Tempting Fate — Part 2

"Concentrate, Kaede. You must not lose focus," I heard Kikyo's voice in the background of my attention, soothingly centering my thoughts as I attempted to knit the boy's broken wrist back together. Reiki flooded the complex fractures of the misplaced bones and ligaments. It would've been a bad idea to try and put it back together again if one did not have knowledge of how the body was put together in the first place. Kikyo had warned me against it in the beginning, but it had prompted a rare shock from her when I clearly seemed to have a prodigious skill for the task.

I felt so guilty for the praise I received. I felt like I was cheating, stealing smiles from my sister for all the wrong reasons. After all, a Bachelor of Science degree kind of speaks for itself… And though the credentials didn't do me much good in this life, at least the practical application of biology still had its merits. In fact, I'd venture to say I probably knew more about human anatomy than anyone, let alone any twelve-year-old, in this era. And so I gently began to coax the boy's wrist parts back into place, the lull of Kikyo's soft, nightingale voice guiding my center.

All too soon however, she lapsed off into an abrupt silence, and even with my eyes closed, I could feel her tense up. Her normally calm, serene spiritual aura flashed dangerously, and though I could not feel the approaching threat—her sensory range was much more advanced—I knew something was coming. I abandoned my pursuits and turned my eyes to take in her serious expression inquisitively. "Onee-sama…?"

She stood gracefully, brushing off the front of her hakama in an almost nonchalant sort of way. I knew she only did it to distract me. But I'd sensed her initial reaction. Something big was coming. Still, she merely nodded to me civilly and said, "Complete your task. I will be back by the time you've finished to review the work you've done." And with that, she was gone as I watched the noren flap that served as a door to the small hovel sway shut behind her, the only thing that suggested she'd been there at all.

I stared after her for a good long moment in silence, ignoring the boy as he grumbled impatiently at the interruption. This was nothing new, unfortunately. In two years, Kikyo had been growing more and more distant—refusing to take me along whenever she sensed a threat to the village. We'd made the decision to stay in Edo, since staying on the move never helped us much before when our only problem was my uncontrollable spiritual energy. Now, one problem was replaced with an even bigger one, and constant travel would only serve to wear us down and dull our senses—or so Kikyo said.

"Let them come," she dared them with unwavering steel in her voice, dark eyes flashing with a pure determination I'd never seen the likes of before. "We shall see who outlasts the other…"

I couldn't even attempt to argue with her. Once Kikyo made up her mind about something, snow would fall in July before she changed it. Her appearance was of a demure young woman, and she never raised her voice, but I knew behind that exterior was the most bullheaded, tenaciously stubborn human being on the planet. She could be a monster to get along with sometimes. And she took herself way too seriously, but that was just Kikyo. My sister. And I cared about her more than anyone else in the world.

Seeing her distance herself from me hurt worse than I could have ever imagined.

"Oi!" the boy squawked at me, indignant at being ignored for so long. "Are you going to fix my wrist, or not?!"

I turned my head slowly to scrutinize him with a faintly disgusted expression. I truly hated children, even if this one was around my age. Technically speaking, that is. "Have your mommy put a splint on it, Crybaby."

"But Kikyo-sama told you—"

"I know what she told me, Dunderhead." I rolled my eyes. "But I'm the doctor. She's not. And I say miko healing is for special emergencies only. You're out of the woods now, so it should heal fine on its own. Give it a rest for a couple of weeks, and you'll have full function back. Now, leave me alone. I've got better things to do."

"Weeks?!" he exclaimed in dismay, then seemed to catch onto something I'd said. "But…you could still heal it, couldn't you? Just this once?"

I considered him for a second with a shrug. "Sure." Then I grinned rather nastily. "I just don't want to."

The boy gaped at me like a fish as I proceeded to walk towards the door, then shouted at my back, "You're the worst miko ever!"

With that, I sent a very immature face at him over my shoulder involving a tongue and a pulled down eyelid, then skipped merrily out of the hut; sometimes, it was incredibly liberating to act like a normal twelve-year-old. Anyhow, being the 'Worst Miko Ever' was sort of my trademark around here. While Kikyo wasn't exactly what you'd call a people person, everyone loved her anyway because of her kind, loving, and generous disposition. And then…there's me. Kikyo wasn't a people person, but I just genuinely didn't like people. I had very few redeeming qualities, and I wasn't sure what it was, but I always saw the worst in others. If someone did something nice, I was always looking for ulterior motives. I guess you could say I had trust issues. It made my personality a little unpleasant for all but those who knew me very well (—which accounted for all of about one and a half people. And I say half, because I didn't trust Tsubaki as far as I could throw her. And that was a fact.)

It might've just been my rebellious stage, but I spent most of my time doing the exact opposite of what my sister asked me to do in her absence. Another big part of it might have just been a cry for her attention…any attention at all, outside of training, that is. It never worked, even though I kept trying. At best, I would receive that long, soulful stare that seemed to see right through me and pick me apart all at the same time. And sometimes…when I looked in her eyes, all I saw was a stranger. It was all because of the jewel.

I hated it. I wanted to smash it into a million little pieces but everyone knows how much good that would do. If Kikyo had grown this distant guarding one Shikon Jewel…I shuddered to think of what would happen if someone pulled a Kagome… No, I stayed far, far away from that thing. Not only did the sheer aura of power wafting off of it cause me to tremble in awe, but I got this…awful feeling. Something, like a voice in my head that didn't know how to shut up, drew me towards it. I literally had to pinch myself to regain focus. And I knew the reason why, even if I didn't like to admit it… There was darkness in my heart. I knew because the darkness of the jewel responded to it, and disrupted Onee-sama's attempts to purify it.

In any case, destroying the thing that drew a wedge between my sister and I had become one of my running fantasies—along with finding that fucking spider and skewering it, but I'd seen hide nor hair of mini-naraku since the day it shoved its fangs into my neck. I couldn't say I was sorry for the fact, but it sure did make me nervous. Sometimes, when I was alone…I felt like something was watching me—that same crawling feeling I had gotten that fateful day on that field of death, only stronger. But it always eluded me. It was that same feeling I followed through the forest until I reached a hauntingly familiar clearing with a well.

The feeling lingered.

"Come out, Scum!" I cried out to the surroundings, cringing inwardly at how childishly high-pitched my voice was. I sounded like a little girl. Still, I continued to address my hidden foe with growing impatience with the situation, "Coward! I know you're there!" There was a whisper of laughter on the wind, and I knew it was playing with me. Clenching my fists, an intense wave of true humiliation and fury hit me like a tsunami. This wasn't the first time something like this had happened. "This is stupid! If you're not going to come out, just go away!" I stomped my foot on the ground in an expression anger and frustration, and in the instant I got to 'away', a shockwave of purity escaped my control, jetting out from me in a pulse that left the surrounding area slightly singed and smoking.

The ominous presence had fled in the aftermath, but that surprisingly wasn't what caught my attention. Reigning back control of my spiritual energy I sent a curious look around me. Curious, because when I sent out the pulse, something else pulsed back. It was like an echo. Slowly, I approached the old Bone-Eater's Well with caution. I stopped at the edge, almost in a trance. Dreamlike, I reached out to brush my fingers along the coarse wooden frame, smoothed by time; it tingled with alien energy. And when I looked down into the abyss of darkness below, words could not describe how small and vulnerable I felt.

I had been a scientist once. I had believed there was no limit to what man could discover if one could only dream it. But that was a lifetime ago. And since then…I had learned that there are some things in life that are not meant to be known, boarders that are not meant to be crossed, and rules that are not meant to be broken. Since then…I believe I had done all three of those things not meant to be done. Somewhere, there is a line in the sand, and it separates the natural from the unnatural… I didn't know where that line was anymore.

Somewhere beyond that endless darkness, beyond the bottom of the well, was a world that I could understand.

But I didn't belong there anymore.

I spent the rest of the afternoon in that glade. The villagers didn't go near the well unless it was to dispose of the remains of some youkai or other. Superstitious folks, but that suited me just fine. The adults treated me condescendingly when I was down in the village and their children were little beasts. Besides, I had a reputation of 'Worst Miko Ever' to upkeep, after all. Kikyo would find me when she got back, I was sure. But then an hour passed. And then another. And by that time I had long assuaged my curiosity of the well, probing it carefully with my power to receive its gentle answering call. The sun was just beginning to sink from its apex when hiding from the villagers got tedious and a horrible, niggling worry assaulted me like a wave of nausea.

She should have been back already.

I hurried down the steep slope to the village swiftly, the loose, pleated material of my dark blue hakama batting wildly around my legs in my haste. There was a crowd in the village square and I weaved through the men with their hair styled in topknots, the women with their kerchiefs and screaming children strapped to their backs, and the elderly stooped over their walking sticks, with nimbleness none of the less well-traveled village dwellers could know. The town head stood addressing the small gathering, but I interrupted quickly with punitive eyes and as much of an authoritative voice as I could muster, "Where is my sister?"

The weathered man let out a sigh at spotting the Worst Miko Ever, whose appearance usually heralded trouble of some kind not far behind. In this case, however, he actually seemed relieved to see me for once. "Good, you're here. We were just getting together some men to go search—"

I felt dread grip my insides as the implications began to fly at me from every direction. This…this could be bad. "No," I cut him off sharply, all business. I might have been the Worst Miko Ever, but I was a creature of logic, and far from an idiot. "If…if Onee-sama has not returned, we must assume the worst has occurred. Onee-sama is extraordinarily powerful, therefore logic dictates that only something equally extraordinary or greater in power could have prevented her from returning. In that case, taking a huge group to search for her would only lead to countless wasted lives. If it is indeed the worst case scenario, Onee-sama would not want us to suffer pointlessly for her sake…" I deliberated carefully as the village head measured me thoughtfully as if for the first time. Finally, I decided, "I will take a group of five, and no more. On one hand, it will sacrifice more ground, but on the other, our numbers will only take a loss of five, plus myself, should something nasty be waiting for us. Knowing you risk your lives, who will volunteer?"

My leaps of logic were not what one would call confidence inspiring, and this was one chief reason why Kaede the Worst Miko Ever was decidedly not the village head. The man himself, Takero, seemed to rally the others' spirits, however, and three men stepped forward to the chopping block, hesitant to follow a 'child,' but with determined looks on their faces all the same. I nodded brusquely at each of them and unshouldered my bow intently, "We're going to find her."

It seemed to put a brighter spin on things than 'Let's hope we can find what's left'… And even though cold logic was my fallback for everything…I had to say that faith had its merits too. It gave me hope at least. And, for the first time in my occupation as a miko, and either of my lives, I prayed. I really prayed—to all the gods, to all the spirts, and all the entities beyond my understanding—I prayed to find my sister alive, no matter what the cost. The gods could take whatever they wanted from me in return.

It rained that night.

"Spread out! Keep looking! If I could just…" I tried to concentrate, but the stinging sensation of the raindrops on my skin kept me trying not to shiver in the cold. I hadn't thought to bring a straw hat or poncho and the thick bangs that escaped my braid were drenched, clinging to my cheeks irritatingly. It distracted me from the task at hand and I was frustrated beyond belief. My sensing skills still weren't as good as they should have been—nowhere near Kikyo's level.

I needed to get stronger…

As my tired, weatherworn companions filed out, I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply, finding my center. Painstakingly slow, I forced the spiritual energy out around me in awkward, groping tendrils. I felt the men first, each having taken off in a different direction to narrow down the search. They hadn't gone far, and, despite my outright shocking disregard for anyone's lives but mine and my sister's, I was glad they seemed unharmed. I was leading this mission. They were my responsibility. If I came back alone. . . . Suffice it to say I did not want to be the one responsible for notifying their friends and loved ones of my failure to protect them.

For just this one moment, I was not the Worst Miko Ever.

I was Kaede.

And I was good at killing things that liked to eat people.

After what seemed like hours, my eyes shot open as—not far to the east, maybe a league, if that—an explosive force erupted so violently, that any idiot with ears, let alone an inkling of spiritual sensing ability, would be able to detect it. I'd initially assumed it to be lightning striking down from the ominous clouds pelting down rain in all directions like a hail of bullets. But at the resonating shockwave that washed over me like a sonic boom…I knew then that if it was indeed lightning, then I'd been woefully confused about something for a very long time… My name was not Kaede, and I'd been reincarnated as Queen Victoria.

Considering the latter was ridiculously unlikely, I gripped my bow tighter and raced off, sprinting towards the source of the disturbance. There was no mistaking Kikyo's reiryoku. The reiki it was made up of was soothing and serene when at rest, but became sharp, cold, and deadly like a razor when it was employed in battle. But this time…I wasn't sure what to make of it. I'd never felt Kikyo's reiryoku like this before… But I knew something was very wrong. Now that I'd got a lock on it, it seemed to be flickering dangerously low.

Miko used the power from their spirit, their heart, their soul. That's why mental fortitude and discipline were so fundamentally important to a miko's training. You must not have doubt, or hesitation. Your soul must remain strong, steady, because your soul is all that is standing between you, and death. It was essentially a weapon; a dampened soul, a depressed soul, a soul suffering from heart-break, or other worldly cares was a blunt weapon. That is why miko seemed so ethereal and otherworldly to most others, because they separated themselves from those things which might burden their souls. For example: A miko did not involve themselves in affairs with lovers, because with all such affairs comes passion, and it is in the nature of passion, when unbridled, to burn until there is nothing left…

A miko's soul could not afford such passions.

Or so that is what I was taught. I still held a certain respect for Tsubaki because she taught me that each miko must make her own creed… I had begun to realize that mine was very different from Kikyo's.

But despite how different we were from each other, no matter how distant we became on our own paths in life, Kikyo would always be my sister. And I would be damned before I let anything happen to her. No one was allowed to touch her. And so when I sensed the strangest reiryoku I'd ever encountered in the same clearing as my beloved sibling, I forced my legs to move even faster as I burst through the thick foliage to my quarry, skidding when I came to an abrupt halt in the putrid mixture of blood, mud, and various scattered youkai body parts.

There, standing somewhat braced at my sudden entrance over the still body of my sister stood a wild-looking, silver-headed figure with yellow eyes glowing out of the gloom cast by the dark clouds overhead. For what felt like the longest moment, we just stood there as the rain pelted down on us…staring. Then, quite suddenly, like a dam breaking…I let go of all the control I'd worked so hard to maintain, letting my reitsu flare explosively. My hair came undone from its loose braid and whipped around me, the mud, rain, and youkai remains close by repelled from my person as if by reverse magnetism.

High spiritual pressure could kill someone if concentrated enough. It's the reason Kikyo preached control to me in our daily meditations. Undirected, unchecked, without intent, there was a good chance my particular brand of reiatsu could cause a grown man—untrained in the spiritual arts—to faint. It drew youkai to me in my youth, when I had no semblance of control, a beacon to a pure, young maiden up for the taking. As I gained more of a grip, I could cause others to flinch and shiver at nothing if I wanted to. Now…I knew I was capable of much worse things if forced into anger, or shock.

I believe this was one of those times.

"Stay—away—from my—sister!" I had a hard time believing that the guttural, almost bestial snarl came from me. His oddly cat-like pupils dilated somewhat as my reiatsu pulsed threateningly, scorching some of the debris around my feet, the puddles sizzling as I adopted Tsubaki's tightrope walking prowl, holding my bow ready and knocking an arrow, cautiously circling.

Alarmed, the hanyou took a defensive stance and shouted, "Oi! I didn't do nothin', Brat! I know how this looks, but I ain't a—"

"Stop talking," I growled lowly, trying to get a grip. His voice, his demeanor—it was all too surreal. "I want you to turn around…and keep walking."

His face contorted into a scowl. "Last time I checked…I don't take orders from fuckin' pipsqueaks half my—"

"Walk away, Inuyasha!" I barked, my voice raw, my aura pulsing once again, and I drew my bowstring back threateningly, an uncharacteristic quiver in my arm. "Walk away, never show your face to me again, or I swear to you, you'll live to regret it…"

He froze at the sound of his name, the ominous premonition, tense as piano string wires. His tone held a tinge of mild astonishment as he asked, "Who the hell are you…?"

Clenching my jaw, I merely grated out rigidly in a voice trembling with turbulent mixed emotions, "Walk. Away." My eyes flashed in a warning. "Do not come back."

"You know me—" he started to take a step forward, but stopped, breaking off abruptly as a shiver overcame him and I watched, morbidly fascinated as a dramatic change overcame him. His hair changed from silver to black, starting at the roots and spreading down to the tips as if a black egg yolk had just been cracked over his head. Fluffy white ears regressed to human ones on the side of his head, and when he opened his eyes, they were devoid of any of the inhuman glow they once carried. He looked at me then, startled, evidently somewhat mortified, as if I'd just watched him do something horribly embarrassing—like undress. And again, there was a moment where we just stood, and stared at each other. I refused to look away, my face hard and grim, set in stone.

"Kikyo-sama!" distant voices could be heard calling. "Kaede-sama!"

It appeared the cavalry had arrived.

As the voices carried to meet his now human ears, Inuyasha clenched his fists, took one last look at me, and the fallen Kikyo…then turned and ran.

To this day, I still wonder how things would've turned out if I'd have shot that arrow through his back.

So, this is shorter, but I feel that shorter chapters are better than no chapters.

Hope the introduction to our doggy-eared hero didn't disappoint.

And we get to see some new sides of Kaede, and how she's growing as well. (Hope it seemed real)

I'm curious to know what you think. Let me know, would'ja? Don't leave me hanging here.