CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

Mikage

I wiped a few droplets of sweat off of my brow as I yanked the ginger root out of the ground. Falling on my bottom, I grunted.

"There... Er... Is this ah... the one?" I asked, shifting my head to the villager. The man nodded, joy coming across his face. Around his wide-toothed grin, two small indents deepened in his cheeks.

"Yes it is! That root nearly put out my back out! Thank you! I expect you want no pay, as usual?"

I bowed my head, feeling it awkward to look at the man.

"Er... Yes," I murmured, standing up to hand him the root. His rough, calloused skin brushed against mine as he took it, making my hands quickly recoil afterwards.

I hunched my back over into a bow, watching as the man made his way back into his house.

"Mikage. You've got to learn to start taking pay, or they're going to learn to expect it."

Miroku came beside me, his staff emitting jingles.

"I know..." I muttered, knowing all too well that he was absolutely right.

"Some of them already have. You're going to wreck your own back from all the work you've been doing. I mean, let's take a moment to think here. You've cured countless ailments, done harvesting for a minority of the village every day, and played with several children. I believe that you have been pushing yourself too hard. Don't you agree?"

I scratched the back of my neck, fingers throbbing from being rubbed raw.

"Yeah."

"Now let's get you back to the house. I believe Kagome may have some treatments for those fingertips of yours. Oh; and I also have someone for you to meet, my dear friend."

He rubbed my back, leading me back around the other way. I felt comforted by the small gesture, allowing him to massage my spine. "Oh, Mikage?"

"Yes?"

"Yuuhi has been irritating Inuyasha quite a bit today." Miroku dug his fingers in just a bit, working out the kinks along my back.

"Has she? Oh, no!" I exclaimed, gliding my fingertips across my chin. "What is it about this time?"

"Something about how far he's gone with Kagome... Not that I'd want to know anything about that..."

Miroku shook his head back and forth slow. "Mm mm."

I felt myself roll my eyes back. Oh Yuuhi. She was such a gossiper! She could get into so much trouble when I was gone, yet I couldn't find it in my heart to punish her.

We came to the house, Miroku taking his hand away. "Well, here we are," he murmured, sandals clicking a bit against the creaky wooden stairs. I went after him, sniffing a bit of a runny feeling that had surfaced up at the bridge of my nose.

I pushed past the bamboo mat hanging in front of the door, letting my rolled up sleeves drop on their own. I could feel that my eyes had begun to droop, a gradual sting coming into them every so often.

"Mikage? Oh, boy; it looks like you've worked yourself to the bone, as always," Kagome hypothesized, seeming to sense my weariness. "Come here, sit down." Kagome patted a spot open beside her.

Across the room, as I soon noticed, was a beautiful girl with brown hair, looking like silk against the bare, rough wooden walls. Her eyelashes were just the right length, a small section of pink on the eyelids complimenting her maple eyes well. She wore a pink and white kimono, a leafy colored apron tied around her waist. Next to her sat both a yellow demon cat that I had never seen before, and my own demon cat.

"Hello there," the girl greeted, her voice kind. "What is your name?"

"Oh! Ah... My name is M-Mikage, milady."

I felt my face heat up as I stared at my own knees instead, lowering myself beside Kagome.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Sango." She motioned to the cat seated by her side with a open hand. "This is Kirara."

I smiled and nodded sheepishly. Holding out my own hand, the cat made a twirling noise, coming to rub her head against my hands. Her fur was warm and plush against my palm. Kagome's tone was scolding as she placed her hands on her hips.

"Mikage, let me see your hands please," Kagome commanded, tilting her head, an aggravated look on her face. I uttered a squeak, taking my hands and putting them in between my bent legs.

"Not necessary."

"Let Kagome help. If you're hurt, she still has the medicine you'll need for your wounds." Sango stood, coming to my front. She recognized Miroku's presence with a simple nod. I let out a sigh, knowing I would be gotten after by Kagome if she saw them.

"Y-yes..." I nodded in a rapid motion, holding out my raw hands. Kagome gasped, a hand flying to her mouth.

"You let yourself get that hurt?"

I pulled by red hands back to my chest, my head hanging in shame.

"I-I'm sorry."

Kagome took a deep breath, shoulders rising when she did so.

"It's all right. Just stop working yourself so hard!" Kagome skidded a container to her side, clicking it open. It had a huge red cross on the lid, and was white and shiny. How peculiar. Inside were unidentifiable objects. She brought up a bottle, grabbing my hand off of my chest.

"Now this will sting a little bit at first, but it will go away," Kagome assured, squeezing the top of it with a pressed fingertip. A sharp sting boiled its way into my skin, forcing me to tense up. The gradual increase of pain subsided just as sudden as it had come. She placed the vile back into the chest, bringing out a roll of bandages. She took hold of one of my hands, pressing the tip of the bandage to my hands and holding it down. She wrapped the gauzy cloth around my injuries, the material somehow magically sticking to itself.

"Wow... How'd you do that?" I questioned, turning my hand back and forth to admire her work. She smiled.

"It's a form of medicine from my era."

"Your era?"

She brought her palm to her face, letting out a gust of air.

"I completely forgot to tell you, Mikage! I'm not from this era. My time is far in the future, and I got through by traveling via the bone-eater's well!"

"Bone-eater's well?"

Kagome nodded, wrapping my other hand up.

"Do you want to see it?"

I thought for a moment, pausing as I delved deeper into my theories. Kagome wasn't from this time? The bone-eater's well... The well must be a gateway. Priestesses that I learned healing arts from spoke of such things, but I had yet to see such an amazing feat up close. Inuyasha was surely from this time of Japan. Inuyasha and Kagome had a love hat transcended time? That was something that proved as incredible in my eyes.

"Yes. Please."

She shot a smile at Sango, who returned it as soon as it was given.

"Then let's go. Ready for a blast from the past, Kagome?" Sango asked, stifling a giggle.

"Ready when you are."

I took in a breath. I was going to see the most interesting monument in Japanese history right before my eyes.

I allowed my fingertips to glide across the lip of the well, feeling it's coarse skin brush against my already tender fingers. My hair trailing down the gaping hole, I shifted to look at Kagome. She had a grin of pearls, already on her own knees to feel the hard wood of the moss-covered well. She gazed up at me longingly before reverting her stormy grey eyes to the cube growing out of the ground.

"Could you still pass through?" I murmured, voice holding a slight dazed slur.

Kagome didn't take her eyes off of it a second time.

"I really don't know. But..." She scraped a bit of the moss of,f the green spherical lumps getting under her fingernails. I looked down at her. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

Her tone was dreamy, almost as though she wasn't here anymore. I knew that I was right. Where she was, was with her old days with Inuyasha and the gang. I glanced up at the sky, which had collected it's own treasure cove of oranges and pinks. Blazing, strip-bare clouds past over the dimming orb of fire that had just begun its departure behind the tops of the trees. Closing my weary eyelids, I allowed the heaviness of them to keep them shut. A light breeze sifted through my braided hair, soothing me. I was feeling my thirsty lust for sleep creeping up on me.

"Mikage? You in there?"

I opened my eyes to gaze at the palm of Sango waving in front of my face. I felt a churning chill of guilt in me as I shook my head back and forth to clear the tiredness from my brain. I must look uninterested to them, when in fact, I was interested.

"Yeah."

I took a deep breath, surfacing a hiccup.

"Oh, hun. You seriously look exhausted," Kagome muttered, swishing my unruly bangs out of my face. I cracked my shoulders and knuckles, holding back a big yawn.

I felt Kagome wrap a warm, gentle and sturdy arm behind my torso, guiding me away from the wooden structure.

It was like that. First an eerie, sharp squealing sound, and then, as sudden as it was heard, the forest erupted into flames. Kagome let out a shrill scream as I was jarred out of my fatigue in the most uncanny way. Sango hunched her knees into a defensive position as she whipped her head around, searching for the prosecutor.

I could feel the heat licking at my skin as I acted on instinct. Wrapping my arms around both Sango and Kagome's waist, I shot into the air. I scrunched my eyes against the burning smoke. What was that? I heard my mouth utter the same question.

"What was that?" I panted, feeling my watering eyes flick and dart around the steaming trees.

"I... I really don't know."

Kagome looked panicked as she pressed her small body against mine. I was in too much of a daze to show my terror. I felt more confused, than anything.

A low rumble in the distance aroused the mutual feeling between us further. The deep scraping and growl of metal filled my eardrums. A vibration reverberating through the air as well as the ground brought my attention to the southeast. Something was coming, and I didn't like the sound, or the feel that lurched in my stomach.

Pushing aside my desperate curiosity, I flew back towards the village. Whatever had happened, I hoped that Inuyasha had been able to retreat the villagers after he heard it. I measured the distance the fire was from the town mentally before swishing down with the both of them, rushing as fast as I could into the safe hands of the village that I had attached to so dearly.

"Kagome. Do you think that everyone is all right?"

"I don't know Sango. I can only hope for the best."

Kagome's voice shook, as did her body. I could feel every trembling breath she put against my chest and stomach.

Her peace of mind must be so tender, I thought, realizing how soon her calm and strength had shattered.

I felt the air becoming heavy with searing clouds. A strong tickle demanded a cough from the back of my throat. Kagome and Sango's bodies both thrust forward with a sudden racking heave.

They're human, I remembered, much to my despair. I pushed myself to go faster.

"Hold on, guys. We'll be okay," I reassured, just as another squealing torrent of something whizzed past.

I let out a shriek as the mass combusted, sending us flying over the petrifying tundra of fire.

A horrible pain sizzled at my skin as I continued to be blasted backwards. Desperate, I pushed a foot behind me, trying to halt my ceaseless soaring.

"Mikage! Are you okay?" Kagome cried over the loud crackle of the fire and more bombs.

"Yes..." I grunted, knowing that I had taken most of the blow. "Sango? Are you all right?"

"I... I think so."

Sango's chest heaved with another cough.

I glanced up at the ash-bearing sky, squishing my face up at the stinging sensation that soon worsened. Just as I had thought.

"They're aiming blindly..." I whispered.

"What? How can you be sure?" Sango asked in between hacks.

"If they had a specific target, they would have hit directly already."

I zoomed forward again, this time flying lower. However, as I attempted to soar back to the village, I heard a noise. A voice, more like. It only said one word. And that was a deep, rumbling "Gesshh."