InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Punishment ❯ Chapter 1: Fallen ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter 1: Fallen

 

 

Towards the end of a sultry afternoon in July a young women came slowly out of her little hut where she had lived for the past month. She stepped slowly down the dirt path and turned irresolutely in the direction of the nearby wooded area.

 

She had been lucky enough to avoid an encounter with those who cared for her. Her little room, more like a cupboard than a place to live in, was roughly attached to a larger structure built for the old priestess of that village.

 

Kaede, gentle and kind hearted, had charged Miroku and Inuyasha with this task of building Kagome and her brother a place to live permanently, since they could not return to their own time. While trying to compensate for her loss, the others provided dinners and service.

 

However, every time she left her small hut she was forced to pass the door of her benefactor, which always stood open. She went past each time with an uneasy, almost frightened, feeling that made her frown with shame. Meaning well, her friends would approach with questions and comments every time she left the house.

 

It was not that she was a coward or a naturally shy person, far from it; but she had been for some time in a horrible state of irritability and tension. She had cut herself off from everybody and withdrawn so completely into herself that she now shrank from every kind of contact. She was crushingly alone in her mind, but no longer felt this as a weight; in fact she preferred it this way.

 

For some time Kagome had ceased to concern herself with everyday affairs. She was not really afraid of Kaede or her other friends, but to have to stop and listen to the trivialities in which she had no interest, and than to have to remove herself from the situation by lying and making excuses, no, better to creep down the path softly and slip past unnoticed.

 

This time, however, she reached the dirt road leading out of the village feeling astonished at the intensity of her fear of her good friends, of which she had no reason to be afraid.

 

`To think I could contemplate such a terrible act and still be afraid…' she thought and she smiled strangely `Hm…yes…simply because I was afraid I just let things slip out of control. After all, isn't that what people are most afraid of, any new departure? And especially to a new world…but I am talking too much. That's why I don't act, because I am always talking. Or perhaps I talk so much because I can't act. I have gotten into this habit of babbling to myself over the past month, while I have been lying in bed thinking…complete nonsense. And why have I come out now? Can I really be capable of that? Am I really serious? No, of course I'm not serious. So am I just playing a game, amusing myself with fantasies? Yes, maybe I am only playing a game.'

 

The heat in the village was stifling. The stuffiness of the people all around her, the dust that hung in the air, clouding the vision and clogging the senses, all this combined to aggravate the young girl's nerves. An expression of deep contempt passed across the girls delicate features.

 

She was, by the way, a striking young girl, with fine dark eyes, black hair, and a slender outline that not often failed to attract a few stares. Kagome had the stature of a priestess, but walked with a gait that suggested there was much on her mind. Her attire had not been changed in some time, and therefore was rather dirty and unkempt. Most anyone, however used to them, would hesitate to go out in such clothing.

 

Once or twice she muttered something to herself in a manner that, as she had just confessed, had grown habitual with her. She herself realized that her thoughts were confused and that she was very weak; she had eaten practically nothing for the last two days.

 

Kagome had hardly realized that she had reached the forest, out of earshot of anyone who might look upon her outburst as odd, when she broke down on her knees and sobbed.

 

“Oh, Kami, how repulsive! Can I possibly, can I possibly…how could such a horrible idea enter my mind? That is vile, filthy…horrible…horrible…and for a whole month I have…” She broke off when a soothing picture entered her mind. It was one she thought of often when she was sad and now it came to her almost automatically.

 

It was her brother's face, and that of Inuyasha's, and that of Miroku and Sango and Shippo. These faces offered her comfort, even if the respective bodies offered none of the same pleasure.

 

With much reluctance and resistance, her mind thought back to the incident that repulsed her to her very core. It was almost two months ago now…

 

-------2 Months Ago-------

 

Kagome had just finished studying for one of the last tests of the school year and was heading out to the magic well on her property. Inuyasha leaned against the doorframe of the well house, smiling as he admired the way she gracefully adorned herself with a back pack full to bursting.

 

Kagome's brother, Souta, held her up as she steadied herself. “Ready yet, wench?” he called out impatiently.

 

“You know you could give me a hand here instead of just watching.”

 

“Keh”

 

“What's that supposed to mean?”

 

“It means that I wouldn't have to help if you weren't such a pathetic human!”

 

“You know, Inuyasha…”

 

“Just hurry up, we haven't got all day”

 

Souta had followed his sister down to the well and leaned over the edge as Inuyasha jumped over the side, watching the light engulf the hanyou. Kagome prepared to jump.

 

She leapt.

 

Her dress.

 

A nail.

 

Souta reached out to help.

 

He grabbed onto the jewel around her neck.

 

They both fell.

 

Than there was darkness.

 

 

A/N

Thank you for reading this first chapter.

Please know that I harbor no ill will for Kagome.

In the following chapters things will happen that may seem strange, or ooc,

But remember who the author is…