Author's Notes: Originally, I was going to post a new chapter on April Fool's Day... but that didn't work out so here we are. Today, I needed to write out something of interest because I got accused of favoritism at work. Not me favoring someone over another person, but my supervisor favoring me over my coworker. I didn't know how to feel about that, but there's really nothing I can do about it. If I can't be my natural self at work, then it seems like I don't need to be there. I'm not faking a different personality to make everyone happy. Feel how you feel. Opening a bookstore cafe is sounding better and better to me anyways.
I do have one serious note. I was going to include the tiger youkai from Inuyasha into Hell Doctor, but I changed my mind and let them be supposedly dead. I didn't do much research into Jura and Byakko, so I don't remember what happened to them and I didn't care enough to try to bring them back into this story. They weren't included in the original scripts for this either; however, I do use zodiac beasts strictly for Meioshi's training. The zodiac beasts are not to be confused with the lurking beasts or original youkai in the Inuyasha storyline. Lurking beasts are forsaken creatures of both heaven and hell, and the youkai that I use come from both mythology and Takahashi's work. You'll learn about all of the beasts when we actually dive into Meioshi's character in the future and Sesshomaru physically goes out of his way to learn about her.
My last small note has to do with the Commentary Corner. I'm going to respond to reviews a bit earlier because between Easter and Mother's Day my home life is going to be slightly hectic. I don't anticipate much happening, but I need that little bit of downtime for myself anyway. Work is starting to get to me, and I think I've had enough of everyone complaining about nothing. Anyways, enjoy the new chapter.
"Enter the threshold..."
Meioshi walked forward, feeling a sense of foreboding come over her. It was quieter near the family home than it was by her estate. That shouldn't have been possible, but it made her heart pound a bit harder. She continued to walk through the trees lining the cliff, only turning to her sides to analyze the area in search of this haunting predator possibly in her family's home. Crunching of dead grass and leaves echoed in the vacuum of silence before rumbling finally sounded. The ground began to vibrate a little until quaking intensified enough to bring Meioshi to her knees to try to stabilize herself. Abruptly, a distorted figure of light and stripes swiped at her, and she just barely dodged it. Some of her hair was cut from the rapid swipe. A towering creature with piercing, glassy eyes and misshapen stripes along what was possibly its body knocked down several trees before sinking back into the darkness to obscure her visual of it. Whatever the creature was, it wasn't a youkai at all. This creature had mianyi like Meioshi and a large amount of it. There was no way she could fight this thing! She used up every ounce of her might!
"Do not insult me!" a familiar voice said.
Baohu qi Voluptatis appeared in her hand before she could even respond. The time it took for her to look down was enough for the distorted creature to lunge at her. She was hit with a bone-crushing blow that knocked the wind out of her. Only a scream and a grunt managed to escape her. Her back slammed against several trees before she plummeted to the ground, coughing up air from the hit. Her injury brought the sword to life, however, and it started to glow intensely. Before the beast could strike, an ice wall had formed and the sword reached out to the Dai Fubuki blade. Together, both weapons formed armor around her torso, a helmet, and a bow with no arrows.
"Stand, my friend," the soft voice of the Nameless General commanded.
Her legs may as well have been jelly from the blow. Her knees shook violently as she forced herself to stand. She only had a moment to look down at her armor before she felt a surge of power wash over her. It wasn't hers. It didn't feel like the Nameless General's reiki either. Though his reiki was covering her through the armor and bow, she reasoned that the lurking beast of the divine arctic sword was lending her its might. The ice shield it formed was large like one of its scales. The distorted beast struck at the shield again with enough force to make the shield close its distance between it and Meioshi. This enraged the dragon of the sword and made him unleash a wave of power that filled Meioshi's very core. It was like being possessed by the Netherland wolf again, but this was much worse and far more intimidating. This dragon was an easily angered one when something dared to challenge its might. Her eyes glowed and her pupils changed from a human's roundness to a dragon's slant. She could even feel herself go from confused and scared to angry and insulted. Those who command the ice seemed to share the same personality from what the doctor could gather. They did not like losing whatsoever, whereas the doctor invited loss if it meant she could learn another technique or train to be better.
"You are too noble, hell traveler," the dragon said through Meioshi's voice. "No wonder you attract certain men."
Huh? Meioshi thought, feeling a playful energy coming from the Dai Fubuki blade. Are you both teasing? Right now? We've no time for this!
"Show me your strength!" the dragon commanded, dropping the shield and infusing the sword with snow gust energy.
Meioshi nodded and lunged forward simultaneously with the distorted beast. Blade and claw clashed in a power struggle until Meioshi couldn't take much more of the clashing mianyi and reiki if the dragon was even using such power. She quickly leapt away from the beast and ran around it to escape a tackle. Using melee tactics, she focused on devising a plan to make the beast less of a distorted blending of light and stripe. It heavily relied on powerful strikes, so she had to avoid any lunge attacks. Delivering a critical blow to the beast's arm, or at least something resembling an arm, she took notice the stripes responding to the blows. They shook and flashed like a flickering flame being blown at too softly. The shaking of the stripes came to a halt when one of the arms had stripes settling on it. That made guessing at the creature's identity much easier. She barely had a chance to make a solid guess before the beast came at her with even greater force. The dragon took over in dodging this time. Meioshi felt her legs being carried before she swept off her feet. Her vision tunneled and she suddenly found herself a good distance away from the distorted opponent. What just happened?
She was closer to the beast's hind legs now. If the stripes weren't distorted before, they were painful to look at now. The light was searing! The dragon let out an unimpressed harrumph before it released a breath of shadow from Meioshi's mouth into the air. The dragon practically controlled this part of the fight. it made Meioshi run again before sweeping her off her feet, but she was able to control the sword on her own. Whatever the dragon was doing must have been evasion tactics. She had no idea what was going on.
"He's making you shapeshift, my friend," the Nameless General explained. "He's helping you gain enough momentum to transform you into him so that you can move quickly. This strange creature you're against is using a lot of power. You need to evade its strikes as best as you can. You'll only be able to do that with agility. You can't see it where you are, but the creature does have one weak point. I think when you straightened its stripes, the light it was emanating to overload your senses dimmed up. That's why you can see one of its arms now. I will lend my strength if you can continue to straighten its stripes. You'll have to make an arrow or find one somehow. Something's stopping me from creating an arrow myself and stopping the dragon from fighting in your place. Our strength is usable, but this is not our fight."
"It's... mine," Meioshi whispered to herself.
She was meant to fight this creature without power. Gaining a new resolve, she very quickly performed the kage o tasuo ritual simply to analyze the beast's fighting pattern. Accepting the strength of her friends, hearing the dragon let out a hmph at the notion of being called such, she took some deep breaths... and became one with the dragon. This time, she gave herself the momentum she needed and... as the Nameless General had explained, she felt herself be covered in the dragon's scale armor before her body elongated, her nails broke in half vertically to extend into claws, and her teeth lengthened and sharpened into fangs. In a burst of snow and shadow, she did turn into a silvery dragon! She nodded, timed her strikes, and became an equal match to the distorted beast. Claw and sword met in almost each strike. Stripe and light became less distorted. Before long, the beast went from being unseeable to a fully realized, fully armored... tiger with the hell traveler's mark on its forehead!
"That's it!" the Nameless General called, bow glowing with power. "Strike that symbol!"
"But that's... my family crest!" Meioshi said, taking a mighty blow from the metal tiger.
Letting out a yelp from the blow, the tiger let out a mighty roar to call upon the winds of heaven. He breathed in, filling his chest, looked down and shot out a blast of wind that sent Meioshi flying into an unknown place outside of the tree line. Wherever they were, the walls or surrounding area was curving and undulating with exception to what appeared to be glass flooring. The tiger towered over her with a snarl before pouncing at her. She hurried to her feet to barrel roll out of reach of the creature, but she doubted she would be able to hit the creature's forehead with no arrow or easier way to get to its head. There had to be something she was missing. The Nameless General wouldn't have formed a bow for her to use if there was no way for her to create or use an arrow. Dodging another blow and shapeshifting to circle the metal tiger, Meioshi spotted a pool of light in the tiger's hind leg. Taking a huge risk, she rushed over to it and plunged her dragon claw into the spot. From it, an arrow made of bamboo had come out and the beast was furious. It swiped at her one good time, knocking the wind out of her and rushed at her for another blow. She shapeshifted again, took the Nameless General's bow from her back, aimed... and fired at the crest.
"Child of Unmei, stand down from your post!" Meioshi shouted, watching the tiger respond to the title.
The arrow sunk into its head, causing a bright light to burn Meioshi's eyes. Before she knew it, she was standing in the grove of snowbell trees. She searched around to make sure she wasn't dead or crazy, and a man's hand touched her shoulder to turn her to him. He was quite a handsome, young man! Smiling softly at her, he saluted her and said, "You did well, daughter of Unmei. It's me. Oyakawa."
"Father Oyakawa!" Meioshi said, running into her forefather's arms. She had read his letters and spoken to him before. He was a goofy fellow who loved to laugh and make others laugh. Who knew he could be so fearsome as a fighter?
Author's Commentary Corner: Let's check things out... *reads reviews from Chapter 121*
On Captain Yoshiaga's scene: No, Meioshi doesn't bargain any sexual favors for the sassy clock youkai. She typically gives a shrewd smile when she's planning something.
To marsmagari: It's been an honor to finally write this story out the way I always wanted. I'm beyond elated that you guys have been engaging with it the way you have. I hope with each new revelation and character and plot point that you're able to cry, punch the air, roll your eyes, and laugh along with me. This is my callback to classic anime. It looks like more and more people are vibing with what I miss about older anime titles. I don't have anything against newer titles whatsoever. I just don't have the same emotions or love of art styles as I did in the past. Hence why I say I'm just too old for some anime. It belongs to the new generation now.
On Milady's interpretation here: Sesshomaru's mother is a classic example of authors' writing choices being the bane of my existence when it comes to female characters. I can't get into a rant about that, but I wanted more out of her than what was given. This was the best that I could do to increase her likeability and relatability. So far..., a lot more people like this kung-fu version of her than I thought. I like kung-fu movies. You all know this by now. I was not anticipating a jump in her popularity when I took her out of that ridiculous mold that I felt she was in and put her in the universe of martial arts. There is one story on AO3 that expands on her character in an interesting way, and I'll reference that in the bibliography next update, but I'm not a fan of her trope. Hopefully, you all have enjoyed her appearances in all facets that I tried to provide. I can't do this "cold mother" trope with authors anymore. I just - bleh!
On the Cave of Swords: I actually plan on using more real-life places and landmarks in this story as background settings, or at the very least inspirations for such settings. I was originally going to create all fantasy places and worlds for this story, but there's no need to do that when there's places that exist in the world that no one even knows about and they're beautiful places with amazing backstories. Why create something fake when there's real beauty in the world?
On Sesshomaru's character analysis: I was actually really excited about expanding on Sesshomaru's character beyond the Inuyasha storyline. He's another trope that I can't stand - the spoiled brat character that wants power for no reason. I get it. Not every character in a story has to be relatable or understandable. Some people just want to feel like they're in control in the real world, so these characters often are portrayed with simply that mindset. Sesshomaru, however, is too unique for such simple treatment, hence why I really dove into the historical period that Takahashi chose to use in order to dissect his character. Honestly, I think there's more to Sesshomaru's character than him just being pompous with people. I don't think his parents were unhappy with each other, but I do think their separation did something to him. That's what I really wanted to explore. There's a romantic inside of him. I just need to find believable ways to get it out of him.
I like the period drama aspect of Hell Doctor more because of the research I was able to engage in, and I've both blown the dust off my ancient history books and picked up a couple of new books to really create the world and atmosphere that everybody engages with. I do see some things that I want to go back and change to really make this story a true historical fantasy in my earlier chapters, so it looks like I'm not quite done with my edits like I thought, but I look forward to just making this story as intimidating as possible for newcomers now. XD Let's break the mold together as a family! The bibliography for this story grew at an astounding pace. I love it! But, I'm really doing all of this because I think Sesshomaru can pull off an amazing storyline on his own. I always thought that. No one wants to give him a chance, though. If you've read my work from Chapter 1 to now, you've seen just one possibility of where his character can go. I'm not the "cream of the crop" writer for his character. Most of you have probably read marsmagari's work as well. She's another possibility of where his character can go. There's top tier fiction out there that do him fair justice. I don't see why he's stuck in this whirlwind of absolute foolishness.
On the alternative ending: Right! There'll be a note when the alternative endings will stop appearing and when the true ending is approaching. A poll will go up for my dedicated readers to vote on whether or not they want to see the secret ending and a sneak peek into Hell Doctor's proposed sequel. I don't have a deadline ready just yet, but, once I have a set date, you'll be able to vote accordingly. I've had enough of Inuyasha and its foolishness, so I won't be writing a Part II to Hell Doctor because I genuinely don't want to add anymore to the franchise. I'm done. I'll just show you what I brainstormed before I made my decision to leave the fandom where it is. If you have questions about what Part II was going to entail out of genuine interest or curiosity, you're more than welcome to ask. I have no problems with sharing my thoughts on the sequel's direction. Season 3 was going to be the major turning point for Sesshomaru's romantic path, so, by then, I was going to assume that everyone agreed that they prefer the Sesshomaru X OC relationship as the main relationship. If more people prefer his canon relationship and sequel than what I have here, that's the time to say so.
On Sesshomaru and Meioshi's relationship: The dynamic of our two rivals was meant to change from hostile to friendly in that holy warrior sub-arc. Almost everything that they had gone through from the beginning was meant to show them that it was okay to trust the other. Meioshi was meant to represent new allies and that it's okay for Sesshomaru to accept others in his life beyond Jaken, Aa-Un, and Rin. Likewise, Sesshomaru was meant to represent help and that it's okay for Meioshi to accept help from unlikely places. Their dynamic is heavily reliant on symbolism, and it's very easy to miss if you don't look at the scene as a whole. Even the sentient Nintojo represents something for them both. You have to look very carefully at where they are and what they're doing in certain moments, especially when it comes to them looking at each other. That's a clue.
On Meioshi's sex book: Y'all are some freaky, little things! XD I got a whole new follower behind some nudes in this story. Sesshomaru as a French model was a hilarious image! Hahaha! Meioshi makes a majority of her income from sex education classes and marriage counseling due to the historical atmosphere of the Sengoku era. Women's rights begin to diminish greatly during this time, so domestic abuse and suicide are common ailments of civilization. Kita and the Green Pheasant's wife, Madame, are representatives of what women went through during that time as their rights were being taken away. Kita is actually loosely based off a real-life rape victim I had to study in psychology who visualized having sex with a woman as a safety blanket to endure sex with her then-husband. Madame is loosely based off a domestic abuse victim in actual Japanese history who committed suicide to escape her unhappy marriage. Both women's accounts will be provided in the bibliography if you're interested in reading about either of them.
On Homugi: Homugi doesn't BELIEVE in a fourth wall. But, yes, she and Hasumi live with Meioshi. Hasumi does, however, stay with Liuxian and his family from time to time. She kind of adopted them as her new family, so she lives among them and learns more about the world through her adventures with them. You are going to LOVE when she joins Sesshomaru on his campaigns. :3 It's worthy to note that Homugi and Hasumi know how large Meioshi's estate actually is. Sesshomaru and Jaken, though they only stayed in the lounge room for two nights until the girls returned from vacation, don't actually know anything about Meioshi's home beyond the existence of the pond. Aa-Un know about her barn and kitchen, though.