InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Always: Part three of When a Door Closes, Another Opens ❯ The Visit ( Chapter 1 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Namiyo11 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Drama / Fantasy / Romance | Type: Fanfiction Sequel | Uploaded On: 05.14.2008 | Updated On: 05.14.2008 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.1K | Visits: 165 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Drama / Fantasy / Romance | Type: Fanfiction Sequel | Uploaded On: 05.14.2008 | Updated On: 05.14.2008 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.1K | Visits: 165 | Status: Work In Progress
Always: Part Three of ‘When a Door Closes...another opens’
By Namiyo11
Chapter 1- The Visit
Disclaimer-All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
This chapter is dedicated to all of the folks who’ve ever listed these stories as a favorite or me as a favorite author. Thank you all very, very much.-Namiyo
For those who may not have read the two preceding stories, I highly recommend reading them first. Seriously. As the title says, this is part three, and you really ought to read both WADC and AO to know the story!-Namiyo
AO Chapter Recap: Sango and Miroku begin to settle into life together post-jewel quest, but not without a few bumps. Shippo sinks into depression at the realization that he has to accept that things can longer be as they were, and that he has to grow up. Kouga watches and waits for his chance to seek revenge on Kagome as the new moon approaches. What happens now? Read on!
“You don’t have to come with me, you know,” Kagome said fondly to Inuyasha as she packed. Just a few things, since this trip was to the village-and the well.
“Why not? I said I would go with you,” he answered uncomfortably as he watched her. Inuyasha had seen her change last month, yes-but she looked forward to it in a way that made him frown. No hanyou ought to look forward to the time of weakness. Not with Kouga loose and plenty of others who’d want her head on a platter. Although...granted, she spent much of it with her family, safe with Sesshomaru looking after the well.
The New Moon was coming, she’d just have time to get to the well if they left today. When she’d asked for permission, Sesshomaru had granted it easily enough. He’d restricted her to the Keep, but she asked his leave to go, without complaining...too much about the matter. Then Inuyasha had at once said he was going with her. Kagome, unlike Sesshomaru, knew he meant through the well. That meant her family would see him as a mortal for the first time. If it even let him through as a mortal, something she didn’t mention to Inuyasha.
No reason to make him worry more. He was upset enough about the fact that his half-brother would see him as a mortal if he went with her as it was. Packbond or no, they’d been enemies of a sort for far too long for him to find it comfortable. Her Lord assumed he merely wished to protect her as he should. Besides, he’d never asked her about it and neither of them had wanted to talk about him at the time.
Yes, Sesshomaru suspected the New Moon was when Inuyasha turned human, but he wasn’t certain. Not to mention she’d never told Sesshomaru Inuyasha could travel through the well. She’d think of a way to break it to Sesshomaru. Or so she told herself, not knowing how he’d take the news. They were so darned competitive about things.
***
To Inuyasha’s unsurprise, Sesshomaru came along. What was surprising...was how good it felt to travel with both of them. Kagome ran alongside him, as light and quick as he was-and it was deeply comforting to have Sesshomaru floating above them, Ah-uhn behind with Rin and Jaken. To have his packmates around him as they journeyed. Between them, it didn’t take long to reach the village.
Greeting a rapturous Sango and Miroku, seeing a pouting, grumpy Shippo, they wondered why the kit was so annoyed still...even as they glanced at the afternoon sun. Tonight the new moon would rise, and they’d have a trip to make.
Soon enough, they separated to well-talk.
***
“Look at you, married and settled. Never thought I’d see it,” Inuyasha snorted as the monk sat beside him on a hillside overlooking the village.
“No less than I did you, my friend. Or should I call you my Lord?” Miroku noted slyly. He had sworn himself to Inuyasha’s service to help him win Kagome back, after all.
“Feh. Not funny, bonzu,” Inuyasha looked down at the village, and shook his head. The last time they’d sat here...all of them had been together, still hunting the Jewel. Kagome had been a mortal...Kikyou had still walked, Naraku had still been hanging over them all. Had it really been so long? It didn’t seem like it. Last summer.
“I think it is,” Miroku smiled.
“You and Sango seem happy together,” he said finally, looking tense. Tonight was the New Moon. Tonight, he’d try and travel the well, his bastard pack leader would see him as a mortal...it worried him.
“We are. And...you? Is it what you wanted?” Miroku frowned slightly, wondering as he noted Inuyasha’s mood...but the hanyou’s eyes were determined when he met his friend’s gaze a moment as he sprawled in the grass next to him.
“I-it’s not what I figured on. But she’s worth it.” It wasn’t in a lot of ways. Packlife was strange to him, belonging...it still scared him a little. The monk nodded.
“Marriage isn’t what I expected either. Everything’s changed...and more is coming.”
“Yeah,” a glance at Miroku, “I figured Sango’d be having a kid by now. You two-are you, eh...alright?” Sango and Miroku had both separately confided in their friends on the subject, both wanting a family as soon as possible. Only made sense, really. They’d waited a long time and were mortals, and it was best to have young early for humans.
“Sango and I-are fine. As for children...so did we,” Miroku admitted, adding, “Kagome-?” But Inuyasha shook his head.
“She wants to wait until we’re settled in the Clan more. Bad enough two hanyou are in the pack before we add more.”
Easy enough for them. When she was fertile, they both knew it, and simply wouldn’t lie together then. In theory, anyways. She’d noticed this and been briefed by other Inu females on the topic soon after she began associating with her Clan months before. But she had a mate, her body was telling her to breed. So was his. As they had discovered a few days ago...
***
“Inuyasha, go sleep elsewhere! Not yet!” Kagome snapped.
She looked on edge, and he drowsily growled at her in attempted dominance, an instinctive response to her condition. They’d gone to bed to sleep only, as agreed...and she was in heat. She almost hadn’t stopped him when she’d awakened to a half-asleep Inuyasha’s hands all over her. Almost, because she wanted to. Badly. The urge to mate and produce offspring was so strong! Her youkai side and his kept saying yes, now, it was the time.
Full youkai, ironically...had an easier time in such matters. They had no mortal blood confusing the issue-and the sense to sleep separately at such times when no child was wanted. Unlike fully youkai females who became fertile once or twice a year, Kagome did so monthly as a hanyou, an echo of her human cycle. She ruthlessly did her best to ignore it, shoulders tense as she shivered. She wasn’t an animal to be controlled by her hormones, nor was she ready for a baby. Neither of them were. That it was true, and the right decision...didn’t make it pleasant.
“I said no!” she growled, as fangs bared at him in rejection, and his ears flattened as hers perked forward sharply in annoyance.
“Damn it. Why do I have to go somewhere else?” he scowled as she kicked him out of bed.
“Because I asked you to. Baka,” she covered back up, muttering in annoyance. He ended up sleeping in the sitting room, or trying to. His damned nose twitched all night, picking up her scent. Even knowing she had the same trouble didn’t make things pleasant.
***
“A wise decision,” Miroku agreed, smiling slightly at the aggrieved expression on his friend’s face.
“Keh. You put up with her and say that,” Inuyasha made a face and the monk laughed.
“Ah, at least you haven’t had Shippo interrupting you at all hours,” Miroku commented, smile fading a bit at the reference to the kit. At the hanyou’s inquiring expression, Miroku related what Shippo had done lately. When he was finished, Inuyasha sat up, furious.
“He did what? That ungrateful little shit!”
“Indeed he did,” Miroku answered grimly.
“You too. He pulled the same kind of crap on me. What the hell’s gotten into him?”
“I wish I knew,” the monk admitted, adding, “I’m beginning to understand why you struck him so often, though.” The annoyance there wasn’t feigned. Inuyasha had to shake his head.
“Should’ve let me discipline him back then.”
“Wonderful, an official I told you so.” They both chuckled.
“We’ll sort him out, Miroku. He’s got to stop it.”
“Agreed.”
***
“So?” Sango smiled at Kagome’s eager question. The pair sat in her hut, so familiar after living here last winter, and were talking over tea.
“Oh, Kagome...I’m so happy. I just wish-” she paused, her eyes shadowed.
“Sango?”
“I wish Kohaku was here. That Shippo wasn’t such a nuisance. If we can’t manage one kitsune while we travel, how will we manage children?”
“It won’t be so bad, Sango,” Kagome soothed, and the tajiya sighed.
“I hope so.” But both glanced up at a gentle knock on the doorframe. Kaede and her young apprentice Michiko. They came in, removed her sandals...and sat uncomfortably. She’d greeted them as usual, but something had been wrong. Kagome knew it. She’d known the kindly old woman for years now, and something was really troubling her.
“Kaede? What’s wrong?” Kagome glanced over in concern at the aged Priestess. She looked tired, older somehow. Michiko merely shrugged. Her teacher hadn’t confided in her.
“Child, I’d like to do something. May I-look at you? I...admit to being curious,” Kaede asked. Kagome nodded obediently, and the old Priestess took her hands after having her sit in front of her. Falling swiftly into a light trance with a will honed by decades of practice, she looked closely, examining the girl’s aura.
Ever since the battle at the Temple, she’d been troubled. Kaede remembered...
Feet made a near soundless patter as she approached the walls...this was the real test...as all three felt a sudden pressure on the magic. And a faint, fluttering surge of power, unlooked for aid...
Kaede knew that aura. Knew the whisper of pure spiritual power, once so incredibly strong...now all but vanished. Kagome. Kagome’s spiritual powers, lost in the change...some echo remained and helped them, feeble as they had never been when she was mortal alone. It tipped the balance as she’d leapt, unknowingly, to the top of the wall. She was there, the webs were trying to grab her, they threaded them, and could feel...an odd feeling had reverberated along the delicate spell. An echo. Almost...a trace of aura, helping them, something almost like...it was impossible. Kaede could not look closer...
At least then.
But now-she could. Kaede looked, and saw Kagome’s fading youkai as the sun began to sink. Her aura was that of a hanyou now, but there it was again, a whisper and a hint as the girl’s mortality asserted itself. Not of Kagome’s former powers, untrained and mighty. Not a possession, for Kagome was already possessed by the youkai that kept her alive, and her powers had fused with it, in a masterwork of magic she doubted any could ever duplicate. Midoriko had been a master of masters, creating something remarkable.
For a moment, even in trance, Kaede admired it. She did see that her youkai had blended almost completely with the human soul now, when once there had been separation. Kaede had examined Kagome when she had first turned, and yes-there was much change now. Undoubtedly because the child had turned full youkai in the accursed Temple. Having given it full freedom, it now was even more a part of her. She could never be made fully human, it would indeed kill her.
But, there it was, as subtle as a glitter of a golden thread on a metal plate. Not of Kagome’s former powers, untrained and mighty. But of Kikyou’s. Skilled, powerful...her sister’s aura-almost. A trace. A mere trace of the Kikyou who had been. Not the undead she had become after Urusue’s meddling. But her sister the Jewelguardian...was still guarding the jewel. It too was part of Kagome with the wish Inuyasha had made to save her life, the girl herself the only thing that remained of it after Midoriko was freed.
Her sister always had been stubborn. But Kaede sensed no ill will in it. Only-a faded echo of what she was. Kikyou was Kagome, after all. Her reincarnation. Nothing remained to contact, nothing was there to draw out. Nothing evil. The hatred that had filled Kikyou’s defiled shell had been purified when it had been laid to rest.
But a tinge of her remained separate. Perhaps it was that the soul fragment had been apart from her for too long, and it had gained different experiences in the time it had animated her sister’s clay prison. There was something less than another soul, more than just another aspect of Kagome there. Kaede came out of trance like diving out of cool waters on a hot day. Refreshed even as she was physically tired.
“Kagome...I would speak to you privately,” she finally said as the hanyou tried not to fidget under the woman’s gaze. Michiko looked put out as she and Sango were asked to leave. After all, how was she to learn if she was not permitted to remain? Was she not trustworthy? Even so, she left with the tajiya. Mostly because Sango had her by the arm and simply pulled her along.
Michiko was trustworthy. She was also very young. Fifteen, the same age Kagome had been when she’d come to this time. Kaede simply didn’t feel she was ready for this sort of thing yet-and Kagome had the right not to have this known.
“Kaede, what is it?” Kagome asked. Kaede told her. She had noticed nothing. Truly. It worried her a bit. No, no dreams, no memories...mostly. She had learned how to draw the shards in the last battle, what Kikyou had planned to do herself, though. From Kikyou. So perhaps there was some bits of knowledge left. Oddly-it was a bit comforting.
“I could try to cleanse it, child-but I sense nothing harmful here.”
“No,” Kagome replied quietly after a moment. “She’s...part of me. She belongs with me. Maybe-it’s for the best that a little bit of her is around.” She was very quiet though, her dark dog ears lowering slightly.
“Thank you,” Kaede said softly.
“But please, don’t tell anyone, especially-”
“Inuyasha,” Kaede finished for her. She understood. Inuyasha had dealt with his feelings for Kikyou, yes. But this would likely confuse him, and they didn’t need that strain on their marriage. He had loved Kikyou, and did love Kagome. Now that that was sorted for him, and they were together at last-no. There was no kindness in saying it to him that part of his first love remained.
“Yeah,” Kagome sighed.
“If that is your wish, then I will tell no one, child.” Kagome’s fangs flashed as she smiled with real relief.
“Thank you!”
“Of course,” Kaede rose and smiled. “Come, the sun will set soon,” she said fondly, and Kagome nodded.
“Yeah, and...he’s got enough to worry about. Nothing like bringing your husband home to meet the in-laws!” Kagome giggled.
If the well let him through, that is. She thought it would, though, and she had to admit it would be interesting. He hadn’t wanted to discuss it, meaning it worried him. He’d known them for years, yes...but now he was her mate. Not to mention she wore the beads now, and they’d be noticeable. And they were mates, not just married. And he’d left, and there’d be questions. And a host of other things, like the surprise she planned to get for him.
If he’d told her sooner about himself-he’d have had it long before. But no, the baka. So, she’d find a way to surprise him with something extra nice. He’d been so overwhelmed lately with Shuji, and he was so tired after practice with Musha now...he deserved a pick me up. Inuyasha...he was working so very hard. She was proud of him.
“Hm. Give your Mother my greetings, child,” Kaede chuckled. Kagome nodded and left to go to the well with her brother and her mate.
Author’s notes-Alright! Chapter one down! Whoot. I hope you enjoyed. The excerpt Kaede remembers is from the AO chapter ‘The Battle, part 3’. Where this little detail is first noted. Yes, I foreshadow. Thanks for reading! -Namiyo
By Namiyo11
Chapter 1- The Visit
Disclaimer-All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
This chapter is dedicated to all of the folks who’ve ever listed these stories as a favorite or me as a favorite author. Thank you all very, very much.-Namiyo
For those who may not have read the two preceding stories, I highly recommend reading them first. Seriously. As the title says, this is part three, and you really ought to read both WADC and AO to know the story!-Namiyo
AO Chapter Recap: Sango and Miroku begin to settle into life together post-jewel quest, but not without a few bumps. Shippo sinks into depression at the realization that he has to accept that things can longer be as they were, and that he has to grow up. Kouga watches and waits for his chance to seek revenge on Kagome as the new moon approaches. What happens now? Read on!
“You don’t have to come with me, you know,” Kagome said fondly to Inuyasha as she packed. Just a few things, since this trip was to the village-and the well.
“Why not? I said I would go with you,” he answered uncomfortably as he watched her. Inuyasha had seen her change last month, yes-but she looked forward to it in a way that made him frown. No hanyou ought to look forward to the time of weakness. Not with Kouga loose and plenty of others who’d want her head on a platter. Although...granted, she spent much of it with her family, safe with Sesshomaru looking after the well.
The New Moon was coming, she’d just have time to get to the well if they left today. When she’d asked for permission, Sesshomaru had granted it easily enough. He’d restricted her to the Keep, but she asked his leave to go, without complaining...too much about the matter. Then Inuyasha had at once said he was going with her. Kagome, unlike Sesshomaru, knew he meant through the well. That meant her family would see him as a mortal for the first time. If it even let him through as a mortal, something she didn’t mention to Inuyasha.
No reason to make him worry more. He was upset enough about the fact that his half-brother would see him as a mortal if he went with her as it was. Packbond or no, they’d been enemies of a sort for far too long for him to find it comfortable. Her Lord assumed he merely wished to protect her as he should. Besides, he’d never asked her about it and neither of them had wanted to talk about him at the time.
Yes, Sesshomaru suspected the New Moon was when Inuyasha turned human, but he wasn’t certain. Not to mention she’d never told Sesshomaru Inuyasha could travel through the well. She’d think of a way to break it to Sesshomaru. Or so she told herself, not knowing how he’d take the news. They were so darned competitive about things.
***
To Inuyasha’s unsurprise, Sesshomaru came along. What was surprising...was how good it felt to travel with both of them. Kagome ran alongside him, as light and quick as he was-and it was deeply comforting to have Sesshomaru floating above them, Ah-uhn behind with Rin and Jaken. To have his packmates around him as they journeyed. Between them, it didn’t take long to reach the village.
Greeting a rapturous Sango and Miroku, seeing a pouting, grumpy Shippo, they wondered why the kit was so annoyed still...even as they glanced at the afternoon sun. Tonight the new moon would rise, and they’d have a trip to make.
Soon enough, they separated to well-talk.
***
“Look at you, married and settled. Never thought I’d see it,” Inuyasha snorted as the monk sat beside him on a hillside overlooking the village.
“No less than I did you, my friend. Or should I call you my Lord?” Miroku noted slyly. He had sworn himself to Inuyasha’s service to help him win Kagome back, after all.
“Feh. Not funny, bonzu,” Inuyasha looked down at the village, and shook his head. The last time they’d sat here...all of them had been together, still hunting the Jewel. Kagome had been a mortal...Kikyou had still walked, Naraku had still been hanging over them all. Had it really been so long? It didn’t seem like it. Last summer.
“I think it is,” Miroku smiled.
“You and Sango seem happy together,” he said finally, looking tense. Tonight was the New Moon. Tonight, he’d try and travel the well, his bastard pack leader would see him as a mortal...it worried him.
“We are. And...you? Is it what you wanted?” Miroku frowned slightly, wondering as he noted Inuyasha’s mood...but the hanyou’s eyes were determined when he met his friend’s gaze a moment as he sprawled in the grass next to him.
“I-it’s not what I figured on. But she’s worth it.” It wasn’t in a lot of ways. Packlife was strange to him, belonging...it still scared him a little. The monk nodded.
“Marriage isn’t what I expected either. Everything’s changed...and more is coming.”
“Yeah,” a glance at Miroku, “I figured Sango’d be having a kid by now. You two-are you, eh...alright?” Sango and Miroku had both separately confided in their friends on the subject, both wanting a family as soon as possible. Only made sense, really. They’d waited a long time and were mortals, and it was best to have young early for humans.
“Sango and I-are fine. As for children...so did we,” Miroku admitted, adding, “Kagome-?” But Inuyasha shook his head.
“She wants to wait until we’re settled in the Clan more. Bad enough two hanyou are in the pack before we add more.”
Easy enough for them. When she was fertile, they both knew it, and simply wouldn’t lie together then. In theory, anyways. She’d noticed this and been briefed by other Inu females on the topic soon after she began associating with her Clan months before. But she had a mate, her body was telling her to breed. So was his. As they had discovered a few days ago...
***
“Inuyasha, go sleep elsewhere! Not yet!” Kagome snapped.
She looked on edge, and he drowsily growled at her in attempted dominance, an instinctive response to her condition. They’d gone to bed to sleep only, as agreed...and she was in heat. She almost hadn’t stopped him when she’d awakened to a half-asleep Inuyasha’s hands all over her. Almost, because she wanted to. Badly. The urge to mate and produce offspring was so strong! Her youkai side and his kept saying yes, now, it was the time.
Full youkai, ironically...had an easier time in such matters. They had no mortal blood confusing the issue-and the sense to sleep separately at such times when no child was wanted. Unlike fully youkai females who became fertile once or twice a year, Kagome did so monthly as a hanyou, an echo of her human cycle. She ruthlessly did her best to ignore it, shoulders tense as she shivered. She wasn’t an animal to be controlled by her hormones, nor was she ready for a baby. Neither of them were. That it was true, and the right decision...didn’t make it pleasant.
“I said no!” she growled, as fangs bared at him in rejection, and his ears flattened as hers perked forward sharply in annoyance.
“Damn it. Why do I have to go somewhere else?” he scowled as she kicked him out of bed.
“Because I asked you to. Baka,” she covered back up, muttering in annoyance. He ended up sleeping in the sitting room, or trying to. His damned nose twitched all night, picking up her scent. Even knowing she had the same trouble didn’t make things pleasant.
***
“A wise decision,” Miroku agreed, smiling slightly at the aggrieved expression on his friend’s face.
“Keh. You put up with her and say that,” Inuyasha made a face and the monk laughed.
“Ah, at least you haven’t had Shippo interrupting you at all hours,” Miroku commented, smile fading a bit at the reference to the kit. At the hanyou’s inquiring expression, Miroku related what Shippo had done lately. When he was finished, Inuyasha sat up, furious.
“He did what? That ungrateful little shit!”
“Indeed he did,” Miroku answered grimly.
“You too. He pulled the same kind of crap on me. What the hell’s gotten into him?”
“I wish I knew,” the monk admitted, adding, “I’m beginning to understand why you struck him so often, though.” The annoyance there wasn’t feigned. Inuyasha had to shake his head.
“Should’ve let me discipline him back then.”
“Wonderful, an official I told you so.” They both chuckled.
“We’ll sort him out, Miroku. He’s got to stop it.”
“Agreed.”
***
“So?” Sango smiled at Kagome’s eager question. The pair sat in her hut, so familiar after living here last winter, and were talking over tea.
“Oh, Kagome...I’m so happy. I just wish-” she paused, her eyes shadowed.
“Sango?”
“I wish Kohaku was here. That Shippo wasn’t such a nuisance. If we can’t manage one kitsune while we travel, how will we manage children?”
“It won’t be so bad, Sango,” Kagome soothed, and the tajiya sighed.
“I hope so.” But both glanced up at a gentle knock on the doorframe. Kaede and her young apprentice Michiko. They came in, removed her sandals...and sat uncomfortably. She’d greeted them as usual, but something had been wrong. Kagome knew it. She’d known the kindly old woman for years now, and something was really troubling her.
“Kaede? What’s wrong?” Kagome glanced over in concern at the aged Priestess. She looked tired, older somehow. Michiko merely shrugged. Her teacher hadn’t confided in her.
“Child, I’d like to do something. May I-look at you? I...admit to being curious,” Kaede asked. Kagome nodded obediently, and the old Priestess took her hands after having her sit in front of her. Falling swiftly into a light trance with a will honed by decades of practice, she looked closely, examining the girl’s aura.
Ever since the battle at the Temple, she’d been troubled. Kaede remembered...
Feet made a near soundless patter as she approached the walls...this was the real test...as all three felt a sudden pressure on the magic. And a faint, fluttering surge of power, unlooked for aid...
Kaede knew that aura. Knew the whisper of pure spiritual power, once so incredibly strong...now all but vanished. Kagome. Kagome’s spiritual powers, lost in the change...some echo remained and helped them, feeble as they had never been when she was mortal alone. It tipped the balance as she’d leapt, unknowingly, to the top of the wall. She was there, the webs were trying to grab her, they threaded them, and could feel...an odd feeling had reverberated along the delicate spell. An echo. Almost...a trace of aura, helping them, something almost like...it was impossible. Kaede could not look closer...
At least then.
But now-she could. Kaede looked, and saw Kagome’s fading youkai as the sun began to sink. Her aura was that of a hanyou now, but there it was again, a whisper and a hint as the girl’s mortality asserted itself. Not of Kagome’s former powers, untrained and mighty. Not a possession, for Kagome was already possessed by the youkai that kept her alive, and her powers had fused with it, in a masterwork of magic she doubted any could ever duplicate. Midoriko had been a master of masters, creating something remarkable.
For a moment, even in trance, Kaede admired it. She did see that her youkai had blended almost completely with the human soul now, when once there had been separation. Kaede had examined Kagome when she had first turned, and yes-there was much change now. Undoubtedly because the child had turned full youkai in the accursed Temple. Having given it full freedom, it now was even more a part of her. She could never be made fully human, it would indeed kill her.
But, there it was, as subtle as a glitter of a golden thread on a metal plate. Not of Kagome’s former powers, untrained and mighty. But of Kikyou’s. Skilled, powerful...her sister’s aura-almost. A trace. A mere trace of the Kikyou who had been. Not the undead she had become after Urusue’s meddling. But her sister the Jewelguardian...was still guarding the jewel. It too was part of Kagome with the wish Inuyasha had made to save her life, the girl herself the only thing that remained of it after Midoriko was freed.
Her sister always had been stubborn. But Kaede sensed no ill will in it. Only-a faded echo of what she was. Kikyou was Kagome, after all. Her reincarnation. Nothing remained to contact, nothing was there to draw out. Nothing evil. The hatred that had filled Kikyou’s defiled shell had been purified when it had been laid to rest.
But a tinge of her remained separate. Perhaps it was that the soul fragment had been apart from her for too long, and it had gained different experiences in the time it had animated her sister’s clay prison. There was something less than another soul, more than just another aspect of Kagome there. Kaede came out of trance like diving out of cool waters on a hot day. Refreshed even as she was physically tired.
“Kagome...I would speak to you privately,” she finally said as the hanyou tried not to fidget under the woman’s gaze. Michiko looked put out as she and Sango were asked to leave. After all, how was she to learn if she was not permitted to remain? Was she not trustworthy? Even so, she left with the tajiya. Mostly because Sango had her by the arm and simply pulled her along.
Michiko was trustworthy. She was also very young. Fifteen, the same age Kagome had been when she’d come to this time. Kaede simply didn’t feel she was ready for this sort of thing yet-and Kagome had the right not to have this known.
“Kaede, what is it?” Kagome asked. Kaede told her. She had noticed nothing. Truly. It worried her a bit. No, no dreams, no memories...mostly. She had learned how to draw the shards in the last battle, what Kikyou had planned to do herself, though. From Kikyou. So perhaps there was some bits of knowledge left. Oddly-it was a bit comforting.
“I could try to cleanse it, child-but I sense nothing harmful here.”
“No,” Kagome replied quietly after a moment. “She’s...part of me. She belongs with me. Maybe-it’s for the best that a little bit of her is around.” She was very quiet though, her dark dog ears lowering slightly.
“Thank you,” Kaede said softly.
“But please, don’t tell anyone, especially-”
“Inuyasha,” Kaede finished for her. She understood. Inuyasha had dealt with his feelings for Kikyou, yes. But this would likely confuse him, and they didn’t need that strain on their marriage. He had loved Kikyou, and did love Kagome. Now that that was sorted for him, and they were together at last-no. There was no kindness in saying it to him that part of his first love remained.
“Yeah,” Kagome sighed.
“If that is your wish, then I will tell no one, child.” Kagome’s fangs flashed as she smiled with real relief.
“Thank you!”
“Of course,” Kaede rose and smiled. “Come, the sun will set soon,” she said fondly, and Kagome nodded.
“Yeah, and...he’s got enough to worry about. Nothing like bringing your husband home to meet the in-laws!” Kagome giggled.
If the well let him through, that is. She thought it would, though, and she had to admit it would be interesting. He hadn’t wanted to discuss it, meaning it worried him. He’d known them for years, yes...but now he was her mate. Not to mention she wore the beads now, and they’d be noticeable. And they were mates, not just married. And he’d left, and there’d be questions. And a host of other things, like the surprise she planned to get for him.
If he’d told her sooner about himself-he’d have had it long before. But no, the baka. So, she’d find a way to surprise him with something extra nice. He’d been so overwhelmed lately with Shuji, and he was so tired after practice with Musha now...he deserved a pick me up. Inuyasha...he was working so very hard. She was proud of him.
“Hm. Give your Mother my greetings, child,” Kaede chuckled. Kagome nodded and left to go to the well with her brother and her mate.
Author’s notes-Alright! Chapter one down! Whoot. I hope you enjoyed. The excerpt Kaede remembers is from the AO chapter ‘The Battle, part 3’. Where this little detail is first noted. Yes, I foreshadow. Thanks for reading! -Namiyo