InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Book of Lesser Evil ❯ Remembrance ( Chapter 1 )

Her first reaction was to bolt right back through the door. Mildew hailed her new sense of smell and the dank, dark atmosphere limited her already improved vision to only a few feet ahead as she traveled down a roughly hewn flight of stone stairs. A curious glowing blue fungus lined the walls ahead, but it still wasn’t a very efficient way to light the rock interior. Her previously perspiring skin before now puckered into little bumps with the cool, damp air sending her hairs on end. If she wasn’t so shocked at the sudden change in temperature, Kagome would have smirked at the novelty of having a very youkai-like establishment in modern day Tokyo. Ancient magics fluttered through the passageway and, when she turned to look for the door she came from, it had vanished. A cold shiver ran along her spine as she clasped the Shikon shard in her pocket. Hopefully her miko training would pay off and the resident youkai would confuse her for just a mildly powerful demoness. She had a feeling that humans didn’t venture down here often and that other powerful beings, such as mikos, were usually dealt with before they could cause too much trouble.

There was a slight decline in slope so she only could assume that the tunnel led deep below ground level and the dull, throbbing pains in her calves told her that it had been awhile since she first entered. She continued on, devoid of a sense of time and place. The musky air clouded her thoughts and intoxicated her wits, but one question remained present through it all.

‘Why am I here?’


* * * * *


It had been the spring of her eighteenth year when the bamboo stalks blossomed and Naraku had finally retreated, maimed and powerless, into the eternal night of death. The Shikon no Tama had been restored all but for one piece and a melancholy red haze settled upon the Shard Hunters as they looked to the missing jewel fragment imbedded into the back of a young boy named Kohaku. Sango had mourned for her dead brother once, but the group decided that a second time would be too much for the demon slayer. So they, against the wishes of the jewel to become whole again, left it incomplete and trusted its safety in the hands the miko Kagome.

Such happiness, however, was not meant to last.

Kohaku quickly faded away after Naraku’s demise as the shard pulsated with a malevolent energy. It consumed the boy and its tendrils of dark magic slowly crushed his heart from the inside as Sango held back tears and drew his frail body to her chest. Kagome couldn’t purify it regardless of how many times she tried. Finally, she attempted to fuse the Shikon no Tama in his back, but the evil shard was not of the jewel. Its reaction caused an immense wave of energy to go straight into the chest of the priestess, knocking both her and Kohaku unconscious. She awoke several days later, Kohaku did not.

She had dreamt during her blackout, but of what she saw she could not recall later... except for a mournful wail whose keen still brought tears to her eyes. It shook through her body on occasion, but she told no one of it, or of the bloody dreams which soon took place after it. She was still worried about Sango who had retreated within herself after her brother’s death and such a trivial thing as a scary dream seemed minute in comparison to her friend’s loss. The woman spoke little as it was and would seek comfort in the arms of Miroku the monk. He, for the most part, held off on his perverted antics for her sake as he gently eased her out of that pained inner shell.

In a way, she was a little bit envious of their budding relationship. Inuyasha and herself had established that they would be no more than good friends after she lost her childhood crush on him and he saw too much of the woman who betrayed him in her. Out of desperation, she had finally gone back home and accepted one of Hojou’s dates, immediately regretting it later when he droned on about the medical properties of ginseng during Spiderman and tried to delve his sloppy tongue into her mouth when T.M. Revolution started singing the ending credits. In a huff, she had declared that she had to be somewhere and took the subway home, sulking all the way back to the feudal era, not noticing that passerby's were staring at her strangely bright eyes.

The root of all her problems took place once she hit the well bottom that instant. She felt lighter as she pulled her way up the vines and stumbled over the rim to hit the grass beneath her. It was night, and a Hunter’s moon loomed over the Forbidden Forest. ‘Funny,’ she yawned. She didn’t remember the moon looking this big. With a languid stretch, she curled up into a ball by the Bone Eater’s well, seemingly without a care, and drifted into the inky oblivion that is sleep.

Kagome awoke with a start and almost instantly felt that something was not right. For starters, everything was much too bright and a humming sound purred throughout her entire frame. Ugh, she thought. Never shall I consume movie popcorn again! Knowing Hojo, he’d probably spiked her buttery snack with an oddity of herbs just to keep her healthy long enough to ask out on another date. Why couldn’t her grandfather come up with a reasonable excuse, like paying a relative a visit in the States? No, she mused. That would be too simple.

With a drawn out sigh, she stood on wobbly legs, wondering what on earth she had ate that caused her to snooze so suddenly. Whatever it had been, her sinuses had certainly cleared up. The scent of warm grass and decaying leaves assaulted her nose along with other fragrances that she couldn’t quite name. It gave her an extra bounce in her step and, with a new burst of energy, she took off towards Kaede’s village to see her friends.

Shippo was playing outside of the old miko’s hut when she slowed her pace and sauntered up to the little kit. The kitsune was stalking a beetle and his complete attention was on the harassed bug when she crept up behind him, intent on making the small fox squeal. Just as he was about to pounce, Kagome shot down and grabbed the youkai under the armpits and hefted him up while he shrieked his protest as his prey unfurled its iridescent wings and flew away. His chubby child’s face was held in a pout until he turned around and beamed at his Kagome.

“Kagome! You came back! Did’ya bring any sweets?” Totally forgetting about his lost insect, he pawed at her pockets until he found what he was looking for in her jacket and popped the lolli in his greedy little mouth.

She laughed and ruffled his russet head of hair, asking him if Inuyasha was behaving himself. Shippo proudly exclaimed that he had graffitied the Inuyoukai’s face while he dozed in his tree and the volatile demon hadn’t noticed yet. This made her wonder how long Inuyasha went without bathing and caused her to wrinkle her nose. Probably too long.

And with that, an enraged roar echoed throughout the forest causing both of them to face each other and snicker at the grumpy demon’s plight.

Through the cheerful facade, she knew that there was still one shard left unaccounted for and that the Shard Hunters would have to seek it out to complete the Shikon no Tama’s will. Sango’s emotional state would hold them back if she didn’t have time to heal properly, but the tug of the four souls urged the miko to make them whole once again. It was destiny pulling at her heartstrings with the added fear of not being able to heed its call one day that scared her senseless at night. She often wondered what direction her life would take if she finished the quest for she had no reason to stay in the past. Would she forget about all her friends in the feudal era and continue on with her dreams of the present? She paused to think about that. What did she want to do after this was all said and done with?

She had wanted to become a doctor before she had fallen down that fated well, helping sick children and making them better again, but somehow she couldn’t stand letting that one child slip away, of telling a little girl who had just barely started her life that she had cancer throughout her entire body and was going to die in six months. It was too real for her, too scary, too... hard to cope with. It made living with youkai seem downright hospitable. But she couldn’t very well stay here, could she?

Her powers needed training, as of now she was an unstable vessel for spiritual energy that very well could result in the accidental purification of her demon friends. She couldn’t control it anymore than she could control the wind woven about her and that erratic power made her very vulnerable indeed. Perhaps she should stay and train with Kaede. She felt like she belonged here more than in the present, but that still didn’t curb the loneliness she felt.

Maybe she was destined to be like Kikyo and live the life of solitude she had.

* * * * *


A/N: Whew. I think that I’ll turn this into a weekly Fanfic that way it’ll be longer and I can check it for plot holes, atrocious spelling/grammar, ect. Stay tuned for chapter two when Kagome experiences a few, ahem, changes!

Reviewer(s):
InuYashasLoveLorn - Thanks for the uplifting review. I know the chapters are a little short, but I hope to work on that in the future. Kudos to you for being the first reviewer!