Tandemonai

Chapter 2

Kagome's pack hit the well-house floor with a good thump, sending light clouds of dust rising about her ankles.

Mrs. Higurashi regarded her daughter with curiosity. "Is something wrong, dear?" she asked softly.

Kagome glanced back behind her with wide eyes. Her mother, grandfather, and brother stood at the door to the well house, waiting for a response. Obviously they could not sense what she could. After all, they weren't the reincarnation of a 500 some-odd year priestess, she was.

"Something." she trailed off, unsure of how to word it. "Something is off with the well."

She stared at the wooden structure in front of her, and the strange aura surrounding it, emanating off of it. Had it been tampered with somehow? Was such a thing even possible? Kagome frowned slightly; she couldn't tell if it she was sensing was malevolent or not.

"Really?" Souta bounded up next to her, peering down into the dark depths. The young boy had always found the Bone Eater's well to be a bit foreboding - especially since the day it swallowed up his older sister - and could find nothing out of the ordinary about it today. "It looks like the same spooky old well to me."

"Be careful, Souta." Mrs. Higurashi cautioned in a tone that belonged solely to that of a worried mother.

"Yes, mom!" he called out before looking away again. It seemed that the youngest Higurashi's attention was focused solely on the well, diverting every so often to his older sister. "What is it, Sis?" he asked, his tone full of wonder. "Is it a youkai like before? The centipede... or the Noh mask?"

"Demons here in the shrine? Again!" Kagome's grandfather looked as though he were going to have a coronary. He immediately rushed off in search of his ofuda.

Kagome shook her head slowly, trying not to show her amusement at her grandfather's antics. She turned back to her brother. "No, Souta," she replied, much to his disappointment. "It's not a youkai. It just feels off." At least… I think so…

"If it's unsafe," Mrs. Higurashi replied. "Should you be going into it?"

Her daughter sighed heavily. "I'm not sure."

"She has to go!" Souta exclaimed, tugging on the sleeve of her uniform encouragingly. "Inu-no-niichan hasn't come to get her yet!"

Kagome stiffened involuntarily. This action, however, went unnoticed by her mother and brother.

"Don't you get it yet? I'm frickin' dangerous!"

Mrs. Higurashi was tapping her chin thoughtfully. "I can't help but be a bit concerned," she replied. In response, Kagome gave her mother a 'huh' look. "He hasn't been by for almost 3 weeks now."

That was indeed true, Kagome thought to herself. Granted, they hadn't parted under what most would consider being the best of terms - heck, none of their arguments had ever gone so badly.

However, after a week's time, things had always gone back to normal, and yet, after so long there was still no sign of the hanyou. What had gone wrong?

Her mother's face took on a wistful look. "I miss his little ears - they're so cute!" Kagome fell over. 'Can he do no wrong in her eyes!' she wondered to herself.

However, once she really thought about it, it was no surprise her mother seemed to be so smitten with the brash hanyou. As often as the pair alternated time periods, the Higurashis seemed to have inducted InuYasha into their family as if it were a natural thing to do. Why wouldn't it be? His real mother had died when he was younger and his only living relative - his half brother - walked around with a sword whose sole desire was to cleave him in two. Even before revealing this information to her family, they had already taken it upon themselves to welcome the gruff hanyou into their fold.

And despite how irritated he may have appeared to be about it, deep down Kagome knew that Inu Yasha seemed to enjoy Mrs. Higurashi's motherly doting and Souta's big- brother-hero-worship. Like she, they didn't seem to mind that he was half- demon - in fact they seemed more enamored by him because of it. And as for her grandfather, well... Kagome wasn't sure what type of relationship the two had but she was sure they enjoyed to constant battle of wills that always seemed to be waging between them.

"And I hope I never see you again!"

Kagome stared down at the ground, imagining herself as the dirt beneath her shoes. She winced inwardly as her parting words echoed in her head. 'Now I feel bad. Should I have been so hard on him...?' She thought back to the look of surprise that had flashed in his eyes as she had retaliated on him. It was almost as if she had announced his death sentence.

'I shouldn't have said that to him.' Kagome bit her lip thoughtfully. 'It's not that I didn't want to see him again. I do want to see him again. Wait, I do?'

"Kagome?" Kagome glanced back at her mother, who was holding her pack out to her. Once she took it out of her grasp, Mrs. Higurashi smiled back at her gently. "Do you know how I always tell you and your brother when you fight to never go to bed angry?" Kagome nodded. "The same thing applies here." She giggled lightly at her daughter's confusion. "Whatever happened between you and Inu Yasha should be resolved once you get back - friendships like that are too important to let go of so easily, ne?"

Her daughter could only blink for a few moments. 'Inu Yasha and I are friends...?' she puzzled to herself. She thought briefly on all the moments they had shared, just the two of them, and how comfortable she had always felt with him. 'Yeah…we are.' A slow smile crept its way across her face at the look of understanding on her mother's face. How is it that mothers seemed to know everything?

'Mama's right. I've got to make things right between us,' She slung her pack over her shoulder, clamoring over the side of the well. 'Before it's too late!' Hanging onto to the ladder leading down into the well, she spared one more glance at her mother and brother. "Gotta go guys, see you later!"

"Bye, Kagome." Mrs. Higurashi waved pleasantly, as seeing her daughter jump into a bottomless well had already become commonplace. "Take care!"

"G'bye, Sis!" Souta called, watching his sister disappear into the darkness. "Say hi to Inu Yasha for me!" With that, she was gone.

00

If Kagome had had a bad hunch standing on her side of the well, it certainly was confirmed once she vanished from her family's sight. Traveling through the time warp within the well, Kagome felt aura of hostility all around her. The usual blue and purple lights of the time warp that usually surrounded her were replaced splotches and black and red, intermixed with surges of electricity. Before Kagome had time to fear being torn apart, however, her feet had already touched ground at the bottom of the well.

She dropped to her hands and knees, breathing and shaking heavily. Never in her entire experience in the Bone Eater's well had she ever experienced anything like that! She stared down at her hands, and the dirt being clenched in between her fingers. Just what had happened anyway?

'I hope I don't have to go through that again,' she murmured to herself. 'Not even going in the first time - being yanked down by a 30-foot centipede-youkai - was that frightening!' Having regained her bearings, Kagome stood up and brushed herself off, deciding to discuss the matter with Kaede when she reached the village.

00

She couldn't find the village. Retracing her steps for the third time, Kagome scratched her head in confusion. Setting her pack down at her feet, she turned around, surveying her surroundings.

"Now, this is weird." she murmured aloud. "Could they have moved the well?" She paused, tapping herself on the head for her stupidity. "Kagome, don't be silly … that's impossible!"

The wind blew, whipping her hair and clothes about her wildly. Shivering, Kagome wondered for the umpteenth time why she always insisted upon wearing her school uniform to the Sengoku Jidai.

'It's in case you get caught coming out of the well,' she told herself, again for the umpteenth time. 'Still, I bet I'd be a lot warmer if I had Inu Yasha's haori.'

Blushing at the implications of that train of thought, Kagome picked up her pack and forced herself to get back to the task as at hand - finding the village. She did not, however, notice the small tear that had appeared on her sleeve.

Upon finally finding the village, Kagome found herself wishing she hadn't. What lay before her was not the quaint, but always bustling farming community she had come to know. What lay before was not even a pale comparison!

Huts lay in shambles; charred and crumbling frames and skeletons that always seemed to be filled with people lay abandoned and forgotten. Trees and carts lay battered and over turned, in and on top of houses that had somehow managed to defy the law of gravity and remain standing. Like a ghost town, a cruel wind blew through the village, scattering dirt and debris among the ground.

Had it been anywhere else, Kagome would have scoured the area for survivors. Unfortunately, the courage and devotion she usually possessed in such situations had fled her. This place – this place had been like a second home to her. It WAS a second home to her. She hadn't the heart to venture in, and deep down she knew it would have been a wasted effort on her part.

The village, her poor village, was gone. Lay to waste just like that; she couldn't believe what she was seeing. How could such a lively place, that had been alive not even three weeks ago, be reduced to such shambles? It had to be mistake.

"A mistake," Kagome murmured to herself, like a mantra of sorts. "It's got to be a mistake… one big mistake."

But what could she do to make it right?

"The well!" Her mind instantly went back to the turbulence she had experienced coming through the well. She had known something wasn't right; it had to be the cause of all of this!

Kagome quickly turned on her heels, racing fast as she could back to the well. However, she had only managed to go so far when a vicious wind picked up, lifting the young priestess off of her feet. Before she could discern what was happening however, she was dropped cruelly to the ground.

The wind effectively knocked out of her lungs, Kagome lay dazed on her back a few moments before realizing she was not alone. Looking upwards, she found herself at the feet of a very menacing looking youkai.

She quickly scrambled to her feet, backing away as fast as she could. "Y- youkai!"

The youkai, a female with pointed ears and hair pulled up in a bun/ponytail, regarded her with a look of disdain. "How observant of you," she remarked. "And you are human, which means you now die."

Raising her hand, she procured a feather out of nowhere. Waving it through the air, the youkai created a powerful gust of wind that once again sent Kagome sailing through the air. She hit the ground this time twice as hard as before, succumbing to unconsciousness.

The youkai, Kagura the wind demon, approached her unconscious body, preparing to finish her off. "She didn't even put up a fight," she murmured to herself. "How pitiful-" She paused, staring down at the girl before her. "It can't be!" She leaned forward, sniffing at the prone form before her.

Kagome groaned slightly but did not awaken.

Kagura frowned, debating over something in her head. When she had seemingly made her decision, she hefted Kagome onto her shoulders. Producing a rather large feather, she hopped upon it and took off into the night sky.

Naraku would be very surprised indeed.

End of Chapter 2