A/N: A story I wrote when I was a lot younger (in Dutch) and which I recently found again. After some adjustments, I wanted to share with you guys. This is an OC story, obviously, yet, I hope you all give it a chance! Inuyasha was the first anime I fell in love with (I read the manga as well) and considering I had a lot of imagination I created an OC (My first OC ever): Chiharu. Updates will be sporadical, as I have to translate the original story in English (rewrite small parts that could be better), therefore I'll keep it at once a month.

Important: this is a prologue. The prologue might not make much sense because it was designed that way (but you won't have to wait twenty chapters for it to make sense either). Please give it a chance and enjoy! And if you'd have the time; please comment! I love them, and I'd love your take on all of this.

Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.

o.O.o

Prologue

'It's so hard to forget the pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scars to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace' — Chuck Palahniuk, Diary

The moon stood high on the zenith; pale light filtering in through the thick canopy of leaves, scattering down on the forest floor. Chiharu Higurashi ran her fingers through her dark hair, before nervously fiddling with the long sleeve of her garb as she followed the heavy aura from deep within the woods. Dark shapes took form in the far distance and Chiharu squinted her eyes, which were slowly adjusting to the grey-green darkness. Her sister and her odd friend were there, swaying as if some sort of spell was corrupting them and a woman with long sleek hair was running her fingers through Inuyasha's hair.

Chiharu's sister, Kagome had fallen on her side and a large bulky Yōkai, with the built and height of a flat stretched out above the trees, looking down upon her with an expressionless face. For everyone, Kagome Higurashi seemed to be asleep, but at least she was unharmed and Chiharu stood rooted to the spot, peering through the dappled gaps in the evergreen leaf cover of a bush. Almost all light had disappeared in an instant, and a strange silence pressed down onto them. Chiharu touched her hand to one ear, in case it was blocked by something physical.

It wasn't...

Shaking her head, she carefully crossed the clearing, trying to remain in the shadows of the trees. With fear to give her speed, she ran along the narrow trail settled beside a tree. The tall yōkai that had towered above them mere minutes ago had disappeared and the odd pressure made her movements slow and sluggish. Chiharu stopped in sight of her older sister and carefully inched to her fallen form, but before she'd reached her, her eyes widened. The beautiful woman, who had cradled Inuyasha's sleeping form to her chest before had turned monstrous, without a face and her chest had opened as a black hole, trying to absorb the comatose Hanyō.

The thought that a faceless being could do that, even without much of an aura, filled her with a clamming sort of fear and Chiharu fought to ready an arrow on her bow. Squeezing one eye shut, she aimed at the lady's head, letting the arrow fly. It fizzled, cutting through the air, before lodging deeply into the shoulder of the female Yōkai. Inuyasha fell to the forest floor with a groan and as the yōkai slowly started to crumble, the silence pressing down onto her lifted. Stiffly, Chiharu crept up from her hiding-place and tip-toed towards her sister.

"What was that?" Chiharu whispered urgently, quickly pulling her sister up into a sitting position. "Are you okay?"

"Chiharu-san." Myoga the flea whispered and she glanced down at Kagome's leg where he was sitting. "That's a Mu-onna."

"Ah what?" Kagome asked heaving slightly. Her cheeks were dusted a deep red and her eyes wide with horrified fear. "I-, Chiharu-chan?"

"You're okay," Chiharu answered unhelpfully and Kagome stared at Inuyasha's unmoving form with a deep frown.

Chiharu moved back slightly when Kagome crawling onto hands and knees towards the fallen Hanyō ("Inuyasha?"), and Myōga the flea hopped onto her knee. The constant motions of the tree-tops and the returning of the brilliance of the moon painted clouds in the dark sky calmed her a little.

"So, what was that again?" Chiharu asked again, ignoring her sister as she fussed over the white-haired Hanyō. Inuyasha was seated up again and didn't seem to appreciate people ruffling his feathers.

"A Mu-onna. They're cursed spirits, created specifically when a mother, ningen or yōkai, die in the process of failing her child. Either in sickness or when violated, but ultimately leading to its death."

"Okay?"

"When a mother dies, under those circumstances, her soul gets stuck with an obsessive desire to save her lost child and is drawn to children suffering from dire predicaments. However, the Mu-onna cannot help those children and will only drive them further into suffering, ultimately killing them…" the flea explained, before gasping and jumping away. Chiharu thought he was not very helpful, but a second later someone grasped at the collar of her haori, hoisting her up to her feet. Her hands automatically flew to where the hand was fisted into her clothes and tried to dislodge it while frantically glancing around.

She recognised him immediately. He was the same Yōkai she had seen only a few hours ago. His Youki was far more suffocating than she had originally thought and she glanced up at him, with wide eyes. Why he wasn't restraining his youki to keep others from being alerted to his presence?

Finally, Sesshōmaru's eyes rested on the miko. His eyes widened only a fraction in recognition; "You…"

"Let her go, you Bastard!" Inuyasha snapped glancing at the remains of the woman Chiharu had shot and then at the tall man.

"She belongs to you, should have known…"

"I don't belong to him," Chiharu muttered carefully loosening her obi. She could fully loosen it and then jump out of her outer haori, effectively freeing herself if he tried to hurt her.

His smile was feral. "Aren't you?"

Inuyasha snarled, pushing Kagome away from him and charged at them, but Sesshōmaru just dodged the angry Hanyō and took to the air. Chiharu gasped, tightening her obi immediately as the ground disappeared from under her. Both of her hands renewed their grip on his wrist and tightened when the ground moved further and further away from under her. She yelped when he shook her unnecessarily.

"Inuyasha, my sister!"

"I know wench," Inuyasha snarled back and charged again.

Her sandal fell off of Chiharu's feet when the older man dodged his opponent again and with a flick of his wrist, Inuyasha tumbled to the forest-floor, sending a plume of dry mud skywards. Dark blood oozed from his right eye and Chiharu gasped, watching with growing horror as Inuyasha pressed the palm of his hand against his eye. She tried to crane her neck, internally debating if hitting him with her bow would distract him enough to get away, but her feet were still dangling above the forest-floor. The hand that held his wrist in a death-grip tightened even more. They were too high for her to catch herself without breaking something. Too high up for her to fall to the ground and remain unhurt. It was a very bad plan.

Chiharu watched Kagome crouch down next to Inuyasha and almost whimpered when she felt Sesshōmaru's talons graze the delicate skin of her back. Ignoring the shiver that ran down her spine, she dared a glance at him. He was observing a tiny black orb between the index finger and the thump of his left hand. Blood coated those same fingers and Chiharu felt the nausea roll through her in waves. "Chich-ue certainly hid the tomb in a strange place," he whispered as Inuyasha moaned, pressing his hand against the heavily bleeding eye.

"You bastard!" Inuyasha snapped, unsteadily getting to his feet.

"Uh uh," Sesshōmaru whispered pressing sharp claws into the delicate skin of Chiharu's neck. "Your female won't like what I'll do, if you waste my time any further."

"Inuyasha!" Kagome wailed and Chiharu tried to finally control her jagged nerves, craning her neck away from the sting his claws gave when they dug into her flesh. She felt her feet touch the ground again and she released a small puff of breath.

"Keh," Inuyasha snarled. "She isn't my female, I do not care if you would hurt her."

"Don't you?" the Yōkai whispered, sniffing at Chiharu as if he smelled something bad. "Than tell me, little brother, why is your stench all over her?"

'Little brother?'

"Sesshōmaru-sama!" a vaguely familiar voice called, and Chiharu noticed the small imp-Yōkai appear out of the tall grass. "I have retrieved the Nintoujou," he continued, showing off a tall staff with two heads to his master.

The pressure of his claws slowly fell away and Sesshōmaru glanced at his servant. His expression almost bored and the small imp shivered. "Lose it again and I'll kill you." His master whispered, before yanking the staff out of Jaken's claw and smashed, what appeared to be a pearl under it.

The face of the old man cackled. It didn't mean anything to Chiharu, she was already glad she was still in one piece, but the imp-Yōkai looked absolutely joyous. A darkish light appeared, which not even the pale light of the moon could penetrate. It seemed to suck them down through the grass and Chiharu yelped when the world rushed by in a blur.

They were air-born again. Chiharu yelled and Sesshōmaru wrapped a strong arm around her waist, which did barely still the raging nerves. They soared downward at a speed that constricted her throat so that she could hardly draw a breath. Chiharu watched as the darkness disappeared and then the bright blue sky appeared, which couldn't be anything else than an illusion. Skeletal birds flew through the sky and the silver-haired Yōkai moved them towards the largest remains she had ever seen in her life. It was an enormous dog-like skeleton with an armour on the shoulders and on the chest. He entered through a gap in the armour, passing between two ribs and dropped to the ground gracefully.

It smelled strange. Chiharu sniffed around with a deep frown and decided that this must be the scent of dead foliage. Animal carcasses and even human bones lay scattered on the intracranial bone. He dropped her as if she'd burned him and she quickly crawled away, pressing her back against the frontal bone and waited for the Yōkai to do whatever he came for.

Jaken's bulbous yellow eyes glowered at her, and he swiftly scurried towards the side as well, as Sesshōmaru stepped towards a crappy looking sword.

"All of this, for that?" Chiharu muttered, glancing at Jaken with furrowed eyebrows. He was looking around in wonder as well. "For a Katana…"

"That's not just a Katana," Jaken told her importantly, probably forgetting his hostility against her. "That is the sword forged from Sesshōmaru-sama's father's fang."

"I see," Chiharu mumbled, watching as Sesshōmaru grabbed the handle of the sword. He was repelled almost instantly and Chiharu smiled smugly to herself when he hissed.

"A Kekkai," Sesshōmaru muttered. "Figures, there's a Kekkai on it."

Chiharu pursed her lips. The sword had a Kekkai on it, yet it looked all but worthless.

"Sesshōmaru!"

The Daiyōkai turned around almost lazily. Inuyasha jumped down from the protruding collarbone, leaving Kagome on one of the ribs. Inuyasha charged at his older brother, claws at the ready and again Sesshōmaru dodged the Hanyō easily. He appeared on the other side with a pulse of Youki and laughed openly at Inuyasha's shocked face. Inuyasha's right eye was still closed and swollen, but his left eye was alit with pure anger.

"Draw the sword, Inuyasha-sama!" Myoga-jiji yelled, but Inuyasha was already charging at his older brother.

"I'm not interested in some worn-out old word…"

Chiharu watched the two demons fight while Myoga-jiji told the Hanyō, over and over, to draw the sword, which he couldn't either. Sesshōmaru's attitude was cutting and superior, baiting the younger demon out of a sense of boredom, mixed with hatred. Chiharu wasn't sure what had happened between the two of them but the hatred between the two seemed hardly natural. She couldn't imagine hating her own sibling so much as both siblings seemed to hate each other.
Chiharu cocked her head to the side. The older Yōkai was gorgeous, there was no denying that he was, in fact, well-built and easily capable of inducing dreamy eyes of females (her included), but he was also impossibly arrogant, cold and downright nasty. He taunted the younger demon with a smirk, a smirk that broadened when Inuyasha wasn't able to draw the sword either. She would be honest, at least to herself, the superiority was well-deserved, but the arrogance… He was better though; his fighting skills stronger and faster.

"Let me assist you, Sesshōmaru-sama!" the Kappa exclaimed, swirling his staff through his claws. Chiharu snorted, before slamming her bow against his staff, his claws loosening around the wood and it fell against the bones with a hollow clunk.

"I don't think so, little goblin." She snapped, using her bow as leverage to pull him away.

Kagome jumped down next to them; "We have to do something!"

"What do you want, he can summon and hide his youki at will?" Chiharu asked angrily.

"But you know how to shoot, don't you?" Her older sister demanded, picking the fallen staff off the floor and held it in front of her as a shield.

"Yes…" Chiharu muttered, "But he goes so fast…"

Just then Sesshōmaru slammed Inuyasha down into the ground and cracked his claw above his head. "Dissolve," he whispered threateningly and Kagome let the staff drop from her fingers.

"INUYASHA!"

Tripping over the skulls, Kagome fell forward grappling at the sword for support, which moved with her until it slipped from the stone. Both Yōkai stilled into their attack and glanced at Chiharu's older sister with a mix of shock and surprise.

"Uh," the schoolgirl mumbled. "I'm sorry? It slipped…"

"Slipped?" Chiharu muttered back, closing in on her sister and pulling her away from the pedestal and to the side. Sesshōmaru stared at them, or more accurately at Kagome and a moment later he appeared right in front of them. Kagome squealed, her fingers digging into Chiharu's shoulders when she hid behind her younger sister.

"How is it that a mere human can draw out Tetsusaiga, while this Sesshōmaru can't?"

"Perhaps the Kekkai only works against Demons?" Chiharu mumbled sarcastically.

He looked at Chiharu as if he barely believed she could speak, before raising an imperious eyebrow. Kagome pushed the hilt of the sword into her hands and carefully peeked over Chiharu's shoulder. "If that's the case then logic dictates you should hold it now."

"I didn't know you wanted to get rid of me that badly."

"Then do something!" Kagome whispered back and Sesshōmaru bared his fangs.

"Sesshōmaru!" Inuyasha snarled, slowly straightening himself. "Leave them alone, they've got nothing to do with this."

"I disagree," the Daiyōkai whispered, and Chiharu felt something cold run through her. She swirled around as fast as she could and stared at her sister with wide eyes.

"Run!"

She didn't have to be told twice, and the both of them bolted. Sesshōmaru dodged his half-brother again with an annoyed grunt and gave an annoyed look towards Chiharu.

"What am I supposed to do with this." She muttered, glancing at the katana in her hand. What was Kagome thinking, pushing it in her hands to even begin with? Whenever there were problems, Chiharu was supposed to fix them (unless they had to do with Sōta, she insisted to be the big sister with him). That was their dynamic. When panic struck, Chiharu took charge.

Kagome was hyperventilating on the other side of the room, Jaken's staff clutched between her fingers again and was glancing up at Inuyasha, almost beaming. "I believe in you." She told him positively.

"Aren't you a little too optimistic?" Inuyasha muttered back, trying again to slash at his brother. The full blooded yōkai dodged the younger boy easily and took to the air.

He glanced Chiharu's way again and she just knew the Full-demon would come after her (again) — after all, she was holding that stupid sword —, and she hurled the sword through the clearing. "Fetch boy!"

Whoever fetched it she didn't care. Jaken poked a clawed finger against her clad leg and both brothers glared at her as the sword clanged down against skulls and bones. Inuyasha picked it up, holding it against the light as if to examine it.

"Keh, it looks like a piece of junk."

"Who cares?" Chiharu yelled. "Why not using it to get out of here?"

The Daiyōkai glared at her and she heard Jaken chuckle. Warning bells went off in Chiharu's head, and she became uncharacteristically unnerved. Slowly, ever so slowly, she pulled an arrow free — her last one — and held it close to her bow.

Her heart picked up its pace, hammering under her ribs and her breath hitched when he moved to her. She drew her bow tight and released the arrow. He didn't even bother to dodge it, instead, he caught it in mid-air in his left hand and snapped it in two.

"Great idea!" Chiharu muttered, an edge of hysterics pulling at the edges of her mind. "He just caught the arrow in mid-air, thank you Kagome-neechan. Great idea!"

"Leave her alone!" Inuyasha yelled, and Kagome squealed when Inuyasha crushed the armour covering Sesshōmaru's left shoulder with his claw. The sword remained useless. It just bounced off against Sesshōmaru's arm, and the older Yōkai sneered.

"Tetsusaiga," he whispered his right-hand curling into a fist. "Give it to me, Inuyasha."

"Like hell, you bastard, you cannot even touch it!"

His face seemed amused, and then he twisted around, appearing in front of her. Chiharu yelped, her heart thudded, her mouth sandpaper-dry and her mind a choppy sea of fears. Sesshōmaru slapped the bow out of her hand, snapping it in two as well. She was terrified when he twirled her around pressing her back against his front and dug his left hand into her hair, craning her neck painfully. "Last chance, little brother."

"You wouldn't!" Inuyasha hissed with certainty.

And Chiharu inhaled a shaky breath. She wondered how stupid you could be; challenging the man who was holding her captive. Warm breath fanned over the sensitive skin of her neck and Chiharu slowly started to wriggle into his grip trying to pull herself free.

"Inuyasha-Sama!" Myoga the flea cried and Chiharu felt the beginnings of true fear gripping at her heart.

"This one wants the sword." The Daiyōkai whispered, warm breath ghosting over her earlobe and her neck.

"Well, you can't get it, you bastard!" Inuyasha cried, again trying to take his older brother down, but Sesshōmaru dragged Chiharu away from him and took to the air again, landing onto one of the ribs. Her feet slipped off of the rib, and the Daiyōkai chuckled when the Hanyō slammed into the carcass-filled floor.

"Your choice…" he muttered, before yanking at her hair, baring even more from her neck. Chiharu's scream died in her throat as his fangs sank into the pale unyielding flesh of her throat. She trashed against his form, his left arm winding around her waist, keeping her from falling. Her breathing laboured and her eyes rolled back into her head. She heard someone scream and the Hanyō cursed foully.

Her neck started to feel numb and her heartbeat had ceased its rapid rhythm. If anything it started to slow down and Chiharu tried to keep her eyes open, even if it was just a little. She could faintly feel the steady beat of Sesshōmaru's heart (if her head had been any clearer she would have been surprised he even had one).

"Stop!" she whispered weakly, only half aware that the air whisked past her. "P-please stop! You're going to… kill me!" He disengaged his fangs and loosened his hand onto her hair.

Inuyasha screamed, his voice sending vibrations through the large carcass and Chiharu tried to grasp at her injured neck.

He dropped her. He must have because she fell down onto the bones and her body became limp. An animalistic growl erupted and she glanced at the fight between the two brothers, through heavy-lidded eyes. Her neck ached and a fire burned through her veins like an unknown poison. Her legs started to jerk and her fingers curled into tight fists.

"Why?"

"You needed to learn your place." she heard the Daiyōkai tell his younger brother smugly.

"She's human!"

"Myoga-jiji?" Kagome's voice whispered and Chiharu felt a hand press against her neck.

"Not good, not good at all!" the flea whispered, muttering instruction of how to stop the heavy blood flow. Chiharu knew she was going to pass out when her stomach turned and cold sweat appeared on her back and her forehead. She felt sick and nausea crept from her abdomen to her head while the world went black.

To be continued...