AN: Hey it's me TimeLadyTinkerbell or Tinker just for short. Anyways this is my second story on ffn ever! I had it kind of sitting on my laptop and so I decided to post it because I didn't have time to write a new chapter for my Naruto Fanfic, Halfpace, due to finals. I should have that updated by Tuesday sometime. Anyways, its basicly another YYHxIY crossover. In this one instead of there being one final battle, against Naraku, there was one devastating war consisting of multiple battles where just about everyone dies. Eventually Kagome makes her wish, however Naraku is not actually defeated duunn, Dunnn, DUUNNN! In the YYH world this takes place after the three kings arc with a few differences. Firstly, Raizen is still alive (I like the guy lol) he was just to weak to fight in the battle. Raizen was somehow (magic whoo~) converted over to eating the equivalent of human flesh make up wise, just mixed onto animal meat. Secondly, since this fic will be Kagome/Yusuke, when Yusuke returned to the human world Keiko had moved on and married some other person. Yusuke returns to the demon world and only visits the human one every month or so to see him mom, Kuwabara, and train with Genkai.
Disclaimer: I own neither Inuyasha nor Yu Yu Hakusho, they belong to Rumiko Takahashi and Yoshihiro Togashi respectively. I do however make a claim to the Bia/Nemesis creature/goddess and the most of the plot (or at least the ideas that haven't been overly used before).
-Epithymy: Desire, Lust. Not to be confused with epiphany.-
The battle had been fierce. The clash of swords, the thwump of skin hitting skin, and the screams of those who had fallen were the sounds that filled the area. For many miles in each direction the earth itself had been upturned. Blood and body parts colored the dismal battle ground.
Gaining the final shards of the Shikon from Naraku was turning out to be a much more grisly affair then it was first believed. The war had lasted two years so far and we had lost so many.
Over there lay Sesshomaru, the former Lord of the Western Lands. He had been the first to foresee what was coming and as such had started to prepare them. He took the Shikon Miko, Kagome Higurashi, and trained her for the better part of a year: on hand-to-hand combat, mental organization and protection, and supplied a tutor further control over her own purification powers. The noble demon that held his honor and his human daughter, Rin, above all else held the position of war general during the battle and led the troops from all four major provinces into the bloody battle. He had been the last to fall of Kagome's friends. After hearing the news of a raid on his manor that resulted in the death of his beloved daughter, and Kagome's own adopted kitsune son Shippo, he transformed into his giant Inu form and tore through the rest of Naraku's troops, only to be impaled by the very sword he had discarded in his rage.
Inuyasha; half-demon, half-brother to Sesshomaru, and former crush of the Shikon Miko, fell while protecting the dead body of his past lover the former Shikon Miko, Kikyo. In his dying moments the pulled himself to her body and held her close.
Miroku, the mischievous monk of the former Inu-tachi, died almost a month before while absorbing to many poisonous insects into the black hole residing within his hand. He also took near half of Naraku's low power minions with him.
Finally, Sango who was Kagome's sister in everything but blood. The demon slayer female died while trying to convert her younger brother back to the way he was before the corrupted shard of the Shikon was placed in his back. Kohaku, her brother, took off her head and then realizing what he had done stabbed himself through his chest, ripping out the jewel shard.
Now only Naraku and Kagome remained. The combat technique taught to Kagome was completely useless as she could not get close enough to use it, nor did she even have the energy left to. The spider hanyou however wasn't fairing much better. Deep un-healing gashes danced across this body, he had an eternal sheen of sweat, and he seemed to gain in pallor with each passing second.
With a speed the woman didn't know she possessed and with one hand on her jewel shards, the Shikon Miko surged forward. Appearing directly in front of the spider, she reached her non-occupied hand out and brushed it over the half-demon's chest. The final pieces of the Shikon lay there. Ignoring the sudden pain that seemed to pierce through her lungs, the Miko focused on one thought, 'I wish that everyone caused pain by Naraku's greed would find peace and happiness; that everything would go back to the way it should have been.' Then there was white.
Eyelids feeling heavy, I struggled to open my eyes. I was in a white room. The beeping to my left signaled that I was at a hospital.
Snapping into a sitting position my thoughts assaulted me. Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Inuyasha, Rin, and even Sesshomaru were dead. Feeling tears streak down my face, I hastily scrubbed them away. Trying to organize my chaotic thoughts I sunk back into my mindscape, like Sesshomaru taught me.
After passing through my own defenses I opened a pure white door, which looked remarkably like the door that leads to my room back in Mama's home. Unlike my room, however it contained shelving units and bookcases that reached up to thirty feet high and were filled with various scrolls. Above each unit was a glowing sign indicating what it contained.
Walking through the columns, that formed a circular maze, I reached the center of the maze. A small cherry wood table with intricate designs carved into it, sat in the very middle of the open center of the area. The table was pilled high with various scrolls that I had yet to organize into my memory library. What was surprising though was that there was someone already sitting at the small table.
Seeing the mirror reflection of my face dressed in priestess garb with armor over it, I looked at the visage of the Lady Midoriko, who was palming a small light lavender colored sphere. I tensed in preparation for anything. The doppelganger, however just smiled. Then, with a voice like chiming bells that seemed to pour from every corner of my library with out being any louder then a whisper, she spoke. "Young Miko, savior of all three worlds, there is no need for wariness. I have come to settle the debt that I owe you for your service and sacrifice." There was a pause in which the Lady-creature absorbed the Shikon and her entire body and clothing turned a light lavender and glowed with the power of the jewel.
"The form of the Lady Midoriko was convenient, as the one who first absorbed the jewel her form is easy for us to access. We however are known as the Shikon no Tama."
"The human belief is that Midoriko created us. This is untrue. She was our protector and she gave the ultimate sacrifice in order to protect us from evil. She did not however create us. Our story began with creation. The earth at the beginning was filled with gods, all gods of every culture and belief. We are unsure of how we arrived there, but on day we were just there. The Greek goddess, Bia, was the one who upset the balance. She wished for a race to rule over and so she created one, out of her own power. These new beings were ruled by their baser instincts wrought from violence and the underworld. We called them demons or yokai. Another goddess by the name of Nemesis who believed in divine spirit and justice took this opportunity to form her own race. She called them Blessed, they were the priestess and monks. Their holy power burnt the flesh of the demon-kind and the yokai tore into the blessed with an untamable fever. Soon the planet was overturned and the fighting between the two races caused the gods themselves to take action. Together the gods pulled their powers and bound Nemesis and Bia together in an all powerful object, then fled from their own skin. They descended onto a higher plain and left the flesh they used to wear behind. This created the fourth races humans. While the yokai and the blessed continued to fight over the jewel that now held their maker's souls, the humans bred and populated their world. Over time the true story of what happened became warped and forgotten. Your wish freed us from our captivity, however unfortunately our very essences have melded together and we can no longer separate. With your wish the singular realm was split into three. One was for the humans and blessed. Another was for the demons. The last was formed for those gods and goddess' that had ascended to another plain. We believe that by doing us this service we owe you greatly and see fit to grant you boons of our own choosing."
The multi-goddess bled into the floor and then crawled up the walls and book cases in my mindscape. It formed intricate, glowing, light lavender symbols, and spoke again. "Firstly, you will retain your purification abilities even when there is no other that holds such a gift. Next, your life span will be lengthened to that of a yokai. Finally, our knowledge and protection of such knowledge is you to use at your own leisure." The multi-goddess said, and a new book case formed packed tightly with scrolls. "Those involved in the battle you had will remember your sacrifice. Now it is time for you to wake. Your mother is waiting for you."
One month later
It had been a shock to see myself in a mirror for the first time when I returned home from the hospital. I had apparently tripped and fell down the well while looking for Buyo my family cat. I was fifteen again and I would have believed that I was having some kind of coma induced delusion, like my family thought, had there not have been so many changes to my fifteen year old body.
My hair which during the war had transformed into wild curls, was back at its fifteen year old state of slight waviness. Unlike Kikyo whose hair was pin straight, and Midoriko's whose hair never evolved past its wavy state; my hair grew thick and curled, landing everywhere as I grew.
I had somehow retained most of the muscle mass that I had obtained in the feudal era. The inherent grace and spatial awareness that I had started to move with, while training under Sesshomaru, was also retained.
My once sky blue eyes were now a light lavender that was parallel to the Shikon no Tama. The doctors believed this to be an after effect of some sort of head trauma that I had endured when I fell down he well. However, I knew differently. Not only were my purification abilities more powerful then ever before, but they also shown through my eyes as a sort of warning beacon- similar to animals in the wild that were bright colored. To any demon out there my eyes would scream Miko, purification, and DANGER!
The most disturbing change to my fifteen year old body though, was the scars. All of the scars that I had received since my first trip down the well were engraved on my body. Each scar had faded monumentally since they had been first received, but I would never be able to go out into public with out covering my skin from collar bones to ankles. Thin, delicate, and nearly translucent white scars; ran over my torso, arms, and legs like spider silk. Thicker light periwinkle colored scars crisscrossed over my back and legs. Small half-moon claw marks dug their way into my forearms and danced across my neck. One long and pale pink scar, thick and my pointer finger, spanned from my left collarbone to my right hip bone. I was one of the lucky ones in the war. I had no missing limbs or major disfigurements; even my face was mostly spared. I had one thin translucent white scar that cut through my right eyebrow. My scars were a mystery to the doctors. I had just had a check-up three weeks before the fall and had none of these, but they were all aged at ten years or older. For me, however the scars provided both a sense of relief and revulsion. They were the safety net that told me it wasn't all a dream and the wounds that filled my nightmares.
It was three weeks after my nineteenth birthday that I was first attacked by demons, yokai that weren't supposed to exist in this world. I had grown lax in my training since I was told that my wish had separated them into their own world. I figured that with the Shikon jewel gone there was no reason for me to be targeted, I was wrong.
It was a cold and dark night. I had been running laps around a local park and lost track of time. Turning to go home I started a light jog in my new apartment's direction. Out of no where I sensed a demonic aura. A low powered yoki suddenly appeared three meters in front of me.
The demon looked to be some variety of ogre. Its skin was a dark red and calloused all over its body. Its lower jaw jutted out like a cartoon pit-bull, complete with two razor sharp teeth. Devil-like horns and long claws completed the image. Its voice was a mix between grunts and the screech of nails on a chalkboard when it spoke, "Hahh… So you're the baka ningen that smells sooo—oohh-hooo hahh… delicious!"
Jerking backwards at its harsh voice I went to turn and run when I suddenly felt five more, low yokai presences behind me. Turning anyways I spotted a gap in between their outstretched arms and charged through and ran back into the park.
Running quickly I titled my head behind me to be sure that I had lost them when my body crashed into a hard figure. The both of us toppled over with me landing on top my hands on their bare biceps and theirs on my sweat pants clothed thighs. Face to face I was surprise to feel the powerful yoki rushing under my fingers. Eyes widening in surprise not at the fall, but at the fact that I hadn't even sensed him and he held such a large amount of power, I gazed into his chocolate brown eyes. His yoki was addicting as it suddenly spread out over my skin like a breath of warm air. I had to stop myself from shuddering at the pure comfort it sent racing through my body.
His hair was a deep inky black and was gelled back into place with only a few falling out of place, and his skin was a tan and seemed to exude warmth under my touch. Our noses were only a half inch apart and I could barely breathe. Then, I felt the low level yokai approaching and I shoved myself up off of him with a blush staining my normally pale skin.
While standing up, I absently noticed that his yoki had actually expanded outwards so that it could still cover my skin. Finally holding out my hand I offered the male yokai an apology, "I-I'm so sorry for bumping into you. I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings." While it wasn't exactly true that I wasn't paying attention, but rather that he hid his yoki so well that I couldn't sense it, it was easier to play the role of dumb and unaware human.
Squaring my shoulders as he grabbed my hand and I heaved him up, I was surprised as warmth jolted through my body again. My anxiety however overtook my surprise as I felt the six low level yokai closing in on our location. Looking back over my shoulder I knew we that either this guy in front of me or I, myself; could easily dispose of the less powerful yokai, but that would involve revealing my purification abilities and/or knowledge in front of the stronger demon that could most likely easily kill me.
Tongue darting across my lips, a sort of nervous habit I had developed that Sesshomaru would have had me drawn and quartered for, I speak to the male yokai in front of me." Hey, umm- it's, it's not exactly safe here at the moment," I say in hopes to get him to leave the area without involving himself in any sort of conflict. His eyes widen slightly before a sort of easy-going smile flashes on his features. My insides now thoroughly melted, I try and discuss further; but he cuts me off. "You can sense them then?" Tilting his head he continues, "but you don't even have any sort of reiki."
At his words a sort of righteous indignation, that came with being underestimated for so long even after spending such a time training to better myself, rushed through my body. Releasing a portion of my purification powers in a burst around myself, I dissipated the male's yoki which had still been enshrouding me in warmth.
Stepping forward I charged my finger with just enough power to sting and jabbed it into his chest. "Listen here buddy, I can take care of myself just fine let alone sense some weakling yokai! I was only worried about your safety should they get through a gap or something," I said in a huff.
The male yokai's eyes widened in what I thought to be shock, but soon discovered was not. Their focus was narrowed in concentration, on my purification charged appendage, and their pupils dilated with some foreign emotion that I was unfamiliar with. Suddenly recalling information from the Shikon library shelf, I moved my hand to my side and stepped back wearily.
'Miko evolution and demon reactions through the ages: As the war between the two races waged on Miko's evolved a sort of ability regarding humans, who had become their allies. The Miko's very aura brought a sense of calming serenity to the humans. It made the humans more likely to trust them and follow their commands. Unfortunately, however this advantage towards the humans did not carry over to demons. Demons if anything seemed to become addicted to the Miko's intoxicating aura and started hunting them like never before and devouring them whole. One species of yokai, the Mazoku, became so dependant on Miko flesh that when the priestess' became extinct due to mass hunting they were only able to survive by eating the flesh of humans.'
'Those demons earlier thought that I smelled delicious!' I thought with growing horror.Glancing behind me, before my eyes darted back to the male in front of me, I attempted to run in another direction. Only to be caught by the wrist and pulled backwards into the higher level yokai's chest. My eyes widened in growing horror as the gaggle of low level yokai appeared in front of us.
The yokai holding me wrapped his left arm around me in a vice like grip with his right arm out and pointer finger pointed at the in coming six. Then almost as if sensing my unease the male released a sort of comforting purr that I recognized that Sesshomaru used to calm Rin's nightmares. His yoki once again lapped out of his body, this time thicker and seeming to caress my skin right through my clothes. Then, his pointer finger charged with energy and shot outward instantly killing all six demons.
Overwhelmed, I felt my vision getting hazy from a combination fear, the constant rumbling against my back, and the warm, powerful yoki surrounding me. The last thing I thought was, 'This is how it's going to end. I fought the most evil demon in existence and won. I gained the Lord Sesshomaru of the Western Land's respect. I watched all of my friends die before me. I free a goddess from captivity and forged three worlds. And I'm going to die in a park being devoured by some unknown super-powered demon, who's yoki gives me the warm-and-fuzzies.'
AN: Well this ended six pages w/o an authors note and about 6 ½ with one. Hope you enjoyed and feel free to leave reviews!