Disclaimer I do not own Inuyasha, nor Iron Man or the Avengers

A/N: To understand Kagome's outfit just check out the new profile pic for this story! Dandy Gunslinger Man is a made up movie I thought up, although if there was a movie like that I'd definitely watch it.

Memory III: The Places We've Been And Have Yet to Go

Every place has a story—or a thousand stories. Findery brings places to life, be they where you stand or where you hope to go

- Caterina Fake

Going from New York to the coordinate JARVIS had provided might have seen simple to any onlookers, but it wasn't.

Portaling to Tony's location wasn't like her trips back and forth through the Bone Eater's Well rather it was like walking down a dark hallway with networks of lines criss-crossing here and there. There was beauty in this dark pathway. Each line was a different color, none truly the same perhaps to humans they would be classed as the same color; and yet ultimately varying in degrees of shade and intensity. Some networks were thick cords—places she'd been—others thinner, some barely even there—places she'd yet to go. A few of the path lines she recognized as places she'd been before on trips with Tony and Pepper to various states and countries; while one that shined brightly, the thickest to her eyes was a cheery golden line she knew to be the way to her shrine in Tokyo, Japan. Another one crossing over it she instinctively knew to be Eri-chan's house.

Snorting when she even saw the turquoise line leading towards her old middle school and high school.

If one was not careful, or knew not where they were going they could easily become lost.

'Not that many beings have traversed these pathways in recent years.'

Spiritual awareness had become dulled for many as more modern advances were made and the things that people could never truly grasp in plain black and white were portrayed as myth and fantasy. A mindset she probably would have kept had she not fallen down the well when she was a teenager.

Her hand absently rubbing over her wrist where the mark of the Kongō was etched into her skin. Her body glowed from the power of the staff that was now sealed inside of her, its power lighting the way in the darkness as well as providing wisdom and insight on where to go.

Reaching out her fingers, she ran them lightly over a place she knew well. An image appeared of the destination and her heart clenched remembering the first and last time she'd been there. A place she hadn't been to in almost seven years during her summer vacation before college. One of her last living connections to the feudal sans the well.

'Horai Island.'

The island that had originally been a sanctuary for youkai and demons who pursued what had been considered forbidden relations back then. She could vividly recall facing off against the self-acclaimed 'four war gods' with her trusty bow in hand and Inuyasha by her side. It had been a spur of the moment thing back then.

Everyone was making plans for big trips for the summer after graduation—Of course ever fixated on keeping alive the memories of her friends in the past, she'd chosen to use those two months before college to explore areas that would not have changed much over five hundred year, few as they were. It hadn't really occurred to her that Horai Island might still exist until she'd gone to a seafaring town near Nagasaki and helped a poor, elderly man who had no wife nor children to care for him in his old age. Townsfolk often gave when they could, but it was easy to see this town was one of the poorer seatowns. He had a boat, so naturally she had gone out to sea to fish for the old man, planning to sell what she caught for him. It had been a while since she last fished, but caught on soon enough remembering tips Sango had given her when they went fishing together with Shippo. Successfully selling the fish for him, she brought back groceries and older eastern medicines to help him and cooked dinner for him. As repayment he told her a magical story, of an island he saw through the mists as a teenager while fishing.

As he told the legend about the mysterious island that was said to appear every fifty years. It was said the island originally had been bigger, but a fearsome demon had leveled the island in his rage most of it collapsing into the ocean. However, a small piece of the island remained. The story had her eyes widening and truly she was grateful for the kami leading her to the town.

She remembered Inuyasha damaging the island in his fight with the four war gods and Lord Sesshoumaru's attack after finishing off the island. She'd always believed that the whole island had been destroyed. To learn a piece remained five hundred years later brought a little happiness to her, more so when the elderly man mentioned it would be fifty years exactly in just a day. Many of the townspeople were superstitious and stayed inside as the thick mists rolled through the town, but not she.

She needed to see it with her own eyes, just to know that it all hadn't been fake that it had truly been real. The water had been choppier than it had been the previous day when she had gone fishing, she started out around mid-day with the fog rolling around her. She thought it might have been a fruitless journey after what seemed like hours of rowing blind, when the boat came into contact with land.

The elderly man had been correct.

The island had indeed diminished in size barely a thirty-foot strip of land was left. She could scarcely believe it was Horai island, except she felt the underlying magic the island still held. The barrier was not strong, since the Cauldron of Resonance no longer existed nor Lady Kanades leftover powers, but land itself must have absorbed power from the many decades both of them had been there so a weak barrier still existed. It was then that she noticed the gravestones situated under the only tree left on the island, it was large and ancient. While time had worn away at them, the six gravestones faintly held familiar items in them surrounded by sealed youki. Some of the sealed youki she recognized even after all these years as belonging to five hanyou children they had saved back then, the last grave held a different youki sealed around the item yet distinctly reminiscent to the youngest of the children; more than likely one of their offspring had sealed her item as the rest had undoubtedly passed before her. The sealing of youki around items was something youkai did for their dead, to preserve an item of special importance to the deceased. One item stood out among all of them. It was in front of a grave with a symbol of fish cut into the stone, it was the infamous jewel combed box.

She'd wondered where the box had gone, always assuming it had been destroyed by the Four War gods or with the destruction of the island. This grave had undoubtedly belonged to Ai, the hanyo koi demoness. They must have returned to the place where their parents died to be laid to rest with them. And Ai had somehow found the box and kept it, why一she would never know but seeing it and the island made her feel marginally better if not a little melancholy for the deaths of the sweet children that she and the gang had saved only a few months ago...or at least it had been a few months for her. She spent the night there cleaning the gravestones and pulling weeds. She left the following morning after mustering enough reiki to push into the tree to fuel into the barrier around the remnants of the island once more.

A bittersweet smile became affixed on her face when she remembered that night well.

'Perhaps I shall visit there, when things are less hectic.' Now that she had this new power at her disposal she knew she would definitely go instead of waiting till she was an old lady to see the island once more. She would build the place back up, possibly make a little private getaway for herself there to reminisce her past travels.

Realizing she was doddling about, she withdrew her touch and continued towards her destination. A dot appearing on a line up ahead, that dot she again knew instinctively to be Tony's location. It was surprising to see it was aboard a strange looking vessel in the sky, an image of a corridor leading into a room where Tony sat with others obscured from her view had her moving forward to the portal with a cheeky grin on her face.

'I can't wait to see the look on his face.'

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