Disclaimer: I do NOT own Inuyasha or any of its characters.

Wheee! The mix of three hurricanes sending wind and rain my way plus loads of schoolwork has cut down on my computer time...which also means no quick updates. Sorry!

Speaking of hurricanes, the South's just been hit by three of them (Charlie, Frances and Ivan in that order) and Jeanne and Carl are coming right up....whew! I'm glad I live in Georgia and not in Florida.

Stephanie: Thanks! And good luck finding Rurouni Kenshin wherever it may be...

I-C: #wonders who it is#

Shakujou: Thanks! :D And good luck with your ficcie too!

Hayai-hakai: I'm going to try to do my best to make this fic a 40,000 worder, so hang tight!

Fred the Mutant Pickle: Long time no see Fred! And worry not, the sequel is coming soon. :D

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'' Thoughts

## Asterisks

Italics Narrator's speech

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Quick Recap:

# The Battlefield #

Akuma lay in silence for a while, making the others believe he had died but somehow kept his eyes open while doing so. But Akuma broke the silence with, "It's been a while since someone asked me that, young one. My real name is Tastsumoto Mitsurugi, and here is my story..."

#Flashback to about 200 years ago#

The world I lived in wasn't that much different from the world that exists in Japan now. Demons roamed the land, hunting down humans like game and the only ones who were safe were the ones who congregated and took up weapons for mutual defense...but even those little communities were defenseless against anything bigger than fire rats.

I remember the day I lost my father to such demons...

"Mitsurugi!" screamed the young, bloodied man. "Run!!"

The small boy and his mother stumbled upon his pieces of rubble and the occasional carcass as they dashed s fast they could from the coming destruction.

"Get away from them, you filthy youkai!" The man defending the young boy and his mother didn't even feel remotely frightened when his rusted katana snapped upon the demon's steel-hard carapace. Nor did he feel much pain when the demon's claws opened him up like a butcher to a fish.

"O-otousan!" shouted the boy in both horror and worry.

Mustering all of her willpower to not break down then and there, she managed to force out, "C-come on Mitsu-chan, d-daddy would have wanted us to live on. Come!"

And so they fled like the wind, villagers and buildings falling before the great youkai like insects to pesticide.

I was only about six years old when I saw my father die a violent death right before my very eyes. My mother and I had to endure unbearable hardships until one day we made the mistake of stumbling into the den of a nearby wolf tribe...

The boy, a few years older now, stumbled into the dry, warm (and smelly) cave being towed along by his mother...

Right into the family den of a large pack of male wolves.

It wouldn't have been so bad had the wolves not just eaten: hungry wolves rarely allow their prey to suffer (mainly because they tear into food at an alarming rate). However, these wolves had recently stuffed themselves with nearby deer and were currently lounging around.

What made it REALLY bad was the fact that these wolves were on an expedition to conquer more territory: and male wolves on such expeditions tend to become very lonely at night...

I was forced to watch raping of my own mother by ravenous wolf demons and then afterwards watch her mangled corpse get fed to the wolves. I suffered a fate almost as horrible when the wolves forced me to become the playmates of their cubs once the expedition made it back to their home den.

The thing about wolf cubs are that, like natural wolves, they tend to wrestle and tumble with other cubs early on in life to develop muscle strength and hunting skills. While their "friendly" rough-housing was harmless to a wolf demon, it did wonders to create various bumps, breaks and bruises for a human boy.

"Owww..." moaned the small boy, now aged ten. "Last time I try to get Gato into a headlock..."

Fortunately, I was lucky enough to be able to adapt quickly and make a place for myself among the wolves. While I never developed the strength to challenge the larger and stronger members of the tribe in direct combat, I nevertheless gained the respect of the tribal elders and was almost accepted among them as a brother, except that I still had to do the toilet duties...

You could have said I hated every single of those filthy wolves for what they did to my mother, or at least at first anyway. As a few years passed, my hatred toned down into a sort of dull, despairing 'I-don't-like-you-but-I'm-used-to-it-by-now' feeling.

And then one day...

"HARPIES! KAMI, THEY'RE EVERYWHE-GAAAAA!!!" The wolf's shout of warning quickly turned into a death scream as the harpy used its talons to create a huge gash across the warrior's face and neck, severing his windpipe and major arteries and veins.

"Mina! To your battle stations! Get those feathery bas####s!!"

Mitsurugi, now a boy in his early teens, picked up his customized demon-slaying crossbow and fitted a killing bolt to it. Taking aim at a harpy that was harassing a group of wolves, he positioned himself at a footstance and pressed the trigger.

The projectile streaked like lightning to its target and hit it square through the upper half's chest, wounding it badly and allowing the fighters to drag it down and finish it off.

"Nice one Mitsu!"

"Arigatou!"

Before he could re-fit a bolt to kill the next harpy, a huge crash annihilated the cave entrance.

The harpy king had arrived.

"Kuso..." muttered the chieftan. "Mina! Listen up! We have no method of escaping, so we've got only one thing left!"

Every fighting wolf nodded grimly, knowing what was expected of them.

"TO THE DEATH!" they all roared. The ferocity of their shout shook the cave walls and slowed the charging harpies somewhat. Then the wolves picked up their weapons and charged forward one last time, howling all the way.

The remnants weren't pretty. Every wolf, down to the last demon, were slaughtered in a flashing glory of blood and gore. I, being a frail human, was knocked out near the end of the battle when only a few last wolves and I were left standing. Luckily for me, my scent of life was masked by the tremendous amount of blood and flesh caked all over the place, so the harpies left without finishing me off. Some days, when I think back on this terrible battle, I wished that I had simply died with them.

It took me a few days to wake up, get my wits together and search for food and shelter. It seemed that the gods were smiling upon me that day: the harpies had not touched our supplies, and there were plenty of bags, water skins, and weapons strewn about the battle field. The only problem was that the cave was no longer fit for shelter: in a few days the putrefying flesh would probably create some sort of plague that would kill me. Heh, funny how a little disease can fell the mightiest of trees, demons and men.

Anyways, I managed to collect enough food, water and clothing to last me a while. But where would I go? I certainly wouldn't be accepted back into wolf society: according to their traditions, when the entire pack was slain in battle and you were the only survivor, the only thing left to do was to kill yourself. Like I would do that any day.

But human villages? If I went in there with my wolf-tribe clothing on I would be cast out faster than you could say "Konnichiwa!" If I managed to pilfer some clothes off of someone, I might have been able to pass as a samurai or whatnot. And so I decided that living among the humans would be the best course of action.

It was after several days of traveling that I finally found a human settlement. It had high, palisade walls with armed men up on top of watch towers. A well guarded human village obviously- perfect.

I had managed to steal some clothes off of a wealthy merchant that I had run into the other day...

#The little "merchant" incident#

Mitsurugi lay in wait as the wealthy (and extremely foolish) merchant finally decided to go to sleep. 'About time,' thought the wolf-man. 'I thought he'd be counting his stupid money for the entire night...'

When he heard snores erupting like an earthquake from the pudgy man, he decided to creep up to his wagon and pilfer a few clothes. After calming down the nervous horses, all went well until...

"Mmm...man, that geisha house was great..."

He froze in shock. He had heard of tales from the geisha house among his more... "curious" wolf comrades, and from what he had heard, it wasn't pretty...in a "clean" way.

And so the sleeping merchant continued to sleep talk about his adventures in a geisha house with the unfortunate Mitsurugi willing himself to not get a nosebleed and puke at the same time. But all of his willpower could not save him from the next one...

"#Mumble# And then one geisha turned out to be a guy..."

'!!!!!!!'

Needless to say, the flailing of hands that came afterwards scared the horses enough so that they began thrashing around. This also brought the merchant out of his little fantasy world.

"What on...oi! Thief! Get back here!"

Mitsurugi quickly snatched a pair of yukatas and some pants and made a dash for it. 'Please don't let the guards come...'

Instead, the fat man picked up his overly decorative katana (which he certainly did not know how to use), drew it from the scabbard, and then began chasing Mitsurugi around. The latter, having lost his senses in a panic, ended up being chased in a circle.

"Get back here so I can give you a good thrashing you no good thief!"

"Yamero! I just need some clothes onegai!"

"Stop!"

This continued for a few minutes until Mitsurugi finally gathered his senses and stopped the fruitless circling.

Heedless of the branches whipping into his face, he sprinted into the dark forest and did not stop until he found another dirt road.

'Whew...that was probably the weirdest thing I've ever run into in my entire life...'

Not the most pleasant of memories in my life, but when were my memories ever enjoyable anyways?

But back to village. As I have said before, the village was a small fortress, complete with palisade walls and watchtowers full of archers. It would be a safe haven from most demon attacks.

I found out too late that it was an exterminator's village.

The guardsman shouted for the gatemen to let down the large wooden fortress gate. After some turning of the crank, the huge wooden platform set down with dull #thunk # in a groove in the dirt ground.

Once Mitsurugi entered the gates, he was greeted by the village chieftan, a powerful looking man with...

'What the? Exterminator's uniform? Wait a sec...'

"Greetings, traveler! Welcome to my exterminator's village!"

'Oh sh-'

"Come inside1 You look weary!"

"W-w-wait-"

But before he could protest further, he was dragged inside by the cheery chieftain.

They never found out that I was pretty much raised by a wolf demon clan. Funny how they never figured it out, seeing how I haven't had any social human contact other than helping the other wolves rip them apart.

I spent my time training to become a tayjia like the people around me were. The irony was too sweet: me, a degenerate man raised by demonic wolves now training to hunt monsters like them. It didn't get any better than this.

Anyways, I was an alchemist-slayer, meaning that not only did I fight amongst my comrades upon the field of battle, I also brewed chemicals, potions and poisons to assist them when facing tougher demons. Also, I pored over ancient scrolls containing lore about the demons that roamed the world. After a few year's study, I was a first-class demonologist.

A few more years went by, until I was about twenty. Then I met her...

Karasu Tokia.

I was on a standard exterminating hunt that day, when it turned out that the demon we had to exterminate had a hostage...

"Mitsurugi! Toss a few stunners at it!"

"Hai!" The young Taijya rummaged through his pockets and found a fist sized vial of clay labeled, "Demon Stunner". Taking careful aim at the thrashing weasel demon, he hurled the projectile straight into the creature's open mouth.

"Nice shot!"

The paralyzing chemicals flowed into the youkai's esophagus and trachea, disabling its abilities to swallow and breathe. As it slowly weakened, The other exterminators finished it off utilizing their advanced weaponry. The chieftain gave the demon one last stab in the belly for good meausure.

"And THAT is for stealing away that poor little girl. Oh? Ah, Mitsurugi! You've done me proud son!" He dislodged the spear from the weasel and gave Mitsurugi a face-planting pound on the back. "That was a great shot!"

Regaining his balance, the hero simply placed his hand on the back of his neck and smiled sheepishly. "Eh, just doing my job..." Then his eyes caught a bit of movement just beyond the chief's shoulder...

Led by a female exterminator, a young girl about his age limped by, a long gash on her leg slowing her down considerably. He felt an immediate attraction to her, a calling deep inside him he could hardly ignore.

"Oi. Oi...Oi! OI! #smack#" A sound cuffing from the chief brought Mitsurugi back to his senses. "#Chuckle# Taking a liking to the ex-hostge, do ya? Her name's Karasu Tokia, daughter of the local village leader. A fine looking young girl, too..."

#Whap#

"Ow!" Unfortunately, the chief's wife had been standing nearby when the chief decided to comment about the young girl. "I know, I know..." he grumbled, shying away from his wife's death glare.

Ceasing her basilisk's look at her husband, the chief's wife smiled in a motherly sort of fashion at Mitsurugi and said, "Why don't you go meet that nice young lady over there, Mitsu? I have a feeling you'll take a quick liking to her!"

Blushing like mad, he muttered out a "Hai" and decided to go and have a chat with the new girl.

Of course, being raised for about a third of my life (and that third being your youthhood) among wolf demons hadn't exactly given me a few pointers on how to hit on women. But amazingly, nothing embarrassing happened other than a lot of blushing.

Eveuntally, Tokia and I became friends, then best friends, then lovers, and afterwards newlyweds. I couldn't have been happier in my entire life. She was my light, the guiding spark amongst the darkness in my soul that leads me away from oblivion. I, in turn, gave her the happiness and care she never felt while she was trapped in that stale old mansion she used to live in.

But the fates are never kind. We didn't even manage to bring forth a child before the worst tragedy in the world struck me...

Tokia had been out in the field gathering ingredients for my chemicals as usual. She looked so fair with the wind blowing through her hair...

Anyways, she was stooping down to pick an odd looking mushroom when...

Tokia was absentmindedly humming to herself and picking various roots and plants when the ground exploded beneath her. She knew her husband was watching from a fairly nearby distance, but know the brutal and swift efficiency of demons, she wouldn't have much time to wait for Mitsurugi anyway.

Sprinting as fast as her skirt would allow her, Tokia ran in zigzagging circles around the worm demon to provide a distraction while her husband got into place.

"Tokia! Get out of there! Fire in the hole!"

He prepared to lob an incendiary grenade at the foul worm. But nothing could ready him for what happened next.

The worm's mouth contained an appendage similar to a proboscis, except it had a point on it that could easily pierce a thick sheet of iron. And such a point pierced through Tokia's chest when she stumbled upon a protruding rock.

"T-T-TOKIA!!!"

Her lifeless body crashed into the ground, the dirt mixed with her blood spraying like the remnants of an ocean wave.

Screaming in an uncontrollable rage, he somehow managed to jump fifteen feet into the air and onto the worm's back. Hanging tightly onto the carapace, he took out his entire pouch of potions and force fed it into the worm's gaping mouth. Not bothering to see the fireworks that followed soon after, he leaped down from the dying worm and dashed to his wife's body.

"By the gods...Tokia! Tokia, koi, answer me! Onegai!"

"M-Mitsurugi..."

The raven haired beauty forced out her last words. "The light, it's fading...I can't see you anymore, Mitsurugi..."

"No, no, Tokia, you can't go yet-"

"Shh...it's alright. I'm just sorry I couldn't give you the son you've always wanted...#cough#"

"Please, Tokia, don't die on me..."

"#Cough# It's too late for me, Mitsu-kun." She hadn't called me that in a while... "I've always been so happy ever since we met, and #cough# I wanted to thank you for that... sayonara..."

"Tokia! Yamero! TOKIA!!!!"

He screamed her name over and over again, even after her body went limp minutes ago. He ignored the rain that pummeled him, the wind that blew into his face, and the crowd of villagers who had dashed over to see what was going on...

Afterwards, it was all a blur. I can't remember what happened, but I do remember that I left the village I had lived in for so long. Good old days they were...

The next memory I can still recall was the time when I made that pact...I was so desperate to bring her back that I sacrificed my health, my mind, maybe even my own soul to find a way to get her back. I was a lost cause...without Tokia there to guide me through my own darkness, I was a wandering wreck. That wandering led me to sacrifice my own soul, the very essence of my humanity, to a small pack of demons...

One thing led to another. The demons fooled me into thinking that they would help me find my lost love. But the demons are as full of knowledge as they are brutal and animalistic: after my possession they showed me that only a select few items in this world can undo the cleaving of a person's life force. And the demons who controlled me were certainly not interested in my little quest.

Afterwards, the demons added their power to mine: I became a super human. I could do almost anything a demon could do physically, and my masters also put my knowledge of demons to horrible uses. Quite soon, they came up with an idea...

What if they could inhabit the most perfect body in the world?

There was nothing I could do as they ruined the country side subtly, using sneaky and dishonorable tactics to turn warlords against one another in vicious wars that slaughtered many men, women and children. Throughout all of this, I questioned, why? Why are we spreading such misery throughout this land?

My answer was always an admonishing, 'just wait'...

I found out about their plans soon enough. It turned out that, in order to create the perfect youkai to possess, they had to create a world where the inner strength of a demon was brought out to its fullest potential...

And that world, is the world that we, right now, are standing on.

I am Tatsumoto Mitsurugi; Demonologist, husband, man who was lost to oblivion. This is my story.

Tear jerker? No? Oh well. R&R!!!