Hi everyone, welcome to my first inuyasha fic in over a decade! It's my first time posting on this site, so apologies in advance for any awkward uploading.
This story starts off inukag (less than 5 chapters) before it becomes sesskag. Just a warning, this story does NOT paint Inuyasha in a good light.
This is meant to be a preview. I'll begin posting weekly starting in December!
Until then... enjoy!
Crickets chirped and the wind blew as Kagome made her way to her home that didn't feel like home. No, nothing was quite right anymore.
Three years had passed since Narakus defeat. Three years since she was trapped in the Shikon jewel. Three years since she was tricked into returning to the future, her present.
After graduation, her friends tried so hard to help her be happy again. She had to give them that. But they didn't understand. No one did. How could they?
During her time away, Kagome had changed. No longer the naive and trusting girl she once was, now she was simply traumatized.
Depression was never a word she would have associated with herself, but that was the only way to describe the way she felt.
At one time she held onto hope that an older InuYasha would one day appear. But then she remembered, in her time, there were no yokai. He was gone. She would be forever doomed to live in a world without the four people she cared most about. That thought alone kept her awake at night. Sango, Shippo, Miroku, InuYasha. They were long dead in her time and she didn't even know how they'd fared.
Did Sango and Miroku ever get married? Did Shippo get his nine tails? Did InuYasha find a home? Did they miss her as they aged and passed on?
Questions she would never get answers to plagued Kagome to no end. She didn't even know where they were buried, though she suspected it was somewhere on her shrines property.
That was the silver lining in her mind. Her shrine, her home, had once been the burial ground of the village from five hundred years in the past. The village that grew and expanded to become the Tokyo of the new millennium.
It was with that thought that Kagome held onto as she entered the part of the shrine that held the bone eaters well, completely unaware of the three sets of eyes following her.
_____
"She's getting worse." The cracking voice of a teenaged Sota whispered. Just because he was six years younger than his sister didn't mean he didn't understand her feelings.
He loved his sister as much as a brother could. She was his hero, brave, confident, and honorable. Seeing her this way was killing him slowly and he didn't think he could handle seeing Kagome hurt for much longer.
"I know." His mother was just as concerned, if not more. Her daughter had always been such a cheerful girl, but after her last return, something changed.
She knew Kagome had played a hand in countless yokai deaths. That she had seen things, lived through a war and won. But she never could get her daughter to tell her just what happened in those three terrifying days.
Kagome wasn't the same anymore. This world filled with people and technology wasn't suited for her anymore.
"Do you think she'll go back?"
"The portal has been closed for years, Sota." That sad reality was one her daughter was faced with. For all intents and purposes, four of the people closest to her had died the day the well sealed shut. "I don't think she can ever go back."
"Jii-chan said she will go back." His mother's shocked look brought nothing more than a shrug from the teen as He looked toward the shrine that housed both the well and his sister's sorrow. "He doesn't know when it'll happen, but he's certain the old stories about the Miko and the Yokai are about Kagome & InuYasha."
It was a bittersweet feeling, but their mother knew what needed to happen. Kagome didn't belong here anymore. She would have to let her daughter go if she ever wanted her to find happiness. Perhaps destiny had been in play since the morning her baby girl was born. If so, who was she to try and stop destiny? "Then we should help her prepare."
_____
Did the well stop working, because I was afraid to go back? When the well closed and I was alone in the darkness, I was so scared and sad.
I didn't realize that I had been in the darkness for three whole days. I made Mom, Sota, and Jii-chan as sad and scared as I was. I felt bad about that, and was so happy to be back here.
But then the well closed and I was left alone again.
InuYasha?
I've been thinking this whole time about the reason I was sent to the feudal era and the reason the bone eaters well stopped working when the Shikon jewel was destroyed.
My job in that time is done and now I must live my life in my own world. A world without you.
But, InuYasha, I need to see you again.
The feeling of the wind was the first thing she noticed. Soon hearing the chirping of birds, Kagome slowly opened her tear soaked eyes. A small gasp escaped her lips when, instead of the dirt and bones she normally saw, Kagome saw a blue sky filled with puffy white clouds.
She momentarily wondered if she was dreaming when she felt a soft touch on her shoulder and heard the soothing tone of her mother's soft voice. "Kagome sweety, what is it?"
"Mamma." Looking at the mix of emotions on her daughter's face, she already knew what was happening even before it was said. "The well… it's, it's open again."
She could tell Kagome wanted nothing more than to jump headfirst into the past, but her fear was holding her back. Fear of what may happen if she returns. Fear of disappointing her family. Fear that InuYasha was long gone..."Jii-chan and Sota told me this would happen."
"What?" The mix of emotions suddenly vanished to be replaced by simple shock. "How did they…"
"I would have thought you had learned by now, your grandfather's stories aren't just tall tales." She couldn't help letting loose small chuckle at her daughter's expense. It was true though.
Before Kagome had been dragged into the bone eaters well, she never believed a word of her Jii-chans stories. She disregarded his gifts and laughed at his offerings.
Eventually, after her return, she had locked herself into the shrine with the old man and told him everything that had happened in her two year journey. She apologized and begged to be taught more about shrine duties.
She had grown so much. "It's ok Kagome."
Before her daughter could speak, fast paced footsteps could be heard dashing down the stairs. "Yeah sis! We knew this was coming, we even packed some stuff for you!"
A less hyper set of footsteps came to a stop as Kagome stared in awe. "Sota? Jii-chan? How…"
"I'm the keeper of this shrines history girl!" The old man cane off rough, but Kagome could tell by the look in his eyes that he was just trying to keep himself From breaking down. This was hard for him, to say goodbye. But it was meant to be and it is what she wanted so he'd gladly take whatever pain was necessary on her behalf. "From the minute you first returned with InuYasha close behind, I knew one day you'd leave us to be the heroine of our past."
Stepping next to their grandfather, Sota, fighting his own tears, gave her a goofy grin. "InuYasha will take good care of you sis, just don't forget about us ok."
"Sota!" Falling to her knees, Kagome wrapped her arms around her younger brother and held tight. "I love you ototo. Take care of mom ok?"
With a firm nod, the thirteen year old stepped to his mother's side and began tossing several large duffel bags into the well. Her grandfather smiled broadly and hugged his granddaughter tight for the last time. "You will live long and well. There will be many trials and tribulations, but as long as you hold on to the faith you have in that boy, you'll be ok. Live well my sweet girl."
Stepping back, Kagome accepted a mysterious small trunk from him and turned back toward the well. Each step brought her closer to the dream she'd had for three years but she faltered at the last step. Glancing back over her shoulder with tears in her eyes, Kagome knew she was saying goodbye forever. "I love you all so much. Thank you for understanding." Shooting them a final smile, she clutched the black and gold trunk in her arms and jumped.
_____
It had been as much of a normal day as the white haired hanyu could get. The morning sun was beating on his back as he left Miroku and Sangos hut after sharing breakfast with the couple. Shippo followed behind in silence as he walked through the forest that had once been his prison, now dubbed his lands by the village.
It had become a sort of ritual for them. Rise with the sun, breakfast with Sango and Miroku, then to the Goshinboku to beg before checking the bone eaters well and checking on Kaede & Rin. When they arrived at the clearing that once held the portal to the future, InuYasha didn't expect much.
It wasn't that he'd given up hope, more like, he had come to terms with his fate. Kikyo had never loved him but he chased her around at every corner, abandoning Kagome more than once to chase the ghost of his past.
He had caused so much pain, he hurt Kagome so much that he knew this was his karma for treating her so badly. Maybe it was time he stopped coming. It's not like the Kami would answer the call of a hanyu anyway.
He had never wished to be human, but if he could have put this karma off until the next lifetime, he would gladly trade his demon blood. If only to see her one more time.
While InuYasha lost himself in his thoughts, Shippo stood fidgeting at the foot of the well waiting. He would never admit it, but every time InuYasha reached in the well only to come up empty handed, it broke the little kits spirit.
He missed Kagome. But he knew he couldn't take the visits anymore. Shippo would tell InuYasha that he would have to start coming alone to wait at the well as soon as he watched one last time.
Coming back to reality, InuYasha looked at the young kitsune for a moment. He looked conflicted, like he wanted to get something off his chest. But when he finally opened his mouth to speak, his eyes grew wide and he rushed to the wells edge.
Holding his breath and silently begging, InuYasha reached his hand into the well. Waiting. A few moments passed and nothing happened, just like every day for the last three years.
Damning his own nose for playing tricks, InuYasha removed his hand and sighed. With a nod of his head he turned to walk away when he heard a loud thunk.
Slowly, as if afraid of what he might see, InuYasha turned back as the second thunk hit. Confusion overtook him when he saw two giant bags in front of the well. Before he could investigate, he had to back up as three more giant bags came out of the well landing at his feet.
Terrified of false hope, he reached back into the well one last time. But this time, instead of a lonely emptiness, he felt the brush of fingertips. With one tug there she was.