Woah! Sorry, this is way late! I promised it on Monday, and now it's Saturday. Sorry about that.
One quick thing: I mistyped last chapter. I'm actually seventeen, but I didn't actually catch it when I was editing. I feel stupid. GAH! *Hit's self in head.*
Okay, some quick comments:
She Who Is Me: Hey, nice pic. Unfortuately, my image of InuTaisho is much different, however, I might change that.
Orion: As usual, thank you for your kind words, and yes, IU like writing for Morgan. As you can hopefully tell, I'm trying to be very perspective-esque with him. It's even more fun, because he comes from fifteenth century Europe, which is something that's very easy to mock. Please, tell me how you like the writing style I use with him, and what would make it better!
RobinofYJ: Hehe, thank you, even if I am seventeen. As soon as I get finished with this particular InuYasha series of fanfiction (Planning on making it a trilogy) I'm hoping to do some original work on fiction press. I really want to be an author once I get out of collage!
Noki-San009: I actually only have the first movie. I heard the second one takes place after the group defeats Naraku, so I want to avoid spoilers, so I'm waiting to see it. But then again, I might very well just go ahead and get it, if it takes to long to find a place to get the rest of the series. (Well, aside from buying them, of coarse. I mean, I'm poor. I can't actually buy my anime. I have to just wait for the *#)(*%() Adult Swim to get more on, or occasionally find a place on a computer where I can watch them. (I like the latter better, but unfortunately I don't have that option right now, so I wait.) Sigh! And I have played the game. I unfortunately didn't find it that fun. It was way to simplistic, really easy to beat, and I had the whole thing mastered within two hours. Sigh… I've never actually seen a game based of an anime that I've actually enjoyed. That's too bad. Had they made it more like, say, a KOF game, of even better, capcom vs. SNK, it would have been much better. Oh, well… Too bad.
Shadow with green eyes: Man, oh man did you just make my day. Thank you so much. It's reviews like yours that are the essence of my life… even if I am really seventeen. Sorry about the mistype, but I'll still take all the compliments, thank you.
Storm-Maker: Thank you. I'm trying to make Morgan very opinionated, but in a weird way. He's going to be all my satire pulled into one character.
Koneko-Chan star: Well, I'm not sure. I think that for my third fic I'm going to actually have the finale of the series, (You know, have Naraku die, and do whatever I'm going to do with the pairings… and NO! You can't know how the pairing turn out. That's my own secret.) Unfortunately, I haven't seen castle beyond the looking glass. I've heard that it takes place after Naraku is destroyed, and so I want to finish the series before watching it, (As stated in my response to Noki-San). Unfortunately, I am poor, and cannot offord the series on Ebay, so I am limited to Adult swim, and attempting to locat fansubs on the computer. I don't suppose you could tell me where I could find some… Please? However, I do have plans for other fics. I've got two AU fics I want to do, as well as a slightly more original fic about the life of Atma and Vadise. Also, I have a few videogame fics I want to do. But, I digress! Thank you for the kind words!
Dreamangel: Thank you, as usual.
And now, to everyone. Another disclaimer about Morgan. He's going to be my satire character, particularly about the fifteenth century catholic church, and other European culture thingies. This does not mean the church of today! Please, don't get angry at me for the things he says. I think we can all agree that the church was much different back then, eh?
Also: Quite a few scenes I use in this fic, you can see on the first InuYasha movie. However, not in the actual movie. Go to the extra real (Second to last option on the scene select) and press the skip scene button. You should come to a reel of really awesome little clips from things that look like they are from the first movie, but look much spiffier. I gaurente you'll be pleased if you watch them.
Now, after I have blabbed for more than a page so I can get my word count up, on to the fic!
*****
Not a bad haul. Not a bad haul at all. Morgan held up his hand. In between each finger there was a glistening jewel. They would be worth a decent sum… he couldn't sell them here, of coarse, but there would be other places.
This city was odd… it was confusing, and jumbled, and there weren't enough people. Well, not real people. After seeing what for all sakes and appearances seemed to be a werewolf walking down the street, Morgan had decided that Japan wasn't the most ideal of places to vacation. Then he had seen all the money the werewolf had on him, he had changed his mind. He grinned down at the jewels again. He might take a few more vacations here.
Continuing down the street, he began noticing something. The occasional people on the street weren't human. He had noticed that almost immediately, of course, but now he was noticing the humans, as well. They were there, all around. But they were hard to notice. They walked indistinctly, and clearly didn't want to be noticed. They were very obviously good at not being noticed. And they wore chains.
He had seen it before. They were doing it to the blacks, right now in Europe. Stupid, that. Granted he was the oddball. Blacks were obviously inferior. God obviously made them so serve the white superiors. A smile quirked on Morgan's mouth. It was funny. The first people weren't black or white, and weren't they God's chosen? He shrugged, sidestepping one of the pathetic looking humans. That was the way life went, he supposed.
His hand darted out to his right, quickly, and came back, holding a few more jewels. All the critters here were so well dressed! It looked like a fashion show! A fashion show with lots of rubies… in easy to reach places.
He sighed happily, and quickly pushed some of the gems into a pocket on the inside of his coat.
Take a few steps, dart the arm out, catch the jewels, a few more steps, dart arm out again… and so it went, until the people on the street stopped walking by. They started running. And screaming. And waving their arms frantically. It was the actions of people running from something.
A woman with a snake tail slithered by, bleeding profusely. At least the blood was red, Morgan reflected as he snatched a ruby off of her clothing. At least these people were off their guard. He turned around again as the stampede passed him, avoiding being trampled carefully, and picking up several more precious stones while he was at it.
Now there was nobody on the street, except for what was very obviously the thing the monsters had been running from. Not many things shocked Morgan. But as he turned around to see what the hideous monster was, he let out a slight yell of horror, and his mind slipped into mono-thought mode.
Pink! Was the first one.
Green! Was the next.
Sword!
Spear!
Big!
Hair!
Blonde!
Smile!
Teeth!
Finally, Morgan's thoughts finally came together. Standing before him, was a tall blonde human. He was wearing a bright, fluorescent pink neon coat, and a neon green pair of those baggy Japanese pants. His hair was… big. And blonde. He had a big grin on his face, and was laughing slightly. In each hand there was a curved, Japanese blade. On his back were two long spears. There were daggers strapped across his chest. On his rope belt were the sheaths to the katanas.
The man was walking slowly. He walked happily past Morgan, a plaintive expression on his face. "Oh, c'mon!" He yelled. "I didn't hit you that hard! Come back! I'm bored!" Morgan cast a sidelong glance at the man. The sheath to one of his katanas looked very nice. It had little gold inlays all over the place.
The man sighed, and went to sheath his swords. His sheaths, however, were no longer there. HE turned around to face Morgan. The pirate was trying to peel the gold off with the tip of a knife. The man blinked, and then crossed his arms. "Can I help you?" He asked.
Morgan shook his head. "Nope." He said, "S'okay. I'm good."
The man nodded, and crossed his arm. "Oh, Okay." He said, and pulled out a dagger. "Cause, y'know, I'm happy to help."
Morgan looked up at him, and tossed him the second sheath. "Go ahead and start on the second one." He said, still poking at one of the gold inlays. "I'll come help as soon as I'm done with this one."
"Great, great." The man said, picking at the gold. "So, why are we taking the gold of my swords, anyway?"
"I'm a pirate." Morgan said amiably. "I steal things."
"Oh, I see." The man said, getting one of the gold inlays off, and starting on the next. "So, you a captain, or just a crew member?"
"I'm a captain." Morgan said, pocketing one of the inlays, and chipping more. "Captain Morgan. Me ships in the harbor."
The man nodded. "Yeah, well. My name's Aaron. I'm one of the free humans around here." He said, as if he was stating some amazing fact. "So, you here pillaging with a crew, or by yourself?"
"Well, I ran into some trouble a while back, so I'm doing a little mercenary work right now. My current client is back with the ship, so I thought I'd just take off, and slit a few purses."
Aaron shrugged. "Well, this is the place to do it." He remarked. "All the youkai here have pretty fancy stuff."
Morgan pursed his lips. "Youkai? Izzat what they are? I heard legends before, but…"
Aaron nodded, finishing up on the sheath, and handing the gild inlays to Morgan. "Yep." He said. "Youkai is what they are. They're allot more common here than in the rest of Japan. Your new here aren't you."
Morgan nodded back, pocketing the rest of the inlays, and holding the bare sheath out to Aaron. "Yeah." He said. "I've visited once, but that was only for a few days a few years ago. My main trip was to china."
Aaron grinned, and sheathed his katanas. "Yeah." He said. "I've been to china before. Stumbled into that one place with all the weird cursed springs that turn you into different things." He gave Morgan a plaintive look. "I saw someone fall into the spring of the drowned aardvark then into the spring of the drowned flying squirrel five minutes later. That was a laugh."
Morgan shrugged. "yeah, I heard of that place. Never actually went there though."
Aaron smiled at him. "Reasonable." He said. "It's in a pretty obscure part of Japan, so I won't hold it against you."
Morgan nodded. "Yes well," He said, walking off. "It was a pleasure doing business with you."
Aaron nodded. "Oh, any time, any time. You should come over some time, we'll do lunch!"
Morgan nodded, and walked off down the street. It was only until he was some fifty feet away that he stopped, and looked back down into the pocket he had put the gold it. It was gone. He whipped around again, and looked at the quickly retreating figure that was Aaron. How? Why? What? When?
Morgan scowled. Nobody stole from Captain Morgan, of the Banana Trading Co. # 7!
He tore off down the street after the blonde haired thief.
*****
"Vadise!" Atma's voice echoed through the forest. "Vadise!" The dragon was attempting to make her way through the thick leaves. "Vadise! Where the hell are you?"
Atma's cloak was torn slightly, from trekking through the jungle. Underneath the cloak was a thick, black breastplate with shoulder guards and an inlayed ruby on the collar. Under the armor was a thick, baggy, midnight blue suit, to keep the armor from chafing. Granted, Atma didn't really need to worry about such things, but it made her look cool, so she stuck with it.
She winced as a tree branch suddenly fell, and broke itself over her head. Why the hell did Vadise have to live in the god-forsaken, bug infested, sorry excuse for a forest? As soon as the thought crossed her mind, the trees around her seemed to twitch, and grow tighter together, denying her any passage.
A low, feral growl escaped from Atma's throat, directed at the trees. "If you don't get out of my way, right now, I'm personally going to strip every one of your leaves and use them as a salad." She growled at the tree in front of her.
This wasn't a normal forest, and Atma wasn't in the least bit surprised when the trees suddenly moved out of her way. They didn't actually get up and walk, but they simply moved. It was quite a work of art, actually, and Atma was still working on how Vadise managed it.
The tree's continued to move, until she had a strait path. She grinned to herself, and stalked on through, her booted feet crushing thick grass beneath her feet. She stalked down the living tunnel, and finally emerged in a small clearing. In the clearing there was a pool, and sitting near the pool, bare feet dangling in the water, was a girl. She had white hair, a white, billowy, baggy silken suit, and a long white tail. Her skin was a dark tan, with darker stripes all over.
"Vadise!" Atma smiled warningly. "Did you give the Tetsusaiga back to InuYasha?"
The girl near the pool of water smiled, and wiggled her feet, causing ripples to spread out through the surface. "Not yet." She said.
"Than how is it that InuYasha has the Tetsusaiga?" She demanded. "Aaron specifically said he saw it."
Vadise didn't look up from the water. She seemed to be watching something of great interest. "I said I haven't given it to him yet." She said, her voice innocent and girlish.
Atma growled at her. "I'm not in the mood for your games, Vadise."
Vadise chuckled only slightly, and looked up, her eyes a startling, bright emerald green. "No games, Atma. InuYasha has a Tetsusaiga, and so do I. Does this complicate things?"
Atma gaped at her a moment. "But…" She sputtered, "How?"
Vadise chuckled. "I already decided." She said. "I will give InuYasha Tetsusaiga in the future. It will give me time to study it, and he can still have the Tetsusaiga now to use."
Atma practically choked. "You mean…" She left it hanging.
"There are now two Tetsusaigas, yes." She said, smiling. "Isn't that just fun?"
"No!" Atma exploded. "If Menomaru gets a hold of the Tetsusaiga he could receive Menomaru's power!"
Vadise nodded. "I guess that means you should probably not let Menomaru get a hold of the Tetsusaiga then." She remarked, looking back at the water. "Now, I need some things from you." She said.
Atma's eyes narrowed. "You just made me angry." She remarked. "Why should I help you?"
"Because if you don't I will obliterate you from existence." Vadise said simply, poking at a fish just below the water.
"You wouldn't dare." Atma began.
Vadise didn't move. But the tree next to Atma vanished. Not teleported, or blown up. It was just gone. There was no sign. The ground where it had stood was completely unbroken.
Atma gave a disconcerted look towards where the tree had been, and turned back. "What do you need?" She asked, obviously put out.
"I need to borrow Kohaku." She said. "Sango and Miroku will be getting here very soon, and he might be useful for helping the youkai slayer."
Atma, scowling angrily, nodded slowly. "I'll get him to you before they get here." She thought a moment. "What are you going to do about repairing the monk's Kazanaa?"
Vadise smiled. "You let me worry about that." She said simply. She stared intently into the water. Flickering briefly across the surface were the images of a monk in midnight blue robes being carried by a girl in a deep purple, baggy outfit. "They should be here by tomorrow, if Kirara reaches them tonight. You should leave."
Atma nodded, scowling.
"And Atma, dear?" The young girl said happily, still looking into the water.
"Hmm?" Atma inquired.
"Kiriln is not our enemy…" Vadise said, and closed her eyes.
Atma's eyes widened. "What?" She whispered, then instantly closed her eyes, stretching out her mind, searching towards Shinjuku. Her eyes snapped open, and narrowed angrily. "She's here!" She seethed, and looked towards the demon city. The trees didn't even wait for her command to get out of her way.