Whisper on the Wind: Part One
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters. They all belong to Rumiko Takahashi.
Kagome leaned back into the couch and sighed. The battle with Naraku was over and the jewel shards had all been collected. Her friends had sustained some injuries, but none too serious. The battle had ended rather well. After recovering from their injuries, Sango and Miroku had gotten married. Kohaku was now living with them. Sango's brother had been freed from Naraku's control by Sesshoumaru.
Inuyasha and Kikyou had gotten married. She had accepted the fact relatively fast. Perhaps it was when she realized that her feelings for Inuyasha had been just a mere crush; a crush that she had already gotten over.
And Kouga had married Ayame. Kagome smiled as she remembered the shock on Ayame's face when Kouga proposed to her. Kouga had finally accepted that Kagome did not return his affections.
Kagome smiled, happy for the two of them. Then, her thoughts drifted to the demon lord. He had battled magnificently. Then again, he would most likely take it as an insult if anything less was thought of him. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice Souta enter the room.
"Hey sis," he said, "what are you thinking about?"
Kagome almost leapt of her seat in surprise. "Souta! You almost gave me a heart attack!"
"Sorry sis. Just wanted to ask when Inuyasha would be coming again." Souta replied with a shrug. He had been disappointed that Kagome wouldn't be with Inuyasha after all.
"He'll probably be here in the next few weeks. He still can't resist ramen." Kagome commented with a small laugh.
Souta narrowed his eyes in confusion. "You won't be going back to the feudal era then?" he questioned. "Didn't you want to go there during the vacation?"
"Of course I'm going. It's just that I'll be travelling alone this time."
"Are you sure? You know it isn't safe in the feudal era." Souta said, worried about his sister's safety.
"Don't worry. I'll be fine. Just don't tell mum that I'll be travelling alone. She'll be worried. And get Inuyasha to cover up for me too. Tell him that if he reveals to mum that I'm travelling alone, I'll sit him through to the other side of the earth."
"Sure sis." Souta had a huge grin on his face, thinking that it would be extremely interesting if that really should happen.
"Well then," Kagome said, slipping off the couch, "I'll be heading off now. I should be back in about two weeks."
Souta nodded. "Bye!"
Kagome then picked up her trusty yellow backpack. It had already been stocked full from the day before. She jumped down the well and saw the familiar flash of blue light. It felt so good to be in the feudal era without the responsibility of searching for the jewel shards.
Taking in a deep breath, Kagome prepared to start on her journey.
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Kagome heard a scream as she was walking past a village. Turning, she saw a demon attacking the people living there. Without giving a second thought to it, Kagome rushed forward to try to help.
"Hey! Look over here!" she yelled, drawing the youkai's attention. She lifted her bow and shot an arrow at the demon, feeling extremely grateful to Kikyou for helping her train her powers.
The arrow hit the demon and it roared in anger. "You dare attack me, puny human? For this insolence, you shall suffer a fate worse than death."
With that, the demon started to chant some sort of spell.
"Well, you won't finish it!" yelled Kagome as she fired another arrow. The demon was purified, but not before it managed to finish the spell.
"Huh, that'll teach it to mess with me," muttered Kagome.
She turned to the villagers to ask if they were injured. However, she found them looking everywhere, as if searching for something. Shrugging, she shouldered her backpack and left the village.
She wasn't certain what had happened, but she didn't feel like anything had changed. The first warning she got that she had not escaped unharmed came when she sprinted madly across a village when she sensed a youkai and nobody seemed to notice her. Normally everyone would have stopped to stare at a frantic miko barrelling through their town.
But the worst surprise came when she accidentally collided with an old villager, and instead of slamming into him, she simply went tumbling right through. He didn't even notice her.
It was then that Kagome stopped long enough to look at her hands and realized that there seemed to be an odd shimmer around them. She waved her hands in front of a passing person and found that they couldn't see her or touch her.
To her own hands, she felt solid; but to the rest of the world, she had vanished, both from sight and from touch.
A simple attempt to defeat a demon had torn a hole in her life. A single spell and she had been turned into this- this invisible, intangible nothing. An unseen spectator who passed through everything she touched except the ground and went unnoticed except when she spoke. And because of the reactions most people had to being addressed by what seemed to be merely a patch of air, Kagome had spoken less and less often since the accident, fading away until she was merely a silent observer, watching the world pass by before her helpless eyes.