Chapter 6: The Feudal Age, Sort Of
Falling down the well Erika expected to have a hard landing however, her falling just seemed to stop. One moment she was falling, the next she was lying in the bottom of the well.
"Ok you guys. You've had your fun not let me up from here." She shouted. Nobody answered her. "Hello! Can anyone hear me?" no answer.
Getting fed up Erika looked around the well. She noticed a ladder made of planks and rope. She did not notice this ladder while she was falling nor did she notice it when she had looked down in the well. She thought nothing of this and, at once, climbed up it, happy to be able to get out of the grungy, and smelly well.
She almost fell back into the well when she saw her surroundings. The well, which was situated in the shrine on her family's property, was now in a vast open field. In the distance, she saw buildings, old structured but still looking new. Closer than the buildings but in the opposite direction she saw a tree. The tree was a mighty tree. She had only seen one tree this mighty; it was the tree at her house. The tree that her mother had forbidden her from climbing on it when she was 12 years old.
Erika deduced that this was still the same place yet not. She was quite confused with it.
All of a sudden she heard noise in the well. She looked down it but it was too dark to see. However, she could see the ladder moving. There was something in the well and it was coming up. She started to back up, frightened. She was considering running or untying the rope from the rock it was anchored to. In her panic she could not decide on something to do and just stood there looking.
Erika sighed a sigh of relief when she saw her mother's head pop up and saw, "well, this is odd."
"That's all you have to say to this?" Erika said frantically. "That creep threw us down the well and probably put some magic spell on us to make us end up…here!"
"Oh shush." Said her mother plainly and started off towards the house.
Erika, flabbergasted at her mother's dismissal of what is happening, stood there not able to move.
Her mother stopped and looked back and said, "well, aren't you coming?'
Erika obeyed her mother and ran up to her side.
"Where are we?" Erika asked.
"Home." Her mother said calmly.
"This is not home!"
"Sure it is."
"How can you be so calm?"
"Easy."
"Are you at least going to explain anything to me?"
"Your father knows everything."
"Dad? Where is dad?"
By this time they had reached the front door of the building. "Inside." Said her mother and walked inside. Erika, not wanting to be alone, followed her mother inside. Her mother seemed to know exactly where she was going, like she had been here before.
They came to a door and, upon opening the door, Erika saw her father and Damien sitting at a table with four cup of tea and a kettle.
"So glad of you to join us." Said her father to her mother. "What took you so long?"
"She was reluctant to come." Her mother motioned to Erika. "How compliant was he?"
"Oh, he was more than glad to come." Her father motioned to Damien, who seemed to be rubbing it into Erika in his own way that he was the good child.
"So, are you going to explain where we are and why?" Erika said suddenly.
"We are home." Her father said calmly.
"We are not home!" she yelled, getting frustrated.
"You asked where we are, and we are home. The real question is when." Her father said seeming too knowledgeable for his own good.
At this, Damien's ears perked and said, "when?"
"Exactly." Said their father, "we are approximately 350 years in the past."
"I thought it was odd. Shippou told me it would be different." Their mother said coolly.
"Will one of you explain what is going on?" Erika said losing her calm.
"Where should I begin?" their father asked himself as well as their mother. "Well, I guess you could say it all started with your mother in her high school years, just a bit younger than the two of you. She had found herself in the shrine with the well in it, that fateful day. Well you see, in my time demons were running amuck. There was mass panic everywhere. And one of them found their way into that well there," he said pointing to the well across the vast field, "and was sent to the present, or at least your mother's present. Well, anyway, the demon grabbed your mother and dragged her into this time. After unsealing me, we went on an adventure after this big demon mob boss, I guess you could say, Naraku. The most powerful demon around. Well aside from me." He snickered. "Yadda, yadda, yadda, we meet up and I kicked his butt." He stopped and sipped his tea. He set his cup down and looked at Erika's bewildered face.
"WHAT? You actually expect me to believe this?"
"Look around you." Spoke up Damien. "Does this really look like the year 2005?"
"Don't get me started with you!" she said acting superior.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Damien nearly shouted.
"You. That's it. You're just…you!" Erika said with a lose of words. "You are always just too calm. You get this bombshell dropped on you and do nothing but sit there and drink your stupid tea!"
"I'm calm because I already knew," at this, Erika looked at her mother, who avoided her eyes, and her father, whose intense glare would force anyone to look away after 30 second tops. "Yeah, that's right. They told me. Haven't you ever wondered about these?" he said pointing to his ear, "or how you can, somehow, have the ability to move things and have impeccable control over yours and other's life forces?"
"Mom?" Erika asked pleadingly, hoping that this was all bullshit.
Her mother looked away.
"It's true." Said their father, "Eri said that we should explain everything to him, as part of his training. The more he knows about himself, the better he can try and keep in the rage."
"Then why didn't you tell me?" Erika said.
"You never asked." Their father said bluntly.
Erika was speechless.
"I think we should get back to the story." Their mother spoke up for the first time since they got there.
"Yes of course. Well, anyway, this Naraku guy. He had the ability to multiply. Not actually multiply so that there'd be two Narakus but a sort of other demon. Just as powerful but with some restraints, such as not being able to attack him. At one point, he had separated into three separate demons. Kanna, a mirror bitch who could bounce back any attack you threw at her, this creepy little thing that was sort of like his baby, who could attach to you and control you, actually, he had control of your mother for a brief, very brief, amount of time. It didn't take me long to track him down and rip that greedy bastard off your mother's chest. Lastly, there was Kagura, a wind demon who could control the dead and pack one hell of a punch.
"Well, Naraku, being as strong as he was, could hide his location from the best trackers, i.e. me, and, I guess, he passed that trait onto his minions because for 150 years Kagura went unnoticed as she regained power." Their father paused to take a sip of tea.
"Once Naraku was defeated, we thought he had brought down his minions with him. Turns out we were wrong, we only weakened Kagura. Albeit, we did weaken her almost to the point of death, a demon can always recover, given enough time. However, in that 150 years, Shippou spent studying the well. Why it travels back in time and why only certain people can do it. He was able to find that out and more. A way to manipulate it to travel to any time period you want. For instance, times when Kagura was weakened so that we can track her down and destroy her."
"Why would we want to destroy her?" Erika piped up.
"Can't you just let the man finish?" yelled Damien.
"You should just shut up." Erika yelled.
In one solid movement Damien stood up, took out his Sais and said, "Why don't you just try and make me."
"Damien! Erika! That's enough!" Their mother said trying to ease the tension between her two children.
Damien stood there, staring. At nothing really, just in Erika's general direction. This unnerved her. She felt like at any moment he would just pounce on her and, in his blind fury, nobody could stop him. However, in his head, Damien was going through the techniques of Chi Wang that help one calm down. Very effective, after only 10 seconds at concentration made him calm fully down and sit down to listen to the rest of his father's story.
"To answer your question Erika," began their father, "we would want to destroy her before she destroys us and the rest of the world allowing the demons to take rule of the world."
"But, great grandpa said that him, his father and a small group of elite warriors fought and killed the last of the demons. He said they were all gone." Erika said perplexed.
"They killed all the known demons. Powerful demons like Kagura can conceal their true identities from them. It's a good thing too, because any human would surely fall at the hands of Kagura. She is ruthless and blood thirsty. Also, the more she kills, the more powerful she gets. She sucks out the life force and adds the dead bodies to her undead army. Shippou estimates that her collection of all the strongest humans, and demons, has risen up to 10,000. All of their unique abilities and strength amplified by their alliance with Kagura.
"Enough about present day Kagura, let's get back to our story. So, after defeating Naraku, your mother and I returned to present day and soon settled down and had…you." He said looking at the two of them. "However, back in this time, Shippou was training and learning the secrets of this well. One day, Shippou had left to run an errand in a couple towns over. Being a demon and, obviously, the fastest among them, he was best suited for the job. What he didn't know is that it was all a ploy of Kagura's. She was to lure him away from the settlement and, with no one here who could possibly stand up to her, she killed them all. Since this family was best known for their Mikos, she stole the life forces of all the top Mikos and used them to kill the rest. Kagura, making her first appearance in over a century, had started her undead army."
He paused. Let it all sink in. There was silence for a couple minutes. Nobody said a thing and it was dangerous to take a breath.
"That was a month ago, today." He said at last.
"How does Shippou know it was her?" Damien asked.
"When he got back the place was drenched in blood and in the back field, ablaze in the crops was the word: Kagura. Ever since then, Shippou has been tracking her. Trying to destroy her for what she'd done. One time he almost succeeded. However, in her grand unveiling of her undead army, Shippou was almost ripped limb from limb while fighting the mass. This was only 50 years ago, after your great grandpa and his father went around destroy demons. For those 50 years Shippou had been searching for us. He did not know where, exactly, Kagome was born and when. He wasn't even sure where it was. Everything had changed so much. What used to be complete rural area was now urban. To find a well anywhere was like finding a needle in a haystack. Shippou guessed that Kagura is searching for you two, too."
"Why us?" Erika asked.
Their father looked down. Never once had he not been able to look anyone in the eyes. Erika could see anguish in his face. It almost looked as if he would cry. Erika dismissed this idea almost at once. Her father, the great Inu Yasha, destroyer of Naraku, would not cry. However, she could not as easily dismiss what she saw in front of her: a tear drop from her father's eye. She looked to her mother in amazement. She looked close to tears to. This was not that bizarre for her mother however, she could not see the reason for it.
Holding her tears in their mother stood up and grabbed Erika by the arm (maybe a little too hard because it hurt a little). "I think you should come with me, Erika." She said her voice cracking from anguish.
Completely baffled Erika said, "But mom – "
She was cut off when her mother suddenly squeezed her arm and hissed, "Now!" Erika had no idea that her mother was that strong or that forceful. Nevertheless, Erika got up and followed her mother.
She led Erika outside and to a building, which must have been completely demolished in the past 350 years because Erika could not remember this building ever being there.
When her mother opened it, Erika saw what she thought she was never see, a whole shed full of weapons. Although, most were not what you would consider weapons (a walking stick, an umbrella and, what appeared to be, an umbrella stand), she did recognize one thing: a Gunsen. The one like that her great grandpa showed her when she was little. In fact, it was the one that her great grandpa showed her. She thought that it looked brand new when she saw it before, this one gleamed. It seemed as if it were made right before the attack on the building.
Without even realizing she had walked right up to them and was about to pick it up when she realized that she might not be allowed to touch it. She looked back at her mother, who nodded. Overwhelmed with happiness she picked it up and practice swung it like she had seen her great grandpa do so many times. However, unlike her great grandpa something weird happened. She did not exactly see what happened but when it was done, there was a big hole in the side of the building.
"Maybe I should hold onto this for the time being." Her mother said while taking it from her. Quietly, she agreed. Although she was beyond happy, she understood what she wanted to do and what was safe for everyone around her.
Sorry about not updating for a while. Everything's been real hectic. I'll try to have another chapter up within a week however, no promises. Please reaview!