Thank you to my wonderful beta, Stella!
She wasn't sure exactly where she was. All she could remember was standing before a goddess, and then everything went black.
"Have I… died?" She spoke softly, her voice a bit raspy. She heard a soft chuckle coming from just a few feet away. She stirred, lifting herself slowly as she tried to blink back into reality.
"Careful, child. You had fallen, and landed quite harshly on your head. Are you alright?" Midoriko asked, approaching the young girl with caution. She moved swiftly, almost too quickly for Kagome to notice, causing her to stumble back.
"I-I'm sorry, did you say I fell? Did I black out or something? I can't remember…" Kagome felt a pounding in the back of her skull, one that sent such a wave of pain through her body that she shot straight up, her hands cradling her head.
"Yes, you seem to have lost consciousness. The sun has already risen. You were only out for a few hours."
"The sun is risen? So it's Sunday? Crap! I gotta get back to Tokyo!" Kagome tried to stand, despite the immense pain coming from her cranium, stumbling as she found her way out of the room she had been taken to.
"Dear, you must not leave your bed. You could injure yourself further." Midoriko chided, afraid that the young girl would hurt herself.
"I have to get back and see Sesshomaru, though. He's probably wondering why I haven't-"
"Sesshomaru-sama? You know of him?" Midoriko seemed surprised, and a little confused. Surely she couldn't mean the same…
"Long white hair? Golden eyes that change with his every thought? Skilled swordsman?" Kagome's eyes softened as she remembered their encounters.
Midoriko's lips turned into a sly smile as understanding dawned on her.
"Ah, I see. So he is the one, then?" Midoriko followed the girl outside, taking her hand into hers and leading her towards a hut that was close by their previous one.
"Where are we going, Midoriko-sama?" Kagome asked, following the priestess. Midoriko kept leading her towards the hut, turning her head slightly to look towards her companion.
"To your destiny."
He kept calling her number, but it always went straight to voicemail. He sighed, hanging up the phone for what seemed the millionth time that day.
Where could she have gone? Her mother had said she was at a friend's house, but he knew that wasn't the case. Kagome wasn't the type to abandon something so important to her as this project just for companionship.
Could he say he knew her that well? He hadn't even known her for a full week! Something was different about this girl, though. Something he hadn't sensed it a long time.
She had awoken something in him. Tenseiga responded to it, too. Just what was it about this girl that he was so attracted to?
That was just it, though. She was a girl. She was seventeen, yes, almost eighteen, but that was nothing in comparison to his true age. Yet he felt as if she were as old as he. As if he had known her since childhood.
He looked towards his closet, where his white kimono with the red honeycomb pattern peeked out. His eyes shone with memories of samurai, falling dead before his feet. Flying above the tree tops, iron clashing with the strongest of demons.
He looked to his old armor, and then to his reflection now. What would she say, if she knew? Would she believe him? He wanted to think she would be the type to understand.
How nice would it be to be able to be himself again? To not have to hide behind the mask of another species.
It would be nicer if she could accept him. He had not a clue why it mattered, but to him, he needed her to approve of his true self.
He would soon find out.