InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Spring Fever ❯ Too Much Information ( Chapter 7 )

Chapter 7

 

Too Much Information

 

The sun had been set for over an hour now, the shadowy demon lingering on the outskirts of the shrine, and Sesshomaru found himself pondering the fascinations of technology. If he was not peering over the boy's head at the moving image box, then he watched the miko and her mother open a cold door for preserved food and run water and fire summoning systems. It was fascinating. He didn't mind being dragged there for the time being, everything was way too mind captivating; save for the cat. The feline, who was hiding somewhere, made his nose itch.

 

The miko made an unexpected giggle, and Sesshomaru spared her a look from looking at himself in an interesting reflection.

 

“That's called a microwave,” she informed, using an oddly shaped metal blade with a hole in the middle to slice the surface off a carrot. It wasn't nearly as interesting as the utensil which slit open a metal container to reveal food though; not even his sense of smell could find it in there.

 

“These are all…” he began, looking for the right word. “Odd.”

 

“They get the job done,” she stated.

 

He didn't like the gleam in her eye nor the plastered smirk on her face, but the remarkably fixated item to the cold door caught his eye. It gave a little resistance when he pulled it off, then suctioned quickly back to the surface when it got near again. Many weapons and ideas blossomed into his head at this. Something could move without manual force to initiate it?

 

“And those are magnets.”

 

“Hm,” he replied, putting the dull looking material between two nails and pinching. It crumbled with his ideas. “Very odd.”

 

She looked a little displeased when he let the remains slide back onto the smooth cold door surface. “You just had to put it back on the fridge…”

 

Fridge. Short for frigged. That was simple enough.

 

“It's so great to have company,” the mother commented. “Kagome, you can show him around if you want. I have dinner under control.”

 

“Oh! Oh! I want to!” the boy wildly exclaimed from the three person padded throne he sat upon.

 

“Now, now, Sota,” tut the mother. “This is Kagome's guest, let her.”

 

“Aw man!” the boy huffed, turning back to the moving box.

 

The miko let out a sigh, dread weighing it down ever so slightly, and she addressed him. “How would you like to start then?”

 

“Explain this,” he ordered, gesturing vaguely to the surroundings.

 

She crossed her arms. “Be more specific.”

 

“Do what you're told,” he replied.

 

“No,” she retorted. “Because I can't really. It's all too complicated. I can get you some books on it though.”

 

“Oh!” exclaimed the boy again. He abruptly turned back around and addressed the miko in tongues. He said `can he only speak Japanese,' and it sounded like a question, but whatever was being discussed flew by Sesshomaru and impressed him. Two languages? Not one he ever indulged in, but still impressive. Was it even useful for them to know? If so, why? Trade? Politics? His head was spinning, but it was a good sort of spinning. For the first time in centuries he felt the tickle of curiosity.

 

The miko took a glance at him at the question. `Probably,' she worded. `Do you?'

 

He heard the tone of a question being asked, but couldn't reply, so he gave the barest of shrugs.

 

`This is excellent!' the miko cheered. What had he just agreed to?

 

`Kagome, mind your manners,' the mother scolded.

 

`Oh come on! This regal prick deserves to be ignorant just once!'

 

“Regal prick?” the boy asked in Japanese. The miko flinched and Sesshomaru leveled a look at the back of her head, but she refused to turn around.

 

“Found it!” the squat elder of the home reported, walking in with a scroll that was as thick as an arm and as long as one as well. It was an eastern style scroll, Sesshomaru recognized. It remained in a suitable box to be carried in though, and Sesshomaru wondered why. Would it fall apart otherwise? “Gather around everyone! We are going to read the ancient text now which originally dictates the beginnings of the new era!”

 

“Great, an original!” the miko cheered, walking over. “And NOT one of your tales for the ages! Those stories can get so altered!”

 

“They are perfectly fine!” the grandpa defended himself while putting a new layer of material over his hands before handling the wooden ends of the scroll. He slowly untied a deep blue ribbon and held the parchment properly, letting the heavy bottom turn in his palm as his other hand lifted to reveal the writing. The humans stared, and so did Sesshomaru.

 

“What does it say?!” the elder demanded frantically, laying it on the low table and unrolling more in search of another language.

 

Sesshomaru was flabbergasted as he read it.

 

`… Relying on these ancient predictions of the eldest of my tribe, I, former Lord Bashamon of the East, have known victory over the former Lord of the West. My rein has spread across the heart of this country, and shall now be called the Central Domain, and I its Central Lord…'

 

The miko seemed to sense him, because she immediately hopped out of his path as he went to the closest door, grabbed its handle, yanked it sideways with a horrible crack as it became nicely nestled into the wall, and once that was slid open it was only a matter of dealing with that barrier.

 

“MIKO!” he barked. She came running lightly closer, afraid. As well she should be, this news was tragic. The old man gave a cry of fear and over money to fix the wall, the older woman commented on strength and the boy said the unfamiliar phrase of `cool' again, but they were easily ignored.

 

“Yes?” the miko asked in a meek voice. Finally some proper fear, but now wasn't the time.

 

“Lower this barrier immediately,” he demanded with a growl.

 

“AAAH!! You can't do that!” the old man cried frantically. “That precious barrier took CENTURIES to raise!”

 

“Miko!” Sesshomaru demanded. He had to get back to his time and correct what had gone seriously wrong. What happened to his lands? How long was he gone? Not more than an hour, but did the well render time to flow differently? “Now!”

 

“You can't walk through it?” she asked, sounding at a loss.

 

Sesshomaru stuck his fingers through the barrier, and- They didn't burn. The barrier wasn't hurting him. The next instant he found himself yanking open the well shrine door, this one sliding naturally and then flying off the track, and jumping at the well.

 

A shadowy figure appeared on the other side of the well from himself and it was immediately sliced through.

 

“Hehehe,” it chortled at the floor with the voice from before, no cut appearing. Sesshomaru retracted his poison whip and addressed the being with a suspicious stare. “Don't recognize me? Well, that's a shame. We were getting to be such good friends, too!”

 

“Who are you?” Sesshomaru inquired, restraining from fisting his hands. This was a mad demon, but was soul-restrained to something, which had prevented him from being cut.

 

“Why, Lord Sesshomaru!” it chortled, lifting its face enough to begin glimpsing into the nostrils and tilting to the side. Its eyes were red, and its teeth badly taken care of as they peered through its lips in a sneering grin. Although the appearance and the scent were immensely different, Sesshomaru knew the being. “It's your old friend, Bashamon!”

 

Sesshomaru hadn't even gotten within a foot of the being with Tenseiga before he disappeared. He caught himself on the far lip of the well and looked around. He was nowhere to be seen.

 

“Sesshomaru?” came the miko's voice from outside, approaching. He paid no heed and dropped into the timeless abyss. He hit the bottom. Nothing had changed.

 

“Oh!” the miko started, coming to a quick stop when he appeared before her.

 

“Why does the well not work?” he seethed, fists actually shaking at his sides.

 

“What doesn't?” she asked, taking a step back for personal space.

 

“The well!” he replied, getting sick of the general incompetence and confusion of this place. “Its basic function is to change times when one jumps into it, correct?”

 

“Yes,” she replied. “It's... It's not doing that?”

 

He was about ready to drop her in it himself, but she decided to run ahead and save him the trouble.

 

“Oh no!” she whimpered at the bottom, patting the ground like she was looking for something. “No! What's wrong with it??”

 

Did he not already mention his lacking fondness for the incompetence?

 

She proved her persistence though. Climbing laboriously to the top, the miko sat on the lip and jumped back down. The seventh time she did this she sprang her ankle slightly. The twelfth time she got the other ankle.

 

A few hours passed before she decided to call it quits for the night, and five minutes after hobbling away with that resolution the miko crept outside, apparently believing she was unwatched, to try again. Sesshomaru decided to ignore her from where he was sitting comfortably on a stone railing, or a decorative wall, between the home and the well. He had been studying the surroundings for some time, and came to the conclusion that the seemingly unnecessary stone statues, which sized comparably with a man, littering the grounds were actually barrier sources. It was quite easy for Sesshomaru to figure this out, as now he found amusement in watching the barrier light the air into a vivid petal pink flame to circle and ripple around his finger, which swirled in the barrier. He didn't know why they had no effect on him, but he was glad for it. The strongest barrier was fixated around the entire property, especially within the simple red torii which marked the entrance.

 

“Ow,” came a faint female whimper of pain. She should learn not to perform such tortures on her frail human body. She was, after all, still recovering.

 

Speaking of, that demon which greeted them was still keeping its, probably his, distance. Sesshomaru had an idea of what that demon was, but the thought was simply too preposterous to be true. Still...

 

The scroll was a very interesting story, the miko was right. It was brief though, easily read in one sitting, which meant he sat there for a very long time reading the parchment over and over again. It was a log of events, yes. About a month long, if Bashamon wrote every day in it, or just once a day. He never dated, which was quite annoying, but Sesshomaru decided that it was an evening gloat with ink and paper. Shameful. Yet even though it was a ridiculously infuriating document, one he should burn at that very moment, he kept it. There was a mystery to it. Although Sesshomaru had not heard of such a scroll being written, there was a note left in it for him.

 

Find the Jewel, Sesshomaru.

 

Whoever decided to write such a message, was a fool. He sought no Jewel, and certainly couldn't go back in time yet to retrieve it. Still, he couldn't help but think about what had happened, what was happening, and what was recorded. It just didn't make sense. Not yet anyway.

 

So, he sighed, an almost painful action with the air quality of that place, and watched the stars brighten and a foolish girl stumble from point A to point B more times than either of them cared to count.

 

This was just too much to absorb in one day...