Of This World And Yesterday
Bees accomplish nothing save as they work together, and neither do men.
-Elbert Hubbard
Chapter 4- Speak
Kagome held on tightly, leaning forward as Inuyasha leapt from rooftop to rooftop. The sun had sunk into the western horizon several minutes ago, and the two of them were now rapidly making their way to the Juuban district. Kagome only knew the approximate area of the Hikawa Jinja. Asking Jii-chan only produced confused directions, and recollections of Grandpa Hino when they were a bit younger. Not that Jii-chan and Grandpa knew each other well. They were associates, both in the same business of running a jinja.
The police arrived just as Kagome and Inuyasha had cleared the torii to her shrine, and she had quickly shoved him into the house, as Mama and Jii-chan determined it safe enough to come out, after all the clamor of battle just outside their home. Souta arrived on their street to find police cars and yellow 'Do Not Cross' tape, sectioning off the area. None of the officials knew exactly what to do with a gigantic, burned and frozen snake carcass. Specialists from several fields were trying very hard to figure out what should be done about it.
Meanwhile, reporters swarmed around, snapping photographs of the carnage. Rumors immediately began to fly about the thing; a mutated experiment? An alien invader? Demons from another dimension? A gigantic sea creature, bent on destroying Tokyo? Just like Godzilla! Wow, they were lucky it was good and dead now. Who had killed it? The Sailor Senshi? Had to be! Who else could have taken on that thing? Awesome!
It took some few minutes for detectives to make their way up the shrine's steps, hoping to get statements from the Higurashi family. When all but the missing Souta claimed to have hidden in the house after the noise, they were eventually left alone. Eventually, Mama insisted that her son be allowed to come home, passing though the restricted zone, the detective smiled and had a very confused and worried Souta brought up.
And now Kagome was hanging on to the back of Inuyasha's red kimono, glad they were able to slip away. There were fewer people and cleaning crews as time wore away, and they snuck out the back, giving terse explanations to Kagome's now very worried family. The evening was cool, and she felt oddly glad of the warmth radiating from his back. Despite her being glad they had friends to travel with now, she liked being alone with him sometimes. Though Sango, Miroku and Shippou must be at least curious was to what was taking Inuyasha so long to return. Her disappearing for a couple days was not too unusual, but Inuyasha didn't usually remain. Feh, Miroku-eechi-sama was probably reasoning they had run off to...Kagome blushed scarlet, trying not to start giggling hysterically or acting bizarre as she rode along.
"Oy, which way?"
"Um...ah...left. I wish Jii-chan could give directions. We're in Juuban, it can't be that hard to find."
He glanced over his shoulder at her, watching how she was trying very hard to control her face. Kagome could take the strangest ideas into her head sometimes. "So, you said something about recognizing one of them?"
Glad to be able to take her mind off of her very complicated relationship with Inuyasha, Kagome nodded, pushing some of his white hair out of her face as it flew backward. He landed on another roof, then leapt up again, gliding along on the currents of wind. "The Pluto one was the one you fought last night...but it was Hino-san...the one who said she was Mars, she was the one I saw in the hospital I told you about. I'm sure of it."
Again, he landed on a rooftop, pausing and sniffing the air for possible youkai. Smelling none, he also thought to sniff for the scents of Sailors Pluto, Mercury and Mars. Pluto smelled of age and mist, an old smell though not unpleasant. Mars smelled like fire, slightly sulfuric though with the scent of cedarwood, incense. Mercury, also true to the element she displayed, had a clear scent of rainwater, freshly fallen and sweet. The last thing the Mercury one said was slightly troubling, however. Did she realize he was hanyou? And if she did, what of it? Would that change anything? "How many of these senshi people are there? Are they all girls?"
Kagome clung on as he took the air yet again, and a moment later she spotted the familiar layout of a Shinto temple. "Inuyasha! There!"
"I see it!"
She hesitated as he continued to move along, thinking about his last question. "I don't know...I mean, like I said, they're just urban legends...when I was at Mimi Hanyu's concert...ano..." she mentally ran though all the people she saw. Seven on one side, then the other two on the stage, the ones who said they were Uranus and Neptune. Were they enemies of the others? Would they be there? But then there was also Pluto, who she had not seen...so...at least ten...and one had been a man. Though was he a senshi? Kagome sighed. "Expect at least eight. Maybe a couple more...and there was the one guy with them at the concert."
"Yeah," he replied, and she could hear his tone was serious.
"Inuyasha...are you worried?"
He landed for the last time across the street from the jinja, turning his head to look at her as she leaned around to face him. "At least eight of these girls who can throw out magic like that? That know how to work together? Kagome, you don't bring your arrows to this era."
She sagged against his back, taking that in. With all she had told him of the senshi, and what they had seen before...if they turned out to be enemies, then she would be of very little help in a fight against them. No Sango, no Miroku, not even Shippou to help them out. A ring of very powerful adversaries, strangely dressed though they may be. Though through it, she couldn't help but feel pleased. It was a rare event that Inuyasha admitted, especially to her, that he was worried about anything. "It's all right, Inuyasha. They won't be enemies. And if they are..." slowly, she slipped her arms around his neck. "...we'll fight our way out, don't worry. Really."
He nodded, tightening his grip on her, and then leapt across the street, across the jinja's torii, and then down into a tree lined courtyard.
Kagome tapped him on the shoulder, and he released her, letting her slide down to the ground. Furtively, she brushed off the skirt of her school uniform, letting the familiarity of the motion calm her as Inuyasha looked around. It seemed empty, though there was light in one of the windows of the house.
"Let's try the shrine..." Kagome murmured in suggestion, and the two of them began to walk forward. It was quiet, though the wind rustled the leaves in the trees, muting out the sounds of the city beyond the temple. A moment later, they spotted several figures standing outside the doors to the shrine, three they recognized, and two new ones they did not. They were speaking in soft tones to each other, and they seemed to realize at once they were being watched.
Standing in the shadow of the shrine, they turned, quietly waiting as Inuyasha and Kagome approached, warily looking around. Pluto, Mercury and Mars stood to one side, just behind the other two figures, another girl and a tall man. He wore a slim tuxedo, a black cloak rimmed with red, and a white domino mask over his eyes, preventing recognition. Clear blue eyes peered out from behind the mask, black bangs just falling into them.
However, it was clearly the new girl who they were there to meet. She wore the same kind of fuku as the other three, though the skirt was layered in many colors, yellow, pink, navy blue, a navy blue collar, high white boots, and a pair of smooth white wings extended from her back. Long blonde hair was done up into two pigtails, trailing down, and she turned wide blue eyes onto the newcomers. Rather than a tiara like the others, between her brows rested a perfect, golden crescent moon.
"Konbanwa!" the girl called, waving a white gloved hand and smiling. Sailor Mars tried very hard not to roll her eyes, and failed. The greeting made Inuyasha and Kagome stop, a little surprised. A warm welcome was not exactly what they expected. She was walking forward, trailed by the man, and then a step behind her the other three senshi followed, with varied expressions of suspicion, curiosity and wariness.
Inuyasha frowned, ready in case they were to attack. Before him, they blazed power, clouds of aura swirling hugely around them in varying shades of red, blue, gold, and silver. Around him, he could pick up other scents, lining the edges of the trees there in the jinja. Others were watching from the shadows of the trees, observing from the darkness. Scents cascaded against each other, mingling, though though them all he picked out a faint tracery of flowers and rain, familiar somehow, though blended heavily with the scent of damp earth...the smell of either a flowerbed or a freshly turned grave.
"Who are you?" he asked after a moment, as their approach halted.
The girl with her hair in buns and pigtails blinked, then looked a bit embarrassed. "Oh! Sorry!" A gentle smile crossed her face, very lightly touched by the light of the sunset behind the shrine. She lifted a hand and rested it against her chest lightly, indicating herself. "I am Sailor Moon."
It was from her the aura of silver came, radiating outward warmly, with a simple purity of power and brightness. Inuyasha twitched, a bit uncertain for the first time. No attack, no evil aura to make her an enemy. But still, he wasn't going to let his guard down. Not in front of Kagome. But before he could speak, she was continuing, "This is Tuxedo Kamen-sama...You must be Kagome and Inuyasha...you've already met Pluto, Mercury and Mars. They told me you helped them fight with a daimon...."
"Daimon?" Inuyasha growled. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about. That thing was a youkai!"
"Youkai?" Sailor Moon frowned, puzzled, glancing to the one she introduced as Tuxedo Kamen, as though he would explain.
He glanced at Inuyasha, frowning at him as he asked: "Do you know why it was after you?"
"Feh! For the same fucking reason you all were trying to get to Kag-"
He was silenced when Kagome set a hand on his arm, gesturing for him to be quiet. When he started to protest, his voice faded away as she reached around her neck and drew out the pendant of the Shikon no Tama. In the sunset dimness, the broken crescent of the jewel glittered in various shades of pink and blue, setting Kagome's face into a contrast of light and shadow. "It was probably after this."
That was enough for Inuyasha to get his voice back. "Kagome!"
Hesitantly, Sailor Moon stepped forward, hands up, open, gesturing nervously for peace when Inuyasha turned to snarl at her. Carefully keeping her distance, she peered at the gem around the other girl's neck. Its light reflected in her eyes. "What is that?"
"You really don't know, do you?"
The response was a shaking of heads, and eventually Tuxedo Kamen prompted; "We can't know what it is unless you tell us...is this why you thought Pluto and the others were attacking you?"
Kagome looked from one face to the next, and saw the same expressions of curiosity and wariness. Though there was little evidence of open hostility. They were just as afraid of she and Inuyasha as they were of them. "You weren't after the Shikon no Tama at all, were you?"
"Shikon no Tama?" Pluto managed, incredulous. "Impossible."
"Why's it impossible?" Inuyasha responded, watching the eldest of the ones there with the most suspicion. She was the first to appear, and he got the feeling that she was the one who would be most likely to want to attack him. Though at the moment, she was frowning, stepping forward to stand beside Sailor Moon, and take a better look at the jewel Kagome was holding.
"Shikon no Tama no longer exists. It has not for centuries."
"It's back again," Kagome said, puzzled at the other woman's knowledge of it. Jii-chan sometimes rambled of keychains called 'Shikon no Tama,' but nothing serious like this. "It was inside me...." As they assimilated this, she decided to double check, "You weren't after Inuyasha at all then?"
That snapped Sailor Pluto out of her reverie, and she fixed a garnet eyed gaze on the hanyou. "My objective is to return him to his proper time, then seal the-"
"Like hell!"
"No! You can't!"
"You came from a distortion in the timestream," Pluto interrupted their storm of protests. "He does not belong here, and neither does Shikon no Tama."
"What the hell do you know? Is it your job to tell us what to do?"
Sailor Pluto lifted an eyebrow, a bit amused. "You claimed you could smell the age on this babaa, earlier today. Why is it that you think I'm so old?"
Frowning, Inuyasha wanted to growl at her before she continued. Her distant, aloof attitude was grating on his nerves.
"I am protected by Pluto, the Time Space Star. As Sailor Pluto, I am the Guardian of the Gates of Time. A distortion in the timestream is my business to correct," then, more sharply, she added the word, "youkai."
Inuyasha was curling up, placing himself before Kagome and readying himself to fight. Distant attitude or not, she way she said it was an insult. From around him, he was able to hear shifting in the shadows, evidence of the others moving forward, ready to help their friends were he to attack. A hand slowly crept towards Tetsusaiga. He tried to count how many scents there were, but they blended and meshed too well, hampered by an approaching humidity in the air. "Bitch...."
A bow of fire appeared in Sailor Mars' hands as Pluto lifted her Timestaff, in preparation for his charge. Tuxedo Kamen and Sailor Moon were already moving, placing themselves between the newcomers and the other senshi, as Mercury wedged herself forward, hurriedly calling for everyone to wait.
"He's not full youkai! Mars, Pluto, please wait!"
There was a choked sound from Inuyasha, and both he and Kagome stared at the petite blue haired senshi, who was looking worriedly between the two factions. "He's not...well...sorry...I...." she stumbled as she met Inuyasha's glowering face. "I was able to take some readings on your youki, before the fight...and...its signature is youkai, but not fully...it...well, it has human traceries in it...an aura of...human..." she managed as her voice faded into nervousness. "You're...a hanyou?"
He backed away a step, hand stopping from touching the katana at his side. This one had warned him before. She was clearly on the side of the others, but apparently his being a hanyou carried some kind of weight, at the moment at least. Before he could say anything, Sailor Moon was asking questions again.
"Mercury? What do you mean, 'hanyou'?"
"Half-youkai...his genetic makeup includes human DNA, from one of his parents."
Inuyasha blinked, not understanding half of what the girl just said. Gin-et-ick? Dee-En-Ay? What the hell?
Kagome, however, seemed to completely understand what the blue clad senshi was babbling about. "Inuyasha's mother was human...please, we won't fight you unless you attack first...we don't want to fight." Her voice dropped a bit, pleading, though still intense as she watched Sailor Moon. "Please?"
The winged senshi straightened up a bit, believing what Kagome said. "We're not here to make enemies, Higurashi-san. We just want to protect people from possible threats." She emphasized the word 'possible' carefully, backing away as she said it. "Pluto is doing her duty, as Guardian of the Timegate. Maybe you should explain what's happened to you, and this Shikon no Tama thing..."
"Feh. How can we trust you when you've got backup hiding away in the trees?" Inuyasha snapped, focused on Sailor Moon. She looked a little uncertain for a moment, then backed away, looking at Tuxedo Kamen again. He shrugged, and she lifted her head, making a motion at the shadows, summoning the others from the background.
Slowly, four more female figures emerged, dressed the same way as the other girls. Short skirts, boots, long ribbons in the back. Each dressed in various colors, orange and green and shades of purple. From the half open door of the fire shrine, a small girl appeared, younger than the others and clothed in pink. Quickly looking over the emerging group, Inuyasha tried to judge which was most dangerous of them, or likely to attack. Two of the others carried weapons like Sailor Pluto, though theirs were polearms, wicked looking bladed weapons rather than the blunted orb and staff Pluto bore. Something radiated around those two, particularly the smaller one. It was from her that came the smell of earth. She returned his gaze with deathly calmness.
"You say you fought youkai," the girl said after a moment, hand resting gently on her large glaive. Dark violet eyes met his after a moment, and it was with a calm voice she asked, "Mercury claims that it is daimon. Which is true, hanyou Inuyasha?"
"Youkai. That thing was a youkai, I could-"
"No..." Mercury tried to interrupt. "I'm not wrong, I'm sure of it...it was a daimon."
"Either way, it's a bad situation," one of the newcomers said casually, folding her arms and frowning. "Mercury, you sure?"
She nodded, holding out her hands. The small computer appeared in a small flashing of blue light, and Kagome and Inuyasha's eyes widened at the appearance of the thing, though everyone else seemed completely used to this. She was tapping rapidly for a moment, and then turned the machine around, so that the screen faced the observers. Inuyasha stared, not sure what to make of it all, though Kagome leaned forward with everyone else, appearing to understand the uneven columns that lined the screen. "I overlaid a pattern from one of the old daimon we fought, one from Mimi Hanyu's concert-"
"I was there."
Several heads swiveled to Kagome, who looked at Sailor Mars. The senshi of fire looked uncertain for a moment, then her mouth fell open. "The hospital! I was checking, since I thought I saw someone's head watching us over the seats...I thought I'd make sure...you remembered us?"
"...so that thing...that was called 'daimon'? Mimi Hanyu was a daimon?"
"No," a soft voice said from the sidelines, and Inuyasha and Kagome turned to see the older girl, the other one carrying a weapon, a naginata. Her eyes widened, and she looked down quickly, not meeting their gaze. Inuyasha watched her, a sense of familiarity tingling somewhere in the back of his mind. But he was distracted by the younger girl's speaking again.
"Mimi Hanyu was a Witch called Mimete. She was a Death Buster, of the Tau Ceti System. Daimon were used by Mimete and the other Witches to fight against the senshi."
Inuyasha was rapidly getting a headache. "Taw-Set-ay Sist-em? What the hell? Is that another country?"
"That's one way of putting it," the little girl said, moving to stand a bit closer to Tuxedo Kamen and Sailor Moon. Inuyasha was able to pick up a bit of her scent, and judging by her appearance, she was undoubtedly related to the older Sailor Moon. She smelled of her and the man. Though they looked too young to be parents...the whole thing was making his head spin. "They invaded by..." she became quiet, and wrapped a hand into the cape of Tuxedo Kamen.
The remaining girl then spoke, a blonde with her hair in a bow. "The Death Busters were invaders from a dimension called Tau Ceti. It's a long story. But they basically used daimon for their dirty work. The daimon were the result of a failed merger with a human, making a person into a Vessel for somebody from their world."
Kagome watched several sets of eyes flicker to one of the two younger girls, the girl with pink hair, styled similar to Sailor Moon, or to the other girl, holding the large glaive. She wondered what had happened.
The screen gave a beeping sound, and Mercury turned it around, tapping again on the keyboard with a hand. "The display I was showing you showed the synch ratio between one of the daimon and the hydra creature."
"Hydra?"
"Hydra, a mythological creature similar to a snake, though with multiple heads. As one of his twelve labors, Hercules had to defeat the Hydra. However, every time he would cut off a head, a new one would replace it. So he seared them off before they formed. The last head was immortal, so instead he-"
"Mercury!" the blonde interrupted, leaping in, stopping the lecture auto pilot before everyone was confused. "We get it. Hydra. Big snake. Lots of heads. We're not in school. Breathe."
"What?" she blinked. "Oh, sorry, Venus." There was another beeping sound, and she was engrossed in her statistics again. "Oh my...."
"Now what?" Mars asked, peering over Mercury's shoulder. "Oh...crap."
"What?" Kagome asked, moving with everyone else to huddle around the computer screen. She stopped after a moment, seeing that Inuyasha wasn't moving, but staring at her in disbelief, seeming to trust the people who had been trying to kill him just a couple hours earlier.
"This is another reading on the hydra...I recalibrated the data for detecting a synthesis between youki and daimon energy...and...well...."
"And well what?" the pink haired one asked, standing on tiptoe to see around Sailor Moon's wings. "They're all lined...oh....crap."
"They match. Identically." Mercury looked up at Inuyasha and Kagome. "It seems we were both right, Inuyasha...that youkai is a Vessel for a daimon."
"And that's bad?" he asked, a little bored with it all. "Does it make a difference? Just so long as it's dead, and you're not trying to get the Shikon no Tama, what's the problem?"
Tuxedo Kamen backed away though the crowd of girls, turning to face Inuyasha. "You seem to be under the impression there was only one. That's possible, but unlikely."
"But from where?" came a half wail, in the voice of Sailor Moon. "The Death Busters, Pharaoh 90...they're dead! They've been dead for months! Saturn obliterated them! How can they be back?"
"I don't know."
"So there's more of these things?" Inuyasha queried, cracking his knuckles. This was a big enough mess already. "Do they have a nest, or what? Can we just go and..." he trailed off, seeing the expressions on the senshi's faces.
"The Death Busters and their daimon can't just be weeded out," Tuxedo Kamen explained, disliking this more and more. He focused on Kagome, after a moment. "Your Shikon no Tama...what does it do?"
Kagome went white. "It can give power to a youkai."
"A lot of power," Inuyasha added after a moment. Frowns ringed the circle of senshi, looking serious as they considered a youkai daimon given energy by something that could increase its powers. "I don't care where the hell these things are coming from. They're not getting to the tama. I'm staying with Kagome until-"
"You do not belong in this era-" Pluto began, frowning, as Inuyasha began to argue with her.
"Pardon me, everyone..." a soft voice began, edging into the oncoming shouting match, as various senshi began to back up Pluto, others question Kagome for more information. The chatter began to get loud, and the small senshi in purple looked up to the one in lavender, who had a serious expression.
"This will not stop until we trust each other, ne?" she asked the older one.
The result was a sigh. Then, gently, she touched the pin on her grey bow, releasing small ribbons of misty clouds. They rippled over her body, and the silent act abruptly cut off the noise of the argument. Clothing replaced the sailor fuku, a lavender sundress with pale yellow flowers. Lavender eyes blinked across at them, and long black hair fell in heavy waves down her back, the sides bound by a series of loops behind her head.
Inuyasha and Kagome watched this, though not fully for the same reason the others did. The figure now before them they had seen before, in an old Heian mansion, a ghost child with small shards of the Shikon no Tama in her palms. "Ukifune...."
There were several confused voices asking, "Huh?" "What?" "Who?" "Ukifune?"
A small smile formed, a little nervously. "So sorry...I didn't mean to deceive you...but...I wanted you to trust each other on your own...not only for my sake. But...Usagi-sama, Setsuna-san. Kagome and Inuyasha have been seeking the shards of the tama for some time...please, do not prevent them...I'm so very sorry...."
"You really are Ukifune, aren't you?" Inuyasha asked, a bit dumbfounded. "Not some reincarnation or anything. I thought...but I couldn't smell right...."
"I stayed downwind...and with Hotaru-chan close," she placed a hand on the girl in front of her, "so that you would not distinguish my aura from hers. We are both of Saturn...so they should be alike...."
"You're a Sailor Senshi, Ukifune?" Kagome managed. She had only glimpsed Ukifune before, her appearance now different, though distinctly the same.
"Actually...it's Kami now...Tomoe Kami," she corrected, smiling a little nervously. "And I was not a senshi when you met me."
"Ara, Kami-san, you really got around when you were dead, didn't you?" Venus asked, lifting her eyebrows wryly.
"Eh..." Kami blushed. "I was Ukifune then...but now I am Tomoe Kami."
"And my elder sister," the younger girl in purple added, also touching the pin of her bow. Violet light emanated from her for a moment, and the glaive in her hand dissolved away as her new school uniform appeared.
"Sort of," Kami explained cryptically. "It's a long story."
"So you're from the Heian era?" Sailor Moon asked Inuyasha, watching two of the members of her senshi worriedly. Kami trusted them, that much was obvious, and if Kami, Hotaru. She certainly wanted to as well. They didn't want to fight...and they helped Pluto, Mercury and Mars. The problem was the time thing....
"No...I've been traveling to the sengoku jidai. Through a well in my jinja...it's been there for centuries!" Kagome said, determining that this was the only problem. If these youkai were also daimon...she remembered the damage Mimi Hanyu and her daimon did. And though she was sure of Inuyasha's abilities, they simply may be outclassed and outnumbered this time. "We've been fighting youkai for awhile now. We know how they work. There aren't many here. We can help you with that," she told them, looking from face to face. "Ask Ukifune then. She knows what we do. If these youkai are looking for the Shikon no Tama, then they'll come after me. How else will you find them? Wait for them to just randomly attack people?"
"Kagome!"
"We can work together," she continued, shooting a sharp glance at Inuyasha in warning. "We haven't caused any time paradoxes that I know of. Pluto, you said you're in charge of time, right? Why didn't you come to fix the problem right away if my traveling to the past was such a big deal?"
Several sets of eyes swung to Sailor Pluto, who was holding onto the Timestaff with a defeated air. "Time travel is a taboo. It is forbidden. Warpings may occur, and are usually detected immediately. However, this one is very, very small."
"And the reason for that is...?" Kagome prompted, getting the feeling that she was forcing Pluto into admitting something.
"Time travel is strictly taboo," the woman repeated, frowning. "Though no paradoxes have occurred. Which is beyond strange. The most logical reasoning is that your travel to the past was foreordained, and the timestream is stable because you are merely fulfilling what has already occurred."
Well, that was more than she hoped for. Kagome sighed in relief. "Then let Inuyasha stay. He's been here before...there would already have been alterations, right?"
Pluto reluctantly nodded, though warning again. "Time travel is dangerous."
"You're paranoid, babaa," Inuyasha snorted.
She watched him evenly, not glaring, but with an air of amusement. For some reason, being called an old hag when she looked about twenty struck her as funny. Too many centuries at the Timegate.
"I agree," Sailor Moon said after a moment. Then her eyes went wide when everyone stared. "Oh! Not about you being a hag, Pluto! I mean...uh, sorry! I didn't say...."
"Sailor Moon!" Mars snapped, exasperated as their fearless leader stuttered for an apology.
"What?" she shouted back at Mars. "You don't need to yell at me!"
"Then spit it out!"
Sailor Moon shot Mars a dirty look, then turned back to Inuyasha and Kagome, who were a little confused by the argument. Sailor Moon regained her composure, and smiled. She took a breath, then closed her eyes. The wings faded away, a wash of pink light returning her to her everyday clothes. She opened her eyes, and held out a hand. "If we're going to be working side by side...you're welcome in this time then, Inuyasha."
"Feh."
"My name is Tsukino Usagi," she introduced herself. One by one, the others began to detransform, the blazing colors of their auras fading away from his senses as they did so, still present, though dampened.
"Chiba Mamoru," Tuxedo Kamen told them, revealing himself to be a young man in casual wear.
"Aino Minako, Sailor Venus," the blonde said, winking and flashing a victory sign.
"Kino Makoto, Sailor Jupiter," the tall brunette told them with a shrug. "Welcome to the team, if only temporarily."
"Tomoe Hotaru, Sailor Saturn," the young girl told them, bowing slightly.
Kami blushed, a hand trying to cover her mouth in embarrassment. "I'm Sailor Dreamweaver."
"You know us already," Rei said, gesturing to herself and to Ami, who was putting away her computer. She glanced up and smiled.
"Meioh Setsuna," said Sailor Pluto, her Timestaff dissolving as she sighed, accepting defeat.
"Chiba...or...well, Tsukino...Chibiusa," the last of them said, with pink hair. "Sailor Chibimoon."
"You're their kid, aren't you?" Inuyasha stated, looking between Mamoru and Usagi. Both of them started, a little embarrassed.
"You can tell that?" Chibiusa asked.
"You smell sort of like both them. And other than being pink as all hell, you look exactly like her." He gestured at Usagi.
Chibiusa looked impressed.
"Aren't you a bit young to have a daughter that old?" Kagome questioned, coming to look at Chibiusa. "You're at least eight...and you can't be more than sixteen...."
"Eh..heh...." Usagi scratched her head nervously.
"Time travel?" Kagome asked.
"I'm from the Thirtieth Century."
Kagome blinked. "Wow...."
Inuyasha angled himself out of the crowd of females, all surrounding Kagome now and asking how she traveled though time, how she met Inuyasha, why was the Shikon no Tama all busted up, and various other questions.
He must have looked irritated, because Mamoru spoke up. "Get used to it. They're always like this."
"How do you live with it?"
Mamoru shrugged. "You learn to cope."
"Feh."
Out of the huddle of girls, Inuyasha heard Kagome suddenly yelp, "Oh! I've got a history exam tomorrow!" He groaned. Back to the school thing again...though to his surprise, Ami spoke up.
"You're in your last year of Junior High, ne? I've still got my notes from last year...if you want some help, I'd be more than...."
There was a chorus of groans.
"You still have your notes from last year?"
"I burned mine...."
"That class was evil...."
"Why? Studying is fun...."
More groans.
"What?"
Again, groans.
"School is important, in this era," Kami said, sidling her way over to Inuyasha, who was looking astounded.
"They all have to go to this school place?"
Mamoru nodded. "We all do, other than Kami and Setsuna. Setsuna has graduated, and Kami...."
"I'm a little too old for High School, I think...though I can't go to where Mamoru-sama is because you have to pass tests, and I just got here, so...."
"You take tests too?"
Inuyasha was getting very confused, and a little overwhelmed. Past experience with Kagome's era was limited, and he usually wasn't there long enough to learn much about Kagome's every day life. School looked like a big brick box. People went in, people came out later. Absolutely fascinating to watch. If you like watching big brick buildings, anyway.
After a moment, Kagome broke her way out of the circle of curious senshi, heading to Inuyasha. "We'd better get back soon...with the fight out on the street, Mama's going to be worried...."
"Feh. I wouldn't let you get hurt," he mumbled irritably, which earned an "Aww" from one of the senshi.
Minako was looking starry-eyed. "That's so sweet. So you two are dating?"
Both Inuyasha and Kagome looked caught, beginning to stutter, and neither successfully managing to explain anything. Minako was nodding as though in complete sympathy and understanding. "Ah. I see. That stage of the relationship. Well, it can't be helped. Everybody goes through it, even Usagi-chan and Mamoru-san would act all nervous sometimes about each other, when they first started dating, and-"
"Minako-chan?" Kami interrupted her, smiling worriedly, "I don't think this is a good time...."
"Oh, of course not..." she laughed, waving her hand. Then, thoughtfully, she added, "Well, if you're staying for awhile then, maybe you can stay at Mamoru-san's apartment...."
Inuyasha blinked, and Kagome went pink. "Feh. Why would I need to stay with him?" he jerked a thumb at Mamoru, who was guessing where this was about to go, judging by Kagome's expression. "I stayed with Kagome last night."
Kagome winced, and all eyes were on her now bright red face.
"Your Mother allowed that?" Makoto managed in disbelief.
"Mom would kill me if Mamo-chan stayed at our place..." Usagi commented, eyes wide. "Did your Mom even know? Mine would kill me!"
"Wow...." Minako managed, looking impressed. "So much for that stage of the relationship...."
"What the hell are you all going on about? I slept on the fucking roof! You all sound like that perverted bouzu!" Inuyasha had finally gotten the drift of the conversation, and determined what they were thinking about where he slept.
"Well, you could always stay here," Rei offered after a moment, trying to stop the self proclaimed goddess of love and beauty from further making a mess of things.
"Feh. If there's these daimon things and youkai going after Kagome again, I'm staying with her."
"You won't be able to sleep on the roof tonight," Makoto told him, glancing westward. Clouds were swirling in the distance, dark in the new night sky, blanking out the faraway stars. "There's a thunderstorm on the way. Unless you don't mind getting pretty wet."
"How do you know that?" he asked, a little surprised that a human could smell the storm brewing.
Makoto grinned. "Sailor Jupiter. Senshi of Lightning. Got a sixth sense for it."
Inuyasha shrugged, accepting that. These senshi people were weird, even for humans.
"I'll talk to Mama," Kagome told him. "After all this, she'll let you in, I'm sure."
"You have a family to worry about too," Usagi murmured. "Maybe one of us should go tell your family what's going on...does she know about your time traveling?"
Kagome sighed, placing a hand to her forehead in exasperation. "Yeah...Jii-chan is always coming up with some warped excuse for me to stay home from school."
"Well...I could go..." Usagi began to offer, uncertainly, but was stopped by Rei.
"I can do it. Better though to go as Mars." She folded her arms, glancing at Inuyasha and Kagome. "We'll trust you, Kagome-san, but your family..." she shook her head. "I'll go along, help explain what's going on, with the daimon. It's really not a good idea for you to be alone, if you're a target though...."
"Are you suggesting I can't take care of her?" Inuyasha snapped irritably at the girl.
Rei sniffed. "Don't be so touchy. I'm just saying I don't know your powers or anything, and it's endangering her family, too, if they're after your jewel thing. If it's so dangerous, why don't you just destroy it?"
"It's not that easy," Kagome sighed, glancing again at the necklace. "It's more than just a jewel granting power to youkai...." she trailed, and there were glances exchanged among the senshi, then several sets of eyes flicked to Inuyasha, noting the less than human appearance. Something flowed in the undercurrent of Kagome's words, though each senshi remained silent a moment, not pressing. There was more going on here than it seemed.
"I'll tag along, Rei-chan," Makoto said after a moment. "Just to keep an eye on things. We'd better get moving. The storm's coming in, and we'll get caught out there."
The detransformed senshi of Mars sighed. "Sound okay, Kagome-san?"
"Just Kagome," she told them. Several polite nods agreed on that, and Usagi told her,
"Then just Usagi, for me...for all of us."
And several minutes later, Sailors Mars and Jupiter accompanied Kagome and Inuyasha back home.
Terms of note:
eechi- a form of 'hentai,' also meaning pervert/perversion
bozou- an insulting term for a monk
Konbanwa- Good evening
naginata- a Japanese polearm or halberd, similiar to a spear but with a long blade at the end, similar to a sword
Wai! Everyone's working together now! The story has truly begun....
Poor Inuyasha, he was so lost with the information about DNA and genetics...I'm not exactly great with it myself, so arigatou to Mina Maxwell for checking any vague references to biology that have snuck their way into this fic.
And you got to see how Kami/Ukifune interacted with everyone. Her story is a little long and winding, since I've been piecing her together for awhile. When she started, she wasn't a senshi at all- but I liked her character, and she kept haunting my head, (in a sailor fuku...x.x) so eventually I caved and wrote another story with her, this time becoming a senshi. To make a very long story short, she was born in the Heian era (11th century) and remained as a ghost until the sengoku jidai, trapped at her home and wanting to escape. Two shikon no kakera landed there, and of course the Inuyasha-tachi came looking. Due to her soul being upset by the corrupt shards, her personality kind of 'split'- (woohoo, multiple personalities!) and she would alternately attack and help the group as they looked. Kagome and Inuyasha had fairly good experiences with her, though Sango and Miroku were both hurt. Shippou actually became a friend- when she first appeared as a ghost, she appeared as an eight year old, wanting to play kemari (kickball). She's twenty now, the age she was when she died. (So she's the second oldest there, after Setsuna. Well, third if you count Mamoru too.) Shippou was pretty much the only one out of the group who didn't want to exorcise her.
Anyway, afterwards, she went to the underworld, occasionally watching the living from there- she met Ami, Sailor Mercury, first. That was the first story involving her, ('The Bloom of the Mountain Cherry') and she was a ghost then, too, popping into dreams. You'll get a bit more explanation in the next chapter..
So, til then.
Ja ne!
~Queen
Coming up next in Chapter 5: Tales-
Quietly, she closed her eyes, turning to face the backyard. The rain made the air cold, despite the flow of electricity there. She could feel it lifting her hair, eerily haunting the space. "Gomen nasai, Inuyasha-kun."
"Sorry for what? You weren't there, you can't do anything about it. I just want to kick the ass of whoever is sending these daimon youkai things and get back to finding the shikon no kakera. The longer we wait, the more likely he is to get more."
Hi minna-sama! Well, before getting started on this chapter, a couple quick things. I got a couple reviews last chapter with some questions, so I thought I'd answer them before this went much farther.
First off, a little time explanation in chapter 3. Our villian had scars for 200 years...yet she returned before that, once she felt strong enough- more like 2 or 3 months, not years. Scars take time to heal. That's why that flashback scene takes place one week before he gets pinned by Kikyou. When she gets back...he's there, and there's not much she can do about it.
Second, pertaining to this chapter- yes, this does fit in with my other Inuyasha fanfic, 'Kami Monogatari.' Remember, I've got an original character, and she's in here! I have too much fun with her to not include her anymore. ^_^; Remember, she's not the main character or anything, so you'll follow things fine. She was a ghost named Ukifune in the sengoku jidai, and is reborn in the present as a woman named Kami. So, read on and see how she interacts with the characters from both series.
All that said, on with the show!