly, and Kagome relaxed, tucking a lock of hair behind her eye with an embarrassed smile.

"I'm looking for a woman named Shuushi Kaede. She has a . . . kennel. I'm unfamiliar with this area, but I thought I'd at least be able to hear it when I got close."

The girl smiled. "No, she has all the buildings and runs soundproofed, and her dogs are usually very well behaved. I can show you though."

"I don't want to"

"It's no trouble, miko-san."

"bother you . . ."

Kagome fell silent abruptly, and stared at the taller girl. She was wearing her green and white school uniform. There was nothing about her that would indicate her family status. "I'm not a miko," she said at last, looking away.

The other girl made an apologetic noise accompanied by a half-bow, but her eyebrows rose. "My mistake then," she responded coolly. "Please forgive me." She backed away and beckoned. "Kaede-sama's home is this way."

Kagome fell in beside her hesitantly. They walked in silence for only a few blocks, Kagome peering about with open curiosity and the other girl scrutinizing their surroundings almost as intently, though the craning of her neck was not so obvious. The other girl did not offer or appear to expect conversation, and Kagome could think of nothing to say anyway.

"Thank you very much for helping me. My name is Higurashi Kagome," she offered at last when the girl stopped in front of a wrought iron gate set into a high stone wall.

"Shimizu Sango. A pleasure to meet you," the older girl replied with a smile and a bow. "This is Kaede-sama's home. Will you be able to find your way back from here?"

Kagome glanced around as she thought. There had only been a few turns, and she could remember them. Kaede's house was also much closer to her own home than she had anticipated for she could see the Go Shinboku towering on its hilltop several blocks away. All she had to do was keep its leafy green bulk in her sight. "Yes," she answered with a wry smile. "I'm sure I can manage. Thank you."

"As I said, it was no trouble. Have a nice day."

Kagome watched Sango as she walked back down the street, her eyes widening and lingering on the slender rectangular bulge beneath the girl's long duster.

__

Is she carrying a katana? Why . . .?

Kagome shook her head, quickly reminding herself that it was not any of her business and peered through the gate dubiously. The main building was set back from the front wall, and she saw no sign of a bell or speaker system around the gate.

"Should I just go in?"

She lifted the latch nervously and pushed the gate open. It slid easily on its hinges, making no noise, but a short warning bark made it obvious that _someone_ was aware of her arrival.

"What is it?" a gruff feminine voice called out, and a stocky woman appeared in the doorway of the main building.

Kagome blinked and averted her eyes politely as the woman approached. She was afraid she would stare otherwise. The woman was very short, older than Kagome had expected her to be, and wore an eye patch over her right eye. However, to Kagome's mind, even that unusual accessory was not the oddest thing about her for she also wore the white and red garments of a miko.

__

A dog training miko? What in the world . . . ?

"Do you want something?" Her voice was gruff, her tone terse.

Kagome gulped nervously and raised her head. "Are you Kaede-sama?"

The woman stiffened when she saw Kagome's face, an unreadable expression flickering across her own face. Her tone softened, however. "Yes."

"And you train dogs?"

"Among other things, yes. Are you having a problem with yours?"

"Not . . . exactly."

"Really?" the old woman inquired dryly. "Come have some tea and explain to me what 'not exactly' is."

Kagome followed her into the main building, and into a small, surprisingly dark wood paneled room. The light came from what appeared to be (but surely were not) gaslights set into domed sconces on the wall. It created an interesting interplay of light and shadow, somehow making the room appear simultaneously homey and mysterious, and swatches of dried herbs hung from the exposed ceiling beams and filled the room with a rich, pleasant odor, adding to the effect. She sat on a seating pillow in front of the low table where Kaede directed her and blew gently on the steaming cup of green tea that was handed to her.

Kaede settled herself on the floor across from Kagome with more ease than might be expected from someone her age and speared the schoolgirl with an expectant, piercing look from her good eye. Kagome took a hasty sip of her tea and cleared her throat.

"I found a dog in the forest, and I've been nursing him back to health. I'd like to take him home, but he's not very civilized."

"You found a dog in the forest?" Kaede repeated with sudden interest. "What forest?"

Kagome hesitated, casting about her memory for an official name but she could not think of one. "The forest that's attached to Tokyo Municipal Park," she said at last. Still unsatisfied with her answer she added, "The demon beast's forest."

The old woman inhaled sharply and eyed the girl before her warily. "That's an interesting place for a girl your age to be. What kind of dog is it?"

"He's a white Akita." She could not keep the tinge of pride out of her voice.

Kaede put her cup down suddenly, a sharp hiss emerging from her lips. "Inuyasha!"

"Eh?" Kagome stared at her, startled concern and a hint of fear widening her eyes at the old woman's alarming change in manner.

Kaede leaned across the low table, catching one of the girl's hands with her own and hauling her forward. "A white Akita! Does he have strange eyes? Answer me, girl!"

Kagome squirmed, but her hand remained locked in Kaede's grip. "I guess . . . They're pale and more like a cat's than a dog's, but he can see just fine!" Kaede's grip tightened, grew painful. "Please, let me go!"

The miko released her just as quickly as she had grabbed her, and Kagome fell back on her pillow with a muffled yelp.

"So . . . Inuyasha still lives," Kaede mumbled to herself before raising a sharp, glittering eye to the girl. "He lets you handle him?" she inquired, voice rough with suspicion.

Kagome cradled her hand, her fingers gently massaging the banded and bruising flesh, and glared balefully at the old woman. "Yes."

"Then why are you here?"

"Because I'd like to make him civilized enough to take home to my mother."

Kaede snorted. "You're wasting your time then. He's dangerous, feral. Stay away from him!"

Kagome's fists clenched, and she struggled to not raise her voice at her elder. "I believe differently. Two months ago I could not get within three meters of him. Now he eats out of my hand."

The old woman's single eye widened, and she turned her head to truly study Kagome. "What shrine do you come from?"

"Higurashi," Kagome answered unwillingly. Was it branded on her forehead that she came from a shrine family?

"You are Higurashi-san's granddaughter then?"

Kagome straightened with surprise. "You know Jii-chan?"

"We worked and trained together many years ago."

The girl stifled a giggle. She must be as bad a miko as Jii-chan was a priest if she trained dogs for a living.

The old woman rose laboriously to her feet, motioning to Kagome to follow her through a side entrance. She adjusted her pace to Kaede's as the miko strode with a strange dignity though the unusually quiet kennels. The few dogs of varying shapes and sizes scattered among the runs ran up to the doors as the passed, their tails wagging furiously, and Kaede had a kind word for each of them. Kagome felt her animosity weaken with each word as well.

__

If the animals like her this much, then she can't be such a bad person, right? Just gruff. Unused to human contact perhaps. Oh, maybe she's lonely!

They passed from the kennel into the warm air outside, and Kaede turned, leading Kagome to a smaller building set off at the back of the property. Kagome gasped upon entering when she realized it to be an old, unused shrine. A small stand stood freely in the center of the worn floorboards but nothing rested on it. The shrine had been converted to a storeroom of sorts with rows of boxes and various jumbled odds and ends stacked and piled together against the wall so that only small patches of the wood were visible.

Kaede reached into one of those boxes and pulled out a dark beaded necklace. She held it in her hands, muttering over it quickly in words too low for Kagome to hear. A glowing white mist curled around the beads with each syllable that the old woman uttered, and it flashed once brightly before fading into the beads.

She offered it to Kagome who took it hesitantly. The beads seemed to tingle as they touched her fingers, and Kagome felt the hair rise on her arms and the back of her neck. She glanced down, noting that her exposed skin was clearly goose pimpled. Her head felt prickly, and she shook it an attempt to rid it of the odd sensation but that only made her hair stick to her face.

__

It's like it's electrically charged! Like that time with the creature. Is this_ what real magic feels like?_

"Put that on him if you can and say a word of restraint. It will bind him to you."

"So he'll have to obey me? Like the Monkey King and his hat?" Kagome frowned. "I don't want to hurt him."

The old woman chuckled. "This is far less painful than that. And he will not always obey you. That's far too much to expect of any living creature capable of independent thought. But you will be able to subdue him when you must . . . although I don't think you know what you're getting yourself into. Inuyasha will always be wild, and he will always be dangerous."

"Inuyasha?" Kagome repeated. "You called him that before . . ."

"That is his name since birth. I knew him once. It can only be Inuyasha. There are no other Akita with eyes like his."

The girl leaned forward eagerly, eyes widening. "What happened to him then? Why was he abandoned and abused and starved?" Her voice wavered. "Why did someone leave him in the forest to _die_?"

Kaede's gaze fell, and she sighed heavily. "The woman he had . . . been loyal to . . . died. And we always believed him too vicious to be handled by anyone else . . . so we let him go . . . when he ran away . . ."

Kagome made a strangled sound of rage and clutched the necklace in her hands. "Well, you're wrong! He's not vicious! He's just stubborn!"

"Perhaps you are right, child," Kaede murmured in a skeptical tone. "I do not know. I never worked closely with him myself, only saw him from a distance. I wish you luck in your endeavor, Higurashi Kagome. Because in spite of your enthusiasm I think you will need it."

Kagome rolled the beads between her fingers. They were warm to the touch though the feeling of electricity had disappeared. "How much do I owe you for . . . for this?"

"Nothing."

"That's not right! I can't just take it for free. Especially when it's been enchanted!" she protested, shaking her head even as she clutched the necklace to her chest.

"Consider it a good deed then. We miko do not always receive payment for what we do."

Kagome knelt and dug around in her backpack, producing the small bag of kibble the dogno, Inuyashahad refused so many times. "Please take this. I know it's not much and it's been opened, but it's very good dog food. He just won't eat any of it."

Kaede smiled and accepted the bag. "Very well then. Be careful and if you ever need any help you may come here."

"That's very kind of you."

The old woman looked through the open door at the lengthening shadows stretching across her yard. "You'd best start home now, child. Sunset approaches."

Kagome followed her gaze and gasped, glancing down at her watch quickly. It was getting late and she still had to find her way home. "Thank you for all your help. I can let myself out."

Kaede followed her to the gate anyway and watched her jog away down the street in the direction of the looming green of the Go Shinboku, waving when the girl turned back to wave at her. Her hand dropped as Kagome rounded the corner and disappeared from sight. She continued to stare at the spot where the girl had disappeared, however, and did not react when a figure stepped out of the shadows at her side.

"You did not tell her that he turned on your sister."

"I did not say that she turned on him either, did I? There's still too much that doesn't make any sense, still too much that we don't know."

"Should I follow her Kaede-sama?"

Her wizened hands tightened around the metal bars of the gate, but she smiled ruefully before pulling it shut. "No, Sango, that won't be necessary just yet. Let us see what this girl can do."

****

A.N. I'm sure there are those of you who wonder what Inuyasha looks like. I'm also sure that some of you think you know. But do you really? The American Akita looks substantially different from the Japanese Akita, though unless you're into dogs and dog shows as I am you probably wouldn't notice or care. The differences are so great, however, that the Federation Cynologique Internationale (FCI, the World Canine Organisation) has recently recognized the varieties as two separate breeds competing in two different groups: the Akita (Japanese version) in Group 5: Spitz and Primitive Types and the Great Japanese Dog (not making that name up) in Group 2: Pinschers/Schanuzers and Molossers (ie, mastiffs). Japanese Akita are smaller on average, leggier, wirier, less massive, built more as Inuyasha the hanyou (rather than Inuyasha the bodybuilder) is. For more information and pictorial examples please see the links I have put up in my author profile.

Whereas the characters in the feudal era don't have a surname unless they are nobility, it would be rather strange not to have one in a modern setting. Thus I have made them up:  
shuushi, 'autumn contemplation'  
shimizu, 'clear water'  
from Renku Home, also linked to in my author page

The Monkey King: a character in the well-known and extremely long ancient Chinese tale Journey to the West (that, among others, the Dragonball and Saiyuki franchises are based on). The Monkey King was a troublemaker on a grand scale (he annoyed the gods a few times) so Buddha gave the monk Tripitaka a hat to control him. When Monkey put the hat onto his head it turned into a brass circlet. Whenever Monkey misbehaved Tripitaka chanted sutras and the circlet tightened, hurting Monkey and keeping him in line. Sounds rather familiar, doesn't it?


	7. Bared Fangs

****

Chapter Summary: Inuyasha gets introduced to the power of "Sit" (see my explanation for the modifications at www. livejournal. com/ users/ smartycat/ 63418. html), the plot thickens, and Kagome has a rough day.  
**A.N.** Inuyasha can only see red when his demon blood rises or when he is back in one of his normal forms.  
Also, dogs eating chocolate isn't as bad as you might think (see www. livejournal. com/users/smartycat/50921. html). And Inuyasha isn't a normal dog anyway.

**Dog's Body**

by  
**Smarty Cat  
6: _Bared Fangs_  
**

__

Thou callest me a dog before thou hast cause.  
But since I am a dog, beware my fangs.  
William Shakespeare, "The Merchant of Venice"

She stared at him, and never one to resist a challenge, he stared back, a low growl rumbling in his chest. The girl and the white dog sat a short distance apart in their usual scraggly forest clearing, eyes locked, her posture thoughtful as she fingered the beaded necklace in her hands while instinct and experience drove his to become more and more aggressive. Only when he shifted, half rising to his feet, did Kagome's attention fully turn to him. She blinked slowly, her eyes refocusing with difficulty from their blank stare into space, and as her gaze raked the stiff lines of his body she finally became aware of the effect her unintentional scrutiny had had on the white Akita.

His braced body quivered with pent-up hostility, his fur standing on end, his head lowered defensively and his right lip curled up in a sneer that exposed strong white teeth. Kagome swallowed, a nervous smile quirking her lips though she was careful to keep her lips covered for fear that he would think she was snarling at him. She quickly flicked her gaze to his ears. His ears were always the best indicator of his mood. They were neither erect and directed forward nor pinned against his skull but stuck out stiffly to the side and were tilted slightly backwards. Kagome thought quickly as she eased her free hand into the bag propped up against her leg. InuInuyasha, she corrected mentallywas not confident. He was not truly afraid of her, but he also was not at ease engaging in direct eye contact, something that he must have perceived as a challenge or a threat. And although he was more uncomfortable with the situation than murderous, it made him no less dangerous.

As his growl escalated, her hand closed around the object she sought, and Kagome took the only course of action available to her. To disarm a situation growing more and more volatile, she threw a cookie in his face.

Inuyasha lunged into the air as the projectile hurtled for his nose, and his jaws snapped around it before it could reach its target, snarls bubbling in his throat as he crushed the cookie into a fine powder. His eyes widened and a thoroughly startled look appeared on his face as the rich flavor filled his mouth.

__

'It's good!'

Kagome sighed with relief, turning her face away to hide her chuckle as he comically scrabbled among the dead leaves of the forest floor for any remaining crumbs. There were times when he seemed like a normal dog, one who had never learned to hate humans. His eyes were no longer so cold or so suspicious, his temper had grown longer, and he allowed her to touch him more frequently. His overall attitude change was very encouraging, but there was still work to be done.

__

He's still not safe enough to take home to Mama, but I'll civilize him yet. He's much friendlier than he used to be after all. Kagome's fingers tightened on the beads draped over her lap. _And I can use these to control him. Maybe._

The shock of a cold, wet nose on her bare skin jarred her out of her contemplation when, all good will thoroughly restored between them and the incident of a few moments before completely forgotten in favor of the all mighty cookie, Inuyasha walked up to her and imperiously nudged her knee for more. Her eyes widened and she gasped. It was one thing for him to grudgingly allow her ministrations but quite another for him to initiate the contact.

Inuyasha grumbled and butted his muzzle against her with more force. _'Don't just sit there, human! Give me another cookie!'_

"Hey, stop it!" the girl yelped as she wobbled precariously on her fallen tree, nearly tumbling over backward. Kagome's hands shot up and closed on the loose skin of his cheeks, and she used that as leverage to haul herself upright while simultaneously pushing his head away. Once her position had been stabilized she released her grip on him but kept her hands buried in his fur, angling his broad skull from side to side.

He eyed her with something that might develop into concern with time. The girl's demeanor had been off since she arrived, and, had he not been so intent on acquiring another cookie, he would have fled in horror at the thought of dealing with any feminine mood swings. However, he was simply puzzled and a bit wary. She was nervous. He could smell it.

__

'What's wrong with you?'

Neither realized that she was touching a part of his body previously declared forbidden, so intent were they on trying to read each other. She did not speak but simply stared down at him silently, apprehension and something akin to sadness in her gaze. For the dog to be hers she would have to take his freedom from him and bind him to her as Kaede had instructed. In order to trust him, she would have to subdue him.

"I know you now," she said at last in a soft murmur, her left hand slipping from his head back to her lap and the beads. "Inuyasha."

The effect was instantaneous. Before the final syllable had fully left her mouth he stiffened, his strange eyes shooting to hers. A threatening growl built in his throat and vibrated through his skull beneath her fingers.

__

'You stupid human bitch! You don't know when to keep your fucking mouth shut!'

It was sooner than he had expected, and Inuyasha regretted it, but when it came to a choice between the girl and himself the girl would die. He would kill to protect himself; he would kill to protect his secret. If she knew too much she had to die. It was simple really. Self-defense. But he took no joy in the task that lay ahead. There was no joy to be had in the hitch of her breath in her throat, the sharpening scent of her fear, or the tremor of her fingers against his fur.

Kagome's eyes widened as she felt the muscles in his jaw tense and quiver beneath her right hand. As his body lunged off the ground on an arc with her face her fingers spasmed around the loose skin of his cheek, pinching it tightly and twisting his head down at the same time that she brought her free hand up and between them. Inuyasha's own momentum drove his head through the beaded necklace she held.

Without relinquishing her grip on the beads, Kagome threw her body to the right while simultaneously lashing out with her left hand and turning her wrist. The necklace caught about her fingers twisted into a noose around the dog's neck, cutting off his air supply, and she used his own airborne momentum to slam him into the ground. His head smashed against the fallen tree, and Kagome stifled a scream as the harsh, dead bark scraped strips of skin from her hand and lower arm. She quickly wrenched her hand out of the necklace, ignoring the burn of the hard beads raking across her already damaged skin.

Kagome tumbled over the other side of the tree and quickly scrambled to her feet, backing away from the gagging Akita as he writhed on the ground. His blazing yellow gaze swung to her, its intensity making her skin prickle, and Kagome's breath caught in her throat as he struggled to his feet.

__

All right, Kaede-sama, I hope this works. It's too late to take it back, and I won't be getting another chance. He acts like he'll kill me first. I need a word of restraint. Word of restraint; word of restraint; oh, what word of restraint? She licked her lips, and his ears pricked forward at the movement. _That's it!_

Kagome shrieked as he gathered his legs beneath himself in preparation for another assault. "Osuwari!"

The dog yelped as a sudden crushing weight dropped onto his back, and his teeth snapped shut with a sharp click, piercing his tongue. Kagome watched with amazement as it seemed that a great invisible hand flattened the dog to the ground.

"It works!" she gasped, her hands flying up to cover her mouth.

Inuyasha lay rigidly, like a sphinx, with his legs beneath him, but his head was pressed to the leaf litter and he could not raise it. His muscles rippled and strained as he fought the forced position, his front claws digging ruts in the dirt.

__

'Fucking bitch! I'm going to fucking kill you! Rip your fucking heart out and feed it to you!' Inuyasha strained against the magic binding him, a tide of rage rising within him as a red mist crept about the edges of his vision. The rage and the changes in his vision alarmed him, and he turned his efforts to extinguishing them. He was close, dangerously close, to losing his composure, to giving in to the madness once again. He did not want to go mad again. Inuyasha clamped his eyes tightly shut, blocking out the sight of her pale face and huge eyes and denying the rising berserker fury within him a target. For lack of a better alternative, he savaged the ground around him with his teeth as movement and sensation slowly returned to his body.

Kagome swallowed nervously, a cold lump of fear hammering in her throat as she saw his legs begin to move stiffly. She crouched on the ground a short distance away and babbled to him, voice wavering. "What's wrong with you though, Inuyasha? That is your name . . . but if it's going to make you go nuts I'll just keep calling you Inu. Unless you'd prefer something else . . . Yuki? Kiba?"

A building snarl greeted each of her suggestions, and she frowned anxiously, her eyes never leaving his expressive face. There was rage there, blind, mind-numbing rage that left her feeling shaky and helpless but as she continued to talk it slowly gave way to annoyance and then confusion.

Now that he was suitably calmirate but composedInuyasha allowed his eyes to open once again, and he raised his head and looked at the girl quizzically. _'You don't _know_? You know my _name_, but you don't know what I _am_? You really are stupid.'_

Kagome froze as his eyelids rose and his head lifted and turned to her, her upper teeth biting painfully into her lower lip as she dug her fingers deep into the leaf litter, clutching the cold, decomposing matter like a lifeline. He stared at her, his lower jaw quivering eagerly, but he did not move, made no attempt to rise. Kagome was unsure which she was most grateful forthat he did not run away or that he came no closer.

"Ne, Inuyasha?" she queried softly, and his ears pricked, a suspicious growl still vibrating in his chest. Kagome extended her hand very slowly in his direction, another cookie nestled in her offered palm. "I'm sorry for upsetting you. We're friends now though, right? We're friends. I'm not going to hurt you."

__

'Friends? Like hell. Not going to hurt me? What the fuck do you think you just did, bitch!' Inuyasha snapped, slashing the air with his teeth before walking to her and snatching the cookie from her hand without even brushing against her skin. _'You're damn lucky you had the forethought to bring these, bitch, or I wouldn't be so forgiving.'_

To her credit, she made no attempt to touch him in his current bristling and grumbling state, but she leaned forward and cocked her head earnestly to the side as she watched him eat her peace offering.

"You have to wear it, Inuyasha. You have to. I can't take you home if I can't control you."

His gaze flicked to her face. Hopeful. Pleading. Pathetic. He snorted. _'You will _never_ control me, human.'_

Neither noticed that over the fading echoes of their pounding hearts their ears rang with the echo of a strange buzzing.

* * *

"Inuyasha recovers." The darkly silken tones filled the air of the cave and were amplified by the rock walls. They reverberated for long moments after leaving their speaker's mouth.

The hunched figure reclining at the rear of the cave beside the still, nude body of a young woman looked up slowly. He blocked the light, his shadow filling the cave with more darkness than was its natural state. He was threatening, ominous, angry. He could kill them both with ease, but he would not because she had knowledge he lacked, knew the secrets from beyond death which even he did not know.

"Does he?" her aged, cracked voice replied, as she ran gnarled fingers through long black hair and draped the silken strands over pale lifeless skin. The contrasting colors pleased her. Black as death and white as bone. Unmoving. _Useless_. Her mouth parted in a grim smile, revealing unnaturally sharp teeth, and she scraped her hand along the cave floor beside the girl's head, leaving deep gouges in the rock. "This one does not. My most perfect creation and there is no use for her. Forever young, forever beautiful. Forever still."

He appeared unperturbed, but the hag's acute eyesight did not miss the tensing of his fingers, the whitening of his knuckles, as he stepped farther into the gloom and pushed the fur back from his head. Nevertheless, his perfect face remained composed as he stared down at them, and his voice remained smooth and calm as he murmured, "You are to blame for missing the window of opportunity when her soul was free."

Urasue the witch barked with laughter. "And do you really want her with a soul?"

His eyes narrowed as he focused on the unmarred, lifeless face that feigned sleep. No breath whispered between full, pale lips; no eyes caught in dreams moved beneath fragile, blue veined lids; no pulse fluttered in the exposed line of her throat. It angered him. The cave reeked of forbidden herbs and pungent clay, and that was all she was: the dust of scorched bones and grave soil bound together and shaped by dark magic. Nothing living, nothing that could be harmed.

"I cannot break what I do not possess."

The hag shrugged, and her vicious parody of a smile grew wider, slyer. "Then find the one that bears the miko's soul. Kill that one, Naraku. Or bring her to me alive. It makes no difference. She dies regardless, and who am I to speculate which of us would be the most merciful?"

Naraku cast a glance back at the cave entrance before turning back to Urasue. He stroked an elegant finger across his lips as he ordered, "Since you know of such arts as these, tell me, how would such a one be recognized?"

Too large blood red eyes hooded, and the witches head tilted as she studied him. He was too assured, too calm. "You have located it already," she breathed, her hands lacing together and tightening with excitement.

"I have found her," Naraku corrected, eyes dark with hate and lust trailing slowly over the exposed curves of the inert golem's body. "Kikyou's soul seems to prefer being female . . . though she is but a pale imitation of the original."

"And she still lives?" Urasue demanded with unveiled surprise and curiosity, glancing from her masterwork back to the one who had requested it. "Would you rather have her than this one?"

"No, Kikyou will be mine," he purred, menace wrapped in velvet tones. "None shall stop me from defiling her purity. But there is something quite interesting about this girl. A shimmer within her aura. Like a jewel," he added, his eyes sliding up to connect with the hag's.

Urasue sucked air between her lips with a sharp hiss, and her eyes widened to unnatural levels. "Ah."

There was a long pause as they regarded each other silently, knowingly. A wind blew through the trees outside the cave, rustling leaves and scraping branches across the exposed outer rock. Naraku arched an eyebrow, and the witch slowly blinked in response. The wind stilled and died, and the only sound to be heard was the water dripping down the damp cave walls into a basin still filled with crushed herbs and ash.

Urasue broke the silence. "Will you kill her then? If she possesses the Shikon no Tama? If the jewel has returned perhaps you should reconsider your course of action. There are stronger magicks than necromancy, and the one who wields the full power of the jewel wields them as well, or so the stories say."

"Do not get any ideas, hag. Kikyou is mine. The Shikon no Tama will be mine. I will spare the girl for now. Until the jewel reveals itself. I am not the only one who is watching her, however. There are others," he half-turned and his eyes slid to the undisturbed cave mouth, "with agendas far different than my own."

She followed his gaze. There was nothing there, and she did not expect there to be. It had already left.

"You are not going to stop it?"

"No. _I_ will not kill the girl. Yet. But neither will I act to prevent her death. Either outcome will benefit me."

* * *

"Thanks for taking me with you and giving me a ride back." Kagome stepped out of the car, shutting the door before taking a step back and bowing to Eri's father. Yuka had coaxed heror, more accurately, guilted herinto going to see Houjou-kun play baseball against a neighboring team, and Eri's father had kindly volunteered to drive her home and drop her off at the foot of the shrine steps. "I had a wonderful time."

Eri's eyebrows lifted but she did not comment on how distant and preoccupied Kagome had seemed all day, buying refreshments and forgetting to eat them and not realizing when she was being spoken to. She smiled, albeit somewhat falsely, and leaned out the open back window. "That's good. I'm glad you had a nice time." She rested her head on her folded arms and cast a shrewd gaze up at Kagome from beneath her bangs. "We never see you anymore, Kagome," Eri sighed reproachfully.

Kagome started, panic and then guilt streaking through her body and stiffening it. "I've been really busy lately," she offered, her hands twining around each other in a nervous wringing motion before she hastily hid them behind her back and smiled stiffly.

"Yes, your grandfather really does need your help at the shrine, doesn't he?" Eri's father interjected. "You should probably be getting back then. He talks about you often when I visit. You're such a good daughter and a help to your family. I hope to see you again soon."

"Yeah, bye, Kagome. See you at school," Eri added flippantly, popping back in the car and rolling the window up.

Kagome watched the car pull away and drive off down the street, Eri staring back at her through the rear window. Kagome waved until they turned the corner. Once they were out of sight her shoulders slumped and she sighed with relief. As she raised her head, she caught a flash of the time from her wristwatch and her eyes jerked to the sky in alarm. Sure enough, indigo and violet were starting to creep across the sky in the east.

__

It'll be dark soon, and I haven't been to see Inuyasha today!

She turned to gaze up the length of the shrine steps, torn between the safety and comfort of home and her obligation to a dog that might or might not be waiting for her at such a late hour, and the movement caused her stuffed bag to slip from her shoulder and fall to the crook of her elbow. Kagome tottered a bit before regaining her balance and stared down at the bulging, concession-filled canvas bag. If she did not take it to Inuyasha it would go to waste and he would be hungry. She rocked on the balls of her feet and bit her lip, once again casting an anxious glance up at the shrine and the darkening sky.

"This is stupid," she proclaimed in ringing tones to the empty street. "I've gone out of my way to avoid being in the forest after dark. I'm not going to start going back now."

However, her feet were already moving, taking her across the street and through the park entrance even as she bounced the bag back up onto her shoulder.

Kagome panted as she sprinted across the open lawn that marked the section of the park near her home. Without the daily conditioning provided by cheerleading practice she had gotten out of shape, and her lengthened shadow bouncing across the grass ahead of her served as a reminder that sunset was not long in coming.

__

Not good. Already not good.

She skidded to a stop beneath the sparse, outlying trees that served as a border between the civilization of the open park and the thick, primitive tangle of the forest proper. Kagome bent over and braced her hands on her knees, her eyes marking the location of the solitary trail to the forest as she waited for her breath to return and her heart to slow. The girl took one final, shuddering inhalation before straightening and striding over to the slender dirt path. She stared down its shadowed length before turning to cast her eyes to the setting sun once again, seeking reassurance and finding none. Time had not stopped or even slowed. The dying light turned the trees around her to gold, and the Akita's eyes flashed in her mind.

"Inuyasha . . ." Kagome took a deep breath and plunged in, her pace approaching a trot over the familiar dips of the trail she walked every day.

There had been no answering rustle among the foliage. Indeed, she had not expected one, had even hoped that there would be none. Inuyasha would never come to her there, not so close to open ground. It was useless to attempt to coax him out of the forest. She had tried, and he had first balked then outright refused.

The shadows of the forest, always long, fell even longer as the sun sank. She had forgotten, had forgotten just how dark and sinister the forest became with the onset of nightfall.

__

How could I have forgotten that?

Her steps faltered. The slanted light of sunset could not breach the trees, and the gloomy twilight of the forest stirred memories of the last night she had spent beneath its branches. The weight of the bag on her back drove her forward, however. Inuyasha would be expecting her, waiting, wondering why she had not come to see him, why she had not fed him, not forced her attention on him.

__

He better be expecting me.

"Inuyasha!"

A sense of urgency made her call his name prematurely, far from their usual meeting place in the clearing. Her voice rang startlingly loud amongst the trees, and Kagome flinched, scurrying along the path a little faster. Everything looked so different coming from the shrine, and she realized that she did not know how far it was to their clearing. There was more than one decomposing log littering a break in the trees off the path, and Inuyasha did not wait for her in the open. There would be no white dog sitting in it to mark it. Would she even recognize their clearing when she saw it?

"Why am I doing this?" Kagome gritted her teeth. "Oh, yes, I remember. You don't break promises, even unspoken ones, to someone who can't understand why. And Inuyasha has already been betrayed and abandoned by humans once. I won't do it to him again."

"Talking to myself though, that's fair game," she mumbled, feeling her nails bite into her palms as her hands curled into sweaty fists. "Because I must be an idiot if I'd rather risk getting myself killed than letting a dog that doesn't even like me miss a meal. It's too late to go back now though."

The woods around Kagome remained strangely silent, and her pulse quickened. It had been like this the night she was attackedthe same eerie stillness. She bit back a whimper and pressed her lips firmly together to silence her nervous babbling. She would not fill the silence with empty words and lead the youkai right to her. She would not be an easy target. Not again.

__

I wish Inuyasha would come. I wish he was here now. Not that he'd offer any protection, but he seems to be able to sense youkai long before I can. At least I'd know if anything was out there.

Visibility in the forest was limited even in the daytime. At night it was drastically reduced, and fanciful thinking led Kagome to believe that she could see the darkness swallowing up her field of vision.

The crunch of dry leaves sounding from within a dark tangle of scrub to her left froze Kagome in her tracks. She turned very slowly but saw no further sign of movement or life, no shifting of shadows on shadows.

"Inuyasha?"

Her voice wavered, but she did not try to say the dog's name again. There was no answer anyway. Her surroundings remained quiet and she shifted nervously, her throat dry and her pulse hammering in her ears. Could she hear anything over that? Was she physically capable of hearing any outside noises over the rapid pounding of her heart?

Kagome tried to calm herself. _Irrational fear. That's all it is. It's not even completely dark . . . yet. And it's easy enough to find out once and for all if there's anything there. Even if I don't want to. Do I really have a choice though?_

Her stomach clenched in knots, dread weighting every hollow of her being. Her fists clenched as well, all the color bleeding from her knuckles as her nails dug crescents in her palms nearly deep enough to draw blood. The pain steadied her.

It was too dangerous to try to sense youkai while moving because the trail was not level. However, it was also risky to stay in one place for too long, to allow herself to be vulnerable. Would the knowing be worse than not knowing? Was it worth the risk?

Filled with misgivings, Kagome nevertheless allowed her eyes to fall shut. She remained unmoving, allowing her senses of hearing and smell to sharpen before opening her mind and giving way to the vision. The swirl of colors that marked where youkai had tread formed across the backs of her eyelids, and she stifled a gasp. She had never tried this in the forest before. Youkai trace was everywhere! Her sight shimmered with overlapping arcs of color so numerous that they nearly swamped the stylized image of the forest itself.

__

Is there anything new?

Kagome surveyed the underbrush in front of her slowly. The half-shadows of individual youkai who had passed through the area the night before and earlier in the day swirled and crisscrossed in a matrix of floating hallucinogenic color and ghostly light, jumbled and indistinct. It was disorienting and intense enough to induce something rather like vertigo. Bile rose in the back of Kagome's throat, but she forced her eyes to remain shut. Her body rebelled though, tremors wracking her frame as she swayed on her feet, and the sharp crack of a broken twig shattered the quiet.

Damn! She had just given herself away. Except, she realized suddenly, the sound had not originated from beneath her own feet. An icy chill of panic swept down the length of her spine and she inhaled sharply.

__

Where is it?

Kagome spun around, and the youki swirling in the air around her blurred into distorted rainbow streamers. Each burst of color drove a spike of pain through her skull, and she felt more nauseous than before. Her breath hitched in her throat, and she stumbled, but she did not fall and she did not open her eyes.

**__**

Where?

A wild, unearthly shriek rent the air as light exploded across her mental map. A fiery supernova of blinding color blasted through the air on a direct course for her, and the girl had no time to get out of the way. Kagome reeled back even as the form that came hurtling out of the bushes slammed into her chest. The impact flung her straight across the path, and she slammed into a tree with a broken wail, eyes opened wide and staring ahead blindly, the flare of the youkai's aura still dancing across her vision . Agony erupted along the length of her spine as a thousand daggers simultaneously sunk themselves into the flesh just above her left hip.

And then she knew where it was.

Kagome choked for air, struggling to draw breath into her straining lungs, as she stared down through tear-glazed eyes at the creature pinning her against the harsh bark of the tree, its mouth fastened to her side. She could feel warm streams of liquid sliding down her skin, and the hot, heady scent of freshly spilled blood filled the air. As the creature shifted its grip on her, Kagome saw that her clothes were soaked a brilliant crimson where its mouth had been. That fang-lined mouth smiled evilly at her before once again ripping into her side.

Oh, gods, it was eating her alive! Kagome threw her head back and screamed as loud as her burning lungs would allow.

**__**

"INU!"


	8. Blood Scent

****

Chapter Summary: Inuyasha dreams of darkness, Kagome nears death, and a new bond is forged.  
**A.N. **Dogs appear to view the world much as a red-green colorblind person does. See www. uwsp. edu/psych/dog/LA/ davis2 .htm for a doggy-vision spectrum and www. mcw. edu/cellbio/colorvision/colorvision .pdf (remove the spaces) for more in depth information that applies across several species.

__

For Iris Anthe  
A much belated Merry Christmas!

****

Dog's Body  
  
by  
**Smarty Cat  
7 _Blood Scent_  
**

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It came silently at him from out of the trees like a black ghost, from whatever distance it had to cover after it heard the girl calling. It came with a wolfish glitter of eyes and white teeth, the front paws extended, and it came straight for his throat.  
Thomas Walsh, "The Last of the Rossiters"

"Inuyasha!"

The hanyou opened one eye lazily and squinted at the bright arcs of broken sunlight streaming into his face. His face twisted in a half-hearted grimace, and he turned his head to the side, both eyes opening fully to gaze up at the sky between the sheltering boughs of the willow tree in which he sprawled. Clouds drifted overhead peacefully, driven by the same light wind that ruffled his hair against his cheek and urged the leaves surrounding him into a rustling melody. The bark against his back was scratchy but not so much that he wanted to move from his perch, and Inuyasha allowed one arm to drop to his side. He trailed a clawed hand idly in the stream beneath him, watching diamond droplets fall from soaked red cloth as his fingers created miniature wakes and eddies in the clear, sluggish water. He had missed the colors. Blue and yellow were nice enough as colors went (although the same could not be said for the gray) but they lacked the vigor of red and orange, the peace of green, or the mystery of violet.

"Inuyasha!" the voice called to him again, more insistent than before.

He growled and snapped his hand shut convulsively, claws barely pricking the thick, calloused skin of his palm as a burst of displaced water surged up toward his elbow. The growl vibrating in his throat grew louder as he rolled off of his comfortable branch. He landed in a crouch, not in the water of the stream, but in the midst of a flower-dotted meadow where the sun beat openly on his back and no water dripped from the dry sleeve of his suikan.

Kikyou stood before him with her bow drawn taut and an arrow at the ready, a warlike image totally at odds with the idyllic vista and the heady scent of flowers on a summer's day. Fortunately, the hanyou had no qualms about war and bloodshed and the destruction of tranquility. Inuyasha rose from his crouch and flexed his claws in one fluid movement, a feral smile curling his lips and exposing his fangs.

"I've been waiting for this, bitch."

Her expression did not change, but grim satisfaction filled her voice as she replied, "As have I."

Kikyou swung the bow up, taking aim at his chest, and the Shikon no Tama flashed around her neck, dazzling in the sun. Yet even as that spark of light flared brighter, shadows massed at her feet and flowed up her legs. The shadows curled around her knees and flowed up over her hips, growing more and more solid. The bow dropped from her hands and she struggled against the thickening black cords with an alarmed cry. They curled around her fingers when she vainly attempted to grab them and surged up her arms to spread across her chest and back.

Inuyasha stood in stunned silence. Of all the things he could have expected from a confrontation with Kikyou, this was most certainly not one of them.

"Inuyasha!"

Her voice quavered as she called his name once again, this time as a plea for aid. His feet acted of their own accord in response to her appeal, and he shuffled forward a few halting steps before stopping himself. His hands curled into shaking fists at his sides, and he glared at her from beneath his thick white bangs.

"What can a dog do, Kikyou?" he demanded. The weight of betrayal lay heavy in his heart, but it was mitigated by anger and bitterness at her own treachery. He tossed his head in contempt, and infused his next snarled taunts with the raw power of unadulterated scorn, directed both at himself and the woman who had once claimed to want a lifetime at his side. "What can a dog possibly do to save you? Aren't you ashamed of your weakness? You've become so pitiful that you need a dog, a weak, worthless _dog_, to save you."

An unintelligible burble answered him as the shadows extended farther and wrapped around her head. They whirled and flowed unceasingly around her body, growing thicker and more constrictive. The black form that Kikyou had become started to buckle, and as it sank in on itself, the shadows parted for just a moment around her head, allowing her face to peek through.

Inuyasha started, a gasp catching in his throat. It was not Kikyou's face. The girl stared back at him, her eyes huge and terrified.

"Inuyasha!"

The mass of roiling shadows collapsed into a roaring vortex in the meadow, carrying the girl down with it. She fought it, her eyes rolling wildly as she struggled against its inexorable grip. One hand broke free of its confines, and she reached for him, her mouth open wide, screaming in terror.

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"Inuyasha!"

* * *

Inuyasha stirred uneasily before opening his eyes and flexing his feet, claws raking shallow furrows in the dirt. He raised his head slowly, his neck stiff and sore, and looked out into the forest. The view was even grayer than usual. The ending of sunset and the rise of the new moon that would leave him weak and human could not be long in coming. His ears flicked and tilted first one way then the other as he scanned the area for anything unusual. Nothing heard; nothing seen. Although air scenting was less useful because the wind usually did not break the tree line and make it to the forest floor, he inhaled deeply. Still nothing.

The dream itself must have woken him.

It disturbed him that even now his heart beat at a faster pace than normal and his muscles shivered with restless energy. He should not have been so affected by a simple dream, particularly one that had merely reflected his own desires. He wanted to hurt Kikyou, to make her suffer as she had made him suffer. Kikyou had been attacked. It was simply what he had wanted to do to her himself, right? But then she had not been Kikyou anymore. She was the girl.

The girl had not come to see him.

He had waited a shamefully long time for her in their accustomed meeting place, but she never arrived. Eventually, he had given up on her and had left to seek refuge for the moonless night to come.

Perhaps she had finally grown tired of him . . .

"INU!"

The ragged, pain filled scream tore across his consciousness, and before he had time to willfully consider his actions he was up and running flat out, chasing the fading echo of her voice. As his dog's body streaked through the underbrush, Inuyasha snarled under his breath. The forest reeked of youkai, and it grew stronger with each stride. Then a new scent, the girl's blood, came to his nostrils, and the snarl grew in his throat, bubbling up into a roar of pure, animalistic rage.

The girl was his.

His food.

His prey.

His to kill.

His to protect.

* * *

The youkai chuckled, and fresh, dark blood, Kagome's blood, ran down its chin. "Inuyasha? Are you calling for Inuyasha?" it mocked in a raspy feminine voice. "You call for that _dog _to help, that weak little mutt in that husk of a body. Pathetic weakling. Cannot hunt. Cannot kill. He survives but he will die. _He _will not come to your aid, human."

Kagome's fingernails raked shallow gouges down the youkai's head as she struggled to remove its fangs from her side. "How do you know Inuyasha?" she choked, a sob catching in her throat as she forced the words from her mouth and gulped at the cooling evening air.

It ignored her questions, clawed hands running agitatedly but purposefully over the human girl's skin as though it sought something hidden beneath her clothing. Its teeth gouged deeper into Kagome's side before pulling away accompanied by the sound of ripping fresh. Kagome gagged, the scream of pain unable to make it paste the lump hammering in her throat in time with her pulse, and the creature raised its head nearer to hers. "Do you have it?" it demanded in a fanatical hiss as its grip tightened around her. It continued with savage intensity, "_He _says you have it. Give it to me!"

Forming a rebuttal or denial proved to be an impossible task. Kagome could barely see the outlines of the trees above her. Her vision was growing increasingly dim and hazy as the youkai attached to her side lapped up the blood that poured from the girl's wound. Kagome's throat was raw and hoarse, her breath growing shallower by the second. Her grip on the youkai's head grew lax, blood stained fingers slipping away to dangle limply at her sides.

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I'm going to die this time.

Why did she ever continue coming to this wretched place day after day?

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I'm really going to die.

She was off the trail. No one would ever find her body. No one would want to risk searching the forest. Her family would be left wondering what had happened to their Kagome.

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I'm sorry, Mama.

"Where is it? _Tell me_!"the youkai embedded the demand in a shriek of rage, shaking the unresponsive girl so harshly that her head slammed into the tree trunk in a staccato rhythm.

Kagome's mouth parted in a grim parody of a smile, and she bit her bottom lip so hard that she drew blood. The youkai would not just let her lose consciousness and die in peace, eh? Typical.

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This is so stupid.

Because she had come to feed a dog, a scrawny, bad-tempered, abandoned dog, she was going to die. And she knew better than to willingly be out in the forest so close to sunset. She knew better, knew more intimately than most the horrors that lurked under the cover of darkness, and had known before this attack, before the first one too. Gods, she really was an idiot. But should she have left the white dog to starve? Left him to grow weak and die or hunger? Left him as the defenseless prey of a creature like this?

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No.

Jii-chan would be foolish enough to come looking for her body or to exact vengeance. Souta would someday walk the path to school in her long faded footprints. And if Mama chose to accompany him because she had already lost one child and would not readily lose another? Would she let this youkai, this creature, this monster, have them as well?

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NO!

A corona of light flared up around her, blinding her vision. She could hear the youkai screaming in pain, but even that faded into nothing as her body slid heavily to the forest floor.

* * *

Inuyasha streaked through the underbrush in a silvery blur, his lungs burning in his chest and his nostrils flaring with each stride as he pushed his dog's body to the limit. Time was rapidly running out as the light of day continued to die and the new moon ascended secretly in the twilight sky above the forest trees. The smell of the girl's blood grew stronger, its metallic tang overpowering even the natural musk of the female youkai that had attacked her. He could feel the girl nearby, feel her fading, closer. Closer. There! He lunged forward, a song of death in his throat. He would never allow another being the pleasure of killing her.

As he burst across the rough forest trail and covered the last few meters separating him from his target, an expanding globe of pinkish light seemed to erupt from the girl. Inuyasha checked himself for only a moment before plunging forward recklessly. He remembered the effect it had had on him, but he did not care. Vengeance overrode any fear of pain, and his claim of ownership to the girl demanded blood for blood and flesh for flesh. Inu youkai protected their own. An inu hanyou would as well.

The youkai holding the girl screamed in agony as the light blistered her skin and peeled it away in smoking, blackened strips, and she flung herself away from the burning, luminescent streamers that swirled around the human's body. Inuyasha saw the girl's body collapse lifelessly from the corner of his eyes, and the first tinges of red clouded his vision. Hatred and bloodlust blazing in his golden eyes, Inuyasha sprang, launching his canine form upward on a direct trajectory for the youkai's jugular.

Busy clawing at her burned eyes and drowning out his own snarls with her squeals of pain, she never realized he was there, and she did not struggle long once his jaws clamped onto her throat and his weight on her chest bore her to the ground. A swift death would be a mercy for her, one that he was loath to give, but time was of the essence. The hot, sharp taste of fresh blood filled Inuyasha's mouth, and he drove his fangs hard into her flesh, pressing forward until there was a satisfying crunch of bone. Then he wrenched his head to the side, tearing her head from her body and flinging it a short distance away.

Only when her body began to disintegrate under his feet did Inuyasha acknowledge that the youkai was well and truly dead. He stepped away, licking at the dark youkai blood still dripping from his lips, and cautiously approached the crumpled form of the girl. She lay unmoving in a growing puddle of her own blood, and only the faintest shimmer of light remained dancing over her skin to hint at the display of power that had occurred mere moments ago.

Inuyasha suppressed his body's strong desire to whine. She was just a girl, just a stupid human girl. A stupid human girl who had gone out of her way to help him, had fed him, had cared for him. A stupid human girl who was disturbingly still and pale. His ears flattened against his head as he slunk closer. Slowly, hesitantly, he touched his nose to her pale cheek. A spark seemed to leap between their bodies, and the girl started breathing again. He could hear her breathe again, see her chest rise and fall, feel the puffs of her breath stir his fur. Funny that he had not realized she was not breathing before. It was not until the sound returned that he realized it had been missing.

Light flared out from a point just above her left hip and washed over the pair in a wave of soothing warmth. Inuyasha jerked back in fear only to find that he could not move. The light flowing over them began to pulse in a steady rhythm. Timing the beats automatically, Inuyasha realized that the light was pulsing in time with his heart. Pain suddenly streaked through his body, and he gagged, sagging over her unmoving form but forcing himself to remain standing by sheer force of will.

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'Kikyou. Bitch.'

His bones shattered, changing direction, changing length, changing shape, as his skin rippled in grotesque waves over the internal shifting of organs, bones, and tissue, and his white fur darkened and faded, leaving behind tan skin. He did not cry out; he had not screamed with pain since the first change although the pain had grown no less with each subsequent transformation. The weight of his clothes settled around him, grown so unfamiliar they seemed heavy and restrictive, and he curled in on himself, limbs locked and shaking as the final shudders passed, leaving only an omnipresent aching weakness.

Inuyasha opened his eyes slowly, and his breath caught in his throat, muscles to tired and sore to reel backwards. He was braced on his hands and knees at the girl's side, his human face mere centimeters from her own. His long black hair merged with hers in the dirt as his labored pants mingled with her shallow breaths. And he could see the green of her uniform collar, the pale peach of her skin, the fading red of her lips, and the blood smeared across her cheek.

His eyes widened, and he jerked away violently, the youkai blood still coating his mouth suddenly burning and foul. He vomited into the nearby leaves, black youkai blood and the yellow bile of his own empty stomach, before subsiding into dry heaves. The air reeked, and even his weak human nose found the combination of odors offensive, but the strongest of all was the hot, metallic tang of the girl's freshly spilled blood. And there was so very, very much of it. The growing puddle of it coated his fingertips, and he spun around. She remained crumpled where he had left her, not that she could move under her own power now anyway. He crawled forward, eyes raking her figure. Her breath was shallow, but at least she was still breathing. Whatever had passed between them had ensured that. But she was still bleeding profusely, and Inuyasha knew it was not in his power to stop it.

After a second's hesitation he reached forward with his now human hand and placed it over the girl's heart. Hers beat in perfect sync with his, and he blinked wonderingly.

"Kagome," he breathed, lightly shaking her shoulder. His voice was rough and awkward from lack of use. He said her name again, cupping her face with his hands, but she did not respond. Inuyasha glanced at the deepening shadows warily. He was vulnerable, and the girl was severely injured. Only the force of their combined inherent powers kept her alive. He would have to return her to her people.

He gathered her to him and forced himself to his feet. Inuyasha cradled the girl in his arms awkwardly, feeling the blood from her wounds swiftly soaking into his clothes. He marched, one step at a time, stalking across the forest floor, black hair swirling in the darkness.

And for the first time in more than fifty years, Inuyasha left the forest.


	9. Chapter Eight Placeholder

Dear heaven, it _has _been two years, hasn't it? I wonder where the time went because it certainly doesn't seem like it's been so long to me. I'll be needing a cane before I realize it. Those of you still reading must have the patience of saints. My hat, if I wore one, would be off to you right now.

This is roughly half of chapter 8, not the whole thing. (I'm attempting to schedule a comeback for June, but y'all have been waiting long enough that you deserve something now.) On the diamond in the rough scale, the chapter is still a piece of coal. I still have some plot kinks I'm trying to work out and some fragments/sentences/paragraphs to clean up (this excerpt may change a bit as well).

Criticism on what is currently here is more than welcome, however.

* * *

_What happened to me?_

She felt heavy, so very heavy. Weight seemed to be pressing down on her eyes, her skull, her whole body, and awareness was definitely overrated when compared to the peace of oblivion. Red glowed on the backs of her eyelids, and she whimpered, forcibly lifting her head and turning it blindly. Her chin scraped across the ground and she winced, but her eyes stubbornly refused to open. Kagome pushed down the panic that threatened to surge within her at the discovery that she could not open her eyes and rolled onto her stomach, bracing her hands against the ground and attempting to rise.

_Something's wrong. It shouldn't be this hard to move._

The air itself seemed to resist her struggles, encasing her in an oppressive, viselike grip. Her teeth ground together painfully as she forced herself to her knees. There was a source of light and heat somewhere nearby. Maybe someone could help her. As if in response to her thoughts, the air's grip lessoned and she staggered to her feet. Her ears strained in an attempt to compensate for her blindness, but there was only the sigh of the hot, gentle wind that brushed against her cheeks. The air itself seemed like a sentient being, whispering wordlessly in her ear, and it was important, so very important, that she understand what it said. As she waited the whispering expanded to include a slow, steady beat. Her brow furrowed as the heat and the red blindness and the noise came together into one synergistic sensation.

Like a pulse. Like a heartbeat. Being in the womb must be like this. Back in the beginning. Like life. On the border between life and death.

But was it within her or outside of her?

Without her volition, memories of a long ago summer trip to Okinawa surfaced in her mind. Exiting the airport terminal at Naha and walking straight into what felt like a wall of water-choked air, each gasping breath like drowning, Papa laughing at the way she wilted in the face of the humidity and hoisting her flagging body up onto his shoulders, being carried through air as warm and wet as blood.

_Blood?_

She imagined her father crouched flat on his feet, one hand outstretched to help her up, but his face was blank--not lacking emotion but lacking features entirely. Time had been both kind and cruel, dulling the pain of loss but slowly eradicating the memories of what had been lost, and Kagome had stopped being able to remember what her father looked like years ago. And what did it matter? There was no more Papa to come to her rescue. Papa was dead. Dead. Was Kagome dead too? No, Kagome could not be dead because the mere thought of it filled her with terror. The dead could not be afraid. The dead had nothing to fear. Kagome was afraid. Kagome must be alive.

"But where am I?"

Her hoarse whisper broke the stasis almost as if the air itself had been waiting for her to gather enough strength to move and to speak. Something shattered, and the red warmth vanished as if a crack had appeared in the very fabric of space itself that let the chill of oblivion swirl in.

Kagome curled her arms tightly around herself and shivered, the air suddenly grown cold, sharp, and biting. The shock of the sudden temperature change should have made her eyes fly open, but they did not. She tried, tried as adrenaline surged through her body and turned shivers into the first quivers of alarm, but her eyes opened slowly and with difficulty. It was as if her body had become a foreign thing.

It was cold, so cold, the short skirt of her uniform far too inadequate. Wind tugged at her hair and clothes and swirled around her feet. Which seemed very strange as it was so dark she'd swear she was locked in a closet. Opening her eyes had made very little difference in what she could see and quite frankly the backs of her eyelids were much more comfortable than this strange landscape with its strange dark shimmer, a pulsing of something sentient and larger than herself.

And there was someone else with her. She just knew it. How, she could not say, except there was a prickle of sensation that raised gooseflesh on her skin. Someone was watching her.

"Hello?"

No answer though something more solid moved among the shadows. A shadow among shadows, a darker scratch on the deep. A figure approached, tall than she and broader. A male.

"Who are you?"

He had long flowing hair that curled about him like a living thing because of the wind. As he came nearer, she realized he was wearing loose clothes in a bright color, a color she might recognize if it wasn't so dark.

Kagome backed away. "Please! Say something!"

But he was silent.

He reached for her and she lunged away, but his hand closed around her wrist. He had not seemed to move at all.

His sleeves were voluminous, the cloth flowing across her trapped hand. Red. Red like fresh blood.

Blood.

Pain erupted along her side and she looked down. Warmth dripping down her leg Pulse heavy and slow, slower than it should have been. Intense awareness of the blood pumping through her veins.

His hand around her waist tightened, pulling her to him. She was too weak to resist and could only stare at their linked hands. Before her eyes, his short, squared off nails grew longer, pointed and sharp, pricking against the delicate skin of her inner wrist.

The light pain set loose something inside of her. Betrayal. Betrayal of the worst kind. Deception. Death. She screamed, panicked, writhing and twisting violently and beating his wrist with her free hand.

"Monster! Let me go! Let me GO!"

Pressure at the back of her scalp, his other hand in her hair, twisting through it and pulling her head back, claws scraping delicately across the back of her neck. Gentleness in those hands that stroked her hair and skin and no intent to harm, but a gentleness she could not appreciate in her terror.

She went limp, sobbing, terrified and injured, weakening each second. He stepped closer, and she did not resist. His hand slid down, claws barely brushing against her skin and leaving no marks. Almost like a caress. Fingers entwined with hers, he curled their joined hands toward her side.

Light shimmered around them, tossing her quick flashes of long white hair sliding over red cloth. White? He stepped closer still, looming over her, still cradling her head.

She felt warm, safe.

"Purify it."

His eyes glowed golden in the darkness like two lamps with molten gold cores. Pupils dark and dilated, ringed in molten gold.

They were beautiful. And strangely familiar. She knew those eyes. But from where?

"Who are you?"

He ignored her question. "Don't die yet."


End file.
