Disclaimer: I'm sure everyone reading this will agree when I say that we all want to own a pair of fluffy white ears, but would never happen unless we buy a pair at the costume store.
Author's Notes: Well, this is my very first piece of fan fiction I have ever written! Please be a bit gentle, but some constructive criticism would be really great. I hope you all like my story, and please review!
The Summoner: Chapter One
The shards of a broken life remain
Hidden under the shadow of what once was,
Never dormant in the eye of the beholder
Summoner bring forth the light of renewed,
The shadow is faded.
The shards mended.
Time was passing and fading more promptly than he had imagined. It had been a total of fifty years before it had finally resurfaced from the abyss of nothingness once more. The growing need for it had anguished in his dormant heart, withering and struggling for the power that wasn't there; until finally it came back. Somehow, it returned.
Ever since the jewel--the key to his existence--had been sacrificially burned, his incarnate body had dissolved along with it into a hollow realm of emptiness that had passed through all knowledge of time. His soul was left into a dormant, destitute sleep from which he could not awaken from. But when the jewel had somehow, in someway came back from the ashes, he was awakened. Reborn. He was ready to seek vengeance on the one who destroyed the jewel. And he would find it. The jewel would be his again.
"Will he notice, my lord?" The little girl in white quietly asked her master, as he chuckled menacingly to himself in the shadows of the dark room. Her steady, black eyes watched the curious man in the shadows, as he twirled a glowing fragment of crystal between his pale fingers. He remained in the basement of his castle for days now, humming to himself in a wicked manner about his most recent deviation.
"Inuyasha is bound to notice Kanna, but that is my plan," he told her coldly, yet with a hint of amusement at his own words. "In a matter of days, all that will be left of him and his clan will be a mass of corpses and a few jewel shards to retrieve from them." He chuckled lightly again.
"But my lord, with all the energy you have lost over the last few days, you will be weak for a long time until you can find a replacement body. Will you take him back into your body after he is finished?"
The man was silent for a moment, as if he were contemplating his next move. "Perhaps, it all depends. But that is none of your concern Kanna," He retorted quickly. He signaled for the girl to come closer. She followed without hesitation, kneeling next to him, yet still staying out of the shadows. Kanna placed the silver mirror she was holding on her lap so he could examine it.
"Show me Inuyasha Kanna, I would like to see his reaction," He said.
"Yes lord Naraku," She answered in a whisper. The mirror she held immediately revealed an image of a group of people sitting around an outdoor fire, talking.
As the night winds picked up, the glowing fire they were huddled by began to flicker. The sparks danced higher and higher into the night sky until they resembled tiny fireflies.
"Kagome, he died again!" whined a little red-haired kitsune demon. He pointed to the screen of a handheld video game he was playing. "What do I do now?" He looked up at the girl sitting next to him.
"That means you have to restart the game, Shippo," Kagome replied, showing him how to restart it. A series of music and sounds emitted from the game as it started up again.
Shippo looked at the game, wide-eyed. "Kagome look! He's alive again! How is that possible?" Kagome giggled lightly at his amazement.
"It's only a game Shippo. In a game, you can bring the people back to life. Of course in real life, this would rarely happen." Shippo didn't hear her last comment, as he was concentrating on playing.
Sango watched the game over Shippo's shoulder with utter fascination. "It's amazing what kind of technology has in the future," she said in awe.
As the girls and Shippo were concentrating on the game, Miroku and Inuyasha were in deep conversation over Naraku's next move.
"He's in hiding somewhere, I just know it," the silver-haired hanyou explained to the monk. "I haven't caught his scent anywhere for weeks! He could be anywhere in Japan right now, for all we know."
Miroku gazed into the fire contemplatively. "Could it be that he is in hiding because he is weak at the moment? He must be planning something. I'll bet he's setting something up for us." He paused, thinking carefully.
"But what would he be planning?" Inuyasha crossed his arms.
"Not sure, he always thinks of something that we cannot expect…" Miroku trailed off into thought again.
Inuyasha had been growing a rather heated temper ever since the day when Naraku's scent vanished. He seemed to have disappeared into thin air it seemed. It was almost impossible, seeing as how Naraku's scent was the most putrid, formidable stench that could be detected easily. His scent smelled like death and decomposing to Inuyasha. But even so, it had completely disappeared, with Naraku along with it.
Inuyasha and the others had been searching all of Japan for weeks for any sign of their enemy, but not a scent or a glimpse of a clue were found. They seemed to be going in circles, searching for a half-demon that may not even exist anymore. It was possible.
Full of frustration now, Inuyasha decided to end the conversation about Naraku. It was getting nowhere, and it was only making his brain throb from straining to think.
Miroku immediately understood by Inuyasha's frustrated expression, that it wouldn't do them any good to keep talking of Naraku. His temper was always something they knew not to meddle with.
"So, where do you think we are at the moment?" Miroku asked lightly, looking for a change of topic.
Inuyasha opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, something grabbed his attention. He gave the air a long sniff. Then, to make sure he wasn't just imagining it, he sniffed again. Was he going crazy? Or did he smell….?
"It can't be," Inuyasha thought. "Can it? I think…it is him!"
Inuyasha immediately stood up, and gave a low growl to the wind that carried the scent.
Kagome instantly noticed with Inuyasha was doing. She looked up from the video game to find Inuyasha growling at nothing. "Umm…Inuyasha? Are you alright?"
Inuyasha clenched his left hand into a fist, his right inched closer to the handle of his sword. "I can smell him. He's close by," was all he said in a low, dark voice. His amber eyes glowed of fury.
Everyone sitting around the campfire immediately stood up, alarmed.
"Are you serious! He's close by?" Miroku asked incredulously.
Inuyasha nodded.
"How close is he? In what direction?" Kagome asked in an excited panic.
"Over there," Inuyasha pointed with a clawed finger over the tops of the trees to the right of him. "He's not very far away."
Before anyone realized it, Sango was already attired in her demon slaying uniform. Her hair tied into a high ponytail at the back of her head. Kirara had transformed into the larger version of herself. "So are we going, or are we just waiting for him to come to us?" said Sango, clutching her hiraikotsu over her shoulder.
Miroku put out the fire as everyone else packed up their camping gear. Kagome put away the game into her yellow back-pack and took out her bow and a case of new arrows.
As soon as everyone was ready, Sango, Miroku and Shippo rode on Kirara, as Kagome rode on Inuyasha's back as usual.
They made their way quickly through the sea of trees, coming to a clearing at the end. A long, winding river separated the clearing into two parts. Billowing smoke creeping into the midnight sky could easily be seen over the tops of the trees at the other side of the clearing.
Inuyasha stopped at the river at the moment to smell for Naraku again. But this time, he was confused. The scent had changed. It did smell like Naraku…but it was different.
Kagome, who was still clinging to his back, tapped him on the shoulder. "What's the matter, Inuyasha? Is something wrong?"
He was silent for a moment. He was still checking the scent that lingered in the air. There was definitely something different about it. An undistinguishable scent was mixed with Naraku's.
"Something's wrong," he said, his tone slightly confused. "The scent is different now that we're closer…"
Sango and Miroku overheard this, and brought Kirara down beside them.
"How is it different?" Shippo asked. "Is it Kagura or someone?"
Inuyasha shook his head, still sniffing the air. "Whoever or whatever it is, it has almost the exact scent of Naraku." This was all very confusing to him. Was the thing he smelled another incarnate of Naraku's body?
"Well, Naraku or not, I think we should still check it out," said Kagome. "This is the best lead we've had in weeks."
She was definitely right. This was the first time in weeks that Inuyasha smelled anything close to Naraku's scent. It was most likely that whatever he smelled now had some relations with their enemy.
Before they had time to set off again, another scent drifted to Inuyasha's nose. He groaned loudly. "Not now…" he whined in a mumble.
"What now?" Kagome asked.
A larger whirlwind formed and came closer to them quickly just as Inuyasha answered, "Kouga."
Sure enough, emerging from the cyclone was the wolf demon. He had stopped right in front of Inuyasha and Kagome.
"Why of all times does he have to show his ugly face?" Inuyasha thought snidely. He braced himself for an argument with Kouga, but was dumbfounded when it didn't come.
Kouga had the sheer expression of fear in his icy-blue eyes. Although he usually stood with confidence when Kagome was there, this time he was fidgeting and even shaking in the slightest.
"You've smelled it too, have you?" Kouga asked them, trying to sound brave.
Kagome jumped off Inuyasha's shoulders and walked up to Kouga. She saw the look of fright in his eyes. "What are you so scared of Kouga? Is something wrong?" she asked him (sure enough, Inuyasha was already getting angry at Kagome for talking to him).
"I'm not scared!" Kouga told her defiantly. "Do you even know who that scent belongs to, Inuyasha?"
Inuyasha truthfully didn't know. All he knew about the scent was that whoever belonged to it was somehow related to their enemy. He shrugged at Kouga's question dismissively.
Kouga looked at Inuyasha with a feeble smirk. "Of course a half-breed wouldn't know anyways."
Inuyasha's temper began to flare already. "Oh no, I'm not starting that up again ya flea-bag!" He shot a warning fist up to Kouga.
Kagome immediately stood between the two to stop the argument. She braced Inuyasha with her arms, so he wouldn't interfere. "Who does it belong to, Kouga?" she asked, ignoring their last two comments.
"The Summoner," was all Kouga said. Kagome looked at him, confused.
"You don't know who the Summoner is?" he asked, looking around to see everyone's head shake. He sighed. "The Summoner is – er – was a demon that brought dead souls—mostly evil ones—back to life. He made armies of the dead to work for him. But he died a long time ago. I have no clue why he could be back now!"
Inuyasha thought hard. "Could this have something to do with Naraku's scent on this guy? Maybe Naraku brought him back to life or something…"
"That's what is confusing me. And that's why I'm going to check it out," Kouga told them. He then went closer to Kagome and held her hands in his. "Kagome, I think it is too dangerous for you to go with Dog-breath."
Inuyasha in a rage now, ripped a startled Kagome away from his grasp. "I think she would be safer with me than you!" he snarled.
"Would you two stop bickering?" Miroku sighed as he, Sango and Shippo climbed back onto the transformed Kirara's back. "If we're going to check this out, we might want to leave before this 'Summoner' person gets away."
Author's Notes: Sorry, but I'm going to have to end it there. I promise I will update ASAP. Please review in the meantime! Thanks for reading chapter one! Again, this is my first fic, so cut just a little slack please!