InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Colour Red ❯ The Reminder ( Chapter 1 )

The Colour Red

By The Engrish Spy

Rating: Mature (R if you want to get technical)

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. It is own by Rumiko Takahashi and Sunrise. I am currently borrowing them but not for monetary purposes. Enjoy!

 

The colour red, the colour red and what it reminds me of often in this little life I lead. I am not saying it is that of a despairing, tired and boring life that I lead. In fact my days are filled with so much light and joy it can make one person sick or fill another up.

The Red however was a reminder, a reminder to what I did not have. To what I could never have as long as I walked this earth and forever beyond it. Sad but true this account is what is left of my joy, pain and life. Little as it may be it is mine and I will always take care of what little I do have till the day I die.

 

~*~

 

Blackness coated the little village that was situated just west of the capital of Edo. Sleepy villagers set about extinguishing lamps, calling in their husbands and checking their children one last time calling to Baku to eat away their children's nightmares.

Kagome Higurashi looked over the little village from her seat outside the farmhouse that she now called home and gave a small sigh. She watched with a weary heart. There was nothing that could harm them magically now that the jewel was safely tucked away and purified.

She, however, did not know what consequences that the purification of the jewel would lead her to. She would have never known that the well would have closed on her, disallowing her to time travel back to the future. This would mean no more modern convinces that traveling back to the future would allow. She was now stuck in an era that she had more or less lived in for the past three years.

It had taken one nasty fall to the bottom of the well and a bruise or two to find out these consequences. In being forced to live in the past, things had happened way beyond her control. First there had been the loss of her week miko powers for a strange reason that her friends had not been able to determine why such a thing would happen. Second because of these losses of powers, a marriage of convenience was to be arranged because it was not acceptable for a woman of her age to be alone and working on her own.

She had remembered that day almost as vividly as the day she appeared out of the Bone Eater Well and glanced upon the face of one trapped Inuyasha. She could remember every last detail of that day that seemed to forever change her life.

 

“You must perform some kind of ceremony. You have no family here and there will be your honour to protect,” Argued the elder of the village

 

“But what if I don't want to get married?” Kagome moaned.

 

“You must at some point. It is unbecoming of a maiden to live alone if you are not training to be a miko,” Kaeda made the point patting the young woman on her back.

 

“Not many will touch her though,” another elder seem to interject.

 

“What about the wolf demon prince? He seemed to be captured by Lady Kagome's presence?” This was asked by the first elder.

 

“He's with his bitch now,” Inuyasha muttered and rolled his eyes as they seemed to ignore him

 

“Is there no other?” The second elder asked again

 

“I'm still in the room,” Kagome protested.

 

“There must be someone? Even though the hanyo seemed to mention that the wolf prince is mated to another that only seems to be a rumour,” The first elder spoke from his deep thoughts

 

“I will not let that bastard lay a hand on her,” Inuyasha yelled at the first elder.

 

“You could marry me momma?” Shippo threw in cheerfully

 

“The monk could marry her?” The second elder said in a happy voice.

 

“Oh sweetie you can't marry momma, she takes care of you.” Kagome looked down at Shippo and gave him a sad smile.

 

“I think of the lady Kagome as my sister and in taking her as my wife it would be seen as incestuous in my eyes and most likely in hers,” Miroku protested in a calm manner.

 

“Kagome is still here with us Hoshi,” Sango said in an annoyed tone.

 

“It's ok I have to agree with him and I think he has his interests elsewhere,” Kagome said with a smile to Sango

 

“I'm not letting that bastard of a monk touch her either,” Inuyasha mumbled and then crossed his arms in front of his chest.

 

“If you had it your way I wouldn't marry anyone Inuyasha,” Kagome said the words dripping with sarcasm

 

“Your damn right I wouldn't,” he eyed her with a heavy glare.

 

“You know I'm not your piece of property,” Kagome argued.

 

“They are at it again Hoshi?” Sango asked the Monk as she moved from Kagome's side.

 

“She will still have to marry,” the first elder huffed.

 

“She is yet young though there could be someone to claim your hand Kagome,” Kaeda said trying to reassure the elders.

 

“I protect you from all the demons of this land you week girl,” Inuyasha puffed out his chest in pride.

 

“I wouldn't be so week if I hadn't have lost my powers you stupid fool,” Kagome snipped back

 

“Let's get out of here, my dearest Sango?” Miroku asked the demon hunter.

 

“Bah you are still a week pathetic excuse of a shard hunter,” Inuyasha threw the insult at Kagome.

 

“I.AM.NOT.WEEK!” Kagome grinded out.

 

“The only available male in this room I can think of right now would have to be Inuyasha,” came the epiphany cries of the second elder.

 

“Marry the half-breed?” the first elder asked with uncertainty laced in his voice.

 

“You were week when we started this stupid adventure together and you are even weaker now that you have lost your miko powers,” Inuyasha continued to insult Kagome.

 

“SIT BOY!”

 

There was silence

 

“It doesn't work anymore bitch!” He laughed in her face.

 

There was a resounding sound of flesh hitting flesh fast and hard.

 

“WHY DID YOU DO THAT?” The scream.

 

“I… I don't know?” the reply.

 

There was another sound of flesh hitting flesh fast and hard as well as a collective gasp from the observers.

 

There was a silence between the two fighters.

 

“I…I…I…” Stammering.

 

“That will teach you to hit me, Bitch!”

 

There was silence and then the quiet sound of sobbing.

 

“She can't marry him,” the first elder whispered to Kaeda and the second elder.

 

Silence continued forever and ever until that moment when the sobbing ceased and the sniffling was continued to a minimum.

 

“Keh, If no one else will do it, then I volunteer to do it,” Inuyasha spat out.

 

Kagome looked up at him with red eyes, a little stunned and as if she might boil over again. She wiped her nose with the sleeve of the new kimono that had been given to her just yesterday.

 

Inuyasha watched as a funny play of emotion played across her features. It was as if she was internally debating something, however he looked past it knowing it was a trait Kagome was good at producing at the best and worst of times.

 

“I will take your hand in marriage and it will only serve to protect you and your honour,” He said with his back turned now to the rest of them.

 

There was again a period of silence and then came the sad voice he knew far too well.

 

“I…I accept your proposal Inuyasha,”

 

 

It was a “Marriage of Connivance” she had once said off-handily to Sango one afternoon as they strolled down to the river to wash clothing. However bitter she had been about that day, she played the part of dutiful wife, cleaning the home, washing the laundry, cooking dinner for her husband and helping in the rice planting and transplanting when need called for it. She was not perfect but she tried hard.

Sitting on the porch for a little longer, she heard a familiar voice call to her from the house.

“Oi, Kagome come in, `cause if you get sick, I'm not taking care of you at all,” The voice barked out.

She ignored it and continued to look out across the land with a heavy heart.

“Oi,” the voice drew nearer until it was right next to her, “Are you coming in or not?”

“I'm not going to get cold,” she said nonchalantly.

“Famous last words,” the voice replied with a gruff laugh.

She tore her eyes away from the land and looked to the direction of the voice. She noticed that her husband of three years was now sitting next to her cross legged on the porch, with a look of contempt permanently etched on his brow as he watched her.

“Spring is coming too quickly this year,” she said and then turned her attention back to the land and the village.

“Doesn't mean you should ignore the fact that you still happen to be human,” Inuyasha said with a snort.

She let a little stifle of a giggle leave her lips and then let it disappear as quickly as it came. She looked back to Inuyasha and began to study him slowly. Gone were the red haori and hakima pants that were a staple of his being not three years ago. Now in their place was a blue wool kimono embroidered in white with the crest of the Higurashi name, for that was now his clan name while in service of the Daimyos.

Most of his hair was pulled back at his nape with a tie to keep it out of his face and his ears stood proudly upon his head. His lower half of his body was now clad in black hakima pants though he still went bare footed for almost everything, earning him the nickname Barefooted Demon among the samurai of the province.

His trusted sword of the old days was now replaced with a new katana that had been given to him from the Daimyo himself for his help in a war less then a year ago. He looked grand and regal yet still retained that look of a farm owner and one who regularly help and maintained his land.

“It's been three years,” she said softly.

“Where the hell did that come from?” he asked looking at her incredulously.

She smiled softly and then bowed her head, “We've been married for three years already.”

“Yah so what about it?” he looked off in another direction.

“It's been three years since I've been able to go home,” she said.

“That's a long time,” he said mocking her.

She smirked and then looked up at him, “The same as always.”

He smirked back at her, “Look I prepared some of that tea I picked up in Edo from my last visit. Would you like a cup?”

She nodded and then gathered herself up from her position on the porch. Taking one last glance across the land she followed Inuyasha into the farm house for a cup of tea and then off to bed. However she did not happen to see the ghostly glowing snakes approach the house slowly.

~*~

Dreams are a comfort to some, on the other hand they only can comfort so much. It was a dream that I lived in most of the time. I was complacent to think that this farm, this life that I had created for myself despite the harshness of the time. Though in some forms I knew it would shatter one day or another. I did not know how soon it would come or when but I was not really ready for it when it did come.

That is why the colour red reminds me of so much. It reminds me of blood. He was coated in it the day he came back from his first battle for the Daimyo. Red the colour of the sky on that cool fall day that I asked him for the greatest gift I could ever ask him for. Red for the colour of a long forgotten uniform that was a reminder of the past. The colour of love.

Never would there be a time when I would forget this. Colour is way we define most things and this is how I defined my life to this point. A point that I don't know where it will go but only can hope it will go further.

 

TBC…