Kagome was in front, running full tilt with Inuyasha getting pulled along behind her. He did find his footing and sped up so he was running beside her, although he didn’t let go of her hand.

-“Kagome, why are we running? You could easily take out the demon now that he’s wounded!” Inuyasha said loudly so that she could hear him over the sound of heavy foot steps and cracking trees.

-“Thanks for the compliment, but you’ll probably take it back if I tell you that sometime between our last encounter this morning and now, that demon found about 5 jewel shards. I’m guessing the demon found them at Naraku’s castle and smelled our sent and came looking for the jewel shards I’ve got.” Kagome said while breathing heavily and looking left and right for a decent hiding place.

Inuyasha did a double take.

-“Yeah, you shoulda told me! That changes everything!” he exclaimed and chanced a look behind him.

No demon.

-“Hun!” he gasped and quickly stopped running, jerking Kagome backwards because of their joined hands.

-“What!” she asked hurriedly and made a move to keep running, then she noticed the sudden silence. She turned and saw that the demon was no longer behind them. “Where did he-”

-“Kagome, can you sense the jewel shards?” Inuyasha cut her off.

-“Yeah. They’re...under us?” she finished softly and looked at Inuyasha. His eyes grew wide.

-“We have to get out of here!” he yelled and pulled her into his arms.

-“Inuyasha!” Kagome cried as he forcefully pushed off the ground, sending them flying up through the air.

Just as Inuyasha’s feet left the ground, Kagome looked down and saw the ogre’s hand emerge from the earth and fumble around, looking for the two humans that had been there seconds before.

Inuyasha landed unsteadily on the ground a little ways away from the ogre and kept running away, still holding onto Kagome tightly.

The ogre’s head emerged from the soil, allowing it to catch a glimpse of Kagome and Inuyasha as they disappeared into the foliage. The ogre smiled.

Inuyasha stopped running after they were quite a ways into the forest and put Kagome down, instantly collapsing to the ground.

-“Inuyasha!” Kagome exclaimed and hurriedly knelt down beside him.

-“Damn this human body!” Inuyasha grunted out and tried to get up, only to fall back down.

-“Inuyasha, stay still! I can’t have you fainting on me!” Kagome said and stood up.

Inuyasha snorted weakly. ‘It’s ironic how I’m usually the one saying that to her.’

Kagome got behind him and pushed him into a sitting position. She then put her hands under his arms so she could drag him backwards over to the nearest tree and lean him up against it.

It was pitch black and Kagome’s eyes had yet to completely adjust, so she could barely see him in front of her. ‘I have to defend him until daybreak, hopefully then he can help me defeat this demon.’ she thought.

Kagome stood up and turned towards the direction the ogre would be coming from, unless it decided to do another underground ambush.

-“Kagome...” she heard Inuyasha said weakly from behind her. “Don’t go, you’ll get killed...”

Kagome turned and smiled at him reassuringly. “No I won’t. I have to protect you until morning and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.” she said and readied another arrow.

-“But, I...I don’t want you to get hurt.” Inuyasha said and tried to get up again, only to fail.

Kagome chuckled nervously. “In your era, that’s almost impossible.” Inuyasha looked even more worried at that statement, so Kagome tried to reassure him further. “I’ll be fine. Just believe in me, I’m a lot stronger then I look.” Kagome finished and put a little more distance between her and Inuyasha by walking into the clearing.

Inuyasha looked to his left and saw the ogre steadily walking towards Kagome. ‘I feel so helpless in this human body! Is this how Kagome always feels?’ Inuyasha wondered and looked back over to Kagome.

She now had the arrow tightly pulled back against her bow with her index finger pointed straight forward to help her aim. Kagome channeled all her energy into the arrow and soon found it engulfed in a bright pink light.

She looked at the ogre demon that was now coming into view and pinpointed the 5 jewel shards in it’s neck. ‘I need to get those jewel shards out of it’s neck to take it down.’ she thought and took carful aim, waiting for the demon to get closer. ‘I don’t think I’ll be able to beat this giant when it has that many jewel shards...’ Kagome thought doubtfully as the demon smiled at her and continued it’s approach.

Kagome suddenly felt a surge of energy enter her body from her hands and flow through her veins.

-“Hun?” she gasped quietly and loosened her grip on the bow as the new found power flowed through her.

‘Kagome, you are using my bow and arrows, so you will be gifted with my power this once. Use it well, and protect what’s most important to you.’ Kikyou’s voice echoed Kagome’s head as her whole body lite on fire and pink flames reached up to lick the sky, surprisingly not burning her.

Kagome’s hold on the bow instinctively tightened as her hair flowed up with the flames. “Thank you, Kikyou.” she whispered and gave the now slightly taken aback demon a death glare. “You’re going down, you ass hole!” she yelled and aimed for it’s neck

Inuyasha watched Kagome burn with anger, literally. ‘I didn’t know she was capable of this’ he thought and smiled inwardly.

The demon quickly recovered from it’s petrified state and lunged forward, going at Kagome with killer intent. Kagome watched it lunge and silently waited for the perfect opportunity to strike.

-“Kagome! Watch out!” Inuyasha yelled when the ogre was practically on top of her.

Kagome smirked.

-“TAKE THIS!” she screamed as the flames around her erupted into a power stream aiming for the sky. She released her arrow and the target was now so close that it couldn’t prevent the blow.

Kagome’s arrow hit the ogre’s neck dead on and came out the other side. The jewel shards shot out of their hiding place and fell to the ground, although no one was looking at the jewel shards, they were all watching the now disfigured ogre.

It continued to fall and landed right on top of Kagome.

It was then that Inuyasha’s world stopped spinning.

-“NO! KAGOME!” Inuyasha screamed and unsteadily got to his feet. “Kagome!” he cried and ran at the ogre with blind fury. ‘I can still save her! She’s got to be okay!’

He was about 4 meters away from the demon when a bright pink light started to glow from beneath it’s belly. The light soon stopped shining and all was quiet again. The ogre laughed despite the condition of it’s blown up neck, making a gross gurgling sound as more blood gushed out of the hole.

Inuyasha stopped running and fell to his knees in a heap. “Kagome...” he mumbled in disbelief. “You can’t be gone. I supposed to always protect you...b-but now...” his voice cracked as tears sprung to his eyes. “Now you’re...-” he was cut off as the unthinkable happened.

The pink light had just relight itself beneath the ogre. The demon cried out in pain as a brightly glowing sacred arrow shot through it’s stomach, killing it instantly and causing it to disintegrate, leaving nothing but a huge pool of blood and shivering human body on the ground.

A single tear ran down Inuyasha’s face as he forced himself to stand up. He stumbled over to Kagome and looked down at her.

She was laying on her back with Kikyou’s broken bow in her hand. Kagome looked up at Inuyasha blankly and gave him a small smile.

-“See? I told you I wouldn’t get hurt.” she said in barely a whisper.

Another tear fell from Inuyasha’s eye as he fell to his knees and weakly pulled her shivering body up into a protective embrace.

-“I thought you were dead...” he said shakily and breathed in the smell of Kagome’s hair.

-“How could I die when I was supposed to be protecting you?” she replied softly and threw her arms around him.

Out of exhaustion, they fell on their sides and laid on the ground, holding onto each other for warmth, and a sense of total protection as consciousness left them both.

A sincere voice rang softly in the breeze and rustled through the tree’s leaves.

‘You did well,...Kagome...’ Kikyou’s broken bow disintegrated.