Circumstantial Evidence by Jupe
An Ordinary Day
Disclaimer: The characters of InuYasha are not mine, they are property of Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Yomiuri TV, Sunrise, and Viz Media. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Chapter 1: An Ordinary Day
It was just an ordinary day.
Well, it was.
It wasn't anymore. Now it was a nightmare.
Maybe, if she pinched herself, she'd wake up.
Oh! That's right! She couldn't pinch herself. She couldn't pinch anything. She was dead.
How could she possibly forget.
With a sigh that served no purpose and consumed no air, Kagome trudged (was she actually touching the ground?) away from the hot spring she could no longer bathe in and the shampoo she could no longer touch.
Sucks to be me.
She wondered, briefly, why she lingered on the physical plane when she no longer possessed a body.
Then she decided that she didn't care and that she wanted to get as far as possible from the scene of her death. At least she'd purified the lizard youkai who'd killed her!
Small comforts. I'm still dead. I was killed by a bloody lizard youkai. No, wait. I wasn't even killed by a lizard youkai. I drowned after the lizard youkai skewered me.
Oh, the indignity of it all. A powerful, smart, witty, beautiful priestess such as herself, drowning in a hot spring.
...Well, maybe she wasn't particularly powerful, or smart, or witty, or beautiful. But still!
She sighed again and fingered the Shikon no Tama, still hanging around her non-existent neck.
I hate this stupid jewel.
---
It was just an ordinary day, as far as he could tell. It might not have been. Perhaps it was an unordinary day disguised as an ordinary day. Or, alternatively, maybe there were no ordinary days. Maybe they were all unordinary. Or perhaps they were all ordinary.
When one has lived for well over one thousand years, one begins to ponder on such things.
It was as he was pondering on this very thing that he stumbled across his half-brother's wench.
Was this an unordinary occurrence, or an ordinary one?
His musings were cut short when the impudent girl cocked her head from her perch among the branches of a tree and scrutinized him.
"Wonder what he's doing here, the overgrown peacock. Probably on his way to kill InuYasha again. Ha. Good luck with that one, Sesshoumaru-sama, Lord of the universe! If you can find him, you're doing better than I am."
Sesshoumaru, Lord of the Western lands, was flabbergasted.
Did the human have a death wish?
"Wench. Are you truly so incompetent as to insult this Sesshoumaru to his face?"
The miko proceeded to fall out of her tree, sputtering.
"Wha-what the... is he practicing or something? Tell me he's practicing his insults. Oh Kami, he has to be," she said desperately, staring up at him with an expression akin to panic on her face.
Sesshoumaru was not amused.
"Cease your babbling. This Sesshoumaru does not require practice to properly insult someone."
"Someone, please, kill me now."
He briefly wondered if the woman was in her right mind, but promptly quashed the thought. How could he ignore an invitation like that?
And so he drew Bakusaiga.
The woman's eyes widened.
"Not you, you imbecile! I was talking to the Kami, for Pete's sake."
"This Sesshoumaru will fulfill your request in their stead."
She groaned, flopping against the ground with a hand over her eyes.
"Feel free to try, Lord of the universe."
Eyes narrowed at her nonsensical ramblings, Sesshoumaru proceeded to cut cleanly through her torso.
Or attempt to.
Bakusaiga made a very spectacular whoosh and came out of the other side of the miko.
The miko was still whole.
...Odd.
Usually, when one slices through something, the something is in pieces afterwards. It defied all logic.
And so he tried again.
...With the same results.
"Miko, what magic is this?"
The girl gave an overly loud sigh and sat up, massaging her temples with her fingers.
"Isn't it obvious? I'm dead. You can't touch me with anything because I'm not physical anymore."
"Then explain how it is that this Sesshoumaru is able to see you."
The miko snorted.
"As if I know. Look, Sesshoumaru-sama , I'm just a clueless wandering spirit who, for no apparent reason, is still on the earth. Just ignore me," she said piteously, turning away from him to return to her tree.
This was unacceptable.
And that was how Kagome found herself with a very real hand gripped around her very un-real neck. Which he was somehow touching. What the heck?
"Wha- ho-how..." she sputtered, trying to speak around the hand at her throat.
"This Sesshoumaru is more powerful than you give him credit for, wench. Demons, by their very nature, are not of the physical, but of the spiritual. While a blade," her eyes flickered to Bakusaiga, resting at his waist, "may not touch you, this Sesshoumaru certainly can." His fingers glowed green around her neck as the sickly-sweet promise of poison wafted through the air.
For the first time since her death, Kagome feared.
"S-so you're go-going to kill me now?"
"Is that not what you wished?"
...Well, he had her there.
"...Okay then. Go ahead. End my miserable non-existence."
The scent of poison increased.
"Well?"
"..."
Kagome squinted at the demon lord's fingers, oozing toxic poison.
Which was dripping straight through her to eat away at the ground beneath her.
"Huh. That's weird. You can touch me, but you can't kill me," Kagome mused.
"There is nothing this Sesshoumaru cannot do," he corrected her imperiously.
She rolled her eyes. "Oh, of course. Why don't you try snapping my neck next?"
Her head jerked to the side at an unnatural angle.
"What the...! I was joking!"
"You should specify in the future when you do not mean what you say."
"Oh for the love of... just admit that you can't kill me and I'll be on my merry way. Scratch that, just let go of my neck and I'll be on my merry way and leave you to whatever business you were attending to," Kagome groused, thoroughly miffed.
His fingers tightened.
"No."
Kagome had several choice things to say to that. Unfortunately for her, Sesshoumaru had stopped listening to her, choosing instead to focus his attention on his surroundings.
"Sesshoumaru-sama! You have returned to your faithful servant!"
Wincing at the grating voice belonging to the now-groveling toad-like creature before them, Kagome almost missed the distinctly disturbing sensation of someone passing through her.
"Rin is happy to see you, Sesshoumaru-sama!" Rin said while hugging his leg enthusiastically, voice muffled by the fabric of his hakama. Smiling, she clutched his leg tighter as his right hand touched the crown of her head in the customary greeting. When it settled there absently, however, Rin knew something was wrong. "Sesshoumaru-sama?"
He was glaring at his left hand, curled in a strange position and held away from his body, as though it had committed an atrocity. Rin suddenly felt very small.
"Rin. What am I holding?"
Startled, she looked at his hand again, still as it was, clenched around air. "Nothing, Sesshoumaru-sama," she said, puzzled.
"Hn. Jaken?"
"Sesshoumaru-sama, your loyal servant also sees nothing," Jaken admitted warily.
"Hn."
Kagome sighed in exasperation. "See, I told you that I was dead, and that I had no idea why you could see me, but noooooooooooo, you wo-"
"Wench, silence."
"I'll be silent when I darn well feel like it! What are you going to do to shut me up, huh? Kill me?"
"You wish to return to life, yes?"
"Well of course! Did you think I liked being invisible to all of my friends and unable to visit my fami-"
"Then this Sesshoumaru has a proposition for you."
"...I'll be silent."
---
A/N:
An experiment of sorts. This is based on a one-shot I wrote (a long time ago), playing with the same concepts. I was asked (an equally long time ago) to turn it into a full story, and the idea wouldn't leave me alone.
This chapter is several months old, itself. I'm trying to get the inspiration to finish the story, since I did manage to outline the plot completely already. Hopefully it won't suck too much, as I haven't written anything aside from essays in... months. Ai yi yi.
As other writers have so aptly stated, "reviews are fuel!"