((I have been wanting to do this for over a year but never got round to it. Now that it had time to stew, it is … something. Mostly, though, it's self-indulgent: Something I would have liked to read two decades ago, but since it didn't exist, I couldn't. And because my desires are consistent, I have finally sat down and written it myself.
The title is all mine. I have been told that there is a character (?) in Heaven's Official Blessing that has a similar vibe, but since I've never read that, it is absolutely coincidental.
All chapter headings are taken from Ulysses by Alfred Tennyson.
Self-indulgent and unrealistic it may be, but it does work with the timeline (unless I screwed up). If you have not watched Yashahime, you might want to go back to Uncharted Oceans to make sense of a few of the characters. If you have seen it, you might want to go back to Uncharted Oceans for its own merit. I hadn't intended it to be a part of the series, but since I built on it, I threw it in with the lot.
A word of warning I gave with the predecessors, too: I've only ever seen Inuyasha in German and Japanese. I am unfamiliar with the English idiosyncrasies. I stick with the original way the characters address each other because I'm sensibly confident I know them, but I wouldn't bet my life on all of those.))
Prologue: I Cannot Rest From Travel
It was a strange night. The darkness had a thick, stifling quality to it as she stood at a grave that wasn't hers. How had she got here? Better yet, why was she here or anywhere at all?
Suppressing the urge to say, 'Not again', she looked towards the nearby village. She couldn't see it from her vantage point, but she knew where it had been–hopefully, still was–as she felt her heartbeat, familiar and unexpected all at once. This wasn't the afterlife, it was reality, her reality, manifesting itself in the chilly wind and the rustling of leaves as undeniably mundane. And yet–it was beautiful: The way the air brushed over her cheeks, the scent of spring, and the fact that she was alive, truly alive, apparently, and free to do whatever she pleased.
The only thing missing was the mountain. Its destruction had been devastating to the surroundings, but depending on how much time had passed, those that had survived its end would have recovered.
The village. She needed to visit the village to learn more. How long since last she had been here? Could she stay? Did she even want to?
Then there were questions no-one would be able to help with: What had brought her back? What was the purpose of her existence? What would happen when she fulfilled it? And if this truly was a second chance at life: What in the world was she going to do with it?
A flare lit the sky, high above, and she realised that it wasn't night at all. The sun had been eclipsed, and now that it was slowly revealed again, it cast the day in an even eerier glow.
Hearing footsteps near her, she jerked into motion. She did not want to be seen or to speak yet. She had to figure out who–or what–she was, first. Away from here. Away from anyone who would try to push their answers on her before she could find her own.
((Full disclosure: I have no idea if there was a total solar eclipse anywhere near the time I'm setting this (I give an approximation later in the text) in Japan. The truth is: Probably not, but I need one, so I decree it was there.
Writing is finished, proofreading outstanding. I might not manage to post a chapter a day, but I'll do my best. The first proper one will come up tomorrow.))