InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Avoiding Yokai Eradication ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

By: Seleni

VOCABULARY

Juunigatsu - October

Nigatsu - February

Hachigatsu - August

Kuugatsu - September

Watashi no Musuko - My son

Begonia Tessaricarpa - The explanation of it is already in the text. Except for the part about the yokai everything else mentioned about it is real. If I'm not mistaken is really a rare plant that is in danger of extinction.

Nippon - Japan

Morocco - A country in the north of Africa

Allah - God in Arabic. The god of the Muslim religion

Mamluk Dynasty - (1250 - 1517) Subjects of the Ottoman Empire

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Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha

CHAPTER 3: THE SCROLL

Sengoku Jidai

Juunigatsu, 1548

A hidden room in the Tsuki no Palace

Sesshoumaru was readying a room in his castle to perform the ceremony. The place was dark and damp, with one or two rats scurrying away from him. The room was soon to be occupied by several people who he didn't deem important enough. That was why the location he had chosen to carry out the summoning ritual was under the dungeons of the palace, a place long forgotten by everybody except him, since he didn't forget anything.

He had spent the last three month making sure the miko had not come back without his knowledge and chasing a witch all over Japan just to get the instructions he needed to perform the rite. The situation was becoming a mess and he didn't like the way it was going. First off, the miko was still alive and until some month ago chasing demons through the lands. What was wrong with that? Simply that she was still alive. If his plan had gone as he had intended, then she shouldn't be in his time at all. But no, she had come to his era and messed around. What bothered him most was that he had allowed her to do it. Why? Well, he had put the incident of the scroll in the back of his mind thinking it had been taken care of. He had buried the information so deep that he hadn't been able to retrieve it when he should have. And no, that didn't mean he had forgotten about it, because the information was there. It just had been misplaced.

However, that was far from the end. When he had finally refreshed his memory and knew for certain that the miko represented a danger to the yokai population, he went to get her. Until then, that had been the best move he had done. Still, he had to blow it up, literally. When he went to get her, she was leaving to Kami knew where, something he didn't want. The only way to resolve it was to eliminate her escape route so he attacked. The only problem was that she was standing in front of his attack and, even if he didn't want to hurt her, she was going to be blown into little tiny bits that would be scattered by the wind. But he had hopes, and some of them included her being smart enough to get out of the way of the attack. To his surprise, the baka miko had stood there with her wide azure eyes and open mouth seeing as the blue energy went toward her at top speed. It had been thanks to his usually slow half-brother that she survived.

It didn't matter to him if she had died or not as long as he didn't end with the same result he had before. But what did he have after all the energy he wasted? A problem that had not been solved and, consequentially, no miko to solve it.

As he moved around preparing the space that hopefully could contain six people, he remembered when he found the scroll that had begun the entire ordeal. The small piece of parchment was more or less fifty centimeters in length and twenty-five centimeter in width. It contained a fragment of his father's diary, in specific, a meeting with a witch that had some diviner ability.

~*~

Sengoku Jidai

Nigatsu, 1523

Tsuki no Palace Library

He had been looking for a scroll that could help him in the search of a plant for his garden. Although it seemed weird for a yokai to be interested in botanic, the plant he required was very rare and something he wanted. The Begonia Tessaricarpa, as it was commonly known in India, a place he had had the pleasure to visit before his father's demise, had caught his attention since it was extremely hard to get and it was declining fast. The plant could cure stomachache and dehydration, certainly not something he had to worry about, but it also could ward off any kind of animal or yokai that fed from the blood of other beings. He was sure he wasn't going to need the plant, after all he was the most powerful lord in the land, but having it could come in handy someday. Maybe somebody else would need it and he could give it in exchange for something.

Among the section of his library that contained the scrolls with information in botanic, a thin, yellowish one was hidden under the parchments that contained dangerous and venomous foliage. The page was made of papyrus, something that was rather scarce in Nippon, and he couldn't identify the ink used to write it. The writing was made with care and excellence indicating that whoever wrote it was important and had enough time to waste into it to make the vain piece of ancient paper something akin of art.

He rolled it open to find the familiar calligraphy that decorated the scroll belonging to his deceased father.

~*~

23 Hachigatsu, 1327

Morocco

I have wandered many lands in these last years. I have witnessed yokai that I thought were myth and realized that those I thought real were nothing more than legends. I have fought against many enemies and found new allies among the lands to the West of my little isle, but among all those things, it have been established that it's time to return to my native land and put order to what has been changed.

I know the Court believes their leader has abandoned his duty, but my absence is merely an escape I have taken, a fulfillment of my dreams if it must be called so. It was a way to find myself, to discover that there is indeed, a leader inside my person. I know I was born to be King, but I was wondering if that was enough to make me a real one. By now I know that, in fact, I was born to lead and that my people would follow me if it was needed. I also know that I was made into one. What my father taught me was the right path to follow and so I want to teach my pup, who I left in his mother's care, the same path, and I will teach him not to doubt it as I have. I also hope I'm not too late.

Before reaching my final destination, I have promised to stop in the Land of the Nile for a couple of days. One of my allies requested my presence in a ceremony dedicated to him and Allah, their God. I don't know if this god of his is real but I will assist to this ceremony that it's of most importance to him.

I'm already at the edge of a sea of yellowish sand and I know for sure that I will arrive shortly to the palace. I can't expressed how exited I'm of returning home and I think of this short visit as a detour from my real aim.

~*~

6 Kuugatsu, 1327

City of Cairo, Egypt

Mamluk Dynasty

I have delayed my departure from this land of wonders for no apparent reason. But there certainly is one.

The day I arrived at the palace the festivities had barely begun and I got carried away by the merriment around me. I drank the most exquisite of wines and ate the rarest of food and they also invited me to their temple made of huge rocks and decorated with gold and silver. I was taken in front of the oracle for my future to be read and I was shocked, for the answers I received weren't what I had hoped nor wanted.

The beautiful female dressed in nothing more than a long silk skirt with hair as black a moonless night predicted my fall. It spoke of a heroic attempt to save a Hime and another son I was to have. Said Hime was not my mate but a ningen who I was to love unconditionally. She also talked about my impassive son. She said he was not to feel empathy for anything, not even himself until the destroyer of demons appeared in our world.

Sesshoumaru, my son, she prophesied the end of the demon race and mentioned no way of stopping it.

"From the years to come a cobalt-eye ningen will be sent to us. She will be brought by those that want power and reek of greed and hatred. Many seekers of the power she holds under her heart will try to hurt her, but she will stand until she is no longer one. She will wish us dead with her power since in the being of light; Hatred and Love wage their own war. If her hatred in stronger than her love all the demons will disappear from this world" were her word as her white eyes looked into mine, those eyes that a moment ago had been as dark as her hair.

I am afraid for myself. I am to betray my mate and son and probably trigger the doom of the race. How can I return to my home and do as the oracle said? The answer I found was simple. I could not. So I have spent this week pondering in what to do if cannot return home. If I cannot meet my son again and tell him about my travels and all the new things I learned and I made a decision. The years I'm to spend with you, Sesshoumaru, are few, and at least, I want you to remember me. By now you must be a man, a powerful young yokai and I want to meet the person who will take my place in the future. I want to know the person who will try to save us all.

~*~

29 Kuugatsu, 1354

Sengoku Jidai

Izumo Province

Yesterday while I was traveling over my lands, patrolling the border, I met a human woman. She was the most beautiful being I had ever seen. Her black hair fell in beautiful black waves in her back and the layers of her multicolored kimono hugged her small frame making her curves more noticeable. She had brown eyes that quivered with fear when I approached her in, I think, her personal garden. She was afraid of me and shied away from my presence when I moved toward her.

I was compelled to touch her and without notice I went near her as much as she tried to escape me. Her lower pink lip trembling from the fear I was inciting inside her only directed my hungry eyes to them, and the need to taste her began to aggravate my soul. Something inside me was set on fire and, whatever it was, only required her presence to burn brightly.

Sesshoumaru, I am to have her. I will befoul this tiny human Hime that has stolen my heart, soul and body. But I also want you to know that I had been patiently waiting for the moment I would meet my fate.

Watashi no Musuko, I know that soon will come the time when I die. But unlike before, I am not afraid because I am protecting something that means so much to me, something that I am glad to die for. It was her that the Fates choose to be my downfall and I'm gladly will walk to it. But it still leaves me something to teach you my son, something that you have not learned yet and I'm not so sure you'll venture to find out any time. Do you have somebody to protect my son? If not, there will be a time such a person will exist in your world. Until then, don't die for something as worthless as power.

~*~

Sengoku Jidai

Nigatsu, 1523

Tsuki no Palace Library

Sesshoumaru didn't like what the little scroll, which seemed to be a part of a journal his father had, said. He remembered when his father had been absent from the Western Land. If he wasn't mistaken, it had been for fifty years. During that time, his mother had taught him all that he needed to know and he was angry with his father for leaving him behind. It was hard not to forget how the people of the Court laughed at his father for running away from his duty. It was impossible to overlook the hate he felt in his heart. The court had almost made his mother marry another Politian who was after the title of Lord, a yokai that one night left and never came back.

During those hard times that the Royal Family of the West was in crisis because its leader was vacationing Kami knew where, he had become the cold and detached leader he was now. He became obsessed with power. After all, power would help him keep his title and destroy all those that tried to take his lands away. He became stronger, fearless and deadly, the perfect personality for the perfect name. Now, nobody would dare go against him without dreading the consequences. He finally admitted that his father's absence with his betrayal made him who he was, but after reading this he didn't know what to think about anything.

His father was a brave man, in battle and, it seemed, in the daily things he did. Sesshoumaru had never doubted he had loved his mate, at least until he had run away with the ningen Hime and died trying to save the half-breed. Then he had hated him even more. But knowing that he had embraced his own fate and returned to his side made him feel warm and fussy where his heart was supposed to be.

Shoving the useless emotions aside, he thought of what he was to do with the information he had gained from his father's journal. Was it true that some girl was going to destroy the yokai population? It was a stupid idea. But then again, Inuyasha stuck in a tree hadn't crossed his mind until he saw it for himself. Maybe he could use magic to stop the girl from coming. But where was she coming from? He looked at the scroll and memorized the beginning of the prophecy. 'From the years to come a cobalt-eye ningen will be sent to us.' Was the bitch coming from the future? If so, he could stop her from being born.

He headed into another section of the library that contained the dangerous spells. He already knew what to do, but reading it again wasn't going to hurt. Taking out another old scroll smaller than his father's, he went to talk to Satoshii, one of his generals.

"Find four assassins that would do anything to get some money. They have to be desperate and ruthless, without families. Make sure nobody else knows about this" he said before heading toward a secluded room in his palace.

No sooner his words had come out of his mouth, his general was heading somewhere to find the desire assassins his Lord requested. Meanwhile, Sesshoumaru headed to a small room under the dungeons to prepare it for the arrivals. The old storage room was empty and abandoned. It had been forgotten and the key to it eventually lost, until he found the room and, by luck, the key. Since then he had used it to have those meetings that would be unwise to have somewhere else. He took with him some salt and something to draw a circle on the floor. Within the circle he wrote figures and words of other language long lost to any civilization and then he waited for the murderers to arrive.

By the next day he had the requested personnel. He knew nothing of them and wasn't interested to find out as long as they finished their assignments. He guided them into the small room and closed the door behind him ready to impart the instructions.

The yokai present were rough. Their eyes showed anything but a cold feeling of death and an uncaring satisfaction if it was accomplished. There was no love in them and thus, no family to worry about.

"Lord Sesshoumaru, why have you requested our services" said a yokai with short red hair. "If it's only one target more than one of us would be an inconvenience" a lazy smile spread through his face. "Or do you want the strongest male from the four best" he asked innocently.

"No, I want to propose a competition. There is an infant, a girl that will be born, I want her dead. When she dies, the one who killed her will receive a great reward" said the lord in his accustomed cold voice. "But there is a drawback. This girl, she is human and will be born in the future, years from now. I want you to find her and eliminate her before she discovers her destiny" he ordered.

"Into the future? You are going to send us into the future?" asked another yokai dressed in a blue haori and dark blue hakama. His hair was dark brown tied in a high ponytail and his eyes we a brilliant green.

"Yes, I am. I have everything ready, the spell will sent you into the future and, once your target has been killed, you'll be brought back to claim the prize" added an impatient Sesshoumaru. Couldn't they just accept it and be over with?

"How will we recognize our target?" asked the red haired yokai from before. Sesshoumaru could see he had his eyes on killing, it was like a sense telling him to be careful, that this particular male could be a problem in the near future.

"She's a miko, a very powerful one and her eyes are blue. I'm sure she will be in Japan and I doubt such a delicious female will escape your notice" said Sesshoumaru as he ended the discussion. "Now, those who wish to participate, step in the circle."

All four of the assassins step inside in unison. They all like the pay, which they imagined being lands and money. But more than that, the hunt that was to take place in the future seemed more appetizing. The killing of a pure being had always been one of the yokai's must savage urges, after all, the slightly spicy blood charged with power, even if so slight, was a pleasure that drove them mad. And such delicacy they did not plan to miss for anything in the world.

Seeing that all of them were ready to depart, he began to recite the lines from the scroll. As the verses were said faster and the once still air began to blow strong inside the small storage room, a hole, of a blackness only comparable to the absence of light, grew from beneath the feet of the soon to be time travelers. The dark mass began to move around the magic circle, dancing to a wild tune only heard by the participants. Covering all the individuals from head to toe, it closed over their heads and soon after began to recede. The same way it had begun, it came to an end, as the darkness moved into nothing like the waves in the sea. After a minute, everything was back to normal and even the circle had disappeared, leaving to trace behind.

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A/N

Sorry, it took so long, I just didn't know how to continue the ritual part and what was Lord Sesshoumaru to say. But I decided to give the privilege of talking first to someone else, and it worked out just fine.

What I tried to do with Sesshoumaru's past was an imitation of the Odyssey where Telemachus' mother had to marry another man to take the throne of Ithaca because it had been years since Odysseus departure and they didn't know if he was alive or not.

Also some things are bound to change in the future but i don't think the changes will be anything important so reading the story or a certain chapter again will not be necessary. If it's important then I'll make sure to inform.

I would also like to thank Sugar0o and arrowheadhunter. Once again, they left good reviews and it makes me happy to know that there are people who are watching my plot for any holes in it. I really appreciated it.

Seleni