I'm sorry for the lack of updates, minna-san. Check my profile for details. (if you still care by this point and aren't looking for a way to come to Tampa and torture me until I beg to be barraged by bad fanfiction and the English dub. ::runs away:: )
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. Plain and simple.
Silhouette
Chapter Two :: Memories of That Day
Not long after Miroku had returned, Sango served a plain dinner of rice and fish stew. As it turned out "Kohaku" was not Sango's brother Kohaku, but her son. The ex-taijiya had named her firstborn son after her dear little brother, whom Kohaku Jr. announced with a bittersweet pride that his uncle had perished in battle with Naraku long before he was born.
It seemed to Kagome that the moment Sango peeked her head out the door to holler that dinner was ready, that the whole village came by to eat, because within ten minutes, Miroku, Sango, Shippou and six others were seated in the floor of the home, eating. Of course, it was mostly Kagome's surprise that augmented the truth of the situation.
I've missed so much, she thought to herself, Miroku-sama and Sango-chan's wedding.. the births of their children… Six of them, even.. The whole village has changed, Shippou-chan grew up. I'm not sure if I want to see Inuyasha or not…
"Here."
She was broken from her thoughts by Kohaku. He was a tall young man of a lean build like his father, with black hair and Sango's brown eyes. He was holding out a bowl for her, his mouth in a broad smile. She nodded her head, taking the bowl gratefully and sipping at it. After a moment she noticed he was sitting next to her, but wasn't eating. "Kohaku-kun," she began, "You're not going to eat?"
"Haha-ue only made enough for us like usual, so I'm giving you mine," he admitted, and seeing the protest on her face, raised a hand. "It's rude for all of us to eat dinner while our guest has none at all. Besides, I could go out and get a wild pig if I was truly hungry. Please eat."
Kagome nodded and sipped at the broth a bit longer. Across the room, the others were giggling and chattering. She noticed the two boys who were playing in the street when she first arrived were also on the floor, eating and talking. I should have known whose they were. They look just like Miroku-sama.
"Those are my younger brothers, Minoru and Satoru," Kohaku told her, noticing her interest in them. "They just turned eleven." He smiled, pointing to the next oldest boy. "That's Choumei, next after Misa. He's thirteen." Sitting next to Shippou was Misa, listening to the fox talk as though everything that came from his mouth was golden. "My sister Misa you know. She's sixteen. Last but not nearly least is my baby sister Suzuno. She's six." He said this as the youngest wandered up to them. Suzuno had finished eating and now settled herself in Kohaku's lap, clutching the young man's clothes as though afraid he may suddenly vanish.
Kohaku whispered soft consolations to the little girl as she turned her wide brown eyes on Kagome, as if she were just waiting for the miko to attempt something horrific. Kohaku smiled at Kagome. "This one has a special attachment to me. And don't worry, she'll be used to you eventually. She doesn't take well to strangers at first."
Kagome nodded vaguely, not really hearing him. "Special attachment, you said? How come?"
Kohaku patted Suzuno, who was quickly finding her way into sleep, on the back and shifted her from one side of his lap to the other. "I'm not sure. Haha-ue was ill right after her birth, for quite some time as a matter of fact. Chichi-ue was out of town performing an exorcism, and Kaede-obaachan had died two years previously, so it was up to me to take care of the baby. She just agreed with me, I suppose."
It tugged at Kagome's heartstrings to hear Kaede-baachan had passed away. Yet another thing she failed to be there for. She couldn't help but blame herself, even though she knew for a fact that she had only gone home for three days. There was no way she could have known what was going on over on this side of the well.
But it still hurt.
"I feel horrible," she admitted to the young man, "Your mother and I were best friends. I went home for only a few days, but here.. somehow.." She trailed off, laying her head against her forearms. "I was supposed to watch all six of you grow up. Technically, Kohaku-kun, I'm seventeen years older than you. Or, I'm supposed to be. Instead, you're about the same age your father was when we met, while I'm still…"
Kohaku was quiet for a moment, whether he didn't know what to say or was just being silent for her sake, Kagome wasn't sure. Suzuno whimpered in her sleep and the teenager rubbed her back soothingly. Then he turned back to Kagome. "Could it be a youkai's doing?"
She raised her head to look at him, her eyebrows raised. Kohaku smiled mischievously, as if he'd known she wouldn't expect him to be knowledgeable and felt amusement at her surprise. "My mother was a taijiya in her younger days. Misa and I are well trained in the art of demon-slaying." Kagome opened her mouth slightly, giving a knowing nod.
Kohaku rubbed his chin pensively. "But I can't really think of any sort of youkai who deals with time. There aren't many that do such spells."
"Why?" Kagome wondered and Kohaku narrowed his eyes. "It's a theory really. Time is so powerful. Such an unchanging thing, yet it changes so much. For one to have any sort of control over it, they must either be extremely powerful, or unable to use it correctly. Using your own power to bend time to your will… It can be a very life-threatening thing."
Kagome drew away, her eyes finding the holes in the floorboards. She stared at them blankly, not seeing them. Life-threatening…? Does that mean that whoever did this spell may already be dead? What do I do then?
"What are you two talking about, hm?" At the sound of Sango's voice, both Kohaku and Kagome looked up. The ex-taijiya was squatting on her haunches in front of them, a small smile on her face. Kohaku looked up eagerly. "Haha-ue. Kagome-sama and I were just chatting. Nothing in particular, really."
"I see," Sango said, slapping her knees with a hint of finality. "I hate to break up the wonderful in-depth conversation, but I need to steal Kagome-chan away. Kohaku, would you please get the children into bed?"
"Of course, Haha-ue," Kohaku replied, clutching Suzuno carefully as he pulled himself to his feet. He roused the twins from their playful chatter with Shippou and gave a gentle tug on Choumei's ponytail, and the 3 boys gave a whine of annoyance when told it was time for bed. But obediently they followed Kohaku into the next room over, while Misa straightened up the area around the hearth.
Shippou stretched out, leaning into his palm and looking more and more like Inuyasha every time he made a move. And more and more, it made Kagome miss the silver-haired hanyou. As she followed Sango back by the fire, she wrung her hands in accordance to the painful clenches in her chest.
Inuyasha… The more I think about him, the more I miss him and want to see him. But… I don't know if I want to see him the way he is now. Miroku-sama and Sango-chan and Shippou-chan have all… And I don't know if I could handle seeing him like this…
"Kagome-sama?"
She snapped back into focus, bowing her head apologetically. "Sorry, Miroku-sama. Just.. still a little dazed." Miroku nodded understandingly. From where she was, Misa snorted a bit and Sango finally glared at her eldest daughter. "Misa, I've had enough of that attitude. You've been rude ever since Kagome-chan came. If you can't behave, then go help your brother with the children, please."
Misa looked offended by her mother's scolding, but stood and stomped to the next room with her brother. Sango let out a deep sigh and then looked at Kagome, her features regretful. "I'm sorry about her actions towards you, Kagome-chan. I don't know what's gotten into her."
Kagome shook her head. "I'm sorry too. I've been so distant the past while… This whole thing seems like some sort of nightmare." She bit the inside of her cheek. "Everything and everyone's changed so much, I feel like if I take a single step forward, the ground will fall out from under me."
"Are you talking about Inuyasha?" Miroku wondered aloud, and Kagome blinked at him a moment, astonished that he had guessed it so flawlessly. Then she nodded quietly. "I want to see him. I want to talk to him, to make sure he understands what happened… why I didn't come back. But at the same time, I don't want to see him like this, resentful and sad. I don't want to know if he hates me now."
She looked up at them. "You probably think I'm being selfish, don't you?" Miroku's gaze softened encouragingly. "It is selfish, but then it is alright to be selfish sometimes. I understand your feelings, and don't blame you if facing Inuyasha now seems too difficult."
Sango smiled her concurrence, and Kagome nodded her thanks. She took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders, and then looked at Miroku solemnly. "For now, I just want to think about what's in front of me. If we were able to come up with something that would give us a clue… Anything that might explain why this happened, I just know we would be able to restore our proper time."
"Actually," the houshi began, "I believe I have an idea." At Shippou and Sango's obvious surprise, he looked up at his wife, eyes narrowed with a seriousness he rarely had anymore. "Sango, do you remember the day after Kagome-sama left?"
"The day after.." Sango sat back on her knees, arms crossed as she began to think back. Shippou also looked to the ceiling, expression thoughtful in his effort to remember. They both hit it at the same time. "That's right, that woman!"
"Exactly," Miroku said, and Kagome blinked, looking back and forth between her friends with an air of perplexity. "Huh? What? What woman?"
"I've been thinking about it since you came back today, and this is the only encounter I can recall. The day after you left, I went to the well. At the time I wasn't really sure, but I felt the distinct aura of jyaki near it," Miroku told the befuddled miko. "Sango and Shippou were with me, and Inuyasha was already there, as he often was when you were away."
"There was a woman," Sango continued, "She looked like any ordinary woman, except for the feeling of evil she gave off. Well, that and the enormous sand bottle she held."
"Sand bottle?" Kagome repeated, perplexed. What's a sand bottle? What does that have to do with time… An hourglass!?
Miroku nodded, sipping his tea. He set the cup down and continued where his wife had left off. "When we approached her, she turned to face us, and before saying anything, started attacking…"
.n.
The oni-woman threw out her hand, a stream of sand shooting from the end of it. Miroku and Sango dodged nimbly to the side, leaving Inuyasha to block the hot grains from hitting himself and Shippou. Once the scorching torrent had ended, the hanyou brought down his sword, sending a fierce glare at the woman. "Who the hell are you, you bitch?! You stink of Naraku!!"
The woman smirked, sending another rush of white-hot sand at Inuyasha. Shippou gave a squeal, darting into a sea of silver hair as Inuyasha again brought the Tessaiga up as a protective shield. The oni woman ran around to the opposite side of the well, pulling a talisman from her sash. Miroku and Sango had obviously been forgotten, as their attack took the woman completely by surprise.
She shrieked in agony as her left arm was shattered underneath the crushing weight of Hiraikotsu. With her good arm she brought up the large glass bottle she held, swinging it forcefully at Sango. The taijiya backed away to protect herself, but Miroku ducked underneath it, jabbing the oni-woman in the stomach with the gold-headed shakujou.
She coughed, stumbling backwards, her upper lip curled in a snarl. "You bastards…"
"KAZE NO KIZU!"
The woman cursed under her breath and ducked behind the well, a wall of sand encasing her and dissipating the destructive wave of golden energy. The moment she let down the wall, Sango swung in from the side, slamming the woman with her bone weapon.
With a pained cry the oni-woman flew through the air, sailing a good way from the well before crashing to the ground. The large glass bottle she had refused to put down for even a moment was thrown from her hands, and she gasped, reaching out for it. "Chronos!"
She leapt back as Tessaiga swung at her, ripping away the back of her kimono and sending a blast of kenatsu that threw her to the ground. There, on the otherwise flawless skin of her back, was the jagged burn scar in the shape of a spider. Naraku's mark.
"She's one of Naraku's detachments!!" Miroku declared, and the woman smirked at them "So what," she said, her first words to them since they'd found her chanting near the well. Inuyasha held Tessaiga threateningly in front of him, his chest rumbling with a deep growl that promised painful death for the oni. "What the hell did Naraku send you for, huh??"
The woman's face was blank of emotion at his question, neither hatred nor hostility reaching her eyes, but she made no sound, obviously not intending to reply. With a quickness that startled all of them, she flipped backwards onto her feet, bringing her hands out.
Long jagged claws grew from her fingertips, and before he'd made a sound, she jabbed behind her, raking Miroku's stomach as the houshi had attempted to attack her from behind. Sango cursed at the oni-woman, swinging Hiraikotsu towards her head. The villain caught the end of it and shoved back, catching Sango in the chest and knocking the breath out of her.
"Sango!" Miroku crawled over to the taijiya, clutching his own wound as he cradled her into his lap. Looking up, the woman realized the only thing standing between herself and her sand bottle was Inuyasha, and she charged him. Fruitlessly, as somehow Miroku saw what was coming before it had happened.
"Eat this!! Kaze no KIZU!"
Seconds later, the body of the woman lay against the well, crumpled and defeated, bleeding and dying. She coughed, grinning up at Inuyasha. The unmitigated amusement in the witch's grin startled the hanyou. "What the hell are you smiling for?!"
"You blame me, "she said, her voice grating as red filled her mouth, colored her lips. "You wanna know what I was here for? I came to seal the well, to keep that woman Naraku-sama hates so much from you. But I was already too late. She's made her decision."
She coughed again, small hands clutching the front of her tattered kimono, at her torn and wounded chest. She glared back at Inuyasha, her eyes blazing as though what she was saying was some sort of ominous premonition. "She won't be coming back for you, hanyou. Kagome sealed the well."
.n.
Kagome stared at Miroku, eyes wide in mild horror. She's made her decision. Kagome sealed the well… Her fists tightened around the hem of her skirt. "You mean she made it sound as though I was the one who CHOSE not to come home?!"
"Yes," the houshi replied. His grave expression, defined by the lines in his face, softened sadly. "It was after that that you didn't come back. Inuyasha tried to go through the well, like he used to do when you were late, to bring you back, but the well wouldn't open. It didn't let him through anymore."
Sango folded her hands in her lap, lowering her face. Her tone was soft, as though she knew what she was about to say would not be something Kagome would want to hear, but more that she needed to hear it. "Inuyasha was devastated. For the longest time, he didn't really give a damn about anything anymore. It was the three of us who talked him back to his normal self long enough to kill Naraku. And then…"
"As time passed we realized more and more youkai were being drawn to the village," Miroku stated, changing the subject. "We came to the conclusion that they were drawn to the feelings of the jyaki that the sand bottle was giving off. In order to hold them off, we sealed the hourglass and sent it away."
"Why not destroy it?" Kagome wondered, and Shippou shook his head. "Tried that. Inuyasha Kaze no Kizu'd it a few times, but it didn't even scratch it one bit."
Kagome swallowed, going over the new information in her mind. An hourglass which couldn't be destroyed, and an oni-woman whom her friends had killed twenty years before. The spell was still working, so did that mean it wasn't the woman who had to be destroyed, but the hourglass?
And it couldn't be destroyed.
"Where is the hourglass now? If you killed the oni who cast the spell and it didn't break the curse, then maybe it's the hourglass that needs to be taken care of. If I can… what?" Kagome finally stopped talking when she realized everyone had suddenly become even gloomier than before.
"We knew that the hourglass would have to be protected for a long time. Only a youkai could have it, someone who would be able to watch it for the rest of time," Miroku told her, and Sango tilted her head empathetically, pityingly. "Inuyasha was so.. he didn't do much of anything anymore. So he volunteered.. to…"
Shippou put it into blunt, simple words as it seemed he had grown to do. "The hourglass is with Inuyasha."
Kagome caught her breath. Inuyasha… It's with him.
In order to break the spell, I have to get the hourglass… And in order to get that I have to see him…
What do I do now?
…To be continued
a/n :: In the god-awful lengthy intervals between her updates, Tess learned a new trick, which is writing an outline. Oh yes! A MAP for a story. Yay! I didn't do that with Inuki or 2bwu which is why they seem to drag in places. But this one should be fairly short. If I can just continue to WRITE the damn thing.
Soooo.. ::muses with ebil grin on her face:: I just love to force the angst, don't I? I'm gonna MAKE Kagome go see Inuyasha. Mua ha. (Of course I am, is no fun if we don't get to play with the hanyou-kun! ;p ) I am a cruel little author, but if you think I'm bad now, wait till my original stuff gets published. I torture my main charries with great glee. I laugh at their pain. ;p
Thank you for the reviews, they really do help. (And sorry Im late. Again. ::bows:: )
Geminia (Thank you! It will most certainly be continued, even if I have to drag myself off my deathbed to do so. ::determined:: )
Aile Anna (I lubs you whether you can spell or not. ::hug:: )
Inu Faceness (::pat pat:: I promise Inuyasha will be here. Drink some water and take a few deep breaths.)
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jgirl79 (I promise not to forget Inuki-kun! I lubs him! He's being a pesky little doggie right now though. I cant seem to get the 21st chapter written. TT;;; )
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;p
.Tessen.