Notice to all those who read this! This is my idea of what happened after Princess Mononoke ended. I wrote it for my entertainment as well as yours. This is the prologue to my fic to intro you all to what will be happening in the later chapters. Please read, review and enjoy. 

Reconstruction

"Ashitaka, where is he I wish to thank him." A beautiful middle-aged woman said to the people of her town around her.

"Milady, No one knows what had happened to him after the Nightwalker fell." A slightly younger woman rose and spoke up. "We aren't even sure he is still alive." There was a distinct trace of sadness in her voice as she said those words. That young man, she thought, had saved the lives of all those people in the town now, even after how they had shot him for doing what was right, and not letting hate blind him.

"Well then Toki, we must find him, whether he is alive or dead. We owe him that much."

"Yes milady," Toki responded and turned to the other people of the town to speak to them but someone else had already begun.

"You heard her ladyship, we have work to do. A tall man with a shaved head and a 5-foot kitana in his hand stood out from the crowd and spoke to the others.

"I will lead the search party to go and find the stranger. I will need twenty men to volunteer and meet me at the barracks. Everyone else here go to our defenses and try to rebuild and fortify the walls."

"Keno, I am leaving you in charge. Build up some palisade walls where the gate used to be and place riflemen on what's left of the walls." The tall man leaned closer to the short balding man in the blue and white kimono. A grim look appeared on his face. "We don't know how many of Asano's men are still out there so we need to be ready if they choose to attack us again." He spoke these words at a whisper so not to instill panic. "Keep your eyes on the hills until we get back."

Keno nodded and turned to some of the other men standing by. The tall man was beginning to make his way to the barracks when Toki stopped him.

"Gonza, make sure that you bring back Ashitaka soon. If any of Asano's men are still out there we are going to need him." Gonza nodded back in response.

"Don't worry, I won't fail again," he said as he made his way to his destination. For a moment she wondered what Gonza had meant by that but she just shrugged it off and made her way to the gate to start working.

Yet Another Betrayal

May this town rot in hell, thought the man on the far hill overlooking Tataraba. His forces had been decimated to a weak third of what he had originally had when he set out to attack Eboshi.

"My lord, we have captured the traitor."

Good, thought the feudal lord, now I can have some answers.

"Bring him before me." Asano had failed at his mission to take this town of outcasts but he would have succeeded if not for circumstances outside of his or even the emperor's control. If Asano didn't either find out who was exactly to blame for his folly and have a scapegoat or gather the necessary information to finally take the town, he would surely lose his head by the emperor's orders. His last hopes rode on this old monk who had betrayed him. Also, if he gave well enough information, he might consider letting him live, for a while.

"Well Jigo, it would seem that all of your plotting and scheming has finally got you into a bit of trouble." He smiled an evil smile as he approached the old monk.

"I bet you are wondering why I have kept you alive this long after you have betrayed me." Jigo could not even respond to the samurai. He kept his head low to the ground, trying not to show the fear in his eyes.

Seeing his weakness Asano continued. "Well, can you guess why you are still alive?"

"Well my lord," he stammered trying to remain calm and give the right answer to his question. "I would assume I am still breathing because of your infinite greatness and merc…uhgh!" His statement of praise was cut short when an armored forearm struck across his face and he fell to the dirt. Blood began seeping through the newly formed cut in his forehead.

"No Jigo", he said coldly, "you are still alive because I want your death to be slow and excruciatingly painful to the end. Also I need you to tell me the events of the last week after our meeting before reaching Tataraba. I need to know why Eboshi is still alive, why you failed to retrieve the Forest Spirit's head, and more than half of army is dead because of that creature's life-sucking body!"

Those last words were spoken with such force that Jigo was actually afraid that he was going to die right there. As fast as he could, he raked his mind for any material that would get him "off the hook" with this samurai's grudge. This idea might work to save him.

"My lord," he said with all of the conviction that he could muster. "I know from seeing with my own eyes that the lady of iron town is badly injured and more than half of her men are dead having fallen to the Boar tribe in battle and mostly all of her defenses for the town are decimated." Asano continued to give a cold, emotionless stare into Jigo's eyes but he still continued on with his what Jigo thought was a good idea.

"If you desired to, even with you slightly weakened force, you could take the town from her and her people."

"As for not retrieving the Head, the Mononke had a part to play in that." At that part, Asano began to chuckle. Quickly realizing his mistake, Jigo continued on with the story. "She was aided by her wolf-god brothers and her mother, Moro, along with a strong young man, who bore the mark of a demon, increasing his strength. Together they returned the head before sunrise and after the sun rose, the nightwalker fell onto the town."

"So the summary of your story is," Asano said through his chuckles, "that your incompetence left Lady Eboshi alive, if not barely, and your mission to capture the head of the Forest Spirit was foiled by a silly girl, a couple of rabid dogs and a "Demon" of sorts." His chuckling continued as he turned his gaze back towards Iron town. Without averting his gaze he began to ask Jigo more questions.

"So Jigo, you would suggest that I attack Iron Town now, while they are weak, correct?"

"Yes, my lord," wondering if his ploy worked. There was no way that Asano had known that He had returned and had been following him since his return to the island.

Asano turned to face Jigo, anger written all over his face.

"Even with Hirohito and his forces moving up from the south, who will be here in less than 2 months?"

Jigo's face went pale.

"You really thought that I didn't know did you?" Asano asked, knowing that the answer was on Jigo's stunned and fearful face.

"The reason why I wanted your help to get the iron here was so I could defeat him when he had returned to Honshu and then my rise to power would be complete."

"Besides," Asano continued. "How could that fatherless idiot and his little brother could even think of beating me with the rabble that he has mustered. Their vengeance will never be complete, so in short, your last act of betrayal has been foiled. Guards, take him to the cliffs and throw him off, his men first."

Jigo had one last thing up his sleeve but to him it didn't seem right to use this information that was entrusted to him.

"Wait!" Jigo cried, half-hoping that his words would fall on deaf ears.

Asano turned slightly, giving Jigo one last chance at saving his life.

"It's about that young man, the one with the mark." Jigo hesitated for a moment. What he was about to do would surely condemn the boy but Jigo didn't want to die, and neither did his men. I must do what I must do, Jigo thought. I am surely going to hell for this one.

"That young man, he was an Imishi prince, I swear it. He came from the East somewhere and needed to find a cure for his curse. If he still breaths, he would have surely returned to Iron town."

The truth paid off for Jigo for a change as Asano turned fully to speak to him.

"Well Jigo, today you get to live along with your men. Tie him up, we will be moving out shortly."

No one saw it but as he was dragged away, a single tear fell down Jigo's cheek.

An Imishi Prince! Asano thought to himself. If this is possible, I cannot allow him to live. He must die before Hirohito and Nobutasa can make it to these mountains or all my planning will be ruined and Hirohito might succeed with his plan.

What Jigo says is true. I know that. My men have reported a young man who came from the East three weeks ago in some random village I was raiding for supplies. That's where I found Jigo and him and I arranged our pact. When the villagers revolted to my presence, a lone warrior rode through on a red elk, used stone arrowheads and brutally killed two of my men. The same boy was seen the other day when I attack Iron town. A lone boy on the same elk killed three more men on his own after his mount was wounded and he was on the ground. One samurai survived to tell me this story, before I beheaded him. If I am to live I must kill this boy, this Imishi prince.

Asano's gaze then turned back to Iron town.

Parting ways

"I understand," said the Imishi warrior. "You will live in the forest and I will go back and help rebuild Iron town. Yakkul and I will visit you whenever we can. I will always be near."

The young wolf girl smiled as he said this, making his heart skip a beat inside his chest. She turned her wolf brother around and began to ride back to the shadow of the forest. As she rode across the freshly grown tall grass, she whispered under her breath, Please keep your promise Ashitaka.

She gave one last look back so fast that Ashitaka barely noticed. "Farewell San," he said, knowing that she couldn't hear him and turned to mount his great red elk. He saddled himself onto Yakkul and began his long ride over the mountain and along the river back to Iron town. "Come on Yakkul, I am sure they are wondering what had happened to us."

As he made his way to the riverbank, Ashitaka sighed mournfully to himself. With every step closer to Iron Town, the farther away from San he became. He loved the wolf girl with every fiber of his being, but being that they were from two different worlds, he wondered if feelings and love were enough for the two of them. Did she even love him? Was it possible for her to love a human, one of the very people she was raised to hate? Despite his best efforts, he could not remove thoughts of her from his mind.

Even if there was love between them, could the world accept them? Could Iron town or the forest accept their bond and would any attempt at this love be cursed from the start. Maybe his feelings must be carried with him for as long as it takes for either San to forget him or him to forget San.

Well now, all this thinking and I didn't realize how much time had passed, thought Ashitaka as Iron Town had come into full view.

Well I guess all that will have to wait he thought, as he could begin to see what had remained of Iron Town.