Historian's Note: This story takes place after chapter 558, or the last episode in the series; Inuyasha- the Final Act.
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters.
Chapter One
Kagome looked around the small, open field after climbing out of the well near Keade's village. It was silent with the exception of birds chirping, and squirrels and rabbits running through the brush. Usually she would have been greeted by Inuyasha, but he seemed to be nowhere around. Convinced he was probably off fighting a demon, Kagome made her way to the village alone.
As she approached the village, she noticed something was wrong. There was no pitter-patter of children's feet running about, or farmers tending to the crops. She couldn't see anybody at all. She started to get worried and quickly made her way to her hut. Looking inside revealed no one. She went to all of her friend's houses; same thing. What the hell is going on? Kagome ran through every part of the village and to no avail; the village was disserted.
Night began to fall over the empty houses as Kagome sat alone in front of a fire pit, waiting for at least one person to return. The silent tapping of rain hitting the roof urged Kagome to stand and walk to the door. She moved the curtain to the side with her hands, still hoping that maybe once she looked outside she would see people in the distance, coming into the village. She saw nothing but thunder clouds rolling over her, and trees swaying in the wind. Maybe I should go look for someone. Kagome put a clenched hand up to her mouth, biting her finger, concerned.
Without another thought, she quickly packed up a bag. She grabbed everything she felt was vital to her travels; water, food, extra clothing, medicinal herbs, and a variety of other items. She took how her umbrella and opened it up before stepping outside. It wasn't long after she started following a small dirt path, that she disappeared into the dense forest.
-break-
Sesshomaru fought his way up out of a troubling dream and stared at the ceiling for a moment trying to remember the dream and why it had upset him, before the hard, repeated knocking on his front door registered on his consciousness.
The room was dark, almost unnervingly so. Sesshomaru threw his legs over the side of the bed, and reached over to his bedside table to grab and light a single candle. He walked over to the door and opened it only slightly to reveal his small human ward.
"Rin, what is the meaning of this?"
"I'm sorry Sesshomaru-sama, but I heard something banging on my window and it scared me, and I just..."
Without listening to another word, Sesshomaru quickly wound through the twisting hallways of his castle, eventually ending up in Rin's bedroom. He looked over at the window and saw nothing. "There's nothing there Rin."
"But Sesshomaru-sama" She grabbed onto his pants leg and pointed at the window. "I swear there's something there!"
Slightly glaring, the rather annoyed dog demon walked to the window and opened it, sticking his head outside to again, see nothing but a tree branch rapping on the wall. Sighing, he broke it up quickly with one swipe of his claws.
"Is it gone?"
"There should be no more noises, Rin. Now go to sleep." He patted her on the head and started to make his way back to his room, only to be stopped by another annoyance.
"My lord, my lord!" said Jaken.
"What."
"It's A-Un my lord, he's seemed to have broken out of his stable and ran off."
Sesshomaru didn't even blink at Jaken's frantic display and continued to make his way to his room, where he was dead set on going back to sleep.
"Lord Sesshomaru, will you do nothing?" Jaken quickly waddled in front of Sesshomaru, being careful to not get stepped on. "He must have betrayed you my lord" He shook his small fists as he concentrated on the ground, not noticing that Sesshomaru passed him and continued to walk down the halls. "That ungrateful beast, I knew I was the only one truly faithful to you my lord." Jaken looked up. To his surprise, Sesshomaru was no longer in front of him. He looked around franticly, and only saw Sesshomaru's shadow fading out of view. "Ah, my lord, please wait for me!" He scurried to catch up with him, also fading into the darkness of the castle.
-break-
Kagome sat next to a large riverbed, gathering water and cleaning her hands and feet free from mud and dirt. She looked up into the sky, the warmth of the sun shone down on her making her smile. Breaking the serine moment, she heard a silent growl and placed her hands over her stomach. I guess I should eat something. She pulled her bag closer and opened it, digging around for something to eat. Now I know I have something…ah! Here it is. She took a sandwich out of her bag, unwrapped its paper covering and began to eat.
Before she could finish her meal, she heard the loud footsteps of something coming out of the forest. Oh no, it's probably a demon. Acting quickly, she grabbed her things and jumped into a nearby bush, concealing herself from whatever monster was about to appear out of the forest. She held her bow and arrows close to her chest, having them just as a precaution, but not afraid to use them on anything might try to attack her, be it human, or demon.
As she focused on the area she heard the footsteps coming from, the presence revealed itself, and Kagome was quite surprised, but no longer afraid. She stood up from the brush, dusting off the foliage and dirt that clung to her kimono, and walked towards the visitor.
"You're one of Onii-san's followers. I can't seem to remember your name though…" She thought to herself for a second and then looked around. "Wait, are you here by yourself? Where's Sesshomaru? Or that annoying little toad thing that follows him everywhere for that matter, he's usually with you." Kagome grabbed A-Un's reigns and petted his heads.
I can't sense the presence of anyone else, what's going on? Did Sesshomaru disappear with everyone else as well? Without wanting to waist anytime, Kagome climbed onto A-Un's back and leaned forward. "Can you take me to Sesshomaru-sama, please?" A-Un grunted and instantly took off into the sky.
It seemed like forever to Kagome, as they flew over forest after forest, mountain after mountain. Why would Inuyasha have traveled so far off, what's so important…? The thoughts of what could have happened to him started to get to her. What if he was taken away or something killed him, what if he found someone else… Her face dropped, tears welled up in her eyes and fell off her face one by one. She didn't make a noise, or even clench her eyes shut. Her face looked as if it were frozen, and her eyes, melting at the very thought of losing the one closest to her.
After about five hours of flying, A-Un finally touched down right outside a small village. Curious, Kagome jumped down from A-Un's back and stretched, rubbing her numb butt. "I bet you're hungry." Kagome looked up at the beast, which seemed to grunt in response. She threw her hand into her bag and dug around once more for some greens to give to A-Un as a thank you treat. She knew it wasn't much, so she told him to go find food in the forest and wait for her. He gave a nod and wondered off as instructed.
Griping the sash of her bag tightly, she hurriedly walked though the small village, asking everyone she could if they had seen Inuyasha. Nobody knew, until one woman pointed her in a direction; down by the ocean shore.
After a few moments, she found herself on the beach, watching the sun set over the ocean, casting beautiful rays of orange, pink, and violet into the clouds and onto the water's surface. Though she methodically scanned both the beach, and as far out into the ocean as she could see, she saw no sign of Inuyasha. She let out a deep sigh "Well he has to be somewhere," she hung her head and wiped away a single tear "I probably came all this way for nothing."
Without hope, Kagome made her way back up to the village and found a small inn at which to rest until morning. She laid out her futon, dressed herself in her pajamas, and was about to lay down for sleep when she heard thumping in the room next to her own. Thinking nothing of it, she continued to make herself comfortable, but again was disturbed by more thumping, this time accompanied by shouting.
Kagome couldn't bare the racket in the other room, she wrapped a robe around herself, got up and went into the hallway, knocking on her neighbor's door. A woman's voice quickly accompanied her knocking, sounding extremely displeased, "Go away!" Then continued to yell at whoever was in her room with her.
She knocked again. The woman yelling stopped, and Kagome could hear her walking over to the sliding door and watched as she opened it.
"What!" she spit her words at Kagome.
"If you please don't mind, keeping it down, there are some people trying to sleep ya'know." Kagome's face was blank, not wanting to get overemotional. Curious, Kagome glanced behind the woman to see if she could see who she was screaming at.
It was a man; long, fair hair, bright red garments made up of a kosode, a hakama bloused at the ankles obi. Though Kagome could not see the man's face she knew instantly who it was. Pushing the woman aside she ran into the room and grabbed the man's shoulder, spinning him around quickly "Inuyasha!" Her excitement ended quickly when she looked into the man's eyes; it was not Inuyasha.
"Excuse me miss, do I know you?" The man held a look of confusion on his face.
"I-I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else."
"I see. I apologize if we were causing you any distress, I'll try to keep my wife quiet." He stood up and led her out of the room. Kagome bowed in thanks, and walked back into her own room.
Sliding the door closed behind her, she ran her hands through her hair, throwing her head back, exasperated.
"Kagome," a familiar voice rang out in the silence of her room, immediately catching her attention. She looked up to see a dark figure standing in front of the window. "I've been looking for you."