InuYasha Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Decisions ❯ Chapter 8

Decisions

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any characters associated with it.

 

 

Chapter Eight

 

Inuyasha and Kagome both became aware of their surroundings at the same time. They were in a completely white space. There didn't seem to be a ceiling, walls, or even a floor, even though what they seemed to be standing on seemed solid enough. Suddenly a more than slightly familiar woman appeared in front of them. It took a moment but Kagome finally managed a “Midoriko?”

 

The woman in front of them nodded. She looked a lot different than she did in the cave, but then again stone doesn't make the most flattering of impressions. But the cave wasn't the only reason that she looked familiar. Although Kagome couldn't quite put her finger on it, she was sure that she had seen someone who looked like her before.

 

Like Kagome, Inuyasha was thinking the same thing, but unlike her, he knew who Midoriko reminded him of. He wasn't going to say anything yet, but if he was right, then they had a whole new problem.

 

Kagome decided that they had more important things to worry about than who Midoriko reminded her of. “So, what happens now? Why are we here?”

 

Midoriko smiled. “You are here because there are some things that I need to explain and discuss with you. Then you have some decisions to make, but we will get to them later. First of all, I know that you have noticed that I seem slightly familiar to you. Inuyasha has even partially figured it out himself. I may not look as similar to you as Kikyo but there is still a remarkable resemblance.”

 

Kagome gasped, finally placing where she had seen Midoriko before. She saw her every time she looked in the mirror. Her first thought was, Oh no, not another incarnation!

 

Midoriko laughed, noticing the look of horror on Kagome's face. “I'm sure that I won't be as much trouble as Kikyo was and still is from the looks of your thoughts.”

 

Hey, I resent that!

 

Kagome ignored Kikyo; she had just thought of something. “You can't be my incarnation, because your soul is part of the Shikon No Tama.”

 

Midoriko smiled. “Only part of our soul is. That is one of the reasons that none of my reincarnations lived very long up until Kikyo had the jewel burned with her. It is also one of the reasons that she was so perfect to be the guardian of the jewel. When she was around I was stronger and was able to fight off the evil souls of the youkai in the jewel, thus allowing the jewel to be purified. But even with the jewel in her possession, it was not close enough. Kikyo began to weaken. If she was at her best then that curse from that other miko wouldn't have worked. I think at least part of it was the soul separation, like what you went through and what you will go through if I don't put the jewel back where it belongs. It has to be tied to your soul, back inside your body where it can be constantly purified and kept from evil. I know that this is not what you expected when you completed the jewel. You expected to make one wish and have it disappear. I think that it is only appropriate that you get more wishes than just the one since you will continue being the jewel's guardian, even though it will be a lot easier now that every youkai in the vicinity will not be able to since it. That is one of the reasons that you were never attacked by youkai before the centipede. Only those with intimate knowledge of the jewel can sense it when it is kept hidden that way and most of the youkai with that knowledge are long dead. The centipede had ingested it before and knew its power. But, back to the wishes, now there will be some rules that I will explain now. You will have to come back to this era; although there is something that I want you to do that will require you to go back to the Feudal Era. You will be allowed to stay there until you are ready to make your wishes, but it cannot be forever, only a reasonable amount of time. Secondly, I understand that you plan to adopt a small kitsune?” Kagome nodded. “Then you can bring him with you to this time if he wishes it. There may be others too but the events of the past's future are a little hazy at the moment for me to say for sure. Also, after you make your wishes, the Bone Eater's Well will no longer work. It was an instrument of destiny only. It lets only those that were meant to go through go through at the right time. Kikyo wasn't totally wrong. The shards have almost nothing to do with it. Everything that happened happened the way that it was supposed to. I think that is about it for the rules. If you were anyone else then I would probably have to go in depth about what you can and cannot do, specifically, but you are not Inuyasha.” At that Inuyasha glared at the miko. Midoriko laughed. “I think that I could get used to baiting him, but, alas, when I become part of you, you will have already left him.” She sighed. “I never get to have any fun. Well, back to the wishes!” Midoriko glared at Kagome. “And you know I can read your thoughts! I am not as bad as Kikyo at getting off track! Now look what you made me do! What was I going to say again? Oh, right!” She snapped her fingers. “I've heard of some sort of `genie' myth where you get three wishes. That seems fair. You will have three wishes to use at the time when you are ready to say your goodbyes and come home.”

 

Kagome, still hesitant from where the miko had yelled at her before, asked. “Didn't you say that you had some sort of task for me to complete for you?”

 

Midoriko beamed. “Oh, of course. I forgot! I would like for you to go to the cave and pick up my sword for me. All you have to do is touch it and it will separate from the stone and turn back to what it was in life. I believe that the youkai-slayer's village isn't too far from Lord Sesshomaru's palace. It was my weapon of choice much as the bow was yours and Kikyo's. You should adapt pretty well to it once I'm apart of you again, although it would help if you got some instruction from someone else beforehand so that they can do some hands-on teaching. It is so much easier when your body actually knows what is going on and can do what your mind is telling it to do.”

 

Kagome was digesting this when she suddenly realized. “Oh my GOD! I'm going to have another one inside my head, making me want to knock myself out just to escape them! It's to the nut house for me.”

 

Midoriko glared again at Kagome while Inuyasha was wondering, What is Kagome talking about?

 

Midoriko suddenly looked inside Kagome's memories of her `discussions' with Kikyo and laughed. “I see what you mean. I promise to be a lot quieter than her and I will explain that we need to keep the arguing to a minimum. But at least you will never be lonely…”

 

Kagome looked at Inuyasha, suddenly realizing that he was there. He was probably really confused about now. It would just be too awkward if he found out that Kikyo was `living' inside her head. It was better to have him think that she was just spacing out all the time. She tried to distract him and Midoriko from saying any more on the subject. “Shouldn't we be getting back? We need to tell Mom what happened and get back to the Feudal Era.”

 

Thankfully Inuyasha was easily distracted most of the time. “Yeah, I guess. Why do we have to go to Sesshomaru's again?”

 

“Because he agreed when Miroku asked that they could have the wedding there. He is supposed to be asking Sango again right now. Plus that is where you will be living and Miroku and Sango will be close by.”

 

Midoriko smiled. “I will leave you now. Remember, don't wait too long to make your wishes. I believe that you will know when the time is right.” Their white surroundings faded with her last few words, as did she. Kagome looked down at the now complete jewel for the first time since it had come out of her body. It was beautiful…but it had caused so much pain and suffering, just by existing. But maybe it wasn't the jewel's fault. It was the evilness of the beings that used it that tainted it. She didn't think that the jewel itself was evil. But the fact remained that it was made partly of youkai souls. So maybe she was completely wrong.

 

They quickly went into the house and told Mrs. Higurashi about what happened. They told her that Kagome would be living in the past for a few more months and that when she returned home for good there would probably be some new additions to the household. She was going to take a leave of absence from school, since she didn't want to bother with coming back every time she had a test. Kagome ran up to her room to get her big yellow pack that was already stocked with food and chocolate for Shippo. She packed took off her suit that she had bought for the fight with Naraku as she had been wearing it none stop for three days. It was dirty, even if she did try to wash it in the hot springs every night while she bathed. Luckily she had bought an extra and she packed it along with some of the miko garb that she had had made. Some were the traditional red like Kikyo's had been, but as she had still been jealous of Kikyo at the time, she hadn't had many made in that color. Most were black, but she had some purple, yellow, green, and blue ones made too. She figured that these outfits were more appropriate that the school uniform that she normally traveled in, even if Grandpa had almost had a heart attack when he had seen that she was going to wear hakama that were a different color than the traditional red. At least in these people wouldn't think that she was a youkai or, worse, a harlot! Before, she probably wouldn't have worn them in the Feudal Era, but now that she and Kikyo had resolved their differences, for the most part, she felt comfortable at the thought of wearing them. Kikyo understood the compromise with the colors, even if Grandpa didn't. The point was to allow her to perform her duties and it didn't matter what color they wore to do that.

 

Once she was all packed, she kissed and hugged her mom goodbye and waited while her mom cried all over Inuyasha again before she reached up and rubbed his ears for the last time. Sota was in school and Grandpa was away so they weren't around to say bye but Mrs. Higurashi would fill them in later.

 

As they were about to go out the door the phone rang. Mrs. Higurashi answered and handed the phone to Kagome. “It's for you, dear.”

 

“Hello? Oh hi! I haven't talked to you in a long time. How's…Okaaaaaayyyyyyy, did you pull any of your normal stunts? What do you mean `what do I mean'?! The same thing you always pull….Well, excuse me if I happen to think that looking up a girl's skirt or grabbing her chest every time you want to get her attention is very deserving of a slap. I swear, you remind me so much of Miroku…well, at least you don't ask every pretty girl you meet to bare your child. Although, it seemed to work for him, as he is getting married soon. No, you cannot meet him. There is no need to get the two biggest perverts in the world in the same room with each other. WHAT?! You asked her to marry you? When? Did she agree?” There was a silence on both ends of the conversation for a while. Then came his answer. “WHAT?! Well, it's no wonder that she said that. I would too. She's not going to see you for God knows how long! How would you feel if she just up and decided that she needed to go somewhere and told you to wait for her and, maybe you will get married when you come back? Where exactly are you going? To train? Can't you train a little closer to home? What kind of `special training'? Well, if you were this forthcoming with her, I can see why she reacted the way she did. You are clueless. Just about all you think about is fighting. You are soooo immature. Don't you dare use that kind of language when you talk to me! I can still beat the living hell out of you if you irritate me too much! I don't care how big and bad you think you are! You had better apologize!” Kagome was silent for a moment as she listened to whoever was on the other end of the line. “I wish we could get together before you leave too. Yes, I realize that we haven't done more than talk on the phone for over two years. But, I'm going to be out of the country for a while. Well, since you are being so ambiguous about your plans I'm going to return the favor. WHAT did I tell you about that language? Good luck with your training and you had better call me when you get back. If I'm back by then we can all get together and catch up, IF she will still speak to you.” Kagome listened for a little bit and then rolled her eyes. “I love you too. Bye.” Kagome hung up the phone and turned to where Inuyasha was standing with his mouth handing open. “If you don't close your mouth, Inuyasha, something is bound to fly into it.”

 

Inuyasha snapped out of his shock. He yelled, “Just WHO was that?! Was it that Hobo guy? I swear, if you started going out with that wimp without telling me Kagome I will KILL him!”

 

Kagome sighed. “It's Hojo, and no I'm not going out with him. That was just a friend that I have known since elementary school.” At Inuyasha's blank look, Kagome elaborated. “In other words, since I was about five. We had crushes on each other for about four years before I had to change schools. We are still great friends, along with his girlfriend. We just don't see each other very often. We actually have not seen each other in a couple of years. First, he was too busy and then I fell down the well and you know how often I get to come home. We usually just talk on the phone. The `I love you' started because he decided to forget that the crush was mutual and started saying it to tease me. Although I'm sure it's true, we are just friends. He's actually my best friend in this time. His girlfriend, and maybe fiancé, was my best friend before I even knew him. At least I get to see her occasionally. Even if I was interested in him, I would never hurt her by acting on it. He actually reminds me a lot of you…always looking to become stronger, always fighting and trying to keep from appearing soft. He's rude, obnoxious, disrespectful to elders, but actually very caring and protective of the ones that he cares about…”

 

“Feh. I thought that you said that he reminded you of Miroku. And there is no way that I'm anything like that perverted monk.”

 

“He reminds me of both of you, but mostly of you. Let's drop this subject. We have to get back to the past.” With that, Inuyasha shrugged Kagome's pack over his shoulder and they made their way to the well.

 

 

Weeeellllllllll…I can't really think of anything to say. Other than the fact that I don't know if the color red for the hakama (pants) signifies any special religious thing and I hope that I'm not insulting the religion and if I am, I don't mean to. And, yes, the person on the other end of the line will play an important role in the story at some point in the future. Hope you like it.

 

The next few chapters get a little sappy. Just a warning.