A great combination of InuYasha and Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
the two demonic shows we thought couldn't mix. (Tim Seltzer, seltzer@seltzerbooks.com) Disclaimer: Don't own the shows, don't plan on trying to,
none use this fic without permission.
Author's Notes: This is an edited and
corrected version of the story originally posted to
Fanfiction.net January - March, 2004. The content is still
essentially the same as the first version, but I fixed some
consistency glitches, typos, and Japanese usage errors.
This story takes place after the second
Inuyasha film, "Castle Beyond the Looking Glass," (after Episode
74 in the series), and after the Buffy series finale. Contains
spoilers for events that happen in all seasons of Buffy, through
the beginning of the final season of Angel, Inuyasha episodes
1-74, and the second Inuyasha film.
Tokyo, the present day
It was dark at the bottom of the Bone-eater's
Well. The gloom smelled of musty earth overlaid with a faint,
harsh, smoky stink like smoldering lacquerware. The circle of
blue sky at the well's mouth had vanished, replaced by faint
lines of indirect light filtering through cracks in what looked
like planking.
All this meant that the Portal Key had
actually worked. Naraku had arrived in the home realm of his
rival for the Shikon-no-Tama, the strangely-dressed girl named
Kagome.
Of course it worked, said the smug
voice of Arashthoth the Gatekeeper. With this well serving
as your destination-focus. Did I not say it would? The
demon that Naraku had absorbed grown disturbingly insolent of
late, realizing that Naraku needed his knowledge.
But not for much longer, thought
Naraku. Arashthoth's time was growing short. He had only few
secrets left to share, and when those were exhausted, the
Gatekeeper would be...disposable.
Naraku spied the long ladder leading upwards
from the uneven dirt floor of the well, and smiled. How very
convenient--and careless--of the girl. Why, it was practically
an invitation!
He rucked up the hem of his kimono, tucking it
into his belt, and began to climb. Given the narrow
circumference of the stone-lined shaft, he had found it more
practical to travel through the portal using his human form.
As he neared the top of the ladder, Naraku
felt the prickling sensation of power nearby. Someone was there,
and they might be dangerous to him. He would kill them before
they knew he was a threat. In his dangerously weakened state, he
could not afford to wait and see if the presence was friend or
foe.
He reached up to push the well-cover aside,
only to be greeted with an unexpected blast of purifying power
as the seals pasted to the thick planks reacted to his youki.
Naraku fell through the darkness, his
component youkai screaming in pain, and hit the hard-packed
earth of the well's bottom with a humiliating thump.
Rising to his feet, he glared up through the
darkness. I will make her beg for death before I kill her!
His youkai components agreed, hungering after
sweet girl-flesh to speed the healing of their wounds. Feed
us! they implored. We grow weak! We need meat and
blood!
Soon, he promised them. Very soon.
By all rights, Kagome should have been killed
by the first wave of insect-youkai he had sent through the
portal. And yet, inexplicably alive and uninjured, she and her
friends had launched an assault on his castle not three days
ago. None of the youkai he had sent to kill her had returned.
Even Kagura had not been able to stop her.
As a result he, Naraku, had been wounded and
forced to flee. His retreat rankled, and it had stirred up the
rebellious components within his captive youkai.
And so, he had decided to travel to her realm
himself, and dispose of her when she arrived, alone and
unsuspecting. Kagome would be all-but-helpless on this side of
the well, without her allies--or that interfering hanyou,
Inuyasha--to come to her aid.
Naraku would avenge his injuries and at the
same time rob his rivals of their precious miko, leaving them
unable to sense the fragments of the jewel--or purify them. Safe
from his enemies here, he would recover from his wounds and
build himself a stronger body using the native youkai of this
realm.
But first, he had to get out of this well. It
was humiliating to be trapped like this.
His component youkai shifted uneasily as his
rage penetrated their consciousness, and with an effort, he
tried to calm himself.
Steeling himself against the pain, Naraku
climbed the ladder again and, keeping his hand a cautious
finger's-breadth from actually touching the underside of the
well-cover, stretched out his senses and probed the devices
sealing him in.
The spells had been woven by someone both
powerful and well-trained. Each loop and whirl of the intricate
calligraphy glowed painfully to his youkai senses, the very ink
infused with the maker's force of will.
Yet no one stood guard here. Could it be that
they underestimated him, and were relying solely on these
scrolls to bar his passage?
Naraku smiled despite the unpleasant proximity
of the sealing spells, and began tracing the strands and knots
of power to their source.
What had been woven could also be unmade,
given enough time.
Hours passed as he patiently unknotted, one by
one, the searing strands of mystical energy that held him
captive in the well. His youkai grumbled restively all the
while, forcing Naraku to share the acid taste of their
discontent. The most powerful youkai in all the islands of
Japan, and yet here he was, forced to perch on a ladder in an
old stone well while he worked to free himself.
Finally, he felt the last of the restraints
loosen and dissolve, and the scrolls become mere paper once
again. He braced his palms against the rough planks and heaved.
The wood tore loose from the thin metal pegs fastening the cover
to the rim of the well, and flew to one side.
In an instant, Naraku was standing on the
ground next to the well. He was inside a building--or what
remained of a building. Most of the walls had been shattered,
and the sides of the building stood open to the late afternoon
light. The damage looked recent, he thought, noticing the pale
scars in the otherwise-weathered wooden pillars supporting the
roof.
So, it appeared that his scouts had made it
out of the well, at least. But had happened to them then? Had
they simply abandoned their mission, and fled to gorge
themselves on this realm's delights?
The sun hung low in the western sky,
orange-colored and hazy. The burning smell was stronger out
here, though Naraku could see no smoke from cooking fires
anywhere nearby.
He found himself on the grounds of a shrine
that looked similar to the one that had housed the
Shikon-no-Tama. Was the location of the Bone-eater's Well a
sacred spot in both realms, then?
Looking around, he saw that the shrine's
precinct was surrounded by a grove of trees, beyond which rose a
multitude of square buildings set with glittering windows. The
air was filled with a variety of low growls and constant
rumbling, as if something prowled restlessly beyond the shrine,
though Naraku detected no youkai auras in the immediate
vicinity.
The only living things he could sense were
birds, an entire flock of them, hopping and twittering in the
branches of a single ancient tree that stood in the center of
the courtyard next to the well-house.
Feed us! demanded his youkai. He paused
in his contemplation of the odder structures beyond the grove,
and released a cloud of miasma. In a moment, half the flock lay
dying all around him.
I give you permission to eat.
Disappointment at the tiny prey gave way to ravening hunger.
Greedy arms and tentacles erupted from beneath Naraku's robe,
reaching for the birds. Naraku himself was hungry, but he could
wait until he encountered more fitting prey.
Then Naraku spied a large dwelling set behind
the shrine's main hall on an upper terrace. He moved in that
direction, ignoring the protests of those of those of his youkai
who had not yet eaten.
Dwellings meant people. People meant...food.
And the house would make the perfect location from which to
ambush Kagome when she finally returned to her realm. Perhaps he
ought to artistically arrange a corpse or two to greet her as
she came home. Terror would sweeten her blood...
He ascended the worn stone steps leading from
one terrace to the next, and was halfway across the shrine's
main courtyard when the sound of footsteps crunching on the
raked gravel alerted him from his musings.
For a moment, an old man holding a broom stood
gaping comically at Naraku.
Naraku smiled coldly at him, knowing that he
appeared to be nothing more than a youth dressed in rich
clothing, long, unbound black hair flowing over his shoulders.
It was a conveniently deceptive appearance.
Then the old man, who was most likely the
shrine's caretaker, reached into his loose shirt and swiftly
withdrew a packet of ofuda.
"Who are you?" He brandished the inscribed
papers at Naraku. "Are you human?"
Bracing himself for a powerful blast of
mystical energy, Naraku was pleasantly surprised to sense only
the feeblest trickle of power from the old man. This one had not
sealed the well, then.
Naraku laughed and lashed out, sweeping the
human aside as inconsequential. The papers fluttered to the
ground like crippled birds, and Naraku heard the faint,
delicious sound of bones breaking as the old man fell heavily
against the base of a stone lantern.
He moved forward swiftly, all of his parts
focused intently on his victim. His mouth watered as he imagined
the rich taste of marrow laced with salty blood seeping from a
shattered skeleton. His youkai clamored for their share.
He heard a girl shout, followed immediately by
a heavy twang. Something hit him in the chest, hard. He stumbled
backward, and glanced down to see a heavy crossbow bolt embedded
in his chest.
Grimacing, he ripped it out, ignoring the
pain, and his torn flesh resealed itself almost instantly.
He looked for his opponent, and saw her,
standing on the steps of the shrine's Hall of Worship. She was a
dark-haired foreigner, dressed in the same tight clothing as the
golden-haired youkai-taijya who had attacked him in his castle.
As he tossed aside the bolt, she drew a long,
straight sword and leapt from the stairs. Landing lightly near
the center of the courtyard, she approached him, sword held at
the ready.
Naraku paused, frowning as he saw a swirl of
youki surrounding her. It was weak, but it should not have been
present at all on a mere human.
The other foreign youkai-taijya had also
possessed it, but in stronger measure. And he had seen it
present around Kohaku's sister, as well. Very strange.
But then he didn't have time to ponder the
puzzle further. The girl attacked, her sword a copper-colored
blur in the light of the setting sun.
Naraku instantly fashioned a weapon of youkai
bone, stronger than steel, and countered her attack, blocking
each of her blows. He swept a swift tentacle under her feet, and
set her crashing heavily to the graveled ground, but before he
could finish her off, another twang sounded, and a second bolt
slammed into his forearm.
The girl rolled away and regained her feet.
Still holding the sword, her eyes narrowed in concentration, she
circled him. Naraku kept one eye on her, but looked for his
other opponent.
There was a young Japanese man, also wearing
the strange tight clothing, standing at the gate that separated
the shrine from the dwelling.
"Demon," he called, calmly loading a fresh
bolt into his weapon. "Where is Higurashi Kagome? And where are
the others--Inuyasha, and the taijya Summers-san?"
The girl attacked again, and Naraku drove her
back. He laughed. "Dead."
Not that the truth mattered. Nothing could
save these two insolent humans now.
"This place stinks of Naraku," Inuyasha
snarled, as they left the shattered remains of the well-house
behind.
Then they heard indistinct shouting, and the
ringing clash of a metal blade striking something.
"Grandpa!" Kagome gave a muffled cry.
In an instant, Kouga and Inuyasha were gone.
The baseball cap that Inuyasha had been wearing tumbled to the
ground and rolled away as he bounded through the shrine in
Kouga's wake.
"Houshi-sama, take care of Shippou and
Kagome-chan!" ordered Sango, hurriedly unslinging Hiraikotsu and
stripping off her robe to reveal the youkai-skin armor beneath.
"I'm coming, too!" Kagome said. Her face was
pale, her forehead beaded with sweat, but her expression was
fierce.
"Will you give Kagome a weapon?" Miroku asked.
Buffy untied her naginata from the frame of
her backpack. She took her sword and tossed it to Kagome.
"Here--you know how to use this?"
"I'll figure it out," Kagome said, a
determined set to her mouth. "If Naraku hurt my Grandpa, I'll
make him pay!"
Buffy hefted her naginata. "Pointy end goes in
the other guy," she advised, only half-joking. "We'll try not to
finish Naraku off before you guys get there, okay?"
"We'll be right behind you," Miroku assured
her. He settled the butt of his staff into the ground and raised
his evil hand. "I have a score to settle with Naraku."
Buffy looked over at Sango. "Ready?"
The other Slayer nodded. Together, they
sprinted in the direction that Inuyasha and Kouga had taken.
Damn that wimpy wolf. Putting those shards
in his legs is cheating, Inuyasha thought as he tried to
keep up with his rival. No way was he going to let Kouga get all
the credit for saving Kagome's home from Naraku!
Naraku! Inuyasha felt a pang,
perilously close to fear, as he saw how close the enemy had
gotten to Kagome's house. That bastard was in human guise, and
being held at bay by Kagome's friend Minamide Koji and a foreign
girl Inuyasha didn't recognize.
He leaped over the last set of stairs, drawing
Tetsusaiga. As always, his sword transformed sluggishly in
Kagome's realm, but it transformed, humming with demonic
energies.
Kouga was already in the thick of the fight,
kicking away Naraku's sword-wielding arm as it swept down toward
the girl.
Show-off! Inuyasha thought in disgust.
Not that a few fancy punches could compete with his
Kaze-no-Kizu. Weak as it was here, it could still hurt Naraku.
Then, the smell of fresh blood distracted him.
Inuayasha came to a skidding halt as he saw Kagome's grandfather
sprawled in the shadow of a stone lantern.
He threw himself to his knees at the old man's
side, and snarled. That fucking bastard hurt Kagome's
grandpa!
Still breathing. Inuyasha reached out
and put his clawed hand on the old man's neck. Now, where's
his heartbe--
In the next instant, something speared him in
the back. He heard the thin shriek as the fabric of his armor
was pierced, and then a vast, hot pain that shoved him face-down
into the ground. It was like Kagome's fucking osuwari command,
only it hurt a lot more. Wha--?
Something heavy landed in the small of his
back and sat on him, pinning his hips down. His nose was filled
with an unfamiliar female scent. What the hell? At the same
time, his attacker grabbed the hair at the back of his head, and
yanked, painfully forcing his head up.
A blade, cold and sharp, drew a line of fire
across his throat, but Minamide yelled something in a strange
tongue, and the blade stilled abruptly, though the pressure on
his hair didn't ease.
"What's the matter, Inu-koro?" Inuyasha heard
Kouga taunting. "One little girl too much for you to handle? No
wonder you couldn't protect Kagome!"
And he realized that Kouga wasn't going to
help him. That fucking wolf is probably hoping I'll get
killed so he can make Kagome his woman!
And the first thing that Buffy saw when she
reached the fight was...Faith?
What the hell is she doing here?
Kouga was circling around Naraku, kicking and
punching in a blur of arms and legs. Koji stood off to one side,
firing a steady stream of crossbow bolts at the tall, writhing
mass of limbs and tentacles that was Naraku.
And Faith...Faith was straddling Inuyasha, and
had him by the hair, with a long knife against his throat. "Hey,
B., how's it hanging?"
Wow. She manages to make even fighting demons
look kind of...dirty.
"Great," said Buffy, in English, fighting the
urge to roll her eyes. Of all the Slayers on the planet, why
her? "I see Koji brought reinforcements."
Faith grinned at her. "Caught this one trying
to choke grandpa, but Koji won't let me kill him. You dating
this demon, or something?"
Inuyasha growled and tried to take advantage
of Faith's momentary distraction to heave her off his back. But
she just twisted his long silver hair around her wrist, forcing
his head up further, into a painful angle.
Buffy ignored the other Slayer's jibe. "Faith,
let go of him," she said. "He's a friend of the Higurashi
family, and he's helping us."
Inuyasha yelled to Buffy in Japanese, "Tell
that bitch to get off me before I break her legs!"
"And you're making him really cranky," added
Buffy.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that," Faith said,
easing up on his hair. She patted his head, and Buffy cringed
when she saw the murderous expression on Inuyasha's face. "Cute
ears."
"Faith," Buffy said, in a warning tone.
"Okay, okay!" Faith climbed off Inuyasha with
a slow roll of her hips.
"What the hell was that for?" Inuyasha sprang
to his feet, Tetsusaiga in his hand.
Faith took a step backward. For a long moment,
the two of them glared at each other.
"It was a mistake, Inuyasha. She thought you
were--" Then Buffy saw the large bloodstain surrounding the
large gashes in the back and the front of his red robes. "Oh my
God! Are you all right?"
He shrugged. "I've been worse. You tell that
one--" he jerked his chin in Faith's direction. "--to stay the
fuck away from me. Or I'll kill her."
Then he was charging Naraku, though moving
more slowly than usual. Buffy noticed that he had one hand
pressed to his stomach. Crap. Kagome's gonna kill me for this.
"Faith, what the hell did you do to him?"
Buffy demanded, switching back to English. "He's one of the good
guys. In fact, anyone who's not him--" she pointed at Naraku,
who had sprouted tentacles and other appendages. "You don't
slay. Capisce?"
"Sorry." Faith shrugged, looking distinctly
unapologetic. "Hey, if it looks like a demon, I hit first, ask
questions later. You live longer that way." She lifted her
red-stained sword. "Now, B., you said I could hit this
guy, right?"
