Seconds Lives
Kagome Hhigurashi didn't like coincidences, in her experience they were
rarely good. 'Coincidence' often seemed to hide deeper connections
between people and events and after all the times she had helped fight
Naraku she had time and again seen coincidences bite her and InuYasha in
the butt.
So it was fair to say that Kagome was more than a bit disturbed when she
found out that her class trip this year was to an archeological site,
located roughly where she remembered Sango's village was in the past.
The bus trip from their train to the hotel was loud with conversation as
Kagome wondered what they would see, her feeling of anticipation and
concern as they continued on to the town itself.
Yuuka shook her head as they got off the bus, her short hair falling
across her cheek as she said, "You'd think the school could have come up
with a more exciting place to go for our class trip."
Ayumi brushed back her long curly hair as she squinted up at the sun. "I
think it has something to do with a government history program," she
suggested.
"What do you think, Kagome?" Eri wondered, her long hair as straight and
neat as usual.
"Eh?" Kagome looked sheepish, startled out of her contemplation of the
area around them. It was so familiar to her on one hand, the over all
lay of the land echoing her memories but also different with the modern
buildings off in the distance. The path their teacher was leading them
on wound between piles of earth, trenches in the distance roped off
where scientists presumedly studied the traces of the past.
Yuka sighed, "Kagome, stop spacing out please."
Kagime blushed as she sighed, "Sorry." Silently she thought to herself,
'How can I explain that I wasn't spacing out, that I was remembering
visiting here before?'
"What do you think of this being our class trip?" Eri asked Kagome
again.
"I think," Kagome hesitated a moment searching for the right words, "it
could be interesting."
"I'm very impressed," Hojo cheerfully noted, the young man following
close behind.
Ayumi covertly rolled her eyes as Yuka, Eri and Kagome fought back their
giggles at the badly besotted boy. For months now he had politely
pursued Kagome but the girl barely registered his presence. It was
getting kind of pitiful, really.
"All right, it's time to form up students," their teacher called out as
she continued, "our guide is waiting!"
The boyish young woman standing beside their teacher wasn't quite what
Kagome had been expecting. She was tall, with short hair and casual
clothes, dark colored and now dusty from the site. Her hands were marked
by hard work but her eyes had a amused, almost roguish quality to them.
"My name is Mutsumi Yuhino," she smiled at them cheerfully, "and I'm the
junior archeologist on the site." She gave them a charming smile, "But
that doesn't I don't know what I'm doing because I'm junior, it just
means they can spare me the most today."
With a slight blush Ayumi leaned close to Yuka and whispered, "She's
kind of handsome, isn't she?"
Softly Yuka conceded, "Yeah, kind of."
Leading them through carefully fenced of areas of the dig Mutsumi
cheerfully explained, "The site was first discovered when a city works
crew was clearing a section of forest. They stumbled over a piece of
what was the fortified town's outer wall, someone realized it was old
and they called the experts in."
AS she walked Mutsumi explained the process of how the university had
been contacted, the site surveyed and a team was organized. With lively
gestured she pointed out where they thought the chief had probably
lived, the homes set around it and the forge they had unearthed.
"So what kind of town was it?" Eri asked.
"We don't know," Mutsumi admitted, "it doesn't fit the model for
communities of that era. They don't seem to have worked fields or raised
cattle, they acquired their food and supplies by trade.. But trading
what we don't know."
'They traded their demon hunting services,' Kagime thought, but knew
that answer wouldn't help much.
"Even stranger the inhabitants of the town were apparently wiped out
almost all at once," Mutsumi added with some regret, "we discovered a
mass grave just outside the town and there seems to be no evidence of
inhabitants after that." Smiling slightly she added, "Local legends say
the inhabitants were killed by demons."
'It's no legend,' Kagome thought sadly as they continued to walk through
the oddly quiet archeological dig.
"You'll notice not many people are working in the trenches today,"
Mutsumi said a bit apologetically, "that's because many of our staff are
busy with a new discovery. Apparently a warrior's grave has been found
and our tentative dating of the artifacts there shows it was dug some
years after the village was destroyed/"
Kagome fought back a shiver at that, 'Is it Sango, I wonder? Or maybe
poor Kohaku?'
"Do you think we could go see?" their teacher asked excitedly. Or maybe
she was excited by Mutsumi's not so subtle hand on her ass.
'A perverted woman?' Kagome thought, frowning a little as she tried to
figure out who Mutsumi reminded her of.
Mutsumi thought about it then offered, "As long as you stay well back,
please. We don't want to interfere with the work."
With that they left the main set of digs in and around the village and
proceeded towards a roped off area a short ways away. Surrounded by
archeologists the pit was being photographed, measured, items carefully
unearthed and generally a hotbed of activity.
"This was a burial mound," Mutsumi revealed softly, "the figure withing
was first buried, then earth was heaped up over top as a sign of
respect. Inside we've begun to uncover various artifacts, including
ceremonial armor and weapons."
A tough looking older woman separated herself from the other researchers
and strode over, clearly looking annoyed. "Mutsumi, what did I tell you
about keeping the visitors away?" she asked fiercely, her long hair tied
up in a ponytail and her bangs cut straight across her forehead.
"Setsuna," Mutsumi smiled charmingly, "their teacher insisted."
"What?!" their teacher frowned at the exaggeration and blushed faintly.
Upon seeing that blush Setsuna fixed Mutsumi with a eerily familiar
look, "Were you being a pervert again?"
"Would I do that?" Mutsumi said sweetly.
"Hmph." Setsuna rolled her eyes in exasperation then smiled slightly. "I
suppose I should be glad you just flirt," she conceded.
Kagome looked at the two familiar figures arguing and was struck by a
stunning realization. Take away the modern clothing and surroundings,
sub in the garb of InuYasha's era and the two women would be perfect
copies of Sango and Miroku! 'Kikyo got reincarnated in me,' she thought
as she saw them talking fondly now, 'could it be they were too...?'
"Kagome, you're white as a sheet," she teacher noted worriedly.
Kagome started to tell her she was fine when things got dark... and she
collapsed bonelessly to the ground.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Kagome..." a gentle voice called, "Kagome, wake up."
Weakly Kagome stirred, blinking her eyes as she looked up at a someone
who was like a sister to her, "Sango?"
"No," Setsuna smiled gently, "sorry. Are you all right?"
Kagome sat up, feeling deeply embarrassed over fainting like that. "No,
I'm sorry," she said, looking around what was probably a first aid tent.
"It's all right," Setsuna gave her a faintly amused look, "your friends
mentioned your frail health."
"Oh," Kagome blushed, thinking of some of the ridiculous excuses her
family had used to cover for her time trips, 'it's a bit of a long
story."
"So, is our sleeping beauty awake?" Mutsumi asked as she stuck her head
in the tent flap.
"I'm all right now," Kagome said firmly.
"I offered to give you a medicinal sponge bath," Mutsumi winked, "but
Setsuna put her foot down."
Kagome couldn't help but chuckle at that as Setsuna rolled her eyes and
reached out to firmly punch Mutsumi in the shoulder.
"Ow!" Mutsumi yelped then gave Setsuna puppy dog eyes as Kagome giggled.
"Just ignore this rogue," a smiling Setsuna said as she helped Kagome
up.
"Dr. Coral here," Mutsumi gestured to Setsuna, "has kindly agreed to
stop work for a short while so that your class can look at the site.
Would you care to join us?"
Reluctant to look but unable to come up with a reasonable excuse not to
Kagome nodded, "Okay."
Sensing her discomfort Setsuna tagged along as they walked back to the
burial mound, a light breeze gently blowing their hair. The pit wasn't
deep and still partially filled with dirt, the scientists only partially
done their work. The flesh had rotted away from the figure laying there
leaving only bone in very familiar looking armor, and the massive
boomerang laying beside her confirmed her identity... it was Sango.
"The armor is in remarkably good shape," Mutsumi noted, "and we think
that boomerang was some kind of ceremonial weapon..."
"No," Kagome found herself saying quietly, "it was thrown."
"Wha..." Mutsumi started.
Setsuna reached out to put a quieting hand on Mutsumi's arm. "What makes
you say that?" she asked Kagome thoughtfully.
Kagome debated making something up, then decided to try to explain in a
way that they'd understand. Kneeling down but being careful not to touch
anything she pointed to one end of the boomerang, "You see here, these
grooves in the bone? It's rotted away now but there was probably leather
or cloth wrapped around there to provide a grip to carry and throw it."
"That could be true," Setsuna conceded after a moment, "but you'd need
massive upper body strength to do that."
"I bet you could do it," Mutsumi winked, "you certainly hit me often
enough." With a grin she ducked under a casual swing from Setsuna. "My
point is made."
Setsuna studied the bone boomerang a few moments then smiled slightly,
"I don't know if I buy your theory, Kagome, but I do like it." And with
that she gave Kagome a very familiar grin.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
In the end, Kagome decided not to say anything to Setsuna and Mutsumi
about her theory that they possibly were reincarnations of her friends
Sango and Miroku. Not only was there no way she could prove to them that
they were reincarnated, but Kagome failed to see what good it would do
them. They both seemed quite happy in the here and now, and revealing
the past life might spoil things for them.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Setsuna smiled slightly as she curled up in the bed beside her lover.
"I'm still annoyed that you brought those students over to the burial
mound," she informed her.
"Even Kagome?" Mutsumi wondered.
"No," Setsuna admitted, "not her." She paused, "Did she seem... familiar
to you? Almost like a old friend you hadn't seen in years?"
"Kind of," Mutsumi admitted.
"That girl is interesting," Setsuna mused after a moment, "maybe we
should try to see her again."
"Sounds like a plan," Mutsumi agreed.
The End...?
Notes: This was originally going to be a InuYasha centric story
involving the soul of Midoriko escaping the Shikon crystal, possessing
InuYasha and taking off to try to carry out her last wish. And did I
mention she changes InuYasha into a girl? lol Wisely I dropped the idea.
Reincarnation in the InuYasha-verse is never entirely explained, so I
felt it was all right to use it in this way. Naming the reincarnated
characters was a bitch, but I decided to settle on using the same first
letters of their names.
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