The Will of the Wind
By Mischievous Dragon
Chapter 1
The first thing she could remember was waking up naked in the rain clutching a white feather; the wind was deathly violent and it was raining down heavily. It was night and the clouds in the sky were black occasionally being lit up by lightning. She remembered hearing a great big growl of thunder, it was what woke her up. The authorities found her and clothed her after receiving several calls about a naked woman wandering around in the rain. They clothed her and brought her to the hospital, since she couldn't remember anything from that night they figured it was amnesia maybe due to a traumatic experience. "She's unique," she heard a doctor whisper to a nurse "I've never seen anyone with such red eyes." The doctors told her the same thing that she had suppressed memories. They were hoping that after a month someone would come to at least claim her or at least know who she was. She couldn't even remember her name. The only thing that had meaning to her was the white feather and the hope that it would help her remember her past. She stayed in the hospital for awhile, until she found a job working at one of the local pubs as a waitress. She hated having no name so she told them it was Mai.
She chose it because she always felt a connection to dancing and that was exactly what Mai meant: dancing. When she was alone walking across the field to get to her apartment if the wind blew past her she always felt light on her feet like dancing with the wind would carry her away. She thought it was pathetic but nothing made her feel as free as dancing with the wind, she even noticed sometimes it felt like the wind would pick up around her and dance back. She knew no one would understand why she felt about the wind and the fact that it seemed to come alive when she danced around it. People would think she was crazy or it was some stupid coincidence, it was one of the reasons she didn't have any friends... She had work buddies but it was just grab to a coffee after work. Mai knew she didn't belong here in this world she felt a yearning, a longing for the country air, for trees as many as she could see... She began having nightmares almost every night it was about her and a man, she could never see his face but in her dreamed she loved him. He was watching her, watching her die... She loved him so much and in her dying moments she had at least realized that he had cared for her as well. The nightmare would always stop before she died because she's wake up just before that. Every night every dream she ever had was the same.
She went to specialist who told her "It must be a memory from your past that your trying to remember, but you keep waking up before anything actually happens." Mai laughed "Then how do you explain I died in the dream?" "It's possible that your amnesia may be distorting the truth." he told her. That was the last time she spoke to any sort of specialist. She knew what her dream was about it wasn't a memory that the person who she was in that dream had died, she knew for sure they're was no way that she could have made it up. Many nights she would stare out the window in her apartments and watch the wind flow through the trees wishing she could free herself from this life. She always felt like she was meant for something more... One night on her way back to her apartment from work the wind blew violently around her. It almost seemed as if it was leading her somewhere. The wind was almost pushing her now, she felt it comb through her raven hair and loosen the clip she had tied up her hair with. Mai couldn't resist the wind any longer and ran, ran to whatever direction it would take her.
She ran, ran through forests, parks, through the city till she no longer could feel her feet. She no longer felt like she was running but soaring through everything. She couldn't feel the pain of her bleeding and blistered feet, or the cuts and bruises she had gotten from the trees and branches in the forest. She arrived at a shrine it didn't matter whether she look around or not, she knew where she was going the wind was leading her... Next she knew she was in a shed taking a step into an old well and falling... She felt the wind flow all around her threw the well, pushing her her fall faster and faster. She didn't care that if she hit the bottom of the well it would probably break her neck, she trusted the wind and knew that whatever happened it would take care of her. For the first time in her life Mai felt release like she didn't have to hold back anything she was crying and when she was about o hit the ground of the well she braced herself, but it never came she went right through. The wind picked her up and carried her out of the well, but straight through. The wind carried her out and set her down on her feet. She looked at her surroundings and fainted.
When she awoke two faces were staring down at her, something about them seemed familiar to her but she couldn't place names to them or even how she knew them. "Lady Kaede! She's awake!" the young teenage girl spoke. "Hush Rin, you don't want to startle her!" the old woman whispered as she squeezed water out of a cloth she had prepared to wipe 'Mai's' wounds. Kaede began wiping her bloodied feet when she asked "Where I am?" Kaede ignored the question "We found you near where the bone eater's well use to be. Do you have any idea why you might have been near there?" Mai didn't know what to tell her, she followed the wind? The wear of the clothes the others were wearing resembled that of the Japanese feudal era. "I… I don't know." she lied.
Kaede may have been an old woman by now but she knew a liar once she'd seen one. Rin let her excitement get the better of her "Kagura! How did you do it? How did you come back? Even Lord Sesshomaru couldn't rescue you…" Mai grabbed her blankets and pulled them up with her as she sat up. "Who is this Kagura you speak of? Why does that name sound so familiar…" Rin gave a confused glance to Kaede who gave her a gesture meaning to quiet her excitement. Rin sighed "Kagura, you're Kagura aren't you? You look exactly how I remember you. It was even the wind that led us to find you." Mai though to herself 'I know I might be a little crazy but these people must be out of their minds.'
Suddenly Mai got an immense headache, she screamed in pain as she passed out again. She dreamed of images of multiple battles, multiple people and demons, and the man the man in her dream. She still couldn't remember his name or his face yet but she remembered the wind. She remembered her name, yes her name was Kagura. The sweet beautiful wind and how she rode on it almost everyday it was her freedom from… from…She jerked awake, Rin was putting a cold cloth over her forehead. "I, I remembered yes it's true my name is Kagura. I was born in this world, I control the wind. It was the wind that led me through the well back to this time and I am a demon." Rin smiled "You remembered! Lady Kaede she remembered!" Kaede walked slowly to Kagura's bed "Do you remember how you happened to appear five hundred years into the present? Do you remember anyone else's name besides your own?" Kagura shook her head.
"I remember yours, but not if we have met before today… It's funny I remember the unimportant faces but not the important ones. I still have no actual memories of anyone just fighting demos and humans." Kagura sighed. "That's alright Kagura, we've have both aged quite a bit since the last time you have seen either of us. Kagura do you remember dying?" Kaede asked her and the room seemed to grow completely quiet. "Yes." she stated. "Do you remember if anyone was with you when it happened?" Kagura answered "I remember someone being there and with when I died but I can't remember who it was or who killed me." "Ah I see." Kaede reassured Kagura. "You will get your memories back in due time Kagura I'm sure."
It didn't take long for Kagura's feet to heal as she became restless. A week had gone and past already. "Kaede, you know I must go now… I can't stand to be cooped up in one place for long. Now that I know at least the full extent of my powers once again. Thank you for… for your hospitality." Kagura bowed. "I would do the same for anyone Kagura." Kaede responded. Kagura turned around to head out the door when a fifth teen year old Rin came rushing out of the bedroom. "Kagura wait!" Kagura turned around. "Kagura, I know you don't remember me and we didn't really know each other that well while you were alive but I felt you should have this." Rin knelt down and lifted a small wrapped package. Kagura's eyes widened in shock as she grabbed the package and slowly unwrapped it. It was a dancer's Kimono, a kosode and an obi. She recognised it immediately as the kimono she wore during the time before she had died earlier in this era. "Lady Kaede helped me with it, it was her who taught me how to sew. I thought it might help you remember the rest of your memories…"
"Th,thank you Rin." Kagura nodded "This means a lot, you have no idea…" Rin got up and hugged Kagura. This made her feel terribly uncomfortable, she hated hugs but she tried not to push the girl away but tensed more and more. Kaede must have seen this because she told Rin "Come now Rin, you must let Kagura go…" Rin let her go and spoke again "I hope you are able to meet up with Lord Sesshomaru eventually, a lot has changed here Kagura since the last time you lived here." Kagura's faced grew confused. 'Sesshomaru' she thought 'Why does that name sound so familiar…' she thought to herself as she grabbed her feather, threw it to the ground and flew off.
It had been three weeks since Kagura had left Kaede's hut. She had caught a wild boar and was now cooking it under a fire she had built. She was enjoying her new found freedom, it didn't bother her much that most of her memories with anyone where gone. She didn't need anyone she was fine living on her own. She had just finished eating the leg of the boar when she heard a faint cry on the wind… "Mama? Papa?" It was a young child not to far off. Kagura debated on whether or not to help the child… It was human, she knew that much and it was lost it was looking for it's parents. She could sense another aura, that of a demon. She thought to herself, that'll shut it up, but before she even finished thinking it she realized she was racing to find it. That small child, Kagura would never admit it not even to herself that she feared for the child she did not know.
She found the child wandering aimlessly in the deep woods of the forest. All the while the demon was getting closer and closer, it was about to attack when she quickly grabbed the child. Took out her fan, which seemed to appear out of nowhere and yelled out "Dance of Blades!" It was a mere pathetic demon and therefore easy for Kagura to defeat with one swift attack. Once she was sure the demon was dead she put the child down. It was a boy with dark brown hair cut short with a little ponytail. The boy seemed familiar to him in some way though Kagura knew there was no possible way she could have known him while she was alive here previously. She asked him "Where are your parents boy?' but he must have been one of the younger humans who aren't able to talk yet. The whole idea of it seemed strange to Kagura after all she had never grown and wondered if she ever would. If she would be able to go through the child birthing process at all…
She stopped her thoughts there, why would she think of such a thing? Why did it matter to her? She was a demon but she felt her heart was slowly growing soft and she hated it. The softness in her heart made her want her memories back more and more each day. The child had clung to her for dear life until it had fallen asleep on her chest. As she cradled it she remembered the feeling of carrying a child before with this child though she felt a connection. The time she carried a child like this before her death she remembered hating the stupid thing wanting to tear it limb from limb. She took the feather out of her hair and threw it once more to the ground where it grew larger. She stepped into it carrying the toddler with her and listened on the wind for possible voices looking for the child. She rode on the wind for hours but still no sign of anyone missing the child. It was night so Kagura expected that the child's parents might be sleeping.
Morning came hours later and Kagura heard a woman's voice calling… "Keiji! Keiji!" Kagura flew down beneath the trees and watched the woman. She had brown hair and brown eyes, she was wearing a pink Kosode and a green Mo-bakama. Kagura knew this woman but still had no memory of her. She did get a flash of a smaller boy a little younger than she was. Kagura knew she had a bigger connection to the boy then to this woman… "Keiji! Keiji, where are you?" the woman yelled. "Miroku I don't know where he is! Oh God Miroku what if something happened to him?" The man beside her cradled her "We'll find him Sango I swear!" Kagura looked at the sleeping body beside her and knew he belonged to them. She gently woke him up. "Keiji?" she asked he slowly woke up. "Mama?" he asked. Kagura smirked "Of course I'm not your mother… Look." She pointed towards the woman. "That's her isn't it?" the child nodded and ran towards the woman yelling "Mama!" The woman ran towards her child crying. "Keiji! You had me so worried! You know we've told you never to go off by yourself!" She hugged him tightly. The man beside her cradled them both as well.
Kagura decided she'd seen enough of this happy reunion and flew out of the forest, avoiding any thanks anyone would give her. Sango though looked above the trees and noticed the wind pick up, she saw Kagura on her feather. She decided to keep quiet for now, she knew the wind had something to do with it. Whether it was actually Kagura or not she wasn't sure… She was just happy to get her son back. Kagura could no longer stand not knowing her memories, knowing that people affected her life but not how was driving her crazy. She decided to go back and see Rin, Rin seemed to know a lot more about her than even Kagura did. She flew down to Kaede's hut and disembarked the feather. She was about to knock on the door when it flung open. It was the first person Kagura could remember without having to be told his name. "Sesshomaru?" there was a look of shock on his face as well. She approached him and it was her instincts that guided her as she gently stroked his face. The wind picked up around both of them and she put her lips on his to embrace in a kiss. Sesshomaru was still in shock but did not pull her away instead he let their tongues interlock in their deep passionate kiss. Her slender hands where on his chest and he wrapped his arm around her waist to bring her closer to him. When Kagura stopped to breathe all at once the massive headache struck her again, she was remembering everything all at once. The pain in her head became so great that she slowly drifted into unconsciousness.
