~Intro~
The say when someone travels through time and let's say, changes fate by killing someone; their time in the future becomes lost. They can disappear, or they become a slave of time. Neither of that happened to me. My future self replaced my past self in order to fix another one's wound. I guess you can say I became a slave. But that was what I believed in the beginning.
Because of the war with Naraku, my past self was murdered. Not for any reason in particular; just for pure spite. He cheated. I was cheated out of a chance at life. I will never forgive him for what he did. I feel like a part of my soul was taken from me. Destroyed, never to be recovered. You see, fate never intended for her to die like Kikyo did.
When I began to fade away, the shrine keepers said that there was nothing they could do. Their only daughter looked sick, like she saw a ghost when she exchanged glances with me. Her look stood out from the rest; her look held the fear while everyone else looked simply sympathetic towards me.
That night I traveled through time. My body became infinite and weightless. I assumed I was dying but when I awoke, I surely was not dead…
~Present time, my story~
I ended up in a strange forrest after I "died". The sun sets and the moon rises; I never imagined the after life would have time. I still felt hungry; I still felt the cold on my skin. I thirsted for something to drink. What kind of hell was this? I've stated in the same radius for about three days now; too scared to wander too far. Who knew what could be on the other side of these woods.
Today, I couldn't take it anymore. I needed something to drink. I decided to do some wandering; to see what I could find. I mean I was already dead right? Do I still need to worry about dying again? I stopped second guessing, before I changed my mind and let myself die of thirst.
The trees were enormous. They looked as if they were thousands of years old. There was moss on the ground; heavy, thick moss; so I took off my shoes. It felt like carpet. Maybe death wasn't so bad. We didn't have this much in Japan; just concrete and more concrete buildings. You were lucky to see the blue skies above. But here, all of it; we can take it for granted.
Home; I wonder what they were doing now? I'd be missing forever never to be found. That's a sad way to go, a sad way to leave. Not knowing the answers causes us to think and make up stories to ease our psychological confusion. People don't just disappear, do they? It doesn't make sense. It doesn't happen in the physical world. Only in our imagination; am I trapped in my imagination? How do I wake up?
My reverie was shattered when I realized the forest was becoming less dense and the sunlight was getting warmer. I could see a clearing ahead. I could feel an energy pulling me forward. I started towards the clearing; there was a well. Maybe there would be water. But I stopped dead when I heard the voices. I felt like a deer in headlights. I peeked around the tree and couldn't believe what I saw. There was a girl that looked like she was from my world. In fact she was wearing our school uniform! What was going on here? There was a tall male with silver hair and…Dog ears? Oh god, I must be going crazy.
They started to walk away but then I got the urge to run after them; with out thinking. I couldn't stop myself.
"Hey wait!" I yelled. They both stopped dead and turned around. The tall male in the red robes grabbed the hilt of his sword.
"Oh my god, how did you get in here?" The girl said.
"That's what I was about to ask you; are you dead?" The girl looked confused.
"Dead? Oh no! You were that girl that..-"
"That what?"
"Your past self was killed…that girl..-" she looked at the male and they both looked sort of pale. "Inuyasha, does she, you know smell like-
"Rin? Yeah. She does."
"Rin? I'm not Rin! I'm Rei!"
"I know but your past self was a girl named Rin."
"My brother will be hunting you, so let's get out of here Kagome."
"Inuyasha! We can't do that. He'll assume it's a trap by Naraku and he will kill her!"
"Do you really think he could kill 'Rin'?"
"No but I'm not taking any chances so she's coming with us so we can maybe explain to him-"
"Wait, I'm not dead? And why does his brother want to hunt me down? I never did anything to him!"
"No you're not dead; you're in the past." Kagome said.
"And Sesshomaru doesn't need a reason to kill someone-"
"Inuyasha! He's not killing anyone!"
We walked back to the forest and we kept our path straight until we made it to a clearing that over looked a village on a hillside. The village was very small. There were men in the fields trying to plant crops in order to survive. Their traditional robes covered in sweat and clay from the earth. They looked exhausted. They must have been working all day. They saw us walking by and they looked at Kagome and Inuyasha and waved. They must be important in this town. We made our way to a larger hut and an old woman with an eye patch stood outside and greeted us. She was dressed in red and white robes and her hair was long and grey. She was aged beautifully. I could tell she was once a young and free spirit.
"Who is this, Kagome?" The old woman asked.
"Well, this is Rei… let's talk about this inside." We went through the door and sat around the fire pit and Kagome started talking again. Why didn't I know what was going on? I felt so stupid.
"You know what happened to Rin right?"
"Yes I do recall."
"Well we found her reincarnation. Her name is Rei. Can you see how much they look alike?"
"Wait, what happened to this Rin person?"
"She is your reincarnation; your past self. She was murdered by Naraku."
"I was murdered? Shouldn't my future self be dead then?"
"Technically yes but, the well you saw earlier where I came from must have summoned you. You are needed here in the past." Kagome said. She trailed off at the last part like she knew something but she didn't want to tell me something. She looked kind of scared. I wanted to ask but a part of me didn't want to know. For right now I needed to learn how to cope with living in the past an learn what I am needed here for. It's kind of exciting. I'm needed in the past.
"But what about this Sesshomaru? What does he have to do with me?"
"We aren't entirely sure. Your past self was I guess, really close to him I would say. In this time period you were only nine years old. He protected you. So how much do you believe in demons?" She smiled when she asked that and glanced over to Inuyasha. I completely forgot. The dog ears and the wild hair.
"Well I guess I have to believe they are real now, I'm standing right in front of one. I completely forgot."
"Yeah, they aren't all like Inuyasha though; especially Sesshomaru." Inuyasha snorted when Kagome said that.
"Yeah he's more like an animal." He added in. Kagome rolled her eyes.
"So as I was saying, you need to be careful. Living in this time period isn't exactly easy. Maybe you should come along with us, so that we can, uh, face Sesshomaru together. I know he can probably pick up on your scent."
"No way she is not-"
"Inuyasha she is coming with us. We have to." He knew better than to continue arguing; he shut up almost instantly "come on, let's go meet the others."
There were more people? Great. More of her friends to dislike me.
We made our way up the hillside, Kagome continued to explain everything about this place. We were in the past, in Japan. I couldn't believe it. I looked around me; I couldn't believe that what we were standing on would all be city scape. But in that moment, the wind was free to caress our skin as we walked and watched the sunset.
Her other friends were waiting for us beyond the hillside. There were three of them; a woman, another male in purple robes, and a small child like demon?
"This is Sango," She pointed to the female, "Miroku," the male in the purple robes, "And Shippo. And guys this is Rei"
"It's nice to meet you Rei, but not to sound rude; how did you get in our time period."
"Well that's a long story; I don't fully understand why I'm here so I will give Kagome the honors." I smiled. They still looked confused.
This was going to be a long night.
A/N~ I decided on the name Rei because it translates to Spirit or Soul. Also if there's any other confusions with in the story please let me know and I can post another note in the next chapter or edit in an explanation for the story- I always feel like I am missing SOMETHING.