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Journey to the Future – Chapter 3

Kagome blinked up at the inside of a thatch roof. Her side ached dully and there was a warm weight in the hollow of her throat. For a moment she couldn't remember where she was or what had happened to make her feel so terrible.

"Are you thirsty, child?"

The rough, but kind, voice brought everything back and Kagome squeezed her eyes shut against the sudden tears that prickled her eyes. She managed a tiny nod and felt Kaede's calloused hand slip under her neck to lift her head and a smooth wooden surface touch her lips. Kagome fought hard against the urge to gulp down the cool, sweet water as fast as possible. Instead, she forced herself to take tiny sips.

"You have been asleep for two straight days," Kaede informed her. "You are lucky to be alive, child."

Kagome opened her eyes and looked up at the old woman. She looked stressed and there were bags under her eye. "Where did that boy go?" she asked, her voice cracking slightly.

Kaede let her drink another ladle full of water before answering.

"He lurks on the roof," she said, her tone disapproving. Sitting back on her heels, Kaede frowned. "Why did you release him?"

Kagome's brow furrowed. She couldn't remember clearly what had happened. From the moment the centipede woman ripped the jewel from her side, the events seemed to be shrouded in fog. "I don't… it didn't feel right," she said hesitantly. "The arrow, I mean. It was like… it wanted me to pull it out." Kagome grimaced at her own words. "I know it sounds crazy, but it felt like that boy wasn't meant to be there."

Kaede was silent for a moment as she considered her response. "I think you should know of my sister." She eyed Kagome critically and nodded to herself. "Nearly sixty years ago, my elder sister was the miko of this village. She was very kind and very strong," Kaede said, a touch of wistfulness in her tone. "Kikyo was given the honor of being the guardian of a powerful artifact."

"Kikyo?" Kagome asked in surprise. She recognized the name as the one that Inuyasha had called her.

"Yes," Kaede confirmed. "And it was that very jewel that she was tasked to protect." She gestured to the bauble that was now fastened around Kagome's neck.

Kagome slowly reached up to the jewel and it hummed under her touch. It felt warm and alive against her skin. She listened in fascination as the old woman spun the tale of two tragic lovers, Kikyo and Inuyasha, who were destroyed by the machinations of a hanyou called Naraku.

"My sister did not trust Inuyasha and he did not fully trust her," Kaede admitted. "She wished for him to be human and he desired to become entirely youkai. Naraku found easy prey in them. He manipulated Inuyasha into attacking the village and fatally wounded my sister in the guise of her lover. In return, my sister sealed Inuyasha to that tree."

Kagome's eyes were wide as she listened to the old woman's story, hardly able to believe it was true. "What happened next?" she whispered.

Kaede looked at her with a surprisingly soft brown eye. "My sister told me of what she had discovered and instructed me to burn the jewel along with her body when she died. I tried to heal her wounds, but she was overcome within a day."

The old woman was silent for a moment before clearing her throat roughly. "My sister's dying wish was to rid the world of that jewel. The Shikon no Tama causes naught but pain and suffering."

Kagome blinked rapidly to clear her eyes of the tears brought on by the devastating tale of Kikyo. "Is there a way to truly get rid of it?"

Kaede hummed thoughtfully. "According to legend, the jewel was made when the miko Midoriko sacrificed her life to eternally fight a world-destroying youkai. It is said to grant wishes, such as the centipede demon's desire for strength, as you saw. I believe that the right wish could end the conflict within the jewel and erase it from existence. But I know not of the wish which could accomplish this."

Although the jewel emanated warmth against her skin, Kagome felt the sudden urge to rip it away from her neck and throw it across the room. She didn't want anything to do with such a painful thing and she couldn't understand why it had been inside her body.

"Kaede," she said softly, pulling her attention away from the jewel. "Do you know why it would have been inside me?"

The old miko's eye sharpened. "Your uncanny resemblance to my elder sister and that jewel leads me to believe that you may be the reincarnation of Kikyo."

Kagome gaped at Kaede in shock for a moment. "D-does it even work that way?" she asked faintly. The concept of reincarnation was something that she was familiar with, but she had never seriously considered whether it was legitimately possible. The other day seemed like a dream still. Kagome wasn't sure if she had ever experienced such a strange and stressful day. Somehow, the idea that she may be the reincarnation of a dead priestess wasn't all the farfetched.

"Um, Kaede," Kagome asked, biting her lower lip gently. Something had occurred to her about this place and she was desperate to see if she was right. "About how far is the village from the city?"

Kaede blinked at the seemingly random question and stroked her chin thoughtfully. "To which city do you refer, child?"

"Um, Tokyo," she chanced.

"I fear that I do not know of any such place," Kaede responded with a negative shake of her head.

Kagome felt her heart sink slightly. "E-Edo?"

"I am sorry, child," the old woman said apologetically. "Yet again, I have not heard of such a city."

Stifling a groan, Kagome ground the heels of her palms into her eyes. She had known that asking about Tokyo was a bit of a long shot; the city had gotten that name during the Meiji Restoration era and had been known as Edo for over two hundred years prior. But for Kaede to not know of Edo meant that Kagome had travelled to sometime during the Sengoku era, before the unification of Japan.

"What ails you, Kagome?" Kaede's voice had softened from the slightly frigid tone that had persisted since speaking about Inuyasha and her siter.

Kagome turned wide blue eyes on the old woman and said in a small voice, "Kaede… I think the well took me back 500 years into the past…"

"Keh! You just need to give me that jewel and go home, woman!"

Both women turned to stare at the hanyou in the doorway. Inuyasha had his arms crossed over his chest and a cocky grin on his face.

Kagome painfully propped herself up on her elbows and leveled a scowl at the boy in the door. "And just what makes you think I would give it to you?"

Inuyasha's smirk faded into a petulant frown, but Kagome had already collapsed back down. She really wasn't in the mood to deal with the hanyou's attitude. He was beginning to remind her of Souta when he was in a snit.

"Listen, woman," he growled. "You can give it to me or I can just take it!"

"Inuyasha, if you take another uninvited step into my home, you will not like the consequences."

Kagome and Inuyasha both startled at the harsh words. While Kaede looked like a hardened woman, she had been nothing but kind since Kagome had passed through the well. The bitter anger in her voice and on her face seemed out of place.

"Eh, what crawled up your ass and died?" Inuyasha shot back rudely. But Kagome noticed that he didn't move an inch from the doorway.

"Do you not recognize me, Inuyasha?" Kaede asked coldly. "It has been quite a number of years since my elder sister sealed you to that tree."

Inuyasha gaped and pointed rudely at the old woman. "Oi, you are that little brat who kept trying to tag along? Damn, you've gotten old!"

Kaede's scowl deepened. "Get out of my house, Inuyasha."

The hanyou blew a raspberry but ducked through the door. "I'm not leaving this fucking village until I get that jewel."

The miko let out a sign after he disappeared and seemed to sag slightly.

"If he was manipulated by this Naraku, why do you hate him so much?" Kagome asked, quietly. The anger seemed wrong on the old woman and it made her skin crawl slightly. The jewel against her skin thrummed comfortingly.

"Inuyasha still attacked this village, destroying our shrine, decimating our crops and costing me this eye," she gestured angrily to the worn patch over her left eye. "And his relationship with my sister ultimately led to her death. Even after all these years, I find it hard to forgive him."

Kagome hummed thoughtfully.

"Do not let him have the jewel, child," Kaede said softly, folding her hands in her lap.

Grinning slightly, Kagome reached out to pat the gnarled hands. "Don't worry, Kaede," she reassured. "I don't think I could give it to him, even if I wanted to."

The old woman's brow furrowed slightly. "What do you mean?"

Kagome lifted the jewel from her skin and studied its smooth pink surface. It pulled at her and she fought not to hide it away from the other woman's gaze. The bauble felt as though it wished to be back inside her body and Kagome began to feel slightly disturbed by its presence, despite the comforting aura it emitted.

"You must not have arrived in time to see what I did then," Kagome commented offhandedly. "That centipede woman swallowed it. Then, something really strange happened," she said slowly as she tried to figure out how to best describe the phenomenon. "My body seemed to move on its own… and then there was this throbbing pull coming from my chest. I held out my hand and the jewel just burst from her stomach and flew right into my hand." Kagome shuddered at the memory of the hot, bloody jewel that nearly seared her skin with its power.

Kaede blinked in surprise. "That is quite shocking."

"Why do you think that happened?" Kagome asked, dropping the jewel back against her throat and resisting the urge to wipe her fingers.

"The jewel certainly has a unique presence, but otherwise it holds no interest to me. My elder sister once claimed the same," Kaede explained. "That you possess such a deep connection to the Shikon no Tama…" She paused and rubbed her jaw. "You say that this wound was caused by the youkai pulling the jewel from your body?"

Kagome nodded, unsure of where the old woman was going.

"When I first met you, child, I felt that your aura was familiar. I believed it to be due to your resemblance to my sister, but now that the Shikon jewel is here once more, I can tell that you aura feels the same as the jewel itself," Kaede said.

"Do you really think so," Kagome asked, running a fingertip over the surface of the jewel again. "That's pretty strange."

"Indeed," Kaede agreed. She pushed to her feet and shuffled over to the other side of the hut, where a cast iron pot was burbling over the fire pit. "Do you think you are able to stomach rice porridge?"

At the old woman's questions, Kagome's stomach growled loudly. She laughed and rubbed her abdomen, carefully avoiding the sore, bruised area around her wound. "I'm pretty sure that was a 'yes'," she chuckled.

Kaede poured a ladle-full of porridge into a bowl and returned to Kagome's side. She helped her into a sitting position and propped her against the wall. Kagome sucked in a breath as the movement pulled painfully at her waist.

As she sipped at the slightly bland porridge, Kaede studied the bandages around Kagome's stomach. "You truly were lucky in that wound, child," she said wryly. "Only the flesh was torn, so it should heal nicely. We still need to be careful of infection, though."

Kagome hummed thoughtfully, enjoying the warming porridge that was settling in her belly. "Couldn't I just go home? We have pretty advanced medical techniques and preventing infection would be pretty easy." She paused with a frown. "Do I just… jump back in the well?"

The older woman shrugged one shoulder uncertainly. "Is that how you arrived here?"

Kagome swallowed another mouthful of porridge and nodded. "Yes, that centipede woman pulled me in. Did you say she was a youkai?" she asked with an odd expression.

"Oh yes," Kaede confirmed, setting a cup of water at Kagome's side. "We are often plagued by all manner of youkai. However, the more powerful ones, such as Inuyasha, do not usually bother with humans. Youkai that possess a human-like appearance are the most dangerous," Kaede warned with a slightly dark look.

Kagome, sensing the oncoming rant about Inuyasha, quickly changed the subject. "Kaede," she caught the old woman's attention. "When that centipede woman attacked me, this… pink light burst from me and made her leave. Was that related to the jewel?"

Shaking her head, Kaede smiled wryly. "No, Kagome. You possess the aura of a miko, much like my elder sister and myself. However, yours is extraordinarily strong," her brow furrowed slightly as she ran Kagome's words through her mind. "You say it was pink?"

At Kagome's nod, Kaede rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Strange, indeed," she commented. "Perhaps it is due to your connection with the Shikon no Tama…" Kaede shook herself slightly and smiled apologetically. "The color of a miko's spiritual power is either pale purple or light blue," she explained. "That yours is pink only proves that you are intimately connected with the jewel. It may be because it was residing within your body."

"That makes sense, I guess," Kagome allowed. She was feeling tired again after eating and she stifled a yawn.

"Back to bed with you," Kaede ordered, waiting for Kagome to drain her glass of water before helping her lay back down and pulling the rough blanket up to her chin. "I will make sure that no one disturbs you," she said with a slightly ominous look at the door.

Kagome wanted to say something about not antagonizing Inuyasha, but felt that it wasn't really her place to decide the older woman's actions. Instead she relaxed back into her pallet and gave into her body's demand for sleep.

It took another two days before Kagome was recovered enough to move around freely. Her side still twinged uncomfortably if she stretched it the wrong way or pressed it too hard, but she had otherwise regained her mobility. Under Kaede's watchful, but bemused, eye, she painstakingly performed light exercises to keep the muscles in her torso loose and help the wound heal more quickly.

She pulled back the sleeves of her borrowed yukata and dug eager fingers into the loose soil. Kaede had allowed her to help plant seeds in her herb garden on the condition that she not strain herself. Kagome had always loved gardening and had very nearly chosen botany over physical therapy. Her grandfather kept a vegetable garden behind the house and Kagome always enjoyed helping him with it.

Kagome hummed to herself, ignoring the sulking hanyou that crouched a dozen feet away from her. He had taken to following her around in hopes that she would misplace the jewel or suddenly decide to give it to him. At first, Inuyasha had tried to provoke her temper, but her lack of response bored him and he soon gave up. Kagome found his petulant behavior fairly easy to ignore.

She looked up at him thoughtfully. "Why do you want this jewel so badly anyway," she asked curiously.

Inuyasha's ears twitched in her direction. "To become a full youkai, of course," he said promptly.

Kagome frowned, sitting back on her heels, careful not to get dirt on the pale yukata she wore. "What's wrong with the way you are?"

The hanyou's cheeks colored as he stared at her with wide vulnerable eyes. Then he blinked and covered up his surprise with surliness. "Keh, you don't know anything. No one would choose to be only half."

Kagome hummed noncommittally. "Was it your mother or your father who was human?"

Inuyasha looked taken aback for a moment before he leapt to his feet with a snarl. "It's none of your damned business woman," he shouted at her.

She watched in shock as he bounded away, wondering what in the world had set him off. Then she grimaced at her own insensitivity. She could recall quite often when she would get snippy at anyone who asked about her father. Inuyasha must have a reason for not speaking about his parents. Kagome determined to apologize for her rudeness when he came back.

"Why do you bother with him, child?"

Kagome startled at the sound of the old woman's voice. She turned to look over her shoulder and smiled slightly. "He just seems a little lonely," she said with a shrug. "It must be strange to wake up to find out that nearly sixty years have passed."

Kaede's expression was stony, but Kagome thought her eye seemed a little softer than it had the other day. "Just be watchful of him," she said eventually. "You resemble my sister enough that I would worry of his intentions."

Blinking in surprise, Kagome snorted inelegantly before bursting out into laughter. "Oh come on, Kaede," she giggled. "He's hardly what I would call boyfriend material! He looks like he's the same age as my little brother… and he acts like him too!"

"Not counting the years spent pinned to the tree, Inuyasha is over two hundred years old," Kaede deadpanned.

"What?!" Kagome shrieked, nearly losing her balance and falling face first into the freshly turned soil. "How is that even possible?"

Kaede chuckled at the absolute shock on the young woman's face and decided to take pity on her. "Youkai age at a much slower rate than humans," she explained. "Some have been known to live for centuries. I believe Inuyasha's sire was said to live for over a thousand years. With such inu-youkai blood as his heritage, Inuyasha is likely to age as a full youkai."

"That's absolutely amazing," Kagome said faintly. She was dying of curiosity to ask more about Inuyasha's parents, but she didn't want to make him even angrier by prying into his past behind his back. "He acts just like my fifteen year old brother."

"Well, that is fairly accurate in terms of his development," Kaede allowed. She placed a basket of seed packets on the ground. "Do not worry if you get some of the seeds mixed. I know each of these herbs intimately."

"Thanks for letting me help out, Kaede," Kagome said with a smile.

"No, thank you, child, for preventing an old woman from working on her knees," Kaede replied, patting the top of Kagome's head fondly.

The young woman sat back on her heels and watched thoughtfully as Kaede walked away. She had enjoyed meeting the villagers, and even Inuyasha was an interesting person, but she really needed to get home. Her family was probably worried sick. She and Kaede had decided that with her wound, Kagome would have never been about to get in and out of the well without hurting herself. That she was so woozy from blood loss that she could barely stand was another reason.

The weight of the jewel suddenly felt heavy around her neck and Kagome delicately touched a dirty fingertip to it. The bauble thrummed happily against her skin and she wondered what she would do with it in her own time. Things like miko and youkai seemed ridiculously out of place in modern Tokyo and she wondered if there were any still around. Although, she herself seemed to be a miko, so maybe it wasn't impossible for youkai to still exist. She stifled a snort of amusement as she considered that Inuyasha may be alive in her time. Somehow she couldn't picture him in any other way than his current appearance and he would definitely stick out like a sore thumb.