Jasmine's past/Inuyasha vs Meliodas round 2

Meliodas and Demon Queen Cleo are having a ball. They are inside a perfect cube having another arm-wrestling match, and even had a couple of playful spars. They had stopped by the clinic on their way to the vendors and got their fractures healed. After ten minutes of being fairly eventually match, Cleo seems to get the upper hand. At the last second however, Meliodas snatches the victory, bring the total to 3-3 each. They both laugh.

"Well now;" smiles Meliodas; "You started out strong, but now I've even the odds. What do say, best 4 out of 7."

Cleo grabs her arm, it's burning. Meliodas's arm is also burning. They agree on a little rest and go back to their table. Angel comes up with her Frisbee. Cleo throws it again, as she's been doing in between each match. Angel also drew pictures of them arm wrestling. She's very talented, but Meliodas is a little less than impressed.

"I'm not so sure. She forgot my ahoge (the two parts of his hair that stick up)."

Meliodas snacks on a large pile of beef sausage dogs in buns and chips covered in melted cheese. Cleo herself serves him another non-alcoholic fruit and almond milk smoothie cocktail. The dragon sin is disappointed, and it shows on his face.

"Something wrong Meliodas? You don't like our cocktails?"

"Oh, it's not that;" he says with his mouth full; "It's just I was expecting alcohol. That's what I meant when I said I needed drinks."

Cloe's a little perplexed; "You didn't specify alcohol. Nobody will be serving it until after 7:00. Besides, you had an awful lot this morning."

Meliodas disagrees. "I didn't want to hurt your feelings, Cousin Cleo, but those beers were rather on the light side. The drinks I usually consume and serve at my bar are a lot stronger than those. Although they were much better quality and tasty than that cheap gin from the other night."

That statement makes the queen at little uncomfortable. "Meliodas, you're not an alcoholic, are you?"

"An alcoholic, me? Nah. I just drink excessively that's all."

Cleo tries not to gulp. She may need to keep an eye on this guy. Meliodas dumps lots of ketchup and mustard on his next hot dog, as he's done with all of them. Cleo's a little disgusted by that and wonders how he's even tasting the dogs, although the red and yellow stains on his face certainly look funny.

Meliodas asks Cleo about her father, his first cousin. He had been born in Istanbul, Turkey in the 3rd century A.D., the only surviving child of her grandfather and his wife (who died 200 years ago). His name was Abram. He was a very kind and gentle soul, but also brave and humble. Abram and his wife Hatshepsut, Cleo's mother, had both died defending Luxor 60 years ago. Cleo was a toddler and has little memory of her parents. Her grandfather, who had joined the church hundreds of years earlier, returned to the demon realm to raise Cleo and to, reluctantly, act as regent on her behalf. Cleo formally assumed the throne 13 years ago, while her grandfather returned to his post with the church.

Meliodas licks the melted cheese, ketchup, and mustard off his fingers. "What about my uncle? Why did he leave Britannia and how did he end up here?"

"Well..."

Willie soon appears and accepts a non-alcoholic cocktail. Meliodas greets him cheerfully and playfully slaps him on the back.

"Ouch!"

"Sorry;" the dragon sin grins with his mouth full. Willie looks away in disgust.

Cleo looks around. "Wildelfredico, isn't...I thought she'd be with you?"

Willie looks around; "She was right behind. I don't see her now."

"Who's she?" asks Meliodas.

"Please quit taking with your mouth full;" Willie says firmly; "That's disgusting."

Meliodas shallows and purposely belches loudly in Willie's face.

"Eeew! Knock it off! And your breath stinks."

"My apologies, Mister good manners officer;" Meliodas says sarcastically, then licks the ketchup and mustard that's fallen on his vest.

Cleo gulps down a whole cocktail, bangs her chest, and burps.

"Nice one cuz." Meliodas holds up his hand and Cleo high fives it. Willie shakes his head. He'd forgotten just how cheeky the demon queen could be.

"Cleo;" asks Willie; "Do you know where Ramesses went?"

The queen nods; "Yes. He ran to the east prayer chapel and declared sanctuary. He won't stay in there forever. He'll come out when he gets hungry enough."

"What was he exhaled for this time?" asks Willie.

Cleo shakes her head; "I guess he failed to mention that he exhaled himself. It was one of three choices."

"What did he do?" asks Meliodas, curious.

"Ask someone else, I don't want to mention it;" replies the queen.

Suddenly out of nowhere, Inuyasha appears and punches Meliodas in the back of the head. While it doesn't hurt the dragon sin, he still ends up chocking. Cloe slaps him on the back.

"Are you alright?"

Meliodas coughs and rubs his chest; "Yea. Yo Inocha; what's up?"

"INUYASHA! INUYASHA! And I think you know what I want."

Meliodas stuffs yet another hot dog into his mouth and holds the very last one; "You want a rematch I assume. How about a hot dog eating contest this time?"

"NO! A brawl! Right here, right now!"

Meliodas stuffs the last hot dog into his mouth, wipes his face with his sleeve, then loosens his knuckles. "Already then. If you insist, I'm all game."

"Hold it!" The queen intervenes; "We've got laws about fights."

"I follow nobody's rules, Demon Queen;" says Inuyasha; "not even my own."

She snaps her fingers; a perfect cube appears around the two eager fighters and suspends in mid-air.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!" shouts Inuyasha; "I hate in-closed spaces!"

"That's the law;" explains the queen; "No open fights down here. Prevents damage and maintains the peace."

"Makes perfect sense;" agrees Meliodas, having done this before with Ban inside Merlin's perfect cube. "Don't worry Inny, we can go all out in here."

"GET MY NAME RIGHT MELIODAS!" The half-demon immediately punches Meliodas in the face, who just stands there unaffected. Cleo then removes the Tessaiga and its sheath from Inuyasha, making him even angrier.

"Sorry, no weapons. Oh, one more thing." Cleo snaps her fingers again and their clothes change to traditional Roman gladiator attire, complete with canvas loincloths, weird straps wrapped around their legs from the knees down attached to sandals, shoulder pads, odd helmets and completely shirtless. Inuyasha, however, retains his purple necklace which can't be removed.

"WHAT THE HELL!" shouts Inuyasha; "I'M NAKED! GIVE ME BACK MY CLOTHES, NOW!"

"No need to damage your clothes over a meaningless brawl;" grins Cleo; "I'll change them back after the fight."

Willie looks sternly at her; "You did that for your own amusement."

Meliodas shrugs his shoulders rolls with it, except for the helmet which he takes off. Inuyasha throws off his own helmet, activates his claws and charges.

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Jasmine and Ban are in town picking up dinner. There's reason to celebrate. Just a little while ago, the messages finally came through. Jasmine learned that three Britannians are in Tibet with Carmine, and a possible 3 more missing people in Japan. They don't know exactly how the reunions are going to happen, but they both know that the gates will be clashing again soon. There was a message from Scout as well, informing them that she found Meliodas and Wildelfredico in the demon realm of Luxor. Elizabeth broke out in tears of joy and swears she could feel the pea size babies leaping for joy in her womb. Ban jumped for joy and Zeldris was beside himself.

While they wait on the food, Ban takes the time to sincerely thank Jasmine for everything they've done for them so far, and once again expresses how the world needs more people like her. She hadn't asked for any help, but Ban had volunteered.

Suddenly out of the blue, Jasmine hears an old familiar voice; "Jazzy?"

She gasps and her face is in shock. Ban ask if she's alright as she turns around and sees a young man in his late twenties standing there.

"(In Greek) Jazzy, is it really you?"

"Ja...Ja...Julian."

"You're alive!"

"Yes."

Ban doesn't understand them, but he can see that Jasmine's tense and pretty uncomfortable.

"(In Greek) "You...you're...I didn't know you were in town."

"Yes;" says Julian awkwardly; "Just moved back to the area last month. Don't get out much, but I'll be leaving for Rome again soon."

It's strange that Julian wouldn't have heard that she and Scout were alive and back home in a community their size, although the wealthy aristocrats didn't tend to go to town themselves nor mingle with people of 'lower' statues.

"You...;" Julian pauses; "Look good."

Jasmine was about to politely cut off the awkward encounter when an obviously wealthy woman appears. "Julian, I don't recall giving you permission to leave."

"Sorry dear, I just needed some fresh air."

The woman makes a very rude comment towards Jasmine and whisks Julian off before he can say goodbye. Jasmine looks frustrated.

"Are you ok?" ask Ban.

She nods. They soon collect the food and return to the church. Later as they are eating, there's some aggressive knocks at the back door, more like angry pounding. The door flings open and in stomps the same wealthy woman from earlier, the extent of her wealth well represented with her ridiculous attire, jewelry, and accessories, which must be far more expensive than any of Princess Elizabeth's gowns. She gives Jasmine an angry glare and slaps her hard in the face, the vulacish not even flinching.

"(In Latin) Don't you EVER look at Julian again, you SLUT!"

Everybody gasps and the girls are quickly lead away. Their neighbor Mrs. Rico, and the old priest and mostly retired former head pastor of this church, had joined them for dinner and know who this woman is. While the woman continues to insult Jasmine, they explain that it's ironic that she'd refer to Jasmine by such a word, especially since it was the complete opposite. They explained to the Britannians that Jasmine had once been in love with and engaged to Julian. They had grown up together and were actually kind of childhood sweethearts, despite being very far apart in status classes and belonging to different church denominations. Naturally, Julian's family never approved of their relationship and tried everything to break them up. It seemed for a while that their love would prevail, however, Julian wasn't quite done 'having fun' with other woman while Jasmine remained committed to staying a virgin until marriage. The woman who's now insulting Jasmine wasn't from a wealthy, aristocrat family either but desired to be. She was also "in love" (lustfully and status/wealth wise) with Julian and swore that he'd be hers. She succeeded in seducing Julian and got pregnant with his child. He broke off his engagement with Jasmine and married her.

"And that woman has the gall to call Pastor Jaz a slut?" says Zeldris angrily.

Elizabeth is horrified and can't imagine how heartbroken Jasmine must be. Ban is so angry that he goes back into the room, the woman still insulting the pastor about everything from her skin color, her church, being 'trash', and infertile, proudly gloating about the fact that she's pregnant with her and Julian's third child in 4 years. Jasmine just calmly stands there and takes it, while trying to politely ask her to leave. Ban grabs the woman by the neck and pins her to the wall.

"How dare you show up here and insult this good pastor."

The woman just smirks at Ban and gives a proud look. She says something to the fox sin, and he's about to punch her when Jasmine grabs his arm, pleading him to stand down as this doesn't involve him.

"I'm asking you nicely Camilia, leave us in peace please."

"Alright, if you insist;" Camilia says very smugly, then flashes her new, blinging jewelry at the pastor, and switching to the Britannian language; "Look at this, you'll never have it. I'm bathing in luxury and leisure while you are slaving away here preaching and raising disgusting, snot-nosed girls. You and that freakish IT that you call a sister should've died for real. This world is much better off without indigent orphans like you and thoughs...burdens to society that steal our tax money."

That does it. Jasmine has a very titanium shell and can take insults amend at her, but don't you dare say anything about her sisters, especially Scout. She grabs Camilia's arm, lava fire appears in her eyes, and she severely damages her outfit and jewelry. Camilia is extremely angry.

"YOU BITCH! LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE! This dress cost more than half of the money you'll ever raise for this dump that you call a church."

Jasmine starts to glow; "You're lucky I only damaged your clothes and not you. Now, leave here or I'll feed you the volcano myself."

"YOU'LL BE SORRY FOR THIS, YOU DEVIL!"

She leaves the church, slamming the door has hard as she possibly can.

"Jeez, what a...witch for lack of a better term;" says Ban; "Are you alright Pastor?"

Jasmine calms down and holds back tears; "I will be. Ban, you didn't have to, but thank you for standing up for me."

"No sweat, it's the least I can do for you after all your generosity."

Jasmine spends the next couple of hours mostly in silence. At one point, Elizabeth sees her in the hallway corner in a deep embrace with her father/mentor, whom she and Scout refer to as Papa, as well as their "real" father. She doesn't cry, but Elizabeth can see the hurt look on her face. Later when the moon is up, Jasmine has changed into her modest swimwear and stands on the beach, allowing the tide waves to hit her feet. It feels so strange to be out here alone. Her and Scout are rarely apart, and she sure needs her right now. Ban and Elizabeth soon join her, she hadn't even noticed they were there.

"Hello, we didn't mean to startle you;" says Elizabeth.

"That's ok;" responds Jaz, forcing a smile; "It's been a long day for all of you. You're loved ones have been found."

Ban puts his hand on her shoulder; "You deserve so much better than that jerk. There's somebody out there for you, I'm sure of it."

Jasmine says nothing and just looks down as the water hits her feet, sinking slightingly deeper in the sand.

"We'll leave you alone if that's what you want;" says Elizabeth.

"No, that's ok. I'm just missing my sister that's all. We're rarely apart."

Ban takes a deep breath, wondering if he should ask what's been on his mind. "Pastor Jaz, I've been wondering, we haven't learned your story. How did end up here?"

"You want to get to know me better;" Jaz replies; "Well, really not much to tell. I was actually washed up on this shore when I was 3 years old in a basket. I remember that, but I don't remember anything from before. My name, Omarosa, and date of birth were sown into my blanket. Papa believes I came from one of the illegal slave ships that were haunting the Mediterranean at the time. I don't know my true origin. There's speculation I may have come from east central Africa, but we don't know."

"How did you end up with the name Jasmine;" ask Elizabeth.

"I actually asked Papa if I could change my name when I was 5. He chose Jasmine for me because I was a gift from God. His wife had died recently, and they were childless. He was lonely in this little church when I washed up, I was the answer to his prayers. He insisted on keeping Omarosa as a second name. I'm glad he did."

"It's beautiful;" says Elizabeth; "Both of your names are."

They can hear a terrified scream in the air over the sea. Jasmine realizes what's going on and sends a flame signal. Goro the phoenixgon comes into view with Chole, Mia, Hawk, and to the pastor's horror, Emily and Beatrice. The two younger girls are screaming bloody murder, as is Hawk. When they land, Mia doesn't look so good herself. It's obviously that each of them has thrown-up, except Chole. Emily and Beatrice run horrified to Jasmine while Hawk runs to Elizabeth and Ban. Mia gets off calmly, but then throws up in the water. Jasmine looks sternly at the thirteen-year-old.

"(In Greek) Chole, I said you and Mia could ride him in the morning, not at night! Most certainly not with Emily and Beatrice."

"What about me?" ask Hawk, vomiting again then collapsing.

"I'm sorry Sister Jaz;" answers Chole; "They begged me to go, and they weren't in any danger. A little shaky maybe."

"We'll talk about this in the morning. Get inside. Amara helped you sneak out, didn't she?"

Goro makes a noise. Jasmine, now able to communicate with him telepathically, answers: "No, you didn't do anything wrong. Go ahead and wash yourself off."

"What a day;" says Hawk wirily.

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Unable to watch the meaningless fight between Meliodas and Inuyasha, Scout turns her head and runs back to towards the grotto pools. Dressed in her usually jeans and oversized button-up blue shirt, but with no shoes, she thinks maybe she should head back to communications and send another message to Jasmine, just in case she didn't get the earlier one. She also must return to the surface soon to update Kaida on what's going on, not to leave her out in the cold. Suddenly she has a sensation, one she remembers having when she and Jasmine temporarily lived here several years back. She feels a strange magic draw coming from her bag. She takes out the Stone of Destney, which Willie had given her for safe keeping. It's glowing, and it seems to be leading to one of the grotto caves as it's glow fades when pointed in other directions. She realizes it must be reacting to its original resting place, which remains unfound. Could it be?

The stone leads her into a cave behind a waterfall, the same grotto pool that Willie found her at. She hides her backpack really well and reenters the pool, swimming underneath the waterfall, as she done about a million times before, and enters the small cave. She remembers suspecting there was something hidden beyond this cave, but she was never able to access it before. She removes her shades to get a better look around. The stone glows brighter and she narrows in on a spot. She sees something reflected that she never noticed in the cave before. Nothing happens as she waves the stone in front of it, but she adds her own power and writing appears as if by magic. They are written in ancient Egyptian, which Scout can read. Some of the writing turns out not to be words at all, but images. It seems to be in riddle code, and she's going to have to do some real thinking to figure it out. However, she soon does. It's a dance, probably a dance that will open some hidden door. Scout puts her shades and mask into her pocket (shadow blocking face from view) and starts the dance. It takes a couple of tries, but she succeeds in opening a door on the floor. The floor underneath forms into stairs, and the stone glows even brighter. She slowly and cautiously descends down the staircase, carefully calculating her every move.

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The fight between Inuyasha and Meliodas is a rather, odd one. Inuyasha started with a bunch of punches and scratching, merrily just letting out his frustration, lasting for a while. Meliodas hardly moves a muscle. When finally finished, Meliodas has some bloody scratches on his face and chest, but otherwise unharmed.

"Are you done yet?" The sin takes Inuyasha out with one punch. He goes to the half-demon to make sure he's alright. Inuyasha grabs him by the neck and flips him on the cube wall. "Get up and fight me, FOR REAL!"

"Ok, as you wish." Meliodas starts a series of moves, although he's mostly toying with the Japanese half-demon. It's very obvious that Meliodas greatly surpasses his opponent in raw strength and power. However, Inuyasha is actually a tad faster and extremely agile. He's also using a bunch of moves and techniques that Meliodas has never seen before, which confuse him at times. When he's really trying, Inuyasha's claws, and even his fangs, are very fierce weapons that can actually hurt the dragon sin if he's not careful, although a few injuries aren't any problem for him. After a little while, Inuyasha realizes that Meliodas is barely using any of his actual strength. Inuyasha gets even more serious, and he turns his own blood into a weapon, "Blades of Blood". Meliodas moves swiftly, but a few blood blades actually hit him and cut deep into his skin. Inuyasha uses the attack again. Meliodas gets out of the way, but one blade still cuts through his shoulder, forcing the dragon sin to use his demon power to heal it. He finally realizes that Inuyasha is getting more and more serious about going all out, and that he must fight for real.

"Alrighty then, I'll give you what you want."

Meliodas charges and headbutts Inuyasha in the stomach. Inuyasha thinks he hears a crack in his spine but ignores it.

The fighting's starting to turn ugly. Willie can barely watch this ridiculous fight and pleads with the demon queen to put a stop to it. "I can't yet;" Cleo explains; "I know it's hard for you to understand, but sometimes people just have to fight it out, in a controlled environment of course. Unless they are fighting to the death, it isn't fair to them for me to interfere or they'll just do it again. Better to get this out of their system now. Believe it or not Wildelfredico, that's one of the keyways we actually keep peace around here, in Luxor as well."

Willie hates to admit it, but that does logically make sense. If only it would work on those power-mad groups around Cario and much of Northern Egypt.

The fighting inside the cube is getting quite savage. Meliodas is fighting for real and easily overpowers Inuyasha. However, Inuyasha, even without the Tassaiga, has plenty of tricks and skills up his sleeve, at times surprising even the 3,000-year veteran. Meliodas has plenty of tricks of his own. Somewhere along the way, they actually start talking to each other (Meliodas talking, Inuyasha mostly shouting). Meliodas both wants to lighten the mood as well as well as get to know this guy. Inuyasha's getting really irritated and annoyed by the mostly playful statements (as well as Meliodas's constant grinning), yet he answers his opponent's questions without thinking. Meliodas compares Inuyasha to Ban, explainly how they seem so similar in appearance (hair color, fang teeth, and fierce expression), attitude, and fighting style. They both even dress in the color red. Inuyasha is just more annoyed about the comparisons (to somebody he's never even heard of). Meliodas then asks the half-demon if he's a thief like Ban. Inuyasha gives an even more aggressive slash, leaving a huge, bloody gash across the dragon sin's chest.

"I AIN'T NO THEIF! I already have to deal with Miroku the con artist every stinky day."

Meliodas avoids another attack; "So, your best friend is a thief too huh? Not that I don't help myself to things once in a while."

"I DON'T HAVE FRIENDS!" Inuyasha lands on top of his opponent; "I'm forced to work with him because we have the same enemy, that's all. And he'd better keep his filthy hands off Kagome!"

"Oh, the girl you claim you're not in love with;" Meliodas flips his opponent over his shoulders with his feet.

"I'm NOT IN LOVE WITH HER!" Inuyasha punches him; "Take that back now!"

"That just proves that you're in denial;" smiles the sin; "Just let your feelings out."

"SHUT UP!" Inuyasha hits the cube floor and sends an energy blast, Meliodas allows himself to take it. "I had somebody I loved. I watched her die, TWICE! End of story."

With that statement, Meliodas can't help but wonder. "Excuse the strange question, but is Kagome by chance your lover's reincarnation?"

Inuyasha can't believe it and is stunned stiff. "How did you know that?"

"Oh, so she is;" Meliodas expression then turns from cheeky to more sympathetic; "Ieyosha, I've seen Elizabeth die about 106 times. I actually don't remember many of the details now because I asked my friends to erase some of my worst memories, but I still remember that each one happened. And don't you say that you can't be with her because she's not the same person. Damn, I've known 107 different Elizabeths, and every single one of them was different, but believe me, at heart and soul its always the same person. You've...oh what a minute...how did Kagome get reincarnated. She's not under some repeat reincarnation curse, is she?"

"NO!" answers Inuyasha; "She reincarnated hundreds of years into the future because of the Shikon jewel, then traveled back to our time by a well."

Meliodas certainly doesn't grasp that concept. "Oh ok. Anyway, you've been given another chance with her, perhaps the final chance, don't waste it."

"Thanks for the advice;" Inuyasha hits him again; "What about your Elizabeth, is she still reincarnating? I can't imagine having to live through that so many times."

Meliodas punches his opponent; "No, thank God. I was finally able to keep my promise to her after three thousand years and finally broke our cruses. That's why I've lived as long as I have and why I haven't aged, although I'm aging now, slowly compared to other races, besides the goddess one."

The two opponents realize they are getting rather fatigued. They've been at this for quite a while now, and both of their stomachs are grumbling, especially Meliodas. Still, Inuyasha's not ready to let up.

"Good for you two;" Inuyasha starts to release his demon power, his eyes turning red; "Now, let's finish this."

Meliodas huffs and powers up, his eyes turning black; "If you insist."

Cleo has finally had enough; "Wait a minute, this is going too far. Time to end this." She snaps her fingers; "That outta do it."

Suddenly, the loincloths on both opponents come down. They gasp, power down, and pull them back up.

"Hehehe;" Meliodas giggles; "You did this didn't you, Cuz!" Cleo just smirks.

"HEY! That's not funny!" However, Inuyasha is trying really hard not to laugh.

"You lost your...skirt too;" giggles Meliodas pointing at the half-demon.

"Look who's talking, yours is falling down again."

"Oops." Meliodas grabs and holds on to his loincloth even tighter.

"That's enough for today." Cleo undoes the perfect cube. Both of them drop and the healing mages come to heal them, although their injuries will be only partially healed for now. Afterward, Cleo changes their clothes back to their usual attire, completely undamaged. Inuyasha is the first one to get up and despite himself, offers his hands to help Meliodas, who excepts.

"That was pretty rough;" says the dragon sin; "You're pretty strong and tough yourself, definitely a worthy opponent."

Inuyasha really doesn't know how to take that; "Um, thanks, I guess."

"Cousin Cleo, is it after seven now?"

The demon queen rolls her eyes; "It's almost 7:00."

"Great! I'm getting awfully hungry and thirsty after all that excitement! Hey In...Ina...yosha."

The half-demon slaps his head; "In...u...yasha. How many times do I have to repeat it."

"In...u...yasha." Meliodas finally gets the name correct; "Alright! Inuyasha, let's get a drink."

"I only drink sake."

"Oh, I LOVE sake!" exclaims Meliodas; "It's my favorite next to the best ale of course. What's your favorite food? Mine's pork marinated in ale, although I love just about any meat, especially fried or roasted, or both. I also got a giant-sized sweet tooth."

"Not that it's important;" Inuyasha takes a few seconds; "In this era, it's boiled ramen with grilled fish. From Kagome's era, it's instant ramen in a cardboard cup."

"What the heck are those?"

Willie watches them in shock and looks at Cleo; "What just happened?"

"They're bonding;" she explains; "Guess I better help with the cooking and get the sake out."