Ladida!! 'Inuyasha' is a work of fiction created by Rumiko Takahashi who rocks my world! I think Mother Goose may have had a hand with this chapter.
Next chapter will not start with once upon a time, I promise!
**********************************************************************************************************************************************
Once upon a time there was a little girl called Rin who sat on the back of a two headed dragon and watched her guardian, the stunningly handsome white-haired Demon Lord, Sesshoumaru, as he negotiated with a man dressed in a funny kimono.
In actuality, Sesshoumaru was doing nothing of the sort. 'Negotiate' was a new word that Rin had learnt recently and simply wanted to use it in a sentence.
Sesshoumaru glared at the man in the strange clothes. The Ringmaster of Cirque de Sengoku, for it was he, cowered before the Demon Lord but only very slightly. It will not do well to show fear in front of this tall, cruel-looking man. Under normal circumstances, the Ringmaster, who was a very sensible man, would have given the Demon Lord what he demanded so that the Lord would be on his way and leave off intimidating him with that stone cold glare. But this was no normal circumstance, reasoned the Ringmaster, much was at stake.
The circus troupe had been making its merry way towards Osaka that day and the Ringmaster was busy dreaming of the profits he would make in that bustling city. He thought about the number of hampers that he could buy with that money, all filled with mince pies and an assortment of fruit jams and decorated with ribbons of various colours. Maybe he'd even get one with a jar of coffee and a novelty butter knife.
All of a sudden, a white-haired young man with purple face marks and an elegant silk kimono blocked his path and demanded his most prized possession. The Ringmaster gasped when he understood that this Demon Lord wanted the star of the freak show, Jaken the Icky Bumpy Thing.
Sensing that the loss of Jaken would mean no hampers, especially the ones that come with coffee, the Ringmaster did a most unbelievable, most courageous, most foolish thing; he stood up to Sesshoumaru.
"You...y...you see m'lord," stuttered the Ringmaster, "Jaken is our m...m...main a...attraction and without him, I...I am...I'm af...f...fraid that we'll b...b...b...be out of b...business."
Sesshoumaru glared.
The Ringmaster cowered.
Sesshoumaru arched an eyebrow menacingly.
The Ringmaster's knees wobbled.
Sesshoumaru slowly but deliberately placed a clawed hand on the hilt of Toukijin and the Ringmaster began to ponder that maybe being out of business isn't so bad, considering the alternative, when a sobbing, raspy voice spoke behind him.
"Oh, oh, oh, Sesshoumaru-sama!" wheezed Jaken as he came running towards Sesshoumaru. "When I heard that there was a delay because of a demon, I knew! Oh, I just knew that you would come for me!" Jaken sobbed in happiness and loudly blew his nose in his sleeve.
Sesshoumaru toyed with the idea of making a run for it, leaving Jaken with the troupe forever.
"Of course Sesshoumaru-sama will come for Jaken-sama," piped Rin. "For how will Rin eat mince pies if there's no Jaken-sama for Rin to sell?"
Jaken gave Rin a wounded look. Sesshoumaru turned and walked off with a carefully executed air of disinterest.
"Hurry Jaken-sama," cried Rin as she tugged on the reins. Jaken gave an indecipherable sound of panic and scrambled on to Ah and Un and soon the dragon creature was tottering off after the Demon Lord leaving the Ringmaster to thank his lucky stars that he was still alive.
Now not far from where this incident took place and quite some miles above ground level, Inuyasha, the younger half brother of Sesshoumaru, who also had white hair but was ever slightly less handsome and stunning than the elder sibling, was climbing up a beanstalk so huge it could surely win the grand prize at any county fair.
Inuyasha climbed and climbed and climbed. After several hours of climbing, Inuyasha reached the top and found himself in a strange land where everything is gigantic. The leaf of the beanstalk on which Inuyasha stood leaned against a wall near a window. He jumped onto the window sill and looked around.
On one side, Inuyasha could see a quaint English style garden with silverbells, cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row. On the other side of the window sill, is a country styled kitchen with pretty fruit stencilled in the walls in pastel colours, honey coloured cabinets, a wooden dining table and chairs decorated with folk art and along the window sill near where Inuyasha stood, grew thyme and basil in little metal buckets (well, little as buckets go in this world of gigantism, they were still bigger than our red-clad hero).
Normally, Inuyasha would be alarmed at the size of everything and at the fact that he knew the garden was English styled and that he understood what folk art is. But everything was in keeping with the giant beanstalk and it all sort of made sense in a weird, strange way so Inuyasha decided that there was absolutely no cause for alarm.
Someone came into the room and Inuyasha hid behind the basil bucket. A giant woman walked in and sat on a painted chair. She was slightly muddy and sweaty and it seemed that she had been doing some gardening. The woman sat there for a short while fanning herself with her straw hat and then stood up and went to the counter quite close to the window. She took a cookie from the cookie jar and then fiddled with the knobs on a black box next to the jar.
"I want to change the world! Nido to mayowanai..." the black box boomed.
Inuyasha's hair bristled.
He recognised it all too well; after all, it starred in one of his nightmares. It was that cursed device from Kagome's time that has the ability to capture and repeat one's voice. If Kagome should ever get hold of one...Inuyasha growled softly.
'No,' he thought, Kagome must never get her hands on one. It was then that Inuyasha decided that the black box must die!
************************************************************************************************************************************************