Lady of the Eastern Lands Chap. 2

Chapter 2 

-Well House-

"Kagome, I must tell you this. That bracelet that you wear..." Mrs. Higurashi said.

Kagome nodded and shook her right wrist with the silver chain wrapped around it. "Yes, I've worn it since before I can remember."

Mrs. Higurashi continued. "Yes, well. That was from your parents. It is a family heirloom. You must keep it safe for I believe it may be of use as well."

"Don't worry," Kagome assured. "Nothing will happen to it. I'll keep it perfectly safe."

Kagome hugged her god-mother tightly and gripped the yellow backpack she was carrying before jumping into the well.

The warm blue light enveloped her body as her nose suddenly became accustomed to the natural smells that flooded her senses. She tilted her head up slightly to take it all in. It was so different from the stuffy, polluted scent from the future.

Her fuzzy black ear swiveled to her right as a red blur sped towards the well clearing.

"Who are you and why do you smell like Kagome?" InuYasha demanded.

The girl's lip twitched into a smile, "I am Kagome, silly. Can't you tell?"

InuYasha sneered at her. "Like hell! You're a full demon! Kagome is a dirty human!"

'Oooooohhh...This dog is digging his own grave...right next to his damn bone.' Kagome's eye twitched. "InuYasha...SIT!"

The hanyou plummeted to the ground in surprise. After a few painful seconds the spell wore off and InuYasha jumped up, swearing. "How the hell did you subdue me?! Only Kagome can do that!"

Kagome laughed to herself. "You truly are dumb aren't you InuYasha?"

"InuYasha!" A large boomerang suddenly spun into the clearing and Kagome jumped into the air to avoid it. The demon exterminator who owned it soon followed, catching it as it spun back. She was about to attack again when she froze on the spot. She looked the demon infront of her up and down before stepping forward a few feet. "Kagome?"

Kirara landed right behind her as Miroku and Shippo jumped off of the cat-demon's back. Miroku's hand reached for his beads and Shippo had a magic leaf poised to attack.

Kirara's muscles that had been tense eased as she recognized the familiar scent. She detransformed into her smaller form and jumped into the foriegn demoness' arms.

Kagome snuggled her face into the soft fur, "Hello, Kirara. I see you and Sango recognized me."

Miroku bowed his head, "Lady Kagome."

A lightbulb lit up above Shippo's head. "Mama? Is that you?"

Kagome frowned sadly, "Of course it is. Who else?"

Her ear twitched towards InuYasha again as he mumbled, "An imposter maybe?"

"Sit." She muttered.

InuYasha once again face-planted. The group nodded. "That's Kagome, alright."

"Duh. But now I'm way prettier and stronger." She could have sworn she heard a 'much prettier' coming from Miroku and a scowl crossed Sango's face. Kagome walked over to her and placed Kirara in her arms. "Now, I need to find Kikyo. Do you guys know where she is?"

Nobody responded, not even InuYasha, who was looking sullenly at the ground. Kagome sighed, "It's alrig-"

"I am here."

The form of the preistess stepped out from behind a tree on the left side of Kagome.

Kagome walked up to Kikyo and, surprising everyone to the brink of fainting, hugged her.

She backed up to give her some space and spoke again, "I believe I have something that belongs to you don't I?"

Kikyo nodded absentmindedly, still keeping a defensive stance. "My soul." She said with a sort of venom in her voice.

"Ouch. That stings. Well, okay. Take it." Kagome spread her arms wide in a ready gesture.

Kikyo took a cautious step forward.

"No Kagome! You'll die!"

Kagome looked towards her surrogate sister. "I'll be fine Sango. Don't you worry yourself one bit."

Sango nodded, still unsure.

Kikyo smirked and called back her soul. Amazingly it came without so much as a tug of her aura. Kagome flinched as she tried to calm her own protective soul.

Once it had calmed Kagome sighed, "There is one condition."

Kikyo raised an eyebrow, "Yes?"

"I must give you a real body as I would wish my own flesh and blood wasn't a walking clay pot. Would we cousin?" Kagome smiled.

"WHAT?!" Everyone cried.

Kikyo's eyes widened for a moment before she kneeled at Kagome's feet in a bow. "My lady."

The demoness could swear she could see millions of brain cells dying in InuYasha's brain. 'Heh. Too much to handle, eh Pup?'

Kagome instantly grabbed her cousin's arm and pulled her up. "Don't bow to me! You guys are my friends! And I haven't even been back to the castle yet! Sheesh!"

Kikyo raised an eyebrow, "You haven't been back to the castle yet?"

Kagome shook her head. "Nope, I have so many things to do before-hand and something," She glared at InuYasha, "Stopped me."

Everyone turned their attention to the half demon still sitting on the ground. InuYasha glared at Kagome, "Not to be rude or anything but why aren't you dead? Your soul was taken."

Miroku nodded in agreement, "I was wondering the same thing, my apologies Lady Kagome."

"No problem. I would have asked the same thing had it been a reversed situation and I didn't actually know what was going on." She smiled knowingly.

Sango took a step forward, "So what is going on?"

Kagome backed up and took a seat on the lip of the well, being careful to wrap her tail around her before-hand so it didn't get squished. Everyone watched, caught by the kawaii-ness of her tail as they sat infront of her. She cleared her throat. "Ahem. I found out some very important news...I'm a demon!"

She looked at all the blank faces, "Oooookkkaaaaaay, I guess you figured that much...I'm Kikyo's younger cousin and the daughter of Tarao and Kameko, Lord and Lady of the Eastern Lands."

She watched as different emotions crossed her friends faces. Confusion, happiness, eagerness, and more confusion. Kikyo rolled her eyes and gestured with her hands for her to continue.

"When I was born I was supposed to be entrusted with the jewel because my mother had been the original guardian after Midoriko died. I would have been if it had not been that we were being targeted for an assassination for the throne. Kameko, who had gone to the future before, had given me to my god-mother." Some more confused faces. Kagome sighed. "Mrs. Higurashi?" Their mouths shaped an 'O'. "Yeah. Well, as I was saying, I was left with my god-mother and Kameko never came back so she was assumed dead. When my mother died I was nowhere to be found so the jewel was given to you, Kikyo. When you 'died' there was nowhere the jewel could go because you hadn't destroyed it. So it came to me and fused with my body. It seems though that when the jewel transported to this time, so did your soul. It also fused with me. So really, your soul was really yours all along."

InuYasha shook his head, "What about the time Kikyo was brought back and the soul transported to her body? You were an empty shell."

Kagome mimicked his shake of the head, "Nope. It's just that her soul had become attached to mine and when it was being taken my soul had noticed the evil of the body it was being fused into. My soul fought to protect it and so when Kikyo's was gone it had shut down completely. That was why I fainted. Because it thought it had failed it's mission to protect it. After Kikyo's first evil doing, the attack on InuYasha, and his pained scream, my soul fought again to regain it from the evil body. It finally came back to my body and you went staggering off a cliff. How nice..." She said sourly. Her tail twitched behind her.

InuYasha stood up defiantly.

"I did not scream!"

Shippo crossed his arms and smirked, "Yes you did."

"Why you..." InuYasha stood over the kitsune with his fist clenched threateningly.

"InuYasha sit." Kagome said calmly.

Miroku chuckled as InuYasha ate dirt...again.

Kagome turned to Kikyo with a soft smile. "Do you want your real body back?"

Kikyo returned the smile, "I would like that."

"Okie dokie! Let's get to it! Hmmm...You guys go stand over by the well," Kagome directed her friends, minus Kikyo, over to the vine-covered well. "Kikyo, you stand right over here." Kikyo moved to the mentioned spot. "Good. Now stand straight and tall and close your eyes. Ready?"

Kikyo smiled in response.

"Okay, you guys close your eyes too."

The group by the well closed their eyes. Out of the corner of her own Kagome noticed the hanyou still peeking. "That means you too InuYasha."

Said person blushed and closed his eyes tightly.

"And he says I'm child-ish. Sheesh."

Kagome smiled at Shippo's comment. InuYasha growled under his breath. "Stupid kitsune..."

"Shut it!"

Everyone stared at Sango wide-eyed as she blushed and muttered 'sorry...' before once again closing their eyes tightly.

"Thank you, Sango. Now, hold completely still Kikyo. This may hurt a bit." Kagome said.

She placed her hand ontop of Kikyo's head and closed her own eyes. "Kaifuku suru ano karada no watashi no taisetsu Kikyo tamashii." (Recover the body of my dear Kikyo's soul.)

Light flowed out of Kagome's hand. Both miko and demonic power fused to create a powerful burst of energy that pierced Kikyo's clay body. She winced in pain as the two auras raged thoughout her. She suddenly felt as if water had been poured on her and opened her eyes in surprise. Her body was melting! Wait! No...Her body wasn't melting...the clay of Urasue's magic was being washed away...Amazing!

Kikyo felt the weight of Kagome's hand being pulled away from her head and watched in horror as Kagome's body went limp and fell to the ground. She quickly kneeled next to her and placed Kagome's head in her lap. "Are you all right, Kagome?"

A weak smile crossed her features as she slowly sat up. By now everyone had managed to figure out that they could probably open their eyes and had scrambled over to the two mikos.

"I'm fine. The real question should be, how are you feeling Kikyo?" She grinned at her cousin.

Kikyo looked at her in question. "I'm fine now. It hurt whe-" She suddenly stopped talking and looked down at herself. "My body!"

All eyes turned to her as they noticed the change. Her skin had turned to a healthy peach color and her eyes turned into a light chocolate brown instead of the dark life-less orbs they had been. Her raven hair actually shined in the light peeking through the forest trees and her eager, childish smile was true.

InuYasha's eyes were wide as saucers and Miroku was drooling slightly. Sango glared at him and knocked him over the head with her boomerang. "Sango, that hurt..." Miroku whined while rubbing his head.

The exterminator crossed her arms angrily. "It should have."

Kagome giggled. "I've always wanted to say this. You two will make such a cute couple." She watched as both of them turned red. Kagome then turned to see InuYasha hugging Kikyo. "I know you guys would never believe I'm actually saying this but, I'm happy for you."

Kikyo's eyes widened, "But I thought you loved InuYasha?"

Kagome smiled, "I used to love him like you do now, but it's turned into a brotherly love. And hopefully soon he will actually be my brother. If ya know what I mean..."

InuYasha blushed and Kikyo giggled.

Kagome smiled, "I'm glad your happy." She stood shakily, kissed Shippo and Kirara on the head, and waved to the group while walking off, "I'll come and visit! I've got to go reclaim the eastern lands! Bye bye!"

She waited until after they waved back to start off into the forest, tail swinging behind her.

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-Lost-

"I can't believe I'm lost! I've been out here less than one damn hour and I'm already lost! Isn't there some kind of sixth-sense I get with these new demon powers? Maybe some kind of sense of direction? I guess not. Sheesh. Hmmmm...I wonder..."

Kagome placed her big yellow bag on the ground and started digging through it. "Ah-ha!" She pulled a small round object out of her bag and held it in the air triumphantly.

"My compass! I found it! But I thought I left it on my desk?"

She turned it around and saw a sticky-note attached to the back. Carefully unsticking it, Kagome read the note out loud.

Kagome giggled to herself as she tucked the note into one of the pockets of her bag. She then held the compass in front of her and watched as the little arrow turned.

She nodded and stuffed the compass in her pocket before marching off to her right with her head held high.

"Eastern lands! Here I come!"

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