InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ It's an Oracle's Life ❯ Chapter 1: Don't Pick the Flowers! ( Chapter 1 )

Wow. I'm sooooooo sorry for being gone for so long. sadly, I can't say that it won't happen again - RL is leaving me with little to no time at all on the compi, (not to mention the internet) and so I hardly manage to update. BUT, I am not giving up on writing, and besides this story I have some others that are brewing in mind...

and no, I don't own Inuyasha. meanies.

here's the next chapter - hope you like:)

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Kagome had adjusted to her life as an Oracle, the last Oracle, pretty fast. Faster than she thought. Sometimes, she wondered if the jewel left behind by Midoriko wasn't responsible for that, somehow. At times, the jewel seemed alive, sparkling and glittering like Midoriko's eyes sometimes would, when she was amused, or glistening, as if able to shed tears. Kagome was sure that somehow, Midoriko's spirit was captured inside the tama, or at least part of it. She couldn't explain how it happened, and she didn't know if Midoriko had planned for it to happen, but she was glad that it had happened. Especially when she turned to it for comfort.

 

It seemed funny, that she should need to turn to a jewel for comfort, and not a friend. But she was the Oracle-sama. She had no friends. In the jewel was a fragment of a woman who had been both her mentor and her friend, so she practically latched onto it, never letting it out of her sight, always keeping it in its necklace around her neck, even when she was bathing.

 

Kagome's life found some sort of routine, if a boring one. Every morning she would wake up, make herself some breakfast, maybe clean around a little if she found the need to. Then she would go to the river and bathe, and afterwards, she would sit on the raised platform in the front of the shrine, on her favourite pillow, and meditate. After a few minutes of meditating, she would stretch her powers as far as she could, and See.

 

Normally, she would just See whatever Vision came onto her first. Sometimes, she would direct her Visions, choosing what she wanted to See. Some things, she would rather not See, such as her long time friend Sango. She wanted to know what happened to her, but she was scared… their time was not a safe one to live in, and certainly not one to travel alone in, and even though it was childish and stupid, Kagome wanted to believe that her best friend was well and safe, rather than face the possibility of watching Sango's death.

 

What she usually did want to See, would always be the furthest thing she could. For some reason, she never liked Seeing all the things that happened around her. She did have the power to See five hundred years into the future, as well as five hundred years in the past. What could be interesting enough in her time to compete with machines that helped humans fly, or machines that made them faster than the fastest youkai? Or the tall buildings they lived in? Or maybe just the youkai-less lives they had?

 

It amazed her that there were no youkai in the future, and she often wondered how exactly the youkai vanished from the earth. And why. But even though she tried, she could never find the exact point in time when they started to disappear. It seemed as if one day they were alive and in full power, while a short time later they were… drained. Powerless. Like a race in danger of extinction.

 

~*~

 

Kagome hated her life, resented her repetitive, unchanging routine. Her only comfort was her dreams. Dreams that were not really dreams, but another girl's life. A little girl, with a gap in her toothy smile and a small, weird ponytail on the side of her head. A little girl who had a fearsome, arrogant youkai as her father-figure, and an ugly, annoying youkai as her nanny. Every night she would dream about them, always from the girl's point of view. She could not See them while awake, though, not after the first night. She could only dream. So dream she did.

 

~*~

 

She was a little girl again, the same little girl she had been before. Sitting on a dragon and watching her white Kami, Sesshoumaru-sama, while his toad servant blabbered behind. She loved traveling with Sesshoumaru-sama, and pestering Jaken whenever she could. She didn't mind the fact that they were both demons. They were… family. And this family, she knew, would not leave her so easily. Nothing could hurt Sesshoumaru-sama, and she would be with him forever. If he didn't leave her.

 

For a moment, she was worried. What if Sesshoumaru-sama decided to leave her? What would she do then? Shaking her little head, she thought of all the times Sesshoumaru-sama left her. But he always left Ah-Un and Jaken to take care of her. And he always came back. Her Sesshoumaru-sama would always come back to her.

 

She realized that they had stopped, and that Jaken was already starting a fire. She was looking for something to do when she noticed that the clearing they were in was larger then usual.

And filled with flowers.

 

“Ooooh, Jaken-sama, look at all those flowers!” she exclaimed, running off to pick some of them up. She loved picking flowers. They reminded her of happiness and freedom and all the things she had come to know since Sesshoumaru-sama had saved her. She gathered some flowers, picking only the prettiest, and ran off to where Sesshoumaru-sama was sitting.

 

“Sesshoumaru-sama! I picked some flowers for you!”

He looked at her, just like he always did when she trying to give him flowers. She knew he was an all powerful youkai and had no need for flowers, as Jaken kept on reminding her. She just wanted to give him something. He never took them, though.

 

She turned around, a little disappointed, even though she should be used to it by now, flowers still at hand, when she spotted Jaken. He was making some food over the fire.

“Jaken-sama!” she called. “What are you making?”

He started answering her, but she didn't really listen. She glanced at the flowers in her hands, then at Jaken, and at the flowers again. Taking the flowers, she decorated Jaken's hat and robes with them. She even decorated his staff with some. Jaken, when he noticed, started grumbling and taking them off.

“Don't do that, Jaken-sama!” she told him, ignoring his indigent squeaks.

“Sesshoumaru-sama, doesn't Jaken look pretty?” she asked, pride in her voice. Even though she thought Jaken looked kind of foolish like this. Actually, she thought Jaken looked kind of foolish all the time. Not that she was sure what exactly `foolish' meant. She just heard Jaken use that word all the time.

 

Then her eyes spotted another flower, a different one. It was big, with huge white petals that had blue and yellow flecks on the inside of them. It stood there, alone, taller and prettier than the other flowers. Just like Sesshoumaru-sama, her Kami. Rin will pick it up for him, she thought. Maybe Sesshoumaru-sama would take it this time, and not ignore it.

 

Kagome watched with a sense of foreboding, suddenly detached from the little girl, and the dream was now just like a normal Oracle Vision, with white fog and muffled sound. She watched, not able to do anything, as the girl she had been each night for the last year disappeared from the eyes of her god and guardian. Sesshoumaru was already on his feet, his golden eyes more red than anything else, now.

 

The flower Rin had been touching but a moment ago started to grow bigger and wider, though Sesshoumaru, in his rage, failed to notice it until he had relaxed and the flower was around his height. It was shimmering and flickering and turning into something… humanoid. A man, or at least, he looked like a man, with short blond hair, catlike green eyes, and pointed ears.

Kagome recognized him.

 

The fog around her thickened, and she could only hear snatches of the talk between the Youkai Lord and the one who took his ward. There was something else trying to catch her attention, but she did her best to ignore it. I want to know what happened to Rin! Is she alright?

“I have the girl, she is safe.”

That was from the stranger, and did nothing to lessen the Youkai's rage. He said something that Kagome did not hear, as she was trying to focus her attention on the vision before her eyes, but she heard the man's answer.

“She is safe. But you will have to find her.”

The youkai growled, and once again, Kagome could not hear his response, struggling against that which pulled her from her vision.

“I will not tell you where. The point is you finding her on your own.”

This time, she managed to hear what Sesshoumaru growled.

“Why?”

“You will see, in time.”

An uneasy sensation that had nothing to do with the vision in front of her settled over Kagome as Sesshoumaru leaped at the stranger, probably ready to kill him and be done with it, but the stranger disappeared, and reappeared again behind Sesshoumaru, near the tree where the youkai sat earlier.

“Tsk tsk.” The stranger said. “It would not do well for you to kill me.” There was a smirk on the strangers face.

“After all, I am the only one who knows where she is.”

“And what good are you to me when you're not willing to tell?” it seemed as if Sesshoumaru managed to control his rage from before, as now his icy mask returned, looking once again as if he did not care about a thing that happened around him. But Kagome knew he cared. She had seen the red in his eyes, and heard the growls coming out of his throat.

“Ah,” said the stranger. “Indeed, I will not tell you where she is. I will, however, give you a hint—“

 

That was all Kagome heard, as that something else that caused her uneasy feelings and was trying to catch her attention finally got it.

 

There were youkai in the village.

 

Kagome opened her eyes, taking in the many different youki she was feeling. Low level youkai, but so many of them!

She shoved a dagger into her hakama, and set out to find her old bow and arrows. If not for her tattoo, and the fact that her hakama were yellow-gold instead of red, she would have looked like any normal miko preparing to battle a youkai. The problem was, she was not any normal miko. She had almost no training in fighting youkai, since oracles used their powers to See, past, future and present, but not to fight.

 

Hurrying, Kagome stepped out of her shrine, half running down the path towards the village, hoping she would get there in time to help, in time to save. It was her fault, she knew. If she had only paid attention to her senses, she would have sensed the youkai long before they attacked. She could have been prepared for it. Her village could have been prepared for it. All because she was too busy with the kid and the youkai lord.

 

The village was a horrid sight to her eyes. The land was covered with blood and ruins that used to be buildings, and bodies… so many bodies. Some were youkai. Most were human.

 

Woman, children, men. All dead, or worse, dying slowly, miserable, agonizingly. Screams were filling the air. Kagome's eyes landed on a cluster of youkai bodies, all of them surrounding an old woman in white and red. Kaede. The old village Miko. Kagome's old mentor. She died when her arrows ran out, but she died defending her people, taking many of the youkai with her. Kagome mentally said a prayer for her soul.

 

There were men still trying to fight, protecting those who couldn't. Others were trying to escape or hide. There were people still alive. And she had a duty to them.

 

Running to a cluster of fighting men, shooting her arrows on the way at every youkai within her reach, Kagome heard the men shouting.

“The Oracle-sama!”

“The Oracle-sama is fighting!”

“The Oracle-sama is fighting for us!”

“Protect the Oracle-sama!”

“For the Oracle-sama!”

 

The men stood around her in a circle, protecting her while she shot her arrows at the youkai, purifying them on the spot. There was not much she could do but shoot, and watch as the men around her fell. They want to protect me. Me, who should be the one protecting them. But I did nothing to protect them. I could have stopped the attack, or warn them at least. I do not deserve their protection. They were not warriors, just simple villagers, who fought with rakes and scythes. Some lucky ones had wood axes too. But axes were not enough, and Kagome knew that once her arrows ran out, they would all be in trouble. Because of me.

 

Her arrow hit a blue worm youkai that had been fighting with the man in front of her, and the youkai evaporated with a pink flash. Another arrow hit another youkai, who evaporated as well. The youkai kept coming, and she was getting tired. She used so much of her powers; it was getting harder and harder to concentrate on purifying, not to mention aiming. Her hand went to her back, to her quiver, for another arrow.

She found nothing.

 

Panicking, she searched again, hoping that she just missed her arrows the first time. Once again, there were none. She threw her bow and quiver to the side, taking out her dagger, too exhausted to use it. She knew she would die now, just like Kaede.

 

She fought with another youkai, her small dagger not enough to protect her. The youkai sank its teeth in her side, and she sank her dagger in its head, trying hard not to scream. She could not hold herself upright much longer, and she had to fight to keep her eyes open. It would be so good to just… rest. She could hear the men shouting again and again, “The Oracle-sama is hurt!”

 

Someone was stepping closer to her, and it was not a villager. “The jewel… master would be happy to get his tama finally.” A silent, maniac laughter was the last thing she heard before she gave in to the darkness.

 

 

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