So… here is the next entry. I've already finished most of the story, but I think I'll wait another week or so to post the next chapter.

Bwahahaha I'm terrible! Cower before me, puny mortals… (shrinks back as puny mortals glare maliciously at her, approaching with maniacal intent dancing in their eyes)

'Eep'

Okay I'll post tomorrow, just please don't hurt me puny mo – ah, I mean, dearest fans.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or its characters, so on and so forth.

Broken Reflections

Despite her best efforts, Kagome could not halt the endless stream of tears that poured from her eyes. She was hollow, and so very, very numb. The only sign that she actually felt anything at all were the twin rivers of sorrow that flowed so freely down her reddened cheeks.

Moments ago, her world, her happy little feudal fairytale, had been brutally shattered. 'At least now I know,' she mused bitterly, 'Yes… at least now I am not ignorant to the truth.'

Mere days ago she had been riding on his back, clinging to his fire-rat haori for dear life as he leapt jerkily through the trees in search of the jewel shards. They argued, he insulted her, she sat him. It was their routine and, though it was a rather pathetic one, she wouldn't have traded it for the world. She knew he treated her like dirt, but she put up with it. She would have put up with far worse if only to be near him.

But that all changed.

Her mind, as pitiful and naïve as it had been, had clung to the hope that perhaps Inuyasha had forgotten Kikyo, that perhaps he preferred her, Kagome, to a corpse. How foolish she had been.

His loyalties had been brought out into the clear only seconds ago.

The day had started out in a normal way… well… as normal as it can be when one is sent back into the future and is fighting demons with the help of a hanyou, two youkai, a taijiya, and a perverted houshi. The slayer, monk, and demons had been left back at the village, each one sporting a nasty set of wounds that needed tending. Upon sensing a shard, she and Inuyasha had set off alone, having planned on returning once they retrieved what they sought. Then, they had shown up. Kikyo… Naraku… the two beings whose existence she dreaded most.

Naraku had come first, clad in his disgusting, grisly baboon pelt. The stink of miasma and blood clouded around him like a thick fog; the noxious odor forcing bile to the back of her throat. This time, however, they were shocked to find that it was no puppet, but the true Naraku. Such had been proved when the devil pulled back the blue skull to reveal his insidiously handsome face. His trademark smirk was overly broad that day, instantly alerting all that something foul was afoot.

His taunting, silken voice mocked her still, ringing in her ears like a sensuous purr. She could still feel his perfectly sculpted masculine lips against her neck as he appeared behind her and bound her arms with his tentacles, chuckling low into the crook of her neck.

Inuyasha had been livid the second he spotted where the fiend had gone. Brandishing Tetseiga, he had spewed several obscenities at the dark hanyou, warning him that, should he harm her, he would find himself with Tetseiga lodged firmly up his ass.

Naraku had simply laughed, which only served to enrage Inuyasha further. The dog eared hanyou was about to charge when the last person Kagome wanted to see at the moment appeared.

Kikyo, in all her ethereal glory, had called to him from the tree line where she stood.

Of course, he had halted instantly, head swiveling to the direction of her void, emotionless voice.

It was at that instant Naraku's hand slid around to rest on her thigh, quickly trailing upward and under her skirt with one fluid motion. It was in the same motion that his fingers slipped inside her panties, doing the unthinkable.

Eyes widening, Kagome had grown rigid with shock. She had gotten her first taste of physical pleasure… and it burned within her like a hot ember, singed her skin like a branding iron. It sickened her.

The few seconds that his ministrations took place seemed like an eternity, one in which would scar her for life. Inuyasha had remained oblivious as one of Naraku's long, elegant fingers slid in and out of her tight, virginal passage, her unsuspecting body trembling in both fear and ecstasy.

And what had she done? Why, stood there like a mute idiot of course, shaking in his grasp as he continued to molest her. Her mind writhed in repulsion as he continued to touch her, yet her inexperienced body leapt at the contact like a flame would lap at a dry piece of wood.

His body, even through the fur of his pelt, was tight and imposing as he crushed her against him, pressing himself firmly against her back.

She had never been intimate, it was true, but it didn't take a sex expert to know what, exactly, the hard bulge that was jabbing her in the back had been.

He had spoken then, only a little, yet the few words in which he did utter succeeded in tearing her beyond belief.

"Poor little Kagome, left at my mercy as the man she loves leaves her for another."

His hair, blacker than a raven's wing, tumbled over her shoulders, surrounding her like a curtain of shadow. Claustrophobia, something that she had never had trouble with, seemed to kick in at that moment as she began to hyperventilate, shrinking into herself as much as she could. Her hands bunched from where they were bound behind her, leaving bloody crescents etched into her palms.

Suddenly, as though having been kicked awake from a nightmare, she found her tongue and screamed for all she was worth, "INUYASHA!"

He had heard, for his gaze immediately turned to her, surprise and shock clear in his amber gaze. Once again resuming his attack, he forced Naraku away from Kagome, standing protectively in front of her.

She had fallen to her knees the second Naraku's vice like grip was relinquished, eyed bubbling with tears of horror and realization. He had touched her.

Sick, mocking laughter had followed the act, teasing and taunting like an echo of scorn.

Landing a safe distance away, Naraku had discarded his pelt, dropping it to the ground with an unceremonious 'thud'. His blood red eyes locked on Kagome's ice tinted cerulean ones, never once wavering as he lifted his hand and brought it to his nose. He then proceeded to sniff his fingers, closing his eyes for a moment as if to savor the smell.

Though Inuyasha did not understand or pay heed to the act, since he had not seen what Naraku had done, Kagome knew perfectly well what he was doing. Perhaps that was why she desperately wanted to relieve her stomach of its contents when he flicked his tongue out and, torturously slow, drew it along the digit from bottom to top.

"Listen you fucking whacko," Inuyasha had spat, "I ain't got all day. So, let's get down to business, if ya don't mind!"

"Ku, ku, ku…" Naraku had admonished, wagging a finger in a scolding fashion at the brazen inu hanyou. "Not so fast you pathetic little being."

Naraku's smirk had broadened as his eyes turned to Kikyo, who had just notched an arrow to her bow. Though her eyes were blank, the small smile on her lips was clearly visible as she pointed said arrow in Kagome's direction.

"Kikyo," Inuyasha had whispered, reaching toward her with eyes full of confusion.

Laughing, Naraku explained, "It's simple, hanyou, you have a choice to make." His sinister fingers lengthened, becoming sharp and spear like, twitching playfully as he continued, "You can only save one woman. It's time for you to decide, Inuyasha, who you wish to be with… Kikyo… or Kagome."

"What?!" he had practically screamed.

"Idiot dog, did you truly think you could have them both?" Naraku's haunting words echoed through the otherwise silent clearing. Aiming his claws at Kikyo, he hissed, "You can only save one… now choose."

At the same moment Naraku's claws shot out at Kikyo, said priestess released her arrow, its brilliant, blazing tip aimed straight at Kagome's heart.

That was when it had happened. Inuyasha hadn't even hesitated. He leapt straight for Kikyo.

In that moment, that small, meager second in time, Kagome's heart had splintered into a million pieces. Her mouth had run dry, heart clenching painfully behind her ribs. She watched as if in slow motion as the arrow sliced through the air. Catching a glimpse of Inuyasha grabbing his undead lover and leaping to the side, Kagome allowed her pent up tears to fall.

Broken inside she may have been, but Kagome refused to give Kikyo the satisfaction of knowing that she had been the one to kill her. Body reacting instantly, her hand shot up, snatching the arrow in mid flight. Looking down, she found the point to be less than an inch from her breast, its metal tip gleaming with a lust for blood.

Smiling smugly at her small victory, she stood and looked up to find Inuyasha, the man she loved, embracing the woman she was supposedly reincarnated from, the woman who had attempted to kill her on several occasions. For all he knew the arrow had hit true to its mark, killing her… yet, he didn't seem to care at all.

Hand falling limply to her side, she allowed the wooden shaft to slip through her fingers. The soft crinkle of the arrow falling to the grass seemed to alert Inuyasha of her presence. At first, all she saw in his wide yellow eyes was shock. Then, amber orbs swiveled from her to the arrow and back to her again. That was when recognition and guilt flooded said orbs.

He lifted a hand to her, taking a step away from the woman he had chosen while still keeping one arm around her waist.

In that same moment, Kagome stepped backward, slinking slowly toward the edge of the cliff she stood upon. Looking over her shoulder, she eyed bottom of the chasm, its dizzying altitude not bothering her at all, even though she was petrified of heights. Snorting in an ironic manner, she looked back at Inuyasha, who was now stepping gingerly toward her, a pleading look in his eyes.

Closing her sorrowful, blue orbs, Kagome lowered her head and whispered, "No more lies." With that, she had taken the final step back, causing herself to fall purposely from the ledge in which she was perched.

Her eyes watched, clouded over with pain and surrender, as the top of the ledge grew farther and farther away, the wind whipping her hair into a tousled mess as she fell at an alarming pace towards the earth… towards her death.

Her back met solid ground, hurling her from her silent reverie. Skull bouncing off the hard earth, she didn't so much as cringe as she felt the back of her head split open, blood spraying from the fresh wound with a wet squishing sound. Her body vibrated as every bone within her delicate frame shattered, the coppery taste of blood filling her mouth.

Eyes staring up to the top of gorge, she laid motionless as her skin grew taut and cold; all feeling seeping from her being.

How dare he… after all they had been through.

He had said himself that Kikyo had wanted him to become human so that she could live the life she wanted. She never even truly cared about him. On several occasions the dead miko had stolen the jewel fragments from them, handing them over to the one whom they sought to keep them from.

Kagome, on the other hand, had been nothing but loyal throughout the year she had been with him. She put up with his crude behavior, protected him when he was vulnerable… and most importantly, she had loved him for who he was; Inuyasha, the hanyou.

'I'm so pathetic,' she laughed emotionlessly, 'so pathetic to have thought that he might have wanted me in return.' Now… oh, now she knew. Her mind, naïve and pure as it had been before, had just been given a good rattling. She could see everything for what it was now.

It was bitterly ironic, really, that she just now realized this on her death bed. Even as she lay there, bleeding and battered, she held on to the memories of her loved ones. Her family: the loving, caring family that supported her throughout her tedious travels. Sango: her best friend. Miroku: her voice of reason and comfort. Shippou: her adopted son. She loved them all dearly and she would miss them sorely.

However, now, as she lay dying, she realized that it was not necessarily a bad thing to be jealous, or feel contempt. She would not allow it to consume her, but it was painfully clear to her that in order to be stable, she had to embrace darkness, embrace hatred… embrace chaos. No… she would not be ruled by it, but she would accept it, meld with it and become a perfect being.

Balance… she had learned balance. Pity that such knowledge would be wasted. How she found herself wanting, longing to survive, though she knew such a feat was impossible as of now. How she wanted to share her knowledge and live… to be given a second chance. She wasn't ready to die.

Suddenly, as though her veins were set aflame, a familiar flicker tingled through her body, coursing through her every pore. This was the sensation she felt when her miko abilities flared up, yet due to their short and sporadic bursts, she never truly had time to study the feeling.

She was warm. Heat flooded over her from head to toe. It was not an uncomfortable heat, but the kind one feels when cuddling into a nice big comforter when it's time for bed.

Not only could she feel it… but she could see it as well. Her body was glowing a fluorescent purple, small pink sparks flaring here and there.

Mind registering why this was happening, a small smile graced her lips as she felt her powers mending the serious and fatal wounds covering and throughout her body. This was power… true power. She could sense it, stronger than anything she had felt before, save that of a select few demons. She was stronger than Kikyo, that much she was sure of, and the notion filled her with pride.

'No wonder mikos never grew too powerful,' she concluded, 'they were so bent on remaining pure they failed to see where real power awaited them. It is not in innocence that our power is rooted, but in balance. After all, that is what a miko strives to obtain… balance.'

The sensation of her skin being knit back together was an odd one. It was rather unpleasant. Not painful in any way, but revolting. She could feel her bones shifting back into position, their breaks and fractures mending. Choking down the blood that remained in her mouth, she felt the last of her powers recede, dimming down to a mere flicker.

Rising cautiously, she tested her new limbs, flexing her muscles. She felt wonderful, fresher than she had in ages.

Stealing a glance back up at the cliff top, she smiled, eyes lowering as her feet carrying her toward a small cluster of life forms she sensed nearby.

Though her powers were great, they were unpredictable and therefore dangerous. She knew not how to properly use them. She needed time… time to hone her new found ability.

Her newly sprouted grudge for Inuyasha remained, her loathing for Kikyo only growing more so. Oh she would pay them a visit… but all in due time. For now, she had to test her body, mind, and spirit; she had to practice… push herself until she was perfect.

Strolling off toward the village to the west, Kagome prepared herself for her training, not caring how long it took to get her powers under full control.

"I can't wait," she mumbled to herself, "to see the look on his face."

Well there it is: the beginning of my story. I hope you liked it. If you did, it only gets better, so keep your eyes peeled for the next chappie!

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