"Kagome is Kagome. You are nobody's replacement." Nodded Inuyasha in firm assertion, thereby closing the matter to further discussion.
"You can't deny the fact that I am Kikyou's reincarnation." Kagome continued, a hit of despair in her voice.
"Sez who?"
"W-what do you mean, sez who?", she looked at him like he was out of his mind. Even the stupid hanyou couldn't be this stupid. "Look at the facts, Inuyasha. I look like Kikyou, I was born with the shikon jewel and I even got a bit of her miko powers. You were confused yourself when you first saw me", whined the girl.
"I know what the facts are. It's the inference that I don't concur with. The shikon jewel was burned alongside Kikyou. Maybe in her last moments some of her essence got captured in the jewel."
"Maybe" Kagome agreed unsurely.
"Then when the shikon jewel lodged itself in your body, it imparted some of that essence to you."
"B-but Kaede-obaasan said~"
"What Kaede said was her interpretation of the facts. You look like her sister; you have the same powers as her sister, so you must be the reincarnation of her dead sister. It made sense to her."
"It doesn't make sense to you?"
"All I'm saying is, nobody saw Kikyou's soul leave her body and get inside yours. I had a chat with Miroku the other night and he said his religion doesn't even believe in the concept of souls."
"The demon Urasue~"
"I don't know what machinations Urasue had used to revive Kikyou. Maybe she used your life force or something. But if she's claiming a part of your soul's still inside Kikyou, its utter bullshit."
Kagome gasped and sputtered. Whatever she had been told, whatever she had believed ever since she arrived at the Sengoku jidai, surely couldn't be a lie. Her whole belief system was starting to shake. I'm not Kikyou?
"The soul is eternal, indestructible…indivisible. It cannot be cut by weapons or burned by fire. No part of your soul dwells in Kikyou, you are whole and complete, just like everybody else."
"Well, if I'm whole then I'm wholly Kikyou. Yay for me." Said Kagome, morosely.
"Wrong. You are wholly Kagome. Ka-go-me. There was never a time when you, or I, or that houshi, or the old hag wasn't here on earth. And there won't be a time in future when we won't be here. Everyone is being born, everyone dies and everyone is being reborn. But does that make me someone other than Inuyasha, or the houshi someone other than Miroku? What we are right now, in this moment, is what matters."
"I guess so…"
"Will it do you even a bit of good to look into my past? Maybe I was human, maybe I had a family – wife, children, grandchildren. How does that matter now?"
"It doesn't."
"Maybe you were Kikyou in your past life or maybe you weren't. But that life is gone, ended, done and over with. It was cut off at death and now utterly ceases to exist. You are Kagome now. Isn't that all that matters?"
"Inuyasha…I never knew you were such a deep thinker."
"Keh! I'm not stupid, girl. I've been in this world for centuries. That teaches you a thing or two about life."
He gave her a pat on her shoulder and walked away, leaving her feeling both comforted and a little bit in awe of her protector.