Chapter Eighteen

Bonded Souls

The brothers approached the western castle that evening, and immediately Inuyasha's nose caught the scent of another inu youkai.  "Oi, Sesshoumaru, who…"

He stopped in mid sentence as the owner of the scent came into view.  A young youkai boy ran towards them, long silver hair flying behind him and slitted light blue eyes open wide at the sight of the newly arrived pair.  A red stripe covered each eyelid, and on his wrists were two magenta stripes.  He wore a white haori, a purple vest patterned with white leaves, and dark blue hakama.

A look of delight lit up his face as he ran towards them, and then Inuyasha heard him shout the last thing he'd ever expected.

"Chichi-ue!  You're back!"

Ch…chichi-ue? Inuyasha thought, shocked.  This kid…is Sesshoumaru's?

Sesshoumaru watched with his usual blank expression as his son ran to him and took his sash in his hands.

"Toshiomaru," he said, looking down at the child.  "Did you behave?"

"Ah, yes I did!  But I think Jaken has gotten in trouble." Toshiomaru looked curiously at Inuyasha.  "Who is that, chichi-ue?"

"Your uncle, Inuyasha.  He will live here now." The brothers exchanged a quick glance, before Sesshoumaru looked down again.  "Continue what you were doing before I arrived.  I shall see to Jaken's latest mess."

Toshiomaru released his father's sash, and Sesshoumaru began to walk away, leaving the boy standing with Inuyasha.

"Oi, Sesshoumaru!" Inuyasha yelled after him, annoyed at being so quickly ignored.  Without a glance, his brother replied,

"You have lived here before, Inuyasha, I do not need to cater to you.  I have more important tasks to tend to."

He disappeared, and a moment later, the young youkai looked up at Inuyasha.

"Inuyasha-sama," he said.  The hanyou looked down.

"Nani?"

"Why do you have funny ears?"

Inuyasha sighed.  This is gonna be a long day.

*          *          *

Inuyasha sat high in the branches on a tree overlooking his brother's rather empty castle.  This particular tree had been his favorite when he had lived there previously, and he had been glad to see it was still exactly how he'd left it.

Looking off at the sunset, he sighed mentally.  Kimiko… He didn't realize how much he had already fallen for the young miko until he had left her.  He had been with his brother for a week now, and every night he missed her more.  Her spirit, her soul, was the same as the two women he'd loved before, making him almost automatically love her.  Kimiko was not a duplicate of either Kikyou or Kagome; she was her own person with pieces of the first two in her.  Kagome wasn't Kikyou's reincarnation, he thought.  Kimiko is.  Kagome came after her.  That means the jewel survived Kimiko's lifetime, and was never tainted.

All of the future affecting the past issues hurt his head to think about; Inuyasha wasn't accustomed to such advanced things.  He did know one thing – Kimiko would have to remain a miko her whole life to keep the jewel pure.  Kikyou's love for him had made her weak before she died; she had been struggling to keep her purity while love him at the same time.  But Kikyou had just wanted to be a normal woman and have a normal life.  She had wanted to be rid of the jewel so she could love him and be normal.

What if Kimiko wants the same thing? Inuyasha thought.  If I could remove the jewel from her body…no, I can't do that.  I can't risk letting it fall into the wrong hands again.  The last thing I need is another Naraku, and I REALLY don't need another broken jewel to put back together.

"Augh, why are things always so complicated?!" he shouted at the tree he was in, punching the trunk.  It was frustrating.  His feelings frustrated him, his brother frustrated him, the cursed jewel frustrated him, and Kimiko certainly frustrated him.  He felt like his head would explode from all the stress that had built up in the past week.

"Things would be SO much easier if that stupid jewel had never been created," Inuyasha growled, unaware that he was talking to himself.  "I could have just lived a normal life, or whatever is normal for a half human, half youkai freak.  But I keep running into this girl no matter what body her soul is in, like I'm bonded to it or something!  It's so…"

He stopped, and his mind replayed what he had just said.

Like I'm bonded to it.

That was it!

Suddenly very focused, Inuyasha remembered back to the day when he had made his wish on the Shikon no Tama.  Thinking hard, he tried to recall his exact words.

~*~Flashback~*~

Inuyasha stood holding the jewel in his hand, staring the direction Kagome had just walked off in.  She had given him the jewel and told him to make his wish, to become the full youkai he wanted to be.  But as he watched her walk away, he knew that after he made that wish, she would go back through that well and leave him forever, and Inuyasha didn't want that.  More than pure youkai blood, more than anything in the world that he had ever wanted, he wanted Kagome.

Holding up the jewel, he closed his eyes.

"I wish that the well will stay open, so Kagome will never have to chose between worlds.  I want to be with Kagome forever."

The jewel flashed…

~*~End Flashback~*~

I want to be with Kagome forever.

Forever.

Forever was longer than the time he'd spent with her.

Forever was longer than any human lifespan.

"Oh God," he whispered.  "That's it!"

Kagome had died before forever was over.  But her soul was still alive, and somehow Inuyasha had been brought to the new body it inhabited.  He was bonded to her, bonded to her soul, and he knew now that however long he lived he was destined to continue to find her incarnations.  The jewel was granting his wish – it had bound their souls together forever.

But what about the Shikon no Tama inside of Kimiko?  What about the future Kagome?  His being bonded to her soul didn't change the fact that if he allowed Kimiko to fall in love with him and become impure, the jewel would be tainted and corrupted, and his wife who would be born in four hundred years would be corrupted with it.  The jewel would be in the state Naraku had said it was the most beautiful in – dark and tainted.  Because of him.

Because of Inuyasha.

"You stupid jewel!" he shouted to the sky, fury raging through him.  "That's not what I meant!  This isn't what I wanted!"

With a cry of fury, he slammed his claws into the tree trunk, burying them deeply into the bark.  "I didn't want this," he growled.  "I didn't want things to be like this."

Breathing heavily, Inuyasha tore his claws from the wood.  He stared in the direction he knew Kimiko was, the woman who held his past and Kagome's future in her hands and didn't even know it.  Suddenly, he found himself unable to resist the urge to see her again, and in a flash was running through the trees towards the girl who had the power to change everything.

From the castle grounds, Sesshoumaru watched his brother's departure.  So it has finally come to this, he thought.  Quickly, he informed Jaken that he would be leaving for a time and that he was to take care of Toshiomaru in his absence.  Then, the youkai lord of the Western Lands took to flight in the direction his hanyou brother was going, knowing that by the end of the night, he would have proved himself to once again be the villain.