Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ One for the Ages ❯ Chapter One: Release the Hounds ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or Yu Yu Hakusho. Hell, I can't even speak Japanese.

 

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000

 

One for the Ages

By Gan Xingba

Chapter One: Release the Hounds

 

Yusuke observed the pair as they sat in tense silence. The girl called Kagome was practically clinging to the dog demon, worry apparent in her face. Whether that worry was valid remained to be seen. Koenma hadn't gone into details about either of their capabilities, so Yusuke was unsure whether they could sense his power. He doubted she could though, as the current level of power he was displaying was no reason for her current fear, especially if what he thought he was sensing from the two of them was real.

 

For a half-demon, Inuyasha was emitting a substantial level of power. Not just from himself, but also from that sword he carried. Not only that, but the odd sense he was getting from Kagome's aura was quite troubling. No doubt, had Koenma not had the sense to send him some help it would probably be a tough assignment. The choice of that help however…

 

“The twerp's right. You'd better hand those over,” announced Kuwabara, landing behind the two perpetrators after a melodramatic leap over the rear wall to the garden, forcing Yusuke to hold back a groan. “Or else you'll be messing with me - the great Kazuma Kuwabara!”

 

“Well that's just too bad for you then!” announced Inuyasha angrily as he drew his sword with a flourish. “Cause I `aint givin' you punks nuthin'!”

 

This had left Yusuke in a profound state of shock as Kagome pleaded with Inuyasha to put the sword away. Not because of Inuyasha's bold statement, but because of the sword. Upon its unsheathing, the seemingly normal katana had glowed fiercely and transformed into a massive falchion style blade that made Bui's axe look like a piece of junk.

 

“Well…I've got to admit that's a big freakin' sword…” Yusuke observed as he attempted to regain his composure.

 

“But you know what they say…” started the unflappable Kuwabara with a smirk.

 

Yusuke groaned. He knew what was coming…

 

“It's not the size that counts, it's how you use it! SPIRIT SWORD!”

 

And with that, the glowing blade of energy that was Kuwabara's trademark Spirit Sword leapt to his hand with a flash and he charged at Inuyasha yelling a battle cry. The half-demon was taken by surprise, but he managed to get his sword up in time to parry the blow, only to be forced on the defensive as Kuwabara unleashed a flurry of attacks. For a few moments, it seemed like Kuwabara would defeat Inuyasha without needing any assistance at all from Yusuke, but Inuyasha forced him into a weapons lock and pushed him away with pure brute strength.

 

“I've had enough of you!” roared Inuyasha, and he raised his massive blade, which now had miniature maelstroms whirling around it.

 

“Wait, Inuyasha!” interjected Kagome from a safe position among the bushes. “If you use the Wind Scar you could kill innocent people in the blast. Besides, these guys are human!”

 

“Are you out of your mind?! They're tr-oof!”

 

Inuyasha's sentence was cut short as a horizontal swing from Kuwabara's Spirit Sword connected with his abdomen and sent him crashing into a tree.

 

“Ha! That'll teach ya' to pay more attention!” taunted Kuwabara, now supremely confident.

 

Inuyasha grimaced as he picked himself up from the ground, and, to the surprise of his assailants, sheathed his sword.

 

“I don't need the Tetsusaiga to beat a weakling like you,” he proclaimed, cracking his knuckles menacingly as he spoke. “C'mon, I dare ya' to try and hit me with that thing again.”

 

“All right, it's your funeral dog-face!” yelled Kuwabara, and he immediately leapt at Inuyasha, his sword raised in striking position.

 

Kuwabara's blow came down hard, but to no avail. Inuyasha had caught the Spirit Sword in his right hand, and, ignoring the sizzling pain, he hammered Kuwabara in the jaw with an uppercut from his left fist that sent the Spirit Detective sprawling. Apparently, Inuyasha realized that if he was going to win without his weapon he would need to take advantage of every opportunity. As such, he leapt upon his helpless opponent, grabbed him by the shirt, and flung him into the shrine's stone outer wall. He sprung towards Kuwabara even as the boy fell to the ground with the intention of sealing the victory. However, his flight path was intercepted by Yusuke, who leapt in front of him and knocked him to the ground with a powerful roundhouse kick to the face.

 

“Enough fooling around,” stated Yusuke with a dangerous glint in his eyes. “You don't stand a chance at beating the two of us. Now hand over the shards or I'll send you to the big kennel in the sky. And hurry up with it. I've got places to be.”

 

Inuyasha realized the truth in those words as he noticed a still conscious Kuwabara behind Yusuke getting up and wiping the blood from his mouth.

 

“Inuyasha, what should we do?” asked Kagome as she ran behind Inuyasha, her voice fraught with concern.

 

“Run!”

 

And without further warning, Inuyasha slung Kagome over his shoulder and dashed towards the well house.

 

Yelling all sorts of obscenities, Yusuke and Kuwabara raced after him, but the only reward they received for their efforts was a getting to see a flash from the well as Inuyasha and Kagome vanished down it.

 

“This is why I have a cat,” muttered Kuwabara. “Dog's always run away.”

 

000000000000000000000000000000000000

 

“Are you all right, Kagome?” asked Inuyasha as the glow around the two fugitives faded and they appeared at the bottom of the well in the feudal era.

 

“I will be once you get me down off your shoulder!” replied Kagome, clearly unhappy with the current turn of events.

 

“All right, all right. Just calm down you crazy girl,” retorted Inuyasha as he bounded out of the well and set Kagome down on the grass. “Just who in the hell were those humans? Do you know `em?”

 

“I don't think so…” said Kagome as she looked outward in thought. “But they looked younger than me, so they must still be in school...probably junior high…”

 

“Ah, so you're back already.”

 

The pair looked up at Miroku's greeting to see the young monk approaching from the village. After returning his greeting, they related the afternoon's events to him. The monk sat in silence for a few moments as he processed all of the information.

 

“Well then,” spoke Miroku finally. “In light of this, I would advise against your return to your time for quite a while.”

 

“What?!” yelled Kagome indignantly. “I need to take tests, I need to take showers…I need to do my hair!”

 

“I'm really sorry about that Kagome…” said Miroku his voice shaking a little as he backed away with his hands up in surrender. “But if they are indeed determined to get the Shikon Jewel shards and they also know where to find you, then there is no doubt that they will have a trap ready for you if you return.”

 

“He's right, Kagome,” chimed in Inuyasha. “Damn shame, too. I wanted some more ninja food…”

 

“You selfish jerk!” cried out Kagome furiously. “Sit boy!”

 

Inuyasha landed on the ground with a crash and moan of pain. It was going to be a long day.

 

000000000000000000000000000000000000

 

“You idiots! How could you let them get to the well! It's ridiculous! I mean, of all the things to let them do that is by far the most stupid, idiotic…”

 

Koenma had been chewing the boys out like this for what had seemed like an eternity. For someone who had the body of a baby, he sure had some powerful lungs.

 

“Oh give me a break, pacifier addict,” interrupted Yusuke, “You never told how they were able to travel through time! How were we supposed to know it was that dried-up well?”

 

“Yeah,” added Kuwabara. “And it would have been nice to know about that sword too! That thing was bigger than me!”

 

Koenma sighed and slouched down into his chair. The boys were right, and he knew it. Intelligence clearly hadn't done enough digging for this mission on either the suspects or the case as a whole. Judging from the boys' report, Inuyasha possessed nearly seven times the amount of power then had been previously reported, and overlooking something as powerful as that sword he was wielding could have proved deadly. Even the report on Kagome seemed inaccurate. If she possessed so much power, then why hadn't she helped her friend? Nothing made sense.

 

“Unfortunately, at this point we have no choice but to continue the case,” said Koenma after a deep breath. “There's no way that we'll be able to get any more intelligence on this case now that they know we're after them. In fact, I doubt they'll return to the current time period for months.”

 

“So how are we supposed to go after them?” Yusuke queried skeptically. “Dig a hole in the well until we reach the feudal era?”

 

“Did you think that Kagome's well was the only place in Japan where you could travel through time, Yusuke?” responded Koenma. “Because, for your information, I happen to know a place where I can send you to the feudal era without a problem.”

 

“Wait a sec…” said Kuwabara, putting his hand on his chin as if in deep thought. “If we follow them…then couldn't they just come back here?”

 

“Hey, he's got a point for once,” commented Yusuke smugly.

 

“Are you calling me stupid?! I'm plenty smart! I just passed a math test the other day!”

 

“Yeah, right before failing one in history.”

 

“All right, that's it! I'll take you on right here, Urameshi!”

 

“Remind me again, how many loses do you have against me? Five hundred?”

 

As the boys continued to argue, Koenma thought about the situation. Kuwabara had been right, if they went into the feudal era, then the targets would escape like last time. At this point there wasn't much of a choice though, so they would just have to be careful and come up with a good plan on the go.

 

“…I'm not the one with a creepy obsession with kittens!”

 

“Kittens are cute and cuddly! All the cool people like kittens, and that's not you, so you're not cool!”

 

`I'd better send Kurama with them,' noted Koenma. `Hiei too, for that matter. Anyone's a better thinker than these two numbskulls.'

 

000000000000000000000000000000000000

 

Yusuke and Kuwabara stood in front of the stone archway of an ancient temple about twenty-five miles outside of Tokyo as they waited for the rest of the team to arrive. Koenma had said that the situation would be explained once they were all assembled. They'd only been waiting for a few minutes, but it hadn't taken long for them to start arguing again.

 

“I'm telling you, Kuwabara, those clothes look stupid as hell,” Yusuke said, referring to Kuwabara's white trench coat and pants that he had previously worn in the final round of the Dark Tournament. “I mean come on, pink writing?”

 

“It's not pink, it's light purple,” corrected Kuwabara angrily. “And we're going back in time, so I at least was smart enough to know that my other clothes would look stupid in the past.”

 

“Didn't you see the chick?” Yusuke pointed out. “She was in her uniform. There's no way that my clothes could be worse than a girl's high school uniform.”

 

Kuwabara was trying to come up with an insult when he heard Hiei and Kurama arrive behind them.

 

“See? They aren't dressed like idiots either.”

 

“Shut up, Urameshi.”

 

Before Kurama could ask what they were talking about or Hiei could call both boys idiotic, Koenma, Botan, and Koenma's ogre assistant, George, appeared with a small popping sound and a burst of smoke.

 

“Good, it looks like everyone's ready. I guess I should give you the details,” began Koenma before pointing up towards the archway. “This archway you see here is referred to as the “gateway to the ages”. It's well over one thousand years old, and it has the potential to transport you to any time you wish, should you have to power and knowledge necessary to do so. I have both of these.”

 

“So, you just zap us through that thing, we get the shards, and you zap us back right?” guessed Yusuke hopefully. “I just want to get this over with.”

 

“Well, if you're in such a rush, I'll just get straight to the point then,” Koenma snapped, a little irked that he had been interrupted. “Here's the deal: I can send you there, but in order to get back, you're going to need at least ninety percent of the Sacred Jewel…”

 

“Wait, what?” blurted Kuwabara. “How many shards is that?”

 

“A lot. They're scattered all over Japan in that era, but you'll have to find them somehow,” answered Koenma.

 

“Don't worry about finding them,” stated Hiei. “Nothing can escape my Jagan's notice.”

 

Kuwabara almost shivered as the Jagan Eye glowed on cue from behind Hiei's headband. Even after being saved by Hiei more than once, the fire demon still gave him the creeps.

 

“As I was saying, you'll also need this,” continued Koenma, taking a small silver amulet out of his pocket and tossing it to Yusuke. “There's a small scroll inside that needs to be read by a priest or priestess at this gate when you have enough of the jewel. Don't worry, I've already made sure the spell will send you to the correct time, and that amulet should protect it during a fight.”

 

“How long is this mission gonna' take, tike?” asked Yusuke, although he already knew the answer.

 

“As long as it takes you to get enough of the Jewel to get home, obviously. Didn't I just say that?” answered Koenma impatiently, to which Yusuke responded to by sighing in despair.

 

“Don't worry, Yusuke,” assured Botan cheerfully, “I've already let Keiko know. She wasn't happy, but I think she understands.”

 

“All right, then what are we waiting for?” said Yusuke with renewed enthusiasm from Botan's assurance.

 

The other Spirit Detectives nodded in agreement, and they stepped towards the archway.

 

“Here goes,” announced Koenma, and he began to direct his energy towards the gate.

 

“How come he doesn't need the spell or the jewel thingy?” whispered Kuwabara to Kurama, who he'd always thought knew everything and then some.

 

“He is the master of Spirit World, Kuwabara,” Kurama replied in a respectfully quiet tone. “When you're that high up on the ladder, you're bound to have an amount of unique powers.”

 

The archway glowed a deep purple, and with a sudden burst of energy a vortex of the same color appeared in the middle of it. Without so much as a second though, the team stepped into portal.

 

00000000000000000000000000000000000

 

Yusuke stood under archway and looked around, completely puzzled. Yusuke had seen a lot of movies with time travel in them. They usually involved falling down some crazy hypnotic tunnel, or lightning or…something.

 

“That's it?” he complained to nobody in particular. “All that hype, and all a get is a lousy flash of light? Time travel sucks.”

 

No one else seemed to share his disappointment, though. Kuwabara was making sure his trench coat was undamaged, and Kurama was at the base of a nearby tree that Hiei had jumped up on top off immediately after their arrival.

 

“South,” stated Hiei before leaping down from the tree and putting his headband back on.

 

“What are you talking about?” queried Kuwabara as he walked over to the short demon.

 

“The girl and her mutt. They're to the south, you buffoon,” answered Hiei sharply before beginning to walk off in the stated direction.

 

“Botan let us in on today's events when we she summoned us to the shrine, so we know all the details,” explained Kurama, looking up at the sun's position before continuing. “We should depart. If we want to catch up to them, we should begin as soon as possible.”

 

Kuwabara nodded in understanding and the Spirit Detectives started off towards their quarry.