Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Inuyasha: Sengoku o-Togi Zoushi. I am borrowing it for entertainment purposes only. No money is being made from the writing or reading of this story. Only original characters and situations belong to me.
I Want Tomorrow
©2001-2002 by Kei
III – Shards of Dreams
"KAGOMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" a small voice screamed, and Kagome immediately jumped around and ran out the front door of the house. She had been in her room packing her few belongings in order to make the journey with Inuyasha to return to his home.
"Shippô-chan?" Kagome exclaimed when the kitsune burst out of the woods, wailing his heart out. His small yukata was torn and bloodstained, Kagome noted in horror.
He sobbed her name out again and she fell to her knees in time for him to leap into her arms and clutch the folds of her white kimono top tightly. She hugged him close, very worried. The stench of the blood on him curled up and thrashed at her nose, twisting her stomach.
"Mama…Papa…!" Shippô wept incoherently, and a horrifying thought entered Kagome's head: What if the blood was that of Shippô's parents?
Kagome knew Yuuya and Miki well because they dwelled in the forest and because Shippô had formed a friendship with the Higurashi children. Kagome had thought of the two kitsune as family. They were warm and friendly, and Shippô loved them dearly.
"WHERE IS THAT LITTLE FOX-BRAT?" a voice roared from the trees, and Kagome's head jerked up. She squeezed Shippô just a bit tighter to her chest and hurriedly got to her feet. Two youkai were coming, and they both had the smell of kitsune blood on them. Obviously they had committed some terrible, bloody act upon Shippô's parents and were searching him out to finish the job.
What Kagome couldn't understand was why someone would want to hurt the gentle kitsune family. They were all loving and friendly and didn't have any enemies. That Kagome was aware of, anyway, which made her nervous.
Kagome's ears were bombarded with the cries of pain from the trees that the two approaching demons were hurting as they trekked violently through the woods. Flowers and undergrowth wept. And as the cries grew louder, Kagome knew the youkai pair was coming ever closer, looking to find and do something awful to Shippô.
But they would have to go through Kagome first.
Inuyasha was lounging in the Go-Shinboku, the majestic sacred tree that grew tall and strong a distance from the shrine. He was halfway into a deep, dreamless slumber when he heard a high-pitched scream and then picked up the pungent odor of blood. It was that kitsune cub that adored Kagome, Shippô. And two blood-drenched youkai were stalking him.
'Kagome's in danger!' Inuyasha thought, leaping from the tree and dashing off toward the shrine.
When he arrived, he saw a humanoid demon and an overlarge toad monster staring down Kagome, who held the trembling kitsune cub in her arms. He could see her grim expression and her unwavering stance, and could sense that, though she was intensely fearful of these two, her sisterly/maternal instinct overrode any negative feelings and she only wanted to protect Shippô.
"Hand over the brat!" ordered the human-looking youkai.
"Never!" Kagome answered defiantly.
"Then we will take him by force," the toad said.
"Such a shame to sacrifice your lovely face for that stupid piece of—"
"If you're going to fight me, why don't you shut up and do so?" Kagome dared them, and they took her up on it.
The human youkai carried a long staff with a sharp, jagged end that resembled a lightning bolt, and he thrust it at Kagome, but she deftly jumped aside where the toad creature greeted her. He opened his mouth and breathed out a wild conflagration that looked like it had engulfed Kagome and Shippô. But when the flames dissipated, Kagome still stood, surrounded by a powerful shield.
"What did you do to this child's parents and why?" she demanded venomously, glaring daggers at them.
"Why, we killed them, of course," the humanoid answered simply. "Our reasons are business. You see, kitsune pelts are very valuable on the human market in Edo."
Kagome emitted a horrified gasp. They had killed Yuuya and Miki for their pelts! And now they wanted Shippô's! Rage coursed through Kagome's veins; she couldn't believe someone could be that evil. The impossibility of the reality filled her with a fury unmatched.
Glittering green vines of power leaked out of her body and snaked faster than an eye blink over to the two youkai. They turned into dancing sabers, several of which stabbed the toad demon straight through his middle, and the rest of them sliced the humanoid demon in half.
"K-K-Kagome? Are they gone now?" Shippô peeped, raising his head from where it had been buried on her collarbone and gazing at her with large eyes.
"Yes, they are," she replied sadly, lifting a hand and pressing his head back down. "Don't look, Shippô-chan. Don't look."
Then she carried him inside the house and placed him on her sleeping pallet, covering him with thick blankets. He soon fell asleep and Kagome exited once more to dispose of the bodies.
"Are you going to burn them or what?" Inuyasha inquired, showing himself from around the corner of the house.
"They do not deserve the dignity of being burned," Kagome said softly, picking up her bow and quiver from where she had placed them earlier, beneath a bush growing up at the side of the house. She drew out one arrow, loaded the bow, and fired the arrow. It pierced the toad's corpse, which immediately exploded and disintegrated. Kagome repeated the action with the humanoid youkai.
Inuyasha had trouble believing his own eyes. He had never heard of a miko with as much power as Kagome was demonstrating. He knew in his heart that Kikyou could never measure up to this strength. Kagome would make a good traveling companion.
Kagome finished packing the next day, and she divested herself of her traditional miko robes for something a little more appropriate for traveling. She wore a pair of boy's trousers that her friend Hojo had allowed her to have, and a short kimono that only went down to mid-thigh. She bound her hair up in a ponytail and wore her bow and quiver across her shoulder and chest. On her feet was a pair of durable, comfortable sandals.
Now they had all gathered in front of the house to say their good-byes.
"Mother, Grandpa, my sincerest thanks to you for allowing me to make this journey," Kagome stated formally, bowing to her beloved guardians.
"My darling child!" Saeko, her mother, wailed, sweeping Kagome into her embrace and crying openly. "Try to communicate often, and be safe!"
"I will, Mama," Kagome promised, hugging her mother tightly and kissing her.
"Kagome, remember to be a good girl and use those seals I gave you at every house you sleep at overnight," Grandpa told her, giving her a quick hug. Kagome smiled and nodded, knowing that the seals would do nothing. Kagome had received all of her powers from her father.
"Kagome!" Sôta cried, desperately hugging his older sister. They had a sort of playful rivalry, but at times like this it all disappeared and he was just a little boy in need of his sister's confidence and approval.
"You're the man here now, Sôta, so you have to take care of everyone. Watch over Kaede, and help Mother and Grandpa," Kagome told her seriously, but then she softened. "I know you can do it. Goodbye."
Little Kaede was standing quietly by, but she jumped into Kagome's arms right away when her big sister moved in front of her. Kaede was of few words, but her actions usually spoke for her. Right now she was tightly hugging Kagome and kissing her cheeks repeatedly.
"We'll miss you so much, Kagome," Saeko said. "Your father will be watching over you."
"I know, Mother," Kagome smiled.
"INUYASHA!" Saeko bellowed, and he blanched. "You take good care of my daughter, or you will come to very bad ends."
Inuyasha didn't doubt the truth of that statement.
"I'll take care of her, Aunt Saeko!" Shippô proclaimed, and Saeko blew him a kiss.
"Farewell, family," Kagome said with finality, making sure Shippô was planted securely on her shoulder. Then she reached out, grasped Inuyasha's hand with hers, nodded at him, and they walked away from the Higurashi shrine.
As they passed the Go-Shinboku, Kagome graciously requested of the gods and her father to watch over them all and protect them from anyone who wanted to bring harm to them.
Truthfully, she hoped that no such creatures would pursue them, but knew that Inuyasha being a hanyou, Shippô being a kitsune, and herself being a miko, this was a hollow wish.
"Kagome, why did you agree to come with me?" Inuyasha inquired, his gaze on their clasped hands.
"Because you said you needed me to," she said. "Not that you wanted me to, but needed me to, and I believe you."
"But aren't priestesses supposed to be enemies with all youkai, or hanyou?" he asked.
"There was a time when I believed that. When I was a little girl, I witnessed my father's brutal murder at the hands of a demon. And all the love I had for my father fueled my hatred of youkai. I couldn't let go of the fact that he had been killed protecting his family from a disgusting creature like that. I wanted to kill every youkai I ever saw after that, but I was young and foolish, not to mention weak.
"I was miserable, and could only focus on my hate. My powers were darkening and becoming what I hated in youkai, and I didn't even know it. But then, one day, I was walking through the forest, and I was trying to cross a stream, but I slipped on some moss on a rock and fell in, hitting my head against a stone as I fell. I would have drowned, but someone saved me."
"My mom!" Shippô exclaimed, and without tears. Kagome had comforted him the day before by saying that, though he would always miss his parents, they were watching over him, and if he thought of them happily and as he remembered them, then it wouldn't hurt so much.
"Yes, Miki found the unconscious drowning little Kagome in the stream and rescued me," Kagome continued, ruffling the fur atop Shippô's head with her free hand. "She took me into their home, even though she knew I was a small miko, and bandaged my wounds and expelled the water I had inhaled. And she introduced me to her husband and their baby, and it was then that I realized how stupid I had been for the past few years. I had been poisoned against all demons because of that isolated incident with my father, but that youkai was evil. The kitsune, fox demons, were not evil and were in fact the kindest creatures I've ever known.
"So now I always approach youkai—or hanyou—with an open mind. I cannot automatically assume that they're bad, because it is not always as such, and my actions could cause pain for others just as that youkai caused to my family and those two did to Shippô.
"I gave you a chance, Inuyasha, and you are not bad. I believe in you as a good creature, and no matter what you do I will continue to believe that you are good," she finished, smiling up at him.
Inuyasha blushed.