So I've been rewatching Inuyasha lately since I want to remember everything correctly, and I have to say, I'd almost forgotten how entertaining it was! There's definitely a reason I was able to sit through so many episodes of this so early in my anime watching career! Also, while I've been rewatching and doing my research, I'm delighted to say that some lose ends I'd been unsure about with this story have cleaned themselves up. I really can't express how excited I am that such an old character of mine is finally getting her own, flushed out story after all these years! I feel like such a proud parent! But anyway, I'll let you get reading. Hope you enjoy!
As light begins to seep through the cloth covering the window, I inch myself into the shadows and pull up my blanket around me. Kagome begins to shift on the floor nearby. A groan escapes her as she creakily rubs her eyes and sits up. For a second, she groggily glances around, disoriented. Then her eyes come to land on the makeshift curtain and, as if she suddenly remembered, she turns to find me.
"Morning," I greet from my ball in the corner. I take care not to look in the direction of the window, deeply regretting the loss of my sunglasses.
"G'morning," she yawns, giving me a lopsided smile. She casts off her blanket, stretches, then crawls over to her backpack and begins to dig. She comes out with a toothbrush and tube of toothpaste in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. "If you don't mind sharing, you're welcome to use it. Or you can just wait until you go back home."
Considering I didn't get the chance to brush my teeth last night, I concede, "I'll use it after you."
She shrugs, and sets about getting the toothpaste on the brush. "So, how'd you sleep?"
"Fine," I lie.
"Well that's good." She pours a cap full of water over the toothpaste and shoves the toothbrush in her mouth. As she freshens up, faint voices become audible outside. When she finishes, she transfers the stuff to me and I copy her. When I've spit into the bowl she offers me, she starts, "So, we should probably figure out what's going on."
"That would be nice."
"So you jumped into the well at my house, right? How'd that happen?"
I explain to her how I was asked to deliver her homework, and how I saw her go down the well, and how curiosity got the better of me. That's really the only excuse I can think of, considering I hardly know why I jumped in myself. When I finish up, she grimaces, but nods.
"Sorry about all this. This must be seriously confusing. The thing is, what I said last night is all true. For some reason, that well connects our time period to this one, and, uh...there are demons here! Inuyasha, who you met last night, is a half demon. He and I are traveling around and trying to find pieces of the sacred jewel I accidentally broke, and...I must sound insane," she sighs.
"So," I clarify, "people can travel back in time through that well, and Inuyasha is part monster. And there's some gem you're hunting down?"
"Well, monster's kind of a harsh way to put it, but yeah, that's the general idea."
Wonderful. Reality's an RPG now.
"The thing is," the girl frowns, "I thought Inuyasha and I were the only two who could go through the well. I wonder why you were able to."
I open my mouth to tell her I can't help her with that when one of the voices from outside calls, "Lady Kagome?"
"Ah, come in!"
I shudder when the door opens and light pours in, outlining the shape of a stout woman who steps inside and thankfully shuts the door again behind her. Her back hunches her weighty figure with age, the lines of her face deep and defined, and the eyepatch tied to cover her right eye is the only accessory accompanying the hair tie of her priestess uniform.
"Inuyasha tells me ye have a visitor from ye's own time," her eye shifts to me, "and it seems he was speaking the truth. It's a pleasure to meet your acquaintance, child. I am Kaede, the priestess of this village."
Her formal manners make me embarrassed of my reclusive behavior, and I hurry to stand and lower the blanket, choosing to drape it more respectively over my shoulders as I reach out my hand and introduce, "I'm Ren. It's nice to meet you."
She stares at my hand for a moment, and I hesitate. Then Kagome interjects, "Um, this is a greeting from my time. When you meet someone, you're supposed to shake hands with them!"
Heat floods into my face as the woman blinks, and I nearly retract my hand when she reaches out to take mine. "Do forgive me, child. It did slip my mind that you come from a different culture."
"I-It's fine," I gulp, modestly shaking her hand before retracting. "I didn't even consider…"
"Kagome, are you inside?"
"Yeah, come in!"
This time, a whole band of people enter. I shrink back from the burst of light, but since the sun isn't shining in directly, I'm still able to examine the new additions. The first to enter is a woman, much younger than the priestess. Actually, she looks about Kagome and my's age, and with thick brown hair and matching eyes, she's rather beautiful. She'd make an incredible model to paint. Following her is a young man dressed in a purple monk garb, carrying a golden staff, and by his feet, a tiny child with orange hair, pawed feet, and a bushy tail. I have to stare at the kid for a few seconds in confusion, which causes the boy to glance nervously away from me and hide himself behind the monk's robes.
But the one that really makes me pause is the final addition. Inuyasha steps inside last, and with the morning light to illuminate him fully, my eyes widen and my breathing stops. I had hardly believed his hair last night, but seeing it clearly, it's so…and those ears...I'd defaulted to cat last night, but now they look exactly...and his eyes...are the same color…
"What're you looking at?"
The snap has me jumping, and the monk scolding, "Now Inuyasha, you shouldn't be rude."
"It's understandable," the girl notes, smiling my way. "Half demons aren't exactly common."
"Is it the dog ears?" Kagome asks. "They're real. You can touch them if you want."
"Hey! Don't go givin' people permission to touch what ain't yours!"
"So you're Ren?" the girl addresses me. When I say yes, she continues, "I'm Sango."
"And my name's Miroku," the monk follows. He approaches me, and if I hadn't just attempted to shake Kaede's hand, I would have thought that was his intent. Instead, he clasps one of my hands in both of his and asserts, "It is a pleasure to meet the acquaintance of such a lovely young lady. If you ever need anything at all, do come to me for help. I will do everything in my power to assist you the best I can, including in personal needs."
His hands then jerk away from mine as Sango wrenches him back by the collar. "I apologize for his behavior. Feel free to ignore his womanizing tendencies."
I nod slightly, the heat in my face having returned at the unexpected flattery. I don't think any boy other than my dad has ever called me lovely before.
Oh. Fuck.
I whirl to Kagome. "My parents! I've been gone overnight!"
Panic begins to show on her face as my words sink in. "Did you, uh, tell them you were coming over to my place?"
"I didn't!" Crap, they must be terrified by now! I've never so much as gone to a friend's house for a day, let alone spent the night out! The blanket slips from my back as I frame my face with my hands, rushing to think. Theoretically, I just need to go through the well again, right? But I slept through the night, and it's sunny out! I don't even have my parasol! I'm stuck until the sky either clouds over or night falls!
Kagome seems to realize this, because she stuffs her feet into her shoes and informs me, "I'm gonna go tell Mom and Gramps the situation. They can call your parents and say you spent the night, and had no idea you didn't call home until now. Can you write down their phone number?"
The request reminds me of my bag, which, now that I think about it, must be still sitting in the well. I tell this to Kagome and she gets me a notebook and pen from her backpack. Scribbling down my home phone, I hand it to her and say, "Tell them my cell phone ran out of battery because I forgot to charge it the night before school."
Snatching the number from my hand, she darts out into the light, and I'm left alone with everyone else.
The little boy pipes up, having been exposed when Miroku had moved to greet me. "Why can't you go yourself?"
"Apparently she's allergic to the sunlight," Inuyasha scoffs before I can explain.
"Allergic to the sun?" Released by Sango, the monk examines me quietly. "I don't sense anything like a curse. Is it truly a medical condition?"
"I did think she looked rather pale," the child notes.
"It is," I answer, crossing my arms and ignoring the little boy's quip.
"Is it true you came through the well?"
This time, I face the child. "Yeah, I guess."
"Are you a priestess then? 'Cause I can't go through the well. Only Inuyasha and Kagome have ever gone through, and that's because they're powerful!"
I'm not really sure how to respond. Kagome's powerful? I guess she did say something about being a priestess, which makes sense since she lives at a shrine, but I definitely don't have any history in that kind of business.
"That is odd," Kaede refutes when I mention this. "I do sense a power inside ye. It is faint, I yield, but it definitely resides within ye."
Miroku adds, "I didn't sense it before, it's so small, but now that you mention it, there is something there. It hardly exists at all. I can't feel it unless I concentrate on it."
"But then, it doesn't make sense that she can travel through the well," the boy argues. "If it's that small, why can she use it while I, a full fledged demon, can't?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," I finally interrupt. "I really don't have any holy lineage, but does it really matter? So I came through the well. I don't care how, I just care that I did, and…" I glance at the half dog demon standing by the doorway. "I should probably… I have to go home."
"Well if you're allergic to the sun, you'll have to wait until sundown, won't you?" Sango pieces together. I nod. "I'll spend the day with you, then, so you don't get bored."
"I'm off to wait for Kagome," Inuyasha dismisses himself. My eyes follow him until he's vanished from the door and out of sight. Kaede takes her leave as well, saying to send Sango to find her if I need anything. The girl and the monk seat themselves, and the child finally introduces himself as Shippo before plopping down himself.
They ask me plenty of questions, about my allergy, lifestyle, friends and family, and share a bit amongst themselves, but before long, they've broken off into a conversation concerning that jewel Kagome mentioned before. Despite how curious they clearly are about me, one can only put up with my vague, distracted answers for so long. Having faded from the conversation, I grab the notebook Kagome tore my number out of and begin sketching. The pen is a bit annoying, considering I can't erase any of my lines, but I put up with it because I'm burning to form the shape. I'm missing my colors, but even if I had them, it's not like I'm ever satisfied with the result when I draw him. But just like always, the image sears my mind like a brand. If anything, after seeing Inuyasha, it feels as if the image is scorching through my mind with how hot it burns. He looks so much like him! How is that possible? I made him up! He isn't real!
As the features of the familiar face begin to take form on the paper, I begin to be able to think a bit more coherently. Yes, Inuyasha had looked like him. It was shocking, actually, how much he manages to resemble someone I completely made up, but it isn't him. He's younger, shorter, plainer, cruder, and all in all very different. It's just...the ears and the hair...and the eyes…
I flip the notebook shut when Kagome returns. According to her, although my parents hadn't seemed too pleased about my nonpermissible absence, they had sounded delighted that I'd actually made a friend, and simply asked that I be driven home tonight. And that I never disappear on them like that again, of course.
With the distraction out of my system, I'm able to actually pick up conversation again. Other than Inuyasha, Kagome's band turns out to be overall very personable, with Shippo's simple yet sweet personality, Miroku's genuine interest in others, and Sango's understanding and engaged demeanor making me feel welcome despite the strange circumstance. When was the last time I sat down and conversed with people so casually? I honestly can't remember. The closest thing to it I can think of are the few group projects I've hosted, but even after we'd finished our work, my classmates would hardly speak with me. It would always end up in awkward silence, and they were always quick to leave. There was one girl, another member of the painting club, that had actually started a fairly interesting chat with me about art, but she'd also quieted down pretty quickly when I tried to explain to her why I paint, and what I feel when I do. For that reason, I do my best to steer those around me now around any mention of my hobbies.
It's all too soon when Shippo returns from peeking outside to confirm, "The sun's down completely. It'll be safe for you to go outside, now."
My heart sinks, but I stretch and clamber to my feet regardless. My chest tightens when the rest of the gang stands with me.
"It was lovely meeting you, Ren."
"Yes, I shall pray that we meet again."
"Ah, yeah, it was great meeting you guys, as well." The have to plaster on my smile. After a few more words, I follow Inuyasha and Kagome out of the hut, my retrieved bag and parasol (Kagome picked it up from the other side on her way back) slung over my back and wrist. I gaze around the dim village, the area quiet, and only a few stray residents meander about. Breathing in deeply, I marvel at the air's crispness, and freshness. If only Tokyo smelled like this.
It isn't exactly a quick walk back to the well, but despite my lack of physical endurance, I find myself willing it not to end. Maybe my experience on this side of the well hasn't exactly been the adventure of a lifetime, but it's...different! Day after day I've been cooped up at home, confined indoors, alone...but this place is new, and even when I'm inside, I can smell the forest, and the people are wonderful, and then there's Inuyasha...but of course I can't stay. As mundane as it may be, I do have a life to live. I can't worry my parents so much, and I have to keep up in school if there's even a chance I'll be able to make something of my life. I have to go home.
When we arrive at the well, Kagome climbs onto the edge with her legs dangling inside and looks back to me. I glance at Inuyasha, who gives me a gruff, "What're you waiting for?" Sighing discreetly, I join Kagome on the rim.
"Don't worry about jumping," she assures me. "You'll land on the other side, perfectly safe."
"Yeah…"
"On the count of three, we jump. Ready? One. Two. Three!"
I let myself fall. For a few seconds, it feels as if we're floating. Then, our feet flatten, and Kagome flicks on a flashlight and points it upwards. It shines on a worn, wooden roof.
I know it's not the most eventful thing in the world right now, but we're still in the exposition phase, so I ask that you all keep that in mind. On another note, one of you already responded with a description of how you picture Ren! Thank you so much for sharing! I don't believe I've ever gotten a description so fast before! And I'm so glad you enjoy this story! I will do my best to keep providing interesting content for your reading pleasure. Until next chapter, I hope you all have a fantastic Easter, and I'll see ya'll again soon!