Four Souls
Part 2: Soul Switch
An Inuyasha Fanfiction
By Azurite
sailor_andromida@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/azurite_moon
PG

Legend
Remembered
"Spoken"
* Thought *
Emphasis
Sound effect

RECAP OF PAST EVENTS:
"What then?" Kikyou asked, daring to move a step closer. Her counterpart was unarmed, but had obviously built of some experience in this time and place. She knew this place was a magical center of convergence, where no demon could enter. Not even a half-demon such as Inuyasha. At least, not while a soul and a shell were at the same time.

Kagome placed a hand on her own breast, thumping her heart lightly. She stared deeply into Kikyou's eyes, meeting them with a sense of confidence. The fear had left her. This was her decision, her choice. It had to be done, for the good of this time, for her friends. If they really were that.

"Our soul."

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"Damn her, damn her… that… that wench!" Inuyasha, as was usual for him, let his anger take control as he rushed through the forest. He thought he saw some sort of a clearing, a breach in the trees, but as soon as he reached it.

BAMM!

Inuyasha fell backwards, his feet sliding against rough ground. He'd been… repelled… somehow. Inuyasha reached out a clawed hand to the space where the trees ended, and a shimmer of moonlight twinkled down. Then, as if by some mysterious force, a barrier appeared-- a shimmering, reflective barrier of liquid glass.

Once he removed his claw, the barrier vanished, and again, the area looked as though nothing were there but trees. Moving as close to the barrier as he could manage - into a tree that the barrier supposedly touched - Inuyasha peered into the area he'd seen Kagome run.

His eyes widened considerably when he saw an all-too familiar form slumped on the floor in the middle of the clearing. Not Kagome, but…

"Kik… Kikyou…?" Inuyasha barely spoke her name when the figure in question stirred.

"Un… I-Inuyasha? Is that you?" Kikyou sat up and stared about her in wonder. Her hands… her face… the once-undead priestess caressed her smooth and rose-colored cheek. She stood up on unsteady feet, trembling in place a moment. Her eyes -a deep blue- shined brightly, full of light, as she met Inuyasha's stunned and almost scared gaze. She walked towards the barrier and passed through it without a single thought and stood below the tree Inuyasha was in.

The hanyou looked down on his former lover with some disdain-he could no longer smell Kagome. But Kikyou… why was… why was she looking at him like that? It stirred old, familiar-- and not-so-comfortable memories.

"Inuyasha… what are you doing up there?" Kikyou smiled up at him. Inuyasha wasn't sure how to respond. She wore a semi-smile on her face.

* A smile? But… I always thought she wanted to kill me… revenge. *

Inuyasha edged down the tree slowly, staying a good meter away from the former priestess, eying her suspiciously. Kikyou managed a smirk as she edged closer to Inuyasha, and closer still until he was pressed against the invisible, rippling barrier.

"Don't make me say it, Inuyasha."

* Say what? That she wants to kill me? Kikyou, what's wrong with you? *

Kikyou smiled faintly, a devilish, playful smile as her voice sounded in a near-whisper.

"SIT!"

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Kagome Higurashi awoke with a headache. She groaned and flopped back to her pillow. Barely opening one eye, she chanced a look out her window.

"W-What. it's already daytime?!" Kagome shot up in bed, and faster than a speeding bullet, rushed through her room, dressing and fixing her hair to get ready for school.

"Why didn't you wake me uuuuuupppppp?!" Kagome screeched as she tore down the hall, past her mother, to the bathroom. Kagome's mother blinked in surprise, barely registering her daughter's presence this early in the day- on a Sunday. Shouldn't she be in the other world with her dog-eared friend?

Kagome's mother walked calmly to the bathroom, not at all surprised to see her daughter brushing her teeth at a furious pace, then proceeding to brush her hair rapidly.

"Ka-Kag-" Ms. Higurashi tried to get in, while her daughter zipped around the bathroom, "Kagome Higurashi!" Kagome finally screeched to a halt in front of her mother, smiling.

"What is it mom?"

"What in heaven's name are you doing here on a Sunday?" Kagome blinked in confusion.

"Sunday? You mean I don't have to go to school? YAY!" Kagome looked as though she had won a million yen lottery, stars in her eyes.

"Yesss. no math tests, no exams, no cramming!!" Kagome twirled around in a circle, not paying attention when a small residual puddle of water from the bath found its way under her foot, slipping her to the floor.

"T-That's not what I meant, Kagome," Ms. Higurashi tried to explain, this time down to her daughter rubbing her sore bottom on the floor.

"I-taiii.."

When the older woman was finally able to get a word in edgewise, between Kagome's loud and pain-filled "Itai's," she bent down and asked plainly,

"Why aren't you with your dog-eared friend?"

Kagome looked up to face her mother and stared as if she'd grown a second head.

"Who?"

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End of Part 2: Soul Switch

Coming up next in "Four Souls" -- Part 3- Second Soul: Kikyou

Kaede couldn't believe her eye. Walking beside Inuyasha, as plain as day… was Kikyou. Her older sister… the once-dead, reborn-yet-soulless husk of a girl… just there. Villagers gasped, children stared. The priest and kitsune that accompanied Inuyasha on his travels were walking at a slower pace behind Inuyasha and Kikyou, looking more than a mite unhappy.

When Kaede finally looked to the hanyou she had grown accustomed to talking to, as one would a grandchild, she noticed his melancholy expression -next to Kikyou's brightly shining smile. It was that smile that finally caused Kaede to realize what was so horribly wrong with this picture -Kikyou… was alive.