Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters in this fan fiction are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. The original characters and plot are the property of Chiaztolite, who is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Summary of Previous Chapter:
Sesshōmaru took Kagome's body to his mother to see if her Meidō stone could revive her. It could not. He asked his mother to summon the path to the netherworld so he could fetch her himself.
The Way to Elysium
Chapter 4: Passage
The steady drip of water on her forehead brought Kagome to consciousness. Her lashes fluttered and, slowly, she opened her eyes. It was difficult to focus; her vision was dark and blurry and mostly consisted of swirls of shadows.
She groaned softly. The ground was hard and cold beneath her back. Her head was pounding. Wiping her wet forehead with the back of her hand, she tried to remember what had happened and how she got to the dark place where she was now. Memories came rushing back, and she jolted to sitting position. That's right, she thought. She had battled the yōkai that attacked her village and died from the wound he inflicted on her chest. Her hand frantically rubbed her torso, searching for the large gash that should have been there, but there was nothing but unblemished skin and flesh.
No pain either, except the headache.
It was dark around her, but her eyes soon were accustomed to the darkness, allowing her to see some shapes, some shadows. With her palm she felt the ground underneath her again, the textures were rough and rocky.
Could she be inside a cave?
A movement somewhere to her right jarred her. She saw a young woman in crimson kimono hopped gracefully off a large rock not far from her.
"You're finally awake," she said as she approached.
"Where am I?" Kagome asked, looking up at the woman standing before her. "And… who are you?"
The woman flicked her waist-length black hair behind her shoulder. A flash of silver glinted from the decorated hair-comb she wore on the left side of her head. She stood close enough that Kagome was able to see the higanbana — red spider lily — ornaments dangling from her hair-comb.
"Well, you're not really anywhere yet," she said, waving her hand in a dismissive gesture. "But I will take you to the place where you should be." The woman placed a palm on her chest. "My name is Yami, one of the Death God's Advocates, your guide for today."
"The Death God's Advocate?" Kagome repeated, brows knitted in a frown. "And… my guide, just for today?"
"Yes." Yami replied, though she did not elaborate, even though Kagome was certain her face reflected the confusion she felt inside. Instead, the woman looked at her questioningly. Her black eyes had a strange red glow to them. "Can you stand? I have other souls I need to guide. I can't spend too much time on just you."
Kagome, still confused and feeling somewhat like she was in a hazy dream, shifted and propped herself onto one knee. The rough and rocky ground grazed her kneecap and she winced, but the sting did well to clear some of the cloudiness in her head. Quick to recover, she rose to her feet, thankful that the pounding ache in her head had receded to a steady, distant pulsing.
She followed Yami down a winding path amidst the rocks. She found she was right: they were in a vast, cavernous cave of some sort, filled with sand-coloured jagged rock formations of all shapes and sizes. Many of them towered above her, stretching towards the pitch-black ceiling that was so high she could not even see it. Sniffing the air, she could capture the smell of damp earth, of moss, and the faint salty scent of the ocean.
Yami, setting a fast pace, guided her along the narrow path expertly, finding crevices just wide enough for them to pass through those rocks. Sharp edges brushed her arms, grazing her soft skin and cutting into her tender flesh. Kagome sighed with relief when they finally reached an open area. When Yami stopped, Kagome looked over her shoulder and gasped.
The cavernous cave opened up into an even more gigantic space. Its ceiling — still black, littered with rock formations hanging upside down, was at least as tall as the tallest skyscraper in Tokyo. The rocks on the ground gradually lessened, until only a stretch of soft golden sands remained.
And beyond the sands: a winding river, and a cloaked figure waiting by a ferry on the riverbank.
Sesshōmaru was surrounded by darkness, but he did not expect anything different. Even with his keen vision he could not see anything in front of him other than… more darkness. Yet, he kept on walking, confident that sooner or later, he would find something that gave him clues to the whereabouts of his brother's human.
Occasionally he lifted his head to check the air, but he could not detect any scent that reminded him of the miko. He took one more sniff and sucked in a sharp breath.
He smelled water. And salt.
Quickening his stride, he suddenly found himself out of the darkness and into the light. There was vast ocean in front of him. The sun was a murky colour, the water was bluish-grey, a shadow of the vibrant colours they were supposed to be in the realm of the living. It was a welcome change to the previous scenery nevertheless. The last time he had forayed into the realm of the dead, he had been treated to an unending vista of pitch-black darkness and a mountain of corpses.
He strolled along the shore. His mokomoko swayed lightly behind him with every step, his boots crushing the soft sands beneath him. The gentle waves lapped at his shadow. As he gazed at the never-ending ocean, he slowed his pace until he came to a full stop. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. The sight and smell of the sea brought him some unexpected peace and, with it, some unbidden memories of his childhood.
The pair of golden eyes slowly re-emerged, chasing the specters away. He continued walking.
After some time, he came across a small boat, complete with a pair of oars inside it. He stopped just a foot away from the boat, his eyes narrowed. How convenient. Was it merely a coincidence or had someone placed them there for him to find?
Looking up, he fixed his eyes at the sight in front of him, visually tracing the outline of the shores. Even with his superior yōkai vision, he could see nothing other than long stretch of the beach as far as his eyes could see, and to his left, the vast ocean disappearing into the horizon. To the right was the darkness from where he came.
When the wind blew, he scented the air again, catching hints of mud and earth from the direction across the ocean. If he followed it, he might find the mouth of a river, and by extension, dry land.
It seemed he had no other choice than to utilize the boat and oars, which made their appearance even more suspicious, not that it concerned him one bit. Even if it were a trap, he would deal with it when it made itself known to him. Plenty of foes had tried to set traps for him in the past. No one had bested him yet using such lowly tricks.
He boarded the boat and began to row.
As they neared the river, Kagome could see there was only one ferry, and one ferryman. One crossing to go to the other side of the wide river. And across on the other side, a massive stone wall followed the curvature of the river. This wall too, had only one gate. One that she could see anyway.
Wordlessly, Yami led her to the ferry. "Here's another one for you, Charon," she said to the ferryman, pulling Kagome by the wrist and positioning her just in front of the cloaked figure.
"New arrival from the mortal realm." She turned to Kagome and said: "Charon is going to take care of you now. Pay him and he'll ferry you across the river, okay?" She pushed Kagome's shoulder gently towards the boat and waved. "Bye now, and good luck."
"Yami," Charon said, calling out after the crimson-clothed Advocate who was already on her way to leave the riverbank. "I cannot grant this woman a passage."
This caused Yami to stop in her track. Turning around, those eyes with their crimson glow narrowed. She asked: "Why not?"
"She has not yet been buried," he said, pointing one long, slender finger at Kagome. "The unburied cannot cross the river."
This alarmed Kagome. How long had it been since she died? Had Inuyasha, or any of her old comrades, not taken the time to give her a proper burial?
Yami turned to glare at her. "Don't you have any loved ones to bury you in the mortal realm?" She questioned; one hand propped on her waist.
"I do," Kagome said. "Or… I think I do. Though I don't know why they decided not to bury me." She thought for a moment. "Well, technically, I wouldn't be buried," she pointed out. "I would be cremated. Is that okay?"
Charon shrugged. "It does not matter, since in your case, your ashes would be buried in a grave after the cremation. Nevertheless, right now, nothing has been done to your body yet."
'As strange as it is, there must be a reason,' Kagome thought. She would not believe Inuyasha and her old comrades would abandon her corpse without proper funeral rites.
"Well, what's she supposed to do then?" Yami asked, clearly annoyed. "How is she supposed to reach the Pavilion of Judgement if you refused to ferry her across the Styx to the other side?"
Charon shrugged again. "She has to wait for one hundred years, just like any of the unburied souls here. After she has remained here for a century, I will ferry her across the river."
Kagome gasped in dismay. One hundred years?!
"Don't joke around," she protested. "I have to wait here for a hundred years before I can move on? What am I going to do here for that long?"
"Can't you make an exception, Old Man?" Yami asked.
"The body to which her soul is attached needs to be covered with earth," Charon insisted. "Or, in her case, fire, and buried. Until then, she will join the other shades along the riverbank. For one hundred years, or until her remains receive a proper burial, whichever comes first."
Kagome looked around. Just as Charon had stated, she saw moving shadows lurking in the darkness, wandering aimlessly along the river. They looked like translucent shadows, faceless and shapeless, barely humanoid.
Yeah, who would want to be turned into one of those?
She had worked hard during life, had she not? If she had died — and she had come to accept that fate — she deserved to rest now, not a century later. She absolutely refused to wander along the river Styx as a wraith, waiting around for her hundred-year intermission to be over.
"Can I walk to the pavilion?" She asked Yami.
Yami bit her lower lip, hesitating. "I don't know anyone who's ever made it there on foot, but…"
"Which way is it?"
Yami pointed towards her left. "Well, you have to follow the river Styx and hope there's some sort of bridge or something else that would help you cross over. If you've reached the ocean, you've gone too far. Even if you somehow manage to cross, you'll have to walk all the way back here and go through that gate."
Kagome stared at the direction where Yami had pointed, her heart sinking when she saw the winding river that seemed to stretch all the way to the horizon. No bridge in sight. The massive stone wall across the bank looked ominous at best, and the equally massive black iron gates which made her wonder: 'Are they trying to keep something from coming in or coming out?'
She sighed inwardly. She felt exhausted even before she began. The headache, too, returned in twofold. 'Come on, Kagome,' she encouraged herself. 'You can sleep when you're dead'.
Well, that was the funny thing: she was already dead. But it seemed her journey was not yet over. She took a deep breath and straightened her spine. Yami stared at her, eyes widening in surprise.
"You're really going?"
Kagome thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "I'm not waiting for a hundred years, so… yeah."
She took another deep breath and started walking along the riverbank.
Author's Note:
I mentioned Sesshōmaru's childhood in this chapter. Just very very briefly, but there will be much more later. Not much is known about it, if at all, but I think it will be wonderful to think about what it was like and weave it into the story.
In this chapter, Kagome and Sesshōmaru entered the Underworld from two different entrance points. Sesshōmaru entered from Oceanus, which is the same entrance Odysseus used when he visited the Underworld. Kagome entered from what I imagine is the "normal" entrance, though the inspirations and the images I had in my head while I was writing it were based on Son Doong cave in Vietnam, which is considered one of, if not the largest cave in the world.
I took the idea of the Death God's Advocates from my other Inuyasha fanfic: "Rulers of Four Directions". They are the Death God's underlings, basically in charge of carrying out his decrees and ensuring his policies are being followed, whatever they might be.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. As usual, reviews are not only greatly appreciated, but also so very helpful while shaping up the next chapters.
Ta for now!
Response to review:
Estefania: Gracias por tu reseña. Mi español no es muy bueno, pero haré todo lo posible para responder. Estoy emocionado de llegar a la parte donde Kagome se dará cuenta de que debería estar con Sesshōmaru, espero que tú también. Más adelante aprenderemos por qué la piedra Meidō no pudo devolverla a la vida. Muchas gracias por leer. Espero que hayas disfrutado de este capítulo.