Total Eclipse of the Heart by Elenna

The Miko Scroll

Total Eclipse of the Heart

Disclaimer: I do not own anything in this fanfic except for certain characters such as Liana, Aya, Aki, etc. The characters of InuYasha are not mine; they are property of Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Yomiuri TV, Sunrise, and Viz. I make no profit from this fanfic.

Chapter One: The Miko Scroll

            The spring air flowed smoothly past the old tree, whispering ancient voices through time itself as the mother and owner of the shrine placed a steady hand on the bark of Goshinboku. The Tree of Ages had survived much more than five hundred years and bore as many scars upon its body as would any hero returning from war. The biggest scar came from that of a half-demon who lay upon the bark with an arrow in his chest for fifty years until the mother and owner of the shrine's daughter fell down an ancient well in modern day Tokyo. It was her daughter that pulled the arrow from the half-demon five hundred years ago. It was her daughter that broke the Shikon no Tama. And it is her daughter whom made a decision, after graduating from High School, that she would return to the Feudal Era to be a priestess and live forever with the half-breed she had rescued from the tree.

            Sighing contently to herself, Mrs. Higurashi walked back to the steps of the shrine and began brushing away some of the old remnants of what fall had brought; a very cold winter. It was true that it had been three years since Kagome went through the well, never to return, and since then her younger brother had moved out to go to college. Still, Mrs. Higurashi looked to the old shrine that covered the old well; tears forming in her eyes as she worried for and about her daughter. It was true that she had searched libraries and records for any sign of her daughter but, alas, could only find scrolls of youkais and mikos. She had believed to have found Kagome once but the tale was so ancient that the writing was a bit hard to read. Souta, who goes to college to study history, looked over this document and confessed that it couldn't have been his sister because the miko in the old legend was said to have mated with a youkai lord. The two of them knew that she was mated to Inuyasha, a half-breed, not a full-blooded youkai.

            Brushing away the last of the old, dry tree limbs of Goshinboku, Mrs. Higurashi headed back into her home where she would make tea and spent her lonely afternoons alone with her father. This was what most days were like to the mother and owner of the shrine; though saddened she was she could not help but feel a bit of comfort knowing that her families-wherever they may be-were happy.

            Pouring the hot tea into her mug, Mrs. Higurashi prepared to call her father for lunch from the shed of antiques outside when there came a sudden knock at the door. Slowly walking to the door, not at all expecting visitors, Mrs. Higurashi found a strange man standing just outside her shrine.

            He had dark brown eyes, slightly long black hair and looked to be around his thirties. He seemed to be of wealth, having on one of the finest suits that Mrs. Higurashi had ever seen and his smile as she opened the door could have knock her old legs to the floor like her younger self use to do around her children's father.

            "Can I help you?" she asked in a shaky voice that immediately dissipated.

            "I do hope so," his thick and rich voice replied. "I am looking for the Higurashi shrine."

            She opened the door a bit wider. "You have found it. Are you looking for the old priest?"

            "No, I am looking for a Mrs. Higurashi," he replied coolly.

            "I am she. To what do I owe the pleasure?" she asked.

            The man reached into the inside of this jacket pocket and pulled out what looked to be a very old scroll. "May I come in?" he asked.

            Blushing, she walks to the side and allows the man to come in. He makes himself comfortable on the nearby sofa while Mrs. Higurashi went to the kitchen and poured him a cup a tea, returning with both in her hands.

He greatly accepted the cup, taking a sip before getting back to the scroll he had pulled out.  "Let me first say that it is a great honor in finally meeting you Mrs. Higurashi," he began. "I have heard nothing but the greatest of complements from someone who bid me to give you this scroll." He slowly began to open it. "I believe that you will know the writer of it at first glance by the handwriting."

            Mrs. Higurashi was carefully handed the scroll from the man, who seemed to sit back and relax; as if expecting her to read it aloud like some sort of fairytale to a child. Looking down at the old document, Mrs. Higurashi could not help but gasp as the familiar calligraphy caught her eye.  "Kagome," she began to cry. She had spent some months cleaning out her daughter's rooms and had happened upon an old journal that she had kept during her stay in the Feudal Era. Though the handwriting seemed a bit more "mature" than that of the journal, Mrs. Higurashi would recognize her daughter's words anywhere.

            "Mom," she began to read aloud and saw that the man did not protest to this. "I want to first say that I love you so much and miss you terribly each day. I do not know how you deal with the pain of watching your daughter go down an old well into the past, knowing that you will never see her again, but you are so much of a hero to me already that it is difficult to put you in any higher of a title. Knowing that we would more than likely never meet again, I decided early on to make a document to hopefully reach you in the future, and as you are probably reading this now, I can only assume that I succeeded. There is so much for me to tell you that I hardly know where to begin.  But I believe the best place for me to start is the week after I left you in the modern world to begin a life with Inuyasha."

            The man sat back, listening carefully to the old words as some explanations would be made on his part as well as hers. Together, they would journey with Kagome five hundred years in the past where a miko from the future had a tale that had only just began.

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A/N Continued: Please check out the cover for this fanfic done by Lady Sianna:  http://ladysianna2.deviantart.com/art/Eclipse-Cover-115254040

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