InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Fragment of the Dream ❯ Miko ( Chapter 2 )

Well, I amazingly got my second chapter back promptly from my beta! I haven't even written the third - but I'm going to work on it tonight! @.@ Promise! :D

Anyway!

Enjoy the latest chapter! :D

Fragment of the Dream

A Dark Alternative For Inu-Yasha

By Amanda "Seifergrrl" Lever

Chapter Two: Miko

The village was not as they remembered.

The place that had once housed the shikon no tama, that would one day be Kagome's home, had never lacked vitality. Despite-or maybe because of-the trouble that came here so often, the villagers were a hardy breed; resilient, hard working, and as they watched the group work out of the shrine, struggling to reconstruct the shattered Shikon no Tama, they grew more and more tolerant of things odd and outlandish.

This village was a now strange to their eyes, like a dead reflection of the place they had known. The villagers were tired, thin and poor, moving to and from their jobs like zombies. There was not a face they recognized, and they were shunned by the populace.

"Something has gone terribly wrong," Miroku breathed, clenching his gloved hand into a fist.

"Should we go up to the shrine?" Kagome suggested. "Perhaps… Kaede-baba is there?"

A double set of nods were given, and the trio headed up the steps toward the shrine on the hill. Kagome paused for a moment, and then looked over her shoulder at the Goshinboku from the steps - and then froze, her mouth agape in shock.

"The tree! The tree!" Her hands latched onto Sango's arm with a painful intensity, and she turned and pointed.

They all looked to the Goshinboku, Sango and Miroku trying to figure out what she was pointing at.

"Kagome, what's wrong?" Miroku asked, peering over her shoulder. "I see nothing out of the ordinary."

"Here… here's where she shot him…" Kagome insisted, her voice rising in pitch.. "If she stood here, and pinned him to the tree there, then… why is there no place where the bark was stripped away by his body?" Her voice cracked, and she shrilled, "Why is there no scar on the tree?" If there was no scar, had there been no Inu-Yasha? Had Kikyou taken Inu-Yasha away so completely that even the Goshinboku didn't remember the boy that had been sealed against it?

All stood silent for a moment; in the chaos, none of them had looked at the Goshinboku, or realized the alteration to the God Tree. Now, it was made clear; Inu-Yasha had never spent half a century pinned to any of the trees in the grove around the shrine.

Sango's hands closed on Kagome's shoulders, and she gently turned the distraught girl away. "We'll ask those questions soon, Kagome-chan," the taijya promised her. "But we should keep going." Giving a fretful glance to Miroku, Sango worried. All they needed was to see something else strange and abnormal, and she was certain at least one of them was going to have a breakdown.

Kagome tried to pull away from Sango, but in the end her friend's strength pulled her back from the grove and guided her back to the stairs, this time forcing her to continue up to the shrine. Miroku's hand found Kagome's again, and this time she gripped him as tightly as he gripped her.

Fear shared was fear lessened; while the sealed kazaana confused and the scarless Goshinboku disturbed, they clung to each other for support and found solace in each other on the long trip up the stairs.

Soon, they stood before the shrine's doors in silent contemplation.

It looked normal. There was damage to the roof and to the torii before them, where it had once been attacked by demons - perhaps even by the missing Inu-Yasha. It, at least, seemed a bastion of normality in this otherwise crazed world they had woken to.

At least, until they walked up and opened the doors and found themselves face to face with the kuromiko Tsubaki… Or that's who the aging, withered woman seemed to be. She was well into her seventies, wrinkled and frail, but the fall of white hair and the wickedly green eyes that stared into the trio's faces invoked memories of pain and suffering, struggle and hate.

Kagome fell back, her hand reaching for her bow. Tsubaki would not harm her again, if she could help it!

The woman who who looked like Tsubaki fell back, her eyes widening - and then threw up her hands and covered her head. "Mercy! We are merely miko, tending to this poor village! Mercy! We have nothing you could want!"

Everyone stopped; a breath was collectively drawn by and held. This was not their fearsome enemy, was it? The woman who had played Kagome like a puppet against them, she'd never cower before three young travelers… even if Kagome had reached for her weapon.

"Hold," Miroku said gently, first to recover. "We are not here to rob or hurt you, miko-sama," he explained to the woman. "We seek the senior miko of this temple."

"If you seek the senior miko," the woman with the eyes of Tsubaki said, "you must depart. She sees no one."

"But we're lost!" Kagome protested, panic in her voice. "And nothing is the same!"

Miroku lifted his hands again as Sango tried to shush the frightened girl, attempt to explain… but those green eyes were fixed on Kagome's distressed countenance and sought nothing else.

"Oh gods…" the miko uttered, before making a gesture of warning. "I recognize your face! Your face is her face!" The miko stumbled back, expression twisting up in horror, her gnarled hands dancing through a gesture of warding. "B-But she had no child with him," she stammered. "He didn't touch her body… and half-breeds sire no young… he didn't touch her, even after his ascension to power… You can't be their offspring! Who are you?"

The accusing question hung between them, the air pregnant with anxiety. Sango's hands held ice; Kagome was as still as death. There was only one other woman who could have her face.

Miroku dared to shatter the silence again when the others seemed frozen in shock. Left to function as the voice of the group once more, he cleared his throat, and then asked, "Is your senior miko… Kikyou-sama?"

"Who else was the lady of the Shikon no Tama?" The elder miko laughed bitterly, her lip curled with disdain. "You've come looking for her. Well, fine. Come in. Botan and Momiji will see to your needs." The miko finally stepped back from the door, and allowed the three to enter.

Her eyes never left Kagome as they stepped into the shrine of the Shikon no Tama.

It was mostly as they remembered it; the room dark and empty, with braziers lit and incense burning, a warmth spreading through the air that didn't quite touch the trio. It was simply a meeting hall, for services to be held and prayers to be received; the chamber of the Shikon no Tama was elsewhere.

The miko lead them away to a small room off the main hall, and allowed them to sit for a moment. She then stepped out into the hall and clapped her hands. "Botan! Momiji!"

"Yes, Tsubaki-sama!" chimed two young voices.

Sango and Miroku tried not to flinch when they heard Kagome's soft whimper. The woman's identity was confirmed. It was as if they were in the house of their enemy, instead of their ally, and none were at ease.

The woman who was Tsubaki the Kuromiko gave the unseen girls orders for tea and rice cakes; she then returned to her guests, bowed slightly, and declared with a politeness lacking any warmth, "I will fetch Kikyou-sama for you. It may be a little time before she is able to come to you. Please, rest and be comfortable in the meantime. You are our first guests in some time."

All three bowed, finding solace in the simple courtesies, and Tsubaki left them alone.

"We're not in the right place," Kagome murmured hollowly, echoing all three's fears.

"On the contrary, I believe we're in the right place," Miroku said simply. "But in the wrong time."

"Wrong time?" Sango looked at Miroku as if he were daft. "What do you mean…?"

"Kikyou was working a spell at the Goshinboku," Miroku reminded them. "The wood of the Goshinboku is what built the well that connects our country and Kagome-sama's; her time and our own. She was a miko of great skill and no small power; she could exploit that connection. Perhaps create a moment out of time for herself… and Inu-Yasha?"

"But … she could hardly want to rule this empty village," Sango offered. "If she's still a miko, then she hasn't… then…"

"Then Inu-Yasha and Kikyou's promise was still broken," Kagome supplied for them both, seeming to confirm Sango's suspicion and filling her own heart with dread. "Inu-Yasha wasn't sealed, but he did not become human, and the Shikon no Tama was not purified."

"But… Tsubaki mentioned… a half-breed…" Sango began haltingly, her eyes darting to meet Miroku's.

"Yes. I would have to assume that means that Kikyou and Inu-Yasha were at odds once again…" Miroku offered, then considering. "If he is indeed the hanyou they're speaking of…"

"Who else would it be?" Kagome asked. She paused, her eyes scanning the walls, as if seeking something.

"Kagome-sama?"

The young girl let a breath hiss between her teeth, and her hands fisted on her knees. Sango and Miroku waited, the tension drawn out like her bowstring.

"There's no Shikon no Tama here, either," Kagome said softly, reaching up to grip the vial she had beneath her blouse. "It's gone. Someone has taken the Shikon no Tama from the shrine."

Her eyes were dark, as she looked toward the door. "Something came between them again," Kagome said softly. "But this time, Inu-Yasha escaped with the Shikon no Tama."

"You can't be certain," Miroku began, but his voice was lost as Kagome continued.

"No, I can't. We'll find out from Kikyou, though, I'm sure," Kagome offered. "But I just can't shake this feeling…"

"What feeling?" Sango said.

"That this time… Kikyou failed."