Ahem...
Once upon a time, there was a half demon named Inu-Yasha. His mother was a mortal woman and his father was a great dog demon. He had an older brother named Sesshoumaru, who was a full demon. After his mother and his father died, Inu-Yasha attempted to take the Shikon Jewel (The Jewel of Four Souls) from Kikyo, a powerful miko (priestess) who was protecting and purifying the jewel. She protected the jewel from any demon who tried to take it, including Inu-Yasha, but she never killed him.
Soon, Kikyo and Inu-Yasha fell in love. Kikyo told Inu-Yasha that he could also, if he chose, use the Shikon no Tama to become full human and that she would relinquish her duty as priestess to live with him. Inu-Yasha agreed and they both lived happily ever after! ^_^
Oh come one, you didn't actually buy that did you? What kind of story would this be if they just went and lived happily ever after?!
Enter, a man named Onigumo. He was badly wounded in a fire and Kikyo took care of him in a cave. He desired the Shikon Jewel to be tainted with hate so he let demons devour his soul.
Then, on the day that Kikyo was to bring Inu-Yasha the Shikon Jewel, he disguised himself as Inu-Yasha and inflicted upon her a deadly wound. Next, he disguised himself as Kikyo and shot at Inu-Yasha with a bow and arrows, thus making Inu-Yasha think Kikyo betrayed him and Kikyo to believe that Inu-Yasha betrayed her.
Inu-Yasha then attacked the village, taking the Shikon no Tama, but Kikyo used the last of her strength to shoot him with an enchanted sealing arrow and pinned him to a tree. Kikyo had the Shikon no Tama burned with her body so that it might never fall into the wrong hands again.
So, they're both as good as dead, and the jewel is safe, right? Troubles are over? Think again...
Fast forward to present day Japan, where it is a girl named Kagome Higurashi's fifteenth birthday. Her house is a very old shrine with a concealed dry well. She was just a normal girl until she was, quite literally, pulled into the well by a centipede woman.
Kagome climbs out of the well, only to find herself not in present day Japan anymore. Wandering through the forest, she soon comes upon a boy pinned to a tree with an arrow. She's soon captured by the local villagers and taken to the village, where a priestess, Kaede (Kikyo's younger sister) realizes that she looks much like Kikyo.
Soon the centipede woman comes back, howling about the Shikon no Tama. Kagome runs towards the forest and soon finds herself in front of the tree with the boy pinned to it and, to her surprise, he's awake. Not only that, but he insists on calling her Kikyo and taunting and insulting her. No matter how many times she insists that her name is not Kikyo, he still calls her Kikyo until, as weird as it sounds, he smells her.
As if things couldn't get any more worse, or weird for that matter, a glass ball falls out of a wound in Kagome's side! It turns out, the Shikon no Tama has come back. The centipede woman swallows it and gets stronger.
Forced to choose between being eaten by a centipede demon and setting free a boy that all of the villagers warn her against freeing, she chooses to free Inu-Yasha. The arrow disappears in her hands and he's set free. After the centipede woman is killed, Inu-Yasha tells Kagome to give him the Shikon no Tama or he'd kill her.
Kaede puts a spell on a string of prayer beads that subdue Inu-Yasha when Kagome says "Sit!" When the jewel is swallowed by a crow demon, Kagome shoots it with an arrow, not only destroying the demon, but breaking the jewel into tiny pieces.
Now, Inu-Yasha and Kagome are on a journey, trying to collect all of the shards of the Shikon Jewel with Kgome trying to keep up with school as well. They're soon joined by a mishievous kitsune (fox demon) named Shippo, a priest with questionable morals name Miroku, and a youkai (demon) exterminator named Sango. So much for a normal life...^_^'
