"-- and it really was a kitten, after all."
Everything around her flickered but Kagome ignored it. She was lost in her sudden flood of memories. And with it, the sudden flood of pain and loss. Inuyasha. Gone. Gone forever. She could never see him again.
"So you gave him up. Just like that."
Kagome looked up in surprise and felt a dull shock at seeing Kikyou sitting in the chair across from her sipping from a small china cup that was splintered as if it had been pieced then glued back together after being broken. Kagome blinked and glanced down at the floor seeing her own shattered cup and spilled tea there the looked at Kikyou again. The woman smirked.
"The cups are a bit like the two of us really. The first broken then remade and reused again into something the same and yet different."
"Kikyou…" Kagome looked around. It was as if everyone had faded away, the café was empty and the world seemed to be done in sepia hues of brown and gray. Above them a small fan turned steadily so Kagome knew time could not be frozen.
"But will the new one break again?" Kikyou curled her hands around the teacup.
"Kikyou…you died."
"I am happy now. I have seen Inuyasha's grief in the face of my death and I am content. His love is there still and with that knowledge I can rest peacefully in my death."
"Where are we?"
"With this fact and my memories of the past with him I can go on. I can final have the easy rest I've longed for, for so long. But what about Inuyasha?"
"Inu…Inuyasha." Kagome said slowly.
"You let him go."
"I had too!" Kagome cried in the face of the accusation. "She said if we'd gone back together he would have died!"
Kikyou smirked. "I thought you at least had enough sense not to listen to one pompous goddess."
"Then…then she lied?"
"No. She is incapable of lying. But even with what you've done, Inuyasha will die still. In a way."
Kagome's blood turned to ice. "What…what do you mean?"
"Inuyasha has lost all memories of the time he has spent with you and things you have meant. That time is what changed him into the person you and I love. But without those memories he is not the same man. He had to have a point of reference to base his life on. Without that reference human and demon alike are lost and Inuyasha is without that point. He is without you to remind him of why he should cling to the goodness in his heart."
"But…"
"He will seek out the jewel again in order to become full demon. He does not remember the evil the Shikon no Tama posesses nor does he remember the friends it will cause him to slaughter. He only knows of his own feral desire to make himself whole, because there is an emptiness inside him he thinks can be filled with more power. That is what he seeks and why he will suffer. But it is you that is causing the emptiness Kagome. The lost love for you."
"What you forget…"
"Is the most dangerous." Kikyou continued. She slid something across the table and Kagome looked down to see three cards spread there. "Amatsuichi gave to you the King of Hearts and proclaimed Inuyasha yours. The other choice he had was the Jack who is weak and over dependant. But there is always a hidden card to be chosen."
Kagome reached out and picked up the card in the middle tentivly and turned it. "Another queen." Eyes fixed on the card.
"You and Inuyasha are equals in your love. You are the monarch of his heart and he of yours. He is not the king because he has need of you. He may make it seem as if he only wants to use his own two hands but sometimes our own two hands are not enough. Sometimes we need the faith to reach for the hand of another. Inuyasha is without that faith, all because he lost the one who governs his soul."
"And that's you." Kagome looked up in surprise as Kikyou's voice changed and for a moment Inuyasha sat across from her.
"Inuyasha!"
She blinked and he was gone and Kikyou was there again. She smiled. "There is still time."
"But both you and Izanami say that if I go back to the instant at Naraku's castle then Inuyasha will die!" Kagome fought against tears.
"Love transcends all things. Time…space…magic. Undoing the end to your journey is hard but you can choose to go back before you found Naraku's hide away. Before the jewel was made whole. If you are willing you can undo time itself and grow new memories. Memories that can include Inuyasha."
"I can...undo us finding the castle."
"If you so choose." Kikyou smiled "You can still make it happen. After all isn't that what you've promised yourself to do? Always follow Inuyasha? Well don't worry. Even though he won't admit it, he is always waiting for you as well."
"So go for it!" A woman suddenly appeared sitting next to Kikyou and smiling brightly, a fall of red gold hair the only thing clothing her perfect form. "What are you waiting for?"
Kagome sucked in a breath and stared through her tears at the stranger and Kikyou then nodded and turned, running out of the café, flinging the door open and dashing outside. Kikyou and the woman watched her go and then Kikyou glanced at the woman.
"Benzaiten." She said in respectful acknowledgement.
The goddess of love smiled "Her going back cannot change your death Kikyou."
"I know this." The priestess murmured.
"She will not remember any of her time trapped inside the Shikon No Tama either will she?"
"Of course she won't. It is not allowed." Kikyou turned her gaze towards the huge sepia café window. "Think she'll make it in time?"
"She'll be fine. She can't fail. She is….you."
Kikyou nodded and drained the cup then dropped it. The fractured china thin fell to the ground, striking the floor sharply and it spider webbed even more but didn't break. Just rolled across the floor quietly, sending almost silent echoes through the now totally empty café.
"after all."