Kagome clutched the Sacred Jewel in trembling hands slick with sweat.

Inuyasha nudged her gently with his elbow. "Hey, you sure about this?" he asked, his voice softer than usual.

No, Kagome thought. "Yep!" she said, forcing a smile.

He didn't look entirely convinced but simply nodded, stepping away to lean against a nearby tree and tucking his arms into the sleeves of his robe.

She looked around at the faces of her friends, all gathered to support her. Even Sesshomaru and his entourage stood a few yards away, the daiyokai affecting an air of disinterest as always.

You can do this, Kagome. She shored up her mental shields as Kaede had trained her, erecting psychic walls around that which she did not wish to be seen.

Kagome took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then, she extended a tendril of her mind out to the shikon no tama.

"Sacred Jewel, I have a proposition for you."

The energy that responded made Kagome shudder involuntarily. It was putrid and oily, its malevolence visible to her mind's eye. "You have piqued my curiosity, miko. I'm listening."

"I would like to make multiple wishes. You name a price, and we'll negotiate."

"Hmm…" The mental image of a figure stroking its chin in thought appeared, and Kagome was pleased the jewel hadn't dismissed the idea entirely.

"How many, miko?"

"Seven."

A harsh laugh echoed in her head. "Greedy, aren't you? No, that's too many. I will grant you four."

"Five," Kagome urged.

"Three."

She could pick up faint hints of irritation and feared she might have pressed her luck too far. "All right. Four, but no questions asked, no take backs."

A brief wave a surprise flowed over the mental link they shared before it responded. "You have an odd manner of speaking, but I will agree to your terms if you agree to mine."

Kagome could barely breathe as she waited, her heart pounding and her chest tight with anxiety.

Finally, the shikon no tama spoke, "First, You will return to your time, permanently, and the well will no longer function as a portal to this time. Second, your friends will lose their memories of you. They will recall only a mysterious miko from another land who journeyed with them and assisted them, but who suddenly vanished following the defeat of Naraku, never to be heard from again. Lastly…"

Kagome swallowed hard and blinked back tears. The price was already so steep that she dreaded what was to come.

"I'll strengthen your miko powers."

"What? Why?" she asked in shock.

The responding surge of malicious energy was laced with cruelty and self-satisfaction. "Because, little miko from the future, your powers are significantly weaker in your time. You think there are no yokai because you cannot sense them. But you're wrong. So I will increase your abilities, make you able to feel them, so that every hint of youki you sense, you will wonder if it is one of your long-lost comrades. Yet even if you were to find them, they won't know you, and as a miko, you will be their enemy."

She understood now. No altruism lay behind the final stipulation in their agreement, only torment. Squashing the sadness rising within her—there would be plenty of time to mourn later—she gave her answer.

"I agree to the terms of our bargain."

What felt like a smug smile came across the psychic link. "As do I. State your wishes, miko."

"First, bring Kikyo back from the dead, as a human. Second, make Inuyasha human."

"Simple enough. You have two more."

Kagome paused. One of the two was predetermined, but the other…

She thought of a little girl who'd been brought back from death twice and the stoic inu-yokai who was her unlikely savior. Kagome knew a human life was both pitifully fragile and short compared to that of a yokai, and she made her decision, hoping it would bring happiness to both parties.

"Make Rin an inu-yokai."

A humorless laugh. "Interesting choice… And for your final wish?"

Kagome gathered all her strength within her and steeled her resolve. "My last wish is… for the shikon no tama to disappear!"

Instantly both Kagome and the sacred jewel felt its existence begin to wane. White-hot fury flooded down their link, the aura so powerful even as it was dying that she couldn't breathe.

"Damn you! Damn YOU! I curse you, Higurashi Kagome, I curse you with the lifespan of a yokai. May you watch your human friends and family die and outlive them all! Live an accursed life, miko, not human, yet not yokai." It cackled hysterically as it shattered and vanished.

As it disappeared, pain bloomed in Kagome's chest and darkness swallowed her momentarily before reality winked back into existence with her crumpled at the bottom of the bone-eater's well in her own time.

Suddenly, the bizarre pain in her chest was overshadowed by the crippling agony she felt psychically as her enhanced powers sensed more youki and reiki energy than her shields and training could handle. She pressed her hands to her ears and temples in a futile effort to block everything out, but it was to no avail. Utterly overwhelmed by both the pain in her chest and the psychic sensory overload, she fainted.

Not too far away from the Higurashi shrine, a young man dropped his sake and exchanged startled glances with a friend. She nodded, indicating she too had felt the sudden power surge.

They would investigate later, visiting the local shrine where an elderly man apologized for his distracted state. It seemed his granddaughter had been hospitalized days earlier and was in a coma. Though they detected reiki and some residual youki traces, they found nothing that seemed to be the source of the mysterious power surge from a few days prior.

Shortly after, they received reports that a small enclave of satori mountain yokai had been slaughtered. No one took credit for the attack, and there was little evidence other than deep gashes—presumably from some creature's claws—on all the bodies. It was technically beyond their territory, but they investigated it briefly nonetheless.

With no immediate reoccurrences or similar incidents, both were chalked up as flukes, and they would eventually forget about them.

Which would prove to be a mistake.

Author's note(s): Hope y'all enjoyed the prologue! This story is both a crossover and somewhat of an AU, so I'll be playing fast and loose with aspects of both series. There will be changes to canon. I'll make notes as I see fit as we go along, but for now, there are a few things I'd like to give you a heads-up for.

1. I know the jewel technically doesn't really grant your real wish, but for the purposes of this fiction, we'll stretch things a bit to say perhaps the jewel had hoped to obtain her soul with the fourth and what it presumed would be a selfish wish.

2. For this AU, let us assume that Inuyasha and Kikyo never completely stopped loving one another and reached some kind of reconciliation before her death, which then of course devastated Inuyasha. Please note that any alternative pairings or things outside of canon are not a reflection of the author's beliefs or preferences, just simply the direction my muse has taken me. As she's extremely difficult to please and often difficult to locate, I find it's best not to anger her.

3. Since the estimated timelines of the respective stories don't fit together quite as neatly as I'd like, I've shifted both slightly. I realize that were we to use publishing dates and/or in-text dates, Kagome would be much older than Rikuo. In this story, they are around the same age, roughly 23 to 24 years old. I've made Kagome one year younger than Rikuo (just in case you were wondering LOL).

4. For at least the prologue and chapter one, the story rating will remain a T. I will be changing the rating to M at some point, likely starting around chapter two, due to some if not all of the following—(to quote the guidelines) "adult themes, references to some violence, or coarse language."

Also, a special thank you to Zeiyuu (aka miss-zei) for the encouragement to actually post this! All in favor of naming her St. Zei, say "AYE, SIR!"