A Dragon's Fang, a Human's Heart

by The Legendary Dragon Reaper

A human with the power of a demon. To many such an idea sounds ludicrous, does it not? Well he's here to prove them wrong. He will journey across time with the love of his life on his journey as he fights for friendship, for honor, for life, and above all, for love. Rewrite of the Rise of a Warrior: Inuyasha.

5. New Friends and Noh Masks

(New Friends and Noh Masks)

"When the ten Fangs of Ryuhogo reunite after thousands of years, the Dragon Guardian shall at last fulfill his destiny and rid this world of the Jewel that has caused so much suffering, and begin a new era for all."

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Things were calm in the Forest of Inuyasha, if it could still be called that since he was no longer pinned to the Sacred Tree.

"Okay hold on a second, let me check to make sure that he's not there." Tatsu held out an arm in front of Kagome, then looked aroun the clearing surrounding the Bone Eater's Well, and then he let out a sigh as he returned his swords to their sheaths "Okay we're good, if we're gonna do it then we've gotta do it now!"

"Right!" Kagome made a beeline for the well with her bike, only for a crimson blur to shoot past the two of them.

'Dammit, we were so close.'

"What's with the hurrying you two?" this was when Inuyasha suddenly pounced down in front of the well and blocked their way "Not so fast, neither of you are going anywhere until you hand over those shards of the Shikon Jewel you've got there."

"You know this might seem hard for you to believe Inuyasha, but both Kagome and I do have lives outside of this world, and spoiler alert, they don't revolve around you."

"Not when you two idiots are the ones who shattered the jewel."

"Whatever you need to tell yourself, but we've got other shit to do. Not gonna bother with explaining it to him, but we've got a huge exam to deal with next week, and based on how absent we've been lately thanks to all of this we've gotta compensate for it somehow.' Tatsu then looked up to see Inuyasha holding a large boulder over the well "And what the hell do you think you're doing now?"

"What does it look like genius, I'm gonna cover up the well for good and then you won't be able to escape to that strange world of yours! Well I say good riddance!" he prepared to hurl the boulder onto the well, until…

"Sit!" Kagome promptly activated the Beads of Subjugation "Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit!" and all of the commands caused Inuyasha to faceplant into the ground, leaving the boulder to land on his spine and pin him down.

"Okay that should deal with him for a little while. Anyway if you can still hear us then we'll be back in a few days, don't try following us or this is just gonna repeat itself." and so Tatsu then dove into the well, with Kagome following right after him, bag in hand.

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Meanwhile, in the Modern era…

Sota was watching over the sight of his grandfather chanting in front of the well "I don't know why you bother to waste your time with that chanting stuff Grandpa, it's not like this sort of thing actually works does it?"

"As a matter of fact Sota, it does." Grandpa Higurashi told him without turning around "This is an ancient "get out of the well" chant has been passed down through generations of priests from the Higurashi bloodline."

"If that's for real then why is it that you've been at it for three days and nights and there's no sign of either Kagome or Tatsu?"

"Becuase I've yet to include the next part of the ritual. Now I have to include the Sacred Rice Wine." he then proceeded to throw a bucked of the stuf into the well.

"Touchdown, and we actually land on our feet this time." this was when Tatsu and Kagome both touched down in the well… only for the former of the two to get covered in a bucket's worth of the wine in question "The price of making a decent landing I'm guessing? Well either that or it's the handiwork of a certain someone."

"That stuff smells like sake, really old sake for that matter." Kagome covered her nose at the stench of the stuff.

"And that just confirms who dumped this stuff on us."

"Kagome, Tatsu, it's you!" Grandpa Higurashi poked his head into well and began crying comical tears at the sight of them "I knew that my prayers would be answered!"

"Yeah thanks for the moral support, I can't tell you how much I appreciate being dumped with a bucket of alcohol." the sarcasm in his tone went either unnoticed or ignored.

"Now do you see Sota, I told you that it would work."

"Holy crap she's back, you really did it Gramps!" Sota poked his head into the well and his eyes lit up at the sight of them.

"Now do you see, there's no time like the present to shave your head and start training for the day when you enter the priesthood."

"You want me to shave my head?!"

"Of course I do, the time is drawing near to pass the torch."

"Get real with that gramps, I'm gonna be a famous soccer player."

"Soccer player, what sort of a pointless job is that supposed to be? Dusting antiques and chanting for pocket change, now that is how you make a living!"

"Do you even hear what you're saying gramps? Anyway mom keeps saying that she wants me to be a doctor."

"A doctor? Well I suppose you could be a doctor on the weekends, but we're still going to start with your training for the priesthood today."

"Uh huh yeah, very interesting and all that, but there's still the matter of both of us being trapped in the well and dunked in a bucket of booze." Tatsu pointed out dryly.

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Following that whole ordeal, things had calmed down in the Higurashi household.

Kagome was trying to cram/study for her algebra final, only to notice her cat Buyo eyeing her and sniffing her with what appeared to be disgust and sneezing "Hey Buyo what's the matter, you have a cold or something? Or maybe it's because I still smell like Tatsu's hair." she was answered by the cat crawling away from her "Asked and answered I guess."

And then her mother Mrs Higurashi came in with her new uniform "Here's your new school uniform Kagome, I'll put it in your room for you."

"Thanks mom, it looks great."

"So where did Tatsu run off to?" asked Sota "I thought he would've stuck around to say hi or something."

"Yeah he wanted to, but he said he wanted to meet up with someone about one of his dad's old projects. But aside from that, we've both got our own lives you know. I swear, my life is getting a lot more complicated than it should. Seriously though, one minute I'm just an average girl trying to get through middle school, and then the next my life is anything but average. Part of me keeps thinking that I'm going to wake up to find out it's a bad dream or something, but I know it's all real and happening to me even now. I guess the only thing I can really do is try and find a way to deal with it. Of course Tatsu of all people would love this sort of thing, he always loves a challenge and he's been fighting with Inuyasha even more than I have. Still though, even though he is kind of fight happy every now and then, he's always there for me. The only problem with that is now I find out that apparently he's in love with me. What the heck am I supposed to think about that? Maybe it's for the best if I steer clear of him for a little while, I need some time to myself to think about this.'

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Meanwhile, in a certain area…

The room was still dark, the only light present coming from a single row of candles, as the leader of the Yakuza faction reported to the Guardian sitting in the throne before him "The incursions of the Saisei clan into our territories have increased my lord, they have long fought against the forces of the underworld of the country, but this new aggression…"

"It is not something I hadn't expected." Guardian promptly cut him off, earning various looks from the men before him.

"My lord?"

"Of course the Saisei would choose to step up their attacks, keeping in mind that the strikes I have been making are directly against their leadership."

"But with all due respect my lord, we have never-"

"We do now. Tell me my loyal servant, what progress have you made on the search for the rest of the Fangs of Ryuhogo."

"Again with all due respect my lord, no one knew more information about the Fangs of Ryuhogo than the archeologist Kuroga Kamikaze, and ever since the car accident, we have been unable to locate any new information."

"...Leave with your lives, and be grateful that I decided to show you mercy."

"Of course my lord." the soldiers bowed, and then they took their leave."

It was only after they left that Guardian removed his helmet and kimono, revealing the appearance of Raidou, looking down at the Fangs around his neck 'I am the last of the Asakura bloodline, at least the last that's not corrupted, unlike Shin I'm deserving of the power of the Fangs and I resolve to use them for the better of mankind, so why do they still refuse to work for me?' then he felt a vibration from his pocket and pulled out his phone "What is it?"

"I'm sorry to disturb you Mr Asakura, but there's someone here who wishes to speak with you about something."

"Probably a customer for one of the statues. Alright tell them to wait, I'll be there in a few minutes." so on that note, he hung up and stepped into the elevator at the end of the room and the doors shut behind him, leaving the single row of dimly lit candles as the only occupants of the room.

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About 5 minutes later…

"Note to self, change that music when I get the chance." Raidou muttered as he stepped out of the elevator, now back in his usual attire, and rounded a corner into the open shop area "Something I can help you with-" he cut himself short when he realized who was standing there 'Okay, I wasn't expecting this.'

"Yeah hi, my name is Tatsu Kamikaze." as it turns out, it was Tatsu standing before him, clad in his school uniform and covered in a fair amount of bandages, but it was still him, looking at one of the statues in the room "So from what I've been able to gather you guys import art from various other countries throughout Asia and antiquities here to Japan, like statues and relics and stuff like that?"

"That is about the sum of it, stuff is essentially our specialty. Now I take it that you wanted to talk with my uncle about something?"

"Yeah right sorry, business stuff. I came here because I was hoping to find some information on an old project my dad spent a lot of time working on, some kind of ancient artifacts, he called them Fangs of Ryuhugo."

"Fangs of Ryuhugo you said?"

"Yeah that's right, I've been going through all of my dad's old notes on the Fangs, and I noticed that Mr Shin's name came up a few times in the diary, so I guess the two of them were old friends or something.

"You mean your dad kept a diary?"

"Yeah he was pretty old school, but I guess you shouldn't fix what's not broken right?" he pulled out the diary from his bag and opened it to a certain page "I guess he's right about that since it's got anything and everything he ever learned about the Fangs, but he wrote down that he wanted to follow up with your uncle and ask him a few questions about history and the Fangs and how the correlate with each other."

"Interesting. Well Shin is actually out of the country on business and he's not going to be back for at least a few months, but if you want to leave me a copy of that diary then I'll be sure to get it to him."

"Actually that's alright, I'm not really comfortable with letting this thing out of my sight. It's not personal, it's just that I don't have a lot to remember my dad by, so I just want to keep it really close to me."

"No worries, I completely understand. I'll be sure to let him know you want to talk to him as soon as you can. So where can he find you?"

"Oh I wrote down my cell phone number and address right here." he handed Raidou a small piece of paper "You can reach me with either of those most of the time, but I'm in school during the week."

"You go around here?"

"Actually yeah, I go to Shikon Junior High on the West side of the city."

"No kidding, that's actually where I'm enrolling. Today is my first day, for all we know we might be classmates."

"No kidding, you know I can show you the way if you want."

"That would be great, thanks. Just let me grab my backpack." he quickly dashed towards the staircase in the back of the shop.

This was when Tatsu heard a vibration and pulled out his phone "Hey bro, yeah it's me. I tried to find that shop that you mentione to me, the guy wasn't there but his stepson was. He told me something about how this Shin guy was out of the country, and all of the other contacts that dad had listed in his notes are all coming up as dead, MIA or just useless."

"So what you're saying is that you only have a vague idea of what these Fangs are, and you have no idea who this Guardian is."

"That's about the sum of it, great way to start the first day of research am I right?"

"Don't get so stressed out over it, you knew as well as the rest of us did that this sort of thing was going to take time. I know how you feel about it, but we need to go about it properly. But if it helps then I do have one piece of advice you could try."

"Oh really, what's that?"

"There are these amazing things that scientists have invented that tell you everything you want to know about ancient history. They call them books."

"Ha ha, very funny. I'll let you know how that works out. Later." and so he hung up.

"Sorry about that." this was when Raidou came back with a bag in hand "Let me just lock up the shop and then we can be on our way."

"Fine by me."

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Kagome made her way to school while pondering her current circumstances, and she quickly ran into some familiar faces "Hey you guys wait up!"

That group of familiar faces happened to be her friends Eri, Yuka and Ayumi "Hey Kagome it's been ages, but are you sure you're well enough to be in school?"

"Wait what?"

"We heard about your accident with the cat, that is one nasty place to get bitten. And then we heard about falling down the stairs and hurting your back, and before that you were away for some lyme disease tests, so did you get the results back yet? And what about that case of ringworm?"

'...Oh for crying out loud grandpa, you couldn't have just told them I had a cold or something at least somewhat realistic?' her thoughts were cut short by a ringing noise.

"Hey Kagome!" and who should be coming up to her but none other than Hojo himself on his signature bike "Glad to see you're doing better and back in school, so how are you making out with those bunions you have to deal with?"

'Oh yeah and now we've got Hojo, the proclaimed-by-my-friends school megahunk. He's a nice guy but he's kind of dense.'

"Talk about a double whammy, I heard that you got stuck with bunions and gout."

'Grandpa you son of a-' her mental angry rant was cut off by Hojo holding out a bag in front of her "What's this?"

"This is something from my family's shop, it's for all of the ailments you have to deal with right now. My mother had wrapped it up, so I hope you like pink." this left her friends blown away by the sight of the exchange.

"Okay thanks then, I appreciate it." Kagome promptly opened the bag and blinked at the sight of what was inside "Huh?"

"They're a pair of therapeutic sandals for your bunions! See ya!" and so with a wave, he rode off into the sunlight on his bike.

'Okay, so that happened I guess.'

The girls wasted no time in interrogating her "Oh my god Kagome, don't tell me you're going out with Hojo!"

"Of course not, it's not like I've got the time for something like that! I've barely even talked to the guy before today."

"Wait are you serious? Why don't you even look like you're excited? Oh my god, do you have a crush on someone else?"

"Oh for crying out loud you guys, I don't like anybody like that. Like 99% of them are either the jock stereotypes or the nerd stereotypes."

"So what then, you're saying that you'd like someone who's a fair mix of both? Or what else would you want him to be like?"

Kagome thought for a moment "Well he definitely wouldn't be too rough and he wouldn't be selfish, he wouldn't get mad easily and he'd treat me well. He'd be kind and understanding and he'd always be there for me, but it might be kind of a stretch to ask if he could bring me flowers and write me poetry."

"Okay, but…"

"What's the matter?"

"You realize that you basically just described Tatsu."

"...I'm done with this conversation." and so she walked off, her mind drifting further with each step she took 'Great, first I find out that apparently Tatsu is in love with me, and now my friends think that he's my dream guy. What the heck is my life coming to?'

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Meanwhile, back in the Feudal Era…

Kaede was in her hut mixing a series of remedies, and then she glanced back at Inuyasha, his form sprawled out on the floor in obvious pain "Stop lazing about already, get off ye duff and seek out some information on the shards of the Shikon Jewel."

"And if ye hadn't noticed, my back is totally out of commission thanks to a certain someone trying to kill mewith all of those sit commands and a fucking boulder!" Inuyasha let out a snarl from his place on the floor 'You just wait until you show your face back here again Kagome, I swear you're gonna pay for this one ten fold!' and then his thoughts were cut short by a sickening crack, causing him to cry out in agony.

"Me thinks it was somewhat deserved."

"SHUT UP!" and then another scream of pain.

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Meanwhile, back in the modern era…

"And that's why I wasn't very popular when we were growing up." at the same time, Arashi had found Kagome on their way to class and was telling her a very interesting story "But they didn't file any charges so everything could've turned out a lot worse."

"Wait hold on a second." Kagome shot him a jaw dropped look "You mean you were the one who took that bag of cat litter and-"

"I don't think any of us need or want to relive that whole incident." this was when Tatsu made his way into the classroom with a stack of books in hand "Speaking of which, hey guys."

"Hey, so what's with all of the books? I thought you did most of your research online."

"Yeah well that turned out to be a dead end on the Fangs, so I guess I'm gonna have to go old school for the time being. At least with the library you know the stuff is legit, and you don't have to worry about those stupid spam messages about Nigerian princes trying to scam you out of your money."

"Wait a second, that was a scam?" Arashi looked up at Tatsu and blinked, earning a few groans in the process.

"Oh for fuck's sake."

"Attention students, can I have your attention?" this was when the teacher made her way into the classroom, with Raidou following right behind her "I know it's a little bit short notice but we have a new student joining us today, so everyone please welcome Raidou Asakura." this was met with lots of muttering "Go ahead and take a seat, there's a free one by Hojo over there." the teacher pointed forward, which prompted Raidou to quietly take a seat next to Hojo, and then tune out the rest of the world using a book.

"He seemed like a nice enough guy to me."

"Wait a second, is that the guy you were talking about?" asked Kagome "The one you told me about from that import shop?"

"That's the one, today's his first day at the school and I offered to show him around. It only seemed fair to me."

"Raidou Asakura huh?" Arashi frowned in thought "Why the hell do I feel like I've heard that name somewhere before?"

"Maybe it was the name of the Nigerian Prince that scammed you."

"Ha ha, very funny."

"I do what I can."

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About an hour passed, and then class came to an end.

Arashi was the first one to voice his concerns about Raidou "I don't know, he gives off this vibe that he thinks he's above all of this, kind of a recluse and sort of smug around other people. He comes off to me as this arrogant rich kid that's better than all of us."

"Oh yeah, because having money automatically makes people into arrogant assholes with superiority compexes." Tatsu's sarcastic comeback was followed by him rolling his eyes "What happened to not judging a book by its cover and all that good stuff?"

"Well either way I'm pretty sure I know something about the guy, I just can't remember exactly what it is."

"Well I hate to break it to you man, but I don't have a lot of time to gossip. I've only got the one free period to do my research on the Fangs, so I'll be seeing you later me." he dealt Arashi a fist bump and then went on his way, giving a single wave in Raidou's direction as he passed him on the way.

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It didn't take long for Tatsu to get his research started, books piled on top of the desk in front of him with his nose practically shoved into one of them 'Okay let's see here, so the Great Dog Demon created two of these powerful swords, claiming the third one in order to end a great… cucumber? No that's not it.'

"You wrote the last kanji incorrectly."

"Hm?" Tatsu looked up to see Raidou looming over his desk "What was that?"

"The last kanji you wrote down, it's not supposed to be cucumber, it's meant to be calamity. The Great Dog Demon created two of these powerful swords, claming the third one in order to end a great calamity."

"Huh. Oh wow that makes so much more sense, thanks man I-" he looked up again, only to see that Raidou was already making his way out of the library 'Huh. Well that happened I guess. Well I can't afford to dwell on that, I've got limited time and a lot of material to cover if I want to try and find out more info on the Fangs.'

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Things were about to take a turn for the worse.

Grandpa Higurashi was making his way across the shrine when he noticed something very unsettling "Something smoking. Oh no, the store house is on fire!" he quickly rushed into the storehouse and his fears were confirmed.

The talismans were burned off a certain object by the flames and the wrappings were turned to ash, revealing a scarred mask with sentience floating in the air "At last I am free…"

"This is terrible, the Noh Masks has burned through the talismans that have sealed up its evil for generations!"

"A body… I must have a physical body…"

Grandpa quickly doused himself in a bucket of liquid "My ancestors of Higurashi blood exercised that evil mask for a Noh Actor who brought it to him, it was known as the Flesh Eating Mask and was rumored to have incredible powers filled with malevolence so now I must do everything possible to seal it up again!" he threw a number of talismans at the Noh Mask, only for them to be turned to ashes by the flames.

"I must possess a body!" the Noh Mask darted around the burning storehouse and attached itself to a faceless wooden samurai, only for it to be incinerated within a matter of seconds "A body… I must possess a human body!"

"It's looking for human flesh to use to embody and wreak havoc upon us!" Grandpa was suddenly trapped underneath some pillars that fell on top of him.

"My soul yearns for a living body!"

'I must stop it in any way that I can!'

"Give me your flesh and blood!" the Noh Mask burst towards him full speed as the fire alarm sounded.

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Kagome glanced over to see a firetruck rush past her 'That's in the direction of the shrine, I have a bad feeling about this.' she froze in her tracks at what she was hearing.

As it turns out, some guys were talking up ahead "Hey did you hear? Higurashi Shrine is on fire, let's go check it out!"

"...Oh this is so not good, I'd better get moving." Kagome quickly took off running as fast as she could.

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By this point, Tatsu had finished his research and was walking down the street with Raidou, the two of them discussing the day's events "So thanks again for the help with the research, that could've turned out to be something pretty twisted."

"I've seen my fair share of twisted in my time." Raidou told him flatly "I'm not just talking about sadistic monsters that don't deserve to call themselves human either."

"You talking about the kind of twisted on the level of Clockwork Orange meeting Lady Gaga music videos?"

"...Not what I would've gone with, but sure. Anyway it's no problem, I've had my fair share of fascination with the Fangs myself."

"Well that's definitely a relief to hear, because I think I could definitely use a lot more help when it comes to the Fangs."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Well for a long time now, I thought that there was only the one Fang because my dad always had it with him, but now I've been told that there are multiple Fangs out there, and I want to see if maybe I can try to find them."

"And you want my help with that?"

"Not just you obviously, Arashi and my brother would totally be on board with this too, so it would be-" he was cut off by his phone vibrating in his pocket "Hold that thought for a second, I've gotta check this." he answered it "Hey Kagome listen, now's not that good of a-" he cut himself short, his expression becoming more grave by the second "I'm on my way, I'll be there in a few." and then he hung up "Sorry but we're gonna have to cut our business short."

"That the girl you mentioned earlier?"

"She just told me that her family's shrine is on fire, I've gotta move."

"I'll come with you."

"You serious?"

"The Fangs can wait, lives are more important right now, and besides I know a shortcut to that area, so let's move."

"Right." and so the two of them took off at full speed.

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By this point, the police, fireman and a large crowd had gathered outside of the Higurashi Shrine once word got out about the fire.

"Let me through, I've gotta get in!" Kagome quickly pushed her way through the crowd and rushed up the stairs to the shrine, despite the loud protests of the officers trying to control the crowd.

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Mrs Higurashi, Kagome's mother, bowed to the police officer "Thank you for all your help officer."

"Mom!" that was when Kagome rushed up to her "What's going on, what happened, where's the fire?"

"Kagome please calm down, the old store house caught on fire and your grandfather was trapped inside in the smoke." this left a horrified expression across Kagome's face.

"You mean Grandpa's hurt?"

"Oh you don't have to worry dear, he had fainted and suffered from a little bit of smoke inhalation but they say 2 or 3 days in the hospital and he should be good as new. I'm just on my way to check in on him and see how he's doing."

"I want to go with you."

"Kagome… I want you to stay here and wait for your brother, someone has to explain the situation to him."

"...Yeah okay I guess that makes sense, Tatsu said that he was gonna be on his way, but even if he did get here like yesterday he'd still have to deal with the crowd." she was met with a large amount of roaring and cursing in the distance "And that would be Tatsu, why am I not surprised that he managed to get here so soon?" she looked over at the storehouse 'Something about this just feels way off, how could a fire have started in the storehouse in the first place?'

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At the same time, some of the firefighters were cautiously exploring the storeroom when one of them noticed a rippling in a small body of water and advanced towards it, only for the Noh Mask to surface from the water and attach itself to his face, taking control of his body as a result.

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"Kagome!" it wasn't long before Sota showed up in a frantic rush.

Kagome was quick to try and calm Sota down "Easy Sota it's okay, the fire wasn't in the main shrine and nobody was seriously hurt."

"I would beg to differ." Tatsu dropped down onto the scene.

"Hey, thank god you're here." then she looked at Raidou "Um, I don't mean to sound rude or anything but…"

"He was with me when you called me earlier and offered to come with me."

"Oh, well thanks, that really means a lot." she was met with a sigh from Raidou "Well… okay then, I guess."

"I already texted Arashi, he should be here any minue now. Oh and going back to what I was talking about earlier when I said that I beg to differ, I was referring to that." he gestured to the street where a fire truck was doing just that.

"Wait, what?!"

"Yep."

"It's a lot worse thank you guys think." this was when Arashi showed up on the scene with his phone in hand "Plus there's this weird brown stuff oozing out the window but it just evaporates after it does." he pulled out his phone "Observe."

"This just in, there is currently a fire truck driving wildly through the streets completely out of control and smashing into anything and anyone in its path. The number of those injured so far has not been confirmed since every person that crosses its path seems to have vanished into thin air. That's all of the information that we have at present but until more information has been confirmed about the incident we strongly advise everyone to stay as far away from the streets as they can."

"So yeah, that's happening at the moment."

"I don't know what's causing this whole thing, but it's definitely not natural." Tatsu frowned in thought for a moment.

Kagome grabbed him by the shoulders "Don't think I don't know what you're thinking, whenever you get that look in your eye it usually ends with you in the hospital."

"Oh come on, name one time."

"Parasailing over shark infested water?"

"Arashi's idea, and the sushi he made with it was awesome."

"Entering an underground martial arts tournament?"

"How was I supposed to know Kofi Kingston was gonna be in it? Besides, how many guys can say that they had their arms ripped out of their socket by Kofi Kingston himself?"

"Who would want to?"

"Me and anyone related to me."

"...Why did I not see that coming?"

"But look most of those were just me and the guys goofing off and having fun, but this is serious business. I think I'm gonna have a look of my own in the storehouse later on and see what we can dig up."

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At the same time, the Noh Mask, which now had a body consisting of brown oozing flesh that was rapidly melting away, was the one behind the wheel "The flesh is disintegrating, but there is a way to maintain it… If I can find more shards of the Shikon Jewel then I can gain the power to stop this flesh from decomposing, and then I will have an almighty everlasting body of living pulsage and flesh!"

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Sunset came.

Tatsu stood in the waiting room of the hospital on his phone "Yeah he's still out guys but the doctors say that he should've woken up by now, apparently he was found with some talismans all over his face and mouth so whatever it is really shook him up. That he keeps muttering in his sleep about some flesh eating mask. No I don't know how to stop it, even with two swords and maximum effort I don't know if I can, so I think we should take a look through the storehouse and see if we can find anything to help. Alright I'll meet you guys there in about an hour. See you then."

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Meanwhile, on the other end of that call…

"Alright, see you then." Raidou hung up and pocketed his phone, only turn and take notice of the look that Arashi was giving him "Do you actually need something or is that just the look you give when you're constipated?"

"You know my mom is actually a pretty big reporter." Arashi told him "Her work keeps her pretty busy so I don't see her that often, but the stuff she finds is really important. For starters, I thought that I recognized your name Asakura, so I went through some of her notes. Your dad is the leader of the Yakuza faction here in Tokyo, they're at war with the Seishi clan. To dumb it down a few notches, she got a few tips that Shin was connected to the criminal underworld in a few different parts of Japan. That's fucking awesome, so tell me, how long has your dad been a criminal?"

"Okay first of all stupid, let's get a few things straight here. First of all, that man is my uncle on my mother's side as disgusted as I am to admit it, he's not my dad and he never will be. Second of all, he's a businessman, he's an importer and that's all he is. He works for museums, not criminals. I know all about that investigation they undertook, and you know what they came up with? Absolutely nothing, they found nothing and so they dropped it. So how about before you go around sticking your noses in other people's business, you get your facts straight and then learn to butt the hell out once in awhile. Let's get to searching, I don't want to wait for Tatsu in case we find something important.

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The moon was shining brightly over the skies of Tokyo.

Kagome was studying in her room "So it's just going to be the two of us tonight since mom is going to be staying at the hospital so she can keep an eye on grandpa in case she wakes up during the night." she heard a noise and looked over.

As it turns out, Sota was dragging a pillow and a blanket over into the room "Hey sis you got any room for Buyo and me to sleep in here?"

"Not a chance, you can stay in your own room."

"Oh come on sis, please?"

"Look I'm going to be up all night studying for midterms on Friday and the only thing that you have to be scared of is whatever it is you keep under your bed."

"Well grandpa was scared, I mean he even covered his face in those talismans. Something really creepy happened in there sis, I just know it did. Why else would Tatsu and the guys be searching through the storehouse right now?" he was promptly startled by the bedroom window beginning to shake.

'Something is definitely wrong, we've never had trouble like this at the shrine before so why now after all of these generations?' Kagome glanced down at the bottle of jewel shards on her desk, and the horrible realization hit her "The jewel shards, that has to be it! It's because I brought the jewel shards back with me!" these thoughts were cut off when the sound of sirens and glass shattering could be heard in the distance, followed by lots of screaming, and then a fire truck smashed into the side of the house, but Kagome grabbed Sota and pulled him to the floor before they could be hit "A Noh Mask? That must be the flesh eating mask that I heard Grandpa mumbling about in the hospital." she noticed the jewel shards fall to the ground.

"The jewel… I must have the shards of the Shikon Jewel!" the Noh Mask slowly reached for the shards.

Kagome quickly dove and snatched the bottle, cutting her fingers in the process, then quickly slung a frozen with fear Sota over her shoulder and took off running "Come on Sota, if there's ever a time for you to zone out on me this is definitely not it!"

"Give me the pieces of the Shikon Jewel!"

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Kagome led Sota out of the house and out into the open shrine area "I've gotta get Tatsu or one of the guys, there's the only one who can help us!"

Sota was still left in a horrified stupor "Kagome… Look at your fingers, your fingers are bleeding."

"Not important right now, I just cut myself on the glass when I took the shards away from the mask thing that's all- Look out!" she shoved Sota out of the way.

The Noh Mask oozed its way down in between them "The shards of the jewel, give me the shards of the Shikon Jewel!"

'That mask has a shard of the jewel in its forehead, so that's why it's after the jewel shards that I have. I've gotta lure it away from here and keep Sota out of danger! Sota listen to me, get away from here and get Tatsu or one of the others! They should be able to defeat this thing pretty easily!"

Sota was still terrified "But… But what about you?"

"I'll lure the thing away, just be brave and hurry!"

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At the same time, about 3 to 5 minutes back.

Tatsu pulled out one book after another in the storehouse "I'm not finding anything about a Noh Mask on my end guys, any luck with either of you?"

"I'm not getting anything." Arashi threw a book to the side.

"Raidou what about you?"

"Nothing about the mask but I did find something I think the two of you are gonna find pretty interesting." Raidou pulled out a scroll "You said your father was the one who first told you about the Fangs of Ryuhogo?"

"Well bits and pieces of it, he said that he's had this for as long as he can remember, but what he really found interesting was that a friend of his, a fellow archeologist named Hiyori, had one exactly like it in her possession, and based on what I found in his diary they apparently they found a second in some kind of temple somewhere."

"...You said her name was Hiyori?"

"Yeah why?"

'If what he's saying is true, then that means the person who gave it to him was… Forget it, it's not important."

"If you say so."

"GUYS!" that was when Sota burst into the room, panting heavily with tears starting to brim in his eyes "Sis… giant ooze thing… evil mask…"

"And the time has come." Tatsu knelt down in front of Sota "Listen to me little man, stay here with the guys where it's safe okay? You guys stay here and take care of him, I'll take care of this on my own." and he burst off at full speed without another word.

"...You stay here and keep an eye on the kid, I'm going after him." Raidou didn't miss a beat as he took off after Tatsu, holding back his speed to a certain extent 'He shouldn't know about me possessing the other Fangs, not yet at least. I'll tell him when the time is right.'

Having been separated from Sota beforehand, Kagome was darting around the shrine grounds in an attempt to evade the Noh Mask, her mind racing 'Okay I just have to keep the shards from it and hold on long enough for Tatsu or one of the others to get here.'

Unfortunately, that was when the Noh Mask dropped down in front of her and cut off her escape route "Now hand me the shards of the Shikon Jewel!" it reached for her.

"Get the heck away from me!" in a panic, Kagome hit the mask's blobby body with a quick energy blast, blowing it backwards.

"Kagome get down!" that was when Tatsu burst onto the scene and cut through the blob even further using his twin swords allowing Raidou to pull her out of the way "Looks like my ability to make an entrance hasn't been diminished at all, you okay?"

"Aside from the cut on my hand not too bad, how's Sota?"

"He's fine, I left him back with the idiot by the storehouse." Raidou told him flatly.

"Come again?"

"You should know who I'm talking about."

"It's Arashi he's talking about." Tatsu was quick to translate "Speaking of which, why exactly did you follow me?"

"I said before that lives are more important than most things, and you have a reputation for being tough and smart but even you shouldn't be able to beat that thing on your own. Speaking of which, the thing is coming back so get ready."

"Duly noted."

"Who would dare to attack me?" the Noh Mask quickly pieced itself back together, clearly angry over being attacked.

"Alright you just hang back Kagome, so where do I aim for?"

"The forehead, I can see it in there plain as day." Kagome told him "Just make sure to be careful okay, don't forget that it's only been a few days since we fought Hiten and Manten and you took some pretty nasty wounds in that fight."

"I heel pretty fast by human standards, I'll be fine."

"I am the Flesh Eating Mask. Centuries ago I had been carved from a Tree of Ages which had a fragment of the Shikon Jewel embedded in its trunk, since my creation I have had a craving for human flesh and devoured my victims. But now I wish to have an everlasting living body that will not rot away, and for that I will require more power from the Sacred Jewel."

"I get it now, so that's why the mask is so desperate to have these shards."

"Makes sense." Tatsu dropped into a stance with both swords in hand "Look I don't know how many humans you've devoured so far, but I say it's time for you to lose some weight." he blitzed forward and stabbed the mask with one of his swords, only for it to end up getting swallowed by the mask itself "What the hell?"

"You've fallen into my trap, and now you shall never escape from me!" the Noh Mask started swallowing him and pulled him into its body.

"Okay this is gross, this is really really gross!"

"Tatsu hang on!" Kagome tried to fend off the Noh Mask as the mask itself emerged from the body and pounced on her 'No matter what happens to me, I can't let this thing get its teeth on the jewels!' in a desperate attempt she gripped onto the Noh Mask and threw the bottle of jewel shards away "Raidou listen to me, take these shards and run, and no matter what happens to me don't look back!"

"...Right." Raidou grabbed hold of the bottle of jewel shards and started blitzing across the grounds of the shine, with the Noh Mask following hot on his heels 'This thing is keeping up with me pretty easily, and from what I can tell it's after the crystals in this bottle. Whatever these things are, they're definitely important to Tatsu and the Higurashi girl.' he braced himself as the Noh Mask started closing in on him.

"I shall devour you, and then the jewel shards will belong to me!" the Noh Mask called some of its blob body over in an attempt to absorb him.

'Do I have to reveal myself? It's either that or we all die, or…'

"Raidou take this!" Tatsu managed to force himself out of the body blob just enough to hurl one of his swords forward.

'...Or that would work actually.' Raidou grabbed hold of the hilt of the sword right before it flew over his head, and with one clean stroke he was able to cut through the Noh Mask, causing it to shatter, the body blob to dissolve, and then the jewel shard to fall to the ground, which he then picked up and handed to Tatsu "Well that was interesting if nothing else, so I take it this is what you wanted?"

"Thanks to you, I really owe you one for helping us out back there, and I'm really sorry you ended up getting pulled into this."

"Yeah, I'm not even gonna bother asking what that was all about. You've got your skeletons in the closet and I've got mine, so we'll leave it at that. We're not normal teenagers and I don't think we want to be, so we should stick together right?"

"Very true." the two of them promptly shook hands, and then Tatsu glanced back over towards where Kagome was making her way towards them "Oh hey Kagome are you holding up alright, how's your hand doing?"

"O-Oh yeah, it's fine, don't worry about me." Kagome tried to assure him, though she did sound somewhat shaken 'Okay it's kind of weird, when did Tatsu start looking so cool? Call me crazy or blame it on the moonlight but he looked so cool and confident standing up to the mask the way he did, and he still does with those swords like that. Maybe it's just the morning light making him look like that, but when did his shoulders get so broad like that? Hold on a second, the morning light… Oh crap, it's morning already and I've barely studied for my test! Thanks a ton for the save you guys, it's been a slice so I'll see ya when I see ya! Oh and one other thing, don't forget to pick up those jewel shards and just stick them back in my room later, okay? Great, thanks a ton for the help." and so she bolted off towards her house, even though it happened to have a gaping hole in it.

"Yeah, she has a pretty go get em sort of attitude most of the time, but it really draws in the people around her, and I'm no different in that regard." Tatsu then proceed to turn his attention back to Raidou "So anyway you mentioned earlier that you're helping out your uncle with his company until he gets back into the country, I totally get that and I respect it, so research on the Fangs can wait if it needs to."

"Don't worry about it, I'll make time." Raidou waved him off "I'll just add this to the list of things you owe me for, and right now I'm chalking it up to three based on today alone."

"That would be awesome, so I'll see you tomorrow at school then?"

"You can count on it." Raidou gave him a simple wave, and then he promptly took his leave into the night, his mind drifting 'Well that was definitely unexpected, but it's not something I can't work around. Tatsu Kamikaze, your life is a lot more interesting than I first expected it to be, and I'm not just talking about the Fangs of Ryuhogo either.'

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A few days went by for things to calm down.

Tatsu sat on the couch of the living room in his apartment, talking on his cell phone, with a certain journal in hand "This find is going to change everything, it proves that legend and stories about the Fangs of Ryuhogo are more real than anyone could imagine, and now I have two of the sets in my possession. I'm taking it back with me to see if I can find out what makes them work, and what their purpose is. Perhaps then we can use their power to change the world, but for the better. Sounds pretty hardcore when you think about it, but in any case that's the last entry that my dad put in his diary. I've gone through this thing at least a dozen times but there are some things I still can't figure out, like what he means by sets of Fangs."

"Well from what I gather there are 10 of the Fangs in total, but apparently they come in sets of some kind. Two of a kind so to speak, but one person can only wield one of them at a time."

"Then why make two of each to begin with?"

"I don't have answers to that either, but I guess that's why we have to combine our research, to find these answers."

"Makes sense to me. Anyway if you're still willing to help me out with this, I'd love for you to take a look at the diary. Maybe you'll be able to see something in there that I didn't."

"Sounds like a plan, we'll meet up on the roof of the school during lunch."

"Actually I think it would be better if we met at my place after school, my brother has a few days off from law school so he's got some free time to help us out."

"Whatever works for you I guess."

"Awesome. Well I'd better get moving, I promised Kagome I'd help her with studying for the makeup test in math."

"That bad huh?"

"It would be faster if I told you which ones she didn't get wrong."

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A few hours passed by, school had come to an end, and research on the Fangs had begun.

Arashi was eyeing Raidou with suspicion at where he and Tatsu were collaborating notes at the kitchen table "I'm not really fond of this new guy."

"I think you've already established that pretty clearly." Kazuma noted calmly, without looking up from the book he was reading.

"You don't like him either right, I mean you don't so why would you?"

"Well for one, he doesn't scream in my ear when I'm trying to study for an exam I have to take at the end of the week."

"Maybe not yet, but then the day's gonna come when he goes and- Hey not cool man, you're talking about me aren't you?" he received no reply, and so he promptly left him there and made his way over to Tatsu and Raidou "So how's it coming?"

"It could be better." Tatsu let out a sigh "To say things are pretty slow going right now would be a huge understatement."

"That implies things are going at all." Raidou looked up from his place in the diary and shot a look at Tatsu "Seriously though, what the hell is most of this?"

"Yeah I know, at a first glance it seems like a lot to take in. My dad wasn't your average guy for a number of reasons, when he wrote down what he was thinking he did it in a way that not many people really understands."

"Including you?"

"To an extent, some things in there I get but others I don't have a freaking clue. He spent at least a few years trying to find the Fangs, studying everything he was able to find on them. But his diary is filled with half thoughts, riddles and bizarre entries here and there, though he did mention in there a few times a possibility about a second set of Fangs."

"That does sound pretty helpful, so how did your dad and his partner track down the Fangs he mentioned in here?"

"Well the first one he said he got from that friend of his, I told you about that before, but it says in one of the later entries that the second he got through luck. Apparently he was in vacation near Hiroshima a few years before I was born and found something about 10 miles outside the city, some kind of old temple near where this big corporation was building a new facility. The templer was discovered underneath the site. But then that car accident happened, but before that he left that Fang with me."

"Uh huh. I'll take a look at the diary tonight and see what I find, and then we'll be able to compare our notes more effectively."

"Makes sense. I do have a few ideas already though."

"Go on."

"Well for starters, it seemed kind of weird to find some kind of underground temple near, of all places, Hiroshima."

"That place doesn't have the best history, that's what you were thinking right?"

"Well it did cross my mind, I just wasn't really fond of saying it out loud. But aside from that, if my dad found a set of Fangs in that temple then maybe that would be a good place to start if we wanted to find more."

"Huh. Seems like a sound idea to me. Head out in the morning?"

"Works for me, it's a Saturday so we don't really have anything noteworthy going on."

"Alright then, see you when the day comes. I'd better head back to the shop. I'll be back here around 9:00 tomorrow so we can head out." and so Raidou promptly grabbed his stuff and took his leave of the apartment.

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Nightfall came, and things had settled down with everyone for the night. Well, almost everyone that is.

Kagome looked up from where she was studying at the desk in her room, and then she looked over to where Tatsu stood in the window sill to her bedroom "I don't know about this, are you sure it's really a good idea to trust Raidou with all of this info about the Fangs? I mean it's one thing for Arashi not to trust him, but we don't really know anything about him and now you're going so far as to trust him with your dad's diary. Maybe it's just me, but something about him seems a little bit off."

"Oh yeah, it's really weird that he's being so helpful to me. Altruism really boggles the mind doesn't it?" Tatsu rolled his eyes as he dropped down into the room "But keep in mind that your mom is having you take Sota to see that friend of his in the hospital tomorrow, and Inuyasha and the others are following up on a lead about a jewel shard so they're probably gonna be gone for a few days."

"Something big?"

"I don't know, something about village girls being taken to a castle and something about a prince turning into a man-sized toad or something. But anyway, they're gone and you're busy so I figured this was the perfect time to do it."

"But these Fangs are dangerous, don't forget that this Guardian guy took down Inuyasha with one hit, and what's to stop him from turning on you too?"

"If he was gonna do that then why give me another Fang and two swords to replace the sword that Inuyasha broke when we fought? Besides it's not like I'm gonna be totally defenseless, I do plan to bring the fangs with me." he held up the necklace he wore for extra emphasis "And keep in mind that my powers come from these things, and if figuring out the secrets behind these things makes me stronger in the process then that can only help us in the long run. We're running into more powerful enemies by the day, and I've gotta be prepared for when that happens."

"I know, it's just that I saw you put your life on the line when we fought the Thunder Brothers, I just don't like seeing you get hurt."

"And that's another reason why this is necessary, the more Fangs I can find and master the stronger I get, and that makes it better for all of us. And as for Raidou, you don't have to worry about him. In some ways he kind of reminds me of Inuyasha, he's pretty rough around the edges and takes a lot of work, but he's a decent guy."

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Meanwhile, with the guy in question…

"Enough of this, I have more important matters to deal with." Raidou held up a hand to silence the Yakuza members in front of him "The Seishi clan can wait for the time being, the main focus of the Yakuza right now is this diary. We will be focusing our efforts on finding the remaining Fangs of Ryuhogo, and once I master their power that will be beneficial to all of us. Now as for the diary, I want you to analyze every page in there, every word and every reference studied and explained in full detail." he received only nods of confirmation and bowed heads "Good. The sooner I figure out what Kuroga was thinking when he found those Fangs the better, and once that happens both Tatsu and myself will be one step closer to having destiny within our grasp.'

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Another day came, and the expedition had begun.

Tatsu led the rest of the group, consisting of Kazuma, Arashi and Raidou, to the walls of the grounds that housed the temple, but motioned for them to stop near the gates "Okay take it easy you guys, god only knows what we have to expect with these people. For all we know there might be armed guards, high tech security, the possibility of guard dogs that could maul our faces off. This could be the hardest thing we've ever done, so I'm gonna go in there first and check things out. The rest of you wait here." he quickly forced open the gates with a loud creek, only to be considerably underwhelmed by what he found "You've gotta be kidding me."

"What's the matter?" Raidou was the first to enter, with the others following behind him, only to see that the facility had apparently been abandoned entirely, the only notable presence inside being the large temple "Oh yeah this is absolutely impossible, I see no feasible way for us to get in here."

"Yeah yeah, forget the sarcasm shtick. I didn't think these people would just up and abandon the place like that."

"Big corporations don't give a damn about places that don't make any money for them, if you want a prime example then just take a look at Disney. But either way this works out for us, now we don't have to waste any energy trying to break in."

"Fair enough, but it's still kind of underwhelming." Tatsu promptly skidded his way down the side of the crevas into the temple, where he discovered a pedestal in the area as the others quickly followed his lead.

"Holy crap this is amazing!" Arashi was the first one to be left in awe "Who the hell built this place, how did it get here, and good freaking god how old is this place?"

"We don't have a clue to any of those questions, keep in mind that's why we came here in the first place. But check this out." he gestured to the pedestal in the middle of the room "This must be where my dad found that second pair of Fangs."

"So that's a start, now what can we find that can actually help us?" Raidou stepped forward in front of the pedestal, which was immediately followed by the temple shaking, and then a door opening in front of them. Raidou was quick to notice his chest glowing, but he placed a hand over it to cover it from the others 'When in the presence of the sets of Fangs that precede it, the doors to each temple automatically open.'

"Must be what leads us into the actual temple. But if that's the door to the temple, then what did we just come through?"

"Apparently the corporation that constructed this facility did a lot of drilling through this area, but they ended up cutting through to the back of the chamber. This is the front."

"So whatever it is that just happened revealed the actual entrance to us?" asked Kazuma.

"That would be my guess."

"It makes sense, though based on what I'm seeing from this place right now I think we should be worried about the possibility of seeing traps coming out of god only knows where."

"Duly noted, but I doubt it's anything we can't handle. For all we know something probably triggered a hidden mechanism, let's not hurt ourselves trying to figure it out if we don't actually have to. Besides, for all we know Arashi probably just stepped on a hidden trigger somewhere in the floor."

"Wait what, why me?" asked Arashi.

"Because if any of us here were gonna do that then it would be you."

"Ahem." Raidou didn't even need to utter a full sentence as he pointed to the mysterious dark cloud emerging from the doorway "So nothing spooky huh?"

"That's… probably just a coincidence." so with a deep breath, Tatsu was the first one to make his way into the new area, only for the first thing to catch his eye to be a series of large ogre statues lined up throughout the room, as well as two pedestals in the middle of the room, one holding a book, one a sword, a large kanji in between the two pedestals "Kind of creepy, I wonder what all of this is about."

"Wisdom, that's what I'm guessing." Raidou gestured to the kanji in the middle and then motioned for Tatsu and the others to join him there "That right there is the kanji for wisdom."

"Yeah my dad mentioned something about tests in a few entries of his diary, you think this might be some kind of test? What if you have to choose one of these things if you want to get to the Fangs?"

"Then the test obviously wasn't meant to be very difficult test, anyone with half a brain cell would know that if you want wisdom then you go for the book." Raidou didn't miss a beat as he reached for the book, when…

"Hold up a second." Kazuma was quick to grab him by the arm and stop him "We don't really know anything for certain about what this is, so let's take it easy okay?"

"Take a look around and see for yourself, these statues demonic soldiers are meant to represent an overwhelming force, would any of you be stupid enough to try and fight them by picking up a simple sword?"

"My points is that we have to think this through."

"I have, so work with me on this." so on that note, Raidou opened up the book until he came across a page with a single kanji on it "Hajime." and that was immediately followed by the room beginning to shake, and the ground underneath his feet starting to crack rapidly.

"Raidou look out!" Tatsu didn't miss a beat as he pushed Raidou out of the way, only for the floor, with Kazuma following swiftly, the book and the sword both going with them.

'Shit!'

"Tatsu! Kazuma!" it didn't take long for the rest of the floor to give out, with Arashi falling into the newly created pit, and then Raidou being the last one to go.

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At the bottom of the pit…

"Shit, this is gonna be close!" regaining his composure, Tatsu did a series of summersault rolls in mid air until he rebounded and landed on his feet as he hit the ground, catching Kazuma in his arms bridal style a few minutes later "Yeah yeah I know, you usually expect Moya to be the one to do this, but then again I also expect a lot of stuff from the two of you that can leave a person scarred for life, which I happen to be as of numerous occasions."

"Very funny, now put me down." Kazuma told him flatly, only for Tatsu to unceremoniously drop him and for him to hit the ground with a loud thud "Ow. So I don't suppose you happen to have brought a flashlight with you along with all of your mystic powers?"

"That… would've been a good thing to think of. But at least I have the flashlight on my phone, so that's better than nothing." he then pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight, which allowed them to take notice of a large number of demon statues surrounding the two of them "So how's this for a brotherly bonding experience?"

"I think I'd rather be watching Black Panther at home. Rest in peace Chadwick Boseman."

"No arguments here."

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Meanwhile, with the other two…

"Oh god, I feel like I got dropped on my head again." Arashi let out a groan as he shook off the disorientation, and he found Raidou shoot a dull look down at him "Oh yeah, no need to help me up or anything."

"Oh so we're buddy buddy now, helping each other out?" Raidou let out a scoff "I assumed that you didn't like me, what with basically trying to call me out on my uncle being a supposed criminal mastermind."

"Oh come on dude it's not like that, it's just…"

"What is it then, is it jealousy or something more superficial?"

"It's not that I don't like you, it's just that I don't think you're good for Tatsu."

"And what makes you so sure of that little fact of life?"

"The fact that I don't know the first thing about you, Tatsu already has enough shit going against him as it is and then you just pop up out of nowhere just fueling this whole thing with the Fangs doesn't help him."

"Even if you believe this search for the Fangs to be a waste of time, that doesn't mean he feels the same way. I know about the history between the two of you, how you've been his best friend since you were 4, how you've been by his side every step of the way, so I shouldn't have to say this to you. If he wants to follow through with this dream of his in order to maintain a connection with his father, don't you think a real friend would do everything in his power to help that become a reality?"

"...So where are Tatsu and Kazuma right now anyway?"

"I haven't seen them, they probably landed in a different area of the temple." the two of them started wandering for a little while until they came across a large wall with some writing going across it, and then when they got close the writing on the wall started glowing.

"Okay, so what the hell are we looking at right now?"

"Based on what I'm seeing in the text… it's the history of the Fangs of Ryuhogo, along with their master… the very first Dragon Guardians. The name of one of them is Asakura, so that makes him my ancestor. The other one is known as Kamikaze, which makes him an ancestor of Tatsu. These men somehow came across the Fangs of power and became the first Guardians. With the new power they found at their command, they fought for their people and protected their homeland for one decade after another."

"Sounds pretty hardcore, so it doesn't say the names of these guys in there? Sounds about as trustworthy of a source of info as Wikipedia, now how about we try and find a way out of here?"

"It says that these first Guardians wanted a pair of trustworthy heirs, people to pass on the Fangs to when their time in this world came to an end, but they soon found that their many children held darkness in their hearts and were unworthy of them, so they decided to scatter them across the four corners of the globe and designed a series of tests to see who deserved to wield their power, not through raw strength, but through virtue and worthiness, and that's how these temples came to be."

"Well that's just perfect, no exits and no way to climb out. That's just perfect, what's the point of a room that doesn't have any doors?"

"These talk about a test of sorts."

"We have to find Tatsu and Kazuma, I don't care about any stupid test."

"Based on what I've seen from you so far, that doesn't surprise me in the slightest. Anyway, here the Fangs shall rest until an heir whose heart is pure and of worthy spirit passes the test to awaken them once more. Only then will the power of the Fangs return."

"Dude are you gonna start listening to me at some point? We have to find a way out of here."

"Forget it, we have to pass the Test of Wisdom to activate the Fangs of Ryuhogo."

"And how the hell are we supposed to do that?"

"Well if I had to guess…" Raidou glanced back to see a number of demon statues waltzing towards them from within the darkness "I would say they have a few answers, but I doubt they would be willing to share."

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Meanwhile, back with the brothers…

By this point, Tatsu and Kazuma were discussing their options based on the current situation they were in "It wouldn't be too complicated for me to just climb the wall out of here with you on my back and then go track down the others."

"But that's assuming that you would be able to track down the others. Kauzma pointed out "And even then getting back down here is another story"

"Well it's not that complicated, I could just use my swords to climb out of the walls." he paused when he noticed that Kazuma was distracted by something "Okay, so what exactly are you looking at right now?"

"Well all I can say is that right now, taking out your swords actually might not be such a bad idea after all." he pointed to where apparently, one of the demon statues was coming to life with glowing red eyes.

"Yeah okay swords, that seems like a good idea." Tatsu promptly drew both of his swords from his back, and as the statue came charging at him he cut it down with one clean stroke, causing it to crumble into dust "Okay then, that's one problem solved." then he looked over to see another statue coming to life, along with several others "And that's many more problems coming to life, probably to try and eat us or something."

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"Well if I had to guess…" Raidou glanced back to see a number of demon statues waltzing towards them from within the darkness "I would say they have a few answers, but I doubt they would be willing to share."

"Okay trying not to lose my shit, so do we have any real ideas here?" asked Arashi.

"Well the first one that comes to mind is that I push you forward into these things, and while they're ripping you apart like it's the Walking Dead, I get out of here with my life. But at the same time, I do have another plan in mind."

"And what's that?"

"This." with one swift movement he dealt Arashi a chop to the back of the neck, knocking him out cold and leaving him to fall to the ground 'The ability to hear myself think, how I missed you so. At least now I can cut loose a little bit. Now kneel before the worthy one." he was met with one of them swinging a broadsword at his head, which he grabbed with one hand "Well it was worth a try. Either way, I still have the power of the Fang of the Iron Heart, so I say let the test begin in earnest."

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Meanwhile, with the brothers…

"Kazuma get down!" Tatsu pounced at one of the statues that was closing in on Kazuma, and he reduced it to rubble with one clean stroke, only to quickly notice more of them coming by the second "Just stay off to the side and keep your head down bro, I promise I'll get over to you as soon as I can!" he didn't hesitate as he went to town on the soldiers coming towards him, slicing through one after the other as soon as they got close to him, but it didn't take long for a number of them to surround him "Okay yeah, I think now's about the time to leave." he leapt into the air and tried to rebound off of a wall, only for one of the statues to grab him and pin him to the ground, but quickly ran it through with a sword "How was that one?"

"It could've been better for me personally." Kazuma pointed out as he dealt one of them a solid kick to the chest that caused it to crumble, though this was accompaniced by a sickening crack that caused him to recoil in pain "The biggest problem that I have right now is that I don't have the level of enhanced durability that you do."

"Do what I said before, cover your head and duck!" once seeing that these instructions were followed, Tatsu held out a hand and unleashed a wave of energy that ripped through at least 20 soldiers in a single shot "That gives us a chance to breathe at least, you alright bro?"

"A little bit bruised and I'm pretty sure I can't feel one of my legs, but even so I've been through a lot worse than that. Both of us have."

"Tell me about it." the two of them glanced back to see more statues appearing and making their way towards them "And here I was hoping that would be enough to get all of them in a single shot."

"You get points for effort, but not much else."

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Meanwhile, with the others…

'Well this could be going better.' having taken one of the stone swords to use as his own method of offense, Raidou was slowly but surely cutting down one statue after another, though he was quickly running out of patience 'This is getting about as annoying as that idiot (this is his way of referring to Arashi), so what do I have to do to pass this test? I know it's something that has to do with Wisdom, so what do I have to do?'

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Meanwhile, with the brothers…

"Come on, come on!" Tatsu continued slicing through one statue after another with both swords in hand, only for them to keep coming with no end to their numbers in sight "You keep coming at me as much as you want, if I have to go down then you can be sure I'm gonna go down fighting with everything I've got."

"Let's cross that bridge when we come to it." Kazuma held out a hand in front of Tatsu, as a sort of way to calm him down "Though I'm starting to think that fighting might not be the best way to go about this."

"Well it still seems like a better idea than giving up."

"I never said that, but think about this for a second. Raidou picked up the book from the pedestal and that's what started the test to begin with."

"So you're thinking that there's a way to stop this book too?"

"I think it's going to be more productive then fighting these things to the death."

"Seems fair to me, you go ahead and make a beeline for the book while I try and clear some more of these things out of your way." so Tatsu hurled another energy blast forward, which decimated at least 10 statues in an instant "Go for it."

"Right." so Kazuma leapt through the air and over the debris, which allowed him to get to the book with ease 'From what I could tell he read the kanji for "begin" from this book, so there's a chance that's how we can stop this test too.' he quickly started going through one page after another, scanning over each page as he did so 'He recognized the power of the Fangs, and the power reached out to him. This must be some kind of history book that goes on about the Fangs themselves, but there's too much in here so there's no way that would be able to stop it, not in the book at least.'

"Hey Kazuma check it out!" Tatsu leapt over a number of statues and unleashed a blast of energy in mid air that allowed him to incinerate them on the spot, and then he landed by a certain sword lying on the ground "You see this thing?"

"Isn't that the one that was on the pedestal upstairs? Do you see that symbol on the blade of the sword?"

"Yeah what about it?" and then the dots connected in his head "Wait a second, you're not thinking that…"

"It's not the book we need to look at, it's the sword! We don't have any time to waste, give me the sword!" he was met with the sword being embedded in the wall merely a few inches above his head "A little bit close for my liking."

"You do know that I could've thrown it lower!" Tatsu then continued with cutting down the statues, now panting slightly with every stroke 'Enhanced strength, speed, agility and endurance, but not enhanced stamina. That would've been good to know.'

'Okay, so the kanji on the sword means "end," which means… Well it's now or never I'm guessing. Yame!"

"Shit!" Tatsu dove underneath one of the statues as it prepared to bring down a sword, only for it to stop in the middle of its attack, the same with all of the others, their glowing red eyes ceasing with the glowing as well as the statues all fell back and shattered into pieces "Uh… and there's more where that came from!"

"Drop the bravado act."

"I didn't know what the hell else to say."

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Meanwhile, with the others…

'What the hell…' Raidou looked around as the demon statues stopped moving, and he noticed one of the fangs on his necklace glowing green 'So this is it then… The test is passed, and the battle is over… and now because of it, both Tatsu and I have the power of the Divine Quake at our command, and as a result of having a second Fang to utilize, the capabilities of the Fang of the Iron Heart have been enhanced as well.' and so he promptly unleashed a wave of energy that destroyed all of the remaining statues in an instant, as well as the wall in the back of the room with the writing 'Enhanced power of the Iron Heart, which means even greater levels of speed, strength, agility and durability. One step closer to achieving my destiny, and keeping the promise that I made to you mom.'

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Meanwhile, with the brothers…

"Okay hold on bro, I've got you." Tatsu bolted his way out of the temple and up out of the crevice with Kazuma on his back, and once they were out he gently sat him on the ground "You gonna be okay here?"

"I've had a lot worse than this, you know that." Kazuma let out a sigh "The next few weeks aren't going to be easy though."

"Better your leg than our lives. Just stay here, I'm gonna go back in for-" Tatsu was cut off mid step by the temple beginning to crumble into the ground "Shit, Arashi! Raidou!"

"You mind not screaming like a 5 year old girl and moving out of the way so I can get a grip up there?" this was when Raidou pulled himself up out of the crevice, dragging Arashi's sluggish form with him in the process.

"Oh thank god, you guys alright?"

"Arashi took a blow to the back of the head from one of them but I check him out, he's gonna be fine. Well he's gonna be the same as he was anyway. So what about the two of you?"

"We've been better but we've sure as hell been worse. So out of curiosity, did the two of you see anything strange where you guys ended up?"

"If by that you mean an endless number of statues coming to life and trying to rip us a new one over and over? Yeah that's basically the sum of it, and it's how he got this." he jerked a thumb down at Kazuma's leg, which was bending in a very unnatural way, and it caused the three of them to cringe slightly "Yeah we've really gotta get him to a hospital. You know my dad had a bunch of theories about the rings, one of them about how the rings might have been some sort of ancient technology, so maybe the statues were part of that too. It was all a test designed to get the Fangs."

"So then when I chose the book, that was what started the test?"

"Yeah but the book was so obvious that none of us ever thought about looking at the sword, but then Kazuma here figured out that the word to deactivate the statues was hidden on the blade of the sword."

"So then… you mean you guys passed the test?"

"Wisdom right? Don't forget what Uncle Iroh said in Avatar the Last Airbender. It's Important to draw wisdom from many different places. If you take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale."

"I've never watched that show in my life." he was met with three simultaneous comical gasps of horror "What?"

"...We're gonna fix that one later. But that raises the question, if my dad had already found the Fangs then what did we do when we passed the test?"

"Well based on what I've learned, that awakened the power of the second Fangs, the power of the Divine Quake. Whoever wields that power now, they have the ability to manipulate the earth around them, along with anything with earthen properties. And passing each test and awakening the new Fangs also enhances the abilities of the ones the user already had.

"Huh. Well that's convenient."

"And so is this, you might not have taken the book with you guys, but you managed to pull this piece of badass out with you!" Arashi held up the sword from the pedestal, only for it to start glowing and then suddenly split in half "I swear that wasn't me."

"Yeah we all saw it."

"Hold on a second." Kazuma placed the two halves of the sword together "I think it's some sort of map."

"It has to be another set of Fangs. Maybe with this we've really got something, we can find even more of the Fangs of Ryuhogo."

"You know there's most likely going to be other tests." Raidou pointed out "Where we fell there was a wall that described the history of the Fangs, I didn't get a chance to read much of it before it was destroyed, but it did mention that there were more tests."

"Well whatever it is I'm sure we can handle it, so long as we go at it together. After all, this is what friends are for right?" he received no response, but didn't let it bother him "Alright come on you guys, we'd better get my brother to a doctor." he slung Kazuma's arm over his shoulder and started walking away, with Arashi following by his side.

'...This is what friends are for huh? Well there are worse things in the world.' with his thoughts drifting, Raidou quietly followed after the group.

A/N:

Now we see some action in the Modern Era, with Tatsu and Raidou finally meeting outside of battle and the Guardian personna, and actually forging a friendship and partnering up together to search for the Fangs of Ryuhogo. Of course, Raidou has two of the Fangs in his possession already, but Tatsu and the others don't know about that. Not yet at least.

So yes, Tatsu and Raidou now both have the power of the second pair of the Fangs of Ryuhogo, the Fangs of the Divine Quake, as well as all of the power that comes with it. As for what those powers entail that's something you're going have to see next time.