Chapter One:

Ai woke up smiling to the bright rays of sunshine coming through her window. This was much better than Miss Obana's face, glaring at her.

Ai got out of bed, quickening her movements as she remembered what day it was. It was her sixteenth birthday.

She hurried through her shower; this was going to be just a family thing this year. Every year since kindergarten she had had a party with her friends and they had all gone somewhere. This year her family decided they would spend this time together.

She ran downstairs with a grin, but it quickly vanished when she saw her mom, dad, uncle, and grandfather sitting around the kitchen table with extremely grim looks on their faces.

"Uh…guys? What's up?" She asked nervously, not sure she wanted to know the answer.

"Ai, come here for a moment." Her mother motioned for her to sit down next to her. She slowly walked over to her, hand clutching the locket she had had since she was born. She had asked her mother about where it came from one, but got very little explained to her. All she knew was that she was never to open it. Never.

She sat down in the chair between her mom and dad and her mother took her hand.

"Ai, may I see the locket?" she asked, and held out her free hand.

Confused, she held it out, after taking it off for the first time ever. She dropped it in her mother's hand, and suddenly felt naked without it.

Shaking, her mom opened it, facing it towards Ai. A blinding light filled the room causing Ai to squeeze her eyes shut. She felt small tingly sensations throughout her body, and she wondered what the Hell was going on. Time stopped.

Time resumed at the light faded. Ai felt strangely disoriented, as if her body wasn't her own. Her eyes were still closed, for she feared what would be there to greet her when she opened them. Her mother's distraught cry broke the silence, and she quickly opened her eyes to see what the problem was. When she did, her head immediately swam with the clarity she suddenly saw everything in. Her eyes took in every little detail. Her sense of smell improved greatly too. From all four occupants of the room beside her, came an awful stench. It registered in her brain as…fear. They were afraid of her? Why?

That was when she caught her reflection in the mirror across the table. Her appearance startled her. Her once boring brown hair, had red highlights, and was piled in a bun on the top of her head. Her eyes had been green, and now they were a strange purplish color, and seemed to glow. Her outfit was something from a fantasy novel. It had the ankle length dress, the bell sleeves, and it was a V-neck.

But what she found oddest about all of this, was the gun her uncle was pointing at her forehead, a look reflecting the smell on his face.

"What the Hell?!" She asked in a raised tone, almost losing her patience with all that had happened.

"We must kill you…before you kill us." Uncle stated, his voice wavering slightly as she stepped forward. He backed up, and ran into her father, who caught him.

"What?! Why would I kill you?!" She shouted. She loved them all dearly, and couldn't stand that they thought she was going to kill them.

"Honey," Her mother said, looking at her with eyes still red from sobbing. "Long ago, a man, one of our ancestors, fell in love with a youkai, and she had a child that was a hanyou. Though he loved both of them very much, the gods warned him that if he let this child live, a curse would be placed upon their family, unintentionally. They were right in the sense that every few generations, the demon blood shows up, and the person they are in goes mad, and kills anything in sight. None of them have lasted as long as you have before giving in."

She motioned to the locket, which had somehow ended up back around her neck. "That locket was given to the couple by the gods when they refused to kill their child. It is to hold their powers until a certain age, when it is pointed at the child, and if the youkai blood is there, then they shall change into their youkai form. This is your form. You are a youkai, Ai." She smiled ruefully at her daughter, who was so young, at yet would have to go through so much now that this had been revealed.

"I'm youkai?" Ai asked, a look of disbelief on her face. The four nodded.

"You're going to kill me?" She asked again. More nods. She felt something well up inside of her, and it begged to be let out.

I can save you. Was its claim.

So she let it out.

End Chapter One

Chapter Two: Meeting Miroku

Screams. She heard screams.

Breaking glass, crashes, things of that sort.

Purple eyes opened with a snap. They surveyed the battle—whatever it was—and had no emotion.

Power raced through her and a small voice inside told her to stop, to calm down, but she quickly pushed the annoying thing away. This felt too damn good to stop now. No words could describe the feelings that covered her from head to toe.

In the back of her mind, she realized that she was floating about three feet off the ground, and plates and chairs were swirling around her at a rapid speed. Her family was clutching onto anything they could, knowing that if they let go, they would be flung off.

"You will not destroy me." Said a powerful voice coming from all around them. Startled, she realized that it was from her, but didn't recognize it. The world stopped spinning, and she repeated herself, "You will not destroy me." She slowly disappeared.

Somehow, she knew exactly what she was doing, as if she had done it millions of times, and was a reflex.

She reappeared in front of a castle—a really big castle. The guards were youkai: she could sense it. Lizard youkai by the looks of it. They were large, scaly, and had claws. Yup, lizard youkai. They nodded to her as she walked up the steps to the entrance. A man, who had some youkai in his blood, but not much, was waiting for her.

His black hair was short, but just long enough for a horsetail in the back. He had a staff, and wore a kimono. He looked to be a monk. She stopped in front of this hansom young man.

"Mistress Yume, welcome to your home." He bowed. "Allow me to show you around, as I'm sure you are mystified by much of this." He motioned for her to follow him, and she did.

He pointed out all of the things she should know, introduced her to the staff, and when they finally got to her room, she didn't even take the time to look at it or to change clothes, she fell onto the wonderfully soft bed, and fell asleep almost immediately.

Miroku Houshi watched the miko sleep in awe. He had been told about this one, but never expected to meet her in his lifetime, short as it may be. Miroku absently stroked the rosary beads around his hand. His master told him about how her family had recently told her she was a youkai. Miroku snorted, humans never were very good at sensing magic of any sorts, and he didn't know who had told them these lies about their 'daughter'. Look at all the times before they had murdered innocent people for being 'witches'.

The truth was, her family couldn't be more far from the truth. She was a miko, and though she did have magic, she was not a youkai by any means. The reason for the locket reacting the way it did wasn't because of youkai blood, but rather, her being a miko, and having more power than anyone since…well…Kikyo.

Kikyo. She had been the miko three years ago, before she died in an attack by her hanyou lover 'Inuyasha'. Everyone supposed he had tricked her into thinking that he loved her to get to the mystical jewel that she was entrusted, the Shikon Jewel. It will grant any wish, and Inuyasha wanted to be full youkai.

But not Miroku. He had been Inuyasha's close friend, before Kikyo used the last of her strength to pin him to a tree using an entrapment spell placed on an arrow. Inuyasha had told him that he had sensed a presence, a youkai, the night that 'Inuyasha' attacked Kikyo. Inuyasha had been with him the night it happened, but no one believed a monk, stupid as it was. If you couldn't trust a monk, then whom could you trust?

He sighed, sixteen and she was about to have the shock of her life. She was the sister of a miko who had died, and the current miko, she had been engaged since she was two, and she had to save the world from the youkai who wished to force Kikyo and Inuyasha betray each other.

Miroku the room, and the sleeping miko inside of it. He had better think on how to explain everything to Ai when she woke up.

End Chapter Two

Chapter Three:

Ai woke feeling better than she had in days. She had now been here a week, and Miroku had explained everything, with the help of his wife Sango. It had been stressful to find out that you were the only hope to the world, and you had to fight youkai whom you knew nothing about. She was treated like a queen here, which was a definite change from what she was used to. Ai, Lady of the Eastern Lands. Huh, had a nice ring to it.

Today Miroku and Sango, who were now her best friends despite the short amount of time they had known each other, were taking her to meet the half-brother of Inuyasha, Sesshoumaru. He was the Lord of the Western Lands, and according to Kaede, the younger sister of Kikyo, he hated his younger half-brother. The reasons were unknown, but they were there.

But it wasn't like his hatred hadn't been returned by the hanyou. Inutaishou, their father, looked to unite the Western and Eastern lands, and had negotiated with the sisters' parents to arrange a marriage between their children. Each had three, and all were the same age, except for the last couple. Kikyo and Sesshoumaru (hence the hatred between the brothers), Kaede and Ryoga, who had died in a battle a few years earlier, and Ai and Inuyasha.

Those last four words there…one of the many reasons she had fainted, and only just woke up.

So, she was going to see her 'brother-in-law', so he could take her to see Inuyasha pinned to a tree. Ai rolled her eyes, Wonderful…

Sesshoumaru stood in the gardens of his castle watching his 'daughter' Rin play with a butterfly. Rin was only a little girl, but somehow, she made his day brighter every time he saw here. The villagers had beaten her after her parents had been murdered by a pack of ookami youkai, and after teaching the people a lesson, he had taken her in. He meant to only get her to talk again, and smile, but ended up getting quite attached to the little bundle of joy.

He needed cheering up more now then ever, as his baka hanyou otoutou's fiancée finally showed up from the other world, and he had to take her to see her fiancée. He didn't hate his brother as much as he pretended he did. He had researched the spell Kikyo had trapped Inuyasha with, and knew that if the right person pulled the arrow out of Inuyasha's chest, then his brother would be animate again. Not exactly what he wanted, but it would make a lot of people happy.

His head snapped to the East—they had entered his lands. It was time to see if this 'Ai' was really meant for Inuyasha.

In front of Ai stood a tall youkai. He had long silver hair, and amber eyes that shone in the sun. He wore a haori, and armor, and had a very emotionless face. Around his shoulders, he had a poofy thing…it's a tail! He has a tail! In other words, he was drop-dead-gorgeous. If her fiancée looked anything like this man, she would mourn his death. The world could not afford to lose something so good looking.

"Ai Yume Higurashi, it is a pleasure to meet you at last." Sesshoumaru bowed, and she returned the gesture.

When greetings were done, she was lead into a forest, and after a long time of walking, they entered a clearing. In the middle, there was a tree, with a young man pinned to it by an arrow.

She was right…this man was a handsome as his brother, but no tail. Instead, she saw little doggy ears, and no human ears. Kawaii! She started to walk towards him, when she felt a hand on her arm. She followed the hand to an arm, and the arm was connected to Sesshoumaru.

"If I may ask a favor, I would like you to pull the arrow out of him. That should wake him up. I know a lot of people who would be grateful if he were alive." The youkai said, and released her arm. She nodded and continued on her way.

The first thing she did when she got there was reach up and feel the ears, ignoring the laughter coming from behind. So soft! Remembering what Sesshoumaru had said, she reached up and grasped the arrow, and tugged. It came out easily.

The next thing she knew a hand was on her wrist, and she was pressed against the tree. Inuyasha was behind her, and then, he wasn't. Sesshoumaru was holding his brother back, and whispering into his ear.

Inuyasha relaxed, and looked at Ai with a different look. She suddenly felt drained of all the energy she had gotten while she slept, and collapsed. Ai expected to hit the ground, but the hard earth never came. She felt strong arms pick her up, and noticed that they were different than Sesshoumaru's.

She was in Inuyasha's arms. That was the last thing she thought before slipping into the fever she had been suppressing.

Inuyasha looked at the girl in his bed. Baka. Why had she kept pushing her fever down? She needed to be in her bed resting, not in the bed of her fiancée who was dead to the world until recently. She couldn't have wanted to meet him that bad.

She looked almost exactly like Kikyo. That weirded him out a little, but an arranged marriage isn't something you can break, at least not when it's a youkai-arranged marriage. He was so caught up in his thinking that he didn't notice she was staring back at him.

For the first time, they met eyes, and knew they were in for a long journey till they learned to tolerate each other. Might as well start now…

End Part One