Kagura's Trail
By
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha.
Chapter One
Kagura Remade
"Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not."
- Stephen King, The Green Mile
The worlds above her were resting in a period of peace, smaller forces of evil kept at bay by the modernization that was becoming universally accepted and of course, the turning of a new age itself. The worlds above her, for now, stirred without unrest.
Her?
She could feel it. Her existence, not belonging in one of those quiet worlds found above her, situated in the starry abyss she imagined up there. And yet, she could recognize, and had the power to acknowledge herself, and of how she was alive. Not existing in a true world, rather, abiding in this small damp, dark place that was unknown and unbelievable for the living. Until now.
As she collected herself in that den of darkness - her eyes first, then her head attached to a smooth neck of new, baby-born skin, and then hands that yielded youkai claws. Youkai? Demon.
As she stared curiously at those familiar nails, longed and edged perfectly to kill and swipe with malice, the memories flooded into her one after the other, taking their rightful places in her mind, accompanied by a jarring emotion - jarring because it meant that she could feel, and to feel meant to be alive.
An image of birth in darkness surrounded her and she was suddenly swarmed by a sick sense of pain, extreme sadness, and revulsion all at once. And then as swiftly as it had come, it left. Still clinging in her mind and she could bring it forth if she desired (which she certainly did not) but now, the memory of her unnatural birth and the pain it brought with it was dulled by time, a period of time she had shared somewhere in another time. In her life.
Now she remembered, as long, pale fingers combed through slightly crimped, ebony hair.
Kagura. Her name was Kagura, she was a youkai of Japan and the reason of her ever existing in the first place was due to that hateful hanyou Naraku. Naraku who had held her heart in his grasp and her freedom in the palm of his hand. The freedom which he had only granted a short time before her miasma ridden death.
Sorrow filled the void I Kagura's heart and her eyes welled with tears that she had not expected.
Residing in this hell-hole for who knows how long has made you soft, Kagura, she thought to herself.
"Ah, Kagura you are complete then? Welcome back."
Kagura froze, new shivers running down her spine. A man's voice, deep and rich and unfamiliar, sounded in the darkness.
"Who's there?' Immediately, her stance shifted in a ready position of attack.
"Calm, child. These are not fighting grounds. This is the land of the souls and your abode of two years now, after that horrid demise of yours on Earth."
Kagura stiffened, reminded again of her death in that field of cherry blossoms and wind…and something else.
"I see your memory is not all there. No matter, it should return as soon as you are placed again in the land of your choosing," The voice resounded all around her, coming from not one place but rather, everywhere.
"The land of my choosing? Placed back in Japan?" No, it was impossible, "Cut the bullshit, creep, and show yourself."
Kagura wished she had her fan and that there were winds here in this forsaken place.
"As crude as ever. To think that you are the one chosen to go on again. My, I do not know what is thought of in that other world sometimes."
Cryptic bastard, thought Kagura and gasped when she heard her thought spoken aloud by a voice that was hers but not under her control.
"In here, I am in control, Kagura. Mind that and show some respect."
Kagura scowled and scoffed but otherwise, kept her tongue.
"Good. Now listen, you are to return to Earth but not to your time. Should you wish to return to the land of your birth is your choice and yours only. With this, I bid you farewell."
The voice began to fade, along with the all consuming darkness and Kagura was suddenly struck by the feeling of being suspended in the air again, just as her soul had once done before being granted a physical body.
"Wait - " she cried and was momentarily muffled by pressure in the air, "What about Naraku?"
But the voice had disappeared, and along with it, the darkness.
Sleep overtook her, a living trait and necessity she had all but forgotten in 'death' and closed here eyes as rays of sun lit her body in warmth for the first time in two years.
"My, my. Look what we got here."
"Purty, too. And naked… Think she's one of those dirty hooker girls."
"Nah, she looks clean. Look at that skin."
"I ain't lookin' at no skin. I'm looking at them ass-sets of hers." Laughs all around.
Very clever, thought Kagura, who was fully awake now and trying to make sense of her surroundings.
She was in a strange place, a sort of alcove, darker than the moonbeam lit land outside.
No. Kagura's eyes widened a little but not from fear of the gang of dirty street men surrounding her. Her youkai eyes, more powerful than those of a normal human's, scoped out the land outside of the weird alcove and saw the land was a strip of hardened rock, flat and without earth or grass anywhere. The alcove she was situated in was shrouded in darkness because of the two large abodes, made of neither wood nor dirt but of the same material of the strips of hardened rock out there.
Amazing, thought Kagura, appreciating the strength and durability these structures were sure to have.
And look at that height. Damn. She whistled in appreciativeness but was instead misunderstood by the men around her.
"Oh, I had forgotten about you scum. Still here?" She stood up and then just realized that she was fully nude. Not that it made her uncomfortable - she was a youkai after all, a wind youkai, wind being her true form - but it explained why they all looked ready to burst.
"Smart-mouthed bitch. We'll fuck you over nicely and then leave you here afterwards, just like you're used to." The tallest of the group, and strongest by the looks of it (although the mere human strength he did possess did not astound her in the least), made his way towards her with lusty eyes.
"Hmph." With a quick swipe of her clothes, the alcove was smattered with blood and three bodies lay on the ground, dead.
Kagura held her hand to her nose, "Even your blood reeks, dirty scum. Now, I need to get the crap out of here."
This was not her world, that much she knew. But among the unfamiliar smells was one scent, just barely there but still present, that she knew very well. It was faint and she hadn't smelled it in two years but the winds were carrying it her way as if it were fate and to lose the scent would be a very foolish thing to do, indeed.
Kagura stepped out of the alcove and let her naked body rinse in moonbeams lighting the cold, flat rock beneath her. The world around her began to color with winds of different colors and pulses and she reached for the one carrying the scent of the familiar miko she had met a while ago with a certain hanyou who had brought much trouble and danger with him, who had brought her his promise and his brother. Neither of which he could keep nor give.
She stepped into the curves created and shaped by the wind trail and let herself become one with the night breezes before drifting off, alone.
Kagura stepped off the wind trail and into a dirt courtyard, matting down the stiff kimono she had grabbed off some random shop in what seemed like the village market. And what a weird place it had been, with the strangest thing. Enough was enough. She had to get going.
"Finally, some earth. Damn rock was splitting my skin." Kagura looked about her. There was a large old shrine, heavy with the perfume of the miko known as Kagome and some other humans, that must serve as an abode for Kagome and her family now.
Kagura walked the length of the shrine and saw a huge tree, ancient as well, by the looks of it. Kagura looked closely at the sacred ropes that were tied on the trunk of the tree.
What the hell. It's like I've been here before…like I've seen this before…
Kagura's eyes were caught on another structure, a shrine smaller than the first, that permitted dark youki. The sign outside read "The Bone-Eater's Well". And that was when Kagura knew.
'You are to return to Earth but not to your time…". Kagura stiffened with the impact of the realization.
"I'm in the fucking future?" She scowled, more intently pressed now to find the miko and fix this.
I can't stay here.
Kagura walked swiftly back to the house without making a sound and reached the shrine. Climbing up the stairs of the old, worn building, she reached the door and was tempted to knock it down but steeled for rapping hardly on the slide.
She must have gotten carried away because there was now a whole in the slide. The face of an old man with a teary, shell shocked expression met her through the hole.
"What have you done?"
Kagome woke up immediately, following the sounds of a ruckus from outside. She could distinctly hear the sound of her grandfather - which she had learned to expertly tune out, for better or worse - wailing loudly about a hole. Her mother and brother were currently away on a family trip and the one to deal with her grandfather's outlandish antics - as much as she loved him - now fell to her.
As Kagome tried to rub the sleep from her eyes - it was the middle of the night, for crying out loud - when she suddenly felt it. Youki. A youkai was in her house for the first time in two years.
Her heart jumped. Kagome suddenly felt like crying.
Surely, it couldn't be…?
She had been keeping her feelings pent up inside her. She herself hadn't realized just how much she missed him, how much she had been hoping that he would be able to come back, just as she had hoped just as hard for her ability to return to that world that kept her awake at night, that silenced her at random times of they day, that -
"Kagome, you look so disappointed to see me. I always pegged you for the demon-hugging type." Kagura teased with a mock pout on her face which instantly transformed into a smoke. "Hi, there miko."
Kagome went cold for a second. Of course it wasn't him. It couldn't be him. Just as the spirit in the well had warned two years ago, neither InuYasha nor herself could find a means of passage through that well. But if that was the case, then how had Kagura…?
"Kagura, tell me! How did you get here? This isn't your time so how were you able- ?"
Kagura shifted her arm to rest on her hip and smirked, "Really, Kagome. That's your first question? Don't you even care a little for how I even came to be alive?"
Kagome felt herself falter but then regained herself and saw that her grandfather was all but ready to burst into tears from the agony, "My seals, my seals! Something must have been blocking their sacred powers. Or maybe she's the wrong type of youkai? And what about this hole in our sliding door?"
"Kagura, I think we should take this inside." Kagura placed an arm around her grandfather and led him inside.
"So, Kagome, this is where you're wandering off to when you're not with the hanyou and friends. Nice place, you've got here. I like trees myself if you ask me." Kagura noticed that Kagome had stiffened for a second at the mention of InuYasha. Never a person to conceal what she thought, Kagura immediately spitted out, "What? Had a fight with him again? He can be quite stout and stubborn. Not unlike you…you guys make a great pair, miko."
The miko was silent again and this time, Kagura waned a little in her advances. She heard the miko take a breath before responding.
"Kagura, I think I should tell you," started Kagome as she closed the sliding door of her grandfather's bedroom and began to make tea for the both of them, "that I can no longer travel to your world. I haven't seen…I haven't been there in over two years which is why I want to know exactly how you got here."
Kagome whipped around with a determined expression that reminded Kagura of fire. No matter how many people had said that Kagome was Kikyo reincarnated, Kagura could hardly believe it. For one thing, one was like cold, calculating water and the other was fiery and …alive. There was simply no other way to describe it. It was what Kagura had seen in InuYasha as well that had caused her to place her fate in their hands. Even if the hanyou had failed to keep his promise. Here was the miko, obviously despairing from a forced separation from InuYasha. There was no other explanation. Naraku must have won. InuYasha was most likely dead.
But still, she had to make sure.
"Kagome, tell me truthfully. Did Naraku win?"
The fierce expression softened, and again Kagura felt herself grasping for a word to describe it. Motherly. Something lurched inside Kagura, and she realized it must have been from the fact that she had been spawned by Naraku. Unnaturally, disgustingly.
Kagura waited for Kagome's answer and felt her heartbeats quicken in anticipation and anxiousness. She felt like her head would explode from waiting. The answer she already knew, but the confirmation of it would be another whole ordeal.
"No. Naraku is dead. InuYasha defeated him along with the shikon jewel. Both are completely gone from this world."
Kagome made for Kagura as the latter fell to the ground, her legs giving way beneath her.
This one moment, thought Kagura, this one moment of weakness I'll allow myself, if only to celebrate that bastard's death.
Kagura felt warm hands on her shoulder and concentrated on the floor and on keeping her voice steady.
"Kagome, will you check my back for me? I - I want to make sure he's gone. Please. My heart is mine but the scar -. "
Kagome understood and said nothing, simply sliding the kimono down around Kagura's arms so that her back was revealed to her.
Only milky white skin, looking as soft as a baby's. But no spider shaped scar. No curse mark left as a reminder of Naraku.
"It's gone," whispered Kagome as she made to sit facing Kagura, "Nothing but your skin."
My skin, my heart, mine. Kagura felt herself tremble in that small room with a strange contraption making hissing, whistle-like sounds, with a miko holding her in her arms in comfort - something Kagura would never have imagined in her lifetime - Kagura felt tears fall down her face and drip onto the floor.
Small wet, dark spots that held every small desire and wish and happiness inside her, shrouded in the darkness of her pain and given depth by the magnitude of her sadness…
Like smaller worlds in another place, another time. The aftertastes of freedom.
Hi guys! This is my first InuYasha fanfic and I've recently started to reread the manga so any mistakes or wrong turns in trying to incorporate the original plot line with my story's is solely the fault of a bad memory ^_^ Sorry. Anyways, enjoy and review please, because I really wanna hear what you guys have to say.
- t