InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Years Pass On ❯ Chapter 7 ( Chapter 8 )

Sorry for the lag in updates…it's really sad. I have a lot more of this written now, and will be periodically updating. I'm shooting for once a week, after I upload the chapters already written.

 

Disclaimer: Didn't write the original story.

 

 

Chapter 7

 

Kagome stopped, as if her tale was ended. I wasn't about to accept that. A tale as good as the one she had been weaving couldn't possibly end so abruptly. “That's it?” I asked in disbelief. “Inuyasha went to hell with Kikyo, and that was it?”

“Yes.” She answered.

I struggled to get my ire under control. It wasn't her fault if the story ended there. “I only have one question.” I said to her.

“What's that?”

“How is it that you know all this?”

She looked surprised. “Haven't you figured it out yet? I am the reincarnated miko, current guardian of the Shikon no Tama.”

I stared at her. “You were the girl-” I stopped, trying to adjust.

“Yes.” She answered. “We told you earlier that this well allowed the fated to cross through time. Inuyasha and I were the only ones who could ever use it, except for the centipede demon. It was she who snatched me from modern Tokyo to feudal Japan, where I met Inuyasha. That was the day of my fifteenth birthday.”

“Wait a minute. Doesn't that mean you have-?“

“The Shikon no Tama?” She finished. “Of course.” She pointed to the small pink bead hanging around her neck. “This is the Shikon no Tama, cause of so much pain and death, and the downfall of the hanyou Inuyasha.”

So that was what had happened to him. I wondered if I might have been happier in my ignorance. Yet something still seemed to be missing. “Was it really hidden in your body?”

She nodded, and pulled the hem of her shirt up a little to show me the scar just above her hip. “It was right here. I was born with it, though I hadn't any idea it was even there until it started glowing. Unfortunately, that was when she tore it from my side and everything began.”

“I still don't know why you chose to share this with me.” I said to her.

“Neither do I, except that I was so tired of carrying that story around. My family knows that he died, but it isn't the same. I didn't really want to tell them everything, especially since my brother worshipped Inuyasha. They don't know the details, that he consciously chose death and Kikyo over me. I also told a friend of mine, Hojo. He believed me, for some reason. When we first met, he kept asking me out, and I always had to call a rain check because of my life on the other side of the well.” She smiled, a bit lost in her memories. “My grandfather always made up exotic illnesses to explain my absences from school. I'm surprised anyone dared to get near me, and Hojo was always trying to give me gifts that would help the health problems that I didn't have.”

“But even so, Hojo doesn't really understand. No one does, really, because the whole thing seems so unreal to people of the modern world. But you seem to have an understanding of the time period, or at least the legends, so I thought you might be able to understand better. I've wanted to tell someone else for a long time, but you were the first person I met that I thought might believe me, and who might care.”

“That was the most amazing story I've ever heard. It's hard to believe that it's actually true, but I do all the same.” I said. “But aren't you in danger?” I was thinking of that offhand comment she'd made earlier that I might be here to kill her, and of all the youkai I knew of that were in hiding. This girl was only nineteen or so, but considering the things she'd been through since she was fifteen, she wouldn't be totally defenseless. But I had met some of those youkai that disguised themselves as humans, and I never wanted to have to fight one of them.

“I've been attacked, but not nearly as much as I thought I would be. For some reason, most demons don't seem to be able to detect the presence of the jewel here. I've managed to dispatch the few that have attacked me. After all, I still have my bow, and Sango taught me how to make my own arrows. My family is aware of the danger, though I don't think they realize the extent of it.”

The sun was starting to come up. Kagome shaded her eyes. “You know, this was always a bad night for Inuyasha. On the night of the New Moon, his body became that of a human, and he usually had a hard time dealing with it. In addition, we often ran into trouble on the first day, and he had to fight in his human form, in which he couldn't even use Tetsusaiga, and he had to make sure his enemies didn't find out.”

“He had a human form?”

“Yes. You know, that is probably the greatest reason I chose to tell you this. You see, Hideko, you look exactly like Inuyasha did on the night of the New Moon, when he was in his human form.”

“What?” I said wondering if I had heard wrong. “I look like Inuyasha?”

“You do in his human form at least. You're missing white hair, golden eyes, pointed dog ears, and claws. Your attitude is a little different, too. He was really irritable.” She looked sad as she remembered the boy she'd once loved. “Inuyasha would fight at the drop of a hat. That was one of the reasons we always got into trouble on the New Moon. When he was in his hanyou form, Inuyasha was very strong, so it didn't matter if he got into fights with youkai. But when he was human, stripped of the Tetsusaiga and even his claws, he didn't always stop to think that he was at a disadvantage.”

“He was reckless?”

She looked rueful. “Actually, it was usually because he was trying to protect me. He was actually fairly intelligent, but he didn't always stop to think before he did things.”

Out of nowhere, we heard the sound of the front door of the house slam shut, and saw Kagome's brother coming toward us. Instinctively, I jumped into the tree, even though he'd already seen me. He walked over to Kagome.

“What are you doing out here this early in the morning? And who's with you?” He looked up into the tree. “Mr. Menachi?” He said in surprise. I looked down at him from where I was crouched on a branch. Sota looked closely at my face, as if there was something he recognized, then shook his head. Apparently he saw the resemblance too, but couldn't place it. He turned back to his older sister. “Kagome, what is Mr. Menachi doing in the Goshinboku tree?” He asked her with an eyebrow raised. “And besides that, what is he doing here at five in the morning?”

Kagome looked at her brother for a moment. “He was curious about some of the things he heard at dinner.” She said, flicking the pink bead hanging around her neck meaningfully.

“You didn't tell him, did you?” Sota asked incredulously. I watched all this from my tree. I hadn't seen a good reason to come down yet, though I knew it was strange that I was sitting in a tree. If her grandfather came out just now, he was probably going to wonder. Kagome just stared at Sota in response to his question. “You did! Why? He's a stranger.”

“Sota,” Kagome said thoughtfully. “Does Menachi Hideko remind you of anyone you knew about three years ago?”

Sota looked back up at me. I managed a half-hearted scowl. He looked back at his sister with a look of disbelief. “He looks just a little bit like-“ He paused, obviously reluctant to finish his sentence because it seemed preposterous. “Inu-no-oniichan.” He finished in a whisper.

“I thought so too. It's nice to have a second opinion.” Kagome said firmly. “Hideko showed a lot of interest in the stories we told him last night. He showed up at the well house to investigate the well's ability to transport a few people between times, and I was waiting for him. In addition, Hideko looks exactly like Inuyasha did on the night of the New Moon.”

“What do you think it means Kagome?” Her brother asked her.

“I don't know. Give me some time to think about it and I might be able to come up with some sort of idea. But you have school soon.” She smirked at him.

“So do you!”

“Actually, I don't have class until this afternoon.” Kagome informed him, smirking again. She looked up at me. “Hideko, are you going to come down from there?”

I landed next to her. “What?”

“Nothing. I was just wondering why you were sitting up in the tree while we were talking. Why don't you have breakfast with us? We can tell my mother that you came early.”

“Actually, I can't.” I told her. “I have an appointment to look at some apartments near here. Since I'm probably going to be here in Tokyo more often now, I decided to get myself somewhere to live. Why don't you come by later? I want to talk to you.” I gave her the directions to my hotel and left the shrine just as the sun was coming up.