Chapter One: Phantasm
Human affairs are like a chess-game: only those who do not take it seriously can be called good players. Life is like an earthen pot: only when it is shattered, does it manifest its emptiness.
-Seneca
Naraku steadily faded from sight, finally seeming somehow at peace with the world.
Inuyasha’s arm was wrapped around me tightly, his warmth helping me to realize I had been rescued. The days I’d spent in darkness trapped with the shikon jewel had felt more like years but I was able to relax once his arms had rescued me from it’s evil clutches.
“It’s finally over.” I muttered softly, still watching the place where my long enemy had faded away.
“Yeah.” Inuyasha had replied, seeming calm himself as he repeated it. Perhaps believing if he the mirrored my words it would help to comfort me. “It’s over.”
I’d known that he would save me, but it had seemed to take so long and I was glad to have anything back in my life other than the suffocating solitude. His warmth was the only thing that mattered in that moment, the slight pressure on my back where he held me as we floated in the mysterious space that had been constructed by the mystical and cursed gem. I still remember the silky feel of the robes of the fire rat...
We returned to my time and I was so delighted to see my family, and weary after the ordeal, I ran to embrace them as they called my name with the same respite I felt when I’d heard Inuyasha’s voice and knew he was coming for me. It was wonderful, I was elated even in my weakened state of mind. We had finally come together and defeated Naraku, banished the malevolent magic’s of the jewel forever, and would be able to consider our time together.
I cried into my mothers arms, who wouldn’t after what I’d been through? I explained that I’d been worried and that Inuyasha had saved me. I’m sure it actually seemed like exactly what it was; the ranting of a confused and emotional teenager after having been tormented so. Then I turned to thank him but I couldn’t even get the two words out.
My mouth went dry, my eyes widened and the tears were momentarily forgotten. He’d turned his back on me, leapt back into the well without a moment’s pause or glance back. I ran to it’s edge to call his name, though my voice was horse and it’s difficult to remember if I ever got it out as more than a whisper.
“Inuyasha...”
I leapt into the well...
Kagome’s jaw smacked squarely into her desk as the elbow she had it propped against gave way and her slumbering form jerked suddenly forward. She was jolted into consciousness with moisture in her eyes not simply because of the memory, sharp pain radiated around where she’d hit the desk, glad she didn’t bite part of her tongue off in the impact but she had drawn blood.
She could feel her face was a little wet and reaching up to make sure she hadn’t caused herself to bleed on the outside as well she drew her fingers back instead to find them black with ink. She slowly became aware of the snickers and whispers around her before her stunned brain caught up with the fact that she was in her art class. They had been practicing calligraphy as a part of the final project that was upcoming and now the ink was spilling over her desk’s edge onto her lap and the floor.
“Ms. Higurashi.” She leapt from her chair as the teacher said her name, reaching to put the vial back upright but most of the damage had been done. There was more ink outside the container than in; it was all over her, her uniform, desk, chair, the floor. “Are you all right?”
“Erm.” She felt the warmth rising in her face and neck. “I think I should see the nurse.”
She wasn’t sure what else to say, somehow it seemed better to go along with the sickly story her family had created during her times helping on the other side of the well. It was better than admitting she’d simply fallen asleep. She did her best to ignore the snickers and looks as she picked up her hall pass and left the classroom.
It’d been nearly three years since Inuyasha had stranded her here and she was close to graduation with finals the next week. She hadn’t been able to sleep much at all lately, the past two weeks in particular she continued to be haunted with vivid dreams and vision like memories of her time in the past.
Her steps were heavy as she made her way toward the nurses station. Her attempts to get some of the ink off her face and arms only succeeding in spreading it further. By the time she got to the office the nurse was staring at her with a surprised expression.
“What happened?” The woman managed to ask after adjusting to the unexpected site of Kagome. Glancing at a mirror the teenager wanted to cringe, she looked like a preschooler that had been in black finger paints.
“I passed out and fell into my calligraphy practice and the ink fell over.” She stated, heat creeping back into her face at the way the woman kept looking at her. “I think I’ll be okay, that I’m just dehydrated, I think I’ve been studying too hard for finals next week.”
People usually bought that excuse whenever she acted odd, it’d been difficult to recover from Inuyasha’s abandonment of her in her world. Not that she’d ever done so fully, she mostly had managed to adjust so her family and friends didn’t have to worry too much about her well-being. She knew that Inuyasha had still possessed feelings for Kikyo and that they’d never actually stated their feelings for one another beyond the near kiss in her room. Somehow it didn’t feel like him leaving her once he was done with her was the right ending, had all she ever been to him was a shard detector after all?
The nurse got her some water and told her to rest for a few minutes then head home early if she felt up to the trip.
“Just what I need.” Kagome thought with relief. “I could use the time to try to get some sleep and study for finals next week.”She sipped her water dutifully a few times before agreeing she’d be fine to take the train home alone and heading out of the office and toward the exit nearby. Her thoughts drifting immediately back to her problems.
It was not the right ending at all in her opinion but she was coming to realize that fairy tales were called such for a reason. She’d gotten practiced at showing a smile to those around her that she didn’t feel. Time had not made the separation any easier, just more numb. Some days she hated it and wished she could forget about her times running around after the shards of the jewel and others she clung to the memories as if afraid she’d lose the rest of herself if they were to vanish. A portion of herself had been ripped away moments after being saved from the nihilistic world of the jewel but now she felt more empty than she had then. Then, at least, she still held hope. Now she was just a hollow shell walking about doing what everyone else wanted and hoped from her, doubting she’d ever return to the place that had become her real home.
She only had to wait a few moments when she reached the boarding area for the train that would take her back to the family shrine. She moved inside and sat down, it wasn’t too busy as the schools weren’t out for the day yet. Her house wasn’t the greatest hideaway from her problems, the shrine still possessed the tree and the well.
The well; she’d talked about it with her family at first, she’d told them all many times if the well began to work again she would return to the feudal era. None of them had been particularly against it, most of the time they’d tell her they just wanted the best for her; even Souta. It became a practiced line while they avoided meeting her gaze, they somehow knew before she did that she was now stuck in her own world and time. She’d not brought it up in over a year and it seemed to help lessen their concern level.
Classes had been nearly impossible when she first returned, if it wasn’t for her friends help she would have had to repeat the year. The breaks were the worst; when she didn’t have much to do but sit at the house. She’d spend all her free time once she was caught up in her classes trying to get the well to work again.
Once, when her family was out of the house for varied reasons, she’d spent half the night digging at the bottom of the well in hopes if she went far enough she could somehow restart the magic that had connected the worlds. All she’d gotten for her effort was a sore back, several dirty and broken fingernails, and the need to hide the dirt she’d pulled from it under the steps in the shack.
She didn’t try as much as she used to, her attempts to use the well had steadily decreased and now she usually only got up the hope to attempt once every few months when the dreams had been particularly vivid.
“Like today.” She reminded herself as she thought about her life after the defeat of Naraku. “It’s been months, but I told mom I’d leave it alone until after finals were over.”
She frowned a little as she considered, it had been nearly four months...
She shook her head then, banishing the idea if she didn’t constantly try she could miss some important moment when the fickle magic could be working.
“My dreams have been so vivid lately...”
She sighed as she got up and slipped out at her stop, walking toward the shrine silently, bag over one of her shoulders. Her friends would help her catch up to the couple classes she missed she was certain. The only thing she was concerned with was not picking up the new music she was suppose to learn for the final in her music class.
Her dreams? It wasn’t just recalling when Inuyasha had left her behind, she’d been seeing moments of all of her other friends and memories of her times in the feudal era. Sometimes she’d wake up and it would be like she had been right there, the smells, even tastes, were just what she remembered. Another insult to her already bruised psyche; she could relive it in such detail but the well remained ever dormant.
She wanted to try again, despite her promise to her mother, but feared another failed jump would only take her further away. As if each time she tried and didn’t make it through the wall between her world and the next would become thicker.
Wind picked up and waved her hair, a sign with the darkening clouds above that a storm was ready to start any moment now but she hadn’t really been able to wash off much of the ink at the school so she didn’t care if she got wet. Unhurriedly she slipped up the long staircase to her home and reached the top, her gaze having long been trained to avoid looking at the tree on the grounds.
A loud slam did draw her eyes to the shack with the well though, she frowned at it’s door having blown loose with the growing storm, as if it the poor weather was there to aid in her torment. She did and didn’t want to get close to the building, or the well inside. It slammed again, making her jump even though she’d been watching, it was loud enough that she’d be able to hear it inside even if she left it alone and no one else would be home yet. Grandpa was attending a series of classes on local history and would still be in those for a couple of weeks, which left the shrine feeling particularly deserted.
Kagome approached the shack, drops of rain starting to darken the stones of the courtyard as she made her way. The precipitation making her move a bit faster once she felt how chilled it was, it was late enough in the year that winter would be fast approaching and the rain reflected that season. She rubbed her arms, looking down into the room she’d once considered dark and creepy, before she’d ever gotten involved with the time traveling.
It was still dark, more so without much light thanks to the storm. The old boards creaking and whistling in complaint to the way nature was treating it’s old construction. There was a lot more dust than there had been when she had been using it more regularly, cobwebs beneath the steps and in the corners made her keep rubbing to try to get the goosebumps off her arms. Four months had left it less welcoming than she remembered.
She grabbed the door to pull it shut and with a flash of lightning let it go again, not jumping during the new resounding slam when it slipped from her grasp. She blinked slowly, for a moment she swore she’d felt something from the well. Her senses were on high alert, and while it wasn’t the same dark glimpses she got when she noticed shards of the jewel she was certain something had just happened in the well.
Glancing back toward the steps she chewed her lip as she followed with a look at her watch, she still had a lot of time before anyone else would be home. She slipped inside and down the creaky steps to the edge of the well, looking down inside.
It too seemed somehow darker than usual, making her swallow a lump that had appeared in her throat. She knew she told her mother she would leave it alone, but she was positive she’d felt something...and with her dreams the way they’d been lately...
She pushed herself up with an action that was rusty but familiar and let herself fall over the edge of the well, plummeting into it’s depths.
She hoped for that catch, that moment of being suspended in air before the other world grabbed and pulled her over to it’s side. Instead after a moment of elation and hope she met the ground and tripped and slammed her head for the second time that day into the side of the well.
Sinking to her knees she leaned back against the wood as her vision sent flashes of black dots flying across her eyes, reeling a moment from the impact she could only gasp in air and bring a hand to her left temple where she hit.
“I can’t believe I keep trying this...” She muttered in anger, the pain helping her push away the hurt of yet another rejection from the well. “...it’s not getting me anywhere, I should just have mom and grandpa destroy the well so maybe I can finally put it behind me.”
Talking to herself wasn’t something she did incredibly often but it made her feel more assured and less foolish for her latest injury caused by her obsession with the past. She put her hands down in the dirt to push herself back up from her bum and drew back as she felt something smooth but pliable brush across her fingers. After a small yelp of surprise she squinted in the poor illumination to notice whatever it was wasn’t moving and didn’t seem alive. She slowly reached back out to pick it up and bring it closer to her face.
It was a tassel...a red tassel, like what you would see hanging from a curtain or the end of a carpet or...sesshomaru’s armor! Her heart caught in her chest as she brought it closer to her face, it was dirty but she was sure it was the same red, and it was just like the ones that he’d worn.
“What the hell...?” Those were the only words she could muster. She couldn’t figure out how else something like this would get here. This place wasn’t exactly a dumping area for anything like that and they didn’t have stuff like that in the house to even drop down here.
So, it meant that somehow the well -was- still tied to the past. She glanced around it’s murky bottom and smiled honestly for the first time to herself. Perhaps her hopes hadn’t been so falsely placed. She didn’t sense anything else wrong with the well and shakily climbed back out to the shack above with the tassel grasped in one hand, it was her only tie to the past right now.
She hurried inside and up to the bathroom, running water and washing the dirt off of her new prize. It was certainly the same one, the size, the color, were both spot on. It was fraying a little and parts were so caked with dirt they were stained but she was positive it had to be from his armor.
“How did it get here?” She asked herself in bewilderment. It wasn’t as if she’d seen Sesshomaru take damage all that often and she’d only seen his armor broken a few times. How it would have gotten into the well was another of many questions she wanted the answers too. Sesshomaru wasn’t exactly the person she’d expected to find a piece of, but it had given her new reason to believe she wasn’t going to be trapped here forever after all.
She quickly washed off just a little of her face, as much of it would take more scrubbing than she was willing to put time into right now. Then she changed out of her uniform into warmer clothes for the weather, grabbing her bag and tossing in some things in case her attempts with the well did work. She couldn’t just wait after something like this, the shards used to tie her together and allow her passage, perhaps having the tassel would now allow her to do the same.
Running to the shack through the rain she ignored the cold, she didn’t have time to waste in case it didn’t work, she didn’t want to be caught by her family at it again. She ran down the steps and paused at the edge of the well, holding the tassel tightly in one hand as she hesitated.
“Please...” She whispered, climbing over to hover on the edge a moment before letting herself go.
The ledge fell away behind her and for a moment she felt the area between their times, could see the lights and stars of the world there, but then it was gone and she was on the ground in her time again...the rain pounding against the walls of the shack above and making her grit her teeth as she began to climb up to try again. She was closer than she’d been in years, she couldn’t just give up now.
ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo ooooo
Sesshomaru’s state of affairs had changed greatly in the century after his hunt of the demon Naraku. He wasn’t sure what had come from the companions that had been with him during that final battle other than Shippo, Kirara, and Inuyasha. Inuyasha had died recently in a battle with demons flooding in from the north, he wasn’t as young or quick as he had once been. Sesshomaru as a result had a third sword on his belt where he’d finally retrieved the Tetsuagia after his brother’s death.
He’d taken in Kirara and Shippo years ago. The mortals they’d traveled with were all dead, Rin had several children and grandchildren that he occasionally looked after but he’d made certain to keep his interest in them secret as his enemies would only want to use them as leverage against him.
His political power had grown considerably. He had always been the Lord of the West in name, but he’d actually began to form a larger and more stable court. While at first he’d faced distaste, scrutiny, or even mockery because of his time without an arm and protecting a mortal girl now all under his sway feared to state they disagreed with any action he took.
It had been a bloody and long campaign to get the west in order and often he still had to hunt down errant demons who had attempted to carve small territories of their own within his land. Further still was the difficulty of neighboring lords that had turned their attention back at him once he’d begun to build his own lands strength once again. The cat demon tribes to the east were unsteady but his still recent defeat of their master (in demon years at least) had thus far kept them from acting openly against him.
The wolf and other demon tribes to the south were still aggressive from time to time, though they were mostly united under Kouga they still had a fair amount of dissention. It was the north that possessed the largest number of threats. The lord there had been removed recently by a still uncertain threat but rumors continued to circulate of the kami and their underlings returning to take back the holy land. Thus far none of the lower islands of Japan had suffered an attack but many of the demons displaced were scrambling for a new place or new power within his lands.
It left him seated behind his desk with a fair amount of papers to overview, mostly requests for land or safety, a few volunteering to join his growing court in some manner. Not all demons were soldiers like himself and he’d gotten a fair gathering of varied talents as he’d steadily built the number of people under his command. Not that he hadn’t acquired a small army but keeping piece within the ranks was sometimes more trouble than he considered worth it.
As such he had taken on several underlings to help him deal with the day to day needs of such an estate and affairs. Jaken worked as a chancellor and sort of secretary for such needs, other demons that had joined him earlier on held positions as advisors or officer seats in his small but growing military.
After the events with Naraku, humans had grown more aggressive with demons, and he faced wars on several fronts as he continued to build his empire. He rarely had time to wander his lands himself. Which left him anticipating the end of his day, he planned to take the time to travel and see how things were from place to place himself. No emergancy’s that required his personal or immediate attention were present and he could use the break from the papers that were quickly absorbing most of his waking hours.
“Lord Sesshomaru.” The high pitched tone of the imp drew up his master’s gaze, it was urgent in a manner he hadn’t heard for at least a month or so. The imp carrying two long cylindrical scroll cases. “I have the first reports from the spies you sent further north. I thought you’d like to see them right away with all the rumors.”
The imp was opening one to read it while the demon lord leaned back from finishing his signature and cleaned off his quill.
“This first report is short but they think the rumors about the angels are true.” Jaken stated with a frown appearing across his green face. “They aren’t able to approach the upper island itself, it’s like the entire length of it is covered in a strong barrier similar to the one that used to be around Mt. Hakurei.”
Sesshomaru listened quietly, contemplating the unwelcome possibilities as Jaken opened the second cylinder and read to himself before reporting the points he thought more important for his lord.
“This one is from your water demon spies. Better luck than the land and air scouts, they have seen some kami wandering the larger coastal cities but weren’t able to approach outside of the water. The barrier seems to only affect the air around the isle and not the surrounding ocean...” Jaken got a bit quieter as he continued to read.
“What?” Sesshomaru prompted, noting the uncomfortable expression on his chancellor’s face.
“They believe most of the prior demons were murdered and that the ones that did escape to the south to be among those powerful enough to take on a kami and escape.” Jaken commented, swallowing and not wanting to add that they thought his mother to be amongst one of the northern land holders to have been murdered. They hadn’t confirmed it yet so he thought it best to wait on that news. “It could make things more difficult.”
“If they stand against me then they will meet the same fate as all others foolish enough to do so.” Sesshomaru coolly replied, though he held his own trepidation over the latest news to himself. If the kami were returning to try to claim power then he doubted they would stop at the northern isle. He had to be careful with his energy if other strong demons chose to start trouble within his lands, it was only a matter of time before the holy creatures would descend to try to purify the mainland.
“That’s all milord, do you want me to keep this news from the others?” He asked seriously.
“Tell my General and he can decide whom he trusts to give the news to.” Sesshomaru replied. “I will be heading out soon to visit Rin, any further problems bring up with him.”
“Yes milord.” Jaken nodded, he didn’t particularly like the white haired demon that worked as Sesshomaru’s General but he wouldn’t question his lord’s judgment. He knew it was probably the last time he’d get to look over things for some time.
He’d only heard a rare tale about the last time the kami and the demons had fought, the demons had won then and what had happened to the kami was left to all sort of rumor and speculation. Jaken just knew that his mother had used the kami and their purifying power as a way to get him to go to bed on time as a child.
Sesshomaru got up from his desk after his minion left, stepping onto a balcony that overlooked much of his lands. It was incredibly high, the mountain estate had been built even before his father or grandfather’s time from the best of his knowledge to overlook as much of the western lands as possible and to be nearly impossible for any normal mortal to reach. He knew more stories than Jaken as to the last war, his father had called it the War of Heaven’s Gate. It had happened in his grandfather’s time and he’d heard tales as a pup involving how massive and involved the battles had been.
He didn’t remember the details of his grandfathers stories but over his life he’d read anything on demonic history he could find. The fact that the demon races had been pushed to the brink of extinction and the kami banished away was the common factor between all the tales. His grandfather had said once it was the reason the demons had become so set on breeding amongst themselves and begun to frown so greatly on half-breeds. His mother had hushed the old dog before he could finish the story but it was one of the memories that stuck with Sesshomaru after his father’s treachery with Inuyasha’s mortal mother.
Transferring his body into a ball of light he flew he started his overview of his lands, glad to have the time to think on the various threats still facing him.
It took a bit of time to travel the length but not as much as it would many mortals or even other demons. However, he was paused in his travels as a shot of orange energy curled just behind him on the path and his form shifted from the ball of light to the mortal coil he often held, slamming into the ground near the creature that had attacked him, coming within an inch of cutting into the creature with the Bakusaiga.