"'So young a child,' said the gentleman sitting opposite to her (he was dressed in white paper), ought to know which way she's going, even if she doesn't know her own name!' "
"Where exactly are we going?" Kagome asked quietly.
Her grandmother didn't look back at her but kept walking. "You're following the path."
Kagome sighed. "Yes grandmother."
"Eh! How come when she gives you obvious answers you don't snap at her!?" Inuyasha prodded.
"You are a man Inuyasha." Her grandmother answered for her. "The only men a woman should trust are those of her close family."
Kagome's thoughts went to Miroku and Shippou and Kouga and even Inuyasha as well and she smiled then lifted her eyes to meet her grandmothers who smirked in faint amusement.
"Yes. You never did pay any attention to that belief did you Kagome? And yet you chose well enough so I suppose you did survive your gullibility."
Kagome blushed with embarrassment. "Grandma..."
"Yes, yes. You are lucky I am the first you met with. I am the easiest thing you will face." She looked at Inuyasha. "You. Be careful."
Inuyasha growled faintly. "I have nothing to fear. My dead do not return to haunt me."
Her grandmother smiled, not unkindly but with a kind of amused pity. "Your dead don't have to return."
Kagome wondered and wanted to question but she didn't think she'd get an answer so she tipped her head back to look upwards. You could see the sky fairly well through breaks in the shrubbery but only notice the difference if you looked hard. The sky was paler purple then the trees canopy. And Kagome struggled with the sense of ill ease at the similarity.
"There isn't any point in questioning it." Her grandmother said tartly. "It's as real as I am."
"I'm still having trouble with that." Inuyasha grumbled.
"Are you? You shouldn't."
"Fsh. Easy for you to say."
"Yes. Everything is now."
They fell silent. Inuyasha did not seem easer for the company of an old woman whose tongue was razor sharp and whose claim on Kagome's affections was stronger then his own so he kept to him self. Which was a pity because Kagome found the walk disquieting. She felt like her grandmother was expecting something from her.
"Grandma?"
"Yes dear?"
"Why are these memories coming now? On this path?"
"Because the jewel is a thing that affects the very soul with its powers. And memories are what makes our soul what it is."
Kagome frowned. "No. That can't be true. The past can't that important."
Her grandmother lifted an eyebrow. "No. Tell that to her." She lifted what would have been a frail arm had it been attached to a different person's shoulder and pointed.
In the darkness, in the middle of the widening path between just ahead of them stood a dark haired girl with her hand curled around the handle of a silver scythe. She wore the same school uniform as Kagome but instead of simple shoes she sported a pair of heavy black boots. She grinned, wickedly, darkly.
"Yo. Kagome."
Inuyasha had never seen Kagome freeze so abruptly. He had seen enough, in the time they'd been together, to understand her reactions when she was afraid. Strong fear usually made her cringe back and sometimes turn away from it. She'd always fought through lighter fear.
Words seldom deserted her and when they did she substituted action in their place, usually anger or annoyance in the form in light slaps, jabs, or, most often, the sit command. But here on this path silence took everything. Word. Movement. Breath. And this...this seemed to take root in here, seemed to grip her. It wasn't fear he saw it was terror.
And the worst part was...he couldn't see what was terrorizing her.
"Are you curious to know what she sees Inuyasha?" Kagome's grandmother questioned.
Inuyasha was, desperately but he wasn't going to admit that to this woman. "No."
She smiled. "Alright then. Trivia. How many sisters does Kagome have?"
"None. She only has a brother."
"Wrong! She has one half sister. One dead...older half sister."
"Kaori." The one single whispered word from Kagome. The sadness in the name drew Inuyasha closer to her and he settled his hand on her arm to keep her from being pulled to the phantom he couldn't see. She didn't even acknowledge his touch.
"Do you know the name?" Her grandmother asked.
Inuyasha shook his head. "No. She's never...she never really talks about her past." He said quietly as he realized that why she was always prodding to know bout him he had never questioned her.
He looked at the old woman and opened his mouth but then magic flared like a mystic serpent in response to the questions about Kagome's history that he wanted to ask her. A cascade of blue light spilled from the old woman's head to her toes to be swallowed up by the shadows the pooled at her feet.
"Don't." She said coolly. "This is a world of memories and you may not help another's memory to betray their owner. I am not here for you."
"But I can see you!"
She smiled. "I'm afraid you can't comprehend exactly what I am."
He growled. "You don't know anything about me!"
"Don't I? I see your dead Inuyasha. Walking behind you, within you, with every step you take. Nothing is hidden from me here. Nothing. And sooner or later the stronger of the memories that you keep caged will break free and be waiting to intercept you. And while Kagome will see yours hers are hidden from your eyes."
"Why?"
"Because this is Kagome's road. From start to finish. Her road, her realm, her prison, her rules." She smiled. "And that applies to you Inuyasha because you...you are hers as well."
Inuyasha opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted when Kagome murmured softly again.
"Kaori."
" 'even if she doesn't know her own name!' "