E v o c a t i o n
By: Omote
!!!---the formatting in the very first part of the fic is messed up
it gets better once you go on, though,
so don't mind it--!!!
Note (you can only read this first part, then skip the note if you want): nyuu… I changed the storyline a bit just to fit this. Just a bit. Kikyo was still wounded severely in the battle between her and Inuyasha, but she didn't die for another six months… ¬.¬ from what? … read it, you nut! X3
Sorry (again) if the characters are really out of character… 'Tis my first IY fic, so I'm not really too familiar with them yet. … And actually, I wrote one fic that the characters where so in character that it bothered people.
So if that happens… sorry about that.
… And if you don't like it…
I won't apologize for that. :p … that just sucks for you.
And please. If you read this… leave a comment-review-type-thing. Flame me. Tell me how much you like cookies. Say hello in eight different languages. I don't care.
{[c h a p t e r o n e | t h e u n i d e n t i f i e d g i r l]}
Kagome ran her eyes down the page of the open textbook, trying to keep them from slipping shut.
Evaluate the expression for x=1/3; y=12; z=1/4: Write out the expression with numbers first. XY=
Absently she scribbled a six into the blank, and then scowled at the paper. It was wrong, but how could she care? She needed sleep more than she needed to do math. She scraped her eraser over the surface of the paper and changed the answer to one sixth.
My uncle's farm has chickens and pigs. I counted a total of 70 legs and 26 heads. How many chickens does my grandfather have?
Kagome allowed a short, exasperated sigh to escape her lips. She glanced longingly from the math book to the window. Peachy curtains hung stationary from the beam that held them over the window. Kagome rose from her chair and parted the curtains, staring into the near blackness of the night. A glowing half moon sat suspended low in the sky over the lights of the city. Silhouettes of the trees in full bloom danced sullenly in the eerie light cast by the moon, though the sounds of their rustling leaves where drown out by the noises from the city.
Leaving the curtains parted, she fell back onto her bed and sighed once more. Kagome knew she wasn't really tired at all. Stressed, maybe. She wanted to go back to where she could watch the trees dance in the moonlight without the disturbances of the city. Then I'd be able to do my homework, she thought, turning over and unknowingly falling into an uneasy sleep.
---
"Ka-go-me!" A perky little voice hollered. Kagome groaned, turning over, and then opening one eye. She immeadiately shut it as light folded her currently small range of vision. Shoot! I must have fallen asleep when I laid down… She opened her eyes again and sat up, looking around frantically for the clock. The large neon letters read 10:38.
"Kagome, Kagome, Kagome…" The perky voice was chanting in a singsong voice. It was soon accompanied with someone knocking on her door. "Mama made pancakes!"
Kagome mistook the voice for Shippou's and only after a sharp intake of breath and having nearly given herself a heart attack did she realize it was Souta. Then another concern came to mind. She was late for school! Kagome lunged forward off the bed, abruptly falling, grabbing onto the nearest thing for support (which happened to be the cord for the digital clock; her original one had been broken by a certain someone) and pulling the clock onto her head.
As she lay there with her head pounding and calling herself an idiot, she realized it was Saturday. Before she could burst into frustrated tears, Souta opened the door and burst out laughing at the sight of a bed headed Kagome laying on the ground, gripping the cord for the clock, which was laying on the floor beside her. She couldn't even bring herself to glare at him.
"Do you want pancakes or not?" He managed to ask between fits of giggles while gripping onto the doorknob for support. "'Cause mama says she thinks grandpa will eat them all if you don't come out." He smirked, and then wrinkled his nose. "Not like you need any pancakes." And with that he ran from the room, sing-chanting about how fatty-fatty wanted pancakes.
Kagome scowled, not bothering to protest his accusation. She shoved her textbooks back into her bag, shouldered it, and then followed Souta out of the room.
"You would like pancakes, right?" Kagome's mother asked as she came into the kitchen.
"No thanks," She answered quietly. Kagome couldn't have forced any food down her throat even if her life depended on it. Between searching for the Shikon shards, studying, and keeping up the appearance of being sickly, she just didn't have time to be overweight. "I promised to meet Emi at the library this morning." She lied, making her way towards the door.
As she sat her hand on the doorknob she felt a wooden ladle descend sharply on her head. "You promised to help me sweep the shrine." Her grandpa corrected.
Kagome turned and laughed nervously. "That's right, grandpa. I'm sorry, I completely forgot!" She set her bag down by the door and found herself with no choice but to take one of the empty seats at the table.
"Here." Souta said, setting a steaming bowl of misou soup in front of Kagome. "Mama said if you weren't going to eat pancakes, you should at least eat soup. Can't starve yourself."
"No she didn't." Kagome said, narrowing her eyes at him. "Mama's right there. I would have heard her if she said that."
"No," Her mother smiled, turning towards the table with a plate of pancakes. "Your brother is right." She said, sitting down and setting the plate in the middle of the table. "At least have some soup. It's good for you."
Kagome frowned. She might have been able to get out of cleaning the shrine with her grandpa, but it was obvious she would never get away without having something to eat. "Alright." She agreed "I'll eat, but only if I can leave right afterwards… I'm… uh, really not feeling good." Kagome caught a glance of her grandpa's stern stare and quickly added, "My horrible case of Ebola is really getting to me."
Her grandpa winked at her as though it was their little secret that Kagome was nowhere near having a horrible case of any exotic diseases, then agreed that it was alright for her to be excused from cleaning, but that he would be drafting Souta for the purpose.
Kagome had finished even before her grandfather was done talking. She excused herself from the table, grabbed her bag, and was out the door before anyone could make an objection.
"Kagome!" Someone yelled as she shut the door. Kagome turned to find Hojo running at her holding a small delicately wrapped box topped off with an intricate bow. "Here." He said, placing the package in her hands. "Grape leaves for your health." Upon seeing that she was holding her bag, he added "Oh. You must be headed to the library. I'd come with you, but my mom needs me around the house."
Kagome glanced hesitantly from Hojo to the package to the shrine, the back to Hojo and smiled. "Yeah. I'm going to the library, but I'm kind of in a hurry."
"Oh, sorry." Hojo said, backing away from her. "I guess I should go now. Maybe we can get together and do something again sometime." He waved, then turned and hurried off.
She frowned at the package. I wish people wouldn't be so nice to me. She brought her bag around in front of her, unzipping it and putting the package inside. Then I wouldn't have to feel so bad about lying to them. She sighed and headed towards the shrine.
Kagome had to fight with the door to make it open and was greeted with a cloud of dust as her reward for making it do so. Geez. Maybe I really should stay to help Grandpa clean. Slowly she descended the stairs to the hone kui no ido, not sure whether she should follow her want to go in or if she should turn around and actually go to the library. The well seemed to pull her towards it, though, so she compensated by sitting on the edge with her feet hanging in.
This is stupid. She told herself. I can't do my homework, because my mind is too preoccupied thinking about this. I can't help out around the house for the same reason. I can't go out with my friends, because I have to pretend I'm sick so I can miss school. And then I can't even bring myself to go back to sengoku jidai, because all the lies I've told so that I can go make it feel wrong.
And even what benefits I do get from it… She brought her bag around in front of her again and sat it on her lap. Still feel like a load of manipulative lies. Kagome opened the bag and pulled out the package Hojo had given her. She just sat there… staring down at it. The beautifully intricate flowers on the wrapping where all that looked back up at her. She noticed something strange about the wrapping and brought the package up closer to her face, but it slipped from her hands into the well.
"It's just my luck." Kagome said aloud to herself. "My life was not supposed to be like this. I should be able to have a nice normal life and all I should be responsible for is studying." She sighed, lowering herself into the hone kui no ido.
---
"We have a visitor, Inuyasha." Kaede said from behind her large pot.
"I know it." He grumbled from where he lay facedown on the floor. "It stinks really bad. Kagome just got here."
"I wasn't talking about her, stupid." Kaede told him, tapping off her large mixing spoon on the edge of the pot. "Someone just knocked on the door."
"So answer it, Kaede-baba."
Kaede narrowed her eyes at him, and then tossed the spoon at the back of his head. Inuyasha allowed himself to be pelted with the spoon and continued simply lying there.
"Come in." Kaede said loudly enough that she could be heard though the door.
The door opened slowly and a girl that looked slightly younger than Inuyasha came in. She didn't say anything, though she clutched what looked like a small piece of square paper in her hand.
"Can I help you?" Kaede asked, setting the large pot to boil over a small fire.
"I… need to see this woman." The girl said, moving forward slowly towards Kaede. The girl refused to let her deep brown eyes meet Kaede's, as she got closer to her, though she glanced down at Inuyasha several times. "I… I think you can help me." She said, holding the piece of paper out for Kaede.
Kaede looked up at her curiously and took the paper from her hands. She turned it over to look at it and found a glossy and perfectly accurate drawing of a very familiar girl. Kaede quickly placed the glossy paper back in the girl's hands and narrowed her eyes. "What do you want from me?" She demanded sternly.
The girl looked alarmed and Inuyasha sat up behind her. "Feh. You sound scared, Kaede-baba." He said. "Here, let me see that." Inuyasha took the paper out of the girl's hand and stared at it. He knew immeadiately who it was and why it had scared Kaede so much. Though the glossy coating and the way it was so eerily accurate made it unlike any other drawing.
"What is this?" Inuyasha asked, keeping it out of the girls reach when she tried to get it back from him.
"It's… it's a photograph." She told him.
"A photograph?" A voice asked from the doorway. The three of them looked up to see Miroku standing in the doorway. "Aren't those the things made by the black boxes that suck out your soul I've heard so much about from some of the men who pass through here?"
"I wouldn't be surprised." Inuyasha responded, glowering. "Just look at who it's of." He handed the 'photograph' to Miroku.
Miroku smiled at the photograph, and then placed it within his robes. "You don't need to have something like that, young madam." He sat down next to Kaede, still smiling. "Now, what do you need?"
"Give me that back!" The girl demanded, lunging at Miroku and making it very obvious she was tired of this keep away game. Miroku rolled out of the way, but the girl pushed off the floor back at him and had him pinned down in no time flat.
Miroku simply smiled more and handed the photograph back to her. "I like this position." He said with a smirk. "Do you think you could pin me like this sometime when we're alone?"
The girl took the photograph from his hand, backed off of him, and then slapped him.
Miroku didn't even do so much as rub the bright red spot on the side of his face, which obviously maddened the girl more (though he did rub the spot as soon as she wasn't looking). "Tell me where I can find her." She pleaded, turning to face Kaede. "I have to talk to her soon."
"You're out of luck." Kaede said quietly, turning away from the girl. "Kikyo died a long time ago."
"But… no…" The girl muttered, clutching the photograph close to her chest, then tucking it within her kimono. "She's not… someone saw her walking near a village northwest of here." The girl moved forward, reaching out to grasp the end of Kaede's kimono. "Listen to me. Please. My grandmother is still alive. "
Everyone fell completely silent for a few minutes, until Inuyasha broke the silence. "You can't have the shikon no tama." He said dryly.
Kaede turned to narrow her eyes at Inuyasha, though he just shrugged in return. Kaede didn't bother saying anything, for she knew what Inuyasha was thinking and it was most likely true, for once.
Miroku, however, spoke his mind. "Kikyo never had any children, therefore she cannot have any grandchildren. Even if you where a direct descendant of Kikyo, we could not give you the shikon no tama which no undoubtedly wish to have. Someone nearly as good as Kikyo herself is currently protecting the shikon no tama."
"What if she wasn't here?" The girl countered, letting go of Kaede's kimono. She turned to look at Miroku looking crestfallen. "What if that girl had never come, but the shikon no tama was here? Then what?"
"We would all be dead." Miroku said simply with a smile. "And plus. If she where not protecting the shikon no tama, Kikyo was still dead, and yet the shikon no tama was still in existence, we still would not give it to you, because you do not have the powers to protect it without actually using it."
Instead of speaking, the girl brought her arm up towards Inuyasha, and then spread her fingers so that her palm was towards his face. The underside of the girl's hand glowed a tinge of light blue, then moments later Inuyasha was blown backwards against the wall (and of course part of the roof and the wall collapsed on top of him, because that's just the kind of unlucky guy Inuyasha is).
The girl withdrew her hand and looked into Miroku's eyes. "Please repeat what you just said with the same confidence that you previously had."
Miroku grinned and chucked, decided not to repeat himself or comment.
"Bitch! You'll pay for that!" Inuyasha growled, jumping from the pile of dust and wood that had accumulated on top of him.
Kaede grabbed Inuyasha before he could get to the girl and held him back, looking uneasy.
That was the particular time that Kagome chose to come into the hut, smiling broadly and greet everyone cheerfully. She froze, though, as her mind comprehended Miroku staring down some girl who looked like she was about to jump on him, Kaede holding back Inuyasha and Inuyasha covered with dust, and the pile of debris in the corner. "I'll… just be leaving now." Kagome said, starting to walk backwards from the hut.
Miroku grabbed Kagome's ankle, tripping her and preventing her from leaving. Upon seeing Kagome on the ground and having a good change to look at her, the girl rose from where she was on the ground and lunged at Kagome. "Grandmother!"
"Wrong, bitch!" Inuyasha shouted, springing from Kaede's loosened hold onto the girl. He knocked the girl to the ground, pinning her down by sitting on her, holding her neck down with one hand, and pulling her head up by her hair with the other.
"Sit!" Kagome yelled from where she was on the ground.
Inuyasha was forced to let go of the girl and do a face-plant into the ground giving the girl a chance to roll out of the way and huddle against one of the standing walls.
"You people are insane." The girl muttered, looking as though she was about to have a heart attack. "Truly insane, you are.
"… But you still can't have it." Inuyasha grumbled, sitting up and rubbing his head.
The girl held her hand up and blew Inuyasha in the same direction she had before (where there was no longer a wall) into the dirt outside the hut. "I don't want it. I want to see my grandmother, and that is all."
"Oi…" Kagome groaned, turning and walking out of the hut. "I'm going home."