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Strangled Time

Chapter 47

Birdsong was generally a pleasant sound to wake up to in the morning after a sour night's sleep. So was the babbling of gentle rapids in the distance. They were the types of sounds that put your mind at ease and promised just a few more restful moments before you were forced to put on your hypothetical pants and start the day.

You know what wasn't a pleasant thing to wake up to in the morning? The snippy and brisk whispers of your traveling companions as they spoke just out of interpreting range, but still loud enough to be a buzzing gnat in your eardrum.

Did they really have to have their super secret angry guy time so early in the stupid morning?

The answer to that would remain unknown, because she wasn't about to ask it.

When Kagome stirred the men went silent. They started upon other, non-verbal tasks as she dug herself out of bed.

She was notgoing to interrogate them on their strange behaviors.

She was not going to hang onto that anger from yesterday.

She was just going to go about her normal routine in complete and utter silence, avoiding all eye contact and potential emotional encounters.

Yep, it was a totally normal day.

Right.

Once she was straightened, fed, and not a total zombie, the priestess announced to the group that she was going to take another trip into Chichibu to try and do some investigating.

"Is there anythin' I can to ta help?" Saburo asked meekly.

"No." Kagome lolled with a half glare. "I don't want you doing anything."

Okay.

So maybe she was still a little mad.

Just a smidge.

Before leaving she turned to address Togashimaru.

"We're going to get to the bottom of this." She said, trying to channel her flame to accentuate her fury at the situation and not at them. "I promise."

She hoped it sounded convincing.

But it probably didn't.

…

"Woah, woah. What do ya think yer doin'?" Saburo asked as Togashimaru rose to his feet, adjusted his sword, and collected his walking staff from where it was placed atop Kagome's bag not long after she left.

"I am going to ask for you help me find someplace."

"We're not supposed ta be goin' nowhere. Miss Kagome made that real clear."

The dog demon scoffed. "She does not wish for me to infiltrate the city below. I have neither the desire nor the intentions of doing such. No, I will be going elsewhere. Not far, if my knowledge of this region serves to be correct." He pulled out the fisherman's shawl and wrapped it around his neck and shoulders. For disguise? Or was he actually feeling the cold for once? "If you will not accompany me, I will go on my own. Your assistance, while desired, is not entirely necessary."

Saburo's eyebrows pinched as he watched the determined silver haired man from across the fire. Only when Togashimaru stumbled over the flat surface of the ground did his concern win out. The blacksmith leap up and over to him. He pulled the demon's arm across his shoulders for support and held his wrist tight.

With a long, suffering sigh, Saburo gave in.

"Okay, fine. Where're we goin'?"

…

The city seemed less beautiful almost, in the drab light of that snowy morning. Less warm, more grey. The streets were nearly empty now; the festival goers long since returned to their homes and hotels. It felt as if the town were hollow. As if it were dead.

Or dying.

Like everything else around her.

Like Izayoi, like Toga. Like maybe even Yuugo, in his near future? Hell, even Saburo. He was only mortal; once she left and returned home to her own era he was just going to become a memory from an ancient time. He will have lived his life and died without even coming close to her century mark.

Why was she even there if she couldn't change any of it?

Was there a point to it at all?

There had to be some reason why she'd been sent back to those specific events, right? She had a purpose, right?

Or was her purpose just to exist as a silent observer?

A witness to history.

No. Screw that.

The universe might love its vagueness and fuckery and mind games, but Kagome wasn't going to just float along with it.

She was going to create her own purpose. A new purpose, now that their original had been burnt to ashes.

She was going to find out exactly what happened to Izayoi, and then she was going to set things straight.

No matter what, before Togashimaru passed away, he was going to get the peace of mind and justice he deserved.

No matter what.

…

The elder's manor was just as grand as she'd left it the day before. But now, in that new light, it felt like the imposing structure loomed with malice, shards of sharp glass, and inky tendrils lurking, beckoning, from the shadows. Indecipherable winds carried whispers and dark secrets around corridor corners. Even the natural grains of crisp wood felt stained somehow, so Kagome kept her hands to herself.

It'd been too early to get an audience with the elder, but that didn't well matter. It wasn't the elder she intended to speak to.

Recognized by the young servant from the day before, Kagome was granted access to the more public sections of the building and grounds. Walking about, there were a few things that stuck out to her. Most prominently was that the majority of the maids on the premises were dressed in sharp, stark black. Also scattered about were small telltale signs that the priestess had missed her first time around; an evergreen wreath here, a small bowl of salt there, the smell of funeral incense musty in the air.

The fingerprints of death were all over the place.

Yet there were also several people breaking custom in the bleak atmosphere. Mostly young ladies. They walked about wearing the vibrant and ornate adornments of festival wear, much like the people outside in the city, only far more lavish. They clustered in groups of twos or threes, and Kagome recognized a pair of them as the garden groupies she'd seen yesterday. One was wearing a frock of red and green as her outermost layer, embroidered with intricate medallions, while the other was similarly garbed in shades of purple. A third young woman followed behind the two, slightly taller. She was decked out in a jarring combination of tangy oranges and blues.

Pretty, primped, and just the type of people she'd been hoping to bump into.

Alright Kagome, you've got this. Just channel your inner teen gossip.

"Excuse me." Kagome stopped the trio before they could pass her on the garden walk. "Can I talk to you for a sec? About Lady Izayoi?"

The girl in red and green, apparently the ringleader, stopped and the other two followed suit. She brought the long hem of her flowing sleeve up to cover dainty painted lips as she pouted. "You do know that it is improper to speak of the dead, do you not?" The girl said, sounding an awful lot like the type of person Kagome would have avoided in high school—all flowers and sugar coated venom.

Kagome answered the polite sass with a wry smile. "Isn't it also improper to be partying so soon after your mistress was killed?"

Whoops-a-daisy, Freudian slip.

Teen gossip Kagome was rusty.

Shocked by the forwardness that was Kagome, the red girl floundered for a retort. The taller girl in the back took a step forward.

"Why you impudent little—"

Suddenly another joined them—an older woman with neatly plaited hair wearing a far more intimidating number of brightly colored layers. She placed her hand on the shoulder of the girl who'd been about to raise a scene.

"Now, now." Her voice was a sound like spider silk; beautiful and delicate yet very much a trap waiting to be sprung. "We mustn't allow our emotions to overpower us. The late Lady would have wanted us to celebrate life, not wallow or give into the vast pains of our grief."

Funny. She didn't seem to be grieving that much at all. Either the Lady's wishes were working really well on her or that woman was completely full of bullshit. Kagome assumed the latter.

She also assumed that Lady Izayoi's skills of chicanery must have far, far surpassed those of the women standing in front of her because, quite frankly, their game was pretty lame. She was expecting to be slightly more convinced, more swayed by their words, considering how Izayoi was supposed to have been. But they were all so obviously fake. There was no way she could imagine Togashimaru being beguiled by any one of them.

Izayoi must've been something special.

But… did she actually believe that? Or was she just being biased because she didn't think anyone besides the aggrandized Izayoi could be good enough for Toga?

Was her anger making her overly judgmental?

Giving a toothless smile, the noble woman continued on. "Miss priestess, might I ask what it is you are here for?"

"I'm here to figure out what happened."

"Oh? But I thought it was clear when you left yesterday that you had no intentions to lead an investigation."

Come on, focus. Gossip girl, gossip.

Kagome's grip on her bowstring tightened and she straightened up. "It just seemed weird, you know? She sounded like such a nice person, I couldn't imagine who could do something like that. It shocked me at first, but now I'm here to help out and one of the maids told me that you might be the ones to talk to. Could you give me a better idea of what happened? You have to know something, right? I mean, you were all friends, weren't you? You'd probably know better than anybody else if she was in any sort of trouble."

"It was a break in." Blurted the girl in purple, who'd been silent up until that moment. She seemed more timid that the rest when she looked around to her friends for support. "Somebody broke in during the night. I heard them."

"No it wasn't, Nao." The red ringleader hissed.

The hothead in blue crossed her arms. "We all know what happened. The master simply refuses to accept it."

"That sound was not as the killer arrived, but as they fled. My sister heard it from the blue room."

Aha. Now they were getting someplace with that juicy gossip mill.

The shrinking violet turned away. "It does not matter which. I do not feel safe here anymore; I have not slept for days since."

"There is no longer any danger to fear." The elder woman interjected again. "The beast is gone now. It will not be returning."

The beast?

"She was killed by a demon?" Kagome asked, caught off guard.

"Essentially, yes." The noblewoman replied. Her cool, dark eyes met Kagome's blue hues. They were expressionless marbles feigning sympathy. Her tone was the flavor of unsalted saltines. "It was that child of hers. A half demon, he was, you see. A true mongrel. He erupted into a rage and tore the poor Lady Izayoi to bits. I was witness as he fled the grounds with blood on his claws. It was a horrific incident… yet, we had warned her."

Kagome felt gravity pulling hard at her feet. It pulled her innards downward, her stomach, her heart, her pulse. Everything felt heavy, so much so that she swore the cobblestones beneath her would break.

Inuyasha.

She'd been so focused and worried about everything else going on that she'd complete forgotten about him. She'd forgotten about the child that was had between Izayoi and her dog demon lover. She'd forgotten about the younger version of her best friend. The boy she loved.

How could she have forgotten about Inuyasha?!

"You're lying." Kagome bit, not bothering to check her tone on the mohs scale before it cut past her lips. "Inuyasha wouldn't have hurt his mother."

"And how would you possibly know that? You've never met the boy. You do not know what he is capable of."

"He is a terrible and unpredictable creature." One of the other girls piped up.

"I once saw him bite a man!"

"It isn't human." The woman continued, craning like an elegant heron in her artificial woes. "The Lady was under its demonic spell for so very long. The one gracious good to come out of this heinous matter is that she is now free of it."

Something vital inside of Kagome snapped.

"How dare you say something like that! Half demon or not, you're talking about a mother's child! You think it's better she's dead!? That's disgusting. You're totally sick!"

Her outburst was met with looks that ranged between disdain and fear from all but the eldest. The noblewoman's expression was generic porcelain, painted grey with pity. "You think yourself a saint, but you are no better than the elder—too sympathetic of beasts for your own wellbeing."

"Where did he go?" The priestess demanded.

"You do not truly wish to know that. This path you seek will only lead you to devastation."

Kagome had to physically hold herself back by pressing her longbow to the ground. "Where is Inuyasha?"

With a single, long stride forward, the older woman was suddenly towering over her. She was a frigid obelisk of bright silk and black stone. Her eyes narrowed before answering Kagome's question. "He disappeared into the forest four nights of last, to join his demon kin." And then she warned, "Know, priestess, that should you follow him, you will not be welcomed back within these grounds."

Kagome leaned forward to meet her, stretching as tall as she could. With a snarl, she cursed her response. "Try and stop me."

Then Kagome spun to the exit, leaving a folly of ruffled girls in her terrifying wake.

Even before she was back to the streets, the priestess had her aura and mind's eye extending outward. She raked her mental fingers across the city and surrounding mountainsides, searching, searching for the familiar touch of Inuyasha's aura. But there was nothing. Not even a twinge.

Whether it was because he was already too far away or because he'd changed too much throughout his life to make his aura unrecognizable, Kagome didn't know.

Either way, he wasn't there in her scope.

The Inuyasha of that time period was missing.

And she didn't even know where to start looking.

…

It'd been fifteen years since Inuyasha's birth. Fifteen years. Inuyasha had been fifteen years old when his life was ripped out from under him, which meant…

Which meant what?

Which meant he was an adolescent, no older than that street vendor that'd tried to cheer her up the night before?

She really couldn't say for sure. Age was such an unknown variable where Inuyasha was concerned, and he'd blocked out most of his memories of that time period, which certainly didn't help her now. So Kagome truly didn't know what she was looking for. A young teen? A child? …A murderer?

No, definitely not that.

The only thing that she really had to go on to find him was his basic characteristics; white hair and fluffy dog ears. Not that that was exactly helpful either right then and there in the middle of the ongoing festival. There were more people wearing masks on that second day, so ears were common throughout the crowd, and a few even donned wigs of inhuman color just to throw her for a loop.

Disheartened and depleted, the priestess carried on along the main river terrace road, searching in vain for a single lone puppy in a vast open ocean.

He was beyond her senses and if what the noblewoman said was true and he'd run off into the woods four days ago, then it was likely that he was already long gone and well beyond her reach. That and they still weren't any closer to finding his mom's killer; she'd left the manor before getting any real information, letting her emotions get the better of her again like the hothead she was. Dummy. Not to mention her missing moneybag.

Togashimaru still had their main bag with the bulk of their funds, but that wasn't the point.

There'd been... more than coins stashed in that bag she'd lost.

Kagome kicked a pebble as she walked hollowly through the crowded street, when just then a shout arose from a merchant across the way, waking her from her stupor. "Thief!" He yelled over the heads of the milling pedestrians, "Somebody stop that thief!" And when Kagome looked she found the source of the gasps and shrieks that followed.

There, weaving and shoving their way through the legs of the adults, was a small child—a street urchin—draped in a crude and dirty cowled cloak.

One she almost thought she recognized.

Then she realized why.

There, tied to the child's hip, was an unmistakable pouch—round, green, shaped like a frog. It was hers. It was the kid who'd bumped into her when she was going to the shrine!

"Hey." She lit up as she pushed her way closer. Then louder she shouted, "Hey, you! You've got my wallet!"

Alarmed, the small thief froze like a deer illuminated by the headlights of a car, but only for a second. The moment he snapped free he was off in a sprint.

Grateful for a real, tangible solution to at least one of her life's many problems, Kagome gave chase.

…

"This… This isn't. Well, I'll be damned. Is this?" Saburo stopped just before the foot of an incline that led to a bare clearing. At the top there sat a tall stone marker, stark and dark against the illumination of the sky. At its base he could make out a freshly disturbed mound of packed soil.

The dog had led him to a bloody grave in the middle of nowhere.

Togashimaru pulled and the human assisted him up the rest of the way to the plateau. Slowly the crest of the ridge came into view, laying out before them an aerial panorama of the entire city below. It hadn't felt like they'd traveled all that far, and they weren't yet all the way up the mountain, but it was high enough to see it all.

"This is her… isn't it?"

"Return to camp." The demon commanded as he pulled free from Saburo's grip. "I would like to be alone to speak with her."

"But how…" Saburo shook his head. He really didn't want to know what it was the dog had felt or sensed or smelled that helped him to find that seemingly remote location. Allowing Togashimaru to walk with only his own feet and walking stick for aid, the blacksmith took a step back. "Alright then. When do ya want me back up ta get ya?"

Togashimaru signed. He didn't turn when he spoke his dour hymn.

"You need not return. I shall stay here by her side for eternity. Until the god of death tears us apart."

…

The little thief led Kagome on a great chase throughout the city. Past stalls and down alleyways, between tourists and upended barrels of dried fruit, she ran. It was difficult keeping up with the nimble legs of a child, but years of training and running about the dangerous world of feudal Japan had prepared her for such a high stakes, adrenaline fueled pursuit. Eventually the kid led her back to the bank of the Arakawa River. She followed not far behind when they slid down it to the rocky shore of the basin below.

Water rushed in rapids beside her making boulders slick, but the grip of her new boots held sure. Soon the land at her feet expanded. Further forward the banks stretched high to an escarpment of rock, the river winding between like an angry serpent within a cage. Above, across the river, was a bridge. Beneath that lay… a village. A village hidden within a village. One crafted of old fences, odds, ends, and cruddy thatch.

It was a slum, forgotten and hidden away from the rest of the city, just out of sight. A place where the poorest and most destitute lived; a place for those who made their living working the jobs considered necessary but dirty and defiling. It was where the community hid their butchers, their gravediggers, and their unwanted.

And it was in that little village where the child she'd been following disappeared within the broken box of a structure that had no right calling itself a home.

Kagome slowed then stopped when she came to that shack. Around her there was a shuffle, maybe two, but that was it. The place seemed otherwise deserted. From the looks of the mess alongside the river and the spots where buildings once stood that were now piles of rubble, she wondered if flooding might have been the cause of the silence. But she didn't care about that at that moment. That wasn't why she was there.

Cautiously, the priestess reached out to rap on the side of the street kid's half-collapsed hut. She took a moment to catch her breath, and then ventured forward with a tone that she hoped sounded soothing and non-threatening. It was a child, after all, not a hardened criminal. And she wasn't about to take out her bad mood on a child. "Hello in there? I'm sorry for scaring you. And… for chasing you." She added sheepishly. "But you have something of mine that you have to give back."

Half expecting no response, Kagome was surprised when she heard the scraggly voice of a little boy call from within. "It's mine. I won't let you take it!"

Brat.

It wasn't his. He literally pulled it off her hip.

Just a kid, she reminded herself, just an innocent, hungry kid.

After clearing her throat she placed her palms on the makeshift door and tried again. "If it's the money you need, they you can have it. Really, if I ever run out I can find ways to make more. It's not the money I care about." It wasn't the money at all. Why, why, why, had she placed that thing in her wallet of all places? "In that frog is something very special that belongs to me. Please, it's super important and it's the only thing I'm asking for."

"liar." The boy cracked. "It's not yours. You stole it."

She stole it? Hah, very funny, kid. Where had she heard that one before?

Wait.

Kagome froze. She pretty much had heard that before. Was… was it a coincidence? Was he just saying that, or did he truly believe…

Hesitantly, she asked, "What do you mean, I stole it? Who do you think I stole it from?"

"You stole it." The quivering child repeated in terrified, angry accusation.

Slowly, carefully, the priestess pressed on the door to push the unhinged slab of screen inwards. Daylight rushed into the crack she made, illuminating the grim, dirt interior. The ray touched the young boy cowering in the far corner, his chubby face contorted with terror. When she opened the entrance further, he pressed back.

Clutched tight to his chest was not her wallet, but was instead an old golden hair pin with dancing herons and broken dangles.

"You stole it." He declared again, and when he spoke a lock of snow white hair fell from beneath his hood to glow in the light.

Amber eyes glistened with tears, made ethereal by shimmering sunlight.

"You stole it from mother."

At that Kagome felt the remainder of her solid world give way beneath her feet.

And gravity was gone.

Chapter End