To Coexist by The Flame of Eden

The Well House

SUMMARY: The last thing Kagome Higurashi had expected was to fall into the old well at her shrine and wake up 500 years in the past. An accident makes her a witness to a terrible tragedy, and sets in motion events that will change her life forever. Unknowingly, she brings forth the Shikon Jewel – embedded in her body – through the well. Her Jewel reacts to the Jewel in the Feudal Era in a violent explosion, and one disappears while the other breaks into thousands of shards that will be sought by demons all over Japan.

Found half-dead in the middle of the forest by the Lord of the Western Lands, Kagome realizes that her grandfather's fantasies of demons and spirits were more than real. Forced into his service by yet another accident, she is now bonded to both him and the Feudal Era. Now trapped in a war between two brothers and power-hungry demon, Kagome is the only one who can piece the Jewel back together and end the war once and for all...

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To Coexist

Chapter 1 – The Well House

Kagome Higurashi, shrine maiden and hard working, full time college student, awoke to face blinding rays of sunlight with a groan her grandfather would have sworn was demonic. The pain pounding at her temples was impossible to ignore, and her hand instinctively flew up to try and somehow dull it. Her eyes resisted her attempts to open them for a while, and when she finally won over them, she wished she hadn't. Wincing in agony, she moved herself into a sitting position on the ground and waited for her pupils to adjust.

Strange...since when was it so bright in the well house?

Vaguely, she remembered her that she had spent the early morning helping out her grandfather at the shrine souvenir booth. To her frustration, he had asked her to wear the traditional miko uniform of white and red. Although the clothes were very comfortable to move around in, she thought it was impractical to wear something so warm when the days were so impossibly hot. Her grandfather had just shrugged off her suggestion and told her that she shouldn't deny such a strong part of her heritage. Having no patience to try and argue with him, she had simply done as he asked.

It was after several hours of boredom from the lack of customers that her mother had asked her to do some spring cleaning in the well house. She had sworn that the dust on the well had piled up so much that it had turned into a solid mass. Of course, Kagome had always known not to trust her mother's definition of "clean". That status usually entailed the words "sparkling" and "perfection". Although she wasn't fond of messes and was considered to be obsessed with hygiene, she was not one to spend hours upon hours cleaning something to a shining state of perfection. Yet, for some reason, her mother had been adamant that she take care of the well house this time. After a long and tiring semester, Kagome had been reluctant to waste the first day of her summer vacation doing manual labor. But something, perhaps the way her mother had looked so very tired, had convinced her to do just that. It had taken nearly all day to get the area around the well cleaned. Her fat cat, Buyo, had come in at some point, and she had taken a short break to cuddle with him. Thinking back to it now, the whole incident had happened unexpectedly, as most accidents do.

The well house had been eerily silent all day, but she hadn't really noticed until that moment. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up when Buyo started up and jumped onto the rim of the well, his hair puffing up. He hissed, something that the animal had rarely done. The creature was simply too lazy. The moaning of a rather chilly breeze squeezing through the sliding door only added to the quickly darkening mood. The flame in her lantern went out. When something knocked against the wall of the well house, she nearly jumped out of her skin.

Kagome...you're being ridiculous...she had told herself. Shaking her broken light source, she blew a stray hair out of her face.

"That's the last time I use something like this..."

And then Buyo jumped into the well.

She had no choice. When she heard a yowling from the base of the deep abyss, she forced herself to gather her wits and let out a breath of frustration. Silly creature. Remembering that her grandfather had mentioned that the well had been used for generations as a makeshift dumpster for youkai remains, Kagome's agitation grew. Then again, her grandfather had said many things about this well – none of them believable. He had also mentioned that there was a ladder somewhere. Groping around in the darkness, her fingers connected with something cold. Putting her apprehensions aside when she heard another plea from Buyo, she scolded herself for being a coward and placed a foot over the rim.

One step.

Two steps.

Three steps.

The mewling continued, and Kagome was reassured. If no monster had chosen to eat her overweight cat by now, then there was nothing she had to be concerned about.

Four steps.

Five steps.

And then nothing.

She only had a split second to realize that she was falling before her world went utterly black. Now, she was staring up not at the wooden ceiling of the well house, but at a clear blue sky. No ladder was in sight. No Buyo either. Just mud, dirt, soggy earth, and vines that crept all the way up to the opening of the well at the top.

What in the world in going on?

When pinching herself didn't serve to change her surroundings into something more recognizable, she began to panic.

Okay, Kagome...relax and think...the first thing you need to do is get yourself out of here...

Her first attempt to grab onto the vines was thwarted by the thick and long sleeves of the garments she wore, and she wondered why such things were invented if they were so cumbersome. She sighed and tried for the vines again. Several raw hands and bruised coccyx bones later, she grabbed onto the rim of the well, using all of her strength to pull herself out. When she felt dewy grass instead of wood tickling her skin, she knew that she had to be dreaming. Pushing herself up and into a standing position, she dusted herself off and looked around. Immediately, she noticed the difference. Although the shrine was located several miles from the main city, the air had never smelled so pure and clean. Pollution had caught up with even the more rural parts of her home town. Here, however, she saw no sign of concrete roads, sidewalks, or even mailboxes. In fact, neither the well house nor the shrine were anywhere to be seen. A phrase from a book she had read in English class once immediately popped into her mind.

Toto...I don't think that we're in Kansas any more...

The tale had been about a girl who had been swept away by a storm, only to land in a very strange and alien world. She almost felt like that heroine now. Only there was no dog here to comfort her in the sudden loneliness and fear she felt. Not even her poor cat was anywhere in sight. Before she consciously knew what she was doing, her feet were moving and she was taking a dirt path to unknown places.

I'll just look around a bit...what harm can it do?

To her amazement, she couldn't recognize any of the trees or hills around her at all. The foliage and wilderness grew unrestrained – wild. Her tatami sandals made almost no sound as she walked through grass that was almost up to her knees in length. The sun shone brilliantly. It was blissfully warm. Suddenly finding that she enjoyed her surrounding – crazy dream or not – she told herself that she should explore a little more before she went back to where she came from. In a few moments, her feet brought her to a large clearing, and she stood in the shadows for a moment, leaning against a tree as she marveled at the simple beauty of it. If only she could have had her easel and canvas now, she would have loved to sit here and paint the scenery.

And then she heard it. A sound. Someone was humming.

Fingers clutching tighter at the bark of the tree, she tensed and looked around cautiously. At last, she found the source. A woman dressed in clothes that were identical to Kagome's walked out from behind several trees not too far from Kagome stood. She couldn't quite make out her face, but she could see that her hair was incredibly long, tied back by a white ribbon. Her movements were graceful, and Kagome almost envied her poise as she seemed to float above the ground. The woman stopped, suddenly, and Kagome feared that she had seen her. But she made no motion to turn around, and the girl relaxed, wondering if she should speak to her.

Excuse me, would you mind telling me where I am?

The thought made her smile a bit. The woman would probably think she had lost her mind. She did wonder about who she was, though. Her clothing suggested that she was either a miko, or belonged to a family that owned a temple. Her train of thought was interrupted when she saw a flash of red tear out from behind another clump of trees and head straight for the woman. She wanted to scream out a warning, but before she could, something frightening happened. The blur of red flew by the miko, and Kagome's eyes widened in horror when she saw blood flying thick through the air. The pleasant dream had suddenly turned into a rather vivid nightmare. Kagome's eyes widened and she covered her mouth with a trembling hand when the woman fell heavily to the ground. The white top of her outfit bled a dark red. The blur stopped, and became a boy. Or was it a man? He had white hair, sharp claws, and from what she could see from the large distance between them, white ears on top of his head. A wave of nausea came over her when she saw him kicking the woman in the side. She could barely make out what they were saying, but she could tell that the creature's tone was far from friendly. Then she saw him pause deliberately and look around. Her heart jumped into her throat when he seemed to look directly at her. She didn't dare move. A few moments passed, and he looked away. Then disappeared. For a long time, the woman didn't move, and when she did her movements were sluggish. Kagome had never wanted to help anyone more than she wanted to help this woman now. It was as though she could feel her pain.

She heard something tear a second before a flash of wild agony bit into her shoulder. Biting her lip to keep from screaming out, she looked sideways and found that a dark, ruby, spot of red ink was spreading down her arm and to her neck. But it wasn't ink, she thought through the feverish haze of suffering. It was blood. And from the looks of things, it was three large gashes that were responsible. When she looked up to find the woman in the hopes of calling out for help, she was gone. It was only through pure strength of will that she stumbled away from that clearing and out of the cover of trees. Dizziness and disorientation made her vision blur and double, and she wondered how much longer she would last.

I have to make it to the well... That was the only thought the drove her forward.

Although she had no idea of where she was going, she had a feeling that as long as she went forward, she would find her way. After all, this entire reality just couldn't be real. Who ever heard of men moving with the speed of light, or men with demon claws and white hair, and of wounds appearing out of nowhere? Such things were only in fairy tales, in crazy mutterings of people like her grandfather. But as the pain worsened, and as she felt her knees about to give way, the pain made her seriously doubt her sanity. When she could focus again on what was going on around her, she heard screams and panicked shouting from in front of her. People were running around, and from some corner of her deteriorating awareness, she registered that they were all wearing strange clothes. Kimonos, yukatas, hakama pants, top knots. Cows grazing in front of straw huts. None of it made any sense. She took a few more steps before she saw a crowd of people gathered next to a larger building that resembled a small temple. The woman was there, kneeling on the ground, holding her shoulder in much the same way that Kagome was holding her own.

"Kikyo-sama! Kikyo-sama!" A woman was screaming. Finding her strength gone and simply too foggy-headed to consider that she bore the same wound as the woman did, Kagome slid to her knees, hiding behind a large tree. A little girl was crying, sobbing, and shouting "sister" in front of the woman. The miko muttered something before falling sideways. There could be no doubts. Even if the little child hadn't screamed so loudly, Kagome would have still known that she was dead. It was as if she could feel her leave this world with her very being. Her eyes began to wander and accidentally landed on a spot of red a little ways away from where the dead woman was.

Kami-sama...

There was that creature. The one that had attacked the woman earlier. He looked to be asleep, yet the arrow that pinned him to the tree through his heart said otherwise. At least, Kagome thought vaguely, justice had been done. She couldn't suppress the moan that left her lips as she wavered for a moment on her knees then fell forward to the ground. Her muscles weren't responding any longer.

It's alright...she tried to tell herself...now I can wake up...

She was losing her sight, but she heard a voice. A man's.

"The Shikon! It's gone! Gone!"

"What do you mean?" Shouted another voice.

"It disappeared!"

A bright, pink light filled her vision. Something hot burned her side viciously. Screaming. A horrible pain. And then nothing...

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Shall be continued...

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