Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. I write fan fiction. If I owned Inuyasha would I be writing this? No! It would already be in the plot line! So don't ask me! Even if you didn't ask me in the first place!
Amehana: hehehehe here we go…get ready…
Shippo: gulp what are you gonna do to us?
Amehana: oh I'm not going to do anything to you dear
Shippo: you can be scary sometimes…
Amehana: hehehehe cracks knuckles Lets do this…
Be sure 2 read this intro, its VERY important, you will be a confused ninny if you skip it!
There must have been something wrong with the girl.
Because she hadn't been sleeping very well lately…
On one particularly edgy night she had a dream…
It was a good dream, the only one in months, or the only one in months that she could remember. It was one of those beautiful dreams that are so real, you are sure that it's not just a dream.
It was pretty too, like a painting set before her, a very detailed painting that was so expertly drawn so that each feature was perfect, not like other dreams that are blurry and confusing.
And yet…she knew all that, but she couldn't remember exactly what the dream was about. She knew it was important, and she could remember the feeling that came with it; that happy, bubbly feeling. Bits and pieces was all she could suffice in the morning, as if the dream had been stored in her memory; not to be tapped into until the time was right.
The dream was like a show you see on T.V. that could never happen in real life because of the hyped-up-ness of it all. She could recall that. On those shows each actor seems perfect for their part, that's what makes it all more believable. But, then again Kagome sometimes thought her life was worse than the drama that one would see on T.V., and it had no happy ending in site.
But dreams such as those, like the delicate rose has its thorns, are not compatible with reality. For no matter how wonderful they are, no matter how happy they make you feel, they are the worst because when you wake up, you realize what is true, and you want bury your face in your hands and cry because it's not really there…
Still, it lingered in the back of her mind; she never forgot one single detail of the instances that she could remember when she had awoken.
For some reason it wouldn't leave her.
She had read somewhere, sometime, that restless sleep comes with a nervous mind…
Chapter X– Awakening What Is Dormant Within
Once again, Kagome woke with a start, but this time she wasn't scared like in the scared in the few seconds after you wake up from a nightmare and the haunting images are still lingering in your head. It was a worse kind of scared– when you know the flame of your terror was flared from something outside.
She jumped up from her palette with amazing speed, and ran down the hall of the townhouse where the team was residing.
Lady Kaede had already beaten her outside by the time she was there, The old woman had the best poker-face of anyone Kagome knew, well, besides Inuyasha, but the look on her old face was one of sadness, a sadness that said she had expected this all along.
"Kaede-bachan suffix for grandmother ?" Kagome whispered, unable to ask any more as she came up behind the old woman, walking out into the night.
The older miko didn't turn to address her, just nodded once to let her know she had heard and continued to stare at the very thing that had yanked Kagome from her sleep:
The sky was screaming in the eerie way the Shikon No Tama did, and thousands of slivery-lavender streaks came from beyond the afar trees from some unseen radius…
Unseen but not unknown.
In the next second Kagome found herself surrounded by her friends: Inuyasha, Shippo, Sango, Kirara, and Miroku all had joined the two mikos. All of them were staring at the site ahead.
"Go." Kaede said softly.
Kagome looked at her, confused.
"Go…you will know what to do when you get there." The old woman said in the same quiet, clam, tone with worry hidden in it.
"Is it…?" Sango questioned slowly.
"Hai. Now go." Kaede answered. Then she turned slightly to address Kagome. "I trust you with this task".
"I…" the younger miko retuned uncertainly.
"Go!" this time it wasn't soft, it was harsh and very unlike the old woman, and it was all they needed to get them running as fast as their heels could fly through the forest ahead.
Before she even knew what was happening, Kagome found herself running alongside her companions, Inuyasha's clawed hand firmly grasping her wrist. The world around was a mere blur as if he was transferring his own speed to her as they ran. (A/N: like the way Haku runs with Chihiro on Spirited Away , hehe).
Something about the way Kaede had looked made Kagome think that whatever happened tonight was going to drastically change the future; it wasn't too outrageous if you considered the lifestyle of her and her friends. The obasan's dark eyes had been hard and she seemed stiff, resisting, even angry. Angry, perhaps, because there was nothing she could do? Kagome forced the thought out of her mind and put up a brave face, she was going to need it.
Only seconds apart from each other they slid into the clearing, and there they stopped frozen in their tracks at what they saw.
There, as expected, was the Shikon, the crying sound it was making louder than it had been back at the townhouse, considering the fact that they were now so near the source. Shippo covered his sensitive ears, wincing a little, one eye closed, the other watching as intently as it could in the near blinding light.
The Jewel itself was floating in the air, suspended somehow. If one of them were to walk up it would've been right at reaching level, but none dared.
For they were not alone.
There, in front of them was someone that they had only vaguely put together mentally with their mind's eye when learning about her…
Midoriko.
She was a sight to behold. Her raven black hair fell to the back of her knees, her stance was proud and authoritative, but the emotion behind her eyes was tired as if she been alive for far too long (which she had).
Blood stained her the skin that was exposed, for her fighting gi (A/N: for those of you don't know, that's an oriental outfit used for fighting, it is a jacket, pants and possibly a shirt, you see them everywhere in Anime) was torn by claws of demons that would never cease their fury, and what was left of her armor was cracked and wouldn't provide a shield much longer.
The old fashioned katana in her hand was covered in scratches and had seen far too many battles.
Her facial expression was one of involuntary weakness that comes with being human, her eyes were dark green, haunting and beautiful…they had probably been light once, but no longer.
She looked about in her late twenties age wise. Apparently in whatever realm she had been fighting in, she didn't age.
It had always been prophesized that Midoriko was continuing her raging war with the youkai that had attacked her more than a century ago inside the Shikon Jewel.
According to the legend of the Shikon No Tama, as a last effort to end her battle, Midoriko forced her own soul out of her body, trapping the demons inside. It hardened, forming the spherical crystal that had caused so many so much trouble.
The priestess hadn't expected to fight forever when she had formed the jewel.
She stood before them, a woman long past her fighting years internally. A person who did not seem to care that she was causing a great disturbance.
Finally, she spoke to them, "It has come to this". Her voice showed none of the drowning weakness that she must have been feeling in the inside.
She continued in that same voice. "It has been far too long, and now it will end. Here. I have been fighting this battle for more than one hundred years and it will come to end… lest the world cease to exist". Somehow she seemed to know that the people in front her understood who she was and her position.
Kagome gathered her courage and swallowed so she could speak clearly, finding her throat had gone dry at the sight in front of her. "What do you mean?"
At her voice Midoriko's mood shifted to an ironically warm one; she smiled the best she could. "Young priestess, ye have and will do great things with the gift thy have been given, and 'tis your own".
Kagome blinked in confusion. She grasped a portion of the haunting woman's words, causing her to bow her head toward the ground, "It has be decided tonight…doesn't it?" she whispered, forgetting for a short moment that she wasn't alone. For a long while Kagome had been keeping a secret; somehow she knew that something was going to happen.
"Yes…and no" Midoriko said softly.
Kagome looked up to meet the specter's frightening eyes. She forced herself to say, "What do you mean?" once more. She had to force herself not because she was afraid of her surroundings, but because she was afraid to find out what was to come.
"Hear me now, the Jewel has been tainted in much too much darkness of late, and now it must be destroyed, for it is far beyond purification now…therefore, something must be done to stop the evil aura from coming from it, for this recent madness will do no longer."
"I don't quiet understand…" Kagome said steadily. The person in front of her was quite vague, she realized.
"'Tisn't as complicated as it seems, ye must have the jewel give something unto you". Midoriko answered.
The younger miko gulped slightly; she didn't like the sound of that.
Unmoved, Midoriko continued. "The fate of the jewel…my fate…the world's fate…it will acted upon tonight."
"And what if it isn't?" Miroku bravely stepped in.
Midoriko turned to the monk, and gave him a look of sheer disproval.
She turned back to Kagome with a reassuring smile as if she sensed a change in the younger priestess. "But worry not, 'tisn't thy fault…this could not be changed no matter what ye did".
Kagome nodded slowly with uncertainty.
Midoriko turned her head back to the others as a streak of blood slowly fell down her face. "If the Jewel is not dealt with this night…the demons I imprisoned in it so many years ago, will be set free".
She paused a moment to let the news sink in as she watched their eyes widen. "They are much worse than those you or any of those who have came before you have ever encountered…and they shall never die."
Midoriko continued. "The depths of the Jewel's power are still unknown, even to myself. So I doubt it will ever be completely understood, which is not shadow, for it will not matter after tonight…not even the Gods themselves have any idea what would happen if a power of that of the youkai trapped in the Jewel would be released upon this defenseless time."
No one said anything.
"One can only imagine the horrors." Midoriko was talking lightly, but the context of her words wasn't so weightless.
No one present even wanted to do that.
Tense moments to contemplate passed. Until Inuyasha spoke up first, "So what are we going to do?"
Midoriko looked at him, her expression clearly one of disapproval. "Ye will do nothing, hanyou".
Her eyes, slid over to Kagome, "Only ye can affect the outcome of this, young priestess, being what you are."
The addressee's eyes widened a little; her mind flashed the images of the dream she had had just hours before, over and over clearly in her head, and for some unknown reason, she liked what she saw. The traces of the dream brought her comfort, and her eyes returned to normal a few seconds after, once she comprehended.
She took a breath. "I understand."
Suddenly Inuyasha had an epiphany just in time. He couldn't turn human? He couldn't do anything?! Iie…only Kagome had the power to use the jewel.
Midoriko interrupted his thoughts with a simple "Good. The priestesses placid and enchanting voice flowed in the space around them as the breeze rose and blew the world around in a soft gale, as she spoke a few words in an ancient oriental language to start the spell.
"Wait" Kagome said composedly.
Midoriko did so respectively.
"So…what will happen to you?"
She smiled. "I appreciate your concern young one, for your kindness is limitless…my soul will finally be set free, and I will rest in peace."
Miroku opened his mouth to speak but Midoriko struck in before he could utter a single word. "Nay, no mound need be raised for me…those funeral rights are unnecessary." He was just doing his job.
Then something entered Kagome's mind. "So…the Shikon No Tama won't disappear?" she knew she was asking a rhetorical question.
Midoriko smiled reassuringly. "Nay, for that it will be needed later, but its youki will vanish, so no more youkai will be drawn to it."
Sango glared. "No more demons will be drawn to it, but that doesn't mean they won't hear about it".
Midoriko glared at the slayer with superiority. "Would you rather these attacks continue at the same rate as they have been recently? And then just to have a new threat emerge?"
The huntress said nothing.
"I thought as much" and with that said, the century-old priestess placed her hands in front of her chest as if she were holding an invisible ball.
How could she be so damn calm about this?!, the half-demon among them wanted to know as his eyes formed a glare that could quite possibly melt ice. No one really knew what was happening. Apparently Midoriko was going to be set free, but that wasn't their problem. The only thing that seemed clear at the moment was that something was going to happen to the Shikon No Tama so that the onslaught of demons on it and on the village would decrease. They were going to clear its aura to make it less appetizing and conspicuous to passing youkai, somehow, and that somehow was a something that would directly affect Kagome. Whatever was going on, it was really pissing him off.
Midoriko smiled at Kagome. "I will awaken what is dormant within you; what you long for. This will help you along in the tasks to soon come and those in your future. And know this young one, you are you and never let the words of others tell you otherwise."
Then –not for the first time this night– Kagome's eyes widened as her mind flashed something.
With words Midoriko confirmed her thoughts, "I know what ails you, and I wish you luck. Perhaps it will come with what I am about to bestow."
Kagome didn't quite understand, but it was too late.
Before she herself or her friends around her could breath their next breath to question, intervene, or even protest, Midoriko had sent the power that would rid of her task of battling the demons in the Shikon, and that would do her will. It was a beam of white light from the circle her hands had shaped, and it was aimed straight at Kagome.
The last thing the girl heard was someone (or some ones) screaming her name before her eyes shut and her world went completely dark. She blacked out.
Inuyasha caught Kagome in his arms before her unconscious form could hit the ground, he was so caught up in his fear for her life he didn't she what the others saw.
Midoriko let out her breath and allowed her eyes to close for the first time in countless years, and for the last time. Then she disappeared, her image dissolving, silhouetted against the peaked light of the Shikon Jewel.
After Midoriko was gone the Shikon screamed it's loudest, then glowed brighter and brighter until the valley was quickly engulfed in a blinding light.
They shielded their eyes as the Jewel fell it the ground, no longer animated. The racket it had been causing stopped suddenly.
Moments passed, the jewel's evil aura disintegrated along with Midoriko's own aura, and slowly, they all blinked their eyes open.
In the next second the cohorts had surrounded Inuyasha, looking at Kagome in his arms –still unconscious– with distress and concern in their eyes.
"What's happening to her, Inuyasha?!" Sango all but screamed.
"Is she going to be okay?!" Shippo whined with equal fear.
The hanyou was just as afraid as they were. "I…I have no idea…her scents changing too fast, Midoriko did something to her…" he had forced the words out of his mouth.
Miroku somehow took control of his trepidation before anyone else did.
"Well, it's no use staying here, let's get her to Kaede-sama, now!"
As the others ran back to the village, which may or may not have held hope, Shippo remembered something. He stopped and walked back to where the Shikon Jewel had fallen softly to ground after such a magnificent display.
It was cool to the touch as his little palm picked it up, and it glowed no longer.
The kit glared at it. "You've caused a lot of trouble, you know, and if you've hurt Kagome…I'll…er…" He felt stupid addressing an object, but he went on anyway.
"I'll break you into a million pieces."
He placed it around his neck than dropped on all fours and ran as fast as his little legs could go to follow the others.
Owari Chapter Jū
Amehana: hahahahaha evil cliffhanger! What happened to Kagome? What is it that the Shikon Jewel will be needed for in the future? And just what did Midoriko mean by "I will awaken in you what is dormant within you"? You'll have to R&R to find out!
Oh! Let me explain something. There is a debate over what Kaede's hut looks like. Well I think I've seen Inuyasha® enough to know that it is a small one-roomed space with a window, a fire pit in the middle an bamboo straw mat hanging in the doorway, and it has two levels…yes I am obsessed…so why is the house in my fic bigger with separate rooms & halls & stuff?
Well…I decided I needed those things so here's the sitch…they are staying in the village townhouse, which is big and right in the center of the village.
They are there because Kaede is there, and the poor dears don't have houses of their own…which is tragic…but anyway, Kaede is there because she can heal and help people and with all the attacks; she had to stay there to help a bunch of different people at once.
So…it's being used as temporary hospital.
I guess that's all, and remember my wonderful, beloved readers…REVEIW!!!!!!!!!!!!!