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Journey to the Future – Chapter 4
"Inuyasha," Kagome called, squinting up at the red figure in the tree. "Would you like to join us for dinner?"
A pair of piercing golden eyes glared down at her. "Why should I?" he asked, petulantly. "Keh, old bitch would probably try to kill me."
"Maybe if you tried to be a little nicer, she wouldn't be so hostile," Kagome suggested. "If you were to apologize for attacking her village, I bet she would be pleasantly surprised. I think she's softening toward you a little anyway," she admitted.
As Inuyasha suddenly dropped out of the tree, she stepped back in surprise, her heart pounding for a moment before settling back out. "Speaking of apologies," she said, meeting the intense golden gaze. "I'm sorry that I was so nosy this morning. It was really rude of me to ask you such personal questions. Please forgive me," Kagome said formally, bowing deeply to the stunned hanyou.
"W-what are you doing?" Inuyasha asked, his voice slightly panicked. "It's fine, alright? Just straighten up already." He pushed gingerly at one of her shoulders until she complied.
"Thanks Inuyasha," she smiled, holding back a giggle at his flustered expression and the embarrassed color that had appeared high on his cheeks.
"Keh," he huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "Let's go eat, woman."
Kagome elbowed him lightly in the side and grinned. "Would it kill you to use my name?"
Inuyasha rubbed at his nose and glanced down at her from the corner of his eye. "Maybe."
She laughed and ducked through the entrance to Kaede's home. The hanyou hesitated at the door so she stuck her head back out, mouthed "just apologize" and pulled him in by the sleeve.
The interior of the hut smelled like a wonderful combination of herbs, venison, and steaming hot rice. Kagome's mouth watered. She made a mental note to ask Kaede which herbs she was using before she went home. Sneaking a peek at Inuyasha through her long bangs, she hid a grin at the sight of his madly twitching nose. Kagome couldn't help feeling a little proud as she watched the hanyou sidle up to Kaede and speak quietly to her.
Although Kagome couldn't make out the words, she saw the old woman's clenched jaw relax and the hard lines of her face soften slightly, so she knew that Inuyasha must have been saying the right thing. It looked as if the festering bitterness that had persisted for over fifty years was going to be able to heal after all.
Dinner was a fairly quiet affair. There was a strange heaviness over the small group and Kagome knew that tomorrow was the day that she would return home. It had only been a few days, but Kaede and Inuyasha were already beginning to feel like a second family and she knew that she would miss them.
"You know," she said, trying for nonchalance as she picked at her meal with her chopsticks. "Even after I go home, I can always come back and visit every once in a while."
"That is very kind of you, child." Kaede smiled at her, the expression making her weathered face look younger. "But it would probably be for the best if that jewel remained with you in your own time. This is a dangerous place for such a powerful item. I would hate to see you suffer the fate as my sister."
"You can't take it with you!" Inuyasha cried, leaping to his feet. His bowl crashed to the ground, spilling out over the floor. "I need it!"
Kagome leaned back in surprise. She had heard him demand the jewel for days, but she hadn't really taken him seriously. Something within her cringed at the thought of the warm jewel's absence from her skin. "I'm not going to let you have it," she said as gently as she could. The hanyou's golden eyes were shiny and she wondered if he was going to cry. Maybe he wanted the jewel not so much for its power, but for its connection to his deceased lover.
Inuyasha growled angrily and stormed out of the hut. Kagome was stunned to realize that she could feel him moving further away. She shook her head in bemusement, chalking it up to her supposed miko powers.
"That could have gone better," she said softly, setting her bowl down gently. For some reason, her appetite had left her.
"He may try to take it from you in desperation before you leave tomorrow," Kaede warned, although her tone was less frigid than it had been when she previously spoke about the hanyou. "Be on your guard."
Kaede's words of caution haunted Kagome all night. She tossed and turned, dreaming of the angry, upset hanyou attempting to wrest the jewel away from her and her own strange power overwhelming him in return. She wasn't particularly worried that he would attack her. Kagome was usually an excellent judge of character and she had noticed how gently Inuyasha had treated her, despite his agitation. If he had truly wanted the jewel, he could have taken it a million times while she had been bedridden. Truthfully, Kagome was terrified that her body would act on its own again, as with the centipede youkai, and hurt Inuyasha. He was certainly trouble, but didn't deserve to be vaporized by her uncontrollable power.
Kagome's eyes felt puffy the next morning and she knew that she must have horrible dark circles bruising the skin under her eyes. Inuyasha was nowhere to be seen as she headed back up the slight hill to the well. Kaede had intended on walking with her, but had been called away to care for a seriously ill child in the village.
She wore a pale blue yukata borrowed from one of the women in the village. Kaede had burned her old clothing while Kagome was unconscious, as it had been nearly shredded and was soaked with blood. She thought it was probably for the best. Kagome wasn't sure if such a thing was possible, but she didn't want to change the future by leaving modern fabrics in the Sengoku era.
As the well came into view, she wasn't entirely surprised to see a slouching hanyou hovering around it. She sighed, hoping he wasn't itching for a fight.
"Good morning, Inuyasha," she said with a smile. She stopped by the edge of the well and watched him curiously.
Inuyasha's face twisted in sadness before he unsurprisingly covered it in anger. "You have to give the jewel to me." His voice was almost pleading and the sound of it nearly broke Kagome's heart.
She stared evenly at him, compassion shining from her eyes. "I can't give it to you, Inuyasha," she sighed, feeling like a jerk as his expression fell.
"Why not?" he asked. "You aren't going to use it and you aren't staying here, so what does it matter if I use it?"
"Inuyasha, I think you would be happier if you just forgot about this thing," she said, delicately.
The distraught hanyou snarled and leapt out of the clearing, leaving Kagome standing alone by the well.
"Goodbye, I guess," she sighed.
Kagome carefully gripped the think vines that spilled over the edge of the well and swung her legs over the lip. It was harder going down that it had been climbing up the other day. The still healing wound on her side ached each time her arm stretched out over her head. As she felt a warm trickle run down her hip, she was glad that there would be a ladder on her side of the well.
She let go a few inches away from the bottom but instead of touching the ground, she found herself suspended in a familiar shimmering darkness. Kagome sighed in relief. Part of her had feared that the well would do nothing and she would be stuck there in the past with no way home.
The journey was quick and she soon touched down on the ground of the well. She opened her eyes, not remembering closing them in the first place. A worn ladder was in front of her. Tears sprung to her eyes as she practically flew up the ladder, pained side completely forgotten.
As she stumbled over the lip of the well, Kagome stepped on something soft and fell to the ground. "What in the world…" she groaned, peering back over her shoulder.
"Kagome! You're back!" Souta threw himself at her from his position on the ground and wrapped his arms tightly around her shoulders. "I was so worried! What happened?"
Kagome sank into her brother's embrace with a contented sigh. She was both touched and worried that he had been standing guard over the well, waiting for her to come home. "It's a long story, Souta…"
"Are you okay, Kagome?" Hana asked worriedly after hearing about her daughter's last few days.
Kagome smiled tiredly at her mother and nodded. "Yeah, mama. I'm fine. I mean, I'm tired and pretty sore, but there's not going to be any lasting damage." She turned to her grandfather, grinning at his awed expression.
"Would you like to see it, jii-chan?" she asked, gesturing toward the leather cord around her neck. Her grandfather had been ecstatic to hear about the Shikon no Tama; it had always been his favorite legend and he even sold replica jewels in the shrine gift shop.
"If you don't mind, my dear," he said, failing to disguise his eagerness.
Kagome pulled the shimmering jewel from its place under the neckline of her yukata and held it out for him to see. As her grandfather examined the bauble, taking care not to touch its warm surface, Kagome felt somewhat ashamed of herself. As a teenager, she never really paid attention to her grandfather's stories and had regarded him as eccentric and slightly crazy. Now that Kagome knew that the creatures of legend actually existed, she felt like a jerk.
"It's supposed to grant wishes," Kagome said, hiding the jewel away again. "But it doesn't usually go well. Kaede said that the jewel brings nothing but despair."
Souta squeezed her hand from where he held it on his lap. From the moment she had begun to tell her story, his eyes had widened almost comically and he clutched to her hand like a lifeline. Kagome couldn't really blame him, considering he saw her be pulled down the well by a rotting youkai.
Hana cleared her throat unsteadily. "Why don't you take a nice hot bath, Kagome? It will help with the soreness."
Kagome grinned at her mother. "That sounds like a great idea, mama. I tell you, I really missed having running water." She squeezed Souta's hand once before extricating herself and rising from the table. "Oh, mama, can you take a look at my wound?" She gestured at her side, where a little blood had soaked through to darken the pale fabric of the yukata. "Kaede took great care of me, but I just want to make sure it's healing well and there's no sign of infection."
Her mother exchanged a worried look with Souta and her grandfather and forced a smile. "Of course I will. Let me get the first aid kit. We'll need to change the bandage after your bath anyway."
Checking Kagome's wound was a stressful experience. As soon as her mother saw the three inch gash that had been stitched closed and the tender bruising that liberally covered her abdomen, she burst into tears, pulling Kagome into tight hug. Souta and her grandfather had heard the commotion and come storming up the stairs. It had taken nearly half an hour to reassure her family that she was truly alive and home and on the mend.
Now she sat relaxed on the couch, fresh bandages applied, clean clothes donned, painkillers in her system and a hot cup of tea warming her hands. Kagome didn't usually like having her space intruded, but she reveled in the presence of her brother cuddled up to her side. Her mother and grandfather had gone to the clinic to get some antibiotics for Kagome to start and some more first aid supplies.
Souta had been fairly quiet since Kagome's return and he had only let her out of his sight to bathe. His arm was around her shoulders, keeping her tucked against him and Kagome realized for the first time that her brother was bigger than her.
"I think you would have liked Inuyasha," she said softly, resting her head on Souta's shoulder. "He was a little like you."
"Did he really have dog ears on his head?" Souta asked, leaning his cheek on the top of her head.
Kagome closed her eyes and relaxed into her brother's embrace. "They actually looked a bit more like cat ears, but they were really cute," she said with a chuckle. "He was surly and petulant on the outside, but I think that he was actually really insecure."
"So you think that I'm surly and petulant?" Souta teased.
Kagome poked him in the ribs and he laughed softly. "I'm glad you're home, nee-chan," he said quietly, squeezing her a little closer.
"Me too, Souta. I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to get back home," she admitted.
"I thought that you had been killed by that thing," Souta whispered, his voice breaking slightly at the end.
Kagome set her mug of tea down on the side table and wrapped both of her arms around her little brother's waist, offering silent comfort to his quiet distress. She and Souta had always been close, despite the seven year age gap, and the years that she had spent away from home were hard on them.
She was just about to drift off into an exhausted sleep when her mother and grandfather came home. There was a flurry of activity during which she was medicated, her wound cleaned thoroughly (and painfully) and bandaged, culminating in Kagome being tucked into bed, her family all hovering over her as she blinked owlishly at them.
"Guys, I'm going to be fine," she protested firmly as her mother tucked the blanket under her feet again for the fourth time. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise."
"I'm still going to reseal that well," her grandfather said, brandishing a fistful of new charms.
Kagome wasn't really very confident that the ofuda would work. In her few days with Kaede, she had gotten pretty good at sensing magically imbued items and the little slips of paper didn't even tickle her senses. If she had better control over her budding powers, she would have charged them herself. But since she couldn't, Kagome decided to let her grandfather do as he pleased. She knew that the centipede youkai wasn't going to be coming back and if sealing the well with useless charms made everyone feel better, she wasn't going to spoil it for them.
"Just get some sleep, Kagome," Haha said softly, smoothing out the wrinkles on the blanket one last time. "We'll be downstairs if you need anything."
"Thanks, mama," Kagome said through a yawn.
She smiled sleepily as the door clicked shut and she heard a body settle back against it. Souta was obviously going to continue his vigil, although he had to be as tired as she was, judging by the dark smudges under his eyes. Still, his presence was comforting and Kagome found herself quickly drifting off to sleep.
Kagome sat bemusedly on an examination table after having had her stitches removed from an astounded doctor. They couldn't believe that it had only been less than a week since the wound was incurred and Kagome felt sure that they were all certain that she was lying about it. To be fair, Kagome had definitely not been honest about how she had gotten the wound and she had never been a good liar.
She had been shocked herself when she saw the faint pink line on her waist. Kagome had always healed fairly quickly, but this was strange even for her. She wondered idly if it had something to do with the herbal poultices that Kaede had made. Kagome had thought she felt a spark of power in them, so maybe the crafty old woman had spelled the concoctions.
Kagome's mother had tagged along for the visit and looked markedly relieved to hear that the wound was healing perfectly and that there was no internal damage.
"Should I stay on these antibiotics?" Kagome asked, jiggling the pill bottle that she had brought along.
The doctor pursed her lips thoughtfully. "It would probably be for the best that you stay on them for the full ten day course," she said, tapping her pen against her clipboard. "Even though there is no sign of infection, it is always better to be safe than sorry."
Kagome privately thought that there was little point to taking the pills, considering how she had gone four days in the feudal era without any trouble, but she could tell by the look on her mother's face that it wasn't the time to argue. She was sent away with instructions to keep an eye on the wound and to return if there were any problems.
Stretching carefully before getting into her mother's car, Kagome lightly probed the still-tender area with her fingers. "It really is amazing, isn't it? You saw how it looked when I came home."
It had only been another two days since she returned through the well. Kagome had expected to be laid out for a week at least before her waist looked this good. Even the dark bruises surrounding the wound and winding around her hips had lightened to a motley mix of greens and yellows.
"You were lucky that Kaede-san knew what she was doing," Hana admitted, although she looked as if she wished that Kagome had never been injured in the first place. "From what you've said, she sounds like she would get along with jii-chan."
Kagome grinned at the small smile that tugged at her mother's lips. "Jii-chan would fall in love at first sight," she teased. "He would love to hear about all the youkai she's seen."
"Well, let's get home and you can enlighten him."
The ride home was silent, but comfortable. As Kagome watched the business of the city fly by through her window, a part of her wistfully longed for the peaceful wilderness of the world beyond the well. It wasn't until she had gone to the doctor that she realized just how much smoke and pollution was in the air here. The air in Kaede's village had been clean and sweet-tasting. The contrast made Kagome a little sad when she considered how some things had not changed for the better with the advent of technology.
As she climbed up the numerous steps leading to the shrine, Kagome impulsively made up her mind to stay and help her grandfather for a while. She ignored the tantalizing pull of the well as she walked toward her house, remembering the old miko's words about the dangers of the Shikon no tama existing in the feudal era. It was harder than she expected to not stop and enter the well house.
"Kagome, are you coming?" Hana asked from ahead of her.
Nodding, Kagome pulled her eyes away from the well and followed her mother back to the rest of her family.