Cursed

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or Ranma 1/2 characters. I do not make any profit from this.

PROLOGUE

The demon lord stood alone on a windswept hill, watching as the scouting party he’d sent out days earlier made their slow way back to him. His expression was somber as their mission had been a successful one and they had brought in the renegade, alive as requested. Slowly, his heart heavy with a regret he couldn’t afford to acknowledge, he turned and went down to meet the returning men.

Five days ago they’d taken this territory back from the rebellious clans, a bloody and tenacious battle had been fought at the foot of these mountains. He himself had led his army into battle and again they had made him fiercely proud. He was pleased to see that his training and leadership had begun to show their benefits. Their losses had been insignificant compared to the rebels. It was bitter moment for him still, not all of his losses had been counted in lives. His eyes met those of his lieutenant briefly before the man turned away out of respect for what his lord must be feeling.

Umani saluted his lord, dropping to one knee and bowing his head in what was custom for one of his clan to acknowledge his commander. He did not want to meet his lord’s gaze as he knew the moment had to be painful. He wished again that he had not been successful, but his lord had known what to expect when he sent out his best tracker after the renegade. “We have brought him in alive, sire.”

“I can see that,” his lord said softly. Umani had been his service for many years, in private, they could dispense with formalities and treat each other as the cousins they were. He rose slowly, averting his gaze out of respect was the least he could offer his general, a man he considered to be a friend. He sensed that his loouldould be comforted if they kept the report formal, but he couldn’t be entirely sure. No matter how he phrased it, the report was a death sentence for the prisoner.

“Sire,” he began, keeping his voice dutiful and emotionless. “We tracked our quarry for two days and two nights before capture. He attempted to elude us by destroying two human settlements in order to cover his trail. I apologize, sire, I was unable to get an accurate count of the casualties as there was no one left alive or recognizable. On the third day of our pursuit we managed to pick up his trail. As you had predicted, my lord, he was trying to reach his home territory ahead of us.”

Umani paused, he found it difficult to speak. His lord looked at him steadily. “Please, Umani, continue.”

He took a deep breath, willing himself to deliver the facts. “Sire, the renegade reached them before we could intervene. The entire Sutakasi clan has been slaughtered. We were unable to prevent the renegade from killing the rest of his family. I’m, I’m sorry, sire, there was nothing we could do.”

His lord turned away. “Anuki and the children too,” he murmured. He allowed himself one short moment for grief before turning an expressionless face to his lieutenant. Umani gestured quickly to a lithe demoness named Razani, his first cousin. She stepped forward, holding a bundle cradled in her arms. “My lord, we only arrived in time to rescue the youngest child, Lady Anuki must have hidden him when they were attacked. Razani smelled the baby’s milk and pulled him out of the debris. He had some superficial cuts, but is whole and healthy thanks to Razani’s nose.”

“Commend her,” the lord said. His light gaze brushed over Razani as she held the baby and she bowed her head respectfully. Umani continued his report. “We were able to restrain the prisoner from doing damage to himself and have brought him for your disposition.”

“Thank you, cousin,” the lord favored him with a reference to their blood ties. Even if his lord hadn’t been close kin, Umani would have followed him into hell itself, such was the loyalty the youkai lord inspired. “You have had a rough journey, I urge you and your team to take some rest. We move at dawn.”

Umani clapped his arm to his chest and bowed to his general. “Sire, what of the renegade?”

“You may leave him with me.” The lord’s voice was icy and hard. Two strong youkai moved forward, dragging a third. “On your knees, vermin,” one of them hissed. They threw him down and he lay there quietly, not speaking although he’d filled their ears with curses during the long trek back to their lord. His long black hair was filthy and matted, old bloodstains covered his clothing like a resume of death. The guards withdrew, Umani gestured roughly at them to follow him and not linger to hear the lord’s words.

“Have you got anything to say?” Now that his soldiers were out of earshot, the lord’s usually smooth voice roughened with emotion.

The prisoner sat up on his knees. He was one of the few living men would have dared to look the youkai lord in the eye so defiantly. His face was badly bruised, Umani’s squad had not been gentle in their task to bringing him to justice. He grinned, showing a few broken teeth in his swollen mouth.
“I have nothing to say to you, Sire,” he drawled mockingly, making the title sound like an insult. The demon looked down at him. “It didn’t have to come to this, Inoki. Whatever crimes you’ve committed, you know I would have spared your wife and children.”

Inoki spat at him. “Better they should die under my claws than live under your mercy. At least then they died honest deaths, better that than grow up hearing how their great lord spared their miserable lives out of his so called compassion.” Inoki started to laugh, but coughed up blood instead, a few of his ribs were shattered. If he hadn’t been half-demon, he would have died on the trip back.

“You betray me out of spite, I can understand that. But I thought I knew you too well to ever think you’d kill your own family. Anuki deserved better. She loved you, damn it!”

“She loved you first and best,” Inoki muttered. His wife’s face as she died was terrible to remember, even in the grip of his massive rage, he knew she’d begged him to spare the children.

“She married you, not me,” the demon lord snapped, his patience was at an end. “And I was stupid enough to be happy for the both of you. If I’d known what you were capable of, I’d have slit your throat on your wedding day.” With an effort, he fought down his own formidable temper. “An act of rage might be forgiven, but you can’t hide your intentions from me, Inoki. Why did you betray me to the rebels, what did they offer you that I didn’t? Haven’t I always been the first to defend you, even when Father…”

“Shut up,” Inoki shouted suddenly. “I resented every single time you defended me, I hated you every time you fought a fight for me. Always there, always the perfect older brother, picking up after the stupid half-breed whelp that should have been drowned at birth. The rebels didn’t come to me, I sought them out. I told them I could hand them the great general on a fucking platter if they liked. It would be enough for me just to wipe that superior look off your face for once.”

Inoki’s brother stood over him, letting his younger sibling’s hatred wash over him like a noxious wind. “Inoki, you know I’ve never thought of you as anything less than my brother. And I know how difficult it’s been for you, being hanyou.”

“You know nothing about it, brother.” Inoki’s face was sullen and twisted with hate. “You don’t know what it’s like so don’t tell me you know how it feels to be hanyou. You didn’t have to live with being your brother. You didn’t have to listen to the whispers of the court about how your wife had lowered herself to bear a half-breed’s children. You didn’t ever have your own father look right past you when you asked him a question. No, brother, that was all mine. Now all I want is for you to look me in the face when you kill me and know that you failed to make me into what you wanted.”

The youkai lord drew his katana, it pulsed to life in his hands, power radiating off the blade. Inoki glared at him fiercely, his teeth bared, waiting for the blow. Time stopped around them. As soon as he’d unsheathed the blade, the eyes of every soldier and every camp follower down to the youngest pup in training was were on them. He knew he could have spared himself this last bitter act, any one of his men would have been happy to carry out his order. It was beneath his rank and breeding to execute a half-breed traitor with his own hands.

This particular lord felt differently. He would allow his brother’s blood to be spilled by no one less than himself, he who loved the murderous traitor. He raised the Tetsusaiga and brought it down in a graceful arc to take off his brother’s head in one clean stroke.

Inutaisho turned away from Inoki’s corpse, sheathing the blade without stopping to clean his brother’s blood from its edge. His face was terrible to see and dark as the blood that was pooling on the ground. Even his closest lieutenants flinched as he stalked away from them. “Lord?” the bravest of them managed to ask.

“Burn the goddamn body.”

CHAPTER 1

Kagome Higurashi twisted her head to look over her shoulder. She flicked a last minute bit of fluff from the skirt of her new school uniform. Satisfied at last, the girl tossed her hair over her shoulder and scooped up the backpack that was lying on her bed. She whistled happily to herself as she skipped downstairs, calling out a farewell to her mother as she went out the door. “Bye Mom, I’m off to school now!”

Mrs. Higurashi hurried to catch her daughter before she left the shrine grounds. “Kagome, I made your lunch,” she called, waving a package at the teenage girl. Kagome rushed back to her mother to take it, planting a kiss on her cheek. “Thanks Mom, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Her mother grinned. “I’d expect you’d manage quite well, you look so grown up in that uniform. I can’t believe my baby is finally going to start high school.”

Kagome couldn’t quite believe it either. She’d really been sweating since last year’s final exams, her grades had slipped so badly that she was terrified that she wouldn’t be accepted to any high school in Tokyo. All her friends had time for cram school and the extra work it took to make the top grades. Kagome thought she was lucky to have scraped by in passing all her classes. With her grades, she was lucky to have gotten into any high school at all. She grinned to herself, she wouldn’t have even passed the final exams if her friends hadn’t stepped in and drilled her in the material. Eri had given her a stern lecture about keeping up in the classes.

“Now I know you’ve been ill, Kagome-chan, but you’ve got your future to think about and you need to pass your exams. You just tell that two-timing boyfriend of yours that he’s going to have to live without you while you study.”

Oh yeah right, Kagome thought. That would have went over well with Inuyasha. She’d decided that she just had to take a break from the warring states period to try and finish out at least her first week of high school. Starting at a new school was a big deal after all. She wanted to make a good first impression on her new teachers and classmates and thought that she deserved at least a week to get settled in.

Unfortunately, the half-demon didn’t agree with her. “A whole week? Hell FUCKING no!”

Kagome had prepared herself for this response and knew that backing down was not an option this time. “Can’t you just hear me out for once?” The last thing she needed the day before starting at her new high school was to be distracted by another argument with Inuyasha. “This is really important to me!”

“And hunting down that bastard Naraku isn’t?” He glowered at her, trying to back her into a corner on the subject. Kagome had too much experience with the half-demon’s temper tantrums to allow herself to be intimidated. She took a deep breath and held it. “That’s not the point, Inuyasha.”

“What is the fucking point then?” he’d shouted loud enough that the peaceful members of Kaede’s village had bolted for their homes. Door slammed in unison and faces peeped from windows. Fights between Kagome-sama and the crazy hanyou were legendary in this village. No one wanted to miss out on the action, but it was always a good idea to take cover in case the dispute turned violent.

Kagome leveled a serious gaze at him, her eyes snapping. “I don’t need your permission to go home! You can’t stop me from doing anything!” She’d been prepared for this moment ever since she’d come to the decision and already her belongings were sitting at the bottom of the dry well waiting for her. He sensed that she was about to make a run for it. “Kagome,” he said warningly.

“Sit!” Kagome turned on her heel and dashed to the well. Inuyasha was a lot faster than she was, but he’d still need a second or two to recover from the effects of her incantation. “YOU BITCH!”

Panting, the girl tore through the forest, leaping over fallen logs and low branches. Months in the Sengoku Jidai hunting demons had made Kagome very athletic, it was ironic that she’d very nearly failed phys ed at school due to her absences. She gritted her teeth as she made for the clearing with the Bone-Eater’s well. If my phys ed teachers had ever seen me run like this, they’d never have dared to fail me, she thought. A loud crash from behind her signaled that Inuyasha had recovered fully from her sit and was ripping down trees in pursuit of his prey. Kagome made a flying leap for the well opening, tucking her legs under her. “Sit boy!” she screamed as she fell inside the portal to her home.

Kagome winced a little. The last sound she’d heard before falling through the well to her own time had been the sound of Inuyasha’s head hitting the side of the well from her command. I bet he’s really pissed this time, she thought, sighing to herself. “Why does he have to be such a jerk?” she asked aloud.

“It’s not like I don’t spend every single free second I have over there, I’ve sacrificed my family life, my friends and my education, isn’t that enough to keep him happy?” Kagome didn’t realize she was walking faster and faster as she fumed about Inuyasha’s belligerent behavior. “I think I deserve at least a week off.”

She knew he didn’t understand why this high school business was so important to her. The worst part was that she knew hen’t n’t care either, as far as he was concerned, it was just another excuse that kept her from doing more important things. Like being a damn jewel shard detector, she thought resentfully. Okay, so maybe stopping someone like Naraku was a lot more important than graduating from high school, but it wasn’t like she had a choice about trying to keep up with her studies. Her mother had been really unhappy with her grades last semester and had made it very clear that if she ed ted to continue with her extracurricular activities, she had to at least keep her grades up and not flunk out of school.

“He doesn’t appreciate me!” she said suddenly. An old woman who happened to be walking past gave her a disapproving look. Kagome blushed and hurried on, it wouldn’t be good to be tardy on her first day. The packet had had come from her new school had emphasized that delinquent behavior such as tardiness would be strongly discouraged. She sighed, hopefully she’d be able to keep her absences to a minimum.

Kagome saw the gates of the high school coming into view just ahead and felt a tiny twinge of nervousness bite in her stomach. “Come on girl,” she said lightly. “You’ve fought off monsters and demons, there’s no reason to be scared of high school students. They’re just ordinary kids after all. You can handle anything.” She marched resolutely through the gate, a colorful banner flapped in the crisp morning breeze. “Welcome to Furinkan High.”

*****

Akane Tendo was running late. Actually she was running pretty fast, her breath appearing as short white puffs in the chill morning air. Her book bag tapped against the back of her thighs as she lengthened her stride, settling into an easy jog.

“Akane, wait up!”

She grit her teeth in anger. “Damn you, Ranma, you’re going to make me late on the first day of school!” Peeved, she sped up again, trying to put a little more distance between them.

He had caught up with her anyway, glaring down at the girl as he ran lightly on top of the fence. “It was an accident!”

She snorted. “That’s what you always say. You have any idea how long it takes a girl to get ready in the morning? No, don’t answer that. If you hadn’t dumped that tea down the front of my dress…”

“That was still no reason to kick me into the fish pond,” he retorted angrily. He’d barely had time to reverse his curse and change clothes when she tore out the door ahead of him. He dropped to the ground next to her as she slowed her pace. “You need to watch that damn macho temper,” he started.

She swung the book bag with all her might. It whizzed by his face and he danced just out of her range. “That’s what I mean, trying to nail me for saying that you need to watch your stupid temper and quit taking it out on the rest of us.”

Akane stopped, fuming at him. “I do not take my temper out on other people,” she growled. “Just you, Ranma.”

“Whatever.” He brushed aside her qualification with a dismissive gesture. “You could try to be a little nicer, you know.”

“I should be nice to you for dumping hot tea all over my new uniform?” she shouted. A few other students walking nearby flinched at the sound of her anger and carefully moved to the opposite side of the street. Akane’s temper was well known in Nerima district.

Ranma pointed to the school clock. “Look, you’re upset over nothing. Plenty of time to spare.” Akane scowled at him and decided it wasn’t worth fighting about any longer, he’d never get the point even if she beat it into his head. She walked through the gate, noticing a cluster of boys from her class standing near the wall as if surrounding something. “What’s that all about?” she wondered aloud.

“Hmmmm,” Ranma said, peering over the heads of passing students. “Must be a new girl, cute one I’d say by the size of the crowd.”“Hon“Honestly,” she snapped, irritated. She stamped her way over to the crowd and started shoving at male backs to get through. “Get out of my way,” she ordered, pushing bodies to the side. “Let the poor girl have some air already!”

A cute girl with long hair was backed up against the wall, holding her backpack in front of her like a shield. Her expression turned grateful as Akane burst through the wall of admirers. “Knock it off, you morons!”

“Aw come on, Tendo,” a few voices were raised in disgruntlement. “Yeah, we’re just trying to be friendly.”

Akane dropped back into a defensive stance. “Back the hell off, you’re scaring her to death, you disgusting perverts.” She raised her fists and glared around at the boys, not one was going to meet her eye. She’d been the subject of this kind of attention one too many times herself and she was damned if she was going to let another girl take this kind of harassment. “If any of you want a piece of me, just go ahead and make your move!”

The crowd began to disperse, a few rude comments were muttered out of Akane’s hearing. The feisty girl was fully prepared to make good on her threat of violence, but even the bravest of the male students at Furinkan High didn’t relish the thought of going toe-to-toe with Akane Tendo and having to deal with Ranma Saotome afterwards.

“Are you okay?” Akane asked the new girl. She didn’t look scared anymore, there was a distinct twinkle in her eye.

“Thanks, I’m fine,” the girl replied. “You weren’t really going to fight all those boys at once, were you?”

“Why not?” Akane grinned. “I would have won and they knew it. I’m sorry if you got a bad first impression of us here. Most of the students at Furinkan are really nice. Boys can be such a pain!”

The girl laughed. “That’s okay, I’m not that easily intimidated. My name is Kagome Higurashi.”

“Akane Tendo. Would you like me to show you the way to the registration office? It’s on my way.”

Kagome smiled. “I’d like that.” The short haired girl seemed so friendly now that she’d run off Kagome’s welcome party. She hadn’t felt that unsettled by anything since she walked into a wolf-demon’s den. About the same response too, she thought with a shiver. She’d just asked a nice looking boy for directions and suddenly found herself backed into a wall with questionsng png peppered at her from interested admirers.

She followed her new friend up the steps to the school entrance. Kagome was startled and almost fell when a tall boy suddenly jumped right in front of them. He had seemingly leapt from the bottom step right over their heads. Akane didn’t seem too surprised by this acrobatic feat. She even took a quick swipe at him with her bag. “Leave me alone, Ranma. I’m still mad at you.”

He dodged her casual swing with ease. “’s t’s the matter, you disappointed that you didn’t get to beat the hell out anyone today? I saw you threaten those guys, you looked like an angry pit bull. A macho angry pit bull.” She shot him a look that would have curdled new milk. “Oh shut your face already. They had it coming.”

“Didn’t say that they didn’t,” he grinned. His eyes twinkled down at Kagome. “Don’t let those jokers spoil your day, kid. They don’t get introduced to actual human girls all that often, just macho chicks like Akane here.” With that for a parting shot, the boy whirled around on his heel, a long pigtail flapping against his back as he strutted away, humming to himself.

“Who was that?” Kagome wanted to know. Akane was scowling again, her ears were red. She looked over at Kagome, leading the girl down the hallway to office. “He’s a cocky, conceited jerk who thinks he’s god’s gift to women, that’s who he is.”

Kagome stared at her. The flush had spread from Akane’s ears to her cheeks. “Is he, uh, your boyfriend or something?”

“No!” Akane’s face grew even redder. “He is not my boyfriend, he’s worse than that. Ranma’s my fiancé, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“Aren’t you kind of young to be engaged already?”

Akane tossed her short hair. “Yeah, it’s just some crazy idea my father and his came up with. We fight all the time about it. Actually we fight about everything, but it wouldn’t kill him to try and act like a decent person now and then.”

Kagome could sympathize. She’d had her share of trying to wring consideration out of a certain bad tempered half-demon. “I hear what you’re saying. No matter what you do, it’s never good enough for them. Guys are so selfish!”

“And arrogant, conceited,” Akane put in.

“And violent, foul mouthed, and crude,” Kagome finished. The girls stopped and stared at each for a moment before breaking into a fit of giggles. Akane wiped a tear from her eyes. “I think I’m going to like you, Kagome. Let’s be friends.”

Kagome nodded her head decisively. “You bet!”

END OF CHAPTER 1