Omoide no Mori
Forest of Memories
chapter one:
*Of Suspicions and Déjà Vu*
"Oh--!"
Higurashi Kagome's large brown eyes snapped open as she was jolted out of a sound sleep. She lay motionless for a moment, just staring at the stark white ceiling above her head, until her orange-and-white cat, Buyo, cautiously padded toward her face, seemingly checking to make sure she was okay.
What was that? she mused to herself, giggling involuntarily as Buyo's long white whiskers brushed against her face, tickling her cheek. She sat up slowly, still clutching her pillow to her chest. She gazed around her room.
Nothing was different...her bureau was still a mess, buried under slips of paper, some crystal figurines, and about twenty lip glosses...her desk was equally as disorganized, covered in books and homework she really should have finished last night.
Her eyes moved to the window.
The sun was barely up...what on earth could have awakened her so early?
Her heart was still pounding in her chest...something had really startled her.
Funny...she couldn't seem to figure out what it had been. All she knew was...well...
She sighed.
There was no way she was getting back to sleep now...
Throwing the sheet off her body, Kagome swung her legs over the edge of the bed and rested her palms on her knees.
"Myaa?"
She glanced to her right, and Buyo gave her an inquisitive look. She stroked his ears.
"I dunno, Buyo," she replied, though she wasn't quite sure she knew what the question had been.
She frowned.
There was this peculiar sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach...she had the most terrible sense of foreboding...
She quickly got to her feet.
Something was definitely wrong.
Kagome gasped.
Maybe she had a big math exam she'd forgotten to study for! But...no, wait...the math exam was next week... She put her finger on her chin as she walked over to her bureau.
Maybe it's Biology, she thought, running her school schedule through her mind. No...Biology was last Thursday...
She changed out of her pajamas, sliding into a pair of dark denim jeans and a long-sleeved powder blue shirt with the kanji character "genki" scrawled in decorative embroidery on the front. She rubbed her forearms with her hands in the chilly morning air and ambled over to her closet, stepping into her slippers on the way.
Was it History? she wondered. Or maybe she had a Japanese vocabulary test?
She pulled a dark indigo blue fleece zip-up vest from her closet and slid it over her arms, zipping it halfway. Then she paused a moment.
No...she was sure it wasn't those either...and her English quiz would be on Tuesday...
...so what was it?
She pressed her fist into her chin and cast a glance toward Buyo.
"Nee, Buyo," she said with a frown, "what could it be?"
"Myaa, myaa myaa," Buyo replied, and Kagome flattened her eyes.
"Thanks for clearing that up," she remarked, shaking her head.
You know you've got too much on your mind when you start consulting your cat for answers...
With that, she picked up her knapsack and shouldered it.
"Well then," she said, grabbing a pack of gum and a roll of sour candies from her dresser and shoving them into her pocket, "if the trouble isn't here at home, and it's not at school..."--she headed out of her room into the hall that would lead her to the main room of the house, pulling her hair back with a pale blue ribbon--"then it must be..."
She slid open the door to the dining room.
"Ohayou, Jii-chan, ohayou, Mama," she greeted, spying her mother and grandfather seated at the table sipping their tea.
"Oh, g'morning, Kagome," the old shrine master replied, then made a face at the clock on the wall. "Ano...you're up awfully early, aren't you?" he asked, a trifle suspicious.
"And on a Sunday, too," her mother added. "Is everything okay?"
Ah! That's right! It was Sunday, wasn't it?
Kagome grinned.
Good...this way Jii-chan wouldn't have to come up with some weird excuse for her absence from school today. She'd already been "diagnosed" with about half the diseases known to man...considering all she had "suffered" recently, most of the student body was amazed she was still alive!
"What's with the bag, Kagome?" her mother asked. "Going somewhere?"
Kagome frowned.
"Hai..." she said slowly, "I...I have to go...back to the well..."
"Again?" her grandfather said. "Goodness, Kagome, I'd almost say you spend more time there than you do here..."
She rolled her eyes at him.
"Just make sure this doesn't turn into one of those two-week-long visits," her mother chided, "Souta's school recital is Thursday evening, you promised him you would go...remember?"
"Hai, hai, hai," she assured her mother with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Don't worry, I'll be back by then." She smiled and held her fingers up in a V. "Higurashi Kagome never breaks a promise."
Her mother got to her feet.
"Well, at least let me throw together a few bentou boxes for you," she offered. "I never know what sorts of weird foods you might end up eating when you're there...and your little dog-eared friend is so thin...I can't help but wonder if he gets enough to eat..."
Kagome rolled her eyes again as her mother continued her distressed ranting as she walked into the kitchen. She watched as she put several nikuman and a few onigiri in a small box, along with some leftover yakitori from dinner last night, and a handful of small round pieces of a sake maki that Jii-chan had made.
How long has it been now? she wondered to herself, her thoughts straying from her mother's culinary efforts.
How long had it been? She couldn't figure for certain...she had been leading this double life forever, so it seemed.
A few months ago, the day of her fifteenth birthday, Kagome had stumbled onto an amazing phenomenon... While looking for Buyo that day, she had been pulled into the Hone Kui no Ido--the Bone-Eating Well--a deep, dry well within the small shrine on her family's property. That day had changed her life.
The well, so it seemed, was a portal, connecting two very different eras--the present day, and the Sengoku Jidai...the ancient warring age of Japan. Upon her entry into this strange land of the past, Kagome's life had taken a dramatic turn, and she had been astounded to find that the fibers of her own life had been woven into the tangled web of magic, danger, and demons that existed so long ago.
She chuckled.
Demons?
Well...half-demons, anyway...
It was by Kagome's hands that the hanyou Inuyasha had been released from the state of suspended animation he had been trapped in for fifty years. And, at that point--after much deliberation (and the unexpected [if not accidental] shattering of a certain mystical item)--Kagome had rather decided to become a part of history, so to speak, agreeing to aid Inuyasha in his search for the shards of the mystical Shikon no Tama, or Jewel of Four Souls. The Shikon no Tama would grant its owner awesome powers...
...Awesome powers of destruction, if it were to fall into the wrong hands.
That was why Kagome and Inuyasha were so eager to gather all of the shards before anyone else, to keep that amazing power away from the greedy clutches of the demons roaming the Sengoku Jidai.
Well...that and the fact that Inuyasha was rather eager to get his own claws on the jewel...
Joined by Shippou, a mischievous kogitsune demon who possessed a spirit (and mouth) far greater than his size; Sango, a taijiya who had once made a living exterminating demons; and Miroku, a Buddhist priest who seemed to think he was in as much favor with the ladies as he was with the gods, the motley quintet formed quite a determined clan of shard-hunters.
"All set," Kagome's mother said proudly, handing Kagome a pair of small boxes wrapped neatly in floral napkins. She dropped them into her daughter's upturned palms, and Kagome quickly slid them into her backpack.
"Arigatou, Mama," she said with a quick bob of her head, slipping the bag back over her shoulders. With that, she headed for the door. "Ittekimasu!" she called as she ran outside with a wave.
"Itterasshai!" her mother and grandfather called in tandem after her.
"And be careful!" her mother added as the door closed. She paused a moment, then looked at the old man seated at the table. "Nee, Ojii-chan," she said, "do you suppose all fifteen-year-old girls have such unusual social lives?"
The old man just laughed, and returned to sipping his tea.
*