A/N: At last I started a third and more or less final version of my latest fic. I have a few late night issues with it though:
First, the title. Transchronogenesis is not the most reader-friendly title but I can't think of anything else. Actually, for a time I considered calling it 'Kagome's Well' but...I donno...it hurts my head too much.
Second, the recipient of the letter. The 'story' is, in fact, a letter from Souta to his friend/colleague in the US. In the first and second versions this recipient was named 'Renkotsu' -- to draw parallels between this and another older fic -- but I changed my mind. I couldn't think of anything else so I named the recipient 'RD'.
Aside from these late night issues there's something else I need to say. I must give credit to alterfano; in my fic Souta is haunted by something that happens to Kagome in the well and that is an idea I am borrowing from one of her fics.
"Transchronogenesis" by Abraxas (07-06-08)
Dear RD:
This letter is an abuse of our friendship. And for that – for what will be revealed – I know I cannot be forgiven. Even the manner of my writing and mailing this document, to take advantage of the fact you are now too far away to interfere, is part of the offense guilt forces me to perpetrate.
You cannot stop me, RD, know that I arranged it to be so and do not blame yourself for anything. I alone am destined to suffer. You, despite the evidence of my confession, are absolved.
Are you surprised by this language?
I am taken by it. I am a neurologist, a scientist; objectivism is the staple of my livelihood. Yet I speak of sin and damnation like your Christian missionaries!
Since I learned of my power I have been terrified that I have been allowed to live these years. And since I exercised my power I – RD, if it were madness – I have been horrified at what I unleashed into the world. Truly it is so because somewhere within, somewhere my trained experimental eye cannot penetrate, I wonder if I crossed into realms reserved only for the gods.
We are given but one body, one lifetime. We understand we are bound by these limits. To rebel against mortality is to war with Nature.
For the past twenty years I studied the mind. I probed its secrets as intently as a madman consumed by obsession. And for a personal reason though what that motivation was I hid from everybody including Dr. Muso. You do not share my love for the art so I must be careful how I explain it. We – rather, what we call ourselves – is the by-product of the biology of neurons. Our personality, how we feel, how we react at any given moment, is a consequence of choices. Choices we make; choices others make. Memory itself is simply a record of those choices annotated by outcomes and experiences.
Now the question is: what about death?
If consciousness is a side effect of biology then when the organism is extinguished the self is lost. Yes, the self is like the heat of the body, neither endure beyond death. It is bleak is it not? From the study of the mind that is what the world knows to be true and if mankind is to retain its sanity then that is how it remains.
Understand there is a way around death. What I uncovered, my power, is a method wherein the mind can be preserved. Yet this ability must be lost and forgotten. People, if the advance of science startles them, they will be repulsed by it. For to be a success it requires a vampirism of the highest order.
Perhaps then what I am to do by my confession is a service because irrespective of the consequences the knowledge is destined to follow me into doom. It is too late for me. Since twenty years, no, since childhood I have been prepared for this moment. It was not my wish for it to be this way but it is the only way I know to accomplish that act.
When I was ten my life suffered a void that nothing of this world can fill. I have not spoken of my childhood because of that event that haunts it. And there is another aspect of those times that defies the ability to be believed. The whole thing, all of it, was a source of shame for my family. So much so that we tried to forget the past but I could not.
My friend, I must be believed. What I intend to convey with this letter, from the first to the last word, it must be believed to be true. If you do not believe it then what a madman you will think of me!
When my sister was fifteen years old she fell into a well within our family compound. As you know our home sits upon the site of a temple. There is throughout an assortment of sacred and ceremonial buildings. The well itself was housed under a hut that my family avoided. Though I do not recall where that fear originated.
Kagome fell into a well and vanished. She returned a few days later acting as if she had been living a nightmare. A dream set in Feudal Japan, populated by villagers and demons and jewels. It resembled a fantasy and we dismissed it as a kind of 'Wizard of Oz' moment. Then no sooner did she return and it became very clear indeed that it was not imagined.
Another creature emerged through the well: a half-demon entity named Inuyasha.
RD! Where did I find the strength to write those words upon these papers?
Inuyasha was real. As real as anything else of this world. And I admired him but –
I will not bother you with the rest of the details. I cannot expect you to understand it. All right. Deny it if you must. Pretend all of this only existed in my sister's head and that I, a boy of eight, succumbed to hysteria. Your diagnosis would not be unsound as literature is replete with similar, well-documented cases. I ask that you take our years of friendship into account and that you trust me.
For the next two years Kagome alternated her time between us in the present and Inuyasha in another, parallel life in the past, five hundred years ago. Throughout those two years grandfather and I protected her from the suspicions of her friends and the eyes of the authorities. We invented excuses to cover her absences. We contrived a plot to gain her home schooling. Thus she would be at peace when away.
My mother was supportive. Although I do not believe she knew of the extent of our machinations. She trusted us and Kagome and Inuyasha. Her patience with the situation verged upon saintly.
One day I walked my sister into the well hut. I watched her descend. With my lantern I gazed into that abyss. She reached the wet, rocky bottom and in an instant vapors as thick as fog issued from the walls of the orifice. Amid the whirlpool of smoke I saw a snake-like object; it coursed through the vapors. My sister, whose image was fading, saw that object and screamed. It was a scream I have not heard before or since – it was inhuman.
Then the effect vanished and the well was empty.
I told no body and that, I think, was my original sin.
I was certain it was nothing. Then I was certain my sister would have fought it off. Then I was certain Inuyasha would have heard it and saved Kagome. So, you see, I waited confident that everything would be all right.
We waited yet Kagome did not return.
She was reported missing. What could we do? What could we say? She was reported missing and her loss broke my family. My grandfather fell into depression. My mother blamed herself. I was felt alone and useless. Nothing after was said about Inuyasha and her adventures in Feudal Japan. And as the years passed the wait became unbearable so much so that every last trace of her was expunged within the family.
For a while I fell into that trap of denial. Yes, it was easier to pretend it did not happen than to explain to any body the history I outlined. But the idea of time travel and mystic power awoke in me a curiosity that could not be suppressed. I investigated the Feudal Era and the Warring-States Period; I searched for certain, specific events Kagome related to us. Always, however, what could be uncovered was inconclusive. I also wondered about demons like Inuyasha – if they still existed – but the fact that we were not visited by anything that could have known Kagome lead me to believe they, like my sister, were now only part of the past.
My endeavors were only diversionary. My life was a mess. I lacked focus and direction. You cannot imagine the frustration. I knew what I wanted to do, to find my sister, I did not know how it could be achieved.
My impression, my hypothesis, was that the key to the mystery involved gaining the power to operate the well. And the well, it worked for my sister because of her innate mental ability. If we assume we are equal and endowed with the same exact abilities then might I not find that power within me and exercise it?
I was fortunate that Dr. Hojo and later Dr. Muso came into my life. They gave me the motivation and support I needed to pursue my academic career. And they were very helpful to me as I probed into the mind and, though the extent they did not know, I could not have tested my hypothesis and uncovered my power without them.
TBC
