Note: Thanks for the kind feedback, everyone. I hope you enjoy this chapter! Also, enter Sesshomaru :)
Journey to the Future – Chapter 7
The next morning found Kagome sitting by the side of the well, an expression of utmost concentration on her face. She chewed the side of her cheek as she worked, wielding the small knife carefully.
"What are you doing, child?"
Kagome looked up from her project and over her shoulder to smile at the old miko. "I thought it would be worth a try to get a message to my family."
She looked back to the side of the well, where she had carved the words:
I'm safe.
Trying to get home.
She ran her fingers over the rough letters. "Still not deep enough," she muttered to herself. Kagome set the knife back to the aged wood of the well and slowly deepened the letters.
"I know there's no way of knowing if they even get this message," she said to Kaede's silent presence. "But I have to at least try to let them know that I'm alive and trying to keep my promise of coming home." She had the feeling that Souta was once again standing guard by the well, waiting for her to come through, and she didn't want him to make himself ill. Kagome wasn't sure how long it would take her to get home, but it was definitely too long for Souta to be sitting by the well the whole time.
Kaede's calloused hand settled briefly on her shoulder. "I certainly do not see any harm in it," she said, sadness coloring her voice. "Try not to dally for too long, child. You should start moving very soon."
"Yes, I know," Kagome said softly, working the edge of the knife through her clumsy letters. She waited for the sound of Kaede's shuffling footsteps to fade before slumping over slightly, resting her forehead on the lip of the well.
She was reluctant to leave the well, as it was her possible means to get home. While Kaede had promised to keep a close eye on it, Kagome still worried that something would happen and then she really would be trapped in the past. She also worried about the village itself; while the Shikon jewel no longer existed, another two wild insect youkai had attacked in the middle of the night.
They were small and weak and Kaede assured her that it meant that the youkai couldn't sense the jewel anymore. Still, the old woman's arm hadn't fully healed yet and without her spiritual power, the village was without its primary means of defense against the youkai. Fortunately, Inuyasha had been able to take care of both of them without help. Kagome had been shaky with relief that she hadn't had to kill another creature with her unpredictable powers.
With a sigh, Kagome knocked her head gently against the well. "There's no use worrying about every little thing, Kagome," she scolded herself. "They got along just fine before you; they can handle themselves when you've gone."
She sheathed the knife and rose to her feet, caressing the silken wood of the well one last time before resolutely turning her back on it and heading back down to the village. Inuyasha waylaid her from his new favorite perch atop Kaede's house, but Kagome maturely ignored him. She was still irritated at him from yesterday.
Kagome had returned from bathing and was struggling to get a comb through her hair, which was becoming more and more unmanageable since she had been locked out of the well. It seemed as if every curl that she had fought with in her teenage years had returned with a vengeance. The villagers, all of whom had perfectly straight, non-frizzy hair, were of no help. In her frustration, Kagome finally asked Inuyasha what he did to keep his hair so clean and silky looking and his answer of "keh, I just wash it every once in a while" was so unsatisfying that she refused to even look at him for the rest of the evening.
As Kagome tucked an errant curl back behind her ear, she couldn't help pouting slightly. It really wasn't fair that Inuyasha seemed to possess magical youkai hair that never tangled or became unmanageable.
However, as the pair finally departed from the village, after a slightly tearful farewell on Kagome's part, she couldn't keep up her petulant silence any longer.
"I know this is a little late to ask, but exactly how long do you think this is going to take?" she asked, adjusting the sack that had been secured to her back by a long rectangular cloth that she tied in the front.
Inuyasha glanced down at her. "Eh… for me? Probably about two weeks. But for you," he paused to consider the distance and the speed at which a human could reasonably travel. "It'll probably take more like two months. And that's without taking into account any trouble we might run into."
This was about what Kagome was expecting, and what she had planned for when making preparations, but it was the first time she had heard it said aloud. "Two months…" she groaned. No wonder people never really travelled far from their home during this era. It just took too damn long!
Kagome was suddenly thankful that she had been an avid runner and fairly active since high school. While she had absolutely zero intention of jogging all the way to Hokkaido, her fitness level would allow her to travel a good distance each day with very little recovery time. She just hoped that she wouldn't be nothing but skin and bones from all of the exercise by the time she got home.
"What kind of trouble do you mean, exactly?" she asked, neatly hoping over a fallen tree branch.
"Well, youkai for starters," Inuyasha said, folding his hands into his voluminous sleeves. He was barefoot, which boggled Kagome's mind, but he had insisted that nothing on the ground had ever been tough enough to even scratch the bottom of his feet. While she hadn't believed him at first, the sight of his nearly completely healed wounds that morning had gone a long way to making her realize just how different his physiology was compared to a human's. "You might get sick, or the weather could get rough. Fucking anything could happen out there, you know."
"Thanks, Inuyasha," Kagome said dryly, gripping her fingers tightly around the worn wood of the short bow slung over her shoulder. Kaede had insisted that she take it and practice whenever possible. "You really have set my mind at ease."
"What? You're the one who asked, woman!" the hanyou protested.
"I know, I know," she sighed, reaching out to pat her offended friend's arm. "I'm just a little on edge. I hope that nothing goes too horribly wrong."
Despite Kagome's worries, the days passed uneventfully. The weather had been beautiful; there was a fairly well maintained dirt road to follow, and aside from somewhat regular bickering, Kagome and Inuyasha had gotten along exceedingly well. The hanyou was a little more brash and impatient than he had been and Kagome supposed that her novelty as a time traveler must have worn off. Although the trip had so far been without incident, Kagome was worried that it was all too good to be true. At least when chaos did strike, it wasn't anything too permanently damaging.
She fought back a giggle as Inuyasha cursed. It was rude, but Kagome couldn't help think that this was karmic payback for his unsympathetic response to her struggles with her hair. The hanyou had drifted off to sleep a little too close to the campfire that night. It had gotten a little chillier than normal, enough so that Inuyasha abandoned his usual tree perch above Kagome's head for the warmth given off by the smoldering embers of their fire.
Kagome was startled awake in the middle of the night by Inuyasha screaming bloody murder and then shocked into complete alertness at the sight of the hanyou's head on fire. She had quickly tackled him to the ground and used her blanket to smother the flames, but the damage had already been done. Inuyasha's hair had suffered irreparable damage. As the hanyou sulked, Kagome took out her knife to trip off the burnt hair. She ended up having to cut off most of his long hair, leaving the soft white locks at just below chin length.
While Inuyasha continued to complain about his loss of hair, Kagome privately thought the shorter look was adorable. "Come on, Inuyasha," she said, trying to placate him. She had no desire to hear him ranting about his hair for the next few weeks. "Isn't it a little more convenient this way? I mean, now if you get into a fight, no one can grab your hair as it flies around!"
Inuyasha paused, mid shout, to think about what she had said. "I guess that's true," he admitted, his expression changing from sullen to excitement in the blink of an eye. "You know, that's exactly what happened when I fought with my stupid half-brother!" he exclaimed. "If that bastard tries to grab me again, he'll have to get way too close and I'll finally be able to fucking gut him!"
Kagome blanched and moved slightly further away from the hanyou as he began to loudly daydream about violently beating his brother to a pulp. She almost wished that she hadn't said anything at all.
"And then I'll make him eat his own fucking poison!"
This wasn't much better than the whining.
Inuyasha found another reason to enjoy his new short haircut when it began to rain that night. Unlike Kagome, whose hair had turned into a sodden, tangled, freezing mass that hung into her eyes, the hanyou found the short locks extremely easy to deal with when wet.
He bragged about it to her, earning himself a nasty glare in return. Kagome felt like she just couldn't win. First, the magical youkai hair, and now he didn't even have to share in her long-haired misery. The frustration was almost enough to make her chop her own hair off. The only thing that stopped her hand was the memory of a humiliating haircut that she had in her first year in high school. Asymmetrical bobs were very "in" that year and Kagome's friends had convinced her to give the style a try. It had been an absolute disaster. Her hair had turned into a frizzy, poofy mess and she had to wear hats for a year until her hair grew enough to pull back into a pony tail. She had been growing her hair out ever since.
Kagome and Inuyasha huddled together under the thick boughs of a tree, cursing the rain that stopped their progress and muddied the path. The sky lit up with a bolt of lightning and the following thunder shook the ground.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome shouted over the din of the storm. "We have to find better shelter than this!"
The hanyou yelled his agreement and crouched down, gesturing for Kagome to climb onto his back. "It'll be faster this way," he shouted in explanation.
Kagome held on to his shoulders and couldn't stop herself from pressing into the warmth of his back. She hid her face between his shoulder blades and tried not to get motion sick from the hanyou's erratic movements.
She felt rather than heard the hanyou curse suddenly and she lifted her head marginally to see what had caused the outburst. There was a strange creature standing in their path. It looked vaguely dragon-like, had two heads, and was fitted with a large saddle. Before she could even try to figure out what it was and where its rider was, Kagome found herself abruptly deposited behind a tree. She watched with wide eyes as Inuyasha confronted the beast, shouting angrily as he waved his sword around. The sword which Kagome last saw in the form of a rusty old katana and was now a massive cleaver with white fur where the hilt met the blade.
"Nee-san." A hand tugged at her sleeve, startling her. Kagome whipped her head around in surprise to see a young girl crouched next to her, smiling happily. She had long black hair with short bangs and was wearing a simple cotton yukata with a floral pattern. In one hand, she held a sturdy parasol over her head.
"Sesshomaru-sama has found a cave nearby," she said, loudly to be heard over the pouring rain and crashing thunder. "Come on, Ah-Un will bring Inuyasha-sama," the girl urged.
Kagome hesitated, but the girl's manner and appearance was harmless and she seemed to know of her and Inuyasha. As she looked back at her friend, who was now batting at one of the dragon creatures heads, which had his sleeve locked in its mouth, she suddenly remembered where she had heard the name "Sesshomaru" before.
"It's made of one of my old man's fangs. That asshat Sesshomaru can't even touch it," he said smugly. "It was meant for me."
The girl must be travelling with Inuyasha's older half-brother. Kagome bit her lip uncertainly but after looking at the girl's smiling face, made up her decision to follow her.
"Okay, lead the way," she shouted, gesturing for the girl to take her to their shelter.
The girl's sweet smile turned into a grin and she helped Kagome to her feet before hurrying through the trees. Kagome followed closely, not wanting to get lost in such a bad storm. Fortunately, they didn't have far to go and the sight of the small cave up ahead nearly made her cry in relief. There was a cheery glow coming from the mouth of the cave, signaling the presence of a fire.
Kagome followed the girl slightly warily into the cave and was met with a wall of warmth and sudden silence. Her ears rang from the abrupt change in volume and she shivered slightly. She looked searchingly around the cave, but couldn't see anything suspicious. Her gut instinct was to trust the teenager and Kagome could usually trust her judgment about people.
"Come on, nee-san," the girl said gently, tugging Kagome further into the shelter of the cave. "I've something warm and dry for you to change into."
"T-thank you…"
"Rin," the girl supplied with a pretty smile.
"Thank you, Rin-chan," Kagome smiled in return, allowing the teen to help her change out of her sodden clothing and dress in a thick warm robe.
Rin gently, but firmly, pushed her down by the fire and pressed a cup of hot tea into her hands before returning to the other side of the cave to lay Kagome's clothes out on the warm, dry stone.
Kagome watched the girl work, wondering what she was doing out here in the middle of nowhere. Surely Inuyasha's brother wasn't following them? She sneezed violently, spilling hot tea over her hands.
"Ah, crap, that's hot," she gasped, setting the cup down quickly and drying her hands on her clothes.
"Nee-san, are you okay?" Rin asked in concern, kneeling at her side and taking her hands within her own.
The teenager's hands were cool and felt lovely against Kagome's singled fingers. "I'm fine, Rin-chan, thank you." She smiled gratefully at the girl. A lock of soaking hair fell across her eyes and Kagome scowled at it, withdrawing her hands and tucking the errand strands behind her ear.
"Would you like me to dry your hair and brush it out for you?" Rin asked, eyeing her sodden braid with a critical gaze.
Kagome flushed slightly, looking at Rin's silky hair and thinking that she must look a mess. But she didn't get pampered very often and she was fairly positive that Inuyasha would never offer to do such a thing, so she accepted happily. "That would be lovely, thank you!"
As Rin toweled her hair dry and began the laborious process of taking out the tangle braid, Kagome heard Inuyasha's angry shouts drift through the mouth of the cave. She turned to watch for him, but couldn't see anything through the curtain of rain that fell just outside of the shelter.
Kagome relaxed as Rin's gentle fingers picked through the tangles in her hair. Soon enough, a figure materialized through the gloom, dragging the struggling hanyou behind him. He was tall and regal looking with long, silvery white hair and piercing golden eyes. They were the same shade that she had grown familiar seeing in the face of her friend, but somehow looked completely different. His face was marked with two magenta stripes over each high cheekbone and a blue crescent moon adorned his forehead. Although the marks should have been silly, he managed to pull them off spectacularly.
His clothes were pristinely white with a dark blue floral pattern at the shoulder and along the hem of the sleeves and what appeared to be a massive white boa was draped over his right shoulder. He wore a leather breastplate and had a sword secured to his hip with a dark blue sash.
Kagome's jaw dropped as she took in the full sight of the infamous Sesshomaru. She inhaled sharply as the sharp eyes landed on her briefly. He had to be the most beautiful man that she had ever seen.