InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Remember Me ❯ The Colors of the World ( Chapter 3 )

The Colors of the World

Kagome hefted her yellow backpack over the rim of the well and pulled herself out. She half expected to see Inu Yasha standing there, arms crossed and yelling at her for being late or some other such trivial thing.

It was the first time she climbed out of the well glad he wasn't there to meet her.

Instead she was greeted with silence; it wasn't eerie or deafening, just silent. The landscape had changed in her absence. Still wild in its beauty and unlike anything she had ever seen.

There had been a time when she had wanted nothing more than to live here. A time when leaving her family behind hadn't been so painful of a prospect if it meant she could live here, where the nights were black and the stars brilliant, where the air was fresh and untainted, and where things were simple. It had been where he was.

But things had changed and she had gone home.

Now she was back.

Adjusting the straps of her backpack, Kagome headed down the well worn road that led to Kaede's village.

Would he be there? Was she strong enough to face him? Would she fall apart?

Kagome, too preoccupied with the questions that were racing through her head didn't notice the peculiarity of the people as she entered the village.

They were scurrying about, rushing around in a sort of desperate urgency. If Kagome had bothered to snap herself out of her past induced stupor she would have seen the sheen of panic in their eyes.

Like animals they sensed an impending doom. And their more primal instincts told them to run.

Kagome finally came back to reality when her feet stopped, out of habit, in front of Kaede's hut.

Once inside she found Kaede, hunched over the fire, evidently in the process of cooking something. Kagome's stomach growled and her mouth watered. Kaede had always been the best cook.

Just as she was about to open her mouth and announce her presence, Kagome was knocked over by a speeding blur of orange and brown.

Hitting the dirt roughly and letting out a whoosh as the wind was knocked out of her, she tried to discern the jumbled mass of fur that was currently hugging her. The frantic and excited squeals made it impossible for her to determine exactly what the creature was saying.

But then it stopped moving and looked up at her. Green eyes filled to the brim with tears, not of grief but of joy. Realization slammed into her, the force of it making her eyes tear, or perhaps they were joyful ones of her own.

In a delighted shriek, she brought the little kit into her arms for a tighter embrace.

Shippou. She had forgotten how much she had missed him.

"Kagome Kagome Kagome Kagome" The child chanted, as if repeating her name reinforced the fact that she there and real.

"Shippou, I missed you so much" and hugging him closer to her she let the tears spill down her cheeks. She had told herself she wouldn't cry anymore, but this was different, she was happy.

Reluctantly she let go of Shippou and stood up, brushing the dirt off of her clothes.

"Why did you go?" The small, childish voice asked. She visibly paled, but she didn't cry.

Leaning down she laid a kiss on his forehead, and brushing a lock of hair out of his eyes she smiled warmly. "Because I had to." Now was not the time to relive the past, now was not the time to drudge up old memories that still haunted her.

Turning to face the nearly forgotten woman in the hut Kagome opened her mouth once again to speak to Kaede, but was stopped by the look in her eye. There was no shock, no surprise at her sudden appearance. Happiness of course, but something else shadowed the old woman's one eye.

"You knew I was coming." Kaede nodded her head.

"How?"

Turning to remove whatever it was she was cooking from the fire Kaede stood up. "I don't know child, I just knew. There's something new in the air, something heavy, something dangerous, something evil. Can't you feel it, can't you see it?" The old woman finished as she pointed outside of the hut.

Kagome walked outside in the direction that Kaede had pointed and took in the actions of the frantic villagers.

Some had packs on their backs and their children in tow; they were leaving; while others were simply running around with no obvious destination or purpose.

But it wasn't just the people who were being affected she noticed. The sky had begun to turn a gloomy gray, the dark and ominous clouds above casting a foreboding shadow on the land below. Once full and luscious trees were left barren, their leaves falling despondently from their branches. And the flowers, try as she might she could not find one single flower in sight.

It was as if the colors of the world were melting away, slowly fading and melding into one dismal and dreary color.

Something strange was happening. Something bad.

"This was why you came back. Specifically why you are here I do not know. But there is a new evil, darker than before."

Kagome narrowly missed being knocked down by a group of running children. They were afraid, their fear surrounded them, permeated the air.

"You saved us before child." Kaede continued as she joined Kagome outside. "You've come back to do it again."

Kagome's only response was to nod. How much pain would she be made to endure this time around? Would she survive it? She would have no one to protect her this time. No angel with silver hair and golden eyes, no hanyou who possessed a powerful sword meant to protect her. She would be on her own.

Perhaps that was the most terrifying thought of all.

But she knew she didn't have a choice. This was her duty, her destiny, these people needed her.

With that resolve in mind Kagome gave another brief nod, a silent acceptance of her newest challenge. Idly fingering the shard she had hastily stuffed in the pocket of her jeans, Kagome looked at Kaede, a new and sudden realization filling her.

She realized that they had an even bigger problem, a question that needed to be answered.

Because Kagome held only one single solitary piece of the Shikon no Tama. Kaede must have seen the fear in Kagome's eyes because she quickly spoke up.

"What is it child?" Taking her hand out of her pocket she quietly extended her hand towards Kaede, opening her fist to reveal the shard she held.

Kaede's reaction was instantaneous. Fear. Now they were both afraid.

"If you have one piece" Kaede said in a hushed and fearful whisper.

Closing her fist Kagome quickly pocketed the shard once more. Looking out over the rapidly changing landscape she shivered. Not because she was cold but from something else. Something she couldn't name, something she couldn't see. Yet she knew it was there, watching, waiting. She had what they wanted.

She had done it before. She could do it again.

Remembering the half finished sentence Kaede had spoken, Kagome finished the thought that was on both of their minds.

"Then someone else must have the rest."

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

Inu Yasha sat alone, brooding, as he often did during this time. The full moon, there was nothing else he could do, nothing safe at least. One hand clutched the sword at his side, ready to use it at the first sight of danger. It would have been useless, but it was a habit.

He hated this night, despised the time when he transformed into a full blooded human, hated with every fiber of his being the weakness he became.

There had been a time in his life when he had been willing to become this weakness, had been willing to sacrifice his dream of becoming a full demon for her. Because he had loved her.

But she, the other woman in his life, had never asked it of him. Never.

A hand on his shoulder brought him out of the thoughts that had become his constant companion on these nights.

In an absentminded gesture, he reached up and the covered the hand with his own. He didn't feel what he grasped, but he remembered.

She had tried to comfort him that night. She had laid one timid and small hand on his shoulder.

And for the first time he had let her. In silence, he had let her soothe him.

But the person standing behind him wasn't her, wasn't Kagome. It was Kikyou, his first love, his lost love, and his new love.

Kagome had given him so much and had asked for so little. It was ironic really that when she had been here all he could see was Kikyou. And now that she was gone and he had been reunited with the one who had been so brutally taken away from him all he saw was Kagome.

Would this be his curse? To always have one but yearn for the other?

It had started slowly. In the beginning he was too wrapped up in Kikyou, too blinded by the miraculous situation they had found themselves in. A second chance was rare, a gift, and he had fully intended on appreciating it.

But every now and then a stray thought would cross his mind, a stray thought of her. At first they had been shapeless with no tangible form; the only recognizable feature the midnight blue eyes, eyes that still haunted him.

Then it had gradually increased, the fog of his memory began to fade, the image became clearer, her face filled his mind.

Kagome. He missed her.

He remembered that day when it had hit him, so hard and so unexpectedly that he had nearly been brought to his knees. He had something offhanded, something rude to Kikyou. Even now he couldn't recall what exactly his words had been.

But he remembered cringing as soon as the words had left his mouth, he remembered bracing his body, preparing himself for the pain he knew was coming. An apology was already falling off his tongue; he was hoping she would hear it before she launched into her chant that would invariably render him useless until the magic power of that one little word wore off.

He remembered the blank look on Kikyou's face and then her laughter at his strange antics. She hadn't understood and she still didn't.

Kagome had given her a soul, she had given him Kikyou. It was what he had wanted, what he had been fighting for since he had learned of the deception.

But as he looked up into her face, into the brown eyes he desperately wished were blue he wondered.

He wondered if what he had really wanted, what he truly desired, had been in front of him the whole time.

What might have been? He didn't know the answer to that. And he never would because he had so carelessly let her go.

And it was just now starting to hurt.

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

The trees had been completely and utterly destroyed, smoking black corpses of their former selves.

Heaps of youkai bodies were strewn about the clearing. Charred and lifeless, burned beyond recognition, they were shapeless, decaying mounds of flesh and bones.

A fire hadn't done this. Something else had, something evil. He could feel it, the overwhelming potency flooded his senses and thickened the air. It was almost tangible.

Something had stood in this field and destroyed everything around it with a power and a force he did not recognize.

They had missed something. This, whatever it was, had managed to elude them, deceive them.

Had Naraku been merely a diversion? Merely an illusion created by this new creature to give it time to hatch its own devious plan?

He couldn't say how he knew. He just did. Something was changing; something was growing, a new danger, a new evil. He felt it, and he smelled it. The scent that mingled with the smoke, a scent that was vaguely familiar, it tickled his nose and nagged his brain, yet he couldn't place it.

Sesshoumaru let his golden gaze fall across the broken landscape one more time before quietly taking his leave. He walked away from the clearing with a sense of unease and urgency.

The world was on the brink of war.

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

As soon as the demon lord disappeared from sight a cloaked figure stepped out of the shadows and into the light. The dark folds of the cloth hid its features and distorted its shape.

It walked stealthily through the destruction, heedless of the scorched ground and steaming corpses.

It had a purpose, a goal, a dream, and nothing would get in its way. Soon it would have the power, soon it would have everything.

But not yet.

Because around its neck, masked beneath the black layers of cloth hid the pink glow of a nearly completed Shikon no Tama.

Nearly complete, missing one elusive sliver.

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