East of the Crescent Moon

A/N: I apologize in advance if anyone acts non-canon; I am an Inuyasha fan, but haven't seen a vast majority of the series. I have, however, read wikis and fanfictions and done period research out the wazoo so I think I have a pretty firm grasp on most of the characters. The rating is to be safe, as I tend to get a little dark and graphic with my storytelling, though you might not see it right away. Also, I'm kind of making this up as I go along, so any reviews including ideas might be used! Please, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any parts thereof.

Chapter One: Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright

The gallant ship was breaking apart, its mast snapped in two and savagely whipping in every direction under the vicious ministrations of the monstrous fish. The yokai gleefully surfaced its second and third heads, bulbous and covered in eyes, jagged mouths devouring the delicious men as they fought or attempted to flee. The darkness was only broken by the lightning thrown down by the heavens, illuminating the horror scene in vivid relief, all rainwater and guts and mucus, the groaning of the wood and the screams of terror, all to the mindless whipping of the waves against the world.

She had been watching the storm's waves, trying very hard to avoid seasickness and chastising herself for such a human weakness, when the boat shuddered and heaved nearly over its keel. Having been unbalanced to begin with, she didn't stand a chance and was tumbled unceremoniously overboard with a curse.

The water was hard as concrete and horribly salty. The acrid taste filled her mouth and she lost the battle she had been trying to fight on the deck, feeling her body wretch and spewing forth her lunch into the ocean around her. She fought for breath and clawed her way to the surface, drawing in only half as much air as she required before being battered back under the waves. She spun and felt her head connect with the hull of the ship with a sharp thud. Her body went slack.

oOxXxOo

She tried to open her eyes, fighting the crust and salt that encased them. She became aware of the fact that she seemed to be being dragged by the back of her collar through the water and began to struggle violently, snarling and spluttering, tearing her hanfu against the grip of whatever was holding her. She turned in the water and growled… at a piece of flotsam to which her ruined hanfu was now attached.

She felt rather foolish, and now clad in only her underclothes, began to survey her surroundings while she treaded the water.

The sun was fairly high in the sky, leading her to believe that it was late morning or early afternoon – an alarming prospect, as the sun had only recently set as the storm had hit. The now calm sea expanded in every direction from her, no trace of the ship or land to be found in any direction.

She clambered weakly onto the flotsam, which sank to just under the surface of the waves with her weight. She shook her body to rid herself of what water she could, and felt the heat of the sun begin to dry her clothes as she took account of her situation.

Her clothing, beyond what she was wearing at this moment – was lost. Her trunk carrying her weapons and her favorite jifu, as well as her money, was lost. She had purged her stomach of its contents during her catapult into the sea, and had no food to speak of. She didn't know where she was beyond "somewhere between China and Japan," which was not exactly…well, exact.

And she was growing thirstier by the minute.

Salt coated her throat and her body, itchy and crusty, and sat in her stomach like a toad. She growled in discontent and leaned over the side of the flotsam, heaving dryly. She propped herself on her stomach and watched the water below her, the reflection of the sun blinding from any other direction.

I guess I'll just have to wait for the sun to move a little more to know which way is East. Damn that priest. I could be reclining in my favorite tree in the glade… hanging low over the water… fresh water, not this salt garbage.

She stewed in her thoughts, waiting for the sun to show her the way forward. She would have to swim it, relying on what strength she could recall and save for the journey. She knew that if she returned east, even to find another ship for passage, the priest would find her and use that damn mirror to steal the rest of her soul. He had been sniffing around the very port she had left from, following the call of her soul. If he wasn't still there, waiting to see if she was bluffing, then he'd already be on his way to Japan. She had no choice – go where she knew her enemy was, or flee to an unfamiliar land in the hopes that he wasn't there yet.

The tigress had attempted to fight him at first, in a long and difficult struggle that nearly ended in her success. The priest had fled from her fury, but somehow had acquired a mirror of indeterminate origin that he had attempted to use to steal her soul away. He had nearly succeeded, taking a portion of her soul before she had blinded him with a swipe of her claws, knocking the mirror away and giving her a chance to flee.

She hated that man with every ounce of her being. Every fiber of her body quivered to end his miserable life, to take back her place as the Tiger Empress of the Southeast. To be bested by a human! It shook her down to her marrow, the idea of such a powerful Yaoguai fleeing her own castle from a priest. It was laughable. She had destroyed thousands of her own kind, tens of thousands of humans who had dared to oppose her had been crushed and burned, and yet here she was, floating in an ocean, stripped to her underclothes and dying of thirst.

She wondered which of her enemies had laid siege to the castle, or if one of her own men had decided to take it for themselves upon learning of her departure.

It matters little, cub. You obviously have softened since your conquests. Perhaps if you had taken a mate, he would have helped you destroy this gnat of a human. Perhaps served as a distraction or even a substitute for the mirror while you devoured that priest alive.

She snorted. When she had been Empress of the Southeast, she had little need of a mate. She had thought the idea useless, giving one of those power-hungry pairs of eyes an excuse to claim what she had wrested from the claws of lords before her in the warpath. Only now, when she was out of options, did the thought even cross her mind.

No matter. I shall return and claim what is mine, and I shall burn the very mountains themselves if they refuse to bow to me.

She purred in satisfaction at the thought, and briefly closed her eyes to imagine it.

After some time had passed, she noticed that the sun was climbing higher in the sky. Having determined her headway, she gathered her breath and began preparing herself to swim, when she spied a flash of silver near her makeshift island. She abandoned all pretense of preparation and dove in after it, snatching the unsuspecting fish in her fangs. It struggled valiantly, but she clambered aboard her flotsam and crushed its head in her hands while she greedily devoured it. She sucked up its juices, quenching her thirst and slightly abating her hunger.

Its flimsy bones were destroyed and devoured as well, not even the fins left as evidence of its existence. She licked her cracked lips, wishing for more, but remembering her goal. She leapt from the flotsam in a graceful arc, landing in the water with a practiced dive, preparing her body for the long and possibly fatal swim to Japan's shores.

oOxXxOo

She swam on through the day and the afternoon, and the morning of the next day. She had started off at a very quick pace, but during the small morning hours had slowed to barely more than treading water. Her breathing was harsh and laborious, her body sore and her spirit flagging. She held her head above the water, but barely, and water lapped against her panting mouth and up her nose, causing her to sneeze and cough it free.

She had called upon her reserves of strength come the 24-hour mark of her journey, the exhausted tigress fighting the water for breath in her lungs and for her very life.

It was nearly dark again when she finally sighted land, and a small burst of energy pushed her forward; however, it was farther than it had initially seemed, and she soon began feeling her head dip below the waves, sleep attempting to take her. She would breathe in the water and snap awake, bursting through the water in a fury and renewed desperation.

When she had finally reached the shore, she trembled and attempted to drag herself out of the water. She had only just gotten her torso onto the sand before she collapsed in a wet heap, dead to the world and gasping.

A/N: So. She made it. Lol like I'd kill off an OC in the first chapter. Silly readers! In case we have any questions, I am going to answer them here. Hanfu, jifu – these are the traditional Chinese dress of the era. Yaoguai is the Chinese version of Youkai/Yokai, since the Japanese word was borrowed from Chinese language (the Japanese-specific word is 'mononoke' but surely you already knew that.) She is named, but you just don't know it yet, and I do have an idea who I want to pair her with in the long run. She will have character progression, as it's hard to care about such a hard and unfeeling lady. She is a Tiger demon, specifically the not-quite-proven-to-exist-but-is-genetically-possible Maltese tiger that is most commonly reported in the Fujian province of China, which is on the southeast coast of mainland China. I hope you enjoyed the pilot chapter, as there's more to come.