Hey everyone! Well, here's my re-edit of the second chapter! Some parts are different. Thanks to humble-bumble for pointing out that the wish Kagome made was selfish and that the purified shikon no tama isn't supposed to grant selfish wishes. I thought about it, and decided to change it! Anyway, and to all of you, don't worry, this is a Inuyasha and Kagome fic! But I'm not gonna do any Kikyo-bashing either.
Remember Me Always
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Summary: Three little words he spoke to another broke her heart in ways he would never know. It's painful for her to remember him. She wants desperately to forget. And with the completed shikon no tama in her hands… she can. InuKag
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters from the series.
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[Last Chapter]
Kikyo continued, "I will forever be a broken woman made of soil and hatred unless I acquire a complete soul. If I can obtain a soul powerful enough, it can restore me to my former self." She searched Inuyasha's eyes. "I could be a living woman again, breathing and able to love. I could once again be the woman you fell in love with."
The hanyou was silent.
Kikyo went on, "There is one soul I know of that can fulfill the requirements. You know of her, too."
Kikyo's words shook Inuyasha from his trance. "Kagome?" he muttered in a low voice.
The said girl shuddered involuntarily from her spot. So this was what Kikyo had brought Inuyasha here for.
'In the end, it's all a plot to get rid of me,' Kagome realized with growing fear. 'And Inuyasha's falling for it…'
[End]
.:Chapter Two:.
Kagome shivered impulsively, chilled by the biting wind and the words of the conversation she was listening in on. The tall blades of grass concealing her occasionally bent over to mar her skin with slight bruises, but she paid them no heed, so intent was she on watching the two people rendezvousing in the moonlit clearing.
The tall woman adorned with traditional red-and-white miko robes was speaking, her tranquil gray eyes forever gazing into the rusty golden orbs of the white-haired hanyou before her.
"With Kagome's soul in my possession," she was saying, a slight smile gracing her normally emotionless features, "I would be alive again, Inuyasha. Breathing. Able to love." An emotion akin to sadness wavered on her pale moonlit face as she smiled at the hanyou. "Things could go back to the way they should have been."
Inuyasha frowned. "If it's Kagome's soul you want, then that's impossible," he muttered. "Every time you're anywhere near her, the bit of soul you stole from her tries to escape. She'd sooner drag away the last bit of soul you have than you'd get the rest of the soul that remains in her."
Kikyo inclined her head slightly. "That is true, for now. But it will all change once the girl is dead."
Kagome's eyes widened. An unexpected trail of perspiration warmed her cold skin as it found its way down her face. She instinctively thought to turn to Inuyasha, whom she had always relied on for protection since long ago. But then she remembered that he was in on the plot, and a skin-tingling fear that of which she had never known of before crept into her.
Disappointment added to her fright when Inuyasha offered no objection to Kikyo's obvious threat.
Instead, he allowed the miko to continue, seeming to be deep in contemplation. "You see," she was saying, tilting her head slightly to meet Inuyasha downward gaze. "I have come to the understanding that the reason the soul within me attempts to flee back to Kagome whenever she is nearby, is that she possesses one chiefly important thing of which I have no access to."
Kikyo gently took Inuyasha's idle hand and placed it on her chest. "The advantage Kagome has is in her heart. She has a real, emotion-enabled heart. The heart is a very precious thing, Inuyasha. Kagome has a heart that is purer than mine, as mine is only capable of one emotion – hatred. It appears the emotions in Kagome's heart are exceptionally willful as well, and that would explain why they are able to fight the binding spell I placed on the piece of her soul I have captured. Additionally, the binding spell I place to keep the souls I steal within me is created from hatred, as that is the only and therefore strongest emotion that resides in my earthen heart. Kagome has so much more emotions within her that are able to withstand and overpower hatred, that my binding spell is rendered ineffective whenever she is around. When that occurs, the souls within me are free to roam."
Kagome could almost be sure she saw a not-so-innocent smirk behind Kikyo's calm smile.
The said miko continued on to her conclusion, "So you see, Inuyasha," she said softly. "Her heart is her strength, and it is my weakness. However, once she is dead, her heart shall die as well. There will be no more barriers and resistance to stop me. Just before her heart beats for the last time, I can take the rest of her soul at my leisure."
Inuyasha said nothing.
There were a precious few seconds where all that could be heard was the musical whistling of the wind, and the shiver of the ancient tree, its ruby autumn leaves falling to ripple the clear blue lake.
Kagome silently wished that time could just freeze in that one peaceful moment, as it could remind her of nothing sad nor happy – it was just a moment of balance, where everything seemed to live in harmony.
Inuyasha, who had been quiet for the most part, ironically was the one to break the silence. "Can't you use the shikon no tama and wish yourself a complete soul?" he suddenly asked.
Kikyo laughed bitterly. "The shikon no tama cannot conjure anything out of thin air. To give me a complete soul would be to steal it from someone else. The old shikon jewel is purified now, and would not consent to such a wish at the cost of the well-being of others."
"What abou-"
"This is the only way, Inuyasha," Kikyo interrupted. "Lose that girl whom you have met for a mere two years, or lose me, the woman you loved." She paused for a moment, and searched the hanyou's troubled amber eyes. "Whom do you love, Inuyasha? Me or her?"
Inuyasha's frown deepened, and he tore his gaze away from the miko standing before him.
Kagome held her breath. It had finally come. This was the moment everything had been leading up to. Or at least, for her it was.
After a moment of much tension, the hanyou muttered gruffly, "I don't know."
Kikyo gave a loud, bitter laugh. "How can you not know, Inuyasha?" Her serene gray eyes glittered slightly in the moonlight, suggesting that there were tears trapped inside. "Do you not… remember?"
For the first time in a long time, no malice tainted Kikyo's pale face. There was only sorrow – the story of a tragedy written on her expression. She placed a hand delicately on the wrinkling bark of the fateful old tree near her.
"Remember all those moonlit nights you watched me from your place on the branches of this tree?" Kikyo questioned, and her voice faltered. "A-and I sat on this rock, mixing herbs for the village people?" Tears that seemed as if they had been constricted for years flowed freely from her sad gray eyes. "R-remember-"
She buried her face in Inuyasha's shoulder as he enveloped her in a comforting embrace.
Kagome's heart sank. Inuyasha had never held her like that. He hardly even bothered to call her back when she returned to the other side of the well without telling him.
Kikyo lifted her face from Inuyasha's shoulder long enough to ask in a faltering voice, "Is this your answer, then, Inuyasha? Do you-"
"Yeah," Inuyasha said immediately. "I love… you, Kikyo," he completed with some difficulty.
Kagome felt as if her heart has just been torn to pieces by the claws of a wild beast.
A small voice inside Kagome's head laughed. 'Inuyasha loves Kikyo,' it said jeeringly. 'Inuyasha loves Kikyo! Inuyasha loves Kikyo! Inuyasha-'
"NO!" Kagome shouted, wiping the tears away from her eyes. She stood up, shaking, just as Inuyasha turned his gaze abruptly to meet hers.
"Ka-kagome?" he said in surprise. Kikyo lifted her face from Inuyasha's shoulder slightly. It was enough for Kagome to see the mocking smile reflected in her tearstained eyes.
'He doesn't even have the decency to push Kikyo away,' Kagome thought, tears spilling anew. 'He won't even let go of her when I'm here.' A new thought appeared to her. 'What I think about him doesn't matter to him.'
"Y-you-" Kagome stammered, her speech interrupted with sobs.
Kagome walked with unsure steps until she was close enough to Inuyasha for him to hear her. Kikyo immediately detached herself from the hanyou, and backed away, no doubt fearing for the souls bound within her.
Inuyasha stared at Kagome with his customary indifferent expression.
Kagome managed a cracked, bitter laugh. "T-that's the o-only expression you'll e-ever have f-for me," she said softly. "Indifference."
Before he could say a word, Kagome turned around and ran, as if for her life.
Her thoughts impulsively flitted back to the plot Kikyo had discussed with Inuyasha.
'Perhaps I am running for my life,' she thought bitterly.
However, even after everything that had happened, she still couldn't help but hope that Inuyasha would come after her, yelling for her to come back, telling her that he loved her, and not Kikyo.
'Please, Inuyasha. Ask me to stay, and I will. Just ask.'
But he never did.
There were no footsteps following Kagome's as she ran aimlessly through the dim, starlit meadows.
She could not recall a time when she had felt more lost, more forsaken.
Suddenly, Kagome's foot came in contact with a hard object lodged into the ground, and before she could stop herself, she had fallen face first into the grass.
Her frame shook uncontrollably as she sobbed into the ground, her tears mingling with the soil.
Inuyasha loved Kikyo.
"I was just a shard seeker to Inuyasha,' Kagome thought sadly.
She remembered sorrowfully the times when Inuyasha had been kind, almost caring towards her. Had that been real?
'All he saw in me was a copy of Kikyo,' Kagome told herself, not wanting to stir up false hopes again. 'And when she appeared, he completely forgot about me.'
Kagome pulled herself up from the ground. "He forgot about me!" she screamed to the fateful well near her. The wind muffled her voice, and echoed her words as a mumbled cry, rich in pain and sorrow.
Kagome clutched the shikon no tama hanging at her neck with fumbling fingers.
"He forgot… about me," she whispered, her tears falling to burn her hand.
"Forgot…"
"I w-want to forget," Kagome realized, her heart clenching together. "I want to forget all the pain and hopes that were shattered. I want to forget about my heart being broken. I wish this was all just a big nightmare…"
Kagome crumpled over and gave in to her sobs. She felt she could cry until the sun set the next morning.
A sudden glowing erupted from the shikon no tama in her hands. Kagome drew back in wonder as moonlight danced on the shining purple jewel.
"Is that truly your wish?" a woman's voice asked. Kagome could not find the source of the sound. She stared reluctantly at the shikon no tama in her hands.
"I am Midoriko," the voice added on a kinder note.
Kagome's eyes widened. "You mean, Midoriko, the miko who created the shikon no tama?"
"Yes, I see you have heard of me."
"Where… are you – I mean what-" Kagome mumbled, as she tried to incorporate that it was reality – that she was talking to the shikon no tama.
Midoriko laughed pleasantly. "Part of my soul became trapped within the shikon no tama while I was creating it," she explained. "Even I was unaware of this."
"Oh." Kagome bit her lip. "Am I… allowed to make a wish, then?" she asked uncertainly.
"Yes. One wish."
Kagome took a deep breath. "I wish to forget about everything that happened since I entered this side of the well," she said without stumbling on her words. She had come to this decision, and she felt there was no going back anymore.
"Are you certain?" Midoriko asked kindly. "That is a big wish to make. Are you sure you shall not regret it?"
Kagome smiled sadly. "I'll definitely miss my friends over here, but I've relied on them more than they've relied on me. They'll be okay."
"And you?"
"I'll be okay, too."
"So you are going to make this wish?"
"Yeah." Kagome hesitated. "You don't think this wish is too…?" She started over. "I mean I've heard that the shikon no tama can only grant one wish… and-"
"If you are worrying that your wish is centered around selfish needs, you need not. It has actually probably been hazardous these years with you knowing about and being able to use the well as a portal. If more people from your side of the well found out about it, something terrible could happen. Perhaps the well would grant entrance to more people. Do you understand? History could become completely warped."
Kagome thought on this.
"Erasing your memory of this side of the well means erasing the last trace of possibility of people from your side finding out about it."
"So it's okay?" Kagome asked.
"Well, I do not know if I am the right person to ask," Midoriko laughed. "After all, I am just a portion of the soul of a decayed old woman trapped inside her own foolish creation. But for what it is worth, I think so, and I think other people would, too," Midoriko replied in a pleasant voice. "But before it happens, I would like to say thank you."
Kagome looked surprised. "Why?"
A smile could be heard in Midoriko's musical voice. "As you know, the shikon no tama was created with the ability to fulfill only one wish. Once that is completed, it will disappear. When it disappears, the part of my soul trapped inside will finally be freed. So, thank you, little one. For freeing my soul."
"You're welcome," Kagome replied politely. It lightened her spirits that she was about to help someone, but because of recent events, she was unable to smile.
"State your wish again, and it will be granted."
Kagome nodded. She closed her eyes for the effect. "I wish to forget about everything that happened on this side of the portal well."
Nothing happened.
Kagome didn't know what she had expected – perhaps it was a loud explosion or something of the sort – but absolutely nothing changed.
Kagome glanced down at the jewel in her hands. It was as it had always been, with no particular glow to it.
Had she imagined everything?
Kagome sighed in disappointment.
Then, abruptly, the shikon no tama disintegrated into a million tiny specks of sparkling dust.
It was the most beautiful thing she had seen in a long time.
But it wasn't as beautiful as a bed would be to her at the moment. She was feeling incredibly sleepy.
"You won't remember anything when you wake up," a woman's voice suddenly spoke. Kagome frowned. Who was that again?
"Thank you, and take care, little one."
A sudden screech pierced the air.
Kagome fell with a soft thump on the grass.
"Inuyasha," she muttered before drifting off into a deep slumber.
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Is this any better than last time? Hopefully it is! Anyway, suggestions and comments greatly appreciated! I can make so many mistakes, really! Anyway, I'll try to update sooner next time!