Author's Note: Heyz, fellow Inu-Yasha fans. Anywho, after focusing on a few other manga for a while, I have decided to revisit this series in what shall be… this. Just to clarify, most of the characters' opposite-gender names will be created either by transforming their name into something similar-sounding that works for the opposite sex (I'll stick with the same name for unisex names…) or switching two characters' names. (So, the male "Kagome" is Sota, and his sister is Kagome.)
Inuko
Chapter One: The Cursed Girl
The suffocating odor of flame filled the air, sending animals and demons alike flying miles away. Even closer to the village, the moaning cries of its villagers could reach one's ear. Multiple families had been killed, either by the fire or by the razor-sharp claws which cut through everything in their path. It was all for one thing. Not the demonic satisfaction of destroying a village. Not even the powerful jewel which now rested safely in the attacker's claws. It had been done for revenge.
A red-and-white flash soared through the air, landing gracefully on a severed stump several feet away from the rising smoke. "Weaklings," she cackled, her voice a scratching hiss. "You should have known this would happen, someday. If not me, another. No 'virtuous' priest is here to save you now, stupid mortals!"
The demon grinned maniacally at the glowing bauble in her hands. I can't believe I ever wanted to disown this! This is mine, mine alone! This is all I need! Not him! Not hi—
As if on cue, a figure clad in a red and white kimono burst from the flames. He held a single scroll in his hand, wielding it like a weapon. From under his mop of midnight-black hair were two eyes radiating hatred. "Inu…ko…" he gasped, eyes narrowing as he said her name.
The demon turned, wide-eyed, to face the voice, but it was too late. The priest shot forward, pinning his opponent to a tree behind her. Chanting, he placed the spell on her chest and shot backward as if stung. But it was not him who was injured; he simply didn't want to touch her any more than he had to.
Inuko, the once-strong half-demon, looked down at the scroll with disappointment. She already found that she couldn't move most of her muscles, and she was quickly losing her grip on the jewel she had stolen. "Damn…" she growled, already beginning to fall into unconsciousness. "I'd have been fine with losing… if it wasn't you who won… I hate you… Kyo…"
As his opponent's mind went black, Kyo knelt to pick up the jewel that had fallen from her hands. "That goes double for myself…" he murmured, clutching his stomach in pain. "I'll hate you for eternity… traitor."
"Kyo! Brother!" A scrawny boy with similar shoulder-length hair rushed up to the priest's side. "You've been hurt!"
Kyo fell to the ground in agony. Cracking a smile for his younger brother, he replied, "It's… nothing big, Kaede. Just promise that you'll burn the Shikon Jewel with me. I will not… let any more evil creatures take it."
"Brother!" cried Kaede, his eyes filling with tears of grief. "What do you mean, 'burn it with you'? Brother…? Brother!"
But his voice came to unhearing ears. So, too, were the canine ears of the defeated Inuko, but that didn't mean that her soul was unliving. She had said it herself: she would not let Kyo win.
* * *
Sota Higurashi frowned, fingering a small keychain decorated with a single glass marble. "A 'sacred jewel?' I don't buy it, Grandma. These are just marbles…"
"Of course they're just marbles!" cried his companion, an elderly woman wearing an old-fashioned kimono. "They cost 300 yen each! You think I would sell the real Shikon Jewel for that price? Never!"
"The Shikon Jewel doesn't exist," replied her grandson bluntly. "Live in modern-day, would you?"
"How rude!" The old woman pouted jokingly. "And after I brought you an early birthday present, too!"
"You didn't buy me an early birthday present."
"Oh. Didn't I?"
Sota sighed, running a hand through the thick fur of the family's cat. It wasn't that he didn't like his grandmother; it was that he felt that she sorely needed to come back from the past. Just owning a shrine didn't make you a Feudal-Era priestess, and having some old well in your backyard didn't make the old stories of heartless demons and magical jewels any more than what they were. For they were just that: stories.
In Sota's opinion, the entirely Higurashi family could use a small push towards the twenty-first century. It wasn't just his grandmother. Even his younger sister, Kagome, refused to go near the Bone-Eater's Well on their property. Speaking of which…
"Kagome, quit staring at the place like that. It's embarrassing. If it scares you so much, stop looking at it."
The elementary student turned around shakily, and Sota saw that there were tears in her eyes. "Sota… Chiyo ran in! She ran in the well!"
Sota slowed to a halt, turning toward his younger sister. "Well, obviously you did something to scare the poor cat into there. You save her; I have to get to school."
"But Sooooota!"
She was beginning to cry even harder. Dammit, Sota thought. He could never counter tears.
"Fine. I'll get her. But you owe me a huge favor, all right?"
Kagome nodded shyly, covering her face with her hands.
As Sota entered the well-house, he immediately found himself within an aura of foreboding. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he now understood why Kagome was afraid of the place. Something about the air just suggested that all was not right in the building. Sota peered down to the well, which was, naturally closed. It wasn't in use any more, after all. Calling his cat's name uncertainly, he began making his way down the first few steps.
"Chiyo!" Step, step…
"C'mon, kitty! I've gotta get to school!" Step, step…
"Oh, Kagome, would you stop sniffling like that? I'm going to find—" Step, step, KRAK!
Kagome let out a cry, crawling even farther away from the well than she already was. Sota sighed, his ears ringing from his sister's howl. It was only a rotten floorboard; such was to be expected. But still, he felt his heartbeat build in tempo as he worked his foot free of the cracked wood.
"It's all right, Kagome, I just tripped is all. C'mon, I see the lid of the well moving. Chiyo must have gotten in there somehow."
He had forgotten that the well was more than twenty feet deep.
"Kagome, seriously, it's all right. It's—"
Sota's eyes widened. The lid had opened, just ever so slightly, and peeking back out at him was an eye. Not a cat's eye, but a human's eye. The eye of a mad, maniacal human.
Before he could cry out, six arms had wrapped around his body. A man's torso stood before him, but under that were the twitching, grotesque legs of a centipede. Pulling Sota free of the splintering floorboard, the creature dragged him deep into the well.
"S… Sota?" Kagome peered in, seeing the lid open, but with an extreme lack of her brother. "I… I found Chiyo. She was behind the well-house. I'm sorry… Sota?"
* * *
As Sota stared in horror, the man-insect gnashed his teeth gleefully. "Finally!" it cried, its voice barely a rasp. "Finally, it has returned! It has returned to its rightful owner!"
As packed earth soared past him, Sota suddenly realized that he had been airborne far too long to be falling down any average well. "L-Let go…" he stammered, feeling terror creep up his spine. As it reached his head, he gained a sudden strength. "Let go!" he repeated, more forcefully this time, thrusting his hand forward as he did so.
A dazzling light sprang from Sota's outstretched hand, sending the horrible creature flying backward as it did so. The teenager was too exhausted to notice the single human arm clutching his sleeve as the rest of the man-creature flew into the abyss, its infinite coils spiraling along behind it. "Curse it…!" hissed the creature, its eyes full of hatred. "You won't get away from me that easily!"
And with that, it fell into what seemed like a bottomless hole in the Earth. Sota shut his eyes, terrified that he would keep falling forever like the thing had seemed to. But, before his panic could escalate, the wind was knocked roughly out of him. He had landed.
Groaning, Sota turned so that he was facing upwards. Lying on his back, he took a few deep breaths and, almost unconsciously, shook the creature's arm off of his own. Instead of the ceiling of the well house, a blue sky greeted him from the top of the well (Which was, once again, only twenty feet away). Chiyo, I don't think we're in Tokyo anymore… He thought, smirking.
Ten minutes later, Sota, fell exhausted, onto the thick grass. He had worked his way out of the well, backpack and all (One never knows when and where textbooks will come in handy). The seemingly-cheerful sky was mocking him. He felt a sudden rush of resentment. Why me? It's my birthday! Isn't it common courtesy not to let a guy get dragged into some alternate dimension on his birthday?!
He lifted his head up to look at the surrounding forest boredly, lay his head back down, immediately looked up once again, rubbed his eyes, and blinked a few times. No, that hadn't been a hallucination—there really was a young girl of about his age sleeping standing-up on the tree in front of him.
Sota pulled himself into a standing position curiously, then approached the girl curiously. As if her traditional garb weren't enough, her long hair seemed to have been bleached to a silvery-white. No, scratch that—it wasn't the weirdest part about her by far. No, the strangest bit seemed to be her ears. They weren't human ears—no, rather they were that of a dog. Looking again, he decided that she wasn't sleeping after all. She had apparently been in that position so long that vines had grown around her peaceful form, and a mysterious spell-scroll was attached to the top of her kimono.
Where the hell am I?! He wondered with aggravation. First that centipede-thing, and now—rather sexy, I'll admit, but that's irrelevant—girls with—
He didn't finish the thought, as arrows had suddenly been fired into the tree which housed the sleeping/comatose girl. Sota whipped his head around in confusion.
A figure stood behind him, outlined by the rays of the sun. "Ho!" It called, its voice deep and scratching. "This land is forbidden! Who are you?!"
Sota just stared.
* * *
Staring around the village he had previously been escorted into, the teenager observed that, even if he were in the correct dimension, he was most certainly not in the correct time. Like the dog-girl, all of the villagers wore traditional clothes and spoke like characters from a historical movie.
The villagers passing by murmured to each other quietly, and considering from who they were pointing at as they did so, the subject seemed to be Sota. He didn't catch most of what they were saying, but he didn't really like the looks they gave him. He had even heard one woman say, quite distinctly, the word "demon."
A cry from his left caused Sota to spin around, but it wasn't him they were pointing to. Instead it was a hunched, elderly man. Sota thought he looked fairly physically inept, but he had an air of arrogance about him which Sota wasn't entirely sure he liked. "Kaede," he heard one villager say, addressing the old man. "We found this foreigner wandering about in Inuko's Forest."
The man turned toward Sota with a look of boredom, but his interest seemed to increase considerably as he took a good look at Sota's face. "My!" he cried, and even his voice sounded withered. "The boy looks just like my older brother!"
Oh boy. I'm only fifteen, and yet I look like someone that's older than you? Sota sighed, rolling his eyes. "Look, I'm not sure where I am. I'm hoping we can cover that before we get to the small talk."
A few villagers gasped, apparently shocked at the rude way the visitor addressed their "Kaede." The man, however, only smiled. "You're cheeky like him, too. Very well, then. This is but a humble village, trying to keep ourselves out of the sight of demons."
Demons? Sota prayed the man had used the word in a figurative sense.
"You see, my brother died over fifty years ago, which is why I was so surprised to see someone who looks so much like him. He was a priest, like I am now. Of course, he was much more powerful than myself." Kaede let out a rasping chuckle. "Kyo was a legend. He could fight off demons ten times his size. No, he could fight off ten demons at once!"
Apparently it seemed that the old man wasn't using the word in a metaphorical sense. Sota gulped.
Before Kaede could continue with his entire life story, a haggard-looking, middle-aged man rushed up to his elder. "Kaede! It's—It's a demon! It's coming towards the village!"
Sota took three steps back, eyes wide with horror, but Kaede only nodded. "Another, eh?" He gestured towards one of the villagers tiredly. "Get my bow, please. It's the only weapon I can use at my old age… I quit being able to swing a sword long ago…"
Before the woman could leave for the old man's home, a hideous crack came from somewhere on the outskirts of the village. A few villagers cried out, and one woman held her crying child close. Kaede frowned, finally beginning to look appropriately worried. "It's a big one," he commented.
Large indeed, a long, snakelike form cut through the trees—and one hut—on its way toward the congregation of people. Some of the villagers shrieked and ran away, but the centipede-man didn't even cast a glance their way. "So," it hissed, its eyes trained on Sota. "I've caught you. You're mine, coward."
Kaede raised an eyebrow at Sota. "I say. You and Lord Centipede know each other?"
Ignoring him, Sota stood up straight and put on what he hoped was a brave face. Trying to keep his voice from trembling, he replied, "I wasn't the one who fell into a bottomless pit last time, you know. I'd say you're the coward."
The creature let out a roar of fury. "Cheeky little brat! You will give me the Shikon Jewel!!"
"You have it?" cried Kaede, continuing with his queries. "That's impossible! It left the world with my brother!"
"I don't have it!" protested Sota, trembling. But, jewel or no jewel, the beast—Lord Centipede, was it?—seemed determined to kill Sota, and also anyone else in his way.
Damn. Do I need to repeat that it's my birthday? Why do I have to be the hero?! Nevertheless, Sota gritted his teeth and ran to a clear spot in the village, barely dodging an attack from Lord Centipede. "You want me?! Come get me!"
Kaede cupped his hands over his mouth and called, "Go to the well in Inuko's Forest! It's your best chance of escaping!" He still didn't have his bow (The woman had ran away at Lord Centipede's entrance) and didn't seem to be in the mood to do anything useful without it.
"The one I came out of, right?!" Sota yelled back, though he knew the old man had no chance of understanding what he meant. The teenager nodded and rushed full-force into the woods, with the centipede-demon still only two or three paces behind him. In normal circumstances, Sota would have no chance of finding his way back to the well. But, something was calling him, and for some reason he just knew that it was near the well. Looking up, he noticed a bright light emanating from the center of the forest. That's my destination! He thought, forcing all of his energy into running.
"My," remarked Kaede as soon as the chaos had escaped his village. "What a strange boy…"
* * *
Small, pointed ears twitched. Silver hair began to stir. Golden eyes opened. "Heh… heh…" she began, as if getting used to her voice again after the fifty years she had spent sealed. "I told you, Kyo. I won't let you win. Don't think I can't smell you getting closer…"
