Through Time She Returns

Chapter 1

Twigs were snapping as a young woman ran through the woods. Behind her, a demon is chasing her.

Emerald eyes are on the edge of tears. Heart racing at how she came to this situation.

"WHERE AM I?!?!"The young woman cries out as she is chased through the night.

—
Reiwa Era

Kotoha, a college student in general studies, was currently on a far in countryside Japan. She was doing this as part of a program to earn a grant but also get out of the city. It was quite nice out here.

Today was the day she was going to the local shrine to help with cleaning it up for a bit. In the shrine, she would find the oldest known photos of the town and how much they had grown in the years since.

The wind was the music that she had and was happy to hum to it as she worked away at the garden to get rid of dead leaves.

She would go to her bag, where her solar bank was charging up her phone. It was needed with how much she traveled and wanted to put down notes. She should go more traditional but she wanted to play demos on her phone with the lyrics as she walks down the streets of the town running errands for the elderly couple she stays with.

As she leaves the shrine, her eye catches something. A pond filled with lotuses. Having time to look Kotoha goes near. The blue was so nice with the setting sun.

Her humming slows as she kneels before the patch of lotuses.

One thing she should know at this point is-

Kotoha squeaks as she wavers in her balance. Leaning too much forward to the water.

-she is quite clumsy.

Splashing in water echoes through the shrine area.

Kotoha immediately gets out, coughing up water and throwing her bag up first before getting out. She shakes her head as the sun finally goes down. She shivers but doesn't pay much thought to the fact the lights are out at the shrine.

What she does pay mind to is the creep she hears breathing down her neck.

She shrieks, pepper spraying the man and hearing him scream before she takes off running.

Only she doesn't recognize the path, the road is nowhere to be found.

Panic builds up in her as the creep starts chasing her.

"WHERE AM I?!" Kotoha cries out to the forest as she is chased by a deranged man.

Branches snap behind her as she runs in her wet shoes.

"SOMEONE HELP ME!!" The creep was quite fast too, she could barely catch her breath.
Oh Kami, was she going to be-

Kotoha yelps as she is tackled to the ground. She wants to cry out but can only shiver as the creep above her is watery in the eyes, red and swollen.

"YOU BITCH! WHAT DID YOU SPRAY ME WITH?!?"  The spray only had a few ingredients like the standard pepper, wisteria and etc. Unless the man was allergic he shouldn't be acting like this.

Kotoha shivers as the creep raises his hand, his nails having not been trimmed in years it seems. But what was worse was how sharp his teeth were.

"DIE!" Kotoha shifts away not wanting to see what this man plans on doing.

Not noticing the fast-approaching steps that come her way.

"HAHAHAHAHH, DEMON, BEAST BREATHING THIRD FANG DEVOUR!" A sound of slashing and the creep is off her. A thud from beside her is heard. Slowly Kotoha looked up only to freeze as above her, a shirtless young man in a boar mask stood over her, holding onto two swords.

Steam comes out of the nostrils before he shifts his head.

"You're dressed funny." A strained voice going through puberty states.

.
..
...

"Huh?" Kotoha was confused when two more young men with swords, teenagers, came running into the area.

"Inosuke! Is the woman alright?!?" The one with burgundy tip hair and a checkered haori. Beside him, the blond was starting to blush as he stared at the Kotoha. The young man in checker glances at her and gasps before taking off the box on his back and giving her his haori.

"Ma'am, please wear this!" Oh, how nice he thought she was cold from the water. "The demon must have cut up your clothing. You shouldn't be showing that much skin, miss."

Okay, no, she was just wearing her normal clothes.

She finally gets up, looking around for the creep, and finds him gone. At her full height, she was only a few centimeters taller than the young men before her. She clutches onto the borrowed haori.

"I am sorry, but can you take me back to town?" Shivering as she was, she just wanted to sleep and get over this bizarre encounter.

The boys nod and soon they are making their way down the mountain.

They made it to the town and she fell to her knees.

"Oi! What's wrong?" The one known as Inosuke is poking her shoulder only for the one called Zenitsu to slap him on the back of his mask, saying that's no way to treat a pretty lady.

The town was the same as in the photos she had seen in the shrine.
No, it can't be.

She turns to Tanjiro, the calmest of the boys, concerned for why she is stunned and beginning to shake.

It wasn't so much where she was now.

"Tanjiro-kun, tell me, what year is it?" Confused Tanjiro straightens up and answers her question, hoping to ease her worries.

Now it was when she was.

"The year is 1914," Tanjiro states to the young woman. Kotoha shakes even harder, digging into her backpack and pulling out her phone. The boys get curious about the device and Inosuke jumps back when she turns it on. Zenitsu is holding back Inosuke before he can break it but Kotoha doesn't pay attention to the outside chaos only focusing on the one on the inside.

She unlocks her screen and confirms the worst.

She had no cell service, especially in the center of town.

.
..
...

"Oh, Kami." She lets her hand fall, looking around her surroundings and shaking more.

"I'm in the Taisho era."

HAHAHAHHAHA, YES THE INUYASHA AU BEGINS!! A shorter story compared to False Prophet but will be cute nonetheless. Douma didn't show up in this first chapter and probably not for another few. For now, I finally get to do an Inosuke and Kotoha relationship that is closer to sibling one. It's an AU I've been playing around with, Inosuke being overprotective of his sister who is getting too close to a demon.

--
Thoughts?

What do you think will happen next? Will Kotoha learn to pick up a sword? Or will Douma find a vulnerable songbird?