Disclaimer: I can't believe actually have to WRITE one of these. Blah, I don't own Inu-Yasha or any of the characters, ok? I mean, if ANY of us who wrote fanfiction (don't we all wish!) owned the characters, it wouldn't exactly be fanfiction…

~*Fractured Mirror*~

I just don't know myself anymore. I love Kikyo. But… I love Kagome as well. Oh sure, you can yell at me "INU-YASHA, you STUPID HANYOU, you KNOW Kikyo's just a stuffy old dead bitch! She doesn't even CARE about you anymore!" Go ahead, everone else does. And everyone else is right.

So why do I still love her, despite everything she's done to me?

I think it's mostly because I'm a hanyou. The demon part of me, my dog half, wants to keep crawling back to Kikyo, my first love. It may sound pathetic, but it's true. We canines may be man's best friend and all that, but it makes us pretty stupid sometimes. So I'm still loyal to her, because she was the first person to capture my heart.

The first, but not the only.

Kagome…

That klutzy, silly, sweet, and wonderful girl who popped out of that damn well one day, and changed my life forever. The one person who seems to actually care about my happiness, and accept me for who I am. A hanyou. She's the one who wants me to live my own life the way I see fit, and who doesn't want to change me into something I'm not.

You may say to yourself, "Come now Inu-Yasha, it's not that hard to decide between a dead bitch bent on making herself happy and a kind-hearted girl who wants you to be happy…" Perhaps it seems that way to you. But it really isn't that easy.

She thinks that the only reason I keep her around is because she can sense the Shikon no Tama's shards. But that's nonsense. I keep her around because I enjoy her company, because she's fun to talk to, and because… I love her.

…Not that she knows that. She believes the only reason I care for her is because she's Kikyo's reincarnation. Keh, as if it's that easy.

The thing is, no matter how close the resemblance, I can't bring myself to believe she IS Kikyo in another life. Kagome reflects Kikyo the same way a fractured mirror reflects an image – in small, distorted pieces. Kikyo was cold; always trying to act in her best interests. She was strong and proud, untouchable as ice.

Kagome… she's another thing entirely. She's warm and friendly, always looking out for everyone (even that whiny little brat, Shippo). And though she can never be as strong as Kikyo, her personality and vitality will take her far. And I love the way she always seems to understand everyone. Especially me.

Which brings me back to the beginning… Kikyo or Kagome? Who really holds the key to my heart, the ice-bitch of the past or the sunbeam from the future? I've trapped myself in an endless, vicious cycle.

It seems like such an easy decision to make, to forget Kikyo, to give Kagome my heart as I long to do… and yet it's so hard for me to do. Perhaps that is why I continue on this nearly hopeless shard-hunt, not so much questing for fragments of a lost jewel as much as answers to the mysteries of my heart.

            Will I ever know for sure?

~Owari

Author's Notes: So, how did you like it? I know this doesn't sound like the IQ-of-a-toothpick Inu-Yasha we all know and love, but the Kikyo-or-Kagome question has always irked me because I know Inu-Yasha can't just give up on Kikyo like so many of us (myself included) want him to do. I tried to make it a little more clear just why… which involved insane amounts of OOC-ness, dialogue-wise. I hope you guys enjoyed it anyway!

Reviews, as always, are greatly appreciated.