a/n: Ok, so this was how the chapter was SUPPOSED to be posted last time, but there were a few technical errors and only half of the chapter went online. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused anybody, but at least the problem got fixed right? Well, enough of the explanations, here's the FULL chapter one so enjoy!
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Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Inuyasha and Co. ):
Loyalties: Abandoned
The raven haired young woman glared at the open window in complete distaste as she threw scraps of paper into the hearth that burned just a few feet from where she sat on a stool with her back rigid against the wall.
Four months. Four months since the seemingly endless battles erupted and her brother had decided to join in the fighting and there had been no word from him since. That is, until they had received the dreaded letter earlier that day.
"We'll make quick work of those demon scum." She could still remember the exact words he said as he set off that fateful day in mid-June.
He had just turned sixteen and had insisted that helping his fellow human kind was what he was meant to do, his "destiny," he called it. She scoffed at that. What sort of destiny would send a young boy with the rest of his life ahead of him into a war against monsters? What kind of cruel fate would force a family to worry and pray for the well-being of their only son, brother, and grandson, only to have those prayers and hopes crushed with a simple letter?
The girl's gaze drifted to the ripped and tattered remains of the letter in her hands. She glared at them as though they were the whole cause of her brother's leaving that day and threw the remains into the glowing hearth.
The embers danced merrily as they engulfed the tattered pages and the fire glowed as though delighted by the news that the young boy had died.
Suddenly, Kagome couldn't help but laugh bitterly at the irony.
The laughter soon faded into loud sobs as the girl tried to keep herself from falling apart completely.
"How could you?!" she yelled at no one in particular, "How could you just let them take you?!"
A small part of her mind registered that she was being unreasonable, that it wasn't entirely his fault that he decided to live up to his higher calling. But she just couldn't bring herself not to blame someone, and if not him, then who else but herself? She could have tried harder to persuade him to stay but she didn't. That thought brought with it another bout of agonized sobs from the hysterical girl.
It was then that her mother entered the small cottage and hurried to embrace her distraught daughter with worry clearly evident in her large, hazelnut eyes.
"Honey, it'll be okay." Kimiko soothed as she ran her hand up and down her daughter's back in a placating gesture. "It'll be okay." she repeated, as though she were trying to convince herself as well as her daughter.
The sobs subsided eventually and Kimiko decided to chance a look at her daughter's face. Her features were darkened behind the shadows of her mussed bangs and her eyes were swollen and red from crying.
"It's just not fair!" the younger woman exclaimed as her mother smoothed out her ruffled hair with a gentle hand.
"I know, honey. Life rarely ever is." Kimiko sighed as she looked into her daughter's eyes. "But Souta wouldn't want us to be sad forever, Kagome. He would want us to move on and be happy that he died for a noble cause." Kimiko continued to caress Kagome's locks as she spoke.
The room fell into a comfortable silence as Kagome leaned into her mother's embrace and closed her sore eyes. Her mother always had the ability to make her feel like all of her problems weren't as bad as they seemed. Even after her grandpa's death a few weeks after Souta had left to join the Ningen army, Kagome remembered her mother telling her that the old man would be happy wherever he was now, and that he was still watching over them from somewhere in the sky.
Kagome's mother finally broke the silence several minutes later as she told Kagome it would probably be best for her to get some rest after such a strenuous day. The girl quickly agreed as she began to shuffle to the only other bedroom in the quaint little cottage.
It was only after she lay on her mat on the floor that Kagome realized she wasn't able to sleep. She was about to return to the main room of the cottage when she heard a muffled sound through the door. She leaned in closer and pressed her ear against the wood in order to hear the sound more clearly. What Kagome heard was a complete shock; her mother, her strong-willed, brave, and dedicated mother, was crying.
Kagome felt her heart break and was about to go to comfort her when she heard another bout of mumblings that froze her in place. "Such a burden." Kimiko was saying, "Take Kagome away." Kagome stood completely shock still with her hand clasp over her mouth as she processed what she had just heard. Had her mother just wished she was gone? Was she really that much of a bother to her?
Kagome stumbled backwards and fell in her haste to get away from the door. Tears came to her eyes and she struggled to hold them back as she scrambled to her feet and climbed out of the only window in the room. She had no idea where she was heading as her feet led her down the rocky trail away from the only place she had ever called home.
::o.o.o.o::
Several yards down the path, Kagome realized where she had been heading. Her eyes were still sore from holding back unshed tears and now she let them freely fall down her face as she continued on her trek to the small village that stood at the foot of Higurashi hill.
A cacophony of chariot wheels hitting cobblestone paths and women chattering excitedly amongst themselves reached Kagome's ears as she broke through the last procession of trees that blocked her view of the usually reserved, yet friendly, town that lay at the base of her family's hill. She was surprised to note the air of excitement and apprehension that ran throughout the town as the people ambled about and was equally surprised when she saw the familiar face of her best friend standing in the midst of the large crowd of people.
"Sango!" Kagome called desperately to the dark chocolate-haired girl, trying to gain her attention. "Sango!" she called again when she realized her friend might not have heard her.
The brown eyed girl glanced around, looking for the person who had called her name until she spotted the ebony haired young woman and jogged over to where she stood by the trees. She came to an abrupt halt, causing Kagome to momentarily lose sight of her as a large chariot pulled by two large horses crossed the path between the two women.
Once the chariot had passed, Sango continued to make her way to the raven-haired female who she could now clearly see was vigorously attempting to wipe away something from her face with the edges of her sleeves.
"Kagome?" Sango queried unsurely as she moved to stand beside her friend in an attempt to discover what was wrong with the raven-haired girl. "Kagome, what's wrong?"
Kagome looked up, slightly flushed with embarrassment as she tried to compose herself once again. "N-nothing's wrong." she silently winced as her voice broke and decided to remain silent in order to maintain some sense of dignity in front of her friend.
Clearly unconvinced, Sango sighed and was about to press the raven-haired woman for a more honest answer when she was cut off by a question from the said girl.
"So what's going on here?" Kagome questioned when she felt the desperate need to throw her friend off the subject of why she had been found crying in a town square.
"Uh…" Sango mumbled, thrown off guard by the sudden question. Suddenly, realization struck and she informed the younger woman in front of her of all the recent happenings she had missed while tending to her sick grandfather and grieving mother on top of the isolated hill.
"The army along the western border has been struggling to defend themselves against the demons." Sango elucidated, disgusted, "So the government has sent a recruitment party to all of the villages that haven't yet had at least twenty able-bodied men volunteer to fight."
Sango looked down as she began to feel the familiar sting in her eyes at the thought of her younger brother, Kohaku, who had volunteered to join the fighting at the beginning of the war and had never been heard from by his family since.
Kagome looked at her friend with eyes full of understanding. She knew all too well how difficult it had been for Sango to let Kohaku go fight when their parents had died just months earlier in a demon raid that destroyed nearly all of their home village.
She could also feel the familiar sting in her eyes and empty tug at her heart as she remembered how she had recently been informed of her brother's passing away shortly after her grandfather had deceased. 'And before I found out about my mother's rejecting me.' She thought bitterly as she recalled why she had come down the hill today in the first place.
Suddenly, Kagome felt a strange longing to leave. She wanted to get as far away from anything that reminded her of her loss and her family as possible. It was a foolish sentiment, for she knew the only way she could ever truly escape in a way that would be socially accepted would be to get married and move to live with another family, but she still found the idea of just escaping all of the memories that came with being so close to her home strangely appealing. 'No.' Kagome silently berated herself. 'This is not my home. Not anymore.'
Surprisingly, the normally depressing thought gave Kagome new hope. If the house upon the hill was no longer her home, then she was no longer obligated to stay, right? The ebony-haired girl's eyes gleamed with mischief as an idea formed in her head.
"Sango," Kagome spoke gently to her friend who was now furiously wiping the corners of her eyes with the edges of her sleeve, "do you know how long the recruitment parties will being staying here?"
The recently addressed girl looked up after a moment with a curious tilt of her head. "They leave at dusk tomorrow." she stated with a light sniffle. "Why do you ask?"
"I was just wondering." Kagome replied nonchalantly. She decided it would be best not to inform her friend of the plan that had just concocted. No sense in getting her best friend involved in something she might not approve of.
She wound her arms around the slightly taller girl and whispered assuringly into her ear, "Do not fret, Sango. Kohaku is strong; I'm sure he'll be back as soon as the fighting is all over, just like I'm sure that everything will turn out for the best in the end when the war finally ends." With that, Kagome smiled brightly at the older woman, turned, and disappeared into an alleyway between a barber shop and a tailoring store, leaving a stunned Sango staring at the narrow passageway where she departed.
::o.o.o.o::
Kagome didn't have much time if she was to make her plan succeed. According to Sango, she only had until the sun went down the next evening before the recruitment agents left the village and set off for the next town, and by then, she would've lost any chance she had of executing her plan and getting the closure she so desperately needed with the death of her brother.
She looked up to the sky to see that the sun had already started its decent behind the horizon. The day would be over soon and all of the shopkeepers would close their stores and lock up the buildings for the night.
She sighed in concentration as she stared at the reflection of herself in the broken mirror she had found behind the barber shop. According to what she knew of the requirements for recruiting in the Ningen army, Kagome realized there were only two major obstacles that stood in the way of her joining the Ningen forces and discovering exactly who was responsible for her brother's death:
First, it was required that all recruitees be at least 18 years of age and have no ancestry what-so-ever with the demon race.
Although the second part would no problem for Kagome, the first part would be an issue. She had always been a bad liar, even during childhood; she was always excluded from games of "make-believe" because she had no talent at pretending something was there or true when in actuality, it was not.
The next problem was that it was a well-known fact that women did not join in the fighting against the Youkai forces. Although there were currently no laws that prohibited women from joining the forces, most recruiters thought women were inferior to men; therefore, women were always enlisted under the medical brigade.
Kagome shook her head at that thought. She couldn't accept being put into a tiny tent to watch men die. Not only did she not have the stomach for it, but it would not help her achieve her goal in discovering who exactly was behind the death of her little brother.
After trying to come up with some possible solutions to both of her dilemmas, an idea suddenly sprang forth into her head.
Once she had figured out all of the minor details of her plan, Kagome smiled wickedly in delight and went to work. She first decided to work on the second requirement as she looked down at her reflection in a slightly cracked mirror she had found behind the barber shop.
Her outfit consisted of a very feminine white cotton dress with green accents along the sleeves and hem. The front of the dress was buttoned down while the sleeves had small elastics which forced the fabric to fit snugly around the wrists of the wearer. And although it was practical for household wear when sweeping and sewing, it was not exactly a garment one would want to wear if they were trying to appear at all masculine.
Next, Kagome looked over her long, curly, silken, black hair and sighed. It had taken nearly three years to grow it to its current length, and she realized with a dawning horror that she would have to cut it off in order for her plan to go smoothly.
Steeling herself up, Kagome grabbed the ends of her precious locks and held a rusted blade near the base of her neck pointed upward toward the tresses of black. Slowly, she closed her eyes and jerked the blade upward until she no longer felt the harsh pull at her scalp.
Cautiously, she opened her eyes to survey her reflection once more. The figure reflected in the mirror no longer sported the familiar, black, lengthy tresses atop her head, but instead, had short, uneven black spikes that stuck out in an unruly mass above her eyebrows.
Forcing back the tears that were threatening to fall, Kagome moved on to the second task at hand.
Creeping silently along the walls of the building next to the barber shop, she came across the side entrance to the tailor store and silently thanked whatever kami was watching over her when she realized the store owner forgot to lock the door. Gently, Kagome pushed open the door and let herself into the shop.
Racks upon racks of different women and men's attire occupied the vast majority of the store and several shelves holding numerous stacks of clothing were mounted along the creamy colored walls of tailor shop.
Kagome soon felt overwhelmed at the sheer quantity of different styles, patterns, and sizes as she wandered about the store looking for a suitable outfit to wear in order to pass as a man before the recruitment agents.
It was as she came across a rack with worn, dull clothing that Kagome found exactly what she had been searching for. The outfit consisted of a pair of worn-out and faded brown slacks, stretched black suspenders, and shabby wool long-sleeve shirt perfect for the chilly October air.
Although she knew it was for a relatively noble cause, Kagome couldn't help but feel guilty as she quietly stripped off her dress in the middle of the dark clothing store and pulled on the hand-me-down pants and shirt. Was it really okay for her steal, even if it was for the sake of her brother's honor? Would he approve of what she was doing if he were alive? And what would her mother say?
Kagome abruptly halted in her musings as the memory of her mother crying and wishing her away came back full force and threatened to bring tears to her eyes.
'No' she thought as she shook her head, willing the tears to go away. 'That's behind me now' the raven-haired girl thought determinedly as she found a pair of disheveled shoes with holes in the bottom and slid her dainty feet into them.
Once she was done dressing and had put her dress onto one of the store's many shelves as compensation for the shoddy clothes she had taken, Kagome found a mirror in the back of the storeroom and admired her reflection as she noted the complete transformation a simple haircut and change of clothes could accomplish.
As soon as she was satisfied about her appearance, Kagome slid back out of the side entrance before anyone could notice her and clicked the door back into place.
Kagome sighed with relief and slumped against the wall of the tailor store when the door shut and she was completely sure that no one had noticed her enter or leave the shop.
After a few moments of silence as she thought of what to do next, Kagome pushed off against the wall behind her and went to work on practicing how to become more masculine in her mannerisms and personality.
It was an arduous task, as she had been taught from a very early age that acting "manly" was improper behavior and therefore, she never paid much attention to the gruffer sex while growing up. It also didn't help any that Souta was the only male in the family other than her grandfather since her father died shortly after Souta was born.
Fortunately for Kagome, she had never been one to give up easily and was eventually able to keep up a believable façade without so much as a giggle after a several hours of practice.
It wasn't until the sun peeked out from the horizon that Kagome realized how fatigue she was. Her throat was sore from speaking in a low, gruff tone and her feet felt as though they would erode away from walking so much in the oversized, heavy shoes.
It wasn't long after that Kagome decided she had enough practice to fool the recruiters and decided to go lay behind the vent of a bakery in order to get warm enough to sleep in the still-frosty October air.
::o.o.o.o::
When Kagome awoke several hours later to the inviting aroma of freshly baked bread sweet honey, she discovered she only had about another hour or so before the recruiters departed from the town square and headed to the next town.
Dizzy from hunger and lack of decent sleep, Kagome stumbled over to a large oak that stood in the center of the town square and looked across the mass of people milling about as she initiated the third phase of her brilliant plan.
Looking around to make sure no one was paying attention to her, she bent down and kneeled on one knee as she removed one of her shoes and slid in a piece of paper with the number "18" scribbled onto it.
Afterwards, she stood up and dusted off her "borrowed" outfit as she smiled triumphantly to herself. Now, if she could get the wording right, she wouldn't have to worry about her inability to tell a fib. She could simply answer that she was over eighteen when the agent asked for her age because, in reality, she was literally over the number eighteen.
Once she was done adjusting the scrap of paper under her foot so it wouldn't fall out through one of the many holes in the bottom of the shoe, Kagome jogged passed several crowds of people until she reached the line of timid looking boys standing in single-file toward the recruitment tent.
The line moved along slowly and Kagome soon found herself losing her nerve as she got closer to the recruitment tent.
'What if they required physical exams or a body search?' her nervous mind screamed out as she moved up another step as the procession of men continued its slowly progressing trek toward the dusty blue tent.
There were only three people left in line ahead of Kagome as she debated with herself whether or not to continue in her endeavor to discover the truth about her brother's death.
'Maybe he really was killed in the line of battle' she argued silently.
Two people left.
'No. That's impossible. He wasn't even supposed to be on the front lines.' her silent debate continued.
One person left.
'But he might've volunteered to leave the infirmary to help fight.' Kagome didn't know whether or not to be concerned she was having an argument in her head with herself.
'That doesn't make-'
"Name?"
Kagome's thoughts were abruptly cut off as a medium-built, brown-haired young man with blue eyes looked up at Kagome with an inquiring gaze and repeated for the second time, "Your name, sir?"
Kagome fought back a blush as she looked up at the young man and struggled to find her-his- voice.
"Uh...Hi-" Kagome paused. What should her name be?
The young man with the roster raised an eyebrow and began to show signs of slight irritation on his handsome features as he waited for Kagome's response.
She fumbled with a list of boy names when suddenly, it came to her. "Hitsumishi Kane."
"Age?" the young recruitment officer asked briefly.
"I'm over 18." Kagome replied confidently.
The young man nodded and scribbled something down on his roster before indicating with a wave of his hand that Kagome should enter the tent.
She complied swiftly, partly from relief that the interrogation went smoothly and partly because she was afraid to anger the man by hesitating further.
Once inside, Kagome realized that all her fears of physical examinations came with good cause. All around her, men of all shapes and sizes started to strip under the watchful eyes of the many nurses and doctors that occupied the tiny space inside the tent.
"You need to take off you clothing."
Kagome turned around to see a young woman who was about her height with red hair in a nurses' outfit.
"Take off your clothes so we can start the examination." the young woman repeated in a patient tone.
Kagome was about to make a break for it when she heard the familiar voice of the young recruitment officer call from outside the tent, "there's no time to continue the examinations! Get dressed and pack everything up; we're heading out!"
Kagome let out a sigh of relief as she began to scurry passed the red-headed nurse and headed out of the overcrowded tent. Thanks to that lucky break, she wouldn't have to worry about her secret being uncovered quite just yet.
After all the men inside the tent had redressed and all of the people exited the tent, everyone helped in bringing the large, moveable structure down and packing it into a large wagon pulled by four horses.
"All new recruits: into the wagon!" the young man who had been sitting outside of the tent with the roster called out.
Most of the men who had been occupying the tent hurried into the wagon, pushing and shoving each other in their haste to get a seat aboard the wooden vehicle. Kagome maneuvered onto the wagon at a steadier pace; taking care not to brush up too closely to anyone in case they noticed that she wasn't really a man at all.
Almost immediately after she had found a place to sit on the wagon, the carriage jerked forward as the horses began to trot at an easy pace and Kagome realized with a sense of adventure that she was now headed into the unknown. She took one final glance back at the hill she had once called home and turned her head to look at the path that lay ahead.
It was the path, she decided, that would lead her to a new life, a new home, and a new adventure.
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a/n: Again, I'm so sorry for the inconvenience! And yet again, I hope you all enjoyed the REAL first chapter of Loyalties! Hopefully, I get a ton of reviews for my hard work because 1, I think I'm going to like writing this story and 2, I love hearing what you guys think about my work! Remember, more reviews equals quicker updates, so don't forget to READ AND REVIEW!!! :D ~BPS