Chapter 1: Hurt

She was risen out of her dreamless sleep, only to realize someone was shaking her shoulder. She could hear birds chirping above her, and the sun's rays were bringing her face a welcoming warmth. She groaned, "It must be morning. AUGH! Inuyasha!" Just then the said demon decided to fully rouse her.

"Wake up already!" he yelled at her, "We have work to do! There are shards waiting for us out there!" He paused a second, his chest rising as he inhaled. When his lungs where filled with air, he yelled, "HURRY UP! I'M HUNGRY!"

Kagome could hear the birds stop their singing to instead fly away to a safe place in hopes of avoiding the dog-demon's furry. She sighed, and looked up at him through one half lidded eye. Inuyasha was standing over her, watching her face intently. She opened the other eye, gave him a cold stare, and then shut both again. "Oh crap...Here it-" Inuyasha couldn't finish his thought before the, "SIT BOY!" reached his ears.

The rosary that hung around his neck glowed for a brief half-second before his whole body went slamming into the ground. He let out a few not so carefully chosen words and waited for feeling to return to his body. His legs were numb, his arms were numb, even his face was numb. Shit, how he hated being 'sat'.

In the meantime, Kagome pulled herself to her feet, and rolled up her sleeping bag. "That was rude Inuyasha." she told him in an unfazed voice. "I swear! He can be so immature sometimes! He acts like a child." But she wasn't going to let him get to her, not this early. "It's too beautiful of a morning to ruin it on pointless bickering." The sky was glowing with it's sunrise oranges, and reds, and the sun could be seen low in the horizon. It was a perfect circle of a warm, golden cream color, while on the opposite side the full moon was still visible.

Kagome glanced at Inuyasha who was peeling his face of the ground as she made her way to her yellow bag. After a minute or two she turned with two ramen cups in her hands. She shook her head as she thought, "Ramen, again." After a year of eating only instant ramen you'd think a hanyou would tire of it, but no. In fact, Kagome could swear that with each passing day his love for the noodles only increased.

There was already a fire blazing in the center of the camp area, "He must have made it before he woke me."

They ate in silence, that is except for Inuyasha's loud slurping. She was to tired to speak, and he too busy eating. "More like inhaling his food."

It was strange being alone again, just the two of them traveling. In a way it felt right. How long had it been since they had been alone together without peering eyes? Hard to say. She was glad, and he was glad, that Miroku and Sango had been away when the rumors of the shard reached them. Even happier that Shippo had stayed with Kaede. Just recently he'd made a few friends in the village, and even though he had insisted to be allowed to accompany them, Kagome thought the kitsune cub needed time to just be a kid and have fun.

This had made Inuyasha incredibly joyous. "No Shippo and no Miroku!" It had taken Inuyasha a while to wipe the smile of his face. That's when he realize what it all meant. "It'll be me with Kagome again. Just me and her." And at that thought his silly grin had returned. Even though he was sure nothing out of the ordinary would happen, he couldn't help but like the thought of traveling alone with her once again.

~~~

"Pick up the pace wench! At this rate we'll never find the fucking shard!"

Kagome just rolled her eyes and with a giggle she told him, "Geeze Inuyasha, lighten up. You're always so grouchy."

He in return just stopped and stared at her with hard, emotionless eyes. His arms were crossed on his chest, and his lips held tightly in a pout. She couldn't help but laugh, he just looked so funny. "The Great Inuyasha, POUTING!!!"

He waited, in the same position, until her laughter died down to tiny giggles, and then turned his face to the right, nose high in the air, and with a loud, "Feh!" continued his strides. Kagome just shook her head in a disapproving gesture, a smile still on her face, and followed her dog eared friend to where ever their search for this shard was to lead them.

The road was long, and seemingly endless. At least four hours had passed since breakfast, and Inuyasha knew Kagome would want to stop soon and rest while they ate lunch. He didn't understand why humans always needed so much rest, but if it involved food, he didn't mind one bit.

He could hear her steps behind him, she was trying hard to keep up with him. He could also hear her low humming; it was a melody he had never heard before, but quite cheerful and he could tell Kagome was in a good mood.

Inuyasha took one quick glance at her. She was walking blindly, her head turned toward the sky, and her arms swaying at her sides. The sun was hitting her pale neck with its rays, adorning it with a golden glow that went down low to reach her- "Stupid wench." he growled, "Gonna trip if she keeps walking with her eyes closed like that." He let out an exasperated sigh and turned his senses back to the world around him, and that's when he heard it. It was a woman's scream, soon followed by more women, kids, and even some men. The scent of blood and demon was heavy in the morning air.

"Finally!" He thought. "I was beginning to think it would take us all day to find the dim-witted demon."

~~~

Inuyasha had a smirk playing on his lips as he let Kagome down in the middle of the village, just a couple of yards away from the black winged youkai. It was about twenty feet high in air, and kept diving down to seize and traumatize its preys. The creature's whole body was black, with long bonny legs and arms. There was a patch of hair on its head, and another in the center of its chest, thinning out as it made its way to the demons belly.

Inuyasha cracked his knuckles as he moved into a fighting stance, and pulled Tetsusaiga out. He shifted his eyes from the child the demon held in its claws to Kagome, and back to the demon.

With a nod of understandment, Kagome pulled the string of her bow, took aim, and let the arrow fly into the bat-like wing of the demon ahead. As the flaming arrow pierced the demon's black wing, it let out a blood curling screech and let the child drop from it's clutches. The little boy, who seemed no older than five, closed his eyes shut, and prepared for the hard ground as he fell through the air. But he never did feel the impact of his body hitting the dirt bellow him. Instead he landed in the arms of the waiting half-demon.

Inuyasha quickly put the stunned boy on the ground, and watched him run back into his waiting mother's embrace. He took a quick glance at Kagome who was waiting with another arrow strung in her bow, her eyes narrowed in concentration. Then Inuyasha turned back to the demon, only to find there were two of them terrorizing the village.

"Feh! Twice the fun!"

One was fighting to stay in the air, swaying around with his wounded wing, the other getting ready to attack...KAGOME?! His eyes widened, and he quickly unsheathed Tetsusaiga again. But before he could move at all he heard Kagome's voice.

"Inuyasha!" She yelled, "The shard, its in his forehead." With a quick nod, he jumped in front of Kagome and charged at the flying youkai.

As Inuyasha fought one youkai, Kagome fired her holy arrows at the other. He was fast, even with a wounded wing he managed to escape most of her attacks. She reached behind, trying to grab an arrow, only to find there were no more. Kagome gasped and her face turned pale, as the demon noticed her lack of weapons, and charged at her with blind furry.

"Shit." Inuyasha panted. The power of the jewel was making this demon rather hard to beat. He took another swing at it, and then another. He only managed a cut on the youkai's left shoulder. "Gotta aim for the head. Aim for the head. Aim for the head." He swung Tetsusaiga back and swung forward gain to end up standing in between the giant creature's head and body. "Now for the-" He didn't finish his thought before he heard Kagome's piercing shriek and saw the second demon's claws tear through her abdomen.

"KAGOME!!!" He ran, as fast as his legs would take him, and in an indescribable sense of fear and anger he slashed through the creature, and ran to Kagome's side.

Tetsusaiga lay forgotten next to him, as he came down onto his knees and picked her up into his arms. "Kagome?" he asked, "Kagome can you hear me?" There was no answer, only ragged breathing. He swallowed the lump that formed in his throat and looked down at the girl's limp body, and at the rapidly forming pool of blood beneath it.

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So there is chapter 1. Sorry if the fighting scene just plain out sucked, but action has never really been my strong point.

By that way thank you for pointing out my spelling error of Rumiko Takahashi's name. I really should be more careful when I proofread. As for the length of the chapters: I'm trying. It's hard to make it a certain length and still go on according to my plan.