Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

If the sun and the moon were like two sides of the same coin, so too was it for Rinna and Kagome. One soul in two bodies, she found herself thinking one day, not without fondness as she spotted her older sister through the window to class 3-A. As if feeling her eyes, her twin turned to meet them, grinning and giving her a jaunty wave where she sat eating lunch with her friends.

From the start of their scholastic education, their instructors knew they would need to separate the two. Rinna, shy and withdrawn by nature, used to rely on Kagome much too heavily when involved in any social situation. She knew that now, and had eventually come to understand their teachers’ decision, even if it still left her feeling adrift and lonely at times. Rinna was not like Kagome, who could probably even befriend an angry wolverine if she tried hard enough. Over the years, she had come to realize that perhaps the friendships Kagome made were just not possible for her, though she often wished otherwise. Lately, she was trying harder, reaching out to others, even finding success in joining a high school club that promised to sponsor her for early graduation to their prestigious Sakura Gakuen. Although, for all her efforts she’d been met with...mixed results in the social sphere.

She was glad she had someone like Kagome and her tenacious, upbeat attitude to keep her mind off it. Feeling a wave of affection welling in her chest, Rinna gave her a faint smile and a tentative wave back.

“Is there something out that window more important than Nobunaga and the Tokugawa Shogunate, Miss Higurashi?” her instructor intoned with heavy disapproval written on his face.

Though she wanted to say yes, just about everything else, Rinna blushed and shook her head, hiding behind a dark curtain of hair to avoid the stares of her classmates, some of whom regarded her with scorn and catty giggles and some others—all boys, she noted—who did so with the sort of interest she had no desire to interpret too deeply. One stare in particular, she went to great lengths to ignore...

Once again, she was glad for the distraction of her sister, who was amusing herself by making silly faces at Rinna in the window across the courtyard, to which she had to hide a smile in her sleeve lest she anger Tokuma-sensei yet again with her inattention. She was pleased to receive even an ounce of Kagome’s attention during school hours, which she usually reserved for just her friends. And Rinna...respected that.

Though far from antagonistic, their relationship was not perfect. She knew sometimes it was hard for Kagome to understand her. It was enough that they shared a tiny room at home, so elsewhere, she tried to give Kagome her space. It worked better when she did not impose herself in Kagome’s social life. Though Kagome had never deliberately excluded her, and perhaps it was not even a direct correlation, but Kagome’s friends—along with most other people not related to them—tended to find Rinna strange and awkward, and she noticed the two of them seemed to have less arguments and tension when she kept to her own interests and left Kagome to hers.

It was a bit lonely sometimes—she often longed for someone to spend time and share things with—but after a lot of soul searching and growing up, Rinna concluded it was not fair to put something like that on Kagome.

Her loneliness and lack of social aptitude were her own crosses to bear—and, she thought with resolve, my own challenges to overcome.

Several months ago, on Tanabata, she’d tied her wish to the Goshinboku. But more than just a simple wish, it was a personal ambition to become a stronger person. And by some miracle of the divines, her quiet determination to do so had not wavered since. Rinna knew nothing in this world came for free—not even wishes on Tanabata—so she fully intended to work for it until she could grant it herself. She could not let anything stand in the way of her ambition.

When class was finally over, Rinna tried to pack her things as quickly as possible without looking frantic. Unfortunately, Aoyama Michiko ‘accidentally’ bumped into her desk with a giggle, sending her entire pencil case spilling onto the floor. Her busybody and intrigue obsessed classmate probably thought she was doing her a favor, when, much to her despair, Akaito Souma immediately moved to help her.

Of course, she couldn’t bring herself to feel irritated at him—that would be cruel. Akaito—fondly nicknamed ‘Sou-kun’ by many of the girls in their class—was more mature and good-natured than most, always polite, never crass, nor did he (as far as she knew) like to play pranks on the girls, like some of the other boys did. After a good bit of harassment over her early middle school career, Rinna had become wary of male attention, as it rarely turned out to be a good thing for her. Her one farce of a relationship had turned out to be some kind of cruel joke concocted by the girls in her former homeroom class to humiliate her. She had spent the entirety of that summer break crying alone behind the enshrined well house on their property wishing to never be so toyed with by others again. As a result, she found herself deeply cautious of Akaito’s interest in her, but could not, as well as she had learned to judge another’s character over the years, detect any red flags in his behavior. It was perplexing, and left her so very unsettled in her heart.

Smiling politely when he handed back her pencil case, she thanked him and tried to excuse herself as gracefully as she could but was dismayed when they found themselves among the last to leave the classroom.

And so it was no surprise when Akaito called out after her, “Higurashi-san...have you given anymore thought to what I said the other day?” She slowly turned to face him, and he gave her a hopeful smile. “I truly mean it, you know. I’ve admired you for a good while now... Won’t you please consider giving me a chance?”

Rinna, clenching her hands around the straps of her school bag, felt her heart give a guilty lurch. With dark hair that fell past his ears in neat, inky lengths, and intense, slanting eyes, Akaito was not bad looking at all, and what’s more, he had a kind, gentle smile that reached those eyes too. She had no reason not to be attracted to him. But ever since her bad experience with Natsuhara Ichiro in first year, she’d had trouble feeling attraction towards...well, anyone. The idea of being with anyone like...that left her with a persistent bad taste in her mouth. Perhaps things might be different in high school, where she didn’t know anyone, where nobody knew her either, where she had a fresh start. But as things were...

“I...have considered it,” she said, her voice faint, her eyes falling downwards. “Thank you...I’m very flattered that you told me your feelings. I don’t think I’d be brave enough to do something like that on my own.”

“I think you’re very brave, actually,” Akaito was swift to interject, pointing out, “You approached those Sakura Gakuen sempai all on your own and auditioned into the Traditional Music club, right? My older brother talked about how skilled you are with the fue. He said you played beautifully, and it must be true because Onii-san doesn’t talk like that about just anyone. He said the president offered you a seat right on the spot? How exciting.”

“Akaito-san’s...” older brother? “Oh. I didn’t realize that’s who that was...” she said, remembering an older boy with longer dark hair but eyes like the boy in front of her. “But yes, that’s right... It’s still very new. I haven’t been introduced to everyone yet... What a coincidence.”

“Fate, maybe?” Akaito said with a chuckle that tapered off at Rinna’s dejected silence. “Well...maybe not.”

Wincing with remorse, Rinna blustered out, “I’m so sorry, Akaito-san—”

“Call me Sou-kun,” he told her, though his eyes looked resigned.

“S-Souma-kun...” She looked him in the eye. It was all she could muster, and the least she could do. “Maybe if...if we had this conversation a few years from now, my answer would be different, but for now, the timing is...”

A cold sort of disappointment crept its way into Souma’s eyes when he supplied the word her silence would not.

“...Inconvenient.”

She hid her face in one hand as a mortifying sort of despair washed over her.

“That sounds so...horrible when you say it out loud.” Looking up suddenly with earnest eyes, she confessed, “The truth is, I think Souma-kun would be a wonderful boyfriend—” to someone, somewhere out there in the world “—but me...being so focused on school and myself right now...” She trailed off with a sigh, shaking her head. “It doesn’t seem fair to subject you to that...”

Souma’s lips twisted in a subtle pout as he thought over her words—a quirk which was, admittedly, a little alluring if she dared to focus on it for too long—but much to her dismay, when he met her eyes again, they were relit with the spark of determination.

“What is and isn’t fair to me...shouldn’t that be my decision?” He asked her, his bangs brushing over his dark eyes as he tilted his head at her in question. “If that’s your only objection...”

“I...I don’t...” She stammered, easing back a step unconsciously at the intensity she saw there.

She inhaled sharply when his hand shot out to encircle her wrist—not at all harsh or grabby, an apologetic look crossing his face. “Please, Higurashi-san...all I want is a chance to see a smile on your face.” With a deprecating quirk of his lips, he added, “And maybe be the one to put it there.”

With that, Rinna felt the moment her resolve capitulated and collapsed like pillars of sand, and it was a punch to the gut.

Who in the world could withstand that kind of talk? Clearly not her. She never thought she’d be the sort to be moved by sweet words, but when spoken with such warm, genuine eyes, and gentle fingers caressing at her racing pulse point...?

“T-tomorrow,” she heard herself telling him in a halting, unsure voice, “Tomorrow is...my birthday.”

His face lit up with genuine joy. It sent an unpleasant pang of uncertainty through her chest that she did not know what to make of.

“Tomorrow then,” he said, beaming at her. “Shall I take you someplace nice after class? I’ll bring a surprise for you.”

“Please, Souma-kun...don’t go to any sort of trouble for me,” she protested, looking away and gently extracting her wrist from his warm grasp, holding it to her chest as if she’d wounded it somehow. What was wrong with her? Was she really agreeing to this? Why?

“It’s no trouble at all!” he said, and with the elated gleam to his eyes, she could believe he meant it. How someone could be so enthusiastic about doing something nice for her, she had no idea.

“T-tomorrow, then...” she murmured, taking another step back and making to turn away, yearning to flee from the situation. “I should go. Onee-san will be wondering where—”

“Higurashi-san, please wait,” Souma took her wrist one more time, sending a jolt up her arm when his fingers slipped down to her hand. “One last thing before you go...” He waited until she took her eyes off where his long, slender fingers held hers and slowly met his eyes. “From now on, may I please just call you Rinna?”

“...Y-yes?” she said, face burning red, agreeing on autopilot because she did not know how to refuse. She murmured as a nervous aside, “B-but only because people have enough trouble telling me apart from my sister as is, even without calling us by the same name.”

“I don’t know why that could be...” Souma said, his eyes creasing in a cheeky smile. “Obviously, Rinna is the most beautiful.”

For a moment, Rinna thought she might faint from how much blood was flooding to her cheeks. She wasn’t quite sure how she made it to Kagome’s side, floating along in a numb sort of ‘oh-god-what-the-hell-have-I-just-done’ fugue state.

“Are you okay?” her sister finally asked, eyeing her perpetually rosy cheeks with concern. “You look like you just stepped out of an onsen.”

Slowly, she looked over at her sister, and said, “...I need to learn how to say ‘no’ to boys with pretty faces.”

“Eh? Rinna-chan, did you get asked on a date?” Kagome asked her in astonishment.

“A date?” Eri and Ayumi echoed on the other side of her, exchanging bewildered looks.

She let out a soft moan of despair through the hand that covered her face.

“Why does it sound like you’re in pain?” Yuka asked, blunt as ever, but with an uncharacteristic amount of intrigue in her eyes as she looked over at Rinna. Kagome’s friends were usually never this interested in her.

“Who is it?” Eri asked, a vivacious curiosity alight in her eyes.

“Do we know him?” Ayumi added with interest.

“Hey...” Kagome gave them a weak smile as Rinna floundered for some kind of response, “c’mon guys, leave her alone. I’m sure it’s nothing.” When she met Rinna’s eyes, she conveyed the clear message, ‘we are SO talking about this later.’

Fortunately, Rinna was all too skilled at avoiding members of her family when the need arose.

All except for Souta, for some odd reason.

“Why are we hiding?” he asked, curled up beside her in the space between the dryer and the wall. Buyo had somehow squeezed herself between the two of them, and altogether, with the appliance on the tumble-dry setting, it was almost a little too cozy.

“Onee-san’s trying to interrogate me,” she confessed in a whisper under the sound of the rattling machine.

“‘Bout what?” Souta whispered back, pulling out a particularly violent manga he knew damn well Mama didn’t like him reading.

“Girly things and boys,” she answered with a grimace.

Souta made a similar distorted face. “Yuck.”

“Right...?” She chuckled and gave him a tired grin, nudging him with her shoulder. “This is why you’re my favorite.” Buyo meowled at her, pawing at her skirt in complaint until she heaved her up and plopped her down in her lap to scritch behind the ears. “Yes. You too, you ridiculous, fat, silly thing...”

Buyo just purred.

She turned a wistful look on Souta, and murmured, “You’re lucky you’re still little. Things are simple when you’re little. Grownups are too complicated.”

“Hey,” he pouted at her. “I’m not that little.”

“Savor it while you can,” she forewarned him, letting out a bitter sigh. “Won’t be long now ‘til suddenly all your free time goes up in smoke, and everyone wants something from you, and nobody gives a crap about anyone else.” She let her head fall back against the thumping dryer and her voice turned a little more melancholy. “Sometimes, I wish I was born a few centuries earlier where all I’d need to worry about was a little hard labor and marrying into a good family...”

“Yeah, but then you’d also have to worry about famine, war, disease, oh, and don’t forget about getting eaten by hungry, perverted youkai if you believe anything that comes out of Ojii-chan’s mouth...” Souta pointed out astutely.

They met each other’s eyes blankly before they both burst into hysterical giggles.

“What are we laughing about?” Kagome whispered, squeezed in on the other side of them.

“Ojii-chan’s hungry, perverted youkai,” she and Souta said at the same time.

And perhaps it was loud enough to carry over the sound of the dryer, because the next thing they knew, Ojii-chan was hollering, “Youkai? Youkai? Did somebody say youkai? NOT IN MY HOUSE, YOU DON’T! I won’t have any tanuki with their unnaturally shaped private parts after my girls!! OUT! OUT, I SAY!”

“Father! Did you take your blood pressure medicine today? You’re awfully pink in the cheeks...”

Kagome snickered, “Sound’s like Ojii-chan’s been partaking a little too much in his special medicine...”

She met Rinna’s eyes and they both let out snorts of laughter.

“What special medicine?” Souta asked, his eyes round and innocent.

The two of them laughed harder.

Rinna managed to choke out, “You’ll find out when you’re a little bit more grown up...”

“I AM grown up!” he protested.

“Ooh, watch out,” Kagome taunted with a big grin. “There’s a big, strong man in the house! I guess this means no more wetting the bed, eh, Souta?”

“You’re the worst!” Souta flailed his tiny fists at her which she easily avoided by holding him away by his forehead.

“Oh, don’t tease him, Onee-san,” Rinna admonished her, tugging her affronted little brother under one arm and patting his head gently. “I vividly remember it wasn’t too long ago you still wet the bed—and that was when we still shared the same bed.” She crinkled her nose at her in distaste.

“That’s a lie, you lying liar!” Kagome lunged herself over poor Souta to launch a vicious attack against Rinna’s (formerly) straight, neat hair, sending Buyo screeching from her lap, all claws and panic.

Over the din of the sibling’s commotion and Ojii-chan’s paranoid hysteria about youkai came Mama’s cheerful voice.

“Dinner’s ready!”

Just another day in the house of the Higurashi family.

The sun raised, and the sun set.

And as for tomorrow—just like a dozen other tomorrows—none of them would’ve expected anything different from the day before it.

But the next day, exactly fifteen years from the day of their birth, would be the day that changed...everything.

Chapter Text

Rinna already knew the day was off to a downhill spiral when Souta came to her with Buyo’s food dish, shuffling his feet. It was his chore to take care of the beloved family feline and he knew it.

“Ninna-nee-chan,” he murmured, “Buyo won’t come out of the well house...”

She let out a put-upon sigh, shaking her head. “Really, Souta...?”

But while she was more resigned to Souta’s timid attitude about the bone eater’s well—Jii-chan had told them enough creepy stories about it after all—Kagome was much more irritated. Jii-chan’s attempt at giving her a mummified kappa hand for their birthday had her in a much less charitable mood than usual. That was really just adding insult to injury though. Rinna knew the larger part of her irritation was aimed at her, since the birthday expenses this year had gone mostly to the new flute Mama had surprised her with. Both she and Jii-chan were very proud she’d made it into the Traditional Music club, and Rinna’s quiet efforts at self-improvement and academic ambition had not gone unnoticed.

She couldn’t really blame her for the resentment. It was hardly that at all, even. Kagome wasn’t built for bitter feelings. She tried her best to always be supportive and unselfish. But there was a line in the sand, and Rinna thought she was perfectly justified in feeling hurt and angry this time. It was their birthday, a special day that they always shared between the two of them. This wasn’t fair. But Rinna didn’t know how to open her mouth and say all these things without making Kagome even more aggravated. And now, with Souta acting like a helpless damsel in distress, it appeared to be the last straw for her.

“Oh. Come. ON!” She threw her hands up and proceeded to seize the distraught boy by the collar, marching across the courtyard past the god tree, and straight for the dry well. “Are you a man, or aren’t you?! Do you have to rely on your big sister for everything? Huh?”

“Onee-chan,” Rinna admonished her, rushing over and tugging Souta away where he clung to her side, stiff with apprehension as they stood before the well house. “Calm down. Don’t be so mean... Can you really blame him? This place is creepy.”

“Yeah? That’s funny. I seem to remember you spending a lot of time out here not too long ago,” she retaliated, unmindful of her words. “It’s like your second home!”

Rinna just gave her a baleful stare, not wanting to acknowledge the miserable summer she’d spent crying behind that shed, or much less let Kagome know about it. It was humiliating enough as it was... Eventually, she closed her eyes with a sigh and turned her head away.

“Let’s just get Buyo... We don’t want to be late.” She patted her little brother’s head. “Souta, we still need to walk you to school after this...”

“I know the way...” he mumbled, cheeks pink with embarrassment and eyes trained on the pavement. “You don’t have to...”

Carding her fingers through his hair she gave him a soft smile and said, “I want to.”

When he gave her a subdued smile in return, she walked over to where Kagome stood in the dark doorway, impatiently tapping her foot.

“Buyo-kitty~” She stuck her head through the door, trying not to breathe in the drifting dust moats as she called for the cat. “Nya-nya-nyan, ki-kitty! Mew-mew-mew-nya-mew nya-nya-mew!”

As she imitated a couple more feline trills, Kagome gave her a flat stare, utterly exasperated.

“...Really?”

Frowning at her with tinted cheeks, Rinna insisted, “She likes it when I talk to her...”

“You sound like a lunatic,” she insisted back.

“You try it, then.”

With an imperious sniff, she trotted down the steps, calling, “Buyo! Come out, you stupid cat...”

She paused halfway down with a visible shiver when a scratching sound emerged from the well.

“See?” Rinna said, following her with a frown and laying a steadying hand on her shoulder. “Creepy. Do you think a squirrel got stuck in there or something...?”

“Or something...” Kagome muttered, brow furrowed and eyes fixed on the well with uncharacteristic focus...until she let out an unholy shriek, enough to startle a yelp out Souta and making Rinna stumble back against the well when she jumped.

She gave Kagome an affronted look when she let out a sheepish chuckle and picked up Buyo from where the cat brushed against her leg. “Whoops...just the cat.”

“Now who sounds like a lunatic?” she muttered as Souta whined at her in protest.

“Onee-chan don’t do that! I think my soul almost left my body—”

“Hey! I’m down here ‘cause you’re the one who’s scared!” she turned to shoot back at him then gave Rinna the stink eye. “Don’t even get me started on you.”

Frowning, she said, “That’s not fair. I didn’t even do anything.”

“Exactly!”

Their bickering came to an abrupt halt when—and she could see from the startled look in Kagome’s eyes that she felt it too—an oppressive aura of dread flooded over them alongside the scratching in the well. It was like the primal awareness of eyes on the back of one’s neck only magnified tenfold with ancient malice and hunger. It was enough to stiffen every one of Rinna’s joints into a frozen shock so she could not even move an inch when the sealed cover on the well splintered apart and ghostly hands latched onto her and Kagome, tugging them back in what almost seemed like slow motion. It was that awful, helpless feeling right before a fall, knowing you can do absolutely nothing but wait for the impact to hit.

And then they were floating through a nebulous sea of stars. It would’ve been beautiful if it wasn’t for the grotesque figure of a woman with black teeth and an unemotive face stretched like a noh mask over her skull holding onto them in a parody of a gentle embrace. As they beheld her with shock and alarm, they saw the horrific bones of a centipede’s tail with a hundred clicking, jointed legs manifesting an exoskeleton and an insectile carapace from the nude form of her six-armed torso.

And though Rinna rarely engaged in profanity aside from muttering curses under her breath now and again, all she could muster to verbalize her hysteria was a faint, “What the fuck?” over and over.

“The power!” the woman—if it could even be called that—hissed out, oblivious to their shock. “After so long, I feel it returning! You have it, don’t you!?” And to their collective horror, a much-too-long tongue emerged like a snake from the monster-woman’s lips, moving to run itself along Kagome’s neck and cheek, much to the girl’s audible revulsion. “The sacred jewel! Shikon no tama! Give it to me!”

“No!” Kagome jerked in the creature’s grasp, finally surrendering to animal panic, flailing her fists. “Get away! Let go! Let go!”

And somehow, with that last word, a blinding pink light flashed from Kagome’s hand, evoking a shriek from the beastly woman, who released them, sending them all adrift in different directions within the anti-gravity dimension all around them, shouting, “Shikon no Tama! Shikon no Tama!” over and over like some obsessive mantra.

“Onee-chan!” She stretched her hand for Kagome’s, desperate not to spiral away and lose her in this place.

“Rinna-chan!” She did the same, twisting around to stretch for Rinna’s fingers. “Just a little more...little more...reach!”

Rinna did until it felt like her joints were going to pop out of their sockets. And just when it looked like their fingers were about to touch, it was as if someone turned off the anti-gravity. She caught Kagome’s look of panic for about a millisecond before they both ended up in a heap on the ground and all the air whooshed out of Rinna’s lungs with a painful ‘oof.’

Luckily, it was not too far of a drop—maybe just a few feet—but she still let out a groan, “Onee-chan, you’re crushing me...”

Kagome pushed herself up, panting with the residual adrenaline and glaring down at her. “Are you...ha-ha...calling your big sister fat?”

Glaring back, Rinna gritted her teeth and shoved her off, sitting up and swatting at Kagome when she shoved her in retaliation. It degenerated into a catty slap fight that only ceased when the two saw something twitching out of the corner of their eye that turned out to be the centipede woman’s severed arm, and both girls flinched away with sounds of disgust.

“Are we...inside the well?” Kagome asked, skeptical as they both looked up at the square of light above them.

Scowling and giving the still twitching arm a wide berth, Rinna got to her feet and approached the vine and root studded wall. “Only one way to find out...”

It only occurred peripherally to her as they struggled their way to the surface that there shouldn’t have been any light, seeing as the shed built around the well had a roof, and that any roots or vines sprouting from the walls should have withered away to nothing years and years ago...

“What the fuck,” was starting to sound repetitive coming from her lips when they emerged in a clearing in the middle of nowhere.

“Watch your mouth,” Kagome admonished her as she popped her head up out of the well after her.

Giving her sister a hard look over her shoulder, she asked, “Is that really what we ought to be worrying about right now?”

Looking around and seeming truly daunted for the first time, Kagome murmured, “You might have a point...”

Rinna watched her, agitated, and even starting to get a little angry, as was her unfortunate tendency whenever faced with situations of emotional distress, as Kagome called out first for Souta, then Jii-chan, then Mama, even Buyo, when it was quite clear that, “They’re not here, Onee-chan.”

Wherever here was.

Kagome sent her a hurt look and asked, “Why aren’t you freaking out right now?”

She was freaking out. Only Rinna’s distress tended to manifest in cold anger, profanity, and passive aggressive remarks.

“Come on,” was all she said in response. “Let’s just get the hell out of here before that thing decides to come back...”

With an uneasy noise of intense agreement, Kagome gave her a nod and made a move to follow her out of the clearing towards where Rinna caught the scent of smoke and food before pausing when something caught her eye. “Wait...is that the god tree!? It is! Let’s go!”

And then she took off into the woods.

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Rinna sprinted after her with a scowl. “Onee-chan! Don’t just take off without thinking!”

But of course, that was like asking rain not to fall.

“Onee-chan! Onee-ch—” She nearly ran smack into Kagome who was standing stalk still when she caught up with her at the god tree. And when she looked beyond her at where she was staring, she couldn’t help but repeat the words once again. “What the fuck.”

Because there in the clearing, motionless aside from the breeze that tugged at his silver hair, pinned to the god tree with a raggedly fletched arrow and thick, stalk-like vines, was a boy. And one of the most peculiar looking ones she’d ever seen in her life.

Exchanging an unnerved look with Kagome, she mouthed, “...Do you think he’s alive?”

She raised her brows and repeated her words from earlier. “Only one way to find out.”

Rinna was quick to follow her over, a tug of what might be concern in her chest as they approached the boy. If she wasn’t so worried about figuring out whether he was deceased or not, she might’ve taken more notice of his outlandish appearance, like the wickedly sharp claws on his fingers, instead of reaching out to check for a pulse... Kagome was not so hyper focused—well, she was, but not on things like claws or a pulse. No, and perhaps it was to be expected, but Kagome went straight for the ears...

“Are these real?”

Rinna, ignoring her sister’s antics, shook her head, still prodding around for a pulse. Not finding one in the neck, she reached down past the trailing crimson sleeve to check at his wrist...and that was when she finally noticed the claws.

Once again, she muttered out, “What the fuck.”

Much more cautious, she eyed the boy’s reposed features with curiosity as she gently pressed at the wiry veins of his wrist. And as her eyes roved over the boyish features, made somehow even more exotic by the stark, sliver starlight color of his hair juxtaposed with dark, heavy brows, she couldn’t help but feel captivated. With a straight, delicate nose, and a shapely mouth accompanied by a strong jaw, she had the thought that his was a face full of contradictions, and reluctantly found herself fascinated.

Alas, the bult up anticipation in her chest came crashing down when she discovered, “...There’s no pulse, Onee-chan.”

“W-what?” Kagome flinched back from fondling the boy’s ears, stuttering out, “He’s...he’s d-dead?”

Rinna was about to give her a severe nod when she felt his long fingers twitch against her hand, and she dropped it with a startled gasp. It fell back to his side—limp.

Wide-eyed she looked at Kagome and muttered out in a faint, thin voice that seemed just about to break with bottled hysteria, “This has been...the most bizarre day.”

Kagome’s eyes softened as she took her hand and said with a quirky smile. “Well, at least it can’t get any worse.”

Rinna could’ve slapped her for saying that, because not a moment later, there was shouting, a whistling sound, and all at once, a dozen arrows were hurtling at them and embedding themselves into the tree around them.

They must’ve been warning shots, was all Rinna could conclude by it as they were trussed up and dragged to the village nearby, because unless all the men had particularly bad aim, she could think of no other reason why they were still alive and not pinned like bugs to the god tree alongside the dead boy. It was enough to send her stomach roiling into knots with anxiety, and it was taking all her concentrated efforts to keep her eyes free of tears. The anger she’d been feeling earlier seemed to have all been transferred over to Kagome as she yelled righteously at the men and chastised them for treating the two of them so roughly. Some of them looked reluctant, and one of the younger ones even apologized, but for the most part, they all just looked hard-faced and unsympathetic. And did she mention they all looked to have stepped out of some sort of period drama?

She might have picked up on the theme from the state of the boy’s red clothes, but she’d been more preoccupied with the rest of him at that time. When they were brought into the village, her suspicions sunk even lower as she took in the rough, archaic architecture and the sight of more men with topknots. They started to see women too, all dressed in plain, modest yukatas, some with their babies strapped to their backs as they worked, pausing only to eye the two of them with alarm as the armed men dragged them towards the center of the village.

“Onee-chan...” she said from beside her on the straw mat they’d been forced down on, voice subdued and grave enough to make her pause in her furious tirade. “I think we’re in really big trouble...”

As if that wasn’t obvious from the start.

Monsters, and dead boys with claws were troubling enough things in their own right. But the mob of village people crowding around them, whispering things about wars and kitsune and eyeing them with fear and suspicion... Rinna had experienced bullying in the past. She had seen some of the worst sides of people. She knew how people could act towards those they saw as ‘other’ and what she was seeing now? These were not good signs. The fact that she could see no modern equipment around anywhere, no familiar hum of generators or electricity, were not good signs. The fact that for all accounts they seemed to have fallen into another era where common law was a joke and that these people could do whatever the hell they wanted with them...

The alarm bells going off in Rinna’s head were as loud as those at a temple at the turn of the hour.

And then the priestess came.

If she thought the situation was complicated before, after the priestess Kaede tilted Kagome’s chin this way and that and lifted Rinna’s much-too-long bangs out of her eyes, airing her suspicions at their mystical origins, it became a hundred times worse.

The sun set quickly as they set off for Kaede’s house on the edge of the village, which Rinna thought was strange, since the whole incident with the bone-eater’s well, and what they could now firmly conclude was a centipede youkai, had happened in the early morning by her reckoning. Perhaps, she conjectured, time moved faster when one was in mortal peril. She did not think to bring up the time discrepancy issue to either Kagome or the priestess, as it was literally the last thing they needed to be worrying about.

Rinna frowned, staring warily out the barred window by the bamboo-mat door as the sound of some unidentifiable creature howling in the woods could be heard over the gentle simmering of the old woman’s vegetable stew. But more than that, the sounds of the village unnerved her, still shaken by the incident earlier. Had Priestess Kaede not come up with the ridiculous claim that they were the reincarnations of the previous priestess, Kikyo—which Rinna did not believe for an instant, even if the existence of youkai could no longer be disputed, but she was in no place to argue the point—she still had no idea what the villagers might have done to them otherwise. She paid enough attention in class to know that terrible things happened to young girls who lived in the past. The standards of human dignity and what constituted as strange and unusual punishment were far different here than in the modern age.

Humans were vicious creatures.

That’s what it all boiled down to in the end, wasn’t it?

It was a truth that could not be denied...not now, and not in the future.

“Please forgive them,” Kaede said as if reading her mind, pulling Rinna’s attention from the sound of the warning bells in her head and back to the issues at hand. As she ladled out some stew for them, Kaede explained, “With so many wars upon us, the youths have become wary of outsiders... Though I tell them we have nothing to do with those wars, they refuse to listen, and it only gives me more to worry about.”

To that, Rinna could say nothing, but accepted a bowl of soup with a thankful bow of her head, suddenly ravenous. She tried not to be too conscious of the feeling of Kaede’s piercing, one-eyed stare which drifted between her and Kagome as the latter chattered on about inconsequential things, asking about Tokyo (which Kaede had never heard of) and generally acting like she was in denial. Rinna couldn’t blame her, after all they’d just been through, (and were still going through), using denial as a coping method seemed to be working for Kagome. Rinna almost wished she could do the same, but she was always too levelheaded, too grounded in reality for that. And now that they seemed to be (relatively) safe, she saw no point in popping her sister’s fragile bubble.

That didn’t last for long.

All too soon, the alarm bells in Rinna’s head became alarm bells in real life. Over that was the sound of people screaming in panic and earth shuddering crashes of buildings collapsing. When the three of them bolted out of the priestess’s cabin to see what was happening, Rinna could not help but verbalize what was soon becoming her favorite word.

“Oh, fuck.”

For whatever reason, Kaede seemed more scandalized by her foul language—staring at her like she’d just grown another head—than she did by the giant centipede youkai brutalizing the village below. But that was only for a split second before whatever longstanding instinct the spry old woman possessed took over, dodging when the beastly creature flung the carcass of a horse at them from its pincer-like fangs. It seemed no worse for ware, lacking its one arm; it had plenty more. What’s more, it seemed perfectly capable of something almost like flight, swooping down and over several times, making to grab both of them.

“Shikon no Tama! GIVE IT TO ME!!! GIVE IT TO MEEE!!!!”

It didn’t seem like a very articulate or intelligent beast, the thought occurred to Rinna from somewhere deep inside the part of her brain that wasn’t absorbed with dread. For one thing, it had a very limited vocabulary, from what she’d heard so far, and did not seem to have any particular strategy towards accomplishing its goals other than to destroy things and throw a fit—a bit like a toddler having a temper tantrum, really. A really insanely strong toddler, with a bunch of extra arms, and no value for human life. Most toddlers had no value for human life anyway, so Rinna was really glad they lacked the former two. But that didn’t help them with the current situation...

“You possess the Shikon no Tama?!” Kaede gaped between the two of them.

Rinna knew their shrine was famous for a legend about a sacred jewel. Jii-chan had told the story often enough that it had grown repetitive. She typically enjoyed Jii-chan’s stories, but the details of some of them—like the one about the jewel—were vague, and Jii-chan shuffled them around so much that they all turned to mush in her head at some point. Really, the only thing she knew for sure about the jewel was that it was called the Shikon no Tama, that it was either blue, or pink, depending on which replica keychain (“Blessed by real monks!”) the shrine was selling that month, and that it was apparently a big deal way back when.

“I don’t know what that is!” Kagome wailed, inadvertently summarizing Rinna’s thoughts as she was often prone to doing. It was a twin thing, apparently.

The centipede youkai continued to holler and flail about, damaging several more buildings and livestock in the process. Several of the men hurried over to Kaede when their weapons proved useless, asking how they should proceed.

“We must return it to the bone-eater’s well in Inuyasha’s forest from whence it came!” Kaede told them.

When Rinna looked over at Kagome, her sister met her eyes with a look she knew all too well. It was the look she got whenever she was about to do something supremely stupid and impulsive, and this time, Rinna knew she was going to have to go along with it.

“If we die,” she said to her through gritted teeth, “you’re never going to hear the end of it from me in the afterlife. Not in the next life either. Or the one after that. I won’t forgive you—not ever.”

With a determined nod, Kagome looked around, asking, “Which way is the forest? Towards that light? Rinna!”

“Yeah. I got the idea,” she muttered without having to be told what Kagome was thinking.

At any given point, Kagome could usually be relied upon to chose whatever recklessly selfless option there was available to solve a problem—often when an Occam’s Razor solution would have sufficed just as well. But this time, Rinna could not fault Kagome because the simplest solution was also the reckless, self-endangering one.

And so, resigned to the immanent clusterfuck to come, she picked up a stone and hurled it at the creature as it made another dive.

“HEY!” she shouted as it let out an infuriated howl. “SHIT FOR BRAINS! COME GET YOUR STUPID ROCK!”

“...You didn’t have to make it angrier,” Kagome hissed at her as the youkai jerked around.

Oops.

She turned to Kagome with a blank face, white with terror.

“Time to run,” was all she said.

And so they made a beeline straight for the forest illuminated with an ominous, otherworldly light that seeped through the trees. It honestly looked like the last place they wanted to be, but somehow, Rinna felt like there was something drawing her there beyond the instinct to survive, like the needle of a compass.

“It always points north...”

She wasn’t sure why the words Papa once said came back to her then. Maybe because they were about to die, and she was going to see him again in whatever came...after. She missed him, increasingly so, it seemed, as the years passed, but she would confess she was not eager to see him again this soon.

“Please...ha-haa...wait just a bit longer, Papa...” she panted, her eyes trained on Kagome’s back. She was doing everything not to look over her shoulder towards the howling and crashing noises coming behind them. Though virtually identical, aside from the lengths and styles of their hair, Kagome was a good few inches taller than Rinna. She was convinced that’s what made her the faster runner.

“You know, Papa told me this story about a bear once!” she called after her sister. “He said, if you ever have to run from one, always bring a partner with you. That way, you don’t have to be faster than the bear, just the other person.”

“Why do you always make jokes at the WORST possible moments!” Kagome cried back at her.

“I wasn’t joking!” she insisted, pushing her legs harder to catch up, and added, “I do know a pretty good joke about a bear and a bunny rabbit, though...”

“Save it for after we survive this!” she retorted as the forest came into sight.

“Have I ever told you how much I admire your optimism, Onee-chan?”

“YOU’RE NOT FUNNY!” she cried in distress. “Somebody—ha-ha-ha—somebody’s going to save us, right? Right?” When Rinna had no witty comment ready for her, and the centipede youkai made another furious dive for them, Kagome’s panic prompted her to cry out, “Somebody, HEL—ahhh!”

The impact the youkai made with the ground ripped it up like an explosion that sent the two of them flying ass over teakettle through the woods. Rinna felt branches splinter beneath her, and the fall to the ground knocked the wind right out of her. She’d be amazed if she hadn’t broken any bones.

“Onee-chan...” she moaned, unwilling—more like unable—to push herself up. But she had to, she had to...

“Oi, Kikyo! What’s with you, playing around with some centipede lady?! Why don’t you take her out in one hit, like you did with me?” a boy’s voice prompted her to slowly lift her head, watching as Kagome stumbled to her feet before the god tree. Perhaps it was the shock of seeing the dead boy perfectly alive and alert, jeering at her sister, that prompted her to get to her knees, staggering up to Kagome’s side to stare in awe. “EH? There’s two of you!? Kikyo, what the hell did you get yourself into this time?”

She and Kagome exchanged a bewildered look. “I thought you said he was dead!”

“He was definitely dead.” Rinna nodded back. “No pulse. No body heat. Then again...”

She looked to the boy, who scrutinized them both with startling, yellow-gold eyes, then averted her own, blushing when she remembered the feeling of his fingers twitching against hers.

“Hey, hey, what do you think you’re going on about, talking like I’m not even here? Eh, Kikyo?” the boy demanded. “I didn’t think things could get any worse, but now that there’s two Kikyos...”

Somehow, his uncouth way of speaking helped her to quickly get over her bout of shyness. Now, she was just bewildered. Kikyo... Wasn’t that the name of the previous priestess Kaede had mentioned? The one she convinced the villagers they were a reincarnation of...? Though that just left her feeling even more puzzled. She and Kagome were close, it was true. Close enough to even pick up on the other’s thoughts sometimes, and sense if they were in some kind of trouble. As an identical twin, Rinna was used to getting mistaken for Kagome all the time, but wasn’t this Kikyo-reincarnation-business taking the ‘one soul in two bodies’ theory a little too far?

Rinna shook her head at the boy, “I really, really wish you wouldn’t say that.”

“Eh?” He furrowed his brow at her.

“Whenever somebody says that things can’t get worse, or even indirectly thinks that—things tend to get worse.” She frowned up at the treetops as an all-encompassing feeling of dread washed over them—the same one she and Kagome first felt in the well house back home, and had followed them on a rampage all the way to this forest. “...Case in point.”

In the next moment, Kagome squealed in alarm as the centipede youkai crashed down through the trees headed straight for them. Rinna hobbled back as fast as she could on her aching legs. There were still plenty of fallen branches from where she had fallen and she was quick to swipe one up, putting herself between the youkai and her sister, leveling the branch at the beastly thing like a sword which she jabbed at it whenever it tried to enter their space.

“Stay back!” she tried to inject as much power and authority into the demand as she could muster, which didn’t turn out to be much, nor did any of it do her much good. It was such a pathetic display that even the boy pinned to the tree was laughing at her struggle, which ended promptly when, with a sound of fury, the centipede woman grabbed the branch as she swung it, and ripped it out of her grasp, leaving plenty of scrapes and splinters behind. Grimacing, Rinna looked up through her bangs, eyes flashing as the youkai lunged for her, feeling a great, welling anger as she faced her end.

Baring her teeth, she bit out her last words, “Go to hell.”

And then it felt like a steel bar—one of the centipede woman’s arms—hit her middle with the force of a car cruising at 45, sending her flying into a tree trunk. She felt her head hit something hard with a sickening crack, but other than the flashes of stars and black dots peppering her vision, the landing was not nearly as rough as she was expecting, (considering she had been expecting it to kill her). In fact, there was a whoosh of air that sounded like an ‘oof!’ and it was actually kind of...soft?

Then she felt a clawed hand wrap around her poor, abused ribcage, keeping her from sliding down to the ground.

“Damn, you’ve got a hard head... That actually hurt. The hell is wrong with you, Kiky—wait a second...” Was he...sniffing her hair? “You’re not Kikyo...”

With labored breath, she retained her consciousness just long enough to see the villagers send a couple arrows into the centipede youkai’s torso, pulling it down away from Kagome and grounding it with attached ropes, and she managed to breathe out, “So glad...you noticed...”

For Rinna, the rest of that night passed like a horrible dream with flashes of wakefulness shifting back into an unconscious malaise and back again. One moment, she surfaced to a horrible squeezing, crushing sensation, and Kagome urging her into consciousness with a hand around hers and the shaft of an arrow. In the next, she was lying on the ground covered in something gross and sticky, watching Kagome sort through the shredded remains of a centipede, only to emerge with some pink shining bauble shaped like a half moon.

The next time she woke, her neck was twisted at an awkward angle, her scalp on fire as she was lifted by her long hair.

“Hand over the jewel, or the mouthy one gets it!” That was the boy in red again. She felt the pricks of claws against her throat and she squinted at him through blurry eyes, his form weaving in and out in her shaky vision. “And where the hell is the rest of it!?”

The next time she woke, she was draped over his shoulder, moving faster than she could track. In his tight fist, she saw a mesmerizing pink light seeping between the cracks.

“Keh,” she heard him mutter. “If this came from inside the other one, I guess I’ll just have to open you up with my claws and see if you’re hiding the other half in that body of yours, huh...?”

“Onee-chan...” Feeling every ounce of her pain and exhaustion, the words came out smaller than she intended them, like the plea of a scared child.

She wasn’t sure how old she was when she last cried for Kagome like that. When had she stopped seeing her as the perfect savior who would always come running to her rescue? Was it when their teachers separated them? When Kagome started spending time with all her other friends instead of her? When Rinna started getting bullied in the first year of middle school and her big sister didn’t even notice? Some part of her must have still associated Kagome with safety, though, for her to still cry for her now, when she needed someone the most...

“H-hey! Cut that out!” The boy jostled her on his shoulder. “I don’t show mercy to crying women, you know!” A beat later, he added, “Just cooperate, and show me where your half of the jewel is. Then, when I become a full demon, maybe I’ll return you to your sister safe and sound, got it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about...” she breathed out, every inch of her body sagging under the weight of how sore she felt. It wasn’t long until it was dragging her back into unconsciousness once again.

“Oi! Stay awake, you idiotic woman—”

“SIT!”

And then she was falling.

When her head hit the wood planks of the bridge, the last thing she heard was a howl of rage and a splash...and then she was out for the night.

Chapter Text

It must have been the earliest hours of the morning when she woke to the sound of birdsong, dearly wishing they would all drop dead. At least in Tokyo one could get used to the noise pollution. The blaring sounds of traffic and horns barely even registered to Rinna. But this unfamiliar, cheerful sound of nature was simply intolerable. With that, combined with the pounding of her headache which pierced at the inside of her skull like a jackhammer, she felt like she’d just had a botched lobotomy. It was worse than the time she and Kagome snuck into Jii-chan’s ‘special’ medicine cabinet. Barring mass, avian slaughter, she wished that someone would at least remove her head and slam dunk it into a volcano, or better yet, punt it into a black hole, banishing the issue from reality at its source.

But then, at the slight scuffling sound in the hut, she wondered if the birds were really what had woken her to begin with...

She felt the familiar pressure of Kagome’s hand wrapped around her fingers, the brush of her breath against her shoulder. There was the breath of another too, slower and heavier than Kagome’s, on the other side of the room—she’d guess that was the old priestess. But then there were a pair of footsteps, stalking so soft across the creaky wood planks she thought she might have imagined it were it not for the feeling of someone’s eyes on her. She and Kagome had always been sensitive to such things, knowing when people were watching them, or standing behind them, or even a door. She thought Kagome might have even been bullied for it in elementary school, as silly as it was... Feeling the presence of others, and especially each other, was just something the two of them had always been able to do.

But something about this presence, though it was neither good nor bad, just felt...more. It was ‘heavier,’ and somehow familiar in the strangest of ways. And as it stilled, she got the sense of a burning curiosity too, insistent, unignorable, marching along her skin like a trail of ants.

She did not move as they drew near, bringing the smell of damp, pine, and river water with them. It spoke volumes about her experience that she did not even need to open her eyes to know who it was knelt by her bedside, reaching toward her. At any other time, she might have been up in an instant, sounding the alarm. But as it was, she was so exhausted and riddled with aches and pains from head to toe that she did not think she could so much as twitch one finger without wanting to black out again. She could only wince as the hand grew closer and...softly raised her bangs away from her face?

Slowly, she opened her eyes to meet vibrant gold, narrowed in fascination.

“...Really do look just like her...” she thought she heard him muttering, agitated, and unsettled beneath his breath.

With a slow blink, she whispered, “...Are you going to rip me open, now?”

For a moment, he looked startled, before scowling and letting out a soft ‘feh!’ turning to sit with his back to her, arms crossed in his voluminous red sleeves.

“Too much trouble. Just hand over the jewel.”

She let out a soft, hoarse sound of amusement, despite herself.

“Sure... Just hang on a sec while I gouge into my own flesh with my bare hands and dig around for it,” she said, voice hoarse and dry as a desert. “Shouldn’t take too long. Then again, maybe the gods weren’t so merciful and decided to put the jewel somewhere even more inconvenient, like right up my—” she broke off with a snort at the scandalized look he sent her over his shoulder, but she was still salty with him, and felt belligerent enough to keep right on talking. “In that case, you’ll just have to wait around long enough for me to eat something, then go digging through my—”

He slapped his hand over her mouth, giving her a look similar to the one Kaede had given her the other night—like she’d sprouted antlers or something. To be fair though, Rinna had lost all desire to conform to anyone’s expectations around the same time a centipede demon got them stranded in this world where nothing made sense. And now feeling thoroughly as if she’d been run over by an 18-wheeler, she felt that her verbal filter could go take a long walk off a short pier for all she cared. Her give-a-shit-o-meter had well and truly reached 0. She thought perhaps she might have hit her head a little harder than she thought last night too, so that might have also contributed to it.

She simply gave him a flat stare, raising a single brow until he removed the clawed appendage. “There’s no way you’re Kikyo. I don’t care how much you look like her—there’s just no way.”

“You won’t hear me arguing with that...” she said through a wide yawn. “But if you’re not going to rip me open and screw around with my insides, will you please go away? I had a very long, horrible night, and I’m tired. Which is good news for you, because if you woke me up this early when I had the energy...you’d be in for a nasty fight.” She turned her eyes to the silvery locks pooled on the floor behind him, fixated. “Hair pulling might be involved. I think you owe me back for the ones you ripped out of my head last night...”

“Ya think so, huh?” he growled at her, wisely moving his shaggy mane safely out of her reach.

“Mm-hm.” Her gaze remained undeterred, trained on the river of silver as it shifted and fell softly on the other side of him. It almost seemed luminous in the dim early morning—still dark enough that it could barely be called morning. In the fog of her head injuries, she was almost glad he’d come, simply so she could stare at it. Clarity fading, she barely had capacity to focus on anything else.

Feeling her eyes drifting shut, she breathed out, “What’s your name?”

He let out a haughty sniff, muttering something like, “Inuyasha.”

“Nu...yasha...” She let out a sigh, completely spent. “G’night, Nyunyasha...”

She thought she might’ve heard him huff, amused, and say, “It’s morning, you idiot,” but she had already drifted off to sleep again so she might’ve dreamed that part. Or perhaps she’d dreamed the whole thing. She was so out of it she would never be able to say for sure when she looked back on it.

~*~

“There, now,” Kaede said, and Rinna let down her hair over the knot the old woman had tied behind her neck for the sling. “How does that feel?”

“Much better.” She gave her a grateful nod and tried to muster a smile. “Thank you, Priestess.”

She felt like she was wrapped up like a mummy, but really, it was just her ribs, her hands, and her ankle. Then the sling of course. Miraculously, she had not broken any bones. (Kagome—who had only needed a few stitches from their little adventure—even had the audacity to laugh at her shellshocked expression upon learning this). But she had got some nasty sprains, she didn’t know what the heck was wrong with her arm, really, and her ribs were most definitely bruised.

“Sometimes the bruising can be nastier than a break,” Kaede informed them with a grim face. “I suspect this will be a rough recovery...”

“Keh! You humans are so fragile.”

Kagome rounded on the boy stretched out indolently behind them and snarled, “Why are you even still here?!” She rounded on Rinna next, who had covered her mouth to try and muffle an impulsive bout of snickering. “And you! What’s so funny? Don’t you know this is the guy who not only tried to kill me, but then proceeded to hold you hostage and kidnap you last night?!”

“Last night is really just a huge unpleasant blur, Onee-chan...” she pointed out sheepishly. “Really, a kidnapping attempt is just the icing on the cake...” She shrugged. “But anyway, he doesn’t seem too interested in killing or kidnapping anyone right now, so...” She frowned as she eyed the strange boy with curiosity. “Why did you try to kidnap me, by the way?”

He let out a rough snort and looked away with a dismissive roll of his startling yellow-gold eyes.

“Doesn’t matter now, does it?”

As she frowned at him, about to contest that it did, in fact, matter very much, Kaede spoke a grave omen, “It is almost certain, as it was with thy twin sister, that ye possess the other half of the sacred jewel within thy body, child.”

Rinna slowly shut her eyes with a sigh. “I was afraid you were going to say something like that...”

“Ye be right to fear,” the old woman’s single eye bore into her with an unwavering focus that made her uneasy. “For while Kagome’s half of the jewel represents its Yang aspect, and its purity, I suspect the other half is made up from its evil Yin counterpart...”

Rinna blinked at her several times in alarm.

“So, essentially what you’re saying is...I’m a vessel for pure evil.” Her gaze drifted up towards the ceiling simply exasperated at this point. “How nice.”

The boy in red let out a loud guffaw at her expense while Kagome glared at him, putting an arm around her shoulders with reassuring pats. “Don’t be so dramatic! I’m sure it’s not as bad as you’re making it seem...”

“Indeed. The matter at hand is complicated enough without ye twisting my words,” Kaede told her with disapproval in her single eye, her next words piercing with the severity in them. “Speak not of such ominous portents, child, lest the gods see fit to bring them down upon ye.”

With a rueful grimace at the old woman’s reproach, Rinna nodded. “That’s...fair. But...” She shook her head, feeling overcome with helplessness. She needed to know more. Knowledge was power, and she had been all too lacking in that area recently. “How did any of this happen?”

“That’s what I’d like to know too—” here, the boy sat up and faced them, crossing his arms in his sleeves and glaring at everyone like all the inconvenience of the situation was their fault “—why is the jewel in two pieces!? Why did it come from inside them?”

Kaede closed her eye with a sigh. “These all be pertinent questions, Inuyasha. It is unfortunate that I can only speculate as to the answers at this time.”

“Feh! Then go get that high-and-mighty Kikyo and make her tell us!” he all but demanded, growling lowly, “She would know... And then, once she figures it out, and puts the jewel back together, we’ll duke it out properly—no sealing arrows included—just my claws and her neck...”

For a moment, Kaede just stared at him while he muttered murderous things under his breath, then sighed once again, and spoke over him, “My older sister, Kikyo, is dead.” Inuyasha’s mutterings came to an abrupt, screeching halt, and Rinna could swear she saw a flash of pain in his eyes for the fraction of a second as Kaede continued, “And so thus it has been for the fifty years you have been sealed to the god tree, Inuyasha. The old woman you see before you is little Kaede, whom you once knew.”

“Eh? You’re that brat? You humans really age like knats...” After a beat of real shock at that, he almost seemed intentionally nonchalant with the way he leaned back on his palms, knee bent and sprawled as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Then he said, “Well good. I’m glad. It’s a relief not to have that double-crossing woman looming over me...”

Somehow, there was something about his words that rung untrue to Rinna... It reminded her of Souta when Mama took away his favorite violent manga, and he belligerently called it lame anyway, pretending he wasn’t desperate to find out the ending. And what was that about double-crossing...?

“I would not dare speak so soon were I you, Inuyasha. Are those keen, half-demon eyes of yours good for nothing? They cannot deny what is right in front of them, can they? Surely thy wits are not so dull as  to have not considered as I have?”

In any other situation, Rinna might have been wickedly entertained at how worked up and agitated Inuyasha got with every blunt accusation out of the wily old woman’s mouth. But Inuyasha had claws...and a temper that had him sending a fist right through Kaede’s wood floor.

“Get to the point, Baa-baa,” he sneered, “before the next one goes through your head.”

“Ye will bring no harm to me, Inuyasha,” the priestess intimated, miraculously undaunted, “nor any other—so long as my sister’s rosary rests upon thy neck. One word from these girls, and thy subjugation will be complete.” Ignoring his warning growl, she prompted him, “And just why do ye think that is?”

“I’m sure I don’t know,” Inuyasha said, barring alarmingly sharp teeth at the old woman, speaking in a silky, belligerent tone, “but since you like to talk so much, ya’old hag, I’m just as sure you’re going to tell me.”

Grave, and somber, unfazed by Inuyasha’s threatening jibes, Kaede proclaimed, “It is my belief that these are my sister’s reincarnations, Kagome, and Rinna.”

“Reincarnations...” Kagome mused, her face uncertain. “As in plural? How exactly does that work...?”

“One soul in two bodies,” Rinna softly recited, shying away when all eyes turned to scrutinize her. “It’s a saying...about twins. Haven’t you ever heard of it? Not that I usually believe in any of these sorts of things...”

“Hmm, so the puzzle pieces begin to fall into place...” Kaede said, closing her eye with a thoughtful nod. “Fifty years ago, my sister mandated that the sacred jewel be burned with her body, so that she may take it with her to the afterlife in the hope that it would harm none again. However, as her soul was split evenly between the two of ye, so too we might venture to imagine that the jewel was thusly split—one half, darkness,” she gestured to Rinna, and then to Kagome, “the other, light.”

She and Kagome exchanged a significant look. Though it was clear neither one of them wanted to face the possibility of any of this being true...there was a bright pink rock in Kagome’s hand shoving it in their faces. And as much as they might’ve liked to deny it...when Kaede spoke of light and darkness...there was more truth to that in the way they lived their lives than either one of them cared to admit. People had joked about it for ages when speaking of Higurashi One (Kagome) and Higurashi Two (Rinna)—Kagome, trusting, bubbly, and outgoing, and Rinna, the sly, cynical introvert. Even Jii-chan had remarked upon the Zen Buddhism reinforcing duality of their dispositions with glee upon one occasion or another.

Sensing her disquiet, Kagome reached out for Rinna’s hands and softly reminded her, “Jii-chan always says there’s a little spot of darkness in Yang’s light, just like there’s a little spot of light in Yin.”

Kaede nodded along with that, adding, “There is truth in thy grandfather’s wisdom. Take heart, young ones, and do not lose thy faith, for the way ahead is fraught with peril, and you will be in sure need of such things, and more to be sure, in due course.”

After a heavy pause, Rinna looked up from her lap where she clung to Kagome’s hands with sullen, half-lidded eyes, accentuated by the tired, dark smudges of exhaustion beneath, and asked, “...What happens now?”

“You must protect both halves of the sacred jewel,” Kaede impressed upon them, her face grave. “Just as my sister Kikyo did before ye.” She sent a sidelong look in Inuyasha’s direction. “By any means necessary.”

The half-demon let out an aggravated huff, springing to his haunches and all but launching himself out of the cabin. Rinna shook her head, unsure if she’d ever get used to those kinds of exits.

“And, more importantly,” Kagome pointed out, her voice bright with eager determination, “find a way back home!”

Rinna gave her a tired smile. “Yeah. That sounds good.” Thoughts of home were more akin to thoughts of heaven at the moment, but the longer she thought about it, the more a burgeoning sense of dread stacked up in her as she realized, “Oh no! I stood up Souma-kun!”

“EHH!?” Kagome exclaimed, drawing near to her face in shock. “So you did get a date! I knew it!” Her grin turned thoughtful as she remarked, “Is it that ‘Akaito’ Souma? Doesn’t his family own that super-huge fashion designer business? Red Thread Designs, isn’t that right? Luckyyy!”

Rinna covered her face in dismay. “I almost don’t want to go back now... How will I ever explain...”

She gestured vaguely to everything.

Kagome held her fist up with that same fiery determination, “We’ll figure it out together!”

With that, Rinna could no longer suppress the urge to throw her good arm around Kagome in a tight embrace, willing it to convey all the love and gratitude welling up inside her. In this insane scenario, she would rather be stuck with none other than her zany big sister. And she knew she didn’t really need words to let her know that.

“C’mon, let’s go ‘round and investigate!” she announced not a moment later and started to tug Rinna to her feet, but the movement was too abrupt and sent her bad arm twinging with a pang that made her wince. Kagome froze at the soft whimper that escaped her and softly lowered her back down, her eyes soft with concern. “Rinna-chan...?”

“It may be too early for that yet,” Kaede said, helping to settle Rinna back over to her sleeping mat. “Let thy sister mend here a while longer before ye seek out thy homeland, Kagome.”

When Kagome hesitated, looking like she might decide to stay with her instead, Rinna waved her off with a shake of her head. No sense in both of them staying put and being miserable. They agreed that Kagome would find out what she could on her own and they would put their heads together later. She wasn’t too worried about Kagome going off on her own now that the villagers appeared to revere them. And though that came with its own set of complications—and Rinna was still dubious about the logic behind it, worried about the expectations that came with such lofty respect—at least she was no longer too worried about...other things befalling them.

Of course, there was still the hanyou, Inuyasha, lurking about, but Kaede had already reassured them he would no longer be a problem. She wasn’t quite sure how these ‘subjugation’ beads worked, but apparently, they had saved her from him last night. From the gist she’d learned about them, they operated like a shock collar for dogs... A prospect she wasn’t sure how to feel about, really, given that she didn’t even approve of the use of those things on animals. The whole idea of it twisted her stomach into knots, especially since, ignoring the claws, fangs, unusual auditory appendages, and insane strength, he almost seemed...human. Earlier, when Kaede broke the news about Kikyo, Rinna could have sworn he looked...hurt.

“Kaede-sama...” she found herself asking the old woman as she helped her mix herbs into medicinal paste, “What is...a hanyou, exactly?”

“The unholy offspring of a demon and a human,” she answered, blunt and to the point. “They are neither accepted by humans nor demons, doomed as outcasts all their long lives—though most of them are cut short in childhood. Even before he was sealed to the god tree by my sister for fifty years, Inuyasha was unusual that he had survived to adolescence...” Turning to scrutinize her stunned expression, her single, knowing eye piercing right through her, she asked, “Do ye pity him, child? One who would call you friend one day, then take thy life in a heartbeat when it suited his purposes?”

Rinna felt her lips part as she struggled for some form of response. Frowning in thought as she contemplated her own experiences, she murmured, “...Inuyasha doesn’t strike me as a schemer. I don’t want to say he’s...unintelligent, or incapable of hurting someone—that’s obviously not the case—but he definitely seems like more of a by-the-seat-of-his-pants type. I’ve known schemers and liars.” All too well, unfortunately. “I’m usually pretty good at sussing them out, but...you’re acquainted with him best, Kaede-sama. Is a guy like that really capable of plotting cold-blooded murder?”

Kaede’s intimidating stare bore into her a little longer before she finally looked away with a heavy sigh.

“There was a time when I would have answered ye nay, child, when I would have objected to the very idea of Inuyasha harming any who reside in this village.” She closed her wizened eye with an old sorrow appearing to weigh down her bones. “But then the day came that Inuyasha’s desire for the sacred jewel overthrew any love he felt for my sister, and in his attempt to steal it, he inflicted the wound that would end her life.”

The pain in his eyes from earlier was beginning to add up. However...

“If Inuyasha loved Kikyo...” Rinna shook her head slowly, unable to make sense of it.

“It is a question I have pondered often over the years myself, child...” Kaede answered thoughtfully, adding, “Perhaps there are still pieces to this puzzle that are yet to reveal themselves. But with the release of Inuyasha and the appearance of ye and thy sister...” She sighed once more, “Mayhap the answers will finally be recovered, and this old woman can rest easy when her time comes...”

Rinna never signed up to solve this mystery, but the way Kaede sagged under the sheer tragedy of the issue tugged at her sympathies—even if Inuyasha’s circumstances as a hanyou hadn’t done that already. Rinna knew what it was like to be left alone and bullied, but to have no acceptance from anyone, ever in his life, for something that was never even his choice? The loneliness of such an existence...was something that hurt her heart just to think about.

Like Kagome said, pragmatically, Rinna knew their primary objective should be to simply survive this mess and find a way back home. Screw this sacred jewel business; it wasn’t their problem. But knowing that they were born with it inside their bodies, to have been dragged back god-knows-how-many centuries into the past...as cynical as Rinna could be, despite not granting any sort of credence to things like fate or destiny, she couldn’t fool herself into believing any of this was a coincidence either. The signs were loud and clear if only she forced herself to read them.

Maybe there was no such thing as fate. Rinna still believed that.

But none of this was random chance.

Something in that well had brought them here for a reason.

“The well!” Kagome exclaimed in an excitable whisper as they discussed each other’s thoughts, faces inches from each other as they face each other on their sleeping mat. “Of course! Mama always says if you can find your way in, you can find your way out the exact same way!”

“That’s a good idea...but, Onee-chan, I really think—”

“Let’s set out first thing tomorrow,” she pressed on, still thrilled at the idea. “Will you be well enough by then, do you think?”

“I don’t know...” she said with chagrin, being honest. “I spent the better part of today lying around like a slug because my head still feels like a beehive, and Kaede-sama had to help me to the outhouse because I got too dizzy when I stood up... It was embarrassing.”

Kagome’s features creased with worry, running a hand over Rinna’s head with a troubled frown. “That darned Inuyasha. This is all his fault.” With a muffled sound of frustration, she went on, “I even tried to be nice to him today, and what did I get for my trouble? Bah! I don’t think I’ve ever met a more rude, difficult, bullheaded person in my life...”

“Just like you, you mean?” Rinna chuckled at her outraged expression, putting a hand over hers in apology and continuing, “In all seriousness, I...don’t think we can just full stop condemn a person like Inuyasha. I learned some things about him from Kaede-sama today that...really made me think.” To say the least.

Kagome blinked at her, surprise written on her open face. “Really...? That’s strange, coming from you.”

Frowning, Rinna wanted to know, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s just...” Kagome let out a sheepish chuckle, “you’re not usually one for second chances... People get on your bad side once, and then—” here, she made an abrupt chopping motion, “—wha-pah! Buh-bye. Thanks for the memories. See ya never. No mercy! Come to think of it...” she mused to herself, “that’s just what Inuyasha said earlier. Maybe the two of you have something in common too.””

Rinna shifted uncomfortably.

“Am I...really that brutal...?” Surely it wasn’t as cut and dry as all that...

No wonder she didn’t have any friends...

Kagome gave her a sympathetic smile, patting her head as if to say, ‘Don’t worry, I still love you, even if you’re a horrible person,’ and said, “We’ll talk about it tomorrow, silly. Let’s get some sleep.”

Sleep was hard to come by though, not only due to the unfamiliar sleeping mat and strange nighttime sounds, so different from Tokyo’s, but because her thoughts lingered in patterns that looped over and around in circles upon circles. Inuyasha, Kikyo, the threads that connected them so abruptly severed, and for what? The jewel, cleaved in two, purpose, destiny or the lack of it, Inuyasha, a tumbling river of silver from a dream (or was it real life? She couldn’t remember), hanyou, a lonely, miserable existence beyond her imagination. What was this world, really? Was it the same one they would come to know in Tokyo? Or a different world entirely? Nothing was familiar anymore. And what was her and Kagome’s role in any of this?

The more she thought, the further her answers seemed to get, until she eventually fell into a fitful sleep that drug her down into the deepest shadows of her mind...