Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Inuyasha.

Author's Note: I know this is a strange triangle, but I've always felt that Kikyou's encounter with Bankotsu needed to be explored a bit more. Please review!

"There is no question that Naraku is behind this," Kikyou muttered to herself. "But why?" She continued walking through the woods, thinking hard. Suikotsu's face flashed in her mind. The children's song rang in her ears. Death is life, life is death. The questions she was faced with yielded her no comfort. Was she no worse than the estranged doctor? He was dead, but resurrected, just as she. Yet he was content to just look after the children of the village. This was something she would also like to do, but she was on a mission. It was not the first time that Naraku had interrupted her from being truly at peace. However, Kikyou knew that she did not belong in this world.

"A miko such as I, pretending to myself?" Kikyou laughed bitterly. She knew in her heart the reason she kept denying herself death.

Inuyasha.

Bankotsu took a swig of his drink and sloshed the rest over the stones. He was feeling the alcohol strongly. "Kyoukotsu, Mukotsu," he said to his dead comrades, as if they were still before him. Once more they had been thwarted, and only so soon after being resurrected. But the alcohol was numbing his pain and the young Shichinintai leader refused to be sad. Instead, he forced his thoughts to anger at their quick defeat. "What's it like to be dead once more?" He finished the sentence himself. "That's bullshit! Once you're dead, there is no more life. And no afterlife." Eh? He sensed movement and quickly drew his sword.

Even after Naraku was destroyed, Kikyou couldn't face the thought of leaving Inuyasha. To open her eyes and see his sweet face looking concernedly at her gave her strange feelings in the pit of her stomach. He had held her recently, carried her in his strong arms to a place where her schin-dama-chu could bring her nourishment. He would not let her die.

"Because he would then feel guilt," she admitted. Inuyasha loved her reincarnation, Kagome, now. He still loved Kikyou, but he wanted to move on with Kagome.

A glint of metal suddenly caught her eye and she looked up sharply.

What appeared to be a mercenary of some sort was approaching her. Kikyou recognized him immediately as one of the undead, one like her. His form had also retained the young, fresh look of its former years. The boy's long, ebony hair hung down in a thick braid. He had a strange marking on his forehead, and his skin was a dark shade of olive. His armor marked him as one of great wealth and providence. She remembered him as being associated with Suikotsu. She stopped walking, unsure of what to do, and not really knowing why. "This man. . ."

Bankotsu saw the Lady Kikyou before she noticed him. She must have been in deep thought, and troubled. He knew her by reputation only in the short time he had been revived. She was one like him, but a miko. Her new life was almost ended when his brother had nearly run her over with Ginkotsu. He was surprised when he found himself happy to see her alive, but Bankotsu knew in his heart that one of her stature and power deserved a much more noble death. He wondered drunkenly what her connection was to the hanyou. Weren't they lovers or something? It would be interesting to kill her and see the hanyou suffer, but for some strange reason he was not compelled to do so.

"Because I was not ordered to," he told himself, although he knew this was not the reason. She'll serve her purpose later. Well, he would spare her this time, and she would cause him no trouble. Bankotsu walked right past her, not turning, feeling the air crinkle with electricity. What was this strange sensation?

"You!" She yelled behind him. Bankotsu turned around to see her serene face, piqued with interest. "Bankotsu."

She says my name like that?

"Is it really safe for you let me live?" Kikyou didn't seem to really be wondering. Her voice had an almost amused tone to it. Bankotsu laughed, a soft sort of chuckle. He turned to her.

"You are Kikyou," he stated in an equally amused tone. "If you must know, Naraku didn't tell me to kill you. I follow my orders well."

Aiming her bow and arrow perfectly at the mercenary, Kikyou prepared to release the arrow. One shot, that was all it would take. She could clearly see the Shikon shard embedded in his neck, a deep, polluted purple unlike Suikotsu's radiant aura. How could two people be so different, and two personalities as well? She wondered.

Shoot. Yet her body failed her.

Why can't I shoot? Kikyou felt world-weary all of a sudden.

"Mercenary," she questioned, "Why is it that you continue to kill even after you yourself have been brought back to life?"

He surprised her with a boyish smile.

She anxiously awaited his response.

"It is what I have always done." Bankotsu spoke confidently. "Before I died, and after. I was a mercenary by nature. I enjoy it." His sword glinted.

"Heaven and hell are just places people believe in," he continued. I don't care about the afterlife. How can you, having been there yourself?" Kikyou listened intently to his words.

Shoot the arrow. But she found herself lowering her bow. Kikyou knew instinctively that he would do her no harm. Not today.

"You know," he continued seriously, "you and I have the same end coming to us. One day we will no longer walk this earth. So you should stop worrying about me and just worry about yourself." Bankotsu eyed her up and down and Kikyou felt as though he could see into her soul. She shifted uneasily and narrowed her eyes.

"It doesn't really matter anyways, does it, Kikyou?" The miko was shocked to hear him say her name. "At the very best, we can just hope to remain alive a little bit longer." With that, he turned to walk away.

Kikyou stood, alone, and unsettled.

Two Days Later

Kikyou walked alone. The miko had been confused and sad since her recent encounter with Suikotsu. She had hated to do it, hated to shoot the Shikon shard in his neck. It was one of the hardest things she'd ever had to do. But she knew that the good doctor would have rather ended things that way.

But how come I couldn't kill Bankotsu? And the answer hit her as soon as she finished the question. Because he wants to be undead, and evil. Suikotsu would have rather died. And as long as Bankotsu had no quarrel with Inuyasha, Kikyou would let him live.

"How self-serving I am," she thought to herself. Good is evil, evil is good. One could argue that she was also evil, for continuing to walk the earth, undead. And ruthless in her search for Naraku and her love for Inuyasha. "But I am pure at heart," she reminded herself. She could still purify shards, and her feelings for Inuyasha were slowly becoming devoid of hate and bitterness.

Kikyou instead felt a strange complacency, and wondered if she would see the mercenary leader again. His boyish looks and arrogance reminded her so much of Inuyasha.

"Stop these thoughts," she commanded herself. "You will not be with Inuyasha any longer, and you will never replace him."

At the very best, we can just hope to remain alive a bit longer.