Last Time...
"No…" Rin whispered.
"Yes!" Naraku howled.
"Rin!" Sango exclaimed.
"Shit…" Miroku muttered.
"It has begun…" Semishia said as she disappeared in a bright flash of blue light.
"Miroku!" Sango screamed as her boyfriend fell to the floor, a gaping hole in his side. As soon as Naraku had appeared on the scene he took out Miroku, who had been in possession of the jewel. She ran to him quickly her eyes watering, sobs shaking her entire body.
"I… I'm fine… Sango…" He wheezed out before his failing voice was blocked out by Naraku's ominous laugher. Miroku winced as his vision blurred and he fainted in Sango's arms.
Sango wailed and screamed. She looked up to Rin for help but got none as the girl was forced to stay away. Sango was so devastated that she didn't even recognize the changes in Rin. All she knew was that Miroku was dying and Rin was just looking on at the scene.
The jewel floated into Naraku's hands and he held it up toward the sky. "So many years I have searched and now… Thanks to you darling…" He said turning to Rin who had collapsed on the floor from sheer exhaustion. "I will have everything I have ever desired and more; starting with the complete annihilation of the bastard mutt's soul, Sesshoumaru!"
"Please don't Naraku…" Rin cried as she stared at Miroku's unconscious body. "Leave Sesshoumaru alone!" Naraku just laughed and turned all of his attention back to the jewel. He was so absorbed in its power he did not even notice the pale figure manifesting behind Rin.
"The Shikon no Tama is a very unique…" Kaede said softly as she handed the orb to her niece. She ran her fingers through her thick black hair quickly and cracked her knuckles. "Ye need to understand Kagome…"
"I know Kae-chan, you can wish for anything in the world…"the seven-year-old Kagome said
"It's not just that Kagome… Ye need to understand everything about the jewel. I am only nineteen but when ye come of age, ye have been chosen to take over the responsibility of protecting the jewel. I was just a stand in for ye Kagome. I have not the great powers that ye posses. And I cannot protect this gem as well as ye will be able to." Kaede said softly to the little girl.
"But I don't get it. Why can't Kikyo watch it, she's older…" Kagome whined.
"Midoriko made it clear, to the second heir the jewel does go. An ominous cloud hangs over the first born of the Higurashi clan. Ye are the keeper of the jewel." Kaede said with some finality.
"Fine then Kae-chan… But what don't I know about the jewel. It seems really simple, take the jewel and make a wish…"
"Awww… But today we shall learn who may make a wish on the jewel…"
"A lesson today Kae-chan?"
"Aye, Kagome… The jewel may only be used by the living. The user only receives one wish but the wish will determine the balance of the universe for five-hundred years."
"And how will a 'dead' person use the jewel. Kae-chan, they are, well, dead…"
"Awww… Kagome, so many things I must teach you before I retire and announce you as the Shinto Priestess…"
Rin opened her mouth to scream but the breath that came out was no more than a small gasp. Cool slender fingers fell on her shoulders as she turned to come face to face with the first great lady of the western lands, Semishia. The great woman moved her fingers to her lips and smiled widely at Rin.
Then the pair vanished into a dimension of the tomb that Semishia used to rest most of the time. "I don't suppose you know who I am; do you Rin-chan?" She asked softly as Rin looked around the tomb that was now bathed in a blue light and completely still.
"I… Where…" Rin stuttered out surprised at her new and yet familiar surroundings.
"Oh… this is an alternate dimension created by yours truly as she waits out her long eternal punishment. It's like slowing down time but you can't see where you stopped it at. But I know, I think… any way, do you know who I am?" She asked again.
Rin scratched through her seemingly new memories and eventually dug out a description of the woman standing in front of her. It had been given to her long ago by the Inu no Taisho when she had asked about Sesshoumaru's mother. "You're Sesshoumaru's mother…" Rin said softly as she bowed. "Lady Semishia."
"Ah ha, so your memories have returned. All is well then. So many things I wish to speak to you about but we haven't the all the time in the world. Only a few more minutes before Naraku comes to realize you are gone."
"Then what is so important?" Rin asked hastily.
"That is what I'm about to get to if you would just calm down. We still have a little bit of time. Anyway I am going to let you in on the secret to defeating Naraku, the one that Sesshoumaru planned out all by him self and only told me."
"There is a way to defeat Naraku?" Rin said surprised.
"Yes, and I am now going to share it with you…"
"I'm going to tell you a secret Rin. And I don't want your 'I told you so' to ring into my ears, alright?" Kagome said as the pair sat quietly in the garden.
"But Kagome how is it a secret if I know about it?" Rin asked quizzically as she put down the book she had been reading.
"Because only you know about it…"
"Then it's not a secret Kagome. The only way to keep a secret between three people is if two of them are dead…" Rin said as she looked at her cousin seriously.
"Alright then, I'll kill you after I say this, you know about the Shikon no Tama right?"
"Kagome, where are you getting at? I'm a Higurashi, of course I know of the Shikon no Tama. It falls into your possession next week at your correlation as a Shinto Priestess." Rin said boredom leaking into her voice.
"Wait Rin this has to do with you…" Kagome said before her cousin could become once more absorbed into the witty humor inside her book. "I need you to understand this. Kae-chan told me that there is nothing to worry about but just in case…"
"Kagome, what's the problem?"
"The jewel… to be used it has to have someone to act as a bridge. The bridge will allow the wishing party to cross from this world into a kind of Limbo where Midoriko is fighting the eternal battle. Becoming the bridge is dangerous because there is a chance that you may become stuck in between both worlds for the rest of eternity. And the state of the jewel affects your soul." Kagome said softly.
"And you're telling me this because…" Rin started.
"Rin, I'm the bridge for the jewel. But if anything should happen to me, you are next in line, not Kikyo like everyone around her thinks. And if someone ever gets hold of the jewel and I get stuck in Limbo… you would be my equivalent in this world and it would affect you." Kagome said shakily.
"Another lovely Higurashi curse, hum? Never a blessing with this family, is it?" Rin said as she shook her head and stood to take her leave.
"Wait Rin, I wasn't supposed to tell you but, if something did happen, I didn't want you to be in the dark…" Kagome muttered. "The elders, they figured this way if an evil got to the jewel and something happened to me, they would go after Kikyo, before they realized that you were next in line."
"Thanks Kagome, grandma told me 'There are only a few people in your immediate family you can ever trust.' And I'm glad one of them is you…"Rin said before wistfully making her way into her home.