[CHAPTERFIC] Mukashibanashi Chapter Three (InuYasha)
Title: Mukashibanashi [FF.NET Chapter Three] [ Writing Journal Previous Chapters ]
Pairing: KagomexInuyasha
Rating: PG-13 (For Language)
Genre: Action+Adventure/Romance/Drama/Humor/Alternate Universe
Word Count: 2,554
Summary: [A Tale of Long Ago.] Inuyasha is an ordinary junior high student who has a most extraordinary fifteenth birthday. Pulled into the past, he unseals Kagome, a hanyou who is just looking for some answers. An AU variation on the series.
Note: Three updates in three weeks? Epic! Thanks to all who are reading. A few of you had some questions. I won’t answer any here, but all will be revealed in future chapters. This chapter is a little more dialoguecentric, as there is no actual action in it.
Gakuran- A Japanese male school uniform. Some schools have blazers and some have gakuran. Kagome’s middle school in the manga has gakuran, so I thought it would be appropriate for Inuyasha’s to be the same.
Kagome stiffened as Inuyasha finished his request, still holding her sleeve. “I can’t do that. I can’t come with you.”
“Why not?” He released her kosode and crossed his arms.
Kagome closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath. She opened them and let herself survey the village, far away enough that she couldn’t make out many details in faces or clothing, but close enough as to where she could see what was happening. Farmers were visible out in the fields, women in yukata were carrying baskets in one arm, and a few were carrying babies in the other arm. Barefoot children tumbled about the caked dirt that made up the well-worn path between the two strings of huts. She ignored the pang in her chest, the way her heart ached at the familiarity of it all. It looks like nothing ever happened here…
“Neh! Why do you need to know? I just can’t,” Kagome reasoned, forcing a smile.
Inuyasha scratched the back of his neck. “Is it because you’re a hanyou?”
Her blue eyes widened. “How did you… well I guess it’s obvious.”
“Bachi Hebi said it, remember?” He shrugged.
Sensing a perfect excuse to worm her way out of entering the village (and it’s not as if she’d be lying), Kagome nodded. “Most humans are afraid of hanyou.”
She glared at him, and he suppressed a gulp. “Yes, sorry for all the terrible things I’ve done to you, like saving your life and taking you to civilization when you were bleeding to death.”
“…Wasn’t bleeding to death.”
“Whatever! You were injured and you needed help. I still saved your from Bachi Hebi either way,” she snapped.
“Oi, sorry! I wasn’t being serious,” Inuyasha defended, raising his hands. Kagome glanced at him, catching his expression and perceiving that he was being truthful. She pressed her bare feet into the cool damp grass, shifting back and forth on her heels.
“It’s exactly that, Inuyasha.” His name still sounded strange to her, and the irony of him having a name that was far more appropriate for her, struck her every time she said it. “The strength a hanyou has alone, is enough to scare people. That’s not even getting into the whole youkai thing…” She felt terrible manipulating him, attempting to use her heritage to get him into the village without her. This was not in the least because, as frustrating as he had been, she considered him genuine. He was a good person. She needed more good people in her life…
“So it’s not safe for me to go into the village with you. They could hurt you, if I’m with you. Do you understand that, Inuyasha?”
He shook his head in the negative, gaze level with hers. “Since I got to this… wherever the hell I am, I’ve only run into two things. A giant monster snake who wanted to rip me open… and you.”
“Well there’s a lot of people in the village so…” She cut herself off, hoping desperately that he’d listen. I can’t risk going into that village. “It’s just not safe.”
“Keh! I think I can judge what’s safe or not.”
Kagome’s eyes averted to the bloody wound on his side. “Are you sure about that?”
His nod was firm and assertive. “I am.”
“Why?” She asked, and in spite of herself, her voice broke.
“Sheesh. Don’t cry, woman.” He backed away, hands in front of him. “Where I come from, there’s no such thing as youkai or half youkai or anything like that. I don’t really care who or what you are. You’re the only safe thing I’ve met since I got here, like I was saying. I trust you more than I’d trust any random miko in a village right now.”
“Inuyasha…” She wiped her sleeve across her eyes.
“And it’s not that I really care or anything but… I don’t want you running off on your own when you’re all upset and confused and shit.” He glanced down to his shoes. “I mean I’m confused too, so we may as well stick together.” He raised his eyes to meet hers again.
Kagome looked to her hands and fidgeted with her fingers. How can I say no to him? I don’t know where he’s from… well Tokyo I guess, wherever that is. I don’t know what he’s doing here... It struck her that despite the fact that he was from a country ‘very far away,’ he spoke the same language as her. He knew what a youkai was, even if they didn’t exist where he came from. Her bewilderment over the boy grew.
But to be fair, he knew as little about her as she did about him.
“Oi, we going now?” He asked, assuming that his words had changed her mind.
“I can--- “
“You can. Come on.” Inuyasha smirked. “If they do anything, you can just kick their ass.”
Kagome actually found herself stifling a laugh. “Neh, I can’t do that!”
“Well then we can run. I don’t care.”
“But you’re hurt…”
“I’m fine! We’ll steal the stuff we need and run, if you’re so worried about it.”
At that, Kagome let loose and laughed. Inuyasha’s mouth quirked up in a smile.
“And if we have to run, I can carry you, right?”
Inuyasha’s smile turned into a scowl, albeit an amused one. “Bah! No way in hell.”
Kagome stopped grinning and her expression became pensive. I’ll have to go sometime. If I don’t…. I’ll never be able to find any answers… about what happened here.
“We going now?” He asked again. Kagome blinked, pushing those thoughts aside, and replied affirmatively. “Good then.”
Slowly at first, then speeding up as they walked, the pair began crossing the distance towards the village. As before with their path through the forest, the two walked in silence. This time, Inuyasha broke it. “Gonna ask you a question.” He slowed up. “Hanyou means you’re half youkai and half…”
“Human,” Kagome finished. She accentuated each of the two syllables, as it was deeply important to her that he not mishear.
“Yeah that’s what I figured. Makes sense.” He pushed a piece of long hair behind his ear. “Don’t see the big deal. There’s plenty of people of two different races in my… country. I mean it’s not like this obviously but… you know, it’s not a big deal.”
Kagome’s smile was soft, not big and jubilant, but still exultant in a subtle manner. “Thank you, Inuyasha.”
He flushed, unsure of how to handle her emotional response. “Bah it’s… no problem.” Attempting to lighten the mood, he spoke again. “But you’re still scary.”
“Eh? Come on!”
“Hey you!” A low voice interrupted them, and Kagome quickly identified it as a young farmer working in a field directly outside the village. “Can I help you?” Neither of them could miss the way he gave a furtive suspicious glance towards Kagome.
Thinking quickly, Inuyasha walked up to the villager. “My name’s Inuyasha and I’m a…” His mind wandered back to when he first came through the well, to the blast of power that came from his hands. Spiritual power? “I’m a priest.” Well, it worked, although his clothing didn’t remotely resemble the garb of a priest (and thinking about it, he refused to wear anything that did).
“And the youkai?”
“Hanyou,” Inuyasha corrected. “I fight youkai who attack villages, and she uses her strength to help me out.” Kagome’s mouth dropped in surprise at his swift thinking. He was belligerent, reckless, and a bit tactless. But stupid, he was not.
“Very well…” The farmer conceded. “What may I help you with, Inuyasha-sama?”
“I’m injured, and we’d like to request some medicinal supplies from the village Miko,” he spoke, mock formally. Kagome found his attempt at eloquence quite amusing. Inuyasha pointed to the injury on his side. It was still seeping blood, although the flow had slowed to a mere trickle by now. The villager spotted it and motioned for the pair to follow him.
“Come with me, Houshi-sama. I’ll take you and your servant to our Miko-sama.”
“Servant!?” Kagome grumbled under her breath so only Inuyasha could hear. “You can’t be serious.”
Inuyasha smirked. “Keh. It worked, didn’t it?”
Kagome studied the young farmer as they followed behind him. I don’t recognize him. Then again… I doubt I knew everyone in the village.
The trio entered the village, and the citizens erupted into a flurry of hushed whispers regarding the pair, before the young man announced them as a traveling priest and his servant. The villagers, mostly women, as the men were out in the fields, went on their way, occasionally shooting surreptitious glances at them out of the corners of their eyes.
Inuyasha rolled his eyes. Kagome on the other hand, looked about wildly, bewilderment settling in as a startling realization dawned on her.
I don’t recognize anyone…
It hit her like a wall of water, cold and unrelenting. How long had she been sealed on Goshinboku?
There was not a single familiar face among the villagers, and none of them appeared to recognize her either. Surely if they had, their reaction would have been more hostility, less mere suspicion. She froze. The village miko’s hut was only a few steps ahead of them, and Inuyasha and the village boy had stopped as well. Her heart beat loudly in her ears. She could scarcely hear the farmer calling for their Miko-sama, or the flap to the hut opening in reply.
“May I help-Kagome?!”
It was an old woman, her silver hair pulled back, attired in the white kosode and red hakama of a miko. Kagome did not recognize her either, but she recognized Kagome.
The old miko’s brow furrowed and she frowned. “Kagome. Why are you in this village? Why are you alive?” Her voice was hoarse and commanding, an undercurrent of fury being kept in check. “Yousuke, leave.” The village boy, blanched, bowed to the miko, and ran the other direction, back to the fields, without a word.
Kagome stepped back, panicked, arms in front of her and eyes wide as saucers. She almost tripped on her own feet, but kept herself steady. “No, no. I didn’t do anything. I-I-don’t know what’s going on. I promise!”
“Oi!” Inuyasha yelled, standing between the two women. “Anyone care to tell me what the fuck is going on?”
“Not exactly the language of a priest, Houshi-sama,” the miko quipped. Inuyasha gave her a baleful stare, and then turned back to Kagome, who was still holding her hands out in front of her. It was then that she gasped, moved with remarkable speed for a woman her age, and grabbed the small pink jewel Kagome still held between her thumb and forefinger.
“Hey, that’s mine!”
“It’s yours, Houshi-sama?” The miko blinked. “You who have this… girl with you?”
“Uh. Yeah. I don’t know who you are and I don’t care.” Inuyasha stood up straight. “But that jewel came from inside of ME, so it’s mine.”
“This can’t be. This can’t be…” She muttered under her breath. “You have the shikon no tama and yet you let her carry it? Do you not know who she is, what she’s done?”
Kagome wanted more than anything to run, turn tail and flee the village as fast as her legs would carry her. But she was frozen, unable to move, as tumultuous thoughts ran through her mind, every which one less pleasant than the one before. The only person who knows who I am is an… elderly miko?
“I pulled her off the damn tree she was stuck on.” He reached for the woman’s hand, attempting to swipe the jewel from her grasp. She clenched her fist around it before he could snatch it. “So yeah. I know who she is.”
“You know what she did to my sister then? And yet…”
“She told me she was attac-“
“Kaede?!” Kagome managed, breathless, her chest heaving. No, no, no, no, no. “Can’t be… no.”
The miko nodded. “I am indeed, Kaede.”
“But you were just a little girl!”
“That was fifty years ago.”
Inuyasha looked between the two women, nonplussed. Kagome didn’t want to come into this village not because she was a hanyou, but because she’d apparently done something terrible fifty years ago. He felt something heavy settle in his abdomen. Guilt. He had convinced her to come here. It was his fault. He had no reason to believe Kaede over Kagome. I was attacked, she’d told him. Maybe both were true?
And that was fifty years ago. She had been sealed for half a century. Kagome hadn’t known it until now, but she was, just like Inuyasha, out of time.
“Fifty… years.” Kagome collapsed to the ground, dust rising up beneath her upon impact. She clawed the dirt beneath her, clenching her fists and lowering her head. Dry, raking sobs began to shake her body.
Inuyasha’s eyes flashed dangerously towards Kaede. “What the hell did you do to her?”
“I did nothing,” Kaede replied, taken aback by this turn of events.
“She’s fucking bawling. She was fine before she saw you.” He turned on Kaede and back to Kagome, kneeling down beside her.
“Mama… Souta… Jiichan,” she choked out between sobs. Tears had started to fall, turning splotches of dirt beneath her into mud. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry!” Her fist pounded against the ground.
“Bring her inside,” Kaede commanded. “She’s in no state to be left out alone, no matter who she is.”
She was a miko, so Inuyasha shouldn’t have been surprised by her sudden show of compassion towards the hanyou girl. Considering the hostility up to this point though, her request threw him for a loop. “What?”
“Please, just bring her in. I have much to talk to you about as well, guardian of the shikon no tama.” Kaede leveled him a glare.
Inuyasha nodded and shook Kagome. “Hey, hey. We need to go inside.” She didn’t budge, too caught up in herself to notice his action. Inuyasha sighed and reached behind her knees, lifting her legs up and picking her up bridal style. She didn’t fight it. In fact, it was all the more difficult because she hardly stiffened when he picked her up. She was limp, dead weight in his arms. “Kagome… it’s okay.”
“It’s not,” she finally spoke, in between muffled sobs. Her fist clenched in the fabric of his gakuran. “It’s not okay at all!”
His mind wandered back to what she’d cried out earlier. Mama, Souta, Jiichan. “Your… family,” his voice broke as he said it. He felt her nod into his chest. “Your… entire family?” She nodded again.
Inuyasha’s own chest ached, as he considered his mother, where she’d be in fifty years time. He shivered. He wasn’t foolish. The further you went back in time, the shorter people’s lifespans were. And her Jiichan…
He almost dropped her as the insight fully registered. Kagome was all alone. Truly alone. The mere idea chilled him to the bone, as if there were nothing more terrifying in the world. And perhaps to her and to him as well, there wasn’t.
Inuyasha shuddered. Subconsciously, unthinkingly, he pulled Kagome closer. He let her tears stain his jacket as they entered Kaede’s hut.
Pairing: KagomexInuyasha
Rating: PG-13 (For Language)
Genre: Action+Adventure/Romance/Drama/Humor/Alternate Universe
Word Count: 2,554
Summary: [A Tale of Long Ago.] Inuyasha is an ordinary junior high student who has a most extraordinary fifteenth birthday. Pulled into the past, he unseals Kagome, a hanyou who is just looking for some answers. An AU variation on the series.
Note: Three updates in three weeks? Epic! Thanks to all who are reading. A few of you had some questions. I won’t answer any here, but all will be revealed in future chapters. This chapter is a little more dialoguecentric, as there is no actual action in it.
Gakuran- A Japanese male school uniform. Some schools have blazers and some have gakuran. Kagome’s middle school in the manga has gakuran, so I thought it would be appropriate for Inuyasha’s to be the same.
Kagome stiffened as Inuyasha finished his request, still holding her sleeve. “I can’t do that. I can’t come with you.”
“Why not?” He released her kosode and crossed his arms.
Kagome closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath. She opened them and let herself survey the village, far away enough that she couldn’t make out many details in faces or clothing, but close enough as to where she could see what was happening. Farmers were visible out in the fields, women in yukata were carrying baskets in one arm, and a few were carrying babies in the other arm. Barefoot children tumbled about the caked dirt that made up the well-worn path between the two strings of huts. She ignored the pang in her chest, the way her heart ached at the familiarity of it all. It looks like nothing ever happened here…
“Neh! Why do you need to know? I just can’t,” Kagome reasoned, forcing a smile.
Inuyasha scratched the back of his neck. “Is it because you’re a hanyou?”
Her blue eyes widened. “How did you… well I guess it’s obvious.”
“Bachi Hebi said it, remember?” He shrugged.
Sensing a perfect excuse to worm her way out of entering the village (and it’s not as if she’d be lying), Kagome nodded. “Most humans are afraid of hanyou.”
She glared at him, and he suppressed a gulp. “Yes, sorry for all the terrible things I’ve done to you, like saving your life and taking you to civilization when you were bleeding to death.”
“…Wasn’t bleeding to death.”
“Whatever! You were injured and you needed help. I still saved your from Bachi Hebi either way,” she snapped.
“Oi, sorry! I wasn’t being serious,” Inuyasha defended, raising his hands. Kagome glanced at him, catching his expression and perceiving that he was being truthful. She pressed her bare feet into the cool damp grass, shifting back and forth on her heels.
“It’s exactly that, Inuyasha.” His name still sounded strange to her, and the irony of him having a name that was far more appropriate for her, struck her every time she said it. “The strength a hanyou has alone, is enough to scare people. That’s not even getting into the whole youkai thing…” She felt terrible manipulating him, attempting to use her heritage to get him into the village without her. This was not in the least because, as frustrating as he had been, she considered him genuine. He was a good person. She needed more good people in her life…
“So it’s not safe for me to go into the village with you. They could hurt you, if I’m with you. Do you understand that, Inuyasha?”
He shook his head in the negative, gaze level with hers. “Since I got to this… wherever the hell I am, I’ve only run into two things. A giant monster snake who wanted to rip me open… and you.”
“Well there’s a lot of people in the village so…” She cut herself off, hoping desperately that he’d listen. I can’t risk going into that village. “It’s just not safe.”
“Keh! I think I can judge what’s safe or not.”
Kagome’s eyes averted to the bloody wound on his side. “Are you sure about that?”
His nod was firm and assertive. “I am.”
“Why?” She asked, and in spite of herself, her voice broke.
“Sheesh. Don’t cry, woman.” He backed away, hands in front of him. “Where I come from, there’s no such thing as youkai or half youkai or anything like that. I don’t really care who or what you are. You’re the only safe thing I’ve met since I got here, like I was saying. I trust you more than I’d trust any random miko in a village right now.”
“Inuyasha…” She wiped her sleeve across her eyes.
“And it’s not that I really care or anything but… I don’t want you running off on your own when you’re all upset and confused and shit.” He glanced down to his shoes. “I mean I’m confused too, so we may as well stick together.” He raised his eyes to meet hers again.
Kagome looked to her hands and fidgeted with her fingers. How can I say no to him? I don’t know where he’s from… well Tokyo I guess, wherever that is. I don’t know what he’s doing here... It struck her that despite the fact that he was from a country ‘very far away,’ he spoke the same language as her. He knew what a youkai was, even if they didn’t exist where he came from. Her bewilderment over the boy grew.
But to be fair, he knew as little about her as she did about him.
“Oi, we going now?” He asked, assuming that his words had changed her mind.
“I can--- “
“You can. Come on.” Inuyasha smirked. “If they do anything, you can just kick their ass.”
Kagome actually found herself stifling a laugh. “Neh, I can’t do that!”
“Well then we can run. I don’t care.”
“But you’re hurt…”
“I’m fine! We’ll steal the stuff we need and run, if you’re so worried about it.”
At that, Kagome let loose and laughed. Inuyasha’s mouth quirked up in a smile.
“And if we have to run, I can carry you, right?”
Inuyasha’s smile turned into a scowl, albeit an amused one. “Bah! No way in hell.”
Kagome stopped grinning and her expression became pensive. I’ll have to go sometime. If I don’t…. I’ll never be able to find any answers… about what happened here.
“We going now?” He asked again. Kagome blinked, pushing those thoughts aside, and replied affirmatively. “Good then.”
Slowly at first, then speeding up as they walked, the pair began crossing the distance towards the village. As before with their path through the forest, the two walked in silence. This time, Inuyasha broke it. “Gonna ask you a question.” He slowed up. “Hanyou means you’re half youkai and half…”
“Human,” Kagome finished. She accentuated each of the two syllables, as it was deeply important to her that he not mishear.
“Yeah that’s what I figured. Makes sense.” He pushed a piece of long hair behind his ear. “Don’t see the big deal. There’s plenty of people of two different races in my… country. I mean it’s not like this obviously but… you know, it’s not a big deal.”
Kagome’s smile was soft, not big and jubilant, but still exultant in a subtle manner. “Thank you, Inuyasha.”
He flushed, unsure of how to handle her emotional response. “Bah it’s… no problem.” Attempting to lighten the mood, he spoke again. “But you’re still scary.”
“Eh? Come on!”
“Hey you!” A low voice interrupted them, and Kagome quickly identified it as a young farmer working in a field directly outside the village. “Can I help you?” Neither of them could miss the way he gave a furtive suspicious glance towards Kagome.
Thinking quickly, Inuyasha walked up to the villager. “My name’s Inuyasha and I’m a…” His mind wandered back to when he first came through the well, to the blast of power that came from his hands. Spiritual power? “I’m a priest.” Well, it worked, although his clothing didn’t remotely resemble the garb of a priest (and thinking about it, he refused to wear anything that did).
“And the youkai?”
“Hanyou,” Inuyasha corrected. “I fight youkai who attack villages, and she uses her strength to help me out.” Kagome’s mouth dropped in surprise at his swift thinking. He was belligerent, reckless, and a bit tactless. But stupid, he was not.
“Very well…” The farmer conceded. “What may I help you with, Inuyasha-sama?”
“I’m injured, and we’d like to request some medicinal supplies from the village Miko,” he spoke, mock formally. Kagome found his attempt at eloquence quite amusing. Inuyasha pointed to the injury on his side. It was still seeping blood, although the flow had slowed to a mere trickle by now. The villager spotted it and motioned for the pair to follow him.
“Come with me, Houshi-sama. I’ll take you and your servant to our Miko-sama.”
“Servant!?” Kagome grumbled under her breath so only Inuyasha could hear. “You can’t be serious.”
Inuyasha smirked. “Keh. It worked, didn’t it?”
Kagome studied the young farmer as they followed behind him. I don’t recognize him. Then again… I doubt I knew everyone in the village.
The trio entered the village, and the citizens erupted into a flurry of hushed whispers regarding the pair, before the young man announced them as a traveling priest and his servant. The villagers, mostly women, as the men were out in the fields, went on their way, occasionally shooting surreptitious glances at them out of the corners of their eyes.
Inuyasha rolled his eyes. Kagome on the other hand, looked about wildly, bewilderment settling in as a startling realization dawned on her.
I don’t recognize anyone…
It hit her like a wall of water, cold and unrelenting. How long had she been sealed on Goshinboku?
There was not a single familiar face among the villagers, and none of them appeared to recognize her either. Surely if they had, their reaction would have been more hostility, less mere suspicion. She froze. The village miko’s hut was only a few steps ahead of them, and Inuyasha and the village boy had stopped as well. Her heart beat loudly in her ears. She could scarcely hear the farmer calling for their Miko-sama, or the flap to the hut opening in reply.
“May I help-Kagome?!”
It was an old woman, her silver hair pulled back, attired in the white kosode and red hakama of a miko. Kagome did not recognize her either, but she recognized Kagome.
The old miko’s brow furrowed and she frowned. “Kagome. Why are you in this village? Why are you alive?” Her voice was hoarse and commanding, an undercurrent of fury being kept in check. “Yousuke, leave.” The village boy, blanched, bowed to the miko, and ran the other direction, back to the fields, without a word.
Kagome stepped back, panicked, arms in front of her and eyes wide as saucers. She almost tripped on her own feet, but kept herself steady. “No, no. I didn’t do anything. I-I-don’t know what’s going on. I promise!”
“Oi!” Inuyasha yelled, standing between the two women. “Anyone care to tell me what the fuck is going on?”
“Not exactly the language of a priest, Houshi-sama,” the miko quipped. Inuyasha gave her a baleful stare, and then turned back to Kagome, who was still holding her hands out in front of her. It was then that she gasped, moved with remarkable speed for a woman her age, and grabbed the small pink jewel Kagome still held between her thumb and forefinger.
“Hey, that’s mine!”
“It’s yours, Houshi-sama?” The miko blinked. “You who have this… girl with you?”
“Uh. Yeah. I don’t know who you are and I don’t care.” Inuyasha stood up straight. “But that jewel came from inside of ME, so it’s mine.”
“This can’t be. This can’t be…” She muttered under her breath. “You have the shikon no tama and yet you let her carry it? Do you not know who she is, what she’s done?”
Kagome wanted more than anything to run, turn tail and flee the village as fast as her legs would carry her. But she was frozen, unable to move, as tumultuous thoughts ran through her mind, every which one less pleasant than the one before. The only person who knows who I am is an… elderly miko?
“I pulled her off the damn tree she was stuck on.” He reached for the woman’s hand, attempting to swipe the jewel from her grasp. She clenched her fist around it before he could snatch it. “So yeah. I know who she is.”
“You know what she did to my sister then? And yet…”
“She told me she was attac-“
“Kaede?!” Kagome managed, breathless, her chest heaving. No, no, no, no, no. “Can’t be… no.”
The miko nodded. “I am indeed, Kaede.”
“But you were just a little girl!”
“That was fifty years ago.”
Inuyasha looked between the two women, nonplussed. Kagome didn’t want to come into this village not because she was a hanyou, but because she’d apparently done something terrible fifty years ago. He felt something heavy settle in his abdomen. Guilt. He had convinced her to come here. It was his fault. He had no reason to believe Kaede over Kagome. I was attacked, she’d told him. Maybe both were true?
And that was fifty years ago. She had been sealed for half a century. Kagome hadn’t known it until now, but she was, just like Inuyasha, out of time.
“Fifty… years.” Kagome collapsed to the ground, dust rising up beneath her upon impact. She clawed the dirt beneath her, clenching her fists and lowering her head. Dry, raking sobs began to shake her body.
Inuyasha’s eyes flashed dangerously towards Kaede. “What the hell did you do to her?”
“I did nothing,” Kaede replied, taken aback by this turn of events.
“She’s fucking bawling. She was fine before she saw you.” He turned on Kaede and back to Kagome, kneeling down beside her.
“Mama… Souta… Jiichan,” she choked out between sobs. Tears had started to fall, turning splotches of dirt beneath her into mud. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry!” Her fist pounded against the ground.
“Bring her inside,” Kaede commanded. “She’s in no state to be left out alone, no matter who she is.”
She was a miko, so Inuyasha shouldn’t have been surprised by her sudden show of compassion towards the hanyou girl. Considering the hostility up to this point though, her request threw him for a loop. “What?”
“Please, just bring her in. I have much to talk to you about as well, guardian of the shikon no tama.” Kaede leveled him a glare.
Inuyasha nodded and shook Kagome. “Hey, hey. We need to go inside.” She didn’t budge, too caught up in herself to notice his action. Inuyasha sighed and reached behind her knees, lifting her legs up and picking her up bridal style. She didn’t fight it. In fact, it was all the more difficult because she hardly stiffened when he picked her up. She was limp, dead weight in his arms. “Kagome… it’s okay.”
“It’s not,” she finally spoke, in between muffled sobs. Her fist clenched in the fabric of his gakuran. “It’s not okay at all!”
His mind wandered back to what she’d cried out earlier. Mama, Souta, Jiichan. “Your… family,” his voice broke as he said it. He felt her nod into his chest. “Your… entire family?” She nodded again.
Inuyasha’s own chest ached, as he considered his mother, where she’d be in fifty years time. He shivered. He wasn’t foolish. The further you went back in time, the shorter people’s lifespans were. And her Jiichan…
He almost dropped her as the insight fully registered. Kagome was all alone. Truly alone. The mere idea chilled him to the bone, as if there were nothing more terrifying in the world. And perhaps to her and to him as well, there wasn’t.
Inuyasha shuddered. Subconsciously, unthinkingly, he pulled Kagome closer. He let her tears stain his jacket as they entered Kaede’s hut.