-1Disclaimer: Obvious stuff; I don't own Inuyasha or anyone else associated with IY. Any other characters/places are mine and mine alone, unless stated otherwise. So piss off :P
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"" character speech
'' quotes in character speech
Italics equals thoughts, except in character speech where it equals emphasis.
Chaotica
Summary: Inuyasha and co. thought that Naraku was the worst of their worries. Feudal Japan thought that youkai were the biggest problem. Both were mistaken, as the past, present, and possible future is thrown into chaos as a rift is open between worlds. New foes are made, unlikely alliances formed, and friendship and love is put to unthinkable tests. What will become of the world as it is plunged into the chaos of war?
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Chapter 1: Thule, the Warlock
"And I heard as it were;
The noise of thunder,
One of the four beasts saying
'come and see', and I saw
And behold, a White Horse…"
Johnny Cash - "When the Man Comes Around"
The day had gone relatively better than expected. Well, for Shippou at least: he napped most of the trip on the basket of Kagome's bike, not paying much attention to the bickering that was going on around him. He awoken when they happened upon a small village.
"Finally! Maybe we actually rest at an inn tonight?" Kagome asked, sweetly looking at Inuyasha.
"Keh! Hell no! We aint stoppin' here," he replied gruffly.
Kagome did her best to give her impression of puppy dog eyes as she stepped in front of him and looked at him with a slight blush.
Inuyasha suddenly decided to pull a Sango and turned beet red himself.
"F-fine! I'm sure there's a youkai around here anyways! Kagome! Can you sense any jewel shards?" his words seem to stumble out.
The last sentence seemed to break the girl out of her trance, "As a matter of fact…there is something a little further north of here," she pointed in the direction she sensed something.
"I felt it too, Kagome-sama," Miroku said, walking up next to her, "something…I don't know. It just doesn't…feel right?" he sounded quite confused.
"Tell me about it." Kagome said quietly.
"Keh! Well we had better go investigate. If it is a youkai, the people of the village will only let us stay here if we kill the damn thing." Inuyasha put his hands behind his head and started walking through the village, past the inn.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome complained, "Its way too dark right now to go youkai hunting, and besides…my feet hurt." she emphasized this by lifting a leg and rubbing the sole of her foot.
Inuyasha let out a harsh sigh.
"FINE! We will stay here tonight!" he stormed off opposite of the town grumbling something about "weak ningen" and "stupid girls."
Kagome smiled wickedly, "Oh Inuyaaassshaa?"
"WHAT?"
"Osuwari."
The cursing could be heard throughout the village as candles were lit and already asleep villagers rushed out of their homes to see who was getting murdered.
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With some convincing, Miroku was able to talk the head of the inn to accommodate a monk, a taijiya, a very odd looking girl, two youkai and a hanyou.
"And…you will investigate this youkai menace?" the innkeeper said with a raised eyebrow.
"Investigate and destroy it for you," Miroku said with a smile, "surely you can trust the words of a humble servant of Buddha?"
With that, the innkeeper's expression lightened, and he smiled somewhat.
"Yes, I suppose I can. You all look tired and hungry anyways," he said with a smile. He then motioned for them to enter, and showed them the way to their respective rooms.
"So, my beautiful Sango," Miroku said as he intercepted the taijiya, "can I assume you and I will be sharing a room tonight?" he finished with a grin and mock attitude of innocence.
Sango suddenly found the floor very interesting as her fists clenched, and her face was flush. She was about to send the houshi through the roof of the inn until…
"Well, I don't see why you two wouldn't share a room," the innkeeper interrupted, "wouldn't it be odd for a husband and wife to not share a room together?"
If there was a new shade of red to be discovered, it would most likely be named "Sango." Miroku played along with the dimwit innkeeper as he put his arm around the quivering girl.
"Of course we're going to share a room together! Its just I love seeing her blush like that!" Miroku finished with a triumphant smile on his face. Little did Sango know that the houshi actually meant his last sentence.
Seeing this was quickly going to end in lots of violence, Kagome did a very very foolish thing, but one that ended up saving Sango, and Miroku's face from a vicious slapping, in the end.
"Uh, Miroku-sama you can't stay with Sango-chan tonight! Remember she's uh, 'on her time?'" Kagome sputtered out.
Oh Kami…Sango-chan I'm so sorry.
Sango turned ashen. She was going to kill them all. Painfully.
Miroku blinked, then realizing Kagome's insinuation, blushed himself.
I…didn't know it was 'that' time of the month for Sango! No wonder she's been acting more aggressive towards punishing my cursed hand…
Suddenly realizing he would be surely "punished" again, Miroku let go of Sango's shoulder as if it was made of ice and brought his hands up in a defensive fashion.
"If dearest Sango needs to be alone for this trying time, then I will surely comply to my sweet's demands!" Miroku said shakily, walking off towards the room him and Inuyasha would share for the evening.
Inuyasha simply stared with a raised eyebrow at the whole situation as Kagome tried in vain to get her still shaking friend to move towards her room away from the men.
What's the big deal? Sango's not in heat, so I have no clue what Kagome is talking about. Keh. Stupid women.
With that, he wheeled around on his heels and began walking towards Miroku and his room till he felt a small tug on his pants.
"Inuyasha, what does Kagome mean when she says Sango is 'on her time?'" came a kitsune's innocent inquiry.
Inuyasha suddenly turned red as he choked out…
"Gur…uh…how am I supposed to know what it means! Ask one of the girls they're, the ones that know about it! Kagome! Y-you explain it to him!" he quickly retreated to his own room and slid the door shut, leaving an interested Shippou, a stone-form Sango, and a now blushing Kagome to fend for themselves.
Fantastic night this had turned out to be.
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"Hey! Whatach where yer goin', clumsly fool!" a very large, drunk man spouted at a very small sober Alaryn.
Sighing, the rogue sidestepped out the burly oaf's way as he bumbled past. Granted, he could've rendered the man unconscious in a heartbeat's time, but Adahlia would've let him have it later. She hated when he picked fights.
Oh, how Alaryn longed for the "glory days" of his young life, before he met the elf-girl, and no one stood in his way. He wasn't an evil man, per se, but merely one with no superiors, thus equating to a man with no laws. He was, after all, a rogue. A thief. In some people's minds, a traitor.
For this he was gloriously hunted by his own people. Over the years, a hefty price had accumulated on his head, and many bounty hunters and vigilantes had come after him. Most, if not all, had been firmly planted six feet underground by Alaryn. The decent ones at least. He did bury some people who had tried to kill him; the good men who were trying to provide for their communities or do their communities a "favor" by ridding the countryside of yet another heathen rogue. Of course, Alaryn had to kill these good men to stay alive himself. It was simply the way things worked. However, on the flip side, the ones who were greedy, zealous, or just plain evil, he left to rot above the ground. Alaryn honestly had lost track of how many men he had to kill for him to stay alive himself.
He smiled at his ability to survive, under any and all conditions.
Let the bastards keep coming, he thought as he ordered some drinks at the bar. I'll just continue to do my own thing while they push up earth.
He glanced over at a small table where an uncomfortable elf was fending off another would-be courtier. She was finally able to wave him off with a feeble laugh as she looked over at Alaryn, a true smile beginning to form on her face. Alaryn smiled back as the barkeep produced a mug of ale, and a small, dainty metal chalice with wine in it. He brought the drinks back to the table and gave the wine to Adahlia.
"Another ruffian trying to get in those lovely pants of yours?" he teased, running his leg up the inside of her dress. She stopped him by clamping her legs shut over his.
"You know that would never happen. Why do you tease me so?" she sounded almost hurt by his advance, but he knew better as he chuckled and she released his leg.
"Hey, I gotta watch out for my elf-girl somehow, eh?" he said, taking a drink of beer.
She reached over and gave him a smack on his head, spilling some of the contents on the mug on his wool vest. He gave her a small glare while she giggled. She reached out her hand and put it over his. He gave a small jump at her sudden show of affection.
"So," she said casually, "what do we do with that new sword?" she motioned to the blade on his back.
He sighed in reservation, "Wish I could tell ya. Suppose I can try to sell it to some silly sod blacksmith who knows nothing of enchantments. I could get a few gold, at the least," he frowned at this. All of a sudden, he thought of mentioning something to Adahlia, although he knew she probably wouldn't like it.
"You know, Ada," he began, "we have been traveling for quite some time now, non-stop almost. You can, if you'd like to of course, go back to Kel'dral to visit your father and kin?" he squeaked the last bit out, wincing as he noticed her face turn somber.
She removed her hand from his and started forming small circles on the rim of her cup. Her wine had become very interesting all of a sudden.
"You know I want to, but the question is, will he still accept me as his daughter?" she said quietly. This had always been the problem: Adahlia's father was a high-druid in her forest home of Kel'dral, and he was very…disapproving…of her choice to leave the grove and travel with a human. A very loud, rowdy and foul-mouthed human. Adahlia was semi frightened that he would go as far as banish her, but currently he was resigned to simply not speaking to her. And as for Alaryn…he flat out was banished from his territory.
This of course didn't bother him; it wasn't like Alaryn and Adahlia were lovers, and he had no intent of getting a stuck up old elf's blessing to allow Adahlia to travel with him. The choice was hers and hers alone, and Alaryn would be damned if he let anyone or anything take away the best friend he had ever had.
He reached forward and took both her hands in his.
"Listen Ada," he said softly, noticing her blush as he held her hands, "screw what your dad says you can and can't do, this is your life, and you should live it as you see fit. You still want to travel with me, don't you?" he asked.
"Of course I do!" she exclaimed.
"But! You still love your father, right?"
"Of course I do…" she said quietly.
"Then by all means, go and visit him. We could use a rest anyways. At least I could." he replied.
Adahlia sipped on her wine thoughtfully.
If I can get father to accept my decision to be with a human, perhaps he will accept the decision that I…I…
She suddenly got a look of resolve on her face; she decided it. Adahlia would take a few days of solitude to journey home and confront her father and his muteness. Alaryn noticed this and smirked knowingly.
He leaned back on his chair.
"I take it we part ways here?" he said almost sadly.
Adahlia blinked back into reality, "Huh? Only for a few days Alaryn…I'm not about to abandon you or anything," she laughed, "besides, we both know you'll just end up getting yourself killed without me, or worse."
Alaryn finished the rest of his beer, and stood up to leave.
"Exactly. Now lets go! You have a long journey ahead of you, Ada!" he began to scoot her towards the door.
"Hey, did you pay for this alcohol?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Of course! I paid the bartender at the bar. I just want you to get a good start on the road." he smiled as they got outside and put his hands on her shoulders, bringing her close to him in a hug.
She slowly hugged him back, still noticing how odd he was acting.
"Uhm…Alaryn…you do realize I can just hearth myself back to the glade my father owns? Meaning I can cut my travel time down to a few hours?" she asked, yawning, "Can't we just stay here tonight? I'm too tired to cast a spell anyways."
Alaryn opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off by a fuming barkeep storming out of the tavern. In his hand was a broken bottle, obviously to be used as a weapon.
"YOU!" he pointed at Alaryn, "You bastard! You didn't pay me! That wine was expensive!"
Adahlia's hand suddenly planted itself on Alaryn's cheek, leaving an oddly familiar red mark…
"Alaryn! You said you paid him!"
"Ow! Yeah, well…I didn't expect him to go all mental over a few drinks!"
Adahlia growled at the human, all the while the pair ignoring the raging man behind them.
Alaryn was barely able to dodge the swinging of the bottle. Barely.
"Well I think our welcome is worn out," he said with a slight frown, "time to go elf-girl!" he grabbed Adahlia's hand suddenly began running as far as possible from the tavern.
"Hey!" she squeaked in disagreement, "I thought you said I could visit my father?"
"Yeah, and you will once we survive this deranged barkeep!" Alaryn replied, dragging the none the none too willing elf with him.
Thus was the beginning of a great adventure, one that would shape the very way the world would be; all haphazardly thrown together by the swinging booze bottle of a pissed off bartender.
Fantastic night this hard turned out to be.
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Sesshomaru looked the ningen in front of him up and down, although his eyes never strayed from the eyes of the being in front of him. They were haunting.
Of course the great and mighty Sesshomaru-sama was not daunted by such things as glowing eyes. He was a youkai. He knew no fear, as was not about to let a pathetic ningen put that emotion into his dictionary.
Still…
The fact that a human had glowing eyes was enough to make Sesshomaru raise an eyebrow. Perhaps the man had a Shikon shard? That would make sense.
"I will ask you again ningen; why have you summoned this Sesshomaru?" he asked coldly, "You have brought me here on purpose with your…tainted smell. What desire do you have? Be quick, for my patience for your kind is sorely lacking."
The dumb human smiled, actually smiled at the great Sesshomaru.
"I'm sorry," he said in a foreign dialect, "but I don't quite understand your question. Perhaps this would assist in our communication, yes?"
Sesshomaru looked quizzically at the man in front of him; he was quite obviously a foreigner to this land.
Before the great youkai could so much as blink, the human raised a hand, and turned the world white but for just a second. The youkai blinked away the fuzziness without showing any sort of reaction.
"There," the man said in a dialect Sesshomaru understood, "better?"
Sesshomaru glared at the petty ningen in front of him, so condescending in the way he carried himself.
"I'm sorry for not casting my speaking spell earlier," the man said in a heavy French accent, "but I foolishly forgot I was on another continent." he giggled at this, much to the disgust of Sesshomaru.
He made a deep curtsey/bow, which disgusted the youkai further. The bow was European, which made it clumsy and dishonorable. Sesshomaru thought it to be a mockery of true warriors.
"In any case, I believe introductions are in order. I am Jean-Prelechut Thule; but you will soon know me as 'master.'" again came the light-hearted giggle.
Sesshomaru growled, "I call no ningen master. I will certainly not lower myself to bowing to something as wretched as you."
This caused the man to lower his hood, revealing shoulder length blonde hair.
"Ningen?" he asked, "Oh…that's what your race calls 'humans.'" He shrugged his shoulders.
"So base and disrespectful. Can't you call me by name at least?"
"You do not deserve the honor, nor do you deserve to walk this land; you are on my territory, and for the intrusion you will now fall by my hand." Sesshomaru surged forward, Tokijin raised ready to strike the weakling down…
Until he found he could not move. He grunted, strained, and huffed but he was frozen in mid-stride, one foot still above the ground.
"S-sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken almost yelped from the bush. Fortunately, Rin was able to silence him.
"Quiet Jaken-sama! Sesshomaru-sama needs to concentrate on his fight. He'll win like he always does!"
Jaken was about to tell the child to be quiet herself, till he heard Sesshomaru make an odd noise.
What Jaken saw caused him to weep for his poor master.
Thule had somehow levitated Sesshomaru a few feet above the ground, and enveloped him in a dark, violet beam of electrical energy. Sesshomaru's was in obvious pain, although the youkai's expression said otherwise.
"Hm. Curious," Thule said calmly, slowly stalking towards the incapacitated demon, "most would yelled out in anguish, or at least fury. Yet you are unlike other demons I have shackled. I can see I will have to employ the use of a outerling for this; perhaps even The Beast itself." he smiled wickedly at Sesshomaru before reaching forward and cupping his chin.
"You should feel honored that a warlock is going to such great depths to shackle a low-class demon such as yourself, Sesshomaru."
That caused the youkai to start paying attention to the man and not to his bindings. How in the hell did he know his name? Sesshomaru found he was still able to move his mouth, and so he spat on the man's face.
"Baka ningen. I will slay you and drink your blood before you 'shackle' me."
With a great growl, Sesshomaru's eyes turned red and he found he was now able to move his arms. With a sweep of his right, he dispelled whatever magic the ningen had over him as he softly hit the ground.
Thule laughed, a high pitched sound that was nearly as annoying as his incessant giggling.
"I am impressed, Sesshomaru. Your kind never ceases to amaze me."
"You will stop talking. Now."
Regaining full control of Tokijin, Sesshomaru brought the blade level with his chest as energy crackled around the blade of the sword. Earth moved, lightning flashed, and the ground shook as Sesshomaru unleashed his mightiest of attacks to quickly vanquish this new foe.
"Syou Ryuu Ha!"
As the electrical energy tore up the ground in front of Thule, his giggling never ceased.
"Thank you oh so much! That is precisely what I wanted you to do!" he screeched over the sound of the attack.
Sesshomaru's eyes widened slightly as Thule extended both hands and proceeded to chant softly. Sesshomaru's Syou Ryuu Ha began to move in a somewhat slow motion before twisted in on itself, becoming little more than a crackling, snapping blue ball of demonic energy. With a snap of his fingers, Thule caused the attack to simply cease to exist.
Sesshomaru stood stunned. None had ever been able to withstand, dodge, or render the attack useless.
"Let me tell you something about warlocks, Sesshomaru," Thule began, as he dusted off his hands and robe, "we are the masters of demonology; the dark arts of shackling, controlling and manipulating demons to our very desires. Do you really think that by unleashing demonic energy at one you would be able to conquer one?" he shrugged and smiled a large smile at Sesshomaru.
"I have never even heard of such a thing as a 'warlock,'" he began, "but from the looks of it, you seem little more than a dark houshi. If demonic power does not effect you, then I will simply have to cut you down with Tokijin."
As Sesshomaru raised his blade again for another charge, Thule rolled up his sleeves.
This demon was going to make a powerful pet indeed.
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As the night grew darker and deeper, Miroku's headache grew worse and worse. The air in the room he was trying to sleep in seemed stuffy and choking. When he couldn't take anymore, he sighed and rose, catching the attention of a semi-napping hanyou.
"I'm going for a walk. I have a headache and can't sleep," he said casually as he made his way towards the door.
A "keh" was the only response he got.
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Kagome groaned as she rubbed her left shoulder in an attempt to ease her tense muscles and throbbing temples, but to no avail.
"Ugh, I hate having headaches. I can never think or sleep or do anything," she complained.
"Maybe you should go for a walk, Kagome-chan?" Sango offered, "Some fresh air might do your head good."
Kagome smiled at her friend and nodded. She rose and watched Shippou cuddling up with Kirara, both of them asleep. They both looked peaceful, as did Sango as her side rose and fell, attempting to fall asleep herself.
For once, things seemed right.
If only the girl knew how wrong she truly was.
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End o' chapter 2. Whew, that was a long one, eh? Expect most of them be about this length, if not longer.
Yea…this is gonna be a friggin book.
SO GIMME REVIEWS PEOPLE.
-M
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Preview of Chapter 2: The Shackling
Sesshomaru was in dire need of a plan. Quickly. He was losing this battle as he had grossly underestimated his foe. He glanced over at where Jaken lay and Rin, still trying to awaken the dead or unconscious youkai. Sesshomaru couldn't decide yet what fate had befallen his ever-faithful disciple.
"You know, Sesshomaru," Thule began in a condescending way, "this could all be ended shortly and painlessly if you would only submit to my will. But no, you have chosen the path of most resistance, which is always the path of most pain." he ended the last word with a surprisingly fierce growl, and a mist formed around his hand.
Sesshomaru stood, prepared to face another onslaught of the horrific spell Thule had cast upon him. He wracked his brain to find something, anything, that would enable him to take the upper hand. This man was insanely powerful, yes, but was still a ningen; all Sesshomaru needed was one clean cut, and Thule would fall.
Unfortunately, the youkai never got such an opportunity.