InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Shard in Kyoto ❯ the boys day ( Chapter 3 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: jeffs 
What the boys were doing while the girls were walking thru kyoto...
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Samurai / Romance / Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 08.29.2003 | Pages: 4 | Words: 3.4K | Visits: 801 | Status: Completed
What the boys were doing while the girls were walking thru kyoto...
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Samurai / Romance / Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 08.29.2003 | Pages: 4 | Words: 3.4K | Visits: 801 | Status: Completed
Chapter 4. The boys day....
Before I start... I would like to thank all the readers of the story.
At the end of ch 3, I mentioned that I would like 1 review per 1000 words. That did happen. (When you combine the reviews from fanfiction, mediaminner and a few private reviews)
Thank you
The readers of this story have been the most responsive group of readers I have.
(Using fanfiction stats... approx 15% of the readers of Shard have reviewed/commented on the story. Compare that with less than 1% on Seppuku or Day after Inu-yasha proposes... even When Friends... and Spring fertility... have only about a 2% rate.)
Thank you, again.
What the boys were doing while Kagome and Sango walked around Kyoto.
______________________________
Kagome and Sango are small fading figures in the distance...
"Inu-yasha, please, for their sake, stop thinking about following them." Miroku says as he watches him out of the corner of his eyes.
Inu-yasha starts and his face reddens, from anger or embarrassment, Miroku cannot tell. "I was not thinking about that, stupid monk." He growls out.
"What do we do now, Inu-yasha, Miroku?" Shippo asks in a quiet voice.
"We stay here and wait for them, what else, idiot. That's what this damn monk here has convinced everyone to do." Inu-yasha replies as he approaches Shippo. He is about to pick him up, when THACK.
Miroku's staff hits his hand. "He's not in the condition to take your normal abuse, Inu-yasha." he says as he puts the staff back on his shoulder. "And we are not staying here."
"Why move?" Shippo asks.
"If we move, how will the girls find us?" Inu-yasha looks at him with a suspicious glare.
"Why move?" Miroku repeats and then answers, "Because, Shippo, people don't just sit and stare at Kyoto. They either go in or come out. Staying on this hillside, will simply tell however is looking that we are waiting for something or someone. And sooner or later somebody," he points with his staff at the nearby monastery, "from there or elsewhere will come by and ask questions."
"In addition, when I was at the monastery, I did talk to people. Sooner or later, my friends are going to tell who they were talking to and my name will come up."
"Stupid monk, hiding things from us..." Inu-yasha growls out.
Miroku shrugs, "What's done is done. We adjust our plans and continue."
"Monk, I'm going to ask again, then I'm going to hurt you... How will the girls find us, if we move?" Inu-yasha says as flexes his claws, staring at Miroku.
Miroku points to the small glass jar hanging around Inu-yasha's neck. "Kagome can sense our shards." His eyes blink and he stares at the jar.
His hand reaches out to grasp the jar. Inu-yasha's hand grabs Miroku's hand before it can touch the jar, "What do you think you're doing, monk." Inu-yasha hisses out.
Miroku blinks his eyes a couple of times and he answers, "This is the first time, in a good long while, that I've been able to see exactly how many much of the jewel we have." his voice changes, acquiring a accusing tone, "You tend to dislike it, when I try to look at this, when it is hanging around Kagome's neck."
"Because, you perverted monk, you're not looking at the shards, you are looking at Kagome's breasts." Inu-yasha spits out.
"Believe what you wish, may I hold that for it a second." He points to the glass jar.
"Hmmm, for a second."
Miroku lifts the jar and looks hard at it. After a second he releases it and it falls onto Inu-yasha's chest. He quickly puts it under his clothes.
Miroku shakes his head and stares at Kyoto, a puzzled look on his face.
"What's up, Miroku?" Shippo asks, suspicious about his actions.
Miroku starts, and replies, "I'm just surprised we have as much of the jewel as we do, Shippo."
"Ok, monk, you've convinced me to move. We'll go south, away from that damned mountain." Inu-yasha points to mountain Hiei.
"Good enough, Inu-yasha. Remember you," Miroku pulls a large black robe from somewhere. "Will have to wear this." He hands the robe to Inu-yasha.
Inu-yasha looks at the robe with distaste, "I thought I'd lost that."
"Inu-yasha, as I've said before. You cannot go around Kyoto with those ears showing. You will have to wear this robe, or something similar to hide those ears. And you," Miroku's voice intensifies, "will pretend to be an old man."
Inu-yasha growls.
"Yeah, dog boy, act your human age for once." Shippo pipes in.
Inu-yasha swipes at and grabs Shippo. Miroku quickly brings his staff down on Inu-yasha's arm. "Let go of him, Inu-yasha."
Inu-yasha holds onto Shippo and growls at Miroku, 'I'm fucking tried of letting him boss me around. The girls might have thought his plans allowed him to do so, but they're not here now.' He thinks. Inu-yasha tightens his grip on the young fox demon. "The girls aren't here, monk. I'm going to do what I damn well wish to do."
"Inu-yasha...." Miroku shakes his head. In a stern tone of voice, he says. "Inu-yasha, we don't have time for playing around. Drop Shippo, put on the robe and we leave as soon as we can."
"Inu-yasha... you're hurting..." Shippo whines out. Blood is beginning to show where Inu-yasha's claws are digging into his fur.
"Make me, fucking monk." He growls, staring Miroku in the face.
Miroku begins to move his staff around, attracting Inu-yasha attention by making a quick move with it. Miroku's other hand, the one that is not holding the staff vanishes into his sleeve.
He then quickly attacks with that hand. "Thought you could foo...." Inu-yasha starts to say, but once he grabs Miroku arm he freezes, paralyzed.
Miroku drops his staff and pries Inu-yasha claws off his arm and pries Shippo out of the grasp of Inu-yasha's other hand. "You poor..." He shakes his head. "That spell, you could have broken were we away from Kyoto, Inu-yasha, and you still might here."
Sweat beads on Inu-yasha forehead as he is trying to break the spell.
"But, it will take time, Inu-yasha." Miroku pulls out a scroll and places it securely on Inu-yasha chest. "But that one, will hold you for awhile, anywhere."
Miroku, sighs, and continues, "I told you this as we were coming here but you keep forgetting, so I'm going to tell you again. There are a dozen, perhaps two dozen priests, mystics, astrologers in Kyoto that are as powerful, if not more powerful, then I, Inu-yasha. You have to disguise yourself. Your ears are noticeable and once they are noticed, people will want to kill the demon. There are priests in Kyoto powerful enough to do it."
"If they are that powerful, Miroku, what about his father and Sesshoumaru and their attacks." Shippo asks as he feels around, trying to determine the damage Inu-yasha did.
"They were full blood, not half blood, Shippo. Also, both would have demon magic to stop human magic with them. Magic that Inu-yasha was never taught, and you were too young to learn." Miroku explains as the puts the robe over Inu-yasha and ties it on.
"There, Inu-yasha, just remember to bend down and act like a seventy year old man." Miroku says, "I'm going to remove the scroll, Inu-yasha, no tricks." He takes off the scroll.
"You fucking! Monk!" Inu-yasha shouts!
"So, Inu-yasha, are we going to argue or go on?"
Inu-yasha grits his teeth, flexes his claws, takes a deep breath and then he sighs, and points to the road going to the monastery. A group of people are on it and they are looking at Inu-yasha and Miroku. They are too far away to see any details, but... "We leave, monk."
Miroku turns and looks, "They are going into the monastery. But, they are going to ask questions..." He bends down and starts going through Kagome backpack.
"Monk, We are leaving, why are you going thru that." Inu-yasha growls.
"Yeah, I do not think Kagome is going to like that." Shippo adds in.
"Ahh, Here is it." Miroku pulls out one of Kagome's textbooks. The title "Basic English"
"I wish to leave her a note, just in case." Miroku takes out a modern pen and paper from his robes.
"Where did you get those, monk?" Inu-yasha asks in a harsh tone.
"She gave them to me." Miroku replies, without looking at Inu-yasha, he's busy looking through the book. "Ahh, here it is."
"I don't remember that." Inu-yasha says in a flat tone.
"Well, she did. If you want, you can ask her next time you see her." Miroku continues to reply while looking at the book. Miroku then starts to write on the paper.
"That's not normal writing, Miroku." Shippo states as he goes over to look at what Miroku is doing.
"No, Shippo, it's not. The language is English." Miroku replies distractedly.
"When did you..." Inu-yasha starts.
"She accidently left this book once, remember." Miroku says as he turns the page.
'Yes, after an early adventure with the monk, she complained about losing a book. She replaced it, but she wasn't happy about it.' Inu-yasha thinks.
"I started to look at it, trying to understand her schooling." He looks up and stares at Inu-yasha 'something, of course, he'd never try to do.' he thinks, and continues, "But, after thinking about it, I decided to see if I could learn the language. Would it not be a good thing, if say, when Kanna looks at us in her mirror... she can not understand what we are saying?"
"Ohh..." Inu-yasha whispers, 'never thought about that. Hiding our plans from Naraku...' He blinks, 'hell, this even gives my an excuse to follow her to school.' He smiles, 'by going to her school, learning this english, whatever the hell it is, would mean that she'd never be out of my sight...'
"Then why did you need that book, if you have the other, Miroku?" Shippo asks.
"I left the other copy at Keade's village." Miroku says as he closes the book. "There that should do it." He puts the modern pen away and pulls out more traditional brush and ink set. At the top of the paper he writes a generic demon ward off spell.
"You two should turn around. When I activate the spell, it might hurt you." Miroku says as he grabs one of Kagome's arrows. He pierces the scroll at the top and bottom and slips it onto the arrow shaft. He shoves the arrow into the ground. 'Good. A basic anti-demon protection. Nobody should bother it, even if there are parts of it that are unreadable.' He thinks as he rises.
"Shippo, I know you're going to hate it, but you'll have to pretend to be Inu-yasha's sick grandchild." Miroku hides a grin as he speaks with Shippo.
"I know, with the girls gone, I suppose he" Shippo points to Inu-yasha, "will have to carry me."
"What!" Inu-yasha shouts.
"He is your sick grandson. You are taking him to the various shrines and temples in and around Kyoto. You are trying to find a cure for the mysterious disease hurting him. Remember, Inu-yasha. This is the story we agreed on."
"The girls aren't here, monk."
"So, instead of Kagome pretending to be his mother and carry him, you'll have to carry him. He's still you're grandson."
"Why, you...."
THACK!
Miroku lowers his staff after hitting Inu-yasha on the head. "You have to carry him and treat him properly Inu-yasha." Miroku sighs, "After all, you're to old to carry Kagome's bag, so I have to carry that..."
Inu-yasha, while he outwardly grumbles about carrying Shippo, he is smiling on the inside. Miroku's back is going to hurt, a lot more than his head hurts from the hit of Miroku's staff.
Miroku wraps Kagome's backpack in a dark robe and puts it on his back. 'Sigh, with Inu-yasha pretending to be an old man, somebody has to do this...' he thinks.
They leave the area and walk south.
"Monk, there was a bag, you forgot to put back into Kagome's pack." Shippo mentions after they leave the area.
"Yeah, I noticed that too..." Inu-yasha growls out.
"Remember when Kagome returned from her time, that bag Kagome pulled out and told us to ignore it."
"Yes, something her grandfather came up with." Shippo says.
"I want to find out wants in it. Kagome may think it's useless, but she doesn't know everything." Miroku speaks in a light voice.
"We've gone far enough, Monk, open it up." Inu-yasha orders after looking around and not seeing anybody paying attention to them.
"Ughh.." Miroku grunts out as he lowers Kagome bag to the ground. 'Every time I carry it, my admiration for her increases...' he thinks as he rubs his lower back.
Miroku takes the bag out of his robes, opens it and copper and silver coins spill into his palm.
"Useless!" Inu-yasha yells. "What the fuck was she thinking!"
"Yeah, as much as I hate to agree his dog boy." Shippo says as he grabs one of the coins. "This is good money."
Miroku lifts one up and examines it closely. "Hmmmm...." He picks up another and compares them side by side. "Yes... I see it."
He holds the coin with his finger tips and points at some markings along the edge. "This is the problem. These are fake. Those marks... I don't know the language, but it's not Chinese or Japanese."
"Hell, monk, most people aren't going to notice something that small." Inu-yasha says as he inspects one of the coins.
"You are correct, Inu-yasha, if we were to use these coins in a small village, there should be no problems. But this is Kyoto. This type of problem will be spotted. Counterfeit coins do occur and the moneychangers in Kyoto are trained to spot them. " He holds up a hand to stop Inu-yasha from interrupting. "Yes, the chances are we can still use them without discovery, but the chance of discovery is still there."
"So, useless, like Kagome said, right." Shippo says as he flips the coin in the air.
"Now, Shippo, I didn't say that." Miroku says with a lilt in his voice. "These are good counterfeits and I know a moneychanger that will pay me for them."
"Huh?" Shippo says. And Inu-yasha's ears perk-up as he is interested as well.
"As I said, in small villages, this is good money. The moneychanger I know in Kyoto will buy these coins from me at perhaps ten to twenty percent of face value. He will then sell them to merchants that are planning to visit small villages. He'll sell the coins at perhaps fifty percent of the face value."
"And merchant in the village will get full value for the coins." Inu-yasha declares. "Cheaters."
Miroku nods, "Do you expect merchants to be honest? They want to make a profit, and this cheat helps. Though, they'll probably not cheat the villagers that much. He will want to return to the village in the future and being found out as a cheat, might cause problems."
Miroku puts the coins back into the bag and places the bag in his robes. "If I get the chance, or if we need the money, I'll visit that moneychanger."
Later... they approach one of main roads going south out of Kyoto.
There is a procession on the road and they have to stop and wait for all the people in it to pass. It is a religious procession. There are monks, some chanting and some with incense filled censors, walking in it. Armed monks guard the procession. The heart of the procession is a cart. The ox drawn cart has a silken tent covering it. The monk at the head of the procession is carrying a staff with a symbol on it.
"Ise..." Miroku whispers.
"What monk, talk." Inu-yasha hisses.
"The high priest of Ise is in that procession, Inu-yasha." Miroku whispers. Both Inu-yasha and Shippo can hear him.
"That means..." Shippo starts to whisper.
"That means if Kagome uses that scroll her grandfather made. She'll get into trouble. Quickly..." Miroku whispers back.
"How do we tell her?" Shippo whispers.
Miroku shrugs....
As the cart passes, Inu-yasha with Shippo in his arms and Miroku with Kagome's bag on his back, there is movement in the silk curtains.
Inu-yasha swallows hard. The hairs on the back of his neck are rising. Something just happened and he doesn't know what....
Late afternoon.... the boys have traveled across the plain south of the city and are now in the mountains on the west side of the city.
The boys are setting up camp when Shippo interrupts.
"Look coming from we were this morning!" He points to the mountains on the other side of Kyoto.
Marching down the down south of the lake Biwa is a column of men. The late afternoon sun glints off the spear points and metal armor.
An army is marching down to the city.
Inu-yasha and Miroku stop what they were doing and look at the column.
"It's too far away for me. You, Inu-yasha?"
"I can't make out the heraldry, Miroku."
"I was hoping to know who was leading it, but, oh well... How many to you think?"
"4,000, perhaps 5,000 men."
"A large army." Shippo says.
"Not really, Shippo, during the last big war in Kyoto, there were depending on who you ask, anywhere from 150,000 to 300,000 warriors in Kyoto." Miroku says.
"Yeah, A small player, nobody important, really. But... " Inu-yasha says, "but, this means the vultures are gathering and more warriors will be heading into the city."
"Yes, if the families in the city haven't already sent for reinforcements..." Miroku starts.
"They'll be plenty of messengers leaving Kyoto tonight..." Inu-yasha finishes.
Shippo shudders. Kitsune powers are wide and varied and sometimes even visions of the future or the long past are possible.... And for a second a vision passed in front of the his eyes.
The city below was in flames. Flames covered a good quarter of the city. Another quarter of the city was in ruins. Warriors were fighting in and among the rest of the city. Columns of men were fighting other columns of men in the streets of the city. Smoke filled the air. Smoke heavy with the smell of burning human flesh...
End chapter four....
Author's notes:
I think I covered the counterfeit coins in the text. Just to complete. The coins are modern fakes that the temple sells as old coins to tourists. Kagome was afraid that the roman numeral markings on them would give them away. Plus to her, they are fake coins and she knows it. And passing counterfeit coins is something she thinks is wrong.
During the Onin war 1470-1480. Both sides had, at the wars height, about 80,000 to 90,000 men each. (160,000 to 180,000 total). I don't think they were all in Kyoto's city limits, but... Also, stories and reports that Miroku would have read would have exaggerated the total anyway. Historical accuracy is a modern invention, ok. During this time each side would have exaggerated or downplayed their troop totals depending on what type of message they wanted to tell everybody.
Hmmm... probably not the best chapter I've written, but the boys day was supposed to be dull, anyway.
Chapter five will be Sango's and Kagome's first night in Kyoto.
It will probably be a couple of weeks before I get it up. I want to finish "spring fertility festival 1ch & epilog left on it" and "when the boys are away 1 ch and & epilog left on it"
Once those two are finished I am planning on concentrating on "A shard in Kyoto."
I will give a list of possible stories as I end Spring. And I will let the readers there, make a suggestion as to what I do next. But, I am planning on taking a couple weeks after spring and just doing "A shard in Kyoto." (I want to get at least 2 more chapters of "A shard in Kyoto" out doing September, ok. And if somebody wishes to help me, ask, I have this story plotted out.)
I will be posting spamfics and ranma stories, but the spamfics are simple (1hr or so each) and the ranma stories I wrote years ago. (I just have to clean them up, some. The formatting....shakes head)
I would still like to get at least 1 review per 1000 words, btw. thank you in advance for any review.
thank you for reading
jeff shelton
Before I start... I would like to thank all the readers of the story.
At the end of ch 3, I mentioned that I would like 1 review per 1000 words. That did happen. (When you combine the reviews from fanfiction, mediaminner and a few private reviews)
Thank you
The readers of this story have been the most responsive group of readers I have.
(Using fanfiction stats... approx 15% of the readers of Shard have reviewed/commented on the story. Compare that with less than 1% on Seppuku or Day after Inu-yasha proposes... even When Friends... and Spring fertility... have only about a 2% rate.)
Thank you, again.
What the boys were doing while Kagome and Sango walked around Kyoto.
______________________________
Kagome and Sango are small fading figures in the distance...
"Inu-yasha, please, for their sake, stop thinking about following them." Miroku says as he watches him out of the corner of his eyes.
Inu-yasha starts and his face reddens, from anger or embarrassment, Miroku cannot tell. "I was not thinking about that, stupid monk." He growls out.
"What do we do now, Inu-yasha, Miroku?" Shippo asks in a quiet voice.
"We stay here and wait for them, what else, idiot. That's what this damn monk here has convinced everyone to do." Inu-yasha replies as he approaches Shippo. He is about to pick him up, when THACK.
Miroku's staff hits his hand. "He's not in the condition to take your normal abuse, Inu-yasha." he says as he puts the staff back on his shoulder. "And we are not staying here."
"Why move?" Shippo asks.
"If we move, how will the girls find us?" Inu-yasha looks at him with a suspicious glare.
"Why move?" Miroku repeats and then answers, "Because, Shippo, people don't just sit and stare at Kyoto. They either go in or come out. Staying on this hillside, will simply tell however is looking that we are waiting for something or someone. And sooner or later somebody," he points with his staff at the nearby monastery, "from there or elsewhere will come by and ask questions."
"In addition, when I was at the monastery, I did talk to people. Sooner or later, my friends are going to tell who they were talking to and my name will come up."
"Stupid monk, hiding things from us..." Inu-yasha growls out.
Miroku shrugs, "What's done is done. We adjust our plans and continue."
"Monk, I'm going to ask again, then I'm going to hurt you... How will the girls find us, if we move?" Inu-yasha says as flexes his claws, staring at Miroku.
Miroku points to the small glass jar hanging around Inu-yasha's neck. "Kagome can sense our shards." His eyes blink and he stares at the jar.
His hand reaches out to grasp the jar. Inu-yasha's hand grabs Miroku's hand before it can touch the jar, "What do you think you're doing, monk." Inu-yasha hisses out.
Miroku blinks his eyes a couple of times and he answers, "This is the first time, in a good long while, that I've been able to see exactly how many much of the jewel we have." his voice changes, acquiring a accusing tone, "You tend to dislike it, when I try to look at this, when it is hanging around Kagome's neck."
"Because, you perverted monk, you're not looking at the shards, you are looking at Kagome's breasts." Inu-yasha spits out.
"Believe what you wish, may I hold that for it a second." He points to the glass jar.
"Hmmm, for a second."
Miroku lifts the jar and looks hard at it. After a second he releases it and it falls onto Inu-yasha's chest. He quickly puts it under his clothes.
Miroku shakes his head and stares at Kyoto, a puzzled look on his face.
"What's up, Miroku?" Shippo asks, suspicious about his actions.
Miroku starts, and replies, "I'm just surprised we have as much of the jewel as we do, Shippo."
"Ok, monk, you've convinced me to move. We'll go south, away from that damned mountain." Inu-yasha points to mountain Hiei.
"Good enough, Inu-yasha. Remember you," Miroku pulls a large black robe from somewhere. "Will have to wear this." He hands the robe to Inu-yasha.
Inu-yasha looks at the robe with distaste, "I thought I'd lost that."
"Inu-yasha, as I've said before. You cannot go around Kyoto with those ears showing. You will have to wear this robe, or something similar to hide those ears. And you," Miroku's voice intensifies, "will pretend to be an old man."
Inu-yasha growls.
"Yeah, dog boy, act your human age for once." Shippo pipes in.
Inu-yasha swipes at and grabs Shippo. Miroku quickly brings his staff down on Inu-yasha's arm. "Let go of him, Inu-yasha."
Inu-yasha holds onto Shippo and growls at Miroku, 'I'm fucking tried of letting him boss me around. The girls might have thought his plans allowed him to do so, but they're not here now.' He thinks. Inu-yasha tightens his grip on the young fox demon. "The girls aren't here, monk. I'm going to do what I damn well wish to do."
"Inu-yasha...." Miroku shakes his head. In a stern tone of voice, he says. "Inu-yasha, we don't have time for playing around. Drop Shippo, put on the robe and we leave as soon as we can."
"Inu-yasha... you're hurting..." Shippo whines out. Blood is beginning to show where Inu-yasha's claws are digging into his fur.
"Make me, fucking monk." He growls, staring Miroku in the face.
Miroku begins to move his staff around, attracting Inu-yasha attention by making a quick move with it. Miroku's other hand, the one that is not holding the staff vanishes into his sleeve.
He then quickly attacks with that hand. "Thought you could foo...." Inu-yasha starts to say, but once he grabs Miroku arm he freezes, paralyzed.
Miroku drops his staff and pries Inu-yasha claws off his arm and pries Shippo out of the grasp of Inu-yasha's other hand. "You poor..." He shakes his head. "That spell, you could have broken were we away from Kyoto, Inu-yasha, and you still might here."
Sweat beads on Inu-yasha forehead as he is trying to break the spell.
"But, it will take time, Inu-yasha." Miroku pulls out a scroll and places it securely on Inu-yasha chest. "But that one, will hold you for awhile, anywhere."
Miroku, sighs, and continues, "I told you this as we were coming here but you keep forgetting, so I'm going to tell you again. There are a dozen, perhaps two dozen priests, mystics, astrologers in Kyoto that are as powerful, if not more powerful, then I, Inu-yasha. You have to disguise yourself. Your ears are noticeable and once they are noticed, people will want to kill the demon. There are priests in Kyoto powerful enough to do it."
"If they are that powerful, Miroku, what about his father and Sesshoumaru and their attacks." Shippo asks as he feels around, trying to determine the damage Inu-yasha did.
"They were full blood, not half blood, Shippo. Also, both would have demon magic to stop human magic with them. Magic that Inu-yasha was never taught, and you were too young to learn." Miroku explains as the puts the robe over Inu-yasha and ties it on.
"There, Inu-yasha, just remember to bend down and act like a seventy year old man." Miroku says, "I'm going to remove the scroll, Inu-yasha, no tricks." He takes off the scroll.
"You fucking! Monk!" Inu-yasha shouts!
"So, Inu-yasha, are we going to argue or go on?"
Inu-yasha grits his teeth, flexes his claws, takes a deep breath and then he sighs, and points to the road going to the monastery. A group of people are on it and they are looking at Inu-yasha and Miroku. They are too far away to see any details, but... "We leave, monk."
Miroku turns and looks, "They are going into the monastery. But, they are going to ask questions..." He bends down and starts going through Kagome backpack.
"Monk, We are leaving, why are you going thru that." Inu-yasha growls.
"Yeah, I do not think Kagome is going to like that." Shippo adds in.
"Ahh, Here is it." Miroku pulls out one of Kagome's textbooks. The title "Basic English"
"I wish to leave her a note, just in case." Miroku takes out a modern pen and paper from his robes.
"Where did you get those, monk?" Inu-yasha asks in a harsh tone.
"She gave them to me." Miroku replies, without looking at Inu-yasha, he's busy looking through the book. "Ahh, here it is."
"I don't remember that." Inu-yasha says in a flat tone.
"Well, she did. If you want, you can ask her next time you see her." Miroku continues to reply while looking at the book. Miroku then starts to write on the paper.
"That's not normal writing, Miroku." Shippo states as he goes over to look at what Miroku is doing.
"No, Shippo, it's not. The language is English." Miroku replies distractedly.
"When did you..." Inu-yasha starts.
"She accidently left this book once, remember." Miroku says as he turns the page.
'Yes, after an early adventure with the monk, she complained about losing a book. She replaced it, but she wasn't happy about it.' Inu-yasha thinks.
"I started to look at it, trying to understand her schooling." He looks up and stares at Inu-yasha 'something, of course, he'd never try to do.' he thinks, and continues, "But, after thinking about it, I decided to see if I could learn the language. Would it not be a good thing, if say, when Kanna looks at us in her mirror... she can not understand what we are saying?"
"Ohh..." Inu-yasha whispers, 'never thought about that. Hiding our plans from Naraku...' He blinks, 'hell, this even gives my an excuse to follow her to school.' He smiles, 'by going to her school, learning this english, whatever the hell it is, would mean that she'd never be out of my sight...'
"Then why did you need that book, if you have the other, Miroku?" Shippo asks.
"I left the other copy at Keade's village." Miroku says as he closes the book. "There that should do it." He puts the modern pen away and pulls out more traditional brush and ink set. At the top of the paper he writes a generic demon ward off spell.
"You two should turn around. When I activate the spell, it might hurt you." Miroku says as he grabs one of Kagome's arrows. He pierces the scroll at the top and bottom and slips it onto the arrow shaft. He shoves the arrow into the ground. 'Good. A basic anti-demon protection. Nobody should bother it, even if there are parts of it that are unreadable.' He thinks as he rises.
"Shippo, I know you're going to hate it, but you'll have to pretend to be Inu-yasha's sick grandchild." Miroku hides a grin as he speaks with Shippo.
"I know, with the girls gone, I suppose he" Shippo points to Inu-yasha, "will have to carry me."
"What!" Inu-yasha shouts.
"He is your sick grandson. You are taking him to the various shrines and temples in and around Kyoto. You are trying to find a cure for the mysterious disease hurting him. Remember, Inu-yasha. This is the story we agreed on."
"The girls aren't here, monk."
"So, instead of Kagome pretending to be his mother and carry him, you'll have to carry him. He's still you're grandson."
"Why, you...."
THACK!
Miroku lowers his staff after hitting Inu-yasha on the head. "You have to carry him and treat him properly Inu-yasha." Miroku sighs, "After all, you're to old to carry Kagome's bag, so I have to carry that..."
Inu-yasha, while he outwardly grumbles about carrying Shippo, he is smiling on the inside. Miroku's back is going to hurt, a lot more than his head hurts from the hit of Miroku's staff.
Miroku wraps Kagome's backpack in a dark robe and puts it on his back. 'Sigh, with Inu-yasha pretending to be an old man, somebody has to do this...' he thinks.
They leave the area and walk south.
"Monk, there was a bag, you forgot to put back into Kagome's pack." Shippo mentions after they leave the area.
"Yeah, I noticed that too..." Inu-yasha growls out.
"Remember when Kagome returned from her time, that bag Kagome pulled out and told us to ignore it."
"Yes, something her grandfather came up with." Shippo says.
"I want to find out wants in it. Kagome may think it's useless, but she doesn't know everything." Miroku speaks in a light voice.
"We've gone far enough, Monk, open it up." Inu-yasha orders after looking around and not seeing anybody paying attention to them.
"Ughh.." Miroku grunts out as he lowers Kagome bag to the ground. 'Every time I carry it, my admiration for her increases...' he thinks as he rubs his lower back.
Miroku takes the bag out of his robes, opens it and copper and silver coins spill into his palm.
"Useless!" Inu-yasha yells. "What the fuck was she thinking!"
"Yeah, as much as I hate to agree his dog boy." Shippo says as he grabs one of the coins. "This is good money."
Miroku lifts one up and examines it closely. "Hmmmm...." He picks up another and compares them side by side. "Yes... I see it."
He holds the coin with his finger tips and points at some markings along the edge. "This is the problem. These are fake. Those marks... I don't know the language, but it's not Chinese or Japanese."
"Hell, monk, most people aren't going to notice something that small." Inu-yasha says as he inspects one of the coins.
"You are correct, Inu-yasha, if we were to use these coins in a small village, there should be no problems. But this is Kyoto. This type of problem will be spotted. Counterfeit coins do occur and the moneychangers in Kyoto are trained to spot them. " He holds up a hand to stop Inu-yasha from interrupting. "Yes, the chances are we can still use them without discovery, but the chance of discovery is still there."
"So, useless, like Kagome said, right." Shippo says as he flips the coin in the air.
"Now, Shippo, I didn't say that." Miroku says with a lilt in his voice. "These are good counterfeits and I know a moneychanger that will pay me for them."
"Huh?" Shippo says. And Inu-yasha's ears perk-up as he is interested as well.
"As I said, in small villages, this is good money. The moneychanger I know in Kyoto will buy these coins from me at perhaps ten to twenty percent of face value. He will then sell them to merchants that are planning to visit small villages. He'll sell the coins at perhaps fifty percent of the face value."
"And merchant in the village will get full value for the coins." Inu-yasha declares. "Cheaters."
Miroku nods, "Do you expect merchants to be honest? They want to make a profit, and this cheat helps. Though, they'll probably not cheat the villagers that much. He will want to return to the village in the future and being found out as a cheat, might cause problems."
Miroku puts the coins back into the bag and places the bag in his robes. "If I get the chance, or if we need the money, I'll visit that moneychanger."
Later... they approach one of main roads going south out of Kyoto.
There is a procession on the road and they have to stop and wait for all the people in it to pass. It is a religious procession. There are monks, some chanting and some with incense filled censors, walking in it. Armed monks guard the procession. The heart of the procession is a cart. The ox drawn cart has a silken tent covering it. The monk at the head of the procession is carrying a staff with a symbol on it.
"Ise..." Miroku whispers.
"What monk, talk." Inu-yasha hisses.
"The high priest of Ise is in that procession, Inu-yasha." Miroku whispers. Both Inu-yasha and Shippo can hear him.
"That means..." Shippo starts to whisper.
"That means if Kagome uses that scroll her grandfather made. She'll get into trouble. Quickly..." Miroku whispers back.
"How do we tell her?" Shippo whispers.
Miroku shrugs....
As the cart passes, Inu-yasha with Shippo in his arms and Miroku with Kagome's bag on his back, there is movement in the silk curtains.
Inu-yasha swallows hard. The hairs on the back of his neck are rising. Something just happened and he doesn't know what....
Late afternoon.... the boys have traveled across the plain south of the city and are now in the mountains on the west side of the city.
The boys are setting up camp when Shippo interrupts.
"Look coming from we were this morning!" He points to the mountains on the other side of Kyoto.
Marching down the down south of the lake Biwa is a column of men. The late afternoon sun glints off the spear points and metal armor.
An army is marching down to the city.
Inu-yasha and Miroku stop what they were doing and look at the column.
"It's too far away for me. You, Inu-yasha?"
"I can't make out the heraldry, Miroku."
"I was hoping to know who was leading it, but, oh well... How many to you think?"
"4,000, perhaps 5,000 men."
"A large army." Shippo says.
"Not really, Shippo, during the last big war in Kyoto, there were depending on who you ask, anywhere from 150,000 to 300,000 warriors in Kyoto." Miroku says.
"Yeah, A small player, nobody important, really. But... " Inu-yasha says, "but, this means the vultures are gathering and more warriors will be heading into the city."
"Yes, if the families in the city haven't already sent for reinforcements..." Miroku starts.
"They'll be plenty of messengers leaving Kyoto tonight..." Inu-yasha finishes.
Shippo shudders. Kitsune powers are wide and varied and sometimes even visions of the future or the long past are possible.... And for a second a vision passed in front of the his eyes.
The city below was in flames. Flames covered a good quarter of the city. Another quarter of the city was in ruins. Warriors were fighting in and among the rest of the city. Columns of men were fighting other columns of men in the streets of the city. Smoke filled the air. Smoke heavy with the smell of burning human flesh...
End chapter four....
Author's notes:
I think I covered the counterfeit coins in the text. Just to complete. The coins are modern fakes that the temple sells as old coins to tourists. Kagome was afraid that the roman numeral markings on them would give them away. Plus to her, they are fake coins and she knows it. And passing counterfeit coins is something she thinks is wrong.
During the Onin war 1470-1480. Both sides had, at the wars height, about 80,000 to 90,000 men each. (160,000 to 180,000 total). I don't think they were all in Kyoto's city limits, but... Also, stories and reports that Miroku would have read would have exaggerated the total anyway. Historical accuracy is a modern invention, ok. During this time each side would have exaggerated or downplayed their troop totals depending on what type of message they wanted to tell everybody.
Hmmm... probably not the best chapter I've written, but the boys day was supposed to be dull, anyway.
Chapter five will be Sango's and Kagome's first night in Kyoto.
It will probably be a couple of weeks before I get it up. I want to finish "spring fertility festival 1ch & epilog left on it" and "when the boys are away 1 ch and & epilog left on it"
Once those two are finished I am planning on concentrating on "A shard in Kyoto."
I will give a list of possible stories as I end Spring. And I will let the readers there, make a suggestion as to what I do next. But, I am planning on taking a couple weeks after spring and just doing "A shard in Kyoto." (I want to get at least 2 more chapters of "A shard in Kyoto" out doing September, ok. And if somebody wishes to help me, ask, I have this story plotted out.)
I will be posting spamfics and ranma stories, but the spamfics are simple (1hr or so each) and the ranma stories I wrote years ago. (I just have to clean them up, some. The formatting....shakes head)
I would still like to get at least 1 review per 1000 words, btw. thank you in advance for any review.
thank you for reading
jeff shelton