Disclaimer: 3x3 Eyes, Inuyasha and Yu-gi-oh aren't mine.
Author's Notes: Wait... I just realized! 3x3 Eyes is dated! It's 1992 at the end of the Howasho/Pa-bo story arc... Oh, screw that, let's say it took eleven years for Pai to come back. I'll change the chapters accordingly. And because Yu-gi-oh and Inuyasha aren't dated, I can just ignore the fact that the first episodes appeared in Shonen Jump and Shonen Sunday respectively seven and five years ago.
I'm dreadfully sorry for all you people who haven't heard of one or the other of these series. I've got to admit, I made a lamentable attempt at describing all these characters and establishing the story. I'll try and remedy to this as best as I deem necessary.
Ramble: Yami is a ham. You probably already knew this. In the anime, he's even more so. He's overly dramatic to the point of ridicule. This is also apparent in the manga. In manga six, he does that whole incredibly cheesy 'I'm seriously angry, now, watch me take off my shirt and kick your ass' routine. He doesn't figuratively kick the guy's ass, but his monster fighter kicks the other monster fighter's ass. I hoot appreciatively every time I flip onto that part, even though it was only his uniform shirt he stripped, he still had the sleeveless top with lots of leather buckles on. What do you call that thing, anyway? The S.T.L.O.L.B.?
Incidentally, you know the random thug Kaiba uses Obelisk soldier against? The guy with the spiky blond hair and black spider shirt? He looks and is dressed exactly like the thug Yami takes his shirt off for in manga six... I thought this was just an anime mistake, and yet the evil clone is there in manga 18 as well, getting his Magic and Wizards-playing ass kicked by Kaiba... But I thought the Shadow Game Yami played with this guy killed him? At the very least, it would have left a plastic scar. Maybe they're twins. But you'd think that after seeing what happened to his brother, the twin would stay away from super-gamers like Yuugi and Kaiba...
A Trio of Demons
Chapter 3: Opposition
From the height of his eighth story apartment, Inuyasha caught a whiff of a familiar scent. At least, it seemed familiar, but the white-haired half-dog-demon couldn't quite place it. After four hundred years of life, you tended to forget scents that weren't recent, but he berated himself for forgetting this one: he had the feeling it was important. It was a human woman's scent... Smelled rather nice, too, Inuyasha thought, but through four hundred years of practice, he perished the thought. No. The last time he found himself caring for a woman, she'd gone and disappeared.
Said girl, Kagome was a girl from what was at the time a distant future, who freed him from a fifty year long sleep, when he was pinned to a tree. She had come to his time by way of a well, a passageway between their two times. She was the reincarnation of the woman who had imprisoned him, fifty years before, a woman he had also loved, and whom he believed had betrayed him. That woman, Kikyou, had been a powerful priestess, and he realized Kagome had remarkable power as well. He let himself fall for Kagome, and she came to him one day, and told him goodbye, and it sounded so final... But that didn't matter anymore. He'd gone through the well to her time mere hours after her, and he'd found her home a barren land roaming with bright yellow metal monsters. Those unnatural-looking fiends! They ate Kagome! Inuyasha beat them all to a pulp, but there was no bringing back Kagome. For a few years afterward, Inuyasha had jumped every time he caught an even slightly similar scent to Kagome's, but it was wasted heart pounding. When he finally accepted the fact that Kagome was never coming back, he'd dedicated himself more than ever to his old aspiration of becoming a full-blooded demon, by seeking the Shikon no Tama, shattered into multiple pieces.
There were other scents in the air... That of his older half-brother, the full-blooded dog-demon Sesshoumaru, who for years had been a bitter enemy, who had been constantly fighting him for a sword that he couldn't use, but who now worked together with him in a demon-extermination society. And the scent of Shippou, a kitsune Inuyasha and Kagome had met when he was just a boy, but who now had grown into his full powers. And another old smell, too human to be that of a normal demon's, but too demonic to be that of a half-breed... But that was impossible. At any rate, it bore investigating.
Inuyasha got up, walked inside, and unhooked the red suit from the coat hanger. It was old, an antique. If it hadn't been magic, it would have long disintegrated. It had been with him for four hundred years, and was very worn, but the material was woven out of spun fire rat fur, and was a cloth even more resistant than armor. Before heading out the door, he wrote a note.
"Saw something strange, went out to investigate. Inuyasha." He stuck the note on the apartment door, grabbed the old rusted katana, wrapped it up in cloth, and left the building.
"Yuugi!" Pai called cheerfully, running ahead of Yakumo, to catch up to Yuugi.
Yakumo bopped his head. Though adorable, Pai was not subtle, and the art of passing unnoticed and acting like you don't know someone was lost on her. Now, normally, Yakumo wouldn't mind, but seeing as Pai and he were walking demon-targets, Yakumo didn't want any innocent bystanders, like Yuugi's friends, to get hurt. Not only had too many of his OWN friends been placed in mortal danger by merely being associated with him, but placing Yuugi's friends in danger was not good for the deal he expected to strike with the boy. The Wu sighed. Well, he had better join the Sanjiyan.
Yuugi was surrounded by friends, new and old. Jounouchi, Anzu and Kagome were there. This was why Yami was not pleased to see Pai. Yuugi himself was mildly surprised. He wasn't sure whether to be delighted or worried.
Kagome sensed powerful youki. Wishing for the first time in a long while she had accepted her grandfather's offer to teach her to make ofuda, she turned around, half expecting a huge demon to lunge for Shikon no Tama fragments she no longer had, only to see a girl and a boy who seemed to be her age threading their way through the crowd after her group. She noticed Jounouchi, Anzu and Yuugi had turned around too, but with none of the apprehension she felt. If only they could sense demons too...
"Who are your friends, Yuugi?" Kagome asked dryly. "Do you know they're demons?" she whispered, as they got closer.
"Yami wouldn't put it past them." Yuugi muttered back.
"And you?" retorted the miko.
"I take people at face value, and I like to give them the benefit of the doubt." Yuugi commented. "They're not going to attack you... I think. Meet Fuji-san and Pai. Yakumo is the guy who offered to help Yami regain his memory."
The aforementioned couple finally caught up to Yuugi's group.
"Pai is so surprised to see you in the street!" Pai exclaimed happily.
"I'm sorry about this." Yakumo apologized. "We should stay away from your friends, Yuugi. We'll be going now." If things turn ugly, thought the man, I'd just as soon only three people were involved than half a dozen.
"But we just met!" whined Pai. "Let's not go yet!"
"You got a problem with us!" Jounouchi protested.
"No. It's just not safe for you to hang around someone like me." Yakumo
"The supernatural attracts the supernatural. Put otherwise, demons attract demons, isn't that right, Fuji-san?" explained Kagome dryly. Lord knew she'd seen enough demons to justify that claim. Even when she hadn't been up against Naraku.
She wondered whether the couple was just trying to get the Shikon shard embedded in Yuugi's puzzle.
"You're not normal, either." Yakumo acknowledged. "How did you know we were demons?"
At this point, Jounouchi was getting freaked out in a bad way. The occult had always spooked him, and the atmosphere of this meeting was starting to feel like that of a horror movie. Jounouchi didn't like horror movies. Still... It was hard to believe Fuji-san and Pai, of all people, could be demons. They looked so ordinary. And Pai seemed too naive and innocent...
"I have miko powers. I can sense these things." Kagome explained. "I've seen my share of battles against demons. I'd like to help."
Yakumo blinked. "Help?"
Kagome nodded. "Look. I know you don't want anyone else involved in your little romp, for whatever purpose. I don't trust you. If it turns out you're not playing it straight, someone's got to protect Yuugi; according to him, people have tried to steal his puzzle before. If your intentions are honest, however, you might need my help. Besides, I've dealt with demons before, and I'm not completely helpless against them."
Yuugi was bewildered. "Kagome... If what you say is true, you know what you're getting into... Why?"
Kagome smiled almost sadly. "A year ago, I found out I'm the reincarnation of a priestess. In a way, it's my duty."
The group turned into an alleyway, which was a bad move. Someone was waiting.
He was an imposing man, tall with a powerful build, dressed in a leather jacket, and army pants. He had red eyes with white slits for pupils. High cheekbones and a long, straight nose lent the man a rather haughty air, though he had good reason to be. He wore a self-confident smirk. The Chinese character for 'void' was displayed in full view upon his forehead.
Yakumo got to the front of the group. "Get out of here." he hissed to them. "All of you, get the hell out of here!"
Anzu turned to run first, but found her exit blocked by a score of low-level demons. Not that it mattered that they were low-level. Yakumo couldn't protect everyone, and Jounouchi, Yuugi and Anzu certainly didn't know how to defend themselves against even the weakest of demons. From the expression on Kagome's face, Anzu judged, despite what she said earlier about not being completely helpless, it didn't look like the miko was going to make much of a difference either.
When Yami asked to be let out, Yuugi was more than glad to relinquish control on the body. The trouble was, it didn't look like anyone here was in the mood for playing around.
Yami had been right the other day in the librairy. Pai, whose two eyes of just a moment ago were conspicuously normal, was changing into a completely different person. Her third eye opened, and her entire bearing changed. Instead a happy, innocent girl was an angry, powerful demoness. This seemed to be a great relief to Yakumo.
"Long time, no see, kid." the man greeted Yakumo.
"Benares." Yakumo spat out the name apprehensively.
"How long has it been, exactly? Eleven, twelve years?" continued Benares. "I hope you've improved, boy. If you haven't gotten better for a decade, my faith in progress will be severely diminished."
The demoness snorted. If that brute believed in progress, Yakumo's nephew was an ape.
"Would you be so kind, my Wu?" inquired Parvati.
"What about them?" Yakumo gestured toward the humans. The moment he attacked, he knew would be the signal for the other demons to attack. If he tried to fight the lesser demons in order to enable his charges to escape, he left Benares free to attack whomever he pleased. If he tried to fight Benares, the lesser demons would tear his charges to pieces. He doubted he could win against Benares. He also doubted he could win against so many lesser demons. Luckily, he knew he had his 'superior' on his side.
He looked over to the three-eyed demoness. She winked, and glanced pointedly at Benares. Take care of Benares. Leave the rest to me.
Kagome looked around her. Everywhere, demons. Apparently, the demons were all of the same species. They all looked like giant, humanoid one-eyed ant-eaters, other than Yakumo, Pai and the man called Benares, who looked human. Anzu and Jounouchi seemed to be trying hard not to burst into hysterics. Yuugi... Yami, she corrected herself, Yami looked grim, as though determined to get his friends through this, one way or another.
"Wish you had a card up your sleeve?" Kagome asked him weakly.
"This isn't poker!" Yami complained. "No one's in the mood for games." he continued grimly.
"Can't you do that Shadow Game thing without an actual game?" insisted the miko.
"I've never tried. I doubt Yuugi would approve, though." continued Yami. "What about you? Can't you create a ward or something?"
"I don't know how. I know my predecessor did something similar. But she was trained to be a priestess her whole life. I never listened when my grandfather told me all those old legends... I wish I had a bow and arrows..." Kagome answered.
"Then try anyway!" Anzu interrupted. "You and Yuugi, try it!"
"But don't do anything stupid." Jounouchi cautioned.
"This from the boy who put his foot in a shoe he thought had a scorpion in it." Anzu commented. "What are you gonna do? Attempt to fight those demons barehanded?"
Yakumo charged. He threw a homemade grenade toward Benares, which exploded. While the immortal was still recovering from the shock, he tackled the more powerful man, palm on chest, and shouted: "In the name of Yakumo the Wu, I call upon you, To Chyao!"
Most of the others were lucky. Parvati started tearing through the cannon fodder as if it was nothing but slabs of meat, ripping out tongues, gouging nasty holes with the help of a dragon-head staff. The four humans followed in her wake. Jounouchi was holding his own against one of the demon. Barely. But while he was holding it off, Anzu was not so lucky. A wild blow hit her on the neck and broke it. She suffered a painful, but mercifully short death. Dead before hitting the ground.
Kagome and Yami shuffled around, dodging attacks by a hair's breadth each time, until they were aware of a magic sphere that was shielding them from the demons. That was when they realized that Anzu was not with them. They looked around... And saw Anzu's corpse on the ground a few feet away.
At first Yami couldn't believe it. How quick and sudden! How anticlimactic. Anzu was gone, and she never had a chance! Anger and grief gripped Yami. This was a matter of life and death. Anzu's demise had proved it.
He picked a target. Illusions played havoc with the mind of one unlucky demon. Disoriented, it found death at the hands of a pissed off Parvati.
Parvati was going on a bloody rampage. A demon who had been just about to attack Jounouchi, got clubbed under the chin by her dragon-head staff. "You fool!" she snarled, "Get in the shield! And duck!" she clubbed another demon over Jounouchi's shoulder.
"But I can't do anything in there!" protested Jounouchi, as he dealt an ineffectual kick to a nearby demon.
"You're nothing but a street brawler! You want to end up like your little friend?" the three-eyed demoness spared a moment to indicate Anzu's body, all the while still fighting.
"No! But I ain't gonna get killed!" Jounouchi answered.
"Get in the shield, you pathetic little worm, or you'll find out I'm a lot worse than a bunch of Naoshikai!" snarled the woman savagely. Jounouchi stumbled, and scrambled back to the safety of the force-field spell.
Kagome looked faint. "I've never seen such a vicious fighting style." observed of the demoness a girl whose love interest could rip a person's heart out with his bare hands. "I don't think that's her full power though."
"That's NOT her full power?" Jounouchi goggled at the number of demon corpses strew on the ground.
"She's not using any magic. But we know she's capable; what do you think is protecting us?" explained Kagome.
"Feiyo!" the Sanjiyan called. Moments later what looked like a giant, flying, gray-hided worm with an eye in its mouth flew on to the scene, and joined in the bloodbath.
"And THAT'S not her full power?" Jounouchi continued, almost hysterically.
"If only I knew how to ward... I think she's concentrating her magic on keeping this shield around us." continued Kagome.
Inuyasha was not in a good mood. He smelled Sanjiyan, and that was impossible. The Sanjiyan had been all been killed three hundred years ago, every woman, child and man. The sole survivor was sealed away, hopefully never to return. He also smelled the stench of death, many times over. In other words, he smelled Wu. Since a Wu's life was tied to a Sanjiyan, there could only be one Wu left alive, and that Wu, Inuyasha knew from experience, was a nasty piece of work. Needless to say, this was not good.
More irritating still, was the other scent... The woman's scent that was familiar, but that Inuyasha just couldn't place, and that he had a feeling he should remember... That was what really bugged him. At least, the other scents he knew exactly what they meant. And anyone who associated with Benares and Kaiyanwang, the banes of the daiyoukai's collective existence ought to be someone to remember.
And now, Inuyasha was picking up another scent, no, a stench. A stink of human and demon blood, and Naoshikai... It seemed the Sanjiyan and his Wu had a fight on their hands. Inuyasha wished that the Sanjiyan would be killed, although he knew it was too much to hope. He made his way toward the battle. Maybe, he could take advantage of the confusion to kill Kaiyanwang... It was strange, though. Hadn't the Naoshikai been on Kaiyanwang's side during the war that wiped out the Sanjiyan and decimated the daiyoukai, three hundred years ago? Interesting. This situation was very interesting.
Yakumo was in the middle of a very frustrating fight. Oh, he'd gotten better since the last time he'd fought Benares and he was actually holding his own, no mean feat for someone who only had sixteen years of experience against Benares' hundreds, maybe even thousands, and had been literally ripped to pieces the last time. But no matter what he did, Benares still kept on fighting. Yakumo knew from experience cutting off body parts wouldn't work, and was even dangerous. Yakumo recalled the time fifteen or sixteen years ago, when a demon cut off his head, and he'd just gone on fighting. It had been very unpleasant being headless. And then there was the time when one of his hands had been cut off while holding a sword, and he was able to levitate the hand so it attacked an offending demon, even without it being attached to its body.
What worried him about the problem at hand was that it was only a matter of time until Benares decided to bring out the big guns, in other words, attacks not designed for subtlety, that could turn skyscrapers into so much dust. Yakumo also knew from experience Benares possessed such spells. Yakumo didn't possess any similar spells of his own, and yet that was really the trick in trying to take down a Wu. So much dust was much harder to regroup then an arm, or a leg. And it had taken three days to stick his head back onto his body.
Feiyo, Parvati's gargantuan flying armored worm, and herself were kicking ass, Jounouchi yelling warnings and encouragements. Yami and Yuugi hadn't said or done anything since Anzu's untimely demise, except pick and choose victims to drive insane. Kagome was trying to cast barriers.
It was then that Benares chose to do it. A huge blast engulfed the alley. The Sanjiyan's demon wisely flew away. The rest of the group didn't fare so well. Taken by surprise, the Sanjiyan lost control of the ward she'd cast around Jounouchi, Yuugi and Kagome. It transferred and fortified itself into a ward that covered herself. As this was happening, luckily, Kagome panicked. Desperation gave her strength she would not otherwise have mustered and she managed to cast a new ward upon herself, Yami and Jounouchi. Yakumo didn't have a chance, but then, he didn't need a chance.
It was a huge explosion. When the explosion passed, drained of their strength, the Sanjiyan and Kagome fell unconscious. But they weren't out of danger yet. Shrapnel was still flying everywhere. A huge, sharp shard of trash can stabbed Jounouchi's stomach. Jounouchi looked dazedly at the offending metal, and fainted from loss of blood.
Yami looked, shocked, at Jounouchi's prone body. The life was slipping away from his friend so quickly he could almost see it.
"No." he whispered. "No. I will NOT lose another one." he said in determination.
Yuugi practically shoved Yami at the back of his mind. Denial and despair warred in both their minds. A tiny bit of shrapnel grazed the cheek. As if this was the trigger, denial and despair called a truce and tied.
"NO!"
The golden eye symbol made itself visible on Yuugi's forehead.
Jounouchi's soul left his body just as the last of his life did.
Jounouchi's soul entered the golden eye symbol on Yuugi's forehead in a burst of golden light.
Yuugi fainted.
Benares was gone.
Author's notes: Okay, I know the whole "NOOOOOOO" thing is kinda cliche, but what was I supposed to do? Make him dance around and yell VICTORY? Listen, whether or not I like Anzu, I have to admit that Yuugi truly loved her. Besides, its not like I had Benares go: 'Yuugi... I AM YOUR FATHER!" Although now that I think of it, it could actually be true; after all, nothing is ever mentioned about Yuugi's father. Yuugi's grandfather, Yuugi's mother, sure, they appear in the manga, but never his father... Now THERE'S an idea...
