The bristles on the broom swished back and forth absently as her vacant eyes stared off into the distant sky, the cloudiness akin to her soul in ways she wished it not be.

'What am I doing? Why am I so lost?'

Her body moved fluidly along the courtyard of the shrine pretending to be in the moment while her mind so obviously elsewhere. Police sirens sounded off in the distance as she continued her habitual cleaning halting once she grew near Goshinboku. The depths of her ocean pooled irises scanning the great tree for some answer.

She let the broom slip from her fingers and snap loudly on the cement as she slipped off her sandals. Her calloused hands stretched to the nearest thickness of branch that allowed her feet to find purchase to aid in her distant up. Locating a comfortable branch, she leaned heavily against the frame of the old tree and allowed her eyes to close in meditation.

She could feel them as she rested next to her tree companion. Concealed quite expertly, but they were still there. Youkai still wandering the expanse of the Earth even in her time. The corners of her chapped lips tilted up at the thought.

Her mind had been wondering aimlessly on an answer to a question she had not known till now that she had been asking.

Her eyes pried open resolutely as she pushed off the tree and landed roughly on the ground in a crouch. The pads of her feet led her to the room that once housed all her dreams and aspirations. Her eyes once again swept over the shadowy depths of the well that brought her so much thrill and heartbreak.

She had never been destined to go back after the destruction of the Shikon no Tama. Her heart had grown so powerful with the need that her reiki had somehow been able to manipulate the threads of time to allow her her deepest wish.

Perhaps in some twisted way she held a similar power that the jewel once did since her body once housed the abomination. Her body shook briefly with the dangerous thought.

Her fingers pressed lightly on the rim of the dried wood on the well before she summoned her reiki to the surface. The walls on the old house trembled and creaked as a vortex of air sucked inward through the shadowy hollow of the well. Her reiki enveloped the entirety of herself and the well in a blinding display of pink and silver light. The whining of the vortex and the sizzling of her reiki deafening.

And then muteness.

As her feet exited the old storage house she felt her heart lighten. There were no more tears to shed for the life she inelegantly left behind.

The feeling of being lost completely vanished within her soul as she stretched her arms as high as she could reach into the now cloudless sky, the breeze whirling tendrils of her ebony locks into rosy cheeks.

She was dimly aware that her little show of reiki may have intrigued the local youkai population, but she could not find the thought the list bit disturbing to her.

'Let them come.'

With the little wisp of thought swirling through her, she twisted to retrieve her discarded sandals and broom to continue her tasks uninhibited when her eyes locked on a figure standing in front of Goshinboku.

Her heart now in her throat she stared in numb shock as wisps of white flitted across her vision.

Just as swiftly she felt the pinch of pinpricks on her long neck as an arm secured itself around her small torso.

"Cooperate."

The deep baritone ordered before suddenly she was weightless and the sky was much closer than it had been before.

-

Testing to see if I want to start this or not. All the questions you have will definitely be answered in time.

I will be updating my other story that I have neglected this next week as well! So look forward to that Awakening readers!