InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Phoenix Blade: Time Lapse ❯ Well-ness Test ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: I still don't own Inuyasha … damn! Takahashi-sama does, plus the idea for this storyline I'm riffing on.

 

The Phoenix Blade: Time Lapse

Chapter Two: Well-ness Test

 

Present day

 

The swirling wind rose, pulling at the robes and ruffling the silver hair of two figures silently balancing on the ridgepole of the house. The taller of the two, his face framed by rippling white fur, blinked and sighed, dropping a clawed hand onto the red-clad shoulder beside him.

 

“And so it begins, brother….”

 

Inuyasha shrugged and closed his amber eyes. “I can't stand the thought of not seeing her for two years…”

 

Sesshomaru squeezed Inuyasha's shoulder sympathically. “You've waited five hundred years for her, brother; it's only two more.” Inuyasha moved irritably, growling. “You did a good job protecting her the last time - she'll be fine. You know you can't take the risk of running into yourself, or everything we've planned will be for naught. We'll only have one chance to get it right.”

 

“Keh! I know…it's just…I won't be there…”

 

Sesshomaru curved one of his rare smiles and gave another quick squeeze before dropping his hand. “Come, Inuyasha. We have to meet Koga and Shippo to check the perimeters. The safety of this area is even more crucial than ever.”

 

Inuyasha looked at the well enclosure over his shoulder. “Kagome…” His eyes fell on the crimson silk kimono lying crumpled on the stairs. He bounded down, stooped and gathered the fine material in his claws. Quickly, he rolled it up, and was about to shove it into his haori when her delicate scent washed over him. Closing his eyes, he buried his face in the silky fabric and inhaled deeply. The cloth was still warm from her body. He clutched the garment to his chest, stifling a groan, as desire for the wearer made his knees go weak. He fought for control, steadying his breathing. Carefully tucking the bundled kimono into his haori, against his skin, he turned and in one fluid leap, gained the rooftop after his brother.

 

Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж

 

Sengoku Jidai

 

Kagome found herself suspended in a world composed of glowing blue light. It shifted and swirled, shimmering like sunlight on water, swathing her like a veil. It thinned, frayed around the edges…and was gone. She found herself in the dank bottom of a deep pit, surrounded by - piled bones? “Eeeyew! What is this place…I'm outta here!” Helpful vines trailed down from the pit's roughly squared edge, at least fifteen feet above her head. Not pausing to assess anything, she grabbed the nearest long vine, and started climbing, bracing her booted feet against the damp walls.

 

Grabbing for the top lip, praying it wouldn't come loose in her hand, she swung herself over the side - and nearly fell back in astonishment. Instead of the ancient musty walls of the well enclosure, she looked on a meadow of flowers, surrounded by brush and tall trees.

 

What in the hell…! Houston, we have a problem…

No freakin' kidding.

 

Instinct and training took over. Notching an arrow to her bowstring, Kagome moved cautiously, tensed and all senses on alert. All she heard was birdsong, and the lazy buzz of fat bees going about their business, but she felt exposed out in the expanse of innocent flowers. Seeking cover, she quickly slipped into the underbrush. Stepping carefully, avoiding sticks and loose rocks, she soon found herself in another, smaller clearing.

 

An enormous, ancient tree stood sentinel, sunlight filtering through its massive branches to allow green, dappled light onto the grassy floor. Kagome's strained senses began calming as she circled the wide bole of the trunk…and stopped dead in astonishment.

 

For the second time in ten minutes, her senses spun around, cackling insanely.

 

It was a boy. No, more a man, with long silver hair stirring in the breeze. Eyes closed - sleeping? No. A weathered slender shaft protruded from his chest. She recognized that, at least. It was a long-range arrow, its almost non-existent fletching indicating that it had been there for a very long time. The tree seemed to be cradling him, and the vines enshrouding him did so very gently, almost protectively.

 

There was an air of complete and utter unreality pervading this glade. Kagome shook herself all over, and firmly pinched herself. “Ouch!” Okay, she was awake. Purposefully, she put up the bow and arrow, and strode across the clearing. Climbing up the tangled vines and tree roots, she stood right in front of the silent figure, studying him.

 

He was about her age, she decided. Cautiously, she reached out to touch his cheek, brushing the hair out of his eyes. He was very handsome, almost otherworldly, with his beyond-fair colouring. Her eyes, attracted by a waving silver tendril caught on the bark, traveled up the curve of his head…

 

Ears.

 

Soft, velvety, furry…

 

Dog ears.

 

She couldn't resist. Her fingers found those appealing little triangles, and she rubbed them gently.

 

His ears were warm.

 

Startled, she let go, then pressed her ear against his chest for any sound or movement. Nothing. She gently tapped his cheek, noting the coolness of his skin beneath her fingers. “Hey, wake up!” No response from the demi-god. The arrow shaft drew her eyes like a magnet. “There must be quite a story behind this…” she ran a fingertip down its length, and was completely startled by tiny pinkish sparks - or dust motes? - showering down.

 

Kagome was disturbed from further investigation by a sudden rush of shouting voices, running feet, and violent movement in the undergrowth to her left. Re-notching the arrow, she jumped down to the ground, taking up a loose, alert stance.

 

Armed villagers poured into the small clearing, the leading rank stopping dead at the sight of her, creating quite the snarl of curses as they tried not to damage each other with their weapons. Once they sorted themselves out, they continued to gape at her, just like the crowd in the audience hall this morning. Her eyes narrowed. This caused them to sway back just a little, and then an elder stepped forward, obviously the elected spokesman. She assessed him at a glance. Bare feet, short coarsely-woven working kimono, hair tied back into a short topknot, armed with a rice scythe. She scanned the rest of the men. All were carrying museum-piece farming implements, all wore topknots, all obviously were not salary-men. As soon as the headman opened his mouth, she knew she definitely wasn't in Tokyo anymore.

 

“ K-Kikyo-sama?” The accent was antique, no doubt about it. Luckily she hadn't dozed off too often in Sensei Watagame's historical literature class, when he'd insisted on reading medieval poetry in the original form. She'd just have to bluff her way through this until she got a grip on whatever reality prevailed around here.

 

First of all, she wasn't going to be mistaken for someone who may have been the reason for all those sharp implements currently being waved around.

 

Kagome lifted her chin, and glared witheringly at the whispering, hesitating mass. They collectively took a step back. “My name is Kagome Higurashi. Who wants to know?” She deliberately pointed the arrow directly at the elder. He scuttled backwards into the crowd, and was suddenly shoved to the side, as the crowd parted again for an aged woman, dressed as a … priestess? Kagome groaned mentally, and steadied her breathing for a clean shot, drawing a bead on the woman's shoulder, just in case she had to wound this one in order to make a break for a more defensible position.

 

The obviously senile, or possibly insane, old priestess stomped directly towards her, not even pausing when somebody yelled, “Kaede-sama, is it a demon?!”

 

“Nay! I told ye before! I sense a strong miko's aura!” she called over her shoulder, continuing purposefully towards the silent archer. She stopped about ten feet away, staring hard at Kagome, who did her level best not to flinch under the intense scrutiny of that one fierce eye. She was trying to not lose track of the men, who were carefully edging sideways, in a clumsily obvious attempt to surround her.

 

“Halt, or the priestess buys it!” They froze, and some took a step or two back. At this range, the needle-point could go right through the old woman's shoulder, probably splintering bone into shrapnel. Better to use the sword, but to get it, she'd have to drop her defense for a split-second. The two women stared each other down for several heartbeats. Finally, the elder spoke.

 

“Ye have the face of my sister - yet are not the same. What name are ye known by, child?”

 

Going from lady to child certainly didn't improve her standing, but the men stood down slightly. Kagome relaxed her bowstring the tiniest fraction.

“Kagome. Kagome Higurashi. You are…?”

 

“Kaede, priestess and protectoress of this village. Ye are armoured and appareled like a lord, carry a valuable katana and obviously know how to use a bow, but ye do not speak as we do. Have ye traveled from far away, Kagome-sama?”

 

Oh, man, you have no idea…

 

She nodded curtly to the priestess. “Would ye accept the hospitality of our village for the night, Kagome-sama? I would speak with ye more, as we do not have many visitors through these woods, and I am curious to hear the news from far away.” The men watched her closely, holding their collective breath.

 

Reaching an instant decision, Kagome relaxed her stance and bow simultaneously. Smiling, she bowed to Kaede. “I might as well accept your offer - my plans for the evening have definitely changed!”

 

Ж Ж Ж Ж Ж

 

 

Kagome found herself seated in a plainly-built wooden hut, being warmed on the outside by the glowing hearth-coals and on the inside by a bowl of soup. She'd made sure that Kaede hadn't slipped anything into the pot by waiting until the old woman had taken the first few sips. She didn't quite trust the old miko, but another part of her was as relaxed in the woman's company as if she'd known her for years.

 

The puzzling thing was, maybe she did.

 

The walk to the village had taken only minutes, and was most unsettling. She'd shortened her long stride to accommodate Kaede's obviously limping pace, with the grumbling men trailing along behind. Upon entering the boundaries, old women gasped, and bowed deeply to her until their kerchiefs nearly touched the ground. One very old man, hobbled by terrible injuries to his legs, actually fell at her feet, crying incoherently. When Kagome recoiled in surprise, Kaede intervened. Ashamed, Kagome assisted the man to his feet. He clutched her hand like a drowning man. “Domo arigato, Kikyo-sama, domo arigato!” as if it was the most amazing thing he'd ever had done for him.

 

Once seated in Kaede's hut, the smaller village children came to peek at her from the edges of the doorframe. One, bolder than the rest, stepped in and tip-toed close to her, studying her carefully. She eyed him back just as critically. Assured of something, he retreated, and loudly told his audience, “Okaa-san was wrong. That's not Kikyo-sama, that's a lord!”

 

Kagome had chuckled at the child's confident pronouncement on her gender. “Well, I guess it's an improvement on being mistaken for your sister, Kaede-sama.” She turned to look meaningfully at the older woman. “Before I tell you anything about me and where I come from, I'd like to know why I seem to be very well known, although I've never been here before today.” Kaede had stirred the fire, and insisted they have something to eat first. Kagome had a feeling this was going to be a long story…

 

Now, an hour or so later, well-stuffed with both soup and information, Kagome was having trouble digesting both. Once her ears had adjusted to the quaint pronunciations and speech patterns, Kaede's story was fascinating, to say the least. How her sister Kikyo was born a priestess, and had been entrusted with the protection of the Sacred Jewel, the Shikon no Tama, due to her great spiritual powers. How Kikyo used her sacred arrows to destroy demons that lusted to acquire the Jewel and use its legendary powers for evil. Just before her own death, fifty years ago, from terrible wounds sustained in protecting the village from a rampaging demon, how she'd directed the villagers to burn her body and make sure that the Shikon no Tama was also consigned to the flames of the pyre.

 

Kagome rolled her teacup around in her hands, biting her lip in thought. Half-remembered stories told by her ojii-san about the Shikon jewel skittered through her brain, but refused to hold still long enough for her to grab them. Realizing that the old priestess was regarding her with intense interest, she asked the first thing that sprang to mind.

 

“What caused you and the villagers to charge up the hill into the forest this afternoon?”

 

“I sensed a tremendous surge of power; a very particular type of miko power, actually. That kind of energy level will attract every demon in the vicinity - I wanted to determine the source and protect it if I could. I was very surprised to see ye, I must say!” Kaede smiled warmly at Kagome. “Ye are enough alike my sister to be mistaken for her. The energy burst, your face, your familiarity with the bow all lead me to conclude that the prophecy my sister made just before her death has come true!”

 

“And what would that prophecy be?”

 

“That the Shikon no Tama would rise from the flames like the Phoenix of Legend, bringing with it a new protector.”

 

“Uuuuhh…and I suppose you think that protector would be…”

 

“Ye are Kikyo's reincarnation, and the Jewel resides within your body at this very moment!”

 

“Hunh?!” Kagome scooted away slightly from the old miko's pointing finger. “That is so freakin' unlikely…I'm not anybody's reincarnation! I don't believe in that kind of crap, anyways…are you laughing at me?!”

 

Kaede was chuckling quietly. Kagome thought briefly of making a break for the door, as the old woman's tenuous grip on sanity had obviously been sundered. She was caught off-guard when a sudden burning sensation in her chest nearly doubled her over. She ripped open the haori, staring dumbfounded.

 

A violet-pink glow was emanating from just below her left collarbone.

 

Kaede's remaining eye widened until it nearly popped. She smiled, very softly and very knowingly, as she admired the light. Kagome slowly raised her head to meet the priestess' eye.

 

“Ummm…Kaede-sama…what the hell is this?”