The sun was beating down in through the cracks in the hut, attacking her face from all sides it seemed. Though it was strongest where the bars split the small, square window which stood propped open with the stick.
Kagome moaned at the bright assault and rolled over trying to avoid it for now. She'd be up in a minute or so, she just needed to wrack the sleep from her mind and come to terms with the morning, which should've been just a wee bit harder then it was.
As she rolled over she realized that the hut was dead silent. No one was in it. One eye popped open fast and swiveled about to take in her surroundings. Nothing seemed out of place, everything was where it should have been, she was still where she was when she'd gone to sleep the night before, except for the fact that she was alone.
Slowly she pushed herself to a sitting position opening both her eyes and blinking sleep from them. She realized she was in a kasode now. Her brow furrowed a bit. When had she put this on? Her hair fell over her shoulder in straight black hanks that were longer then they should have been, but she took no heed to it and shoved the hair back over her shoulder with a shrug as she looked about.
"Huh, I must have woken up late or something…" She mused. "Why didn't anyone wake me up?" She rose from her spot with a wide-spread yawn and a scratch to her cheek. "Maybe I ought to go and get breakfast started. It's a little odd Kaede-bachan hasn't begun it yet." With that said she exited the hut into the bright early morning with a smile.
The day was pretty and bright, and the villagers were all hard at work in the fields and doing their daily chores. Quite a few looked up from what they were doing and grinned at her as she passed, waving and calling out cheery good-mornings. She smiled at each of them and called her good wishes back. It wasn't till she reached the stream that she realized something might be amiss this morning.
By the time she'd reached said stream she was beginning to wonder about where everyone had gotten to again, and why she'd woken up alone in the hut. She paused in washing her face and collecting water to boil to ask one of the village girls if they knew anything.
"Do you know where Kaede-bachan went?"
The girl blinked at her obviously perplexed at her choice of words. "Kaede-chan went off to another village for a few days for training. Don't you remember?"
Kagome blinked at this-she vaguely remembered Kaede-bachan saying something about youkai extermination being needed in an adjacent village. Would that be considered training still? At her old age? She shrugged the question off. "Oh yea…I remember her saying something about that." She smiled. "Well, how about Miroku-sama, Sango-chan and Shippou-chan then? Have you seen them around? I woke up alone this morning and was just wondering where they'd gotten to."
The girl gave her an even stranger look, one that seemed to say she had no idea what Kagome was even talking about. Or who she was talking about anyway. She was about to open her mouth and say so when something cut her off.
It was a shrill cry that resounded out beyond the rice patty fields, a cry that Kagome knew all to well. "Yo-youkai!"
She blinked with a short gasp and excusing herself from the girl's presence she stood up and rushed to the fields to see what was the matter. Expecting to see something like a huge centipede, a big, evil crow, or at least one of those icky spider demons, she was sorely surprised and stumped into immobility when what she spied down in the fields was none of the above but instead was a white haired, dog-eared boy in a red suiken no hakama.
"In-u-ya-sha…?"
Even from this distance she was sure that the hanyou wouldn't have been able to hear her, but it seemed that just as she had let his whispered name escape her lips he whirled his head around and stared at her with an ugly frown. He immediately left off roughing up the farmer he'd been on, tossing him to one side like so many potato sacks. The farmer made a strangled noise and scrambled up to rush away in fear. This utterly perplexed Kagome. Why was Inuyasha beating up the villagers? Why was he looking at her like she was nothing more than a nuisance? And why-was he stalking towards her like that?
"Oi Bitch! There you are. I was wondering if I'd have to come and get you." He ground out. Everyone behind her fled with squeaks leaving them alone in the patty fields. She sweat dropped. It sounded like normal Inuyasha.
She pointed idly back towards the village. "I-was asleep, in the hut, where I've been since we came back last night."
He had stomped right up to her now, face to face. Normally this might have sent a little thrill through her, or pissed her off to the point of slamming him, but she could tell now something was off. "What the fucking hell are you talking about, wench? You and I didn't go anywhere last night! I've come for the Shikon no Tama, so hand it over!"
This made her brows crease in total confusion. "But-Inuyasha, I don't have the Shikon no Tama. You know that! I haven't had it since it was shattered!"
Now the boy gave her a sweat dropping look and stumbled back a foot or so. "WHAT! Yo-you shattered it! How! Why? You're supposed to be "protecting" it aren't you!"
The girl gave him a face. "I don't believe this…"
"YOU don't believe it! For the gods' sake woman! What possessed you to break the thing!"
"No!-No…that's not it!"
"Then what the fuck is! You're acting weird-what is up with you?"
"I'm not acting weird! You are! You were all fine last night and all, and now you don't seem to remember the past year or so! What's wrong with you?"
The boy gave her a gaping, wide-eyed stare. "You're ill…You have to be. Did you hit your head on a rock or something? Did a youkai poison you? You're not making any sense."
The girl snuffed. "I was about to ask you the same question. Where are Miroku-sama and Sango-chan? They can help sort this out."
"Mi-..Sa- Who the fuck are they?" He gave her an even stranger, agitated look.
It was her turn to gape at him. "You don't-tell me you're kidding! You don't remember who they are! What about Shippou-chan?" His look intensified. "Kirara?" His brow shot up. "Kaede-bachan!" she tried feeling desperate.
"The little squirt?" He asked upon that name. "Since when was she an old woman?"
This was getting to be really, really weird now. "What do you mean? Kaede-bachan's over fifty!"
His odd look returned, it seemed he'd forgotten about the reason he'd come to the village in the first place. "Uh-no she's not…Kikyou, you're really acting funny."
Kagome stopped dead right then and there, her bedraggled mind still having issues with piecing this all out, she raised her gaze to him. "Ki-kyou…? What-what did you just call me?"
"-Whoa, whoa. Time out. You don't even remember your own name now! Or…are you surprised I used it…?" he blinked becoming a bit sheepish after realizing that he had used it.
She just stared through him blankly. It was starting to make a little bit of sense, but not enough for her to get it.
His momentary sheepishness vanished in the blink of an eye and he growled when she failed to respond. "Hello? Hello! HEL-LO!" He shouted waving a hand in front of her face. When that didn't seem to make an impression he battled with himself whether or not he ought to shake her to wake her. But he never got the chance.
"But…I'm not Kikyou…" she murmured almost too quiet for even him to hear.
"Gods rot you!" He hissed suddenly angry. "Who the fuck else would you be! Of course you're Kikyou! Don't give me any of that garbage! You're Kikyou the blasted miko who protects the Shikon no Tama, which I am currently after-and speaking of which-hand it over now!"
Now Kagome was getting frantic. "No, no, no! I'm NOT Kikyou! I'm not! I'm Kagome! I've been through this! I'm Ka-Go-Me!"
"Kagome…? What the in the living…? Where the hell'd you get a moronic idea like that? What the hell hit you?" He growled.
She apparently wasn't listening to him any longer, because with in a blink of an eye she'd whipped around and started racing for the forest. "No-it isn't true, I'm not Kikyou, I'm Kagome! I gotta go home! I've got to get home!"
"De-OI! Where the hell are you going wench!" the hanyou yelled, spinning on his heel to take off after her a split second later.
"…HOME!" was all he heard as she vanished into the woods.
"Fucking hell! The bitch is out of her head!" He grumbled and shot into the woods hot on her heels. "If you want to go home your sense of direction must be completely fucked too! Why are you going through the woods!" She didn't answer, and to his surprise he found her to be a quick nimble little minx for a human woman, miko or not. He had to rely on his ears and nose to hunt her up because she was slipping through the bramble to fast to keep a bead on her.
When she had stopped and he'd caught up with her again-she was staring down the old bone-eaters well, looking for all the world like she was about to jump. He sucked in a sharp gasp and was next to her grabbing her arm and wrenching her back from the lip within a second. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" He roared-quite obviously put-out. "You can't go jump in there and kill yourself just because you got hit on the head and think your name is Kabome!"
She gasped as he yanked her back and looked up at him with a vexed stare. "THAT'S KA-GO-ME, Inuyasha! And I don't think it, I know it! I just want to go home! Now let me go damn it! You know I don't want to be compared to that other woman! I wouldn't dream of killing myself to be like her!"
Inuyasha stared at her again. "…You-You're completely out of your mind! Something is seriously wrong with you…Come on, I'm taking you back!" He tugged at her hard.
"NO! Damn it! I want to go home! I have to go home anyway! I have a test in a day or so!" He'd stopped paying any heed to her words, obviously thinking she gone completely insane. She growled. "Damn it! Osuwari!" Her sudden outburst just caused the boy to flick a furry ear back in her direction, and that's when she knew for sure she wasn't in Kansas any more. "Oohh crap…"
He paused now, turning his head back to her with an irate snarl. "What now? Did you hurt yourself or something? You humans are so pathetic!"
She took the paused opportunity to grab him and whirl him around to face her. Needless to say the hanyou was taken aback by her sudden brash actions and turned a deep red when they were suddenly nose to nose. She ignored the color on his face though, and pushed him back a bit so she could have a better look-her fingers trailing along his collar. He gulped, but it made no difference to her. "Ooohh crap…" she said again. "It-it's not there…and I didn't take it off."
He got a hold of himself… "What is gone? What didn't you take off?-You must have eaten something bad last night, that's gotta be it…Gah! Lemme go!" he snapped and shrugged away from her backing up a few feet. "Grr…"
"I don't believe this at all!" she half whined. "I don't even really LOOK like Kikyou!" She spun around again to head back to the well.
"GAAH!" the hanyou screamed. This was really not his day. He caught her by the arm before she could evaporate on him again. "You don't look like Kikyou do you!" He snarled, sick of these antics she was pulling. "Come on wench! I'll prove that you bloody ARE Kikyou!" and without hesitation he threw her over his shoulder and bolted back for the village.
"Hey! Hey! Lemme down! Put me down Inuyasha! Let me go!" She protested and booted and kicked and yelled and beat his back but to no avail. The boy just ground his fangs and took it. He was going to put an end to this charade.
Ten minutes or so later, after the boy had stomped into the village with Kagome over his shoulder. People had run this way and that and tried to threaten him because he had his claws all over their miko, until she finally told them to politely back off, he wasn't going to do anything to her.
"You sure about that, wench?" he growled into her ear as he finally shunted her off of his shoulder at the shrine steps.
"Fairly." she answered cool look on her face but behind it havoc was running rampant.
He gave her a cold look. "Whatever. Come on." She twitched a little, but followed him as he climbed the shrine steps and then stopped, and placed his arms deep in the red sleeves and nodded to the inside. "In there you ought'a find a mirror. Look in it will ya? And stop acting all delirious."
She frowned at him but went in, chanting to herself that she was Kagome over and over. Inside was the same as any other time she'd gone into one of these shrines, save for the stands of flames that surrounded the perimeter. She thought nothing of it till she looked up and saw in the center of the back wall something she'd only seen whole for three days. The Shikon no Tama.
She gasped.
Inuyasha heard her and thought she'd looked in the mirror. "Well?" he said gruffly.
She didn't answer right off and instead moved slowly to the pink ball and stared at it. "It's not true…" she murmured, reaching out to poke it, checking if it were real. It was, it bobbed a bit back and forth on it's holder and shimmered a reflection at her. She saw herself in it's pink surface and yelped again, hissing "Holy crap! I do look like Kikyou!"
Her hand came to lightly touch her lips as her mind finally began to put the puzzle together. "The beads aren't there, Kaede-bachan is-young, no one knows who Miroku-sama, Sango-chan or Shippou-chan is, Inuyasha is looking for the tama, doesn't know me as Kagome, called me Kikyou, I look like Kikyou and last night…" She gasped. "Last night…!"
Inuyasha was getting impatient and was about to bang on the door when she came rushing right out and past him, flying down the steps like a bat out of hell. He was spun to one side when she flew out and stared for a second off after her. "Aw hell no…Not again. Bloody hell!" he snarled and leapt off after her. But to his utter surprise, she didn't go winging off out of the village and back into the forest with the well. Instead she took a sharp right hand turn and flew into her hut.
Confused, but mildly interested he slid up to the entrance and peeked in. Villagers gave him reproving stares and grumbled obscenities about how impure that must be, but due to "Kikyou's" telling them to keep off the hanyou, let him be. Which was all the better for him, he just outright ignored them.
Inside the young girl was scuffling about the floorboards in the most ungraceful fashion (which made his brow arch, Kikyou was never ungraceful…but then, she hadn't been acting like Kikyou at all so far) apparently looking for something or other and mumbling "Oh come on…where is it? I know I fell asleep with it." and the like. Finally she popped up from under the covering kimono with an "Ah-ha! Here it is." And he had to stifle a snicker because her hair was all over her head-looking as if a bundle of hay had attacked it.
Kikyou unkempt was just a funny thought.
She rose to her feet a moment later and smoothed her head out, looking at whatever she had in her hand. She mumbled something that sounded like "It-changed colors…" and after a few moments she recomposed herself completely, sighed pocketed it and went to the door, looking at the hanyou as she exited. "I think I've figured it out now." she said in a smooth tone, sounding almost like the miko he knew, but still not quite.
"…Good…because I still don't know what the fuck is going on." he grumbled at her, eyeing her warily.
She just smiled, ruefully. "I-need time to cope with it," she told him, dismissing the innuendo to tell him what had happened. "You can go now."
"WHAT!" he roared suddenly "No way wench! I'm not going anywhere till I get that tama off your hide!"
"Is that all you were after for all this trouble top show me who I'm supposed to be?" She asked-sounding a bit more like Kikyou again, as she looked up at him.
He faltered, and stuttered a bit, and his ears fell flat. "I-um…"
"Yeah, that's what I thought." she said with a more genuine smile, that wasn't Kikyou like, and then she did something that also was not Kikyou like, and made him freeze up. She hugged him. "I'll be looking for you later probably, so don't go too far." she said then, and left him standing in front of her hut confused beyond even what his human heart could comprehend.
After a few moments of standing there in a silent daze, he gave a derisive "Keh!" and leapt off to keep tabs on this 'new side' of Kikyou. It was strange-but it held his interest almost like nothing else.