A God's Game

Notes: Hopefully this chapter will answer some questions. Don't expect the next chapter anytime soon. I've neglected my numerous projects to write this, so I've got some work to do.

Hikaru, I've added some things in the chapter. Thanks for reading over it though!

Chri, I would have to agree with you about both of our stories. It almost makes me think we're sharing brainwaves or something.

Saro, I'm glad you're reading so closely. I didn't catch the phantom fire part, but now that I think about it, the man's a priest, right? I'm guessing holy powers override demon ones (assuming those fire rats are youkai). It's amazing how you're paying so much attention to such detail!

Chapter VIII: Secret of the Sun and Moon

            The thudding of his heavy boots were muffled by the sea of clouds surrounding him, helping him hide his presence from those that would dare to find fault with him. His meeting was a secret one, and he knew that if he should be discovered here, no god in Heaven would be able to keep the Great Emperor's sentence from falling upon his head.

            He heard a dampened sigh near him, and walked silently to that direction. To an untrained eye, his grace would have been described as ghostly, seeming not to rise nor fall with each step he took, and instead glided through the field of clouds, just like he had glided through the hardships he had encountered in his life.

            "Yoko," he whispered, deepening his voice and covering her eyes with his hands. "Guess who?"

            "Hmm… I don't know," she said playfully, her voice like the nightingale's music to his weary ears. His elders had been harassing him again, and it was a wonder that he was able to escape from them to speak to her even now.

            "Are you…Akito?" she asked, her laugh tinkling like small bells when she sensed him to become tense with jealousy.

            "You're so funny, Ryuten," she said as he let his hands drop from her eyes, pouting at the name that she had mentioned a moment ago. "I'm still amazed that you ever believed my sisters' ploy of my liking Akito."

            "What?" he said annoyed, his voice returning to his normal tone. "You never told me you loved me at that time," he said, still pouting. "How was I to know that it was not true?"

            "But now, you should know better," she said, turning around and tapping his nose, pretending to admonish him. "Why are you still jealous after hearing his name? You should know that there is no one else whom I would do anything for."

            "Which reminds me," he said, smiling truly only in her presence. "I need to thank you for giving me that mirror."

            "You need not thank me for something I would have gladly done," she said, walking a little away from him, forcing him to follow after her. "Amaterasu o-mi-kami is my grandmother, after all, and asking her for one of her mirrors was no large feat."

            "But still, it was of great help to me," he said, catching up to her, and stopping in front of her. He summoned the large, golden yellow chrysanthemum that he had been carefully tending and handed it to her gently. She smiled as bright as her favorite flower, and accepted his gift with care.

            "I believe my father is going to leave tomorrow," she whispered to him, her voice carrying a more serious edge.

            "The Jade Emperor is going tomorrow?" he asked, a little surprised at the abruptness of the news. And here he thought he had at least one more month before his plan could go into action. Yoko looked around her carefully, taking care to have no one other than Ryuten listen to her words.

            "It is a state secret," she whispered, feeling guilty for betraying her father so. But for this love, she was willing to do more than anything. "Go with your plan cautiously, Ryuten. Do not fail, because it will cost both our lives."

            "You don't have to worry about a thing," he said confidently, reassuring her. "I'll take over this realm and free these gods of this suppression of emotions once and for all. And then, we can finally stop these secret meetings, and show our true feelings without fear or shame."

            "My youngest sister would be most glad for this occurrence," Yoko smiled, putting all her faith in him. "No longer will she have to wait for the magpies to form a bridge…"

            Rin stood on the top of the hill, spying the hillside for any flowers whose beauty was worthy of Sesshoumaru. Every flower was beautiful to her, but she only wanted the best for Sesshoumaru. She picked up two wildflowers amid the sea of fragrant perfumes and wondered which type did Sesshoumaru prefer: the white or the yellow?

            "Stop running around," Sesshoumaru's angry retainer said. "You're making it very difficult for this Jyaken."

            "Ne, Jyaken-sama, which ones do Sesshoumaru-sama like, the yellow flowers or the white ones?" she asked innocently, wondering if she should just get both of them.

            "You fool! Sesshoumaru-sama does not care for those paltry weeds!" he said in contempt.

            "Jyaken-sama is just grumpy because you didn't get to eat breakfast," Rin said simply, knowing that if someone skipped breakfast, they would be in a foul mood for the rest of the day. "Want to go find food?"

            "Rin," a familiar, unchanging voice said.

            "Sesshoumaru-sama!" both Rin and Jyaken called out.

            "We're leaving," he said, sensing that something had changed that day. It was not something conspicuous as a sudden change in the direction of the wind, or a flock of crows winging like a storm above him, but something much, much more subtle. He had a feeling that Inuyasha was tied to this in some way, and though he did not care much now for his younger brother, he had the obligation at least to discover what had befallen one of his father's lineage.

            "Sesshoumaru-sama! Here, for you," Rin said, standing at the tip of her toes, trying to give him the flowers. He gave her a dispassionate glance, but she could tell by the slight angle that his eyes took that he was pleased, and she couldn't help but smile.

            "Keep it, Rin," he said, this girl forever remaining a puzzle to him. "It'll look better with you," he said, walking away.

            "Hai, Sesshoumaru-sama," she said, running after him.

            "Sesshoumaru-sama, do not leave me behind!" Jyaken called after his lord, pulling the two-headed horse youkai behind him, trying to catch up. He felt a shiver up his spine and looked up, seeing a ghostly, snake-like creature floating through the skies above him.

            "Shinidamachu," he muttered under his breath, recognizing the type of youkai that floated so silently over the mountaintops. He brushed his curiosity off as nothing, thinking that it did not concern him.

            She ran towards the sound of the scream, anxiety coursing through her veins as she heard the rhythmic jingling of Miroku's staff near her. That scream… She hoped that it did not belong to the one she was suspecting, because if it did, then all their efforts of the past few days were for naught.

            She suppressed the shiver that permeated her bones, knowing that Miroku was watching her every move, believing that she wasn't well enough to be running around in this unnaturally cold weather. She ran harder, hoping to dispel the worry that Miroku had shown her the past few days. She liked the attention that he had given her, but something about him worrying about anyone was a bit unsettling. She liked the calm, and seemingly carefree Miroku better. At least with that Miroku, she knew what to expect. But with this considerate one, she was finding herself become speechless more and more in his presence.

            "Was that Kagome? That wasn't Kagome, right?" the childish voice piped. Sango gave a brief glance at the kitsune, who was running beside the tiny Kirara. She had a terrible sense of foreboding as she looked at Kirara, who was unusually tense, and seemed to become more irritated with every sniff to the air she took.

            "I hope it isn't, Shippou," Miroku said gravely. "But we will see when we get there."

            "The presence that I had felt earlier has disappeared," Kaguya said mysteriously, only worrying Sango more.

            Finally, they saw the well before them, the clearing shadowed by ominous clouds. Sango approached Kagome, who was sitting on the ground, crying. She knew then that Inuyasha had been taken.

            "Kagome!" Shippou wailed, running to the girl. "Kagome, where's Inuyasha?" Kagome just shook her head, trying to stop the tears that were flowing freely from her face. She tried to clear the lump in her throat to tell them what had happened, what she had seen, but she found that she couldn't.

            Sango noticed Kirara sniffing at a patch of scarlet among the green, and dreaded to realize what it meant. They had discovered the source of the strange powder and the one who was behind the recent events all for nothing. She felt herself collapse next to Kagome, her energy spent, and her grief eating her away.

            I had promised myself I would lose no more people, she thought bitterly. And look now what has happened. I failed in protecting him. I failed to help him when he most depended on me! First, when Kohaku needed her protection and guidance, and now, when Inuyasha had been afflicted with this spell. Was she to go through life, letting everyone who depended on her down?

            "Kagome-sama, please tell us what has occurred here," Miroku said, ever the calm, and cool-headed one.

            "Inuyasha… Inuyasha…" she said between sobs. It was her fault that Inuyasha had been taken. She should have tried harder to stop that priest from attacking Inuyasha, but she had done nothing except run after him like an idiot, telling him to be careful and doing really nothing else. She was so stupid! Maybe if she had tried to trip the priest up with his own strings, or maybe if she had tackled him, Inuyasha would have been able to escape, instead of suffering the fate that he did now. Why was she always so useless, always watching by the sidelines as the ones she most cared for got hurt time and time again? If only she had some power that she could control. If only she could do more than sense Shikon shards and shoot an arrow. If only I was more like Kikyo…

            If she had been Kikyo, would she have been able to protect Inuyasha?

            "Kagome-dono," a strangely gentle and unfamiliar voice said. "Please don't cry. All is not lost yet." Kagome looked up into the eyes of a woman she had seen before, and couldn't help gasp in shock. Muonna! she thought in panic, wondering if Sesshoumaru was behind Inuyasha's murder.

            "Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I will try to guess what has occurred here," she said in a calm voice. But what was that Kagome detected? Sorrow? Bitter admonishment of herself?

            "Kaguya-hime, did you recognize the ones who were here?" Miroku asked, as Kagome only stared at the well-dressed woman, her mind numb with shock at the recent events and the name of the lady in front of her. Kaguya-hime? she wondered, thinking that such a lady had only existed in a child's fairytale. Why was she here? Who was she, exactly? Surely she wasn't Inuyasha's mother?

            "There were two, but I can only guess of one who was here," the lady said softly. "Fuujin of the wind must have been the one who has caused the winds in these parts to be disturbed. But of the other, I know not." She kneeled next to Kagome, trying her best to smile at the grief-stricken girl. "Kagome-dono, did someone…kill Inuyasha and take him away?" she said, stumbling as she forced herself to acknowledge her son's death. What a poor mother she was to have failed to help her son in one little task. Well, she would berate herself later. Now was not the time.

            "Something also came out of Inuyasha," Kagome said, finally managing to suppress her tears. "And then they both just went away."

            "Something came out of Inuyasha?" Miroku asked, frowning. "Hime-sama, is it possible that it was Inuyasha's soul?"

            "It is most possible," she said slowly. "He may want to utilize the soul to use only the god-side of Inuyasha."

            " 'God-side?'" Kagome asked, wondering what they were talking about. Inuyasha was half-god now? And all this time she had thought he was half-demon.

            "Let's get out of the cold and head back to Kaede-sama's place," Myouga said, voicing his thoughts for the first time. "Sango should not be out in this weather, anyway." Almost as if to mock him, the weather cleared up, casting the golden rays of the sun among the fields of green, life shining as it had never had before.

            "Let's go," Miroku said, helping Sango up while Kagome got up by herself. Shippou still clung to her like she was a lifeline, so she allowed him to stay on her shoulder. Slowly the group made its way back to the village, the silence falling upon them like a suffocating blanket.

            Kaede watched them as they each entered the hut, and judging by their appearances, she deduced what had happened.

            "Kaguya-hime?" Kagome asked tentatively. The woman nodded for her to go on. "Excuse me, but who are you exactly?"

            "I am Inuyasha's mother," she said, trying to smile. "And as you have perhaps guessed, I am a goddess." Kagome noticed Myouga stiffen near the fire, and she wondered if Myouga disliked goddesses for some reason.

            "Kagome-sama, I will try to explain to you what we had discovered since your departure," Miroku said, getting straight to business. "Kaguya-hime has given us much information regarding certain events. The first being the powder that Inuyasha had saved," he said, taking out the small, white package once again. "It is made of the seeds of Heaven's peaches. It is ground into a fine powder and can boost a god's powers."

            "Our theory is that Ryuten, the one who is plotting all of this, used it to test Inuyasha's strength concerning his hidden god blood," Sango supplemented, already planning a way to punish that god.

            "But Inuyasha's youki got stronger when he touched the powder," Kagome argued, trying to process all the information.

            "A god's power does not activate until one has died," Kaguya explained patiently. "When the powder was cast upon Inuyasha, his god powers increased and threatened to kill him in order to be used, forcing his youki to become stronger in order to keep Inuyasha alive, and overwhelm the increasing god power."

            "The more god power Inuyasha had, the stronger his youki became to overpower his god blood," Shippou said simply, trying to help.

            "Since Inuyasha's youki was so great, that meant that his god powers must be great too, which is why Ryuten selected Inuyasha for whatever he is planning," Sango said, trying to keep business in her mind so that she wouldn't have to think about other things.

            "So to use a god's powers," Kagome said hollowly, "you must die." The others fell silent at her statement, not quite sure how to respond.

            "Ryuten will keep his body alive in order to keep on using the soul," Kaguya said, breaking the silence, and hoping that she could still help her son in some way. "If the body died, the soul would have to be taken by the undertakers, and that would go against his planning," she said quickly, hoping these young ones would understand what she was getting at. She was not disappointed.

            "So all we have to do is get Inuyasha's soul and his body back and he'll be back to normal," Kagome said hopefully, glad when Kaguya nodded her head.

            "But how will we accomplish such a thing?" asked Miroku, ever the pessimist. "We would have to enter Heaven, and if it were so easy to enter Heaven, don't you think many people would have already done so?"

            "But we can find a way, right?" Shippou asked, for the first time seeing some hope in the matter. Inuyasha may have been mean to him, but if he should disappear, he would still miss him. If Inuyasha ever came back, Shippou was determined to never let him out of his sight again. He didn't want anyone else to die, especially someone that he quarreled with like a brother. I don't care if Inuyasha pounds my head a hundred times for being annoying, as long as he's there to pound my head, he thought, his determination at getting Inuyasha back increasing.

            "We have a goddess right here, don't we?" Sango asked, looking at Kaguya expectantly.

            "I…cannot reenter Heaven," she said quietly, knowing that she was letting them down. "If I did, I would not get far enough to search for Inuyasha."

            "What do you mean?" Shippou asked when no one else seemed to want to say anything.

            "I've broken three of Heaven's high laws," she said. "Undoubtedly, they will want to search for me if I should return."

            "But then, what will we do?" Shippou asked, getting frustrated with the adults' silence. Didn't they care about Inuyasha? Why weren't they coming up with some genius plan to get him back? What was wrong with all of them?

            "There is no way that we can retrieve his body then," Miroku said, giving up before they had even started. What was the point in trying to resurrect the dead? Inuyasha had died, just like so many others that he had seen around him. They had all remained dead. And even those that had returned from death, did not return to being themselves. Death was just a part of life. He didn't understand why the others were so intent on fighting it. They should just accept it, as he had accepted...

            "There may still be a way," Kaguya said, daring to raise her hopes. "In two days, Ichiro, a soldier of Heaven, will arrive. I believe he will agree to helping us get Inuyasha back."

            "Why would he help us?" asked Miroku, not liking to rely on some stranger.

            "He is a friend," Kaguya replied. "And he has many contacts that will help him to locate where Ryuten is currently staying. With his aid, I believe that it will be most possible for Inuyasha to return."

            "So all we have to do is wait two days?" asked Shippou eagerly. "What will we do for two days?"

            "Why don't you take a break to get your mind off things?" Kaede said, speaking for the first time.

            "Yeah! And we can ask Inuyasha's kaa-san about how Inuyasha was like when he was little!" Shippou said mischievously.

            "I can't leave this village," Kaguya said, stopping Shippou in his plan. "The Goshinboku hides my presence with its power, so if I leave, the gods will find me."

            "Oh," Shippou said, deflated.

            "I'm going back to get my bag and some supplies," Kagome said, getting up and feeling hopeful about the future. "I'll be back in a while."

            She ran out of the hut before anyone else could refuse, and reached the well. Perhaps the bright sun shining through the trees was a good omen? She leapt into the well and emerged in her own world, reminded suddenly of the strange events that had occurred at her home before she had left. Had her mother and grandfather shown some sort of power that morning?

            "Jii-chan! Mama!" she called out, quickly entering her home. She wanted to ask them a few questions. She walked into the living room and saw that same priest from earlier, sitting across from her mother and grandfather. For a moment, she wanted to go over there and sock him, but she restrained herself, and instead looked questioningly at her family.

            "Okaeri, Kagome," her mother said, sounding tired for the first time in Kagome's memory. "You know this man. He is Mizuno-san. Eri's uncle."

            "Mizuno-san?" Kagome asked, remembering how she and Eri had been speaking of her uncle not so long ago. So it was he who had caused everything to happen? It was he who had so carelessly chased Inuyasha down the well?

            "I beg for your forgiveness in my rash behavior," he said solemnly. "I thought that you had all been bewitched by the youkai's power, and did not think twice to rid this earth of youkai scum."

            "They aren't scum," Kagome said through gritted teeth.

            "As I have so discovered from your mother," he answered. He saw that Kagome was still angry with him, but did not know how else to apologize. He should have realized that Hikaru's family was one that had no qualms about befriending youkai, but after so many years without contact, he had forgotten.  "If there is anything I can do for you to make up, please do not hesitate to say so."

            "I'll tell you what you can do," Kagome said angrily. "You can—"

            "We'll see you soon, Mizuno-san," her mother said suddenly, cutting her off. "Please watch your step down the shrine," she said, basically shoving the priest out of the house. She closed the door behind her, seeing a fuming Kagome still standing in the living room.

            "Mizuno-san always acts before he thinks," Mrs. Higurashi tried to explain to her daughter, but her daughter didn't change her reaction. She saw Souta peeking at them from the hallway, and was about to tell him to go play when Kagome spoke up.

            "I'm kind of glad that he came by today," she said, trying to keep her voice calm. "Because otherwise I would have never known that you were hiding something from me." She looked nervously at her daughter.

            "How did you see the string when Inuyasha couldn't?" Kagome demanded. "How did you make it so that the threads were no longer invisible?" When her mother didn't reply, she turned to her grandfather, who looked guiltily away.

            "Perhaps it was only invisible to youkai," Mrs. Higurashi said weakly, seating herself in a nearby chair.

            "Why was Souta unable to see it?" Kagome asked, cornering her mother. Her mother didn't answer once more.

            "Kagome, sit down," her grandfather said, pulling her into a seat. "Souta, you might as well come in and listen to this. I believe the time to hide this secret has passed, Himiko." She nodded numbly.

            "Mama, what's going on?" asked Souta, sitting on the floor next to his mother.

            "Souta…" she said, stroking her son's hair.

            "The Higurashi have always had the power that you have, Kagome," her grandfather started. "Every single generation has the ability to slay youkai and sense the supernatural. And, when they become of age, to cross through the dry well."

            "What?" asked Kagome, not quite believing what she was hearing. "But… But the only reason I can go through the well is because of the Shikon shards," she said, remembering how she couldn't cross the well when Inuyasha had taken the shards from her. "It has nothing to do with family lineage, right? Otherwise, how can Inuyasha go through the well?"

            "It's not the Shikon shards," her mother explained. "Circumstances must have been set up so you thought it was because of the shards."

            "But when Inuyasha took all the Shikon shards, I couldn't go through the well," Kagome protested, not buying what her mother was saying.

            "The well must have been blocked at that time," Mrs. Higurashi said simply.

            "But when I felt the presence of a Shikon shard in the well, I was able to go through," Kagome said stubbornly. She couldn't bring herself to believe that her grandfather and father had all been able to cross the well. It just didn't make any sense. And why would her mother want to keep such an innocent secret from her anyway?

            "The Shikon shard must have given you enough power to cross the well despite it being blocked," her mother replied. "Kagome, do you remember the first time Inuyasha came over?" Kagome looked at her mother in surprise, but nodded. What did Inuyasha coming over have anything to with what they were talking about?

            "Did he have any shards with him?" her grandfather asked.

            "No…" Kagome said, and wondered how Inuyasha was able to cross without having a shard with him. How was he able to go through all the time if he was never allowed to keep the shards with him, anyway? Maybe it was because she had some shards in this world, which was why the well was open for them to cross. But that didn't make sense because when he went to this world for the first time, neither of them had any Shikon shards on them. Was it possible that her mother spoke the truth? But why would she not trust Kagome enough to tell her the truth?

            "Well? Now do you believe us?" her mother asked.

            "Does that mean I can go visit Inu-nii-chan, too?" Souta asked eagerly.

            "I doubt it. The Higurashi that have gone through the well have always gone to different times," his grandfather said. "I went to the Meiji Era. My father went to an early period of the Sengoku Jidai. My grandmother went to the Nara Period. And Hikaru, your father, went to the Heian Era."

            "Papa went through the well, too?" Kagome asked. "Why didn't you tell us this?"

            "I didn't want you to die in the well like Hikaru did," her mother said, trying not to portray her emotions.

            "Papa died in the well?" Souta asked. "I thought he died in a car accident."

            "We made that up so that you wouldn't become curious and try to go through the well," his grandfather said. "Mama and I agreed to keep the well a secret from you so that you wouldn't die there like your father, but in the end, Kagome still went through."

            "But after I went through the well, why did you still not tell me?" Kagome asked, feeling as if the trust between them was shattered.

            "I was afraid that Souta would get the idea to go through, too," her mother said. "I couldn't stop you from crossing the well to do what you felt was your responsibility. But I could keep Souta from falling prey to the well."

            "What's so bad about the well?" Souta asked. "And how come Jii-chan didn't cross the well to save Papa?"

            "I'm too old, Souta," his grandfather said. "My powers have grown incredibly weak. Even if I could go through the well, there is no way that I would have the power to save my son."

            "But why did Papa go to the Heian Period in the first place?" Kagome asked. "He had no reason to leave this world." There was a brief silence before her mother spoke.

            "Higurashi are cursed," she said, "Your father and those before him crossed the well in order to find a way to prevent the Higurashi line from being decimated. Your father almost found a way to break the curse, but he never returned. We can only guess that something on the other side of the well killed him."

            "What are we cursed with?" asked Souta.

            "I don't know," Mrs. Higurashi said. "I only know that the Higurashi have been cursed to die. Your father left only one clue before he passed away."

            "It was some sort of prophecy," the old man said, getting up and shuffling around a nearby drawer. "Here it is." He handed Kagome a small slip of paper.

            "Change so subtle so as not to be seen," Kagome read, "            The world sleeps so calm or so it may seem."

            "The light and the dark for once shall separate," her grandfather continued. "And shall return only to obliterate."

            "Waters of Heaven shall be washed with Flame," her mother shivered, "Rise high sun from false Avalon it came." Kagome looked up from the paper and looked at them in confusion. What was all this nonsense?

            "What does it mean?" Souta asked, voicing her question.

            "We don't know," Mrs. Higurashi said. "Your father solved the puzzle, but he went through the well to verify it before telling us of his suspicions."

            "And let me guess," Kagome said, feeling as if everything was crashing down at her at once. "He didn't come back because he died in a 'car accident.'"

            "Kagome…" her mother started.

            "I understand," she said suddenly, standing up. "Papa couldn't save this family. But I will. I'm going to solve this puzzle. I'm going to bring Inuyasha back."

            "What happened to Inu-nii-chan?" asked Souta.

            "Nothing. He'll be back soon," Kagome lied, and guiltily realized why her mother had kept the truth from her. Sometimes, it was better to remain ignorant.

            "Where are you going?" asked her grandfather as she started packing things into her big, yellow backpack.

            "I'm going to the Sengoku Jidai for a little while," she said, not pausing in her work. "I'll be back as soon as I figure everything out. Don't expect me to return for some time."

            "Kagome…" her mother started, one hand about to touch her daughter on the shoulder, but she stopped herself. She knew that she had to let her daughter go, but she just couldn't bear it. Kagome knew now, and she was afraid that her daughter would disappear in the other world, never to return just like her husband. Kagome would pursue an answer to their family curse, and, if the Fates did not favor her, she would not come home.

            For a moment, she hated being wedded to the Higurashi. She hated not knowing the fate of her husband, and now, Kagome. She hated feeling helpless and being unable to cross the well to find out what was happening there. She wanted to go through the well with Kagome—to go through the well and at least find the ashes of her husband, but because she was not of the Higurashi lineage, she could do nothing. The only thing that was within her power to do was to let Souta go through the well, and perhaps suffer the same destiny that his father, and possibly sister, would suffer. In that moment, she felt like hacking the well to pieces.

            "Ittekimasu," Kagome said, signaling to her family that she was going to leave. She walked out of the door, heading towards the well.

            "Chotto matte!" her mother called out suddenly. She turned around, wondering why her mother was telling her to wait. There was a pause, in which Mrs. Higurashi struggled with her words, until she finally let out the familiar, "Itterashai." Have a safe journey. How fitting those everyday words were for this occasion.

            Kagome smiled and headed down the well, fully expecting to return to her world. She would break the family curse, and her mother would never again have to worry about anything. One leap, and she was gone.

            He woke up suddenly, feeling disoriented and confused, not quite sure where he was at the moment. He tried using his ears and nose to identify where he was, but for some reason, they failed him today. He looked around the room, brightly lit with the pure sunlight that entered the chamber from the open windows. He quickly put a hand to his heart, remembering someone piercing him there a moment ago, but found no wound. Where the hell am I?

            He approached the nearby window, and had to bite back a gasp as what he saw only threw his mind into further chaos. The clouds were on the ground?

            "I see that you've awaken," someone said, the voice carried softly by an unfelt wind. He turned quickly and recognized the man standing there as the one that had tried to kill him. Or maybe he had really succeeded?

            "Who the fuck are you?" he asked, his natural defense against strangers kicking in.

            "I am the God of Wind, Fuujin," he said formally. "I brought you to this plane of existence in order to aid Ryuten-sama."

            "Who?" Inuyasha asked.

            "My lord," Fuujin said a little impatiently. "Follow me. He is waiting." Inuyasha had half a mind to rip the guy before him apart, but decided to play along for the time being. There was no guarantee that he could escape this place without their help, and if that were true, he wasn't about to cut off his only escape.

            He followed the god through the hallways, finally entering a fairly large room. The door shut with a resounding slam, and Inuyasha looked at the man before him expectantly. Blue hair, greenish eyes… What is this guy, a dragon? Inuyasha wondered.

            "Ryuten-sama, I present to you Inuyasha," Fuujin said. Ryuten gave a false smile to Inuyasha, who wanted to rip the smirk off the man's face.

            "So this is Inuyasha," Ryuten said, walking around him and observing him as if he were some piece of meat to be eaten.

            "Whaddya want?" Inuyasha said grouchily, crossing his arms. It was then that he realized his claws were missing, but he gave no clue of his discovery to his enemies.

            "I need your help in a little thing," Ryuten said, settling into a chair.

            "Do it yourself," Inuyasha said rudely.

            "How dare you speak to Ryuten-sama in such a way!" a deep voice bellowed. Inuyasha was surprised that there was someone else in the room. Why hadn't his ears picked up the man's movements? Or at least his nose should have smelled him… Inuyasha tried moving his ears, but couldn't, and he knew that he was lacking in his demonic powers. What the hell did these guys do? he thought, starting to get worried.

            "Step down, Raijin," Ryuten said calmly. "Inuyasha. I would watch your tongue if I were you. In this place, you will obey me."

            "Keh! In your dreams maybe," Inuyasha scoffed. What kind of idiot was this Ryuten? As if he would ever work for anyone!

            "Do you know of someone named 'Kikyo?'" Fuujin said suddenly to Inuyasha. Inuyasha looked at him suspiciously. "How about a girl named 'Kagome?'"

            "Get to the point," Inuyasha grumbled, hoping that these people hadn't taken his friends hostage.

            "The priestess Kikyo uses her powers to feed on the souls of the dead," Ryuten said, his sharp eyes never leaving Inuyasha's. "That is a high crime. And I believe that the sentence for such a crime, is to go to the last level of Hell." Inuyasha frowned, not responding.

            "Her soul will be tortured most painfully in that level," Ryuten continued on as if he were discussing the weather. "And since she and Kagome share the same soul, they will both be punished for Kikyo's crimes."

            "Why you…!" Inuyasha started.

            "I can stop the penalty," Ryuten interrupted him. "I have the power to convince those people in charge of carrying out such sentences to let her go. But of course, I will not do such a thing out of charity." Inuyasha gritted his teeth in anger. Punish Kikyo and Kagome? He would never allow something like that to happen. But what could he do? If he attacked these people, Kagome and Kikyo would still have to be punished. He glared at them, knowing that he had to swallow his pride.

            "What do you want?" he asked angrily, hating himself for bending to their wills. But if it meant saving Kikyo and Kagome's souls, he would do anything. Even without his senses, he could tell that the three men before him weren't really men, but perhaps gods. How else did they have the power to control the dead? And who else would live in the skies with the clouds beneath them?

            "I just need you to master your powers to defeat Heaven's army," Ryuten said. "As you have noticed, you lack the…gifts that were bestowed upon you when you were alive," he said, getting up to look among his collection of swords.

            So I really was killed, Inuyasha thought, but quickly brushed the thought aside.

            "Your mother probably did not tell you, but you are half-god," Ryuten said, selecting a sword and tossing it to Inuyasha. "We killed you in order to release that side of your power." He paused, expecting Inuyasha to start questioning him, but Inuyasha did not want to give him the pleasure of appearing to be an ignorant fool.

            "Fuujin," he commanded. "Teach him how to use Kaguya's powers," he said. "When you are ready," he said to Inuyasha. "Heaven will fall."

            "Where did you say it was?" Miroku asked the villager. Kagome tried to cool herself under the hot, summer sun, but found that the more she fanned herself, the hotter she got. She felt like she was going to die of dehydration, even though she had already drank several bottles of water, and wished that Miroku would just hurry up and get the directions.

            After staying at Kaede's hut for a day, doing nothing, a villager had returned home from trading with strange news. It seemed that a mysterious mirror had turned up, and whoever gazed into the depths of the mirror felt extremely content afterwards. Miroku and the others had agreed that it was indeed suspicious, so had set off in search of the mirror, hoping that it wasn't a youkai in disguise.

            But from one village to the next, the mirror's location kept changing. They had finally arrived at the fifth location the mirror had been moved to, only to discover that once again, the mirror was transported to another village. It seemed that those that had looked into the mirror had felt incredibly happy and generous, and wanted to share their joy with others, so had kept passing the mirror on.

            Kagome wondered when they would ever catch up to this slippery mirror.

            "Remind me why we're looking for it again," Kagome asked, feeling that a cruddy mirror wasn't worth the heat that she was feeling.

            "It might be a youkai," Sango said half-heartedly, wanting to run into a cool house soon.

            "It might have a Shikon shard in it," Shippou said. Kirara mewed pitifully in agreement.

            "Get up. It's time to head west," Miroku said, finally getting the directions to the mirror's new location. Miraculously, Miroku seemed not to be affected by the heat, and Kagome and Sango looked at him enviously, while Shippou remained baking on the ground.

            "Houshi-sama, why is it that you seem so cool today?" Sango asked suspiciously.

            "It is the art of meditation," he said solemnly, before walking off towards the west. Kagome rubbed her eyes. Was it the summer haze, or did Miroku seem a little fatter today? And was he dripping water?

            "Miroku-sama!" Kagome called, dragging herself off to chase after him. Sango picked up Kirara and Shippou, and the group slowly caught up with the monk.

            "Houshi-sama, is it just me, or did you…um…miss when you were…" Sango's cheeks flushed as she couldn't find the right words to end her sentence. "Did you make a mistake when you were…ah…having your private time?" she finally asked.

            "What?" Miroku asked, confused with Sango's vague words.

            "Did you pee on yourself?" Shippou asked, causing everyone else to be embarrassed.

            "What?! Why would I do such a thing?" Miroku demanded.

            "Because you're all wet," Shippou said, pointing to the monk's clothes. Miroku laughed sheepishly.

            "I suppose the weather is hotter than I expected," he said, reaching inside his robes, careful not to accidentally remove his clothes, lest he be called perverted, and taking a string of ice cubes out.

            "What is that?" Kagome asked, looking suspiciously at the monk.

            "Ice cubes," Miroku said, pulling another string out. And another, and another…

            "Why on earth do you have these tied around you?" Sango asked, grabbing one chain.

            "How in the world did you get these?" Kagome asked.

            "Do you remember the time you brought us ice cream?" Miroku asked. Kagome nodded, guessing what he was about to say. "Well, I managed to convince Inuyasha to steal—excuse me, borrow some from your world. But they kept on melting so I suggested to Inuyasha to go borrow some ice from your family, and the both of us buried this…err, borrowed snack into the earth and covered it with sawdust to keep it cool."

            "You and Inuyasha stole ice cream from me?!" Kagome yelled angrily.

            "Inuyasha told me your mother gave it to him willingly," Miroku said. "We were going to share it."

            "Yeah, right," Sango said, her cat mewing in agreement.

            "When did you guys make off with it?" Kagome asked, bringing her hand to her head as if she were going to have a headache.

            "I believe it was during one of your 'tests,'" Miroku said.

            "Miroku, if you brought the ice, then did you bring the ice cream?" Shippou asked, hoping to get a bite of that delicious treat.

            "Well, I did not want Kagome-sama to become upset with me for taking those from her home," Miroku smiled guiltily. "So I ate all the ice cream before taking the ice cubes to cool me off."

            "Why you—!" Kagome spluttered.

            "You're greedy!" Shippou berated him.

            "I can't believe you, Houshi-sama," Sango said, sighing.

            "What? At least you now have ice to cool you off," Miroku said.

            "You weren't going to share them with us if we didn't ask you, were you?" Shippou asked slyly.

            "Of course I was!" Miroku said unconvincingly.

            "Thank you, Miroku-sama," Kagome said, handing a string to everyone except Miroku. "We'll use the ice cubes now. We'll switch and give the ice cubes to you in an hour."

            "But…" Miroku started, but silenced himself as he saw Kagome's look. "What a great idea, Kagome-sama. I think your plan will do quite well," he said, quickly heading down the road, not wanting to face the wrath of two angry women and a child. He sighed. Why does this always happen to me?

            The ice cooled them, but not before they reached the next village, and by then, they were hot with sweat again.

            "I want to take a cool bath," Kagome complained, seeing the villagers around her smiling contentedly in the heat. "What's wrong with everyone?" she asked.

            "I think they all saw the mirror," Sango said, watching the villagers enviously. Nothing seemed to bother them.

            "They've placed the mirror in the local shrine," Miroku said, returning from his questioning. "We can finally see this legendary mirror that everyone is talking about."

            "And get out of the heat," Shippou said, sticking his tongue out in a useless action to cool himself. The group followed Miroku as he walked up the steps of the shrine, entering the cool building with a sigh.

            "Are you here to visit the Mirror?" a villager asked breezily.

            "Yes…" Miroku said, wondering what kind of demonic power the mirror had in order to have such an effect on these people.

            "To the right," the villager said before walking away.

            Miroku walked to the right of the shrine, seeing the smiling people passing by him to be strangely eerie. He wondered briefly if the spirit of the mirror was a woman, but immediately squished that thought away.

            They entered the well-lit room, and saw the mirror in the center. The last of the villagers in line had looked at the mirror, and was currently walking away happily. Miroku watched the mirror suspiciously, half expecting it to jump out and bite him.

            "I feel a slight amount of jyaki coming from it," Sango said, referring to the evil energy that seemed to be hidden inside the mirror.

            "So it's really a youkai?" Shippou asked, not really daring to wander too close to this reflecting evil.

            "Should we try it out?" Miroku asked.

            "No!" Sango said, a bit too loudly. "I mean, we might become zombie-like, since all the people we've encountered are acting that way." Miroku looked at the mirror, then finally threw one of his Ofuda at it. The mirror reflected the spell, and the paper floated down, having no effect.

            "How strange… My spell didn't work," Miroku said, wondering what was the best way to counter this youkai. Kagome watched as Miroku tried other spells on the mirror, and she couldn't help but feel that something about the mirror was familiar. When Miroku exhausted his batch of spells, she approached the mirror, and gazed into it.

            "Kagome-sama, don't—!" Miroku shouted in alarm, but it was too late. Kagome looked into the mirror, but saw only her reflection. She felt some of her recent sadness leave her, but other than that, she felt fine.

            "Kagome-chan, how do you feel?" Sango asked cautiously.

            "I feel great!" Kagome said, realizing that she actually felt happy. She felt as if her worries had left her and that she could take the world on in anything. "If this mirror is a youkai, it must be a nice one."

            "Are you sure you aren't under the youkai's spell?" Miroku asked, watching her carefully for any hints of being mind-controlled. He didn't find any, but he did feel Kagome's powers to be purer than before. He wondered if the mirror actually absorbed evil energy from people, leaving them with only the good, which was why they felt content afterwards.

            "Let me see the mirror," Sango said, carefully taking the mirror from Kagome's hands. She saw that it was a fairly large oval mirror. The surface was made of glass, showing how rare the mirror was. Most mirrors that she had seen were made of beaten bronze or copper, none made of glass with a strange reflecting material underneath. It was not ornately decorated, but small pictures of the sun and moon were carved into the ebony frame.

            Sango looked into the mirror, half-expecting to be sucked into some sort of trap, but nothing happened. She looked with confusion at Kagome, but after a few minutes, she started to feel…as if all the problems in the world were nothing. She felt like she wanted to go out and help everyone, even the ants, and that nothing was out of her ability to attain. She felt…purified.

            "This is a very strange mirror," Sango finally said. "If the world were covered with this type of mirror, there would be no criminals existing, and everyone would just love to help everyone else."

            "I want to see the mirror," Shippou said, curious about the strange properties of the mirror. Sango handed it to Shippou carefully. He looked warily into the mirror, and felt the mirror sucking his youki in at an alarming rate.

            "Ahhh! Get it away from me!" Shippou cried out, running away from the mirror.

            "Shippou-chan, what's wrong?" Kagome asked in concern as Sango quickly put the mirror back on its stand.

            "That… That mirror! It was sucking my youki!" Shippou said, still panicking.

            "Sucking your youki?" Kagome and Sango asked simultaneously.

            "Just as I had suspected," Miroku said suddenly. "The mirror purifies people by removing the evil energy in people, and in Shippou's case, a demon's energy."

            "The mirror can do that?" Sango asked.

            "Everyone who looked in it became happy because the negative energy of worry and strife were removed," Miroku explained. "Youkai are composed of negative energy—bad energy, if you will, and the mirror removes, or tries to remove all of it."

            "That means if I stare at the mirror too long, I'll die?" asked Shippou, feeling goosebumps rise on his skin.

            "You would be reduced to nothing but a shell," Miroku said. "If Inuyasha saw it, he would have probably turned human," he added thoughtfully.

            "Ichiro is coming tomorrow, so that means Inuyasha will be back soon!" Shippou said happily.

            "I never would have imagined Shippou to be glad for Inuyasha to return," Sango whispered to Kagome, who nodded in agreement. The two smiled at each other, the effects of the mirror keeping them from feeling too bad about Inuyasha's absence.

            "Travelers, do you like the mirror?" a beaming priest asked, entering the room. "Please take it, then. And share it with the world!" They looked at him strangely. The man must have spent too much time in front of the mirror.

            "If you insist, we will take it," Miroku said. The monk walked over to the mirror and gave it to Miroku.

            "We must spread this joy all over the land," the monk said, still smiling. "I must be off to do my chores now. Please enjoy yourselves if you wish to stay a little longer." He retrieved the broom in the room and walked out, humming a little tune.

            "That was weird," Kagome said. The others nodded in agreement.

            "Well, let us be on our way then," Miroku said, carrying the mirror out of the shrine.

            "Why would you want the mirror?" Sango asked, catching up to him. "You don't need it."

            "Of course I need it," Miroku said, sounding as if he were explaining things to a small child.

            "He needs it to bewitch people and con them," Kagome said, taking the mirror out of Miroku's hands. "I'll be keeping this safe."

            "Yeah. Miroku might use it to get a girl to actually bear his child," Shippou grinned, earning a bashing from Miroku. "Hey!"

            "Shippou speaks the truth," Sango said, knowing the monk would never change. "Kagome-chan, let's head back to Kaede's."

            "It'll be very late by the time we even walk half way back," Miroku said reasonably. "It would be terrible to ask Kirara to carry all of us in this weather, so I propose we stay some place around here for the night."

            "And do you have a particular place in mind, Miroku-sama?" Kagome asked slyly. Miroku only grinned in response.

            "Of course…"

            When the winds had cooled and the sun was near finished in setting, they reached the place that Miroku had suggested. Kagome recognized the familiar castle before them, remembering this place to be where that princess had asked Inuyasha for a favor. She gave a sideways glance at Miroku, wondering why he had decided to come here of all places.

            "Just couldn't get enough of that princess, could you?" Shippou asked Miroku in an annoying voice. Miroku ignored him and approached the door.

            "Don't you want a bath after today's heat?" Miroku asked them with a superior air. "Well, this castle happens to have a hot spring in it."

            "Really?" Sango and Kagome asked in union. A guard opened the door, and recognizing Miroku, immediately let him in.

            "So sorry to be such a bother so late in the day," Miroku said politely as he entered the castle grounds.

            "It is no problem, Houshi-sama," the guard said in embarrassment. "We are thankful for the help you gave us last time, so letting you stay for one night isn't such a bother."

            "Thank you," Kagome said, as the guard quickly returned to his post after whispering something to a nearby servant. A few minutes later, the princess appeared, smiling happily at seeing them again.

            "What a great pleasure it is to see you on this night," she said, bowing slightly at them. "Please enter. I have already requested rooms for you. This time, I've made sure you each have your own rooms to rest in."

            "You needn't have gone through all that trouble, Hime-sama," Miroku said politely, following the princess as she guided the group into the castle. Everything was as it had been last time, although it did feel as if it were slightly more empty than usual. Then again, it was night, so perhaps most of them had turned in for the night, even if it was still a little early to be doing so.

            "Where has your other friend gone?" the princess asked, noticing one in their number was missing. "My family did not give him much trouble, did they?" she asked, hoping that she had not caused them an inconvenience.

            "Of course not, Hime-sama," Miroku lied, not wanting to distress her. The princess smiled in relief, commanding one of her servants to open the door for her.

            "Please dine in this room," she said. "When you've finished, my servant will show you to your rooms."

            "Won't you please join us?" Miroku asked out of courtesy, but he could tell that Sango still became irritated.

            "I…have things I must attend to," she said softly, ducking her head. "I will join you when I can." She left the room quickly while servants entered with their dinner. When everything had been set, they exited the room, shutting the door quietly behind them. Miroku felt as if something was amiss, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was.

            "Let's eat!" Shippou said, disturbing the discomfort in the atmosphere. The child started wolfing down the food, and the other decided to do the same, although at a slower pace. In next to no time, they had finished their meal in silence. Shippou wished that Inuyasha were with them. At least he and Inuyasha could have fought about something trivial, filling the silence with their pointless bickering. Now, there was nothing but the sound of the wind and moths beating their wings.

            "Hime-sama has requested that I guide you to your rooms," a servant said in a low whisper, opening the door and bowing, waiting for them to exit. Miroku thought it strange that he had not heard her opening the door, but figured that servants were trained to be near invisible.

            The servant guided them to their rooms in complete silence; the only sound she made was when she slid the door open to allow one in their party to enter the room. Miroku was the last to enter the room, and before he could thank the lady that had led him there, she shut the door with a soft thud. He was left in a large room with a door that led to a garden, and a small light in the center of the room. He unrolled the futon near the lamp, and settled himself in it, waiting for sleep to claim him.

            As the others settled for sleep, Kagome unpacked the books in her backpack, hoping to get a bit of studying in before her lamp went out. She opened her math book first, wondering how many chapters she could try and learn today. After reading the first few paragraphs, she felt that her head would explode, and decided to move onto another subject, replacing the book back into her backpack.

            Her science book was a little better, but not much, and she decided that she should probably save that book for later. By the time that she had gone through the last book without really learning anything, it was well into the night. Strangely, the flame had not gone out yet, and Kagome wondered if she should try to take another book out and try to figure it out when she heard a muffled sound somewhere outside of her room.

            She debated whether or not to go out and find out what made the sound, but decided not to. Maybe someone had tripped on their way to the bathroom. Speaking of the bathroom, Kagome remembered that she had wanted to take a bath, and had forgotten about it. She sighed. She supposed it was too late to do anything about it, and proceeded to climb into her bed and blow the light out when she heard someone walking in the hallway. She waited, the irregular shining of the lamp casting strange images on the walls, making every shadow seem alive and moving. Her nerves became tense as she heard whatever it was stop outside of her door. She wished that she didn't have to sleep by herself. The sounds of the night were starting to scare her.

            "Kagome?" Shippou asked, poking his head into her room. She breathed a sigh of relief, almost laughing. She had thought that the sound belonged to a ghost, and was glad to discover that it was only Shippou.

            "What is it, Shippou-chan?" she asked, climbing into her bed.

            "Is it okay if I stay with you tonight?" he asked, sounding afraid. Kagome patted a spot on the bed, indicating for Shippou to go there, and the child closed the door behind him, running there quickly and snuggling beside Kagome.

            "Why aren't you asleep yet?" she asked, blowing the flame out.

            "I was scared. I never had to sleep alone yet," Shippou said, his voice muffled by the blanket. "My parents were always there, and when they were gone, you and Inuyasha were by my side," he said sleepily. "I don't want to be alone…"

            Kagome listened as Shippou's breathing became deep and even, and knew that she should go to sleep too. She closed her eyes, almost falling asleep when she felt the room become cooler. Had she left the window open? She buried herself deeper in her blanket, too lazy to go and close the window.

            Suddenly, she smelled something similar to old, dusty newspapers near her, and sat up, nearly screaming when she saw a flickering, blue flame in the darkness. But the image had disappeared so quickly that she thought she had imagined it all. I must be tired, she thought, turning around to get under the blankets again when she saw a face an inch away from hers. She barely opened her mouth to scream when the owner of the pale, drawn face clamped her mouth shut with a hand.

            "Kagome-sama, it is I," the woman whispered. Kagome recognized the voice to belong to the princess. She tried to calm herself down, and when the princess saw that she wasn't going to scream anymore, she removed her hand from her mouth.

            "What are you doing here?" Kagome whispered.

            "You have to wake the others silently," the princess said urgently. "My captor is about to find you. You have to leave. You are all in danger."

            "What?" Kagome asked, not understanding. "But the guards let us in…"        

            "Please, just do as I ask of you," the princess said desperately. "The new master of this castle does not have a gentle temper."

            "Yuki-hime," Kagome started, but was immediately silenced when the princess placed her hand over her mouth again. She seemed to listen to something, and when whatever it was had passed, she allowed Kagome to speak again.

            "Don't say my name," she whispered. "I might get punished for helping you." Kagome remembered that the princess was a hostage at the castle, but she didn't remember the people of the castle ever treating the princess poorly.

            "Why didn't you wake Miroku-sama first?" Kagome asked, recalling how the princess seemed to really like the delinquent monk. The princess looked surprised at her question, and it was a few moments before she responded.

            "This used to be my room," she said finally. "It was easier for me to return here."

            "Oh," Kagome answered, wishing she could turn on a light. She didn't like talking in this horrible blackness, unable to see what was in the shadows.

            "Be quick," the princess said. Kagome nodded, but doubted the princess could see her, and started to gently shake Shippou.

            "Shippou-chan," she whispered, shaking him harder when he didn't wake up. Still, the child's breathing was even, and his eyes remained closed in sleep. "Shippou-chan!" she whispered harshly, starting to panic. Why wasn't he awakening?

            "Kagome?" Shippou said groggily, finally waking up. She almost started crying in relief, and hugged the little kitsune, never wanting to let him go.

            "Hime-sama, who—?" Kagome asked, turning to face the princess, only to find no one there. The temperature had dropped to such a degree that she could see her breath, even in the darkness.

            "Kagome, what's wrong?" Shippou asked, becoming afraid when Kagome became surprised that no one was behind her. He didn't like the dark. He kept imagining there were monsters in the shadows and that someone or something was trying to sneak up on him.

            "Shippou-chan, get up," Kagome said, standing up. She picked up her bag, the mirror, and the bow and arrows, not bothering to change into her uniform. "We have to wake the others."

            Kagome was acting very strangely, and Shippou was finding that her actions were causing the hairs on the back of his neck to stand on end. He followed her closely, staying by her legs as she slid the door open slowly, and stuck her head out a bit, trying to see if there was anyone in the hallway. When she saw the hallway to be empty, she tiptoed across the floor. Shippou suppressed the complaint he was about to give about cold floors, but decided that whatever Kagome was doing was more important than a child's grumbling.

            Kagome walked to the room opposite of hers, and Shippou remembered the room to belong to Sango. She swung the bow and quiver to her back, and with the mirror in her left hand, she tried to open the door with the other. She pulled on the tiny circle on the door, trying to slide the door open, but the door remained stuck. She tugged at the door harder, but with no results. She was starting to panic, and pulled on the door with all her might, but instead of the sound of the door opening, she heard the sound of something that sounded hauntingly like a body being dragged inside of Sango's room.

            Out of frustration, Kagome placed the mirror against the door, and tried once more to open it, and to her surprise, the door slid open easily. Kagome picked up the mirror and ran into the room with Shippou, her darkness-adjusted eyes making out Sango, who was halfway out of her futon. It didn't look like she had gotten out of her bed just because she was tossing and turning, and Kagome found Kirara to be nowhere near her master, and instead was sprawled out near a corner. Shippou quickly ran to Kirara, while Kagome did the same to Sango. Kirara woke after Shippou touched it gently, but try as hard as she could, Kagome could not shake Sango back into the real world.

            "Sango-chan!" she whispered desperately, wanting to scream at her friend to awaken. Finally, Sango blinked sleepily at her, wondering what Kagome and Shippou were doing in her room.

            "Shippou-chan, stay with her," Kagome said quickly, grabbing her things and running as quietly as she could out of the door. She already had a hard time waking Shippou and Sango. What if she couldn't wake Miroku? And why did it seem that something had been in Sango's room, dragging her out of bed?

            Kagome looked around the several doors in the hallway, not sure where Miroku's room was. She had been the second to choose a room, so she didn't know which room Miroku had been guided to. She tried opening the door next to her room, only to encounter a terrible blackness, and a cold mist that flowed out of the room. She shut the door as fast as she could, and tried another door, trying not to notice that the mist seemed to be following her.

            The next door opened easily, and Kagome nearly stopped in her tracks as she saw what was happening. Miroku was clad in the white of his sleeping robe, the paleness of the clothes setting him off from the darkness, looking peaceful in sleep, but was hanging from the ceiling by a bluish…rope? Hand?

            "Miroku-sama!" Kagome screamed, running towards him. He was being hanged in his sleep and he didn't notice? She hastily dropped the mirror on the floor and grabbed at Miroku's legs, not knowing how to get a hanged man down, but the moment she touched him, the mysterious, hazy…rope, she decided to call it, that had been around his neck disappeared, causing him to drop on to her like a sack of potatoes.

            "Kagome-sama?" Miroku asked, waking up. His hand went to his neck automatically, feeling a strange pain there. He could feel the smooth surface of his neck slightly punctuated with what felt like five tiny, shallow wounds; four on one side of his neck and one on the other side. He wondered if Kagome had been choking him, but brushed the thought aside as impossible.

            "Miroku-sama, we have to get out of here," Kagome said, half panicking and half relieved. "Something strange is happening around this place."

            "Then let's get the others," Miroku said without questioning Kagome's bizarre actions. There was something in the darkness that he couldn't quite place, and the feeling kept on fleeting in and out of his mind, making him unsure if he were just imagining it.

            "Don't forget your mirror," Miroku said, picking the mirror up and handing it to Kagome when she was about to run out of the room. He noticed that there was a light, blue mist in the hallway that seemed to grab at Kagome's ankles as she ran out. He followed her quickly, dispelling the mysterious mist with a spell.

            "Sango-chan!" Kagome called out in a quiet whisper as she saw Sango about to walk down the opposite direction.

            "Kagome-chan, what's happening?" Sango asked, looking unsettled, and walking towards her. "Do you know who attacked Kirara?"

            "Attacked Kirara?" Miroku asked, not understanding how someone was able to attack the giant cat, especially if Sango was there.

            "She has a bump on her head," Sango said, not knowing the answer, either.

            "Let's—" Kagome started, but stopped. The others looked at her questioningly, wondering what was wrong when they heard it, too. Down the hall, there was the sound of heavy cloth being dragged on the floor. Slowly, the sound was inching towards them, the sliding noise getting louder with each "step" it took.

            "It does not feel friendly," Miroku said in the barest of whispers. He grabbed the links in his staff, hoping to silence the jingling that they usually made and gestured for the others to follow him. As quietly as they could, they moved away from the empty thudding of the sound, proceeding in the opposite direction. Without aid of light, they stumbled through the darkness, trying their best to make no noise.

            "Kagome-sama, please explain to me what is going on here," Miroku asked in a quiet whisper, as they walked the many hallways, trying to find the exit.

            "Yuki-hime just came to me and told me to wake you guys up and get out of here," Kagome said, clenching the mirror tightly, trying not to be afraid. "She said the master of the house was going to harm us, and warned me to escape. Before I could ask any more, she was gone."

            "What do you mean, 'gone?'" Miroku asked, not liking the feeling that he was beginning to have on the backs of his arms. He rubbed them, but the feeling of being hunted did not fade away.

            "She disappeared, okay?" Kagome said, to concentrate where she was going in the dark.

            "Disappeared?" asked Sango. Miroku held up a hand for silence as he strained his ears in the dark, wishing that Inuyasha were there to identify the sound that was fast approaching them. It sounded like a rat scratching on the floor, but this had to be an extremely large rat to be making the sound it did, and Miroku had a feeling that he would rather face a rat, than whatever it was that was advancing towards them.

            He opened a nearby door and gestured for the others to go in, shutting the door when the last of them had entered the room. They waited in silence as they heard the sound move past them, heading down the hallway.

            Sango let out the breath she was holding, and turned around, nearly giving herself a fright when she saw something close to her face. It was only a sheet of cloth, and she felt foolish for having been afraid of that.

            "This looks like a room for dyeing cloth," Miroku said, commenting on the rows of cloth hanging from poles that ran across the ceiling. It was an open room, letting the night breeze from the garden outside to enter and dry the dye, causing the large sheets to wave softly in the wind.

            They leaned against the wall of the door, debating whether to go back into the hallway or try their luck through the garden. Sango watched the rhythmic waving of the cloth, feeling slightly calmed by the familiar movement. She saw that most of the cloths were dyed a dark color that was indistinguishable in the darkness and that one of the cloths near her was dripping with the still wet dye, filling the empty room with that steady sound.

            Shippou sniffed the air experimentally, and sure enough, he had not been imagining it. There seemed to be the scent of blood in the room, but where it was coming from, he didn't know. He looked at a strange pool that was forming underneath one of the cloths. Was the smell coming from that cloth?

            Sango petted Kirara, while Miroku and Kagome debated quietly which direction to head towards. The waving of the cloths was making her sleepy. But wait a minute… Was one of the cloths moving towards her? She watched the other cloths still swing in the breeze, as this cloth defied nature and reached out towards her ever so slowly. She was frozen in fear, wanting to scream or back away, but unable to do either.

            The door suddenly opened with a jerk, a rotting hand trying to pry the door open as Miroku tried to hold the door closed.

            "Kagome-sama!" he gasped, and Kagome quickly helped him slam the door closed.

            "Sango!" Shippou cried out as one of the cloths near her started to stretch in an effort to get her. Sango finally snapped out of it, taking a step back. But the cloth didn't give up in its pursuit, and continued to reach towards her, causing the other cloths in the room to start waving madly.

            Miroku gasped as a hand shot through the door and pinned him against it, a ghostly arm starting to cut off his air supply.

            "Miroku-sama!" Kagome screamed, trying to pull the arm away. Miroku took out an Ofuda and placed it against the door, activating it with a choked spell, and the arm released him, dropping him on the ground. He gasped for air, but didn't have any time to rest as he heard something slamming into the door.

            "I guess we take the garden route," he said, but did not know how to respond when he saw all the cloths in the room twitching and reaching at them. Was a ghost controlling the cloths? He tried to feel for the source of the phantom occurrence, but found that it seemed to come from everywhere.

            The door behind him started to bend as whatever was in the hallway slammed into it again. He took out another spell and placed it on the door, hoping that it would hold for a little longer, and tried to use his priest powers to stop the unnatural movement in the room. But his power did not seem to have any effect.

            "Let's just run across," Kagome said, rather bravely. "They're just stupid cloth anyway, right? If they grab at us, we can just…rip them apart!" she said, trying to convince herself. If Inuyasha were here, he would rip them apart before crossing, but since he wasn't, she supposed they would just have to run and hope for the best.

            "Then let's run!" Miroku said, dashing into the forest of cloth, trying to shove the branches of the reaching cloths away. Kagome ran after him, the mirror seeming to pulse in agreement at her decision. But halfway through the room, she was tangled in the living cloth, tripping as the cloth tried to grab her and suffocate her.

            "Get away!" she screamed, using the mirror as a weapon and waving it around. It was a pity that the mirror didn't work unless someone or something stared directly into it, otherwise she would use it to suck up the obvious evil energy in the room.

            Kagome saw that the others were having similar troubles to her own, and to her horror, she saw that the door had been broken down, though she saw no trace of anyone other than her friends in the room. Something pulled her down from behind, sending her crashing onto the floor, and whatever had pulled her down grabbed a nearby piece of cloth and circled her neck with it, starting to choke her to death. Kagome tried grabbing the cloth around her neck, but whoever it was that was slowly killing her was strong, and she couldn't break the person's grasp.

            With what energy she had left, she reached for the mirror, and placing her life on an unknown chance, she brought the mirror up so that it would reflect the one behind her. Immediately, a hoarse scream was heard, and Kagome felt the cloth around her neck slacken. Kagome dared to look into the mirror, and saw a horrible, rotting face transform into that of a young maid.

            Kagome turned around, and saw a young woman sitting on the ground, looking shocked. Kagome watched as everything happened in reverse. The rotting corpse started to transform back into the state before it rotted, and the bruise around the girl's neck faded away. The girl reached a hand to her neck, and looked surprised at Kagome before fading away. The angry cloths in the room stopped their angry attack, and settled down, looking as normal as ever.

            "Kagome-sama, what did you do?" asked Miroku, running to her, panting for air. Before she had a chance to answer, the invisible ghosts that had entered the room through the broken door appeared, the ghosts numbering half a dozen.

            Miroku started throwing his Ofuda at them while Kagome fit an arrow into her bow. She fired, and cursed as she missed her target, the arrow instead embedding itself in the wall. The entire castle shuddered, the arrow falling useless on the ground, and the attacking ghosts quickly exited the room, leaving them alone in silence.

            "What is this place?" Sango said, wanting to shriek in frustration, but holding her emotions in check. Shippou quickly ran to Kagome, while the group moved together to the center of the room, wondering if the phantoms were going to attack again.

            "It seems that we have stumbled into a Palace of the Dead," Miroku said calmly, recollecting himself.

            "How can you say that so calmly?" Sango asked, her fear getting the better of her. "We're going to die here!"

            "No we're not!" Kagome cut in sharply. "We are not going to die in this…in this god forsaken place! I refuse to die here!" The others looked in shock at her outburst, while she tried to calm herself down.

            "We can't stay in this room forever," Miroku said once he deemed the atmosphere safe enough to speak in again. "Let's try to find our way out." He looked dubiously at the dark hallway, and decided that the moonlit garden was perhaps safer. In silence, they followed him out of the room.

            As they walked out, Miroku noticed a strange mist covering the room, and looking like it was searching for something. He quickly led the others to hide in the brush of a nearby pond, watching as the mist spread through the room they were in a moment ago, almost looking like it was feeling its way around. When it found nothing, the mist retreated back into the hallway, leaving them safe outside.

            "Houshi-sama, where do we go now?" Sango asked, looking at the moon in the sky. It was halfway to its highest point in, and Sango wondered if that meant it was early night, or late night. She hoped it was the latter because she didn't think she could stand any more surprises.

            "I have no idea," Miroku said, for the first time sounding worried. "In running all over the castle, I'm afraid I am thoroughly lost." They sighed, and as Shippou looked at the garden around him, the others started discussing ways of possibly escaping.

            He looked at the soft, pastel white lilies in the pond, shining as the moon cast its beams upon them. The garden was incredibly tranquil, unlike the darkness inside the castle. The grass was kept fairly short, and the small flowers that were only buds in this hour of the night lay in decorative patches, making the garden pleasant with its simple beauty.

            Shippou looked back at the pond while the others continued to argue which of their plans were the best. Shippou watched as the red lilies floated on the surface of the pond, looking like—wait… Red?

            Shippou let out an inaudible squeak as the lilies started to slowly rise out of the water, turning to face him, their roots the only thing keeping them in the pond. He grabbed at Kagome's clothes, yanking at them, trying to tell her to look, but no words coming out of his mouth.

            "Ka—Ka—Ka," was all he managed.

            "Shippou-chan, what—?" she started, until she saw what had scared him so. Suddenly, the scarlet lilies changed to bloody hands as they shot out of the water, trying to grab them. Kagome grabbed Shippou and ran, quickly followed by Sango and Miroku.

            "Is no place safe?" gasped Sango, looking behind her to see the red arms return to the pond, changing back to the peaceful, white lilies.

            "You're still here?" a voice asked from the castle. They looked up towards the raised wooden floor of the castle, seeing the princess that had warned them standing there.

            "Yuki-hime, would you mind explaining to me what is going on here?" Miroku asked, entering the castle once again.

            "I—I don't know," she said, looking trapped.

            "Can you at least guide us out?" Kagome asked, not wanting to wander around the castle blindly again.

            "Please… Follow me," the princess said after a brief pause, walking into the dark hallway, her vermilion kimono the only thing that allowed them to see where she was.

            "I would still like an answer to my question, Hime-sama," Miroku said, his usually calm voice sounding like it was on edge. For a moment, he thought she wasn't going to reply, until she finally spoke.

            "I… I can't seem to remember what happened," she said in a soft voice. "All I remember is that the master of the castle has changed."

            "To whom?" Miroku pressed, but the princess signaled for him to be silent. They proceeded in the darkness cautiously, their ears and eyes out for anything that would betray a phantom's presence.

            The princess turned a corner, the group losing sight of her for a moment. They chased after her, not wanting to lose their guide, but when they rounded the corner, they saw no one there.

            "She's a ghost!" Shippou wailed, and Kagome tried to quiet him. But no one refuted his statement.

            "Do you think she led us to the exit?" Sango asked, unable to penetrate the wall of darkness before her. Miroku took a step forward. A bluish hand suddenly shot out from the darkness and grabbed his ankle, making him fall and dragging him down the long hallway with great speed.

            "Houshi-sama!" Sango shouted in fear, chasing after him. Kagome and Shippou ran after them, feeling the darkness close around them like a suffocating hand.

            Miroku tried using his spells, but couldn't get into the right angle to shoot them at the ghastly hand, and instead tried to use his holy staff to dissipate the hand, succeeding only in making dents on the floor, the staff passing through the hand. What the hell—? Why aren't my powers working here? Miroku thought in panic and frustration. The only time he had ever heard a monk's powers fail was when the opponent overpowered the monk. Did that mean his powers were not sufficient to fight the ghosts of this castle?

            "Miroku-sama!" Kagome shouted, trying to catch up to him. Finally, the hand released him, and he looked up, seeing a strange man holding a lantern lighted by a blue flame. Miroku looked at the man, appalled to see that one of his legs were missing, and another arm hung by a vein of a blood vessel, ready to fall away. The man's face seemed to be rotting, and broke into a lopsided grin as the ghost faded into the wall, disappearing from sight.

            "Miroku, what was that?" Shippou asked, wanting to escape from this place.

            "This place is filled with vengeful spirits," Miroku said, getting up and dusting himself off. "The phantoms that we've encountered have all tried to harm us. And it seems that Yuki-hime led us to a dead end," he said, inspecting the wall that the ghost had faded through. He put his hand on it, feeling the solid, but cold wall under his hand.

            "All the ghosts look creepy," Kagome shuddered. "Well, except for Yuki-hime."

            "The ones that look hideous probably have a lot of hatred in their hearts," Miroku said, wondering where to go next. "Yuki-hime said that she did not remember what happened, so perhaps she does not bear the hatred that the others do."

            "Miroku-sama," someone called out from the hallway. They turned and saw the said princess standing there, looking confused. "Why didn't you follow me?"

            "We did," Miroku said, no longer trusting the woman.

            "Why didn't you follow me?" the princess asked again. This time, it was Miroku who looked at her in confusion.

            "But we did," Kagome said, but the girl didn't seemed to have heard her. Kagome felt the temperature around her drop drastically. Oh no, she thought, hoping that something bad wasn't about to happen.

            "It's a dead end," the princess said suddenly, as if realizing that for the first time. "The door has been blocked."

            "What do you mean?" asked Shippou, his childish voice seeming to cut into her senses.

            "The master of the house has discovered you," she said, sounding normal once more. "This hallway was supposed to lead to the exit. She's changed the layout of the castle again," the princess said, for once sounding clear-headed. "There's a back door, but I doubt she would leave that open."

            "Yuki-hime?" Miroku asked. He had never heard her use that tone of voice before.

            "Please forgive me, Miroku-sama," she said, some gentleness reasserted in her voice. "But I will try to find another exit for you."

            "Why don't you tell us what on earth is going on here?" Sango asked. "The last time we came, everyone seemed fine, and now, there's ghosts all overt he place!" The princess turned to her slowly, the kindness that she had shown before absent.

            Suddenly, the entire hallway lit up, torches burning brightly with blue flames on the walls. The princess took a step towards them, her red-orange kimono fading into the white of the clothes worn underneath, her face terrible with wrath.

            "They betrayed me," she whispered, her eyes lit by unholy fire. "That's why… That's why I made sure none of them escaped."

            "Hime-sama, what are you talking about?" Miroku asked as she took a step closer. The white of her clothes became suddenly stained with scarlet as several wounds opened up all over her.

            "I helped them in a way that I should not," she said, her brow creasing in horrible anger. "I gave them the message for this house's weakness. I told them when to attack so that they could retrieve me." She took another step, the floor beneath her shining with her dark blood. Miroku and the others took a step back, wondering what was the best thing to do.

            "They attacked…but they did not save me," she said in a low voice, dripping with bitterness and hatred. "The son of my captors cut me up and left me to bleed to death," she said, her voice so low that it was hard to hear. Suddenly, several gashes ripped up her face, covering it in bloody red, the once beautiful face a distant memory, replaced by this image of hate.

            "My brother saw me. And he did nothing. He did nothing!" she screamed, the walls of the hallway suddenly falling away, revealing a much bigger space than had appeared a moment ago. "He only used me as a distraction, waiting for my murderer to turn his back so that he could stab him!"

            "Hime-sama," Miroku tried, hoping to calm her down.

            "So I killed them all. I burnt this place in the flames of Hell. And they all died," she said, starting to laugh. Shippou cringed at the bloody woman, moving closer to Kagome. Suddenly, Kagome felt something.

            "Shikon no Kehai!" she said, sensing the presence of a Shikon shard. "The princess has it!"

            "I won't let anyone live," the princess said, looking down on them. "I won't allow anyone to enjoy their life while I must suffer and die."

            "Hime-sama, you are not like this," Miroku said, trying to coax the woman he knew back into this phantom.

            "No… The princess that you knew was not like this," she agreed. "Such a meek and powerless creature, doing only as her family bade her. And what has become of her?" she asked acidly.

            "She…um…died?" Shippou suggested. Kagome quickly shut his mouth, but the woman had heard him.

            "She is dead. Just as all of you will be!" she screamed, with a wave of her hand, commanding the blue flames to engulf them. Miroku quickly set up a barrier to deflect the flame, but amidst the laughter of the princess, he knew that he could not hold the barrier up for long.

            "Houshi-sama, do you think Hiraikotsu can kill her?" Sango asked, her large weapon out for usage.

            "Try," he said, allowing a small hole to appear in the barrier. Sango threw the boomerang out gracefully, but was met with only more laughter.

            "You wish to use a mortal weapon to destroy me?" the princess laughed, letting the flames around them die down. Miroku released his barrier, trying to think of a good spell to counter this wretched creature. But his previous spells had barely worked here, so what guarantee did he have that they would work against this ghost?

            "Hime-sama, do not be offended that I am trying to destroy you," Miroku said. Kagome looked at him with surprised confusion. Why would you tell a ghost that?

            Miroku threw the paper spells at the princess, only to have her burn them up as if they were nothing.

            "No longer am I that princess," she said angrily. "I am now the master of this house, and of your lives!" Ghosts suddenly appeared everywhere, attacking the group.

            "I guess trying to appeal to the princess' good side didn't work," Miroku said as he leaped away from a phantom attack.

            "Kitsune-bi!" Shippou shouted, using his flame to counter theirs. Sango tried to cut the spirits with her sword, her boomerang lying beyond the former princess, but managed to do nothing. Kirara transformed and tried its usual attacks, but with no results.

            Kagome fit an arrow in her bow and aimed towards the princess, hoping to destroy the source of the problem, but the spirits started attacking her relentlessly, giving her no chance to even fire an arrow. She started waving the charged up arrow around, managing to singe some of the ghosts with her power, and scaring off others.

            But as she succeeded in clearing a small circle for herself, the others became more and more in danger. Sango tried one last desperate slash at a ghost, who realized she couldn't harm him, and decided to attack. The ghost threw her against the wall, yanking her up by the hair to repeat the attack when Miroku threw a spell at the ghost, only to be captured by the princess in his moment of distraction.

            The cool, blue flame wrapped around him, and the princess watched, smirking as she started to squeeze his soul out of him. Shippou tried to save him, but was shoved into a phantom pond, created by the new mistress to destroy the life within her castle walls. He felt himself drowning as several semi-transparent hands held him underwater.

            "Let them go!" Kagome shouted, her blood pounding in her ears. She fired an arrow at the princess, who only used one of the ghosts to deflect the arrow. The sacrificed spirit screamed in agony as it burst into a million pieces, disappearing into the night.

            "Specter to fight specter," the girl laughed. "Die, if you wish to challenge my power."

            A new surge of ghosts surrounded Kagome. She took her arrow, using it to wave off the ghosts, but unable to find a lapse in their attack to save her friends. Miroku's soul was a third out; Sango and Kirara were being manipulated like marionettes to attack each other; Shippou was drowning in a water that did not exist. Kagome could feel tears of desperation coming from her eyes, but she couldn't do anything except protect herself. If only Inuyasha were there… Inuyasha would be able to do something. Inuyasha would be able to defeat foes that no one else thought him able to.

            Suddenly, the mirror that she had placed on the floor to fire her arrow began pulsing. She noticed that all the ghosts avoided getting near it, so quickly ran to the mirror. The ghosts still lunged at her, but she noticed that they weren't getting any closer. Maybe now, she could fire her arrow…

            "Miroku-sama, hold on!" she shouted, firing another arrow towards him. The princess batted the arrow away angrily, burning her hand, but succeeding in stopping Kagome. Kagome saw the Shikon shard in the princess' heart glow, and the damaged hand was quickly repaired.

            "You annoying brat!" the woman screamed, diving at her. Kagome screamed in turn, not knowing what else to do. She quickly picked up the mirror and held it to the princess, who backed away, screaming in agony.

            "Get that mirror away from her!" she commanded her servants, who feared their mistress more than they feared the mirror.

            "Get away!" Kagome shouted, trying to scare them off with the mirror. But there was no way that she could possibly get all of the ghosts to look into it…

            She picked up her quiver of arrows and decided to use that instead. A spirit grabbed her hand while she reached for her arrows, causing her to scatter the arrows all over the floor. With a single arrow in her hand Kagome tried to reach for her bow, not knowing how she was going to try to fire an arrow while holding the mirror.

            The mirror started pulsing rapidly, and seemed to start shaking in her hands. Kagome followed the direction the mirror seemed to be shaking, and managed to reach Shippou, knocking the ghosts away with her purifying arrow.

            "Shippou-chan!" she shouted in worry. Shippou climbed out of the pool, wet and gasping for air, but otherwise fine.

            "Miroku! Kagome, look at Miroku!" Shippou shouted, pointing to a helpless Miroku who had half of his soul outside of his body. Kagome reached for her bow to fire the arrow, but found that she had left it behind when she had run to Shippou.

            "Kagome-chan! Escape while you still can!" Sango shouted at her, barely managing to dodge Kirara's controlled attacks.

            "No!" Kagome shouted stubbornly.

            "Where's Inuyasha when you need him?" Shippou wailed, standing next to Kagome's legs, depending on her to protect him.

            What would you do, Inuyasha? Kagome wondered. What would you do if you were here? Again, she felt the mirror pulsing, almost as if something inside was trying to escape from its prison. The mirror started shaking again, and it was all Kagome could do to hold onto it.

            Is something inside the mirror? Kagome thought. She could feel evil energy start flowing from the mirror, as if the energy of the ghosts around it were helping whatever was inside to escape. Do I break the mirror? Do I release whatever has been sealed here? Hadn't she released Inuyasha when everyone else had said he was evil? Perhaps if she tried her luck once more, she would be saved…

            She brought the arrow she was holding in her hand down on the mirror. The arrow started to glow, then faded as it scattered into sprinkles of energy. The mirror started to crack down the middle, and the crack slowly spread to the sides.

            "Kagome, what are you doing?" asked Shippou hysterically. "Can't you feel there's something evil inside?" Shippou shrieked as the surface of the mirror shattered, and Kagome threw the mirror away, shielding herself and Shippou from the shards of glass.

            The princess dropped Miroku from her hold, backing away as shards of light was strewn around the room. Miroku's soul quickly returned, and he rubbed his head, glad to be back in one piece. But was the price worth it? What exactly had Kagome done when she broke the mirror?

            "Kirara!" Sango shouted, scooping the transformed cat away from the ghosts now that they were preoccupied. She ran over to Miroku and watched as something emerged from the depths of the mirror. Bathed in light in this house of darkness, the figure looked to be an angel sent to protect them.

            "Where the hell am I?" a familiar voice asked. Miroku and the others gaped as the light faded away to reveal a very familiar person indeed.

            "Who the fuck are you?" he asked as he saw some bloodied woman before him. Huh. And I thought that I was the one being killed, he thought in confusion. What happened to those two guys anyway?

            "I—Inuyasha?!" Kagome gasped, not quite sure she was seeing the truth. What was he doing inside the mirror? What was he doing in this world?!

            "Kagome?" he asked, looking at her. She gasped as she saw his eyes. They were lavender? And yet his hair was still the same silver of his demon form…

            He leapt over to her and looked at her critically. "What are you doing, running around in your sleeping clothes?"

            "Don't you have anything else to say?" she asked.

            "I'll get rid of this pest first," he said, turning to look at the ghost, who didn't seem to be so confident anymore. "We'll talk later."

            "Destroy him!" the princess screamed in desperation, commanding those under her to attack Inuyasha. With a swipe from his claws, their souls were scattered, and Inuyasha leapt in mid-air to go after the real culprit.

            In the moment before his attack was initiated, his demonic claws elongated, slicing through the specter like tearing through water. A spirit that could not be hurt by the worldly bone boomerang, nor by the mortal claws of the giant cat, was finally torn by the hand of one that was thought to be in false death.

            Through the heart of the barely recognizable princess he ripped, by chance coming upon the embedded Shikon shard. In a hand covered by phantom blood, he grasped the tiny shard, watching as the ghost fell towards the ground, her form of hatred dissipating, changing her back to the pale-faced princess, used to imprisonment.

            "Hime-sama," the priest started, but the princess calmly cut him off. There was a sort of temporary peace in her eyes, but that was all that was needed.

            "I leave now, Miroku-sama," she said, her voice soft with death. "I part before my hatred returns with my memory." She looked sadly at Miroku, but despite her sorrow, she smiled. "I…am most honored to have been able to see you…one last time."

            She got on her knees, bowing deeply to Miroku, her forehead touching the floor, and she held her position there, waiting.

            Miroku shook his head, knowing what it was she asked of him. He walked towards her, his staff jingling, once more unsuppressed. The princess flinched as he slammed the staff down near her head. In silence, he prayed, bringing the holy staff to rest lightly on the guilty princess' head, his eyes shut in concentration as he prepared to send her soul to its final rest. He did not need to look to see that she was gone from this plane of existence and beyond.

            Slowly, the castle walls melted away. The large, empty room they had fought in faded into memories past, leaving in its wake, ashes of those that had fought the bloody battle that cost a young, innocent woman to lose her life and soul to hatred.

            The dawn climbed lazily into the sky, illuminating a sight common in the Sengoku Jidai, while the wind stirred what spirits remained to rest. Charred beams and dead embers littered the entire perimeter, and beneath some of the debris, the burnt bodies of the dead lied peacefully. The pure light from the sun washed away the nightmares of the night, leaving only truth for them to see.

            Feeling the morning sun shower him with warmth, Miroku turned to Inuyasha, looking at his friend for the first time since he had emerged from the mirror. His greeting was lost on his lips as he stared dumfounded.

            "Anyone care to explain how the hell I ended up here?" Inuyasha asked grumpily.

            "I was going to ask you the same thing," Miroku said, not understanding what he was seeing.

            "Inuyasha, your eyes are purple!" Shippou said, pointing.

            "What are you talking about?" Inuyasha demanded grouchily. Kagome rummaged in her bag for her little mirror and took it out.

            "Why don't you see for yourself?" she asked, while the others were too shocked to see a purple-eyed Inuyasha to say anything. He looked at himself in the mirror.

            There was a brief silence.

            "What the HELL did they DO?!"

Notes: "Yoko" means sun, I think. In Chinese stories, there are seven goddesses in heaven that are the daughters of the Jade Emperor. They weave the tapestry of the night (though some of the other sources I checked just say they're servants). The seven ladies do not have names, so I decided to give them names. Since there are seven days in a week, and in Japan, each day corresponds to an element or something, I decided to name the oldest of the seven, "sun." Sunday to Saturday is: Sun, Moon, Fire, Water, Wood, Earth, and Gold.

The sister Yoko refers to is the youngest, who, stories say, fell in love with a cowherd. Since love is not allowed in heaven (though I don't understand how the emperor got his kids), they were banned from seeing each other. However, every year, the magpies (birds, in case you didn't know) would form a bridge for them, allowing them to cross the Milky Way (which is like a river to them). That is why magpies molt each ear (from the two lovers walking on their heads).

In Chinese stories, there are eighteen levels of hell, level eighteenth being the worst.