Chapter 2: A Voyage to the Past
Ryou Bakura groaned at the extreme cramps that seemed to pulsate through his body. Several of the pains came from his side as well as parts of his left arm. His right knee was feeling a bit locked up and immovable. But despite his numerous aches and pains, they didn't bother him like they were supposed to; and that scared him. It only took a few seconds before a similar scenario formed from random memories.
The white haired teen sprung up from his lying position. It almost felt like he was lying on a hard wood floor. Several blankets felt like they were falling off from their laying place on his chest as tumble to a stop at his lap.
"Bakura, what did you steal this time?!" Ryou never even wasted the time to see if his darker half was listening. He had yelled loud enough and didn't care if his neighbors heard him or not. The only thing that followed his sudden outburst was total and utter silence.
It took another few second for a second random memory to materialize in his sub-conscious. It had only been a week ago, after the end of the Battle City tournament, Yugi's darker half: Atemu, or Yami as he preferred to call himself, had attempted to banish Ryou's darker half to the Shadow Realm once more. Since then, Bakura the Tomb Robber had yet to come back.
Ryou Bakura gulped and dared to open just one of his eyes to see who he had yelled at. When his eyes got adjusted to only the light of a small fire near midnight, he noticed that three people, situated around the said fire, had frozen while attempting to eat a dinner of Udon Noodles.
The first of the group was an elderly lady. She had long white hair that was tied back in a small ponytail. She wore a black eye patch over her right eye and a red and white kimono. Even though the people of Japan normally had dark tan skin color, the old woman had pale tan skin and green eyes.
After her was a smaller person, about the size and looking the age of a five year old child. He had a kimono sporting several shades of blue. On the shirt part of his kimono were numerous light blue pictures of leaves. A small blue ribbon kept the child's brown hair back in a ponytail, so as not to impede his view. Much like the elder woman, the child had pale tanned skin and green eyes.
The elder woman and the small child could have easily passed as grandmother and grandchild.
The last of the small group surrounding the fire was a man about twenty years of age. He had normal black Japanese hair, tied back in a ponytail ("Were ponytails some kind of new fashion trend?" Ryou mentally asked himself.), and the seemingly normal pale tan skin as the other two people.
The twenty-or-so year old man was garbed in blue robes that Ryou could have sworn he saw people wearing at the Japanese Medieval fair two days ago. Purple sashes accented the blue color of the robe. What puzzled Ryou the most was, on the man's right hand was a similar purple sash as on the man's robe and light blue prayer beads were wrapped tightly around the man's wrist and palm. Lying strangely close to the middle aged man was a wood staff with a ring at the top and numerous smaller rings looped into the bigger one. He could have sworn he saw the same type of staff in the hands of some Duel Monster.
After a few second of the awkward silence, Ryou sweat dropped, giving a stupid grin and an embarrassed look.
"S-Sorry." Ryou stuttered. "I thought you were someone else." Ryou tried a fake laugh to see if the others would at least stop staring at him strangely.
The old woman set her bowl down next to the fire and turned her full attention to Ryou. "Be ye not troubled about disrupting our meal with ye's awkward outburst. It is only reassuring to see that ye are awake. My name is Kaede, the child next to me is Shippo, and the young man across from me is Miroku."
'Shippo and Miroku? Where have I heard those names before?' Ryou thought. "Um, thank you?"
"Your gratitude is not required," Miroku commented. "Nursing your wounds was the least we could do for someone who was not normally supposed to pass through the well."
"'Pass through'?" Ryou wondered. "What are you talking about?"
Kaede took a drink of something that smelled like Sake before continuing the explanation that Miroku started. "At first, Kagome did not believe it either, the power of the Bone-Eater's well. In a nutshell, to pass through the well means to pass from one world to the next; more specifically, from your Japanese Modern Era to our Japanese Feudal Era."
Ryou Bakura just stared blankly at the group of three people in front of him. Was he really in the Feudal Era of Japan? If so, he was screwed. For never learning anything in his social studies classes, he would not know what to expect 500 years prior to the time period he was used to, or how to deal with any such problems he faced. But these people seemed nice enough and willing out help him.
"Hey mister, are you okay?" Shippo asked Ryou. "You don't seem at all fazed by what Kaede just told you, not like what Kagome did when she found out. From what Kaede told me, Kagome was freaked out about it for a few days."
Ryou narrowed his eyes. "I've had worse."
The monk, Miroku, finished sipping his cup of herbal tea before standing up, taking the funny looking staff with him. "Kaede, since you no longer need my medical services to treat the young child, I must make haste in order to catch up with Kagome and the others." In just a short few seconds, Miroku's foot prints couldn't be heard anymore.
"Young one, I believe first impressions warrant introduction." Kaede stated.
"What?" Ryou raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out what the old woman just said. "Oh, my name's Ryou Bakura."
"Which one is it?" Shippo asked flatly.
"True, young Shippo." Kaede agreed. "A person having two names is quite unusual. Unless ye is a thief and one of the two names is an alias." Ryou shuddered as Kaede gave him a cold stare.
"Oh, I'm no thief. I'm just known by both names." Ryou quickly covered. He mentally slapped himself for forgetting that it was common for people in most countries to not have a last name. "But most call me Ryou."
'I'm so screwed!' Ryou mentally yelled at himself. 'I'm stuck in the Feudal Era of Japan and I don't know a thing about Japanese history. I knew falling asleep in class all those times was going to get myself in trouble, but I never imagined it to be this big of trouble!
'Ok, settle down. All I have to do is find a way to get back to my time ('Damn that felt weird saying.') and make up some excuse as to why I disappeared. Shouldn't be too hard. I hope.'
It was the next day and the warm sun was beating down on a small group of travelers, just outside of the boarders to the Western Lands. After all of the traps and sudden confrontations with almost certain death, each member of the quartet was expecting a nice, calm day of traveling.
Then again, when a super evil spider hanyou, bent on becoming a full fledged demon and that would spare no expense to kill you, 'nice, calm day' was the ultimate oxymoron.
Out of the small group, Kagome had a lot to deal with. Since the group's most recent encounter with the half brother of Inuyasha, Sesshomaru, Inuyasha had been slaving over his sword, the Tetsusaiga, in order to perfect the Wind Scar attack. So far, he'd selectively cut down enough forests to give Kaede's village enough wood to repair their village several times over.
Not only that, it was becoming harder and harder to find shards of the Shikon Jewel, since Kikyou had stolen half of them from Kagome while Naraku had an unknown number of shards. It appealed to Kagome, with Kikyou have half, Koga having two shards in his legs, Kohaku having one in his back, and Naraku having his collection, most likely, all of the shards had been accounted for, except maybe one or two shards that still remained at large.
Kagome groaned. Ever since her painful fall down the well with the mysterious boy from her time, excessive thinking was giving her extreme headaches. She needed to get her mind off of her problems.
"Miroku," Sango, the sole survivor of a clan of demon exterminators, decided to break the silence. "How was the boy Kagome brought with her? When we fished him out of the well, he had numerous wounds. Was he able to make a stable recovery?"
'Thanks, Sango.' Kagome said mentally. 'Just the thing I need to get my mind off my headache.'
"As far as I know, he's recovering fine. Some small cuts and bruises are the-Gah!" The infamous monk, Miroku dropped to the ground clutching his stomach. Never in his entire life had he felt such a rush of encroaching darkness.
"Miroku!" Kagome dropped her bike in the middle of the trail to assist Sango, who had already come to Miroku's aid. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"
"Such darkness." Miroku now began to sweat. Whatever was giving off such a powerful pulse of darkness it frightened him to no end. It seems as though the darkness that he was sensing was feeding off his fear; allowing it to grow. Just as quickly as the darkness had come, it subsided and disappeared into nothingness. Miroku remained kneeling on the ground, catching his breath
All the while, Inuyasha had been searching the immediate area for any sign of an attacker. His hand gripped the hilt of the Tetsusaiga, ready to call upon its power if needed. His dog-like ears twitched as he heard the rapid footfalls of someone approaching. It was a bit fast for a human, but no where near the running speed of a demon. Inuyasha released his grip of the Tetsusaiga before alerting the other three to their approaching guest.
"Someone's coming?" Sango asked. The Demon Exterminator shot a glance down the path they had just come. About a hundred meters or so away from their current position, a young boy with short white hair and a white and blue kimono was running down the path. "I wonder who that is."
Both Kagome, who was helping Miroku stand, and Miroku looked down the path as well to see the same boy. "Wait, that's the boy from Kagome's time."
Ryou could see them dead ahead. Against the wishes of both Kaede and the fox demon: Shippo, Ryou had left the quiet little village in search of Miroku. He never told anyone why he left and no one dared to question him. What was for certain was that whatever Ryou wanted with Miroku, it wasn't going to be pretty. Ryou would make sure of that.
After the fifth or so mile of running in order to catch up with the group Miroku was traveling in, he began to feel himself getting tired. It was the fact that Ryou was going to make Miroku pay for what he did that made him decide to use a bit of his inherited Shadow Magic to give him a large boost of speed. The sensation of running, powered by the Shadow Realm, was actually quite interesting.
It sure beat the crud out of Ryou's routine of drinking lots of energy drinks before physical fitness tests back at Domino High.
"Give me back my Millennium Ring!" Ryou jumped at Miroku, tackling the monk. The sheer force of the tackle sent the two flying a few feet backwards before colliding with the ground.
Xero: This is the end of Chapter 2. Thanks to all my fans that have been faithful to me, your patients has not gone to waist. Review if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Ja Ne!
Ryou Bakura groaned at the extreme cramps that seemed to pulsate through his body. Several of the pains came from his side as well as parts of his left arm. His right knee was feeling a bit locked up and immovable. But despite his numerous aches and pains, they didn't bother him like they were supposed to; and that scared him. It only took a few seconds before a similar scenario formed from random memories.
The white haired teen sprung up from his lying position. It almost felt like he was lying on a hard wood floor. Several blankets felt like they were falling off from their laying place on his chest as tumble to a stop at his lap.
"Bakura, what did you steal this time?!" Ryou never even wasted the time to see if his darker half was listening. He had yelled loud enough and didn't care if his neighbors heard him or not. The only thing that followed his sudden outburst was total and utter silence.
It took another few second for a second random memory to materialize in his sub-conscious. It had only been a week ago, after the end of the Battle City tournament, Yugi's darker half: Atemu, or Yami as he preferred to call himself, had attempted to banish Ryou's darker half to the Shadow Realm once more. Since then, Bakura the Tomb Robber had yet to come back.
Ryou Bakura gulped and dared to open just one of his eyes to see who he had yelled at. When his eyes got adjusted to only the light of a small fire near midnight, he noticed that three people, situated around the said fire, had frozen while attempting to eat a dinner of Udon Noodles.
The first of the group was an elderly lady. She had long white hair that was tied back in a small ponytail. She wore a black eye patch over her right eye and a red and white kimono. Even though the people of Japan normally had dark tan skin color, the old woman had pale tan skin and green eyes.
After her was a smaller person, about the size and looking the age of a five year old child. He had a kimono sporting several shades of blue. On the shirt part of his kimono were numerous light blue pictures of leaves. A small blue ribbon kept the child's brown hair back in a ponytail, so as not to impede his view. Much like the elder woman, the child had pale tanned skin and green eyes.
The elder woman and the small child could have easily passed as grandmother and grandchild.
The last of the small group surrounding the fire was a man about twenty years of age. He had normal black Japanese hair, tied back in a ponytail ("Were ponytails some kind of new fashion trend?" Ryou mentally asked himself.), and the seemingly normal pale tan skin as the other two people.
The twenty-or-so year old man was garbed in blue robes that Ryou could have sworn he saw people wearing at the Japanese Medieval fair two days ago. Purple sashes accented the blue color of the robe. What puzzled Ryou the most was, on the man's right hand was a similar purple sash as on the man's robe and light blue prayer beads were wrapped tightly around the man's wrist and palm. Lying strangely close to the middle aged man was a wood staff with a ring at the top and numerous smaller rings looped into the bigger one. He could have sworn he saw the same type of staff in the hands of some Duel Monster.
After a few second of the awkward silence, Ryou sweat dropped, giving a stupid grin and an embarrassed look.
"S-Sorry." Ryou stuttered. "I thought you were someone else." Ryou tried a fake laugh to see if the others would at least stop staring at him strangely.
The old woman set her bowl down next to the fire and turned her full attention to Ryou. "Be ye not troubled about disrupting our meal with ye's awkward outburst. It is only reassuring to see that ye are awake. My name is Kaede, the child next to me is Shippo, and the young man across from me is Miroku."
'Shippo and Miroku? Where have I heard those names before?' Ryou thought. "Um, thank you?"
"Your gratitude is not required," Miroku commented. "Nursing your wounds was the least we could do for someone who was not normally supposed to pass through the well."
"'Pass through'?" Ryou wondered. "What are you talking about?"
Kaede took a drink of something that smelled like Sake before continuing the explanation that Miroku started. "At first, Kagome did not believe it either, the power of the Bone-Eater's well. In a nutshell, to pass through the well means to pass from one world to the next; more specifically, from your Japanese Modern Era to our Japanese Feudal Era."
Ryou Bakura just stared blankly at the group of three people in front of him. Was he really in the Feudal Era of Japan? If so, he was screwed. For never learning anything in his social studies classes, he would not know what to expect 500 years prior to the time period he was used to, or how to deal with any such problems he faced. But these people seemed nice enough and willing out help him.
"Hey mister, are you okay?" Shippo asked Ryou. "You don't seem at all fazed by what Kaede just told you, not like what Kagome did when she found out. From what Kaede told me, Kagome was freaked out about it for a few days."
Ryou narrowed his eyes. "I've had worse."
The monk, Miroku, finished sipping his cup of herbal tea before standing up, taking the funny looking staff with him. "Kaede, since you no longer need my medical services to treat the young child, I must make haste in order to catch up with Kagome and the others." In just a short few seconds, Miroku's foot prints couldn't be heard anymore.
"Young one, I believe first impressions warrant introduction." Kaede stated.
"What?" Ryou raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out what the old woman just said. "Oh, my name's Ryou Bakura."
"Which one is it?" Shippo asked flatly.
"True, young Shippo." Kaede agreed. "A person having two names is quite unusual. Unless ye is a thief and one of the two names is an alias." Ryou shuddered as Kaede gave him a cold stare.
"Oh, I'm no thief. I'm just known by both names." Ryou quickly covered. He mentally slapped himself for forgetting that it was common for people in most countries to not have a last name. "But most call me Ryou."
'I'm so screwed!' Ryou mentally yelled at himself. 'I'm stuck in the Feudal Era of Japan and I don't know a thing about Japanese history. I knew falling asleep in class all those times was going to get myself in trouble, but I never imagined it to be this big of trouble!
'Ok, settle down. All I have to do is find a way to get back to my time ('Damn that felt weird saying.') and make up some excuse as to why I disappeared. Shouldn't be too hard. I hope.'
It was the next day and the warm sun was beating down on a small group of travelers, just outside of the boarders to the Western Lands. After all of the traps and sudden confrontations with almost certain death, each member of the quartet was expecting a nice, calm day of traveling.
Then again, when a super evil spider hanyou, bent on becoming a full fledged demon and that would spare no expense to kill you, 'nice, calm day' was the ultimate oxymoron.
Out of the small group, Kagome had a lot to deal with. Since the group's most recent encounter with the half brother of Inuyasha, Sesshomaru, Inuyasha had been slaving over his sword, the Tetsusaiga, in order to perfect the Wind Scar attack. So far, he'd selectively cut down enough forests to give Kaede's village enough wood to repair their village several times over.
Not only that, it was becoming harder and harder to find shards of the Shikon Jewel, since Kikyou had stolen half of them from Kagome while Naraku had an unknown number of shards. It appealed to Kagome, with Kikyou have half, Koga having two shards in his legs, Kohaku having one in his back, and Naraku having his collection, most likely, all of the shards had been accounted for, except maybe one or two shards that still remained at large.
Kagome groaned. Ever since her painful fall down the well with the mysterious boy from her time, excessive thinking was giving her extreme headaches. She needed to get her mind off of her problems.
"Miroku," Sango, the sole survivor of a clan of demon exterminators, decided to break the silence. "How was the boy Kagome brought with her? When we fished him out of the well, he had numerous wounds. Was he able to make a stable recovery?"
'Thanks, Sango.' Kagome said mentally. 'Just the thing I need to get my mind off my headache.'
"As far as I know, he's recovering fine. Some small cuts and bruises are the-Gah!" The infamous monk, Miroku dropped to the ground clutching his stomach. Never in his entire life had he felt such a rush of encroaching darkness.
"Miroku!" Kagome dropped her bike in the middle of the trail to assist Sango, who had already come to Miroku's aid. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"
"Such darkness." Miroku now began to sweat. Whatever was giving off such a powerful pulse of darkness it frightened him to no end. It seems as though the darkness that he was sensing was feeding off his fear; allowing it to grow. Just as quickly as the darkness had come, it subsided and disappeared into nothingness. Miroku remained kneeling on the ground, catching his breath
All the while, Inuyasha had been searching the immediate area for any sign of an attacker. His hand gripped the hilt of the Tetsusaiga, ready to call upon its power if needed. His dog-like ears twitched as he heard the rapid footfalls of someone approaching. It was a bit fast for a human, but no where near the running speed of a demon. Inuyasha released his grip of the Tetsusaiga before alerting the other three to their approaching guest.
"Someone's coming?" Sango asked. The Demon Exterminator shot a glance down the path they had just come. About a hundred meters or so away from their current position, a young boy with short white hair and a white and blue kimono was running down the path. "I wonder who that is."
Both Kagome, who was helping Miroku stand, and Miroku looked down the path as well to see the same boy. "Wait, that's the boy from Kagome's time."
Ryou could see them dead ahead. Against the wishes of both Kaede and the fox demon: Shippo, Ryou had left the quiet little village in search of Miroku. He never told anyone why he left and no one dared to question him. What was for certain was that whatever Ryou wanted with Miroku, it wasn't going to be pretty. Ryou would make sure of that.
After the fifth or so mile of running in order to catch up with the group Miroku was traveling in, he began to feel himself getting tired. It was the fact that Ryou was going to make Miroku pay for what he did that made him decide to use a bit of his inherited Shadow Magic to give him a large boost of speed. The sensation of running, powered by the Shadow Realm, was actually quite interesting.
It sure beat the crud out of Ryou's routine of drinking lots of energy drinks before physical fitness tests back at Domino High.
"Give me back my Millennium Ring!" Ryou jumped at Miroku, tackling the monk. The sheer force of the tackle sent the two flying a few feet backwards before colliding with the ground.
Xero: This is the end of Chapter 2. Thanks to all my fans that have been faithful to me, your patients has not gone to waist. Review if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Ja Ne!