let me just reiterate how much i hate kikyo. SOOOOO MUUUUCCCHHHH. that being said, she will always be a villain so... yeah...
btw, inuyasha smells the high spiritual content of the cave
After a couple of days of walking, the company finally came to hill that held the cave that Miroku and Sango had talked about. The journey had been odd and quiet, everyone on edge about what had happened with Koga. Kagome tried to keep conversation going but ended up getting lost in the silence. Her leg was aching her and she eventually took up Sango's offer to ride on Kirara. InuYasha mainly stayed behind everyone, although they didn't like that fact since they couldn't see him if he decided to get weird on them.
"Well, this is where we saw her last." Sango said, holding Hiraikotsu at the ready. "She disappeared into that cave right at the top of that hill."
"Right. Sesshomaru, InuYasha, come with me and we'll all go up there to see if Kikyo is still hiding-"
"Why are all three of us coming?" InuYasha asked with a raise of his eyebrow, which he seemed to be getting pretty proficient at.
"Because it deals with you two and I'm going up there."
"I'm not going up there." InuYasha said, sniffing the air. "I feel something ominous will happen if I do that."
Sesshomaru made a face at that as Kagome made a face.
"InuYasha, if we want her to change you guys back then we need you up there."
"I said I'm not going up there." He growled slightly, narrowing his eyes at Kagome. "I'm not going."
Kagome felt a pang of worry at his attitude and sighed.
"Well what are we supposed to do?"
"Why don't you go up there and ask her what she thought she was accomplishing by doing this?" Sesshomaru asked.
"Kikyo hates me; why would she talk with me?"
"Why would she not? She seems to want something from us and yet we don't know what to give her. If you are there, she may tell us some clues about why she wanted us changed."
Kagome sighed, hating to always do the dirty work with Kikyo but Sesshomaru had a point. If they wanted to understand what was happening and how to reverse it, they would need to understand what Kikyo thought she was going to accomplish by changing InuYasha and Sesshomaru around.
"Fine, I'll go up there… Kirara, can you take me halfway up and then I'll walk the rest of the way?"
Kirara mewed a response and turned into her fire-cat form to carry Kagome to the cave.
As suspected, the cave was empty but Kagome would tell there was something off about the interior of it. Maybe I shouldn't have dismissed InuYasha's feeling about this place… she thought as Kirara seemed to stop right at the mouth of the cave. Kagome looked over her shoulder.
"What's wrong, Kirara?"
The fire-cat growled and backed away from the cave. Kagome slid off and grabbed her crutches. She leaned on one and pat Kirara on the head.
"That's why I said I could do the rest of the walk alone. Thanks for bringing me though but you can get away from here. I don't want anything to happen to you."
Kirara nuzzled her head to Kagome before she walked a bit away from the cave.
Kagome sighed and turned, crutching her way into the empty cave. It was hard to maneuver around the rocks and such with the crutches but she made her way deeper into the cave, regretting not bringing a flashlight with her. Just as she was losing sunlight to see into the cave, a torch lit up and she looked up.
"Kagome." The voice said.
"Is that you, Kikyo?"
The torch moved and showed Kikyo's face. She frowned at Kagome and surveyed her appearance.
"You look a little beaten up. Did InuYasha do that to you?" she asked, the smallest of taunts in her voice.
Kagome made a face. "No, I kicked your stupid jar and hurt my foot."
"Oh dear," Kikyo responded and there was no hiding her mockery in it.
Kagome frowned. "Kikyo, what is the meaning of this? Why did you capture InuYasha and Sesshomaru into that jar and change them?"
"It's none of your business in what I do with InuYasha."
"Yes it is. He's my friend and when a crazy lady just sucks him into a jar and he comes out a completely different type of person, then yeah, I want some answers."
"Again, it is no concern of yours. Did InuYasha not come with you?"
"No, he smelled something and didn't want to come."
Kikyo smiled a little. "He's already getting stronger…"
"Is that what you wanted? For him to get stronger?"
Kikyo glared at her. "No. I won't tell you what I want. Send InuYasha up here to me. I want to speak with him."
Kagome frowned. "Over my dead body."
"Whether you're alive or not is irrelevant to what I'm trying to accomplish. I will tell only InuYasha what my plans are and no one else. If he chooses to tell you then that is when you will know. Otherwise, you will never know."
Kagome huffed and steadied herself on her crutches.
"So if InuYasha comes up here, you'll tell him what you were trying to do?"
"Excactly."
Kagome sighed and turned around.
"Alright, I'll get him."
She left the cave and got back on Kirara.
"Well, what did she say?" Sango asked.
"She said she wouldn't tell me anything, only InuYasha."
Everyone looked at him as he lifted an eyebrow.
"The hell I'm going up there."
"Please, InuYasha… She'll only tell you." Kagome said, looking at him with a desperate look.
InuYasha looked away. "No."
"Don't you want to get back to normal?" Miroku asked.
"Of course I do, it's just… It's just that I don't trust being up there alone with her. She already made me change the last time we encountered and if I go up there by myself, I fear she will do something else."
"So you're afraid?" Sesshomaru said with a lift of an eyebrow and a twitch of a smile.
"No!" InuYasha growled. "I'm concerned. Big difference."
"He's right, though." Miroku said. "Most of the time that he has any contact with Kikyo when he's by himself, it gets a little strange."
"Then why not have Sesshomaru go with him and just stay outside?" Sango suggested.
"You guys don't seem to understand what the word 'no' means." InuYasha said.
Kagome crutched over to him and looked up at him.
"Please, InuYasha. We want to help you get back to normal."
InuYasha looked into Kagome's eyes and he sighed, looking away.
"Fine… I guess… Sesshomaru's with me."
Sesshomaru made a face but followed his brother up the hill.
They both got up there and InuYasha breathed in deeply.
"Whatever happens, keep watch on the cave. If I haven't come out in twenty minutes, come in and get me."
"If I have to."
InuYasha ignored his brother's half promise and walked into the cave. The air was electric with miko aura and his skin felt like tiny strikes of electricity were hitting him all over. He wanted to turn tail and run but knew he had to get to the bottom of this. As he reached the back of the cave, Kikyo turned to him in the pale light of a single torch and stood up.
"You're even more beautiful than I could have ever imagined." She said, seeming pleased.
"I only came here to ask what you did to me and why."
Kikyo wrapped her arms around him and held him close.
"Why, I've given you everything you've ever wanted! Didn't you want to become a full yokai with the Shikon Jewel? Now you don't need it."
InuYasha pulled away from her and then pointed at her arm.
"You made me lose my arm and I switched with my brother's body. How does that help me in any way? I can't even use my own sword."
"How unfortunate…" she said, touching the hilt softly. "But you don't need to use your sword now. You have your claws and the powers of your yokai form."
"They're dangerous. I almost hurt Kagome the other day because of it. Turn me back to what I was."
Kikyo looked shocked. "You… you want to go back to being a hanyou?"
"I don't need your help in attaining strength. I can do it myself. Whether I want to remain a hanyou or become a full yokai is my own concern. I didn't need your unexpected and inconvenient help on the matter."
Kikyo frowned a little and then touched the subjugation beads around his neck.
"Has she used these on you?"
"Why?"
"Please answer the question."
"Yeah, it was a mistake."
"Or was it?" She looked up at him. "A miko puts these on a yokai to control them, subjugate them. That's why they're called 'beads of subjugation'. On this form, they're dangerous to you."
"We figured that out already. Kagome didn't know-"
"Or did she? You think that the love of that little girl is going to overshadow her fear?" She gave a humorless laugh. "What did she use them for before?"
"None of your business." He snarled.
Kikyo turned her head a little. "I've seen her use these on you and it was for petty reasons; jealousy, anger, doing her whim… If she used these for such silly reasons while you were a hanyou, then what will stop her from using them when she's afraid?"
"If she's afraid and she's using them then that mean that I'm about to hurt her and I deserve to have them used."
"So you say now… I'm sure you felt the purification that went through you when she used them the first time, didn't you?" InuYasha didn't answer. "That was a mild form of it. If she's truly afraid and she uses these with enough emotion, she could kill you. Do you want to risk that?"
InuYasha didn't say anything and Kikyo pulled out another pair of subjugation beads.
"These are fake, no incantation attached to them. If you switch these out, she won't know the wiser."
"I trust Kagome; I don't need those."
"Trust doesn't seem to work out in our favor, InuYasha. I trusted you 50 years ago and you betrayed me and I betrayed you."
"Kikyo, we went over this before-"
"I know now what happened but the doubt will always be there, won't it? The same with these beads. Suppose you're going to destroy an enemy, kill them, but Kagome tells you to stop. If you want to protect her, you'll kill the enemy, but that girl is too softhearted. She gives too many benefits of doubts to others… What if you know killing this enemy will make it where no one else will be hurt and so you go against her wishes? Will she use the beads on you to save another killer?"
"I'm sure she would-"
"She would use those beads on you, InuYasha. I know she will."
InuYasha frowned at her. "Then you don't know Kagome."
Kikyo sighed and decided to give up for now.
"I can see that I won't be able to convince you otherwise."
"Kikyo, give me my body back!"
"I can't do that… unless you leave Kagome and stay with me."
"What?"
"If you leave Kagome and be with me forever, I'll give you back your body. I don't care what you are -a human, a hanyou, or a yokai- as long as you stay with me and we can be like we were."
InuYasha turned away from her.
"I'm not turning my back on Kagome."
"So you'll turn your back on *me*?"
He turned back to her, fire in his eyes.
"You sealed me to a tree, remember? I think that pretty much made us even."
"But has your love grown so cold towards me that you'd choose her over me?"
InuYasha had no comment on the matter. He unfortunately still in love with Kikyo, but she was talking nonsense to him.
"I… I do still love you but… Kagome needs me. You seem to take care of yourself pretty well. I just want to go back to what I was."
Kikyo frowned. "I won't do anything unless you belong to me."
"Then this conversation is over."
He walked out of the cave.
fyi: i'll explain later but he wasn't so googles over kikyo because he was using some of sesshomaru's stoic-ness to curb his 'ohmygod i love you and i hate kagome please stay with me zombie lady'-ness and also with that, he was able to see logic. cuz half the time he don't like a dumb ass. anyways...
and although i love the kags, she really is too lenient with enemies sometimes. it's like dude, they WILL kill you...