Seven Samurai of Anime: A joint project of Steven Cornett, Gary Kleppe,
Ken Arromdee, Donny Cheng, Andrew Petalik, Vincent Seifert, and Ethan
Tsai. The other stories can be found on http://www.sbm.org/stories/ssoa
Disclaimer: Inuyasha characters portrayed in story are the property of
Rumiko Takahashi and co. The rest are of my own mind and that of the
groups.
C&C welcomed.
Seven Samurai of Anime: Kagome Introduction
by
Donny Cheng
"Huh?" a woman let out an involuntary sound as she looked up. Her eyes
saw an ordinary house. There were various slips of paper around the
house with words scribbled over there. From what the memories of her
host and what she learned of the world in these past few weeks, she knew
that the humans called them wards. This meant this was a temple of some
sort. Her superiors had debriefed her about the dangers of such a
place. One of their kind had already been inadvertently 'exorcised' by
a priest. Fortunately, this was not going to be a common occurrence as
the host had to have a strong belief in such supernatural things.
She could not explain the sensation that passed over her as looked at
the house. Something about it had made her stop and pause even though
she was already late for checking in with the headquarters. Not knowing
how else to quench this sudden need to find out more of the place, she
decided to search for a way inside without alerting anyone to her
presence. The only thing that could come close to what she was
experiencing was the feeling she had come home. "General, are you
picking up these readings?"
<<Yes,>> came a voice that only the woman could hear, <<proceed with
caution. We suspect the readings are magical in nature. Back up is
being sent to your location.>>
"Yes, sir," the woman said as she finished receiving her orders. The
woman, once called Yuri, was now a reborn Fellani by the name of Maera.
She continued her search in silence and smiled as she found the backdoor
to the outer wall unlocked. Slipping inside, she found herself in the
backyard. There was nothing noteworthy around her, save for an old
shack. The tingling sensation her human body produced told her that
that was the source of this magic.
It took her only a moment to rip the wards off of the entrance and
enter. Inside, she found what to be an old well. As she neared it, the
readings being sent back to her became stronger. It was definitely
magical in nature. Pausing only to give HQ the coordinates of her
whereabouts, she climbed over and dropped into the well. The buzzing of
the node on her ear was the only indication she received that something
strange had happened.
When she landed on the ground, she could not see anything around her
that had drawn her to this place. After searching the area around her
and finding only dried up bones of creatures she did not recognize, she
decided that something was amiss. Checking back with the node on her
ear, she found the buzzing had stopped. "What was the problem?"
The node remained silent.
Maeri frowned. This was most peculiar. She made her way back to the
entrance and climbed out. Perhaps when the others got to where she was,
it would help things. Open air greeted her as she left the well. Her
jaw dropped as she momentarily lost control of her body and her human
host exerted control. The both of them were stunned as where was once
an old shack, there was a forest in its place.
Maeri cursed herself for her foolishness. She should have waited for
back up. It was then the feeling of 'home' shot through her. The sense
of rightness was never more strong than now. She looked around her. It
was to the left about one hundred paces. How she knew this without the
help of her node, she did not know. All she could think of was to race
towards whatever it was. The trees passed by with a blur, their
branches scraping along her arms, but she ignored the pain. The urgency
she felt outweighed any discomfort she may have had.
Her body was out of breath as she entered a clearing. Again, her human
mind almost regained control as she was stunned by what she saw. A word
almost escaped from her human host's lips before Maeri took hold of her
senses and maintained her silent spying of the creature. *A demon,* she
gleaned from her half conscious host. A feline demon of some sort, from
its resemblance to a cat; It appeared to be humanoid but its ears,
hands, and feet all had a remarkable catlike appearance to them. To
Maeri, however, one word screamed out at her as she gazed at the
creature that was busy devouring what appeared to be a large fish.
Fellani.
Maeri fumbled with the conversion device she carried with her. *Damn,
the node is not working,* she cursed. *Hmm... maybe it doesn't have
to.*
She quickly took a hand and moved it along her ear feeling for the
node. Everything seemed to be working in perfect order, except that she
wasn't receiving any signals from headquarters. She deduced that she
had either shifted to another space or time different from where she
originated. Entering the well again might fix that problem. The
thought of it failing to work did not deter her one bit. All she could
think of was imagining the surprise of all her fellow Fellani when she
reentered the world in a body that so resembled their own.
It would be tricky, but Maeri had the notion of using herself for the
conversion process. Instead of another Fellani being downloaded through
her node, it would be Maeri herself. She quickly set the conversion
device to target the creature in front of her and modified the node to
use her mind for the download data. She then took out another node
similar to her own and got ready for what she was about to do.
There would be no pillar of light as the ship was not in the same
dimension or time as her, so she would have to do it the hard way.
"Hey! You!" she called and let out a smirk as the beast looked up in
her direction. It took only a second for it to run towards her and
another second to find its arm buried within her body. *Magnificent.
The body of the creature is simply magnificent.*
Had Maeri been a normal human she would have died on the spot, however
she was not normal. Her mind was still active even though her body was
dying. She forced her limping arms up and placed the node on the
creature's ears. And it was done.
Maeri blinked. She found herself looking through the slitted eyes of
her new host at the dead body of the woman she had previously
controlled. The creature's mind was not nearly as strong as a developed
one like those of the humans, so controlling this new body was not hard
at all. The body itself was incredible. She was wrong, it was not the
same as that of the Fellani, but it was definitely close. She could
feel power surging through her. It was magic. This creature had the
ability the human woman lacked.
She rapidly tried to recall some of the magic the Fellani once were
able to perform before they lost their bodies. So engrossed in her
thoughts she did not notice the approach of a long winding serpent-like
creature flying through the air.
Maeri looked up a second too late as she felt her new body just as
suddenly die. The last thing her eyes saw was the unearthly beauty of a
woman staring down at her. *Magic. I never thought that would be the
way I would die.*
* * * * *
Kikyo looked down dispassionately. The soul-carrying youkai swarmed
around her. Two of them brought her the souls of the recently
departed. She had witnessed the possession of the cat demon by this
woman. She had been surprised to learn that a human could hold two
souls. She took the glowing balls from the youkai as they offered it to
her. The soul that possessed that of the cat demon was unlike anything
she had felt before. It was not of demon descent. It was of mortal
blood.
It took only a moment for the two shining orbs to pass into her
demon-made body of bone and dirt. The glowing ball that was once a
human woman went unnoticed to her as she felt the power of the other new
occupant within her body. It was strong like none other that she had
seen before. Had the person that tried to contain this soul not been
her, she highly doubted they would have been able to maintain control of
their minds such was its strength. Kikyo found that the soul, bereft of
its body, still had a strong conscious mind.
It took only a minor spell on her part to totally bend the soul to her
will. She smiled ironically at what she was doing. Once a priestess
that helped the dead depart the world in peace, she now subverted them
to her will. She smiled as the now helpful soul told her of a race
called the Fellani.
Kikyo's eyes glittered as she walked of the clearing in the direction
the human woman had mindlessly stumbled through. The strength of these
souls were enormous. One was more than twice the strength of that of a
human woman. If she could get her hands on more...
* * * * *
Kagome looked up from her homework. She had heard something. She was
sure of it. The well!
After putting on her slippers, she raced down the stairs and outside,
not bothering to worry if she would wake anyone up. Something was
wrong. A strange feeling passed over her. It was unmistakable, but she
had to make sure.
When she arrived, a dreadful feeling came over her. Several bodies
littered the area. Gulping nervously, she put a hand to the throat of
the one of the people on the ground. She sighed as she found that they
were still alive.
She then looked around the area, trying to find some evidence to
support her theory of what happened. Her head jerked sideways as she
caught sight of a winding tail of a youkai disappearing around the
corner. It was one of those youkai that gathered for a certain dead
priestess. Kikyo.
Kagome quickly sidestepped all of the bodies on the ground and jumped
into the well. She had to find Inuyasha.
* * * * *
<<Report.>> Keltra ordered.
<<The back up sent to aid Maeri have all disappeared. We were
fortunate in that their memories have all been uploaded before they left
the world. All, that is, except those of our female brethren. Attempts
to access the databanks containing Maeri and the other female Fellani
have failed. Only conclusion that can be deduced from this is that they
are still alive in some form or another on earth.>>
*The built in safety, preventing us from making the mistake of having
doubles of a particular Fellani,* Keltra thought to himself. *The
computer could keep track of the life force of every Fellani on
earth.* <<The hosts?>> he asked out loud.
<<Still alive and reinforcements have them in custody.>>
He went over the new information before him carefully. This was an
unknown factor that could end up being a problem. <<This contradicts
with our theories of the powers of the priests of this world. Not many
of the people sent were superstitious enough to believe in exorcism, yet
you say all of them were expelled from their hosts by this woman.>>
<<Not necessarily. Mass tests in this area have been conducted in the
recent weeks and they all point towards the same. Faith _is_ needed for
exorcism to work on us and even then it only works on the weaker willed
of our people. Our reports indicate this was no ordinary priestess. So
she may be outside of the norm.>>
<<Was the person identified?>>
<<The picture matches that with the resident of the house in question.
However, there are slight differences and reports indicate that the
woman responsible may not have been alive. No life signs were detected
to be specific.>>
<<Magic?>> he asked. Magic was rare in this world of the humans, the
Fellani have found and any they found was to be jealously guarded.
<<Yes, we suspect it is so.>>
<<The name of the girl she matches with?>>
<<A girl by the name of Kagome.>>
<<Find her.>>
* * * * *
End of introduction.