InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Deja-vu ❯ Deja-vu Part One ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, Kagome, or the no-doubt adorable children they would have together if the puppy would get over himself. As for Sesshoumaru…let's just say I'm working on an angle to get me what I want… if you review nicely, I may even share.

** This will be a one-shotter, broken into three parts. **

AN: Okay, I know I've got another fic unfinished, but I ran into a little bit of `lack of inspiration' (I got this Inu/Kagome thing going on right now---probably a direct result of Sesshou overload), so decided this would be a good one-shot exercise to get the creative juices flowing again.

Deja-vu

The insistent electronic whine of the alarm clock dragged Kagome out of a heavy slumber. A dreamless, heavy slumber---for once.

It was a mixed blessing, that. On the one hand, she dreaded the images of memories past and wished for, for they reminded her of all she had lost and would never again find. On the other hand, she reveled in those glimpses of a life long gone but still longed for, of people and places loved and lost. It was her only way of reclaiming her heart---the only time she felt truly whole, despite the inevitable pain rememberance brought.

Poking her head out from the top of the tangle of sheets she was wrapped in, Kagome squinted blearily at the alarm clock, noting with vague disgust the abominably early hour. Surely if the gods had meant for her to awake this early on a regular basis, she thought irritably, they would have reincarnated her as a rooster or something.

Snorting at the ridiculous thought of herself clad in white feathers and a red coxcomb, she absently smacked the snooze button, silencing the cursed contraption.

Flopping back onto the bed, she yawned and stretched her arms over her head until she hear the satisfying pop of her shoulder joints. Grimacing at the sign of passing years, she cast her thoughts out, drifting along on a list of all she had to accomplish during the day.

Pick up her dry cleaning, run by the herbalist to restock a couple of things for the temple (and get a birthday gift for her aged, slightly crazed grandfather), and today was her day for teaching archery to a group of young children. All this had to be accomplished after work, of course.

Lucky for her, she only worked part-time at the hospital. The rest of the time was spent at the shrine, manning the trinket booth, giving tours, answering questions…in general seeing that things ran smoothly.

Kagome snapped her fingers, suddenly reminded of a new task for her `to do' list. Check the rag sheets for signs of trouble---well, real trouble, not the kind brewed up for a circulation boost. Her main duty as miko remained the same as it did five hundred years ago: the exorcism of the odd demon or ghost. They were extremely rare in modern Tokyo, and were usually not very powerful, but it did happen from time to time. And just like that movie, the tabloids were indeed the best pipeline of information on the occult.

Ten years and my life is still weird, Kagome lamented to herself.

She always got so embarrassed whenever she had to go purchase those awful bundles of…well, `journalistic creativity' was a nice way of phrasing it.

But before all other tasks, Kagome had one burning priority. She had to acquire something more essential to her than air for breathing:

Coffee.

* * * * * * * * *

Finally, Kagome thought in relief. Her muscles ached slightly from the extra workout she had received on the archery range. Today's class size was larger by a handful of children than it usually was. It seemed her ad in the newspaper had paid unexpected dividends, if her increased class enrollment was any indication.

Kagome smiled in happiness at the thought of having the privilege of teaching more youngsters the sense of pride and peace gained through concentration and discipline---and the extra money wouldn't hurt, either.

While she had been conducting her class, though, she had glimpsed a tall man arriving through the great red torii gate. She had noticed him avidly observing her small class of youngsters. Thinking to welcome him and perhaps inquire if he knew someone interested in one of the open spots on the archery range, she worked her way back along the line of students toward the center of the grounds, where she had last seen him.

Kagome lost sight of his dark head while extricating herself from her students, but she thought perhaps he had wandered toward the God Tree. The majestic height of the ancient tree drew many to the shrine, and would be just the thing to entrance a newcomer. Perhaps he went there.

Once Kagome was standing under the dappled shade of the tree, though, she was distracted by the memories washing over her in a wave of warm regret and bittersweet longing. All those years of companionship, adventure, friendship…and more…

Inuyasha…

A small scraping noise from the direction of the well house drew her attention away from her depressing thoughts, and she frowned. It sounded as if someone was in there. A sign on the well house doors clearly proclaimed `Restricted access, for authorized personnel only'. Kagome fumed as she stalked toward the small, dilapidated wooden structure that housed her heart and her dreams. If anyone had dared to enter those doors and sully her memories…

As she came to a halt before the sliding doors, a ferocious scowl marring her smooth features, Kagome was struck by an unwelcome tightening of the nerves and skin across the nape of her neck. A shiver worked its way down her spine as her senses tripped over themselves in loud warning. It was all she could do to maintain her focus as she registered an aura of danger so potent, the last time she had sensed its like was over five hundred years ago.

What the hell, she wondered frantically to herself. What could possibly be so powerful in modern Tokyo?

Kagome's eyes dated around the shrine grounds in search for any hint of where the youki was emanating from, but it seemed so close…almost as if it were literally on top of her---or in front of her…

A feeling of dread gripped her heart, and sweat broke out on her palms. What if a demon had managed to come through the well? At the end, several demons had known about the Bone-Eater's Well, including Naraku and Sesshoumaru. After all, that was where they all met for the final battle, in that shadow realm of mist and magic, halfway between the past and the future.

Kouga, Inuyasha, even Sesshoumaru and, surprisingly Kagura, had been ranged against Naraku. Kikyou had stood off to the side, uninvolved and stoic until the final moment, suddenly tipping the balance in their favor in a suicidal move that meant she had to abandon her revenge on Inuyasha, but also saved Kagome from being an ornament on one of Naraku's tentacles. On that strange battlefield created through some mysterious power of the Shikon no Tama, the revived miko had let go of her hate and saved them all.

A bright thought suddenly bloomed in Kagome's mind that perhaps Inuyasha had finally found a way to traverse time, succeeding where she had failed…but it soon withered and died in the face of common sense. No, she shook her sharply, he had no doubt lived a long and happy life with---Kagome swallowed the lump in her throat---Kikyou.

Kagome shuddered with the force of the memories, the yearning to feel Inuyasha's arms around her once again, and firmly pushed them away. He was lost to her as irretrievably now as he had been five hundred years ago. Now because of time, and then because of Kikyou.

That story was inconsequential to the moment, though. All that mattered was that, once the Shikon no Tama had been completed, Kagome had handed it to Inuyasha, bidding him wish for Kikyou's return so he would be happy, then she had been wrenched from his arms by the fingers of magic to find herself deposited within the musty, dank confines of the well house. Separated from her love by a chasm of five hundred years---and probably several lifetimes.

None of this answered the current question of who---or what---was on the other side of the well house doors. She glared at the wood in front of her face and reached back, drawing forth an arrow from her quiver. She nocked it with cool competence to the bowstring. It wasn't a holy arrow, but it could still do serious damage to a demon if aimed at the right body part.

Drawing on every lesson and observance ever gained from Inuyasha and Sango, Kagome stealthily eased her body just to the side of the sliding panels, rendering her form as small a target as possible if the doors should open unexpectedly.

Pressing the side of her foot against the rough, weathered grain of the wood, she used the pressure to silently slide the door open a crack. Her hands tightened on the bow slightly as she paused, stretching her senses into the dusty, dim interior. When she sensed no movement from within, she opened the door just enough to admit her slight figure, taking care that her arrow, poised for release, preceded her.

The sight that greeted her had her hastily dropping her aim and flushing in embarrassment. It was the tall man she had been searching for prior to her being side-tracked by the aura of youki she had sensed. Kagome noted it still had not faded.

As Kagome moved gracefully over to the obviously lost newcomer, a welcoming smile tilting her lips, something about the man struck her as familiar, though she knew she had never laid eyes on him before.

His looks weren't outstanding, though his lean face was remarkably handsome. His glossy black hair was cropped short in a stylish cut and he wore a dark suit which seemed to be the uniform of business men everywhere (though his seemed to be of the expensive, designer variety).

Sunglasses shaded his eyes even though the inside of the well house was shadow-shrouded and murky. They prevented her from determining his eye color, but she had no doubt they were a nondescript brown. He was, after all, Japanese, though an exceptionally tall example of one of her countrymen---probably close to six feet. But, hey. That Chinese basketball player was over seven feet tall, right?

No, she decided. It wasn't his appearance that made him seem familiar in some indefinable way. It was more his posture and demeanor that set off alarms of recognition. He was straight-backed to the point of stiffness, with an arrogant tilt to his head and a hint of predatory grace in his movements. An image tickled at the back of Kagome's consciousness, but she batted it away.

She snapped her eyes back to the man with the regal posture and aggravating lack of sign-reading skills, abruptly realizing that she had been standing before him, staring and not saying a word in greeting. Her embarrassment was mollified only slightly by the fact that he seemed to have been staring as avidly at her as she had been at him. She opened her mouth to say hello and herd him out of the well house, but cut herself short when he shook himself slightly, then reached up to remove his sunglasses.

Kagome had a sudden, horrible sense of premonition. You know that feeling when everything slows down, the world narrows to just one point in space, and you just know that something big is going to happen.

Something that will alter your life forever.

Her stomach dropped as another huge wave of youki rolled over her, making her dizzy with the force of something not felt in ten long years. Kagome's vision seemed to swim, and the image of the handsome man rippled like a mirage. The ends of his hair seemed to bleed and flow down his back in a fall of shining silk the color of moonlight. She blinked in confusion, horrified that her mind would play tricks on her, and she found herself once again facing a man with short, dark hair.

Kagome swayed on her feet with the combined force of her still-screaming sixth sense and self-generated illusion, and a long-fingered hand shot out to steady her. She absently mumbled an almost incoherent `thank you'. Her thoughts were frantically scrambling for a way to locate the demon aura she felt so closely it was burning her skin, and at least contain it long enough to evacuate the temple grounds. The shock of contact on her arm, though, had her raising her eyes to meet the concerned brown gaze of the man before her, intent on beginning the rescue process with him.

Only she didn't meet brown eyes like she expected. In fact, they weren't even hazel or blue or green. Kagome gasped in shock and blindly reacted from instinct and deep longing, reaching out a hand to brush gentle, trembling fingers against the man's lean, pale cheek as if that soft, simple contact would shatter the vision before her. Solemn eyes with irises the color of molten gold met her stunned regard.

The young miko just couldn't wrap her mind around the sudden appearance of eyes she had seen a thousand times in her thoughts, dreams, and memories, so she said the only thing she could think of, irregardless of the improbability.

In a hushed, choked whisper, a single word born of sudden, fierce hope forced its way from the bottom of her heart and past her trembling lips.

"Inuyasha?"

Sess: Woman, you should be working on `Yume', not writing some meaningless drivel about my worthless mongrel half-brother and his wench.

TT: I---

Inu: `Mongrel'?! *draws Tetsusaiga and swings at Sess* Say that again, you stick-up-the-ass pretty boy! You're just jealous Kagome's obviously still hung up on me!

Sess: As if! *sneers and leaps easily away from Inuyasha's attacks*

Kagome: Who says I'm still hung up on you, you immature boob? Sit, boy!

TT: Children! Children! Watch the set destruction! (The prop department gets soo touchy if you scratch something. Sheesh.)