DISCLAIMER: I do not own InuYasha or its characters.
CHAPTER TEN
InuYasha was running on top of the trees, jumping from branch to branch. It had been two weeks since he left Kagome's hut. Up until three days ago he was still fuming over the image of Koga caring for Kagome. An image that was burnt into his mind, but luckily was only a small ember in the back of it. He stopped high upon a branch over looking the clearing where Kagome's hut rested.
They were play 'Catch' with a portion on Koga's pack. Wolves, humans, and the small half demon where all running and laughing. InuYasha watched as Kagome caught the ball the bounced past her group. Gracefully spinning, she threw the ball back, in the opposite direction, as hard as she could. Her laughter bubbled over as she watched Koga and his team chase the ball down on all fours.
To no surprise to InuYasha, Koga was the first to catch his scent in the wind. One by one Koga and his pack stopped mid-tracking and looked towards the tree InuYasha was perched upon. InuYasha starred at Koga and his pack before making eye contact with Kagome. Her face was blank, her eyes held something that InuYasha was unable to understand.
Kagome turned to Sango and smiled. "I believe the meat is done roasting. Why don't you take everyone inside so that they can get started on lunch?"
Sango, knowing her friend, nodded. "Lunch time!" She called.
The pack hooted and hollered before rushing into the hut, followed by Miroku, Shippo, and Keikan. Koga was the last to enter, he looked from InuYasha to Kagome waiting. Kagome gave him the slightest of nods. With a nod of his own, Koga shot a warning glare at InuYasha before disappearing behind the door.
Kagome slowly began to walk towards the tree that contained InuYasha. When she reached the base, she leaned against the trunk and waited.
InuYasha had watched as Kagome walked to the tree he sat in. When she pressed her back against the trunk he could hear her sigh. He contemplated how he should act, how he should speak to her, how he should ask for her forgiveness. With a sigh of his own, InuYasha walked off of his branch and landed softly in front of Kagome. Their eyes making contact as soo as his feet had touched the ground. Still Kagome said nothing.
'Why isn't she speaking?'
"Kagome... um..." He started.
"Why did you leave?" She demanded.
InuYasha took a step back at her tone. To say that Kagome was mad, would be an understatement. She was furious. Yet, some how, she remained calm. He could only tell her mood by the tone of her voice. "When we were at the river, you fell asleep on Koga's-"
"I know what made you mad. You think after two weeks I wouldn't figure out the reason that made you leave?" She snapped. "But why, InuYasha? Why did you leave?"
InuYasha saw the tears that she held in her eyes, but refused to let them flow. "I... I couldn't stand the fact that you trust Koga more than me. That Keikan trusts him more than me. That... That he is what I should have been." He confessed.
"InuYasha, we have already discussed this. It's just because he's been here. He's been with us through it all." She explained again.
"I should have been here, Kagome." InuYasha argued. "I should have been there from the beginning."
"I know." Kagome whispered looking at the ground. "You're right. You should have been there. I'm sorry."
"Kagome. You have no idea how much it killed me when you disappeared." He whispered coming up to her.
"I do." She said resting her forehead against his. "I felt the same way."
"How sweet." Came a voice from behind.
InuYasha spun around withdrawing his Tetsusaiga, keeping Kagome safely behind him. He looked up into the sky. A dark cloud of miasma floated above the hut. Spiraling in thin air.
"Kikyo." Kagome whispered as she felt her body go cold.
The miasma faded reveling Kikyo in a dark dress. She looked like the last time Kagome had seen her. Her hair flied around her body is wavy clusters. Her face was still pale, with a jagged purple line from her left temple to the middle of her cheek. Dark circles framed her mud brown eyes, adding to her sinister look.
"Tsk, Tsk, Tsk, Kagome. You always ruin my fun." Kikyo stated.
"Kikyo?" InuYasha couldn't believe what he was seeing. The was no way the woman floating before him could be Kikyo. Yet he couldn't mistake the faintest hint of Kikyo's scent masked behind the demonic ora. "What happened to you?"
Kikyo smirked. "The Shikon Jewel in my possession was tainted by Naraku. With all the activity I've been doing, it's turning into a beautiful black pearl. The result of malice, hatred, and greed." Kikyo pulled out the small black orb that hung around her neck. "Such a Magnificat color, don't you think? A thousand times more powerful than its purified version." Kikyo looked back down at the pair below her, noticing the terrified girl quivering behind the hanyou. "I thought I killed you, girl. How is it that you still live?"
Kagome swallowed, "Just lucky I guess."
"Hm, if your alive than that thing growing inside you must be too. Where is the half demon spawn?" She turned and started drifting toward the house.
InuYasha leaped at her, "Stay away from my pup!"
Kagome panicked. "InuYasha NO! Koga!"
InuYasha struck his sword across Kikyo's back. "Take that."
Kikyo smiled back at him. "It that all you got, InuYasha?"
Koga rushed outside at the sound of Kagome screaming his name. She looked at him panting, "Stop him! He's attacking Kikyo!" She ordered.
Koga looked off to the distance and saw InuYasha strike Kikyo two more times with his sword. Once along her shoulder, and the other to her upper arm. Koga had stood in horror as he watched InuYasha make those two strikes, yet he was determined not to allow any others. "Stop you mangy mut!" He yelled as he arm forward knocking InuYasha to the ground as he leaped to make another blow.
InuYasha struggled. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Keikan, who had heard the commotion from inside run from the hut. "Mama!" He cried when he caught sight of her near the tree line.
"Get the hell off me you idiot!" InuYasha ordered.
"Quit your attack!" Koga shouted back still trying to hold onto a strong InuYasha.
"Not until she's dead." InuYasha told him as he kicked Koga in the chest and stood to attack Kikyo one last time with the Wind Scar.
"You're killing Kagome!" Koga shouted. InuYasha froze, 'You're Killing Kagome' rang throughout his mind. He looked back at Koga, who was rising from the ground. "Every attack you make against Kikyo, you also make against Kagome."
InuYasha looked back to where he left Kagome, his eyes widening. She was leaning up against a tree with Keikan, Sango, Miroku, and Shippo standing near her. She was bleeding from three wounds. One across her back, on to her shoulder, and another to her upper arm. His eyes flickered back to a grinning Kikyo, who stood with identical wounds.
"Destroy me, and you lose that girl, InuYasha. Is my death more important than her life?" Kikyo taunted.
Keikan hated that woman. She was the reason his mother was the way she was. Turning he ran with fist at Kikyo. "I won't let you hurt my mama!"
Suddenly he was no longer on the ground but flying toward an awaiting Kikyo. Wrapping her arms securely around the small boy she smiled. "Look who finally decide to join his real mother. The son who should have always been ours, InuYasha." Rising into the air Kikyo vanished in a cloud of miasma. Taking Keikan with her.
Kagome watched in disbelief as her son disappeared. "Keikan!" She screamed running forward, her wounds forgotten. "KEIKAN!" When the realization that her son was gone hit her, she snapped. Facing InuYasha she yelled. "You let her take him!"
"What? No." InuYasha said backing away from a Kagome he had never seen.
Her skin had lost all color. Her free flowing hair crinkled into a curly lion's mane. As the sky darkened with black clouds and lightning flashed across the sky, striking around her. InuYasha saw her eyes. They were no longer the honey brown that he loved so much. No, her eyes were glowing the color of the Shikon Jewel.
"You're the reason she found us!" Kagome accused in what sounded like a hundred voices of men and women, along with her own. "You're the reason he's GONE!"
Lightning struck dangerously close to the ground near InuYasha's feet, sending up chunks of earth into the air. The absent wind now blew ferociously around the small clearing, tearing wood and branches from the roof. To keep a steady balance, InuYasha embedded his sword into the ground as far as he could. Holding on to it as if it was he only lifeline. And it was.
Koga slowly approached the dark Kagome. His hands spread out showing that he meant no harm. Inch by inch he crept forward until she was standing face to face with Kagome. Her face softened upon recognizing him, yet her eyes still glowed purple-ish pink, warning Koga that he was still not safe. "Kagome?" He said gently.
She simply nodded. "Do it." She said in her own voice.
Koga slowly raised his right hand, placing it at the base of Kagome's neck and shoulder. He was still uncertain about her. She could turn her anger on him, instead of InuYasha, at any moment. The instant his flesh met with hers, he squeezed. Igniting the pressure point that Kagome taught him long ago.
As the Clouds and winds instantly vanished, Kagome fell unconsciously into Koga's awaiting arms. Picking her up, Koga made his way back to the hut passing a shocked InuYasha on the way. Miroku hesitantly approached, still unnerved by what Kagome just did. "She's safe now. No need to fear."
"May I enquire as to what just happened?" The monk asked.
It was Koga's turn to sigh, "After I clean and bandage her up I'll tell you. It's about time you know what is really going on." He waited from Miroku to nod. "Sango will you help me?"
"Yes." She replied without pausing.
"You too little fox." Koga said. "She'll need someone to stay by her while she rest."
Shippo swallowed. "I guess I can do that?"
It was nearly midnight. The pack slept outside guarding the hut, Kagome and Shippo slept in her room, while four souls remained awake in the main room. They all sat in silence. Sango and Miroku occupied one bench, Koga sat close to them on another, and in a corner across the room InuYasha, who hadn't said a word since the incident with Kagome, sat as still as a statue.
"All right, Koga." Sango said. "Tell us what's going on."
"I don't know the earlier details, but InuYasha can help fill us in." Koga started.
"Huh?" InuYasha asked breaking his silence. "Why me?"
"You were the only one who was there when the witch, Urasue, brought Kikyo back to life." Koga informed him.
"What does that have to do with today?" InuYasha questioned.
Koga shrugged. "Why don't you tell us what happened? As much as you can remember, anyways."
InuYasha rubbed that off, 'Stupid wolf.' "What do you want to know? The witch stole Kikyo's ashes, as well as some graveyard soil and had planed to bring Kikyo back from the dead. But her soul was already reborn into Kagomes', so she kidnaped Kagome. Using some mixture that Kagome was laying in she waiting. Once Kagomes' heart skipped a beat her soul went into the clay person of Kikyo." He shrugged, "There's not much to tell after that."
"How did Kagome retake her soul?" Miroku asked.
"She called it back." Came Shippo as he hopped into the room and sat in Sango's lap.
Koga nodded. "When Kagome called her soul back, did Kikyos' body fall over lifeless?"
"No." InuYasha replied, wondering where Koga was going with it.
"If Kagomes' soul was the only thing that allowed Kikyo to live, why did Kikyo not fall over dead when Kagome called back her soul?" Koga asked the group hoping they would catch on to what he already knew. When everyone remained silent he sighed. "It means that part of Kagomes' soul still lingers in Kikyo."
'Is that even possible? Does a piece of Kagomes' soul still remain with Kikyo?' InuYasha thought.
"But what about the souls of the dead girls she collects?" Sango asked.
"She needed those souls for energy. Like we need food or water. She needed the energy to keep what small amount of Kagomes' soul from escaping." Koga explained.
"That's why whenever InuYasha attacked one, it also happened to the other." Shippo added.
"Correct. Not only that, Kikyo is consuming demonic souls now. The more souls she takes in the darker she soul becomes. The only problem is Kikyos' soul is so dark and massive that it's starting to leak into Kagome through whatever connection they have. The more souls Kikyo becomes in possession of, the darker Kagomes' pure soul becomes." Koga looked to the bedroom which contained Kagome. "That's what happened today. She lost control over her dark side and it over ran her." He looked to InuYasha making eye contact. "That day at the river, when you thought Kagome was sleeping on my shoulder. She needed it. She felt her control slipping, and sleeping resets her mind. It allows her to wake up with control over it all."
"What happens if she loses control?" Shippo asked.
"Today was just a small sample of what she can do." Koga explained. "The first time she lost it, she took out an entire mountain side. But now that we know the cause, and well as the signs, we are better prepared for it."
"What are the signs?" Miroku said.
"She get's cold. Usually her skin prickles with things she calls the goose bumps. Her breathing quickens. Last sign is her hands begin to shake." Koga told them.
"When Kagome wakes up I have to go after our pup. Tell me how to kill Kikyo without harming Kagome?" InuYasha enquired.
Koga shook his head. "You can't. Every hit Kikyo takes reflects on Kagome. Basically it comes down to one thing."
"What's that?" Shippo nervously asked when no one said anything.
Koga looked at the small fox. "Kikyo vs. Kagome."
A/N:
I told you it would be long! It's also our half way point... (GASP)... So tell me how do you like it? What do you think will happen? Will InuYasha allow Kikyo to live if it means he can still have Kagome? Or will he destroy them both? Please comment... I love reading your reveiws! Thanks for reading!