Disclaimer: No I do not own Inuyasha. That awesome privilage belongs to Romiko Takahashi. Thank you!
Okay, someone doesn't understand. If you'll remember I had everyone hit with blue balls of light but Miroku and Kagome's eyes were closed so they didn't see it. Inuyasha is only half because, if you'll remember, the evil only consumed him halfway before the blue light saved him. Focus, people, focus!
Chapter 7: Theory
"We've decided." Sango announced a few days later.
"Decided what?" Kagome asked, confused.
The last few days were the best she had had in years. The day after they arrived Inuyasha left saying he was going to get food and gave a threatening glare to Sango and Miroku before he left. Everything was peaceful however because they were busy increasing security on their new house.
When he came back, he not only had stuffed Kagome's bag with canned foods he had also brought home-
"Is that meat?" Kagome had asked when she saw the wild pig slung over his shoulder. Her mouth had immediately watered. She hadn't had real meat in so long. Canned stuff just wasn't any good at all.
"Freshly caught." Inuyasha had been smirking, knowing he had done good.
Kagome ate until her stomach was extended that night.
Since then Inuyasha would go off hunting and bring back many things. Canned foods were always coming in but so was wild pig, wild boar, rabbit, fish, things Kagome had forgotten the taste of and had given up on ever eating again.
Sango and Miroku, wanderers and hunters, had eaten these things but never with so little danger to themselves. They bonded with Inuyasha, drawn to him like a pack seeking a strong leader. Kagome and Miroku got along well, he was very smart and told wonderful stories. Things between her and Sango were tense for a while but after a few days in her constant company Kagome found herself a little more tolerant of her. Not hating her anymore at least.
With Inuyasha to train and instruct her, Kagome started learning real defensive things, not just spraying whatever came to hand. He also restocked her supply of cleaners and chemicals. She felt safer with them. The others were good at fighting with their hands but she needed something to shoot.
Everything was working out,
Then one morning Kagome and Inuyasha came into the kitchen where Miroku had opened some applesauce for breakfast.
"We've decided," Sango repeated, "that we want you two to come with us."
Inuyasha, completely oblivious to everything until he had eaten, was already scarfing down his food but Kagome sat down slower, looking at Sango cautiously.
"I was under the impression you were with us." Kagome said firmly.
"Yeah, right now we are. But see..." she looked at Miroku for help. He stepped forward as Sango sat down opposite Kagome.
"It's like this, me and Sango haven't been wandering aimlessly." He spoke with his signature smile. "We've been trying to find out what happened to the world. Trying to see if there is a way to correct it. Haven't you ever been curious?"
"In the words of Inuyasha, I've been too busy surviving." Kagome said dryly.
"Well, we were." Sango said. "Show her Miroku."
"Look." He took a thick, leather bound book she hadn't noticed of the country and placed it in front of her.
"History?" Kagome asked opening the front cover to reveal old, yellowing paper.
"Not just history." Sango said, her eyes excited. "European history."
"That means so much to me. I was just thinking the other day I wish I knew more about it." She said sarcastically letting the cover drop. Beside her, Inuyasha snickered.
"Look." Miroku opened the book to a page he had bookmarked with a spare piece of paper. "We found it in the Tokyo Public Library. Read this chapter."
Kagome leaned forward. "'Chapter 15: The Dark Ages'. Really, Miroku?"
"Just read." He prompted.
"Just tell me." Kagome said.
"Okay, I don't think this is the first time this has happened. I think, whatever is happening now, happened then too."
Kagome sighed. "Miroku, people know things about the Dark Ages. Never in class did I read about demons roaming the land. Besides it was only in western Europe, not the whole world."
"Well, obviously not the exact same thing." He corrected himself. "It's a period of cultural and economic decline. Look, I have a theory."
"You always do." Inuyasha murmured looking at Kagome's applesauce. Not hungry, she pushed it over to him.
"Alright. Let's hear it then."
He smiled like a kid at Christmas and began flipping through the book. "I found another recorded instance of something like this, also on a much smaller scale, happening in Greece."
"Miroku..."
"No, no! Listen." He said cutting her off. "So, when I found this other record it got me thinking. Ancient Greece is famous for it's Greek Myths, right? What if they were real? What if what happened here happened there? On a smaller scale."
Kagome didn't interrupt but she was skeptic.
"Think about it, Kagome. What Greek Myth had pure evil being unleashed into the world? Do you know it?"
"Pandora's Box." Inuyasha supplied. "Zues gave Pandora a box, told her not to open it, she did, unleashed plague, famine, evil on humankind."
"Exactly." Miroku said happily. "What if it was true? What if she unleashed this evil and they brought forth the Greek Myths?"
"Miroku, what do you-"
"Now, Kagome, think about it." Miroku said. "The matador? An ogre demon. They're too stupid to figure out a maze and they love killing. What if one got caught and put in the maze. Helen of Troy?" He ran to the counter and brought back a second book. "Most beautiful woman on earth? It says Zues came to her mother as a swan and Helen was hatched from an egg. What if it was a swan demon? They are extraordinarily beautiful. We've seen one." He looked at Sango and kept talking. "How about the gorgons? Medusa? The Fates? The giants in the tales? How about the sirens? The tale of Odysseus? Trapped on an island with Calypso, she fell in love with him and they stayed together for years before he remembered his wife at home. All the gods and goddesses? Demons playing with humans because they can. It makes sense."
"It's a bit of a stretch." Kagome said. "But how did they get back in the box? And the Dark Ages? What about that?"
"I don't think it was opened then. Just cracked." Miroku admitted. "Someone cracked the box and a little evil leaked out and it brought the Dark Ages before they could put it back. And Pandora's time? I think she saw what was escaping and shut it before it could escape completely. So neither time was like this one."
Kagome bit her lip. "You're assuming this box exists? And what idiot would leave the box open long enough for all this to leak out?"
"I think," Miroku said dramatically, "based on the fact that demons are drawn to Higurashi shrine that the Box was kept there after being resealed at the end of the Dark Ages.""
Kagome rolled her eyes, "Miroku, I lived at Higurashi shrine I think I would know if-"
She cut herself off as two year old memories she had considered unimportant filled her mind.
"...dad swears up and down that a seal isn't placed on some thing for no good reason. Better leave it undamaged and save him a heart attack."
"What's in this thing?" Kagome asked looking it over. It came up to her mid-thigh and was older than the box she had held before. The wood was dull and slightly rotten. There was not one, but three sealing scrolls on it. One on the front and one on each side. It also had been tied shut with rope but it had also been locked with a very old lock that probably didn't have a key anymore.
"Dad seems to know though. He always comes in this shed once a week to check this thing. Make sure the seals are in place, that the wood isn't too rotted. He seems determined to keep it shut."
"Be careful with this! Don't you dare break this chest. This is Pandora's Box!"
"In Greek mythology, Pandora was entrusted from Zeus with a box. In this box was all the evils of the world. Pandora, in her curiosity, opened the box and let evil out into the world. This is that box!"
"We've been keeping all the evils of the world in our backyard shed."
"Laugh if you wish but it took the power of four different gods to put the evil back and it cost them their lives."
"The god of courage and fire, the god of wisdom and air, the god of strength and earth, and the god of healing and water. Together, with all their power combined, they managed to..."
"NO!"
"The seal!" he pointed at the front seal which was hanging limply from the chest with only the bottom still attached.
"Oh, my God." Kagome said her mouth hanging open.
"Kagome?" Inuyasha said placing a hand on her shoulder.
"What's wrong?" Miroku said putting his book down.
"You're right." Kagome said grabbing Miroku's arm. "I completely forgot. I never thought it was real."
"Are you going to start making sense soon?" Sango asked.
"Look, in the oldest shed on our property there was a really old chest. Gramps checked on it every weak. I always thought he was just paranoid." She looked down at her hands as if she had never seen them before. Had she really touched the real source of all evil? "Every year we clean one of Gramps sheds. If we don't they get moldy and musty and he's old so...The oldest shed had this great big, really heavy chest with three sealing scrolls and a whole mess of ropes holding it together. The day of the beginning of all this was cleaning day for that shed. Gramps was hanging onto it, telling us to be careful. When he climbed off one of the seals came off. He put four more on to replace it and re-placed that one but Gramps doesn't have spiritual power..." She trailed off but she didn't need to speak anymore. Miroku's eyes had lit up with the discovery of new knowledge.
"So the damage was already done. Having already been let out twice before the evil took action and let itself out. No one opened it, it opened itself and all the evil came out." Miroku looked excited at having solved the mystery and having his theory confirmed. "Do you know what this means? We can fix this? We can replace this evil!"
"How?" Kagome asked busting his bubble. "Do you have a manual? I never took evil replacement 101 in school, Miroku. So what? We know what happened. We still can't do anything about it."
He thought for a moment this his eyes lit up again and he ran from the room.
"There is something way wrong with him." Inuyasha said stretching. His hunger sated he was better equipped to pay attention now.
Miroku came back a second later with a pencil and a notebook. "Okay, Kagome. Tell me everything you remember."
Kagome sighed as he sat in front of her, looking eager. Dutifully, she repeated what little she remembered to him.
For the first time in her life, she wished she had listened to one of Gramps' stories.
