A Parallel Dimensional Fairytale

Inuyasha – A parallel dimensional fairytale

Chapter 3


Monks, Mysterious Maidens and Metaphysics


Disclaimer: I don't own it. There may come a day when I won't even need it anymore...


More or less in the middle of the room, a man apparently appeared out of thin air, a young man actually, with a short black ponytail, wearing some purple and black robes, both, Inuyasha and Kagome, identified as traditional monk's robes. He smiled then spoke again and at the same time started walking towards them.


"I'm glad you two already went through the 'getting to know each other part' so we can start right away with the more pressing matters. As to the letter you two were just discussing about, forget it, all it would have told you was to await my arrival, which you did anyway - Ah!"


He interrupted himself and shook his head as Kagome and Inuyasha just continued to stare at him. "Excuse my rudeness, will you please? I haven't even introduced myself properly. My name is Miroku and I'm a man of faith as you can see." He gestured along his attire. "Or rather have been as I technically am just as dead as you two love-birds, even if with the advantage of a few hundred years of afterlife experience."


"Where - "


"How - "


"Yes, I do realize you have a lot of questions right now but I must insist they be postponed until later. Now I want you to come over here and just do as I say for a second and we should be out of here in no time."


They both just stared at him numbly but then proceeded to shake off the paralysis of surprise and stepped to the man's, Miroku's, side.


He smiled once again. "All I want you to do is just empty your minds of all thoughts for a second and leave the rest to me, alright?"


"Keh, can't be too much to ask from her obviously," Inuyasha muttered under his breath the same moment as Kagome said quietly, "Well at least one of us won't have any problems with that".


Their heads snapped around and they glared at each other, scowls already forming on their faces, but Miroku interrupted before they got a chance to start throwing insults at each other all over again. "Empty your minds of all thoughts, remember? Just concentrate for a second and I'll bring us away from here and then your questions will be answered... well, most of them. Please, just concentrate now."


"Keh."


"OK."


They did as they were told and concentrated on, well, nothing and suddenly found themselves standing inside a much smaller room, looking more like an average living room, with a couch, two armchairs and a table in it.


On one of those armchairs sat a girl with a pretty, yet somewhat sorrowful face, which made her look rather more like a woman than a girl, wearing a colourful kimono. She looked at them without surprise like she had known they would just suddenly appear right in front of her.


When she opened her mouth to speak she was rather abruptly interrupted by Inuyasha who decided to verbalize his disagreement with how none of his questions had found any answers so far the very same moment (Or that's how he would have put it. Actually he was just beginning to get a little anxious to get out, the fact that this room happened to have a ceiling, and a rather low one, too, didn't help that any.). "No wait up, wench! Before you start talking incomprehensible shit like that bouzu tell me one thing. Are you the one who's gonna tell me how the fuck I can get away from here or what that purpose is I was 'kept in storage' for the last twenty fucking years? 'Cause if you're not I really don't give a shit what it is you were going to say and I'll just find my own way out. You got that?"


The young woman raised an eyebrow at his outburst, then chuckled slightly. "Now as much as I would love to see how you think you can 'find your own way out', you'll be glad to hear that I really am the one to answer your as well as her, " she motioned her head in Kagome's direction, "questions I am sure you are eager to have answered. Now as far as I know, you, Kagome, already are informed about the basics, like your death and - "


"No, actually" Kagome admitted "That's already about everything I know. What's he been talking about when he said he was kept in storage? And why does he have those..." she pointed to his ears, "dog ear thingies?", at which Inuyasha flattened said ears to his skull and shot her a defensive glare, "Keh!"


"I promise I'll get to that. Now please take a seat, the whole thing might take quite a while."


Inuyasha and Kagome sat down on the couch, first instinctively rather close to one another, then realizing that, quickly scooting apart and looked at her expectantly.


"You see, in order to understand why it is so important that you two are here, I'll have to explain a whole lot of other things to you first. Both of you probably have already come across different theories concerning the universe, its origin, the question of parallel dimensions and such. Now, all these theories are great and some really are not that far from the actual truth but up to now no-one ever got the whole thing right.


“So, firstly the universe is endless. Secondly there do exist different universes, or dimensions, at the same time in a way that could be called parallel. In fact the amount of universes is infinite which is what makes the whole universe infinite, logically. Also every one of these universes is endless itself.


“Now the problem, as you might realize, is: how do endless spaces exist at the same time inside a space that is only just as big as that itself? Well, here I'd like to quote a great mathematician, I love her work, really, she's not from your dimension though, with her definition of the infinite-"


Miroku, in contrast to the woman, having watched Kagome and Inuyasha while she gave them a little lecture on metaphysics, saw stheir eyes glaze over by the time she mentioned the word infinite the second time, and thus realized the necessity of interrupting her before she managed to kill them a second time either by boredom or information overload. "Sango, dear, I do realize just how much you love to show off that impressive opus of yours but is this really the right time? These kids are here for a purpose, I might remind you, and a rather important one it is, too. So, seeing as your mother's pride just won't let you cut this short I suggest you leave the explaining of only the necessary basics to me."


"Yeah," the woman, named Sango obviously, looked at the 'kids' in question half disappointedly half sheepishly. "They don't seem to be interested anyway... it's a shame really. Whatever happened to all those great thinkers and creative minds that dimension used to deliver? They were quite an entertainment."


She made a vague gesture with her hand. "You're right, the basics will do. You do it then."


"Great.” Miroku turned towards Inuyasha and Kagome again. “Now let's see.. Yes just imagine the whole parallel dimension thing like it is described in films and books and such. It's not exactly what it is like but you don't need the more abstract version to understand our problem.


“Right... You see these dimensions differ in many ways but they basically have a few things in common. The structure of the universe is the same for each of them for example. There is no planet in one dimension that did not exist in every other one at the beginning, but from that moment on the force one might think is coincidence, but is really rather something like godwill, had things develop into any direction possible.. But still, and this is where you come in as you will see soon, every, let us say, soul of any consciously thinking being has its counterpart in every other universe.


“That does not mean that there is an exact copy of you in every dimension, though. The 'soul' is not a product of the mind or something but is some kind of a pattern, a structure, but it is nothing physical. It's, you could say, it's one of many links between all the universes, a ...well, anyway you have this unique pattern of your own linked to your consciousness in a way and as long as you live, everything you experience, every emotion you feel imprints itself into your 'soul' and forms it but the structure itself remains.


“Perhaps it helps if you imagine the whole thing like a piece of iron. You can heat it and form it any way you like, just like all the souls that are considered counterparts to one another can develop very differently, but it still remains the very same piece of iron. So every sword and every kettle forged out of the same ore will have one thing in common, their atomic structure, like all those counterparts who share a soul structure.


“Now the material that soul is made of, it's not really a material as it does not consist of molecules, is the same material that is between the dimensions which is also where souls return to when the body dies. There they are neutralized again and sent back to the dimension. And this is exactly what happened to you two. You've died and gone to heaven, one could say. Can you follow me so far?"


Miroku looked at Kagome and Inuyasha to search their faces for signs of understanding or acceptance but they both just stared at him, Kagome incredulously and Inuyasha incredulously and pissed off.


He sighed. "You know I do realize all of this is rather hard to believe or even understand but I can assure you what I am telling you is the truth. If you don't believe this then what do you think is going on here?"


"Keh! I've had weirder trips already. I mean who knows what that shit really consisted of? You never know with Soviet vodka. You're lucky if it's only spirit they mix in there," Inuyasha stated flippantly.


Kagome shot him an inquisitive glare and wondered 'Vodka? What on earth is he talking about?' but let that slide in favour of , "Well I know for sure that this is no dream, I pinched my arm more than twenty times already and it hurt all the time... Hah! That's right! If, as you say, we are in that 'interdimension-thingy' and have left our bodies back in our dimension then why do I feel the pain? That should not be possible without a body, right?"


"Yes you are right. Theoretically your brain cannot register pain without a body and nerves and so on, considering that you don't even have a brain in this state that really seems impossible. But keep in mind, if you have no body by the general physical definition then you also have no hand to inflict that pain.


“What you are feeling is your consciousness reacting to an impulse that is similar to but not exactly identical with the usual pain impulse, your soul being pinched, you could say. Your self is so used to the circumstances inside your dimension and at the same time unable to really comprehend and interpret the circumstances outside of it, that it just reacts the way it always does. You are for example not really seeing but sensing your surroundings and the other souls gathered here."


"Right..."


Kagome still didn't seem to be too convinced and was about to utter her doubts again, when Inuyasha, surprisingly compromising, said, "OK. Let's just for one second assume that what you say is true. That does in no way explain why we are here and why I was kept in storage. I mean, if every soul returns here and is 'neutralized' again after its body died then why are we still here?"


"I was getting to that. But you need to understand at least a little about our universe to understand why you are needed here. Just listen and and I promise you will understand.


"So the next thing you need to know is that she -" He gestured towards the woman he'd called Sango, "Is what Christians would call God, Muslims would call Allah and perhaps a physicist would call the force that caused the Big Bang, she is the creator of all this.

Now, while she did create the whole universe and every single dimension in it, still, the minute she finished, she lost, or rather voluntarily gave up the ability to interfere in a phisical, which means she can see what is going on but cannot directly control what is happening inside the dimensions. The space in between the dimensions is her mind in a way, her consciousness, and every soul is part of her too. That is how she knows everything, she just is everyone and sees everything.


“So every soul is neutral the moment it comes into a dimension but, as I said, it is formed by the experiences its owner has in the course of his or her life , the choices they make, and thus every soul can turn good or bad, pure or evil.


“In one of these dimensions, yours to be precise, there once was a woman, a priestess, that was as pure as light itself and therefore controlled immense amounts of spiritual powers. She was so very powerful she was able to purify every tainted, evil soul within her reach, dozens at a time.


“Now those who had evil souls, demons mainly, back then, wanted to remain evil and fearfully watched that woman gain more and more power with every day that passed.

One day they decided they would have to join forces to defeat her and desperately sought a possibility to fuse. They found one in the woman's sole weakness. To become as powerful as she was and to preserve her purity she had had to completely detach herself from everything secular and had abandoned those who loved her long ago.


“There was a man who had loved her back then and still did, but the rejection and disappointment had turned his once pure admiration for the priestess into dark, tainted lusting, and perverted obsession.


“His torn and weak soul was the perfect basis for the evil demons' fusion and so they went and tricked him, promising to give him the power to regain the priestess's attention, which they did of course, just not in a way he could make use of. But, that man, desperate for the woman to acknowledge him, agreed and let the demons eat his heart to fuse into one, enormously vile and powerful, demon.


“Once they had gained the necessary strength they attacked the priestess. Yet they still underestimated the priestess. She still was a nearly invincible opponent for them, even with joined forces.


“The battle went on and on. Seven days and seven nights they fought incessantly, but in the end it was her human body that gave the advantage to the joined youkai. The constant fighting had worn her out and she couldn't summon the power to defend herself any more. The demons eagerly started to devour her and tried to suck up her soul but she, using her very last reserves of power, managed to extract the fused youkai's soul, entwine it with her own and push it out of her.


“She and the demon died that very moment, but their souls clung together inseparably and therefore did not, as usual, return to the interdimension but remained inside their dimension and crystallized to a simple glass ball, as large as a human eyeball.


“Within that glass ball the two souls, the pure soul of the priestess and the tainted demon-soul, kept on trying to overpower on another, and thereby turned that glass ball into a powerful item that was able to give strength to an evil soul, because when one of these was near the evil soul inside the glass ball grew stronger and the glass ball would be tainted. But at the same time the item could grant wishes to a pure soul, for when one of those was near the priestesses soul ruled the glass ball and it was purified. Sadly, tainted souls seemed to be much more common back then, they still are and always will be probably, and the ball gained quite a reputation among demons and evil hearted humans because they yearned for its power and among everyone else because they feared its power. Because of the formerly very common Shintoist theory of the soul consisting of four parts the item was called glass ball of four souls, the Shikon no Tama."


"Wait! Did you just say Shikon no Tama? Fuck! I knew all this shit sounded familiar."


Kagome looked at Inuyasha surprised as did Miroku. "You know the Shikon no Tama? I wasn't aware of that. Sango?"


He turned to look at her. She returned his look with one half peeved, half uncaring.

"Yeah, I might have forgotten to tell you that. It's not that important anyway. In fact it's rather an advantage. At least one of them is aware of the Tama's power and won't underestimate its danger."


"Yes, that's true. Still you should have told me and you know why. We'll talk about this later."


"Whatever. Just go on and tell them what all this is about already. You know how eager they are to get out of here, well at least he is,."


"Fine." He turned back to Inuyasha, who was still brooding about the Shikon no Tama, obviously, and Kagome, who was trying to figure him out without him being aware of that.


"Wench's right. Just go on already, monk. Now I really wanna get out of here. I don't want to have anything to do with that damned glass ball anymore."


"Uh... I'm not sure I can promise you that... Anyway, where was I? Yes. Evil creatures empowered by the Shikon no Tama devastated the lands and so all those who were of pure hearts and spiritual powers of course desperately tried to find a way to destroy or constantly neutralize the Shikon no Tama. But every time they gave it to someone to purify, the demons somehow found out and that way successfully hindered the purification for centuries.”


Miroku and Kagome found themselves staring at Inuyasha yet again as he commented with a “Keh!” but Miroku continued. “In the end there was a circle of 13 priests and priestesses who found another way, not to destroy it but to split it and ban it from their world. With all their powers joined they managed to divide the Tama into 13 pieces. In that split form the item was less powerful and so they could impose a curse on the Tama, each one of them on one single shard, for its pieces to be spread and separated from each other as far as possible. It seemed then that the Shikon no Tama had vanished, and it had, even more so than the circle had anticipated.


“They had, when separating the pieces as far as possible from each other, managed to make them leave their dimension. The splinters were spread among different dimensions where they were for centuries and still are.


“But while problems ended for this one dimension, for the others they began. The shards, consisting of souls that are foreign to those dimensions, besides still being very powerful and immediately attracting all kinds of mean beings, also disturbed the balance inside the whole universe. The real problem is, though, that because of their concentrated and crystallized form they are no longer connected to HER and she can therefore not remove them from the dimensions.


“The effects of the foreign soul pieces are not remarkable inside the dimensions, but outside of them one, or rather SHE, Sango, being what holds the dimensions together, senses that unbalance. In fact the constant unbalance exhausts her and deprives her of her energy, which in the end might even lead to the end of the universe itself, when SHE can't hold it together anymore.


“So you two realize that it is totally necessary that the shards are collected and the Shikon no Tama is destroyed so the priestess's and the demon's souls can finally return to the intraverse and be reborn."


"Yeah. But what does that have to do with me?" Inuyasha, who seemed to have calmed down again, demanded.


"And me?" Kagome felt obliged to add.


Miroku nodded. "I was getting to that, so listen. When I said before that Sango no longer holds physical power over what is going on inside the dimensions I meant that SHE could not interfere the way people normally imagine gods to do, that they have already determined what is going to happen and turn things their way, or that hey bring plagues and catastrophies upon manking to prova a point or another. SHE can not and doesn't even want to do that.


“Now you see, as I said before, to remove the Shikon no Tama she can't just reach inside the dimension and retrieve it, but there's another way. And that's where you two come in. Remember when I said every soul had its counterpart inside every dimension? Based upon that SHE theoretically can also two of those counterparts, or rather can force one consciousness, one pattern, over the other so that it dominates the self for a certain amount of time. That connection is not very stable and will reconnect after some time if it's not reconnected by HER before.


“And this is what SHE needs you, your souls, for. You'll be connected to your counterparts inside the dimensions where shards of the Shikon no Tama were sent and are to seek them out to restore the glass ball and to free the souls locked within so the balance of the universe is rehabilitated."


"Why us? What's so special about our souls that it had to be us and no-one else?"


"Yeah. You obviously had this planned out for at least twenty years already if you kept me in storage till she died. Why?"


"I'm glad to see you finally are accepting the truth. As to your questions;

there were several premises the souls for this task had to fulfil.


“The first was the most pragmatic one, their counterparts had to live close enough to the location of the shard to make it possible for them to actually find it. As you can imagine that already limited our choice considerably.


“Then, and this concerns only you, Kagome, one of the souls had to be one with spiritual power, primarily because to remove the shards from the dimensions they have to be linked to another soul, a process that requires spiritual power and secondly because to exactly locate the shards these powers are needed as well."


"Are you saying I'm a miko? 'Cause sorry, but I'm not.” Kagome laughed. “I mean I lived in a shrine, I know, but my grandfather is a priest and he's tested me a thousand times already. I never responded to any of his tests."


"I am indeed saying that you are a miko, if you like to put it that way. Believe me, your spiritual powers are immense, but to prove that your grandfather would have to have some himself, which he doesn't. That's why you didn't know about your powers."


"So the bitch is a miko. Fine. Where do I come in then? I know I don't have spiritual powers, can't have, being a hanyou."

Kagome was about to snap at him for calling her bitch yet again, but forgot about that when he described himself as a 'hanyou'. 'Hanyou? Half demon? Well that'd probably explain the ears. But there are no things such as demons. They're just myths. Yeah but until five minutes ago you were also convinced there was so such thing as an afterlife or even reincarnation. And now? Shut up. I know that.'


Then she realized Miroku had already begun to answer the boy's, 'hanyou's', question and focussed on that again, promising herself not to let the matter just slide and find out about the boy later. He said he'd tell her, after all.


"Your participation is inevitable for another two reasons. The first is, as I said, the shards attract evil creatures, strengthening them and making them even more of a danger for a young human girl, even for one with spiritual powers. So she needs a protector, you."


"Who says I want to protect that bitch? I really could care less, neither her welfare nor that of the universe is of my concern, really, why should I even bother? It's not like you can make me." Inuyasha challenged.


Kagome stuck her tongue out at him and crossed her eyes. "Who says I'd want to be protected by a jerky freak like you anyway? But besides that, he's right. Why would both of us want to do that for you? I mean it does sound like one hell of a lot of hard work and danger. I'm not so sure I'm willing to put that much effort into something for a reward as vague and unbelievable as 'saving the universe'. And if I'm not that willing then just imagine him, considering that I obviously am the far, far more socialized one of us."

"Oh that stung. Are you saying I'm not socialized? My, my I'm hurt. My whole life, all I craved was for everyone to recognize how much I fucking CARE about anything besides myself. And there you are crushing all my self-esteem. Really." Inuyasha commented sarcastically.


Kagome snickered. "Well, seeing how you're getting all worked up about this, I'd say that, in spite of the oh, so subtle hint of sarcasm in your accusation, I really must have hurt you. Poor boy."


"Bitch."


"Oh, that's clever. Are you always that creative?"


"Bitch."


"If you think you can break me by just being insistent, I'm sorry to disappoint you; I won't fall for that."


He grinned knowingly. "Bitch."


"Gods, all you are doing is getting on my nerves. Stop already!"


"B-"


"Shut up, asshole, or I'll make you!"


"Bitch! I'd like to see you try!"


'I don't even know why I let him get to me! Aargh! He's just so... just looking at him makes me want to beat that conceited expression off his face... or tweak those ears– shut up dammit!'


'Really why am I provoking her all the time? I can't seem to stop those words from leaving my mouth. She's just so... just looking at her makes me wanna make her snap, break her control. Well she does look... good when she's angry. Shut up. That has nothing to do with it.'


Miroku, having watched the dispute with growing amusement, chose to interrupt the two, who had gone from snapping at each other to just staring and growling (well on Inuyasha's side at least). "I might remind you, that both of you wanted to know whether there is some sort of reward to be expected in case you succeed in collecting all the shards, some reward besides being the ones who saved the whole universe. Well the answer is 'yes'. SHE expected you to claim something like that and therefore has the following to offer: You accept the task and collect the shards and as a reward you shall get your lives back."


"Keh! No way! I know that's impossible! You yourself said that SHE can not interfere. And sending a soul back into a corpse should not be possible."


"He's right, surprisingly. How do you do that?"


"There is a way. It's not common, and it brings with it even more unnatural shifting and bending the balance of the universe but it is possible. You see, time for her is not relevant the way it is for us. What she can do is take your soul now, with the added experience and knowledge about the tragic mismeasurement in your case, Inuyasha, and that lack of caution in your case, Kagome, that led to your deaths, and put that, let's call it wiser, soul into your body some time before you died. The wiser soul will, if backed up with enough power, be able to replace the other soul, or rather fuse with it and you should be able to avoid your deaths."


"Wouldn't that mean that what happens now and is to happen, will never have happened, too? Then we would never have collected the jewel and never have gotten that knowledge and would not...." Kagome scrunched her nose confusedly. "I'm confused."


Miroku smiled. "Yes, the wonders and paradoxes of time travel, marvellous aren't they? But let me assure you that no, it will not be like that. Time is a phenomenon that is limited to the dimensions. SHE, the intraverse, is independent of it."


"I can't say I'm less confused now. Anyway - "


"Anyway." Inuyasha interrupted the, in his eyes, pointless discussion, returning to the actual point. "Assuming we accept your offer, what exactly would we expect inside those dimensions? Those counterparts, do they have the same names as we do, for example? If not, how do we recognize each other? And in what ways do those dimensions differ from the one we come from?"


"Well, your counterparts most likely aren't called by the same name as you are, no. We will tell you what you are going to look like before you enter the dimensions, so you'll be able to recognize each other. If you're not sure, asking is the way. As for the differences... well, what can be said is that all the worlds you are going to travel do have an atmosphere containing oxygen... about the rest, I am not sure whether you would call the differences grave or not. Some dimensions may appear technically less developed than yours, some more, all in all I'd say there are no differences so confusing that you won't be able to adapt after a small amount of time."


"I'll do it."


Miroku and Inuyasha looked at Kagome surprised.


"What?"


"I'll do it. It sounds like a possibly solvable task to me. But that's not the point. I want my life back. Well, that and I'm just curious. I'd really love to see those other dimensions. Yeah, I'll do it."


"That's... great. I'm surprised you decided so fast, but I'm not going to complain. Well that leaves you, Inuyasha. Are you willing to do it?"


"...uhhhmm"


"Hah! What is it? Are you afraid? Fits. You struck me as the cowardly one from the start."


"Bitch I'm not afraid. I'm just not so sure I really want my life back."


"Well, if that is the problem SHE can always offer you another kind of reward. Name it, if it is possible, you are going to get it."


Inuyasha glared at the goddess in question calculatingly then nodded slowly.

"Alright. Then I'm in...and as a reward I request..."


Everyone looked at him expectantly as he tried to come up with something he wanted as a reward. Waited and waited... waited... waited some more... until Miroku finally offered,

"You can think of a reward later if you have no idea what to ask for yet, you aren't going to receive it until the task is finished anyway."


"Keh!"


"I'll take that as a 'Yes', then."


Everyone was surprised to suddenly hear Sango speak up again, even Miroku, who turned to look at her. "If both of you accept, we can get started right away. This whole unbalance thing is giving me one hell of the equivalent of a headache. The sooner it is over the better. Tell them about the first dimension, Miroku."


"As you wish." He turned to Kagome and Inuyasha again. "So, to get you well acquainted with the whole concept of dimension travel, as the first dimension we chose the one that is most similar to yours....”

A.N.: Finally edited. Dear god, why did people even bother continuing to read this?Even I had no idea what some of the things I wrote meant anymore! Anyway, thanks Alvida, and sorry it took me so long.