A/N: Originally written for R0o's birthday challenge but I ended up missing the deadline and her birthday because of my little health scare. It belongs to her, so please enjoy.
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It was time. Naraku was dead. The Shikon restored.
Miroku had kissed Sango the moment he realized that he was no longer cursed. His days as a shyster monk were at an end. The taijiya would soon have a husband to add to her family of two. Kohaku had survived his nightmare and returned to his sister and the neko, Kirara.
Shippo decided that it was probably time to grow up and study with his own kind. He couldn’t be babied forever. His father had finally been avenged and he was ready to move on with his life.
For once in his life InuYasha was speechless. Not from any spell or illness either. It was just too much for him to get over the fact that Kikyou could finally rest in peace now that the kumo was gone from existence. He had been fighting for so long and now that the battle had been won, he needed a new purpose in life.
There was only one thing left to do.
The miko from the future had to make the best wish she could think of and knew that it was probably going to instantly transport her back home five hundred years away from her Feudal friends and loved ones.
She made sure to embrace and kiss every last one of them before taking a hold of the cursed jewel one last time; leaving the most important goodbye for the last.
Stepping up to him, she craned her neck upwards so she could memorize his face. She knew she would love the stoic Inu youkai for the rest of her days; even though she never had the chance to say it to him.
Kagome reached into her backpack and pulled out a little lacquer box and a folded piece of parchment; turning back to Sesshoumaru, her presents held in her outstretched hand.
The daiyoukai looked down at them, eyebrow escaping to the confines of his bangs, as he stood there wondering why the strange onna would be giving him gifts at a time like this.
“The letter is for you and the other one is a little something for Rin. I wouldn’t want her to think that I wasn’t going to miss her. Please give this to her when I leave and tell her that I will always be her nee-chan.” the miko explained, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
She looked up at him one more time, gracing him with the most heart wrenching smile she could manage and stepped back into the middle of the clearing, leaving Sesshoumaru to question exactly what she meant. ‘She is leaving.’ his mind replayed.
Steeling her nerves, she took a couple of quick breaths before calling out to her friends.
“I know what I am going to wish for guys and I hope…No, I know you will all be happy. Just remember that I love every single one of you.” she finally choked out.
Sango cried against Miroku’s chest. Kohaku held Kirara. Shippou sat atop InuYasha’s shoulder sniffing into his hair. They all knew what was coming. It was like watching a wreck, that they just couldn’t turn away from.
Hands together in silent prayer, the Shikon held between her fingertips, the miko from the future closed her eyes and made her wish. A flash of brilliant white light and a surge of pure reishi later and the jewel was finally gone.
Slowly, Kagome began to fade away. She opened her sad brown eyes one last time and locked gazes with a very confused Inu youkai. In a matter of seconds she had vanished, leaving seven very lost souls to lament her departure from the Feudal era.
It took a very bold and brave Shippo to finally explain to the Western Lord that Kagome wasn’t dead, just gone back to where she originally came from and would never be returning. The jewel had been the link and not even InuYasha could get to her anymore.
Sesshoumaru tried exceptionally hard not to show any emotion; instead just nodded his head to the kitsune and strolled away.
~*~*~*~*~
His mind had wondered aimlessly as he made his way back to his own camp. The miko’s gifts still firmly in his grasp. Rin would not be happy about this and he did not look forward to having to deal with a sulky ward.
Said spritely child, ran forward and attached herself on his hakama leg as soon as he stepped out of the tree line.
“Lord Sesshoumaru, Rin is glad that you have returned.” she exclaimed, her bright toothy smile stretching from ear to ear.
He patted her head in response to her and extended the small black box to her.
“This is from the miko. She wished for me to express to you that you will always be her nee-chan and that she will miss you. She has gone back to her own family and will not be able to return.” the Inu bluntly announced. No sense in beating around the bush or lying.
“Nee-chan is gone?” Rin whimpered. The tears would be next.
She surprised her guardian though, by walking back to her pallet and sitting down quietly with the present held in her hands. It was a pretty black lacquered box with bright pink sakura on the lid and an intricate silver clasp. Nee-chan had left this for her and she would treasure it forever. As she was about to put it away in her pack, she inadvertently shook it and something inside jingled and rattled. There was more to it than just the box. The thought lifted her spirits.
Her chubby little fingers undid the lock and pushed the lid back gently. Inside was a Rin size silver bracelet with five little pendants attached. ‘A charm bracelet’ the child recalled. Kagome once wore one and had explained that each charm had a different meaning.
Sesshoumaru looked on in question when Rin sat down, obviously distraught about the loss of the older onna. When she opened the box and pulled out the bracelet, his curiosity got the better of him and he meandered over and sat down at her side. The memory of a similar bracelet on the miko’s slender wrist jostled unwanted feelings and he growled silently.
“Look at what nee-chan gave me Lord Sesshoumaru. It’s a charm bracelet. Umm, this blue moon is just like the one on your forehead, the white puppy is what you turn into, the orange flower is just like my kimono, the little green frog is Master Jaken and oh, this pink one is a R0ozilla. Isn’t it beautiful?” she laughed out.
“A R0ozilla? This Sesshoumaru has never heard of such a thing.” he commented, as he continued to stare at the little pink dragon looking thing.
“That’s because it comes from nee-chan’s time. She always brought coloring books and read Rin and Shippou stories about R0ozilla attacking some place called Do-ku-ga.” The little girl calmly clarified, like it was a commonly known fact.
‘Her time? Going home and being unable to return? This Sesshoumaru has more questions than answers and it does not sit well with this one.’ he grimaced, before remembering that he had her letter to examine.
~*~*~*~*~
He stood up, leaving Rin to play with her new acquisitions on her own and walked back the tree line; far enough away that he could be awarded privacy, but close enough to keep an eye on the camp. He sat back against an old gnarled tree, one that matched his mood right then and pulled the paper from his haori sleeve. Unfolding it carefully, he read:
‘Dear Sesshoumaru,
I know this might seem like an odd thing for me to be doing, but you always did say I was strange. You have no idea how right you really are.
If you are reading this, and I really hope you are, then I have made the correct unselfish wish upon the Shikon jewel and I am now back where I belong. Only thing is I don’t feel like I belong here anymore. My mother always told me that ‘your home is where your heart is’ and right now my heart is still in the Sengoku Jidai, even though my body is far, far away.
I have wanted to tell you my secret for a long time but there was never a good time to just come out and say it. How do you start a conversation with ‘oh by the way, I am from the twentieth century, five hundred years into the future and I travel between times through the Bone’s Eater well’? Would you have believed me, if I had told you that? No, I didn’t think so either. It’s not that I didn’t trust you with my secret; it’s just I didn’t think it mattered where I came from; after all, I’m just a simple, average human and a miko to boot.
I was born in 1982 in a city called Tokyo; it’s actually located where Edo currently stands, just much larger. I live on the Higurashi Sunset Shrine which extraordinarily enough houses both the Bone Eater’s well and Goshinboku. You should see how big that tree is now. It still has the scar from where InuYasha was pinned for fifty years, but I digress. At age fifteen, I was pulled into the well by Mistress Centipede, who wanted the Shikon no Tama that was conveniently inside of me.
You do know that I am the reincarnation of Kikyou, the object of your half-brother’s affection in life and death. Well when she died, she was cremated with the jewel and it was born inside of me centuries later. The rest of the story is history…ha, history. I lived through three terrifying but amazingly wonderful years in Feudal Japan and not an iota of it is in my history books. Until I came to the past, youkai and the jewel were tales of legend. There are no youkai in my time, none that I can sense with my powers anyway. Maybe they are hiding under a spell. I didn’t even know I was a miko until the jewel got ripped out of me.
Well I’ve come clean. Only one other secret that I have to confess and then you can unleash your doku on this letter and pretend like it and I never existed. After you read what I have to say, you will probably do it too; if not shred it into unremarkable confetti and then melt it. I know this won’t mean anything coming from me but since I’m being honest, I might as well tell you everything.
I love you. I have been in love with you since before you rescued me from Mukotsu and that whack-job Takemaru. I don’t know how or why, just that I do. When everyone thought that I still pining over InuYasha, especially when he ran off to be with Kikyou, it was really me crying because I was lonely, because I couldn’t be with the one I loved. He could and she was the walking dead. It wasn’t fair, but I kept my mouth shut and acted my part.
You are everything that I have ever wished for in a male. I don’t care about your title or money or power. It was your strength, your conviction, your honor, your ambition, your intelligence and focus. But I’m just and eighteen year old virgin, who’s never known what love feels like or even been in a relationship. I’ve only had one kiss and that was to stop InuYasha from losing his soul and transforming; so it doesn’t matter really. I just wanted you to know.
Please continue to take care of Rin and of yourself.
I wish you all the happiness in the world.
With all my love forever,
Kagome Aiko Higurashi’
Shock would be the understatement of the century. The miko was from the future and she loved him. It explained so much; but left him feeling empty and torn. He did not understand what it is he felt for Kagome, just that he did. The knowledge that she would not even be born for another five hundred years had him questioning just what he planned to do with the rest of his near immortal life. If she was correct in her assessment, there would be no youkai and the nation would be covered with humans. He would have to adapt to the times and change.
As he refolded and tucked the letter back into his sleeve, a tinkling sound and little human growls were heard. Rin had wrapped her pink blanket around her small frame, the end dragging on the dirt like a tail and was chasing Jaken around the camp, shouting out “Rawr!!! Rin is R0ozilla and will stomp you.”
The sight made the daiyoukai smile, as he realized that every time he heard the little jingles of the charms that it would be like the miko was still with him.
He had lots of time to reinvent himself. She had left him with clues and a vision of what to expect.
‘This Sesshoumaru promises that he will find you.’ he smirked looking up to the sky.
Five hundred years later, at the very same moment, a heartbroken Kagome was also peering into the smog-ridden sky hoping for a miracle.