InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ "The Matrix Has You" ❯ Chapter 7 ( Chapter 7 )

“This is some complex code,” said Ram, typing furiously in the main keyboard of the ship's main computer. “Like nothing I've ever seen before. No wonder the machines are after this baby.” The long and complex symbols across the screen described the workings of the Shikon Jewel.

“Then the legend was real.” Arc said behind Ram, one of his hands resting on the top of Ram's chair as he looked over his shoulder. “Just shows you how powerful the human mind can be.” The bridge was empty except them, it was a slow day and most of the crew was planning on resting from getting Kagome and Inuyasha awoken.

“See if you can crack it somehow, hopefully we can figure some way to delete it.” Arc said as he turned around and walked to the ladder leading down to personal quarters.

“Sure thing!” yelled out Ram, still staring at the screen and typing. Once he knew that Arc was gone he pulled out his custom-designed headphones that connected to the computer, put them over his ears and started blasting heavy metal songs he had downloaded from the Matrix. Arc didn't approve of it but he often listened to music when working; it seemed to help him concentrate better. `Nothing better than Metallica while hacking,' he thought to himself when getting to what he did best.

 

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Kagome woke up to find herself alone again, her face in the mattress trying to remember what had happened the previous night. She remembered kissing Inuyasha; the image played again in her head: his strong, loving arms around her while looking in those deep, brown eyes of his.

There was a knock at the door and Kagome shot up, lost in the memory of the event. She became hopeful that was Inuyasha coming to great her.

“Kagome it's me…how are you doing?” She heard Arc say from outside her room. He sounded worried.

“A bit better, I guess.” she remembered the kiss more.

“Listen…I'm sorry about everything that has happened…It's dangerous taking people out of the Matrix as fast as we did, but we had no choice. There was a very good chance that you could've died.” Arc rested his back against the steel door in the hallway.

“It's okay…I just don't understand how those agent guys knew about the Jewel.”

“Well, you'll get to find out today. Wake Inuyasha and both of you meet me on the bridge.” Arc's voice suddenly changed to a commanding tone, going up the stepladder.

Kagome sat on the edge of the bed for at least five minutes before standing up and started turning the large handle on the door to go and wake Inuyasha. To her surprise Inuyasha was standing right outside of it. Also going to wake her up, Kagome assumed. They where both slightly shocked at the sudden appearance of each other, but were happy at the same time.

“Hey,” Inuyasha said simply, his voice much different from last night. His eyes told a different story when Kagome looked into them knowing that the event was true to heart.

“Hi,” Kagome said also simply more like her normal self, a small smile on her face. “Arc wants us both to meet him on the bridge; I think it has to do with the Jewel.”

“Good, `bout time we find out why he had it.” Inuyasha replied in his regular, tough voice. But Kagome knew rather well that it was just a hard shell outside of a soft center, but this was the Inuyasha she fell in love in the first place, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

“Well, let's go then.” Kagome said optimistically as she grabbed Inuyasha's hand and lead him to the ladder. Kagome looked back at him and with that beautiful smile of hers said, “Thanks, Inuyasha.”

Inuyasha smiled in return, completely understanding, and was glad that he had gotten Kagome back on her feet as he soon followed her up the ladder.

 

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“Damn it!” Ram yelled. “I can't get in it…there's some kind of internal protection program. Whoever made this didn't want people to hack it.”

Arc sighed, “A lot of its code is connected to the source, no wonder it's got the protection program.”

“So what are we going to do then? We have to destroy it somehow.”

“I'm not sure…I think I'm going to have to talk to the Oracle.”

“You think you'll be able to?” Ram asked, looking over his shoulder at Arc.

“Sure, I'm going to bring Kagome and Inuyasha with me.” Arc responded.

“Oh, ok. Well, I'll keep going at it; I ain't giving up that easily.”

Arc watched Ram type away. “All right, good luck then.”

“I don't need luck; you should know that by now!” Ram said in cocky tone, keeping his eyes on the screen and listened to Master of Puppets that had started playing.

Arc rolled his eyes and walked down the bridge to the ladder and helped Kagome up. “Glad to see you in higher sprits.” he said, seeing a definite change in emotions.

“All right, so what's up with the Jewel?” Inuyasha asked, expecting that something horrible had happened.

“Take a seat.” Arc said, voice changing to a serious tone.

 

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“The Jewel is a program?” asked Kagome, amazed and confused at the same time.

“And, I can assume, you already know it's a very powerful one also.”

“Too well.” spat out Inuyasha, recalling battles involved the shards.

“Right, so what exactly do you know the Jewel is able to do?”

“Well… mostly it was used by demons to increase their power. But it can be used for wishes, too.”

“Wishes?” asked Arc, puzzled.

“A person could use the Jewel to make their deepest desires a reality.” Kagome said as she also slowly recalled the legend of the Jewel.

“That makes sense, according to the code the Jewel has the capability of transforming coding around it, so basically the person who has the jewel can change the Matrix to their will.” Arc said as his strong hands rubbed his chin in thought.

Kagome and Inuyasha stared at him blankly, barley understanding anything he had just said. Arc chuckled as he saw their faces and remarked, “Yeah, I suppose I should tell you how that's supposed to work. The entire Matrix is made up of that.” Arc pointed to one of the screens, bright green symbols falling down only to disappear on it. “Everything and everyone in the Matrix is made up of that code, each of them with unique patterns which decides exactly how the program works.”

“But how come we've never seen the code before?” asked Inuyasha who was trying his best not to get lost.

“Your mind takes that code and translates it into the images you see. Besides, you had no knowledge of the code previously anyway.”

“So…” Kagome said, gradually trying to piece things together. “The Matrix is basically a computer?”

“You could say that, but it is more complex than of us can imagine.”

“If it is a program…then I'm not sure how Midoriko has to do with the creation of the Jewel.”

“She doesn't have anything to do with it.”

“What!?” exclaimed Inuyasha.

“We aren't sure on the details but supposedly about five years after the One War a group of rouge human programmers designed something that could change the very Matrix itself in ways only the machines could have done.”

“One War?” asked Kagome.

“Eh, I keep forgetting stuff. About 30 years ago the war between humans and machines came to an end with, in my opinion, a shaky peace thanks to the man called Neo, who was known as the `One.'”

“Then why is there still the Matrix?”

“Because the sun has been blocked out from the world; we have both realized that we needed each other to survive. The Matrix had many changes so that people were allowed to free themselves from it if they choose to, without the machines preventing them from doing so.

“In return the humans agreed to stop all attempts to overtake the machines, so that we can use the energy created from the machines for our needs. Even so there are still a lot of radicals of both humans and machines still intent on destroying the other.”

“So what happened to the Jewel then?” requested Inuyasha. He was having difficulty comprehending but understood the basics of what Arc was saying.

“Okay, so these human radicals have the Jewel right? And, of course, the machines can't allow them to use it in the Matrix, so they attack them in the physical world. The humans were destroyed quite easily so the machines attempted to delete the Jewel.

“But somehow because of the jewel's protection program, it actually put itself in an empty part of the Matrix with nothing around it. The machines had no idea and they assumed it was deleted.

“But the Jewel had actually planned the entire thing, which was part of its protection program, thus creating the world that you Kagome traveled to constantly which was known as the Sengoku Jedai, although it was filled with demons, other mythological creatures and magic. It connected to the normal Matrix using the Bone-Eater's Well.”

“So then if it was just a huge program, all of the people in it where just programs too?”

Arc paused. “Unfortunately, yes.” expecting Kagome to break down as she had done before, he braced himself.

Kagome frowned and looked down at the floor for a moment but didn't break into tears. Arc sighed silently, relived. It was good that Kagome was a strong willed woman, which was always important for the crew.

“But then how come Inuyasha is not a program?” Kagome asked, thoughts being all mixed up in a blur.

“Honestly we're not quite sure. My guess is when Inuyasha's mind was put inside the Matrix it was the exact same time the Jewel started creating its Feudal Japan program. So it may have got to there instead. But it's anyone's guess.”

“So wait…all the history there, everything that had previously happened before…”

“Never actually happened. Simply part of the complex world that the programmer that created the Jewel had designed.”

“So how did I end up getting mixed up into it?” Kagome asked.

“The Jewel needed someway to be able to return to the regular Matrix…”

“So it chose me?” Kagome interrupted, expecting to be part of a destiny written out for her.

“Not exactly, anyone with a complex code like yours could have had the same thing that happened to you on your 15th birthday.”

“Complex Code?” Inuyasha asked, interested.

“As I said, every program in the Matrix is made up of code. It's why you're a half-demon and why Kagome has priestess powers inside the Matrix.”

“But why?” she asked.

“Maybe it's fate…who knows, either way that's the basics of it.”

“So now what?” Inuyasha said.

“We have to destroy the Jewel somehow.”

“What? Why?!” Kagome, who had the most connection to Jewel than anyone else, blurted.

“It's dangerous. If a Radical Human or Program group got their hands on it, the war would start all over again. The only way for no one else to use it is to destroy it permanently.

“How are we going to do that?”

“That's the problem!” Ram yelled, still at the computer. “I can't get much anywhere without having to reboot. I hate to admit it but it seems I can't hack It.” he sat back in his chair and crossed his arms in annoyance.

“Don't worry, we'll figure something out.” said Arc, hoping to get Ram's hope up. Ram sat silently.

Arc smiled before he turned back to Inuyasha and Kagome and continued. “I've got some things to do right now, but you can stay here and do some training.”

“Feh, I'll don't need any training!” Inuyasha boasted.

“Believe me, you'll need It.” said Arc standing from one of the metal boxes they were sitting on. Inuyasha growled and considered smashing Arc's face in.

“Can you take care of that?” Arc called out to Ram.

“Ya, sure, whatever.” He said, once again typing. “Come, you two.” he said to Inuyasha and Kagome who where watching Arc leaving the bridge.

“How bout you first, Anuyasta? …Or whatever the hell your name is,” Ram said while they were walking. He was still annoyed about getting beat at what he did best and was determined to make everyone else suffer.

Inuyasha's eye twitched and was very tempted to attack Ram, especially since Kagome didn't have the ability to sit him. “I already said I don't need any stupid training.”

Ram turned and stared at him for a moment, his face unreadable. “Whatever. You can go first, Kagome.” he turned back to the screen.

“Um… how are we going to do the training?” Kagome asked. She wasn't sure if training in the real world would affect her or not in the Matrix considering that Inuyasha didn't have any of his demon powers.

“I'm going to download it into you.” Ram said as if it was normal as breathing.

“What?!” Kagome yelled in shock, for she had a basic knowledge of technology. Inuyasha just stared at both Ram and Kagome, confused.

“I take some sort of knowledge and put it inside your brain, which becomes part of your code so you can use it in the Matrix. Give it a try.” He was starting to clam down from the whole Jewel thing and was acting normal again.

“All right,” said Kagome unsurely as she slowly sat down in the chair next to Ram. Ram hooked her up, including the large needle into the back of her neck, with a small grunt of pain from Kagome.

“Okay, let's see,” Ram went through a box of what looked like normal floppy disks. “Let's start with something different. Martial Arts are always good… how `bout Shukokai?” he chose, pulling out one of the gray floppy disks.

“What?” Kagome had no idea what Ram was taking about. Inuyasha stood next to Kagome, unsure exactly what was going on.

“Here we go.” Ram put the disk into a drive of the computer and started typing. Kagome eyes were forced closed as she saw words speeding past her and saw herself using attacks she never could've done elsewhere. All the images were showing at an incredible fast pace and only lasted a few seconds.

Inuyasha watched in shock as Kagome sat the chair. Her entire head was twitching violently with her eyes closed. Inuyasha was about to yell at Ram before Kagome opened her eyes, breathing heavily.

“Kagome, you okay?” worriedly asked Inuyasha, looking her in the eye.

“Yeah and…I know Sukokai now.” Kagome smiled.

“Heh, what'd I tell you?” Ram watched from his chair. “Wanna do some more?”

“You bet!” Kagome exclaimed, realizing that she could be able to do much more than Sacred arrows once in a while.

 

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Twenty minutes later Kagome had learned how to fire at least ten different guns properly, four types of Kung Fu, and at least thirteen different types of martial arts, many of which she never heard of before.

Arc soon came by, “How's it going?” he asked Ram.

“I must say Kagome's very impressive, she's a lot tougher than she looks.”

“What about Inuyasha?”

“Still claims he doesn't need any training, `especially from a needle.'” Ran sighed, quoting him.

Kagome's eyes shot open from another download, this time learning how to drive a car at high speeds without getting totaled. She was breathing very deeply and there was sweat on her forehead. She was enjoying this but was starting to get tired.

“Looks like you enjoy it,” said Arc who pulled out the needle from the back of her neck and let her sit up.

“Yeah, it's amazing.”

“So you're sure you don't want to do any training?” Arc said, looking at Inuyasha.

“Listen I can fight just fine already! I am a half-demon, after all.”

“Oh? Then let's see then, shall we. Ram! Load up the sparing program!”

“Uh-oh,” Ram's eyes were fixed to the screen, knowing what Inuyasha was about to get himself into.

“After you,” Arc said politely, motioning toward the chairs.

“Feh!” Inuyasha spat and helped himself to the first chair. Arc sat in the one next to him and Ram hooked them both up.

“May the best man win.” he pushed the enter button on his keyboard.

Inuyasha closed his eyes in pain and found himself in a large meadow with bright green trees surrounding him in a perfect circle. He looked up and saw bright blue skies and white clouds. If he didn't know better he say he was back in Feudal Japan.

He looked down to see himself wearing the same bright red clothing he always wore and his claws at the end of his fingers. He could sense a light scent and felt the breeze passing his face. It felt like being able to see again after being blind.

He smelt another person nearby; it wasn't hard to notice since there was only one. He turned to see Arc standing in an all black outfit that made him look right at home.

“I thought you would have a better time fighting somewhere familiar.” Arc said. He was standing about 10 meters from him.

“Keh! It doesn't matter where, I'll still kick your ass,” Inuyasha shouted, cracking his fingers, glad that he had his demon strength back. He then noticed the Tetsusgia lying at his feet in its sheath.

“I thought a sword fight would be interesting.” Arc said, seeing Inuyasha pick up his sword.

“I was hoping for one.” Inuyasha pulled out the Tetsusgia and the blade transformed to its extremely large, deadly form.

Arc smiled and pulled out a sword of his own. “Ready?”

“Since we first met.” Inuyasha said, gripping the hilt of his sword tightly.

 

(A/N: If you don't like long stories of explanation…TOO BAD!! Obviously we have the Metalica reference my favorite band and “Master of Puppets” my favorite song by them. Thought it would be cool if Ram was an avid Heavy Metal fan-like me!! So next chapter Inuyasha and Arc have themselves a fight…. and yes Sukokai is a real martial art. I've also been playing around with making a presequel to this, with the creation of the Jewel by the rouge programmers email me at manaleak34@yahoo.com and yell at me wither you like it or hate it.)