well hello to all my previous readers and to all the readers reading my fics for the very first time. this story promises to be a seriuosly long one as some of my captive audience members are slowly beginning to understand. (I'm soo evil!)
This story is as different from the other I have posted that it's almost impossible to believe they come from the same screwed up mind, or I tell myself that at least. But this one has the honor of being the first I've ever written. (the other simply was finished first, which isn't surprising considering how much longer this one is turning out to be.) I started this fic about four years ago, and it still isn't done. And no I'm not saying that I'm posting something unfinished. See I got around that little stipulation of mine that I not post something that hasn't already been completed. You wanna know how? It was so long I decided to break it into parts. That's how. this part was finished and by the time I'm done posting this I should be just about done typing up the second part, then I'll be typing up the third part... but there's still more to write.
In case you hadn't figured it out yet, all the characters of Inuyasha are my play things until my lease runs out sometime in the next millenium. It's good to be delusional.
At the Bottom of a Well
A solitary figure made its way up the rain-slicked steps of the Higurashi shrine. Aki sighed, 'What a drab day!' The only good thing about this wet weather was that Kagome might be more sedate in their lessons. That is, the girl was more likely to pay attention to Aki's vain help to improve her English vocabulary and pronunciation. It wasn't that Kagome didn't seem to like the language or that she suffered a severe lack of ability in learning it, but Kagome just didn't pay attention very well.
Aki shifted the heavy bag hanging across her shoulder. It was filled with things that wouldn't fit in her other bag waiting for her in the car. The camping trip she'd planned for after this little tutorial session would be a good escape from all the things bothering her. She was looking so forward to it that she didn't want to take the time to go back to her apartment afterwards before taking off.
Aki faltered a little as she nearly missed a step. She really didn't need the work as a tutor. She did it mainly to appease her kindly, however nosy, landlord who let her pay rent by tutoring his niece. She could easily afford the rent without tutoring Kagome, but he wouldn't let her pay for it that way. Her landlord worried too much. So what if she never went out or if she was always alone, it's not like she was going to die from lack of human contact. Unfortunately this logic didn't appease her landlord's sense of "the way things should be". This was part of the reason for her trip.
Her landlord thought she was going with a group, but that was merely a fabrication she'd concocted. What he didn't know couldn't upset him, and as long as she returned in time for her tutoring sessions with Higurashi Kagome, there was no harm done.
She felt a drop of water and looked up at her umbrella. She smiled soberly and shook the excess moisture from it. It was a simple black umbrella with a curved handle and a pointed metal end to it. Not that much to look at, certainly not very special looking, she was attached to it nonetheless. It was one of the few things she'd held onto when…when…she frowned. Wasn't good to linger on that. Especially on such a dismal day, right before her session with Kagome, such thinking would only make her morose and irritable.
Aki paused on the last step and ran her fingers through her thick damp mane. Her hair shined through its darkened soggy state. Her mother had cherished the silky thickness of it, having never had such hair herself. 'Bleh! Full of old memories today aren't we?' she scolded herself quietly. Aki blinked as she saw a small child running towards her at full tilt. The young woman gritted her teeth and braced herself for the impact. But instead of barreling into her as she'd expected, the boy grabbed her arm and dragged her in the opposite direction of his earlier path.
"Wha…? Sota! (For it was he) Slow Down!" She cried trying to keep her feet under her and maintaining a death grip on her umbrella in unconscious reflex. "Wait! Stop! What is it Sota! What's the matter!" Then she realized that even though he was trying to answer her, her Japanese just wasn't up to his childish chattering and supersonic speed. She did catch a few words…
"Hurry…have to stop her… She's going back again…" Sota said a lot more, but Aki didn't catch it.
She nearly fell over a crack in the sidewalk she was so off balance. "Slow down, Sota! Please!" But of course he didn't. Aki was very surprised when their path turned away from her expected goal, the Higurashi House proper. Instead she found herself being drawn someplace she'd never been before.
It was a well house. That's all she registered before she was thrown inside and stumbled down the stair that was right in front of the door with the residual speed of Sota's mad dash on the slippery wet concrete of the grounds. She managed to hang onto her umbrella and not break her neck before she fell into Kagome and both tumbled directly into the open mouth of an ancient well at the end of the steps.
Aki groaned; she ached all over. Falling down a well was not a very pleasant experience, especially when somebody else falls on you. Kagome groaned in concurrence.
"You mind getting off of me?" Aki requested somewhat abruptly. She didn't mean to be rude or terribly hurtful, but Kagome was no lightweight and Aki's ribs hurt.
"Eh? Uh, Yeah!" Kagome got up quickly, or at least tried to. Maneuvering in the small space of the well's bottom inhibited speed. It also made getting off someone more painful to the one being sat on than staying put had been.
Aki gritted her teeth and didn't make a sound as Kagome once again accidentally nailed her in the stomach with her heel. Griping about accidental injury wasn't going to help and letting Kagome know she was causing pain might make it worse in the long run. People generally do more damage when they're trying to be careful.
Outside the well, and not too far distant was everybody's favorite hanyou. You guessed it; it was Inuyasha. And he was doing the usual griping about Kagome and her going back home. Actually, he was becoming rather impatient. He could smell Kagome's scent wafting up from the well. What irritated him right this minute was the amount of time it was seemingly taking her to climb out of the well. True Kagome was no professional well wall climber, but this amount of time seemed ridiculous to his fine sensibilities. In short, he was impatient and being impatient a few moments seemed like forever as it does with small children who've had too much sugar.
"Aki-chan," Kagome addressed her relatively young tutor, " you've lost your glasses.
Aki blinked at her and smiled, "So it seems. Well, they should be around here somewhere. Help me look?" Kagome nodded and together they began combing the damp earth around them.
Oblivious to the events occurring inside the well, Inuyasha was swiftly working himself into a rather annoyed and pissed off state, not unlike his usual mood. 'Where was that girl! ' Inuyasha growled deep in his throat. Well, the best way to find out was…you guessed it, to go into the well.
Aki and Kagome bumped heads again. Kagome laughed as she rubbed the aching area of her skull. "This well just isn't big enough for the two of us!" she grinned.
The other girl blinked, "I guess." Aki returned to running her hands over the ground. She really didn't need her glasses; there was only a very slight prescription in one lens. It would be uncomfortable to go without them though. She tended to get a headache if she went without them after wearing them for a while. And that particular set of frames had been her first and only thus far.
Inuyasha took a running leap at the well. Aimed perfectly to miss all the sides. If this were basketball, it would be an awesome free throw… Unfortunately, Inuyasha is no basketball and the well is not a hoop. It wasn't until after he was halfway to the bottom of the well that he realized there were people there. And one of them was Kagome. And there wasn't room for a third adult sized body at the bottom of the well. And he didn't seem to be going anywhere but to the bottom.
Kagome and Aki looked up just in time to let out a yell and push towards the sides in a desperate, yet futile, attempt to avoid direct impact. A lot of yelling and the sound of breaking glass accompanied Dogboy's landing. Aki winced as silence closed around them.
The sometime English tutor had fallen just as the hanyou landed in the center of the well. The good news was she found her glasses. The bad news was that she found them with her elbow. Thus her glasses were broken and there were a few shiny pieces of glass in her elbow.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome glowered as she began climbing out of the well. "When we get out of this well I'm going to 'osuwari' you into next week!" Of course upon uttering the magic word one very steamed dogboy quickly hit the deck taking poor Aki with him, further embedding the glass in her arm.
Aki yelped at the sudden increased pain but didn't cuss out Inuyasha or Kagome, as she was as yet ignorant of the connection between that specific word and the beads encircling the boy's neck. As far as she knew, he'd simply fallen by accident. She gritted her teeth and levered herself off the well bottom before offering him a hand up. "Here" she said wincing at the pain in her other arm.
Inuyasha looked surprised at the outstretched hand. Were all the people from Kagome's time so stupid? He brushed her hand aside as he leapt out of the well, outstripping Kagome in the process.
Kagome sighed and looked back into the well. She'd expected to be back in the well house. It didn't make sense. Why were they all (Aki included) in the Feudal era? And how did Aki get through the well in the first place? All questions best asked a certain Miko when they got back to town.
Kagome waited as Aki made her slow progress out of the glorified hole in the ground. Her injured arm was giving her trouble. She was nearly halfway up when she fell the first time. It only seemed to get worse after that. It was so bad that Kagome lost patience and climbed back into the well to retrieve Aki's things from her. Finally Kagome couldn't stand it anymore and went to fetch a certain hanyou to take care of the situation.
"You're being a major wuss, you realize that," a transparent man told Aki in the well.
"Eh? Oh, it's you," Aki smiled. "Wasn't sure when you were going to show up."
The ghost growled at her in frustration, "I'd've been there before you got up the shrine steps if you'd walked to the Higurashi's like you usually do!"
"Heheh, still can't keep up with the car, can you?" Aki teased.
The spirit shrugged, " I nearly lost you when you fell in the well. You really should be more careful, you could've broken your neck!"
"You worry too much," Aki replied as she slipped over the lip of the well, and got a good look around. "Where are we?"
"Why didn't you just climb out of the well before, when you had someone here to answer that question?" The fuzzy figure inquired bitingly.
"She didn't help me forget the pain, besides if I do everything the first time, how on earth is it supposed to look like a miracle?" she related with a grin as she replaced her bag and hooked her umbrella in the crook of her good arm. "And, I'm sure you can answer the question just as well as she could, Fred."
"That is NOT my name!" Aki just grinned in response to Fred's outburst. "It's not my name!" He sighed admitting defeat both to the author and to the inevitable, which some would argue is the same thing. " The question is not where, but when."
"Could you be a little less enigmatic?" Aki grumbled quietly.
"Could you call me by my real name?" he countered seriously.
"Sure…just as soon as I feel like it." She shrugged and was reminded blatantly of her wounded elbow, "Guess I'll just have to wait 'til Kagome gets back."
"Oh, sure call her by her real name…" he griped and Aki grinned mischievously.
At that moment Inuyasha returned to the well in a huff, grabbed her by the arm and took off running back the way he'd come. "Ah!" she yelped, feeling a vague sense of deja vue. Only this time, instead of a small boy dragging her around, an adult sized male had nearly yanked her good arm out of its socket and was dragging her around at a much greater speed. "Hey! Slow down! Please! Not so fast! Hold up…" her litany continued and in several different languages as well.
Meanwhile, Inuyasha was complaining under his breath (and her ineffective protests) about whom else but Kagome. The nerve of that girl! Yelling that insufferable dog command to get her way. These beads most certainly gave her too much power over him. He breathed in, using the gifts his demon blood gave him and his gait faltered with surprise.
It wasn't possible, had he lost his demon powers? No, no there were the scents from the village, and there was Kagome's more subtle scent. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes in (get this) thought (!). Why couldn't he find a scent for this girl? Luckily, before he could strain himself, Inuyasha's thoughts were interrupted by their arrival in the village.
"Oh!" Aki wobbled a little once they'd stopped. "I feel like a dog got hold of me and shook me real good."
Kagome laughed, "You're not too far off!" Inuyasha growled. Kagome ignored his surly behavior and gestured for the confused young woman to follow. Kagome lead the way into Kaede's hut. Kagome figured it was the best place to start; at least Aki's elbow would get looked to properly.
"Kagome, are you back already?" Kaede asked somewhat surprised. "Who's this?" noticing the other strangely clad girl entering her abode.
"That's Aki-chan," introducing her, "she fell through the well with me this time." Kagome looked pointedly at Kaede. "Any ideas as to how or why?"
Aki listened quietly; obviously she wasn't expected to understand any of this stuff. " Um, it could be because we were both touching when we fell. And because we fell with such velocity…" she thought aloud. Kaede and Kagome stared at the girl like she'd grown a second head. "Well, I don't know. All I know is that I fell into a well and Kagome landed on me! But since then I've gathered that the well can lead to some when (?) else. And from your conversation, I assume that my coming here shouldn't have happened at all." Aki explained at their reaction and sighed, "But it did and here I am. Now can somebody please help remove the glass in my elbow?" Pointedly bringing the subject of conversation to the more pressing issue of blood dripping down her arm.
"What happened here?" Kaede inquired getting a better look at her arm.
"I got landed on," Aki said somewhat amused.
"I've never seen this sort of thing before," Kaede remarked taking in the substance sticking out of Aki's arm.
"It's not too hard to take care of, " Aki stated. "Mainly I just need to get all the pieces out, then we can treat the wound." Kaede nodded and began pulling the shards of glass out. Aki hissed and caught her breath as the fractured lens was slowly being removed. Kagome went and got a bowl to put all the glass in so that nobody would be tempted to hurt themselves by walking on the sharp pieces.
Inuyasha sat in the corner of the hut. He was not simply being sadistic and enjoying the waves of pain play over Aki's features (though I'm sure some authors might find that to be closer to his character). He was simply uncomfortable leaving the old woman and Kagome alone with someone he couldn't smell. Besides, he wanted to know how a mere human was able to elude his "fantastic" demon sense of smell. After all, it wasn't like she was a powerful youkai like he would be someday after using shikon no tama. But she could still be powerful enough to cause harm to the weak mortals. At any other time this wouldn't bother him (heap big youkai warrior) except he still needed Kagome to find the Shikon no kakera. Of course Kagome needed her health, so the old miko would have to stay alive to patch up the stupid girl.
"So Kagome," Aki looked at the girl, " Where am I specifically?"
"Sengoku Japan," Kagome answered. " Can't get more specific than that, because I'm not sure beyond that."
"Sengoku…feudal! Okay so some when was correct after all," Aki commented thoughtfully. "That would put us about 1480-1570. That's a bit of a jump." She winced as the old woman pulled the last of the glass from her elbow. "Okay now we have to scrub the wound…" Kagome blanched; Kaede only nodded. "Have to get ALL the glass out, that means the itty bitty pieces too," she explained, rummaging in her bag for something. "This'll have to do," she said holding a nailbrush out to Kaede.
Kaede nodded and got a good firm grip on Aki's arm before laying into the wound with heavy brush strokes. The girl gritted her teeth and refused to cry out. She stayed like that until the grip on her arm loosened and the scrubbing stopped.
Kagome cleaned the wound with water before sterilizing it with supplies form her own pack. Then Kaede wrapped the tender flesh in an herbal bandage. Aki flexed her arm to check how much the band would restrict movement.
"That should do for now," the miko stated. "It'll have to wait for further treatment until I can find some good thread and more of those herbs. I'm running low."
Aki nodded, "I'll help, it's always fun to learn new things." She smiled looking forward to herb hunting. Kaede only nodded. The girl took off her bag and propped her umbrella against the wall by the door so it could dry.
They all stepped out into the sunshine and it was soon decided that Kagome would go thread hunting while Kaede and Aki went plant gathering. This was decided so that if Aki's arm decided to be a problem (I'm no med-student, don't ask me how/why) Kaede would be on the spot to care for it.