Chapter One

A Pure Heart's Lonely Wish

There was an emptiness that lingered inside Kagome in the years following her father's death. It was one that she could never truly put into words, one that felt as vast and as deep as the ocean itself. The guilt ate away at her soul, feeding off of thoughts that she could have done more, that if she had paddled a little harder or kept her head above water a little longer, maybe she could have found him. Maybe she could have saved him. It was a burden that dragged her spirit low and made her feel like she wanted to collapse in on herself. No matter how much it hurt her, she knew she could not share those thoughts with anyone else; they were her penance for her failure.

Four years after the death of her father, Kagome was sitting in the old shed just behind their house. The shed was littered with old spiritual relics and ancient artifacts that her grandfather convinced himself were more than just useless junk. Seated at the centre of the shed, was an old dried up well. The wood was worn, and splintered in some places and Kagome wondered what rough days the old well had seen. It also carried a faint scent of Sakura blossoms that Kagome found comforting, like kindling to the hope that it contained magic, just as her grandfather promised. She had pile of stones lying next to her as she peered over the lip of the well into its ominous, black depths. Ji-chan had told her that the well was magical, a secret passed down through generation after generation of Higurashi shrine keepers.

"No one knows what powers the well holds any longer, but my own grandmother swore that if your heart was pure and you threw a stone to the bottom and made a wish, the well would make your wish come true," Ji-chan had told her, the wizened pleat of his face and twinkle in his eyes daring her to believe in the impossible.

And so there she sat, with a pile of stones beside her every day for 7 months, dropping stones into the well and wishing some way somehow her father would return. At first, each time she heard the crack of the stone as it hit the others that had accumulated over the months at the bottom of the well, she would rush out into the courtyard in search of her father. But he never came. Eventually, Kagome began dropping the stones whenever she needed time to think. She would still make wishes each time she did, hoping that if at least one came true, then maybe the most important wish she had would come true too. Each time she heard the soft sound of rock hitting rock at the bottom of the well, she realised her wishes didn't come true and her heart sunk further into itself.

She grabbed a glittering pink stone from her pile. It was perfectly round and shone like a jewel, emitting a faint pastel glow in the dimmed light of the shed. Her mother said it was the strangest thing she had ever seen the night they had found the jewel. One night, about a week after she and her father brought Kagome back from the hospital, they found a very fussy baby Kagome sucking on the strange stone in her cradle. Neither of her parents knew just how it had ended up there, this strange jewel that glowed pink and was clearly a choking hazard for their newborn baby girl. Her father thought it to be a blessing from their ancestors and treated the stone with utmost reverence, taking it out each year on her birthday to marvel at its glow with her. According to Mama, it was this strange finding that inspired her father's endearing nickname for her "the jewel of his soul". The jewel had been kept safely in a box with all of Kagome's other baby things for most of her life.

Kagome gripped the pink stone in rage, her palm was pleated and white as she held the cursed rock above her head. She wanted to pelt it into the darkness below, she wanted to hear it crack and break and hear her mother scream at her when she realised it was missing. She wanted everything to burn around her. She wanted everyone else to feel the pain she was feeling. She froze, ready to cast it down into the well where it would lay, forgotten, just like all her other hopes and wishes.

"I wish- I- I wish- I wish I was strong enough to save him. I don't want to be here alone," Kagome spluttered out, tears streaming down her face.

She slowly released pink stone into well and watched as the faint glow was swallowed by the darkness. There was a faint "clink" as it hit the other stones on the bottom and Kagome buried her hand in her hands and sobbed. She felt her body shake and tremble with the sheer force of her grief and she realised that even now, four years later, the wound of her father's death was still fresh and raw. She was so consumed in her pain that she did not see the pink tendrils of light reaching out to her from the depths of the well like a tentative embrace. Vaguely, she registered feeling herself pulled over the lip of the well, but there was no fight left in her, no fear, on the empty feeling of wanting to fall into the black depth of the well.

There was a weightless feeling in the fall, a gentle flip of her stomach that eerily reminded her of being flipped sideways by the current of the ocean. Kagome expected that she would have been smacked into the earthen floor of the well, broken her bones and scratched her skin on the countless stones she had thrown and died a slow, painful death like she deserved. What she did not expect, was to find herself sitting comfortably on the damp, cold dirt of the floor, looking up to a see a clear blue sky. There were no rocks at the bottom of the well like she had expected and the pink stone she had only just thrown down moments ago was nowhere to be found. There was a strange tugging sensation in her chest that drew her eyes to the skies. The well did it. It granted my wish. I'm not home. I'm somewhere where Otousan is. It did it. It brought me to him. My heart was pure and it granted my wish. Kagome's mind was racing as she struggled to find a way out of the depths of the old, dried well.

Her eyes spotted some vines growing on the walls and she tested her weight against it. Once she was sure they would support her, she forced herself to climb all the way back to the top of the well. As she gripped the rim of the opening, she felt the wood thrum beneath her fingers, as though it responded to her touch. A hysterical smile split her face in two as she bolted for the familiar Goshinboku tree that sat alone in the centre of a decidedly unfamiliar clearing. She ran towards the tree, shouting for her father before she stopped herself. There was no shed, no house she had grown up in, no Mama, no Souta, no baby Seiki, no Ji-chan. No Papa. Where exactly was she?

Alone, afraid and confused, Kagome curled up under the shadows of the Goshinboku tree and wept until she fell asleep. She felt the wish she had only momentarily been elated to have come true, slowly morph itself into a nightmare. She was stranded in this strange place and there was no one else around. As brave as she tried to be to herself, she could not bear to venture into the thicket of forest just beyond the clearing. The first night was lonely and cold. She begged the well to send her back home, promised that she would be a good girl and would always listen to Mama, but there was just the constant thrum of energy nibbling at her fingers as she rested them on the splintered, worn, wood of the well. When her throat had been screamed raw and her tears began making water stains on the well, she resigned to her fate. There was no one coming to save her, there was no waking up from the dream, there was only the endless darkness and her ragged beating heart. Darkly, she wondered if the well had granted her other wish, if she had really plummeted to her death after her fall into the well and was having her soul weighed against some arbitrary measure. She sat beneath the tree, gripping her knees to her chest, afraid to sleep alone in the darkness.

When day had finally broken, she let herself release the breath she had been holding in. She hadmade it through this strange night in this eerie place that had seemed like home but was not. She blinked and watched in horror as a woman dressed in a blood red kimono, bound and tied with a pristine white obi shimmered into existence. Kagome blinked several times, not sure if it was the hunger or confusion of the place she was in that made a strange woman appeared out of thin air before her. Kagome scrambled back into the bark of the Goshinboku tree as she realised the woman was in fact real, or appeared to be real at least.

The woman watched her in silence, the morning sun bathing her in light and highlighting the sharp perfection of her features. Her aura was a rigid slicing of blades to Kagome's mind and if she squinted in the sunlight, she could see a faint silver light fluttering around the woman's exacting form. Their eyes locked and the woman raised an appraising brow. Kagome could tell she was sizing her up, weighing her, taking note of her lanky limbs, her thin arms, her wild, unkempt hair. She could feel the judgement seeping through the severe line of the woman's tightly pinched mouth.

"I see you've made it through the night, little miko. I was worried you would throw yourself headfirst back into that well at some point. Hm. Well. You are full of surprises aren't you. Here a whole, what, two years before you are meant to flower? Feisty one, aren't you. We haven't had one as young as you in at least 200 years! Well, never mind that now, I suppose. Come with me, we have much to discuss."

Kagome glared up from beneath the Goshinboku tree, her brown eyes beaded and distrusting. "I am not going anywhere with you. Who the fuck even are you?!" Kagome yelled.

No sooner had the curse slipped out of her mouth, did Kagome feel the sting of a slap mar her face. She had not even seen the woman move but somehow, she was face to face with her, their noses nearly touching as Kagome brought her hand up to her cheek. The slap had shaken Kagome's head and rattled her senses, leaving a faint ringing her in her ears. The woman gripped Kagome's face taut between her fingers, keeping her in place despite her meagre attempts at struggle.

"First lesson little miko, never ever disrespect your teacher. Second lesson, know the thunder of your enemy's strike before you make your move. Now come, let us leave. There is much to discuss," the woman pushed Kagome's face back and rose with the poise and grace of a geisha.

Without a second glance, the woman slowly shuffled out of the shadow of the tree towards the thick beckoning forest, her blood red kimono glowing in the morning light.

"Who are you?" Kagome asked again, this time more forcefully as she rose defiantly to her feet. The woman's slivery aura flared wider as she threw a glance over her shoulder.

"I am the breaker of the weak and the healer of the broken. I am the shiver of fear in a demon's spine. I am the protector of the innocent and the sword of the righteous. I am Seima, the Blood Miko and I do not speak twice."

Kagome stared at the woman's retreating form, unsure what any of that babbling nonsense meant. There was that tug in her chest again, literally pulling her feet towards Seima's retreating figure. With two clenched fists, a sneer and a sickening clench of her stomach Kagome gingerly began following the strange woman in red making no effort to cease her macabre thoughts that she was walking to her doom.

Kagome's first interaction with Seima moulded the following centuries long relationship that would ensue between them. As they walked through the forest, Seima began questioning Kagome in what would become her typical severe and blunted tone.

What strange occurrences had recently befallen her?

Falling down a well and ending up in this godforsaken place with a woman who either wants to kill or molest her.

Whack!

Had she seen any strange things lately?

A silvery, flame that danced around the edges of the woman she was sure was going to maim and molest her.

Whack!

What had she wished from the well when she was brought here? A slow torturous death, which would clearly come in the form of the ruler hidden in her proposed molester's kimono.

Kagome narrowly avoided being whacked after that comment and smirked when Seima levelled a look at her.

"You learn quickly. Good," Seima nodded and continued walking through the forest. Seima was right to call herself the Blood Miko, Kagome thought bitterly as she glanced down at the whacks which had welted red, threatening to draw blood.

They continued in the forest, Seima asking her questions incessantly and ignoring any questions countered by Kagome.

"When did you first feel the magic's tug?" Seima finally asked stopped abruptly and keeping her eyes forward on the path before them. Kagome stopped in her tracks. How did she know about the tugging in her chest?

"How do you know about that?" Kagome demanded, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. Seima's eyes shifted to Kagome's much smaller frame, her face remained a blank page. "When?" Seima urged. Kagome scowled at the ground before grinding out her response, "About 4 years ago."

Seima seemed to ponder that for a while longer before abruptly resuming their trek.

"How long do you think you've been here?" Seima continued her barrage of questions.

"How long have I been here?"

Whack!

"Fuck!"

Whack!

"Okay! Okay! One night?"

Seima's mouth twitched. "Time runs differently when the well is concerned."

Kagome was once again unsure of what Seima meant by this.

As they continued on, Kagome noticed the forest thinning until they came to a tiny hut seated at the edge of a river. Kagome drew a ragged breath in at the sight of the body of water, feeling the air burn her throat in a way that made her feel she was drowning. Seima paused, sending a raised eyebrow Kagome's way. Kagome took a few more breaths, trying to still her raging heartbeat and release the constricting nausea that was building in her stomach. Us Higurashis face our fears head on, she thought to herself as she steeled her resolve and continued following Seima towards the quaint hut. She ignored the way her knees threatened to buckle at the sound of the trickling water, unable to comprehend how even years later she was still this affected by the mere sound of running water. Seima's hut seemed much larger on the inside than it looked on the outside, sprawling lavishly and unnaturally. Kagome hopped in and out of the hut several times, certain that her eyes were playing tricks on her. Seima smirked at her, simply gesturing for Kagome to find a seat on the mat before her.

"You are a very brave young girl, did you know that?" Seima began, a softness seeping into her voice that caught Kagome's attention if not her suspicions. This was a marked change in the woman she had recently been forced to acquaint herself with.

"I was fourteen years old when the well first appeared to me. There was a tugging in my chest while I was running playing with the other children. At first, I thought it was the aftereffects of a ghastly cough that had swept through the village a few months prior, nearly claiming my life. I had felt it before, all those months ago while I lay in my parent's house screaming for my mother as I thought I would die," Seima's lips twisted in a wry smile. Kagome could not help but hold her breath, waiting for Seima to finish her tale, "I felt my chest constrict while I chased my best friend. I stopped and then my feet drew me further into the forest. I had no idea where I was going, I ignored all the calls of my friends and just continued into the trees. I just knew that something in me demanded that I follow the tugging in my chest. There in the shadows of the forest, I found the old well."

"At first the magic was gentle, soft pink tendrils coaxing me closer to the edge. When I hesitated, the magic flung me over the edge of the well and dragged me to the darkness below. I fell through time, I-I think. I- I saw things I still don't understand to this day," Seima's voice shook slightly, and Kagome was instantly grateful that her journey through the well was a little less traumatic. She felt her heart soften then, towards the rigid woman who had guided her this far.

"When I came to, I was at the base of the Goshinboku tree, right where I found you. For three nights I slept below the tree, too frightened to move even an inch from that spot. I was cold, frightened and alone. My own teacher appeared soon after, in all her capricious glory," this was said with a scowl that frowned Seima's perfect features into something wicked. "She taught me everything I know to this day, including some of the lost secrets of the well. Do you feel it too, when you touch the wood? It is like…" Seima faltered.

"Like a hum," Kagome provided, looking down at her finger tips.

Seima nodded briskly and continued, "Yes. Exactly that. Like a hum in the wood. It's alive you see, the well. And it responds, ever so unpredictably, to the magic of others." Kagome's eyes glassed over as they met Seima's. Seima sighed, placing an up-turned palm between them. Her lashes fluttered close, and her brow twitched in concentration as a spark of red energy cracked in her open hand. Kagome pushed herself back, emitting a shrill cry in her shock. She watched, awestruck as the red energy flickered like a flame then collapsed on itself into a perfectly spherical ball, then a leaf before it crumbled before her eyes and was reabsorbed into Seima's hand. "Lesson three, Kagome, magic lives inside us all. It is up to us to have the might to use it," Seima said, her brows knitting together. Kagome was so overwhelmed by everything that had happened thus far, she didn't even bother to think or question how Seima had known her name.

"We who have the proclivity for magic often feel its burdens most acutely. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Kagome nodded, although she didn't really know what Seima meant.

Seima drew a deep breath in, "We each have to bear our burdens in this lifetime, Kagome, no matter how big and fierce they may seem they are our burdens to bear."

At this, Kagome nodded, "We face our fears, head on."

Seima smiled in a way that didn't quite reach her eyes as she nodded.

"The burden we face, women like you and me," Kagome blushed at the thought of being a woman, her hands hugging her small eleven-year-old frame, "is twofold. As the kamis ordain, there is a great evil that has been tailored to each of us that we must defeat. This is written into the stars upon our birth and we cannot run from it, no matter how hard we try. Fate is funny like that, it catches up to you eventually. Then we must pass on the teachings of our elders to the next generation of mikos that come after us." Seima paused, giving Kagome time to catch up to her meaning.

"We have many teachers and many students in our lifetime. Sometimes we have many evils we face, but ultimately, there is only of each specially fated by the kamis for us. I fought my great evil 250 years ago and gave my life to save the world and those I love. I had not yet fulfilled the other section of my destiny, to pass on the teachings shared with me to another young miko. The kamis, they b-blessed me with this place," Seima's eyes hardened, "a place all on my own where I train young mikos, just like you Kagome."

Kagome blinked once, then twice. Miko? That was what Ji-chan called the spiritual priestesses of old, the ones who fought demons and healed bodies and saved the souls of the damned. Miko… she tested the word in the tongue of her mind.

"Am I…a miko?" Kagome felt her voice squeeze out of her throat under the weight of the conversation. Seima closed her eyes before nodding, almost afraid of Kagome's reaction, "Hai."

"And I have a 'great evil' to defeat?" Kagome pressed further.

"Hai."

A silence fell between them as Kagome turned the impossible story around in her mind. She would have kicked Seima right in the couche and ran away screaming if her experience with the well hadn't mirrored Seima's story so perfectly. Kagome frowned and stared at her hands, willing them to spark to life like Seima's had moments ago. She felt her face go red with effort until she saw it, a trick of the light or maybe something more. There, for the briefest of seconds, Kagome saw a flash of pale lavender light crack at her fingertips. It was then Kagome let out the breath she had been holding as her fingers collapsed into a fist. Feeling something inside her grow hard and firm, she met Seima's cautious gaze and thought back to her wish.

"Will you make me strong?"

Kagome was stationed with Seima for a gruelling three years after their fateful meeting. Her training with Seima was arduous and intensive, spanning offensive and defensive combat training, history lessons, mythical lore, battle strategy and more. There were many times when Kagome felt the devastating blow of missing home and would spend nights camped out at the bottom of the Well, begging to be taken home. Seima, in all her sharp edges, glares and corporal punishment was patient and understanding when those moments came. Kagome would awaken to find no change in her surroundings, climbing up the vines at the sides of the Well with a heavy heart. Seima would be waiting for her when she climbed out and wordlessly led her back to their camp to resume her training.

It was torturous, in many ways for Kagome. Most of all it was lonely. She was in the middle of running through the basis of a new bo kata with Seima when she felt it; that unmistakeable tug in the base of her belly. This was different than what she had experienced when she first came to this strange place, but without a doubt she knew it was Well's magic calling to her. She dropped her staff, confused at the feeling and looked up at Seima. Seima, ever astute and watchful, noticed the shift in Kagome's countenance immediately.

"I felt it too, young one. The Well calls to you, doesn't it?" she asked solemnly. She looked at Kagome who had grown over the years in her care. Kagome was much taller, and much snarkier at age 14 and was slowly becoming competent in her training. Slowly they were making their way to Kagome honing the magic at her fingertips to more physical manifestations instead of errant sparks.

Kagome nodded touching her stomach near her womb, "I feel it here, as if it is pulling me home." Seima let out a mysterious "Hn" before nodding. There were few words exchanged between them as they finished running through the kata and ate a light meal of mushroom soup.

The silence hung between them as they made their way back to the well, the site of their first meeting three years prior. Together, they stared at the lone Well sitting innocuously in the middle of the clearing. Seima was the first to break the tension.

"Kagome," she began nervously, "do you remember what I told you when you first came here?"

Kagome nodded, "Yes, that you would maim and molest me."

Artfully dodging the whack of Seima's ruler, Kagome ducked her head and jumped a few centimetres away from her irate teacher with a giggle.

"No foolish girl. About time. About time and this place."

"You said time runs differently with the Well."

"A blessing and a curse, I suppose. When the Well returns you, I don't know what you will find on the other side."

"Seima-sensei can you not speak in riddles for once? Or use big words? My head is hurting from the last whack you gave me."

Seima's lips pressed together in a thin line of displeasure, remembering Kagome's transgression that had earned her the last whacking earlier that day. "The Well visited me many times throughout my lifetime. It took me to many a teacher and many an evil but, sometimes, when I would return to my own time, I would find that years had passed in my absence or months, or days. It was different each time, but I often returned to a body that had not aged. Once I spent a decade in the Edo era at odds with a particularly nasty bear demon that ravaged the countryside preying on helpless virgins village to village. When I finally defeated him and returned to my time, I found that only an hour had passed since I had last left in the Well. It is… a disconcerting experience."

Kagome groaned at the word "disconcerting", making a mental note to find the word's meaning at some point.

Seima narrowed her eyes at Kagome's groan, "You have spent three years growing and learning in this place. Maturing? Well, one can't expect so many miracles from the kamis. You are not the same 11-year-old girl that fell through that well when we first met but…when you return to your own time, you very well may be. Or you may have been missing for months or years and show up at your family's door with no explanation for how you haven't aged a day. I just want you to be prepared for that."

Kagome frowned at this. She had left her home behind her so long ago now and the thought of returning to life as it had been made her squirm uncomfortably. Shoving her anxiety to the side, she pressed her lips into a thin line, imitating Seima's schooled resolve and approached the Well. She could feel the wood vibrate gently below her fingers, its magic reacting to her touch.

"Don't worry, Seima-sensei. If the Well means for me to traverse across time and space like you say, then it better help me figure out an alibi for my Mama if I'm missing for more than one hour, or else," she muttered with a glare at the pock marks on the wood. She felt the thrum of energy beneath her fingers as she swung her legs over the ledge and stared into the darkness of the Well. The energy sent a small shock through her hand, as if the Well was cross with her thinly veiled threat. Seima kept her mouth in that same rigid line.

"Be safe, Kagome. I hope we do not cross paths again."

Kagome threw her head back and laughed. With a small salute and nerves of steel Kagome Higurashi released a breath and jumped.

Unlike many times over the last three years in her life, the bottom of the Well did not meet her feet. Instead, she was surrounded by a pale pink light that engulfed her and invaded her eyes until it was all she saw. Somewhere, in the blindness of her travel through time and space, Kagome caught a glimpse of a woman with a dark blue crescent on her forehead smiling at her. The woman's face felt intimately familiar. In a moment, the light and the smiling woman were gone. There was an immediate feel of darkness surrounding her and she looked up to see the ceiling of the shed in her back yard. She felt shrunken in her body, like a hermit crab forced to endure a shell long outgrown. Shivering at the feeling, she shook her head. There was a sharp pain at the base of her skull as her memories of the time spent with Seima collected and settled in her mind. Blinking in the darkness, she felt for the vines at the walls of the Well and hauled herself up. Her body felt weird, as if it knew it was stronger than it currently was but couldn't quite access said strength. Kagome's mind spun at the barrage of unanswered questions about her condition.

Flinging herself over the Well's edge, she was met by the curious gaze of her grandfather. They stared at each other for a long time, neither saying a word. He looked deep into Kagome's eyes and something in his face softened. Approaching her gingerly, he reached out and put a warm hand to her cheek. Kagome wondered if he could see the age in her eyes, if he could tell she was not the same person he had last seen, whenever that had been.

"Your mother's been looking for you for hours. She's just about to call the police. I came in here to look for you and saw- well I'm don't quite know what I saw. I saw a light, and then I saw you," he paused.

Kagome watched his aged face contort in confusion as he took a breath and examined her. He held her hands, turning her palms over in search of damage. He spun her around, touched at her hair and found his way back to her eyes. She knew then that he saw something different in them.

"Kagome, my jewel, where have you been?".