Hellhound
By ZAFO
A/N: I've been sucked into the Attack on Titan fandom...but as is always the case, I'm still very much married to all my old fandoms. The numerous crossovers I write are a way to cope with all my warring feels :p
In any case, this story came about cos... I love Inuyasha! And I've noticed that whenever there is a crossover, it's always Kagome who gets to do the dimension-traveling—which I like to read. However, I still think that the other characters should get some shine as well. Enter Miroku :D Enjoy!
—
Chapter 1: Tokyo Abandoned
It wasn't his fault, really, that Kagome and Sango looked so much alike from the back. Sure, there were distinguishing attributes between the two such as their haircuts, heights, and builds, but really… Who paid attention to those?
All it took was one grope for Koga—yes Koga—to lose his cool. If it had only been Inuyasha with them, the dog demon would've merely rolled his eyes and planted a firm foot on his head, but nooooooo. Koga was there too, and Koga had seen "his" woman molested.
Molested. What a strong word!
He said this, very clearly, when the wolf demon had shouted at him, and in response Koga had merely stalked over (with Inuyasha and Shippo sniggering in the background), picked him up by the collar, and thrown him down the nearby well—despite both girl's half-hearted protests.
He didn't put up too much of a struggle, until he began to feel his body warp.
'Ah,' he thought, absentmindedly. 'It's bright.'
Sango and Shippo's cries of alarm were the last thing he heard before the void consumed him.
—
Koga sputtered once the sudden flare of light dimmed down.
"What the hell was that?!" he asked, disbelieving.
"Huh." Inuyasha grunted, scratching his head. "So the pervert can use the well too."
"What does that mean?!"
"None of your business, flea breath!"
"Why you—"
"—stop it!" Kagome interrupted, before the two canines could fall into another testosterone-fueled tumble. "Don't you guys ever get tired of that?"
"Kagome's right." Sango chided, her surprise at Miroku's disappearance wearing off. "In any case, Koga, you shouldn't overreact like that. Miroku's antics are a regular thing around here."
"A regular thing…" Koga muttered. "Che, disgusting!"
"Anymore disgusting than you?" Inuyasha asked snidely. "Ya stalker!"
"I'm not a—"
"—Koga," Kagome punctuated, rather forcefully, "listen, that was really sweet of you to um, defend my honor like that, but next time, please keep away from the well!"
"Why?" the wolf demon asked cautiously.
"Because that's where Kagome's from!" Shippo piped up.
"What."
"It's a long story." Sango sighed. "In any case, Inuyasha, Kagome—can either of you go retrieve the idiot?"
"I'll do it." Kagome answered cheerfully. "Be right back!"
"Hurry, before he 'molests' one of your little school friends." Inuyasha grumbled. Sango shot him a glare before Kagome casually waved them all off, hopping down the well with one hand clutching onto a backpack strap.
Instead of the similar flash of light, however, there was merely a blunt thud as Kagome made a rough tumble to the bottom.
"OUCH!" She shrieked, clutching onto her ankle in the darkness and dank.
"KAGOME!" yelled both canine demons, as they rushed to her aid.
Inuyasha and Koga cooperated peacefully for once as they pulled the girl out, each boy holding onto a respective arm. Kagome was whimpering all the while; it was clear that she had injured her ankle. As Shippo, Koga, and Inuyasha began to fuss over the priestess, however, Sango stood rooted a little distance away. A vague sense of apprehension began to creep over her.
"Guys…" she said slowly. "The well didn't work."
"So?!" snapped Inuyasha, before realization dawned on him. "Oh, wait…"
Kagome gasped. "Oh no!"
"What? What's going on?!" Koga demanded, bewildered.
"Inuyasha!" Shippo called out, ignoring the wolf demon. "Can you try instead?"
"Lemme see." The hanyou replied.
He gave Kagome's leg a gentle pat before clambering to his feet. Inuyasha stepped briskly over to the well, then after giving it a suspicious, precursory sniff, hopped right in. Much to Kagome's envy, the dog demon landed gracefully to the bottom—but landed nonetheless, without any light, time-traveling, nor fanfare.
"Uh-oh." He muttered. "It's fuckin' sealed."
—
Climbing out of the well was a miserable affair, and Miroku had to hand to Kagome for doing it so often without complaint. The vines adorning the walls were flimsy and snapped easily, while the moss growing over each stone gave a horrendous amount of slip. Nonetheless, after much huffing and puffing, Miroku managed to drag himself out. He'd have to ask the priestess how she got the dirt out from under her fingernails later.
Brushing off his newly-soiled robes, Miroku curiously took sight of the village around him. Huh. For 500 years into the future, Miroku was expecting much more than this. Instead of "high-rises," "cars," "airplanes," or whatever other newfangled inventions Kagome had told him about, there were merely an abundance of oddly shaped red-and-white stone buildings, and the occasional stray livestock animal poking around them. It was rather disappointing.
'Wait…'
Miroku squinted.
Where were all the people? Now that he took a good look at it, the Kagome's village was disconcertingly empty.
The wind blew through there then, and the faint, eerie whistle only served to highlight the utter silence permeating throughout the town. He paled slowly, a hundred worse-case scenarios flooding through his mind.
Miroku took a deep breath. After another careful look at his surroundings, the monk clutched his Shakujo staff defensively, thankful that he hadn't dropped it when Koga threw him down the well.
Kagome had often told their little group about her family. About her kindly housewife mother, her senile grandfather, and her annoying little brother. Where were they now? This was not natural. Someone should have made a fuss about his weird emergence—yet the only reaction he had gotten thus far was a soft whinny from an aimless horse. Was Kagome's family ok? Were the villagers ok? The schoolgirl would never forgive him if he let things be... so with some quick clicks of the tongue, Miroku beckoned over the nearest horse. It trotted to him obediently and nudged his outstretched hand.
He sighed, then apologized fondly to the creature when it gave a soft whinny.
"Sorry, no carrots for you. But let me on? I'll brush out your mane later."
The horse was compliant as he climbed on. To his disturbance, there was still a fully-functional saddle and reins mounted on it.
Miroku frowned.
Abandoned? No, horses were too valuable to abandon. Something was definitely wrong here.
Tucking his staff into his lap, Miroku grasped the leather reins and steered his new beast of burden through the small village. For the next two hours, he made many stops, peeked through many windows, and opened many doors. He found no answers.
Nothing. Zip. Nada.
The monk's face had grown progressively grim all the while.
"I have to go tell Kagome." He decided. "I have to go get help."
But after bidding his horse adieu and hopping down the well once again, Miroku discovered that the well was, indeed, in Inuyasha's words, "fuckin' sealed."
—
A full day had passed since the monk had arrived to the village, and there was no way to go but out. Miroku had resigned himself to this fact; it was useless to stay in the village, and he couldn't predict the next time the well was going to open again.
Plus, he was starving. He figured that his friends were having some trouble on the other side as well, since no one had come to retrieve him in the last 24 hours. Miroku therefore saw no harm in trying to scrounge up some food from the surrounding forest until either Inuyasha or Kagome came to get him. In any case, the dog demon's nose could simply track him down later, regardless of distance. Easy peasy. He even tore a sweaty piece of fabric from his robes and stuffed it in a crevice in the well wall, just to make things even easier. That would save the dog demon's nose some effort.
Until then, into the forest it was.
Perhaps he could look further into the disappearance of the villagers as well...
—
Three hours later, Miroku was feeling increasingly frustrated. Large game was skittish and bounded away as soon as he crept onto the scene. Small game scurried off so fast he was never sure if they were there in the first place. And so far, the forests in Kagome's time seemed utterly devoid of palatable nuts or berries. Miroku had come across a mushroom or two, of course, but his familiarity with fungi was shaky at best. Risking vomiting, diarrhea, death, or God forbid—infertility wasn't an option for him.
The monk huffed.
There was a reason why he preferred to scam people for food and lodging—hunting and gathering was really an Inuyasha thing. Nevertheless, his hunger pangs were killing him, and so Miroku moved on, keeping a keen eye out for anything edible.
Of course, he soon galloped across something completely the opposite.
"Oh, Lord Buddha…" he murmured, as he came face-to-face with a headless skeleton tucked into the rough cavity of a tree.
All the flesh had long ago been picked off by insects, and the chipped ivory bones were left gleaming in the dark of the chasm. The corpse was dressed oddly, however: dirty white paints with multiple straps secured at the hip, a light tan leather jacket with some kind of winged symbol on the breast, and an emerald-green cloak still tied at the neck.
Miroku decided then that it must have been the work of demons. That was usually the case in the Sengoku period, after all.
"Did you suffer?" He murmured. "I'm sorry that you died alone."
Taking out some beads from his cloak, Miroku began a quiet prayer for the body.
—
"Hello, nice weather isn't it!"
"Hey, do you want to take a walk inside the walls with me? How about it?"
"Whoa! That was close!"
"Uh-oh, are you okay? Come over here!"
"That's it, that's good a boy!"
Hanji continued her barrage of conversation as the blonde titan lumbered after her, looking curiously panicked. Was she interpreting that expression correctly? Could titans even panic? Before Hanji had time to fully contemplate that, however, a red flare shot across the field.
Levi's doing. The dead-eyed corporal was monotone as he taunted:
"Over here, stupid."
The titan shifted its attention accordingly. Hanji had to bite back the jealousy in her voice as she shouted at him not to interfere, doing her best to divert its attention back to herself. That attention, however, only lasted a moment before the titan stopped abruptly. Any doubt she had before dissipated completely upon sight of the titan's now-openly distressed expression.
'Titans have emotions…!' Hanji thought excitedly. 'I don't care what Erwin says, I've seen it with my own eyes now!'
However, to the Survey Corps' confusion, the Titan then opted to run from them, in the complete opposite direction. Hanji felt her enthusiasm flare up even further.
This one was special. A special Abnormal.
This one, she was going to capture and study, Erwin be damned.
To Levi's chagrin, she charged straight after it, back into the dense forest. The corporal went after her. Petra, Oluo, Gunther, and Eld immediately followed.
—
When Miroku finished tucking away the tattered notebook he had found after his prayer, thundering footsteps headed straight towards the clearing. The monk's eyes widened upon turning to see an almost caricature-like 'demon' emerging from the surrounding trees. It was big and grotesque, and naked to boot. Vaguely, he wondered if this thing was one of Naraku's newest incarnations.
And so he asked.
His voice was calm and steady; it stopped the bewildered beast in its tracks.
"Are you one of Naraku's?"
"NA…RA….KU?" It repeated, with difficulty.
"Ah, never mind then." The monk said casually.
His pitch-black eyes, however, were steely as he continued to stare it down. In response, the demon merely gasped, with its grotesque mouth wide and salivating.
A bespectacled woman on her own horse arrived on the scene then. She stopped just short of entering the clearing, and stared in wonder as the monk and the creature continued to interact with one another. Miroku chose to ignore her. This demon seemed stupid, and stupid things were more volatile and prone to overreaction; he knew this because Inuyasha was the King of Stupid. It was best not to draw its attention away from himself too quickly, lest the brunette was actually defenseless.
"You seemed like you were looking for something." Miroku drawled. "Is it that poor soul in the tree?"
The demon was hyperventilating now. Its teeth were bared in an almost painful manner.
Right on cue, squad Levi arrived as well. Following Hanji, they stationed themselves a little ways from the scene, watching the events unfold in a tense, somewhat bewildered silence.
"I'm right, aren't I?" The monk continued. "You killed him. Or her. Why?"
The demon let out a sudden groan. The mournful sound reverberated throughout the clearing, and Miroku almost felt sorry for it as it fell to its knees. Then, he was rendered speechless as it moved to grip the corners of its eyes, wrenching until the skin split open. Crimson-red blood fell in rivets as it continued to moan, almost in agony, perhaps in regret...
"Enough." Levi muttered, subtly so as only his team could hear. "We end this. It's vulnerable." He managed to pull his swords out halfway before Hanji hissed at him.
"No. Not now! It's not dangerous yet!"
"It's a titan!" Oluo whispered frantically. "It's always dangerous!"
Hanji shot him a withering glare worthy of Levi himself. It was a look that promised a world of hurt if he dared dispute her again. Oluo backed down accordingly.
"Not. Now." She gritted.
Meanwhile, Miroku was debating various courses of action to take. On one hand, the demon was a murderer and practically admitted to the corpse's demise. On the other hand, it was obviously remorseful—and judging from the lack of immediate fear or anger from their new human audience, he figured that it hadn't killed in a while.
The 'demon' released another loud wail, and Miroku decided then what he needed to do.
Life wasn't always black and white. He wouldn't feel at ease if he killed a demon like this, though he still couldn't predict how dangerous it really was. He was a Man of Buddha™, after all.
"I'm putting you out of commission." Miroku said simply, as he hopped off his horse and walked slowly towards the creature. "Relax. You're going to sleep. You're going to be at peace for a long, long while."
Inuyasha would've mauled him if he knew the monk hoarded sealing spells. Miroku, however, thought firmly that it helped to have every option available for subduing different enemies—in any given situation. Maybe, someday, his seals could even be used on that damn Naraku, if the bastard ever proved too outright hard to kill.
In any case, Miroku pulled out a set of painstakingly-written sacred sutras from his robes, then threw them in sharp succession towards the demon. With a sizzle and a few sparks of holy energy, the three slips of parchment paper attached themselves to the demon's head, belly, and crotch. The characters written on them represented "heaven," "earth," and "hell," respectively—altogether, the sequence was intended to induce a state of "purgatory." As such, the sutras did their work rather splendidly.
"Rest now." He commanded, with one hand set in prayer under his chin.
The demon gave a final groan and keeled over completely.
It wasn't dead, but it was immobile, and it would stay that way indefinitely so long as the sutras were kept in place.
He smiled and turned to face his little audience.
—
The Survey Corps (excluding Levi, at least outwardly) gaped at the strangely-dressed man before them. This strangely-dressed man had managed to take down—though not kill, since the thing was still breathing—a real Titan without 3DMG gear. It was an extraordinary feat, and until now completely unheard of.
"Hello!" The man called politely. "Are you the villagers from….ah…" he struggled a bit before finishing his sentence, seemingly forgetting the name. "…from Tokyo?"
It was Petra who found her voice first.
"Tokyo…?" She asked hesitantly.
"No?" The man frowned. "But I was so sure…you are Kagome Higurashi's fellow villagers, correct?"
"We don't know who this 'Kagome Higurashi' is." Levi deadpanned, on guard. "But, you're coming with us."
"I'd love to!" He chirped immediately. "Will there be food and lodging?"
Team Levi glanced briefly at one another, unsure of what to say, before Hanji interrupted the brief silence by galloping over to the man energetically.
"Of course!" She answered, almost reverently, hopping off her horse to greet him properly. "For someone who managed to subdue a live Titan for me—we'll turn our entire base into a hotel for you!"
"Now hold on a minute." Levi gritted.
He was ignored as Hanji and the man clasped hands together as if they had known each other their entire lives. Both were almost annoyingly gleeful.
Then, unexpectedly—
"—oh what a lovely, generous woman you are! Will you please bear my child?"
[to be continued…]
Please, tell me what you think! ^^