Alright, so, what's this about? Well, when I decided to write for hentai_contest's 2013 winter break, my idea was to create a single, AU/AR 'universe' and set my entries there. It's a dark, sci-fi universe inspired by Blade Runner (and, in fact, a lot of what I wanted to write would have echoed scenes and such from Blade Runner). There would have been a central plot and a few subplots involving x-overs between fandoms. Since it's a very AU/AR setting for all of the fandoms, the characters had to be adjusted accordingly, etc. I wrote this story as my first entry; as I advanced, though, I realized just how bleak the storylines were. It didn't fit the holidays. I scrapped the plot but a few ideas managed to survive in bits and pieces.
This story sets up the central 'plot': the romance that develops between Miroku and Inuyasha. It's the only part of my original idea what was any good to begin with.
"1000K"
By the year 2667 science proves the existence of alternate parallel dimensions - Nanoverses - realms populated by entities endowed with advanced psychic abilities. A Civil War among the Nanomons threatens to spill into the entire Universe. The Armistice allows refugees to pass through Earth into exile. The Kiyoshi, guilds of trackers and slayers, are empowered to neutralize illegal Nanomons incursions...
She said it would be like any other job. Simple. Easy. How it turned into shit? Miroku could not fathom. Not that it mattered. Kiss good-bye your career - was it your 2nd or your 3rd already? - your future among the Kiyoshi exploded like your face verses Inuyasha's fist.
God, Inuyasha, the snarl that flushed the 1000K! Inuyasha, half-human, half-Nanomon, that target he had been sent to neutralize. Miroku witnessed Boss Sango's meltdown at the Kotsus shenanigans. He preferred the amalgam's hatred to such a woman. At least Inuyasha would have only killed him.
"Boss Sango," he sighed, lowering himself into the mattress, inch-by-inch, pressing his hands into his eyes as if to blot her image. The pain of last night's festivity etched into his essence. The gloom about his apartment did not help his recovery. The splatter of rain against glass gave that scene a rhythmic undercurrent. Everything, it felt, dwindled into pitch although the watch claimed to be at noon.
"Bitch won't stop," the amalgam snorted then curled onto the edge of the mattress. Cloaked only by his hair, he folded his legs and his arms into an alien position. He sat in front of Miroku to watch. Framed by his hair - a wild, free silver - his eyes were slits that gleamed amber-like electricity. They were not so overtly Nanomonic when they met.
Oh, yes, he chuckled, that was the moment of calamity.
Naraku LTD commissioned Boss Sango's crew to examine the company's latest recruits. They manufactured weapons coveted by warlords at the Nanoverse. Technically, it was against the Armistice to transport their equipment in to or out of Nanoverses. Among refugees, legal and illegal alike, weapons were traded for favors... The company was frequently targeted for exploitation.
Miroku and the Kotsus were in the middle of their ELV exam when that creature sat in front of his equipment.
He had been a monk until 'circumstance' forced him to join the Kiyoshi. He had been smitten with Boss Sango. Although it was to be said that his eye, freed from celibacy, roamed without discipline. Inuyasha awoke a dimension of passion he scarcely imagined. After 30 minutes of (heated) back and forth he knew Inuyasha was illegal and should have been neutralized. But he couldn't... He, just, couldn't...
"She's mad, really, really mad," he replied, "Inuyasha."
The Nanomon smiled over, above where the Human lay. That hair dangled like a curtain to shroud their faces. Their eyes shut. Their lips danced. The constraints of reality ebbed as it felt as if the world beyond their embrace did not exist.
"Not a 'Yashie?" he growled, "are you not my 'Rokie?"
"How do I reduce you to a name? You are where words fail... God, I love you."
There had not been an apology and probably would not be.
Miroku tried to cover Inuyasha's tracks but Naraku LTD caught onto that fraud. Citing overwork and stress as defense, Boss Sango let the mistake slide, if the monk neutralized the target. Strangely, they paid Miroku a bounty of 1000K yet they would not pay Boss Sango for anything until a proof of kill was offered.
Inuyasha caught wind of that plot and vanished but it was not too difficult to locate that creature. Miroku formulated a plot of his own - to evade the Kiyoshi and to share the money - but the opportunity did no come. Mail - intercepted. Calls - avoided. He followed, nevertheless, trailing his target across the Pacific, dodging his increasingly frustrated and accursed Boss Sango. Until he dropped the pretense of subordination altogether.
The first face-to-face meeting allowed only a bit of his plot to be aired.
As much that could be told while pinned onto a wall.
"I swear it, Inuyasha, probe it! I knew what you were and I could have killed you then and there but I couldn't, I, just, couldn't."
Shocked, the Nanomon spun the Human - who had yet to offer a whit of resistance.
"What do you know? I'll strip your guts and taste your blood - if you know anything - you know that," he seethed.
"I know ... look, look ... I know how to help us."
Inuyasha released and stepped aback.
Theirs had been a five minute reunion of fists to face and, at the wake of their pleasantries, that lot was trashed.
"What do you mean by this?"
"You took my breath away. I never thought I would be smitten by a man let alone a Nanomonic man."
The creature shook then fled into midnight.
When they met again it was not quite so violent - it started and ended immediately with Miroku knocked onto the ground and Inuyasha crouched by the victim.
The amalgam sat like a lotus just long enough to taunt the man: "So you're the Human who wants to run with Nanomons..."
"Maybe," he struggled to reply, "Inuyasha, I've got a batch of Ramen, if you want it."
The Nanomon and the Human stood.
"You've killed my kind..."
"You've killed mine, too,"
"Why? Why do you want to be different now?"
"I didn't want to be a Kiyoshi..."
The invitation was rejected. But, day by day, he felt those alien eyes watch him slunk in to and out of his apartment. And, day by day, he toiled illegal among Americans as Nanomons were among Humans. Then, amid a torrent of rain, they crossed paths at a street alive with crowds. Somehow. Someway. They walked together...
They shared a bowl of Ramen under the doorway of a bookstore.
"I missed you yesterday; I feared that Sango found you. I actually, really missed you. Never thought I'd say that. Maybe I share my mother's taste," he confessed. "So, what becomes of us now?"
Miroku planted a kiss at Inuyasha's lips - the very first contact he initiated. It was a long, deep kiss. Time slipped into memory. What did it matter? If they were kissing on the street? If they were touching, feeling each other's passions? The crowds were too distracted to care. Soon even their bustle faded.
It was the prattle of rain that drew Miroku out of the trance.
Inuyasha left with his red haori cloak and fled to his lair, to his world, to do what it was that Nanomon's did when Humans did not watch.
Life, as he understood it, ended. Only the future promised peace. If that future came with Inuyasha...
He forced himself out of bed. At the table were his pistol and his UMPC - the tools of the trade - as important now as then. Boss Sango did not forget or forgive. But a message from Yahiko, unread, might be the key to salvation. And, if so, the hacker would be worth every part of the 1000K.