InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Delving Into The Mysteries Of The Past ❯ The Past Epic ( Chapter 15 )

Chapter 15: The Past

 

Yami-396

 

I was in the bakery picking up bread when I was suddenly seized with the urge to write. I don't know why, but somehow, cake reminded me of this story…

 

Disclaimer: I own nothing affiliated with InuYasha or Rumiko Takahashi. But I wish I did.

 

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It's quite depressing really, when we come across the dilapidated ruins of a once-thriving city.

 

Of course, there are other cities, elsewhere on different islands, but with the total absence of them on our journey, it made me forget that I was in present-day Japan, and not in some alternate universe of Japan, where everything reverted back to its Feudal stages.

 

Sometimes, and I mean very rarely, we managed to stumble upon a town, a kind of suburbs, sheltered either by thick forests, mountains, canyons, or more often, wards. But cities we never found. Cities were too dangerous, the vast amount of people and the extensive underground network of pipes hid demons well, and went unnoticed until it was far too late.

 

Kage, who had for the time being, changed to InuYasha, said that Naraku had been here, somewhere hiding out, watching one of his sadistic plays acted out. We were picking through the remains of a once sprawling metropolis, walking down a torn up street, watching as dust sparkled in the air, and looking out for steel beams hanging haphazardly from their frames, their long tapering fingers, bent and broken, reaching up for the sky, except for the time when one of them had torn loose from its companions, and rushed towards Earth groaning and screeching, crashing right in front of us. The shockwave caused the destruction around us to rattle, and we had to be cautious until we were able to leave.

 

“This is all sort of morbidly fascinating,” I commented, gingerly climbing over the remains of a tree, torn from its roots with massive force.

 

“What it is, is depressing,” Sango-chan muttered, trying to hold her grip on a building frame as she gently lowered herself into what looked like it used to be a basement. “InuYasha, are you sure you smell Naraku here?”

 

“Feh! Of course I'm sure,” he scoffed in answer, ears swiveling, seeking out any sound of danger. “His stench is reeking all over the place!”

 

“Just be careful,” Miroku-sama warned us, balancing on the crooked pavement, more like islands of black tar in a vast sea of rifts rather than a street, with Shippo-chan clutching his shoulder. “We don't know if any demons, or humans, for that matter, are still here.”

 

“They wouldn't have survived the miasma,” I said, shaking my head. “Remember? I had to shoot an arrow through it to purify it.” When we had first stumbled upon the ruins, a purple cloud of miasma had been hanging over the city, like what a pestilence would look like it were tangible. Only an arrow from me had dispersed it, and we had proceeded.

 

“True…”

 

“But what's really unnerving,” Sango-chan said, climbing out of the hole that served as a basement and walking towards us. “Is that there is a complete lack of bodies around here.”

 

“T-that's bad?” Shippo-chan stuttered, his bushy tail puffing up to equal the size of his body. Sango-chan nodded.

 

“I've been fighting battles longer than most of you have,” she explained. “And when there's been this much destruction, there's a body count to go with it. Here though, there's nothing.”

 

“Couldn't they have just escaped?” I asked. “I mean, maybe they saw the miasma and ran.”

 

“If they had escaped, there wouldn't be such a stench of death in the air,” InuYasha answered, looking back at me. For some reason, I blushed, and looked up again only when Sango-chan began to talk again.

 

“Kagome-chan, we've been traveling for almost two months together now, and every time we've come upon a village that's been attacked or destroyed, there's always at least a few bodies.”

 

“Yeah…But then what happened here?”

 

“She's right, Sango,” Miroku said. “Dead bodies can't move by themselves.”

 

“But others can move them,” Sango-chan said gravely, her eyes grim and her mouth set in a straight line.

 

“Are you suggesting that someone came here before us and took the bodies?” he asked incredulously, looking all the more stunned when Sango-chan nodded.

 

“Feh,” InuYasha snorted, crossing his arms and turning away. “That's absurd!”

 

“But when it comes to Naraku, does absurdity even matter?”

 

My head snapped back as soon as soon as I heard the voice, but by then, we were surrounded by youki-laced winds that tore at our hair, and blew dust into our eyes until we had to close them from the pain. Debris flew past us, and I cried out as glass shards sliced at my face. The whirlwind lasted only a few seconds before it calmed down, and we were able to open our eyes again and put down our arms that were shielding our faces and see the damage that was done.

 

My face smarted from the dozen or so little cuts that trickled blood down my neck, and Sango-chan was furiously blinking her eyes, trying to dispel the irritation that inflamed them, as was Miroku, but InuYasha was the one who was the most injured.

 

A gash stretched from his jaw to his bangs, curving along his cheek, blood oozing down to stain his clothes a darker red than they already were. Smaller wounds opened the skin on his forehead, and the stream of blood dripped steadily into his eyes, but his arm was what we were all staring at.

 

His arm was completely crushed from the elbow down; hanging at odd angles in some places, bone jutting through skin in others. His fingers were bent and broken, the claws on most of them were torn off, and blood collected in a crimson puddle under his arm. Sango-chan looked at him and made a retching noise, but for the most part, InuYasha seemed unfazed by his horrific injuries and kept his attention focused on the figure in front of us, blurry because of all the dust in the air.

 

As the dust settled back down, the figure became clearer, and I could make out that we were looking at a woman, dressed in the traditional Japanese two-layered kimono, a fan held in her outstretched arm. Black hair was pulled back and tied up, bangs stopping just above pupil-less red eyes, and her crimson lips were smiling, not a terrible evil smile, but a nice smile, one that old friends would give each other if they happened to meet on the street.

 

“It's too bad you didn't come here sooner,” she said, a pretty lilt tinting her voice. “Maybe you could have done something to help.”

 

“Who the hell are you?” InuYasha snarled, moving forward, his left arm flopping uselessly as his side. “And why do you stink of Naraku?”

 

“Hasn't anyone taught you manners, you cur?” the woman, demon, asked almost playfully, tapping her chin with her fan. “But if you must know, I am Kagura, the Wind Demon!” She flicked her fan, and another whirlwind surrounded us. This time, though, it was stronger, and heavier debris began hurtling towards us. I heard Shippo-chan squeal, and instinctively ran towards him. It wasn't a particularly nasty wound; a small rock had bonked him on the head, but it was bleeding a bit, and I think the sight of his own blood scared him more than the actual cut.

 

“Shippo-chan,” I said, stooping down and holding him. “You'll be alright. It's only a little cut.” I patted his head a few times, and he regained his composure, pushing my hand aside, and trying to stand tall.

 

“I wasn't scared,” he said, puffing up, though the redness underlying his eyes testified against that statement.

 

“Then why were you crying?” I asked him. He looked at me indignantly.

 

“I wasn't crying! There was someth-! Kagome! Look out!” His green eyes widened, and I turned to meet a steel beam hurtling straight for my abdomen.

 

From that moment on, I felt as if everything around me was going in slow motion, the way a death scene would play out in a B-movie. I heard Shippo-chan scuttle away, probably trying to get help or attention, but it sounded strangely muted, as if I were listening to it underwater. Sango-chan screamed and threw her Hiraikotsu, but it had little effect on the reinforced steel. I saw InuYasha's face, twisted into a mask of grief, pain, and desperation as he ran towards me as fast as he could, even though we both knew he wouldn't reach me in time to save me. I know it must have taken only a few seconds at the most, but to me, it felt like eternity. Then blackness filled my vision, and sharp pain coursed up my body.

 

But strangely, the pain stayed with me, even though I was sure it would only be few minutes of agony before I died. And the pain wasn't even in the right spot. My wrist hurt, not my abdomen, and cautiously, I opened my eyes, expecting to see steel imbedded in my flesh.

 

Miroku grinned down at me.

 

“Kagome-sama,” he said reproachfully, even though the smile on his face told me he was half-joking with me. “I do believe you weren't paying attention.” I could only stare up at him, watching as glass and concrete was sucked into his Kazaana, its dark light creating a halo around his palm.

 

“You stupid wench!” InuYasha shouted, stomping over to me. “Can't you ever pay attention in battle!?” He grabbed me by my wrist and pulled me up, only to let go startled when I hissed in pain. “Ka-Kagome?”

 

“I think I might've done something to my wrist,” I whispered, every nerve in my hand screaming pain.

 

“Let me see.” He took my wrist in his good hand and probed the skin, stopping occasionally when I whimpered.

 

“I think you broke it,” he said. “I can't be sure, but try to move your fingers.” I tried, but that only created more pain. “Yeah, you did.”

 

“I'm sorry,” I muttered. “I should have paid more attention.” I sniffled.

 

“You were only trying to protect that runt,” he answered gruffly. “I can't blame you for that. I should have been watching out for you.” I was about to protest, but Kagura cut us off.

 

“Can we save the sap for somewhere else?” she asked sarcastically. “I'm through here.” She pulled a feather from the bindings that held up her hair, and almost immediately, it expanded nearly three times its size, floating up in the air, taking her with it. She flicked her fan again. “Dance of the Dead!”

 

And that was when we found out what had happened to the bodies.

 

It was an army of the dead, easily topping the thousands area with more than enough for seconds. I gagged at the sight and smell of them; skin was peeling off of some of them, others were missing entire limbs, with bits and pieces of bone and flesh flaking off, sometimes with whole chunks of skin fell to the ground with a squelch. And they smelled like rot and decay with a mix of Naraku's miasma swirling about them. High above us, Kagura laughed, and as if it were some kind of cue, the dead launched into an attack.

 

One jumped out at InuYasha, and he punched it, his fist cracking through bone to come out the other side of the thing's head. Still, it persisted, traveling down InuYasha's arm, reaching out with its arms to try and grab his throat, even though InuYasha's wrist was now clearly visible from the back of it's head, covered in a trail of red, pink, and flesh down to InuYasha's elbow. I gagged as InuYasha snarled at it and pulled his fist out, creating an even wider hole, before he simply cleaved the thing in two with Tetsusaiga.

 

“InuYasha!” I called, whipping my bow around me, striking off limbs of whatever dead thing happened to be right next to me. “Use the Kaze No Kizu!”

 

“I can't!” he yelled, using his only good arm to defend himself against the onslaught. “That Kagura bitch controls the wind! I can't find the scar!”

 

“And Houshi-sama can't use his Kazaana either!” Sango-chan called to me, her Hiraikotsu spiraling through the air. “The Saimyosho are here!” Sure enough, the Hell Insects were twisting their way through the animated corpses, keeping careful watch on Miroku.

 

“These things just don't quit!” he yelled, throwing ofudas. “Even if you hit them, they get back up!”

 

“There's gotta be some way to stop them!” I shrieked as a pair of disembodied legs ran towards me, and I thrashed my bow at it, chopping through sinewy flesh.

 

“I can make a barrier, but I don't know how long I can hold it!” Miroku said, and we formed a ring around him as he concentrated and jammed his staff into the ground. The corpses near by were shocked by the sudden blast of the barrier, but there was such a multitude of the dead, that it did nothing to lessen their numbers.

 

I don't know for how long Miroku held the barrier, but the sea of dead didn't show any signs of letting up, and Miroku was obviously fatigued.

 

“I don't think I can hold it much longer,” he said through gritted teeth, sweat pouring down his forehead. Kagura laughed again.

 

“Why don't you just give up?” she mocked us from her position in the air.

 

“Don't listen,” InuYasha growled. The barrier began to flicker. The dead pressed more upon it. Miroku was near the verge of collapsing. The barrier flickered more. The dead pushed harder. I tried concentrating my power, but I had never been able to create a barrier before, so all I did was purify a few corpses with random sparks of power. And I couldn't shoot my bow with my wrist broken. The barrier started to crumble. Kagura laughed.

 

And then we were blasted by raw youki that disintegrated any sign of the corpses around us, taking the remnants of our barrier with it. Kagura screamed, but I still felt her youki, weak as it was now, and it retreated, in what direction, I couldn't tell; the dust had blown up again, and all of us simply collapsed from sheer fatigue.

 

We rested there for maybe half-an-hour before we moved into the woods to set up camp for the night. InuYasha refused to change back into his human form, he said he needed to heal his arm, and we had to carry Miroku the last few steps on Kirara. I helped Sango-chan nurse her wounds, and she bandaged my wrist for me. I offered to patch up InuYasha's gash, but he pushed me away and told me to get some sleep.

 

I woke up to Kage leaning over me, and he startled me so much that I slapped him away hard, and reopened the gash. He refused to talk to me the rest of the day, despite my pleas that I hadn't known who he was.

 

Two days later, he was completely healed, and we reached a large town, not a metropolis, but definitely bigger than the villages we had been accustomed to.

 

“Wards,” Miroku said, looking up at the town's large gates. “To keep demons out.”

 

“Does that mean I can't come?” Shippo-chan whined, eyeing me.

 

“I'll bring you back lots of pocky,” I said, knowing of his slightly unnatural love of the confection. “Besides, you'll have Kirara to keep you company.

 

Did I imagine it, or did Kirara just give me the dirtiest look ever?

 

“Kage,” Sango-chan said. “You know what that means, don't you?” He snorted. “It means that you can't go all demon on somebody to get a free room.” We laughed.

 

“We're not spending the night,” he snapped, blushing slightly. “We're going in for supplies and that's it!”

 

“Aye-aye captain,” I joked, marching past him through the gates. Almost immediately I could sense the change from being in the forest to being in the town. There was a sense of security here, something that was sorely missing from anywhere else we had stopped at. In the other villages, people moved quickly, hurrying down the streets in a rush to get back to the safety of their homes. Here though, people moved about slowly, enjoying their walk outdoors, laughing and smiling, chatting with random people on the street, as though a revolution wasn't raging just a few miles away from their gates. A quick look back at my companions told me that they sensed the same sense of security as I did.

 

“It's like a totally separate universe,” Sango-chan whispered, awed. “Even in the Demon Slayer's village, it never felt like this before.”

 

“Well, that's because you didn't have wards,” a voice answered her. “These wards are the most effective protection in all of Japan. You can't find them anywhere else.” The speaker was a young boy, maybe eight or nine, grinning down at us from his perch atop the spirals of the gates. He jumped down, an easily practiced maneuver from the way he handled it, and swept into a low bow. “I am Sekutsu, the Gate Welcomer.”

 

“The what?” Kage asked blankly, eyeing the child. “What the hell are you talking about, kid?” I kicked him in the shins.

 

“Manners!” I hissed. He only glared at me, rubbing his abused leg.

 

“I am Sekutsu,” the boy said again. “My job is to watch the gates and tell the Officials whenever somebody new passes through the gates. Or if there's demons, get the Reinforcements to exterminate them.”

 

“So you're basically the watchman,” I said. He nodded enthusiastically. “And now you're going to tell the Officials that we're here?”

 

“Nope, they already know. I saw you way before you entered the gates, and I ran to tell them. I just got back as soon as you entered. Now it's my job to show you around, if you'd like.” I was about to say yes, but Kage intervened.

 

“We're here for supplies, not sightseeing.”

 

“Just don't try anything funny.” Sekutsu pointed to the pillars dotting the town at seemingly random intervals. “The Officials and the Reinforcements are watching your every move. `Cause you can't be too careful, right?” With that, he climbed back up the spiral with the dexterity of a monkey. “Have nice stay!” He waved, and we walked off.

 

“At least they have a system,” Miroku shrugged, eyeing the pillars. “And it seems to be working; this place doesn't look like it's ever been attacked.”

 

“Enough gawking,” Kage commanded. “We need to get supplies. Kagome and I will new packs and everything, you and Sango are in charge of getting food.”

 

“There's just one problem with that,” Miroku stated. Kage huffed at him.

 

“What?!”

 

“Our lovely Sango-chan is nowhere to be found.”

 

`What!?”

 

“Really, is that all you can say?

 

“Teme.”

 

“Sango-chan is right there,” I said, laughing, pointing to a street vendor where Sango-chan was talking with the owner. She ran back to us, a brown paper bag clutched in her hands.

 

“What's the matter,” she asked when Miroku and I laughed, and Kage fixed her with a pointed glare. “Did I do something?”

 

“While you were over there, doing whatever it was you were doing, we were trying to make plans,” Kage snapped. Sango wrinkled her nose at him.

 

“I was hungry. I was buying a snack,” she said, pulling a banana out of the bag. “I can't get something to eat?”

 

“We need to eat too!”

 

“It wasn't that much money!”

 

“How can you eat that?”

 

“You don't like bananas, Kagome-chan?”

 

“They're inedible!”

 

“Can we get back on track!” Kage raged, throwing his hands up in the air. He pointed to Sango-chan. “Sango, you and Miroku go find food. Kagome, you and I are going to find anything else we might need, like ropes and junk like that.” I nodded.

 

“Why do I have to go with the hentai?” Sango-chan groused, taking another bite out of her banana. “Can't Kagome-chan and I look for food, and you and Miroku get the rest?”

 

“Sango-chan,” Miroku said, placing a hand over his heart. “You wound me so with your words.” He stood next to her. “I would love nothing more than to walk about town with yo-!” Sango-chan's banana whipped out, and she hit him squarely in the eye with it.

 

“Hentai!” she screamed, throwing the remains at him. “This is why I don't want to go with you!”

 

“Let's just go,” Kage said, nudging me down the street, away form the raging Sango-chan and the laughing Miroku, who was trying unsuccessfully to wipe banana from his eye.

 

While the town had an abundance of stores, there were very few hardware stores, and in the one we managed to find, everything was so overpriced, we were only able to buy a little of what we needed.

 

“This is a waste of time,” I mumbled. “We find more in the villages than we do here!”

 

“You wanted to come here,” Kage answered.

 

“I did not!”

 

“Yeah, you did.”

 

“Did not!”

 

“Shut up!”

 

“You're so mean!” I pouted, crossing my arms. “And just for being mean, you have to buy me a cake!”

 

“Is your brain broken?” he asked me, eyebrows hidden by bangs, but I wasn't paying attention. We had just passed a bakery, which was fuel for my comment to him, and I was staring through the window at all the cakes on display. It was like torture; I knew Kage wouldn't waste money on something we didn't need, but it'd been so long since I had anything relatively from the junk food department except for pocky, that I wanted those cakes so badly. “Can you stop drooling and pick up the pace?”

 

“Look!” I pointed to a black and white cake. “It's a keki-kage for Kage!”

 

“You're just a regular comedian, aren't you?” he said dryly, moving past me. “You're delusional.”

 

“No,” I corrected. “I'm just in remission.”

 

“From what?”

 

“My cake habit.”

 

“…Moron,” he said at length, shaking his head while I grinned idiotically at him. “Come on, we need to get goi-!” He disappeared, and for one crazy moment, I thought the ground had swallowed him up.

 

“Kage?” I called, inching over to where he had disappeared. “If this is some sort of sick joke, it isn't funny!” I received no answer. “Kage!” I moved closer, and heaved a sigh of relief when I saw what had happened. There must have been some sort of underground train system, and Kage had stood on one of the grates, his weight causing the rusted metal to break and he fell into one of the tunnels.

 

Hopefully, the trains weren't running today.

 

“Kage!” I called again, falling to my knees to peer into the jagged hole. “Are you okay?” The only answer I received was the groaning of metal, and too late had I realized that the already injured grate wouldn't be able to bear the strain of my weight as well. I tried to scramble off it, but it splintered, and I fell with a bone jarring crash into the tunnel.

 

Spotted lights flickered across my eyes as I groaned and tried to sit up. My head was aching, and I was pretty sure I had at least a mild concussion, but I hadn't hurt my wrist any more than it had been already, which was a good thing, and rising to all fours, I crawled through the tunnel, whispering Kage's name over and over again. Once, I nearly fell into a hole that I could only assume was created by the force of Kage's fall, but that was the only evidence of him that I found.

 

“Kage,” I murmured, not really expecting an answer. “Kage, can you hear me?” Really, I was only talking to myself to pass time. The tunnel seemed never ending, stretching out into inky blackness. Even though it must have been only an hour at most, I felt like I had been crawling for days on end, always heading to some undetermined resting place that got further and further away as I tried to get nearer. I started pondering on how long it would take for Miroku and Sango-chan to find my starved body, buried deep underground, and that was why I didn't notice the sharp decline of the tunnel until I reached out my hand and felt nothing. With a scream, I tipped forward, sliding down the slimy tunnel to come to a stop at a cross-section, drenched head to foot in indescribable muck.

 

The cross-section was larger than the tunnel had been, and I was able to stand up without having to hunch over. Three tunnels branched out in front of me, two of them narrowing into tunnels like the one I had just exited, but the one to my left stayed wide and tall, illuminated by a muted red light.

 

“A train light?” I asked, but the light wasn't coming at me or leaving; it was…pulsating? “A strobe light? Why would there be a strobe light in a tunnel?” Curiosity's chains wrapped around me, and I walked towards the light, slightly hypnotized by the ghostly effects it had on the damp walls. This tunnel was short; it was only about five minutes before I reached the end, but unlike the other tunnels, this one dropped off suddenly, maybe fifty-foot fall down if I fell. I crouched at the end, grasping the ends of the metal so hard that it cut into my skin and blood dripped off it, but I was too shocked and horrified by what I saw from my view-point to pay any attention to it.

 

It was an underground city, illuminated by pulsating red lights, creating a Gothic overtone to it. Black spires adorned every building, spikes jutting out of the architecture, gargoyles and such gracing the corners. The buildings themselves, not including the spires, were immensely tall, and I realized just how far underground I had traveled to be able to be at fifty-foot incline, and still only reach halfway up the nearest building.

 

But the worst of it was the populace. Demons, everywhere, flooding the streets, hanging off spires, some even flying like Death's Angles across the sky, the red light bathing them in an eerie glow. One flew disturbingly close to my hiding spot, and I squeaked, pressing my back to the wall. I had to get out of there. I could only sense youkai, and though not all of them were incredibly powerful, I had no weapons, and it was one against thousands.

 

I scrambled back, but a metallic popping noise stopped me dead in my tracks, and I could only watch in morbid fascination as the bolts that held part of the tunnel together shot off. Then, metal groaned and screeched against metal, and I was falling, falling down fifty-feet in a piece of a metal tunnel, falling into the swarm of demons beneath me, falling to my imminent doom. I crashed down to the floor, any unlucky demons caught beneath me softening the fall a little, but still, pain lanced through my wrist where I had broken it again, and blood pooled off my leg, where a broken piece of metal lodged was in it. Strangely, I didn't feel pain at all in my leg; the metal had most likely sliced through nerves, or I was in shock, but either way, pain or no pain, I was going to pass out and die from severe blood loss if somebody didn't come to save me.

 

The demons that had momentarily retreated when I had made my explosive entrance edged closer, talking amongst themselves in their own language of squeaks and grunts, some of the smaller imps crawling over me, and the larger ones pulling me roughly out of the metal encasing and out into the open.

 

“Human,” they muttered, and soon it became a chant, something tangible as their hellish voices rose and fell, and the noise swelling, until the word `human' rang throughout the entire underground network, echoing off the buildings. I added my own weak voice to the chorus, screaming a chant of my own, calling for Kage, for anybody to come and help me. The chanting became frenzied, and as it began to climax, and I began wailing helplessly, it stopped. The sea of demons parted, and, like royalty, a demoness walked down the middle of the part, her icy eyes latched onto mine, making me stop crying from sheer terror.

 

“Akashisa,” the whispered, and the name buzzed through them like electricity. “Akashisa, Akashisa, Akashisa, Akashisa…”

 

“Human,” she spoke to me. “How did you find us?” Caught in the grips of pure terror, I couldn't speak. Her frown deepened. “Answer me, human!”

 

“I'm sorry!” I choked out in desperation. “I promise I won't tell! Please, just let me go!” She laughed, chills racing up and down my spin, the fine hairs on the back of neck standing straight up.

 

“Do not fear human,” Akashisa said, cruelty playing in her eyes. “I will make sure you don't expose us.” She reached down and ripped the metal out of my leg. I screamed as pain coursed through my limbs, white-hot pain that nearly made me faint as blood spurted out like a red river. The demons cheered. “Goodbye is so final. So I shall say goodnight, sweet human.” Blood-soaked metal flashed, and my vision erupted into white light, pain exploding throughout my entire body, making my pores weep blood, every nerve in my body sizzling, and I screamed, begging for release, begging for an end.

 

And then, the pain faded, and I opened my eyes again. Gray surrounded me, any signs of the demons or of their city gone without a trace. I took a tentative step forward, and my foot hit solid ground, even though white mist floated a few inches above the ground, tendrils crawling up my leg like something alive. I shivered, but kept walking.

 

Something was calling, a haunting melody drifting through the mist; so faint I thought I was imagining it. But as I kept walking, it became louder, and I broke out into a full-out run, not even noticing my leg no longer bore the wound inflicted upon it by the metal, nor did my wrist throb anymore. All that entered my mind was that melody, so sad, so beautiful, and to find out who was singing it. A fleeting thought came to mind, I was leaving something behind, but the melody grew almost insistent, and I banished it, pushing through the last of the fog to a clearing, nearly crashing into a gate from the force of my run.

 

“Where am I?” I thought, looking around in wonder.

 

“You are at the Gates of Memories,” a voice answered, and I spun around, only to come face to face with chalky white, and black endless caverns. “You have already passed through the Gates of Nothing, and I will guide you through the Sea of Memories,” she, though I don't know how I knew it was a she, continued, acting as if she didn't notice my convulsively working mouth. She was horrifying, and I realized that she had no mouth, and yet, I still heard her voice.

 

“What are you?” I whispered. She turned her eyeless holes to me.

 

“I am Fate,” she said simply, and held out her hand to me, long bony fingers under tightly stretched skin reaching out to me, long hook-like fingernails waiting to snag my skin. I screamed, and tore past her, her cold fingers leaving burn marks on my skin as I struggled to open the gate. “Don't!” she yelled, but it was too late; I had opened the gate, and was racing into the grayness.

 

But as soon as I put one foot through the gate, my whole world convulsed, and I felt like I was being torn limb from limb, turned upside down and inside out, and I wept with every step I took, as every memory I held whipped past me as I ran, and just when I thought I could take no more, the world righted itself, and I fell to the ground, weeping.

 

Here too, it was gray, but it was a much darker gray, and more barren, with no mist or gates or horrible figures with terrible hands meant to wrench a soul from a body. I was totally alone, and I walked, having nothing else to do, walked down a winding path that was the only part of the landscape, a seemingly endless path, that just kept going with no horizon in sight.

 

And all the while, as I walked and walked and walked, I felt eyes upon me. To either side of me was darkness, an impenetrable darkness that held the eyes. More than a little uneasy, I quickened my pace, and nearly keeled over when I heard a rustle behind me. The rustling became louder as whatever it was approached me, and I turned around, my body as taut as a guitar string wound too tight, to meet the eyes.

 

They belonged to something once human. Its pointed teeth leered at me, jagged canines that were too numerous to fit inside its mouth. It had a woman's head, but its body was that of a beast, a humped back with spikes sticking out of the vertebrae, a long swishing tail, and four legs, each ending in enormous paws with impossibly long claws. It snarled at me, and I whirled around, diving into the darkness to escape, only to find more of these beasts, their claws and fangs tearing at my clothes and hair, whispering to me.

 

“You'll never escape,” they taunted. “You'll become one of us with time. You're a doomed soul, and soon you will accept your fate.” They dragged me down, and the beast from the path pushed its paws onto my chest. Its mouth lowered until it was inches away from my throat, and I could smell its reeking breath.

 

“No!” I screamed, trying to push it off of me, but others clamped down on my arms, restraining me. “Somebody, please! Help me!”

 

“There is no salvation here!” the one on top of me yelled, its metallic voice grating my ears, placing a paw over my mouth, suffocating me. I struggled, and as darkness sprouted behind my eyes, the pressure from the beast was relieved, and I sat bolt upright, heaving for breath, searching for demons, but thankfully, finding none.

 

“That was a stupid thing to do,” a soft voice admonished me. “Running off into the darkness like that. Actually, it was pretty stupid of you to run into the Sea of Memories like that. You were afraid of Fate, weren't you?” I nodded dumbly, locating the dark silhouette sitting next to me. She laughed, a pretty sound, like water flowing over rocks. “Fate may seem scary, but she's quite nice. Death is the one you have to watch out for.” I sat in shock, trying to absorb everything.

 

“Where am I?” I asked, my words slurred as I tried to move a tongue that was too thick for my mouth, and that was equally as uncooperative. The figure sighed.

 

“You haven't realized yet, what happened?” she asked, and I noticed the hint of sadness in her voice. “I guess it would be wise to guide you. Can you stand up?” I tried, and nearly fell back down, but the figure caught me in a surprisingly strong grip, and helped steady me before we started walking back to the path.

 

Or at least, she walked to the path, and I just let her drag me.

 

“I never told you my name,” I said, trying to make conversation.

 

“You're Kagome!” she supplied, sounding excited for some odd reason. I blinked.

 

“You know me?”

 

“I've been watching you for a while now,” she answered, and we stepped out of darkness into the grayness. She turned her head away from me, and all I could see was a mass of thick hair, sticking up at the sides, and a long skirt that hung in taters from her body. I tried to see her face, and finally she turned to me, and I gasped in revulsion.

 

Her entire face was one mass of scar tissue, pink and bubbly, distorting what must have been prettiness into something warped and perverted. She sighed.

 

“I didn't ask for this, you know,” she said pointedly, some of the scar tissue crinkling up as she smiled sadly.

 

“I'm sorry,” I apologized, feeling like the scum of the universe. Who was I to judge?

 

“It's okay, even I took five years to get used to seeing this every time I saw my reflection.”

 

“What?”

 

“Kagome.” Her voice was serious. “Think hard. You know me, but only from stories. Who else would be this badly scarred?” And then, everything fell into place, and weakness flooded my legs.

 

“You…You're Rin, aren't you?” She nodded. “But, but you're dead!”

 

Silence.

 

“But that means…”

 

“Kagome…”

 

“That means that I'm dead too.” I was getting hysterical, my hands tugging at my hair. Rin, poor, poor Rin who had been mutilated as she died gently pried my fingers out of my hair, and pulled me up, using her sleeve to wipe tears from my face, and she began to lead me again.

 

“Physically, yes, you are dead,” she explained, pushing me forward at every word. “But technically, you haven't passed the Gates of Death yet, so you're not officially dead.”

 

“But you…”

 

“I allowed Fate to lead me to Death's door. Besides, there was no way for me to ever consider returning to the Land of the Living. My body was too mangled to do anything with. You, however, only have a piece of metal imbedded in your chest, something your demon friend can take care of in an instant.” We were back at the clearing where I had first woken up.

 

“You mean InuYasha?” I asked, and she nodded.

 

“He has already found your body, and moved it, distraught though he is. He won't let the monk or the taijiya near you.” I closed my eyes, feeling pain again for the first time since entering this void. Rin pushed me towards the mist.

 

“Go through there.”

 

“He misses you,” I said out of impulse, and she stopped for a moment, surprised, before her disfigured face melted into a smile.

 

“Yes, I'm sure that Sesshoumaru-sama does,” she sighed, pain clouding her eyes.

 

“He was going to make you his mate.” I wasn't quite sure why I was telling her this, but I needed to get it off my chest, and if I didn't tell her now, I would never be able to again.

 

“Yes, I know.” I started, shocked. “And I was going to say no.”

 

“What?” My voice came out as a whisper. “Why?”

 

“Because,” she said simply, pushing me again, this time more urgently. “He scared me. I was frightened by his intensity. I knew he would never harm me intentionally, but the ferocity of his anger, and his smothering protectiveness made me fear his love.” She said no more, I flopped into the mist, shocked by the words of this girl only two years older than I when she had died.

 

“I…” I stopped. What could I say?

 

“Take care, Kagome. Take care of yourself and him.”

 

And then everything exploded into pain and agony as I tried to breathe, blood gurgling in my lungs, choking me in my throat. I felt Kage or InuYasha, I couldn't tell at the moment, grab me, holding me, not caring if he was soaked with my blood, whispering my name over and over again, nearly crying with relief. And I cried, not from pain or relief, but from sadness, and in pity for the lost girl who had died in fright and in self-loathing.

 

“Which one Rin? Which one needs my care?”

 

………………………&# 8230;………………………… …………………………̷ 0;……………

 

Wow. This is the longest chapter ever written in the history of Yami's writing. Over six thousand words!

 

Okay, if you want to find out more about Fate and everything that happened after Kagome `died' go to my profile and look for the link that says - “Fate.” The beast was an inside joke on my part; those of you who have read “Love, Madness, Death, and Rebirth” and “Prefre Fresen” should recognize it as Elena, and for those of you who haven't, go to my profile and find the links!

 

Keki-kage - Shadow Cake. Sorry, that was dry humor on my part, that scene wrote itself out in my head while I was waiting in the bakery for my bread. I saw it and said, “Kage should like that!”

 

Any guesses as to whom the raw youki power belonged to in the beginning of the chapter?