Hey readers! I figured it's not a popular crossover, so there were less people to disappoint. Better yet, a smaller group to have to receive approval from. Also, Kagome is not badass or anything in this. I know in certain other stories that's how she's portrayed, but let's be honest with ourselves and think about how she was basically the entire series. That, but with some changes that fit within the outline I have set up, is how she will be: no ifs, ands, or buts.
I own nothing.
Kagome didn't know what it meant that she was being, for lack of a better word, pulled towards a certain point through the dense woods. The young miko had been called to a village quite far from Kaede's. Though she and her group of friends had completed the Shikon no Tama successfully, that did not completely end the violent times they lived in. Demon activity had slowed down slightly after the surge it had been at due to Naraku's death, but humans toiled on endlessly to annihilate each other, much to the disgruntlement of everyone. This especially focused on Kagome. Now that Kaede had told her that her training as a priestess was complete, and understanding that she wasn't as young as she used to be, it had been passed on to the raven haired girl to travel wherever, whenever needed.
Apparently a lord of an already feuding clan had decided that the two squabbling villages should merge - whether the other town wanted it or not. A battle obviously ensued at the foolish and corrupt lord's assumption, leaving many on both sides injured, and to add on to the poor village's predicament, bandits had been known to strike them when they least expected it. They had called for the Shikon Miko with hopes that she could protect them from both the lord's soldiers and the bandit attacks. Kagome had come, and when she had run out of herbs and medicinal plants, she had thought nothing of stepping in the woods surrounding the village to gather some more supplies. Not long after wandering around in search of a rather illusive ingredient to one of her balms something seemed to tug on her senses, and if she had to put it in layman's terms, it felt rather like a strange umbilical cord connected at her belly button that mercilessly pulled her towards an unknown destination.
After the five years spent in the Sengoku Jidai she knew that her senses and instincts were to be trusted, so she put up no fight; instead simply letting Fate lead her where it may. It wasn't like the forest was endless. She could still simply walk back to the village once her business was concluded. The young miko listened to the sounds of nature around her and the clatter of her arrows in their quiver as she was led all the way into a beautiful clearing that subtly reminded her of the fact that she was no longer in Tokyo, and even if she was, it had yet to be built or named. Sighing, she took a good look around and found that there was nothing around except for the pure white flowers blowing in the pleasant breeze. It was then that she flickered into view.
Kagome stared in shock as a constantly shifting being in the form of a woman literally appeared out of nowhere. First she was a young girl, and she smiled warmly up at the priestess, showing off a large gap where her right front tooth should have been.
"Kon'nichiwa Shikon Miko."
With a slightly smaller smile of her own Kagome replied.
"Kon'nichiwa. And may I ask what you are doing so far away from the village?"
"I believe that you know as well as I do I do not belong to the human village."
The girl changed before her very eyes into a young woman, in her late teens or early twenties. Her face was completely serene, but her eyes seemed to contain the stars themselves.
"Then what do you belong to?"
"I belong to no one and nothing, indeed it is the other way around. Except for you."
This caused Kagome to frown slightly, her lips barely tugging in a downwards motion as if they didn't know how.
"If I don't belong to you, yet everyone else and everything else does, what does that make you?"
The placid face of the girl transformed once again, losing none of its calm as wrinkles quickly appeared and her once silky black hair turned into a steely gray. She was now an old woman, one who looked much too fragile to even be standing, let alone take a trek through the woods from the village below them.
"Oh dear, I am Time."
There was something in the way the aged vocal cords told her this; completely neutral, as if it was merely a drop in the ocean whether the shocked girl in front of her believed her or not. This held her back from snorting or scoffing at such a ridiculous idea. Time itself coming to visit her? Higurashi Kagome, who, had things not proceeded the way they had, would have spent half her time at Wacdonald's with her friends or cramming for tests instead of going through massacred villages and fighting monsters most of her classmates couldn't even dream of. Though when she though back to it, when she and her companions squared off against Kaguya what seemed like a lifetime ago now, she had attempted to freeze time, and Kagome had been the only one exempt from it without having to use the items she brought from the future.
Because you are from the future.
In her ponderings, she had instinctively tucked her chin to her chest. Once she had processed everything she turned back to the supposed 'Time' and nodded her head as a sign for the flickering woman to continue. She noticed with avid interest that the woman had lost a few wrinkles and seemed to be shrinking.
"I am a companion to Fate, and at times Fate and I are one. Despite what you may think, there were two options for you the day you fell down the Honekui no Ido. Fate allowed you a choice, even if the odds were in the well's favor. It was Choice, not Fate, that led you down that well, but everything after was meant to happen, even down to the discussion you are now having with me."
Kagome had the urge to fire off all her questions but took the quickening in Time's flickering and decided against it.
"But there is something much more difficult ahead of you now. I cannot say what would have happened had you decided to pass your brother and stay away from the well that morning, but I can tell you that Fate and I have bonded once more in your case. There is something horrible happening in a future beyond that of even your own. Mankind has met its worst enemy. Something that even your stubborn kind is slowly losing to. I cannot assure you that you will return to either time that you have known, this or the one you grew up in, but I can tell you that you will not be alone in your mission."
Time had once again become a girl in a somehow quick and slow manner, though the gap now held half the tooth that it was supposed to. Kagome glanced back at the way she had come with great trepidation.
"What about the village? My friends?"
The young Time in front of her showed no doubt or worry; her serene face the same as it had been since she appeared in front of the frightened miko.
"You will make new ones, and you will always have your memories of the friends you had here. It will not be easy, but I suppose change is never easy, inevitable as it may be. You may just be able to come back to the life you have made here."
Time's words offered a small bit of comfort that was quickly replaced by the sudden feeling of falling and the eerily familiar blue and purple light that shot up from the ground and encircled her, swirling around her in a ball before she suddenly felt an incredible pressure. This, unlike the light and sensation of falling, was unfamiliar. It increased and pressed down all around her until she simply closed her eyes and let everything swallow her.
Waking up in a clearing wasn't really how Kagome expected to be greeted into whatever Time and Fate had cooked up for her. Not that she had wanted a banquet hall, but it was a better option than her not knowing where the hell she was.
The grasses surrounding her were tall, they reached her mid-thigh and swayed in the slight breeze. Other than the tall grasses, everything looked foreign. She had studied thoroughly under Kaede, so she was confident if she was anywhere near where she was before she met Time, she would recognize something. It was disconcerting to say the least that everything around was unfamiliar to her. She was out of her depth with this, but if she had learned anything about humans through her travels, it was that they were a very adaptable species.
If she could get used to going five hundred years in the past, she could get used to…whenever she was. It would have been helpful if Time had mentioned that part before sending her off, but she grudgingly conceded that beggars couldn't be choosers. If she was such a big part of Fate's plan, she supposed that perhaps it was meant to be that she didn't know just where or when she ended up.
At least with the well, she was still exactly where she had been, give or take a few centuries. Without the flora giving her a definite location, she couldn't tell just where in the world she was. The trees were as tall as giants; bigger than even Goshinboku. It was disorienting to say the least. Kagome supposed that if she was going to complete whatever mission she had been given, she would have to find the newly endangered species known as humans.
The young priestess marveled at what could destroy mankind to the brink of extinction after everything they'd survived, especially some of the more dangerous demons that came to mind. She knew that she wouldn't find the answer standing around in this small clearing. It was risky to leave in a random direction, but no one would ever accuse Kagome Higurashi for being a tactician. Hell, she had barely been able to control the extent of her powers until five years ago. One thing about the Warring States Era, it forced you to learn things more quickly than the Japan of the future. It was a miracle that the miko had spent nearly year without having to lean on the full extent of her purifying powers.
Now, as she made her way through the thick woods, she kept a comfortingly firm grip on her bow. She would need every ounce she could summon if she was supposed to be humanity's 'savior'. She didn't even know what she was a savior from, but if Time needed to warp itself just to get her here, it wasn't going to be a piece of cake. She had a full quiver, but she knew that wouldn't support her indefinitely. Kagome knew that if she really concentrated her energy, she could create bows with her spiritual energy, but that still wouldn't help much due to the fact that the only time she had tried, the spell had been weak and still managed to wipe her out. She had nearly slept through the entire next day and tiredness had clung to her even after that. In all her thinking, she hadn't noticed the subtle tremble of the earth around her. In fact, she didn't notice until it became so obvious that it caused her to stumble.
Earthquake?
There was a pause in the rumbles, making Kagome stop and tilt her head. What stopped it? Before she even had time to contemplate, they began again. In a sudden rapid fire pace, the quakes got bigger. The priestess felt fear begin to tense her muscles in preparation for a fight. The shakes felt familiar now that they were closer, and she finally realized the rhythm. After facing off against some of the largest demons in Japan, she knew the sound of ginormous footsteps pounding the earth into submission. She doubted she could ever forget it.
And now it was headed directly towards her.
Kagome was quick to draw her trusty bow and load an arrow, ready to wait for the impending giant. Sufficed to say, the young miko was expecting something like the large creatures she had confronted ever since arriving in the Feudal Era. What she got was enough for her to slacken her hold on her weapon. It wasn't a blue-horned devil, or a demon bear. It was a human.
It walked towards her slowly, but with steps the width of the tree trunks surrounding them. It stared at her for a moment before reaching out just as sluggishly, with a disturbing expression that left her grip on her weapon slack. She had never seen anything like it. Its hand drew ever closer, and seemed eager, if the subtle twitching of its enormous fingers was anything to go by.
By that point, Kagome had gained enough of her wits back to knock the arrow and shoot. The outstretched hand disintegrated before her into a pile of ash, but it didn't stop there. The purification slowly worked its way up the arm and spread until the whole beast was nothing but dust. Adrenaline kept the miko rooted to the spot with her heart pounding furiously to the point where her fingertips throbbed to its beat. Time passed strangely and eventually a breeze blew through the clearing, causing the remains of the creature to shift and Kagome to nearly go into shock.
If this is what she was sent to fight, then she was going to have to get a stronger bladder.
"Ehhh, do no yō ni kowaidesu!"
Finally, she calmed enough to slump and wipe the sweat from her brow. The ash moved again and she tensed, ready for something to pop up and scare the crap out of her. She poked it with her bow, just to make sure nothing had escaped her powers, before slowly walking away. Suddenly she was missing the days when all she had to worry about was Naraku.
First one-shot I've ever done. Got anything to say about it, don't keep it to yourself! Review! Now, anyone who had major disagreements with the story: I do not accept nasty comments. You can give a harsh critique and give reasons, personal or general, about what didn't work for you, but I refused to read through mean/bitchy comments that only state extreme personal opinions (i.e. "it was a piece of shit") without any good reasons why I should take it seriously.
Other than that, feel free to criticize!
