Walking through the dense forest around Edo, Kagome leaned down and pick another needed herb, adding it to the fast growing pile in her basket. Straightening up, she gave a small sigh and looked around her. The forest looked beautiful at this time of day with the sunlight filtering through the canopy, dappling the shrubbery and plants with sunlight, giving it an ethereal look. The flowers were all blooming, and many herbs were abundant throughout the area during this time of the year. Dusting imaginary dirt off of her dark blue hakama, Kagome continued picking the herbs she needed for the villagers in through this part of the forest until she got to a familiar clearing. A sad look coming into her eyes, she walked forward and come to the center of the clearing, running her fingers over the worn and aged wood. With practiced grace, she sat down and leaned against the old well, head resting against the worn ledge. Kagome sighed and looked down at the basket of herbs next to her and her mind filled with the memories of what has happened in the past six months.
~Flashback~
Six months before the final battle, Sesshomaru joined the Inu-Tachi at the respectful request of Kagome, much to the irritation of a certain inuhanyou we all know. It wasn't easy for either group at first, but Kagome kept Inuyasha in line and made sure everyone got along with each other as they traveled together in search of Naraku's whereabouts and the final fragments of the Shikon no Tama. After a long discussion with the members of both groups, they sent the children along with Jaken and Ah-Un to Kaede's to be better protected, because they all knew that Naraku would have found some way to use Rin or Shippo against them in the final battle. Not even three days after sending the children away, Naraku and his hordes of mindless youkai attacked them where they intended to camp for the night in a peaceful meadow. The battle had been long and hard, but in the end the Inu-Tachi and Sesshomaru's pack had won. Sesshomaru and Inuyasha combined their greatest attacks along with one of her powerful purifying arrows and blasted the now barrier-less dark hanyou into oblivion. After the explosion, all that was left of the terrifying hanyou was ash and the other half of the Shikon no Tama. Kagome walked over and as the two brother's watched, she picked it up, and with a just a touch of her fingers it glowed pure once more as it joined together. As she stood there with the complete Shikon in her palms, she looked around the battle ravaged scene.
Miroku was comforting a crying Sango, who was hunched over Kohaku's dead body. In a last ditch attempt to gain more power and win the fight, Naraku pulled the shard from Kohaku while he was fighting with Sango. Kagura and Kanna's remains lay not too far from the ashes of Naraku, having been killed when they decided to turn on the vile hanyou and help the Inu-Tachi. Blood, gore, body parts, and things she couldn't identify in the rubble lay strewn across what used to be a peaceful meadow. Seeing movement out of the corner of her eye, Kagome turned and watched as Inuyasha walked with a sad look on his face over to where a broken bow lay.
Kagome had been surprised when Kikyo had shown up on the side of the Inu-Tachi, proclaiming that she could no longer stand by and let Naraku taint the world with his evil. Towards the end of the battle, Naraku had grabbed Kikyo with one of his tentacles and used her as a shield against one of Inuyasha's attacks. Kikyo knew she could not dodge the attack while in Naraku's grasp, so she used the last of her power to purify most of Naraku through his tentacle as she got hit with the attack, her clay body disintegrating on impact.
Kagome looked down at the glowing jewel in her hand and tried to think of an unselfish wish. After many minutes she came to the sad conclusion that there was no such thing as an unselfish wish. Whatever wish she could make would not only benefit others, but also herself in the end in a roundabout way. Mere seconds after she finished that thought, a bright whitish-pink light engulfed her and the Shikon no Tama. After the bright light faded, she saw that she could no longer see the battlefield and was in a place that was completely white and surrounded by swirling white mist. Sensing something of power in this weird place, Kagome turned around and she came face to face with the Shikon Miko herself, the great Midoriko.
Midoriko stepped forward and gave her a sad smile and said, "I see you have found the true curse of the Shikon no Tama...there is no such thing as a pure and unselfish wish Kagome."
Kagome gaped at Midoriko, still not quite believing what she was seeing. Then after a few moments bowed her head, her bangs covering her face. "So it is true... I had hoped it could not be...Midoriko-sama...what will happen now?"
The great miko stepped forward and gently put a hand on Kagome's face, lifting it to meet her eyes. "Many things young one." She gave her another sad smile and said, "I am sorry my child, but the well has sealed itself now that the Shikon no Tama is whole once again and where it belongs. You will no longer be able to travel to the era of your birth."
Kagome's sapphire blue eyes widened with shock and filled with tears. Collapsing to her knees, she covered her face and began to sob. "Why?! I've done all that I have needed to do here! Why can't I just go home?! I-I'll never see Momma or Souta or Grampa ever again..."
Midoriko looked down at the crying woman and sat before her, taking her hands from her face and placing them within her own. "Oh my child...do not despair. You will see your family again." Kagome didn't look up, she just sat there with her head bowed, tears rolling down her face. Midoriko sighed. "Kagome, you did what you were supposed to. Fate and the Kami led you to this time where you were needed to help save others from that dark hanyou. Could you imagine if you had not come here and Naraku found other ways to empower himself? I know that this era and even yours would have been affected in an unimaginable way. I am sorry child...no one truly knows what the Kami or even Fate has planned for us, not even I." Midoriko raised one of her hands and gently brushed the tears from Kagome's cheeks before returning her hand to hold the young miko's once more. "I think that the Kami have decided that this is to be your era now. I know that this hurts, but I know that you are strong and will overcome your grief." Still looking down but not really seeing, Kagome nodded to indicate that she was listening. Midoriko rubbed her hands over the young miko's. "The Shikon no Tama needs a strong and pure guardian Kagome. The Kami have told me that they have decided that having it passed down through the generations of miko is too much of a risk. After all, you know what happened with Kikyo. And that is something the Kami do not want to risk happening again. But you are pure...in both heart and soul. I do not think that there has ever been a guardian quite like you Kagome. You think of others before yourself, even at your own risk. You hold no hate or ill intent towards anyone no matter what species they may be. You didn't even hate Naraku, instead you felt sorrow for him and all of things he went through to become the monster he was. You are so very special." Midoriko took a deep breath and clasped the young miko's hands a little tighter. "Kagome...the Kami have told me to tell you that they have decided that you will become the Shikon no Tama's eternal guardian."
Kagome snapped her head up, her sapphire eyes wide and shocked. "What does that mean Midoriko-sama?"
Midoriko gave her a smile smile and said, "The Shikon no Tama will go back to where it belongs my child, inside of your body where you were born with it. In order to protect it properly and to make sure that no one with evil in their heart can get to it, it will be merged with your body and soul, never to be separated again. You will be the very embodiment of the Shikon Kagome. You will never age, you cannot die from mortal disease or from the bite of a weapon. Your powers will be greater than any miko to have ever lived, including myself."
Kagome could not believe what she was hearing. First she finds out she can't go home. And NOW she is the eternal guardian of the Shikon no Tama! Wait...no...she will BE the Shikon no Tama! Looking at Midoriko with an incredulous look on her face she asked, "So...is that what you meant by saying I would see my family again?"
The great miko smiled a true smile, and stroked Kagome's face with her hand. "Yes my child, that is what I meant."
Kagome's brow furrowed for a second. "Midoriko-sama...why do you keep calling me 'my child'"?
Midoriko smiled again and gave a small laugh. "I just knew you were going to ask me that question. Kagome dear, you are not Kikyo's reincarnation."
Kagome's eyes went wide, and she promptly fell straight over in shock. Midoriko stared for a moment and then burst out laughing. After a few moments of being bent over laughing at the look on Kagome's face, she straightened up and then proceeded to help the shocked miko into a sitting position. Kagome's mind was whirling. Whose reincarnation was she? "Um...Midoriko-sama...then whose reincarnation am I?"
Midoriko smiled again, her blue eyes sparkling. "Kagome, before the battle that sealed my fate, I was in love with a wonderful man named Hisoji from my village. We had planned to settle down, and I planned to give up my role as a miko to live out my life as his wife. Unfortunately, that was taken away from me."
Kagome cocked her head to the side, "Okay...but what does that have to do with me Midoriko-sama?"
The great miko looked at her for a second, and then flicked the impatient woman on the nose. Giggling a little bit at the reaction that got out of the kneeling miko in front of her, Midoriko continued on with her story. "My, you are so impatient! You so remind me of her...Anyways, when I did not come back from the battle, Hisoji moved on and married another. He married a nice young woman named Kohana, and they had three children, two boys and one girl. Their two boys grew up to be successful merchants, and raised families of their own. Their youngest child Yokina never married and grew up to help many people, she was a beautiful young woman who had a wonderful heart and pure soul. Do you know who Kohana and Yokina were Kagome?"
Kagome looked at Midoriko with a confused expression. "Umm...no. Should I?"
Midoriko laughed and said, "Kagome dear, Kohana was my sister. Yokina was my niece. And she was a powerful miko in her own right. Kagome, you are the reincarnation of my niece Yokina, not Kikyo."
Kagome put a hand over her racing heart and thought to herself, 'Jeeze...I don't think I can take much more...First I find out I can't go home, then I'm the guardian of the Shikon, and now I am the reincarnation of Midoriko-sama's niece?! What's next?!' Calming her raging heart and mind, Kagome looked at Midoriko and noticed the amused expression on her face. Sighing, Kagome asked, "So I'm the reincarnation of your niece? So am I related to you...or is my soul related to you...can I call you oba-san?"
Midoriko laughed a little and said, " Yes, you can call me Aunt."
Kagome, still a little shocked, just sat there for a moment before regaining her thoughts. "Oba-san, what will happen to you now?"
Midoriko smiled, this young woman never did think of herself for very long. Patting her hands she replied, "I will move on to the next plane. Though I will always be with you whenever you need me Kagome. After all, the Shikon was made of myself, so a little piece of myself will forever be inside you. Now...I think it is time to send you back. You do have a destiny to complete you know."
Before Kagome could say anymore, she was back in the battlefield laying on her back with Miroku and Sango looking down on her with concerned faces. Blinking, Kagome sat up and smiled a sad smile. Sango saw this and asked, "Kagome, are you alright? You were standing there with the Shikon and then all of the sudden a bright light came from it and when it died down you were laying on your back not moving."
Standing up, Kagome brushed off her miko haori and hakama. "Yeah...I'm alright Sango. Are you okay?"
Sango gave her a look that said 'we are talking about this later' and said, "Yes, nothing a few bandages won't help."
Nodding, she turned and looked around for Inuyasha and found him sitting on the ground with the broken bow in his hands, a sorrowful look on his face. She sighed and said to the two, "I'll be right back guys."
She walked over to the inuhanyou, picking her way through the debris and bodies. Kneeling down next to him she inquired, "Are you okay Inuyasha?"
Getting no answer after a few minutes, she got up and turned to leave. Before she even took one step a voice halted her progress. "Give me the Shikon...I need to bring her back..."
Kagome whipped around, her blue-black hair flying. "What...?"
Inuyasha then stood up, the broken bow still clutched in his white-knuckled hands, head bowed. "Give me the Shikon no Tama Kagome...I need to bring her back. She shouldn't have died like that..."
Shocked, Kagome gave the inuhanyou a sad smile. "I'm sorry Inuyasha. I can't."
The hanyou's head snapped up, fury in his golden yellow eyes. "WHAT?! Why not?!"
The battle weary miko sighed, and slowly shook her head. She looked at Inuyasha with a resigned look in her sapphire eyes. "Inuyasha...the Shikon no longer exists. It is back where it belongs."
Inuyasha's eyes grew wide, and then after a moment narrowed. "You already wished on it, didn't you!?"
Sighing, she said, "No I didn't Inuyasha. I couldn't, because there is no such thing as an unselfish wish. I discovered that after talking with Midoriko-sama. Inuyasha...no one can wish on the jewel now, so please, just drop it....okay?" After that Kagome turned around to walk back to where Sesshomaru, Miroku, and Sango were, intent on helping them with their wounds, leaving a dejected and heartbroken Inuyasha behind her.
After the final battle, everyone journeyed back to Edo. After getting there, Sesshomaru left for the Western lands soon after arriving there with Rin, Jaken and Ah-Un. Soon the news of Naraku's defeat spread, and a huge celebration was thrown at in Edo in honor of the people who defeated the vile hanyou. As expected, Inuyasha was nowhere in sight while the rest of the Inu-Tachi celebrated.
When everything died down a few days later, Inuyasha finally showed back up, looking haggard and worse for the wear. It took him a few weeks, but he started talking to Kagome again, though it wasn't more than just a few words at a time. She knew he was angry with her for not bringing Kikyo back, but she could just not bring herself to care. It was out of her hands now that the Shikon was fused with her. Soon after Inuyasha came back to Edo, Shippo had found some relatives of his mother that were living a ways south from them, and decided to go and visit them, wanting to improve on his kitsune powers. But before he left he attended Sango and Miroku's wedding with Kagome, with the rest of the village also in attendance. The newly married pair moved into a hut not too far away from her's and Kaede's, intent on finally creating that family they thought they would never get a chance to make.
~End Flashback~
Sighing again, he still wasn't talking to her, she mused in her head. Kagome stood up and gathered her basket. Giving one last forlorn look towards the old well, she headed down the worn path back to the village. Soon she was in the middle of the village square, responding to the many greeting the villagers gave her. Making her way past Kaede's hut, she quickly came to the small hut that was now her home. Pushing aside the reed mat door, she set down her basket near the door to be sorted later and made her way to the back of the hut. The young miko gathered some of the already prepared herbs and a few remedies that Kaede requested, and made her way back out of the hut and out into the sunshine. Shielding her eyes from the summer sun, she walked no more than ten feet and was at Kaede's door. Stepping forward, she went through and greeted the two auras she could feel inside. "Hi Sango! Hi Kaede-sama!"
Looking up from her tea, Kaede smiled. "Hello child. Come, sit and have tea with us."
Sango smiled as well and said, "Hey Kagome! How are you?"
Kagome sat down next to Sango after handing Kaede the previously mentioned items and smiled at her heart's sister. "I am good, just got finished collecting herbs and I thought I would come over and see how you guys were while I dropped off a few things."
Sango smiled, and looked her sister over. She had changed a lot in the almost five years that had passed since she fell through the well at fifteen. Her blue-black hair was much longer and wavier now, reaching to mid-thigh. Her face had lost that baby-fat, making her face look so much more mature and beautiful. Her eyes still sparkled like the deep blue ocean, though they were a bit more reserved now. Kagome was now as tall as she was, reaching 5'5. And her figure was toned, lithe, curved and filled out, making it the body of a woman rather than a girl. Now, no one could mistake her for Kikyo. "Oh, I am fine, I just came for a check up."
Kagome raised an eyebrow. "A check up?"
Sango giggled and blushed. "It seems that Miroku is finally getting the child he asked me to bear him..."
Kagome's face nearly split in half with her smile she was so happy. "Really!? Are you serious?! Oh Kami, congratulations Sango!" She leaned over and gave her sister a happy hug, her eyes sparkling with joy for her. "How far along are you?"
"Thank you Kagome! Miroku is going to be so surprised! I mean, it hasn't even been that long since we have been married! And I am only a week along!" Sango giggled in excitement, and sipped her tea. Then she asked out of the blue, "Hey! Kagome, isn't your twentieth birthday coming up soon?"
Kagome's eyes widened, and remembered. Wow, she forgot her own birthday! "Oh...yeah! I completely forgot about that!"
Kaede shook her head and smiled at the two young women in her hut. "How could ye forget thine own birthday child?"
Kagome ran a hand threw her hair and gave her a sheepish look. "Heheh...I was busy?"
Kaede sighed and then smacked Kagome over the head with the soup spoon. "Ye work thyself too hard. Ye are too young to be so serious. Ye need to let go and have fun sometimes child. Then when ye are old like mine-self, you can be serious."
Rubbing her hand over the sore spot on her head, Kagome sighed. "I know Kaede-sama...I've just been doing a lot of thinking lately."
Sango took a sip of her tea and looked at her dear friend. "About what Kagome?"
Kagome also took a sip of her tea and looked towards the door. "Oh...lots of things. I've just been so restless lately. Its not that I don't like living here...I just feel like....Oh I don't know. And with Inuyasha acting the way he is, it is getting hard not to s.i.t. him to oblivion every time I see him." She gave a small huff. "Augh...I need a break from that infuriating hanyou."
Kaede looked up from stirring the stew and said, "Aye, that would be a good idea child."
Sango nodded. "Kagome, why don't you go on a trip and just travel around for a while? Hey! Why don't you go after your birthday? And you could come back when the baby is born in the spring."
Kaede looked at Sango and then refilled her tea before saying, "Aye child, depart after thine birthday and return upon the birth of Sango's babe. It would give ye time to cure thine restlessness and find thy inner peace again."
Kagome looked down at her tea and thought to herself for a few moments. 'Well...it would give me the time to sort of calm down and find myself again with the constant irritation of Inuyasha's attitude...and I haven't been traveling by myself before, so it could be a great new experience for me...' Kagome snapped her head up and smiled. "Sounds like a good idea to me! My birthday is two days from now, so after that I will head out and have an adventure of my own!"
"What adventure?"
All three looked to the door where the voice came from, seeing a certain inuhanyou with a frown on his face. Sango frowned at the look on his face and said, "Kagome is going on a trip after her birthday."
Inuyasha 'Humphed' and sat down near the door. "Feh. As if she could take care of herself well enough to do that. She couldn't even bring back Kik-" Before Inuyasha could finish that sentence, he made friends with the floor.
"OSWARI!! You asshole, don't even finish that sentence! I don't care what you think! If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all you selfish mutt!" And with that last statement Kagome got up, walked over Inuyasha and went out of the hut and back into her own, putting up a barrier so a certain stupid hanyou couldn't in. Sighing, she sat down by the fire pit and made herself a simple dinner of rice and fish. Leaning her head against the back of the wall, she sighed and thought to herself, 'Why do I let him get to me so badly? Ugh...I just wish he would drop it! Its not like I can do anything about it! Stupid Inubaka...I'll show him! Screw waiting until after my birthday, I'm leaving tomorrow night!' With a gleam in her sapphire blue eyes, Kagome stood up and moved to the back of the hut where she kept all of her supplies and proceeded to start packing. Pulling her trusty now more brown than yellow bag out of the corner, she started to fill it with all of the different items she would need. Homemade soaps, herbs, clothes, her Sai's which were a gift from Sesshomaru, arrow making supplies, her water bottles, kettle, sleeping bag, and other useful items were packed neatly in the aged yellow-brown monstrosity. Setting it by her futon, Kagome checked the fire and then lay down, her mind now filled with plans of travel, finding herself, and adventures of her own.