Entwining of Destinies ~ Dragonia - Chapter 14

 

Chapter 14:

Time Compression

(Opening: Omoide ga Ippai - CoCo)

Upon returning to the village, Gerardo asked everyone to get away from it for a short time while also taking with them all the children that didn't get rejuvenated due to the curse Naraku and Kagura put on the village. Once this was done, he summoned his dragon armor…

- "I think it'll be better if we leave Kaede like this until she has assimilated everything Kikyou told her" – said Gerardo with a sad face.

- "So, do you have a plan to return all the others back to normal?" – asked Miroku.

- "I do, however it's still an untested theory I don't know if it'll work for sure. I just need a bit of the water you use to return to normal to try it, but I think it has a good chance of working" – replied Gerardo while Kagome took out the bottle containing the bright blue liquid from her backpack. Gerardo took a little part of the water out from the bottle and rolled it into bubble that he kept levitating in front of himself.

- "Ah! Are you planning to use your Healing Rain spell?" - asked Kagome with a smile.

- "You guessed it right. As the curse Naraku put over the village isn't as strong as the one he put on you, it should be easy enough to break it like this" – said Gerardo as he began elevating into the air - "Now, please step back so you won't get caught in the rain, and put up a couple of barriers just in case" -

The others obeyed his indications, as they got away from the border of the village. Then, Gabriela and Miroku placed a barrier each around them.

- "Well then, time to put my theory to test" – said Gerardo to himself as he changed the mode of his armor to full-plate closed mode, so the water wouldn't filter through it.

The following instant, he began swinging his sword in circles to accumulate water and form a large dark blue sphere over him, to then fuse the bubble of magical water with it, changing the color of the sphere to bright blue – "Ist Garsse, ah... Leiya Iadlast, VulualLarteSa Zosph Wihatslag Oli Zosph Uklyaar, Oli Quierallm Ealzet Zosph Phiaphz Ical... Healing Rain!" –

He cut the bubble in half and flapped his wings to further spread the rainwater, so it would reach all the places in the village. The villagers began returning to normal as the rain bathed them, piercing through the roofs like Naraku's curse did, and by the time the drizzle ended, they all returned to their proper ages.

- "What happened here?" –

- "I felt like I was sleeping for days…" –

- "I dreamt I was a kid again…" –

Such were the comments of the confused villagers that could be heard throughout the place. In the end, the village children re-encountered with their relatives in tear-filled hugs, making everything regain its normal state. Excepting for…

- "I see, so that's everything that happened the last few days… sorry we caused you so much trouble…" – said the village chief, Rikiichi, to the group after they explained to him the events that took place recently – "However… where is Kaede-sama?" -

- "She is with us, but we decided to leave her as she is currently for a little more time in order for her personality to not get destabilized" – said Miroku as he showed him the little Kaede that slept on Kagome's arms. Her face still showed the tremendous sadness she got from what Kikyou told her.

- "Very well, Houshi-sama" – said Rikiichi in an understanding tone – "I'll take over the leadership of the village until Kaede-sama is again on condition of assuming her duties" -

- "And I hope you don't mind if we help Kaede-sama recover" – said Asagi with a smile, which the other Hourai children also shared.

- "We'd be honored to leave her in your care, guys" – said Gerardo with a smile, and he had already dismissed his armor. The others in the group also agreed with this plan – "Given you did such a good job teaming up with the village children to take care of their relatives during the time we were out, we can trust her safety to you all. Thanks in advance" -

- "It's nothing!" – said Ai as she showed them a great smile.

Kagome, Gerardo, Gabriela and Inuyasha then bid farewell to everyone and returned to the well to go to the current times, so they could tell Kagome's family the good news of her being back to normal…

Three days passed, and thus… Gerardo and Gabriela went for a day back to their world to rest, informed their parents about the interview Gerardo was going to have, and informed of this to the schools to which they went, as well as telling their relatives and friends they were going to study abroad at Japan.

Gerardo was accompanied to the interview by his family, Kagome's family and Inuyasha. Thanks to their support, he had no problems in breezing through the interview, and between his knowledge, the time he spent studying, and the extra bit of knowledge Iadlast gave him, he didn't have much problems with the exams. Thanks to this, he was admitted into Kagome's school as a last year student. Everyone rejoiced with the news. They also took the chance to matriculate Gabriela in the same elementary school Souta attended to avoid further trouble down the road.

A day after all these events, Gerardo, Kagome and Gabriela where in the living room of Kagome's house, preparing their luggage to continue their travels…

- "Phew… these last days were stressing, but at least I'm in. And the best part is that I won't have any classes until September!" – said Gerardo as he stretched. He was wearing a blue shirt and a pair of blue jean pants.

- "You know I think that's great too! But it's about time for us to go back to the Warring States Era, right?" – said Kagome as she finished with her backpack and closed it.

- "You're right. We better go before…" – said Gerardo as he laughed, but he didn't have time to finish the phrase.

- "Hey! Are ya plannin' to come back some day?" – said Inuyasha as he entered the room to see what they were doing. Kagome's mother was out shopping for groceries, Kagome's grandfather was cleaning the shrine, and both Gabriela and Souta were playing videogames in his room.

- "We were actually about to do that" – said Kagome sighing.

- "Well, at least give me a second so Gabriela and I can change our clothes before heading back" – said Gerardo as he took out his kimono from his Dragtemn before heading to the bathroom. When he returned, Souta and Gabriela were also in the living room, the latter already dressed in her white kimono.

- "So, how Kaede has been since we came here?" – asked Kagome.

- "She's been a bit depressed since she woke up. Her memories seem to be awakening too, but she's still having trouble accepting them" – replied Inuyasha with a somewhat sad expression.

- "No wonder. Given how shocked she was, that's something no one would be able to overcome in just a few days" – commented Gerardo as he tied his sword to his hip.

- "Well… are we going?" – asked Gabriela with a smile.

- "Are you coming back soon?" – asked Souta cheerfully.

- "Of course! We can't be fighting demons and youkai all the time" – said Gerardo with a smile as they left the house. After a few minutes, they had jumped into the well and returned to the Warring States Era.

- "Welcome back!" – greeted Miroku when he saw them leaving the well. Apparently, he, Sango and Shippou had been waiting for them ever since Inuyasha had gone to pick them up.

- "Hi everyone" – greeted Gerardo as waved his hand in their direction – "How things have been here since we left?" -

- "There hasn't been anything noteworthy. It's just that the village doesn't have Kaede's protection anymore, and she also lost part of her wisdom… but it's better for her to stay as a little girl for now. We thought it'd be dangerous to get her back to her true age while she's still confused" – said Sango looking a bit worried.

- "And what about Sesshomaru, Rin, Jaken, Kouga and Ayame?" – asked Kagome when she noticed they weren't around.

- "Just forget about 'em, Kagome" – said Inuyasha crossing his arms – "Sesshomaru and his attendants decided to continue traveling away from us, while that idiot Kouga and his girlfriend went back to their lairs when I returned from accompanyin' ya back to yer time" -

- "That means we're the only ones that'll continue traveling to beat Naraku and Tenebross, huh?" – said Gabriela as she sighed disappointed.

- "It can't be helped. That's our duty, after all" - said Shippou shaking his head and shrugging with a serious face.

- "Shall we get going then?" – asked Gerardo with a smile.

- "Of course! That couple idiots must've taken advantage of the four days ya were doing things in the other era!" – said Inuyasha snorting.

Meanwhile…

- "I see all our plans have been no more than an utter failure one after another" – said Naraku as he saw his enemies departing on their journey.

- "Right, we didn't plan our schemes thoroughly. For now we should leave Kagome for later and focus on eliminating the core of their group" – said Tenebross with a sinister voice.

- "Oh, the classic "kill the strongest ones and the group breaks apart" stratagem, huh" – said Naraku between his classic bouts of evil laughter – "You mean killing Inuyasha and Gerardo, right?" -

- "Exactly. That way, the others will be easy prey for us, and I have just come up with the perfect way for getting rid of these fools…" – replied Tenebross to then make a green circle appear in front of him – "Ist Ukuak Chelkre Kiols Ilg Ical, Oli Couma Cust Phaph FaleaRe Necla Ical!" -

A black gust came out from the circle, and it took the form of a tall demon, covered completely by a green robe with hood, behind which shone evilly two red eyes.

- "My lord, I await for your orders" – said the demon in a low voice.

- "Kazein, I order you to manipulate Gerardo's mind so he commits a folly that will cost his life and Inuyasha, and if you can get rid of their entire group at once, even better…." – ordered Tenebross.

- "Understood, Lord Tenebross…" – said Kazein kneeling – "I swear to carry out your orders to the word" -

- "There is only one condition to this job, though: make sure that the girl with the holy powers doesn't die. We need her alive" – said Tenebross as his evil eyes widened.

Kazein nodded in acknowledgment and disappeared within a weak wind blast.

- 'How pathetic…' – thought Kagura – 'He's similar to me in that he's a wind creature, but he doesn't know what freedom is, and instead he's still tied to his master like a leashed dog' –

Inuyasha, Gerardo and the others were walking at that moment through a plain located between two forests, but an ominous wind began blowing through.

- "Something's giving me a bad feeling…" – said Inuyasha as he readied for a battle – "This wind reeks of Naraku…" –

- "Do you think it's Kagura?" – asked Kagome with apprehension.

- "No. It also has Tenebross' smell mixed in, and it smells different from Kagura's scent" – said Inuyasha as he gritted his fangs.

- "But I guess there's no doubt about it being a Wind-elemental monster" – said Gerardo as he looked at the horizon with a serious face. However, he was buffeted by a wind blast that went through his head. He didn't have any visible wounds, but he looked as if he was hypnotized, looking at the void with absent eyes.

- "Gerar… are you okay?" – asked Gabriela worried, which also drew the attention of the others.

- "Yeah… I'm okay… Gaby…" – said he sounding strangely distant – "And I've just gotten an idea to end this at once…" -

- "What in hell're ya talking about?" – asked Inuyasha, as his words caught the interest of everyone.

- "I mentioned previously which were the six basic elements, right? But I haven't said anything about the rest of the elemental scale" – said Gerardo in a mocking tone.

- "Gerar… are you really okay? You're acting… weird" – said Gabriela worried.

- "Yeah… that kind of attitude isn't usual on him…" – said Sango with a face of concern.

- "Anyway, let's listen to what he's saying" – said Inuyasha with a smile– "If we can finish off these bastards now, even better" –

- "We'll deal with that attitude of yours later. So please, explain more clearly what you meant about the elements" – said Miroku.

- "Very well. Aside of the six main elements, there are three secondary elements: Thunder, Nature and Ice, which are born from the six main ones; three attributes: Sun, Moon and Stars, which are elements born from Wills from other planets and stars aside of our own; two forbidden elements: Shadow and Poison, which no living being should ever handle, and finally, we have the Ultimate Element: Time" – explained Gerardo

- "Hmm, that bit about the attributes intrigues me a bit… Wills from other planets?" – asked Miroku.

- "Well, yeah… in our era, it was discovered a long time ago there were other planets out there aside our own. It's anybody's guess if there's life on them, though" – explained Kagome with a smile.

- "I see… so, what about the Ultimate Element?" – asked Sango.

- "It's the element created from the union of all others, except the forbidden ones, and it can only by manipulated either by the gods due to its immense power, or by the ultimate dragon… Infiny" – said Gerardo as a demented smile appeared on his face.

- "So how can we summon it?" – asked Kagome clapping her hands once in excitement– "If the Time element's so powerful, it could let us win this battle easily!" –

- "Kuhuhuhu… we can't, as it doesn't exist…" – said Gerardo, and before they could say anything, he added: - "And that's because he must be created by fusing the elements we hold power over into a single being" -

- "So we gotta fuse too or something?" – asked Shippou.

- "That's right. We can attempt the fusion now if you like" – said Gerardo.

- "Well, we won't lose anything trying it out" – said Miroku shrugging his shoulders. The others agreed, not knowing they had already fallen straight into Tenebross' trap.

After a few minutes, Gerardo had drawn a perfect replica of the Elemental Seal using ice over the grass and asked everyone to stand in a determinate part of the emblem according to the elements marked by their Dragtemn colors.

- "Er… are you sure it's safe?" – asked Shippou beginning to get scared.

- "Yeah, I don't think anything bad will happen" – said Gerardo.

- "But we have several elements missing here!" – said Gabriela alarmed, showing she also knew quite a bit about this despite being so young – "We got the six main elements, but we're missing the three secondary ones, and the Sun and Stars elements!" -

- "It doesn't matter. What we have is enough for making Infiny appear" – said Gerardo as he stood on the place corresponding to Water in the emblem.

- "Now what?" – asked Inuyasha crossing his arms.

- "Raise the arm in which you're wearing your Dragtemns…" – replied Gerardo. Everyone present raised their arms as Gerardo and Gabriela took off their Seirei Crystals from their necks and held them aloft.

- "Zyacc Alttyaok, ah, Leiya Faarsaszyattsei… Jewizdau Dea Iadlast, Efstrian Dea Pirazsyec, Aghihal Dea Kiols, Jedivile Dea Tiarrashe, Ripushial Dea Illyusea, Qafumya Dea Phinambrea, Naseanlia Dea Iadlicae, Wimelia Dea Tiargualh, Rakileim Dea Uzakamre, Vurtfetclee Dea Saetsulia, Wairogir Dea Syohylyou Oli Purofaseith Dea Yastolia, EathSa, Phaph Kyuluphe Razaium Pawatz Dea Myallade Ical… Dragyacch, EathZa! VasamweZa, Infini!" – said Gerardo in a monotone.

(BGM: Wanderer of the Wind – Popolocrois Monogatari Anime)

As soon as he finished, the entire circle began shining in several colors, including the marks on which they were standing.

- "Everything's gone well so far…" – said Gabriela worried, as she thought this wasn't going to turn out well.

The shine of each elemental mark began increasing, and a dragon's cry was heard. They began shining in the color of their respective elements as the centermost circle of the emblem turned into a multicolored vortex and began absorbing energy.

But then, the sky became dark, an electrical discharge began running throughout the entire seal and the energy absorption in its center became stronger.

- "What's happening!?" – said Inuyasha upon noticing that a multicolored translucent barrier had surrounded the emblem, making it impossible for them to leave it.

- "Is this normal!?" – asked Kagome scared as she knelt to better withstand the suction from the seal's center.

- "What the…!? NO!" – said Gerardo, as if he had suddenly awakened from what he was doing. His eyes were back to normal, and he seemed terrified – "The fusion has gone out of control!" -

- "What caused this!?" – said Miroku as he drove his shakujou into the ground and used it to keep himself on place – "This absorption is beginning to get to the level of my Kazaana!" -

- "As we're missing elements and we don't have the Heart of the Dragon, the fusion for creating Infiny's essence couldn't be done correctly!" – said Gerardo spooked.

- "And what's gonna happen now!?" – asked Sango scared as she held on the Hiraikotsu she had gotten stuck on the ground, similarly to Inuyasha and his Tessaiga.

- "We can't do anything at this point! I don't know what will come out from this!" – said Gerardo as powerless as scared.

A white lightning bolt fell from a whirlwind that formed on the dark skies, exactly over the seal's center, breaking the barrier and sending them all flying as they screamed. The impact also left them unconscious…

{End BGM}

Inuyasha woke up under the shade of many trees, a bit blinded by the sunlight filtering through their leaves. The first thing he did was sitting up, and upon looking around, he saw there was a lot of people unconscious around him: at his side, there was a little girl dressed like Miko, barefoot and with her hair styled similarly to Sango, with a backpack to her side and several things piled around.

There were also a little girl dressed in a pink and white kosode, an old man that seemed to be a high-rank priest with the same clothes Miroku had, a boy dressed in a blue kosode, a girl that looked a lot like Kikyou due to having a similar appearance and wearing her same clothes, and a creature that looked like a giant fox…

- "Where in hell I'm now?" – said Inuyasha. He then focused his eyes on the girl nearest to him and began shaking her to make her wake up – "Kagome! Come on, wake up! Come, snap outta that!" –

From being shaken so much, the girl opened up her eyes and…

- "SIT DOWN!" – said she instantly, making Inuyasha crash into the ground. It was then that she stood up and covered her mouth with her hands, noticing what she had done – "Huh? Inuyasha… are you okay?" –

- "What ya think…?" – replied Inuyasha from the ground.

- "I'm sorry, I did that without thinking… but how did you turn into a kid again?" – asked Kagome confused as Inuyasha stood up again.

- "What are you talking about?" – asked Inuyasha shocked – "Yer the one who…!" –

To not begin quarreling, Kagome took out a mirror from her backpack, and upon looking at their reflections, both let out a loud scream.

- "Damn it! Not again!" – said Inuyasha irritated as he examined himself.

- "This is so weird… I don't remember drinking the water, and we still have our memories even though we aren't wearing the medallions!" – said Kagome as she checked herself and her belongings. Sure enough, their medallions were still stored in her backpack – "And my clothes and hairstyle changed by themselves!" -

- "I think this gotta do with the stupid test that Gerardo did!" – said Inuyasha cracking his knuckles – "When I get him, I'm gonna…" -

- "Calm down, remember he was acting weird, as if he were possessed. But who are these people?" – said Kagome as she looked at the other unconscious ones lying on the grove – "Are they…?" -

- "Yeah, she looks enough like Sango to be her" – said Inuyasha as he examined the girl – "And I think this ugly old man's Miroku…" –

- "And this girl…" – said Kagome looking at her – "She looks like Kikyou, but her aura…" -

- "What's she got of special?" – said Inuyasha as he looked more closely at the girl, making him blush. He had noticed she wasn't Kikyou from her aroma, and while she had a familiar scent, his mind was drawing blanks about who she was.

- "Her aura isn't made of spiritual power, but holy power!" – said Kagome – "She's Gabriela!" –

- "What!?" – said Inuyasha shocked.

- "Ugh… I think you both are right…" – said the boy, who had just awakened and was standing up.

- "You're Gerardo-kun, right?" – asked Kagome to be sure. The boy was pretty much identical to Jousui, but his kosode, which barely was long enough to cover him down to a little below his knees, seemed to be made from cheaper fabrics, lacked any sort of emblems or decorations, and furthermore, it was patched up in several parts; and he wasn't wearing any kind of footwear. His appearance made for a rather striking contrast with Gerardo's normal appearance, and while he had intelligent-looking eyes, it wasn't as noticeable because he didn't have glasses.

- "Yes, it's me" – said the boy with an extremely embarrassed and sad voice – "And what a mess I got us into…" -

Inuyasha went immediately to him, grabbed him by the front of his kosode and raised him.

- "Inuyasha!" – shouted Kagome scared.

- "Ya idiot! Ya gotta explain us how we got like this!" – snarled Inuyasha angry.

Inuyasha expected to see his defiant smile, or his immutable calmness, like the time he grabbed him from the front of his own kimono when they first met.

- "I'll explain everything!" – said Gerardo as he covered his face with his hands and began crying – "But don't hurt me!" –

Inuyasha got so shocked from this, that he immediately put Gerardo down and Kagome went to him to calm him down.

- "I think you went too far, Inuyasha" – said Kagome to scold him as she patted Gerardo on the shoulder – "There, there… it's okay…" -

- "I didn't think he'd react… so pathetically" – said Inuyasha shrugging his shoulders.

- "Well, can you explain us what happened?" – asked Kagome when Gerardo calmed enough.

- "Okay…" – said Gerardo breathing deep in – "Due to the fusion failing, we ended up causing a Time Compression, and well… it swallowed us…" –

Inuyasha and Kagome were rather confused: Inuyasha didn't understand well what Gerardo was saying, and both were surprised that while Gerardo didn't seem more than a crybaby now, he still was as smart as ever.

- "What's that Time Compression thing?" – asked Inuyasha.

- "It means that the three states of time: past, present and future, mix into one within the seal we used to make the failed fusion to then separate violently. To put it simply, it's as if all eras fused into a bomb that explodes right after forming" – said Gerardo.

- "But, what has that to do with us looking like this or going to who knows where?" – asked Kagome.

- "It's because the Compression sends us to a place and time at random, changes our appearances and ages, and can even erase or add memories" – said Gerardo.

- "So I guess that means we're in another time now…" – said Kagome thoughtfully.

- "And as far as I see, both your memories and mine are intact" – said Gerardo sighing in relief.

- "Yeah, we haven't forgotten anything" – said Inuyasha with an arrogant smile.

- "And you still have all your belongings?" – asked Gerardo. They began checking themselves, and in the end, they noticed they still had all their things, the only difference being their different ages and clothing.

- "So… is there any way to get out of this?" – asked Kagome fearing the answer.

- "We've gotta wait until the effects of the Compression undo themselves and send us back to our time" – said Gerardo.

- "Wait, but don't ya mean we're gonna get stuck like this, right?" –asked Inuyasha spooked.

- "No, as all the changes the Compression caused us will null themselves out once it ceases" – said Gerardo with a smile.

- "So, how long it's gonna take for that stupid Compression to disappear?" – asked Inuyasha with an impatient and irritated face.

- "It could take a few minutes…" – began Gerardo.

- "Or several years" – said Gabriela as she sat up. She had been awake for a good while now, but she kept herself motionless to listen to their conversation.

- "Sis!?" – asked Gerardo upon seeing the light-haired Kikyou-lookalike he had before him.

- "Looks like our roles got switched, doesn't it? Little brother?" – asked Gabriela with a mischievous smile.

- "I'm still your older brother!" – said Gerardo exploding in anger when Gabriela said that – "And I'd rather die than call you older sister!" -

Inuyasha and Kagome sweatdropped: though their personalities had changed a bit, their essential features were still the same, particularly the way they related to each other.

- "How noisy can you get?" – asked the old man as he stood and walked to them. As it was so sudden, they walked a bit away from him.

- "Looks like Miroku's up" – said Gerardo.

- "Yes, and unfortunately, I can never find a wife now I have this appearance" – said he sighing disappointed. He then walked to Gabriela and held her by the hands – "Would you please bear my child?" –

- "What!?" – screamed them all at the same time. And not being enough with this, he also did to her the same thing he always did to Sango.

- "How you dare...!?" – said Gabriela infuriated as he hit him on the head with her bow, and as an extra, Gerardo also gave him a nice kick from behind.

- "Don't touch my sister, you old creep!" – said he showing a face of extreme disgust. Miroku just groaned in pain as he fell to the ground.

Both Inuyasha and Kagome began laughing at this, but they then noticed the other two people that were unconscious weren't anywhere in their range of vision anymore.

- "Huh? Where did they go?" – asked Kagome rather loudly, which caught the attention of the others.

- "I dunno…" – said Inuyasha as he looked at Gabriela from the corner of the eye, but when she noticed it, Inuyasha turned his eyes away from her.

- "What? Do I look like your long-lost love?" – asked Gabriela as she laughed.

- "It isn't that!" – said Inuyasha blushing to the point his face took the color of his kimono, but he then felt as if something hot hit him on the back. He turned around and noticed his clothes were being charred by blue flames – "What's this!?" -

Gerardo clapped his hands and took out a bit of water from the nearby trees and plants to extinguish the flames, trying to not get Inuyasha too wet. He then returned the water to its place.

- "It must be Shippou, though we haven't seen him ever since we did that failed fusion" – said Kagome puzzled as she walked to Inuyasha and checked the burn marks the flames left.

They heard something move through the bushes they had nearby. Gerardo formed again some water, this time from the moisture in the air, and threw it at the bushes. They heard a screech and the fox they saw before came out from them as he shook off the water.

- "You were beginning to miss me, huh? Kagome?" – asked the fox with a somewhat embarrassed voice, but he then changed it to a lower and deeper tone, and directed his next words to Inuyasha – "And I hope you're ready for my revenge, doggy…" -

- "Don't call me that!" – spouted Inuyasha – "And what? Are ya too embarrassed to take human appearance now, Shippou?" –

- "Oh sorry, you mean this?" – said Shippou to then disappear in a cloud of smoke. When the smoke dissipated, he took on a form very similar to that of Inuyasha at his true age, except for him having the same fox features he always had, and while he still had the same clothes he wore as a kid, they were of a size fitting his current form. His eyes and hair also kept their colors.

- "Why in hell ya look so much like me!?" – said Inuyasha a bit offended upon seeing him.

- "Because this is my adult appearance" – said Shippou unpleasantly, as if he was scolding him – "And I see that strange magic changed you all too" –

- "Three aged and four de-aged" – muttered Gerardo – "As I see it, the Compression caused a pseudo-age inversion to all of us" -

- "So you mean the youngest ones got older and the older ones got younger?" – asked Kagome.

- "Yeah, though Miroku seems to be the exception, oddly enough" – said Gerardo.

- "Keh, it must be karma from being a lecher" – said Inuyasha with a mocking smile, but he then slapped his forehead – "But that means the other girl we saw was really Sango!" -

- "Err… sorry… but do you know me?" – said Sango as she came out from behind a tree trembling, carrying in her arms Kirara in her small form.

- "Eh… yeah, Sango" – said Miroku – "Don't you remember us?" –

- "I'm sorry… I don't… the last thing I remember is playing with my brother in the forest near my village, and I woke up here" – said her scared.

- "Looks like she was the only one who got her memories messed up by the Compression" – said Gabriela in an understanding tone.

 

- "Compression? Anyway, Houshi-sama… why are you with these creatures and kids?" – asked Sango.

- "Because they are my servants" – said Miroku in an arrogant way, making everyone else look at him enraged and shocked – "Incidentally, the miko here is my fianceé" -

- "Excuse me!?" - shouted Gabriela scandalized while she struck him once again in the head with her bow and Gerardo kicked his behind as well.

- "As for the kids, they are my apprentices" – said Miroku while painfully ignoring the bump that Gabriela had just left him and the pain in his arse.

- "Oh, the hanyou too?" – asked Sango with a smile.

- "Yes. He needed a home, like all the others, and I gave him one" – replied Miroku smiling.

- "Someone hold me, 'coz I'm gonna kill that monk…" – said Inuyasha growling.

- "Calm down, Inuyasha!" – said Kagome to scold him, which made Inuyasha look at the ground sad – "By the way, Miroku-sama… is your Kazaana okay?" –

- "Yes. While it grew a bit after this disaster, fortunately it didn't get enlarged enough for something grave to happen" – said Miroku calmly.

- "We lucked out. If the Compression had made it even larger, most likely we'd have all gotten absorbed into it" – said Gerardo in a stern tone.

- "I see you have kept your wisdom despite having gotten younger, Gerardo-kun" – said Miroku with a smile.

- "Maybe, but his appearance shows him as anything but smart" – said Shippou in a mocking tone. Gerardo just looked at the ground as he blushed, which made Gabriela go and hold him. Kagome just sighed and used her Dragtemn to store again her backpack and all the items that were fallen near it.

However, their conversation was cut short because an arrow flew through the air and stuck on a tree that was a few centimeters away from Shippou. While everyone wondered who could have shot it, they saw a woman enter the forest they were in, and she stood there aiming at Shippou. Everyone was shocked to see it was…

- "Kikyou!?" – said everyone shocked. She seemed to not pay any attention to them though.

- "Are you a youkai…?" – asked Kikyou with distrust imprinted in her face.

- "Yeah, but… why are you attacking me, Kikyou-san?" – asked Shippou shocked.

- "How do you know my name, creature?" – asked Kikyou immediately.

- "Kikyou… don't you know who we are?" – said Inuyasha in a sad tone as he walked to her. Kikyou turned around to see him, and her expression softened.

- "No, I don't… but you look a lot like a hanyou that is always at my side… as if you were a smaller version of him" – said Kikyou kneeling to have her face at the same height as him and smiling. Apparently, Inuyasha made her stop considering Shippou a threat. He sighed and fell to the ground relieved.

- "Kikyou, did anything happen!?" – said a known voice from the entrance of the forest.

- "No, Inuyasha. It's nothing" – said Kikyou calmly, which shocked everyone present. When the voice owner's entered the grove, Inuyasha felt himself about to faint from the shock: it was himself in his adult form, and without the rosary on.

- "Huh? Who're these people?" – asked the other Inuyasha, and upon seeing his younger self, he snarled: – "Hey, pipsqueak, why ya look so much like me?" –

- "WHO IN HELL ARE YA CALLING A MICROSCOPIC PIPSQUEAK YA NEED A FREAKIN' MAGNIFYIN' GLASS TO SEE!?" – shouted Inuyasha, and before the other Inuyasha replied, Kagome, Gabriela and Gerardo grabbed him by the collar of his kimono and dragged him away, hiding him from the others and getting him as far as they could so they wouldn't listen on them.

- "What do you think you're doing!?" – said Gabriela to scold him.

- "What ya think? I can't stand being told that, not even coming from myself!" – said Inuyasha as he pouted.

- "Talking about being foolish…" – said Gerardo sighing – "And haven't you realized it?" –

- "What?" – asked Inuyasha puzzled.

- "That we're in the past…" – said Kagome worried – "We're 50 years in the past, right before everything began…" –

- "That means…" – said Inuyasha as his face lit up.

- "I hope you aren't planning to interfere in the events that took place in this time" – said Gabriela in a severe tone, as she guessed why he was getting so glad.

- "Why!? It's so bad that I wanna save Kikyou from Naraku!?" – asked Inuyasha angry.

- "It's beyond bad! If you change anything here, you'll alter the entire timeline! That means you'll never meet Kagome and none of us will be here because your adventures will have never started!" – shouted Gabriela so he would get the gravity of the situation – "Try to stop thinking about your old love all the time!" -

- "Okay, I get it… I won't interfere…" – said Inuyasha irritated after a while.

- "That's what we wanted to hear" – said Gerardo as he and the others prepared to go back – "By the way, not interfering means we can't do anything that changes history, and that means we can't tell them anything about the future or let them find out who we are. And make sure to not fight your past self, okay?" -

Inuyasha just growled in response. After a short walk, they found Kikyou, the past Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango and Shippou sitting on the grass as they calmly talked. From the look of things, Miroku already was suspecting about the current situation and just commented that he had a cursed hand and they all had powers, but he only told them the reason for their journey was killing and exorcising evil beings, and didn't mention anything about Naraku or Tenebross to them.

- "Ryoku-sama, so you are allowing these children to fight against youkai?" – asked Kikyou worried – "Isn't it too dangerous for them?" –

- "Not at all" – said Miroku as he laughed, though everyone face-faulted upon hearing the name Miroku gave to himself, and wondered apprehensively what kind of names he'd have given them – "As I said, they all have special powers, and if the situation gets grave enough, Kitsune-san, Hikari-san and I will handle it" -

Miroku continued laughing, though Inuyasha and the others began harboring a killer intent for suggesting they were weak.

- "Excuse me, little ones… could you tell me your names and the abilities you have?" – asked Kikyou gently. Upon hearing about them from Miroku, she was very curious about their powers

- "Don't even think about drawing Tessaiga" – whispered Kagome to Inuyasha.

- "Okay…" – said Inuyasha annoyed while he thought this situation couldn't get any weirder.

- "Well… we're Sui, Hikari, Inu, Fuuka and San…" – said Gerardo making up the names as fast as he could. He couldn't tell their real names to Kikyou, and he couldn't use either the aliases they had used during their stay at Ryuusei – "And we'd rather not show our abilities… it's important for us to keep them secret…" –

- "I see" – said Kikyou to then turn to look at Gabriela – "Though I find curious that Hikari-san has such a strong resemblance to me, as well as Fuuka looking so much like my younger sister…" –

Gabriela just began playing around with her thumbs as she blushed. Gerardo and Kagome just laughed at this, while Inuyasha sighed exasperated.

- "Cowards…" – growled the past Inuyasha – "First this old guy boasts about them having "great" abilities, and now they're saying they gotta keep them hidden? I think they're lying" -

- "The usage of our abilities only pertain to us. It isn't any of your business" – said Gabriela sternly, and while her resemblance to Kikyou calmed everyone in the group, who had begun putting her hands on their weapons though they didn't actually draw them, that didn't calm the past Inuyasha.

- "What a shame. I really wanted to see what ya had, especially that stupid kid" – said he as he pointed to his future self, which was a great mistake. This made the little hanyou so angry, that he leapt at him and they began fighting.

- "Idiot!" – growled Inuyasha.

- "No, wait!" – said Kagome scared.

- "Inuyasha, stop! That boy hasn't done anything to you!" – said Kikyou in a serious tone.

- "I don't care! This is just what I wanted!" – said the past Inuyasha excitedly.

- "Sankontessou!" – said both as they did the attack at the same time, but as Inuyasha had a smaller build and shorter arms, he was struck without being able to make his attack reach his opponent.

- "Damn!" – said Inuyasha as he grabbed the arm where he was struck – "I didn't remember my legs and arms were shorter now! I hate being this size…" –

- "As I expected, yer pathetic" – said the past Inuyasha smiling smugly.

- 'Don't underestimate me!" – said Inuyasha as he plunged his claws into the palm of his hands to cover them in blood – "Hijnkessou!" –

The barrage of red waves struck the past Inuyasha, but it didn't really harm him.

- "I don't know where ya learned that technique, but ya don't have the strength to actually put it to use!" – said the past Inuyasha as he plunged his claws on his shoulder – "Hijinkessou!" –

Inuyasha could barely avoid the barrage, as he still had his shoulder injured. This made the little self-control he had run out….

- "Damn, I'll show ya!" – said Inuyasha as he grabbed Tessaiga.

- "No!" – shouted Kagome as Gabriela clapped her hands and whispered a spell as fast and softly she could.

- "Ochis meya, ah... lay lusya... cruba syayul ulkiarea ika yst cezet syayul giolamu ika..."" – she muttered keeping her hands together and her eyes closed.

When Tessaiga shone to transform, it didn't have its usual appearance, and instead had an appearance identical to that of Sesshomaru's Tenseiga.

- "So a sword?" – said the past Inuyasha thinking about how interesting this had gotten – "Let's see ya use it!" –

- "Don't kill him!" – said Kagome.

- "Ya don't hafta remind me that!" – said Inuyasha as he continued fighting his past self, though they were more evenly matched now.

- "An illusory veil made from light refraction" – whispered Gerardo to Gabriela as he smiled at her – "You really thought fast, Gaby" –

- "I had to use my light manipulation in a useful manner, didn't I?" – said she as they both laughed. After a while, both Inuyashas got tired and decided to leave their fight in a tie.

- "Looks like we didn't have to worry about things getting worse" – said Shippou as he drank a bit of the tea Miroku made as he talked with Kikyou.

- "Yes, we thought they would end up killing each other" – said Miroku calmly – "But apparently they are too exhausted to continue with this" –

- 'By the way, Kikyou-sama… can I ask what were you and Inuyasha-san doing before you found us?" – asked Gerardo with a little smile. This had just the reaction he was expecting.

- "Eh… well… I think we should get going now" – said Kikyou getting nervous. She got up and started walking to the forest's entrance – "I hope we meet again soon" –

- "Keh… whatever" – said the past Inuyasha as he got up and followed Kikyou.

They waited for a bit, and once they felt it was safe, everyone but Sango let themselves fall to the ground and sighed in relief.

- "At least we didn't end up altering the past" – said Kagome, though Sango had a face of not understanding anything that happened.

- "I see we were thrown back 50 years into the past, but could you explain me exactly what happened?" – said Miroku.

It took a few minutes for Gerardo and Gabriela to give all the pertinent explanations about the Time Compression and the failed fusion…

- "So how can we get back to our time and to our normal forms?" – asked Shippou.

- "We just have to wait until the Compression ceases. That'll send us back to our time and return us to normal" – said Gabriela.

- "And will that take long?" – asked Miroku, as he seemed to not have gotten used to being old yet.

- "They said they didn't know, as the Compression undoing itself could take a few instants, or all the time we were sent back" – said Kagome worried.

- "Which if ya didn't get it, it means we're gonna end up waiting for 50 years" – said Inuyasha sulking.

- "Anyway, the best thing we can do for now is enjoy the show, trying to not interfere so the timeline doesn't get damaged" – said Gerardo sighing.

- "You don't sound so convincing, as you don't seem as wise with that peasant kid look" – said Shippou in a mocking tone.

- "I know…" – said Gerardo looking downward as he blushed.

- "And I remind ya we still haven't forgiven ya for the disaster ya made.." – growled Inuyasha. Gerardo just nodded before lowering his head and closing his eyes in signal of regret. Gabriela looked with rage at Inuyasha, but as she couldn't really say anything to defend her brother, she remained silent.

- "Excuse me, but… I don't get what's happening, but it means we're supposed to be friends and something happened to us?" – asked Sango a bit scared.

- "Yeah, but don't worry" – said Kagome smiling and putting a hand on her shoulder – "With time, you'll remember and understand everything, Sango-chan" -

- "Don't exhaust yourself over it for now" – said Miroku gently.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha had already gone ahead and was watching over Kikyou and the past Inuyasha, who had their eyes fixed on each other.

- "What're you looking at?" – asked Kagome with a lot of curiosity to then get close to him to see. The others did the same a few instants later.

- "What? Yearning for the times we're about to witness?" – asked Gabriela in a mocking tone when she saw what it was about.

- "Hey! That was my line!" – growled Gerardo.

- "Sorry about that!" – said Gabriela laughing.

- "Be quiet already! We wanna listen too!" – said Shippou as he and the others kept on looking at the two former lovers hidden behind some bushes.

- "Kikyou… I want ya to have this…" – said the past Inuyasha as he handed her a small clam shell.

- "Inuyasha, what is this?" – asked Kikyou intrigued.

- "It's something I've carried with me all this time, but I can't use it for anything. Take it" – said the past Inuyasha blushing.

Upon opening the shell, Kikyou noticed it was a container for a small bit of crimson lip make-up.

- "That and the Fire-Rat kimono are the only mementos I have from my mother" – said the past Inuyasha in a sad voice.

- "Your mother was human, right?" – asked Kikyou.

- "Yeah, she was…" – replied he.

- "But… are you sure about wanting to hand me something so precious?" – asked Kikyou worried.

- "It doesn't matter. I still have the Fire-Rat kimono I'm wearing as a memento, and it's even more useful to me" – said the past Inuyasha smiling.

Kikyou went up to him and took one of the sleeves of the kimono in her hands.

- "I'm sorry. I pierced it so many times with my arrows without knowing that" – said her as she looked at him in sadness.

- "Come already, it doesn't matter anymore" – said the past Inuyasha cheerfully – "And what was that ya were gonna give me?" –

Kikyou raised the left sleeve of her kimono and put her hand in. She took the rosary she had on the inner pocket of the sleeve, but then she let it go almost at once.

- "Ah, sorry. Looks like I forgot it" – said Kikyou with a smile.

- "Why?" – said the past Inuyasha disappointed – "And I was waiting so eagerly for it too!" -

- "But is it really okay for me to have this?" – asked Kikyou after looking at the small shell once again.

- "Of course!" – replied the past Inuyasha with a smile.

- "So I was eager over nothing," – said Inuyasha from his hiding place as he narrowed his eyes in annoyance – "I didn't expect something like this from Kikyou… it seems more like something Kagome would do…" –

- "Sorry, but what were you saying…?" – said Kagome, who was so angry that she was shooting sparks from her eyes.

- "Err… I said nothing…" – said Inuyasha scared.

- "This is gonna be interesting. We're gonna learn about many things we didn't know about" – said Gerardo excitedly.

- "Yeah, but it's going to get boring after a while" – said Gabriela a bit exasperated.

- "True that, but at least neither Naraku nor Tenebross will be able to take advantage of us being here" – said Miroku with a smile – "And anyway, I was interested in learning more about the past of our dear hanyou" -

At that moment, everything around them disappeared and they were left floating in the middle of the darkness. Then, some reddish lights began shining in the distance.

- "What happened!?" – asked Inuyasha scared. He turned and shouted at Gerardo: - "Don't tell me ya did some other stupid thing!"-

- "You're wrong! I haven't done anything this time…!" – said Gerardo scared.

- "Stop treating him like that already!" – said Gabriela irritated, which made Inuyasha recoil back in fear – "And anyway, this is the Compression undoing itself…" –

- "It's finally ceasing?" – asked Kagome in a hopeful tone.

- "We can go back now?" – asked Shippou.

- "I'm not sure, we'll have to wait and see" – replied Gabriela.

They then began shining in the colors of their elements, but when they looked at each other again, they didn't go through much of a change. Gerardo was a little taller, as also were Inuyasha, Kagome and Sango. Gabriela and Shippou had shrunk a little, and Miroku seemed a little younger because some of the wrinkles in his face had faded away and the little white hair he had turned gray.

Then, the lights stopped shining and they reappeared in a road filled with snow. Everyone but Inuyasha began trembling because their clothes weren't fitting for such a cold environment, not to mention most of them weren't even wearing zori and were directly stepping on the snow.

- "Ugh… i-i-it's so cold…" – said Gerardo trembling, with his teeth sounding like castanets, his breath getting condensed in the air due to the cold, and him surrounding his body with his arms, which Kagome, Sango and Miroku also did.

- "And can't ya anything about it with yer powers?" – asked Inuyasha confused.

- "We can't! We can control the elements, but manipulating the weather is beyond us if there isn't someone who can manipulate the fire, ice and wind here!" – said Gabriela as she began rubbing herself to warm up a little.

- "Shhh!" – hushed Shippou – "Someone's coming!" -

Instantly, Gabriela clapped her hands - "Ochis meya lay lusya, cruba sossaks yst eshille sossaks giolamu..." – which enshrouded them all with a curtain of light so no one would see them.

- "Using the light refraction again?" – asked Kagome as she rubbed her hands together.

- "Yeah, and I'm afraid I'll need to do this very frequently until we can get out of this" – said Gabriela with a voice that showed how little she wanted to continue doing this, aside of how cold she was.

They then saw close up the person they had seen from the distance before: it was Kikyou, and she was wearing a straw hat and had her clothes covered in straw to protect herself from the gelid weather, while the past Inuyasha followed her from far behind.

- "I'm envious of them… I can't stand this cold…" – said Gerardo as he rubbed his entire body.

- "You can't complain any more than you're doing, huh?" – said Inuyasha as he saw them trembling.

- "Kagome, can you try placing a barrier so the other Inuyasha doesn't hear or smell us?" – asked Miroku as he blew into his hands.

- "Um… I'll try… but I don't know if I'll be able to make a good one… as the only time I made a barrier was when Naraku did that to me…" – said her as she concentrated and raised her hands. Instantly, a blue force field appeared a bit outside from the place where Gabriela had put the light curtain.

- "Whoa, it wasn't bad for a first try!" – said Kagome to the amazement of her friends and her own.

- "And I see we can see and hear them, but they can't do the same for us" – said Miroku pleased.

- "You're a miko, Kagome?" – asked Sango surprised.

- "Yeah, but there are things I can't explain you for now. You'll know when the time comes" – said Kagome smiling.

They then began spying on the past lovers from their hideout, and when they went too far away from them, they moved along their barriers to follow them. After a while, a snow wolf youkai appeared and attacked Kikyou and the past Inuyasha.

- "Kikyou, watch out!" – said the past Inuyasha as he tried to get the youkai away from her – "Sankontessou!" –

This put some distance between the youkai and them. Kikyou prepared an arrow and shot it at the youkai. When the arrow struck it, the youkai disintegrated.

- "Inuyasha, are you okay?" – asked Kikyou worried.

- "Yeah, I'm fine. It didn't reach me" – said the past Inuyasha to calm her down.

Kikyou then looked at the cloudy sky, as if she had a presentment, and looked at Inuyasha.

- "We better find shelter before it begins snowing with more intensity" – said Kikyou worried.

- "Agreed" – replied the past Inuyasha as they both continued walking. However, he then turned around to where the others were hidden, as if he felt their presence, and began walking to them.

- "How did he notice we were here?" – asked Shippou spooked, but there was no need to answer that: they noticed Kagome was kneeling on the snow gasping, while the blue barrier that was hiding them began blinking.

- "Kagome doesn't have enough energy to continue maintaining the barrier, so it isn't strange that they began feeling our presence outside" – said Miroku as he knelt to her side worried.

- "Hey, Gerardo… can't ya use yer water powers to get us outta here or something?" – asked Inuyasha in a resigned tone.

- "I'm not sure I can…" – said Gerardo looking at the ground scared.

- "Why not?" – said Gabriela to give him some confidence – "We've seen you manipulating water and ice, so manipulating the snow we have under our feet should be easy enough for you" –

- "Okay, let me try something" – said he smiling as he clapped his hands – "Qia set dsiale crioast chimecale, yst cryseyualia eshille sossaks..." –

He surrounded everyone with a snow mass and opened a tunnel below them so they could escape. Once they all were safe, he closed it again.

- "That was a close call" – said Inuyasha irritated – "But I'm getting fed up with this having to hide from myself thing!" -

- "But we don't have other choice" – said Kagome saddened as she began regaining her breath. As soon as she said these words, the tunnel disappeared and they were left floating in the darkness again.

- "The Compression has begun undoing itself yet again…" – said Miroku.

- "Let's hope this time it does get undone fully…" – said Gabriela seriously. They shone and changed a little again, but it wasn't enough for them to go back to normal. They saw how some blurry and dim images passed before their eyes… and they reappeared in front of a forest's border on a cloudy day.

- "At least we're out of that horrible cold…" – said Gerardo with a pleased voice, but Inuyasha was anything but glad about this.

- "Here we go again" – said he annoyed – "That crap doesn't wanna undo in full" –

- "Maybe, but at least we're making some progress" – said Kagome with a smile – "Maybe we won't have to wait for much longer" –

- "I hope so" – said Sango, who while still looking like a child, she now had regained her serious gaze – "I feel like I was doing nothing while Kohaku needs me…" –

- "Looks like that last change gave you back your memory, Sango" – said Miroku with a smile.

- "I just hope you won't try anything perverted, Houshi-sama" – said Sango turning her face away from him with disgust – "That'd make you even nastier than you already are" -

- "And to change things a bit, does anyone know where we are now?" – asked Shippou as Miroku looked saddened.

- "Yeah, and we should run to the village at once!" – said Inuyasha shocked when he recognized the time and place to which they had arrived.

- "Why!?" – asked Kagome alarmed – "Remember we can't intervene!" -

- "This time we gotta do it! Let's go already!" – said Inuyasha as he ran off.

- "What's up with him?" – asked Shippou puzzled upon seeing this.

- "I know: it's because today was Naraku's first appearance!" – said Gerardo scared – "The village is about to get attacked!" -

- "But… weren't Kikyou's powers and strength enough to protect it?" – asked Sango.

- "Yes, but I think he feels compelled to go and help" – replied Miroku with a serious face.

- "Or maybe it's just that he's gotten bored from not fighting for so long" – said Gabriela with a smile.

- "Anyway, we better go to make sure he doesn't mess up anything" – said Shippou. The others nodded and ran in the direction Inuyasha left.

When they reached the village, they saw how it had turned into a scene of utter chaos: the people were running away or seeking shelter in their huts, there were corpses and pieces of youkai strewn throughout the whole place, and in the farthest part, the past Inuyasha, Kikyou and Kaede were doing the best they could to control the situation.

- "Now ya see what I meant!?" – roared Inuyasha – "We gotta help 'em!" –

He then unsheathed Tessaiga, which was still covered by the refraction veil Gabriela put on it, and ran head-first into battle.

- "Hell, he's as impulsive as ever!" – said Shippou annoyed as everyone got ready to fight.

- "I just hope our abilities and powers haven't diminished due to this…" – said Gerardo a bit nervous as he drew his own sword and shield.

They immediately went to help, but Gerardo himself couldn't really do much:

- "No way! My sword isn't even scratching these things, and it's too heavy!" – he said trying to deal with newfound weight the sword had in his younger hands. He blocked a pair of strikes with his shield that came from a couple of centipede youkai, but almost lost balance due to the shield being heavier too – "Ochis meya hydrast viartra sos eols ika!" –

He chanted to use his Water Sphere and Water Ray spells, however the rays and spheres he was shooting were so weak that even a water balloon would have been more damaging upon being thrown.

- "Looks like the Compression did affect us" – said Gabriela as she shot light arrows at the monsters, but unlike her brother, her powers had gotten so strong that they were now easily on par with Kikyou's.

Excepting for Gerardo, none of them were using their powers to full capacity in order for their secrets to not get revealed. However, after a while…

- "I'm sick of these piles of trash!" – shouted Inuyasha as he held his sword aloft – "Kaze no Kizu!" -

He swung his sword downward, launching an energy wave that destroyed all the youkai that continued raining from the sky.

- "These guys again, but that brat and that girl…" – said the past Inuyasha when he noticed their presence. He was shocked upon seeing the Kaze no Kizu that his future self had just used, as well as the power of Gabriela's light arrows.

- "Onee-sama!" – screamed Kaede when a monster was about to retaliate for an arrow she had just shot at it.

- "Kaede!" – shouted Kikyou as she readied an arrow.

- "No! Damn, don't do it!" – screamed Gerardo putting himself between Kaede and the monster when Kikyou shot an arrow at it, and made it explode.

- "NO!" – screamed everyone when they all thought they were killed in the explosion, but when the smoke was blown away by the wind, they saw both were covered by a light blue barrier with the dragon emblem drawn over it, and were safe and sound. However, as soon as the barrier was dispelled, Gerardo fell to the ground unconscious.

- "It can't be… how did that child manage to do something like that…?" – said Kikyou amazed, but before anyone else did anything, Inuyasha jumped in to pick up Gerardo and Gabriela made a flash of light so they could escape without being seen.

They crossed the forest and stopped to rest at the border of a lake. Gerardo didn't wake up until dusk was setting in, and when he opened his eyes it was a great relief for everyone.

- "Gerar!" – said Gabriela hugging him – "I'm so glad you're okay!" –

- "Ugh… what happened to me…? I fainted again?" – said he a bit confused.

- "Yeah, you collapsed while we were fighting. And it's great you're fine, but why did you faint from putting that barrier?" – asked Kagome very disconcerted.

- "I never really liked physically training myself and looks like I've got much less stamina since I got younger, so now even the simplest of my powers really does number on me" – said Gerardo – "By the way, where are we?" –

- "I know..." – said Inuyasha looking scared and sad as he recognized the time and place – "But I don't think you'll like knowing it…" –

After a few instants, a boat entered their range of vision and they saw how Kikyou and the past Inuyasha were in it. After navigating through the lake for a while, they both disembarked from it in a small pier that was located in one of the shores. Kikyou tripped and had to lean on the past Inuyasha to avoid falling down. The two looked at each for an instant, and then they embraced, with their faces covered by the sleeves of the past Inuyasha's clothes.

- "I've decided it. Tomorrow, I'll bring you the Pearl to turn you into a human" – said Kikyou embarrassed and happy.

- "Are ya sure 'bout it?" – asked the past Inuyasha nervously – "Won't ya regret it later?" –

- "No, I won't. Tomorrow, we'll meet at dusk in front of the Goshinboku, and there, we'll finally make our wishes true" – said Kikyou with a smile. They then sealed their promise with a kiss.

- "You never told us anything about this, Inuyasha…" – said Sango as she saw the scene with her eyes of the size of saucers.

- "It's amazing you kept that hidden from Kagome for so long…" – said Shippou amazed.

- "Though you should remember they both did a similar scene when they lost their memories" – said Miroku to remind them of that event, but Inuyasha and Kagome were silent all this time and didn't seem willing to say anything now.

- "Anyway, this isn't a good time to be discussing this" – said Gabriela seriously – "If the Compression doesn't cease soon, we'll have to spend the night here" –

- "And it looks we won't have other option, so we better begin setting up camp" – said Sango nodding.

They decided to set the camp in the depths of the forest so nobody would find them, and they finished getting it ready by the time night came. During all that time, both Inuyasha and Kagome were looking at the ground in silence, with faces filled with sadness.

- "Shouldn't we try cheering them up?" – asked Gerardo as they were sitting around a bonfire while Kagome and Inuyasha kept themselves away from the others. It was beginning to get unbearable to him that they didn't try to do anything while they both were feeling so badly.

- "I don't think so. Kagome must be suffering a lot for this, and tomorrow is the most painful moment in Inuyasha's life" – said Gabriela saddened.

- "That's true, but we should do something. No one should be suffering so much by themselves" – said Shippou to then stand up and go to Kagome's side – "Kagome, are you okay?" –

- "I don't wanna talk now, Shippou..." – said Kagome in a very soft voice.

- "Why are you still doubting yourself?" – asked Gerardo as Gabriela let out a resigned sigh and walked to them to check the situation – "Remember these are scenes from a distant past, and besides, Inuyasha's already recognized how different you both are, and his feelings for you have gotten much stronger" -

- "But he can't forget Kikyou, and now I've seen their past together, I understand why…" – said Kagome saddened.

- "Stop being so self-pitiful" – said Gabriela in a serious tone – "He might still remember her, but that doesn't mean you're any less important to him. Don't forget that" –

They left Kagome with Sango and Shippou so she would ponder over what their words meant, and went to check on Inuyasha. They found him looking nostalgically at the stars and moon under a tree's shade.

- "Are you okay?" – asked Gerardo worried.

- "I don't wanna talk to ya now…" – replied Inuyasha in an irritated voice.

- "Why? Are you suffering from a nostalgia overload or something?" – asked Gabriela annoyed.

- "That's none of yer business…" – replied Inuyasha as he turned to the other side.

- "We were just trying to cheer you up, but remember it's going to be worse for you tomorrow" – said Gabriela as they began walking away.

- "I know. And I'm ready to face it…" – said Inuyasha as he lowered his gaze.

They noticed it was impossible to do anything else for him, and they both just went to sleep as Miroku thought about what they would do next day while Shippou and Sango continued trying to console Kagome. They then left her side and went to talk with Miroku.

- "Any ideas of how longer we'll have to stay like this?" – asked Shippou annoyed.

- "None of us know that, but I wish this would end now" – said Miroku in a sad voice – "That way, we wouldn't have to see them suffer for what will happen tomorrow…" –

- "I really wish we could get them as far from these events as we could" – said Sango sighing in resignation as her face also showed sadness – "But Inuyasha's so stubborn that he would want to see them regardless of what we tried…" -

The conversation wasn't going anywhere, so they just went to sleep. But they didn't suspect someone was watching them… someone that had followed them ever since they got caught in the Compression…

Next morning, they ate breakfast in silence and went directly to the Goshinboku afterward. It was decided they wouldn't intervene in any way, but they wanted to see by themselves what had happened. They began by searching for Kikyou, and after a few minutes, they found her in a nearby plain. Apparently, she was preparing for her encounter with Inuyasha because she was putting on the make-up he had given her. Then, a shadow jumped from the tall grass and…

- "What…?" – softly moaned Kikyou as she fell to the ground with the right sleeve of her kimono drenched in blood. She tried to recover the Pearl she had moments ago on her hands, but something stepped on her hand… it was Inuyasha.

Everyone was immobile from shock and fear from seeing this, but Inuyasha was trembling, trying to hold back his tears…

- "Fool! Don't think I have intentions of becoming human!" – said the imposter Inuyasha as he grabbed the shell with the make-up and crushed it in his hands – "Honestly, this crimson red doesn't really suit you, but the red of your blood does look great on you, mwahahaha…" -

- "Eh?" – moaned Kikyou angry and shocked. Everyone who was hidden seeing the scene had covered their mouths or were dumbfounded seeing the scene unfold.

- "I'm grateful that you brought the Shikon Pearl to me…" – continued the false Inuyasha as he turned around and began going away – "But this jewel still hasn't absorbed enough blood and hatred, so I'll go and kill all the villagers! Mwahaha!" -

- "Damn you… DAMN YOU!" – screamed Kikyou after the false Inuyasha had gone away.

- "NO!" – screamed Inuyasha as he fell to his knees with his face covered by his hands – "That wasn't me! That was Naraku! Why didn't you get that was Naraku!?" -

He then began crying as he began punching the ground in rage.

- "Inuyasha…" – began Kagome, but she couldn't find anything that sounded right in this situation, so she just put her hands on his shoulders as she began shedding tears in silence. Gabriela then walked up to them.

- "Inuyasha…" – said Gabriela as she wiped off some of the tears that were spilling from her own eyes – "Are you sure you want to go ahead with this? It's a sure thing you'll suffer even more if we continue…" -

- "Yeah… of course we're going ahead... I must know exactly what happened after this…" – said Inuyasha as he wiped off his tears with the sleeves of his kimono and stood up helped by Kagome.

- "In that case…" – said Gerardo, who himself had his eyes filled with tears and had his voice cracking – "We've gotta search for your past self... If I remember correctly… he should be arriving at the Goshinboku in a few minutes…" -

- "Let's go there…" – said Inuyasha as he walked ahead of the others. They reached the tree and hid themselves the best they could in its surroundings.

A few minutes later, the past Inuyasha arrived searching for Kikyou…

- "Kikyou?" – asked he as he looked around – "Looks like she hasn't arrived yet…" –

- "So you've finally decided to appear, huh? Hanyou?" – said the false Kikyou as she appeared before him with an arrow ready in her bow.

- "Kikyou… what did ya call me!?" – asked the past Inuyasha stupefied.

- "Just as you heard, hanyou" – repeated the false Kikyou in a mocking tone – "Or are these awful dog ears of yours incapable of listening to what I said?" -

- "You… you!" – growled the past Inuyasha as disappointed as angry.

- "I'll never allow a hanyou like you to put their hands on the Pearl, so I'll finish you off here and now!" – said the false Kikyou.

They looked at each other for a split second, and then, the whizzing of an arrow flying echoed throughout the forest.

- "Die, Inuyasha!" – said the voice of the false Kikyou as it echoed through the forest – "Die, hanyou!" –

The past Inuyasha looked at Kikyou with a face that was a mix of surprise and disappointment, and ran away to begin jumping through the treetops.

The group immediately ran off to the village, and arrived just in time to see how the past Inuyasha destroyed the shrine's roof as he jumped out from it with the Pearl on his hands.

- "Keh, at last I've got the Shikon Pearl on my hands… at last I can turn into a true youkai!" – said he smiling triumphantly.

- "Damned idiot…" – said Inuyasha looking at his past self with rage – "I can't believe I was so stupid back then…" –

- "Despair forces you to commit the greatest idiocies…" – sentenced Gerardo solemnly.

- "Shut up already and look!" – said Shippou to hush them.

As soon as the past Inuyasha was jumping in front of the Goshinboku…

- "Inuyasha!" – exclaimed Kikyou as she shot a Sealing Arrow.

Everything happened in front of Inuyasha's eyes as if it was a movie in slow motion: Kikyou's arrow was shot from her bow and struck his past self directly on the heart. The Pearl fell from his hands from the impact and landed on the ground in front of him.

- "Kikyou… damn ya… how… could ya…?" – said the past Inuyasha as he fell into his fifty year-long sleep.

Kaede walked to Kikyou and knelt in front of her, who herself was kneeling down on the floor from all the blood she lost. However, there was a small difference from how Gerardo and Gabriela remembered this scene: Kaede didn't have her right eye bandaged and was like always.

- "Kaede, this happened because I wasn't careful enough when I attacked…" – said Kikyou as she moaned from the pain she was feeling.

- "Onee-sama, we have to tend to your wounds!" – said Kaede very worried for her.

- "No, it's too late already for that, so please… listen well to me… I want you to burn the Pearl with my corpse after I've died… so it'll never fall in evil hands..." – said Kikyou as she gripped the Pearl, but then, her last strengths faded and she fell dead to the floor.

- "ONEE-SAMA!" – screamed Kaede.

Meanwhile, the party continued watching this from their hiding place behind the shrine. They were either impacted or saddened by the scene they had just seen, but Inuyasha… he was simply torn up...

- "No… no… KIKYOU!" – screamed he as he began crying: he couldn't continue bearing with all the sadness he got from seeing Kikyou's death. Unfortunately, that scream began attracting the attention of the people that was around.

- "We have to leave this place at once!" – said Miroku scared.

- "Olpla siat hydrast, cezetea geahydra ika, yst cruba sossaks..." – said Gerardo as he created mist around them, so they would be able to escape without being seen. They left the village in direction to the forest, and once they felt it was safe, they fell to the ground exhausted. However, Inuyasha fell to the ground crying, while both Gerardo and Gabriela hugged each other and began crying themselves.

- "Damn you, Naraku… I swear I'm gonna kill you! I'm gonna tear you limb to limb for this!" – shouted Inuyasha as he shed tears of rage and sadness, and pounded on the ground endlessly with his hands. Kagome, on the other hand, was hugged by Sango as she trembled and cried in silence. The others thought it'd be better to let them vent all that, as there wasn't anything they could do to cheer them up.

- "So, what are we doing now?" – asked Sango with a sad face after a while, once both siblings stopped crying, though she kept stroking Kagome's back as she sobbed.

- "I don't know… and actually, if the Compression doesn't begin ceasing soon, there's a large probability we'll get stuck here…" – said Gabriela worried. As soon as she said this, a purple hole opened in the mountain that was in front of them.

- "That portal indicates the Compression is finally vanishing entirely!" – exclaimed Gerardo blinking – "We have to enter it before it closes, or we won't be able to go back!" -

- "But why didn't it cease like in the other times?" – asked Sango puzzled about how the Compression had changed the way it worked as Kagome raised her face to look at the portal.

- "No idea. No one in this world or any other could explain exactly how something as complex as the space-time continuum works" – said Gerardo shrugging.

- "Anyway, we better get going" – said Shippou, to which the others nodded. They went to pick up Inuyasha, who was still depressed like Kagome, and they headed to the portal. But when they were a few steps away from reaching it…

- "STOP THERE!" – said an evil voice. From the top of the mountain descended the same demon Tenebross had sent in the present, and he stood right between them and the portal - "By the orders of Lord Tenebross, I can't allow you to go back to the present!" -

- "Are you one of Tenebross' demons?" – asked Kagome with fury imprinted on her face.

- "That's right. I'm Kazein, and I'm the reason you're trapped here" – said the monster in a presumptuous tone.

- "But that makes no sense! Gerardo was the one who did the failed summoning!" – said Sango.

- "Yeah, I…" – said Gerardo puzzled.

- "Huh, so you're stupid enough to blame your own companions or yourselves?" – interrupted Kazein in a mocking voice – "It's better for me, but the truth is that I was manipulating him like a puppet ever since that strange wind buffeted him!" -

- "Damn…!" – said Gerardo as his eyes widened and his features contorted in rage.

- "Can you be any more stupid!?" – shouted Gabriela irate upon finding out how lowly that monster had stooped – "And what would have you done if the fusion ended being a success!?" -

- "I'd have though it at the time, huhuhu" – said Kazein laughing evilly - "But instead of worrying about that, don't you have more pressing matters in your hands right now, like a certain time limit on your heads? And I've already said it: you'll only return to the present over my dead body!" -

- "Fine by me! You'll pay for this, damned bastard!" – shouted Inuyasha as he drew Tessaiga and swung it in the demon's direction – "Kaze no Kizu!" -

- "How pathetic…" – said Kazein as he raised a hand, and when the waves were about to strike him, they trembled a little and vanished, turning into a simple breeze – "That wind attack is useless against…" -

But before he could continue running his mouth off, he had to step aside to avoid an arrow Gabriela shot him.

- "This sucks!" – said she as she readied other arrow – "He's too fast!" -

While in the village battle they were given a glimpse of it, in this battle it was that they noticed how the balance in their abilities was broken: Gerardo lost a good part of his power and his sword was dulled, Sang couldn't use her Hiraikotsu, Miroku had lost a good part of his physical strength and the strength of Kagome's spiritual powers had diminished. But Inuyasha was still as always, while Gabriela's powers had increased considerably, and Shippou's strength had increased enough for him to be a help in battle.

- "Kitsune-baku!" – shouted Shippou as he launched a burst of blue flames to Kazein.

- "Ikuyu poak lay lusya wiras sos couyuu, yst sos royawfle hakaisa tast ika! Light Arrow!" – shouted Gabriela.

Kazein managed to avoid the arrow, but the blue flames did strike and damage him.

- "Go!" – shouted Kagome shooting a Sacred Arrow. Unlike the ones she used to shoot though, its shine was weaker and the purple coloration of its aura was thinner. However, it still impacted Kazein, causing him some extra damage.

- "Damn, looks like you know well how to combine your strength…" – said he annoyed as he raised a hand – "But it's time to put an end to this silly game… Watsa ya qeriat iolois, zialea, wirasea yst koulltamea kyussaks ika! Evil Typhoon!" -

A great black typhoon formed in front of him, and even though they did everything they could to avoid it, they saw it was going to be impossible.

- "We need a barrier!" – said Gerardo scared – "Even if we can't avoid it, at least we should be able to reduce the damage!" -

So he, Kagome and Gabriela combined their powers and created a large silver barrier. However, it wasn't enough, as while it could endure the typhoon crashing into it, it broke after a few seconds and the typhoon sent them flying to then slam them into the ground.

- "Heck…" – said Gerardo with difficulty due to the pain he suffered from the fall – "Gabriela, Shippou and Miroku must have been the only ones who could endure that impact…" -

And in fact, that was the case: all the others were either unconscious or immobilized due to the pain. Gabriela and Shippou could resist the typhoon and the fall thanks to their newfound physical strength and magical resistance, while Miroku resisted the impact of the typhoon itself but got injured from the fall.

- "We better put an end to this already…" – said Gabriela as she looked at how everyone was injured – "Ist Wasriats OschmeRe Illyusea Kiabze Pawatz Zosph, Phaph Myya Zosph Phiaphz ical! Illyusea Pawatz… Dragoon!" –

The armor she summoned was exactly the same as the one she wore as a child, just resized to fit her size.

- "Gaby… I'll help you too…" – said Gerardo as he stood up again propping himself with his sword while panting and gasping. He had his body covered in bruises.

- "Gerardo-kun, don't move! You're in bad shape right now!" – said Miroku as he threw some ofudas to Kazein which exploded upon making contact, making him scream in pain.

- "I'm sorry… but I just can't stay put in a situation like this…" – he said gasping. He then took out his Seirei Crystal from its holder, placed it in his Dragtemn and closed his eyes as he started chanting – "Ist Wasriats OschmeRe Iadlast Kiabze Pawatz Zosph, Phaph Myya Zosph Phiaphz ical! Iadlast Pawatz... Dragoon!" –

Unlike Gabriela's armor, Gerardo's did change: it was lighter, much more open compared to the one he normally wore, and his helmet had been replaced by a metal headband with a dragon-shaped ornament in the front.

- "What… what happened to my armor!?" – said Gerardo spooked upon noticing the changes.

- "Kuhuhu… looks like the changes from the Compression reverted your armor into the shape of one of the prototypes that existed so long ago…" – said Kazein as he laughed creepily.

- "Damn it… I'm still going to destroy you! Aargh!" – shouted he as he flew to Kazein with his sword in front, but he couldn't do more than a couple of scratches to him due to the blade having dull edges now.

- "Idiot…" – said Kazein as he buffeted him, throwing him to the ground unconscious. The armor dismissed itself shortly later.

- "Graaaagh!" – growled Inuyasha as he stood up again. He had recovered a bit from the fall, and he was furious about how Kagome was left unconscious by the typhoon, as well as irritated and sad about Kikyou's death – "Enough already! I'm gonna finish ya now!" -

He focused on the demonic energies Kazein was emitting and found the point where he could cut it, so he launched his Kaze no Kizu at it.

- "BAKURYUUHA!" – shouted Inuyasha. The Bakuryuuha's whirlwinds caught Kazein and aside of striking him repeated times, it also slammed him into the ground, greatly damaging him. Fortunately, he couldn't nullify it because the Kaze no Kizu reached the cutting point before he could do anything.

- "Damn… I didn't think you could damage me so badly in that brat form…" – said he infuriated at Inuyasha as he gasped – "But this ends now! Zyacc Wasryats wasrya Kiols, JiallZa Oli CoullZa Myallade!" –

He joined his hands over his head, making the sky turn black with storm clouds. Two tornados then shot off from the clouds and joined into a massive tempest that dragged everyone in with such strength that they were sent flying even higher than the last time and were slammed even harder into the ground. They all were so badly injured that they couldn't even move anymore.

- "Damn it… Kagome…" – said Inuyasha raising his head slightly before hitting the ground with his fist, as his body was now too bruised to even move.

- "You're finished, I just have to strike the coup de grace now… but first…" – said Kazein as he walked up to Gerardo, who was down on the ground with a bleeding injury on his forehead and tears coming out from his eyes. Kazein took him by the front of his hair and raised him. Gerardo began screaming from the pain – "I'll take care of you personally" –

- "Let me go…!" – said Gerardo with bated breath as Kazein took him of the neck with his other hand and began strangling him.

- "I can't, I've got orders from Lord Tenebross…" – said Kazein in an evil voice to the sigh in disappointment – "Hmph, I heard you were pretty strong at your normal age, given you were of the ones that killed Ankon and Insui… but in this brat form, you're nothing…" -

- "Agh!" – screamed Gerardo as the pressure on his throat increased.

- "Gerar! Let him go!" – said Gabriela as she stood up with a lot of difficulty, materialized a light arrow on her bow and pointed it at Kazein.

- "Drop that bow this instant…" – said Kazein in a cold voice – "If you try anything else, I'll instantly rip out your dear brother's head" -

- "Damn…" – said Gabriela as she gulped down. She lowered her bow, making the arrow vanish, and she fell to her knees. All of the ones that were conscious were immobile watching the horrendous spectacle, as Kazein gradually hardened his grip on Gerardo's neck, powerless to do anything.

- "Well, I think I'm getting bored of this. I'll finish this up" – said Kazein in a mocking and evil voice as he started increasing more the pressure on his victim.

- 'I don't want to die here… I can't die here… I can't leave Gaby alone… and everyone still needs me…' – thought Gerardo scared, sad, enraged and frustrated as tears began spilling out more intensely from his eyes, feeling his end was coming, to the point in which this came out from his mouth as a scream: – "I CAN'T ALLOW MYSELF TO DIE HERE!" -

At that moment, a small blue light began coming out from his body, and he began chanting in monotone as his eyes went blank: - "Zyacc Zattyac... ah... Leiya Jewiz Iadlast... Vaplu... SatplSa Bieccelle Zosph Uira Pawatz... Oli... KiabzeSa Zosph... Pawatz Dea Draggyach" -

(BGM: Power of the Dragon – Popolocrois Anime)

The small light turned into a surge that began brimming out of his body and forced Kazein to release him due to it burning his hands and blinding him. The next instant, Gerardo was floating in the air with his Seirei Crystal inserted in his Dragtemn, and the key that was in the center of his elemental medallion was now inserted in the keyhole on the back, slowly spinning to the right until it stopped with a click.

Following this, Gerardo was enclosed into a blue sphere, and when the sphere burst and he came out from it a few moments later, he couldn't be any more different: he returned to his proper age, but his hair had turned silver, his eyes blue, and small dragon horns appeared over his ears, which became pointy. He had three blue diagonal streaks over his cheeks and a blue water droplet mark on his forehead. His hands and forearms, as well as his legs up to his hips and down to his feet had been replaced by those of a dragon. He had the breastplate and shoulder pads of his usual armor over his torso, with blue dragon wings and a tail popping from his back. All the wounds he had sustained had also closed themselves up.

Everyone looked amazed at his new appearance, and then, both he and Kazein elevated to the skies.

(BGM: Tobikera Fight! – Popolocrois Monogatari Anime)

- "Curses!" – swore Kazein – "I never expected he could transform up to that level!" –

- "Looks like both your calculations and mine failed" – said Gerardo smiling confidently – "And my attacks aren't going to be as soft as those from a dulled blade anymore… Alt tok lay hydrast, baprou, gaivz tast pawatz sos oira ika… Water Claw!" –

He rushed Kazein at full speed and slashed him with his claws, which left deep blue streaks on him. Kazein howled in pain, but retaliated slashing him on the face with a wind blade, and then both began flying through the skies, launching attacks at each other, until finally Kazein sent Gerardo crashing back into the ground with a wind blast. Gerardo stood up immediately and flew back into the air to then begin gliding. He then drew a circle in front of himself with his left claw to then pierce it with his right.

- "Watsa ya... hydrast, baprou cezet liera ika, phaf protasec sos fiassessaks ika... Iadl!" -

A large water sphere sprouted from the point where he pierced the circle with the claw, with was shot at Kazein with the force of a bullet and impacted him.

- "Damned half-dragon!" – shouted Kazein grabbing his chest – "Zyacc Wasryats Wasrya Kiols, JiallZa Oli CoullZa Myallade! Tempest of Destruction!" -

The combined strength of the tornadoes caught Gerardo despite his best efforts to avoid them and slammed him into the ground. While he received several wounds, he still had enough strength to fight, and additionally, Gabriela began singing her Healing Light song to heal her wounds and those of the rest of the group.

- "Ist Altyyaok, ShuxuaraRa..." – she sang, focused entirely on healing everyone.

- "You won't do that, bitch!" – shouted Kazein swooping down toward her, but he was repelled by Gerardo flying in and slashing him with his claws.

- "You won't touch my sister! And I'll make you pay for insulting her!" – roared Gerardo as he kept himself in front of her.

By that point, the song was finished and the wounds everyone had were healed, even though Kagome and Sango were still unconscious.

Gerardo then elevated again at Kazein's altitude and drew another circle using both claws. Once he did, a small blue sphere began charging energy in its center and he then placed both claws in front of himself.

- "Watsa ya... hydrast, baprou cezet gorba ika, yst gyellia tast paewat phaf protasec sos fiassessaks ika! Iadlas!" – said he as he crushed the sphere in his claws, releasing the energy into them. Then, he pointed at Kazein, and a second later he shot at him a water jet at a great pressure. Kazein fell to the ground greatly wounded by the impact, and knowing he was done for, tried to go for a final rush against Gerardo, who didn't see the attack coming as he lowered himself back to the ground. When Kazein was about to cut Gerardo's neck with a wind blade, he was struck down by two arrows: a white one that was shot by Gabriela and a purple arrow that seemed to have come from nowhere.

- "Damn you… water dragon… you and… your damn sister…" – said Kazein as Inuyasha launched him a Kaze no Kizu he could no longer nullify. This only left a few fabric remains from him, which faded away into the wind and then the portal sucked in the air in which he disappeared. A small Fragment of Shadows fell to the ground, which Gabriela hurriedly secured into a Satchel of Light. Kagome and Sango woke up shortly later.

- "Who… or better said… what are you?" – asked Kagome amazed as she saw Gerardo in his half-dragon form.

- "It's me, Gerardo… though maybe you don't recognize me now due to my appearance" – said Gerardo with a calm smile – "For now, I'm in half-dragon form" –

- "Whoa, amazing…" – said Shippou impressed.

- "Yeah. That's why I said before that the armor form is nothing compared to this level and the next one" – said Gerardo, but then he began shining in blue and shrinking down. When the light disappeared, he had returned to his peasant boy appearance, much to his chagrin.

- "What happened?" – asked Sango.

- "He ran out of energy," – said Gabriela in an understanding tone – "It's much more tiring to be in that form than to be just wearing the armor" -

- "Exactly, but I'd have liked to stay in that form until we had crossed the portal…" – said he as he blushed and sighed in resignation. He then smiled at his sister – "And that was a close call, thanks Gaby. If it weren't by these arrows, I wouldn't be here anymore" –

- "It's nothing" – said Gabriela as she laughed mischievously before her face changed into an intrigued one – "But I'm intrigued about who shot that other one…" –

- "It was a Sacred Arrow…" – said Inuyasha – "But Kaede's not around, Kagome was unconscious and Kikyou…" –

- "We know, we know…" – said Kagome saddened.

- "We'll worry about it later. We better go back to our time now" – said Miroku in a severe tone – "We don't want to get stuck in this era, right?" -

Everyone nodded in agreement and they entered the portal. While they advanced through it, they slowly returned to normal while they saw scenes from the past: the first meeting between each of them, Kagome's birth, and when the well opened for the first time.

When they reached the other side, they found themselves in the plain in front of the Bone-Eater's Well and noticed they had returned to their usual ages and appearances, and wore again their usual clothes. The portal closed off and vanished as soon as they were out.

- "That was all an experience, huh?" – asked Shippou with a not very convincing smile. But he only got enraged glares in response, while Kagome and Inuyasha had expressions more fitting for a funeral on their faces.

(BGM: Lost Future – Popolocrois Monogatari Anime)

- "I really don't know how to consider this… given we just saw a lost future…" – said Gerardo saddened.

- "What do you mean by that…?" – asked Sango.

- "Basically, that we saw how a person loses everything they had awaiting for them due to death" – said Gerardo saddened – "As their bonds with other break permanently and their hopes and dreams die along them…" -

- "That's right… but I…" – began Kagome, but she was at a loss for what to say, while Inuyasha didn't raise his sight from the ground.

- "In short, those that have died have lost their future forever, as well everything else they had…" – said Miroku with a sad expression on his face.

- "And what's left after that?" – asked Shippou saddened – "I only felt a great void inside me and hatred when my father was killed…" –

- "Only one thing… the wish that those for who they died continue living and be happy" – said Gerardo, to which the others nodded in agreement – "That's why we can't allow the deaths and sacrifices of others to be in vain, and we must go on for them to rest in peace…" -

- "And so many people have lost their lives due to Naraku, not only Kikyou, Kohaku and my entire village…" – said Sango.

- "As well as my father and grandfather…" – said Miroku as he prayed for their souls.

- "And due to Tenebross, Dragonia is dying, and our worlds are in danger… that's why we must stop them" – said Gabriela wiping her eyes.

- "And we'll do that... Nobody must suffer in this way ever again...!" - said Inuyasha growling.

And with that newfound determination, as well as having that heavy sadness in their hearts, they returned to Kaede's village to make plans for their journey.

(Ending: Life Goes On – Type 2 – Mika Arisaka)

However, as they went away, there was a figure watching over them from behind some nearby trees: it was a child of an age around the one Kagome had as Miko, dressed in a green kosode decorated with pink flowers, a light pink obi, was barefoot, had brown eyes and had her black hair tied in a white ribbon similarly to Kaede. She had her face filled with tears and an expression of great sadness in her face.

- "Inuyasha…" – said the girl, who then began shining intensely in white and returned to her true shape: Kikyou – "Now I've seen the truth… I have to continue my path alone, to avoid us getting hurt like that again… and to make the one that caused us so much suffering pay…" -

She then walked away in the opposite direction of the group.

(End of Chapter)

Entwining of Destinies ~ Dragonia - Chapter 13

 

Chapter 13:

Kikyou's Tears

 

(Opening: One Day, One Dream)

(BGM: Dead World Indieglut Lugh – .hack/GU)

- "Whoa, this is just like the cave of the springs!" – said Sango as she looked at the blue crystal walls.

- "It's really pretty!" – said Kagome excitedly.

Everyone was marveled upon seeing the beauty of the cave couple with the soft glimmer the crystal walls emitted despite the lack of light coming from the outside. However, this also made it hard for them to follow Takurou without getting lost in the tunnels that formed the cave.

- "I thought the Temple of the Dragon was a beauty, but this cave surpasses it by a thousand times!" – said Gerardo looking around, who was the one who got lost the most easily by being distracted with the crystal walls.

- "I wish I could take some of these back home!" – said Gabriela with shining eyes.

- "Me too!" – exclaimed Kagome.

- "Ya better stop starin' so much if ya don't wanna get lost!" – shouted Inuyasha as he pulled Kagome by the arm and continued advancing with the others.

- "Hey, don't leave us behind!" – said Gerardo angry.

- "Wait for us!" – shouted Gabriela irritated as they both picked up the pace to follow them.

They continued following Takurou through the snaking roads of the cave, trying to not get distracted by the crystals of the cave. The task only got harder the deeper in they went though, as the crystals had begun varying in color and aside of blue, there were also green, pink, purple and any other imaginable color ones.

(End Music)

(BGM: Crystal Palace – Legend of Dragoon)

Finally, the cave stopped being a narrow passage and opened up in the shape of a large dome. The walls of the gallery had pedestals around and there was crystal of a different color on the top of each one, which shone more intensely than any other jewel they had seen thus far. On the far edge of the room, there was a small river that left the place through a large hole in the wall, and in the center there was the main attraction of this whole place: a large blue crystal floating above a circular white crystal altar. Inside the crystal, there was a blue sphere that had water droplet marks scattered throughout it.

- "This cave is really spectacular" – said Miroku with his breath taken away – "It's impossible that nature alone made something like this" –

- "We could say the same about the springs cave" – said Inuyasha – "Both places look very similar" –

- "That crystal…" – said Gerardo as he kept his eyes fixed on it.

- "What about it?" – asked Inuyasha crossing his arms.

- "That is… the Elemental Crystal of Water!" – exclaimed Gerardo with his eyes the size of saucers – "It is the source of my powers, and the point of origin for all the water in Dragonia!" -

- "WHAAAAAT!?" – exclaimed everyone except Takurou and Kikyou.

- "It is true" – said Takurou calmly as he sighed in – "When the village was founded in this place around 70 years ago, a blue dragon appeared before us and told us that we would always enjoy peace and prosperity as long as this crystal was kept safe. We call that dragon Suijinryuu-sama" –

- "That explains why you have a dragon statue inside your temple" – said Kikyou as she looked at the crystal and Gerardo with interest.

- "We know him as Iadlast-sama, and he was who bestowed upon me the power over water" – said Gerardo as he took out his Seirei Crystal from inside his clothes and held it aloft – "Lay... hydragyuu, sos, hydrast eiralme, himiarea paf crillial tast layhallialia ika! Oh, Iadlast, I ask for your permission to step into your hallowed domain!" -

(End Music)

(BGM: Garden of God – Chrono Cross)

- "Young bearer of the power of water, you and your friends are welcome within my domain" – said a known voice. They all wondered where it was coming from, but before they could pinpoint its origin, a splash of water appeared over the crystal, and Iadlast emerged from it.

- "Iadlast-sama!" – said everyone at the same time but Gerardo, Takurou and Gabriela.

- "Lord Iadlast!" – said both siblings.

- "Suijinryuu-sama!" – said Takurou at the same time as the others.

No one imagined that Iadlast was going to show up in this place, even though the Elemental Crystal of Water was there.

- "Iadlast-sama" – said Miroku kneeling down along all the others – "We didn't expect to be in your presence in such a remote place…" –

- "This place is my Layhallialia, or Sacred Precinct" – explained Iadlast – "And I must remain here to keep evil from tainting the Crystal of Water" –

- "That means that all Dragon Gods also have a Sacred Precinct and protect an elemental crystal?" – asked Sango.

- "That is correct, young slayer" – replied Iadlast – "I also wish to tell you this: can you see the sphere inside the crystal?" –

Everyone looked at the blue sphere with water droplet marks within the crystal.

- "That sphere is what actually makes this crystal special…" – said Iadlast with a smile – "As it is the Elemental Nucleus of Water" -

- "And what does that mean exactly?" – asked Kikyou intrigued.

- "It means that it matters not if the crystal is destroyed, as its purpose is just serving as a protection to the Nucleus" – said Iadlast closing his eyes – "However, if the Nucleus is ever destroyed, I shall disappear, alongside all of the water and liquids in Dragonia…" –

- "Knowing this, it wouldn't be surprising that Tenebross was hunting this place down…" – said Gerardo as his expression stiffened.

- "Now I believe it is my turn to ask you a question… What reason compelled you to come here?" – asked Iadlast in a gentle tone as he opened his eyes again.

- "We've come for a crystal we can use for Kagome's memory medallion" – explained Inuyasha folding his arms to his sides and rolling his hands into fists.

- "Hmm, I remember that girl was one of the people that took our test a few days ago. Well then, let me see what I can do for her…" – said Iadlast, and after looking at Kagome and her memory medallion for a couple of seconds, he levitated toward the pedestals crowned by crystals that were scattered throughout the gallery.

He examined the crystals one by one, but apparently, none of these seemed to have what he needed from the reactions they could see from Iadlast. Finally, he got near the darkest crystal in the gallery, and when he touched it with his nose, it began shining in green: it was an emerald.

- "Yes, this is the one" – said Iadlast as he softly grabbed it with one of his frontal legs and carried it to Gerardo – "This emerald will serve for your purposes. However, you must wait until the sunlight shines on it. That will activate it and allow it to accomplish the function it should have" -

- "Understood, and thank you very much!" – said Gerardo bowing before him to then store the emerald inside his Dragtemn.

- "Then we just gotta wait until tomorrow, and Kagome will be back to normal!" – said Inuyasha as he jumped in joy, emotion the others were sharing. Kagome still didn't understand what happened, but still was glad that everyone cared so much about her.

{End BGM}

- "But let's see if you survive this night first!" – said a voice coming apparently from nowhere, which made everyone freeze on their tracks as they were preparing to leave.

- "Who said that!?" – exclaimed Miroku immediately as he looked around. A spurt of dirty water came out from the river the crystal was producing and took the form of a demon: it looked like an octopus man, which wore a dark blue armor and wielded a large trident.

- "Insui!" – said Iadlast indignated – "How do you dare to desecrate these hallowed territories!?" –

- "I've got no interest in fighting you or your lackeys, Iadlast" – said Insui laughing maliciously at the deity – "I've only come here to destroy the Nucleus and take away that girl" –

- "Don't even think you'll be allowed to do that!" – said Gerardo as he and the others drew their weapons.

- "I shall also assist you in everything I can" – said Iadlast as he levitated over them.

- "And as the highest-ranked priest in Ryuusei, this is also my responsiblity" – said Takurou with a serious face as stood at Gerardo's side.

- "How fun. Let's see what you've got then…" – said Insui as if the sole idea of a battle bored him.

- "Let's see if ya still continue thinking yer oh-so-great! KAZE NO KIZU!" – shouted Inuyasha as he swung his sword to release the energy waves, but it didn't do much because Insui turned himself into water, waited until the wave passed him, and took again solid form.

- "Tsk, tsk, tsk. That's the best you can manage, dog boy?" – said Insui as he wiggled his finger in a mocking manner and shook his head. Inuyasha exploded in fury.

- "DON'T CALL ME THAT!" – he shouted as he jumped toward Insui wielding his Tessaiga like a madman, but Insui just liquidized himself when Inuyasha tried striking him.

- "Too slow!" – said Insui, and he then punched Inuyasha so hard that he was sent flying back to the others.

- "Damn you, bastard! You'll pay for that!" – said Inuyasha as he stood up and stroked his face where he was hit.

- "SIT DOWN!" – shouted Gabriela. This caused both Gerardo and Inuyasha to fall face-first to the ground, and they were very close to cutting themselves with their own swords due to it.

- "Why in hell did you do that!? You almost killed us!" – shouted both at the same time and with such strength that they made the entire gallery tremble. All the others, even Insui and Iadlast, fixed their eyes on them as they sweatdropped, and the three of them could do no more than blush.

- "If you're done with your stupid antics, it's time for me to beat you to a pulp! Olpla siat, yallal hydrast toi, sos koulltam yst shadlial tastssaks ika! Black Water!" – shouted Insui as he launched a large wave of black water at them.

Gerardo summoned his dragon armor and immediately clapped his hands:

– "Olpla siat, lay hydrast toi, protasec sos fias ika! Tidal Current!" – he said as he moved his hands forward, launching a water wave of the same size as Insui's, though both paled in comparison to the Tsunami he used before. Both waves nullified each other when they made contact.

- "Seiryuu, you mustn't attack him with Water-elemental attacks" – said Iadlast. Most of the group initially had astonished looks from how Iadlast was calling Gerardo by his alias, but upon remembering who he was, the amazement left their minds.

- "That thing can absorb my attacks and heal from them?" – asked Gerardo feeling dismayed, as that meant he was going to be useless in this battle.

- "Only Water-elemental attacks like the Tsunami or the Water Saber. However, non-elemental attacks like normal sword slashes, the Dragon Wave and even some combined techniques can inflict damage on him" – explained Iadlast with a smile – "So don't think you are useless" -

- "Let's just bust it up!" – shouted Inuyasha – "Kaze no Kizu!" –

- "Understood! Watsa ya, hydrast xyaza cezet paewat ika, yst hakisa tastsaks ika. Water's Wound!" – shouted Gerardo as they both launched their energy waves, which fused again into a light green vortex.

- "Destruction Vortex!" – shouted both at the same time as the vortex headed to Insui, who couldn't liquidize in time to avoid it.

- "And don't forget about us!" – sai Miroku as he and Takurou threw several ofudas at him and Sango threw him a ball of poison gas.

- "This… won't finish… me off…" – said Insui between gasps after the multiple impacts he had received.

- "It isn't such a difficult opponent for an elemental demon…" – said Gerardo. However, before they had a chance to react, Insui liquidized and surrounded the crystal in his liquid form.

- "And for being so conceited, you're all gonna die!" – said he as the crystal and the Nucleus it contained began dimming.

- "What is that thing doing!?" – said Kikyou having a terrible feeling about the demon's actions.

- "He is healing by absorbing the power from the Nucleus, as well as trying to corrupt it!" – said Iadlast shocked as he tried to attack him with his claws to make it separate from the crystal, but not even he could damage Insui as long as he was in his liquid form.

- "Can't ya force 'im into a solid form or sumthin'!?" – asked Inuyasha irritated.

- "Unfortunately, his essence is a warped form of the one I rule over. Therefore, I cannot manipulate his nature!" – said Iadlast anguished.

- "Kazaana!" – shouted Miroku as he tried absorbing Insui, but he affixed himself to the crystal in such a way that not even the pull from Miroku's curse could separate him from it. Iadlast had to affix himself to the ceiling of the gallery with his claws until Miroku desisted from his attempts of absorbing Insui. Then he started trying to attack Insui again.

- "Iadlast-sama, step aside!" – shouted Kikyou as two Sacred Arrows: one shot by her and the other by Kaede, whizzed through the air and struck the crystal. This made it and the Nucleus shine even more brightly than before, and the light they released forced Insui away from them.

- "Damn mikos! I couldn't corrupt the Nucleus, but at least I managed to absorb enough energy to heal myself and destroy you all!" – said the demon as he liquidized himself and rushed toward Gabriela.

- "Yumeko, do something before he attacks you!" – shouted Gerardo as he flew as fast as he could in her direction to try to protect her, but he wouldn't reach her in time: Insui was faster.

- "Ist Wasriats OschmeRe Illyusea Kiabze Pawatz Zosph, Phaph Myya Zosph Phiaphz Ical… Illyusea Pawatz! Dragoon!" – shouted Gabriela when Insui was about to reach her. She began shining with a white light, got herself enclosed inside a white sphere, and when she emerged from it, she was wearing her white dragon armor and her bow had some diamonds appear near the arrow rest and the nocks.

- "I didn't think this brat could also use her powers!" – said Insui as he put some distance away from her, afraid of the light she was emitting – "But it doesn't matter: she's still the weakest link in your group!" -

- "Who're you calling weak!?" – asked Gabriela furious as she loaded an arrow into her bow, which began shining in silver as soon as she began pulling the bowstring to shoot it – "Watsa ya, briyauik seleila, lusellsya sossaks, yst gaivz pawat sos royawfle ika, soif protasec sos fias ika! Fullmoon Arrow!" -

The silver arrow struck Insui directly and the magic on it forced him back to his solid form.

- "Damn you! So you're a Moon-elemental!" – said Insui as he gritted his fangs.

- "Ah, I see! As the moon can control the tides, it can exert some control over Water-elemental creatures too!" – said Gerardo with a smile on his face – "Yumeko, time for a quadruple technique!" –

- "But how?" – said Gabriela with a disconcerted expression that was also reflected on everyone else's faces.

- "Shoot a Light Arrow to my sword at the same time Kikyou and Kaede shoot each a Sacred Arrow!" – said Gerardo as he began chanting the spell for his Water Saber.

- "Okay!" – replied her as she began charging her next arrow with energy.

- "Isn't that a bit risky, onee-sama?" – asked Kaede as she began getting ready.

- "If you trust him, everything will come out well" – said Kikyou smiling in a strange way as she readied a Sacred Arrow – "As I'm sure that it's in this way that they triumphed in the battles in which they took part" –

- "NOW!" – shouted Gerardo as his sword began shining in blue.

The three arrows were shot at the same time, flying through the air covered in white and purple energy, and when they struck the Ryuuga's blade, the sword began shining in a platinum blue.

- "Hallowed Saber!" – shouted Gerardo as he rushed and slashed Insui with the energized Ryuuga. Insui was greatly injured, but it seemed that the effects of Gabriela's Fullmoon Arrow had run out by then, as he liquidized himself again in an attempt to escape.

- "Kaede, shoot at him with the ice arrow!" – said Miroku when a sudden inspiration hit him – "If I'm right, that should freeze him!" -

Kaede just nodded, and as she took out the clear blue arrow from her quiver and prepared to shoot it, she recited the words that were etched on it – "Ist Cielba Clyezet Iadlicae Ilical Thafz Ical!" -

As soon as the arrow touched Insui, it turned him into a solid mass of ice.

- "Heh, I'm glad Miroku remembered the arrow, and that you trusted me enough to chant what the letters etched on it said without knowing they are a spell similar to the ones we use" – said Gerardo with a pleased smile.

- "And I see this is what you meant when you said that it'd "freeze dry any problems", huh?" – said Kaede as she giggled.

- "Let's talk later! Now, let's finish him off!" – shouted Inuyasha as he ran with Tessaiga held aloft to strike Insui. Miroku, Sango and Gerardo also went in and began striking the ice with all their strength.

- "We can't destroy it! This ice is too hard!" – said Sango as they continued hitting the ice, which didn't even get cracked despite the force they were striking it with.

- "Damn! I didn't expect this mass to end up being so solid!" – said Gerardo irritated - "I shouldn't have given so much power to the spell in the arrow..." -

- "Even if you managed to shatter the ice, it would not be enough to finish Insui off, so I shall bestow you this…" – said Iadlast as he began singing – "Zyacc Alttyaok Zosph, Iadlast, Quarlart Dea Iadlast, Jila Oalmia Zosph Yiliab Gull Iadlast, Gyalaz Zosph Pawatz Zosph NarraZilAael Ical" -

He then flapped his wings in their direction, and the resulting air current made their weapons start shining with a bright blue light.

– "I have endowed your weapons with my power, but I made sure to not put my elemental energy on it so it will not heal him. Now, expel him from this holy ground!" – said Iadlast energetically.

They immediately resumed their attacks, and this time their strikes began making dents and cracks on the ice. This finally came to an end when Gerardo and Inuyasha jumped and struck the frozen Insui with their swords from above at the same time. The force of the attack was such that it completely shattered the ice mass.

- "At last, we've won" – said Gerardo as he and Gabriela cancelled their transformations and sat down gasping on the ground.

- "Yes, we've finally defeated him" – said Miroku very softly as he smiled. Everyone began celebrating their victory at once. However, they didn't notice that a sphere of black water was squirming through the ground and was getting close to Kagome…

- "AAAAHHHHH!" – screamed her scared.

- "Kagome!" – shouted everyone as they ran to her. Kagome was now enshrouded by a bubble of black water and seemed to be asphyxiating.

- "Even if I die, I'll take the girl with the sacred powers with me!" – shouted Insui. They couldn't see his face anymore, but could still hear his voice clearly.

- "Get away from her, ya damn creep!" – screamed Inuyasha enraged.

- "And how do you intend to force me to do that?" – asked Insui in a mocking tone – "If you try attacking me, you could end up killing me… but I take no responsibility for what happens to her!" -

- "You are a goddamned coward!" – screamed Gerardo enraged due to the demon resorting to such a dirty and underhanded act – "And anyway, you can't kill her! Tenebross needs her alive to extract her powers!" -

- "*cough*… *cough*… Why're they always calling me the girl with the sacred powers?" – asked Kagome irritated, but with great effort due to Insui constricting her, making it harder for her to breath with every passing second – "And Seiryuu-nii's right: I heard they need me alive to get that thing from me, and they can't if I die!" -

- "You both are sorely mistaken! If you die, I can extract your powers from your corpse much more easily, and I'll send them to Lord Tenebross before I leave this world!" – said Insui in a demented-sounding voice – "Mwahahahahahahaaha!" -

- "Dammit…!" – said Inuyasha as he glared at Insui with fury.

Everyone was furious and frustrated, as their hands were tied when it came to saving Kagome. Not even Iadlast could do anything to help them, and even though he was sending oxygen to Kagome to keep her alive a bit longer while they tried to find a solution, she was beginning to black out from the lack of air, and her vision began to darken.

- 'Is… this… my end…?' – she thought saddened as her eyes began filling with tears, thinking she would never see her family again. But then, a bright light began appearing from the darkness. It began as just a small sphere, but it then grew until it took the form of a teenage girl: it was Kagome herself but at her true age.

- "Who… are you?" – asked the little girl.

- "It'd be very complicated to explain it for now. You'll learn it yourself when the time comes" – explained the older Kagome as she smiled.

- "I don't think I'll live enough for that… *sob*…" – said the little Kagome as she began crying – "That monster's about to kill me… *sob*… and my friends can't do anything to help me…" –

- "Just trust them, and have more confidence in yourself. You also have a special power sleeping within you, remember? You just have to find how to let it out" – said the older Kagome as she began disappearing.

- "But how I do that?" – asked the little Kagome.

- "I know you'll figure it out on your own!" – said the older Kagome as a burst of light illuminated her and she vanished in a shower of bright dust.

Kagome then woke up and went back to reality: she was still drowning within the nasty black water into which Insui had turned, and her friends and companions were looking at her with worry, powerless to do anything.

- "Let… me go…" – said Kagome in a soft, but clear voice.

- "What did you say, brat?" – asked Insui, thinking he misheard her.

- "I said… let me go!" – screamed Kagome.

- "Oh, scary! If you wanna make me let you go, you'll have to destroy me, and that's impossible for a little baby that can't even use her powers!" – said Insui as he mocked his victim and laughed. But his laughter came to an end when Kagome's body began shining with an intense white light.

- "Kagome is releasing her spiritual powers!" – said Kikyou as her eyes widened in shock – "I never expected she would be able to unleash such a great amount of energy in that form of a five-year old child!" -

- "Onee-sama, it's possible for someone to have as much power as you?" – asked Kaede, amazed upon hearing Kikyou's words.

- "Her powers are on the same level as mine, but she had them blocked like her memories" – said Kikyou gritting her teeth.

Everyone began getting closer to Kagome and Insui, the latter immobilized. Even though he was in his liquid form, they could still hear his moans of terror from what Kagome was doing.

- "This is his end" – sentenced Iadlast as he closed his eyes solemnly – "I can feel the power Kagome is about to unleash, and in Insui's weakened state, it is impossible for him to withstand such a powerful energy shock" -

- "For the last time… LET ME GOOOO!" – screamed Kagome as she released an explosion of light so strong that Insui was vaporized and stopped existing at once while he screamed in terror. Kagome fell to her feet into the ground, but she collapsed a few seconds later, though Inuyasha managed to catch her before she hit the ground.

The next second, a small fragment of a black crystal fell to her side: it was the Fragment of Shadows Insui was carrying, so Gabriela hurried and put it away into the Satchel of Light she had.

- "Looks like the kosode Orimi gave her did serve well in unlocking her powers" – said Gerardo as he looked at Kagome and softly stroked her cheeks. They then heard some footsteps approaching to them, but it was just Sesshomaru.

- "If ya came for a fight, yer late, dear brother" – said Inuyasha with a mocking smile – "We've already defeated the demon Tenebross sent this time" -

- "Shut up, Inuyasha" – replied Sesshomaru. Though his expression was still the same as always, his voice gave away he was angry, which made everyone laugh.

- "Well then, we should get going. We have no further business here" – said Gerardo with a smile.

(BGM: Wind's Theme – Popolocrois Anime)

- "Please, wait a moment. Seiryuu, Kirara" – said Iadlast as he levitated to be in front of them – "Both of you have proven your qualities as dragoons, and therefore, it is time for me to bestow upon you more of our power" –

He then made a couple of medallions appear in front of him and left them floating in the air before both siblings: one was blue with the symbol of Water and the other was white with silver borders, which had the symbols of Moon and Light. Both medallions had a little key of their same color stored within the elemental symbol, and on their back, they had a keyhole.

- "These medallions are for unlocking the next level for the power of the dragon, correct?" – asked Gerardo as he and his sister took their respective medallion.

- "Yes. And I think I don't have to explain their usage, as you should know it very well" – said Iadlast as he began fading away – "Well then, it is time for you to leave. I bid you farewell, and wish you good luck on your journeys" -

The cave's ground began shining intensely with a blue light as a dragon emblem made of that light appeared under them. The light then became so intense it dazzled them, they felt as if they were being softly pulled upwards to then come down with the same softness. When the light dimmed enough for them to be able to see their surroundings again, they found themselves inside the cave, but close to the exit.

{End BGM}

- "Looks like Iadlast-sama teleported us to the entrance of the cave" – said Takurou very amazed – "Please excuse me, I have to go and tell about this to the other priests" -

He then began walking in the direction of the exit, but he stopped when he had barely taken a couple of steps.

- "What happened?" – said Kagome. She had woken up, and was moving up and down, as if she wanted to tell Inuyasha she wanted to be on the ground.

- "Kagome, are ya okay?" – asked Inuyasha as he set her on the ground.

- "Yeah, Inuyasha-nii" – said Kagome to then let a large yawn out – "But I'm sleepy and tired…" -

- "The same goes for us" – said Gerardo stretching as Gabriela yawned as well – "The battle with Insui was pretty exhausting..." –

- "But what could have happened that made Takurou-sama stop in that place?" – asked Sango. The others were curious about this too, and after looking at each other, they walked to the exit. The reason was made clear when they were close enough.

- "Kouga, why are you so stubborn with searching for Kagome?" – said the sad voice of a girl, which also sounded familiar to them - "Don't you get I love you more?" –

- "Ayame, leave me alone already!" – replied Kouga's voice – "I just wanna see if Kagome's fine, as her scent changed again!" -

- "I can garner a guess about why that discussion is taking place…" – said Gerardo with a peeved gaze on his eyes, as he had something of a disliking for Kouga. He then walked to them until he had them on their sight.

- "Oh wow, the great wolf chief Kouga graces us with his presence" – said Gerardo in a sarcastic tone.

- "I don't like your voice tone. And who in hell are you?" – asked Kouga irritated.

- "He's a new friend of us, Kouga. His name's Seiryuu" – said Sango – "And he has helped us a lot" –

- "Hmph, he has a similar air to the mutt. And talking about him, where has he run off now?" – he asked before sniffing the air – "I can smell his nasty odor pretty close, but it feels a bit different" –

- "Were ya lookin' for me, flea-ridden wolf?" – asked Inuyasha arrogantly as he stepped out from behind the others.

- "Wha…!?" – said surprised, but he then began laughing so hard that it seemed he would faint from the lack of air – "I… can't… believe… you're… so… STUPID! You've already been two weeks at it and you haven't been able to get back to normal!? How pathetic!" –

- "Who're ya callin' stupid, idiot!?" – shouted Inuyasha in fury. Obviously he wasn't finding anything funny about the situation – "I'm gonna tear ya to pieces!" –

Gerardo initially considered butting into this too, but he then decided it'd be better for Inuyasha to settle the matter on his own and that he would intervene only if it was necessary.

- "Yeah, of course! And yet you're still a brat!" – said Kouga as he laughed and mocked Inuyasha – "It's amazing you still haven't found the cure!" –

- "Aah…" – sighed Ayame in a sad and lonesome way – "Kouga's still every bit as annoying as always, not to mention that he's so childish that Inuyasha's child form would better fit him instead" -

- "Hello, Ayame" – said Miroku in a casual way – "What have you been doing since the last time we met?" –

- "Exploring the region in search of Naraku, but lately it's gotten harder to find clues to his whereabouts" – replied Ayame with a smile – "But… weren't you seeking a cure for him and Kagome?" –

- "Yeah, and we did find it" – said Sango – "But… Naraku ruined everything when he put a curse on Kagome a few days ago and…" –

- "Kagome?" – interrupted Kouga excitedly – "And where's she?" –

- "She's over here, but I don't think she'll recognize you" – replied Shippou as he showed Kouga the two girls that were behind him. Kouga rushed to them.

- "Kagome, you still know who I am, right?" – asked he to Gabriela as he held her hands. Gabriela just showed an irritated expression on her face, pulled away her hands from his grasp, whipped out her bow and struck Kouga on the head with it.

- "Are you stupid or your nose doesn't work anymore now!?" – said her angry to then point to Kagome while Kouga held his head in pain – "She's Kagome!" -

- "I'll make you pay for this later" – said Kouga in a threatening tone to then turn to Kagome. Gabriela just stuck out her tongue at him – "Kagome, is that you? Do you remember me?" -

- "Err… sorry, onii-san…" – said Kagome shyly – "But I don't know you…" –

Kouga was paralyzed from the shock.

- "You… really… don't know who I am?" – asked Kouga again.

- "No, I have no idea" – replied Kagome a bit scared. In response, Kouga was left paralyzed with a mute scream on his face, as if he had gotten petrified.

- "Hehehe, that's sure to teach him to stop being so annoying for a while!" – said Gerardo as he burst in laughter with the others upon seeing Kouga's expression.

- "Well, we'd do well to go and sleep" – said Miroku after the laughter ceased, to then turn in direction to the village – "There's a long journey waiting for us tomorrow" –

- "Agreed, Houshi-sama" – said Sango after she let out a small yawn as she and the others followed Miroku.

- "Wait a sec!" – said Kouga hurriedly. Apparently, he had already got over his little shock.

- "And what do you want now?" – asked Shippou a bit annoyed.

- "Shut up, midget!" – replied Kouga – "I'm gonna go with you until Kagome's back to her usual self, but don't mistake my intentions: I'm doing it for Kagome, not for you" -

- "And I'll stay too, as I'm going to make sure Kouga doesn't do anything nasty!" – said Ayame smiling mischievously.

- "You always gotta bother me, Ayame?" – asked Kouga annoyed.

- "It's a pleasure for me!" – replied Ayame with a smile.

- "Do whatever you want, third-rate wolf" – said Gerardo as he and Gabriela headed to Jousui's hut, while the others went to the huts where they would spend the night and Sesshomaru left the village again.

However, right before they went to sleep…

- "Takurou-sama, excuse me. I wish to ask you something that has been bothering me ever since we learned about the existence of this place" – said Miroku as he walked to him.

- "What is it, Houshi-san?" – asked Takurou a bit intrigued.

- "Why does this village have the name Ryuusei?" – asked Miroku with an interested expression.

(BGM: First Time Ashore – Popolocrois Anime)

- "Please look upwards" – said Takurou as he smiled at him and the others. They did as they were instructed, and they were pleasantly surprised to see that not only the sky was filled to the brim with stars and the Milky Way was clearly visible, but also that there were countless comets and shooting stars zooming throughout the black skies, making for a spectacular and beautiful view.

- "I guess this explains it, don't you think?" – asked Takurou gently – "Our village has this name because on this place, shooting stars are seen much more often than in any other place" –

- "It's beautiful…" – said Gabriela with a smile.

- "How pretty…" – said both Kagome and Rin. They continued looking at the beautiful sights for a while more, and then went to sleep.

{End BGM}

Next morning, they ate breakfast and prepared to leave for Kaede's village. The Ryuusei children met with them again near the village gate.

- "Well, it's time for us to go" – said Gerardo with a smile on his face.

- "Will you visit us again someday?" – asked Akiko as her eyes began filling with tears.

- "Of course. We'll make sure to come back here someday, so please look forward to it. Okay?" – said Gerardo as he knelt and hugged Akiko who did the same thing back. Jousui gave him a high-five after they separated. Gabriela then hugged her as well.

All of the children began bidding farewell to all the other members of the group, and with smiles that showed hopes for meeting again, as well as sadness for having to part ways, they continued looking at them as they exited through the village gate.

- "Okay, I think it's about time" – said Inuyasha as Sesshomaru and Jaken walked to them – "Gerardo, gimme the emerald Iadlast gave us yesterday" –

- "Got it. Here you go" – said Gerardo nodding as he took out the emerald from his Dragtemn and handed it to him.

- "Wasn't this guy's name Seiryuu?" – asked Kouga confused as Inuyasha took the emerald and put it under one of the many sun rays that were filtering throughout the trees.

- "That's just an alias. His true name is Gerardo, and his sister is Gabriela" – explained Sango as they continued watching how after a few seconds, the emerald began shining a little more strongly, indicating it was ready to accomplish its functions.

- "Kagome, you'll get everything that's happening very soon" – said Inuyasha with a smile as he put the emerald into the empty socket of the medallion Kagome had around her neck, while Kagome herself smiled. After Inuyasha finished and got away from Kagome, the medallion began shining, as also did Kagome herself, and once the light died down, she was smiling with her eyes closed.

- "So, are you back to yourself?" – asked Shippou as he fidgeted a bit worried.

- "You could say it, Shippou" – said Kagome as she giggled. While her voice still was as childish and high-pitched as ever, her way of talking showed more maturity than in the previous days.

- "Okay then… do you mind if we try something out to make sure the medallion's actually working? Could you say all our names?" –asked Gerardo.

- "Gladly" – said Kagome with a smile, as she began pointing to each one and said their names correctly, until… - "And my two newest friends are Seiryuu, whose true name is Gerardo; and Kirara, whose true name is Gabriela!" -

- "It's official now! Kagome… welcome back!" – exclaimed Gerardo, as he and everyone else in the group ran in and hugged her. The only ones who didn't join in were Sessomaru, Jaken, Kaede and Kikyou.

- "No, come on!" – said Kagome as she laughed – "It's enough!" –

- "Sorry. It's just that it felt like we didn't see you for such a long time" – said Sango after they separated a bit from her.

- "The truth is that I tried to come out several times, but the curse Naraku put on me imprisoned me within my own mind" – said Kagome saddened – "I could only help you in the fight with Insui because at that time, since I was in mortal danger, the seal on me weakened enough for me to use my powers… I'm sorry for having made you go through so much trouble…" -

- "Don't mind it. What's important here is that you are back now" – said Miroku as he patted her shoulder.

- "That's right. And as your friends, we'd go even to the ends of the world to help you" – said Gerardo with a smile.

- "And it was very fun playing with you!" – said Rin smiling, while Gabriela nodded smiling too.

- "And it'd look pretty bad if I was with a little girl who didn't even remember me" – said Kouga, but his comment went thoroughly ignored by everyone.

- "Everyone… thank you…" – said Kagome as her eyes filled with tears from how moved she was.

- "Kagome…" – began Inuyasha.

- "Inuyasha…" – said Kagome. They just stood in front of each other as they looked straight in the eyes at each other. They couldn't say anything, but words were unnecessary at that moment. They began getting closer, and when they were just a few inches from each other...

- "Oh… come on! Stop this cutesy crap!" – shouted Kouga as he stepped in, interrupting the scene. Kikyou had turned around to not see anything right before Kouga entered in.

- "Well done, stupid!" – said Gabriela angry as she struck Kouga with her bow again. Kouga fell to the ground and began grabbing his head from the pain – "Thanks for ruining a nice scene!" -

- "And too bad I didn't bring my camera…" – said Gerardo bitterly, unaware that the Dragtemns also had a function that allowed them to act as photographic and video cameras.

- "Whatever. All that garbage called human emotions is just a nuisance" – said Sesshomaru looking upwards.

- "As if we were gonna believe that" – said Inuyasha with an unimpressed face.

- "Can we stop arguing and continue our journey?" – asked Kagome, who was red from embarrassment.

There was nothing else to say, so they just began undoing all the walking they had done the two previous days. The descent from the mountain and the first half of the trip through the plains were pretty easy in comparison to the ascent, as Miroku, Sango, Shippou and Kagome were riding on Kirara; Sesshomaru was flying on his own; Rin, Kaede, Kikyou and Jaken were riding on Ah-Un; Inuyasha, Ayame and Kouga were running; and Gerardo and Gabriela were taking advantage of the wings in their armors and were flying.

- "By the way, Kagome" - asked Sango - "Aside of you being a five-year old but with your memories back, is there anything else different from the usual?" -

- "Let me think..." - said Kagome as she closed her eyes for a moment - "Nope, nothing. My mind seems to be working the way it should, and I can also feel Miko's presence still sleeping inside me" -

- "Hmm, looks like the curse you got didn't affect her" - said Miroku nodding - "It's a relief too" -

- "Yeah" - said Kagome - "I know I should be worrying more about myself, but still... In a way, I'm glad I'm the only one who got affected by that curse" -

- "Have you grown fond of your split persona of sorts?" - asked Gerardo as he flew a bit closer to her.

- "You can say that, Gerardo-kun" - smiled Kagome - "We could say I think of her as a little sister of sorts, like you see Gaby-chan" -

- "That's nice!" - smiled Gabriela - "But... doesn't it make you feel kind of lonely that you won't be ever able to talk to her or share time with her in any way?" -

- "Yeah, that's true..." - said Kagome looking downward - "I wish we could be together, but it doesn't look like I can do more for her aside of letting her out so she can play sometimes..." -

- "Anyway, ya should just worry 'bout yerself, Kagome" - said Inuyasha - "You'll have time to worry 'bout Miko later" -

- "Don't you consider your younger self a little brother too, Inuyasha?" - asked Gabriela giggling.

- "Hngg...! I won't answer that!" - growled Inuyasha as he blushed and rushed even faster ahead.

- "He has a hard time being honest with himself, huh?" - said Sango while the others followed him still shocked from his reaction.

A little later after they managed to reach Inuyasha and he had let his embarrassment evaporate, Kouga decided to comment on the newcomers to the group...

- "And what's up with these ridiculous armors?" – asked Kouga when they were reaching the border of the forest after the plains, where they decided to stop for a little rest.

- "Oh, so they're ridiculous now…?" – said Gerardo calmly, but his voice sounded more like a dragon's growl than his normal voice, showing he was furious. He clapped his hands – "We'll see about that…" –

A water pillar sprouted from the place where Kouga stepped, making him fly into the air, until he fell back to the ground on his head with a thud.

- "What was that?" – asked Kagome as she looked at Gerardo from the corner of her eye.

- "What?" – said Gerardo in a falsely innocent tone as he shrugged his shoulders upon noticing how Kagome was looking at him. Kagome just sighed in response while Ayame went to check on Kouga's condition.

- "Hell, where did all that water come from?" – said Kouga as he scratched his head. He only got a couple of bruises out from this

- "I think you've learned now who you're dealing with, silly wolf!" – said Inuyasha behaving similar to Shippou to the point it was scary: he had a mocking smile, his eyes were closed, and he had his hands on his hips.

- "Huh? And that pose, Inuyasha?" – asked Shippou divided between worry and laughter – "Being a kid for so long has begun making you funny on the head?" -

Inuyasha didn't get what Shippou meant at first, but when he realized how his behavior was changing a moment later, he was horrified.

- "Ahahaha!" – laughed Kouga – "Now that mutt's acting like the kid he is!" -

This triggered yet another fight between them… After a while, Kagome desisted from trying to stop them and instead asked Gerardo to whip out her backpack to eat some food. Gerardo just nodded and cancelled his transformation, which Gabriela also did immediately, in order to save their energy.

Shortly later, Kagome and Sango began making the food while Ayame and Rin observed them. The others were sitting over a checkered tablecloth waiting for the food while Inuyasha and Kouga continued their little fight, while Kikyou, at Gabriela's request, explained to her and Kaede some of the basic pointers on archery, as well as the handling of spiritual powers. Not like the latter was going to be of any use to Gabriela, though.

- "By the way, I've been curious about something ever since you got your powers" – said Miroku after a while of watching Inuyasha and Kouga fight. Sesshomaru was also looking at this, and was enjoying himself a lot due to taking it as a confirmation of the ideas he had about Inuyasha.

- "Hmm, what is it?" - asked Gerardo as he handed Sango a few of the fruits from Kagome's backpack.

- "Why is it that your powers can't be kept active during a long time in battle, but when we're traveling or resting they last until you cancel them out?" – asked Miroku with his hand on his chin.

- "Actually, we've all been wondering about it" – said Sango as she got out a knife from the backpack and began cutting the fruits. Everyone was looking at both siblings with interest again.

- "Well, it's just because battle demands much more energy from us due to the additional pressure, not to mention having to spend it in spells and techniques too" – explained Gerardo – "While when we're traveling, we just limit ourselves to flying…" -

- "So basically, they spend more energy when they are in a dangerous situation than in a calm one. Makes sense to me" – said Kagome after they took out some water to boil a few greens that the people from Ryuusei gave them as a parting gift.

But then, they heard some footsteps softened by the grass. This finally brought to an end the quarrel between Inuyasha and Kouga, and similarly, Kikyou, Kaede and Gabriela had to interrupt the little lesson they were having. Now they were looking attentively at the direction they thought they heard the footsteps coming from.

- "Be quiet" – said Inuyasha growling after a while – "We don't know what it could be" –

- "As long as it isn't other of Tenebross' horrible things…" – said Gabriela looking tense.

- "Who's that?" – asked Kouga puzzled – "Aren't you after Naraku now, mutt?" –

- "Just shut it!" – said Inuyasha trying to control himself. He began sniffing the air, and shortly later…

– "No, it isn't a youkai. But it has a strong smell of perfume and fine fabric…" – said Inuyasha with his face twisted as if the smell was unpleasant to him.

- "A strong perfume smell?" – asked Gerardo – "I wonder if it's a princess or something…" -

A few moments later, a boy of around Gerardo's age came out from the nearby bushes. However, they couldn't be any more different: he wore a dark green kosode with a black haori over it, which had many emblems embroidered on it, had a long and silky black hair tied in a ponytail, and had a sheathed katana tied to his right hip. He wore zori and tabi, but had a rather unpleasant expression on his face and was standing with an arrogant posture.

- "Good… day…" – said Gerardo as he looked at the boy amazed: he had already seen pictures of Feudal Japan nobles before, but it was another thing seeing one in person.

- "Good day" – replied the boy as he examined Gerardo, Gabriela and the others with his eyes.

- "Er… excuse me. We are in the middle of a journey and we stopped a bit to eat. I was wondering if you would like to join us…" – said Gerardo just to be courteous, as while he didn't want to seem disrespectful, the boy gave him a bad feeling.

- "About the food, did you bring it from your palaces or did you obtain it from a village?" – asked the boy with an unpleasant gaze.

- "We could say part and part" – said Gabriela playing along, though she narrowed his eyes shortly after she answered. The boy just got closer to them, but didn't bother taking his footwear off or sitting on the tablecloth with the others.

- "If I may ask, could you tell us your name?" – asked Gerardo.

- "Me? I am Tahara Ookami" – replied the boy in a haughty tone – "And you are…?" –

- "Mizuboshi Seiryuu and Mizuboshi Kirara" – replied Gerardo, harboring the feeling that it would be better for them to use their aliases this time.

- "Interesting. And who are these people?" – asked Ookami as he looked at Inuyasha and the others with contempt, and while Gerardo noticed this at once, he began making efforts to not explode in anger – "Are they your servants?" –

- "They aren't anything like that!" – said Gabriela in an offended tone – "They are our friends!" -

- "How pathetic…" – said Ookami to then let out a loud laughter – "Ahahahaha! And you call yourselves nobles while having such friends? Peasants and youkai?" -

Everyone began getting angry. Gerardo himself began feeling his blood boil, but before he could do anything…

- "However, there are also mikos, monks and slayers here. I'd like you to not refer to us in such a horrible way" – said Kagome with a calm voice and trying to talk as politely as she could, but she had her face filled with anger.

- "Shut up, peasant girl!" – spewed Ookami with an arrogant voice as he buffeted her with the back of the hand – "I've always thought that those that relate with the peasants, foreigners or clergy members of the lowest class don't deserve to be among us!" –

- "And who in hell ya think you're!?" – shouted Inuyasha sick of Ookami's words as he grabbed Kagome to keep her from falling to the ground. She was still stroking the cheek where she was buffeted – "My mother was a princess, and she never educated me in such a stupid way!" -

- "Oh, a hanyou kid?" – said Ookami in a mocking tone. He then punched Inuyasha on the stomach, making him spit saliva and fall to his knees, holding himself where he was hit – "This is what you deserve. Your mother must have been desperate to have married with an idiotic dog, like the one I guess your father was" -

Sesshomaru was trying to keep himself in control in order to not break the deal he made with Gerardo, though his eyes had turned red: he was quite willing to go and slice off Ookami's head. Kikyou and Kaede had their faces filled with rage too…

- "Being a noble isn't acting like a piece of scourge, Tahara!" – shouted Gerardo. This was the first time he called Ookami by name, but he was so angry that he didn't bother using honorifics - 'First dead than using any honorific with a piece of crap like this!'

- "What a fool!" – said Ookami as he looked at the sky with a demented face – "We nobles… are similar to the gods! We can put the peasants to work, we obtain our riches and luxuries out of them, and we kill them off when they outlive their usefulness! Non-nobles are no more than expendable tools!" -

Everyone stood there as if a shockwave had hit them. Ookami had some fun looking at the spooked faces they had, but unfortunately for him, Gerardo was the first to regain his senses. He had enough of this… his face was filled to the brim with rage, so much he seemed like an entirely different person… he then walked up to Ookami, and when he had him right in front, he punched him on the face so hard that he threw him to the ground and made him spit blood.

- "W-w-w-what have you done!?" – said Ookami as he got back on his feet rather messily, spooked that anyone would have dared to punch him.

- "I gave you just what you deserved…" – said Gerardo. Once again, he was so angry that his voice was sounding more similar to a dragon's growl.

- "Y-y-y-you will see… I shall kill you for this offense!" – said Ookami unsheathing his sword.

- "We'll see about that" – said Gerardo as he drew Ryuuga. Ookami paled when he saw the sword's guard: more specifically its dragon-themed decorations. He sheathed his sword again as he trembled.

- "I… I won't… kill you today…" – said he while he trembled.

- "What do you intend to do then?" – said Gerardo daring him – "And before you get the ridiculous idea of making us commit seppuku, I'll remind you that I'm no servant of yours, and my friends are under my and my sister's protection" -

- "I'll come back and kill you. I'll kill you all next time!" – said Ookami as he turned around and began running away.

- "Inuyasha, give that bastard a push" – said Gerardo in a low voice. Inuyasha had already recovered somewhat from the hit, but he still was furious about it and the way he slapped Kagome, so he didn't even nod in response.

He unsheathed his Tessaiga and swung it to make it launch a stream of wind, which grabbed Ookami, and made him fly until he crashed head first against a rock that was about two meters away from him. He turned around, got himself even more scared upon seeing Inuyasha's large sword, and began running even faster as he yelled in terror.

- "Damned imitation of a noble" – said Gerardo as he sat back down. He was still angry enough to release steam, but his anger began subsiding little by little. He then went to Kagome and Inuyasha, and began using his Healing Water song to erase the marks of the hits they received.

- "Gerardo-kun…" – asked Sango cautiously – "Are you okay?" –

- "Yeah… I'm fine…" – said Gerardo as he snorted. His voice began regaining its normal sound.

They then continued eating under a rather awkward silence, until…

- "What was all that acting?" – asked Kouga as he looked at Gerardo in an unpleasant manner.

- "That was no acting!" – exploded Gerardo from the accusation: he instantly got on his feet and extended his arms in full as he shouted at Kouga – "I said that very seriously! I can't stand people that think themselves superior to everyone else, or believe themselves to be gods, or that are so arrogant and entitled that they think the universe revolves around them!" -

- "Don't worry" – said Kagome as she grabbed him by an arm – "Remember in our era that kind of people are looked down upon… and thanks for defending us…" -

- "No… no problem…" – said Gerardo as he blushed. His fury had already gone away and he started looking at Kagome with worry – "By the way, shouldn't you go back to your normal form already?" -

- "Ah… right, gimme just a second!" – said Kagome as she got out a uniform and the bottle with aging water out from her backpack.

- "I'll go with you this time. We can't risk losing you again" – said Sango smiling. Kagome smiled as she nodded in response, and both of them got up and went to some nearby bushes. There was a white flash, and shortly later, Kagome and Sango returned. Kagome was wearing her school uniform and was carrying the clothes she wore in her child form folded in her arms. She stored them in her backpack after they returned.

- "Now it's my turn!" – said Inuyasha excitedly. He just drank the water in that same place, and the next instant he was back to his normal self.

- "Keh, didja see that, stupid wolf?" – said Inuyasha to Kouga – "I'm not as stupid as ya thought!" –

- "No, you're even more stupid than that!" – said Kouga to make him angry – "You could go back to normal any time, but you didn't do it!" –

- "I just did that to not scare Kagome, flea brain!" – replied Inuyasha as he leapt in Kouga's direction.

- "Sit down!" – said Kagome. Two bodies slamming against the ground were heard, as were also two "Damn" said at the same time.

- "I didn't really miss that from you…" – said Inuyasha weakly.

- "Same here…" – said Gerardo saddened.

- "I'm sorry, but I don't think this is a good time for quarrels…" – said Kagome a bit sad while Kouga just blinked at the whole scene.

Kagome then turned to look at Kikyou and Kaede, the latter looking at her a bit scared. Neither of them had said a word ever since the lessons Kikyou had been giving to Kaede and Gabriela got interrupted.

- "Is anything the matter?" – asked Kagome worried.

- "Not for me, but Kaede…" – said Kikyou as she turned in her sister's direction.

- "That's your true appearance?" – asked Kaede with her eyes open to the max.

- "Um… yeah, this is how I really am" – said Kagome as she looked downward and clasped her hands – "I didn't just get my memory sealed, but also made ten years younger…" -

- "You look a lot like my sister, and now your powers are unsealed, I'd say they are in equal footing with hers'" – said Kaede amazed, but she then lowered her gaze to the ground – "But… I don't get it… things suddenly look so different from always… and my sister doesn't seem as lively as before…" -

- "Dear sister, that is…" – began saying Kikyou. The others began making gestures to dissuade her from telling Kaede about how things were now, but it was in vain – "…because I no longer am part of this world…" -

A cold breeze blew through the plain in which they were while the sky was covered in dark clouds.

(BGM: Hyu's Sadness – Popolocrois Monogatari Anime)

- "What…? How…? What do you mean by that, onee-sama?" – asked Kaede as she trembled in fear.

- "Kikyou… please, stop…" – begged Inuyasha. He was the first to be against keeping secrets, but he thought that something of this nature would be too hard for Kaede to swallow. The others were shocked to see how harsh and cold she was being to her sister, as if death itself had gotten rid of most her emotions. However, Kikyou just continued unflinchingly, ignoring completely Inuyasha's plea.

- "I died 50 years ago, taking the Shikon Pearl with me to the afterworld and leaving Inuyasha sealed in the Goshinboku" – said Kikyou as she breathed in before continuing her narration, empty and emotionless like her gaze – "Until very recently, when Kagome arrived through the Bone-Eater's Well, released Inuyasha and made the Pearl appear again, to then shatter it in a hundred shards. Shortly later, a witch resurrected me using clay and bones, as well as some souls extracted from Kagome, in order to use me as a servant. However, that failed because she didn't take in account my force of will" -

- "Then… why… I haven't aged even… one day since then… onee-sama?" – asked Kaede, scared to the point she already had begun crying. The others couldn't do more than watch, and Kagome could only put her hands over Kaede's shoulders to try to console her. None of them could even imagine how bad she was feeling over this revelation.

- "You've gone back to being so innocent you haven't realized it!" – said Kikyou as she pointed to her – "You aren't really ten years old, but sixty! The only reason why you can't remember any of this and why you are a child again is due to one of Naraku's curses! That appearance you have is no more than a mere illusion!" -

- "No… it can't be true… NOO!" – shouted Kaede as she grabbed her head. It seemed she was going to go insane from this, until she fainted in Kagome's arms with her eyes filled with tears.

- "Kikyou, why did you have to do something so cruel to her!?" – said Gerardo enraged – "Such a revelation is something no one could ever withstand!" -

- "She had to know the truth, no matter how harsh or cruel it was. It's the best for her…" – said Kikyou as she turned around – "Now Kagome is back and Kaede knows the truth, I can no longer be at your side" -

(BGM: Mune ni Himeta Omoi – Inuyasha)

- "Are you leaving us?" – asked Inuyasha saddened.

- "Forgive me, Inuyasha… but it's true: the dead and the living can't remain together" – said Kikyou as she rose into the air through her Shinidamachuu, and when she turned to look at everyone one last time before departing, they all saw clearly she was crying, and her cold voice was cracking like a broken crystal – "I'll only remain in this world to help you in your battle against Naraku… and please, don't die until you've settled everything… I wouldn't bear to see you in the afterlife regretting it for leaving something unsettled… and please… tell Kaede... I'm sorry for everything…" -

And after a few instants, she was so far away that she disappeared from their sights.

(End of Chapter)

 

(Ending: Every Heart)