InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ 30 Pieces Of A Pack ❯ The Stuff of Legends ( Chapter 3 )

Written for the LiveJournal Community 30 Shards: Shard #1 - Legend

 

Title: The Stuff of Legends
Character/Pairing: Miroku + InuYasha
Rating: PG
Squicks: None
Summary: A living legend learns of how others see his history… and his future.

Universe: Takes place in the “Pack Law” Universe, between the Sengoku Jidai & the Modern Age

 

The group crested the hill, InuYasha motioning for most of the youkai in the party to fall back. The motion was lost on the humans, who gazed over what used to be a small village in awe.

 

They hadn't been back in decades; Kaede's death had hit them all hard. Even Shippou had abandoned his post in the village, convinced by Miroku that it had been so long, Kagome obviously wasn't coming back.

 

InuYasha had even tried the well again; nobody admitted to having seen it, but it was the best illustration Shippou had to realizing that his foster-mother was not going to come back through the magic well.

 

Now, though, they'd come on an important mission. Word was that priests and priestesses had been working together to build a Shinto shrine near Edo and had been razing part of the forest.

 

InuYasha needed to see for himself: was this Kagome's shrine? He needed to see with his own two eyes that the well not be touched, that Goshinboku stay unmarred by anything but time.

 

So they gathered themselves together (with a suitable youkai crew to guard them, though InuYasha had protested that they didn't need it) and set out for the village.

 

The changes were staggering. What was once a tiny village was now undeniably a prospering city. Asking around, Miroku learned that the shrine once in residence near Kaede's hut had burned in a bandit attack. That, and the stories passed down about Urasue's attack on Kikyou's gravesite, had convinced the current miko that the site was unfavorable to the kami.

 

The new shrine was being built near the well.

 

“Why?” InuYasha asked gruffly. It'd been a question he always wanted answered. The beautiful area in his time had been a place of worship in Kagome's. What had sparked the change? Why were the priestesses so adamant about protecting Goshinboku? And why would they allow the well to remain intact when it obviously held no water and youkai were slipping into myth for most humans?

 

An old priest smiled, nearly toothless in age, and beckoned for the group to sit. It was a mark of Shippou's ingenuity (or the priest's lack of power) that nobody seemed to catch on that there were two youkai and a hanyou in their midst.

 

After indulging in a small bit of sake to wet his throat, the priest launched into what appeared to be a well-rehearsed tale. “About 80 years ago, or so the records say, a hanyou boy fell in love with a miko.”

 

At InuYasha's twitch, the old man nodded wisely. “Aye, I know. `Tis a weird thing to happen - the two should have been enemies, especially given the hanyou's history.”

 

Miroku and Sango shared a glance. They'd thought the story would have started out with Kikyou…

 

“The hanyou was betrayed by the first miko friend he made. He was going to marry her, even, but she was tricked and turned on him, believing he had attacked her first. She died after sealing him to the tree.” He gazed at the tree, visible from the half-built shrine, with something akin to awe. “The records say the hanyou hung there, suspended, for fifty years. He did not wither with hunger or thirst. The kami must have smiled upon him, though his fate looked to be unkind, for after fifty years, another miko arrived.”

 

The priest's gaze swung to where the well sat, blocked by a wall. “The scrolls left behind do not say much about the girl-miko, though they say she freed the hanyou, bound him, and slowly healed his heart. Some say she lived in the well; others say she was a foreigner who simply found the well a place of comfort.”

 

Miroku spoke up as the priest fell silent. “So the tree remains, considered sacred because of how it kept the hanyou alive?” He ignored InuYasha's snort.

 

The priest nodded. “Aye. Some rumors even say it is a Tree of Ages, though most scholars find it preposterous. The well is supposedly made from the tree, too, and some believe it gives the well magical properties.”

 

InuYasha rolled his eyes. “There ain't nothin' special about that well,” he asserted, though the humans in his pack could feel how much of a lie it was.

 

“That's merely one man's opinion,” the priest gently chided. “For some, following the kami and ancestors provides all the hope they need to get through life.” Brown eyes narrowed on InuYasha. “For others, though… the kami are revered because they are a source of hope. Your life will be very bleak indeed if you have nothing in the future to look forward to.”

 

The group basked in this knowledge for a moment before Sango finally asked a question.

 

“What happened to the hanyou and the miko?”

 

The priest smiled. “The scrolls don't say. I like to hope that wherever they are, they are together… or will be, in the end. Along with the Shikon no Tama, it's one of the region's most famous legends… and I am honored to have spoken with one,” he said with a bow, shooing the group from the shrine as the builders came back from their break.

 

InuYasha blinked... then snorted skeptically, stomping out of the shrine proper with his arms crossed and a dark glower on his face. But his heart would not allow him to walk away without standing beneath the sacred tree just one more time...