Jasmine's Past, Meliodas vs Inuyasha 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 although Meliodas is 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 (which he drenches in both ketchup and mustard), and chips covered in melted cheese. Cleo herself serves him another non-alcoholic fruit and 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 asks Cleo about her father, his first cousin. He had been born in Istanbul, Turkey, 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, humble and creative. Abram and his wife Hatshepsut, Cleo's mother, had both died of a deadly, man-made virus that specifically kills demons. 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 just a few years ago, while her grandfather returned to his post with the church.

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.

"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. He still ends up chocking on his food. 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 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."

Cleo giggles.

Meliodas shrugs his shoulders but 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. Just a little while ago, the tele-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 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. 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. 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 wealthy dressed young man in his late twenties standing there.

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

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

Ban doesn't understand the language, 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." Julian pauses; "You...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 go out."

"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 as if she's about to have a panic attack.

"Are you ok?" Ban asks

She nods. They soon collect the food and return to the church. Later as they are eating, there's some aggressive pounding at the back door. 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. 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 then reveals the fact that knows Britannian. "Look at this, you'll never have it. I'm bathing in luxury and carefree 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.

"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 destroyed 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 behind her.

"Jeez, what a...witch;" 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, Pastor Enzo. She and Scout refer to him 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. Ban and Elizabeth soon join her, she didn't even notice them there at first.

"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. It still hurts yes, but I'm really missing my sister. We're rarely apart and it's awkward not having her here."

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 you end up here?"

Jasmine smiles. "You want to get to know me better. 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 roaming the Mediterranean at the time. I don't know my true origin. We speculation I may have come from east central Africa, but we don't know."

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

"I actually asked Papa if I could change my name when I was 5. Other kids were making fun of my unusual name, and I wanted to fit in. 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 and it's part of who I am, although I still prefer to be called Jasmine."

"Both of your names are beautiful;" says Elizabeth; "If I had to pick a second name, it'd probably be Michaela (also spelled Mikayla, Mykayla, or McKayla), after my biological father."

Now that Elizabeth thinks about it, that wouldn't be a bad name for her daughter, although she prefers the Mikayla spelling.

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 had gotten sick, except got 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 them out, didn't she?"

"Yes, ma'am she did;" Emily confesses.

Goro makes a noise. Jasmine assures him that he did nothing wrong."

"What a day;" says Hawk wirily.

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The fight between Inuyasha and Meliodas is a rather, odd one. Scout, who had been observing out of sight, left to attend to other matters as she can't watch this ridiculous fight. 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 the half-demon finally finishes, Meliodas has some bloody scratches through his body, but otherwise unharmed.

"Are you done yet?" The dragon sin grins and takes Inuyasha out with one punch. He goes over to his opponent to make sure he's alright. Inuyasha grabs him by the neck and flips him onto 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 while, Inuyasha realizes that Meliodas is barely using any of his actual strength. He 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 blade, 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 power-greedy people or war-loving psychos who never have enough of anything.

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 that even the 3,000-year veteran can't anticipate. 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 wants to both lighten the mood as well as well as get to know this guy. Inuyasha's getting extremely irritated by the mostly playful statements (as well as Meliodas's constant grinning). However, he answers his opponent's questions without thinking.

Meliodas compares Inuyasha to Ban, explain 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 almost 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 sometimes."

"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 of 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 dragon 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 the Bone Eater's 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 bellies are grumbling. 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. 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 can barely move. 

"That was rough;" says the dragon sin accepting his hand. "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."

Meliodas grins. "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've also got a giant sweet tooth."

"Not that it's important;" replies Inuyasha; "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."