I did not write this fic. I'm posting it up for Kaiton.
---The Tendo Dojo---
He grinned under the cowl of his cloak, Inu-Yasha would have no inkling he
was human now, although without his demonic powers there was very little he
could do with the sword. Cursing the struggle with Ranma and his subsequent
loss of control, Naraku continued on down the street.
Now there was a sign posted on the sidewalk, just to his left. In the
pre-dawn sunlight most people wouldn't have been able to see it, much less read
it; but Naraku's eyesight had been augmented by the power of the Shikon shard.
The faint pinpricks of green energy floated through his system still, it would
take at least another two hundred years before the shard was completely
dissolved and assimilated by his cells. The wooden sandwich-board read: "Tendo
School of Anything Goes Martial Arts." [Hmm...the school that Ranma Saotome
practiced...according to his memories, the fat bastard said only his family
still practiced it. ] This bore looking into.
Little did the demonoid know that the proprietor of the establishment was
still sound asleep, his eldest daughter the only one alert and awake at that
time. Kasumi Tendo enjoyed her solitude in the mornings, peaceful hours to
clean, cook, and think before her sisters awoke and the hysterics of the day
began. As she brushed past the foyer to begin breakfast a knock was heard on
the dojo gate. Taking a peek outside she saw a figure robed in shadow standing
before the gate, his eyes seemingly glowing an ethereal green. Not one to be
impolite no matter the time, Kasumi opened the gate door wider.
"May I help you?"
"I've come to inquire about the school."
"You want to take classes?" Kasumi was hocked that anyone would arrive so
early just to ask about classes. "Well you will have to ask my father about
classes. I'm afraid he is still asleep, you can wait in the house however."
She didn't feel any negative or dangerous feelings from him, so she let him
enter the house.
"Thank you miss?"
"Kasumi Tendo."
He flipped off his shoes. "Thank you Kasumi." Kneeling before her he
kissed her hand, inhaling her scent. [I can sense this one is ripe, a figure of
holy power, a priestess! In this day and age! Ohhh, I'll enjoy bedding her. ]
Naraku, formally Ranma Saotome, smirked as he followed her into the tearoom.
"I'll go and prepare us some tea." Her face literally glowed with radiant
energy to Naraku's demonic eyes; she turned and left without making a sound. As
the feelings of human closeness bore down on him, he thought it best to use
Ranma's attitude, as his own was so seductive he wanted to take his time wearing
down Kasumi's defenses. That would make the final conquest so much sweeter.
Perhaps he _was_ mellowing out in his old age.
When Kasumi returned with a tray laden with fragrant oolong tea and rice
crackers, he opted for his congenial nature to win over the approval of this
mortal. As her soft voice trilled off her tongue, as she laughed, he felt the
barest stirrings of something he dismissed as base desires, love. As the
suspicion loomed over him, he felt an irrational fear overtake him. [Am I
becoming like that worthless half-breed Inu-Yasha by absorbing that mortal?
What have I become? ] Keeping the fears to himself, he decided to judge whether
this was a good thing or bad. It seemed more of Ranma spilled over into him
than he thought, although perhaps this was not the great tragedy he was making
it out be, but he still saw fit to limit the damage.
Upstairs slept the other three Tendos, undisturbed by the rays of sunshine
streaming under their thick drapes. At that time and place only one member of
the house was up and about, a certain fat, lying bastard, Genma Saotome. The
portly, gluttonous creature plodded down the stairs, hoping to sneak a morning
snack when he saw a stranger's shadow cast against the walls by the sun's rays.
Naraku was quite pleased to gaze at the sun, just cresting over the taller
office buildings downtown. The harsh UV rays of sunlight are corrosive to
demonic cells, pure demon tissue with no Shikon energy that is, yet another
simple pleasure denied his kind. Use of cloaks or skins draped over the body
would reduce the burning from continuous exposure. Inside his cranial cavities,
something stirred something that once held say in the inner workings of that
mind. [I suppose you've seen many such sunrises before, haven't you Ranma?
Well now it's my turn. ] He felt a psychic blow bash against his mental
restraints. [Now, now, Ranma. You gave me control of your own free will, you
wanted revenge, to live life to it's fullest! I've given you that, and power
beyond your wildest dreams! ] The blows ceased, Ranma's consciousness
dissipating like early morning fog. [The merging will take a few weeks, after
that you won't even know the difference between us then. ] He smiled as Ranma
slicked off to the farthest recesses of his mind. Reigning his aura in, the
glowing waves of heat contracted, fading into a halo of power, not the acidic
goo of his demonic powers. The sun seemed to slow passing through, casting a
distorted shadow across the floor as if the ground itself were burning.
"Genma. Genma Saotome." The stranger spat out the name like some hideous
taste in his mouth. "You worthless sack of flesh." He made one dismissive
sweep of his clawed hand and the elder Saotome fell to the floor in five thick
slices, his blood pooling rapidly on the polished wood. Kasumi's hum and soft
footfalls aroused him, the matronly aura surrounding her enticing him even more.
As she opened the rice-paper door, he swept a hand over the pile of bleeding
meat upon the floor, Genma Saotome arose from the muck whole and unharmed. The
pain lingered on however.
"I just made some delicious cookies, you'll have to wait until they cool
though...oh! Mr. Saotome1 I didn't know you would be awake, would you like to
sit and have some tea?" Kasumi set the tray down on the table, Naraku's eyes
flashed a crimson glow, Genma believed that cowardice was the better part of
valor and ran screaming out of the Tendo compound. "Oh my! What's wrong with
Mr. Saotome?"
"I wouldn't have a clue."
---Furinkan High School---
Naraku crouched by the third story science lab, his monkey skins adorning
his shoulders. Kagome was apparently in animated conversation with her lab
partner, he smiled at her youthful exuberance. [Ranma? Are you still there?]
[Yeah, I'm almost halfway assimilated.] Ranma lay still on the edge of
his mind. [I think the Kasumi girl's cute, so's her younger sister. What was
her name?]
[Nabiki I believe.]
[Yeah! She's one hot chick if you ask me. She'll probably be one hell of
a devil in bed, kinda like Kima.] Ranma rarely was given the opportunity to
speak so candidly during his previous life, somehow it felt soothing now. [That
last girl, Akane, boy she's such a bitch!]
[I agree, if you had let me, she'd be a pile of miscellaneous parts decomposing
on their lawn by now.] Images of her neatly chopped into five equal pieces shot
through his mind.
[No. If she gets killed, it won't be because of us.] Naraku could sense
Ranma turning his head towards the kendo club. [It'll probably be that Kuno
guy's fault.] As he left the Tendo household with Kasumi and Nabiki's
affections for him growing, Akane had run off to school. Sensing the aura of
hatred exhibited by the lass, he spied the morning duel with Kuno and the
subsequent defeat of the crazed Kendoist by the youngest Tendo. [That guy has
some serious personality problems.]
[No more so than us? After all we have two voices in our head.]
[No this is different!]
[I know. I just wanted to see your reaction.] He glanced back at his
prey, still talking to her classmates. [Tell me Ranma, what do you think of
this one?]
[Her? She seems nice enough, a bit stubborn though. I'd say it isn't
worth out time.] Ranma felt Naraku's anger boil as the words echoed in his
head. [What is it?]
[Nothing, just...lust.] Naraku perched on a lower branch hidden from
view, the dense foliage of the tree blending with his darker garb. [Many years
ago I lusted after her, but she is a reincarnation, nothing more.]
[Reincarnation? Is that real?] Ranma hadn't believed in it before, but
it wasn't as farfetched as being assimilated by a powerful five-hundred year old
demon.
[Yes. Your actions in one life do not effect your rebirth however, if you
were originally a human you stay a human. For ones that have merged such as you
and I and that cursed Inu-Yasha, the line is blurred. This girl Kagome is the
reincarnation of a priestess I killed five-hundred years ago. She also holds
the Shikon shards.] He awaited the inevitable question.
[What are the Shikon shards?] Ranma's interest was piqued now, any kind of
conversation was preferable to the boredom of the assimilation.
[Pieces of immortality. It was a gem sent down from the gods, that has
special powers over demons. If a demon ingests it they become more powerful and
immortal. If a human ingests it they are given the powers of a god and
immortality. Inu-Yasha helped the girl break the Shikon jewel into small shards
that can bestow immortality, but not great powers are it could whole. We are
immortal because of its power.] Naraku smiled as his plans would finally be
realized. [If we sire children they will be immortal by birth, as will their
mothers due to their contact with our seed. The baby's blood flows through the
mother so she would be given immortality as long as we share our power with
them.] In the next year or so he would have two heirs in two strategically
important areas. [And we will.]
---Musk Citadel, China.---
Eerie moans drifted from the sandy flats below the castle walls, wails of
torment and suffering. Spice, princess of the Musk, clenched the cloak tighter
around her as she stole away from the castle guards under the cover of the
night. Demons had come, powerful creatures that snatched the very souls of her
subjects, devouring them greedily and enslaving the poor person to its will.
The dead now walked the foothills of the steppe, killing all who crossed the
desert. It had all started after the massacre at Phoenix Mountain.
She had accompanied her brother to the battle site, his face resplendent in
imminent victory. Herb had destroyed the Phoenix king, that they had seen as
the ki-storm of his passing raced across the heavens, dying the sky red with
blood. She and her guards had taken horses soon after to greet her brother and
congratulate him atop the Sharptooth Cliffs, eager to claim victory over their
long despised rivals. Instead they had ventured as far out as the outskirts
when she saw one of Herb's ki blasts sail upwards, breaking the cloud banks,
turning them gray with anger. A sharp sliding screech assaulted their ears and
the very ground seemed to scream in agony. Forest animals ran away from the
mount as she saw multitudes of demonic wasps stalking fleeing warriors, stinging
them until their bodies bloated with venom.
"ONIGUMO HELLFIRE BLAST!!!!!!" The world exploded in white, the horses'
eyes melting to jelly and dribbling down their necks with all the power and
searing heat of a nuclear explosion. Musk royalty were descended from the great
dragon Shen Long and were quite used to extreme temperatures, their semi-scaly
hides absorbing the heat waves. A crack of sound. The heaven's ripped open
with a cry thousands of times stronger than thunder. Darkness followed the cry,
as if the world died a fraction after the attack.
The princess didn't notice that eyes began watching her from the forests,
oddly human eyes. Those were soon joined by many, all yellow glares hungry with
unrequited thirst for souls. Demons had awoken at their master's call, risen
from their sleep of hundreds of years. In all shapes and sizes they perched or
crouched in the dark forests, shadows of the hell-hound. The blast had sent
shock waves of demonic power through the ground, reawakening servants of the
most twisted sort. Just as Herb's broken body sailed through the mountains,
they began the exodus to the Desert of Bleached White Bones where the remains of
their master molded in the sands.
Now they were everywhere, killing entire villages close to the desert,
wiping their victims of their souls and eating what remained of the bodies.
Herb had survived, miraculously, but wouldn't be able to sit up in bed let alone
lead the troops for another six months; the chancellor would rule in her stead
until she returned with the culprit behind her brother's mutilation. It seemed
that only someone in possession of that power, the power to use hellfire, would
be able to stand against the forces amassing against all that lived. With one
final glance back at her home of seventeen years, Spice mounted a horse and sped
off towards civilization. Once again she hadn't noticed eyes watching her as
she left the citadel walls, and once again it would cost her dearly.
A demonic wasp of monstrous proportions took flight from the grove of tree
overlooking the Musk stables, book-thick segmented wings beating unceasingly to
raise wind for flight. It's master, Naraku, had left it there as an eye in the
valley. A harbinger to him of potential threats. It reached a low altitude,
erratically buzzing over Jusenkyo.
It started as a dull glow in the nest of bushes, then escalated into a
flaming red burst of fire which singed the wasp's wings, leading it to plummet
to the pools of mystical water below. The culprit emerged from the nettles, a
squat taloned demon with a salamander face; in his right hand he clutched a
double headed staff, and old man's shrunken head on one side, a beautiful
woman's on the other. "Naraku you devil! I won't allow you to ruin milord's
plans this time!" With glee he scrambled up the side of a mountain and was
away. This time it was what _it_ didn't notice that would come to haunt him.
The wasp's chitonous hide whistled as it fell to the springs below, the
mournful cry as it hit drawing the Guide from his hut. <What was that? Plum!
Plum come out here! Bring a kettle!> The rotund man wore a faded green Maoist
uniform with the red-starred cap. His daughter came quickly from the hut with a
yellow copper kettle filled with hot water. <Something is going to be cursed
very soon.>
Hard exoskeleton touched the surface of the enchanted waters, the adverse
magic between demonic power and Jusendo's charms causing the pool to explode in
a blast of superheated steam. Joints twisted the opposite ways, soft flesh
sucked to the outside air, hard skeleton burned into it's hide, the eyes
twisting and shrinking to half size with enormous amounts of pain coursing
through it's veins. Wings grafted to flesh, silken cilia extending to form
tallow braids. The wasp's feet churned under the skin until nails and white
flesh broke forth.
<Stay away from the mist Plum, the customer may not like his curse.> An
inhuman howl of pain broke the misty silence of the valley of sorrow, causing
bird to leap off from the trees and seek refuge in the avian sanctuary atop
Mount Phoenix. The Guide waited until a reasonable amount of time had passed,
then crept forward with the pot. <Excuse me! Mr. Customer! Do you need help?>
He tried Japanese. "Mr. Customer! You need help now?" A shadow emerged from
the mists.
It was shapely, long in leg and neck, her hair cascading down her back in
sallow curls. She was naked, her legs unsteady on the moist earth. A faint
buzzing noise came from her mouth. Her face was white save for three yellow
dots about a centimeter in diameter on either side of her face. Her lips were
ruby red as were her nipples. She opened her mouth but nothing save the
unnatural buzzing noise came from her vocal chords.
"Ms. Customer alright? I no have herbs to cure wound now." The woman
collapsed on Plum, the hot water spilling over her form. It was not the hot
water, however, that caused her to wake but the pain of two extra arms bursting
from her sides, two wings ripping from the flesh of her back, and her eyes
stretching horizontally. She screamed, the air distorting around her mouth as
waves were broadcast to all in the valley. The windows in the Guide's hut
shattered, as did most glass in a ten-mile radius. Swarms of wasps took flight
from the forests, oleaginous clouds of buzzing death.
Beating her wings, the demonic woman shot straight up in the air, easily
passing mach one. As the sonic boom blew the Guide and Plum off their feet,
their unexpected guest had already gone. Gone east to Japan.
--- Nieuchiezu Amazon Village, one hour later---
<Amazons! Demons at Jusenkyo!> The guide carried Plum into the village,
searching for a healer. The villagers parted away from the man, called for the
council of elders to question him, if demons had taken Jusenkyo then they would
come there next. Some talked about renewing their former agreements with the
Musk and Phoenix to combat this threat, others spoke of mysterious creatures
lurking at the Musk border.
<What is this you speak of Jusenkyo Guide?> Cologne and Perfume hopped
into the street, each on gnarled canes twice their own height. <Demons have
attacked Jusenkyo?>
<No, not attacked, a demon fell from the sky and landed in a spring! I
thought it was a woman but Plum spilled hot water on her, the woman grew two
extra arms and wings!> He handed Plum to the healer and followed the elders who
motioned him to tell his story to the council. After all the council had
gathered, the guide was called to speak, he had nervously related the
cataclysmic events leading up to the destruction of the Nyaniichuan.
The council was now faced with careful deliberations, preparations had to
be made for an attack on the village, all amazons had to be called back from the
foreign lands to help deal with this threat. Cologne sat silently as the group
decided on sending a scout party to scope out the area, cursing her own
cowardice and the younger generation's stupidity. As Perfume looked towards her
peer, she saw a faint glimmer of hope in the face of this doom.
<Cologne? Do you know of anything? You're hiding something.>
She sighed as her ruse was discovered. <Honored matriarch Perfume I know
of a demon half-breed who employs demonic wasps similar to that which fell at
Jusenkyo. He is called Naraku, a Japanese looking man with gray-blue eyes and
black hair. My great-grandniece's daughter is his child.> He looked at her
relation with tears in her eyes. <He used such wasps against the Musk at
Phoenix Mountain.> Mascara would most likely be cast out now or her child
killed for lying with demons, she had never wished this upon her family. If he
had just left, she would not have spoken about it, for he was strong, his
progeny great.
Perfume murmured to the other elders, grimaces upon their ancient faces.
At last they turned to Mascara, <Is this true? Was he a demon lord?>
The custodian clutched her distended stomach, already swelling against her
tunic, and nodded, hot tears falling to the sandy floor of the meeting hall.
She had never wished to betray her kind, nor the man she loved. <Y-yes. He
was.> The hall erupted into screams of treason and death, of exile and curses.
In the end, Cologne stood up for her family.
<She has done nothing wrong! She did not know he was a demon lord when
she became with child, she only knew when I confronted him! You cannot blame
her for something she didn't know about!> Her voice of reason quieted the
crowd. <I say that we dispatch a group to Japan to follow the demon, find out
what he is doing.> Several of her supporters murmured in agreement, yelling
that not all demons were evil, those nice raccoon-foxes had helped them last
year with the harvest.
<Very well, honored elder Cologne, you, Mascara and Shampoo may travel to
Japan to confront the demon lord. If you do not return in two months we will
send parties out to avenge your deaths.> Perfume grinned hideously as the elder
behind her chuckled at her half-jest. <Now go!>
---Japan, Tendo Dojo---
Akane stormed into the kitchen from the foyer, her face reddened with
anger. [How dare that...that...that _boy_ insult my skills! I'll teach him who
the top martial artist in Nerima is! I'll have Nabiki take photos so he can't
deny it...] she chuckled at her malicious thoughts. The narrow hallway opened
into the kitchen, sacred holy ground of Kasumi in their house. Akane stopped.
Blinked. Then blinked again.
Kasumi was lying on the kitchen table spread-eagle with her legs wrapped
around Naraku whose gaunt frame loomed over her smaller mass. Their visitor was
taken aback as they kissed and rubbed their bodies together, taking immense
pleasure in hearing her gasps and moans. She ground her pelvis into his, her
lacy white apron bunched at her hips, her tongue brushing the sharpened points
of his teeth. Her eyes bugging, Akane back-peddled into the tearoom, visibly
shaken.
[Hmm...just as I thought. Usually priestesses suppress their hormonal
urges and are nymphomaniacs after they're first broken in.] Naraku
intentionally grazed Kasumi's lip, drawing blood, letting it pool around her
suddenly moist lips before licking it off to her orgasmic moans. [I haven't
even undressed her yet! I'll save that for later, now I sense my spy returning
from China.] He rose straight, allowing Kasumi to writhe in imagined pleasure
on the smooth surface of the kitchen table. He spotted Akane frozen in abject
terror that anyone could reduce her normally unflappable sister to mush. He
simply walked past her.
On the veranda he stood dressed in his demonic monkey skins, toying with a
shard of the Shikon he'd found in a minor demon of the sea outside Edo.
Brilliant, glittering perfection the crystal was, unflawed yet surpassing far
larger gems of its kind. Perhaps it was the energy inside, perhaps it was the
way light glanced against its surface, never breaking the soft skinned basalt of
its carapace. He looked to the skies, watching in amusement as his wasp
returned as a woman with wings and six-arms.
The trek had been hard, the demon king and queen had placed wind sprites
across her path, hampering immediate transferal of her master's information.
The news she brought was both enlightening and frightening, a demon long thought
dead had risen in the Desert of Bleached White Bones, ruins of a once great city
decimated after a titanic demon battle three hundred years ago. The king known
only as 'the battle scarred king' had set about opening the gates of the demon
world. With him had been a soul-sucking priestess of death, seeker of the
Shikon shards. She sensed her master's power nearby.
Akane had broken out of her trance when Naraku carried Kasumi back to her
room, it wouldn't do to allow his consorts to be privy to such distressing news
as his servant was about to give. The wasp woman had been doused with warm
water shortly after landing, crying out in pain as the transformation completed
itself. Wings slid underneath the soft flesh of her back, razor sharp membranes
slicing through tough muscle, arms shoved aside internal organs to reel
themselves in, disappearing afterwards leaving only the pain. A faint buzzing
was the only vocal sound that erupted from her mouth.
"You had a run-in with the pools of sorrow I see. Your demonic energies
twisted the magic of the spring, your now human or what passes for one
nowadays." Naraku had returned to his servant in the dojo after placing Kasumi
in her bed. He withdrew a Shikon shard from his robes, smaller than the size of
a grain of rice. "Swallow this."
[What did you do to her? Why'd ya give her a piece of the Shikon shard?]
Ranma's curiosity had been piqued. [I thought you'd just get rid of her.]
[She's far too useful to me. She is my most trusted servant, that is why
I left her in China. If the jewel is assimilated into her vocal chords she will
be able to speak, not buzz.]
[I guess you've got everything all planned then.]
Naraku frowned, his eyes still watching his newest bipedal assassin
swallow the shard, watching the steady flow of mystical energies in her larynx.
[No, Ranma I haven't. Inu-Yasha and Kagome are beyond my sphere of influence, I
won't be able to control or gauge their actions.] "Tell me what news you have
brought that is so urgent."
"My lord. The princess of the Musk seeks you to defend her kingdom
against the forces of the demon king and queen. You have severely injured her
brother and without his power the Musk fall." She knelt before him, her flossy
hair the color of beeswax falling around her. "The demon king and queen have
appeared west of the Musk citadel out of the Desert of Bleached White Bones.
Their power is even stronger than you oh lord." She was jolted out of her
report as a black yakuta was thrown at her. "My lord what are these vestments?"
"Your new clothes. You can never again regain your old form, so go into
the house and wash the blood and slime from yourself." He turned back into the
house, his tightlipped smirk visible from underneath the monkey skull.
"Y______________________guard for the time being, you'll find undergarments in
the spare room. We will be staying here for awhile, at least until the Musk
princess arrives. After that, we will journey back to China." He threw off his
skins and leapt to the roof clad in priestly robes, his long raven hair tied in
a flowing pigtail reaching to the floor trailing behind him.
[What was that all about hmm?] Ranma was three-quarters through the
assimilation, soon both would be joined. He watched as the streets and
buildings whizzed by in a blur, his vantage point from the rooftop giving him a
breathtaking view of Nerima. [What're ya gonna do about that king and queen in
China? Kima and Mascara are there...]
[I'm thinking, Ranma, that it is time we involved Inu-Yasha in this
personally.] The shrine appeared in the distance, Torii set across the cobble-
stone steps. There was not a sign of life across the courtyard, not so much as
a speck of soil rolling across by the wind. Miroku awaited in the temple
office, meditating as the sickening stench of demonic blood wafted in through
the open door. Naraku crouched in the trees as the dissipated monk threw the
door open and leapt outside, staff angled before him, juzo beads keeping the
abyss closed.
"Come out demon! I can sense you from here!" He leveled the staff,
straight as an arrow, at the demon's position in the bushes. Unclasped, his
hand shot an arc of purple energy like a blazing sword through the trees,
watching eagle-eyed as his quarry landed on the cobblestones. "My hand contains
the abyss itself, be careful lest you taste its power."
"Feh! Be careful monk lest you forget it is I whom cursed your line with
that power." Naraku stood proud in heavy flowing robes, his eyes gleaming green
in the sun. "You look much better than you did in the end. You were so far
gone, being blind, paralyzed, dumb and deaf; that I had to put you out of your
misery." He smirked showing pointed canines.
"Naraku. How did you get here?"
"No, no. It is I who should ask you that. I have survived in China for
the past five-hundred years after the fall of the Demon Kingdom. I killed you
all those years ago, how are you here?"
"Why should I tell you anything demon?" Miroku vaulted to the temple roof
as Inu-Yasha and Kagome made their move.
"CLAWS OF BLOOD!!!" Inu-Yasha threw his ki blasts at the figure standing
Miroku down in the courtyard. He watched, transfixed, as Naraku caught his
projectiles, crushing them in his vise-like grip. "Naraku you bastard! Give me
back the Tetsusaiga!" Kagome hid behind the dog-demon, clutching at his sleeve.
The monk came to rest behind them.
"Ah, the half-breed. I have your Tetsusaiga, and I'll return it if you
listen to what I have to say." He stared hard in Kagome's eyes, his creamy-blue
burning into her gold. "I have it right here," he patted his side where a
gleaming scabbard glistened in the sunlight, "and you'll have it returned once
I'm finished."
Inu-Yasha snorted. "And what stops me from just taking it from you?"
"Two reasons, you cannot, and I have news that could spell destruction for
us all." He sauntered over to the trio, his voice dripping sarcasm. "If _I_
say it's deadly you should take heed half-breed." Suddenly the foliage of a
cherry blossom tree exploded and his newfound retainer landed slightly behind
him. "Good work Karissa." He smiled at her sneaking prowess.
Kagome glanced at him then back to Inu-Yasha, reading the indecision in
his eyes. "I say we let him speak. He didn't kill you before when he stole the
Tetsusaiga, besides this sounds more important." She saw his puzzled look.
"*Whisper* I don't trust him either, but he makes it sound like life or death.
*whisper*"
"Beyond life and death Lady Kagome, this would affect both in ways that
would be disastrous for humanity. Neither states would exist any longer if the
demon king follows through with his plans." She was startled as he overheard
her entire conversation. Without a noise, he entered her house, startling her
mother and grandfather. "Come Karissa."
"Yes my lord." The oddly marked woman walked clumsily to the door.
Reluctantly, Inu-Yasha, Kagome, and Miroku followed. Needless to say Shippo was
surprised speechless.