InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Present Perfect ❯ Chapter 29 ( Chapter 29 )

Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi

 

 

Chapter 29:

 

 

Kagome ran to the well house, passing Shippo as he sat at her kitchen table. He jumped up and started after her. “It's Inuyasha!” she called, running past.

 

Shippo frowned. He didn't doubt Kagome's senses, but his own sense of smell wasn't telling him anything. “Are you sure?” he asked, hurrying to catch up to her. It was close to the time Inuyasha should be returning, give or take a day or so. He really should call Sesshomaru, but he'd check it out himself, first.

 

Kagome slowed down right in front of the door to the well house. The sense of Inuyasha was gone. Had she imagined it? She opened the door anyway and ventured inside cautiously. “Inuyasha?” she called, even though she could tell he wasn't there. She had been so sure. She sank down onto her knees, disappointed. “I'm sorry, Shippo. I thought I felt Inuyasha. I guess I just miss him.” She smiled a little uncertainly. “He should be coming back soon, right?”

 

“Yeah, soon.” Shippo didn't really know exactly when Inuyasha would return. He had been the only one to actually see him arrive and depart, but he had been just a kid back then. Now, he couldn't remember if it had been four days, or five or six. They had told Kagome a week just to be on the safe side, but even he wasn't exactly sure. He took out his cell phone and dialed Sesshomaru. If Kagome was sensing Inuyasha already, the time must be close. Sesshomaru wanted to be there in case there was a problem—they all did.

 

Kagome's mother and grandfather came running out of the house. “Is he back?” asked her grandfather.

 

“No.” Kagome whispered the word.

 

Shippo shook his head, and closed his phone. Not only Sesshomaru, but Kouga and Ayame were on their way too. “No, not yet.”

 

“What a nice day to have a picnic!” stated Kagome's mother, when nobody made a move to go back to the house. “I'll get the blanket and make some special treats for when your friends get here. Grandpa, will you help me, please?”

 

Kagome was grateful that her mother took over. She was so confused. Where was Inuyasha? Why had she sensed that he was near? She sat down facing the well house so that she could see the door in case he came back. Shippo sat down next to her, thinking how ironic the situation was. It used to be Inuyasha who sat like this and waited for Kagome to return.

 

Sesshomaru breezed in just as Kagome's mother finished setting up a picnic area. He graciously accepted a cup of tea from her, and sipped it with obvious pleasure, much to Kagome's surprise. He never accepted her offers of tea! Kouga and Ayame arrived shortly after Sesshomaru.

 

“So, where is he?” asked Kouga. “I thought that's why you called us.”

 

“Kagome thought she sensed him, but he wasn't in the well house,” explained Shippo.

 

“Did anybody think to look inside and make sure the well was still there?” asked Kouga. “In the past, it got destroyed. Did you check? Maybe that's what Kagome sensed.”

 

Kagome's heart thumped. Could the well be destroyed in both times? Inuyasha hadn't thought so. He was very clear on how he saw it—the well still functioned in Kagome's time because he hadn't destroyed it yet. But would it disappear in this time time too when he destroyed it back then? Wait a minute. “Wait a minute. I went in—there's nothing wrong with the well.”

 

“Are you sure Inuyasha destroyed it?” Kagome's mother asked. All of the youkai, who had been there and witnessed the well's destruction, turned to look at her in disbelief. She blushed. “I mean, the well has been here as long as I can remember.”

 

“Yes,” replied Sesshomaru quietly. “There is no doubt about that.”

 

“What happened to the well after Inuyasha destroyed it?” asked Souta.

 

“Nothing,” said Shippo. “There wasn't even a hole left in the ground afterward. Miroku came around once or twice in the first few years, but I never went with him. There were too many memories, not just because of what happened to Inuyasha, but because I missed you too, Kagome.”

 

“I think Miroku eventually built a shrine on the spot,” said Kouga. “Though I never understood why—it's not like Inuyasha was a holy person or anything. The kid helped him build it.”

 

“What kid?”

 

“You know, Kohaku.”

 

Kagome noticed Sesshomaru stilled at the mention of Kohaku. He was listening, and pretending not to care. The two brothers were more similar than they liked to admit, she thought. That was something Inuyasha would do.

 

“Yeah, Kohaku, Sango's younger brother. He and Rin came to our village sometimes, too. Even after they were married, they still visited. I remember their second son followed Miroku around all over the place for a couple of years.” Shippo's eyes unfocused as he recalled those long-ago days.

 

Kouga barked a laugh. “Yeah, their first-born married one of my daughters, or rather, she took a liking to him and that was that!” He and Shippo chuckled.

 

Kagome let their words wash over her as they reminisced about their times in the past without her. Their stories were filled with names and deeds that she had no knowledge of, and she felt a little left out. Maybe she and Inuyasha had made the wrong decision after all in coming back to her time to finish school. If they had stayed in the past, none of this would be happening now, and she would be a part of their past, her children would have grown up alongside theirs, Inuyasha would still be by her side. She glanced at her mother, who, together with Grandpa and Souta, sat with her and the youkai in their makeshift campsite. If she had not returned, she would never have seen her family again. It wasn't fair. Why couldn't she have both? She shook her head. What was done was done. Hadn't this summer proved that, in spite of all their time travel, you couldn't change the past? You could only change the future.

 

Kagome's grandfather had been watching the youkai surrounding his granddaughter for some time now. He was less suspicious and slightly more tolerant these days, after having heard some of the history these youkai had with Kagome. But this was his shrine and his secret well, and he didn't take too kindly to strangers, even youkai strangers, thinking they knew everything about it. “Ahem,” he cleared his throat. All eyes turned to him. “Young man,” he addressed Sesshomaru. “This well has stood in this very spot for centuries. I should know, I come from a very long line of shrine-keepers who kept meticulous records of such things.”

 

“Old man,” Sesshomaru stressed mockingly, “show me these records, and perhaps I will believe you. The well was destroyed. I saw it. It must have been rebuilt.”

 

“And I say it is still the original well!” Kagome's grandfather insisted. “My great great great grandfather was the first to make mention of the ancient bone-eater's well, and he wrote that the well had magical properties well before his time!”

 

“What did you say?” Sesshomaru leaned forward, intense, his narrowed golden eyes boring into her grandfather's. “ Abruptly, Sesshomaru rose to his feet. “I will be back.” He transformed into a ball of light and sped off, leaving Grandpa to gape at the spot he had been sitting in.

 

“Wonder what's his problem,” commented Kouga. “You know, old man, you probably shouldn't have ticked him off. He's not easy-going, like Inuyasha.”

 

Kagome laughed weakly at Kouga's attempt at humor. Her grandfather grumbled a little bit and stalked off, not as spectacularly as Sesshomaru, but with feeling all the same, muttering about records and shrine history. Kouga grinned at her, glad to see she was holding up so well.

 

“You know, you don't all have to stay,” Kagome said at last, when night finally arrived and Sesshomaru still hadn't returned.

 

Ayame and Kouga took her at her word, promising to be back tomorrow. In the past, it had been daylight when the well had been destroyed, so nothing more would happen tonight anyway. Shippo decided to stay.

 

Kagome kept vigil by the well house and refused to go inside and sleep in her own bed. Her mother brought out her old sleeping bag, and Shippo kept her company. It was going to be a long couple of days.

 

 

 

Inuyasha drifted through the void, in and out of consciousness. At one point, he thought he heard Kagome's voice, but when it wasn't repeated, he figured he must have been imagining things. Was the time slip supposed to take this long? He couldn't remember.

 

The blue wash of time slowly seeped away until only a gray nothingness surrounded Inuyasha. He didn't notice, for he had lost consciousness again.

 

Tetsusaiga floated near him in the void, drawn close by its sheath, which was still attached to Inuyasha's waistband. It was a sentient sword, and it didn't like the situation in which it found itself. Inuyasha needed to wake up, and soon, because the pull of its sheath wasn't enough to hold Tetsusaiga forever. It needed a living, breathing partner. On the edge of its awareness there was life. If Inuyasha didn't wake up soon, the sword would follow the dwindling path of life and leave this place along with the young youkai lord who had been its host and companion. Tetsusaiga bumped gently into Inuyasha's sleeping body, before drifting away again, a little farther than before.

 

Inuyasha's hand twitched.

 

 

 

Grandpa was determined to prove Sesshomaru wrong. He dug through even more piles of records, looking for anything that might mention the well.

 

“Aha!” he exclaimed in triumph, pulling out a cracked and yellowed paper. It was a map, possibly several hundred years old, which clearly labeled the various buildings at the shrine, including one well house. On the back were scribbles, hard to decipher, which might be the name of the person who had drawn the map—a distant relative, Grandpa was certain. He stuffed it carefully into his shirt and hurried back to the group who still camped in front of the well house. He thrust the map under Sesshomaru's nose.

 

Sesshomaru sneezed, then took the paper from Kagome's grandfather, eyes narrowed. “What's this?” Sesshomaru had returned the next morning, unsurprised to see Kagome and Shippo in sleeping bags in front of the well house door. He sat cross-legged on the picnic blanket and helped himself to a cup of cold tea. He never mentioned where he had been. Kagome was too discouraged to ask, and Shippo knew better. Grandpa, however, did not.

 

“It's proof that the well existed since the feudal age!”

 

Kagome opened one bleary eye. She hadn't gotten much sleep last night. Why did they insist on arguing about the well, she thought grumpily. It's here now.

 

Sesshomaru was peering closely at the map. “It says `Well House Shrine,” he said. “We already know Miroku built a shrine on the spot to honor my brother's memory.”

 

Kagome objected silently. Inuyasha was not a memory!

 

“Exactly!” Her grandfather wasn't going to let go of this easily. “It says `Well House Shrine'—that means there must have been a well in it!” He could see that Sesshomaru wasn't convinced, so he stomped off again to find more evidence.

 

Kagome sighed. She might as well get up. “Could they have rebuilt the well?” she asked. Miroku knew about the time slip. Maybe he had tried to reconstruct it in the hope that it would restore the time slip.

 

Sesshomaru's eyes glinted, and one corner of his mouth turned up slightly. Kagome realized he had come to the same conclusion himself, and was just giving her grandfather a hard time. Of course, no one else besides Miroku, Sango, Kaede and Shippo knew about the time slip, and she wasn't sure how much Shippo had actually understood back then. So, until recently, Sesshomaru had had no reason to believe anyone would want to reconstruct an old dry well. The shrine had been the perfect cover. That must have been what happened! She had to hand it to Miroku. At first, she had been slightly weirded out that he could be her ancestor. After all, he had groped her a time or two in the early days of their friendship. But, all things considered, he wasn't a bad relative to have.

 

 

 

Inuyasha dreamed of the future. He saw his wife, Kagome, standing at the rail of their home, looking out over the autumn woods below. Her belly was slightly rounded with their child. He could see it when she turned to greet him, and he lengthened what was meant to be a little hello kiss into something deeper. Her body melted into his, and he felt the unborn child kick.

 

“It moved—he moved!” he said in wonder. Kagome stepped back and placed his hand over her belly so he could feel the movement better. She smiled. Inuyasha was content to stand there and feel his child move within her. His hand jumped, once, twice.

 

Inuyasha's eyes shot open. He was awake. He was alone.