InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Message in a Bottle ❯ Back to the Future ( Chapter 4 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: SplendentGoddess 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 09.03.2005 | Updated On: 12.30.2010 | Pages: 3 | Words: 2.8K | Visits: 4.3K | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 09.03.2005 | Updated On: 12.30.2010 | Pages: 3 | Words: 2.8K | Visits: 4.3K | Status: Completed
Blanket Disclaimer:
Inuyasha, and the characters therein, are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am in no way affiliated with Takahashi, or VIZ Productions.
========================
Chapter 4 – Back to the Future
I can’t believe it’s already been two weeks… the miko thought dejectedly, adding sarcastically in her mind, Time sure flies when you’re having fun.
Sitting at an empty table in the school cafeteria, the miko pulled out her bento box and began eating her lunch.
Shouldn’t the pain have started to fade by now? she wondered, not tasting her food.
Kagome had spent every night for the last two weeks crying her eyes out, and every day at school acting like a complete recluse. Her friends had even jokingly accused her of being an alien zombie from that American ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ movie. Even though she would smile, and say that she was fine, they could all tell it was only an act, and a poor one at that.
“What’s the matter, Kagome-chan?” inquired Eri, the girl taking a seat next to her somber friend, trying to get to the bottom of Kagome’s sudden and lingering depression.
Yuka, agreeing, chimed in in that moment with, “Yeah, you’ve been acting awfully distant lately.” as she took a seat next to Kagome on the other side.
The miko hadn’t really been paying that much attention to her surroundings, and only just noticing that her friends were sitting beside her, she looked up while muttering “Huh?” which immediately caused Yuka to spout off with, “See, that’s exactly what I mean!”
Kagome again threw on a her fake smile, and stated, “I’m fine, really. I’m just tired.”
But Eri wasn’t fooled, and quickly decided that she was going to get to the bottom of Kagome’s strange behavior right then and there. “Did you and your boyfriend have another fight?”
“Fight?”
Kagome sighed. They hadn’t really had a fight, had they?
“No, we didn’t have a fight…not really.”
“Then what happened?” Ayumi suddenly asked, speaking up for the first time as she took a sit across from Kagome, deep concern for her broken friend reflecting in her voice as well as her eyes.
“He…he left me.” Kagome choked out.
“He left you?!” Both Eri and Yuka screamed at the same time, then Eri added, “He went off with that other woman, didn’t he?”
Kagome didn’t answer, but the trio of friends saw a single tear escape the grasp of her eyelids before she had the chance to wipe it away in an attempt to continue pretending she was fine.
“Just forget about him.” Yuka tried to reason then. “If he wouldn’t hold you as number one, then why should you hold him as number one?”
The short haired girl then fell back on the same routine she’d become quite accustomed to over the last several months, suggesting to Kagome once again that she should perhaps give dating Houjou a try.
“Um…thanks but no thanks.” Kagome mumbled while trying not to sound too rude. “I’m not interested in Houjou-kun.” she stated matter-of-factly.
“Well at least not now you’re not.” Eri agreed, asking, “Yuka-chan, what were you thinking?”
Eri, finally on Kagome’s side for once over the whole ‘Houjou’ thing, explained to their friend, “Kagome-chan needs to heal, not jump into a rebound relationship.”
“Oh, you’re right…” Yuka mumbled quietly, feeling a little guilty for her suggestion.
Ayumi, always the optimist one, reached across the table to touch Kagome’s hand in that moment, her voice consoling as she stated, “Don’t worry, Kagome-chan. If you two are meant to be together, then he’ll come around.”
How do you ‘come around’ from Hell? the miko questioned bitterly, though she knew she couldn’t be angry with Ayumi for her words.
She always had kept the more relevant details regarding her life with Inuyasha a secret, so she couldn’t very well try to explain how he’d sacrificed his life for his dead girlfriend, now could she?
Hearing the bell that indicated lunchtime was over, Kagome glanced down to her bento box to discover in mild surprise that she had eaten all of her food. She didn’t really remember doing so, but there it was. The miko was grateful for her ability to function on autopilot, which she put to good use throughout the rest of the school day, her thoughts focusing on how she wished for nothing more than to crawl under her blankets and just forget about the world. Once school let out, her three friends of course volunteered to walk her home, and she didn’t protest, even as they continued to try to come up with things to say that were supposed to cheer her up. She appreciated their efforts, truly she did, and she knew that with time she would really be okay. Couldn’t a girl mourn the secret death of her hanyou-love in peace?
Reaching the steps of her shrine, the miko thanked her friends for walking her home, and as they all parted their separate ways, Kagome once again began the ritual that was her nighttime depression.
“How are you feeling today?” her mother asked as she entered the house.
“Better, I suppose.” was her automatic reply.
“Is there anything I can do?”
“I don’t think so, Mama, but I’ll be okay…honest.” Kagome lied, not wanting to see the hurt that was showing in her mother’s eyes.
Trying to change the subject, Mrs. Higurashi then asked her daughter, “Did you want some dinner?”
“No thanks,” was Kagome’s reply, adding, “I’ll just heat myself up some ramen.”
“You’ve been eating an awful lot of ramen lately.” Her mother commented with concern.
“Have I?” Kagome asked, fairly absentmindedly.
Her mother smiled softly, sympathy and understanding in her eyes. She remembered all too well what it was like to lose the man she loved. “It’s okay, dear, I’ll go fix you some ramen. Will you be eating in your room again?”
Kagome allowed her eyes to momentarily reflect something other than depression, as she silently thanked her mother for her understanding. “Yeah…”
Once in her room, Kagome sat down at her desk and opened her diary. What was once a normal book of adolescent thoughts and reminders of daily events was quickly becoming a dark book of poetry…an outlet Kagome found best suited her particular frame of mind.
Don’t pull out the knife
That holds my heart in two
Its lacerated blade
Is all I have of you
Don’t wipe away the blood
My heart has cried in vain
I don’t want to heal
Don’t want to lose this pain
Don’t tell me it will be all right
And wipe the tears I’ve cried
If I ever lose this feeling
It will be because I’ve died
What first pierced my soul
Now binds me to life
Don’t take that away from me
Don’t pull out the knife
Looking up at the clock, Kagome was surprised to note that it was already past ten. How had it gotten so late? Not that it really mattered all that much, since tomorrow was Saturday, so she had no real reason to get out of bed early…or at all.
Then again, after having spent all of last weekend in bed, her mother and Souta were both planning on dragging her out of the house, for something to do as they had so casually put it. Like she wanted to do anything. It felt as though her soul had been ripped away from her completely. Ironically, it wasn’t until all of this had happened that her soul had finally been completed. But she would gladly give up part of her soul to resurrect Kikyou again if only it would mean having her Inuyasha back as well. Sharing his affections was better than not having him at all. But it had been his choice to leave with Kikyou, and she had to respect that. If you love something set it free, so they say. It’s better to have loved and lost…blah blah blah. Kagome was now fairly certain that those so-called ‘experts’ on love all lived solitary lives.
Going over to her window, she looked out at the god tree, wondering why her window had to be faced in that direction. Maybe she should switch rooms with Souta. Kagome had left her window open every night since returning from the past. She could never bring herself to close it, even though whenever Inuyasha had come to her window in the middle of the night, he had always been able to open it with ease if it had been closed. The miko felt it was a symbolic gesture more than anything else, like leaving a light on. But a gesture to whom? It wasn’t like he could see it, or see anything any more, for that matter.
“Damn it, Kagome, get a grip on yourself!” she hissed into the silence. “He’s dead! He’s been dead for five hundred years!”
Knowing that didn’t help, as she once again found herself gazing out the open window, feeling unusually drawn to the sacred tree as of late. For the last several nights, it was like something in her was demanding she go out to the tree, although she had been continually resisting that pull. Usually, it was easy for her to ignore at night because she had to get to sleep for school the next morning, but she did not have that excuse at the moment, as she once again contemplated heading out into the night, up to Inuyasha’s tree, her tree, their tree. Everything was silent in her room, and for a split second, Kagome could almost swear she heard Inuyasha’s voice calling her name.
This isn’t healthy… she thought, deciding to appease herself by heading down to the tree ‘just this once’…to get it out of her system.
Clad in dark blue pajamas, having only slipped a pair of straw sandals upon her sock-clad feet, the raven-haired miko slipped undetected through the night until she reached her destination. Standing at the base of the Goshinboku, Kagome still found in that moment that she could feel Inuyasha’s presence, and she supposed she always would. Reaching up, she gently touched the bare spot on the tree, the spot where he had been pinned; she always felt the closest to him in her time whenever she touched that spot.
Suddenly, Kagome noticed that the Shikon no Tama appeared to be glowing brighter than before. Pulling it out from inside her pajama top, she confirmed that it was definitely glowing more brightly, in an almost pulsing sort of manner, like it was trying to get her attention. Not only that, but she also noticed in that moment that a small patch of dirt at the base of the Goshinboku’s roots seemed to be glowing slightly as well, also pulsing in time with the jewel.
“What’s going on?” she wondered out loud.
She recognized this light…it was spiritual magic; the same kind of light that she had seen around the Goshinboku back in the past when she had first fallen through the well, when Inuyasha had still been pinned. Kaede had revealed to her that nobody else had ever been able to see the light coming from the forest that she had seen, the light that had led her directly back to Inuyasha when Mistress Centipede had come for her in the village. But why was there a new glimmer of spiritual light coming from the soil now, and why was it pulsing in time with the Shikon no Tama?
Bending down, Kagome brushed the topsoil away with her hands, and as the dirt underneath became revealed, she found the glow was even stronger.
“Something’s down there!” she gasped in surprise.
Quickly settling on her knees, the miko began to pull dirt from that spot with both hands, quickly becoming quite dirty in the process, though she didn’t care.
The more earth she removed from that spot, the more intense the glowing became. It wasn’t long before Kagome had dug a fairly deep hole in the soft soil, with over two feet of dirt piled off to the side of her. With mud and grass stains on her pants, and with dirt underneath her fingernails and on her face in streaks where she’d wiped away her sweat, Kagome suddenly felt her fingertips brush against something hard and smooth under the ground.
Wiping the last bit of dirt away, she found an ancient looking glass bottle. Unearthing it fully, she lifted it up, and found that the neck was sealed with what looked like a rosary of spiritual beads, a large one inside the lip of the rim, sealed around the edge with what looked like melted wax. It was the beads themselves that were glowing, shining so brightly now that they had been unearthed that she had to blink a few times to fight back the sting of tears. Unwrapping the long strand of beads, which was round several times around the bottle, Kagome examined them closely, and noted how they appeared to be made of youkai bone. Pulling on the string, she uncorked the bottle with a cracking sound of the wax seal breaking free, and with the bottle now in one hand and the rosary in the other, the beads, and the Shikon no Tama, both suddenly stopped glowing.
Holding up the bottle towards the moonlight, Kagome tried to peer inside of it, and though it was darkened with age and still covered in dirt, she thought it looked as though there was something, most likely red in color, shoved inside the bottle. Well of course there would be something inside the bottle, otherwise what would be the point? Finding a long twig, the miko poked it inside the bottle in an attempt to retrieve whatever it was that was hidden inside. Surprisingly, she got it out after only one try, and then immediately found that it was a patch of cloth.
Wait a minute…she realized suddenly. This is Inuyasha’s fire-rat!
Frantically unrolling the fabric scroll with shaking fingers, Kagome immediately noticed the white embroidery, which seemed to shine with a silvery brilliance in the light of the moon, making it extremely easy to read.
Kagome, I didn’t go with her; she released me.
But I can’t go to you, my side of the well is sealed without the jewel.
Please come back to me. I love you too.
Scurrying up to her feet, Kagome was on autopilot as she ran down to the well-house, tears of joy streaking her dusty face. Holding the five hundred year old note tightly in her fist, for fear it would fade from existence should she loosen her grip of it even slightly, she dove head first into the well.
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Inuyasha, and the characters therein, are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am in no way affiliated with Takahashi, or VIZ Productions.
========================
Chapter 4 – Back to the Future
I can’t believe it’s already been two weeks… the miko thought dejectedly, adding sarcastically in her mind, Time sure flies when you’re having fun.
Sitting at an empty table in the school cafeteria, the miko pulled out her bento box and began eating her lunch.
Shouldn’t the pain have started to fade by now? she wondered, not tasting her food.
Kagome had spent every night for the last two weeks crying her eyes out, and every day at school acting like a complete recluse. Her friends had even jokingly accused her of being an alien zombie from that American ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ movie. Even though she would smile, and say that she was fine, they could all tell it was only an act, and a poor one at that.
“What’s the matter, Kagome-chan?” inquired Eri, the girl taking a seat next to her somber friend, trying to get to the bottom of Kagome’s sudden and lingering depression.
Yuka, agreeing, chimed in in that moment with, “Yeah, you’ve been acting awfully distant lately.” as she took a seat next to Kagome on the other side.
The miko hadn’t really been paying that much attention to her surroundings, and only just noticing that her friends were sitting beside her, she looked up while muttering “Huh?” which immediately caused Yuka to spout off with, “See, that’s exactly what I mean!”
Kagome again threw on a her fake smile, and stated, “I’m fine, really. I’m just tired.”
But Eri wasn’t fooled, and quickly decided that she was going to get to the bottom of Kagome’s strange behavior right then and there. “Did you and your boyfriend have another fight?”
“Fight?”
Kagome sighed. They hadn’t really had a fight, had they?
“No, we didn’t have a fight…not really.”
“Then what happened?” Ayumi suddenly asked, speaking up for the first time as she took a sit across from Kagome, deep concern for her broken friend reflecting in her voice as well as her eyes.
“He…he left me.” Kagome choked out.
“He left you?!” Both Eri and Yuka screamed at the same time, then Eri added, “He went off with that other woman, didn’t he?”
Kagome didn’t answer, but the trio of friends saw a single tear escape the grasp of her eyelids before she had the chance to wipe it away in an attempt to continue pretending she was fine.
“Just forget about him.” Yuka tried to reason then. “If he wouldn’t hold you as number one, then why should you hold him as number one?”
The short haired girl then fell back on the same routine she’d become quite accustomed to over the last several months, suggesting to Kagome once again that she should perhaps give dating Houjou a try.
“Um…thanks but no thanks.” Kagome mumbled while trying not to sound too rude. “I’m not interested in Houjou-kun.” she stated matter-of-factly.
“Well at least not now you’re not.” Eri agreed, asking, “Yuka-chan, what were you thinking?”
Eri, finally on Kagome’s side for once over the whole ‘Houjou’ thing, explained to their friend, “Kagome-chan needs to heal, not jump into a rebound relationship.”
“Oh, you’re right…” Yuka mumbled quietly, feeling a little guilty for her suggestion.
Ayumi, always the optimist one, reached across the table to touch Kagome’s hand in that moment, her voice consoling as she stated, “Don’t worry, Kagome-chan. If you two are meant to be together, then he’ll come around.”
How do you ‘come around’ from Hell? the miko questioned bitterly, though she knew she couldn’t be angry with Ayumi for her words.
She always had kept the more relevant details regarding her life with Inuyasha a secret, so she couldn’t very well try to explain how he’d sacrificed his life for his dead girlfriend, now could she?
Hearing the bell that indicated lunchtime was over, Kagome glanced down to her bento box to discover in mild surprise that she had eaten all of her food. She didn’t really remember doing so, but there it was. The miko was grateful for her ability to function on autopilot, which she put to good use throughout the rest of the school day, her thoughts focusing on how she wished for nothing more than to crawl under her blankets and just forget about the world. Once school let out, her three friends of course volunteered to walk her home, and she didn’t protest, even as they continued to try to come up with things to say that were supposed to cheer her up. She appreciated their efforts, truly she did, and she knew that with time she would really be okay. Couldn’t a girl mourn the secret death of her hanyou-love in peace?
Reaching the steps of her shrine, the miko thanked her friends for walking her home, and as they all parted their separate ways, Kagome once again began the ritual that was her nighttime depression.
“How are you feeling today?” her mother asked as she entered the house.
“Better, I suppose.” was her automatic reply.
“Is there anything I can do?”
“I don’t think so, Mama, but I’ll be okay…honest.” Kagome lied, not wanting to see the hurt that was showing in her mother’s eyes.
Trying to change the subject, Mrs. Higurashi then asked her daughter, “Did you want some dinner?”
“No thanks,” was Kagome’s reply, adding, “I’ll just heat myself up some ramen.”
“You’ve been eating an awful lot of ramen lately.” Her mother commented with concern.
“Have I?” Kagome asked, fairly absentmindedly.
Her mother smiled softly, sympathy and understanding in her eyes. She remembered all too well what it was like to lose the man she loved. “It’s okay, dear, I’ll go fix you some ramen. Will you be eating in your room again?”
Kagome allowed her eyes to momentarily reflect something other than depression, as she silently thanked her mother for her understanding. “Yeah…”
Once in her room, Kagome sat down at her desk and opened her diary. What was once a normal book of adolescent thoughts and reminders of daily events was quickly becoming a dark book of poetry…an outlet Kagome found best suited her particular frame of mind.
Don’t pull out the knife
That holds my heart in two
Its lacerated blade
Is all I have of you
Don’t wipe away the blood
My heart has cried in vain
I don’t want to heal
Don’t want to lose this pain
Don’t tell me it will be all right
And wipe the tears I’ve cried
If I ever lose this feeling
It will be because I’ve died
What first pierced my soul
Now binds me to life
Don’t take that away from me
Don’t pull out the knife
Looking up at the clock, Kagome was surprised to note that it was already past ten. How had it gotten so late? Not that it really mattered all that much, since tomorrow was Saturday, so she had no real reason to get out of bed early…or at all.
Then again, after having spent all of last weekend in bed, her mother and Souta were both planning on dragging her out of the house, for something to do as they had so casually put it. Like she wanted to do anything. It felt as though her soul had been ripped away from her completely. Ironically, it wasn’t until all of this had happened that her soul had finally been completed. But she would gladly give up part of her soul to resurrect Kikyou again if only it would mean having her Inuyasha back as well. Sharing his affections was better than not having him at all. But it had been his choice to leave with Kikyou, and she had to respect that. If you love something set it free, so they say. It’s better to have loved and lost…blah blah blah. Kagome was now fairly certain that those so-called ‘experts’ on love all lived solitary lives.
Going over to her window, she looked out at the god tree, wondering why her window had to be faced in that direction. Maybe she should switch rooms with Souta. Kagome had left her window open every night since returning from the past. She could never bring herself to close it, even though whenever Inuyasha had come to her window in the middle of the night, he had always been able to open it with ease if it had been closed. The miko felt it was a symbolic gesture more than anything else, like leaving a light on. But a gesture to whom? It wasn’t like he could see it, or see anything any more, for that matter.
“Damn it, Kagome, get a grip on yourself!” she hissed into the silence. “He’s dead! He’s been dead for five hundred years!”
Knowing that didn’t help, as she once again found herself gazing out the open window, feeling unusually drawn to the sacred tree as of late. For the last several nights, it was like something in her was demanding she go out to the tree, although she had been continually resisting that pull. Usually, it was easy for her to ignore at night because she had to get to sleep for school the next morning, but she did not have that excuse at the moment, as she once again contemplated heading out into the night, up to Inuyasha’s tree, her tree, their tree. Everything was silent in her room, and for a split second, Kagome could almost swear she heard Inuyasha’s voice calling her name.
This isn’t healthy… she thought, deciding to appease herself by heading down to the tree ‘just this once’…to get it out of her system.
Clad in dark blue pajamas, having only slipped a pair of straw sandals upon her sock-clad feet, the raven-haired miko slipped undetected through the night until she reached her destination. Standing at the base of the Goshinboku, Kagome still found in that moment that she could feel Inuyasha’s presence, and she supposed she always would. Reaching up, she gently touched the bare spot on the tree, the spot where he had been pinned; she always felt the closest to him in her time whenever she touched that spot.
Suddenly, Kagome noticed that the Shikon no Tama appeared to be glowing brighter than before. Pulling it out from inside her pajama top, she confirmed that it was definitely glowing more brightly, in an almost pulsing sort of manner, like it was trying to get her attention. Not only that, but she also noticed in that moment that a small patch of dirt at the base of the Goshinboku’s roots seemed to be glowing slightly as well, also pulsing in time with the jewel.
“What’s going on?” she wondered out loud.
She recognized this light…it was spiritual magic; the same kind of light that she had seen around the Goshinboku back in the past when she had first fallen through the well, when Inuyasha had still been pinned. Kaede had revealed to her that nobody else had ever been able to see the light coming from the forest that she had seen, the light that had led her directly back to Inuyasha when Mistress Centipede had come for her in the village. But why was there a new glimmer of spiritual light coming from the soil now, and why was it pulsing in time with the Shikon no Tama?
Bending down, Kagome brushed the topsoil away with her hands, and as the dirt underneath became revealed, she found the glow was even stronger.
“Something’s down there!” she gasped in surprise.
Quickly settling on her knees, the miko began to pull dirt from that spot with both hands, quickly becoming quite dirty in the process, though she didn’t care.
The more earth she removed from that spot, the more intense the glowing became. It wasn’t long before Kagome had dug a fairly deep hole in the soft soil, with over two feet of dirt piled off to the side of her. With mud and grass stains on her pants, and with dirt underneath her fingernails and on her face in streaks where she’d wiped away her sweat, Kagome suddenly felt her fingertips brush against something hard and smooth under the ground.
Wiping the last bit of dirt away, she found an ancient looking glass bottle. Unearthing it fully, she lifted it up, and found that the neck was sealed with what looked like a rosary of spiritual beads, a large one inside the lip of the rim, sealed around the edge with what looked like melted wax. It was the beads themselves that were glowing, shining so brightly now that they had been unearthed that she had to blink a few times to fight back the sting of tears. Unwrapping the long strand of beads, which was round several times around the bottle, Kagome examined them closely, and noted how they appeared to be made of youkai bone. Pulling on the string, she uncorked the bottle with a cracking sound of the wax seal breaking free, and with the bottle now in one hand and the rosary in the other, the beads, and the Shikon no Tama, both suddenly stopped glowing.
Holding up the bottle towards the moonlight, Kagome tried to peer inside of it, and though it was darkened with age and still covered in dirt, she thought it looked as though there was something, most likely red in color, shoved inside the bottle. Well of course there would be something inside the bottle, otherwise what would be the point? Finding a long twig, the miko poked it inside the bottle in an attempt to retrieve whatever it was that was hidden inside. Surprisingly, she got it out after only one try, and then immediately found that it was a patch of cloth.
Wait a minute…she realized suddenly. This is Inuyasha’s fire-rat!
Frantically unrolling the fabric scroll with shaking fingers, Kagome immediately noticed the white embroidery, which seemed to shine with a silvery brilliance in the light of the moon, making it extremely easy to read.
Kagome, I didn’t go with her; she released me.
But I can’t go to you, my side of the well is sealed without the jewel.
Please come back to me. I love you too.
Scurrying up to her feet, Kagome was on autopilot as she ran down to the well-house, tears of joy streaking her dusty face. Holding the five hundred year old note tightly in her fist, for fear it would fade from existence should she loosen her grip of it even slightly, she dove head first into the well.
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