I do not own InuYasha or Magic Knight Rayearth in any way, shape or form!


Speech Key:

"The" – Oral/Normal Speech

'The'Thoughts


PLEASE READ BEFORE BEGINNING CHAPTER!

AN: Ah, this one was a little more difficult to write, so if there are any inconsistencies or if it just sounds downright strange, just bear with me. Because I didn't want to include Nova in my story (frankly, her character was just really unsettling to me, combined with the grim and dark atmosphere of the second season altogether and that turned out to be a bad combination), I had to improvise a bit.

Anyway, I hope you all like this and please remember to review, but if you've nothing polite to say then don't bother saying anything at all!


~A Match of Two Souls~

oO-Reliving a Painful Past-Oo

"Where am I?" Hikaru looked around the dark space where she floated aimlessly. "Is this part of getting my sword back?"

A pinprick of light in the distance caught the teen's attention. "Huh? What's that?" with a little kick, she propelled herself towards the light. But the closer she tried getting to it, the farther away it seemed to be. "What do I do now?"

As if on cue, the light grew brighter, but instead of growing larger, it melted into a fiery road that began just below Hikaru's feet. She looked at the path cautiously, and although she was wary of stepping onto the winding trail, something in her heart pulled her to walk on it.

The moment the rubber soles touched the path, the flames died down to reveal a ruby stoned path. "I guess I have to follow now…" Hikaru murmured as she began down the road.

~AMatchOfTwoSouls~

The teen didn't know how long she'd been walking, but it felt like it'd been forever, and at the same time, not. She walked and walked, but the scenery was remained never-changing. Darkness was all that was there besides the ruby road that ran through it.

Suddenly, Hikaru was pulled to a stop. It might sound odd, but she literally could go no further than where she was. "What's going on?" she tried pulled her feet up, only to find them stuck tight to the ground. "My feet are stuck!"

But before Hikaru could do anything, a long silvery line expanded to create a large ornate mirror. "A mirror?" she reached out to touch the glass. A blinding light erupted from the mirror when Hikaru's fingers reached the mirror's surface.

Startled, the Knight of Fire brought her arms up to shield her eyes with a shout of surprise. "What's going on?!"


Hikaru opened her eyes to see a very familiar monument. "Tokyo Tower? Am I back home?" Just then, the scenery around her changed she found herself watching the events of the first time she and her friends came to Cephiro.

"That's right," Hikaru spoke, watching closely. "The sky lit up back then, but only when Umi-chan, Fuu-chan, and I came together. Does that mean that if we weren't together, that we wouldn't have been summoned? What would've happened if we weren't together?"

She watched the three of them fight together as they traveled through Cephiro, oblivious to the true reason they were called. "We fought together, even thought we didn't know each other at first. But we were all we had here in this other world and we became friends, best friends! Together, we were able to work together and do our best to come back home."

She paused.

"But I wonder…what would have happened if we weren't together? Would we have died so soon after coming here? Never being able to go back home to our families? Or would it be like we just disappeared? We made it, fighting, to the end because we were together. Umi-chan and Fuu-chan became my strength and really important friends! Sisters!"

"But what if—" a voice whispered to Hikaru.

"—Umi-chan and Fuu-chan weren't there?" the teen finished, never noticing the other voice.

"What would have happened?" she said in tandem with the other voice.

The Knight of fire froze as she was snapped back into the darkness. Ruby eyes widened as she finally heard the second voice. A voice that was neither hers nor from anyone else she knew. "Who's there?" Hikaru demanded.

A dark chuckle echoed in the void, sending a shiver up Hikaru's spine. A deathly pale hand adorned with long red claws for nails shot out of the shadows and seized her face. "What the—!" a small cry was heard as the long nails of the hand dug into her face while forcibly turning her head.

Another mirror appeared, but unlike the previous one, this bore a darker, more corroded frame. "Look and see the truth for yourself!" The hand pushed Hikaru's face into the mirror as memories from the last leg of their journey in Cephiro played out.

"If those two hadn't been there, you wouldn't have had to suffer so much," the voice cooed to the Knight of Fire.

"That's not true!" Hikaru denied. "Things might've been hard, but I decided to keep on going! None of that was Umi-chan or Fuu-chan's fault!"

"But it was still difficult, wasn't it? You were hurt so many times…"

"That's not—"

"Then think of it this way: If you never came to Cephiro, you would never have had to go through that pain. If you were never summoned here, you would never have suffered as you did."

"It was hard," Hikaru conceded. "But because the three of us were together we—"

"Then there was him," the voice spoke softly as memories of fighting Zagato and his defeat played out. "You killed him, didn't you?"

"Zagato…" the teen trailed off.

"You never wanted to commit such an act, did you?"

"Back then, I was pretending to be a hero. I didn't know why Zagato started that war or how he really felt. I thought I was doing the right thing! I never knew it was going to end as badly as it did!"

"Yes, you never knew the truth. But you still killed him, didn't you? And he wasn't the only person you killed, was he?"

"Emeraude-hime…"

"You killed the Princess, too, didn't you? And just moments after the three of you took the life of the one she loved!"

Hikaru sobbed as the memories of the final moments in Cephiro were shown. 'How can I forgive myself after doing something like that? Why didn't we ever ask for more information? For the truth?'

"Your heart was wounded," the voice murmured softly. "The pain you felt dug deep into your kind heart. You never wanted to feel such pain, did you?"

The final memory was shown. The memory of when the three girls were returned to the place they'd left, embracing each other as they cried for the Princess and her love, for the acts they committed in their ignorance.

"You never wanted to believe it was all real, did you? You wanted to believe it was all a dream. But how could you? That adventure you and your friends had wasn't something that could just be made up."

"No…Stop! STOP!"

"It was hard, wasn't it?" the memories began flowing in reverse. "You became involved in a war that you had nothing to do with. Your heart was damaged in the process! Cephiro's pillar involved you by bringing you here! If it wasn't for her, you wouldn't have been hurt, isn't that right? Then why protect the land the Princess supported and loved?"

"Cephiro…Emeraude-hime…Zagato…" the teen whispered brokenly.

"Come to me, Hikaru, and you will never have to feel such pain ever again. Come to me and you can forget this all ever happened. Come to me, Hikaru. Come…"

"I—I—" Hikaru didn't know what to do. It was true that all she wanted to do was forget she had killed Princess Emeraude and Zagato. It was true that she didn't want to hurt anymore. 'But what should I do?'

Her eyes drooped as she felt the clawed hand removed from her face as it began stroking through her long fiery locks.

'What should I do?'


Adieu,

TsukiyoTenshi