Scroll One- Unexpected Meeting
A dark mist shivered through the
infrastructure of a small shack on the bank of a grassy hill. The
moonlight showed it's way through an opening slit to where a
barley-lit fire fumed. It was quiet, not even the sound of crickets
could be heard. The faintest travel of wind shifted past the tree's
like wildfire, as if a it was a real storm that caused the trees to
move so. It had been a while since Sango had last seen her brother,
Kohaku. As of now, everyone believed he could be anywhere. Whether
Kohaku was 10 miles close by, or 1000 far away, the night's blanket
over the shack remained to keep everyone asleep, except one.
"
Damn. The night's so long." Inuyasha thought to himself, staring
down at his tetsusaiga. Being the night of the new moon, Inuyasha
remained awake, awaiting a surprise attack if there was one.
"
Inuyasha, how about getting some sleep." Miroku suggested, speaking
in a faint whisper while the others slept.
"Leave me alone,
would ya?! When I'm in human form, I don't sleep. Come on, you
know that Miroku."
" Too scared to sleep, huh?" Miroku
commented.
" So I'm scared, well excuse me."
" At
least you're being honest." Miroku answered in a faint whisper.
" After all, Miroku, With so many enemies around, if I was
attacked at a time like this, I'd be helpless now wouldn't I?"
Inuyasha answered, disregarding the fact that the others were still
sleeping. A while passed, Miroku went back to sleep, but Inuyasha
waited sunrise. He didn't want to shut his eyes even for a second,
he sensed the risk was to immense. The moon began to fade slightly,
but not enough for complete sunrise to come. " Day break must be
close." Inuyasha thought to himself.
" Try to sleep, even if
it's the last thing you want to do." Miroku said. For a while, it
seemed as though Inuyasha faded a little, then startled by his
action, sprang back from his rest to watch the moon shift outside the
small shack's window. As he stared, perplexed by the moon's
mysteries, Inuyasha thought about how Kikyo made him feel like the
moon's light. Inuyasha strained his mind to remember his most vital
meeting with Kikyo, how she'd told him that they'd be always
apart. " Why did you hate me so, giving Naraku the jewel fragment
long ago.? Why doesn't she understand he's only increased in his
strength. The jewel had since under Naraku, created various new
henchman, destroyed villages, harmed innocent people, and created a
new body for him. Inuyasha pondered over what had happened since she
told him the explanation long ago. Naraku now had somehow managed to
almost complete the shikon jewel, even though he had used countless
numbers of jewel fragments. "Where are you now, Kikyo? What are you
thinking of?" Inuyasha wondered, searching his heart for the
answer. Unknowing his attempts to imagine Kikyo free from Naraku's
never-ending grasp, he drifted off, with Kikyo in his mind.
"
Fifty years ago, at this place, I shot an arrow through your chest,
and my life ended as well."
" Why bring this up now?"
"
Why do you think Naraku caught us in a trap and made us hate each
other?"
" To corrupt the shikon jewel, by tainting your heart
which keeps the jewel cleansed. With hatred for me."
" That's
just an excuse."
" Kikyo, I don't understand."
"
The remains of onigumo's heart inside Naraku wants us broken apart.
He originally wanted me for himself. Purposefully inducing me to kill
you with my own hands, was caused by nothing but jealousy."
"
Jealousy?! What a meaningless reason."
"Yes, it's
meaningless, and human too. Naraku doesn't want to admit it, but at
any rate, it seems those feelings remain. To try to remove those
feelings, he tried to kill me, but because of Onigumo's heart, he
couldn't.."
" But, Kikyo, Remember Mount Hakurei? Naraku…"
"
I'm a miko. By fighting with my spiritual powers, I can completely
remove him from this world."
" Kikyo, I can't forget what
you said ling ago. You said my life was yours, knowing what Naraku
wants to do to you, your life is mine."
" At that time,
when I was threatened by the giant soul stealer, and the dead souls
had been drawn cut, I wondered if, alone, it was all over for me, but
you were there to save me. You were by my side, and I'm glad."
"
HUH?!" Inuyasha said, startled after what had just surfaced through
his mind. He had dreamed of Kikyo, however, the dream was filled with
information he already knew. Yet, could it be possible that Kikyo
really relied on him, after all that had happened with Naraku and the
jewel? Coming in contact with her in a dream was something he'd
experienced many times, but for a dream about Kikyo, Inuyasha had
never appeared so loved by her in a dream before. Had she really
trusted her life with him yet again? Almost immediately after
regaining his caution to sleeping in human form and focusing in on
his senses, a faint, luminous light shifted it's presence across
the opening window of the shack, the light's aura enough to wake
anyone. Everyone, however remained asleep, except Inuyasha still, now
grasping his testsusaiga, even though it wouldn't be able to
transfigure. The light from outside slipped into the shack like a
dark, mysterious caution. It's depths reached close to Inuyasha,
who finally realized what the light was.
" Ki-Kikyo's
shikigami?! Is Kikyo nearby?" Inuyasha thought to himself. Inuyasha
staggered over to his kimono shirt and slipped it on. Grabbing his
tetsusaiga quietly, he noticed, despite the intense light of Kikyo's
soul stealers, that no one had been awake to see their presence, nor
Inuyasha slipping outside the shack and out onto the hill that the
shack stood on.
"I must see you." Inuyasha thought. He had to
know why he'd had such an un-explained dream, and why was she so
close? Kikyo's shikigami departed through the thickets of the
grassy field and through the meadow. Inuyasha grasped tetsusaiga
close, following their lead. Inuyasha noticed as he darted through
the valley some of Kikyo's soul stealers were dieing. A few
disappeared in the blink of an eye, and others rushed ahead
continuously getting faster. Inuyasha, even though human and without
the tetsusaiga, still had the ability to smell enemies close by.
"
Damn, I sense trouble." He thought, running recklessly through the
field and down into a forest's boarder. Then, Inuyasha darted
around to see many demons surrounding him close by. " Something's
not right, these aren't ordinary demons, they're covered with
Naraku's sent." he thought. Unable to draw Tetsusaiga, he was
left defenseless, all he could do was possibly outrun them.
"
Be gone!" said a voice Inuyasha recognized. He turned to face the
forest, but he could see nothing but the thickets of the forest.
Then, a bright shinning light burst out of the forest and pierced
each demon, killing them instantly. The soul stealers departed into
the depths of the forest, going to Kikyo, or what Inuyasha assumed
they were doing.
" Ki-Kikyo?!" Inuyasha shouted. The soul
stealers emerged once again from the forest, only to pin Inuyasha to
the ground so he wouldn't be able to flee. " Who does Kikyo
estimate I am?!" he thought. Maneuvering out of the forest and
closing in with some of her soul stealers, was Kikyo. Not knowing it
before, Inuyasha realized that Kikyo had never seen him in human form
before.
" Inuyasha. You're…"
" Ki-Kikyo. I'm---"
Kikyo dropped her bow and released her soul stealers to go off into
the depths of the forest for a while. She stared down at Inuyasha,
perplexed by what she had longed to see so long ago. His hair had
turned black, and his claws were now regular human fingernails.
"
You're…" she spoke softly, not shedding a tear or even getting
upset. Inuyasha couldn't speak, he was too ashamed to let Kikyo see
him much longer, ashamed to let her see something that she'd longed
for and failed to see it.
" Kikyo." was all Inuyasha could
say. What else was there to speak of? Kikyo kneeled down beside him,
looking him straight into his eyes.
" You're eyes are now…"
"
Yes. Kikyo, you must know something about me that's been shadowed
in darkness for too long." Inuyasha spoke to her, almost in a
whisper as she threw her arms around him. The moon's light streaked
across Kikyo, and in the depths of his heart, Inuyasha wished this
sparing moment could stretch forever.
" You must tell me how…"
Kikyo whispered. There was nothing afterwards but silence, the moon's
light, and the dying flowers in the forest beyond.
The grass blew
through the depths of the darkened meadow as the shadowed trees stood
still beyond the heart of a darkened forest. The wind's howl moved
the very soul of air between the sky's view of the new moon.
Inuyasha grasped Kikyo close in his arms, he could feel her tears
wound his heart, nothing could bring him to tell Kikyo the very
visage she longed for so long ago was not permanent, just as their
dream to be side by side was a mere illusion.
" Kikyo, long
ago, we made a decision to be together for our remaining days.
Regardless of what surfaced with Naraku, I decided to use the jewel,
once purified to become human for life. To this day,, I'll never
live down my promise. Even with Naraku's heinous stain on our
lives, I can't forget you Kikyo, but…"
" Inuyasha, what
you said to me long ago, do you remember?"
"Don't be absurd,
Kikyo, I told you. Under a setting sun one day, after talking in the
field nearby the sacred tree, I took a bonded oath. No matter what,
you'd belong in my heart forever Kikyo, and no matter what, you'd
exhist within me. Added with Naraku's threats opposed on both of
us, that existence inside me is stronger than life itself. I'd
never forget you, Kikyo, and since that day, I never will." Kikyo's
eyes mourned with tears. She set loose from Inuyasha, knelt down
facing him.
" I've always known you've cared for my
well-being, Inuyasha. The fact that you must consider is, beside
being a half demon or human, I could care less what you're
characterized as. That you love me is what I want from you."
Inuyasha's eyes gazed at Kikyo, her hand motioned on his shoulder.
" I don't need miko power to sense you want to confess something
about tonight. You also said that day, we'd also be
truthful."
Inuyasha motioned his gaze off Kikyo's concerned
eyes. The breeze from the forest's thickets flourished through the
meadow, carrying the night's cold chill through the paths of the
dew-drenched grass.
" Kikuyu…long have you wished me to
discard my demon side and relinquish the human inside my heart.
You're now witnessed what I appear as a human, however Kikyo; like
our dream to be side by side with corruption of the jewel and
Onigumo, my human form tonight is not permanent." Kikyo's
expression transfigured not to anger or sadness, but to a sense of
understanding.
" Like mentioned earlier, we're born what
we're destined to be. Fifty years back, my request was to help you
make a choice because you were lost, and it's the choice you
grasped to become human that makes you what you truly are. Whether or
not you stay human for one night or one millennium does not affect
the true belief I share of you tonight."
" Ki-Kikyo?"
"
It's that I can see you and see someone who, though possesses
instincts of a demon, also has a human heart. For that, I can not
distribute anger to you, Inuyasha." Kikyo bent closer into
Inuyasha's lap, throwing her arms across him like before."
Promise me something. No matter what overtakes us , we'll both
continue to try and destroy Naraku. That we'll fulfill our promise
and kill him, together."
"Kikyo, I couldn't have…"
"
Inuyasha, remember also one other thing, I'm not of this world any
longer. I've a purpose to destroy the one evil that killed both our
lives that darkened day years back, and finally descend into eternal
peace, with knowing I'm compete." Inuyasha tore apart Kikyo, a
lust of anger staggering in his eyes.
" Kikyo! Don't ever say
you're not of this world! I can see and hold you, therefore, you're
of this universe, damn it! I won't cooperate with you telling me
this, because for you it's equal, just like you said; I have demon
instincts but harbor a human heart. Understanding yourself that you
possesses a clay body, yet your soul lives within you. We carry equal
situations, Kikyo." Inuyasha then darted for Kikyo once again, not
realizing her soul stealers had returned from the depths of the
forest.
" Inuyasha…we'll always love each other, even if
we're betrayed countless times again, we can't forget the memory
that's still there. That contains our love. However, you must come
to grips with what I've said, while you will no doubt ever be able
to forget me, and I you, I've already decided to evaporate into
heaven once the one person who stained our lives is destroyed. While
what I said earlier was foolish, I am not the only one who harbors
feelings for you, Inuyasha.
"Ki--Kikyo?"
To Be Continued…
