Disclaimer: This applies to all chapters henceforth uploaded for this story. As much as I would love to say my mind is as imaginative as the creator of these characters, I cannot claim ownership. The delightful Inu gang is property of Rumiko Takahashi.
Homecoming is Bittersweet
Typical Saturday nights were something of the past for her. In fact, she hadn’t had a normal night in the past ten years. She knew exactly when her life had decided to turn on its ear and rearrange everything she thought she understood. When pressed, she could tell you the exact day, hour, even minute when things changed for her in an impossibly big way. She could also tell you when she had decided she had finally had enough. Most who knew her growing up would never have thought she had such a steel back bone. But when you’re stretched to your limit, it’s finally time to cut losses.
And she had done so, believing that the past would finally stay in the past, and she would remain in the ever moving forward present. Five hundred years of past would surely be enough space between her and her biggest confusion. She had done what she could, accomplished everything that she had set out to do.
Honestly, what more could anyone ask of her?
Her teenage years, which should have been spent worrying about pimples and prom, were a explosion of wild adventures bent on keeping the ancient world together and out of the grasp of psychotic, ego-maniacal half demons.
Yes.. Half demons. The very beings she had laughingly teased her grandfather about on her fifteenth birthday, so sure was she that the old man was finally going senile. Strange how fate has a way of shoving your face in the mud. Or in her case, a very deep well home to a crazy half naked centipede who, after licking her, had drug her down that well, dropped her in Feudal Japan, and promptly stuck her hand into her chest, relieving her of a precious gem she didn’t even know she had possessed.
All that ‘wham bam,’ without a ‘thank you, madam.’ Plain bad manners, in her opinion.
From there, things had only went more awry. After releasing a sleeping hanyou from a tree and subsequently railed at for not looking like his long lost love, she had been told she was a reincarnation of some dead girl, the hanyou’s love, and a protector of the jewel her body had been hosting.
How’s that for a birthday gift? To top it off, she had managed to shatter the jewel, scattering the shards to the four corners of the world. And henceforth, commissioned to retrieve said shards with the help, not offered, but nonetheless given, of the rude, smart assed hanyou, who after imprinting on her mind she was not the glorious ancestor she looks so much like and that he didn’t need her help, begrudgingly began their strange journey between the past and the present.
Their journey, for in fact the hanyou, with the help of a beaded necklace, had been given the ability to follow her back home, like the puppy he resembled.
It wasn’t all bad, by any means. Sure the ground was hard, and there was no such thing as a hot shower, or any form of indoor plumbing to be exact. And yes, there was the little matter of ravenous, jewel seeking demons and humans after her at all times.
Not to mention that the hanyou’s half brother was the most powerful youkia alive in that era, and he, as gorgeous as he was, had a very deep grudge against his brother. She had lost count of the times that god-like creature had attempted to assassinate her companions and herself.
Oh and one mustn’t forget that half her soul had been stolen and returned to the dead priestess she so closely resembled. Where upon she was repeatedly tore in two between wanting to kill the dumb bitch, and knowing how it would effect her most precious companion. Such decisions…
But what of it? Slight inconveniences, really. Her life was that of legends, with a cast of colorful characters you only read about in story books. She had made wonderful friends, matured in ways no girl in her time would imagine; and fell in love. In someway, she really could consider herself lucky.
Laughing sarcastically to herself, she stepped off the plane, looking around her with sad eyes.
Lucky… It was that luck that had driven her to where she was today. A cruel twist of fate had once again proved that her ignorance was all too apparent.
She sighed, walking across the airport to the baggage claim and waited silently for her luggage to arrive. She hadn’t let anyone know exactly when she would be arriving. Her plane had been the latest one she could find from New York; and she had decided she would go to her hotel for the rest of night rather than inconvenience her family. They had enough to deal with at the moment. Besides, she wasn’t really ready to face her family, not without some sleep first. Her homecoming was a bittersweet one. Hailing a cab, she climbed in, shaking the rain from her umbrella first, and smiled wanly at the driver.
“Where to, miss?” he asked, flashing her a sympathetic smile. Considering the very early morning hour, and her glassy eyed stare, he could guess she had been on a plane for quite a while.
“The Grand Hotel, please,” she replied, her gaze glued to the scenery outside. Not that there was much to see. In the four years she had been gone, Tokyo had not changed a bit. A few new buildings, more twinkling lights. She yawned tiredly.
“Long flight?” the cabbie asked conversationally. She nodded, glancing at him briefly.
“Yes, very.”
“Where you from?”
“Originally, here. But I’ve been away in the States for the past few years. College at Yale,” she told him, happy to answer his mundane questions in hopes on pushing her tiredness away for a bit longer. She really didn’t want to fall asleep in the back of the car.
“Yale? That takes some smarts to get into, doesn’t it? What‘s you studying?”
She rolled her eyes slightly. “Well, it takes some hard work, that’s for sure. Especially considering I’m pre-med. Still have a long way to go. But I’ll get there eventually.” Looking back to the city’s night lights, she rubbed a hand across her eyes. “Eventually, when this whole mess is behind me,” she muttered quietly.
Ever curious, or perhaps just feeling chatty, her cabbie once again led the conversation. “So what brings you back to Tokyo? Here for a visit?” he asked, obviously obtuse about that fact. But she, even in her tired state, was kind, and so she answered in a calm manner.
“Yeah, you could say that. Family business,” she stated plainly, her voice devoid of emotion, hiding the fact that her heart had been breaking from the moment she had alighted here. Pinching the bridge of her nose in hopes of deterring the onslaught of a migraine, she realized she hadn’t spoken the complete truth. However, the other event that had brought her to this country was even more painful to analyze than the former. So she decided to not think about that, even though she knew it would be unavoidable later on.
Simply put, Kagome Higurashi had made two promises, and she was here to fulfill them, come hell, which she was in; or high water, which she was sure she would be in before the week was out.
Had she been less of a noble soul, she might have found some way to back out of the situation she found herself in, some silly, flimsy excuse. And granted, it had crossed her mind. But a coward she was not, and she had never left a promise unfulfilled.
Thankfully, she didn’t feel the need to divulge all the circumstances to her strange confidante, and his apparent lust for knowledge now slated, they rode in comfortable silence until they arrived at her hotel. Grateful that she could finally take a long bath and get some sleep, Kagome graciously thanked her driver, offering him one of her soft smiles and a nice tip before heading through the massive lobby doors and into the building that would be her home for what was left of the night.
Tiredly, she gave the desk her information and with a small smile, allowed the bellhop to escort her to her room. Within minutes of closing the door, she was encased in frothy bubbles, sipping a glass of white wine in hopes of relaxing her wary body, and indulging in a few memories of a different time in a not so different place.
A/N: I'm delighted to work on this story. I have big plans for this plot line. I sincerly hope you enjoy it as well.