Finding Kagome

DISCLAIMER:: I do not own the characters featured in this work of fiction, they are copyrighted by Rumiko Takahashi et al. This work is merely a fan's musings in a 'what if' environment.

A/N:: Some of the characters are represented as variations on the original premise (everyone has matured, relocated, and many have cycled to another incarnation). It is my greatest hope that no one be offended, hence the ...

WARNING: MATURE THEME – Profanity, Violence, Adult situations, Sexual Innuendo and content.

With that said, I present to you, dear reader, my very first fanfic.


FINDING KAGOME


Prologue

He took her frail hand into his, trying not to let the sense of total defeat overwhelm him. He had watched her slowly slip away from him for so long now, helpless to change the course of events.

And now here they were, nearing the end.

Without her he had no desire to continue.

No reason to move forward.

And he found himself desperately wishing to go back. Back to the beginning, rewind it all. Back to that time when they were both whole, and young, ready for adventure at every turn in the road.

But the task had been completed.

Finally.

So much had been lost, and then, so much was gained.

There could be no turning back, and he was losing her.

“I don't want to go now. It still feels... unfinished, somehow,” she whispered weakly.

“It is unfinished,” he responded horsely, angrily choking back on his grief.

Ever so gently his hand swept across her brow, to smooth away the errant wisps of her silver bangs, smoothing the lines of her forehead. A simple act, one he had performed perhaps a million times in their years together. It made her smile, and for the briefest of moments. . . her eyes sparkled as they had so very long ago.

Kami, but he loved her so.

“I will wait for you. . .” and she coughed weakly, wincing with the pain.

Too weak to raise herself, he anticipated her need, adjusting cushions around her, gently lifting her up to place a plumped one behind her back.

“Don't,” he replied curtly. “It will take too damn long for me to follow you, I don't want to wait it out by myself. I am too hard to kill, and I won't use Tetsussaiga on myself. I won't do that to my father's memory.”

“Kami!” she gasped, “ I would never ask you to do that!”

Her breath had be reduced to near gasps.

“Surely. . . you don't mean. . . for me to go on. . . without you. I will. . . be so lost. . .”

“You will see everyone... everyone we lost... your momma, your dad. . . your grandfather and Kaede will want a full report. . .” he tried to smile as a tear finally made it's way along the side of his nose, and he sniffed as his battle with grief was lost. “Don't wait for me. . . follow them. . . go on together.”

“It wont... be right... without....you...” and her eyes began to close.

“I will find you, I promise...” sobs threatened to ruin his oath. He leaned in close to her ear, as he touched her cheek, “what we have can't be broken... not by time or even death... I will find you, I promise!”

Her eyes had closed for the last time, the ragged breath had stopped.

He had one last task remaining, but he couldn't move.

Flashing memories flooded his mind, of waking from the seal to the wide eyes of this girl, watching the destruction of the Shikon no Tama, of running in the wind, searching for the fragments, learning to fight as a team, finding a sense of acceptance. . . family in the midst of chaos. Even the last battle with Naraku and the sorrow at losing Miroku to his curse, and then watching Sango wilt and seem to fade away.

It was just as he had heard others say, when you die your life passes before your eyes. . .

He felt as though the best part of himself had done just that.

And he sobbed like a child against her breast.

He had no idea how much time passed, he knew that he had to tell Souta.

He would bury her underneath the Goshinboku, the place where they had met for the first time.

And he would bury the completed Shikon no Tama with her.

He no longer desired it for his own purpose.

One last trip they would take together into the well. . .

Better for it to rest in her time, than this one.

~ooO0Ooo~


“Halfbreed. . . what are you doing?”

“What does it look like I am doing, jackass?”

“It appears that you are sitting in a tree. . .”

“Brilliant, as always,” a scowl briefly shadowed his features, then passed as his eyes following the drifting clouds.

A silence stretched as the sound of birdsong and the rustling of leaves filled the afternoon air.

InuYasha let one foot drape as he balanced with ease on the high limb, cradling his sword and watching the sky.

“Halfbreed”

“Nani?” his response was absent, preoccupied, while his gaze remained on the heavens.

“Just what is it, that you think you are doing?” Sesshoumaru spoke softly standing still as stone, only the light breeze lifting the odd stray strand of his long hair to give away that he was not some regal statue errantly placed in the woods of InuYasha's forest.

“You've already asked that question, baka. . . and answered it yourself.” He glanced down at his half brother in irritation. He then returned his attention to the drifting clouds.

“Have you nothing better to do?” Sesshoumaru's expression didn't change, as he seemed to be frozen in time and space.

“Nope.”

“The miko is dead.”

“You're point?” InuYasha's irritation with being disturbed was becoming apparent. He didn't need to be told, he knew this fact only too terribly well.

“This will not bring her back. She's gone now. . .” The Demon paused, a momentary shadow of something crossed his stony features. “You can't believe she would want this.”

“Feh, how do you know what she would want, Jackass?”

Sesshoumaru would not flinch.

Inwardly he regrouped his resolve.

The hanyou could not continue like this, it was just. . . wrong. He had mourned when Rin had left him, surely. But it had not disabled him.

It was as though InuYasha's own spirit had died along with the strange little miko.

“It's time to move on.”

“Then go, bastard. . . leave me alone.”

“Time for you to move on.”

“Hn”

That fleeting shadow reappeared on Sesshoumaru's features, and he raised his voice, “You accomplish nothing from that tree limb.”

“Sure I do” InuYasha adjusted his position, refusing to look down at his half brother. “I'm waiting.”

Another lengthy silence passed, as Sesshoumaru pondered the halfbreed's response. Finding no logical basis for it, he drew slightly closer to the tree for emphasis.

“You wait for nothing, halfbreed”

“Get lost, asshole!” hissed InuYasha, as he brought his leg up to sit cross-legged on the branch.

Taken aback by the hostility behind the retort, Sesshoumaru stepped back a pace.

He had never seen InuYasha like. . . this. The stubbornly miserable hanyou was frozen with his grief.

“As you wish. . . However this Sesshoumaru is not the one who is lost.”

And he walked away silently, not even disturbing the leaves on the ground.

InuYasha glanced down, and he was gone, nothing to indicate that he had even been there at all.

“Kusoyaro”

~ooO0Ooo~


The passage of time was tedious. . . slow, and InuYasha occupied himself with the more mundane activities of survival. Food, shelter, occasional visits to human villages to remind himself that he was after all half human.

Things hadn't changed much since the demise of Naraku, people busied themselves with their tasks, sold their wares, celebrated their festivals, warred on one another, buried their dead, and had more children.

Children became a fascination for him.

He would sit just outside a village and watch them play, wondering what it might have been like if he and Kagome had been able to have a family.

It was Kagome, always Kagome. . . his desires were for no other, and even when he was occasionally approached by fascinated young women, he found no interest in them.

Only the things they did or said that reminded him of Kagome.

His precious Kagome.

“I will find you,” became his prayer.


~ooO0Ooo~


Chapter One


“It is unbelievable that you have not removed that ridiculous rosary in all this time.”

“That's how I got here.”

“What about that jewel? Did you not complete it?”

“We did.”

“So what did you do with it?”

“I didn't realize you had such an interest in the Shikon no Tama.”

“Not really. . . just idle curiosity.”

“I buried it. . . by the tree.”

“The tree you were pinned to?”

“Yes.”

“Why would you do that? I thought your wish was to end your halfbreed misery. . . one way or another.”

“It wasn't important anymore. . . I decided being hanyou has it's benefits.”

“I see.”

“Feh. . . no you don't. You know. . . you're still a jackass.”

“I am not the one wearing the obsolete rosary.”

“You never know. . . it just might come in handy someday.”

“Can you remove it now? I would wish to look at it more closely...”

“Hmm. . . I don't know. . . let me try. . . It won't come off.”

“She's been dead for centuries, surely I can remove it for you.”

“Go ahead and try, it won't come off”

“You never tried before?”

“It reminds me of her. . . it's all I have left, I don't want to lose it.”

“Interesting, I can't remove it either. What might this imply?”

“She's back.”

“Back?”

“You know. . . what goes around, comes around? Cycle of birth, life death rebirth. . . Human philosophy, spiritual stuff.”

“You are beginning to sound like Buddhist. Your affinity for trivial human mythos is amazing.”

“It's not a myth, Jackass. . . we are bound. . . she is the only true one for me in this world. Any world.”

“You are just drawn to human holy women, she wasn't the first. . . what about that wench that pinned you to the tree? You thought you were in love with her, as well. . .”

“Same person.”

“Impossible.”

“Shows how much you know, jackass! I was there, I didn't understand at first, but she was righting a wrong when she pulled that arrow out of my chest.”

“How so?”

“Naraku tricked her.”

“Enough said. That plague on the planet was finished long ago.”

“You asked.”

“So the little miko fixed what the other had done.”

“She undid her own mistake.”

“And she knew this at the time?”

“No, neither of us knew it then. . . not until we talked to Kaede-baba.”

“The old miko of Edo?”

“She saw it right away.”

“How did she see it? What was it that she saw?”

“That's one of the mysteries. But she knew, and she explained it to us. Kikyo was her sister, after all. . . she knew her sister. . . even after death and rebirth. . . even from another. . . era. . . she knew her.”

“And now you believe you will find her yet again. . . a third time...”

“Third time's the charm.”

“What will you do?”

“It's time to start looking.”

“As opposed to that day in the tree, when it was not time?”

“Yeah.”

“This Sesshoumaru wished only to. . . help. . . that day.”

“I wasn't in the mood.”

“That, halfbreed, was obvious. What is your intent, now?”

“Across the water, to the East. Some thing's pulling at me from that direction.”

“Have you ever actually been to the Americas?”

“Feh. . . it's just another place.”

“You are not going alone, this Sesshoumaru will go with you.”

“Why all the sudden interest?”

“I am. . . curious about the outcome.”

“Why?”

“This Sesshoumaru does not have to explain himself to you. You will not go alone.”

“OI!! This is just a game to you, isn't it?”

“I do not waste time with games.”

“Oh. . . ALRIGHT THEN! You can tag along if you want, just DON'T get in my way!”

“Halfbreed...”

“Nani?”

“How do you intend to cross the sea?”

“Oh. . .”

“You can't run across that much water.”

“I suppose that you have a suggestion.”

For the first time, InuYasha could see a hint of mirth sparkling in his half-brother's eyes.

“Yes, I do.”


~ooO0Ooo~


What followed had been like something Kagura would have conjured, a whirlwind of activity that had lead him to this moment, sitting beside his jackass brother and watching the clouds again. . . only from a new perspective that left him nearly breathless.

InuYasha simply could not fathom what had motivated Sesshoumaru to help him, and that troubled the displaced hanyou.

First it was the gifts.

New clothing, that the jackass had said would make him look less 'strange' away from the shrines of this era. Soft deerskin shoes, with thin soles, left his feet feeling nearly bare.

He looked down at them and wriggled his clawed toes, watching the black deerskin ripple with their movement.

The jeans, which were much tighter on his legs than he cared for, were black like the shoes, his only wish that they would be as comfortable.

A shirt of some shimmering fabric, that looked like red metal but felt like silk against his skin, with some kind of writing in black letters on the chest.

It was nothing like he had seen before, and the Sesshoumaru had smirked and said the words were appropriate.

A hat of broad rimmed leather and large enough to not constrict his brow, sat on his head effectively covering the unique features that set him apart from the human throng.

He had tried one of those horrible “ball-caps”, which had crushed his ears in an irritating way. This hat was loose enough that he had to adjust it often, which made the jackass smirk at him.

He had said something about a “cow-boy”, which made no sense. If there were cow-boys, then why not dog-boys??

But he didn't want to argue in these close quarters.

This thing, this flying tube with rigid wings that they were in, he had seen in the air before, but never thought that he would be inside one, with the sky both below them and above them.

“Oi, jackass” he squirmed in his seat. “We gonna get there soon?”

“Another 3 hours and we will land in Honolulu,” Sesshoumaru raised a brow at the squirming hanyou seated next to him. “Do you need to relieve yourself?”

“Huh?” InuYasha cocked his head at his half-brother, “What the fuck does that mean?”

“Hn. . . Do you need to go. . . pee?” He grimaced at his need to use the common term.

“Nah,” InuYasha shook his head, then twisting to lift one foot up onto the seat, he stretched the other leg off to the side, “just sick of sitting here.”

“We will have to change planes in Honolulu, you will be able to walk around for a bit then.”

“Wait... you mean we have to get in another one of these things??” He sat forward with anxiety, his hat slipping back on his head so far only his ears kept it from falling off. Reaching back he adjusted it, then instinctively started to scratch his ear with his right foot.

With lightening speed, Sesshoumaru's hand caught the foot, and glancing around, he squeezed it dropping it to the floor, “You've been too long in the wild, halfbreed. . .”

“OW, jackass!! That hurt!!” InuYasha batted at the offending hand away then pulled himself further away from his brother, lamenting the absence of his Tetsusaiga.

Lowering his voice to nothing but breaths, Sesshoumaru hissed, “Lower your voice, you are attracting too much attention.”

His brow lowered toward his eyes, which had narrowed to as close to a scowl as InuYasha had seen since their reunion.

“Feh...” he folded his arms, closing himself off to the reprimand, “No one's watching us, you're paranoid.” Grabbing his hat from behind, he pushed it forward over his eyes. “Fuck it. . . wake me up when we get there,” and he settled back into his seat, head against the window.

His thoughts were scrambled and there was just too much that he didn't understand yet.

He needed to run, to clear his brain which was muddled by the canned air and inactivity.

To say their reunion was unexpected was an understatement. It was almost as though Sesshoumaru was expecting him to arrive when he did, the day he finally jumped out of the well at the Higurashi Shrine in modern Tokyo.

He had been very careful to not be seen by the current keepers of the shrine, he was certain that they were people he didn't know, and more importantly didn't know him. But it was impossible to pass Goshinboku without stopping for a few moments, to meditate on all that the Sacred Tree meant.

He had been high in the branches, hidden among the leaves, quietly allowing the tears to flow, when he sensed a familiar yoki nearby. The tears had muffled his keen sense of smell, so he had quietly listened for any telling sounds in the quiet garden.

The only sounds were of children laughing, and a flute playing some distance away. Not sensing any activity in the garden, he had jumped down. . . to land face to face with Sesshoumaru.

Now, here they were, in a metal tube hanging in the sky, on their way to the far west because that is where he had said he needed to go.

The West. . . land of cowboys, whatever those are. And he supposedly looked like one, or so Sesshoumaru had said.

All he knew was he wanted to find Kagome.

That's all that mattered.

He hoped with all his being that his timing was right.

Sesshoumaru seemed to have mellowed with the time passage. InuYasha sensed a kind of wisdom there, that had not been there the last time they spoke.

He wondered what the last 500 years had been like for his arrogant half brother. What had happened to the toad servant, who was blatantly absent? Or the little human girl who used to follow him like a pilgrim following a god.

He still had Tokojin and Tensaiga, because they were packed with Tetsusaiga in the luggage. He wondered if Sesshoumaru even used them now.

Too many questions. . . were going to give him a headache.

He allowed the images of his beloved Kagome to fill his mind, soothing him, and he drifted off to sleep.


~ooO0Ooo~