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INVISIBLE SHADOWS
Inu-Yasha manga fanfiction
by Gary Kleppe
The characters of Inu-Yasha are the creation of and rightful property of Rumiko Takahashi. They are used here without permission. This story may be freely redistributed, but it should not be altered substantially or used for profit in any way.
SPOILER WARNING: For those who haven't read past volume 6 or so (or who have only seen the anime) there will be some important spoilers in this story. If you've read what Viz comics has published so far, you're safe. Please note that while this story depicts an ending of sorts for the Inu-Yasha series, this ending is my of own creation and not a spoiler; as of this writing, IY is still being created, and I don't know how it will really end any more than you do. :)
PART ONE
"Here's a question for you," she said. "Where do the shadows go when you switch on the light?"
"Hmm."
I paused for a moment trying to think of the best way to respond to her. I didn't really feel like wasting my time with silly riddles, but a madwoman had to be humored. If she was going to open up to me and tell me what I needed to know, I had to play her games. Otherwise, at best she wouldn't tell me anything. At worst, well... I knew what she'd done that had gotten her locked up in this place.
"Well... they disappear, I suppose. They're gone. They don't go anywhere."
A sly smile crept across her face as her answer sounded through the telephone receiver in my ear. "Ah, yes. I used to think so too." I could see her lips mouth the words, but not hear her directly through the thick glass wall that separated us; the effect was odd, like a poorly-edited movie.
"No?" I raised an eyebrow, trying to seem genuinely curious.
She shook her head. "The shadows are still there. It's just that you can't see them."
"I... see," I said, feeling more and more frustrated by the second. So close, but yet so far. I could practically see the book in my mind. The Kagome Higurashi story. My ticket to fame and fortune. Her arrest had been the lead story on the television news for three straight months. People were demanding that she to be put to death -- something that would've been unthinkable in Japan not ten years ago. Everyone wanted to know what could have driven such an innocent-looking young woman, someone who could have been anyone's next door neighbor, to murder five people -- chosen at random, as far as anyone knew -- and in such a grotesque fashion. Everyone wanted to know why, and I was going to be the one to tell them.
But only if I could get her to talk to me.
"Look," I began, "you're probably wondering why I've come to talk to you. I'm a writer. A reporter. I want to hear your story, so I can tell it to the world."
"My story?"
Her eyes gazed at me, narrowing slightly as comprehension slowly dawned in them. The hospital obviously had her on some sort of heavy drugs. I hoped she could stay coherent long enough to tell me what I needed to know.
"Oh yes, I'll tell you," she said. "I'll tell you my story. And you will tell the world?" Her tone rose skeptically at the last statement.
It was the response I'd hoped for. So why did I feel as if she were a spider and I had just blundered into her web?
"I'll tell you my story," she repeated. "The story of a rather typical teenage girl, who was concerned with the usual things that are usually on a teenage girl's mind -- clothes, music, boys. Certainly not with magic or demons, which she saw as mere superstitions."
"At first?" I prompted. Finally, she was opening up to me.
"At first, yes. But then this girl fell into a magical well, and found herself in another time. Japan's feudal era. A time of shadows. A time when demons roamed the land freely. And this girl didn't want to believe in demons, but she felt their slimy touch, felt their claws dig into her flesh, and knew that they were real."
My hand zipped across the page of my notebook, taking down everything she was saying. Magic wells? Time travel? This girl was more delusional than I had thought.
"For several months, she adventured in the past. She met Inu-Yasha, a half-man, half demon who became a companion of sorts. She met Kikyo, a powerful priestess who was said to be herself in an earlier incarnation, killed and then brought back to a sort of life via ogre magic. And she encountered the Shikon Jewel, an artifact of great power which became scattered across the countryside, and she had to track down all of its fragments and eventually reassemble it.
"Then one day...."
DREAM GIRLS
an Urusei Yatsura fanfic
by
Gary Kleppe
This is an idea I had one morning that would not go away. It is short and dark. For those who choose to read it, I'll be very interested to hear your reactions to it and what you think it reveals about the psychology of its writer. ^_^
There is a place that is not a place, everywhere and nowhere. Some have called it the spirit plane. There, a conversation was taking place.
"You have something to report?"
"Yes, Leader. I'm pleased to inform you that our Japanese contingent is nearing success in the case we had discussed earlier."
"Excellent."
"As you know, leader, this was a difficult one from the beginning. At first the subject resisted having anything to do with our operative. He saw her as possessive, clinging to him and ruining his life in the process. But she stuck with him and never allowed him to get rid of her. Now it seems he is finally changing his mind. He will be ours at last!"
"Inform me as soon as the final outcome is known."
