Cherry Blossom Winter

Disclaimer: Ilei here. As much as I wish it did, Inuyasha doesn't belong to me.

Author's Note: Hey! I, Ilei, am writing this crappy excuse for a story; so if you don't like it, don't tell me. Tell Rere. Tell her I called her that, and I will take a dull knife, slit you stomach with it slowly while pulling your guts out and rubbing them with sand, then stuff them back in. You won't survive very long after that. Thirty minutes, tops. You'll die SLOW. This is for Rere though; she (unluckily for her, luckily for me) mentioned that she likes Inuyasha the show, and Sesshoumaru, the character. This is based on a mixture of Chinese (yes I'm one too) legend, and the research I did on Inuyasha. I'll let you in on a secret though; I seriously think sometimes that she is a demon because 1) she can't stand light very well, 2) she loves water (in fact, her preferred way of death is drowning), 3) she has several really weird evil laughs, and 4) she's insane. If you have any serious questions about anything in this story or another, put it in the review. Since Rere's e-mail is no longer on her profile, if you want it, put that in your review too, along with your reasons for wanting it. By the way, Sesshoumaru-sama is my muse, so don't diss him.

Chapter One-

Lian Zhou Lohng-Lahng

Lian Zhou Lohng-Lahng was in her garden with her servant, Bai-Lohng. A garden of varied flowers, corals, and seaweeds. No, the last two are NOT misspellings. Lian Zhou was a Lohng Nue, a Dragon Daughter. Except, she wasn't full dragon. Her mother had been an errant Dragon Princess who had married a Wolf Son, a Lahng Nahn. Needless to say, their parents weren't too thrilled. In fact, Lian Zhou's mother and father had been banished from their parents' households for about eternity. And that wasn't the worst of it. They had had their only child, Lian Zhou, taken away from them.

She was now in her dragon-grandparents' court, under the water. She could not drown as she, like all dragons, had a dragon pearl, which enabled them to do magic, live practically forever, stay underwater without drowning and such. Unfortunately, her wolf half made her magic a little weaker than a normal Dragon Daughter's would be. Not a lot weaker, but enough so that she had to train herself just a little harder than the others. It was nothing a few decades or so of nothing but sorcery training, moon dust, and spiritual ascension wouldn't cure, but though she would not age at all in appearance and spirit, for some reason, staying completely immobile except for the words she had to repeat and the dust she had to consume for decades didn't appeal to her.

She'd much rather go on as she did now, surviving between the worlds of wolf and dragon. And if her cousins and friends teased her for being a crossbreed, what of it? She was almost, no she was royalty. Besides, she had her closest friend and confidante, Bai-Lohng, to talk to. The two could have been sisters, they were that close. Except for the fact that Bai (Lohng) was sometimes ordered around by Lian Zhou's grandparents, she was never forced to act like a servant by Lian Zhou at all. The one hint you would find that Bai and Lian were in different stations was that oftentimes, Bai would call Lian 'Her Majesty, Lady Lian Zhou' when she felt it was a formal occasion. Both spoke Mandarin and a mixture of other tidbits of languages, most of them phrases they picked up from their relatives and their secret, banned outings outside in disguise. Lian also had the unique ability to understand and speak any language. They liked to use their pearls, especially Lian's yei-ming zhou to disguise themselves in the skins of either wolves, dragons, or other land/sea creatures, depending on which realm they were in. (Bai was always with Lian, no matter which land they were staying in.) They would then roam about outside like normal residents of the court, or even commoners, depending on their disguises.

They had come pretty close to being caught once or twice though, so close that both times, Bai had come close to swearing that she would no longer go even a foot away from either of her mistress's grandparents' palaces. In fact, once, she had even threatened to tell Lian's grandparents' about their outings. It only lasted for about ten minutes before Lian reminded her that they might both be whipped or punished or shudder, be made to marry despicable men and have their pearls taken away so they could do nothing about it. One rude, spoiled, and stuck up prince and his retainer seemed especially interested in the Dragon Daughter and her maid. After this reminder, Bai shut her mouth and never even mentioned it again.

Admittedly, you could say that the world was no place for a young, unprotected princess and her maid to be and Lian wholeheartedly agreed. That was why she always carried around a long, pearl covered "hairpin" that was set with opals. It looked like a pair of chopsticks. A pair of unusually long, sharp chopsticks. A pair of unusually long, sharp, magical chopsticks. The burnished hairpiece was a normal ornament, but when she wished, she turned it into a pair of long, thin, whippy, and deadly swords, a dirk, and numerous daggers that returned to her when thrown with gold-and-silver hilts encrusted with jewels, extraordinarily like the ones on the "hairpins". You might also ask, what use is a sword/hairpin, even a magical one, if you don't know how to use it? Well, Lian agreed with that too. That was why she asked the arms master at the palace to teach her to fight. Since she was like one of his nieces, and she used her royal command voice, he agreed. It turned out that though Bai had absolutely no ability or talent for the sword, Lian was a natural because of the grace of movement that she inherited from her mother and the speed she inherited form her father, along with her slight, slender build and good balance. Soon, Arms master Chen looked forward to teaching the young princess (in secret, of course) almost as much as the princess herself did, which was saying something.

Back to the present. Lian was sitting in her carefully tended garden because she was about to open a portal to go on one of her random outings again. Only one difference existed, however; this time, she had no intention of taking on a disguise and wouldn't let Bai have one either. Why? Because she was not going anywhere she had been before. She was going to a new place called Japan. Rumor was that no one cared who (or what) you are. Obviously a Dragon Princess probably would not frighten them either, as Japan was said to have demons. Lian really couldn't care less.

All she wanted was to go away for a while. She wasn't worried that anything would hurt her either, because she went magic seeking every week and she was taking all of her things with her, including a special palanquin (large chair with curtains and cushions. some elaborate versions almost as good as a house) for housing. It expanded or contracted to suit the owner's wishes and could fit millions of people as well as hide them, reason being that even though the inside was quite roomy and comfortable, the appearance never changed, and neither did the apparent size. The palanquin would always appear to be only one foot tall unless the owner wished to be hidden, which is when it would vanish from sight. Thus, of course Lian was taking it with her. Along with the palanquin, she was bringing along an invincibility pearl, a long-life jade, and another yei-ming zhou for light, among other things.

She was wearing one of her plainer chi-paos (Chinese traditional dress) that was embroidered with pearls, opals, flowers, and dragons along the hems and blossoms all over the dress. It was made of opalescent silk and shimmered with a strange light. It was also one of her favorite dresses. Bai was so nervous about disobeying the Dragon Emperor of the Western Sea, Lian's grandfather, that her teeth were rattling in her skull and she kept twitching spasmodically.

Finally, after fixing her hair into a simple bun with some of her long ebony hair hanging down, placing the silver and gold hairpiece in her hair, and adding the necessary headdress of a pearl on a long, thin silver rod with seed pearls hanging down and the band of opalescent silk with large black pearls and white opals stitched on it, she opened a random portal, only specifying that it must transport her into somewhere in Japan. She also forgot to specify what time period she wanted to go to.

Lian didn't realize that though. She just levitated her things through and stepped through the gateway. After passing through, Lian and Bai patiently waited for their eyes to adjust to their new surroundings. Just as they could see the beautiful cherry trees in bloom, a little figure knocked into them.

It was a small girl. She had black hair and was wearing a kimono of orange. She smiled broadly and said in an adorable voice, "Ohayo Gozimasu!! What are you doing here? Where did Sesshoumaru-sama go? Who are you? Rin wants to know!!"

She was so sweet that Lian scooped her up and hugged her. The little one reminded her of her cousin's daughter, one of her favorite relations whom she loved to spoil and give treats to. Suddenly the little girl, Rin, pointed to something over Lian's shoulder and announced happily, "Lord Sesshoumaru is here!!"

At that moment, a white, silver, and red blur raced toward Lian. When it was about five feet away, Lian gasped in surprise. It was a guy with a drawn sword who looked like he had absolutely no emotions whatsoever. Lian held on to Rin harder and tried to keep her out of harm's way while Bai stood, frozen in shock. Just before he was on top of her, Lian held out her hand as if to stop him and took out her hairpin, meaning to turn it into the twin swords so she could protect herself. The person (?) abruptly stopped and kneeled down, asking her in an emotionless voice, "Who are you and why do you have Rin? What are you doing here?" All Lian could think of was that now, she might die because she had been kind to a little child.

Notes: 1) That roughly translates into Lotus Pearl the Dragon-Wolf, 2) Legend was that there were four dragon emperors of the four seas and many less powerful dragon lords. Lohng Nue were said to be the dragons' daughters. Lian happens to be the granddaughter of the Western Sea Dragon Emperor 3) Chinese literature tells of many different deities (might be called demons) like foxes and turtles and tigers and, of course, wolves. A Lahng Nahn would be like a Lohng Nue- a deity or demon. 4) Legend also tells of the dragons' pearls, which were magical, allowing them to transform freely into other forms, contained life energy, and were often more precious to them than their lives. The pearl was supposedly concealed in the dragon's forehead unless he wished to unveil it for whatever reason. 5)Allegedly, a normal tiger or fox or whatever could become a deity/demon by a hundred years of training and concentration. Then, they could strengthen their magical abilities by continuing to train for decades or centuries or however long they wished. 6) Bai-Lohng means white dragon. 7) According to myth, a special type of pearl would appear exactly like an ordinary, high-quality pearl until darkness or nighttime, when it would start glowing. Reportedly, many kings had them as treasures of the realm and also used them as night-lights. The name yei-ming zhou literally means night-glowing pearl. Some of the more important dragons were supposed to have yei-ming zhou for their dragon pearls. 8) Everyday items, such as bowls, statues, and yes, hairpins could have magical values. For example, one Chinese emperor was said to have a bowl full of rice that never went empty. A transforming hairpin was supposedly owned by the sword-maiden of Chin. 9) A dirk is a type of blade about half the length of a sword, and twice the length of a dagger.

-Ilei