AM--Chapter 4

Chapter 4: An Explanation

After a couple minutes of walking from the school to the Cul-De-Sac, they reached Rolf’s house and walked inside.

“Umm…” Shika muttered as they walked into Rolf’s house, “Why is his furniture covered in plastic…?” she whispered a little to Eddy.

Eddy only shrugged his shoulders, "How should I know?"

“Mama!” Rolf called out to the empty house.

“Yes, what is it?” A woman walked out from one room.

It was when the woman came into the room that she noticed everyone there, “… Ah, so it is finally happening.”

“What are you talking about?” Eddy asked.

“… It is a story from long, long ago…” Rolf’s mother started to explain as everyone started to sit down on Rolf's furniture... though some of them tried to get use to the plastic.

“You see,” she started to explain, “Long ago in ancient Japan, a very powerful miko, or priestess, named Midoriko, was the most powerful miko in her time. She battled hundreds of demons, annihilating them with no trouble. In a particular battle though, she fought for seven days and seven nights until one demon finally got its fangs into Midoriko. All she could do was to force her own soul out of her body and seal the demon. What came out of her was the Shikon no Tama; the sacred jewel. That's what your holding child.” Yumi looked from her to the fragments of the jewel resting on her palm.

“Wait hold on,” Eddy interrupted, “If the jewel was whole, why is it broken?”

“This is what happened,” Rolf’s mom continued, “The jewel was passed down to demon to demon, becoming more tainted with evil until a group of demon slayers found it inside a demon. All they could do was send to the miko who had unusually strong purification powers even for a miko, Kikyou. She kept guard of the jewel and killed every demon that came to take it away. She then met a hanyou, a half- demon named Inuyasha. They both had a very rocky start; he tried to take the jewel from her so he can become a full-fledged demon and she merely got her arrows and shot him to the tree. In the meantime, Kikyou was harboring a fugitive bandit named Onigumo. He also wanted the jewel and Kikyou. Kikyou and Inuyasha’s friendship grew into love and Kikyou had the idea to use the jewel for turning Inuyasha into a human, the jewel being purified in the process. Onigumo joined forces with numerous demons and they merged together to become a frightening demon called Naraku. He set a trap for both Kikyou and Inuyasha.

“Naraku, disguised as Inuyasha, mortally wounded Kikyou and made her believe that Inuyasha betrayed her and later he disguised as Kikyou and tried to attack Inuyasha. Inuyasha, out of fury, attacked Kikyou's village and stole the jewel from the temple. Kikyou, out of anger, reached the last vestiges of her strength and sealed Inuyasha to the Goshinboku, the tree that had the power to transcend time. He fell into a deep sleep and Kikyou died on the same day, being cremated along with the jewel so no evil could posses it.”

The room stood silent as they continued to listen to Rolf's mother's story…

“Fifty years had passed and in modern Japan, a ninth grader named Kagome went inside to her family's well house and she was pulled into the well by a demon, claiming that she had the jewel in her body. Unknowingly, she did. She made it through, and she was in Feudal Japan. Kagome found Inuyasha, still under the spell and some villagers her and took her to Kikyou’s village. There, Kikyou’s younger sister, Kaede, noticed that Kagome had a strong resemblance to Kikyou and she knew that Kagome was her sister’s reincarnation. Later in the night, Kagome accidently awakened Inuyasha and set him free. Inuyasha did not like Kagome because he thought she was Kikyou. But Kagome, with the jewel out of her body, destroyed a demon that was about to steal the jewel with an arrow but by doing so, the jewel accidently broke into shards and spread out into the land.”

“Oh, wow…” gasped Shika a little as Ed leaned in closer to hear the story even more.

“Inuyasha and Kagome putted aside their differences and began to look for the shards. Kagome had the ability to sense the shards at their exact location and on their way; Inuyasha wielded the Tetsusaiga, his father’s sword that had the ability to slay a hundred demon sin one strike. Along their way, a witch named Urasuse, resurrected Kikyou using bones, her grave soil, and part of Kagome’s soul. Kikyou still kept a strong need for revenge and almost succeeded killing Inuyasha once, but Kagome stopped it when her body tried to call back her soul out of Kikyou’s body and some soul was left inside Kikyou. Kikyou left, and Inuyasha and Kagome, along the way, made many friends.

“Miroku was a monk who had a curse placed on his right hand called kazaana, or wind tunnel. It was placed by Naraku to Miroku’s grandfather and the curse became hereditary and as long as Naraku lives, it would eventually swallow them in.

“Sango was a strong demon slayer that lost her entire family and village due to Naraku and her little brother, Kohaku, was being controlled by him and pitted them against each other. He was killed along with the village but was brought back to life by a shard of the jewel.

“Shippo was a fox demon whose father was killed and he tried to take the shards that Kagome found to take on his father’s killers. Inuyasha killed Shippo’s father killers and all five of them traveled together in search of the shards and Naraku.”

“Fasinating…” Double D muttered a little under his breath as she continued to explain.

“In one particular battle; Kagome, Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Inuyasha, Kouga, a wolf youkai and a friend to them, Kouga's comrades, Ginta, Hakkaku, and Ayame, and Kikyou were all battling Naraku. They almost won but, Naraku managed to fatal wound Kagome and she made it that the jewel was into separate pieces and got absorbed into Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango, Kouga, Kikyou, and herself and get reincarnated back so their reincarnations could defeat him.”

The room was silent for a moment before Eddy spoke, “… What does all of this have to do with us…?”

“You are their reincarnations,” she said.

This came as a shock to everyone, “What?!” they all exclaimed with disbelief.

“B-But… how can that be?!” Double D questioned with a mutter in his voice.

“Simple,” Rolf’s mom explained, “Shards of the jewel were inside each of your bodies.”

The teens soon looked down at the shards of pink rocks in Yumi’s hands, “You mean these things…?” Ed questioned.

“Yes, those,” Rolf's mom said as she then turned to Yumi, “Your name is Yumi, am I correct?" Yumi nodded. “With your sister, hold the shards in your hand and cover it up with your hand and your sister puts one hand on top of your top hand and bottom.”

“Umm… Okay, come on Kiyoshi,” Kiyoshi went to Yumi as she then clasped her hands together. Kiyoshi placed her hands on top of Yumi’s hands and concentrated.

Within moments, their hands started to grow a blinding pink light and then they removed their hands. In Yumi’s hands, the sacred jewel was in it’s whole form.

“What the…?” Eddy muttered a little after they saw the whole jewel come back together.

“Oh my goodness…” Double D was able to gasp.

“Ooo, cool!” Ed gasped a little with a wide smile on his face.

“That proves it,” Rolf’s mom stated, “Yumi, you are the reincarnation of Kagome. And Kiyoshi, you are the reincarnation of Kikyou,”

Kiyoshi and Yumi both had looks of disbelief on their faces.

“Ooo, ooo; who am I, who am I?!” Ed questioned as he waved his hands in the air a little with another smile on his face.

“Hold on,” Rolf’s mom explained, “You, with the hat.”

Double D looked up, “Me?”

“Yes, you,” Rolf’s mother replied as she pulled out a sword with the blade still inside the sheath. “Try to transform this.”

“Umm… O-Okay…” Double D replied back as he then grabbed hold of the sword and pulled out the blade. The blade started to glow a golden yellow and transformed into a giant, fang-looking blade.

“W-What the heck?!” Eddy yelped as Double D looked on with shock at what just happened, “H-How…?!”

“You are the reincarnation of Inuyasha,” Rolf's mom declared.

“… I-I am…?” questioned Double D as he looked at the sword he held in his hand.

“You, loudmouth,” Rolf’s mom started to say to Eddy.

“… Yeah?” Eddy started to say, “What?”

“Come outside with me. You too,” She said to Eddy and Double D.

The two of them only shrugged their shoulders as they then followed her to the backyard to a desolate part of their yard.

“You, with the sword,” she started to say, “Hold up the sword and repeat these words: Wind Scar.”

Double D looked at her with confusion as first, but then only nodded his head. He then yelled out, “Wind Scar!” and brought down the blade. Golden streaks of light then burst from the blade as it destroyed everything in front of him.

Eddy only looked on with shock as he looked back at Double D, who also had a look of shock across his face, “H-How the heck did you do that?!”

“I… I-I don't really know…” Double D replied to his short friend, “It felt natural to me…”

While Double D was distracted by his friend’s questions to him, Rolf’s mom went up behind Double D and snatched his beloved hat off his head. Everybody gasped as they stared at the top of his head.

“Huh? What are you looking at?” Double D asked with a bit of cluelessness.

“Those,” Eddy muttered, pointing to the top of his head.

Still confused, Double D looked into a puddle and widened his jade eyes. His normal blond hair was there, but on top of his head were two, silver dog ears.

“W-Where did these come from?” Double D started to question, “Are they even real?” he then started pulling on them as he made a natural flinch, “Yep, they’re real,” he muttered.

“They look so cute,” Yumi stated with a bit of cutesy voice, “I wanna touch them,” Kiyoshi stated.

“Umm… N-No touching, please,” Double D muttered with a little nervousness as he back away from the two girls.

“You, with the yellow shirt,” Rolf’s mom stated as she pointed to Eddy.

Eddy turns to Rolf’s mom with a bit of confusion, “Huh? Me?”

“Come over here,” she said.

“… Alright,” Eddy walked over next to her and she pointed to where Double D’s sword made all the destruction on the ally. “I want you to clean it up,” she simply stated.

“What?! Why should I do it?! It’ll take a week!” Eddy fumed.

“No, it’s not. Listen, hold out your right hand and repeat these words ‘Wind Tunnel’,” she said.

“Alright… crazy,” Eddy muttered under his breath.

“What was that?” she turned around.

“Err, nothing!” Eddy replied back.

“Okay everyone, hold on to something sturdy that won’t easily fly away,” Rolf's mom commanded. They all headed behind a giant rock with peaks and held on.

Eddy took in a little bit of a deep breath as he raised his right hand up towards all of the debris in front of him and shouted, “Wind Tunnel!”

Black wind soon burst through his right hand began sucking everything into his hand into oblivion. Everyone behind the rock held on tightly as they clenched their eyes shut.

“H-How do I stop this crazy thing!?” Eddy yelled through the noise. “Catch!” Rolf’s mom shouted as she threw a turquoise-colored beads on a cord and Eddy caught it. “How’s this supposed to stop it?!” Eddy yelled.

“Wrap it around your right hand. Impudent child.” she yelled back.

Eddy soon did as he was told as he wrapped the turquoise beads around his right hand. The black wind soon stopped coming towards him and his right hand after he wrapped the beads around his hands.

Eddy soon turned to Rolf's mother, “Alright, what the heck just happened to my hand, huh?!” he questioned with a bit of demand in his voice.

“You are Miroku’s reincarnation, so the cursed passed to you,” she explained.

“Wait, what curse?!” Eddy shouted, demanding to know.

“Were you even paying attention at all?” Rolf’s mom stated as she sighed heavily. Eddy shook his head. “I hate to repeat myself, but listen closely. Your right hand now is basically a ticking time bomb. If you so ever, and let’s hope to God that this doesn’t happen, remove those beads without no intention, you will suck up everything in your path…” she then looked at him with seriousness in her eyes, “And you should never open the wind tunnel to suck up deadly poison, or you will die a slow and painful death,” Eddy gulped.

“Oh dear…” muttered Double D as his new dog ears twitched a little bit with sadness, “This is becoming serious now, isn’t it…?”

“Yes it is, but I’m not done yet,” Rolf’s mom stated as she then turned to Yumi and Kiyoshi, “You, with the jewel and her sister; please come over here.”

Yumi and Kiyoshi stood up and walked over. Rolf’s mom gently placed a red bow with an arrow in Yumi’s hands and a brown, longbow and an arrow in Kiyoshi’s hands, “Show me your purifying arrow.” Rolf’s mom stated as she then stood back.

Yumi and Kiyoshi shrugged and began to hold up their bows, pulled back the arrows, and released them with full force. Blinding pink light erupted from their arrows and exploded with light once the arrows reached the end of the ally.

Everyone stood there in shock at what they had just done; even Yumi and Kiyoshi stood there in surprise.

Double D broke the silence, “What was that?” he asked, his dog ears twitched.

“That was so cool!” Ed exclaimed, waving his arms all over the place.

“That, what you just witnessed, is the very immense, powerful spiritual power that only the reincarnations of Kikyou and Kagome could only ever possess. Added with Yumi’s and Kiyoshi’s individual spiritual power, they may possibly surpass Kikyou and Kagome.” Rolf's mom explained.

“Whoa hold on,” Eddy interrupted, “What’s spiritual power?”

“It is the power of your soul. With that, girls that know about this are able to create arrows enchanted with spiritual power or create spirit shields, or barriers, boys only get to use it for barriers, like you.” she further explained.

“That’s... really interesting, I guess…” Shika muttered, finally opening up to what was going on.

Rolf’s mom turned around and faced Shika, “You.”

“M-Me…?” Shika stuttered a little with a bit of a gasp, “Y-Yes, what do you want…?”

“Come, over here,” Rolf’s mom started from the green shed as everybody else followed.

She opened the shed that was normally filled barn animals, but it was empty and sitting in a corner was a dusty, enormous boomerang that anybody has seen, “Pick it up. If you are Sango’s reincarnation, it should be as light as a feather.”

“A-Alright…” Shika replied to her as she walked over to the huge boomerang and proceeded to pick it up. And, it was just as Rolf’s mother had said; it was as light as a father for her, “What…?” Shika questioned as she turned to Rolf's mother for an answer, “How am I able to do this…?”

“You are Sango’s reincarnation,” Rolf’s mom replied as she then walked to the entrance of the shed and called out, “Kirara, please come here!”

“Kirara?” Double D asked, his dog ears twitching a bit.

Double D’s ears picked up a quiet, faint mewing sound. Then, a cute kitten appeared next to Rolf’s mom. The kitten had big, crimson red eyes with midnight black irises, cream colored fur, black ears and black fur on its paws. What took Double D by surprise was the weird, black, star like marking on the kitten's forehead and the fluffy, two tails tipped with black.

Shika was also surprised to see the kitten, “W-What kind of cat is that…?” she started to question as she seem to feel herself walking over to the kitten as the cat mewed and jumped on to Shika’s left shoulder.

Shika seemed to jump a little at the sudden action from the small cat, but then felt oddly comfortable after a few seconds or so. It felt like she had met this cat before…

“Strange…” Shika muttered as she turned to Rolf's mother, “How come this cat feels… so familiar…?”

“There’s no reason that Kirara can’t recognize you. She knows you’re Sango,” Rolf’s mom simply said.

“Oh… I see, I think…” Shika muttered as she glanced back at the cat named Kirara, a little smile now across her face when Kirara rubbed her fur up against her head a little with a little purr.

“So, is this thing over?” Eddy asked with a little annoyance in his voice.

“Be patient,” Rolf's mom replied. She then pointed to Ed, “You, tall one. Follow me.”

“Uh, okay!” Ed stated back as he followed Rolf’s mother to wherever they were going.

They all followed Ed and Rolf’s mom to the middle of the barnyard, “Do me this one thing,” Rolf's mom said, “Start running around in the yard.”

Ed grinned widely, “Ok!” he replied as he made his way to the middle of the yard.

“Great, what’s this going to prove?” Eddy muttered.

“Silence, you soon find out,” Rolf’s mom replied as Eddy made a mocking face to her. Ed started running around in his usual speed as he then noticed that he was starting to run faster and faster, the others noticed as well.

Suddenly, Ed disappeared in a spinning, mini tornado as the others gasped at the site, “You can stop know!” Rolf’s mom yelled out. Ed abruptly stopped, the tornado disappeared as well.

“Now Yumi, Kiyoshi; tell me something, do you sense or see anything?” Rolf’s mom asked the two sisters.

Yumi and Kiyoshi immediately exclaimed, “There’s some kind of glow coming from his legs!”

“Really?” questioned Ed as he looked down at his legs, “I didn’t see my legs glow…”

“To an ordinary pair of eyes,” Rolf’s mom explained, “Kiyoshi and Yumiko have a very acute and special power that allows them to see or sense any jewel shard.”

“Wait, I thought the jewel was complete,” Kiyoshi muttered.

“Look again,” Rolf's mom replied as Yumi then held out the jewel and quietly gasped. On the backside of the glowing jewel, a medium- sized crevice was present.

"So… it’s not a complete jewel…” Double D muttered as his new dog ears dropped down a little. He then glanced back at Ed, “But that must mean…?”

“Two shards are embedded into your friend’s legs right now, but there are more shards out there, and must never fall into the evil hand’s of those who lust for power,” Rolf’s mom said in a very serious tone.

“So…” Eddy started to say as everyone turned to him, “What’re we gonna do now, now that crazy stuff’s happenin’ to us?”

“First of all, all of you must never show your powers in front of anyone, only use it when you are being attacked,” Rolf’s mom started to explain, “Right know, there is something strange going on, and it looks to be searching for the reincarnations. So, whatever you do, don’t trust those that look suspicious.”

“Okie-Dokie!” Ed replied with a little salute of his right hand.

“Yeah, whatever you say…” Eddy replied as he crossed his arms across his chest.

“We’ll keep these secrets to ourselves,” Double D stated as he turned to everyone, “Right?”

Kiyoshi and Yumi smirked and exclaimed in perfect timing, “Right!”

Double D made a little sigh, “That's good…” he stated as he put back on his hat.

“Okay then, you can leave; but be careful tomorrow,” Rolf’s mom warned.

“W-We will…” Shika replied back with a little stutter in her voice as Kirara purred a little purr beside her.

They all started to walk into the center of the Cul-De-Sac, saying their byes as they walked off to their houses…

… But far away, into the deep forest, a young woman smirked as she saw this through a young girl’s mirror next to her.

The young woman looked to be in her late teens with midnight black hair tied into a some sort of bun with two feathers adorning it, blood red eyes with magenta eye liner, green beaded earrings, and her lips had some sort of red lip coloring. She wore a red and white kimono with a blue and green layer under it. She sat on a tree branch next to a little girl.

The little girl was all a ghostly white with a white kimono and two white flowers adorned her snow white hair. Her face wore an emotionless expression and her obsidian colored eyes looked hollow. She held a round, golden framed mirror which played the scene with Ed, Eddy, Double D, Yumi, Shika and Kiyoshi.

“Kagura, it has begun,” the little girl’s monotone voice rang out.

The teenager smirked, “Good work Kanna, let’s go.”

Kagura pulled out a feather from her hair and wind gusted as they flew away on a giant feather, ‘Naraku would be pleased when he hears the brats have returned, not to mention the Shikon jewel,’ Kagura thought.