Hello! Thanks for looking past my awful summary and deciding to stop on in! This story is a fresh cannon-ish twist on "what would it have been like if...?". It'll have mystery, action, love, death, sadness, happiness, and TONS of suspense. My goal is to leave you at the edge of your seat and keep you guessing about what happens next. I'm completely open to constructive criticisms and even suggestions as the story progresses. Please, please please favorite, follow, and review! Let me know what you like and don't like!
Note: Bear with me, I know this chapter is extremely short. Each chapter I post will be longer than the last.
Picture art by Cati-art on deviant art. Here is the picture in better resolution on the artist's page: cati-art. deviant art art/Commission-Daiyoukai-Inuyasha-320539486 (remove the spaces and add ".com" between the two back-to-back 'arts')
I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters in the anime/manga
"So often we villainize our monsters,
our ghosts;
but without their cold breaths pouring down our necks,
we'd never find our way back home"
– Kaitlin Foster
Chapter 1
Pat. Pat. Pat. Pat.
Her foot steps were the only sound on the concrete as she walked down the eerily quiet familiar road.
Pat. Pat. Pat. Pat.
The red shrine arch stood proudly in the distance, creating a stark contrast to the dark slate grey storm clouds that loomed overhead.
Pat. Pat. Pat. Pat.
Deadened brown leaves whipped themselves near her ankles as a breeze picked up. This was time of year that autumn began packing its bags to make way for her sister winter. Snow would be cloaking the naked trees within the next few weeks.
Pat. Pat.
She stopped and dared herself to look up.
Three. Two. One.
Her eyes met the cluster of steps that led up to the Higurashi shrine - at least what was the Higurashi shrine. The red temple arch remained untouched. It stood tall. Wide. Welcoming.
She took her time surveying the entrance to the shrine when a car passed by. On such a quiet street it may have been considered minimally noisy, but while swimming deep in her own thoughts the car was deafening. Kagome jumped and turned to watch the car disappear out of sight. At this angle the wind whipped her untamed hair into her face, obstructing her view, and she turned back to the stairs. She began the arduous task of dragging each foot up the stairs – each individual toe feeling as if it were balancing more and more weight with each step she took.
Why was she here? She didn't need to be here. What was she planning on accomplishing? There was nothing left to see. This was a wasted trip and wasted time.
Stop it, Kagome.
She knew why she was here. She had felt it tingling at her finger tips during the past few weeks. Drumming in her ears for the last few days. Sitting like a weight at the pit of her stomach today. Tugging at the fringes of her soul this very moment. She was being beckoned here.
But why here of all places?
She reached the top of the steps and her eyes fell upon the empty shell of what used to be a home; her home. The sliding glass doors, along with all of the windows, were busted out. Framing the door were streaky, sooty remnants of the blast. To Kagome the soot created a shape that looked much more like an ashy demon that had an iron grip on the walls of her home, trying to claw its way out the front door. Bits of glass and rubble hid among the overgrown, mangled grass and weeds inhabiting the property. She took calculated, measured steps until she stood at the frame of the door. She didn't expect anything pretty, but the decimated carcass of your childhood home is still a shocking sight to see. The floors and walls were ripped apart and charred blacker than the night sky. Everyday housing items remained on the floor now as indistinct debris. Some graffiti clung to the walls, no doubt a gift from the reckless youth that dared to venture this far onto the abandoned Higurashi property. The second floor had fallen through and her bedroom floor was colliding with the kitchen floor, the support beams penetrating the first level floor boards.
She had been told that is where her mother died, when the structure of the home collapsed and she had been in the wrong spot at the wrong moment. The home that her mother spent 18 years creating memories in had been what ultimately killed her. She had been following Souta, who was running out the front door. Unfortunately, opening the door had caused oxygen to feed the fire that was eating the Higuarashi home. Opening that front door had caused a massive explosion that led to his untimely death. Luckily, grandpa had passed only half a year before in his sleep, therefore spared from the grisly deaths her dear mother and baby brother had faced. Her home.
She had been away at college when this happened. In fact, she had received a call from the police chief during one of her lectures and felt a strange inclination to go out into the hall to answer the phone call. Some say her scream and hysterical sobs could be heard 10 floors up. A few students say they saw her run out of the building, stumbling over her own two feet. She had worked herself into such a frenzy that she ran into a busy street and caused a few small wrecks, perhaps to catch the next bus home. Gossips talk about how she was apprehended by security and taken to a near-by hospital as she deliriously wretched and sobbed the whole way there.
None of them were wrong.
Kagome had pieced and taped herself back together in time to attend the funeral. It was small and private, just a few close family and friends, closed-casket. She coped by drowned herself in school work and sleep and did little else. She had everything stripped away from her by the tender age of 18; no family, no friends, no feudal era.
After completing the Shikon jewel, she found herself stuck on the present day side of the well. The last thing she saw was Inuyasha dissipating into thin air. After the funeral she had ran all the way home and flung herself into the well – a desperate and futile attempt to return to happier times. It was several hours before anyone had found her at the bottom of the well with a broken arm, 2 fractured wrists, and a nasty concussion.
3 years since the funeral had passed and here she was standing in front of the tree of ages. 506 years later, the imprint Inuyasha had left on the sacred tree was still clear as day. Her finger twitched by her side as she desired to reach out and touch it, but she decided against it. Rather, her eyes fell to the base of the tree where some wild white lilies and lilacs were growing. She slowly crouched down and wrapped her arms around her knees, burying her jaw into the crook of her arm. A particularly bitter wind blew straight through Kagome's jacket and caused her to slightly shiver. It had been a long time since she had visited Souta, mama, and grandpa's graves.
Kagome reached out and tentatively broke the stalks of a few flowers for each resting family member. A few white and purple flowers for Souta and grandpa, but more purple flowers for mama - Kagome knew she'd like that.
Kagome stood up as a strong wind blew her hard enough to cause a few flowers to slip from her grasp. She looked up at the tree of ages and listened to the branches creak and groan as the wind rushed through the long branches. She followed the direction of the leaves carried by the wind and her gaze settled on the well house - her flowers lay littered on the path toward the stand-alone building. Kagome ignored her freshly picked wild flowers on the ground and suddenly entranced she walked toward the well house. She had no control of her feet and felt the sensation deep in her bones of being pulled toward the wooden door. The wind was now roaring in her ears and thrashing her hair about in a fury. She grasped the worn iron handle of the door and found that it still easily slid open and closed behind her like it had been yesterday she was diving into the well with Inuyasha in tow.
She carefully descended the steps, her lax hand discarding the wild flowers she had forgotten she was even holding. The weights on her feet had been lifted and she almost felt as if she were moving through air that was too thin. In fact, the air was suddenly very thin. She struggled to fill her lungs, but made no attempt to gasp for the oxygen she needed. She stood at the lip of the well and a hazy fog consumed her. Kagome sensed her lungs burning. The wind outside the well house door was howling. She felt like she was floating but also felt at ease not doing a thing about it. Suddenly, darkness consumed her and Kagome, once again, fell into the well.
Outside, it was silent and still - not a leaf or blade of grass had been disturbed. Down the road, an old man and woman sat watching a woman on the news give the daily weather forecast.
"Today, you may wear a light jacket, as it is surprisingly windless and only mildly chilly here in our lovely city..."
The old man turned to his wife,
"I can't help but feel the strangest sense that something is happening at the old Higurashi shrine".
The old wife scoffed, "You know as well as I that no one has been near that shrine in 3 years. Shrines are supposed to bring good luck, and nobody wants to inhabit a shrine that has witnessed the deaths of all its dwellers. It will stand there until the weight of time crumbles it to a dust, dear."
The man rose from his chair and peered out the window at the shrine. Everything was still and untouched.
"All of its dwellers, except one," He mumbled to himself, "I wonder what ever happened to that Higurashi daughter."
At the base of the well lay an abandoned bouquet of wild flowers.
And that's a wrap! I had cold chills picturing the wind scene as Kagome walked toward the well house and knowing the wind was only surrounding her, but non existent outside of that small space around the Higurashi shrine. You might have struggled trying to picture what I was attempting to describe. This may seem like a short chapter (maybe?) but it was appropriate to stop here. Thanks! See you next chapter!
