"Die Inuyasha!" a heart broken miko screamed as she shot her holy arrow into the heart of her lover. Her aim struck true and the hanyou, Inuyasha, was pinned to the goshinboku. Forever more would he hang pinned upon the sacred tree until she would release him, but her life was surely ending and quickly. With her demise hastening in its wake she fell to the ground heavily.
"Onee-sama!" a young girl called out to her older sister. Kaede rushed to the miko's side and fought back her tears. Her sister was badly wounded and it pained her to see her this way.
"Listen well, Kaede, take this jewel and see to it that it is burned with my remains." Kikyou said to her younger sister sternly. Her determined eyes acknowledging that she knew she would die. She refused to let the jewel that had caused so much heart ache and death to outlive her.
Her stare penetrated Kaede's one good eye and she begrudgingly accepted the jewel into her bloodied hands. With a nod Kaede agreed to burn the jewel with her sister's remains. A lone tear made its way down Kikyou's cheek as she let out a small sigh of relief. Allowing herself to succumb to the darkness, she felt the strength leaving her body. With one last breath her body fell limp against the arms of her sister.
'I will take this jewel with me to the next life'
Funeral preparations were made immediately and the somber air over the village grew with every tear and cry. The villagers were weeping for their loss of the young miko. Her kind heart which had grown room for a hanyou had led to her downfall. But, Kaede disagreed with them. Her heart was full of sorrow and slowly stirred a cold fury within her small body.
"Curse the jewel and all it has given us! Nothing but pain and sorrow follow its miserable existence across the plains of the worlds. Midoriko hath cursed humanity with her last stand... Midoriko's folly! Had they all died and their souls moved on to the next life, then my sister wouldn't have had to become its protector. Protect yourself! Move onto your next lives you accursed jewel! May you all rest in peace and never bring sorrow to this plain again. So I wish it, so mote it be! In the name of Kami, so mote it be!" Kaede screamed to the heavens.
Thunder cracked in the clouds, and the sky drew dark with melancholy and malevolence. Burning with the body of Kikyou, the jewel angrily split in half. The souls within the jewel were gathered by the shinigami just as he had collected the soul of the recently passed miko. Into the folds of time the shinigami traveled, the wish unknowingly made upon the jewel coming into being.
The shinigami settled upon the home of a holy daughter. Her blood was filled with the sacrifice of many holy generations of miko and monks. Seeing that it was good, the Shinigami entered the house and laid the souls upon the womb of the woman. Slowly, the souls of Midoriko and Kikyou merged to form a holy light and the souls of the youkai grew heavy with unified power. Sinking into her skin they settled in her womb and into a single fertilized egg. The egg filled with intense energies could not remain as one, and so the egg split into two. With that, there was a Yin and a Yang, two spirits fated to balance out the plains of life; they were the avatars of the Shikon no Tama.