InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Reincarnation ❯ Regaining Memories ( Chapter 2 )

Reincarnationby FireFalcon1414

 

Disclaimer: I do not own, in whole or in part, the Inuyasha series. All rights belong to Takahashi Rumiko. I do, however, own the plot to this fanfiction and I'm very proud of it!

 

 

Chapter 2: Regaining Memories

 

I am Higurashi Kagome …

 

I am Higurashi Kagome…

 

I fell down a well when I was fifteen…

 

I fell down a well when I was fifteen…

 

I met an old woman…

 

I met an old woman…

 

I met a half-demon…

 

I met a… demon?

 

There was a jewel inside of me…

 

There… is a jewel inside of me?

 

It was shattered by an arrow…

 

It was shattered?

 

It was my job to fix it…

 

It was my job to fix it…

 

It is my job to fix it…

 

It is my job to fix it?

 

I will fix it.

 

I will fix it…

 

I will fix it.

 

I will fix it.

 

Yes…

 

 

“…be awake by now?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Apparently.”

 

Shippou was by her side in a moment. “Kagome?”

 

She blinked, trying to remember her dream. When that didn't work, she tried to remember what had happened before she had fainted. There were three people by a well… and one of them… seemed familiar… Sesshoumaru? Did I say that? But… why?

 

Her eyes finally focused on the young man before her. She blinked, then blinked again. “Shi… Shippou?” The name popped out of her mouth before she could think to recognize it.

 

His face lit up like a light bulb. “'Kaasan!” he cried gleefully, throwing his arms around her and holding her so tightly she thought she heard her ribs creak in protest. He held her back by the shoulders to look into her eyes, but his expression fell at the confusion he saw there. “Do you… remember me, Kagome?” he asked hesitantly, seeming to fear the answer.

 

She peered closely at him, and a fuzzy photograph passed over her mind, like a lost memory, a forgotten sight… Trying to focus on that, instead on the young demon before her, she could make out a young boy, with fiery red hair and bright green eyes… The two images, physical and mental, blurred together… until they clicked. “Shippou!” she exclaimed, throwing herself at him in much the same fashion he had to her a second ago. “You've grown so much… I didn't recognize you!” she murmured in his ear before pulling back to find him grinning again.

 

“Oh, `Kaasan, I'm so glad you remember me again! I was so worried…” he started babbling off, before the man behind him came forward to rest a steady hand on his shoulder, instantly silencing him.

 

Kagome looked up at the newcomer, and found herself blinking again. I really have to stop doing that, she thought humorously, they might think there's something wrong with my eye!

 

“Kagome,” the man in white said monotonously, and she realized that he had been the voice that had stated the obvious to Shippou when she had awoken. “Do you remember now?”

 

She paused a moment to collect her thoughts before responding slowly, “I… I'm not sure. I mean, it's kind of fuzzy, but it's there. Um… it would help if I knew… what I was supposed to remember?” She fiddled with the blankets as she said this, avoiding the piercing gaze of the demon.

 

Shippou laughed, but the lord showed no response to her statement, which she had the feeling was his norm. When the fox continued to laugh, Sesshoumaru just turned back to his newest charge. “As Shippou has told me over the past fifty years, you come from the five-hundred year future. Correct?” She nodded. “Your past life - also named Kagome - came here fifty years ago. Her transportation device was an old well in the forest. This is where we found you yesterday.” She nodded again. “When she first came here, she was taken in by a village nearby, run by an old woman named Kaede. This woman was struck by your resemblance to her elder sister, whom had died fifty years before that. Exactly one-hundred years ago.” Another nod. “When a centipede demon attacked the village in search of this Kagome, claiming that she carried the fabled Shikon no Tama on her person, the girl ran from the people to save them. In her escape, she came across my brother, Inuyasha.” She gasped, a flicker of a clicking memory sparking in her eyes. He continued, “She released him from the binding spell placed upon him by the former Kikyo, this Kagome's preincarnation, and he destroyed the centipede easily. He then turned on her, also lusting after the jewel she carried, unknowing, within her. But the elder, Kaede, put a subduing necklace on him, and the Kagome was given the power to make him fall with a single word…”

 

“Sit,” she murmured under her breath with a small smile, and now he was the one to nod.

 

Shippou, who had finally finished his hyper fit of giggles, picked the story up from where Sesshoumaru had left off. “So you guys were stuck with each other, and you - or Kagome, whichever you like - didn't know how to get home. So one day you wandered off, and were kidnapped by a bunch of human bad guys, and the leader - who was actually possessed by a crow demon, but you didn't know that - told his cronies to kill you, but it didn't work, and he kept messing up, and then Inuyasha came in with this cool line like `I thought I smelled a corpse,' and the crow demon ran - or flew - off with the Shikon no Tama! But you hopped on Inuyasha's back with your trusty bow and arrow and you guys went off to get it back, but you couldn't shoot at all, but you managed to get a foot of the bird when Inuyasha got a good hit in once, and you tied it to the arrow, so when the demon was trying to use the jewel to regenerate the foot pulled the arrow along with it! That was really smart, Kagome. Anyway, when the arrow hit the crow demon, it hit the jewel, too, and it was shattered into thousands of little pieces that you guys had to look for then, so maybe it wasn't so smart… But along the way, you met up with me and Miroku and Sango, and learned about Naraku, and all that stuff… So, um, do you remember now?” he asked hopefully, looking at her slightly - or not so slightly - dazed face.

 

“Y-Yeah…” she said, overwhelmed, “I remember more… but I think I just need time for the rest…”

 

Sesshoumaru nodded. “Yes. That would be my supposition as well,” he stated coldly before turning towards the door. “Come, Shippou, let us leave her to her rest.” Shippou nodded and made to follow the lord, but Kagome spoke up in protest.

 

“Wait!” They looked at her expectantly. “Please, don't go… I'm not tired, and I have some questions for you…” Her stomach chose this time to make itself known, and she blushed. “Um… and I think I'm hungry, too.”

 

“I knew you would be, Kagome, so I brought you breakfast!” sang the old woman from the well as she bounced in, a tray of delicious-smelling food balanced precariously on one hand. She was small in stature, but made up for it with laugh lines around her eyes and mouth. Despite her obvious age, she had a youthful air to her, one that drew Kagome to like her instantly, reminding her of her grandmother.

 

Kagome smiled, sitting up against the wall behind her. “Thank you!” she chorused with her stomach as the tray was placed on her lap. “Uh… I'm sorry, but I didn't catch your name…” she implied politely.

 

The woman laughed. “Well, that's because I didn't throw it! I'm Rin. You might remember me better as a child, probably a female one…?” she said with a grin.

 

Kagome grinned back, charmed. Well, at least she wasn't the only human! “Yeah, I think I do… the adorable little girl who followed Sesshoumaru around was you?!”

 

Rin laughed and stood, gathering the tray to go after relieving its contents onto Kagome's lap. “Fifty years does quite a bit, to humans at least,” she said with a mock-glare at Shippou, who appeared no older than Kagome's age.

 

Kagome laughed too, and turned back to the other current occupants of her room, only to find that one of them was no longer current. “Where'd Sesshoumaru go?” she asked in confusion.

 

Shippou shrugged. “Probably off ruling the country…” he said lightly.

 

She blinked. “Huh?” she asked, ever the intelligent one. He raised an eyebrow coolly, and she was suddenly struck by the thought that her adopted son had probably spent the past fifty years with the royal icicle. Shaking the surprise off, she listened to his response to her query.

 

“You thought the `sama' after his name was just Jaken's worshipping? He is the Lord of the Western Lands, as was his father before him. And,” he puffed up his chest proudly, switching from superior-demon-mode to Shippou-mode, “he says that once I've mastered the next step in my training, he'll make me a general! Me! A general! Isn't that great, `Kaasan?”

 

“Um… yea, Shippou-kun, that's amazing! But… what kind of training is that? Reading, writing,” -a shudder- “mathematics?”

 

“Of course not! Fighting, `Kaasan! The only people around here who can do that stuff are the lords and monks, and since Sesshoumaru's the only lord, and they don't really keep monks around a demon palace, and Sesshoumaru's too busy to teach me himself, I'm not gonna bother learning. I mean, who's gonna teach me?”

 

Kagome blinked, slightly overwhelmed. Half of her was wondering how he had said so much with only one breath while maintaining a non-blue skin tone, while the other half was clamoring something she couldn't quite catch. When she got over his inhuman pigmentation, she mentally glared at the clamoring thought until it moved from the tip of her tongue to the part that talked, and blurted out “I could teach you!”

 

He jumped slightly, startled by her outburst after several moments of glaring at the air in front of her nose. “Eh?”

 

“I could teach you! Reading, writing, even a little math. Oh! And I could teach you about what's going to happen in the future! By the way, avoid Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the 1940s if you don't want an uncomfortable acquaintance with your spleen cells… English might be useful to know, too…” She trailed off, lost in thought on what she could teach him.

 

“Well… you'd have to talk to Sesshoumaru about that…” he said nervously.

 

“Okay!” she chirped, jumping out of bed and clapping her hands together decisively. “Here's the plan: bath, tour, then talk to Sesshoumaru! Got it? Now, where are the baths?”

 

He blinked at her, mind racing to keep up with hers. “Um… Take a right outside your room, follow the walkway around the garden, then another right, and a left along the outer wall, and keep going straight, and… there's the bathhouse,” he said absently, wondering how he had forgotten her love of hygiene.

 

“'Kay! Arigatou, Shippou-kun! Now, what to wear, what to wear…” She began searching the room for clothing.

 

“Clothes aren't in here, `Kaasan. I'll have a servant bring them to you in the bathhouse, alright? I have to go now, though. My kendo instructor will have a fit if I'm late again…”

 

“Great! See ya, Shippou-kun!” she exclaimed, bouncing out of the room energetically. He was left blinking after her before following her out and sliding the door shut silently behind him.

 

She walked slowly down the corridor, hand trailing absently along the banister, following Shippou's instructions to the letter, bearing in mind that she did not want to get lost. The garden to her left seemed to have a watery theme, fountains and koi ponds strewed seemingly at random to create an oddly elegant view. To her right was a garden clearly dominated by flora, flowers and grasses and low bushes of every kind covering any spare patch of earth. On a low bench, she made out the form of Rin, weaving some of the flowers into a wreath. The elderly woman looked up from her work briefly to smile and wave, and Kagome responded in kind, but neither made a move to hinder the other in what they were doing, and Kagome continued on her way.

 

She made the left turn, hand now trailing along a towering wall, feet shuffling lazily along the wooden floors of the traditional palace. The floors must be cleaned every day, she thought absently, Seems like a lot of work. I wonder how many servant he has. How's the pay here? Is there a health plan? She stopped her thoughts. Wait a second, I'm in the Sengoku Jidai. There probably isn't any pay or health care at all. It's not like there are unions to demand them! This might take some getting used to…

 

Before she knew it, she had reached her destination. The bathhouse. Scratch that, make it “The Huge Bathhouse”. And it was. Huge, that is. She looked up… and up… and up… and sighed and looked back down, making her way towards the shoji screen doors. She smiled and nodded a greeting to the guards on either side of the building, who in turn gave her some very strange looks before stepping aside to open one of the doors for her, and entered the humid room.

 

Making her way into one of the small cleansing rooms to the side, she quickly discarded her clothing, shivering in the cool air, and scrubbed her hair and skin with the sweet-smelling lump she took to be soap, using as little of the bucket of water as possible to create a decent lather. When she was satisfied with her cleanliness, she sponged down with some more of the water, dumping the remains over her head. Teeth chattering slightly - it was too much to ask for the bucket to be warmed - she wrapped herself tightly in the towel she had found by the entrance and shivered along to the shoji doors leading to the main bathing room.

 

Her eyes widened at the sight of the bath. It was proportional to the building - which, again, was huge. There were several levels of water, each fountaining into each other, all seemingly flowing out of the original rock. The plants artfully lining the edges of the pools gave the illusion - or was it an illusion? - of being a natural hot spring. Which meant… Warmth! she thought with glee, leaving her towel by the side as she sank into the closest pool, seating herself peacefully against a wall to run her fingers through the clear water. How is it possible for water to be so clear? And… smell so good! She took a deep breath, enjoying the light fragrance of various blossoms she couldn't name. They must use smelling salts… or something… Her thoughts trailed off as she drifted into a meditative trance, eyes unfocused, palms floating atop the surface…

 

She was startled into awareness by the sound of sliding doors and shuffling feet. She looked up quickly, to find a demure woman entering the room, head bowed and arms heavily laden with various silken apparels. “Oh! Let me help you with that!” Kagome exclaimed, jumping up and wrapping the towel hurriedly around herself, tucking it in so that it wouldn't fall. She stepped forward, reaching for the clothing, but stopped when the woman shook her head.

 

“Please, don't. I am a mere servant here… I live to serve those such as yourself, Miss…” she trailed off, giving a questioning, respectful glance up at Kagome before returning her eyes downward.

 

“Kagome,” she supplied quickly, stepping out of the way as the servant mad her way to yet another side door leading to a changing room. She followed. “And you are?”

 

“Iyashii, Kagome-sama… No one of consequence,” the woman murmured as she began laying out the various kimonos she had brought with her, three in all.

 

“Everyone is someone of consequence, Iyashii-chan! And don't call me that, I'm no lady. Please, just treat me as you would a friend,” Kagome chirped with a smile.

 

Iyashii smiled hesitantly back before returning to straightening Kagome's choices out. The one on the left was a pale green, emerald a golden embroidery running in a floral pattern along the hems and shoulders, tied by a gold obi. The center was dark blue, lighter blue and silver embroidery in a night sky pattern in the same places as the previous, and tied with a silver obi. The final kimono was white with a red dragon sprawled across the shoulders, red and gold flames dancing down the arms with a matching red obi. After much ooh-ing and aah-ing over the craftsmanship, Kagome settled on the white and red one. Iyashii nodded brusquely, seemingly in her element, as she pulled forth a crimson under-kimono and held it up for inspection, a silent request.

 

Once properly dressed in the layers, Iyashii brought out a comb from her voluminous sleeves and set about taming (read as: “tackling”) Kagome's tangled hair. While she wrestled, the wall of propriety finally crumbled, much to Kagome's relief. “I have a daughter a bit older than you,” she said quietly, smoothing what had once been a mass of knots into something resembling softness before rounding on the other side of the girl's head.

 

“Oh?” Kagome asked, glad to have gotten over the awkward silence.

 

“Hai. Her name is Sango, though she acts more like a son than a daughter. Dreams of exterminating demons, she does.”

 

Kagome trembled at the name. “S-Sango?” she whispered.

 

“Hai,” Iyashii continued, oblivious. “Has dreamed of it since her little brother, Kohaku, was killed by a spider youkai, about ten years ago. She'll be turning nineteen this summer, not that she'll ever entertain the thought of settling down.”

 

“May I… meet her?” Kagome asked, a pleading note unknowingly slipping into her voice.

 

Iyashii shot the back of Kagome's head a sharp glance, wondering at her lord's recent visitor's unusual interest in her daughter. “I… don't see why not…” she said hesitantly, replacing the comb in her sleeve.

 

“Oh, thank you!” Kagome cried, jumping up and throwing her arms around the middle-aged woman.

 

“If… you don't mind my asking, Kagome-san, what is the cause of your interest in my girl?” Iyashii questioned once Kagome had let her go at last.

 

Think fast, Kagome… “Oh, I think I knew her in a past life!” Way to land yourself in the nut-house… “Ano… It's just… I haven't seen any other humans my age around here…” she improvised.

 

She seemed to have said the right thing, because Iyashii was smiling again. “Of course! In the palace of a demon lord, the only humans you must see are the servants and Rin-sama! And as kind as she is, she's hardly your age - not that she realizes that, mind you. Humor her, ne?” Her eyes twinkled in mirth as she pulled a pair of chopsticks from those bottomless sleeves. “These should go nicely with your outfit, Kagome-san.” They were made of ivory, a golden dragon entwined around each, ruby eyes glittering. Kagome gasped.

 

“They're… amazing! It's all amazing! I feel like some hime from a fairy tale!” she cried, turning back around to kneel for Iyashii to do her hair. When she finished, a screen was pulled to the side to reveal a mirror. Kagome stared at herself in awe. Iyashii laughed.

 

“You look like a hime from a fairy tale!” she said proudly. “I'm good at what I do.”

 

“Yes, you certainly are!” Kagome exclaimed happily, moving to hug the woman again, but she was stopped.

 

“You don't want to wrinkle your clothes before meeting with Sesshoumaru-sama! He's a fair lord, but something of a neat freak…” The women giggled.

 

“So, where would I find this `Sesshoumaru-sama'?” Kagome asked.

 

“Oh, it's simple, really. Come, I'll draw you a quick map of the grounds.” Kagome nodded, and Iyashii led her outside to the watery garden she had seen before. They sat together on one of the low stone benches beside a small pond. The water had receded, leaving a short expanse of damp sand, perfect for drawing on. Iyashii picked up a long, thin stick, and made a rough square in front of them. She pointed to one of the sides. “This is the main gate, to the east. Here,” she moved the stick to point to the corner that would represent the north-east, “is the shrine.”

 

“But Shippou said they didn't keep monks or priestesses in a demon palace!” Kagome interrupted, then blushed and lowered her head in embarrassment for her outburst.

 

“We don't, but that doesn't mean we don't worship the gods, and visiting miko and houshi stay on the grounds of the shrine.” Kagome nodded. Iyashii moved her stick to the north-western corner of the square. “Here is the bathhouse, where we have already been.” She moved the stick to the south-west. “The servants' quarters, for those who live here. I live with my family in the village, out in front of the main gate.” She gestured to the general area before what she had called the eastern side, then moved the pointing-stick to the south-east corner. “The barracks and dojo; basic military what-not goes on here.” The pointing-stick was moved last to stab upright in the center of the square. “And here is the main area. There are several stories to this building. The bottom one houses the dining hall, mostly. The next is for guest quarters, then the rooms of the royal family. Since Sesshoumaru-sama does not have a family yet, it houses Rin-sama and Shippou-sama, in addition to himself. At the top of all this is a tower, where his study is to be found. That is probably where he is now.”

 

Kagome nodded and turned to go. “Then that is where I am going next. Arigatou for the help, Iyashii-chan! May I meet Sango some time tomorrow, please? Perhaps over lunch!”

 

“Oh, I'm sorry, Dear, but Sango's out of town now. She should be coming back tomorrow, actually; perhaps the next day would do?” Iyashii suggested as she gathered her numerous supplies into her arms.

 

“Sounds good! I can't wait!” Kagome called back with a grin and a wave as she set off.

 

Iyashii smiled, nodded and waved, before turning to bring the unused kimonos back from whence they came, and to bring Kagome's old clothes to be cleaned.

 

Kagome found the main building easily - it was where her room was, after all -and had jogged easily up the first flight of stairs to the floor housing the guest rooms. She walked more slowly up the next flight, and practically dragged her feet up the last. She was long out of breath as she stood before the decorative shoji screen doors to Sesshoumaru's office; she paused a moment to let her lungs catch up to her, before raising a hesitant hand to ask permission to enter the room and, perhaps, have a few questions answered about what her future in the past would hold.

 

 

(Random) Japanese Vocabulary: (new vocab in italics)
Aa - “Yeah” or “Okay”

Ano - “Um”

Arigatou - Thank you

-chan - friendly suffix
Chichiue - Father (polite)
Hai - Yes
Hakama - pants
Hanyou - Half demon
Haori - shirt/top

Hime - Princess

Houshi - Monk

Iyashii - “Humble” (the name given to Sango's mother/Kagome's servant)
Jikei - Older brother (affectionate)
Kitsune (Kit) - Fox
Koinu - Puppy

-kun - affectionate suffix, usually for a male
Miko - Priestess or Shrine maiden
Neko - Cat
Obaasan - Grandmother (respectful) (“'Baachan” is more familiar)
Ohayougozaimasu - “Good morning”

Okaasan - Mother
Oniisan - Older brother (honorary)
Oyasuminasai - “Good night”

-sama - suffix meaning Lord

-san - respectful suffix (“Mr.”, “Mrs.”, Ms.”, etc.)
Taijiya - Demon exterminator
Taiyoukai - Demon lord
Wabi - Quiet refinement (the name I gave to Kagome's mother)
Youkai - Demon

 

 

Author's Note: FILLER CHAPTER!!! Wow, this chapter (the beginning, mostly) was really hard to write… and it's probably boring, too… but it all had to be said, so I said it. And I'm soooo sorry it took so long… I just had way too much work to do, and absolutely NO free time… and did I mention writer's block? `Cause I had it… but hey, I worked through it, and it only took me about two and a half weeks! Not bad…

~FireFalcon1414