Ch. 46- Inuyasha and Kikyo


Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi


"WHOOOOOOOOOAAA!"

THUD! Inuyasha fell to the ground with Urasue's clay soldiers falling on top of him, shattering into pieces of dried mud and bone. After a moment, he grunted as he pushed the debris off of him and then dusted himself off, grumbling in annoyance.

"Dammit, what a pain in the balls," he cursed. "I wonder what happened to Shippo and the old bat."

BAM! He grunted as a giant leaf fell on top of him...holding Shippo and Kaede.

"...That answers that question...!" Inuyasha groaned.

"Sorry, Inuyasha!" Shippo called. "Didn't see you!"

"That's okay..." Inuyasha replied as he got up. "Where did Urasue go with Kagome?"

"No doubt she has taken her back to her lair," said Kaede.

"Why should she take Kagome, anyway?!" asked Shippo, worriedly. "She's not gonna eat her, is she?!"

"I doubt that, Shippo," Kaede said. "What Urasue has planned for her mayhaps be just as bad, if not worse."

"What do you mean?" Inuyasha asked.

"Do ye not remember what I had said about Kagome when she first came to this era?" asked Kaede. "That she is the reincarnation of Kikyo?"

"Yeah, what about it?" asked Inuyasha.

"Inuyasha...I implore ye," Kaede said. "Ye must tell me what truly happened between ye and my sister."

Inuyasha tensed up a bit, but then he glared as he turned away.

"Keh!" he scoffed. "You think I have time to humor an old woman's-"

"Ye must tell me, now!" Kaede urged. "If my instincts are correct...ye may just reunite with Kikyo."

Inuyasha gasped silently while Shippo blinked up at him in confusion...and worry.

XXX

Meanwhile, up in Urasue's mountain lair, Kagome was lying in a tub full of greenish-blue fluid, surrounded by herbs and her hands and feet bound by ropes.

'What's going on? I...I can't move...!'

Nearby, Urasue chuckled as she glanced over at Kikyo...who was now dressed in her old priestess robes, leaning against the rock wall with a listless look in her eyes.

"Soon, Kikyo," said the ogress. "Soon, your soul will rise from this mortal flesh!"

Kagome narrowed her eyes in a venomous glare.

"How many do I have to say it, you old bat?!" she asked. "I'm nobody's reincarnation! How are you gonna explain this if it turns out you're wrong, huh?!"

"Hmm?" Urasue hummed in bewilderment. "How can this be? The girl speaks, even though she is soaked from head to toe in my mystic herbs! She should be paralyzed, inside and out!" That's when she spotted a familiar pink light, causing her to gasp silently as she eyed the large Sacred Jewel fragment around Kagome's neck. "Ohh...what's this? A shard of the Shikon Jewel, I see!"

Kagome gasped silently while Urasue reached for the gem.

"How fortuitous!" the ogress exclaimed. "I humbly accept this treasure!"

"Keep your hands away from me!" Kagome yelled, causing Urasue to shriek as she was hit by some sort of static electricity.

"Curses!" Urasue hissed as she held her burned hand. "A barrier around the casket?! She really does possess Kikyo's soul!"

Kikyo blinked before she turned her head away...as if she were looking for something.

XXX

Not too far away, Inuyasha was carrying Kaede on his back while Shippo ran on ahead of him. As they continued to ascent the mountain...Inuyasha had a distant look in his eyes, deep in thought.

'Kikyo and I...I met her, 50 years ago. In a bid to become a full-fledged demon, I sought the power of the Sacred Jewel of Four Souls...but every time I made the attempt to steal it for myself, Kikyo always stopped me...'

Flashback

THUNK-THUNK-THUNK! Inuyasha grunted as he found his robes pinned to a tree...while not too far from him, Kikyo stood, holding her longbow and a quiver of arrows. The half-demon growled as he glared at her as she prepared to fire another arrow at him, which caused him to gasp and tense up as she began to take aim...but then, she lowered her bow, put the arrow back in the quiver, then turned and walked away. Inuyasha blinked in bewilderment...then growled in irritation.

"WILL YOU KNOCK IT OFF?!" he questioned, causing Kikyo to stop in her tracks before she turned and glared at Inuyasha. "Why do you never finish me off?!"

"...Leave me alone," Kikyo answered. "I do not wish to waste my arrows on you."

On that, she walked away, leaving Inuyasha to try and get himself out of the tree.

'I couldn't understand her, at first. As much as I wanted the Sacred Jewel...I never tried to kill Kikyo...and she never tried to kill me.'

After a while, Kikyo was seen, sitting upon a grassy hill as the wind blew gently.

"...Inuyasha, I know you're there," she called. "Why don't you come down and join me?"

Inuyasha peeked his head out from the trees, blinking in perplexity. After contemplating it for a moment, he decided to take the priestess up on her offer and sat down next to her like a dog on his haunches. However, he still kept his distance, eyeing her warily, as if expecting her to suddenly jump up and attack him at any moment.

"...This is the first time that you and I have sat together so closely, is it not?" Kikyo asked.

"Yeah, what about it?" asked Inuyasha.

"...Inuyasha," Kikyo said. "Tell me...what do I look like to you? Do I look...human?"

"Huh?" Inuyasha muttered. "What are you babbling about, now?"

"...I cannot show any weakness," Kikyo said. "Not a moment's hesitation...not to anyone. If I did, I could be struck down by demons within a moment's notice." She looked up at the sky. "I appear human...and yet, I cannot truly be human."

Inuyasha blinked at the priestess, who sighed as the wind blew, once more.

"Inuyasha," said Kikyo. "You and I...we are kindred spirits. You, too, fight for humanity...and that's why I could not kill you."

"Keh!" Inuyasha scoffed as he stood up. "What gives you the right to complain? I ain't anything like you!" He then turned to leave...only to see that Kikyo was smiling at him...a forced, sad smile.

"...No," she said. "I shouldn't complain, should I?"

Inuyasha's eyes went wide...and he felt his heart sink.

'When I saw those lonely eyes and that sad smile...I realized...Kikyo really was like me...and it made me feel so guilty...after that...I just couldn't get her out of my mind...and I started to follow her pretty much everywhere...'

Flashback end

"Hmph..." Inuyasha scoffed. "That turned out to be a mistake..."

"Pardon?" Kaede asked.

"...Nothing," Inuyasha replied.

"...Inuyasha," Kaede began, "if I didn't know better, I would almost say you are remembering the love you once felt for my sister."

"Don't be ridiculous!" Inuyasha bit back. "Kikyo tricked me!"

"...She tricked ye?" Kaede asked. "I don't understand."

Flashback

"I can...turn into a human?" asked Inuyasha, sitting on the hill with Kikyo as the sun set behind them.

"Yes," Kikyo said. "Tomorrow, at dawn, wait for me here...and I will bring you the Sacred Jewel. With it, you can wish to become human."

"I agreed to it...I agreed to become a human using the jewel's power, but the next day, as I was waiting for Kikyo to bring me the Sacred Jewel..."

Inuyasha stood in the middle of the forest, waiting for Kikyo to arrive. He yawned, feeling a bit bored and a little hungry from waiting...but then, his ears twitched as he heard the creaking of a bowstring.

"Huh?" he muttered as he looked back. "Kikyo? Is that you?"

THUNK! THUNK! THUNK! Inuyasha gasped as he dodged the arrows, then turned to see Kikyo, who glared at him with her longbow drawn.

"Die, Inuyasha!" she shouted.

"K...Kikyo...?!" Inuyasha whispered. "But...but why?!"

Flashback end

"The rest you know, you old hag," said Inuyasha, coldly. "I attacked the village and tried to steal the Sacred Jewel...but then Kikyo sealed me to the Sacred Tree."

"What?" Kaede asked. "But...that's impossible!"

"How is impossible?!" Inuyasha asked. "Kikyo betrayed me!"

"That cannot be!" Kaede argued. "The one who betrayed my sister was thou, Inuyasha! You wounded her shoulder!"

"...Wait," Inuyasha said as the realization struck. "That big bloody wound...that's what she died from?!"

"...Ye do not remember?" Kaede asked, even more puzzled.

"Of course not!" Inuyasha shouted. "I don't remember because I didn't do it!" He then looked down to the ground. "Come to think of it...when Kikyo attacked me...there was something different about her scent. She looked the same, and yet..."

Kaede's eye went wide at this.

'None of this makes sense...Kikyo said that Inuyasha was the one who attacked her, yet Inuyasha claims my sister attacked him. Something is definitely amiss...'

"Inuyasha! Kaede!" Shippo called as he pointed up at the mountaintop. "I can see smoke rising from the top! I think we're almost there!"

"Then let's hurry," said Inuyasha as he grabbed Shippo and began to jump up toward the summit. "Hang on, Kagome! We're coming!"

XXX

Back with Kagome, the barrier that shielded her from Urasue was growling larger, forcing the ogress to step back.

"Inconceivable...!" Urasue hissed. "How can it be that this child's soul could form something so huge?!"

"Urgh...!" Kagome gagged. "I feel like I'm gonna puke...!"

"Why?" Urasue asked. "Why is the soul within her so willing to stay within its new vessel?! ...Unless..." She then glanced back at the motionless Kikyo. "Perhaps this one's life ended in such a tragedy that the soul refuses to return...?!"

'I...Inuyasha...!' thought Kagome. 'Where are you?! Please help me!'

"Kagome~!"

Kagome gasped as she looked up to see Inuyasha, Shippo, and Kaede!

"I...Inuyasha...!" Kagome cried.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha cried as he ran towards her and yet stepped away, due to the barrier. "Urgh...damn! I can't get close enough!" He then glared at Urasue. "You! What did you do to Kagome?!"

"Ah...so you're alive after all," Urasue mused as she held her scythe. "I should have known...half-demon."

"Ha!" Kaede gasped upon seeing the lifeless husk that was her sister. "K...Kikyo! She lives!"

"What?" Inuyasha asked before he looked toward Kikyo, causing him to gasp silently. "W...what the...?!"

Kikyo slowly blinked at Inuyasha...then opened her mouth, as if attempting to speak.

"Don't speak...do not say my name!"

'Huh?' Kagome thought. 'Who...whose voice is that?!'

Inuyasha gaped in disbelief, unable to comprehend what he was seeing...and yet, the more he stared at this woman with a body of clay and graveyard soil...the more he felt compelled to believe. Here she was...Kikyo, his former love, back from the dead, and looking the same as she did when she died.

"...K...K...Kikyo...?" he whispered.

BA-BUMP! Kagome's heart suddenly throbbed as her body tensed...then, several orbs of white, vaporous light leaped out of her chest!

"Kagome!" Inuyasha cried.

"Kagome, what's wrong?!" Shippo asked.

"Hahahaha!" Urasue cackled. "The soul...it is freed! When you mentioned Kikyo's name, her heart skipped a beat and the barrier burst open!" She then looked to Inuyasha. "I must thank you, Inuyasha...for you have given me the final ingredient needed to revive Kikyo, at last!"

"What?!" Inuyasha questioned.

"No!" Kaede cried.

"And now, Kikyo," Urasue began, "may your soul return to its proper body!"

Soon, the orbs flew into Kikyo's body, causing her to gasp as she finally took a deep breath...then she shuddered as her body slumped. As for Kagome, she lied limp in the tub of herbal water while Shippo began to shake her.

"Kagome!" he cried. "Are you okay?! Wake up! Say something!"

"Foolish fox," Urasue grinned. "That girl is nothing more than an empty husk, now. Now that I'm done with her, I will pickle her in miso and then eat her."

'Kagome's soul...in Kikyo's body...?!' thought Inuyasha, too shocked to even speak.

"Urasue, you wretch," Kaede glared. "You dared to use my sister's remains?!"

"Ah, yes, Kaede," Urasue replied as she looked to Kikyo, who began to stand up, "and with my demonic powers, I have given her a living body from her own bones! In a way, you could say that I am now her mother!"

"You...you hag!" Inuyasha growled.

"And now, Kikyo," Urasue began, "as your mother, I give you these orders: drive off these pests with your restored powers and...eh?"

Kikyo put her hands on Urasue's shoulders...before she squeezed them, causing the ogress' body to go up in flames!

"AAAAAAAAAGH!" Urasue screamed as she writhed about. "YOU FOOL! NOT ME! AAAAAAAAAAARRRGH!"

"...How dare you...!" Kikyo hissed as she glared, hatefully, at the ogress' burning corpse. "How dare you bring me back to life...from a death that I had no desire to leave from!"

"...Kikyo...!" Kaede whispered in shock.

"...Kikyo," Inuyasha said as he walked toward the revived priestess. "Is it...is it really you?"

"...Inu...Inuyasha...?" Kikyo asked as she looked toward him before she walked up to him. She stumbled forward, causing Inuyasha to gasp as he ran up and caught her in his arms, which prompted her to look up at him. They stared into each other's eyes, silently, while Kaede and Shippo watched in anticipation.

"Kikyo..." Inuyasha whispered.

"Inuyasha..." Kikyo whispered...before she glared at him and thrust her hands against his chest, causing him to scream in pain as he felt a powerful electric shock. Thankfully, he managed to push himself away from her before it could hit his heart, then panted as he looked down at his haori, which had been reduced to shreds.

"Kikyo," he said as he looked up at her. "W...what's wrong with you?!"

"...Why?" Kikyo asked as she glared up at him. "Why?! WHY DID YOU BETRAY ME, INUYASHA?!"

"...Be...betrayed you...?" Inuyasha repeated.


And so it begins...

Now, let's get something straight: I don't like Kikyo, but at the same time, I don't dislike her. I guess you could say that I'm neutral towards her. Granted, she could have acted a little more pleasantly toward Kagome and she certainly doesn't win points for trying to drag Inuyasha to hell, but in the end, I do feel bad for her...especially after...well, yeah.

Anywho, review, please!