In an almost-successful attempt to steal the Jewel from a sleepy little village, Inu-Yasha is mortally wounded by an arrow containing a magical spell.  Pinned to a tree, weak and in pain, he drops the Jewel.  Looking up to see who shot him, he sees the village priestess, Kikyo.  He's shocked that she would shoot him, because he loves her and she felt the same for him.

 

Inu-Yasha falls into a deep slumber, but Kikyo dies the same day she sealed the half-demon away.  Upon request, her little sister Kaede burns the Jewel of the Four Souls with Kikyo's body so that the Jewel won't fall into the wrong hands ever again.

 

 

In present day Tokyo, Kagome Higurashi lives with her mother, brother, grandfather and pet cat on the grounds of a Shinto shrine.  Everything on the grounds has a legend, from the ancient tree to the Bone-Eater's Well.  Kagome pays no attention to her grandfather's stories.  She's a normal teenager who likes to live to the minute and hang out with friends rather than listen to legends everyday.

 

But one morning, while Kagome is walking off the grounds to go to school, she sees her brother on his hands and knees at the doorway of the well, calling for their cat, Buyo.  Sota refuses to go down to get the cat because the well scares him, so Kagome goes down.  She finds Buyo, but as she is heading back to her brother, the boards over the well splinter into pieces and a huge centipede-lady with six arms jumps out and grabs Kagome, taking her into the well.

 

Kagome finds herself in a forest, rather than back home at the shrine.  Seeing the ancient tree, she runs to it.  But what she sees is shocking.  A boy, his eyes closed, is stuck to the tree with an arrow in his chest.  Curiosity takes over and she steps forward to investigate.  Kagome thinks this is a normal boy until she gets a look at his ears -- his ears are those of a dog.

 

Arrows fly at her from behind and Kagome is captured by men of the village.  An old lady comes forward, wearing the garb of priests and priestesses.  After examining Kagome's face, the old lady sees her older sister's image in the girl before her.  Kagome is released and the old lady introduces herself as Kaede.  Together, Kagome and Kaede eat dinner in Kaede's house and talk.  But they are interrupted by sreams and shouts in the village.  The centipede-lady is attacking, looking for Kagome.

 

Kagome leads the demon to the forest where the boy sleeps.  But he is awake now, and he cannot move.  Only when the demon pins Kagome to the boy's chest does Kagome remove the spell arrow from his chest.  Kagome finds out that the boy is Inu-Yasha, a teenage half-demon who seeks the Jewel of the Four Souls.