InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Shippo and the Magic Wand ❯ Interlude - Kagome ( Chapter 5 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Shippo and the Magic Wand

By Alesyira

Canon Universe, Continuation

Summary: Kagome returns home and makes a surprising discovery.

Rating: This chapter? G for mild language. :)

Author's Note: Interlude, third-person POV. It didn't quite fit with the way the rest of the story is written, but it's important enough that it had to be posted, regardless... I'd briefly considered keeping this part out of the story altogether so that I could use it as an opener for the sequel to this fic, but that idea was promptly flushed when I tried to work around not having this part in SatMW.

Interlude - Modern Era

The thrum of old power pushed through the stale air of the small shed, flashing dimly as the energy of the well was activated. The ancient magic carried with it a young woman from the modern era, zinging through her clothes and belongings and lifting her hair with supernatural breeze. Around her neck were two things: a chain that held the still-incomplete Shikon no Tama and a thin string that carried a small leather pouch. The pouch contained a single round seed, the color of sapphire and small as a pea, which was so rare that no one in this day and age would know what sort of plant it had come from.

But today, something different happened in that moment of suspended time where she floated in the void between then and now. The shiver of ancient magic warmed this small seed, filling it with energy that it had waited decades to receive. As the young woman's feet touched the bottom of the dried well, the seed's casing finally cracked open, allowing the smallest sliver of a sprout to creep out. The plant made no further motion after it had been freed, for it had expended all of the energy that it possessed in breaking through its own shell, and so it lay dormant once more in that small leather pouch.

The sound of shoes scraping against wood echoed in the small shed as Kagome climbed up the ladder inside the well. Her backpack appeared first, tossed carelessly over the rim before her head came into sight. She pulled herself over the weathered wood, straightening her dress before she stood and retrieved her pack. She half-ran up the small set of stairs that lead to the sliding door, pulling them aside to let in the bright rays of sun.

She smiled happily at the sight of her brother sweeping the grounds nearby and walked up to greet him. “Back so soon, Sis?” he asked, wiping his brow with the back of a hand.

“Yeah, I wanted to pick up some clothes for Shippo to wear,” she said, ruffling his hair.

“Shippo?” Souta asked, batting her hand away from his head. “I thought he was a little bitty guy..?”

Kagome chuckled a bit, shaking her head. “No, something happened recently, and he's growing faster than we can afford to buy him new outfits. I thought it would be a good idea to get some of your old stuff for him to wear until he stops getting taller.”

“Oh, I get it. Well, Mom's inside cleaning up from lunch. I bet she knows where all those boxes are,” he said, pushing the broom across the stone tiles once again.

“Thanks, squirt,” Kagome said, sneaking in a final hair-ruffle before running to her front door. She pushed open the door and slipped off her shoes, calling out, “I'm home!”

“Kagome, dear, you're home early. We didn't expect you back for at least another week. Are you hungry?” her mother greeted, wiping her hands on an apron.

“Not really. I've come home to get some of Souta's old clothes, if that's okay.” Kagome took a few moments to tell her mother what had happened, and together they fished out several sets of clothes that would help the young kit in his growth through sizes up to Souta's height, just in case.

A few hours had passed before mother and daughter had finished packing a bag full of spare clothes for Shippo to wear, and by this time, the sun had set. “Will you be staying the night, Kagome?” her mother asked as they stepped into the kitchen.

Kagome slumped at the kitchen table with a half-smile. “Yeah, that would be nice. You know, I think I came down with something minor while we were gone,” she said, pressing a hand to her own forehead. “I haven't noticed a fever or anything, but every once in a while, I feel like I'm going to be nauseous.”

“Oh, honey, maybe you should go lie down for a while. I'll make you something mild and bring it upstairs. You should have said something sooner,” she admonished, ushering the Kagome toward the stairway. “Go on, you deserve some quiet time.”

“Alright,” she said, trudging up the stairs. Kagome entered her room with a miserable sigh, suddenly feeling even worse than she had before. She pulled off her shirt and pants and tossed them into the laundry basket near her door before she slipped on a set of soft gray pajamas. She pulled her hair back out of her face with an elastic band in case she got sick, then crawled into her bed to bury her face in her cool pillow.

A groan of misery spilled from her lips as her stomach turned, and she was suddenly very glad that she'd missed lunch that day. As a second thought, she pulled the Shikon chain from her neck and piled it on the nightstand, not wanting to be near the broken artifact while she was feeling so sick. `With my luck, I'd end up accidentally doing something bad to the shards,' she smirked, rolling over to face the wall. She clasped the small leather pouch for a moment in her hand, rubbing the softened material against her cheek before tucking it back into her nightshirt.

Her mother came in a short while later with a cup of warm soup and a few crackers, leaving them beside the now-slumbering miko. She gingerly tucked a loosened strand of hair behind one of Kagome's ears, smiling down at her daughter who'd lived such an amazing life. “Sleep well, sweetheart,” she whispered, stepping silently out of the room and closing the door behind her.

Hours later, Kagome woke with a start. Something had disturbed her rest, but as she looked around, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She relaxed back into her mattress, pulling the covers up to her chin as she tried to let her senses extend to feel out the shrine grounds. All seemed quiet and peaceful in the area, and she rolled over to try and coax herself back into the blissful land of nausea-free sleep.

She sighed in exasperation as she realized that she was far too hot under the covers to get comfortable. She kicked them off of her body and propped herself up on an elbow, looking longingly at the closed window. Her room seemed to be sweltering! She grimaced as she wiped the sheen of sweat from her face. If she'd had a fever before, then being sweaty was a good sign that it had broken and she was getting better, but she felt so annoyingly hot that she had to open the window and get some air.

The window creaked as she pushed upwards, allowing the cool air to spill over her face and upper body, but one glance around the darkened and peaceful grounds was all she needed to realize she wanted to get outside, badly. She turned and retrieved her piece of the Shikon from the nightstand before she crept to her doorway, opening it slowly to avoid making any noise as she made her way to the hallway. Everything within the house was silent as the three occupants continued to sleep on, unaware of her movement as she moved down the stairs and toward the front door.

She slipped on her shoes and slid open the door, sighing as the cool air washed over her to bring her a measure of comfort. She stepped outside and slid the door shut behind her before making her way across the stone path that led to the Goshinboku, where she sat against the trunk with another sigh of relief. As she sat outside in this cool air against the tree that had stood for so very long, she finally felt at ease. It wasn't long before she dozed off once again, the right side of her body supporting her weight against the tree as she curled her knees to the side.

“Kagome?” She shifted and frowned at the interruption in her sleep, but the muddled female's voice sounded vaguely like her mother. She cracked an eye open to find the source of the voice, only to be assaulted with overly bright sunshine.

“Ugh, Mom, close the shades...” she mumbled, closing her eyes again.

“Kagome, are you feeling okay?” her mother asked, shaking her shoulder slightly.

“Yeah, feeling better now,” she yawned, stretching her arms and legs. Something felt different, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was...

“Kagome, I can't close the shades, because you're trying to sleep outside,” her mother said.

“Huh?” she asked, sitting upright. She blinked and looked around in confusion, forgetting for a moment that she'd walked outside hours ago to get relief from the heat of her room. “Oh, right. I must have fallen asleep out here,” she said, rubbing her head sheepishly.

“Are you sure you're feeling better now?” her mother asked, pressing a hand to her forehead in concern. “I need to leave for a few hours with your Grandfather, and I don't want to leave you here all alone if you're still unwell.”

“Where did Souta go?” Kagome asked, standing.

“It's Wednesday, and he had to go to school. Why don't you go inside and eat something? I made sure your supplies are packed and ready to go whenever you decide to leave, just in case you needed to go back soon.”

“Oh, thanks Mom,” Kagome smiled, giving her a hug. “You're always ahead of me,” Kagome grinned, kissing her mother's cheek. “Have a good day today, and don't worry about me. I'm feeling much better now. I've got to get those clothes back to Shippo this morning, so I'll leave after I get a bath and change.”

“Alright, dear. Give me a call if you need something else while I'm gone, and I'll bring it home for you this afternoon, okay?” She waved goodbye to her daughter as she walked toward the shrine steps, and she soon disappeared from view.

Kagome sighed happily, looking around the grounds lit with bright, early morning sunshine. She felt much better today, regardless of the fact that she'd managed to sleep outside instead of in her comfortable bed. She felt like she'd had the most wonderful dream, and she couldn't keep the smile from her face as she skipped toward her front door. Her cheer seemed almost excessive, considering how very yucky she'd felt the night prior, but waking up feeling great was probably enough justification as long as nobody saw her acting like a child. She was practically an adult!

She chuckled as she ran up the steps, intent on getting a quick bath and breakfast before heading back to the Feudal Era. Hopefully Shippo hadn't grown out of his clothes while she'd spent the night at home. She twisted the faucets to start filling the bath before she pulled off her shirt and pants, tugging her hair free of the drooped ponytail. As she flipped her head forward to gather her hair up into a loose bun, the leather pouch, or what remained of it, fell into her view and bounced against the sparkling chunk of Shikon.

The soft leather had been somehow shredded, and she held it carefully between her fingers while she looked at it in confusion. The pouch was now empty, of course, since there really wasn't much of a pouch left to hold anything. She frowned, remembering that the night prior, the pouch had been very much intact as she'd held it in her hand, but something must have happened while she slept. The seed was gone, lost somewhere along the path between her room, the tree, and the bathroom... And there was a very slim (slightly impossible) chance that someone or something had stolen the object overnight, but she hadn't had someone approach her unawares since...

“OH MY GOD!” she shrieked, catching sight of her reflection in the mirror.

She screamed and twisted and turned, trying to reach behind her in a complete panic as she'd just noticed where the blue seed had gone. There was a bright blue vine attached to her back!! It seemed to anticipate her motion, curling in on itself and shifting easily to avoid her grasping fingertips. Kagome was in a state of shock: The vine was extremely dangerous to humans, and the fact that it was against her skin could mean...

She paused, mid-reach...

The vine uncurled itself, extending wide, bright blue leaves in a slow, non-threatening motion to wrap around her shoulders to give her a slight squeeze. The old woman's words from before came to Kagome's mind as she tried to calm herself: `the oil it extracts can paralyze any human'

Yet... she was able to move. She'd been able to move freely the whole morning, without any strange side effects. She felt perfectly fine, and her first thought was that the old woman had exaggerated the dangers of the vine...

She gingerly touched one of the wide leaves that lay against her bare shoulder, stroking it in curiosity. She felt the vague sense of happiness flow through her, alien to the thoughts and confusion that she currently felt. `How strange,' she thought, brushing her fingertips against it again. It was almost as if she knew it enjoyed her touch.

“That's impossible,” she muttered, twisting around to look at her back in the mirror. Sometime during the night, the blue vine had burst from the confines of the pouch and worked its way around to latch onto her back, reaching out with tiny tendrils and leafy extensions from her shoulder blades to her hips. `How it is holding itself in place?' she thought, trying to turn just right to see where it had attached itself.

It shifted then, pulling a few sections away that had blocked her view, and she gasped. It had (in a strange coincidence) shown her where it had burrowed into her skin, anchoring itself along the middle portion of her spine. She shuddered as she watched another few tendrils come into sight momentarily, only to disappear as well beneath her flesh without a twinge of pain. “Okay, this is freaky,” she murmured, pinching her arm hard to make sure she was really and truly awake. “I'm not dreaming?”

Her shoulders were squeezed again in some strange measure of comfort as she continued to examine her reflection in confusion. She frowned as she watched a few of the leaves shift and extend, resettling against her skin once they'd grown a few inches. `I can either stand here and watch this thing move, or get on with my morning...' she thought, trying not to think about the plant currently smoothing its length along her back and shoulders. `Bath, then back to Kaede's, and hopefully she or Sango will be able to do something...'

She stood there and watched the bathtub continue to fill, constantly aware of the leaves sliding against her skin as she tried to piece together any sort of idea as to what or how this had happened. It was unnerving, wondering if she had made a mistake by keeping the seed so close to her body, or if her greatest mistake would be to sit here and allow the vine to freely roam the expanse of her back as she spent the time preparing for another possibly-lengthy journey to the feudal era.

She tried to rationalize her fear away, keeping in mind that the plant, were it truly as dangerous as the old woman had made it out to be, would have surely killed her by now, either through the poison or paralysis or seizures or whatever would result from being in constant contact -- as well as its tendrils burrowing into her skin. `Is it really a harmless plant, or am I somehow immune to its dangerous properties? It doesn't seem like the old woman would have me retrieve a harmless seed as part of my `cure' if it did nothing at all, so there must be something that it was required for...'

As she sat, lost in her thoughts and the comforting sound of the bath filling, Buyo, the long time family cat, padded into the small room and looked up into her confused face. Kagome vaguely registered the vibrant shade of blue as it slid into her vision, a wide leaf barely brushing the unsuspecting feline across the nose. The cat immediately froze and slumped to its side, completely immobile. Kagome gasped and dropped to her knees to reach out for her poor, hapless cat, pulling Buyo into her arms.

“Buyo!” Kagome said, panicked that her beloved cat would be unable to breathe-- or that its heart would stop... or something else so terrible that would cause its untimely death. The cat suddenly blinked and yowled, jerking free from her grip to race from the bathroom in terror. Kagome remained on the floor, staring at the place her cat had disappeared around the corner as she tried to process what had happened.

The vine had paralyzed her cat with the barest touch. Even though the debilitating effect had faded away quickly, it was still blindingly obvious that she was currently playing `garden' to a potentially dangerous plant that had to be dealt with as soon as possible. She stood, turned off the bath faucet, and left the bathroom, forgetting to let the water drain as she ran into her bedroom.

She threw on a pair of pants and a shirt, trying to ignore the creepy way the vine worked to help pull the material down over her head, and raced down the stairs, barely taking the time to grab her bow and the two bags that had been packed before she flew out of the front door, running full speed toward the well.

She yanked the doors to the shed apart, taking no extra time to pull them shut behind her as she vaulted into the inky darkness of the time portal that would pull her five hundred years into the past. The familiar, ancient magic surrounded her, pulling lightly at her hair and tingling through her skin as she floated for a moment, but as soon as her feet touched solid ground, she was climbing the worn stone walls, using various roots and creeping foliage for handholds.

Regardless of the extra bag weighing her down this morning, her climb seemed less difficult than usual, as though she weren't lifting her full weight at all. `Must be the adrenaline rush from fear for my friends, family and fat, lazy pets...' she thought as she pulled herself over the edge of the weathered wood. She almost breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that Kaede was but a short distance away...

Her head shot up in horror at the first sound she heard.

“Kagooomeee~!!”

`Oh no... Shippo...!'

AN - Right, there we go! Now, on to Part Four, which I expect to have done soon, but then again, nothing ever goes as I think it will.