Disclaimer: I own Nami and Jo, nothing else.

Sup Nerds. This was a story that was ruined by a beta a while back. Instead of just editing, it was changed. It irked me because I was too lazy to change it back. I finally resurrected this story back to it's original plot. If it's boring this way, I apologize, but give it a chance. Read and review and tell me what sucks about it.

Anyways, enjoy.


A low hiss sounded as muscles strained to prop her body up. Ember eyes looked at the sky.

In a small clearing, a woman stood slowly looking at her unfamiliar surroundings. Beside her another body, this one unconscious, breathed slowly.

"Shit."

)O(

Sesshomaru paced around the palace, up the stairs, down the halls, across the library and training room. This wasn't the first time a portal had been opened from another world. After all, his brother's noisy companion managed to use portals all the time.

He managed to safely close most of them and disallowed the entrance of other beings into his world, but with the last portal he wasn't sure. The air around the eastern part of his lands smelled off. It was contaminated from something, but what puzzled the western lord was that they couldn't find the source.

Sesshomaru passed his study and stopped at a window where he looked out towards the eastern part of his lands. He would soon have to set out and find the nuisance.

If it was alive, he would have to kill it. To him, the influx of foreigners recently was an infestation. Once something had slipped through a portal it would affect the lands and even rewrite history. Naraku would have been eliminated much more quickly had that amateur priestess not interfered and allowed him to slip by numerous times.

So, Sesshomaru was vigilant. On several occasions, humans would be spirited away and meet their bloody fate when confronted by Sesshomaru.

It would not be possible if a certain demon hadn't escaped prison. The time demon, Tempest, had opened portals in several places to throw search units off his scent and a month later had been successful. Every time a new portal would open up, the atmosphere would shift and it left the inhabitants in nearby regions uneasy at the disturbance.

The first time they caught Tempest, Lord Jin of the Eastern lands graciously accepted the task of housing the demon. That was a mistake. Sesshomaru knew he would be incompetent and predicted the eventual escape of Tempest. Perhaps, he let the demon go willingly.

"L-Lord Sesshomaru?" The regal lord looked down towards a small ugly toad demon waiting down the hall. Sesshomaru honestly didn't know why he kept the ugly demon around. It wore the ugliest of tunics and smelled of sake from the Inutaiyoukai's cellar.

"What, Jakken?" the annoyed dog demon bellowed out.

"Well, Mi-lord there is reason to believe more humans escaped the portal and has wondered west towards us. The search units want to know your plan of action."

The dog demon walked past the toad as he spoke, "Tell them I will deal with the problem myself."

)O(

Stumbling through shrubbery, the ember-eyed girl carried the still unconscious body on her back.

"God, you weigh too much, Nami!" The body on her back gave a satisfied snore as she comfortably dug her knees into the carrier's hips.

"Time to wake up…" The dead weight gave a sudden yelp as she fell on cold dirt.

"Hey, I was dreaming there!" Nami sat on her bum in the midst of moss-covered dirt. Jo sighed, unsure of which direction to go.

Nami stood and brushed the dirt off her fiery red hair. Her red eyes had shown through her long bangs while the rest of her hair was styled into a choppy bun. She rearranged her broadsword that jabbed her side from the fall. It was an heirloom that was long overdue for a servicing.

Jo, looked down at her black baggy pants that had a new tear at the hem. The handles from two sabers that hung from her side managed to graze the fabric and the light brown skin of her hips shown through. She picked leaves out of long jet-black hair braided behind her.

"Jo, where the hell are we?" The redhead walked forward to a tree marked with scratches. Around the tree, she spied a rundown trail of plants dug out from their roots.

"What the…"

"I think we should start moving and find somebody that could help us. Maybe not if the folks around these parts aren't of the friendly variety." Jo turned south and began walking in the opposite direction of the wreckage in the forest.

"Wait. I think we should explore first." Nami lit up at her own idea.

"You're still the same. We shouldn't explore. We aren't on familiar lands anymore. If we explored we could be going around in circles. Besides, I think the sooner we find people the sooner we eat."

The redhead nodded as her stomach growled on cue. They headed south and Nami surveyed their surroundings.

The air was pristine and fresher than what they normally breathed. The plants seemed healthier: an odd bright green. The sky even seemed bluer and the breeze was cool and refreshing. There was no smell of the city. There was no sound of sirens or traffic far off and no signs of any roads or highways. The forest was eerily quiet as they walked on.

It was peculiar, and even a treat, to see so much greenery in the environment. The last time they were allowed outside the walls of their city was to fight in the Blitz, a civil war for their country. Their rundown city would never be as beautiful as this.

Nami brushed her fingers against an exotic flower. It was proudly thriving over unblossomed buds. She had never seen a flower so large or colorful. The plants that sprouted between concrete in front of their bar were weed-like dandelions and henbit. It was a giveaway. She knew that they were no longer in their country.

It was only the first clue out of many.

The most prominent one was the door-like portal in the bar both Nami and Jo lived in. After a long night shift, bathroom duties fell onto the girls. They were mopping up vomit from the tiled floors when a sound like a crack reverberated throughout the small space. Jo had kicked down the stall door believing someone shot firearms in the stall. Then, she was gone. All that was left was a thin line of silver that was slowly dissipating. Without thought, Nami rushed into it and all was black until she woke up on the other side.

Still…there was something unmarred about this place. It was newer, or older. And, displaced.

"Jo, you don't suppose we're in a different country, do you?" Nami concluded. The idea seemed so far out of reach, but the evidence was astounding.

"You are in a different time," replied a newcomer.

Both women turned towards the direction of a voice and were perplexed by what they saw. A tall man slowly stalked towards them with long silver hair, yellow eyes, and a moon on his forehead above his brow. The purple markings on his face began from his high cheekbones and ended near the rear of his cheek. A white haori adorned with red flowers covered his form. On his left shoulder, heavy battle armor rested on his right shoulder and midsection. Two sword hilts rested on his side on which one of the man's hand rested on.

Both blinked unknowingly at the stranger. The older was the first to talk,"Fuh-ck," and come up with something unintelligible to say.

Nami looked at the man's stance and knew what Jo had thought. This man had come to kill them.

Jo finally executed a sentence and spoke to the man. "Is there any particular reason you came here to kill us?" Nami gulped, as did Jo.

The man slid the killing instrument from his hilt with an incessant ring and pointed it in their direction. "You don't belong here."

Nami 'meeped' at his short reply, but his words confirmed it.

Jo eyebrows raised at the reply. Nami turned to face Jo with a hopeless look in her eyes. It was the 'look' Jo had known all too well.

'It's so…pathetic. Fine.' Jo knowing the other girl's inner wishes faced the regal looking man and said with an almost calm expression, but she was trembling inside, "I can strike you a deal, if you let us live."

The man narrowed his eyes at the two, "I don't make deals with humans."

A quick appearance of confusion flashed on Nami's face. She glanced over at Jo, noticing she picked up on the phrasing also by her taken–aback expression.

'He's not human?,' Nami almost seemed to ask silently to Jo.

"Could you at least listen to our offer first?" Jo pleaded, knowing very well the man (or whatever he may call himself) probably wouldn't grant her wish. She hated having to beg, but she had no choice. Taking his silence as an approval she continued.

"Technically, if you let us live, we'll be in debt to you.

You can use us to take care of errands, though we have special abilities that can help us provide another option for you. We can probably be a loved one's guardians-," seeing him narrow his eyes more at this she quickly continued albeit a little concerned for their well-being, "…or bodyguards of some one important enough to have us escort them."

Sesshomaru seemed to consider proposition while contemplating whether it was a good idea to keep humans around. He glared at the two girls and with a flick of his hand his sword had slid back into its hilt. He continued to glower at them while he motioned for them to follow him.

An exhale of relief was barely heard, but audible enough for the dog demon to pick up on it. He was gratified at his ability to put others at a state of unease and would enjoy toying with these humans before he put them to "work." With each step they took towards his palace, the two humans grew apprehensive with the extended amount of silence.

As the sun finally hit the horizon, both girls finally saw the palace that belonged to the man, or whatever he was, before the sun disappeared beneath the earth's surface. It was huge. Beyond the outer walls, the estate's grounds overflowed with exotic foliage and streams. Within the inner walls, the great behemoth stood that was the palace.

As they stepped inside, a number of servants came forward to take the armor and the swords of the now known lord. He turned towards them before speaking in an icy voice.

"You will address me as my honorific when you are in my palace. There will be, under any circumstance, no weapons allowed on the east wing. They are allowed on the west wing where I will be testing your skills tomorrow. As for your job…follow me."

The lord led them through many hallways and doors. On the walls were ancient scrolls and paintings. Lining the next wall were tapestries and carvings made of intricate designs. Iridescent dark colors of the statues seemed to blend into the background. The hall seemed to grow darker in color as they walked towards the inner palace. The lord stopped at a door with a wilting wreath hanging off the door.

"This is Rin's room. I expect you to stay by her side when I'm not around. If anything harms her it will result in both your deaths regardless whose fault it is. Understood?"

Both girls nervously nodded in silence.

Sesshomaru continued and sensed waves of fear radiating off both of the two girls. He enjoyed it.

He turned and slid the door open. A girl not older than nine bound out and hugged on to his lower half due to how short she was. Jo smiled genuinely at Rin.

The lord sighed like an annoyed father would before informing the small girl.

"Rin. These people are here to protect you when I'm not around. Rin…" Rin had stopped hugging the lord and studied the two women. Her eyes trailed down to the chains on Jo's belt which she began wreathing like she did the door.

"Rin you will get to know them this evening at dinner."

Nami resisted smiling while Rin tugged away at the chains filling them with flowers.

Sesshomaru began to walk down the hall, motioning for all to follow. Deeper towards the inner castle were a couple of rooms near next to no light that were dark, but quaint.

"This will be your room." He almost left before Nami turned around realizing something.

"Sir?"

The lord turned around looking on with emotionless eyes. Nami nearly faltered now knowing what Jo felt like when the heat was on her.

"What's your title? There must be one considering…" She motioned to her surroundings.

"Lord Sesshomaru. What are your names?"

Nami looked relieved he didn't bite her head off. "I'm Nami. Kaze Nami."

Lord Sesshomaru almost did a double take when he saw Jo teaching Rin how to braid wreaths faster. "And your name?"

Jo looked up from Rin's wreaths. "Jo."


R & R!