InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Years Pass On ❯ Chapter 5 ( Chapter 6 )

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

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Chapter Five

My curiosity did indeed cause me to pay a nocturnal visit to the shrine that very night. I didn't wander up the stairs this time, I was very careful, since last time I had barely escaped detection. There was something about the shrine that disarmed me somehow, and I wanted to be ready for it. Feeling like some kind of thief, I slunk through the shrine in the dead of night. It was the night of the New Moon, the first of the month by the old calendar. The complete darkness made it all seem that more dramatic. I went directly to my destination, well, as straight as one can go when one is slinking from shadow to shadow like the hero in some bad drama. But there was something about this night that made me feel particularly theatrical. The very air seemed to have something magical in it, though I was probably imagining it. My emotions sometimes run away with me, which includes my sense of the mystical.

I eventually arrived at the well house, once my theatrical urges had been exhausted for the moment. At some point someone had built a building over the well. It was nice enough, I suppose, though I didn't really see the point. It had happened before the shrine came under the care of the Higurashi's, but they'd fixed it up a little. I opened one of the doors and slipped inside. I was happy to find it was so easy, as I'd come prepared to pick the lock if I had to. However, I hadn't prepared for what happened next.

I immediately perceived that I wasn't alone, and my hand leapt to the inside pocket of my jacket. But before I pulled a gun on my unexpected companion, my eyes adjusted and I recognized who it was that had preceded me into the well house at three o'clock in the morning.

It was the daughter of the shrine of the Shikon no Tama, Higurashi Kagome.

"It took you long enough. I've been waiting for hours. I was about to give up hope that you'd get here before morning, Menachi Hideko." She informed me quietly.

"W-what?" I stuttered the question, a little shocked and embarrassed at being caught. Where were my instincts? At the same time my mind began to work on a suitable excuse, but I was hard pressed. "Miss Higurashi-"

"Call me Kagome." She interrupted. She'd been at the bottom of the well house, leaning against the ancient sides of the well itself, but now she started up the stairs. A bit afraid of what she was going to do, like maybe raise the alarm, I backed up, and found my back against the door that I'd closed behind me. I could easily get away now, but then she might call the police. I'd spent a lot of time on my identity as Menachi Hideko, and I didn't really want him to get a criminal record. Besides, she said she'd been waiting for me. I wanted to know why and how she'd known I would come. I hadn't been very obvious in my reaction at dinner, so she was either very perceptive, or something else was involved here. "It would make me happy if you would do so, for reasons that might soon become clear to you." My eyes were fully adjusted now, and I could see her face very clearly, considering that she was now standing right in front of me. The sadness was in her eyes again, but her eyes also showed signs of absolute decision, for good or ill.

"This isn't what it looks like, Miss Higurashi." I began, but she cut me off again.

"Kagome." She said quite firmly. "I knew that you would come here tonight, Mr. Menachi." She said.

"How?" I asked. Kagome, as she wished me to call her, obviously had something she wanted to say, and I was prepared to play along for the moment.

"I had a hunch. My intuition has become fine tuned, so I decided to trust it at the cost of a good night's sleep." She looked me in the eye and stood up straighter. "You showed a lot of interest in the old stories of our shrine at dinner, Mr. Menachi."

"If I'm supposed to call you Kagome, then you can call me Hideko." I told her. I figured we should get the formalities out of the way. I had an idea that there was something very important afoot here and I didn't want to unnecessarily complicate things. "My grandfather always had a great interest in this shrine, and in the peculiar stories in its history. He infected me with his passion when I was quite young."

She nodded. "My grandfather tells me that you look a great deal like your grandfather. He liked him very much, and also said that the likeness is in more than looks."

"Is that so?"

"Your grandfather apparently also had an interest in the old stories of the shrine. It's hard to find people who have the time and interest to listen to the stories. The people of the modern times seldom have any use for tales of times long past. People don't believe in magic, and they don't have any use for things that they can't explain away with logic. I myself paid no attention to my grandfather's stories until I was fifteen."

"Did something change then?" I asked. Her little speech had interested me a great deal.

"Oh yes, something happened when I was fifteen. On the day of my fifteenth birthday actually." She paused, and looked at me.

"Was there something, Kagome?" I asked, using her name to refer to her directly for the first time.

"Are you an honorable man, Hideko?" She asked suddenly. I was taken aback by the sudden question. "I ask because it's important." She told me. "Can you keep a promise? Would you violate a sworn oath?"

"I can keep a promise." I answered. "What is this about, Kagome?" I asked, my curiosity finally getting the better of me.

"Hideko, you showed great interest in the story of the Shikon no Tama, but all we could really tell you was the legend. Would you like to know more?" I nodded, a bit confused. I had always wanted to know the details of the story, but how could she know what even I didn't? "Well, if you promise not to tell a single soul, I am prepared to tell the true story of the Hanyou Inuyasha and the Shikon no Tama." She told me solemnly.