InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The MIKO of the Three Galaxies ❯ Prelude ( Prologue )

The MIKO of the Three Galaxies

 

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing in this story.

 

Notes: Once again I'm attempting a crossover between an anime that I like (Inuyasha) and a game I play (Rifts-Phase World). I wonder if I will be able to finish this story. Believe me, I am working on my others stories, but my muse seems fickle right now. I manage to write one or two lines before she forces me on another path and story. Please be patient.

 

 

Prelude

 

 

The…man… No, no one could call him a man again, was laughing as he… it jumped above the burning houses. Under it, the screams of the panicked population of the little village were rising to its deformed ears.

 

“HA HA HA HA HA HA!” Its throat seemed to laugh with an unnatural superposition of two voices and only one had been human before.

 

Its vertical pupil gazed on the destruction it brought with an unholy fire. Its gnarled clawed hands were grasping the fruit of its quest for power. “This is only what you deserve for opposing me!” Shining with a white-blue glow, a small crystal sphere danced in its grasp. “Only I deserve this precious jewel!”

 

Its glee peaked as it stared within the glowing crystal `Yes! With THIS I can become a true…'

 

An almost imperceptible whistle in the air and the sudden sound of an arrow impacting deeply into flesh stopped its thoughts. It had just enough time to widen its eyes as the Hamaya (Luck Arrow in the Shinto tradition) lodged where its human heart was once located unleashed its deadly holy energy.

 

With a painful scream, the being managed to control its fall as the purifying energy burned away a good chunk of its internal power. With hatred, he whirled to face its adversary. “YOU!”

 

She was a pretty young girl of fifteen years, although she never thought of herself as beautiful. She had wavy black hair, so dark it glinted with blue highlights, hung to her mid back and was cut across her forehead in choppy bangs to frame her bright chocolate eyes. The teenager was on the short side and curvier than most of the Japanese girls of her age. All her friends at home and at school could have swear that she had a friendly attitude that extended to everyone regardless of what others thought of that person.

 

However, right now she was scowling and her eyes were burning in righteous anger to the dark being thrashing on the ground in front of her. The young girl was clothed in the traditional white Haori and red Hakama of a Shinto Miko. Ashes from the fires around her and blood from the multiples cuts on her skin were staining the fabric and gave her a rather fierce appearance. “Did you really think that your trap would stop me?!”

 

The sweet aroma of her potent virgin blood floated to the nostrils of the monster. It smirked. “My trap seemed to have tenderized you a little, Miko.” It extended wicked claws from its left deformed hand, the right still holding the shining sphere. “I will feast on your heart to regain my power!” He also saw something else that made it smile more. “It seems also that you are out of arrows.”

 

The young Miko held a quiver over her right shoulder: An empty quiver. Her eyes narrowed as the creature began to slowly walk to her like a predator stalking a prey. Her right hand searched blindly through the empty quiver for inexistent ammunition under the dark chuckle of the monster.

 

Sure of itself, the creature pounced on the seemingly hapless girl. It was a trap: The young girl extracted from the quiver a small flask that she opened and threw her content to the charging monster. The creature screamed as the Sacred Water ate its corrupted flesh like a powerful acid.

 

The Miko rolled on her side, dodging the attack. Taking advantage of the painful distraction on the monster, she reached into the left sleeve of her Haori and extracted an Ofuda. She jumped on the back of the snarling but blinded creature and slapped the blessed strip of paper. The Shinto Enchantment activated and the monster found itself held into place by the magic.

 

The Miko turned to one of the still standing houses. “YOHKO! NOW!”

 

A lithe silhouette with black eyes uncoiled from the roof of the house and jumped down with a mighty kiai. She was a taller teenager and probably a little older than the Miko. She was clad in a Chinese-style gold-trimmed red dress with slits on the sides and a Yin-Yang style symbol on the chest and wielded golden arm and leg bracers with red slippers. Her dark-brown hair was styled into two side pony-tails with little hoop secured by ruby jewels. Finally, she was wielding a dark-green ring with a demonic face on her left hand and a bastard sword with a demonic-like hand-guard in her right hand.

 

The Soul-Sword flashed as the 108th Devil Hunter of the Mano clan attacked the immobilized target. In a burst of green blood, its severed right hand flew in the air. The shock and the pain enabled the monster to break momentarily through the paralysing spell. It roared in rage at the loss of its treasure.

 

The two girls had joined with each other and were preparing their next action. The creature gasped in dismay as a white-pink aura appeared around the Miko and was focused on the shinning bastard sword. Growling, the monster also gathered its failing Potential Psychic Energy (PPE) in one last tentative.

 

Yohko rushed with her sword charged with the purifying power of her ally. The Devil Hunter hit the sphere of unholy power of the creature and everything went white.

 

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Yohko blinked as she awakened, gazing on the stars in the night-sky. She was laying on the ground with a mantle on her to ward off the chill of the night. She felt sore and her reserves of power were severely depleted. This monster had been rather hard to bring down. She and her partner had been contacted by the Lazlo Agency to deal with strange sightings and mysterious disappearances in the mountains of Hokkaido. The Miko and the Devil Hunter had rapidly found the traces of a dark sorcerer searching for personal power and willing to spill innocent blood to obtain it.

 

They had tracked him through the mountains to finally corner him nearby. Unfortunately, the man had already made a pact with the Forces of Darkness and received great powers that “It” had used against them. They barely escaped a trap laid in an underground cave with their lives and had been too late to prevent the attack on a small village where the sorcerer had pillaged a temple where a talisman was sealed.

 

She shuddered. Armed with this talisman, the sorcerer could have invoked something more powerful or worse, open a gate to let some unspeakable horror free on Earth. She refused to imagine what could have happened if she or her friend had been used as blood sacrifice. She turned her head as she sensed movement on her side. An old woman clad in a tattered and stained kimono was smiling to her. She was also holding a cup of water that the teenager gratefully drank.

 

Yohko looked around. “Where is my friend, Grandmother?”

 

Sighing, the old woman simply pointed in a direction. Yohko sighed as well as she observed her partner.

 

Kagome Higurashi was gently bandaging a crying young boy who was burned on a few parts of his body. The Miko was using the power of her spirit and her reassuring smile to soothe and heal the wounds. Many had said that the young girl was too sensible and too trusting to have a long career in the perpetual war against the Supernatural. And yet, none could have stopped her to do this seemingly simple thing: Healing those who had been wounded in their flesh and soul by the entities beyond the veil of reality.

 

Kagome was a Miko: A Shinto Priestess with mystical powers. Among the Hunters of the Dark, she was wielding the twin powers of Mind and Magic. But her two main advantages was the purity of her soul and her vocation as a healer. She had rapidly discovered to her dismay that it was easier for her to destroy than to create and heal.

 

Yohko smiled sadly and went to help her friend with her meagre first aid skills. Another piece of the gentle soul in front of her had been ripped off and yet, she remained strong in her heart.

 

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Mama Higurashi was following her normal routine of the morning. The woman had waked up her eight years old son Souta for school, roused her father to take care of the shrine and began the mighty task of taking care of the sacred grounds of the Higurashi Temple.

 

The Higurashi Bloodline was an old family of priests that had always taken care of the Shrine where they lived. It was an old shrine with the family house, the Shrine itself, a modest forest with a sacred “Go-Shinboku” God-Tree that was 500 years old and a mysterious covered well known as the Bone-Eater's Well.

 

The Shrine was situated on a hill dominating Tokyo and it seemed amazing that in 1997, this particular family had always maintained the traditions, even for a country so close to its roots as Japan.

 

Mama Higurashi smiled in relief as she remarked a black van stopping in front of the Shrine. She recognized the vehicle as the same one which had come for her precious daughter one week ago because the Miko of the Higurashi Shrine was needed.

 

The smile morphed into an anguished frown when she saw the state of Kagome: The young girl was still clothed in her Miko garb, but it was tattered and stained with dark splotches that could only be dried blood mixed with ashes. Her eyes widened when the face of her daughter became visible. There was many first-aid bandages glued on it and she was visibly exhausted.

 

Kagome was functioning on pure willpower as she entered the ground of the Higurashi Shrine. The van from the Lazlo Agency had left a slightly sore Yohko at her grandmother's house downtown before driving her to her own home. She found herself suddenly enveloped in a soft and warm hug and blinked as the visage of her mother. She slowly sunk into the loving embrace of the woman who birthed her and let herself go in relief. Everything will be all right, she was home.

 

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It was a more cheerful Kagome that returned to school the morning after. Between the skills of her mother, her own iron constitution and the use of the Mudra for the Evocation of Healing Energy (Zen-style stance that use the Ki of the user and of the environment for various effects), she had recovered from her wounds. Only a few bruises and cuts remained and her classmates were in the unfortunate habit to see her always “slightly damaged”.

 

The Miko was clad in her school uniform: A short green skirt, a white sailor-style blouse with its green collar and a red neck-scarf. She smiled as she saw her friends in the court and waved to them. “Good morning!”

 

Eri, a short-haired brunette, turned to the familiar voice and beamed. “Kagome!”

 

Yuka, whose black hair was controlled by a headband smiled to her best friend. “Are you sure you oughta be back in school so soon?”

 

Kagome blinked. “Huh?”

 

Ayume, a beautiful girl with wavy hair, nodded. “You've been absent for a whole week, so we got worried and called your place.”

 

Eri nodded and examined Kagome. “Your Grampa said you sprained your back pretty bad.”

 

Kagome sweat dropped. `Uh oh.' Yuka was also examining her friend. “And the month before that, he said that you were in the hospital for diabetes tests and…”

 

Kagome winced internally. `Grampa! How can you live that long and not even learn how to tell a good lie?!'

 

As if it was not enough, a handsome boy with sandy brown hair and light brown eyes stopped his bicycle near the group of girls. “Higurashi-san, back on your feet so soon?”

 

This time, Kagome cringed internally. `Oh no… Not him…' Her three friends smiled. “Wow, it's Hojo from B class!”

 

The young boy was a “special project” of her friends decided to not let Kagome remain single any longer. The boy smiled in sympathy to the Miko. “It must have been awful! Having gout at such a young age, I mean.”

 

Kagome didn't know how she was able to restrain herself from screaming in frustration. `He can't even maintain the same story… I'll kill him… I'll kill him…'

 

“I don't know any way to help, but here…” He gave her a small package.

 

Kagome blinked and blinked again as she opened the package revealing a pair of sandals. “What are…?”

 

Hojo smiled as he pedalled away. “Shiatsu sandals! Wear `em! Later!”

 

Bewildered, Kagome found herself surrounded by her friends. Eri smirked. “You see! What did we tell you?!”

 

Yuka nodded. “Aren't you going out with him?”

 

Kagome sighed and shook her head. “Don't be stupid. I've no time for this.”

 

Ayume raised an eyebrow. “Well… He's definitively interested in you. That's for sure.”

 

Unfortunately for Kagome, her friends didn't let her out of their curiosity during classes. Eri looked closely at her. “You mean you really don't want to go out with him?”

 

Kagome raised her hands in defence. “Whoa… Look… He…”

 

Yuka snapped her fingers. “Wait, wait, I see it all!” She leaned into Kagome. “You already HAVE a boyfriend!”

 

Kagome frowned. “I do NOT!”

 

Eri blinked. “The truth? It had better be the truth!”

 

Ayume shrugged. “Okay, so what's your type, anyway?”

 

Kagome blinked and actually thought about that. “I dunno… I guess… Well, I'm too young to really know what my type is. Probably someone I will feel a spark with…” She smiled wilfully. “A guy who has a touch of the wild, but not too full of himself, and able to listen to his heart AND his mind and who can truly understand me…” She stopped and laughed. “Well, if I can meet someone like that, it'll be a good beginning.” She shook her head and sighed. “I don't think such a guy exist on this planet.”

 

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Kagome blinked as she listened to her grandfather inside the little shop of the Shrine. “The “Shikon Jewel”…?”

 

Her grandfather was holding a small sphere in his hand. “Yes. So long as one has this, one's family will know safety and prosperity.”

 

Kagome held a crooked smile. Mystical might varied greatly in her bloodline and her grandfather was one of the weakest. She held the last creation of her kin and sighed. “And you sell those imitations to people?” She shook her head. It was a simple glass marble without any aura or power, apart, perhaps, the fact that it was manufactured on the Higurashi grounds. She smiled as she presented it to the big calico cat at her feet. “Well, at least, Buyo like them. Maybe they're not entirely useless.”

 

Her grandfather grumbled about the lack of respect of the new generation. Kagome shook her head in amusement. “You remember what tomorrow is, at least?”

 

Grampa sighed. “Could I ever forget my adorable grand-daughter's birthday?” Smiling, he extracted a package from its back.

 

Kagome beamed. “Wow! For me?!”

 

Grampa chuckled. “It's a day early, but after your last mission… Happy birthday, Kagome!”

 

Kagome giggled and gingerly opened the wrapped gift to extract…

 

“It's the mummified hand of a “Kappa” water-sprite. The legend holds that whosoever possesses this…”

 

Kagome presented the disguised duck-palm to her cat. “Here, Buyo. Lunch.”

 

The cat licked its chops at the present. Grampa was less enthusiasm. “Do you know what those COST?!”

 

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Kagome Higurashi was born under very powerful auspices. Her mother, a Miko of the Higurashi Shrine as well, had birthed her at noon the Vernal Equinox on the very ground of the temple. According to her grandfather, it had transformed her into a living Nexus of Power.

 

The fact was that Kagome was one of the most powerful Miko of her generation. Fact that made her precious to a relatively new organization: The Lazlo Agency.

 

The Lazlo Agency was the legacy of Victor Lazlo, the famous parapsychologist that disappeared in December 1984. His most trusted friend Robert Joseph Mach created the agency on the base of the net of relationships and acquaintances of Lazlo. The Agency was dedicated to investigate the paranormal, help the victims of attacks, recruit people willing and able to fight the Supernatural and serve as an international clearing house against the paranormal.

 

Both her and her current partner and friend in the fight against the Darkness, Yohko Mano, had been recruited when the Lazlo Society webpage went online in 1996. They were among the youngest within the Japanese branch, but their powers, despite their inexperiences, were invaluable.

 

Kagome wasn't very sure of the true reason of her joining the Agency: She could have done the same things she was doing without the help of the Agency. It was a journey of self-discovery: She was seeking her call, an answer to her many questions or a purpose. She wasn't really sure.

 

At the base of those questions was a traumatism: The mysterious disappearance of her father when she was eight. The shock of this event had almost shattered her family.

 

Her father had been a powerful Shinto priest and had done many things in the war against the Supernatural. Unfortunately, no one had been able to determine why he disappeared. Even the various oracles consulted couldn't say if he was still alive or dead.

 

It was this event that pushed Kagome on the path of the Miko. Souta, which should have been the heir of the family, was much too young and so Kagome had taken the mantle of the Higurashi Shrine.

 

And now, her mother was forced by her life-long duty to see her only daughter going outside the Shrine to fight against the same Darkness that tainted her young years and stole away her husband.

 

Even Souta had been marked by the absence of his father. He was in pure awe of his older sister and yet, he felt inadequate each time he saw her departing in her Miko garb. Each time he witnessed her battered state after her fights, he felt miserable that she had been forced to do his own duty at his place.

 

A few times, he had rushed inside her bedroom with tears in his eyes and had tried to say something, anything. Each time, his sister had hug him and plunged his bright and warm chocolate eyes in his brown ones and he had felt that everything was alright. Each time words had been useless for the two siblings: Souta will have to embrace his Fate and Destiny, but Kagome was ensuring that it was on his own terms.

 

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The day of the Vernal Equinox should have been a happy occasion for Kagome, and yet, she was feeling uneasy. In fact she had felt uneasy since the beginning of the morning classes. She didn't even remark the standard teasing of her friends about Hojo or her hypothetical boyfriend.

 

As the lunch signal was finally heard, Kagome took her decision. She asked her friends to take her homework for her because she wasn't feeling right and was going straight to home.

 

Hojo smiled to the rushing girl as she exited the classroom. He had a foot massager for her this time. He thought she was sufficiently aware of his interest in her now and was projecting a nice date this weekend. “Hello, Higurashi-san. How are you feeling?” He stopped in front of Kagome and retrieved his gift. “I have something here for you and I was also wondering if we could go together sometime. Just the two of us…” It was delivered with heart-shaking accuracy and all the right emotions and would have melt the heart of any girl it was addressed.

 

The three friends of Kagome was waiting with baiting breath for the answer of the Miko which could only be a resounding YES since she never had a date before and Hojo was so handsome.

 

Feeling a bad premonition about her home, Kagome brushed away the gift and the young boy. “GET LOST! I have ABSOLUTELY no time for such STUPIDITIES!”

 

Her friends and Hojo could only look at the running silhouette, completely flabbergasted after such an action from the normally wilful but gentle girl.

 

Eri blinked, pinched herself and searched for the presence of Rod Serling nearby.

 

Ayume raised an eyebrow. “Well… It just means that Hojo is really available, right?”

 

Yuka shook her head. “And I thought she really liked Hojo…”

 

Hojo sighed and looked to his gift. “Gosh… She must be ill again…”

 

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The surface of the planet is marked by generally invisible currents of mystical energy called Ley Lines. When those Ley Lines crossed, a nexus of power is created and it can be used by those who know how. Those nexuses gained more energy at certain periods of time. As a rule it was during important events like at noon or midnight, during a full moon, any type of eclipse or during equinoxes and solstices.

 

The Higurashi Shrine possessed one of those nexuses: The Bone Eater's Well was called like that because bones of Supernatural Creatures disappeared from it. The reason was that the nexus partially opened when enough PPE was present due to the bones or an event of power.

 

And now, it was noon, the day of the Vernal Equinox. The nexus swelled with the rapidly growing amount of PPE and behind the barrier dimensional, dark creatures waited for an occasion to enter Earth reality.

 

Mama Higurashi was feeling uneasy. She had still a modicum of the skills she had developed as a Miko and she was feeling something ominous in the air. She turned to her son who was playing in the court of the Shrine, waiting for the dinner to be ready and frowned. “Souta!”

 

The young boy turned to his mother, one hand leaning on the door to the Bone Eater's Well. “Mom?!”

 

Mama Higurashi approached her son. “You know you're not supposed to play in the mini-shrine!”

 

Souta nodded but continued to look the interior of the well-house. “But Buyo… He's in there...” He didn't finish. There was something strange happening. He began to feel a little fear and took the hand of his mother.

 

Mama leaned inside the house and curiously heard something moving inside. Apparently the family cat had struck again and was hiding itself inside the well-house. She frowned. The sound was those of claws on wood but they seemed rather too loud for coming from a normal cat…

 

The wooden lid of the well cracked from the inside and a nightmarish creature rushed out from it. Mama Higurashi did just have the time to seize her son and jumped out of the attack path.

 

The monster growled as it manoeuvred outside the well-house. It was a nightmarish blend, with the body of a giant centipede, a human female-looking head with white skin, predator teeth, countless centipede legs and six human-looking arms. It turned around in search of the delicious preys it smelled.

 

Mama Higurashi was slowly circling around the monster, holding her trembling son in her arms. With dismay, she recognized a Boschala, a Supernatural predator and Lesser Demon that hunted humans and animals alike for their flesh and sometimes their PPE. In the past, she had confronted and vanquished such monsters, but it had been with holy weapons and with others like her. The Sacred premises of the Shrine should have prevented the creature to approach, but it had appeared from an open nexus INSIDE the protection of the Higurashi Shrine.

 

“DEMON BE GONE!”

 

With amazement and growing horror, she saw her father throwing Ofudas at the Boschala. “NO, FATHER! RUN! RUN AWAY!”

 

The monster snarled and rushed at full speed to the old priest. The Ofudas were stinging him, but it was only rousing its anger. With a roar, it opened its maw to eat the withered prey.

 

Grampa could only see his death coming and hoped he bought enough time for his daughter and grand-son to be in security.

 

“KIAI!” A white and green blur resolved itself in the form of a Kagome performing a textbook body-slam in the middle of the monster. The Boschala found itself projected by its own inertia into a tree.

 

Kagome winced as her shoulder registered the impact of her attack. She was still breathless, but adrenalin was flowing in her veins since she saw her family in mortal danger. A Boschala! An honest-to badness Boschala INSIDE the Shrine! “Gramp! Souta! Inside the house! Now! Mom?! Fetch my weapons, quick!”

 

Mama nodded and ran to the house with her son. “Be careful, Kagome!” The wards of the house should be able to stop the monster.

 

Souta's eyes widened as he saw her sister interposing herself in front of the monstrous creature who began to use its multiple limbs to try to claw her into pieces. “Mom! Kagome…! We can't let Kagome alone!”

 

Kagome's universe had been reduced to her and the Boschala. Her purifying aura began to shine. Trained in the art of the Bow and the Katana, the Miko was reduced to basic attacks and dodging until she recovered a weapon. Already, the two adversaries had wounded the other and Kagome was beginning to feel the difference in sheer strength and endurance.

 

Already weakened by her long run from the school, she was now sporting multiples cuts with a few bleeding rather freely. She had to find a solution or she was going to be monster food before her mother managed to bring back her weapons. If only she could pierce the protective skin of the Boschala to let her purifying power hit the vulnerable tainted flesh inside or if she had enough energy to bypass the armoured skin…

 

She blinked. She had perhaps a means to amplify her power. It was risky and she didn't know if she could pull it off, but she had nothing to loose. She couldn't let this monster threatening those she loved. She suddenly ran to the sacred “Go-Shinboku”.

 

If the well was a nexus of Ley Lines, the God-Tree was a nexus of “Dragon Lines”. Those lines were identical to the mystical Ley Lines but the energy they carried was the own Ki of the planet. Trained in the Zen tradition of her native Martial Arts, Kagome was able to call and used her Ki or Life Energy to accomplish many feats.

 

She was a beginner, but she knew that one could synchronize with the Ki of the planet and used it for his own ends. Since the well had used enough PPE to open a portal to another dimension, the Go-Shinboku must be overcharged with Ki. If she could borrow it…

 

Holding the bow and quiver of her daughter, Mama Higurashi stopped at what Kagome was doing and gasped in dismay as she suddenly understood her plan. “NO! KAGOME, STOP! YOU CAN'T CONTROL THE POWER!”

 

The Miko reached first the God-Tree and touched its bark, murmured a prayer to all the Kami and opened her very soul to the presence of the Go-Shinboku. Kagome screamed as a sudden burst of energy flooded through her Ki-pathways with burning power. From the outside, the white-pink aura of the young girl exploded into a more powerful aura white-blue.

 

Feeling like a bomb on the verge of explosion, Kagome turned around and let go of the powerful energies roaming inside her being. The Boschala howled as the uncontrolled mixture of Ki and PPE seized it. Kagome shrilled in pain herself: She was serving as a conductor for the energy, but she wasn't capable to hold it, much less control it.

 

The blue radiance submerged the Miko and the Boschala and under the horrified eyes of Mama Higurashi reached both the God-Tree and the Bone Eater's Well. With a terrifying crackling, the rift inside the well re-opened and sucked in the two adversaries.

 

The last thing that Kagome perceived from her world was her mother yelling her name…

 

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Notes: Kagome is a modified “Mystic” from `RIFTS' (with a touch of Ninjas & Superspies and some abilities from the Priest OCC from Palladium Fantasy) and Yohko is a modified “Ghost Hunter” (also with a touch of Ninjas & Superspies and a few cosmetic alterations) from `Beyond the Supernatural'.

 

I am going to use a lot of Anime as Support Cast (I know, I know. It has been done before). The story will be axed on the Inuyasha gang with many cameos. Since I have too many choices, I am going to limit myself on my favourite characters.

 

I think I'm going to use “Iria”, “Ah My Goddess”, “Tenchi Muyo”, “Noir” and many others (not sure if I'll use Ranma).

 

Please, read & review.