The Day After Tomorrow
AUTHOR: Angelhart
GENRE: romance/hurt/comfort
SETTING: AU post-manga/anime
STORY: continuation
RATING: M
DISCLAIMER: InuYasha ©2000 Rumiko Takahashi/Shogakukan - Yomiuri TV - Sunrise
All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.
Chapter 36
She was feeling kind of lost. Out of place even.
Now what…?
With her back facing the large building she eyed the street and the water of the small lake on the other side of it. "Now what?" This the words left her lips.
He had not been home. Sitting by his door for over two hours made her realize that it could be possible he was avoiding her. If that were the case then he knew. Her left hand slipped into her bag to feel the leather binding. A physical assurance it was still there. Her hand was itching to check if the note and the sutra's were still there, but she was afraid some unfortunate wind would then rip them out of her clumsy fingers. A ridiculous doom scenario, but one she couldn't risk. Not now.
Could it be true? Were they a tool to reopen the well. Would she be able to go-
A hissing sound from the bushes across the road pulled her out of her thoughts. It was a too strange noise to be an animal. Or not one she knew. When she heard it again, she knew it wasn't her mind playing tricks. Kagome didn't react though until she noticed two triangle brown ears with black tips pointing out from in between the leaves. She made her way to the crossing and with her eyes partly focused on the green she waited patiently for the lights to signal green. Then curious, yet cautious she approached the location.
The ears twitched then dove under and there was nervous rustling. Standing in front of it now she waited until the one would show itself. And it did. Slowly. First the ears again, turning to focus on every sound, then slowly more. A forehead two eyes surrounded by a black pattern of fur that it seemed he was wearing a mask. It took minutes for the raccoon dog to fully emerge. Standing tall he was still partly camouflaged by the green, but visible enough to be recognized.
Another familiar face Kagome did not expect to see. There was more grey in between the brown and black, betraying the tanuki's age, but apparently even he survived the five hundred harsh years.
"What are you doing here?" Kagome asked keeping her voice down to avoid curious eyes into their direction form the occasional pedestrian. "Are you spying on me? Where is Shippou?" She straightened her back and looked around to see if she could spot the kitsune. If he was close by, she couldn't make him out. Then she realized she could already be talking to him. The cowardly tanuki could be him in disguise. "Is that even really you, Hachiemon? Shippou, don't tell me it is you."
She was making him nervous, she could tell, but she couldn't care. She felt played.
"H-h-he wanted me to find you. T-tell you to meet him at the shrine?"
"Why?" Kagome placed her hands on her sides.
"You know, don't you?"
She sighed. "I don't even know what I'm knowing, but I guess you could say, I know, I think."
The creature frowned and seemed to ponder of the complexity of that sentence and she could tell by the look on his face that he was trying to figure out if her reply meant a 'yes' or 'no'.
"Yes, I know."
That seemed to get things rolling for a hand appeared from in between the bushes holding something out to her. It was a key.
"He told me to give you this, for he said that if you would have to climb that fence again you would hang him by the balls." The face of the tanuki flinched as he said it. "Are you? Were you going to hang him by the balls. That must be so painful…"
Kagome snatched the key from Hachiemon's fingers. "You damn right I would have."
At the tone of her voice he cowered even more, partly disappearing behind the leaves again.
"Why are you even here?" she asked
"I thought you knew?" When she didn't react to that, he added: "You read it?"
"Bits, yes."
"Then you must know that I am sort of obliged to assist you."
"Looks to me you are assisting someone else, rather than me." During her stay in the Feudal era Kagome had figured out as much that his connection to Miroku seemed more obligatory than actual friendship. And the diary had provided her with enough facts that her family were descendants of Miroku and Sango's offspring. A strange twist of fate. But it made sense knowing that the shrine was part of their family's heirloom for generations.
"He told me it was for your own good. Please, don't be mad."
She couldn't be mad at him. He was just a pawn. She needed to have a serious chat with the one moving the pieces.
"Do you want me to take you there?"
Although it would be convenient, she didn't think it would be a responsible choice to fly on a yellow gourd over modern Tokyo. So, she declined and walked toward the subway station.
When she arrived at the shrine, she expected him to be there at the top of the stairs. The shrine seemed abandoned. There was even no sign of him as she locked the fence again. She waited there for a bit, keeping herself out of sight for anyone who would be walking by down below and perhaps look up. Staring at a blank point in front of her, avoiding her sight to be diverted to the left. The vivid description from Shippou of Inuyasha sitting in the Goshinboku would bring the image of it alive every time she was faced with it. But when Shippou didn't show she had no choice but to start a search for him. If he even was at the premises…
Another feel and a reassuring sigh escaped her lips when she felt the leather binding underneath her fingertips. It was still there. What would she do when Shippou wasn't here? For a moment she thought of just attaching the sutra's on the well and see what happened. But what if it was a one chance and if she failed the right procedure there would be no second chances? It would be too high of a risk and she retreated her hand quickly before her heart's desire would something radical and improvident.
When she started her search, she noticed it had become darker and she realized she had waited longer for him to show than she initially thought. But it did provide her with a most helpful clue where to start. There were lights burning inside her old home and when she approached, she noticed the door was left open. She followed the source of the light to the kitchen. Without even noticing him first she heard his voice.
"Sit down. I am making some tea."
A part of her didn't want to and when she noticed him standing at the stove, she felt the urge to hit him. And for a moment she stood there, facing him and with tears burning behind her eyes. For had he played her all that time? All those years, had she been able to return to Inuyasha's world? Why had he hidden the truth from her for so long?
"Sit down," he repeated more firmly.
He didn't look at her as he spoke. It frustrated her. She had never felt a greater distance between them than now. She had been so happy when she saw him. This mature handsome version of the little kid she knew. Save. Alive. Now it somehow felt as if it had not been real at all. The more she spent time with them, the more she caught herself in a web of lies, it seemed.
But she sat down as he had commanded. Her hands folding around the cup he placed in front of her. For support, for warmth? For both?
"Why?" she muttered almost silently.
"Because he asked me to."
She looked up. His face looked terribly pained and she was glad she had not hit him. But she wanted to know more. She wanted to know everything. Not just the fragments they had been feeding her. "Tell me."
"He missed you, you know he did. Like I said he visited the well every three days awaiting your return. Waiting for a miracle. When Mushin died, Miroku and Inuyasha searched the temple for information about ancient artifacts. Miroku's grandfather had searched for means to kill Naraku and free him of the curse. At one point he tried to undo the event. By using your well, Kagome. By the manner of how demons were reduced to harmless skeletons, he figured the well had the power to control time. Most demons can live for several eons. He figured out that the well did not strip them of their flesh and powers, but of time. Aging them rapidly to the point their mortality would end their lives. And then froze them in time.
At first, he wanted to lure Naraku towards it. But the demon was cunning and although it didn't know the true powers of the well, it did know the rumors of the danger it opposed. So, when he failed, Miroku's grandfather tried to use the well for time traveling. If he could undo his encounter with Naraku he would not have been cursed. Or if he could kill the demon… well…"
"We know it didn't work. Otherwise I would not have met you or Inuyasha and we would not have been fighting Naraku."
"True. He failed in that too. But that didn't mean he didn't try. But he didn't have the Shikon no Tama. Nor did he have a connection to a previous era. I don't know how it was created or perhaps it was part of this world from the beginning. Maybe created by the gods. Kikyo gave up her life when she wanted to keep the Shikon no Tama safe. Binding her soul to it and unconsciously used the well to send it to a place that Naraku couldn't reach. She saved the world by doing that. And then five hundred years later the well drew you in again. Allowing you and Inuyasha to finish what Kikyo had wanted to: kill Naraku the demon who threatened the entire world. And when you fulfilled you destiny the well sent you back home again.
I think it let you and Inuyasha through because you both had a bond with Kikyo and Naraku at that time. Without Naraku that bond is gone."
Kagome reached into the bag and placed the diary on the table. She then opened it to the page where she had placed the note and the sutra's in. "Do you mean… these will bring Naraku back?" Was that the priced she would have to pay? To unleash that powerful and manipulative demon again upon the world? And Miroku's curse…
"No."
She looked up at Shippou's answer.
"But they do not come without risk." He placed a hand on the sutra's forcing her to keep her focus on him. "Desire to return is not enough. You have no connection to that world anymore. Not by a soul, not by the Shikon no Tama."
"But there was a moment when I didn't have the shards and didn't have Kiyo's soul inside me anymore. Yet I was still able to travel. As was Inuyasha."
"Both of you were connected at that time. Even though the jewel wasn't inside or on you physically it was connected to you as by Kikyo's sacrifice. Same was Inuyasha. The moment you broke Kikyo's seal he became bounded to you until the jewel was destroyed. Then the connection was broken."
"So… what is the catch…?"
"These sutra's are powerful binders and they do come with a catch. They bind souls together by means of an object. If you want to use them the way they were originally meant to be used it is quite complicated. The object and the 'soul' have to be in the same space at close distance. The container of the soul must touch the object willingly."
"What are they used for, normally?" She didn't want to ask, she didn't want to know, perhaps on some level she felt an instinctive sense of danger. Live preservation.
"Demons. Demons that are almost impossible to kill. It was another thing Miroku's grandfather tried to use on Naraku. To bind him to an object and to have that object destroyed. It was the thing that resulted in his curse. Naraku found out the man's intentions and lured him into a trap of his own. Naraku used a similar binding, only without sutra's and one with a nastier twist."
"If you are connected to the object one would just have to destroy the object to kill you…"
"Yes. The old man had recorded his every attempt in destroying the demon. Including this. At first it didn't seem useful, but then Miroku discovered how the connection that bonded the past with your future world, with you, was the key to this all. If you and Inuyasha willingly bind yourself to the well at the same time then the well will reopen due to the connection. It is a one-way trip though. Once either one of you is on the other side, the well will close."
"Will it work?"
"Theoretically? Yes. It is not something we had the possibility to test. Miroku altered the incantation somewhat to be used for this purpose. But if you do so, both of you need to take extra care of that well, for if anything happens to it- " he broke of the sentence leaving her to fill in the gap herself.
She did, silently, in her head. If the well were to be destroyed, so would she and Inuyasha die.
"What will happen if I or Inuyasha die? Will the other person die too?"
"No. But the well will probably stop working. Any demon that has been sealed in there will probably be restored to its originally state. I don't know if that means that they will still be dead, because their life span ended, or if they are reset to the moment in time when they were sealed."
"Oh. That could be an issue."
He shrugged. Something that can be dealt with when one is prepared for something like that.
"What if the object gets damaged?"
"I don't know. When it comes to demons, these kind of bindings have a death in purpose. I don't recall any priest or monk using them for just a little damage."
Kagome nodded. Point taken.
"That you are still sitting here and have not taken them out to the well yet, means you are sensible enough to access the danger you will place yourself in. Or is there something else holding you back?"
"How will it work? We need to touch the well at the same time, use the sutra's at the same time?"
"When Miroku came upon this plan, it of course crossed our minds as well. How to communicate with the future? Also, Inuyasha didn't want you to know if you were happy here. So, he made a decision. If ten years after your separation, you were unhappy and held the desire to return, he wanted me to hand you the sutra's."
"Why the book?"
"I wanted you to know about your ancestors. If you make the decision to return to the past you will change the future. I cannot foresee what will happen. This will either be the first start of a new loop, or we are already in one and you never went back."
"Or they didn't work…"
"Yes… or that… In the tenth year he placed the sutra's on the well and waited. But time traveling is complicated. I tried to do some research on it, but it is all speculation. Some say the world is in a continues loop. Other say with every choice a new world is created parallel to this one. That could mean that in the latter version there could be a world where Naraku defeated us. That is a most disturbing thought. So, I believe in the first. And that every now and then we get the possibility to create a new loop and end the previous one."
She didn't hear much about Shippou's thoughts on time travel and she realized she was just nodding without even understanding. Her mind still stuck on that moment where he had revealed that Inuyasha had been waiting in vain for her return even though he had placed the sutra's on the well.
"Kagome," His hand touched hers, pulling her out of her thoughts again. "The day after tomorrow Inuyasha will be at the well again. I have been keeping track of the days ever since. But before you make a decision, I want you to think it through. Don't regret your choice."
"I won't."
There was a little smile on his face and his hand squeezed softly in hers when she wanted to pull them back. "Kagome, do you love him?"
"Of course I love Inuyasha!" But as she almost shouted out the proclamation, she suddenly realized he was referring to someone else.
A/N: I really had to push myself to write this chapter for I'm kind of feeling under the weather. :( My apologies for any grammar flaws and such, I will do a grammar check on a later day.
The update schedule for this fic and my other fics can be found on my Work in Progress page on tumblr. Only, you cannot visit the Work in Progress page on my blog with the tumblr app, for the app doesn't give you the possibility to visit blog pages. You will have to use a browser, instead. I made a Work In Progress information post as well to resolve the tumblr app issue and with the app you could access that one. However, during my Japan visit it got flagged somehow and removed/disabled. I have contacted tumblr support about that, but, until it is resolved, you can only access the page version with either a computer or mobile browser.
4 more chapters to go! ^^