InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tangled In Love ❯ Prologue ( Prologue )

~Prologue~

 

It had been nearly three years since this epic tale began. Three years since Higurashi Kagome was dragged down an ancient well on her family's shrine and pulled through time to the Feudal Era of Japan. Three years since her encounter with the angry hanyou, Inuyasha and three years since that fateful day when the Shikon Notama, the Jewel of Four Souls, had been shattered and scattered in many countless pieces around the country. Three years since the unlikely pairing; a vengeful and highly volatile hanyou and a modern-day miko priestess, paired up to search for the shards of the Shikon Notama. Only Kagome could sense the shards of the jewel, whilst only Inuyasha was strong enough to take them back. For three years, this pair developed an unsteady friendship, perhaps even a budding relationship just as unstable as the hanyou and as uncertain as the miko. 

Along the way, they had encountered many enemies, yet it seemed for every enemy they happened on, a friend was just as close. First, it was Shippou, the orphaned kitsune child who bonded with Kagome until she became something of his surrogate mother. Still naïve, he never did let Inuyasha forget it if the hanyou upset the miko.

Then, along came Miroku, a sometimes lecherous monk with a good heart and occasionally questionable methods. With Miroku came the introduction of a new youkai, named Naraku, who would become the group's most formidable enemy. Naraku had placed a curse of Miroku's family, a Wind Tunnel in their right palm, fated to consume the wielder over time.

Next to join their group was Sango, an expert youkai exterminator who had lost her whole family in a trap of Naraku's. She became fast friends with Kagome and a great ally for Inuyasha. But her soul was miserable, for her younger brother, Kohaku, was possessed by Naraku, and his body was being kept alive by a Shikon shard embedded in his back.

Not only enemies and friends decorated this unlikely group's journey. Rivalries sprang up and jealousies were matched. First came Kikyou, a former lover of Inuyasha, back from the dead and bent on having Inuyasha's life for her own. Once a protector of the Shikon Notama, her and Inuyasha's love had been spoiled by the jealous Naraku, who desired Kikyou for himself. He set the two of them up, leading to Inuyasha's entrapment on Goshinboku and Kikyou's death.

Then came Koga, a wolf demon with two Shikon shards in his legs, to challenge Inuyasha's claim on Kagome, the fierce protective streak he had for the miko. Koga proclaimed to love Kagome, first for the fact the she could help him find more shards, but later, Kagome's caring and passionate personality wore the wolf youkai down until his heart yearned for the miko. Unfortunately for this charming youkai, her heart was already taken by an unsuspecting hanyou. 

And so, after these years of battling, the group had finally gotten the edge on Naraku. They destroyed his incarnations and attacked the body of the beast itself. Of course, Naraku had made many enemies over the years, enemies that were willing to see past previous differences with Inuyasha's group and join in to destroy Naraku finally. Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha's youkai half brother, had joined the fray and Koga and what remained of his wolf pack had come along too.

Losses on the good side were unfortunately inevitable. Kikyou, living on borrowed time in a borrowed body, had foreseen the battle becoming increasingly more difficult and had sacrificed herself, giving back what little of Kagome's soul that she had and passing on her miko powers back into Kagome. As tortured as Inuyasha had been to see his former love back alive again, it had been painful for him to let her go a second time, but somewhere deep in his heart he knew that he no longer loved Kikyou, but loved her memory. With her physical body gone, he knew that he could finally begin to move on from her.

The flowers that bloom in adversity are the most beautiful of them all, though. Naraku had been defeated, the Shikon Notama was nearly restored save for the two shards that Koga still had and a missing shard out in the wild still. Sango had been reunited with her brother, who was now no longer trapped by Naraku. Yet, his body was weak, having been kept active by the shard in his back. It had been excruciating for her to watch Kagome pick the shard from him, knowing that her brother could die right then and there. Miroku had had to hold her back while tears streamed down the brave slayer's face. Kohaku had woken up long enough to tell his sister that he loved her before he slipped into a deep unconsciousness. 

Now, three months had passed after the destruction of Naraku. It hardly seemed real for the group, who had spent such a long time hunting after the youkai that they now all felt a sort of emptiness, a lack of purpose. It seemed that they all kept looking over their shoulders, still watching for him, as if waiting for him to come back out of hiding, that their epic battle with him had been yet another puppet, another stunt. But it was over, finally and while they were all still on edge, they felt it. Inuyasha felt a stillness in the air he never knew, Kohaku was improving, walking around, Miroku's Wind Tunnel had disappeared, the curse lifted and Kagome felt the ominous presence Naraku always left gone. It was indeed, an uneasy bliss for the group, a blip of peaceful times for them that none of them was accustomed to.

Kagome had graduated from high school on time and was faced with a great decision; which era she would continue to live out her life in. It seemed improbable that the well, the wrinkle in time, would stay open forever, indeed, even that it would stay open much longer now that her purpose in this era was nearly completed. And that decision raised some tension between her and Inuyasha, and the strange relationship the two of them had. An angry hanyou from the Feudal Era who settled all his disputes with bloodshed and battle and she, a modern-day Tokyo high school graduate. They were separated by five hundred years of technological development, customs, morals. While the relationship they had was unsteady, unspoken and against all odds, it seemed that neither was readily willing to let the other go.

And it is on that premise that our next tale begins. 

 

A/N: Inuyasha and Co belong to Rumiko Takahashi. Don't plagiarize. This story is written in a “roleplay” format, in which I play one character and my co-author played another. In order to preserve the raw magic of the story, very little format editing has taken place. Hopefully, this doesn't take away from the experience for you. Enjoy.