Chapter 2:
"Be back soon, Mom!"
"Kagome? Where are you off to at this hour?"
"I just need to go across to see Miroku and Kaede. I'll be an hour – maybe two."
"You're coming right back?"
"Yeah. I might bring Inuyasha with me, though. I told him I couldn't go back until the weekend, but you know how impatient he gets. That won't be a problem, will it?"
"No, not at all."
"Okay – see you soon."
Kagome slid the kitchen door closed and dashed across the darkening plaza to the Bone-eater's Well. She went inside and clattered down the stairs to the Well. Hardly hesitating at all, she vaulted over the edge and disappeared from view.
Three shadows detached themselves from the surrounding walls.
"Well, well."
"Stop with the puns right now, Jon. Mavis?"
"Yep. Let's see where our little friend has gone, shall we?"
Mavis stepped forward to the edge of the Well and her companions joined her. The mage raised her hands to the node above the Well and hummed an incantation. A flare of light from the Well lit the inside of the structure.
An observer would have seen that they had discarded the tourist garb they had worn during the day. Jonathan and Kirsten were dressed in skin-tight clothing, Jonathan all in black and his wife in indigo and light blue. Mavis herself wore camouflage gear.
Although Mavis appeared unchanged except for the clothing, her companions were vastly different. During their earlier visit to the shrine, they had had looked like normal humans. Now, they showed their true appearance. Both husband and wife had skin covered with tiny, pearlescent scales that reflected the light from the Well in rainbows. Jonathan's hair was now past his shoulders, light blue in colour and held in a ponytail. Kirsten's hair was a darker shade of blue, and she wore a braid in her hair above her right ear. Both of them had sheathed swords that hung down their backs in harnesses, and the belts they wore held various other pieces of equipment and weapons.
"Ready?" asked Mavis.
Kirsten nodded.
The three of them joined hands and leaped into the Well at the same time.
"Wow! What a ride!" said Kirsten, picking herself up off the ground.
"Okay…" Jonathan looked up. "So now we're at the bottom of the well."
Mavis grinned at him. "I can pretty much guarantee that we're not in Tokyo any more. Did you not feel that transference?"
Jonathan shook his head. "I felt sick and dizzy for a moment there, but that's all. If you must know, I had my eyes shut."
"Chicken!"
He tucked his hands into his armpits, flapped his elbows and made clucking sounds. "I'm still new to this shit, remember?"
"Jon, you'll just have to learn to trust Mavis. She's spent the last ten years on a world where magic really works and has reached mage status quicker than any other student." Kirsten put her hands on her hips. "Okay – let's get out of here. Jon, need a lift."
Jonathan backed to the side of the well. "Not much room here, love."
"Well, you'll just have to toss me as hard as you can."
Kirsten backed away as far as she could then dashed towards her husband. He made a step with his hands as she leaped at him, catching her foot. He propelled her upwards as hard as he could and was gratified to see her sail over the edge of the well. In moments, Kirsten lowered a line to them and gave an all-clear sign.
Jonathan helped Mavis get a grip on the line so Kirsten could draw her upwards. When the line was again lowered, he grabbed it and walked up the wall rapidly, and clambered over the side of the well.
They were in an open glade, surrounded by forest. There was no sign of any modern buildings and the air was quiet and pure. Kirsten was surveying their surroundings with a keen eye. She sniffed the air.
"Wood fires," she said. "About half a klick, I think."
"Yeah," Jonathan agreed.
"People in that direction." Kirsten pointed. "Bet our girl's there."
"Shall we?" Mavis said.
"Oh, definitely." Kirsten grinned at her. "We'll use the trees for cover, though. Stick close to Jonathan, okay? I'll be point and scout a little ahead."
The three of them faded into the trees and passed silently through the edge of the forest until they reached the outskirts of a village. There was little movement about the rough-hewn houses, although they could see some men near a horse corral.
As they watched, they saw Kagome emerge from one of the houses. She had two men with her. One of the men had long silver hair and wore a red kimono. He had a sword sheath thrust through his sash. The other man was dark-haired and wore long, dark robes. This man carried what looked to be a staff.
"'Bye!" Kagome waved at the other people standing in the doorway.
"Be careful, child!" called an elderly woman in red and white.
"I'm fine with Inuyasha and Miroku."
"Yes, Lady Kaede," the man in the dark robes said. "I'll just set the wards as Kagome has asked and be right back."
Kirsten was the only one of the group who knew any Japanese. "The one in the dark robes seems to be a priest or something. He said he was going to set wards – probably around the well."
"Intercept?" Jonathan asked.
"We'll have to." Mavis moved restlessly. "That one has power – almost as much as the girl. And the other one with them – there's something really strange about him. He may be a mutant or something."
"All right. Back the way we came. We'll have to intercept before the wards can be set, just in case Mavis can't break them," Kirsten said.
Mavis made an annoyed sound.
Kirsten glanced back at her. "Mavis – I know you're mage class, and I respect that. But that young fella there is an unknown."
"Point taken," Mavis said shortly.
They went back the way they came, hoping to beat Kagome and her friends to the Well. But winding their way through the trees had slowed them enough that when they arrived, they could see the dark-robed man already beside the Well. Kagome and the silver-haired man were some distance away, speaking quietly together.
"We need to be quick," Mavis said urgently. "He's already set two of the wards. Damn – he's fast."
"I'm on it."
Kirsten burst from the trees and went into strike-mode. For a few moments, she would be super-fast and very hard to stop. She knocked the robed man flying and grabbed the sutra he had been working on, tearing it in two as she passed. He cried out in pain and surprise and took a swipe at her with his staff. He missed.
Kagome turned from her companion to see the robed man fall to the ground. "Miroku!" she shouted.
The silver-haired man immediately leaped in Kirsten's direction, drawing his sword. Kirsten's silver eyes widened as she watched a normal-sized, rather beat-up katana transform into an enormous gleaming sword that looked too heavy for the man to hold. She had time to draw her own sword, but knew it would not be enough. She parried the thrust the silver-haired man made at her and jumped away. He came after her with amazing speed.
"Who are you! What do you want here!" he yelled at her.
Kirsten gulped. This man was nearly as fast as she was, and strong too, if he could wield a monstrous sword like that. Retreat seemed like the only viable option. She vaulted away, but was not quite fast enough. He had leaped above her to an amazing height – far higher than fifteen feet she could manage and was coming down fast with the huge blade pointed at her heart.
"Holy shit!" Jonathan screamed as he dived at his wife and managed to knock her beyond the reach of the silver-haired man. He fell across her as they hit the ground and rolled, Kirsten flinging her sword away so she would not skewer him.
"Oh that's just fine, Jon!" she hissed at him. "It'll take me forever to find the sword in this overgrowth."
"Well, pardon me for saving your life."
"Alright. Just who the hell are you?"
They looked up to find the silver-haired man standing over them with his huge blade resting negligently on his shoulder. Kirsten was not taken in for a moment by his casual stance. This was a fighting man, plain and simple, and warriors were creatures that Kirsten knew how to deal with.
Kagome ran up beside the silver-haired man and put her hand on his arm. "Wait a minute, Inuyasha. I think I know them."
She gasped when she took a good look at the couple on the ground. "You – you're the tourists from this afternoon! But you look…different." She patted her companion's arm. "It's okay, Inuyasha. I don't think they'll try to hurt us."
Inuyasha snorted. "I'm not letting my guard down just yet. See to Miroku, Kagome."
"Oh, I'm fine," said the other man, getting to his feet and dusting himself off. "I'll have to start over again with the sutras, though."
Mavis broke cover and ran across the clearing. Miroku watched her progress with some amusement.
"Oh, look, Inuyasha. There's another one."
Kagome looked over. "That's Mavis. Don't hurt her, Miroku. She's … like a witch or something, but she's not bad."
"Mavis is a mage, Kagome," said Kirsten in Japanese. "We just wanted to stop you from setting wards around the well. They may have prevented us from getting back again."
Kagome put her hands on her hips and glared at Mavis, who had come up to them panting with her exertions. "You!" she said in English. "You follow me!"
"That we did," Mavis said.
"They speak some strange language," Miroku observed.
"It's English – from my time," Kagome said.
Kirsten pushed her husband aside and got to her feet. "Mavis has been hot on the trail of some mystic energy that originates from this well of yours, Kagome. It was quiescent until recently, when you must have activated it. We were merely curious and wanted to make sure that nothing foul corrupts it."
"Inuyasha and I seem to be the only ones that can use it."
"That's not strictly true, Kagome," the silver-haired man said. "Remember Yura? Her hair made it through."
"But technically you brought it through, Inuyasha. It couldn't come through on its own."
"So – what is this place?" Kirsten asked. She bent to help Jonathan up.
"This is the Feudal era," Kagome said.
Inuyasha took a good look at the couple in front of him and gasped. "Are you … demons of some kind?"
Kirsten chuckled. "No, sir. We're mutants, my husband and I. What about you? You're not human." She stared at the pointed ears that stuck out from his shaggy hair.
"Oh – Inuyasha's a dog demon," Kagome said. "A half-demon to be precise."
"Demon?" Kirsten turned to Mavis and spoke in English. "Kagome says this fella here is a half-demon."
"Really? Well, that would explain what I felt earlier. And that sword of his…"
"Tetsusaiga," Kagome said. "Inuyasha inherited the sword from his father who was a full demon."
Kirsten sucked in her breath. "A named sword? Ay-yi, no wonder it's powerful."
"Y'know," Inuyasha drawled, "this could take all night. Can we find somewhere else to talk?"
Kirsten shrugged. "We could go back across to the shrine."
"I did tell Mom I'd only be a couple hours, Inuyasha. Maybe we could take them across and see if we can get this sorted out."
Inuyasha nodded. "Alright. Miroku?"
"Oh – no problem here. I'll let the others know what's going on."
Inuyasha found Kirsten's sword for her by the expedient method of stepping on it. "Ouch! Dammit!" He bent and picked up the sword and examined it for a moment.
"Nice blade." He reversed the sword in his hand and offered it to Kirsten. "Drop this?"
She took the offered blade with a quick nod of her head and slid it back into its sheath. "Thanks. You know, that Tetsusaiga's a big sucker, but you don't really know how to properly wield it."
"Really? Want an introduction to my Wind Scar and Backlash Wave? It can be arranged quite easily." He gave her a feral grin and bounced the Tetsusaiga on his shoulder.
"I was referring to your technical skills," Kirsten said.
He snorted at her. "My technical skills are fine." He swept the monstrous sword in a shallow arc and resheathed it as it transformed back to a more normal size. The half-demon folded his hands inside his voluminous sleeves with a smirk on his face at Kirsten's rather astounded stare. He was not in the least impressed by this small woman.
"As you say." Take me lightly, will you? Kirsten thought. Big mistake, goofus.
Before the half-demon could move, Kirsten had lunged forward and pulled the Tetsusaiga from its sheath at his waist. She tapped the tip of the blade under his chin.
"You're far too slow." Kirsten returned the sword to its sheath as the half-demon glared at her with something closer to respect. She patted the hilt. "And you have no notion how to properly care for a blade."
"Pretty fast for a … whatever you are."
"If you want to be swinging a sword like that around, you should know how to use it to the fullest. You have the basics, but you're no swordsman."
"And you are." He did not sound convinced.
"I, sir, am a Weaponsmaster. To the uninitiated, that means I am expert in the use of at least five different weapons. I have been trained by the best the world has to offer, and in many disciplines, including ninja."
Inuyasha's eyes widened at this. "Well," he drawled. "Maybe I haven't been trained by the best, but I like to think I'm not too bad."
"You could be better," Kirsten told him. "Put yourself in our hands, and inside of six months, you would be complete master of that sword."
As the strange woman turned away to speak to Kagome, Inuyasha thought about what she had said. He listened with half an ear as Kagome gave Miroku a message to take back to the others and saw him on his way back to the village. His gaze rested on the young girl he loved more than anything else in the world. What if this woman Kirsten spoke the truth and could teach him? What if enhancing his skills meant he could finally defeat his enemy once and for all?
Inuyasha was very quiet as the trek back through the Well was organized. The three interlopers went ahead of himself and Kagome. He waited until the way was clear before he slid his arm about the young girl's waist and held her close to him.
"Ready?"
"Let's go, Inuyasha."
He jumped into the well, bearing Kagome with him.
