Changing Paths

~ Chapter Seven ~

To Those Fallen

By Inuyashas Youkai

On the other side of the well , it had been some time that had passed since Kagome had made it back to the present , and after so many years . The Higarashi family had come to wonder if it was because of death , or for the well had sealed shut , and no longer allowing the girl to return, or maybe both. No one knew , or claimed to theorize because deep down , each one left behind had grown afriad to know the truth.

Though time had went on , without ever knowing , and soon it came where the remaining Higarashi family needed to know the truth , regardless of the fear it brought. So Mrs. Higarashi , along with her now teenage boy Souta , decided to investigate it , as a last request to the eldest male , before he passed on to the next life. They , both had researched the concept starting from the old scrolls that were kept safely within the storehouse located within the shrine.

Although they found many interesting things regarding the time where the daughter , and the sister had always gone off to , though so far, had no leads regarding as to what had happened in the end with their beloved Kagome. It was known that their was something special with her the moment she said her first words , which oddly enough to say was .

Inu ..Or Sit Boy!

Knowing what they knew of the late missing Higarashi was nothing compared to finding what they did by reading the various documented accounts speaking of a miko going by the great Lady Kagome , and the adventures that she had trailed with that of her friends . In the time she traveled to and from the past to the present , neither knew of all that she had encountered , and gained from her second life , they were apart of , only because it was her destiny, and hers alone.

The authors of the scrolls were hazy to read only because of age had certainly took its toll on the fragile pieces of saved parts of time, regardless of the care in taking to keep them intact. Though what they could manage to recieve ,in her time there, apart from there's was that there , so far in their research , Kagome had gained : a small fox child: Shippo , a sister: Sango , a brother: Miroku, a cat: Kirara , and a friend in theirs , Inuyasha.

In what they had found so far , their wasn't alot said regarding the two who had become good friends, and rather trusted allies. Kagome, and Inuyasha's relationship was sketchy at best described in the scrolls, though the others had seemed to have their assumptions that something had occured between them at some point , then to have it disregarded within anothers account . So really , it was anyone's guess to what really happened between them . If they remained friends , or if they became lovers , or separated completely at some point was anyone's guess.

There was another , completely separate from those that spoke of a different time , a begining of sorts , where two souls had bonded sometime in heaven , a very long time ago , but something happened , and tore them apart , making a ripple in time . Not much was said on the issue , and it was a speculation at best the way it was written , but somehow it was familar to another two souls that they were privy to meet in theirs . From the task Kami chose for her life , to the unfortunate meeting of her incarnation spoke that the feminine soul could have been Kagome, and the male , Inuyasha . But there was no proof to that , only high hopes , that maybe it was , and maybe together both pulled back as one in the end , though it was just a families hope.

Other's went on speaking of such of a reincarnation named Kikyo, and one who had at one time held the heart of the known hanyou , Inuyasha . Though , like Kagome's , Kikyo's accounts were sparsely documented as to their part in the end of time, and the battle that all of them spoke of with a sense of humbling , in the destruction it had caused. Many who had survived to see it weren't able to live past it , for various reasons , either because of death , or because if their partners , or mates per say for both, if one were killed, the one who was left behind, were left without the strength to carry on the lineage they sought to pecure. Though among them who had still carried on , had done so with the longing sorrow of the ones who were lost in the demise of the evil of the once bandit Origumo , who to them was all known to be the bastard half demon , Naraku.

Some of the documents had even spoke of this Naraku villian , whom Kagome was for along time serving to assist in his demise, when she had traveled to the Feudal Era . Naraku had plagued it's rank amongst the lives of all of them whom had gathered to destroy him, even Kagome , as she fought alongside her friends , to fight against him, even though the war wasn't originally hers , with the exception if you aren't counting the ties between herself , and her precarnation Kikyo. There were circumstances where a entity apart of the beast that was Naraku , a infant , or something looking much like it, but wasn't , and served to gain control of Kagome , to sway her spirit to hate. Though it was not to be for the ones who had took care of her there, would'nt allow it, nor would Kagome let herself fall to that of Naraku.

Finding the task in searching for the truth , gave both a different look in Kagome's life , the part they missed so much of was very emotional to say the least , as some parts made them laugh , others caused tears, but in the end they were thankful in what little piece could be obtained in their daughters presence in their lives , as it was now , it was certainly lacking, and had been for some time. In the hours , and endless time both Souta , and his mother were obsessively confined within searching for more about their Kagome, besides the obvious neccessities of live needed to be still obtained , soon the time had drawn to a close when the elder , had called from the shrinehouse alerting them to be needing them for something.

Once they had rushed back to heed his call , thinking with his age that something was wrong , with the way he screamed for them ,further made that something happened, then finding it was something else , rather completely different then what they had ever come to expect , and this something , as it's place was now within their grasps , sitting there.

It may be what they needed to have closure in what all of them needed for the closure they desired to what happened to Kagome ..

TBC...