Chapter IV: To the Modern Times & Back Again
As Kagome climbed up the ladder in the well, that she could easily climbed up without any difficulties. As soon as she got to the shrine's slide door, she slowly opened it up to see if there were any visitors.
She sighed in relief, "Thank Kami. I hope I don't have to see any of my friends here while I am visiting, especially Hojo. It's already hard enough that I have to tell them that Inuyasha had passed on. It'll break my brother's heart because he had always looked up to him and enjoyed his company while we were here to visit them every month."
She stepped outside of the shrine and walked towards to the house and that's when she heard somebody's voice calling her name.
"Oh great...I should have known that my luck wasn't this good..."
She sighed and then turned to the source of the voice. It was Hojo, the very person she'd really don't want to see. She just hoped that he finally moved on and find somebody to receive and return his feelings.
"Hi, there...Ka...go...me," he said while noticing what attire she was wearing and continued, "So did you decide to become a priestess?"
"Yes, I found that I had a knack for the spiritual arts. Why are you surprised? My family had been priests to this shrine for generations."
"Well, I thought... (He shook his head and decided to change the subject)...Are you visiting your family? The last time that I was here, your family said that you were travelling with some people all over the country."
Kagome was shocked to hear this, but..."Yes, my companions and I were travelling around the country to help those who were in need... (she hesitant a little)...I came only to tell my family that my husband had passed on."
"Oh my, I am so sorry to hear that. Your brother told me that you'd got married. I was surprised because it seemed to be too fast since you'd told me one time that you would want to go to college. Are you going to stay awhile? Maybe we could go out sometime..." He was interrupted by Kagome. She sighed and said...
"For only two weeks. And isn't it too soon to ask someone out? Especially, after one who'd just lost someone that one had lost by death. Jeez...Hojo. I thought that you had more class than that. By the way, no, I don't want to go out with you. I can't believe that you hadn't move on. Maybe I should have made myself clearer in the past, that I had no interest in you in that way. I like you only as a friend, nothing more than that."
Hojo looked insulted when she'd finished, "Well, it seems that you don't want me, but Kagome... you will live to regret that decision because I could have made all your dreams come true."
With that he turned towards the exit and started to walked downstairs of that shrine. He thought that he made the last statement, but...
"You sounded so sure of yourself, Hojo, that you could have made me happy. However, you know nothing about me to think that. You're so arrogant and ignorant at that. You're the one who couldn't take the hint that I wasn't interested in you. It was only my girlfriends convinced you otherwise. I turned you down many, many times. I came to the point where I wished to never see my 'friends' anymore. All of you thought that you knew me, but in reality you had known nothing."
With that, he just walked away without looking back and good riddance, too. He was getting on her last nerve. Although what he did for her during school was appreciated and also bring things that could have healed my false ailments was a comforting thought, but it was annoying.
Every time that he'd done that she felt like she was helpless even though she wasn't really ill. She was too independent, that needing someone to take care of her like she was this fragile, porcelain doll, that she got to a point where she needed one to provide or protect her. Although, Inuyasha had done that for her, but the difference between him and Hojo is that Inuyasha knew that she could take care herself without him being there all the time.
Since she had been in the Feudal Era, that any fears that she'd before ever going through the time-spectrum had already dissipated. She became fearless. Whatever it came to youkai or any other evil beings, she'd display no fear.
Period.
The only thing that she truly fear was to lose someone that she loved and cared about. That was her true fear. She didn't fear getting sick, injured, or even death, which deep down in her very soul, that would be a welcoming thought, right then and there.
She went inside the house and saw her mother standing over the sink as she was washing dishes.
She said as her eyes started to be overflow with tears, "Momma... (she sobbed as her mother turned around and surprised to see her daughter)...Momma, Inuyasha is gooonnneee."
Kagome fell on her knees wailing. She tried to hold back the tears in the Feudal Era, but she was mostly crying because everyone else was crying. She just cried with them, but this time those tears were from her grieving heart.
Her mother knelt down next to her and asked, "What happen to Inuyasha, Kagome?"
"He...he was slain. He died while protecting me and everyone else. There was a horde of less and mid powerful demons coming at us from all around. He...he...told me to protect the women and children with Miroku and Kaede while he, Sango, and Kirara as well as the village's men stayed behind and fought. Shippo and Jaken, who was Sesshômaru's little messenger, went to fetch Lord Sesshomaru, but went they arrived it was too late. It was also too late for Tenseiga to revive Inuyasha."
Her mother was there to listen and comfort her daughter, while she, herself, was crying. She had always considered Inuyasha to be her son, even before Inuyasha and Kagome had finally got together after all that they'd been through. She knew how Kagome felt. After all, she, too, lost her husband shortly after Sota was born. Sota had never known his father. Kagome barely remembered what he'd looked like.
Her mother said, "Shh, my daughter. I know this hurts. It hurts me, not only because that you are hurting; it's because he was like my second son. It will take a while for you to heal, but always remember this, my daughter. He's in a much better and happier place. I know that he'll still be there for you even after death. You can always honor his memory anytime you want. All I want you to do is grieve for him. Cry as much as you like. If you want you can take a bubble bath, I'd just bought some lavender and chamomile bathing oils for you to use. It should help you relax."
"I think that I would just do that. Thanks mom."
"You're welcome, my dear daughter, now go and take your bath. Don't worry about telling Grandpa and Sota. I'll do that for you. So don't worry about that. Take your time with your bath."
"Thank you, mom," she said as she went up the stairs, while her mother was walking her up there to the bathroom.
She chuckled and said, "Silly girl, there's no need to thank me. I'm your mother. It's my duty as your mother to give you comfort and support in everything that you do. You'll understand someday whenever you'll have children of your own."
Kagome depression went deeper when her mother after she mentioned children. Her mother turned on the water on adjust to where she knew Kagome preferred water temperature, which had never change ever since she was an infant, to warm-hot. As her mother was adjusting the water, she was getting undressed and went in the warm-hot water, and then her mother put the bathing oils of lavender and chamomile.
"Kagome, just relax and take your time. There's no rush to get heal. Enjoy your bath." Kagome just nodded. Then her mother went out of the bathroom as she closed the door behind her.
Kagome said to herself, "Children, huh. Like that would happen now. No one would want me now. Who would anyways? I would rather live the rest of my days alone. That way I would never again feel this pain that I am feeling at this moment."
Two weeks later, in the Feudal Era, Sesshomaru was in the study at his palace. He was contemplating on these feelings that he had been having for these past 4 and 1/2 years. Not only the feelings that he had for Rin, his ward, but also for Kagome, his half-brother's widow.
He'd remember when they first met. At that time, all he thought about was conquest and that haunting question that his father asked him moments before his death and that some question plagued my mind that seemed like an eternity, "Do you have someone to protect, Sesshomaru?"
Sesshomaru couldn't really fathom it, but at that time and place, it was both his inheritance and his pride as a daiyoukai, that he would definitely die for.
He saw his father's fall because of a human woman, which he thought that was why he had fallen so easily. He also thought that love and compassion were all weaknesses; it holds no strength within them.
That's one of the reasons that he sought out the Tetsusaiga, that it was indeed powerful and it could kill a thousand demons in one swing. He needed that power to achieve his goal of world conquest.
When he figured out where his father's tomb had been hidden all this time, he acquired the black pearl in which held the resting place of the Legendary Inu no Taisho and where the very thing that Sesshomaru was searching for 200 yrs. ever since his father's death.
He had always smirked every time he would think about that day because it was still amusing to him. He thought...
"Kagome didn't show any fear to this Sesshomaru when I first met her. I was dumbfounded that she was so fearless of me. She talked to me as an equal. I had to admit it then and even now that I liked that in an alpha female.
I believe that was when something started to stir inside of me and that the same time Inuyasha found whatever that was missing...he felt the need to protect Kagome with all of his heart and soul that made Tetsusaiga responded to that urge.
What also amused me then that she just pulled out of sword like it was no effort at all, that even I and that whelp, Inuyasha, couldn't had pulled it out of its seal.
I even covered her with my acid, at the time, yes, I was furious and wanted to kill her for her defiance, but Tetsusaiga protected her. She wasn't even burned and melted by the effects of it, which told me that she wasn't an ordinary human.
Then later on, I met Rin. I was merely testing the effects of Tenseiga. Father had told me that it could resurrect the dead, which at that time I found it unbelievable. So I tested it on Rin after she died. Something inside me stirs during that time; something other than merely testing it.
Perhaps my soul was more aware of the compassion and love that I had for the little girl than my mind was then. I found that I do indeed love and care about my Rin as if she were my own daughter to protect.
Father, you were right about protecting someone was more than just mere protecting a title or my lands that would give me my strength. I even found that I didn't need Tetsusaiga, because I had my own strength using my own youkai weapon to protect all those that I hold dear to my heart.
For the past few years, I found that I was fond of Kagome like I was with Rin, but it felt deeper and different. It's hard to explain even to myself. I just hope I won't fail her for being whatever she needed me to be. I also know for a fact that Rin will be most thrills if she agrees. I hope she agrees. I need to find what it was about her that stirs me up from the inside and out."
He was interrupted by Jaken as he just return from Kaede's village with some very good news for him, "My lord, my lord!" Sesshomaru was irritated that he was being disturbed.
"Yes, what is it, Jaken?"
"My lord, I found out some favorable news for you, sir."
"Out with it, Jaken, I am not in the mood," the lord barked loudly.
"Y-yes...my... my l-lord, Lady Kagome had just returned from the future. She saw me as if she was disappointed and asked if you were around because you'd said you would be there at the well."
As soon as he heard that, he got angry at himself for being so careless. He was starting to leave for the village until...
"Wait, my lord, let me finish. She asked if she could come here since you had offered to stay here after she'd returned from her birth era."
Sesshomaru calmed a little and looked at the little imp and asked, "Where's Kagome now?"
"She's in the family room, my lord. Is there anything you want me to do?"
"Yes, have her go out to the gardens. Rin will be excited to see Kagome. Is there anything else I need to know, Jaken?"
"Uh...yes, Kagome brought her kit, Shippo, with her, since she considered him being her son, my lord."
"Very well, then. You're excused."
Jaken did as he was told as Sesshomaru looked out of the window that oversees the palace gardens. It was as if he was anticipated to see her out there. He was nervous. He wasn't sure why, but it certainly wasn't the first time he'd seen her whenever he felt this way. It made him feel...