Changes (Or, What The..?) by Ise and Mourning

[Chapter 1] I Just Didn't Want To Know...

Or, When The Hanyou's Away, The Miko Will Play

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Kagome Higurashi was a normal girl. Well, as normal as one can get when balancing two lives, one on either side of a magical well leading 500 years into the past. That was where she was now, deep in the woods of the Sengoku Jidai hunting for little slivers of a jewel more powerful than anything the future had to offer.

She sighed in annoyance as she slipped into her sleeping bag for the night. The Shikon was almost complete, she had half and Naraku had the rest. There were only the shards that Kouga possessed and the one still in Kohaku's back. She inwardly shuddered at the thought of removing it and how Sango, the taijiya she viewed as the sister she never had would react. But none of those were the reason she sighed in annoyance. The hanyou Inuyasha had disappeared for the night once again. She didn't ask anymore, she just didn't want to know.

Of course, she already knew. She knew her incarnation Kikyou had been following them for days, looking for the perfect chance to drag the half-inu to hell. But she pretended not to notice when Inuyasha was more demanding of her, when he berated her for not sensing anymore shards, and even when he called her Kikyou in the heat of battle. It hurt, deep inside, when she understood, so she just didn't want to know.

During the four years she had spent traveling between the two times, she had improved her miko abilities through necessity, though she was still nowhere near as good as Kikyou. Or so the hanyou claimed. She wore her uniform still after all this time, to remind herself that she did not belong here and to show others, a certain hanyou especially, that she was not to be mistaken for the undead miko. Shaking her head of thoughts of him, she spread her senses out and caught the auras of six beings. 'Six? Who else..?' She almost convinced herself that she still didn't want to know, but her curiosity got the better or her.

She knew five of the auras; the monk and taijiya across the fire from her, talking, the kitsune in her arms sleeping, and the hanyou and undead priestess in the woods not very far away doing whatever it was that she didn't want to know. The last though... It shifted and twisted, causing her to stand and set Shippou down gently on her sleeping bag. She had to know what it was now. Gathering her bow and arrows, as well as a few medical supplies in case she needed them, Kagome slipped away from camp.

Her trek led her into the forest they had camped at the edge of, though she noted dimly that she was traveling away from the two lovers who had also retreated beneath the tree cover. She closed her senses off to everything else as she neared the last, unfamiliar aura. Almost as sudden as the forest began, it stopped. Pausing at the edge of the trees, she furrowed her brow in confusion. Inuyasha had told her there were no lakes or hot springs around when she had asked to take a bath that night, and yet, here was a beautiful, if a little small, lake. With no one else around. 'What the..?' Switching her senses on full again, she scanned the immediate area. The aura persisted; she was in the right place.

Stepping cautiously from the cover of trees, she made her way slowly towards the moonlit body of water in the middle of the clearing. When she reached the rocky bank, she set her medical supplies down carefully, keeping her bow and quiver at the ready. Standing back a little from the edge of the pool, she walked its circumference warily, her senses set on 'paranoid.' When she had made a full circle, she sat beside her things and slipped her shoes off, dipping her feet in the pleasantly cool waters. As she did, two things happened: the unfamiliar aura flared angrily, causing her to draw back her senses abruptly from the force and stand at the edge of the pool again, and a young girl came stumbling out of the woods on the other side of the pool, carrying a ragged teddy bear and looking as if she were running for her life. 'Which could very well be true, here,' Kagome thought sourly.

Thrusting her senses out from herself again, sighing mentally at how tired she would be in the morning, she hissed as she came in contact with three new auras. One was, of course, the little girl who had spotted her and was currently stumbling around the rocky bank to seek her protection. Trusting little thing, isn't she, a voice murmured in her mind.

'That would be the one that started this mess, then.' To her credit, she wasn't startled at the intrusion into her mind. The stranger whose aura had led her here in the first place continued his soft-spoken, joking tirade. I bet she thinks you can protect her, hm? Thinks that you'll save her from those that chase her. Thinks that you can kill the demons after her. I don't think you can, but we'll see soon.

"Who are you?" she fairly growled at the disembodied thought-voice.

No one of consequence, yet. If you can prove to me you are strong and willing, I will show myself to you. Otherwise...

He left the thought there, dangling. She knew what would happen if she could not defeat the youkai that chased the poor girl now shivering behind her legs. Keeping tabs on the three still out there, she turned to kneel beside the shaking girl seeking her protection. "Hey there sweetie... Who's chasing you? Where are your parents?"

The girl raised large violet eyes, flecks of green shining in their depths, to Kagome's own blue-grey orbs. "The big monster's not chasing me, miko-sama. He's chasing Beni-sama!" The girl lifted her stuffed bear so that Kagome could see it better and, faintly, she could detect a Shikon shard embedded deep in the stuffing of its brain. "He said he wanted to eat Beni-sama and that I shouldn't try to stop him!"

Kagome blinked as she processed the information. Don't drop your guard, miko-san, the unknown voice spoke in her head.

Baring her teeth, the miko half-turned, hiding the girl behind her as she placed a barrier a few feet away, surrounding herself and the small ningen. Something in her heart clenched briefly as she saw the feral inu bound from the trees surrounding their peaceful clearing. Turning back to the child, she smiled briefly and ran a gentle hand through the girl's shoulder-length mocha locks. "Stay here while I take care of the mean doggie, ok?"

A smile lit across the young one's face and she watched patiently as Kagome carefully placed a strong shield around the child alone. Smiling back, though it was tinged slightly with sadness, the miko picked up her bow and arrows from where she had left them, and turned herself to fully face the horse-sized, lesser inuyokai pounding against her outer barrier. Notching an arrow to her bow, she stepped away from the child behind her and dropped the first defense.

She released the arrow, and it flew straight and true. The inu dodged, however, and the pink and white comet merely pierced his left flank. The huge dog didn't flinch, but skidded to a stop a few feet from the raven-haired girl, lunging again almost immediately. Fumbling with her arrows, Kagome dodged the inu's attacks as best as she could until, stepping back, she tripped and fell on her back. Panicking as a large paw, complete with claws, swiped down at her, she rolled to the side. 'Not fast enough,' she hissed at herself, the claws catching some of fabric of her uniform top and ripping through the strap of her quiver, scattering the arrows about the small field.

Continuing her roll until she was as far away from the youkai as she dared to be without risking its attention being drawn to the child, she stood on shaky legs and looked around for anything else she could use for a weapon. Glancing at her hands, an idea manifested itself. The riser of her bow had snapped, leaving her with the two limbs attached only by the braided sinew of the bowstring. Smiling slightly to herself, ever mindful of the feral dog demon that was beginning to circle her threateningly, she unstrung one of the limbs of the bow. Now she was left with a make-shift whip and a piece of wood nearly the correct size for a wakizashi blade.

She stepped to the side, confidence returned, as the demon lunged at her again. Flicking her wrist, she sent her waning powers along the whip as it lashed into the side of the enraged youkai. The inu howled in pain and Kagome had to fight the smirk threatening to surface. Much more confidant, she nimbly side-stepped another attack, striking out with the wooden blade in her hand and slicing deep into her opponent's foreleg. It stumbled and she followed quickly with her bowstring, energy crackling along its length as she snapped it again. She did smirk this time as she saw the sinew had purified a large chunk of the demon's flank and back leg.

Realization dawned suddenly and she faltered. 'I'm...enjoying this? But, why?'

Her pause was all the inu needed and it lunged as she spaced out. Kagome's return to reality was painful as the heavily bleeding dog demon bit down on her dominant shoulder. Gasping in the sudden flood of pain, she focused on the red eyes staring back at her. Snarling back at the youkai, she raised her other arm and swung down viciously in the instinct to preserve herself. Unconsciously, she flooded the wooden bow-limb in her fist with her miko powers, ramming the makeshift weapon between her opponent's eyes and driving it deep into its skull. The inuyoukai had no time to even howl in pain. The weapon had done its job, and the purifying wave that accompanied it had only served to disintegrate the corpse.

Collapsing to her knees, Kagome's blue-grey eyes took in the clearing, seeing the girl still safe inside her barrier. The ghost of a smile crossed her face as her eyes dulled slightly and she fell to the ground, landing on her uninjured side. Softly, her voice carrying on the wind, she spoke to the mysterious other still lingering, "I'm sorry I wasn't... strong enough to... get to meet you..."

Her gaze darkened more and she shifted it to the girl again, smiling to reassure the child who had begun to cry. Something stepped into her line of sight, and she tried feebly to raise her head. The last thing she saw before the darkness overcame her vision was a man kneeling at her side, his pale countenance framed by black hair and set with hauntingly white eyes.