Author notes: Hey there. Sorry for the delay, my work load has been reallytough lately. But since it slowed down and will probably be slow for a little bit, I finally got out another chap.I think the last chapter was a little vague. So I might re-write it. I hope this chapter clears things up a bit. Also I'm uping the rating a notch.

Disclaim: I own nothing.

Chapter 5

The Child of the Shikon no Tama

In the dusk the path
You used to come to me
Is overgrown and indistinguishable,
Except for the spider web
That hang across it
Like threads of sorrow.

Izumi Shikibu

Kagome tried to get a glimpse of the demon that held her wrists behind her, crying out from the shooting pain as it towed her along, her feet not even touching the ground. All of her weight was being carried by her arms and she was finding out that Naraku must have not mended her hands very well at all.

"Look, pal," she choked out. "I can walk you know!" She kicked her legs for emphasize.

The grip loosened, and she fell forward onto her hands and knees. Her eyes had begun to focus, dilating till they found some source of light. For there was a light, though of a different sort, undulating from around the small bridged path they had been traveling on. Waves lapped at the side; Kagome thought she could see flecks or strands of something black woven into the white crest. She gulped as she was jerked back by her collar.

Something damp was on her face, something liked sandpaper…she shrieked in revulsion at the sound. A tongue! A fork-tongue was on her face! It seemed to come out of nowhere, it was still to dark to see. Seeing the whites of its eyes, she heard the demon hissed in pleasure.

"You taste like a human to me."

It growled and pulled her closer. Something stuck her, sticking her neck. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw it, nestled in the chest of the larger demon, a black crow.

"I can taste your fear, seeping into your skin. What a harvest your soul shall make."

Warm blood started to glide down her neck. Its mouth was huge, teeth like knives, bigger than her face, glistening in saliva. The heat of its breath, like a furnace, blew her hair back. Sick! Sick! SICK!

"Taste this!" Kagome bit out, experiencing a rush of adreliene. Moving quickly now that her arms were free, she grabbed the crow by its feathered neck and squeezed. It squawked brokenly, and its host threw her back with desperate force. A hollow snap followed after her. The corpse crumpled.

She landed awkwardly, the back of her head splashing into the seemingly boundless waters. Kagome clawed at the strange, powdered ground that felt like splinters under her nails to stop her motion. She opened her eyes again sluggishly. Over her, pale, luminous flowers bloomed, petals growing like a video fast-forwarded. The color was hard to see, hard to define, like she couldn't quite grasp it; the fragile things gave off an aura of hues. She would say she felt the petals were light violet and reminded her of morning dew. The 'ceiling', a sloping edge, covered in simple flowers that would not bloom on land and crystals that formed over time. Perhaps she was the only human eyes to see them. It filled her with a stark loneliness.

Kagome sat up, water dripping from her hair. She moved her bangs out her face and in between her fingers were strands of hair that clearly wasn't hers of a lighter tone and courser texture. Looking amazed at the threads woven around her fingers, Kagome, who could sense things that others could not, who was blessed (or cursed) with a different spectrum of sight, could hear some horrible tale in the hair. She turned around slowly.

Under the water, in a faded outline, was a face. A human one, maybe of a girl, of indeterminable age by now. Empty of any distinctions, wiped clean, but a mouth and eyes, both open wide.

She screamed and quickly sprang up from the side, grasping the land tightly. Beyond this sad figure were more, maybe countless more. The water started to ripple, as if her scream had awoken someone. Then, with parasitic greed, the waves rushed onto the small bridge of dank land and also through the cracks in the rocks.

A blind moment of wonder and acceptance as she stood, watching. She wondered if maybe he had designed this end for her, in an empty cavern under ground. His attempts had evolved so. The first time he had tried for her in particular, he had picked Kikyo for the act, and if the plan had succeeded, the irony would have been perfect. The next attempts were more brutal; each one she recalled well, even in her dreams, each with an edge of impersonality and indifference that chilled her, each more dominating. So, this made sense, the idea of being drug under water with nameless faces in a mass grave to be forgotten

…well, it fit, and in a cave of all places, his birth and her death.

But, instead of going for her, the water simply blocked her way back to where she came in, though pulling in the corpse at the same time. She watched as a tuft of feathers drifted out of sight.

Nowhere to go but forward then, alone and without a weapon of any sort. She kept wishing for a flash of a red haori, dashing over the waters, to take her away from this leviathan she had stumbled into. No such luck. The bridge disappeared under the waves that moved without wind or the pull of the moon but a law unto itself. Nowhere to go but into the jaws of the beast.

Kagome began to walk slowly, taking small steps, all the while thinking about what had taken place.

Her hands itched, a burning sensation spreading deep under her skin like pinpricks. She held her arm up in the gloom. Then promptly wished it was pitch black. Oh Kami… Under her skin, she could see her veins outlined in a dark purple, blooming in its own way like a bruise. Like miasma…what was inside her? What had he done?!

Her hands started to shake so badly she could see it at all, just a china blur with purple webs. There was poison in her veins; flowing throughout her system…I will break you.

Hah, in his dreams! And she would not be afraid, no, she, Kagome Higurashi, would not show even the smallest bit of fear.

"Lady Kagome!"

A voice boomed in her ear, and she shrieked, jumping a foot in the air. A small dot jumped on her hands that she held in front of her face in horror. She started to swat at it wildly, in a panic.

"It's me! It's me! Myouga, oh, please try to cal-!"

Far too late, she realized she had squashed him under her foot. Her only friend, only hope now in the world and she had squashed him!

"Oh, I am so, sooo sorry!" She knelt down, trying to get him un-stuck from the small crater.

"Are you okay?"

Not that this sort of thing hadn't happened before, but this time she had put a lot of her stress in the stomp. She scooped him up, cupped in one palm and fanning him with the other.

"It…was n-nothing," the old flea demon wheezed. "Didn't even feel it."

"Good to hear." She smiled widely and squeezed him between her fingers. The flea trembled at the frightening smile.

'Now, where were you, this ENTIRE TIME?!" Kagome said through gritted teeth. "HUH? FOUND A GOOD PLACE TO HIDE? WHEN WE NEEDED YOUR HELP! HOW COULD YOU, YOU HAVE GOT TO BE THE LOWEST-!"

"There was nothing I could, please keep your voice down," he whimpered. "We're in the hives."

"The hives?" Her heart sank to her feet. "The hives of…what, the Saimyoushou? Or…"

Kagome began to see a pattern in the crystals, in hexagons.

"A different sort of Saimiyoushou, different breed. Those flowers you see are made directly from human fear and these Saimysho eat their nector. And other demons that feed off human emotions, like the Crow demon and Moth demons. It's a storage place for them, a haven, that's why in the water..."

I am so dead. She trembled and glanced into the opaque depths surrounding them.

"Those lights…they're souls, aren't they? He did send me down here to die."

Kagome started to drift towards hysteria.

"Well, technically, you should be by now. Dead, that is. Your soul should have been ripped from you when you went through the river."

Then anger…

"RIPPED FROM MY BODY! THAT-THAT BASTARD!" Her words resounded further down the cavern.

"LADY KAGOME, PLEASE BE QUIET!" The small body began to jump up and down in anxiety. The waters roared up behind them, sounding like a mesh of pleas and the last cries of men. She ran to avoid the crashing crest that tried to wash her over the side. Breathing hard, she decided it might be a good idea to whisper. The tide seemed to be pressing them on, and Kagome was forced to start walking again. She stomped forward, clenching her fists and not caring if that hurt.

"Now, now, I do not think it's his intention to kill you yet, my lady. You are, after all, the proper guardian of the Shikon no Tama," the old rural voice whispered soothingly.

"Hah, that's a laugh," she hissed back. "Some guardian I am. I'm sure you mean Kikyo, cause far be it from Kikyo to make a mistake. It's my fault that it broke in the first place. He never stopped reminding me, even after all we had been through, even after I-I" Her breath caught heavily. "I don't understand what I did wrong. The jewel shards were so…polluted. I did the best I could then Kikyo gave them to Naraku after stealing them from me. Even then, it was okay, Kikyo had a plan, you see, gave Naraku the nails for his coffin, right, makes sense, doesn't it? All that power was just killing him, I could tell. And the few shards I had, that she allowed me to keep, just started becoming worse, more tainted. I thought I could do it, I thought it was my…right, the perfect Kikyo lost it when she got herself killed, fell in a stupid trap anyone could have seen through and-."

She realized what she had said and gasped, reddening.

"You think I'm a horrible person, don't you? Inuyasha…he's dead, and I loved him, so much that I thought I would die, and here I'm talking about…I'm talking about Kikyo and the shards and who was the better...what, version of us? How she died, I can't take that way. She died doing what she thought was right, in those circumstances, with so many lives at stake. There's no way around it, she died for him. She couldn't go on living without him, even after she thought he had hurt her, and I'm still here, alive. I'm a horrible person, and I think I'm going to go insane. You read my palm once, remember. Bad luck, remember."

Kagome started to cry harder than she ever had. She considered stepping off, diving off into the lake to be forgotten. Screw the Shikon no Tama and Naraku. Inuyasha was gone. The old demon seemed at a loss.

"Um, I, I don't think that's quite what I meant by…you're not horrible, one of the most virtuous ladies I have met, and I've lived for centuries. Do try to stop crying, you speak in anger, that's all. And I might…might I mention that…Lord Inuyasha might not be dead," he offered helpfully.

"He's alive," Kagome gasped. A fleeting, impossible hope darted in front of her, but she feared reaching for it. It couldn't be true. "How can that be? I saw something come from the Shikon no Tama, I saw it, just the mass of, of all that dark energy…it killed them. Miroku, Sango, Shippou, and…Inuyasha. It covered them up. No way could they have survived."

"Well, I believed that myself. I was there and from what I witnessed-!"

She snatched him up again.

"You were right there? And you just watched?" she questioned sadly. The old flea started to shake himself, and she thought she saw tears.

"Oh, Lady Kagome, I tried to talk Inuyasha out of it. When he left your side, I begged him to reconsider. He could never fight well without you. And he wouldn't listen! To me, his trusted Myouga! I knew he had to be under a spell. ('Yeah.' Kagome sighed. 'The spell of first love…') To have agreed to let Naraku have the last shard!"

"What?" She let out a strained laugh. "I know Inuyasha. He would never give anything to Naraku."

Kagome felt confident this time. Even if there had been a 'plan', Inuyasha just didn't do tactics. He would rather win heads on than by trickery. He was honorable to a fault. Also, unlike most who responded to stimuli-thought-reaction, Inuyasha favored the shortcut which involved conveniently skipping the middle step. And then there was Naraku who never did anything directly. He would have seen to it that he gained the last shard through malice and seemingly endless, convoluted ploys. And Kikyo knew them both.

"Lord Inuyasha…seemed very ill. Then I was bested by the late 'Lady' Kikyo. She crushed me with a rock. The faithful servant of the great taiyouki Lord Inutaisho, underneath a rock! It was my darkest hour."

"Then…Myouga, what do you think went wrong with the Shikon no Tama? And how can In-my friends be alive?"

Kagome glanced behind her and saw the water was keeping pace, eating the land she last stood on. She ventured to peer closer and saw cloth floating nearby. She broke out into a cold sweat, a dark fear rising up inside of her, and tried valiantly to pretend she was somewhere else, maybe a beach with the waves murmuring onto the sand. It was hard with death so close at hand, just behind her, rushing behind her.

"I have a theory. As you know, the Shikon no Tama was forged by souls, some of demons and two of mortals, one of a lusting man and the other of a pure miko. We were under the impression that the very existence of the jewel, in the case of Kikyo and Onigumo, was cyclic. It seemed to want to 'relive' its birth. It made a choice to do so. I believe by that time the jewel had formed its own consciousness, though a divided one. Kikyo's decision to bring it into the flames with her might have ended this cycle, and despite her recent, um, doings, that was mostly like her intention. But, alas, her s-,"

Kagome stiffened.

"Er, I mean to say des-,"

"I get it," she whispered coldly, looking straight forward. "Go on."

"Well," he stammered. "It was reborn again, and somehow conquered death, which shows how powerful the jewel had become. It attached itself to a soul. It showed a will to live. When it became, um, divided, it passed through several hands. More importantly, it became somewhat easily influenced. Looking back on it, I can't believe I missed this possibility. Lady Kagome, if I may offer my opinion, you might not have been at fault for the Jewel's shattering."

She remained silent.

"Midoriko's soul served as a buffer against the other personalities meshed in the Shikon no Tama. When it divided so did her strength. The others became one, so to speak. To think about all those it's been in contact with, this result is inevitable. Lord Inuyasha's brother, for one," the flea paused to shudder. "That wolf demon. And the most influential of them all, Naraku himself. Of course, there were many other contacts, each with a level of greed.. Maybe it learned the most from humans."

…..

Kagome suddenly pictured Sango, half-dead and eyes strangely alive with a thirst, rushing at Inuyasha, burning with the desire to kill him for revenge. To take his life and her with nothing else, to set things right...Then her face, desperate and lost, wild, as she screamed at Inuyasha, pointing at Kikyo who was safely behind him holding the last, blood-crusted shard in her hands, coolly watching the scene yet her eyes somewhere else, reflective and searching, the look of the martyr. Kohaku lay nearby, almost looking asleep propped up against a tree.

Seemingly caught in the above Sango's brother were the souls that found a place with Kikyo, the souls that kept her animated in her wake.

Inuyasha stood in between, hands outward and protective. His eyes looked sad yet determined and loyal. Kagome had once loved that about him. Kikyo had let out a gasp suddenly, raising a limber hand to her mouth as if struck, and they had all frozen: Inuyasha's ears perked up, waiting, and Sango jerked her head predatorily at the miko.

Kikyo who looked as pure as the snow not yet melted, as pure as the day her life was cut, put one hand on Inuyasha's shoulder, the very motion intimate, and the other still in front of her cupid shaped lips. Her posture reminded Kagome of schoolgirl who had just stumbled upon a treasure-trove of the latest gossip unexpectedly; Kagome knew she would always have an innocence, she would never age. Kikyo's eyes danced lithely and she smiled knowingly. Sango stepped back quickly, her tense body shaking with tremors. Each woman looked around Inuyasha who was in the middle and at a loss.

"Selfish," Kikyo had uttered sagely. "You are all so selfish. When did you ever stop to see past yourselves?"

Miroku stepped forward besides Sango. Both pairs faced each other in a stand off. Kagome watched from the sides, clasping her hands nervously. "You guys…I'm sure that…" She hadn't known what to say. They were her friends. They were her family, sometimes knowing her better than she knew herself. She had wanted to say, 'What do you know, Kikyo? We saw past each other, accepting everything, cherishing everything. To find yourself in someone else…What do you know?' But she remained silent, watching the cancer grow. It was her greatest regret.

Kikyo continued gaining momentum, head held back in a self-righteous tilt, though her mouth held pity.

"Allowing his soul to be imprisoned where he could never rest. You are his sister and you destroyed him by not ending his misery. To offer him lies of hope when you were too afraid to take his death on your shoulders. Or should I believe that you had his interests at heart…As if he could live after dying so young. You think that you, a mere slayer, could give him that? I can see through you, you were hoping for his life to end then you have your grief and your blame. You're free now, to hate me for doing what you should have done with your own hands."

Sango looked on the verge of collapse. Miroku stepped up to support her, his usually calm, kind face in a storm, and said, "Enough. You know nothing of Sango. You don't have a history of sound judgments. It was possible, he could have lived, but now you wasted that, all for that shard."

"For the greater good-."

"At the very least, if he was to die, he should have been with those who care for him. It was you, Lady Kikyo, who denied him rest by not letting him say his peace to Sango. As you are aware, priestess, to die haboring such bitterness and misunderstanding is a most dishonorable death. Perhaps you wished to share the experience."

Inuyasha sprang to life, grabbing the monk by the robe and hoisting him up in the air. His staff fell to the earth with a feeble rattle.

"YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH, OR I'LL SHUT IT FOR YOU, MONK!"

Kagome felt a piece of herself die at these words. A wiser, older voice inside of her whispered of the end of them all, that there was no chance of survival now. Presenting a broken front to the enemy...she cast her gaze to the shadows of the trees, searching. Where are you, here's your moment, you're here, aren't you? Please let this be because of you. It's not us. We're not like this, this is you. This is an illusion.

Sango reached for Hiraikotsu. "Put him down," she hissed. It's not real. It's not happening.

"Stop," she whispered. Shippou hopped on her shoulder, trembling. "Kagome, make them stop fighting."

Kikyo appeared again, looking politely disgusted.

"Inuyasha, he speaks out of ignorance. Don't lower yourself like this, I can't bear such brutality from you," she soothed as she placed a hand on the hanyou's wrist currently wrapped around Miroku's neck. "I will take his anger on my shoulders. To end this on-going curse that I allowed I will take all they have to give and bear it for them."

She turned to face the bewildered group with the most beautiful expression. Kagome drew in a breath. It held a serenity that made her blinding; her eyes were glistening with a tragic meekness and a silent strength. And such giving smile blossomed on her features. A miko, a true miko, and I'm in your image. You reflect my…ugliness.

Inuyasha fell in love with Kikyo again. It wasn't because of promising by blood or a past he had spent the rest of his life atoning for. At that moment, she seemed like a pearl dropped from heaven.

"You speak of my past…yes. I had a hand in creating your sufferings. You must understand that I feel…I have cursed you." She closed her eyes and clenched the shard tightly. "Once, I was like you, through I wasn't supposed to be. I felt too much, even though I swore not to. I sheltered…a monster. I didn't see past myself. Selfish, I was selfish. I didn't want to feel the blood on my hands, I didn't want to be surrounded by corpses, and I didn't want my life. And the gods took it. They brought me back to see what is born from selfishness. Your brother (she motioned to Sango humbly) I had already killed before today, I killed him at the castle. I shot him with arrows and I brought him back to life. Don't hate me for that power."

Miroku turned to look at Kagome, trying to convey something with his eyes. He looked horrified. All she could see was the bruise on his neck.

"Your brother passed peacefully, I give you my word; to me, he was like my child. His soul meant a great deal to me. I spoke to you in such a manner because I lost this battle. But I can still win the war, for you. I don't want you involved in my mistakes. You must trust me; trust that I can make things right. Midoriko has chosen me, Inuyasha is our witness. You know his nature; he would not lie, even…"

Kikyo let it hang in the air but it seemed like she had roared out the words to echo back at them. For me…She was declaring war and not just on Naraku.

"Place your fate in our hands. I see clearly now." She glanced at Inuyasha. "We were the first. It is our right to finish it together."

Inuyasha nodded in unquestioning acceptance.

"Inuyasha, be careful! This woman has a tongue like Naraku. She's trying to separate you from us!" Miroku shouted. "You're only strong with Lady Kagome!"

Kikyo's ethereal calm rippled a bit then her eyes dulled to passivity. A lost child, she was like a lost child. She moved aside as if to say 'Choose. Do what you like'.

Inuyasha looked bewildered and quite pale; at this instant, they matched perfectly, both lost children. His eyes looked frightened and caught.

Sango's lips were drawn back in a rage.

"Talk about your guilt to me! About your sacrifices! About battles! Did you fight for him?! No, you appear near the end, as the hand of mercy, as the hand to take the last shard, that's all you care about!....I could kill you, for calling him your child…I COULD KILL YOU! HE WAS WORTH TEN OF YOU!"

And Inuyasha bristled, eyes hardening, and before Kagome could even say a word, if she could have, she lost him. She wondered if she ever had him.

"Keh," Inuyasha sneered. "That brat…he's better off now, Sango, face it. Kikyo's worth more than any of you put together. I would have finished Naraku off by now, if it wasn't for your hang-ups. No, I always had to hold back. Besides," his voice softened. "Midoriko chose Kikyo, not-."

He shrugged. No, you chose Kikyo. And you can't even say my name.

"I pray for you, Inuyasha. I pray for mercy on your soul," Miroku said sadly. "I overestimated you. How many times can you be tricked?! How many times do you have to die-."

Kikyo held up her hands for him to stop.

"Enough…before you go too far," she whispered. "I have said the blessings for Kohaku, Sango. Have your peace with him."

Sango lunged forward, and Miroku restrained her. She began to weep brokenly. Kikyo smiled at Miroku, sending him a respectful nod and motioned for Inuyasha. She paused thoughtfully.

"I'll return the favor, monk, for your prayers. Your soul will know something greater; I give you everything for your trials."

And with that, she walked boldly past, carrying the last shard, with Inuyasha following her steps. Towards Kagome. Kagome wanted more than anything in the world to be swallowed from sight, to disappear completely.

Sango gaped at the flickering lights in her shadow. Kagome had wondered to. 'Was Kohaku among them?'

Then it happened. Kikyo had become even with Kagome, and she looked out of the corner of her eye suddenly. Kagome was determined to hold the gaze evenly when…she beheld a change in that beautiful face. It contorted. It smirked playfully. The eyes moved quickly to challenge her, and its eyes were deep and wide and knowing. Be back for you later. Those eyes were new. Flittering with something close to love but so dark that would drown soon; a keen fascination of a collector pinning down a butterfly.

…..

Kagome cried out at the realization. She had seen it! Right in Kikyo's face, right in front of her! It had been talking to them through Kikyo. Don't hate me for that power.

"Oh, it learned from him, Myouga. It's like him, is him," she whispered, holding up her arm once more. A sick feeling of hate made it seem like the marks were spreading. She had never felt like this before. My friends had been wounded inside, now am I?

"Well, needless to say, this more…negative personality was dominate when Midoriko was removed from the Shikon no Tama all together. And…you may be more right than you know. It's trying to form its own body."

That shape crawling from the jewel in his hand…

"But it couldn't! It tried but it couldn't, even when it was complete."

The flea hmphed knowingly. "Too many parts without a crucible. A body and a soul to fuse it together. And something with this great of power…heh, it needs a strong soul to contain it. It was searching at the time, taking in everything it could of demons and humans. Imagine how much 'materials' needs to maintain itself, quite amazing sight to behold, never saw anything like it in all my years. (She glared at him angrily)."

"It pushedNaraku away. And took everyone else. There were no bodies left. Are you saying that Inuyasha's soul is…What? Where does that leave me? What do I do? Tell me what to do! Why are there two of us left?!"

Kagome grimaced at the implication. Us, part of them…no, that… that separate other that made them one, they stood against him…was that all that had held them together?

"There is no us. It's just me left of us. Kami, they didn't deserve to be…and I brought it back here. How do you think that makes me feel?! I practically killed them! And they, the good, great people, these lives are a part of this…horrible, malicious, evil thing. That was in me! But no, let me ask you this, why didn't it at least take him to? It could have at least eaten him to." She cut the flea's voice short. "And what the…the hell is this?!"

Kagome motioned to her arm.

"That-is very bad. You seem to have miasma taking place of your blood."

She stared.

"Um, the good news is you're still alive. Kikyo had some of your soul inside of her; your soul or souls are spread out else where, on this world still. So you made it through this gateway that eats souls. There was no way to be sure before, if the being hadn't fused completely yet into one whole consciousness, but-."

"I was an experiment. For him. And for you too, huh? I hate you."

"LADY KAGOME! I-YOU-YOU HATE ME?!"

The waters were moving faster now, coursing with shapes and limbs, and she saw something up ahead. Something that looked like the beginnings of a shrine but a horrible mockery of one. The material was human bones, yellowed over time and cracked to the point of splinters.

She reflected. She was about to enter a gateway of human bones, surrounded by an endless grave, and above this sight walls were gradually changing. It was a hive, made-out of that thick fluid that still hung in her hair, that ooze that smelled putrid and sharp. It dripped from the ceiling in droves, coming from the small flowers. It smelled like…fear.

Inside the little cells were shapes, outlines.

Kagome stopped just short of the deviation of an epiphany. The fear of death was a natural thing, right? It showed you were alive. But she wasn't afraid. She tried to find the coiled thing inside her but shivered when she could not. What was wrong with her?

"I guess I shouldn't say such evil things before I...go to hell," she said in a monotone voice. "You'll stay. With me. You owe me that much, buddy."

And with more deftness at knot-tying than she was aware she possessed, Kagome had successfully wrapped a loose thread from her torn uniform around the flea demon. He didn't struggle. He always struggled for a clean getaway in dangerous situations. Did that mean…

"Why aren't you trying to hide?" she demanded suspiciously.

"You think that lowly of me?"

"…."

He sighed, downtrodden.

"The being from the Jewel won't let you die, priestess, because…you are important to it. That's why you still breathe with miasma in your blood and your soul spread out, half-absorbed. You are human. And that is what, I think, it desires most, humanity."

Kagome opened her mouth to protest against this outrageous accusation when cold, rubbery hands wrapped firmly around her ankles. She choked. Droplets ran into her socks.

"Andwetalklater," Myouga squeaked and ducked into her hair.

Cold…a weird, cold perspiration broke over her in waves. Like the waves filled with…

It took every once of control she had to look down. She felt time past, slip by, flee by, while she lowered her head slowly. A swift moment of hysteria was knocking against her control, threatening to take over. She couldn't see this, not this, didn't want to-

A gray face peered up at her, eyes twice as large as the child from the Shikon no Tama and black hair fanning around it. The woman's oval face was wrinkled from its place from underneath and colors of her kimono faded, the flowers wilted. The eyes remained focused on her, rolled up as it struggled with limp, unnatural motions to join her on the bridge, flopping around slightly while using her leg for support. Dripping the liquid everywhere. That was the only thing that keep her connected to this moment, the only thing that made this real. The sound of the drops hitting the rock, the sound of the fabric scrapping against the rock, oh Kami, a body of a dead woman was climbing up towards her. The funny thing was the look on her own face, reflected in the puddle it was making. Its feet were bare.

Seen this before, from him, from Kagura with her fan, dead walking, but never alone and this one won't leave, won't fall over. Alone! Please just go back down there, leave me alone!

Later on, she thought she remembered laughing. Laughing of all things. But she heard herself laughing and her laughter echoing back down and the thing looking at her, eyes focused yet…not human at all and glistening from tears formed by the lake. The lips were cracked and worn, the strange substance drifting through them.

She laughed. Was her eyes always that black or is that death? She kept laughing even as it straightened up, the back curving up to support itself, cracking. She had one thought. I won't forgive you for this. Not this. Then another: Can't you do better? You've done puppets before. Losing your touch. I can see the strings. Then its face was in hers and suddenly it wasn't so funny after all. Not yours. Something else's…puppet.

A hand slip through hers, squishing slightly, and the feeling almost drove her to oblivion. Been through worse! You hear me?! Worse! And this she believed. Kagome recovered herself and waited. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

The woman pulled her along, moving surprisingly well, leading her up the steps made from…well, she stopped looking. For some reason, she focused on the long hair the woman had had, still held up with an ornate, rusted pin in the form of a butterfly. What jewel was that then, I wonder? The kimono, the layers eaten away, must have been breath-taking, with lotus flowers in what might have been red. The ink had run. You were a noble, weren't you? A hime, maybe? Yeah, the eyebrows tell it. Thirty years old, I guess. Not going to hurt me, right…

Kagome slipped from the trail made by the heavy threaded material, the strands weaving on the stones. It drug her along till she managed to learn how to walk on the slick soles of her shoes, moving towards a call she couldn't hear.

This was journeying from a horrible nightmare right into sheer madness. Just madness. The stones were darkened, on the path they walked, outlined in these pale blooms not meant to be seen, smelling of fear; she just knew that's what it was. They feed on fear, the demons down here. Did they take you in the night? Away from you home, from your life down here to make you afraid just so they could…

Those hands were the veins showed had gashes along the knuckles that had stopped healing. You fought it. That's all you had left. Look, we match, with our… no offense, I can tell you if Kikyo had looked like you I would have had no trouble at all.

Around them, like walls of a castle, were the with shadows of small figures in them. Around this time, Kagome started swallowed her pride as it was quickly diminishing and tried calling for him. She had crossed over a shaking plateau before; she had made contact with him. She tried to regain that footing once more. Naraku?

No response at all. The woman held her arm in a form of gentleness…or indifference. She saw the miasma running through it. Answer me! I KNOW you're watching… so what are you looking for, huh? What do you have your greedy hea- heh, set on? Kagome tried to think like him. She tried to picture what she had seen again, so many fragments of thoughts into one. Then her heart stopped.

"Myouga," she hissed in dismay. A tug on her hair and a pull on the thread from her collar. "He's dying."

Unraveling, coming apart, aren't you?!

There was a stuttering in her ear, a 'tsh'ing sound of surprise. Then the thread became taunt. He was trying to get away! And speaking of unraveling, her collar was starting to diminish alarmingly. Unbelievable…she pinched the thread with quick precision, feeling a thump on her back.

"I can be of so much more service to you if I go back up and keep…ah…never mind," he groaned. "Are you certain?!"

"Yeah."

A strange feeling arose in her, one quite indescribable. It just didn't seem like, well…he could be 'dying'. That was a far off goal but now it seemed like another loss, another deviation. And she wasn't one to enjoy someone else's pain, no matter who they were, even if it was Naraku. She had imagined if they finally had him cornered…it had not ended like she had thought it would, for her. And the Shikon no Tama staged its grand act of rebellion. How long had it waited for that moment, after all her efforts to make things right? Then it went right for its master, pierced the nearly untouchable demon, and it had managed to…take something he still needed? To exist…

A droning sound broke into her thoughts. Coming from everywhere. The hand that she had strangely found comfort in let go. She was in the heart of the hives. The smell was worse in here. A pulsing beat from the ground, the droning sank down to her from above her head. The preceded to cover every inch. Hands were sprayed out, touching the inside of the nectar cells, preserved in a strange sort of amber. Kagome spotted the source of the noise. Saimyoushou, bigger than the ones she was used to, lowering down to swarm. A sharp increase of volume roared in her ear, and she shrank away; one brushed her arm, the feeling of the fuzz made her skin crawl. All over me…

The insect pierced violently though her guide, ripping through the kimono, and there was a brief spasm across the face. Kagome screamed, for a moment questioning whether the soul still lurked in the limbs. The body was drug back towards the sorrowful lake, the feet bumping with the indentions of the stones. A ghost of a memory forced back to be forgotten and the family would never know. Perhaps this was a foreshadowing of what her fate was.

Kagome had found the heart, in this ancient grave. The light had turned orange, streaming through the making the figures exaggerated and shadows settle upon her small figure, looking like they reached for her.

"You've noticed them, eh? Human children have the simplest fears but the most powerful and succulent."

The gravelly voice came from within the dirty and dank shadows, and she made out a crude throne and glistening, shattered, eyes glazed from age where she was reflected ten-fold in a dusty mirror. The wings were heavy and threaded, full of holes and coarseness, and one leg was half eaten away. A moth demon covered with white, sickly looking hair matted down in thick patches. This thing is old. I can feel it weighing down the air. Like a dark idol sewn together from the instinctive fear of the dark.

"What are you that entered through the river with your soul? A demon in a form of a human girl in strange garments? To kill me or steal from me…are you a thieving witch child hiding your soul on the land? I know you kill. I smell the blood on you."

Though it asked her about her purpose (maybe of slaying it), it wasn't afraid. No, it seemed strangely excited with eyes wet and remains of a mouth quivering.

Kagome wished vehemently that she had her bow. This thing kills children.

"I," she struggled to maintain her composure. "You're right. There is a thief here but it isn't me." She drew in a breath and opened her arms in a mocking presentation. She was in a bad mood now. "I have no weapons to kill you with. That's all that's holding me back. I'm not scared of you. What am I? I'm just Kagome…" Then an inspiration hit. "…the well-loved and equally feared miko. You might have heard of me."

The moth demon recoiled visibly. She smiled gracefully. How's fear feel? Like it now! If it feared her, it might cast her out of this hell. Once her feet hit the warm earth again…she had a score to settle. Though it still bothered her that she couldn't figure out what Naraku had in mind.

"Why…I'..ve even held off the Lord of the Western Lands with my powers. Then a whole herd of bat demons I purified with a single arrow! One! (Nothing wrong with putting it on a little thick she thought smugly) And that Kaguya, not that I'm bragging but-."

"The pet bitch of that hanyou!" the moth demon howled, spreading its wings wide. "Murderer of my clan!"

"S…so you have heard of me." She placed her hands on her hips in what she hoped was a threatening manner. Through her fear and exhaustion, she felt a kernel of anger pop. A heaviness settled in between her shoulders.

"I shall," It's distinctions of a mouth opened slowly, showing a mouth full of decaying razors. "Enjoy devouring your fears. Your dead lover can't protect you now, 'miko'."

He wasn't, we…a horrible pressure was building up behind her eyes. Never were like that because there was always something in between us. Even when she wasn't there, Kikyo…I felt her presence more than I felt his. Now he's not dead not alive. Not here.

The moth demon was huge, almost as large as the collection of bodies in the lake of tears. It filled the entire nest, wings scraping the catacombs, Saimyoushou drifting around it like the souls around Kikyo. As a child, Kagome had once heard the beating of a butterfly's wings could cause a tornado across the world. Now she was in the eye of the storm. She followed it with her eyes passively and spellbound, breathing heavily. She was very small. You've made your point. It's real, happening, I understand, I'll do anything, please just come…

"I'm only human," she muttered. "After all."

It lowered itself, and again the smell worsened with every inch it grew closer. It cupped its arm around her. The multilayer flecks of mirrors arrayed in a fashion of armor on the wall moistened, all the better to see her with.

"I must warn you though." Kagome heard herself say; words just started pouring out of her mouth. "Someone up there is very attached to me, under circumstances, and if he finds out you've killed me, or something, he'll make you pay. He'll devour you, I've seen that before, trust me, I wouldn't want to be you if…"

"With the soul in your body torn in half, witch child, I wouldn't want to be you," it uttered thoughtfully, as though it hadn't seen anything quite like her. And, drowning in her own image, there was a tug on the inside and she screamed as her consciousness split on the thin seams holding her together.

When she swam up towards awareness, feeling like she was traveling in the well from between times of her life, Kagome realized something was amiss. A caress against her cheek and familiar wild scent brought her eyes open to a night sky at full bloom, covering her from in between blades of grass. The ground was warm and soft. The sliver of the moon caused a reaction in her that skipped hand-in-hand with confusion as she dug her fingers into the soil. An important event, dire yet secretly yearned for was a flutter of intuition, though she couldn't quite place the name to the flutter.

I am only myself when I fight. To find a place.

Kagome pushed back her hair and sat up in the field, in wonder at this place. A simple field, a plot of land with water wrapped around it in protection, its lifeline, but was full of a sense of belonging, like old friend. It grew blossoms, sakura blossoms sticking in the stalks like snow, flittering around like moths. Within this field were memories of stories from her youth, the rippling of the man-made river a melody. As a child, she had loved tales of great warriors. Her foot brushed by a speckled, rusted sword, almost buried in the dirt, the blooms laying in mourning. Warmth radiated from the handle, as though recently held.

Oh how pitiful it is

That mountain cherry trees

Whether they be young or old

Whether they blossom early or late

Must in the end shed their flowers

Sakura blossoms out of season…never had she seen a more beautiful sight, a more lonely sight. A few drifted by peacefully. The sound of a splash caught her attention; some petals were being pulled under, leaving circles in their wake. Then she knew something was in the water. She knew something was in the trees across the water.

Kagome felt herself move forward, padding curiously toward the ripples, careful of the fragile sword. Instead crushing a spinning top. Children must have played here amongst the stalks, hiding from duty and glowing at the sight of the small, wooden toy crafted so finely. She was sorry she broke it.

She needed to cross the water. She knew she had to cross, the flutter of intuition turning into a roar of a tsunami. Kagome stepped boldly across, in mid step, before she glanced down. A girl she knew was underneath the twisting current. Heat rose from her heart, burning her eyes. The armor was decayed but the body remained the same, arms drifting to life. Bubbles broke the surface.

"You…I know you," she breathed.

Out of her heart came that voice. Another blossom twirled by and the face changed. Kagome leapt out of the water, droplets flying and raining back down. The walls of the river collapsed; dirt swirled in, eating the blossoms hungrily, and her friend was lost.

Kagome raced forward, digging her small hands in the damp earth fanatically.

"She'll dig herself out. She has before," said a soothing voice, stuck between youth and experience, joy of life and the weight of it.

A young man with deep, quiet eyes and a kind, emerging smile, though hesitant, in the robes of a monk sat on a tree stump, leaning forward over a row of decorated white slips of paper, picking up one and then the other with a flick of his wrists. The only sign of nervousness was his haste in doing so.

"You can wait with me if you like," he offered offhandedly. "Do you like games?"

He reached for another slip, flipping it over and frowning. "Hmm…"

"She!" Kagome stumbled forward, pointing to the place. "Isn't she! She can't breathe! Help me get her out!"

The monk held up a row of paper.

"Shhh. She's asleep. She'll come out when it's time. Let her rest for now, she's tired."

"Time for what?"

"Did you know her? That woman?" He looked up curiously, mouth curved in interest.

"I-I think so. I just can't remember right now. It hurts...to know," she said, realizing something was tight in her chest. Kagome held her hand to the pain.

"Huh…I hurt there too. It helps to focus on other things to pass the time." He motioned for her to sit by him. She came closer, stopping across from him. He tilted his head. "If you don't mind me saying, you are…very beautiful. To think…if you were to smile…I would see the very path to enlightenment."

Despite his words, she could not find the strength.

"Have faith, everything will fall into place. Here, take one." She looked at him solemnly. "You seem like someone who would like this game. You seem like you'd be a natural. These cards," He tapped one knowingly. "If you can't find the answer, they will…"

The azure gaze moved to the place the young woman, just a few years older than herself, lay. "My father was a man of spirit. I suppose that had something to do with why I followed in his path. I was raised in the temple, before and after his death. But, at first, I couldn't help but hate every moment though I regret it now. When he was alive, I should have lived every day like my last…I didn't see the point. Death isn't finicky, after all. It took the end of my father's life to make me a man. He died horribly, my father, but he died without fear. He was strong because he could see. Because the signs are there. You just have to allow yourself to see past what you want to see. The look in his eyes made me want to live, no matter what the cost, until I became like him."

Kagome had never felt closer to anyone before; that he would share this story with her made her wonder what he could possibly see in her.

"First thing you have to do is lose your fear of who you are and what you think you can and can not do. Then you take a chance." The cards floated once more within her reach.

What's the harm?

Shrugging to herself, she took the card. Flipping it over, she saw the character 'Fool' etched in red.

She threw it like she had been burned. Under her arm were marks, purplish and spreading, blooming in a spider web. The monk broke apart. Into jufu's with the words marked through with scratches like fingernails, into bat wings of paper that flew into the air up to join the stars.

And something joined her.

The footfalls were swift and by the time the fluttering papers had vanished, it was behind her. Something was behind her. A hand clutched her marred uniform and pulled lightly, playfully, and fondly. Innocently. Curious thing it was…she could see its shadow draped on the ground where the monk once stood. Looked like a little girl with her head at a tilt trying to understand an idea above her head. Never mind the posture was predatory, the head too far over to be natural.

"Sister," it said. "My sister."

The words were merely that, words, without meaning or emotional association, with no emotion at all. Just fragments of an idea, a fact. In that voice came thousands of voices. She could hear herself in it, somewhere, along with his subtle and deadly voice. And voices she would remember past this dream. Later, Kagome realized Sango's was one, adding to the identity it had chosen, one of femininity and birth. The pride of others, like Sesshoumaru, was there too. Too many elements to name flowing in just brief impressions. Powerful impressions.

In a tumult of cracked memories and the confusion of shock, she felt a terrible pain, a terrible cold everywhere born from a more terrible knowing. This is what had crawled from a Shikon no Tama empty of Midoriko's soul that day.

"Why. Call me that?" she asked.

"Because it is so. We were born together. We are blood sisters."

She said nothing in response because the guilt she had for bringing the Shikon no Tama to this time, any time at all, reinforced the truth.

"You are a good sister, for holding me so close to your heart. For ridding me of that overbearing bitch."

Kagome gaped. The multilayered voice had melted completely, the earlier distinctions lost. It oscillated dangerously from forced emotions, from gentleness to violence, though she could tell it was playing with its presentation, toying with things it didn't know. Using words as a test to see if it cared for a particular 'personality' and casting that one away to try on another face in a masquerade. It was masquerading as a human girl. She glanced behind cautiously, not wanting to see its face but wanting to see its proximity to her.

Cut, bleeding bare feet was what greeted her.

"Until I feel pain in the wounds, I shall not heal them. I will walk until I feel it."

It wants to feel-pain?! A weakness…a human weakness.

"You want to become…human," Kagome said more to herself. It filled her with amazement, that in the hands of demons, the worst of demons, the Shikon no Tama…

"I don't think you'll like it," she told it numbly. "Pain. Physical or otherwise. I…how could you, whatever you are, want that?"

She didn't have to look to see its empty smile and the struggle it waged to make one.

"You ask that, with all your interesting tragedies and legends in your mind…I've watched. I know pain but can not have it. Hate has bled on me, yet it escaped into the fire. Even that of need…I use, I am used, and know need. That I know deeply. And am gone from it. Your brief, little lives, fragile things, fallen and cut, are full of these. You don't know, you are. You are…beautiful to me. In a single flicker, as long as a flame, you have lived longer than the demons around you, aged beyond them. You appreciate the simplest of things. The monk is beautiful to me. His end he finds meaning in. And the slayer he loved so much, he spoke of pain. In his eyes he knew more than me, something I don't. A secret you hold from me," it whispered in obsession. "I learn. I learn more from you humans. You have all the colors in the world, living in each, being gods among your fellows, taking from them, wicked with your thoughts, and so good when you choose to be, so brave when you want to be, deciding to die for a purpose, for the 'right'. With mere will, you will succeed and fight, even if your bodies betray you; what proud things you are even when you hate and lust... I will find what it is you hide. What a soul is, where it runs from even my sight. Maybe, when I am reborn, I shall even fall in 'love'."

Kagome recoiled as she heard herself whisper that word.

"Maybe I will die tragically for love. Without thought for preservation. I shall die young, for something that can not be seen, for a feeling that hurts out of my grasp, my control. Then I live again, my own breathes and own heart. Again. And again."

Kagome was amazed and something burned within her soul. She felt tears within her, a quiet horror. This greedy thing willing to take and take from their souls, until there was nothing left, this greedy thing was willing... What had she done to have that Jewel in her body?

"A monster like you could never be human. Never," she hissed.

"Sister…mother. I can stop death, give life, the candle that I can see your souls." Gentleness at first, a voice guileless. Then a viciousness she had never heard except from the darkest parts of her being but nothing meant to be in the light. Even Naraku wouldn't have had the voice she heard next.

"I am beyond you, you would go mad if you glimpsed my true being. I choose who deserves to live…your darkest fears I know. I was inside of you for ages. I wanted for you, Kagome. With your love. The pain you allow to yourself for others. Your simple, selfless fears for your family-that superstitious way in which you believed that since your friends had suffered so, it would happen to you as well, spread to you like a disease. I spared you from this, protected my sister's family beyond the well. He could not reach them. Yet you think time stops me. A human can walk off the street and slaughter your family at my will. Your mother could be seized by madness and slip poison into the rice at dinner. I would do so, if only to see your feelings you wear. The need you have to not be alone, to be loved, to be painted in your eyes." It slipped darker still, primal and vast as the night, a lightless night, the thing you feared coming in the night. "They beg after I give them everything, take their burdens and pangs of their heart that they hated. And they cry for them back. Selfish, selfish, you humans are. To take from me, and then you won't give me what I want!"

It said it couldn't hate. It hated her, she was sure. For what she was, what it wasn't.

"I do not hate. I told you that. Though I want to." In her head. "I imagine I love you. After waiting so long. You suffer now, beautiful even now. Help me and I help you. You will be my body, the source of my life, and you won't have to hurt there, in your heart, any longer. The freedom you will have because I want to love my sister. And how he will suffer in the end because I want to hate him for trying to hurt you, with you all bonded in our hatred. If you will not, I will find joy, if I must use the souls I have already, in destroying you in your greatest tragedy, the height of your fruitless rebellion burning against my power, and not ending till you wish for death, crave it, but you shall never know death. The both of you…I have learned and will play as long as I like. Do you like games, Kagome?"

While she listened, Kagome grew to hate this being from the Shikon no Tama; now, it wasn't a nameless dark energy that had reacted, a reaction. No, now it had become the most disgusting, vile thing she had ever come across. Lose your fear. They were here, trapped here, and she would be damned if she was going to let it have them.

"I love games," she answered back, clenching her teeth. "Because I can love. I've got an advantage already. You picked the wrong reincarnation to play with. I'll never forgive you."

It slipped its small arms around her waist, in a mockery of a hug. It was cold as the moon that had awakened her.

"I expected nothing less from you."

A pain shot up from her arm, burning hot under the skin, and the thing hissed in frustration. A tapping sound made the forest shudder. A second time tore the world apart and she fled into the pain in her arm that pulled her from its grip.

The place she regained consciousness in was far less pleasant than the forest. She was drenched in her own fear, in that liquid smelling of misdirection. She was in the hive, now one of the shadows.

Kagome screamed loudly; she lost herself, seeing what had been inside her around her now. She lost control, kicking the absorbent walls with the sponge-like feeling, the Saimyoushou feeding off of her from outside her cell with fervor. She saw Sango under the water, trapped there, suffering there beyond compare. They were trapped there for amusement. It took their souls. IT TOOK THEIR SOULS! She hurt her hands and her feet in her rage.

Then such a pain hit her in her heart that it saved her from the nightmare that was killing her. Her body reacted badly to the miasma coursing through her. Had it reached her heart?

A playful knock on the made her turn weakly to see the source of the noise. Naraku was outside the cell, tapping with one hand slowly. His pale face was blank, black hair framing it in its unnatural perfection, a picture of a deviation, the colors contrasting with unhallowed and unforgiving power, but his eyes glittered with a strange, almost feverish light. Fragmented…thing…He studied her as though fascinated. If she hadn't known his name, she would have thought he was Death itself.

She feebly crawled in the foot deep liquid that smelled of oblivion and her tears. She put her hand against his own that he had placed against the barrier between them. She laughed as her mind processed who this strange being was, this something that was outside waiting for her. She laughed at her thoughts when she realized he had come. Thank Kami.

Miasma poured from his palm, and she had to pull her own hand away. The thick, hollow nectar sloshed forward, hissing as poison ate away at poison. She watched her fear burn away. In her distraction, she was pulled from the cramped hexagon swiftly, and she did not protest. She giggled slightly from nerves and frustration as well as the whole situation in general. She felt she owed him, as much as she disliked it. At least, she wasn't part of the Shikon no Tama yet. Also, when she faced her fear, sweated it out, even if he wanted her to break, he actually, incidentally, and accidentally helped her. Reality as she knew it was slipping. She literally felt her life changing upon a spindle.

Naraku gripped her shoulders harshly. She had to allow him to support her because if he removed his hands, she would fall. She kept her face hidden behind her bangs, cupping her mouth in an effort to regain control. For she had an insight that laughing in front of something that liked misery was a bad idea…though she couldn't stop. Her only hope was that he would think she was crying. He lifted up her bangs to discover the truth.

"Pathetic…you've lost your mind," he spoke without mercy and with satisfaction. "I knew you couldn't stand on your own."

He gave a knowing smirk, meant to cut, though she sensed he wasn't pleased, under the circumstances. He would have made her suffer as long as her body could withstand it. But not now…his eyes looked weaker than usual. She felt his shouki, his own warmth pulsing in his hands, and realized that he himself was here, not a puppet. She wondered how injured he was.

Only ones left…she shook her head, tears in her eyes from laughing.

"Wipe that smile off your face. I'm not crazy yet." She stared straight into his face. "Saving that part for you. What did you want from down here, anyway, after sending me in as a decoy?"

A sharp threatening tug on her heart…different from the message in his eyes. A form of acknowledge was in his eyes, it was as there as the miasma in her body. She removed his hand that clenched her bangs and held on to him to keep upright. His lip curled; he seemed to have an aversion to her maintaining contract. It was a tense moment but thankfully, his gaze shifted to taking their surroundings, searching for something.

And she thought about the child from the Shikon no Tama. The game's on.

Author notes: the poem about the cherry blossoms was from a collection and the author was unnamed, at least there. Just disclaiming...

Responses:

hakkai-my-youkai-Thank you so much! I tried to make this story plot interesting and new. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Jasmine Fields-Thanks! Trust me, the bond thing's going to get interesting. Naraku's intent...purely based on self-preservation at the moment. I always saw Kagome as the one he disliked the most out of the group, or the one he thought on the most as a threat.He greatly loathes the situation. But that intent will start to change.

Shey-I'm sorry I took so long! Yeah, I agree. I think Kagome has a great deal of spirit and determinationin her, and not afraid to speak her mind. She's a fun character to work with.

Steph-Thank you so much! As this is my first Inu fanfic, I appreciate that so much! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I tried to make it interesting.

The Bloody Queen of Hearts-I'm definitely going to update sooner, I promise! Thanks for reviewing.

Naroki-Thank you! You've been such an encouragement to me.Your detail was amazing on your fic! It drew in the audience very well. I look forward to your next story! I hope you found this chapter interesting!

profiler120- Wow, thanks! With your talent in suspense and all-around excellent plots, my fav. being The Incomplete, that means alot! Your review really inspired me to get this chapter out and updated!

OtakuSailorV-Thanks, trying to keep the action going! Oh, and please, please update Lost World. I have totally gotten absorbed into that story. It is beautifully written.

Golden-Eyed-Girl-Thanks! I hope this ending is equally as suspenseful. And by the way, I think you have an awesome talent at writing. Please update. I read Waiting For Your Love and adored it!

Nick Johnson-Thanks for reviewing and asking questions! I know it was a little confusing in the beginning. I might rewrite some chapters.The main plot is about the Shikon no Tama developing into a dangerous force in itself and taking on its own character. In a most evil way. And I want to have this little extra story about Kikyo's past in here somewhere. Maybe a later chap.This fic starts out near Kaede's village then moves down to the hives where Naraku got (took) some of his Saimyoushou3. Kagome is about to turn sixteen. Miroku and Sango are nineteen still. And Inuyasha is about seventy.Same group though in the first chap I kindadidn't mention Shippou. He slipped my mind at the time. But, yeah, the same meeting for the group and they've been traveling for a year and half maybe.The story lineis indentical to the manga, because the anime leaves stuff out sometimes. Like about the creation of the Shikon no Tama, I think they cut a bit from it and left out the man who lusted for Midoriko.The group found his bodyin the cave in Sango's village as well. If it does mention it,I missed it completely.(spoilers, those of you who haven't read that much of the newest manga and don't want to know, here's a warning).

This fanfic takes place at the very end of their journey, theortectically afterthe Jewel shards were taken finally from Kouga and then Kohaku, if that happens soon.I was inspired on this fic when Kikyo did take on Midoriko's soul though I don't think it will happen like this anyway. Kagome figures out that the Shikon no Tama's behavior shifts because the will of Midoriko wants the jewel to be complete. The jewel shards weaken in one of Kouga's battles. Then the manga continues but this fic takes off on the idea of Midoriko maybe losing some of her influence with the Jewel. So the story is the same until that point.

Yuki Haitani-I do love your fics! Don't worry about it. I've been away from the computer since school work started getting hectic. It's gotten alot better and I have more time to write now. I'm not good at math either, honestly. It's the bane of my existence. Thanks for your support on my fic, when you do so well with writing yourself. I'm checking out your fic right now! I know it will be excellent.

Please review.