Chapter 1: Melancholy seven days
"Stand; bow…" The students of second year class B nearly stampeded out the door as they were dismissed for summer break.
Three students lagged behind the rest however.
Her two friends Yuka and Eri who at this point had become the only two who went to school with her guided Higurashi Kagome out of the classroom.
This was not the first time they had had to do this. It was not the first time their friend had gone into a sort of vegetative trance. Every time someone mentioned the Sengoku-jindai she would either burst into tears or stare into space for the rest of day. It had been this way for the past two years, every since she had finally gotten over all those illnesses she kept having that made her miss school (it had been a miracle that she had been able to pass eight grade with all the time she spent out.
After two years of dealing with Kagome's reactions to the aforementioned period, their teachers had wised up and avoided mentioning the subject when Kagome was within hearing range.
If a teacher planed of giving a lesson on the warring states era, they always had some convenient errand to send Kagome on so that they could teach without someone randomly crying in the back.
Today, however there had been a substitute.
There had been a substitute and the astute reader can probably guess what her specialty had been.
That's right. You get a prize.
The Sengoku-jindai.
"Watch where you're walking Kagome-chan!" Yuka cried as she grabbed her friend's collar to keep her from walking into traffic.
"Jeez, ever since she broke up with that Inu Yasha guy she's been such a space case." Eri commented as they waited for the pedestrian light to come on.
"We should hunt him down and make sashimi out of him!" Yuka suggested, pumping her fist in the air.
"Does everything have to be about food with you?" Eri asked dryly.
Kagome on the other hand was deep in thought as she barely listened to her friends bickering.
She wondered just what was going on in the Sengoku-jindai while she was getting ready for her summer break in the present.
Had Sango finally laid her brother to rest?
Had Miroku finally gotten some poor innocent maiden or some rich experienced woman to bear his child-despite that he had already gotten rid of his Kazaana?
Had Kouga finally given up winning her over and settled down with Ayame?
With these questions on the backburner of the stove of her mind, there were still two questions that were on the front and they were the two she most desperately wanted answers to.
Had Kikyou's anger at Inu Yasha finally diminished and let her rest in peace was one because even though she had always been insanely jealous of the close relationship between the miko and the hanyou, she still felt sorry for Kikyou and the pain she suffered all because of the shikon no tama.
Her other big question was also the one she found the hardest to predict the answer to.
Had Inu Yasha found happiness after all, even thought he wasn't able to be with her or with Kikyou for that matter (in the living world anyway)?
These were the questions that plagued Kagome and had done so for the past two years.
She wanted so badly to see everyone again that she cried herself to sleep on the nights when her insomnia kept her from jumping into the well over and over again attempting to travel back to the warring states period.
She sighed as she reminded herself that all of that was over and she was just an average schoolgirl again. That's what she'd always said she wanted anyway, right?
She told herself that she should accept the way things were now and get on with her life and forget everything related her experiences in the moromachi period.
That she should forget everyone she had met and all the things she had learned.
That she forget Sango, Kirara, Miroku, Shippou, Kouga, Ayame, Sesshoumaru, Jaken, Rin, Kaede, Naraku, Kikyou…
And especially.
Inu Yasha
"Hey guys I'm kinda hungry, lets stop and get something to eat." Yuka and Eri jumped, startled at hearing their friends' voice but nodded at the suggestion.
"How about ramen?" Yuka asked
Kagome felt her heart clench but smiled. Reminding herself to forget once more.
"Sure!"
An hour later it was with full stomachs, empty wallets and worried minds that Yuka and Eri dropped Kagome off at the Higurashi shrine, bidding her farewell and reminding her to pack for the beach because Hojo was coming to pick them up bright and early the next morning.
As she walked up the steps that lead to the shrine, Kagome got a very familiar feeling.
One that she hadn't felt in two years.
She felt her hair stand on end, her skin go clammy and like every pore in her body had opened simultaneously.
There was no mistaking that feeling.
It was the one she used to get every time she felt shards of the shikon no tama near by.
Forgetting of ignoring the fact the shikon jewel had disappeared after she had purified it and made her wish, Kagome dropped her school bag on the steps and took off running in the direction she felt the shard coming from.
It wasn't long before she reached her destination and stumbled upon what looked to be a rather serious fight.
"I'm not as much of a pushover as you might think!" shouted the redheaded girl facing Kagome who, judging by her aura, was very obviously a youkai of some sort though she kept her true form hidden by a spell.
"I won't hesitate to destroy you, you insolent pup." Kagome felt all of the blood rush out of her body as she heard the cold voice of the youkai dressed in white that stood before her with his tail draped across his shoulder.
"Sess-dono, please be careful, she isn't as weak as those okami you fought before." Warned what looked like a human woman sitting on the stone wall that separated the mountain form the road.
Upon closer investigation, however, it was clear to Kagome that the woman had an aura of immense spiritual power and that she was something quite different than human or even youkai.
She had more that enough power to make Kagome both curious and nervous at the same time.
"You will not be allowed to gain control over the northern lands. Even if you manage to defeat my there are still others you will have to go through, including my grandparents!" The okami girl pulled twin katanas out of thin air and held them at the ready.
"Your grandfather isn't capable of defeating a measly hanyou let alone a purebred youkai of such power as mine." Sesshoumaru withdrew his tokujin form the scabbard at his side and prepared to attack.
Without any forethought as to the consequences of her action, Kagome suddenly felt the urge to stop the fight.
"Leave her alone, Sesshoumaru!" The other three beings looked at her in shock.
"You…"Sesshoumaru growled, narrowing his eyes.
"Hiya Kagome!" the youkai lord's companion said jumping off the wall and bouncing towards the semi-frightened miko. "Long time no see, huh? It's been about 500 years hasn't it?"
"Er-Do I know you?" The woman frowned.
"You mean you don't recognize me?" Kagome shook her head slowly.
"The woman puffed out her cheeks in frustration.
"Rin remember?"
It took Kagome a few moments to realize that the awkward little girl she'd always seen trailing after Sesshoumaru had grown into the rather well endowed woman standing before her.
Kagome palmed her fists and made the appropriate noises to go along with her discovery, but was interrupted from taking any further action by the clearing of someone's throat.
"Excuse me," Rin and Kagome turned to Sesshoumaru as he sheathed his tokujin.
"What happened to Mihama, Sesshoumaru-dono?" Rin asked.
"She left because she did not feel like fighting around human civilians and I am not in the mood to be lectured about doing so."
"But Sess-dono-"
"Don't argue, Rin. We're leaving." Rin puffed out her cheeks once more and turned back to Kagome as if she wanted to say more but thought better of it and followed Sesshoumaru as he began walking away.
Kagome stood confused for a minutes before running after the youkai lord.
"Wait a minute, just what were you doing outside my house anyway? Don't you have better things to do? Like dismembering babies or something?"
"Mihama-san was there and Sesshoumaru-dono followed her in an attempt to challenge her for control over the northern lands but then you showed up." Rin answered.
Kagome rubbed her eyes as her confusion started to give her a migraine.
"But I thought Ayame's grandfather was the ruler of the north."
"Sesshoumaru stopped walking with an exasperated sigh.
"You shouldn't base you knowledge of youkai politics on what was the case 500 years ago. Things have changed a great deal since then."
Kagome couldn't figure out what he meant until she realized that instead of his normal outfit, the one she'd seen him in every time she had seen him the sengoku-jidai, Sesshoumaru now wore a simple outfit of a white dress shirt and slacks to match with black dress shoes. He'd also cut his hair a few feet shorter, possibly to go along with the current opinion of what was fashionable for men.
Rin was also dressed modernly. Instead of the orange kimono she'd always worn, she now wore blue jeans and a t-shit that read 'My master went to France and all I got was a beating and this lousy T-shirt'.
For some reason Kagome had also failed to notice that while Rin appeared to be a normal girl and had appeared that way 500 years ago, there was no logical way she could be since it would make her at least 500 years old and a normal person would be long dead by now.
"Just what the hell is going here?" Rin and Sesshoumaru exchanged puzzled looks as Kagome screamed in frustration at the recent developments.
"Nothing really. Time overlaps for every who leaps from different periods. You can't honestly say that you thought everyone you knew in the sengoku-jidai only existed there and wouldn't be alive in the present especially all the youkai you knew."
"Actually I kind of did." Kagome muttered under her breath.
"Stupid human. Rin I'll allow you to help her if you wish but do not attempt to use Midoriko gainfully because she owes you a favor. I don not want to have anything more to do with her than I have to."
"Aww, Damn." Rin snapped her fingers regretfully." Alrighty then here it goes." Rin held her hands out towards Kagome and closed her eyes."ACCEPT"
With the word, the ground under her feet as well as under Kagome's lit up with a circle of white light while everything else around them faded to black.
"What the hell…" Kagome asked looking around bewilderedly.
"In the name of Solphied, great goddess of time and beauty I humbly ask as you servant that you answer my call…" The light shot up in a pillar around Kagome.
"Uh-Rin would you mind explaining what you doing please?"
"I asked that you restore the irregular time flow that surrounds this girl so that she may once again fulfill her destiny as a holy maiden…"
"Irregular time flow…?"Kagome asked even though she knew Rin wouldn't answer this question like she hadn't answered the others.
"STRIVER" With the last spoken word the pillars glow intensified until it was the only thing that could be seen.
"When the light cleared the world returned to normal with the exception of Kagome who wasn't there at all.
"What did you do to her?" Sesshoumaru asked in genuine curiosity.
Rin chuckled as she dusted off her hands.
"If I've learned anything from you since we met over five centuries ago Sess-dono its that one should never reveal their true motives until the last minute and always leave the viewers in suspense"
"Humph."
Authors notes: Solphied is the name of one of the dragon gods from slayers and the spell striver, not the incantation leading up to it or the effect just the name of the spell is from Bastard. Neither of which or Inu Yasha I own obviously