So, this is—

The Challenge:

Write me a nice story based on this scenario—that the adult Kagome, now married to Inuyasha's reincarnation, inexplicably finds herself inhabiting her own teenaged body on the morning of her 15^th birthday, and she has to figure out what to do next. You can use my starting chapter, or make up a different one using the same premise. For example, you can have Kagome play out her original birthday morning by going to the well to be grabbed—but not surprised—by the centipede woman, if you'd like.

Send stories by email to: kfbatey@yahoo.com

hero21 mailing list members also have the option of uploading to the "Files" section on the ML website at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hero21/

(let me know if you handle it this way—send a message to me or to the list)

Either text documents (such as MS Word) or html documents are fine.

Single or multiple chapters are fine. It's OK to send multiple chapters one at a time as you write them, if you like.

It's fine to send illustrations, but send them as a separate attachment, don't embed them in the document. JPEGs or GIFs are best. BMPs tend to be huge and sometimes won't download, particularly if you're sending them to Yahoo.

Please spellcheck before you send. If possible, have somebody beta-read.

Grammar counts. Your writing will be better if your grammar is correct. Grammar, spelling, punctuation, vocabulary—those are the writer's tools. Learn to use them properly, they're on your side.

Quick grammar lesson:

It's always means it is.

Its always means belonging to it. [No, that doesn't make sense, that's just the way it is.]

You're means you are.

Your means belonging to you.

A person stretched out on the ground or on a bed is lying. A person going from being upright to being stretched out is lying down. A person setting something down is laying it down. The person laid it down yesterday. He/she/it lies there or is lying there today. He/she/it/I/you/we/they lay there yesterday. He/she/it/I/you/we/they have lain there for days.

Something is always between you and me, not between you and I.

Basic premises in The Hero:

New revelations about The Hero from Book 13 have been added in blue. These are spoilers for Book 13.

1. Inuyasha died in Kagome's arms at the end of the quest (on Kagome's 16^th birthday), following the killing of Naraku and the destruction of the Shikon no Tama, which was vaporized in Inuyasha's hands. As he was dying, he declared his love for Kagome and, not realizing he was mortally wounded, promised to come find her in her realm. After preparing his body for burial and witnessing his cremation, Kagome returned home to grieve. (Note: so far in The Hero we've heard four or five different versions of Inuyasha's death, but this much can be stated as true.)
   

2. Houjou-kun is Inuyasha's reincarnation. Physically he is a different person (he and Inuyasha are distant relatives, and there is some resemblance, but not much). Spiritually and mentally they are the same person, but at different points in life. He has remembered his previous life since an accident on his fourth birthday. During the timeline of the original Inuyasha story he remembered Kagome and the quest, but thought he might have imagined it all. He nevertheless dedicated his life to finding Kagome, and to changing all the things she didn't like about him, and eventually to protecting her.

3. Like his original self, Houjou-kun always loved Kagome's name and loved speaking the word—but not to her. Some compulsion prevented him from calling her by her name, or from telling her his own. Almost a year after Kagome's return through the well, he spoke her name, and was afterward able to reveal himself to her. Eventually she got used to it.

4. Houjou-kun's given name is Inuyasha, which is his mother's family name. (No, that's not usual in Japan. A fortune teller said they should name him Inuyasha, using the kanji familiar to us.) During his teenaged years, nobody calls him Inuyasha. His family nickname is Koinu, which means "puppy." As a teenager he is very embarrassed by his nickname. (As an adult he takes it in stride.)

5. All his life, Houjou has had recurring nightmares about being shot by Kikyou and pinned to the tree.

6. Houjou-kun is cute and clueless and weird, but he's not boring. He's quite strong for a human, a power hitter (right fielder) on the baseball team. He's still never met a tree he can't climb. He has an extraordinary sense of smell—sufficient to identify a person by scent alone, even at some distance. He's also highly intelligent, and determined to be a good student because he thinks that's what Kagome would like. He is immensely knowledgeable about fairy tales and legends, particularly ones involving magic swords. He has lived in several countries and speaks several languages, including excellent English. He still sits and broods, either on the roof of his house or in trees.

7. A few months before Kagome was first pulled down the well, Houjou-kun bought Tessaiga in one of those antique shops where you buy magic things and that you can never find again after you've bought something. He still has the sword as an adult.

8. The Hero takes place more than 10 years after Kagome's return home after the end of the quest. Houjou and Kagome are married and now live in the shrine house with her mother and grandfather. Souta, who is a grad student in science and a computer geek, shares an apartment with friends. Houjou, who owns an old Toyota Hilux pickup truck, is an archeological anthropologist on the faculty of the prestigious Edo University—specializing, of course, in Feudal Japan.

9. All along, Inuyasha was the guardian spirit of the Higurashi shrine.

10. Mama and Grandpa always knew Inuyasha would die, and always knew the location of Inuyasha's grave. Kagome would have known, too, if she'd ever read any of the stuff in the shrine office and on the little plaques. At the time Kagome turns 15, Houjou-kun knows about Miroku's grave, but not about Inuyasha's. Kagome finds his grave after her return from the quest. The adult Houjou and Kagome both know about Inuyasha's grave. Anyone who can sense the Shikon can see it in Inuyasha's grave, permeating his remains. Kagome reports that they are inert—morally neutral, and presumably drained of power.

11. Inuyasha died because he used the SNT to give the remainder of his human life to Kikyou. Therefore, Kikyou was alive and human at the end of the quest. All of the other companions survived, as did Sesshoumaru and his party, including Kohaku, who Sesshoumaru Tenseiga'd as part of a deal with Inuyasha, who asked that he revive Kohaku rather than himself.

12. Miroku and Sango conceived a son while "comforting" each other the night of Inuyasha's death; they then married and had many sons. Miroku lived to be 100 years old. He was a famous historian, and also wrote down the Inuyasha stories. Late in his life he founded a monastery, and both he and Inuyasha are buried on its grounds.

13. Both Myouga and Sesshoumaru are still alive in modern times. So, apparently, are Rin and Kohaku. Kanna died by Kohaku's hand while Sesshoumaru and the wolf tribes were invading Naraku's castle. There is some indication that Kagura fell at the same time, trying to help Kohaku and Rin escape.We know nothing about what happened to Shippou, Kirara, or Kouga, except that they were all alive at the end of the quest. (The Hero storyline branches off from the original immediately before the monkey god story, so Hakudoushi is not an issue.)

14. Nothing has ever been said about the status of the well after Inuyasha's death. Kagome made it home through the well and has never mentioned visiting the surviving companions. Both Kagome and Houjou visit Miroku's grave when they want to talk to him.

15. Even as an adult, Kagome is still saddened by the thought of Inuyasha's death, although she and Houjou are loving and affectionate.

16. Houjou wears a string of prayer beads as a sign of reverence for his mother's family's guardian spirit, the great dog daemon (the original Inuyasha's father). It seems apparent that his mother's family descended from the inhabitants of the dog daemon's territory.

17. As in the original story, Houjou is the direct descendent of the family ruling Musashi domain, where Kaede lived. In The Hero, the original Inuyasha was also a member of that family (Houjou's ancestor was Inuyasha's uncle, so Inuyasha's grandfather is their first common direct ancestor.) Houjou's ancestor, the uncle, tried to have Inuyasha killed after his mother's death. (The would-be "hit man" was in fact an ancestor of Kagome, but nobody in the story has any way of knowing that.) Inuyasha pronounced a curse on the Houjou family, promising to destroy them to the last man. There seems to have been a Houjou Akitoki, living at the time of the quest. Comments dropped by Houjou Inuyasha, as well as his nickname "Kitsune," suggest that he was red-haired like his descendent.
    
    
18. The three great swords, Tessaiga, Tenseiga, and Toukijin, all exist in the modern era. Houjou has possession of Tessaiga, which he carries around in a case. Tenseiga and Toukijin are housed in a "museum" in Tokyo, with Jaken as nominal curator. Kagome and Souta have designed daemon wards both to protect Sesshoumaru's swords from being stolen or used, and to prevent the swords, Toukijin in particular, from using their magic to affect others. At the beginning of The Hero, Toukijin has disappeared from the museum, perhaps without Sesshoumaru's knowledge. Jaken has hired a paranormal investigation firm to seek out Inuyasha and convince him to break the news to Sesshoumaru that the katana is missing.
    
    
19. Kagome's power is directly related to the level of her relationship with Inuyasha. In The Hero Kagome is married to Inuyasha and pregnant with his child, making her much more powerful than she was as a hand-holding virgin 15/16-year-old.
    
    
20. Kagome's purifying power applies to other "fired" projectile weapons—in Book 13, for example, it's a toy dart gun, the kind that shoots plastic darts with suction cups on the end, and in Book 15 it's a rubber band pulled from her braided hair. Apparently the size of the weapon is important (she indicates the dart gun would buy her and Houjou time to run away), but the toy gun seems to be enough to make Sesshoumaru nervous.
    
    
21. Inuyasha's original motivation for grabbing the SNT and becoming daemon was to give him the power to overthrow Sesshoumaru and re-take their father's stronghold, but the generals for his "rebel army"—certainly they saw IY as a figurehead—grew impatient and attacked with IY still hanyou (and perhaps 15 years old). The division of forces was disastrous for both Sesshoumaru, who lost half his forces and all chance of regaining the stronghold from the humans, and for Inuyasha, who was the only survivor of his army.
    
    
22. Before Houjou-kun arrived at Kagome's middle school, Sesshoumaru had seen him and identified him as Inuyasha.
    
    
23. Inuyasha and Kagome lost their virginity together—during a bit of surreptitious midnight skinny dipping—while on a concert trip with their high school choir about 18 months after Kagome's final return through the well. Jaken was an appalled witness to the deed.

Okay, that's all the information you'd need to put together all the scenarios I could think of offhand. Anything in the comic is fair game. There's other information in the comic and in the cast lists. Use whatever you'd like, change whatever you want to. Feel free to e-mail me (kbatey@northwestern.edu) if you have a question about details. Other points:

• I don't know when this story starts. I was thinking it's before the timeline of The Hero. It could also be after The Hero story ends, meaning you'll have to make up your own ending for The Hero, which could be as simple as "then everything went back to normal so we don't need to mention it." What's important, of course, is that currently in The Hero, Kagome's almost 3 months pregnant. If you start your story during or after the events of The Hero, you'll have to consider the effect on Houjou and Kagome's baby.

• Think out the implications of time travel, and about Kagome's knowing what's going to happen. For example:

  Even if Kagome goes back and saves Inuyasha's life, it's still possible for him to be reincarnated as Houjou—Inuyasha just has to die before 1981. But if you want to you can decide the time anomaly made him not be Inuyasha's reincarnation.

  If Houjou is Inuyasha's reincarnation, does he still remember being Inuyasha, even though he doesn't remember Kagome? Your decision.

  If Inuyasha lives, Miroku and Sango don't have to comfort each other, so they don't conceive their first child.

  If Inuyasha lives, Kikyou presumably dies.

  Kagome could avoid shattering the Shikon no Tama (which is still inside her body, remember?) But then what happens? Where does Naraku come in? Miroku? Sango? What does Inuyasha do about the jewel?

  Kagome and Inuyasha could guard against the theft of Kikyou's bones. Or Kagome could warn Inuyasha not to call out Kikyou's name. But then what happens?

  If Kagome goes through the well and awakens Inuyasha, she's doing it as an adult who knows how the story plays out. (And as an adult who is used to being married to a grown-up, much more civil version of Inuyasha.) What does that mean? Does she save Inuyasha's original self? Run to Sango's village and save everybody?

• You can have the well be open or not, as you prefer. One can argue either way about whether Houjou-kun could go through the well.

• You can go for comedy, or tragedy, or angst, or adventure—not enough IY adventures stories out there—or romance, or pure lemon, or horror, or whatever. If you want to kill somebody, kill 'em. It can be a one-shot, or chapters and chapters. You can draw a lot of your own conclusions about what Kagome's thinking and feeling—The Hero is told from Inuyasha's perspective, just as Inuyasha is told from Kagome's, so we don't have a lot of insight into her view of things.

• Remember that Kagome still has the Shikon no Tama inside her body.

• The Hero timeline branches off from the end of the Oni Head story in Inuyasha. This means that the Shichinin-tai and Hakudoushi are optional, but not precluded. Whatever happened to Kikyou in Inuyasha, she was around to get hit by Tessaiga's kenatsu in The Hero.

• I don't care if you spell it Tetsusaiga or Tessaiga. Or Hojo or Houjou. Or Inuyasha or InuYasha or Inu-Yasha or Inuyasya or Inuyaksa. In the context of the book Inu Yasha—two words, space between, no hyphen—is a joke. I'm probably going to switch to Tessaiga in future issues of the comic. I usually write "Hojo" on the pencils of the comic, even though I spell it "Houjou" in the CG. For consistency's sake, I use Chris Rijk's spellings. I use "daemon" because I foolishly had Houjou say I should, and then had him give a good rationale for it. You can use daemon or demon or youkai. I don't care.

• In the original Japanese, and in the English manga, Kagome never says "Sit, boy." She says that in the English dubbed anime because her mouth is moving to say three syllables—"osuwari"—and it looked funny when she just said "sit." I really, really hate "sit, boy"—probably irrationally so. It does have the advantage of demonstrating that she's using it as a master-to-dog command: "osuwari" is never used in speaking of people, so all those zillions of fanfics that have Kagome saying "Let's just sit here…" and Inuyasha crashing to the ground, are making an embarrassing error. I dunno. Use what works for you.

It's your story, I'm just asking you to share it with me.

Note: Houjou-kun would never say "Is your brain broken?" The adult Houjou might say it, but probably only to his mother, and they'd have reached a fairly high decibel level before he got there. No, he'd never say it to Auntie Barbra, he'd say something much more obscene. In the English-language anime Inuyasha says it, so I guess I can't forbid him from saying it here, but if he does I want the ground littered with dead angels.

Another note: As you've probably figured out by now if you read the comic, there are a lot of things going on in The Hero that haven't been explained yet. If you start writing and suddenly some assumption changes, handle it whatever way works best for you: either stick with your original assumptions, or change to go with what I'm doing with my version of the story. This is all Alternate Universe stuff at this point.

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