For four entire days, all Kagome did was walk on towards Tatsuryu-san, resting only to eat and sleep. She had plenty of time alone, and, with basically nothing else to do, she spend much of this time thinking. She wondered how InuYasha and the others were doing, and wondered if she would ever see them again. She hoped that she did, that their paths would meet again, and that she'd be able to be with them again, but something told her that if it happened, it would not be for a long time. First, of course, she would have to finish her journey, which was taking an awfully long time already. It had been almost two months since she'd left Kaede's hut that night, since she'd last seen dear InuYasha's sleeping face, watched his ear twitch slightly in his sleep as she left…
A tear fell onto the ground, and Kagome then realized that she had been crying with the memories of her friends and family, and mostly InuYasha. She missed them more than she'd thought was possible, more than she'd ever missed anything before. Sure, she'd missed her friends and family in the present when she was in the Sengoku Jidai, and she would miss that group when she returned to the present, but this was the first time that she was apart from both groups, and that this isolation was planned to be at least semi-permanent for a long period of time. The tears began to come in their watery masses, and Kagome stopped to huddle under a tree and cry herself to sleep.
The next morning, Kagome awoke to discover that she had stopped right at the base of Tatsuryu-san. "I wonder what I need to do here," she mused aloud, suddenly realizing that she had no idea what to do. "Err…" she looked around, trying desperately to find a hint or clue. That giving no aid to her problem, she took out the map Kiyonomi had given her, hoping that the GPS-like system would give her some kind of help. She was in luck, as she noticed that besides the blip that was her and the separate blip that was her destination, a line connected the two, and, stemming from that, another line with words written on it. It was a riddle, difficult, but blessed in Kagome's eyes as she'd be worse off without it. The riddle said:
Upon sharp gray backs I ride
Until they give way and down I fall
My thunderous fate will also hide
A sacred treasure that is oh so small
"What could this mean? This doesn't help at all!" Kagome whined, realizing that, although it was meant as help, all the riddle was doing was confusing her more. Deciding that since the blip seemed to be on the mountain, she began to climb. After many tries to go up, she found that there seemed to be a sort of natural trail that went around the mountain, curving in a continuous circle. It was probably the slowest way to get anywhere, but at least it was getting somewhere. After nearly an hour, she began to hear the sound of water, and sped up her pace, hoping to get a drink. Through a clearing of trees, she found herself at the base of a waterfall. "Oh, how beautiful!" she exclaimed, deciding that it was high time for a rest. She sat against a tree and stared at the rushing water. As she looked, something was nagging the back of her mind, as though there was something important about this that she could not figure out. She thought and thought, but couldn't solve the nagging's cause, which made the nagging worse. "I've always wondered what's behind a waterfall," she mused aloud, and then it hit her. She hastily took out the riddle and read it over. The waterfall did run over many gray rocks, although they were not quite as sharp after years of erosion. The falling water did make a thunderous roar, meaning that the last part…
"Well, only one way to find out!" Kagome decided, walking over to the waterfall. Without a second thought, she dove in under the pummeling forces.
She was instantly forced down, nearly slamming onto the rocky bed due to the extreme force of the falls. Nevertheless, she was a good swimmer, and powerfully propelled herself onward, though having to often push herself onward and away from the bottom. It took a long while, and soon she felt the warning signs that she needed air. Unfortunately, it would be tight; she was still being forced down onto the rock bottom, although she was almost through the falls. She tried not to panic, just concentrate on swimming and getting to the surface. The force began to lessen, and now she really needed air. She clawed her way up to the surface; she had to take a breath now, but she wasn't there yet, she was going to drown in another second...
Kagome rocketed out of the water, taking a huge, deep breath of crisp, moist air. She was gently sprayed by the waterfall, which was now in front of her. Now behind the falls, there was a small cavern, which had prisms of light all around from the sun shining through the watery curtain at its entrance. It was an awesome sight, being behind such a monstrous force. But there were other, more important matters at hand, like the treasure mentioned in the riddle.
Walking along the spray-soaked rock floor, Kagome began inspecting as many inches of the cavern as she could, looking for anything out of the ordinary that could count as 'treasure'. She had a feeling that the treasure was related to the Miko that she was supposed to find, and it was then that she realized that she didn't even know which Miko she was looking for!
A sparkle caught her eye near the entrance of the cave. At first, she thought it was just the reflection of light off of the water; in fact, that's what she thought it was every time it flashed. However, after the sixth hundredth time that it sparkled, she noticed that the sparkle did not seem to come from the water after all. Catching her breath, she could do nothing to slow her racing heart as she crossed the cave to investigate. This had to be the treasure, that's how it always happened in movies and fairy tales, and right now, it was kind of like she was in a fairy tale. The sparkle was coming off the ground, so she bent down, examining the small pools of water in the rock. Finally, she spied what she was looking for. A small, blue stone was polished and carved into an 'F' shape. It looked like another common part of fairy tales. "A key?" Kagome pondered, incredulous at how she was living her solo fairy tale now, how the pieces of the puzzle were fitting together as though being written as a book. Of course, if this was indeed like a story, then she would soon have to look for the next…er…key…for the progression of her tale: a keyhole. She searched every inch of the cavern, but not even the tiniest crevice could be found. Deducting that the keyhole was outside of the cavern, she pocketed the strange skeleton key, and dove into the raging waters.
It was under the pounding of the waterfall that Kagome saw it. Glistening in the trails of sunlight that reached the sandy bottom, the top of what appeared to be a giant conch shell peeked from behind layers of sand. She swam right over it, making sure it was directly below her the whole time as she surfaced. It took one glance for her to memorize the position of the shell; it was rather easy, as the shell happened to be in the dead center of the waterfall's pool. The only problem about the shell was that it was several feet down, and getting down there, taking out the key, and seeing if it was the lock without running out of air would be difficult.
Struck by an idea, she whipped out her sutra paper and ink, and quickly scribbled a sacred text. Throwing it into the water, where it hit dead center above the shell, she recited a prayer that accompanied the text. There was a loud rushing of water; like the waterfall's thundering, but different, and a whirlpool appeared around the now glowing sutra paper. Within seconds, the whirlpool became a wall of water surrounding a circular area around the shell and sutra.
"It worked!" Kagome grinned, now able to reach the shell without having the issue of limited air supply. She swam over to the exposed area, diving down as far as she could so that she would not fall through the newly created area of air. Without any hesitation, she poked the key into the shell, and turned it clockwise.
Kagome's hunch about this out-of-the-ordinary object, which was, in any other case, ordinary, turned out to be correct; when she turned the key inside of the conch shell, the ground trembled, and the conch shell began to rise. Kagome's sutra, which should have lasted for at least ten minutes longer, suddenly lost all of its strength, and water came crashing down on Kagome, forcing her onto the lakebed. Said lakebed soon began to move, and Kagome then found herself being forced upward, sitting upon an Indian-style turret, as though she was on a tower of the Taj Majal. With the conch shell and its glittering beacon of a key on top, Kagome hurtled towards the surface, which she soon found herself well above. It was then that the movement stopped abruptly. Kagome wasn't ready for it, however, so she felt herself leaving the surface she was on, hitting it again hard, rolling a few times, and then she saw the water, about fifteen feet below her and closing in fast.
Kagome ungracefully smacked the water, doing the equivalent to a belly flop off of a high dive diving board. A bevy of large bubbles rose to the surface slightly before she did, indicating that the wind had been knocked out of her. When she finally broke through the surface, she had to take at least five minutes to just sit there and float, getting her breath back. Watching her hair float around like raven-black seaweed, she contemplated the day. She had begun on the same journey that Kiyonomi had sent her on, to Tatsuryu-san. Now that she was on that mountain, she was more or less on her own. Kiyonomi's map had given her a gentle push in the right direction, but she had been the one to figure out the key and keyhole's identity, and utilize them.
Thinking about the key and keyhole reminded Kagome of what had just happened to take the wind out of her. Looking up, she realized that she had indeed been atop a tower; a tall, pale cyan tower, with a light coral pink seashell-colored top. Glittering atop that was the key that had been in the waterfall cavern. Looking down into the water, Kagome could see that the tower rose from the sand as though it were merely a sandcastle built from the lakebed.
A glittering similar to the one that had drawn her to the cavern was coming to Kagome's attention, being that it was around where she was staring under the water. Deciding to take a chance, she dove down, and discovered that the key material was also decorating a large door in the tower. According to typical fairy-tale etiquette, this was the way to the next destination.
Resurfacing, Kagome swam over to shore, and began to prepare three more sutras. The first was like the original one she had used; another whirlpool began, forming a dry, air-filled cavity around the tower in the lake. The second sutra she wrote was not activated, but merely prayed upon in a certain way, so that it became waterproof. Kagome grabbed the third sutra, made it, too, waterproof, and used it on her bag. Her bag then became not only sealed and airtight, but also small and light, so that it would not inhibit her progress in whatever lay ahead.
Once at the door, Kagome took out the second sutra. With one hand, she put it on her face and activated it; simultaneously, she deactivated the sutra creating the air cavity. This time, Kagome was ready for the rushing water. She let it sweep into her, and let it push her into the door, which then bounced like jelly before dissolving. The water swept her in and up, nearly slamming her into the underside of the roof that she had fallen off of. However, just as it was about to do this, the flow stopped, and all became calm.
Confident in her scuba sutra, which allowed her to breathe underwater, Kagome begin to swim downwards, where she hoped that she would encounter a miko and get a shard of the Miko no Tama.