When I was growing up, Inu Yasha was the village children's god.

I mean, of course, not that we worshiped him as we did the benign kami that Kaede-sama taught us of, but that we whispered about him among ourselves, made up stories about him, played "Inu Yashas and Kikyo-samas", which really was just playing war, but with a name that made us proud of our tiny village.

And, most importantly, every single child, as our own personal right of passage, had to go into Inu Yasha's Forest when the oldest children deemed them ready. There, you had to walk right up to the sleeping hanyou and touch his ears.

No one was quite sure why it was his ears you had to touch. Some kids thought it was because you had to be pretty tall to reach them, or maybe because everyone knew that an inuyoukai's ears were incredibly sensitive and that if anything was going to wake Inu Yasha, it would be touching his ears. But I always thought that it was just because you wanted to touch them as soon as you saw him sleeping there.

The elders, Kaede-sama especially, hated this practice of ours, no matter that most of them had done it themselves when they were our age. Didn't we know that Inu Yasha had practically destroyed the village and had mortally wounded Kikyo-sama before she sealed him away, all those years ago, and that if we awakened him by some trick of fate, he would probably kill us all? Didn't we know that Inu Yasha's Forest was full of youkai who were just waiting to eat us all for dinner? Didn't we care?

The answer to these questions was, of course, yes, yes, and no. And so the tradition continued. I had nine summers to my name when Tamako, the weaver's daughter, and Gen, the blacksmith's son, who were both twelve, determined that I was old enough to go into the forest. I went, with Tamako and Gen following to ensure that I didn't run away. I knew the forest well enough, but Tamako and Gen led me on the one path I had never traversed: the one to the clearing in which Inu Yasha lay.

His beauty, though it seemed so strange to call a youkai beautiful, took my breath away. His eyes were closed, and I could not help but wonder what color they were as the corners of my eyes took in his red haori and hakama, the arrow straight through his chest, the vines wound around him.

I stared at his face, at features more perfect than any I had ever seen on a human, at long, thick, impossibly silver hair. Tamako nudged me, but gently. She had been just as spellbound when she had first glimpsed him. I glanced up at his ears. They were definitely inhuman, shaped more like a cat's than a dog's. Slowly, carefully, I walked up to him, clambered up the roots and vines at his feet, and tugged gently on those feline ears.

They were surprisingly warm and fuzzy, just like my cat's or the old village dog's. Inu Yasha didn't even stir. But I was still curious about one thing, and so I put my hand right on his neck, to feel for a pulse. It was quite present, and even stronger and faster than my own.

For a reason I didn't quite know, I bowed to the sleeping demon as I left with Tamako and Gen. They smiled at each other over my back - everyone behaved as I had when they first "met" Inu Yasha.

It was five summers later when the girl appeared. Gen, seventeen and the village's best hunter, and a few of his friends found her in the forest, touching Inu Yasha's ears as one of our children might do. They brought her back to the village, hands tied behind her back of course, for there were many strange folk abroad in these times and one could never be too careful.

I was fourteen, and demurely remained behind Haha-ue as everyone in the village remarked on the girl's strange clothing, speech, and manner - and, in the cases of more than a few of the men, how beautiful she was. Tamako, married to Gen's older brother by now, wondered out loud if the girl was a kitsune in disguise.

Then Kaede-sama appeared. Everyone heard her say that the strange girl looked just like long-dead Kikyo-sama, and everyone saw her take the girl into her own hut.

That's when the giant centipede attacked.

Kaede-sama and the girl rushed out, and the centipede made right for her, shrieking about something called the Shikon no Tama. The girl was brave, and smart too - she ran from the village, and probably just like she figured, the youkai followed.

I did a bad thing that night. I followed Gen and his friends - the strongest men in the village - as they ran with Kaede-sama to Inu Yasha's Forest, following the demon and the foreigner girl. And I saw the battle.

Inu Yasha awoke - awoke, when he had slept under Kikyo-sama's arrow for fifty years. He seemed to mistake the girl for Kikyo-sama, and was still trapped, pinned to the tree. The centipede demon was much too powerful, and I saw that surely our men would lose the fight and we would all be devoured. Then the strange girl used some strange, sacred magic that she did not even seem to intend upon the demon. It caused the demon's four arms to fall off - then the demon bit the girl, and a strange object that shone with its own unholy light fall out of her body. I saw the monster swallow it, and grow in power and strength before our very eyes. I saw Inu Yasha make the foreign girl an offer she couldn't refuse, to kill the demon if she would but free him.

I saw her pull the arrow from his chest, willing him to live again.

I saw him kill the youkai with a single slash of claws like steel, and then demand the object - the Shikon no Tama - for himself, saying that he would kill us all if he was refused. I saw Kaede-sama bind him with a necklace of holy beads, and the girl subdue him with "osuwari", of all words.

He was not a nice person, if person he could indeed be named. He wasn't overly hostile to us villagers, but he was absolutely horrible to Kaede-sama and Kagome-sama, for that was the girl's name. People said that she was Kikyo-sama's reincarnation, and therefore heir to all of Kikyo-sama's duties, and worthy of our respect and reverence. And also, evidently, heir to Inu Yasha's hate for Kikyo-sama.

It was not long after the night that the centipede demon attacked that a crow-demon, apparently having stolen the magical Shikon no Tama from Kagome-sama, snatched Ane-ue's baby out of her very hands, and Inu Yasha and Kagome-sama pursue the monster. I saw them try to kill the monster, saw Kagome-sama save little Akira-chan at the expense of killing the youkai. Then she shot it with an arrow tied to the demon's own leg, killing the monster and causing an explosion of bright light. Later I learned that she had inadvertently shattered the Shikon no Tama.

Inu Yasha hadn't liked Kagome-sama much before, but he hated her now. Still, he grudgingly consented to travel with her to gather the scattered shards of the broken jewel,

At least everyone thought that he hated her, until, about a month later, I saw the two of them on the outskirts of town. Kikyo-sama's grave had been desecrated and her bones stolen by an ogress, and Kagome-sama and Kaede-sama were preparing to go after her. Inu Yasha was not eager to do so, however.

I was too far off to hear exactly what they were saying, but I saw him grab her wrist and lean in close, eyes full of emotion. She looked startled, touched, and frightened all in one instant - and I think fright won when she pushed him roughly away, asking in a voice more than loud enough for me to hear what was wrong with him.

They left, soon after, with the adorable little kitsune they had acquired not long after Inu Yasha's release. They returned looking a little sadder, particularly Inu Yasha, without Kikyo-sama's bones but with the news that the ogress was dead.

A monk, handsome as can be but definitely the sukebe bouzu that Inu Yasha termed him, joined them soon after. Then came the pretty demon hunter, much later. Miroku and Sango, the names they went by, both had a sort of sadness to them, though they were very kind and helped us with our work whenever they were here and not badly injured, exhausted, or otherwise incapacitated. Those instances were not common.

Life continued. The little group was present less and less, and their injuries and fatigue, the hurts they returned to heal, got worse and worse as time went on. I knew they were collecting the pieces of that mysterious object, the Shikon no Tama, that Kagome-sama had shattered with her arrow that day when poor Akira-chan, my little nephew, had almost been killed. And I had a vague idea that whatever they were fighting for those shards was getting stronger and stronger, and that there were other enemies to face as well. Every time I saw Kagome-sama cry alone, I heard Miroku-sama and Sango-sama whisper "Kikyo" in tones both hushed and angry as they glared at Inu Yasha.

And then, they were away for the longest time of all. Kaede-sama grew more worried by the day, and heaped offerings upon the shrine.

They finally returned, smiling and crying and laughing with joy. They had vanquished their enemy, or enemies, and the completed Shikon no Tama hung around Kagome-sama's neck. It was obvious, too, that bonds of the heart, as Haha-ue would say, had deepened and solidified on their journey, for Inu Yasha and Kagome-sama held hands tightly, and Miroku-sama barely even glanced at any girl but Sango-sama.

They were happy, and passed a single festival with us. Then they left, with many smiles and a strange potion that they had warned us not to even touch.

I heard, at about the time of my wedding to Gen that year, that they had made a pact with a youkai lord - Inu Yasha's own half-brother. They agreed to age the human child the youkai lord was caring for to her late teens, and then bind her life to Inu Yasha's with the Shikon no Tama, that she would live forever. Apparently, Kagome-sama, Sango-sama and Miroku-sama, too, were bound to Inu Yasha in this way.

Life went on. I was happy with Gen, and had three children, none of whom died when they were young, thank Kami-sama. I told them of Inu Yasha and his story, what I knew of it. I lived, as humans always live, grew old, as humans always grow old, and now, before I die as humans always die, I tell this story to you.