CHAPTER THREE

Mystery of a Severed Thread

It must have been the earliest hours of the morning when she woke to the sound of birdsong, dearly wishing they would all drop dead. At least in Tokyo one could get used to the noise pollution. The blaring sounds of traffic and horns barely even registered to Rinna. But this unfamiliar, cheerful sound of nature was simply intolerable. With that, combined with the pounding of her headache which pierced at the inside of her skull like a jackhammer, she felt like she'd just had a botched lobotomy. It was worse than the time she and Kagome snuck into Jii-chan's 'special' medicine cabinet. Barring mass, avian slaughter, she wished that someone would at least remove her head and slam dunk it into a volcano, or better yet, punt it into a black hole, banishing the issue from reality at its source.

But then, at the slight scuffling sound in the hut, she wondered if the birds were really what had woken her to begin with...

She felt the familiar pressure of Kagome's hand wrapped around her fingers, the brush of her breath against her shoulder. There was the breath of another too, slower and heavier than Kagome's, on the other side of the room—she'd guess that was the old priestess. But then there were a pair of footsteps, stalking so soft across the creaky wood planks she thought she might have imagined it were it not for the feeling of someone's eyes on her. She and Kagome had always been sensitive to such things, knowing when people were watching them, or standing behind them, or even a door. She thought Kagome might have even been bullied for it in elementary school, as silly as it was... Feeling the presence of others, and especially each other, was just something the two of them had always been able to do.

But something about this presence, though it was neither good nor bad, just felt...more. It was 'heavier,' and somehow familiar in the strangest of ways. And as it stilled, she got the sense of a burning curiosity too, insistent, unignorable, marching along her skin like a trail of ants.

She did not move as they drew near, bringing the smell of damp, pine, and river water with them. It spoke volumes about her experience that she did not even need to open her eyes to know who it was knelt by her bedside, reaching toward her. At any other time, she might have been up in an instant, sounding the alarm. But as it was, she was so exhausted and riddled with aches and pains from head to toe that she did not think she could so much as twitch one finger without wanting to black out again. She could only wince as the hand grew closer and...softly raised her bangs away from her face?

Slowly, she opened her eyes to meet vibrant gold, narrowed in fascination.

"...Really do look just like her..." she thought she heard him muttering, agitated, and unsettled beneath his breath.

With a slow blink, she whispered, "...Are you going to rip me open, now?"

For a moment, he looked startled, before scowling and letting out a soft 'feh!' turning to sit with his back to her, arms crossed in his voluminous red sleeves.

"Too much trouble. Just hand over the jewel."

She let out a soft, hoarse sound of amusement, despite herself.

"Sure... Just hang on a sec while I gouge into my own flesh with my bare hands and dig around for it," she said, voice hoarse and dry as a desert. "Shouldn't take too long. Then again, maybe the gods weren't so merciful and decided to put the jewel somewhere even more inconvenient, like right up my—" she broke off with a snort at the scandalized look he sent her over his shoulder, but she was still salty with him, and felt belligerent enough to keep right on talking. "In that case, you'll just have to wait around long enough for me to eat something, then go digging through my—"

He slapped his hand over her mouth, giving her a look similar to the one Kaede had given her the other night—like she'd sprouted antlers or something. To be fair though, Rinna had lost all desire to conform to anyone's expectations around the same time a centipede demon got them stranded in this world where nothing made sense. And now feeling thoroughly as if she'd been run over by an 18-wheeler, she felt that her verbal filter could go take a long walk off a short pier for all she cared. Her give-a-shit-o-meter had well and truly reached 0. She thought perhaps she might have hit her head a little harder than she thought last night too, so that might have also contributed to it.

She simply gave him a flat stare, raising a single brow until he removed the clawed appendage. "There's no way you're Kikyo. I don't care how much you look like her—there's just no way."

"You won't hear me arguing with that..." she said through a wide yawn. "But if you're not going to rip me open and screw around with my insides, will you please go away? I had a very long, horrible night, and I'm tired. Which is good news for you, because if you woke me up this early when I had the energy...you'd be in for a nasty fight." She turned her eyes to the silvery locks pooled on the floor behind him, fixated. "Hair pulling might be involved. I think you owe me back for the ones you ripped out of my head last night..."

"Ya think so, huh?" he growled at her, wisely moving his shaggy mane safely out of her reach.

"Mm-hm." Her gaze remained undeterred, trained on the river of silver as it shifted and fell softly on the other side of him. It almost seemed luminous in the dim early morning—still dark enough that it could barely be called morning. In the fog of her head injuries, she was almost glad he'd come, simply so she could stare at it. Clarity fading, she barely had capacity to focus on anything else.

Feeling her eyes drifting shut, she breathed out, "What's your name?"

He let out a haughty sniff, muttering something like, "Inuyasha."

"Nu...yasha..." She let out a sigh, completely spent. "G'night, Nyunyasha..."

She thought she might've heard him huff, amused, and say, "It's morning, you idiot," but she had already drifted off to sleep again so she might've dreamed that part. Or perhaps she'd dreamed the whole thing. She was so out of it she would never be able to say for sure when she looked back on it.

"There, now," Kaede said, and Rinna let down her hair over the knot the old woman had tied behind her neck for the sling. "How does that feel?"

"Much better." She gave her a grateful nod and tried to muster a smile. "Thank you, Priestess."

She felt like she was wrapped up like a mummy, but really, it was just her ribs, her hands, and her ankle. Then the sling of course. Miraculously, she had not broken any bones. (Kagome—who had only needed a few stitches from their little adventure—even had the audacity to laugh at her shellshocked expression upon learning this). But she had got some nasty sprains, she didn't know what the heck was wrong with her arm, really, and her ribs were most definitely bruised.

"Sometimes the bruising can be nastier than a break," Kaede informed them with a grim face. "I suspect this will be a rough recovery..."

"Keh! You humans are so fragile."

Kagome rounded on the boy stretched out indolently behind them and snarled, "Why are you even still here?!" She rounded on Rinna next, who had covered her mouth to try and muffle an impulsive bout of snickering. "And you! What's so funny? Don't you know this is the guy who not only tried to kill me, but then proceeded to hold you hostage and kidnap you last night?!"

"Last night is really just a huge unpleasant blur, Onee-chan..." she pointed out sheepishly. "Really, a kidnapping attempt is just the icing on the cake..." She shrugged. "But anyway, he doesn't seem too interested in killing or kidnapping anyone right now, so..." She frowned as she eyed the strange boy with curiosity. "Why did you try to kidnap me, by the way?"

He let out a rough snort and looked away with a dismissive roll of his startling yellow-gold eyes.

"Doesn't matter now, does it?"

As she frowned at him, about to contest that it did, in fact, matter very much, Kaede spoke a grave omen, "It is almost certain, as it was with thy twin sister, that ye possess the other half of the sacred jewel within thy body, child."

Rinna slowly shut her eyes with a sigh. "I was afraid you were going to say something like that..."

"Ye be right to fear," the old woman's single eye bore into her with an unwavering focus that made her uneasy. "For while Kagome's half of the jewel represents its Yang aspect, and its purity, I suspect the other half is made up from its evil Yin counterpart..."

Rinna blinked at her several times in alarm.

"So, essentially what you're saying is...I'm a vessel for pure evil." Her gaze drifted up towards the ceiling simply exasperated at this point. "How nice."

The boy in red let out a loud guffaw at her expense while Kagome glared at him, putting an arm around her shoulders with reassuring pats. "Don't be so dramatic! I'm sure it's not as bad as you're making it seem..."

"Indeed. The matter at hand is complicated enough without ye twisting my words," Kaede told her with disapproval in her single eye, her next words piercing with the severity in them. "Speak not of such ominous portents, child, lest the gods see fit to bring them down upon ye."

With a rueful grimace at the old woman's reproach, Rinna nodded. "That's...fair. But..." She shook her head, feeling overcome with helplessness. She needed to know more. Knowledge was power, and she had been all too lacking in that area recently. "How did any of this happen?"

"That's what I'd like to know too—" here, the boy sat up and faced them, crossing his arms in his sleeves and glaring at everyone like all the inconvenience of the situation was their fault "—why is the jewel in two pieces!? Why did it come from inside them?"

Kaede closed her eye with a sigh. "These all be pertinent questions, Inuyasha. It is unfortunate that I can only speculate as to the answers at this time."

"Feh! Then go get that high-and-mighty Kikyo and make her tell us!" he all but demanded, growling lowly, "She would know... And then, once she figures it out, and puts the jewel back together, we'll duke it out properly—no sealing arrows included—just my claws and her neck..."

For a moment, Kaede just stared at him while he muttered murderous things under his breath, then sighed once again, and spoke over him, "My older sister, Kikyo, is dead." Inuyasha's mutterings came to an abrupt, screeching halt, and Rinna could swear she saw a flash of pain in his eyes for the fraction of a second as Kaede continued, "And so thus it has been for the fifty years you have been sealed to the god tree, Inuyasha. The old woman you see before you is little Kaede, whom you once knew."

"Eh? You're that brat? You humans really age like knats..." After a beat of real shock at that, he almost seemed intentionally nonchalant with the way he leaned back on his palms, knee bent and sprawled as if he didn't have a care in the world. Then he said, "Well good. I'm glad. It's a relief not to have that double-crossing woman looming over me..."

Somehow, there was something about his words that rung untrue to Rinna... It reminded her of Souta when Mama took away his favorite violent manga, and he belligerently called it lame anyway, pretending he wasn't desperate to find out the ending. And what was that about double-crossing...?

"I would not dare speak so soon were I you, Inuyasha. Are those keen, half-demon eyes of yours good for nothing? They cannot deny what is right in front of them, can they? Surely thy wits are not so dull as to have not considered as I have?"

In any other situation, Rinna might have been wickedly entertained at how worked up and agitated Inuyasha got with every blunt accusation out of the wily old woman's mouth. But Inuyasha had claws...and a temper that had him sending a fist right through Kaede's wood floor.

"Get to the point, Baa-baa," he sneered, "before the next one goes through your head."

"Ye will bring no harm to me, Inuyasha," the priestess intimated, miraculously undaunted, "nor any other—so long as my sister's rosary rests upon thy neck. One word from these girls, and thy subjugation will be complete." Ignoring his warning growl, she prompted him, "And just why do ye think that is?"

"I'm sure I don't know," Inuyasha said, barring alarmingly sharp teeth at the old woman, speaking in a silky, belligerent tone, "but since you like to talk so much, ya'old hag, I'm just as sure you're going to tell me."

Grave, and somber, unfazed by Inuyasha's threatening jibes, Kaede proclaimed, "It is my belief that these are my sister's reincarnations, Kagome, and Rinna."

"Reincarnations..." Kagome mused, her face uncertain. "As in plural? How exactly does that work...?"

"One soul in two bodies," Rinna softly recited, shying away when all eyes turned to scrutinize her. "It's a saying...about twins. Haven't you ever heard of it? Not that I usually believe in any of these sorts of things..."

"Hmm, so the puzzle pieces begin to fall into place..." Kaede said, closing her eye with a thoughtful nod. "Fifty years ago, my sister mandated that the sacred jewel be burned with her body, so that she may take it with her to the afterlife in the hope that it would harm none again. However, as her soul was split evenly between the two of ye, so too we might venture to imagine that the jewel was thusly split—one half, darkness," she gestured to Rinna, and then to Kagome, "the other, light."

She and Kagome exchanged a significant look. Though it was clear neither one of them wanted to face the possibility of any of this being true...there was a bright pink rock in Kagome's hand shoving it in their faces. And as much as they might've liked to deny it...when Kaede spoke of light and darkness...there was more truth to that in the way they lived their lives than either one of them cared to admit. People had joked about it for ages when speaking of Higurashi One (Kagome) and Higurashi Two (Rinna)—Kagome, trusting, bubbly, and outgoing, and Rinna, the sly, cynical introvert. Even Jii-chan had remarked upon the Zen Buddhism reinforcing duality of their dispositions with glee upon one occasion or another.

Sensing her disquiet, Kagome reached out for Rinna's hands and softly reminded her, "Jii-chan always says there's a little spot of darkness in Yang's light, just like there's a little spot of light in Yin."

Kaede nodded along with that, adding, "There is truth in thy grandfather's wisdom. Take heart, young ones, and do not lose thy faith, for the way ahead is fraught with peril, and you will be in sure need of such things, and more to be sure, in due course."

After a heavy pause, Rinna looked up from her lap where she clung to Kagome's hands with sullen, half-lidded eyes, accentuated by the tired, dark smudges of exhaustion beneath, and asked, "...What happens now?"

"You must protect both halves of the sacred jewel," Kaede impressed upon them, her face grave. "Just as my sister Kikyo did before ye." She sent a sidelong look in Inuyasha's direction. "By any means necessary."

The half-demon let out an aggravated huff, springing to his haunches and all but launching himself out of the cabin. Rinna shook her head, unsure if she'd ever get used to those kinds of exits.

"And, more importantly," Kagome pointed out, her voice bright with eager determination, "find a way back home!"

Rinna gave her a tired smile. "Yeah. That sounds good." Thoughts of home were more akin to thoughts of heaven at the moment, but the longer she thought about it, the more a burgeoning sense of dread stacked up in her as she realized, "Oh no! I stood up Souma-kun!"

"EHH!?" Kagome exclaimed, drawing near to her face in shock. "So you did get a date! I knew it!" Her grin turned thoughtful as she remarked, "Is it that 'Akaito' Souma? Doesn't his family own that super-huge fashion designer business? Red Thread Designs, isn't that right? Luckyyy!"

Rinna covered her face in dismay. "I almost don't want to go back now... How will I ever explain..."

She gestured vaguely to everything.

Kagome held her fist up with that same fiery determination, "We'll figure it out together!"

With that, Rinna could no longer suppress the urge to throw her good arm around Kagome in a tight embrace, willing it to convey all the love and gratitude welling up inside her. In this insane scenario, she would rather be stuck with none other than her zany big sister. And she knew she didn't really need words to let her know that.

"C'mon, let's go 'round and investigate!" she announced not a moment later and started to tug Rinna to her feet, but the movement was too abrupt and sent her bad arm twinging with a pang that made her wince. Kagome froze at the soft whimper that escaped her and softly lowered her back down, her eyes soft with concern. "Rinna-chan...?"

"It may be too early for that yet," Kaede said, helping to settle Rinna back over to her sleeping mat. "Let thy sister mend here a while longer before ye seek out thy homeland, Kagome."

When Kagome hesitated, looking like she might decide to stay with her instead, Rinna waved her off with a shake of her head. No sense in both of them staying put and being miserable. They agreed that Kagome would find out what she could on her own and they would put their heads together later. She wasn't too worried about Kagome going off on her own now that the villagers appeared to revere them. And though that came with its own set of complications—and Rinna was still dubious about the logic behind it, worried about the expectations that came with such lofty respect—at least she was no longer too worried about...other things befalling them.

Of course, there was still the hanyou, Inuyasha, lurking about, but Kaede had already reassured them he would no longer be a problem. She wasn't quite sure how these 'subjugation' beads worked, but apparently, they had saved her from him last night. From the gist she'd learned about them, they operated like a shock collar for dogs... A prospect she wasn't sure how to feel about, really, given that she didn't even approve of the use of those things on animals. The whole idea of it twisted her stomach into knots, especially since, ignoring the claws, fangs, unusual auditory appendages, and insane strength, he almost seemed...human. Earlier, when Kaede broke the news about Kikyo, Rinna could have sworn he looked...hurt.

"Kaede-sama..." she found herself asking the old woman as she helped her mix herbs into medicinal paste, "What is...a hanyou, exactly?"

"The unholy offspring of a demon and a human," she answered, blunt and to the point. "They are neither accepted by humans nor demons, doomed as outcasts all their long lives—though most of them are cut short in childhood. Even before he was sealed to the god tree by my sister for fifty years, Inuyasha was unusual that he had survived to adolescence..." Turning to scrutinize her stunned expression, her single, knowing eye piercing right through her, she asked, "Do ye pity him, child? One who would call you friend one day, then take thy life in a heartbeat when it suited his purposes?"

Rinna felt her lips part as she struggled for some form of response. Frowning in thought as she contemplated her own experiences, she murmured, "...Inuyasha doesn't strike me as a schemer. I don't want to say he's...unintelligent, or incapable of hurting someone—that's obviously not the case—but he definitely seems like more of a by-the-seat-of-his-pants type. I've known schemers and liars." All too well, unfortunately. "I'm usually pretty good at sussing them out, but...you're acquainted with him best, Kaede-sama. Is a guy like that really capable of plotting cold-blooded murder?"

Kaede's intimidating stare bore into her a little longer before she finally looked away with a heavy sigh.

"There was a time when I would have answered ye nay, child, when I would have objected to the very idea of Inuyasha harming any who reside in this village." She closed her wizened eye with an old sorrow appearing to weigh down her bones. "But then the day came that Inuyasha's desire for the sacred jewel overthrew any love he felt for my sister, and in his attempt to steal it, he inflicted the wound that would end her life."

The pain in his eyes from earlier was beginning to add up. However...

"If Inuyasha loved Kikyo..." Rinna shook her head slowly, unable to make sense of it.

"It is a question I have pondered often over the years myself, child..." Kaede answered thoughtfully, adding, "Perhaps there are still pieces to this puzzle that are yet to reveal themselves. But with the release of Inuyasha and the appearance of ye and thy sister..." She sighed once more, "Mayhap the answers will finally be recovered, and this old woman can rest easy when her time comes..."

Rinna never signed up to solve this mystery, but the way Kaede sagged under the sheer tragedy of the issue tugged at her sympathies—even if Inuyasha's circumstances as a hanyou hadn't done that already. Rinna knew what it was like to be left alone and bullied, but to have no acceptance from anyone, ever in his life, for something that was never even his choice? The loneliness of such an existence...was something that hurt her heart just to think about.

Like Kagome said, pragmatically, Rinna knew their primary objective should be to simply survive this mess and find a way back home. Screw this sacred jewel business; it wasn't their problem. But knowing that they were born with it inside their bodies, to have been dragged back god-knows-how-many centuries into the past...as cynical as Rinna could be, despite not granting any sort of credence to things like fate or destiny, she couldn't fool herself into believing any of this was a coincidence either. The signs were loud and clear if only she forced herself to read them.

Maybe there was no such thing as fate. Rinna still believed that.

But none of this was random chance.

Something in that well had brought them here for a reason.

"The well!" Kagome exclaimed in an excitable whisper as they discussed each other's thoughts, faces inches from each other as they face each other on their sleeping mat. "Of course! Mama always says if you can find your way in, you can find your way out the exact same way!"

"That's a good idea...but, Onee-chan, I really think—"

"Let's set out first thing tomorrow," she pressed on, still thrilled at the idea. "Will you be well enough by then, do you think?"

"I don't know..." she said with chagrin, being honest. "I spent the better part of today lying around like a slug because my head still feels like a beehive, and Kaede-sama had to help me to the outhouse because I got too dizzy when I stood up... It was embarrassing."

Kagome's features creased with worry, running a hand over Rinna's head with a troubled frown. "That darned Inuyasha. This is all his fault." With a muffled sound of frustration, she went on, "I even tried to be nice to him today, and what did I get for my trouble? Bah! I don't think I've ever met a more rude, difficult, bullheaded person in my life..."

"Just like you, you mean?" Rinna chuckled at her outraged expression, putting a hand over hers in apology and continuing, "In all seriousness, I...don't think we can just full stop condemn a person like Inuyasha. I learned some things about him from Kaede-sama today that...really made me think." To say the least.

Kagome blinked at her, surprise written on her open face. "Really...? That's strange, coming from you."

Frowning, Rinna wanted to know, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's just..." Kagome let out a sheepish chuckle, "you're not usually one for second chances... People get on your bad side once, and then—" here, she made an abrupt chopping motion, "—wha-pah! Buh-bye. Thanks for the memories. See ya never. No mercy! Come to think of it..." she mused to herself, "that's just what Inuyasha said earlier. Maybe the two of you have something in common too."

Rinna shifted uncomfortably.

"Am I...really that brutal...?" Surely it wasn't as cut and dry as all that...

No wonder she didn't have any friends...

Kagome gave her a sympathetic smile, patting her head as if to say, 'Don't worry, I still love you, even if you're a horrible person,' and said, "We'll talk about it tomorrow, silly. Let's get some sleep."

Sleep was hard to come by though, not only due to the unfamiliar sleeping mat and strange nighttime sounds, so different from Tokyo's, but because her thoughts lingered in patterns that looped over and around in circles upon circles. Inuyasha, Kikyo, the threads that connected them so abruptly severed, and for what? The jewel, cleaved in two, purpose, destiny or the lack of it, Inuyasha, a tumbling river of silver from a dream (or was it real life? She couldn't remember), hanyou, a lonely, miserable existence beyond her imagination. What was this world, really? Was it the same one they would come to know in Tokyo? Or a different world entirely? Nothing was familiar anymore. And what was her and Kagome's role in any of this?

The more she thought, the further her answers seemed to get, until she eventually fell into a fitful sleep that drug her down into the deepest shadows of her mind...

Sorry, not much happens in this chapter, or even the next one really. We're still working on setup here. And to be completely honest, Rinna isn't too involved in a lot of the stuff that happens between Kagome and Inuyasha here at the beginning. This may not be an Inu/Kag pairing fic, but they're still going to have a friendship, and I don't want to change any of the foundation it was built upon. It'll be mostly offscreen since I'm assuming we've all seen Inuyasha before. I'm not going to rehash stuff you already know, or go into too much detail with it other than to acknowledge that their relationship milestones do happen. When Kouga gets involved, that's where we'll be seeing more of the inu/kag friendship dynamics on-screen, plus some all new milestones that will turn the plot in some new and interesting directions. It should be fun.

In the next few chapters, we'll be covering the corpse crow and Yura of the Hair. It's when we get back to the modern age that things actually start to pick up, and you'll have some new content to chew over. I'm not sure what you all thought of Akaito Souma, the boy who confessed to Rinna in the first chapter, but he becomes a somewhat important character in this story. I'll admit, I was inspired by Kagome and Houjou, where the Akaito family also has connections to the past era, but unlike Houjou, it actually ties permanently into the plot of the story. I hope everyone will enjoy my original characters, because there are a good few of them who will be reoccurring, including Souma's older brother, and a female hanyou!OC with connections to Naraku in the past. Shippo, Miroku, Sango, and Kirara will also show up at some point, but I plan to have a couple new companions joining the crew as well. Trust me when I say that I work hard to develop well-balanced, intriguing characters who won't make you cringe, so I hope you'll stick with me and not get scared off!