Chapter 16 - A New beginning

Chapter 16-A New Beginning

Blackness.

The darkness was so complete that not even with his keen youkai eye-sight could Sesshoumaru see anything.

Instinctively he knew that this was the boundary between life and death, he felt it when he wielded the Tensaiga – and yet now he was here himself.

In a sudden flood of memories he remembered the battle and the cold steel if Naraku’s blade entering him.

I’m dead.

Strangely the thought held no terror for him, he merely felt a terrible sadness that his death must also have meant the death of his half-brother who he had only just forgiven.

Without noticing when exactly it happened, Sesshoumaru noticed that the darkness had faded into a grey twilight which seemed to stretch into infinity – before him stood three women smiling kindly.

On the left was Shioma, his own mother, in the centre was Ukil and on the right was Retya, Inuyasha’s mother; in turn each came forward and kissed his hand in silence.

“Am I dead?” Sesshoumaru’s voice sounded strangely muffled and distant to his own ears.

“Yes my son,” Shioma nodded. “But you will not dwell in this land of the dead long for the power of the wish you made on the shikon jewel calls you back.”

Bleakly Sesshoumaru thought of the battlefield and all those dead, his eyes stung with uncharacteristic tears.

“I do not want to go back to that.”

“Beloved, your wish was that things could be as they once were. You have been given a new chance to make things right and only you will remember the events of the past. Many who you knew will not be there and most will not know you yet.” Ukil stepped forwards with a small smile on her face.

His mind reeling, Sesshoumaru shook his head.

“What about Rin, Jaken, the wench, the monk, the exterminator and the fox cub?” He hesititated, unwilling to ask the next question as he was afraid of the answer. “And what of Inuyasha?”

“As far as we can tell your wish has altered the fabric of time completely wiping the slate clean on several accounts; Kagome has never left Tokyo as she knows it, of the others we are not sure but feel sure most are alive.”

“What of Inuyasha?” Sesshoumaru’s voice was a little louder and more nervous; if time had been altered would his brother still hate him or would they have a chance to be friends?

All three women smiled cryptically.

“You will see.”

With that the blackness returned and Sesshoumaru felt himself spinning.

(Meanwhile)

“Kagome! Buyo’s run into the shrine!” Souta’s voice wobbled, he was too nervous to go near the spooky family shrine.

With a sigh Kagome ascended the steps to the shrine and started looking for the cat, a knocking from the well distracted her and she went closer to investigate.

Souta stayed long enough to see his sister grasped by the weird insect lady before running for his life.

Kagome climbed out of the well and looked around the strange world, in front of her was a huge tree – she recognized this tree as being one still growing outside her house.

The tree was bare and the forest peaceful, completely bewildered Kagome wandered off with no concrete sense of where she was going or what she was doing.

(Meanwhile)

A loud noise startled Sesshoumaru into consciousness and it was a full minute of listening to the harsh unsteady sound before he realized it was his own terrified breathing.

He felt cold stone beneath him and, apprehensive of what kind of world he would be confronted with, he opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was a pair of tiny feet, he moved his eyes upwards over chubby little legs, a small red kimono, a cherub face sparkling with happiness, two large amber brown eyes and finally a luscious mane of silver hair topped by two soft ears.

“Inu…Inuyasha?”

The tiny hanyou pup threw himself on his older brother.

“Esso!”

Smothering his surprise he wrapped his arms around the tiny pup and held on tightly; looking around he realized he was in the Lord’s chambers of the castle.

“Where is father?”

“Gone to visit Oka, gone ages Esso. Just you and me.” The smile on Inuyasha’s face dimmed as he looked at the serious expression on his older brother’s face. “You’re not leaving Inu too, are you Esso?”

With his bottom lip trembling and his eyes full of tears the tiny hanyou grasped hold of Sesshoumaru tightly; his head still spinning Sesshoumaru gently disentangled Inuyasha’s hands and stroked his hair.

“No pup, I could never leave you.”

“Promise?”

“I promise. Do you know why?”

Inuyasha shook his head dumbly and gazed at Sesshoumaru out of adoring eyes.

“Because we are two halves of one soul, little brother.”