Chapter 1

In the Night

Author: Okay, this is my first ever fan-fiction. Please don't hurt me. I've only read up to 12 of the graphic novels, and some translated ones online. I'm sorry if characters OOC, but I hope to improve on this. Also, please forgive any misspellings and usage of the English words instead of the original Japanese terms. Also, this is an original character story, so I own all the characters but InuYasha, Sesshoumaru, Rin, Jaken, and Company.

Sometime during the night, Kali woke up to barking. Actually, "woke up" was a bit too strong a term to use. It was more in a half asleep state that she rolled out of bed, cursed in her own language as she stubbed her foot into the baka Sanchi's toys, and closed the window. She looked out at the world, silent and misleading, but saw nothing. She stretched, catlike, and stumbled back to bed.

Earlier…MUCH earlier. Earlier than anyone in Kali's time was thinking about at that insane hour. But in a twisted backwards way, not much earlier than an hour ago.

"Jaken!"

To anyone not familiar with the feudal era, the creature (which was only about two feet tall) being addressed was something that looked like an ungainly cross between a rumpled, used tissue, a toad, and an old man with an oversized head. "Er, yes, my Lord?" It said in a squeaky, nervous voice. Just like a rumpled, used tissue would sound, if you had the unfortunate experience of pressing your ear against one.

"Where are we heading?" The Lord of the Western Lands looked down at the creature, an imposing sight indeed. His voice was soft, controlled, not unlike the quiet before a tornado ravages the countryside.

The impish thing was at a lost. Usually, he just followed his lord around, not being the greatest of navigators. Sure, he would do something bold occasionally, shout insults at the little girl for example. He was a master at that, a true literate at harsh words. But navigating was not something he enjoyed. Jaken seemed to be rather hindered by the fact that he could not see over the closest bush. The best he could answer went something like this. "Er. Well Lord Sesshoumaru, we are…heading for camp. Yes, the girl Rin is too tired to carry on, and the night is beginning and this Jaken can set up a fire." He coughed, edged about two feet away from his masters narrowed stare, and gestured to the little girl.

She could not have been more than seven, perhaps a little bit over eight at most. Her hair was tied back awkwardly, and she was dressed in a pretty, if somewhat muddy, kimono. She stared at them both; brown eyes wide and (though she put up a good act trying to hide it) too tired to even talk (which she was usually very good about).

Sesshoumaru considered the situation, his face blank and emotionless. There was no reason to rush home. True, he did not like the idea of another night out in the open, especially if Rin was traveling with them. There was the festival tomorrow, celebrating the beginning of spring. Somehow, passing through a village, she had overheard the peasants speaking of it. It was all she would ask him about, but she was too tired to badger him right now. For that, he was greatful. You try to figure out why you don't leave her in a village, or just kill her, but you can't, can you Youkai? He hated this argument, the cold way his thinking would always, always come to this subject. He was the Lord of the Western Lands, one of the most powerful youkai to grace the land of the rising sun, known far and wide by many names, part legend. And he was dragging around a totally useless human child. It was degrading, reminded him of his half brother and her wench. But at least InuYasha's wench had some use, had some way to defend herself! This child was, and he had no difficulty stating it in his head for the millionth time, useless. But he could not leave her.

Sesshoumaru was not a youkai who could agree with being torn between a decision. As for as he could see, he could not, would not, function correctly with personal dilemmas ripping his soul (If you have one youkai! He thought in a humorless way.) In pieces. In fact, up until recently he had been very good about shutting himself out, and had been content to do so.

"We'll rest here tonight. Jaken, set up a fire." He rested against a tree, long legs folded close to his body.

"Yes, my Lord." Even from behind the growing flames, Jaken could tell his master was in a tense mood. Of course, he could have been worse. Gods know I've seen him in fouler moods, but he has been acting strangely of late! Recently, he had not rested. Well, not completely. He closed his eyes, and his breathing slowed, but he was always aware. Many believed that Sesshoumaru constantly watched; the Waiting Dog was his name in the islands to the south. Jaken did not believe this, though he was worried over the restlessness of his master. In the toad creature's experience, it was usually a sign of something ill to occur. Once the flames were fully ablaze, and his masters eyes were half lidded and red from searching the fire, Jaken edged away muttering "G'night, Lord Sesshoumaru." As usual, he received no reply

The girl Rin, unafraid, moved to her accustomed spot in Sesshoumaru's lap where she promptly fell asleep. She never feared him, she believed he could do no wrong, and she thought he was the most powerful, greatest creature of the land. But she does not fear me, naïve child. He rested his head against the bark, breathed in the deep scent of sandalwood. Remembering that the weather was cold (not for him, of course), he wrapped his tail around Rin.

The Rifter was abroad. The night spread before it in a way that no creature, animal, human, hanyou, or youkai would see it. It was a continuous story of light and dark, good and evil, told by the moon, illustrated by the stars, and forever repeated by the cycle of the sun. The creature spread patterns in the infinite amount of stars, moving bits of light with the most intense care.

The Higher Ones had not stopped the Rifter from making the first split in time, and it assumed this was permission to go on with its plan. To Them, the Rifter was another tiny, insignificant fragment, as every other creature is. But occasionally, it would storm through and change. Not for good, nor evil, just for the Change. The drive that, in the Rifter's opinion, kept everything from being redundant. One action of the Rifter may keep a boy from scraping his knee. Another might kill off entire millennia of species brought about by the evolution the Rifter itself had made to occur. And another just might make a girl go back in time through a well.

Tonight it was going to do something new.

The Rifter moved the blinks of light that represented people. It clustered them, moved the times they were in. It had no control over the minds of the people, nor there actions. That would take all the fun out of the Change.

Once done, the Rifter loomed over the plan, pulled its non-existent breath in with a sharp hiss. This was going to be interesting, but the Rifter had no intention of watching it from an omnipotent viewpoint. No, it wanted to be in the action.

It grinned at the idea, and set the plan into motion.

Being pulled through time is not a pleasant experience. Especially if the vortex is made from simple air, without anything to confine it. A body feels the initial twisting of time, the ways the planes of space collide into each other. Colors swirl in dizzying patterns, the wind (where it comes from, no one can tell) whips you about, and all the while you can sometimes make out the voices of the past and future. But only if you listen closely. Time-travelers, though they are rare one can find them in abundance in modern insane asylums, call this the backlash theory. Others call it the moldy cheese theory. "Top quality moldy cheese, for sale!" Is one of those timeless phrases most often heard in the vortex of the past and the future.

But Rin heard none of this. She was too busy screaming.

A moment ago she had been asleep, rather comftorbly curled up in Lord Sesshoumaru's tail. Next second she felt the pull, the tug, and the unmistakable whoossshhh of time travel. Not that she knew she was going forward in time. One would assume she thought it was a freak tornado.

Rin thought it was a huge, monstrous, bug-eyed, demon that was quickly digesting her in a unique manner.

Such thoughts are not unusual, considering she had been living with a Youkai lord for quite some time.

"SESSHOUMARU-SAMA!" She screamed, repeatedly, confidant that he would never fail to find her.

Lord Sesshoumaru, meanwhile, was going about being sucked through time in his own manner. He twisted, turned, bit, clawed the wind, spread some vaporous fumes, only to make himself sick and worn out. "RIN!" He called, trying to find the little human. It was hopeless, though he kept clawing, gnashing and roaring with youkai-fury. He tried to change to his true form, and it worked; though this did not help the situation.

You know, your only making this harder!

Sesshoumaru winced at the voice, it echoed in his mind and around him. "Who the hell are you and what have you done with Rin?!?!" He demanded angrily, eyes gleaming with blood and malice.

You don't need to know. Damn, you'll make a mess in this time. Will have to do something about that.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN? I, SESSHOUMARU, WILL BRING YOU SWIFTLY TO YOUR DEATH! WHERE IS RIN?" He roared. Then blackness hit him.

Youkai…always so damn arrogant!

As for Jaken, he did something very, very unnecessary. Never, ever, sneeze, cough, and belch at the same time while in a time vortex. For the next couple of centuries, he became a blip in the sky, orbiting somewhere in the vicinity of Venus.

Kali woke up not much later, to find a strange little girl sitting on her bed, sobbing. I'm dreaming, another damned nightmare. The child looked vaguely familiar, and Kali struggled to place her in the large index catalogue of her dreams. In all the dreams she could talk, she could scream, she could sing, but no one ever heard her. The oddly dressed people ignored her.

Not much different from real life.

But it felt different. None of the dreams had occurred in her room, nor did they happen with only one of the dream-people. She considered rolling over, ignoring the apparition until she woke up. But on a hunch, she did not stuff her pillow over her head. "Why are you crying?" Her voice came easily from her, and in the dreams she always sounded soft and delicate, but now she sounded real, with emotion, uneven from lack of sleep. No more three day old sushi…

The little girl looked up, first shocked and afraid. Kali wondered how imposing she looked, a rumpled looking girl with fraying reddish brown hair and odd eyes. Too many, Kali was small for her age of fifteen, or maybe it was because she hid so often, that no one ever got a chance to look at her properly.

"I lost Sesshoumaru-sama." She said simply, wrapping her arms around her knees.

"Oh." The name meant nothing to her; it sounded odd and foreign. Who or what a "Sesshoumaru" was, she could not tell. Better make the best of this dream. Who knows, maybe I am losing my mind. Sanchi could get her room back then. "What does this Sesshoumaru look like?" She said in a friendly soft tone.

"He has stripes," the girl said. As an afterthought she added, "and gold eyes and a big fluffy tail."

She has lost her dog then or perhaps a cat? "I'm sure I could help you find him, but where did you come from?"

"Oh," she said innocently. "I came up the weird stairs, and through the window." She pointed to the window, where the simple curtains fluttered in the wind.

Kali was aware her mouth was open and her eyes almost as wide as the little girl's was. "I closed the window…"she mumbled, and the stairs the girl meant, what were those? Her eyes widened when she walked up to the window, looking at the box where the emergency fire escape ladder was. The box was empty; the ladder was hooked on her windowsill, its foldable plastic rungs gleaming in the moonlight. A little girl climbed my ladder, which I did not hang, climbed the window that I closed. …She looked at the clock…. An hour ago. Just stay away from the sushi all together, Kali. If this weren't a dream, or one hell of a hallucination, I'd be screaming my head off. Oddly enough, she felt calm.

"Are you mad?" The little girl said creeping off the bed to stand by her.

"No, of course not." Kali replied her voice blank. Why would she be mad? The girl was just an apparition; no way the family downstairs would be able to creep into this bizarre dream. "But why did you come here."

The girl looked confused, then shrugged. "The monster dropped me outside," she pointed to the street. "And the stairs were down and the window was open. It looked safer than out there." She proceeded to look around the room in a curious manner, staring at the furniture with large chocolate colored eyes.

"Oh." What monster? And how in hell did the window open. Oh. It's a dream. Have to remember that. Kali had lived (or slept, to be more precise) through dreams that felt so real, she was sure everyone did. The girl was currently poking around a large makeshift shelf full of books of the oddest sort, mainly interpreting dreams and other odd things (old tales, used dictionaries, used journals found in the back of second hand book shops). Many restless nights were spent trying to interpret the dreams, which only made Kali more confused.

The girl nodded enthusiastically in reply to her 'Oh'.

"This is one weird dream."

"Do you think you are dreaming?" The girl asked curiously, maybe if she was dreaming too, she would wake up and be safe again.

Kali looked down at the little girl in her kimono. "I'm pretty sure I'm dreaming. I can't talk when I'm awake, and plus, I think I've seen you in other dreams before. Or maybe not, but this is the first time I've ever had a conversation with somebody." The realization of that hit her, even if this was a dream; it was still the first time she had ever talked with someone.

"Oh, I could not talk once." The girl said simply. "Will you really help me find Sesshoumaru-sama? If this is not a dream?" The girl suddenly burst into a smile that could have split her face, and bounced excitedly on her feet. "Pllleeeaasseee?"

"Sure, kid. If it isn't a dream." She grinned down, feeling absolutely out of her mind. Move to the funny farm, Kali. "What is your name by the way? I'm Kali." It was a nickname everyone called her, and she knew that somewhere on her birth certificate it said otherwise (though it was something close), but she could not remember it. The old, mean tempered grandfather said it was the name of a destructive something from another country's mythology.

"I'm Rin."

Maybe, Kali thought, she isn't a dream. Maybe a little girl really did wander into my room, maybe I am speaking, and I accidentally slept walk to the window and opened it. And then put down the fire escape ladder. It sounded insane to Kali, considering she did not sleepwalk. However, it had been a bad week, and she was so used to sneaking out, what if she had tried to in her sleep? It still sounded ridiculous, but possible. But what about her clothes? They were odd, old fashioned, like the kimono she had seen in the weeklong festival that would start tomorrow. Like the one she would wear, being one of the hundred odd people who would work in stands and walk around, explaining or acting out what life was like in the feudal ages. Of course, she would be a background actor. But still. Maybe she was getting ready. It does start at dawn. "Are you going to the festival tomorrow?"

The girl almost lit up from the inside, bouncing with joy. "Yes! I wanted to go with Sesshoumaru-sama, I had told him about it!"

Kali was unsure whether this "Sesshoumaru" was a person, animal, or some imaginary friend from the girl's imagination. Huh, like I should talk about imagination! "Oh, then we may see him there. We have to leave soon though," she gestured to the kimono on the worn desk. "And I have to get ready." She read the clock, 5:10 am, which would give her in hour to catch the bus to the city. Kali flicked on the lights, not concerned about waking the other occupants of the house. She was after all, at the very top, and would sneak out with Rin later and sneak back into the house at night. They hardly noticed her any ways. It would be simple, she'd be paid, and no one would know.

Ever since the room had been flooded with light, the little girl was staring at her, in awe. "Uh, is something wrong?"

"Are you a youkai?" the child asked in a soft whispery voice. Never before had she seen a human control light. "I've never seen anyone with your kind of hair and eyes, so you must be!"

"A what?" Yeah, I know I look odd. But it's no reason to call me names about it. Once, her "false"(she refused to call them foster) parents had told her the reddish brown hair had come from her mother, as did the hazel eyes. Her father had been, as far as she could guess from the shape of her face, her pale skin, and the other features she knew she shared with the rest of Japan, had been Japanese. "I'm a half-breed if that's what you mean, but it isn't that uncommon, not anymore at least. My dad had dark hair, my mom had this color hair, and her eyes were this color too, I'm a mix of both." She stared at the girl's ignorance to this. She knew many other people who were mixtures of cultures, in the city, no one took real notice of it.

"So you're a hanyou? A real half-breed?" Rin asked in wonder.

"Yes." Look up the word 'youkai' and 'hanyou' later. Could've sworn I've heard those words before! Kali made a note to check through all her books, including the journals. She began putting the kimono on, first slipping on a pair of faded jeans to match the T-shirt she slept in. After that, she slipped the light blue tunic like affair over her regular clothes. It reached down past her ankles, leaving behind a little train. The sleeves too were long, and for a moment, she swished them around to make little circles in the air.

"Put on the rest, I want to see what an adult kimono looks like!" Said Rin, who was again sitting on the bed, her feet kicking about above the dirty rug.

"Alright," she had never tried the kimono on, the festival had given it to her with a little note saying where she could find her station, and the part she would be acting out. She held the fine material in her arms and wrapped it around her body, the way the instructions with the note said she should. Next came the obi, the long sash that she tied the affair together with. She liked the way it felt, but absolutely refused to see how she looked until she was done. Next came the slippers, soft and comftorble. I wonder how I'm going to get down the ladder. Of course, she'd bring her knapsack, in which she had put a pair of sneakers, and an outfit of normal clothes. She took a brush, and began to comb out the tangles in her auburn hair, parting it perfectly down the middle so it reached past her shoulders. "Okay, no makeup. That's good. My face gets all itchy." She turned around to the cracked full-length mirror she had found in the pile of junk in the attic adjacent to her room.

Kali hardly recognized herself. The over kimono was dark green, stiched with lighter green around the hems of her sleeve and neckline. It swished about her, a landscape of flowing willow trees and windswept leaves forming a pattern on the bottom half. Her obi was of a golden color, and it trailed behind her, simply moving with every step she took. The kimono itself was comftorble, which she had not expected. It did not feel awkward at all! She did a practice leap in her small room, taking wide steps, and then tiny steps, amazed that she could move freely. She laughed at the bewildered expression on Rin's face.

"What do you think?" Kali said, grinning wickedly. "I could be the daughter of some very rich noble if I wanted to be."

"It's beautiful!" Rin commented. "You could be a great lady!"

"Thanks," Kali picked up her pack, doing a final check for everything before swinging it over her shoulders "We'll have to go down the ladder, those stairs by the window. Try not to make any noise." She put a finger to her own lips, making a shushing noise.

"Okay," Rin replied, nearly jumping about with excitement. She climbed down, with Kali watching her anxiously. It was about 30 feet up, and she valued the bravery of the energetic girl. She hopped the last two rungs, and grinned up at Kali, waving from the ground.

"My turn." She swung her legs over the windowsill, and grabbed the top of the ladder, easing herself down slowly. In one hand, she held the kimono so it would not drag, and each step was slow and deliberate. When she reached the ground, she breathed a sigh of relief before turning toward Rin. "Okay, now we go to the city, but we have to go to the bus stop first."

The girl looked at her, and nodded. However, there was confusion in her eyes as she asked, "What's a bus?"

"You have never been on a bus?" This was only getting more interesting.

Author: Wow that really was quite horrible, Please forgive me, I will try to get better at this. If someone could tell me where I could find some extensive information on the demons in this story, Sesshoumaru, Rin, and things besides the general plot of InuYasha, I'd greatly appreciate the background info. As always with me, I enjoy constructive criticism. Please don't tell me I do not give enough information about my original character, I prefer to hand it out in small bits when it becomes concerned with the story. Oh well, hope you guys don't dislike long chapters, :)

Next Chapter: Sesshoumaru has a discussion with the Rifter. Kali and Rin go to the fair. And Jaken moves at two light-years a minute around the galaxy. Continuing adventure for all!