Of This World And Yesterday
There are thousands of stories
which have come and gone.
The old, distant memories
are engraved in my heart.
I close my eyes and remember them....
-Everlasting Story, Fushigi Yugi
Chapter 5- Tales
The sky revealed an angry face, swirling with the darkness of a stormcloud. It circled in on itself, churning and blotting out the stars beyond as booming signaled distant thunder, drawing nearer, flashing though the heaven. They slipped in the back way, four figures moving ahead of the sheets of rain. Kagome rode on Inuyasha's back, and occasionally turned her head to watch the two Sailor Senshi just behind them. They leapt swiftly from roof to roof, tailing Inuyasha as they returned to the Higurashi Jinja. The carnage from that afternoon still lay quartered off from prying eyes, but the back way was clear of officials. The rain was frightening people away, under threat of drenching.
Kagome held open the back door to her house as Jupiter and Inuyasha settled in to wait on the porch, slipping under the overhang where it was dry, just as the rain caught up to them. Sailor Mars and Kagome moved into the house, leaving them standing there in the damp coolness of the outdoors.
The downpour rustled the leaves of the shinboku trees, whipping their branches into a flurry of blows, clattering against each other and the roofs of the jinja's smaller buildings. Small patches of light fell to either side of the two on the porch, light from inside of the house. If he listened carefully, Inuyasha could hear the startled murmurs of Kagome's family as they met their first Sailor Senshi, and Kagome began to explain the situation that was developing. He sat not far from Sailor Jupiter, who was standing and leaning against the railing, ankles crossed casually and arms folded as she waited. She was one of the tallest of the senshi he had seen, in a green outfit with pink ribbons, and long, wavy brown hair in a tight, practical ponytail. He resisted snorting. They all looked so ridiculous, short skirts and fluffy ribbons and bows and heeled boots. Though how they managed to keep up with him he still couldn't quite figure out.
After a moment, the pressure of watchfulness on him made him look up sharply. Sailor Jupiter's eyes were wide, and she blinked, looking embarassed.
"What?"
"N...nothing. Sorry." She looked back to the window, a nervous expression still on her face at being caught.
"You were staring at me. What, never seen a hanyou before?" He knew he was deliberately antagonizing, but having her stare at him was unnerving. Bitch. Just because he was a hanyou, she was going to look at him like some pathetic thing? Half-half. Not one or the other.
"No, actually, I haven't," she replied honestly, looking back at him and tilting her head to the side, so that her ponytail trailed down behind her. "Nothing personal, Inuyasha-kun."
Yeah, right. "Feh. Then what do you want, then?"
"Well..." she sighed a little, easing herself closer to the beam that supported the porch's overhang. For a moment, she glanced out over the backyard, watching little reflective pools forming out of the rainwater. Now they were being pounded from above, water splashing messily over the stones. "I was just wondering...how long have you and Kagome been fighting? Or looking for the Shikon no Tama thing?"
He shifted where he sat, watching the rain sleet down an armlength away from his face. If he reached out, water dripping from the stormdrains would run over his fingers. Not really sure what she was getting at, he allowed, "Few months now. Why?"
"Curious, that's all. I mean, it looked pretty busted up. What happened?"
Her voice sounded genuinely curious, and it made him turn his head to look at her. She was leaning a shoulder against the roofbeam, blinking patiently as she waited for him to continue. She had wide, dark green eyes, currently curious and inquiring. Inuyasha wasn't sure what to make of it. "Feh, you're just planning on going and running back to your friends to tell them everything."
Her reaction was to laugh a little, then wave a hand as though to deflect the accusation. "Not unless you don't want me to. I won't tell anyone, if you want. Didn't think it was a big secret though." Inuyasha stared at her for a moment. Despite laughing, she seemed perfectly serious. Jupiter seemed to pick up on his hesitation, and she shrugged. "I'm serious. It's the truth. Hey, if you don't want to tell me, don't. And if you don't want me to tell them, I won't."
Inuyasha frowned, debating. Stubbornness was warring with a tentative trust. Instinct said not to trust anybody, especially somebody who he just met, and part of a group who recently tried to kill him or seal him into the past. But Kagome was trusting them, insofar as letting one into her home to help explain things to her mother and family. And he did trust Kagome's judgment, even if she could be an idiot sometimes. "It's understandable you'd want to know...."
"Then...what happened to it? I didn't think a magical jewel could get broken up like that. Sailor Moon's Silver Crystal is one of the hardest substances in the galaxy...well, according to Mercury, anyway."
So the Moon girl had a jewel of her own? Interesting, and strange. Well, maybe if he told her something of their situation, he could pry some information about theirs out of her. "Kagome broke it on accident."
The green eyes went enormously wide, and her brows shot up. "How the hell did that happen?"
Inuyasha blinked, sparing a glance for the tall senshi of Lightning. He didn't usually hear girls randomly swearing. Somehow, it was amusing, and seemed a gesture of familiarity. "It's a long story...she got pulled into the Bone Eater's Well over there..." he gestured at the mini shrine housing the empty well. "By a youkai that sensed the closeness of the tama." His expression soured, remembering the situation in which he had met Kagome. "She freed me from a spell to that tree there." He jerked his chin at the Goshinboku, its leaves rapidly waving in the wind. "I kicked the thing's ass. Awhile later, a crow youkai tried to get ahold of it, since it gives youkai power. So we went after it. Kagome couldn't shoot worth a shit then, but it had already swallowed the Shikon no Tama. I'd sliced it up already, so she tied its foot to her arrow."
"So it hit it because it was trying to regenerate?"
"Yeah. But the arrowhead hit the tama, and with Kagome's miko powers behind it, it sent the tama flying all over the place, in little fragments and shards."
"Fragments and shards? Shikon no kakera?"
He nodded, and she sighed. "We've been collecting them ever since. Little bits here and there."
"Well, that's probably tedious. There must be a lot of youkai after those things if they're powerful, though."
"Hell yeah. That bastard Naraku," Inuyasha cracked his knuckles out of habit, seething over the memory of the baboon-pelted asshole who just about everybody and their mother wanted to kill.
"He pinned you to the tree Kagome freed you from?" Jupiter asked curiously, wondering at the loop he had left in the story. Kagome freed him, but who put him there? Inuyasha's expression was one of deep fury, tightly contained. She felt a little worried over that. Something very, very bad had happened, apparently....
"He tricked a miko named Kikyou into it, with an arrow. Fifty years later, Kagome pulled it out."
That was a blunt explanation, Jupiter decided, but she doubted she'd get more out of him on that. "Well, at least you're out...it must be hard for you two, fighting...Naraku...alone, then."
Her answer was a snort. "We're not alone, not anymore. We got the punk kid, the pervert, and Sango along with us now."
The 'punk kid', the 'pervert' and 'Sango'? Okay, that really let her know about his feelings towards the various members of the group. "Punk kid, pervert and Sango?"
"Feh. Yeah. Shippou's a just a kid, a kitsune. Bugs the hell out of me. He's the only one Naraku actually didn't try to kill before. Kagome lets him tag along because his parents were killed by the Thunder Brothers, Hiten and Manten. Then there's Miroku, a Buddist houshi. Due to his family being full of lechers, he's got a hole in his right hand, the kazaana. Pulls some prayer beads off, sucks a lot of shit up. Naraku cursed his grandfather, and the curse is inherited. Then there's Sango and Kirara. Sango's a taiji-ya, a youkai exterminator. Her family was killed by Naraku, and her village destroyed. Kirara is her youkai cat."
Jupiter took a moment to digest all that information. Before she could speak, a loud peal of thunder cracked from above, flashing bright light into their faces and leaving an electric charge in the air, prickling their skin. Inside the house, the speaking was now punctuated by the voices of Kagome's family, questioning, and either Kagome or Sailor Mars would reply, their voices muted through the house walls.
"And you haven't defeated him yet?" she asked after a moment.
"Feh," was her answer.
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. "Sorry, 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."
"I see. I'd like to know where the youkai are coming from...there...well, there really aren't many in this era...I take it they're fairly common in the sengoku jidai."
That confirmed something Inuyasha had begun to suspect earlier in the day. Sitting and watching Kagome's school, he had smelled no youkai wandering around. None. Faint, faint traceries of youki, but so vague he couldn't even tell what kind of creature it was from. No youkai here. Why? Over the centuries between Kagome's era and his, what had changed? Did the tama have anything to do with it?
"Common, yeah. These daimon...the Minako girl said something about them being failed experiments or something. You all kept looking at that Saturn kid, or the pink kid. What happened there?"
Jupiter let out a heavy sigh, worried. It was storytime, apparently. He told her about their quest, she might as well tell him about the Death Busters. They were all on the same side now, so why not? Who knew, maybe it would be helpful someday. "That's because...well. It's hard...awhile ago, a few months back, Chibiusa came back from the future...that's another, even longer story. But the Death Busters...they invaded, setting themselves up in the Delta Triangle, meaning to summon their Master Pharaoh 90 from Tau Ceti. But they're kind of like parasites...they don't have bodies in this dimension, not really, so they need a Vessel to live in, a Host. Hotaru...Sailor Saturn?" when he nodded in recollection, she continued, "Hotaru was in an accident a few years back. That's when they first arrived. She was hurt pretty bad, and her father, Professor Tomoe Soichi...he kept her alive by making a deal with this daimon thing from Tau. Usagi said he called himself Germatoid before she killed him. But he kept Hotaru alive with machine parts, and by making a deal with this Germatoid daimon. His body in exchange for keeping Hotaru alive. So he did, to protect her.
"Eventually, they were ready. Professor Tomoe ran a school called Mugen Academy. The students there were used as experiments for Vessels, and daimon. Most of them failed, which is why we were surprised when Mercury said the youkai was a daimon, and stable. Daimon are failed Vessels. We don't know how strong a youkai with a daimon in it would be, though we'd expect a stable daimon to be strong in a human, judging by Germatoid. A daimon in a youkai, something strong enough already...probably damn powerful."
"Shit," Inuyasha muttered, trying to follow all this. He didn't really know where this Tau Ceti or anything was, but Kagome said that the concert of Mimi Hanyu was at 'Mugen Academy,' and supposed to be for students there. "So this Hotaru girl was a daimon too?"
Jupiter scratched the side of her head, frowning anxiously. "This is going to be bad for her, with daimon returning. Yes, sort of. Germatoid was supposed to be preparing the way for Mistress 9, who would finally summon Pharaoh 90...."
"And Hotaru was supposed to be the Vessel for this Mistress 9 thing?"
She nodded, shifting her weight from foot to foot. "She stole Chibiusa's Silver Imperium Crystal, and used it to summon Pharaoh 90...then Saturn awakened, and destroyed Pharaoh 90, when Sailor Moon used the Holy Grail, jumping straight into Pharaoh 90."
"So this Pharaoh thing was what? A big blob of destruction?"
Jupiter actually laughed. "Yeah, something like that. Pluto sealed what was left away in the halls of time. Hotaru, stuck inside of Pharaoh 90, was reborn as a baby."
"If that was a few months ago, then how is she so old?"
"Eh..." Jupiter shrugged. "We're not really all that sure. We needed her again, not too long ago. Saturn is powerful. So she grew up fast. We don't really know how."
Inuyasha was just about to open his mouth again, this time to ask when exactly Ukifune appeared in this era, considering she was the only one he even remotely 'knew'. However, a rush of warm air flowed around him, signaling the opening of the back door. Kagome was poking her head out, worriedly smiling between Inuyasha and Sailor Jupiter, clearly hoping that everything was okay between them. Seeing they weren't arguing, she smiled at Inuyasha a little, yellow lamplight filtering around her hair. "Mama says you can have the couch, Inuyasha..." she stepped outside as he stood himself up, warily waiting for some catch. The senshi made such a fuss over the whole sleeping thing he didn't know what to make of it all. This last day was generally giving him a headache. Brief stays in Kagome's time didn't really prepare him for a full out battle here.
"Feh. So we can come in?"
From behind Kagome, Sailor Mars appeared, angling her way around the other girl. "And we can go out," she said to Jupiter, who was glancing at the downpour with a look of resignation. Getting soaked to the bone was not exactly fun. "Kagome, we'll probably meet tomorrow evening for a meeting. That'll give us some time after school to do some research and investigating."
Kagome was agreeing as Inuyasha moved alongside her. "Where are you at?"
"Juuban High," Jupiter answered with a shrug. "We usually meet at Hikawa Jinja for strategy meetings."
"If we can get the odango to arrive on time," Mars muttered darkly.
"Odango?" Kagome asked curiously, not knowing who she meant.
"Usagi-chan," Mars motioned, waving a hand at her head and imitating Sailor Moon's buns and pigtails. "Odango atama. Dumpling head. It's the hair."
Inuyasha snickered, remembering that one, and Kagome elbowed him to stop. "We'll be there," Kagome told the other two girls, and they nodded, sighing resolutely as they turned out into the storm, disappearing into the darkness.
There was sunlight now, dusty fingers of brightness piercing though dancing clouds. Overnight, rain poured down hard, soaking the streets. Reflective puddles of water still pooled in the cracks and dips in the sidewalk, muddy water splashed up from cars passing by. This didn't seem to be too distracting to the people in the school, and for about an hour, Inuyasha watched as Kagome and some of her classmates took to the field beyond the school, apparently playing some sort of sport involving hitting a ball with a stick. That had been the most interesting point to the day thus far, and Inuyasha felt a little strange watching Kagome running around in a pair of such short shorts, surrounded by various other males. He debated long and hard about crashing that game, but last night she had warned him off very severely. 'Do not come to school, Inuyasha,' she said. And her expression was clearly threatening...and not just a string of osuwari-s, either. He knew he'd be in for it if he showed up.
"Bitch," he muttered darkly, watching as a bell sounded and the students swarmed off the field, heading back inside for further studies. All day long. Get up early, go inside, come out for awhile to hit a ball with a stick, and then go back in again. What was she doing in there, anyway? He wanted to get up and pace, though it would do little good. Once again, he took up his position on the roof across the street from the school, sitting on the building's ledge and glowering, feeling generally excluded. This was a part of Kagome's life she was refusing to let him in on. Not just school. He didn't really care about her damn school. It was her not wanting him there that bugged him incessantly. He knew damn well she didn't care that he was a hanyou, not a human. At the moment, though, it seemed like she cared about other people caring.
"Inuyasha-kun?"
He almost leapt up, which would have sucessfully sent him flying off the building. Swiveling around, a hand on Tetsusaiga, he found a Sailor Senshi standing there. Her scent was familiar, chrysanthemums and rain, swirling pleasantly in the damp air. "Oy, Ukifune."
Sailor Dreamweaver smiled, stepping forward and tilting her head to the side. "It is Dreamweaver, in this form. It's not so good, to call us by our real names, when transformed."
"Why's that?" he asked, shifting aside as she came to stand beside him, placing her hands on the ledge and leaning forward.
"People in this era do not like magic. They like to read it or see it, but so long as it is controlled and distant, in books or on the television box. Magic is a scary thing, when you confront it," she told him, then settled herself next to him on the ledge, crossing her ankles and looking out over the school building with a curious look. "People fear what they do not understand. Humans are dangerous in this era, Inuyasha. They can do many frightening things."
"Feh," he snorted, somewhat disbelieving. Humans doing frightening things? Sure. They came up with a lot of fancy shit, that he could see. Smooth black roads, fast moving machines, boxes that came alive with people inside. Lights that glowed without giving off heat or fire. This was a strange world. "How'd you get up here, anyway? Jump? Those other two could almost keep up with me."
Dreamweaver covered her lips with a gloved hand, hiding a shy grin. "No. I..." she looked up, concentrating and thinking. "I...tel..tela...teleported. Pluto says it is moving from one place," she held up her hands, then clapped them together, "to another, without moving though the space between them. It is very strange."
He tried to imagine how she could do that, and wasn't really sure. Youkai could move pretty damn fast when they wanted to, but tela-poring? No, that wasn't right. Teleporting. He nodded his head once, sharply, as though to store the word in his mind. "Where is the babaa, anyway?"
Dreamweaver laughed again, her voice light. "Setsuna-san is at the Observatory today, working. If anything goes wrong, I will call her," she lifted her wrist, revealing a small, delicate watchlike item. "It is her job now, watching the stars. She is very smart, knowing much from her centuries."
Inuyasha stared at her for a moment. It hadn't been so long ago, when they had found her as a ghost in an old Heian mansion. A ghost girl, her soul disrupted by the presence of two shikon no kakera. The shards, impure, seemed to cause ripples though her personality; one moment a little girl wanting to play kemari, the next a desperate young woman who only wanted to run away from a home she could never leave. Now she was sitting here beside him, laughing, looking up at the clouds and shaking her head. So different. Ukifune. Kami. Dreamweaver. What a weird girl.
"You like it here, don't you?"
Her brows lifted, and she looked at him, still smiling. In her eyes, there were still shadows, evidence of something darker in her past, something ghostly and sad. Though she smiled while crying. "Yes. I have a family now."
A family. Strange. The other senshi? They seemed like a tight knit group, for all their being a bunch of silly girls in short skirts and bows. He wondered, idly, if maybe that's how things were with Kagome and the others, now. Family? Them? Feh, him related to Miroku? He let out one sharp bark of laughter at the thought. That would be the day.
Dreamweaver was watching him curiously, wide lavender eyes observing him. White hair, golden eyes. Still the same, from when she last saw him. Not much time had elapsed since they left her old home, then. She still thanked the gods that he had told her to 'kick the ass' of the thing she was struggling with. Somehow, it endeared him to her, acting like an annoyed big brother. A very pottymouthed, annoyed big brother. And so she had fought back, not just protecting what she could, as her strength trickled away to the darker side of her personality.
"Setsuna-san thinks it is very funny, you calling her a babaa. Nobody has ever called her that before. She is very old, Inuyasha, and she works very hard at the Timegate. It is a lonely job, staying in one place, never leaving."
"So she's part of this family of yours now, eh?"
"Mm," Weaver agreed, nodding and folding her hands, swinging her crossed ankles just a bit, hearing the heels tap against the brick of the wall below them. He was leaning a cheek against the grip of Tetsusaiga, running a hand down the sheath for a moment.
"Were you reincarnated, in this time? After I...well, what happened at your old mansion?"
The faint smile faded away as the sun clouded over, dipping them into shadow. "Not quite. It's a long story," she told him as she looked down at the street, seeing the darkness fill the puddles. No cars came to splash them onto the sidewalk, and she bit her lip. He was watching her, waiting patiently, though expectantly, ears pricked up curiously for the tale. "After we fought, at the riverside...I finally was able to rest, to go to the world of the dead. So I remained there. A couple months ago, I began to see visions there, have dreams of people fighting, images of people I did not know. Snatches. I knew nothing of who they were, what they were."
"The senshi?" he guessed, and was rewarded with a faint nod. She folded and refolded her hands, running her fingers over the lavender edge of her skirt.
"Yes. One girl I saw...."
"Your sister?"
She shook her head, a smile forming for a moment before fading again. "No, Kanashimi-chan, actually. She wasn't feeling well, so I tried to-"
"Who's Kanashimi-chan?"
"Oh, so sorry!" Weaver waved her hand, giving a small nervous laugh. "Kanashimi-chan. Sorrow. Ami-chan, Mercury. She looked so sad, all the time. I wanted to help her, so I reached into one of the visions one day...and I found myself speaking to her, the way I spoke to you that once, in your dream of the past."
Inuyasha curled up a little, almost protective in reflex, watching the school as though to see through its walls. He had dreamed one night, and saw Ukifune, playing her koto. And then they were in his dreams, in the past, where he was a little boy, unwanted by the humans, for being a hanyou. White hair fell around his face, masking it from Dreamweaver's sight. "I spoke to her in dreams. I felt glad when she felt better. Then a little later, Kanashimi-chan and Hotaru-chan...they came to find me."
That snapped him out of his reverie, and he stared at her incredulously. "In the world of the dead? How the hell did they manage that?"
"Pluto has keys to the past and the future. One key leads to the forbidden world of the dead. They came to find me, because Usagi-sama was feeling ill. It was a Fury, like the one you told me to fight...it had festered in her mind."
"Fury?"
"It is the name of a creature, Kanashimi-chan says, that exists in old stories. It preys upon one's nighmares, chasing down one's sins and transgressions, reminding and haunting, hurting the person's mind. Hotaru-chan struck me with her Silence Glaive. Then I woke up in the world of the living...and I woke alive."
Alive. Dead for a thousand years, and then alive. No evil witches, using gravesoil and black magic. No stealing of souls, no hatred moving her body. Free. She was free. Alive and free. Silence Glaive. What kind of a weapon could bring a person back to life, from a thousand year death in sleep? So he asked her. "Silence Glaive? That's...the thing Saturn has, right?"
"Yes. It is a Talisman, with the power to destroy a planet, if dropped."
Inuyasha considered that for a moment. The world, destroyed, by the dropping of a weapon? That scent of soil and earth that swirled around the little senshi in purple. It seemed incredible, impossible. But he believed it. Those eyes were ones weighted with responsibility. Even he could see that. "A Talisman?"
She nodded, reaching out a hand. Around her palm, a small glitter of light shone, and as the sun broke again through the clouds, light glanced off the long blade of the naginata she conjured from the air. Black shafted, silver bladed deadly elegance. "This is...well," she smiled, considering the shaft and balance of it for a moment, "I'm not sure if this even counts as a Talisman. I suppose so, though it doesn't have a fancy name." She laid it across her thighs, and saw that Inuyasha was watching her expectantly, waiting for more to the story. "There are four Talismans, other than my...sort of Talisman. Pluto carries the Garnet Orb. It is attached to her Timestaff, and with it she controls time and space. Neptune has the Deep Aqua Mirror, which allows her to-"
"Who's Neptune? I didn't hear anyone called Neptune," Inuyasha cut in, wanting to know who she meant.
Weaver blinked, then shook her head. "Oh...Sailor Neptune, and Sailor Uranus. Michiru, and Haruka. They also live with Setsuna, Hotaru and I. It is Michiru's house. Michiru plays a musical instrument, called a violin. It's very pretty, when she plays, like being underwater...she and Haruka went to a place called Vina, in Eropa, so she could play it," Dreamweaver explained, nodding firmly as she tried to recall what she had been shown on a map. "She is a very famous player of the violin. With the Aqua Mirror, she can see the truth behind illusions, and see things far away. Uranus has a Talisman called the Space Sword..." she laughed a little, pointing at Tetsusaiga. "It is not so big, but it also can cut though things far away, with a golden light. You will like Haruka-chan. You two would like to spar someday."
"Feh, practice with a senshi, sure. I'd kick her-" he stopped, when Dreamweaver began to laugh again, trying hard to restrain herself by covering her mouth. Small tears were forming in her eyes from merriment at something he did not understand. "Oy! What's so damn funny?"
"Oh, sorry!" she shook her head, wiping away the laughter tears. "Haruka-chan would get very angry, if you discounted her as a fighting partner, without seeing her fight first. She gets very angry about that."
"Feh. Sure. I'll keep it in mind," he intoned smugly, not really caring how good the girl was. He could kick her ass, Space Sword thing or not. Tetsusaiga would be stronger, he was sure. He grinned slightly, and watched as two birds flew down, circling and landing in the field behind the school. "And the Glaive thing makes four?"
"The Silence Glaive, yes, is four. Saturn is the soldier of Death and Rebirth, though most think of her as only Death. Rebirth gets lost in the telling. It is how she brought me back here. Maybe also how she survived Pharaoh 90."
"Jupiter said some stuff about him yesterday. Big blob of destruction."
Dreamweaver blinked, then said consideringly, "I suppose. He wanted to merge with this planet, to take the Earth as a Vessel for himself. She dropped the Glaive to destroy him."
"Jupiter also said that she had some crazy demon in her."
Weaver bit her lip nervously, a wisp of hair floating forward on the wind before her. She tucked it back, smoothly. "Mistress 9. Poor Hotaru-chan. Daimon returning...this won't be good for her. Too many bad memories. I must be watchful of her. She has faced Mistress 9, and yet...." Dreamweaver shifted nervously. "This stinks of bad magic, Inuyasha. It worries me."
"Well, this Mistress person can't come back, can she?" he frowned suddenly, turning his head to the school and sniffing the wind. It was breezy, and the air had shifted. Something was playing against his senses, making the hairs on the back of his neck prickly in agitation. There was something faintly wrong....
Dreamweaver, though, was responding to his question. "Daimon returning...she lost her Father to the daimon, when he was possessed by the one Usagi-sama calls Germatoid. She stole Chibiusa-chan's Silver Crystal, as Mistress 9, and used its raw power to strengthen herself and call on Pharaoh-"
"Oy, Dreamweaver," Inuyasha said, grabbing her shoulder and stopping the discussion. "You hear that?"
Her eyes flicked forward, and she grew silent, staring at the school.
His ears twitched, then he leapt off the building. There were no screams, but many rapidly drawn breaths, and the clatter of people falling or crying out in surprise. And as the wind shifted again, he caught the scent of a youkai.
"Kagome!"
Terms of note:
odango- dumpling
atama- head
odango atama- dumpling head ^.^ Everyone's favorite nickname for Usagi.
kanashimi- sorrow. Kami has nicknamed Ami this...this goes back to the first Kami fic I wrote...x.x
koto- a traditional 13 stringed musical instrument
Hm, I know, not much action this chapter- though by the ending of it, there will be plenty next time! ^.~ This was basically to get both sides (Inuyasha-tachi and senshi sides) on the same page...more or less. I'm also assuming that most people have seen the SM anime, not read the manga, so you may not be as familiar with what happened in the manga version- here's a little background so you know what you're dealing with. Inuyasha manga and anime are pretty similiar, so there should be many discrepancies there.
Also, you'll notice Haruka (Uranus) and Michiru (Neptune) are not quite on the scene yet...there's so many characters, (particularly on the SM side...) and I'm trying to give everyone a fair shot in the spotlight. The Inuyasha-tachi get more scenes, because there's fewer of them. ^_^ So expect to see at least one of them in just about every scene, while the senshi trade off. Some aren't even in entire chapters, though I'm trying to keep things even. So, Haruka and Michiru are in Vienna for a little while while I keep things going. ^_^;; But like Sango, Miroku and Shippou- they will be showing up. Just give me time! I would not leave out some of my favorite characters. hugs Shippou...and sends Sango and Miroku to go hug somewhere else
Til next storytime.
~Queen