~x•X•x~
"Ok! That's enough sitting around!"
Kagome huffed to herself as she slung her arrows over her shoulder, feeling antsy to get going after all that had happened in the mountain. They had been lured there by the miasma, then InuYasha and Miroku went to investigate, and who else but Kikyo showed up?
"InuYasha. Stupid jerk!" She muttered to herself, she couldn't help but feel a little bit miffed that InuYasha had thrown himself into danger to try and rescue Kikyo. Once she'd been drained of her souls and fell into the Fuko spell, he had only only wanted to protect Kikyo. In fact, it was almost as if he totally forgot about her for a moment. She squeezed the wooden handle of her bow and shook her head.
But it's not like he's my boyfriend or something!
Kagome's cheeks flushed hotly as she stormed over to where InuYasha was idly sitting, flapping one hand in the spring and splashing water at Shippo. He didn't even really seem to put that much effort into bullying the little fox demon, something that was one of his favorite pastimes. Shippo simply shook off the water, then blew a raspberry at the dejected hanyou and ran towards Kagome as she stood behind InuYasha.
"Um... Hey. InuYasha?" She said, timidly, picking Shippo up in her arms.
"What is it?" InuYasha grumbled, crossing his arms before side-eyeing her.
"Don't you think we should go and look for Kikyo...? Naraku has her!" She pouted, feeling frustrated. She may have had her qualms with Kikyo, but she didn't wish the fate of being alone with Naraku on anyone.
Miroku and Sango stood aways back, intently listening in on the strange conversation. They observed InuYasha and Kagome with mutual bafflement, then looked at one another.
"Don't you think... those two have been acting rather odd lately?" Sango said lowly, covering her mouth with her hand conspicuously.
Miroku leaned over and whispered back, "Yes, they are... let's see how InuYasha handles this one."
"Don't you worry about it. I'll go find Kikyo. You guys stay here." He said stubbornly, looking away from her. Kagome's mouth dropped open, speechless, but she was saved when Miroku came over and nudged InuYasha in the head with his foot.
"Don't be such a fool!" He scolded, and Kagome looked on in wonder as
InuYasha stubbornly took the nudging.
"Did you forget, Kikyo was captured by Naraku!" Sango added in as well, and Miroku nodded in agreement, removing his foot at last so that InuYasha could rub his head angrily.
"Sango is right. Naraku isn't just your problem alone. We've all got a bone to pick with him." He said wisely, and returned to Sango's side. Kagome watched Miroku retreat and took her chance, letting Shippo run off so she could speak with him privately as the others prepared to leave.
"InuYasha. If you're trying to spare my feelings or something, don't." She said bluntly, taking him by surprise
"Huh?" He exclaimed, backing away from her as she edged in closer to look into his eyes with those large, honey brown eyes.
"Kikyo saved you! She risked her life to break the spell! So... that's why, we should do the same... it's only fair." She reasoned, and InuYasha silently agreed.
"We're a team! We should work together all as one... No sneaking around!" Kagome suddenly growled, and InuYasha stiffened up, taking offense.
"Who said I was sneaking!? I don't 'sneak' around! I told you exactly what I was doing!" He snapped back, then Miroku got their attention quickly, clapping his hands once.
"Shh! You two, stop that bickering! We have company!" He hissed, and they all looked up to see Naraku's spying venomous wasps flying away.
"Saimyosho!" InuYasha growled, and they took off towards the direction the wasps were flying. Kagome hopped onto the back of Kirara with Sango, to the demon slayer's surprise, as Kagome huddled down behind her.
"Shouldn't you ride with InuYasha..?" She said, watching as Kagome shook her head stubbornly.
"It's ok! Let's just go!" She squeaked out, and Sango shrugged.
Right now, I don't feel like it would be right. All of his attention is on finding Kikyo right now, even though I said some noble things, I can't help but just be a teensy bit jealous after all...
InuYasha ran, bounding over hills and grass as quickly as he could after the Saimyosho, but it seemed they had all but dissipated.
Kikyo died because of Naraku! I can't let him take her again! He thought with determination, before looking to the side of him to see Kikyo's soul catchers flying by. Her soul catchers! That means she must be close by!
Miroku closed in behind him, "Watch up ahead, InuYasha!"
"Mist?!" He wondered aloud in confusion, as the soul catchers flew directly into it.
"This could be a trap. Everyone, don't let your guard down!" The monk shouted back, and they hardened their eyes on the swirling mist ahead. InuYasha leapt into the vortex, and floated down, looking around him in confusion, as the mist obscured his vision and he at last landed on solid ground.
"Kikyo!" He shouted, and heard a crackling din in the distance that grew in intensity as he walked closer, shielding his eyes from the smoke as his vision slowly adjusted. He looked behind him urgently and shouted, "Watch out everyone! I'll go on ahead!" Then paused, as the smoke cleared and he was able to see the burning remains of a small village before him.
A Village!? It's being attacked by something...? He thought, confused as he suddenly heard shouts ringing out in the distance.
"It's InuYasha!""Let's get him!""He's after the Shikon Jewel!""He won't get away with attacking our village!"
The voices shouted angrily, and InuYasha looked around, panicked, then gasped as he felt something round clutched tightly in his hand.
The...Shikon Jewel!
He gasped, staring at it in awed despair.
There was a twang on the air as he looked sharply to his left and an arrow flew by him, disintegrating strands of hair as it whipped past.
"InuYasha!" A familiar voice yelled out angrily, then the flames cleared and he saw Kikyo standing before him, the shoulder of her robe drenched in blood.
"Kikyo?!" He gasped, then it dawned on him.
This is that day, 50 years ago... When Kikyo and I were tricked into thinking we had betrayed one another!Have I returned to that day?The day when Kikyo shot me!?
His body weight was sucked back, and a crushing weight hit him in the chest, pinning him to the tree with her arrow. Kikyo stumbled towards him, clutching her bleeding shoulder with a sorrowful look in her eyes.
"The Sacred Jewel... you would do all this, for such a thing...?"
She clutched the jewel to her chest and cried, "You betrayed me..."
No! You're wrong, Kikyo! We were both caught in Naraku's trap! I didn't betray you!
"I was so foolish, that I could even think for a moment that I could spend my life with you..." She whispered, and InuYasha fell drowsy from her spell, lowering his eyelids as Kikyo embraced him.
"I won't.. let you die alone..." She said, clutching to him weakly as he felt her warm blood soaking into his clothing.
Kikyo...followed me in death. I know now what it is I have to do, we must go together... To the Underworld where we belong.
The unconscious InuYasha is tangled in a web of wooden vines that leech his soul from him, latching onto the despair that the spell has brought out in him, from the darkest depths of his heart.
If InuYasha cannot escape, they will take his soul. The same will go for his friends, Shippo. Miroku. Sango. All victims of the Illusory death, lying contorted as the images of their most feared memories trap them in terrified limbo. Miroku, eaten by his wind tunnel. Sango, slaughtered by Kohaku. And Shippo, left all alone with nobody there to soothe his frightened cries.
~x•X•x~
At the centre of The forest of Illusory Death, is a great magnolia tree, with Kikyo's many soul catchers circling and being repelled by the barrier around it's wide, tumored trunk that keeps them from tending to Kikyo. Her straight, black hair drapes over his arm as Naraku holds the sleeping Kikyo cradled in his arms.
"All easy prey for my Spell of Illusory Death. My my, how very frail human hearts are, indeed. Sadness... Fear... Confusion... If even one of these dark roots reaches down into the darkest reservoirs of horror I've sunken into this land, it's over." He said, slowly and with a soft grating voice that almost purred with its cruelty. His dark, empty eye sockets stared out as he spoke, with the beautiful priestess sleeping below.
"The darkness will rise in them. And consume their souls." He looked down to Kikyo and chuckled softly.
"Yes, Kikyo. Even your beloved InuYasha is quickly ensnared by the illusions. Only- that Kagome girl, as I expected... is impervious to my spell."
There was a low howling moan of the wind like a dying woman as it scraped and echoed through the trees, sending a chill down Kagome's spine.
"Guys...? Where'd you go?" She said softly, her voice trembling. She stepped forward and heard a crack as the twigs snapped beneath her feet, the vines curled back as in distaste of her touch.
"This is creepy... I swear these vine things are moving..." Kagome said nervously, as she looked back to see they were now all deathly still.
"Ahh!" She yelped, as one wrapped around her ankle. She slashed wildly at the roots with her bow and they crawled back quickly.
She walks through my tangled roots... but not one of them is able to ensnare her at all! Naraku thought bitterly, as he watched the girl through the cracks in the trees.
Yikes! It's Kikyo and Naraku! Kagome's heart races, and she ducks behind a tree.
Now's my chance! Naraku mustn't know I'm here! She pulls free an arrow from her quiver and aims it.
Please... hit! The arrow whips through the air with a heavy twang of her bow string, and breaks through the barrier, dispelling it easily.
It strikes the baboon puppet directly in the chest, and Naraku's voice can be heard laughing softly.
"Good work...I knew that you would make it here by yourself." He said, with a knowing laugh before the puppet guise dissolves and all that is left is the wooden golem with Naraku's long black hair tied loosely around it.
"Huh...? What does he mean? Was this a trap?" She gasps, then feels the ground beneath her being to crack in large, jagged lines. Then it opens up beneath her and Kagome fell through, screaming.
I cannot destroy her soul... but I can destroy the flesh that harbors it.
Kagome struggled to hang onto the edge of the chasm, her legs flailing to find grip as she kicked hopelessly.
"Help! Someone help me, please!" She cried, but it went unheard over the crackling of roots and the bubbling of a thick miasma at the base of the chasm ready to eat away at her flesh.
The soul catchers hissed and hit harder against the walls of the barrier, where Kikyo now lies alone in the bows of the magnolia tree.
Noone is going to come. InuYasha and the other's souls have all been ensnared by my spell of illusory death. Soon, they will all be dead. There is no one left to rescue you, Kagome. Die.
"Help! InuYasha!"
Kagome struggled to hold the cliffside, panicking as she looked down at the bubbling acid, then back up as a figure slowly approached in the distance. She managed to reach up and grab onto a root, attempting to climb up but as she pulled upwards, she was met with the apathetic visage of her former life, Kikyo.
"Kikyo?!" She shouted, confused by her appearance as the woman crouched down. Kikyo was simply watching her struggling, her hair loose from its ties as the wind howled through it. She held the golem puppet in her hand, then set it down beside her.
"He's using a golem puppet... Hn, how fun would it be for him to watch as well?" She sneered, before setting it down upright in the dirt. Kagome looked on in utter shock, as Kikyo smiled at her.
"But.. I thought you were paralyzed?" Kagome asked, foolishly.
"I could have moved whenever I wanted to. I was simply watching... I was curious to see what Naraku intended. It seems, he also sees you as nothing but a nuisance."
Also?! Does that mean, Kikyo does too? Kagome thought, her large eyes wide with wonder as they met with Kikyo's that narrowed cruelly upon the sight of her hideous reincarnation.
~x•X•x~
The flames danced into embers, fluttering away into the dark of night.
Kikyo... If I'd only... trusted you back then...Instead, I hated you... I didn't know that you followed me into death. I'm sorry.
InuYasha thought dreamily, as he sunk further and further into the illusion, his soul being lost little by little.
There is nothing for me here now... I have nothing left to protect. Kikyo, let us go. To Hell, together. So that you won't have to be alone any longer... Goodbye, Kagome...
The illusion of Kikyo made by Naraku clutched him tightly to her chest and he held her, as she latched her lips onto his and his soul began to ooze from his body, in white orbs that hummed and floated, then sunk into the fake Kikyo, as his body began to wither and rot, and she pulled away from the husk of a person. The dead InuYasha became one with the tree as the roots tangled around him, then imploded and burned his rotted corpse into nothing.
Kikyo wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and smiled, as a trickle of blood leaked down her chin. She marvelled at her own hands as they slowly became tipped with claws, her dark brown eyes, golden yellow as she took his soul, as well as all the power held within it, then abandoned him at the scene, the shell of Kikyo walking back to her master to give him such a wonderful gift.
~x•X•x~
"Kikyo! You have to help me! Naraku has us all under his spell! We have to save the others!"
Kagome cried out, and Kikyo only laughed at her, as the cliffside crumbled, then Kagome began to fall. Kagome screamed, then Kikyo's soul catchers came up beneath her and caught her, wrapping around her ankles.
"Oh thank goodness! For a second there, I thought you were going to let me fall!" Kagome said, with a nervous chuckle, then watched helplessly as the insectoid like soul catcher clasped it's arms around the sacred jewel and tore it from her neck, then brought it back to Kikyo. Kikyo took it, clutching it to her chest.
"This is mine. You are not supposed to have it, foolish girl. It's your fault that the jewel is incomplete, and now all your friends are dying as their souls are being sucked from their bodies." Kikyo said hatefully, stepping back from the chasm.
"What?! You're going to let us all die now? But, you saved InuYasha before!" She shouted, now just as frightened as she was angry.
Kikyo chuckled, placing the jewel around her neck, as her eyes flickered crimson.
"I had to let InuYasha think that there was still a chance I cared for him before we took his soul; or else the spell wouldn't have worked. You saw how easily he would risk his life for mine over yours, didn't you, or are you truly that much of an idiot?"
Kagome began to cry, with large beads of moisture falling from her eyes, then the soul catchers protecting her from falling now turned to roots, and she cried out as they began to give way.
"InuYasha! Help! InuYasha, where are you?!" She screamed, but there was no answer as Kikyo watched her with an amused expression.
"He isn't coming. His soul is now rotting in hell. But I'm sure you'll be seeing him soon, you can join him as he relives the day he betrayed me over and over for all eternity."
"But, Kikyo, that was all Naraku's plan to turn you two against each other, wasn't it?! You have to believe me!" Kagome screamed, her voice growing even more shrill.
"I know that. That is why I decided that I cannot keep living on, watching him playing an imaginary reenactment of the way our life was supposed to be. My soul no longer yearns to be with InuYasha. It will not, once I am free of you." She said viciously, and with that, the Sacred Jewel turned black on her chest, and the roots holding up Kagome dried up and shattered, and she fell helplessly into the miasma.
Kikyo watched, her crimson eyes aglow as the lilac hued liquid burbled, and red mixed with it as Kagome's hair fell away from her skull, her large sorrowful eyes melting away as she suffered a painful death, then her soul oozed out of her, and began rushing back into Kikyo, hitting her body back and forth as she regained her soul back at last.
Kagome's soul fought within for survival, as Kikyo fell back and writhed on the ground; her skin glowed red and black, then lavender and white as the souls battled within her body. Kikyo closed her eyes and squeezed them shut, feeling the burning feeling rising up in her once again.
She saw all the flashes of Kagome and InuYasha's memories together; all the times InuYasha had chased after her and left Kagome alone to weep, and that bitterness within Kagome's heart that envied Kikyo burst free in a wash of dark purple, flooding through her veins, all the way to her fingertips until Kikyo became still, and her skin paled, returning to its normal color, as the corrupted jewel melted into her chest and sunk in, making her eyes open up quickly as she felt a new surge of power rise within her.
Kikyo's eyes opened and they were pale lilac, with red at the center as she blinked with heavy lashes, and sat up, licking her now sharp, fanged teeth with a long, forked tongue. Her lips were slick and black, and as she reached to touch them, she noticed how her nails had elongated into long, red claws tipped with black. She flexed her fingers and purred, before standing up, and allowing a pair of wings to burst free from her back, as she took flight back to Naraku's castle.
~x•X•x~
A/N: I believe that garners a Mature content rating, so I will be changing it. Thank you to Proxy57 and Carla for the reviews. I hope that this chapter didn't dissuade you all from reading. There is much more to come! I hope people don't think I hate InuYasha and Kagome, I don't! I'm just writing this out of my own morbid curiosity, and if that bothers you, feel free to flame. I probably should burn for what I'm about to do in the next chapter. Hehe.