AN: This is the next story that I shall be completeing (after HotW). Wasn't gonna start posting it yet, but since I have a few chapters done, I thought it might be nice, since a certain reviewer decided to suggest I read a few really long stories, which is why HotW is not updated, don't worry, I am working on it, this is more of a peace offering for missing the daily updates I'd been doing for the past week.

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CH01: The Subjugation of the Dog Eared Boy

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"Souta, stand straight and keep the line of the arrow." Kagome instructed her little brother. Archery was an ancient art, but her grandfather refused to keep modern weapons on the shrine grounds, and arrows seemed to be more effective against the demons, especially when they came from the bow of a priest. At least that's what her grandfather had told her, but who could really believe anything the old coot said. The old man had probably forgotten more than she had ever learned about priestly ways, and he made things up all the time to fill in the gaps. "Look along the arrow and aim above the target." If there was a real demon she was sure that this would be of no help. She had seen the fighting on the news, sometimes, not even rocket launchers that scored direct hits even slowed the beasts down. How was a little arrow supposed to help? "Make sure you are steady and release." Of course, it didn't matter how powerful a weapon was if you couldn't hit anything with it. Souta proved this as his arrow performed a nosedive and did not even hit the well house, let alone the target marked on the wall. He prepared another arrow, and Kagome did as well, within seconds, her arrow had let fly and struck the second ring of the target.

The demons had appeared almost fifty years ago. There were rumors that they had been a government experiment that had gotten out of control, but nothing could be confirmed. Kagome had not actually seen a demon herself, except on the news, but she had seen some of the damage they caused when they attacked. The shrine was on the outskirts of the city, and posed no military value. Kagome assumed that this was why the shrine had only ever seen one demon attack, the one that had killed her father before Souta had been born. Supposedly her father had defended her mother from the demon and was consumed, but had managed to seal the creature within the old well in the process. Souta fired his arrow. This time he launched it solidly; it missed the target and actually flew through a knot hole of the wood.

"Missed again." Souta complained, just before the well house exploded and a giant centipede with the head and torso of a woman burst into view.

"Look out!" A red and silver blur passed in front of her and Souta disappeared. The centipede demon crashed into the stone floor of the courtyard, shattering the cobblestones where Souta had been standing. Kagome could only stare in shock as the centipede got up, and followed the direction her brother had been taken without pause. She turned to look at the guy who stood there holding her brother. He was wearing a red haori and had long silver hair. While the clothes and hair were odd, his claws, fangs and dog ears were even stranger. His amber eyes were staring straight back at her, looking even more shocked than she was. The centipede was barreling towards him and he was busy staring at her like she was a ghost.

"Stop staring and move!" She shot her arrow and it struck right between the shoulders of the centipede. She was prepared for many outcomes of this attack, the arrow bouncing off, or causing the demon to attack her instead, or something equally ineffectual, but instead there was a flash of light and the centipedes body fell to the ground. Its head and torso were now disintegrated and six disconnected arms fell around it.

"Kikyo..." The guy holding Souta growled.

"Put my brother down!" Kagome ordered the not quite human creature before her as she aimed her last arrow at him.

---

"Kikyo!" The black haired boy called out as he waited in the forest where his girl had agreed to meet him. He began searching around. It wasn't like her to be late. She literally did everything with military precision. That's what happens when you are a member of an elite demon slaying squad. They had been partners for almost a year now, and had been dating as well for most of that time. Inuyasha fondled the small box that was lying in the bottom of the pocket of his military fatigues. He had been saving for months to purchase the ring, and he hoped that by the end of his date, he'd have a chance to use it. The ground squelched sickeningly as he stepped forward. He knelt down and placed his hand on the wet soil. When he looked at it, it was covered in red. Now he was really worried. "Kikyo!" He called out again as he wiped the blood off of his hand and onto his uniform.

"You bastard!" A familiar voice yelled from behind him. He turned to see his girlfriend in her usual priestly robes pointing her arrow at him. She released the arrow, but collapsed as she was doing so making the arrow go off target and pin him to a tree by the shoulder rather than piercing through his heart. As she fell, he saw that she also was injured. Her back was covered in blood, and right between her shoulders was a military issue combat knife much like the one he carried around.

---

"Kikyo..." The silver haired boy said once again. Kagome released her arrow, but the boy's reflexes were fast and he snatched the arrow out of the air. For a moment, Kagome thought she saw his claws fade into normal nails, but he snapped the arrow in half, and his claws were back to normal. Perhaps she had imagined it. "What the hell do you think you are doing wench!" The boy yelled.

"I told you to let my brother go!"

"Huh?" Inuyasha, still holding Souta by the back of his shirt, lifted the boy so he could look him in the eye. He had a funny expression on his face. It wasn't fear, like people usually had on their faces when meeting him. He realized what the expression was when he felt the boy's little hands rubbing his dog-like ears. He growled and dropped the boy.

"My turn!" The girl seemed much less angry now that her brother was free. She, like her brother before her, reached up and grabbed his ears.

"Stop that!" Inuyasha glared at her, trying to suppress the quiet purring that was emitting from his chest. "Leave my ears alone wench!" He pulled away from the crazy girl who bore such a resemblance to his former girlfriend, though she was much less self-controlled than Kikyo ever was.

"Kagome!" Her grandfather came out, followed by her mother. "Are you okay?"

"What cute ears." Her mother said, forgetting about the terrible commotion she had heard and the demon corpse littering the courtyard.

"What is with you people! Leave my ears alone!" Inuyasha yelled as he covered his ears and ran from the woman who like her children seemed to have an uncontrollable urge to fondle his ears. He stuck his claw into his ear activating the transmitter aspect of his communicator. "The demon is dead! I need immediate extraction."

"What's your rush?" An old woman's voice said into his ear.

"Just get me out of here!" He jumped onto the branch of the old tree in the courtyard and out of reach. Soon the sounds of a helicopter were heard and a military helicopter came into view. Inuyasha jumped from the tree and grabbed the bottom of the helicopter, then climbed inside.

"Methinks that this does not look like your handiwork, Inuyasha." The old woman said her ancient style of speaking making her sound much older than she was.

"The girl killed it." Inuyasha replied.

---

"Release the demon." Kaede told the troops outside the Higurashi Shrine. They obeyed her command, and a human sized demon that was completely black except for its glowing red claws and eyes was released from a metal crate. Around its neck was a beaded necklace. "Attack the girl and no one else if you do not wish to be punished." The demon, obviously afraid of the old woman obeyed, immediately leaping off the wall and onto the shrine grounds.

Because the well house had been destroyed by the centipede demon the previous day, the target was hanging from the old tree. Souta was not having any luck with his archery, as usual. He fired an arrow quite powerfully, and it missed the tree and flew over the wall, striking the black demon that had just appeared. The demon's eyes flared angrily, and the arrow which had embedded itself into the demon's shoulder caught fire and disintegrated into ash. It launched itself at its attacker, only to be slammed into the ground by the necklace hanging around its neck. It struggled to its feet, shaking off the impact and turned its attention to Kagome. It smiled wickedly as it took a deep breath.

"Souta, run!" Kagome yelled. The two took off in opposite directions as a cone of flames scorched the area where they had just been standing. Souta hid behind a stone statue, while Kagome ran around the demon, screaming insults at it in an attempt to make the demon forget her brother. "What stupid luck, eight years without a demon attack, and suddenly they are appearing daily." She shot an arrow at the beast, but because she was moving her aim was off. She had no arrows left. She screamed as the demon pounced. She swung her bow, striking the demon in the face. Like the day before, this demon was enveloped in light, and the majority of its body disintegrated. All that was left was a pile of dust and a handful of beads.

A pair of hands grabbed her from behind, picking her up like a sack of potatoes. "You're coming with us." A voice growled.

"Let me go!" She screamed as she tried to escape the powerful claws of her captor. As if responding to her distress the beads that had been around the black demon's neck began to glow and shot towards her captor.

"What the hell are you doing wench!" He captor dropped her. She turned and saw the boy with the dog ears struggling to remove the necklace which now seemed to be permanently attached to his neck. Kagome stood up. "Don't even think about it!" Inuyasha growled as he noticed her glancing at his ears. He grabbed her arm and began dragging her towards the shrine entrance, muttering to himself.

"Let me go." He ignored her, "Bad dog!" She yelled. This elicited a growl. She began to try other dog commands, to see if he was trained at all, as he seemed to be ignoring all other forms of human communication. As they arrived at the top of the steps she said "Sit boy!" and this was effective. Not only did he let her go, he fell face down into the ground. She heard the sounds of stifled laughter as a group of military men watched their comrade subjugated by a teenage girl. Even the old woman in priestess garments smiled at the sight.

"If I had thought of that fifty years ago, I would have saved myself a lot of trouble training him." The old woman said with a smile.

"Get these off of me you old hag!" Inuyasha yelled at the woman.

"You know that there is only two ways to remove them Inuyasha, either convince the one who activated them to remove them for you or die. I am reluctant to have either occur at the moment." Inuyasha growled and glared at the old woman.

---

"Don't move." He heard a voice say. Naturally, he didn't listen and sharp pain shot through him. Breathing itself was extremely painful. "The arrow grazed your lung." Inuyasha tried to move his head, but found that it was restrained. He tried to move the far arm from his wound, but that was also restrained. His legs were restrained as well, and he could only assume the tension he felt on his chest included restraints in addition to bandages.

"Where am I?"

"One would think that you would recognize this place by now, considering you are its most frequent visitor." Kaede's voice answered him. He supposed she was right, his recklessness had led to several visits to the medical wing of the base, even when he wasn't on missions. "We would have left you asleep, but we required your consent." Kaede continued, "The damage to your lung and surrounding tissue was severe, but with conventional surgery you might be able to live a normal life, though you would never be fit enough to continue you military career, especially in this branch."

"If it's that or die, just do the damn surgery!" Inuyasha said angrily.

"There is also one more option." Kaede explained, "As you know, the Youkai program has continued secretly, even since the containment breach, but they have created an experimental procedure that they would like a test subject for."

"So I get to be a cripple or a demon."

"You know that not all the Youkai are failures, your brother for one was a success, and even though he resigned his commission not long after the process was completed."

"You call that successful? His attitude is even worse than before he underwent the treatment. He would have been better if you had just let him go crazy like the others."

"They think they have found a way to make you only half demon, your human side would hopefully remain uncorrupted and keep you sane while giving you many of the benefits of being a demon."

"A half demon?"

"Aye, though it requires the use of blood from a family member who is already a demon."

"No way am I accepting help from that bastard." Inuyasha insisted.

"He is obviously unable to think clearly." His brother's sinisterly superior tone was unmistakable. "This Sesshomaru will make his medical decisions for him. He will be used for the hanyou project"

"You bastard!"

---

"Sit boy!" Kagome said, silencing Inuyasha's pleas for release.

"Methinks I like when the dog is collared." Kaede said, "But what he had said is true, you must come with us."

"Why should I?" Kagome asked belligerently.

"Article thirty-eight of the provisions for the crises of state bill that was passed an equal number of years ago states that any citizen deemed of value to the military must serve for a minimum of two years if there is significant threat to the country's sovereignty."

"But there isn't any threat!"

"As long as the demons are loose and attacking, there is still a threat." Kaede informed her, "As was declared twenty-two years ago when the majority of the ruling party was slaughtered by a demon. There is also the problem of Japan's economic crises which is directly linked to the demon problem, as other countries do not with to put themselves in danger by allowing a chance for one to escape."

"Isn't there someone else who can help?"

"Aye, but she died fifty years ago." Kaede informed her, "And refusal to obey conscription laws is considered minor treason and carries stiff penalties."

"So what you are saying is that I have no choice."

"Don't worry; you probably won't live long anyway, so enjoy it while you can." Inuyasha smirked.

"Sit boy!"

"Methinks someone will not live long, and it is not her." Kaede said.