This is my first story on this account, and my first InuYasha fic ever, so I hope you enjoy!
I've written fanfiction before, but I've never written for my favorite anime and posted it, but my friend insisted I should. This is dedicated to him - after all, this story was written for him :P HAPPY BIRTHDAYYY!
Disclaimer: I do not own this anime/manga or the characters. InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, I just wrote this for fun.
Summary: AU. A single touch breaks the seven-hundred year old seal - unleashing the path to hell. InuKik/Kag, MirSan, others
Her throat burned as she panted, running along the streets of Tokyo.
Suddenly, the six-year-old skidded to a stop, horrified, as she watched the two cars head towards each other, each second a second closer to their impending demise. She tried to take a step forward, but an invisible force held her frozen as she saw the two cars collide with a resounding clash of smoke and flames. A sob wrenched from her throat. "No... No!" she cried.
"PAPA!"
She jolted upright, panting heavily.
It took her a minute to gather her senses and return to reality.
Her room was dark, and in the dim moonlight filtering through the curtains, she could make out every detail in her room. Everything was how it usually was, in her room at the shrine - different from the house she had lived in until she was seven, but the shrine was definitely home to her now. She wasn't six, she was fifteen, soon to be sixteen. Her father was dead - had been for the past nine years.
That nightmare... It haunted her every year. After two years, the nightmare ceased being as often, but it always returned to her three days in a row - the day before her birthday, the day of, and the day after.
Knowing she wouldn't be able to sleep, she padded over to her desk and pulled open the top drawer. Reaching in, she picked up a necklace and held it up.
The two shards glittered in the glass vial they rested in, and she let the necklace twirl slightly in front of her as she watched the colors shift from dusky rose to pale lavender in the moonlight.
She owned an entire jewelry set - the last gift she'd ever received from her late father. Each piece (bracelet, earrings, necklace, ring) featured at least one of those jewel shards. If she was completely honest, it wasn't very beautiful. Each shard was exactly that – a shard. A jagged splinter that looked to have cracked from a whole gemstone. But it was the last keepsake from her father, and for that reason alone did she keep it.
A sad half-smile lifted the sixteen-year-old's lips as she remembered the day she had gotten it...
"Happy birthday, Kagome!" Her parents called to her once the then-just-turned-six year old child came into the living room, rubbing her tired eyes.
The call woke her up. "Mama! Papa!" she exclaimed in delight, seeing the brightly wrapped presents sitting on the table. They weren't a very-well off family, but Kagome always got two gifts - one from her parents, and one from her paternal grandparents who lived at the Higurashi shrine.
The fact that they had little money to spare surprised the child once she had unwrapped the gift from her parents – a jewelry set!
"Keep them close to you always, my Kagome," her father said, ruffling her short raven hair affectionately. Her mother had gone to the kitchen to get the breakfast ready.
"Why, otou-san?" little Kagome asked, only half-listening as she admired the way the shards sparkled in the bright sunlight. It was the first jewelry the six-year-old had ever received and she couldn't wait to boast to her friends Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi!
"Because they grant wishes," he told her. "If you make sure you're wearing these, you'll find every wish you make will come true somehow."
His words hardly made an impact on the child besides a fanciful thought and the musings of a fairy tale. After all, her grandfather too always told stories that even the six year old didn't believe anymore. And that fanciful thought disappeared completely once Kagome saw the wonderful drawing kit her grandparents had sent her.
The next day, however, Kagome would remember her father's words all too clearly.
The day after Higurashi Kagome turned six, her father was in a car accident. He hadn't survived.
These don't grant wishes, Kagome thought, with a tinge of bitterness as she dropped the necklace back in the drawer. She wasn't sure where the other parts of the set had disappeared to after she threw them around during a childish tantrum a few years before. If they did, Papa wouldn't have died, and baa-chan too would still be alive.
She sighed as she shut the drawer.
The next morning, she walked down to the kitchen to say good morning to her mother, grandfather, and younger brother, Souta.
"Hey, happy b-day, onee-chan," Souta said cheerfully, abbreviating the word "birthday" as third graders often did.
"Thanks," Kagome replied, smiling. She was always happy with her family - because after all, they were all she had.
"Happy birthday, Kagome-chan!" choruses three voices from the door, and the said girl looked up to see her three childhood friends grinning at her, presents in hand.
Scratch that last thought. She had her friends too...
"Oh, and, happy birthday from me too, Higurashi-san," spoke a lower voice, and Kagome could see the outline of a /very/ familiar figure behind her friends.
Kagome's mother laughed. "Come on inside, Yuka-chan, Eri-chan, Ayumi-chan. And you too of course, Hōjō-kun."
Kagome revised the revised thought. She had Hōjō as well, she supposed.
Her plans for the day were to visit the mall with her three friends and Hōjō, then to return home for a family dinner and gift-opening.
"Oh, Kagome," her grandfather mentioned at dinner. "I found the rest of the jewelry set your father gave you. Why was it in the storehouse anyway?"
"That's where they were?" Kagome looked surprised. "I could have sworn they were in my room somewhere."
"What, you think spiders brought them to the storehouse?" her mother teased.
The family laughed together.
"Here you go, my dear," her grandfather said, placing the earrings and bracelet on the table. He searched the folds of his kimono for a minute before realizing. "Ah, I forgot the ring. I'll go fetch it, won't be a minute."
"I'll go with you, jii-chan," Kagome volunteered, jumping up. She giggled as she glanced down at her plate, which her mother was refilling yet again. "I've had too much already!"
She followed her grandfather into the storage storehouse. "Should be near the old sword back there," the old man muttered, indicating the shelf at the far end.
Kagome caught sight of something sparkling in the direction her grandfather had pointed. "There it is," she called, and ran to get it.
Her fingers brushed the shard on the ring, and she flinched when she felt an electric shock.
"Kagome? Are you alright?" her grandfather called from the doorway.
Thinking it to be her imagination from the dark storehouse, she dismissed it. "Yeah! Coming out now!"
Turning around to face her grandfather and the welcoming sunlight, she missed what went on behind her once she moved away from the door and re-entered the house.
A faint purplish light sprang up, illuminating the wrapped sheath of the sword. The radiance grew more intense, until the blade itself began shaking. In a sudden burst of light, the sword flew out from the storehouse, beyond the shrine, and towards the far end of Tokyo.
A man lifted his head, switching focus from the twitching demons strewn across the stone floor. He could sense the malicious energy that the sword emitted - it wasn't far off from where he was.
A grin crossed his face as his eyes shifted in hue from dark brown to a vibrant crimson.
"At last," he said triumphantly. He glanced at the portrait hanging on the wall. "Soon, you shall walk the earth again."
Sinister laughter rumbled in his throat. "And then, I'll finally have my revenge."
What'd you think? A review would be nice, haha
Updates will be within a week, hopefully, if anyone bothers to read this :P
~Kagami