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?

3. Training and Changes

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 to change this 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 was taken against me.

PS-Positive reviews will be appreciated. Positive criticism will be considered but not necessarily acted upon. People looking to bully, bash and otherwise ruin my day simply because they can will be ignored at the very least and review blocked at the very most.

Xander's POV

"Hiko? Could you teach me how to use this sword right?" he asked, feeling a little uncertain about this step.

He was uncertain because the one example he'd seen of it had succeeded in cutting a huge bear completely into two pieces with a single swing. That was something that he'd only come to expect from Buffy, with her superhuman Slayer strength, so to find an old man that could do it meant one of two things. Either it meant that Hiko was more than human or it meant that, despite being human, Seijuro had somehow managed to gain superhuman strength, making him that much more remarkable. As a result, though, he was unsure if he had what it'd take to even come close and, if Hiko sensed this, he might consider it a waste of his time to even give a single lesson.

Nevertheless, if he wanted to make his way through this country and find a way back to Sunnydale, then he needed to become stronger than he was at the moment.

If he was to survive the animals and the opportunists that would seek to prey upon the weak, he needed to become much stronger.

"Oh? What brought this on?" Hiko asked, sounding about interested as someone would be in a new flavor of ice cream. "When I offered to teach you after you awoke you threw my offer back in my face and left."

"Yeah, well, almost getting eaten by a bear and finding out that psychos are wiping out entire cities has me wanting to find new ways to stay alive," he said, quickly moving things along rather than dwell on the past. "Seeing as how you can cut bears in half with one swing, I figured you'd be as good a teacher as any."

"Oh? So I'm just a sensei of opportunity?" Hiko asked, sounding vaguely insulted by the implications.

"More or less," he replied, figuring honesty was better than groveling or buttering up. "Honestly, seeing you cut that bear in half has me wondering if I'd be setting my sights a little too high trying to learn how to do the same. If another sword instructor was close by that'd be easier, I'd go to them since whatever style they taught would be more in my reach. But there isn't and so here we are."

Hiko didn't reply right away but rather just looked at him as though examining every gram of him and it was increasingly wierding him out. He'd never really liked being the center of attention back in Sunnydale because he was aware of most of his flaws and how they made others think of him. By staying in the background, by being supporto-guy, most people overlooked him allowing his flaws to pass by unnoticed and granting him opportunities to contribute to the good fight. By staring at him, Hiko was unknowingly causing him to look within and find ever flaw that would cause others to look down at him for.

He hated the feeling of being looked down upon!

He supposed that it was one of the reasons he'd hooked his wagon to Buffy's since he believed that if he fought by her side against things that'd give most people nightmares he could prove his worth. At the very least he could prove himself superior to Tony Harris, forever shattering the opinion people had of him following in the footsteps of that drunken asshole of a man. Sure, he wasn't off to a great start, what with getting beat up by the vampires or the demons rather than him beating them up, but he figured that that meant he could only get better with every fight. With his friends to watch his back, he'd survive and, by surviving numerous fights against things capable of killing many human beings, he would become stronger himself.

Now, though, circumstances insisted that he get stronger, quicker, than could be done by surviving random battles spread out over a year or two.

"Well, you certainly are a weak and scrawny excuse for man, so you could certainly stand to be trained up some so as not to embarrass the rest of us men. However let me make one thing perfectly clear: if you train with me, you train until I say you've mastered everything," Hiko said with so serious a tone that unconsciously had him taking two steps back. "My last student got so hot under the collar about saving Japan that he left before mastering the style, then had the gall to come back over ten years later begging me to resume his lessons! I won't let things go that way a second time! If you leave before mastering Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū, I'll wash my hands of you altogether and won't finish your instruction no matter how hard you beg! Understand!?"

As much as he didn't like being compared to someone else, he had to admit that, if some hotheaded student ran off in the middle of something Hiko considered to be so important, then the old man had good reason to be pissed. Still, if that was the only condition to be met to receive instruction from an excellent swordsman, then there was only one thing to say.

"I understand. I swear to you in the name of my best friend Willow Rosenberg that I will not leave until I have mastered Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū," he said with complete honesty and conviction.

He knew that mastering a style of swordsmanship probably took years but he figured that that was because students mixed normal, everyday living, as well as leisure time in with their training. He believed that if he devoted his every waking moment to training while taking only the bare minimum sleep needed to keep going, he could halve the time needed to master Hiko's style of swordsmanship. It'd probably take a little more time than that for whatever plagued Japan to calm down enough for him to get a plane ticket home, so it'd work out for him time-wise.

"I'll hold you to that promise, boy," Hiko said as he stood up from his pottery oven. "The first thing we need to do is see just how out of shape you are."

"We're starting now?" he asked, a little surprised since he'd figured Hiko would need at least a day to write up a lesson plan. "And I'll have you know I'm in pretty good shape for my age!"

"If being in 'pretty good shape for your age' was all you needed to learn Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū, anyone could do it," Hiko chastised with a condescending look on his face. "As for starting right now, why not? It's not like you have anything better to do."

He had to frown a bit since Hiko's tone reminded him a little too much of Snyder and Tony, but he couldn't find any fault with the man's point of view.

"So what's the first exercise test?" he asked as he got himself into the proper mindset.

"The most basic of all exercises: running." Hiko picked up his sword and tucked it beneath the belt around his waist.

He was actually somewhat optimistic about the test thanks to his times helping Buffy on patrol as well as the usual Hellmouth hijinks. Often times the only way to survive was to be able to outrun a demon or if something bad was going down none of them had driver's licenses they had to run to wherever it was happening. As a result, he'd gotten pretty good at running, so he figured this would probably be the one test he'd probably do the best on.

"So where'll I be running to?" he asked, figuring it'd probably be to a specific spot and back.

"Nowhere in particular," Hiko replied with a shrug as he drew his sword. "Pick any direction you like. I'll be right behind you to provide… incentive."

For a moment he wondered what the guy meant with incentive but then a bit of logic hit him that explained it: you don't unsheathe a sword unless you plan on using it. Since he didn't think that Hiko planned on killing him, he figured this would wind up being a variation of cracking the whip method of making sure he kept a specific pace. While a little forceful, he wasn't going to complain since this was what he asked for in requesting training from Hiko.

Taking a moment to glance around, he let instinct pick a direction for him before going into what he felt was a decent enough running pace. It'd just be to warm up and then he'd kicked up a gear or two since he'd need to push his muscles if he wanted to get any sort of results. However, before he even reached the edge of the clearing that surrounded Hiko's home, he felt the displacement of wind and a sound that didn't belong outside of a barbershop. Reaching up to where he'd felt the displacement of air, instead of coming into contact with the familiar tufts of black hair that had been there before he felt nothing. Feeling about in case it'd gotten stick or matted somewhere, he still found nothing so he glanced over his shoulder to ask Hiko what'd happened… only to see the old man finishing a horizontal slash with his sword.

And all the pieces fell into place.

Hiko had swing his sword just barely missing his neck but succeeding in cutting off a bit of his hair.

"What the hell did you do that for?!" he exclaimed even as he picked up the pace a little. "I was running just fine."

"For a civilian, maybe, but if you are to become a Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū master you will need to surpass what a civilian is capable of." Hiko brought his arm back in preparation for another swing of the sword. "Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū masters are famous for possessing god-like speed, speed that renders them impossible for ordinary people to see."

God-like speed? Invisible to the naked eye?

Even Buffy, with her Slayer powers, couldn't move that fast. Sure, she'd moved swiftly but it'd been more of a blur than going completely invisible. Personally he didn't think it was possible for a human being to exceed the physical capabilities of a Slayer but, if he could somehow reach a level from which he could better protect those he cared deeply for, that would be enough.

With that in mind he increased the effort he put into his running in the effort to reach a speed that would meet with the old man's approval.

"You call that running?" Hiko asked from behind him before another displacement of air came, along with new rear ventilation for his shirt. "I've seen turtles who can move faster!"

Again he increased his speed, arriving a few steps shy of what he considered to be his all out running speed and hoping this would be a good enough pace for his new teacher.

When another near miss didn't come his way he presumed that this meant he'd reached a speed that satisfied Seijuro.

He didn't know how long he'd be able to keep the pace up this high but he would do all he could to meet the challenge set before him.

He wouldn't give up at the first sign of difficulty, not like Tony.

Just like fighting side by side with Buffy, he would use this as a means by which he could prove to everyone that he was nothing like that drunk.

Seijuro Hiko's POV

"Okay… I get the… unh… pull ups… and the… unh… handstand pushups…" Alexander grunted as he continued with his exercise, "…but is it really… necessary… unh… to add… weights… unh… this early?"

Looking at the young man as he continued doing the stomach crunches in the sets and reps he'd laid out at the beginning of the exercise, he examined every inch for mistakes. In order for the young man to get the most out of his body training, there couldn't be any mistakes or else the payoff would be reduced. The cardio training he'd started the boy on two weeks ago was coming along well enough and he'd made sure to divide it between running as well as swimming in a nearby lake. The teenager always wound up so tired that it took almost an hour to recover enough to hobble back to the house but the fact that he managed to accomplish the desired distance close to the desired time was good. He would still push the young man until he determined where Harris' true physical limits were because only then could he begin showing his student how to surpass them.

"It's a teacher's job to put pressure on their students so that they can be transformed from coal into diamonds," he replied from his chair where he carefully tended to his newest pottery creation. "If I had you do crunches the easy way, it'd take forever for you to get in respectable shape. This'll speed things up quite a bit."

"And if… I wind up… unh… getting hurt doing... it this way?" Alexander asked with what air he had between crunches.

"You're young. You'll heal. Then we'll make up for lost time by doubling the workload," he replied, unconcerned about possibly injuring his student by pushing him too hard.

"And if… I don't… unh… heal?" Alexander asked, sounding like he was worried about that possibility.

"Then you'll have proven that you're not suitable to learn Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū and the lessons will stop there," he replied honestly since there'd be little point in continuing training if the lad's body wasn't up to it.

"So nice… to have a… unh... caring teacher… like you!" Alexander griped even as he continued to do the crunches.

"Isn't it, though? I'm just overflowing with compassion," he replied with a smile on his face that implied sarcasm.

The truth though was that Alexander was progressing through his training at an acceptable rate of speed but, if he actually came out to the lad saying things like that, it'd only hinder his progress. Those who received praise often let it go to their head, causing them to pursue their training with less vigor, thinking that they'd accomplished enough to take a break. It was an especially dangerous thing to do when it came to Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū since the results could cause the undisciplined mind to think of such words as 'invincible'. When that happened there was a risk that they would take on a challenge that exceeded their current abilities and he would be a poor teacher indeed to let that happen. So instead he would continue to belittle and dismiss the progress Alexander made, giving only what scarce praise was necessary when the lad encountered a breaking point.

As it was, though, it'd likely be a few months of body training before his student would be physically advanced enough to actually begin practicing the basics of kenjutsu. His entire lesson plan was focused on the premise that Alexander knew next to nothing about how to use a sword beyond what he'd seen in the entertainment business. As such the basics of kenjutsu needed to be learned before moving on to the techniques that belonged solely to the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū style of swordsmanship.

Before even that Alexander's body had to be made strong enough so that he would not injure himself attempting to perform the techniques.

"Watch yourself! You're slacking off!" he reprimanded as he saw the boy not going as far as he should with his crunches. "All the way up, all the way back and don't flop like a fish out of water!"

"Aye, aye captain!" Alexander declared with a bit of snark in his tone.

"What was that? You want me to double the weights?" he said as he stood up and began moving towards where the extra weights rested. "Why certainly! Anything for my newest student!"

"WAIT!" Alexander exclaimed, almost breaking his stride before realizing that that would be a bad idea. "No… need… for that… unh… this is… enough!"

He kept his grin internal as his move to crush his student's complaints proved to be successful.

It wouldn't do for the young man to disrespect his teacher since it might lead to ignoring important lessons or nuggets of wisdom. For any warrior, no matter what their chosen weapon might be, it was a matter of fact that all it took was one forgotten fact or detail to lead to defeat. It would not do for a future master of Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū to suffer defeat due to carelessness.

Looking away for a moment to see how the other children were doing, he was glad to see that they were applying themselves to their chores. He hadn't given them anything too hard to do but they would definitely earn their keep and keep them from developing any freeloader traits. While there were kind souls out there that would never turn their backs on anyone, even freeloaders, it was inevitable that such lazy people would one day encounter someone who would take offense to their habits. That or they'd run out of people willing to give them something for nothing, leaving them without the means to take care of themselves.

Discipline and hard work were needed to survive in any era.

Those without either did not get very far in life.

At the very least they'll know how to best use the various tools I've picked up over the years, he thought as he turned back to his student. Most of them probably belong in a museum but if what I suspect is true, then they'll be all the children have.

Aside from the countless deaths there was the damage to the various buildings in Kyoto both on the inside as well as the outside to take into account. If everyone in the city either died or was transformed by the calamity, that still wouldn't account for the amount of damage done to the city. Some of it might've happened due to the earthquake that changed the landscape of the area but it wouldn't cover everything. When they'd been scavenging for food and medicine, he'd tested random machines and such to see if any of them could still prove useful. What he found was that there was a distinct division between what still worked and what for some odd reason did not. From what he could tell, pretty much anything invented after the nineteen eighties was completely useless while technology from before that decade could still be made to work. If this remained true across all forms of technology and advancements, then learning to survive without that which they'd grown up taking for granted would be necessary.

I do NOT look forward to the complaining they'll all do, he thought with a frown without breaking his focus on his student. I think I'll let Alexander be the one to tell them. They'll take it better from someone closer to their own age and I'll definitely feel better.

It was, after all, the duty of every student to repay his master whenever they could, such as handling the minor things that anyone could do.

A Lake Close to Seijuro Hiko's Home

Xander's POV

Hard to believe that six months have already gone by, he thought, pulling his head out of the lake. Still, can't argue with the results of Hiko's training, even if the old man is certifiable.

Looking down at his reflection in the surface of the water, what he beheld was not the body of an average teenager who engaged in casual exercise. It was instead more akin to a college athlete who took competing in his chosen sport seriously and trained accordingly. Hiko, of course, didn't say a word of praise at his progress and the second it looked like he might be getting used to the strain of each exercise the old man raised the bar, making it barely doable. Every day he was worked to the bone, making it so that he slept long and well. When it got so bad that his body started protesting loudly enough, his teacher gave him a few days to recover before restarting the training workload. He often wished that the old man would add two or three more days to the recovery period but it never lasted longer than it took for the soreness to recede to mild discomfort.

Walking back to shore, he slipped his top back on before sliding his katana back beneath his belt and then began the walk back to Hiko's house. It might be evening and supper would be soon but that didn't mean that his training was over with just yet. They were crude but several exercise setups had been erected in the open area in front of the house that could still be used by light of a fire. Since his training began, he usually wound up training until a little past ten in the evening but he didn't know how accurate Hiko's clock was, given its age. He had no way to confirm the time himself since, oddly enough, his digital watch had stopped working with his transportation to Japan. Still, with no drastic change to his sleeping schedule and using how his body felt, he was confident that he was still more or less maintaining his usual sleeping schedule.

He couldn't say the same of the others, though.

They'd all lived in a city for the majority of their lives, so they weren't used to roughing it in a very rudimentary house with only the barest of essentials. Nothing electronic made after the eighties worked for some reason, so computers, CDs, Walkmans, cell phones and video game consoles had been reduced to paperweights. With every subsequent salvaging trip they took to Kyoto to find things that could aid in their survival, the others learned of more and more things that they'd taken for granted no longer worked. None of them were electricians or had the slightest experience with various devices, but even still they'd looked inside some of the things that didn't work to see if they could figure out what was wrong. In most devices there were signs of burned internal workings but for the most part visually there was nothing that looked out of place or damaged. Even when they popped in fresh batteries with the things that needed them, they didn't work. Hiko theorized that it was the very complexity of the objects made after nineteen eighty, as well as the materials used in their construction that made it so that they couldn't work.

He was still spouting that gibberish about the planet Earth being moved someplace else and that the new location operated on subtle differences from the laws of physics that they were used to. Not enough so that the average person would notice but, if a proper scientific study was conducted, it'd become all too clear.

Whatever'd happened in Sunnydale with Acathla and whatever took out Tokyo probably just set off some kind of arcane EMP that fried random electronics that just happened to have been created after nineteen eighty. This perfectly explained why search and rescue services hadn't arrived in Kyoto and, since human beings could be considered biological technology, it'd also explain why some people died while others got turned into animal people.

It all made perfect sense to his mind!

It also explained why emergency services were so late in investigating Kyoto if a ton of their equipment stopped working. They'd have to do some serious hunting and scavenging to find stuff that still worked and would do what they needed it to do. He personally gave them another month before they'd have cobbled together enough stuff to send an actual team or three to Kyoto to look around.

Not that he'd be there when they did arrive.

If the damage was as widespread throughout Japan as he thought, airports and docks would likely be locked down until they determined who was responsible and captured them. Even then there'd probably be quite a bit of scrutiny focused on who was coming and who was going in case a follow up terrorists showed up. He'd definitely be a bit suspicious since he didn't have a passport and there wouldn't be a record of how he'd come to be in Japan, so they'd think he snuck in. Sneaking in implied guilt and, considering the sheer level of national outrage that'd be sent his way, it was unlikely that they'd set the burden of proof very high. No one knew he was, much less the American government, so if they kept things secret then they could pretty much do whatever they wanted to him. Even if word did get out that the Japanese government had arrested an American teenage boy, he didn't see the U S of A putting up much of a fight for him.

That was another reason why he was serious about learning Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū.

Not only would it allow him to survive the dangerous wildlife but also, if it came down to it, he'd have a way of dealing with soldiers who were all too willing to dump blame in his lap. Sure, normally an idiot who tried to fight modern guns with a sword would get killed but some of the moves Hiko demonstrated when he'd asked changed everything. Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū allowed the one using the style to move so fast that scores of enemies could be cut down. Also, with how quick he'd be able to move, it'd be very difficult for them to get a bead on him unless he got sloppy and he was pretty sure that Hiko would beat that habit out of him quickly.

Seeing the turn up ahead, he mentally ticked off on his mental map the fact that he was almost to the house he currently called home. With a little bit of luck, Hitori and Minmei would be finished with supper by the time he arrived, allowing him to fill his stomach with delicious food. He wasn't relying on them because he refused to cook himself but rather because, given his unfamiliarity with Japanese ingredients, his first two attempts had been quickly labeled toxic waste. Since none of the others wanted to go without food or waste precious resources, he'd been told he was exempt from meal duty and instead was assigned chores that'd help in his training. That meant chopping wood for the fire, helping with any repairs that needed to be done to Hiko's house and carrying the heavier items salvaged from Kyoto.

Considering how scrumptious the meals cooked by Hitori and Minmei were, there was no way he was going to try and force himself back into the kitchen for another failure.

As the house came into view, he found himself oddly comforted by the sights that had become commonplace in the last weeks. He'd gotten to know each of the survivors of Kyoto quite well and, while some of Minmei's quirks rubbed him the wrong way, he didn't think he'd come to hate her the way he did some of Cordy's clique. Kirito was pretty much what you'd come to expect from a teenage guy and they'd become friends over their shared unfamiliarity with roughing it in the woods. True, he thought that Hiko was harder on him than on Kirito but he didn't take it personally since his teacher was like that with him no matter what he did. The funny thing was that, even though Seijuro was hard on him almost all day, it never felt like the times that Tony acted like an asshole towards him. Try as he might to compare the two and find differences, he found that many of the things his sperm donator did Hiko also employed but with the same results.

The only thing his fried brain could come up with was that, unlike Tony, the old man never did any of those things out of malice or drunken hostility. Hiko only pushed him because he genuinely thought that he could rise to the occasion, or at least that was the conclusion he'd arrived at. Tony, on the other hand, only piled on the work or made hurtful comments because the asshole needed to make other people feel worse than he did. Tony was a man who never held down a job for long, only got new ones out of charity and probably heard people regularly speaking of him out of contempt or derision. While he could understand up to a point why Tony would get angry, it was wrong to take it out on those he should hold most precious.

"How long 'til supper's ready, Minmei?" he asked once he got close enough that yelling was not needed.

"It's almost done, Xander… probably," Minmei replied from her position next to the cooking pot.

Probably? How ominous.

"I've never cooked something like this before!" Minmei exclaimed defensively even as she held up a cook book in her hand. "But I've been following the directions as best I can!"

He had to admit that without a stove to precisely calibrate the heat and pre-digital watches to monitor the time following recipes that took such things for granted would be difficult. For him it'd probably require quite a bit of trial and error to match the level of bubbling to a desired temperature but Minmei was managing pretty good if previous meals showed anything.

"Don't worry. I'm sure you'll do fine," he said with a reassuring grin on his face. "You haven't screwed up so far and I don't have any reason to think you will now."

Predictably Minmei didn't say anything but he could tell that she was a little less worried about the results of her current cooking combination.

Hitori at the moment was setting the table that they set up outside for group meals because, while Hiko's house could fit the five of them, it was by a very small margin and that was only if they put some of the furniture outside. The old man had grumbled about it the first few nights but, after a while, seemed to accept it and never spoke of the matter again. He thought for a moment it was because the stuff they put outside was valuable but, no matter how you looked at them, they were ordinary pieces. He could only suppose that they might hold some sort of sentimental value that made Seijuro oppose leaving them outside where they might get damaged by the elements.

"Need any help over there, Hitori?" he asked just in case she was feeling a little overwhelmed.

"No, Xander-san. Thanks for asking, though," she replied as politely as she ever did.

After getting over most of her trauma from the terrible happenings of Kyoto, she'd turned out to be one of the nicest and most polite young girls he'd ever met. So much so that he doubted that there'd ever be even a bit of darkness in her soul no matter how long she lived. In truth, he almost saw her as the ideal little sister model rather than the mixed bag of traits that most older brother's got, save one little quirk that kept the title from being perfect.

The few times that she'd accompanied him to Kyoto, she'd stopped in a few book stores and even disappeared once or twice before returning with a bag full of books. At first he hadn't thought much of it since it hurt no one and it was none of his business what sort of books she liked to read. However it was during the weekly cleaning of Hiko's home that he'd stumbled across her stash and found out unintentionally that she liked reading manga that was centered around guys romancing guys. It wasn't porn, nothing more than what you'd see in most prime time TV shows, but it had still caused him to immediately put them away before finding someplace else to be.

There were many things he loved about Japanese manga and anime, one guilty pleasure of his being harem stories with one guy and many pretty ladies, but he just couldn't find it within himself to understand the whole yaoi thing. Maybe it was a product of his mainstream American upbringing or maybe it was just a contradiction to how he'd always viewed the world, but two guys being all lovey-dovey with each other made no sense whatsoever. It made even less sense that someone like Hitori would actually be interested in such manga since every other girl he knew preferred man/woman romances.

So long as she doesn't fall into the same trap as Buffy with the whole 'Romeo and Juliet' scenario, I don't really mind, he thought before looking to see if he could spot Hiko.

The old man was nowhere to be found but that could be either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what mood the swordsman had been in when he'd left. If the man had left in a good mood then it implied a heavy night of training since Hiko seemed to take pleasure in making him go pale at the newest goal. If Seijuro had left in a bad mood, it meant something troublesome had popped up that only he could fix in a satisfactory manner. Both possibilities had him worried since weird new training or some kind of trouble did not bode well for anyone's immediate future.

Still, there was nothing he could do about either until he learned more, so he'd just keep his senses sharp while going about his normal routine for the evening.

He groaned a bit as he remembered that tonight was one of the nights he'd have to sleep inside the cave with the dragon egg in order to 'bond' with it properly.

I still think it's nuts that he thinks the dragonling will bond with me like a duck, he thought before heading for the closest chair to sit down. But if I don't do it voluntarily, Hiko'll find a way to make it happen involuntarily.

The Woods Nearby

Seijuro Hiko's POV

"Looks like I'll have to up my idiot apprentice's training," he muttered as he flicked the last of the blood off of his blade before sliding it back into its sheath.

Not that he was entirely dissatisfied with Alexander's progress thus far but, after this incident, it was clear that battle would come to the lad quicker than he'd originally anticipated. At first the only threats that he'd thought existed for those under his protection were the enhanced animals that were already native to the area. They were easy enough to handle by playing on their instincts to his advantage or slaying those who would not be hindered by his precautionary measures.

This, however, was another matter altogether.

Looking down at the misshapen form he'd cut apart, he chastised himself for not considering that this might be one of the consequences of the relocation of Earth. He'd suspected within the first three days that that nature, both plants as well as animals, would be affected by the new rules. When he'd seen the automobile off to the side of the road, he'd immediately suspected what Alexander would find inside of it. He'd been somewhat surprised at discovering the changed Hitori, Kirito and Minmei but had adapted to the change in circumstances well enough.

He had not considered until now that there might exist those who'd wound up halfway between human and demihuman, as he'd come to call those humans with animal traits.

Yet the truth lay dead before him.

From what he could make out, the corpse had started out as a human male and whatever was responsible for the change had tried to mix the man with a dog. However, the random length of the limbs, the patches of fur rather than the uniform coat and the jaw that looked like it'd only just be capable of allowing the abomination to eat made it clear that the transformation had been far from perfect. Likely the chaotic nature of the man's new form had driven the human insane and, as a result, instinct rather than rational thought had governed its actions. He'd sensed its unstable ki as Minmei had begun preparing supper and left to deal with it since he didn't want his meal interrupted.

When he'd found the abomination, it'd been tearing into a larger than normal otter but did not seem intent on eating it at all. He'd attempted to communicate with the former human in order to determine just how much of its former humanity remained but all he'd gotten were animalistic growls, snarls and slobbering. When it'd chosen to attack him, its movements had been very direct and unimaginative, making even ordinary animals seem like tactical geniuses with how they dealt with their prey. That being said, it did possess speed as well as power that surpassed what anyone but he possessed. At their current level of combat capability, none of the children would've lasted long against the abomination.

He would like to think that the one he'd just slain was the only one that existed but, in matters such as these, where there was one there were almost certainly more. The human population was over six billion people, with the population of Japan itself having one hundred and twenty-seven million people living within its borders. Even if only one percent of them turned into abominations, that would mean that scattered across Japan there was one and a quarter million of them. With one potentially existing for every square mile of Japan it wasn't too bad but if they were truly ruled by their instincts, they could very well develop pack instincts. That could lead to groups of anywhere from thirty to a hundred and that would mean trouble for any surviving groups of humans turned demihumans. With such groups possessing a random assortment of skills and possessions, the odds of forming an armed united front capable of defeating such a pack were small.

Once Xander faced his first one and came to the same conclusions, he might very well choose to run off to help others just like Kenshin would. If either of them had any sense, they'd realize that running off with incomplete skills or abilities would only cause the situation to get worse.

That was why he had to increase the training load since he knew there'd be a limit to how long his more convincing arguments would be able to keep Alexander from running off to 'save Japan'. It was times like these that he really wished that he'd learned how to erect barriers from a monk or a feng shuei master since it'd make protecting his charges easier. Since that wasn't the case, he'd have to settle for doing everything he could to accelerate his student's training without destroying his body in the progress.

Casting his senses about to see if there were any more of the abominations, he was somewhat relieved to find no ki signals that matched what he'd just slain. A few animals both of the normal and abnormal variety but nothing that matched the abomination that lay dead at his feet.

Given that we haven't encountered them before now during our trips, it would not be beyond the realm of possibility that it was attracted by the smell of corpses in Kyoto, he thought as he began to walk back to where the others awaited him. Once it found nothing it liked there, it likely began searching the immediate area for something more appetizing.

Depending on what sort of range the abomination's sense of smell had, more would likely come until the stink of decay from Kyoto died down.

He'd have to call off any more salvage trips to the city for the next while until Xander became competent back up.

It didn't take him long to arrive back at home and, judging by the appetizing smell in the air, Minmei's supper was ready to eat. While there was nothing wrong with the food he usually cooked for himself, it was nice to experience something a little different. There was a variation in quality but that was to be expected when the cooks didn't have the tools they were used to on hand. Still, it'd never gotten so bad that he even thought about handling all the meals himself and he could then use that time to train Alexander.

"Where'd you go, sensei?" Alexander asked, being the first to notice his return.

"An overly large animal was heading in our direction," he replied, being more or less truthful. "I decided to deal with it before it interrupted our meal."

"Another bear?" Alexander asked out of curiosity.

"Something like that," he replied as he took his usual chair.

No need to scare them with the truth until they had the skills to face it without fear.

For now he would let them have their time of peace, a new family and minds free of the hardships he had a feeling were on their way.

They'd have to grow up sooner or later but he was kind enough to make it later.

At least until he got handed a reason to make it sooner, that is.

The Dragon Egg Cave

Xander's POV

Roll it up. Roll it down. He continued to perform the only exercise he could in the cave. Never thought that doing something so simple could be so hard.

He held a metal rod in his hands but the rod had some rope tied to it and at the other end of the rope was a weight that could be made heavier or lighter depending on the situation. The objective was to roll the rope up around the rod and then roll it back off over and over again. The part that made it tough was the fact that Hiko had instructed him to do it slowly so as to get the best results out of the exercise. As for the goal of this exercise, it was to strengthen his wrists so that he'd be able to keep his katana steady and maintain a solid blocking position. He'd initially scoffed at the point of the exercise but, when Hiko had challenged him to do fifty katana swings and block strikes from him fifty more times, he got the message.

His wrists had been sore for the rest of the day and required an ice pack in order for the swelling to go down.

Feeling the burn begin to mount in his wrists, he did three more reps before dropping the improvised exercise tool and taking a seat on the floor next to his bottle of water. Taking a quick swig, while wiping the sweat off his face, he looked over at the egg that hadn't so much as moved since he'd first been given the responsibility of caring for it by the old man. It would've been a little entertaining if it'd glowed or if he heard little dragon noises coming from it but he hadn't gotten any of that. So, aside from switching out the smelly old stuff to keep the egg warm with new stuff and making sure the fires were burning at sunset to keep things warm throughout the night. It didn't mean that he had to spend every single night sleeping in the cave, just every other night, but it still wasn't something he enjoyed, even with the comfortable sleeping bag that'd been salvaged from a Kyoto store.

How long does it take for a dragon egg to hatch anyways? He turned his gaze away from the egg. Six months? A year? For that matter how long has it been since this thing was laid in the first place?

Without knowing when the dragon the egg belonged to popped the egg out in the first place, he had no way of knowing how long he had left to wait even if he did know how long it took for a dragon egg to hatch. Thinking about it for a moment, he had to wonder whether he wanted it to happen sooner or later. He had no doubt that it'd be scary as heck and a mess of trouble after it hatched, thus a part of him wanted to delay its hatching for as long as possible. On the other hand, the sooner it hatched the sooner he could sleep back at Hiko's now-repaired house and that would be nice. So, being torn between two possible scenarios, he decided to toss the entire line of thought over his shoulder, leaving it to chance to choose when the egg would pop.

Cr-rck…

What the-? He thought as he turned back to the egg.

Cr-ra-ack…

This time there was no missing the crack that formed in the surface of the egg and, assuming that it wasn't some sort of early hatching, it meant that the baby dragon was about to say 'hello' to the world. Not having the slightest clue about how to handle a newborn dragon, he ran to the entrance of the cave and did the only thing that came to mind.

"HIKO! HELP!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.

He didn't know how sharp Hiko's ears were but he seriously hoped that they were sharp enough to hear him and that the old man could get to the cave in time to make himself useful.

Going back into the cave, he saw that two more separate cracks had popped into existence, joining the one he'd first seen. At the rate they were appearing the egg would lose the ability to hold itself together in another few minutes, so he was relatively okay with that since it should be more than enough time for Hiko to arrive and help out.

CR-R-RACK!

"ROAR!" came the first bellow of the dragon as its head burst out of the top of the egg into the open air.

It wasn't really all that intimidating a sound but his imagination had no trouble imagining what it'd sound like once the dragon was fully grown. He'd bet good money it'd be scary enough to make the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. Inch by inch the head went further from the hole it'd made in the egg upon a decidedly lengthy neck but eventually two short clawed arms appeared, allowing it to pull even more of itself out of the egg. Eventually the structural integrity of the egg collapsed, letting out the entire baby dragon, covered in its birthing fluids, and exposing its true form.

So I'm dealing with a Shenron type dragon instead of a Bahamut style dragon, he thought absentmindedly, picturing the dragon from the anime first before thinking of the Final Fantasy dragon. I wonder if it'll grant me any wishes.

It was a ridiculous notion considering the fact that it hadn't been spawned by seven amber orbs and wasn't big enough to be seen from a mile away, but that's where his imagination had taken him.

Like with most newborns it was wobbly on its feet, having trouble figuring out what did what and how to stand, so he had some time to take all of it in. It had a golden underbelly gong from right under its jaw almost to the very tip of its tail but, as for the rest of it, the color almost made him think the scales were rubies. The tiny claws poking out of each toe were carbon black, with the horns being the same color wrapped around the sides of its head to form a sharp-looking crown. It was a bit surprising to see that it had hair since, in his experience, most lizards and reptiles didn't have hair. This one did but, instead of being red, gold or black, the hair was the color of freshly polished ivory, looking to be only an inch or so in length at the moment. However it was when its head turned in his direction and the eyelids peeled back to reveal slitted amber colored eyes that matched those of every Hollywood dragon that he almost bolted.

Almost but, before he could put act to his thoughts, he realized that, like the bear, the dragon would likely pursue him as prey if he ran. At the same time though being confrontational with the creature might in fact inspire an aggressive response that he would very much like to avoid, seeing as how he was NOWHERE as fast as Hiko at the moment. So instead he tried to find and embrace his inner calm, believing that if he didn't give off any vibes one way or another it might confuse the dragon long enough for Hiko to arrive. When that happened he hoped that the swordsman had some useful bits of information for getting on a dragon's good side, as well as taming it enough to eliminate it as a future threat.

Over and over again he repeated every movie quote he'd ever heard about creating a peaceful mind and a serene soul, hoping that it'd have a calming effect. Looking at the dragon, he could see it starting to get used to its four legs but fortunately it didn't look like it'd be running any races anytime soon. As for what it was thinking… it didn't look to be getting aggressive or sizing him up for its very first meal, but then again it was a staple of sci-fi that it was a mistake to attach human thinking to inhuman things. In this case it'd be a mistake to try to match how the dragon was moving with how a human would move if aggressive. Slowly but surely it approached him, giving him the impression of a curious dog who'd never seen what it was looking at before and was curious about finding out more.

Show no fear, feel no fear, show no fear, he thought as he did his best not to fidget as the dragon's head invaded his personal space.

With surprising noise for simple sniffing the scaled creature inhaled his scent but, considering that it'd never been outside its egg before, he was pretty sure it didn't have anything to compare his stink to. Unless dragons had come kind of genetic memory where things like 'this is food' were stored and passed down to future generations, he should be safe.

So long as he made sure that the dragon was never in a situation where there was a risk of it getting human flesh into its mouth. If he didn't let it get a taste for the stuff, the odds of him getting put on the menu would be minimal.

When its sniffing got to his chest the animal used its front legs to grip the front of his pants so it could raise its head to be level with his own. He could hear the denim strain to keep from ripping under the creature's weight but, once the amber eyes were on the same level as his own, the sound of little bits of fabric ripping ceased. Doing his best to keep from freaking out at being so close to some sharp teeth, he just gazed into the eyes, trying to give the impression of total calmness. He managed to maintain the calmness right up until its tongue snaked out of its mouth to give him a good lick across the face, leaving a trail of drool behind it. While not as repulsed by such things as, say, Buffy or Willow, that didn't mean he liked it when demons, or in this case a dragon, slimed him.

Deciding that now was the time to install some rules between them, he grabbed one of its shoulders and the other pressed against its chest/neck before trying to push it off. However this was not something the dragon apparently wanted as it dug his claws even more into his jeans, bringing back the tearing sound and even pricking his skin. Wincing both at the pain as well as the mess that was being made of his jeans, he decided that since Hiko did have spares back at it house it was worth ruining his pants if it meant freeing himself from the dragon. Using even more of the strength he'd gained from training to push even harder but, sadly, this resulted in something that was both a good thing and a bad thing.

The good thing was that he managed to finally get the dragon off of him without getting some nasty cuts from the claws on its front legs.

The bad part? This shredded of his jeans and left him in just his tighty-whiteys below the waist and OF COURSE this just had to happen just as Hiko, Hitori, Minmei and Kirito dashed into the cave.

He looked down at his now bare legs.

He looked over at the dragon that had apparently come to the decision to finish turning his jeans into so much confetti.

He looked back at the others, all of whom had a 'what the hell' look on their faces, though the girls were looking away with a slight blush on their cheeks.

"Anyone ever tell you your timing stinks, sensei?" he asked rhetorically even as he thought that it'd have been nice if Hiko had arrived BEFORE the dragon had gotten close.

"Once or twice," Hiko replied, ignoring the fact that the question had been obviously rhetorical in nature.

Sighing, he just looked back to the dragon, which by now had finished with the jeans, looked back at him with an expression that he could not define one bit.

Something tells me that my life just got a little more complicated, he thought with a sigh as he began to walk towards the entrance to the cave, intent on finding replacement pants ASAP.

It was getting cold and drafty.

Outside Hiko's Hutt

A Few Months Later

Seijuro Hiko's POV

The bond has formed, he thought as he watched Xander go through his practice swings.

It had been a full year since he'd begun working with Xander to beat his body into something resembling passable shape and he was glad to see that it was a sight better than Kenshin's had been at the start of his training. Then again, his former idiot student had always possessed a slight build and had occasionally been mistaken for a woman until the stranger got a better look at him, so perhaps that wasn't saying much.

Whatever the physical state, he'd chosen to start official kenjutsu training two days ago, starting with the five most basic ways of attacking as well as the five fundamental ways of defending. He'd been able to tell the moment he'd seen the young man grip Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi that the American had never received a day of official instruction in swordsmanship in his entire life. That had meant going back to the absolute basics, ranging from how to properly hold a katana with one or two hands and a lecture on the nine points of the human body that all sword styles inevitably targeted. While he could've just pointed them out on the wooden training dummy and been done with it, he chose to go into a bit more detail. He explained the effects of striking each point, from a small cut to something a few inches deep, but that was under the premise that the opponent would be human. If it turned out to be an animal or something else, Alexander would have to learn which spots were best to strike at on his own.

As for the dragon that Alexander had moronically proven his lack of imagination by naming Ruby, it had thus far proven his original theory of imprinting on the first lifeform it saw as family, or at least as something that could be trusted. As a result Ruby never strayed far from the young man, often slept at his side and, whenever mealtime came around, would often try to coerce bits of food from his plate. In many ways it resembled your average domesticated pet but then there were the times that it proved beyond a reasonable doubt that it was something else entirely.

One such example was the fact that from time to time it would try to take to the air, emitting a mist of sorts from its body in the process, but while it could hover as well as travel short distances, it wouldn't be touching the clouds any time soon. Whenever it tried to ascend higher than four or so feet into the air, some sort of instability manifested, causing it to drop down to more stable altitudes of flight. It had yet to prove itself capable of breathing fire or some other destructive force but he expected that would come in time as it matured. Its claws, on the other hand, had already proven themselves capable of cutting through stone as well as steel, as proven when it'd been unsatisfied with its food portion and gone straight to the storehouse for more. It'd succeeded in clawing through the stone wall in a matter of seconds and, even when he'd brought a lock box from Kyoto to put the food in, the dragon still managed to bite through the metal.

Only by taking steps beyond the normal as well as every scent concealing trick he knew were they able to finally keep the food from being pilfered behind their backs.

I can only imagine the sort of trouble it will give Alexander once it's all grown up, he thought, remembering that, while it had been some time since it'd hatched, it'd still be a while before it reached adult size.

According to the book he had on dragons, their rate of growth depended on the breed but even the most prodigious growers among the various breeds still needed at least three years to reach the average size of an adult. With a few months out of the way already that meant, in roughly a year and a half, Ruby would be big enough to bite a human in half or even swallow one whole. Given the food requirements for a creature that size, just keeping the crimson dragon fed would take some doing.

Concealing such a large creature would also be something of a problem, especially if enough electrical eyes and ears were still functional enough to spread the word quickly. Throughout the ages dragons had been associated with power and there was no question in his mind that at least some of the survivors would be criminals or people who'd adopt criminal behavior in order to survive. If such people learned that a genuine dragon existed, they'd either do everything they could to acquire Ruby or they'd try to kill her in order to neutralize a potential threat. Until Xander became a true Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū master, Ruby fully came into her own both in style as well as deadliness and his idiot student gained a few respectable allies, it would be best to keep the dragon hidden.

"Watch your elbows, Xander!" he yelled at his student, whose swings were beginning to produce flaws. "Remember how I showed you!"

Almost immediately the swings went back to the way they were supposed to be but this slip could mean that his student was getting bored with the repetitive swings. It was often a problem with anyone wishing to learn kenjutsu and he'd been through a similar issue with Kenshin early on in his training. Back then he resolved it by taking the boy into Kyoto for a day or two of distraction before resuming his training. Unfortunately, with the city in the state it was in now, there wasn't much in the way of desirable distractions so that destination was out of the question.

Hmmmm… perhaps a trip to Nagoya would be better, he thought as he remembered passing through there a few years back. Transformed humans, abominations and enhanced beasts aren't the only things to worry about in Japan now.

There was also the indigenous youkai population to be concerned about.

With the opening of the country to foreign powers and their scientific advances, obstacles that normally would've kept the human population in check became less and less of an issue. As a result of the increase in population over the decades that followed, more and more wilderness was eliminated to make way for housing and industry. Not many breeds of youkai could pass for human and there were some who treated modern technology the same way humans treated a serious spill of toxic waste. As a result, youkai who chose to mingle with the human population made sure to stay on the periphery of civilization so as not to risk exposure. As for those who despised technology, they would often attack any attempts to expand further into the wild, only for the incidents to be labeled as the work of 'exo-terrorists'.

In the aftermath of the Calamity, both kinds of youkai would reevaluate their current situations to see how it could hurt them or how it could benefit them. He was fairly certain that whatever had killed most of the humans in Kyoto would not have had such fatal consequences for the youkai population. There might be some physical alterations but, given the nature of youkai in general, their bodies would be more accepting of changes than a human's body. In all likelihood the ones who hated technology would probably attempt to retake lost territory while also destroying everything connected to humanity as a form of revenge.

Those who'd mingled with humanity would likely mourn the loss of those humans who they'd become close to but would likely get over it in time depending on the lifespan of their specific race.

In preparation for an encounter with one of the more hostile breeds of youkai, he planned on dropping in on the Amakawa family. He'd met up with Sawako and Gennosuke in the late eighties during one of their jobs to deal with a pack of troublesome youkai, helping them along the way. They'd had things mostly under control and it'd only been because one of the youkai had decided that he was with them that he'd gotten involved.

The fight had ended quite swiftly after that.

Somehow after that they'd gone to a nearby bar & restaurant to celebrate their victory as well as get to know each other. While he would never change his opinion about humanity and civilization, he had hit it off fairly well with them even with them being Demon Slayers. Contrary to what the twelve Japanese demon slayer families would have you believe, they were not the only people who saw it as their duty to defend Japan against supernatural threats. The Twelve, though, were the more vicious when it came to dealing with youkai when compared to other non-affiliated people or groups. The Twelve saw it as their purpose to completely eradicate youkai or, as they called them, 'ayakashi', regardless of the fact that some species of youkai were in no way a threat to humans. Luckily for him the Amakawa clan was the only member of The Twelve that took a more rational stance towards the youkai, going so far as sparing youkai when it was possible to do so without endangering innocent beings. For this mercy and compassion the other members of the Twelve often looked down on them and felt disgust at the habit but not enough to excommunicate them from the group itself. By the time their celebration came to an end, he was able to consider them friends who he occasionally sent to and received letters from over the years.

It'd been a while since he'd last gotten one of their letters but he was sure that even if they'd passed on from old age, their son would have taken up the same profession. A quick trip to their home in the country to acquire a supply of ofuda and other components needed to protect the forest where his home stood would be good. The spells and wards would likely need some flexibility in order to ensure that only those who meant to do harm would be kept out but he was sure that the Amakawas could help with that.

Now if I recall, a trip from Kyoto to Nagoya usually took about an hour and a half by car, but since we don't have a car, it'll probably take closer to a day and a half, he thought as he continued to watch Xander's form for mistakes in need of correction. Some camping equipment would be needed unless we went right through the night without rest. We'll likely need to leave Kirito in charge of the others until we get back.

It shouldn't be much more than four or five days, depending on the status of their stock of components and the availability of free time.

He'd already spent a few nights clearing out the local predators and using Ruby's waste to put up a natural barrier around his property. With enough food to last them the five days and the instructions he'd give them not to leave the forest for any reason, they'd be safe enough from harm.

Maybe I'll be lucky enough that their grandson will be far along enough in his training for a little light sparring between the two of them, he thought with a grin at the possibilities. Might just be enough to motivate Xander past the boredom.

A Highway in Japan

Xander's POV

"What makes you think your friends are still alive?" he asked as they walked down the highway towards Nagoya. "I thought you believed that everyone was dead 'cause the world got stolen."

"I never said that everyone was dead," Hiko said without turning his head. "I merely said that when being brought into a new reality, a new dimension, it was only logical that the rules that governed things there would be different. Couple that with whatever issues that reality had to begin with in terms of war or disease and survivability would be questionable at best."

"Then how'd you survive? How'd they?" he asked, hoping to poke holes in the man's bullshit story.

"I survived because I was able to use my ki to protect myself during the transition…" Hiko replied as birds flew by overhead, "…and because I believe that those who are not completely human are somehow rendered safe from the death that killed so many in Kyoto."

"Not completely human?" he asked before coming to a stop with a spike of wariness.

"You've been living with me for over a year and you only think about that now?" Hiko asked, turning around as he came to a stop. "My great great grandfather was kitsune-youkai. Though the youkai blood has thinned over each successive generation, it is still enough to warrant defining me as less than human apparently."

"What about me? Or Hitori? Minmei? Kirito?" he asked, trying to find further flaw in his sensei's methods.

"You and the others are likely safe from death for the same reason. Each of them now have traits of animals and can no longer be classified as human," Hiko replied without any hesitation. "As for you, I imagine that before Janus dropped you in my lap he altered you as well to ensure that you would be able to make the most of my training as well as survive in a world no longer as you remember."

Him? No longer human?

"Don't think that just because you don't have horns or furry ears that I am wrong," Hiko said as he turned back. "I know what men are capable of, I've seen many and fought against many more, and you have exceeded what should've been possible for a man in one year. And you do not smell human."

"Are you saying I stink?" he asked humorously so as to make fun of the idea of him being anything but human.

"One of the things I inherited from my great great grandfather was a sense of smell that is much greater than any pure human. One of the benefits is being able to identify people by their scent as well as see through attempts by youkai to appear human," Hiko replied, not rising to the bait in the slightest. "Your scent… I guess you could say that Janus likely chose your inhuman side with a bit of humor. Then there is of the fact that a master of Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū can sense the ki of others well enough to determine if something is different about them be it illness or a difference of heritage."

"Whatever," he said as he resumed walking behind Hiko, shoving all that he'd heard aside.

He rejected what the guy implied about him and his whole story about a displaced Earth but the idea that something being different in the survivors genetically made a sort of sense. If what killed the people in Kyoto was some sort of biological weapon tailored to kill humans, then even a slight difference in DNA might very well be enough to keep him and everyone else from dying.

He wasn't quite sure how the whole 'getting animal parts tacked on' came into play but, if Hiko was at least being truthful about being part youkai, then it provided an answer for Hitori and the others. If each of them, somewhere in their family tree, had some youkai blood, then perhaps whatever wiped out Kyoto had somehow caused that ancient blood to assert itself.

As for him his best guess was that Janus put some kind of divine protection on him before dropping him on Hiko's doorstep. He'd heard Giles mention a few times how deities could put their blessing on a human and, so long the god that placed the blessing was strong enough, it could protect the human from harm. However, if the attack was from a stronger deity, directly or indirectly, the blessing could be shattered, allowing harm to befall the human that once was protected. It was a little hit or miss as to how science and sorcery would interact when they came into contact but, seeing as how he was still alive, he guessed that Janus' power was stronger than a manmade disease.

Here's hoping that Janus doesn't up and decide to yank that protection for laughs, he thought, passing by a car that'd gone partially off the road, its passengers visible to his eyes.

He shuddered at the idea of going through whatever these poor souls had been put through before dying. To be killed so swiftly that you could not even try to flee or go somewhere for help… he could only hope that they died too quickly to feel any pain.

As time passed and they got closer to Nagoya his mind was opened to how widespread the biological attack must have been. Not an hour went by that they didn't come across one or more vehicles with their dead passengers still inside and they were miles from Kyoto. His mind worked to try and conceive of how the tailor made disease worked as well as its maximum range once released. His inexperienced mind thought that it would only be logical that it would not spread beyond its target city, being designed to go inert before it could do so.

No one wanted a land, after all, that was too poisoned by an artificial disease to live in.

Then again terrorists were never the most rational of people and logic often didn't factor into their decisions.

Depending on how they came by the tailor-made disease, it could've had a few miscalculations mixed into its makeup, causing it to spread beyond its original target area. If the targets were major Japanese cities but the disease spread past the outer edges, then the death toll could be ridiculously high. He knew that they'd left Kyoto well behind them so, if the car occupants they saw had died from the weapon released from there, then the range of the disease was great indeed. It was terrible enough that Kyoto had been rendered devoid of life along with anything human in the surrounding area, but if more than one city suffered the same fate then…

Immediately he had to fight the nausea rising within him at the death toll his imagination was coming up with.

His original theory had been that the reason why there'd been no search and rescue operations in Kyoto for so long was due to some sort of EMP shorting out a lot of the necessary equipment. However, if more than one city had been hit and the payload of each weapon had spread well beyond the city confines, then the truth might actually be that search and rescue was overwhelmed. While he was pretty sure that someone in the Japanese government had thought up worse case scenario involving a nation-wide threat, it was unlikely that any prep work had actually been done. No one would likely wish to see such a crisis happen so the government likely focused their efforts on stopping things from getting that bad in the first place. Suddenly having probably four or five cities get it, as well as the surrounding area, had the entire country in chaos. Depending on where the important government officials were when everything went to hell, as well as the military personnel who'd be in charge of field operations, Japan could metaphorically be headless as well as armless at the moment.

With no leadership either in the government or the military, it would be left to the local authorities and the people to fend for themselves.

That was not of the good no matter how you looked at it.

He'd seen too many movies involving a country post cataclysm and it either led to other nations swooping in to claim devastated land for their own or criminals using the chaos to seize entire cities.

Takeovers from within and possible invasion from without could mean that getting back to America would be a more perilous mission than he'd originally thought.

Smugglers might've seized control of the docks, bandits the roads and the local Yakuza each individual town or city worth holding. Given the fact that him and Hiko had managed to pilfer supplies from Kyoto not long after the attack, it would be stupid to think that others wouldn't be doing the same with the locations closest to them. That didn't mean just civilian stores or homes but also police precincts or military warehouses. Depending on the rules governing what could and could not be kept at such locations in the cities, it could turn a small time gang into major players capable of doing real harm.

Information. I need a way of getting info if I'm gonna figure out a way out of Japan and to America, he thought, walking down the road more or less on autopilot.

Until he knew which places to avoid and which places were safe, getting airborne on a plane or passage on a boat would have to wait. He had no money and, depending on who had control of the transportation hubs, it might cost more than G-man could loan him to get out of Japan.

The road home had just gotten a helluva lot longer for him but to see his friends who waited at the end, he would stay strong no matter what.

Nagoya

Seijuro Hiko's POV

Walking along the path that led to Sawako and Gennosuke's home in the woods, he hoped that the bad feeling he was experiencing was just the result of seeing no new survivors of the Calamity.

Throughout the journey from his home to Nagoya they'd come across numerous vehicles occupied by the corpses of their owners. The foulest one had been a bus that had been partially filled with people, but neither he nor his student had lingered any longer than they had to on such a horrible sight. Even after having seen the mass grave that Kyoto had been turned into, neither of them like to see further evidence of innocent people dead before their time. He'd been tempted for a time to use the mounting death toll to poke a hole in his stupid student's fantasy that only Japan had been devastated but in the end he chose not to. To do so would be to risk creating a rift between the two of them and that could be ill afforded if he was to succeed in passing on the teachings of Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū.

When he'd taken Kenshin as a student, it'd been the suffering of the people under the reign of the Tokugawa Bakufu that'd caused him to abandon his training before it'd been finished. This was because Kenshin's heart had been unable to numb itself to the troubles of the country and had acted to resolve those troubles using the skills he'd acquired. In Xander's case he sensed much the same way of thinking, that of one's heart, and if that were indeed true, then using the dead to prove his truth to be accurate would only anger the boy. Someone who was angry would resist the facts just to spite the person who angered them. It was imperative, though, that Xander accept the truth sooner rather than later for, once he was gone, the boy would be responsible for not just himself but for Hitori and the others.

Ignorance of the truth bred mistakes and mistakes in a chaotic world could lead to tragedy or death unless you were extremely skillful as well as lucky.

As he reached what he determined to be the mid-point of the trail, he looked about at the various tree branches, wondering where the bakeneko youkai Himari was. While not entirely the most dedicated of allies, the youkai did take her oath to the Amakawa clan seriously and, given the Calamity, he had expected the young lady to be on guard duty. She better than most would know how the various breeds of youkai and demon would react to the dramatic change in the national status quo. While the Amakawa clan took up a different stance on youkai in general, the youkai saw all members of The Twelve as enemies to be wiped out if the opportunity presented itself. As such maintaining a strict watch on the edges of the property was crucial to avoid being surrounded and wiped out by hostile youkai.

"What's wrong?" Xander asked, having noticed his wariness.

"Normally if there's trouble, a youkai by the name of Noihara Himari patrols the property for signs of intruders," he replied even as he continued to look for a white cat or a young woman in a kimono. "Even if she was on the other side of the property when we arrived she should've picked up our scents and come to determine our intentions."

"Maybe there's already been an attack and she's recovering?" Xander suggested, only sounding mildly concerned.

"Possible but I don't think so. As you may know youkai age differently than humans do and one that looks like a teenager could in fact be several centuries old. With age comes experience, skill and power," he said, shaking his head in the negative. "Himari-san is quite skilled in a variety of weapons and can get carried away if provoked. If a threat strong enough to harm her attacked, we'd see more signs of it in the landscape."

"A sneak attack? Doesn't matter how skilled you are then," Xander proposed after a few minutes of thought.

"Sneak attacks might be possible on humans with their dulled senses but youkai can perceive a great deal more with their senses. To sneak up on Himari-san, you would need to thoroughly mask your scent, create no sound when you moved and keep your hostile intent from reaching her," he explained so that Xander could understand the likelihood of a sneak attack. "Managing such a feat would only be possible for seasoned warriors."

"Then maybe we should hurry up just in case they need our help," Xander said, picking up the pace to the point where he was taking the lead.

"Oh? So you think that you've progressed enough in your training that you qualify as backup?" he asked condescendingly.

"Well maybe not backup but I'll have you know I have two years of decoy experience to my name and I'm still alive," Xander replied, conceding his inability to be anyone's backup at the moment.

"Surviving things that should've killed you ten times over isn't something to brag about, apprentice," he chastised as his eyes spotted the top of the house getting closer. "Luck only lasts so long and the fool that depends on it will die sooner than later."

"I know. That's why I want to learn Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū," Xander said, resolve both on his face as well as in his voice. "Not just to make it out of Japan but to help my friends when I get back home. Fighting on the Hellmouth I was more of a tag along rather than someone who could fight shoulder to shoulder with Buffy. If I can manage to fight even half as good as you at the end, I'll finally be able to do some real good."

"Even if you do manage to become half as good as me, don't think that'll mean you'll be like some comic book hero changing the world with every adventure," he said sagely, remembering the past quite well. "Never forget that you are but one person capable of being in only one place at a time. You were born, you are growing but you will die eventually. No matter how much you might wish it to be otherwise, any changes you make will not be up to you to maintain. Much like many other things, without maintenance decay is inevitable and perhaps irreparable."

"I know! I'm not trying to be the next Captain America or Superman!" Xander exclaimed with some irritation at the listing of his limitations. "I just want to be more than a donut fetcher! More than someone who has to be saved! I want to stop being a burden and really bring something to the table that I can be proud of."

"To improve oneself is a honorable goal, Alexander," he said in an effort to calm the discussion down a bit. "But it is important to set realistic goals for yourself. Too many people set their sights on the stars only to have their spirits crushed when they realize just how large the gap truly is. Trust me when I say that it takes a toll on the soul to have reality shatter your dreams over and over again."

Nothing was said after that and as they reached the house he found himself glad because what his eyes beheld caused his worry to rise sharply.

Graves.

There were two graves a short distance from the main house lined up side-by-side.

Not good, he thought as he looked to the house with its interior lights turned on. The last time I checked there were four members of the Amakawa clan still among the living.

That would mean that the clan had been cut in half and, unless some serious baby making was done, the bloodline of Amakawa would end.

"Um… HELLO? IS ANYONE HERE?" Xander asked at the top of his lungs while slowly walking towards the house.

Baka! he thought angrily at his student's stupid act. If there are any more threats in the area we've now lost the element of surprise! Even if there isn't after losing two of their number, any remaining members of the Amakawa clan will attack first and think later!

Sensing a sudden manifestation of killing intent, he sprang forward, threw his idiot apprentice over his shoulder and then leapt into the air. This proved to be a good decision since moments later six dagger-shaped icicles impacted on the ground where Xander had been standing. Dropping his idiot apprentice to the ground, he looked to where he suspected the icicles had come from and found a rather befuddling sight.

Standing on the roof of the house, looking to be in her mid-teens, was what looked to be young woman with jade hair and red eyes, looking as fit as any member of the Oniwaban Group. However it was not those details that had his attention but rather the fact that she was clad only in an almost completely transparent nightgown that looked like it belonged to a six year old and pink panties. Due to the fact that it wasn't the right size the nightgown only just managed to cover her grapefruit-sized breasts. It was a safe bet to say that if she did so much as a single hop it'd be enough to give his apprentice quite the show.

A youkai… a mizuchi unless I'm very much mistaken, he thought as he used his sheathed sword to block further icicle attacks. Odd since Gennosuke's last letter made no mention of another youkai swearing fealty to the Amakawa clan.

"What's her problem?!" Xander asked with some anxiety from behind him.

"What do I look like, a mind reader?" he asked even as he tried to use his skills to discern the truth. "Whatever her motives it's clear that she does not want us here. Whether nor not she'll pursue us if we choose to leave is debatable."

"Leave? What makes either of you think you'll be leaving at all?" a female voice asked rhetorically and with hostility.

Partially turning his gaze towards the source he found a woman in her mid-twenties with brown hair clad in a crimson skirt and white shirt. However, given the way her arms were extended to snake-like lengths, each one having a short sword in hand, she was obviously a youkai and, thanks to his past experience, he knew her to be a himoenma. He'd had the misfortune to run into one who'd caught wind of his blood during one of the rare times when a foe managed to get past his guard. Hinoenma's were succubus youkai who gained nourishment from the blood and spirit of their prey, so he'd been seen as quite the meal. Now while he'd had no intention of letting her drain him dry, she had been sufficiently beautiful that he'd declared his willingness to give her some sustenance in exchange for her… natural skills.

Some would no doubt be offended by such an arrangement but it was actually quite logical. Hinoenma needed blood and spiritual energy like humans required food and drink. While some might gain it by malicious or even sadistic means, neither was something they could do without for very long. If he'd denied the youkai even a snack back then she would have gone in search of other prey and, depending on how long it took, she might not have been too gentle in how she chose to take it. If by sacrificing some of his blood and spiritual energy, he could prevent a savage attack of desperation it was only natural to do so.

As for the latter part the hinoenma he'd encountered, she had been rather beautiful and enjoying the company of such a lady was treat he'd have been a fool to turn down.

Somehow he didn't think such an enjoyable moonlit night would be possible with THIS particular hinoenma.