InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Okaeri ❯ Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and associated characters are the property of Rumiko Takahashi.

…

…

…

 

Chapter 6

 

…

…

…

 

There were still quite a few visitors at the shrine when Inuyasha and Kagome got back. As they crested the top of the stairs and started towards the house, Kagome noticed that Jii-chan was not in evidence; the stand for selling talismans and souvenirs was closed up. Odd. He was usually out here; he rarely missed a chance to bend the ears of anybody who would stay and listen to his lectures on the history of the various features of the shrine. With a mental shrug she dismissed the thought. Maybe he was running an errand or something, or had gone into the house.

 

Shedding her shoes in the entryway, her called `tadaima' had no response, though she could hear activity in the kitchen. She headed there while Inuyasha went upstairs, muttering about his clothes. Upon entering the room, she came upon Mama fixing a pot of fragrant herbal tea, her back to the doorway. Her grandfather was neither sitting at the table as she had thought he might be, nor had he been in the living room when she passed it.

 

“Mama, how come Jii-chan's not out at the shrine?”

 

She turned around, seemingly a little startled and distracted. “Oh! I'm glad you're back, Kagome. Jii-chan is not feeling well. I was just getting this ready to take to him.” She turned back, finished arranging the teapot and cup on the tray in front of her, and picked it up. “Kagome, I'm sorry to ask you this, but do you think you could help with the shrine this afternoon?”

 

“Help with the shrine this afternoon?” she repeated.

 

“And tomorrow?” her mother added, a little apologetically.

 

“Tomorrow too!?” Her voice rose, pitched dangerously close to a whine. “What do you mean, help? You know I have to study…” Am I the only one here who takes my education seriously?!

 

“Kagome, it's very important that someone is out there, especially on the weekend. I know you have other claims on your time, but if you could just keep the shop open, that would be very useful.” She looked at her daughter expectantly, her dark eyes serious.

 

She suppressed a sigh. So much for studying AND searching for secret rooms. I should just kiss college goodbye at this rate. “Um, I guess I could do that.” Her shoulders slumped in defeat.

 

Inuyasha appeared in the doorway, back in his fire-rat outfit. “Oi! But what about --“

 

“Thank you, Kagome! I'm sure your grandfather will be really relieved. I'll tell him right now while I get him settled. Oh, and please see if the miko clothes fit you.” She nodded towards a neat pile of white and vermilion on one of the chairs.

 

“Miko clothes?”

 

“For working in the shop. Those were Suki's—remember her? I think she was a bit taller than you. Let me know if the hakama needs to be hemmed up.” With that she whisked out of the room.

 

Kagome and Inuyasha both stared at the clothes for a moment, before Kagome walked over slowly and picked them up. She held the red hakama against her, deciding that the pants would fit without dragging on the ground. Mama must have been misremembering how tall Suki had been, but it had been a long time since they'd had a miko serving here. Kagome had been Souta's age when Suki, a cheerful, smiling girl from a local family in the shrine parish, had assisted Jii-chan by selling charms and talismans, and had danced the kagura at festivals. She had been enthusiastic but not very talented, Kagome had thought. The girl had gone off to college and Jii-chan had not bothered to bring in another miko since.

 

Inuyasha had gotten a glass and was filling it with water at the sink; he looked at her sideways while she examined the clothes. He didn't say a word, but she felt his reproach at the waste of time, as he undoubtedly regarded her chore.

 

Kagome took them with her to the bathroom and changed. They fit well; she checked herself in the mirror. It was strange how comfortable she felt in them. As she stared in the mirror she felt a faint twinge as she thought of how much she looked like a certain other miko; firmly she turned away. Not now.

 

She took her other clothes and went upstairs to put them in her bedroom. She bound her hair, and came back down to check with her mother about what she would need to do to open the shop.

 

Inuyasha was sitting at the table when she walked back into the kitchen. He stared at her before seeming to catch himself and look away.

 

“What?” she asked, feeling suddenly unsettled by his scrutiny.

 

“Nothing.” At that moment Mama came back in. Surveying Kagome, she gave an approving nod.

 

“Well, they do look a little long, but it doesn't look like I'll need to do anything to the pants. Are you ready?

 

“I think so, Mama. What do I need to do out there?”

 

Her mother caught up a set of keys and a large envelope from the counter. “Here are the keys and the change for the shop. All you need to do is open it up and sit behind the counter. All the suggested donations are listed on the sign for the talismans and charms, and the other knickknacks Jii-chan has in there.” She handed Kagome the items. “Kagome, I'm sorry to put this on you at such short notice. But we depend on the income from the shop and the offering box, and it's important that we have a presence out there for the ujiko*.”

 

Kagome wondered if Inuyasha would accompany her, but he seemed to have made himself comfortable at the table. Feeling annoyed at the sudden turn her day had taken, she took a quick detour to her room and grabbed a schoolbook, and then walked out of the house to the shrine. Opening and setting up the shop was done quickly, and she ensconced herself on a stool behind the rows of items for sale. Maybe she would have time to study while stuck here. Her hope was in vain, as almost immediately she had customers, many of whom were inquiring after her grandfather. He sure knew a lot of people.

 

She stayed there until sundown, when the last of the visitors left, and collected the money for the day and locked the shop back up. After thinking a moment, she went over to the offering box in front of the shrine and unlocked it with a key on the ring, as she had seen her grandfather do before. There was quite a bit of money in the box. She put it with the shop deposit and tucked the envelope inside her shirt before walking back to the house.

 

Mama had dinner just about ready; Inuyasha and Souta were watching television in the living room. Souta sat cross-legged, absorbed in whatever it was they were watching; Inuyasha was lounging at his ease on the floor. As she passed the doorway she saw him turn his head and start slightly before jerking his eyes back to the television. She paused, frowning.

 

“What's with you? You look like you saw a ghost.” Almost immediately she realized why, and felt cold. I'm still wearing the miko outfit. I look like her. Would Kikyou always make them both flinch, like a bruise, or skin rubbed raw?

 

Inuyasha seemed to have regained his assurance. “The only thing I see is a slacker who sat around all afternoon.” He looked back at her, his eyes staying on her face. “You ready to find those papers after dinner?”

 

Kagome had forgotten about her promise. “Oh! Sure, as soon as we finish we can go look. I'd better change.”

 

She went upstairs and got into clothes that she wouldn't mind getting dirty. As she folded the white top carefully, she paused to finger the red thread hemming the sleeves. It was curious how comfortable she had felt in the ensemble. She had not liked wearing Kaede's clothes that time; to be sure, these were not stiff and scratchy like the cloth made in the feudal age. But it wasn't just the material; it was what wearing the attire implied. She hadn't thought about her costume all afternoon after donning it. None of the neighbors visiting the shrine had remarked on it. It all seemed so natural now.

 

I'm Kagome. Not Kikyou. She stared at herself in the mirror, tensely, looking for signs of change. Having Kikyou's memories couldn't make her into something she wasn't; she was still the same person. Wasn't she? Her own face stared back at her solemnly; her face, not Kikyou's. Even when serious, her face could not match the stillness or melancholy of her previous incarnation's. Kagome smiled at her reflection in relief. Kikyou had rarely smiled, and when she did it had been thinned by the burden of responsibilities she bore.

 

She never could look at the bright side of things, Kagome thought. She knew she was being a bit flip but at the moment, she didn't care. Feeling reassured, she exited the room and bounced down the stairs to see what was for dinner.

 

Dinner was unremarkable, except for Jii-chan's absence; he was still in bed. Apparently he had come down with some sort of stomach flu. Inuyasha displayed none of his earlier apprehension, completely absorbed in slurping his soba noodles. Loudly.

 

“Where are you going to check, neechan?” asked Souta, inhaling his own noodles.

 

“I'm not sure. I think I've checked all of the buildings. Maybe we can search more of the wooded areas around the shrine?” She looked her question at Inuyasha, who shrugged.

 

“In the dark?” Mama was taken aback.

 

“You haven't checked the well-house yet,” pointed out Souta.

 

“Souta, we've been through that well a thousand times. I think I would have noticed by now if there was something strange in there,” she retorted.

 

Souta shrugged, but looked stubborn. “I'm just saying you haven't looked there specifically.”

 

She sighed. “I guess we might as well. Inuyasha?”

 

Slurp. “Sure.”

…

…

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

…

…

Kagome stared down into the darkness of the well house; Inuyasha was just behind her. She could sense his impatience. There was something about the void down there that creeped her out. A giant centipede had come through the well, as had monstrous, grasping strands of hair. In the dark, it wasn't the familiar and comforting link between this life and the other she had given so much to for so long.

 

“What are you waiting for? Let's go,” growled the edgy hanyou at her shoulder. With a sigh, she flipped the switch beside the door to turn on the weak light of a single bulb suspended over the stairs. Carefully she made her way down and paused at the bottom to survey the room. Nothing had changed since the last time she had been in here. Determinedly she began to study the room, foot by foot, as if she had never been here before. Inuyasha took the other side of the stairs and poked through the odds and ends perfunctorily.

 

After about an hour Kagome sat down on the bottom step, next to Inuyasha who had been sitting and watching her for the last twenty minutes.

 

“Nothing,” she said dejectedly.

 

“At least we looked, eh?” He got up and stretched. “In all this time, did you notice anything from the well?”

 

“No. Not a bit.” She pushed herself back up, and stepped over to the lip of the well. She leaned over to look into its depths. The smell of earth and the faint mustiness of wood rot wafted up; no breath of magic came to her senses. She leaned back, keeping contact with the worn boards for a moment longer, before turning to go towards the stairs. Inuyasha was waiting for her at the top.

 

“Want to go around the outside of the building too?” he asked as she slid the doors shut. Mindful of how the door to the kitsune domain had seemed to exist only on one side of a wall, she nodded.

 

“I'm going to need a flashlight, though. It's dark back there.” Inuyasha put a hand on her arm before she had taken a step, and she saw a small grin on his face as he produced a flashlight out of his haori.

 

“Already thought of that. Weak human,” he handed it to her.

 

She raised an eyebrow as she took it. “Didn't it occur to you that I could have used that in the well house? It was pretty dim in there.”

 

“Keh. It wasn't like there was anything in there to find.”

 

“Inuyasha! Then why'd we go in there in the first place?” He merely snorted in response, and started off around the corner, lightly jumping over the small picket fence that blocked access to the area behind the building. She smiled despite herself, glad that he seemed to be in a better mood, and followed him around to the side of the well house after easily clambering over the low fence.

 

The building backed up to a small bluff that rose a few steep feet before following the gentler slope of the hill that protected the back of the shrine. Kagome checked the rough, splintery wall around the right corner; she had to push her way through some bushes to make sure she was being thorough. She was feeling rather dispirited about their prospects here, though. It had been a long day, and she was contemplating just giving up until tomorrow's daylight. Playing the beam along the wall, she approached the back corner, her steps muffled by the deep deposit of pine needles that accumulated on the ground back here. The resinous smell of the trees on the slope above was strong and pleasant. She just had seen Inuyasha's red sleeve disappear around the back corner when she heard him exclaim suddenly, “Hey! Kagome!” He then yelped and cursed.

 

She hurried forward instantly. “Are you all right? Did you find something?” Turning the corner, she found him staring at his fist, brows lowered angrily, and then at the nearly vertical bluff. He was standing on the rubble at the bottom of it where it piled loosely against the back of the well house. She paused for a moment, the flashlight aimed at his hand; she saw no damage, and quickly turned it to the bluff. Under a shallow overhang hung a small wooden plaque, weathered and aged, some writing still discernable on it; it resembled some of the talismans they sold in the shop, but was a bit larger. More pressingly, the beam from her flashlight pierced a very faint, bluish glow of a magical barrier that appeared to overlay the talisman like mist.

 

Slowly she approached the spot, coming to stand next to Inuyasha, her eyes not leaving the talisman. She stood silently next to him for a moment, studying the small, rough alcove in the bluff face; abruptly she shut off the light. The dim blue glow remained to her eyes; it covered an area approximately five feet high and three feet wide.

 

“Shit. Think this is it, Kagome?”

 

“Maybe.” How could something like this have been here since her great-grandfather's time without being discovered? If this was the hiding place they were looking for, that is. She turned the flashlight back on and turned to him. He was rubbing his hand absently as he looked at the talisman. “What happened to your hand?”

 

“Nothing.” He allowed her to take it and turn it gently before pulling it back; it bore no mark, so she let him. “Whoever set this didn't want youkai getting into it, looks like.”

 

“Did it burn you?”

 

“Eh. It would take more than that to hurt me.”

 

It probably did hurt him, she thought. She reached out, experimentally, towards the talisman. Inches from it her hand encountered an inflexible wall. It didn't burn, but felt solid. She ran her hand along it to where the edge seemed to fade into the dirt of the bluff; she tried digging her fingers into the earth, but the barrier seemed to be there, smoothly impenetrable, curving away into the solidity of the escarpment. She took a step back and surveyed the alcove, her left hand on her hip, her right holding the light on it. She squinted at the earthen bank that was behind the barrier; it seemed to waver. Was it an illusion? Hard to tell with the barrier in front of it. At any rate, it didn't seem to be anything like the kitsune's door.

 

“Hm.”

 

Inuyasha had leaned against the wall of the well house behind them, arms crossed. “Well?”

 

“Well what?”

 

“Can you get it open?” His voice was impatient, but when she turned to him she could see the keen interest in his expression as he looked to the barrier and then back to her.

 

“Um.” She stepped forward again, and focused her attention on the talisman. Clearly the barrier had not stopped the effects of weather and time; there were cracks in the wood, and as she had already noticed, the writing was faded despite the protection afforded by the overhang. She peered at it closely. What writing she could make out seemed to indicate that it was a talisman of protection; the phrases that she could read weren't familiar.

 

She thought for a moment. She couldn't remember this being much of a problem in the past; she'd always seemed to walk right through most barriers that had stopped others. She touched it again, concentrating on the thought that it would drop. For several minutes she stood there with her hand pressed against the almost invisible barrier; it flared weakly around the outline of her hand, but remained obstinately blocking her.

 

She inhaled sharply through her nose, and tried visualizing the barrier disappearing, her hand passing through to touch the talisman.

 

Nothing.

 

Behind her, she could hear Inuyasha shifting. Distractedly she wished he would just go sit down somewhere and let her think. She took a deep, slow breath, closed her eyes, tried to tune out his presence, and allowed herself to drift down into a deeper layer of memories than those she knew to be hers. Kikyou's memories. She shuddered a bit. Down, through the sharp-edged thoughts of the risen Kikyou, down to the memories of the living miko who had been; she knew how to put up barriers, true enough, and to take down those made by demons like Naraku; how to overpower and ignore those set by selfish, weak willed rivals like Tsubaki.

 

But whoever had set this was not weak willed. The technique used was different as well. There was no dark taint to it. If only she could make out what the writing was --

 

“Come on, wench. You can do this. What's taking so long?” The harsh voice startled her out of the clinical, nearly alien thoughts, into opening her eyes. “I'm gonna try Tessaiga on it if you don't hurry up.” She rounded on him angrily.

 

“What is your problem? I'm trying!”

 

“You're just standing there. What are you doing?”

 

“I'm going through Kikyou's memories to see if she would have known what to do with this,” she snapped.

 

Inuyasha stared at her, frozen.

 

She turned back to the barrier, and continued peevishly, “And you know what? She wouldn't have had a clue. Now will you back off and let me think?” She waited impatiently for the expected outburst as she studied the plaque; after several minutes of silence, she heard him thump to the ground. She turned to look at him. He was sitting in the dirt, looking down.

 

“Inuyasha?” He didn't look up. She began to feel a little alarmed. “Inuyasha, you knew about it, didn't you?” She knelt down in front of him, looking worriedly into his face, and touched his arm. “I told Miroku what happened, that night. I thought you were there.”

 

“No, I wasn't there that night.” He swallowed. “I heard them talking, later…” he looked at her hand on her arm, and then up at her face, “…and I guessed. But I didn't know.”

 

She stared into his eyes, eyes that gleamed in the indirect beam of the flashlight that she had set on the ground. She saw old pain in those eyes.

 

“You know everything she knew, don't you?” he whispered.

 

She withdrew her hand from his arm and looked away, unable to bear his gaze. “Sort of,” she whispered. She felt cold suddenly, and hugged herself against the chill.

 

“Why didn't she try to live?”

 

Kagome could sense what he wasn't saying. Why didn't she let him save her? Why would she let him fail again? “She thought about it for a while. Before Mount Hakurei. She thought she had a chance to live as a simple priestess.” She paused, and looked at him steadily. “But in the end, she only cared about her killer, Inuyasha. Time had frozen for her. She wasn't the woman you knew.”

 

He stared at her silently for a moment. A light gust of wind blew through the trees above them, sending a few pine needles spearing down to land beside them noiselessly. In the distance she could hear the resonant tinkle of wind chimes. “And what about you now, Kagome?” Now it was he who reached out to touch her arm, tentatively. “She made you have those memories, didn't she?” His hand was warm; she unwound her arms from herself in response, and he took one of her hands in both of his. Kagome looked down at them.

 

“She thought I should know what to do, in case something went wrong,” she whispered, with a wry smile. “She didn't ask me first if I liked the idea.”

 

Inuyasha peered tensely into her face. “Dammit, did she hurt you? Are you still the same?” She looked back, seeing his worry, his concern. For her now. Not Kikyou.

 

“I am Kagome. Ka Go Me.” She smiled weakly. “Didn't I tell you that already?”

 

His eyes searched her face for a moment before he smiled back. His hands tightened, just a bit, on hers; the moment stretched. He leaned forward slightly, his eyelids half lowered.

She felt her breath quicken. Was he going to kiss her? She felt her own eyes closing as she leaned forward also.

 

Another gust of wind, stronger this time, showered them with more pine needles and a scattering of cold rain drops, jerking Kagome into alertness. With an exclamation she drew back, eyes wide.

 

“Inuyasha, we've got to get inside. It's about to rain.” She got to her feet, but not before witnessing the disgruntled expression on his face. She gave him a little grin.

 

“Come on, we can't do anything here tonight. I'm going to need some help with that thing anyway.”

 

He grunted in response, and followed her around the corner of the building; he lifted her over the fence before going over himself.

 

“Well, maybe I should just blow it open if you can't get it,” he grumbled as they hurried back to the house. The raindrops were coming down faster now.

 

“Don't you dare try Tessaiga on that barrier! It's too close to the well house!” They reached the shelter of the front porch, and she spun to face him. “They both better be there when I get up in the morning, Inuyasha.” She gave him what she hoped was a stern look. He smirked at her in response.

 

“Come on, wench, get inside before you get cold.”

 

“Inuyasha…”

 

“I won't do anything! Get inside!”

 

Satisfied, she gave him another little grin and allowed herself to be shepherded inside. She gave him a last look at the foot of the stairs. “Good night, Inuyasha.”

 

The soft look her gave her warmed her so that she forgot all about her damp clothes. “Good night, Kagome.”

…

…

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

…

…

Kagome turned and sighed after smiling goodbye to the last group of visitors, as the red light of the setting sun glistened on the leaves of the sakaki and camellia bushes that edged the courtyard. She put away the trinkets and collected the cash from the day's sales, slipping the deposit envelope into her shirt for safety.

 

Despite the rain the night before, the day had dawned bright and clear, and had brought many worshippers to the shrine. Jii-chan was still unwell and had stayed abed; Kagome had resigned herself to another day lost to her studies. In the few quiet intervals during the course of the day, her mind had teased at the puzzle of the barrier in back of the well house. More than ever she felt the loss of contact with their friends; if she had access to the feudal age, she could have asked Kaede or Miroku for advice. Here, she had no one that she trusted could come up with the answer.

 

She rolled down the shutter in front of the gift shop and locked it, then scanned the plaza to see if there were any stragglers. Souta was laughing with his friend Eichi, both of them carrying their skateboards and gear. They'd better not be planning to do some more damage to the grounds with their stupid skateboarding, she thought, irritated.

 

She strode toward them, her red hakama fluttering. Souta saw her coming and scowled. “What now, neechan?”

 

“I haven't nagged at you about anything all afternoon, have I? I just wanted to remind you that if the handrails get scratched up again, you're going to be the one painting them. Besides, you'll break your necks on those steps.”

 

Eichi looked ready to protest, but Souta cut him off, with a weary “Fine, Kagome. We'll just use the street instead.” He turned and marched off toward the steps, Eichi following.

 

“SOUTA! Not in the street, either, the sidewalk!” A wave indicated he'd heard her. She sighed again; he wasn't even a teenager yet, and he was already this much of a pain. She'd never been this snotty, had she? What had gotten into him today?

 

Getting a straw broom, she began to work her way from the other end of the courtyard, so that she'd end up with a neat pile on the side by one of the trash cans. As she swept, she idly reached out to sense where Inuyasha was. He'd been hanging around the courtyard most of the day within sight of her; right now, though, she detected his youki coming from the direction of the kitchen. She looked over to the house, and sure enough, she caught a glimpse of his golden eyes between the curtains. She smiled and paused in her sweeping; he gazed at her for a moment longer, then was gone.

 

Well, at least I know he's not blowing up the hillside. She smiled fondly. But how was she going to get that barrier down? It might come down to him breaking it by force after all. Red Tessaiga might be just the thing. Or maybe she could try firing an arrow at it…

 

Her thoughts were interrupted by the squeal of tires and a frightening thump down in the street. Kagome froze, then dropped the broom and ran for the steps. Her throat seemed to close and she nearly panicked when, reaching the top of the steps, she looked down into the street below to see Souta and Eichi lying in front of a stopped car, and people running toward them. She pelted down headlong, nearly tripping several times over her hakama, but made it unscathed to the road. She flung herself through the crowd and dropped next to Souta first, pebbles digging into her knees; he was conscious, though crying and panic-stricken and his attention was on his friend. Glancing at him quickly, Kagome decided that he had some scrapes and bruises, but nothing more serious, as he had been wearing his protective gear. Perhaps he had gotten only a glancing blow. She turned her attention to Eichi, and inhaled sharply. Eichi was unconscious but still breathing, with a horrible gurgling sound from deep in his chest; he had bloody abrasions evident and limbs askew. He appeared to have been struck full-on by the car, and was lying in an unnatural twisted position. Was his back broken?

 

Looking up at the gathering crowd, and the hysterical woman she took to be the driver of the car, she ordered, “Somebody call an ambulance! Get back, give him air!” She barely noticed when someone volunteered that the ambulance was already called. She moved next to Eichi without touching him, and desperately tried to think what she could do, as the voices of the surrounding people faded from her consciousness. She gently lifted his shirt to look for concealed damage, and found massive bruising; he was probably bleeding internally, perhaps broken ribs had punctured a lung or other organs. He had to be in shock, maybe keeping him warm would help…? “Does anybody have a blanket or an extra shirt? Is there a doctor here?” A shirt appeared and she carefully draped it over him, but no doctor stepped forward; any action she thought of seemed futile. She could see his life leaving him in shallow bubbling breaths, and knew the ambulance would never arrive in time. Her eyes were filling with tears, and Souta's sobs were loud against the murmurs of the onlookers.

 

Suddenly the knowledge was there, pushing forward from that deep source in the back of her mind. Blinking tears away, she gazed intently at the boy, looking for and finding the gathering gaki, the messengers of the underworld that would soon take his soul. The things gibbered and crawled over him, occasionally giving her malevolent glances. Frowning, she raised her clasped hands over them, two fingers extended, and focused her power in a way that seemed foreign to her experience, and yet familiar and practiced at the same time.

 

The imps shrieked as they disintegrated like paper streamers in a high wind, bits of them tearing off and disappearing until there were none left.

 

Eichi's eyes fluttered open and he focused on her, confused. “Kagome-oneesan? What happened?” There was a collective gasp from the crowd as he attempted to sit up. The worst of his injuries had vanished.

 

 

TBC

…

…

 

A/N: *Ujiko - parishioners, community that supports a Shinto shrine