Of This World And Yesterday
Then I can do something for you even though you're lost in time
You won't have to be my heaven. I won't have to be your friend.
Daylight, daylight comes every time it's calling
Daylight, daylight it goes away again now
-Daylight, Lyrics by Matthew Sweet
Chapter 2- Enemy
Mizuno Ami walked out of Juuban High School, glancing around worriedly. Students streamed past her, shouting and calling to each other as they sped off on their various ways home. Nobody paid attention to the girl with the short blue hair, leaving the building uncharacteristically early. Accustomed to staying late for computer club or science club, Ami was usually greeted by her sister senshi, as they were released from their own extracurricular activities. Or in Usagi's case, making up yet another test. But today was no ordinary day. Setsuna called late last night, requesting to speak with her. And more importantly, Setsuna had emphasized the importance of not speaking to the other Inner Senshi about their meeting. Though the soldier of time also insisted on there being nothing wrong. It was puzzling, and Ami tended towards a worrisome, overactive imagination sometimes.
Looking back and forth, she finally spotted who she looked for, standing beside a small compact car, quietly speaking with Hino Rei. The black haired miko was frowning, shaking her head at something Setsuna said, violet eyes troubled. Rei's appearance was startling, since Setsuna seemed to want secrecy, but Ami was also glad that there was another Inner there. Though she supposed it made sense, if Setsuna only wanted to speak with the two of them. Rei went to T.A. Private Girls School, not Juuban, like the others. She wouldn't have been able to speak to her about the phone call whether she wanted to or not. Setsuna would not be likely to tell Rei what was going on before Ami arrived.
"Setsuna-san? Rei-chan?" Ami asked as she hurried over, clutching her satchel of books and folding her arms around it. Quietly, seriously, she asked, "What's going on?"
Their conversation silenced, and Rei turned to Ami, giving her a small smile. "Setsuna was just beginning to tell me why she wanted to speak to just us." The smile faded quickly. "We've got some reconnaissance to do, looks like."
"Reconnaissance? What are we finding out?" she asked, edging closer to the pair. As she had feared, it was, indeed, 'senshi business.' Which meant an enemy, or even something worse.
"Let's get into my car," Setsuna offered sensibly, pulling some keys out of her purse with a jangle. She turned and walked around to the driver's side, unlocking the doors for the other two. Rei slipped in beside Setsuna, and Ami took the back seat, setting her books down beside her as Setsuna pulled into traffic.
After a moment, Setsuna began to explain herself, checking her rearview mirror and glimpsing a worried looking soldier of water. "Last night I came across a small discovery at another jinja. There was a youkai there."
"Youkai?" Rei asked, somewhat startled. "A demon?"
"Yes. I believe an inu-youkai, a dog demon, to be more specific. It's most likely, considering he was able to sense my presence. I believe it was through scent." Ami and Rei took that in for a moment, considering Sailor Pluto's usual ability to move completely unrecognized and unseen, or disappear in an instant.
"You want us to check out this jinja, then?" Rei continued after a moment, guessing Setsuna's intent. "Me for demonic energy, youki, and Ami...why does Ami need to come?"
"Thanks, Rei-chan," Ami remarked with a rare display of dry humor.
"Eh...sorry, Ami-chan...no offense."
Setsuna moved the car into another lane, bringing them out of the Juuban district, slowing the car as they reached a red light. "Though our appearance may alter between senshi form and civilian form, our scent does not. I'd be recognizable to him, if he is an enemy. I was not attracted to the area due to a sense of youki, but to a ripple in the timestream."
"A ripple?" Ami blinked, thinking on that and holding a hand out for a moment, allowing the small blue Mercury computer to appear out of subspace. She began to tap against the keys with a hand, rapidly initiating a program on temporal distortions. "You want me to scan for it?"
"I've already determined it's inside the jinja, somewhere. There's an old wellhouse, up against the treeline. The youkai emerged from there, with a girl. They spoke fairly familiarly, so this may have been going on for some time now."
Rei leaned her head against the backrest, folding her hands in her lap and glancing out the window, watching buildings and people fly by. "So this youkai is traveling with a girl from this era?"
"That is my assumption."
"Setsuna-san," Ami queried from the back seat, wondering aloud now that she had her program established, "If there was a distortion, why did you not correct it immediately?"
Rei was curious to see Setsuna's reaction, so she turned her head to see a frown deepen on the older woman's face, wrinkling her brow. "The ripple is very small. That is why I want you to investigate it. Movement of a person from one time to another usually causes massive distortions."
"Like when Chibiusa came," Rei murmured, watching as Setsuna turned a corner, bringing them to the opposite side of the street from a well kept old shrine. She sat up a bit straighter, unbuckling her seatbelt. "We'll check it out."
"I'll be here. Don't reveal yourselves unless necessary."
Ami tilted her head to the side delicately. "I think that goes without saying, Setsuna-san."
That earned her a glance though the mirror, and an arched eyebrow. Setsuna had selected the these two Inners because of their talents, but remained worried, mainly because she knew how the Inners worked. They usually had all the stealth of a wrecking ball.
There was the sound of doors slamming to a close as Ami and Rei stepped out, Ami keeping her mini computer in her hand, closing it then tucking it into her skirt pocket. She glanced at Rei, who was looking back and forth to cross the street.
" Ami-chan," Rei said as they darted across the afternoon traffic, "follow my lead, okay? It's a jinja, it can't be too different from home."
Running along behind her, Ami shrugged, shaking her head. Rei had a point. And she didn't have any brilliant ideas of her own. So she might as well. "Okay, Rei-chan. Have you been here before?"
They reached the other side, and began to go up the shrine's steps, now taking their time as they talked. "No. Higurashi Jinja, I think it's called. Grandpa would know more about them than me. There's a family that lives here, too, I think. I'm not sure."
"Then we'll have to avoid questions."
"Yes. Let's say Grandpa wants me to look at other shrines, to see how they're run too. You're coming with me."
Ami nodded and came to the top step. They paused under the arch of the high torii, glancing around to get their bearings. It was not so different from Rei's Hikawa Jinja; a nice house off to one side, a wide, stone courtyard and the shrine itself. And as Setsuna said, against the treeline was a small mini-shrine, a wellhouse closed up from prying eyes.
"I don't see anyone...."
"Good. Then let's try 'looking' for someone," Rei decided, starting forward as Ami drew out her computer again, watching the screen and scanning. A small schematic of the shrine's layout was reflected on the monitor, and with her program running for temporal anomalies, she was able to immediately pick out the epicenter.
"Setsuna-san was correct. The wellhouse."
Rei nodded, and they headed towards the small structure in the shadows, looking around as though lost. Slowly, they angled themselves closer to the wellhouse, keeping an eye open for members of the Higurashi family. "You'd think somebody would be sweeping or something," Rei mumbled, used to her own chores around the shrine. Her head snapped around as Ami slid aside the door, revealing a set of steps down into the wellhouse.
"Empty," came the warning, and Ami slipped inside, Rei backing in behind her a moment later. It was a small place, dark through faded yellow light cut in though clerestory slats along the upper wall, providing just enough light for the two detransformed senshi to see by. It smelled of age and dust, though the rim along the outside of the well was clear, evidence of people touching it recently, and often. Lights and readings flickered over Ami's screen, various bits of data being recorded as the computer's sensors tracked distortion levels. She descended the steps, peering into the depths of the well for a moment, seeing only darkness and emptiness below. The line running along the computer's bottom bar was straight, save for the center. After a moment, in close proximity to the epicenter, it beeped. "There's a spike."
"Which means what?" the other girl asked as she began to step down closer to Ami.
"Just confirms what Setsuna-san said. You sense anything, Rei-chan?"
A frown formed on Rei's lips, and she closed her eyes, reaching out with her senses. There was an aura here, powerful enough, clashing and mingling with another powerful one. Carefully, she ran the edge of her mind along the swirling aural patterns, attempting to part them from one another, so strangely they were twined. "Youki. Strong. Though mixed with something else."
Rei opened her eyes and looked at Ami, once again frowning at her computer screen. But before Ami could tell Rei of what she was starting to discover, a sound from above startled them, making them look up.
Kagome sighed, half bent over from the weight of the books in her backpack. She marched along, heading back home. Her friends had asked her to go out for a snack after school, and though she had wanted to join them, the fact that there was an annoyed hanyou tailing her all day long was more than enough incentive to go straight home. The only reason Inuyasha hadn't ended up sitting in on her classes was under the threat of a string of 'osuwari.'
"Mou..." Kagome stopped abruptly, and was almost bowled over by Inuyasha, walking a half step behind her. She wheeled on him. "Inuyasha!"
"What?"
"You can't keep following me all day!"
Over the course of the day, he had become completely entrenched in the idea that something in this era was after the Shikon no Tama, and by virtue of that, Kagome. The last thing he wanted was for another incident like the Noh Mask, barely getting there in time before something almost killed her. Evil monsters or bizarre Sailor Senshi. Either way, now that she was out of that big box shaped building she called 'school,' he was keeping close. Watching from across the street and avoiding people was just not going to happen anymore.
"Feh!"
"I'm fine! If something were going to happen, it would have by now."
"Then why was that senshi person trying to attack you?"
"Mou..." Kagome groaned. She didn't want to tell him her theory, that the person hadn't been after her at all. Though of course, his next question would be why was she there in the first place, and of course, Kagome had no answer to that. So it was possible he was right, in which case she did want him close. "Inuyasha, following me all day is just going to get you noticed."
"So?"
He was being petulant, and before anyone on the street began to wonder why she was arguing with a boy dressed like he belonged in an old samurai movie, Kagome turned and began to walk again, glad that the torii to her shrine was in sight. "Inuyasha, you can't be seen here. People will stare."
Frowning, he leapt up ahead of her, taking her aback somewhat. He was frowning, slightly puzzled and almost looking hurt. "So you don't want to be seen with me?"
"Eh?" Kagome blinked. "No, Inuyasha, you just...you're not dressed like everyone else...and...well...people here..." she moved forward, grabbing his arm and helping to move him along. "...well...." She trailed off. People here...they wouldn't understand.
"They're not used to seeing hanyou," he sniffed, annoyed that she was dragging him along now. Throughout the day, he'd kept an eye on people from above, also searching out for the unmistakable scent of a youkai. And, though dozens and dozens of people passed below his perch, not one carried the scent he was waiting for, and not one blazed with the garnet colored aura that this 'Sailor Senshi' bore.
They reached the steps of the shrine, and Kagome released his arm as she began to walk up. "No..." She sighed, glancing at him sideways as they crested the steps, high enough to look out over most of the street below. He had such a confused look on his face, slightly mixed with injury. She realized he was thinking she didn't want to be seen with him. It wasn't that, of course...but were someone to see dog ears, claws, golden eyes...who knew what the reaction would be? Nightmares of a thousand science fiction movies flashed into her head; thoughts of him being carried off somewhere for some mysterious testing. Or possibly worse- him fighting back and blowing up half of Tokyo. Either version would be a disaster. And either way, she couldn't explain it all to him. He understood she was potentially in danger. That was all he needed to know to obsess over it.
"Oy...Kagome...." he frowned, noticing a figure in a uniform move into the wellhouse. A growl began to form in his throat. "Kuso."
Following his gaze, she turned just in time to see a flash of long hair move though the doorway, disappearing inside. Before Inuyasha could leap forward, she grabbed him. "Wait, Inuyasha, just wait a second. Do you smell a youkai?"
He hesitated. She sighed, nodding and removing her backpack, setting it down at the gateway. "Don't panic yet. Let me check it out first. Stay outside, I'll go in-"
"Like hell!"
"Osuwari!"
Splat.
"Bitch!"
But Kagome had dropped her bookbag, and was already running across the courtyard, straight for the wellhouse and the figure that disappeared within. A second later, she heard the familiar sound of Inuyasha, leaping quickly ahead of her and landing lightly on the wellhouse roof. The shoji was opened wide, revealing two girls within, looking up, having heard Inuyasha's arrival above.
They stood in the shadows, the further one just beside the well, in a white and blue school uniform, navy colored hair curling gently around her face, cerulean blue eyes wide and startled at Kagome's sudden appearance in the doorway. In her hand, she held what seemed to be a small computer or palm pilot, clutching it tightly.
The second girl stood on the steps descending down, wearing a grey uniform, shorter and with the markings of a prep school. In the shadows, it took Kagome a moment to see them clearly, and when she did, she tried to keep her face responseless. It was the girl in the prep school uniform. Long, straight black hair, with wide, violet colored eyes. It took a moment, but in that moment, Kagome recognized her as the girl from the hospital, all those months ago. And she was standing right there, barely a length from the Bone Eater's Well.
Ami and Rei spun when they heard a girl's voice call out to them, questioning, "Excuse me. What are you two doing in here? It's dangerous." She stood in the doorway, the light from the early evening behind her, silhouetting her in a square, darkening her features into a mass of indistinguishable shadows.
Recovering first, Rei sighed and smiled, doing the best job of acting she could. "Sorry. I'm Hino Rei. This is my friend, Mizuno Ami." From behind, Ami gathered herself together and shut the top of her computer, smiling gently and bowing politely as Rei introduced her. "Sorry, I know we shouldn't be here...we were looking for someone...I'm from the Hikawa Jinja, over in Juuban." The girl who introduced herself as Rei laughed lightly for a moment, and Kagome blinked, backing up a step as the two girls started to approach her, leaving the wellhouse without being ordered to. "We were looking around...sorry, Grandpa said I should look at other shrines than ours...and we couldn't find anyone, so we started looking. I'm sorry if we've disturbed anything...."
Warily, Kagome backed away, hoping Inuyasha had sense enough to keep himself away from the roof's edge, and hence easy visibility. Rei and Ami exited the mini-shrine, not looking back or resisting at all. Slowly, Kagome began to relax. They didn't seem to be there to cause any problems. Besides, neither of them could travel though the well anyway. All they would have found is an empty old well. Now in the light, she could see that they were smiling, Rei with an embarrassed look, caught in poking her nose where it didn't belong, and Ami shyly, meeting someone she did not know.
Outside, Rei watched the other girl. A simple, public school uniform, green skirt and collar, red scarf and high white knee socks, typical of a junior high student. Grey-blue eyes, and long, full black hair. From the auras she detected inside the building behind them, one distinctly belonged to this girl before her. She reached out mentally, and brushed across a second signature, behind and above them. Youki. She wished there was a way to warn Ami of what was behind them. Looking would be too obvious, and may provoke an attack. There would be no time to henshin.
She turned her attention back to the other girl, and after a moment, frowned. Looking again, there was something oddly familiar about her, though Rei could not quite place it. She saw dozens of people at her shrine, and more from school. Where would she have seen this girl's face? But even as she wondered this, the other girl was bowing politely.
"I'm Higurashi Kagome. It's all right. But the wellhouse can be dangerous if you're not careful. It's a steep drop to the bottom."
Curiously, Ami stepped forward, standing beside Rei. After fighting along side the temperamental senshi of fire, Ami could see the way her back straightened up, slightly stiffly, as though trying to hide something. It was a warning. Something was here. "Konnichiwa, Higurashi-san. We were just looking...we wouldn't try to look down something like that. Sorry for poking around. It's terribly rude of us."
Kagome sighed, relieved. If they were dangerous, they would have attacked by now, wouldn't they? A smile spread on her face. "It's okay. Really, don't worry about it. You said you were from the Hikawa Jinja, right?"
With a nod, Rei moved to fall into step beside Kagome, who was returning back to the torii for her bookbag. Ami trailed a step behind, quietly looking around for others, or, more importantly, the youkai Setsuna warned them about.
"Yes, we are," Rei was saying with a shrug, trying not to stare at the girl, attempting to place where she had seen her before. "Grandpa thinks it's time for me to look at how other shrines are run," she laughed, tossing a strand of long hair over her shoulder and shrugging. "Just doing my granddaughterly duties."
Despite the disconcerting feeling Kagome was getting from these two girls, she felt sure their laughter was genuine. Which was strange and somehow contradictory. "Well, I can introduce you to Jii-chan. Mama's probably fixing dinner by now...I'm sure that if you want to talk to someone about our shrine, Jii-chan would be ecstatic to tell you the history of everything." Reaching the dropped bookbag, Kagome bent down and began to reassemble the spilled books. She was startled to see two other sets of hands appear to help her, scooping up the scattered pencils and papers.
"You were in quite a hurry, weren't you?" Rei asked, watching the other girl's bent head. Kagome was glad the other two couldn't see her face. It gave her a second to collect her thoughts.
"I just saw someone I didn't know snooping around my house. So I came as quickly as I could."
"That's understandable," Rei laughed, then shrugged. "I'd love to talk to your Jii-chan...."
Below, across the street, Setsuna could see the figures of Ami, Rei, and the girl who had ascended the steps a minute earlier. The youkai was not there, though she had seen him go into the shrine with the girl. She kept the window of the car rolled down, glad that the weather was a bit cooler today. It had been unbearably hot the last week.
Then her car shifted, and Setsuna grabbed at the steering wheel out of instinct. Blinking, she swiveled around, back and forth, looking for another car, something that had bumped hers. Before she could find anything, the sound of honking car horns and crushing metal drew her attention to the street. There, on the black pavement, a long, serpentine creature slithered, and again her car jumped as a coil of the monster's gigantic body moved its way forward, slamming against cars and causing them to slam into each other as they braked suddenly for the monstrous obstruction to the street. People closest to the thing leapt out of their cars, swearing or screaming, running in the opposite direction as the snake reared itself up and backward, slashing out with its tail. Setsuna was stumbling out of the passenger seat, sliding across as her car was flipped up and into the building next to her. It took her only a moment to slide into the alley the creature came from, and to lift her hand into the air.
"Pluto Crystal Power! Make-up!"
Kagome was just turning, the two strangers with her, as screams erupted from the street, and the sound of crashing cars, overturned and then exploding. A hissing sounded, incredibly loud, and a towering, flat head reared its way upward, slashing out across the street and breaking light poles, electric sparks geysering up from the broken wires.
The computer was in Ami's hand again, and she was typing away rapidly with one hand, data and statistics scrolling rapidly into her vision. What she saw displayed before her made her go a very drastic white, stomach dropping out and growing queasy in shock. "Rei-chan! It's...it's a daimon!"
"What?!" Rei shrieked back, but knew that Ami was only confirming what she was beginning to sense. The thing did not look like a daimon. Too big, too solid...and as it roared, whipping its tail around, it blasted into the hill leading up to the shrine, nearly taking out the steps. All three girls backed away, hands covering their faces as dirt sprayed upward. Too big, too solid...too powerful.
But Kagome had turned, and was running back into the courtyard, shouting the same words over and over again. "Inuyasha! Inuyasha! Youkai! Inuyasha!"
A red streak was already flying forward, white hair streaming out behind him as he raced down to the creature below, Tetsusaiga already drawn and transformed. Kagome ignored the two other girls, now finding themselves quickly melting away, disappearing around the corner of the family's house. She ran down the steps, watching as Inuyasha engaged the battle.
It was youkai, he could smell it. The snake creature reeked of youki, swirling around it in massive clouds of stench. The snake seemed to realize an opponent was coming, and swiveled its head around, jerking itself out of the way as Inuyasha made his first pass at its head, sweeping out with the Tetsusaiga. Roughly, the blade scraped along the heavy grey scaling of the serpent, squealing on the impact though causing no damage.
The tail snapped around, heavily swatting at its smaller opponent, whacking him hard in the back and sending him flying forward as he came down to land. Instead, he spun midair, hitting the brick wall of the building across the street as Tetsusaiga was smashed out of his hand, losing its transformation and skittering away down the pavement. He dropped hard to the sidewalk below.
Landing with a thud, he rose expecting the thing to be after him again, to finish him off. But it was paying no attention to Inuyasha, and was instead charging straight for the uniformed figure running down the steps of her shrine. It was after Kagome, and the tama around her neck.
"Dammit!" As he leapt forward unarmed, an orb of purple light blasted its way out of the alley beside him, smashing into the snake's side and sending it reeling back into the street. There was a familiar scent now, the same one he battled last night in the darkness. She was now running forward, ignoring him, her carved staff uplifted in her hands and preparing for another volley at the thing.
Inuyasha, for the time being, decided to operate on one concept.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
It was up again, the blast of the senshi's Dead Scream damaging, but not fatally. A large patch of the shining grey scales were now smoldering, steam rising from the impact of the energy bolt. It hissed, revealing very large, long fangs in its mouth, slit green eyes glowing as it turned its attack to the two figures below, realizing it would not be able to complete its mission with them harassing it. The tail whipped out again, smashing its way though nearer cars, and Inuyasha watched in shock as the senshi beside him leapt up equally high and fast as he did, clearing the oncoming chunks of metal. Still in the air, he saw her go on the offense again.
"Dead Scream."
Mist coalesced around her, and another ball of light was released from the orb end of the staff, hitting the snake full in the face as she dropped again the street.
It was an open opportunity to finish the thing off. "Sankontetsou!"
He ripped though the thing's neck, slicing though it with his claws. Cleaved into two parts, the body thrashed as the head of it smacked to the ground several lengths away.
Behind him, he heard running, and then Kagome was beside him, the dropped Tetsusaiga in one hand from where she had retrieved it. She angled herself down a bit, looking into his face. "Inuyasha, are you okay?"
"Feh. Fine," he replied as he took back his katana, now rusty and decrepit again. With a frown, he began to sheath it, but something stopped him. The sound of heels striking cement. Inuyasha and Kagome looked up to see the black and red clad senshi approaching, her staff leveled for another blast.
"Step away from the youkai," she said flatly, garnet eyes hard and looking at Kagome. Normally, that tone was not one to be contested with. It was an order.
Defensive fury welled up in Kagome. "He just helped you kill that youkai! Why are you trying to...."
She stopped abruptly as a bubbling sound reached her ears, and she spun, Inuyasha and the senshi following her gaze to the headless body laying behind them. Black blood was seeping from where Inuyasha's Sankontetsou had ripped it in half, but now the skin was oozing, sputtering, and the body jerking as something new began to regenerate out of the empty head.
"Shit!" Inuyasha swore as Tetsusaiga once again grew ready for battle in his hand. In that bare instant it took of preparation, the thing's body snapped upward, arching and sprouting. Seven thin lines shot from the neck, each forming an eyeless head of teeth and fangs.
The long tail was already wrapped halfway around the street, and with heads now returned, it lashed around, forcing the Inuyasha to grab Kagome and leap upward to avoid being hit.
From the hillside, two new voices entered the fray, leaping down from the jinja's high entrance.
"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"
"Mars Flame Sniper!"
A roaring torrent of water poured out of the silken strings of a winged white harp, tearing into the base of the neck and sending the youkai sprawling, rolling into the showering sparks of one of the broken lightposts. From the other new senshi, a single arrow of fire sped, striking one of the heads just below the jawline and searing it off, scorching the new head to close, before another one could regenerate out of it, leaving it helplessly thrashing without teeth to bite with.
The blue clad senshi saw this and called, "Mars! Use the Mandala! Burn the heads to a close before they form!"
"Right!"
"Shine Aqua Illusion!" A column of water tossed it back again, pinning it to the building as the one called Mars rushed forward.
"Burning Mandala!"
Rings of fire shot out at random, slicing though two more of the heads before it freed itself from the deluge sent by Mercury. This was more than enough time for Inuyasha to land with Kagome, and decide that he was not going to let a bunch of girls finish of this thing off without him.
He left Kagome behind an overturned car, knowing full well she was going to come running out into the fray again once he was gone. But it gave him a moment to get back into the battle. Destroying the entire area in front of Kagome's house wasn't something he particularly wanted to do. The Kaze no Kizu would be used as a last resort, should the senshi people not get the hint when he removed the remaining four heads at once.
There was a moment's opening as Mars began to power up for another run on the thing with her rings of fire. He took it to swing Tetsusaiga, while the remaining heads were focused on Mercury, once again preparing an attack to cover for Mars.
The massive blade sliced though easily, cleanly taking off the remaining heads, sending them flopping to the ground as their necks began to bubble up again. The senshi saw this, and Mars continued her attack again. "Fire Soul!"
And now, from Mercury, "Shine Snow Illusion!"
Two heads were hit with the ball of fire, flames consuming them as the remaining two were hit with a tunnel of snow and ice, freezing them closed as Inuyasha landed, spinning around to watch as the remaining senshi once again gathered the mists to her, a "Dead Scream" blazing though the fallen teeth and fangs, vaporizing them before any kind of new body could form.
With a satisfied snort, Inuyasha kicked one of the chunks of the snake's body out of his way as he began his way back towards Kagome, who was now heading back into the mess that was the street. Sparks were still showering from one of the lightposts, the scalded and frozen remains of the youkai sprawled out before them. The tip of its tail twitched once, then twice, then lay still.
The three Sailor Senshi watched as Kagome reached Inuyasha, silently asking if he was all right. They watched him shrug in response, then both of them turned to face the other three. The tallest of them, the first one they met, stood to the center, Mars and Mercury fanning either side of her, Mercury holding her winged harp again, Mars with a bow of flames in her hand, an arrow nocked and ready to fly, should anything happen.
Then the center one spoke, from before, in black and red. "Invited by the new era, the senshi of Revolution, Sailor Pluto."
In turn, the other two introduced themselves, warily watching Inuyasha and Kagome. The other with long black hair spoke next, in a sailor fuku of red, a purple bow on the front. "With the blessings of the planet of fire and war, Mars, Sailor Mars."
And then to conclude, the final one of the three, dressed in blue, with lighter blue ribbons, "And with the blessings of the planet of water and wisdom, Mercury, Sailor Mercury."
They hesitated, weapons ready and waiting for movement on the other side. The other two hesitated uncertainly for a moment, and then the girl spoke. "Higurashi Kagome. And Inuyasha."
Sailor Pluto spoke first, using her staff to gesture at Inuyasha, then the snake. "He is a youkai, like this one. He does not belong here."
"Feh!" Inuyasha cracked his knuckles in response, and the three Sailor Senshi tensed, ready in case he should attack. "I belong here just as much as you do, babaa. I can smell the age on you."
Pluto's eyes went wide, and then she almost chuckled in in amusement at his response. Nobody had ever called Sailor Pluto an 'old hag' before. But her amusement was short lived. The Timestaff was pointed straight at him. "You do not belong in this era, youkai. There are temporal distortions all around you. They must be corrected."
She lifted the staff in the air, and Mars followed her lead, pointing her arrow straight at Inuyasha. Mercury, however, was frowning as she was watching this. As the other two senshi prepared to fight again, Kagome placed herself in front of Inuyasha, betting that if Pluto had told her to move before, she was not out to attack a human. A moment later, she was proven correct, as they lowered their weapons.
"Move out of the way!" Mars called to Kagome, who now had her hands out, spread to cover as much space as possible.
"No way! Inuyasha just helped you kill that thing, and now you're going to try to kill him? You'll have to take me out too!"
"Kagome, get out of the fucking way!" Inuyasha snarled as he tried to push her aside. Who knew if they would take her seriously, and attack regardless? Of course, this promptly earned him an,
"Osuwari."
Splat.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?!"
The three senshi were simply staring as Inuyasha hit the street, face first, as the girl ordered him to 'sit'. Kagome was ignoring his shouting, and was standing firmly where she was, glaring hard at the three senshi across from her. But then Inuyasha stopped in his tirade over her stupidity, ears swiveling around. "Oy. Kagome. What's that noise?"
"Noise?" Kagome blinked, glancing at the mauled corpse of the snake. It lay still, unmoving. It was Sailor Mars that heard it first.
"Sirens," she said, glancing at the other two beside her. "The police are on their way."
"Then we'll finish this later," Pluto decided, focusing narrowly on Inuyasha. "If the distortions are coming from that wellhouse, then you won't go very far."
The three turned, preparing to run before the police arrived to interrogate, or reporters arrived with photographers for the news. But what Kagome said next stopped them.
"Hino-san! Mizuno-san! Wait!"
Mars and Mercury froze, Pluto a moment later, all turning with varied expressions of surprise on their faces. Kagome had taken two steps forward. "You can hide from the police in my shrine, if you want. Just don't try to kill Inuyasha...."
There was an exchange of looks between the three senshi, an unspoken agreement. Recognition though a transformation suggested an enormous amount of spiritual power, and was virtually impossible, save for another senshi, which was difficult enough. Then Mars spoke. "Thank you for the offer, Higurashi-san. But that's not a good idea." The sirens grew louder, and she glanced furtively towards the growing wails. "Meet us at sunset, at the Hikawa Jinja, in the Juuban district. We'll discuss more then." She lowered her bow of fire, and then it faded from her hands. "No fighting. Promise."
"How can we trust you on that?" Inuyasha asked suspiciously, aware there was something strange going on though the undertones of this conversation. Kagome, though calling Mars and Mercury something else, had just surprised them, and taken the upper hand somehow.
"Sailor Senshi do not lie," Pluto said simply. And as she spoke, she lowered her weapon, letting it rest in both her hands. The three of them broke into a run, leaping high and quick, heading for the alley across the street.
As Pluto and Mars disappeared into the shadows, Mercury hesitated a moment, turning back to them. "Inuyasha...it would be best if you hid yourself. The police will want to question everyone here. They will not like finding..." her brow knotted quizzically. There was a discrepancy in her readings on his youki. A fluctuation she had noticed just before Kagome interrupted them. She had no experience with their race, but she knew how to analyze her data, raw as it was. "...they will not like finding someone with the blood of a youkai in them."
And with that, she leapt after the other two.
Terms of note:
youki: a youkai's ki force, or spirit. Think an aura.
torii: a gateway to a shrine
hanyou: half youkai
fuku: literally 'uniform' though usually used when referring to one of the senshi's Sailor outfits
osuwari: SIT!
henshin: transform
konnichiwa: hello
babaa: old lady, old hag
Well, one more chapter down...so the ball is rolling now. As for where the snake youkai came from, well, wait another chapter and things will begin to clear up on that. ^.~
Arigatou, minna-sama, for all the reviews! I love the feedback...I can't wait til you start getting to some of the comedy parts. Hey, people from the past in the present...you don't think I'm leaving out some jokes on that do you?
I mentioned before, this is based off the manga formats. In the SM anime, daimon were those usual underclad monster women. In the manga, they were these kind of cloudy creatures, and I tried to describe them that way in Chapter 1. Rei and Ami are both a little...surprised...to see a daimon looking the way it does here. Why does it look like a youkai? Is it a youkai? Well, again, wait another chapter and things will clear up on that. ^.~
Also, one more arigatou, this time to Quicksilver! Thanks for the feedback on the chapters. ^.~
Hm, not much by way of notes this time around. So, until next chapter.
Ja ne!
~Queen
Coming up next in Chapter 3: Witch-
A shallow pool lay in the middle of an expanse of cleared floor, water on its surface very still and reflective. The lip of the water was upraised, and she was able to sit on the ledge if she balanced carefully.
She peered inside, and it showed her the past.....