The Miko and the Hanyou; Chapter 7

Yep. Though compressed, this won't be abandoned. Expect more updates, however sporadically placed.

kikyou/kimiko…

After Inuyasha, as the girl was named (and who turned out to be a long-haired boy) agreed, things shifted more than a bit. I had to find more food, rather than just practicing my archery, and the socialization pulled me out of a ditch, so to speak. It also resulted in… Awkwardness. My blue-gray eyes already made me suspect as not normal, even for a miko. The first time someone came to ask for an exorcism of some sort, there was panic and hysteria.

Suffice it to say that villagers put up a pretty good fight when you're not willing to kill them. It was only because of intense shielding I'd set up before, having far too much spare time to fret with, that kept me from staying awake at night after the backlash, to guard Inuyasha. In the end, they seemed to have decided that they needed a miko more than they needed to get rid of a potential demoness with a half-breed. Although I assume that when they find a decent, or amateurish, replacement, they'll send them to try to 'cleanse' us.

Should have guessed this would happen. Years and years have passed, so many that I've forgotten how many, except when I look at the weathered notches of the much-patched hut. I've stopped counting them. The notches are over fifty, some of them barely there. I still look the same. I think that my eyes look different, but that could just be in my head. And agelessness is a trait of demons. They have some strong evidence for their attack, even if I'm not hostile.

What will I do then?

It worries me even more how Inuyasha cowered and twitched, ready to run and fairly dejected at the outburst. He tried to hide first, and it was only when I came for him with a meal that he'd come out. I want him to come to me for comfort, but it was only an afterthought, when I offered it.

I… feel so useless. I hugged him, but it was stiff, and awkward, and not very motherlike at all. How am I supposed to help him, when I can't even help myself? I'm not exactly much for the warmth department. Cold eyes, pale skin. So pristine. Like a doll that you never take out of the box, but instead keep in mint condition. Forever.

I don't even scar. I don't know why, and I'm getting tired of the magic excuse. Whenever demons did manage to attack me, they simply burned up from the shields, and I survived. Gaping wound, poisoned, didn't matter. The Kami still need me around. Can't even put myself in a properly life-threatening situation.

Useless.

TIMESKIP

The latest rumors talk about some soul-purifying miko named Midoriko. Wonder if she's heard of Kimiko, the Blue Lady?

Things are better with Inuyasha, but I get the feeling that a rock could do better. He's a wonderful boy, curious, thoughtful, even if he's bad with words. I'm trying to teach him things, like reading and writing and what I know of plants, but he's a hanyou. No amount of compassion could allow me to teach him my brand of magic. He has his own. Whatever it will be. I have to hope so. Simply looking odd won't let him survive on his own, and luck is notorious for skipping people when it's needed.

I wish… No, don't wish, bad things happen when I wish…

Ah, who cares.

I wish that someone was around who could teach him to talk. To be happy, to be around with him. So he'd have a friend his own age. Maybe even a romantic interest, but no one's willing to give him a minute to catch his breath to save his life, let alone give him a second glance that way.

Someone like me, who doesn't mind that he's a hanyou. Who won't die in a short period of time, and leave him mourning. Who doesn't want to die, who can be angry with him but still move past that.

I wish for that person, most of all.

…?….

The first thing I'm aware of is emptiness. A big, floaty nothingness. But it flashes past me, and then there's a wave of sensation, a sort of tingly feeling, if you will. It's not painful, but not really pleasant, either, like your foot fell asleep but is waking up.

And then, like said foot, I wake up, and realize that I'm really hungry and my lungs are burning. Well, maybe not like a foot, but hopefully you'll know what I mean.

Except soon everything is burning, and I want to go back to nothingness, but soon the pain passes.

That kind of pain, anyways. Soon I start feeling and hearing and tasting and smelling and I think I'm seeing something, too. There's too much, though. Instead of nothingness, there's cold and hard and dry and high-pitched noise and something smooth and round and warm. I concentrate on that. It seems to draw me in. Nothing else matters, except that sort of warmth, and I can feel more warmth trickling in…

…inuyasha…

I guess I never really expected her to keep her promise, and let me stick around. No one else has, after all, and she doesn't seem exactly like mother. She isn't her, I know that, but I can't help but compare the two… I still miss mother.

On a happier note, I'm not hungry anymore, and nothing's attacking me.

I better go see where Kimiko is.

The doll-things aren't around, much to my relief, but neither is Kimiko. Where is she?

"Kimiko? Kiiimmmmiiiiiiikoooooo-? Where are you?"

I can feel my heart pound in my chest, in a panicked sort of way. Where is she? Where! Thud, thud, thud- My feet hit the ground in tandem, getting faster as I start running. I'm not sure why I want to run this way, but I do, and run I do.

I nearly trip over her, skidding to a halt an inch from her body, with my feet neatly out on the ground. I scramble up, check her. Oh why why why? This is my fault, I know it! I can feel the guilt pounding through me. Anyone who's nice to me has bad things happen to them…

Her skin's pale and still, her arms out at her sides. She's on her back, doesn't seem to have any blood anywhere, but that doesn't mean she's okay. Her presence… I don't know what it's called, but I always know when she's near. But even though she's right next to me, it doesn't feel like she is.

She's dead. I sit there, sort of numb, sobbing dryly.

Something touches me, and I turn to look quickly, almost instantaneously, shocked and defensive. There's a… a…

"Demon-girl!" I screech, coming quickly to the conclusion that she somehow killed Kimiko and she's gonna kill me next.

…?...

The warmth solidifies. For a moment, it's pure bliss-

Then it's cold again, and I shiver. Gotta get warm.

I sit up in a jerky movement, squint at the painful light. Everything's too much after being nothingness. Suddenly there's a high-pitched sound again, next to me, and I collapse, trying to bring my hands to my ears. I can only shriek back something just as high-pitched and nonsensical.

"!"

Limbs tighten and go limb. For a moment, I can see wonderful nothingness beckoning, and then it envelopes me…

…kikyou/kimiko…

For a moment, I can't feel anything. Then I'm floating in an emptiness, a ghost of sorts. But it isn't completely empty. There's something there, and it isn't pleasant. I squint, trying to find it.

"Hello, Kikyou." A disembodied voice echoes. I jolt like I've been tasered. It's been years and years since someone referred to me with that name, but I've never forgotten.

"Who are you?" Skip straight to questions. I'm floating in a void with something else that knows my real name, and I can't see anything. Maybe I should remember how to be polite, but I can't make myself bother.

Concentrate-

I can feel something. Lust, longing, greed, fear, power. It's all one thing, yet not quite, like someone mixed water, flour, and oil, mostly mingling with with a tiny bit that doesn't. Flashes of a life not my own.

"I can see you're already grasping what happens in the Shikon no Tama." The voice is amused. Cold. Hungry.

"You- you're in that old… that new… the legend about the jewel's origin!" I stutter out.

"Yes. And you get a wish. Anything within our power. You wanted to get away, and you're far, far away from home. You wanted a friend for your little half-breed-"

"Hanyou." I growl. "The term is hanyou."

"Wait, what?" I can't quite comprehend it at first, but then I do, and my voice gets much more angry. "You're behind this!"

"Yes. I couldn't quite manage to bind your power, and you gave Midoriko the upper hand. She sealed me away for a number of years. But we're bonded with you, too."

"What?"

"A priestess named Kaede was entrusted with the Shikon. She hid it away for a while, but she was eventually fatally wounded. She was burned along with the jewel, and the Shikon no Tama came with her when she was reincarnated."

"Now Midoriko's escaped. But you're stuck here. Now, what are we to do with you…" he taunted.

"Nothing. She was a priestess, and so am I. I'm a purifying priestess. She used soul magic. I'll just make you cease to exist if you try anything." I growl. The demon shifts, looking a little unsettled. So am I. I'm not nearly as off-balance here as I should be. That changes shortly.

"Wait… Midoriko escaped? How? She was around, and I didn't notice anything odd."

"No. She escaped just now. Her original form lasts for a few years, before we find her unwanted suitor and… offer him a deal."

He trails off in thought, and so do I, before I come to a conclusion.

"Inuyasha could be in danger. I've got to get back. Now."

"Impossible. There must always be two people here."

"… Do you have a manual for being stuck in a gem for eternity, or are you just guessing?"

"…"

"I'm going home, now." I concentrate on home, on Inuyasha, on my own sense of urgency. Nothing.

Guess I'm going to have to kill off the demon before I can return to protect Inuyasha from Midoriko. Wishes are lots of trouble.

I doubt that the talk between Kikyou/Kimiko and the demon that Midoriko fought was right. It pushes the plot along, though, and that's what I'm worried about.

Guess who's freaking out Inuyasha. Really, try.