ShikonShards and Obsidan Mirrors
Chapter 1: The Ageless Search
By: LadyRainStarDragon

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.

This chapter was formerly archived in "Threads of Destiny."

Those who have followed me from the Spirited Away fandom will recognize a few characters. However, these characters for those who do not know are original characters that I have created. If by some miracle I work in a character belonging to Miyazaki-san, I'll note that.

The wind blew her on her rootless way, a cursed child who was looking for salvation or healing. Once, her rich brown hair had been long, but not very long ago, she had cut it short, in mourning for those that she had lost. Her father had been claimed by her family curse in her childhood, as had the one that she had loved. Or so she thought her love had. Destiny has her way, and who can understand her workings?

The searching one found herself today in Tokyo, her new friend at her side as they climbed the stairs to this sacred Shrine. The passing winds ruffled her chin-length hair, blowing it around a narrow face set with twin sapphires gazing brokenly out upon the world. She felt a power here, and now she would wander all of Japan until she found where she was being called by her ancestors. Not a drop of Japanese blood flowed in her veins, she being of Irish and Apache descent, and yet after the loss of her beloved Obsidian, this is where Destiny lead her.

Tripping on a step, she was caught by strong arms that had taken care of her since their first encounter at Mount Fuji. This spirit had been loyal to her ever since, even though she had mistreated him so much. As she gazed at him, she felt a keen sense of loss, for his earthy eyes and gentle face looked so much like her lost love, and it was as though it were him with a shorter hairstyle. The wanderer tried to hide her pain, but the dragon who wore this human form had seen it anyway.

"Are you sure you want to pray here?"

"Yes, this is the Shrine that pulls me today."

"As you wish. Shall I carry you?"

"No. I can walk on my own."

In silence, the pair continued on, and as they crested the top of the stairway and passed through torii, the view of a magnificent tree greeted the travelers. The Shrine compound had a wholesome and welcoming feeling to it, but the girl who walked from a mini-shrine into the living quarters had a decidedly sad air as she lugged her pack with her. Her short green skirt and the sailor top that she wore revealed that she was a school student in the area, but BlowingWind had not been in the country long enough to know which school.

"Wench! You're going to hurt yourself like that. You really will break your brain if you take that test now!"

"Inuyasha! Osuwari."

A young man in red was plunged to the ground as he exited the same building that she had, creating a nice hole in the ground. His snowy hair spread over him like a short cape, but it did nothing to hide the dog-like ears on the top of his head. The child of a distant land couldn't hold back her laughter, although she knew she should. There was just something absolutely comedic about seeing somebody fall to the ground with just a word. Now if she could only learn how to do that with her dragon protector when he overstepped his bounds. Like he had in the forests at the base of his home.

The pair looked at the newcomers with dread in their eyes, and as the wind played with the midnight locks of the young woman, the young man sprang from the ground and drew a previously unnoticed sword. How the dragon and his beloved spirit warrior of unknown destiny had missed the behemoth weapon before, Creator only knew. With the young man's aggressive stance, the force of the magma placed himself between his human companion and the hanyou.

"Who the hell are you dragon, and what are you doing here?"

The breeze ruffled the man's spiky black hair, while Amaterasu gazed serenely down at the dragon disguised as a normal Asian man. His white shirt had an image of a black and red dragon wound about a young maiden, but whether she was trapped there or merely resting was left to the eyes of the beholder. The miko behind the hanyou watched in wide-eyed fascination, wondering if he were a youkai or a kami, believing the spirits to be either all gone in her time, or in hiding. The dragon merely held his arms out to his sides, showing that he had no weapons.

"My friend merely wished to pay her respects to the kami of this Shrine. I am Ryu of the House of Take, a magma river kami from beneath Mount Fuji."

The girl before the house put down her pack, bravely passing the half-demon that had accompanied her, and paused before Ryu and the foreign girl. The dragon merely looked at her soul, a shining jewel that looked so much like an opal. So this was the miko in the legends of the Shikon no Tama.

"Are you here for the jewel?"

Ryu merely shook his head. He had forgotten that the legends, though five hundred years old for him and the rest of the world, were the present for the young miko.

"What would I do with such a thing? It can not perform the task that I wish. Only time can do that."

Having said this, he looked gently at the Shaman who had fled across the sea and into his life, noticing how the clouds of gloom had once more attempted to shroud the turquoise being from his view. The miko of the Sunset Shrine followed his gaze, seeing the pain and shyness emanating from the girl who also had holy power of a kind. The inu-hanyou scoffed in the background, clearly able to smell the claims that the magma kami had placed on the human he was traveling with. Such a union would only produce another being to hide in shadows, at least in his view.

Kagome saw the need in the other young woman's eyes, recognized the same look of loss that she had seen in her best friend, Sango. This woman needed to talk, to vent, to find a way to heal. Being a caring soul, Kagome had to answer the call.

"I will take you there. What's your name."

The answer came after a moment for the girl to translate the question in her mind.

"MountainChild BlowingWind, miss."

"Hello BlowingWind, I'm Kagome."

The girls walked to the Goshinboku, the Miko teaching the Shaman how to address the kami that was the tree. After the foreigner had paid her respects, and listened to the advice that the miko could not hear, the pair sat together, as the visitor told her story.

While the girls had been thus occupied, the men had continued in their face off, Inuyasha not trusting the dragon that had trespassed into this territory. He was distrustful of anyone that he did not know, and this went triply for any dragon spirit after hearing of how his father had been killed as a result of battle with one. Being far older than the young hanyou, even taking in the passage of 500 years from the boy's own time, Ryu was indulgent as he realized that he would be the same way towards any intruder to his lands. It was during this standoff that they found themselves plastered with faulty scroll-spells.

"Demons be gone."

"Give it up jiji. They don't work."

Ryu smiled at the daitoku's wish to protect the sanctity of the grounds that he was charged with. The old man was a devoted servant of the guardian kami of this place, even if his powers had been curbed years ago, probably in preparation by Goshinboku for the awakening and arrival of the young one. Still, one thought remained in his head.

'This boy is the one that is supposed to defeat Naraku?'