An Education by UnknownRandomness

Curiosity Killed the Dog

A/N: I really struggled with this prompt, but I think I've finally come up with a scenario for it! satuross, this chapter is for you :)

Prompt: Corrigendum - An error in a printed work spotted after printing and shown with its correction on a separate page. 

Word Count: 653

Kagome stared at the text in horror. Her eyes were scanning the old scroll in disbelief, disgusted and terrified with what she was reading. 

The shard-hunters had been growing extremely irritated back in the past, because Naraku and the jewel had somehow been managing to evade them for over a year; yet still managing to cause mayhem undetected. Kagome, with the prompting of an impatient Inuyasha, had decided to go back home and look for any written articles that would reveal to them how they destroyed Naraku. Technically, it was cheating the natural order of things, but at the rate they were going, it seemed to be necessary. Amazingly, the miko had been successful in finding a relevant scroll in a museum which was filed under the mythology and fairytales of the era- the woman snorted; people in her time were so ignorant. But then again, she had been too before her fifteenth birthday.   

However, what Kagome had not counted on was them losing much in their victory. 

According to this genuine object, a group of various people's did manage to destroy the terrifying hanyou known as 'Naraku', but in doing so, the Western Lord had sacrificed himself, leaving the lands in turmoil until his mother stepped in to the role aided by a female human. 

The time-traveller had hurriedly returned to the past and recounted her tale, regardless of the fact that this would have serious repurcussions on the future. At first, her stunning revelation had been met with scepticism, but when Sesshoumaru realised how desperate she was, he understood that even though he himself did not believe the 'future scroll', she did enough to warn him.

Eventually, the final battle came; and they did destroy Naraku and make a pure wish upon the newly-formed Shikon no Tama, ending Kagome's saga in Edo. Thanks to the knowledge she had gained in the her own time, the inuyoukai had not been killed facing Naraku, much to her immense relief. 

Yet now that the woman had been returned to her own time for good, she was incredibly curious to see if that scroll recounted anything more about her friends in the past. Curiosity quickly got the better of her, and she once more visited the museum and was granted access to look at the scroll for 'a paper on the importance of mythological beliefs to past generations'. 

Opening the aged paper, Kagome's eyes skimmed over the parts she had already read, noting with satisfaction that instead of stating that the Western Lord had died in the battle, it was now corrected to say that he-

Her mouth fell open with a shocked gasp.

To say that he had died painfully a few months later from wounds afflicted upon him in the battle, the knowledge of which he kept from all his companions. 

Tears rolled down her blank face, and she had the presence of mind to re-wrap the precious scroll before it was ruined. With all of their efforts, Sesshoumaru had not been able to cheat death. Clearly the Kami had decided that it was his time to leave this world. There was no way she was going to accept that. 

The miko wiped her tear-stained face and raced home to the well-house, not willing to believe what she had read. She had to warn him, save him from the fate that awaited him-

Pausing at the lip of the ancient structure, Kagome drew in a ragged breath as a horrible realisation hit her. Death wasn't awaiting Sesshoumaru; he was already dead and had been for five centuries. She could not return to warn him no matter how much she wanted to.

He was dead and there was nothing she could do. Her efforts to change the past had not had any effect on the future because in the end, the result had been the same, no matter the change in the written history.