It had been three years since she first step foot into the Feudal Era and nothing was the same. After the fight with Naraku and her return to her proper time something was… off. The world was the same.
The Goshinboku stood tall and resolute. Her mother was still her demure and happy self. Souta was a ball of energy though he was a little taller and out of elementary school. Tokyo was still bustling and school was much easier to handle now that she no longer had to live a second life.
But Kagome was not the same.
She was weary and battle hardened. It was hard to keep conversation with her friends because to be honest, they had nothing to talk about. There was nothing to say to them because while they were enjoying dates and school life Kagome was stuck wondering how her friends were doing.
Some people would try to make the distinction that her friends in her proper era were not her real friends, but Kagome ignored that. Just because they had not seen the harshness of battle did not diminish their contributions to her life. Ayumi and the others gave her life a sense of normalcy and helped to keep her current when it came to trends.
But that was not the only thing that was wrong.
The world felt wrong. When Kagome had first step foot in her time period after that final battle everything felt weird. The air had a tang to it that she could taste on her tongue and the ground beneath her feet felt alive. Kagome wrote it off as the pollution muddying her senses because of how long she spent in the Sengoku Jidai.
It is nothing. Just post battle jitters, she would tell herself.
But it would not go away. The longer that she stayed in her time the more that she sensed. She could feel the greediness flowing off the loan sharks. The worry that battered mothers. She could feel the excitement of her fellow classmates at the end of the day. It made her own fluctuate with the highs and lows that others felt.
She had always been an empath but this is ridiculous.
Kagome sighed as she woke up in the morning and looked out her window. The world had a zap to it, like lightning. It made everything feel off kilter. It was as though she had walked into her home and someone had moved everything two inches to the left. It was still her house, her world, but it felt wrong.
She rose from her bed and started to get ready for the day. She was eighteen now and college was in the books for her. Kagome had decided to go to a college in the city and worked part time to help with books and expenses around the house. With all the traveling and walking she had done with Inuyasha she found that she liked to move and keep her hands busy. Idleness was something that she was struggling with.
So she worked as a server at one of the numerous cafes in the city. It paid well and sometimes she met with interesting people. Kagome was most excited to practice her English on the foreigners that would sometimes come into her little cafe. It would help with her English oral exam coming up.
Kagome dresses plainly a white shirt and jeans. She walked down the stairs and into the kitchen where her mother already finished breakfast. Her brother was shoveling cereal into his mouth as though it was going to disappear at any moment.
Kagome smiled brightly, "Morning!"
"Morning," her brother and mother greeted. Souta's was more of a warm warble as there was still food in his mouth.
"Ew," Kagome said wrinkling her nose at her brother. "Please swallow your food before you talk. It's gross."
Souta took that moment to open his mouth revealing the half mashed food in his mouth. Kagome shrieked and raised her hands to hide the food from sight. Souta laughed and their mother tsk'd.
"Souta don't do that. You'll choke," she chided softly. "What classes do you have today, Kagome?"
Kagome smiled and grabbed a bagel from the toaster and slathered it in butter. She hummed. "Just basic classes today. Biology. Some Calculus. Oh, I have a psychology class today."
If there was one class that she loved it was psychology. Maybe it was because of all the interesting characters that she met while on her journey, but something about the human mind fascinated her. She was considering becoming a counselor in the future. But for now she was enjoying her basic psychology class.
"Well, I hope you do well today. Make us proud!"
"Bah, Kagome always makes us proud!"
Walking into the kitchen was none other than her grandfather. The old man stepped in, his hands behind his back and sat at the table. Since Kagome's return he had been a little put out since he could no longer receive extravagant presents from her classmates for her various "illnesses" but he was quick to recover.
Kagome smiled at him. "Well you raised me well. I know to try my best at school."
"I'm not talking about the school. I'm talking about the adventure you went on with Naraku! That story will live in our family for all time!"
Kagome felt her heart pang at his words. Sure, it had been three years since she first step foot in the Feudal Era, but she still missed everyone. She missed the perverted Miroku and Sango's calm demeanor. She missed Hippo's pranks and Kirara's soft purring. She missed Inuyasha most of all. She missed his shouts and his forever furrowed brow. She missed his boisterous laughter and the fierceness that he protected her with.
Inuyasha was her first love. He was the first boy that had looked at her with something akin to love in his eyes. Hojo looked at her with something but it was not the raging inferno that Inuyasha looked at her with. He swept her up in his gaze and maybe it was the intensity that Kagome liked but at the end of the day it was not for her.
The worst part about being a reincarnation was that no one ever saw you for anyone other than the person you were before. Sure, technically speaking Inuyasha loving Kikyo meant that he somehow indirectly loved some part of her, but he was in love with a past iteration of her and not her. Kagome Higurashi. When he looked at her he saw his past love and not her.
There was a part of her that knew it was for the best that she left the Feudal Era. If she had stayed she would have been with Inuyasha and played second fiddle to Kikyo and that was something that she wanted for herself.
She shrugged her shoulders and finished off the last bite of her bagel. She poured some coffee into a thermos. Snapping the cap close she grabbed her bag by the door and slipped on her shoes.
"Heading out!" She called out. Her family all raised their voices in goodbyes and she walked out the door.
The city was balmy in the midst of summer. She sighed, the heat already making her clothing stick to her skin. She rushed down the steps of the shrine and made her way towards the train station. If she was a second late she would be late to her class by a whole fifteen minutes. Luckily she made it just in time that her shuttle pulled into the station.
She stood on the train and watched the world pass by. Closing her eyes she felt it. The hum of the world and then that feeling. The world had been shifted off its center by two inches. If Kagome dwelled on the feeling for too long she could feel an ominous aura in the air but she shook her head.
"Get it together Kagome," she whispered to herself. She just needed to get into her routine. It was Tuesday just get through the day as you always have done, she said to herself.
Getting off at her stop, she was relieved to be on her college's campus once again. If she immersed herself in work then this feeling would go away. She walked into the campus and immediately went to the Life Sciences building where her Biology class was.
Her professor was a small man who was well known to go on rants about Physics since that is what he got his doctorate in. Why was he teaching Intro Biology? Kagome could not tell you. She sat down in the middle of the class and pulled out her laptop opening it up to take notes.
The professor walked in and began his lesson and Kagome was immersed in school once more. The feeling something long forgotten in her head.
The last class of the day was Psychology. After relaxing in the quad and getting some work done, she made her way to the more decrepit building on campus. Like all liberal arts around the world, the Liberal Arts building was one of the oldest buildings on campus. It was built back in the either the 70s or 60s but it was already crumbling and in desperate need of an update.
Kagome climbed the steps up towards the building and entered inside. Dull linoleum floors reflected the orange-yellow lights above. The walls were decorated with stained wallpaper and the doors were wood and not the nice chrome that they were in the Life Science building. Another school obviously favoring STEM over liberal arts. She walked down the hall and her hand brushing against the peeling wallpaper.
It was then that she felt it.
It was familiar but not. It was the same tugging that she felt in her soul when the Bone Eater's Well wanted her to jump inside. The air sung with the power and with her weird senses she could feel it beckoning her to come.
Kagome froze where she stood. Should she? Checking her watch, she saw that she had fifteen minutes before her class was supposed to begin. She could just take a peek to see what power was lingering around this building. It could be a demon. Maybe she would have to purify it.
Something about using her powers made her blood hot. It had been so long since she last was able to use her abilities. Kagome had always wanted to grow in her powers. She wanted to become a priestess better than Kikyo. One part of her wanted this just to show Inuyasha that they were two different people and that Kagome was better but as time passed it was because she just wanted to be a proper priestess. Without her love for Inuyasha and her jealousy over Kikyo clouding her judgement her desires became more pure in her want to grow her abilities.
She turned to the first set of stairs that led down to the basement. She could feel the power surging in the basement. It was large and it kept tugging at her. She raced down the stairs and held her breath when she reached the double doors.
Pushing down on the lever, she entered into the dark basement. The door swung close behind her and the only light she could see was the light streaming in from the hallways behind her and the red lights of the exit signs. She walked into and still felt the tugging.
"Now where are you?" she muttered under her breath. She looked around and walked through the desks, chairs, and stacks of things in the basement. The desks and chairs were shoved up against shelves that held boxes and boxes of things. Kagome picked up a paper from the ground and brushed dust off it.
Naomi Hiruzen, October 12, 1977, the top of the page read. Kagome placed the paper back on an over turned desk and kept looking around. Everything here was ancient and long since been out of use. Her nose tickled from all the dust and she rubbed at it in an attempt to make sure that she did not sneeze.
She walked all throughout the stacks, but could not find the source of the tugging. She sighed and then turned to face a beast.
Sitting on its haunches was a large black beast. It looked to be made out of oil and bone and looked like a mix between a dog and a deer. It bellowed at her and Kagome screamed.
She ran through the stacks trying to get away from the thing as it chased after her. It was stumbling through the stacks on its thin, bony legs. The bones of its feet cracked against the ground as it gave chase.
Kagome ran around the corner and huddled against a shelf. The thing snuffed and grunted as it tried to find her. The sludge dipped down into its eyes and thought it had no eyeballs its eye sockets glowed with a red light.
Kagome took in a deep breath and closed her eyes. She could feel the well of her power inside of her and she tried to draw from it. It surged up and she jumped out from around the corner and let the power flow out her. As untrained as she was all that she was capable of was a huge blast of her energy. It expended her power quickly but it always did the job.
The pink power of her priestess abilities flowed out from her chest and slammed into the creature. It gave a mighty roar and she smiled and wiped her hands. That took care of that.
When her power faded she saw it sitting there as nothing more than bones and sludge. Kagome smiled until the sludge moved and the bones clattered together. Before her very eyes, the creature reformed and the sludge monster stared at her before giving another roar.
Kagome turned and ran. The stacks that had been so straightforward before suddenly became a maze that she could not manage. She stumbled and kept running.
How had that thing withstood her power? Wasn't it a demon? She shook her head and kept running.
She slammed into the door but it was being held by something. She pressed the lever to open the doors but nothing happened. She slammed her hands against the door.
"Help! Help me!" Kagome screamed from inside the basement.
She turned and saw that the monster was gaining on her, another bellow roared out from it and sent Kagome skittering to the left. It slammed into the door leaving a hard dent, but even that did not make the doors open. She cried out and rose from the ground.
In front of her something sparked, red and purple and she stared before it seemed the world ripped open. A vote warbled in front of her, red and purple light swirling from inside. Kagome looked over her shoulder. The creature shook its held regaining its bearing and beginning to look for Kagome.
"No time better than the present," Kagome muttered. She jumped into the vortex and was sucked into the swirling red and purple tunnel to someplace unknown.