To Live Again

By Rurouni Star

Just so everyone knows, I hate this chapter. . It just seems so unrealistic, but I'm crunched for time lately, and it just didn't come out right. I don't really have time to change it (and probably won't for a while), so here it is. Kill me now.

SilverQuick: Sorry. It's a writing reflex. ^_^

Fallon: Thanks! I try for good characterization. As for Inu Yasha, he's probably going to appear within a few chapters. He still thinks she's at home at the moment.

Amarome: I hope it doesn't run out either. I don't know if it will yet, actually… I'm making it up as I go, which is a very bad thing. As far as the well goes, she sealed it up because she had to accept responsibility for breaking the jewel, but couldn't stay with Inu Yasha and couldn't go home and ignore it. If she'd left the well open, then anyone with a shard (*cough, NARAKU, cough*) could get through it and hurt her family.

DiaBLo: You're absolutely right about the -chan thing. I was really debating taking it out, but it just made me laugh so hard to think of the words coming out of his mouth that I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Dragon of Sakura: Yeah, she confuses me too. And I'm writing her.

Chapter 10 – An Unexpected Promise

Kagome moved toward the waterfall where she felt the shard. There had to be someone here. There couldn't possibly be an unclaimed shard...could there?

As she came closer to the rushing water, she noticed that the waterfall wasn't quite as opaque as it should have been – there was a cave behind it. Getting in would be tricky, but not impossible.


As long as nothing interfered.

The miko looked around hurriedly for any signs of the odd presence she'd felt before. At first, she could swear she saw some binoculars peeping out of the bushes… but they were gone when she looked again. Kagome shook her head to clear it – she was hallucinating again.

She had just begun to climb the slippery rocks when something brushed past her leg. She shrieked and looked down.

A soul snatcher. She was in trouble.

More of them came, and even more, twisting around her and trying to pull her away from the rocks. She struggled mightily, but none of her efforts prevailed. In the end, she was pulled from her perch.

But surprisingly, they didn't drop her into the water below. The soul snatcher demons carried her beyond the waterfall and into the small chamber beyond, where her mirror image awaited her.

Kikyo opened her eyes and stared at her coldly, making Kagome revise her opinion of Sesshoumaru's glares. Before, she'd thought nothing could top being glared at by a demon lord.

She was wrong. Simply being looked at by own reflected, a vision of death, made her begin to shiver uncontrollably.

The person opposite her finally spoke.

"Do you promise not to struggle if I have them let you go?" the older version of herself said.

"As long as you don't try to kill me or anything," Kagome joked half-heartedly. Kikyo motioned for the demons to release her reincarnation. Kagome sat down quietly, staring at her double.

Silence.

And then – "Will you please stop looking at me like I'm going to bite your head off?"

Wow. She didn't know Kikyo could become annoyed.

"Um...yes?" The woman sighed.

"This is hard for me to say. Give me a moment." Kagome couldn't help but stare now. "Fine. I see waiting won't help. I'm sorry."

Kagome waited. And waited some more. Then it dawned on her.

"Wait, you mean, you're sorry for-"

"Yes. I feel the need to explain matters to you. I have recently come into...awareness of certain things. They have made me realize other things I didn't want to." Kikyo paused and Kagome hoped she would continue instead of making yet another awkward silence. She did keep going, much to the girl's relief. "When I first reawakened, there was nothing but hate in me for what I thought Inu Yasha had done. Once I finally discovered the truth, it became too late for me to change my path. I still existed off of hate, but it was a confused hate. My spirit refused to decide, and it took it quite a long while to do so, considering that I only own part of it."

She gave a wry smile, which Kagome uneasily returned.

"I believe that the reason I came to rest my hate upon you is because you own all of what I once did. Everything that people once said about me, became you. You were pure; I was now tainted. You held the Shikon no Tama; I had lost it foolishly. You loved Inu Yasha... but I was incapable of feeling anything approaching what I once did." Her eyes stared into Kagome's. "I wanted to kill you. But now that something has happened, I no longer want to destroy my future self." Kagome took in a shaky breath, very close to thinking that this was a dream.

"What was that?" she asked in a whisper. Kikyo looked at her sorrowfully.

"You saved me. In the cave of the miko eater. You refused to give up. I realized then that I had been trying to destroy that which I must embrace. You are me, after all. Someday, perhaps, I will be like you. Pure again. I don't know what happened in that cave, but something more than what we saw did. My soul has become much clearer to me for reasons I cannot fathom."

Kagome tried to understand what she'd said. "Embrace?" she asked.

"Yes. Naraku will eventually make his final stand. I know you will be there, just as I will. And I want you to understand as well; I am not helping him, no matter what I do. I need you to trust me." Kikyo looked to her, as if for confirmation.

"I don't really have a choice, do I?" The undead priestess shook her head.

"No matter what. Remember." Kagome nodded silently, trying to put some faith in herself – literally.

Kikyo looked to her soul snatchers, which picked the undead miko up once again and led her from the falls.

Kagome got up to leave, shaken, but something glittered in the dirt, catching her eye. Kikyo had left her a shard.

Wait.

Kagome looked down at her bottle. The glass was empty.

Kikyo had taken five shards and left her with one of her own. What did that mean?

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Sesshoumaru noticed, of course, that she now only possessed one shard. But he didn't pry into other people's affairs.

"You are done, I take it?" he asked her. Kagome nodded, looking preoccupied.

It was none of his concern.

"Come, then. We have already wasted more than enough time." She rolled her eyes, perhaps thinking that he couldn't see it. He simply stored it away for future reference.