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"Dead and Alive"

Eighteenth Spring

Before He Met Her

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The smell of burning filled his nose, acrid and black. Men, women and children were screaming bloody murder as the buildings around them were eaten up by eager tongues of orange flame, their shrill cries ringing in his ears. People were undoubtedly dying, their worldly possessions destroyed, but he didn't care. He'd caused it after all. Let them suffer, like he had, let them know the heartache he was feeling with their own.

An arrow whistled past him, followed quickly by an explosion from below as the temple's own fires were fed with oxygen. The blast sent him further up than he had expected on a burst of blistering wind that burned his bare feet, but was already beginning to cool.

He grinned, twisting in the weightlessness he was suspended in to watch the building collapse entirely, spitting smoking and fiery wooden shrapnel even fifty feet in the air, above him. He twisted again, dodging the ballistic hazards as they came near, none of them touching him and his savage euphoria.

He didn't usually take such pleasure in destruction and death. And yet, he did now, because through the macabre, through the gruesome, because of the pain, in his hands now was his salvation: a tiny rose colored jewel, perfectly round and no bigger than his eye, hanging from some sort of decorative chain tangled between his claws.

This was the Shikon no Tama.

This was how he would become finally free. Free from this cursed half life he'd lived for eighteen years, free from his birthright of being nothing, free to be his own man, free to have power, to take what he needed. He'd never have to suffer being so powerless again, never again forced to live with his human heart and his demon blood struggling against themselves for dominance. He'd be free from the damned human condition where he could love.

With the Shikon no Tama, he could at last become a youkai.

Below him and just ahead was the forest. That was his last escape, his haven. With savage triumph, he began to fall back to the earth. He was so close now. He could taste it on his tongue as he landed light as a feather on the stony wall of the shrine, vaulting over the railing and leaping forward. All the time, his blood pounded in his ears, his heartbeat a requiem thundering freedom. Freedom. Freedom.

"INUYASHA!"

The arrow came without warning, a silvery streak that was his ending. He could feel as its razor tip pierced his skin, his flesh, his bone, before passing clear through his chest and burying itself into the tree behind him. The Goshinboku, he knew. He cried out in the pain, the sound leaving his lips on a rush of air that left his lungs without his permission, his entire body jerking away from his destination, away from his salvation. His arm swung up with the force of the sudden stop, his fingers unfeeling, and before he knew it, the Shikon no Tama, his one means of deliverance from the life he lived, was slipping through his fingertips. His heart skipped a beat, and he reached out of it, but too late, it was out of his reach, thudding softly against the mossy forest floor, and he was left reaching, his arm outstretched towards a woman of breathtaking beauty, a woman with her bow still raised, a woman whose eyes glowed with a burning hatred as the breeze blew past them.

"Kikyo…" A flare of hatred of his own, but that curl of flame was drowned out in cold despair. Betrayal. Woe. He reached further forward, as if he could touch her even as his vision was dimming. He was dying, and yet… "How could you…"

The beautiful woman had staggered down the temple steps and knelt to pick up the Shikon no Tama. People were surrounding her as she held it close to her chest, their voices a muddy drone that was only growing quieter in his head as the grey world began to darken. Everyone was there, and here he was, dying and alone. Such was his fate, he knew.

His hand fell limply to his side, and his grey world went black.

It was an infinite blackness.

There was nothing.

Not a soul.

Not a light.

Not a sound.

Not a heartbeat.

No peace, no flame, no suffering or desire.

Simply an eternity of blackness, of nothingness. Endless hours. Countless days. A breath of time, a heartbeat.

And then there suddenly was something: a scent. It was all over him, settled in his clothes, in his hair, on his skin. It was the wonderful, terrible scent of the woman who had killed him… And it was coming closer.

He opened his eyes. Sound, sight, feeling flooded his senses, almost overpowering him with the deafening silence of the night time forest around him, crickets chirping softly and frogs croaking nearby, the starlit darkness a sunlight to his gaze after so, so long in that infinite evanescence.

Had… It all been a dream?

No… No, he had died. But he wasn't dead. He was alive. He was alive and with an arrow in his chest; her arrow. He reached to touch it, to pull it from his heart, but with a wince of pain he realized it was her arrow for a reason. He could not touch it.

A piercing scream pierced the tranquility, shrill words he could not make out making his ears twitch. Suddenly, something collided with the ground twenty feet away, and something green and white flew shrieking through the air, sliding the last few meters to come to a stop just in front of him.

His nose did not lie. This was her. And when she looked up, he recognized her. Shiny midnight hair that cascaded down her shoulders, eyes like freshly tilled earth after the rains that shone with the starlight, a young, pretty face with pale skin and cheeks flushed with exertion. There were twigs in her hair, and dirt on her face, she was sprawled out in the most ungraceful and unflattering fashion and breathing hard, and she was wearing the strangest forest green and white yukata and wrap he had ever seen, but there was no denying that this was the woman who had killed him. The woman who had betrayed him. The woman he had loved. The woman whose face had haunted his dreams since he was a child.

"Oi, Kikyo!"

She looked up, dark eyes wide.

And that was the beginning of it all.

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Glossary:

Shikon no Tama - the sacred jewel; the jewel of four souls

Youkai - a demon/spirit

Goshinboku - the sacred tree; the god tree

Yukata - a type of Japanese 'shirt'

A/N Yep, here's another series of one-shots. I just never see enough stories that follow Inuyasha and his early life or during the three year separation, so here's a bunch of them. None of them will be chronological, some will be pretty dang violent, a few will be multi-chapter, and hopefully it'll tear your heart out, make you sad, and entertain ya'll. For once, if you've got an idea about something that could have happened to him, leave a little comment 'cause I wanna hear it!

Also, leave a comment anyway XD They give me life. Comments, drawing, and D&D keeps me alive, guys, lolz

Have fun, don't die, love yourselves, and I hope you'll enjoy, huehuehuehue~~

Currently listening to: You Give Love A Bad Name - Bon Jovi (lol see what I did there?)