InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Years Pass On ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 5 )

Disclaimer: Don't own Inuyasha, do own the story and the plot.

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Chapter Four

Despite my late night, I arose with the sun the following day, as my habit had always been. I managed to kill several hours by wandering around Tokyo, simply because I had nothing better to do. It was a strange situation, really. I'd been working for so long that I really didn't know what to do with myself when I had a lot of free time on my hands. However, I did manage to make it through the day with sufficient damage control, and wandered up the steps of the Higurashi Shrine about mid-afternoon. When I reached the top, the first person I saw was the old man. He was sweeping the steps just outside the rebuilt kami shrine. I guess they still pray to their kami, even if they don't know who it is. I could tell them, of course, but it might seem a little odd that I know what they've probably been wondering for years. I might be the benefactor of the shrine, but that doesn't make me omniscient.

When he saw me, he turned to greet me, probably thinking that I was a tourist, but when he caught sight of my face, he blinked.

"Mr. Menachi?" He asked in astonishment. I had been prepared for this. I hadn't expected him to recognize me so easily, after all a lot of time had passed. But I had thought ahead at least.

"Hai." I bowed my head toward him.

"But that's impossible! It's been fifty years!" The old man's jaw dropped in absolute disbelief, because I hadn't changed a bit, of course.

"Hai." I said again. "My name is Menachi Hideko. You must have thought I was my grandfather, Menachi Genko, the man who they appointed first official benefactor of the shrine. I'm told that I look quite a bit like him."

Understanding dawned in the old man's eyes, though he still looked quite astonished. "The resemblance is amazing, Mr. Menachi." He told me. "You look exactly as your grandfather did when I first met him."

"Arigato. It's nice to know I bear some small resemblance to him. I respected my grandfather very much." I made a show of looking around at the shrine. "He always loved this place, you know, and he regretted that later in life he couldn't find the time to return here. He's passed the job of benefactor down to me. I see you've really done a lot with this place."

The old man looked embarrassed. "Thank you, Sir, but I couldn't have done it without the help of your grandfather."

At that moment, the door to the house opened, and a woman of middle age walked out. "Father, have you seen Sota? It's about time he came home from school." Then she saw me. "Oh, a visitor. Good day."

I bowed my head to her and returned the greeting. "This is Mr. Menachi, the benefactor of our shrine. Mr. Menachi, this is my daughter, Mai."

"Oh." She said. "It is nice to meet you, Mr. Menachi." Then she looked closer at me. "You look somehow familiar. Have you ever visited us before, Mr. Menachi?"

I shook my head, a little surprised. I had stopped openly visiting the shrine under the name of Menachi Genko long before this woman had been born. She couldn't possibly recognize me, unless she had at some point caught sight of me, though I doubted it. "No, ma'am. I've never been here before. My grandfather only recently passed away, leaving the care of the shrine to me." I looked over at the Goshinboku. "This was always his most favorite thing, this shrine. He always told me that he hoped that this shrine would somehow free him from the sins that he committed in the business world." I smiled. It wasn't exactly true, but since I was posing as the grandson and `new' benefactor, I wanted to assure them that I wasn't going to try to change anything. "I can see that he was right when he said that you'd really improved it. I've seen the original pictures. It was just a bit run down."

"Well," the old man said, "That was because this shrine has existed for over 500 years. The history of it is…" He went off on a lecture on the history of the shrine, a history that I was well aware of. I only really listened when he was talking about the Shikon no Tama. It had always amused me to hear people recite history wrong. I was surprised to find that he was very accurate on the ancient legend though. It was very close to the original story that I had heard in the Sengoku Jidai, only years after the adventure itself had ended. Privately I wondered where he had gotten his information. I hadn't been aware of any books that had the `myth' down so accurately. Most didn't mention it at all. As he neared the part where Inuyasha disappeared (no one had ever decided what had happened to him; I'd heard a dozen different endings), a young boy of about fourteen walked up, closely followed by the girl I had seen the night before.

"Grandpa!" The boy said. "Are you telling stories again?"

"You never stop, do you?" The girl said, seeming exasperated. She turned to me, shading her eyes from the setting sun. It was at the worst point for her angle, and she probably couldn't see anything more detailed than my outline in the direct light. "I'm sorry if you were bored, he gets a little overexcited about the old legends."

"I was telling him the story of Inu-" The old man began, but was cut off when his daughter jabbed him in the ribs and looked meaningfully at the girl. She was standing in front of them, so she didn't see this, but she obviously knew what he'd been about to say, and there was a flicker of sadness in her eyes for a moment. "Well, it is the story of our shrine." The old man muttered reproachfully to his daughter.

"Hi." The girl said to me then. "I'm Higurashi Kagome, and this is my brother, Sota."

"I'm Menachi Hideko." I replied.

"He's the benefactor of our shrine, Kagome." Her grandfather told her.

"The benefactor?" She questioned.

"My grandfather was the one who convinced the city to have this shrine protected. He had a lot of excess money, so he invested some of it here." I grinned, even though she probably couldn't see it. I'd gotten so used to lying that it was kind of fun now. "I think he hoped that it would save his soul. Being a businessman, he had a lot of sins on his conscience."

She smiled back at me. "Why don't you come inside and have dinner with us." Her mother offered. "We're having Oden."

"We are?" The girl, Kagome asked excitedly. "Oh, that's great!"

"I would be delighted. This shrine was my grandfather's favorite thing, and I'm afraid he infected me with his passion. I'd like to learn as much as possible. It seems to have a more interesting story behind it than most." I followed them in. The girl stepped back to talk to me.

"Did he bore you long?" She asked me.

"I'm sorry?"

"My grandfather. He can ramble on for quite some time about the old stories."

"Oh no, I was quite interested, actually. He was telling me about the Shikon no Tama. Did it actually have all the power that I've heard it did?"

"Yes." She answered. "But it wasn't the sort of power you would want. Anyone - well, it was said that anyone who came in contact with the jewel tended to suffer terrible tragedy soon after. It always hunted by the evil and degenerate. The Shikon no Tama couldn't be used by humans, it was a demon's treasure." She turned to look at me. We were at a different angle now, so she didn't have to squint so much. She drew in a sharp breath, and looked away.

"What is it?" I asked, a bit afraid I'd upset her in some way.

"Oh, nothing. You just look like someone I once knew." She answered, looking back at me. The sadness was in her eyes again, but more concentrated now.

"Bad memories?" I asked gently.

"You couldn't possibly imagine." She answered. "But it's all in the past, long in the past. There's nothing I can do about it, and there's no use crying about it now."

I was astonished a little more during dinner at the proficiency of the family in the old legends of their shrine. I had found that usually people were grossly mistaken about their own history, but they were almost universally accurate in what they told me. They even told me a few things that I myself hadn't been aware of, which probably meant that they weren't true. But one thing in particular was interesting enough that I filed it away to think about later. This thing that caught my attention above all else was about the shrine's well. Back in the feudal era, my friends had been very cryptic about the power of the well, but I knew it had certain supernatural powers. They had called it the Bone-eater's Well, because things - usually bones of defeated youkai, put in the well disappeared after a few days. But I knew there was more to the well than just that, particularly because it had always seemed to hold some kind of meaning for my friends. The fact that they kept it from me always made me suspicious that the well was somehow key to the mystery that was me.

The Higurashi family told me that the well legendary had powers to transport a select few between times. I made a mental note to do a bit of investigating later tonight, once they were all asleep, as long as I wasn't too tired.