Author's Notes and Disclaimer: Hey there, everybody. Don't worry, I'm still alive and kicking and my creative gears are still turning. I'm working a job that'll put some money in my pocket until I go back to school (which I've finally gotten registered for and accepted into, so, yay!), so I'm going to be busy for a while. However, that doesn't mean I won't review my friends' works or post something whenever I get a chance.
Getting this particular fanfiction up is something long, long overdue; I've been lending hints about it but until now I had nothing to show for it. Well, here it is: This is the first prologue of my "Loonatics Unleashed"/"Inuyasha" crossover, probably another first in the history of fanfiction crossovers. The purpose of this particular prologue is to set the scene for Inuyasha's side of the story. There's another, much longer prologue that I'll post after this one that will detail the Loonatics' side of the story and how they got involved. As I'm not familiar with the manga version of "Inuyasha", the events will correspond with the anime with the necessary changes needed for the crossover to work.
To place this in the series of events occurring in my fanfic-verse, this series takes place after my crossover story "Loonatics Unleashed in: The Secret of NIMH" and before "Godzilla Singular Point: A Kaiju-and-Cartoon Crossover Adventure".
Now, as per the rules: I do not own the characters associated with the anime "Inuyasha"; they are owned by Sunrise and Viz Media and are based on characters from the manga by Rumiko Takahashi.
OK, let's begin, shall we?
Prologue 1: "How It All Began…"
This is a tale of a girl from the present and a group of heroes from the future who venture into the past to defeat a fearsome enemy. To do so, they have to learn to work together with an unlikely ally and along the way learn more about themselves, each other, and gain new powers. But before we begin our tale in the present, we must go back to the past; 550 years ago in Japan…twenty years before the Warring-States era…
It was a peaceful day; the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and a gentle breeze blew through the air. But in a certain village nestled among mountains, cries of fear and terror were ringing out.
"IT'S INUYASHA-A-A!" a villager yelled in terror.
The villagers gasped as they looked toward a group of trees; birds were fleeing from their nests and perches as a net stretched up, the cause of it being so was what appeared to be a 15-year-old boy with silver-gray hair wearing a red haori and a matching-colored hakama. As he spread his arms and broke the net, however, certain details about him could be seen, such as the fact that he had triangular dog ears atop his head that were the same color as his hair, the pupils of his golden eyes—which glimmered with an almost evil look—were slits, his canines were longer than a normal human's, and his fingernails were so long they looked like claws at the ends of his fingertips.
This was Inuyasha, known as "The Terror of the Forest", and he was after one thing and one thing only…which he found inside the village shrine after leaping off a torii gate, dodging the spears thrown at him and crashing through the roof of the shrine. A feat like that would be impossible for an ordinary man, however Inuyasha was anything but; for he was a half-demon.
Inuyasha smirked as he raised a sleeve to his face to cover his nose from the burning incense. His target was on a stand amidst all those incense lamps: A marble-sized stone on a necklace of white trapezoid beads that gave off a pink glow.
The Shikon Jewel, or the Jewel of Four Souls.
Inuyasha grabbed the jewel, a triumphant look on his face. At that moment though, a few villagers burst into the shrine, making the half-demon turn fast. And it was a good thing he had such quick reflexes, for they helped him dodge yet more spears that knocked some burning lamps over, setting the place ablaze. The half-dog demon jumped up and out through the roof just as an explosion went off.
"Hmm! So there," Inuyasha said with a smirk as he flew through the air. He then looked at the Shikon Jewel and added, "Finally, a way for me to become all-demon at last."
He jumped over another torii gate and made for the forest. What he didn't know was that he was being pursued; not by the villagers, but by a single individual.
"INUYASHA!" cried out a young woman holding a bow and arrow in a tone of betrayal. She had raven-black hair tied in a low loose ponytail, brown eyes that had a look that reflected the tone of her voice, and she was wearing a white hitoe with sode-kukuri through the sleeves, a bright-red nagabakama with a matching obi, with tabi and rice straw sandals on her feet; the garb of a priestess.
The priestess loosed an arrow. It was a far shot indeed, but the priestess was a master archer, and sure enough, just as Inuyasha was leaping past a certain tree in the forest, the arrow found its mark, piercing his chest and pinning him to the tree. The impact of the arrow made him drop the Shikon Jewel. He tried to reach for it as it fell, but he felt weak all of a sudden, and the round jewel fell to the ground a few feet away.
Inuyasha looked to see where the arrow had come from and was shocked to see that it was the priestess who had loosed the arrow that pierced him. Through the feelings of pain from the arrow and from within, he barely noticed that the priestess' right shoulder was bleeding profusely, a trail of the red lifeblood behind her.
"Ki…Kikyo…?" Inuyasha gasped, feeling his strength slip away. He reached out a hand, betrayal—possibly heartbreak—on his features as he said, "How could—! I thought—!" Before he could say anything more, his strength gave out completely and he closed his eyes.
Once Inuyasha was no longer moving, the wounded Kikyo moved forward towards the Shikon Jewel on the ground in front of her, grunting in pain and dropping her bow before she kneeled down.
"Big sister!" a small girl with a bandage over the right side of her face and dressed in an orange kimono cried out, coming over to Kikyo's side.
"Lady Kikyo, that wound, it—" a villager started to say as more gathered around the wounded priestess.
"You're hurt really badly," said the little girl, looking upset.
"I forgot that—" Kikyo tried to say. "And now see what—" She grunted in pain as she picked up the pink-colored jewel. "All for this," she said, her body shaking, "the Sacred Jewel which—" Kikyo was cut off by a pang of pain, which caused her to let out a groan.
"You're in pain," the orange kimono-clad girl said to her elder sibling as the latter shook with pain. "Let someone—"
Kikyo appreciated what her little sister was trying to do, but she knew that she was beyond help now.
"I won't feel it much longer, and so I give this to you—the Shikon No Tama, which you must burn with my body," Kikyo instructed, a firm look on her face. "It must not fall into the hands of those who would abuse it."
Kikyo clutched the Sacred Jewel in her hand, feeling the last vestiges of life leave her. With a final groan, she closed her eyes, let out a final breath, and collapsed.
"Sister Kikyo!" cried her little sister. "Sister Kikyo-o-o-o!"
Later that day, Kikyo's body was put on a funeral pyre and burned, with the Shikon Jewel in her hands, in accordance with her last wishes.
"I shall take it with me to the Other World."
And thus, the priestess Kikyo died and the Jewel of Four Souls vanished from the world forever.
…Or did it?
Apologies about how short it was, but it's not that long a scene in the first episode of the anime. Don't worry, the next prologue will make up for it…and then some, I'm sure.
Not much to say here, as the events mentioned here pretty much speak for themselves. However, for those of you who have seen "Inuyasha" all the way through, you know that there's more going on here than meets the eye.
Speaking of which, I'm hoping those of you with sharp eyes and attention to detail will have picked up a certain fact I put down at the beginning of the story concerning time. If you did, kudos to you! And I can tell you that something similar will pop up again once the story officially starts.
Not many questions to ask here, either, except maybe for these:
What would you be doing when Inuyasha comes to steal the Shikon Jewel?
What would you be doing to try to help Kikyo after she pins Inuyasha to the tree?
Next, we are introduced to the other protagonists of this crossover. Much more content and more questions are heading your way soon! Stay tuned!
As always, please read and review. Thank you!