"What do you mean it's complicated?" Nabiki asked. "How old are you?"
"It really isn't polite to ask such a personal question like that," Kagome said.
"No, I don't suppose it is," Nabiki said. "It isn't really polite to parade the person that turned over my life and say 'don't hurt him' either."
"It ain't like I want to do this," Ranma said, sitting up. He looked around and blinked. "Where am I?"
"This is my family shrine, young-fox," Kagome said. "Now lay down and stay there!" Kagome's voice was definitely charged with power as Ranma could attest by the fact that he was suddenly lying down on the futon.
"Hey!" Ranma said, glaring up at the smiling woman.
"How did you do that?" Nabiki asked, staring at Ranma.
"It's an old trick," Kagome said, not mentioning that her original uses of it had been through the power of an enchanted necklace rather than her own ability. "And he needs to rest." Kagome said insistently, while looking through the cupboard for something.
"I can heal fine with a couple hours of rest," Ranma muttered. That was a trick he hadn't acquired from his transformation. It was something that Ranma had required to actually survive up until Jusenkyo.
"You can rest here," Kagome said. "I swear, all you idiot spirits are the same. Shouting about how you're fine and you don't need help." She was still rooting around in the cupboard.
"Whatever," Ranma said.
"Ahh, here it is," Kagome said. "I knew it was in here somewhere. Never go adventuring without it." She turned around to produce a spray can of disinfectant and proceeded to spray Ranma's various injuries.
"Now," Kagome said. "I'm going to call your father, Tendo-san. Please attend to Ranma while I'm gone."
"I'd love to," Nabiki said, smiling darkly.
"I wonder what's taking Inu-Yasha so long," Kagome asked. "They're just a bunch of kids."
"Look," the white-haired man said. "We can continue doing this the hard way, or you all can get up off your asses and come with me nice and calmly." He sat there, elbow leaning on his knee and fingers tapping the side of his face.
The three fighters of the group panted as they stood up and faced across the vacant lot at their opponent. Kasumi, at Akane's insistance was staying in the back and watching as they tried to throw themselves against the dog-demon.
And Kasumi could feel that he was a demon, not a, shapechanger like her and her sisters. He practically radiated dark power and aggression. Kasumi just wished that Nabiki was there to say if this is what she had felt from Yuka.
"Dry up and die!" Akane roared charging forward.
"We never give up!" Shampoo added along.
"You'll never beat us all demon," Mousse shouted. Inu-Yasha sighed and buried his face in his hand, shaking his head.
"These kids need to get stronger," he said as they charged toward him. "Badly." Then he looked up and cracked his knuckles. "Hard way it is then."
"Ohhh," the fox-boy said as he sat up. Then remembered why he'd fained. "AHHH!! Where's the youkai!?! Where's the demon?"
Sayuri blinked and looked up at the fox-boy clinging from the ceiling and glancing around frantically.
"That was just Mr. Tendo's demon head attack," Sayuri said. The fox jumped down and rushed the Tendo patriarch.
"ARE YOU TRYING TO GIVE ME A HEART ATTACK!!!" he demanded.
"I'm sorry young...sir," Soun said. "But a fox spirit recently assaulted my daughters, and I thought perhaps that you were him."
"Well, I'm NOT!!!" he protested.
"Excuse me," Sayuri asked. "What ARE you here for?" The fox-boy turned around to look at her and blinked.
"Errr...Kagome told me to come and protect you while she talks to everybody else at her shrine," he said.
"Uhh...who?" Sayuri asked.
"Higurashi Kagome," he said. Sayuri and Soun flinched. "We were heading this way when we saw that fox playing games with three other hengeyokai. Kagome went back to the shrine, Inu-Yasha went to talk to the chasers, and I came here."
Sayuri tried to consider that thought for a moment, Higurashi Kagome was a rather obscure mythical figure, but one she tended to take a bit of interest in. After all, supposedly her family was descended from the woman, assuming she had ever existed that is. Anyway, she had something more important to consider.
"AHHHH!!!" she shouted. "There's a demon stealing the underwater from Kasumi's laundry basket!!!" Suddenly Soun and the fox-boy were both huddled behind her.
"WHERE?!" the fox-boy asked in a terrified voice.
"Oh no!" Soun wailed. "The master's escaped, Genma why have you abandoned me!"
Sayuri blinked and sweated nervously.
"Ummm, where's this shrine then?" she asked, as the phone rang.
"So, Saotome," Nabiki said, sitting next to him and lounging. She cracked her knuckles. "What are you going to tell me that'll make me forgive....this?" She waved at herself demonstratively.
"No choice," Ranma said. "I already told you that."
"You didn't even ask," Nabiki pointed out, she glanced at her claws and played at filing them. Ranma mumbled something unintelligible. "I didn't quite catch that Saotome."
"I had planned to," Ranma said. "Ain't like I had to do it and get out like at the village."
"So why didn't you?" Nabiki asked.
"Why do you think?" Ranma asked. He shifted around to stare at her and decided that Kagome's spell must have been wearing off. "Kuno was in your class! You're strong, the news would probably call you and yer older sister world class martial artists, they don't know 'bout fighters like me an' Akane after all. You're smart. And you've got a devious an' greedy streak a mile wide. You're perfect for 'em."
"And your answer was to do the same thing they did?" Nabiki asked. "Take away any choice I had?"
"I've seen what'll happen if they get over here," Ranma muttered. "She got a glimpse of their mind before they left her for dead."
Nabiki ignored the comment about someone dying for the moment.
"And what'll happen, Saotome?" Nabiki asked.
"There used to be another planet with life around this sun," Ranma said. "An that's where they went first. Next one out from us."
"You mean, Mars?" Nabiki asked. "You're saying we're being attacked by aliens from outer space?"
"I don't know what they are," Ranma said. "But when we're done I 'spect at least some people ta still be up and around afterwards." Ranma laid back and stared up at the ceiling.
"So you don't care if, say," Nabiki said. "Civilization falls because of you?"
"The end justifies the means," Ranma said glumly. Nabiki flinched back at hearing one of her own rationalizations hurled back at her, even if he didn't know it.
"By the way," Nabiki said after a moment to change the subject. "The engagement is ended." Ranma nodded, he'd expected that.
"If I survive," Ranma said. "One of you can choose to be my second." Nabiki flinched at the reference to seppuku, wondering just how serious a comment that was.
"Well," Kagome said. "It seems your father and this other girl will be coming here. She didn't seem to trust that Shippou would be able to protect her for some reason.
"Are you going to come with us?" Inu-Yasha asked a shocked looking Kasumi. "Or do I have to carry you too?"
Kasumi just stared at Akane, Mousse and Shampoo wrapped nearly head to toe in bent pipes collected from around the vacant lot. All three of them looked practically indignant.
In theory, Kasumi could easily run, or in this case, fly away. However, one of the three people being dragged around by him was one of her sisters, and there was no way she could leave Akane behind.
"I think I'll carry myself," Kasumi said in calm voice, despite not feeling at all calm.
"Good," Inu-Yasha said. "At least one of you has sense." Of course, had Kagome been there, she would have been saying the same thing while including Inu-Yasha in the comment.
It was only a few minutes later that everybody had more or less been gathered at Kagome's shrine. This was followed by a free floor show for the younger generation.
"INU-YASHA!!!" Kagome shouted as she glanced around the pipe-wrapped hengeyokai.
"What?" the half-demon asked, confused. "You said bring them, I brought them."
"I said," Kagome drawled out. "Invite them!!! Not hog tie them with pieces of metal and drag them here like some sort of strange fish you caught in the river!!!"
"They didn't exactly respond in a friendly manner to the invitation," Inu-Yasha said. "So I 'invited' them another way."
"SIT!!!" Kagome shouted in a frustrated voice.
It irked Inu-Yasha to no end that, no matter how powerful he got, no matter the fact that the necklace wasn't much more than a momento any longer. No matter all of that, he STILL couldn't stop her from plowing his face into the ground with that word.
"And you!" Kagome said rounding on Shippou. The fox-boy gave a timid eep and jumped back. "I sent you to protect them! Not faint at first sign of trouble. Especially not when there isn't any trouble!! You'r over four hundred years old, Shippou!! You aren't a little kid any more."
"Uhhh," Shippou had almost forgotten in the long period between the era of battles and the modern day time that Kagome's temper was so intimidating. He kind of wished that he could go back and forth through the well to, then he WOULD have had an excuse. He slammed himself into the floor before Kagome could say "sit" or something similar.
Kagome sighed, shook her head frustratedly and turned to meet the new comers.
"Sorry for the trouble," she said. "My husband will be apologizing later, and then I'll explain why you were brought here."
After Shampoo was ungagged, Kagome began to seriously reconsider at least that one guest.
"Great Grandmother be missing us soon," Shampoo said. "When she come, you outsider and demon be very wet smear on the ground."
"Your granny could take one of 'em on," Ranma said grimmly. "Maybe win, maybe not. But no way she's takin' both."
Virtually all the hengeyokai turned to glare at Ranma angrily. Even Kasumi leveled a harsh stare at the heavily bandaged fox. Nabiki ignored the comment, however, not wanting to think of anyone else being that powerful. She suspected Ranma might be able to give them a run, though.
Sayuri was busy staring at Kagome trying to decide if this was the Kagome, or just someone that looked like her.
"Can we get to the point of why you dragged all of us here?" Nabiki asked.
"Literally," Mousse noted with a grudge.
"You said you had information for us," Nabiki continued, ignoring the peanut gallery. "What is it?"
"That story begins around four hundred years ago," Kagome said. She continued the sentence in her own thoughts. ~Or a month, depending on what your relationship to the time stream is.~
"Long ago," Kagome said. "A girl appeared wearing strange garments in a village that used to sit here where Tokyo sprawls now. Within a few days time she had accidentally shattered something called the Shikon Jewel, sending it's shards all across Japan."
"I know the story of Kagome," Nabiki said.
"As do I," Sayuri said. "She's supposed to be my ancestor." Kagome and Inu-Yasha blinked and looked to Sayuri for a moment, curious.
"You can't imagine how glad I am to here that," Kagome said, hand almost darting to her stomach. Inu-Yasha nodded and looked over the girl that had just claimed to be his descendant.
Nabiki noted the exchange and considered how Kagome's age could be "complicated." She thought about the well in shrine's yard and the curious warping it gave her senses.
"Get back on track," Shampoo commanded irritably. Kagome and Inu-Yasha glared at her.
"Okay," Kagome said finally, glancing furitively at Sayuri. "Anyway, and this part isn't in the myths I think, one of these shards eventually came into the possession of a young man on the road to become a martial artist.
"However," Kagome said. "He was quite lazy and wanted an easier route to power. He became a sorcerer, but found that this too required a great deal of discipline. He hadn't the...moral quality necessary to be a monk, not even a perverted one with a thing for hitting on and groping every pretty girl he saw."
"Isn't that Sango's problem now?" Inu-Yasha asked.
"Not when I'm the pretty girl," Kagome said.
"WHAT?!!" Inu-Yasha growled. "I'll kill him, I'll..."
"Oh, I remember that," Shippou said. "Sango got mad at Miroku for some sarcastic comment and she hit him a little harder than she thought. So him being punch drunk sort of mistook Kagome for her. Ahh...those were the days."
He sighed revelling in the memories of the two humans that could have been considered his adoptive parents. Now he really wished he could travel back through the well like Kagome or Inu-Yasha.
"So that's what he was mumbling to himself," Kagome said.
"What about the damn demons the pervert over there says we're supposed to be fighting!" Akane demanded angrily.
"Yeah, yeah," Inu-Yasha said. "Whatever."
"Okay," Kagome said. "Well, to make a long story short."
"Too late," Shampoo and Sayuri said at once.
"You see that movie too?" Shampoo asked the school girl.
"Oh I own a copy!" Sayuri said. "I especially like the part where Tim Curry is going and you were there and you were there and you were there."
"And then whole bunch of people all yell," Shampoo said.
"GET ON WITH IT!!!" came the chorus of shouts. Shampoo and Sayuri exchanged sheepish looks. Well Sayuri was sheepish.
"Oh my," Kasumi said. "That was quite loud."
"Is good movie," Shampoo said, folding her arms and pouting in a very cat-like manner.
"Anyway!" Kagome shouted. "At this point he got the shard..."
"He who?" Mousse asked.
"The sorcerer," Kagome said.
"I heard martial artist," Ranma said.
"Wasn't he a pervert?" Akane said.
"You think every villain is a pervert, Akane," Nabiki added. Kagome was about to give up and just proceed to "sit" everyone, when she was saved.
"Couldn't we please cease the interruptions," Kasumi asked a little harshly. There was just something about the tone of voice that calmed everyone down.
"OKAY!!!" Kagome said. She took a deep breath. "The perverted martial arts sorcerer got a hold of a shikon shard and then crafted a spell to summon a demon from beyond our known universe to bind with him and give him power!" She took another breath, and sent a glare threatening death to any that would try to interrupt her.
"He summoned the demon and made his deal with it," Kagome continued, talking quickly. "However, due to his possession of the shard he overcame it and with it's power quickly became the greatest martial artist and sorcerer of his and several other generations. At least, he said so."
"Kagome," Shippou muttered. "You're turning purple."
"I could finish the story," Inu-Yasha offered. Both received icy cold glares of death.
"She's still good at those," Shippou comment as he cowered against the wall.
"She's gotten better," Inu-Yasha said, having weathered the storm slightly better. A silly, half-panicked smile was plastered to his face until Kagome started to tell the story again. At which point he breathed, as quietly as possible, a sigh of relief.
"He needed to leave the gate open so that he would continually have power and the demon chi he absorbed would continue to be refreshed." Kagome said. "So he left a lock on the gate so that most sorcerers would not be able to affect it. This let a host of these alien demons in. The only thing worse are the spirits of the restless dead," though, then again, she had special reason to be biased against those. "We fought them and managed to shut the gate to an open crack, but this took a great toll."
"He killed twelve hengeyokai to do it, resting the key to shutting the gate in the hands of that type of spirit. Which is why there needs to be twelve of you. One living aura to cancel out and free each of the sealed dead souls. One cat, one dog, one raven, one bat, one tanuki, one sparrow, one fox, one pig, one badger, one rabbit, one rat, one crane. It is also why they need twelve demons to open the gate to it's full width again. They need twelve demons to take in each of the twelve sealed souls and unleash the lock. This has to happen all on the same day, or else the spirits return to their seals and everything remains the way it is. This is difficult because while the focus of the gate is the Tendo dojo, and that's where the hengeyokai were killed on that land, that is not where they were bound."
"So that's..." Ranma said.
"I'm NOT FINISHED!!!" Kagome shouted.
"Sorry," Ranma eeped. "What else is there?"
"Uhhh...." Kagome paused. "Ooops, that was it."
There was another mass facefault.
"So we got seven hengeyokai now," Nabiki said, noting Inu-Yasha shaking his head. "All we need is the remaining five and then the locations of where these souls are bound."
"You still need six," Inu-Yasha said.
"But isn't Shippou..." Akane asked, pointing at the other fox-boy, the one she didn't hate.
"Another fox," Nabiki said, smacking her head. "Damn it, we can't catch a break." Shippou grumbled about being labled "another fox" and dismissed like that. But then again, he was the one fainting at a mortal's scare tactic.
"So how we gonna learn where these souls are?" Ranma asked, he wasn't worried too much about the other hengeyokai. He somehow suspected that they'd come to him eventually.
"Well, for that," Kagome said. "We'll have to ask the sorcerer himself. He has no desire to see the world overrun by these things either, but he doesn't want the gate closed. So we'll probably have to fight or trick him, the good news is that the same is true of the demons. The bad news is that he vanished about ten years ago."
Soun paled.
"This sorcerer wouldn't happen to be named, Happosai," the older martial artist asked. "Would he?"
"That's him," Kagome said. "Perverted little freak, got made a worse pervert after he absorbed that demon. Do you know him?"
Soun fainted.
"Ungrateful boy," Genma muttered. "How dare he ruin all my plans like this." He paled as he considered that he'd have to relate this information to Nodoka.
"There's nothing for it by to find him and beat some sense into him," Genma declared. "If he doesn't take my head off first, that is." He glanced around nervously for any animal that seemed to be acting suspiciously.
"I think I can help you here," a voice said.
"Who is that?" Genma demanded, getting into stance.
"Someone that can help you," was the answer as a young boy stepped into view. Genma looked him over for a moment.
"And how could I young pantyhose freak like you be able to help me?" Genma asked. The young "man's" eyes twitched for a moment.
"Trust me," he said irritably. "I can give you all the power you need to bring your boy into submission."
"What, is this some new martial art technique?" Genma asked.
"You could say that," Pantyhose-demon said. "And the training is very easy." He didn't know just how ironic that particular sentence in reference to Genma Saotome.
Part 11 | Anime@Fan.Fic