Dead Girl Interlude
"Kagome… don't be afraid." Kikyou? Of course I'm not afraid… I just killed Naraku. What do I have to be afraid of, and where the hell am I?
"Kikyou? Is that you? What did you do to Inuyasha? I'll kill you if you hurt him!" Oh don't you smile at me like that, bitch. We're not friends, and I meant what I said.
"That was clever, the way you killed Naraku. Finally mastering the powers I gave you. Too late though." What is she talking about?
"What?" Kagome looked around her, but saw nothing. Wait, if she looked at things properly, there were odd dark shadows, resembling the battlefield she had been fighting on.
"Kagome… I hate to be the one to tell you this, but…" Kikyou was walking toward her. "Your dead. Naraku killed you."
"Then you're dead too?" Kagome countered. "And you didn't take Inuyasha to hell with you?"
"I've been dead for over fifty years…" The miko sighed. "I know… Lately I haven't been behaving very nicely. But there's an explanation, if you'd like to hear it. And I can explain about what just happened to Inuyasha. And too you."
Kagome narrowed her eyes at her past life, and looked around her, some of the shadows were moving. Were those her friends?
"Alright. I'll listen. First, tell me about Inuyasha, though. I thought I saw… I saw him die!"
"Don't worry! He'll be okay, if he doesn't go mad over your death. I did what I could for him before moving on."
Whoa, Kagome was having a hard time believing that she was dead, but that seemed to be the case.
Kikyou continued, "Can I start at the beginning, and why I've been such a terror lately?" Kagome just nodded, watching the scene around her.
"Urasue, the demon, reanimated my ashes so that I could serve her, and help her capture the rest of the jewel shards. So when she summoned my- our soul, she created her own evil spirit to merge with mine, and make me her slave. But I resisted the merging at first, and managed to kill her. But it still overtook me. It took everything of me that it had, and blackened it. My feelings for Inuyasha became a desperate need for vengeance, when all I've ever wanted was peace. Fortunately, you managed to recall our soul, back where it belonged, in your body, minus the bits of my consciousness that had merged with the evil spirit. I never loved him like you do, Kagome…" The priestess looked a little sad, "I think I might have been using him, even when I was alive. I wanted to be a normal woman. And to do that, the jewel had to be purified. Making Inuyasha a human would do that, and also I wouldn't have to be alone anymore. I did love him, but… there may have been ulterior motives behind that love. Which explains why Naraku's simple ruse fooled me."
"Kikyou…" Kagome didn't know what to say. This was the real Kikyou, and she was saying that, maybe her love for Inuyasha hadn't been meant to be? "I never…" But the priestess cut her off, continuing with her story.
"You, on the other hand, truly love him. I can see it, because when you completed the jewel, what were you planning to do with it?"
"I… I don't really know…"
"Exactly. You don't really want Inuyasha to become full human, and you certainly don't want him to become full demon. You love Inuyasha as what he is, a hanyou. You two are meant to be together, Kagome. Our soul belongs with his. But me… I wasn't. It's hard to explain because you and I are the same, but so different. We carry the same soul, the soul of Midoriko, but our… our individual selves are very different. I was not meant to be with Inuyasha, but my soul was, so fate, destiny, or the gods, let me die, giving me the peace I had wanted all my life, and let you be born and fall through the well."
Kagome couldn't believe her ears. It was confusing… but easier when she thought of their soul as something they both carried, rather than what made them who they were. "Okay, I'm sorry that I thought it was you…" Apologies seemed stupid, so she just said, "Alright then, I appreciate you telling me this, but if Inuyasha and I are meant to be, then why am I dead?" The thought that she had died before ever getting to be with him was quite depressing, but for some reason she knew that it wasn't over for them.
"Just let me finish okay?" Kikyou gave her a stern look. Kagome made the universal sign for 'I'll shut up', zipping her fingers across her lips. "Naraku, the bastard, captured my reanimated self. And by keeping my soul gatherers from me, he kept me very weak. I knew his plan was to use me to get Inuyasha away from you, so he could claim your half of the jewel. At the time, aside from the fact that I hated what he was doing to me, I enjoyed the thought of you and Inuyasha dieing. But I've already explained about that. In the battle, he kept me hidden and barely alive, until he saw that Inuyasha was properly enraged. The boy doesn't think too clearly when he loses his temper, does he? Then he let Inuyasha see me, knowing that he would come to my aid. Naraku's latest creation, an invisible air demon, beat our poor hanyou into the ground before he knew what hit him… Then Naraku removed the spell that had been keeping me alive, and my reanimated body dissolved back into ashes and clay, the merged spirits split and I ended up here, where I belong, at last. And I'm sure you know what happened on your side of the battlefield."
Kagome thought about what Kikyou had been saying, and smiled at her past life.
"You know, thanks Kikyou."
"For what? If it weren't for me Inuyasha would-"
"If it weren't for you, Inuyasha wouldn't have a clue what love was, much less be inclined to help and protect me and the rest of the group. You had a big part in making him as great as he is now. I just want to say thanks. Though… now, I guess I'll never get to really enjoy him…" Kagome felt an overwhelming rush of pain, thinking that she would never even have a chance now.
"Not if I can help it, Kagome. Don't forget, there's still the jewel, and there's still your friends, and there's still Inuyasha…" Kikyou looked out, at Inuyasha who was sitting up and looking rather bewildered. She put a comforting arm around her reincarnation's shoulder, hoping that she really could find a way to send Kagome back to the living world. The girl was sweet, and she was proud of the type of person her soul had become. So her next life had lost some miko powers, she had gained a lot in character, personality, and spirit.
