Scrapbook by Chie

Road Trip

For Stormie's Holiday Boat Extravaganza

726 Words

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He had walked out from the line of the trees, his long silver-white hair glowing softly in the dim light of the budding dawn.

He’d stopped before her, his golden eyes unreadable as their gaze pierced her skin.

And then he had spoken the words.

“Come with me.”

Kagome had not asked him where they were going.

At that point, it really didn’t matter, as long as it was far, far away from Edo and her final heartbreak with Inuyasha.

She hadn’t asked him where Jaken or Ah-Un were; somehow it no longer seemed weird to see Sesshoumaru alone.

They walked west, and the further along they got, the lighter Kagome’s steps, the duller the ache in her chest.

Kagome first became curious of their destination a little over three weeks after they’d left Edo. 

Though to be frank she wasn’t sure how long they’d been travelling by then; she wasn’t really keeping track and in any case the days of the daiyoukai’s steady, silent presence, the endless walking, the passing scenery and the slow healing of the many hurts inside of her blended together.  

But now, they did something that broke what had become routine: they boarded a trading vessel.

They actually left the main island to cross over to another island in the south.

Kagome turned her inquisitive gaze on Sesshoumaru. “We’re going to Shikoku?”

“No, we are crossing over to Kyuushuu,” the daiyoukai replied calmly, his long hair whipped about by the salt-scented wind. 

“What? Wait.” Kagome squinted across the ocean, at the faint line of land in the horizon. “How far have we walked? Since Edo?”

“Around three hundred ri,” Sesshoumaru said, impassive.

“Three hundred…” Kagome muttered, frowning as she crunched the numbers in her head. “That’s… What the heck! That’s nearly a thousand kilometres! We’ve practically walked across Honshuu, from east to west.”

Sesshoumaru shrugged, looking out to the sea. “Hn.”

“Where on Earth are we going? To China?” Kagome asked, incredulous.

“We will go to witness history,” Sesshoumaru said.

And as much as Kagome tried to pester him for the remainder of their brief journey at sea, that cryptic answer was all she got.

Once they landed on Kyuushuu, they resumed walking. Only this time, Kagome was paying much more attention to everything around her and kept scowling at Sesshoumaru’s back as she followed him. 

On the afternoon of their sixth day, they finally arrived at their destination.

It looked like a normal fishing village – similar to all the other ones littering Japan’s long and many coasts.

And although this small village was a far cry from the city Kagome knew of in her time, she knew where they were the moment she looked out to the blue sea stretching far to the horizon beyond the village.

Because there, on the bay, a black ship was moored.

“So this is what you meant by witnessing history,” Kagome said, her voice touched with awe.

“Yes,” Sesshoumaru replied.

Kagome started towards the village, but when she realised Sesshoumaru wasn’t following, she stopped and turned back to slant him a confused stare.

“Aren’t we going? To see the Portuguese?”

“I do not care for the humans, foreign or not.”

“You don’t… What? Why are we here? What did you wish to see then?”

“The vessel with which these humans have crossed the world,” Sesshoumaru said, staring out to the sea and at the moored ship.

“The… You’re telling me we walked across half the country so you could see a boat?” Kagome cried, incredulous.

“Hn.”

“I can’t believe this,” Kagome huffed, throwing her hands in the air.

“I did have a secondary objective,” Sesshoumaru admitted after a moment, turning away from the Portuguese ship. “And I am glad to see it fulfilled.”

Kagome met his gaze, her blue eyes sparking her temper.

“Oh, and what would that be, making a fool out of me?”

“No. To aid you to recover your spirit, miko.”

Kagome’s mouth snapped shut. The angry spark faded from her eyes.

And the heart that had been heavy and aching before they’d set out on their trip four weeks ago, was now whole and quivering in her chest.

Overwhelmed, she turned away from his knowing stare and studied the ship, drawing deep breaths to calm herself.

Her voice was still a little choked when she spoke at last.

“It’s beautiful.”

 

INUYASHA © Rumiko Takahashi/Shogakukan • Yomiuri TV • Sunrise 2000
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