Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.
Nope still don't.
Here is a (slightly) longer chapter for everyone! Enjoy!
Alright! On with the story!
Chapter 53: Paths
The last thing I remember was thinking how wonderful it felt to be powerful, then everything faded to darkness and I was floating in nothingness. I couldn't feel anything, nor could I see anything. I couldn't move or even open up my eyes to see if there was anything in the unending darkness. Hell I didn't even know where I was, but I lacked the strength to find out anything. I simply wanted to rest in peace here where nothing could get me or hurt me. Here I was safe.
"Wake UP!" yelled a voice. It was a female's voice. That's weird. Why was there someone else here anyways?
"Damn it Wake UP KAGOME!" she yelled at me again much closer this time. I don't know who she is, but she's annoying.
"Shut up I'm trying to sleep!" I yelled at the intruder and noticed that I was surrounded by darkness and that was the only thing around me at all. That is, except for the demon standing in front of me looking extremely annoyed and pissed at the same time.
She was wearing a long sleeved shirt with billowing sleeves that was cut off at her midsection. It was a dark blue-green V-neck shirt that went with her low hanging black pants and bright blue sash around her hips. Her hair was down and flowed like a glistening blue and black river down her back. The color of her eyes was the most beautiful color of aqua I had ever seen. It almost seemed to glow and sparkle from the flecks of bright green decorating each iris. I could see a black marking that was two twisting lines, which ran from her right hip to the back of her left hand, while wrapping around her back and left arm. Or at least I assumed so, since I couldn't see her back.
"Get off of your ass and get a move on!" she shouted at me and grabbed my arm with a clawed hand.
"Where are we?" I asked her as she started pulling with her as we ran. To where I had no idea, hence the question.
"Geez! How in the hell can you not tell that this is your mind?!" she asked me in exasperation.
"Sorry, but I didn't think that my mind was such a dark place!" I shouted at her. How was I supposed to know where I was?
"That is because you are possessed at the moment and quite frankly you practically were asking for by letting out all of that power. What the hell were you trying to do? Call every damn bastard and evil demon in a five mile radius?!" she screamed at me and continued to pull me along behind her.
"Wait where are you taking me anyways? And how do I know you're not the one who is possessing me?!" I shouted at her as her clawed hand tightened around my wrist.
"Really! We need to get a safer place or that thing that is chasing us is going to devour your soul and me along with you!" she shouted and sped up so that we were running faster and faster.
"You still didn't answer my question!" I said while wrenching my hand from her grasp and stopped behind her.
"Damn it! This is why I hate brats that don't know anything!" She said and spun on her heal then ran straight for me. I flinched as she bared her claws for an attack, but it never hit me. Though it did hit something behind me. I looked behind me and, for the first time since entering my mind, I saw what she was talking about. Behind me and all around me was not just darkness like I had thought there to be, but large black webs and dark purple smoke. Though I knew it wasn't coming from the demon in front of me because her power was far different than the darkness and evil I was sensing. I could sense good intentions and a massive amount of power from her. "That is why I said we need to keep moving! Now get your ass in gear! We have somewhere to be and we don't have very long to get there!" she shouted as she grabbed my wrist again and pulled me along.
"Alright I'll run, but where are we going?!" I asked her as we sped up to keep away from whatever was chasing us and stay alive.
"You see that small green light up ahead?" she said to me as we ran and ran forward. Never stopping or faltering.
"Yeah, why?" I asked the obvious question.
"Because that is where you'll be safe" she said as we ran closer and closer to the green light that was ahead. As we neared the light I noticed that it wasn't just a light, but an open door within a thick door frame made of dark wood. "As soon as you get close enough you have to go through that door. If you don't you will be consumed by the dark webs surrounding and chasing us." She told me and we increased our speed once more. If this wasn't my mind then I never would have imagined that I could move this fast. At least on my own.
We had ran faster and faster to our destination until we were sprinting and I could clearly see what lied beyond the door. It was a lush green garden with many types of flowers and glistening water running through it. It was absolutely beautiful.
I felt a jolt on my wrist as I was flung forward and landed on the other side of the door frame and in the garden. It happened so fast that I hadn't realized the demon had flung me out of the darkness and into the light until I looked back only to see black, thorny vines covering up the doorway and the mysterious demon on the other side. The last thing I saw of her were her bright beautiful eyes before the doorway was completely blocked off.
"Wait! Why aren't you here?!" I screamed at the thorny door that stood between me and the darkness I had just come from.
"You shouldn't yell, you'll have a headache when you wake up if you do" a soft and wise sounding voice said to me from behind me in the garden.
I spun around and saw a tall, thin demon tending to flowers in the garden, "This is your garden child. It is nice to formally meet you, Kagome-sama" she said to me as she turned around and flashed a small genuine smile.
I knew this woman. I knew her long, straight black hair, her gentle face and wise silver eyes. She was the same woman from my dreams and the one I was drawing this afternoon. How did she know my name both now and in my dreams? How is she here when she is dead?
"Yes I am dead, though I tied myself to this world so as to help you when the time was right. I am here to train you until I am no longer needed in your training" she informed me as she bent down to pick a small pink flower from amongst the tall green grass.
"How did you know what I was thinking? Are you a…"
"Mind reader? Yes, in some way." She said and looked at me with her striking eyes and came towards me. "Take my hand. There is much you need to know in a short amount of time. The longer you are not in control of your mind or body the harder it will be to regain control of both" she informed me as she offered a pale clawed hand for me to grab.
I grabbed her offered hand and followed her as she led me through the garden.
"This is your garden, it is not just any place anyone can enter." She stated to me. Really having someone read your mind is creepy and annoying…oops.
"Sooo, how come you are here?" I asked her hoping she didn't catch my mental slip up.
"Nice save" she said to me and I could hear the smile in her voice as she spoke to me. "Though I can only enter your mind because of my powers when I was alive and the fact that I am now dead" she said to me and we continued on to a more dense part of the garden. In fact it was turning more into a forest than a garden.
"Where are we going?" I asked for, what the tenth time now? I don't know I lost track.
She chuckled at me and then decided to answer my question. "We are going to where your destiny will start. The next choice you make will influence your entire future and the future of others" she told me.
"Great, no pressure" I said under my breath. "So what are these choices?" I asked her as we headed into a much more dense part of the forest where there were only trees and wild flowers growing.
"They are more paths that you must decide on. Each will lead to a different outcome for the future and alter the present you are in" she told me while continuing forward and pulling me along.
"Sooo there is no right answer is what you are saying?" I questioned her already knowing the answer. After all nothing in life could ever be easy.
"Correct. We are here" she said and I looked past her to see three paths stretched out in front of me. One was lined with trees and hanging vines with red flowers rowing from them. The second was bright and small white flowers covered the ground and the small shrubs that lined the path. While the third path was covered by dark and dense foliage that allowed no light to come through and no one to see past the very beginning of the entrance.
"Each path represents a choice to make. The first path it the path of the warrior and power. If you choose that path your demon will be unlocked and the seals will be broken. The second path is the path of the healer and purity. If that path is your choice you can go home and be a human while never worrying about becoming a demon. Also if you choose that path your seals will never break and your youkai will be forever sealed. The third path is unknown. It represents an ever changing future and a fight for your life as well as the ones around you. It is meant as a path of learning, but it will also be the hardest path to travel; as well as the most painful." She finished explaining to me as she stood and waited for me to choose my destiny.
Honestly, this was scaring the crap out of me and I really just wanted to stay in the beautiful garden that my mind had created. I knew though that if I stayed here I would never get back to Inuyasha or my family on the other side of the well. I had to make a choice and it had to be now.
"You said that you had a lot to explain to me and that you would train me, if I choose the wrong path how will you be able to do that?" I asked the demon that was behind me, except that she wasn't there. I was alone with the three paths and the rest of the forest.
I looked to each path and considered what she had told me. Then I remembered something my mom used to tell me when I needed to make a decision, 'If you don't know what to choose, then choose the most mysterious option because if you do you won't ever have to ask the question 'what if I chose that then?'' It made sense to choose the dark and untraveled path. To choose the road least traveled. Nothing ventured nothing gained. The right path is never the easiest.
In reality I knew what path I would choose as soon as she finished explaining them to me. I would always choose the unknown to the safe route or the strong route. After all if I didn't choose the dark path then I would always question myself, 'What if I had chosen that path?'
I stepped towards the path of the unknown and the other two paths disappeared as soon as I took my first step into the dense foliage. This was the path I chose and there was no going back.
A/N: With this chapter the entire story (on Word) is ~70,000 words long and 152 pages!
Thank you to Shawns1girl for posting the 60th review!
Thank you for reading and I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far!
