(we don't own Inuyasha)
Chapter 3 Love's Past, a Fading Future
Orbs of shimmering gold go wide as they fall on the
figure of the priestess, Kikyou. "Ki... Kikyou..." he
manages in a weak, yet angry voice. "Yes, Inuyasha,
my love?" speaks the haunting voice of his past.
"You... you're dead... you..." he stutters, nearly
stumbling and dropping Kagome but managing to keep her
close. "What is that creature doing in your arms?"
the undead priestess asks, her voice filled with
spite. "Wha... Kagome..." he says softly as he looks
to the bleeding, dieing girl in his arms, "She is
mine..." A shrill laugh, filled with hostile spite
echoes from the mouth of the woman from his past, "A
slave, and why do you have a creture like that...?"
Growling a bit at the woman, he speaks still in a weak
voice, "I... I was... was alone..." Angered, the
woman glares towards the torn hanyou, "...so you
thought you could replace me with that!" "Kikyo...
she's not a replacement...I just... I needed
someone... to talk to... to have near to give me even
a glimpse of happiness..." he says as he breathes
heavily, unsure of what to do next. "Well... get rid
of her throw her to the wolves, you don't need her
anymore," Kikyou says, her voice still filled with
malice and spite towards the woman she'd shot.
"Kagome... Kikyou, you... you shot her... how could
you...?" he says, his voice coming just barely above a
whisper. "She's just a slave, easy to replace," the
spiteful miko said with a bit of a laugh. Growling,
Inuyasha lowers his head to look at the dieing girl in
his arms, eyes closing as he speaks in a seeminly
emotionless voice, "You know nothing of it Kikyou...
it's rare... to find one that has the heart to make
someone happy..." Shouldering her bow, the undead
miko snorts a reply, "She was doing her job." As
their conversation continued, Inuyasha's anger over
the actions of his lover of many years past, and the
death of the girl he'd found himself growing fond of
grew, showing in his voice. "She asked me... to hold
her... she smiled, you don't see slaves smile, ever...
she was happy..." Smirking at the growing anger, she
laughs, a cold, uncaring laugh, "She only did that so
she wouldn't be beaten." The man's voice grew more
angry, his teeth clenched tightly as he spoke, "I
would never lay a finger on her, I didn't even like
her calling herself a slave and she knew it. She was
happy Kikyou... happy!" Scoffing, the priestess'
smirk twisted upon the corner of her mouth, "Then she
didn't have a good handler." Pools of soft gold
closed, he speaks, voice filled with the sounds of a
growl, "She had me!" Stepping forward a bit, the
miko's smirk becomes more of a grin, her arms
outstretched towards her half-demon lover of fifty
years ago, "Dispose of that wretch Inuyasha, then, we
can be together again." Small white ears atop the
male's head twitch to the sounds of footsteps
approaching him. With a quick kick of his right leg,
he leaps backwards several feet, distancing himself
from the woman, "I... she didn't deserve to be shot...
I won't... you shot her... I don't want that... I
don't want this..." Stopping, the miko tilts her head
a bit, her smile soft and kind, "You have only me left
Inuyasha."
Chest heaving, the angered hanyou slowly kneels, arms
gently laying Kagome's seemingly lifeless body on a
bed of flowers. As he lays the girl on her side,
insuring the arrow would pierce her no farther, he
snaps back his head, golden pools full of anger, "You
will heal her... or you will join her..." Feigning
shock, the priestess smirks, arms folding across her
chest, "I shall not. She is but a pebble among
stones." "Then you can join her on the other side..."
Inuyasha says with a low growl ringing in his voice,
his right arm crossing his stomach as he reaches for
his father's fang of destruction. Uncrossing her
arms, Kikyou outstretches them towards the enraged
half-demon, "Inuyasha I came back for you." "You
didn't have to shoot her!" Inuyasha yells out as he
stands, a soft click coming from the sheathe of the
Tetsusaiga as he presses against the guard with his
thumb. Smirking once more, the fallen miko shrugs,
speaking once more with a malice filled tone, "I had
to get rid of the problem. You would've set her free
instead of selling her." Drawing the steel cleaving
fang, he growls as the blade retains it's dull, rusty
form. "So what! I would have set her free... there
would be no problem, she was not a problem, you were
just jealous!" exclaims the overly enraged hanyou.
Looking to her victim, Kikyou closes her eyes, "Why
did you pick a slave that looks so much like me?"
Flinching lightly at her words, he shakes his head,
speaking shakily, "I didn't pick her based off of her
looks! I saw her, she was there in the chains, head
hung low, but I could sense something in her that the
others didn't have... a heart." An emotionless scoff
escapes the throat of the miko, "Because she wasn't
trained well." His eyes shaking with sadness and
anger, he shifts his body, the rusted fang pointed to
the ground at his side, "You make it sound as though
she were a pet... you're so... so cold..." Laughing,
Kikyou rolls her eyes, "She Was a slave, a mere Pet...
for her masters enjoyment." Left hand clenching into
a fist, small droplets of crimson fall to the bright
flowers at his feet. "She was my friend!" Inuyasha
yells, his claws digging into his own flesh. The
miko's head lowers and shakes as she laughs audibly,
her voice still cold and emotionless, "A... slave..."
Frustrated, Inuyasha looks to Kagome, his eyes
closing slowly as he speaks, "My friend... I cared for
her... I didn't ask or force her to do anything... I
fed her... clothed her... took care of her... and now
she's laying here... Dying because You... are a
heartless bitch..." Smirking, the miko lifts her right
hand, her pale flesh catching the hanyou's attention
as her index finger extends, pointing to the slave
girl's frail body. A slight hint of a chuckle fills
her voice as she speaks, "Looks like she already gave
up on you." Looking to where the finger points,
Inuyasha's voice catches in his throat, his body
trembling in anger and sadness, the only sound coming
from him being a growl as he lifts the dull blade of
the Tetsusaiga to his side, parallel to the ground in
preperation to attack. "Go back to hell," Inuyasha
manages to speak, the voice choked and weak with sobs
being fought back. Lowering her arm to her side, the
priestess Kikyou turns her head to her half-demon
lover, "Can you kill the one you love?" "How can I
love someone that doesn't have a heart to love me
back... someone that takes away the only thing that
made me happy..." the hanyou replies, his voice low
and weak, as though he were being chocked by an unseen
force. Slowly, Kikyou begins to move towards
Inuyasha, her right hand lifting slightly as though to
caress his cheek, "...only to complete our
happiness." Shaking his head, Inuyasha steps back,
gripping the hilt of his blade tightly in both hands
at his side, "She made me happy... fifty years I
speant alone when I lost you... and finally I found
someone that made me happy... you didn't complete any
happiness by shooting her... you took it away from
me!" Stepping forward again, the miko lifts her hand a
bit higher, laying the palm of it to rest on the
half-demon's cheek, her voice as she speaks to him,
soft and seemingly caring, completely betraying the
image she'd burned in his mind, "But I'm here now
Inuyasha, all will be better soon..."