34A/n: This is a InuyashaXWolf's Rain crossover fanfic. Click the back button or continue reading at your own discretion.
A/n: Yeah, I posted this 1st chapter once already under the name PowerfulMind. I'm just going to continue this story now under this account name.
Chapter 1: The Birth
She didn't come today. She didn't come yesterday. She didn't come the day before or even this week. I didn't see her this month, or last month, or the month before. How foolish was I. It was unwise for me to let her near me. I was foolish to think I could trust a human. I was foolish to believe that she could be my paradise.
~Some months prior~
"Don't run off too far Kagome-chan!" yelled a dark-haired woman walking through the woods holding the hand of a little boy. A young girl raised up her hand to acknowledge what her mother shouted, although the girl continued to run through the miniature,dark forest anyway. The black-haired girl wove pass the many trees and hopped over jutting roots. Eventually, she slowed to a stop and started panting, trying to get her heart rate back to normal. She was bent over with her hands on her knees, but as she straightened, a small smile spread on her face. She looked around for a moment and then started walking to each tree, fingers delicately brushing against the cool, rough bark.
She paused briefly at each tree, feeling the surface with nimble digits. Eyes lighted as her fingers brushed against a particular trunk of a tree. After finding the mark carved into the side she walked towards the direction in which the mark, an arrow, pointed, only to find another tree with another arrow carved into its side. Her crude but effective directions that she made herself eventually led her to her desired destination: an old ginkgo tree. The trunk had to be more than 3 meters wide and as she gazed upwards, she guessed it was at least 30 meters in height. That was bigger than the tree in the courtyard by her house, and she thought the Goshinboku was big. As she approached the tree she wondered at the sight before her. Even though this was not the first time she has seen the aerial roots that shot down from the branches and limbs of the tree to dangle or plant themselves in the ground, she still marveled at them. She came up to the tree and firmly grasped one of the dangling roots in her hands and gave it a hard tug. She even lifted herself off the ground as if she were hanging from a rope, testing if the root could hold her weight. Satisfied that she would not have a nasty unwanted fall, she started to climb the rope, occasionally using other hanging roots for her aid and even putting her feet against the trunk and walking up the tree when she could.
If she ever told her friends at school that she climbed trees, they would never believe her. They thought she was not the most physically fit person around. But she could not blame them. She knew she was athletically challenged. Anything that involved a ball was her downfall. Running was not her strong point either. The young girl reached the first tree limb and struggled to hoist herself up and sit on the limb. She grinned widely. She herself would never have believed she could climb the tree if she had not sat on this limb and gazed down passed the hanging roots to the inviting ground. Inviting because she was the type of person who normally liked to keep both feet firmly planted on the ground, but today was the perfect day to forget about her comfort zone and witness the sight she was waiting for weeks to see. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes to compose herself, something she had to do if she did not want a wave of panic to hit her right out of the tree. "Alright!"
Opening her eyes, she nearly let out a girly squeal. "Right on time...," she whispered to no one.
In front of her, sat a small nest of twigs, vines, and leaves, all woven together to hold two white, speckled eggs. She watched intently as a crack formed in one of the eggs. A small beak poked through. It chipped away at some of the shell that had been protecting the developing bird. With strength that would hopefully only get stronger, the chick pushed against the shell until it's whole head was free. It wiggled and struggled to rid himself of the confining shell. "Come on birdy-chan! Your can do it! Just a little more...," coaxed the girl in a soft, quiet voice.
The girl jumped slightly when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned her head and smiled, "Tori-san! You're here!" The little brown bird tilted its small head to the side, then hopped off the human girl's shoulder to perch on the side of the nest. The girl looked up to see a brighter colored bird circling overhead, "Hi Bird-san! You're going to be a father now!" She looked back to the nest when she heard loud high-pitched chirps. The shell had been discarded and the mother bird that the girl had been so "cleverly" named Tori-san was feeding its newborn. Then the mother settled itself to keep its hungry baby warm. The bird, so "originally" named Bird-san, that was circling overhead disappeared to dig up grubs and other insects.
"Kagome-chan!" the girl barely heard her mother shout.
"I have to go now Tori-san. Tell Bird-san I said 'bye'. Bye Birdy-chan!" The girl quickly said to the bird in the nest that seemed to ignore the human. The girl grabbed onto a few roots and shimmied down the tree as quickly as she was capable of. She then sprinted off to reunite with her worried mother.
About 15-20 minutes later, the girl named Kagome pushed past a particularly heavy large leaf to arrive at the end of the trail leading out of the woods. "Mou...Kagome-chan, you're all scratched up and dirty now. What can I say to convince you to take the clear path through the woods and not the long way going through who knows what," said the woman holding onto the little boy's hand.
"Yeah, nee-chan, you took forever...," the short, black-haired boy scolded his big sister.
Kagome stuck her tongue out at the boy and acted like she completely did not hear her mother's words, "Hey! Guess what Oka-san! I saw a bird hatch today! It was so cool! You should've seen it First the shell cracked. Then the beak poked out. And then..."
"Hai...hai...," the mother sighed exasperatedly. "Let's head home now." The small family quieted and started walking until they came to an intimidating number of white steps that led up the the Sunset Shrine where they lived.
"Oka-san, I think I know what I want for my birthday. I want an elevator," Kagome said as she stared at the steps.
"Now now Kagome-chan. If you could run around the woods by yourself all day with no problem, you could handle a few steps."
'A few...?' Kagome sighed and started up the steps behind her mother and little brother.
She went down these same steps the next day as she rushed off to school. "No! I'm late!"
Taking the dirt and gravel path through the woods that her mother and brother walked on the day before, she ran as fast as she could without completely depleting her stamina to make it to school before the loud ear-splitting bell sounds to signal the start of another day of keeping young minds from freedom.
Kagome skidded to a halt in front of her shoe locker and practically threw her outside tennis shoes into the square space after snatching up her clean, white indoor shoes. She took off with the shoes in her hand towards the stairs. "I hate stairs. I hate stairs. I hate stairs...," she huffed as she scaled three flights of stairs while attempting to slip on her shoes and not fall at the same time. Kagome sprinted to her homeroom, slid the sliding door open, slammed it hard behind her, ran to her seat at the far end of the classroom, and stumbled into it just as the door opened again to reveal a petite, middle-aged woman with thinning hair carrying a briefcase.
"Quiet you hooligans! This is the start of the winter semester. It's time to crack down and study hard so you could pass this year and come back in the spring with only a year left until you're out of this dump and off to high school. Damn high school gets all the federal funding...," the woman muttered. "Now for homeroom announcements given by your homeroom representative..."
While a soft spoken girl with glasses announced seemingly important things related to school and club activities, Kagome worked on getting her heart rate back to normal. After the representative was done talking, the students collectively rummaged under their desks for their textbooks. Bada-sensei started her lecture right away, "Last semester you learned ancient history up through the 21st century. Before we get into more modern history, we've been doing brief overviews of the time periods. I believe the next one is Sengoku jidai. As we know, this period roughly covers the 15th century up through the beginning of the 17th century. It was filled with social upheavals as government became less centralized and..."
Kagome hated history. She got enough of it at home. Though, it was a different sort of history. While she learned of this country's history at school, at home, her grandfather pounded the history of mythical demons, magic, and other nonsense. Even though sometimes it was interesting because of the impossible nature of his stories, Kagome mostly spent her lessons staring at the gray sky.
"Higurashi-san! Care to repeat what I just said?" Bada-sensei's voice cut through Kagome's cloudy thoughts. She stood up from her seat quickly and looked flustered for being caught not paying attention.
"Um...," her brain scrambled to come up with an answer. BEEEEEPP. Kagome sighed in relief as the bell sounded, signalling the end of history class.
"Lucky you Higurashi-san," Bada-sensei packed up her briefcase and walked out of the classroom. Students around Kagome started putting their books away. Some left to attend to club responsibilities while others stayed and took out lunch boxes. Kagome let out another sigh and melted back into her seat. She smiled slightly as a girl with black shoulder-length hair and a pale yellow headband walked up to her. "Did you oversleep again, Kagome-chan?" Kagome looked a little sheepish.
"Leave her alone Eri. Kagome, what's the matter? I know you hate history but you should know better than to daydream during Bada-sensei's lesson. She already hates us. Don't give her a reason to hate you extra," advised a girl with brown hair cropped to her ears.
"I know Yuka... But it's sooo boring!" Kagome whined as she unwrapped the cloth covering her bento box. She took out a fork and speared some thick noodles. She scowled at the offending tool. "I still hate these things. Chopsticks are so much easier to use."
"You're the only one who thinks so, Kagome," an amused Eri said.
"It's normal to think that way since you use them all the time at home. I use them sometimes too," said Ayumi as she walked over with her lunch that she purchased from the cafeteria.
"You two are behind the times," replied Eri. "Only REALLY old people nowadays use chopsticks. They even stopped selling them in stores except for decoration."
"Whatever, Eri," said Ayumi. Kagome smiled. She liked all three of her friends, but if she had to choose one to be stuck on a desert island with, it would be Ayumi, even if she was a studyholic. "We better get cleaned up, girls. It's almost time for class again."
After school, Kagome waved goodbye to her friends as they parted from the gate in front of the school building. "Maybe I'll stop by to see Birdy-chan today." She never told her friends about her childish behavior in the woods. Even if they were her friends, they would probably say climbing trees and squealing at a chick hatching was immature. Well, Kagome was only fourteen years old. She had another few months until she would act mature in private as well as in public. Kagome swore that people these days were getting older younger, if that made sense. She didn't even wear any makeup yet, but she has spotted foundation, eyeshadow, and lip gloss on twelve year olds! Kagome pondered as she strolled towards the woods on her way home. She imagined that she would surely be late everyday if she had to spend time in the mornings applying makeup.
She ceased her trivial thoughts as she began picking her way through the shrubbery, repeating her actions from the day before to arrive at her tree. She set down her backpack and started the dangerous climb up. For over half an hour, she just watched as the baby bird ate, slept, and snuggled. The mother bird, Tori-san as Kagome called her, eyed Kagome for a while before taking a chance and flying off to look for some grubs to fill her empty stomach.
The little bird born just yesterday took up the opportunity right away. Following the concept of survival of the fittest, Birdy-chan started nudging the other speckled egg towards the edge of the nest. Kagome, who had been staring off towards the direction in which the older bird flew, didn't notice anything until it was too late. Seeing movement out of the corner of her eye, Kagome looked back at the nest, only to have her eyes widen in surprise and horror. The fragile egg teeter tottered on the edge of the nest until finally the baby bird gave it one final push to eliminate its future competition. The egg tumbled over and was pulled towards the ground. Panicking, Kagome reached towards the egg that was clearly too far away. She yelped as she slipped off the branch and tumbled after the doomed egg. 'Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!' Kagome clawed the air for anything that would slow the fall. She got her wish as thin branches cracked underneath her to slow her descent. Kagome landed with a thud just centimeters away from the trunk of the tree. Somehow, in her tumble, the branches must have caused her fall to not be a straight down to the ground fall as she had landed on the other side of the 3 meter wide trunk, the side she rarely payed any attention to. There wasn't a bird's nest above that side of the tree. She groaned and tested her limbs. She sat up and sorely rubbed her back. "Ow...," mumbled the unfortunate girl.
She pulled the twigs from her hair and smoothed it while looking around. Gasping, she crawled over to the splattered egg. However, that's not what got her attention. Right behind the cracked open egg lay a pile of white fur. As she crawled closer, she snatched up a stick and used it to poke at the form. It didn't move. She poked harder. It still didn't move. She slowly stood and inched towards the limp form. Leaning over the white mass of fur. She saw a pitch black nose and a thin line a black lips. "A dog?!" She slowly reached out with her hand. Hesitating, she pulled her hand back a little, then continued to reach forward. Her hand felt the top of cold fur. She pulled her hand back and stared hard at the motionless dog. "It's dead...," she concluded. She set hands down beside the dog to aid in pushing her into a standing position. After straightening, her eyes dilated as she stared at her hands. Cold, drying red liquid coated her hands. There was also some crusty, brick brown dust, dried blood, that fell from her palm. She didn't like blood. It made her slightly squeamish, but she could look at it. However, having the blood on her hands freaked her out. Images of fire, sandstorms, floods, and any other disaster imaginable flitted across her mind as she stared at her blood covered hands. She felt panicked, scared, and sad at the same time. Thus, she did the only thing that her mind could process. Kagome bolted.
Forgetting her belongings, forgetting the bird, the nest, or the egg, Kagome ran all the way home. Her green sailor uniform offered no protection as it tore from branches catching in the fabric. She stumbled up the shrine steps, all the while shouting, "Oka-san!" Her family found her panting heavily at the front door. Cuts marred the pale skin of her arms and legs, and, somehow, she lost a shoe. The scared girl's face had a few shallow, scratches and tears dripped down her cheeks.
The mother ushered the crying girl inside and steered her to the kitchen. Making shushing noises to her whimpering daughter, the mother ran water over Kagome's bloody hands while searching for a rag to wipe her minor wounds.
"Oka-san! I was just watching the bird! And then it fell! And then I fell! Then the dog! And the blood! And I ran!"
The mother exchanged worried looks with Kagome's short grandfather. They were worried about the incomprehensible nonsense Kagome was mumbling.
"Sweetie, Kagome-chan, did a dog attack you?" questioned her mother.
"No!" Kagome exclaimed. "But! But! I think it's dead...in the woods..."
Kagome sniffled and cleared away the tears. She didn't know why she was crying. It was just a dead chick. It was just a dead dog. It was just a few cuts on her body. But when she saw the blood on her hands... Yes, she did panic, but she felt a deep sadness for the death of the dog at the same time. Deep down, her heart ached at the realization of its horrible, painful death.
She was gently shaken from her sad thoughts as her mother rubbed her back, "Kagome-chan, don't go near the dog again okay. Ojii-san will call someone tomorrow to pick it up and dispose of the body."
"Dispose of the body? Are they going to give the dog a proper burial? They won't just put it in a plastic bag and throw it away will they?" Kagome panicked. She was genuinely worried.
"Don't worry about that, Kagome-chan. You live on a shrine. You could pray for the dog's poor soul to find peace," the old man assured the worried girl.
"But its body!" If there was anything Kagome learned about while living at a shrine and taking forced lessons by her Ojii-san, it was to respect the dead. "The government won't give the dog's body proper respect!"
"Kagome-chan, calm down. This is all we can do. Just promise me you'll stay away from the inner woods for a while. Something must have hurt the dog for it to bleed to death. I don't want my baby girl to get hurt too"
Kagome deflated after hearing the concerned voice of her mother and the worried, maybe even scared, taint in the eyes of her Oka-san and Ojii-san. Souta stood awkwardly off to the side, slightly confused and worried but relieved to find his dear sister home.
Later, Kagome settled into bed and rolled onto her side to face the window and gaze towards the new moon. She brought one hand up towards the moon and looked at it as the moon's light put a spotlight on the appendage. While imagining her hand bathed in the dog's blood, Kagome resolved to give the dog a proper burial tomorrow. No, she refused to let the dirty government touch the deceased animal.
A/n: It's a little boring right now. Hopefully, it'll get better. ^^ Read and review. Those are great sources of motivation.