Chapter 1: Alice

Sunset. Soft light colors melted into darker ones until they faded into black. Two birds flew across the sky towards their nest to get a good night's rest. Busses roared by the sidewalk as Alice, dressed in her usual short gray and white kimono with a jet black ribbon tied elegantly around her waist and a somewhat shredded black scarf wrapped around her neck to keep warm from the cool autumn winds, walked down the street towards her home: the Kururugi Shrine.

The girl sighed. Today had been a horribly boring day with her running errands while her parents worked at her shrine's annual Doll Festival of Wishes. Sure the errands were better than going to school, but she was really looking forward to actually working in the festival with her parents this year. Ever since she was six years old, Alice had always wanted to help out, but her father said to wait until she was fifteen to actively aid in the festival, and now that she was finally fifteen and old enough to do so, she was sent to run errands instead.

"Go get this Alice. Go get that Alice. Ugh!" the girl muttered to herself, "I should be at the festival working, not going to get some extra food."

To tell the truth, Alice was kind of grateful that she didn't have to go to school today. Every time she went to school no one would talk to her or even stay near her unless they absolutely had to. She didn't mind being alone, it allowed her to think more and be less distracted, but she at least wanted someone to talk to when her life became more stressful than she could handle on her own. Besides, no one could survive alone forever.

Being so caught up in complaining about her errands and thinking about school, Alice failed to notice that she had arrived at the Kururugi shrine. The shrine itself was pretty big, with an elegant red Tori gate that marked the entrance to the stone paved courtyard of the shrine. To the left was a small wooded area where the girl spent most of her day, while to the right were some small storage houses and a few guest houses - each sporting the same white walls and dark brown roofs. Finally, the largest of the buildings, Alice's house, was in the center of the property. Like the other buildings it too had white walls and a dark brown roof, but unlike the others it was much more extravagant with two floors and a porch that wound around it.

Long stone steps stood before the shrine while a small stone wall cut it off from the surrounding area. Today in particular, many small stands selling a variety of items were scattered throughout the courtyard for the festival that was taking place that day. Alice sighed and began to walk up the steps and towards her father's stand.

Once she reached the stand where her father worked she dropped the bags on the counter and spoke, in a sweet but cold voice, "Okay Father, I got what you needed. Now can I help out?" And for Kami's sake please don't send me on another errand.

Alice's father turned around and emptied the bags, not looking up at his daughter until he completed his task. Once finished, he sighed, looked up, and said, "Okay Alice, you can help out."

Finally! Alice squealed and jumped for joy. "I'll go change now!" she said excitedly.

But before she could take one step, her father reached out and grabbed her shoulder "Hang on Alice, I didn't say you could help out just yet. Just do me one more favor and get some of the amulets from the shed, and then you can help out," he said with a stern voice that promised some sort of punishment if she didn't do as her father said.

Alice opened her mouth, about to argue with her father when she saw that it would do nothing but delay her in achieving her desires, thus she simply shut her mouth and ran to the shed to get the amulets. This better be the last side task she thought bitterly as her small black shoes tapped lightly against the ground.

When she arrived at the shed, she opened the door and looked into the darkness. Dang. I should've brought a flashlight with me she thought as she began to walk around, her eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness. Suddenly, she felt her leg bump against something hard and narrow. Looking down, Alice spotted a sword leaning on a shelf next to her feet.

"Hmmm. I don't remember us ever having a sword in the shrine before," Alice curiously observed as she picked up at the jet black weapon and turned it around in her hands, inspecting it. Making up her mind about asking her father about the item, she put it in the loop of her kimono's obi and resumed her search for the amulets.

"Where could they be?" Alice asked, growing impatient. If this takes any longer, I'm going to miss the festival!

"Oh, that's right!" she realized, remembering where the amulets were, "We put them in the back of the shed last year, so they should still be there!"

She squealed excitedly, knowing that her errand was almost done and she could finally help out in the festival. Alice then ran to the back of the shed but when she ran over a spot of the floor that held a symbol of a star in the middle of a circle on it, the wood suddenly gave way and sent her crashing to the ground.

Alice winced as she hit the hard, cold floor. "Ow! What was that?" As she began to sit up, she noticed the hole her leg was in. "Dang. I knew this place was old but not that old" she grumbled, "I'll have to tell Father about this later."

But as she began to get up she felt the floor give out again. Not again! Alice braced herself for the impact, but what she saw next made her heart skip a beat. Under her was a light blue vortex that led to who knows where and she was falling straight into it. Her scream was cut off as she fell into the blue vortex and a wave of blackness swarmed over her vision.

Yay for first story! xD

First of all I have to say that I don't own any of the characters in this (Rumiko Takahashi does of course) and the whole story is based of off the game Inuyasha: Secret of the Cursed Mask which I'm currently playing because I found it in one of my old stacks of PS2 games and every chapter I write will correspond with where I'm at in the game.

Second, this story is rated M just in case. I don't know exactly where I'm going to go with each chapter, but hey better safe then sorry.

This first chapter is my version of the very beginning of the game (which is sadly all I could get through today xP) and as you can see I used the name Alice for my character, however Alice in this story doesn't look like the character in the game (sorry but I can't stand that look .).
Alice in this story wears a short gray and white kimono (comes down to right above the knees) with a black obi and a thin black ribbon crisscrossing around it and a shredded black scarf. She is tall, has pale skin, ice blue eyes, and her hair is black with white bangs curling around her face.

Well that's all the information I'm giving out so far~
Please review (It helps in my already poor writing) and in a few days I'll probably post the next chapter!