Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of its characters. I only own my own characters.
Chapter 1
"I'd like to introduce a new student. Her name is Higame Higurashi and she just moved here from America," my new teacher states to my new class before giving me a seat in the back of the classroom.
I'm the new student and I now live with my Uncle that I'd never previously met. My mother had told me about her family in Japan, but even when my grandmother and great-grandfather had died she never took me to the funeral. She had said that it had been too long to make up for lost time. It was like she was running from something in her past that she was afraid might catch up to her.
I sigh, looking out the window to find my reflection staring back on me. I've always been told that I look exactly like my mother and my Uncle even looked like he had seen a ghost before telling me the same thing.
Then he had gone off on some spiel about the half jewel that my mother gave me when I was little. He started ranting about the Shikon no Tama, how it was a family heirloom, and something about stupid hanyous. It was pretty weird, but I'm still glad I have this jewel to remember my recently deceased mother by. I miss her terribly.
"What's the answer to number twelve, Higurashi," my teacher suddenly asks me, pulling myself out of my thoughts and memories.
I quickly find the answer to give, leaving my thoughts and memories for another time more appropriate then now.
I get back to my new home with a sigh of relief. I'd always been good at school, but being the newbie isn't exactly a cup of tea. I walk to my room that apparently used to be my mother's to find that I haven't unpacked any of my stuff. I grumble unhappily and throw my backpack on the floor, grabbing my Sais from the floor and my cigarettes from a hidden area underneath the bed. The unpacking could wait till later, but right now what I needed was a good workout to soothe my nerves.
Then I go start my daily workout, loving the burn in my muscles and the mindlessness of it all.
I finish about an hour later, feeling completely satiated to have killed my imaginary opponent. I strap my sighs to my calves and decide to take a small look around the grounds, curious about my new home.
One place catches my eye in particular. It's a small shrine that Uncle Souta called the Bone Eater's Well. I take a quick look around the ground to make sure no one is watching me and then I peel off the sutra and slide open the door.
Shit, I hiss in my mind as the sutra disintegrates, jumping into the shrine and closing the door. Maybe no one will notice.
Then I take a calming breath and walk to the middle of the shrine, looking down into the infamous well. I look closer to seem something glowing in the well.
I, being curious, climb down the ladder and step onto the well floor, kneeling and reaching for the glowing object.
As soon as I feel my hand grasp the object, the weirdest thing happens. My body feels like it's floating and I'm surrounded by glowing blue lights and darkness.
Then I'm once again at the bottom of the well and in my hand is something glowing pink, my jewel half around my neck also glowing the same way. It's almost like instinct as I put the glowing object against my jewel half, watching it mold with it to form 2/3 of the jewel.
Then I stand up noticing that there's no more ladder, but vines instead. I stand there confused for a second and then I grasp the vines on the side and start to climb up the well. I'm even more confused and even shocked when I jump out to find myself in the middle of a forest clearing instead of inside a small shrine.
"What the---," I start, stopping when I see a flash of color and then I'm being suffocated by a large red jacket.
I struggle to get loose and end up right hooking the person, or thing, and flipping away, ending in a crouch with my Sais in hands.
"What the fuck, Kagome," a young man, about 18, with dog ears, asks angrily.
"Kagome," I think aloud, wondering how this dog man is connected to my deceased mother.
"Where the fuck have you been," the guys asks angrily, glaring at me profusely.
"How did you know my mother," I ask, bewildered that my sweet mother would know or even associate with such an arrogant ass of a young man.
"Mother," the man says, his turn to be confused and shocked.
"Yes, I'm Higame Higurashi. Kagome was my mother," I reply, curiosity getting the better of me as I watch the man's cute doggy ears twitch on top of his head.
"Was," the man asks, my fingers itching to play with his ears.
"Yes, was. She died a month ago in a car accident," I say sadly, sidetracked as a small little boy, with a fox tail and feet, catapults into my arms.
"Kagome," the fox boy cries, sobbing in my arms. "I missed you so much!!!"
"Um . . .," I say, at a loss for words when a Buddhist Monk, a cat-like thing, and a woman carrying a huge boomerang come into a clearing, all greeting me by my mother's name. "I'm Higame. Kagome was my mother."
As soon as the words out of my mouth I regret them as the fox boy starts sobbing even harder.
Then I start to remember some of the fairy tale stories my mother had told me as a child. They always talked of people like this, but I had never once imagined they could be real.
I look at the dog man and speak the name Inuyasha, him seeming to respond to it. That's when I realize that my mother's stories and the people before me are one. I look from person to person, thinking the names and descriptions my mother had told me. Inuyasha, the half breed dog demon; Miroku the cursed, perverted Buddhist monk; Sango, the demon slayer; Shippou, the orphaned full fox demon cub; and Kirara, Sango's constant companion and fire cat.
"What happened to Kagome? Why did she leave us," Shippou sobs in my arms, my heart aching for the child.
I try as hard as I can to think of a logical explanation to my mother leaving, but all that comes to mind is a story she once told me.
"Well, a story my mother told me might hold the explanation. Well, to why she left anyway," I reply, not sure if the cub is ready to hear that my mother is dead.
"Okay," Shippou sniffles, cuddling into me to hear my tale, the others sitting down to listen.
"Once upon a time, a beautiful priestess and her half breed lover were tricked; the beautiful priestess Kikyou dieing and the half breed Inuyasha becoming entombed to a tree. Then one day a teenage girl falls through a well into the feudal era and sets Inuyasha free. The girl falls in love with Inuyasha but refuses to admit it because he's still in love with his lost Kikyou that had been reincarnated into the girl. The girl eventually works up the courage to tell him when she finds him kissing a clay figure with a part of Kikyou's soul in it, the lover's reunited. The girl can not bear the heart break this causes and jumps through the well, taking a precious jewel half, and sealing off the well forever," I say, knowing the story by heart.
"That means it's all Inuyasha's fault," Shippou sniffles angrily, glaring at Inuyasha.
"Feh," is all that Inuyasha says before walking off into the surrounding forest with an unhappy frown on his face.
"So Naraku and the shards and everything . . . it's real," I ask softly, still feeling a little bit dazed.
"Yes, but for now we should rest," Sango replies, looking up at the ever darkening sky. "Yes, we should return to the village."