InuYasha Fan Fiction / Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Miko ❯ Dreams of a Memory ( Chapter 4 )

MIKO

By L.O. a.k.a. azn_otaku

Crossover: InuYasha and Trigun

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A/N: Gomen ne! I am really sorry for putting off this update for so long. I had a two week long vacation and once I got back, I had a hard enough time getting back into the swing of things without having to think about my fiction. And besides, for some reason I couldn't even get into mm.org! But...eventually...I got back on track and I started typing.

It actually took awhile for me to get back on track with this story. While I was on the road trip part of my vacation, I came up with the perfect title for the chapter. But after that, I couldn't think of how to start or what to put in it. It wasn't until I was writing about Knives and Kikyou that I was really on the get-go.

Anyways, on the reader responses:

Thu666: Glad to hear that things are clearing up. Sometimes it's hard for me to tell if a part is confusing or not because I already know what is going to happen with my characters. And yes, a Trigun and InuYasha crossover is unusual.

Brownilocs: I love stories like that too! The good books always leave you hanging until the end or towards the end.

bluesky: Knives does have something for Kagome, glad you noticed. Also happy that you like the plot. I'm very proud of this fic, seeing as it's pretty original.

civilwarbuff: Many people seem to find this story interesting. I'm sorry that the part with Kikyou was confusing, like I said with Thu666, it's sometimes hard for me to tell if something is going to be confusing for the reader. I'll try to improve on that.

Walis: The others of the InuYasha group are still alive! It is great, isn't it? Don't worry, I wouldn't dare kill off the inu hanyou everyone seems to love so much. Sesshoumaru is indeed going to be a part of the Gunsmoke cast...just a little spoiler into future plans. I have yet to decide how everyone meets him though. Any suggestions?

Tamashi Yume (Soul Dreamer): Kagome will have a happy future, so don't worry about her. I love both Trigun and InuYasha too! Otherwise, it would make no sense that I'm writing this fic. I hate it when writers stop writing as well. I hope I didn't cause any trouble when I took that break from writing without notice. And I feel that if a person is striving to write a good fanfic that they want others (as well as themselves) to enjoy, then they should try and make the fic readable. Sometimes there are just too many bad fics out there that it's hard to find a GOOD fic. I'll check up on that site you mentioned. Oh, and I've updated now, as you can see. It was sort of writer's block but mostly the need for time that kept me from completing this chapter.

Neko-Vixen: You want a Knives/Kagome pairing? Hmm, I'm rather a stickler for InuYasha/Kagome. But that's an interesting idea. Someone should write a story with that pairing. Maybe I should put that on my wish list...

Knives_vixen: The pairing? I love InuYasha/Kagome if that's any hint. Glad you like the idea!

Uber Rei Model 04: There are other Trigun/InuYasha fics out there? News to me. Hey, review this chapter and tell me where I can find these other crossovers!

Sumechick15: A lot of people keep saying that they've been waiting for a Trigun/InuYasha crossover like mine. Maybe I'll be a trendsetter. You know, fighting the way for all Trigun/InuYasha crossovers of my time! Mwahahahahahah!

Mommy Rogers: A lot of stories have a hard time developing Knives. I was hoping I portrayed his character well in this fic. It looks like I've got at least one person's approval, which is good. Sometimes it's weird seeing Knives wake up in a fic and have him do a complete 180 degree turn in personality. I'm an InuYasha/Kagome fan too! Although I do like some Sesshoumaru/Kagome fics...given that they're written the right way. I always cry towards the end of Trigun. How can such a lighthearted beginning turn into such an angsty end?!

Elle: I know you're all waiting! That's why I'm updating, see? I like your enthusiasm for this story though. It makes me want to write more.

ATTENTION: Several of your reviews have mentioned waiting for a good Trigun/InuYasha crossover. Does that mean that there are others out there? If any of you care to, could you please send me links to any sort of Trigun crossover? I've been looking for one. One of the reasons I came up with "Miko" is because, other than a discontinued Trigun/Sailor Moon xover, I found no other fics. Please help me out in my time of need!

VERY IMPORTANT TO THE STORY PLOT: Well...sort of important. You know that music that was coming out of Knives' locket? Well, it's supposed to be "Dearest" without the lyrics. You know, that one song by the all powerful goddess Ayumi Hamasaki? It was also the third ending to InuYasha but I'm using the full version song instead of the shortened one that they use for the anime.

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"....." Dialogue

[.....] Thoughts

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Chapter Four: Dreams of a Memory

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[I'm tired]

[I'm tired]

[I'm tired]

The dim grey eyes of the assassin gazed outwards in a detached manner. Her hair drifted lazily about her face, oxygen mask strapped firmly upon her mouth. The cord coming from the mask had entwined itself around one smooth arm, parts of the long rubber tube waving just as lazily in the liquid. Her normally fluffed up bangs, hiding her eyes.

She felt herself slowly shifting back into a dream.

[No...not that...]

[Anything but that.]

She didn't want to see those eyes again. They were haunting her, gazing at her with such sadness. With pity. She didn't need that pity, did she? There was nothing to pity, nothing of herself that actually belonged to her. She didn't need anyone telling her that she deserved better....they were all wrong.

This was what she deserved.

[My master...]

She had made her master angry. She needed to be punished. Why did she think that she could switch places with that young girl she had murdered? Why did she have those foolish notions? It was being outside that had caused her to forget her place. She was a monster. She was a slave. She was nothing more than a mere pet.

That's right.

Nothing more.

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Meryl winced as she hastily put the tiny teacup down, she needed to learn to be more patient and let the tea cool off before trying to sip. The cheerful sounds of a kettle whistling filled the air. The atmosphere would have been entirely comfortable had there not been a pair of eyes, glaring furiously at her.

Well, not really glaring. Meryl didn't think that the sheriff would be so impolite as to glower at the three newcomers with no reason whatsoever. He seemed to be the fair sort of man, a hard worker and a believer in justice. The kind of man that Meryl knew was trustworthy. Although she sensed that, at the moment, this same trustworthy man wasn't too sure about her or her companions.

"....Thank you for letting us stay here." Meryl blushed as she stared down at her tea, "I'm very sorry about all of this. If you really didn't want us to stay around we could have..."

The sheriff looked at Meryl for a moment before turning his head to the low bed in the corner. Millie was there, having turned in early for the night. Already the sun had sunk below the horizon and there were lights flickering on throughout the town. Vash was probably already asleep in the next room as well. It was only Meryl who could not rest easy, as her skin was still crawling from the looks the townspeople had given her earlier that day. For some reason, she just could not get the angry eyes of that housewife out of her mind.

They had burned with hatred.

"I'm sorry...what was that?" Meryl shook her head in embarrassment and glanced at the rugged man in front of her.

"My name is Mike. You are...?"

"M-Meryl. Meryl Stryfe." She shook a few wisps of blue hair out of her eyes before continuing on, "Um...Mike...I was wondering...."

"Yes?"

"Well, why is it that you hate me? I mean, us." She blushed at her mistake, "I mean...I don't know what I mean. It seems like you hate me."

There was a pregnant pause while the two looked off at two different corners of the room, avoiding each other's eye. For awhile, Meryl was sure that Mike was going to refuse her an answer. His deep brown eyes seemed to stare off into the distance, mind set in his thoughts. The short insurance girl noticed how his nose twitched and a frown descended upon his complexion.

Just as Meryl was about to wave her question off with an apology, she heard a reply that startled her out of her embarrassment.

"None of you outsiders have given us a reason to like you. There has never been a time in my memory when there has not been bloodshed at the arrival of newcomers."

"Wha-"

Mike's eyes finally stopped their roving to rest seriously upon Meryl's dumbfounded expression.

"Do you know what the word "Youkai" really means?"

Meryl thought long and hard, reaching into the furthest corners of her mind for vocabulary words, "Youkai...that's Japanese for "Demon"....isn't it? My father's Japanese...his grandfather had come from Japan before getting onto one of the surviving ships that crashed here over a century ago. The language has been passed down over the generations. I had been the one to teach Millie to call me "Sempai" after all..." Meryl chuckled at the memory of trying to get Millie to understand the Japanese language. The poor girl had been so confused, the only word to stick with her was "Sempai".

"Right. Well, most of us are descendants of the Japanese, apparently we were all somehow pulled together into one single ship. Especially all of the youkai that had survived countless centuries since Sengoku Jidai."

"Sengoku Jidai....the feudal era? My father had told me stories of that time…"

"Seeing as you have seen several of our young in their natural forms...I see no reason to keep the truth from you. Our town is called Youkai for a reason, as we have many full blooded demons as well as those who are mere descendants and have only a small percentage of demonic blood. The young boy you have conversed with, Kashi, is a quarter cat demon."

"I'm sorry...I didn't quite catch that. Did you say...that boy was an actual youkai? As in, the kind from the myths and legends?!" Meryl's hand shook as she steadied her teacup. She stared at Mike forcefully, willing the answers to her questions to come out of his mouth. He only sighed.

"Hai."

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She had been lucky to find InuYasha and his pack resting within her sister's hut. They had most likely been waiting for their Kagome to come back in time so that they might finish the hunt for the shards. She remembered feeling slightly uneasy as she walked into the dim light of Kaede's fire, knowing that she was about to tell them that Kagome might not come back to them forever after.

His eyes were what had frightened her the most. Years of waiting as a corpse, months of emotionless as the undead could not train her to be unable to fear his cold...ruthless eyes. The gazes of the monk and the taiji-ya were just a fierce. But HIS eyes....

Soft pale lips moved to repeat to herself what InuYasha had said to her, only two centuries ago.

"Do not lie to me, Kikyou."

[How could I have lied?]

She knew in her heart that she had done too much against his friends for him to accept such a big truth coming from her. But...how could she have lied? This had not been a laughing matter. If she, the one who hated Kagome more than anyone else, could come out into the open and warn her once beloved of the girl's troubles...how could InuYasha have accused her of that? Those piercing golden eyes were stabbing her within the depths of her earthlike soul. She could not breathe, could not think when she remembered the fierceness of his gaze.

"I cannot lie on such a matter, InuYasha. Come, we must act quickly."

A bird chirped nearby, causing Kikyou to come out of her reverie. In these days, it seemed harder and harder to realize the difference between reality and memory. So much of her time spent within a daydream, it was difficult for her to focus on what was happening with herself in the present. After all, once those mortals had gone off to who knows where, she had nothing else to do but reminisce.

It had taken a bit of convincing, but she had InuYasha, that little kitsune, the monk, and that taiji-ya running after her. She could still feel the prickling of her loose red pants whirling in the wind. The feeling of anxiety causing the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up. The road towards the well had not been long, but it had felt like miles. She had wondered vaguely whether or not Sesshoumaru could have been trusted. From the rumors circulating all the villages, his reputation had not been a good one.

With the sun high in the sky, Kikyou drifted under the tree in a wan manner. Her limbs floated freely beside her, she swayed with the breeze. Such a nice day.

It had come to her as she jumped into the well for the second time in a short while. This could very likely be the final battle between her once love and Naraku. She had carefully schooled her emotions upon her face to that of calmness. It would not do to rile InuYasha up right before he planned on facing the man that had kidnapped his wench.

[The last battle....yes...]

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The haunting melody rang in his ears, over and over. It sung through his soul, his very being. As he opened his eyes, he knew that he was about to witness something momentous.

[A dream?]

Was it a dream? It had to be. He had never seen such greenery except for that one room in the Project Seeds ship. There were plants and animals of the likes he had never met before. It was utterly astounding.

[Is this...Earth?]

His mind's eye turned to stare at the only shape that actually appeared human. It...she...was gliding down the gigantic roots of an equally gigantic tree. Her body was covered in what was an old miko's outfit....something he hadn't ever seen in real life, only heard of in stories. She didn't seem at all together, as if her body was not really a body at all. There was a sort of transparent air that surrounded her, and if one squinted then one could see the outline of the tree from behind the miko.

Nevertheless, she was a beautiful woman. Her hair was long and the blackest of blacks, loosely tied into a low ponytail. Deep brown eyes shifted towards her feet as she swayed to and fro around the tree. Her form circled twice before settling down to sit, back leaning against rough bark.

Almost the moment she began to relax against the trunk, her lips twitched and soulful eyes shot open to stare directly at Knives. She knew him even if he thought he was in a dream. He was, wasn't he? No one could possibly travel to the Earth. It was rumored to still be polluted. There was no way that this beautiful green planet was the present day Earth. No way.

She hesitated before speaking.

"Who are you?"

Even her voice sounded far off, like she was not all there. As if her eyes were looking into something deeper than his outward appearance. She seemed surprised, he probably wasn't supposed to be there.

She repeated again, "Who are you?"

"Knives."

"What are you doing here?"

"...Is this a dream?"

He never interacted with his dreams. Normally you weren't supposed to, as dreams were (theoretically) non-realistic planes made up from the dreamer's mind or will. It was hard to comprehend the fact that he was talking to a strange woman, obviously from the past, whom he had never met before except in this very vision.

"If it was, then I have apparently been deceived to believe that my entire life is merely some whim of your mind. Do you think that is so?"

Her words were merely conversational, but they produced a smile from Knives' lips. She may be a mere spider, but her wit surpassed even Meryl's. And he wasn't even sure about the spider thing. She could very well be some type of Plant, seeing as she floated about as if the ground was too good for the likes of her being. She appeared superior to her surroundings, lacking many of the spider-like emotions.

"No, I don't suppose so. Well...where am I?"

In his dream-like state, he felt an easiness that never came to him while up and about. There was no restraint that was caused by his reputation, he could say or do anything here and it would not be considered odd of his personality. It felt pretty nice, to have an actually FRESH start. Even his own brother wasn't here!

"Earth. The Sunset Shrine to be more exact." The woman paused to purse her lips wanly and tap a finger to her cheek, "You wouldn't happen to be a mortal, would you?"

"I am no mere spider."

"Is that what you call a being living within the reaches of Time?"

"To me, they are all spiders. Aren't you one?"

"I do not live on this plane of existence. My body only contains the need to fulfill a goal, after which I will eventually dissolve into the earth from where I was made."

"You are not made of flesh and blood?"

"Not that I know of. Of course, I once was. That was before I had died and had been brought back to life by an ogress. She had made my body out of the remains of my ashes and the earth surrounding my burial ground."

"I see. And what purpose did she have in bringing you to life?"

The woman merely looked at him before turning away, "You want to know so much about a spirit you have only just met. Do you even know why you are here?"

"No, not really. But I am merely curious. Explain to me why I should not call you a spider."

"Such haughty words coming from one so young."

"No more young than you."

The miko smirked with a knowing that irked Knives, "Have you lived long?"

"Over a century."

A century and thirty three years, to be exact.

She smiled again and stood up with grace. Her form drifted towards him and stopped as she was about to brush his shoulder, "Once you have lived at least seven centuries, then you may call yourself my equal."

[What?]

[Seven...hundred years?]

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It was a happy memory this time. She did not remember the last time she had dreamed of a happy memory. She should treasure this moment.

[My life does not deserve a happy memory.]

The half closed eyes of the assassin hazed over as she slipped into another event she never remembered.

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InuYasha shifted from where he was perched upon a tree. It was a peaceful morning and the mortals of his little pack demanded a rest. Frankly, he didn't see why they wanted to sit down so often.

But it didn't matter anyways, he was getting hungry. And "break time" meant "ramen time".

"InuYasha! Your ramen is ready!" Kagome waved the inu hanyou down from where she sat next to a little fire. Shippou was right next to her, slurping at his own cup in between bites of tiny, colorful gumdrops.

While the group sat comfortably, eating in the peace and quiet, Shippou popped his adoptive mother a question.

"Kagome?"

The raven haired girl smiled down at the little kitsune, "Yes, Shippou?"

Sango and Miroku looked up from their own meal to wonder at what was eating the fox demon.

"Ano...I was wondering if you celebrated your year's growth in your time."

"My what?" Kagome frowned, "I've never heard of that before, is it some sort of holiday?"

"Uhuh, it's the day of your birth. Every year, my ma and da would spend the day with me and it would be my special day."

"Oh! You mean a birthday!"

Shippou looked up in excitement, "You mean you have one too?"

The rest of the gang began to take interest. Not much about Kagome's past was really known, all they were sure of was the fact that she lived in the future with her mother, brother, and grandfather. They didn't know about half the things she talked of: tests and school and the mall. So anything that they had in common with this future miko was something to be shared and talked over excitedly.

Kagome smiled, "I actually just turned sixteen several weeks ago. Remember when I spent a week in my time? InuYasha was really mad because I didn't have "school" as an excuse. He thought I was lazing about."

She was actually still a little miffed about that.

"You mean, you were celebrating a year's growth at that time, Kagome-san?" Sango tilted her head, "Why did you not tell us? I'm sure we would have loved to help you celebrate. And I could have bought you something special as a gift!"

Kagome blushed, "I didn't know you had that kind of thing in the past. I wasn't sure if you'd understand."

Their worlds were so far apart, sometimes Kagome felt a little left out. She was not born from this era, she couldn't possibly understand what it was like to grow up with the danger of losing all family and security in one swoop of a youkai's talon. The fear that encompassed every passing village reminded her of how she could never be from this place that her friends called home. And so when her birthday had come and gone, she felt the need to hush it up. Anxious that if she ever told her companions this fact, there would now be something else to widen the cultural gap between her and the world she was traveling in.

"You're a year older! That is something special!" Shippou snuggled within the arms of his adoptive mother. He was happy that he had something in common with her, something that would tie them together. If there was nothing that connected him with Kagome, he was afraid that she would leave him when the Shikon no Tama was completed. It was a scary thought.

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[A year's growth. How many of these years have I already passed?]

[And why do I keep dreaming of this "Ka-go-me"?]

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"...Hai? But...But that is not possible! They are only legends!" Meryl's hands shook as she looked at Mike with widened pupils.

"Legends? Did that boy look like a legend to you?"

"N-No..."

Mike shifted in his seat so that he was leaning on the table towards Meryl, "Listen. If I tell all of our town's secrets to you, you must swear never to reveal them outside of this area. Alright?"

The clock ticked further into the night as Meryl looked straight into Mike's serious eyes. Should she accept his offer? She could just decline, leave with Vash and Millie in the morning and pretend this incident never happened. But would her conscience let her? Could she really let all of this go, forget the boy with the cat ears, forget the already heated conversation about the dreaded youkai, forget the angry housewife filled with grief?

[No. I couldn't possibly.]

"....Alright."

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[My dreams of a memory. A memory I do not remember.]

[Is this my memory?]

[Or is it someone else's?]

[If so, why am I dreaming of a memory that belongs to someone else?]

[I am not this "Ka-go-me".]

[I am not anyone.]

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A/N: Did this meet your expectations? I hope I'm not too long in creating the next chapter, but we'll see. In the meantime, relax and listen to some Ayumi Hamasaki! She's so pretty....

Remember my request for Trigun crossovers! Any link will do...

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JAPANESE DICTIONARY

Youkai - Demon

Sempai - Senior or elder.

Sengoku Jidai - The Feudal era

Hai - Yes

Taiji-ya - Demon slayer

Kitsune - Fox. Fox demon.

Miko - Priestess

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