A/N: I don't know exactly where this story is going, I'm just writing this as it comes to me. I'm not going to promise speedy updates and it'll be written in first person all the way through. Not Beta'd, so if you see something weird point it out.

Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Inuyasha.

Rating: T

Pathways and Conduits

Chapter One

Kagome

I watched the shooter sized jewel spin, throwing off multicolored rainbows as it wobbled in and out of the patch of sunlight on my desk. So much pain and destruction over such a small thing, at least it was all over. All that was left was finding a way to purify it from this world. A selfless wish.

I snorted. I'm not sure how that came to be the answer to getting rid of this thing. A selfless wish. What wish is selfless? I think Kikyou took a shot in the dark with that reasoning and tried to pass it off as wisdom.

And seriously, how did she come to the conclusion that wishing away Inuyasha's youki was a selfless wish? 'Cause, it so isn't. If she had loved Inuyasha so much she wouldn't have asked him to change - you don't ask the people you love to change. And with as twisted and messed up as the Shikon is, it probably would have backfired. Badly.

You know, it could've gone either way, two hundred years - give or take a couple years and not counting the time he spent on the Goshinboku - is a long time and that's a lot of moonless nights. Some two thousand, three hundred and forty-three nights and since he spends only about twelve hours as a human he could've - technically - could've been turned into a three or four year old. (Okay, yeah, I took the time figure this out. I was curious and bored and slightly horrified. Gimme a break.) I'm not saying that it would have happened, since he certainly doesn't change into a child on the new moon, but then again, the Shikon's a twisted bit of consciousness. It's more likely though that he would have aged to what a two hundred year old human would look like - rapidly - and then die.

I don't like thinking about it too much. Him dying. I don't like how my eyes automatically burn and my chest tightens so that it hurts to breath. It's not gonna happen and it hasn't happened. No point in worrying about something like that. So I won't. I'm not gonna. Naraku's dead, and he was the most serious threat and now he's dead, so nothing to worry about. And Kikyou's not taking him to Hell, either.

Slowly, the Shikon wobbled to a stop and came to rest against my thumb. I moved my hand over it, rolling it around against my palm and then sent it spinning in circles again. Odd how something so pretty could be so damningly dangerous.

I don't think a wish is gonna end this thing.

I'm not sure what will.

A/N: Review?