InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Encroaching Darkness ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

“Look out Kagome!” Inu Yasha shouted, and then jumped in front of the raven- haired woman to face the oncoming attack.

Kagome looked to her right and saw Hakudoushi. Already Entei was to the right and Saimyosho were above, boxing in the inu- tachi.

“Our last adventure together was quite intriguing Kagome. Your proclamation of love to Inu Yasha was a riot. Your love is blind,” the pale demon child sneered. “Perhaps you should suffer some more as I enjoyed observing your torment, ne?”

Kagome balked at Hakudoushi’s statement. She remembered the day when she had revealed her true feelings out loud, in front of him, Naraku and then rest of his incarnations. It had almost broken her to admit her most guarded secret because she knew Inu Yasha would never see her for being Kagome.

“You ain’t touchin’ her, you bastard!” Inu Yasha growled and slammed Tetsusaiga. “Kazu no Kizu!”

“Pitiful attack. Let me show you a better one,” Hakudoushi replied, and then vanished before their eyes while leaving the sound of his evil laughter behind.

Kagome’s hairs rose on the back of her neck. She could feel the energy swirl in the air. It made her feel cold and dizzy. Not even the threat of Sesshoumaru’s dokatsu had instilled such a feeling in the futuristic shrine maiden. Hakudoushi had always been a wild card to the battle for the kakera of the Shikon no Tama. He was an unknown incarnation of unknown power.

“In three days, my dear miko, you will be blind as the love you so foolishly cling to,” she heard Hakudoushi’s voice in her ear as if he was right by her.

She looked around frantically and before she knew it, something pierced her eyes. The pain was unbearable, zapping her to her very soul. It was like a fire. She put her hands to her eyes and screamed, “Ahhhh!”

She could feel wetness leak from her eyes and thought it tears. When her vision had slowly came to focus, she saw blood. At the sight, she fell into hysterics, her body shaking.

“Kagome!” Inu Yasha yelled worriedly, grabbing her to his chest.

Her eyesight was filled with a blurry image of her hanyou friend. Kagome shook her head and tried to refocus, but her vision had not cleared. She panicked and then rubbed at her eyes, trying again and again to see normally while her friends were in a worried frenzy around her.

“Oh no, Kagome-chan, your eyes! They’re bleeding!” Sango cried out.

“Enjoy the gift, Kagome,” Hakudoushi replied as he reappeared before the ground, and then mounted the demon horse before taking off.

“Gift? What gift?” Miroku asked.

Kagome sobbed as the pain ebbed away, “He said in three days I will be blind.”

She felt weak at admitting this new dilemma. To her, this ordeal did not seem like something so important. She was just some interloper from the future who should have never come to another time. She should have never entered the well house. She should have told Souta that if Buyo wanted to return, he would come back. She would have never known of the jewel and never had to witness anything atrocious in her modern life.

Her knees gave out from under her and Inu Yasha caught her, preventing her from falling.

Kagome choked out, “I can’t see you all properly. Everything is blurry!”

The members of the group stilled with her revelation. Kagome looked normal, despite the blood. Her bluish grey eyes were crystal clear.

“We must return to Kaede and see if anything can be done,” Sango insisted.

Inu Yasha growled, “Dammit! I should’ve left your ass back in the village, wench. We’ve got all the shards and Naraku has the rest, so you’re no longer needed. Come on, we’re heading back.”

Inu Yasha bent down slightly to accept Kagome’s weight on his back, but after a few moments, Kagome did not hop on his back.

Inu Yasha stood and spun around.

“What now, wench? Didn’t you hear? We’re leaving,” Inu Yasha practically yelled.

Kagome did not look at him, her eyes focusing on the ground before her, but even the ground was a blur. All she could make out is the colors and larger items. The fine detail that she was use to experiencing with her sight was missing. She felt oddly empty and wondered why she was not crying anymore after his statement. Usually, after Inu Yasha would remark something so callously, she would either be mad or just cry.

‘Perhaps after three years of dealing with it, I just have finally become numb to it.’

She slowly raised her blue- grey eyes to the half- demon and simply stared, her eyes almost dull and her face blank of any expression. Inu Yasha stepped back, clearly disturbed by Kagome’s reaction.

‘Maybe I took it too far?’ he questioned himself. ‘Nah, she’s just a big baby.’

Kagome slowly looked over to Sango and asked, “May I ride with you, Sango- chan?”

Sango nodded and then replied, “Of course, Kagome- chan?”

Although Kagome sounded like she was trying to get away from her hanyou friend like past encounters, she knew it was different. Kagome’s scream had chilled her bones. Despite her experience in killing various youkai over the years, Sango had never heard such a cry as Kagome had done.

“Ah, what a misfortune for me! If only I could ride with my dear Sango so I may be near her loveliness,” Miroku quipped dreamily.

“Can it, houshi-sama,” Sango growled, and then climbed on the back of Kirara.

Kagome slid up behind her taijiya friend and held on, blankly looking into the forest. She just wanted to go home.

‘I can’t even do that anymore. No mama to run back to. No ji- chan or Souta,’ she sighed sadly.

“Dumb wench!” Inu Yasha muttered loudly, and then yelped when Miroku flicked his ear.

“Must you be so uncouth, Inu Yasha? Kagome only has us. Remember your rash behavior against the last time we battled Naraku destroyed her way home,” Miroku reminded his hanyou friend while piggy backing riding.
Both males were not happy to be touching each other, but considering Miroku’s mortal stamina could only last so long running, and Kagome had sought another form of transportation, no other solution could be remedied.

Kaede’s village was only less than a day by human foot, so the inu- tachi made the trip fairly quick, arriving by nightfall.

“Ye are back so soon?” Kaede asked, knowing that usual hunts lasted a couple weeks.

“Damn wench got herself cursed by that bastard Hakudoushi,” Inu Yasha growled, glaring at Kagome as she slid down from Kirara’s back.

“Inu Yasha, I think it is best if ye not use such foul words towards Kagome. She did not willingly provoke such behavior from Naraku’s minion. Ye forget, Naraku and his incarnations would curse ye in a heartbeat. Kagome is merely unfortunate to have been this one affected this time,” Kaede scolded Inu Yasha. “Come Kagome, let’s have a look at ye.”

Kagome complied with Kaede’s beckoning and entered the old miko’s home. Inu Yasha huffed and took off. Although Kikyo was no longer an issue, Kagome knew he often went to the tree to think.

“Sit over there,” Kaede directed and went to tend to a pot of miso.

When Kaede finished stirring the miso, she turned to Kagome.

“What did Hakudoushi say to ye?” the one eyed woman asked.

“He whispered to me that in three days I would be blind. He mocked me about my love for Inu Yasha. It hurt, but not the pain after his words. My eyes felt like someone poked them out with fire. When the pain finally faded, my eyes bled,” Kagome said, looking towards the cooking food while her voice flat.

“I see. Nothing else?” the old priestess asked.

“No. Kaeda- baa- chan, if I do go blind from this curse, can I be cured?” Kagome asked, her voice rising in slight panic. “I am afraid of the encroaching darkness.”

“If ye are lucky, your power, with some guidance might be of use. Curses are a fickle matter, Kagome. Naraku and his incarnations are skilled in such matter. The houshi is a perfect example of a curse that has lasted three generations. I fear for ye, young Kagome,” Kaede frankly replied.

“I do not blame you. I am afraid for myself. Since I was a child, I have secretly been afraid of the dark. My father had been an unfortunate man to see something he should not have seen and his sight was taken from him. When my mother had brought me to the emergency room, my father had been proclaimed dead. His eyes had been stabbed through, but so deeply, the weapon used had reached his brain. He died instantly. I fear a life that he would have lived if he had survived. I fancied as a child that if my father had lived somehow, that despite his blindness, he would have found happiness with my mother, my little brother, and I. For years, I dreamed variations of the dream, from my father miraculously cured from his injury or happily living with his handicap. I never imagined my own future somewhat connected to his own. It is almost ironic that my own life reflects ‘the apple does not fall far from the tree’,” Kagome admitted bitterly, as her eyes seeped out larger tears.

Kaede gave her a strange look, and then looked at the miso she had previously stirred before realizing the meaning of the phrase.

“Hai, demo many people have suffered and if so shall ye, my child, then do not despair. Learn what ye can with whatever ye can,” Kaede said, looking at Kagome. “In the mean time, enjoy what ye can with what sight ye have.”

Kagome nodded weakly and relaxed, staring up at the thatched roof of the old miko’s home.

To Kagome, that was only half of the problem. Any child’s nightmare was to know the evil’s of total darkness. Growing up and living on a shrine had led to a sheltered life in the modern era for Kagome. She experienced nightmares that others her age would have laughed at easily.

Kagome was nearly twenty years old, enough to legally participate in the Coming of Age. In her sporadic attendance, she had expressed excitement to share such an event with her childhood friends: Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi.

She imagined the kimono that her mother would have presented to her. Despite being a shrine maiden, her mother probably would have bought the fabric and made her a kimono that feudal courtesans would have envied. She imagined donning a homongi of red adorned with white lotus blossoms at the shoulders, sleeves, and seams. She also fancied that she would wear a matching kanzashi of lotus and a comb of darkened jade.

It was all a dream now to her. Naraku and his incarnations did not lie when it came to their prey. Kagome dreaded the day that they would find a way to her weakness. Despite being a woman, her naïveté was that of a child. Darkness was evil and in return, that was scary, at least in Kagome’s opinion. Odd, how ugly and ferocious demons never really plagued Kagome’s nightmares? The actual blackness signified nothing. Nothing signified the void of emptiness and being alone. It was something Kagome never wanted to experience.

‘But it seems I will,’ she sarcastically mused to herself.

“What can we do now? Kagome will be unable to defend herself if we go back out to shard hunt again. Will she even be able to sense the shards?” Sango asked, truly concerned for her friend.

Sango knew that Kagome took this quest seriously, possibly more so than anyone. Would the curse cut off her powers to see the shards? The only option that Sango could see for Kagome was to leave her in the village. She cringed, knowing that doing such a thing would dampen Kagome’s spirits. Kikyo was not exactly an option anymore to find the shards, and the only real way to find them were either rumors or running into demons enhanced by the jewel’s powers.

“I don’t see the shards with my eyes, Sango. I feel them in here,” Kagome replied, bringing her fist to her chest, right over her heart. “I really don’t want to be left behind, but I know that in three days I’ll become a liability to the group. I don’t know what to do. I will have to adjust without my eyesight.”

Miroku, Sango, Kaede, and Kagome sat in silent contemplation. This was a situation that at the moment was beyond all of their abilities to resolve in a positive manner.