AN: I have forgotten I have written this story. It's been such a long time that I was actually thinking it was written by somebody else ;)
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, nor do I gain any money from this story.
The Gods have decided to punish the great Lord of the Western Lands. And to do that the Shikon Miko – the holiest of all, the Gods themselves included – was to be sacrificed. The most selfless soul that ever existed – she never thought of her safety, health, happiness or well-being, putting everyone else around her on the first place, loving them and treating them all the same – she was assured a place among the Gods themselves. Her selfless and kindness were overlooked however by the greedy, jealous and vengeful Gods in their path to destroy the Lord Youkai.
Why this path they have chosen? It was because the power the youkai has gained in the human realm. By being the single most powerful demon in the world, he was treated with the reverence and respect any God was, and humans and demons were easy to forget about the real Gods that protected them, thus bringing their wrath.
The sacrifice decided, they proceeded with their plan. It was not easy, but through well placed remarks of the wonderful untainted soul of the Shikon Miko to the God of Underworld, they assured that he will take her and taint and break her, transforming her into one of the blackest and cruelest souls ever. Why would this affect the Demon Lord? Because in their sneakiness, the Gods have more guessed than observed his slight inclination towards her. They knew that given the right push, he would come to terms with his feelings and he would try to save her, thus condemning himself to Hell.
It was the day of her 18th birthday when the God of Death has opened a portal to the human world and stole the Shikon Miko away. Her power was tremendous as her coming of age has actually increased it into full maturity. It was not without pain to touch her and bring her into his dark realm; but pain was something he was used to, something he loved and encouraged. It was not as he planned it though, since the great Sesshoumaru did not rush in after her, neither did he seem adept into trying. He was his stoic self, not allowing any emotion or to that matter any thought to pass on his angelic looking features.
Kagome on the other side has shown everything the demon did not: the love she had for her friends, the loss of said friends and her family and the uncertainty of what happened to her. She did not cry like he wanted her, and she did not ask for help, since she has felt the darkness in his own soul and the power radiating in him. On the contrary she just asked them – begged them – to not come after her or try to save her. Despite the desperation he could see in her eyes once she realized where she was and that there was to be an eternity of pain and isolation for her with no possibility of reincarnating her soul, she did not object in any way other than asking to know why she was dragged into Hell.
Years passed and her loneliness increased but she did not give into the despair. Her soul was as pure as the day of her abduction and she only grew stronger and more determined to resist the eternal pain and darkness the God of Death decided to visit on her. The taunts that none of her friends have tried to save her and that no one loved her in her life were very hard to live with but she always remembered Inuyasha's brotherly love, Sango's sisterly affection and Miroku's somewhat lecherous but affectionate self. Her fox kit was the one that popped into her mind the most, together with the memory of the friendship she had started to develop with the Lord of the West, always thinking and worrying for him and all her friends and family. It was this that gave her power, and after a while the God of Death came to the conclusion she will not be easily broken, if ever. Her always increasing power and strength made him weary of approaching her directly, since her miko energy was actually capable of burning him. It was only natural that a soul as pure as Kagome's will never belong into the Underworld.
As years passed and she was never found, the group continued on. The Shikon having being actually purified and absorbed back into Kagome's body before her disappearance and Naraku long dead, they have been able to move on with their lives, though not forgetting the selfless miko. The memory of her lived in every person she has encountered and helped, even if it were only with just a smile, and her immediate friends have looked for her desperately with no success in finding her. Sango and Miroku have found peace in the former's destroyed village, rebuilding it in her memory and leaving by the teachings she has unknowingly bestowed on them. Shippou stayed with them most of the times, but he was the most affected by her disappearance and often times would just wander off in search for his kaa-san. Inuyasha was ever the immature adolescent, acting the tough one, but everyone knew he was devastated by her kidnapping. It was two years after she was gone they have actually understood what happened with her when Sesshoumaru happened upon them looking for her in his Lands.
He was the one to tell them that the young priestess was now and forever lost to them and taken into the Underworld by the God himself. When the knowledge of her whereabouts was acquired, they were all set on going after them, but as Sesshoumaru – in one of his very good moods apparently – decided to explain that there was no way of getting into Hell without remaining there themselves, they have lost hope of ever seeing her.
It was years later when they have noticed the change in the Western Lord. The ruthlessness and brutality with which he was punishing the ones who did not obey the rules, and the determination he fought with against anyone who made a remark about the Gods and their kindness were the most striking changes. They have made his younger half-brother think and realize that Sesshoumaru must have been attached, more than any of them has thought, to the lively, friendly and selfless Kagome. Rumors had reached his ears of him searching for ways of opening the Gates of Hell and of actually breaking their father's legacy, the Tensaiga, when it had failed to cut a fissure into the Death Realm for him. He didn't believe the last bit, but he figured the first part to be true, after all Kagome had this gift of befriending and attracting the most odd of people.
As years passed and her soul remained untainted and her resolve to not give into his darkness only increased, the Death God has decided to change tactics. Since now it was not possible to even approach her without being obliterated by her light, he has isolated her into one of his darkest and loneliest places on his realm. He did this also because any soul that came in touch with her light would be purified and actually be given a second chance on earth as a reincarnated person. As he was not able to come close to her he has decided to take a leaf out of Naraku's book and torment her with distorted images of her friends – being happy with their families and never even thinking of her unless in joy that she was gone, blessing the day she was kidnapped and thanking the Kamis she was not there anymore, cursing her to the highest pains and sufferings in the world and all in all just forgetting that she ever existed.
One day she has managed to escape her hellish hole and enraged on the Kamis above and the one keeping her trapped in the Underworld, she has let her miko powers loose, searching for the darkest soul in the realm she was in. Finding the unsuspecting Kami easily, she went after him. Once in the same place with him she let her miko powers flow to him, through him and the entire Underworld, not actually purifying and yet not unharmfull to any. She demanded to be let loose from Hell or else she would purify everything in the realm of darkness. Seeing as he did not have a choice if he wanted to still "live" after this encounter, the God of Hell has done what he has never even thought he will: he opened a rift for her to pass back into the realm of life.
He did not allow her to leave without what he though was a course though: he gave her immortality so that she will live through the ages and never get old or die but perpetually see the people around her die of old age and suffer the loss of her loved ones. She did not know of what he did when she stepped through the rift and took her first real breath after so many years of not actually living but not being dead either.