Chapter Five
Kagome trudged through the ashes of the village that Kikyo had called Edo; she was no history buff, but everyone knew Edo was now Tokyo, or rather will be Tokyo, she amended to herself. Kagome was getting a creeping suspicion she had traveled through time. She wasn't sure how or why, but she suspected it had something to do with the blue mists back in the well.
As she poked about the ruined place looking for anything of use to her, she shot a glance back at the sleeping miko. She was covered up in Kagomes' trench coat and Kagome didn't begrudge her the sleep or the coat, it hadn't been her sister that had just died.
Though Kagomes' understanding of the subject only went so far, she suspected that if she were in Kikyos' shoes she would not be able to cope; one minute she's hunting a demon that betrayed her, the next she's being woken up from a fifty year binding by a girl of questionable intent, and then she's fighting a battle with said girl against a thousand demons, only to discover that her dear little sister has become a demon and she then has to purify her.
And Kagome thought she was having problems.
She had only had time to ask one question before the miko had passed out, and that was to ask were she was; the priestess had looked at her oddly before telling her groggily that she was in the ruins of Edo.
The ruins of Edo.
This day just kept getting better and better.
Kagome began to wonder when Dorothy was going to drop a house on her, and briefly considered tapping the shikon jewel three times and saying 'there's no place like home.' The only thing that stopped her was that she was afraid that it might actually work.
Kagome lifted up a charred slab of wood, looking for something she could use for a tent or a blanket, but most important on her mind was food; she would not trust anything she found in the village, and she was no hunter, hell, she wouldn't even know how to begin.
She did not know how to set snares, nor bait hooks or track animals, all she had was a sharp sword and quick reflexes. She considered taking the bow and attempting to find something in the woods, but quickly dismissed the idea; how was she supposed to find the animal to kill it? That left her with one option; she might be able to spear fish using her katana in the river she knew was around here somewhere. It couldn't be that hard right?
Wrong. Two hours later she found herself standing in the middle of the river with her pant legs rolled up and her hakama sleeves tied back, sword poised above the water. Her feet were numb, her teeth were chattering, and she had not caught one fish. Life was unfair, it truly was.
Kagome knew that if she did not catch something soon, she would have to give up or risk frostbite. Angrily, she punched at the surface of the water, no longer caring if she splashed herself. It was then that something truly odd happened.
A shock wave pulsed through the water, radiating outwards from her fist; it was not just a ripple caused when water was disturbed, it was a literally supersonic shock wave. Kagome knew this because it knocked her legs out from underneath her, spilling her into the water. The cold water drenched her as she fell with a loud splash, and she struggled to the surface before gasping in shock. The river burbled quietly, as if it were laughing at her. She could almost hear it saying; 'That'll teach you to throw a snit.'
She sat in the water miserably and slapped its surface; much more gently this time, and told it to shut up.
Its only response was to continue its whispering laugh.
Kagome stood, water pouring everywhere, and began the slow slog to the shore. She reached land and began the tedious process of stripping out of her wet clothes. She stripped out of her hakama and let it fall to the ground. She saw her sailor top tied around her waist and looked at it blankly for a moment before remembering that oh yes, she was injured.
She was just about to untie that as well when she noticed that her discarded hakama was wriggling in the most curious fashion. She picked it up, trying to decide whether or not she needed to kill this as well, when five, count them, five fish spilled out of the voluminous sleeves. Kagome gaped down at the writhing mass, closely resembling a fish herself for a moment, before bursting into laughter.
Oh, the irony of it all. She bowed to the river, stifling her laughter and thanking it for this most fortunate catch, for there was no doubt in her mind that it was likely responsible for the fish that had decided to have their family gathering in her sleeves. It was just crazy enough to make sense here in this place.
She finished climbing out of her damp clothing, no longer grumpy at being wet. She quickly changed into what was now her third set of clothing that day, her black gi top, and her black swordsman haori. Quickly tying her fish up in her wet hakama, she set off back to the burned out village, intending to ask Kikyo how one went about cooking and cleaning fish.
Everything was as she had left it upon her return, the priestess still sleeping beneath her trench coat amidst the ashes, and, not wanting to disturb her slumber just yet; Kagome emptied the fish out of her hakama on relatively clean plank of wood and went about making a fire.
Kagome, being a city girl, didn't know much about building fires outdoors, but unlike fishing, it turned out to be fairly easy to do; she had wood and tinder, and thankfully, she also had a lighter.
Kagome was not a smoker; in fact, the very idea of coating her lungs with a slow acting poison was abhorrent to her, she was, however a firm believer in being prepared; you never knew when you were going to have to set something on fire.
Soon a merry blaze was cackling in a small crater of scooped out ash, and Kagome jabbed some long sticks into the ground and hung her wet clothes upon them. Her green hakama smelled of fish, but this did not irk her; at least she had fish, going hungry was not a prospect she relished.
As she warmed herself by the fire waiting for the priestess to wake up, she took stock of her situation. She had three weapons, her katana, her bow, and a pocket knife; four if she counted her body. She also possessed her black gi, her black swordsmen haori and green hakama, her archer haori and hakama along with the accompanying arm guard, her black great coat, and an implausibly glowing gem. Kagome wondered if she should classify the gem as a weapon.
She distinctly remembered how her fist had cut through mistress centipedes arms, and the way in which her katana had glowed during the battle, clearly this shikon jewel possessed some manner of power.
The odd thing was, she knew that if the jewel had come out of her side its power must have been present all her life, yet she had never done anything like that on the other side of the well. Another fact that struck her as bewildering was that she had not been anywhere near the jewel when she had created the shockwave in the water; she had left it on shore with her satchel for fear that she would lose it. She was unsure what this meant, but perhaps the priestess would have the answers.
As if in response to her thoughts, Kikyo stirred in her sleep. Kagome looked at her quickly, wondering if she would awake, but this was not to be; the woman's brow furrowed in her sleep, as if fighting something internal, but did not wake. Kagome sighed and turned back to the fire, taking the jewel in her hand to examine it in another light than its own.
It still shone with an internal brilliance, but in the fire light Kagome could see through to the pale spheres center. What she saw made her blood run cold; in its center was a wisp of the purest black, writhing within the light, but still there. Kagome was unsure why this unsettled her so, but she knew somehow that it was a terrible thing, as evil as the army of empty shells she had fought earlier.
This presence of evil almost made her wake the priestess prematurely, to ask her why a jewel of such fabled purity would be tainted, but she restrained herself. She could let the miko sleep a little longer, the thread of evil was not growing, it was merely there, and she still felt that Kikyo deserved her rest. The only thing that kept Kagome herself awake was the obligation she felt she had to the revived priestess, it was her, after all that had released the woman from whatever dark magic had bespelled her. While the priestess may not have had the most glamorous fates being stuck to a tree, she had at least not seemed to be suffering any harm. It appeared to Kagome that this Inuyasha character, the one she had seen in the vision and Kiaede had spoken of had been content to leave her there, sealed to the tree. She could not say the same now however, there was no telling how many might wish to harm the priestess, now that she was free.
By extension, this would effect Kagome too, a fact that rested none too easily on her mind. Who was this Inuyasha, who bound Kikyo with evil, and twisted a little girl in such a manner that was unspeakable, not to mention as good as killing the villagers of this place, turning them into mindless servants of a greater demon?
Kagome shuddered to think of the answer; surely he was a demon of the most heinous caliber. She remembered him from the vision as well, standing insolently with the jewel dangling from his claws like a cheap bauble. His hair was deep black, dark enough to see your darkest nightmares in; and it meshed easily with long black jackal ears atop his head. His face was fair, but his beauty was spoiled by the sneer in his conniving yellow eyes.
Despite the fact that Kagome had never physically beheld him, she marked his face as that of an enemy. She knew that he was an enemy like she had never fought before, and knew also that the injustices he had visited upon this place would not go unpunished.
Suddenly the world seemed brighter and the air fresher; and Kagome realized that it was not the world that was better, it was her. She had a purpose, something she had lacked through most of her life. She had found something and had dedicated herself to it wholly, so that her mind focused, and her life had more meaning.
Here in this time of demons and priestesses, of magic and laughing rivers, Higurashi Kagome had found her calling.