Distortion 1/?

[bebe_jinx]

Rating PG-13

Summary: In the beautiful land of Japan nothing is as it seems. The most important words are sometimes the ones left unspoken and ever action has a hidden meaning. But it is in this land where three people must uncover the truth. Obligation lies within each person, but when is the time duty must be broken and the heart obeyed? Is love or freedom worth another's life? Three people must decide and realize that life isn't black and white but a shade of gray.

NOTE: This hasn't been through a beta so feel free to comment on anything. I would really like some comments on Sango's character, I don't really know if she is IC. Also because Inuyasha is an American, his name is Ian York; until he gets to Japan where he will be given a nickname similar to Inuyasha.

Distortion


Prologue

1915 ? outside Saga, Japan

Kobayashi Sango leaned her hot clammy skin against the cold rough bark of the old pine tree. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her ears; pumping the blood through her body. She panted as she peered from behind the tree into the direction she had just come from. She couldn?t see anyone coming after her but that didn?t mean they weren?t. She closed her eyes and silenced her huffing as she listened for any sounds that didn?t belong in the forest.

Silence.

Did that mean they weren?t chasing her? Did that mean no one had seen her run from the little village? Was she free?

She opened her violet eyes and stared again in the direction towards the little village that she had been trapped in for? how long had she been there? She had lost count after a while, which probably meant she had been there for a long time. It seemed pointless to count the days when every day was the same; when counting the days and seeing the numbers rise only put more despair and anger in her heart.

When she realized that no one would be coming after her, Sango suddenly felt very weak and tired. She crouched low to the ground ignoring the thin blanket of snow on the dirt floor and the cold wind that her tattered kimono couldn?t save her from. The young girl ignored the tiny bugs that crawled over her bare feet and the soreness of her over worked legs. She could handle the discomfort of the present situation if it meant she never had to return to that place.

She looked up into the canopy of tree leave and branches, the sunlight peaking through the holes and creating a speckled effect on her and the ground. The plan had been to escape during the night when there was less of a chance of being caught. But Sango couldn?t turn her back on an opportunity when she saw one.

She couldn?t believe that it was fire that saved her; the thing that had helped take her life away. The small blaze at the neighbor?s house had been a blessing for her, and she just ran. In the confusion she had hoped that no one had spotted her.

See papa I did it. The young girl ran her fingertips lightly over the bruise on her cheek from yesterday?s confrontation. She had spoken out of call to one of the men who worked for the lord of the house. For as long as she could remember, the men had laughed at her defiance and hit her every time she tried to speak out. Through all that though, all she could remember was her father telling her that strongest asset was her spirit, by its inability to die.

She rested her forehead against the tree base. I can?t stop. It didn?t matter if there was no one after her right now. Someone could still find her and if that happened then she might as well have never left. The girl gripped the tree, pulling herself up to stand on wobbly legs. The tiny pouch wrapped around her waist jingled with the few coins that it held. She couldn?t believe she had risked her life for these coins; stealing them from the main house, but she needed them to pay for her ticket to get away.

The faint sound of a train whistle echoed through the air.

The man from the fish house had once told her the train station was not far south of the village. Hoping that she hadn?t somehow gotten turned around and that the man was correct about his direction, Sango walked straight ahead away from the village and towards what she hoped was a new life.

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Sango didn?t really know what she had expected when she thought of a train station, but the one before her was nothing more than cement platform with benches and tiny booths that people were lined at. The people that were standing in line were dressed up; some even in clothing that she thought only belonged to the foreigners in the West. She glanced down at her own clothing and couldn?t help but feel a bit out of place; a plain blue cloth kimono slightly torn and dingy with dirt at certain parts on the arms and bodice, her face and feet were probably just as dirty.

No one paid any attention to her though, which was just what the young girl wanted. No one noticing her meant no one would think to take her away. She waited in line behind a large round man wearing suspenders. Every once and while, Sango looked around paranoid that someone from the village had actually followed her and was about to take her back to the life she had tried so hard to get away from.

When it finally came her time, the girl realized she had no idea where she was going. The whole idea had been to get away, not where to go. She opened the pouch and put the three yen she had managed to steal on the tiny table top in between her and the man who gave out the tickets and asked how far she could go.

His bulging eyes studied her and the young girl was afraid that he wouldn?t let her leave on the train but finally at last he gave her a ticket, telling her to be careful in Kyoto. She was about to ask what to do with the ticket but already the man was talking over her to another customer. Uncertainly, she walked to the only train in the small station. A line of people was already there and she spied tickets in their hands that also said Kyoto. As sango waited to board the train she couldn?t help but feel like someone was watching her. She quickly looked behind her only to see other people waiting to board the train; none of their eyes really trained on her, albeit for the sickly looking woman that did smile at her.

Once boarded, Sango walked to the back of the train, away form everyone else and seated herself in the last, dark red leather seat. She glanced down at the plain paper ticket in her hand, reading what she could of the characters. Kyoto? The word sounded almost foreign to her. She had heard of the place from fishermen and other workers but she had never been there. In fact, she had never been anywhere aside from her home village and the village she had run away from.

When were we going to leave? Sango could still feel how tense she was; her body was still ready to jump up and run if she spotted anyone from the village. But there was no one and people were still boarding and taking their seats, talking to other boarders, doing their best to ignore the bruised young lady with the torn kimono and dirty feet. She leaned her head against the cool glass windowpane while bringing her knees to her chest and watched the landscape outside waiting for the train to start moving.

How many times had she dreamed of getting away? How many times had she plotted a plan only to have it end in nothing but a beating for her? And here she was now sitting in a train waiting to leave. It was surreal, like any moment she would wake up and be in the same little hut with all the other maids.

Staring out at the sun, sango guessed that at this time she would be pulling weeds from the fields, her fingers becoming nearly bloody from the thorns and bug bites. This wasn?t her life; this couldn?t be happening to her.

Something bad must have been about to happen. This was just too good to be true.

?Ticket.? Came the male voice from nowhere. With a start, Sango turned from the window, it was a man dressed in western clothing he was holding out his hand. ?Ticket?? he asked again looking down at Sango?s hand to the tiny slip of paper she was holding.

The young girl handed the paper to the man silently; a bit afraid he would want something more like money. He promptly turned from her though and walked down to the front of the train. She wondered what she was supposed to do with the ticket. The train whistled and a jolt shook her seat.

She stared outside as the wheels of the train began spinning and the cart pulled forward. Am I really doing this? She couldn?t place where the village she had run from was, all she knew was that it was somewhere in the distance. She leaned her head against the plane of glass again. Slowly the scenery of trees began flowing past her blurring together till they disappeared in the horizon.

Her mind couldn?t help but think of the others that she had left. They were too afraid to leave; they didn?t believe they could get away. Some thought the Lord?s hand stretched farther than anyone could run. She was the only who ever plotted and dreamed; she was the only one who refused to be dead on the inside.

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Smoke.

Who knew a cloud could almost choke a person? It was like invisible fingers wrapping around her throat cutting her air, making her cough. Her vision was becoming a blurry dark cloud only broken by the sporadic leap of red and orange flames.

Kohaku? Father?

She would scream if the coughs would stop racking her body; cutting her voice. She jumped back as a wooden beam came crashing down in front of her. Covering her mouth and nose with the sleeve of her kimono, sango spun around and began walking to where she hoped the front was.

She retraced her steps from the time she stepped out of her room, trying to remember if she had turned herself around at any point. Sticking her arm out she tried to feel for a wall. She grasped the first thing her hand captured.

Scratchy, rough fabric scrapped through her fingers? hold. Trying again to catch it, nothing was there but smoky, heat filled air.

She was still trying to grasp something to help her when she felt someone grab her. She would have screamed if she didn?t think it was her father or Kohaku. It had to be one of them who else would be in their house?

The hands picked her up roughly, hurting her shoulder. She would have cried out but a hand was covering her mouth. Sango turned her head as much as she could and the ball of fear inside her swelled upon seeing the person who was holding her.

Gasping for breath, Sango?s eyes popped open and began blinking wildly in the glare of the setting sun. Spinning her head around quickly, she realized she wasn?t in a burning fire but seated, folded up in the corner of a stuffy train.

It was just a dream? A dream? She had long stopped calling those dreams. How long had it been since she had one like that? She remembered when her dreams were nothing but smoke and fire. When waking up with tears in her eyes had become almost normal.

Everyday that she had been trapped in that village she had thought about her father and brother. That fire that had taken there lives and aided in her own life being stolen. She didn?t even know her true age; all she knew was that she had been there for two winters so all she could do was guess that she was 14.

Sango leaned her head against the windowpane. She stared out at the speeding scenery of the forests and the purple orange glow the setting sun put upon the world. Am I really gone? It was surreal; this feeling of freedom that was teasing her. She had thought about this moment when she wouldn?t feel captured and now that it was here it almost didn?t feel true.

This is real Sango. You can do this.

This was her ticket to freedom and she would not screw it up.


November 1924: New York City, New York

I still don?t understand why it had to be this way.

The day was almost warm from the shining sun, but the lone figure sitting in front of a slightly cracked gravestone couldn?t shake the cold deep in him. A sharp wind whipped past him causing his dark ebony braid to whip from side to side. The graveyard was all but silent apart from for the occasional bird caw or motorcar honk from the street.

Everything should have been different.

It was the same thought that taunted him over and over in his life now. It seemed that everything changed that day; changed for the worse, his sanity being one of them. These thoughts they were speaking to him; telling him that things weren?t the way they were meant to be.

He shouldn?t have been kneeling in front of the gray gravestone in the numbing snow. The person buried beneath his feet shouldn?t have been dead. His own life shouldn?t have been ruined.

He would wake up in the middle of the night sometimes and think that everything had been a dream; that he still lived in a mansion on a hill in Manhattan. But then his eyes would catch the shabby, tattered condition of his tenement walls and he would remember where he truly lived, what his life had become.

The young man leaned closer to rest the small bouquet of flowers at his brother?s grave. While other gravesites were adorned with not just flowers but other mementos from loved ones, the only objects of affection for this site were the lone flowers. Why would your wife come? She thinks you?re a disgrace. He wasn?t even quite sure if his sister-in-law even knew there was a grave.

?I?m sorry things turned out this way. I should have made sure you were okay.? His voice was soft and trembled with the unshed tears of regret and anger. He always got like this on the date of his brother?s death.

The young man slipped off his heavy wool glove to wipe the gravestone free of the fallen snow and leaves that had covered his brother?s name. I wish I had found you sooner, maybe if I had you wouldn?t be?. No he wouldn't think like that; what had happened was done and nothing could change it. All he could do now was get the justice they deserved. Clearing his throat and settling his emotions, he brought out the folded newspaper from his wool coat.

?I found this yesterday,? he began unfolding the paper and laid it at his knees. ?I think I know a way to get them back.? The paper was headlined with the phrase: YORK MERGER ACROSS THE SEAS and pictured a young man with nearly silver hair shaking hands with a Japanese man.

?I won?t let York think he can do as he pleases.? A slight smile was already appearing on the man?s lips; it had been years, he remembered, since the last time he smiled something genuine. ?I won?t let anyone forget you Manten or me for that matter. He?ll learn he can?t take things from people without consequences.?


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A. N.: So what did you think? I actually have a reason why I jumped nearly ten years; the story doesn't happen until 1925 but I had to put in some background. But everything will be filled in as I write. Any and all comments welcome.

[Whispered Dreams]

plz continue its so interesting i must know what will happen next

[ice princess]

Wow, this is unusual, and darn good!! I'm really looking forward to future chapters of this one, bebe. It could go anywhere, and I love how you've even integrated minor characters into the plot. Tres fun! Update soon!

~ice princess

[Lara Winner]

You've got my interest sparked with this prolouge. I love a good AU fic and from what I've read so far this promises to be quite entertaining.

I will be looking forward to reading more.

[Kaili Charmer]

Wow, this is different! Please continue, AU inuyasha fics are new to me. :razz: