A Winter's Breeze

Chapter Nine

The Tale Comes to a Close

Kagome stood on the hill looking at the four graves. Kaede stood besides her offering her support. The other villagers had already paid their respects and left for their homes. Kagome had told a slightly edited version of the events of the previous day. Despite his actions, Kagome wanted Inu Yasha to be remembered fondly. She also felt the events were partially her fault and did not want to face the shame that would come with it being public knowledge. Since she had fallen through the well her four companions had become her life, her family, her everything.

Now it was all gone.

Kagome was still slightly thankful. She still had her time. The young priestess agreed that it would be best if she returned to her time with the Shikon jewel. The danger to it there would be far less considering she no longer had the protection Inu Yasha provided. She would go back to attending school on a regular basis and try to put this all behind her. Perhaps if she was lucky eventually all of it, all of the pain, would fade. Someday she imagined looking back at this time and remembering it as nothing more than the fanciful imagination of a young girl.

These thoughts brought shame to Kagome's heart. She did not want to forget her friends. She did not want to think that their bravery had just been a dream. Most of all she did not want to forget Inu Yasha and the love she had felt for him. But remembering hurt so much more. The pain and guilt of forgetting was temporary but the heartache involved with keeping her friends alive in her heart would haunt her forever. She wanted to just try for a normal life now, so she would do her best to let her them fade from her memory.

Kagome had heard dozens of times, in movies, books, from people at her father's funeral, that a loved one is never truly dead as long as one remembers them. That made her laugh. If that was the case it seemed that Kagome was going to deal the final blow to her friends. Her body shuddered as she suppressed her sobbing. She had already dealt the final blow to Inu Yasha. She had done the one thing she had sworn never to do.

Kagome looked up and realized she was already at the lip of the well that had been so important in her life. Without realizing it she had told Kade farewell and turned her back forever on the four solum grave markers casting their shadows in the setting sun. Her mind began running through all of her memories and now she truly began to sob in earnest.

She knew she was leaving behind some unfinished business. The young schoolgirl would feel bad about not saying goodbye to Kouga, though hopefully she would forget him with the rest. There was also still the matter of Kikyo. The undead priestess still was in possession of a fraction of Kagome's soul. Her only hope was that when Kikyo heard of Inu Yasha's and Naraku's death she would be able to go to hell by herself and rest in peace. Perhaps then that part of her soul would reach her in the future. It was strange. Kagome had always thought of the two of them, that Kikyo would be the one to kill Inu Yasha.

As she swung her legs up onto the well she was reminded of the cold weight pressed against her chest, the stupid Shikon Jewel. She had thought of using the jewel to bring them all back to life. She did not know if it was techincally posible but deep down she knew it would not work. She could return Inu Yasha's body to life, but nothing could heal the damage done to his mind and heart. Kagome had also considered simply wishing that the tragedy had never happened. However she questioned the purity of such a wish and suspected that the jewel would some how twist her desires into a reality somehow worse than it was now. So she would wish for nothing.

The jewel had brought so much suffering. It was the jewel which had given Naraku the ability to slaughter everyone Sango had held dear. It was the jewel which had given Naraku the power to curse Miroku's faimly. It was the jewel It was the jewel which had motivated the thunder brothers to kill Shippo's parents. It was the jewel which had driven Kikyo and Inu Yasha apart. It was the jewel that had brought Kagome back to this time.

If the Shikon Jewel had not formed in her body when she was reincarnated, if it had just been destroyed with Kikyou's death, Kagome could have avoided all of this pain. It was selfish but she did not care. She wished the stupid jewel never existed, she wish she had never heard of it.

With all of her anger, her guilt, her sorrow she flung the the Shikon Jewel away from her.

"I wish you had burned up on Kikyou's funeral pyre you stupid rock!"

Time seemed to freeze. Her falling tears were suspended in midair. The Shikon jewel sat at the peak of its trajectory not moving. Then suddenly it shattered. Not into hundreds of pieces as had happened previously, but millions of infinitesimally small pieces. And the world around her began to tear apart.

All around her the world seemed to be shattering. It was if Kagome was in a whirlwind of destruction. Slowly the world was shrinking with her at the center. Beyond its border was nothing but blackness.

"What's... What's happening..." Kagome was afraid.

"Your wish is being granted. However without the jewel you never could have opened the well. Time is being undone."

Kagome knew the voice that had answered her. It was the voice of the legendary priestess who's soul was trapped inside the jewel. And she knew she would remember none of this. Kagome's last coherent thought before the oblivion was that the winter breeze smelled pleasant.


Kagome woke up with the sun shinning onto her face. She rose her hands to wipe the sleep out of her eyes and found that they were wet. Had she been crying in her sleep? Sadness momentarily came over her but it was gone just as briefly as it had come. The young schoolgirl jumped out of her bed with enthusiasm. Today was her birthday and it was going to be a great day. She had plans on going to see a movie with her friends and then they were all going to have dinner at her house. Maybe if she was really lucky Hojo might ask her out.

After a quick breakfast Kagome was headed out the door when she ran into her grandfather.

"My dear granddaughter I am afraid I simply cannot wait to give you my preseant."

Kagome carefully took the small wrapped package and carefully unwrapped it. She simply hoped it was different from all the other presents she had received from jii-san. As the paper unfolded in her hands she was left with a simple but elegant string of prayer beads. Seeing the question in her eye grandfather Hirugashi launched into an explanation.

"Those beads once belonged to a holy monk. Many years ago he, together with a villiage of warriors, managed to slay a powerful shape changing demon who had managed to usurp power in the region. It was said that the demon was seeking after our very own Shikon Jewel but was unable to find it and thus fell prey to those noble warriors."

"Our Shikon Jewel?"

"AHH, Kagome I've told you about it at least half a dozen times."

With this the old man leaned over and stuck his hands into a box and pulled out a handful of key chains that looked to have some plastic ball attached to them.

"What do you think Kagome? I bet they sell out before the day is out."

Kagome just shook her head as she went outside leaving her grandfather cackling at the profits he imagined to make. Going through the shrine yard she paused briefly beneath the god tree. She had always felt a sense of comfort from it. According to her grandfather legends had it that the spirit of a powerful demon was trapped at the heart of the tree and had once protected the entire forest that had once existed in the area. She imaged that if the story was true, perhaps the spirit was still watching over the shrine now that its forest was gone.

Kagome suddenly saw Buyo her cat run off into the shrine house. With a sigh she went to shoo the cat out of the building. Her grandfather did not appreciate Buyo's tendency to scratch relics. Inside the dark house she heard a noise coming from the other side of the sealed well. She briefly wondered why it would be sealed up. Kagome never really paid too much attention to the shrine's history. As she circled the well she found the errant cat, the source of the noise.

The girl scooped her fat tabby up into her arms and deposited the cat onto the ground ouside of the well house. With a brief look back at the well she then made her way to school for another day.

T H E E N D

Author's Note: I will soon be posting the first chapter of another story. I think the title will be the Tree. The story was not originally intended as but works as a sequel to Winter's Breeze. It can also stand alone by itself. It will be a much lighter story than this one.

I will also likely be soon posting the first chapters of two other stories. In one the well will be closing for five years. A lot can change in five years.

In another Kagome discoverers that her father, who has long been absent, is now returning home. How will he react to Inu Yasha?

I promise that I will update more frequently than this story was.