Chapter Two: Planeswalker Storm
With a heart of sadness and rage, Kikyo wandered the forest path, but a strange feeling caused her to stop. Through eyes of stone, she looked up to the sky. She didn't pay much attention, since she cared little for anything else but her revenge. However, she felt something strange was on its way. She continued to stare when the clouds began to move and change, to go from puffy and white to thick and black. The darkness continued to spread until it looked like an inky stain in the sky. Then the thunder began, in peals and crashes that shook the ground on which she stood. The miko fought for her balance amid the shifting, rolling earth. Next came wind and lightning in great waves that simultaneously lighted and twisted the horizon. Trees were knocked down, dirt was flung into the air, and rocks tumbled from distant cliffs. If a village had been beneath the onslaught, it would have been destroyed.
The storm continued to increase in power and fury. Rain, lightning, thunder, and wind scarred the land for miles around. Kikyo, only a mile away from the center, was flung to the ground, simply holding on for what little dear life she had left. After almost ten minutes of burying her face in the dirt, she looked up to the sky. An amazing sight greeted her upturned eyes.
The center of the storm began to swirl and twist more violently than the rest. Then a split formed, and the clouds opened like a gigantic youkai maw ready to swallow the world whole. It was through that yawning rift that he appeared.
At first glance, he appeared to be human. Or rather, he would be if he wasn't covered in a scintillating armor of azure thunder and surrounded by unnatural winds. He emerged seemingly from nowhere and descended slowly, his arms out to his sides, palms up, lighting flashing from his body. His eyes were consumed by a shining, brilliant blue. He continued to descend to the ground until his feet touched. Then he was simply standing there, eyes ahead, surrounded by raging winds and a swirling cage of electric blue. Lightning bolts continued to slam into the ground, spraying dirt, greenery, and the occasional woodland creature into the sky.
Then the winds began to slow and die, the storm clouds ceased to roll, and the lightning ceased to pound the earth. The man's eyes returned to their normal color and he simply stood there, a stunned look on his face. Then he collapsed, face first, to the ground.
Unsure if the threat were truly over, Kikyo waited on the ground for a few more minutes. Seeing that the blue sky, sunlight and clouds had replaced the dark apocalypse that had occurred just minutes ago, she tentatively got to her feet. Her face once more became a cold mask and she swept her long hair out of her eyes as she began to walk toward the center of the wrecked area. And wrecked it was. All around her, trees had been splintered or simply knocked flat. The ground was charred. Debris was everywhere. The scent of death and destruction filled her nostrils, and valence energy caused the hair on her neck to stand on end.
She continued to walk until the charged feeling in the air began to become too much. However, she had come to within one hundred feet of the strange man. Or rather, strange boy, for the visitor looked about her own age. Well, her age when she died, anyway. Fifty years had passed since she was that young.
The powerful aura continued to subside, until it disappeared completely. She walked to the boy's side and stood there, staring at his outlandish clothing. He wore a strange kimono indeed. There were types of cloth on him that she had never seen. They were cut much different, too. They didn't hide his body the way a kimono did. The strangest thing, though, was the cloth covering his upper body, which was black, and emblazoned with a strange word on the back, which was the only part of him she could see. In addition to the word, there were outlandish designs, too. She turned him over for a closer look.
The boy's physical features were much different as well. He wasn't Japanese, but Kikyo didn't know what he was, since she had never seen someone who wasn't Japanese. His closely-cropped hair was brown and a little scruffy. His skin was pale and smooth. He was slightly chubby, but not enough to be fat, and had hair on his face that could almost be considered a beard and mustache. Completing his look was a strange piece of metal and another material covering his eyes.
However, the boy was not faring well. His breathing was becoming shallow, and his skin was turning pale beyond its normal color. He was sweating also, and upon closer inspection, Kikyo saw that he was covered in burns, though not as bad as the last ones she had seen. Kikyo knew that he was dying. He would not last another few minutes.
Then there they were. The messengers of Other World. Two ugly toads sent to take his spirit away. But Kikyo would not hear of it. She cared for children and a child he was. Her healer's instinct returned. She let the foul creatures climb onto the boy's body, and then vaporized them with pure energy.
The creatures were gone, but the boy was still asleep. So Kikyo sat down to wait until he woke up. The sun fell beneath the horizon, and then rose again the next morning, yet still he was asleep. Kikyo looked back, only to witness a horrifying sight.
The boy had begun to change.
His curly brown hair had changed to black, and was three times its normal length, falling to below his shoulders. His fingernails had grown longer as well, sharpening into claws. Ghostly scars, blood-red, had begun to form on both cheeks. His lips pulled back in a sleeper's grimace, as if he was having a nightmare, and Kikyo could see his newly grown fangs. Blood from his cut lips flowed down his chin. Most important, and terrifying, was the fact that his youki, his aura, had changed. Actually, Kikyo hadn't been paying much attention, her focus centered on saving his life, but now she could feel it. The boy, who appeared to be human at first glance, was no such thing. His aura betrayed his true identity. The boy was youkai.
Kikyo was shocked. How could she not have noticed? How could she have saved this beast's life? Kikyo had many questions, but her miko instincts were taking over. Her fingers began to crackle with mystic energy, and she raised them above her head, ready to strike with holy power. She would not spare him. The last time she had done so, the cost was her own life. But she quickly stopped. The boy's eyelids fluttered open.
She expected to see twin points of blazing crimson, or shining gold, but instead they were a normal blue. Pain radiated from them. The boy, youkai though he was, was still deathly sick. His skin was still pale; his eyes still red, his skin still slick with sweat. He looked at her straight on, and Kikyo stopped her planned assault. How could she kill him? He was only a child.
Kikyo stared back at him. "How do you feel?" She asked, her face emotionless, but her voice carrying a minute trace of caring.
"Like crap…Hey, you're…Kikyo?" Her gaze took on one of puzzlement.
"You know me?"
"Yeah…I mean, I may have seen you before." The boy's words came out a choking whisper. Kikyo was puzzled by this new arrival, but her first concern was his health.
"Lay still, young one, I will be back soon." Kikyo went down to the river, which was now filled with debris from yesterday's disaster. The boy needed water, but she had no way to carry it to him. She couldn't move him either, since she didn't know if he was injured or not. However, she had some cloths inside her kimono, and she dipped these into the water and quickly returned to the boy. She placed one of the cloths on his forehead to hopefully bring the fever down. The boy was beginning to lapse into unconsciousness, but she wanted him to drink some of the water she had brought, so she gently parted his lips and wrung the cloth out over them. He groaned slightly. Kikyo returned to the river a few more times, until she was satisfied he had drank enough. Then, he slipped away again, and she sat down to wait. After all, what else can the dead do, but wait? As she waited, she thought.
She thought about these last few days, how she was alive, but dead. But she thought mostly about how she would live. The first thing that came to mind was: Kill Inuyasha, but how could she live on that alone? She needed more of a purpose, she needed a place to call home. She needed to find a place where no one knew her, and thus, could not hurt her.
I want to start over.
She had made her decision. She would not go out and hunt down Inuyasha. Instead, she would settle down in a new place. But one problem still remained. The boy.
As if on cue, he began to stir. His eyes flicked open, but instead of pain and disease, Kikyo saw healthy vitality. His eyes hadn't turned any strange colors, either, but stayed a human blue.
Upon waking, he took the un-human move of leaping from his prostrate position, up twenty feet in the air, and back to his feet, wobbling slightly on landing. His back was turned to her. Such a thing must be new to him. But how, if he was born a youkai?
…
Well now, that was interesting. One minute I'm on the highway to hell, next minute I'm a Ringling Brother. Whoa. I need to know what's going on! Not to mention where I am. Let's see.
What happened here?! The place looks like World War Three! What else is around here…
"How are you feeling?" Asks a strangely familiar voice from somewhere behind me.
"Alright, how about y…Holy Shit!" This isn't real, this can't be real! Did those apes give me brain damage? That's the only explanation for what I 'm seeing, because there's no way in hell the person in front of me can possibly exist. I thought I was dreaming! Of course, if this is her, I'm in big trouble. I'm standing in front of Kikyo, one of the most powerful miko ever to exist.
"You seem troubled."
"No shit! You…You're…not real!"
"I may be a walking dead, but I am as real as anything you see. Has your fever passed?"
"Fever? What fever? I feel fine!"
"You do now, but only moments ago, you were dying. If I hadn't healed you, you wouldn't have made it. Tell me, who are you, youkai?"
"Huh? Youkai? You mean demon? I think you've got me confused with someone else." Youkai? Where would she get that idea? I look human, I don't have fangs or claws…wait, why is my mouth bleeding? With two fingers I check my lips, and that's when I feel them. Fangs. My fangs.
I'm bewildered, confused, scared even! My eye teeth must have doubled or tripled in length, and damn they're sharp! Now why did it hurt when I touched my gums?
"Aaaaah!"
"What's wrong?"
"What do you THINK is wrong! I'm a fucking monster! Jesus Christ, I 've got fangs, claws, my hair is really long…(hey it's silky!) WHERE THE HELL DID THAT COME FROM?! Do you have any idea what's going on?!" I slump to the ground, mind whirling in confusion.
"You are youkai."
"Lady, ten minutes ago I was human. Humans do not change into youkai, except in a few rare cases, and I'm not one of them."
"Ten minutes? You've been asleep for the past day or so."
"Day? I've been asleep? How did I get here? For that matter, how do I get back?"
"Yesterday, I was walking down this path, when a storm began. This storm wasn't natural, though, and caused incredible devastation. That's why this area is destroyed."
"What does any of this have to do with me? I just want to know how I got here!"
"The storm continued for several minutes until a stranger descended from the clouds, cloaked in wind and lightning. This man landed on the ground and collapsed, and the storm ended. That man was you."
"Huh?" I blink several times, trying to make sense of this. Is she saying what I think she's saying?"
"Are you telling me that I came here in a storm, through some hole in the sky?"
"Yes."
"You mean I did all this?"
"Yes." Oh man, this is too much. I'm standing next to a an anime character, who doesn't look animated, in an anime world, which is also not animated, and I've become something that doesn't exist. Did I mention this was too much? I think there's only one thing a guy can do in situations like these. Actually, two. One is scream. The other?
"Ughhhhh…."
*THUD*
……….
Kikyo watched the boy fall, face-first, into the ground. He had fainted. She walked to his side, turned him over, and checked him to see if he was still alive. He was still breathing and he wasn't bleeding anywhere she could see, nor were there any visible injuries. He would be fine, but she wondered about him. He was obviously shocked to be a youkai, but he didn't seem to have amnesia. This meant that he must at least believe that he was once human. But there wasn't a single doubt in her mind that the child was youkai. So the question remained, how does a pure human become pure youkai?
Kikyo sat down again. She would wait until the child awoke, then she would continue on her way. The child would travel with her until the mystery of his transformation was solved.