Resplendence Ressurected
(Disclaimer: I dont own any part of Inuyasha or its characters, except for my own original characters)
A/N: Really not much to say, except for the fact that the dialouge in this chapter alone needed to be perfect in order to have the story make sense. Well. glad its over with haha. Chaoter 10 should be much easier to write now that somr new ground will be established.
Dream sequence begin/end
Scene sequence begin/end
(scenes will be seperated by a divider so as not to confuse thoughts with flashbacks etc.)
Chapter 9: Miko's Promise
For somebody else under that same rising sun, the night had been slightly less eventful. Rin slowly opened one of her eyes and scanned her surroundings. The little petulant toad, Jaken was sleeping soundly. She could tell by the smooth intakes of his breath and the incessant rambling he took part in. Lord Sesshoumaru was nowhere to be found, much to the child's chagrin. Rin sat up and stretched. She had been nestled against Ah-Un for most of the night, the soft sound of its heartbeat had put her to sleep many hours ago. She gently lifted its paw that had wrapped around her and slowly placed it to her side. Touching Ah-Un's paws had always delighted her. They were scaly and rough to the touch and as hard as a stone, just lifting it had merely exhausted her. But there was also prickly green fur that surrounded it as well, which was the precise reason for her curiosity. Rin stepped lightly over her sleeping companion, not wanting to wake it. She walked over to the riverbed and looked at her reflection. Although she wasn't smiling at the moment, she could swear she caught her mirrored image smiling back up at her, as if to signal that it was going to be a wonderful day. She mused at the thought and splashed her face with cold water to wake herself up.
Walking back towards the others, she began to wonder where Lord Sesshoumaru had gone off too. "I wonder where he went?"
She was used to him disappearing constantly, but she didn't mind.
"As long as he comes back" Rin said, smiling happily to herself. She looked into the distance and thought she saw some wild flowers growing by a patch of trees.
"I know! I'll go pick some flowers for Lord Sesshoumaru, and I can give them to him when he comes back!"
Obviously delighted with her idea, Rin started to hum to herself and skip towards the flowers, but only doing so when she was a safe distance from Jaken.
"I have to be careful Master Jaken doesn't wake up…he's always cranky"
She giggled when she thought of the last time she had woken Jaken up. It was an especially warm summer night and she had been awake staring at the stars. She had wondered how stars were made and woke Jaken up to ask him. It seemed innocent enough to her, but Master Jaken didn't think so. Not only did he not answer her question, but he complained about his lack of sleep for the next two days.
"He probably didn't know the answer anyway" She sighed.
Ah-Un heard Rin's whistling in the distance and opened it's enormous black eyes slightly and shut them back up when it realized she was just heading towards the flowerbed. It made a noise that sounded that a chuckle and fell back asleep as if it had noticed nothing at all.
When Rin reached the flowers, she found an array of wildflowers to choose from. Each was a different color, a different size and shape, and they all smelled so lovely to her. It seemed a waste to pick them all when they looked so beautiful planted there, so she decided to pick just one. In The center of them all was a solitary milk white flower, it's petals seeming shorter at the top and longer around the bottom. They seemed fluffy almost like clouds and immediately reminded her of her Lord. She stepped delicately around the flowers and came to stand on the flower. She bent down and picked it with grace from the ground, being careful not to tear up any roots with it. Twirling in circles around her fingers, she began to hum again and dance to the music she had imagined in her head. She had just about made her way out of the flowers when she felt somebody standing over her. Rin didn't need to turn around to know who it was but did so anyway.
"Lord Sesshoumaru! You're back!" She said, smiling up at him with big innocent brown eyes.
He said nothing as he looked towards the sun rising above the mountains in the distance.
"Go back to bed Rin" He said calmly, knowing she'd obey him.
"Ok." She said with a little frown on her face and then remembered the flower. "Oh! I picked this my Lord. It reminded me of you. It was pretty!"
Sesshoumaru gracefully took the flower from Rin and stared at it. She smiled up at him and quickly started to skip and dance back towards Ah-Un. By now she knew him to be a man of very few words and had accepted it.
"He liked it" Rin said to herself confidently.
Lying down beside the great, green, scaly beast, Rin snuggled closer for warmth. She took no notice of Sesshoumaru's last glance at her, and fell quickly back to sleep; her head buried inside the nook of Ah-Un's arm.
Sesshoumaru looked at the flower he held in his hand for a minute, before looking back to the odd girl. He put the flower inside his robe and walked back towards his traveling party. He stopped at a tree with an enormous trunk, about ten feet fro where Jaken lay, and sat down on the cool, damp moss growing in abundance over the dirt. He focused his eyes on the sun, which was now evidently above the mountains and remained transfixed until he decided it was time to move on to somewhere new for the day.
"Who…whore are you?" Kagome asked the voice, stammering as she spoke.
"I'll tell you my name in a bit. But please, don't be afraid. There's nothing to fear. I won't harm you. I just have some questions. There are things I need to know…and please Kagome, don't try to hide anything from me because I'll know if you're lying. Is that alright with you?"
"Yes." She answered, uncertainty evident in her voice.
"What have you seen?" The voice asked her curiously.
"Seen? I don't understand" Kagome said shaking her head.
"You've had dreams? Have you not?" The woman said with a calm voice.
"Yes…but I…but they weren't real."
"Weren't real?" The lady laughed. "I assure you my dear, my things you have seen were not figments of your imagination. They were quite real."
Kagome tooka quick intake of breath. "You mean all that stuff? It was real?"
"What you've been experiencing are not dreams Kagome, but memories of someone else."
"But whose memories are those? They're horrible!"
The lady sighed and paused as if debating whether or not to say what she was going to say next. "They're mine."
Kagome was taken by surprise. "That's her! That's the woman I've been seeing in my dreams! I knew her voice sounded familiar…I just couldn't place it."
"Then you're…"
"Yes. I'm the woman that you've seen…"
"But you couldn't see me, I tried to get your attention. How could you have—"
"I couldn't see you. Those were memories my dear, nothing more. What I did feel was another presence poking around at my soul, trying to pry into affairs that should have been long forgotten."
"I'm…so sorry. But I didn't do it on purpose. It just happened, and I couldn't wake up. They just felt so real."
Kagome listened intently for five minutes hoping to hear the voice speak again. It seemed to be thinking of what to say next. Growing anxious, Kagome decided to ask a question for herself.
"Why can't I see you?"
"Because I do not possess a physical form. All that I am is a soul. But that is another story entirely."
"Oh." She said simply. But thought of another question. "How can I hear you? Or see your memories? Am I—"
"No. You are not my re-incarnation. You possess the same soul Kikyo once held over five hundred years ago. My soul cannot be re-incarnated because my physical form is not dead yet. But even though you share her soul, I am a part of you as well. For now atleast."
"What do you mean?" Kagome asked curiously. She didn't like the idea of another person swimming around in her head, looking through her thoughts and private encounters.
"No Kagome I haven't gone through your head. Don't belittle me as such. I cannot answer that question right now. But I have one more question for you."
Kagome had relaxed a bit and was more comfortable floating in the darkness with somebody else to talk to. "Go ahead" She said shrugging.
"How did you get that necklace?"
"This?" Kagome said placing her hand over the pendant. "My grandfather gave it to me as a gift. His friend retrieved it from an old shrine and gave it to him."
"I see. Then I, in fact, happen to have stumbled upon a streak of luck, for as it seems you have somehow managed to retrieve the other part of my soul. Many years ago, I made a promise to seal my soul into that very necklace, so that if a great evil should plague the earth once more, I'd be there to help fight."
"This is all so confusing. I don't understand." Kagome said holding her head. "None of this makes any sense."
"I know. And I'm sorry for that. I can not answer any of your questions until I am restored to my physical being. Will you do me a great service Kagome?"
"and what would that be…"
"Find my body. You must place the pendant around my neck. Only then will I be able to tell you more. There are many secrets and mysteries in this world that remain unsolved. The Shikon no Tama not being excluded. Please Kagome. I beg of you. I'm weary of this sleep. It is all I ask."
"But how will I know where to find this place?"
"My village. Ukiyo. If it still stands that is. Where it is in the city I don not know where, but I know that it still exists. Otherwise, I would have passed on by now. Ask the old woman. She can tell you a bit more. But I must end this conversation. I've used up enough of your energy with this conversation."
"Alright I'll do it."
"I'll take that as a Miko's promise." The lady said. It was obvious from her tone of voice that she was smiling. "And once a Miko is bound by a promise, she may never break it."
"Wait! One more question before you go!"
"Speak." She replied.
"I still don't know it!" Kagome blurted out.
"Know what?"
"Your name. Who are you?"
"Hishura."
And with that the blackness faded away and Kagome found herself lying in the bottom of the well. Looking up she realized she could see the pale blue sky and knew she was back. She signed and started to climb up the well to go meet the others. She knew they would be worried. But she knew they'd forget all about them when she told them about her experience...and her promise.
A/N: Ok wow. This chapter is probably the most important part in the story line so far. But because I wanted to involve as many important characters in this story as possible I finally got aroundto Sesshoumaru (Yay!) R&R. And I hope you like it :. More to come soon.
