InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Cracking ❯ Chapter 1

Disclaimer #1 + Author's notes/announcements/messages/whatever: This oneshot is a birthday gift-fic for Rozefire and a tribute to her fic "Dead Famous." The AU setting of this fic and the AU characters were taken from "Dead Famous," including the original characters of the triplets (Hiko, Mo, and Jiro), which were created by Rozefire herself. If you have no idea whom Hiko, Mo, and Jiro are, nor have you read "Dead Famous," then you should probably stop reading this because this oneshot contains some spoilers for DF, and it probably won't make very much sense, at least in the AU portions. (Shameless Plug: "Dead Famous" is a great fic by the way. You should go read it, now, and then come back and read this.) And for the record, Rozefire has given me permission to post this, which is why you're reading this in the first place.

Disclaimer #2 - The Inuyasha do not belong to me...blah blah blah... something about Rumiko Takahashi... blah blah blah...

 

 

Cracking, by Dawnsama

 

Somewhere in the darkness…

 

Kanna stared blankly as the image in her mirror solidified into a waterfall crashing down into a pool surrounded with trees.

 

Naraku scrutinized the scene carefully and waved his hand in dismissal. “No, too visible and too wet. Much too wet.”

 

He had been dangerously lax during the past week, so lax that the hanyou and his minions had nearly taken away his almost complete sphere of shards. The miko girl had come that close to wrenching away his jewel from his grasp, so close that even he, Naraku, had become frightened. Naraku could still feel the prick of the purity of her miko powers on his fingertips as her hands brushed against the jewel. Luckily, with wonderful timing, just before the miko had gotten a good grip on the jewel, Naraku had farted out a puff of miasma, causing her to recoil back and away from him, covering her nose with the back of her hand.

 

Naraku hadn't even known that he could perform that particular bodily function. He had found the experience oddly pleasing.

 

Amusement aside, he still became deeply worried. Naraku didn't like being worried. He detested anxiety with a passion. It implied that he was slipping and growing weaker. And it annoyed him. A lot.

 

As a result of his anxiety, Naraku came to the conclusion that something serious had to be done. The mere possibility of the hanyou and his minions getting close should have been impossible, and the fact that they proved it possible meant that there was a flaw somewhere in his plan. Naraku could not trust his security around the jewel anymore, and he needed a new location to keep it.

 

Naraku felt strangely proud. He was killing two birds with one stone at the moment. As Kanna searched for and displayed possible hiding places to him, Naraku executed a very satisfactory punishment on Kagura for allowing the enemy to get close. It was an ingenious punishment in his opinion. His hair was getting extremely tangled and he wouldn't be surprised if he found an insect or two living within its masses, growing corrupted from his youki, but it was no problem. He could always just consume them if they grew too annoying. But then there was the task of removing them from the tangles of his hair, which turned out to be an effective punishment.

 

“Careful!” Naraku snapped as Kagura yanked at a particularly difficult snag. “If I find just one strand of hair missing from my head, I will hold you responsible. Not my comb, not the lice, you.”

 

There was a distinct sniff from behind his head. Naraku frowned, but decided to let Kagura's display of impudence slide for the time being. He had more pressing matters to attend to at the moment.

 

“Will this do?” Kanna murmured.

 

A cave with a pool of molten lava appeared in her mirror. Naraku observed with giddy delight at the bubbling and shifting contents. He opened his mouth to approve but stopped as the lava suddenly burst up from the pool, out of a hole in the cave he had not noticed before, and into the sky.

 

Naraku reconsidered.

 

“I think not,” he decided. The Shikon no Tama was no doubt strong enough to withstand the volcano's eruptions, but Naraku did not cherish the thought of going into it to retrieve the jewel. His hair could get singed, for one thing.

 

The reflection of Kanna's mirror swirled once more and an image of a shadowed room came into focus. A white, luminescent figure stood with its back to Naraku. Beyond the white figure lay a rather dashing male figure with wondrous hair sprawling on a cushion…

 

Naraku narrowed his eyes and watched his mirror counterpart do the same thing.

 

“Kanna,” he hissed through his teeth. “That's where we are now.”

 

Kanna glanced down. “Ah,” she commented placidly.

 

“I need a safe and secure location, Kanna!” Naraku snarled impatiently. Really, what had the world come to? Here he was worrying for a change and his underling can't even find a place to store the all-powerful Shikon no Tama? “That's all I ask for! Now hurry up and do as I command!”

 

“All right, I'm untangling as fast as I can,” Kagura snapped, fingers twiddling through his hair.

 

“I wasn't addressing you, Kagura, but you should hurry too.”

 

Kanna's mirror blurred for a moment. Bit by bit, a new location began to form. A room full of gold and silver things on shelves upon shelves appeared. In the middle of the location lay a huge black thing standing on three legs upon a grand and foreign looking carpet. The lid of the black thing was propped up, revealing rows of thin, metallic strings.

 

Naraku had no idea what this strange contraption was, and he took it as a good sign.

 

“Hm…” he mumbled, stroking his chin as Kagura's fingernails raked through his hair.

 

Kanna looked up directly at him and Naraku looked back and smiled.

 

---

 

Somewhere one alternate universe away…

 

The triplets without a doubt could always count on the villa of their uncle Inuyasha to provide them with endless fun and entertainment. Whether it was through harassing their uncle's employees, exploiting the swimming pool, or exploding something in the kitchen, Jiro, Hiko, and Mo always thoroughly enjoyed their stay.

 

Currently, the triplets had just rediscovered the highly acclaimed Classic room of the villa. Or, more specifically, they rediscovered the grand piano.

 

“Okay,” Hiko announced to his brothers as they stood in their positions around the piano, hands raised in anticipation. “One… two… oh what the hell. Go!”

 

Outside, sitting on a lounge chair next to the pool, Inuyasha paused in his long and detailed explanation to his personal stylist and significant other, Kagome, of why he wore the “wrong” colors to an awards ceremony and lifted his head, flicking one of his ears as the air around them trembled. He frowned suspiciously.

 

“Did you just hear that?” he questioned Kagome.

 

Kagome gave him a strange look. “What?”

 

Inuyasha then remembered Kagome's lack of youkai enhanced hearing and shrugged. “Nevermind. Sesshoumaru's kids are here so…”

 

Kagome nodded in understanding. “Now, why was it that you wore those colors when I explicitly told you not to, again?”

 

Back in the classic room, the triplets calmly waited for the booming and twanging of their current experiment with the piano to die away. When the sounds of the booming and twanging failed to disappear, they shrugged.

 

“Maybe I held the sustain pedal for too long?” Mo suggested.

 

“No. Your foot's still on it,” Jiro pointed out.

 

Hiko stuck his head underneath the opened piano lid and looked around eagerly.

 

“Hey! There's something shiny in here!”

 

Crowding around Hiko, after a moment of jostling for personal space, Mo and Jiro joined their brother.

 

“Wow. It's really shiny,” Jiro remarked.

 

Nestled in the deeper regions of the piano lay a glistening, almost blinding white, almost complete sphere. The triplets gazed, mesmerized at the way light reflected off its surface and bounced across the confines of the inside of the piano.

 

“It's really shiny,” Jiro said again, eyes squinting into slits.

 

“I wonder what it feels like,” Hiko murmured, hand reaching uncharacteristically slowly toward the sphere. A claw just barely nudged the stone-like surface of the sphere when a long pink cord dripping with oozing liquid snapped in front and snatched it away.

 

“Hey!” Hiko shouted indignantly. He shoved at Mo. “I wanted to touch it first!”

 

“Why are you yelling at me? Jiro took it!”

 

“No I didn't!”

 

“Did too!”

 

“It'sss mine!”

 

Momentarily distracted, the triplets looked at each other.

 

“Who just said that?” wondered Mo.

 

As one, they turned around to the direction of the voice.

 

Amidst fallen trophies and awards, an immense black snake youkai thrust halfway through the window fondled the shining sphere with its pink, oozing tongue. It spasmed against the windowsill, moaning in ecstasy as the sphere glowed more than ever.

 

“It isss finally mine!” it droned. “The Ssshikon no Tama isss finally mine!”

 

“I told you I didn't take it,” Jiro snapped.

 

Unaware of the three dog youkai, the snake reared up its head as the shimmering of the sphere bled into its body. The flesh beneath its scales began to bubble as it started to grow bigger and bigger, becoming more and more deformed and gruesome as the seconds passed. As the snake arched its head against the spasms, mouth hanging open, its tongue loosened and its throat closed over the sphere.

 

The triplets stared in horror and disgust at the snake's gaping mouth.

 

“Ew,” commented Mo, speaking for his brothers.

 

“Ahhhhh,” the snake moaned. “That felt ssso good!”

 

With that declaration, it popped out of the window and disappeared from view.

 

Without hesitation, the triplets leaped through the window and dashed after the snake as it thrashed in its apparent happiness along the grounds of the villa.

 

Meanwhile, in another part of the villa, Miroku glanced away from the security monitors to look at Sango.

 

“Did you just see a giant, flailing, gross looking snake youkai crash into the gate around the swimming pool?” he questioned.

 

Sango looked up from her currently airing soap opera. “No. Why?”

 

“Just checking,” Miroku said and joined Sango in watching the soap opera.

 

About ten seconds later, Inuyasha by the poolside blinked and commented, “Something smells funny,” and looked up just in time to see the black, deformed snake arch back its front length and plummet down towards the open pool. The snake seemed to catch itself before it reached the water when three fuzzy, triplet-shaped blurs crashed into it. The snake turned its head around to the triplets in surprise but quickly regained its senses. It unlocked its jaws open and issued a blinding white light from within. The triplets ducked and the snake hit its tail as the world exploded into blinding light.

 

Inuyasha blinked again and noted the tranquility of the pool water.

 

“Did you just see that?” he asked Kagome.

 

“See what?”

 

“Nevermind. It's nothing,” he said, waving his hand dismissively. “I've just been imagining big slimy looking snakes and triplets and all.” Inuyasha then grinned and began moving his hand closer to Kagome. “Now where were we?” he asked.

 

---

 

Somewhere one canon universe away…

 

Deep in a forest some time during the Warring States era of Japan, a tree was being physically abused by a red clad, white-haired hanyou.

 

“We were so fucking close to getting those shards,” Inuyasha moaned as he furiously clawed at the bark of the unfortunate tree. “So… fucking… close…”

 

“I didn't even know it was possible for Naraku to fart,” Sango remarked as she and her companions sat on the grass next to a pile of what was formerly a tree, now a victim of Inuyasha's claws, and watched his progress on the next one. “Forgive me, Kagome-chan, but I'm extremely glad that I was not in your position.”

 

Kagome suddenly found herself shuddering and rubbed her arms, feeling goose bumps. “It was terrible,” she said for the tenth time that day. “And it smelled.”

 

“Even Inuyasha doesn't blame you for backing off,” Shippou noted from atop her shoulder.

 

As she observed Inuyasha in his slashing and swearing, Kagome was not sure that she agreed.

 

“At least we won't be out of firewood for… a long time. A really long time,” Miroku remarked optimistically.

 

With that, he stretched out his arms in a time honored method of bringing his hands closer to Sango, when Kagome suddenly started, knocking Shippou conveniently into her arms.

 

“Shards,” she announced. “And a lot of them too.”

 

No one was surprised when Inuyasha suddenly materialized in front of Kagome. “It's Naraku isn't it? What direction is he coming in?” he demanded, placing a hand on the handle of the Tetsusaiga.

 

Kagome frowned in confusion. “I don't know. It doesn't feel like Naraku, but it feels like the same amount of shards that he had.” She stood up and looked around the forest, frown deepening. “I can't even tell what direction it's coming from. All I can tell is that it's coming closer. But…”

 

Inuyasha growled impatiently and snapped, “But what?”

 

“It doesn't feel like it's a part of this world. It doesn't even seem to be in this world,” Kagome answered, eyebrows furrowing.

 

Inuyasha glared in confusion and opened his mouth to ask how the hell she would know a thing like that—

 

—A flash of blinding light accompanied with a boom that shook leaves from the forest trees and sent ripples into the air, streaming across sky and knocking screaming birds down from flight and inducing wolves to howl into the sun as if the night would never come.

 

A crack in the air, forcing itself open from the void within, opening to unleash what would surely be a wondrous and horrific sight—

 

Inuyasha closed his mouth and watched as a towering, gruesome snake youkai shedding scales and dried blood exploded out of the crack in the air, twisting and writhing as it sailed toward the ground. He wondered if the rather whiny cries of “give it back!” and “Stupid worm!” and “Return the shininess!” were real or just a part of his imagination. Eventually, the snake crashed into the trees, causing much snapping, screeching, and further tree mutilation. The crack disappeared, leaving behind a blue, open sky so calm that it seemed nothing had happened.

 

Jumping in front of Kagome (and Shippou, but he doesn't count) and shielding her from the bits of dried snake skin flying through the air, Inuyasha realized in horror that the snake was actually glowing with a light he was well acquainted with.

 

“It has the shards doesn't it?” he shouted to Kagome above the roar of the snake youkai.

 

“Yes, but I think it swallowed it,” Kagome screamed back. “I don't think he's swallowed it completely though because I feel shards around the throat area.”

 

“Perfect!” Inuyasha screeched gleefully. So, all he had to do was place one well-placed slash across the snake's throat and he'd have the shards. Simple! Considering many other youkai he'd had to cut down in the past, this would be a piece of cake.

 

As he turned around to face it, Inuyasha then realized the downside of having to slit a snake's throat: snakes had no apparent body appendages, and he did not know where the throat ended and torso began, thus having no idea where to exercise his excellent swordsmanship on the snake.

 

“Shi—!” Inuyasha started to say when the snake suddenly lashed out its immense tail. He whipped out the Tetsusaiga and sliced a good chunk of the approaching tail off. To his chagrin, flesh merely regenerated over the bloody tail stump.

 

Inuyasha growled in frustration. Cutting off youkai limbs was supposed to stop them, but somehow they always seemed to grow back. Why didn't it ever work?

 

Behind him, Sango threw her Hiraikotsu, aiming for the snake's head. But the snake merely swung its head and neatly knocked it from the air. But the strange thing, Inuyasha noticed, was that it didn't seem to have anticipated the boomerang; it appeared that the snake had knocked it down on accident.

 

It occurred to Inuyasha that the snake hadn't even noticed them. In fact, all it seemed to be doing was thrashing around in the trees, its tail occasionally moving past them, and moaning things like “it… burnsss… ssso… good.”

 

Inuyasha couldn't have that. He didn't like it when opponents ignored him.

“No,” he snapped, putting a hand in front of Miroku, who had started to unwrap the prayer beads around his hand. “Let me do it.”

 

Miroku shrugged and began to redo the beads. “Suit yourself.”

 

Inuyasha ignored him and motioned for his companions to stand back. Taking a running start, he leaped off the ground, soaring higher, and higher, and higher until he reached eye level with the snake, which still didn't seem to notice him. Frustrated, Inuyasha lifted up the Tetsusaiga and prepared himself.

 

“KAZE NO KI—”

 

“Inuyasha, stop! Don't do it!” someone shouted, someone feminine, whiny, and Kagome-sounding.

 

Jolted, Inuyasha paused in mid-swing and his momentum continued his body upward until he was several yards above the snake's head. “What the fuck is it?!” he snarled over his shoulder. “I'm busy here!”

 

“You'll hit the kids!” Kagome screamed to him.

 

“What fucking kids?!”

 

But when Inuyasha turned back to the snake, he looked down and his eyes bulged in shock at the three sets of arms and legs clutching the backside of the snake. Wondering how the hell Kagome could see them from the ground, he squinted closely and saw that these appendages were indeed small and child-sized. He could even see their heads peeking around the snake's body, gold eyes wide and white ears pricked up and alert.

 

…White ears?

 

But Inuyasha didn't have time to ponder this as the snake (finally!) noticed him. Grinning, Inuyasha heaved up the Tetsusaiga, but then he remembered the three kids currently attached to the snake and made a decision. He couldn't blame them for staying there and intruding, not really. It was a long way down. But still, one had to make sacrifices.

 

“Get out of the fucking way!” he screeched to the three kids as the snake fixed his gaze on him. “Just let go and I'll catch you when I'm done with this asshole!”

 

The three identical faces looked around at him and Inuyasha stared at the crescent moon markings on their faces and felt his blood beginning to crawl under his skin.

 

“Hey! Uncle Inuyasha!” one of them called. “How come you're still floating in the air? Shouldn't you have fallen yet?”

 

“Gravity you know,” the kid hanging below him added.

 

“Don't know what grah-vih-tee is. And no! I'm good at staying in the…” Inuyasha trailed off, horrified. “What did you just call me?!” he hissed.

 

Unfortunately, the snake decided that his moment was the right time to attack him, swiveling its tongue in his direction. So Inuyasha was forced to leap away using the snake's head as a springboard.

 

“Fuck it all!” Inuyasha howled disdainfully. “Would you three just fucking let go?! You're in my way. Again, I'll catch you. And I'll make sure you don't die!” he added, just for good measure.

 

One of the kids tried to shout something but then the snake lunged at him again. Inuyasha slashed at it but found that the kids prevented him from creating any serious damage.

 

“You can do it, Uncle Inuyasha!” the first kid called out. “You've taken out stronger people before!”

 

For the second time that day, Inuyasha froze with his sword lifted above his head. This time he was not so lucky. The snake rapidly slung his head downward toward the trees, out of range of the Tetsusaiga, effectively forcing the kids to lose their grips on the snake and slip off its back.

 

Inuyasha knew that now was the perfect time to cut down the fucking snake while he had it in a weak position. If it weren't for the conscience that some certain female human had induced on him, he would have done so and all would have been well along with an additional load of shards. But as it was, he hurriedly sheathed the Tetsusaiga and growled at the sight of the three gold-eyed, white-eared children plummeting to earth and kicked off the snake's body, dropping to their level, scooping all three into his arms and landing lightly onto the ground.

 

He let go of the kids and they tumbled onto the grass. Looking around, he shouted out a few choice phrases that they probably shouldn't have heard as the snake youkai writhed and thrashed among trees, quickly reaching a great distance away from them.

 

When he had calmed down enough to stop swearing, his human companions had already found them. Kagome had already even begun to fuss.

 

“Are you three all right? You must be so frightened!” Kagome said in an annoyingly cooing voice as she sat them up and dusted off their clothes.

 

“Not really. It was kind of entertaining. Why are you so worried Kagome?” one of them said.

 

Kagome's mouth opened slightly. “How do you know my name?”

 

“How can we not?”

 

Inuyasha looked down at the scene before him, his gaze fixing on the three faces, identical save for the purple markings of crescents and stripes.

 

“You called me `uncle' when we were up there,” he brusquely broke in.

 

The triplets paused briefly in their detailed explanation to Kagome and Sango of their great terror and enjoyment of riding on the snake youkai to Miroku's great amusement and addressed Inuyasha.

 

“Yes I did,” one of them said.

 

“Are you sure about that?” Inuyasha wondered aloud. “Because if you really did, assuming that you didn't just call me that to distract me, and assuming that you're all not just a bunch of mischievous annoying brats, because I'm very familiar with that type—”

 

“Hey!” Shippou protested, kicking Inuyasha's ankles for revenge.

 

“—oof. Shippou! So, that would mean that I am related to you, and the only way I'd be related to you would be if my half-brother, half-brother you understand, had given birth to offspring. My half-brother, Sesshoumaru, having kids. Think of that. Ha. Ha.” Inuyasha stopped to chuckle some more. “Ahem. So if this is all true, then that would mean that Sesshoumaru, the bastard, actually did have kids. And that's virtually impossible, so therefore you are all liars. You all even smell a little bit like Sesshoumaru, so my nose must be lying to me as well.”

 

Inuyasha nodded for a more conclusive effect.

 

“But we're not liars, and your nose can't lie to you,” said the same triplet, or maybe the one next to him. Inuyasha couldn't really tell.

 

“We are Sesshoumaru's kids,” another confirmed.

 

Inuyasha eyed them warily. “You're still lying,” he told them.

 

“We have a little sister too,” one of them said.

 

Inuyasha's eyes began to develop a peculiar twitch. “Lying is bad,” he stated.

 

The triplets shook their heads.

 

“Denial,” they said as one.

 

Inuyasha's eye twitch would not stop. He looked away hoping it would.

 

---

 

Back in the darkness…

 

Naraku stared into Kanna's mirror. Then he stared some more because it seemed like a good thing to do although it didn't make anything better. He noted the clear absence of his collected shards of the Shikon no Tama, shards he had made so many minions sacrifice for, in the black contraption with metallic strings that he found so secure and safe. As he stared, he noted this absence again and again until he could stand it no more.

 

Outside the master's room, servants passing through heard a soft, but plaintive whisper:

 

“…Shit…”

 

---

 

Back in the canon universe

 

“So,” Miroku remarked.

 

At the moment they sat in a circle. Kagome had insisted that they sit this way so that everyone was facing everyone else and everyone could hear what the triplets had to say.

 

“You three, Hiko, Mo, and Shiro—” Miroku began.

 

“Jiro,” one of the triplets corrected.

 

“…Jiro then, my apologies. You three apparently come from a place similar to Kagome-sama's world, if your clothes are any indication, where you know Inuyasha as a `celebrity' and Kagome as his— ah, what was the phrase— `personal stylist'.”

 

Miroku paused to raise an ambiguous eyebrow at Kagome.

 

“What?” Kagome asked after a moment.

 

“Nothing,” he replied innocently. “I just thought that the phrase `personal stylist' had a very nice… ring to it.”

 

Sango soundly bopped his head. “You were thinking dirty thoughts again, weren't you?”

 

“Of course not,” Miroku said. “So, I am a `publicist' and Sango…” He paused again. “You didn't say what Sango does.”

 

“Because we're not exactly sure,” the triplet they had all tacitly agreed was Hiro said. “All she does is run around with a clipboard and watches soaps in the security room.”

 

Sango looked puzzled. “Soap? Why would one want to watch soap?” she wondered.

 

“Never mind Sango-chan,” Kagome said soothingly.

 

“And that is why you know all of our names,” Miroku concluded. “Except Shippou, who apparently is not in your uncle's `staff'.”

 

“Nope,” said the one they thought was Mo.

 

“Hm. Very strange,” Miroku remarked. “It's like you're from an alternate world. I've heard of those theories.”

 

“You have?” Sango asked.

 

“Indeed.”

 

“They're all full dog youkai too,” Inuyasha muttered. “And I thought Sesshoumaru was using Jaken to satisfy his—”

 

“Inuyasha! Sit!” Kagome snapped.

 

“Shit!”

 

The triplets observed as Inuyasha toppled frontward onto the ground, forming a shallow contour of his body in the dirt.

 

“What was that for?!” Inuyasha shouted into the ground.

 

Kagome seemed to be unconcerned for the hanyou's welfare. “You were going to say something dirty in front of Shippou and the boys,” she replied.

 

“Was not!”

 

“The Kagome we know couldn't do that,” Hiko said, moving to peer down at Inuyasha's twitching body. “She usually just yelled at him. Could you do that again?”

 

“You better not bitch,” Inuyasha snarled, raising his head off the ground.

 

This time, the triplets laughed when Inuyasha's head slammed back down.

 

“That's so cool!” Jiro, probably, exclaimed in awe.

 

“It is,” Shippou agreed, although he was unsure about the meaning of “cool,” but he could guess.

 

Inuyasha, with much effort and puffing, raised a claw up and pointed in what he thought was their direction. “Don't you dare start talking about me. I can hear you!”

 

Shippou and the triplets sniffed plaintively at him. They sniggered together.

 

“Aw,” Kagome cooed. “Shippou's made new friends! Isn't that wonderful, Inuyasha?”

 

Inuyasha opened his mouth to reply, and then realized that it probably wouldn't be a good idea. Instead, he decided to change the subject.

 

“What are we going to do about that snake?” he growled, throwing a rock at Miroku's head to take his attention away from Sango's… well, from Sango. “That snake has a lot of shards, and no thanks to them, we let it get away.”

 

“It was not their fault and you let them get away,” Kagome protested.

 

Ignoring her, Inuyasha continued, “So I say we should go and… fuck, why does it smell like—”

 

“Why are you changing the subject?” Miroku interrupted.

 

“It smells like Sesshoumaru is coming here,” Inuyasha hissed, placing a claw on the Tetsusaiga.

 

“Weird Other Dad's coming? Cool!”

 

“I don't know about that,” Shippou said. “The last time we saw him he tried to kill Inuyasha. Again.”

 

Hiko shrugged. “Our dad practically tries to kill us all the time. It's not unusual.”

 

“Well…” Shippou said uncertainly.

 

Sure enough, from a distance, they began to see the bright shape of Sesshoumaru, Lord of the Western Lands, approaching toward them with his hair flowing behind him, followed by a short green walking thing that pulled a two headed dragon behind it.

 

The triplets stared at him, suddenly still, eyes enlarging the closer the Sesshoumaru came.

 

“He's so… different…” one of them murmured. “He actually looks kind of… scary.”

 

He looked back at his brothers.

 

“Not really,” he said, changing his mind.

 

“He has hair that looks girlier than our dad's,” another commented.

 

“But the armor is a nice touch.”

 

“And that green thing looks almost like Jaken. He's short. It'll be easier to throw him in the bushes.”

 

“But what's that furry thing on Other Dad's shoulder?”

 

Watching them lean forward to squint at the ever nearing Sesshoumaru, Miroku wondered, “Do you think they were telling the truth?”

 

Sango shrugged. “They're just kids after all.”

 

“Such imagination,” Miroku pondered. “Although it is quite strange that they knew our names, and their foreign clothes… it is impossible that they are from our time. It's all too coincidental to just be a child's story.”

 

By this time, Sesshoumaru had already reached them and he stood there, vaguely glaring at them all. His eyes reached the triplets and hovered there.

 

“I'd better make sure Inuyasha doesn't try to kill his brother,” Miroku said breezily and walked forward to intercept Inuyasha, who had already stalked forward to challenge Sesshoumaru.

 

“What the fuck are you doing here Sesshoumaru?” Inuyasha snarled, making sure to spit out his name.

 

Sesshoumaru didn't even look at him. He seemed to roll his eyes without actually rolling them and walked past Inuyasha, whom Miroku grabbed by the sleeve to keep him from following, until he was in front of the triplets. He looked down at them and sniffed.

 

“This Sesshoumaru felt an immense amount of energy come into this world,” he announced to the air in front of his face. “And then this Sesshoumaru felt three new sources of youki form out of nothing. His vassal Jaken thought it was nothing of importance, but then Jaken is very foolish.”

 

“So foolish Sesshoumaru-sama!” Jaken agreed.

 

Sesshoumaru ignored him and continued to eye the triplets. “It certainly interested this Sesshoumaru when realized that this new youki came from dog youkai…”

 

The triplets cocked their heads to the side. Kagome gasped, clutching her hands to her chest in anxiety as Sango patted her comfortingly on the back.

 

“Why do you keep referring to yourself as `this Sesshoumaru?' It's so weird and uncool,” Hiko commented, wholly nonplussed by Sesshoumaru's demeanor.

 

Sesshoumaru stared and blinked slowly.

 

“What's that fluffy thing on your shoulder?” Jiro asked politely.

 

Sesshoumaru blinked again. “Fluffy thing…” he repeated.

 

“Yeah,” Jiro said, nodding. He stepped toward Sesshoumaru and scrutinized the pelt across his shoulder closely. “Can I touch it?” Without waiting for a response, he stuck out a hand and began to finger it. “Hey, check it out!” he called over his shoulder. “It's really soft.”

 

“No don't!” Jaken called out, flailing out his arms, but it was too late.

 

Sesshoumaru stayed eerily still as the triplets descended on him.

 

Even Inuyasha had to hand it to him. The one he thought was Mo began to push at one who was probably Jiro, and somehow the end of Sesshoumaru's pelt got caught between them, obscuring their view of each other which became a problem whenever they aimed punches, consequently giving Sesshoumaru a few blows from time to time. Hiko, most likely, had somehow climbed atop Sesshoumaru's shoulders and had slung an arm around his neck for leverage. He hung over Sesshoumaru's back, covered with his hair, and he peered at the fluff in front of his face, stroking the fur. How Sesshoumaru could stand the extra weight was a mystery.

 

When Jiro and Mo started swinging on his pelt across the ground, Sesshoumaru seemed to heave a sigh, without actually doing it of course.

 

“If you children do not cease intruding on this Sesshoumaru's person, this Sesshoumaru will be forced to hurt you,” he growled, slightly baring a fang.

 

“No, you won't,” Hiko said.

 

“Indeed?” Sesshoumaru wondered, slowly uncurling a talon.

 

“You're our dad, you'd never hurt us,” he replied.

 

Sesshoumaru's talon froze in action. “This Sesshoumaru is not your father,” he said slowly.

 

“Yes you are. Well, the Sesshoumaru in our world is our dad,” Mo corrected.

 

If Sesshoumaru were any other person, Miroku would have sworn that a look of terror had entered his eyes. As it was, Sesshoumaru only looked less vague than usual.

 

“We inherited your markings,” Mo added.

 

Sesshoumaru's eyes swiveled sideways, talon still frozen. He could not seem to move out of that position.

 

Miroku decided that Inuyasha was calm enough to function rationally and let go of his sleeve.

 

“Heh. I think I like those little brats,” Inuyasha remarked, nodding proudly as Hiko flipped off Sesshoumaru's shoulder and used the pelt to catch himself, although it didn't stop him from slamming into his brothers' heads. Somehow, Sesshoumaru managed to stay deathly still.

 

“I wonder why he hasn't killed them yet,” Miroku said.

 

“He caught a good look at their facial markings. He knows they're not lying,” Inuyasha responded.

 

Sesshoumaru lowered his talon and visibly took a deep breath. Nobody was exactly sure what happened the next moment. The only visible parts they could see were the triplets playing with the fluffy pelt at one point, and then somehow ending up two yards away, faces on the ground.

 

“That kind of hurt,” one of them admitted.

 

Sesshoumaru glared at them and then turned the glare onto Inuyasha.

 

“What?” Inuyasha snapped.

 

His brother said nothing. He shook his head, or at least his head moved ever so slightly.

 

“Perhaps your miko will feel that a youkai with a rather large amount of youki is now currently heading our way,” Sesshoumaru said, with a bored tone that seemed rather forced.

 

“You mean the snake?” Jiro asked.

 

Sesshoumaru pointedly ignored him. He took a small step backwards. And then he swiftly turned on a heel and walked away with a frighteningly great speed, leaving Jaken only a second to give them a haughty look before scrambling after Sesshoumaru, dragging the two-headed dragon after him.

 

Kagome looked around. “He's right. I can feel… shards! A lot of shards are coming this way!”

 

“Why didn't you notice it before Sesshoumaru pointed it out for us?!” Inuyasha snapped, rounding on her.

 

“Sit!” Standing over the fallen Inuyasha, hands on her hips, Kagome calmly explained, “We were all quite distracted for the last few minutes. I will add that you yourself didn't notice anything either.”

 

“Shut up.”

 

Sounds of thrashing and uprooted trees toppling over became louder and louder until they could all plainly see the snake youkai approaching in the distance.

 

By now, Inuyasha felt pissed off more than usual. First, he had been so amused by the sight of the triplets hanging off Sesshoumaru that he had forgotten to take a swing or two at his brother. Second, he was now lying face down in the dirt. That certainly never failed to sour his mood.

 

There was another ambiguous moment. Inuyasha wrenched himself off the ground just as the snake crashed into the trees near them. He distinctly remembered pulling out the Tetsusaiga and swinging it vaguely in the snake's direction. He probably hit the snake because the next moment Kagome was reaching into the snake's gapping mouth, although he didn't remember seeing the snake fall. In any case, when she took her arm out, Kagome held an almost complete sphere of the Shikon no Tama, causing the snake to dwindle and twist until it was nearly a fourth of the size it had previously been.

 

Inuyasha stared as Kagome walked toward him, smiling in the glow of the Shikon no Tama. He stared at the near complete jewel itself in its glistening beauty as the sunlight twinkled through and lit up Kagome's fingers. Sango and Miroku with Shippou on his shoulder gathered around and together they gazed.

 

“It's beautiful isn't it?” Kagome said, beaming.

 

“We did it,” Sango muttered. “We really did it.”

 

“We're almost done,” Miroku gasped.

 

Inuyasha didn't say anything. He only stared some more.

 

“Well,” Kagome said happily. “I'll just put this away for safe keeping for the time be—”

 

“Look! It's the shiny crystal thing!”

 

“—ing,” Kagome finished before a triplet snatched the Shikon no Tama from her palm. “Hey! Be careful with that! It's a pretty powerful thing you know!”

 

Hiko tossed up the ball of shards casually. “This is really pretty,” he commented. “I could look at this for days…”

 

“Hey! Let me have a go!” Mo demanded.

 

“No! It's my turn!”

 

“But I'm not done with my turn yet!”

 

“Fucking give back the Shikon no Tama!” Inuyasha snarled, lunging forward.

 

“But it's still my turn! Give it here!”

 

Mo, most likely, made a grab for the shards, knocking it off Hiko's hand. It fell slowly to the ground, but luckily Jiro managed to flip it back up into the air. By this time, the triplets had started to squabble over who would catch it first and they all watched in horror as the Shikon no Tama flew up and down.

 

“Just let me get it!” Inuyasha screeched in anxiety, trying to get a hand. He watched in horror as the triplets all grabbed at the jewel simultaneously, talons puncturing it surface and cracking it in a thousand different places. Inuyasha dropped his hand as the shards tumbled to the grass and was snatched up by the wind, which carried them away up into the sky.

 

They all stared at the glinting fragments dotting the sky until they disappeared.

 

Something nudged Sango in the back and she whirled around and sighed in relief at the sight of Kirara's worried expression.

 

“Oh, nothing's wrong, Kirara,” Sango said, patting her back. “We just came really close to achieving our goal and then failed miserably through no fault of our own. It was the second time today.”

 

Miroku snapped out of his daze. “Would you like me to comfort you, Sango-san?” he offered politely, holding his arms out.

 

“No thank you, houshi-sama.”

 

Inuyasha began to crack his knuckles.

 

“Do you know how long we've been striving to get that thing you just shattered?” he asked them, flexing his arm.

 

The triplets shuffled back and looked desperately at Kagome, who, face caught in a shocked expression of woe, did not look at them back.

 

“It was an… accident?” one suggested.

 

There was a loud noise as Inuyasha made a fist.

 

“An accident?! A fucking accident?! Is that it? Do you break things all the time in your world?!”

 

Fuming, Inuyasha swung back his fist.

 

“You deserve this,” he snarled and began to punch forward.

 

“Do you feel something tingly?” Mo asked.

 

“Yeah. My hands suddenly look shiny too,” Jiro observed.

 

When Inuyasha's hand was halfway across the distance between them, a crack unfurled in the air beyond, revealing again the terrible and shining void as something invisible and great snatched the triplets off the ground and away from the approaching fist. The triplets disappeared and the crack closed around them and Inuyasha's fist met cold air.

 

Inuyasha let his momentum carry him forward until he hit the ground. Kagome shook herself and knelt down next to Inuyasha and patted his back.

 

“We'll just keep going like we did before,” she reassured him. “Just like before.”

 

Inuyasha started twitching.

 

Looking around at her companions, Kagome asked, “what do you think just happened? Where did they go?”

 

Miroku shook his head. “Best not to think about it. I say we pretend nothing happened. We're not any worse off than we were before.”

 

“What about Inuyasha?”

 

Miroku looked down at him. “He'll be all right,” he said. Then he thought for a moment and added, “Maybe.”

 

With that, they all sat down and waited for Inuyasha to calm down.

 

 

---

 

And back in the alternate universe…

 

“It's been kind of quiet, don't you think?” Kagome noted as she spread suntan lotion on her arms.

 

Inuyasha caught her hands and began to spread the lotion for her. “Not really. Why?”

 

“Well, it's not any quieter than it usually is, but Sesshoumaru's kids are here, and it seems like it should be a little louder than usual.”

 

“Maybe.”

 

“I can't even hear Souta bothering the staff,” Kagome fretted. “Something's wrong here. Are the triplets even still in the villa compound?”

 

Inuyasha opened his mouth to tell her not to worry when there was a crash from behind.

 

They turned around and watched as the triplets sat up from the ground, rubbing their heads.

 

“I think his punch followed us through,” Jiro said. “That hurt.”

 

“Well, we probably deserve it…” Mo started to say. And then he thought for a second. “Nah.”

 

Kagome looked suspiciously at them. “What have you three been up to?”

 

Surprised, the triplets looked up and suddenly pointed at them.

 

“We were in this really weird place!” Hiko began, hopping up to his feet.

 

“A really gross looking snake brought us there and he swallowed a really shiny jewel thing!” Mo continued.

 

“We saw you there in that really weird place, and you as well,” Jiro exclaimed, running forward to point at Kagome and Inuyasha's noses alternately.

 

Staring at his nephew's outstretched finger, Inuyasha said slowly, “Very… interesting.”

 

Jiro snatched his finger away and the triplets ran into the villa. Inuyasha shrugged and returned to rubbing Kagome's arm.

 

Sango and Miroku had just gotten to the really heated moment of the soap opera when the triplets barged in. Quickly turning off that particular monitor, they swung around with prepared and rehearsed excuses and relaxed once they realized that Kikyou hadn't come in.

 

“And we saw you and you there,” Hiko announced, pointing at the spot in between their eyes. “Not you though,” he added, gesturing at a random employee hurriedly running out of the security room.

 

“…How fascinating,” Miroku commented, deciding not to think about what he meant. “You don't need a babysitter do you?”

 

“Nope.”

 

“Very good,” Miroku said, nodding. “Carry on then.”

 

The triplets saluted merrily and looked into the monitors.

 

“Is Dad back yet?” Mo asked.

 

Miroku eyed him suspiciously. “Why do you ask?”

 

“We wanted to get a look at his hair,” Hiko responded. “Hey!” He pointed at a screen. “He's coming!”

 

“Why don't you go and meet him then?” Miroku suggested eagerly. But by the time he had finished his sentence, the triplets had already left the room.

 

“Weird,” Sango remarked. “I never knew they were so interested in hair.” She turned on a monitor and they settled back into the soap.

 

Meanwhile, the triplets, having intercepted their father at the door, peered at Sesshoumaru closely.

 

“Your hair isn't as long as the other one's,” Jiro observed.

 

Sesshoumaru stared down at his sons, who had started to finger his hair.

 

“I… see…” he said slowly.

 

“But it's still really shiny though,” Mo remarked. “Really, really shiny.”

 

Vaguely aware that he had just received a comment about his hair, though whether it was an insult or compliment was not certain, Sesshoumaru blinked heavily.

 

“Indeed,” he agreed. “And have you boys caused any trouble for your uncle today?”

 

“Oh yes,” Hiko replied quickly. Then he frowned in thought. “Well, sort of. More than usual in a way.”

 

“…Indeed,” Sesshoumaru said again. He sighed. “Retrieve your sister at once. We must go home.”

 

“But you only brought us here, Dad,” Mo said.

 

Sesshoumaru glared at him. “Then let us go home immediately.”

 

“Don't you want to say hi to Uncle Inuyasha?”

 

“No,” Sesshoumaru answered shortly. He turned around and walked to his car, pulling his sons behind him.

 

“We saw you there, too,” one of the triplets quipped.

 

Sesshoumaru stopped and looked down. “Where?” he asked.

 

Hiko grinned. “An alternate world where you were there, and every time Kagome said `sit' Inuyasha would fall to the ground, and this fox kid with a really bushy tail…”

 

Sesshoumaru sighed and continued on.

 

“…Maybe we can go back if we find something shiny!” Hiko exclaimed.

 

“I hope not,” Sesshoumaru said, and when he reached the car, he opened the door and threw his sons into the back seat. “Now put on your seatbelts and shut up.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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