Foreigner In The Sengoku Jidai
By: Patriot1776
Chapter IV: Meet the Houshi, Kitsune, and Taijiya!
It was the end of the week, and InuYasha, Kagome, and Noah were now getting ready to drop down into the well. They were in the kitchen of the shrine house, and Noah and Kagome were making sure they had their stuff.
"Compass, check. Ka-Bar knife, check. Magnesium bar and steel, check..." Noah said as he made sure his olive drab G.I. backpack had everything in it he would needing. InuYasha was standing around annoyed.
"Could you guys hurry up a little?" he said.
"I'm finished now InuYasha-kun. It's Kagome-chan who's still not ready." Noah said.
"Noah-kun, I have something for you that I brought back with me when we went to get my bow." Kagome said.
"What is it?" Noah asked. Kagome then went up to her room and came down with some common peasant men's clothes. These were what Kaede had gotten for her.
"These clothes. You need to put them on. Nobody on the other side of the well has really seen a foreigner's face, so the wise old miko who helps us out a lot gave them to me to give to you." Noah walked up and took the clothes from her. InuYasha grinned a little.
"Uhh, InuYasha-kun? You'll have to show me how to put these on." Noah said.
"Come on then." InuYasha said as he grabbed Noah by the arm and led him out of the kitchen and up the stairs to the bathroom.
Inside the bathroom, Noah stripped down to his boxer style underwear. InuYasha's eyes opened wide seeing Noah's chest. There were numerous scars from surgery on Noah's chest. Noah noticed this. "What?" Noah asked. "Your chest! What the hell happened to your chest?" InuYasha asked. Then it hit Noah. "OH! These!" Noah said, pointing to the scars. "It's a long story InuYasha-kun, but those are not combat wounds. In this time, doctors have the ability to put you to sleep, open you up and work on your insides, all while you're still alive. I've had that done to me a few times." InuYasha just continued staring blankly for a moment or so, then shook his head and started helping Noah get the clothes on. "Keh. Whatever, you can tell me all about 'em later." he said.
"You know InuYasha-kun, I wonder." Noah said.
"About what?" InuYasha asked.
"Does Kagome-chan wear old clothes like these in the Feudal Era? She apparently isn't going to change clothes."
"No. She wears that uniform of hers." InuYasha said as he helped Noah get the lower pants on and then the top kimono.
"Why?"
"Because it's what she was wearing when she fell down the well first time, and everybody's used to seeing her in them." InuYasha said as he helped Noah finish with the clothes.
"Hmm. No pockets that I'm used to with these. Let me get one more thing out of my room." Noah said as they exited the bathroom.
"What now?" InuYasha asked. Noah didn't respond, he ducked into his room, and returned wearing a G.I. utility belt with many small compartments on it. InuYasha looked at him a little strangely before they went back down stairs. Ayaka and Souta met them at the bottom.
"Noah-san, have you got everything?" Ayaka asked.
"I do. Everything I need is in the backpack, plus a couple more things in this belt." he replied. Souta sighed.
"Man I wish I could join you." he said.
"Listen kid, you have to prove to me that you can take care of yourself if you want to try and join us, and there ain't time for that right now. Let's get going already." InuYasha said. With that Noah got on his backpack and him, InuYasha, and Kagome made for the well house. Noah got on InuYasha's back when they got inside, and Kagome jumped in first, followed by Noah and InuYasha.
-
Miroku, Sango and Shippo were sitting close to the well, when they heard the telltale sound of the time warp, meaning InuYasha, Kagome, and the visitor from Kagome's time had arrived.
"They're here!" Shippo said excitedly. InuYasha then jumped out of the well, and everybody saw a very short haired, and strange faced youth with peculiar eyewear on InuYasha's back. He was wearing clothes like theirs, but wearing a huge backpack with a strange bow on top of it and was also wearing a strange belt. He got off of InuYasha's back, and InuYasha reached down and pulled Kagome up and out of the well. They noticed Kagome had a similar strange looking bow too that Noah had. Noah was looking at Sango, Miroku, and Shippo with keen interest, and they were looking at him.
"So, this is them?" Noah asked, Kagome.
"Yep! This is them! Noah-kun, meet Miroku, Sango, and Shippo. Shippo, Miroku, Sango, meet Noah-kun!" Kagome said excitedly. Noah walked up to each of them, and bowed.
"It's a pleasure to meet you. Kagome's told me a lot about all of you." Noah said, his Southern gentleman accent thickening up in his Japanese as he said it.
"Woah. Kagome, is this how most people dress in your era? Still a lot like how we dress?" Shippo asked. Kagome walked up to the little kit.
"No, not really. He's wearing clothes similar to yours to help make it easier on the village folk when they see him. Remember what Kaede said. Hardly anybody around here has really seen somebody from a completely different part of the world."
"Kaede's wisdom shows through again." Sango said. "What's with the strange bow Kagome? Noah's wearing one too."
"Sango, both Noah and I have bows made in my era now. The one Noah's wearing is his own that he brought with him to Japan. Mine's one Noah picked out for me that mom bought. These bows are easier to shoot and easier to be accurate with."
"Wow." Sango said, impressed. They then started off toward the village, Noah strolling beside Miroku. Shippo as a result jumped up onto Miroku's shoulder.
"Kagome tells me you're a servant of Buddha right?" Noah started.
"That I am. You follow Buddha as well?" Miroku asked.
"No, I'm of a different faith, one that hasn't even made it here yet according to the history books. From what Kagome's been telling me, you'd make a great person to have philosophical talks with." Noah replied. Shippo then spoke up.
"Why do yo talk so strange?" Shippo asked.
"Your language is not my mother tongue. I learned to talk in a different tongue and only recently learned this land's language. My accent has to do with the part of the world I'm from." Noah replied.
"You sure have mastered our language well." Sango commented.
"Say something in your mother tongue! I wanna hear it!" Shippo said excitedly.
"I can do better than that. I'll sing a song in it." Noah said. Everybody turned to him.
"Really?" Sango asked.
"Not again." InuYasha said.
"Yes. I can. I can also play a musical instrument too. One that's different from the one you saw, Kagome and InuYasha." Noah said as he opened a compartment on his belt and got out a harmonica. He blew into it a little. "Good, sounds okay."
"Hey, I think I recognize that sound. Sometimes visitors from the continent will bring a instrument that sounds somewhat like that." Miroku said.
"Wind reeds? Yeah, Miroku. This instrument is sort of a modern derivative of it." Noah said.
"Start singing already!" Shippo said. At that, Noah started adjusting his step to the tempo of the song he was going to play, a moderate, walking one, then started playing a 'boom-chicka'-type rhythm on the harmonica that in no time had Shippo tapping his hand along on Miroku's shoulder. Everybody else started to feel and get into the rhythm when Noah took the harmonica out of his mouth and started singing in English, switching back and forth from playing the rhythm more on the harmonica between the words in places:
I hear the train a comin'.
It's rollin' round the bend.
And I ain't seen the sunshine since
I don't know when.
I'm stuck in Folsom Prison.
And time keeps, draggin' on.
But that train keeps a rollin'
On down to San Antone.
When I was just a baby
My momma told me "Son,
always be a good boy.
Don't ever play with guns."
But I shot a man in Reno,
Just to watch him die.
When I hear that whistle blowin',
I hang my head and cry.
Noah then went to playing a solo on the harmonica for a few moments before he resumed his singing. Kagome was being moved by the words, since she could understand English.
I bet there's rich folks eatin'
In a fancy dining car.
They're probably drinking coffee.
And smoking big cigars.
But I know I had it coming.
I know I can't be free.
But those people keep a movin'.
And that's what tortures me.
He played one more solo before singing the last verses.
Well if they freed me from this prison
If that railroad train was mine.
I bet I'd move it on
A little farther down the line.
Far from Folsom Prison.
That's where I want to stay.
And I'd let that lonesome whistle,
Blow my blues away.
Noah finished the song by going back into the rhythm he'd been playing at the beginning of it. Everybody clapped when he finished. Especially Shippo.
"I love that! Noah-kun, could you teach me how to play that?" Shippo asked excitedly.
"I will later on. But here." Noah said as he pulled another harmonica out of another compartment on the belt and handed it to him.
"OH WOW!" Shippo said.
"Put it in your clothes for now. I'll start giving you lessons later." Noah said.
"Noah-kun, you're going to get along fine with everybody." Kagome said with a smile as they approached the outskirts of Kaede's village.
When they entered the village, the villagers immediately took notice of the new, foreign looking person with the already strange group. They all stared at Noah as they made their way to Kaede's hut. Along the way, they found the old miko helping to pull up weeds in a garden and they approached her. Kaede noticed them.
"Hmm, is this the foreigner you spoke of Kagome?" Kaede asked.
"He is, Kaede-obaachan. His name's Woods, Noah. Noah-kun, Kaede-obaachan." Kagome said. Kaede stood up, walked over and looked Noah over, noticing the bows on Kagome and Noah's backs. Noah bowed to her.
"An honor to meet you, Kaede-sama." Noah said.
"Hello Noah-san. I'm glad you put on the clothes I gave to Kagome-san. What's the strange devices on yours and Kagome's backs?" Kaede asked.
"These?" Noah asked as he reached around, undid, and removed the bow from it's spot on his backpack. "This is the modern-era version of the classic bow that's used for shooting arrows. It still works the same way as the ones of this time, but it's had modern technology applied to it. It's easier to aim with this, and Kagome's got one to help her get more accurate and better at archery faster." Kaede nodded. It was then the village headman walked up.
"Hyosuke-sama, what is it?" Kaede asked. Hyosuke looked at Noah for a moment.
"Is this youth here the strange one the villagers have been buzzing about?" he asked.
"He is." Kagome said. "He's a friend of ours. He's from a faraway land and is a foreigner."
"I see. What's his name?"
"Woods, Noah. At your service Hyosuke-sama." Noah said politely as he bowed. Hyosuke smiled.
"Well, Woods-san, if you're a friend of this group, then you're welcome here. In fact, it was you all I was looking for." Hyosuke said.
"What is it?" Miroku asked.
"I came to ask you all if you wouldn't mind staying here for the next few days instead of going back out on your quest immediately." Hyosuke said.
"And why would we do that?" InuYasha asked in wary tone, narrowing his eyes at Hyosuke.
"To protect the village. I just got some disturbing news from a messenger of one of our neighboring villages. It has me a little on edge."
"What did they say?" Noah asked.
"Three days ago, a village a couple days or so travel northwest, was raided and massacred. Most everybody, especially the women and children, were slaughtered in cold blood without mercy." A collective gasp went through everybody.
"Who did this?" Sango asked.
"That's the most disturbing part. The few villagers who managed to escape with their lives said a royal army, not a band of brigands, was who did it. And here's the strange thing. The army was carrying the colors of the region's own daimyo!" Hyosuke was now shaking.
"So you're saying a daimyo attacked and savaged a village of his own peasants? This is troubling. Why would he do that?" Miroku asked.
"Obviously because the bastard wanted to eliminate somebody who was planning a rebellion against him. What's this matter to us? Are you saying your afraid of something like that happening here? I doubt it. This wacko doesn't have a stake here." InuYasha said.
"The thing is the witnesses say the soldiers' eyes were glowing red with pure bloodlust, like they were possessed, and afterwards, there was a message left on the burned out remnants of the headman's hut. It read: 'This is just the beginning! Peasants everywhere, prepare. ALL weak, innocent peasants, ALL women, ALL children of ALL regions of the land shall now be crushed by the mighty hand of Takkan!! May ALL innocent peasants now be sacrificed in blood to Takkan!!' Takkan is known as one of the most cruel daimyo's in the land, and apparently he's now completely lost it. I'm afraid he's now going to try and make it here eventually." Hyosuke said, trembling.
"We shall stay here then, and see what happens. Hopefully, the other daimyos in the area are mobilizing their armies to stop this." Miroku said.
"Indeed, they are. In fact, the messenger said, he was on his way to visit Sachi-sama, the daimyo over this village, as we speak. He said all the local daimyos who've heard of this are going to enter into a temporary pact to protect each other's villages from this madness, and work together to stop Takkan's forces." Hyosuke continued.
"Why do we have to be here then if the local lord's gonna be sending some of his own guys here already?" InuYasha asked.
"Because I have a suspicion that there might possibly be a powerful youkai or oni of some kind truly be behind this, since the eyewitnesses said the soldiers' eyes were glowing like an oni's."
-
It was later, and everybody had sat down in Kaede's hut and Kaede and Kagome were now cooking supper for everybody. Noah sat down by InuYasha and Miroku, opened his backpack, and pulled out a Bible. InuYasha and Miroku looked keenly at it, as did everybody else.
"What's that?" Miroku asked.
"The holy book of my fait, written in my native tongue, so unfortunately you and InuYasha wouldn't be able to understand it." Noah said, handing the Bible to Miroku.
"You're right, these characters are completely foreign." Miroku said, flipping through the pages. InuYasha briefly looked in it.
"Bah. It may as well be a bunch of cat scratches to me." he said. Noah took the Bible back from Miroku, flipped to a certain page, and read a few passages. He then closed the book, and closed his eyes thoughtfully for a few moments. He then said a prayer in his native English.
"You try to be a true practitioner of your faith?" Kaede asked over at him.
"I try to be. But as Miroku probably knows, it can be difficult at times." Noah replied. He then put the Bible back in the backpack, and pulled the sheathed Ka-Bar knife out of his belt, and reached over and picked up one of the wooden arrows that him and Kagome were sharing. He now proceeded to carve a notch into the backend of it.
"What's the meaning of your name?" Sango asked.
"It means 'peace' in a language I do not know. I was named after one of the people mentioned in the holy book."
"You're saying there was a man named Noah in that book?" Miroku asked.
"Yes, I can tell you all the story of him." Noah said.
"Tell it! Tell it!" Shippo said.
"Okay. Well, first off let me say that my religion is centered on a belief in one true God who created everything, or is monotheistic. Let me just that get that out of the way. This story is from that perspective of belief. Am I clear on that?" Noah asked.
"Sounds very, very, strange, but go on." Sango said.
"Okay." Noah said. He then proceeded to tell them all the story of Noah's Ark as he continued carving the notch into the arrow. "First, let me lay some groundwork about this story so you'll understand it better. According to my beliefs and faith, after God created the world and everything else, he then created the first man and woman." He stopped and looked to see if everybody was listening. Everybody was, including Kaede. He continued. "The man's name was Adam, and the woman's name was Eve. Adam and Eve committed the first sin in the world when they ate the forbidden fruit of a tree in the garden of Eden, the paradise on Earth, the world, that God had created specifically for Adam and Eve."
"What sort of fruit was on this forbidden tree?" Miroku asked.
"The tree was called the Tree of Knowledge. God had specifically instructed Adam and Eve not to eat from that tree, for their own good, saying they would die if they ate from it. Adam and Eve were tempted however because the Evil One, the source of all evil, had taken the form of a serpent and deceived Eve into trying the fruit, saying that she would gain the knowledge of God and become more like God if she ate it, and she fell for it. She then managed to get Adam to eat some of it too." Noah said.
"So according to your beliefs, the Evil One was in existence even before the world began?" Kaede asked.
"Yes, he was. But how the Evil One came to be is a different story for a different time." Noah replied.
"This Eve was incredibly stupid then, to let herself get tricked like that." InuYasha interrupted. Noah looked at him sternly, and Kagome saw his gaze.
"Osuwari." she said. WHAM "Don't make smart alecky remarks, InuYasha. Noah-kun, please continue." Kagome said.
"Anyway, the only thing that came about from Adam and Eve eating from the Tree of Knowledge is that man learned the ways of both Good and Evil, and over time after that, the descendants of Adam and Eve chose the ways of Evil more and more over the ways of Good, until finally God had seen enough of it, about the time of Noah."
"So now we getting into the real story of Noah?" Shippo asked.
"Yes, we are now. By the time of Noah, man had become so corrupted that the entire world had become filled with nothing but violence, sin, and wrongdoing. No person was following the ways of holiness and righteousness. No person that is, accept for Noah and his family and household. God in the meantime now felt extremely sorry and grieved for creating man and the things of flesh in the world because of all the wickedness and evil that was in the world. He decided to start completely over with His Creation, to wipe the slate clean and start anew. He would first destroy all that He had made so diligently, man especially, and start all over."
"Wait, what you're saying is that he was going to destroy Noah too, along with those who deserved it?" Shippo asked.
"I'm getting to that. God saw that Noah and his household were the only ones left in the world who were not evil and corrupt, and so He decided he would spare them, but still kill off every other person in the world, since every other human being in the world besides Noah and his family were utterly corrupt, evil, and deserving of it."
"How was he going to do that? Destroy the world and spare Noah and his family?" Kagome asked.
"That's when the ark comes in. God had decided to destroy the world by bringing a flood that would completely cover the entire world. He would cause it to rain, rain, and continue to rain until no dry land remained, only an endless ocean. That would drown all of the evil persons in the world while still facilitating the survival of Noah and his family."
"How did God facilitate that?" Sango now asked.
"God started talking to Noah, and He instructed Noah to build a giant, massively huge ark out of wood. He instructed that when the ark was finished, Noah was to take a male and a female of every bird, animal, and other living creature into the ark with him and his family, and they would ride out the Great Flood in the ark. God also instructed Noah to take into the ark all the food needed for every animal and him and his family to survive for a long period of time. God provided Noah with the plans and instructions on how to build the ark, but it was up to Noah and his family to build it, gather the food needed, and gather the animals that would ride out the flood with him and his entire family and household."
"This was truly a great undertaking. And Noah and his family did all of this? This building of this ark?" Kaede asked.
"That they did. No other person would help them out, because they were evil. Every other person thought instead that Noah and his family were making fools of themselves. But God's Word came to pass. After Noah and his family had shut themselves up in the ark with two, and sometimes seven, of every animal, bird, and creature in the world, it started to rain. And I mean really, really rain! It rained for forty days and forty nights, the rain falling in torrents that were never before seen and have never been seen since. It rained so much that all the mountains were even covered with water, and the ark that Noah, his family, and the animals were in, floated upon that water." Noah said.
"How many days were the waters on the Earth?" Miroku asked.
"A hundred and fifty days. Then God started to make the waters recede until the ark rested on the top of a mountain. Noah opened the window the ark had, and sent out some doves to see if they could find solid ground. At first, they didn't find solid ground and kept returning to him, but after a few more days, they finally did, and never returned to him. Noah then opened the ark up, and he and his household, and all the animals he had taken with him, left the ark and began to repopulate the Earth. Meanwhile, God, after seeing all the good that Noah had done, decided he would never again destroy everything as he had done, and would not flood the earth ever again."
"Wow!" Shippo said. "What a great story!"
"All way over my head. My head's spinning." InuYasha said.
"Pretty interesting view of things you have, Noah." Miroku said.
"Vastly different from what you're used to, yes, but as Kagome has said, I come from a completely different part of the world." Noah said as he looked at the end of the arrow he had been carving. "Well, I think this arrow's ready to try on my bow tomorrow." he said.