CHAPTER 2
But he didn't notice, at least not until they started firing arrows at him.
Luckily, none of the arrows hit him, or even the strange girl. But still, Souta was pretty freaked out. Then the villagers all started shouting various things, mostly along the lines of "You there, what are you doing, trespassing?"
"What? Trespassing? Hey, listen-!" Souta called, still facing the tree.
The crowd quickly surrounded Souta, pulling him off and binding his hands. Then they dragged him off to the village, where he was met with stares from all the other village people. "It must be a kitsune demon in disguise," a lady said, amongst other general and similar comments.
Suddenly the crowd quieted down as someone said, "It's Lady Kaede!"
"Hm?" Souta turned to see who he was expecting to be an attractive young lady. Instead, his eyes met... Kaede. An old, hunched down woman with an eyepatch. It was clear from outfit that she was a priestess. This somewhat startled Souta, as he had always seen shinto priestesses who were 25 at the oldest, when usually it was the priests who were really old, like his grandfather.
"You must think you're a clever one, boy. Taking on the form of my long deceased elder brother," the priestess said.
"What?" Souta asked. "Look, I didn't take on anybody's 'form', lady! I was born lookin' like this!"
"Do you think he's a spy from another village?" one man asked.
"Just look at those peculiar clothes. He can't be any normal person," another said.
"What the hell are you all talkin' about? You're the ones dressed like it's the... it's the..." 'middle ages?' he finished in his head. 'No... it couldn't possibly be...' But as he looked around at the way everyone was dressed and had their hair, looked at the small, makeshift houses, and considered that he clearly was not in the exact home he had been in earlier that day, the possibility of time travel began to make more and more sense.
"Do you really not know?" the priestess asked.
"Um...?" Souta responded intelligently.
What could only have been a few minutes later yet was inexplicably clearly the evening, um, later, the priestess, who Souta preferred to call Kaede, because he had always thought that priestesses were hot, like Sakura or Rei, explained some things to Souta.
"You see, about 50 years ago, my elder brother died in order to save the rest of us from ultimate evil. It just so happens that you look almost identical to him."
"Well, like I said, I didn't 'take on his form' or use my non-existant kitsune powers to look like him or anything. I was born this way. Um, by the way..." he had a small hope, "...could you tell me if the Higurashi Shrine is anywhere nearby?" He was meant with a blank stare. "Higurashi Shrine? Tokyo?"
"Tokyo? Are you sure you don't mean Kyoto?"
"Er..."
"I know not of any 'Higurashi' shrine, either. Our shrine here has no name, and I've never heard the word 'higurashi' used for anything."
"Oh," Souta said, disappointed. "Of course not." 'Duh, you idiot,' he thought to himself. 'Why would she know of it?' "So I guess I really am in the Warring States Era," he thought outloud.
"Warring States? I suppose that is a good way to describe our land's current condition," the priestess chuckled darkly.
"Yeah... So, what was this 'ultimate evil'-" Souta was suddenly cut off by shouting outside. He and the priestess - er, Kaede - ran out to see what the commotion was about. And then Souta spotted someone, no, something he had never expected to see again.
It was the thing that pulled him into the well, but it was somehow reassembled. And it was destroying buildings and eating livestock. "Jewel!" it shouted. "I must have the jewel!"
"Our spears and arrows aren't enough to stop it!" a villager called to Kaede.
"Ay. Boy," she said, turning to Souta, "you must flee here until we have taken care of this beast. Go to Inuyasha's forest..." she pointed towards the forest that Souta had been in earlier.
"The glowing one? Right!" he took off running.
"How could he have seen the forest's glow... that no earthly being can see? Just what is this child?" the mystified priestess asked no one in particular.
Unfortunately, the centipede-lady-thing was after Souta, and as soon as she/it noticed he was heading towards the forest, she stopped her reign of destruction and took off after him.
"Ah, gee! Why does all this crap have to happen to me!? What next??" Souta exclaimed, having noticed what was now trailing him.
Meanwhile, something in the forest pulsed. Eyelids that had been closed for five decades opened slowly. Nostrils that had not taken in air nor scent for half a century sniffed. "It's him!" a girl who had been completely out of commission for fifty years said from her tree, the largest in the forest. "The scent of the one who killed me!"
And our running hero, who had nearly tripped, shouted "Goddammit!"
OoO
Next chapter is longer. And here the differences from the original start revealing themselves. I believe the original's Kagome said something like "I could sure use a rescue" in this part. :)
