InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Destiny Can Wait Five Hundred Years ❯ The God Tree ( Chapter 1 )

“Mama! I'm back!” Kagome waited for her mother's greeting, but heard none. Must be out...she thought, going up to her room to change out of her school uniform and get started on her homework.

It had been several days since the well house incident and Kagome still felt like there was something she had to do. This was now accompanied by a pain in her side that she assumed was from when she had tripped over Buyo.

For about two hours, Kagome tried to focus on her homework, but none of it seemed to make sense to her that night. Drumming her pencil on her open math book, Kagome gazed outside. She could see a bit of the Sacred God Tree out the window and sighed.

If only she could go back in time where she didn't have to worry about school work. She remembered how she used to love playing under the tree when she was younger. One of her favorite games was to try and find pictures in the patterns on the tree's trunk. Sometimes she would pretend they formed the face of the demon that has supposedly been sealed in the trunk hundreds of years ago.

“Maybe I could think better if I worked outside tonight,” Kagome mused. Picking up her books, she headed outside.

“Kagome? Is that you?” Her grandfather came out into the hallway as she passed his room.

“What is it jii-chan?” Kagome asked, pausing.

“If you're going outside, could you sweep the walkway around the Sacred Tree? It's getting dusty.”

Kagome groaned, “I though that was your job.”

“A young man is looking for a job at a local shrine, and someone recommended him here.” Her grandfather explained, “I'm meeting him soon to decide if I will hire him or not.”

Kagome sighed and went to go look for the broom.

Finally outside, Kagome set her books down on a nearby bench and started sweeping the dust and leaves off the walkway leading to the huge tree.

Looking up at the canopy, Kagome closed her eyes; being under the tree had always made her feel peaceful. She stood there for a few minutes, enjoying the peacefulness before resuming her sweeping duties. As she got closer to the tree, she looked at it. It was clearly the tallest tree in Tokyo, reaching high above Kagome's head. The top 2/3 of the trunk was straight and clear of branches until it split at the top to form the leafy canopy. The base of the trunk however, was covered in a tangled mess of thick vines and other plants. Some of the shrine's visitors didn't like this mess of vegetation and wondered why Kagome's family didn't prune it. Her grandfather would reply with some sort of superstition, but Kagome thought the knot-work added beauty to the tree.

Kagome suddenly stopped. What was that? I could have sworn I saw a flash of red. Stepping over the small fence around the tree, she started looking for the color she had seen. After a few seconds, she found it. A scrap of red cloth was stuck between some of the vines. Better get that out...must have been blown in and it snagged on something. Grabbing the fabric, she gave a tug.

It didn't move. She gave it another tug, and another. Eventually, she was mentally yelling at the fabric. With one last angry yank, the cloth finally gave way and Kagome fell backwards.

“Ow!” Grimacing, she stood up and looked at the fabric. It was lightweight, but seemed extremely durable and hard to damage. Odd...I've never seen fabric like this before...I wonder where it came from. She stuck it in her pocket to ask her mother or grandfather about it later, picked up the broom, and continued sweeping.

When Kagome finally finished, she picked up her books, stepped over the fence again, and climbed a short way up the vine tangles to a spot that formed a type of seat. “Alright, time to get this work done,” she said to herself.

Half an hour later, Kagome hadn't gotten anywhere and had fallen asleep.

Where am I? She thought, looking around. She seemed to be in an open field, trees on one side and an old fashioned village in the distance. Looking down at herself, she saw her clothes had changed. Instead of the large t-shirt and old shots she had been wearing, they had been replaced by a wide sleeved white shirt and billowing red pants. It was a priestess's outfit.

Kagome then realized she was holding something in her hands. Holding it up, she saw a large, purple ball of some sort on a string of pointed white stones. Now where have I seen something like this before? Kagome mused. Oh yeah! The key-chains jii-chan is going to sell at the shrine.

Suddenly Kagome felt an intense pain cut into her back. She let out a cry and fell to the ground. She felt someone stomp on the hand the jewel was in. Her grasp weakened on it as she cringed with pain. Her attacker bent down and grabbed the Jewel.

“Fool, I didn't even remotely consider becoming human.”

What is he talking about? Kagome wondered, struggling to look up at the stranger, but all she could manage to see was a barefoot, red clad leg.

“Thanks a bunch for presenting me with the Jewel,” the voice said sarcastically.

Kagome's sight was going blurry. “How could you?” she heard herself saying.

“Heh! This Jewel...I gotta let it suck up more bitter blood.” Kagome barely made out her attacker moving away. “I'll kill that lot in the village.”

I don't know what's going on...Kagome thought, struggling to get up, but I can't let whoever that was ill innocent people. But she didn't have the strength and collapsed into the ground.

The next thing Kagome was aware of, she was stumbling through the village she had seen earlier, a bow in her right hand and the other was held up to the wounds she had received before.

The village was in mass chaos, buildings were destroyed and people were running amok. Quite a few of them were running up to her, obviously worried about her, but she shrugged them off. There was something she had to do before her strength left her...But what is it? Kagome asked herself.

Eventually she reached a forest at the outer edge of the village. Looking through the trees, she saw something moving quickly between them. She drew an arrow from the quiver, which Kagome noticed just then, and notched it to the bow. Taking aim, she fired. Kagome felt her mouth moving, but she couldn't hear what she was saying.

Her arrow hit the target, pinning it to the tree behind him. Using her bow as a crutch, she struggled over to the tree. As she got closer, she could tell it was the same person from before, but her sight was getting blurry again and she couldn't make out his face. She did see the jewel he had taken from her laying in a pool of blood. “The Shikon Jewel...”

So I was right, it is the same as the things jii-chan is going to sell, she thought to herself, as she picked the gem up.

Kagome now noticed villagers gathering around her. Most noticeably was a little girl with a bandage over one of her eyes. “Onee-sama, you need help...”

Now comes the happy ending and I wake up, Kagome thought to herself.

“I'm already too far gone. Listen carefully, Kaede...” she heard herself saying to the young girl. She held the Jewel out to her, “this...must be burnt with my remains.”

Burnt?!

“So that it shall never fall into the hands of evil again.”

The next thing Kagome saw were flames leaping high around her and a burning feeling on her skin.

“No!”

Kagome gave a yell and felt a falling sensation.

“Yah!”

She reached out and grabbed at the air. Her hands came in contact with something wooden and she stopped falling.

Finally opening her eyes, Kagome saw a wooden wall in front of her. “What the-?”

After staring for a few seconds, she realized what had happened. Her dream had scared her into falling off her position on the vines and she was hinging from one of them now. Since the vines didn't go extremely high off the ground, she only had to drop a very short distance.

About to do just that, Kagome felt something between the two vines her right hand was caught between. She reached her hand further in and felt something. Feathers? Feeling around some more, she felt a thin object that the feathers seemed attached to. Almost like an...arrow...

Noticing the sky was getting dark, Kagome decided to investigate it later. She pulled herself up a bit to grab her books and then dropped to the ground. As she bent down to pick up the broom, she paused and looked at her right hand. It was...

...glowing.

What the hell is going on? Turning back to the tree, Kagome made up her mind to check out the arrow now, not later. Putting her books down, Kagome was about to climb the vines again when she felt someone put their arm around her shoulders.

“You must be Kagome-san,” an unknown voice commented.

Kagome let out a yell, spun around, and brought the broom (which she had been about to lean against the tree) down on the strangers head.

Author's Note: Alrighty, time to reveal which part of the chapter I didn't write so I don't get in trouble. Kagome's dream was written from the very first few pages of Inuyasha, and later flashbacks from the series which reveals Kikyou's point of view.