InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Synthetic Twilight ❯ III ( Chapter 3 )

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

Kagome looked at the large pack sitting beside the door leading out of her apartment and considered trying to fit that last pack of ramen into the bag. It was hopeless, she figured, the bag looked like it was about to burst. Glancing down at the packs covered with bright plastic, she smiled wanly. She hadn't touched ramen in years, and never bought it when she went shopping for groceries, why did she bother to try to bring it now?
Inuyasha...
The smile disappeared and she tossed the packages into the trash. Why the hell was she bothering to go back again? It was safer here. She didn't need anyone to save her here, goddammit. Some nights when she was younger, she would gaze at magazines that she had brought from her time in the firelight and wish that she could've had a normal life. She had one now. A normal life where she worked all the time and didn't really have time to go out, but it was safe, she could afford things that she wanted and needed, and she wasn't getting chased around by demons that were determined to have her for lunch!
"They need you."
Kagome grimaced and grabbed the TV remote, "I hate frogs", she announced to the empty apartment.
"...and in other news; TRAPNESTS new cd Trigger is on sale today! Please stay tuned, we have a special interview with band leader Takumi at..."
Kagome sighed and turned the TV off at the sound of someone knocking on the door. Oh well, I'm sure Ayumi's recording it. Who could be at the door? I don't usually have people over often. "Coming!", she called out before jerking open the door to stare dumbfounded at the old man on her doorstep.
There stood her grandfather, looking out of place in a regular pair of black pants and white linen shirt carrying what looked like a large leather-bound book at his side. He stared up at his grandaughter in annoyance, "I come all this way and you're going to stare at me like a fool? Let this old man in!"
That seemed to momentarily snap Kagome out of her stupor, "Y-yes grandpa, please sit down." It was odd, her grandfather never left the shrine on his own without her mother dragging him off once in a while to visit family.
Settling down on her couch, her grandfather seemed to nod once with his approval and then promptly demanded some green tea.
"Don't tell me that you don't have any sencha in this place! Oooh what sort of grandaughter have we raised!", she could hear him moaning from the living room as she made her way to the kitchen.
She came back into the room with two cold cans of green tea, "Sorry grandpa, but this is the best that I could do at the moment." She felt her lips quirk at the sigh her grandpa gave before grumbling that it would have to do. After a few minutes of awkward silence, she sat the can down that she had been fidgeting with and faced her grandfather.
"So, what's with the book you brought by?" she mentally congratulated herself for not asking him directly what he was doing at her apartment.
"Ah! I almost forgot! This book has been in the family for generations! I, uh, just recently found it in the storage shed and thought that you might be interested in seeing it" he said brightly, and if she didn't know any better, he puffed out his chest a little while handing her the book. "I thought it was unusual, because you didn't see books like this from that period of time", he lectured. "Most records were kept on scrolls, but as you can see," he said cheerly while pointed at the book, "this is bound in leather and that wasn't generally practiced until later on in the century, it even has some illustrations in the book. Well stop staring at the cover, girl! Open it, open it!'
She picked up the book and began to leaf through the pages, she was glad that her grandfather had gotten so excited over some find in the shed enough to visit her at her apartment, but she could hardly see what he could be so excited about. The book went over the legend of the shikon no tama, Inuyasha, Kikyo, the "mysterious priestess from the future" and the rest of the people that they traveled with during those two years on the search for the shards, but that was about it. The only sort of illustration that she saw as at the beginning of the book that showed a pretty dead on painting on Kikyo, but over half of the book was blank, yellowed paper. Setting the book back on the table gently, she smiled at her grandfather, "Thank you for showing this to me, grandpa".
Her grandfather gave her a confused look, "Thank you? You didn't even look at the whole book!" He picked the book back up and openned up to one of the blank pages, "See there? Doesn't that look like someone you know?"
"Grandpa, are you feeling alright? There's nothing on that page."
"N-nothing? You don't see anything?"
Kagome answered slowly, her grandfather was getting on in age, she'd have to tell her mother about this later, "No... it's just a blank page."
Her grandfather seemed to think it over for a minute before closing the book and standing quickly, "Then you were not meant to see it. I'm sorry, I should be going back to the shrine, it's getting late."
"Ah, grandpa! Have dinner with me! I'll make some oden and then I'll drive you back to the shrine, it'd make me feel better!"
"That's okay, I'll be fine. I need some fresh air anyway. Thank you for the tea," he said before shutting the door and leaving a confused grandaughter in his wake.
Kagome blinked at the closed door for a second, "I wonder what that was about," she said as she reached for the TV remote.
"... premiering at number one this week, BLAST's Lucy!..."

Kagome's grandfather sat on a relatively empty train heading back to the shrine staring at the book open to the page of an illustration of Kagome in slayer's garb. "Grandpa, are you feeling alright? There's nothing on that page."
She couldn't see it...