Lost and Found
Chapter 11
Their Story
A/N: Reviews rock! Baby steps and big leaps. Ive done a ridiculous ammount of planning in regards to the future of this fic, I just hope you'll follow me all the way there.
Things happen for a reason, going to the past was part of Kagome's journey from the moment the jewel of four souls was created. Kagome was chosen for a reason, she met Inuyasha for a reason. Fate has a need for her, for she will shape the world.
Anyways, on to chapter 11. Enjoy and review. Any predictions?
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Kagome pushed the door shut behind her, leaning against it as she pressed her fingertips to her lips. He had kissed her again. It was chaste and quick, a small peck, but the tingling on her lips still hadn't faded, the heat in her veins bubbled beneath the surface of her skin. Kouga. She sighed to herself as she kicked off her flats, placing them on a rack by the door before heading to the stairs. The miko stopped dead when she came upon a light in the living room.
Miyu let out a gasp, the scroll that was once in her hands tumbled to the ground as she jolted to her feet.
"Kagome! I didn't hear the door." she said quickly, her face flushed.
"I just got home I - what are you doing?" Part of the miko felt enraged. She could see the neat brown wrapping on the table. Her mother had been reading the scrolls from Inuyasha, when she herself hadn't even had the chance.
"I'm sorry dear, I know it wasn't my place." Said the older woman, sliding to the ground once more. She knew she shouldn't have looked. She knew, even as she peeled open the ancient paper. Her daughter sighed and moved to the couch, sitting down. "You always told me so little of your journeys through the well. All I knew was that it was dangerous, and that you needed medical supplies that a girl your age shouldn't even know how to use. I thought... perhaps if I read these, I could understand. Perhaps I could see more of the things that you'd seen, understand what you had lived through." It was Kagome's turn to feel guilty. All she wanted to do was protect her from all of the dangers, but it seemed, that she had only distanced herself from the woman that had always been there for her, no matter the predicament she had gotten herself into.
"I'm sorry mom." Said the Miko, beconing the woman to join her on the couch. She obliged, pulling her daughter closer. "I didn't mean to push you away. I just didn't want you to worry." Miyu smiled.
"I know dear, but it's a mother's duty to worry for her children." Kagome let out an airy laugh. Of course she would worry.
"So, what did they say?" She asked the question before she could stop it, but as she stared at the scrolls in front of her, she didn't know if she could handle reading them on her own. She had pushed her mother away for so long. Perhaps now, she could let her in.
"They were stories, or at least I thought they were. The more I read, the more I recognized bits of them. I think they're history. Ones that now, people would only regard as legend." Said the woman, stroking her daughter's hair. "I still don't know if I believe them."
"Like what?" Piped Kagome, her eyes stuck to the scrolls on the table.
"The first one I read was about a priestess. The one who guarded the jewel before you. How she met a thief and saved his life. She nursed him in a small cave outside the village."
"Kikyo." Said Kagome, straightening up. "Her name was Kikyo." Kikyo. He had written about Kikyo. Of course he had. Once, this would have caused her pain, but not, it brought her joy to hear of the priestess. She knew exactly what story he was telling. His story.
"Kikyo." Repeated Miyu. "He told of how she fell in love with a half demon. He stumbled upon her whilst bathing. A demon had leaped out of the water, her bow too far to reach. He intercepted the creature, killing it before it could get her. He left. Weeks later she found him injured in the forest. She nursed him back to health. From then on, he watcher her from nearby, until one day she called him down from the trees.
"I know you're there. Why don't you come out? I'm not going to hurt you." She said loud enough for him to hear. She had been sitting on a hill away from the village, so they were alone enough. He came out, far away at first, buy over time he got closer. And one day, he pulled the miko onto his lap. He had fallen in love. He had even promised her that he would become human, so that they could live their lives out together.
Their love was short lived. A demon, disguised as one another, he turned them against each other. A cruel trick that killed Kikyou and had the half demon pinned to a tree. Before she died, the priestess requested of her sister to burn the jewel with her body, hopefully ending its magic forever.
She didn't expect the jewel to be reborn 500 years later in a young girl, the reincarnation of Kikyo."
Her mother sucked in a breath. "Such a sad story." She said softly. Kagome nodded.
"Any story regarding Narraku Is a sad one." Said Kagome, folding her arms.
"He's the thief?" Asked Miyu. She already knew the answer, but she wondered if she could get Kagome to tell her.
"Onigumo was the thief. A simple human thief that sold his body and soul to demons. He used that power to tear them apart. Along with many others. Countless others. All because he couldn't have the woman he loved." Kagome let out a soft laugh. "The jewel never granted his wish. Even the likes of Narraku made a humble wish that the jewel twisted into an evil one." Miyu reached over, her hands resting on her daughter's shoulders until she laid back, resting her head in her lap. "Is that all the scrolls said?"
"No, there's much more." Said Miyu, gently stroking Kagome's hair as she would when she was a child, up late from nightmares.
"Tell me, mama." She said, turning onto her side, curling her knees up into her chest. Miyu nodded. And of course she did as her eldest asked.
"The next scroll, is about a strange woman that was pulled through the bone eater's well by a demon. A centipede that eventually ripped the sacred jewel from inside her body." Kagome stiffened her hand resting on her stomach. That scar. "That was you wasn't it?" Kagome nodded. Or course it was. "You broke the spell on the half demon that was decieveed so many years ago. You used beads of prayer to hold his spirit so that he could do no harm to those around him..."
Dawn had splashed its burning colors upon the ceiling when Kagome had finally dosed off in her mother's lap. A smile on her face. Miyu couldn't help but return it. Inuyasha had written not just the story of the ancient priestess, but the one that traveled through time, and how she had helped him grow. She was so proud. Her little Kagome. She opened hearts and minds, created a group of friends unlike any other. A monk, a priestess and a demon slayer fighting side by side with other demons. They created a bond that lasted well after the time priestess had gone from their world.
Such pain. Such sorrow. Kagome had lived through it all, she had watched her friends suffer and fought tooth and nail to make things right. In the end even Kagome had suffered, being torn away from Inuyasha. Naraku's evil knew no bounds, and yet here she was, curled in her mother's lap, a smile on her face. What a strong girl she had raised.
"Mom?" Miyu's gaze snapped down to her daughter, whose eyes were only slightly open. Sleep, it seemed evaded her. "Did you ever date? After dad?" Her question, brought a sigh to Miyu's lips.
"I did. When you were young, but I just couldn't find anyone that was right. It took me a long time to get over your father's death, but eventually I came to the conclusion that he would want me to be happy, and if I found someone that made me happy, and took care of Souta and yourself, I would let that someone into my life."
"And?"
"I never did. I mean, there were some nice ones, but none of them felt right. What brings this on?" Miyu asked as Kagome sat up, her nap clearly over. She touched her lips and stared down at the box containing the fang of destruction.
"Kouga. He kissed me." She admitted under Miyu's watchful stare. "It was... it was nothing like Inuyasha's but... am I betraying him? He waited so long for me mama. He waited so long. What do I do?"
"I can't answer those questions for you, but there is someone who can." Kagome whirled on her mother who slid off the couch and opened the box containing the fang. She rustled in the box for a moment before handing a small sheet of paper to Kagome.
"What is it?" Asked the young miko, not wanting to look at it. Afraid to open the little folded sheet.
"You'll have to figure that out yourself. I'm going to bed now, you should get some rest too, before the boys show up." Miyu stood, giving Kagome a pat on the head before heading up the steps. Kagome, hadn't even noticed. Her eyes were glued to the paper, her fingers trembling as she opened it.
'My beloved Kagome,
May tetsuiga protect you when I cannot. Find peace, as I have. Find happiness as our friends have. We will see each other again, whether it be in this world, or the next.
Until that day,
Inuyasha.
And there it was. Staring her in the face. The answer she had been looking for. She hasn't realized that she'd been crying until the tears dropped onto the slip of battered old paper. She had felt so torn, so lost and now it was as if the chains holding her in place had loosened. Of all the gifts he had given her, this small scrap of paper was the closure she'd been unknowingly searching for all these years. She would miss him, every single day. Now, with his memory would come a sense of peace. He had set her free, in a way that perhaps only he could understand.
The same way Kikyo had set him free. Who better to know the feeling of longing for a lost love than he; to know the feeling of having one's heart trapped in the past, to one who they could no longer be with.
How much he had grown. A sudden bubble of laughter escaped the young miko as she imagined Inuyasha, a wise elderly demon. Wise, inuyasha? She giggled some more as she put the scrolls back into the trunk, shutting the lid to Tetsuiga's box and sealing it up. There was still a lingering sadness to her thoughts, wishing she could have seen the old hanyou, but the pain was lighter, easier to bare.
Kagome smiled to herself as she headed towards the stairs, paper gripped in her hand. Step after step, each growing stronger than the last. Baby steps, had grown slowly into strides. She had two legs and a heartbeat and she would remember how to use them.
In the warmth of the sun, she slumbered, not fearing the darkness that lingered.