Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and its characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Viz Video, and a bunch of other people. Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi and probably the same other people. Etc, etc. you know how this goes.
Speech " "
Thoughts ' '
Sounds
Signs [ ]
English =" "=
Chinese (" ")
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It was almost noon in the large city of Tokyo as the citizens bustled about to and fro looking for restaurants to eat their lunch in. Among these people was a certain pigtailed boy, who soon found himself in a small ramen shop and sighed as counted his cash. He barely had enough for a ketchup packet.
"Damn, I spent all my cash on new clothes..." Ranma grumbled as he placed the few remaining yen coins into the pocket of his new pants. It was indeed true that Ranma had purchased new clothing, as his previous attire was little more than tattered rags due to the impact with the roof and wind resistance he met, not to mention the impacts with the baseball field, all four of them. He was now sporting a simple pair of urban Camouflage pants and a red T-shirt. His usual clothing style of Chinese silk was a lot more expensive than he thought, so he went with what he was currently wearing, the cheapest clothing he could find, and he still barely managed to afford it.
"I feel like Ryu Kumon." Ranma grumbled again as he looked down at his outfit before walking out of the restaurant, his stomach growling in protest as he returned to the streets. It had been nearly 2 weeks since his violent exit of Nerima, and for the life of him he couldn't manage to get back. No matter how hard he tried he was unable to return to the district, he couldn't even find it. Thus he had been living in Tokyo the entire time, living off the dehydrated food he found in an old abandoned bomb shelter, which doubled as his place of residence.
"I need a job." He said to himself, walking through the restaurant area of Tokyo, trying to find anywhere that was offering employment. He eventually comes across a small restaurant with a help wanted sign near the door, seeing that they were offering custodial jobs as Ranma just shrugged, he's done worse. He strolled into the Restaurant and headed towards the counter, about to ask about the Help Wanted sign when his thoughts were disturbed by the conversation going on behind him.
"If that were true I'd be thrilled, but the deal is he's still totally hung up over his first girlfriend. He doesn't have the time of day for me." A young girl said to her friends at a nearby both. Such conversations would normally bore him out of his mind, but there was something about the girl's voice that sounded familiar.
"Sound's like the guy is really passionate and full of conflicting emotions." Another girl said as Ranma silently scoffed to himself. 'Sounds like some pansy.' He thought.
"You got that right. He actually tried to kill some guy for trying to come on to me." The first girl replied as Ranma once again felt like the voice sounded familiar. There was also something strange about her Aura, without even looking at her Ranma could feel the spiritual power flowing off her body, which also felt familiar for some reason.
"Jeez, who is this G..." Ranma began as he turned around, stopping dead in his tracts as he looked at the girl sitting at the booth. A Barrage of flashbacks fired through his brain at a mile a second; flashes of things he had never seen before, and yet felt so familiar. It was like his entire life was passing by his eyes, and yet it wasn't his life at all. He could see a young silver haired boy playing in a field of grass; he could feel the depression and sadness as townsfolk fled his presence in a state of near terror. He could smell a faint perfume from a woman who cared about him, a woman who was once his mother, he could hear the sound of an arrow piercing the wind, he could taste his own blood in his mouth. Finally the flashes ended, with a single vision before him. It was a young woman in her mid twenties in a shine maiden's attire, with a bow in her hands and a look of hatred on her face. He could feel the hatred from her, but he himself could not share this emotion. He was overwhelmed with a sense of sadness and depression, he had been betrayed.
"K...Kikyo..." Ranma muttered under his breath, his body quivering from the sudden dark emotion as his body began to softly glow a sickly green. The second the near silent words left his lips the girl that had triggered the memories whipped her head around and stared at him in complete shock.
'It's that guy from the baseball field, did he just...call me Kikyo?' Kagome thought, suddenly shaken from her shock as the boy ran out of the restaurant at full speed.
"Kagome, are you listening to us?" One of her friends asked, before being surprised as the girl got up and ran from the restaurant, hoping to catch Ranma but finding he was long gone.
'He looks exactly like Inuyasha, and he called me Kikyo, I'm sure he did. Does this mean...' Kagome thought to herself, looking into the street for a few moments before turning around and going back to her seat in the booth.
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Incarnated
Chapter 1
Inuyasha, incarnated
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Ranma sighed as he walked through the streets of Tokyo once again; happy that he had managed to find some yen in a traveling pack in the bomb shelter he had taken to living in, since he managed to eat decent food for once. It was starting to get late and Ranma figured it was time to get out of Tokyo, as he couldn't manage to get to Nerima under his own power and he didn't know anybody that could take him there.
"Maybe I'll just start on the training trip again. I might just run into Ryoga, he has a better chance of getting back to Nerima than I do." Ranma grumbled to himself before he continued his near aimless meanderings. His thoughts went back to the strange flashbacks he had been having since Akane smacked him with that hammer of hers. First that weird dream in the hospital, then that strange vision in the restaurant the day before.
"Who is Kikyo?" Ranma mumbled to himself, trying to figure out why he couldn't get his mind off the strange shine maiden from his visions. The pigtailed boy quickly lost track of time as he looked around and found himself in a heavily forested area, wondering when he managed to leave Tokyo.
"I'd better set up Camp, it will only get darker from here." He mumbled to himself, dropping his pack and quickly setting up camp. His thoughts once again went to the strange girl before shifting towards himself. He couldn't help but wonder who these memories belonged to, as they certainly weren't from his own perspective. Ranma sighed again and looked towards the sky, watching the stars from his spot on the ground. He suddenly turned his head to the side for a moment and shot a curious glance at the obscenely tall tree he could see in the distance. Curiosity quickly got the better of him as he stood and headed towards the towering tree, soon finding that the forest he had stopped in was the site of a rather large shrine, and from his vantage point on the hill, he could easily tell he was still in Tokyo. That didn't matter, however, as he just kept walking until he was standing before the immense Tree. It was honestly massive, going at least hundreds of meters into the air and being thicker than Ranma probably was lying down. The thing that caught Ranma's attention the most, however, was the scar like mark on the surface of the trunk, being about as big as Ranma's own body was. Suddenly, Ranma gasped in pain as it felt like his whole body was on fire, his chest began to glow and his aura made itself known to its full power, covering the majority of the shrine grounds before condensing around his body, shining brightly.
"Wh...What's happening...? My body...It feels like I'm being ripped in two..." Ranma said before falling to his knees and screaming in pain. He noticed at that very instant that another scream of agony sounded in unison with his own, as well as a large blue aura that seemed to be emanating from the nearby shrine house when the pain suddenly stopped. The Pigtailed boy got to his feet and quickly ran off into the forest, wanting to get far away from that tree as he could.
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Inuyasha sighed as he sat on the edge of the well. He knew that Kaede was right. He had to go back for Kagome and get her to come back. The hard part was how.
"It doesn't matter, I'll just go and drag her back if I have to." Inuyasha grumbled before jumping down the well, resurfacing in Kagome's time and landed in the Shrine building. He was about to head out towards the main house when he stopped in his tracks and gasped. His whole body suddenly felt like it was immersed in flames as his body began to glow and his bright blue demonic aura expanded, filling the whole room before condensing around his body. It was at that time that a stabbing pain was felt in the very fiber of his being, as he cried out in pain.
"My soul...It feels like it's being...Torn from my body... AAARRRGGG!!!" Inuyasha cried, in far too much pain to maintain his balance as he fell backward and into the well. Before he knew it he was back in his own time and the pain had suddenly stopped.
"What was that?" Inuyasha muttered to himself as he stood and looked down at the dirt of the ground beneath him, wondering whether or not he should go back or not.
"Whatever that was it's obviously only on Kagome's side, which means she might be in danger. I have to go back!" He said, once again crossing the time barrier as he leapt out of the shrine and looked around. The pain was suddenly back, but it was slowly disappearing, as if whatever was causing it was getting further away.
"It's going away, good. I'd better make sure Kagome is okay." The half demon said to himself before jumping towards the house.
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Ranma continued to run for his life back into the forest, nearly losing his footing and crashing head first into a tree as the pain returned, but was slowly disappearing.
"Whatever it was that caused that is at the shrine." Ranma muttered to himself as he came to a stop and looked back towards the massive tree. He once again found himself drawn towards it, but the adrenaline still pumping through his veins from that near death experience was keeping him from jumping head long into danger. Thus, he stayed where he was standing well into the night, eventually falling asleep as the pain once again disappeared.
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A few days had past as Ranma quickly went through a kata in the heat of the rising sun. The shadows of the trees creating fantastical patterns to fall on everything in the small clearing as the Saotome Boy jumped and attacked, dodged and weaved, and went through a variety of acrobatic maneuvers that seemed to defied the laws of physics and gravity, hovering in midair far longer than should be possible while weaving around and changing direction without the aid of a surface to do so, even performing a few mid air jumps before returning to the ground with barely a noise, continuing his martial arts exercise. The sun was nearing the zenith of its arc by the time Ranma finally finished, visibly exhausted from the use of his art.
"Heh, five hours. I almost beat my old record." Ranma muttered to himself as he sat down and ate some canned food he had with him. After a few moments he finished the small meal and sighed in contentment, taking a big whiff of the air before gagging on the overwhelming stench he was putting off. Apparently he had worked up quite the sweat.
"Damn, I smell like shit. Isn't there a river or something around here?" Ranma grumbled as he got up and walked further into the woods, seeing a stream cutting through the area. With a quick motion he unclothed himself and jumped into the waters, turning into a woman almost instantly as she went about the process of washing the sweat and dirt from her body.
"Damn, even my hair smells like crap." Ranma-Chan said to herself as she pulled the small string out of her hair, letting it fall out to its full length before submerging her head. A quick rinse and she was done, exiting the waters of the river and dunking her clothes in as well to wash the stench from them. Since she was already wet anyway she didn't bother waiting for the clothes to dry and simply put them on, braiding her hair back into a pigtail and tying it off again before heading back towards camp. After a few steps she noticed that her hair had fallen out of its braid and was flowing free again, a quick look at the ground showed that the string she had used to tie it had snapped.
"Cheap ass strings. Jeez, I never should have given away that Dragon Whisker, that thing was built to last." Ranma-Chan grumbled before arriving back at the campsite, wringing out some liquid from her clothes and hair into a kettle and began to heat it up. After a few moments it was hot enough and Ranma was once again male as he packed up his stuff and headed off into the forest, soon coming back to the shrine. Over the past few days he always found himself returning to this spot, he didn't know why, but he had an overwhelming urge to return.
"Hey Grandpa, that weird guy is staring at the tree again." Sota said, gazing out the door at the figure in the red shirt and Camou pants that was standing before the Go-shinboku.
"I see you have taken an interest in the Go-Shinboku, young man." The old man said as he walked out of the house and towards the pigtailed boy. Ranma merely nodded and turned back towards the tree, staring at it again.
"So that's what it is, huh? I always thought is was just a big tree, old man." Ranma replied sarcastically, causing the old man to scoff before walking closer.
"This tree has been here for hundreds of years, and legends say that its holy aura can clear a troubled mind." He explained, joining Ranma in his gazing.
"If only that were true. My mind has been rather troubled lately." Ranma replied as he stared up at the tree again. Maybe that was why he always returned to the tree. He did tend to enter a near meditative state when he was near it. The martial artist's gaze lingered for a moment towards the near by shrine building, seeing an old well located within.
"What's up with that well? Any special legends to it too?" Ranma asked as he left the tree and walked into the shrine, looking down into the well.
"Ah. This is the Bone Eater's Well. Legends say that it was used to as a dumping ground for demon bones, and after a few days they would simply disappear. I have reason to believe that the legends are indeed true, and that it holds a gateway to time itself." The old man said as Ranma scoffed, looking down into the depths of the well.
"Sounds impressive, looks like a crummy old well to me." Ranma muttered as he leaned over the edge.
"Buyo, what are you doing in here? Shoo! Shoo!" The old man said as a horrible shiver ran up Ranma's spine. The devil itself was in the room; he could feel its presence.
"Meow?" Buyo sounded, standing barely a meter away from Ranma's feet.
"CAAAAATTTT!!!!!" Ranma screamed in horror as he backed up against the edge of the well, loosing his footing and plummeting down into its depth. He was ill prepared to break his fall due to the overwhelming fear as he struck the bottom head first, knocking himself unconscious as he never even noticed the psychedelic display of colors as he crossed the stream of time.
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Ranma groaned as he came to, sitting up in the dust and the dirt as the world stopped spinning and his vision cleared. All around him were the aged stones one would expect to see in the bottom of a well, as well as vines and moss growing abundantly.
"I must have fallen down the well. I don't sense a cat anymore, good." Ranma said to himself as he leapt out of the well and faltered as he reached ground level, the pain from before suddenly returning as he landed on the nearby grass and looked around, not seeing any sign of the shrine nor the old man.
"Ok, I'm officially freaked out now." Ranma thought before the surprise was cut short by the weird pain all through his body. It was faint, which meant it was far away, which was perfect by Ranma's standards as he didn't want to be anywhere near it.
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'That pain...it's back again...' Inuyasha thought, though it didn't really matter as he was in enough pain as it was.
'The battle is long over, and yet my body still burns from the power of the Wind Scar. Now this pain returns to me. This soul-wrenching pain that feels like it could easily kill me. Does my suffering ever end?' He asked himself, wishing he could move, just to get even a few inches further away from the source of his pain.
'What is the cause of this pain? Why does my very being feel like it struggles to maintain existence? I cannot stand this any longer.' Inuyasha thought, opening his eyes and looking about the small hut he was being put in. He struggled to stand, wanting to move, move farther away from the source of the pain, even if it were only a few centimeters.
"Inuyasha! Are you in pain?" Shippou asked as he entered the hut, running over to the side of the half demon.
"I guess that's to be expected. Tetsusaiga protected you, but you still took the brunt of the Wind Scar. Sango's hurt too. She shouldn't move for a while, she tries to brush her wounds off but she did get hit with her own weapon." Shippou explained as Inuyasha turned his head, looking towards the girl lying on the other side of the hut.
"And Kagome?" Inuyasha asked, the pain clear in his voice, still trying to move farther from its source.
"She went with Miroku to search for medicinal herbs and food." The small fox demon explained, before going over to help Sango and leaving the room. It was around then that the room began to glow, Kikyo's Soul Collectors showing themselves. Inuyasha stood instantly, using the Tetsusaiga as a crutch as he pathetically made his way out of the hut, happy to find that he was getting further from the pain. He crutched forward slowly, getting to a hill and losing his footing as he tumbled down it, landing on his face at the bottom. He struggled to stand, but only managed to sit as he looked up into the trees, seeing Kikyo appear there.
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Ranma sighed as he walked through the heavily wooded area near the well. It was obvious that this wasn't modern day Japan, and the black haired martial artist hoped he'd be able to find something in the way of civilization soon.
'Huh? Danger.' He thought, turning to the left suddenly as a blur of motion flew at him. In an instant he was airborne, the giant earthen spike that was hurled at him colliding with the ground beneath him and tearing an impressive hole in it.
"That was quite the jump, for a human." Ranma landed on the spire that was now sticking out of the rock and turned towards the source of the voice, noticing a strange creature that was standing there. It looked like a standard man, only his skin was solid green, and he had what looked like a rattlesnake tail hanging down from the back of his head, almost reaching the ground.
"I may be human, but at least I don't have my butt attached directly to my head, ass face." Ranma taunted, smirking as he saw his opponent's anger rise.
"I shall eat you alive!!!" he screamed, dashing at Ranma with incredible speed, his mouth widening and a pair of snake fangs falling down from the top of his jaw. Ranma's smirk got bigger as he blew some of his free floating hair out of his eyes and back flipped off the rock, pulling back his leg in the process.
"Hey, I think this is yours!" He shouted, punting the giant rock with such force that it was pulled from the ground and hurled through the air, intercepting the snake man in mid leap and dragging him to the ground. Ranma landed and admired his work, waiting for the dust to settle while tapping his foot.
"Is that all you got, ass face?" He called out. The rock pile rumbled and the snake man shot out, glowing brightly with a demonic aura. Ranma merely smirked in response, cooling his chi and creating the soul of ice, preparing for his ultimate technique.
"I am Raigyo the destroyer! And you will die, human!" Ass face shouted, vainly chasing after Ranma as he led the two of them into a spiral.
"Shut up, ya stinking worm!" Ranma yelled back, getting rather annoyed with the snakes repeated death threats. The spiral was complete and Ranma couldn't help but feel slightly impressed by his opponent, he was putting off such an aura that he could clearly see his own clash with it within the spiral.
"HIRYUU SHOTEN HA!!!!!" Ranma shouted, uppercutting the snake, ripping through his aura of cold and forcing his fist into the aura of hot. A surge of power flowed across the spiral like electricity as the Tornado formed, blasting the snake into utter oblivion as he screamed in agony, torn to bits by the raging torrent of Ranma's wind.
--------Meanwhile
Kaede turned towards Inuyasha's forest and stared in shocked awe at the Tornado of demonic energy that was rising into the sky.
"That demonic aura...Everyone! Gather your spears and arrows!" She called out, mobilizing the town as quickly as she could. This demon was powerful for its aura to be felt from such a distance.
'This feels so familiar. Why do I sense Inuyasha's presense? Surely this tornado is not his doing.'
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TBC
Author's Notes: Considering that this thing got a whopping 4 votes on my site and totally blew the other fics out of the water, I assumed it would be worth continuing.
--Ryo-Wolf----
Speech " "
Thoughts ' '
Sounds
Signs [ ]
English =" "=
Chinese (" ")
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It was almost noon in the large city of Tokyo as the citizens bustled about to and fro looking for restaurants to eat their lunch in. Among these people was a certain pigtailed boy, who soon found himself in a small ramen shop and sighed as counted his cash. He barely had enough for a ketchup packet.
"Damn, I spent all my cash on new clothes..." Ranma grumbled as he placed the few remaining yen coins into the pocket of his new pants. It was indeed true that Ranma had purchased new clothing, as his previous attire was little more than tattered rags due to the impact with the roof and wind resistance he met, not to mention the impacts with the baseball field, all four of them. He was now sporting a simple pair of urban Camouflage pants and a red T-shirt. His usual clothing style of Chinese silk was a lot more expensive than he thought, so he went with what he was currently wearing, the cheapest clothing he could find, and he still barely managed to afford it.
"I feel like Ryu Kumon." Ranma grumbled again as he looked down at his outfit before walking out of the restaurant, his stomach growling in protest as he returned to the streets. It had been nearly 2 weeks since his violent exit of Nerima, and for the life of him he couldn't manage to get back. No matter how hard he tried he was unable to return to the district, he couldn't even find it. Thus he had been living in Tokyo the entire time, living off the dehydrated food he found in an old abandoned bomb shelter, which doubled as his place of residence.
"I need a job." He said to himself, walking through the restaurant area of Tokyo, trying to find anywhere that was offering employment. He eventually comes across a small restaurant with a help wanted sign near the door, seeing that they were offering custodial jobs as Ranma just shrugged, he's done worse. He strolled into the Restaurant and headed towards the counter, about to ask about the Help Wanted sign when his thoughts were disturbed by the conversation going on behind him.
"If that were true I'd be thrilled, but the deal is he's still totally hung up over his first girlfriend. He doesn't have the time of day for me." A young girl said to her friends at a nearby both. Such conversations would normally bore him out of his mind, but there was something about the girl's voice that sounded familiar.
"Sound's like the guy is really passionate and full of conflicting emotions." Another girl said as Ranma silently scoffed to himself. 'Sounds like some pansy.' He thought.
"You got that right. He actually tried to kill some guy for trying to come on to me." The first girl replied as Ranma once again felt like the voice sounded familiar. There was also something strange about her Aura, without even looking at her Ranma could feel the spiritual power flowing off her body, which also felt familiar for some reason.
"Jeez, who is this G..." Ranma began as he turned around, stopping dead in his tracts as he looked at the girl sitting at the booth. A Barrage of flashbacks fired through his brain at a mile a second; flashes of things he had never seen before, and yet felt so familiar. It was like his entire life was passing by his eyes, and yet it wasn't his life at all. He could see a young silver haired boy playing in a field of grass; he could feel the depression and sadness as townsfolk fled his presence in a state of near terror. He could smell a faint perfume from a woman who cared about him, a woman who was once his mother, he could hear the sound of an arrow piercing the wind, he could taste his own blood in his mouth. Finally the flashes ended, with a single vision before him. It was a young woman in her mid twenties in a shine maiden's attire, with a bow in her hands and a look of hatred on her face. He could feel the hatred from her, but he himself could not share this emotion. He was overwhelmed with a sense of sadness and depression, he had been betrayed.
"K...Kikyo..." Ranma muttered under his breath, his body quivering from the sudden dark emotion as his body began to softly glow a sickly green. The second the near silent words left his lips the girl that had triggered the memories whipped her head around and stared at him in complete shock.
'It's that guy from the baseball field, did he just...call me Kikyo?' Kagome thought, suddenly shaken from her shock as the boy ran out of the restaurant at full speed.
"Kagome, are you listening to us?" One of her friends asked, before being surprised as the girl got up and ran from the restaurant, hoping to catch Ranma but finding he was long gone.
'He looks exactly like Inuyasha, and he called me Kikyo, I'm sure he did. Does this mean...' Kagome thought to herself, looking into the street for a few moments before turning around and going back to her seat in the booth.
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Incarnated
Chapter 1
Inuyasha, incarnated
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Ranma sighed as he walked through the streets of Tokyo once again; happy that he had managed to find some yen in a traveling pack in the bomb shelter he had taken to living in, since he managed to eat decent food for once. It was starting to get late and Ranma figured it was time to get out of Tokyo, as he couldn't manage to get to Nerima under his own power and he didn't know anybody that could take him there.
"Maybe I'll just start on the training trip again. I might just run into Ryoga, he has a better chance of getting back to Nerima than I do." Ranma grumbled to himself before he continued his near aimless meanderings. His thoughts went back to the strange flashbacks he had been having since Akane smacked him with that hammer of hers. First that weird dream in the hospital, then that strange vision in the restaurant the day before.
"Who is Kikyo?" Ranma mumbled to himself, trying to figure out why he couldn't get his mind off the strange shine maiden from his visions. The pigtailed boy quickly lost track of time as he looked around and found himself in a heavily forested area, wondering when he managed to leave Tokyo.
"I'd better set up Camp, it will only get darker from here." He mumbled to himself, dropping his pack and quickly setting up camp. His thoughts once again went to the strange girl before shifting towards himself. He couldn't help but wonder who these memories belonged to, as they certainly weren't from his own perspective. Ranma sighed again and looked towards the sky, watching the stars from his spot on the ground. He suddenly turned his head to the side for a moment and shot a curious glance at the obscenely tall tree he could see in the distance. Curiosity quickly got the better of him as he stood and headed towards the towering tree, soon finding that the forest he had stopped in was the site of a rather large shrine, and from his vantage point on the hill, he could easily tell he was still in Tokyo. That didn't matter, however, as he just kept walking until he was standing before the immense Tree. It was honestly massive, going at least hundreds of meters into the air and being thicker than Ranma probably was lying down. The thing that caught Ranma's attention the most, however, was the scar like mark on the surface of the trunk, being about as big as Ranma's own body was. Suddenly, Ranma gasped in pain as it felt like his whole body was on fire, his chest began to glow and his aura made itself known to its full power, covering the majority of the shrine grounds before condensing around his body, shining brightly.
"Wh...What's happening...? My body...It feels like I'm being ripped in two..." Ranma said before falling to his knees and screaming in pain. He noticed at that very instant that another scream of agony sounded in unison with his own, as well as a large blue aura that seemed to be emanating from the nearby shrine house when the pain suddenly stopped. The Pigtailed boy got to his feet and quickly ran off into the forest, wanting to get far away from that tree as he could.
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Inuyasha sighed as he sat on the edge of the well. He knew that Kaede was right. He had to go back for Kagome and get her to come back. The hard part was how.
"It doesn't matter, I'll just go and drag her back if I have to." Inuyasha grumbled before jumping down the well, resurfacing in Kagome's time and landed in the Shrine building. He was about to head out towards the main house when he stopped in his tracks and gasped. His whole body suddenly felt like it was immersed in flames as his body began to glow and his bright blue demonic aura expanded, filling the whole room before condensing around his body. It was at that time that a stabbing pain was felt in the very fiber of his being, as he cried out in pain.
"My soul...It feels like it's being...Torn from my body... AAARRRGGG!!!" Inuyasha cried, in far too much pain to maintain his balance as he fell backward and into the well. Before he knew it he was back in his own time and the pain had suddenly stopped.
"What was that?" Inuyasha muttered to himself as he stood and looked down at the dirt of the ground beneath him, wondering whether or not he should go back or not.
"Whatever that was it's obviously only on Kagome's side, which means she might be in danger. I have to go back!" He said, once again crossing the time barrier as he leapt out of the shrine and looked around. The pain was suddenly back, but it was slowly disappearing, as if whatever was causing it was getting further away.
"It's going away, good. I'd better make sure Kagome is okay." The half demon said to himself before jumping towards the house.
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Ranma continued to run for his life back into the forest, nearly losing his footing and crashing head first into a tree as the pain returned, but was slowly disappearing.
"Whatever it was that caused that is at the shrine." Ranma muttered to himself as he came to a stop and looked back towards the massive tree. He once again found himself drawn towards it, but the adrenaline still pumping through his veins from that near death experience was keeping him from jumping head long into danger. Thus, he stayed where he was standing well into the night, eventually falling asleep as the pain once again disappeared.
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A few days had past as Ranma quickly went through a kata in the heat of the rising sun. The shadows of the trees creating fantastical patterns to fall on everything in the small clearing as the Saotome Boy jumped and attacked, dodged and weaved, and went through a variety of acrobatic maneuvers that seemed to defied the laws of physics and gravity, hovering in midair far longer than should be possible while weaving around and changing direction without the aid of a surface to do so, even performing a few mid air jumps before returning to the ground with barely a noise, continuing his martial arts exercise. The sun was nearing the zenith of its arc by the time Ranma finally finished, visibly exhausted from the use of his art.
"Heh, five hours. I almost beat my old record." Ranma muttered to himself as he sat down and ate some canned food he had with him. After a few moments he finished the small meal and sighed in contentment, taking a big whiff of the air before gagging on the overwhelming stench he was putting off. Apparently he had worked up quite the sweat.
"Damn, I smell like shit. Isn't there a river or something around here?" Ranma grumbled as he got up and walked further into the woods, seeing a stream cutting through the area. With a quick motion he unclothed himself and jumped into the waters, turning into a woman almost instantly as she went about the process of washing the sweat and dirt from her body.
"Damn, even my hair smells like crap." Ranma-Chan said to herself as she pulled the small string out of her hair, letting it fall out to its full length before submerging her head. A quick rinse and she was done, exiting the waters of the river and dunking her clothes in as well to wash the stench from them. Since she was already wet anyway she didn't bother waiting for the clothes to dry and simply put them on, braiding her hair back into a pigtail and tying it off again before heading back towards camp. After a few steps she noticed that her hair had fallen out of its braid and was flowing free again, a quick look at the ground showed that the string she had used to tie it had snapped.
"Cheap ass strings. Jeez, I never should have given away that Dragon Whisker, that thing was built to last." Ranma-Chan grumbled before arriving back at the campsite, wringing out some liquid from her clothes and hair into a kettle and began to heat it up. After a few moments it was hot enough and Ranma was once again male as he packed up his stuff and headed off into the forest, soon coming back to the shrine. Over the past few days he always found himself returning to this spot, he didn't know why, but he had an overwhelming urge to return.
"Hey Grandpa, that weird guy is staring at the tree again." Sota said, gazing out the door at the figure in the red shirt and Camou pants that was standing before the Go-shinboku.
"I see you have taken an interest in the Go-Shinboku, young man." The old man said as he walked out of the house and towards the pigtailed boy. Ranma merely nodded and turned back towards the tree, staring at it again.
"So that's what it is, huh? I always thought is was just a big tree, old man." Ranma replied sarcastically, causing the old man to scoff before walking closer.
"This tree has been here for hundreds of years, and legends say that its holy aura can clear a troubled mind." He explained, joining Ranma in his gazing.
"If only that were true. My mind has been rather troubled lately." Ranma replied as he stared up at the tree again. Maybe that was why he always returned to the tree. He did tend to enter a near meditative state when he was near it. The martial artist's gaze lingered for a moment towards the near by shrine building, seeing an old well located within.
"What's up with that well? Any special legends to it too?" Ranma asked as he left the tree and walked into the shrine, looking down into the well.
"Ah. This is the Bone Eater's Well. Legends say that it was used to as a dumping ground for demon bones, and after a few days they would simply disappear. I have reason to believe that the legends are indeed true, and that it holds a gateway to time itself." The old man said as Ranma scoffed, looking down into the depths of the well.
"Sounds impressive, looks like a crummy old well to me." Ranma muttered as he leaned over the edge.
"Buyo, what are you doing in here? Shoo! Shoo!" The old man said as a horrible shiver ran up Ranma's spine. The devil itself was in the room; he could feel its presence.
"Meow?" Buyo sounded, standing barely a meter away from Ranma's feet.
"CAAAAATTTT!!!!!" Ranma screamed in horror as he backed up against the edge of the well, loosing his footing and plummeting down into its depth. He was ill prepared to break his fall due to the overwhelming fear as he struck the bottom head first, knocking himself unconscious as he never even noticed the psychedelic display of colors as he crossed the stream of time.
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Ranma groaned as he came to, sitting up in the dust and the dirt as the world stopped spinning and his vision cleared. All around him were the aged stones one would expect to see in the bottom of a well, as well as vines and moss growing abundantly.
"I must have fallen down the well. I don't sense a cat anymore, good." Ranma said to himself as he leapt out of the well and faltered as he reached ground level, the pain from before suddenly returning as he landed on the nearby grass and looked around, not seeing any sign of the shrine nor the old man.
"Ok, I'm officially freaked out now." Ranma thought before the surprise was cut short by the weird pain all through his body. It was faint, which meant it was far away, which was perfect by Ranma's standards as he didn't want to be anywhere near it.
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'That pain...it's back again...' Inuyasha thought, though it didn't really matter as he was in enough pain as it was.
'The battle is long over, and yet my body still burns from the power of the Wind Scar. Now this pain returns to me. This soul-wrenching pain that feels like it could easily kill me. Does my suffering ever end?' He asked himself, wishing he could move, just to get even a few inches further away from the source of his pain.
'What is the cause of this pain? Why does my very being feel like it struggles to maintain existence? I cannot stand this any longer.' Inuyasha thought, opening his eyes and looking about the small hut he was being put in. He struggled to stand, wanting to move, move farther away from the source of the pain, even if it were only a few centimeters.
"Inuyasha! Are you in pain?" Shippou asked as he entered the hut, running over to the side of the half demon.
"I guess that's to be expected. Tetsusaiga protected you, but you still took the brunt of the Wind Scar. Sango's hurt too. She shouldn't move for a while, she tries to brush her wounds off but she did get hit with her own weapon." Shippou explained as Inuyasha turned his head, looking towards the girl lying on the other side of the hut.
"And Kagome?" Inuyasha asked, the pain clear in his voice, still trying to move farther from its source.
"She went with Miroku to search for medicinal herbs and food." The small fox demon explained, before going over to help Sango and leaving the room. It was around then that the room began to glow, Kikyo's Soul Collectors showing themselves. Inuyasha stood instantly, using the Tetsusaiga as a crutch as he pathetically made his way out of the hut, happy to find that he was getting further from the pain. He crutched forward slowly, getting to a hill and losing his footing as he tumbled down it, landing on his face at the bottom. He struggled to stand, but only managed to sit as he looked up into the trees, seeing Kikyo appear there.
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Ranma sighed as he walked through the heavily wooded area near the well. It was obvious that this wasn't modern day Japan, and the black haired martial artist hoped he'd be able to find something in the way of civilization soon.
'Huh? Danger.' He thought, turning to the left suddenly as a blur of motion flew at him. In an instant he was airborne, the giant earthen spike that was hurled at him colliding with the ground beneath him and tearing an impressive hole in it.
"That was quite the jump, for a human." Ranma landed on the spire that was now sticking out of the rock and turned towards the source of the voice, noticing a strange creature that was standing there. It looked like a standard man, only his skin was solid green, and he had what looked like a rattlesnake tail hanging down from the back of his head, almost reaching the ground.
"I may be human, but at least I don't have my butt attached directly to my head, ass face." Ranma taunted, smirking as he saw his opponent's anger rise.
"I shall eat you alive!!!" he screamed, dashing at Ranma with incredible speed, his mouth widening and a pair of snake fangs falling down from the top of his jaw. Ranma's smirk got bigger as he blew some of his free floating hair out of his eyes and back flipped off the rock, pulling back his leg in the process.
"Hey, I think this is yours!" He shouted, punting the giant rock with such force that it was pulled from the ground and hurled through the air, intercepting the snake man in mid leap and dragging him to the ground. Ranma landed and admired his work, waiting for the dust to settle while tapping his foot.
"Is that all you got, ass face?" He called out. The rock pile rumbled and the snake man shot out, glowing brightly with a demonic aura. Ranma merely smirked in response, cooling his chi and creating the soul of ice, preparing for his ultimate technique.
"I am Raigyo the destroyer! And you will die, human!" Ass face shouted, vainly chasing after Ranma as he led the two of them into a spiral.
"Shut up, ya stinking worm!" Ranma yelled back, getting rather annoyed with the snakes repeated death threats. The spiral was complete and Ranma couldn't help but feel slightly impressed by his opponent, he was putting off such an aura that he could clearly see his own clash with it within the spiral.
"HIRYUU SHOTEN HA!!!!!" Ranma shouted, uppercutting the snake, ripping through his aura of cold and forcing his fist into the aura of hot. A surge of power flowed across the spiral like electricity as the Tornado formed, blasting the snake into utter oblivion as he screamed in agony, torn to bits by the raging torrent of Ranma's wind.
--------Meanwhile
Kaede turned towards Inuyasha's forest and stared in shocked awe at the Tornado of demonic energy that was rising into the sky.
"That demonic aura...Everyone! Gather your spears and arrows!" She called out, mobilizing the town as quickly as she could. This demon was powerful for its aura to be felt from such a distance.
'This feels so familiar. Why do I sense Inuyasha's presense? Surely this tornado is not his doing.'
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TBC
Author's Notes: Considering that this thing got a whopping 4 votes on my site and totally blew the other fics out of the water, I assumed it would be worth continuing.
--Ryo-Wolf----