Kagome stared down at the book in her lap, though she wasn't really seeing any of the words printed on the page. Ever since that day a year ago, she was having trouble keeping her mind from wandering. Math problems jumbled themselves into meaningless scribble before her eyes, poems and novels held no meaning, and every television show seemed to be completely without plot. Difficulty concentrating was not a good problem to have when you were in college, but Kagome was fed up trying to get her mind on track. All the time she spent studying was preparing her for her life in the future, a life as a respected doctor, a life living alone in Tokyo, a life five hundred years from where she wanted to be. The future was depressing, and she couldn't care less about it.
Kagome was startled out of her daze by a long, gangly shadow casting the pages of her book into darkness. She looked up to find Souta standing beside her, a baseball bat slung over his broad shoulders and a Hanshin Tigers cap on his head.
"Hey Kagome, I'm going to play baseball with my friends. Wanna come and watch us? You can keep score," said Souta.
Sometimes it still surprised Kagome to hear such a deep voice coming from her brother's mouth. He was fourteen years old now, but most of the time she still thought of him as a little kid.
"No thanks, Souta. I'm just going to read for awhile," Kagome drawled, idly turning a page.
"Okay..." he sighed, and started to walk away, only to turn back to her a few seconds later. "You sure you don't wanna come?" he asked, and Kagome narrowed her eyes at him. "Okay, okay..."
Kagome watched as he ran off down the block. Souta was a good kid with his heart in the right place, but sometimes she just wished he would leave her alone. Ever since that day a year ago, he had been trying desperately to lighten her spirits. He would keep her company when she wanted to be alone, invite her to outings with his friends, and even helped her with her chores. She appreciated it, and loved him dearly, but she knew in the long run that nothing he did could help her forget the past and live in the future. She would forget her sadness for only awhile, and then it would creep back up on her in the most inconvenient of places. In the shower it made her curl up and cry in the bottom of the tub, in class it made it impossible to take notes, and on the street it made her run across traffic and all the way home.
In fact, sitting now under Goshinboku, it was creeping up on her again.
She slammed her book shut and looked up into the leaves, blinking furiously to try and keep the tears away. She let her head loll onto her shoulder, and she caught sight of the well house. Though she only saw it for second, she was sure there was a figure silhouetted against the building. It quickly disappeared inside the doorway, a shadowy specter becoming one with the darkness. Deep within her bones, she could feel a twinge of power.
With her heart hammering in her chest, she raced to the well house and stood in the doorway. She would feel something moving inside, something powerful, something inhuman. The aura she felt coming from within was tiny, but she had an inkling that there may have been more power behind it than she was able to feel, more power than it was willing to expose.
"Hello?" she called, and of course there was no answer.
She would have to enter.
She would have to face the well again for the first time in a year, and she didn't know if she was ready.
"I know you're in there!" she yelled. "Don't make me come in after you."
But as she said that, she was already crossing the threshold. Small rays of light peeked in through the wall boards, casting the old well in eerie light. She could feel the small aura lingering, but it seemed that she was the only person in the shrine. Besides the well itself, there were no proper hiding places in the shrine.
She approached the well tentatively, ready for some foul demon to pop out from its depths even though she knew it would be impossible. The well hadn't worked for years, and Kagome doubted it would ever work again.
She breathed a sigh when she peered down into the well and found nothing but blackness. Looking into that abyss, she was overcome. The small aura made her afraid of the well house's shadowy corners, but she was more afraid of the flood of memories.
A year ago she had stood at the well with her mother, feeling a minute flow of power from its depths and taking a leap of faith. As she jumped, she could feel what was left of the well's power ebb away, and when she landed she knew she had only fallen a few feet instead of through five hundred years like she wanted to. She laid at the bottom of well for nearly an hour until Souta got home from school and jumped in after her, hoisting her back out again.
It was the first time since that day that she had dared to enter the shrine. And it had been a mistake.
She ran out of the shrine, damning that strange aura for luring her back into the place of her despair.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At school the next day, the nagging aura returned. She felt it lurking outside as she sat in her first class of the day, and consequently she didn't hear a word of what her professor was saying. She squirmed in her seat, crossing and uncrossing her legs, drumming her pencil on the seat in front of her until the person sitting in it gave her an angry glance.
She left class early, stumbling over the legs and feet of her classmates to exit the narrow row of seats, and nearly ran from the building. She felt like she was being followed. She kept glancing over her shoulder, but could find nothing out of place. There were only bustling students and teachers, and the occasional maintenance worker dashing by on a golf cart.
She headed in the direction of the library, the one place on campus she could find solace in. When she reached the library's massive glass doors, she grabbed onto the handle and threw open the doors, earning a few strange looks from the librarian sitting at the reference desk. She dashed up the stairs, all the way to the fourth floor. She ran into the rows of books, winding her way through them until she was hidden in depths of the dewey decimal system. She collapsed into her usual chair, hidden among opposing rows of religion and philosophy. She picked a book at random and laid it in her lap, though she did not open it.
The aura seemed very far away now, four floors down and outside somewhere, so she was surprised when the clawed hand fell upon her shoulder.
She screamed, but the hand was quickly over her mouth and muffling her. She looked to her left, her eyes slowly working their way up a white shirt and black blazer to an ethereally handsome, painfully familiar face. His wispy silver hair was shorter then she remembered, purposely arranged to hide the makings on his face and the pointed tips of his ears.
She hadn't sensed him coming, and even now she could feel no aura radiating from him. She could feel the nagging presence that had followed her to class lingering outside, separate yet somehow tuned into him.
She tried to say his name, but the word caught in her throat for a few moments. It was a ridiculously surreal moment, and Kagome considered pinching herself to see whether or not she was dreaming. Maybe this entire year of her life had been nothing but a dream. Maybe she had hit her head when she jumped into the well and put herself into a coma. It was easier to admit she was lost in a dream than it was to admit what she was seeing was real.
"Sesshoumaru..." she managed to whisper.
"Yes," he said simply, and his delicately masculine baritone sent a wash lightheadedness over her.
"You snuck up on me. I felt an aura...but it isn't yours."
"No, it is Shizuka. She was exploring the shrine yesterday, and she followed you to class this morning as well. Her methods of tracking are still quite unrefined. She takes after her father," he said, the corners of his mouth lifting in a smile.
She had never seen him smile before. Something strange was going on, and his simple expression of happiness was proof.
"What are you talking about? Who's Shizuka?" she asked, trying to override her surprise with her growing confusion. "You can't even be here!" she yelled in whisper, "The well only ever worked for me and Inuyasha!"
Sesshoumaru lifted an eyebrow as if to ask if she were in denial or just dense. Kagome's heart gave a painful leap and she saw the centuries gathered in his eyes, a weary wisdom that she could not remember there before. She turned away from him when she felt her eyes beginning to glaze over with tears.
"You're...oh my God," she said, and buried her face in her hands. Deep down, she had known it was his demon lifespan and not the well that allowed him to be in the modern era, but it was sill not an easy thing to comprehend.
For years she had been alone, the last remnant of the magic that had thrived in the Sengoku Jedai. Now she was face to face with the most powerful of demons, her love's half-brother and former Lord of the West. It was too much too fast. Daring another glance at him, she couldn't help but laugh. The last time she had seen him, he was dressed in a silk kimono with two swords on his hip and a fluffy pelt over his shoulder. Now he was in jeans and an open-throated shirt.
"I wanted to go back so badly," she cried. "But the well doesn't work anymore."
Sesshoumaru growled, and tears spilled down Kagome's cheeks.
"It will work," he said sternly.
"No it won't," she sighed. "And I'm not trying again. I won't give up my hopes and be heartbroken. Not again."
"Did you not hear what I said?" the taiyoukai asked irritably. "It will work. I swear it."
He turned and disappeared into the shelves. Kagome fumbled after him, leaving her schoolbag behind. She reached him just as he was descending the stairs, and she wrapped her arm around his elbow, clinging desperately to him. Falling in stride with his easy gait helped calm her nerves and reassure her that she wasn't losing her mind. It was real, he was real, and maybe, just maybe, he could help her see Inuyasha again. She was only surprised that he did not try to shrug out of her hold.
When they stepped outside, Sesshoumaru's attention became distracted. He looked over his shoulder with an eyebrow raised, and Kagome turned to see what he was looking at.
Standing still in a sea of hurrying students, was a girl in jeans and a white t-shirt. There was a red cap on her head, and her long black hair fell over her shoulder in waves. Looking in the girl's smirking brown eyes, Kagome felt she might as well have been looking into a mirror.
The aura had grown, and Kagome could almost see it pulsating out from the girl's body.
"Who is that?" Kagome asked Sesshoumaru.
"You'll know her in time," he said cryptically, and Kagome dared not ask him again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I don't feel anything," Kagome said, peering down into the well.
At soon as she said that, she could feel Sesshoumaru looming over her shoulder. She turned around quickly, and was taken aback by how close he was standing.
"Kagome," Sesshoumaru said, and she looked at him in shock. He had never called her by her name. She had even doubted whether he knew her name at all, and now it rolled off his tongue with a strange tenderness she didn't quite understand. "You met me in my youth many years ago, so in the future here I knew you. I have watched you grow in this era, and in the past I saw you die. It is your destiny to live and die in the Sengoku Jedai."
"But that can't be!" she raged. She was angry, confused, sad. Nothing seemed to make sense anymore. "The well doesn't work! You can't remember me dying in the Sengoku Jedai if I cant get back there!"
"You can return, and you will," he said, and when she opened her mouth to argue, he pressed a claw to her lips to silence her.
The intimacy of the gesture left her aghast, and she could feel a strange heat rising in her stomach. Her knees threatened to become unhinged. Something within those five-hundred years of life had changed him. He was no less regal and proud, but he was not as cold as she remembered him. Emotion had finally crept into his once stoic face, and into his once impassive voice. It was almost like she was dealing with a different person.
"I once thought the well would open again for you of it's own accord, but your little stunt last year proved me wrong. I knew I would have to help you do it," he said, and removed his claw to let her speak.
"If you've known that for a year, why are you just coming to me now?" she yelled, then suddenly thought of a much better question. "Why are you even trying to help me at all? It doesn't make any sense."
"You don't understand. With that knowledge, I realized I have in my hands the power to change the past. I have spent a long year pondering whether or not it would be less painful for all parties to just leave you here in this era," he said, his yellow eyes cutting into her. "But I have grown too fond of my memories. And of my little companion. I have decided to let the past follow its original course."
Kagome felt like screaming.
"What the hell are you talking about?" she thundered.
"One day you'll realize," he said, and his hands were in her hair, pulling her closer.
When he kissed her, reality seemed to fall in on itself.
She wanted to pull away, but the pleasant heat in her belly and her weakening knees bid her to submit to his affection. He gently parted her lips with his tongue, and Kagome thought her mind would spiral into madness.
His claws gripped painfully to her backside, and she awoke out of her stupor. She kissed him back, daring to run her tongue over the foreign shape of his fangs. The act seemed immoral, forbidden, but she couldn't help herself. He had tried to kill her many years ago, had treated her beloved Inuyasha with unbound cruelty, and now as his hand crept under her shirt and cupped her breast, all was forgotten.
She nibbled at his lower lip and he growled, finally pulling away from her. He gripped her forearms tightly and made her back up a few steps until she could feel the lip of the well pressing into her calves. There was a look in his eye she didn't particularly like.
"Sesshoumaru?"
He smiled, and from behind her Kagome could feel a flash of ancient magic.
He said nothing as he pushed her backwards and into the well.
As she fell, the black-haired girl from campus appeared at Sesshoumaru's side. Her arms were crossed at a cocky angle, and now that she wasn't wearing her hat, Kagome thought she just might understand a bit of what Sesshoumaru was trying to tell her.
Perched upon the girl's head were two triangular ears, black instead of the white she had seen so many times before.
The last thing she remembered seeing before the darkness swallowed her was her future waving down at her with a crooked smile.