For the sixth time that morning, InuYasha glanced up at the sky and growled, his head moving back to the large white building that was Kagome's school. "Can't she go any faster?" he grumped.

"Patience, InuYasha-kun," Mama Higurashi chided, her voice gentle. "In order to drop out of school, Kagome has to take a test, and she needs to concentrate all of her knowledge on passing that test."

InuYasha looked at Mrs. Higurashi, his eyes suddenly unsure. "You...do you really approve of what Kagome's doing?" he asked.

Mama Higurashi smiled, though her eyes were a little sad. "I do wish she could have graduated from high school, but from the way I see it, this is what Kagome wanted to do, and I'm not going to stand in the way of what she wants. Besides, when we talked about it last night, she made it very clear that she feels more at home with you in the Sengoku jidai than she does here with us." Even though he had already heard the last part of Mrs. Higurashi's little speech from Kagome, InuYasha still flushed bright red when he heard it spoken aloud. The hanyou just couldn't believe his luck. The idea that someone perfect like Kagome would ever choose a homeless, penniless inu-hanyou like him to live their life with was mind-boggling, exhilarating and shocking all at the same time.

Then, just when his boredom was reaching its peak, a gentle breeze blew at the back of his head, carrying with it her familiar, sweet and wonderful scent. InuYasha whipped around, trying very hard not to look excited and failing miserably. Kagome strode through the school's empty courtyard, her hair flowing in the breeze like water-weeds in a stream, her face untroubled as it always was after she took her tests. When her eyes found InuYasha, a huge smile dawned on her face, as brilliant as the setting sun.

"InuYasha!" The miko sounded rather surprised to see her hanyou standing there, but seemed to get over it soon enough. She ran over to him, nearly bowling him over when she slammed into his chest. "What're you doing here?"

"Your mother brought me here," he mumbled, blushing right to the tips of his ears (concealed by the black baseball cap, as they always were when he went out in the Heisei jidai).

"Mama did?" Kagome asked, lifting her face from his chest and peering around him to see her mother standing behind InuYasha, her face creased in a smile as radiant as her daughter's. "Hi, Mama," she greeted, feeling a little sheepish for not noticing her.

"Hello, dear," Mama Higurashi replied, moving forward so that she and Kagome were almost face to face. "How was your test?"

"Better than I thought it would be," Kagome answered. "The teacher kept giving me dirty looks, though."

InuYasha stiffened slightly. "Why?" he growled. If anyone mistreated his Kagome...

"Teachers don't like to see students giving up, and there's no need to start growling, InuYasha," Kagome reprimanded, pulling away from the hanyou to fix him with a stern glare. "He was just concerned for my future, that's all."

InuYasha gave a "Feh!" and turned away, but he did seem to be a little less annoyed. Kagome turned and walked toward her mother, her smile drifting back over her face.

"Can we go home now, Mama? I want to have a few last moments in my room before I leave." Kagome's voice had a touch of wistfulness in it, as the reality of her last few moments of truly living in her home finally dawned upon her. Her mama's only reply was a small smile and a short nod. Then, she turned around and started the walk back home. Kagome paused a moment so she could grab her hanyou's hand, then followed after her mother, InuYasha trailing behind her like an obedient puppy.

The walk back to the shrine was the strangest Kagome had ever taken. It was like the world around her had gone silent, receding into the distant background to a place where Kagome couldn't touch it. When she arrived at the steps to the shrine, she spent a few minutes just looking up at the place she had once called home. Then, still in the same trance-like state she had been in for the entire walk, the miko mounted the stairs, slowly walked across the courtyard, entered her house and made her way to her room.

It was a bittersweet moment, those last few minutes Kagome spent in her room, looking at all of the things she would be leaving behind. Bitter because it was hard for her to leave home, sweet because she knew in her heart that this was the right thing to do. All of the things that happened to her in the Sengoku jidai-Mujōna aside-had changed her into someone who didn't belong in this rather shallow era of cell-phones, computers and other technologies. No, Kagome didn't regret her decision to leave the Heisei jidai.

That didn't make it any less difficult, though.

"You all right?" InuYasha asked, for probably the twelfth time since entering her room. He was sitting on her bed, watching as his miko moved around, touching everything in her room with the tips of her fingers, like they would disintegrate if she was too rough. His eyes were veiled, hidden behind his black lashes.

Kagome turned to him, her eyes a little too bright, but her smile perfectly natural. "I'll be fine," she told him, crossing over to where he was sitting and flopping down in his lap, giggling when his eyes widened in surprise. "Leaving your home to strike out on your own is always a hard thing to do, InuYasha," she stated. "But it's time. I can't stay here any more."

InuYasha blinked at her, the dumbfounded look returning to his face. "Y'know, I still can't believe-" he started, but Kagome interrupted him.

"-that I'm doing this for you. I know, baka!" Kagome reached out and tweaked one of InuYasha's ears, smiling softly when the hanyou emitted a growl and leaned into her touch, telling her without words that he liked having his ears rubbed. "If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times: I love you! And it wasn't like I was going to stay here forever anyway. I just didn't expect to...you know...go live in another time altogether."

The contented look that had come over InuYasha's face when Kagome had rubbed his ears faded away, replaced by an unusually thoughtful expression. "K'gome...if leaving hurts ya...then maybe I could live here."

Kagome looked at him as though leeks had suddenly sprouted out of his ears. "InuYasha, you hate it here," she stated quietly.

InuYasha winced, but tried to put on a brave face. "It...it ain't so bad."

Kagome's brows pulled together as she studied the inu-hanyou's attempt at a nonchalant expression. "Inu, you can't go outside without wearing a hat, the smells nearly always make you sick, you jump every time a car or truck drives past you while walking down the street, and you positively loathe all the buildings and hot pavement." Kagome reached out and ran her fingers through his silver bangs, watching the moonlight-colored strands as they passed over the palm of her hand. "Even if that wasn't an issue, there's no way you could conform to the Heisei jidai. The world has evolved to the point where you have to have money to survive, and the only way to have money is to get a good job, and the only way to get a good job is to have gone to school." InuYasha's brow furrowed as each word left Kagome's mouth, his expression becoming more and more serious. Was this why she had tried so hard at her school? Damn, he'd had no idea that the Heisei jidai was so...harsh to the unlearned.

"All right, already, I get yer point," he growled. "You really wanna do this?"

Kagome nodded, her smile coming back as she leaned down to nuzzle foreheads with her hanyou. "Yes," she said simply. He smirked back at her, a sound like a soft purr starting up in his throat as his golden eyes drifted shut. Amazing, really, that someone would love him enough to do something like this.

Then again, Kagome had always been able to surprise him.

The large, grassy field was strangely quiet, free from all the noises and movements that the life-filled forests usually contained. Kikyou found it rather pleasing, as she preferred the silence. Her shinidamachuu swarmed around her, some holding souls in their spindly legs, others just quietly soaring beside her, ready for her orders, whenever they might come. The undead miko's brow was slightly furrowed as she drew to a stop in the middle of the field, her faithful youkai servants twisting around her body as her thoughts ran wild.

'It has been more than a week already...yet I know that Naraku has not been purged from this land. But, even though I have searched far and wide for Kagome's aura, I haven't found a trace of it left in Nippon.' Kikyou looked up at the starry sky overhead, lost in her thoughts, not seeing the bodies of the shinidamachuu as they swirled and looped, ducking and weaving around each other, waiting patiently for their mistress to start moving again. 'Where could she have gone? What could have happened between the time I left and this moment?'

A small pang of pain touched the place where Kikyou's heart would have been when she remembered that early morning in the clearing; when InuYasha had embraced Kagome, kissed her and told her that the love that he and Kikyou had shared so long ago was dust in the wind now. Regardless of whether or not it was true, it still hurt the long-dead miko to know that the reason she had died-her love for InuYasha-had become unrequited and, effectively, pointless.

'Kagome has truly changed him,' she thought, almost bitterly. 'InuYasha is no longer the man I once knew. He's changed so-'

"Foolish miko...standing around with your guard down in the middle of an open field. Who would have guessed that the great Kikyou would make such a mistake?"

Without warning, Kikyou was jerked off her feet and yanked high into the air, her shinidamachuu scrambling and reforming in a mad wave as the giant black paws that came seemingly out of nowhere disrupted their intricate dance and tore two of their brethren apart. Kikyou cursed herself for letting her guard down, but resigned herself to captivity...for the time being. Let this creature reveal some of its secrets, and then she would kill it.

Slowly, the massive fingers of the paw carefully worked the miko's clay body, shifting her around until she faced two huge red eyes, glowing like bright coals in the darkness, their bloody light illuminating a gaping muzzle and dripping, yellowish fangs.

"You...you must be the one known as Kyūna-shi," she stated, her voice perfectly calm. Kyūna-shi chuckled softly, eying the miko with a strained attempt at a barely interested expression. She could see the thinly veiled excitement in the giant's eyes.

"I am not surprised that you know me...Mujōna told me that she vaguely remembered your brief affiliation with InuYasha's fold. What does surprise me is why you would walk around with your guard down if you know about the things that go bump in the night." Kyūna-shi chuckled a little as he studied the undead miko in his paw. "You are stupider than InuYasha in that respect...and that's saying something."

A flicker of annoyance briefly flashed over Kikyou's face. "Do not speak ill of InuYasha," she warned him.

"Or what? You'll kill me?" Kyūna-shi taunted. "With what? Your bow and arrows?" As he spoke, the giant youkai held up his other paw, which contained said longbow and arrows. "Already useless." With a careless motion of his paw, Kyūna-shi crushed the bow and arrows into useless pieces, letting them fall through his fingers and hit the grassy ground beneath his huge foot-paws. Kikyou just blinked, as if she had watched something about as interesting as a fly being swatted.

"I am not intimidated by you, youkai," she told him. "I am much stronger than a regular human."

Kyūna-shi leered at her. "Since when have you been a regular human, miko? From what I have heard about you, nobody has ever considered you a regular human...not even when you were alive." Kyūna-shi guffawed again, his eyes glinting with malice. "Is that why you took in the Shikon-no-Tama? Because if you had it, you could wish for a normal life? How pathetic you are, Kikyou! How pathetic each and every human who has ever walked this Earth is!"

Kikyou glared at him, her anger becoming more defined on her perfect face, reminiscent of the woman Urasue had resurrected all those months ago, filled with the bitterness and malice that her death and InuYasha's 'betrayal' had tainted her heart with. "How dare you speak of such private matters," she hissed, her teeth bared in the manner of a wild animal's snarl. "How DARE you!"

Kyūna-shi laughed again. "Such anger in one so pure, miko...it makes me so happy to see...makes me wonder if you humans might have some redeeming qualities after all."

Some of the undead woman's anger faded away when she realized that Kyūna-shi's 'voice' sounded...strange. Like it was two voices melded into one, rather than just Kyūna-shi's voice. Kikyou's brow furrowed in though, wondering what could make it so different...

A dark gleam caught her eyes just then, making her head whip around in a motion that would have cricked her neck had she been alive. The murky gleam of a tainted shikon-no-kakera could be glimpsed through the dark fur of Kyūna-shi's shoulder, shining with increasing darkness with every word that Kyūna-shi uttered.

"You...possess shikon-no-kakera," she said, her voice barely a whisper.

Kyūna-shi grinned at her, his great face coming closer to hers, his fangs dripping warm and wet dribble onto her white haori. Kikyou did not bend or cower; she simply stared back into his eyes, unafraid. "How astute of you to notice, miko. Yes, I do have shikon-no-kakera...a generous gift from Naraku-sama so that I could perform my duties more effectively-and what better way to prove myself to him than to murder the woman he killed fifty years ago?"

Kikyou straightened up in Kyūna-shi's paw, her gaze icy. "I am not so easy to kill, youkai!" With a deep breath (which was unnecessary, but it made her feel better) Kikyou closed her eyes and started focusing on purifying Kyūna-shi's paw. Seconds later, a sharp yell told her she had done the job correctly. Kyūna-shi screamed and let her go, sending the miko tumbling to the ground. Kikyou hit the grassy ground with enough force to make her teeth rattle, listening to the ōkami-youkai's roars of pain as he nursed his burning paw, screeching his discomfort to the night sky.

Then, something strange happened. Kyūna-shi fell over, like he was a tree that had just been cut down. His large form hit the field's floor with a great BOOM that reverberated in the surrounding area, sending some birds flying for cover and nearly making Kikyou fall to the ground again. Her brow furrowed in slight confusion. She hadn't even dealt the fatal blow yet; why would the ōkami have fallen over?

Then, an evil aura rose up around her, different from the ōkami-youkai's somehow, more malevolent. Kikyou held her hands in front of her face, ready to purify whatever came at her.

She never got the chance.

The slimy black body of Mujōna streaked through the grass and struck the miko's shoulder like a serpent, sinking her pointed head into the canal of her ear without expending any effort at all. Kikyou stiffened. The movement of the youkai through her clay body didn't hurt her, but the evil reaching down to the depths of her soul made her feel colder than she thought possible. Her brow furrowed and teeth clenched, she started directing all of her power within her own body, trying hard to exorcise the youkai from within herself. She could feel it working, feel the evil within herself start to weaken slightly, before-

You hurt my dear Kyūna-shi, a voice growled. That I will NOT pardon.

Kikyou's body became, if possible, even more rigid. This voice... this voice that was not a voice...could it be...?

Yeah, that's right. I'm Mujōna. I used-emphasis on used-to inhabit your reincarnation's body before she hired some nobody houshi to exorcise me while I was still weak. Luckily, I found a new host and made it back to Kyūna-shi before anything bad could happen. There was a slight sigh, as if the speaker was slightly relieved at this turn of events.

The only sign of surprise that Kikyou displayed at the news that Mujōna had been exorcised from Kagome's body was her slightly raised eyebrows. That was in the past now, so it was unimportant. What mattered now was getting Mujōna out of her body.

'I will purify you from my body,' Kikyou told the youkai, her jaw set and eyes determined. 'I will kill you and put an end to Naraku!'

Yeah, yeah, you said that before in the clearing, I seem to recall. Except that time you had a little more incentive, didn't you?

'What do you mean?' Kikyou demanded, eyes narrowing slightly.

C'mon, don't play stupid. All it does is piss people off. You didn't just want to kill Naraku-you wanted to end Kagome's life, too. Ever since you were given a second chance to walk this Earth, you envied her like you envied no-one else. InuYasha trusts her more than he ever trusted you, and she's warmed his heart more than you ever did. He belongs more completely to her than he ever did to you...and it's eating you up. Mujōna laughed softly, her voice dripping with venom as she stated, Funny, really. You're more jealous of Kagome than Kagome is of you. Yet she was able-willing, even-to hand InuYasha over to you if it meant he would be happy. Which miko do you think is the nobler in this situation, mm?

The undead miko sat there, her form stiff and still, the only sign of movement the trembling of her lips as she bit back an outraged yell. The nerve, the sheer nerve of the youkai, delving into her secrets like that! This Mujōna was just like Naraku; someone who loved to look into a person's soul and use their own darkness against them.

Thank you, Mujōna purred. I like being compared to Naraku-sama. It makes me feel good. The miko clenched her fists in helpless rage, willing herself to ready one last burst of purification energy.

Go ahead and try it, but I don't think it will work.

"Are you willing to bet your life-and Naraku's-on that?" Kikyou asked softly.

I don't have to-I already know I'm going to win.

Kikyou let out a snort, then froze. From within her chest came the feeling like chains were being unshackled, a feeling that usually only appeared when-

The undead miko let out a cry of horror as the dead souls she was storing inside herself burst out of her clay body in a great wave, Mujōna's ruthless laughter echoing through her body as she undid the bonds that kept the souls inside her, sending them up toward the heavens. Each soul lost made Kikyou feel weaker and weaker, her limbs becoming heavier and heavier. Then, when the very last soul had left her body, the miko collapsed in a heap, her power gone.

Not so haughty now, are ya, you bitch? Not so high and mighty now that you're lying like a helpless worm upon the ground, are you? The youkai's voice burned with satisfaction, pleased with the weakness that weighed down the miko's fragment of soul.

'What...what will you do with me now?' Kikyou asked, her mental 'voice' weak. 'End my life?'

No, no...not yet. I think I can make use of your body. You're made of clay and bones, so you don't feel any pain, and since your soul is only an itty-bitty tiny little piece that has no power when there are no dead souls to sustain it...I think I'll enjoy myself while inhabiting you.

Kikyou wondered if she should care that Mujōna was taking over her body, but her thought processes were slowing down, becoming more foggy as time went by, making it nearly impossible to think. The dead souls she collected were her sustenance, after all, and without them she weakened rapidly. The world dulled, blurred, and finally faded as the miko's soul fragment receded into the recesses of her body like a starving man who faded into unconsciousness before his eventual death.

'So...this is it...'

A/N: So...I AM working on the next chapter, for those of you who're wating for me to hurry up...I've just been a wee bit short of inspiration for the past few days...

It has nothing at all to do with Supernatural...nothing at all...^^;