Centuries before the birth of Inuyasha, a legend began. Herein begins the tale of Inuyasha and Sesshomaru's famous ancestor, a great and benevolent being still known as the Great Dog-Demon.
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Tales of the Great Dog-Demon
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First Cycle:
Rise of the Great Dog-Demon
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Chapter I:
The Prophecy
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Sounga watched as two of his undead soldiers shoved the girl into the throne room. Even in the filthy, threadbare rags they had found her in, she was nonetheless attractive; her shoulder-length raven hair still drew the Great Demon's attention despite being matted with dirt from farm labor and the long trek here to his citadel.
For a blind woman, he thought to himself, she certainly is easy on the eyes. It was hard to believe that the rumors he'd been hearing about her could be true. Could such a simple, harmless creature really be the harbinger of a Great Demon's demise?
After a few moments, the girl sat up, drumming her fingers on the wood floor - a technique, Sounga knew, that served as a form of echolocation, allowing the girl to sense her surroundings through sound rather than sight. As she turned her head, Sounga noticed that the pupils of her emerald-green eyes were obscured by a pearlescent film, like cataracts.
"Hello?" she called, "Is anyone here?"
"Don't worry, my dear. For the time being, you are safe." Sounga rose from his throne. At well over six feet tall in his human form, he was an imposing figure to most. His flesh was a pale shade of red, with blue cuneiform marking on his cheeks. From his forehead rose two long, curved horns which gave him an almost satanic appearance, were one familiar with Western religion. This effect was only enhanced by his long, high-cheekboned face and the jet-black goatee, mustache and braided ponytail he affected. He wore a long, black cloak over his armor, a suit of black metal plates with long, sharpened red spikes protruding from them. In the center of his breastplate was a large, blue crystal. At his waist was sheathed a long, curved sword with another crystal ball mounted in the pommel.
Sounga walked over toward the blind young woman. "There's no need to worry, Miss ..."
"S-saeko," the girl finished for him, and turned her face towards his voice. Had he posessed the ability to care about others, Sounga might have felt pity for her. As it was, her sightless gaze only served to agitate him, and it was all he could do to keep talking in a calm, reassuring voice. "Thank you, Miss Saeko," he said. "It is nice to meet you at last."
"Who are you? Why was I brought here? Where are Mama and Papa?"
"Your family is fine. I have no need for their presence, so I left them to tend their meager estate in peace. You, on the other hand, may be of some use to me, if what I have heard is true."
"What do you mean? What use could I be? Even my little brother says I can't do anything right!"
"I'm not talking about chores or menial labor, Miss Saeko," Sounga said, bending down until their faces were only an inch or so apart.
"I am speaking of your dreams."
Saeko's brow furrowed in confusion. "My dreams?" she said hesitantly. "What about them?"
"It is common knowledge in your village that, whenever danger is near - be it bandits, demons or earthquakes - you have premonitions of it at least a day in advance. They say that your intuition has become the guide by which they plant their crops, and that you have never erred in your predictions."
"That's just a silly game my father started this one time when I dreamed of a flood. I'm not really a priestess or a seer." Saeko bowed her head, tears trickling down her face. "I'm ... not much of anything, really."
Finally, Sounga decided that enough was enough. Whether it was an act to make him dismiss her, or a genuine lack of confidence, the girl's prattling was getting tiresome. He grabbed Saeko's shoulders and pulled her to her feet, glaring at her. "They said that you have dreamed of me ... of my future. You will tell me what you have seen!"
Saeko's blind eyes darted aimlessly around, her voice taking on an edge of panic. "I ... I don't know anything! Everyone says I'm stupid! I don't even know who you are!"
"I AM THE GREAT DEMON SOUNGA, GOD OF DARKNESS AND RULER OF THE EASTERN ISLANDS! YOU WILL TELL ME WHAT YOU SAW, OR I WILL HAVE YOUR WORTHLESS, SIGHTLESS HEAD!"
Saeko fell backward, eyes wide, an expression of sheer terror on her young, innocent face. "P-please! I'm sorry! Please don't hurt me!"
"ANSWER MY QUESTION! WHAT IS IN MY FUTURE?"
"I ... I saw a man. He was tall, and he had long hair. He carried two swords. There was a bright, white light shining out of him, like he was made of it. He was so beautiful!" Saeko's face lit up just talking about this mystery character; Sounga, who had always abhorred sunlight, felt sick just imagining such a being. "He came and he fought you, and then..." Saeko hesitated for a moment. "He stabbed you with his swords, and you disappeared."
Sounga stood frozen in place, slack-jawed, his crimson eyes wide with shock. "He ... this man ... he killed me!"
"I'm not sure he was really a man. He felt like he was so much more; he was as bright as you are dark, and he kept changing into a dog in my dream."
"So he must be some sort of demon, then. A demon who can take the form of animals, or at least the form of a dog." Sounga leaned down toward Saeko. "What else do you know about this ... dog-demon?"
Saeko shook her head back and forth. "I ... I don't remember! It was weeks ago!"
"THINK! WHAT IS HIS NAME? WHERE DOES HE COME FROM?"
The girl merely kept shaking her head, trembling in fear. "I don't remember! I just don't remember!"
Sounga gave a snarl of rage and frustration. Quick as a flash, he unsheathed his sword and brought it to within an inch of the runt's nose. "WHAT IS HIS NAME, WENCH!"
"His ... His name is Hiromitsu! Hiromitsu! Oh, Gods help me--"
"I AM A GOD!" roared Sounga, finally fed up with the brat's incessant whining, and lopped her head from her shoulders without even thinking about it. Saeko's head flew into the air, spinning from the force of the blow, and landed on its severed neck only inches from where her body fell, her mouth still open in a silent plea for mercy.
His temper calmed for the time being, Sounga gave a huff and returned to his throne, replacing his bloodied sword in its sheath as he went. "Onigumo!" he called. After a moment, a tall, broad-shouldered warrior stepped into the throne room and knelt before Sounga.
Onigumo was Sounga's chief enforcer. Though obviously undead - as announced by his bruised-looking, white-and-purple skin - the man had always had a talent for murder and mayhem, and was the only human being who had willingly allowed himself to be killed and resurrected by Sounga, with his soul still housed within his undead body in a grotesque, unnatural form of immortality. Clad in heavy black armor and carrying a black iron scimitar, his very appearance was usually enough to reduce his opponents to trembling wrecks. And, for those few who were suicidal enough to take him on, his prowess in battle was enough to reduce them to steaming piles of flesh. For Sounga's purposes, the man was perfect; as long as he kept the human population in fear and slew any demons foolish enough not to pledge fealty to Sounga, the Great Demon would keep Onigumo in superhuman condition, never tiring, instantly healing, and able to enjoy all the carnal delights his corrupted flesh craved.
Sounga leaned back on the throne, resting his cheek in his hand as he contemplated the best course of action. To Onigumo he said, "It has come to my attention that there is a demon living in my territory who seeks to challenge me."
"Is he tough?" Onigumo asked, giving his master a feral-looking grin full of bone-white teeth. His eyes traveled briefly over the corpse of the young girl, and Sounga noticed his minion's tongue unconsciously lick his lips. "No offense, Boss, but I haven't had a real challenge since you had me kill that dragon five years back."
Sounga had to smile at his pawn's eagerness to carry out his will. "If the rumors are to be believed, he might even be a challenge for me, so be cautious. I will send a contingent of troops to assist you."
Onigumo was now wearing an ear-to-ear grin. "Don't sweat it, Boss. I'll have this guy's head in a bag for you in two weeks, tops."
Sounga turned serious. "No, Onigumo," he said, "I want him brought here alive. You can maim him if you like, maybe cut off a limb or two, but I want to make him suffer myself. I will kill this dog-demon personally, and when that is done, destiny itself shall have no claim upon me."
Onigumo shrugged. "Sure, Boss, whatever you say. Any idea where this dog-demon is?"
Sounga winced, remembering that he had killed the seer before she had revealed the demon's location. "Alas, no, but I do know that he can change his form, he wields two swords, and that his name is Hiromitsu."
Onigumo bowed, rose to his feet, and flashed his master one last bloodthirsty smile before he turned and walked out of the room.
Sounga leaned back, sighing with satisfaction. The girl's vision had unsettled him; he had worked long and hard to amass what power he had, clawing his way out of the netherworld into the realm of mortals, slaying all other Great Demons in the islands east of Asia and subjugating all the humans in his territory, accumulating power, skill and experience over thousands of years, and the thought of all of that effort being brought to nothing by some young upstart was downright terrifying. Onigumo, however, was a very effective demon-slayer, and if it turned out that this dog-demon was too dangerous to bring in alive ... well, he would probably forgive Onigumo for disobeying orders just this once.
Sounga's thoughts turned to the corpse of the young girl, now cooling on his throne room floor. He considered summoning a servant to clean up the mess, but ultimately decided against it. He allowed his gaze to wander over her sprawled, lifeless form, already white from blood loss, and again realized just how attractive she had been.
What a waste, he thought to himself. Or not...
Sounga stood up and walked over to the decapitated corpse, planting his sword into the floor between the girl's sundered head and body. Closing his eyes, he channeled his demonic power through the blade, through the girl's blood and into her body...
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Author's Notes/ "Bonus Material":
Hi there, folks, and thanks for tuning in to the new, improved version of "Rise of the Great Dog-Demon"! I've gone over the story, switched a few words around, and hopefully, those who read the first draft will find this to be an improvement over the original.
Plus, I thought I'd add a few notes down here after each chapter, kind of like the "bonus material" on a DVD. Heck, who knows? Some people just might find this stuff interesting ...
-Origins
As you can probably tell, I started work on "Rise" after watching "Swords of an Honorable Ruler", the third Inuyasha movie. It was the first time that I had ever seen Inuyasha's father (well, aside from his king-sized skeleton in the graveyard world), and it left me wondering, "What kind of a character was he? What's his story?"
So, like any good IY addict and fanfic writer, I sat down at my computer and outlined a huge, honkin', five-story epic saga about Inuyasha and Sesshomaru's mysterious dad.
Once I'd figured out a general gameplan, I went around to some of my favorite forums and started asking around about the infamous Inu-papa. Originally, I had thought that his name was Inutaisho, and wrote the first two chapters going on that assumption. However, as Reddbecca from the Wilde Home for Wayward Catgirls informed me, Inuyasha's dad is never actually named on the show. Sesshomaru calls him "Father", IY just calls him "the old man", and everyone else refers to him as the "Great Dog-Demon" or "Great Dog Leader" - "Inu no Taisho", in Japanese. Apparently, some fan mistranslated the title as one word, his name, and it's been passed along among fans like a contagious disease ever since.
This, of course, left me with a very unusual dilemma: I knew what the main character looked like, had some idea of his personality, but no frikkin' idea what his name was!
So I created one for him: Hiromitsu! (Hey, what better name could there be for the "Hiro" of the story?)
After that, everything pretty much fell into place, I revised the first two chapters, and to paraphrase a great man, "the show went on".
-Character Design
This first chapter is basically an introduction to our two villains, Sounga and his henchman, Onigumo. Sounga's appearance, of course, is mostly based on the "renovations" he performs on Takemaru in "Swords" - the red, spiky armor; the black cloak, crimson eyes and pale red skin. I also "flipped" the forehead horns and cheek tattoos that we see on the right side of Takemaru's face, since Sounga still has his original body in this fic, and thus has those details on both sides of his face. Then, of course, there's his famous sword, which will cause a lot of trouble later on. Throw in a black goatee and mustauche a la the Devil, and a long ponytail like the one that his "foil", Hiromitsu, will eventually wind up with, and you have Sounga, the Great Demon in his heyday.
Onigumo is basically your typical henchman: Big, burly, and obsessed with beating people up. His all-black armor is an homage to the greatest villain of them all, Darth Vader. He also carries a huge black sword like the ones used by the Uruk-Hai in "Lord of the Rings", except that his is curved into a scimitar, kind of like Sounga's longer, more elegant blade. I thought it might "visually" tie the two together, reinforcing the idea that Onigumo is a pawn of Sounga.
At this point, Saeko is really just a nice-looking plot device. She's the catalyst that starts off the story's action, and as Sounga's helpless victim, her death illustrates just how evil Sounga is. Don't worry, though; she'll be back later, and with a bigger part.
-Plot Development
Like quite a few "epic" action/adventure stories, I started "Rise" off with a prophecy (think, "The 13th Warrior"). It summarizes what the story will be about (the fight between the evil Sounga and the heroic Hiromitsu) and gives a little foreshadowing of developments that will occur during the course of the story - basically, making the audience's mouth start watering for the other nine-and-a-half chapters. And, because it's being told to Sounga, the prophecy also (very conveniently) gets the ball rolling, making the villain seek out the hero and thus set off their conflict.
In this scene, I also wanted to set up Sounga and Onigumo as really, really bad villains, who will deserve every ounce of what they get by the end of the story. So, what could be more despicable, unforgivable and cruel than killing a defenseless blind girl, who's already terrified and can't fight back? I also used the opportunity to set Onigumo up as a filthy lecher - a weakness that will come into play later.
Thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of the story!
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