Avoiding Yokai Eradication by Dafne U.

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha

Chapter 1

Before the Well Closes

Warring States Era, September of 1548 - Tsuki no Palace in the Western Lands

He sat in front of a pile of scroll that had grown bigger since his last absence, and said pile had not been small at that time. One could said he had taken too long to get back to his palace and attend to his people as they disserved, but the hunt for the evil half-demon had taken a lot of time, more than he had been willing to waste in such a creature. Except its wasn't just his last long absence that made the pile grow a bit more, but the continuous outings to hunt the half-demon that had made him forsake his job making the dense mass of scroll grow with consistency. However, all that could be fixed since Naraku was now a problem of the past like an annoying mosquito that used to bother you the whole night. Just like said mosquito, Naraku had been a pest that had caused many problems and, now that he was dead, the rash stayed for a while like the mount of scrolls he had to revise before sending an answer.

Most of them were petitions from several villages and many others were from the lords. Sadly, many of those would not be on time given that he had to answer the ones that were already delayed, and the mass of scrolls were sure to increase in the coming days. However, he wasn't going to let it grow more than it already was. He would spend the whole day and night if necessary to finish his duty. Then he could do something else, like see how his troops were doing and making sure the castle was well stocked with provisions for the coming winter.

As the lord of the palace thought about future plans, a piece of a parchment fell onto the floor opening enough to shown the refined letters it held obviously belonging to a person of noble background. Upon seeing the parchment on the floor, he bent down to pick it up and made to put it in his pile of scrolls to see later. However, something stopped him from forgetting the scroll again, maybe because it reminded him of something he had seen some years back.

He unrolled the scroll and swept his eyes over before standing to leave his study. He picked his swords and positioned them at his side before leaving in a hurried matter. He thought of the pile of paper at in his desk, it was going to be bigger by the time he got back but what he was to do was more important than his duty to the Western Lands.

"Jaken," he called in a controlled voice giving away nothing of the danger they were in "you'll be in charge while I'm away. Take care of Rin and the castle in my absence" he said as a warning in a dangerous low voice while forming the energy cloud under his feet.

"Lord Sesshoumaru, where are you going?" asked the worried toad. He was not happy to be in charge of the castle where most of the inhabitants didn't like him and where an annoying human girl would be making his day impossible.

He met Jaken's eyes with his honey golden one that promised a certain painful death if he dared to question his lord one more time. The kappa shook in his place with no words being able to come out of his peak like mouth.

"Have a nice trip milord" he managed to say in a strangled whispered caused by the threatening energy that perilously swirled around him and he left in a hurry before his master decided his life was not worth living.

Sesshoumaru steadily began to ascend in his cloud and looked toward the north where he knew the Jewel priestess was with his half-brother. He didn't like the idea of going to meet them but it was an important matter. He needed to know what her wish was going to be and if it was worth letting her be in this world. With a confrontation in mind that it might end in the death of a half-demon and a priestess, he sped up to the small settlement called Edo, leaving behind his after image that disappeared second later.

***

Warring States Era, September of 1548 - Inuyasha's Forest

A group of unusual people were making their way from the small Village of Edo to the well in the middle of the forest that surrounded the town. The absence of conversation made the task at hand seem serious and very important, but it held a comical quality ordinary in the group. The common sound of somebody hitting the ground and the eco of the female voice that had screamed 'Sit boy' with all her might showed that the importance of what they were doing didn't matter to them as long as they enjoyed it fully.

"I can believe this creep" she said to herself as she marched vigorously toward the Bone Eater Well. "Who does he think he is to tell me what I have to do? The nerve of that arrogant dog."

"Kagome calm down. You know he does it because he's worried about you" said a young woman dresses in a fighting outfit known to belong to the demon slayer.

"I know Sango, but sometimes he dances in my last nerve" she responded.

"Hey, wench, why did you that?" asked a red clad figure that was trying to bull himself out of the crater created by his sudden plunge into the forest floor.

"Because I fell like it. I told you I was going to come back but you just keep saying that I can't go. You know very well that you don't own me. Besides, I have to come back because there are other things I need to take care of" she told the half-demon for the tenth time. "Like my soul" she added in a low whisper.

The half-demon's puppy ears twitched when she said that and jumped on a tree to appear right in front of her.

"I heard that and you told me you wouldn't hurt her" he reminded her for the twentieth time.

"I know what I promised Inuyasha and that was five years ago when I thought Naraku could kill her with his eyes closed. It seemed the stupid half-demon wasn't smart enough to eliminate her when he could" she told him.

Once it had been hard to tell him that, but now it only made her feel free. After Urasue had revived Kikyo, Inuyasha had changed. Her friends had tried to convince her that he would choose her instead of the walking doll, but it had been obvious that her crush wasn't thinking about her at all. To him she was a copy of his lover and, now that Kikyo walked around the land stealing the souls of others to survive, she was nothing more than a shard detector not worth of his affection. However, the dead priestess didn't want Inuyasha. She had never loved him as he was a half demon, the same thing she hunted. Kagome remembered when she thought that his little feelings for her could grow and become something else, something bigger and better like love. But she had squashed those hopes a long time ago after years of suffering from his unexpected departures to seen his zombie and do god knew what with her.

She knew she had promised him not hurt the golem but she needed to be whole again or she couldn't return to her own time and continue with her life. Although she wasn't sure if she wanted to go back to the future, now she felt it was boring and too normal, and she wasn't normal anymore. She was a priestess, something that had been unheard of for years, probably centuries in her own time.

As they were nearing the well a strong energy pushed against her senses, telling her of the presence of a powerful demon coming to that particular area. The powerful energy was familiar to her and after listening to the cat demon and Inuyasha growl toward the west, she knew she had not been wrong about her deduction. Sesshoumaru was approaching them fast. She wondered what the demon Lord could want with them since they were barely in friendly terms with the possibly of an all-out war when they best felt like it.

It was known among the group the brotherly rivalry between Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru. However, rivalry was a mild way to call the hate they felt for each other. Sesshoumaru hated Inuyasha because he was 'impure' seeing as he had human blood in his veins, and because his father had given Tessaiga to Inuyasha instead of him, the rightful heir of the West. Tessaiga was a powerful sword that could kill one hundred demons in his wake but it could only be used by somebody who wanted to protect humans. They supposed it had been created to guard Inuyasha's mother. So it was obvious that a demon lord with a superiority complex and hate for anything else but him would not be able to wield the sword. It didn't mean he hadn't tried. There had been enough times too close to home to count, however after he found out the sword sealed Inuyasha's demon blood enabling him to think and not become a mindless monster, he left them alone.

Inuyasha still couldn't stand his brother. Most of the time they saw each other they fought but both of them were left with mild injuries. Yet, Kagome couldn't help to think that Sesshoumaru liked the sparring exercise that his little brother provided or the half-demon would be long dead with or without his father's sword.

"Wench, what are you doing? Shouldn't you be on your way to the well" said Inuyasha in his brash way.

"Sure, I'll be going then. Tell Sesshoumaru hi when he lands" she offered before turning around and making her way to the well with a fox demon tailing behind her.

She wondered if Inuyasha's idiotic mind even caught up with the current events. He must have noticed that she was not an inexperienced priestess anymore. She had learned a lot from Kaede and, even if she didn't like to admit it, from Miroku, although it had taken more than one slap and several blows with Hiraikotsu to make him understand what was needed of him. However, she had to confess she didn't want to meet Sesshoumaru and listen to his nonsensical demands or name calling. Well, she agreed with every other living female on the planet that the man was gorgeous without compare and really strong, but that first impression were nothing after he opened his mouth to give orders and offend with his upper class vocabulary that left you wondering what the heck he had said.

"Mama, when will you be coming back?" asked the fox next to her.

"In about a week Shippou, I have to restock and attend the entrance exam for my university" she replied thinking of all this time traveling business had cost her.

She had been unable to attend a university because most of her time had been spent in the past, tracking Naraku around feudal Japan. She had barely been able to graduate high school and her grandfather had invented so many weird illnesses that she had to wonder if they even existed. The poor Hojo didn't know what to give her anymore and had stopped seeing her after graduation to which she had not been able to go because she was fighting some demon in some village. At least the main problem had been taken care of. Naraku was dead. She couldn't help the little smile that threatened to appear on her face. No more Naraku meant an end to his traps and deceptions, no more of his evil incarnations attacking in the middle of the night and no more Jewel fragment to run after. Yes, she was one happy priestess.

While she had been lost in her musing, the cries of a brotherly fight had escaped her attention. By then, she was at the well getting ready to jump in. however, the unexpected appearance of Inuyasha, Miroku and Sango with a hurt Kirara in her arms made her wonder what the heck was going on. She sat in the edge of the well waiting for an explanation when the imposing figure of Sesshoumaru stepped from the forest into the clearing.

"Priestess, you will come with this Sesshoumaru" he said with his usual stoic face and cold voice.

"What?" she managed to get out. Did he just ask her to go with him? "I can't. I'm going home" she informed him not caring to give him more details.

"I do not care where you were going. You are coming with me" he ordered her waiting patiently to be obeyed.

"You don't order me Sesshoumaru. I said I'm going home and you won't stop me" she told him like she was talking to Inuyasha who happen to be by her side.

He couldn't believe Kagome had just told his asshole of a brother off like she was talking to a dog. Mind you, he was a dog but a royal one whose rules pretty much were "Obey me or die". Nobody in his right mind would dare to defy him like that, not even him with his father's protection and all.

Before anyone could react Sesshoumaru pulled Toukijin from its place at his side and unleashed the Kenatsu attack. On instinct everybody moved out of the way except Kagome who Inuyasha had pushed inside the well before the attack reached them. Sesshoumaru immediately knew he had missed his target but wondered what kind of magic coursed through the well to allow the human to disappear through it. He also knew that the priestess wasn't going to used that well anymore since the power that allowed such a feat had dissipated into the world.

"Where did she go?" he asked the half-breed waiting for answer.

"Keh, you won't be able to reach her anymore, Sesshoumaru, so whatever you came here for will have to wait a long time before you can accomplish it" replied Inuyasha.

"I see. Then the scroll was correct and she is from the future" he mumbled to himself. "Interesting, a challenge I would love to overcome."

"Hey, what do you mean bastard. How do you know she's from the future?" asked the irritated half-demon.

"It is not important how I came to find such information, what is important is how I can contact the priestess before it's too late. Tell me, brother" he spat the name like it left a sour taste in his mouth to even mention such a word "do you know if the priestess made a wish in the cursed jewel?" he asked if it could be called that.

"Don't tell me you are interested in the jewel too" yelled the half-demon not believing a bit his 'brother's' good intention toward the innocent priestess.

"I see your idiocy knows no limit. I have no use whatsoever for that worthless rock. However, the wish is very important to me. I want to know what she'll ask for" he told the half-demon.

"What it's so important about a wish. Besides, she's so stupid she'll probably ask for the jewel to just disappear out of existence" he said mockingly.

"I hope she is" said Sesshoumaru before turning around and leaving the clearing. He needed to talk to the priestess no matter what and it was obvious he could not follow her through the well. There had to be another way to reach her in the future before it was too late. He almost sighed. There was another task to complete before he could sit down and finish his load of paperwork. And this time he would make sure to finish.

***

Present Era, September of 2004 - Higurashi Shrine

Kagome landed hard on her back and got her precious air knocked out of her. It took her several minutes before she could breathe normally and regain her balance. She cursed silently the whole generation of dog demons back on forth for their lack of tact and too much killing intent. However this time she forgave Inuyasha almost immediately since he saved her from his overbearing half-brother that had had the guts to try to kill her again. It was known that the Demon Lord wanted to kill his brother and she usually had been caught in the crossfire for trying to protect the half-demon from certain death, but this time he had aimed at her and almost succeeded. She was mad as hell at him and when she got back there she was going to interrogate him until she receive a satisfactory answer which didn't include 'I felt like it', 'You are worthless' or anything that diminished her in any way.

It was when she climbed the little stair at the side of the well that she remembered the blue energy that had come her way before the well magic transported her to the future. Magic she didn't feel right now. She turned and looked into the well. It was dark in the little house and she could hardly see the bottom, but she didn't feel anything else. There was no power emanating from it and that only meant one thing. She was stranded in the future with no way back to the Sengoku Period.