The Sky Opens Up, Things Doth Die

by Shadow Master

(BtVS/Utawarerumono/Rurouni Kenshin/Other Demi-human Sources) Evil is Cunning. It is ambitious and it absolutely will not stop until it is victorious. Good thing some people don't care much about the odds right?

2. Change isn't always a good thing

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and/or associated companies. I make no profit from this whatsoever and I have no intention of changing this at any point in the future. I write because it's fun and because there are those who enjoy reading my stories. Therefore I would greatly appreciate it if no legal action were taken against me. I can assure you that my total net worth wouldn't cover even half of your legal fees.

Xander's POV

Uhhhh… gotta remember to shut the window, he thought as a breeze disturbed his slumber.

Reaching for his bedcovers, he pulled them tighter around him to maintain the comfortable warmth that allowed him to slumber peacefully. However when he grasped them he immediately noticed that they didn't feel like the ones he slept in night after night. Indeed the texture and consistency didn't match. This wrinkle in what his mind registered as normal tugged him further from his slumber and after that it all went downhill since his mind had come too far to retreat to the peace that sleep provided.

Opening his eyes, he let them wander and take everything in, the list of inconsistencies with what he remembered of the room where he usually fell asleep continued to grow bigger. From what he could tell he was in a simple one room house built in a manner that did not belong anywhere in the United States. For one there was no drywall and for another he couldn't see anything that required plugging into, though there were some things that he figured had to be battery powered. When you added in various other implements that looked like they'd been made before consumerism created a market where nothing was intended to last, home this was not.

"What the…" he muttered as he pushed himself into a sitting position.

Now that his head was off the ground he could see more and the interior of the house that he was in looked rather banged up like it'd been through an earthquake. There were cracks everywhere and a pile of broken pottery in the corner, all of which indicated that the quake had happened recently, perhaps even within the last day or two. When he looked down he saw the simple sheets that'd prodded him back to the waking world but it was when he took in his clothes that a metaphorical lightning bolt crackled through his brain, triggering recollection.

The infiltration of the Crawford street mansion, freeing Giles from his bonds and the dark energy that'd been scary enough to cause his hyena echo to streak to the deepest part of his mind and hide. He didn't remember really what happened after that or how he got to where he was but now that he was up, he needed to get some answers so he could get back to Sunnydale. Whatever the energy had been, it was trouble with a capital T and the gang would need to come together like never before to find a way to protect the world from it.

Tossing the covers he'd been under aside he got to his feet before heading for the door, hoping that there was someone outside who could explain where he was. Once he passed through the door, though, he had to wonder at the upheaval he could see because, unlike the usual forest landscape he'd seen when he'd gone camping with Jesse, this one was a mess. Trees had either fallen completely over, were leaning in one direction or another or had the ground beneath them elevated a few feet, leaving a very uneven landscape. It definitely didn't remind him of any place he'd been in or around Sunnydale, so it left him wondering just where he'd been sent by the dark energy.

He was about to turn his head to look for a person or even a road to a city when out of nowhere he sensed danger akin to when Larry was about to cheap shot him or some demon appeared out of nowhere and attacked him in the same move. He knew he hadn't seen any danger coming from directly in front of him so that left the sides or behind, so in an effort to evade the attack he dove forward into a roll. As soon as his feet were under him again he whirled around, intent on finding out what had tried to attack him. However before his eyes could settle on the area around where he'd been something compact slammed into him, forcing the air from his lungs and rendering his entire body numb. As a result he fell to the ground in a heap as his brain tried to force his lungs to work like they were supposed to. It was as he did this that he heard the sound of footsteps walking away from him for a few steps before stopping.

"You sensed my intent to strike and evaded my initial strike but you foolishly thought that six or seven feet was far enough away to be safe," a man's voice said, sounding like a gray haired soldier's but possessing strength associated with someone in his prime. "Also, rolling away like that leaves you vulnerable. You should never do it before first doing something to distract your opponent with so you gain the time needed to raise your guard successfully. Not as inept as my last student but that's not saying much."

Turning his gaze towards the voice, he beheld a man who looked to be in his early sixties dressed in black pants, a short sleeved blue shirt and old fashioned boots that looked like they belonged in a museum. With hair that went a little past the shoulders and was tied into a ponytail with a ragged piece of leather, the man looked like someone who'd turned his back on the modern world. It aroused his curiosity towards learning why the man had done so but he pushed the idea of inquiring aside since he figured that it was none of his business.

"Um… thanks? Who are you anyway and where am I?" he asked, figuring moving things along was the smartest move.

"My name is Hiko Seijūrō and you are about two hours walk from the outskirts of Kyoto," Seijuro replied, half turned towards him with evaluating almost black brown eyes.

"Kyoto! But that's in Japan!" he exclaimed in shock at being on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

"Yes it is. So?" Seijuro asked as though it was a common thing to travel between countries while unconscious.

"Well last time I was awake I was in Sunnydale, California, in America. I don't remember buying a plane ticket, much less getting here," he replied, still trying to reconcile such a drastic shift in locations.

"You wouldn't have with Janus being behind your travel arrangements," Seijuro said, sounding like he still didn't know what there was to get excited about.

Janus? Wasn't that the god that Giles said powered the Halloween spell? he thought as the bell of familiarity went off in his head. But it can't be THE Janus. Must be someone using the same name.

"So this guy Janus picked me up off the ground, tossed me on a plane and brought me here… why?" he asked, hoping to figure out what was going on so he could figure out what to do next.

Seijuro just shook his head in disappointment, as though he'd just failed some test that'd been placed before him.

"Because the world has changed and he has asked me to make you strong enough to survive it," Seijuro replied, turning to face him more fully. "Getting me to travel to your hometown would've taken too long since my passport expired a long time ago, along with the rest of my government paperwork. It was probably more efficient in Janus' mind to simply bring you to me."

"What do you mean the world's changed?" he asked casually as he covertly glanced about.

Had Buffy failed to stop Acathla from opening his big mouth? No. If that were the case they'd all be in hell and he definitely didn't consider the landscape around him to be hell. That weird energy, maybe? If it'd somehow pulled a global switcheroo with every human on the planet then that'd certainly cause quite a bit of confusion, but any 'change' would be temporary. With things like money transfers and embassies of every country in almost all of the countries on the planet returning home should be easy.

"I do not know the details, merely the broad strokes," Seijuro replied as he reached into his pant pocket to retrieve a scroll. "An evil ki whose origin I do not know swept over the planet and sought to take it somewhere else. The aftermath of that chaos is what you see around you."

"Bullshit! Nothing can move an entire PLANET!" he exclaimed, unwilling to believe what he'd been told. "I don't care how badass a demon is or how hopped up on the dark mojo someone is, NO WAY can they do something like that!"

It just wasn't possible!

He might not be a bookworm like Giles with entire encyclopedias worth of supernatural facts in his head but he knew that if anyone had that kind of power they would've conquered or destroyed the world long before. Even badass vamps with reps like The Master, Spike or Angelus weren't strong enough to affect something bigger than a city on their own. Only by tapping into monsters like The Judge or Acathla could they reach many times further to fulfill their evil dreams. He was pretty sure that if there was any mojo, demon or prophecy connected to stealing an entire planet, the Watcher's Council would've done something about it decades ago. Either sealed it away or vanquished it so that the Earth could remain safe. No way could so gigantic a threat pop up out of nowhere without anyone being the wiser.

"Ordinarily I'd agree with you but only a fool denies the truth when it stares him in the face," Seijuro said with a pinch of understanding. "I've lived in this forest for over fifteen years so I know it well. I cannot call what it is anything other than changed. The odds of only this forest being altered are small, wouldn't you say?"

He couldn't argue with that last bit.

He remembered Giles mentioning how affecting a large area required vast amounts of magic since not only did you have to force objects out of their natural form but ensure that they would stay that way. Those who could do the first but not the last were required to provide a constant flow of energy to keep the area they altered from slipping back to its natural state. However even those capable of doing both almost never possessed the internal power needed and often looked to outside sources to make up for what they lacked. Living sacrifices, artifacts that'd absorbed a great deal of power over time, deities who might be interested, and sometimes the energy of the planet itself. When he'd asked the Watcher what was the most impressive example he'd heard of the man had mentioned a sorcerer from the thirteenth century who'd used rain to not only spy on the people of a small country but also conquer it. He'd scoffed at the idea of rain doing such a thing but G-Man had said each drop of rain had been connected to the sorcerer both in terms of his senses as well as his spirit. Therefore it was simple to use the fragments of water to drown someone or by turning it into ice, make it into a barrage of sharp arrowheads capable of piercing wood.

In the end though the sorcerer overestimated his capabilities and killed himself by draining every drop of his magic in order to defeat a champion that'd come to defeat him.

So the very idea that anyone could alter an entire planet was ridiculous but at the same time he couldn't think of anyone who'd want to turn a forest into what this one looked like at the moment. The only thing that made sense was that the forest got hit as collateral damage alongside the real target.

Whatever! Whatever some dipshit sorcerer wants to do here in Japan has nothing to do with me, he thought, mentally shaking his head to shake free the meaningless thoughts. I'm sidekick material, not a hero. Japan's probably got plenty of champions who could handle this better than me.

If there was one thing he'd learned after so many patrols with Buffy it was that, as determined as he was to fight against the forces of darkness, he just didn't have what it took to fight them on even ground. The best he could manage was to keep them busy until Buffy could swoop in to kick their butts. Sure, he might get lucky a few times but that was only because the vamps underestimated him or the demons were so stupid they fell for idiotic tricks like the 'what the hell is that?' trick. The few times he'd actually tried to attack an enemy that had a decent brain in their heads and the common sense not to underestimate a foe he'd gotten his ass kicked.

He knew his place was to be a member of the support team, backing up the real hero however he could.

"Sorry your forest got trashed but it's got nothing to do with me," he said as he looked about, trying to figure out the right direction to walk in. "Just point me in the direction of Kyoto. I've got friends that're probably worried sick 'cause they don't know where I am and, as much of a hellhole as it is, Sunnydale's still my home."

"And just how do you plan on getting home, assuming you manage to get to Kyoto?" Seijuro asked with some condescension. "Swim?"

"Nope. I'll do a collect call to a friend of mine and ask for a loan to get a plane ride home," he replied with a shake of his head. "I'll probably wind up having to work it off for a couple of years but I can handle it."

For a moment it looked as though Seijuro would refuse to give him the information but with a single blink the man's expression changed minutely.

"Kyoto can be found in that direction," Seijuro said, pointing off to the right. "Continue in that direction for two hours or so. Be warned, though, that the woods can be dangerous for a city boy. Keep your wits about you."

With that the old man turned away from him to enter into his home, apparently deciding to ignore him from that point forward. A little on the rude side but he could tell that Seijuro wasn't a people person so it wasn't much of a surprise.

Well I better get going, he thought as he began to walk in the direction the old man had pointed in. It might be midday but if I drag my feet too much, I won't get to Kyoto before sunset.

Wandering around the woods after dark was not something he wanted to deal with.

A Short While Later

Xander's POV

Man! What the hell happened here? he thought as he climbed over a fallen tree to keep taking the most direct route to Kyoto.

It'd been an hour since he'd left Seijuro's little hut in the middle of nowhere and since then he'd seen such signs of upheaval in the land that were too random to have been planned by anyone. More than that, he hadn't seen anything bigger than a squirrel or sparrow. He'd heard how certain animals could sense that an earthquake was going to happen soon and evacuated the area in order to get to safety. If that was true then that could explain why he'd seen so few critters about.

Not that he was complaining, of course.

He didn't have a single weapon on him, so if wolves or some other predator decided he'd make a good meal his only means of survival would be in the hope that he'd manage to outrun them.

Then again maybe he was giving the TV shows and movies he'd seen of the wild too much credit. Sure, in just about every episode or movie he'd watched involving the woods the main characters almost always ran into some dangerous animal but that was mostly just scripted to keep the audience entertained. He was sure that in reality running into a dangerous animal was more random in nature with the type you ran into being equally up to chance. So long as he kept his eyes as well as his ears open, he was confident that he could sense danger coming far enough in advance to avoid it.

Reaching the top of a particularly rocky hill, he saw through the clearing in the trees, giving him the first real look at his destination that he'd had so far. He'd seen the occasional cityscape of Kyoto in a few martial arts action movies so, while the angle was different, he immediately began to match what he was seeing now to the scenes in the movies.

What the…?

He'd been prepared to see some differences; if not due to Hollywood tinkering then to the angle he was currently viewing it from, but… not this much. He could see holes in some of the buildings while others had quite obviously been broken in half, with plumes of smoke rising up into the air until the breeze caused them to disperse. He didn't know how long ago the quake must've hit the area but surely it would've been in enough time for the local emergency services to jump into action. He should have been seeing helicopters flying over the city and even from this distance the sound of sirens should be audible.

Yet nothing manmade flew in the air and neither did he hear any sirens, indicating that ambulances or police cars were racing about trying to save lives.

Concerned that the situation might be a little more serious than he'd previously thought, he picked up the pace worried that lives could very well be in the balance.

However he was in such a rush that he didn't mind his footing as well as he should've, causing his right foot to slip on some branches that'd fallen to ground. Not being prepared he could not stop himself from tumbling down the side of the embankment in front of him, rocks as well as branches pricking his back with their sharpness. By the time he reached the bottom he was pretty sure some of the scrapes he'd accrued were bleeding but not enough to make him think he'd need bandages. Wincing with the little bit of pain, he made a mental note to be more careful from there on out since he had no desire to fall off a cliff or onto some sharp broken branches, getting himself impaled in the process.

"Rrrrr…"

A sound that most definitely wasn't human reached his ears and, from what he could tell, it wasn't as far away as he would've preferred it to be. Turning his head towards the source, he prayed that he'd just stumbled upon wild dog's lair and that a little growling of his own would scare it off but sadly he wasn't so fortunate. Instead of a wild dog being the source of the primal noise, he was greeted with the sight of what had to be the BIGGEST black bear on record. Getting up onto its four paws it must've been over five feet in height and its claws looked like they belonged to the comic book character Wolverine. The bone claws were certainly longer than any he'd seen on a bear, either on TV or in the movies, but he could not doubt what his sense of sight was telling him. As it turned his eyes towards him he tried to remember anything and everything he'd ever heard about the right way to survive an encounter with a bear.

Most of the tactics he'd heard focused on either playing dead until the bear lost interest or to take off articles of clothing and drop them on the ground in order to provoke their desire to smell things, since it'd buy time for you to get away. He'd also heard that fighting back with kicks and swats were known to be effective but he didn't think he had the courage to get that close to something as big as the bear was.

Deciding that escape was the best option he took off his Hawaiian shirt he dropped it on the ground before backing slowly away from the bear that seemed content to just look at him for the time being. Taking off his T-shirt next he threw it in the opposite direction he planned on going on, hoping that he if managed to direct the animal's line of sight elsewhere he could make a break for it losing it to the trees before it could follow. Backing away little by little, he watched as the big bear did what he hoped and plodded over to his Hawaiian shirt, sniffing it once it arrived. Naked from the chest up he waited for the bear to go over to his T-shirt and could be sure that it was looking away from him so he could make his getaway. It seemed to take forever but eventually the beast did what it was supposed to do and, when his courage reached as high as it was likely to get, he bolted back the way he'd come.

Here's hoping that that Seijuro guy has a rifle or something! he thought as he put his strong legs to good use. Knowing my luck, the bear's got a stubborn personality to make Willow's resolve face pale in comparison.

Picking a route that would slow him down the least while at the same time get him back to Hiko's house, he did his best to remember the proper way to breath when running. The last thing he needed was to run out of steam sooner rather than later with a mountain of furry muscle coming at him from the rear. It was about a minute into his sprint that he heard the sound of something moving behind him and, when he glanced over his shoulder, he cursed when he saw that it was indeed the bear. He'd been hoping that it'd be so interested in his clothes that, by the time that it clued into the fact that he was gone, that he'd be too far away to be worth pursuing.

Putting a little more speed into his sprint he straightened his path since going to the right or left just allowed the bear a chance to catch up. Hurdling over fallen trees or, when there was room, sliding under them, he did everything he could to get away but his ears told him that the beast was getting closer.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!" he cursed as he ran, wondering what the hell he'd done in a past life to deserve this.

Before long his emotions snapped his resolve to flee since it was looking less and less like he'd manage to get back to Seijuro's shack in time to do anything more than show the old man what it looks like to get mauled to death by a bear. He might want to live but he'd be damned if he dragged anyone else down with him just on the off chance that it'd save his own skin. Looking ahead he spotted a branch thick enough that it might do some damage so, when he passed it, he scooped it up before turning to face the bear. He had no idea how far he'd get with this dumbass idea but he hoped that at the very least that he'd give the hairball one helluva scar so people would know it'd been in a fight with a badass.

The bear slowed as it realized that he wasn't going to be running any further but the question of what it intended to do now that it'd caught up with him was unanswered. Had it chased him merely because he ran or did it see him as something delicious looking enough to pursue?

The bear roared at him before rising up on its hind legs, giving him his answer.

"You want some?! COME GET SOME!" he yelled back, bringing his improvised weapon up, determined to get at least one good swing in before he died.

With its massive right paw it swung at him but, thanks to his time fighting vampires he was no stranger to being up against people with superhuman speed. He managed to duck under the swing and immediately swung the branch in his hands to take advantage of the opening presented to him. Unfortunately it'd been a spur of the moment decision and less than half of his usual speed and strength were put into the blow, so while it succeeded in making contact he doubted the hairball had felt much. Seeing the paw coming back his way he hopped back a couple of feet in order to evade it but had only a moment's pause before the left paw was sent, causing him to roll under it.

This fortunately put him to the side of the bear and, unlike before, he was more ready to make a move; he charged forward and, with a homerun swing, slammed the tree branch into the side of the bear. This actually caused the beast to take a few steps to the side but he was pretty sure that it was more due to surprise than any actual damage he'd managed to inflict. Watching it go back down to all fours so it could turn more fully to face him he decided to go for a twofer and charged forward to nail a headshot, but sadly Lady Luck wound up getting insulted that he was getting greedy.

Just as he got to within swing range of the bear it lashed out with its paw faster than before, barely giving him any time to bring up the tree branch to try and block the blow.

As it was the tree branch was probably the one thing that saved his life, even though he couldn't think the thought, seeing as he was flying through the air shaken up both mentally as well as physically. Even the times he'd been tagged by vamps didn't compare to being hit by the bear and, when he hit the ground, he could immediately tell that if his right arm wasn't cleanly broken, it was definitely cracked. Still he supposed he should count his blessings since he'd heard of some cases where people had been killed with a single blow by a bear.

Pushing himself off the ground, he looked back the way he came and was dismayed at the sight of his improvised weapon broken beyond repair. Still, considering the fact that it could've been worse, he counted his blessings. Seeing the bear lumber towards him to finish the job, he worked to get back to his feet in order to give running another try. With only one arm to work with there was no chance of him being able to swing anything hard enough to do the furball any damage. Sure, he could try throwing things but there was a reason he sucked at dodge ball during gym and it wasn't just the dodging part.

Sadly as he put his left foot down a spike of pain arced up the leg, informing him that somehow during his tumble he'd also injured his leg, making running impossible. Speed walking? Maybe. Running? NOT a chance in HELL!

Guess this is where I cash my chips in, he thought with sad acceptance. Hopefully nobody ever finds out about this, 'cause not only would it devastate Buffy and Willow but it'd be embarrassing to be known as the guy who died a virgin.

Turning to face the approaching bear fully, he looked it right in the eyes, determined not to show fear, not to turn into a whiny bitch in his last moments, so he could at least say he died like a man. The bear seemed to take that as a challenge and, once it was two or so feet in front of him, it rose up on its hind legs once more, determined to look as ferocious and terrifying as possible.

"I hope I give you a stomach ache that'll stick around ALL WEEK!" he growled at the bear, not backing down even though a part of him wanted to.

With that the bear gave one final roar before raising its massive paw to strike him…

"Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū: Ryūtsuisen!" a voice declared before, in the blink of an eye, the bear went from being whole to being half the beast it used to be.

From its right shoulder all the way to the inside of its right leg the flesh parted, causing the two halves to fall apart even as the bear's blood sprayed about, sprinkling it on everything nearby. His time assisting with the Slayage had pretty much desensitized him to getting blood on himself and, to be honest, bear blood wasn't as bad as some of the demon gunk he'd had trouble washing off. As for the bisected bear he'd seen demon guts, so while a little worse than the frog in biology class, as long as he didn't have to search for something in it he was fine.

Looking behind the dead bear, he was a little surprised and a lot grateful to see Seijuro standing there with what looked like a katana concealed inside a wooden sheath. Indeed, if it'd been sheathed, he probably would've mistaken it for a walking stick or one of those wooden practice swords Giles had Buffy use from time to time.

"Well, I don't know whether to compliment you or criticize the bear," Seijuro said as he flicked his sword to get rid of most of the blood before sliding the katana back into its sheath. "Still, you're alive and in one piece, so I suppose that's something. Now let's get you back to my place so I can tend to your wounds."

Guess the guy's not too bad, he thought as Hiko got under his good arm in order to help him walk. Just has some rough edges.

"Thanks," he said, thinking it was the least he could do.

"Don't. If you died out here your corpse would attract predators and scavengers, making problems for me," Seijuro said dismissively at the idea of him doing a good deed. "It'd stink up the area, too."

THAT comment had him rescinding the 'not too bad' compliment and replacing it with 'tolerable jackass', but hopefully he wouldn't have to put up with it for too long. Just long enough to heal up and then he could make another go for Kyoto.

He was still puzzled by the damage done to the buildings and the lack of search and rescue aircraft that should've been buzzing all over the city.

What could've happened?

Hiko's POV

He's not human. Not anymore, he thought as he watched the boy eat his evening meal.

He'd suspected that something was up when Janus' scroll had implied that Harris would be suitable for being instructed in the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū style of kenjutsu. While the boy certainly appeared to be stronger in appearance than Kenshin ever had, there had still been some doubt as to whether or not he'd be able to safely use it. So when the young man had insisted on making it to civilization he'd decided to take it as an opportunity to see what he had to work with. Unlike the boy he knew that this would not be a peaceful stroll through the woods, not after the dark ki had passed through, so he'd followed at a distance to see what happened.

It'd been uneventful right up to the point where the young man had gotten his first clear view of Kyoto, something he'd managed during the lad's initial unconsciousness upon arrival, and from there it got exciting in a hurry. The bear that Xander had stumbled upon was not an ordinary bear since just about everything about it was almost double what he'd seen in bears before the dark ki changed everything. Like your typical city kid Harris had tried to distract the bear with his clothes but little did the boy realize that the sound of running prey was more interesting than smelly shirts.

Still, it'd allowed him to see what Harris had in terms of stamina and leg strength.

What he'd seen hadn't been so good that he'd let the boy off easy with his body conditioning but at least it meant that it'd be shorter than it otherwise would have been.

When the boy had finally gotten tired of running, a smart move since wasting all your energy would've left him vulnerable, he'd gotten a chance to see Harris' fighting potential. He'd seen signs that the young man had experience fighting opponents that were faster than he was in how he dodged the bear's swipes. There'd also been a measure of strategy to attack immediately after a swipe went by but there'd also been large signs of inexperience, leading him to believe that the boy had been backup more than the lead fighter. When Harris had barely gotten his weapon up in time to take the brunt of the bear's final strike, he'd known that it was time to step in before something permanent happened.

Still, based on what he'd seen and what his examination of the wounds had revealed, he could safely say that Alexander Harris was not a human being, assuming he'd ever been one to begin with. The speed, the reflexes, the strength and the fact that a blow that should've killed Harris had only resulted in a minor crack in his right humerus implied above human durability. There were no obvious physical signs of nonhuman qualities that he'd been able to see but, assuming that they'd been artificially inserted, it was possible that they'd develop more over time.

Or develop all at once if the young man was put into a life threatening situation at some point in the future.

"Your arm will probably take the better part of three weeks to heal but luckily you just sprained your leg and that'll heal up sooner," he said as he began to peck at his meal with his fork. "Do you still want to try for Kyoto?"

"Not without a real weapon or you as an escort," Alexander replied with a shake of his head. "If there're more of those bears out there, I'd have to have a death wish to go anywhere without one or the other."

Capable of learning from his mistakes. Good, he thought as he swallowed another mouthful of food. "Then we'll set out tomorrow. I've been meaning to make a supply run and now's as good a time as ever."

The truth of the matter was that, like Alexander, he was curious about the state of the city after the alterations the planet had undergone. His radio, the one connection he had to the rest of the world, had remained intact after the ki wave hit but it hadn't picked up anything but static. That was odd because, while not the most powerful radio, it'd been good enough to pick up most of the local radio stations with enough clarity for him to listen to. Even if the civilian run stations had been rendered unable to broadcast, Japan's emergency services would've used radio transmissions to inform the populace of places of safety as well as where emergency supplies could be found. Either emergency services hadn't yet gotten to the city, unlikely given its importance and population, or something had made all radio communication impossible.

As much as he preferred to avoid the troubles of the world, since they never seemed to get any fewer no matter what you did, he didn't like the idea of being blindsided either. Problems in the city tended to spill over into the countryside either because innocents were fleeing trouble or because trouble got greedy enough to look for new prey. He wanted to learn more before he decided if it'd be smarter to relocate to someplace further away from Kyoto or, if it'd be okay, to stay put. Plus he imagined that seeing the city would help convince the boy of Janus' story, making it that much easier to begin the young man's instruction once his injuries healed.

"Why do you live out here anyway?" Alexander asked with innocent curiosity. "I mean, sure, the country air is fresh and there's probably enough game in the woods to keep you fed but…"

Apparently the boy liked asking the personal questions like most would ask about the weather.

"I'm under no obligation to tell you anything about my past but suffice it to say I got tired of seeing mankind repeat the same mistakes over and over again," he replied, not seeing the point of going into details. "I tried to change things when I was younger but the mistakes just kept on happening. So I decided to find someplace where I wouldn't have to deal with them anymore. If I'd known of an isolated island that wasn't inhabited, I would've gone there."

"A bit pessimistic but I guess that makes sense," Alexander said with a shrug but a hint of opposition dusting the top of each word.

"You disagree?" he asked, wondering if all teenagers were as foolish as Kenshin had been back during the Bakumatsu.

"I just think that you're selling people short. Sure, some things take longer to learn than most but it can be done. I mean, we went from living in caves and wearing animal skin underwear to huge cities and putting people on the moon," Alexander replied casually as he finished his meal. "I mean, no one'll see the changes in their lifetimes but that doesn't mean they won't happen. Too many people want to see everything fixed while they're still alive. Some things take time to happen. Lifetimes even."

An odd contradiction between idealist and realist. Interesting, he thought without giving away what he was thinking.

At the same time there was logic to the young man's thinking that he could appreciate. It was true that most people weren't willing to just be another step in the process of societal or political change. They had to be the one responsible for it all, or at least get some time to bask in the glory of their great triumph. While he was still skeptical about whether or not the human race would ever outgrow its lesser tendencies, he'd seen stranger things happen, so it wasn't completely impossible. Nevertheless, even with the extended lifespan Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū gave its users, he was sure he wouldn't live long enough to see himself proven wrong. If he waited for old age to do him in he probably had another fifty years left in him but that wasn't how he preferred to leave this world. If it hadn't been for his former idiot student's refusal to take a life, it would've ended decades ago after Kenshin successfully executed the Amakakeru Ryū no Hirameki.

Now… assuming Alexander agreed to be taught… now he had a chance to die as a master of Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū should.

He hoped that it would happen that way rather than lose himself day by day.

So long as he didn't let the fool run off to get traumatized into using only nonviolent means and he made it clear that it was the end he wanted, he felt the boy should comply.

"Perhaps. Most, though, don't have the strength of spirit to experience all the troubles firsthand and be content with 'one day' it all being over," he said as he began to pick up the empty dishes. "For most the pain becomes so great that they are pushed to make it happen sooner rather than later."

"Then it's up to the people who do have the strength to keep the other ones from doing anything stupid," Harris said, leaning back with a wince with the movement of his injured arm.

"And you think you know what's stupid?" he asked, believing that 'stupid' was relative to the point of view of each person.

"I think there're some definitions of stupid that everyone can agree on," Harris replied, looking quite certain of his words. "Letting yourself get so hot under the collar that you do stuff without realizing that you're hurting innocent people is pretty stupid. Putting your goal above the people it was supposed to help is stupid. It's one thing if they all give you permission beforehand but just doing it without talking it over with anyone is wrong."

"So you think getting permission makes it okay for innocent people to die as a result of your actions?" he asked, doing nothing to convey how important the answer would be.

"No… but I think that there're times when there'll be no other way. If all the bad guys have to do to keep you from changing things is put a blade to the throat of innocent people, then things'd never get better," Alexander replied, looking like he was thinking it through. "Only thing you can do is make it so that, after you get to where you need to go, you make sure to take responsibility for the bad stuff as well as the good."

"A good answer. Definitely better than most people looking to change the world," he said, mentally giving the kid a partial passing grade.

Unlike most people who thought that the ends would justify whatever means they used no matter what they were, the young man in front of him knew that the end goal meant little to those caught up in the middle of the means. Indeed, those who strove to save the world but were blind to the innocents caught up in process of doing were no better than those they sought to dethrone.

However the only thing better than taking responsibility for the people you hurt during your mission was not hurting anyone in the first place.

If you couldn't come up with a plan that prevented innocents from being hurt in the first place then you needed to wait for a better opportunity later when more favorable circumstances appeared.

It was an interesting beginning but he would need to know more about Alexander before he could truly accept him as an apprentice and determine how to get the best results.

"What is your hometown like, Alexander?" he asked, figuring it was a neutral enough question to begin with.

He would get to the more personal ones when he felt that there was a respectable chance for it to be answered.

They had the time after all.

A Couple of Days Later

Xander's POV

There's something seriously off about this katana, he thought as he walked alongside Hiko while they made their way towards Kyoto. I just wish I knew what it was.

It'd been almost two hours ago that they'd left Seijuro's house and the sword he'd been told to grab was still bothering him. It certainly looked pretty solid, like some of those showpieces he'd seen online, but from the second he'd picked it up he'd been absolutely certain that there was something different about it. He'd pulled the blade from the sheath exactly once to inspect the blade and found it to be rather beautiful as far as sharp blades went. After Hiko had his own katana beneath his belt they'd set out for Kyoto and, thankfully thus far, hadn't run into anything dangerous. No bears and no other predators had crossed their path, making it better than his first attempt to get to Kyoto but he wouldn't feel safe until they actually entered the city. Sure, with Hiko by his side most things with teeth wouldn't last very long but, if enough of them showed up, he'd be forced to step up to bat.

His arm was still splinted and in an improvised sling, so even with the katana he now had he'd only be able to put about half the potential power of it to good use. He remembered Giles criticizing Buffy the few times she'd tried to use moves she'd seen in a movie with a real sword during training, so he didn't think he'd be able to do very well with just one arm if something dangerous showed up. It'd probably wind up only managing surface cuts at best, or maybe impalements if he managed to thrust forward with the tip.

Still, it was better than nothing.

It was a little while later that they finally exited the forest and set foot on developed land just on the outskirts of Kyoto. However what he saw doubled the shock he'd originally felt when he'd gotten a look at the city skyline a couple of days ago. Before he'd only seen the buildings from a distance so all that'd been visible had been the smoke and the big damage done to the skyscrapers. Now that he was closer he could see that the damage was much worse and he could see that some of the buildings had actually toppled over. It was destruction that he hadn't seen before outside of the world of television or movies. The smoke that he'd seen days earlier had thinned out somewhat but there was still quite a bit drifting up into the air, indicating that the fires hadn't been put out.

"It doesn't make any sense," he said out loud, as if his words would banish the sight before him. "With this level of damage in a place like Kyoto there should be choppers and sirens and fire trucks all over the place."

"The only two possibilities are either they're not here because something is preventing them from coming…" Hiko said as he looked about on his own, "…or they've chosen not to come at all."

"That's ridiculous!" he exclaimed at the very idea of the latter being the truth. "It's their job to help people! To save people! If they had two good legs and could carry what they needed, they should be here!"

He knew that when it came to Sunnydale PD you couldn't count on them to catch anything more than a cold but he refused to believe that the emergency services of a city known throughout the world would cast aside their purpose in the face of such dire need. So of Hiko's two choices he was left with only one option: something was keeping emergency services from entering as well as moving about the city. That was odd because, while it would've been a problem for land vehicles, it should've been possible to airlift people into the area via helicopter. Indeed, if the fires were fierce there had to be airplanes that could drop water onto them.

However that led to the question of what precisely was keeping the emergency services and, outside of some sort of sorcery, he couldn't come up with a plausible possibility.

"Let's go," he said as he began walking briskly towards Kyoto. "The sooner we get into the city, the sooner we can look for clues and figure out what the hell is going on!"

The brisk walk soon became a run as his imagination produced one bad possibility after another and even Hiko's yells to slow down didn't have much weight with him. If it was true that emergency services had been unable to enter the city in many days, then many lives could very well depend on him and Hiko getting in there as soon as possible. He didn't know how much use he'd be since he only knew the basics of first aid and had one useless arm for the next few weeks but he'd do all he could.

He'd answer the call for help unlike the people back in Sunnydale, who ignored the abuse Tony had regularly thrown at him and his mother.

He would give others hope unlike the police, who regularly proved their cowardice and incompetence.

Almost half an hour later he spotted his first sign of people in the form of a car that looked like it'd gone off the street before puttering to a stop. Worried that someone might've been hurt he picked up the pace, soon arriving at the side of the vehicle to see that it didn't look like it'd hit anything or been hit with enough force to damage the exterior. Seeing that someone was in the driver's seat, he moved towards the door to see if they were still alive or if he'd arrived too late to do anything.

What he saw went above and beyond what he'd been expecting and would without a doubt add a new element to his nightmares.

The person was without a doubt dead but it was the way the man had died that had him taking steps backwards in shock. The man's face was almost melted clean off and, judging by the mess of bodily fluids staining the front of the guy's shirt, the flesh hadn't fallen into such a state through natural means. Besides, there was no way that the local authorities would leave a body to decay to this degree on the side of the road. Someone would've seen it or smelled it in mere hours and called it in to the police. However the man died, it must have been quick and recent in order to escape the notice of civilians and the authorities.

"Back away slowly, Alexander," Hiko said, having managed to catch up. "Cover your mouth and do not exert yourself."

Following the man's orders to the letter he watched as his bodyguard slash guide approached the vehicle, his own mouth covered but with eyes that were scrutinizing every detail.

"This man did not die of natural means, nor was it caused by some device implanted in the vehicle," Hiko said upon finishing his examination. "It was in the air as he drove this way with the window down."

"How do you know that?" he asked with a voice muffled by his shirt.

"For the man's face to have melted to such a degree whatever was used would have to possess strong corrosive properties. If it had been released into the interior of the vehicle via some device, signs around the point of ejection would be readily visible," Hiko replied, turning to face him. "Either around the vents in the interior or an object on one of the seats. I see no sign of that but rather chaotic signs of corrosion over the entire interior. Given that the worst of the corrosion appears to have been done to the man, he was closest to the source: the window."

But if it had come in through the window in the air then there was no way it could've been precise to kill just the man. The ones responsible would've had to blanket the area with the stuff and maintain high dispersal in order to ensure lethal exposure. Looking about the area, he couldn't see signs of corrosion but then again he didn't know what this place looked like before the dangerous compound hit it so there could be signs all over the place.

"Who'd want this guy killed so bad to use this kind of stuff?" he asked even as a small voice inside of him knew it wasn't that simple.

"No. If this man had been the only target there were far simpler ways to kill him, even if they wanted to make a graphic example," Hiko said with a shake of his head. "No, this man died as collateral damage, as did a great many others I suspect. Countless others."

Did he mean…?

Whirling towards the city of Kyoto, a single possibility shook his mind like a miniature big bang: this could have been an attack on the entire city of Kyoto!

At the thought of the sheer number of people who could now be dead like the man in the car he could not keep himself standing and dropped to his knees, using his one free arm to brace himself against the ground. Unable to stop he tossed his cookies all over the payment as a result of the overpowering nausea he felt at the image of an entire city being dead. Who could've done this? WHY? Was this why no search and rescue people were in the city? Because it was still contaminated by whatever had wiped out the population?

Was he going to die now alongside Hiko?

"Don't worry about dying. If the weapon responsible for this was designed to become harmless after so many days it should mean we're safe. If the weapon wasn't meant to become harmless soon after then we would've felt its effects by now," Hiko said, bringing his hand away from his mouth. "The man in the car was affected so swiftly that he couldn't drive someplace to get help or even pull over to the side of the road. If the weapon responsible was still potent enough to hurt us, we would know."

The more he thought about it, the more the old man's words made sense. As the fear of death left him he rose back to his feet, wiping the leftover vomit from his mouth.

"So what do we do now?" he asked at a loss as to whether or not to continue to the city. "If Kyoto's really been turned into a mass grave 'cause of some gas weapon, then there's no point in going there. Even if the gas isn't strong enough to kill us, most of the food's probably gone bad."

"No. Food and supplies commonly stored in nuclear bomb shelters should still be good," Hiko said as he began to walk towards Kyoto. "Some of the medicines might also be salvageable. We'll need all of it if we're planning on surviving long term."

"But won't we get in trouble for robbing places?" he asked with a bit of concern. "Even if the people are dead, there's still security cameras."

"I wouldn't worry. If the state of Japan is as serious as I believe it to be, the authorities have bigger fish to fry than a pair of thieves," Hiko replied without breaking stride or looking over his shoulder.

'The state of Japan'? He can't possibly mean…! he thought before he clamped down on the thought, tied it up in chains and threw it in the darkest pit of his mind. NO! If I don't think about it then it's not true!

Deciding that following Hiko and focusing his mind on scavenging supplies was an ideal distraction, he ran after the old man, hoping upon hope that they didn't come across too many dead bodies. He might not be as squeamish about them as some people were, that didn't mean he wanted to spend any more time with them than he absolutely had to. Fortunately, even if the two of them packed as much as they could carry, it wouldn't take them too long to do and, since he hadn't seen a dirt road leading to Hiko's hut, they wouldn't be able to use a car. If he was lucky they'd only make one trip and then it'd be a while before they'd need to go back.

I won't be able to leave Japan after an attack like this, he thought, forced to accept that his travel plans would have to be put on hold. Even if I managed to get ahold of Giles for some help, if the airports are locked down then I'm not going anywhere.

At the moment he had two choices: either he could stick with Hiko and wait for news about when normal air travel being restored came to him or he could leave Kyoto for another city for news. Once he had more information he could plan his departure from Japan, hopefully getting back to Sunnydale sooner rather than later.

Until the Scooby gang was reunited, he could not be the carefree slacker he usually chose to be.

Now was the time for the serious Xander to step into the spotlight.

Kyoto

Hiko's POV

He's in denial, he thought as he walked down the devastated city street. The truth is so horrible he prefers to believe that all this death is isolated to just Kyoto.

Sooner or later he would have to face the truth but forcing Harris to do so now would only drive a wedge between the two of them since the boy's denial would be protected since it was so fresh. Given enough time to process everything that he'd seen, Alexander might be more approachable with the truth and then he could make his formal offer of training. Based on everything he'd seen so far, Japan's population had likely been decimated by the changing of the world, if not by whatever had killed the driver of the vehicle then by the earthquake that he suspected had hit the world as a whole. If there were any survivors they'd be traumatized, desperate and, for a despicable few, interested in taking advantage of the opportunity chaos produces.

He'd seen it happen many times over the years.

Whenever people lost faith in their government's ability to protect them they often threw their lot with the first person who seemed capable of delivering what they wanted. Even if the person was despicable and asked a terrible price for the aid provided, people would still pay it, believing that they had no other choice if they wanted to live. Gangs of bandits would form and if any of the Yakuza bosses survived the calamity, they would be quick to use what manpower they had to expand both their territory as well their assets.

Alexander, as the boy was now, would last at best a month with such amoral men roaming the country conquering territory and killing all opposition.

Only once the young man had been trained in Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū would he be strong and skilled enough that he would not need to worry about such lowlifes.

As he hopped over the hoods of two cars that'd collided head on with each other he heard a sound that had not been caused by an inanimate object. There was no wind to cause something to sway and anything that could have fallen since the merger of worlds would have done so long ago. For there to be movement now could only mean that something alive was close by and, since the evidence presented thus far indicated that it was likely not human, that meant an animal. While it was possible that the cause of the noise was something harmless, he could not be certain of that without seeing what it was. If the bear was any indicator animals of all sorts would be decidedly larger than they were before the world had changed and possibly have acquired new attributes.

"Stay here and keep your guard up," he ordered as he used his senses to locate the thing that'd caused the noise. "I'm going to check something out."

"Sure. Fine," Alexander said, sounding like being left with the disfigured dead denizens of downtown Kyoto was not something he'd enjoy. "Gotcha."

He'd have to teach the boy to be better at concealing his emotions.

In any confrontation, figuring out your opponent's intentions and emotional state was vital for predicting what they'd do next so that a counter strategy could be formulated. By concealing ones emotions and, in cases of swordsmen, their warrior spirit, they could make it harder for others to figure out what they'd do next. That mystery, that moment of confusion that came when someone did something you couldn't perceive the goal of, could give someone all the time they needed to end a confrontation as soon as it began. Alexander as he was now would be all too easy to predict and therefore trick into an unfavorable situation.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts he refocused his efforts and soon sensed the ki of a living thing close to where he'd heard the sound. Using the stealth that'd become second nature to him he crept towards the potential threat, being careful to keep his footfalls silent while disturbing nothing that might provoke his target. A minute later he determined that the source of the noise was hiding behind what looked to be a cashier's counter so he debated what to do next. An idea came to him and so he picked up a napkin holder and threw it at the side of the counter, knowing that this would likely cause the animal to panic. To his eyes there were only two ways out from behind the counter, the left or the right, both of which would allow him to see what it was. With a bang the holder hit and, just as he'd predicted, the animal behind the counter bolted, but when he got his first clear look he was surprised enough to let it show on his face.

It was NOT an animal or at least not entirely.

Running to cover behind a soda machine was a young girl, about eight years old from what he'd seen, but the one thing that differentiated her from girls he'd seen before was the fact that she had weasel ears poking out of her hair. To add to the oddness he could even see a tail poking out from the bottom of her skirt and it was moving in such a manner that it could only be alive.

A youkai? he thought his mind drew the logical conclusion, No. Ever since humans got so abundant the tribes have kept to the wild and any who venture into human territory have mastered illusionary magic in order to appear human.

Besides that, due to the separation between youkai and humans, the former getting current clothing was almost impossible. Most times they got whatever clothing they needed from thrift stores where no one would pay that much attention to them. Going to malls or busy department stores would've made it hard to maintain the spell that'd allow them to blend in.

His mind ran through many possible explanations, utilized every piece of evidence he had since the calamity, and in the end he could only reach one possibility that came closest to matching all the facts.

Wherever the planet Earth had been taken and however it had been changed had resulted in at least some of the populace undergoing physical as well as possibly behavioral alterations. He didn't know whether or not being given the characteristics of a weasel was unique to this girl or if everyone they found alive would have a new set of ears. Whatever the case, it calmed his heart to know that some civilians had survived. Now, though, it was best to calm the girl he'd startled and perhaps find out if she knew of anyone else that might still be alive.

"I am sorry if I startled you little one," he said as he got down onto one knee to appear smaller. "I didn't know it was you. Are you okay?"

While he hadn't had a lot of practice with children, especially since he'd isolated himself from the rest of the world, there were some things about children that'd never change. One thing was that the best way to calm them down was to use a calm and gentle voice whenever you spoke. Another was to minimize any way you might seem scary or intimidating especially if they were already in a state of agitation. The last thing he knew, however, he didn't have the tools for because if you had a sweet or some other food that children loved you could usually win them over with it.

Looking at the girl, he could tell that he'd managed to get her attention away from her fear somewhat but that was about it. She still hid behind the soda machine and didn't look like she'd even be trying to get a peek at him for a few minutes when her fear had dropped enough to allow it.

She's probably been scavenging for food since the calamity hit, he thought with a bit of pity. Since she's alone, though, I can only presume that her parents or any concerned adults for that matter did not survive.

It was somewhat impressive that she'd managed to survive for so long on her own but it was unlikely that she'd be able to keep it up forever. With a sigh he knew that he would have to try and coax her into coming with him and Xander since, even if he tried to leave her behind, the second his potential pupil found out, trust would be a problem.

In any case he was not so heartless, nor so attached to his peaceful isolation that he would leave so young a girl to fend for herself amidst this pile of corpses.

"I know you're afraid, little one. I can't imagine the horrors you've had to endure," he said, keeping his voice soft and gentle. "Know that you do not have to suffer alone. I cannot offer more than a roof over your head and simple meals but surely that is better than what this city has become."

He waited to see how the girl would react and hoped that she accepted the offer. While his home had been originally constructed just to house him as well as his few meager belongings, it could be made to fit three people with a little work. If she turned down his offer he would have to follow her secretly to where she slept so that he could drop off what food or medicine he could every few days.

This turned out to be an unnecessary train of thought as a little over a minute later the girl stood up and tentatively stepped away from the soda machine. Seeing her approach he knew that her courage and perhaps her hope for the future was being kept aloft by a very thin thread and that it would snap if she perceived the slightest threat coming from him. He would have to caution Alexander against treating her harshly for any reason, even if it was by accident. Only when her wounds had healed sufficiently would it be safe to treat her with a measured amount of harshness.

Reaching out with his hand, he offered it to the girl and once she took it he guided her out of the building to where Alexander was waiting for them. It didn't take long for the teenage boy to see the girl and he decided to answer the question that was coming before it could be spoken.

"She is the one that I sensed. She appears to be a survivor of this disaster and has undergone some rather significant changes," he explained as he stopped a safe distance from Alexander so that the girl could evaluate the new person without fear.

"Yeah, I'd say so. So what is she? A demon? A half-breed?" Harris asked without anything except curiosity.

"No. Most of the demons you're familiar with tend to avoid Japan and the youkai native to the country are better at concealing their true natures in human cities," he replied, shaking his head as he voiced his own position. "It is far more likely that whatever did this to the city is responsible for her changes."

"A weapon that kills almost everybody but turns the rest into animal people from some anime? I think you've gone senile, old man," Alexander said with disbelief thick in his voice. "No weapon, biological or chemical, could do that. Magic is also out of the question because anything that could've done all this would've set off five different warning bells with whoever's in charge of fighting the supernatural in Japan. She's probably just a hybrid whose demon blood just kicked in 'cause of the hell she's been through."

Still he refuses to accept reality, he thought narrowing his eyes in exasperation. I suppose some might consider it understandable that a person would refuse to accept that the world was no longer how they remembered it. Too bad I'm not one of those people.

"You see the truth before you and yet you refuse to accept it. This is no longer the Earth you remember. It has changed. Changed in more ways than either of us know," he said, deciding to be as blunt as his training methods. "This city, this girl, they are but the first signs of the new world that's been created by the dark ki that swept over the planet. How long do you plan to cling to denial and poorly conceived excuses?"

He watched the emotions play across the young man's face and within the eyes that were the windows to the soul. In reaction to his harsh confrontation he could now see deeper into his future student's soul than when he'd previously looked. As a result he saw something important: Deep within the young man's mind he both knew and accepted the truth but his heart refused to accept it, suppressing the truth with all its power. He'd seen this in the past from those who knew their precious person had gone off into danger but refused to contemplate the likely reason why that person did not return no matter how many days passed. The reason could be that they had unbreakable faith in their precious person or simply because they knew that if they accepted the truth their soul would be plunged into indescribable agony, potentially to the point of self-destruction.

In Alexander's case he suspected that it was the fear that those who were most precious to him were now among the dead. So long as the young man clung to the belief that the horrors were confined to just Japan and would not spread beyond the nation's edge then they were alive and waiting for him. However if he ever accepted the truth that they were no longer of this world, a large part of Alexander's heart would die as well, plunging him into heartbreaking sorrow.

"Until I see proof that even denial can't stand up to," Alexander replied before turning away. "Let's get the supplies we came for and see if anyone else managed to make it through this hell."

He could only sigh with annoyance at the statement that implied that Alexander was even more selfish than his last student.

He was going to have his hands full for the next few years.

Hiko's Hut

Xander's POV

It had been a week since their initial trip to Kyoto and in that time they'd made two more until they'd managed to scavenge enough supplies to support five people easily.

In addition to the weasel girl named Hitori that Hiko found they'd encountered two more people on subsequent trips, both of whom had been given attributes of animals. For Kirito, a teenager the same age as him, he'd gotten the ears and tail of a wolf even though Hiko had commented that all wolves native to Japan were extinct. For Minmei, a girl only a little older than Hitori, she'd gotten the ears and the tail of a cat, though he couldn't tell what breed from coloring alone. The last two had been working together to survive Kyoto and had been found living out of a police precinct with the usual assortment of junk food and easily prepared meals scattered about. It'd been a bit dicey convincing them to return to Hiko's home, especially since they'd armed themselves with the police department's arsenal of firearms, but the old man's sword skill quickly cowed them into surrender. Seijuro wasn't really happy with more people living out of his home but he'd managed to convince the man that having more people meant that any work that needed doing would get done quicker.

True, he planned on doing most of the hard work himself, but the little chores would be enough to keep the additional guests out of the 'freeloader' column.

Still nothing on the radio, he thought as he continued to work on the device, hoping to pick up a signal of some kind. It's almost been a month since I got here! You'd think that there'd be at least one attempt to investigate Kyoto to see if the biohazard has abated yet!

His mind came up with a reason why no one had come to Kyoto yet but before it could fully form he squashed it, poured gasoline on it, lit it on fire and then scattered the ashes to the wind. He could feel the part of him that knew the reason trying to get him to listen but he refused to because he knew that if he did everything would change and none of it would be good. That led to pain, agony, grief and sorrow, none of which he wanted any part of.

I just need to be patient, he thought as he carefully tuned the radio to another frequency bit by bit in the hopes of hearing SOMETHING. This is probably something they've never seen before so they're just being extra cautious.

He'd give it a month before starting to think about going to one of the other big cities of Japan to find out what was going on and how long it'd be before he could get back to Sunnydale. He'd seen maps in Hiko's house so he'd peruse them later to see which major city was the next closest to them after Tokyo. If it was something that'd take him more than a day to reach he'd pack as much as he could into one of the camping backpacks they'd salvaged and head out at first light.

His arm was almost back to normal, which was a bit surprising considering how badly it'd hurt after the bear had hit him, but he guessed that it'd just felt worse than it'd really been. He was no doctor but he figured that another two weeks and he'd be right as rain and ready to take a trip a bit further abroad than he'd done so far. Sure, it wouldn't be great if he ran into another bear but he was fairly sure that now that he had an actual weapon, the weird katana Hiko had given him, he'd do a better job fighting off big ass animals. After all if he'd landed his one blow with the sword instead of a tree branch he was pretty sure he'd have done some serious damage. A few well-placed hits and either the bear would've run off out of self-preservation or he'd have managed to kill it.

"Fuck it!" he grumbled as he finally gave up trying to find a radio signal connection to civilization.

Crossing his arms over his chest he glared at the instrument that refused to give him any sort of information about what was going on in Japan and when air travel would become available again. He'd already been gone from Sunnydale long enough for something bad to happen and he was sure that his friends were worried sick about him. Willow at the very least would be using up one method of finding him after another and paying little if any heed to the potential risks involved. Hopefully even if he got teleported to Japan Giles still managed to get to a hospital. As long as he was around Willow wouldn't be able to get into any of the trickier mojo books anytime soon.

"No luck with the radio?" Kirito asked from the door to the house.

"Nope. Either something's blocking the signal or we're out of range," he replied, turning away from the radio.

He didn't like what that implied about the state of Japan because, if one of its major cities had been destroyed and every transmitter within twenty-five miles disabled, then this was no one city terrorist strike. This could very well be the beginning of a coup d'état or an invasion by a foreign nation. If that was the case then getting out of Japan would go from buying a simple plane ticket to stowing away on a hostile aircraft, with the latter being decidedly more risky to his life.

Maybe I should take Hiko up on his offer of kenjutsu lessons, he thought ponderingly as he got out of the chair he'd been sitting on. Sure, against guns it won't do much good but if the stuff works as good on people as it does on bears, it'll be better than nothing.

Still he'd wait until he got serious proof that the country was heading to war or invasion since, if either happened, it could very well take a few years to escape. Even with soldier boy's echoes bouncing around inside his head he didn't like the odds of him beating someone who had the training firmly ingrained in their brains. He'd need to learn at least some of what Hiko had to teach if he was going to stand a chance or if it turned out to be necessary to learn it all he'd do only as much as was absolutely necessary.

The Scoobies needed him and that meant he had to return to them as swiftly as he could in order to avert potential calamity.

"Do you think what happened in Kyoto is happening everywhere else?" Kirito asked, a bit of fear popping up for a single eye blink.

"Nah! I don't know what's going on but if someone wanted complete annihilation we wouldn't be here to talk about it. If they're looking to conquer the country then it's stupid to destroy every place of value," he replied, heading for the door so he could find Hiko. "I think it's more about fear. If the people behind Kyoto prove they can wipe out an entire city and no one knows how they can do it, they can pretty much demand anything they want."

"What do you think they want?" Kirito asked, sounding like he was more afraid of his preferred scenario than every city suffering the fate of Kyoto.

"Dunno. Without knowing who they are, it could be anything," he replied with a shrugged as he passed the Japanese teenager. "But it's usually a safe bet to pencil in money, power or revenge with anyone willing to wipe out so many people."

Or at least those were the most common motivations as shown in Hollywood's various action movies.

Seeing a look of anger come over Kirito's face, he paused in his departure worried about what might be going on inside the guy's head. None of the survivors that'd come to live with him and Hiko had spoken overly much about their lives before the massacre and out of consideration for them no pressing had been done. However none of them looked like they'd had to suffer through growing up under an asshole like Tony Harris, so he could only presume they'd lived in a happy homes. All that meant, though, was that the pain of loss was that much more savagely unleashed upon their hearts and it'd likely be a while before they felt comfortable opening up to him and Hiko.

Still hope it happens, though, he thought, walking out into the open. If I'm gonna be here for a couple years, it'd be nice to have some friends.

Not that any new ones that he made would even come close to the Scoobies but they'd certainly help make things easier until the old gang got back together.

Looking about the house, he could see Hitori and Minmei playing with a ball close by but no sign of the old man.

"You two seen where Hiko went?" he asked even as he continued to try to find Seijuro.

"He said he was going to go hunting for food," Hitori said after she caught the ball.

"Don't see why. We got more than enough good stuff already," Minmei commented, sounding like the sort of person who'd never eaten that wasn't from a supermarket or a restaurant.

"Stuff that's gonna run out sooner or later," he said, pointing out the problem. "Even if we pilfered Kyoto clean of everything edible and safe, it's gonna run out eventually. Learning to live off the land is what's gonna save us in the long run."

Sure, he wasn't quite sure how quickly five people could live off the total amount of food that wouldn't go rotten that could be found in Kyoto but he doubted it'd be more than a year or so.

Guess I'll be adding hunting lessons to by kenjutsu training, he thought as went over to an open area before drawing his katana from its sheath. Might as well do a few practice swings until Hiko gets back.

Later in the Day

Hiko's POV

"So what're we doing all the way out here?" Alexander asked as they reached the mouth of the cave that was their destination. "And WHAT is that SMELL?"

"You'll find out inside and the smell is coming from the blood and entrails of the bear I killed. While not perfect, the scent of so powerful a predator will be enough to keep most animals from straying too closely to the cave," he replied, kneeling to inspect the freshness of the barrier he'd erected so long ago. "Hmmmm… I'll need to find another predator soon. The blood's going bad and that'll just drawn in any scavengers in the area."

"So you're hiding something in the cave and using blood and flesh from a badass bear to keep critters away from it," Harris said, summarizing his explanation even further. "What's so important? Your personal stash of Twinkies inside or something?"

"Hmph. Something far more important than snack foods and, in point of fact, it's more yours than mine, Alexander," he replied as he stood up and resumed walking into the cave. "I just thought it'd be best to wait until the matter of supplies was settled before I showed it to you."

In truth that was only part of the reason.

The other half of the reason why he hadn't brought Xander, as he insisted on being called, to the cave before now was because he'd needed time to discern the truth. When the young man had first arrived he had done the natural thing putting both the boy as well as the Kusanagi into his home but, when it came to the egg, he'd chosen a different resting place. He'd known that Janus would not have sent the egg along with the teenager for something as stupid as a meal but rather as something to be hatched. It'd been feasible that the animal within was intended to be a pet or partner for his future student but, without knowing what type of animal was inside, the proper care methods were unknown. Thus whenever he'd been able to slip away from Xander he'd come to this cave to use all his skills of perception to figure out what beast laid this egg as well as what would be born from it.

Last night he'd finally concluded his examination.

He'd been somewhat surprised since so rare of a creature would have been difficult for even a deity of Janus' caliber to acquire. Not only were the adults decidedly dangerous even for one of his prowess, but also even finding one of their lairs was often more a case of sheer luck rather than skill. Still, with the discovery of the breed of animal within the egg, he knew that from now on it had to be Xander who cared for it if everything was to go well.

A minute later they reached the nest of shrubbery, bear fur and an old rug he'd received as a gift. Placed in the midst of this warmth retaining objects was the egg, looking much the same as it had the last time he'd seen it. A short distance away from the egg were the remains of three fires he'd used since the creature within had an affinity for flame and would gain strength from the warmth it specifically generated.

"That is one BIG egg," Xander said with a bit of awe. "Seeing as how we haven't cracked it open to make one helluva omelette, I'm assuming that you're planning on hatching it. What's in it?"

"A dragon."

Three seconds passed.

"WHAT!?" Xander exclaimed incredulity.

"A dragon. More specifically one of the Asian variety instead of the ones used in most European fairy tales," he explained with a bit of disappointment in his future student's reaction. "In appearance they look like a giant snake, with horns sticking out of its head, two sets of legs at the front as well as the back and hair more like a mammal at certain points of their body. Most are connected by the Japanese to water based phenomenon such as rain or rivers but there are some that break that pattern."

"So that's why you're trying to keep it warm? Beasties that deal in water would shrivel up pretty quick if they got too hot," Xander said, recovering from his shock. "So why'd you bring me here?"

"Because you are going to be taking care of it from this day onward," he said, tossing a book at the boy. "It arrived with you when you appeared in front of my home and I have to believe that Janus intended for it to be your responsibility. I only took care of it this long in order to determine what it was."

"B-but… I don't know how to take care of a dragon egg, much less make it hatch!" Xander said even as he caught the book clumsily due to the surprise of the answer given.

"Idiot! That's what the book is for. I might never have actually seen or even cared for a fire dragon before but fortunately my hobby as a potter has led to me meeting several knowledgeable people," he said with annoyance. "One of them gave me a copy of a rare book that he claimed he'd acquired from a group of monks charged with caring for a fire dragon by the four Great Dragon Kings themselves. The man himself was a fool who often bought placebos and fakes but when I brought the book to an expert I learned it was surprisingly factual, possessing none of the traits of a fake. Follow the contents to the letter and you'll manage well enough."

"Well enough for it to hatch and eat me or burn me to a crisp you mean!" Xander said, clearly not loving his new duties.

"Don't be ridiculous! The dragon will be completely helpless for the first few weeks as it learns how to walk and fly. Sure, there might be a few spouts of flame but they'll be more accidents than anything done on purpose," he criticized with a shake of his head at his future student's stupidity.

"Oh! So I'll get burned to death by accident!" Xander exclaimed, flinging his arms out to the side. "That makes me feel SO much better!"

"That is why I want you to care for it from here on out. It'll cause your scent to permeate everything so it'll perceive you as nothing more than a natural part of the cave. Also the odds are high that upon hatching the dragon will recognize you as family and form a bond with you that should keep it from behaving too violently," he said, trying to make the young man see the truth. "Besides, given that Janus had this in his possession, it is likely that it is not your typical dragon, so it could very well be sentient or possess the capacity for sentience. Whether nor not it reaches such a state will be up to you."

Xander looked at the book, then at the egg, as though wondering whether or not it would be smart to take care of the latter with the former. Thanks to all the stories, myths, legends and kami be damned movies about dragons, most of them were seen as engines of destruction that were either to be avoided or slain as a matter of survival. If one actually did the proper research on dragons they would learn that most were either the sort that acted on pure instinct or were as smart, or smarter, than a human being. As such the former were not evil any more than a tiger or a wolf could be considered evil by following their instincts, such as attacking an intruder in their territory. As for the latter, it all depended on their individual personality whether or not they could be considered evil.

Whether the dragon that hatched from the egg would be instinctive in nature or intelligent would only be learned over time.

"Leaving it to fend for itself will probably just cause us more headaches down the road," Xander sighed finally before sitting down and laying against the cave wall. "Guess I got no choice. I'll have to raise it to see us as family or at least as something that's not on the menu."

Watching his future student open the book and begin to read, he took that as an affirmation of the lad's decision. Turning away, he left the cave to return to his home and deal with the other tenants that he'd taken on in accordance to the principles of Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū style of kenjutsu. He'd already cleared the immediate area of any animals that could harm them but there was always the chance that something new had crept in since his last patrol.

He'd tested each of them in order to determine whether or not their animal attributes were merely for show. The results he'd gotten were far from conclusive but there did exist signs that their senses had been enhanced beyond what was typical for a human. He would have to honestly test them openly in order to learn more. The prowess one showed when they consciously tried was almost always superior to what was shown when they just reacted to unexpected stimulus. Would Kirito grow to be strong like the wolf youkai he'd encountered during his life? Would Minmei become as agile and as fast as most cats were known to be?

He was not sure.

Still, the principles of his style of kenjutsu demanded that at the very least he made sure that they could survive on their own without him before he embraced solitude once more.

He would pass on that which he was obligated to pass on and then leave to find peace that can only be found by leaving the rest of the world behind.