Chapter 2
It was near sunset in Inu Yasha's forest, and so far, 3 youkai, 1 oni, and 4 bandits, had discovered the priestess' and her wounded attendant's feeble hideout; all of them had tried to kill the women and all of them were slain by Kagome.
She had killed many demons while living in Feudal Japan, but today was the first time she had ever killed a human before and there was just something about killing youkai and killing humans that just seemed different to Kagome. In her despair, Kagome broke down and cried after finally killing the last bandit. She sobbed and sobbed for an hour, Jasmine Paradise, being close to a demon herself, couldn't see what the little miko could possibly be so upset about. Nevertheless, she tried to console her newly found shisuta no houjin, or Japanese sister.
"Why are you crying, otome?" asked Jasmine Paradise, figuring the girl's native tongue might help to soothe her distress. Kagome blushed, momentarily forgetting being upset; otome had many meanings, along with 'girl', otome also meant 'virgin'.
"Oh, I'm sorry for crying on you," said Kagome, hastily swiping at her tears with her sleeve, "Its just I've never killed a human before." Her head bowed back down in shame that she let a stranger see her in such a weak state
Kagome looked at Jasmine Paradise with such a child-like innocence that, although she was a demon, her heart melted and went out to the muda babu. "Listen, kecil satu, being a jinn I can not begin to understand what you are going through, but listen to me," Jasmine Paradise's fingers curled under Kagome's chin and lifted her face so that their two brown eyes collided with each other's, "It was either you kill them or they would kill us. In my years I have come to realize that there are two ways that a human can kill: In kejam maksud, with cruel intentions, or in keamanan, protection. What you did, child, was the latter. They would have kill us mercilessly and take our prized possessions had you done nothing to stop them, so cease your crying."
Kagome felt a little bit better at Jasmine Paradise's words, but she still felt like a killer. Looking around, she suddenly realized how dark it was and with a gasp jumped to here feet. It was almost nightfall and she hadn't even gathered a fire! She sprinted through the circle of shrubbery with such astonishing haste Jasmine Paradise, in spite of her confusion, watched on with laughter. Kagome disappeared and reappeared several times, in their little clearing, each time coming with wood in her hand and leaving to go retrieve more. It baffled Jasmine Paradise to now end why Kagome was so worried and why she needed such inedible and unnecessary things. Finally, Kagome returned for the final time, this time with several small twigs. She sat down and set to making a fire. "I'm sorry about that, but I didn't realize how late it was, and I needed to get a fire going!"
"We don't need fire, Kagome, you can see clearly this night," Jasmine Paradise said, wondering why herfriendwould gather wood for fire on such a warm evening. Even if she needed light, the full moon would light up the forest like more than any fire could.
"I probably could but I'm human, and humans are used to making a fire for the night," she explained.
Jasmine just shrugged, she would never understand human's needs waste use unnecessary resources just because they were there. But not to worry, she thought happily to herself. My kin-sister Kagome will no longer see the need to burn fires.
Darkness was falling on them fast and Kagome had barely got the fire going, so she frantically put sticks and twigs into the fire until it was big enough to put logs on; by the time she could finally relax, the sky was totally black and the only light around besides the fire was the mystical white orb in the sky that was showing through the gap in the tree tops. She sat cross-legged and leaned against her arms.
"How long will it take for you will be until your leg heals?" she asked, figuring that if she wasn't human, her healing cycle might be different. She was right.
"I should be able to walk alone by morning." Jasmine Paradise said.
"Oh, okay." She looked up into the sky, trying to decipher which stars belonged to which constellations. They stayed like that, quiet in contemplation and enjoying each other's company. Kagome wondered what Shippou and Kaede were doing right now. She hoped they weren't worried too much about her, but she knew that it would be too naïve to assume that they would know that she was alright and was sitting here just as content and relaxed as possible.
"You know, I've never told you was a jinn was," Jasmine Paradise abruptly, surprising Kagome out of her reverie, "I suppose it would be very useful for you to know this in the future." Kagome sat up straight, suddenly looking like a child who getting ready to be told their favorite bedtime story.
"A jinn is a mystical being that is half-demon, half-human and can live for about 2,500 years. Humans and other demons like to trap us in talismans or other objects that can seal us away, so they can us as wish-makers." So a jinni is like a genie. "Jinni" and "Genie" sound the same, maybe that's where the word comes from Kagome thought absent-mindedly as she absorbed the story.
"Jinni are bound by the geas, or jinni law, to serve the one who frees them from their prison, giving them three wishes. There are several ways get the geas to break your bond to your master." She spit out the word like poison, "If they ask you to do something that would go strongly against your human morale (such as killing a friend, a loved one, or even killing in general if you were that righteous) your bond with your master will break.
"You could also, if you felt confident enough, challenge your master to an event of his or her choosing. If you win, then you're free, if they win, you have to give them 3 additional wishes." She added that almost like an after thought, like some sort of warning for the future. Kagome couldn't see how it was a warning, seeing as she wasn't a jinn. She was so enraptured by the story that she didn't notice that Jasmine Paradise started to tell her the story in second person.
Jasmine Paradise continued, "You can control up to 12 different types of magic and only of them come to one without any training. Once you become a jinn you either contain the power of aeromancy or pyromancy—the ability to control air or fire— depending on what you natural form is; if its fire you obviously control fire and if you're natural form is smoke you control air. After that, you can learn to Heal, Change Shape, Control Nature, Clairvoyance, Telekinesis, Transmutation, Dowse, form Protection shields, Control People, cast Illusions, and use Curse spells.
"There are 6 levels of jinni; the youngest and least powerful is the Baybe, who knows less than four types of learned magic (ones that you had to train to possess). After that is the Jann, this level knows 4 to 6 types of learned magic. Following that is the regular Jinn, who need to know up to 7 types of learned magic to progress to the next level, which is the Shaitan, who learns 8 types of magic. After that, it's the Afrit, who knows about 9 or 10. And finally, the oldest and most powerful jinn (assuming each jinni takes their whole life to get to this level) are the Madrid, who knows 10 or more types of magic.
"If you are a trapped jinn you get 3 wishes per master, so if you were to go to one master and they use up 2 wishes and somehow go to another master but he only uses 1 wish before you go back to your previous master, they'd only get one wish that they didn't you give them. After you give them their 3 wishes, you're free until you get freed imprisoned again.
"One thing that is of vital importance to you is that you never let your master know is your true name. If they discover it, they have unlimited power over you, and not even the geas can break the link to you and your master if they use it. It's not a human like you have, Kagome, it's your jinn name. My jinn name is Jasmine Paradise—"
"Hold on, if you said your name should be secret, then why did you tell me?" Kagome asked bluntly, too surprised to remember to wait. Why would she confide something so important to someone she hardly new?
Jasmine Paradise shrugged like she and replied coolly, "You are not my master, therefore you can not use the geas to affect me, and you never will—not with the gift I'm giving you."
Kagome suddenly felt the aura of excitement around Jasmine Paradise, and it made her wary. "What are you going to give me?" she asked slowly.
Jasmine Paradise simply smiled, "A priceless once-in-a-lifetime gift," she looked up at the full moon, which was now almost straight up in the sky, "It's time."
Kagome suddenly felt drowsy. So drowsy, in fact, that her eyes lids dropped and her head tried to lull backwards until finally, she fell backwards and could only barely make out what Jasmine Paradise was doing.
Jasmine Paradise crawled around from the other side of the fire, and kneeled over Kagome, praying in a language Kogame couldn't understand. Kagome fought not falling completely under the blanket of sleep.
"Don't struggle, Kagome. It will be less painful if you succumb to the sleep." She said through her prayers.
"Huh…?" Kagome slurred. The more the world around her became blurry, the more determined she became to stay awake. Jasmine Paradise kept praying, and between each prayer, pleaded with Kagome to sleep. Finally, Jasmine Paradise looked up at the moon and sighed sadly, "It's too late." Before Kagome could attempt to ask her what she meant, Jasmine Paradise took out a sharp athame and drove it into Kagome's heart. Blood splattered everywhere and Kagome felt blood and bile rise in her throat.
"W-what are…you d-oing?" Kagome could barely speak with the blood filling up in her throat. Tears slid down her cheeks as Jasmine Paradise yanked the knife out. What scared her was the fact that there was no pain as you would expect, only a constant itching at the site. That was what was scaring Kagome; Could I already be dying? She thought hysterically. Tears welled up in her eyes.
Jasmine Paradise looked at her with sad eyes, "I'm sorry, Kawan, but you need a mortal wound for this to work, but don't worry," She tried to reassure upon seeing the look on Kagome's face, "This spell is going heal you…and convert you."
What? Kagome thoughts, confused, convert? What does she mean?
Jasmine Paradise started to chant, but this time, Kagome could understand,
"My sister's body is a lump of earth, close to death.
I, messiah to my sister, encircle her with care and compassion
My healing energy and words of magic bless my sister's body and keep it alive
But her soul is only half, and by this spell I convert her and give her full life, the life I myself hold
I call to the God, Sovereign Jinn, and ask him to send me to the door of her soul
Her soul is cold, very cold, close to death
Her soul calls to me; I follow it to see she is being torn by her human demons
I fight and kill the demons, giving her soul room to habituate to her new jinn soul
I heal her torn body
My sister lives again
She is complete again."
This was the last thing Kagome heard before the weight of the stress and exhaustion finally hit her and she blacked out. White streaks from the moon seemed to come down and converge into one large tunnel, encircling Kagome. Jasmine Paradise backed up, smiling from ear to ear. She watched as Purplish-blue energy mixed with silver and swirled down the tube, entering into Kagome's now unconscious form.
This made Jasmine Paradise's smile faltered a bit. She had been to many conversions as it is hard to have blood-born jinni (since jinni are converted bare) and never has it happened that more than one color ray come down from the moon, let alone one that wasn't silver. It worried her.
After awhile, nothing happened, and Jasmine Paradise now was in a panic. What had happened? Did she do something wrong? The thought that she just killed her new soul sister was almost unbearable, and tears welled in her eyes. But her fear was superfluous, as Kagome was lifted up into the center of the tunnel, her priestess attire disintegrating and showing her naked form. Immediately in its place was a purple-blue belly-top, with a silver under-top that shows at the base of the neck. Her pants were also a translucent purple-blue Indonesian pants laced with silver thread.
White smoke with glittering diamond-like particles surrounded her body in a cotton blanket. Jasmine Paradise's pouch shook violently and ripped open, two pink shards flying to the cloud tunnel, joining with the 4 shards that had been in Kagome's pouch. The pieces flew to the now-unconscious miko, encircling her with the opaque mist. The six of the shards joined at the middle of her forehead and became one larger, but still serrated, stone.
The smoke carefully lowered the newly converted jinn to the ground. Jasmine Paradise stared at her with elation and happiness that she had finally and successfully converted Kagome. She walked over to Kagome and touched the girl's forehead to make sure her head wasn't hot, as sometimes happens when one goes through the conversion. But to her surprise, when she touched the jewel, which was now lodged Kagome's forehead, she felt lightning shoot up her arm, making the jinn fly backwards.
"Oh, Sovereign Jinn, 'tis the jinn of which you foresaw would come," she groaned, but more out of happiness than pain. Sovereign Jinn would be so pleased that she had converted the jinn that would be the savior of all of her kind! It was predicted that a jinn would come with the power of the miko that could fully control the Japanese Shikon no Tama and would be, in fact, protected by it and every part of its shattered existence once the miko converted to the jinn form.
Jasmine Paradise's joy quickly turned in contemplation as she observed Kagome. How was she going to get her sister over to the Arabian Desert, she had left her ostrich, Lekas, back with her tribe? How foolish of me. Why did I leave him there? If I waited till she woke up and then tried to fly to Arabia then my tribe would have left and I won't be able to find them. The only thing to do would leave her here; I'll just cast a protection spell and be off. So with that in mind, she murmured a quick spell, lodged Kagome against somewhere safe so that she couldn't be seen until she woke up, and then took off. But in her hurry, she didn't realize that her spell lack the required magic behind it, therefore rendering it useless, making Kagome completely vulnerable.
Somewhere else in the very same forest, Kusemono Kijutsumaru, a sorcerer from the Northern Lands, ran with a mystic pink bottle with precious gems of blue green and purple surrounding it, along with strings of white and blue pearls. He had just killed the Lord of the West's most important consultant to get this bottle, but unfortunately the Lord had seen him, and most unfortunately, the Lord of the West was merciless when you steal from him and kill his servants. It had taken all of his magic to keep Lord Sesshoumaru off of him, using transportation spells and masking spells to hide his scent. But it was taking its toll, wearing his stamina down, whereas Sesshoumaru's strength had not wavered one bit. As it was, Kitjutsumaru could feel the demon's angry aura coming up fast. In a panic, He darted through a ring of shrubbery and tried to continue running; however, he tripped over something and hit the ground hard.
Surprise and curiosity made him forget his hunter, and he turned to see what made him trip. He took a better look in the dim moonlight and found with horror that what he tripped over was a pair of unmoving legs. He crawled to the legs and spread the branches. One look at the body made his heart give a dreadful lurch. It was a jinni, what would jinn be doing in Japan? The dark aura became more obvious and reminded him of his dilemma and he got an idea; he placed the bottle down next to the beautiful jinn and folded his hand as if getting ready to pray.
By the mage's blood that runs within me, I call on the spirits of the Gods
This demon has been caught in the act of cruelty and is henceforth bound to the object I wield in my hand, binding them together until the time of the demon is complete
Until her cruelty is repaid paid in servitude to another, she will be imprisoned in this object of magic for all time.
Smoke surrounded the demon and made a cyclone, whisking her body into the beautiful bottle. Of course, he hadn't seen her do anything wrong, but that is how the spell was made and still worked whether the jinn was innocent or not. Now that he had imprisoned her he could use her to get away from the Lord of the Western Lands. But as he was about to free the jinn back out, a green whip came out and hit his hand, making the bottle fly across the open area. With dread in his very bones, he turned to face the red-eyed demon lord.
Needless to say, this Sesshoumaru was thoroughly incensed. The foolish mage before him had killed his closest advisor and had stolen his magic urn, passed down from his grandmother to his father to him. The mage ran, used magic on him, and now he did something to the urn, he sensed something different, a curse maybe. Yes Sesshoumaru thought with cool malice this human will die. Without warning and without thought, Sesshoumaru flicked his wrist, sending the tip of the energy whip around the human's neck, and then pulled back, decapitating the weak creature in front of him. He felt somewhat better, but now he needed to figure out what that wretched human did to his family heirloom. He walked over to the bottle and picked it up.
Before he started back to his palace he picked up the scent of something familiar. It was a sweet, floral perfume that he could only remember one person having. But what was InuYasha's wench doing out here when he himself was no where to be scented? He looked around, his sharp amber eyes surveying the area. No matter where he turned, the scent would never get weaker or stronger, which would indicate which direction the object had gone. It confused him, because that would have meant that the miko was right next to him. His eyes narrowed. That was ridiculous. Neither his perfect sight nor his perfect sense of smell had ever failed him once in his entire existence yet they both told him two different things.
Despite his outward look of indifference, Sesshoumaru was a curious demon by nature and he wanted to find out the riddle to this oddity, but he couldn't leave his palace unprotected any longer, not while there had just been a murder. His decision made, he worried himself no more and took off with the bottle in hand. Little did he know that all the moving of the jeweled bottle had started to wake up the confused and aggravated miko/jinn.