Summary: It was 5 years before the well opened again. Something goes wrong.
Chapter 1:
Kagome visited the well once a day after it closed off for good. After defeating Naraku and destroying the Shikon no tama, the well didn't open again. At first she visited it several times a day, just to test it. After about a month, it dwindled to once
a day. Then after six months, sometimes she missed a day, but she still visited. Soon, life grew busy with school and friends and slowly her visits became less frequent. Once a week, a month, until she stopped visiting the well at all. Kagome was
hopeful but she wasn't a masochist.
Each time she opened the well doors, leaned over the lip of the old well and did not feel the rush of magic, it broke her heart a little more. After a while, she had to move on. If not for her own memories, it was as if Inuyasha had never existed.
Time passed. She graduated high school, went to university, made friends, got into archery and track, and mostly kept to herself — and the well stayed closed.
She had to admit that she often thought of the Feudal Era world and her friends, and boyfriend? Had Inuyasha been her boyfriend? The last thing they experienced was a kiss before the magic of the well returned her to her own era, and he disappeared. For
5 years. It was difficult, painfully so, but what other choice did she have but to move on? She could not live in a world — as a certain priestess reminded her frequently — she could not be part of. She had to move on.
Or she tried. She really tried.
And it worked for a little while. There were weeks where she was certain she had not thought of the well or of Inuyasha, convincing herself that it was the equivalent of a child with an imaginary friend. She convinced her heart it was a world she had
merely… invented. Whether it had been real at any point was superfluous, a moot point; she could not go back. No use loitering over a time and place she could never return to.
Her kind mother sweetly suggested a therapist. Kagome scoffed. Like that would go over without a straight jacket. Hi, I'm here because I used to travel through a well beneath our shrine that took me 500 years in the past and I miss my sort of boyfriend and friends from that time. Can you help me, doc?
That would result in an immediate admission to a loony bin. Forever.
Kagome considered that maybe she invented the world and the well thing in her mind, but her heart knew. It knew.
It had all been real. Inuyasha. Miroku. Sango. Shippo. Naraku. Kikyou. The countless adventures. All of it had been real. It being real wasn't the problem. The problem was that she had no proof and that the universe had severed her way back.
No wishing or praying or miko powers could reopen the well. In fact, after it closed off, her powers seemed to vanish into thin air.
Like her powers and the world she loved so dearly had never existed.
It had been years since she had last visited the well. Just one more time. She needed to know that the well was a lost hope. This would prove her right.
The door to the well house slammed open with a crash. Kagome tip toed down the small steps into the familiar and dusty well house. The well before her almost mocked her for showing up once again.
Back for more disappointment, eh?
She stared at the well for an hour before moving towards it.
Nothing is going to happen, so don't even get your hopes up, Self.
It won't even be like real disappointment. It's just an old, empty, nothing-happening-here-move-on well.
Once more, like a million times before, she leaned over the well and stared into the bottom. A black nothingness. Kagome let out a long breath. The nothingness was almost a welcome relief. An old friend. She leaned back on the balls of her feet and prepared
herself to leave the well house.
This is okay. I am okay.
Suddenly, a familiar thrum of power and the magic of the well gently blew her hair back.
Was it her imagination?
Could she trust it? The well. Her vision. She had leapt down into the well a thousand times only to feel the ache in her legs. She didn't know if her heart could take it. Another jump. Another disappointment.
She decided she didn't care. But all of her things were not here with her. There was nothing for her to leave a note with. No food to take with her on her travels. No yellow backpack bloated with supplies and ramen. She was lucky she wore practical clothes
and shoes.
Yet if the well didn't let her through now, she was convinced it never would. Kagome looked around the old well house feeling desperate. How would they know she had gone? Would she be able to risk coming back? Could she?
Am I really going to do this? Am I losing my mind?
Kagome took one more moment before leaping over the lip of the well, and vanishing along with the magic of the well.
A note was written in the dust covering a tired mirror leaning against a wall.
Mama. Went back. Tell Grandpa and Souta I'm sorry. Love you. K.
I'm back. I'm back!
When she stopped, it was not the bottom of her family's well. It was the opposite end. The well bottom from the Feudal Era. She practically sobbed with contentment and immediately called for Inuyasha. Feeling a rush of adrenaline, she climbed out of the
well and over the side of the well. She called for him again.
The grass felt the same beneath her feet. The trees looked the same. But she could tell the moment she stepped out of the well, something was wrong.
"Inuyasha!"
She knew that likely he was not just sitting around waiting for her to return, but if he was in the vicinity, he might hear her or smell her scent.
"Inuyasha!"
She turned on her heel and nearly crashed into the being behind her. "Strange human, why do you shout my brother's name?"
It could not be.
Not him.
The dog demon who wielded Tenseiga, followed by a small toad and his ward, a young girl called Rin. Now alone. The demon who had attempted to kill her once.
"Sesshomaru-sama."
She did not turn around. She did not need to.
The handsome demon tilted his head toward her, perplexed that she knew his name. His lip curled and his brows knit into a scowl. "Human woman, how do you know my name?"
Her breath caught in her throat. He did not recognize her. "Where is your brother, Sesshomaru?"
The next words from his mouth cracked her like brittle glass. His voice was lifeless and cold. "Dead." Air left her lungs and the edges of her vision swam around her.
No.
He had to be wrong.
He had to be lying.
To ward off true enemies.
To screw with her.
To be cruel.
"Sesshomaru-Sama, it is Kagome. Don't you remember me?" she asked, her voice quivering with emotion. Still she could not turn around to look at him.
Oh, there it was. She could not see but he nodded. "My foolish brother waited for you, but did not explain where you went."
Kagome shook her head, laughing nervously, convinced he was toying with her. "Where is he?"
Sesshomaru glowered at her. Refusing to be ignored, he took his clawed hand and spun her around. His face bore no sign of aging. He looked exactly the same; perfect, fearsome and hating everyone. Sesshomaru seemed to hate everyone but that little girl.
She had seen him countless times go out of his way to protect her.
He did not answer her question. As cruel a man as he could be, he did not wish to hurt the girl.
"Rin?" It was a question. One meant to prompt a response, but one that angered him and brought fresh agony to him. His clawed hand at his side formed a white knuckled fist.
"Do not speak her name." He missed her. He would always miss her. Rin had succumbed to what all humans succumb to at one point or another. Rin had simply died of old age.
It didn't make the ache in his chest throb less.
Sesshomaru turned away from her, his kimono flourishing dramatically. He did not wish to discuss his past ward. "If you came looking for my brother or my ward, you are too late."
Kagome blanched, but still lost. "What happened to Rin? She was just a little girl—"
He spun on his heel once more, his hair flying, eyes flashing with crimson. She should run. Now.
"She was not a little girl!" he bellowed, his voice deep and menacing.
She should go.
The two didn't add up. "She would've only been 12 or 13 years old, I don't…"
Sesshomaru was in her face, pushing her back with a clawed hand. "Are you a ghost sent to taunt me of her death? I will not be mocked! She was not a little girl!"
Run. She should run.
It didn't add up. She was only gone for 5 years. How could so much have happened in such a small duration of time? Unless…
"Sesshomaru-sama, how long has it been since we defeated Naraku?"
His red eyes slowly turned back to the golden irises. "One hundred years."
Kagome's jaw fell open and her knees slammed into the dirt.
A hundred years.
She watched his hair flow elegantly behind him.
He had to be wrong.
He was definitely screwing with her.
"No, y-you're wrong."
Sesshomaru did not move, only stared at her, through her. He was remembering. Her entire life. The smallest smile touched his lips.
She didn't consider the consequences of her actions when she grabbed his forearm, demanding his attention.
"Where is he?" she screamed hysterically.
She should have run. She should not have pushed him. Not after Rin had died. Never at all.
Fingers closed around her throat and squeezed the air from her lungs. She immediately began thrashing and grasped his arm, clawing at his large hand, tears pouring from her eyes. His eyes were a deep red, the whites gone. A growl escaped his lips, his
teeth bared at her threateningly.
"Do not ever speak of my Rin," he growled, and dropped her roughly to the ground. "The next time you place your hands on me will be quickly followed by your untimely death."
Kagome kept her eyes lowered, massaging her throat, knowing there would be a bruise in the shape of his hand.
As he turned to walk away, her voice stilled him. "You loved her."
His feet stopped momentarily, but he did not look at her. His eyes momentarily held a glazed over look that he fixed into a scowl. "You speak as if I could even comprehend such an emotion. Do not speak as if you know me."
Sesshomaru disappeared from her sight into the forest never to be seen again.
And when she was left alone, the grief set in.
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Author Note: I'm not dead! Hurrah! This is a Kouga/Kagome centered fic. See ya soon!