InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Remembrance ❯ Home Sweet Home ( Chapter 2 )

A/N: Hello!! *waves* So, this is chapter two. Before we start I would just like to say that I'm pretty new to writing fanfiction, so it would be extremely helpful if you left a review. Try not to flame however, as it is a pointless waste of your time, seeing as I will either delete the flame, or flame you right back. So DON'T DO IT!!!!!!! However, I will absolutely adore you if you review, without, flaming.

 

 

For reference, italics mean a dream, flashback, or thoughts. Hopefully, it shouldn't be too hard to tell which is supposed to be which.

 

 

I should also add that I estimated Souta's age in the anime to be about ten, and since this is, believe it or not, a canon universe, he is now fifteen.

 

 

I guess that's all I have to say, so without further ado, here's chapter two!

Vi

 

 

Disclaimer: Oh! I forgot to mention this in the last chapter, but, I OWN NOTHING!!! Muahahahahaha!!!!!!! And don't you forget it!!

 

 

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Chapter Two

Home, Sweet Home

 

 

Kagome awoke in the library very confused. Why had she fallen asleep in the middle of the library? She looked around, and leapt up noticing she was the only one present. They must have closed and not noticed me! She hurried from the building, not noticing that her library bag was now flapping wildly beside her, no longer held down by a weight.

 

 

What a perfectly insane dream. I mean, where did that come from? Maybe I shouldn't have had so much pudding last night.

 

 

SMACK!!

 

 

Faces all along the crowded street turned up to watch as the grocery bag containing a carton of eggs flew up into the air and triple somersaulted before landing squishily on the top of a passing armored car. Damn! Kagome cursed silently from her position on the dirty sidewalk as she witnessed the death of the eggs. She hauled herself up with the help of a nearby trash can and looked around for the person she had hit.

 

 

A middle-aged woman was retrieving the rest of her shopping, the bags which had not hitched a ride, from where it lay on the ground. Kagome scurried to help her and was rewarded with a kind smile.

 

 

Ten minutes later she was fumbling with her keys at the door of her apartment, clutching her newly acquired mail. She dropped her keys on the island in her kitchen, tossed her purse and empty library bag in the general direction of the now-stained coffee table, and flopped back into her cushy armchair. Glancing over the letters in her hand, one drew her attention almost immediately. Warily, she opened it, finding an eviction notice. With a groan she realized that the last check she had written had obviously been hot. This month had apparently been her last chance, seeing as how she hadn't been doing too well on her payments over the last year. What am I going to do now? I don't have a job. How do I get out of this mess? Where do I turn?

 

 

Home. A voice echoed at the back of her mind.

 

 

Kagome jumped. “Who said that?” She glanced around her small drab apartment warily.

 

 

There was no one there.

 

 

Odd. Maybe I'm losing my mind. Well, at least then they'd put me in a mental institution, and I wouldn't have to worry about paying bills. She chuckled darkly.

 

 

§§§

 

 

That night Kagome dreamed again.

 

 

She was home. Walking up the ridiculously long steps leading to the shrine. At the top, she turned slowly and saw her mother, grandfather, and brother sweeping the leaves which were drifting down all around them in a swirl of color. Her mind thaought that she would probably go and help them, but her body kept on turning, until she was facing the spooky old well house. Her body was moving towards it.

 

 

She was inside. Before her stood the well. But, strangely, it was not sealed. It stood completely open to the elements. As a child she had always been rather scared of the well, but now she was walking confidently down the stairs towards it, as though she did this every day. She thought for sure that she would just look into the well, and then leave, but her dream self didn't intend to let her off that easy. She walked directly up to it, climbed up on the side, glanced down briefly, and jumped.

 

 

Internally she screamed, expecting to crash into the ground at the bottom, but instead she found herself engulfed in a blue light. She was floating through a haze of blue, weightless, drifting along towards a light far ahead. Then, suddenly, she was landing at the bottom of the well. She glanced up, expecting to catch a glimpse of the well house ceiling, but for a fraction of a second saw a clear blue sky instead. Then, it was blocked out as someone leaned down over the edge and beckoned to her. She could not see the person clearly, but her dream self obeyed. She climbed up using vines which had certainly not been there when she'd jumped. When her hand grasped the rim, another hand covered it and helped her out. She glimpsed long claws where there should be fingernails. She straightened up outside the well, in front of her was her helper. She could not see his face, for the sun shining directly behind him left his face in shadow, and leaving only his startlingly red outfit clear to her mind's eye. She felt the pull of reality, and as the dreamworld started to fade she made out the outline of none-human ears perched on the top of the stranger's head.

 

 

Kagome blinked up at her ceiling. Another weird dream, and rolled over, drifting into sleep once more.

 

 

§§§

 

 

“Now boarding all rows, flight 267 to Tokyo. Now boarding flight 267, to Tokyo.” Nervously Kagome handed her ticket to the flight attendant at the counter and walked along the narrow hallway to the plane. Yay! Window seat! An absurdly happy grin spread over her face, earning stares from other passengers. She blushed.

 

 

Kagome still wasn't sure exactly why she had suddenly decided to go home, the idea just sort of hit her, literally, when she awoke on that morning two months ago.

 

 

Kagome opened her eyes to blackness. She panicked and sat up as far as she could, (which was about three inches) smacking her head on something very solid, which turned out to be the underside of her bed. Her head was wedged into the minute space beneath said bed, and her feet were sticking into the air, propped against the wall. How exactly she had ended up in such a predicament was lost on her. What she did know was that as soon as she crawled out from underneath the bed, her mind randomly presented her with an image of her mother. Tears welled unnoticed in her azure orbs. I want to see Mom, and Grampa, and Sota. I want to go home. She swiped a hand over her face.

 

 

They have been begging me for years to move back. Maybe they're right. Maybe I should. She had originally moved to America with the hopes of finding a more exciting life than the one she had led back in Japan. Yeah, look where that got me. My life is positively dripping with excitement. She had to concede that leaving her country had definitely been a bad move, but hey, at least she got to make use of her second language. Decided she pulled out her cell phone. “Hello? Hi Mom, it's me...Yeah, I was wondering if my room is still open...”

 

 

It had been fairly easy to get rid of most of her belongings, and pack everything else into a few suitcases. She used the little money she had saved up to pay for a one way ticket back to her home country, and then she was outta there! Metaphorically. She still had to sit through a rather long plane ride. And then there was all that nonsense concerning baggage, and how easily it could go astray.

 

 

§§§

 

 

“Souta, I'm HOME!” Kagome's voice rang through the shrine house for the first time in years.

 

 

“SIS!” A 15 year old boy came running out of the kitchen and tackled his sister to the floor. Kagome struggled vainly to shove him off, but his death grip around her neck did make it a bit hard.

 

 

For a few moments they wrestled on the floor until they were interrupted by their mother pulling them apart and telling Souta to start taking his sister's things up to her room. The rest of her stuff had gotten there a few days before, so she only had a couple suitcases filled with “necessities.” Souta groaned when he lifted the first bag, dropping it on his foot. “What the hell did you put in here?!”

 

 

After smacking the back of his head for using language she replied by walking sedately into the kitchen. He grumbled, but did take everything up to her room.

 

 

§§§

 

 

What on earth am I doing? Kagome blinked. How had she ended up in the well house? All she remembered was falling asleep at the dinner table last night listening to one of Gramps's stories about a famous and ancient miko who had done something with a weird rock a long time ago. It was actually sort of an interesting story, but she had been awake for almost 21 hours, and she did want to sleep in her old bed for the first time in two years. She assumed that Souta must have dragged her up to her room after she fell asleep. But then why was she now standing in front of the old well? She never sleepwalked, so why would she start now?

 

 

She didn't feel her feet moving, but she was now standing right next to the well. She gazed at the sutras covering the planking which formed the lid of the well, and it vaguely struck her that she remembered from somewhere that this well, wasn't supposed to be covered. Her hand reached out and gently lifted the edge of the lid, expecting to meet a resistance, but instead it lifted smoothly, the sutras binding it in place falling away to curl lazily through the air. They reminded her of leaves in fall, spinning down, to land in a reddish gold pile. And from within the pile a small head of red hair suddenly popped, emerald eyes sparkling mischievously...

 

 

Her hands brushed softly against the ancient wood of the well. Her index finger extended, tracing along the grain along the grain of the wood, eyes staring into the mystical depths below. Her hand's grip on the well tightened, fingers clenching against the dark wood, as she slowly lifted herself to sit on the edge. She swung her legs over and paused. This is insane! I could kill myself, I could hurt something vital. Hell, I could break a freaking nail! Still, her body didn't seem to care about her misgivings, and continued on its chosen path. Slowly, Kagome's body was lowered, until she was hanging onto the sides with only her hands. She gasped slightly as her left hand slipped and she almost fell. I don't think this is such a good idea... She tightened her grip and started to lift her body back out of the dark and confining area. It was just too spooky in there. And she still wasn't quite sure how she had ended up in there in the first place, and besides, if she was going to pull a stunt that could mean serious injury, it would probably be a better idea if she pulled it, when there were others around to drag her sorry ass to the hospital.

 

 

Crack! Something snapped in the doorway of the well house. Kagome attempted to whip around, so that she was facing the outside world, and lost her hold with one hand. With a small gasp she swung off of only one hand, the other clawing wildly at the wood, attempting to regain her hold. She managed to grab onto the thin lip protruding from the edge, and had pulled herself up far enough to gaze for the source of the noise. In the doorway of the well house, a shadowy figure stood, silhouetted against the starry night sky. With yet another gasp Kagome lost her grip and fell into the darkness of the well. A bright blue light flared from within the depths, shining up the staircase, and defining the empty doorway. Out on the street a figure in a black trench coat hurried along towards a sleek black Mercedes. The excessively large hood could not disguise the elated smile contorting the figure's face.