Futuristic Warrior From The Past
By: Patriot1776 and Gwydon
Forward slashes in dialog indicate when characters speak in the black speech.
Chapter XII
THOOM! A cloud of sulfurous smoke blew across the room, veiling almost everything from Romulus' sight. A group of Hell Knights stood around him, acting as bodyguards. Romulus did not honestly think the demon he had just summoned was needed, he felt that he could deal with this interloping problem quite well. But the Fallen Angel Dante ordered him to allow the demon passage into the mortal world, and not to question his motives. Romulus was about to see if it had actually come through when it suddenly floated out of the smoke. Its body had the shape of a black tattered cloak, though no face could be seen through the darkness of the cloak's cowl, but black clawed talons showed through the ends of the sleeves. It floated a foot above the floor, no feet visible. It stopped before Romulus, not speaking.
"/I presume that you already understand why you are sent, Agringar./" Romulus said, crossing his arms across his chest. His wounds still pained him a little, but he would ascend to a higher level soon enough, and he would be immortal. The floating wraith-like figure was silent, but nodded. "/Very well, carry out your task, but I will not help you./" Romulus stepped aside and motioned to the door, and the demon floated past and mounted the stairs from the basement of the island fortress.
"/Isn't sending in a greater demon overkill for the foe it seeks/" A knight asked.
"/Probably, but I have no say in its actions. I think its victim will be used as an example. It is not of our concern, now go. I wish to hunt for powerful ones to fuel my greater goal./" The demon bowed and trotted off, hooves clicking on the stone. Romulus would achieve his greater goal, and receive a good portion of this earth for him to rule after this was finished. The Heresy Lord might be a future enemy, but he had no concern for him, yet. He would be dealt with later.
-
Kikyo had left a little while earlier, and Kagome was showing them all that she had learned while training, and she had learned a lot! Meanwhile she was still in the miko clothes. She had created barriers in front of them, shown that she now had the accuracy with her bow to pin squirrels to trees at 50 yards, and shown she could now purify things. She demonstrated by grabbing InuYasha by the arm, closing her eyes to concentrate and then leaving a burn mark on his arm.
"OUCH! Stop it!" InuYasha had screamed.
"Of course." Kagome said before letting go.
"How exhaustive was that training?" Miroku then asked. Kagome then sighed.
"To be honest, those two weeks were the most brutal two weeks of my entire life. But I'm glad of it. I've now got a much better idea of just what I'm capable of. Oh, one more thing I can do now is that I can shoot sealing arrows too, but don't worry InuYasha. I don't ever plan on resealing you to anything." she said.
"Better not." InuYasha said gruffly. Kagome then started to get up to go and change, but her head suddenly snapped up and she gasped, a look of shock coming to her face, and she began to pant. She immediately sat back down. The others looked at her curiously.
"Kagome, what's wrong?" InuYasha asked, putting an arm around her.
"Something…has happened…at home…in the well. A feeling of dread…just washed…over me." Kagome said in between breaths. A look of fright then began to overtake her as she continued. "Souta…something has happened…to Souta!" she then said. InuYasha put his arms around Kagome.
"Kagome, calm down. Just calm down. We'll go and see what has happened right away then." He said.
"Take me there then, right now!" she said, as she grabbed her backpack. InuYasha nodded and he picked her up and began to bound off to the well as fast as he could with her on his back in the dark woods. The others just stared for a while at the direction they'd left in.
"Has she ever been able to do that before?" Shippo asked.
"No, I don't think so." Sango replied.
"Hmm. I think Kikyo's training may have awakened a connection with the well that allows her to keep in contact with her family on the other side. I don't know for sure however. I'm just guessing." Miroku said thoughtfully.
"You may be right on that." Sango said.
-
The doors of the well house almost splintered from the force InuYasha had slid them open with as he leapt out and landed on the shrine grounds. Kagome immediately got off of his back and ran to where the feeling she had felt was leading her. She raced into the house, up the stairs and to Souta's room, InuYasha right behind her. Souta was inside, sitting on the floor. His face was frozen into a dead stare and his body was twitching. He was also breathing rapidly, his breaths seeming as if they forced. Mrs. Higurashi just then came into the room too.
"Kagome! Thank goodness you're finally here!" she said.
"Mama, what happened!" Kagome asked, her eyes starting to water up some.
"Father and I had just returned home from a movie when we found him in here, like this. I'm about to call the hospital."
"Death…I saw death." Souta stammered out, his voice breaking at the words. Kagome looked at him, and her new miko senses kicked in.
"Mama, he's seen something, something horrible. I'm sensing an intense concentration of fear. Souta, what did you see?" she said.
"I…s-s-saw…Galahad. He…wielded…death!" he managed to say. Mrs. Higurashi then looked at her daughter.
"What about Galahad? Please Souta, tell me." Kagome continued to ask.
"I saw Galahad, and he looked unusual. He ran at me, grabbed me by the throat, and reared back to hit me." Souta was starting to calm down noticeably.
"What? Souta are you making this up?" Mrs. Higurashi asked in complete shock.
"It wasn't that he was choking me that was scaring me, it was the look on his face. It was like staring into the face of a complete loony. It was like he thought I was someone else." A light came on in Kagome's head at those words.
'A flashback possibly? Could he have had one of those? He is a war veteran, and I've read in school that that happens to war veterans sometimes.' she thought. She then turned to InuYasha.
"InuYasha, have you ever had a memory flashback? You know, where suddenly it seems as if you're reliving a past experience?" she asked.
"No. You think that happened to Galahad?"
"Maybe. From what Souta has just said, its a possibility. Souta, what happened next? Galahad didn't hit you obviously."
"He then suddenly let go of me, and looked normal for a moment. But then he screamed and bolted out of the house."
"Kagome, how could you tell that Souta was so scared? And what's with the miko clothes?" Mrs. Higurashi then asked.
"Long story mama, but let me just say for now that I am a full fledged miko, with all the special abilities. InuYasha, we need to go find Galahad. Whatever happened to him, it may still be going on. You know how dangerous he can be when he's fighting." Kagome said to InuYasha, concern in her voice.
"Right. Let's go find him then. He may be knocking the crap out of somebody and not even know it. He may have gone into something similar to my demon state." InuYasha and Kagome then immediately left the room and left the house through Kagome's window. Mrs. Higurashi then looked at Souta.
"You feeling alright now, Souta? I can still call an ambulance if you want me to." she asked.
"No, I'm starting to feel better now. I just need to lie down and relax for a few minutes." Souta said as he climbed onto his bed and laid down.
-
"Damn! I can't find his scent that well. He must have been moving fast. It's going to take me time to track him. Time we may not have." InuYasha said as he bounded from rooftop to rooftop, the baseball cap on and Kagome on his back, her hair fluttering in the night air.
"Stop a moment, I sense something." Kagome said. InuYasha stopped at the next roof he landed on, and Kagome closed her eyes.
"What is it?" asked InuYasha. Kagome waved her hand for him to be quiet as she concentrated.
"InuYasha, turn right and go that way. I'm sensing a presence of pure holiness that way." she then pointed. InuYasha complied. They continued to hop buildings, Kagome following the sense she was feeling, until eventually she started to see a white rippling aura in the distance on a building, an aura that only she could see. It stood out like a bright beacon. "That building up ahead InuYasha. He's on the roof of it. I can see an aura he's putting off that's huge." she pointed. InuYasha then picked up the pace.
When they landed on the roof of the building in question, Kagome saw that the aura Galahad was giving off was completely encompassing his body and everything within a few feet of him. She also saw faint, misty swirling colors of red and black as well.
'He's on a roller coaster ride of emotions at the moment.' she thought. To InuYasha, all he saw was Galahad sitting against the outside wall of the roof, his face placid. Kagome got off of InuYasha's back and began to approach him, but InuYasha stopped her.
"Wait, we don't know what he'll do." he said.
"It's okay InuYasha, I'm only seeing faint traces of anger in his aura." Kagome reassured him.
"Oh. So you've learned new tricks now. What do you want with me?" Galahad then spoke. They turned to see him standing, and InuYasha saw that one hand was clenched. He looked calm, but InuYasha saw in his eyes that Galahad was a tightly wound spring, ready to snap at any moment. At the same time Kagome saw his aura focus up and draw into his forearms. She was then overcome with a wave of raw anger emanating from him.
"Galahad, please calm down, it's all right. We're not here to hurt you. We searched you out to try and help you through whatever this is about." Kagome said then in a pleading voice.
"You seek to understand me? Are you trying to pry into my mind?" Galahad began to grit his teeth as those words left his mouth, Kagome seeing his eyes start to glow. InuYasha began to carefully sneak his hand toward Tetsusaiga's hilt. He didn't want to draw the Fang, but if Galahad suddenly decided to go berserk, he would have no choice to keep Kagome safe. Galahad then continued: "You cannot hope to understand that which you have not lived through. Leave me in peace, NOW!"
"Kagome, it's hopeless. He's gone into full defensive mode. We better just leave now and let him get rid of whatever it is that's still in his system. Even though I can't see his aura, I can tell he's mad, and he won't hesitate to kill us if we move toward him." Without waiting for a response from her, InuYasha grabbed Kagome and got ready to leap off the building. Suddenly, Galahad let out an incoherent shout and they turned to see him pound a hole into the low concrete wall with his fist. He then slumped over and began to cough and pant. Kagome wrenched free of InuYasha's grasp and ran over to him.
"Galahad! You alright?" she asked as she knelt beside him. He was steadying himself, still panting. She then felt all of the emotion in his aura disappear. Galahad stood up, his face back to its original stoic ness.
"Now that I have complete control over myself again, I will repent for my sin." he said, and then seemingly disappeared, InuYasha seeing a blur hopping buildings.
"What the hell? How… What…" InuYasha was completely speechless, his face agape as he looked back and forth between the hole and where Galahad had just been standing.
-
To ordinary people, Galahad looked like a blurry streak that hopped from roof to roof, visible for only an instant. But in Galahad's vision he could see everything, but it was moving very slowly, the cars on the road seeming to inch by. He was within the void once again, with a firm handle on his weak emotions. But what confused him and angered him the most was the fact that he actually had a flashback. The elders who had created him said themselves that he was immune to such psychotic behavior. The fact that he had one pointed out two possibilities, that they lied, or they had not expected their creations to last for so long. Galahad didn't know what had caused it, but he knew what he was going to do about it.
Within a few seconds, he stood at the steps to the temple that the Higurashi house stood upon. He strode to the door, entered and grabbed his gladius in one fluid motion. Mrs. Higurashi spotted him, and started to speak. Galahad didn't listen, he did not want to hear and he had one thing on his mind. He walked past her and kept going, going up the steps and down the hall to Souta's room. He silently opened the door and stepped in. Souta was lying on the bed, apparently asleep. But within Galahad's sight he could tell Souta was conscious. As Galahad walked up to the bed, Souta opened his eyes and looked at Galahad. Galahad kneeled at the bed, aware that Mrs. Higurashi was now watching him from the doorway.
"Souta, in my society, me and my fellow brethren had to adhere to a strict code. We were to protect Yahweh's people from all possible harm, and not to harm them ourselves unless it was in self defense or in the defense of another. I have broken that code, and since there are no elders now to sentence me, you must carry out the only punishment available." Galahad said. He pulled his gladius from it's sheath, took Souta's hand, and placed the handle in the boy's hand, and lowered his head. Souta looked at the blade, amazed at the fact the he was holding such a powerful sword, he could feel the handle pulsing into his hand, giving it a warm feeling.
"Um, Galahad? Is there not an alternative to this? If I understand what this punishment is, then I will not let my son do such a thing." Mrs. Higurashi said.
"That is for Souta to decide. I place my fate in his hands." Galahad said, not moving from his position. There was a pause as Souta sat, looking from the blade to Galahad, who still did not move from his kneeling position at the side of the bed.
"Well, I think if your elders were here now and knew what was going on, they would accept this. I know what was wrong with you, Galahad, so I am going to let you go. Besides, there's no way I could execute you, it would be too wrong." Souta said, going back to examining the sword. Galahad rose, his face contorted, he let out what sounded like a hissing sound, and sat with his back against the side of the bed, his head in his hands. Mrs. Higurashi then walked over and put her hand on Galahad's shoulder. It was then when Kagome and InuYasha reentered the house and entered the room. A confused look came to both of their faces at the scene before them.
"OK, what just happened here?" Kagome asked.
"Galahad just asked Souta to execute him as punishment for attacking him, but Souta spared him." Her mother replied. "I think Galahad is still in shock about that."
"What? Why would he ask such a thing?"
"Honor, that's why." InuYasha then said. "Think about it Kagome. Remember the time after my Tetsusaiga broke and my youkai blood was unleashed? The worst thing I feared during that time was that I'd wind up coming after you whenever I transformed. Imagine how I would have felt afterward if I had attacked you during that time." Kagome thought for a second. "I would have never been able to forgive myself and would have wanted to die too." InuYasha then walked over to Galahad. "Well, since he's spared you, what do want to do next? Remember that maniac is still out there. If I were you, I'd try to make up for this by-"
"I do not take advice from the likes of you, and I never will. I have not forgotten that Romulus is out there. I do not think I shall wait any longer for him to make the next move." Galahad interrupted. He was standing now, looking exactly like his former self. "I am sorry Souta, but your training will have to be put on hold. And I need my sword back." He said, looking at Souta, who seemed to realize that he was still holding the blade, and quickly handed it to Galahad.
"What about your arm? I don't think it is fully healed." Mrs. Higurashi said.
"I can fix this easily enough. Now I must go back through the well and prepare." Galahad said, sheathing the sword. He looked over to Kagome and InuYasha. "Do you wish to follow?"
"Well, I'm out of supplies, so I'm staying here." Kagome said.
"I am too." InuYasha said.
"Very well, but do not fret if you miss a battle for it." Galahad said, and he turned and left the room.
"Kagome?" InuYasha then asked.
"Yes InuYasha?"
"Start cramming two or three of everything you think we might even remotely need on the other side of the well into your backpack, and don't be afraid to take as much time as you need. Stuff it as full as you can get it. I've got a feeling that when we go back, we won't be returning for quite a good while."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because I think Galahad is going to need all the backup or help we and the others can give him in taking out this Romulus. If he's even as remotely powerful as Galahad says he is, then we ain't coming back here until he's taken care of. Kikyo was right. Everything, even Naraku, is secondary at the moment." InuYasha then said, looking at her, then his face hardened. "What are you waiting for? The longer we wait here, the stronger that maniac is gonna get! Get to it!" Kagome finally came to her senses at what InuYasha was saying and then left the room to get busy.
"InuYasha, you think this might mean Kagome may miss her next test?" Mrs. Higurashi then asked.
"Probably, but missing that's better than letting an army of those oni Galahad described overrun the Feudal Era and therefore this time as well."
"Oh!" Mrs. Higurashi then said as she realized what InuYasha was getting at.
"Oi kid. Fire up that Play Stashamacallit or whatever it is. I think I'm ready for ya now." InuYasha then grinned at Souta.
-
Galahad went downstairs, got his armor and proceeded to the bathroom to change. He did not really like these modern clothes very much, and repairs on his armor were almost complete. He suited up and was out the door in a matter of moments, leaving a neatly folded pile of clothes on the kitchen table. He went to the well house, taking note that the doors were almost destroyed. 'InuYasha has strength. I will give him that.' Galahad thought as he dropped into the well. Everything darkened for a moment, then the open starry sky appeared above Galahad's head. He leapt from the well and sat on it's edge, thinking. He was trying to remember where exactly his cryogenic facility was. From now on it would be his base of operations, but he had to find it first. He figured out where it's general location was by reconstructing a map in his head of everywhere he had been. Sure of were to go now, he hopped to his feet and sprinted off into the woods, he wanted to be there and out of sight before dawn.
-
Sitting on his futon in a well decorated temple room, the former Mt. Hakurei temple of the high monk Hakushin, Naraku was agitated.
'This is absolutely incredible. How did InuYasha manage to deafeat it? It was many times more powerful than even Goshinki. Now that I think about it, how the hell did InuYasha destroy him too? I thought his ability to read minds rendered him unbeatable. In any case, I'm stupefied as to what to do now. How can one hanyou be so impossible to kill? I may just do good then to resurrect that one group. What was it called exactly? The Shichinintai was it?' Just then his thoughts were interrupted when he felt a presence enter the room. He looked to see a black, wraithlike figure floating towards him, no face visible in the blackness of the cowl covering its head.
"Who are you, and how did you get past the holy barrier?" Naraku said, getting to his feet. The figure was silent, simply raising a talon of a hand and pointing at him. "Do you challenge me?" Naraku asked. Once again the figure was silent, but it raised its other hand, producing an orb the size of a man's head that produced an eerie red light.
Just then Naraku was flung into the back wall and pinned there. He could not see what force did this, but this was not what surprised him. A great howling sound rang in his ears, followed by wailing screams. Heat unlike he had ever felt struck Naraku, and he began to sweat. The orb seemed to grow in Naraku's sight, and within it he saw a sight he would give the Shikon Jewel away for to forget. Within the orb he saw a darkness that seemed to pull at him, enticing him to enter. Within the darkness there was flames that had no apparent source, and within the flames there were people, screaming and begging for mercy, which was answered by winged creatures not unlike the one he planted the jewel shard in. The winged demons would lift the souls and proceed to tear them apart and devour them. Then his own face filled the orb, giving him his own expressionless look. Then it began to shift, and became a face he could not describe, it was the most beautiful, yet also the most hideous face he had seen. Then the face spoke, the words threatening to rip Naraku's sanity away at each syllable.
"Did you enjoy the view? Well too bad, because I'm waiting for you here, and when you get here, I'm going to show you the true meaning of pain, understand?" It said. Naraku, who was now drenched in sweat from the heat radiating on him, nodded, fear gripping him like an iron vice. "Never forget this Naraku, youkai or not, you are mortal, and when you die, you come before me, Satan. Try as you might, your fate is set, nothing you can do can change your current path. I'll see you in a little while, Naraku, so enjoy what's left of your life. I'll be waiting." The last few words seemed to be more menacing than ever. Then the orb returned to normal size, and Naraku thumped to the floor. The black wrath figure stood for a moment longer, then turned and floated out the doorway, leaving Naraku to contemplate his fate, his eternal fate.
