Love Beyond Life
Book Two: Life in the Modern Age
Prologue
Sango-sama
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Inuyasha. They just make for lovely waffy/angsty fics. Did I mention I'm not getting paid? That has to help. There are two particular anime storylines that have had particular influence on the story...but for the sake of surprising you readers...I will not announce each source until after I've clarified the borrowed points.
Author's Notes: I can't recall a time when the new releases moved faster through the page. ::her eyes go spinny::
Notes to the reviewers:
For those of you who were new reviewers...(and of course, all you old favorites!)...I really do appreciate the time and consideration that you all make. I have to say, even though a number of you aren't reviewing, I'm pleased to see I'm on 40 people's favorite list.
I know I threatened "the violent and angry deaths of more characters". I also immediately followed it with a statement that this was a joke; I have already killed...or at least nearly killed three members of the main cast...and a number of villans...all rather violently, or by implied violence. Kill too many people more and I no longer have enough for a workable story. ^_^; The joke was that there are some author's out there who threaten to stop stories or to kill off characters for reviews...but I'm already killing people off by the dozen. I am, however, still rather irritated with the lack of reviewing in the anime section as a whole. Honestly, with my one Harry Potter fic, nearly one third of the readers have left reviews or have sent me constructive e-mails...whereas in this section and many of the other anime sections, less than 2% of the people bother to leave reviews. To me, that's a bit disheartening; I know I want to be a better writer, and often enough, I can't catch every little grammatical detail and odd word choice that I make on my own. I know I personally have slowed both my own personal reading and reviewing habits lately, but I made a decision to keep myself to reviewing all stories that I read from now on...good or bad. And I hope that this is a behavior that catches on among the community.
Draft 1.0 completed November 15, 2002
******
"What...the hell...was that?"
Sango's free hand tightened around the small blue cloth, which contained the 7 shard fragments from the Shichinintai, clutching it tightly to her chest as her breathing started to return to some semblance of normality. Her feet were settling shakily on the now solid ground beneath her, and although her arm was still wrapped around Kagome's shoulders, it was Inuyasha who supported most of the unconscious girl's weight. Somewhere in the course of flying through the violet time-space continuum which existed at the heart of the well, a few of her deep auburn locks had tugged free from her high ponytail, falling in a messy frame around her face.
All in all, she looked worse for the wear; it had been a very rough ride.
"Feh." Inuyasha snorted as he looped his free arm beneath Kagome's knees, picking her off the ground with a painstaking gentleness. "That was nothing."
Sango looked indignant, as she smoothed down her errant locks. "Like hell that was nothing." Replacing the bag of shards at her side and readjusting Hiraikotsu on her back, she began to ascend the rickety wooden ladder that was placed just inside the well. "And Kagome has to go through that every time she travels? No wonder she doesn't like to come back that much..."
The tips of his ears flattened as Inuyasha forced himself not to pout. He looked a bit sheepishly at Kagome's sleeping face. Had it been so difficult for her weaker form to endure the strains of time travel?
"You sure you'll be able to jump up here with her." Sango called down, just a few feet from the top.
"Hasn't been a problem before."
"Then I'm going on ahead...."
******
Souta was busily at work, trying to fix up the old bike the little old lady down the street gave to him. All of her children and grandchildren had out-grown it, she said. It may have been a hand me down, but it was well taken care of. He smiled as he rubbed down the seat with a damp cloth. With a little bit of grease, he'd certainly be able to ride it to school.
Something appeared in the corner of his eye, a figure wearing a lot of black. And whoever it was had just come running out of the old well house. Never before had he seen anyone but Inu nii-san and nee-chan ever come out from the well...except maybe for the scary looking lady who first pulled nee-chan into the well when they had been looking for Buyo. But that lady was a demon. He turned a bit pale, warily eyeing the oversized boomerang at her back. 'Inuyasha was a demon...and he looked pretty human, except maybe for his ears...and the claws...and his really cool-looking eyes. Maybe this girl was a demon, too...'
"Are you Kagome's little brother, Souta?"
"Wah!" He jumped, ducking behind the bicycle for protection. 'She knows my name.'
Sango blinked wide-eyed as the little boy jumped at the very sound of her voice. It was usually Inuyasha who prompted such a reaction. Mildly amused, she shook her head and continued; now was a time to stick strictly to business...she could chuckle later. "She needs to get to a Miko."
Now Souta looked confused. "A Miko? What for?"
"She was hurt...quite badly."
"Hurt?" Realization dawned on the boy with startling force, and in the blink of an eye, he was no longer that scared little boy, shaking like a leaf. He ran towards the house with a surprising speed. "Kaa-chan!!!! Jii-chan!!!"
An older woman appeared at the open window. Her short, wavy hair was in surprising order, considering that she appeared to be in the midst of a heavy load of housework, her hands still immersed in a sudsy bath of water as she cleaned the dishes. "Souta, what is goi--"
But she spoke no further. The plate she was washing clattered noisily into the sink. Mrs. Higurashi's eyes shimmered with a thin veil of tears.
Sango didn't need to turn around to know what was causing the woman so much grief.
"Kagome!"