InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ My Futures' Past ❯ My Life Got Flip-Turned Upside Down ( Chapter 2 )

My Futures' Past

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, the well, the swords, or the tree. Hell, I don't even own my cat; she owns me. Inuyasha & co. belong to the illustrious Rumiko Takahashi and I am just borrowing them for my own guilty pleasures.

  

Chapter 2: My Life Got Flip-Turned Upside Down

 

The bone breaking impact Kagome was expecting was more along the lines of falling from a set of money bars. She got the wind knocked out of her and jarred her left shoulder slightly, but no serious damage. She kept her eyes shut tight against the pain as she called out to her brother.

 

“Souta, get Mama and Gramps, I don't think I can get out of here by myself!”

 

No response came. Little twerp probably went running the minute Buyo jumped out. Coward. Kagome opened her eyes and stared up at the indigo sky, the faint edges of sunset just visible over the lip of the well. Wait. The sky? What happened to the well house? Gingerly, she sat up and looked around for anything she could use to climb out of the dry well. Hanging along the stone walls were several clusters of thick, leafy vines vines.

 

“Those will have to do,” Kagome muttered into the twilight.

 

Standing to test the vines strength, she heard distinct sound of something crunching under foot. She squinted in the tiny bit of light reaching the bottom of well and finally had to squat down and pick up the object. Turning it over in her hand, Kagome realized it was some sort of bone.

 

“GROSS!”

 

She dropped the bone and tugged hard on the vines. When they didn't crash down on her, she grabbed one and began to haul herself up using the stone wall to brace her feet. Grabbing for the wooden lip, Kagome heaved herself up and over the wall and dropped to her knees, panting. I am so going to work harder in gym from now on. She took a good look at her surroundings and realized the well was in the middle of a forest clearing and not in the rickety old shack that her grandfather referred to as historical property. In one direction, a travel worn path disappeared down a hill and in the other, nothing but trees. A very familiar tree loomed tall above the others. The God Tree.

 

Kagome rose and started off towards the tree that also occupied a space next to her house on the shrine grounds. As she got closer to the God Tree, she could make out a faint bluish-red glow. Suddenly, Kagome could hear people shouting and… growling…making their way closer. Deciding not to tempt fate and whatever angry creature was making the snarling and growling sounds, she turned and began to trek along the path, hoping to find a town or at least someone to talk to.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

In a small village outside Edo, alarms bells were being rung. Men and women rushed to the hut of the village miko, Kaede, to find out what the strange lights coming from the Forest of Inuyasha could be. The youkai, whose name the forest bore, had been sealed there fifty years ago by Kaede's elder sister, Kikyou, before he could destroy the village in his madness. Though most of the villagers who had witnessed this had grown old, their children and grandchildren feared what could happen if the youkai sought revenge against them and their priestess.

 

“Lady Kaede!” one of the men cried. “What is happening in the forest? Could your sisters' seal have broken?”

 

Kaede, who had lost an eye and grown plump and arthritic in her age, peered into the woods for a moment before closing her eyes.

 

“It does not feel as if the seal has broken, however, the youkai's aura is restless. That should not be,” Kaede replied, reentering her hut.

 

“But Lady Kaede, what should we do? Do we dare go into Inuyasha's forest?”

 

The elderly miko returned carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows.

 

“Yes, gather all the able men and their weapons. Archers in front with me. A few should remain here to protect the women and children in case of intruders. We will need horses, these old bones do not travel as well as they used to. I mean to see the source of this aura.”

 

The villagers scattered, the women and children clustering together and heading into huts while men gathered horses and weapons. No one in the village was really equipped for fighting, but they would do what they could to defend their homes if necessary. As the group gathered at the edge of the forest, one of the younger men noticed the miko had no ofudas with her.

 

“Miko Kaede,” the youth asked, “do you not want to bring ofudas so you may purify the youkai?”

 

She shook her head. “No, I do not wish to purify Inuyasha. I knew him before he changed. When he used to help my sister in the task of guarding the Shikon no Tama. Kikyou did not kill him, only sealed him, and that is what I will do as well, if it comes to it. Let us hurry before ill will befalls us.”

 

The small group rode off towards the God Tree and Kagome, but while the girl stayed on the dirt path to the village, most of the village men and its priestess continued deeper into the forest.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Kagome could see the outline of a small village at the bottom of the small hill lined with rice patties. The area surrounding the huts was illuminated with torches and people were pacing back on forth at it border.

 

“Civilization at last,” Kagome sighed. Her feet were beginning to hurt and her shoulder still ached from the impact with the dirt floor of the well. All she wanted was to find out where here was, how to get home from here, and to take a hot bath and a couple of aspirin. She sped up when she reached the incline and shouted in greeting.

 

“Hello! Can you help me? I'm lost.”

 

The few men gathered together and eyed the intruder warily. Kagome slowed when she noticed they seemed almost afraid of her.

 

“Ummm, hi? Could you please tell me where I am?” she asked, fiddling with the hem of her skirt. That seemed to be the wrong move since it drew the men's attention to her choice of dress.

 

“Halt! Are you a youkai, girl?” the tallest of the group called out.

 

“A youkai?” Kagome sputtered. “Why would you think that? Demons aren't real.”

 

“She lies,” the tall man said to his group. “We have fought youkai ourselves. And look at the strange way she is dressed. If not a youkai, then perhaps a dark miko.”

 

“Hey, what do you mean I'm dressed strange? And I'm not a miko, dark or otherwise. I'm just a normal fifteen year old girl who was having a pretty decent birthday until I ended up here a little while ago. Now I just want to go home,” she replied, indignant.

 

“You just arrived? From where? Our village miko went to investigate a strange aura of power in the Forest of Inuyasha that began a short time ago. What did you have to do with it?” the self appointed leader of the group questioned.

 

Kagome noticed the other men shifting to spread out and that they all had softball size rocks in their grasp. She took a few automatic steps backwards before answering.

 

“I'm from Tokyo.”

 

“Toe-kee-oh? I have never heard of such a place. You are lying. You must be a dark miko trying to release the spirit of the sealed youkai in the forest. Or you are a youkai looking for a village to terrorize. We will not allow your kind here. Go back to where you came from, demon!”

 

The tall villager was the first to throw a rock at the girl, striking her in the stomach. As she bent over in pain, another stone stuck her bad shoulder causing her to cry out.

 

“Stop it, please! I haven't done anything to you! I just want to know how to get home!”

 

The pelting continued as the man answered her. “We know nothing of a youkai's home nor do we associate ourselves with dark mikos. Drive her into the forest men, Lady Kaede can deal with her!”

 

Rocks, both large and small, continued to rain down upon the school girl, leading her farther and farther off the path. When one sharp stone clipped her temple she turned and began running into the dark forest, not caring that she was tripping over roots because she couldn't see anything. The men continued on, now striking her back.

 

“STOP IT! SOMEONE HELP ME PLEASE!”

 

A brighter light flashed through the trees and the men backed off in fear.

 

“Back to the village!”

 

“She's calling to her demons!”

 

Kagome changed her direction slightly to reach the glow. If this forest really was laid out like the shrine yard, then she would be heading to the God Tree and she always felt protected there. She just hoped this `Lady Kaede' would listen to her before throwing things. Her whole body was aching and she desperately wanted to lie down, but when louder shouts and curses rang out, she sped up, feeling oddly drawn to the frantic voices.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

The pulsing glow grew brighter and more rhythmic as Kaede and her group neared their destination. The aura Kaede was picking up was growing steadily more frantic, almost agitated. When they reached the small clearing surrounding the ancient tree of ages, Kaede drew a sharp breath. There, suspended above the gnarled roots as he had been for the past fifty years, was the youkai Inuyasha. His red haori and hakama remained the same as when he was `living' and his waist length silver hair, knotted from time, blew in the wind that had begun to pick up. Two white inu ears twitched madly as he struggled against both the roots surrounding him and the sealing arrow protruding from his chest. What terrified the old miko the most was his glowing red eyes with their tiny turquoise pupils. They were focused on the group with a look of such malice and hatred her blood turned cold.

 

“You fucking hag!” The inu youkai snarled, “What the fuck do you humans think you are doing sealing me to a fucking tree?”

 

“Inuyasha, you are not yourself. Fifty years have past since you last looked upon the world. You changed and my sister sealed you to this tree for your own safety as well as that of our village,” Kaede explained.

 

The youkai struggled harder against his bonds, the jagged violet stripes on his cheeks looking almost black in the strange glow. “Fuck! Who the hell are you, hag? Who did your sister think she was sealing an inu youkai?”

 

“Do you truly not remember me, Inuyasha? What about Kikyou?”

 

“Kikyou? Are you the whelp that followed her? Kaede? You have grown old and weak. Let me loose so I can kill the lot of you for this!”

 

Kaede shook her head. “You are an inu hanyou, Inuyasha, not a youkai. You became possessed one day with a great blood lust, attacking and killing anyone who crossed you…”

 

“Bullshit!” he spat out. “I am a youkai, the son of the great Inu no Taisho, not a pathetic half breed. As for killing you, you fucking deserve it for this.”

 

Nocking an arrow, the old priestess gave a small sigh. “I am sorry for this, Inuyasha, but you must be resealed.”

 

Just as Kaede was about to release her arrow, a scream pierced the rapidly cooling air. Thunder rumbled in the distance and Inuyasha began to glow brightly once again. From her new position, Kaede could see the focus of the light was her sister's sacred arrow. Another scream echoed the first, this time close enough for the group to make out the words.

 

“STOP IT! SOMEONE HELP ME PLEASE!”

 

The reddish-blue light gave a humming pulse, temporarily blinding the humans in the clearing. When their eyes adjusted to the darkness again, they were met with a surprise.

 

“Lady Kaede, where is the youkai?” one man whispered.

 

A spot free of bark was the only indication that the demon had ever been pinned to the tree. The sound of knuckles cracking drew the humans' attention behind them. There, hair whipping wildly and red eyes gleaming, was Inuyasha.

 

“Now, pathetic humans, you die!”

 

Just as Inuyasha was about to leap, he was crashed into from behind. Still keeping a distance from the armed humans, he turned, growling at the new intrusion. The smell of blood assaulted his nostrils first, followed by the delicious scent of fear. A young girl with long black hair and strange clothes sat on the ground before him. Her eyes widened as they took in his appearance but her fear scent increased when she laid eyes on the humans behind him. Inuyasha growled again. The miko who sealed me! Wait. Is it really Kikyou? Why has she not aged like the annoying whelp? Why does she not fear my wrath but that of her sister and village?

 

Her eyes never moved from group as she shakily stood. The breeze brought her blood scent to Inuyasha more clearly and he inhaled deeply, trying to sort out his confusion. Her scent is not the same. The Kikyou who sealed me smelled heavily of medicinal herbs and incense. This human girl has the scent of incense but her underlying scent is lighter, gentler, like lavender. Inuyasha began walking towards the girl, determined to find out why she looked so much like Kikyou.

 

“Another demon!” A man cried before releasing his arrow at the girl.

 

“Wait!” Kaede cried, reaching for him.

 

Luckily, his aim was off from shaking so badly and the arrow only grazed the girl's thigh. Inuyasha turned to the villagers and snarled, snapping his teeth at the interruption. The girl cried out weakly but stayed on her feet. The demon could smell the pain and exhaustion radiating from her. Normally, his instincts would have been to simply kill the weak prey and then enjoy the hunt involved with killing the healthy humans, but something about the humans attacking their own kind and the girl's initial lack of fear upon seeing him, intrigued him. She faced him with pleading blue eyes.

 

“Please,” she whispered. “Please just let me go. Let me run.” With that she turned and took off towards the larger clearing where the Bone Eaters Well stood, long dried and abandoned. The villagers, distracted by the girl, failed to notice Inuyasha slinking off into the forest in the opposite direction. Kaede continued to stare after the girl for a time before turning to the group.

 

“Let us return to the village before the storm comes. Inuyasha will do nothing more to us this night. Perhaps the remaining men have word about the girl.”

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Kagome struggled to reach her destination. Everything throbbed painfully. Her temple had stopped bleeding for the most part, but blood was running freely down her right leg. She twisted that leg's ankle on a root or rock or something when she ran and it was beginning to swell inside her loafer. The well was just a few feet away. If I ended up here when I fell down the well at home, maybe if I jump down it on this side I'll be back. Anything to keep those people from killing me.

 

Fat raindrops began to fall as she reached the edge of the structure. Kagome only paused for a moment before jumping in. This time there was no soft blue light, no feeling of weightlessness. She hit the bottom with a thud, crying out as her knee popped under the strain of her injured ankle and the bleeding wound. Mama, Gramps, Souta…I'm trying. I can't get back…All thoughts ceased as the blessed, pain free darkness took over.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Meanwhile, Inuyasha had just reached another small clearing, this one with slightly rolling hills and a fresh water stream running next to a bubbling mineral spring. A weeping willow towered over a cave whose entrance was blocked by a large boulder. Its green, wispy tendrils brushed over the boulder and the top surface of the cave, sheltering the area from the storm.

 

The youkai walked up to the bolder nearly as high as he was tall and four times as wide. He wasn't fazed that it blocked the entrance to the cave, it was part of the reason he had chosen this place for his residence. The rock, coupled with the willow tree and the long hanging vines, provided a perfect camouflage for his home. He slipped around the boulder and pushed aside the vines to reveal a wide mouthed opening. His nose twitched at the stale scent that greeted him. His scent still clung inside, but it was faint with age. Maybe the old hag was not lying about how much time passed.

 

Inuyasha didn't need any light to help him find anything, he could see perfectly well in the dark and he was familiar with everything. The first thing he tackled was cleaning out the air hole above the stone lined fire pit. He had once constructed a bamboo `grate' to fit the hole so if any critter climbing in the willow tree or running along the roof of the cave were to fall in, it wouldn't get cooked in the fire below. The grate now had dead tendrils from the willow tree clinging to it as well as moss and other debris. That task complete, he grabbed some wood from near the door and scanned around for the flint he knew should be nearby. Finding it, he started a fire, not really for the heat, but so he could examine the damage time had done to his home more thoroughly.

 

His bed was a decent sized hole in the rear of the cave, dug about two feet deep into the cave's dirt floor and well packed, padded by the pelts of many of the animals he killed for food. The top most layers had started to rot away with time, but there still appeared to be a decent pad against the cold floor remaining. Using the old pelts as a type of broom, he made his way around the large cave, sweeping up stray sticks, rocks and things that resembled food but were now petrified. Lining the walls by the entrance were clay jars and bowls, a few wooden buckets, a cast iron pot and skillet, and a kettle. Inuyasha was growing confused again. As a youkai, he didn't mind the taste of blood and raw meat, he enjoyed it. And yet there were cooking and eating utensils, all looking well used. He knew he didn't live with anyone, no one else's scent lingered in either the cave or the bedding. His thoughts began drifting to the strange human girl who ran from the villagers. She was injured; did she have a place to go? Was she still near the God Tree?

 

Shaking his head violently to dispel the thoughts of a human, he stripped off his haori and inner kimono, grabbed one of the large jars, and headed to the river for fresh water, not paying any mind to the pouring rain.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

At least an hour had passed since Inuyasha collected his water. He caught two rabbits that were huddling under a nearby shrub and roasted them. Figuring at one point he must have enjoyed the taste of cooked meat, he decided to try it again. His stomach full and the rain providing a soothing back drop, the inu youkai sprawled on his bed and tried to relax. No matter what he did, his thoughts kept drifting to the girl and what could have happened to her. Finally, deciding sleep wasn't going to come unless he checked on her, Inuyasha left the cave, donning only his hakama, and bounded off in the direction of the old well. He'd never be able to track her in the rain, but he could at least go there and see if she left a trail.

 

Because of his demon speed, Inuyasha reached the clearing with the well in a few minutes. There were no overt signs that the girl had gone anywhere else. Her tracks were still clear on the damp ground, leading up to and ending at the edge. Curious, the youkai leaned forward and peered into the darkness. There, lying on the bottom of the well in a puddle of collecting rainwater, was the girl. He let out a growl and a bark to alert her of his presence, but she didn't stir. Inuyasha leaped in and landed softly next to her. Though her clothes were a torn and bloody mess, she was still breathing and shivering involuntarily from the cold rain. Sighing, he picked her up and jumped back out adjusting her onto his back once he had the room. I do not know why I should care about a human. She already has a fever. Ignoring his thoughts, Inuyasha sprinted back to his cave carrying the girl with him.